CHAPTER LXXVII

THE TOYBOX GANG

Sora, Riku, Kairi, Goofy and Donald tried their best to comply with the voice's request – Kairi, Goofy and Donald could barely lift their awkward arms. What if the voice was from a heartless? They'd never be able to fight in this condition…

But the voice wasn't that of a Heartless – no; a tall, pull-string cowboy doll stood in front of them, clutching a small watergun. His large brimmed red hat sat on his almost oval head – a set of large, beady eyes rested atop a very thin, pointy nose. His checkerboard shirt and blue jeans were tattered with age, or rather, rough play.

"Aw! A Woody doll! I used to have one of these when I was a kid! Check 'im out!" Sora called, rushing up to Woody's side. He grabbed at Woody's arms, squishing the soft foam within.

"Hey! HEY! Cut that out, ya crazy toy! How does a toy have a toy anyway? Hey guys!" he yelled down the foot of the bed. "Guys! It's okay! They're just a bunch of nutjobs!"

"Nutjobs!" Donald squeaked. "You were gonna shoot us!"

Woody looked at his gun sheepishly and smiled back at the friends. "Oh, this? This is just a squirt gun…" he shot Riku in the face, soaking his hat.

Over the foot of the bed, an arm rose, clutching two bulbous eyes. It turned back and forth like a periscope and then the arm's body appeared – a pear-shaped brown potato. Affixing the eyes to his head, he walked up to Woody's side.

"Just a coupla loonies, eh?" he said, surveying the newcomers. He shifted his bowler cap on his head and wiggled his black moustache. "No problem then…they'll be at the bottom of the toybox in a week."

"No dinosaurs! You gotta swear there's no dinosaurs up there, Woody…I can't handle the rejection…" a high-pitched, whiny voice shot up from below.

Woody rolled his glassy eyes. "No, there are no dinosaurs, Rex…just a duck…"

A large, green dinosaur toddled up onto the bed. A tyrannosaurus rex never looked particularly timid – but nothing about the toy said 'terrorizing'. "RAAAAWRRR…!" he said awkwardly, getting only an inch or so from Sora's face. "How'd I do, Woody!"

Slapping his wooden hand against his head, Woody smiled weakly. "Great job, Rex. I think they were almost scared…"

"Baaaaa-loney! They didn't look scared at all, Woody!" a pink piggy-bank said as he hobbled into view. "I'm all fer encouragement, but we can't just LIE to 'em!"

A brown dog with floppy dark ears slinked into view – indeed, his front and back halves were separated by a long, silver slinky. It stretched and wobbled as he walked circles around Sora and his friends.

"Ya fellas come from the birthday party? Yer kinda early…"

"What's going on? Toybox? Birthday party?" Sora pulled at his hair as he tried to diguest the information. "And I'm the loony…"

Riku grabbed his friend by the scruff of the neck and pulled him aside. Looking over their shoulders at the cowboy, t-rex, dog, piggy bank and potato man, they huddled up near the gummi ship and whispered.

"They're toys, right? Well, so are we. We can't blow our cover, stupid!" he said, flicking Sora in the temple. "We gotta play along until we can rescue Mickey and the others."

"Hi! My name's Sora and these are my friends Riku, Kairi, Goofy and Donald! We are birthday presents! Toys! Yep!" he said inconspicuously as he turned back to the toys.

"Okay…cool it, Shakespeare…" Riku growled sideways.

"Well, welcome to Andy's room. It goes without sayin', but I'm Andy's FAVORITE toy around here, so don't get any ideas, okay?"

Looking around, they realized what Woody was talking about – the room was covered in Woody merchandise – posters, pillows, bedspreads and the works. The walls were covered in blue wallpaper with white clouds – a white crib sat on the opposite side of the room. Andy certainly seemed enamored with the small cowboy. Suddenly, a small plant on the nightstand rustled furiously. A small, green man molded to a platform shot out, screaming in a military fashion.

"Andy is heading this way! Repeat, Andy's coming!"

The toys panicked, running around the room like they were on fire. Potato-head and Slink jumped into a corner as the door to the room slammed open. A gigantic boy came bounding in, a mouth full of baby-teeth gleaming from his wide smile. Clutched in his arms was a large, white box that was shaped like a spaceship.

Woody, Rex and Sora's gang immediately flopped over, completely incapacitated on the bed. It was almost instinctive – Sora and his friends became lifeless at the moment Woody and Rex did. Hamm, nestled atop his dresser, looked on as Andy approached the bed.

"I can't wait to play with this!" Andy said, flopping the box onto the bed next to the gummi ship. "Hey, where'd these come from? Oh…" he said, noticing the bobble-headed Goofy, raggedy Kairi and rubber-ducky Donald. "Aunt Joyce…these two aren't too lame, though…" he said, testing Riku's karate chop action. Sora almost laughed out loud as Andy wiggled his legs – it was a weird sensation - like being at the doctor's office, without all the hoo-hah of the white paper on the seats and the lollipop reward afterwards. Sora wished he was at the doctor.

From outside the room, a loud wail filled their ears – a small child, most likely a girl, was screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Andy! Let Molly play with some of your toys! You just got a whole bunch of new ones for your birthday, and you need to SHARE!" a mature woman's voice commanded. Andy rolled his eyes.

"But MOM…" he started to protest.

"Now! Or we won't go to Pizza Planet!"

"Fine…she wants toys? She can have these…yuck…" he said, scooping up Donald, Goofy and Kairi. "I guess she can play with you too, Rex…" he said, adding Rex to the pile. "I'll have to play with you later, buddy!" he said to the spaceship box, bounding out of the room. The toys woke up and began to look around the room.

"They took Rex! And three of the weirdos!" Hamm called out down to the toys that were gathering in the center of the room. Slink and Potato-head looked somber, like they were at Rex's funeral.

"They're not weirdos! They're my friends!" Sora yelled, slumping down onto the bed as he racked his brain, trying to figure out a way to save not only Mickey, Cloud and Aerith – but now Kairi, Donald and Goofy as well.