CHAPTER XLIV

FOR PETE'S SAKE

Riku looked at his spindly ant arms and crossed them angrily. "I don't like it."

"Well, you're going to have to deal with it until we get the Wind Butterfly…" Sora said back. Through the tall grass, Sora was able to see a large clearing of brown sand. As they pushed their way through the blades of grass, it became clear what they were truly looking at – a massive anthill stood to their left. It was positioned directly below the gigantic tree, and the tree's roots grew out of the ground in strange places around its base. A tall tower of rocks were placed on a cliff, facing directly out into the sun. Sora and the rest could see a large leaf, easily bigger than the Barrett was now, placed on top of the rocks. On the leaf was a mountain of various foods; seeds, grains, raspberries…it all looked like quite a feast.

"Gawrsh…lookit all that food!" Goofy said, aimlessly walking toward the leaf.

"Goofy…stay away from it…" Kairi warned, as the grass behind them rustled and they heard a frantic voice coming towards them…

Suddenly, a blue ant with big, bulging eyes popped out of the grass by Goofy. He was wearing a strange outfit – a hat and long, coiled backpack, both made from blades of grass. Hollowed out seeds and nuts hung from his pack, which seemed to weigh more than his entire little frame.

"Get the food to the offering…get the…AHH!" the twitchy ant screamed upon noticing the friends. He dropped the few seeds he was carrying as he backed up cautiously. "Who…who are you? What do you want? Don't touch that!" he screamed, seemingly all at once, as he noticed Goofy getting closer to the food. Goofy turned around and rejoined Riku, Sora, Kairi and Donald in the center of the clearing.

"Hey…calm down…we're friendly. We won't touch your food," Kairi explained to the ant.

Sora introduced himself and his friends. "What's your name?"

"Flik…" he was cut off as a small, purple ant popped her out of the anthill. She wore a short, green crown that was specked with red dots.

"Flik! Get in the anthill! The grasshoppers are coming!" the purple ant cried.

"Coming, Princess Atta! Look, fellas, if you guys don't like being trampled by grasshoppers, follow me!" he said, rushing straight for the anthill as Atta disappeared below. But before they could reach the anthill, a strange, black portal swirled open on the ground in front of the anthill…

Pete's body barely squeezed through the portal as he stood up, blocking the heroes from entering the anthill. He hadn't changed at all – the Legion uniform kept his body from being turned into a bug like everyone else.

"Hey! How come he didn't change!" Donald quacked, even more outraged than when he first realized he was a ladybug.

"He's already a slug," Riku said shaking a fist, unable to draw his new keyblade.

"Yeah…hey, Pete? How come the Legion keeps sending a level one to do all the dirty work?" Sora taunted him, holding out his Darklighter.

Pete looked at the friends and did a double take. After blinking for a few moments, he finally realized that Sora and his friends had changed forms.

"Bugs? What am I supposed to do with a bunch of bugs?" Pete said, only stopping when he realized that the Legion outfit only kept his form, and not his size. He was no bigger than Goofy in this world. "Well…I guess I gotta try somethin'…" he said, snapping his fingers. Instantly, a portal of black sludge opened up at the feet of Flik. He was being dragged downward by the same tendrils of darkness that they had seen on Treasure Planet…

"Flik!" Kairi yelled, darting over to help him. She tried to hoist him out of the hole…but it was too late…he was sucked down as the hole closed. Pete was laughing so hard that his shirt slid a few more inches up his bulbous stomach.

"He might not be the strongest guy here…but he'll make a good heartless…after all, ain't it about love and hearts and all dat teddy-bear crap? I never understood all of it anyway…" Pete began to mumble.

"Shocking," Sora said, diving at Pete with his keyblade. Pete did a quick backhanded punch and sent Sora into the side of the anthill.

"I don't got time for dis…I got myself a prisoner ta turn into a heartless!" he said, snapping his fingers as a portal appeared at his feet, causing him to awkwardly disappear as over one-hundred new heartless formed in the clearing.

Most of the heartless were smaller than Sora and his friends, but not by much. About half of them were shaped like bees, with long, jagged stingers and flashy yellow wings draped over their normal black bodies. Between the rest of them there was a mix of larger beetle shaped heartless with heavily armored backsides, tall ones that resembled black praying mantises with sharp, metallic claws, and small, hairy ones that jumped around like fleas.

"They heard Princess Atta's voice ring up from below in the anthill. "C'mon! C'mon…they'll be here any minute! Bring your friends if you have to!" she yelled, still not explaining to them what exactly 'they' were.

Sora and Riku had no problem learning how to fight in their new forms…they walked on two legs and had normal arms. Their keyblades seemed to slice through the air with greater ease…it seemed their proportionate strength in this form made them a great deal faster. They sliced through about twenty of the jumping fleas for practice as they really got the hang of things.

Kairi and Donald were having a terrible time. On the ground, they were awkward and couldn't walk very directly. Kairi tried to run straight at a dung beetle, but she veered off to the left and smacked into Donald without even trying. They soon realized that it was much easier to hover over the ground with their wings. They flew past the beetles, as Donald cast 'stopra!', making them freeze for a few precious seconds. Kairi buzzed from one to the next, slashing through them with her Thieves Honor keyblade. Donald dispatched the rest of them with a few swings of his staff.

Goofy's four long arms were putting him at a distinct advantage against the tall, praying mantis heartless. He was swinging them around his body twice as fast, knocking them backwards as Sora and Riku mopped them up, slashing them up into the air like baseball players. Kairi and Donald stood back and aimed several blizzard attacks at the heartless, shattering almost every last one in the air.

As the final heartless regrouped near the base of the pile of food, Goofy charged a massive shot with his shield…forgetting that he had more strength in the charge from his extra arms, he fired…surely enough, the shield sailed through the heartless, destroying them with quickness…

But the shield didn't slow down…not until it smashed into the base of the rock pillar holding up the leaf…the pile tilted as the seeds poured down into the chasm below, finally landing in a small pool of water. As the last of the food disappeared below, a loud humming noise filled their ears. Assuming that this was the 'they' Atta was referring to, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy all headed straight for the anthill and dove below, meeting Princess Atta in a large underground chamber.