Tread Not So Softly

This chapter is not what you're all expecting,TRUST ME! We have the plot moving on, we have the situation at Disney Castle explained, and we have the emergence of the main bad guy, finally! And yes, the Nobody at the end is based on me. There will be hilarity and epic fourth-wall breakage whenever she's around. And maybe I'll even insult some Irish people. You'll just have to wait and see! Also, if you get the references to Bayonetta and Over the Hedge, then you're awesome.

And it's almost my sixteen birthday! I'll be old enough to... do some things. Now I need a girlfriend I'll be all set. Requests will not be accepted. XD

I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or Kingdom Hearts, savvy? On with the story!

I land in a mangled heap on the ground. Looks like I landed in the right place. Go me! I forgot how hot this place was; still, Paradise Falls tops this world on humidity. My fur is never gonna recover from that. I stand up and shake the dust out of my blue pelt that had clung to me when I smashed into the ground. I've really gotta work on landing on my feet. I thought cats were supposed to do that anyway!

I peek a look around to figure out where I Chaos Controlled to this time. I'm in a small cave with a tree growing up in the back. A lion is carved into the bark, along with three other figures that resemble Donald, Goofy and some other lion. I wonder which one is Simba? Ah, who cares.

A stick collides sharply with my skull and I fall to the floor. I'm gonna devour whoever did that, the sneak. I growl at a baboon who's standing over me threateningly. I swish my tail angrily, before picking myself up. I'm too tired to fight now.

"Please, I'm too tired to fight now," I inform him... What? He wasn't going to read my thoughts. "Do you know where Simba is?"

He lowers his stick, staring at me like I've got a mackerel as a hat. He suddenly bursts out laughing and dances around a bit.

"Ah!" he exclaims! "You're de one!"

"Uhh..." I reply. I'm not following this at all.

"De one!" he repeats, like I haven't heard him. "You're gonna do great things, child. It has been written! Hahaha!"

I cock my head to one side. The crazy baboon waves his hand as if to coax me forward.

"Come! Rafiki will show you to Simba!"

That's more like it. The baboon takes me outside, and I wince as the sun burns my retinas. He leads me up the pointy bit of Pride Rock that extends over the lion's den like a claw. I can vaguely see silhouettes hovering against the blinding sun. Lion-shaped silhouettes.

"Hey, guys!" I yell. "Did 'ya miss me?"

The silhouettes turn in my direction: two of them throw themselves at me. The three of us collapse in a heap of laughter. All my breath is knocked out of me, but I don't care!

"Nice to see you guys too."

"We thought you were dead!" Donald squawks. "Don't ever do that to us again!"

The rest of the conversation is swallowed up by the joy at the reunion. Not that I'm complaining: it's great to see my friends again. I eventually have to detangle myself from the mass of happiness.

"Sorry, guys, but we'll have to continue this later," I say.

The duck and dog sort themselves out and look slightly meek. I turn to see Simba and Kiara on the edge of the rock. They both look pleased to see me alive.

"I'd like to catch up on old times," I say. "But I really need to know where the Keyhole is. So tell me. Now."

Simba shakes his head.

"I really don't know what or where that is. Although, when Sora was here he used the Keyblades on the sky and something happened."

"Really..."

I look at the sky. It's completely cloudless, and I can see Albatrosses flying through the endless blue, shrieking to each other. No Keyhole. I raise an eyebrow at Simba. He shrugs.

"Well that was helpful..."

"Gawrsh, doesn't the Keyblade make Keyholes appear?" Goofy notes.

Good point. I wonder if I can summon the Kingdom Key again. I try to feel for its presence beyond the simple boundaries of flesh and blood. I still haven't got all that used to this yet. To my relief the Keyblade pops into existence between my jaws. I never noticed how much I missed it: it has a completely different feel to the other one.

Luckily, the presence of the key does activate the Keyhole after all. Clouds suddenly burst into the sky from nowhere, covering the sky and taking the heat off my skin. The clouds have an odd purple tint to them that makes them look ghostly and ethereal. That's no coincidence.

The clouds part where the sun was to reveal a bright white Keyhole in the sky. I have to turn sideways to point the teeth at the Keyhole, but it doesn't change the effect. A radiant beam shoots out the tip and blasts straight through the center. The clouds around the Keyhole collapse inwards with the force of the lock and dissipate quickly, revealing the pure sky again. I dismiss the Keyblade so I can talk without drooling everywhere.

"Well, there's no need to worry about the Heartless now," I say to Simba and Kiara. "They can't get to the heart of the world now."

I don't think they understand what that means, but they still look relieved that the threat of the Heartless has diminished.

"Does this mean that you're leaving?" Kiara asks.

We nod.

"We should be back, though, just to check the whole thing hasn't gone to pot while we were gone," I say with a smirk. "Maybe I'll even bring Sora along with me."

Simba smiled widely.

"That would be great. Stay safe, you three."

"I can't promise anything, but we'll try!"

We all laugh. To be honest, I'm looking forward to being bipedal again.

Elsewhere...

King Mickey tore through the hollow halls of the castle. A dim grey light shone through the broken windows, their shards scattered across the floor. A lot of the statues were missing arms or heads, and some lay discarded against the wall, their faces smashed in by brute force. The castle had descended badly into disaster.

He had no Keyblade anymore. No scientist could tell him why or where it had gone, and without its light there was no way to force off the Heartless once their ranks had spilled over the castle walls like a plague of darkness. Most of the citizens had been safely evacuated to the Hall of the Cornerstone. Some had vanished, never to be seen again. Some had joined the evil that had forced them into hiding.

King Mickey was just relieved that he'd rescued Queen Minnie.

With no means of protection, and no way of leaving the world, they were trapped in a living nightmare. Some kind of grey barrier filled the sky, shunning clouds and wind until everything lay silent, as if frozen by the icy hand of whatever evil had caused this. And it was his job as King to right the wrongs that was threatening the lives of his people, and of his wife.

No Heartless had attacked him yet, and it was worrying him. His Heart should shine brightly in this darkness, and there was no way the Heartless would turn down a chance of adding such a powerful entity to their ranks. Their absence made the hairs down his neck stand on end in fear, and his tail tingle ominously.

He flattened himself up against the castle doors, towering above his silent figure. Taking a deep breath, he leaned slowly towards the door, expecting a claw or a head come lurching at him. None came. Instead, he was greeted with a frightening and curious sight.

The Courtyard beyond the door, which was once thriving with greenery, was grey and dying under the dull sun. The pathway was cracked and crumbling with neglect. Upon it lay the bodies of tens of Heartless, thrown around like ragdolls. He gulped at the ease at which the monsters had been dealt with.

Those responsible were also present. Tall, thin Nobodies towered above the ground, their stick legs reaching into the air, and their arms just as long, extending almost down to the ground and hanging limply. Upon their head lay what looked like holy robes, like some sort of twisted nun. They had no faces, but their exaggerated torsos carried the Nobody symbol. King Mickey had never seen Nobodies like them before.

But more worrying was the figure in the center.

It was cloaked in a black robe that hung down to the floor. The zip was unfastened at its waist, instead of at the knees, and its boots had large heels that elevated it to normal height. He couldn't imagine how short it was without the heels to boost it above its regular height. It was facing away from him, its finger in its hood. He couldn't see what it was doing from here, but he saw it look at its finger in disgust and flick something away. Did it really just...?

He took an unsteady breath and stepped out from behind the doors.

The Nobodies noticed his presence immediately: their hidden mouths that extended right behind their heads opened and hissed at him. They made to walk towards him, their long legs slowing them down. Unfortunately, he knew from past experience that if an enemy was slow, it was usually strong to make up for it. The Nobody in the black coat didn't seem to know he was there, until it clicked his fingers.

The other Nobodies immediately backed off. King Mickey stood up as tall as his small legs would allow and called out with as much authority as he could muster in these dark times.

"And who are you?!"

The clocked figure turned around to look at him. Its face was hidden beneath the hood, but the way it held itself seemed to indicate a childish demeanour, looking at him over its shoulder in interest. It finish turning around, before waving at him.

"Ah, here is our next victim! What's up? Can I say: this place is huge. Someone must have been compensating for something."

He clenched his fingers together, before repeating himself with an angrier tone.

"I said, who are you?!" he growled.

"Who, me?" the Nobody asked. "I'm no one special. Just someone looking for someone else."

"Well, I'm sure they aren't here, so why don't you just get out?"

"I can't do that. You see," the figure said, removing its hood. "You're the one I'm looking for."

King Mickey was thrown off by the appearance of the Nobody. It was a young girl, about fifteen, with the most startling orange hair in two low, spiky buns and grey eyes he'd ever seen. She blinked at his stare.

"What? Is there something on my face?"

She started laughing, which just made him feel even more confused.

"But, I thought we'd gotten rid of you stupid Organization XIII!" he yelled.

"Technically, you did. I'm the next generation – one with more style and hilarity, anyway. It's like being smart and good looking at the same time!"

She pulled a pose and raised an eyebrow at him.

"I mean, there isn't much I could do with this uniform, but hey, I tried."

She returned to a more comfortable pose, leaning on one leg and crossing her arms.

"Now, back to what I wanted. Thing is, I've got a plan that's so good you could use it to read at night! But then I thought that this is so good, it will need a blend of violence and subtlety to pull off. Maybe even some extreme explosives. But we're so poor we can't afford any rockets, so I said to myself 'today sucks so bad it's beginning to look like the epilogue of Harry Potter 7!' And then I thought: let's capture this place and put it on EBay! We'll get enough Munny to buy some nuclear weapons and blow you all out of the sky!"

"... What?"

"I know: it's like the author is on crack or something. It's really spoiling the mood."

King Mickey just felt confused. He thought Organization XII was supposed to be evil, but this one was just a joke.

"Dammit, now we'll have to go back to square one!" she said exasperatedly. "Ah well, since we're here, we're gonna take your Keyblade. So pass it over now and we'll only mortally wound you instead of kill you."

She held her hands out and beckoned for King Mickey to give her what he wanted.

"I'm not giving such a powerful weapon to the likes of you!"

And he flew forward at the mysterious Nobody, who only watched him coming with an eternal smile on her face.

I've just insulted so many people with that comment on Harry Potter, haven't I? And don't forget to check out the poll on my profile!