With Ruby's moment of simpering immaturity out of the way, the group entered the...a room that could be referred to as nothing less than bizarre. Not that everything else they'd seen hadn't been bizarre already, but this one was particularly so. Were they...upside down?
As if confirming that this was the place that they were told to go, the Cheshire Cat appeared, leaning atop one of the...apparent ceiling slants with his ever present and slightly unsettling grin. "They're hiding some where. And the momeraths outgrabe. Want to find the shadows? Try turning on the light." And with that cryptic riddle, the Cheshire Cat vanished again.
"The whateraths outwhat?" Ruby asked, confused as everyone else by the downright nonsensical words the cat spoke. Even Weiss didn't seem to know what it meant as she gave an equally confused shrug. "That cat is...so unsettling." she commented with a shake of her head. By now, 'unsettling' didn't even begin to cover how the feline made them feel. But at the very least he...seemed to be on their side?
"What do ya think he meant by that?" Goofy asked, bringing their attention back to his riddle. "'Want to find the shadows? Try turning on the light.'" Donald repeated, stroking his beak as he waddled further into the room. Nearly everything the Cheshire cat said felt like a riddle which they didn't have time for.
As they tried to figure it out, the group was suddenly beset upon by a group of heartless. Several of those soldier-like ones, the red ones with the strange hats-like heads, along with a contingent of shadowy ones.
"Is that what he meant!?" Ruby exclaimed, brandishing Crescent Rose as everyone else did the same with their weapons. As they cut down, smashed, and magicked the Heartless down one by one, eventually the room was cleared, and yet...What light was he referring to? They didn't have time to think as suddenly, Ruby shouted out "Roly-poly!"
The group turned to see another one of those rotund Heartless appear and lumber toward them. Remembering what Weiss did in their previous fight, Sora got an idea. "Goofy! Draw its attention!" Sora called out, preparing to run around the rotund Heartless. "Can do!" the guard captain said affirmatively. Fortunately it didn't take much as the fat Heartless swung at him, only for him to raise his shield and deflect the blow. As a result, Heartless stumbled and scratched its head in confusion like before.
Seeing his opening, Sora dashed behind it and struck the Heartless three times in the back, his unleashing his last strike with a laugh of cheerful victory. It tumbled forward and turned to him with its eyes locked on nothing else but the one who assaulted him. An unnerved feeling crossed Sora as it smacked its belly then charged full tilt at him, both large arms billowing behind itself.
Donald ran behind into its blind spot, unleashing another Fire spell. The magic flame impacted against its back and made it vanish with a pained lurch, the heart it captured flying up into the air before vanishing. "Weiss was right. Those ones are vulnerable to back attacks and stuff like magic. Looks like putting them together though does even more."
"Just as I suspected. Take note of it for future reference." Weiss stated proudly. Rub smirked and Clasped a hand upon her friend's shoulder. "That's Weiss for you. The smartest girl I know." Her compliments didn't seem to flatter or amuse Weiss who stared at her with a heavily unamused frown. "Ruby, by your standards, that really doesn't say much."
"Hey, look." Goofy called out, interrupting whatever hurt comment Ruby was about to retort with. He seemed to be pointing to the lanterns on the table. "What? The lanterns? What about them?" Sora asked, looking between said lanterns and Goofy. "Didn't that Cheshire Cat fellah talk about turning on lights? Lanterns make light, don't they?" Goofy's simple minded realization sparked a needed bout of inspiration for Donald. "Goofy? Give me a boost." Though not certain what his friend had in mind, Goofy helped Donald up to one of the tables. With a wave of his staff, Donald launched a Fire spell, and just like that the lantern was ignited. The light from within seemed to make the shadow of the table grow.
"Oh! So that's what he meant!" Sora said with realization. Hopping up as high as he could, he climbed up the table as well. When his fire lit the lantern as well, the shadows around the tables grew even more. He jumped in surprise as the Cheshire Cat emerged again, giving more unclear words to them. "All the lights are on. You'll see the shadows soon. They'll arise in this room but somewhere else. The shadows might go after the doorknob, too."
And yet again, the Cheshire Cat vanished as cryptically as he appeared. "Why the doorknob?" Ruby asked. The doorknob didn't seem very special apart from being grumpy and sleepy. The inquiry drew a shrug from Sora. He couldn't see why the Heartless would go after that lethargic piece of sentient brass. "I dunno. But if they're where I think they are, then maybe we'll be able to stop them. Let's head back to that first bizarre room!" Sora said...realizing again after saying it aloud, how silly and redundant that sounded.
After a great trek out of the upside-down room, through the tea-party room...with of course a brief little lip trembling moment of sadness from Ruby at the sight of those crumbled cookies, through the lotus forest, and fortunately past an ever bumbling search party of the Queen's cards, the group soon found themselves in the Bizarre Room again.
With of course a reminder that they were indeed in their small forms. Sora was having such a hard time keeping up with this.
"That cat better not be leading us into a trap." Weiss said, making it clear how little she trusted the riddling feline. The white haired heiress stopped suddenly, eyes widening with brief surprise as sure enough, there he was. "Speak of the devil." Weiss remarked making her way to the table with the bottles of concoctions for shrinking and growing was none other than the riddling feline in question, waiting patiently for them.
Grinning his, by now trademark, grin, the Cheshire Cat stood up from his relaxed position and looked at Sora as he and his friends scrambled up after Weiss. "Alright you little pinstriped furball. Where are these 'shadows'?" she asked demandingly, having lost her patience with these games of his.
Ruby winced a little at her teammate's bluntness, but the Cheshire Cat didn't seem to mind as he stood up and looked to Sora. Possibly slightly offending Weiss in the process, if that glare was anything to go by. "The shadows shall be here soon. Are you prepared for the worst? If not, too bad."
Just as everyone exchanged a confused expression at yet another Cheshire Cat riddle, Goofy noticed the cat was pointing upward and gasped. "Look up!" The ceiling was the same floor as the last room they were at with the tiny tables with lit lanterns. That wasn't what he sounded frightened for though. From the shadows created by the lanterns, something big crawled out of it and leaped at them. It landed on the ground before somersaulting to the other side and towering over the surprised five friends.
It had the Heartless emblem on the top of its long, tube like head that had multiple faces and a tiny body. The attached limbs were like four legs but a pair of them were connected by pointed shoes at the heels to appear as only two and the arms were zigzagged, almost looking like paper as it unfolded them the same way. In both of the clawed hands were a pair of batons as it juggled them around.
"I was right! He WAS leading us into a trap!" Weiss shouted angrily as she and the rest of the group readied their weapons.
"How could you trick us?!" Sora asked, equally upset. "Tricked you? Nothing of the sort. The Cheshire Cat is always there to help the weak." The Cheshire Cat said, ever smiling as he watched the others rush into battle, only to immediately struggle and run about to avoid the giant Heartless' bladed stomping swinging weapons. Swiping, slinging, flinging, and thrashing, this Heartless was nothing short of utterly crazy like the rest of this world.
Everyone tried striking its feet, but the blades were too dense. Going for the legs was too difficult due to its erratic stepping, squatting, and stomping about. They might have needed to aim higher but the height difference was problematic. "How are we supposed to fight this one?!" Goofy asked, keeping his shield up to defend against the creature's juggling flurries. This Heartless was different than the one they fought in Traverse Town. And Weiss certainly had no such experience against Heartless of this size. The last time she'd fought something this big, it was an Atlesian Paladin. She could only hope that this thing was easier than one of those.
Of course, their current progress left a lot to be desired as their strikes to its feet weren't very effective. If the feet were out of the equation, then it would have to be its upper body. As the creature tried to stomp on the group, they hopped away with Ruby shifting Crescent Rose to its gun mode, before opening fire at its head. Sure enough, the head lurched from the shot, making the creature stumble. "Its upper body is the weakness!" she called out to the rest of the team.
Though it was a helpful discovery, how would those without ranged weapons be able to even hit it? Sora looked at the juggling Heartless as it tried to stomp its bladed foot on Ruby, then back at the table, and suddenly an idea struck him. Jumping up onto one of the chairs, he climbed up onto the table as the others distracted it. And in an act of desperation, he jumped with all his might, Keyblade a-swinging, and struck the Heartless in the back.
Beyond all expectations, the creature suddenly doubled over and wobbled dizzily. Did...Sora just find a weak spot? Either way, they weren't going to waste this opportunity. "Let's get it, guys!" Sora yelled, going to town on the Heartless, and soon being joined by the rest of his team. Of course, even with their combined effort, this Heartless was no pushover despite its spindly frame. Such was clear as its head twitched and it began to rise again, swiping at its attackers with its juggling batons. As if realizing what gave Sora that opening, it turned toward the table, raised its batons up, and slammed on the table, making it merge into the ground.
"Well, there goes THAT advantage." Donald said equal parts worried and thinly framed Heartless twirled its batons around and came to them again. Everyone focused on it, preparing for whatever it might do but to their surprise it walked right past them. "Uh, where's it going?" Goofy asked in confusion.
It went to the chimney and oven, looking at the stove curiously before fidgeting with it. "It can't be making a snack in the middle of a fight, can it?" Sora asked curiously with a hand to his chin. "But do Heartless even eat food?" Ruby said, mimicking Sora's chin stroking. "What are you two talking about?! Of course it's not eating!" Donald exclaimed with irritation. Of all the ridiculous assumptions to make-
"Look out!" Weiss exclaimed, drawing the foursome's attention back to their foe. The Trickmaster had turned around, brandishing its batons again. But now, they were covered in flames. Everyone watched in shock as it swept at them again. Donald's tail was set ablaze and he rand around in circles, squawking in pain and flailing his arms. "WAAAAAAK! WAAK WAAAAAK!" The Heartless turned to the rest and unleashed several balls of fire, forcing them on the defensive again. Though they managed to narrowly avoid the worst of it the back of Goofy's trousers were ignited from his own close call. "Yeow! Hot! Hot! Hot!"
The Cheshire Cat chuckled while watching from one of the nearby chairs and shook his ever-smiling head. "Oh dear. You'll never get anywhere like that. Perhaps I should lend you a hand?" With a snap of his paw, Sora's Keyblade started glowing. Sora gasped with surprise as he looked at the light blue color spreading down along the blade. Frosted air surrounded the weapon carrying a most intense chill. "Even the Keyblade wielder should know a little bit of magic, right? Sora perked up in surprise and turned to the Cheshire Cat. While this likely wasn't the time for it, he couldn't help wondering, "How do you know about-?"
"Sora!" Weiss shouted, dashing to his side and pulling him away from a fireball that nearly hit him. "Don't space out, you fool! Focus on the enemy in front!"Sora got quite the wake-up call as Weiss tugged him out of the path of a fireball launched by the newly ignited batons of their foe. Stumbling from her sharp tug, Sora readied himself as the spindly Heartless crossed the blazing batons in front of itself. Then, Sora got an idea. If the Cheshire Cat gave him this frigid magic to fight this thing...and ice and fire were polar opposites...That's it!
"Donald!" Sora called out to the wizard duck, the tip of his keyblade shimmering with the frigid magic. Seeing what Sora was getting at, Donald raised his staff just as the Heartless launched another fireball.
Sora and Donald dashed toward their enemy, jumped as high as they could, and thrust out their staff and keyblade.
"Blizzard!"
"Freeze!"
The two of them unleashed a doubled flurry of icy crystals at the juggling Heartless, and upon impact, it not only doused the flames on the batons, rendering its attempt to char them useless, and caused it to reel back and crumble again. "Yeah! Take that!" Sora cheered. But before he could make a move to finish it-
"Freeze? Sora the spell is called Blizzard." -Donald brought up a most absurd objection toward Sora's name for his newly acquired spell.
"Huh? What's the problem with that? It shot cold stuff didn't it?" Sora objected, not seeing the issue. Of course, Donald being Donald...
"Of course it matters! The spell is called Blizzard! Not Freeze!"
"What does it matter?! It's just a name!"
Ruby, Weiss, and Goofy had reactions ranging from anxiety since they still had an enemy to fight, irritation because they still had an enemy to fight, and mild amusement because-
"Oh for goodness sake!" Weiss finally had enough of their squabbles and decided to finish it herself. Pushing the duck and boy aside, thus halting their argument. Sora's eyes widened with surprise while Ruby sported a smile as Weiss raised two of her fingers and swept them along her blade, then along where she stood, conjuring a snowflake-like glyph at her feet.
Just as the Trickmaster regained itself as Weiss squatted down and suddenly dashed at a speed comparable to Ruby atop her glyph. She easily avoided a swipe from the baton before Weiss jumped clean over the Heartless, unleashing several precise strikes with her Myrtenaster. Another glyph appeared in midair, providing a diagonal platform for the Schnee heiress, providing just the footing she needed to move in to strike more at the Trickster's lowered torso. Having suffered significant damage, it finally started to crumple, but Weiss wasn't done yet.
Her moves were almost like a dance with her blade. Glyph after Glyph rose with her gesture, providing her vantage after vantage to strike the Heartless. For the final blow, she leaped up in the air with it and swatted the Trickster's batons away from its center. Now wide open, Weiss seized her opportunity, reeling her sword arm back as she stood upon an airboren glyp. All of the Dust in her weapon glowed at the same time, creating a radiant, blazing white as the same symbols appeared on the guard and blade. She gripped her weapon tightly as she summoned one last glyph, charged forward, and pierced right into the Trickmaster's chest. Weiss skidded across the ground gracefully as she stood up slowly. Right behind her, the fell and its body slowly vanished with only the giant heart inside rising out of the black smoke then disappearing too.
Everyone beheld the spectacle in awe, except for Ruby who looked on with the proudest of smiles. "That's my partner." she said with equal pride as the air filled with what looked like snowflakes. Once again, the Schnee Heiress proves that she can get things done.
"What a racket. How's a doorknob supposed to get any sleep?" The sound of the doorknob caught everyone's attention and made them turn around. The talking brass grumbled before letting out a huge yawn.
"Really?!" Donald exclaimed. "How can you have slept through all that?!"
Despite Donald's incredulity, he and everyone else found themselves looking at the doorknob's yawning mouth. There was...an illuminated outline of what looked like a keyhole. Before anyone could comment, Sora suddenly saw a light shine from the tip of his Keyblade. Ruby noticed it as well and looked with him at the giant key. They let out a gasp of mutual surprise when it suddenly shifted toward the keyhole and unleashed a small beam of light in its direction.
Everyone's eyes fell upon the beam as it flew into the doorknob's mouth. The doorknob was not harmed it seemed, though as the light washed over the keyhole, the sound of a door locking suddenly reached everyone's ears. With that, the keyhole vanished, and the door finished its yawn, leaving five very confused comrades.
"What was that?" Donald spoke up, asking the question on everyone's mind.
"Don't ask me! I don't even know what's going on here." Weiss said, really looking forward to getting that explanation some time soon, now that they were out of the frying pan.
"Did you hear that? It sounded like something closed." Sora said, bringing up the other thing that was on people's minds.
"Maybe it had something to do with the Keyblade and that keyhole?" Ruby deduced.
Before Weiss could comment on Ruby's rhetorical statement, group's attention was drawn to a seafoam green, yellow, and blue technicolor object that suddenly appeared on the floor. It gave a small twinkle of light as Goofy reached down and picked it up. "This gummi ain't like the others. No sir." he said, curiously examining it.
"Okay, I'll hold onto it." Donald interjected, swiping it from Goofy's hand and sticking it in one of his zipper pockets. Nobody was really certain at what just happened, but at the very least they managed to stop the Heartless in this world.
"Splendid. You're quite the hero." The Cheshire Cat said, appearing on a nearby chair. Had he been watching them the whole time? "Really quite excellent. Your power has blossomed. I can't wait to see what you'll do next."
Everyone seemed fed up with him. Weiss being the first to snap. "Alright. You made me reunite with my team but they got caught up in something. And after all that, you lead us to this spot to fight that giant fire using monster but you help Sora here by giving him power to better fight against it. I can't read you at all."
"Weiss is right." Ruby said, standing beside her friend and making her own firm statement. "Before all that though, you gave us the evidence we needed to help Alice but it only got us further in trouble with her. Who's side are you on?"
Sora, thinking back to it all, agreed with them. The Cheshire Cat was as much a help as he was a hinderance with everything they had been doing since they met him. What did he get from it all? "Ruby and Weiss are right. Cheshire Cat... who are you?"
The smile on the crazy feline became more tame and his eyes narrowed. He said nothing for a few seconds but when he did, it wasn't an answer to the questionable leads he gave them or about himself. "If you're looking for Alice? I'm afraid she's gone. Off with the shadows, into darkness!"
His words stunned all of them. Nobody had a chance to ask further as he vanished like he normally did. Realizing he wasn't being anywhere near as vague this time, Sora realized what it meant. "No..."
Seeing the sad face, Donald frowned in empathy. If Alice was gone and after everything they had been through, it was probably best not to linger here any longer. There didn't seem to be any sign of the King or Sora's friends. "Come on. Let's go back to our gummi ship. We might find them in another world."
"Gummi ship?" Weiss asked. It was then that Ruby realized there was even more that they'd have to bring her up to speed with. "Oh, yeah. It's our, uhhh...vehicle. It's what we use to fly to different worlds. Like a space ship!" Ruby explained. She half expected Weiss to look at her like she was crazy...again. But surprisingly, she simply shrugged and said, "Well, that's good enough for me. I've had enough of this nonsense, so I say we leave, immediately." And leave they did. It seemed even Weiss Schnee had limits to the shenanigans she was willing to put up with. Regardless however, Ruby was simply happy to have one of her friends back.
Little did they know as they departed, the villainous figures observing them had witnessed the entire series of events. And suffice it to say, the conclusion was far from what they desired.
"That wretched cat..." the fat female figure with what looked to be weaving tentacles bitterly commented, looking upon the Cheshire Cat.
"He's got a loose tongue, he has." agreed the hook toting, skinny figure. Suffice it to say, the riddling feline was not in their good graces for helping Sora, Ruby, and their friends.
"By the kingdom, I do swear...He should have been disposed of the moment he refused our goodwill." The tall, rather spindly thin figure wearing what appeared to be a turban, said with disgust.
"Bit too late for that, big man." came the playful voice of the rather thick figure with what looked to be rather tiny limbs and a long head of sorts.
"We need not concern ourselves upon these trivial matters..." The imperious voice of the turban wearing, robed figure interjected. "Of greater important is the progress of these infidel children." Focus of the projection loomed over Sora and Ruby. "He has come across this Keyhole far earlier than we previously projected. In no small part thanks to the aid of red clad huntress and the unexpected appearance of her friend. Our new ally's warnings have proven true. Time is of the essence."
"They always were a pain. Especially that one." Cinder said, looking at Ruby with a disdainful sneer. "She's so vivacious and saccharine it makes me want to puke. The fact she can muck things up as much as she can is just as annoying." However Ruby was far from her main concern. She was far more curious about what her 'allies' were talking about. "What's so special about this 'keyhole' exactly?"
"Well toots," said the voice of a more laid back person with what appeared to be flames coming out his head. "Those things are what we're seeking too but not for the same reasons. Let's just say we need to find them before he does or we lose out on a great opportunity. And once it's gone? It's gone."
"He's right," said the skinnier man from before as he showed a staff in his hand. It had a cobra head on the tip with big red gems in the eyes. "We need to take care of this right away-"
"Fear not." the voice of their leader said. The black clad woman smirked while looking over the small illusion of the five people walking back to their vessel. "It will take him ages to find the rest. Besides. The pieces are all falling into place, in our favor."
From behind her, a spotlight shined down, revealing a surprised and horrified Alice. While she looked unremarkable to Cinder, she had a hunch that this girl, and those like her that her...comrades were looking for had something just as special about them as that boy, Sora. Which left her more and more intrigued about just what their plan was.