Nicktoons & Disney Heroes UNITE!

by Dr.Dude

An evil Syndicate spanning four worlds has formed in order to work for the common goal of universal domination, and it is up to four heroes from those worlds to band together and stop them. However, a slight mistake has brought them to a new world entirely, and an even bigger adventure unfolds alongside their own as they join with a boy holding a key.

12. Heroes Reconciled

"You sure it's fine just leaving Sabor's body back there?" Spongebob decided to ask as they began walking back towards the camp.

"It's not like we can just drag that oversized cat along with us." Danny told him. "Plus, I'm pretty sure Jane wouldn't like us dragging a dead leopard around."

"Yeah, that does sound creepy." Sora concurred.

"Right now all we need to do is inform the Porters about the gorillas and Clayton's whereabouts." Jimmy said. "After that, we'll reorganize and– leaping leptons!"

When the group finally made it back to the camp, they were shocked to see the place in complete and utter disarray! Suitcases and crates scattered everywhere, tools and mirrors all broken and shattered, books ripped apart– it was like a tornado camp and trashed the place. Not even any Heartless appearing to break the disturbing amount of silence. The main tent seemed to come out somewhat better than everything else. However, that was offset by the fact that Tantor was trapped in a cage covered in some form of ethereal, ghostly energy!

"Tantor!" The ape man rushed towards his elephant friend and began trying to set him free. All the while, everyone else was looking at the cage.

"That is no ordinary cage…" Gadget observed the glow. "What's that energy around it?"

"Ectoplasmic energy." Danny answered, recognizing it in full. "And since we're dealing with caged animals now… looks like another one of my rogue's gallery is causing trouble."

"Just how many enemies do you even have?" Donald asked, withholding the urge to groan at this being the second time they're dealing with a ghost.

"Too many to count if you ask me." The ghost boy wasn't exactly happy about it either. "I dealt with this one more often than I'd like, too. Skulker."

"Skulker?" Timmy echoed with a deadpan look. "Alright, what's his supervillain gimmick?"

"He's a ghost who acts like he's a big game hunter who's been after me since I'm half-ghost." the halfa explained. "He looks imposing, looking like he's made of metal, but it's really just a metal suit. He's actually a really tiny green blob of a ghost trying to look imposing."

"Ah, so a classic Napoleon complex, then." Jiminy Cricket figured.

"Nap lion what?" Sora asked, confused by the strange name.

"I'll explain in detail later," Jimmy informed the islander. "I'm afraid we've got more important matters to attend to."

Wanda then remembered something as the boys went towards the cage, "Wait, couldn't we just–"

So, with their combined strength, and ignoring Wanda, our heroes helped Tarzan and pulled on the bars of the cage as hard as they could. They tugged and tugged, trying to make the bars budge. But it was sadly no use. Even with Danny's strength combined with theirs, this ecto-cage was not going to break from their combined will.

"Alright, let's see about finding something to just pry it open." Sora suggested.

"Or you could just try unlocking it with your Keyblade." Wanda managed to tell him before they could actually move.

Everyone blinked. Then the group all stared at Sora, who looked at his Lady Luck Keyblade. Realization seemed to dawn on the boy followed immediately after by sheepish embarrassment. With an awkward chuckle, the keybearer walked towards the cage and held it towards the lock. A beam shot from the blade's tip and into the keyhole. Sure enough, the cage opened and Tantor managed to step out, looking grateful.

"Now we need to find where Jane and the professor are," Sora stated as he and the others looked around the ruined tent. "Did this Skulker take them or something?"

"It seems he might have taken Goddard as well, oh no…" Jimmy Neutron feared the worst. The worry then turned into righteous fury, "If he so much as touches one of his perfectly assembled stainless metal plates, I will dismantle that poacher and turn him into toasters!"

"What's with you and toasters?" Timmy asked.

Tarzan, speaking with Tantor, asked, "Tantor, tell me, what happened while we were gone?"

"Oh it was just awful, Tarzan!" The elephant told him. "First, everything was fine since you guys were going off to save your family. Then Terk came over in a hurry and ran inside. Then it turned out she was being chased, and somehow I got trapped in that cage! Oh, that's when that other guy came in with those monsters, then he came out with Terk and the others captured! After that, he had those monsters just tear this place apart before heading into the jungle!"

At that, Tarzan tried thinking of the most likely place they would be taken to in the jungle. Beyond the lagoon, higher elevations… He decided to try trusting his nose, hoping to pick up a scent. And a scent he did pick up. Something vile… growing in size?

Goofy, finding Tarzan sniffing the air, couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong, Tarzan?"

"Something coming. Jane, danger." The jungle man replied in broken English. "Jane near… Near tree house."

"Near the tree house…?" The boy genius pondered something. "Could we possibly be dealing with…?"

"Trouble, that's what." Donald could tell there was no time to lose. "Let's go."

"Right," Jimmy agreed, not wanting to waste more time.

And with that, the heroes ventured into the jungle, rushing as fast as they could. When they got to the lagoon, the group made to climb up the vines, but Tarzan stopped them and pointed out the one vine at the end of the lagoon. The ape man headed towards it and the others followed, believing that perhaps that was a faster way up there. Sure enough, climbing up that vine had brought them up to the end of the area with all the vines! How convenient!

"Hey wait a minute." The wizard blinked. "If we could have just used this vine to get here, why didn't we use it last time?"

"We probably would have missed out on getting treasure and freeing puppies." The average kid said. "It would basically nag at the back of our heads until we got them if we didn't."

"Guys, we're almost there!" Spongebob told them. "Let's hurry and save our friends!"

Best that certain things are just left unexplained, apparently. Our heroes climbed up the vine and eventually made it back into the most dense part of the tree as they had before. But just as they arrived, more Powerwilds suddenly appeared to attack! Seeing the ambush, our heroes quickly beat them back. But just as they did, more Heartless took their place!

"Tarzan!" Jane's voice called out.

"Jane!" Tarzan replied, looking to where her voice came from.

Jane, Terk, Professor Porter, and Goddard were trapped behind some thick vines up in one of the exits of the tree. Fortunately, none of them looked like they came to harm.

"Professor Porter! Goddard!" Jimmy called over, happy to see his creation and best friend safe. "We came as fast as we could! Don't worry, we'll get you out of there!"

"Please, hurry!" Archimedes replied as Goddard barked back. "Whatever's making all these monsters appear is going to continuously produce more unless it's destroyed!"

"What is it?" Goofy asked, bashing a Powerwild back with his shield.

"It's that big black fruit on the tree!" Jane pointed it out. "It's taking life from the flowers to make these creatures!"

"It's a parasite, boys!" The professor summed up. "If it's not destroyed, it may suck the life out of all the flora in the jungle!"

The group looked towards the tree in the middle of the area. Indeed, there was a large, black pear-like fruit with peculiar spirals on it. Sure enough, some of the flowers on the vines began wilting, and nearby appeared more Powerwilds. Jimmy knew something peculiar was with that budding fruit! He should have had it blown off of the tree when he saw it before! Better late than never.

"Everyone, focus all your attacks on the fruit!" Jimmy advised.

"On it!" Sora drew his Keyblade and charged towards it with Tarzan.

As both the keybearer and the lord of the apes focused their strikes on that hanging fruit, it was left to everyone else to keep the Heartless off of them. Donald focused on fire spells to hit ones that were further back, just as Jimmy and Timmy finished them off with wind and stars. Goofy blocked blows meant for Spongebob, and the fry cook took advantage by jumping over the knight captain and hitting a not-monkey with a well placed karate chop. Danny had, as usual, the easiest time just pelting the Heartless with ecto-beams. With them taken down, Sora and Tarzan finally cut the fruit wide open, and dark purple smoke and juices spilled out. Life ended up returning to the flowers as they opened in bloom.

Getting rid of the vines, our heroes rescued the Porters, Terk, and Goddard. The latter immediately rushed over to Jimmy and began licking his face. Terk also embraced Tarzan as the humans quickly went over to the ape man.

"So, not to ask a stupid question, but what happened?" Sora asked. "When we got back to the camp, the place was a mess, Tantor was in a cage, and it turns out you guys were kidnapped."

"It was shocking!" Archimedes answered. "We were just waiting for you to return after saving the gorillas, but then this little one came to us for safety."

"After that, Clayton came into the tent, and…" Jane shook her head. "That's the last thing I remember."

"Clayton?" Sora asked in shock. "He's behind all this?!"

"Are you really surprised about that?" Gadget asked him.

"Well, not exactly, but still, I figured there'd be something good about him." The boy with the key admitted to his mouse companion. "But that can only mean…"

"Clayton's more than likely working with Skulker, meaning he just joined up with the Syndicate." Danny Phantom facepalmed. "Great. First they discover other worlds. Now they're recruiting more villains… and giving them resources for their petty whims."

"Tarzan, you gotta help them!" Terk said to Tarzan in their native tongue. "All the others who escaped before– some freaky guy with fire burning on his head just rounded them all up and brought them over to the cliff! Even Kerchak and Aunt Kala!"

"What did she say?" The captain of the royal knights asked Tarzan.

"Gorillas trapped. Terk ran." Tarzan explained as he gripped his spear. "Clayton, cliff."

"We must help the gorillas!" Jane exclaimed. "If we don't, they'll be put into cages for profit, or worse, made into trophies!"

"No argument here!" The boy genius agreed. "Goddard, help the Porters get to Tantor. This is only a rushed theory, but they could help if they had more muscle with them."

Goddard barked, then went over to the researchers and the gorilla to do as his owner asked.

"We have to get to the cliff quickly!" The sea sponge was currently worrying his square pants off. "But if we go back the way we came, we'll probably take too long! What do we do?"

"They probably knew that the whole time and kidnapped Jane, Archimedes and Terk, bringing them here for that reason!" Jiminy Cricket realized.

"A distraction," Danny snapped his fingers in bitter realization.

"Tarzan," Sora looked to the ape man, "you know your way around the jungle. You know the way, right?"

Tarzan nodded and replied, "Tarzan, go. Sora, friends, go-go."

All the while, at the cliff, things were indeed incredibly dire. Tarzan's family had been backed against the cliff's wall by the Heartless herding them there. Their leaders, the hunters Clayton and Skulker, smirked as they looked at all their efforts already starting to bear fruit. The gorillas were finally in Clayton's grasp, and Skulker finally got to taste sweet vengeance against the darn, dirty apes. And best of all, their plan worked like a charm.

"Ah," the Englishman sighed pleasantly, "nothing like a good, successful hunt after having to wait for so long. I must say, working with you was indeed the best decision I've ever made."

"Oh, it's hardly a big deal. Just one hunter helping another." The ghost replied. "Well, that and a personal vendetta goes a long way with convenience, so it worked out for both of us anyhow. But that also brings us to the next thing on your itinerary."

Skulker looked towards the gorillas, most notably their leader, Kerchak, pinned to the ground by a bunch of Powerwilds.

"The other ones are obviously going to be sold for profit. What's to be done with their leader?" The ghostly hunter noticed his human counterpart loading his shotgun.

"Oh, I already have a plan for that." Clayton aimed at the gorilla. "I think this one will be better off in my private room, stuffed."

The skies had already started becoming dark and cloudy. Thunder sounded as lightning lit the clouds alight. Kerchak tried keeping a brave face against the hunters threatening him and his family with these monsters. Clayton readied one shot. Only one was needed for this…

But just then, a yell sounded through the air, taking the hunters by surprise as the gorillas looked up with hope in their eyes. Swinging from the vines was none other than Tarzan, who kicked Clayton in the face and brought him to the ground! Then Skulker felt himself get blasted by an ecto-beam and hit a nearby rock wall, narrowing his eyes as the ghost child and his allies joined the fray as well! Tarzan rushed towards his father and destroyed the Heartless that were pinning him down, helping him up soon after.

"You got here so fast…" Kerchak sounded shocked.

"Of course I did." Tarzan told him. "You're my family."

Kerchak, for the first time in his life towards Tarzan, smiled with gratitude. But then he saw Clayton and Skulker getting up and growled, and the heroes too gave narrowed eyes toward the two hunters. Seeing as the monsters were currently not blocking their way, most of the other gorillas, Kala included, began heading out for safety. Kerchak, seeing Tarzan and those strangers he trusted coming to protect them, decided to do something he never figured he'd do. He would believe in them, and then went with the others.

"Hello, ghost child." Skulker dusted himself off as he stood next to the human hunter getting up. "Looks like you got here sooner than expected."

"Why are you even here, Skulker?" Danny asked his enemy. "Last I checked, there's nothing about this jungle that the Syndicate even wants."

"Funny thing." The ghostly hunter chuckled. "Compared to Wonderland, this world wasn't a blip on their radar. I happened to come into this world so I could refine my skills for when I eventually took your pelt and hung it on my wall. At least, that was before I ran into Clayton here."

"I'll admit to being surprised to meet someone like Skulker. After all, other worlds? Magic and powers beyond the natural? The Heartless? All rather fantastical." Clayton said as he brushed himself off. "But as it turns out, it all makes sense. Why else would a duck, a dog, and a sponge of all things be able to walk and talk? How else could a mere child have such talent with technology? How could a boy have a key as a weapon? Utilizing this knowledge and these new resources has made things go much more smoothly than if I remained ignorant of these forces at play. Despite all the setbacks, and the general incompetence of the Porters, I'll finally be able to put all these gorillas in their cages."

"Clayton… why?" Tarzan asked.

"Why?" Clayton echoed. "For 300 pounds sterling a head. At least, that's what it used to be. But now that I got all these Heartless and a like-minded friend from another world, I think I might have just regained a newfound fondness for the hunt. And besides, being on the winning side of a universal takeover sounds like a more profitable decision, don't you think? Not that I expect a mere savage to understand, of course."

"Yeesh, no wonder you two get along." Danny glared. "You're both just greedy vultures of a feather."

"Greed just so happens to be one of the factors that run the universe, ghost child." Skulker replied with a smirk. "But no. The one thing which really moves us is… pride. That joy in the superiority over beasts which dominate the land… Without it to drive us and make living much more exciting, we'd hardly be good hunters."

"That's a funny thing to say, seeing as you never succeeded in catching me." The ghost boy taunted, making his enemy snarl at this.

"Do you guys really think we're just going to let you get away with this?" Sora asked as he readied his Keyblade. "No way!"

"Ah, such confident words…" Clayton held his shotgun up with a smirk, "...but hardly any merit."

And just then, the wall behind Clayton just broke apart into heavy rubble! More of the area was revealed, and a beautiful waterfall could be seen beyond the mass of land before them. Up in the trees, the gorillas came back to watch this fight, growling and shrieking in the midst of the coming fight. Tarzan's eyes widened, knowing that if Clayton were to succeed with this power, his family would be doomed. With a shout, he charged towards Clayton with his spear…

But somehow Tarzan was knocked back! The gorillas gasped in shock as he fell back to the ground, with Sora trying to help him back up. They then noticed, to their continued shock, Clayton was suddenly floating in the air! Or was he? They had also noticed that below Clayton was some kind of shadow that looked nothing like him.

"You know, I'm actually glad you made it, Tarzan." Clayton smirked as he aimed his shotgun at our heroes. "I could use a decent challenge, because after I get rid of you, rounding up your little ape family will be all too easy!"

"And I've been meaning to give some new upgrades of mine a test run." Skulker's jetpack extended its wings and he flew into the air. "Today's the day I finally take you as a trophy, boy!"

"So was the last time and all the times before that!" Danny retorted, flying into the air as well. "Today is hardly gonna be any different!"

With that, the two ghosts began fighting with each other, firing and returning ecto-rays at each other and occasionally clashing with fists. Their dueling ended up taking them high into the trees before Skulker charged at Danny and began pushing him towards the jungle! Jimmy, noticing this, knew Danny needed help. He then activated his jetpack backpack, flying up into the air. In doing so, he actually avoided getting shot by one of Clayton's bullets.

"Guys, whatever's happening with Clayton, he's more than likely riding something invisible!" Jimmy told them. "Focus on that before getting to Clayton, but watch out for his gunshots! I'm going to help out Danny with Skulker!"

With that, the boy genius flew off, leaving the others to face off against the hunter. True to what Jimmy said, it appeared that Clayton was indeed riding on something, since it felt like they were hitting something large. Not to mention getting knocked back by something hard as well. Combine that with having to avoid Clayton's buckshots, and it was difficult to manage to stick together. But not too difficult, as Sora, Goofy and Tarzan managed to do the lion's share of damage while Donald, Spongebob and Timmy kept Clayton off of them.

Eventually, enough damage was done so that whatever Clayton was riding on ended up dispelling the invisibility and ended up revealing itself. Sure enough, it was a large Heartless! It was a bipedal lizard resembling a chameleon. It has a light green body, with five short spikes along its back. It stood hunched over, holding its arms out in front of it. Its entire upper body was covered in intricate, black markings, akin to tattoos. Its hands and feet had four toes each, two in front and two in back, with black claws. Its prehensile tail was curled up behind it in a spiral. It had a mouth lined by short, pointed teeth, a pink tongue that could extend to surprising lengths, and large yellow and orange eyes with small black pupils. It also had a large, white horn on the tip of its snout. Its Heartless emblem was on its tan underbelly, specifically its chest.

"Should've guessed the ringleader of the Heartless would be a chameleon." Timmy commented as they kept attacking it, dodging the claws. "It's just about as sneaky as the guy riding it!"

"The Stealth Sneak is quite the magnificent beast, isn't it?" Clayton laughed. "Powerful, fast, and obedient like any well-trained animal. And the best part is that it has enough power to trample all of you impudent little monkeys underfoot and then some!"

"Wait, Stealth Sneak?" Spongebob blinked. "Not a very imposing name…"

"Fortunately, I'm not the one who named it." The hunter aimed the shotgun at the sea sponge. "And you're the last person to talk of names, 'Squarepants'!"

Spongebob then let out a 'yipe' as he barely dodged another shot and proceeded to run around the Stealth Sneak, jumping over the tail. He also rolled to avoid one of the Heartless' back legs clawing back at him. He of course got back to trying to melee the beast's leg, but compared to Sora's Keyblade and Tarzan's spear, it wasn't having as much of an impact as it had before. Or perhaps he was too busy dodging to notice. Hard to tell in the rush of the moment.

"Sure hope Danny and Jimmy are faring better than we are at the moment!" The fry cook said as he kept chopping.

Speaking of the pair, in the vine-covered parts of the jungle, Danny and Skulker were still firing beams and such at each other. When they weren't, Skulker was firing missiles from the missile launchers in his suit's hidden weapons system, which Danny found he had to keep blasting so the jungle wouldn't catch on fire. Even worse, apparently the ghostly hunter knew this, and would use this as an opportunity to first fire a missile for his prey to blast down before going in to land a heavy punch with one of his gauntlets! The spectral superhero ended up crashing into one of the nearby trees, leaving an indent as the hunter extended a blade from his wrists, ready for the kill.

"I've waited an excruciatingly long time for this moment, ghost child." Skulker neared the blade to his prey's neck.

"Well you'll just have to wait longer!"

Skulker felt something kick him in the face and send him away from Danny! He growled as he saw none other than Jimmy Neutron, flying with his own jetpack… and shaking his foot.

"Yikes, that suit is harder than it looks." The boy genius winced, feeling the soreness in his foot.

"Having super powers kinda dulls that." The ghost boy told him, though he was grateful for the assistance. To his enemy, the halfa said, "So, you got any more 'surprises' you want to throw at us or are you just going to use the same old tricks?"

"That reminds me," Skulker smirked, "I actually do have a new pet to introduce you to."

The ghostly hunter put his fingers to his mouth and then gave a whistle. Both the halfa and the intellectual boy heard a very familiar growling sound quickly moved out of the way to avoid getting slashed! When they saw their new attacker, the two of them were shocked at the apparently familiar face. Not to mention a very familiar fur pelt covered in spots.

"Sabor?!" Jimmy exclaimed. "But we had just beaten her a while ago!"

"Wait, something's wrong. That's not just Sabor. That's…" Danny realized in shock. "Her ghost?"

There was indeed no denying that this was the leopard that was giving them trouble during their venture in the jungle. However, as a ghost, Sabor looked rather different. The yellow on her fur was now green, like most ghosts that Danny had to deal with, and her eyes had turned bright red with a spectral glow. That wasn't all, as attached to her body and head was a set of tech armor which looked remarkably like the weapons systems Skulker had on his person. Her claws appeared to have sharpened to a more dangerous degree, glowing with green ghost energy. She growled at the heroes before her as Skulker floated next to her.

"I should thank you for helping make this possible." Skulker told them. "If it weren't for you killing this alpha, I wouldn't have been able to extract her spirit and assert dominance over her."

"Wow. First you go out of your way to put animals in cages, now you basically tortured a leopard's ghost into being your attack pet?" Danny blinked. "Geez, Sam would hate you more than she already does if she saw this."

"Oh, I hardly needed to torture this one." The ghost replied. "If anything, her hatred of you boys made her much more amicable towards working for me. I'm honestly surprised a mere beast could have such hatred, but all the better."

"Doubt that you actually managed to turn a leopard's body into a ghost aside, you expect to beat us by using Sabor in spite of us beating her before?" Jimmy asked, not seeing the logic there.

"True, you beat Sabor once. However, I've clearly made a few improvements." Skulker showed off the tech on the ghost leopard's body. "A weapon's system to further improve her instincts as a lethal predator, ecto-plasma claws to tear through ghosts and humans like they are but mere cheese slices, fangs that can now bite through any known metal, and much more on my level.

"Allow me to introduce… Cybor!" Skulker thus christened it.

However, that didn't seem to get the reactions he was expecting.

"Uh… Cybor?" The boy genius asked after taking a moment to register the name.

"Creative name, right?" Danny steepled his fingers while crouching, Jimmy rubbing his chin at the amount of pride Skulker was showing in the name.

"Dude. It's just 'cyber', and 'Sabor'." After Skulker looked proud for a little while longer, Danny finally spoke, his words having a hint of frustration, "You didn't think that hard at all!"

"Well what would you have called him then, ghost child?!" The ghost hunter asked, affronted. Jimmy snapped his fingers after Danny gave him a glance.

"Approximately there are more than 10,000,000 possible combinations given the cybernetic ghost leopard amalgamation you have captured as your pet. It is a surprisingly rare combination, which means the likelihood of names being taken or stolen is low. We can double that if we take into account it is also a Heartless, possibly even triple or quadruple if we factor in the possibilities of 'other' entities outside of the Heartless!" The boy genius stated.

"And I suppose you can provide decent examples?" Skulker raised a skeptic brow.

"Well, to start simply, there's Sabor 2.0, Metal Sabor, Leopardon..." Jimmy started naming a few.

Back at the cliff, our heroes were still dealing with the troublesome team of Clayton and his mount, the Stealth Sneak. Due to its visibility, the group was now able to avoid its lunge attacks with more ease, but it also had another ability in the form of charging up a green glow in its hands before clapping them together and sending a burst of wind at anyone in its line of trajectory. Sora admittedly got knocked back by this, but fortunately Tarzan had his back by throwing him a herb to heal with. But that didn't help with their main problem.

"Guys, not to sound like a pessimist," Spongebob said to his friends, "but this thing's not going down fast!"

"It's practically tanking whatever magic I cast at it!" Donald said. "Thunder at least works about the same as attacking, but other than that, it's tougher than it looks!"

"Just give it up!" Clayton felt the need to be incredibly smug. "You can't beat the best!"

"Best at what?" Cosmo felt the need to ask. "Naming facts about Canada? Having the best hair? Why do bad guys have to be so vague about what they're best at?"

"Not the time, Cosmo!" Timmy told his weapon. "Just how are we supposed to knock Clayton off of his high lizard?"

"We probably need somethin' big," Goofy suggested, "but how are we gonna get somethin' like that?"

As if to answer Goofy's question, the ground suddenly began to shake as everyone ended up stopping what they were doing. What was that? Another large Heartless? The confused look on Clayton's face seemed to tell them otherwise. If not that, then…

"CHARRRRRGE!"

Just then, rushing in from the thicket, was none other than Tantor! Atop his back were Professor Archimedes Porter, who made the call and was pointing ahead like a commanding soldier, Jane Porter, Terk, and even Goddard. Taken by surprise, Clayton held tightly to the Stealth Sneak's back as it was rammed into by Tantor, taking a hold of the elephant's tusk and trying to push it back even as its claws digging into the ground made trails in the dirt. The hunter tried for a deadly shot at the researchers, but after being taken off his guard, Donald cast a fire spell and once more threw off his aim by blowing the gun out of his hands! Then with another push, Clayton was sent flying off of the Heartless' back and onto the ground!

"Gah!" The hunter growled as he got up. "Confounded beast! Have at them already!"

"Looks like you're all out of weapons, Clayton!" He turned to see his enemies, led by Sora and Tarzan, focusing on him. "Give up now!"

"Pitiful fools… I won't be stopped!" Clayton swore before taking out a hunting knife and preparing for close quarters combat. Some of his hair was also starting to stick out, giving him a more animalistic expression. "You're tougher than I expected, but you're still no match for me!"

And on that note, more Powerwild Heartless appeared at Clayton's growing rage. As Donald, Goofy, Timmy and Spongebob were busy fighting the Powerwilds as they appeared, Sora and Tarzan took the fight to Clayton personally, who indeed was just as much a fighter at close range as he was with a gun. Clashing his knife against the Keyblade, the hunter kept Sora back but also had to avoid Tarzan's incoming spear by ducking, which he had to follow by going for an uppercut against the keybearer, who had to jump back to avoid getting hit. His attention going towards Tarzan, Clayton sidestepped the thrusts and used his knife to start cutting into the wood, soon breaking it in half. The hunter chuckled at this, but he didn't expect the ape man to just take the bottom of the spear and pound it into his gut, then the spiky-haired boy going in for a three-hit combo and sending him tumbling back.

As for the Stealth Sneak, it was still trying to push back against the elephant, but Tantor was proving to be much stronger than it could hope to handle.

"That's it, Tantor!" Archimedes encouraged the elephant with a laugh. "Show it who's boss!"

However, Terk noticed something going on with the monster and tried getting the humans' attention. When they felt her tugging on their clothes, they saw the gorilla point toward the Steal Sneak's eyes. Quickly, Archimedes had Tantor pull away from the lizard, and in the nick of time as it fired a pair of homing white laser beams from its eyes! As Tantor ran to avoid getting hit, Timmy couldn't help but watch in disbelief.

"Are you kidding me?" He commented after pelting some Powerwilds with stars. "It shoots lasers from its eyes too?!"

"Homing ones at that!" Spongebob added, seeing it shoot another pair of lasers. "And more are headed for us!"

Fortunately for the pair, Goofy, after bashing through the Powerwilds that were going after him, came in at the nick of time to block the lasers from hitting them, giving them a thumbs up. However, the Stealth Sneak was again rearing back to fire another pair of lasers! Gadget, watching this from Sora's hair as the keybearer was still trying to battle Clayton, racked her brain to figure out how to beat the Heartless. If lightning was doing enough damage to it to match a physical attack, and the Stealth Sneak's eyes were charging energy up, then perhaps a well placed pair of lightning bolts…

"Donald!" She called over to the wizard. "Before the Heartless fires again, cast Thunder on it!"

"Wha? O-Okay!" Donald barely managed to hear that and looked towards the Stealth Sneak. Its eyes were just about fully charging their lasers, so he waved his staff around and called out, "Thunder!"

His staff sparked with lightning, and from the skies above, lightning came down on the Heartless. It was a low chance that the bolts would strike the eyes specifically… but despite all the odds, they did! Upon hitting the eyes that were fully charged with energy, the Stealth Sneak was struck with pain coursing throughout its entire being, being electrocuted from head to lower tail. The spiral even came undone and jolted straight! Small explosions came from the Heartless' eyes, and it even started twitching. Its form even blinked from being visible to invisible and back. After that, and with smoking eyes, the Stealth Sneak fell down, defeated at last. It then dissipated into nothing as a heart flew into the sky.

"Alright!" Timmy cheered. "Nice one, Donald!"

"Hey, thanks!" Donald gave a thumbs up to the average kid for that.

"Good-for-nothing beast!" Clayton, seeing the monster fall, cursed. "For it to be felled so easily by a band of clowns…"

It was then the hunter found himself surrounded. Not just by those he was fighting with, but also those who quickly dispatched the Powerwilds he summoned, and his former employers atop a glaring elephant. Things definitely were not looking great for the British hunter. He could only hope that his new compatriot was making short work of those other two and was coming to fix this mess.

Speaking of which…

"Spotter, Mecha Sabor, Sawtooth, The Stalker, adding in 'The' is always a good idea, makes it more impressive..." Jimmy kept going, Skulker to his credit extended his arm and wrote an entry into a holographic display. "And honestly, the list can go on."

"Note to self: consider the advice of the prey. Now sic them! Name In Pending!" He announced and threw his arm forward, pointing at them.

The ghost once known as Sabor gave an unimpressed growl before focusing on her hated enemies. She flew towards them and the two boys quickly flew away so she and her new master gave chase. Sabor started chasing Danny up along a large tree, trying to claw at his ghostly tail with her ectoplasma claws. Picking up speed, Danny circled around the tree to give the ghostly leopard the slip… but when he saw his breath go blue, he quickly turned towards the tree itself and flew back as Sabor phased through it!

"Okay, you definitely adapted to being a ghost way too fast for comfort." Danny told the leopard.

Sabor only replied with another growl and her weapons system suddenly activated, and a mini-laser came out of it before firing at the ghostly superhero! The halfa returned fire, but then had to keep flying as the leopard's ghost continued trying to slash at him with her claws. But then the feline was caught off guard by a blast of wind blowing her back. Sure enough, the boy genius managed to catch up and flew next to the ghost boy. The younger boy wiped some sweat from his brow as he bought them some time.

"Danny, as much as I'd like to say otherwise, the two of us together might not be enough for a newly enhanced Sabor as we are at the moment." Jimmy Neutron told Danny Phantom. "You've dealt with Skulker before. Is there an easy way to get the better of him?"

"While he's a skilled hunter and knows how to use his tech, he's not the best at keeping maintenance of it." Danny explained. "If we manage to get his tech hacked, we've basically already won."

"Hack his tech?" The boy genius responded. "But I don't have any device to hack it directly!"

"You might have to think of one fast, or we're gonna be mauled by Sabor's Revenge!" The superhero told him.

Right on cue, Sabor's ghost managed to recover and charged towards the pair, making them fly off once again. With Danny trying to keep the ghost leopard's attention, Jimmy tried racking his plan to think of an idea as he flew. He couldn't build an invention in the middle of a battle; he needed concentration. And he couldn't risk dropping useful gummi blocks for such an invention in mid-air. So what could the boy genius do?

"Alright, you can figure this out, Jimmy… Think… think… think…!" Jimmy thought hard, feeling his brain pulse as his thoughts came together to try and come up with an idea. Skulker's tech, easily hacked, tech capable of new possibilities thanks to gummi block mechanics…! Then he got it. "Brain Blast!"

With a look at his Spotted Deck, Jimmy had begun making the proper adjustments to put his newfound plan into action. As for Danny, he was luring Sabor's ghost into the overgrown roots of a massive tree, phasing through them and blending into the dark to throw her off his tail, metaphorically and literally. The deceased leopard also phased through the roots, but she had trouble trying to find her prey in the darkness. That didn't stop her from clawing at everything that was in her way, of course. But when she came out of the other side, she couldn't find any sign of the ghost boy.

"Time for your catnap!" Then his voice caught her off guard.

Sabor's ghost looked up and saw the ghost child charging up a large ball of ectoplasmic energy in both of his hands before thrusting his hands forward, sending a large ray into her! The sheer force of the laser pushed her so fast towards the ground that the impact she made left a crater around her ghostly body. She barely even growled as she was dazed by the heavy blast. Danny could tell she was taken care of… but then he got pelted with something from behind and crashed into a nearby tree. Not to mention he was rather stuck. As it turned out, he was trapped in some green, gooey substance.

"Ecto-goo." He groaned in disgust, seeing Skulker float towards him. "Ugh, I hate this stuff."

"You also make it a habit to leave yourself open." Skulker told him with a nasty smirk on his face before aiming a laser hook near Danny's neck. "And finally it cost you your life."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that."

The one and a half-pair of ghosts looked up to see none other than Jimmy Neutron with his Spotted Deck out, with some kind of red beam of light shining down from it.

"Oh look, the so-called boy genius with his adorable little watch." Skulker laughed at this. "What, do you honestly think you can interfere with my systems with your puny toy?"

"Who said I was interfering with yours?" Jimmy returned with a smirk.

Confused, Skulker paid close attention to where the red light was shining. Sure enough, it was not on himself. However, it was shining down on Sabor's tech instead. The ghost feline predator began to stir, but then felt something odd happening with her back. To her shock and confusion, jet wings and a thruster appeared from it! The ghostly hunter only blinked once, already fearing what was going to happen next.

"Oh no." He muttered.

Ghost Sabor's jetpack then activated, sending the screaming leopard specter flying into Skulker and having them soar back the way they came. With them out of the way, Jimmy got to using his rarely used invention, the Swiss Army Laser, to get Danny out of his gooey predicament.

"See? Told you you had to work on something fast." The halfa told him. "So what, you just modify your Spotted Deck to have a hacking function?"

"Yep. Turned out the right solution was the simplest one." The boy genius confirmed. "Of course, I also made some additional modifications while I was at it."

"Really? Like what?" The teenager raised a brow.

"Oh, you'll see." The grade schooler turned back towards the bamboo thicket. "C'mon, let's regroup with the others."

Jimmy thus blasted off with his jetpack, and Danny of course followed with his flight. Back with the rest of our heroes, they had basically trapped Clayton into a corner. Unable to do much but hold his hunting knife while seeing his shotgun was out of reach, the hunter was snarling at the complete indignity of it all. Even with this newfound power and resources at his disposal, these freaks and savages had gotten in his way yet again! He couldn't just go down like this!

"Clayton, it's time you gave yourself up." Archimedes told him from atop a glaring Tantor. "Surrender now, and at the very least you'll be brought back to England to face judgment from the proper authorities with dignity."

The hunter only scoffed as he retorted, "You of all people do not get to lecture me about dignity, 'Professor'! I may not have the upper hand, but you all still have about as much chance at beating me and my new resources as the likelihood of something coming from the sky and striking me down into the ground where I stand!"

"Hey, does anyone else hear something?" Timmy blinked as he heard something new.

"Huh, yeah…" Sora held a hand to his ear. "Kinda sounds like… screaming?"

Sure enough, everyone looked up to see none other than Skulker, still being propelled by an out-of-control Sabor's ghost, screaming as they made their way towards the human hunter! Clayton saw this and immediately reacted with a shout, but he could not get away in time. Next thing he knew, he was flattened into the ground with his ghostly partner and his new attack leopard on top of him. William Cecil Clayton could only manage a pained groan before losing consciousness.

"...Huh. I'm getting the strangest sense of deja vu right now." Spongebob blinked as he stared at the pile of baddies before them.

Soon after, Jimmy and Danny flew back to join up with their friends, the former telling them, "Hey guys, sorry for taking so long. Looks like you took care of things here, though."

"Yep, we sure did!" Goofy chuckled.

"Hold on." Donald held a feathered hand up. "He's getting back up!"

Everyone tensed up again as Skulker groaned and got back on his feet, glaring at the group. Once again, he was beaten by the ghost child, but now he was humiliated by a boy claiming to be a genius and easily hacked into his systems! Now his new pet and new partner were out of commission and he was surrounded on all sides. He hated to admit it, but once again, his prey had bested him.

"Know this, ghost child." Skulker addressed Danny as he picked up Sabor's ghost and the unconscious Clayton. "You and your friends may have gotten the best of us now, but the Syndicate still has more influence and power than you can ever hope to surpass! I will enjoy the moment your pitiful rebellion falls before its might, and then I'll finally have you as a trophy! Make no mistake!"

With that, a green portal opened near Skulker, and the ghostly hunter flew into it with Clayton and Sabor's ghost in hand. Tarzan went to stop him from getting away, but the portal vanished before he could reach it. But when they disappeared, Sora saw his Keyblade glow a comforting green. Perhaps he learned another useful spell?

"Darn it! They got away again!" Spongebob snapped his fingers in frustration. "Seriously, why do bad guys have all the luck with convenient escapes?"

"Well, at the very least the threat has passed." Gadget said. "Nice teamwork as usual, guys!"

Tarzan, as Clayton was gone, had looked back to the dropped shotgun Clayton ended up leaving behind. This thing that was so close to hurting his family time and time again… The ape man picked it up, took it by the barrels, and then slammed it onto the ground, breaking it apart with ease. Now, his family was definitely safe.

Speaking of his family, the gorillas had begun climbing back down, as the clouds above began to clear and reveal the blue sky once more. They all looked upon these strangers with expressions of gratitude on their faces, happiness that Tarzan saved them. Even the stern Kerchak himself, alongside Kala who smiled at Tarzan, proud of her son, came up to the boys without any of the prior caution they had before. The ape man got to greet his mother fondly, though he and everyone else watched Kerchak approach Sora specifically.

Kerchak looked upon the wielder of the Keyblade silently.

"Uh… hi?" Sora didn't really know how to respond.

The leader of the Mangani gorillas reached one hand out to grasp Sora by the shoulder, confusing him. Then with ease, Kerchak lifted the boy up, and with a mighty throw he threw Sora over the nearby ledge, letting him land atop it with a crash, and causing Gadget to get dizzy. He then proceeded to do the same with Donald, who landed on his stomach, Goofy, who landed on his behind, and Spongebob, Jimmy, Timmy, and Danny all basically ending up in a comical pile. Goddard simply flew over to them while Tantor gently placed Archimedes, Jane, and Terk on the ledge to help the boys up. Tarzan went to climb up and join them, but then he gave one last look towards his father.

"Kerchak… About before, I…" He spoke, unable to find the words.

"Tarzan… you were right about these strangers." Kerchak admitted to him. "If it weren't for them, our family would have suffered something unimaginable. And with that belief, you have saved us all. Please, forgive me for not understanding that you have always been one of us, and you always had our interests at heart."

"Kerchak…" Kala was happy to see him accepting Tarzan at last.

"One day, our family will look to you as their leader." The leader of the gorillas told him. "I have faith that you will take care of them as I have, my son."

At that, Tarzan smiled with gratitude as his father gave him a smile of respect and understanding after so long. At last, their bonds were mended, and Kerchak finally saw him as his son. The leader of the gorillas, having said all he needed to, then turned and walked off, leading the gorillas back into the jungle. Kala too followed, giving her son's friends an appreciative smile, happy that her son was not alone. The jungle man then turned around and took a few steps towards the other side of the ledge, looking on at the two beautiful waterfalls in the distance. Everyone else with him couldn't help but admire the sight as well.

"Tarzan, home." He said, before heading to the left.

"Hey Tarzan, where are you going?" Spongebob asked.

The ape man pointed ahead towards a cave that went behind the waterfall. With Sora looking excited that he'll finally get to see his friends, he of course was the first to go after him. Everyone else followed soon after. Once they went inside the cavern, they all marveled at the backside of the waterfalls up close. That being said, the place looked mighty narrow, so where were they supposed to go?

Tarzan answered that question by going up the platforms. So the idea was that they had to climb up. Cautiously, everyone began following him up. To their surprise, there were even a few treasure chests for Sora to open up. A mythril shard, a mythril, some orichalchum… and of course, another trio of puppies that leapt out of their chest, piled on Sora, and got to licking his face even wetter than the stray water that came down.

"Now that brings us to 72 puppies left!" Spongebob counted. "Aw, these little guys are so cute~."

"Just how do you manage to keep count of these puppies?" Danny had to ask.

"Well it's worth remembering everything someone who needs help asks for," the fry cook explained, "be it food orders or even finding missing pets. For example, we've still got 508 slices of cheese, 809 sets of buns, 47 jars of ketchup and 35 of mustard, and a total of 13 lettuce heads at the Krusty Krab waiting for yours truly to make the best patties in the sea."

"Terrifyingly dedicated, I see," Jimmy commented before turning to Sora. "How are things on your side?"

"Everything's white and spotty!" Sora replied with the Dalmatians rubbing against him, laughing.

After Jimmy used the Spotted Deck to send the puppies home, they continued their climbing, eventually making it towards a cave going deeper into the cavern. They continued following Tarzan inside until they came into a cavernous room where a magnificent tree somehow grew within, reaching as tall as the sky where the sun and the blue sky showed from above. On this tree appeared to be something glowing a most radiant blue. Truly, a most magnificent wonder to behold. However…

"*&&X%." Tarzan spoke that word again.

"This is your home?" Sora asked, confused. "But that means…"

"Where are Riku and Kairi?" Spongebob asked for Sora.

But Tarzan held a hand up to have them be quiet. He then held a hand to his ear, listening for something. At that, the other heroes shrugged and did the same thing. Goofy, with one raised ear, couldn't help but notice a familiar sound even in this room. He even made an inquisitive grunt as he knew what this sound was.

"The waterfalls…" Jane knew it as well. "They're echoing all the way here."

"I wouldn't be surprised." Archimedes agreed. "The fact this cavern is hollow only helps add to the effect. It is quite a beautiful natural phenomenon."

"I guess, but what does that have to do with anything?" Danny asked.

"*&&X%." Tarzan repeated that word. "Friends there. See friends."

"Where? In the waterfalls?" Timmy asked.

"...No," Jimmy actually figured it out, "it's much deeper than that, isn't it, Jane?"

"Indeed, now I've got it." Jane nodded. "*&&X% means 'heart'. Friends in our hearts…"

Tarzan nodded, confirming the meaning. "Heart…"

Sora's gaze lowered. He had been so excited to hear that Riku and Kairi might have been here. Instead, it turns out that, the whole time, Tarzan meant something metaphorical. Of course he couldn't have been that lucky.

"Oh," Sora found himself facing disappointment, like Donald had said, "so that's what it meant."

His friends looked sympathetically towards the Keyblade master. He was so eager to see his friends again, but they were not here. The royal magician couldn't help but look up to Sora as well upon hearing that tone. When he said that, he didn't mean for Sora to actually be disappointed. It was… honestly sad to see.

"Friends, same heart." Tarzan explained in his broken language. "Clayton, lose heart. No heart, no see friends. No heart, no friends."

It was then that a certain four had taken Tarzan's words to heart as well. Broken as they were, the ape man was indeed correct, just as Spongebob was before. Maybe it was time that things were amended and issues passed over. It was never too late to heal.

"Donald… I'm sorry about all those things I said." Sora looked to the mage, apologizing to him. "Even if it was a lie, you did help us out the entire time and we are thankful that you are here with us."

"Yeah, same here." Timmy concurred. "Sure, we might not really get along about this world order thing– I mean, it still sounds pretty ridiculous personally, but just ignoring your opinions because we outnumber you isn't fair when you're just as much part of the team."

"While I'm still skeptical about the whole 'magic' affair, I agree." Jimmy was the same. "It was wrong of us to just isolate you after we only had one major disagreement. If we just took the time to talk things out, maybe we could have avoided arguing amongst ourselves to start with."

"No, guys, if anything, I'm the one who should be sorry." Donald replied, shaking his head. "I said a lot of hurtful things. Even said that looking for Sora's friends and the puppies were an optional side quest, when even I knew he felt the same feeling for his friends as Goofy and I do for our king. I even put the blame on you guys about the Syndicate when it wasn't your fault at all. In the end, I was putting my wants over you guys, and that wasn't fair. Even if our missions aren't the same, the fact that they twist together means we're all part of the same team. And that's what matters."

Goofy, happy to see his friends making up at long last, got them in a group hug and said, "Yeah! All for one, huh?"

"And one for all!" Spongebob joined in, happy to see things were finally back to normal.

"Excuse me, fellas," Jiminy Cricket got the boys' attention, "but it seems something is happening with that glow."

Indeed, the blue glow on the tree started to diminish, and it was revealed to actually be a bunch of blue jungle butterflies all bunched together. The beautiful specimens all began to fly off of the tree and flutter all around them. It was then the group all saw what the butterflies all basically uncovered. A keyhole-shaped indentation in the tree, with the rims glowing a sparkling blue. Remember something like this from back in Wonderland, Sora brought his Lady Luck Keyblade out and pointed it at the hole. Like before, the tip of the blade gathered stars and then fired a beam of light into the keyhole. The sound of something closing filled their ears once again. The blue light of the keyhole then dissipated into the air, and the hole was just replaced by a keyhole-shaped spot framed by the vines on the tree.

Sora's Keyblade had also once again changed forms. This time, it appeared to be made of wood and other materials from nature. Its handle was orange and surrounded by a circular, tan guard with two spikes near its top. The guard was almost entirely covered by a dark purple material wrapped around it. The shaft was very thin, tan, and long. Its teeth were made of five blunt, tan spikes separated by the same dark purple material from the guard. The first link of the keychain appeared to be a silver carabiner, while the rest of the keychain appeared to be a strand of creeper vine. The token resembled a blue butterfly with orange wingtips.

And from the former keyhole dropped two peculiar objects. One was a green, dark blue, pink, and yellow diamond-shard-shaped gummi block that glistened before them. The item next to it was another shining gem. Just like with Wonderland.

"A gummi!" Donald exclaimed, picking it up.

"But it sure is not the king's." Goofy sighed while Donald looked down in disappointment.

"And another gem too." Jimmy picked up the gem and put it in his pocket. "That makes two we still don't know the purpose of. What are these for…?"

Terk, noticing Donald sighed, decided to nuzzle up against him, much to the wizard's confusion.

"I think someone has a new admirer." Jane giggled at this.

"My goodness, it seems that you've gotten close to this one, haven't you?" Professor Porter chuckled as well.

Donald, upon realizing what they were talking about, along with the chuckles coming from his companions, immediately jumped back and waved his hands in front of him.

"No, no, no, no!" The mage denied having any part of this. "Daisy would kill me!"

As everyone chuckled at the duck's expense, Tarzan went over to Terk and asked, "You just couldn't resist teasing him, could you?"

"Eh," Terk replied, "I'd like to call it bein' even for helpin' me out. He's not a bad guy anyway."

Ah yes. In spite of problems that threatened to break friendships rearing their ugly head, after a bit of trouble trying to overcome their issues, our heroes overcame a heavy trial and their bond only came out stronger than ever before. No matter what happens between them, there was no doubt that they could work through it together. For that was the bond between friends.

—-

"And so you swear that you will be loyal to our cause?" The dark fairy looked down upon Clayton, who was kneeling before her out of respect.

"I swear with all my heart, my fair lady." Clayton swore. "I will serve you and the Syndicate with all that I am able."

"Then go, valiant hunter." She told the Englishman. "Serve with your partner. You both shall be called upon when there is need of you. Until then, go to Amity Park. Vlad Masters should have a weapon that will be an improvement over your lost firearm."

"As you command, my mistress." William Cecil Clayton understood.

Getting up and nodding his head, he walked past the octopus woman, the bag of bugs, and the man with the twisted beard, watching as a green portal opened before him and he entered through it. Once the portal was gone, the occupants in the room faced each other. And judging by the look on their faces, they expected this to go entirely differently.

"I was honestly expecting the weak-hearted fool to fall to the darkness." The man with the snake staff admitted. "Instead, now we have him swearing loyalty to us and the Syndicate. I suppose I should be impressed with the forward thinking their enforcers are apparently capable of."

"Indeed." The dark fairy nodded in agreement. "What should have been the hunter's lust for power luring the Heartless to that world and consuming his heart was instead the moment he was taught how to better utilize it. This Syndicate is proving to be an exceptional ally."

"Are they though?" The bag of bugs wasn't fully convinced. "I mean, not like I ain't impressed, they clearly can talk the talk. But that hunter guy still lost against those kids."

The man clad in red and black then said, "I can't help but agree to that as well. Those boys have become a problem. They have already found two of the Keyholes. If left unchecked, they could find the ones we're currently searching for."

"Fear not. It will take him ages to find the rest." The leader assured him as a mystical image showing the seven walking together appeared on the table. "Besides, he remains blissfully unaware of our other plan."

"Yes, the princesses…" the octopus woman recalled. "As we are now, we're already more than halfway there, aren't we?"

"They are falling into our hands, one by one." The dark fairy confirmed before her eye caught a green cyclone forming in the room. "Speaking of which…"

The cyclone faded, and Lydia floated in the air, still holding Alice captive in her grasp. Holding the girl's arms back so she couldn't escape, Lydia brought her towards the witch who observed the struggling girl with an even glance. The orb of her staff then began to glow, and she began waving her hand around it as her body too gained a yellow-green aura. Alice then began to feel her will start to fade, and her eyes growing heavy. Almost like she was very tired all of a sudden.

"So…ra…" she barely whispered the name most dear to her before she fell asleep.

"Take her to the grand hall." The dark fairy told Lydia. "There, she shall be sealed in preparation for the final stage of our plan."

Lydia simply nodded, taking the now easily-dealt-with Alice in her arms and going on her way. After that, she'll simply leave for Amity Park again. The Circus Gothica needed her there, after all. One positive thing about that, she'd be able to see the spiky-haired cutie for another show.

—-

It honestly took some hard work and effort in order to fix up the entire camp, but thanks to help from Tantor and even the gorilla family, it was good as new in no time. The researchers could look forward to a peaceful time of studying the gorillas without any further issues. Back in the redone tent, most of our heroes were bidding their farewells to the Porters, Tarzan, Kerchak and Kala. After all, their exploration venture here, as unintentional as it was, had ended.

"We better get going." Sora said. "It's been fun here, but there's still things we have to do."

"Outside of this world, correct?" Archimedes asked. "I must say, this whole idea of other worlds with sentient beings outside our own amazes me plenty. It's too bad our current research leaves us here, you know?"

"Where is your ship, anyway?" Jane couldn't help but ask curiously.

"Not too far." Donald answered, not exactly certain that the people here knowing other worlds exist was a good thing, but that was out of their hands now. "Though considering how we landed, it might take a bit of work to fix it, so we'll be here for a couple more hours at best."

"Oh, that shouldn't be a problem with Gadget and Jimmy on the case." Spongebob assured the duck. "They'll probably get it up and running in no time!"

The future lord of the apes, and the one who was glad to have helped his friends from outside his world, told the keybearer, "Sora, Tarzan, friends."

Sora smiled, nodding in agreement as he shook Tarzan's hand, "Yeah. Friends to the end."

"Well, if that's all, we better get to the ship." Donald went to turn around.

"Actually, there's still just one thing we need to do." Jimmy Neutron said, surprising everyone.

"Oh, really?" Archimedes asked. "Why, what's that, young man?"

The boy genius turned to Tarzan with a look of determination. This was it. The moment of truth.

"Tarzan," the Retroville citizen began, "please, join our team."

At that, everyone let out stunned gasps, Donald's being the loudest. Did Jimmy really just ask Tarzan to join them on their quest? Of course, the ape man just looked confused by this request. By 'joining their team', did that not mean, 'leave this place'? Could he really do that?

"Jimmy, are you sure about this?" Danny asked him. "You want Tarzan to team up with us?"

"That's correct." He nodded.

"We can't do that!" Donald told him. "I know you're probably tired of hearing it from me, but it would still be considered meddling if we just took someone from their own world to another!"

"Now that you mention it, I believe now is a good time to ask." Jimmy turned towards Donald, not going to let his emotions get the better of him here. "Donald, while we did sum up that this 'world order' is some sort of unspoken code, this, combined with the whole 'no meddling' aspect that we already flout most of the time, hasn't been explained with a clear definition. So, could you please describe what the world order means?"

The wizard, seeing that the boy genius really was giving him a chance to explain the importance of maintaining the world order, cleared his throat. Now at last he could probably stress why it was important to begin with.

"It goes like this," Donald began. "Every world is defined by its particular boundaries, within which some understanding of reality emerges as truth. Two truths cannot coexist, and so from the introductions of foreign bodies is conflict and chaos spawned. That's why we're supposed to limit our involvement in local affairs. As such, that is the world order we must keep maintained."

Everyone was staring at Donald with varied expressions. Goofy seemed to just go along with it since he heard it from Donald before. Sora, Danny, Timmy and Jiminy just stared with open eyes and raised brows during the whole thing. Tarzan and his ape parents just tilted their heads in confusion, having understood none of what the duck was saying. The only ones who seemed to have an idea, even in spite of Donald's voice, were the Porters and Jimmy Neutron himself. The boy genius listened to Donald's explanation of the world order, letting him explain without ridiculing the wizard or cutting him off. And on further consideration of this definition of the world order, the leader of the original quartet came up with one conclusion.

"Essentially, the world order implies that since each world has a different form of reality," he said, "if one reality meets another that conflicts with it, then disorder happens as a direct result."

"Correct." The duck nodded, glad Jimmy listened. "As such, that's why we can't bring Tarzan."

"Actually, it's exactly why we need to."

The duck blinked at the Retroville citizen's response. That was almost immediate.

"How does that mean we need to?" The duck crossed his arms, deciding he'd listen to Jimmy's reasoning as well.

"By your definition, the realities of other worlds conflict with each other and thus they should not meet, correct?" Jimmy asked. When Donald nodded, he continued, "If that's the case, then why even bother having a gummi ship to travel to different worlds to begin with?"

"Well, that's…" The court magician began, but then trailed off when he found he couldn't rightly think of a response.

"Why bother traversing the worlds at all?" The boy genius went on. "Why bother using 'magic' in a world linked to realism and thus doesn't have it? What would the point of looking for your king be? No offense, Donald, but if you really think about the world order in this manner, trying to follow it would keep you from accomplishing your mission more than it would help."

Everyone stared and started to nod in agreement at the boy's logic, though Sora, Spongebob, Cosmo, and Goofy were trying to get the general idea. Gadget made a mental note to explain it in simpler terms.

"Not helping matters are the Heartless and those who are using them." He then got to a more important point. "As we have experienced, not only have the Syndicate gotten themselves involved in other worlds outside of our own, but we have also witnessed first hand other villains using the Heartless for their own ends, on top of an enforcer of the Syndicate helping such a case become possible. And right now, Clayton is still at large and more than likely working with the Syndicate, a group that's actively interfering in the affairs in other worlds for their own ends. Yes, call this meddling in the affairs of other worlds, but in order to stop someone legitimately threatening the world order, we need to call upon the residents of these worlds and get them to help us. Otherwise, we lose everything."

"I…" Donald indeed started considering Jimmy's own argument, and it only got harder to refute the more he considered it.

"Now that he mentions it, your uncle Scrooge does business with other worlds, doesn't he?" Goofy ended up remembering. "And he never gets in trouble for that. Even the nephews are running a shop back in Traverse Town."

Donald couldn't help but sigh with resignation. He could basically see their point. Honestly, the wizard was just surprised he wasn't reacting more angrily to this. Maybe because they worked through their own issues and finally reconciled? Either way, clearly he had no way of convincing Jimmy or the others this was a bad idea outside of the risks.

"Alright." He conceded. "I have no issues with it. But that's his own decision."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." Jimmy thus turned to Tarzan and offered him again, "Tarzan, as much as you helped us already, we still need your help if we're to stop Clayton from doing what he did here to other worlds. Will you join us?"

"Tarzan…" Jane looked at the ape man.

Tarzan at least understood what Jimmy was asking of him. They wanted his help to stop Clayton. But to do that, he would have to leave his home and everyone in it. He turned towards Kala and Kerchak, knowing that if he accepted, he would end up leaving them behind. And after finally managing to be recognized by Kerchak as his son…

"Mom… Kerchak…" He spoke to them. "If I leave… I will still be part of the family when I come back, won't I?"

"Tarzan, all I could ever want is for you to be happy, whatever you decide." Kala told him with a gentle smile. "No matter what, you will always be in our hearts."

"We understand that you being gone doesn't mean you will be leaving forever." Kerchak told him as well. "We will be here, waiting for your return."

Knowing their answers comforted Tarzan. But all the same, he still had to think about what his fellow humans thought about it. How Jane would feel. This will take some time, and he knew it.

The ape man looked over to the heroes and told them, "Please… give time."

"Alright, we'll be over at… wherever the ship is, waiting." Sora nodded, getting it entirely. "See you later!"

With that, our heroes left the tent and began following Donald and Goofy into the jungle, not being pestered by any Heartless or any predatory animals. Eventually, they found the ship, but clearly the crash did not do it any favors. Having dove into the ground and practically dug up several mounds of dirt, rock and roots, not to mention covered in vines, the Kingdom 1.1 had seen better days. Much better, seeing as several parts of it also appeared to be broken apart.

"Oof. A simple ironing out isn't going to fix those dents." Danny remarked.

"Fortunately, gummi mechanics handled by a pair of experts is." Jimmy cracked his knuckles and looked at Sora's hair. "Gadget, it's time we put those new parts we found to good use!"

"I'm on it!" Gadget agreed and had Sora take her over to the ship and set her down. "Make sure to be patient, guys. Fixing this is going to take a while."

That it would. As Jimmy and Gadget were busy repairing and remodeling the ship, the rest of the heroes were looking at the peculiar pair of gummi blocks that appeared when they finished with Wonderland and this jungle.

"These gummi blocks came out of those glowing holes…" Sora remembered. "They're not like the others. Wonder what they're used for."

"I dunno." Donald shrugged. "I'm not exactly a gummi expert, and our mechanic is busy with the repairs to answer."

"Maybe Leon'll know." Goofy figured. "Once we got the ship back up again, why don't we head back to Traverse Town and ask?"

"Hmmm… He might." Timmy figured he would. "How much you wanna bet he'll get all serious about it, like, 'How can you guys not know what this does? Good grief'."

"Wow, you got his tone rather spot on," Danny pointed out.

"Oh I doubt he'll be like that." Spongebob waved that off. "Remember, he's actually a pretty big softie underneath that gruff exterior. I mean, he did ask for us to help find the puppies."

"Dibs on being the pilot again!" Sora called out.

"Oh no you don't!" Donald told him. "We're not crashing like last time!"

"Oh, come on! I'm the Keyblade master." The keybearer complained.

"And I'm the royal magician of Disney Castle! So no!" The mage retorted.

"Ah-hem."

At that, Sora and Donald flinched, seeing everybody giving them hard stares. Especially Spongebob tapping his foot with his hands on his hips. The two awkwardly cleared their throats and just let it go. Nobody was interested in a repeat of last time.

"Friends…"

At that, everyone looked to see a few familiar faces. They indeed recognized Jane, her father, Terk, and Tantor. However, to their surprise, there was also Tarzan, standing on his feet like an actual man, towering over the whole group of heroes. He was not clad in his loincloth. Instead, he was now wearing a fine suit of an Englishman. A dark toned suit with a white collar, a black and purple ascot, a dark red undershirt, white cuffs with black links/buttons, black buttons on the shirt, and brown shoes with a white mouth. Aside from the dreadlocks, Tarzan seemed to clean up quite well. In his hand was his spear, fixed after the prior battle.

"Wow. Tarzan, you're looking stylish!" Danny was impressed.

"Stylish…?" Tarzan didn't get that word.

"He means you look good." Timmy answered for him, both thumbs up.

"Oh." He got that, at least.

"Wait," Spongebob could only figure out one reason that Tarzan would actually get dressed this neatly, "Tarzan, does this mean you're…?"

"Tarzan… come." The son of man nodded.

"Splendid!" Jimmy was happy to hear it. "And just in time too. The repairs are finished!"

Everyone looked back towards the boy genius as he and Gadget admired their handiwork. The gummi ship did get fixed up, but it also got a substantial upgrade from the previous model. The wings were longer and were orange with white tips. The armor appeared to be stronger with more yellow rims. The cockpit was also more upright and more reinforced, like a bridge. The rocket thrusters appeared smaller, but they were attached to thick pipes that allowed for more power. The single barrel cannon was replaced by a pair of cannons with three barrels.

"Gentlemen, allow us to introduce you to the latest marvel in gummi engineering…" Jimmy announced. "The Kingdom 2.0! With stronger armor, more offensive weaponry, higher speed, and greater control, traveling through the stars has become more of a simple task than before!"

As Sora put her back in his hair, Gadget added, "And at the very least, we've made it able to launch from here. So all aboard, guys!"

One by one, our heroes made their way into the cockpit. Tarzan, all the while, turned one last time towards his friends. To them, he said, "Tarzan guess… this goodbye."

"Oho, don't think of it as goodbye, my boy." Archimedes gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder. "We'll still be here when you get back. Honestly, I'm quite proud. Here we were, simply here to study the gorillas, but now here you are, just about to see the wonders of the grand universe at large! You're indeed going places, Tarzan."

Smiling at the man's words, Tarzan looked to his childhood friends and said, "Terk, Tantor, I'm sorry about deciding to leave like this."

"Aw, we're not bothered." Terk denied feeling any feelings about missing him. "Besides, moments like these give me emotional constipation."

"Oh please," Tantor teased the gorilla, "you were having me rush all the way here the moment you heard Tarzan was heading off from the jungle."

"Hey, he doesn't need to know that!" The female gorilla told the elephant. "Seriously, don't run your trunk!"

Tantor only chuckled and replied, "Sometimes you embarrass me."

Tarzan could plainly tell his friends were going to be fine. Then at last, there was Jane. The two gazed into each other's eyes as they held each other closely. When the ape man had told her that he decided he would go along with them, she wanted to make sure he truly was serious about going. When she saw he was, she and Kala went with Tarzan up to the tree house, the place where his birth parents were killed by Sabor, and helped him put on a suit that belonged to his human father. It honestly fit him rather well, and Jane helped fix it so he would look presentable.

"I'm going to miss you while you're gone, Tarzan." She told him. "I honestly wish that I could go with you…"

"But Jane can't. Jane must stay at camp." Tarzan knew it perfectly well. "Tarzan miss Jane too…"

The couple continued gazing at each other before they closed the distance along with their eyes and kissed. A moment that the pair would always have, and a moment that they would repeat once this was all over. The two eventually parted and Tarzan went over to the gummi ship, getting inside and joining the others before the cockpit shut around them. As he got in his seat, the ape man looked out to see his loved ones waving goodbye, alongside the rest of his family who showed up to bid him farewell. And as the ship started to fly into the air, Tarzan watched as they slowly got smaller and smaller, as did his home….

"Oh, why are goodbyes so painful?" Spongebob sniffed, then took a handkerchief which Goddard was kind enough to hand him to blow his nose.

It was then, once they finally made it back out into space, that Tarzan got to marvel at the space around him. Such colors and lights that he had never seen, even when Professor Porter showed him the stars at night. Even with those black spots, he could not help but find it all so beautiful. Once more, he wished Jane could have come with him to see all this.

"Alright Tarzan, we're going to head off to another world." Jimmy told him. "It's going to look very different from the jungle and camp you're acquainted with, so make sure you stick with us so you don't get lost, okay?"

"Uh, Jimmy?" Spongebob spoke up. "Maybe we should worry about that green portal first?"

"Green portal?" Everyone else but Tarzan echoed at that before looking straight ahead.

Indeed, just ahead of them, a green portal suddenly appeared without any warning and without any time for them to get out of its range. In the end, the Kingdom 2.0 got sucked right inside, and everyone found themselves going through a vast, swirling void of green. Almost immediately, the original quartet found this familiar. Everyone else was not prepared for the sudden warp they were undergoing and clung to their chairs tightly.

Put your faith in what you most believe in~

Two worlds, one family~

The ship eventually made it out the opposite end of the warp, and everyone felt the ship slow to a crawl before stopping. Everyone just shook their heads as the vertigo ceased messing with them. Tarzan too felt incredibly weird. Was this how 'space travel' was going to be like? He probably should have prepared for that.

"Well that was odd." Jiminy Cricket fixed his hat. "What was that all about?"

"I don't know, but it kinda resembled the portal used in Jimmy's machine." Timmy noted. "Hey, you don't think…?"

"Hey guys! Look!" Danny pointed ahead.

Trust your heart,

Let fate decide,

Before their eyes, they saw they were approaching yet another world. However, to the original quartet, they knew full well what this world was. Most peculiar-looking from the outside, and clearly nothing like how the earth looked in Danny's schoolbooks, the world was round with green clouds surrounding the equator. On the top half of the planet, there was a city, but one building in particular had a large metal facility on the roof and a sign labeled 'Fenton Works', designed akin to an advertisement… which it probably was. On the lower half, there was an ominous prison complex coated in purple and surrounded by floating doors; from the prison, generic green ghosts seemed to be flying from it. A clear difference was shown between the two halves.

To guide these lives,

To guide these lives we see~

"This is it! This is Amity Park!" Danny recognized.

"Really? This is your world, Danny?" Sora was surprised to hear that. "Where you guys originally meant to go?"

"That's right! We're finally here!" Jimmy confirmed. Then, facing everyone on the ship, he told them. "Everyone, this is it! What we originally meant to do before our adventure began. Our first real step in stopping the Syndicate begins now! To Casper High!"

Put your faith in what you most believe in~

Two worlds, one family~

Jimmy eagerly placed the coordinates he had originally placed in his UPM into the ship's landing coordinates, then nodded to Sora who nodded in turn and pressed the button on the wheel. Tarzan, as he felt a strange sensation over his being, couldn't help but continue to be amazed by all he's seen. The first step he would take as a man from the jungle in a world beyond the one he knew, and even beyond the one he was still learning about. The son of man did not expect that, in all his days raised by gorillas, he would not be going on an adventure to save his family from threats greater than mere hunters. But even so, as they began to disembark, Tarzan knew only one thing.

Just as he taught his allies, his family and his friends will always be in his heart.

—-

"Nuh-uh. I don't believe it."

"I'm NOT joking. I really am 10!"

"I call shenanigans! There is no way someone of your height is 10!"

"I happen to be taller. That hardly changes my age."

"Or it means you're a liar!"

Chester, watching this whole exchange, asked AJ, "So how long have they been going at it?"

"They've been arguing for the last few minutes… so I assume." The bald boy replied. "Kinda hard to tell when you don't have a watch."

For the past few minutes, so AJ assumed, the new guy, Tidus, and the most popular girl at Dimmsdale Elementary, Trixie Tang, have been arguing about her age in comparison to her height. Honestly a rather small thing to pick a fight about, but apparently both had too little awareness to even consider the worthlessness of such an argument. Not really helping was the fact that when Tidus, some nobody from out of town, basically affronted Trixie, most of the other kids in their cells were looking on in shock at his sheer audacity.

"Are you seriously still going at it with that unpopular teen?" A pretentious voice asked. "Geez, Trixie, leave it be. He's not worth it."

It was then Tidus noticed that Trixie apparently wasn't alone in her cell. There were three other kids who were about her height as well… although the two boys were about a head shorter. One was Caucasian with stylized blond hair and wore a purple shirt and sunglasses. Next to him was an African-American boy with black hair, and wearing the exact same style as the other guy. The only other girl in the cell was about Trixie's height with blonde hair held back in a ponytail. She wore a cheerleader outfit with a pink skirt, pink boots, and a white shirt with a "D" (probably for Dimmsdale) on the front.

The islander could not help but squint his eyes at these people, noting the blonde boy who spoke to Trixie with THE most arrogant voice he ever heard.

"Don't tell me." Tidus said. "You guys are '10' too?"

"Uh, yeah, clearly." The blonde girl replied, a notable valley girl inflection in her voice. "Not our fault you can't tell."

"Not my fault you guys apparently either had growth spurts or you're just pretending to be 10 to hide the fact you clearly look like teenagers." Tidus snarked back. "And who are you guys?"

"The popular kids here in Dimmsdale Elementary." The black-haired boy answered. "He's Tad, I'm Chad, and she's Veronica. Not like a poor teen like you has any right to talk to us."

"Yeah. I mean, what's up with that scar?" Tad smirked condescendingly. "Cut yourself shaving?"

At that, the pair laughed at their insult, with Veronica basically joining in. Trixie didn't join in, nor did Chester and AJ. However, Tidus could hear some of the other kids joining in the laughter, either actually finding it funny or feeling obligated to do so. Any other average kid would probably be disheartened by this. But Tidus was no kid, nor was he a Dimmsdale citizen. He didn't have to take this.

"Cute quip." He rebutted, "You got any better material or do those only come up when you have actual personality?"

At that, the popular boys stopped laughing and glared at the boy as everyone else gave shocked gasps, combined with some impressed 'oohs' from other kids.

"Oh, so you think you can talk the talk?" Chad wasn't going to take that lying down. "We're still richer and more popular than you could ever hope to be."

"Lotta good that did you since you're stuck down here with the rest of us." Tidus replied. "Least my self-respect isn't built on having more money than other people."

At that, more of the cells filled with 'oohs'. Whatever shock they had over Tidus doubting Trixie's age was changed to being impressed with him hitting the popular kids where it hurt. Even Chester and AJ were in awe. Chad and Tad could only glare at the teen having enough guts to not submit to the status quo. So, they decided to not respond and simply looked away in a stuffy manner. Veronica did the same, mainly since she was not intending on being mocked this time. Trixie simply watched Tidus for a moment or two before going back to doing her makeup.

"Wow… that's the first time I ever saw the popular kids get called out like that!" Chester told Tidus. "That was amazing, dude!"

"Yeah! You verbally thrashed them!" AJ agreed. "No one has ever done that before!"

"Some people with big egos need to be taken down a peg." The islander shrugged at the pair of them. "Otherwise, nothing changes."

Speaking of nothing changing, Tidus knew full well that if he didn't do something soon, he would be stuck in this cell only to end up on that torture rack later. He needed to find out how to get out of his cell, find his pole, then figure out a way back home… or at the very least, get some manner of payback. Not to mention leaving all these kids would probably leave a poor taste in his mouth. Tidus had to think long and hard…

This was going to be a very complicated jailbreak.

—-

Thanks again to The Swordslinger for beta'ing this chapter, and thanks to The Lord Of Pages for providing additional dialogue during the scenes with Sabor's ghost along with describing Tarzan's suit. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. The long-awaited Amity Park arc is coming soon!