Sora arrived in Dalmatian Plantation in a flash of bright light. He looked around and found himself standing upon a snow covered field near an old country farm. Something also felt a little off.
"Okay, the Reaper's Game message said that one of the Sisterhood was here. Where is she, I wonder?" Sora commented to himself.
"Sorry to tell you this, but she's not here at the moment." A voice said from nearby. Sora turned and came face to knees with, at first glance, appeared to be a tall teenaged boy with long ash-blond hair.
"Uh…who are you?!" Sora asked.
"Joshua, Reaper 3. You must be Sora…although you're not exactly what I expected." The boy said as Sora arched an eyebrow.
"Huh? What are you talking abo-…" Sora said before absently starting to scratch behind his right ear but paused when he realized he was scratching his ear with his right leg. He looked and saw a body of fur. He had taken the form of a brown furred Akita Inu, the fur on his head and tail being excessively spiked. His collar was made of black leather but had his usual crown necklace around his neck over the collar. His collar had a small charm shaped like his shoulder guard.
"What the-?!" Sora yelped as Joshua knelt down to his level.
"Looks like the same thing happened to you as it did, Nixe and that friend of hers." Joshua commented sympathetically but while subtly snapping a picture with his phone, mentally planning to forward it to Shiki later on.
"Well, my clothes are magic. It's a long story. This isn't the first time this sort of thing has happened." Sora muttered, shrugging off his newly discovered "Puppy Form."
"I'll take your word for it. But while you're here, you may want to consider heading towards that farm. I saw the Sisterhood's associate in this world headed there." Joshua said as Sora looked towards the farm, sniffing the air, picking up a strangely familiar scent on the wind.
"I smell…dogs?" he asked but got no response. When he turned back he saw Joshua had vanished.
"Well that was rude." Sora heard Xion say in his mind.
"Rude?! That's what you took away from that just now?! He vanished into thin air! Every time that happens it's usually with someone with supernatural powers." Roxas argued as Sora started racing towards the farm building, following the scent of dogs towards it.
"Aaaaand wielding an oversized key and using fantastic magic powers isn't freaky?" Xion countered, Roxas immediately falling silent. Sora soon reached the exterior of the barn, the smell of dogs still strong inside. As he approached the front doors, he caught the scent of more dogs, only he could tell these dogs were older, approaching from a different direction. He turned and saw two adult Dalmatians, a male with a red collar and a female with a blue collar, approaching quickly, following a huge clustered trail of dog tracks left in the snow on the road.
"Come on, Perdy! We're almost there!" the male dog said as they ran, passing Sora as if he wasn't there.
"I'm right behind you Pongo!" the female replied, causing Sora to blink in surprise.
"Pongo? Perdy? It can't be-…" he stammered, quickly chasing after them. He saw them run inside of the barn where the two were immediately set upon by at least a dozen Dalmatian puppies while 84 others sat atop the hay bales nearby. This was all eerily familiar to Sora.
"Dalmatians?! Oh no not this again!" Roxas and Xion both groaned in unison. The 15 puppies were all crowded around Pongo and Perdita, the two older Dalmatians both ecstatic at seeing the puppies again.
"Are we all here then? All 99?" Pongo asked.
"Uh-huh and we had help." "A German Shepherd and a Husky helped us escape from those two goons!" "And the Shepherd had one of those big keys like that one guy did!" The puppies explained as Pongo chuckled in amusement.
"Oh I doubt that Sora would find us all the way out here." Pongo commented.
"Don't be too sure of that." Sora said as he entered, all 101 of the Dalmatians looking towards him in curiosity.
"I beg your pardon, but who are you?" Pongo asked curiously as Sora came to a stop in front of the two.
"Pongo, Perdita, it's me, Sora!" Sora said as Pongo and Perdy both looked at him curiously, sniffing the hair on his head before blinking in surprise. For a brief moment they saw the human teenaged boy standing before them.
"Wha- By jove! Sora! It is you! What the devil are you doing here?! And how did you end up looking like that?!" Pongo asked excitedly as Sora shrugged.
"It's a long story. But are you and your puppies in trouble again?" Sora asked as Pongo and Perdita both nodded.
"Afraid so ol' chap. Don't suppose you could lend us a paw and help us find a way to get back to London could you?" Pongo asked as Sora scratched his head again with his hind leg in thought.
"Hmm." Sora pondered when they heard the sound of a motor attempting to turn over outside. They looked and saw a moving van had broken down in the middle of the road outside the farm. The driver was just getting out to check the engine when Sora noticed the word "London" printed on the address on the side of the van.
"London! Hey! That truck's heading there. We can all stowaway on that truck!" Sora said as Pongo and Perdita both nodded in agreement.
"Right. Come on kids! Let's move!" Pongo ordered but the puppies didn't move, clearly afraid.
"What's the matter?" Sora asked.
"What if she's out there?" one of the puppies asked.
"Don't worry guys, no one is going to put you into chests again while I'm around." Sora said as the puppies all looked at each other, clearly inspired by Sora's words of encouragement. They then started to quickly rush out into the street, following Pongo and Perdita while Sora lingered behind and watched them hurry. As they ran they all froze when they heard the sound of a car horn blaring outside.
"Horace! Jasper! Where are you idiots?!" a woman screeched. The puppies were scared stiff.
"It's her." One of the puppies said, shakily. Sora furrowed his brow and headed out into the street, the puppies quickly continuing in silence as they hurried for the back of the truck. Sora stepped out into the street, stepping out past the moving van and looked a little further up the street where a menacing red car sat facing their direction with an angry looking woman in a fur coat sat behind the wheel. Two stooge-like men then approached the car from ahead of them.
"They're afraid of her?" Sora asked, confused.
"Can't say as I blame them. She's u~ugly." Roxas commented.
"She also looks like she'd make Braig look sane." Xion added as Sora turned back towards the puppies as they hurried to the truck, Pongo and Perdy helping them on as fast as they could.
"Why would the puppies be scared of her though, whoever she is?" Sora pondered, one of his ears pivoting towards where the woman and her goons were talking. Actually it wasn't so much as a friendly chat, more like the woman verbally assaulting the two men.
"You idiots! You've lost them again! I can't trust either of you! A year ago we were so close and just as we had them all in the chests, the chests disappear because of your stupidity!" Cruella yelled, but this caused Sora to pause in his tracks.
"Chests? A year ago?!" He asked as he turned around and looked back towards the woman's car and her two henchmen.
"W-W-We didn't mean to lose them Ms. De Vil!" Jasper stammered fearfully.
"I did not arrange for them to be recaptured again just to lose them ONCE AGAIN because of you idiots! When those chests came back the last time, they were all empty! I don't know who opened them but whoever it was will pay for that!" Cruella spat. She and the henchmen were suddenly silenced by the sound of a dog's growling. They turned and saw an angry looking Akita Inu standing in the road next to the moving van.
"Cripes! Not another one of them mongrels!" Horace yelped, attempting to back away.
"Shut up you fools! It's only an Inu!" Cruella hissed, sneering at the dog.
"It was you!" the Inu yelled, speaking perfect English, causing all three of them to be taken aback in surprise.
"Gor blimey! It talks!" Jasper yelped, leaping into Horace's arms.
"You were the one who locked all those puppies into those chests a year ago?! Do you have any idea how big of a pain it was to free them all?!" Sora asked as Cruella's eyes widened.
"What? It can't be!" She stammered in disbelief as the Inu's collar shimmered slightly before a bright light enveloped it. When the light faded, Sora was stood in his human form, his Keyblade in hand.
"I'm Sora, and I'm the one who freed the puppies!" Sora said, earning a look of disbelief from Cruella. That look started to quickly shift from surprise to pure and unbridled fury.
"You…rescued the puppies?" She asked in soft spoken anger. She immediately revved her car but Sora quickly hit the car's bonnet with his Keyblade before casting a Thundaga on the car, striking it in the radiator and causing a cloud of black smoke to start billowing from beneath the bonnet.
"You're not going anywhere this time! I'm going to see to it that these puppies get back to their rightful owners!" Sora said, absently motioning to the moving van just as its engine turned over and started up. Cruella noticed his motioning to the van and snarled as Sora hopped onto the back of the van, riding it as it rolled off down the road, away from the farm. Cruella could see the Dalmatians in the back as it drove off, Horace and Jasper watching as well.
"Looks like this is it." Horace commented.
"Oi! What about our boodle?" Jasper asked he turned back towards Cruella but froze in alarm as he heard a feral growling coming from her. Her eyes fixated on Sora and the puppies as they disappeared into the distance. Jasper suddenly felt Horace pulling him away from Cruella as her car started to rattle, the radiator grill starting to snap across the front, the broken grill slats starting to quiver and rattle like a pair of teeth, the smoke from beneath the bonnet starting to cover the whole car, making its way back towards the cab as Cruella's skin and clothes started to turn pure black and her eyes a bright solid yellow, her hissing and growling continuing as she and her car was enveloped in the black smoke.
…
Further up the road, Sora was now seated on the back of the van, sitting in the doorway while Pongo and Perdita sat next to him, the puppies all huddled down in the furniture in the back of the truck.
"Thank you, Sora. She won't be able to catch us now." Perdita said as Sora looked at them.
"Was that woman really the one responsible for locking up all the puppies a year ago?" Sora asked as both Pongo and Perdita nodded.
"Quite so ol' chap. If it wasn't for you, our puppies would've been made into a coat for her to wear." Pongo explained.
"Well she won't get you this ti-." Sora said but was interrupted as his Keyblade suddenly appeared in his hand.
"Uh-oh. Heartless." He said as he stood up in the back of the truck. He looked behind them and saw a cloud of black smoke racing towards them. (Battle Music Cue: The Tumbling – BBS).
"Pongo! Look! Cruella!" Perdita exclaimed as Cruella's car emerged from the smoke but it was noticeably different. The headlights were swiveling, glaring straight at Sora while the broken radiator grill snapped and shifted like a pair of serrated teeth. The Cab was filled with smoke but there was a pair of angry yellow eyes glaring out from the driver's side with Cruella's trademark black and white hairstyle. Sora immediately knew what had happened and dropped into his fighting stance, staring straight at the hood ornament depicting a very familiar symbol.
The Symbol of the Heartless!
"Not anymore! She's become a Heartless!" Sora exclaimed before quickly throwing his Keyblade forward slightly, activating his Keyblade Glider and leaping onto it while summoning Two Become One, the Glider following the moving van. The sight of Cruella's Raged Royce Heartless form immediately put Sora in mind of the Hot Rod Heartless he had encountered in Timeless River. The Raged Royce slowed down slightly before lunging forward, its mouth opened in attempt to bite at the Keyblade Master but Sora quickly swung at the Heartless, smacking it in the grill, causing it to lose control for a moment before fishtailing back onto the road, continuing its pursuit of the moving van. The van then came to a sharp turn near the top of a hill, the Raged Royce quickly lurching forward but missed Sora, instead attempting to force itself between the hillside and the van, trying to force the van over the edge.
"Oh no you don't!" Sora said as he back flipped onto the top of the van before firing off a Thundaga, zapping the Raged Royce on the bonnet again, causing it to fishtail backwards. Sora dismissed his Keyblade Glider and proceeded to replace Two Become One with the Kingdom Key as he dropped back into his fighting stance on the roof of the van, watching as the Raged Royce continued its pursuit, snarling and growling as its headlights glared at Sora. The Raged Royce then proceeded to lunge forward again, this time firing off a large cannonball of dark energy which Sora quickly ducked before spinning around and blasting it with a Blizzaga, the ice from the attack causing it to veer off the road just as the truck arrived at a bridge. The Raged Royce proceeded to smash through the barricades next to the road, plummeting down into the snow filled riverbed below.
"Is that it?!" Pongo asked from the van below but Sora knew better as the van cleared the bridge. Sure enough they heard a monstrous roar before seeing the Raged Royce come vaulting out of the riverbed, smash through a tree, and land back on the road. The car's bonnet was ripped off by the tree, exposing the engine as purple/black flames flew from the engine's exhausts. Sora quickly slapped his shoulder guard, summoning his armor before rearing back and blasting the Raged Royce right in the grill with a Firaga spell, the spell exploding in its face and causing it to lose control for a moment, losing ground on the van. Sora quickly seized the opportunity to drop down onto the ground, rolling forward before turning back to face the approaching Raged Royce.
"Sora! Look out!" Pongo yelled but Sora was ready. Before the Raged Royce could reach him, he quickly cast a Reflega, causing the car to smash into it and get hit head on by the resulting burst of light magic. Sora quickly turned and started to run back towards the van but could sense the Raged Royce approaching. He quickly drove his Keyblade into the ground and leapt up to stand atop it just as the Raged Royce collided with the Keyblade, the weapon proceeding to slice through the Raged Royce right down the middle. They could hear Cruella letting out a scream of fury as the Raged Royce was split in two and veered off the road before exploding in a burst of black/purple magic, a large pink heart floating up from the wreckage which rapidly disappeared, the "De Vil" license plate clattering to the ground next to Sora, the plate battered and dented. (End Battle Music). Sora stared at the spot where the Raged Royce had crashed for a moment before he heard a scream of anger.
"NOOOOO! That was a one-of-a-kind! Where am I supposed to get another car like that?!" a woman yelled from nearby. Sora turned and saw, on her knees on a nearby hill, was a woman in a white cloak with a hood over her head. He immediately turned and dropped into his fighting stance towards her.
"You! You're one of the Sisterhood!" Sora exclaimed as the woman looked towards him.
"I might've guessed it was you! You're really becoming a nuisance for us. I think this is the second time you've defeated one of our minions. That's the second time we've been denied access to a world's Keyhole because of you." Fifth commented as she stood up, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Good! Because I'm not going to rest until I've rescued Namine! Where is she?!" Sora asked as Fifth scoffed.
"Normally I charge a fee for that kind of information but you are our enemy and I have my orders. Stop looking for our sister. She's not interested in returning to you. Now scram!" Fifth ordered before disappearing in a Corridor of Darkness, leaving Sora alone in the countryside. Sora looked further down the road and saw the van disappearing into the distance towards a large city. Sora knew Pongo, Perdita, and the puppies would be safe now and proceeded to dismiss his armor and Keyblade.
"Wow, you actually defeated one of the Sisterhood's minions." A familiar voice said from behind him. Sora turned to see Joshua approaching with his hands in his pockets.
"Joshua." Sora commented, surprised to see him.
"I've notified the Reaper's Game about your progress. They'll notify Master Si'Lea and Aqua about your securing this world. This is bound to make the Sisterhood very angry." Joshua explained as Sora shrugged.
"I'm just doing what I can to help. If helping the worlds and stopping the Sisterhood means getting one step closer to helping Namine, I'll do it." Sora replied, Joshua nodding with a thoughtful expression.
"A quest to help your friends. You really are a selfless person aren't you? Heh, you probably would go pretty far if you were in the real Reaper's Game. Might even win it." Joshua mused, confusing Sora.
"Huh?" he asked but Joshua merely smiled and gave a dismissive wave.
"Just thinking out loud. Don't worry about it. Anyway, thanks to you, my mission here is complete. I'll be returning to Steadfast Stadium until I get new orders. Drop in sometime Sora." Joshua said as he turned and started to walk away.
"How are you going to get back?" Sora asked as Joshua paused and looked over his shoulder towards Sora with a smirk.
"I have my ways." Joshua replied before a pair of white ethereal wings appeared on his back, surprising Sora, before kneeling down and launching off the ground, rocketing straight up into the sky, disappearing in a twinkle of light. Sora was blinking in surprise.
"Cre~epy." Xion commented as she and Roxas both manifested, all three of them looking up at the sky where Joshua had disappeared.
"We should probably be moving on. Didn't those puppies mention something about a dog with a Keyblade?" Roxas asked.
"Yeah so that means Nixe's already been here." Sora said as he summoned his Keyblade Glider, stepping onto it.
"Which makes me wonder where Nixe is now." Roxas commented.
"And if Riku really is with her." Xion said softly.
"Yeah, that's the biggest mystery. Riku denies being here and yet everyone we've run into has said he's with Nixe." Sora said as they took to the sky.
"You think he's lying?" Roxas asked.
"Roxas, we both know what Sora's thinking. He trust's Riku." Xion replied as Roxas nodded.
"You're right. But there's something eerily familiar about this. The thought of Riku being in two places at once? Seems strangely familiar." Roxas commented.
"Yeah but all I can think of is that whole incident with the Neo-Beings but that just doesn't feel right with me." Sora said as he took to the stars…
Meanwhile in the Palace of Eternity…
"Cruella's gone?!" First asked in disbelief.
"Apparently the Apprentice of Master Aqua, this Sora, was responsible for releasing the ninety-nine Dalmatian puppies we captured for her over a year ago but lost when their worlds fell into darkness. When Sora revealed himself, she succumbed to her greed and anger and lost her heart, becoming a Heartless. He then proceeded to slay her Heartless." Fifth explained as First scowled.
"And we lose yet another minion." She grumbled before noticing Fifth had a look of consternation on her face.
"What is it?" First asked as Fifth scratched her head.
"I'm not entirely sure. The boy, Sora, he seemed…familiar somehow. Like I should know him." Fifth said as Fourth and Sixth both entered the main room.
"The name is familiar to me as well." Fourth said in her haughty tone, Sixth nodding silently in agreement.
"The name doesn't sound familiar to me at all. Is Second in position to intercept Aqua's Apprentice when he arrives at the Stadium?" First asked.
"She is." Fourth replied.
"Good. And where is Seven?" First asked.
"I last saw her headed into the basement. She seems to be exploring the Palace." Sixth replied as First looked contemplative.
"Sister?" Fifth asked, curiously.
"Five, I want you to retrieve Third from the Lantern Kingdom. Tell her I want her to use her power to keep an eye on Seven." First instructed, surprising the other sisters.
"You want to spy on our own sister?" Sixth asked, surprised, earning a dark glare from First.
"The tide has turned against us lately sisters. We've lost two minions and our efforts to capture Si'Lea's apprentice have been thwarted by a mysterious boy who seems to be immune to our powers. I suspect sabotage." First explained as the sisters all looked at each other.
"What if it's not? What if you end up spying on her for no reason?" Fifth asked while Fourth scoffed.
"Her? Please. She's not that foolish." Fourth commented as First glared at them.
"Then Third's observation will prove Seven's innocence beyond all doubt, won't it, and I know just the way to test her loyalty." First replied, none of them unaware that their conversation had been overheard by a certain Mouse King lingering outside the door.
End Chapter 41
So it seems First is especially suspicious of Namine. Will Mickey find a way to warn her or is Namine in certain danger?
This chapter concludes the 101 Dalmatians world.