Probably my favorite Disney world in the games. :) I put a lot of effort into this one, so I hope you enjoy it. And now, I'll hand things over to the Pumpkin King:

Jack: "Good to be back everyone! It's great to see you again! DarthKingdom doesn't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or anything else he'd like to use."

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Chapter 45: This is Halloween

Halloween Town had always been one of Sora's favorite other-world locations, mostly because of Donald's magic. He took on an interesting appearance on this world, he thought he was some kind of vampire, it was hard to tell, but the fangs led him to believe this. Donald was a diminutive mummy, and Goofy looked like a Frankenstein sort of creation.

Kairi wore a dark brown raggedy top and skirt. She also wore a witch's hat of the same color, complete with rusty bronze buckle with no clear purpose. Her stockings were orange and black striped. Her skin was paler, and her hair darker, but her eyes stuck out more against her raggedy brown clothes because of this.

Riku was pretty scary. His skin was thinner, and very pale. He was practically skin and bone. His face was sunken, and his eyes seemed to bulge. His hair was thin, and starting to fall out. He was cloaked in a black robe somewhat reminiscent of Organization XIII, without the gloves or silver ornamentation. It was longer, too. It covered his feet.

Mickey had long, sharp fangs. He wore a black suit lined with red, and a spiked black cape with the same red lining. His boots were incredibly polished, and he looked like a vampire straight out of a classic movie transformed into a mouse.

Nehrut had gotten hairier. His skin was covered in a thin layer of brown fur, and the hair on the top of his head had gotten even more unruly. His clothing had turned from blue to black, and the armor was rusted in places. The cape was tattered at the end, and his hands were tipped with dark claws. He resembled a half-transformed werewolf.

Bariss's skin appeared patched together in some places. You could see occasional lines of stitches. One of her eyes was a little brighter than the other. Her clothing was patched up as well.

Axel was interesting to look at. His flame-colored hair was now just flames. Hades would have envied him. His skin was deep red, and he had a pair of skeletal red wings growing from his back, as well as a pair of small, red horns in his forehead. His entire usual outfit was red, including his jeans.

Yuffie was pale, and looked rotted away in a few places. Her hair was graying, and there were a few clumps missing. One eye (probably missing) was covered up by an eye patch with a skull on it.

A sarcastic person might have told them that they looked stunning.

Nehrut felt his face for a moment with his clawed hands, and said, "Man, I need to shave."

"And I thought you're hair couldn't get any messier." Riku said.

"Well at least I still have hair, zombie-boy."

Riku summoned the Guardian. It stared at the part-werewolf two inches away from his face. It was an unnerving sight whether it was Dark or Dawn.

"But you don't have this."

"No, I don't." He carefully reached out one clawed hand, and patted it on the head. "Good monster-thing. Please don't eat me."

"Could we get to work please?" Mickey interrupted. "Where to, Sora?"

"Let's try the town square, maybe Jack can tell us if anything is going on."

The group walked off through the forest they had landed in, and down the path leading toward town. Some were still adjusting to their new forms, testing their limbs or seeing how their new clothing might hinder them. They fell into it pretty well.

They soon found themselves in the graveyard not far outside town. One gate led to the oddly shaped Moonlight Hill. The other path led into town, from which singing could be heard. (1)

"Boys and girls of every age,

Wouldn't you like to see something strange?

Come with us and you will see,

This, our town of Halloween!"

"This is Halloween, this is Halloween!

Pumpkins scream in the dead of night!

This is Halloween! Everybody make a scene!

Trick or treat 'till the neighbor's gonna die of fright!"

A handful of ghosts flew past their heads toward town, singing.

"It's our town! Everybody scream!

In this town of Halloween!"

"Is it really Halloween already?" Kairi asked.

"I think they're just practicing. Halloween is everything to these people." Sora said.

"Wonder if they still celebrate Christmas?" Goofy thought out loud.

The ten walked toward the town after the ghosts. They nearly tripped now and then over the dozens of headstones around. Sora noticed Zero's grave a few feet away. As if on cue, the little ghost dog floated up from the ground. When it noticed them, it yipped enthusiastically and darted toward Sora.

"Hey Zero!" He said as the little guy floated all around him, barking. "How's life?"

He barked, and floated into town. Sora gestured to the others to follow him.

They entered town, and the singing got louder. They entered town square to find a great deal of the locals gathered around the fountain in the center. The serpent in the center had greenish water pouring from its mouth into the fountain below. Sora saw the Mayor of Halloween Town standing on a raised platform holding a megaphone. The song was nearing its end.

"In this town, don't we love it now!

Everyone's waiting for the next surprise!"

Something was coming up behind them. Sora turned around and leapt out of the way of a large man with an axe lodged in his skull. He was pulling a wooden horse carrying something strange. It was a scarecrow with a jack-o-lantern for a head. It passed by them and into the town square.

"Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back,

And scream like a banshee!

Make you jump out of your skin!"

"This is Halloween, Everybody scream!

Won't you please make way for a very special guy!?"

Sora understood just what he was seeing when the scarecrow came to life. It grabbed a torch from a person as it passed by, stood up on the horse, and stuffed the torch through the mouth of the jack-o-lantern. The pumpkin caught fire instantly, and the scarecrow started dancing on the horse's saddle.

"Our man Jack is king of the pumpkin patch!

Everyone hail to the Pumpkin King!"

The scarecrow belched fire at the audience.

"This is Halloween! This is Halloween!

Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!"

The scarecrow danced a bit longer, then dove into the fountain. Water and steam came out of it as two kids (a mummy and a corpse) walked up to the edge to peer over and sang,

"In this town, we call home,

Everyone hail to the Pumpkin Song."

And with perfect timing, Sora's old friend rose out of the water with his arms folded over his chest. A shockingly tall skeleton wearing a black suit with vertical white stripes that made him look even taller. Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King.

"La-la la la la la!

Halloween! Halloween!

La la la

Halloween! Halloween!

La la la

Halloween! Halloween!

La la la! La la la la!

Halloween!

Weeeeeee!"

Jack waved his hands to the clapping, cheering audience. "Great job everybody! Great job! Take a break, you've earned it!"

Jack hopped off the edge of the fountain, and made his way through the audience, trying to pry himself away from his motley collection of fans. Sora and the others crept around the crowds toward the gates of Jack's house, which was his apparent destination. They slipped inside, and walked up the steps to sit and wait for him at the top.

"Man," Nehrut said, "He's like Elvis to these people."

"Every world needs its heroes." Sora said.

After a few minutes, Jack managed to slip into his yard and close the iron gates. "Thank you!" He said to his fans, giving them one last wave. They gradually dispersed, and he turned and walked up the steps.

He only looked up halfway to the door, and his face lit up.

"Sora! Donald! Goofy!" He ran the rest of the way. "Welcome back!"

"Hey Jack!" Sora said, shaking his bony hand. "As scary as ever, huh?"

"You bet! And I see you've brought some friends."

"This is Axel, King Mickey, Yuffie, Nehrut, Bariss, Riku, and Kairi." They each said 'hello' as he introduced them. When he reached Kairi, Jack smiled wider.

"So this is the girl you always talked about!" He said. He bent down and shook her hand enthusiastically. "It is wonderful to finally meet you, ma'am!"

"Likewise." Then to Sora with a smile, "Just how many people did you mention me to?"

Sora blushed and said, "All of them." She kissed his cheek.

"So what brings all of you out this way?" Jack asked.

"The Brotherhood of the Dark." Mickey said. "We've detected darkness streaming off this world, so we thought we'd check in.

"Brotherhood of the Dark?" Jack asked. "You mean the fellows you warned me about a month ago?"

"That'd be them." Axel said. "Seen anyone weird, lately?"

Jack's brow twitched upward in an immitation of a quirked eyebrow. "Yes. Actually, I see weird people every day."

The rest of them laughed at Axel's expense. "Okay, anybody new, and weird?"

Jack thought for a moment. "Well... I did meet somebody the other day."

"Somebody from another world?" Riku asked.

Jack elaborated. "Well, he might have been. But he certainly looked like he belonged here. I believe he was some breed of zombie."

"Where did you meet him?" Sora asked.

"Oh, down there in the woods. He asked me where he could find the graveyard. I naturally assumed that he was just a relative from out of town who was looking for a certain grave. So, I told him, and I haven't seen him since."

Sora pondered this. It seemed innocent enough, but Jack was the Pumpkin King. He'd know that that person wasn't from Halloween Town. And hadn't Bariss mentioned an undead creature in the Brotherhood?

"Well, what did he look like, exactly?"

"Well, like I said, a zombie. Though, I thought it was odd. He had these... 'antlers' growing out of his head."

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They wouldn't know this, but the person Jack was describing to them was walking through the graveyard right now.

His crimson cloak brushed the ground, stirring up dirt and dead leaves. His hands ran across a few gravestones, searching. He needed to find a specific grave, in order for this world to fall. When his master had ordered him to come here, he had thought it amusing that his appearance would actually help him.

After a few minutes, he found it. A small, unimportant looking grave that apparently wasn't visited often. It sat in the far corner of the graveyard in the shadow of a much larger one.

He bent down, and sifted some dirt aside with a hand covered in rotting skin. Soon, he pulled out the small remains of a beetle. Squashed, and with one wing missing. He held it up to his eyes to be sure it was the right bug, and it was.

Tucking it into a pocket within his robes, he turned around and walked out of the graveyard. He pushed open a gate, and walked toward a large hill that was curved at the end. It made a nice sight, silhouetted against the golden full moon.

The Horned King waved his hands in the air in swirling patterns, and a large, black cauldron with clawed feet appeared in a flash of red light at the base of the hill. A snap of his fingers, and the cauldron was filled with bubbling, boiling water. A thin plume of steam rose from it. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a vile of green fluid.

He poured it into the cauldron, where it mixed with the water. There was a flash from the surface of the liquid, and it turned a deep red. Red smoke rose from the surface, into the sky.

The Horned King reached into his pocket and pulled out the beetle's corpse. He held it out over the cauldron in his fist.

"Return, Oogie Boogie." He dropped the beetle into the cauldron.(2)

The cauldron flashed again, and the bubbling liquid frothed violently. The contents spilled out onto the ground, spreading.

From the violent, churning potion rose a shadow. It rose into the sky, toward the moon. For the briefest of moments, the shadow blotted out the moon's pale light completely. Then it took shape against it.

A face with two large eyes and a wide mouth, topped with some kind of flap.

The shadow laughed. Oogie Boogie was back.

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The Gamblin' Boogie man is back! But just to confirm this, in the opening song of the movie, was Oogie actually the 'Shadow on the moon at night?'

1) This is the first time I've tried anything like a song-fic, so bare with me.

2) Okay, so I don't know if the Black Cauldron is good for anything other than summoning Cauldron Born, but I thought I'd roll with it.

Please Review!