CHAPTER XLIX

PLAYING WITH PESTICIDE

Sora woke up early the next morning, before everyone but Kairi. He hadn't gotten much sleep…the image of Atta's smiling face kept haunting him as his lies echoed over and over in his head…

He got up and noticed a pile of sticks and twigs in the center of the room – they were carved to resemble swords and shields, and there were plenty to go around to all the supposed warriors in the room. He woke up Donald, Goofy and Riku and gave them all the good news about the Wind Butterfly.

"Good. Now all we have to do is avoid getting killed by the grasshoppers…" Riku said seriously. Without warning, a loud horn sounded through the anthill. It echoed all the way down every chamber, waking up the circus bugs as Atta came running into the sleeping chamber.

"The last leaf has fallen…the grasshoppers will be on their way any moment, Sora…good luck," she said, pushing Sora and Kairi out of the door. Riku, Donald and Goofy followed, with the circus bugs tailing behind.

"Don't forget your weapons!" Atta yelled at the circus bugs before they had left the room.

"Oh…right…of course…" Francis said dryly, as he picked up a sword and held it backwards.

Up in the clearing, everything was pushed to the side to make room for the grasshoppers arrival. The entire ant colony was sitting at the base of the tree, watching the clearing from a distance. Atta joined them as Sora, Riku and the others assembled in the center of the clearing. The offering stone was no longer holding a leaf covered in food – it was obviously being kept elsewhere.

A loud buzzing filled their ears, as the unmistakable sound of grasshopper wings became louder and louder. Sora, Kairi and Riku all drew their keyblades out into an attack stance, as Donald held up his staff and Goofy raised his shield. The circus bugs awkwardly held up their swords and shields as the wings' beating became nearly deafening…the circus bugs inched further away from the clearing, almost to the grass where they could hide…

Hopper and Molt were the first two grasshoppers to touch down near the offering stone. Behind them landed about fifteen more large, intimidating grasshoppers – some were wiry and rabid looking, while some were fat and could barely fly without breaking a sweat. Hopper looked atop the offering stone as his rage built…he kicked the bottom rock, sending the entire offering stone tumbling into the chasm below. He rounded on Sora, hatred etched in his jagged face.

"What's the meaning of this? I give you another chance…and this is how I'm thanked!" he screamed, only inches from Sora's face.

"It's over, Hopper…the ants are tired of taking orders from you…don't you realize that they outnumber you? Hmm…" Sora said, pretending to think about it.

"Ya know…I don't think it's the ants that work for the grasshoppers here, Sora," Riku said, drawing the attention of Hopper. "It looks to me like it's the grasshoppers that need the ants…"

Hopper howled with rage and began to buzz his wings violently. "How dare you! It seems like someone's forgetting their place, ant…" he said, dashing at Riku.

It had begun – the circus bugs silently slid away into the grass, away from the battle. The colony didn't have any time to notice – the battle was raging within seconds. Hopper had engaged Riku with his jagged arms – the carapace of his grasshopper body was nearly as strong as the keyblade, and twice as jagged…with a few overhead swings, he connected several times with Riku's keyblade, setting the two of them into a stand-still…

Sora dove at two of the shorter and squatter grasshoppers who hadn't expected to fight, one of which happened to be Molt…with a quick slash, he knocked one back onto his wings and pounced on his body, slashing fervently. Molt kicked Sora with his powerful leg, sending him sliding across the dirt…

Kairi and Donald buzzed upward, drawing five or six of the grasshoppers to the sky. Donald reached his wand out and cried, "magnega!", drawing the unaware grasshoppers into the center of the whirling magnet. Kairi swung at each of them in turn as they rotated around the spell, destroying all but two…

Goofy had been pinned down by three fat grasshoppers…he tried to slide out of their grip, but it was no use. Just when he thought he would faint from the pressure, all three grasshoppers were thrown from his body by a flash of light – Sora had dispatched Molt with a thunder spell and had saved Goofy without a second to spare.

Riku slid beneath Hopper's long legs and popped up behind him, swinging his keyblade backwards and catching him off guard. Hopper fell over, trying to buzz his wings, but Riku had damaged them pretty badly. A beam of dark energy came forth from the Dawn of Kings as Riku shouted "darkara!", sending Hopper flying into a pile of rocks at the opposite side of the clearing.

Up above, Kairi and Donald had corralled the remaining two grasshoppers together…as they flew around them in a circle, they stopped on opposite sides and called out "graviga!" simultaneously, sending the two grasshoppers smashing into the ground below, completely destroying them.

Donald and Kairi buzzed down to the ground to meet Riku, Sora and Goofy. The five of them were panting…but they had eliminated all but one of the grasshoppers…Hopper himself was marching toward them, his eyes burning with revenge.

"You think I care that I'm outnumbered? I've always been outnumbered, fools…there will always be more grasshoppers…more grasshoppers to come back and put these ants in their place…" he said, coming closer and closer to the exhausted friends.

But before he could reach them, a black portal opened up directly in front of them – a portal much larger than the ones the Legion normally used to get around. Nothing came out of it but a familiar, idiotic voice…

"Hey, runts! Don't consider me rude for not stoppin' by, but I got a friend of yers that wants ta visit! Have fun, ya twerps!" Pete's voice echoed out into the clearing as two massive legs protruded from the portal.

The creature stood up to its full height – more than five times the size of Sora, it was quite large – even bigger than the bird they had escaped from back in the riverbed. It had a large, oval shaped head with two bulging eyes, each containing a bright yellow pupil. Its mouth was more like a pincer, and as it clicked sideways to open and close, a set of long, black feelers poked from the top of its head. The body was a large, beefy carapace, similar to Dim's - the main difference was the thousands of spikes jutting out from the creature's back and sides. All in all, the creature had six legs, each bearing a large heartless insignia. The feet of this creature were as big as leaves…

Hopper found this out first hand as Heartless Flik stepped on and squished him, all without batting an eye.