Chapter 45

Riff Raff Street Rats

Sora opened the door and immediately felt the wind blow sand into his face. He led his friends out of the storage closet that they had beamed down into and stepped out into the bustling streets. The yellow-orange buildings of the city were constructed upon the desert sand. There were several market stalls lining various buildings, where merchants offered their wares. Once they had stepped out into the city they immediately felt the sweltering heat come down upon them.

"Phew! It's a good thing we put on sunscreen before we came down!" Kairi exclaimed, fanning herself with her hand.

"Welcome to the grand city of Agrabah," Sora said, spreading his arms out to gesture to the desert city. "Be wary of which pot you stand next to, keep an eye on your pockets, and always be ready to jump across rooftops. Come on. I'll show you—"

He was cut off when he felt something shove him aside, knocking him to the ground. He picked himself up, Riku and Goofy helping him to his feet, and brushed the sand off of his clothes, and he even spat some of the silicon dust out of his mouth. He looked around to try and find whoever it was who rudely knocked him down, his hands balled up into fists in irritation. On his second look to the left, his expression of annoyance turned to one of slight fear and he backed out of the way as a burly man with a scimitar ran barreling at him.

"Stop! Thieves!" the man called. Like everyone else in the city, he had medium-brown skin, and he had a black beard and moustache and appeared to be missing a tooth. He wore a black sleeveless tunic with flared-up shoulders, white pants, a red sash around his waist, brown shoes with curled-up toes, a strap that went over his right shoulder and under his left arm, and a white turban. He was followed by two similarly-dressed men, though neither were built like him; one was thin and lanky while the other was quite fat.

Sora tilted his head slightly. "So, I guess these are the guards," he guessed.

"You didn't meet them when you were here before?" Riku asked, surprised.

"No. I think Jafar locked them up when he took over before we first arrived, along with most of the people, so it was a sort of a minimalist cast when we first got here," Sora explained. "The last couple times, I guess we just didn't run into them, and Jafar might have incapacitated them after he tricked the Peddler into letting him out."

The crowd shuffled out of the way as the thieves and guards doubled back around and the chase continued through the streets.

"We should probably find someplace to duck until this blows over," Mickey suggested. The others nodded and found a market stall to hide behind. Sora took a few apples and dropped some Munny in the shopkeeper's hand as payment. He handed one each to Riku and Kairi and then began munching on the third.

"Hey, guys. Fancy meeting you here," a voice came from behind Sora, startling him and almost causing him to choke on his snack. He turned around and saw a young man with brown eyes and messy black hair, who wore a purple vest, baggy white pants with a tan patch sewn on one leg, and a small red fez cap.

Sora grinned, then realized that he was no longer holding his apple. He glanced to his left and saw a small monkey with light-brown fur that wore a red-violet vest and a fez cap that was purple at the bottom and red at the top. The sticky-fingered monkey, Abu, was munching on Sora's apple. Sora rolled his eyes, then turned his attention back to the former street rat.

"Good to see you, Aladdin," Sora greeted, swinging his hand in and clasping Aladdin's confidently. "How have things been? Staying out of trouble?"

"Ha! You know me. I can't help but get into trouble. Discovering hidden treasure, saving Agrabah from neat-freak inventors, mud monsters and evil sorcerers, you know," Aladdin boasted.

"Same here. Aladdin, I'd like you to meet Riku, Kairi, and Mickey," Sora introduced his friends.

"Well, it's nice to meet you all," Aladdin said to the three newcomers.

"Likewise," Riku returned.

"So, what brings you guys here?" Aladdin asked.

"A bunch of bad guys stirring up trouble with the Heartless again. This time they're after a bunch of items that are some sort of key to a great power," Sora explained. "We're trying to stop them, but we don't know how to catch up. We were thinking we'd ask Genie if he knows anything."

"Huh. Not a bad idea," Aladdin replied. Abu nodded and let out some squeaking noises that indicated that he agreed.

He glanced back out at the chaos in the streets. The party finally managed to get a good look at the thieves. One was a short, fat man with a thick moustache and chin-beard. He wore a baggy gray shirt, gray pants, a blue vest with flared shoulders, a red sash around his waist that wrapped over the vest, red shoes, and a turban with a white veil wrapping around the back of his head. The other one was tall and thin and had much darker skin and a bisected moustache. He wore a yellow robe, a green striped vest, a white hat, and a bronze earring.

Aladdin sighed. "Abis Mal and Haroud," he identified. "Biggest thugs in Agrabah."

Riku shook his head. "Doesn't look like they're very good at it," he observed.

Sora held his hands up. "Hold on. That guy's name is Abis Mal?" he checked.

"Yeah?" Aladdin answered, wondering what he was getting at.

Sora blinked, realizing that Aladdin did not understand what he was thinking. "I guess it's funny in my language," he muttered, giving up on the topic, though he took some satisfaction in hearing Kairi giggle.

"You think we should do something about it?" Mickey asked.

"I've got it," Donald said, summoning his staff and twirling it around a bit. A wind funnel appeared around Abis Mal and Haroud, lifting them off of their feet and spinning them around. The guards stopped and stared in confusion. The wind carries sand into the air, wrapping it around the thieves. Moments later, the wind died down, and the thieves were dropped to the ground, spitting and coughing and covered in sand. The lead guard and the skinny guard hoisted them up and carted them away, while the fat guard returned the stolen goods.

"Well, that's one way to do it," Aladdin said, amused. He turned back to the party. "Hey, how about I take you to the palace to meet the others?"

Everyone nodded immediately. "Lead the way, Aladdin," Sora responded.

With that, Aladdin led the group through the streets as they made their way toward the palace.

"Well, I see nothing stays boring with you guys," Aladdin commented, after Sora explained what had happened since they last met, in a way that did not reveal too much about the other worlds, of course. As for Aladdin, his adventures did not end after Jafar's demise, and he had gone on many adventures and fought all sorts of villains over the last few months.

"And I see you're staying one jump ahead as always," Sora replied, chuckling.

"So, have the Heartless been an issue?" Riku asked.

Aladdin shook his head. "Not really. I mean, they've sometimes come out, but since Genie's been a part of the team more often and Iago's been keeping an eye on them from above, they've kept a low profile."

Mickey nodded, smiling. "That's good to hear," he said. His smile faded when Aladdin put his arm out to the side, stopping them in their tracks. Aladdin scanned the ground ahead. Following his gaze, Riku and Mickey noticed the sand shifting irregularly in isolated areas, each one about two-and-a-half feet in diameter.

Everyone stepped back when six Heartless jumped out of the sand, each one brandishing a scimitar. They had blue skin, and they wore purple vests and baggy pants as well as numerous golden bangles, bracelets and rings. Their heads were wrapped up in bandages, exposing only a slit of black skin and gold eyes. The Bandit Heartless swung their swords around, possibly attempting to look intimidating.

Aladdin drew his own scimitar from his belt sash while the others summoned their weapons. Sora and Aladdin clashed blades with two of the Bandits, quickly throwing them off balance and cutting through them.

Seconds afterward, two enormous Heartless, not unlike the Large Bodies, materialized. They wore orange vests, green pants, yellow sashes around the waists, white soles, yellow arm bands, necklaces made of large off-white rocks, and similar-looking turbans. While they did not wear the same body armor as the Large Bodies, the Fat Bandits were just as resilient against frontal attacks.

Abu screeched in terror and leapt off of Aladdin's back. He ran around the bandits and clambered up the side of a red pot. He lifted the lid and dropped himself into the pot, hoping that it would be a good hiding place.

Donald and Goofy ran around the Bandits and went straight for the Fat Bandits. Goofy ran around the back and hit one in the back with his shield. His enemy balled its fist, charged it up with fire, and swung his arm over and down, punching the ground and creating a shockwave that knocked Goofy back. Donald cast Blizzard at the other one, knocking it back.

Mickey jumped around two of the Bandits, parrying their strikes and keeping them off balance. Riku alternated between blocking whatever attacks one of those Bandits dealt and striking it. Kairi dodged around the other Bandit and stabbed at it several times with her Keyblade. Sora drew the attention of the other two Bandits and parried both scimitars while Aladdin ran past them and delivered quick slashes to their legs and arms. When one of them swung its sword down at Aladdin's neck, Sora cast Fira, destroying it just in time, then spun around and vanquished the other Bandit. Riku, Kairi and Mickey backed their Bandits up against the wall and Kairi stabbed her Keyblade through the arm of one of them, pinning it to the wall. Mickey slashed through it, finishing it off. Riku locked blades with the other one but vanquished his opponent by launching Dark Fire underhanded at it while it was too busy pushing back against his Keyblade.

Meanwhile, Donald had managed to get a few Blizzard spells in, but he was hit by his foe's swinging arm and had to heal, so he was now out of mana. He ran away when the Fat Bandit started to breathe fire. Mickey came to the rescue and shot a Pearl spell at it, blasting the Heartless into smoke. At the same time, Goofy defeated his opponent.

With the streets cleared, the party regrouped. Sora noticed that Goofy had suffered some burns and cast Cure to undo that. Aladdin gathered all of the Munny he had taken from the Heartless while he was strafing them and divided them evenly amongst everyone.

"Well, now that that's over with," Aladdin said, "let's head on over to the palace. Come on, Abu!" The party started walking.

Abu clambered out of the pot and stopped, shivering. He looked back at the pot with a terrified expression. He had felt some sort of dark power in there. He had no idea what it was, but he was not eager to find out. He ran to rejoin Aladdin.