Chapter 52
Secret MacGuffins
Mickey spun the captain's chair so that he could face Donald and Goofy. Jiminy sat cross-legged on the arm of the captain's chair. All present pondered deeply on recent matters. Sora, Riku and Kairi were downstairs reviewing their classes and working on their homework, so it was the Disney Castle quartet working in solving their mysteries.
"We need to understand our enemies' next moves," Mickey announced. "We need to know where they are going to look and how they are going to look, and we need to get ahead of them."
"I know. But how will we find the things?" Donald asked.
Jiminy opened his journal. "I have been taking notes on the subject as we have been going along," he explained. "What we know thus far: one of these artifacts appears to exist on nearly every world, if not every world period. It appears that someone guards the artifacts and the role of protecting them is passed down through the generations, and we can presume that it is someone with a high level of authority, as then they would have the resources to guard them."
"But the King of Corona didn't know anything about them," Goofy reminded him.
Jiminy nodded. "Correct. So that indicates that this person of authority does not necessarily have to be the ruler. But the Sultan of Agrabah is, and he most likely knew about the artifact, going off of the way he avoided discussing the matter."
"Like Master Yen Sid," Goofy added. Everyone looked at him. "He knew something but didn't want to tell us anything. That could be because he is one of the guardians."
"Yeah. Remember how he didn't say anything about how Master Xehanort might be connected to the Unversed even though he knew what he had been trying to do years before because he didn't want to jump to any conclusions about his old colleague?" Donald recalled. "That could be the same thing here."
Mickey pondered the idea for a minute, then his face fell. "Then, could that mean…" He struggled to even consider what he was saying. "Could Minnie be hiding something from me?"
Donald, Goofy and Jiminy frowned. They had no idea what to say in response.
After a few minutes, Jiminy spoke up. "We should explore more worlds, ask around, and research histories," he said. "We'll figure things out as we go along, in time, particularly if we run into more of Maleficent's allies."
Mickey, Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement. Mickey spun the captain's chair around and the three crew members manned their stations. Mickey piloted the ship through the cosmos. They traveled for a few hours, shooting down debris and enemy ships that drew near. After two hours, Sora, Riku and Kairi ascended to the cockpit.
"We finished our homework and slipped it into the mailbox," Kairi told them.
"We can take over if you guys want to rest or get something to eat," Riku suggested. After a moment, Mickey, Donald and Goofy nodded. Mickey parked the Gummi Ship on the surface of an asteroid. They got out of their chairs and headed downstairs. Sora, Riku and Kairi took their places in the captain, gunner and copilot chairs, respectively. Sora pulled the ship out of park, drew the landing gears up, and disembarked from the asteroid. Kairi and Riku used the Teeny Ships to destroy an enemy ship that approached in Sora's blind spot, which Sora would have surely crashed the ship into if they had not noticed and taken action.
"Nice save," Sora thanked them.
They continued the journey for two more hours, following the map coordinates to an unidentified world. Mickey, Donald and Goofy returned to the cockpit a few minutes before the world came into view. When they could see it, everyone looked on with intrigue at the sight of a hilly landscape with a large golden structure vaguely resembling a head sitting on top of the highest hill. The hills surrounding the structure were covered in huts, apparently making up a village or a series of villages. On the underside of the world, they could see a dense jungle with a waterfall.
Sora fiddled with the interface. "So, where should we land?" he asked.
"I think we should ease our way into civilization," Mickey said. "So, how about we drop ourselves off at the edge of the jungle?"
"Got it. Hmm… There doesn't seem to be a Safe Point that far up, but there is a clearing in the jungle," Sora told him, checking the display.
"Then let's land there and work our way out."
"On it, your Majesty." Sora selected a point on the bottom of the world render and hit DISEMBARK. A circle of light lit up behind them and they used that to transport themselves down.
Sora pushed bushes and branches out of the way as the party trudged through the swamp, stepping through rain puddles and mud patches. Kairi swatted bugs away from her face and slapped some off of her arms.
Kairi groaned. "We should have brought bug spray," she complained. Donald pulled an aerosol can out of his pocket and handed it to her. "Wow, thanks," she said as she began spraying her arms, legs and neck. She passed it to Sora and Riku, who applied the bug spray on themselves.
Jiminy coughed. "I guess I should switch out," he said, climbing out of Sora's pocket and jumping onto Mickey's shoulder. Mickey then guided him into his own pocket.
"Sorry, Jiminy," Sora said sheepishly.
They marched on, pushing their way through the jungle. After a while, Riku held up a clenched fist, signaling for them to stop moving. They listened closely. They heard trees and bushes rustling. Donald looked up and quacked in alarm, pointing up. Everyone followed his gaze and saw three Powerwild Heartless sitting on tree branches above them. Realizing that they had been spotted, the Heartless jumped down to attack. Sora, Riku and Mickey reacted quickly, cutting them down in a single blow.
Still uncertain about the sound they heard a moment ago, Kairi turned as she scanned around, then yelped in surprise. A black-furred jaguar growled as it lunged at the party. She pointed her Keyblade and shot a ball of Fire at it, knocking it through the air into a tree. Two more jaguars revealed themselves, circling the group, eyeing them hungrily and sniffing the air, trying to understand the manner of prey that had stumbled into their hunting grounds.
Sora, Riku and Mickey shot glares at the feline predators. Donald and Goofy shivered fearfully, but Mickey shot them an encouraging smile, and they steeled themselves to fight.
Sora waved his hand and summoned an orb of fire to hover over his open palm. Donald pointed his staff forward and released a stream of electric bolts downward. Kairi blew out through her mouth, causing the wind to pick up. Intimidated by the supernatural command over the elements which these bipedal creatures displayed and noticing the damage dealt to their brother, the jaguars ran off into the night, soon followed by their wounded companion.
"Good kitties," Kairi teased. The group walked on, traveling in the opposite direction of the predators.
They walked for an hour, encountering a few critters, but none that would bother confronting them. The Heartless did not show themselves either, leading them to believe that the Heartless had only recently taken interest in this world, or that they had little interest in the creatures of the jungle. The only thing they had to worry about was stepping in mud or cutting themselves on tree branches.
Eventually, they heard a rustling noise ahead of them. The sound was loud and clumsy, suggesting that whatever made the noise was unused to hiking through a danger-filled jungle at night. Everyone kept their guards up, not knowing what to expect.
Finally, two figures pushed their way through a wall of bushes and tree branches. When they saw the six strangers, the figures stopped and screamed in fright. One was a portly man with black hair who wore a white shirt, green poncho, brown shorts, brown leather cap, and black sandals. The other was a skinny llama with black fur around the head, neck and tail and red fur on the body.
The llama whimpered in panic for a few seconds before it stopped to examine the newcomers closely. "Oh, man! People! I'm saved!" it said, sounding like an adolescent man.
Sora, Riku and Mickey's eyebrows shot up. Kairi's eyes widened. "Did that llama just speak?" she asked.
"The Keyblade can sometimes translate animal language, but only if the animal is addressing us," Mickey explained. "And it often takes some time to get used to animal interactions before it starts translating them, so it should still take at least a minute before it learns to understand a llama."
"But the llama didn't directly speak to us," Riku pointed out. "So how did we understand it?"
"I wouldn't be surprised if there were animals that spoke human language," Sora suggested. "I mean, look at you guys."
The llama looked offended. "Llama? Animal?" it parroted in disbelief. "No! You've got me all wrong. I'm the emperor!"