Author's Note: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or anything affiliated with it. The rights to it belong solely to their respective owners.
Ch.35 Lock, Shock and Barrel
(Point of View Change: 3rd Person)
After the Dexal, Sora and the others had defeated the Heartless they took the Mayor's advice and searched the graveyard. Dexal passed by a tombstone that looked like it was for a dog, and once he did the ghost of a dog with a pumpkin on the end of its nose rose from the grave. It floated behind him without my knowing, and once he looked back it dove under the ground. "Did you guys see something?" he asked. "Like what?" Sora replied. Dexal shrugged. "Must have been my imagination," he muttered, before continuing his search. The ghost dog rose back out of the ground and continued following him, staying just to where he couldn't be seen from behind. Dexal looked back again but he was gone, and so he took another step forward.
Then the ghost dog drew in a huge breath and let out a loud howl, and Dexal shouted before leaping into the air. "What the-?!" Donald shouted, spinning around and shouting from seeing the apparition as well. Goofy and Sora made similar sounds of fright, but Jack on the other hand smiled. "Zero! So this is where you've been!" he said, walking forward. Dexal cast Zero Gravity to cushion his fall, and dismissed it once his feet were below him. "That thing is yours?!" he asked, annoyed. Jack nodded. "His name is Zero, and he is my pet," he said. Zero barked in confirmation, and Jack pulled out a bone before tossing it. As expected, Zero literally flew right after it. Dexal crossed his arms, still slightly miffed. "Okay, so we've found your dog. Would he happen to have seen Sally anywhere?" he asked.
"I'll ask," Jack replied, before snapping his fingers. Zero flew back to him and dropped the bones, which Jack picked up. "You can have this Zero, but I need you to do something first. Do you know where Sally is?" he asked. Zero barked and nodded, and flew towards a gravestone that was tucked away to where someone would have missed it at first glance. There was silence for a second, before a woman merged from behind it. "Good job, Zero!" he said, and tossed the bone again. Dexal blinked. He had heard Dr. Finkelstein when he said he had "created" Sally, but now he knew that the doctor had meant it. Her skin was a pale gray/blue, and covered with stitches from where her limbs had literally been sewn together. Her dress was much the same, mostly pale pink and gray but with a patch of yellow on her left shoulder and green on her right.
Her hair was long and brown, parted in the middle and reaching her waist. The last touches were her red lipstick, eyelashes, and small black shoes with black-and-white-striped socks. "Is something wrong, Jack?" Sally asked. "No, everything's great. We're going to have the best Halloween ever! All we need is the memory you have," Jack told her. "'Memory'? You mean this?" she asked, pulling out a Forget-Me-Not. "Yes, that's exactly it! Thank you, Sally!" Jack said, putting it in his pocket. "Jack, I have a bad feeling about this. Why don't you try something else? There's still time," she said, her voice full of concern. "Nothing could beat what I've got planned! Once I give the Heartless a heart, they'll dance just as I envision it. Trust me. You're going to love it!" Jack promised.
Sally was silent, and Goofy said "So, uh, shouldn't we go and give this to the doctor?" We all nodded and began to walk back, Sally following behind. Once they were gone one the coffins shuddered before the lid burst open, and three kids jumped out. "Lock!" one with a red outfit and a devil mask said. "Shock!" a girl with a green mask and pointed hat said. The last one, with a skeleton outfit and mask, said "Barrel!" "Did you hear that?" Barrel asked. "Yeah, I sure did! A heart! What should we do?" Lock asked. "Gosh, you really are stupid! Isn't it obvious?" Shock asked. Lock was silent, and Barrel said "Tell Oogie Boogie!"
Back with the the group, they had returned to the Lab and given the doctor the Forget-Me-Not. "Yes, this is it. Now, we need just one more ingredient," he said. Dexal raised an eyebrow. "And what would that be?" he asked. "We need 'surprise' to complete the heart. The mayor should know where it is," the doctor said. "Very well. Sally, you stay here," Jack said. "Alright. But be careful, Jack!" she called after him. On the other side of town Lock, Shock and Barrel were huddled together, shaking with fear as Oogie Boogie stood in front of him. He laughed. "A heart? That bonehead Jack is really making a heart? I'll be jiggered! That works for me! Ooh, once I get my hands on that... Well, I've got no hands, but I'm still gonna nab that heart and control the Heartless!" he said.
(Point of View Change: Dexal)
I sighed as we walked out of the lab, intent on finding yet another ingredient for the experiment. "These dancing Heartless had better be worth it," I said. "Fear not; they will be," Jack said. I nodded. "Good." We found the mayor in the Boneyard, and I asked "Excuse me, but would you happen to know where we can find something that has 'surprise'?" The mayor was silent, thinking. "Hmm. Well, there are ghosts that rise from these tombstones. If you can open them in the order that they appear, I'm sure you'll find what need. Just don't get them wrong!" he warned. Jack nodded his thanks and turned to the graves. There were five in a row, and the first one appeared from the center, then middle left, and last the far right. Sora tapped them with his Crabclaw in that order, and there was a loud ding.
"Well, that takes care of the first pattern," I said. The next one went like this: far left, middle right, far right, and then center. Again Sora hit them in the same pattern, and the last pattern was twice as long. Middle right, far left, center, middle left twice, far right and then center. Sora frowned as he tried to remember the pattern, but got it right and a pumpkin behind us exploded. We spun around and looked at it, seeing a Jack-in-the-Box sitting inside. "Think that'll do it?" I asked. "It should," Jack said, and he picked it up. We walked back to the lab and handed it to the doctor, and he smiled. "Finally, we have all of the ingredients!" he said. He placed the heart back in the table with the Box and the Forget-Me-Not, and he pulled the lever once more. Again the heart and the items were raised into the air by bolts of electricity, and they spun as they drew closer together.
They met in a bust of light that was brighter than before and blinded us, but when it faded the heart was sitting on the slab... and beating. "Wonderful! It worked!" Jack said. Dr. Finkelstein sniffed. "Of course it would; my designs are always perfect," he said. Sally had been sitting silently in the corner until now, but now she stood. "Jack, are you still sure about this?" she asked. "Indeed I am! With this I can now get the Heartless to dance as I want them to, making this Halloween the best ever!" he said, grinning hugely. "Well then, you might as well get started," the doctor said, picking up the heart and turning to us. But just as he did I caught a flash of movement, and I small kid with green hair dressed as skeleton jumped down from the ceiling.
"Ya!" he said, and he knocked into Dr. Finkelstein's chair. The old inventor cried out before falling over, and two more kids dropped down to grab the heart. "We got it! Let's go!" the one with the red mask said. They all nodded and ran out, kicking up trails of dust in their wake. "What the-? Hey! Get back here!" I called, running after them. We chased them down the steps, and Sora looked at Jack. "Who were those three?" he asked. "Their names are Lock, Shock and Barrel. They're Halloween towns best trick-or-treaters, but they also work for Oogie Boogie, who's always been trying to steal the show from me," Jack explained. "Think they might have stolen the heart for Oogie Boogie?" I asked. "Let's hope not," Donald said.
We made to the town square, but the three of them were nowhere in sight. "Aw! We lost them!" Goofy said, hanging his head. "Fear not!" jack said, and he put two fingers in his mouth before whistling loudly. A few seconds later Zero flew towards us, and Jack said "Zero, find Lock, Shock and Barrel quick!" Zero nodded and began sniffing around on the ground. I crossed my arms and waited, and after a minute the dog barked before flying off in the direction of the graveyard. "Come on! Let's go!" Sora said, and we all nodded. We followed after Zero, and once we reached the Graveyard we saw them over the edge of the wall walking along the top of a hill. "They're already ahead!" Donald urged us. We were about to leave the Graveyard when a pack of six Wight Knights and three Gargoyles.
I glared at the Heartless. "Out of our way!" I said, and I summoned my Stormfell before casting Thundaga Shot. An orb of lightning fired from my Keyblade and hit the Heartless, unleashing an explosion of electricity that automatically killed two of the Knights. Jack followed it up with Chilling Terror and flung his hand out, firing an ice crystal that hit one of the Gargoyles. It didn't burst on impact though, and flew back to hit the Heartless from behind again. It did so again and again a total of seven times, and the Gargoyle let out a cry of agony before bursting into shadows. Donald cast Stop and froze one of the Knights, before Sora swung down and hit it with a double overhead blow.
After a second the spell wore off and the injury appeared, the monster split in two. Goofy blocked a swipe from another Gargoyles and used Tornado, spinning around on one foot and moving towards the Gargoyle. It cried out and tried to fly away, but Goofy stopped and used Rocket, firing himself into air and dive-bombing into the Heartless. It crashed to the ground and struggled, before falling limp and fading away. I slashed one Knight away before casting Triple Firaga, sending a trio of fireballs at another. The Heartless burst into flames and flailed around, before finally falling over. Jack pulled his arm back before punching another Knight right in the face with a bone fist. It made a sound of surprise before falling back, and Sora was there to stab it in the stomach from behind.
Donald cast Gravity and pulled the last Gargoyle to the ground, and then he cast Aero to knock it right back up. Goofy used Tornado again but this time it worked, and he nailed the Heartless right in the stomach. I called "Brutal Blast!" and swung my Keyblade around, hitting the last Wight Knight hard enough to, as the description said, "knock it into next year". It knocked into the Gargoyles and they both died, the hearts they released rising into the sky. I dismissed my Keyblade. "We're falling behind. We have to go!" I said. Sora, Jack and the others nodded, and we resumed the chase.
The mad dash to get the heart is on, but can Dexal and the others recover it? What will happen when they fight Oogie Boogie? Find out next chapter!
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