DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS!

A/N: Whoa! Talk about FAST UPDATING! It has been nearly 24 HOURS or so since I posted Chapter 11, but NOW I have also completed CHAPTER 12, TOO! Yeesh!

Well... I suppose it does make sense. After all, the main thing I did all day long was simple TYPE AWAY at this! Yet, I do recall once spending an ENTIRE Saturday typing a different Kingdom Hearts Story I wrote quite some time ago. As a result, I literally had completed about TEN CHAPTERS straight through!

Either way, I'd like to request that ALL OF YOU make certain you POST REVIEWS on this story! Even IF you do not have an Account on , you can STILL post ANONYMOUS REVIEWS, TOO! To learn more, Read on to the END of this chapter!

Have fun, reading away!

CHAPTER 12
The Cursed Park

The voyage through the tunnel of serene, lovely Light took a much longer amount of time to complete. In the previous journeys, Sora, Riku, and Violet had ventured through without any issues whatsoever. This time, the trio found themselves drifting through a tunnel rapidly transitioning from the regularly-soothing Light into a tunnel of spooky-looking Darkness.

Being the first to detect such an event unfolding, Sora exclaimed, "What's going on?!"

His question was given an answer seconds later. A short distance down the tunnel of terrible Darkness, the group spotted the silhouette of a colossal-sized creature resembling an octopus. Moments later, a massive octopus-shaped being emerged from the shadows. Its eight tentacles were orange-colored while its head was a blood-like shade of dark red.

One glance at the creature was all Violet needed to identify what it was. In a loud, clear voice, the angel declared, "Our path has been intercepted by a wandering Nightmare!"

Immediately comprehending what the Angel of Dreams had just stated, Riku summoned his Keyblade. He pointed it directly at the monster ahead, saying, "Looks like we've got a roadblock to remove."

"Yeah! Of course!" Sora agreed, summoning his own Keyblade. "Let's clear the way!"

All Violet did was sit back and watch the pair of Keyblade wielders move in to strike at the Nightmare. The last piece of advice she gave before the battle was, "Strike the eyes! That is its weak spot!"

"Got it!" Sora and Riku acknowledged together. They swooped into range of the octopus-shaped creature. Noticing the duo of attackers threatening it, the Nightmare swung four of its tentacles after Riku with the other four chasing Sora.

While Riku managed to avoid getting hit, Sora found himself captured by the tentacles before he could successfully dodge them. Shocked that his best friend had been ensnared by the creature, Riku speedily attempted to charge at the tentacles trapping Sora. Unfortunately, the Nightmare took note of this and sent a series of dark-purple, triangular-shaped crystals after the silver-haired teen. Unable to avoid them all, Riku got shoved backwards after three of the Darkness-filled crystals clobbered him.

As the monster was almost done reeling in its prey, Sora noticed a pair of yellow, translucent, crystal-resembling eyes on the enemy's head. Recalling Violet's information about the eyes being the most-efficient method to bring down the Nightmare, the brown-haired teenager hastily twirled himself in the form of a top. The spinning caused the tentacles to release the Keyblader from within, allowing Sora to continuing spiraling straight into the Nightmare's left eye. With a shrill CRASH, the crystal-eye shattered into countless pieces.

Instantly taking into account of being one eye short, the Nightmare desperately tried to seize Sora once again. Fortunately, the latter had already swooped far beyond the monster's reach and right to where Riku had witnessed the unexpected move.

"Sora," Riku exclaimed, his eyes in total surprise. "How did you do that?!"

"Well," Sora replied. "I figured since Goofy often spins in his attacks, why can't I do the same?"

Riku gave a small smile as he shook his head. Even though he hadn't spent nearly as much time with the Captain of Disney Castle's Royal Knights, the silver-haired youth knew the clumsy soldier usually spun around with his shield — especially when it came to eliminating the Heartless and Nobodies. Ironically, Goofy never seemed to get dizzy from so much whirling around in circles. However, Riku was aware of how he could attempt to do something similar to destroy the creature's other eye.

"Watch this!" Riku shouted as he rushed towards the Nightmare. The enemy spotted him quickly and tried to snatch the Keyblade wielder with six of its tentacles. Nevertheless, Riku proceeded onward, soaring past each and every swinging tentacle, before approaching the creature's head. As he was hovering over the monster's right eye, the silver-haired teenager hurriedly leaned forward. The result was a super-fast spin with Riku's Keyblade just sticking out beyond it.

Within moments, the enemy's right eye socket was empty. Riku's twirling attack had allowed his weapon to slash straight into the golden, crystal-like eye — shattering it instantly. Without either of its eyes to guide it, the octopus-shaped Nightmare swam to the edge of the tunnel and vanished without a visible trace.

Returning to where both Sora and Violet were spectating from, Riku gave a large smile. Astounded at viewing such an attack, Sora asked, "Where'd you learn that move, Riku?"

"Mickey does it," Riku admitted. "So why can't I?"

Sora simply gave his typical grin, which Riku often thought of as looking either 'silly', 'goofy', or even 'stupid'. Yet, he had never used the last term before; it very well could put a damper on their strong bond of friendship. Hence, he had chosen to keep that one to himself.

"Looks like we are approaching the next world," Violet called, pointing at the now-returning Light in the tunnel ahead. Both Sora and Riku turned straight ahead where they spotted an opening at the very end of the calm, tranquility of the tunnel of Light.

"Here we go," Sora commented. "More worlds are waiting."

"Yeah," Riku affirmed. "Our quest isn't over."

As the three stepped out from where the tunnel of Light had ended, Sora, Riku, and Violet realized they hadn't been thrown out as they had back in Corona. The only other reason before was because they had transformed into fairies upon arrival in Pixie Hollow. This time, they had simply stepped out of the tunnel of Light without anything happening to them.

Not to mention, they had marched onto a plaza consisting of pink-colored concrete. As they looked from side-to-side, the three noticed a few, tall, bushy-green trees in a wide stretch of green grass. Behind them was an immense, stoned wall with a set of large, wooden doors resembling the style of the interior of a castle. Above their heads was a cloudless sky filled with the twinkling lights of countless stars shining down.

Yet, only Violet and Riku took notice of a few splatters of red, blue, and green-colored paint gradually dripping from where they had somehow splashed onto the whitish stones of the wall. To top it off, the plaza the trio was standing on was littered with sticky gum wrappers, empty popcorn bags, smashed peanut shells, trampled cups once holding soda, all sorts of crumpled candy wrappers (mainly Peanut M&M's and Sour Skittles), snapped cotton-candy sticks, crushed ice-cream cones with a few, melting scoops of various flavors of ice-cream splattered beside them, and even a large amount of half-smoked cigars all strewn about.

Violet gently placed her hand along a railing beside where they were at, only to find the handrail was covered in a large amount of butter. She rapidly removed her hand, now spotting the crushed kernels of extremely-buttered popcorn scattered about with a crumpled, paper bag clearly having been spilled all around.

"Yuck!" the Angel of Dreams winced at the sight of the squishy butter now stuck to her hand. "This place is so disgusting, it is intolerable!"

"Guess nobody ever cleans it, huh?" Riku smirked. This caused Violet to stare at him with a look of repulse. Thinking quickly, the silver-haired teenager added, "What world is this?"

All the while, Sora had continued to sweep his eyes around the area. As he moved his field of vision to straight ahead, his bluish-colored eyes lit up with excitement. His heart skipped a beat as he exclaimed, "Wow!"

Perplexed over what Sora had just seen, both Riku and Violet turned into the direction the former was looking; they were immediately impressed by what was before them.

Beyond the small, pink-stoned plaza the group had arrived at was a pair of ramps leading to a snow-white path leading onward beneath a tall sign overhead. The sign was circus-colored with a clown-shaped head in the middle; the clown's eyes were slowly moving from side-to-side as its mouth opened and closed at the rate the eyes were moving. Beyond it was the unmistakable sight of a variety of rides, including: a large, lime-green-colored Ferris Wheel, a medium-sized, orange-and-green-colored Carousel with white horses and a peaked roof, the long, pink-and-sea-blue-colored track of a Roller Coaster constructed upon a series of towers, a smaller section containing a large, grey-stoned Mansion, and even another secluded section containing a tall, gangster-like figure holding a club with a cigar in its mouth. All around the vicinity were lampposts lighting up the nightly air.

Still looking with impressed expressions on their faces, Sora, Riku, and Violet all knew they had marched into the entranceway of an Amusement Park. They had arrived in the Sleeping World of the Rascal's Dreamland.

Still overly-thrilled about entering a Theme Park, Sora leapt forwards and began skipping ahead with a cry of, "Yahoo! Hooray!"

All Riku did was shake his head while Violet slapped her clean hand upon her face in disbelief. Based on what they had just witnessed, it would be quite a challenge to distinguish Sora from a care-free boy.

This was definitely not a surprise to Riku. There were still those various times when Sora would sometimes behave like he was nothing more than a simple-minded toddler. Talk about strange! Finally, Kairi's persistence that she would no longer have the capability to handle Sora if he continued to refuse to "act his age" was enough to force Sora to reform and mature. Still, there were some moments when the brown-haired Keyblader would automatically behave in such a childish manner. This was most-certainly one of those times.

After Sora had been on the verge of sprinting down the ramp, a voice hollered, "Now, just a minute there! You shouldn't be here, young man!"

The instant the shout had registered in their ears, the second both Sora and Riku believed they had heard it from somewhere else. Only Violet was completely in the dark as she didn't recognize the voice — at all; it was totally foreign to her.

As he speedily swept his eyes around the immediate area, Sora spotted a figure standing on the stone rail to his right. The figure was a small, green cricket wearing a suit, a shiny top hat, blue shoes, and carrying a red umbrella with a golden handle. Noticing the cricket was glaring at him, Sora exclaimed, "Jiminy? Is that you?"

The exact instant the Keyblade wielder had spoken, both Riku and Violet walked up to him and spotted the same cricket Sora had previously noticed.

Jiminy's glare disappeared. "You mean you've heard of me?" he declared. "Well I'll be! The name 'Jiminy Cricket' has spread far and wide."

"Are you feeling alright?" Sora inquired. "It's me, Sora!"

"'Sora', you say?" Jiminy responded. "Gee, I don't think I recognize ya, but your name does give a familiar ring."

"You know him?" Violet questioned, astonished by the idea of Sora knowing the name of a cricket compared to anything else.

Before Sora could reply, Riku spoke up, "Jiminy was the one who wrote down everything that happened during Sora's previous adventures. He kept them in a book called, The Jiminy Memo."

Violet folded her arms in thought. "While that seems to make sense, I cannot picture one of Sora's friends being a cricket."

Riku shook his head. "You don't know Sora like I do. He'll try to befriend anyone he can — even a total stranger!"

Out of the blue, Sora looked up after pondered for a few minutes or so. "The real Jiminy isn't trapped in this world," he finally concluded. "So… the dreams are putting him back where he belongs?"

With a deep sigh, Sora muttered, "Now I really don't get it!"

Both Violet and Riku looked at one another before turning back to Sora.

"Could this be like Tinker Bell?" Riku suggested.

"There is still the possibility," Violet added. "You never know!"

"What's that? I can't hear ya!" The pair of Keyblade wielders and the angel all looked down to where Jiminy Cricket was awaiting a response.

In a calm voice, Sora smiled. "It's nice to meet you, Jiminy!"

"The feeling's mutual, Sora!" Jiminy agreed before gesturing to Riku and Violet. "Are they your friends?"

"Of course!" Sora affirmed. "That's my best friend, Riku, and the Angel of Dreams, Violet."

"Well now," Jiminy complemented. "The three of you look like True Friends."

Both Riku and Violet nodded in turn. Sora asked, "So, why'd you tell us to get out of here?"

Jiminy thought for a quick minute, pacing around in circles on the railing where he had been standing. After he stopped, the cricket whirled his attention back to Sora, Riku, and Violet. "This is a terrible place," Jiminy began. "Boys here are allowed to wreck things, loaf around, throw trash, and simply make jackasses of themselves!"

Sora's eyes lit up in bewilderment. "What's a 'jackass'?"

Riku shook his head. "He means a donkey."

Sora gave a smirked nod in return. "Right! I knew that!"

"Sure you did," Violet teased. "After Riku informed you."

Sora crossed his arms in a pouting stance. He continued to listen with the others as Jiminy proceeded to explain, "And poor, lost Pinocchio — he wandered into Pleasure Island on my watch!"

"This place is 'Pleasure Island'?" Riku questioned.

Sora nodded as he placed his hands behind his head and smiled. "What else would it be called? 'Cursed Island'?"

"It does sound like a cursed park!" Violet stated.

All of a sudden, Jiminy whirled his focus to where Sora was standing. "That must be where I heard your name, Sora — from my friend, Pinoke!"

Sora was shocked; Riku and Violet were baffled. How had Pinocchio learned about Sora's identity?

"He knows me?!" Sora exclaimed. "But… how?!"

At that precise instant, the charm on Violet's necklace began glowing. Seeing it, everyone awed in amazement — especially Jiminy Cricket; he had never seen such a thing before in his life.

"Must be a flashback?" Riku asked.

Violet nodded. "It might reveal how this 'Pinocchio' discovered Sora's name."

Like the previous two times, the charm sent out a beam of Light forming a giant projection upon a blank section of the wall. As the fuzziness of the image came into focus, the group could clearly make out a small, wooden puppet standing within a golden bird-cage. The puppet had blue eyes, four fingers on each of his hands with white gloves, a large yellow hat, a pair of crimson-red shoes, a blue bowtie, red overalls sporting yellow buttons, and a black vest. On one of the cage bars was the obvious figure of Jiminy Cricket scowling.

"Pinocchio," Jiminy Cricket scolded with an angry look on his face. "You naughty boy! You were supposed to be in school — not playing all the way out here!"

The puppet seemed sad. "I'm sorry, Jiminy," it said. "I was going to school, when I met somebody. Two big monsters… with big, green eyes!"

The second the words had escaped his lips, the length of Pinocchio's nose grew, startling the little puppet.

"You don't say," Jiminy interrogated. "And then what happened?"

After a brief pause, Pinocchio answered, "They tied me in a big sack!"

As Pinocchio's nose grew another few inches, Jiminy's scowl deepened. "Uh-huh? So why didn't you yell for help?"

"I couldn't," Pinocchio replied. "They chopped me into firewood!"

With such a tall tale, Pinocchio's nose extended to such a length it resembled a branch. To top it off, a small bird's nest had appeared on the end of it with two small blue-birds inside. Since the nose now reached beyond the cage, Jiminy had hopped onto it. Pinocchio was flabbergasted. "What… what happened?!" he exclaimed.

"See?!" Jiminy lectured. "That's where all those lies get you!"

"But it's all true," Pinocchio insisted. "Even the part where the two men in black said they wanted to play tricks on Sora and Riku!"

"What?!" Jiminy exclaimed. "I've had just about enough of your fibbing!"

When he took note of how the puppet's nose had failed to grow, Jiminy realized the little, wooden boy had been honest for a change. Thus, he whirled around with a smile forming on his face. "Say Pinoke," the cricket inquired. "Did those fellas say anything else to ya?"

"Nope!" Pinocchio admitted. "They sure didn't! They just… disappeared!"

Jiminy let out a sigh of relief. "Well, at least nothing bad happened to you."

At that exact moment, one of the stars twinkling in the sky far above came fluttering down. "Hey," Jiminy exclaimed. "It's that star again! I mean, the lady — The Blue Fairy!"

Within ten seconds, the star had descended upon the duo at the cage. It calmly transformed into a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, woman wearing a glittery-blue dress with transparent sleeves, a blue hairband, and blue high-heels. She also had large, silver-shaded wings on her back and a magic wand in her right hand.

"Why Pinocchio," the Blue Fairy exclaimed. "What happened to you?!"

The Blue Fairy turned to face Jiminy Cricket. "Sir Jiminy?"

"Well," Jiminy sputtered. "Your Honor, Your Majesty, Your—"

"Oh, please forgive me!" Pinocchio suddenly wept. "I'm awful sorry!"

"Pinocchio," the Blue Fairy stated. "A lie grows and grows, until it's as plain as the nose on your face.

"I'll never lie again!" Pinocchio begged. "Honest, I won't!"

After a few moments of pause, the Blue Fairy said, "Very well, I'll forgive you this once. But remember, a boy who won't be good, might just as well be made of wood."

"We'll be good!" Both Jiminy and Pinocchio acknowledged on cue. "Won't we?"

"Yes," the Blue Fairy confirmed. "But this will be the last time I can help you."

As the projection vanished, both Sora and Riku groaned in discouragement. If what Pinocchio had claimed was true — and they knew it was since his nose hadn't grown — two strangers wearing black-hooded coats were plotting some type of trick to unleash upon the duo of Keyblade wielders. Whatever kind of trick they had up their sleeve was yet unknown.

"That guy again," Sora sighed.

Riku nodded. "Sounds like he isn't working alone this time."

"Still," Violet indicated. "The point is he has returned. For all we know, he could most-likely be holding Pinocchio captive."

"But whoever the other guy is," Sora muttered. "We have no idea what he'll be up to. He could be planning something even worse."

Both Riku and Violet paused in contemplation for a few minutes. After they had finished, Violet said, "If Pinocchio is still unaccounted for, perhaps we should try tracking him down first?"

"Yeah," Riku agreed. "I was thinking the same thing."

"We'd better hurry," Jiminy informed the group. "If we don't find him soon, Pinoke will turn into a donkey — just like the rest of the boys who played here too long!"

"A donkey," Riku quizzed. "How can a human boy turn into a donkey?"

"By playing here too long," Jiminy explained. "Or so the 'Legend of The Curse of Pleasure Island' goes."

"If that's all true," Sora summarized. "Then let us help you find Pinocchio, Jiminy."

"You mean you'd really help me?!" Jiminy exclaimed. "I'd be so grateful! But, how in the world do you three know Pinocchio?"

With such an almost-impossible-to-explain-without-causing-too-much-confusion query posed upon them, Sora, Riku, and Violet froze, unsure what to say. At that exact second, Sora's eyes wandered ahead where he spotted a figure resembling the wooden puppet of Pinocchio strolling around near the park's Midway. He pointed them out. "Over there," the brown, spikey-haired youth proclaimed. "I see him!"

As everyone turned to see what Sora had noticed, Jiminy exclaimed, "Golly! That is Pinoke!"

"Let's go get him." Riku spoke up.

"All aboard, Jiminy!" Sora announced.

"Take it away!" Jiminy replied, hopping from the railing to Sora's right shoulder. Knowing the little cricket had the ability to remain perched on someone's shoulder without losing his balance, Sora, Riku, and Violet all took off running for the plaza located in the park's Midway.

The plaza making up the heart of Pleasure Island's Midway turned out to have a circular-shaped garden of rainbow-colored flowers and a fountain at the center. The statue at the middle of the marble fountain had been damaged and it was impossible to make out what it had once been due to said destruction. An entire circle of lampposts were surrounding the plaza, though all but two of them were shining down. The two which weren't shining had had their light-bulbs taken and the tops of them were shattered. Littered all over the orange-colored stone on the plaza was the clear sign of n unsanitary environment within the park's setting.

It was right beside the garden where the group found Pinocchio standing — his back turned towards them.

"Pinocchio," Jiminy expressed. "There you are!"

"Pinocchio," Sora spoke up. "It's not safe for you here!"

"Yeah," Riku agreed. "You need to go back to—"

At that instant, the puppet whirled around, transforming into a half-jester half-ghost creature. The monster's jester-crown was decorated with yellow and blue stripes, its body was a lighter shade of red, and the tongue it was sticking out of its mouth was a deep orange. One look at it and everyone nearly leaped from sudden startle.

"A Nightmare?!" Violet recognized. Less than a minute later, an entire group of panda-like creatures with yellow claws, red bodies, and orange faces spontaneously appeared out of thin air.

Noticing the enemies were on the verge of surrounding the group, Sora summoned his Keyblade. "Only one way to solve this problem!"

"Yeah!" Riku confirmed, summoning his own Keyblade.

The pair of Keyblade wielders zoomed into the horde of monsters and hastily began slashing, slamming, and slicing their weapons through each of the enemies. At one point, one of the panda-resembling Nightmares charged forwards to shove the pair of teenagers aside. Realizing this was about to occur, Sora leapt into the air a few inches before sliding through mid-air straight into the creature. The result was a blur of movement as Sora orbited the monster before yelling, "It's over!"

With this battle cry, Sora suddenly hurled the creature straight at one of the lampposts. The instant the monster collided with the light fixture, the second the impact had obliterated it from existence. Fortunately, that had been the last of the enemies. As both Sora and Riku put their Keyblades away, Riku was awestruck.

"Sora," a startled Riku exclaimed. "What did you—"

"Those Nightmares were pretending to be Pinocchio," Sora blurted, cutting off Riku from finishing his sentence. "So, where's the real Pinoke?"

"Sora," Jiminy called out. "Up there!"

Turning to look where the small, green cricket was gesturing towards, the brown-haired teenager was able to identify a figure who strongly-resembled Pinocchio situated inside one of the darker-green cars revolving around the Ferris Wheel. The car the puppet was sitting in was currently reaching the peak of the ride. Moments before Sora could act, Violet called, "He is over there!"

The angel was pointing directly at another figure who also looked just like Pinocchio standing on the second-floor balcony of the large Mansion. It wasn't long before Riku spotted another figure with the exact, same appearance of Pinocchio pacing around in the section with the club-wielding gangster smoking the cigar.

After Sora himself had noticed another figure who looked just like Pinocchio riding inside one of the trains on the park's Roller Coaster, the teenage Keyblader had to place his hands upon his head. For all he knew, everything taken place was now becoming a complete illusion. When he glanced back at the trains on the Roller Coaster, the figure was gone — clearly it had been a simple hallucination.

"If we're to find the real Pinocchio," Sora began. "We'll need to split up and track each one separately."

"Yeah," Riku agreed. "We'll cover more ground that way."

Violet nodded in turn. "One of them has to be him, correct?"

"Of course!" Sora acknowledged.

Believing time was steadily running out before Pinocchio would start transforming into a donkey, the three split up to search each place. Sora hurried straight for the Ferris Wheel with Jiminy Cricket still perched upon his shoulder. Riku rapidly sprinted in the direction of the gangster-shaped figure. Violet quickly took to the air to reach the Mansion's second-floor balcony.

Still, every one of them had the slight sensation most of these Pinocchio-resembling figures were Nightmares disguised as the little, wooden puppet they needed to track down.

A/N: BOOM! CHAK-A-LAK-A-LAK-A! BOOM! CHAK-A-LAK-A-LAK-A! BOOM! That's Chapter 12!

So, in case you failed to noticed (probably NOT), this world [Rascal's Dreamland] is based upon the Disney Movie, Pinocchio (1940).
Hence, IF any of you had noticed the term "Jackass", keep in mind that was the actual word used in the movie.

As it is, IF you're still wondering HOW to post Anonymous Reviews, Here's a quick STEP-BY-STEP Guide to help You out!

(1.) Click in the TEXT BOX at the bottom of the screen.

(2.) Type whatever you want to say in your Review. (My ONLY request is you keep out ANY AND ALL FORMS OF PROFANITY!)

(3.) Click on the "POST" button to submit your Review. You May Even Have To Optional Choice To Add A Made-Up Name To It. Otherwise, your Review will be labeled as "GUEST".

(4.) You're finished with the Learning Process. Go ahead and try it out for yourself!

Either way, I'll just state "The Usual"; PLEASE DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT REVIEWING! THE FATE OF THIS STORY DEPENDS ON IT!

This is SoraLego278 saying, "See Ya Later, Keybladers!"

** "RASCAL'S DREAMLAND" Is MY Version of "PRANKSTER'S PARADISE"!