Castle Oblivion Second Floor: "Just Our Surprise"
When they walked out of the Traverse Town exit, they entered the second floor of the castle.
The cloaked figure from before appeared from a portal of darkness.
Everyone summoned their weapons as he took a threatening stance.
"Well, Sora and May? Did you enjoy meeting your memories?" The figure asked.
"It was good to see everyone again," Sora replied, "But why show us an illusion? What do you want from us?"
"Where is my sister? Tell me where she is?" May demanded. She tried to glow as a sign she meant business, but to her frustration, she couldn't.
"Where ever your sister has gone is up to the castle to decide. I do not have the answers to that."
"Bullcrap! Why can't you give us a straight answer?"
"That depends on what you have to give," The figure said as he began to walk menacingly towards them.
"Boo."
Everyone paused at the unknown voice.
Another portal of darkness opened up, and out stepped a tall young man wearing the same long black coat as the figure in front of them. However his hood was down, revealing a rather handsome face with a widow's peak. His eyes were an emerald green, his eyebrows were thin, and there were two purple, reverse teardrop-shaped markings under each eye.
The most notable feature of him, however, was his long, thick, and flaming red hair, slicked back in multiple spikes.
"Hello!" The young man greeted with a cheerful, yet dangerous grin.
"What do you want?" The unknown figure asked.
"I got bored, what with you hogging the heroes."
The figure stood there silently before tossing the redheaded man a card. "Then perhaps YOU'D like to test them." He then disappeared.
"Perhaps I would," the redheaded man replied. He then looked at the group with a taunting smirk on his face. "Looks like it's my show now, keyblade masters. Who am I? My name's Axel, got it memorized?" He introduced.
"Uh...sure," Sora replied awkwardly.
"Committed to my memory," May added dryly.
"Good, you're both quick learners," Axel said. While still smiling, his face took on a more sinister look. "So now that we're all getting to know each other better…"
Axel held out both of his arms, and with a burst of fire, summoned two big red and silver chakrams in each other hand.
"Don't you kids go and die on me now!"
"What? What the hell?" May yelled out in shock as Axel charged at her and Sora.
May rolled out of the way just in time, but the left side of her vest of was torn. "Hey! My Daddy payed forty four bucks for that!" She exclaimed, waving her fist threateningly.
"If only I could give him my apologies," Axel commented dryly. He swung at her with one of his chakrams, only for May to block the blow. She countered, by slamming the teeth of her keyblade into his face.
Axel stumbled back and smirked, wiping blood off of his jaw. "Excellent job, Princess." He turned around and launched a fireball at Sora, blowing the brunet back.
Sora winced as he rubbed his now burned arm. "Ow." He paled at two oncoming disks of fire coming at him.
"Sora!" May called as her keyblade suddenly turned cold in her hands. Without thought, she pointed her keyblade at the disks and suddenly two ice balls shot from her blade and froze the disks. They fell onto the ground and shattered into a million pieces.
"What? I can shoot ice? That's awesome!" May cheered, bouncing up and down excitedly.
"Then I can too!" Sora replied with as much cheer in her voice.
"Do you think we should jump in?" Goofy asked Donald. The court wizard shrugged.
"I dunno, they seem to be handling this pretty well."
"BURN BABY!" Axel shouted as he summoned a wall of fire at the royal knights.
"AAAAAAH!" Donald shrieked at he quickly deflected the blow with a barrier surrounding himself and Goofy. Axel didn't even flinch when he was hit with his own attack. He actually felt rejuvenated.
Sora charged at him and slashed at him multiple times. Axel elegantly dodged each one, and teleported behind him.
"What?" Sora asked.
Axel teleported again, this time in front of May.
"You can teleport? What are you, a horror movie slasher or something?" May asked irritably as she blocked one of his blows.
"Maybe, maybe not," the redhead teasingly replied.
May's keyblade turned cold again and she slashed Axel's side, causing him to flinch. He clutched his side, seemingly in pain.
"Y'know? You kids might be a good time after all," Axel stated ominously as he disappeared with a smirk. A card with a burst of flame on the covered appeared in his place, along with six world cards.
Jiminy Cricket jumped out of Sora's hoodie. He observed the world cards picked up by Sora.
"Hmm, they look kind of like the card that made Traverse Town," he stated. Sora rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"Correct," Axel said as he appeared again.
"Axel!" Donald shouted as he jumped in Goofy's arms in fear.
"What are you doing back here?" May asked, somewhat curiously.
"After an introduction like that, you think I'd just give up the ghost act?" He explained with a teasing smirk.
"So you were just testing our strength," Sora said with a frown. He knew that May didn't hurt him that much. If that was him holding back, then what was Axel like at full power?
Axel clapped his hands slowly, as if mocking them all. "Congratulations kids! You passed! You're ready to take on Castle Oblivion! Follow your memories. Trust what you remember, seek what you forget...and you will find someone very special."
"You mean Riku, and the King?" Goofy asked.
"And Sarina?" May added.
Axel shrugged. "Well, I don't know. You would just to give more thought to who's more important to you," he explained, "Our most precious memories lie deep within our hearts, out of reach. But you find yours, Sora and May."
"Where? How?" Sora asked.
"The light within the darkness. You've lost sight of it. You've forgotten forgetting."
May blinked in confusion. "What..the...hell...are...you...talking...about?" She questioned slowly, emphasizing each word.
"What do you mean by losing sight of our light?" Sora said, scratching his head.
Axel held his hand out in invitation. "Would you two like a hint?"
May and Sora looked at each other, silently communicating with one another. Then, they both nodded.
"No, we want to figure it out for ourselves," Sora stated.
"And we don't trust you or that other guy," May added bluntly.
They summoned both of their weapons.
"If you get in our way…," Sora threatened as he took a fighting stance.
"He won't! We won't let him!" Donald exclaimed, jumping up and down.
Axel's smirk grew even wider if that was possible.
"That's my kind of answer. Just what I expected from the keyblade masters. But be forewarned...when your sleeping memories awaken, you may no longer be you..."
Axel disappeared again, leaving the group to ponder the meaning of his words.
When they reached the second floor, Jiminy hopped out of Sora's hoodie.
"Hmm," he thought aloud, frowning.
"Something wrong, Jiminy?" Sora asked in a worried voice.
"You seemed bothered," May added.
"What Axel said has been bothering me," the cricket explained, "What could he have meant by 'You may no longer be you'?"
"He's probably screwing with us. Wouldn't be surprising," May replied nonchalantly.
"Yeah! I mean come on, Jiminy! How can we be anyone but ourselves?" Sora stated confidently.
"I know, I know. Still, it always pays to be careful," Jiminy warned.
"Yeah," Goofy said, "Just about anything could happen here in Castle Oblibbity...uh…Oblostemy…"
"Oblivion!" Donald barked in annoyance.
"Right, what you said," Goofy replied cheerfully.
"Well we can take down whatever they throw at us. We defeated Ansem, Maleficent, and her merry band of villains," May boasted.
"We'll be fine. Whatever they got cooking up, we can handle it!" Sora exclaimed, folding his arm in a confident manner.
"Hey, remember that other castle we all explored together? The one with all the contraptions?" Goofy asked.
Everyone looked at him in confusion.
"When did we explore a castle?" May asked him, tilting her head.
"Contraptions? I don't remember any castle like that? What was it called?" Donald added.
Goofy rubbed his chin, trying to think of the answer. "Gawrsh, what was it called? Holla...Holler…I forget."
"Oh for Pete's sake!" Donald exclaimed while rolling his eyes.
"You sure you didn't make that up?" Sora teased.
"I don't think so…"
"Well maybe you'll remember after we go through the second floor," May suggested, pointing towards the door.
Sora pulled out one of the world cards.
It had an image of a castle on top of a red and pink checkered field on top. A hedge shaped like a heart also was visible, along with a cottage and soldiers shaped like cards.
"Is that Wonderland?" May inquired, taking a closer look at it.
"Wonderland? What's that?" Sora asked in curiosity.
"It's this weird ass place where everything is bizarre and everyone is mentally deranged, especially the Queen of Hearts, who is a fat tyrant who gets off on ordering beheadings," May explained.
"Doesn't sound like a nice place," Donald said.
"Yeah, I saw this place in a movie I watched as a kid. Never did like Alice In Wonderland…"
"Well, we have no choice but to go," Sora stated as he walked up the steps to the door. Just like with the Traverse Town card, he held it up to the door, and a white light enveloped him as the door opened.
The group followed him as they all walked through the door.
They appeared in a forest with giant mushrooms, lily pads, and lotuses.
"Hey, someone's comin'," Goofy said as The White Rabbit ran up to them.
"I'm late! I'm dreadfully late!" He exclaimed while frantically hopping up and down. "The Queen will roast me for dinner! If I'm late for my trial, it'll be off with MY head next!"
"What do you mean 'Off with my head'?" Sora asked in worry, but the White Rabbit continued to ramble.
"Of my furs and whiskers! I'll never make it!"
He ran off in a hurry.
"Off with his HEAD?" Sora asked again. He looked at May. "Is he talking about that 'Queen of Hearts' lady?"
May nodded. "Yup, sounds just like the cow."
"For such a peaceful looking world, it sounds pretty dangerous!" Donald commented.
"Wonderland looks like what you see after a night of binging acid," May dryly replied.
They entered the Queen's Court, an outdoor courtroom located in the center of a hedge maze.
The Queen of Hearts, a frumpy and obese woman, sat primly in her throne as her loyal card soldiers stood on both sides of her. The White Rabbit stood behind a tall stand.
A little girl with long blond hair, blue eyes, and pale skin stood in front of the court. She wore a black headband, a light blue dress, white stockings, and black mary janes.
"Gawrsh, looks like some kind of get-together. What's the occasion?" Goofy asked.
"Hey, this must be that trial the White Rabbit was talking about!" Donald said, before May elbowed him to keep quiet.
"Alice, do you understand the charges brought against you?" The White Rabbit asked the girl, who had an indignant look on her face.
"Of course not! I did nothing wrong!" Alice shouted, slamming her fist down on the pulpit.
"Feigning ignorance, dear?" The Queen of Hearts asked, with a hint of sadistic glee. "You are charged with aiding the heartless who threaten this kingdom!"
"Fiddlesticks! Where's the evidence?" Alice argued.
"The evidence is...I forgot! That's the evidence!" The Queen replied.
'Bitch what?' May thought, incredulous at the accusation.
"Because you, Alice, is the one who stole my memory!"
"But...but...how?" Sora trailed off.
"Didn't I tell you guys how freaking insane everyone in this place is? How the hell can you steal another person's memory?" May whispered.
"We can't rid the kingdom of heartless until Her Majesty gets her memory back," The White Rabbit stated, "This is a serious crime!"
"This is so unfair!" Alice exclaimed, "So what if you're a queen! Don't blame me just because you can't remember things!"
The Queen's face turned red in rage. "Such insolence! You're talking to the Queen of Hearts! And I'd have let you go had you apologized you brazen thief!"
Sora had enough.
"Who's the brazen one?" He barked, bringing everyone's attention to the group. He ran up to Alice.
May facepalmed. 'Dammit, Sora! Always rushing into situations without thinking!'
The Queen glared at him. "The court has reached a verdict! The sentence is death!" The card soldiers moved to grab Alice, who blanched in fear.
"Hold it!" Sora commanded as the rest of the group joined him. "This trial is a farce! You should investigate before you arrest innocent people!"
The Queen balked at the suggestion. "What is the meaning of this? Are you saying Alice did not steal my memory? I suppose you know the real culprit then!"
"Huh? I...er.," Sora stammered, not knowing what to say.
"Speak! Or Alice's sentence will be carried out! Now out with it! Who's the thief?"
"Um...uh," He continued to sputter out. Then he thought of something.
"I'm the thief!"
Multiple whispers were heard throughout the court.
"Say that again?" The Queen requested in shock.
"Gawrsh, really?" Goofy asked.
"Um no, since he's been with us all this time," May replied. She looked at Sora wearily. "What are you doing? Are you trying to get us all killed?"
"What else am I supposed to say?" Sora said to her.
"Cards, seize them all!" The Queen roared as the soldiers charged at them with their weapons.
Sora summoned Kingdom Key and promptly sliced one Card Soldier in half as it swiped at him. He casted Fire on another one as it tried to sneak up on him. While running frantically around on fire, it accidentally ran into another Card Soldier, setting them both on fire. After a few seconds, they were nothing more than piles of ash.
"Blizzard!" May shouted as she encased three card soldier in ice at once. Goofy charged forward and shattered them all with his shield.
Donald shot fireballs from his staff, disintegrating the rest of them.
"Whew," Sora said as he wiped sweat from his forehead.
"They really are just as paper cards," May remarked.
Donald looked around for Alice, but she was nowhere to be found. "Hey! Where's Alice?"
"Looks like she escaped," Goofy replied casually.
"That would be the smart thing to do," May mused. "Though, I am concerned what dangers a girl young as her can get into by herself. Wonderland is not a nice place for anyone that isn't crazy."
"Perhaps she did, but YOU won't!" The Queen roared, now extremely red in the face. More Card Soldiers spawned from behind her throne.
"Looks like we've been trumped!" Donald exclaimed in shock.
"Run!" Sora shouted as he grabbed May by the arm, who was ready for another round of fighting. May protested loudly as the group ran back into the Lotus Forest.
Alice was standing in a clearing somewhere when the group caught up to her.
"Things got a little crazy back there but at least you're okay," Sora said cheerfully.
"Though can you at least warn us a little before running off like that?" May requested.
Alice looked at the group with a hint of untrust. "I don't mean to be ungrateful, but is it true what you said back there? Are you the thief?"
"What? Of course not! Why would I steal her memory?" Sora replied.
"I dunno Babyface, I would also be suspicious of a kid in big baggy pants, spiky hair, and abnormally large sneakers," May said cheekily, earning a glare from him.
"Sora only said that because he wanted to save-," Goofy started.
"To show off!" Donald finished with a huff.
"Hey! Why are all of you ganging up on me!" Sora angrily said with steam blowing out of his ears.
Alice chuckled at the scene. "Is that right? Well you saved me all the same. Thank you, Sora."
She suddenly gasped when she saw someone familiar on a large tree. "It's the Cheshire Cat!"
A fat, purple and pink cat was sporting a large, somewhat sinister grin.
"Feeling better after that mad dash? You're not out of the woods yet!" The Cheshire Cat warned, albeit with the same cheery grin. It disappeared and reappeared on another tree.
"That cat is creeping me out," Sora whispered to May.
"The Queen's a stickler for justice! She won't forget you till she remembers!" The cat explained. "She won't stop hounding you till you get her memory back! Did she forget because she remembers? Does she remember because she forgets? Doesn't matter, I suppose."
Sora shrugged. "I don't know...I think we oughta just stay away from her."
"That's all well and good Sora, but what about Alice?" Jiminy asked. "If the queen catches her it's off with her...well, you know?"
"Then I guess we'd better do something about the queen," Sora replied.
"You should do something, but you don't have to do anything," The cat said.
"Huh?" Sora asked in confusion while May rubbed her temples in frustration. 'Just like in the movie, this troll ass cat is going to screw us all over,' she thought grimly.
The Cheshire Cat disappeared again, and reappeared on yet another tree.
"If you can't remember something, it's like it never happened," the cat said, "Likewise, if something never happened, you can't remember it. Try too hard to remember, and your memory might lie to you."
'Y'know, he's actually making sense. But why do I have a feeling there's more behind that statement then what there's supposed to be?' May thought to herself again.
"Lie?" Sora questioned, growing more confused at the Cheshire Cat's words by the second.
The Cheshire Cat started to disappear again "That's all I'll say. The rest is for you to figure out," its voice said.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Sora wondered aloud.
"Because something bad is about to happen. That cat is devious," May responded.
The next room they entered was the Bizarre Room, where everything seemed disproportionately large in comparison to their size. The most noticeable thing in the room was a giant white table and chair in the center of the room.
"Gawrsh, what's with the change in scenery?" Goofy asked.
"Let's look around," Alice suggested as she ran forward. "Oh dear!" She suddenly exclaimed.
The Queen of Hearts entered from the other side of the room, with her card soldiers in tow.
"Thought you'd seen the last of me, didn't you?" The Queen remarked with a sneer.
"Uh oh," Sora muttered.
"Game's up, scoundrels! For stealing my memory I sentence you to-"
A white flash occured.
"-I sentence you to...I sentence...Oh? What's going on? Where am I?" The Queen asked while looking around frantically.
"Huh?" Donald asked in return.
"What in the world am I doing?" The Queen wondered. "Confound it, I can't remember!"
"What the hell is going on with her?" Sora whispered to May.
"I don't know but this must be a godsend!" May replied.
"Maybe someone swiped her memory again?" Goofy suggested.
"Sora, May! Watch out, something's coming!" Alice exclaimed while running towards them.
What was behind them was a bizarre looking Heartless with spindly legs resembling scissor jacks, arms that appear and sound like they were made of paper, and a head that seemed to be made up of several segments balanced on top of each other. Each of these segments sported its own face, with all of the faces have the same glowing yellow eyes and jagged mouths—and they alternated in color from magenta to lavender. Its arms were steel blue in color and it was juggling clubs with zig-zagging, black and white stripes on them. It wore lavender armor with large, magenta shoulder pads, a lavender codpiece, and had a very thin and small magenta body. The upper halves of its legs were also magenta, while their lower halves were lavender. Its feet were a greenish yellow, flat, and curled at the tips.
"So this is the thing that stole the Queen's memory!" Sora realized as he summoned Kingdom Key. "Alice, find somewhere safe!"
The girl ran into the giant chimney, crouching in fear.
"Destroy that thing!" The Queen ordered to her knights.
They all charged at the giant heartless at once, chanting "For The Queen!". Unfortunately they were no match for the heartless as it burned them all to ash with one stream of fire.
"Maybe it's time for you to get some new soldiers," Sora remarked, causing the Queen to scowl at him.
The Heartless danced around the room cheerily, as if mocking the Queen for her incompetent soldiers.
"Let's get him!" May said as she charged at the heartless with her keyblade. She swiped at the heartless' foot, slicing it off. The heartless grabbed its amputated leg as it hopped up and down in pain. It slammed her away with its arm when she tried to slice the other one off too.
May flipped in the air and landed gracefully on the ground. She pulled a potion from out of her pocket and drank it, only to gag at the taste.
"Gah! These things still taste like crap! Why did I expect anything else?" She asked herself, still coughing in disgust. May then rolled out of the way when the heartless tried to give her a viscous, flaming kick. "Hey! Watch it!"
"Blizzard!" Sora shouted as his keyblade shot forth a ice ball at the Heartless' back. The heartless flinched before turning around and hurling one of its club at him in retaliation...Only for Goofy's shield to smack it out of the way.
When the shield ended back up in his hands, Goofy hurled his shield at the heartless again, only this time Donald aided him by causing it to light on fire, making a burning disc. The heartless was hit again as it clutched its chest.
It kneeled on one knee, which was the perfect opportunity for May. She leaped onto the chair, then the table, and rammed her keyblade into its head.
The heartless disappeared in a burst of darkness, and a heartless floated into the air.
The Queen marched towards them along with some newly spawned Card Soldiers. May tightened the grip on her keyblade, ready to give The Queen Of Hearts a royal smack in the face if she tried to get them executed.
"You there! All of you! What is the meaning of this? Where did that creature come from?" She interrogated.
"How would WE know?" Sora replied in annoyance.
The Queen humphed in indignation. "So you refuse to answer? You're hiding something!" She accused.
"Hiding what? Do we look like we have the capability to steal memories? Are you dumb? And for that matter, does Alice look like she knows to how to steal memories? She's only ten years old for crying out loud! Maybe the heartless was a reflection of your obnoxious, vile attitude you dumbass cow!" May replied irritably.
"Oh brother," Donald commented, face palming at May's smart mouth. Her and Sora were going to be in trouble someday if they didn't learn to respect royalty.
The comment made the Queen bristle in rage. "QUIET YOU DISRESPECTFUL LITTLE HARLOT! I'LL HAVE YOUR HEAD FIRST! GUARDS SEIZE THEM ALL!"
The Card Soldiers got in position to fight, albeit reluctantly because the group's skill with fire skills.
"You ready for Round 2? We're about to embarrass them again," May boasted to Sora, twirling her keyblade around in her hand.
Sora smirked. "Of course! These guys are about to become another pile of ashes!"
Alice ran in front of the group, holding her arms out protectively.
"Please your majesty, wait!" She pleaded, causing everyone to pause to hear what she was about to say, "It was you who commanded us to destroy those heartless!"
Sora looked at her in confusion. "Huh? But-Ow!" He exclaimed when May pinched him to keep quiet.
"Your Majesty, in her prudence, didn't completely trust us at first," Alice explained, "And so, at Your Majesty's command, we fought them to prove to ourselves. Isn't that right, Sora and May?"
"Yup! That was the plan Your Majesty!" May agreed quickly before the guys could screw it up.
The Queen tried to remember if she did that. "I...told you...to do that?" She asked, uncertain.
"But Your Majesty, don't you remember?" Alice asked innocently in return.
"Don't be ridiculous! I never forget anything!" The Queen barked, making everyone else sweat drop.
"Either her memory really is bad, she's easy to manipulate, or she's dumb as hell," Sora commented dryly to May.
"How about all three?" She replied in turn.
"Of course I gave the command. You all did splendidly," The Queen commended. She turned around and marched back to her courtroom, with her ever loyal soldiers following her.
Alice let out a sigh of relief. It was all finally over. "Well, that was close," she said.
Sora walked up to her with a grin. "Way to improvise! I never would have thought of that."
"Gee, I wonder why?" May asked with a cheeky grin. Sora glared at her.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"
"What do you think, Professor?"
"Remember what the Cheshire Cat said?" Alice asked loudly, snapping their attention back on to her before they can start arguing. "Try too hard to remember and your memory might lie to you. The Queen would never admit she forgot. So instead she remembered something….that didn't happen! She ended up fooling herself."
Sora thought about what she said. While it was funny how the Queen was so gullible enough to fall for Alice's trick, something about the statement felt...weird...like it was trying to tell him something.
"Sora? What's wrong?" Alice asked him.
Sora shook his head. "Hm? Nothing," he replied. "Well I guess you'll be safe now."
"And The Queen won't be giving us anymore trouble," Goofy added, "After all, we got rid of the heartless, just like she commanded!"
"Don't tell me you been fooled too!" Donald barked, hopping up and down while everyone else laughed.
They exited the second floor after everything else was done in Wonderland.
"Y'know, I felt like I had a weird connection with Alice, as if we were destined to meet or something," May said as they walked towards the steps to the third floor.
"Was it because she's another girl?" Sora asked, and she shook her head.
"No. In that case, I would feel a connection with every girl at school, and trust me when I say a lot of girls wouldn't want that," She answered. While she wouldn't say she was unpopular at school, she was more close with the boys in her class than the girls.
Goofy stopped walked, looking down at the floor curiously as he tried to think.
"What's the matter?" Donald asked his best friend.
"It's that creepy castle that I was talking about earlier. I know I didn't imagine it. 'Cause that was the castle where Sora had to use his keyblade to free Kairi's heart! Then he just disappeared and I was so worried! How could I ever forget that?"
"Wait a minute...that's when I was kidnapped by Riku and discovered I was a princess of heart!" May realized.
"I turned into a heartless after I freed Kairi," Sora remembered, "Wait...That happened in a castle?"
Donald shook his head at Sora. "Aww, you forgot that? 'Cause I remember perfectly."
"Oh yeah? Then what's the name of the castle, Donald?" May asked.
"That's easy! It was...Jiminy, help me. Is it in your journal?"
"Every word," Jiminy answered from Sora's shoulder, "I finished the first volume right before we got to this castle," He fished around for his journal, "Now if I could just find it...Oh here we go!"
Jiminy hopped onto the floor. "Alright, now let's have a look!" He opened the book and gasped. "What? How could it be?"
"What's the matter?" Goofy asked in concern.
"All of my entries! They're gone!"
Jiminy searched his journal, scrambling to find a page with words on it, and found not a single filled up page to his horror. "Every page is blank!"
"Oh then we're screwed," May said in worry.
"How this have happened? I'm so careful with my journals!" Jiminy cried. He then began to sob. "All that hard work is gone!"
Sora and May were getting more suspicious of the castle by the minute.
"Even Jiminy's journal is blank? What is going on?" Sora questioned, mostly to himself.
"This is getting really freakin' weird, Babyface. This is going to get worse the more we travel through this castle," May expressed in fear.
It was only the beginning of their memories being lost….
A/N: Trickmaster is always going to be a short fight because the time I beat it was the length of the paragraphs used to describe the fight lol.
Riku's version of the Trickmaster battle was a lot more diffucult for me however due the low level cards the game forced you to have.