"JAAAACK! JAAAACK! We have a major crisis!"
The first thing Sora, Ruby, and their friends were greeted with was the Mayor crying out desperately. As the Pumpkin King and his entourage emerged from Finklestein's lab, the mayor lowered the megaphone and explained the situation desperately. "The Heartless are completely out of control! We can't stop them!"
The sound of objects being broken and other sorts of commotion from the square confirmed that sure enough, something bad was going on. "Oh no! Has anyone been hurt!?" Ruby asked worriedly. "Not yet, but if we don't do something, that won't be so!" the Mayor said, ever so worriedly. "But how? They were completely docile when we arrived. Even when I summoned the Keyblade. Why did they choose now to attack?" Sora wondered.
"Hmmm. Perhaps our experiment triggered something." Jack theorized, sounding surprisingly unconcerned. "How can you be so calm about this!? Your town is under attack!" Weiss exclaimed with disbelief. Jack simply gave a nonchalant wave and said, "Oh don't you worry. Between all of us, we can round them easily." the Pumpkin King assured Weiss, surprisingly unconcerned about the danger as he turned back to the mayor with his ever present grin. "Everything will be fine, Mayor. You have nothing to worry about." Despite his reassurance, both Donald and Weiss looked at him with crossed arms, tapping their feet. It was nothing short of astounding how little Jack seemed to take this seriously.
"If you're going to do something, you'd best hurry. They'll make a mess of the town if this keeps up." the Mayor urged desperately. "At least someone here is taking this as seriously as it needs to be." Blake muttered, being of the same mind as Weiss about Jack's disregard for the danger the Heartless posed.
"We're on it." Sora said as he drew his Keyblade and ran into the square, all his friends right beside or behind him. As they arrived, the dozens of Shadows scurried about. Some turned their attention to the charging group.
Jack sprinted to the front. In the momentum of his dash, the slender man slid across the ground on his knees, knocking aside all the Shadows and leaving a row open where he was. "Come on fellahs, let's go!" Right as he stood up, Jack turned to one side of the extra Shadows, aiming his bony hand at them. "Take that!" Electrical bolts rained down around them, causing the Heartless to writhe or vanish entirely.
"Whoa! How did you do that?" Ruby said, slicing one Shadow into nothing.
Jack turned, releasing frozen air that damaged the Heartless the same as his last ability only in a wider wave. "As an entertainer, I've learned all manner of tricks for my performances. I never thought I'd have to use my talents to harm others though. But I doubt these Heartless are in the mood for a show." he said, leaping back into action with a dramatic twirl.
And before they knew it, the Heartless were completely and utterly defeated. Nobody even needed to shoot a single bullet or cast a spell, other than Jack. "Huh. Just Shadows. Wonder where those Search Ghosts went?" Nora asked, looking around the square for the ghostly Heartless that greeted their arrival.
"Maybe they left?" Goofy said with an uncertain shrug. "Highly doubtful, Goofy. We'll probably see them again, and soon." Weiss said as she turned to Jack. "Which way is the cemetery at this Curly Hill?" "It's past one of the edges of Halloween Town's borders. This way." Jack said eagerly, leading the way past the stone hedge-like walls going beyond the buildings of Halloween Town. They followed a dirt path leading to the hills illuminated by the moonlight. Within a minute, they found themselves among a collection of tombstones. Jack looked around while briskly walking. "Alright, we're in the cemetery. Now where could Sally be?"
His question was unfortunately met with the appearance of those very Search Ghosts that had fled. But more than that. "Watch out!" Ruby called out as suddenly, a new collection of Heartless leapt out from behind the tombstones. Bodies as skinny as Jack's with bulbous round heads. Their bodies wrapped up in rough, mummy-like bandages, with only their claws and a single glowing yellow eye visible along with the heartless insignia upon their incredibly thin torsos. They staggered up to the group in a zombie-like fashion, fitting with their mummified appearances, making it clear that Jack was correct. They weren't in the mood for a show.
"Let's check this place too, once the Heartless here are out of our way." Sora said, brandishing his weapon with everyone else. "Heh. One Heartless-free graveyard, coming right up." Yang said, slamming her fists together. As they went to work with this new batch of Heartless, the bandaged Heartless displayed a level of acrobatic dexterity rivaling that of Jack as they weaved and leapt around the graveyard, lashing their claws at their would-be prey. "Whoa! These ones are certainly full of tricks. If they weren't in the mood to be so aggressive, they'd make excellent dancers for the festival along with our local wights." Jack said, getting distracted with his thoughts on the festival again. Though not distracted enough to dodge a claw of one of the mummified Heartless as it swung at him.
"Could you PLEASE focus, Jack!?" Weiss yelled in the midst of the fight, thrusting at one of the Heartless, only for it to weave out of the way and smack her in the face. Blake quickly flung Gambol Shroud at it as it attempted to follow up with another slash, piercing through its skinny torso, and destroying it. As Yang took down her own, grabbing it by the wrist and slamming it right into one of the Search Ghosts, she turned toward the reeling Schnee and chuckled. "Heheheh. Well guess these guys aren't going to Wight Knight for you, huh Weiss?" Yang teased, drawing a most unamused glare from the Schnee.
Nora leaped up and into the air with her hammer drawn back as far as her arms could make it. Gravity took effect as she slammed it forward and when it hit the ground, the shock wave of the impact sent the Wight Knights tumbling through the air. In that opportune moment, Pyrrha and Ren shot at them while Donald released a fire spell at the same time Jack shot his own ghostly flame ball. What few survived landed hard on the ground and were either sliced through by Jaune or rammed through by Goofy. It looked like they were done until another wave came out.
Sora figured it was time for him to try out something he hadn't gotten a chance to, yet. His Keyblade was held out horizontally in front of himself then twisted as if he locked something. The tip glowed before he threw it into the air, making spin erratically. When he caught it, quick shots of pink light sparked out of it so much, Sora almost couldn't handle his weapon and it flew right out of his grip. The last spark turned into a large swirl of expanding blue smoke. Out of the unusually colored smoke came a big blue being everyone met before: Genie. After a mighty shout, he spun in place and floated down to Sora, the two of them sharing a hi-five and creating softer sounding sparks of light.
"What'll it be, Sora?" he said before being dressed in a military outfit with a hardhat helmet and saluting as he spoke strongly. "I'm your lean, mean, wish-fulfilling machine!" He paced just like a soldier when speaking in a sing-song way. "Say what you will want from me! I will give it to you, free! YEAH! YEAH!"
"These Heartless are giving us problems. Can you help us get rid of them?" Sora said when pointing to the eerily creeping Wight Knights.
"You got it, Sora!" Genie answered with a sharp nod. With a swirling puff of magic, Genie's military uniform was replaced with the sort one would expect of a rough and tough special ops soldier, complete with a voice most gravely gruff. "It's show time!"
Genie put his hands into a pair of finger-guns and began pelting the Heartless with magic projectiles. And in rapid succession unleashing a myriad of spells upon the unfortunate beings of darkness. Lightning bolts striking from above, gravitational spheres crushing them into the ground, even freezing the last one in place. "This may leave a mark!" he exclaimed, firing a particularly big blast upon the frozen Wight Knight. Though it didn't react when the projectile hit it, Sora knew that the Heartless was in for quite a world of hurt once time resumed. And sure enough, the effects of the frozen time came forth as the Heartless burst. "Ow!" Genie cheered, wincing at his destructive success.
"Woohoo!" "Way to go Genie!" Everyone else cheered, making Genie poof into another outrageous new appearance. A full head of black hair done up in a greased up pompadour and a white jacket with equally white, fancifully decorated pants. "Thankyaverymuch, thankyaverymuch." he said in a vaguely southern accented voice, as if he were some sort of rock-star. "Thanks a lot for the help, Genie." Sora said as Genie returned to normal, or at least as normal as one could expect from Genie. "Hey, it's more than just a favor to Al, Sora. I like you guys! No way I could resist helping you all out. But anyway, I gotta go now. Can't stick around too long, ya know. World Order and all that jazz. Toddle-loo!" And with that, Genie vanished in a puff of blue and pink smoke, leaving everyone with wide grins on their faces.
A bark from Zwei drew everyone's attention. The Grimm adorned corgi was barking at what looked to be a nearby tombstone. Ruby walked over to look at it, seeing a long nosed dog skull with two cross bones carved into it along with a single word. "Zero?" she read the name aloud curiously.
Out of the ground, came a semitransparent being. It looked like a dog with a long smiling snout and floppy ears though everything from its canine head below was almost like a living, floating sheet. The tip of its nose was a a small glowing orange jack-o-lantern. Ruby jumped with a yell of surprise as she backed away. Everyone else was also stunned though Zwei seemed happy as he and the floating creature sniffed each other's faces then came at eye level with one another. "Hello, Zero." Jack said as he approached what came out of the ground to the tombstone Ruby inspected. The little creature happily barked at him when hovering closer to his face. "Zero here is my very best friend," Jack said when introducing them. "Zero. Have you seen Sally anywhere?"
Seemingly more excited, Zero's ears raised before he flew off and around the others, those who he came close to surprised. He went to one of the statues aligning a stone wall and seemed to vanish right between a pair of them before a soft voice of surprise went off. Coming out from the statue was a woman. She seemed more proportionate compared to the Mayor or Dr. Finklestein with her anatomy though her neck was a little longer and her hands as well as her feet seemed tiny. Her appearance was like a rag doll with a body covered in seems or stitches at her wrists, arms, legs, upper chest and her mouth corners, giving her a Glasgow smile and because her clothing consisted of worn, tattered dress made up of many different scraps of cloth sewn together. It was predominantly pale pink and gray but also had small areas of yellow and green. Each patch was covered in a unique black or gray pattern, unless it was solid. She also wore black shoes over baggy black and white socks. Her complexion was also pale and she had long eyelashes and wore red lipstick and nail polish. The straight hip length hair mostly kept behind her was parted down the middle and colored brown. "Is something wrong, Jack?"
Her voice, soft and gentle as an autumn zephyr drew everyone's attention, especially Jack's. He strolled over to her jovially, drawing her wide-eyed gaze. "No, everything's going great. We're going to have the best Halloween ever." Jack answered ever so enthusiastically, as if their lives weren't just recently in jeopardy because of the Heartless. "All we need now is your memory." His words made Sally tilt her head slightly. "Memory? You mean this?" she asked, procuring a small forget-me-not. Jack cheerfully reached forward and grasped ahold of the picked flower, examining it with absolute wonder. The possibilities floating through his head about what that Heart would do to get the Heartless to literally dance to his tune excited him.
Sally however felt the opposite. "Jack...I have a bad feeling about this. Why don't you try something else? There's still time." she demurely suggested, worry evident in her voice. "I agree with her." Weiss said with a firm nod. Jack however was too engrossed with his fantasies of what this festival could bring as he stared at the forget-me-not. "Nothing could beat what I've got planned!" he said jovially before turning to Sally excitedly. "Once we give the Heartless a heart, they'll dance just as I envision it." His words made Sally look down sadly. Her expression made it clear that this sort of behavior was unfortunately common with Jack. "Trust me, you're going to love it!"
"Are you serious right now, Jack? Did you not see what those Heartless were capable of?" Blake asked, taking just as much issue with how flippant he was being about this whole issue as Weiss. Jack however simply waved it off, saying, "Oh sure, the Heartless got a bit temperamental, but once we calm them down with more ingredients for the heart, everything will be fine." All the same, Sally tried to dissuade him. "Jack, why not have these kids star in the festival instead? They all look rather frightful. And funny, too. They'd be better than the Heartless."
Jaune groaned in frustration, not at Sally, but rather her words as he hung his head. "See? I look more funny than frightful. Why did I have to look like some puppy? The ACTUAL puppy in our group is scarier looking than I am." he said when gesturing to Zwei. The little Grimm corgi merely cocked his head to the side with a happily panting expression as Jaune groaned, feeling like his dignity was continuing to be lost.
"Aww, Jaune. She said you look frightful and funny, though. Don't be sad." Pyrrha told him empathetically and reached to scratch his ears. Jaune sighed and began saying, "Pyrrha, I told you not toooooo..." His expression went from sullent to surprise then to a comfortable smile. "Actually, that feels kind of nice. Could you keep doing it?" he asked. It seemed his canine ears weren't just for show in this world.
Beaming with blushing delight, Pyrrha continuing to scratch Jaune's ears. The display was...surprising to Sora, Ruby, and their friends. Nora however smirked knowingly, nudging Ren who seemed to look at the display with...a confused blink. Yang meanwhile got a wicked idea in her mind as she shifted her left hand behind Blake's head with a smirk. She leaned in very slowly and reached one hand for the top of Blake's head where her ears were located. Just as she was within reach, Blake's head sharply turned right to face Yang with narrowed eyes and a low warning of. "Don't. You. Dare." Yang got the message instantly and retracted both arms behind her back, head turned to the sky as she whistled innocently.
"Don't worry, Sally. Everything will work out in the end. You'll see." Jack said with the same optimistic tone before walking off. "Come on, everyone. Dr. Finklestein is waiting."
They stayed behind and turned to Sally who sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this. If only Jack would reconsider... I'm happy if he's happy, but I'm worried about him."
The slight shift in Sally's tone didn't go unnoticed. For Pyrrha, in the midst of petting her lupine adorned leader's head, noticed how her voice shifted. It was one that carried a familiar feeling from whenever she spoke of Jaune or was even simply around him. And her already happy expression only widened at the thought that Sally thought of Jack the same way she thought of Jaune...not that she'd ever say it out loud to Jaune, of course.
"We better keep an eye on him then." Donald said, tapping his webbed foot. With everything they'd experienced with the Heartless thus far, the last thing they needed was them going out of control again. "Yeah. We'll make sure he doesn't get hurt, Sally." Ruby assured the worried ragdoll. "Thank you. Please do. Jack can take care of himself, but...these Heartless are just so...ominous. The last thing I want is to see him get hurt." With that, Sora, Ruby, Sally, Zero, and the rest of the group returned to the town square...with Blake snapping her eyes toward Yang whenever she sensed a hand reaching toward her ears.
What they didn't notice as they left however was that within a ghostly sarcophagus, three youthful, mischievous rang out. The sarcophagus suddenly opened revealing three masked, costumed children hopping out of it.
"Lock!" "Shock!" "Barrel!"
One was a red haired boy in a red shirt and pants with a grinning devil mask, the next was a frowny, pointy nose masked girl with wild hair wearing a dark pink dress and a pointy witch hat, and the third was a round headed boy wearing a grinning skeleton mask and bony shirt and pants. "Did you hear that?" Barrel asked excitedly. "Yeah, I sure did! A heart! What should we do?" Lock asked enthusiastically. "Gosh, you really are stupid! Isn't it obvious?" Shock said derisively. Though neither of the boys took offense, as all three of them knew precisely what to do. "Tell Oogie Boogie!" Their shared course of action drew another laugh brimming with conspiratorial mischief from the trio.