Chapter 12
Sora drove the ship to Hollow Bastion... Blugh... But thankfully, he didn't hit anything... he just kept swerving left... and right... and left... and right... I'm dizzy...!
"I swear, next time you try to drive, I'm going to throw you out of the ship!" Donald quacked. How does Sora manage to walk upright after all of that?
"I second that decision!" I yelled, raising my hand. Goofy raised his too. Sora mimicked us and tried to walk a little faster. We walked into the little house, but no one was in there.
"Hello? Anyone home?" Sora called.
"Merlin? Mr. Merlin? Are you here?" I asked.
"The castle's in danger!" Goofy yelled. A loud 'poof' came from behind us and we turned around to see Merlin.
"What is all that racket? Ho-ho! I thought-oh, it's you! It looks like you've learned a bit since the last time I saw you," Merlin said to Sora. He does? Doesn't act like it!
"Really?" Sora asked, surprised. I stepped in front of Sora.
"Um, Mr. Merlin, we need your help!" I said, quickly changing the subject.
"Help with what, my dear?" he asked.
"The castle's in danger! Maleficent's back!" Donald yelled frantically.
"Disney castle?"Merlin asked.
"Yup! And heartless too!" Goofy said.
"Oh dear..." Merlin mumbled, stroking his beard.
"She's trying to take over the castle and quack quack quack quack..." I couldn't make out what Donald was saying. One: He sounds like a bird being stabbed in the vocal cords. And two: He was talking at speeds up to twenty-three miles per hour. When he was about to finish his story, we suddenly appeared at Disney Castle again. "Quack quack there's Heartless in every part of the castle! The Queen is in danger! What?" he stopped and looked around. We were back in the room with the Cornerstone.
"Perhaps I'd better see for myself," Merlin said. He walked over to the Cornerstone and looked it over a few times.
"Do you know what's wrong with it?" I asked. He nodded, but didn't say anything.
"So... what's happening to it?" Sora asked. Merlin waved his hand and a large door appeared in front of us. "What's this?" Sora asked, attempting to poke it. I reached out and grabbed his hand and shook my head at him.
"My boy, that is a gateway to a special world. Someone in that world is responsible for what's going on in this castle. Of that, I'm certain." Merlin stated.
"Cool!" I exclaimed.
"We knew we could count on you, Merlin!" Goofy said.
"Alright! Let's go get him!" Sora said.
"Wait a moment!" Merlin yelled. We stopped to look at him. "The perpetrators must be stopped, of course. But there's something else to do first. Somewhere in that world, there should be another door that's identical to this one," he pointed to the door, "I believe our enemies are utilizing that door. As long as it remains open, the castle will be in grave danger. Sora, Fuu, you both need to find that door and lock it," he said, looking at us both. We nodded.
"Got it!" Sora said.
"You can count on us!" I said, bowing. We tried to enter again, but Merlin stopped us a second time.
"Now, one more thing. You're heading into a very special world. While you're there, the nature of that world may tempt you to do something dark. You must resist that temptation at all costs!" he warned. Temptation? Why do we need to worry about that? All we're doing is running in and sealin' a door. Oh, and fighting some bad guys.
"What's the temptation?" I asked, curious. Merlin laughed.
"You'll know soon enough. I have faith in you!" he called as we went through the door. I guess we fell through, becuse we crashed into the ground when we reached the other side. I shook my head and looked around. What in the-? Everything's black and white! It's like we're in some old cartoon or whatever. I caught my reflection in a puddle of water next to me. My face had a sort of cartoonish look to it, my eyes- or the one I could see. The other one was covered by an eyepatch- was a big black dot with huge eyelashes on the side, my shirt was transformed into a long-sleved tunic sort of thing, I had on large boots and the bottoms of my pants were stuffed into the boots.
"Hey! What's going on? Everything's black and white!" I heard Sora yell in surprise. He was wearing the outfit I first saw him in. Donald was dressed like a sailor or something, and Goofy... had no pants...
"This is kinda like... uh... um..." Donald said, trying to think of the word.
"Deja vu?" Goofy asked, looking at his clothes.
"Yeah! That's it!" Donald quacked.
"Have you been here before?'" I asked. I heard a big rumbling noise coming from behind us and saw that Pete guy. He had on a large pair of overalls and a small hat. He was about to run past us, but he looked at us and stopped.
"Hey you! Seen any bad guys around here?" he asked, Pfft. He's kidding, right? We all pointed at him. Why does he seem so surprised?
"Why I oughta... Bah! I don't have time to waste on punks like you! So, I guess I'll go easy on ya'," he said, shaking his fist at us and walking off.
"I believe we've found our villian, hm?" I asked. Sora nodded and we ran after Pete was standing on a dock, looking at the river, and turned around when we came up behind him.
"What's with you squirts? You got some kinda bone to pick with me?" he asked.
"More than one!" Sora yelled. I nodded in agreement. Pete got into a fighting stance and hopped around on one leg.
"Them's fightin' words!" he growled. A boat whistle rang out and caught our attention. "Huh?" He tried to walk away, but we blocked his path.
"No so fast!" Sora said.
"Yeah!" Donald growled.
"What's that for?" Pete asked. He threw random punches and kicks at us. I stopped fightng a few minutes into the battle and stared at him. Why isn't he calling the heartless? Something's wrong here. He fell back after a few more hits from Goofy and Sora.
"What's you punks' beef with me anyway? Hmm... Who are ya? You new around here?" he asked. Maybe... this isn'tour Pete... perhaps a relative?
"Cut the act!" Sora ordered.
"Sora, this isn't-" I tried to tell him, but the same whistle cut me off.
"Whoa!" Pete yelled and tried to stand up. He got up a little too quickly, though, and fell back. "Ooh! Ow!" he groaned.
"Ah! Are you okay?" I asked, realizing that this isn't the Pete we're after!
"Fuu, why do you care?" Sora asked.
"Something's not right here. I don't think this is Pete," I explained. Pete stood up and looked at me, confused.
"Well, of COURSE I'm Pete. I'm the captain of the steamboat. So stop botherin' me, see?" he threatened. He waved his fist at us and I heard his back crack again. I winced at the sound. "So hit the road! I gotta go find the little runt what stole my boat!"
"Guess you're right," Goofy said to me.
"Well, of course I am. Haven't you noticed the lack of heartless?" I asked. Are they really this thick?
"I'm sorry we attacked ya, Capt'n Pete," Goofy said. Pete glared at us.
"Oh yeah? Well, if you're really sorry, then go find my steamboat!" he growled.
"Y-Yes sir!" Sora and I said quickly. We ran back up to the hill where the Cornerstone was.
"I thought for sure Pete was the bad guy," Sora muttered.
"Aw, that would be too easy," Donald sighed.
"Hey, let's look for that steamboat now," I said. I would focus on the door, but I feel bad for attacking Pete like that.
"Well, we did say we would," Sora sighed.
"Wait! What about the door?" Donald yelled.
"I don't see any doors, though," I said, looking around us. There is a window floating to my left...
"What's this?" Sora asked. He walked over and tried to look through the curtains. Donald ran over and pulled a drawstring on the side of it. A small video began to play, and I saw us entering the world again. At the end, the video flashed for a second before shutting off. I looked behind the first window and saw heartless jumping into the others.
"Look!" I said, pointing. Sora pulled out his keyblade.
"Let's get 'em!" he yelled. We picked a window with a drawing of a construction site on the top. We arrived at a building site when we got through.
"What're they bulding?" Sora asked.I looked up and saw a heartless with a face shaped like a hamemr falling down.
"Look out!" Goofy yelled. A mouse on a rope swung by before it hit us and knocked it away.
"Your Majesty!" Sora yelled. The mouse looked down and waved at us.
"He seems kinda different," Goofy said, scratching his head.
"We all seem kind of different," I pointed out. Several more heartless landed on the platform, causing it to swerve.
"Wak!" Donald yelled and tried to keep his balance. I stumbled a bit, but didn't fall off, thankfully. When the platform stopped shaking, we drew our weapons and ran at the heartless... but it only made the stupid platform shake MORE! Sora apparently thought it was a trampoline of some sort, because the idiot jumped up and down until all four of us were thrown into the air!
"SORA!" I yelled, smacking a heartless in midair.
"Woohoo!" he yelled, laughing like an idiot. I sighed and shook my head.
"Hey, how about you two help out?" Donald barked... er... quacked. Sorry.
"Okay! Okay!" Sora groaned in despair. Finally! He spun around, hitting the heartless that came close to him. We stopped bouncing and I looked at the rope holding us. Oh no! It's about to snap! Why's he trying to jump again! No, you idiot!
"Sora! Don't!" Too late. A loud snap indicated that Sora's jumping had indeed, broken the rope. I screamed and held on to one of the boards as it began to fall. The last two heartless fell off the side to their death. I had the urge to walk over to sora and push him off, but I didn't want to risk falling off of the platform. I felt it jerk upward suddenly and stop falling. I looked up and saw the mouse operating a crane that was pulling us up slowly. I stood up, careful not to make it shake again and stormed over to Sora, who was still holing onto the side. I tapped him on the shoulder lightly and put on a fake smile. He looked up, only to meet the end of my staff.
"Ow! Why'd you do that?" he asked. I hit him again, just because I felt like it. When we stopped goin up, the mouse jumped down and ran to Sora. He shook Sora's hand and ran away.
"Hey! Look!" Goofy yelled. We looked over to where he was pointing and saw a window identical to the one that showed us entering the world. Donald ran over and pulled the drawstring as we crowded around. Maleficent was standing in some castle, talking to someone. Hey! Maybe we'll find out who the bad guy in here is!
"You absolute idiot!" she yelled at thewindow. I guess this is through someone else's eyes... "You've managed to fail at everything! And what's more...you foolishly thought you could take my place while I was away. Well, as of now, you're finished. Mark my words, there'll be no place for you when our time comes!" she yelled and stormed off. "Useless imbecile," she growled as she walked away. Yikes. Poor guy...
"B-But I..." the person said. Wait... that voice... Whose is it? Argh! Darn my memory!
"What?" Sora asked.
"Somebody sure was angry!" Goofy said.
"I don't get it," Donald mumbled.
"Um, maybe we should check out the other three places. We still have to clear out the heartless," I said. Sora nodded and looked at the doors, trying to decide which one to do next. We just walked through a random one and noticed something... odd about the size of the town...
"What?" Donald yelled, looking under his feet.
"The town shrunk!" Sora said.
"Or do ya think maybe we got bigger?" Goofy asked. I looked over at a cannon in the middle.
"Hey! Look at this!" I yelled and motioned for them to come over. After examining it, we noticed the mouse a few feet away from us. He was jumping up and down and waving his hands around.
"What's he saying?" Sora asked. I shrugged. Several airplanes flew over our heads and stopped in front of us. "Hey! Ther're heartless!" Sora yelled and drew his keyblade. There weren't as many here, so we managed to defeat them pretty quick. The mouse shook Sora's hand again and another window appeared. We crowded around it again.
"Aw, for cryin' out loud...she didn't have to go and say that. Okay, I mighta messed up every now and then. But I'm a lot more things than useless... Why, when I was startin' out..." Hey! That's Pete! I knew he sounded familiar! Pete paused to wipe a tear away. "Oh...I miss those good ol' days... What I wouldn't give to go back in time... (sniff) What I wouldn't give..." Hey. We all got our problems. No point in cryin' about it. A door, similar to the one we walked through. Aha! Sora was right! Pete is the bad guy! We just attacked the wrong Pete! Welp, I've seen enough. I pulled away before the movie ended. Sora looked over at me.
"What's the matter?" he asked. Oh God... please tell me he knows what's going on...
"You were right! Pete's the one we're after! Just not the Pete we saw at the dock!" I said, trying to help him out. C'mon Sora... you can do it! Goofy? Donald? Come on! At least one of you has to understand me!
"How do you know?" Donald asked, looking over at me. Ugh... must I explain everything?
"How can you not tell? Come on people!" I yelled, frustrated. Sora appeared to be in deep thought and then he nodded.
"She's right!" he said. Duh, of course I'm right. I'm always right. Ask Rai and Vivi. They know.
"Okay! Bad guy found! Now let's find that door!" I said. I'm not sure we need to worry about the other doors. If we get rid of Pete, then they should disappear, right?
"Okay!" they all yelled and took off. Do they even know where they're going? We stopped when we got to where the Cornerstone is... was...
IT'S GONE!
"The Cornerstone's gone!" Sora gasped. Nice deduction there, Sherlock.
"But that means..." Goofy started.
"They're gonna fill the castle with darkness!" Donald quacked in alarm. We were about to run off, but Pete ran by us.
"Hold it!" Sora ordered. Pete ignored him and kept running.
"No way, small fry! I finally found the pipsqueak what stole my steamboat!" he yelled.
"Liar!" I yelled. He stopped and looked at me in surprise.
"What're you sayin'?" he growled, narrowing his eyes at me.
"You're the one who took the Cornerstone!" Donald yelled, jumping up and down angrily.
"Wha-? No! No! Not me! Just someone who looks like me!" Pete said. He turned away and ran over to the river. We followed him and froze when we saw two of them fighting. So... what's this mean? We gotta fight both of them? No.. wait... they're fighting with each other? That's odd... Okay... so how shall I refer to them? Pete 1 is the one dressed like he was at the tower... and Pete 2 is the one we saw two minutes ago.
"Waaaait!" Pete 2 yelled at Pete 1... Oy, I'm getting a migrane already!
"Shaddup!" Pete 1 growled as he shoved the other Pete away. "Your future's on the line, pallie, so back off and give me the boat! Pete 1 punched Pete 2 and sent him flying. I looked at the back of the boat and saw the Cornerstone in a cage, floating on a raft.
"The Cornerstone!" I yelled and pointed at it. Pete 1 jumped on top of the cage as it floated down the river.
"You mugs couldn't follow me if you wanted to!" he laughed.
"Fuu, Donald! You two try and break that cage! we'll distract Pete!" Sora ordered. Donald and I ran to the side and started throwing fire spells at the cage, seeing at how it was made of wood. I looked over at Sora and Goofy. Pete 1 was throwing garbage at Sora and Goofy and they were just deflecting it back at him. I noticed after awhile that the bars were beginning to weaken. For the love of... It's wood! It should be broken by now! After a few more minutes of hitting it, I saw Pete slump over the top of the cage. Sora grabbed onto the crane and swung over, helping us out with the cage. Goofy threw his shield and actually knocked out one of the bars.
"Is it almost broken?" Sora asked in irritation. How should I know? On that note, the boat jerked the rope sora was on violently. He yelped and held on until it stopped moving. A few more bars fell off after another minute. Sora hit it one last time and the last two bars fell over, knocking Pete into the water as well.
"Yes!" I cheered. Pete 1 came up from under the water and shook his fist at us.
"I'll get you for this!" he threatened. I laughed when the raft holding the Cornerstone came by and knocked him underwater.
"The Cornerstone!" Donald quacked and ran towards it. I saw Pete come out of the water and run for the wharf down the river.
"Donald, we'll come back for it later!" Sora yelled. We left and followed him up the hill. When we got to the wharf, the two Petes were fighting again. Pete 1 puched Pete 2 again, who fell back and started moaning.
"Ow ow ow ow!" he cried.
"Haha! You're still wet behind the ears!" Pete 1 laughed.
"Then try us!" Sora yelled. We were quickly knocked to the side, though, because Pete 2 shoved us to get at Pete 1... Argh! These names are killin' me!
"Hey!" I growled and looked at the Petes. Pete 2 was throwing rapid punches at Pete 1, but Pete 1 just dodged almost every one. A few hit him. Nothin' much. Sora ran in and hit Pete 1 in the back, Goofy ran at him, Donald cast a thunder spell, and I hit him over the head a few times. Pete 1 staggered back, only to be met by a powerful kick from Pete 2. He was knocked foward, and Sora threw his keyblade like a boomerang. This knocked him towards me. I raised my staff like a baseball bat and swung, hitting him towards Donald (Cartoon violence is way cooler than real violence!), who then proceeded to hitting him with so much fire, it resembled a Fourth of July picnic. Goofy ran at him again and knocked him into the air. Sora then jumped up and hit him right on the head. Pete 1 fell down, burnt and bruised.
"Ow ow ow ow!" he whined. Haha! What a baby! Pete 1 stood up (Ugh, can one of them just leave so I don't have to do the number thing anymore?), and a door similar to the one we came through appeared behind him.
"The door!" Donald and I yelled at the same time. Pete 1 ran through the door, and I rejoiced because now, there is only one Pete. And that makes it a lot easier.
"Yeah! Annnnnd stay out!" Pete yelled, shaking his fist at the door. Sora and I ran to the door and sealed it quickly. I examined the mark on my hand. Hm, no change. But then again, that was just a door, not a pathway. Sigh... I wish I knew what this meant!
"Would somebody tell me what's been goin' on here? Who was that creep, anyways?" Pete asked. By the way... what kinda world was this...? Oh! Pete said he wanted to go back to the 'good ol' days'... and this thingy popped up... I'm in my old outfit,so is everybody else...We're in the past!
"Oh! It's you from the fu-" I was interrupted by Sora covering my mouth.
"He's not supposed to know that!" Sora whispered.
"Huh? Not supposed to know what? Oh, never mind," Pete said, scratching his head. Huh? Why can't I say that it's him from the future? I though about it for a minute and smacked my forehead. Duh! Because then it would change the future, and who knows what'll happen?
That's what we were gonna be tempted to do! Did Sora and the others already know about this? If they did... points for the idiots.
"Sorry I put you guys through so much trouble!" Pete said, smiling.
"Just don't make a habit of it!" Sora laughed. I giggled and looked at the steamboat as it came up to the wharf, Cornerstone in tow.
"And to show ya my appreciation, I'll let you pilot my steamboat. Best little craft on the river! My deck hand Mickey's late anyways," he said, handing Sora a key. Yay! I've never been in a boat before! I wanna drive! I wanna drive! I hopped onto the boat eagerly and looked at the others.
"What're you waiting for?" I asked, jumping up and down inpatiently, "I get to drive!"
"No way! If you get to drive the gummi ship, I get to drive the boat!" Sora yelled, shaking a fist at me.Well, I can swim, so it's okay if we sink... Okay. He can drive. We went down the river slowly, Donald constantly yelling at me to stop leaning over the side of the boat- Sorry! I can't help it!-, Sora driving and humming a small tune, and Goofy was leaning over the side with me. When we reached the hill, we all pushed the Cornerstone up to where it was originally.
"The castle will be safe now, right?" I asked, leaning against the stone.
"Yeah, let's head back," Sora said, heading for the door.
"Uh, sure, but first..." Donald said, trying to sneak off. Guess he figured out the world! Sora and Goofy grabbed him and dragged him through the door. I waited a minute and looked around. I froze when I spotted a man in a black cloak running to the boat. I was about to go after him when I felt someone grab my arm.
"Hurry up!" I looked behind me to see Sora tugging at my arm impatiently. I nodded and looked one last time before disappearing through the door. Donald was thrown through the door, and we all followed calmly. The thorns are gone! We did it! The queen ran up to us and smiled.
"Welcome back! Because of your bravery, the castle is safe and protected again. Thank you so much for all you've done!" she said.
"Aw, it was nothin'," Sora said, scratching the back of his head. I smiled and bowed.
"Good work you guys!" the chipmunks chirped. Merlin walked up to us, a sly smile on his face.
"Now boys... and girl, I hope you didn't do anything reckless while you were there," he said. I shook my head.
"Of course not!" Donald quacked. Sora and Goofy giggled while Donald glared at them. I looked behind Donald and saw a girl duck in a purple dress and tiara peeking into the room. I smiled and waved at her. Donald turned around to see who I was waving at.
"Daisy!" Donald yelled. The girl walked in. "Daisy! I'm back!" Donald cheered. Aww! Donald has a girlfriend!
"Who is that?" Sora asked.
"Daisy is Donald's very special sweetheart!" Goofy laughed. I smiled... Aw... I miss Roxas agaaiiiin! I thought I would be over it by now! I hope he's okay... My thoughts were interrupted by the girl yelling at Donald.
"Donald, you forgot about our date again! You'd better have a good excuse this time!" Daisy growled. Hm, I've got an excuse! We've had to run around, protecting the lives of innocents, fighting heartless, searching for my boyfriend (okay, that's just me), finding these Organization Seventeen weirdoes...or however many there are, and jumping through time and space to save the space-time continuum! Pardon me. Time travel leaves me a little cranky...
"But Daisy... I..." Donald tried to say. Poor guy's at a loss for words!
"I know it's an important mission, but you could at least check in every once in a while," she sighed. She's gotta point there. Donald looked back at the door and snickered. Oh no! He better not do it!
"Donald..." I warned.
"Just be a minute!" he said and took off. Daisy caught him by the tail.
"Going somewhere?" she asked.
"Of course not!" Donald said, and wriggled out of her grip. We all laughed as Daisy chased Donald around the chamber. Sora's keyblade appeared in his hand, the tip glowing. I gulped and looked at the Cornerstone. Uh oh... what if this thing keeps spreading? I didn't have time to protest, because we were pulled into that same light. I nervously raised my hand to seal the keyhole. After it was done... I felt alright. Nothing happened?
"Sor-" I tried to take a step, but my legs gave out from undeneath me. I hit the ground, hard, and groaned as a sharp pain shot through my arm. It burned like crazy, I couldn't open my eyes, I couldn't speak, I could hardly breathe. I heard Sora's voice yell my name a few times. I felt a feathery hand grab my arm and look at it thoroughly. I guess it was Donald, because he did that wird thing where he screams and runs around in little circles. He dropped my hand. Everyone's voices were becoming muffled. I groaned again and felt the pain subside before everything went dark.
Psycho: Agh, sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I had camp, and then I was too tired to do anything for a few days, and then my ferret had surgery... Yeah, it's been pretty hectic.
Fuu: You ferret had surgery before you went to camp.
Psycho: You stay outta this... But yeah, I'll try to be better about updating! Next chapter is Atlantica! Yay! Happy day!
Fuu: Yay...