||Episode 2 - Part III: The Heartless Have Come||
*Night of Fate*
"Hah!" Sora yelled as he struck down another of the menacing shadows chasing after him. Although he wanted to run back to see if that man was gone for sure, he recognized that there was nothing he could do right now with so many of them trying to take him, too. Did I leave the gate open? Sora wondered as he finished off the last of them. But, there was no time to worry about it, he had to find his friends before any of those monsters got to them.
Traverse Town was a bigger world than he ever expected, so there had to be plenty of places he needed to check in order to find ideas about where they might be. One thing was certain in his mind, none of the people in the First District had any clue about his friends.
"A hotel?" Sora stopped for a moment outside the double doors of a large building. The lights were on inside, which meant that it was an open business. Maybe he could find something inside there, Sora thought. Well, it would be worth a shot regardless of what he did discover. Sora pushed through the doors to begin looking inside.
...
"Gwarsh, Donald, doesn't look like he's here," Goofy scanned the area with the hope of finding Leon, but he had no luck.
"Keep looking!" Donald quacked. The royal magician folded his arms and tapped his foot impatiently while Goofy searched a portion of the district. Eventually, they had enough of looking out there. Donald and Goofy scoured the alleys of the Second District until noticing a nice looking hotel nearby. It was considered, but they spent a little more time on the lower levels to find the man they were searching for.
...
The hall was very long and a number of doors were lined up along the sides. A staircase at the end of the hall was there to go up to the upper floors, but he wouldn't be able to go unless he got a room. Instead, Sora approached the lady standing at the front desk. She was deeply investing her time in a book from one of the shelves and failed to notice him standing there. Once or twice, he tried getting her attention by asking if she saw anyone with physical descriptions matching his friends. No answer to that.
"Hm..." Sora pursed his lips. A bell sitting on the counter caught his attention. Shifting his eyes from her to it, then back to her, Sora dinged it a few times in an effort to talk to her. "Excuse me, miss?"
"No vacancy..." she said, not taking her eyes of the book.
Guess I'll have to try somewhere else... Sora sighed, leaving the lobby. He wandered down to a pair of doors leading to a dark alley. Maybe there were some traces there.
...
"Leeeon!" Donald called out at the top of his lungs upon exiting the hotel. "Mister Leon?!"
"Where are you?" Goofy tried yelling, too, but no luck. The two of them opted to search elsewhere while they still had the energy.
...
"More of those things down this way, too," Sora mumbled, fighting off as many of the hostile shadows as he could before running off through a conveniently unlocked door. He found himself walking through a large home with many doors. In a way, he felt bad for barging into someone's home unannounced, but he did have little choice in the matter. He hurried through the living room, kitchen, and dining area until reaching the last door of the house. "Huh? Only a couple of dogs here."
"Woof..."
One of them huffed loudly. It was a pair of Dalmatians sitting together, but they looked so sad. Sora watched them curiously but noticed a note sitting by the window. What's this? He wondered, investigating the note. It was written very neatly by whoever owned the home.
He realized plain and clear what the big problem was. A total of 99 Dalmatian puppies were lost when the people of this home came to Traverse Town. They were probably scattered during their travels.
"Hey, it'll be okay," Sora knelt down beside the dogs. They were wearing collars and had names. Pongo and Perdita. "I'm sure your puppies are safe and sound. They'll be back. Look, I've gotta go. I've gotta go and find my friends."
Sora left the saddened dogs and went back out into the Second District. There was only one place left that he could check out. It was the large, white building connected to the Dalmatian's home. Quickly going inside, Sora eagerly began searching much of the shop for his friends.
...
Donald and Goofy were walking along by themselves. There was still no luck in their search for Leon. He was hidden somewhere around the town, but they found no signs. He could have been anywhere, but he managed to evade them at every turn. It was as if the King had sent them on a wild goose chase.
"Hmph." Donald grumbled, stopping to look around the district again. "Where is he?"
"Leeeooon!" Goofy shouted.
Wandering all over the place, they finally turned over every rock in the Second District. It was a bust, but they were determined to find Leon.
"He's not here, either," Donald folded his arms. "Grr..."
"This could take a while..." Goofy sighed, shaking his head.
...
It was the Gizmo Shop he explored partly. Sora was intrigued by all of the spinning gears decorated around the place, but there were very few things functioning at the time of his arrival. Waves and waves of the Heartless came to haunt Sora, but he used what strength he could to overcome them.
Unfortunately, his search was cut short when too many of the shadow monsters pursued him. This area was becoming too dangerous for him now, so he retreated back to the gates. Tons of shadows swarmed behind him, but he made it through right on time. However, once Sora got to the other side, there was a big surprise waiting for him in the First District.
An unthinkable number of Heartless occupied almost every inch of the town. And, already, a group of them caught onto his presence. They attacked and forced the Keyblade wielder to run away through the district until he got to the Accessory Shop.
"Whoa, you look like yer in some trouble," the shopkeeper pointed out, watching Sora slam the door shut. "Them critters out there are causin' all sorts of problems."
"Y... Yeah," Sora panted, agreeing with Cid. "I tried to find my friends, but no luck."
"That so?" Cid raised a brow. "Well, don't get bummed just cause you ain't found them. I'm sure they're looking hard for you. Don't give up."