Author's note: So I didn't get the chance to thank my readers for the truly incredible critique's they've been leaving me. Thank you, Aztec13, Guest, BadOrk11 for your words and interest, and especially Stuff3 for your incredible review. If just one person likes my rewrite, that's enough for me. Now that we've come this far in the story, I feel I can answer Stuff3's question. I choose to include Madam Medusa in the Enchanted Bayou for three reasons.
1. She's an over the top, villain that I just adore. So I couldn't help myself. (Also I love the way she's animated in Rescuers.)
2. In the movie, she appears in a swamp, so I thought she would fit in the Enchanted Bayou.
3. I planned for Dr. Facilier to be the main Disney villain in the same way that Maleficent was in KH1, so I needed a replacement villain/final boss for that world.
Hope that answers your question. Once again, thank you everyone for taking the time to read my story.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy or any of the Disney/Square Enix characters that appear in this work. Please support the original releases.
Chapter 20: Toontown
Valiant drove through the long, dark tunnel that led to Toontown. In the back seat, Donald, Sora, and Goofy, bounced with excitement.
"What do you think Toontown will be like," Sora asked.
"I bet it's pretty lively," said Goofy, "with lots of singin' and maybe even some fun jokes."
Roger turned around in the front seat. "All that and more! There is no place like Toontown!"
His words made Donald's eyes brighten like a child on Christmas morning. "Oh boy, oh boy!"
Sora spotted a red, cartoon curtain up ahead. A drumroll echoed in the tunnel. The curtains opened and the world beyond was absolutely bonkers. Donald and Goofy pressed their faces against the car windows, their behinds bouncing with the music.
The sun shined brightly over the cartoon, country road. They drove by meadows made entirely out of quilts. Barns, wishing wells, and fairy tale castles popped up in the distance. Everything, from the bouncy trees and flowers, the farm animals, dragons, chubby, flying angels, and even the tweeting birds, sang a chipper song that was so catchy that Sora began humming it.
"Smile, darn ya, smile..."
It was colorful, wacky, constantly moving, and Sora couldn't keep his big, dumb grin off his face. Until the cartoon, country road faded and Valiant drove into the town itself. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Roger slammed against the car windshield when Valiant hit the breaks, narrowly avoiding getting hit by a speeding toon firetruck. Roger and the rest of the toons pulled back from the window, their bodies compressing like an accordion as they moved.
Valiant got out of the car. His companions followed only when their bodies returned to their regular shape. The town was ten times as crazy as the road they had taken to get there. The streets were complete anarchy. Police cars, horses, dragons, and the ambulance raced by without paying any attention to the streetlights, which changed from red to yellow to green every two seconds. Despite the road hazards, all the toons j-walked or skipped down the streets without a care in the world.
The sidewalks were covered in all kinds of junk like fruit, rubber duckies, broken pianos, everything but the kitchen sink. Scratch that, Sora actually spotted a broken sink among a pile of cartoon gags, such as anvils and mallets.
Valiant's group followed Roger into an apartment building that stretched so far up, it vanished into the clouds. Inside the foyer, Roger called the elevator.
"My apartment is just a few stories up. Jessica has to be there."
The elevator dinged, the doors opened.
"Going up, sirs?" droned the elevator attendant, a dog with a very droopy face.
Sora, Donald, Goofy, Roger and Valiant all tripped when they entered the elevator. The dog hadn't told them there would be a huge step.
"Mind the step, sirs." He pulled the lever. "Hold on, sirs."
They weren't riding an elevator. They were riding a rocket! They flew up the floors so fast that the toons, and even Valiant himself, flattened like a pancake against the floor. Then the elevator stopped abruptly and they slammed against the ceiling.
"Your floor, sirs."
Dizzey, Valiant and the toons flopped out of the elevator and into the hallway outside.
"Have a good day, sirs."
The dog vanished as the elevator doors closed. While Valiant and the trio rubbed out the pain in their necks, Roger skipped straight to his apartment unit.
"Jessica, dearest, I have returned! Jessica?"
Valiant and the trio entered Roger's unit. Inside, they found Roger tearing up his own apartment. He threw clothes and plates out of their cabinets, lifted up the couch, and even burrowed under the rug. Resurfacing, he wailed.
"Eddie! She's not here!"
Valiant checked the whole unit. Then he called Roger and the others over. There was a large, yellow paint stain on the floor of the bedroom. Valiant grabbed Roger's yellow glove and compared the paint color. Roger's glove was lighter.
"This isn't your paint," concluded Valiant. He stared at the stain on the floor with a frown.
"Oh no! You're telling me that another toon came in here and kidnapped my beloved wife?"
"Seems that way. Unless there's anywhere else that Jessica would go."
Roger flailed his arms. "We must search the town! She could be in danger!"
Before Valiant could stop him, Roger was out the door. Seconds later, they found him in the hallway outside, on his back, his eyes rolling in their sockets, birds flying around his head.
"O-oh, e-excuse me sir," Roger stuttered from his place on the floor, "I-I d-d-didn't see you there. Sorry for b-b-bumping in to ya."
The man that Roger had charged into patted down his black and magenta robes. Out of all the toons Sora had seen so far, this one was the most severe looking. He was a tall, slender, elderly man, who's pale skin, thinning grey hair, and long, careworn face made him stand out from the zany, colorful, bouncy denizens of Toontown.
"Hideous creatures such as yourself rarely look where they are going."
Glaring at the man, Sora bent down to help Roger up. "Hey, he said he was sorry. You don't have to call him names."
The red ribbon hanging from the man's black and purple hat swung violently when he turned his head toward Sora. His voice was a low, deep, authoritative growl. "Is this how you treat your elders, boy?"
Sora glared. "Just because you're older then me doesn't give you the right to be rude."
"Insolence."
"Come on, you four," Valiant barked, "we've got a town to search."
"I must warn you of the foolishness of that idea," said the elderly man.
Donald crossed his arms, drumming his finger against his elbow. "And why should we listen to you?"
The man looked out the window. "The world is cruel, the world is wicked. Why not stay in here and avoid the danger?"
"Heroes don't run from danger," Goofy proclaimed.
"Then heroes are fools."
The old man walked toward the window. Ignoring him, Sora and the others rode the roller coaster elevator back down to the ground floor. When they exited out into the city, Sora froze.
Toontown was eerily quiet and deserted, not a single, active toon in sight. The colors seemed oddly muted, with more shades of grey then a newspaper. The streets were dimmed, yet there wasn't a single cloud overhead.
"What's going on, Roger," Goofy said, "why is everything so quiet?"
Roger pressed his fingertips to his lips. "Something don't feel right. Toontown is never like this."
Valiant looked around the deserted streets with a scowl. "Something real messed up must have happened if Toontown of all places has quieted down."
They walked down the sidewalk, passing by abandoned grocery stands, milk trucks, post offices, and police stations. Donald and Goofy brandished weapons. Sora's fist tightened around his keyblade.
"This place reeks of darkness. I just know a heartless is going to pop up any second now."
"Jeepers. Don't tell me that those creatures have completely taken over town."
Just as Roger said the words, oily, rubbery weasels, elephants, rabbits, mice, and dogs melted off the walls, and the street lights. Shadow heartless rose up from the concrete. They blended with the toon heartless, creating a black, tidal wave of darkness that rose up, ready to wash Valiant, Roger and the trio away.
Donald and Goofy were able to dispatch the run of the mill shadow heartless, but it didn't take long before the five of them were surrounded. Sora fought back with his keyblade, but the swarm kept pushing inward, until they were all back to back, with no way out.
"This is it, Eddie," Roger cried, "I'm going down without ever getting to say goodbye to my wife!" Roger flailed like a rubber hose with the water still running. "I have so much ta live for, so much ta do! I didn't even get a chance to get my cartoon with Baby Herman right!"
Roger got dangerously close to a heartless and it reached out to swipe him across the chest. Valiant, growling out of frustration, tried to grab Roger's ears, but the rabbit slipped out of his grasp.
"It's over! It's curtains! I've gone past my prime!"
"Calm down, you crazy rabbit!"
"How are we ever going to get out of this!"
This time, a heartless actually succeeded in hitting Roger. It slashed at his feet, which made Roger jump backward. His head banged against Donald, who then fell back onto Goofy and Sora. They bonked heads, and the resulting clap of their skulls hitting each other let out a weird rhythm that almost sounded like a song.
Sora shook his head, raising his keyblade, ready to defend from the inevitable attack but something strange happened. All the toon heartless froze, and then clapped their hands twice.
"What the-"
Roger blinked at the heartless. "Wait a minute." He clapped his hands in the same beat Sora and Goofy had just accidentally made.
Once again, the heartless clapped.
All except for the regular shadow heartless that pounced on Donald. Valiant reached down, grabbed the heartless off Donald and hurled it like a bowling ball into the toon heartless.
Strike.
Once again, the same beat rang out and the toon heartless clapped again.
"What's going on," said a very confused Donald.
"Of course!" Roger snapped his fingers. "They may be heartless, but they're still toons! And no toon can resist the old 'Shave and a Haircut' bit! Come on, Eddie! Do it!"
"Fine." Valiant clapped his hands. Roger sang.
"Shave and a hair cut-"
The heartless clapped the last two notes.
"-too bits! I knew it! Come on guys!"
Valiant, Donald, Goofy and Roger repeated the beat, over and over and sure enough, the toon heartless couldn't resist stomping and clapping the last two notes each time. They moved through the swarm, using the song to freeze heartless in place. Sora pushed back and destroyed any regular heartless that came too close to the group.
Of all the ways to fight, he never would have imagined he would be distracting heartless with an old barbershop beat. He would have laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of it, if he hadn't been concentrating on keeping the heartless back. For a split second, a gap opened up in the heartless horde and Sora swore he saw the face of the old man Roger had bumped into.
He blinked and the old, cruel face was gone, but he didn't have time to wonder if it had just been his imagination. Even with his friends clapping "Shave and a haircut," there was no end to the heartless. More and more of them popped up on the roofs, the lambs, the trashcans, covering any open space.
The last time Sora had seen so many heartless was when he and his friends fought off endless armies of them at the end of the world. His shoulders were beginning to ache. Even Donald and Goofy had to stop clapping to help him fight off the regular heartless.
Panting, Sora looked up, trying to drink in as much air as possible. That's when he saw it. He forgot to breathe. His lungs screamed for air, but Sora was frozen. Frost built up in his bones and joints, and he could feel his teeth chattering.
A sphere of darkness hung in the sky, like an evil moon that was ready to swallow the world whole.
The heartless were still advancing. They had pushed the party toward the mouth of an alley. Donald sent a series of lightning spells into the heartless, distracting them just enough for the party to rush into the alley. They turned a corner. There was a back door on one of the buildings. Sora unlocked it.
Donald, Goofy and Roger crashed into a dark room. Sora and Valiant slammed the door shut behind then. Locking the door with his keyblade, Sora ducked under the windows. They held completely still, holding their breaths as the stampede of heartless roared through the alley. The room rumbled and shook from the millions of footsteps squeezing through the tiny space.
Finally, things were quiet. Valiant and Roger peeked out of the window. The alley was deserted.
Valiant finally caught his breathe. "Okay, I think the coast is clear." He thumped Roger on the shoulder. "Good thinking with the 'Shave and a Haircut' bit back there. Not bad, for a toon."
Roger blushed, pulling his ears down around his face. "Thanks! See, what did I tell ya, humor can really save the day."
"Fine, I'll give this one to you."
"H-hello? Anyone there?" said a voice from one of the dark corners of the room.
The party jumped, preparing to fight. Someone turned on a light, and it took all of Sora's willpower not to scream when dozens of eyes all locked on him at the same time. The entire room was filled to the brim with toons.
They reacted to Valiant and the others by flinching back, hands up.
"You're not with those dark toons are you," asked a cartoon taxi.
Roger leaned forward. "Benny? Is that you?"
The toon taxi blinked his headlight eyes.
"Roger! You're safe! Finally, some good news."
"Why are all you toons hauled up in this place?"
"Everything was fine in Toontown one second. Then those dark toons are appearing left and right, making a mess of everything."
"The toons they took were never heard from again," said a hippo in a tutu.
"We had to hide," said one of the three little pigs. "More of more of those things were appearing in the streets, and we couldn't fight them off."
Roger's face turned grey. "H-has anyone seen Jessica?"
The toons shook their heads.
Donald and Goofy covered Roger's mouth and tried to soothe him before he could break down to into hysterics and alert the heartless of their hiding spot.
Sora addressed the toons. "Hey, did any of you notice something strange about the town?"
"Yeah, the colors are fading," said a toad in a suit.
Sora rubbed his temples. "This isn't good."
"What's going on, kid?"
Sora looked at Valiant, but wasn't sure how to explain what he knew. He beckoned to Donald and Goofy, but they were still busy soothing Roger.
"Hey, Jiminy."
The cricket jumped into his hands. Sora moved toward a corner and whispered.
"I think the heartless might be trying to destroy this world. That dark ball of energy in the sky, I've seen it before. It was hovering over the islands the night my home was destroyed."
Jiminy swallowed. "We have to find the keyhole fast."
"But we can't defeat the toon heartless." "What about that dip substance Roger mentioned? "
Sora shook his head. "In this world, I'm a toon. It can destroy me and then who will face the heartless until King Mickey comes back?"
"But Valiant can use it safely right?" Jiminy tapped Sora's hand with his umbrella. "I think you should tell him what you know. The fate of this world depends on it. This is something someone with a good conscience would do."
Sora nodded, turning around.
"Done talking to your imaginary friend?" Valiant said.
Sora put out his hand. Jiminy bowed.
"Hello, my name is Jiminy Cricket. I think you should listen to what Sora has to say, Mr. Valiant. We are all in danger."
"No kidding. Toons attacking, a swarm of monsters turning on their own kind, and to top it off, some kind of dark meteor appearing overhead."
"You noticed it too?"
"Yes." Valiant crossed his arms. "I think it's time you explain who you really are, kid."
Sora frowned. "What?"
"I may have been out of the sleuthing game for a while, but I'm not that thick. You three," he nodded toward Donald and Goofy, "are clearly not from around here. You don't seem to know how toons work, despite being toons yourself. There isn't a single toon that doesn't know Acme, the guy that owns Toontown, and yet you acted as though it was the first time you had heard his name. You appeared right around the time those heartless creatures did and you're not utterly terrified of the dip. Not to mention that you are the most level headed and least zany toons I've ever met."
Sora wasn't sure if he should be flattered or concerned. "Okay, I'll explain, but not here. We need someplace private."
Valiant looked at Benny the taxi.
"Think you can outrun those monsters?"
The taxi toon clicked his teeth. "Don't insult me."
"Good. Give us a ride back to my place. It's time we get all of our clues together."
Riku hung back while King Mickey fought a wave of neoshadows. He expertly sliced and weaved through the heartless' long limbs and claws. A few shadow heartless managed to pass the king by, moving toward Riku. Raising his soul eater, Riku breathed in deep and felt the sparks from his heart rising up in his bones.
"Thundaga!"
Lightning sizzled through the shadows, obliterating them. Up ahead, King Mickey slashed through the last heartless. He only had a second to rest. A group of darkballs appeared. They circled Mickey, their round bodies rotating, their teeth chewing the air.
A darkball lunged, aiming to tackle Mickey. The king jumped in the last second, bounced off the heartless' body and flew up in the air. The darkballs moved upward to try and catch their prey.
Perfect.
Mickey's keyblade sparked with electricity. His lightning spell burned anything it touched to a crisp. Several of the heartless dodged, but it was already too late. From down below, Riku aimed and picked off the last few darkballs with some well timed fire spells.
The last heartless exploded and Mickey landed safely on his feet. Once the adrenaline was gone, Riku slapped a hand over his good eye. Sitting down, he took several deep breathes to stop his head from spinning.
"You okay, pal?"
Riku felt Mickey sit down next to him.
"Just dizzy."
"Well, why don't you rest for a bit?"
"I don't want to slow us down."
"Don't be so hard on yourself. You're doing a great job, even with half of your eyesight gone. You practiced all the spells I taught you and your aim has gotten better."
"But I'm not helping you fight much by hanging back like this."
"What are you talking about? You're learning to be a team player. I tell ya, it takes a lot more strength to learn to support others rather then take your own glory."
"You think so?"
"I know so! Part of being a king is to learn to rely on your people to help you run your kingdom. I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe that Minnie can handle the castle, and that Donald, Goofy, and Sora could take care of the realm of light without me."
"You really do have faith in them."
"Don't you have faith in Sora too?"
Riku stared down at his weapon. The same one that he had turned on Sora so long ago. Time and time again, Sora had stood up and fought against the darkness. And won. Mickey was right, if anyone deserved to be believed in, it was Sora.
But did Sora still have faith in Riku? After all that he had done?
Riku slapped his palms on his cheeks. He couldn't stay in the realm of darkness, feeling sorry for himself. He hadn't relied on the darkness once since he had lost sight in his left eye. He had learned to trust Mickey to take down the bigger heartless while he provided support, yet...
Mickey stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry.
"I know that look. No more negative talk."
"But-"
"Just take it easy. Gosh, you worry a lot."
Riku snorted. "Someone had to. I swear, if it weren't for me reminding Sora to do his homework, he would have flunked school. And Kairi only got good grades because she used my notes."
"See, like I told ya. Your friends have faith in you, so you have to have faith in them and in yourself."
Faith in himself. Riku closed his good eye. Mickey was right.
So why did it feel as though the air was closing in?
Why did his skin tingle as though there were ants crawling all over him?
There was no breeze, no rain, no dust, not even the faintest echo of a sinister growl, yet every one of Riku's nerve endings buzzed with warning. Both his eyes pulsed, the ants on his skin felt as though they had started chewing.
Riku rubbed his arms and opened his eye.
The strange feeling vanished, but the panic remained.
The soul eater appeared in his hand.
"Riku?"
He turned in a circle, looking out into the empty nothing all around them. Yet he knew, with a reason he couldn't explain, that they weren't alone. A thousand invisible eyes locked on him from every direction, waiting for him to make a wrong move so they could attack.
Straight ahead, the ground cracked. Footprints and claw marks moved toward them. A pair of red spots appeared in the black void.
Mickey summoned his keyblade.
The red spots flashed.
They vanished.
Riku heard the jingling of chains from behind him.
He jumped.
The creature's teeth clamped down mere inches in front of his nose. He raised his soul eater and threw a fire spell point plank at the creature's mouth, but despite its size, the massive heartless was quick. It flashed across to the other side, and swiped at Mickey with its thick, thorny, red tipped tail.
Mickey was smacked up into the air. The heartless turned, and rose up on its hind legs, its mouth wide.
Riku sliced the heartless' back leg. The heartless stumbled. He had saved Mickey, but had also to annoyed the beast. Recovering, the heartless flashed to the side, and Riku stared at its red after-image for a second before he felt fire searing into the side of his head. The creature had swiped him with his paw.
He crashed onto the floor and stared at the blurry, dark claws that were slicing down toward him. Mickey's golden keyblade caught the claws, defecting them. They sunk into the ground next to Riku's head. The creature's growls filled Riku's ears, making his head throb. Above him, creature's underbelly moved over him as it chased and fought Mickey.
Riku felt the flash of magic. He saw the creature's blue veins and magenta tentacles pass overhead. Then came a sickening crunch, and a whimper from Mickey.
With every ounce of his strength, Riku turned. Mickey was trapped under the creature's paw. It pressed him down into the ground. The floor beneath the king cracked. Mickey's eyes rolled back into his head.
"No!"
Ignoring the pain that was still burrowing into his skull, Riku stood and charged. He sliced through the creature's claws, and it reared back, releasing Mickey. The mouse was able to crawl away and raise his keyblade in time to chant a healing spell, but then he cast a horrified look at Riku.
"Look out!"
The creature flashed forward, opened its jaws wide, and swallowed Riku whole.
Valiant leaned forward, balancing his elbows on his desk.
"I've heard some crazy stories in my line of work, but yours takes the cake. So, if I'm getting this right, clearing Roger's name is the least of our worries, because the it may just be the end of the world as we know it?"
Goofy pointed to the ceiling. "When the heartless destroy the heart of a world, the world disappears, and so do its people. That big ball of darkness overhead is a sign that they're getting close to finding the heart of this world."
"When my world was destroyed," Sora explained, "there were heartless coming out of every nook and cranny. We go around, defending the worlds from the heartless, but I haven't yet seen this many in one place. I think the fact that they're toons makes it easier for them to multiply."
"And toons can't be killed, except with dip." Valiant closed his eyes. "We're going to need one heck of an exterminator."
The door to Valiant's apartment began pounding. Grabbing a lamb, Valiant reached for the doorknob. Sora, Donald and Goofy readied their weapons. Roger cowered behind a chair. When Valiant opened the door, Dolores rushed inside. Her face was shiny with sweat, her eyes wide with terror.
"Eddie! You're okay."
Valiant grabbed her arms. "What's wrong?"
"The toon monsters! They're everywhere! All my customers are holed up in the secret room at the bar."
"And you ran out into danger to get here?"
"I had to know if you were okay. Plus, I have to tell you something I found out."
"What?"
"It's Doom, Eddie. I saw him commanding those things."
"That doesn't make sense. Judge Doom hates toons. Why would he be working with the heartless?"
"I don't know. But he was spouting some nonsense about getting rid of Toontown for good."
There was a crash outside. Sora, Donald, Goofy and Roger peeked through the blinds of Eddie's windows. A black car stopped illegally in the middle of the street. Judge Doom stepped out of the car. He opened the passenger's side door and dragged out the most beautiful toon Sora had ever seen in his life. A voluptuous woman in a crimson cocktail dress put up her hands. She had smooth, red hair and mysterious green eyes that looked up into the windows of Eddie's apartment.
Roger jumped. "Jessica!"
Donald's jaw dropped. "That's your wife?"
Without warning, Roger slammed through Eddie's window, leaving a rabbit shaped hole in the glass. Donald and Goofy chased after him. Sora was about to jump out and join them when he realized that Valiant wasn't following.
"Mr. Valiant, they need our help!"
Valiant turned to Dolores. "Stay inside and stay safe until we've sorted this out."
Sora landed on his feet on the street below. A moment later, Valiant exited the apartment building through the front door. Before anyone could do anything. Judge Doom put his cane under Jessica Rabbit's neck.
Roger fumed, steam puffing out from his ears. "Doom, if you hurt a single hair on her head, I swear I'm going to-"
"Do what? Haven't you fools noticed that you are surrounded?"
Though Roger's gesture to jump straight into danger at the sight of his wife was heartfelt, it had been pretty reckless. The heartless surrounded Valiant, Roger and the trio. Valiant put up his hands, walking toward Judge Doom.
"What do you plan to do with these creatures? Destroy Toontown?"
"That's the idea. Mr. Valiant."
"And I suppose you got rid of RK Maroon and Acme because they would have been the first to react if something had happened to toons?"
"Well, I couldn't have the owner of Toontown asking questions. And Mr. Maroon had a certain softness for toons, after working with them to make movies and cartoons for so long. It made sense for the heartless to take care of them."
"Ya know, your honor, for a judge, you're not that smart."
Judge Doom smiled. "And for a detective, you don't seem to have a firm grasp of how dangerous the situation is."
"Maybe, but at least I'm not dumb enough to admit guilt in front of several witnesses. I was just taking a shot in the dark, Judge. What's your excuse?"
The sky flashed and there was a roar of thunder overhead. Sora looked up. The sphere of darkness above had doubled in size.
"You, Doom guy."
'That's Judge Doom, young man. Toons. As disrespectful as ever."
"Why did you bring heartless into this world?"
Doom tilted his head. "Bring the heartless? It was not I that invited these creatures here. In fact, it as a toon that introduced me to these, rather, obedient lackeys. You see, young man, even some toons have enough sense to support my vision."
Sora blinked. "You didn't bring the heartless here? But then who-" He shook his head. "It doesn't matter. You have to stop using the heartless. They're going to destroy much more then Toontown. If you don't stop, then this whole world could disappear."
"What a creative lie from a desperate toon." Judge Doom swept his arm. "Take them away."
The heartless pounced on Sora, Roger, Donald, Goofy and Valiant.
Jiminy's Journal
Dark Hide (First Appeared in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Final Mix, 2010): A truly monstrous pure-blood heartless that stalks the realm of darkness. Able to cloak itself in darkness, it uses its incredible speed to vanish and ambush its prey, leaving only an red after-image behind as it moves. Its power was able to overwhelm both Riku and Mickey, allow it to swallow the former whole.
