Chapter V: Through The Looking Glass
"Up, Down, Left, Right... whatever shall you take."
"Welcome to the de-de-de-a-de-dea-dea... Duck Dodger Ship, Jaden!" Porky grinned.
Jaden nodded numbly, staring in awe at the room he had arrived in. The ship itself seemed to have self-landed outside the city, and they had walked into the ship through a ramp in the hallway and were now standing in the cockpit; three seats placed in front of a panel of colorful controls, levers, and buttons. Above that was a large, curved window looking out over the blank landscape outside of Traverse Town. A small couch was sitting against the side wall.
Porky pointed down the hall, "There are two bedrooms down de-de-a-de-de-a thataway. You can have one and me and Daffy'll share the other." At this, Daffy noticeably balked at the loss of his room, and was about to complain, but Porky covered the duck's mouth, "Past them is the kitchen at the end of the hall,with the bathroom off that!"
"Porky! Be quiet! He'll figure it out himself..." Daffy pushed past Porky's hands.
"Wow...this..is so cool!" Jaden laughed excitedly, the numbness now wearing off, quickly replaced by a feeling of "I'm-in-a-spaceship!" Jaden ran over and sat down in the foremost seat. Thrilled, he lifted his hand above the control panel, not particularly caring which button did what.
"Don't press anything!" Daffy quacked angrily, rapping Jaden's hand with his wand. "And get out of my chair!"
Jaden sulked out of the chair, nursing his wounded hand."Awww..."
"It's almost be-be-beba bedtime, Jaden, we're gonna take off." Porky offered, "Why doncha head down to your room and ge-ge-ga-gege-a- get some shut-eye. It's the one on the right"
"I have bedtimes, even here?" Jaden sighed as he watched his dreams of this spaceship fall apart.
"Hmm...I guess you kinda do!" Porky said happily after a moment of thought.
Jaden nodded, resigned to the fact that he wouldn't be touching the controls or staying up late anytime soon.
"We'll be at the first world before morning." Daffy announced without looking up from the controls.
This slightly lifted Jaden's mood and he raced off to his room, leaving the cockpit to the grumbled complaints of Daffy.
Jaden laid prone on his blue-sheeted bed, staring listlessly at the ceiling. His room was nothing special to speak of, just a desk and a bureau. Dark-blue walls adorned with paintings of a bright white and blue castle. A curtained window was close next to his bed.
Daffy had said they would be at a new world in the morning. He could only wonder what it would be like. Aliens? Monsters? A slave-world ruled by a tyrant? Jaden shook his head. It was hard to believe he was actually heading to new world, new worlds that he and Zane had only speculated about before two days ago. Maybe they would find Alexis' home out here.
As Jaden felt the Dodger accelerate, he peeked out through the light-blue curtains, mouth dropping in awe.
As far as space seen from Duel Academy went, all that was seen was the pale white moon at night and evening, and the scattered yellow and white stars. Plus the occasional meteor shower.
But what Jaden saw now was something that went far beyond anything he had seen before.
Purple, green, and blue nebulaes flew past, swirling portraits of color throughout the vastness of space.
More common, though, were reds, oranges and yellows. Little pricks of yellow dotted the blue. Red and orange churned together to make bright displays on the galactic canvas. Jaden wondered if even the greatest artists of Duel Academy could paint something this magnificent. He gripped tightly onto the crown pendant. He couldn't wait to tell Alexis and Zane about this.
Watching the stars fly past, Jaden's mind traveled back to the last he had seen his friends.
Zane on the Paopu Islet...the darkness covering him, eating him, sucking him in. Then he was gone.
What had happened to him?
He had spoken of the door that had been opened, of the darkness, just like that man in the Abanonded Dorm.
Could that man have taken Zane? Or could Zane have left of his own will?
It certainly sounded like the latter, it hadn't looked like the man had done anything aside from stand in the Abandoned Dorm and be ominous.
Then there was Alexis.
Jaden was, quite frankly, more worried about Alexis. He knew that Zane could handle himself, even better than Jaden himself could. He had faith that nothing terrible was going to happen to Zane, but he was anxious about Alexis' wellbeing.
Last year, ever since that meteor shower, Jaden had felt the need to protect Alexis. To keep her safe.
And now? Now what? Alexis was gone, and he couldn't protect her. He knew she had more than enough willpower to hold off almost anything, but when it came to physically defending herself...well, she had always liked dueling better than sitting. Plus, there was the unsettling nature of the last time he saw her. In his mind's eye, he watched as Alexis turned and looked at him with blank, grey irises. He flinched as he remembered the door opening and Alexis disappearing. Jaden swallowed and turned away from the window. No need to dwell on sad memories, it'd be better to just focus on a positive future. A positive future of finding Zane and Alexis. Jaden smiled and allowed the drone of the Dodger Shop to lull him to sleep.
"We're here! Le Pays Maudit!"
Jaden awoke, hearing Daffy's muffled announcement over the intercom. Seeing the intercom as a beast attempting to wake him from his slumber, he threw a pillow at it and went back to sleep. A few minutes later, Jaden heard his door slide open. He hoped whoever it was would leave him alone to sleep, so he purposely ignored the invader.
He soon felt a tingling sensation travel throughout his body, working it's way from his middle to the extremities. Soon enough, he no longer felt a bed beneath him, he simply felt nothing. But that wasn't to last, because he felt the wind whooshing past his ears as he fell through the air. But this to was not last either, because he and the ground soon became intimately acquainted. What had Daffy done? Teleported him? Was that how they left the Duck Dodger Ship?
"Great place to land us in, Daffy." Jaden said sarcastically, rubbing a bump on his head. They had landed in a small tunnel with a cozy atmosphere. For some reason that Jaden didn't understand, furniture appeared to have been painted onto the walls.
Daffy turned red, "It isn't exact, you-!"
"I'm late! I'm late!" A small, stout blue creature with exclaimed as it ran past the trio, glancing back at the forest. The blue creature was dressed in a little white pants with a white bennie on his head..
"I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!" the blue creature mumbled, sliding around a corner and disappearing. Jaden, Daffy and Porky stared in the direction the forest gone, all wondering where it had come from. The tunnel they were standing in ended right behind them, so had the Blue guy fallen from the sky above with them?
"I'm so late!" the Blue's nasally voice echoed from beyond the corner.
"Let's follow it!" Daffy quacked and sped off after it.
Jaden quickly shrugged off the fact of a Blue Creature talking and being late, the same way he had shrugged off a talking duck that knew magic and a talking pig that had a shield, following the Blue Creature as well down what could only be described as a Forest Hole.
Turning the corner, Jaden found himself staring into another cozy looking spot in the forest. The only light in the room came from a small soul glowing fiery in the corner, casting a red glow over the two soft, brown tree stumps.
"Oh my! We-ah-wah-what was all that about?" Porky wondered and relaxed in the larger of the two tree stomps, warming his hands by the fire. Daffy was busy searching the room for where the Blue creature could've disappeared to.
"Where could that thing have gone..." Daffy mumbled, looking under the bushes. Jaden turned from watching the fire.
"Is that another door down there, Daffy?" he asked as he got down on his knees to get a better look. Sure enough, it was a small door, no taller than foot high, that had been missed in the low lighting. "He must've gone through here."
"How'd he get so small?" Daffy poked at the stomp.
"No, you're simply too big!" replied the stomp, matter-of-factly. "Now, would you please remove your hand from my nose, it's quite bothersome."
"WAH! It talks!" screeched Daffy, stumbling back. Jaden looked closer and saw that the stomp had sprouted eyes above the knob and the keyhole had become a mouth.
Jaden wondered what kind of world this was. It wasn't what he and Zane had expected.
"Must you be so loud?" The stomp continued, yawning. "You woke me up."
"Good mornin'!" Porky waved happily from his place in the stomp.
"Good night!" The stomp replied succinctly, "I need a bit more sleep..." With that, it's eyes began to close.
"Wait!" Jaden moved closer to the stomp to keep it awake, "What do we have to do to grow small?"
"Why don't you try the bottle...Over there." the stomp gestured its nose toward the two bottles on the table. One was blue, the other was red. Jaden didn't stop to think how bad of an idea it was to drink from strange bottles on strange tables, or after a stomp tells you to do so, but walked over and grabbed both of the bottles.
"Jaden, maybe we should-" Porky began, finally moving from his stomp, but Jaden had already chugged down a large amount of the blue bottle, the only one he seemed able to open. "-think about this first."
Daffy and Porky found themselves staring with large eyes at Jaden for a few moments. The stomp, now forgotten and not really caring to be remembered, fell back asleep.
Daffy spoke slowly. "How do you feel, Jaden?"
"I..." Jaden began. "It tasted like blueberries."
The room fell to silence again, everyone still watching Jaden for any changes.
"Aw, who cares!" Daffy finally shrugged and took a sip of the blue bottle. Porky followed suit and hesitantly drank as well.
For another few minutes, everyone watched each other for changes.
"Well, that was pointle-" Daffy began, but in one huge puff, he had disappeared.
Jaden looked around quickly, trying to see if the duck had moved. Suddenly, Porky disappeared as well.
"Uh...guys?" Jaden asked out loud, finally realizing that taking a drink of an unknown liquid might not have been the best course of action. The next thing Jaden knew, he was staring at the sleeping stomp at eye level.
"Finally, Jaden, it took you awhile!" Daffy said from behind. Jaden turned and found himself looking up at the room they had been in. The table and stomps had grown huge and the blue and red bottles lay dropped on the floor beside him.
Porky chuckled. "I guess it worked! We're tiny now!"
"So we can fit through the door!" Jaden exclaimed and ran over to said stomp.
"Hey there!" Jaden greeted as he approached it. "Mr. Stomp?"
The stomp replied with a snore.
"Stomp? Hello?" Jaden knocked on him, resulting in only a snort, a grunt, and more snores.
"Hey, Jaden! Take a lookie here!" Porky pointed toward a small hole in the ground, gone unnoticed until now.
"Awesome!" Jaden smiled. They were gonna see what was beyond this room. This world had been very strange so far and Jaden wondered just how far it was going to go. More importantly, though, he wondered if Alexis or Zane were here.
"Not-so-awesome..." Jaden moaned as he tumbled from a bush into plushy grass, "Ah, my back...in pain..." He didn't stop to wonder how the hole had brought them out through a bush. It wasn't worth it. Some things in this lovely place just...happened.
Unfortunately for Jaden, no sooner had he sat up than Daffy popped out of the bushes and fell on top of him; followed by Porky.
"Urgh." Jaden moaned from the underneath the two creatures. "Get offa me!" he pushed himself up, throwing them off in the process, but he stopped short when he saw what lay in front of him: An army of blue creatures, all about his size, stood around a makeshift line. A young girl with long blonde hair and a pink suit stood before a tall platform on which sat a large man in a throne with a small crown settled on her head and black robe around his skinny form. He was tapping a short scepter in impatience. The room itself was fenced in by large hedges, similar to the one Jaden, Daffy and Porky had just fallen from.
The blue creature known as the smurf appeared from a behind a hedge to the right and ran quickly up a small staircase to a tower off the large platform and blew a golden horn.
"Court is now in session!" it panted.
The girl turned in shock to the smurf, "I'm on trial? But why?"
"His Majesty, Gargamel!" the smurf continued, ignoring the girls' question.
The obtuse man on the platform began to speak firmly. "This girl is the culprit. There's no doubt about it." the smurf nodded its head in agreement as the Hooded Wizard continued, "And the reason is...because I say so, that's why!"
Jaden watched the proceedings from a sitting position behind it all. This whole place was so odd.
"Th—that is so unfair!" the girl weakly defended.
The hooded wizard leaned forward haughtily, "Well, have you anything to say in your defense?"
"Of course! I've done absolutely nothing wrong!" the girl wagged her finger at the Wizard. At this, Jaden noticed the girl's eyes widen and its head swivel around. It seemed to be looking for a route of escape. Jaden wondered why. "You may be king, but I'm afraid that doesn't give you the right to be so...so mean!" the girl finished. At this, the smurf jumped from it's pedestal and disappeared from sight.
The Wizard's jaw trembled and released a scream of "Silence!" that sent gusts of wind blowing throughout the entire courtroom. "You dare defy me!"
"Hey guys..." Jaden spoke quietly in the back, so as to not draw undue attention to themselves, "Maybe we should help the girl out..."
"Yeah kiddo...but the-" Daffy began.
"We're outsiders, so-so-soa-so wouldn't that be muddling?" Porky finished for Daffy.
"Meddling!" Daffy corrected angrily in a whisper.
"Right, meddling! And that's against the rules." Porky chuckled.
Jaden cocked his head in confusion and continued to listen to the verdict.
The Wizard pounded upon the table in front of her. "The court finds the defendant guilty as charged! For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my soul..."
At the words, "Attempted theft of my soul..."Jaden's head perked up. Souls. Theft. Isn't that what the Soulless do? Jaden bet they were the ones who had tried to steal that Wizard's soul. The girl didn't seem the type to even contemplated doing such a thing, he had seen it in her blue eyes when she had turned away from the Wizard's screaming. In fact, now that he thought about it, the young girl's eyes reminded him a lot of Alexis'...
"...OFF WITH HER HEAD!" the Wizard screamed. His card army all turned toward the girl, axes raised. Jaden knew then that now matter how much meddling was against the rules, he was going to help this girl, and anyone else who needed help. In whatever world.
Forgetting about Daffy and Porky, who stayed back, Jaden began to push his way through the sea of cards that had formed around the girl.
"Wait just a minute!" he yelled out to stall for time.
The Wizard stood up on his platform, scanning the crowd of cards. "Who are you?" his soldiers folded back, leaving Jaden to stand in the middle of the courtroom with the girl standing beside him. She was now peering at him questioningly. " How dare you interfere with my court?" the Wizard demanded.
"Well, you see, I, uh, know who the real culprit is!" Jaden announced.
Porky raised his hand from the other side of the mass, "Uh-huh. It's the Soullle-"
Daffy quickly covered Porky's mouth, pushing him back towards the bushes.
"Anyway," Jaden continued, "she's not the one you're looking for."
The Wizard drummed his fingers, "That's nonsense. Have you any proof?"
"Uhhh..." Jaden stuttered.
"Guards! Lock the girl in the cage." two of the soldiers walked up and dragged the girl out of the courtroom. "And you three fools..." he pointer his wand on Jaden, Daffy and Porky. "Bring me evidence of Penelope's innocence, or it's off with ALL your heads. Now get out of my court!"
Jaden gulped and left through the same way the smurgs who had taken the girl had gone. Daffy and Porky followed behind.
"Jaden!" Daffy yelled at him. "What have you gotten us into?"
"I...I don't know exactly. I just knew that we had to help." Jaden said without looking back.
Porky came up behind him and placed a large hand on his shoulder. "Wow, Jaden, that's really nice of you."
Jaden smiled and nodded at Porky. "We need to find that girl and find out what we did get into..."
"We?" Daffy stomped his foot. "I didn't get us into anything! Porky didn't get us into anything-"
"Excuse me, but who are you?" A soft voice interrupted. Jaden turned to see a a cage with a purple velvet curtain hanging from it, split at the middle revealing the young girl.
The Keyblade Master smiled. "I'm Jaden, and that's Daffy and Porky."he said, pointing toward said companions. Daffy didn't look happy, arms crossed and foot tapping. Porky was smelling a rose.
"Pleased to meet you," the girl curtsied from within in the cage, "though I do wish it were under better circumstances." she glanced back towards the courtroom, visible over the hedges. Jaden swallowed and nodded in agreement. "I'm Penelope Pistop, by the way." the girl introduced herself. "Thank you for your offer to help me, it is really quite kind of yall."
"It's no problem." Jaden answered, "Do you have any idea where we can get proof that you didn't try to steal the Wizard's soul?"
"You might try and talk to the Snagglepuss, he's a odd fellow. He was the one who sent me to the Wizard in the first place. I met him in the forest, if that at all helps." Penelope offered.
Jaden nodded, "We'll find some evidence, I'm sure of it. You'll be out of there in no time!"
Penelope offered her gratitude again, as Jaden grabbed Daffy and Porky and went off to find the Snagglepuss. As he walked away he heard Penelope speaking to herself about how she should've stayed away from the silly the Evil Wizard's Castle.
"Waaahh!" Daffy quacked as a branch rebounded and hit him in the forehead, sending him sprawling to the ground. "You just had to get involved! Why? Why did you have to meddle? Why did you involve us? Me!"
"I couldn't just let the girl get her head chopped off, Daffy." Jaden retorted, "Plus, the Soulless are involved...maybe we can stop 'em here! Plus..." Jaden leaned toward Daffy, conspiratorially. "I swear that flower just spoke! How cool is that?"
Daffy blinked at Jaden for a moment, not believing the boy's carefree attitude. He sighed."None of this was our mission- WAAAAAHHH!" Daffy screamed again as pink cat appeared in front of him. Or, more specifically, just the head of a cat; and this head was grinning wide. "What are you?" Daffy asked.
Jaden's and Porky's eyes widened as they watched the floating head bounce back and forth a bit, grin still attached, and then disappear; only to reappear in front of Jaden's face, this time, with a cat body balancing on one foot atop it.
"What, indeed?" the Cat replied, still standing on it's head, "Poor Penelope. Soon to lose her head, and she's not guilty of a thing!"
"Hey, if you know who the culprit is, tell us!" Jaden prodded the Cat as it persisted in its balancing act.
"Snagglepuss has all the answers-" the cat smiled wider, if that were possible, "But doesn't always tell. The answer, the culprit, the cat all lie in darkness."
"What?" Jaden asked, perplexed, but the cat had already faded away into nothing.
The Cat's voice continued from all around them, "They've already left the forest. I won't tell which exit. Find the evidence, big reward if you do."
Daffy asked the obvious, "Should we trust him?"
"To trust, or not to trust?" the voice came from behind. They all turned to see the cat, properly connected now, hanging from a branch by its pink tail. "I trust you'll decide!" with that, it faded away again.
Jaden, Daffy and Porky all looked at each other, thoroughly confused.
"Did either of you catch any of that?" Jaden asked. Both of his companions shook their heads.
"I guess we-e-e-a-e-ah-ea-ah should start a'lookin for an exit in the forest!" Porky supplied.
They searched high and low. Underneath logs and up in trees for the better part of the afternoon. And, aside from some talking flowers and the far away rumbles of an angry Wizard, they heard and found nothing.
"Gah! This is a waste of time!" Daffy screamed, "We should be looking for the King! Not some some evidence of a girl's innocence!"
Jaden popped out from inside a dead and collapsed tree trunk he had been searching, "Don't you think your King would want you to help Penelope?" he asked simply. Daffy's jaw flexed, but no words came out.
"Hmmm..." Jaden pulled himself out of the rotting trunk. They had run into one suspicious tree. It had been really, really big. Kinda reminded him of the tree on Kinshou back home, the one the Abandoned Dorm was inside. Jaden, surprising himself, began to connect some dots in his mind. If that tree was so huge, maybe it was hollow as well. He wondered briefly how he was figuring this out, it didn't really feel like him doing the thinking, but if the that tree was anything like the Abandoned Dorm...
Jaden's thoughts were then interrupted by one overarching, grim thought.
The Abandoned Dorm didn't exist anymore.
"Hey guys? I want to head back to the one really big tree, I think there might be something we missed."
Porky nodded and followed after him, Daffy rolled his eyes but followed anyway, mumbling the whole time.
"This is the one!" Jaden said when the reached the suspicious tree. He called the Keyblade to his hand and began to concentrate.
He thought about the stuff Daffy had taught him regarding Fire Magic, about how you concentrate on heat and flames and fire. Jaden began to feel a warmth spread through his body. He then took control of that warmth, forcing it toward the tip of his Keyblade.
"Fire-Ookazi!" he whispered.
A small ball of fire shot from the tip of the Keyblade and exploded against the trunk of the tree, forming a neat hole in it's side.
The tree was hollow. Just like Alexis had thought. Wait? Alexis? Alexis hadn't thought of it, he had. So why did it feel like it had been Alexis' idea? Jaden chuckled and shook his head to clear the odd feeling away.
He glanced briefly over at Daffy, who's subtle nod betrayed his impressed state. Jaden grinned and moved through the new hole, still smoldering. The exit had to be in there somewhere. Fortunately for him, sunlight shone through the hole and illuminated a path of light in front of him, and at the far end of that area of light was a box.
Was this the evidence?
"Well, look what you've found." the cat's voice spoke. Jaden looked to his right and saw the floating eyes and smile of the cat in the dark, just off the lit area.
"The evidence is all wrapped up in a box? Just like that?" Jaden found this just a bit too odd.
The cat tilted it's smiling, floating facial features and blinked, "Why? Doesn't all evidence come in boxes?"
Jaden shook his head, "Nevermind. Now we can save Penelope!"
The cat's smile continued unabated, "Don't be so sure! She may be innocent, but what about you?"
Jaden's raised and eyebrow, "What do you mean?"
The cat continued its creepy smile, "I won't tell," it chuckled, "But I'll give you something."
Jaden suddenly felt freezing cold flow through him. He didn't remember ever feeling this cold before in his life. But just as soon as he felt the chills seep into his bones, they stopped.
"What was...?"
"Let it snow!" The cat chuckled a bit more and its eyes blinked out. Then it's teeth followed suit, one-by-one.
Jaden shook his head at the strangeness and made his way out of the trunk.
"Didja find anything?" Porky asked.
Jaden hefted the small box in his hand and smiled.
"Let's go get Penelope."
"One Box. Choose, fool!" The Hooded ordered.
Jaden's jaw dropped. Choose one evidence at random? His versus his? That's how he ran his court? He briefly looked at the cage Penelope was held it. It had been brought into the courtroom for the session. Penelope just smiled half-heartedly and gave him an encouraging nod.
"But-"
"You dare defy me! Then you shall lose YOUR head!" the Wizard pounded on his table again.
Jaden's eyes flitted between the two boxes of evidence the Wizard had mixed up. One was his. The other was his. Whichever he chose would be the one he would base her judgment on.
"Hurry up! I haven't got all day!" The Wizard bellowed.
Jaden nodded, but kept glancing between the two boxes, completely unsure. He looked to Daffy and Porky for help, but Porky just stared back at him blankly and Daffy gave him a "You got yourself into this one, pal." look. No help from them.
Abruptly, there was a flash and Jaden felt the Keyblade in his hand.
What could it want?
He suddenly began to feel it tug at him, pulling him ever-so-slightly toward the left box. Jaden looked oddly at the box before deciding to trust the Keyblade.
"So that's your choice? Finally. Let us see." One of the smurgs walked up to it and removed the lid. Only to promptly fall back in surprise as a small Soulless Soldier jumped from the box and disappeared into a portal of darkness..
The Hooded Wizard leapt to his feet, "What in the world was that?" he screamed.
Jaden smiled and thanked the Keyblade, "There's your evidence. Penelope is innocent."
The Hooded Wizard's face reddened significantly. Jaden began to wonder how she didn't burst a blood vessel.
"Rrrrrrrrrghhh...SILENCE! I AM THE LAW HERE!" his scream shook the area "Article 29: Anyone who defies the Hooded Wizard is guilty!"
Daffy jumped from his place to the side, "That's crazy!" he shouted.
"Seize them! OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" The Hooded Wizard demanded, pounding the table in front of him so hard that it cracked down the middle.
The cards began mobilizing themselves toward Jaden, while one stumbled over to the cage and covered it in the velvet cloth, hiding Penelope from view. Daffy and Porky ran over to join their companion.
"You get-te-ate-a- Penelope from that there cage! We'll hold off the cards!" Porky told Jaden..
Jaden nodded and ran over to the cage, beating a card or two from his way. A few steps before he could reach it, though, a large card blocked his path. It held a large mace in its hands, chuckling slightly at the sight of the small boy in front of him. The card brought it's mace up above it's head, intending to crush the unarmed boy into the ground, but Jaden brought the Keyblade into existence, ready to block the downward blow.
After a few minutes of dueling the massive card, Jaden built up enough energy to call upon Fire Magic again, and used it to catch the card on fire. It ran away screaming into the foliage.
Jaden reached up and grabbed the purple cloth from the cage, ripping it off in one smooth motion. But when he looked into the cell, he found nothing. No Penelope, and no trace of her getting away. It was just empty. How had she gotten out?
"She's—she's gone!" Jaden yelled.
Immediately, all the fighting stopped and every eye turned toward the cage. It was indeed empty. Locked and empty. Penelope was gone.
"She must've gotten kidnapped while we were fighting..." Daffy muttered, calling down a small lighting bolt to fry the card in front of him while it was distracted with the empty cage. No one seemed to notice or care at their comrade being felled so unceremoniously.
"You fools!" the Hooded Wizard screamed, upturning the cracked table. "Find the one who's behind this! I don't care how!" The cards all ran off to do their mistress' bidding. Find the missing Girl, find the person who kidnapped her. A few heads would probably roll in the end.
Jaden ran over to Porky and Daffy and whispered. "Maybe the Snagglepuss knows. I say we find him."
Upon entering the forest for a second time, Jaden immediately noticed a large rock that hadn't been there before. Sitting atop it was none-other than the Snagglepuss, now resting on it's arms with the whole the rest of it's body pointing into the air. Jaden marveled briefly at the simplicity of finding the cat.
"Have you seen Penelope?" he asked without missing a beat, he was becoming used to this odd place.
"Penelope, no. Shadows, yes!" The Cat continued its never-abating smile.
"Where did they go?" Porky questioned.
The Cat pointed left with its foot,"This way?" the cat then switched to point right, "That way? Does it matter? Left, right, up, down! All mixed up thanks to the shadows!" the Cat chortled, "Step deeper into the forest to the deserted garden. You might find shadows in the upside-down room!" the cat knocked its tail against the rock below him, cocked his ears as if listening, then chuckled. It's body then disappeared and the head bounced once and rolled away.
Jaden shook his head, "That Cat's crazy..."
"So, uh, whadda we do?" Porky asked no one in particular.
"We go back to the Dodger Ship..." Daffy mumbled.
Jaden ignored the duck. "We go deeper into the forest, just like the cat said." With that, Jaden turned and walked deeper into odd forest of Le Pays Maudit. As he walked, he began to wonder if this was what all worlds were like. He laughed to himself when he imagined Zane's face at seeing this world. He wondered if Zane had discovered another world already. Could he there now? Jaden wondered what other worlds were out there. Could they be stranger than this one? With it's Snaggulepuss and warring cards? Or were there more like the Island?
The Island that don't exist.
This time, Jaden didn't push the thought away. As he walked through the forests with Daffy and Porky trailing behind, he thought about his home. It was gone. All of his home had been destroyed and, for all he knew, he was the only living citizen of Duel Academy. The only survivor. Jaden blinked back a few tears. His home was gone. His best friends were missing and and now he was searching for Shadows on the whimsical order of an perpetually-grinning cat. Jaden took a deep breath. He had to think positively. It'll be fine in the end, he'd find Zane and Alexis and then would then find a way to get the Island back. He dried his tears and smiled again. Together, they'd make sure everything turned out fine-
With a resounding smash, the distracted Jaden found himself repelled by an unknown force.
"Oof..." Jaden groaned as he fell back to the ground. What had happened? He reached forward and pressed his hands against what seemed to be...a wall? A wall painted like the forest?
Daffy waddled up beside him and tapped his wand against the object.
"It's a wall! Oh well, I guess we need to turn around!" Daffy turned and began to walk back.
Porky began to help Jaden up. "Hey, lookie here, Jaden! There's a small hole-leolea- here in the wall!"
As Jaden stood up, sure enough, there was a small dark hole in the wall, just left of where he had crashed.
"Could this be what that Cat was talkin' about?" Porky wondered aloud.
Jaden walked over and began to climb through, "C'mon! Let's see!" Porky followed. Daffy groaned.
"Why me...why can't we just find the King?"
When they walked out of the darkened tunnel, they arrived in a room that reminded Jaden much of the first room in Le Pays Maudit, the one with the sleepy stomp. In fact, it looked almost exactly the same.
"They're hiding somewhere." the Snagglepuss said, appearing against the wall. "And the momeraths outgrabe. You want to find the shadows?" it's eyebrows quirked, "Try turning on the lights." the cat then faded away.
"Stupid Cat!" Daffy muttered in annoyance.
Jaden was looking around for something to light, a switch, a lantern, a torch, anything, when he noticed something important.
"Guys...is that the door room up there?" he pointed up. Sure enough, on the ceiling of this room was the table with the shrinking drinks, and there down beside it was the sleeping stomp, still cast in the shadows of the glowing soul.
"Wah!" Daffy yelled and latched onto Porky around the waist, who in turn grabbed onto a large pedestal in front of him, "We're on the ceiling!"
"I think this is the floor...I mean, I'm not falling or anything..." Jaden said. He wondered if this was what the cat meant when it said all the directions were mixed up. "I'm gonna climb up that pedestal and see if I can get a better view." Daffy and Porky nodded from their place, gripped upon said pedestal.
When Jaden reached the top, he found a small lantern placed there, and across from it; another pedestal and another lantern.
"Hah!" Jaden laughed in victory, These must be the lights the cat talked about. He brought the Keyblade up and lit the closest lantern with a yell of "Fire!"
"It's too dim. Make it brighter." The Cat's voice spoke from all around. Jaden nodded and lit the other lantern, "All the lights are on. You'll see the shadows soon. They'll arise in this room, but somewhere else." the cat cackled, "The shadows might go after that stomp, too." Then the room fell into silence. Jaden noted that, upon lighting the second light, the fire in the fireplace above had gone out.
"Oh my, maybe we should head back to the first room? Right way up, huh?" Porky offered.
Jaden nodded and they all took off at a run to get back to the Hooded Wizard's Dungeon and the hole in the bushes they had entered from.
Upon pouring out of the small hole in the wall and into the original room, Jaden noticed the Snagglepuss reclining on top of the table.
"You'll have a better view from higher up." It said down to them.
Jaden nodded and the three climbed up to the table to take a look around.
"The shadows should be here soon...Are you prepared for the worst? If not, too bad!" The cat pointed to the ceiling and disappeared with a chuckle.
Jaden looked up and saw a huge black and red Soulless jump down from the ceiling. It landed on the ground, on it's arms, and sprang to its feet. It stood on thin legs, three or four times as tall as Jaden. It had several heads, all black and red, stacked atop each other. It's arms were thin black ribbons, each holding a little fire stick that resembled matches.
The towering Soulless flicked the two fire sticks against it's body, immediately lighting them. It then proceeded to swipe them at Jaden, Daffy and Porky. The trio jumped from the table and landed on the floor while the monster attempted to strike them with a few shots of fire magic.
Jaden ran for safety inside the bottom of the chimney. He hid against the far wall, out of sight from the outside, trying to think of a plan. Or something. A plan wasn't really necessary. He probably could just hit it till it died.
Unfortunately for him, the Soulless saw where he had gone and shot another sphere of fire at him, this one hitting right where one would normally start a fire in the soul for heat. Sure enough, the chimney caught and flames began to quickly grow. Jaden was now scrunched up against the back wall of the chimney, a roaring fire rippling in front of him. He could feel the heat searing the edges of his clothes and hair, and sweat began to pour down his face. That was when he remembered the chills that the Snagglepuss had given him. Blizzard.
Jaden began to think about frost, about ice, about cold. Things that were rare, nigh nonexistent, on Duel Academy. But the situation called for the need of some imagination. Of course, without any experience in knowing bitter cold, Jaden's mind raced to the extreme that he had only read about. He called upon the chilling cold he had felt earlier, aided by his imagination on snow and ice. He took influence over the wintry feelings inside him and directed them outward from the tip of the Keyblade, which had begun to burn his hand.
Instead of a clean ball of ice, like Fire had done, an explosion of arctic ice detonated from the Keyblade, most likely due to the extremes Jaden's imagination went, and completely obliterated the fire. The blast even shot out of the chimney's opening, crashing into the Soulless, wounding it and putting it's flames out.
Daffy looked at Jaden, slightly impressed, before turning back to the monster and yelling out a blizzard attack of his own.
Jaden stumbled out from the chimney, slightly dizzy from the mental exertion needed to call forth the Blizzard attack he just had.. The tall Soulless faltered around a bit before crashing into the table in the midst of the room. The table split in half and collapsed atop the Soulless. Jaden staggered over next to Daffy and Porky, ready to take on the Soulless should it rise from the debris. Not surprisingly, the Soulless stood up on wobbly, spindly legs and took one long step toward Jaden, Daffy and Porky.
But it wasn't to last.
The beast's legs trembled and caved in from beneath it, collapsing it into a heap on the floor.
Jaden allowed his legs to give way beneath him, sitting himself on the ground. The body of the monster began to glow and dissipate. A small glowing soul floated to the air and disappeared.
Jaden fell backwards onto his back, hands behind his head. He stared at the ceiling they had been standing on not to long ago.
They had done it.
A yawn was heard from the stomp just beyond his head.
"How's a stomp to get any sleep?" It wondered and gave another large yawn. In the midst of this yawn, a glowing light came from within it's keyhole. The Keyblade, lying beside Jaden, disappeared, only to reappear in the boy's hand. The blade glowed and rolled its owner's over so that Jaden was lying on his stomach, the Keyblade pointing towards the Stomp. A young beam of light shot from the tip of the Keyblade and made connection with the glowing light of the keyhole. A small "click" was audible.
Daffy jumped, "What was that?" he demanded.
Jaden blinked and sat up, "You hear that? It sounded like something closed!"
"Splendid! You're quite the hero!" the cat's voice sounded, "If you're looking for Penelope, she's not here. She's gone! Off with the shadows, into darkness! Hello, goodbye!" the voice chuckled and was gone for the final time.
Jaden groaned and rolled over onto his back again.
Penelope was gone, kidnapped, lost to the darkness.
Just like Alexis.
"Let's go back to the Dodger Ship." Daffy stated pointedly and finally, "We might find her in another world."
Jaden nodded, but continued to recline on the floor, his eyes looking fixedly up at towering ceiling.
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.
This chapter took me awhile. I was thinking what type of army is out to get Penelope. So instead, I just used the card soldiers.
Next up: Laff-A-Lympics!