CHAPTER XII

IMPROVISE!

Riku made a mad dash towards Boo, scooping her up and running for the side of the mountain.

'Good', thought Sora. 'He can't summon his keyblade with Jafar around anyway.'

Sora reached out his arm and brought his keyblade into his hand. Seconds later, the fire Donald had started had sizzled out.

"What's this?" asked Mike, staring into the ashes of the fire. Down in the hole the fire melted in the snow sat a strange looking key chain with one green eye dangling from it.

"It's a key chain! Sora, you think it'll power up your keyblade?" Goofy asked, as he picked it up and handed it to Sora.

"I hope so." Sora attached it to the keyblade – instantly, the Kingdom Key started to morph into a longer keyblade. At the hilt there were green slime patterns and one bulbous eye. The blade was long and yellow, and had an interesting industrial feel to it. The purple disk called the Heart Harvester was still there, and Sora could feel his agility rise and he knew this keyblade came with it's own bag of tricks.

"Let's go for a test drive!" Sora bellowed, diving at Jafar. He quickly pulled his staff from the ground, flipping it so that the scimitar and the One-Eye keyblade connected in a shattering clash of light. Meanwhile, Donald, Goofy and Mike stood with their backs to Sora and Jafar, fighting off the rapid thrusters as the living bones started to close in on them. The stampede wasn't far off now, and they were making the ground shake so much that it was hard to any of them to keep their balance.

Sora did a back flip to get away from Jafar. Both times he had defeated Jafar, he had been in his genie form. But Jafar wasn't turning into a genie anymore. In fact, he didn't even look like he could. Something looked…less powerful about him, though his sword fighting abilities were still top notch. Jafar twirled his staff above his head, momentarily making Sora dizzy. He swung down with the snake's head and barely missed as Sora dove through his legs, starting a huge combo on Jafar's backside, juggling him in the air.

Jafar did an aerial recovery, flipped himself over and pointed the snake at Sora. At that moment, the eyes of the snake glowed, and Sora felt faint…tired…almost tired enough to quit…

'No!' he screamed in his head. He did a spinning scissor kick, grabbing Jafar around the ankles and plowing him into the ground. Jafar was getting tired now, he could feel it. Sora yelled "thunder!" as two lighting bolts came down, stunning Jafar for a moment. Jafar shook it off and raised his hands, holding the staff over his head like a battle axe. With a mighty swing, he sent six streaming jets of fire from the snake head toward Sora. But Sora slammed his keyblade into the air and yelled "shield!", casting powerful reflega magic on himself.

There were too many. Goofy got knocked into Mike, sending them both beneath a pile of snow, leaving Donald to fight the rapid thrusters alone. He managed to cast a strong magnet spell, but all it did was wipe out the remaining rapid thrusters. The living bones were far too heavy to be affected by magnet.

And suddenly, there came a sound from a few hundred feet away – Riku's voice.

"Riku! Get back! You can't summon your keyblade!" yelled Donald, but to no avail – he could see Riku gradually getting closer. Meanwhile, Goofy and Mike were hiding under Goofy's bounce shield, hoping not to get trampled.

Sora knocked Jafar into a snow bank, creating a pretty odd take on the average snow angel. Jafar climbed out and brushed the snow from his silver and black suit.

"Street-rats like you know all about living to fight another day, don't you boy?" Jafar sneered, conjuring a black portal in the snow.

"The only rat I see here is you, Jafar. Stay and fight like a man!" Sora yelled.

Jafar laughed.

"I see you're confused as to how I fight, boy. I fight until I lose the upper hand. To do anything more would be foolish. Bravery is in the same league as stupidity, urchin." With that, Jafar hopped through the portal, closing it and leaving Sora, Goofy, Mike, Riku, Boo and Donald to fight the living bone stampede.

The living bone heartless were only seconds away at this point. Sora reconvened with Donald, Goofy and Mike in the center of the mountain.

"How are you guys doing?" Sora looked up at the stampede and his eyes widened. "Sorry I asked."

Donald was pointing up the mountain as Goofy and Mike came out from beneath the shield. Mike sheepishly looked at Sora.

"Sorry! I didn't feel like getting squished today, thanks very much!" he said.

"What are you pointing at, Donald?" Sora asked.

"Riku!" he quacked.

It was true. Riku was closing in on them as fast as the living bones…but how? Several of the living bones separated so they didn't smash into the doorway that sat in the center of the snow…and then Sora and the others saw it – Riku, actually riding atop a living bone, with Boo in the front seat, smiling like it was an amusement park ride!

"Not very smart, are they?" Riku yelled. He wasn't lying – the living bone didn't even notice Riku and Boo sitting on his back. Riku grabbed onto the heartless' horn with one hand and finally called forth his keyblade with the other. He started swinging around him, taking out several others with the inertia he gained from riding on top of the stampeding beast. "Let's even the odds, eh fellas?"

Sora ran toward the closest living bone and pole vaulted over it using his keyblade, landing awkwardly on it's back. Goofy picked up Donald and Mike, tossed them onto his bounce shield and they soared over head, landing on two of their own. Unfortunately for Mike, he landed backwards and spent a good deal of his time trying to stay on board. Goofy flipped his shield and used it like a pogo stick, landing on yet another.

The friends had an impromptu rodeo on the mountain, destroying heartless left and right. Sora enjoyed running his straight into rocks and then jumping off as they destroyed themselves; Goofy had a great time playing matador with them with his shield, causing two heartless to smash into each other on more than one occasion. Mike finally gained his balance and stuck his tongue out at the heartless behind him, as Donald cast gravity on several others, driving them down into the snow. Riku enjoyed the old fashioned approach – he just jousted them in straight lines as he plowed by. Boo was giggling at this point, clapping her hands every time another heartless was defeated. Soon, all that was left was one heartless that faced against the six friends.

The little girl giggled and looked up at the creature; "Boo!" was all she said to make the heartless turn tail and run.

"Wow! Did you see that! We really took it to 'em! Boy oh boy, they didn't know what we had up our sleeves, and bam!" Mike animatedly jumped around, adrenaline pumping. He crashed into a snow bank, sending a pile of fluffy snow down on him, causing him to look like a tiny, bouncing snow man. Boo squealed with delight as something interesting happened…

The red light on the door glowed brightly. Brighter than it glowed back in the factory.

"What's it mean?" Goofy said.

"Well…that's the power light. That's weird though, nobody's screaming and there's no plugs or anything out here…" Mike tried to explain to everyone.

The light stopped glowing.

"Oh great! We had a chance to go back, and you wasted it talking!" Donald said, irritated. He smacked Mike on the head with his staff, causing Mike to bellow "yeowch!" and fall over. Boo laughed again, and the light glowed brightly once again.

This time, Riku grabbed the door while the light was still on, ripped it open and revealed the torture chamber in the factory. One by one they ran through the door, until they all had made it back to the Hidden City safe and sound.