My greatest apologies to those of you who have been waiting for this update. My internet connection finally crapped out just before Christmas, and I haven't had much access to a working computer since then. And after that, my beta and I were extremely busy with the usual post-holiday stuff.

Sora: "Excuses, excuses."

Darth and Raxsah: "SHUT UP!"

Sora: "Okay, okay! Geeze."

Anyway, I'm back! Hopefully, I'll be able to update more frequently this year.

Sora: "But, he still doesn't own Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, or anything else."

Chapter 67: Island Brawl

Axel's response to Gantu was simple; he shot two jets of fire from his hands at the massive alien.

Surprisingly, he was able to dodge out of the way. He fired a large blue bolt of plasma towards him, and he leapt over it. The ground where he had been standing was now occupied by a smoldering crater.

The former Nobody landed in front of Gantu, chakrams in hand. He tossed one at his face, but Gantu brought up his arm. The weapon collided with his combat bracelet and bounced off harmlessly. Apparently, it was shielded.

He brought his fist crashing down toward him. Axel leapt away, and Gantu's fist left a deep imprint in the ground.

Mickey seized his opportunity, and jumped onto his fist. He ran up his arm, Keyblade in hand. When he reached his shoulder, he attacked the side of Gantu's face with rapid slashes of his blade. The huge alien stumbled, and shook his head quickly. He was successfully able to shake the tiny King off, into the trees.

Just as Gantu turned his sights over to where he landed, a rapid burst of green plasma shot by his head. He twisted around and made a few adjustments on his weapon, and fired at Jumba. A large net shot from the barrel, ready to capture the scientist and the container of dehydrated experiments.

Being the clever being that he was, Jumba dropped his cannon and picked up a rock lying on the ground. He tossed it into the center of the net, which wrapped around it and fell to the ground.

Gantu growled in frustration, and was loading another net cartridge, when Mickey leapt back onto his shoulder. He then jumped onto his head, and pointed his Keyblade down. A burst of Light shot from the tip into the top of Gantu's head.

He shouted, and fell over onto his back, forcing Mickey to leap off. Still dazed, but conscious, he rubbed his head with one hand, and picked up his pistol with the other. He fired at Axel, who was charging toward him.

He weaved in and out around the blasts, still running towards the downed alien. He threw his weapons at him, but they once again met with the shielded combat bracelet.

"Come on, Sparky! We can work this out!"

But Sparky wasn't listening to Sora. Instead, he was running rampant down the street. He would randomly shoot toward electrical objects, and somehow get into their circuitry. He'd take what power he could, and then blow it up from the inside, shooting out like a furry lightning bolt, totally unharmed.

Presently, he was in the process of draining the power from a nearby car's battery. And seconds after Sora called to him, the hood exploded. Sparky flew out at Sora, electricity coursing around him.

Sora's blade shot up, and next thing he knew, Sparky had his jaws clamped around the middle of the blade and was trying to push past it to get to Sora. He shoved him off, and Sparky let go.

He floated in the air again, and then turned his sight toward Goofy. Growling, Sparky charged at the knight, teeth bared. Goofy met him with his shield, and smacked the experiment away. He hit the ground on all fours, and immediately pounced at him again. He bounced off the shield again, and this time decided to change targets.

He twisted around and streaked at Kairi. This was a mistake on his part. She gripped Destiny's Light tightly in both hands, and swung hard when he got to her.

It was like she hit a furry, glowing baseball. Sparky flew through the air and smashed into the side of a house, leaving scorch marks on the side. But he wasn't discouraged. The second he touched the ground, he took to the air, and released concentrated bolts of electricity at Sora.

Donald jumped in front of the Keybearer, using a Reflega spell. The lightning bolts bounced off the shield, and back towards their source. Unsurprisingly, these had little effect on the creature.

The experiment then tried a different tactic, and released its electricity in all directions. Bolts struck the pavement, the sides of buildings, nearby vehicles, and pretty much everything else.

They all reacted instinctively. Donald threw up another Reflega spell for Sora and himself, and Kairi erected a barrier of Light around her and Goofy. The bolts collided with their shields and bounced all over the place. Almost everything within about twenty feet of Experiment 221 was struck by bolts of pure electricity, and were either singed, or burnt to ashes.

When Sparky called off his attack after a minute long onslaught, almost everything around them was scorched, singed, burned, or smoking. Except, ironically, for his targets.

He fell to the ground, seemingly having exhausted itself. He was panting heavily, and the miniature electric storm around him was gone. Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy approached slowly and carefully from all sides, weapons ready just in case something unfortunate happened.

Something did.

By now the storm clouds Yuffie had seen on the horizon minutes earlier covered the entire sky. Thunder boomed, and lightning flashed.

When the first bolt of lightning forked the sky, it was like a beacon of hope to the cornered experiment. It scrunched up its face, and his antennae let off one or two feeble little sparks. He growled a little, low in his throat, and then let out a howl.

With a clap of thunder, a huge lightning bolt shot down from the sky toward Sparky. The experiment soaked up the fresh electricity like a sponge would water.

He shot back into the air, and began to fly away.

"Okay, no more Mr. Nice guy." Sora took off at a run and summoned the Keyboard. He jumped on just as Sleeping Lion appeared in his hand. He took off into the sky after Sparky.

"Wait up!" Kairi shouted after him, taking to the sky herself.

"Uh hey! What about us!?" Goofy called. But they were already nearly a mile away.

"Aw phooey!" Donald stamped his foot and sat down, arms crossed.

"How're we supposed to catch 'em now Donald?" Goofy was undeterred.

And then they heard panicked shouting from far off, "I don't know how you were able to talk me into this!"

They turned around and saw headlights down the street. They were moving around crazily, as if the person behind the wheel was doing a lot of swerving, and hitting plenty of potholes and speed bumps while doing so.

Soon, a red doom buggy large enough to hold four comfortably rolled and bounced into view. In the front passenger's seat sat an extremely pale Pleakley. And sitting in the driver's seat, the seat raised up as high as possible, was...

"Lilo!?"

Donald and Goofy cried out in fear and surprise as the vehicle came right at them with no sign of slowing down. Donald ran behind the knight as he held up his shield defensively.

But it screeched to a halt not two inches in front of them. Goofy peaked cautiously over the top of his shield.

"C'mon!" Lilo said, as Pleakley's knuckles turned white gripping the sides of his seat. "We gotta catch up with Sparky!"

"Are you allowed to drive that thing?"

"You know, it's funny. We were talking about you just last night."

The nearly identical blades of blue and scarlet met with great flashes of light. Nehrut and Xaynew were shooting through the stormy skies near the marketplace where Bariss and Stitch were fighting off his Heartless.

Rain had just begun to fall.

"Really?" Xaynew didn't sound too interested. He swept his blade horizontally at his former brother's midsection. It was parried. "What about?"

"Nothing good." He stabbed at his chest, and he shot backwards away from it. Then he blocked a strike aimed at his neck, and mentally blasted him away.

Xaynew hit the ground, and launched himself back into the air at Nehrut. "I'd imagine, coming from you."

"Coming from anyone." Nehrut blocked the downward strike, and the follow up attack aimed at his legs. "You murdered five innocent people and destroyed a world!"

"They were in my way." A lightning bolt missed Nehrut's head by an inch, and singed a few hairs near his ear. Xaynew then flew around him, and stabbed at his back. Nehrut dropped before the blade touched him, and blasted upward at Xaynew. "And now Pax Pacis is mine!

"You mean it's Serndask's."

"Shut up!"

The Nobody was shot up ten feet before he was able to gain control of his movements. He streaked toward Nehrut, and he met him halfway, their blades clashing against each other.

Bariss stabbed at the chest of Telekinetic, but was blocked by one of its knives. Stitch (now fully Experiment 626) leapt toward its face, teeth bared. And he was frozen in midair, caught in the Telekinetic's mental grip. The Heartless blasted him backwards at the same time that it disengaged from Bariss's blade.

It advanced toward her, floating inches above the ground, hacking and slashing at her. It didn't bother being graceful, Heartless didn't care about such things. But Bariss had enough grace for the both of them.

She almost looked like she was dancing. She wove around the blows, leaping and spinning. She landed a kick to the side of its head, and followed up with a swipe of her blade across its chest.

She was forcibly thrown backwards by its special powers. She landed on her feet, and ran back toward him, drawing Rose Thorn. Stitch was beside her drawing his two plasma pistols, and firing rapidly at the Heartless.

Its knives floated out of its hands, and hovered in front of it, points facing down. They moved quickly, catching every bolt of plasma that flew at it, and reflecting them all over the area. They bounced into the stands, scorching or destroying sections of wood (and some fruit).

The Telekinetic raised its arms into the air, and clenched its fists. Two nearby fruit stands were ripped from the ground. The nails and timbers separated, and floated in the air for a second. The Heartless punched the air in front of it.

Instantly, the disassembled fruit stands shot toward Bariss and Stitch at high speed. They reacted as their instincts had taught them to. Stitch's were literally programmed in, and Bariss had the experience of living on streets her whole life. They dove behind the surviving stands as the area where they had just stood was struck by the equivilent of a small hardware store.

The two of them stood crouched behind their respective stands for a few seconds, and then leapt out of their hiding places back toward the Heartless. Its knives were back in hand, and it was shooting toward them above the ground. Its black blades met Bariss's sai, and the fight started again.

Nehrut and Xaynew had touched down on the ground again several feet away from them.

Nehrut stabbed at Xaynew's face. He ducked under it and struck at his brother's legs, but the attack was leapt over.

"Xemnas to Xaynew huh? Boy, you've taken a few steps down in the evil food chain, haven't you Saix?"

Riku leapt away from Saix's claymore descending toward his head. He had no idea how he could swing a weapon that was longer and thicker than his arm so quickly.

Saix's usual indifferent, cold, emotionless demeanor vanished when he fought. He became vicious, ruthless, a beast. He roared and shouted when he attacked, and he did that fast. He shot toward them, swinging his weapon back and forth quickly.

"He isn't the ideal superior. But I'll admit that I like the order he's given me." Saix responded, bringing his blade crashing down on Riku's. He pulled the blade away, and kicked Riku in the stomach before he had time to block it. He raised his blade again to deliver a killing blow…

And received a drop kick in the chest from his ticked-off girlfriend. He stumbled backwards, and managed to regain his balance before he fell. Yuffie threw her shuriken at the former Nobody, but it was smacked aside like a fly. It landed in the ground fifty feet behind them.

Saix reared back, and threw his weapon hard at the ninja. Riku jumped in the way, putting up a Dawn shield. It collided with the shield with enough force to make the Keybearer stagger. It landed heavily at his feet, and Saix rushed over to collect it.

He swatted away one of Yuffie's throwing knives, and picked the claymore up with one hand. He ducked under a slash from Riku's blade and smacked him in the back with the flat end.

He flew through the air past him, and he turned his attention back towards Yuffie, who had her shuriken back in hand. They looked at each other for a half second, before charging, letting out battle cries.

But when they were one foot away from collision, Yuffie vanished in a cloud of black smoke. Saix had already run through it before he could stop. He turned around just long enough to see a throwing knife rapidly approaching his face. His blade went up just in time to catch it before it hit the center of his scar like a bull's eye.

Yuffie stood over by Riku, who was just now getting to his feet. She held another three knives in her hand, and the shuriken in the other. She threw all three knives at once. He sprang into action, and blocked all the knives in mid flight.

But then a great mass of orange collided with him head on. The Guardian scooped him up roughly by the arms, and tossed him into the ocean. He went in with a large splash. And it took him a moment to resurface.

The former second-in-command of the Organization swam back to shallow water. He stood up as soon as possible, and waded back to shore. He shook his head like a rabid, humanoid dog, water droplets mixing with the falling rain.

He had summoned his claymore, and looked ready to attack, when a corridor of Darkness opened up behind him. Xaynew stepped out of it, with a hand covering the left side of his face.

"Saix. We've got the experiments, time to go."

"One moment." He didn't even turn around to address him, just took up his fighting stance again.

"You can get them later. Now hurry up." He winced, as if raising his voice that extra octave had pained him in some way.

Saix scowled, and ran into the portal before Riku or Yuffie could follow.

As it closed, Riku repeated, dumbstruck, "They've got the experiments?"

As it happened, all of the remaining six-hundred twenty-four experiments had been captured one way or another.

In the clearing where Jumba's ship was parked, only two people were still fully conscious. Gantu stood taller than before, at a whopping twenty-five feet. His skin had turned from dark grey to a very deep red the color of old blood. His eyes were dark violet, and looked to be glowing.

Unconscious, completely encased in a net sat Jumba and Mickey. The container of experiments was pressed uncomfortably into Jumba's back. Leaning against a boulder not far away, sat Axel, only half conscious, and looking pretty banged up.

Gantu walked over to the net, and scooped it up with one hand. "The power of the Heartless..." He said to himself, and his voice was not quite his own. "Why didn't I consider this before?"

He slung the net over his shoulder, and walked away, looking smug.

Axel staggered to his feet, and leaned heavily against the rock. He wiped a trickle of blood away from his mouth. "Why am I always the one getting pummeled?"

"Got him!" Sora shouted triumphantly.

After several minutes of chasing Sparky, and dodging lightning bolts from ahead of them, Sora had managed to wrap the end of the Keywhip around him, much as he had with Hades weeks earlier. He began to tug the whip towards him.

Sparky started lashing around violently, and squirming in the weapon's grip. Sora began to land the Keyboard, and when he touched down beside Kairi, began to pull him down. It was hard, as the experiment refused to hold still, and kept trying to fly away.

Kairi ran over to help him. She grabbed part of the chain, and pulled with him. With their combined strength, they were able to yank Sparky down toward them. Even when he was back on the ground, he tried to scramble away, and he came close several times. This is saying something when your arms and legs bound by tight chains.

"What are we supposed to do with him?" Sora asked over the noise of the pouring rain.

As he said it, the red "doom buggy" drove up behind them. Lilo lept out of the driver's seat, leaving a very pale, Pleakley, Donald, and Goofy inside. She ran around to the back of the buggy, and picked something up.

She ran back around the vehicle just as Donald and Goofy staggered out of it. She was carrying a cylindrical glass pod as large as she was in both arms. The top was open. She waddled up to Sparky, and slammed it down on top of him.

Sora and Kairi unraveled the end of the whip, and quickly retracted it. Sparky growled from inside the pod.

"We caught him!"

Suddenly there was a ringing noise from back at the doom buggy. Still staring straight ahead, and twitching slightly, Pleakley picked up a cell phone.

He looked at it, and then reported, "It's Jumba's phone." He answered it. And soon his face was even paler. His voice was barely a squeak as he said, "Gantu's got Jumba and the King."

Well, I hope you all enjoyed your holidays, and that 2010 treats you well! Here's to a new, hopefully bright year! The next chapter will come soon, I promise!