AN: Yeah, it's definitely real. You're not dreaming. It is in fact the next chapter of Kingdom Hearts...Oh, you know what this story is called by now, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't still be here.
[audience laughter]
Anyways, we're now ready for the next chapter, and for some scary fun in Halloween Town!
[audience applause]
Now, I've gotta be totally honest. When I was planning this story, this world did not really hold that much significance. I mean, yeah, there was taking down Oogie Boogie, and sealing its Keyhole, and the fact that we visited this world again in KH2, but aside from that, there was really not much happening here, story-wise. Yeah, Atlantica was the same, but I was at least able to get something into there that made it necessary, at least in regards to this story. Frankly, aside from one detail or two, this chapter mostly felt like a filler to me. A necessary one, yes, but a filler chapter all the same.
Ventus: And you don't like filler episodes that don't hold some value, right?
AN: Yep, pretty much. I did try to give a few important points in on this chapter, but they were still rather small for the most part, so that's part of the reason why this chapter was so short.
Roxas: Well, I guess that means we're going to take our time with answering reviews, or just tease people with ideas on what's to come later on in this series. Like by saying how in the sequel to this story, when the team goes to Halloween Town, you plan to have...
AN: DAH! SPOILER! [hits controls]
Roxas: Whoops. [suddenly gets zapped with a powerful blast, and then looks up to see that everything is much bigger now] Uh, when did you guys get so tall?
AN: We didn't.
Roxas: [looks to see everyone looking at him funny] What? What is it?
Ventus: Nothing. Just, don't look in the mirror.
Roxas: [looks in the mirror to see that he's only two inches tall] AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Ventus: What did I just say?! I told you not to look in the...
AN: Don't bother. No one ever listens when I tell them not to look in the mirror, so why do you think it would matter if you did?
Xion: You okay, Roxas?
Roxas: I'M TWO INCHES TALL, XION! WHAT DO YOU THINK?!
AN: Oh don't be such a baby. You'll turn back soon enough. Like by next chapter or so, give or take, but it will definitely be before you make your next appearance in this series' storyline.
Now, if we're done being silly, let's answer some reviews. First off is to "KaisakiTokura". As has been pointed out quite a few times now, there is a fractured version of Ven's heart inside of Sora, so Roxas will still be Roxas when he is created. The heart that Ven has is the one that he was given by Future Sora back in Keyblades of Future Past, so no worries there, assuming that's what you were concerned about.
Next, to "SuperSonicBros123", honestly, that had slipped my mind at the time, but afterwards, I also remembered that Vanitas had snapped the toy Keyblade in half just before his fight with Aqua on Neverland, and I don't think the Lost Boys have ducktape, so afraid that wouldn't have been likely to happen even if I did remember, or if I had found a way to work it in.
Moving right along to our old pal, "Dragon Rider 66". Glad you enjoyed the previous chapter, and you are indeed correct in your guess as to who Sora's next summon is going to be. As for Ven's noticing of the symbol on his newest Summon Charm, that will be explained later on. Probably in one or two chapters to honest. Hollow Bastion is not going to be covered entirely in just one world, so you can expect a few cliffhangers there. As for your concern about when we'll see the other original worlds, don't worry, they're still going to appear here. They're just not going to happen before Hollow Bastion Round 1. It'll be something that will happen after the fact, but before Round 2.
Speaking of old friends, let's give a quick shout-out to "Monkey D. Conan" and his continued support of both this story and so many others! You rock dude. Now, most of your questions will be answered this chapter, but as for your question/idea regarding the master-apprentice moments that Sora and Ven could have, I'm afraid that it might be a little difficult for Sora to have a moment where he gets mad enough to say that he doesn't need Ventus anytime soon, at least in this story. To be honest, that thought never really crossed my mind for this one, but maybe something like that could happen in the sequel. Though I can see there being a moment where Sora can do something that validates him as a rising master, at least in Ven's eyes. Don't worry about the Hollow Bastion moments. Those are coming very soon, and I think you might find them very enjoyable. Or fitting for the story, seeing as not all moments in Hollow Bastion, even in the canon version of the first game, were very happy memories.
Now, onto "theIrishWriter", and his questions and suggestions. First off, there were no Star Trek references in the last chapter. It was all Peter Pan related media references in there. If there was anything in there that could've been and is from Star Trek, I assure you, it did not get in there intentionally. This chapter on the other hand will definitely have at least one such reference. You'll know it when you see it. I've never actually heard of any version of the "power of belief" theory in regards to Riku, but if you have, I'd be very interested to hear it. As for your Hollow Bastion suggestion, you'll see just what kind of thing happens during that scene when we get there. Finally...well, I guess I already kinda answered your question about whether or not there would be a moment where the students feel like they're not developing fast enough and feel they're failing the master with the previous answer, huh?
Namine: Yeah, I think you kinda did.
AN: Anyways...Let's answer the review by "ronin warriors fanatic". Sorry, but Sora's not going to be learning any Tier Two Command Styles in this story, even if they are general ones. The main focus of Sora's abilities is mainly Shotlocks and the basic Tier One Command Styles, with his Unique Tier One coming to him at a very specific moment later on, which we are quickly approaching.
Moving right along to "Mr. Nobody or YARN", Ven doesn't really need to sense his splintered heart to know that it's there inside of Sora, mainly because he already knows it is there. In regards to your theory though, part of it is actually because Ven's heart is in there, but there are other factors as well. One reason is that Kairi had a dream much like that herself early on in the story, and that's partly because she had an encounter with her future self, or at least the one that came back to the past in Keyblades of Future Past, and another part is, well, like Ven said, some Keyblade wielders can have strange visions about certain events, at least as far as the ones in this story series are concerned. You could also take this as a sign that Sora's memories of that time are slowly coming back to him, which means the future Sora that went back in time is slowly making the return we saw that the end of Keyblades. Really though, the simplest explanation is that it's a whole mess of things that would give a lot of people a headache trying to figure out and then decide to just chalk it up to weird magic and time-travel related stuff.
Finally, to another old friend, "twilightnite13", the main reason I did not have Tink do that is because I have not really read the Kingdom Hearts manga, or at least not very much of it. Plus, this story's main inspiration is coming from the games, more so than anything else, so including very much from the manga would kinda go against that, at least if I'm not too careful with how I do it. Don't be too concerned with the team's visit to Halloween Town. It's not like anything terrible is going to happen here. As for your question about when the Star Wars character would be summoned, well the simplest answer is...I never did say when it would happen. But I can promise that it is soon.
Ventus: You're saying that a lot about certain events in this story.
AN: Well if I gave a specific time, not only would be giving out spoilers, but if I end up changing it later, I'd be going back on my word, and I don't really like doing either of those things. More so in the case of spoilers, as Roxas can tell you from his most recent experience with our spoiler-prevention-methods.
Xion: [holding up Tiny-Roxas by the collar of his shirt as he's thrashing around in an attempt to either get down and get back at AN] Yeah, I'm thinking we need to stick you in a hamster cage or something until further notice.
Roxas: Don't you dare.
AN: Ah relax, Roxas. She's just kidding around with you. Besides, if the thing wears off while you're in said hamster cage, you could end up slightly bruised, mostly because this studio doesn't allow pets.
Riku: Then why have you allowed Pluto and other similar characters in here?
AN:...Never mind. Let's just get on with the story, so everyone can enjoy the newest chapter. Have fun everybody!
I do not own anything from Kingdom Hearts or any other franchise mentioned in this story.
Chapter XV
Peter did not let Ventus and his friends right away, as he insisted that the blonde stop in to see the Lost Boys and share a few stories first. Ven had no real objections to doing so, but they did still have a mission to finish, so Peter settled for having Ven promise to tell those stories the next time he was in Neverland and had the time to spare. Ventus agreed with a smile, and a quick promise to Tinker Bell that they would call on her soon if the need came up, and the four soon returned to the gummi ship, hearing Peter let out a his signature crow of victory as they vanished. They did pause for a moment to store the most recently found pages from both Merlin's book and Ansem's report with the others on the ship, along with Ven placing the new summon charm in his room for when they got back to Traverse Town, but the minute all of that was done, they immediately jumped into the cockpit so that they could begin their journey back. There was just one problem that some of them could see about this next phase of their trip.
"It's gonna take forever to get back to Traverse Town, and we may not have that kind of time," Goofy reported after double-checking the interspace map just to be sure. He was not wrong, because even with the wormhole shortcut near Agrabah, it would take a week or two for them to get back. It had not been a matter of hours between each of the other worlds they had visited when going from one to the next after all, and when you combined all of that distance together, along with the fact that they were going to be flying it nonstop, anyone could tell that it would be of great concern.
Ventus on the other hand, had a better idea than going around the long way. "It might not take quite as long as you think," the blonde revealed. "Just before we left Traverse Town, Cid told me that he had installed a special gummi block on our ship that could get us to any of the worlds we've already been to in a matter of minutes to an hour at most, no matter how far away it is. He called it a Warp Gummi. All we have to do is punch in the coordinates of a world, hit the control, and we're there."
"So why didn't we use this before," Donald asked.
"Like I said, it can only take us to worlds we've already been to, meaning we need to actually reach that world the old fashioned way before we can use the Warp Gummi to get there."
"Does it matter either way? We've got a perfect shortcut back to Traverse Town right at our fingertips, so let's use it already," Sora encouraged, eager to get the ship upgraded so they could retrieve Kairi's body, save the other Princesses of Heart, knock Riku back to his senses, and stop the Heartless.
Ventus nodded then signaled for everyone to take their seats and buckle up before he began the necessary process for activating the Warp Gummi. "Setting coordinates for Traverse Town. Priming Warp-G for maximum velocity," Ventus recited as his fingers danced over the controls. He then turned to the magician of their group and said, "Donald, check the shields' status just in case. If this ends up having a nasty side effect on the ship's hull, I'd rather not arrive at our destination with only half of the Kingdom."
Donald nodded in response before looking over the status of the shields as requested. When he had finished, he reported, "Shields are all set and ready for action."
Ventus nodded in reply and resumed his work from before, continuing with reciting his actions aloud for the others. "Coordinates locked in, and course is clear. Activating Warp-G in Five…Four…Three…Two…One…Engage!" The blonde had punctuated that last word by pushing forward on the lever that would activate the Warp-G, and they all heard a faint hum come from the ship, but to their surprise, nothing else happened. The ship just remained right where it was, not moving more than a few feet forward at a slow pace like had been since pulling out of Neverland's orbit. When this continued to be the case, Ventus eventually pulled back on the lever, and the hum finally died down, confirming that the Warp-G had been activated but was not working as it should for some reason. "Okay, that doesn't seem right," the blonde muttered.
"Uh…Shouldn't we be going really fast now or something," Goofy asked.
"We should, but we aren't," Ventus replied, looking over the various readouts before him, trying to figure out what he did wrong assuming it was something on his end.
Donald on the other hand, decided to consult with their ship's engineers, and had turned to the intercom to do just that. "Hey down there. What happened? The Warp Gummi didn't work for some reason," Donald quacked to the two chipmunks.
"That's because it's not able to right now," Dale replied, gaining everyone's attention.
"Why not? What's wrong with it," Sora asked now very worried about the speed in which they could reach their goals.
"It's nothing too serious, Sora, but it looks after getting swallowed by a whale and then rammed by a pirate ship, several of the ship's systems took a serious hit," Chip reported, and they could all see both chipmunks scampering around the engine room on the screen as he gave his report. "Most of it wasn't too bad, but the Warp Gummi in particular took a really nasty hit when we collided with the Jolly Roger. It's going to take a little while before we can get it working again."
"How long do you need," Ventus asked. Time was of the essence right now, and they could not afford to waste any of it.
"Well, if we were in port at Traverse Town or just orbiting a world, we'd be able to get it operational in a couple of hours or so at most, but if we get started now and try to work on fixing it while you're moving to another world, it might take a little less time," Chip replied.
"But that's a really big maybe. Trying to fix something like that while the ship is in motion is not really all that safe," Dale cautioned.
The team all pondered their options for a moment. On the one hand, they could just start flying back the regular way and have Chip and Dale work on the Warp Gummi while they were traveling, but if there was a danger to them or the ship, then they could not really risk it. On the other hand, parking at another world so that they could work still meant that they had to wait a while before the repairs were finished, but at the same time, they would be kept busy by securing another world from the Heartless. Sure, doing so would take time, but there was no guarantee that it would take up all the time that was needed for the chipmunk engineers to finish their work, so they would likely end up just sitting around waiting afterwards, assuming that the work required that the ship remain immobile until the two were done. This was not an easy decision to make, but all the same, they did have to make a decision, and Ventus could only see one viable option to them right now.
"Start doing whatever work on it that you can safely do while the ship's moving," the Keyblade master ordered. "We'll bring the Kingdom into orbit on the next closest world so that you can make all the necessary repairs for the Warp-G." The blonde then turned to his friends who were in the cockpit with him and added, "While they're doing that, we'll secure the Keyhole of the world we end up at against the Heartless."
"Why can't we just go back to Neverland and wait for them to fix the ship? Peter did say that he and the Lost Boys wanted to spend some more time with you," Donald asked.
"Because we still have a job to do in order to ensure the worlds are safe from the Heartless. If we just sit around doing nothing while we wait for those repairs to be finished, there's no telling what could happen to any of the other worlds," Ventus reminded him.
"He's right. Even if it is only just one world, at least we'll be making sure that both the world and its people will be safe from the Heartless by locking its Keyhole," Sora agreed.
Ventus nodded in confirmation of Sora's statement, and they all quickly resumed their seats as Goofy located the next closest world. It was still a few days away from them, but no one was too extremely worried about that. After getting under way and turning the ship over to Donald, Ventus took some time to begin teaching Sora more new spells, starting with the one he was not able to master back at Olympus Coliseum: the time spell, Stop. Given Sora's newest increase in magical ability, Ventus felt that it was now safe to assume the kid would not have too much trouble with getting a handle on this particular spell now. Of course, that meant meditating for a while so that Sora could get a feel for the element in question, and gaining a feel for time magic was one of the hardest things to achieve. Even Aqua took a bit of time with learning how to feel the energies of time magic, but Ven was not going to let that stop them from trying.
It did take Sora a day or two, but after Ventus encouraged him to think about times when he felt that time had gone by too quickly or too slowly, he did manage to get a feel for time magic, and it was only a matter of actually using the spell to a desirable level now. Since this was also not going to be too hazardous to the ship, Ven thought it would be okay to practice using stop while they were enroute to their destination. The fact that it also gave him and Sora a chance to have a little fun was just an added bonus, because in order to help Sora master using Stop, Ventus actually enlisted Donald's aid, saying that the duck magician would be a kind of training dummy this time around. He did not tell Donald that though, because he had a hunch that Donald would have ranted and raved against that idea the minute he found out what they had planned.
It turned out that Sora did not need to practice too much in order to master using Stop, at least not to the same extent that he had with learning Aero Shield, because after two or three tries, Sora actually managed to use the spell to freeze Donald in place, and right at the moment when Donald had realized what the two Keyblade wielders were doing and tried to run. As a result, Donald was frozen in a rather comical position, looking like someone had pressed pause on a cartoon just when one of the characters was about to run for his life, and that alone was enough to make Sora and Ventus both laugh, both from Sora's success in mastering the spell and from the hilarity of Donald's position. Their fun did not stop there though, because after Ventus explained that anything someone did to a person while frozen by Stop immediately took effect after they were unfrozen, Sora decided to give Donald a little hit to the head that would ensure the magician would be knocked out for a while after the spell wore off. When it did, Donald dropped to the floor, out cold, and completely vulnerable to the markers that Ventus and Sora used to decorate his face with.
When Donald finally came around, Ventus and Sora had already vacated the room, so he just returned to the cockpit, only to have Goofy, Sora, Ventus, and even Jiminy laugh at the ridiculous mustache and eye lashes that the two Keybearers had drawn on his face. Donald immediately erupted into his usual fit of rage that always followed after something like this happened to him, and was about to lunge at both master and apprentice in retaliation, when Sora cast Stop and froze Donald in place once again, giving him and Ventus time to flee from the magician's wrath, but not before Ventus left a note saying that the marker they used on him was washable. That calmed Donald down a bit, but they could still hear him muttering about getting even with the two later, all the same.
"You'd think he'd be used to that kind of thing by now with how often his nephews, Chip and Dale, and even one or two other folks have done that kind of thing to him," Goofy muttered in good humor, drawing barely repressed chuckles from the others.
"I heard that," Donald shouted in retort, startling them a little.
Their journey to the next world was not all fun and games though, as they did come under attack by a swarm of Heartless ships. Most of them were easily dealt with, but there were a few that proved to be too much for the Kingdom's main gun. Thankfully, they were not restricted to just using the ship's primary gun alone, as they still had the Comet-G laser that Cid gave them way back when installed, and they were all very glad that they had installed it back when they did. The newest addition to the ship's arsenal proved to be a huge help in dealing with the tougher Heartless ships, but they were still a challenge all the same, so Ventus told everyone to remind him to purchase some stronger weapons and upgrades from Cid the next time they saw him. No one disagreed with the blonde's decision in the slightest.
Practical jokes and close calls in battle aside, the trip was largely uneventful, even with Ven promising Sora that he would teach the kid a new magic ability or two like the High Jump when they reached their destination, earning an excited cheer from Sora in response. Chip and Dale did make a little bit of progress that would ensure the repairs to the Warp-G would go much more quickly after they had brought the ship into orbit of the next world, and thankfully, they did not have to wait too terribly long after receiving this news before the ship's proximity alarms let them know that they had arrived at their destination. When they all glanced at this new world through the viewport though, some of the team got a little nervous, because it looked rather creepy for lack of a better word. For the most part, the world seemed to have a large jack-o-lantern as its base, with a creepy town resting atop the head of the spooky-faced pumpkin. They could also see a rather elaborate maze of a graveyard resting on the side, while a spooky house extended downwards from the underside of the pumpkin. It definitely seemed like a prime place for creatures of darkness like the Heartless to call home, but even so, they had to go and make sure that it would remain safe from the foul beings.
After studying this world for another minute or two and being thoroughly creeped out by the sight of it, Jiminy finally checked the computer to see what they knew about it. "According to our ship's library, this world is called Halloween Town. Its part of a larger world that has a focus on several different holidays, but the part we need to focus on is just Halloween Town itself. It's home to several different monsters and ghouls, and apparently, everyday there is Halloween."
"So that means things are really scary and spooky all the time," Goofy asked, suddenly feeling really nervous. Donald did not even try to act brave this time, because he was a little concerned by this as well.
"Yep, and that likely includes the people," Ventus confirmed. "We're going to need to change our forms again so that we don't cause any disruptions to the world order."
"Here's hoping you don't turn into a ghost without legs or something," Kairi commented to Sora.
"I don't know. Being a ghost can't be too bad. I'd be able to pass through walls and fly, after all," Sora pointed out.
"And let me guess, you'd use the former of those to sneak a peek into a girl's bathroom," Kairi accused.
"No, of course not! I'd just use it to get to certain places a lot more easily," Sora instantly defended. He then heard Kairi give out a faint giggle and realized, "You were just messing with me, weren't you?"
"Hey, don't blame me. It's kinda funny seeing how you react to that kind of thing," Kairi replied in a tone that was a little too innocent to be honest.
Sora was about to retort when Ventus called him over to the transporter so that Donald could cast the necessary spell on him once more, and the minute that the magician had done so for Sora, Goofy, and himself, the four stepped onto the pad and transported down, wishing Chip and Dale good luck in completing their repair efforts by the time they were done in Halloween Town.
Coming out of the teleportation, the team found themselves right outside the main gates of the town, and it was even creepy up close and in person than it was from the viewport of the ship. They could already hear the wailing of a few ghosts and the howls of a wolf in the distance, and those alone were starting to rattle a few nerves. When they glanced at each other, they almost freaked out completely, until they remembered the form change that they went through just a moment ago and realized who the monsters before them really were. Goofy had been altered to look similar to Frankenstein's monster, along with very raggedy clothes and a screw in the top of his head in place of his cap, while Donald had taken on the appearance of a mummy, with the most disturbing thing about his change being that there was a gap in the bandages between his stomach and waist that revealed absolutely nothing there, along with a similar gap between his right elbow and wrist.
Sora on the other hand, had taken on a very extreme change, as his skin had become very pale, almost ashen, while his hair was darker than normal, his canines were now more pointed, and a pair of small, black bat wings now extended from his upper back. Not only that, but the kid's clothes had also become completely black, appearing to be made of faded leather. His gloves were still white, but now had clawed fingers, and the grey shoulders on his jacket were one of the only other deviations from the all black coloration in his attire. The other two being how his legs now appeared to be wrapped in red and black bandages, and how an orange jack-o-lantern mask with horns covered his right eye. The final change to Sora's appearance was that his shoes were now black with pointed toes and a grey stripe in the midsection. In short, the kid looked very much like a vampire, with his blue eyes being the only part of him that seemed to shine brightly now.
Ventus on the other hand had not changed too much in the way of attire, aside from the fact that his clothes were now torn in a few places, and his armor now appeared to have a bit more rust to it, but that was really minor compared to how the rest of Ventus had changed. The man was now covered in thick, dark blonde fur from head to toe, while his ears were decidedly more pointed. In addition to that, his nose had seemed to have grown into a bit of a small snout, not too terribly noticeable, but still there all the same. His pants had become completely torn apart in the lower legs, allowing one to see that they were also very furry now, and had appeared similar to the hind legs of a wolf, while his shoes were torn open at the toes to reveal his feet had grown hairy with a set of dark claws. His fingers had also turned into a pair of thick, furry paws with equally sharp claws. Simply put, the man looked like he had gone full werewolf.
Even with their monstrous new forms, some of the team was still a bit nervous about going around in this place. "This sure is a spooky place," Goofy nervously commented, reiterating what he had said before on the ship. "I'll bet the people here are scary-lookin' too."
"Don't worry. We look spooky, too, so if they scare us, we'll scare them right back," Donald reassured his friend, now feeling much braver in his new mummy-monster form.
"You think so," Goofy asked, still not quite as confident in the matter.
Donald would have given an instant yes in reply had a sudden growling not grabbed everyone's attention, and made the team look to see Ventus irritably scratching behind his ear. "Uh…Ven, are you okay," Sora asked.
"Fine, I'm just…This fur is really itchy," Ventus growled, sounding a little too much like the werewolf he had turned into. When he realized this, he quickly lowered his hand and sheepishly said, "Sorry about that. I guess this form's a little more realistic than I was expecting."
"Just be glad that you don't fangs," Sora replied as he rubbed his jaw. "I think these things are trying to claw their way through my own mouth."
"Well at least that's the only downside," Kairi informed him. "You actually look really good for a vampire."
Sora had to pause when he heard that, and then asked, "Are you basing this off that weird vampire-romance story that everyone on the Islands was into for a short while?"
"Not even close. You know I hated that series, Sora. I honestly thought it was a bit disturbing and the furthest thing from romantic," Kairi immediately reassured him, and Sora did nod in reply to that, remembering the various rants the red haired girl had gone on about that series, and that was back when it was just a book series. When it became a movie series, she made it perfectly clear that she had no intention of ever watching so much as a trailer for one of the films if she could help it.
Eventually, Sora had to acknowledge that Kairi had said he looked good as a vampire, and his cheeks lit up a little with a small blush, which Ventus quickly noticed. "Let me guess, Kairi thinks your vampire form is hot, right," the blonde teased.
Sora immediately glared at his master in response, and then asked, "So how eager are you to take Aqua to Atlantica after we get her back? I bet you've already had a number of dreams about how she would look as a mermaid."
That shut the Keyblade master-turned werewolf up quickly enough, and when he turned away from the others to hide a blush that he was sure could be seen even under all his new fur, the others immediately chuckled in teasing of him. Once everyone had their fill of teasing and laughs, they marched onward to the town, determined to get to work in sealing the Keyhole before the Heartless could find it, and they figured that someone in town might know a clue or two on where they could start looking for it. What they did not expect was that the minute they walked through the gate and into the square, a loud bang would erupt from one of the nearby buildings along with a plume of smoke, which was soon followed by the appearance of several Search Ghost Heartless.
Seeing the Heartless appear before them so soon prompted everyone to draw their weapons and prepare to either attack or defend, and they would have had they not received another surprise that they were not expecting at all. The Search Ghosts made no threatening moves against them. In fact, they did not make any moves at all. They simply just floated there waving their arms about like they did not have a care in the world, or like they had not noticed that two Keyblade wielders and two warriors with strong hearts had just wandered into their midst. Even when Ventus and Sora both moved closer, right to the point where they were standing directly in front of a Search Ghost, the Heartless did absolutely nothing.
"Okay, this is…different," Ventus muttered, not having any other way to put it, or even an explanation behind the Search Ghosts' strange behavior. Sora did not seem like he could put it any better, because he just kept staring at the Heartless in bewilderment on why they were just sitting around and doing nothing.
Goofy and Donald were soon glancing around in hopes of finding an explanation from their surroundings, when the latter pointed out a short man in a suit, a thin top hat, and a ribbon that with the word "Mayor" on it to everyone. Judging by the bullhorn in his hand, the team had to assume that the man was about to make some kind of announcement, so they quickly moved back so that they would be close by in case the Heartless reacted from hearing what the man had to say. Just because the Heartless were not reacting to them, did not mean they would not react towards the actions of the locals.
"And now," the apparent mayor declared into the bullhorn. "Allow me to introduce the master of terror, the king of nightmares…Jack Skellington!"
The Heartless did indeed react this time, but instead of going on the attack, they actually formed a line in front of the rather eerie well in the center of town before parting for something, just in time for everyone to see a figure rising up from the well. The figure in question was very noticeably tall, and appeared to be a living skeleton dressed in a black and white, pinstriped suit, and by the time he had come up from the well completely, Ventus had to say that this living skeleton probably towered over all four of them. Add in the way he waved to the crowd as he stepped out of the well, along with his grandiose entrance, and the team had to assume that this was the previously introduced Jack Skellington. This was confirmed when they saw the mayor running up to the skeleton man in applause, while also allowing them to see that he had a very depressed looking face on the back of his head.
"Bravo, Jack! Bravo," the mayor congratulated. "Those ghosts will be a big hit at this year's Halloween!"
While he was happy for the praise, Jack did not seem all the convinced of the mayor's words, at least from where the others were standing. "Thank you, thank you," Jack nodded in reply. "But their movement still needs work. It's not scary enough. I want to strike bone-chilling terror." Hearing that made the four exchange looks between themselves. How could the Heartless not be scary enough for anybody? These were creatures that consumed the hearts of others and drowned entire worlds in darkness, for crying out loud! Then again, considering that they were just sitting there for the most part, they could understand why Jack did not think they were being scary enough. They then saw Jack brighten up a little and say, "I'm going to consult the doctor."
"Then I'll go attend to the decorations," the mayor nodded with glee before he took off towards what they could only assume was his workplace. It certainly matched the typical structure and stylings of a mayoral building.
Hearing that immediately prompted a team huddle for the adventurers, and they all had the same question on their minds. "Do you really think that they could get the Heartless to do what they're planning," Goofy asked.
"No way! I don't care how scary they may or not be. Heartless are bad news," Donald immediately replied.
"Maybe, but then again, this world does seem like the type of place where they would be right at home, at least on the surface," Ventus noted.
"Besides, it's not like they're really doing anything to anyone right now," Sora pointed out, waving to the Search Ghosts that were closest to them. Doing so made the team a little uneasy, given their history with said Heartless, and the Heartless in general, but they made sure to stay on track for now. "Maybe the Heartless could actually be of help here. I mean, if they can keep the Heartless from doing any serious harm and actually get them to make something good happen, what's the harm in trying," Sora suggested.
"I do understand your reasoning, Sora, and you may have a point, at least if you were to look at it from the perspective that all things must exist in balance, but this is still too dangerous. That Jack Skellington guy doesn't seem to realize that he's messing with something beyond his comprehension, and that sort of thing never ends well," Ventus immediately shot down.
"So uh, what should we do," Goofy asked.
Everyone thought for a minute until Sora finally said, "Why don't we follow that Jack guy and see if this doctor he mentioned can really do what they're aiming to do?"
"I think we might have to either way, kid," Ventus admitted. "If those two are going to mess around with the Heartless, it would be better if we were close by while they're doing it. Both for their safety and that of this world's."
Everyone nodded in agreement of that, and after breaking their huddle, they immediately raced off in the direction that they saw Jack heading in, thinking that it might be where this doctor he was going to see would be as well. They just had to hope that they did not get there after the two did something that they should not.
Finding the place that this doctor Jack was going to see was not too hard, nor was getting into it. Seriously, all they had to do was just walk in the front door. Ventus honestly expected there to at least be a guard dog or something waiting for them, so it was no wonder that he shook his head in disbelief over the lack of security for what he could only assume was a scientist's lab. Either this guy trusted his neighbors a great deal, or he was too arrogant to think he needed a security system. As they passed through the entrance to the lab, they also took note of a sign that read "Doctor Finkelstein's Laboratory", and they all had to pause and wonder at the similarities between this doctor's name and the name of Frankenstein. They just shrugged it off when they heard voices coming through the door, and they decided to listen in before they went any further.
"I don't understand," they heard Jack comment. "Maybe the guidance system was damaged in the explosion."
"Nonsense. My devices are always perfect," scoffed another, more high-pitched voice scoffed that they could only assume that this person was Doctor Finkelstein. Of course, they also felt that the man might be a little arrogant, given what they just heard.
"Oh, I've got it," Jack suddenly cheered. "Why, of course! The Heartless need a heart! Doctor, do you think we can add a heart to that device?"
Now the four were concerned on a number of levels. If they were to judge things off of that statement alone, then that would make one believe that no one in Halloween Town had hearts, which was why the Heartless were not moving around before. With no hearts, they could not hunt for anything but the Keyhole, so they just sat there searching for it. Then again, if that was the case, then the Heartless probably would have located the Keyhole by now, but that did not make the four any less worried. If those two really did manage to create a heart to give the Heartless, then there was no telling what might happen. Ventus especially knew that tampering with something that you did not understand was very dangerous, and there was no doubt that these two had no real clue what they were doing in trying to create a heart for the Heartless, even if it was for the purpose of trying to control the creatures for some convoluted Halloween plans. Then again, it was not like they really could just throw together a heart for the Heartless, right?
Apparently, they could do such a thing, because they soon heard the doctor say, "Certainly. A heart's not all that complicated."
"Yeah, I know quite a few people who would beg to differ," Ventus muttered to his three friends, earning some small smiles of amusement in reply.
They then listened in as Jack recited what they needed to make a heart from what they could only assume was some weird instruction manual, noting that the first thing they would need was a container with a lock. Apparently, it did not take long for them to do that, but the container in question did have a small problem. "We need the key to this thing first," the doctor informed Jack.
The four could only listen as the two searched for the key to their container, and figured that they should just go in to try and find the key before they did. No point in risking something bad happening if they did succeed in making a heart to control the Heartless, right? That was the thought process of most of the group, but Sora had a different idea. "Hey Ven, how about we help them out and unlock the container for them," the brown, spiky haired boy suggested.
"Are you crazy, Sora? Those two are playing with fire without even knowing it," Ventus reminded the kid.
"But what if they can figure out a way to control the Heartless and make them do what Jack wants them to do? Maybe if they can succeed, then the Heartless could actually be able to do some good for a world instead of just consuming it in darkness," Sora pointed out.
Ventus could see what Sora was getting at, but he had a feeling there was something more to it than that. "This wouldn't happen to have something to do with Riku, would it?"
"Well…maybe a little bit," Sora admitted. "If we can figure out a way to pull the Heartless away from Maleficent and Riku's control, maybe they'll finally stop fighting us and just give up."
"Maleficent isn't one to give up, Sora, but…if you think that Riku will jump ship and join us by pulling his control of the Heartless away…" Now Ventus could not help but wonder if the kid was right to think this idea was worth a try, but at the same time, he was reminded of the experiments that Ansem the Wise did on the Heartless, and had to think that maybe it was not truly worth it. Add in what the person who wrote the Ansem Reports had said in those pages, and Ventus could not help but wonder if they would just be repeating history by doing this.
Sora on the other hand seemed to have made up his mind, and was already preparing to enter the lab until Donald stopped him. "So, you're really gonna unlock it for them," the magician asked.
"Why not," Sora asked. "Besides, not only would we be able to help Riku, but if they do succeed, we won't have to fight the Heartless here, right? Besides, I want to see the Heartless dance, too. Don't you?"
"Not really."
"Well why don't we try it just in case," Goofy offered, putting in his own vote on the matter, and a moment later, Ventus decided to put any concerns aside for the moment and at least give this attempt the benefit of the doubt. The fact that part of him was a bit intrigued by the idea of seeing the Heartless dance had nothing to do with it. Really, it did not.
With their decision set, the four immediately let themselves into the lab, surprising both Jack, and a small man in a wheelchair and a lab coat, who they determined was Doctor Finkelstein. "Hey, what are you doing here? Can't you see we're on the verge of an incredible experiment," the doctor demanded.
"We heard, and we're actually here to lend a hand," Ventus explained, summoning his Keyblade at the same time as Sora had his.
"Oh," Jack gasped in awe. "Are you offering to open up the container for us?"
"Yep," Sora nodded, and he immediately walked over to the lab table where the doctor had set the container. He was a little disturbed by the fact it looked like an actual human heart, and that it appeared to be alive, but he shook it off long enough to aim his Keyblade at the lock and then open it for Jack and the doctor.
"My! That was amazing," Jack exclaimed once Sora was done. He then turned to the four and asked, "Uh, and you are…"
"Sora, and this is my master, Ventus, and our pals Donald and Goofy," the boy replied.
"You can just call me Ven," the blonde informed the two.
"Of course, Ven, and well done, Sora," Jack nodded in reply. "To show my thanks, I'd like all of you to be a part of this year's Halloween."
"Well, we're kind of just passing through, but if we can stick around long enough, we'd be happy to," Ventus agreed. He then looked over at a Search Ghost that was lying on the lab table, and was quickly reminded of why they were here in the first place. "Say, perhaps you could tell us what this Heartless is doing here?"
"Oh, the Heartless came to town just recently," Jack explained. "What's frustrating is I can't get them to dance with me. So the doctor and I are trying to improve the guidance system. He's quite a genius!"
"And you really think that creating a heart for them is the key," Sora asked, his nervousness on the idea now starting to creep back in.
"Yes indeed," Jack nodded, clearly missing any of Sora's trepidation on the matter, and he then turned back to his scientist friend. "Okay, Doctor, let's continue. The ingredients for a heart: Pulse…Emotion…"
"Terror," the doctor continued.
"Fear…Hope and Despair…Mix them all together, and we have a heart," Jack finished.
The four adventurers could not help but wonder about those ingredients. Sure, it did make a great deal of sense that those would needed for a heart, but the actual items that Jack and the doctor were using did not always really seem like how they would describe some of those things. For pulse and emotion, they were using a large frog, terror was a spider, fear was basically the doctor scratching against a pane of glass, and hope and despair looked to be a pair of snakes trying to eat one another from the tail up. Then again, maybe that was how those things were interpreted on Halloween Town, so who were they to judge? Instead of saying anything, the four just watched as the doctor mixed the ingredients together into the container, and then placed it on another device before rolling over to the lever he needed to pull in order to activate their creation. They all watched for a moment as a surge of electricity ran up through the machine and down around the Search Ghost, until the Heartless in question sat upright, startling the four people in the room who had the most experience with Heartless a little. It was only for a moment though, as it soon went limp and dropped back down again, while the machine itself just shut down.
"It failed," the doctor cried in despair. The doctor then went back to the book he and Jack had been reading from, and began to theorize on what had happened. "Maybe we're missing some ingredients…Let's try adding memory," Finkelstein suggested. It made sense to the others, so they all found themselves nodding in acknowledgement, but the four off-worlders could not help but flinch a little in disgust when they saw Finkelstein actually open his cranium and scratch his brain in further thought. "Sally? Sally," Finkelstein called out. "Good-for-nothing girl! Don't know why I bothered creating her! Sally's got the memory we need. See if you can track her down."
"No problem," Jack reassured the doctor, and the others could not help but notice that Jack seemed to brighten up a little bit when he heard the request. "Sora, Ven, would you like to come along?"
"Sure," Sora immediately replied for the group, earning a small look from both Donald and Ventus. Not that either of them were going to argue with the kid, but he really should not be speaking for them all as a whole like that.
Jack just grinned in response, and then led the march out of the doctor's lab in a hunt for Sally, with a bit more of a spring in his step that the others quickly noticed. They were not sure if it was due to excitement of his Heartless Halloween idea, or if it had something to do with the girl they were looking for, but it soon did not matter either way, because once they had stepped out of the lab and into its entrance hall, the mayor came running up to them. Judging by how his head had somehow spun around so that the depressed expression was now in front, he did not have good news, and all four members of the off-worlders had a pretty good idea as to what had the mayor so worried. "Jack! Jack! We have a major crisis," the mayor hollered into his bullhorn.
"You know you don't have to use that right now. We're all standing right here," Ventus pointed out, rubbing a finger in his out of irritation from having such a loud noise being directed towards him so close and so suddenly.
The mayor just lowered the bullhorn, but offered no apologies, clearly showing how stressed out he was about the crisis he had mentioned. "The Heartless are completely out of control! We can't stop them," the mayor cried, proving what Ven and the other three had already suspected.
"How did we see this coming," Donald tiredly moaned, while Ventus and Goofy only nodded in agreement.
"Maybe, but they weren't acting like they usually do before, even after we showed up. So what could've caused them to suddenly go nuts again," Sora asked.
The others had to admit that the kid did have a good point. Even if Jack had somehow figured out how to gain a limited amount of control over the Heartless without any risk to his own heart, the Heartless had still remained unresponsive to them after they had arrived in the town square. Not only that, but they did not even bat an eye when Sora and Ven summoned their Keyblades, or whatever the equivalent of doing so was for the Heartless, so why would the Heartless suddenly start lashing out like normal? Aside from Riku or Maleficent suddenly showing up to take command, none of them had any theories, but Jack was quick to think of one thing.
"Hmm…Maybe our experiment triggered something," Jack puzzled, and when they heard him, Donald and Ven both gave the tall skeleton another look that practically screamed "I told you so." Jack did not seem to notice though, because he was soon smiling again and reassuring the mayor, "Everything will be fine, Mayor. You have nothing to worry about."
"At least not while we're around," Ventus corrected for Jack, summoning his Keyblade when he did and rushing out into the square.
Sora and the others were hot on the blonde's heals, and they all quickly saw that the mayor was not kidding when he said that the Heartless had gone nuts. The Search Ghosts were now attacking various townspeople, and they were not alone in their endeavors, because the Shadows were out there too, along with some new ones that looked like mummies with long, gangly arms and legs with long barbed fingers and toes, and six sharp barbs surrounding the Heartless emblem on their small chests. When he looked in his journal, Jiminy was frustrated to find that, once again, he did not have any information on these new Heartless, but he quickly made a note of them in the journal while dubbing them as Wight Knights, and taking particular notice in how most of their attacks featured some variety of spinning, be it of their long arms or legs, and how they could also jump very far in a single bound.
Ventus had immediately gone to work the minute he crossed the threshold between the doctor's lab and into the town, and had already slain several Shadows and Search Ghosts, activating Fever Pitch in the process of doing so. The blonde was now in the midst of crossing swords with a Wight Knight or two, and managing to keep ahead of the mummy-like Heartless thanks to his Command Style's speed boost. Still, the blonde was glad that Goofy jumped in to block a rather unfriendly attack when he did, because Ven was very sure that he would not have been able to dodge the Wight Knight's last attack on him. Sora and Donald quickly joined in soon after, with the duck throwing out several spells at any Shadows and Search Ghosts that Ventus had missed before, while Sora unleashed his Radiant Blade Shotlock on a large grouping of Wight Knights.
Jack was soon joining the others in fighting the Heartless as well, and they were surprised to see that Jack actually possessed some magic of his own. The tall skeleton was throwing out blasts of lightning and fire magic with a very elegant ease, though he always seemed to add his own little flourish to it that would typically follow the stylings of a showman trying to impress his audience. That part was not surprising at all, seeing as Jack was apparently the main man to go to when preparing a big show for Halloween on this world, but no one could deny that the pumpkin king was certainly a capable combatant. The only other thing surprising about Jack's joining in on the fight was that he was so willing to destroy the Heartless. Maybe they had been in town long enough for Jack to know that the creatures were not really gone for too long if they still had something to do on a world, but whatever the case, they were just glad that Jack was not asking them to hold back so that there were still some Heartless around for his big Halloween plans.
It was not until after Ventus had finished off a large group with Wing Blade that they finally managed to get a break in the action to confirm that the town square was cleared of all Heartless for the moment, but that did not mean they were out of the woods just yet. There was always a chance that there were still some Heartless nearby that they needed to deal with before saying that it was safe to move about in Halloween Town again, and the two Keybearers were soon reaching out in an attempt to locate any large groups of stragglers. They did not have to look for long though, as Goofy quickly spotted some rushing out of the town and through a nearby gate.
"Hey Jack, where does that lead to," Goofy asked.
Jack looked in the direction that Goofy had indicated, and if he had actual eyes instead of just simply empty eye sockets, they would have most likely widened in shock when he recognized the exit in question. "That leads to the graveyard, and Sally tends to spend a great deal of time there with Zero."
"Who's Zero," Sora asked.
"My pet dog," Jack replied simply. "He'll love to meet you all, especially after we make sure that the graveyard is safe."
While they were interested to hear about Jack having a pet of any kind, they had to wonder why Zero would care if they saved one particular graveyard or not. Maybe the little guy really liked Sally, and therefore liked the places she spent most of her time at too, or maybe it was some other weird reason that would only make sense on this world. Either way, they still had to hurry if they wanted to stop those Heartless. If Sally was at that graveyard right now, then she was most definitely in trouble, so they all raced off in that direction as fast as they could.
Getting to the graveyard that the remaining Heartless had fled to was fairly easy, aside from having to swat one or two of said stragglers along the way, but when they actually reached the burial ground, the five found themselves having to fight off an ambush of several Wight Knights, Search Ghosts, and Shadows at once. Thankfully, Sora was able to thin the enemy ranks with a blast of the Ragnarok Shotlock after Ventus made sure some of them would stay in place by using Strike Raid after infusing his Keyblade with time magic, effectively unleashing the Twisted Hours ability on them instead. Sora was the next one to use time magic, this time through the spell Stop, and Donald and Goofy immediately took advantage of the Heartless' frozen state to deal as much damage as they could before the spell wore off.
When the last Heartless finally went up in smoke, everyone let out sighs of relief while Jack turned to one of the gravestones, just in time to see a small ghost with a red nose jump up from the ground in front of it. The small ghost's sudden appearance startled the team at first, but when they turned to see that the gravestone read "Zero", they quickly figured out that this must have been Jack's pet. They all had to admit, they did not see that coming, but then again, it made sense. If it had been any other kind of dog, Jack probably would have seemed like quite the tasty meal to said animal. Besides, the little guy did seem kind of cute in his own way.
After letting the ghost dog get acquainted with his newest friends, and smiling a little at how they all laughed at Zero's playful nature, he quickly asked, "Zero, have you seen Sally anywhere?"
Zero's long ears immediately perked up in happiness before the little guy flew across the graveyard to another nearby headstone, which had a creepy-looking gargoyle atop it. The minute that Zero disappeared behind the headstone, they all heard a girl let out a small gasp of surprise, and were soon greeted by Sally herself when she stood up. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were all a bit shocked at the sight of her, while Ventus merely gaped with slightly wider-than-normal eyes, as it looked like she had been stitched together and then brought to life, but they still did their best to not stare for too long. They did not want to be rude, and this was still a world full of ghosts, ghouls, and all other varieties of Halloween people and stuff.
"Is something wrong, Jack," Sally asked.
"No, everything's going great," Jack reassured Sally, excitement clear in his voice. "We're going to have the best Halloween ever. All we need now is your memory."
"Be a little more blunt about it, why don't you," Ventus muttered, not entirely sure what to expect Sally to give them after all that they had seen.
Thankfully, it was nothing too freaky, because Sally slowly produced a small twig of Forget-Me-Not flowers from her pocket as she asked, "You mean this?"
"Yes! That's it exactly," Jack cheered as he examined the flower, but the others all noticed that Sally did not seem nearly as excited as he was.
"Jack, I have a bad feeling about this," Sally attempted to caution. "Why don't you try something else? There's still time."
"Thank you! Finally, a voice of reason," Ventus cheered, unable to help himself any longer. When he noticed Sally turn to him and the others, he quickly said, "Oh, sorry, we haven't introduced ourselves yet, have we? I'm Ventus, but my friends call me Ven, and this is Sora, Donald, and Goofy. We're new in town."
Sally nodded in return with a smile, but it quickly fell when they heard Jack say, "Nothing could beat what I've got planned! Once we give the Heartless a heart, they'll dance just as I envision it."
"Or they could just go even crazier than they already have and end up hurting somebody. I mean, I don't think any Halloween plans are worth that big of a risk, are they," Goofy tried to reason.
"Oh don't worry, my friends. Trust me. You're going to love it," Jack insisted, clearly not willing to listen to any other ideas.
Jack then began his return to Finkelstein's lab, with the others all following after him, both to try and get Jack to change his mind about this Heartless Halloween, and to make sure that he and Sally made it back in one piece. They were not too concerned about Zero since the little guy was a ghost, and everything seemed to go right through him, but that did not change the fact that Jack was so obsessed with using the Heartless for a big Halloween extravaganza. Sally even brought up the idea of having Ven, Sora, Donald, and Goofy do something special in place of the Heartless again, only for Jack to shoot that idea down when he revealed that he had already offered them a place in this year's Halloween along with how Ventus had already said that they probably were not going to be around long enough for it to be possible, so it was right back to the drawing board with that.
What none of them realized was that their whole conversation had a few eavesdroppers that were giggling madly after they had heard everything: three little kids in masks by the names of Lock, Shock, and Barrel, and these particular kids were not the type who went Trick-Or-Treating for the candy. They were well-known around Halloween Town for causing all kinds of trouble, be it for their own enjoyment, or for their usual boss, and after hearing about Jack making a heart to control the Heartless, they knew that said boss was going to want to hear about this. So, they did not hesitate to race off in the direction of the most dangerous and twisted place in all of Halloween Town: the manor of Oogie Boogie.
Despite being the most fearsome being in all of Halloween Town, Oogie Boogie was not really anything too intimidating to look at. To be quite honest, the guy looked like a large sack of bugs with a face made from the folds of said sack. Yet somehow, despite his less than gruesome appearance, he had managed to find a place in Maleficent's council of villains, and he had in fact proven himself to all of Halloween Town to be the one person you should not mess with. Sure, there were the odd one or two ghouls that did not fear him, but the number that did was still good enough for Oogie. Jack Skellington was actually one of those people who was not afraid of Oogie Boogie, and he would have sent the Heartless straight for the pumpkin king for what Oogie considered to be a great offense, but there was one small problem with that. Out of everyone on Maleficent's council of villains, Oogie Boogie was the only one who could not control the Heartless. Granted, that was likely because he did not have an actual heart of his own, but from what his three little regular minions had just told him, that was about to change very easily, and Jack Skellington was unknowingly going to help him do so.
"A heart," Oogie Boogie laughed once he heard what the three had to report, getting an added bit of entertainment from how the three kids trembled before him. "That bonehead Jack is really making a heart? I'll be jiggered! That works for me. Ohh, when I get my hands on that…Well, I've got no hands, but I'm still gonna nab that heart and control the Heartless."
It was hard to really say if Lock, Shock, and Barrel were still trembling in fear or excitement when they heard Oogie say that, but to be honest, the oversized sack did not really care that much. All he knew was that he now had the key to controlling the Heartless just as easily as Maleficent and the rest of the other villains did, and he was not about to let it slip into the hands of someone who would let it go to waste, like Skellington. So naturally, when he ordered the three to go out and retrieve Finkelstein's experiment for him, he was pleased to see that they did so as fast as their little legs could carry them, and the anticipation for the acquisition of such power was growing with every second that passed.
Sally's flower did indeed prove to be necessary for the heart that Jack and Finkelstein were making, but the gang still needed to track down one final ingredient before the doctor could proceed with another attempt. Thankfully, they did not have to search too hard to find it, because the mayor proved to have exactly what they needed and was happy to hand it over to them. The doctor had called the ingredient surprise, but the item itself was a Jack-in-the-Box, though the four from another world were happy to see that this one made a little bit more sense than the other items that were used as ingredients had. Throughout it all, Sally continued trying to get Jack to change his mind about using the Heartless for their Halloween plans, and with Ventus' help, you would think that she would have been able to get through to Skellington, but Jack insisted that everything would work out perfectly, so they ended up just sighing in defeat, each having a bad feeling about all of this as they watched the doctor mix in the newest ingredients.
While they waited for the doctor to finish, Ventus took Sora aside, saying that it was time he learned another new special skill. Hearing that immediately got Sora excited, because he was hoping that Ven was about to teach him another cool finishing move like Strike Raid, or even the one that he had seen Ventus use a couple of times against Heartless use, Salvation, so the blonde was not surprised when Sora asked, "So what's this cool new ability you're going to teach me? Come on, tell me! Tell me!"
"Calm down, Sora. I can't tell you if you don't give me a chance to talk," Ventus chuckled. He then cleared his throat, getting serious once again, and said, "What I'm about to teach is actually another magic enhancement ability, but I feel that it will be extremely useful in the long run: the ability known as Glide."
Sora's face fell a little when he heard that, since he was expecting something a little more impressive than that, but his disappointment quickly turned to confusion when he asked, "Glide? But why teach me another flying ability? I mean, can't we just use Tinker Bell's summon charm to call her and have her give us a little more pixie dust?"
"Well we could, but it would not last for very long, and that's especially so in most worlds that are not Neverland. Not only that, but we can't rely on the summon charms we currently have forever. There will be a time when our current charms will no longer be useful, or when we will simply just not have them, so you need to be ready for that moment. The Glide ability is a perfect way to help do that," Ventus replied. When Sora nodded in understanding, Ventus grinned a little bit and said, "I am glad that you brought that up though, because being able to fly in Neverland may actually be a big help in your learning Glide."
"Really," Sora asked.
"Really," Ventus replied in kind. "Naturally, you would need to start by jumping up into the air, but while you're airborne, you must push the magic energy down into your hands and feet, and keep a steady stream going. This will allow you to remain airborne for a short amount of time, but in order to move in any direction, you'll need to steadily push the magic energy in a specific direction. To go forward, you push it back. To go left, lessen the push on the left side while increasing it on the right, and vice versa."
"Sounds a little complicated," Sora noticed, a hint of nervousness in his voice.
"Well to be fair, it's not like I'm making you jump off a mountain and try to get a handle on it as you fall to your death," Ventus joked, getting a hesitant smile in response that showed it was not that funny. "Okay, sorry. That was probably in bad taste. Don't worry too much. I'm going to let you get a feel for how you direct the energy from your hands and feet before I have you jumping off of anything in an attempt to use this ability. Besides, it's just like High Jump, only you're sending a constant and steady magic stream out of your body instead of a quick burst to push you upwards."
Sora nodded to show he understood, and the two spent the next hour or two working on helping kid to learn the feeling of doing just that. At first, Ventus just had the kid directing a large amount of magic down through his hands and feet so that it would eventually push him up off the ground, citing that doing so would help Sora to not only get a feel for what it was like to manipulate his magic in that way, but that knowing what it would take to push him up off the ground would make learning Glide easier, since the object there was not to stay airborne permanently, but just long enough to reach a certain distance. However long it may have taken, Sora still managed to get airborne after a while, and he held himself in that position, even going more than a few feet higher than Ventus would have expected Sora to be able to. The blonde had a hunch that Kairi's presence in Sora's heart had a small hint of influence on Sora's magic control skills, at least when it came to this particular form of magic control at the level Sora was displaying, but he was still happy that the kid was able to get through the basic start of this exercise in learning Glide.
After feeling reassured in the fact that Sora had mastered the first exercise, Ventus moved on to having Sora jump up into the air before directing his magic into his hands and feet like he had been doing in a split second. Doings so was essential to learning and mastering the Glide ability, because if one could not manipulate the magic energies in them fast enough, it would likely end up costing them dearly. Thankfully, Sora did not have to work at this for too long before he managed to jump and then stop himself from touching the ground again when he was a foot above it at most. Ven was glad to see that Sora was getting through the first two steps of learning Glide so easily, and he knew that a great deal of it involved the fact that he had learned how to fly on Neverland, but he also knew that the next exercise involved in mastering Glide was also the hardest. It was easy to direct magic flow so that you could slowly descend to the ground, but directing it so that you could move in a specific direction like Glide would let you do was a bit harder to handle. Aqua and Terra had never actually mastered the ability themselves for whatever reason, and Eraqus had mentioned once that some Keyblade wielders did not think the ability was all that useful most times, but after he had first learned and mastered it, Ven honestly believed that it was one of those abilities that was better to have and not need than to need and not have. That was why he encouraged Sora to master it. Before they could really start practicing on the third and final exercise, Goofy came out to inform them that Finkelstein was getting ready to make another attempt at his experiment, and they both quickly returned to the lab just in time to see the doctor finish loading the mixed ingredients into the container.
"There you go. This time it's sure to work," Finkelstein declared once all the mixing was done. He then picked up the artificial heart and started to carry it over to the machine he had plugged it into before, when suddenly, his wheelchair tipped forward, sending Finkelstein down to the floor, and the heart flying into the air much to everyone's surprise.
They all watched as the heart fell right into the hands of Lock, and the little devil immediately scampered off with Shock and Barrel right behind him, all laughing like mad. Sora was instantly next to Finkelstein so that he could help the doctor back into his chair again, and while the doctor was thankful for the boy's assistance, he was far angrier at the little brats that had just stolen from him than anything else. "After those little hooligans! They've stolen my experiment," Finkelstein shouted.
"And there's no telling what they might do with it. Come on," Ventus shouted, leading the chase out the door and into the town.
Sadly, they found their paths blocked by several Heartless, and ended up having to stop so that they could save the townspeople once more. Goofy and Donald had immediately unleashed some of their own special attacks to help speed things along, with Jack doing the same as Ventus and Sora unleashed some of their Shotlocks and Command Styles, but no matter what they did, the Heartless just kept on coming. When they finally finished off the spooky creatures of darkness, they realized that the three kids were now long gone, and the doctor's heart with them. Jack was not going to let that stop them though, and he immediately patted his leg to call for Zero. When the ghost dog arrived, Jack made sure to keep his orders simple. "Zero, after them, quick!"
The little fellow was off like lightning once he heard that, and the others were not too far behind him. There were also Heartless behind Zero as well, but the team had no problems with taking care of the little buggers along the way. It was just a matter of swatting them quickly that proved to be a challenge. The main reason for that was because they were still getting used to dealing with the Halloween Town variety of Heartless, adapting their strategies so that they could better defend against the newest additions to the dark creatures' line-up, but thankfully, after encountering so many different Heartless on so many other worlds, the four friends had started to be able to adapt much more quickly than ever, and Jack was proving to be just as much of a quick-study as his newest friends. It was not long before they ended up at one of biggest cemeteries in Halloween Town, and they immediately spotted the three kids riding in a walking bathtub of all things, over a long tree to a bridge on the other side of the wall. When Jack realized this, he seemed to become a little more concerned, a fact that no one had missed, but they pushed aside in favor of continuing their pursuit.
Things only got more difficult though, as yet another new breed of Heartless was quick to stand in their path, and like the Wight Knights it had a theme to it that made it very well-suited to Halloween Town. If you were to make a comparison between any form of other creature and this new Heartless, you could definitely say that this one seemed a lot like a gargoyle with its large wings, striped horns, and long talons, but they also saw that their dark grey feet were spindly and two-toed, and judging by the points on its large wings, they had to assume that said appendages were not just meant for flight. No one was really expecting Jiminy to have any notes on this Heartless either, because at this point, they figured they would have to be lucky to find anything in the journal on the Heartless on some the worlds that they were visiting lately, but this time, Jiminy did in fact find something in his journal.
"These guys are known as Gargoyles," Jiminy reported as he read from the notes in his trusted journal. "They can move from one place to another almost without notice, so they like to pull a lot of sneak attacks. Most of the time, they'll do so by turning into a ball of blue flames, but since they are prone sneak attacks, they can usually be caught off guard by counter attack. It'll attack with its claws, wings, and feet, but the most dangerous of its attacks is when it spits out a heat-seeking fireball from its large maw."
"So try to either be clever in dodging or have a defensive spell ready for that last one. Got it," Ventus summarized in reference to a strategy to use against that last ability.
While it was nice to finally have some information on a Heartless beforehand again after so long, the others were still more concerned with catching up to Lock, Shock, and Barrel before they got away with the stolen experiment. Luckily, Sora, Donald, and Jack were able to blast away several of the Heartless using magic and both of Sora's personal Shotlocks, while Ventus made sure that the Heartless were easily blown away with some well-placed Aeroga spells that brought them within striking distance of either him or Goofy. Once the graveyard was cleared, they quickly climbed the tree that the three kids had been walking across earlier, and over the wall so that they continue the chase. Once they had gotten across they found themselves standing at the bridge that led to only a closed gate, and since that was the only straight-forward path before them, they saw no reason as to why the pranksters would have gone in any other direction, so they pushed onward, only to pause when they saw what was on the other side of the gate.
Before the team was a massive, twisted tower that seemed like it had been made out of an old tree, and it definitely had the haunted house vibe to it like many other places in Halloween Town. The only difference here was that this place seemed like it actually was dangerous, and that was without taking into account that most of the walkways that lead up to and around the tower were made with really old looking wood. No, the main thing that gave them that idea was that there were several cages hanging off of long branches, what looked a lot like an oversized bear trap higher up on the tower, and the fact that one of the sections that stuck out from the tower looked a lot like a monster with an open jaw of pointed teeth. This place definitely screamed creepy in many different manners, but for Jack, it also said something else.
"I knew Oogie Boogie was behind this," the pumpkin king practically snarled.
"Did he say Oogie Boogie? As in the Boogeyman," Kairi asked from inside of Sora's heart.
"Yeah, I think so," Sora replied. "So much for that bit of disbelief."
"No kidding, but somehow, I get the feeling you'll be able to handle him. I mean, if people stop being scared of the guy when they turn like seven years old, how bad can he be," Kairi pointed out, getting a small blush out of Sora when he heard her vote of confidence.
Ventus was actually wondering that same thing, and had immediately asked Jack about it, but once he heard the explanation, part of him was sorry that he had asked at all. "Oogie Boogie is one of the meanest, vilest beings in all of Halloween Town. Most people are too scared of him to do anything against him, and he's been hoping to take over for me for years. The only reason he hasn't is because everyone knows that he would destroy Halloween forever if he was left in charge of it, turning it from the joyful holiday it's supposed to be into something that truly is completely terrible. Well that, and the fact that I'm one of the few people who isn't afraid of him and what he could potentially do."
"Okay, maybe we do have something to worry about," Kairi admitted.
"Thanks, Kairi. Glad to know you're still so confident despite hearing about how bad one silly monster is," Sora sarcastically remarked.
The two put an end to their conversation after that, because Sora needed to focus on climbing up the large tower with the others, and he did not want to fall down to the ground below. It was not a short drop after all, and they all knew that one misstep, trip, or slip could send them all plummeting down to their doom. Even so, they could not let that derail their efforts, especially if those kids delivered the heart to someone like Oogie Boogie. If he did get his hands on it and managed to successfully control the Heartless, then it would only be a matter of time before Halloween Town fell to darkness. There was no way that the adventurers were going to let that happen, and they fully intended to make everyone in this massive tower know that. That determination made the long, dangerous climb a little easier for them to handle, and in no time at all, they had made it all the way up to the top-most part of the tower, and the single building that was there.
After steeling themselves to make sure that they were ready for anything, Ventus took the lead and kicked the door open, surprising Lock, Shock, and Barrel when he did. Sadly, it turned out they were not fast enough, because they all saw Finkelstein's heart get tossed down a chute and to another part of the tower where Oogie Boogie was no doubt waiting for it. The three kids immediately started scrambling to get away while throwing whatever they could at the five intruders, but Sora was not going to have any of that, since he knew that they did not have time for any stupid shenanigans that these brats could have up their sleeves. Instead, he simply exchanged a quick look with Ventus and then raised his Keyblade up so that he would be ready to act upon receiving the right signal from his master.
The first thing that Ventus did to help deal with the three kids was unleash the spell Gravity in order to create a small event-horizon to slow the kids down under its crushing power, and Donald quickly added his own bit of star-powered magic to help in that endeavor. Once he was sure that the three were not going anywhere due to the double dose of Gravity, Sora immediately cast Stop to make sure that they were held in place, and the three immediately froze where they currently stood. Once the small event-horizon had ceased to be, Goofy and Jack simply walked up to where the kids were, and gave them each a hard bonk on the head that would ensure that they would either be knocked out or have a serious headache that would prevent them from doing anything else that would hinder their efforts to stop Oogie Boogie. When the spell finally passed, the kids did indeed drop to the ground, each complaining so much about how badly their heads hurt, but they were not getting any sympathy from the five before them, and they quickly realized that too.
"All right you three, tell us where the heart is," Jack demanded.
"Where do you think, it's with Oogie Boogie," Lock retorted.
"It's what," Donald and Goofy shouted, both of them sounding very angry at the kids.
"Hey, we were just following orders," Shock immediately said in their defense. "Oogie Boogie told us to steal the heart."
"So if he told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it," Ventus asked, hardly believing this was all just because they were doing what they were told to do.
Since it did not seem like they were going to win too many favors from these guys, Shock decided to take another route and immediately said, "It's all Barrel's fault! It was his idea to tell Oogie Boogie about the heart."
"Yeah, that's right," Lock instantly cottoned on.
"B-But you guys said…" Barrel tried to protest, not a big fan of being shoved out in front of the bus by his friends like that.
"You should be ashamed," Shock interrupted, almost sounding like she was scolding him, earning a sad sounding sigh from Barrel in response.
Sora just rolled his eyes at the three, and Kairi agreed with the sentiment by saying, "Like the old saying goes, there's no honor among thieves."
"Look, we don't care who's fault it is or isn't. Just tell us where Oogie Boogie is and how we get to him," Sora ordered.
"Oogie Boogie told us not to give away his hiding place. Oh, and we're not supposed to talk about the lever, either," Barrel immediately said, not knowing he had already disobeyed one of those orders.
"Oh, you mean this lever," Goofy asked, sounding rather innocent when he did.
"Yep, that's the one," Barrel replied, and a second later, Goofy pulled it down, and they all heard the faint sounds of something opening up in the lower parts of the tower. "Uh…oops."
"Aw don't worry. They'll never find the green door," Shock waved off.
"Green door that's likely been opened up by pulling the lever just now. Thanks for the tip," Ventus waved, and they all rushed out again, leaving the kids to their shared misery from knowing that they had just gone against Oogie Boogie completely.
As they were leaving, Goofy could not help but throw out one last comment that they all got a laugh out of. "You know, I may be goofy, but even I'm not that stupid."
Finding the green door proved to be a little more difficult than any of them had expected it to be, but to be fair, all they really knew was that it was likely somewhere on the lower levels of Oogie Boogie's manor, given what they had heard when Goofy pulled that lever. Still, they did wish that they at least had a better idea of which one of the many lower levels that could be. Of course, being able to get down there from the inside of the tower would have been a good thing too, but since they wanted to avoid any unexpected traps, they ended up climbing down the outside of the tower. The only other downside to that plan was that there were Heartless such as Gargoyles and Wight Knights attacking them almost every inch of the way down, so they did not exactly have much room to breathe as they climbed down, and defending against so many attacks at once was not exactly a cakewalk either.
Eventually, their troubles hit their breaking point, as one Wight Knight finally managed to get enough of a drop on Sora to knock him over the side of the winding path along the outside of the tower, and everyone immediately panicked upon seeing him fall off. Ventus had immediately slashed and blasted his way through whatever Heartless remained between him and where his apprentice had previously been, while Jack unleashed a powerful series of magic attacks that decimated many of the rest, leaving Goofy and Donald to finish the last ones before they all joined the blonde in looking down after the young, spiky haired boy. When they did, they were all surprised to see that despite the fact Sora was falling towards the ground, it was at a much slower pace than he should have been going. Not only that, but he had his arms spread wide, much like he sometimes would while they were flying on Neverland, and he was leaning from side to side in an effort to steer himself as he easily descended to the ground.
Seeing Sora do all of that was all that Ven needed to realize what was going on, and he immediately gained a wide grin before he began jumping up and down while doing a small dance as he cheered, "He did it! He mastered Glide! He did it, he did it, he did it!" Once again, everyone cast Ven an odd yet amused look for his sudden display of child-like excitement, and Ventus immediately turned a little sheepish after realizing that they were. "I mean…That's very impressive to have learned and mastered it so quickly."
Even with the other three rolling their eyes at him, clearly still amused by how childish Ventus could apparently still be, they all still managed to hear Sora when he shouted up them, "Hey guys! I think I found the door we're looking for! Hurry up and get down here so we can go after Oogie Boogie already!"
They did not need Sora to tell them twice, because Ventus was soon jumping down the rest of the way like his apprentice had, using Glide to carry him to where Sora was before he cast some wind magic to help make sure that the other three would safely land in the same location. The minute they were all gathered at the green, menacing looking door, Goofy quickly started passing out Elixirs and Potions to make sure that they were all healed up and ready for anything. He made it a point to mention that they were almost down to the last of their stock after this, so they now definitely had a reason to get back to Traverse Town after this was over beyond just getting the new navigation gummi installed. Low supplies aside, they were all more than ready for whatever Oogie Boogie would try to throw at them, but they were still erring on the side of caution just in case he did somehow manage to gain control of the Heartless. Jack also took this moment to warn them that Oogie Boogie was also something of a gambler, especially when it came to things in his torture chamber, which they were no doubt about to walk into, so they should keep an eye out for that, in case they figured out a way to turn the odds in their favor.
With everyone fully healed and recovered, and a plan now set in their minds, the five charged into the room, ready for whatever fight was waiting for them. When they entered the room, they could definitely see a few different signs that indicated that this was indeed a torture chamber that was styled similar to a gambling hall or two. In the center of the room was a large roulette in the center of the room, and above that they could see a large set of three blades. What had gained their attention much more quickly though, was the figure on the other side of the room that looked like a massive sack brought to life, and who would have been grinning evilly at them if he had any teeth, while Jack just glared back in response.
"Oogie Boogie, give me back the heart," Jack demanded.
"That's the Boogeyman? Wow, I can't believe that even little kids would be afraid of him. He's not anywhere near scary at all," Kairi thought to Sora.
"No kidding. Even the old sheet-over-the-head ghost costume is scarier than him," Sora agreed, while making sure to not taking his eyes off of their soon-to-be-opponent regardless.
"You want it? Well, then come on over and get it," Oogie Boogie challenged, and before anyone could stop him, he swallowed Finkelstein's experiment whole after stuffing it into his mouth. He then let out a deep laugh as he bellowed, "Now, let's see if I get their attention. Oh, Heartless!"
Everyone immediately braced themselves for the worst, just in case Oogie Boogie did manage to call forth an army of Heartless, but they all quickly relaxed a bit when the only things that appeared were a pair of Gargoyles and nothing more. Seeing this, Sora could not stop himself from throwing out a quick tease of the villain, and said, "Looks like they find you just barely more attention grabbing than you are scary-looking. Just so you know, that's a huge accomplishment since you're not scary at all from where I'm standing."
When he heard that, Oogie Boogie turned to glare at the boy until he realized just what kind of army he had summoned. "This is it," Oogie Boogie questioned, hardly believing what he was seeing. Combine that with the insult that Sora had just thrown out, and Oogie Boogie was definitely mad now, almost to the point where his next statement was almost unnecessary. "Nobody disrespects me! Nobody!"
A moment later, the torture chamber sprang to life, and the five were shoved into the large roulette by a quick explosion from behind. "Did you really have to make him even angrier than he was already going to be, Sora," Goofy asked.
"Well to be fair, Sora does have a point. He's the least scary thing we've seen since we got here," Donald pointed out in the kid's defense, much to some of their surprise, seeing as Donald almost never really agreed with anything Sora said or did. Still, it was a nice change of pace, and showed that the duck was starting to consider Sora as more of a friend every day.
Right now, they were more concerned with Oogie Boogie and whatever game of chance he was about to play on them, mainly because the first thing he did after they had fallen into the pit was throw out a set of exploding dice that would have turned them into a very nasty mess on the floor had Jack not given them a quick heads-up in advance. Ventus then tried to use High Jump to get up onto the same level as Oogie Boogie once again, but he was unable to so much as reach the ledge, much to his dismay. When he tried to get up onto the ledge of the upper floor that was closer to their level, he ended up getting blasted off by Oogie's exploding dice. Oogie Boogie was quick to try and hit Ven with another round of said dice, but a quick interception by Goofy and his shield sent those same dice flying right back at the living sack, where they literally exploded right in Oogie Boogie's face.
After wiping away any slime that was left as residue from his explosive, Oogie tried to make a run for another control in the room, but soon stopped short when a set of iron bars suddenly sprung up in front of him. Looking down allowed him to see that Jack and Donald had tripped one of the switches in the pit that would not only stop Oogie from reaching his intended target, but also allow that section of the roulette to lift them up so that they could easily reach him again. What followed next was a series of magic blasts from both Skellington and Donald that caused Oogie Boogie to fall flat on his back, since he was unable to put up too much of a great defense, but this sack of bugs was not going to go down that easily, and he proved it too, by hitting both of his attackers with another pair of dice that pushed them back down into the roulette pit. Donald was just about to try and jump back up, but the iron bars that were barring Oogie Boogie's path had lowered just as he was about to jump up, and the section of the floor with them, much to Oogie's cackling pleasure. Having seen what their two friends had done a moment ago, Sora, Ventus, and Goofy all quickly scrambled to the other switches in an attempt to corner Oogie Boogie again so that they could take a shot at him. Their efforts did not bear fruit though, because the switches appeared to be either jammed or had gone inactive after Donald and Jack had tripped theirs, so they could do nothing but simply throw out some magic like Jack and Donald were, or watch as Oogie Boogie finally reached the control he was gunning for, and pulled the lever.
A moment later, the blades that were hanging down from the ceiling quickly dropped to the floor, and everyone was scrambling to stay ahead of the blades, lest they get chopped up like butter. Somewhere in between the various slices the massive blades were making, Ventus managed to find the time to activate Fever Pitch, and it definitely helped him stay ahead of Oogie Boogie's attacks, be it by dodging, or by deflecting them back like Goofy had done earlier. Eventually though, Ventus got sick of doing all of that, and felt that they could not wait forever for those switches to become active again. Doing so would only slow them down more than necessary, and they could not waste time here all day. They still had a mission to complete after all, and not just in regards to retrieving Finkelstein's experiment. The minute he recognized all of this, Ventus immediately got a plan in mind, and quickly turned to the others.
"Sora, start hitting him with as many Shotlocks as you can. Donald and Jack, do the same but with magic. Goofy, cover us. I need a few seconds," Ventus shouted.
"You've got it," Sora replied, and he immediately raised his Keyblade so he could start firing off a barrage of Shotlocks as requested.
Oogie Boogie was about to toss another pair of explosive dice at Sora when he saw what the boy was doing, but he was prevented from doing so when Jack and Donald suddenly blasted him with Fira and Thundaga, respectively. When he did get some breathing room, it was only for a few seconds, because he was soon being hit several times over by several energy beams, courtesy of Sora unleashing the Ragnarok Shotlock on him. Sora then followed that up with his Typhoon Barrage, which was punctuated by a few rounds of lightning magic from Donald and Jack, but immediately after, he needed a minute to gather energy for another attack, and Oogie Boogie took this as his chance to toss another set of exploding dice at the three. Goofy reacted immediately, and batted nearly all the dice away with his shield, while Donald hit the last one back by using his staff like a baseball bat, and Oogie Boogie was left open to Sora's next round of Ragnarok. Oogie Boogie finally sent his two Heartless after the heroes after that, but the Gargoyles were much slower than they normally were, so Goofy and Jack were able to deal with them easily enough before returning to what they were doing before to assist Sora and Donald in their distracting the villain.
When this little barrage of long-range attacks finally ceased, Oogie Boogie appeared to be on his last legs, assuming he had any really legs, and was about to unleash every horror his torture chamber had to offer. There was just one problem with that plan: he had completely forgotten about the fifth member of his enemies' party. Ventus soon reminded him that he was there though, because the others had given him all the time he needed to get his next round of attacks ready, a fact the blonde made quite clear when he suddenly shouted out, "Command Style: Sky Climber!"
When Oogie Boogie turned to where the shout had come from, he was instantly blasted up into the air and nearly halfway across the room by a surprise attack. Turning to see who had hit him, Oogie Boogie was shocked to see Ventus before him, hovering above the ground as though he were riding a wind current, while his body was shrouded in a bright violet aura. Oogie Boogie was not sure how Ventus had managed to get out of the pit without tripping one of the switches, but right now, he did not care, because he was about to send Ventus back down into it with his friends. At least he thought he was, but when the villain tried to blast Ven into the pit, the blonde simply jumped up, much higher than he had been able to before, and remained airborne for a few seconds, completely avoiding the explosives, before he rocketed forward and sent Oogie Boogie flying into the air again. While he was up there, Ven did not hesitate to slam a few more attacks into Oogie Boogie that sent him flying across the room again, and Ven was soon flying after him.
When he was hovering before Oogie Boogie again, Ven could only smirk before he asked, "So do you still want to keep going, you overgrown hackie sack?" Oogie Boogie just snarled in response, earning him a shrug from Ventus as he said, "Fine, but just remember, you brought this on yourself. Command Style: Sky Climber Finisher!"
The next thing anyone knew, Ventus had mounted Guardian Wind like a surf board, and was blasting Oogie Boogie in a powerful spin attack, before he headed skyward and crashed back down in an explosion of light. When the blonde hit the ground though, he did not stop there, but instead, spun around in place several times over on the tip of his Keyblade, unleashing a small tornado as he did. The power from this last strike ended up making Oogie Boogie come apart at the seams, and even as the glow from his Command Style faded, Ven could only watch along with the others as the living sack's contents, which in addition to the doctor's experiment turned out to be several bugs, spilled out while Oogie Boogie cried in misery. When the last of the bugs finally dropped to the ground, everyone just stared at where Oogie Boogie had fallen, now nothing more than a lifeless rag, before they finally just shrugged and decided that they were done here.
"So that heart was a failure after all," Jack sighed in dismay.
"Oh well. It's probably for the best, Jack," Ventus said in an attempt to cheer the skeleton up.
"Yeah, besides, you can always think of something way better for Halloween, right," Sora encouraged, gaining a small smile of thanks from Jack as they finally stepped out the door and began making their way back to town. When he saw that Jack seemed to be feeling better, Sora turned to his master and asked, "So I'm guessing that was another Tier Two Command Style, right?"
"Yep, pretty much," Ventus admitted with a shrug. "That was a very special kind of Tier Two Command Style though, because its one that's unique to me and Aqua."
"Really? You mean, there are Command Styles that only certain people can use," Sora asked. He had been hoping that it was one that Ventus could teach him how to use when they finally got to that part of his training, but if it was unique to only the blonde and his long-lost girlfriend, Sora doubted that was going to happen.
"Hey, slow down there, kid. You've still got a long way to go before I can teach you anything about that level of Command Styles after all," Ventus reminded him with a chuckle.
Sora was a little disappointed to hear that, but still nodded in understanding, knowing what he had to do before he could learn too much about the next level of Command Styles. That did not mean he was not going to at least try to get a small hint to the answer for his question, but before Sora could try to start probing for them, something on Ventus suddenly started beeping, diverting both of their attentions away from the conversation. Reaching into his pockets, with some difficulty due to how much bigger his hands now were because of his current form's fur, Ventus finally managed to produce the communication device they would use to stay in contact with the Kingdom and immediately knew that they were getting a call from their two engineering friends. So, he immediately flipped it open and answered at once to see what Chip and Dale had to report regarding their status.
"Good news, guys. All the repairs are complete, including the ones we needed to do on the Warp Gummi," Chip started out.
"We can head out for Traverse Town anytime you're ready," Dale continued with glee.
"Great work, you two," Ventus congratulated. "Give us a few more minutes to locate the Keyhole, and we'll be back up and ready to move out before you know it."
Sora was grinning with excitement almost as much as his master, if not more. They were finally just about to go and save Riku and the rest of the worlds, find Kairi's body and return her heart to it, and stop Maleficent! How could someone not be excited about that? Their joy quickly disappeared though when the ground suddenly started to shake beneath their feet, nearly throwing everyone off the side of the cliff, having just crossed the bridge that lead to the main gate out of Oogie Boogie's neighborhood. When the quakes finally ceased, they all turned back to see what had happened to the villain's manor, and one look at the place was all they needed to realize that the fight was not quite over yet.
As the dust had cleared away, they were all shocked to see that the old tree that had held up and supported Oogie Boogie's manor had been transformed. Now, instead of a tree, it looked like Oogie Boogie's body had become the main body of the building after reaching massive size, and you could definitely see several remnants of the actual building sticking out from various points on the massive monster, from the small outcropped sheds to parts of the walkway. In addition to that, the cages that were held up by branches before now had massive fires inside of them, giving them the appearance of giant lanterns. Simply put, they had gone from dealing with a living sack of bugs, to a massive monster mansion, and everyone was now much more worried than they were about their previous fight against the villain of Halloween Town.
Sora was so shocked by the sight of Oogie Boogie's transformation that he barely registered Ventus telling Chip and Dale that they would have to call the two back, right to the point where he was able to form a single word in response. When he did find his voice again, he could only ask one question. "How the hell did he get so big?"
"Might be something to do with Finkelstein's experiment, if I had to guess," Ventus offered, not really sure what else to think.
Donald was about to agree with that theory until he spotted something odd that had to be pointed out. "Look! He's brimming with the power of darkness!"
When they all took another look at their now massive foe, they all saw that Donald was right. All across Oogie Boogie's body were large, dark bubbles, and even without the sensory abilities of a Keyblade wielder, one could tell that those bubbles were pockets of dark magic. Seeing that quickly helped a few ideas to start forming in, which Ventus quickly gave voice too. "Oogie Boogie must be drawing power from those dark globs, so if we take them out…"
"We can take down Oogie Boogie for good," Sora finished with a grin and a flourish of his Keyblade.
"But he's huge! How're we going to destroy them all," Goofy asked, clearly nervous about what Oogie Boogie could do to them in this state.
"Well, from what I can tell, it looks like he's rooted in that one spot, so it shouldn't be too hard to climb up his body in order to reach the globs," Jack noted, having started scanning over his old enemy's body the minute that Oogie Boogie had reappeared before them in this form.
"That doesn't mean he's defenseless though, so we'll need to be careful and work fast," Ventus noted. "Sora, you and I will head to the topmost area that we can reach and then work our way down, assuming we can get to the top right from the start. The rest of you start from the bottom and work your way up. Hopefully striking from two directions will split his focus just enough to make it hard to really put up too much of a fight."
"Right," everyone chorused in reply, and soon enough, the two Keybearers were using Glide to reach the topmost part of Oogie Boogie that they could reach, while the other three dived down to the ground below.
Of course, since it was still a very long way down, Sora was not about to let his friends just drop like that, and immediately pulled out just the summon charm that he felt would be of the most help. "Spidey," Sora called out, and a moment later, the web-swinger in question was swinging down from parts unknown, and helping to make Goofy, Donald, and Jack's descent much easier to survive. Once he had done that, Spider-Man quickly made his way back up to Sora and Ven, who had just landed on one of the topmost points of Oogie Boogie so that he could get some more info on how to help. Sora was happy to give that info. "We need you to watch our backs as we destroy these pockets of darkness, and help make sure nobody falls to their deaths."
"Not a problem," Spider-Man nodded in confirmation. "Trust me, this isn't my first rodeo, Sora. I've taken down guys way bigger than this overgrown grocery bag."
Ventus had to pause in one of his attacks on the bubble he was currently slashing at to give the web-head a weird look, until he finally asked, "What kind of place is your world?"
"Well, let's just say that it's one that's full of marvels," Spider-Man shrugged, and he immediately swung down from his current perch to the next pocket of darkness after he warned the two Keybearers of an incoming fireball.
Sora easily deflected the fireball before turning his full attention onto the pocket of darkness, only to see that Ven had already destroyed it, so they quickly moved on down to the next one just a short distance down from them. With Spider-Man watching all of their backs, it was easy to avoid most attacks, even when a few Heartless started materializing around them in an effort to try and stop them. Why the Heartless were doing that, none of them could really figure, beyond the idea that they were just following the lead of the most powerful dark being in the area at the moment. Still, they all found that they did not care right now, because taking down Oogie Boogie was the bigger priority for them all. The only problem was that it was turning out to be a long, tedious process, mostly just in order to reach the various weak points on the massive villain's body, even without the Heartless, and Spider-Man could not be everywhere at once, so he was not able to give them all an early warning every time, or even help keep everyone from falling if they got too high up on Oogie Boogie's oversized body.
The overwhelming amount of multitasking that Spidey had to do in order to help quickly showed itself in full when Ventus was suddenly blasted off the side of Oogie Boogie's body by a sudden pulse of dark energy, and while Spider-Man had sensed it coming, he was not able to warn Ven about it quickly enough, so the blonde ended up having to use Glide in order to ease his descent to the ground after telling Spider-Man to help Sora instead of him. When the blonde reached the ground again, he glanced up at his other friends and saw that they were about to meet each other at the halfway point, but that was not the only thing he saw. He also saw that a lot of the Heartless and attacks from Oogie Boogie were becoming more concentrated and centered on them, so there was a much more likely chance of someone falling to their death at any moment. Ven was not about to let that happen, and he knew of only one way to stop it from doing so. After all, why stop at just one summon, when you could use two?
"Tink, we need a little pixie dust to go with our faith and trust," Ventus shouted as he used the summon charm he had just gotten from the fairy in question. An instant later, Tinker Bell sprung forth from a flash of light, and was spinning through the air before coming to a stop near Ven's head. She looked like she was about to plant a small kiss on his cheek too, but quickly stopped herself when she noticed Ven's werewolf form. A few bells and rings from the fairy later, and Ven immediately knew that she was complaining a little about his Halloween Town getup. "Hey, I know the werewolf look isn't the most flattering thing for me, but it's not like I chose it," the blonde protested in his defense. "Look, can we talk about this later, I need you to lend us a hand. So, mind giving us your best shot, Tink?"
Tinker Bell let out a single ring in reply with a quick, playful salute, and after sprinkling a little pixie dust on Ven, she immediately flew up and spread the magic around to the others as well. The only one she did not give some pixie dust to was Spider-Man, on the grounds that he seemed to be handling well enough without it, and for some reason, she could not use any on another summon. Still, they were all glad to have that extra Neverland magic up their sleeves, and the next time that Donald and Goofy were blasted off of Oogie Boogie, they immediately found themselves hovering in midair as a result, magic their next counterattack much easier. Tinker Bell's help did not end there though, as they all quickly discovered she possessed a very impressive amount of healing magic that helped them all to recover from any injuries that they may have suffered during the fight, much to their relief, because they did not want to worry about wasting any more healing items when they had so little to spare.
Still, one person could not help but comment on the newest arrival to the team. "Did Ven just summon a fairy to help us fight," Spider-Man asked, honestly having a hard time believing what he was now seeing.
"Yeah. Her name's Tinker Bell. She's our newest friend from another world," Sora informed the web-head, not worried about whether or not Jack overheard him, seeing as it would have been hard too over the sounds of the fight.
"Tinker Bell? Like from the fairy tales about Peter Pan and all that," Spidey asked.
"Uh yeah, I guess so," Sora shrugged, not really sure what to think at learning another one of his friends was apparently well-known where Spider-Man was from.
"What next? You gonna tell me you have a magic lamp that summons a genie or something," Spidey questioned, clearly joking but not realizing how close he was to the truth.
"Well actually, he was freed from the lamp, but Genie can help us out if I summon him," Sora revealed.
"Oh come on," Spider-Man half-shouted. "Why don't you just tell me that every fairy tale I know is actually real while you're at it?"
"Yeah, you really don't want an answer to that," Ventus interrupted as he flew up to deliver a final slash to the second to last pocket of darkness.
Spider-Man just stared at the blonde for a minute before he finally shrugged and used his webs to help the two reach the last pocket a little more quickly, only to find that Jack and the others were already there, and had taken care of it for them. Spidey probably would have commented on seeing a living skeleton like he had when he saw Tinker Bell, but they were all quickly distracted from any conversation when the whole manor suddenly began to shake while a loud moan suddenly escaped from Oogie Boogie's massive-sized mouth, all indicating that they needed to get away from the manor quickly, and get away they did. It was a good thing that they had scattered when they had, because once they had reached a safe distance, they were all treated to the sight of the transformed manor collapsing like a tower of blocks, while what remained of the villain's house dropped down to the ground around the area in shambles. When the quakes and crashing finally ceased, they looked to see that there was no trace left of Oogie Boogie, and they even breathed a sigh of relief at seeing Lock, Shock, and Barrel scampering away from the area. Just because the three had been a huge part of the cause for this mess did not mean that they should have been left inside of the manor as it collapsed after all.
Seeing as their work here was done, Spider-Man threw a quick salute to everyone and vanished in a flash of light, with Tinker Bell doing the same soon after, and they were all ready to return to Halloween Town and Finkelstein's lab. Just as they were about to turn and follow the same path that the three kids had taken, knowing that they were not likely going to be able to get back up to the bridge again now that Oogie Boogie's manor was gone, a massive glow suddenly erupted from the center of where the villain's home had previous been. Turning to the source, every one of the four adventurers from another world could only gape in surprise when they saw that it was actually a massive Keyhole that lay on the ground before them, which only meant one thing. It was the very same thing that most of them were having a great deal of difficulty believing.
"You mean that the Keyhole was here, beneath Oogie Boogie's manor the whole time," Donald gasped in disbelief.
"I guess that means that more of the Heartless were showing up here because they could sense it, even though Oogie Boogie couldn't control them," Goofy guessed, knowing that the Heartless were able to do such things.
"But how did Oogie Boogie not know it was here? I mean, he's part of Maleficent's gang isn't he," Sora asked.
"I don't know about that, but it really doesn't matter now," Ventus pointed out, with Guardian Wind already summoned once again and ready to seal the Keyhole. "Like I once said before, a world's Keyhole is never where you would expect it to be, and that doesn't just go for us, but for everyone else as well. It's actually not that surprising that it could have been hiding under Oogie Boogie's nonexistent nose all this time without him realizing it."
Sora just nodded in agreement with that, and then summoned Kingdom Key so that he could help Ven to seal the Keyhole. A moment later, everyone watched as the usual light show that always followed whenever the two Keybearers did this began, though with a slight difference. Since the Keyhole was so massive and lying in the ground, the two had to aim their Keyblades upwards, and direct the usual beam of energy into the sky. When the beams were at a point that was right in the middle of the Keyhole, they split apart into a shower of light that rained down all across the Keyhole, and as usual, when the beams had faded away, a loud locking sound was heard, and the Keyhole vanished without a trace. Their primary mission in Halloween Town was finally over, but there was still one last thing that they needed to take care of before they left.
Jack was naturally upset that the doctor's experiment had failed, as was Finkelstein, but the thing that upset Jack even more was that all of his friends' warnings about the Heartless had turned out to be true, and he had to find out the hard way. All of Halloween Town would have been destroyed had he really gone through with using the Heartless for his Halloween plans, but thanks to these four folks from out of town, that disaster had been averted. Sure, it was also good that they helped to stop Oogie Boogie for good, and that was a really good thing to help brighten up the day, but Jack was honestly more upset that he had nearly done the same thing that his old foe had just did without even realizing it until it was almost too late.
"Sally, why didn't I listen to you," Jack moaned to the girl in question once they had told her and the doctor the whole story. Out of everyone there, he owed Sally the greatest apology of all. She had tried to tell him that using the Heartless was a bad idea, and yet he had just brushed it off as needless worrying. To be honest, Jack was not entirely sure if sorry would be enough.
Sally on the other hand just smiled, glad to see that Jack now knew better about his old plans, and quickly grasped his hand in reassurance as she said, "Don't feel bad, Jack. We'll come up with another plan for Halloween. Next time, we'll do it together."
Jack smiled widely at that, glad to see that he had been forgiven, and they both then turned to their four visitors so that they could address them. "Well, I guess we have no choice. We'll have to cancel the Heartless Halloween festival for now," Jack informed them.
"You mean forever, right," Ventus asked, though the look on his face was making it clear that Jack should not argue.
"Right," Jack admitted. "It's just too dangerous to be using the Heartless like that, if at all. I don't suppose you fellows would consider helping out with an even better festival?"
"Sorry Jack, but we've got to get going now," Sora apologized. "We've got some friends that still need our help, and we can't let the chance to reach them slip past us while we have it."
"I understand," Jack nodded. He then kneeled down to Sora with his hand out and said, "Here, I want you to have this. A little something I happened upon the other day while in town."
Looking down at the item Jack had just placed in his hand, Sora was shocked to see that it was another Keychain. Like many of the last few he had gotten, this one had a grey chain to it, but its token was that of a jack-o-lantern, and upon reaching out with his sense, Sora quickly discovered that it was the Keychain for the Pumpkinhead Keyblade. Sora immediately smiled in thanks for this, to which Jack replied with a request for them to visit any time they wanted, and a promise that the next year's Halloween would be the scariest ever. The promise had left Donald and Goofy slightly worried, but after all of this time here, they all had to admit that they were looking forward to whatever scary surprises Jack had up his sleeve for the next time that they were here.
While they were saying their goodbyes to Jack and Sally, Ventus could help but notice that the doctor was mumbling to himself about their attempts at creating a heart for the Heartless, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. He paid it only a little bit of mind at first, until he heard the doctor finally ask a question that he had heard once before a long time ago, and the blonde did not like hearing it again now. "What even is a heart, anyway? I can't figure it out."
When he heard the doctor say that, Ven's mind had immediately flashed back to one of the last times he had seen Ansem the Wise, and to what they had read in the recently discovered pages of Ansem's report on the Heartless, including one that he had found among the ruins of Oogie Boogie's manor. Granted, the recently found page only detailed Ansem's thoughts after he had first discovered the gummi blocks for himself, but hearing the doctor asking those questions still gave Ventus reason to be concerned. You could not blame him, because the last time that the blonde had heard those questions being asked, it had lead Ansem to beginning his research on the Heartless, along with many other events, most of which had ended very tragically, and Ventus was not about to let history repeat itself here on Halloween Town.
Without even a single second thought, Ven approached the doctor and said as calmly as he could, "Trust me, Doctor. That's a question that many people have been trying to find an answer to for longer than you can imagine, but it's also one of those questions that can have serious consequences if you try to pursue it, not just on you, but to everyone around you."
Finkelstein regarded Ven's words for a moment after that, but whether or not he would heed the blonde's advice was hard to determine, and the team did not have time to wait around and find out for sure. Right now, they really had to get going, and with the Kingdom now fully repaired, they could get back to Traverse Town and on to Hollow Bastion before you knew it. So, after one last goodbye to Jack and his friends, the four headed out the door and off to a point where they could teleport back up to the ship and continue on with their journey. Donald did stop for one last second when he spotted one of the missing pages from Merlin's book sticking out of Finkelstein's bookcase, but that was the only other pause that they took before they finally came back aboard their vessel and assumed their seats on the bridge.
"Okay, so are we all ready to go now," Ventus asked once everyone was seated and buckled up. He quickly got an affirmative reply from his crewmates, and stated, "All right then, let's try this again. Setting coordinates for Traverse Town and priming Warp-G for maximum velocity."
"Shields are at the ready just in case," Donald reported, thinking that Ven was going to ask about that again to be on the safe side.
Ventus nodded in reply to the duck and then returned his attention to the main piloting controls. "Coordinates locked in, and course is clear. Activating Warp-G in Five…Four…Three…Two…One…Engage!"
This time when the blonde pushed the activation lever forward, they not only heard a loud hum coming from the ship, but the ship also rocketed forward at incredible speed, punctuated with something that sounded a lot like a blaster being fired. The next thing any of them knew, they were all watching as stars raced past the viewport while a massive lane of gold lights spread out around the ship, providing all the proof that they needed to know the Warp-G was now working just like it was supposed to, much to their relief. Ventus quickly reminded everyone that it was still going to take about an hour at most to get back to Traverse Town, even with the Warp-G speeding things up, but right now, they were all too happy to really care about that. They were finally on their way to storming the villains' lair and rescuing both Sora's friends, and possibly even finding a clue on where King Mickey was. There was nothing that could bring their spirits down now, but while Donald and Goofy looked like they were ready to start throwing a party or two in celebration of this new success, Ventus had a very bad feeling start forming in his gut about what would happen when they did get to Hollow Bastion. Unknown to him, despite his outward appearance of being all smiles, Sora had that same feeling too, and he knew that it was only partially because Kairi was getting it as well.
Far away from Halloween Town and the four celebrating friends, Riku was groaning in slight pain and agony with almost every step that he took. Getting back to Hollow Bastion with Kairi turned out to be much harder on his own than he had originally thought it would be, so he was starting to see why Maleficent had been so insistent that he go all the way here on Hook's ship. Not that it mattered now. Kairi was here, far away from Sora and his new best buddies, and he was stronger than ever before. A moment of pain and weariness was a small price to pay in exchange for that. Still, it did not stop him from dropping to one knee and panting a little when he finally reached the room he was heading too, and the person who was already there easily took notice of the fact.
"It was reckless to bring her here without at least using a vessel," Maleficent scolded, honestly appearing as though she really had been worried about Riku's wellbeing after he had stumbled into the castle after exiting the dark portal he used to get away from Hook's ship with Kairi in tow. "Remember, relying too heavily on the dark powers could cost you your heart."
Riku was definitely feeling insulted by that, thinking that Maleficent was accusing him of being weak, and was about to hit back with a heated retort when a loud, bestial roar suddenly echoed loudly from somewhere outside, startling him a little. He was not scared of whatever had made the sound, but it was startling that the roar was so loud that he could hear it as clearly as he did, even though he knew that there was no such beast inside the castle. Still, he had to be sure of the fact, and immediately threw a look at Maleficent that demanded an explanation on the sound and what made it.
"A castaway," the evil fairy grinned in slight amusement. "Though his world perished, his heart did not. When we took the princess from his castle, he apparently followed her here through sheer force of will." After saying all of that, Maleficent could tell that Riku was making a few comparisons between himself and this apparent castaway, and that a small amount of concern was seeping into his otherwise confident demeanor. That was not something she could allow right now, and she knew just how to prevent it from happening. After all, it was high time that the boy knew a very important truth about himself. "But fear not. No harm will come to you. He is no match for your power."
"My power," Riku asked, not entirely sure he was understanding Maleficent right. His first thoughts had immediately been of the dark magic he had learned since coming here, but somehow, he got the feeling that the fairy was referring to something else entirely. Something she had known about and not told him of for reasons that were only clear to her.
"Yes, the untapped power that lies within you," Maleficent explained, her sinister grin growing more and more with each passing second. "Now, child, it's time you awakened that power and realized your full potential."
Just a moment later, Riku looked down to see the faint, green glow that had washed over him when Maleficent granted him control of the Heartless had returned, but this time, there was something different about it. It felt as though something were reaching deep inside of him in an attempt to grab at something so that it could be brought to their surface, and whatever that thing was, Riku could already tell that it was definitely unlike anything he had felt before. When this hidden thing finally surface, a look of understanding suddenly flashed through his eyes, and he immediately grinned eagerly at the thought of what was soon to come. The moment that Sora arrived here, and he knew that his friend would come, Riku knew that the kid would be in for quite a surprise that was likely to shatter everything that Sora had believed until now. He did not care what the blonde "master" that had been traveling with Sora did, but somehow, Riku knew that Ventus would also find himself facing a very serious dilemma when he arrived.
Unknown to Riku, a mysterious figure in a brown cloak was watching all of this unfold from the shadows, with a sinister grin forming on his face, while one thought passed through his dark mind. "At last the moment is upon us. I can hardly wait for when I attain the power I seek. Though I must admit, the moment of our approaching reunion is almost as difficult to wait for…Master Ventus."
AN: You see, what did I tell you? Not much of a change here aside from the presence of Ventus, who's Halloween Town form is that of a werewolf. Earlier on, someone had thrown a few suggestions on what else I could have Ven change into when he got here, but unfortunately, I completely forgot what those ideas were, and found myself unable to find where the suggestions were. Sorry buddy, but I hope this still works out okay for everyone. Besides, at least it stayed within the friendly-scare environment that Halloween Town holds.
Sora: Not to mention the fight with Oogie Boogie was really short, and that's for both rounds.
AN: Hey, like I said, this ended up being mostly a filler adventure with one or two important things happening. Such as Sora learning both Glide and Stop, along with everyone finding out what Ven's Halloween Town form would be, and the first summoning of Tinker Bell.
Goofy: And we got to see Spider-Man get summoned again too! That was pretty fun.
AN: Yeah, that was great. Here's hoping he's not the only summon that will get an encore appearance. I mean, I really hope I can make sure that every other summon gets another chance to shine, but it's kinda hard to really say for sure right now. Especially since some summons haven't been acquired yet.
Not only that, but Ven showcased another one of his Tier Two Command Styles: Sky Climber, the one that both he and Aqua have, as was previously mentioned during the story. Bet you guys were all just itching to see that in action in this story, huh? Yeah, I definitely wanted to use that at least once in this story, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity for Ven to use it. I'm sure we all remember how the first fight with Oogie Boogie was more tedious than hard, right? So of course Ven's going to figure out the best way to make it go by more quickly and easily is to use that particular Command Style. You see, this is why I say that the fight with Oogie Boogie went much more quickly and was much easier than before: because Sora's not only stronger, but he's also got a full-fledged Keyblade Master helping him in the fights.
Now, on another note, we're all headed back to Traverse Town to gear up for storming Hollow Bastion, and it looks like the other side is making some preparations of their own. Of course part of that does include that little scene between Riku and Maleficent at the end, and I'm sure we can all guess who Mister Shadowy Figure in the background is, right? Right. All-in-all, a lot's going to be happening in the next chapter alone.
Donald: Why can't you just tell them to read the preview and leave it there for things like that?
AN: Hey, I'm getting to that! Haven't you ever heard of build-up? Sheesh. Show people. Anyways, as I was about to say, Onto the Preview!...
The team returns to Traverse Town to complete all the errands they need to, which allows Sora to have a quick moment with Kairi, and Ventus a chance to awaken the Summon Charm he had acquired from Hook's ship. What none of them know is that the next stage of their journey may likely be their most difficult yet, as many revelations await them just seconds after they arrive on Hollow Bastion. Just what is it that will leave Ventus and Kairi in such disbelief? How will Sora be able to keep going when he receives a spirit-breaking revelation? Can they depend on the massive beast they encounter to help them? What will Ven do to show his apprentice that his faith in the boy is not broken? And what will come about when all is said and done? The journey's final stages are starting to begin, next time.
So yeah, I'm sure you've all figured out at least one or two things that are going to happen in the next chapter from that alone, and I'm betting you're all on the edge of yours seats in eager anticipation for it, but for now, I only ask one thing of you all...
Please read and review, and see ya real soon!