CHAPTER XX

THE STORY SO FAR

"Treasure Planet?" Donald quacked. His eyes turned the same color they did when they were in the Cave of Wonders back on Agrabah…Goofy and Sora sighed as Donald licked his lips impatiently.

Jim smiled and led the four friends over to the crashed longboat. Inside, like Sora had seen before were two strange creatures – one looked like she was in a great deal of pain.

The cat-like woman had beautifully large blue eyes and a blue, naval overcoat. Fancy white gloves covered her long fingers, and a white bandage was wrapped around her midsection. Tall, blue boots over skintight grey pants completed her outfit – with the exception of the wrecked ship around her, she looked like she would have been a fine captain. She spoke with a bit of difficulty.

"Hello lads, Captain Amelia's the name, but you can call me Captain or ma'am. Understood?"

"Uh…sure thing…ma'am," Sora said roughly. Was it just him, or were these the most ungrateful people he ever met? Captain Amelia proved him wrong by speaking up.

"Just pulling your leg, son. I'm in no state to demand anything of you. You saved us all, and for that I am eternally grateful."

The strange looking dog creature that was kneeling next to Amelia stood up. He had a sophisticated air about him…his hair was slicked back and he wore a crushed velvet suit with ruffles and coattails. His face, however, was quite comical – an upturned snout of a nose with beady little eyes protruding from behind spectacles. He behaved almost neurotically, stammering and shaking, though it was clear he had great intelligence.

"Indeed, we are in your debt, sirs and madmen…mad…er, madam. Doctor Delbert Doppler, at your service. I am a renowned astrophysicist from the small system of Montressor. Had you not cleared the path for us with your laser, I fear we would be…hmm…how you say, 'dead meat'."

From behind Doctor Doppler came a strange pink creature. It was no bigger than a softball...squishy looking and bumpy. It had a cute little face with two large eyes – that is, until it looked at Donald and became an exact replica, scaled down to the size of Tinkerbell.

"That's Morph. He can change shapes into pretty much anything…" Jim explained.

Donald looked at the copy of himself, which was now doing a silly little dance in midair. "Cut that out!" Donald yelled.

"Cut that out! Cut that out!" Morph repeated shrilly…it Morphed back into the pink goo and flew to Jim's side.

Donald started another fire in the camp on Treasure Planet. He used pieces of the destroyed longboat to keep it lit this time – the fire was burning very brightly. By the light of the fire, Sora saw Jim look to the sky with a worried expression on his face.

"It's only a matter of time before the pirates find out where we are down here…" Jim said. Before Sora got a chance to ask him about the pirates, Jim began to explain everything that had led them there.

A while later, Jim finally stopped talking and Sora spoke up.

"So…you're from the planet Monstressor, and some strange alien crashed and gave you a map?" Sora tried to sort it all out.

"Yeah. The alien called himself Billy Bones, and told me to 'beware the cyborg'. Sure enough, that cyborg was after the map Billy had given me and infiltrated the Legacy, pretending to be a decent, hard working cook. His so-called crew was a bunch of pirates in disguise."

"They staged a mutiny shortly after my first mate, Mr. Arrow, was killed in an accident. He got sucked into a black hole, I'm afraid. Those driveling galoots…I knew that I described them well back when I first hired them," Captain Amelia quickly shook a tear away from her eye. It was not like a Captain to lose face in front of her crew, and even though she was injured and stranded, the Captain was still strong in the face of adversity.

"So the Legacy has been taken over by pirates…I knew that flag was a pirate flag…" Sora said to Kairi. "And the cyborg?"

"Mr. Silver. Quite a ruffian," Doppler said.

"So…back on the subject of treasure…" Donald prompted Jim to steer the conversation in a more lucrative direction.

"Yeah, that's gonna be a tough one. The map led us here, to Treasure Planet…but we left it on the Legacy when we had to escape. I know where it is…and I know the pirates won't find it – they think that WE have it down here, so they're not even looking. The tough part is going to be getting back onto the Legacy," Jim pouted as he looked at the destroyed remains of the longboat, roasting away in the fire.

Goofy pointed at the Barrett. "We can take this up there…can't we?"

Jim shook his head disappointedly. "While I do admire your ship, it's way too big to fit in the belly of the Legacy. We'll have to find a place around here to camp and hide out…for a while, at least."

"First rate idea, Mr. Hawkins, you and these heroes you've adopted as our makeshift crew can go find us shelter," Captain Amelia said smugly. They all took her with a grain of salt – after all, a good Captain leads their crew on land, in water or in space.

Donald and Eddy stayed behind at the fire with Doctor Doppler and Captain Amelia, attempting to use some curaga magic on her to speed the healing process.

Goofy, Kairi, Sora and Jim all walked on ahead into the deep forest. Jim and Sora walked in the front, slicing tangled webs of roots with their keyblade and scimitar, respectively. Up ahead of them was more and more forest…forest in all directions. They sliced their way through to a large bog that was only ankle deep.

And then, in a stunning definition of the word 'inconvenient', a black portal opened up in front of them all in the center of the bog. Swirling with the black mist coming from within, a large figure stepped out from the black hole – a fat man wearing a silver and black suit with tribal markings all over it. His mask was an eerie silver and copper tone…with a face that had an indifferent, flat line for the mouth.

"The Unsmiling Man from the bailey!" Kairi recognized him immediately. He drew his hands outward, his two laser sais from before materializing in them.

"You recognize this dude?" Jim asked Sora.

"Unfortunately, yeah. We do," Sora replied, holding his keyblade out, ready for battle.