Hello again you guys! Happy New Year! We're back with part two of Halloween Town! I gotta say, I'm really excited for this world; it's one of my favorites. I still own nothing other than the plot and my OCs. Kingdom Hearts, Disney, Final Fantasy and Oogie's Revenge belong to their respective owners. Enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 62: Trick or Treat
"You see, I left Halloween Town for some time to search for new inspirations for Halloween." Jack explained to the group of world travellers. "I only just returned today to find the entire town overrun with heartless and the Mayor, Sally and Dr. Finklestein missing. This is all my fault, I should have been here. I feel like such a failure. I should have been here to protect my friends and the town." The Pumpkin King sighed in defeat.
Sora shook his head. "Don't say that, Jack. There was no way you could have known."
"Sora's right." Agreed Goofy. "You can't blame yourself, Jack."
"The important thing to do now is to get rid of all the heartless and defeat Oogie!" Said Donald.
With those words of confidence, Jack smiled. "You're right, thank you my friends."
"Right, so what's the first step?" Questioned Lea.
"I know I'm ready to knock that bag of bugs down!" Exclaimed West. "Just tell me what I need to do!"
Jack held his chin and looked up at the sky, deep in thought. "Well, Oogie did say he wants revenge on me and Sandy Claws, so he must be in Christmas Town. But, we can't even get there without the Holliday doors." Jack sighed. "I'm really worried about Sandy Claws."
"Don't worry too much Jack, I'm sure Santa can take care of himself until we get there." Said Sora. "He is Santa Claus after all."
Riku sighed. "I still don't believe that you guys met Santa."
"Oh you'll believe me when you meet him for yourself." Smirked Sora while Riku rolled his eyes.
"So, where do we start looking for these doors?" Asked Kairi.
"I think our best bet is those three bratty kids." Lea said. "Oogie Boogie did say they brought him back."
Sora nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I wouldn't put it past Oogie to hide the Holliday Doors with his most loyal followers."
"Okay, I think we'll cover more ground if we split up." Said Mickey. "I'll go with Donald and West. Goofy, Max, Riku and Lea will go together. Then Jack will go with Sora and Kairi."
"Sounds good to me." Agreed Sora. "Let's move out and catch those little pranksters!"
With that, the three groups separated and took off in three different directions and the search for Lock, Shock and Barrell began.
~*KHIII*~
Donald, West and Mickey had gone past the Graveyard and ended up in the Pumkin Patch. It didn't take them long to find Lock, who was dressed as a red devil, as usual. His devil mask covered his face, but Donald and West could just feel that evil smirk on his face.
The trio hid behind some large pumpkins as they snuck closer and closer to Lock. When they got closer, they soon found that Lock wasn't alone. Locked in a small cage beside a small group of pumpkins was none other than Halloween Town's Mayor. He looked terrified and worried with his blue face showing.
"N-now see here you-you fiend!" The Mayor spoke nervously. "J-just you wait until Jack hears about this! You'll be sorry you little brat!"
Lock didn't do anything but laugh at him. "Oh yeah?! I think you're the one who's gonna be sorry! No one's gonna stop Oogie Boogie now!"
"No way!" Donald exclaimed as he, West and Mickey jumped out from their hiding place with their weapons raised. "I think you're the one who's gonna be sorry you brat!"
Lock jumped in surprise. "Hey! It's you!"
"Donald!" The mayor exclaimed as his head spun around, revealing his happy face. "Thank goodness you're here! I'm only an elected official, after all."
"Don't worry, Mr. Mayor." Said Mickey as he pointed his keyblade to the cage. "We'll save you and the town with Jack."
"Jack?!" The mayor exclaimed happily as Mickey unlocked the cage with a beam of light from his keyblade. "Jack's really returned to us?"
"Oh no you don't! Oogie's gonna win!" Exclaimed Lock angrily as a giant heartless appeared behind him. It was a giant pumpkin Jack-o-lantern with a burning flame inside his mouth and eight thorny vines. The heartless crest was located on its back. This heartless was known as the Flaming Lantern.
Lock then released an evil laugh. "Later losers! I'll let the heartless deal with you!" Lock kept laughing evilly as he ran out of the Pumpkin Patch.
"Hey! Get back here you brat!" West exclaimed as she tried to run after Lock with her knife ready. But, she was stomped by the Flaming Lantern grabbing her with one of its thorn vines, then threw her down tot he Pumkin Patch's ground.
"Wak! Back off you stupid heartless!" Donald quacked as he, Mickey and West jumped into battle and the Mayor ran back to Halloween Town's plaza. Mickey started by throwing his Keyblade into the Flaming Lantern's head. West followed his lead by attacking the thorn vines with sharp, quick attacks from her knife. Donald then raised his staff and cast Blizzaga on the heartless, causing considerable damage. But then, the Flaming Lantern struck West with one of his vines and spat a ball of fire at Donald.
"Oh boy!" Mickey exclaimed as he raised his keyblade and struck the heartless mutiple times, each time caused more and more damage. Then, he shot a blast of light at the heartless. "Light! Give me power!" Mickey raised his keyblade into the air, healing himself, Donald and West. Then he used the last of his strength to send a giant wave of water at the heartless.(1)
With that, the Flaming Lantern was defeated. It's heart flew into the sky, then two Hollday doors appeared. The first was shaped like a firecracker and the other was shaped like a turkey; Independence Day and Thanksgiving.
"Looks like we were right." Said Mickey. "Oogie really did hide the Holliday doors with those kids." The King reached out to touch the doors, then they flew off back to their rightful place in the woods.
"All right!" West exclaimed in excitement. "Three down, four to go!"
Donald nodded. "Now let's hope the others can find the rest of them!"
"Right." Agreed Mickey. "Especially the Christmas Town door."
~*KHIII*~
Goofy, Max, Riku and Lea had made their way to Dr. Finklestein's lab. The moment they entered, they knew something was wrong. The seemingly quiet lab was filled with the sound of a girl's creepy, evil laugh that sounded familiar to Goofy and no one was in sight.
"Gawrsh, it sounds like we found Shock." Said Goofy.
"And by the sounds of it, we'd better be careful." Riku said. "I remember these kids back when I was working with Maleficent; they're crazy."
Max raised an eyebrow. "Really? We have to be that careful of these kids."
Lea shook his head. "They may be annoying, but do we really have to put our guard up that much?"
"Yeah you should!" The same familiar voice exclaimed. Then, just at that moment Shock jumped up on the examination table holding a brain in a jar. She looked just the same as before; dressed in a witch costume with a green mask covering a mischievous grin.
Goofy recognized it immediately. "That's Dr. Finklestein's brain! What are you doing with it?!"
"The stupid Doctor doesn't need it anymore." Shock laughed evilly as she playfully shook the jar. "I got him a better one!"
"Wait..." Max took a moment to take in what she said. "You took his brain out? That's just gross and weird."
"Actually Maxie, it's not that weird here." Said Goofy. "Dr. Finklestein can open the top of his head and scratch his own brain."
Lea shook his head. "No, I'm pretty sure that's just gross."
"Hey! Quit ignoring me!" Shock wined. "I'm gonna make you all pay! Get out here Doc!" Then, just at that moment, Dr. Finklestein himself rolled into the room from the shadows.
"Dr. Finklestein! You're okay!" Goofy said. He was just about to go greet him before Riku stopped him by holding his arm out.
"Stay back." Riku warned. "I can sense a powerful darkness coming from him." In the next moment, Riku's warning proved to be true. In a zombie-like state, Dr. Finklestein opened up the top of his head, revealing a small green brain-shaped heartless with yellow eyes and the heartless crest in between the eyes. This heartless was known as the Brain Parasite.
"You replaced his brain with a heartless?!" Lea exclaimed with his jaw dropped. "No way!"
"Give him back his brain, Shock!" Riku demanded.
Shock snickered evilly. "You want it? Then go get it!" With that, Shock threw the jar with the brain inside it out the window. Riku didn't waste a moment in rushing to the window to see that a Wight Knight heartless had caught the jar and was running away with it.
"Good luck with that you loosers!" Shock laughed darkly as she jumped out the window herself and ran in the opposite direction of the Wight Knight heartless.
Just then, Dr. Finklestein zoomed towards them in a zombie-like state and tried to attack them with metal claws that came out of his wheelchair.
"Hey! Dr. Finklestein! Cut it out! It's me, Goofy!" Goofy exclaimed as he pulled Max out of the way of an oncoming attack.
"It must be because of that heartless replacing his brain." Realized Riku as he jumped up to the windowsill. "You guys take care of Dr. Finklestein, I'll get the brain back from that heartless!"
Lea nodded. "You got it, Riku!" With that, Riku jumped out the window and started chasing after the Wight Knight heartless, leaving Goofy, Max and Lea to fight against Dr. Finklestein himself. They knew they had to keep him
The doctor rushed towards the group of three again at high speed, leaving them only a second to dodge. Unfortunately, Lea didn't dodge in time and gained a deep scratch on his arm. Max acted quickly and tossed Lea a potion. They barely had a chance to rest before the metal claws reemerged out of the wheelchair and rushed to attack Goofy. Luckily, he was able to block with his shield. Max then attacked with his skateboard, causing a great deal of damage. Lea followed by throwing his chackrams at the doctor's wheelchair, sending him tumbling down to the floor and causing Dr. Finklestein's head to open, revealing the Brain Parasite.
Just at that moment, Riku burst through the lab's doors, carrying the jar with the brain. The keyblade master tossed the jar to Lea while Max and Goofy pulled the Brain Parasite out of Dr. Finklestein's head.
"Gross gross gross gross." Lea wined as he pulled the brain out of the jar. At the same time, Max and Goofy pulled the Brain Parasite out and tossed it to Riku who destroyed it with one powerful strike from his Keyblade.
By that time, Lea had put Dr. Finklestein's brain back in, causing him to return to normal.
"Huh? What? What in the world is this?" Dr. Finklestein mumbled.
"Dr. Finklestein! Oh boy you're okay!" Goofy exclaimed happily as two Holliday doors appeared before them. The first was shaped like a colourful egg and the other was shaped like a green four-leaf clover; Easter and St. Patrick's day.
'What in the world happened, Goofy?!" Dr. Finklestein demanded as Riku touched both doors, sending them back to the woods. "What are those miscrients up to now?! Have they ruined another of my precious experiments?!"
Goofy shook his head. "Oh don't worry, doc. Everything's under control."
"Now let's just hope we can find the rest of those doors." Said Max.
~*KHIII*~
Jack, Sora and Kairi hurried to the Graveyard the moment they heard a familiar scream of terror.
"Sally!" Jack exclaimed worriedly. "I'd recognize her voice anywhere! She must be in danger!" Wothout a second to waste, Jack rushed towards the sound of Sally's screams with Sora and Kairi following closely behind.
Before long, they found Sally tied up beside a gravestone on the curly hill. Barrell was standing in front of her, laughing evilly. As usual, he was dressed in his skeleton costume with a smiling skeleton mask. Behind him was a giant heartless. It was a giant skeleton covered in a long, black ripened hooded cloack with the heartless crest on the back and holding a long black, red and purple scythe. This was known as the Grim Reaper heartless.
"Oogie will never get away with this! Once Jack hears about this you'll be sorry!" Sally exclaimed as she struggled against her bonds. "Why are the three of you helping Oogie Boogie?"
"Becacause it's too quiet here without him!" Barrell said. "It's too boring!"
"And it's going to go straight back to being boring!" Shared Jack, causing Barrel to jump in surprise. "Let Sally go, Barrell!"
"Uh oh! Busted!" Barrell exclaimed fearfully. He didn't waste a second in running out of the graveyard.
"Hey! Barrell, get back here!" Sora exclaimed as he ran after the prankster but he was stopped by the Grim Reaper's scythe. Knowing they had no choice but to fight, Sora and Kairi summoned their Keyblades and Jack raised his bony hands.
The Grim Reaper raised his scythe and swung it towards the three heroes. Luckily, they managed to jump out of the way just in time, causing the scythe to get stuck in the dirt. Sora used the opportunity to hit the Grim Reaper with strike raid, causing a bit of damage. The heartless then managed to free it's scythe and swung it towards Jack, hitting him and sending him tumbling into a nearby gravestone. Kairi reacted quickly, casting cure on the skeleton, then she attacked the Grim Reaper with a blast of blizzard magic, stunning it. Then, together Sora and Jack ran in and dealt a powerful finishing blow.
Once defeated, the heartless faded away into darkness as its captive heart few into the sky. Jack didn't waste a single moment in rushing to Sally's side and untying her. The very moment she was free, she pulled Jack into a tight hug. Jack didn't hesitate in hugging her back.
Then, at that moment, the final two Holliday doors appeared before them; one was shaped like a pink heart and the other was shaped like a decorative Christmas tree. Christmas and Valentine's Day.
"All right!" Sora exclaimed happily. "We found the Christmas Town door!"
Kairi nodded. "It's about time; I was getting worried." She said as Sora touched both doors, sending them back to the woods where they belonged.
"Excellent!" Exclaimed Jack. "Now we can go stop Oogie and save Sandy Claws!"
"You better hurry." Said Sally. "Please, save Mr. Santa Claus."
"Don't you worry, Sally. We'll teach that rotten Oogie Boogie a thing or two and be back before you know it." Jack said. "With Sora, Donald, Goofy and the rest of their friends Oogie won't stand a chance."
With that said, Jack, Sora and Kairi rushed back to the woods to meet up with the others and finally but one bag of bugs in his place.
And with that, we've wrapped up part 2 of Halloween Town! Next time we'll head to Christmas Town and finish this world. Then we'll see what Team Twilight is up to. See you guys in the next chapter!
(1): Mickey's limit: Fantasia