DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS!

A/N: Hello There! Long Time, No See!

Sorry about such an extensive delay - THE LONGEST ONE SO FAR - but I've been very busy since Classes started up for the Fall Semester. On top of that, I had a difficult time deciding where this particular Chapter was going to end at.

In the end, I came to a resolution: TRAVERSE TOWN's ENDING WILL BE THE NEXT CHAPTER INSTEAD!

Nevertheless, I been wondering why I'M GETTING SO FEW REVIEWS - AGAIN! WHY ISN'T ANYONE BOTHERING TO REVIEW, EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE AN ACCOUNT?! JUST CLICK IN THE TEXT BOX AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE! IT'S REALLY THAT SIMPLE!

IF you don't want to hear me "raising my voice" over this CONTINUOUS ISSUE anymore, then PLEASE REVIEW - NO EXCUSES! PLEASE!

Well, without further ado, HERE WE GO - BACK INTO THE BATTLE WITH SORA AND RIKU!

CHAPTER 22
Monstrous Minions

He dashed forward, only to come to a sudden stop. In his urge to initiate an immediate attack to the enemy, the Nightmare had taken account of Sora's strategic movement. With lightning-quick reactions, the "Spellican" summoned a magical shield, allowing the monster to not only protect itself from any harm, but also shove the spikey, brown-haired Keyblade wielder backwards. Slightly stunned from being flung away, Sora was shocked silent. How had the Nightmare managed to create an invisible force-field so rapidly? Was it even possible for such powers to exist? Or was everything the enemy had the ability to do nothing more than a simple dream of the imagination gone out-of-control?

After watching his best friend get countered without any prior warning, Riku glared at the Spellican as he raised his Keyblade. Pointing the tip of his weapon straight towards the monster, the silver-haired youth snapped, "Take this!"

Although he had successfully seized the full attention of the Nightmare, the Spellican kept note of the advancing teenager's plan of attack. Once again, the enemy had used its magic to create the same shield and block Riku's ability to strike the former with his Keyblade. The result was a merely shocked seventeen-year-old falling onto the plaza not far from where Sora had made impact.

As the pair of Keybladers stood up from the ground, the expressions upon their faces revealed their total bafflement. Not a single solid hit had been delivered and the Nightmare seemed to have become invincible. However, before they had the opportunity to question why it felt they didn't stand a chance against the creature, the Spellican magically rose into the sky above before waving a gigantic wand in a semicircle.

The ground began to shake as the stone of the plaza started lighting up in a similar fashion to how Kevin Flynn's hideout back in The Grid had whenever Sam's (now-late) father had stepped upon it. Still, the plaza was starting glow in a certain section just before the two Keyblade wielders' eyesight. Not to mention, the brightness appeared to be situated primarily inside the parameters of a circular outline. As they watched in anticipation of something terrible emerging from the glowing spot, Sora and Riku both poised their Keybladers for a battle or two.

A loud SCREECH filled their senses a moment later. To their dismay, a humungous creature swooped out of the circle, which sealed up the instant the monster had flown off. Now both Sora and Riku were equally startled; the monster gave the uncanny resemblance of a winged dinosaur. Its head and beak were both a deep shade of red. The boney, bat-like wings it possessed were in such a shade of yellow they seemed to reflect the color of the Sun. The rest of its body was a bright tint of orange, which looked almost like a flame of fire rather than a piece of fruit. The short-yet-flexible tail of the creature was also dyed in the color of orange, though it was much duller in comparison.

Sora was the first to speak. "It's that Nightmare I fought the last time we were here!"

Riku gasped without making a sound. He knew every word Sora had said was truthful. The creature the Spellican had just summoned was identical to the one they had previous encountered during their last visit to Traverse Town. While he had not yet figured out how the creature had been causing all sorts of difficulties for him, Sora, Violet, and the Cybersquad, the silver-haired teen recalled how this very monster had caused him to lose his grip while scaling up the side of the hotel. Nonetheless, how had that creature gotten to the town in the first place? Unless…

Riku's eyes lit up in realization; he had just remembered one other thing Matt and Jackie had claimed, though he had ignored it as being unimportant — until now.

"He said he would take us to our friends if we helped him find someone. When he broke his word, he summoned that dinosaur thing. What a liar!"

Of course! That had to be the reason — Riku was certain of it. The only individual who could have be responsible for bringing the Nightmare into the vicinity of Traverse Town had to have been the strange guy in the black-hooded coat. He had more-than-likely summoned it to prevent Matt and Jackie from catching him during his escape. But… why? Would good what that have done for him? What was his motive? Why had he been appearing in every Sleeping World, with the exception of The Grid? Then again, perhaps Sora had caught sight of the stranger aboard CLU's ship?

"Riku! It's headed your way!" Hastily switching from his contemplation back to reality, Riku instantly realized both Sora and Violet had been shouting at him — at the same time. For a second, he was puzzled as to why this was the case. A moment after, the silver-haired Keyblade wielder spotted the dinosaur-like Nightmare swooping down straight for his current position. Raising his weapon in the blink of an eye, Riku gave a loud shout as he sliced the blade into the monster's body.

Reopening his temporarily-closed eyelids, Riku thought he could hear a loud howling of painful agony. Spinning around to look behind him, the silver-haired youth was astounded. In the midst of his sudden act of self-defense, he had torn a decent-sized gash in the enemy's left wing. On top of that, the Nightmare was starting to shrivel up. With one final SCREECH, the monstrous creature exploded into a flurry of transparent bubbles. The Nightmare had been vanquished once and for all. As he wiped his forehead, Riku smirked. He had gotten his opportunity to destroy the same enemy he had failed to fight directly before.

"All's well that ends well," he reflected. In his peripheral vision, Riku caught a glimpse of Violet giving him a thumb's up. As far as the silver-haired Keyblader could tell, it appeared as though the amount of radiant comfort the angel was releasing had increased since their first encounter at the three-floored hotel in the purple-colored stone plaza. What had caused such an unlikely event to occur? Was something about to happen?

Immediately noticing its minion had been decimated, the Spellican waved its wand in a triangular motion. Another circular-shaped glow came from the plaza, encouraging Sora and Riku to simultaneously position their Keyblades for another challenge.

"Looks like this'll be a long battle," Sora announced.

"Yeah," Riku acknowledged with a slight nod of his head.

As they expected, a second creature came flying clear out of the magical circle on the ground. As their new opponent spun around to face the two Keyblade wielders, Riku realized how the Nightmare was shaped like a hawk with yellow wings. Its red claws, reddish-orange beak, and orange tail confirmed his belief. In less than an instant, the teenager exclaimed, "It's the hawk from Tinker Bell's world!"

Now Sora was as speechless as his best friend. When the enemy had first come into view, he had the uncanny sensation it looked strikingly familiar. Sure enough, it was a perfect replica of the Nightmare they had come face-to-face with during their search for the Sleeping Keyhole in Pixie Hollow. Thinking back to what had taken place, the spikey-haired youth remembered how the monster had destroyed all the supplies arranged for bringing the season of Spring to the Mainland. While Tinker Bell was positive she had discovered a method to resolve the current dilemma, a certain fairy, by the name of Vidia, had unintentionally revealed her authority over the creature. Still, how had the mean fairy gained the ability to control such a powerful minion? Then again…

As he dodged under a speedy swipe from the hawk-shaped monster's claws, Sora recalled how Vidia had claimed there was someone else involved in the plot of Darkness — a stranger dressed in black. He silently gasped, knowing this meant the mysterious guy wearing the black coat of Organization XIII must have somehow made contact with the fairy. Thus, Vidia had attained control over the hawk-like creature. Yet, why had the stranger given such power to someone like a fairy?

Jolting back to the current situation, Sora continued to roll in an effort to evade the frequent attacks from the relentlessly-stalking Nightmare overhead. A glob of sweat flew from his forehead as the brown-haired teenager began to pant more and more. After another two minutes had passed, he started to wheeze with a single thought passing through his mind.

'Where's Riku?!'

A flash of light followed instantly by a sharp SQUACK grabbed Sora's complete focus. Staring directly towards the hawk-shaped enemy's current position, the Keyblade wielder took into account the unknown individual now standing upon the now-crippled monster's back. Their silver-colored hair was all Sora needed to make him smile with relief.

Riku had delivered a surprise attack to the Nightmare.

As the seventeen-year-old Keyblade wielder jumped off the hawk-shaped Nightmare, the latter rapidly quivered and quaked before becoming motionless. A brilliant flash of white light shown out as the creature vanished into a barrage of translucent bubbles. Most of the bubbles disappeared as they neared the plaza below, but a few headed straight for where Sora knelt as he finally caught his breath. With his Keyblade, the sixteen-year-old reached out and popped each bubble one-by-one. He took a breath and relaxed; that was the last they would ever see of the Nightmare shaped like a hawk.

"Glad that's over," Sora remarked.

Moments after the words had left his mouth, the Spellican Nightmare had just witnessed the demise of another of its underlings. Furious at watching the pair of teens still emerging victorious, the Spellican waved its wand in a square-resembling movement. The ground began to glow as both Riku and Sora had taken notice of the Nightmare's raging frustration. Like the previous two, a third creature leapt from the glowing circle on the plaza and turned to face the duo.

Sora gave a deep sigh. "Again?" he groaned.

Even though Riku was aware of his best friend's discouragement, the silver-haired Keyblade wielder was in the process of analyzing their newly-arrived competitor. It seemed to be an oversized lobster with sea-blue claws, six bright red legs, and a yellowish-orange tail containing a stinger. From some odd reason, Riku could not make any connections between the monster and anything he had seen prior. Nevertheless, it seemed to be a combination of more than one being. How was that supposed to happen? From behind, he heard Violet's voice shouting, "It's a 'Double Nightmare'!"

Taking the angel's claim into consideration, Riku took another sweep of the enemy and froze. The Nightmare was a combination between the two creatures he had defeated alongside Sora and Violet back in Rascal's Dreamland. One of those two had tried to hurt Pinocchio inside the clubroom. The other had attempted to keep Monstro frozen within an enormous chunk of ice. As he glared defiantly at the monster, Riku raised his weapon with the blade pointed straight at the monster.

"What're you doing, Riku?"

Riku turned his eyes over to where the voice had come from. There stood Sora with a blank stare of utter perplexity and wonder in his eyes. It was all Riku had to keep himself from snickering. The last time he had seen Sora behave in this manner was back when they were still on Destiny Islands, seconds after the latter had finished reading the letter from Mickey out loud. The remainder of that day, throughout the entire night, and into the next morning, Sora had most-likely stayed in the mode of one being full of uncertainty and mystification. However, all it was one word from the silver-haired Keyblader's lips to break Sora's concentration; "Sora?" With this look having returned to his best friend's eyes, Riku calmly explained his purpose. "Let's use the Light."

"Ah!" Sora affirmed, now comprehending what Riku was saying to him. Instinctively raising his own Keyblade, Sora also pointed the tip of the blade towards the awaiting Nightmare. A ball of Light formed at the tips of each of their weapons before unleashing beams of said Light. The beams struck the lobster-resembling Nightmare, causing the latter to disintegrate into a mound of clear bubbles. In a few super-swift actions, they two Keyblade wielders removed each and every sphere until there was no trace of their opponent. They had defeated the Nightmare before the latter even had the opportunity to launch a single attack.

From where she had been spectating the entire turn-of-events, Wicked had become so enraged at three nonstop victories from her enemies, she jumped onto her broom and flew into view of the Spellican Nightmare.

With a wave of her wand, the witch chanted, "Abracadabra, you won't be defeated! You'll have more power, not be deleted!"

A strange glow illuminated the Spellican for a couple seconds. When Wicked ordered her underling to strike down Sora, Riku, and Violet, the Spellican began to quiver with anxiety at directly challenging such powerful opponents. Instead, it waved its wand in a full circle, thus causing a strange keyhole-type shape to appear in the sky. In one swift movement, the Spellican soared past Wicked before swooping into the keyhole.

"No!" Wicked hollered after watching her minion's betrayal.

Down below, Sora and Riku quickly found themselves swarmed with the gratitude of every member of the Cybersquad. Riku shook his head and smiled. This was no exception to how he assumed anyone would be congratulating Sora for saving their world from the Heartless, Nobodies, and Organization XIII.

"Awesome!" Inez cheered.

"You did it!" Fluff added.

Matt nodded. "Great job!"

"High-five!" Slider proclaimed as he and Sora clapped hands together.

"Way to go!" Jackie agreed, shaking Riku's hand.

"Nice going," Jules smiled. "I'd never have been able to do anything like that!"

"Beautiful," Digit commended with a sincere smile visible upon his beak. "You sure showed those monsters a thing or two!"

"Uh… thanks?" Sora stammered. His cheeks nearly blushed from a growing nervousness. All this made Riku do was simple shake his head and smile.

"Alright! That's enough!" Violet spoke up. Taken account of how easily she had gotten everyone's undivided attention, the angel gestured toward the tall fountain in the middle of the vicinity. "We haven't stopped Hacker yet."

Scanning the plaza where the angel was indicating, Riku spotted the undeniable forms of Hacker, Ledge, Buzz, and Delete. The odd-looking vehicle he had seen outside the resort hotel was now parked directly behind the villains with a vulture perched on the front hood. As Riku watched with the others, Wicked hastily landed her broom beside the other evildoers.

"Right," the silver-haired youth acknowledged as he ran to the middle of the plaza with his Keyblade in hand. In turn, Sora re-summoned his own Keyblade and followed. The last one was Violet, who flew off in the same direction. The Cybersquad stood their ground in case anything were to go wrong.

As the trio approached the villains, Hacker gave an evil laugh. "So," he quipped. "I see you've managed to emerge victoriously — so far!"

"Yeah," Sora snorted as he glared at the main enemy of his friends from Cyberspace. "And it's about to end!"

"Right here," Violet stated in a firmer voice than before.

"Right now!" Riku finished with a disapproving scowl.

Without a single hesitation, Hacker shook his head with such a grin, it reminded Sora of when he, Donald, and Goofy had first come into contact with Captain Barbossa in Port Royal. With an evil laugh, Hacker scoffed, "You really think you can defeat me — The Hacker — so easily? Not a chance!"

Hacker turned his attention to Ledge; the young man did the same. "Ledge?" the former said.

Ledge saluted. "You can count on me!"

Whirling their focus back to Sora and his friends, Ledge took off in a speedy run. Riku was astounded; where had the villain ventured off to? One moment he was standing in front of them. The next, he had vanished in a blur of fast-paced movement. The silver-haired Keyblade wielder took a glance at the others. Violet appeared to be puzzled while Sora was in a state of both shock and total mystification.

By the time Riku had decided to sweep his eye view across the plaza, Violet had already spotted their opponent. Turning around in their current positions, Sora and Riku realized Ledge had dashed straight for an enormous manhole cover near the fountain. With a burst of speed, the two Keybladers reached the young man in a matter of seconds. They were quickly joined by Violet.

"Give it up," Sora snarled at the villain as he stepped to the edge of the rusted cover. "You're all going down!"

As though he was waiting patiently for their arrival, Ledge was simply standing as straight as he could with both hands in his pockets. His eyes were wandering around every few moments like he was taking in the sights of the surrounding vicinity. Once he had taken note of how close the trio was to him, Ledge knelt down and knocked his fist onto the manhole's huge lid. "It's time!"

As the young man hurriedly sped a distance of several feet from the manhole, the marble plaza began to shake ever so slightly. It began to increase as Sora, Riku, and Violet all swirled their heads around rapidly. Whatever was about to happen was probably not going to be anything positive.

Suddenly, the quaking of the ground ceased as the giant cover over the manhole started to rise. A loud GROWL echoed from within as a gigantic individual leaped out and glared at the pair of teenagers and angel. Violet muffled a scream as both Sora and Riku were speechless. The figure had dark-blue fur, plaque-stained fangs, and red hair. They were wearing a light-blue shirt with ripped sleeves, dark-blue pants up to their chest, and dirty white gloves. Still, what stuck out the most was how several parts of their body and clothing had been stitched together, one of their legs had been replaced with a peg-leg, and metal bolts were sticking out of their neck.

"Who are you?!" an exasperated Sora spoke in such a hushed voice, only Riku and Violet could hear the words.

With a look of determination and certainty, Ledge announced, "Meet Julius, the monster I found living beneath the streets of this town!"

"What?!" Riku exclaimed in shock. From his perspective, the figure seemed to resemble a cross between both Maleficent's lackey [Pete] and the fictional monster from the legendary story of Frankenstein. However, the real identity of the monster was… Julius? What kind of a name was that for a monster? Even 'Frankenstein' seemed better than 'Julius'. Then again, maybe Julius was the one the story had been based upon?

Before Riku could ponder any further, he noticed Sora charging straight for the humungous monster with his Keyblade ready to strike. Alarmed and fearful for what his best friend was doing, the silver-haired youth shouted, "Wait!"

When the brown-haired Keyblade wielder failed to have received the message, Riku raised his Keyblade and charged in after him. Having watching both of the Keybladers going in to fight, Violet took to the air as she glided swiftly overhead to survey the battle.

The instant Julius spotted Sora's plan of attack, the former stomped forwards with his fists aimed straight for the teenager. In the nick of time, Sora evaded the enemy's punches by rolling underneath them. Pointing his right index finger at Sora like a lawyer accusing the defendant's lawyer of false evidence, Julius began swinging his oversized fists as he darted over to where the brown-haired adolescence was standing. Swerving out of the monster's path, Sora began sprinting in the opposite direction. Quickly realizing he had been duped, Julius came to a screeching halt; the SCREECH of his sudden stop gave Riku the feeling of watching a cartoon back on the islands.

As Sora paused to catch his breath, Julius turned to face him before leaping into the air. Before Riku's astonished eyes, the monster leaned its titanic-sized body in the direction of the spikey-haired Keyblade wielder. Unable to move fast enough, Sora immediately found himself tossed into the air, slammed onto the ground, and greatly stunned as Julius made impact with the plaza.

With his best friend apparently out for the count, Riku dashed to where the enemy was clambering back onto his foot and peg-leg. Refusing to let a single moment get wasted, the silver-haired teen jumped into the air before slicing his Keyblade through the monster's left arm. With Julius momentarily stunned from this surprise assault, Riku took the opportunity to attempt to get out of harm's way. Before he could get far enough, Julius had jumped from the plaza and onto a nearby building beside the plaza. With a great trust of energy (and a loud ROAR), Julius slammed his entire figure flat onto the ground near Riku. The shockwave from such a landing was plenty enough to send Riku flying into the flowing water of the fountain in the area. Drenched and mildly stunned, Riku collapsed on the edge of the pool of water.

Having witnessed the pair of teenage Keyblade Masters-In-Training get shoved aside by Julius's powerful, swinging arms, Violet decided it was time for her to step in and finish the job. As she descended, her wings allowed her to zoom straight past the monster. Distracted by the swift-moving angel, Julius charged at her, thus giving Matt, Jackie, Inez, and Digit the chance to help both Sora and Riku out of harm's way. Although Violet continued to swoop this way and that to avoid the enemy's attacks, Julius only grew more and more frustrated.

As he regained consciousness, Sora leapt onto his feet and whirled his head around rapidly. When Riku came to, he did the same. To their surprise, the first thing they both immediately caught sight of was Violet flittering around Julius. However, the monster's fury was increasing at an alarming rate.

"That isn't good," Riku stated.

"C'mon," Sora announced with his Keyblade tightly in his grip. "We've got to help her!"

Riku gave a nod in reply. "Yeah!"

The two were about to rejoin the fight once again when the filthy gloves of Julius's hands began to glow with sparks of electricity. Realizing the monster was unleashing what resembled magical lightning, Sora gasped, "Violet!"

Instantly after the words had left Sora's lips, Riku added, "Look out!"

Upon overhearing the shouts from Sora and Riku, Violet swerved her head in their direction. The Keybladers were gesturing toward where Julius had paused a few seconds before. Wondering why the pair's facial expressions were filled almost entirely with concern, the angel swung her field of vision back to her target.

ZAP!

Violet's wings began to quiver as the sudden jolt of high voltage surged throughout her physic. She hadn't foreseen the enemy possessing the capability to control such a powerful amount of electricity. Before she could count to three, her wings had stopped moving and caused her to come to a crash-landing on the square below. As the sky began to darken, Violet thought she could hear Riku's voice frantically shouting her name over and over again.

"Violet! Violet!"

Riku was more than astonished. One of Julius's randomly-aimed bolts of lightning had struck Violet's wings. All he could do was watch with terror-filled eyes as the angel fell from the air and collided with the marble-constructed square. It did not take long for the silver-haired youth to realize she was unaware of her surroundings.

"Oh no!" Sora's voice gasped from Riku's right.

Determined to rescue the fallen Angel of Dreams, Riku rushed into the plaza. From behind, he could barely make out the shouts and pleas from his best friend calling him back.

As he approached the unconscious form of Violet, Riku swiftly spun his eyes around for any sign of Julius. For some unknown reason, the monster appeared to have completely vanished without any trace.

ROAR! The fury-flooded shout from above stole Riku's attention. Julius had leaped onto another building beside the square, jumped off, and was now heading directly for the Keyblade wielder and angel. Quickly scooping up Violet into his arms, the silver-haired teenager darted for where Sora and the Cybersquad were watching in horror.

As Riku reached Sora's position, Julius's enormous body slammed into the plaza, creating a gigantic shockwave. For a brief moment, the pair froze, awaiting the instant they would be thrown into mid-air. When that moment never showed up, they whirled their eyes back to where Julius was now crawling back into the manhole cover like a terrified little toddler.

Sora was feeling perplexed. With his left hand over his chest, he could sense his heart beating faster than anticipated. "What's going on?" he questioned.

As he gently placed Violet onto the wooden sidewalk, Riku wiped some sweat off his forehead. With a stern face, he firmly stated, "Next time, behave!"

Not a full minute had passed by when the ground began to move in the form of a minor earthquake. Although both Sora and Riku managed to keep their footing, the movement was too much for the members of the Cybersquad standing behind them. One by one, the four preteens, two robotic birds, young man, and penguin hockey player all stumbled and fell to the wooden sidewalk they were gathered on.

"What's happening?!" Digit exclaimed with a hint of worry on his face.

As the ground began rocking more violently, Violet regained consciousness as she took into account of everyone's reactions. She barely managed to keep her footing as she stood up and turned to face Sora and Riku. "Why's the ground moving?" she inquired.

Before any answer could be given, the wobbling of the vicinity had ceased. Wondering what had been the cause for such an abnormal phenomenon, Sora whirled his head around. He paused before pointing up towards the sky. "Look!"

Spinning their own point-of-views to spot what Sora had, Riku and Violet both gasped. Towering over the rooftops of the town was a humungous giant with a pink nose, red hair, blue eyes, large hands, and both a small head and feet. He was wearing a green shirt, purple-colored vest with a golden lining, bluish pants, black belt, blue socks, and brown sandals.

As the gigantic figure peered down at everyone from above, he mumbled, "Hey! Have any of you seen… such a thing as a teeny-weeny… little mouse?"

Now Violet, Riku, and Sora were all well beyond mystified.

A/N: IT'S A PLAN! NO, IT'S A PLANE! WAIT, IT'S SILENT-E-MAN! Then again, WHO IS THAT GIANT ASKING ABOUT SOME "MOUSE"?
IF you think you know his identity, please post your answers in the REVIEWS FOR THIS CHAPTER! THERE! NOW YOU HAVE A REASON TO REVIEW!

In case you didn't know, JULIUS is from the Mickey Mouse Cartoon; RUNAWAY BRAIN (1995).

I REALLY hoped you enjoyed Chapter 22! After all, it MIGHT be a little while until I'm able to complete Chapter 23, too.

Meanwhile, I'd SIGNIFICANTLY APPRECIATE IT IF you do this - PLEASE DON'T LEAVE WITHOUT REVIEWING! THE FATE OF THIS STORY DEPENDS ON IT!

Also, keep in mind of the HINT I gave at the end of Chapter 19; "ONCE UPON THE LAST DAY OF A GOLDEN SUMMER... "
This HINT is only HALF-FINISHED! The REMAINDER of it will be revealed at the END of the NEXT CHAPTER!

Until then - This is SoraLego278 saying, "See Ya Later, Keybladers!"