CHAPTER XXI
TWO-FACED TUSSLE
Sora and Kairi dove immediately at the Unsmiling Man, but the two powerful swings from overhead were blocked instantly with his strange laser sais. He parried and elbowed Sora in the stomach, sending him flying backwards into Goofy. The Man's right foot swung around behind him, causing him to do an odd breakdancing move, knocking the feet out from beneath Kairi.
He stood up, the quick victor of the faux battle. He returned his sais to two small holsters on his waist and walked up to Jim, face to mask.
"John Silver?" the Unsmiling Man barked. His voice was harsh and mechanical.
"Never heard of him," Jim lied.
"Very well, then." He began to walk away toward the black portal that was still swirling in the middle of the bog.
Jim took a step toward him. "What do you want with him?"
"A ruthless, cyborg pirate? Why, I can't imagine what I'd want with him," he droned, sarcasm dripping from his voice. He stepped through the black portal – but before it closed completely, his arm stuck through, snapped its fingers, and disappeared with the rest of him.
Approximately ten heartless large bodies spawned in the tight bog around Jim, Sora, Goofy and Kairi. Up above them was worse news – flying pirate heartless were swarming down on them from only meters away, blue and white wings glinting in the sunlight. As if that wasn't enough, the bog water started to turn from its normal light green color to a dark green…a blueish…and finally black.
Sora turned to Jim. "How are you at fighting?"
Jim smirked. "I can hold my own. You forget – I just escaped a pirate ship with barely a scratch on me." He dove at a large body, brandishing his scimitar, and promptly bounced off of its massive reflective belly.
"You've gotta hit 'em from behind!" Goofy bellowed, being smacked around by the flying pirates. He started to spin his shield around his finger and finally let it go – the stone boomerang sailed around the bog, slicing through the winged creatures one at a time, as if enchanted.
Kairi bounced from the heads of the large bodies like a young girl playing leapfrog. She sliced them from behind as she jumped away, knocking them down for Jim to slice at with his scimitar.
Sora and Goofy were nowhere to be seen in the fray…just a pile of pirate heartless in the center of the bog...
"Sora!" Jim yelled, kicking off of a large body and rushing toward the pile…but up in front of him, something nobody expected happened…the black bog water started to swirl and lash out at them with giant tendrils of darkness. Jim was grabbed by one of them, wrapped up and held helpless twenty feet in the air. Where the pile of heartless had been, a ridiculous amount of tendrils shot up in the air, creating a prison of darkness around Sora and Goofy.
Kairi was getting weak at this point…there were so many large bodies, and they kept reflecting almost all of her attacks…she stopped for a second to catch her breath…and then jumped faster than she had ever jumped before. She took a moment to realize that her flip charm was kicking in – a blessing and a curse. It wouldn't kick on until she was critically hurt, but it allowed her to do some serious double jumps, swinging her keyblade wildly around her.
The pirate heartless flew up from within the prison and attacked Kairi – but she was able to keep herself aloft by bounding from one to the next, and when they were all dead she leaped from the rock wall back to the bog. There were still plenty of large bodies, not to mention the tendrils of darkness. As three large bodies slid on their stomachs toward Kairi, she knew that it was over…she couldn't stop all three at once…
But at that moment, a blinding flash of red and white light shot up from the center of the tendril prison. Two keyblades – the One-Eye and the Kingdom Key – pierced through opposite sides of the prison, spun like a top and destroyed every tendril wrapped around what was inside.
When the darkness cleared, standing in the center of the bog was Sora – wearing a red suit with black accents, holding two keyblades and emitting a faint red glow.
Valor Form Sora dashed around the bog, bounding from walls to get to Kairi in time – he swung with a mighty uppercut, sending two of the large bodies into the air. With a backswing, he sliced the tendril holding Jim clean in half, as he jumped into the air and pummeled the two large bodies in a dizzying combo that seemed like it would never end. As they popped, Jim flew downward past Sora, scimitar pointing straight at the ground, finally connecting with the final large body zooming straight at Kairi. It spun out of control, as Sora did a downward kick and finished it with a beautiful flourish of red energy waves.
Jim helped Kairi stand up as the bog reverted to its normal greenish color. Sora shined once more, and when the light dimmed, Goofy was standing next to him once again, and Sora was wearing his normal clothes, no longer holding two keyblades.
"Whoa…what were those things?" Jim asked, catching his breath.
"They're called heartless," Kairi answered. "Beings that have no heart…"
"Creepy," Jim said.
"We don't have much time – that was a member of the Legion. He's going to find the strongest person on this planet and turn them into a heartless…probably anyone else who gets in the way, too," Sora said gravely.
"But…he was looking for Mr. Silver…" Jim said, conflicted. Jim never had a father growing up, and even though Mr. Silver betrayed him, Jim knew he still had good in him. He was the closest thing to a father Jim ever had. "It's no doubt that the pirates followed us after we escaped in the longboat," Jim pointed up at the Legacy, hovering in the atmosphere of Treasure Planet. "The ship is probably deserted…we can get the map later. I know it sounds crazy…but we need to find the pirate camp and make sure that none of them get turned into heartless. They're pretty mean in a fight…I'd hate to see them without hearts."
Sora, Goofy and Kairi nodded a silent approval as they pushed on through the bog, weapons out, ready for any more danger.
