I meant to update this sooner, but wow, Arkham City is addicting. I just finished the story mode, and still have about forty percent left. But enough excuses!

Genie: "DK here doesn't own a single thing! Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Square Enix, Batman, yada yada yada!"

!

Chapter 108: Breakout

The five fake Kings of Thieves made it to the palace in minutes. They all entered the dungeons together, a rough plan already in mind.

Almost as soon as they arrived in the dungeon, they heard the approaching voices of two guards. They immediately hid around the nearest corner. In the dimly lit corridor, they saw them walking past. One of them had a ring of keys on his belt. There was a good chance that they'd be unnecessary, with two Keybearers in their midst, but it didn't hurt to take chances.

One of the Kings raised his hand slightly. The ring of keys silently floated slowly off of the belt, and into his hand. They waited until the two guards were out of sight (totally unaware that they'd just been robbed) and crept down the hall from which they had come.

Seconds later, they came to a door. The Oblivion Keyblade appeared in the hands of the shortest of the Kings, and he tapped the knob of the locked door. It slid open easily, revealing a small, deep cell. Its human and parrot occupants looked surprised to see them.

The second tallest of the thieves entered, pulling down his hood to reveal himself as Aladdin. The other two that entered the cell pulled their hoods down as well: Sora and Riku. Their partners –Nehrut and Axel- were standing watch just outside.

Cassim stood up as Sora tapped the chains binding his wrists with the Keyblade. "We're here to say goodbye."

"But why are you-"

"We don't have much time." Aladdin said. "While the guards chase us, you get out."

"I can't let you-"

"Forget it." Aladdin said, already donning his hood and face guard again. He added, somewhat smugly, "They can't catch us." He tossed him the ring of keys that they had taken from the guard, and they all took off down the hall.

!

In the guards' makeshift break room, Rasoul was being a blowhard, as always. He was smugly telling his comrades in the room, "When the Sultan gives me my due, I'll put the good word in for you. You know, the little people who would-"

Five figures in blue dashed past the door, and his jaw dropped. "It can't be."

He and the other two guards in the room rushed into the hallway. At the door on the far side stood not one, but five images of the King of Thieves. Regardless of the height difference, their identities couldn't be determined beneath the hoods and capes.

"I told you he wasn't a man!" One of the guards exclaimed, terrified. "He's a demon!"

"Sound the alarm!" Rasoul shouted as the Kings ran out. "I want him or them dead or alive!"

Once outside, the five Kings split into three groups. Axel and Nehrut rushed left, Riku went straight forward, and Sora and Aladdin to the right. Dozens of guards poured out of the palace after them.

"The chase begins." Nehrut muttered. He looked at Axel as they ran. "Let's not make it too hard for them. They have to follow us, or they'll go back to the cells and might run into Cassim. Then this is all for nothing."

"Give 'em a nice jog through the streets. Got it."

The two ran into an alley. Axel jumped onto a wicker basket loaded with something heavy, and onto the rooftop of a small building. Nehrut flew up to it once they were out of sight of the guards.

"We'll just knock them out when we're far enough from the palace." Nehrut said.

Three guards followed them up to the ceiling, and they ran again, their pursuers following close behind. They leapt from their rooftop onto the next one in line on the street. For them, jumping a ten-foot-long gap wasn't a big deal, but for the slightly out-of-shape guards, that was another matter.

One of them fell ten feet down into an open crate, and the other two were barely able to find handholds on the wall, which they climbed up on slowly.

Axel put a hand to his forehead. "The temptation to fry these guys for making this too easy is just too big."

"Evasion, King of Thieves." Nehrut muttered, irritably. "Not murder."

!

The eight guards tailing Riku were more competent. The Keybearer had ducked into several alleys, but had still not managed to shake them. At any time, they were between ten and twenty feet behind him.

He turned sharply into another alley, and sprinted down it toward a dead-end brick wall. Behind him, he heard the guards cry out in triumph.

Their cheers became moans as he leapt onto a nearby crate, and then jumped completely over the wall. He took a moment to catch his breath, and leaned casually against the wall of a nearby building.

When the guards finally got over and around the wall thirty seconds later (time in which Riku could have been a mile away) they formed a ring around him, with their swords pointing inward. Riku had to admire their confidence, and the fact that they had had enough sense to cut off all of his escape routes.

Well, not all of them.

He ran toward the nearest one, empty handed. When the surprised guard swung his weapon at his midsection, he leapt completely over him, landing lightly on his other side. He took off out of the alley, and broke into a hard sprint down the main street. They followed him immediately, the one who had swung apologizing up and down to his companions.

Riku was nearly to the city gates, when he decided that the chase had gone on long enough, and that he had bought Cassim enough time. He cut into yet another alley, every inch of which seemed to have been crammed with various storage containers. Crates, vases, pots, baskets, and jugs filled the whole space.

Riku leapt high over them, and landed on the other side. There was another wall here. Turning, he fired a small blast of Dawn into the mass of objects. Several containers exploded, sending their contents flying all across the alley.

In the midst of this temporary cover of debris, Riku leapt into a window of the house next to him. He found the room beyond mercifully unoccupied, and closed the shutters of the window behind him.

He could hear the guards outside shouting, talking amongst themselves, trying to determine where the King of Thieves had escaped to. Silently, he crept through the empty house, and out the back door before any of them had thought to search it.

Riku made his way quickly through the city back toward Aladdin's home, being much more careful to hide his presence from any citizens wandering the streets at night. He hoped desperately that the others hadn't been discovered, and that Cassim was well out of town by now.

Otherwise things are going to get real uncomfortable for us here in Agrabah.

!

Things were getting a little uncomfortable for Sora and Aladdin, but in a different way. They had shaken off pursuit moments before, but had immediately fallen upon a group of Heartless in a back alley.

Ironically, this was the same place where Sora had gotten his first glimpse of Jafar over a year previous, and he was surprised at how much different it looked at night.

Among the Heartless were the common Shadows and Neoshadows. There were also the Fat Bandits that Sora had come to loathe, and the deadly Luna Bandits that had nearly taken his heart before Iago of all people had saved him. There were also Fortunetellers, and the newer Snake Charmers.

The latter Heartless resembled small humans, with the typical black Heartless skin and yellow eyes. Their heads were large, and appeared to be wrapped in red turbans. They hovered over the ground, with their legs crossed. In both hands, they held a small pipe-like instrument. Whenever they played this instrument (making very, very soft music that could barely be heard) something would shoot out of the basket in their laps. It resembled a cobra made into a Heartless, with black skin, yellow eyes, and red markings along its body. This seemed to be the Snake Charmer's only method of attack, but those 'snakes' were very fast.

The eerie thing about this battle was that it was almost completely silent. The Heartless were voiceless, and the only noise came from Sora and Aladdin's own muffled gasps of exertion or pain. But this suited their needs just fine. They didn't need the guards to hear the commotion and see one of the supposed King of Thieves wielding a very distinctive weapon that would be easily traced back to the Keyblade Master –and by relation, his off-world allies, and likely the Sultan's soon-to-be son in-law.

Aladdin darted around the small covered area, his new cape billowing around him as he ran, scimitar in hand. With nearly every swipe, he cut Heartless down to size. He ran directly toward a Fat Bandit, and leapt toward its head when it belched fire at him. He stabbed his sword through its face, and leapt backward off of it.

He landed next to Sora who had just beheaded a Fortuneteller. Its fellow launched an icy blast at him, which barely missed, and instead froze an abandoned fruit stand. He ran toward it, ducking under another attack, and leaping into the air to behead it. As he returned to the ground, he barely avoided a Snake Charmer's strike. He landed behind it, and stabbed backwards, piercing its forehead.

His friend rushed past him, taking out a Neoshadow that attacked him, and briefly dueling with a Luna Bandit before he cut it in half at the waist. In one quick sweeping motion, he destroyed four Shadows, and cut the legs out from under another Luna Bandit.

Sora vaulted over him, and drove the Keyblade into the neck of a Fat Bandit looming over him. He fell through the vanishing Heartless, and landed in front of a Snake Charmer. He dodged to the side of the snake as it shot out of the basket, and rushed toward it, taking its head off.

Aladdin repaid a debt that was only seconds old when he leapt over Sora, and cut the two Fortunetellers that had been targeting him in half. As he landed, he took the head off of a Shadow, and blocked the two strikes of a Luna Bandit. He ducked under a third, and stabbed it through the stomach.

The Heartless kept pouring into the alley, until the walls of the surrounding buildings were completely obscured from view. They practically filled the space, and they were pushing Aladdin and Sora to their very limits.

Quickly, Sora reached under his cape and outer tunic, and grabbed the Impossibility charm from the City of Gypsies. He tossed it into the air, saying, "Kim!"(1)

It was just an ordinary high school gym. It was mostly empty, and was only occupied by a handful of people: about a dozen high school girls in violet and red cheerleading uniforms.

To end the afternoon's practice, they formed a typical pyramid, with the captain standing at the very top. This girl was slightly tall and slender, with fiery red hair down to her waist. She had bright green eyes that lit up in triumph as the squad pulled off a successful practice.

Over on the unnocupied bleachers, where her backpack was sitting, there was a beeping noise. She ran over to it, and pulled out a small blue device from it, which was emitting the noise.

She looked at it for a second, before rushing into the locker room. She emerged seconds later wearing more practical clothing: a black top and gloves, and cargo pants.

Muttering a quick apology to her squad mates, she dashed toward the double doors, and out of the school.

In a ridiculously short amount of time, she was hovering over the battleground on a military-style chopper. She leapt out of the side door, and landed easily right next to Sora. They exchanged quick high fives before she asked, "What's the sitch?"

Kim Possible, as she was known, leapt into action first. Sora half-expected the attack to end in disaster, but was pleasantly surprised. In a kung-fu-like maneuver, she dodged a lunging Neoshadow, and kicked it in the stomach as it passed by. She back flipped over a Luna Bandit, and drove her hand into its neck, breaking it.

Sora rushed into the battle after her. He struck down a Fortuneteller in mid-step, and leapt over a Fat Bandit just before it burnt him. He took its head off in the air, and stabbed Oblivion down into a Shadow as he landed.

Kim leapt over his head. She flipped in the air, bringing the heel of her foot down onto the head of a Neoshadow. She straightened up, and dodged to the side of a Snake Charmer's attack. Her hand shot out, and clutched the throat of the 'snake.' Sora pointed his blade at the actual Heartless, sending a fireball into its face.

The two ran toward a group of four Luna Bandits. Sora ducked under the strike of the first and struck upward, destroying it. The next two struck at him with all four blades, but he successfully blocked them all with his. Kim leapt at one, smashing her fist into its face. Sora threw the other off of him, and cut in in half. He impaled the fourth.

The red-haired teen leapt onto the shoulders of a Fat Bandit. With three quick punches to the face, she brought it to its knees, where Sora finished it after beheading a Snake Charmer. Kim leapt off of the fading remains to smash a Neoshadow under her feet. She took care of another one with a single hard jab to the face.

Sora ran at a Fortuneteller, which fired a large shard of ice at him. Without breaking stride, he shattered the ice with a swipe of the Keyblade. Before the frosty shards even touched the ground, he had leapt, and cut the Heartless in half. He landed directly in front of a Luna Bandit, which slashed at him with both blades.

He slipped to the side to avoid the attack, but before he had even begun to counter-attack, Kim was in action. She leapt over the Heartless' blades, and landed behind it. She roundhouse kicked it in the back of the head, and twisted back around to punch a Snake Charmer so hard that her fist went through its chest.

Sora beheaded a Fortuneteller, and then stood back-to-back with Kim. The latter teenager reached into one of the deep pockets on her pants, and grabbed a fistful of tiny, marble-sized objects. Without hesitation, she threw these little objects high into the air.

They scattered, and fell to the sandy ground all around the alley. There was nothing for a few moments, and even the Heartless seemed to be waiting for some results.

Then, each of the tiny devices exploded, with a destructive blast radius of three feet. They made very little noise (less than an average firecracker might have made) but the effect was impressive nonetheless. The mass of Heartless were eradicated in seconds, leaving nothing but scorch marks behind.

Sora smiled in satisfaction. "Nice job, Kim."

"So not the drama." She shrugged, and vanished.

Sora and Aladdin were alone again. The street rat looked at him. "You think that noise attracted the guards?"

From a few streets over, "I heard lots of noise over there! We might have found them again!"

"You just had to ask, didn't you?" Sora replied, deadpan. He pointed to a nearby building, which looked almost like a tower. A long banner that had been put there for the wedding hung from the side, and nearly touched the ground. The two of them ran up to it, and climbed up the banner as quickly as they could.

Moments later, the alley below was occupied by nearly a dozen guards. Sora and Aladdin were on the roof of the tower, all alone. A narrow bridge led from it to a twin tower three streets away.

Aladdin leapt down toward this bridge, and would have landed easily on it, if somebody hadn't emerged from the tower doorway behind him. He grabbed Aladdin's ankle, and brought him crashing ungracefully to the floor.

Rasoul loomed over Aladdin, sword in hand. "The King of Thieves. Your charmed life is over, 'Your Majesty!'"

He brought his blade down. He narrowly missed him as he rolled out of the way, but was able to inadvertently tear open the hood, fully exposing Aladdin's face.

He gaped at him for a moment, shocked. "You..."

Aladdin and the unseen Sora groaned inwardly. But Aladdin merely shrugged off the remains of the hood. "Yes, me."

"Well then," Rasoul growled, "I guess I'll have to settle for the Prince of Thieves. We shall see if the Sultan wants you in his family now."

Sora leapt at Rasoul's exposed back at the same moment that somebody else did. A familiar figure rushed from the door behind him, and tackled the unsuspecting guard in the back, sending him crashing to the ground head first. He was rendered unconscious.

Cassim stood over him, teeth bared. "Keep your hands off my son."

"What?" Sora asked, dumbfounded, but Cassim ignored him.

"Hurry, we must move." He beckoned to them both, and they ran across the bridge.

Minutes later, they were galloping out of town on the same horses that they had rode in on, a few guards following several feet behind, and losing ground fast. Iago was perched uneasily on top of Cassim's mount.

They didn't stop until they were nearly a mile outside the city, and the faint glow of the palace seemed very dim. They slowed to a halt, and Sora dismissed his Keyboard. Aladdin and Cassim remained on their horses.

"They won't be able to pick up the trail until morning." Cassim said. "And by then, we'll be long gone from Agrabah." He looked at Aladdin. "I'm sorry for what you lost. But you can't go back now. You know that, don't you?"

Sora remained silent, but was still surprised when Aladdin got off of his horse. "I'm not going with you. I can't."

"You can't just go back!" Cassim protested. "The moment they saw your face, your life in Agrabah was over!"

"I have to go back. Jasmine is there."

Iago spoke up. "Kid, it's over! You're a criminal now."

"I won't do what he did. I won't run away."

Cassim got off his horse, and advanced angrily toward him. "I've never run away from anything in my life!"

"You ran away from your family!"

"I told you what happened. What else could I do? What else can you do?"

"The right thing." Aladdin took the familiar dagger from his belt, and threw it on the ground at Cassim's feet. "You should take that back. I won't walk out on Jasmine... I'm your son, but I can't live your life."

Since Cassim had been stunned to silence, Iago spoke for him. "Al, they'll lock you up!"

"If there's a punishment, I'll take it."

"But we have the oracle! The treasure's just waiting for us!"

"The oracle?" Now it was Sora who spoke.

Cassim lowered his head. He'd gotten back on his horse, and now Sora could see the familiar golden rod in a pouch attached to his saddle. "I had nothing left to lose."

"Yes you did." Aladdin began to walk away, and Sora joined him.

Iago pursued them for a short ways, "It was supposed to be a father-son outing!"

Aladdin stopped in his tracks. He held out his hand, and the parrot settled on it. "Go with him, Iago."

"What?"

"Go with him. Whatever makes you happy."

Looking slightly reluctant, Iago saluted him. "Well... Good luck, kid." And he left his hand.

Aladdin never looked back as Cassim and Iago galloped away, with the rider-less horse tethered to theirs. Sora joined him as they began the long walk back to Agrabah, and a certain punishment.

!

At this same moment, something of a meeting was being held in the hideout of the Forty Thieves. Seven people stood in the square; All that remained of the infamous band of criminals after the Agrabah guards raided the caverns.

These were some of the toughest of the bunch. The first was a large, round, dim-witted man with bad teeth. The second was a thin man with several blades in his arsenal at any moment. The third was a bony, pale-skinned man with a dirty black beard, and several lengths of rope on hand. The fourth was a short, Asian-looking man in robes. The remaining three were triplets with matching thin moustaches and chipped teeth.

"Forty thieves down to seven." The big man said. "What are we to do?"

"How did they find us?" The blade-obsessed one wondered. "How did they learn the magic words?"

Suddenly, on the far side of the square, there was a strange noise. It was as if the air itself was being warped. A corridor of Darkness appeared.

Immediately, the thieves prepared for a fight. "It is a good day to die." The Asian-looking one said.

"Or to come back from the dead." Three men stepped through the corridor, and they were all people that they had never expected to see again: Sa'luk, Klaxam, and Zexion.

"Sa'luk?"

"You're alive?"

"How is that possible?"

"Why, I'm a survivor!" He replied, walking toward them casually. "Like all of you. But no thanks to that dirty traitor, Cassim."

"You saw the King? What does he want us to do now?"

"He wants you to rot in a palace dungeon, while he keeps the Hand of Midas for his own." Klaxam said lowly.

"Exactly." Sa'luk said, bracingly. "He betrayed us! He sold us out!"

"You've always hated the King! Why should we believe you?"

"Why, how do you think the guard got the magic words?" Sa'luk asked innocently.

"Why would he give them the magic words?"

"To get you out of the way! Now he doesn't need to split the limitless treasure of the Hand of Midas! But we're better off anyway... After all, don't you remember what life was like before Cassim?"

"We used to be smart! Heartless! And that was why we were great! But then along came the so-called-King with his soft-hearted principles. And now, he's ratted us out and made us weaker than ever!" Sa'luk roared. "But now... Now we'll turn the tables on him... Are you in or out?"

!

Hope you liked it!

1) Probably the only cartoon after 2000 that wasn't total crap! I kind of miss this show, and I don't even watch cartoons anymore.

Please leave a review!