CHAPTER XXIII
THE ROCKY ROAD OF JUDGEMENT
The Unsmiling Man was right – almost immediately after he mentioned it, the friends could see the rock walls of the valley start to shake with instability. The heartless had drilled it into swiss cheese; it was only a matter of time before the walls would break and crush them.
"No matter what happens, just keep moving toward the end of the valley – just attack what you need to in order to get out of here alive!" Sora's advice was pretty obvious, but everyone agreed and started rushing toward the opposite end of the valley. Sora and Jim slashed most of the flower heartless out of the way – if they got their feet tangled in them, they would surely be crushed – when Sora had a revelation.
"DON'T HIT THE LITTLE BLACK ONES!" Goofy and Kairi understood – the minute bomb heartless would start a timer when attacked and blow up eight seconds later…a terrible type of heartless to be up against in this situation.
The escape became ten times harder – now, instead of trying to mow their way out of an avalanche, they were trying to mow around land mines in an avalanche. Goofy, who specialized in mostly broad, sweeping attacks, chose to defend up front instead of attacking. The last thing they needed was to set one of those bombs off.
They were nearing the end…the walls of the valley were tapering downward at a slight angle. Sora and Jim were on opposite sides of the valley, sweeping out more of the digging mole heartless, when they heard Goofy's trademark 'uh-oh…'.
They looked back and saw Goofy, Kairi and B.E.N. staring at a bomb heartless…a flashing white and red bomb heartless…
"Sorry! I didn't mean to step on it!" B.E.N. apologized. Sora and Jim traded worried looks.
"Kairi, Goofy, get B.E.N. and yourselves out of danger, Jim and I will stop the avalanche from spreading!"
Kairi and Goofy stopped dead in their tracks, B.E.N. running around them nervously. Then, Goofy and Kairi grabbed each others hands and yelled "TORNADO VALLEY!" Kairi threw Goofy's hands toward the ground – in a flash, Goofy's shield was on the ground, him standing on his hands on top of it. Kairi did an aerial flip, and started a massive twirl that caused spiraling wind to race around her at incredible speeds. At the height of her spin, she grabbed Goofy's feet which were sticking up in the air and turned Goofy into a giant drill – the resulting wave of wind and rock knocked back several more of the bomb heartless, starting their timers as well…
Five…
Sora and Jim raced up the walls on a slant toward the longboats. The ground was crumbling beneath their feet. It reached up to the sky – two hundred feet or more – and the bottom of it was chewed to bits by heartless. Every step caused the walls to become more unstable…
Four…
B.E.N. dove into the hole after Kairi and Goofy, braving the wind to save his life. Heartless were trying to jump down after them, but Kairi's massive tornado was keeping them all out.
Three…
The longboats were just ahead. Sora and Jim looked over at each other, running nearly vertically along the wall – as Sora unsummoned his keyblade and Jim put his scimitar into his belt. What was going on?
Two…
Kairi was growing tired, but she and Goofy kept their powerful limit attack up, driving Goofy and B.E.N. past the point where Sora and Jim were above ground. They slowly started an upward arc, using the last bit of Kairi's strength…she couldn't stop now…the cave she created would cave in on them, as it was behind them…
One…
Jim and Sora reached down into the sea of heartless, which were clamoring for them with bloodlust in their beady little eyes. They each plucked a single bomb heartless from the crowd and punched it with their other hand, causing it to activate…they pushed off the walls as the valley walls ended, sending them just ahead of the heartless, clear of the valley – they tossed their bombs in the air as they passed by each other and then…
Perfect! Sora and Jim landed their backflip kicks into the bombs, sending them backwards into each of the walls. The resulting impact caused the bombs to explode…the walls cracked and crumbled…raining debris down on the now exploding heartless…the explosion grew and grew with the more heartless it consumed, but at the end of the valley no more than fifty feet from where Jim and Sora stood, the rocks blocked off the river of explosions with a muffled thud.
Kairi and Goofy poked up from the ground, and as Kairi saw the light, she stopped spinning, completely out of breath. She collapsed on the ground next to Jim and Sora, who were leaning on each other trying to regain their balance and breathe. Goofy stood up, but wobbled quite a bit as B.E.N. cautiously sprang up from the hole.
B.E.N. looked at the now collapsed valley and his jaw practically unhinged itself. He looked at the battle weary friends and spoke.
"Hoo boy, glad I'm not the guy who started THAT mess!" he said cheerily, his metal mouth resembling a smile. Jim would have pulled out his motor unit…but suddenly, they had bigger problems.
Captain John Silver, a large and very fat man came walking into view, as Sora, Jim, Kairi and Goofy regained their balance. The man was indeed a cyborg – his entire right arm was robotic. It had a set of fingers with pads on the ends, but behind that, where a wrist would be, there was a large metallic chamber, about a foot and a half long. Inside, they soon realized were other sorts of hands – some claws, some pinchers – they cycled through until Silver found the one he wanted – a pistol. His arm connected to his shoulder with a strange hydraulic system – black accordion plastic connected to the silver metal looked quite industrial. Besides the arm, he also had a metal leg using the same black hydraulic system from the arm, and a series of wires led from his neck to his right eyeball – not entirely an eyeball, it was a set of small diodes and lights with magnifying glasses attached.
The robotic parts of him aside, he was still quite ugly. A wide, fat nose underneath bushy protruding eyebrows…a gap-toothed smile…and the grubby brown three-point hat he wore on his head hardly painted the picture of 'gentleman'…but in pirate terms, Silver was certainly top rank.
"Oh, and what do ye think your doin', little Jim? Come to give us the map?" he sneered, as from behind him more creatures became visible.
An entire slew of pirates – some with five eyes, only two feet tall; some with many large anteater-like snouts all over their bodies that tooted in disgusting ways; some hulking masses with four arms, thin beards and massive teeth – all terribly ugly, all terrifying.
"Even if I had it, Silver, I wouldn't give it to the likes of you," spat Jim.
"Take it easy, Jimbo. I'm sure we can work out some sorta…agreement…" the pirates all bellowed with laughter.
"Don't you listen? We don't have it!" Sora yelled back at Silver.
The Unsmiling Man's voice rang through the encampment.
"You don't know when to quit, do you? I've worked hard stalking this pirate crew, and they'll all be heartless yet! No matter how many times you meddling fools get in my way!"
Silver looked over at the Unsmiling Man.
"Aye, we're blood-thirsty pirates! I'd wager that we're as heartless as they come, mate," he said.
The Unsmiling Man snapped his fingers. In a flash, pools of black sludge formed around the feet of Captain Silver and his rowdy crew. From the pools came large tendrils, just like the ones Sora and his friends had seen in the bog. The next instant, the tendrils were wrapped around the arms, legs and necks of all the pirates, and the instant after that, they were dragged down into the sludge, which promptly disappeared.
"If you only knew," chided the Unsmiling Man, disappearing into a portal of his own creation.
