Chapter 91
Prankster Trio
"Oh my. That must have been quite troubling," Jack Skellington said after Aqua, with assistance from Mickey, Sora and Riku, concluded her story.
Aqua had calmed down quite a bit thanks to the tea as well as Jack and Sally's kindness. She had relaxed from her panicked and confused state. Sora smiled on seeing this, feeling better about his mistake in bringing Aqua to Halloween Town with her mental state.
"Christmas Town should help you," Sally said. "We should make our way there."
Jack clapped. "Then I'll let everyone know that they shouldn't try to scare you on the way out," he assured. "Sorry again about that. We all thought it was just harmless fun."
Aqua smiled and shook her head. "It's alright," she said. "I'm sorry to have ruined the mood."
Everyone blinked in surprise at what she said. However, after a brief moment, Mickey chuckled. He remembered her unfailing politeness and kindness, and it showed even when she was the one who had been inadvertently emotionally attacked.
Jack nodded. "Well, I'll go pave the way. Anyone want to come along with me to spread the word faster?" he asked. Donald and Goofy stepped forward. "Great! You all wait for us to get back." He turned around and started to walk out, beckoning for Donald and Goofy to follow, which they did.
After they left, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, and Sally turned to face Aqua. "You okay?" Kairi asked.
Aqua nodded. At this point, her companions noticed that her transformation upon entering this world had not affected her face much like Sora, Riku and Kairi's had. Her eyes were already sunken and tired, and her appearance had not improved much after eighteen hours of sleep and a couple meals. This only served to emphasize the toll that her time in the Realm of Darkness had taken on her body.
"I'm fine now," Aqua replied.
"I'm sorry about bringing you through here without considering that everyone would try to scare you," Sora apologized once again.
"You don't have to—" Aqua began.
"Hey, don't blame yourself. We all agreed to this," Mickey argued. We all should've considered what would happen."
Aqua shook her head. "No, really. It's fine now," she insisted.
"We really ought to think things through next time," Riku said.
The discussion was interrupted when they heard gears turning and three distinct voices screaming in surprise. This disruption was followed up by a gaggle of childish laughter. The group got up and ran downstairs. When they stepped out of the front door, they saw Jack, Donald and Goofy caught in a net hanging from a crane arm above the street. Donald was shouting incoherent complaints and obscenities.
"What happened?" Riku asked as the group ran down the stairs. Donald was pulling at the ropes holding them up, and Goofy struggled with trying to break the rope in other ways such as biting on it and trying to cut at it with his head bolt.
Jack poked his head out of the net and looked down at them. "It was Lock, Shock and Barrel," he told them.
As if on cue, more laughter became audible from thirty feet away. Turning to locate the source, the party saw three children, two boys and one girl, in Halloween costumes. They all had chalk-white skin and eyes with yellow sclera, but they each wore a different costume. One of the boys, Lock, had red hair that was curled at the front, and he wore a red shirt, red pants with an arrow-tipped tail, and a red grinning devil mask. The girl, Shock, had slightly frizzy black hair, and she wore a purple dress, black pants, a tall purple witch's hat, and a green frowning mask that had the shape of a large nose. The other boy, Barrel, was visually distinct from his friends by being chubbier and having a spherical head and short teal-colored hair, and he wore purple pajamas with a cheap skeleton-torso design on the front and a white mask with teeth painted in a smiling shape where his mouth was. The kids, who resembled eleven-year-old trick-or-treaters, laughed uproariously at the confusion they had caused. They stopped laughing, however, when Shock gasped on noticing that the companions of their victims were looking right at them.
"Hey, isn't that Sora?" Barrel asked on recognizing one of the teens. "Who are the other guys?"
"Run away!" Lock shouted. He and Shock turned around and began running in random directions. It took a moment before Barrel realized what they were doing.
"Hey, wait for me!" Barrel pleaded.
Aqua turned to Sora, who was rolling his eyes at their antics. "Who were those children?" she asked.
"Pranksters who are always up for some mischief," Sora answered. "They used to work for a nasty bag of bugs named Oogie Boogie, and we fought them after they stole a synthetic heart that Dr. Finkelstein had built. More recently, we caught them causing trouble in Christmas Town, at one point taking lessons from Maleficent and talking her into bringing Oogie back to life, though they also spent time quote-unquote 'helping' the Doctor in his lab. They're not exactly 'bad' kids, just naughty with a twisted sense of humor."
"I see…" Aqua said, pondering.
Jack sighed. "I told them once, I told them twice to straighten up their act," he lamented.
"Sounds a lot like Huey, Dewey and Louie," Mickey suggested. "They used to have quite a mischievous streak."
"Who are they?" Aqua asked.
"Donald's nephews," Mickey replied. "They used to play a bunch of pranks on Donald before Scrooge whipped them into shape."
Donald continued struggling against the net until he tore a hole large enough for him to fall through, landing on his face. He picked himself up and started running in the direction that the kids had gone. However, he stepped on a trip wire and was sent stumbling through a cloud of smoke that exploded under his feet. He wandered around blindly until he ran face-first into a wall.
Mickey shook his head. "Then again, those three usually knew where to draw the line," he admitted, realizing that the pranks were not as harmless as the ones he was familiar with.
Aqua shrugged. "I suppose that when they get out of hand and don't learn their lesson, they could use some discipline," she said, smirking.
Riku nodded. "Yeah. They could learn how to behave," he agreed.
With that, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, and Aqua ran off to chase the three troublemakers down. Jack and Goofy watched them go, each wearing a puzzled expression.
"Um, aren't they going to get us down?" Jack asked. Goofy shrugged as best he could.
"Give me a moment," Sally said. She began untying the stitches holding her arms together, and they began to crawl around to locate the trap's mechanism.
The chase led them through the graveyard. They looked behind each of the tall gravestones to see if any of the kids were hiding there, but to no avail. Sora and Mickey stopped for a moment and listened for a particular sound. When they heard the familiar angry warbling of a certain duck, they turned and followed the noise. Riku, Kairi and Aqua followed them through an open gate and into a walled-off clearing with a hill that rose up in the middle and curled off to the side and spiraled into a point. They found Lock, Shock and Barrel fighting back against Donald. Lock was jumping around, sometimes landing feet-first on Donald's head and back; Shock spun around, attacking with her outstretched arms and using her dress and the brim of her hat like buzz saw blades; Barrel rolled and slid right into Donald, knocking him down whenever the duck tried to get back up to retaliate.
"Hey!" Sora shouted. The three kids stopped harassing Donald and turned to his direction. Barrel let out a scream, and the kids ran in random directions. Sora approached Donald and helped him to his feet, casting Cure to restore his vitality. Donald grumbled and stomped his feet in frustration. He started to run after the kids, but Sora grabbed him by the linen on the back of his neck, then pointed out that some loose linen had wrapped itself around a small headstone. Sora pulled the linen free and stepped back to allow Donald to get moving. He then ran off to chase Lock, accompanied by Aqua. Mickey and Riku went after Barrel, while Kairi and Donald pursued Shock.
The kids were fast, though Barrel was somewhat slower, but their pursuers were faster, and despite their erratic movements it was easy to catch up with them. However, they had traps set, and they did everything they could to trigger them. Lock and Barrel flicked the stems on some jack-o-lanterns, igniting the tips, and threw them at Sora, Aqua, Mickey, and Riku. Sora and Mickey each dodged one, but the next two exploded in front of Sora and Riku. The kids cackled as they were sent flying by the blasts. Shock hopped over graves in her path and waited for Kairi and Donald to step on the dirt patches. When Kairi stepped on a grave without thinking, the dirt cleared away as a metal disc began spinning underneath. Since her foot was on the disc and she was mid-stride with her other foot, the disc caused her to spin around rapidly about her foot. She squealed in surprise and fear before she finally fell backward and rolled down the hill, crashing back against the wall. Seeing this occur, everyone made a mental note to not step on the graves.
They also made certain to follow the children's movements with keen eyes, spying for anything that might seem off and watching for them to directly activate any of their traps while also determining if they appear to be avoiding traps that they want others to spring. Lock, Shock and Barrel ran around dodging traps without difficulty, in an almost rehearsed manner, while Sora, Riku, Mickey, Donald, and Aqua were extra cautious and uncertain about which areas were safe, giving the kids a slight advantage. However, they were still outnumbered, and all eight of them were running in all directions, so it was not long before Sora and Riku caught up to Lock and Barrel.
Realizing that they were about to get nabbed, the boys decided to counterattack. Lock hopped onto the spiral hill and kicked himself off to punch Sora in the chin. Barrel ran up to the top, then rolled down to strike Riku in the legs, knocking him down, and then hit Mickey in the face.
Laughing wickedly, Shock jumped over Donald's head and landed on a grave right in front of Aqua. The disc under her feet spun her around, but since that was her mode of attack anyway it did not bother her. Aqua stopped before her, not sure what to do. With a simple movement of her foot, Shock pushed herself off of the disc and sent herself spinning like a top, even faster than before, right into Aqua's legs, knocking her to the ground.
Sora summoned his Keyblade and swung it underhand, tripping Lock and causing him to fall on his face. Mickey used his Keyblade to pole vault himself through the air so that he landed in front of Barrel. He spun himself around, delivering a sweeping kick to the boy in the skeleton costume and sending him tumbling back until he stopped over one of the graves, and the promptly spun around on the disc underneath. Donald turned around and saw Shock spinning. A smirk forming on his bill, he cast Blizzard, freezing the ground in front of her. With reduced friction, she continued spinning in a straight line until she tripped over a headstone.
Lock was the first to get back up and retaliate, jumping and kicking Aqua in the stomach. He then ran over to a jack-o-lantern, pushed it up Spiral Hill, lit the fuse, and rolled it down at Sora, Riku and Mickey, who were all sent flying when it exploded. A somewhat-dazed Barrel ran over to help Shock to her feet. He pointed to a hole that had been blasted through the wall several months ago. "Through there!" he advised.
Shock nodded. "For once, you're right. Lock! Let's move!" She and Barrel ran around the hill as they attempted to make their escape, with Lock soon joining in.
Kairi's vision cleared and her head stopped spinning, and she looked up to see the chaos the kids were causing. As they were beginning to make their escape, she pushed herself to her feet.
"Okay, that's it!" she grumbled. Pinching her forefinger and thumb in her mouth, she let out a piercing whistle that caught everyone present off guard. Some nearby crows and bats flew off in a fright. "You kids have been naughty!"
She raised her Keyblade and shouted "Magnera!" A vortex appeared five feet in the air behind Lock, and the kids found themselves momentarily running in place. Almost as soon as they realized this, they were quickly yanked back and lifted into the air. They screamed in terror as they spun around the vortex uncontrollably, before the spell finally dispersed and they dropped to the ground, Shock being the only one lucky enough to land in a sitting position.
Lock, Shock, and Barrel looked up in fear as Kairi stomped up to them and stood over them, glaring down at them with an expression that made it clear that she was not amused by their antics. Barrel shivered and Lock gulped, knowing that they were about to get it.
"Do you kids have any idea how much trouble you've been causing?" she asked sternly.
"I-I-I-I…" Lock stammered.
"The fun ends when people get hurt," Kairi continued, emphasizing the point with a stomp, which caused a ring of lightning bolts to strike around them, leading the trio to flinch in fright.
"It-It-It was Barrel's idea!" Lock blurted, trying to deflect the brunt of the teen's wrath.
"Hey, Lock, that's not fair," Barrel said weakly.
But Kairi was having none of it. "Whosever idea it was, you should ALL be ashamed of your actions! How would you feel if you were the ones caught by these pranks?"
Barrel sighed. "That spinning disc did kinda make me sick," he admitted.
Lock, Shock and Barrel looked down shamefully. "We're sorry," they said in unison.
Kairi nodded without changing her expression. "Now go apologize to my friends," she ordered.
They stood up and sulked over to Sora, Riku, Mickey, Donald, and Aqua, and did as they were told. When they saw Jack, Goofy, and Sally enter the courtyard, they walked over to them and apologized to them as well.
"Alright, now go home," Kairi instructed. "It's way past your bedtime."
"Yes ma'am!" they replied quickly.
"And no dessert!" Kairi added.
"Aww," the kids groaned as they ran off.
When the kids were gone, Sora, Riku, Mickey, Donald, Aqua, Jack, Goofy, and Sally approached Kairi, all of them smiling in a manner that clearly conveyed how impressed they were.
"That was fantastic!" Jack commended. "Even I haven't been able to get them to forego desserts as punishment for their pranks getting out of hand."
"You really showed them," Sora said. Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement.
Kairi giggled, amused by the praise. She shrugged. "Well, not all of the kids I've babysat have been the easiest to handle," she said. "You have to know how to bring them down a peg when they try to get out of control."
Aqua felt the area on her stomach where Lock had kicked her. "Those three can really put up a fight," she mused.
Sora scratched the back of his head. "Yeah. I always feel weird when we fight them," he admitted. "I mean, they're just kids, elementary school age, but they think helping Oogie Boogie and Maleficent cause destruction is 'fun'."
Sally nodded in understanding. "Yes, it is quite unsettling. But this conflict is behind us for now."
"Now, isn't there some place we should be getting to?" Jack asked rhetorically, changing the subject.
I'll admit. I felt rather awkward writing this fight scene. I know you fight them with just as much vigor in the games, but I felt a bit uncomfortable depicting the gang whaling on little kids with metal weapons. But then again, the trio more than dishes out trouble in return.