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.

16. Vlad's Castle

Sora wasn't sure how long he was out. The last thing he knew before he fell unconscious was that he wished for Desiree to take care of a giant Heartless, she fired a large beam, and all of a sudden he grew incredibly tired. All of his energy had been drained abruptly. That was it. He still felt rather exhausted. If anything, he felt like he was just floating in the air… or was it water?

"Where… is this place…?" Sora thought as his eyes took in the view, watching as the light illuminating his slow descent grew farther away. "Haven't I… done this before…?"

"You find the most interesting places, Sora."

He could hear a familiar voice in his ears. One he knew fully well and sought to find with all his heart. And yet he could not move. He just continued floating. A warmth in his chest.

"Where…?" He thought.

"Better wake up, lazy bum. Your friends are waiting for you."

"Hey wait…" The keybearer tried to call out as he felt a light begin to shine upon him. "Kai–"

—-

Sora finally began to stir, breaking out from his groggy state as his vision began to clear before him. In his ears, the sound of flowing water filled while the sound of waterdrops hitting the floor echoed in the vast room he was apparently waking up within. The ground beneath him felt more like stone than grass and dirt, indicating he was inside someplace. He shook his head with a groan, trying to get his bearings. Apparently this got someone's attention as he then heard someone speak up next to him.

"Oh hey, you're up! Great timing." He recognized Tucker's voice, seeing Danny's tech-wiz friend was helping him up. "We were just wondering when you'd join us for the last leg of this adventure."

"Sora! Oh thank goodness you're alright!" Spongebob was so happy to see him as he approached him.

"Yeah, you had m– us worried sick!" Gadget told him, although she appeared to correct herself for a minute before moving up his shirt and onto his shoulder.

Indeed, around Sora were his friends and companions, all happy to see him up. Well, almost all of them. He noticed that Akira was busy looking ahead, his hair seeming to flow in the breeze and even flicker gold a couple times. He chalked that up to be something with his psychic powers. Then there was Desiree, who appeared to be just floating nearby and checking out her fingernails with an approving smile. He had to wonder. Did ghosts even have fingernails?

"Hey guys…" The islander rubbed his eyes before looking around, managing to at least stable himself so Tucker wouldn't have to hold him. "What happened?"

"After you went unconscious," Sam explained, "we basically had to drag you all the way to Vlad's castle with us. Surprisingly, you're a lot lighter than you look."

"Hey!"

"But the entrance was guarded by Doomsday Troopers and Search Ghosts." Jazz explained. "A full-frontal assault was impossible, so we had to find another way in. Fortunately, a secret entrance to the dungeons was our way in."

"Unfortunately, that means we're basically stuck here at the very bottom of Vlad's castle." Danny rubbed his temples. "At the very least, we're safe from the Syndicate's forces and the Heartless, for now. We've been just waiting here to make sure you'd get up okay."

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting, then." The wielder of the Keyblade scratched his head in embarrassment, also helping Gadget get back into his hair. "But how did I get tired all of a sudden?"

"Apparently, that wish you made to her," Donald looked pointedly at Desiree, who simply floated with a smirk on her face and crossed arms beneath her ample chest, "caused you to use up all your magic and knock yourself out."

At Sora's shocked look, the ghost genie replied, "Don't look at me. I was surprised as well. Of course, it was also pleasant to know there is a benefit in my favor with our new partnership."

"Partnership my rear end!" Timmy pointed accusingly at her. "You could've killed Sora with that blast of yours!"

"Oh please," she dismissed, "it wasn't like I was taking his very life essence. His unexpected wellspring of magic just gave me an all too wonderful burst of power, beyond even the wishes made at the meteor shower!" Her smirk then turned malicious as she held out her hands towards them and began charging up another blast, forcing them to ready their weapons, "Power that I'm more than ready to sever our now useless bonds with…!"

Everyone braced themselves for what was to come. They remember full well how easily Desiree wiped out that evolved Trickmaster. It would be a difficult fight, especially since they were in an admittedly narrow area and there was no way they were going back out the way they came. But they had to try. Otherwise, everything would be lost…!

…And then a mere spark came out of her hand with a fart sound. Dignified.

The ghost genie looked confused, and everyone else lowered their weapons. Then she tried again, only to let out the same spark and sound. She looked at her hands in confusion and dismay. Our heroes just appeared to be confused. However, Timmy's confusion soon gave way to a smug smirk, and his fairies knew full well what that sound meant.

"W-What's happening?!" Desiree demanded to know. "What happened to my power?"

"Uh, first of all, more like Sora's power." Timmy corrected her. "Second, I got a feeling I know what's going on. You can't kill your master since you're a genie, can you?"

"What?" That only left her gobsmacked. "But I'm a ghost! Not an actual genie! How can I not–"

"Sora wished that you were his personal genie, didn't he?" Goofy pointed out. "And with those rings you both got, that just above proves you two are bound close-like."

"W-Well, that is true, but…" She tried to argue.

"In other words, you can't kill off your own master." The captain of the royal knights continued. "And since Sora's together with us, you can't blast us all to bits either!"

The party, save for Sora, gave Desiree incredibly smug looks. She was of course infuriated by this. However, she also knew that she could do nothing. They were right, after all. Despite the power she got, she couldn't turn against her master, nor lay a hand on others if he is present among them.

"Ugh!" She finally groaned in frustration. "Fine! You all win this round. But mark my words, I will find a way out of this irritating prison of circumstance!" The ghostly genie then turned to her master and told him, "And as for you. Don't think that this means you're not in the same predicament as I! It was only through your wish, which I granted, that you and your friends are still alive. Sooner or later, you shall find yourself in another situation in which you'll need my power. Perhaps at a moment when you can't even save your friends with your own hands, or when they are out of your reach. And I'll be in that ring, waiting for the moment when you make that wish. Then you'd best pray that I decide to be merciful to your friends should you wish for me to rescue them. Otherwise, I'll be more than happy to finish them off myself, and your presence won't impede me. Mark my words, master."

Having said what she wanted to say, Desiree dissolved into smoke and reentered the ring, once more giving the ruby a green tint.

"Someone got in a bad mood fast." Cosmo said once all that was said and done.

"I should probably be careful about using this ring from now on, huh?" Sora figured as he looked at the ring on his finger.

"Or you could just get rid of it, that's also an option." Sam commented.

"Honestly, I'm not so sure about that." He replied. "What if that leads to her getting out and causing trouble?"

A scoff came from the ring, Desiree's voice snarking, "I wish."

"Look, we'll focus on Desiree later." Jimmy said. "Right now, it's time we focus on the mission ahead of us now that we're finally here at Vlad's base of operations."

The group indeed took a good look at their surroundings. No denying that they were in some deep, rustic dungeon. Chains hanging from the ceiling, chains attached to cages, stone brick walls and floors, waterways, the works. Even cobwebs hung in the shadowed corners above them and below. It also appeared the dungeon was much larger than it appeared, as the waterway before them led into a vast body of water outside, which traversed all the way into a moat. Not to mention the torches hanging on the walls. There appeared to be cells just across the waterway before them.

"This place isn't so creepy, right guys?" Spongebob nervously chuckled, trying to put on a brave face as he looked around. "Er, right…?"

"This place is awesome!" Timmy, all the while, didn't share the fry cook's fear. "It's just like something out of a scary movie."

"Looks cliched as he…" Akira was about to say before he felt Jazz giving him a raised brow, "...heck to me. This Plasmius guy wouldn't know originality if it hit him square in the kisser."

"Bad guys do love their big evil castles." Tucker could agree on that one.

"The castle is not the important thing here." Danny reminded them. "We need a way to shut down that Ghost Portal. We can't beat Vlad while that thing is open and juicing him up."

"Vlad would need a lot of energy to keep that portal open." The boy genius pondered. "He must have generators in this castle."

"And knowing how much power our Ghost Portal uses," Danny's sister added, "they're going to be big, not to mention guarded. If we're going to take them out, we'd have to prepare for who we might end up facing along the way."

"So let's go find them generators and shut them down." The captain of the royal knights figured. "Though it would also be handy if we had a map to use so we don't get lost."

"Perhaps there might be a map somewhere in the upper levels of this castle." Jiminy Cricket theorized. "No doubt the guards would have one or two at least on hand."

"First things first…" the royal wizard noticed an issue. "How do we get across the waterway?"

They noted the waterway the mallard was looking towards. Indeed, it was quite wide, and falling into it would lead to them just falling into the moat. None of them wanted to know what kind of things were in that moat either. Sora shook his head, knowing for certain there was no way he could jump that distance, and no amount of swimming he could do would get him out of that waterfall unless he was part merman or something. This was a puzzle, indeed.

"Hey," the average kid figured, "why don't I just use the Ice Glove to freeze the water? Or why not Sora or Donald with their ice magic?"

"I don't think so." The islander shook his head. "Blizzard spells seem to just shoot straight ahead when I use them."

"Same here." Donald shook his head as well.

"I'm sorry, Timmy," Wanda apologized to her godkid, "but while the Ice Glove proved useful against enemies, the only way it would affect water would be if the water was level with us, or even spurting outward like from a fire hydrant."

"Yeah, now that you mention it, if it weren't for the kid ghost," Cosmo recalled, "you could've just turned that one broken hydrant to ice and used it as a platform! Pretty funny how convenience works, huh?"

"So if we can't turn the water to ice, what can we do?" Gadget asked. "Maybe there's a mechanism to get ahead somewhere…"

Spongebob put further thought into Gadget's words and looked around. Nearby, there was an empty water bucket attached to another hanging chain just near the waterway. And just about near the way they came in there was a small pool of water formed from water dripping from the ceiling. Looking between the pool and the bucket, an idea came to the sea sponge's brain! With a snap of his fingers and getting everyone's attention, he ran over to the pool and then stepped into it. From there, he took a deep breath…

And suddenly, the water began to drain from that pool, being absorbed by Spongebob! His body suddenly began to bulge outward, his eyes practically popping and his face stretching. Eventually, Spongebob's square body was so engorged with water that it appeared he was struggling to stand on his own two feet! Not to mention dripping with water coming out of his holes.

"Behold! The Amazing Mr. Absorbency!" Spongebob announced, his voice slightly muffled by all the water he took in, rumbling as if it came from the depths of a cavern.

"Huh. So he really is a sponge." The buck-toothed child said. "I was wondering if he was going to do something like that eventually."

"I'm surprised we haven't had more ridiculous shenanigans lately," Cosmo stated with a confused expression. "We're usually up to our crowns in weird by the first act."

"Just when I was hoping someone wouldn't jinx it…" his wife groaned, dreading what was to come.

"Okay… what did you absorb all the water for, Spongebob?" Sora asked in equal parts awe and pure stupor, as well as a little disturbed, watching as the bizarre sea creature stumbled by.

"You'll see…" The fry cook replied, stopping near the water bucket.

Spongebob took another breath, and then he began spraying water out of his mouth and into the bucket like a hydrant. His body started deflating with all the water being shot out. Then, being filled with water, the bucket's weight began bringing it down, pulling on the chain. From the other side of the waterway extended a bridge, forming a path to move ahead! The sea sponge finished spitting out the water and then looked at his handiwork with a smile.

Everyone else had to admit, that was oddly impressive.

"Good work, Spongebob!" Jimmy congratulated him. "Using your spongy-body in order to take in water and activate a water-reliant device! That's great thinking!" He then blinked and added, "I'm honestly surprised I didn't think of that first."

Goddard barked before playing a sitcom laugh track, making his owner give him a raised brow.

"Hello?" A female voice called from ahead. "Is anyone there?"

"Well, there's a familiar voice." The goth vegan commented. "But is she going to be a problem, that's the question."

"Maybe Vlad decided it would fit to have a dragon for his castle." The tech wiz of Danny's friend group said with some humor.

"Should we ask?" Donald asked the ghost boy.

He only answered with, "Well, you're about to find out. Let's check on her."

Thus, our heroes went on ahead, going over the bridge and past more old dungeon cells. Along the way, grunts appeared to impede them alongside Shadows and Soldiers. They were basically easy pickings as usual, handy for dropping munny and items, but they were then followed by Doomsday Troopers. Of course the robots were more difficult, being able to cast force-fields around themselves to negate damage, but fortunately they proved easy to destroy with numbers. With the enemies out of the way, they finally came up to the one occupied cell in the whole room.

A cell containing what Sora assumed had to be some medieval princess. But she was green, so maybe she was a ghost as well.

"Please, could you come help me? My friend, she's– Oh, it's… it's you…" The ghost girl was going to ask for aid, but then she sounded awkward, recognizing three people in the group.

"Dorathea." Danny greeted evenly, yet cautiously. "So, let me guess, since you're stuck down here in a cell, you aren't working with Vlad or the Syndicate? You'd think that they'd love having a bonafide dragon at their beck and call."

"Plasmius said as much, I'll admit." Dorathea replied. "But when I refused, I was placed here, my amulet taken away."

"Yet you're not in the Ghost Zone Prison?" Tucker scratched his head. "You'd think with how they're doing things now, putting you there would make things easier for them– ow!"

"Sorry. Hand slipped again." Sam replied as Tucker held his side and gave her a glare. "But seriously, show a bit of tact, Tucker."

"Do you guys know each other?" Sora asked.

"Kind of." The ghost boy answered, gesturing to the imprisoned ghost. "This is Dorathea. She's another ghost from the Ghost Zone. She's one of those ghosts who cause problems only VERY rarely. Still, we can't be too careful with her amulet and all. That enchanted piece of metal turns anybody wearing it into a dragon when they get angry enough."

"For real?" Sora asked in amazement, then pondered. "Huh… guess we should be glad we don't have to fight an angry dragon."

"Don't jinx it, young man," Wanda would have chastised him, but deep down knew the chances were not out of the table after Wonderland.

"You think she knows where we can find the generators helpin' power Vlad's portal thingamajig?" Goofy asked.

"I'm not so sure about that, Goofy." Jiminy Cricket said. "If she was kept here in the dungeons, then it's more than likely she was kept isolated from seeing anything else in the castle."

"But she's a ghost and we're back in the human world." Timmy pointed out. "Why doesn't she just phase herself out of the cell?"

"I think I might have an idea." Jimmy Neutron looked at his dog. "Goddard, can you scan the cell bars for us, please?"

His robotic dog barked in affirmation and a satellite device popped out of his back, a green light flashing from it and moving up and down the bars. The light then turned off and the device receded back into Goddard's being, making his chest plate open up and reveal his screen. The boy genius took a look at the results appearing on it. He nodded, confirming what he had thought was the case.

"As I figured," he said, petting Goddard's head, "the technology they used to keep us humans trapped in the prison in the phantasmal dimension is also being used here. She's trapped here just as we were."

"Maybe we just need to find something to disable so we can get her out, right?" Spongebob figured. "Like some more of those rats had dislodged a brick around here, too."

"Sadly, it doesn't look like there's anything that looks like it could help unlock the cell." Jazz looked around, seeing no obvious wires or devices attached. "We might not have any luck getting this open the quiet way."

"Are you suggesting the loud, crass, violent way, Miss Adult?" Akira teased… earning him an elbow to the ribs which didn't wipe the smug grin off his face. "Heh… worth it…"

"I prithee," Dorathea got their attention with a confused, mortified expression at the shenanigans of the odd group of heroes, getting as close to the cell bars as she could without getting shocked, "whatever you decide, at least listen to my plea. I was not the only one locked in here. There was a young girl not from this world or my own. A girl with a most kind heart, and the lord of this castle took her away to interrogate her."

"A girl from another world?" Sora was surprised to hear that, and so he quickly ran up to the cell bars. "What did she look like? Was she young, with blonde hair and a blue dress? Or was her hair red and she had a necklace with a silver bead?"

The ghost princess was a little surprised by the islander's urgency, but she answered, shaking her head, "No, neither of those. She had this lovely brown hair in curls and she wore this cheerful yellow dress. Her name is Selphie Tilmitt."

At that, Sora gasped. That was a name he did not expect to hear on this adventure.

"Selphie?! She's here?!" He exclaimed in shock.

"You know Selphie?" She asked in surprise.

"Who's Selphie?" Gadget asked with a raised brow.

Turning to his friends, Sora explained, "Selphie is another friend of mine from my home outside of Riku and Kairi. Along with Wakka and Tidus, they often hung around with us on the island. They didn't really share the idea of traveling to other worlds, though, so most of the time with them was just hanging out or even sparring. They weren't there on the island when the Heartless came, so I figured they were safe and–"

It was then the wielder of the Keyblade cut himself off. Now that he thought about it, he really just assumed they were safe and was only focused on finding Riku and Kairi on the island that time. He didn't stop to think that maybe the Heartless had gotten to them too while he was busy making sure things were okay. Weren't they his friends too? Couldn't they have possibly survived too, or in a worse case scenario… well, he didn't want to think about that part.

Grabbing his hair in dismay, forcing Gadget to quickly avoid his hands, he groaned, "Oh man! How could I be stupid enough to forget about them?! I'm a terrible friend!"

"Hey, it's okay, Sora." The sea sponge comforted him. "We can just look for them too while we're looking for your other friends! And since this Selphie is apparently here, we can just go rescue her while we're storming the castle."

"If you know Selphie, please, let me come with you!" the ghost princess pleaded. "She's been good to me while we've been imprisoned here. I desire to help her be free from this rotten place."

"I dunno," Danny's tech wiz friend put a hand to his chin, "doesn't it seem mighty suspicious that you happen to know one of his friends?"

"Nah, she's tellin' the truth." Akira said, his hair flickering. "No lies from that face of hers. Real problem is how to get her out."

"Shouldn't be that big a problem." The average kid no one understood got an idea and readied his Freeze Glove. "You guys might wanna step back for this one."

With that, everyone indeed stepped back a bit from Timmy. Even Dorathea stepped away from the bars, unsure of what was about to happen. Timmy then let loose a trail of ice, and the minute it impacted the bars, they froze solid in a block of the frozen water. He then gave the block a good whack, breaking it into bits and setting her free! The ghost slowly floated past the ice blocks, though she seemed to shiver as she hovered by.

The islander rushed over to her and asked, "So you know where they've taken Selphie, right?"

"I should have an idea where she is, but…" Dorathea shivered, trying to warm herself up. "The way through the castle will be most treacherous, even for ghosts such as myself. We should be careful. From where we stand, the stables should be just upstairs."

"The stables?" Danny blinked. "Vlad's seriously got horse stables here? Last I checked, he doesn't have horses."

"What horses?" Tarzan asked.

"We'll get to explaining later, Tarzan." Jimmy told the jungle man. "For now, this excursion just became another rescue mission. Now let's get out of this dungeon before more minions and Heartless come to investigate. I doubt they wouldn't hear the sound of ice shattering like glass."

The group nodded to each other and began making their way towards the end of the dungeon. While they were temporarily held up by a closed portcullis holding them in, they also noticed a large water fountain nearby, not to mention two torches that were conveniently below gears attached to internal winches. Immediately they figured out how to move forward and Spongebob got to work with his absorbency. But while they were busy, Dorathea was looking towards Sora. If he knew Selphie, then he had to have been from far away, just like her. But something about him also seemed… familiar. Almost nostalgic.

But what could it be?

—-

"My my, this technology is quite the amazing spectacle, Skulker." Clayton couldn't help but praise as he had his new weapon in hand, aiming it towards a target. "It is leagues beyond any mere shotgun I've ever hunted with!"

Clayton then fired his armament, a high-tech plasma rifle with double barrels, and watched a light blue blast of energy shoot towards the target. Upon impact, the target was completely destroyed, the broken stump left smoking. The hunter chuckled as he admired the smoking barrels of his new gun before blowing the smoke away. His companion, Skulker, was watching with pride while Sabor's Ghost laid nearby, lightly growling as her tail waved slowly. The pair, after Maleficent ordered Clayton to head into Amity Park, had taken the time to get the otherworldly hunter acquainted with the wonders of modern weaponry in the castle's armory.

Suffice to say, Clayton had taken to his new weapon like fire to a candle.

"Yes, well, give your world about a couple centuries, and I'm sure they'd attempt to reach this sort of technology." Skulker gave his friend's world credit. "That being said, they'd also have to have a multi-millionaire with a penchant for the paranormal. And from what I've gathered, your world hasn't adequately prepared for the likes of ghosts, seeing them as mere superstition."

"I'm rather embarrassed to admit that I was one of them before all this. My apologies, dear friend." Clayton apologized to the ghost who helped uplift him. "I might have even remained so ignorant if I was just left to my own devices. Perhaps even food for the Heartless if not for you."

"And waste an opportunity to hunt alongside a kindred spirit?" Skulker asked, walking up to Clayton and patting him on the shoulder. "Hardly, Clayton. I'm just glad that our alliance worked out for the most part." He then looked to the side and muttered, "Would have been better if it weren't for the ghost boy and his friends."

The human hunter grumbled as well, "I'm in full agreement with you on that one. What I wouldn't give for another chance at putting them out of our misery."

Just then, tiny footsteps were heard on the floor as a Grunt rushed into the armory, waking up Sabor's ghost with its loud panting and breathing.

"Skulker, Clayton, sirs!" The Grunt called to the two hunters. "The castle has intruders! It's the ghost boy and the others. They tore down the Circus Gothica, and now they're planning to do the same here! They're just about to get into the stables!"

At this news, the pair of villainous hunters smirked at each other before prepping their weapons.

"Looks like we might get our second chance after all." The ghost said as his left arm shifted into an ecto-plasma cannon. "And once I have that ghost boy's pelt hung on my wall, I'll show my girlfriend I'm not a lousy hunter!"

Clayton was about to agree, but then he simply responded with, "Beg pardon?"

"Oh, impressed about this?" Skulker showed the Englishman his weapon. "It's something new I installed."

"Huh?" William Cecil Clayton blinked before realizing what Skulker was talking about. "Oh, well, yes, it's indeed impressive. But I was actually more surprised about you having a sweetheart."

The silence that followed was rather awkward.

"...Clayton." Skulker was blunt. "That just plain hurts."

"Oh, nothing is meant by it." The human hunter waved that off and pushed a button on his shotgun, watching it shift forms until it took the shape of a sniper rifle. "Now, let's see if we can find ourselves a good position to take our shots from. I want this hunt to be very satisfying…"

—-

"Wow. This really does lead to the stables." Timmy commented as they made it out of the dungeon and went up the rampway. "Not seeing any horses, though. Sorry, Tarzan."

Tarzan simply grunted, affirming it was fine.

The stables were predictably wooden and had bales of hay stacked atop each other, along with tool racks up against the walls. There were also oil lamps hanging on the walls for potential illumination if it was dark. Aside from that, there were a pair of Grunts accompanied by a Doomsday Trooper. Clearly easy pickings. But the biggest eyecatcher was…

"Wait, isn't that Delilah?" Tucker noticed a peculiar beast trapped in a wooden cage.

"Delilah?" Everyone but those from Amity Park echoed.

In that wooden cage was a gorilla. That in of itself was nothing new to our heroes. But this one was unique in that its fur was white and the marking on its back was purple. It was by no means an average breed. Not to mention it looked miserable in its cage.

"It IS Delilah!" Sam recognized the gorilla. "Oh no, they got her caged again! The monsters!"

"That's a she?" Cosmo asked. "How can you tell?"

"Long story." Danny replied. "Not sure why Plasmius would want to have a purpleback gorilla captive here, but something tells me he probably wanted more than just a castle to lord over Amity Park with."

"Of course a rich fruit loop would put a defenseless animal in a cage." The vegan goth groaned as she facepalmed. "We have to get her out of there!"

"I dunno, Sam. It looks like she could break out of that cage easily." Goofy scratched his head. "Doesn't even appear to be that much of a cage either. What's got her so doh-seal?"

"Docile." Donald corrected.

"That's what I said."

"Uh oh! Look sharp, guys!" Spongebob warned his friends. "They just noticed us!"

After being spotted by the Grunts and the Doomsday Trooper, what followed was admittedly a rather short fight. Leading the charge, Danny took out the Grunts with ease while, together with Spongebob, they took down the Doomsday Trooper. The others didn't even have to lift a finger so much as come up behind them. Afterward, they looked around to see if any other enemies were bound to pop up. As none had, they walked over towards Delilah's stable prison.

Tarzan approached first, speaking in gorilla, "Excuse me. I am Tarzan. Your name is Delilah, right?"

Blinking, the female purpleback gorilla replied to the ape man, "That's what the furless apes call me, yeah. How do you know how to speak gorilla?"

"Being raised by gorillas helps." The ape man answered. "How did you get trapped in this place?"

"Trapped?" Delilah blinked. "What do you mean? I could basically just break all these flat wood things whenever I want. I'm just waiting for when I'm getting my food from the food-giving humans with the funny things on their heads."

She looked about the stable and added, "Not much of a fan of how they redecorated my home, though."

"I'm afraid this isn't your home." Tarzan shook his head. "This is an evil place ruled by someone called Vlad Plasmius."

"What?!" the purpleback sounded shocked. "You mean this isn't my cushy home back with the other animals?!"

As for everyone else, well, not like most of them could understand gorilla.

"So what exactly is that man doing?" Dorathea asked, perplexed by this scene.

"Oh, that's his thing. He can speak to animals!" Spongebob explained.

"Is that his power, then?" The ghost princess asked.

"Oh, no, it's not a power. He was just brought up in the jungle as a baby." The captain of the royal knights explained. "Their language was always his first one."

"Then he must understand the plight of animals being put in cages!" Sam figured on that one. "He could even help convey we're trying to help her out if he isn't doing it already! She might even recognize us, so that would make this easier!"

"Someone's a bit over-excited about this." Akira snarked as he looked at Danny's goth friend with an amused smirk.

"I'm practically the only person in my friend circle who understands that cages are wrong and we shouldn't be imprisoning animals in them." she rebutted, making Tucker and Danny roll their eyes. "I'll bet even Delilah there understands that completely."

All the while, back with Tarzan and Delilah's conversation…

"...And then there's that chatty furless human with all that black on her." Delilah was going into rant mode after finding out this wasn't her home in the zoo. "You know, the one behind you? Seriously, she just yakked and yakked and yakked. She's even doing it right now! What, is she part parrot or something? Because if she is, then she missed the part about being bright and colorful."

"Er, yes, right…" Tarzan was feeling a bit awkward with how off topic this had gotten. "Anyway, we really don't have much time right now. We're going to help you escape this place, then we can maybe figure out a way for you to get back home."

"Aw, no need. I can do that on my own." The purpleback gorilla looked to the wood in question. "I'm meaning to smack some numbskulls around here anyway!"

With a mighty roar, Delilah reared her fists back and slammed them down, breaking her wooden cage apart AND destroying the gate blocking their way out of the stables. From there, the purpleback gorilla ran forward and began smacking around Grunts and Doomsday Troopers around her with ease. But our heroes didn't have time to watch in awe of Delilah's might, for then the Heartless began to spawn! She tried smacking down on the Shadows, but they kept to the ground so as to keep from getting crushed. From there, everyone else knew they had to pitch in and so joined in the rumble. Sora summoned his Keyblade and then proceeded to destroy a few Soldiers and Large Bodies that began appearing as well.

Little did they know that Dorathea let out a gasp once she saw the unique weapon the islander possessed.

"That weapon… could it be…?" She whispered.

She watched as the fight went on. The Shadows and Soldiers being wiped out in short order by the group while Delilah took on the Large Bodies fist to fist. The ghost was fascinated by the particular powers the one wielding the familiar large key possessed. Mastery of the elemental arts. Yes, back then she saw something of that nature too. But it was so long ago. How could it possibly be?

With the Heartless beaten, our heroes looked around. A gate once again blocked the path moving forward towards the inside of the castle proper, and it in turn was blocked by a wall of barbed spikes. Seeing a lever up on the battlements near the gate, Danny flew up towards it and pulled the mechanism, opening the way further as the barbs and gate receded. Ahead was a raised floor with two rampways at its east and west sides, with a closed door leading inside the castle. Not to mention more Grunts, Doomsday Troopers, and a few Search Ghosts.

After decimating the enemies before them with ease, much thanks to Delilah, Jimmy looked up towards the closed door and said, "If my assumptions are correct, that door should bring us into the great hall. There should be a map of the castle in there that we can use, hopefully."

"I'm going to assume the moment we head inside, things might go south quickly." Jazz said. "Especially since this is Plasmius' castle. Be ready for anything."

"Before we do that, what do we do about Delilah?" Goofy asked, looking towards the purpleback gorilla. "Considerin' how high we are, it's not like she can just climb down the wall, right? She'd probably fall into the moat."

Tarzan, looking back at the female gorilla, asked, "Would you like us to help you get outside this castle?"

"Nah, I basically showed I can handle myself. I'm a tough girl." Delilah answered the jungle man. "If you guys came in through that hole back there, I could basically figure out where you came in so I can get out. Simple, right?"

"Well I suppose, but still…" He considered her point.

"Besides, if I can't, I can just spend my time knocking heads together when they try locking me up again." Delilah added. "You guys have fun wrecking the place from the inside-out! And uh, mind tellin' that yakky furless ape to ease up a bit? She was always up on that cute one's case whenever I saw her."

With that said, and the ape man clearing his throat at that bit of information, the purpleback gorilla walked back the way they came, hopefully to return to the zoo she called her home. He then walked back over to his friends, telling them, "Delilah go home. Say we go on."

"You sure she'll be fine?" Gadget asked.

"I wouldn't worry." Tucker waved off the concern. "If she could basically hand Skulker his metal butt, she can handle anything else."

"Shame we can't take her with us." Akira shrugged. "Having a gorilla knocking freaks around would make this way easier."

"She's a precious living creature, Akira," Sam narrowed her eyes towards the exchange student, "not a tool."

"Delilah say… ease up…" Tarzan told the goth, who blinked in shock. "Too much talk… And Delilah like zoo… Feeds her and others well…"

"Who'd have thought?" Danny and Tucker rhetorically asked in perfect unison.

"Oh… are you sure you heard that right?" Sam giggled nervously, then shook her head, "Also, it doesn't change the fact we shouldn't use her like a trained dog! Her species is almost extinct!"

"She's also not a pushover and could kick a… butt." The mind-reader could feel Jazz giving him a look again. "Just saying, a powerhouse would be handy. Am I wrong?"

"A power house?" Cosmo asked, characteristically misreading the word. "Like a supercharged apartment? A dynamic duplex? A mighty mansion? A–"

"Cosmo, remember to breathe." His wife exasperatedly reminded him.

"C'mon guys, the way's clear." Sora already went ahead on the rampway. "Let's get inside!"

As they followed suit, Dorathea couldn't help but wonder just how to approach the keybearer with her curiosity. She knew she shouldn't wait until the last minute, but they appeared so busy with their mission that she knew not when to ask. So she watched as they came up to the green gate to head inside the castle, to which Timmy opened by pulling a lever nearby. The door opened, and of course more enemies would spawn for them to destroy. What the Grunts, Doomsday Troopers, and Search Ghosts lacked in terms of immediate power appeared to be made up for in numbers. But they fell nevertheless.

Finally, they had made it to the great hall of the castle, walking through the doors and down a hallway leading into the room. And what should be the centerpiece of this magnificent area? A large steel statue of Vlad Plasmius, with the entire world literally in the palm of his hand. Danny was surprised it wasn't gold-plated. Before it stood a black and gold plaque, much like anyone would see in a museum. Jazz walked up to the plaque and read its words.

"'Vlad Plasmius, forevermore the king of Amity Park and one of the four leaders of the all-powerful Syndicate'," she read out loud, "'may his grip on the world be a warning to all who oppose his phantasmal rule'?"

"Somebody's compensating for something." The psychic commented with a roll of the eyes.

"Boy, is he ever." Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz all agreed wholeheartedly.

"He truly does think of himself as a king… how dreadful." The ghost princess shivered.

"Egomaniacs of all shapes and sizes tend to do so." The boy genius said. "But while we're here, let's see if we can find a map of the castle."

"Actually, there seems to be a library nearby." Jiminy Cricket noticed a room to their right. "Perhaps we can find something useful among all those books, too."

"Ugh. Studying. Of course we'd have to do that in an evil lair." Timmy groaned.

The royal library wasn't all that much to look at, admittedly. At least, if one considered the library to be a vast array of four-shelved bookshelves lined up in rows of five atop each other practically four floors high, all filled with books. Nearby was a fireplace attached to a stone chimney, and metal mobile staircases connecting the floors. Nearby was a long table with a few papers and a book laying upon it. Akira walked up to it and picked up one of the papers in one hand and the book in the other.

The delinquent glared at what he saw up close. Sketches; possible blueprints for something large, surrounded by equations and little diagrams of people followed by numbers. The title of the book: The Necessity of Hatred- A Guide to Inko Buddhism.

His grip tightened on both the blueprints and the book. He took every paper that was part of this particular and unknown research, slammed them in the book, and then just threw it right into the fireplace. From there, he watched as it all began to burn with rapt interest. This grabbed the attention of Jazz, who grew concerned when she saw that look of anger that was so blatant on his face.

"Hey, Akira, are you okay?" She asked him. "Did you find something?"

"...It's nothing. Not anything we're looking for." Was all he answered with.

Jazz couldn't help but feel there was more to it than that. Especially with how vehemently he stared at the burning flames. However, it was best to just leave it be for now. Nothing would come of trying to force a straight answer from the exchange student for now.

"Hmmm… History of Dairy Products…" Spongebob looked at a few book titles. "Top Wisconsin Cheeses… Best Dairy Swears… How to Woo Your Worst Enemy's Spouse?"

"Oh for– how is that even a real book?" Danny double-took at that last one as the fry cook scratched his yellow head.

"I dunno, but Plasmius should really organize his books." The sea sponge tsked and shook his head in disappointment. "All these titles are out of order! I keep all my books nice and orderly."

"And get rid of the trash, too," Danny stated with a sour expression as he threw the last book the cook mentioned like a frisbee straight into the fire.

"Well, I may keep some of the cheese ones for me," Spongebob said, grinning at one book. "I've been meaning to get the right fermentation for the cheese to complement the patties."

"You're every stingy manager's dream employee…" Danny muttered, awed and worried.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy were up on a higher floor, also looking through books. Dorathea floated towards Sora, finally thinking she could speak her mind.

"Excuse me, Sora, was it?" She addressed him, having the boy turn to her.

"Yeah, what's up?" He replied.

"That weapon of yours… where did you get it?" She asked. This line of questioning made Donald and Goofy turn to her as well.

"Boy, that's a pretty long story, Miss Dorathea." Goofy answered her. "Why do ya ask?"

"My apologies for the odd question," she sounded sheepish, "it's just that I feel like I've seen it somewhere before…"

"Really?" The islander looked at his Keyblade. "I could've sworn that this was the only one."

At that, the royal mage and the knight-captain looked at each other with wide eyes. They only just recalled!

"Well, uh…" The mallard sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "That, um, might not exactly be true…"

"Huh?" Sora was shocked to hear that, to say the least.

"Yup, you know how we're lookin' for our king?" Goofy asked. "Well, he's got a Keyblade, too. Been trainin' under a great wizard by the name of Master Yen Sid for about ten years before becomin' a master."

"So there are more of these out there?" The islander waved his Keyblade about.

"Once but…" Donald sighed, "those who wielded them all disappeared a long time ago. The most recent ones we knew disappeared a decade back."

"What happened to them, by any chance?" Jiminy Cricket asked.

"We don't know." The captain of the royal knights shook his head while the mallard shrugged. "That was the last time we ever saw them."

A polite cough got their attention and they looked back towards Dorathea. She let them have their conversation mainly since she really couldn't find an opportunity to interject. That and interrupting would have been rude. But seeing as their conversation appeared to reach its end, the ghost princess felt she could finally ask what she wanted.

"About that," she began. "You were in the Ghost Zone a while ago, were you not? You're certain you haven't seen anyone with a similar key when you were there?"

The look on her face belied a hope that they might have indeed seen whom she might have been thinking of. Some lingering feeling that she could see this particular youth once more. But as she saw the trio looking at each other, silently asking if they saw anybody like that, and shrugging, it was clear to her that there was no such answer to her hopes. Their apologetic expressions were more akin to salt on the wound. She let herself look to the floor.

"I see… I suppose you would not have…" Her melancholy took over.

"Were you close to this guy, by any chance?" The keybearer asked.

"I was earnestly hoping we would." She answered. "With his beautiful golden blonde hair, his deep blue eyes, and the way he wielded his blade like he was flowing through the wind, protecting me from those menacing creatures…"

She then looked up with a fond sigh as she remembered her living days and her first encounter with this mysterious hero.

"Truly 'tis had to be love at first sight~." She reminisced. "Such valor and chivalry! Such kindness in his heart! The gentle afternoon we spent together, the promise to spend the night together at the costume ball… oh, it would have been the perfect night if only I was allowed to go, but my horrid mummy wouldn't let me!" She then looked sad as she continued, "Ever since, I haven't seen him. Not in life, nor even in death. I do hope one day he can save me like he once did before…"

"From what?"

She blinked, not realizing she had said that last part out loud before hearing Sora's inquiry. She then shook her head and replied, "It-It's nothing. Worry not."

"Hey guys!" Tucker's voice rang in the room. "I think I found the map!"

From there, our heroes regrouped back at the top floor of the library, with Jimmy Neutron taking the piece of paper in Tucker's hand and checking it over. He showed it to Goddard and his mechanical dog scanned it, creating a perfect replica of the map on his chest screen. From there, a check mark appeared and Goddard barked, closing his chest plate and panting as his master petted him. The boy genius then checked the map and nodded in confirmation.

"Good work, Tucker! This is indeed a map of the entire castle." He said to Danny's tech wiz friend. "Where'd you find it?"

"It was in here, shoved far in the back." Tucker holds up a book. On the cover was the title, Romance for Rich Creepy Dimwits. "Going to guess Plasmius didn't want his minions to see this one."

"Gee, I wonder why." Danny asked with sarcasm apparent… and blasted the book with a finger, the green ray shooting from the digit evaporated the offending tome.

"Do you want to comment on that?" Akira asked Jazz.

"Trust me, that's a healthy reaction given the topic at hand," she growled.

"Now, let's see, this was the dungeon from where we left, then the stables…" Jimmy studied the map. "Alright, that's where we came, and we are here in the library… aha! The way to the first generator is through here!"

"Through here?" Spongebob looked around. "But Jimmy, there's no way out of this room outside of where we came in…"

"C'mon, Spongebob, surely you've seen movies like this, right?" Timmy asked him. "Castles always have secret passages!"

"And judging by the map, the way to open it must be…" Gadget also took a look at the map, then inspected the bookshelves nearby. Sure enough, one colored purple was sticking out further than the others. "Sora, pull that one there."

"This one?" The wielder of the Keyblade approached the book and then pulled it.

Sure enough, the bookshelf then shook and the group stepped away from it. It then pulled back before sliding to the side, revealing a path going further into the castle!

"That's the one." The boy from Retroville confirmed. Holding up the map he added, "Now, the first generator should be closeby. Let's get that taken care of and then we can figure where the next one is closest."

Without argument, our heroes ventured through the narrow path ahead. Managing to fight against more Grunts, Search Ghosts, and Doomsday Troopers along the way, they noticed the temperature had risen by a significant degree. Down below, there was boiling lava flowing. One single misstep would mean their doom. And in the walls, they could see large, inactive gears alongside chains. Whatever they were attached to in this castle was anyone's guess.

But just over a rickety, wooden bridge, atop a large stone platform floating on the lava, was a large, brown, mechanical device with a yellow, spherical tip channeling electricity to two smaller rods with a similar tip. There was no doubt in our heroes' minds. This was one of the generators they had to destroy.

"Going to assume we just can't just go up and hit it with all that electricity ready to zap us to he…ck." Akira said. "Any suggestions?"

"Hm… the central rod has to be the main source of power." The gummi ship mechanic assessed. "As long as that's still active, it will send more power to the other rods to fuel Vlad's ghost portal. But seeing how it switches which rods to send power through, if we isolate the central rod and destroy its companion rods, we could potentially cause it to overload and explode."

"She basically means we just keep the middle one from zapping up the smaller ones, destroy the smaller ones, and then we just watch it blow up." Tucker clarified.

"Yeah, Tucker, we got it. It wasn't hard to understand." Sam deadpanned.

Tarzan refrained from saying anything in regards to that, opting to just clear his throat.

"Then how break?" He thus asked instead.

"Tech does often freeze up during the winter." Goofy got an idea. "Maybe we can use Blizzard to freeze the middle rod solid."

"That's a good idea!" Donald got out his Warhammer and readied a spell. "I'll take care of this one…"

"Not so fast, bill-boy!"

A blast then made Donald jump back to avoid getting hit, and the rickety bridge fell apart behind them, preventing an escape! They looked up and saw a new, tall and well-fit ghost, evident by his green skin, just floating there above them with glowing green gloves on his hands. He had white hair combed back into a mullet and he wore a long black coat with three green buttons and pockets, a black belt with a rectangular belt buckle, and a silver cape that covered his shoulders and was held closed at the neck. He also wore black boots. Over his eyes were rectangular black sunglasses.

"And seein' as you and your friends are new around here," the ghost, speaking in a loud, Brooklyn style-voice, roared dramatically. "I AM TECHNUS! Master of all things cybernetic and cybertronic! Which are actually two different fields in the same class, hence 'cyber'."

"Lemme guess, another member of your rogue's gallery?" The average kid asked sarcastically.

"Yep." Danny popped the 'p' at the end for emphasis. "Nicolai Technus. One of my more frequent and more annoying enemies. Like he said, he's a ghost with powers over technology. Jimmy, you might want to have Goddard stay away on this one."

Jimmy gave a subtle nod to Goddard, and with a whine his dog flew away from the platform to avoid being used by this new enemy.

"So, you're working as a flunkie for the Syndicate, too, huh Technus?" The ghost boy taunted. "Never thought the so-called 'Master of All Technology' would bend to someone else."

"Bend? Me? Hardly, ghost child! I simply respect a fellow intellectual like Professor Calamitous." Technus let the taunt go like dusting off his shoulder. "In fact, our two brilliant minds have devised an utterly brilliant piece of machinery that puts even the Doomsday Troopers to shame! BEHOLD!"

Just then, appearing before our heroes and in front of the central rod, a new enemy stood tall. A lanky figure wearing a black bodysuit with visible blue circuitry lining it, gray soles on the bottom part of the boots, with light blue metal kneecap guards on its knees, a similar belt around its waist, similar elbow guards, and large light blue metal pauldrons. What made this thing non-human was, outside of the disc tray-shaped lower jaw and purple skin of the head, the top half of its head was purely cybernetic, the same metal as the other parts, with an orange light acting as its sole optic. It then held its hands out, summoning a single Grunt before it and then suddenly turning intangible, surprising the group.

"The Phase Soldier! A unit capable of summoning an army of troops at any time indefinitely and can replicate ghost powers thanks to being reflections of Plasmius himself!" Technus gloated. "...Well, mostly the phase ability at the moment, hence the name."

"So, they really just stick around to spawn enemies and avoid getting hit?" The fry cook scratched his head. "That doesn't sound pretty impressive."

"Yeah, how did you possibly not think of having any of them actually have all of his abilities so they can be more of a threat?" Danny asked.

"Make them capable of using all of Plasmius' abilities…?" The enemy ghost echoed, then he smiled. "That's your greatest idea yet! Heck with bein' a teacher! You could be a professor of evil ingenuity! You sure you're a superhero?"

"So," the keybearer smirked at the sheepish ghost boy, "what was that earlier about giving your enemies ideas?"

"Not the time, Sora!" Danny saw the Phase Soldier summon more Grunts. "Here they come!"

One would think that this fight would be difficult for our heroes under the present circumstances. The way behind them, gone in lava. Their goal before them, guarded enemies and sparking with electricity, rendering destroying it a difficult cause. All atop a somewhat small platform with little room for them to maneuver around. All this against an enemy that would endlessly spawn Grunts to charge at them.

But it wasn't, surprisingly. For all Technus talked of this Phase Soldier, all it did was stay out of combat and just kept summoning Grunts. One by one. Which were easily defeated. And the intangibility always turned off whenever the Phase Soldier summoned a Grunt, leaving it open to be destroyed by a single ghost ray from Danny.

"Well, that went about as expected." The ghost boy snarked. "Any other tricks up your sleeve, 'Superior Being of Monologuing'?"

"Oh please, like I really monologue." Technus retorted. "But this doesn't bother me like it would have originally. After all, thanks to your brilliant idea, I now have the inspiration on how to improve the Phase Soldiers to come! And lemme tell ya, child, when that happens, you're going to wish it was you who kept his big mouth shut!"

And with that, along with loud maniacal laughter, Technus flew off before anyone could stop him.

"...You'd think he would've stuck around to try stopping us from destroying this generator." Gadget remarked as Goddard returned to the group.

"He was probably too caught up in his own ego to figure that out." Jimmy petted his dog.

"Takes one to know one, huh?" Timmy shot back.

"And as a fellow genius, I can empathize with wanting to see a new model or version of one's work come to fruition…" Jimmy continued, ignoring his buck-toothed friend's remark. "Okay, now let's freeze this generator and move on."

A simple Blizzard spell indeed did the trick. Once Donald cast the spell, the central rod froze, no longer supplying power to the smaller rods. Sora, Goofy, Spongebob and Tarzan destroyed the lesser rods, and with them destroyed, the central rod exploded, sending debris and ice everywhere! However, the explosion had also caused the room to shake, and part of the ceiling broke down and fell onto the platform. Good thing this conveniently gave our heroes a path to continue their ascent.

Moving forward, they did deal with more Heartless and Syndicate troops. But they found the trap doors in the hallways useful for the troops that could only remain grounded. This helped when the enemies came out in larger groups. However, what appeared more worrisome were the large axe traps that kept rising and falling down, creating cracks in the floor. They had to time their advance correctly, lest they would be cut cleanly in two. Spongebob didn't seem all that worried, however.

When Sora asked, he simply replied, "Oh, I'm a sponge. Getting cut up hardly bothers me like it would you guys; I can regrow limbs and put myself back together good as new. But don't worry! I'm sure you'll do just fine."

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." Sam replied sarcastically.

Confidence well placed, really. They got past the axes and continued upward. However, when they came upon the next room, they were surprised to find themselves in what appeared to be a royal bedroom. A fancy carpet on the floor. A mirror on the wall. A dresser to their left side against the wall, and a king size canopy bed across from that. The curtains and bed sheets for the bed were both purple.

"Is this supposed to be where he sleeps?" Jazz asked. "Why would he put a bedroom close to the first generator?"

"Hey, there's something on the bed here." Goofy noticed a slip of paper on the pillows and picked it up. Seeing words on it, he read aloud, "'Reserved for the future Mr. and Mrs. Ma–'"

"Don't finish reading that! PLEASE!" The ghost boy groaned before taking the slip and ripping it apart. "It's like becoming a self-imposed king made him more of a creepy fruit loop than ever."

"...uh, the way forward appears to be just outside." Donald pointed out the battlements just out the other side of the room to not think of the implications. "Let's move on."

In full agreement, they all walked outside… but not before Danny stepped back and used his powers to destroy the bed. He then went back out with a satisfied smile on his face. But then the moment he rejoined his friends, Heartless, Grunts, and Doomsday Troopers appeared again to confront them. They continued fighting as they traveled along the battlement, eventually making it to the closest tower after climbing a flight of stairs. There, another generator stood, but with one more lesser rod than the last. But the moment they got there, part of the castle crumbled apart, blocking the way behind them!

"You'd think Vlad would have hired better foremen for this place than what we're seeing here." Akira snarked.

"The generators must do more than just power his ghost portal." Jiminy Cricket theorized. "If anything, they may be what helps keep the massive expanse of his castle stable."

"Should we be worried about this place falling down around us as we destroy these generators then?" Wanda asked.

"I don't think we need to worry about the castle, Wanda." Timmy said to his godmother. "We just have to keep moving so we don't get crushed."

"Yeah, sounds totally easy!" Cosmo agreed.

Wanda sighed, unable to do the same.

Our heroes had also learned that freezing the central rod had also made it easier to deal with the enemies the Phase Soldier guarding it summoned to deal with them. However, the Heartless appearing did make it more of a challenge, as they were more of a threat than even the Phase Soldiers. Fortunately, destroying them proved good for their recovery and in no time at all, the enemies were destroyed, along with the generator. The resulting explosion caused the tower to also fall apart, opening the way to the side battlement just behind it. Carefully our heroes managed to get onto it, with Danny helping his sister and friends down. But as they moved forward…

"Wait, isn't that Delilah?" Sora recognized something up ahead.

Indeed, ahead there was the purpleback gorilla herself! Looking confused and knocking more Syndicate troops away from her. With no time to lose, our heroes quickly rushed to the primate's aid, clearing more of the troops in their path. Soon, the area was cleared, and they were free to look into this particular matter. Tarzan was the first to do so.

"Delilah, what are you doing here?" He asked her. "I thought you said you were heading back home. For that matter, how DID you get up here?"

"It's the craziest thing, Tarzan." Delilah explained. "Get this, I was just headin' to that dark and smelly place like I said I was since it would be the way to get home, right? But when I went to get out of this place, some weird swirly thing appeared out of nowhere and I ended up rushin' in! Suddenly, I'm up here and the swirly thing is gone! Now I'm even further from home! Or is it higher…?"

"What did she say?" The court mage asked.

"Swirly thing bring her here." He answered.

"'Swirly thing'?" The islander focused on that phasing. "Like a portal?"

"Hey, maybe Wulf came to help and this was an accident!" Spongebob figured, recalling how they escaped the Ghost Zone Prison.

"Doubt it." Danny shook his head. "Wulf doesn't do accidents. And besides, he'd be here if this was his work. I could tell. This isn't the work of a ghost."

"Hm, a portal not of this world. I think I might have an idea of what it might be. This is something we'll probably have to investigate later." Jimmy Neutron tapped his chin in thought. "As soon as we finish our business here, I'll have to see if this theory of mine is correct."

"Hey, Tarzan," Sam then went up to the jungle man and said to him, "just gotta say, it's really admirable that you can communicate with animals. It means you can understand them on a level that no one else can! I gotta ask, Delilah remembers how we helped her out before, right? Maybe you can help her see that she's a prisoner in the zoo…"

"Denial much?" Tucker whispered to Danny, who nodded.

"...You not want know what Delilah think." The king of the jungle tried to say as inoffensively as possible.

"Wait, what does that mean?" The goth vegan asked.

"It means duck!"

Akira's sudden shout forced the group to just dive to the ground, barely avoiding a shot of green energy over their heads! Danny saw his breath go blue and immediately knew what the problem was.

"Glad you finally made it, ghost child." Skulker's voice rang out in the air. "And you even brought your little posse with you, too."

"Perfect!" Clayton's voice followed. "More targets for the two of us."

"Clayton!" Tarzan recognized the voice.

"Never took you for the type to hide, Skulker." Danny taunted. "What, afraid of a head-on fight after we trashed you and your pet?"

"Honestly, we fought so many times and you still haven't figured out how hunting styles vary?" The ghost's voice was filled with tired annoyance. "We're simply having a change of pace."

"Up for a game of hide and seek, boys and girls?" The human hunter's voice asked with a chuckle. "From our end, we have the perfect angle to take our shots, and this new firepower allows us to have all the ammunition we need. All you have to do is simply try and avoid getting hunted down. But seeing as you'll also need to protect your odd-colored gorilla, we're not planning on making it easy for you."

"Like it was easy before." The buck-toothed boy rolled his eyes, only to barely dodge another shot. "Hey!"

"The game has already started, by the way." Skulker's voice was smug. "Best hurry. The battlements down there don't exactly have the best cover, last I checked."

"Great, so we're basically sitting ducks." Tucker groaned, only to remember the duck in the party and amend, "Er, no offense."

"Some taken." The duck deadpanned.

"I wouldn't be so sure, guys." Gadget pointed out, then mentioned to her resident human, "Hey Sora, you still have enough magic to cast Cure for a few times, don't you?"

"I think so?" He figured that was the case.

"And Akira, you have some healing abilities, too, don't you?" She asked the psychic.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"And finally, Tarzan," the mouse looked to the ape man, "you can use your Wind Armor, right?"

"Tarzan can." He replied. "Got plan?"

"Tarzan, you keep Wind Armor on all of us as we make our way up," the gummi ship mechanic explained, "Sora and Akira will make sure none of us go down with healing. As long as the three of you keep on the ball, we should be able to push through with minimal injury!"

"Hey, I can use Cure, too, you know!" Donald pointed out.

"Donald, we'll need you to save your magic for the next generator. Your Blizzard magic is essential, along with Timmy's Ice Glove." She replied. "Now let's be careful as we move. No doubt the Heartless and more Syndicate troops will get in our way."

Tapping his spear to the ground, Tarzan used his Wind Armor ability, and everyone in the party found themselves surrounded by strong wind, even Delilah. The ape man began leading his companions forward, barely helping them maneuver out of the shots and blasts that came their way. The Wind Armor did well to defend them from great armor the few times they did get hit, but to be safe, Sora cast Cure on those who were hurt, and Akira used his psychic powers to help recover those whom Sora couldn't heal immediately after. Sure enough, the Syndicate troops and the Heartless made their trek difficult, and it was up to Danny, Spongebob, Jimmy, and Goofy to do the fighting since the others had to focus on their part of the plan. Delilah's assistance was incredibly invaluable as her power continued to utterly decimate the hordes.

After practically crawling up a few ramps and paths to get to a more centered footing, our heroes looked on and saw the way forward was blocked by a raised drawbridge. They saw a pair of windlasses keeping the drawbridge up at their respective sides. And of course, they too were guarded by Heartless and Grunts. But if that wasn't enough, Skulker and Clayton, from wherever they were, were still firing shots from their unseen perches. Our heroes found themselves with little to no place to find cover!

"Sorry, ghost child, but it seems this is the end of the line for you and your little friends." Skulker chuckled.

"This game of cat and mouse has been fun, but this is where the game is finished." Clayton agreed.

"Guys, we really gotta do something about our snipers! We can't keep up this plan forever!" Sora told his companions.

"But what can we do?" Goofy asked. "We can't see 'em!"

"We should probably take cover inside, but the drawbridge is up!" Spongebob looked over to the windlasses. "Hey, maybe if we destroy those, the drawbridge can come down and we can rush in!"

"But we'll still be under fire and Delilah can't protect us from that once these wear down and we run out of magic!" Donald reminded the fry cook.

"...I believe it's time I can help you."

Dorathea's voice took the group by surprise. For a while, she hadn't been talking much as they went through the castle, so to hear her finally speak took them by surprise.

"Please, allow me to grant you a power that should help you against these brigands." Dorathea gestured towards Sora. "Then we can hurry and save Selphie!"

She held out a hand towards Sora, holding his shoulder. It then began to glow, and the keybearer felt a familiar sensation. This was just like when the Box Ghost gave him a new magic power. But this one didn't seem like any elemental spell. More… dark, so to speak? It was somewhat hard to see it…

"Now, concentrate on where those blasts come from." The ghost princess told him. "Picture their faces, and then cast the spell."

"Okay…?" Sora didn't know what he gained, but he would try.

He closed his eyes, holding his Keyblade out. With Tarzan's Wind Armor still applied to his being, the blasts that managed to graze him did little to break his concentration. Instead, he imagined the looks of the hunters in his mind. Skulker, with his hatred of Danny. Clayton, his malice against the gorillas of the Deep Jungle. The two of them, smug as they had him and his friends practically dead to rights with their new guns, just waiting on the battlements above them…!

Sora's eyes flashed open, and he called out, "Blind!"

And with that, Sora cast his new magic spell and waited with baited breath. The blasts seemed to stop coming. The smug taunting seemed to stop too. Then they all heard the voices of the hunters giving surprised shouts and exclamations. Apparently it did the trick!

"Gah! What's messing with my optics?!" Skulker was heard growling.

"I can't see! Blast it all, why can't I see?!" Clayton was heard shouting.

"Alright!" The spiky-haired islander pumped his fist in the air. "It worked!"

"Nice one, Dorathea!" Gadget praised the ghost princess. "We should have an easier time moving forward now."

"Then let's get the drawbridge down already!" Akira impatiently called out.

With no time to lose, Sora, Donald, Timmy, and even Akira rushed to the windlasses, the four splitting in half to reach the respective sides, and freezing them with their powers. Then with a heavy blow, the windlasses were shattered, and the drawbridge came down with a slam, opening the way back inside. Sure enough, they could see yet another generator ahead. However, the lesser rods were now numbered four, and the energy being swapped between the four of them from the central rod was quicker than the previous two generators. But that was not the main issue.

The generator, much like the first, was atop a platform standing above lava, and each lesser rod was practically on a little square corner poking out at four ends. Not to mention to get there, one would actually have to leap from a smaller bridge reaching inside after passing the drawbridge. In essence, there wouldn't be enough for an extensively large group to get onto all at once. Especially when one of them was a gorilla who was just lost and confused.

"Yeah, I dunno about you guys, but it looks like some of us might have trouble going forward even if the generator goes down." Tucker had to admit. "So, what do we do now?"

"It looks like this is where some of us are going to have to part ways." Jimmy Neutron hated to say it, but there was no denying how things were at the moment. "Sam, Tucker, Jazz, we're going to need you to stay behind on this one. We'll take it from here."

"What?" Sam asked incredulously. "You can't just leave us behind!"

"Sam," Danny turned to assuage his friend, "someone is gonna need to look after Delilah and we can't risk her coming with us. Seeing as you're our resident activist, you should be able to handle her while we're out."

"Well, yeah, but not when these enemies tend to keep popping up." The vegan goth rebutted.

"And that's why Jazz is sticking with you guys. She's got the Fenton Ghost Peeler on her." The ghost boy added.

"But why can't I come with you?" Jazz was the one who asked next. "I want to save mom and dad just as much as you do!"

"Jazz, someone has to defend Sam and Tucker while the rest of us go ahead." Her brother rebutted. "Look, I get you want to help, but–"

"You can relax." Akira told the ghost boy, walking up next to Jazz. "I'll help her out."

"You sure, Akira?" Sora asked. "It looked like you were eager to come with us the entire time."

"Eh, I just saw a mess that needed cleaning up and figured I'd join the party. To be honest, Vlad's always been your villain to go up against." The psychic explained, shrugging it off. "I already dealt with one of my own a while back. You guys go kick his a–"

"Akira." Jazz flatly said his name.

"Ugh, fine! Backside! Kick his backside!" Akira groaned at this. "Geez, do you have to get on my case every time about that?"

"Until you manage to kick the habit of nearly doing it."

The exchange student merely grumbled and kicked a rock in response. There was no one-upping Jazz Fenton for this one.

"Jazz," Sora said to her, coming up and holding her hand, "don't worry. We'll make sure that Mr. and Mrs. Fenton are safe. That's a promise."

Sora didn't notice it, but there was an ever-present blush on Jazz's face as he held her hand and she listened to his sincere pledge. The look on his face was one of faith. Deep blue eyes like a pure sky made her truly believe that he could do it. Just as she would believe her brother could. But hearing it from this admittedly cute boy…

Akira rolled his eyes with a smirk. He didn't need to read her mind to figure out what she was thinking about.

"T-Thank you, Sora." Jazz finally said. "I'll hold you to that."

Letting go, Sora gave a smile and a wave before turning around to rejoin his friends. Jazz, all the while, took a moment to gaze at her hand, remembering the warmth and firmness the boy's own had. A clearing of the throat got her attention and she turned to see Akira and Sam giving her knowing looks. She blushed a bit harder and tried hiding it by looking normal as she turned to check on the purpleback gorilla. Now, as for Danny, as they began going along the bridge, he pulled the keybearer back to talk with him.

"Now Sora, before we do anything else, I just wanna be clear." The ghost boy told him. "So far, we've been great teammates and I could practically consider you a friend after all the misadventures we had so far."

"Thanks, Danny." The islander was happy to hear it. "I feel the same way with you guys."

"Good." Then Danny was serious. "But if you do anything funny with my sister, I will deck you."

"Huh?"

"Hey, hurry up!" Donald's voice called to them. "We've got a generator to destroy!"

The spectral superhero flew in, followed by a very confused spiky-haired boy. Managing to safely regroup with the others, our heroes got to work dealing with the third generator and the Phase Soldier that was guarding it. Once more, Timmy froze the central rod with his Ice Glove and the melee specialists got to whaling down on the lesser rods, breaking them apart. Jimmy, Danny, and Donald had the easy job of destroying the Grunts the Phase Soldier summoned before the ghost boy sent the enemy into the lava below with a good ecto-powered punch. Once the central rod exploded, the portcullis blocking the way forward raised upward, opening the path ahead.

Jumping along the platform to reach the way forward, our heroes continued their ascent. Eventually they made it to a part of the castle that appeared dustier than all the others. Furniture covered in old sheets, a stuffed bear standing on its hind legs, a statuesque suit of armor against the wall, boxes stacked atop each other, a few old mirrors, a discarded giant gear– all of which adorning spider webs of all sizes. An attic, through and through. The way ahead, a hole in the wall, was blocked by a makeshift cage with no lock to unlock or a nearby lever or device to raise it.

But more present for them to deal with were the Grunts, Heartless, and Doomsday Troopers as per usual. While they fought, Dorathea was looking around the room, trying to look for something. They explored much of the castle's inner workings, and yet there was not a single sign of her amulet anywhere. Not even on any of the guards. Where could they possibly have taken it?

When the last enemy in the room was defeated, Spongebob was the first one to take a breath and wipe his brow of sweat.

"Gotta tell ya guys," the fry cook said, "walking up this entire castle has gotten me pooped. Are we at the last generator yet?"

Jimmy, checking out the map screen on Goddard's chest, answered, "Fortunately, it appears we're in luck. The next generator is just up ahead… guarding Vlad's throne room."

"Wow, that really IS convenient." Goofy blinked.

"Yeah, if anything, that seems… stupid." The court wizard commented. "If he wants to keep us out, why have the thing keeping his door shut, the thing we need to destroy, right before it?"

"Pride comes before the fall, after all," Gadget tried to sum up.

"It's a common rule of thumb when it comes to bad guys." The average kid no one understood replied. "Always make it easy for your enemies to get into your front door."

"Really? I always thought the common rule of thumb for bad guys was to get the evil laugh down." Cosmo pitched in. "Everybody pays close attention to the evil laugh, don't they?"

"Huh… have any of the villains we faced NOT laughed evilly?" Sora thought out loud.

"Let's worry about that for later, my boy, especially since it might be difficult to press on." Jiminy Cricket noticed the cage blocking the way forward. "I'm not seeing any mechanism we can use to lift the cage upward from our end. I don't suppose anyone has any bright ideas to consider?"

"Eh, not as hard as you might think. This'll just take a second." Danny then moved towards the cage. "I'm Goin' Ghost!"

With that cry, Danny suddenly became intangible, and then walked through the bars with no issue. With nothing impeding him, the ghost boy began looking for some hidden device that could lift the cage up for his friends. He saw one off slab in the brick wall and then pulled it away. Sure enough, there was a switch connected to the cage. With a pull of the switch, Danny opened the way for his friends and smiled as they came in after him. He turned tangible soon after.

"Nice work, Danny!" Gadget praised him. "Now we can go after that last generator!"

"That said, that's really your catchphrase? 'Goin' Ghost'?" Donald commented.

"Donald, do you even HAVE a catchphrase?" Danny asked in turn.

"...Touché."

In any case, our heroes made their way through the hall, eventually finding themselves back outside in the light… and very high up. Not helping matters was that there was no longer a path or a bridge ahead of them. Just stone platforms standing narrowly tall And of course, on a larger platform shaped like an X, there was the final generator and four more lesser rods it was powering. And with VERY little room to move around on. Perhaps even less than the last one.

Carefully jumping across the platforms, Jimmy told his friends, "Well guys, there's just this one generator left to destroy and the way forward to Vlad's Throne Room and liberation of Amity Park will be open. Let's get started!"

But just then, Danny saw his breath leave his mouth, colored a familiar blue.

"Wait," he warned, "looks like we're not the only ones up here."

"Gee, what did you expect, Ghost Boy Blunder?"

Our heroes both barely avoided a pair of ghost rays and kept themselves standing steady on the platforms. Looking to the sky, they saw not one, but a pair of ghosts floating above the generator. One was an amorphous green blob of a ghost with red eyes and sharp teeth. The other was closer to looking human. Female, beautiful and curvaceous, with pale skin, green eyes and red hair pointed in a U-shape with orange highlights. She wore purple lipstick and eyeshadow, triangular purple earrings, a green necklace, a black V-neck crop-top with green trim on the sleeves, green arm-length gloves, black pants with green trim on the waist and green high-heeled boots that reached her thighs and had flame designs at the top. She also had sharp teeth in her smile.

"Spectra!" Danny exclaimed. "And… her buffoon sidekick!"

"Hey!" The blob took offense to that. "My name is Bertrand!"

"And it's Penelope Spectra to your little misfit friends." The woman, Spectra replied, noting the spiky-haired one. "And you must be Sora. For a wielder of some old weapon, you don't look like much. No doubt that girl was just hyping you up."

Gripping his keyblade tightly, Sora retorted, "Who are you talking about?"

"Why this girl, of course." Spectra held out her hand, and an image formed in green smoke.

The keybearer gasped, as did Dorathea, for they both recognized the girl. Selphie Tilmitt, trapped in some form of cage, trying to free herself.

"Selphie!" Both of them exclaimed.

"Aw, it's adorable how she's so desperate to get out, hoping that somebody will save her from the big bad ghost that rules this castle." The woman mockingly cooed before crushing the image in her hand. "It's so precious I could just puke."

"I'd be more than happy to do just that." Bertrand taunted. "But then again, even getting sick from the naive innocence of a girl from the boonies is easier to stand than a bunch of losers who think they're heroes coming to the rescue."

"Those aren't very nice things to say, mister." Spongebob remarked, frowning at this.

"They're not supposed to be." The ghost boy told him. "That's this duo's gimmick. They get under people's skin and make them miserable with their taunts and jabs. It's what keeps Spectra not looking like the old hag she actually is."

"Joke's on her!" Timmy taunted at the sight of Spectra's face looking cross. "I already deal with people making my life miserable on a regular basis!"

"That's not something to be proud of, Timmy…" Jiminy Cricket told him.

"Where is Selphie being held?" Sora held his keyblade at the two of them.

"The brat's being held by Plasmius himself in his throne room. But it's not like that matters to you…" The amorphous blob suddenly changed shape, turning into a panther, "...seeing as you're going to die here!"

"A panther? Really?" Jimmy Neutron watched this. "After dealing with Sabor's Ghost, this is hardly that intimidating."

"We didn't deal with Sabor's Ghost over platforms and Spectra's at least more competent than Skulker." Danny told the boy genius. "So keep your guard up!"

"That's enough talking." Spectra readied a ghost ray. "It's about time we got to the real meat of making you deliciously miserable!"

And with that, another hard battle was waged. With barely any room to avoid the likes of Bertrand's charges and Spectra firing rays from afar, our heroes had to avoid being sent falling to their demise should they take one wrong step, or even electrocuted by the generator still collecting energy. Sora had the idea of casting Blizzard on the central rod in order to destroy the lesser rods, but Bertrand running around made it difficult to even cast properly, and when it was, the enemy ghost just destroyed the ice before the rod froze solid. Thus, the idea would have to be defeating Bertrand first, right?

Obviously, Spectra didn't make that easy with her own blasts. Keeping far away so as to avoid getting hit by stray spells or even some of Danny's attacks, she practically had Danny stay put since choosing to go after her would leave his friends vulnerable to Bertrand. And Bertrand was already an annoying foe with his shapeshifting and his own taunts! How fortunate he was that his friends were not only tougher and more focused than they looked, but were keen on shutting the annoying ghost up. But how could they prevent him from preventing the central rod from being frozen?

It was then that Tarzan was surprisingly the first to come up with a plan.

He rushed towards Bertrand with his spear, swinging at the ghost panther. The ghost saw this apparently head-on approach and simply went intangible, having the attack phase through him.

"What, did you leave any sort of brains you got back in the jungle, ape man?" Bertrand taunted. "You can't hit a ghost with attacks like that."

"Better ape man," Tarzan retorted, still swinging, "than lousy grunt!"

"Grunt?!" The hench-ghost's short temper made him tangible again, "Why I oughta–!"

But that lost temper cost Bertrand as going tangible had left him open to being hit repeatedly by Tarzan's spear, taking damage! He tried to escape this by moving around the central rod and bait the jungle dweller into electrocuting himself, but he then got slammed over the head by one of Spongebob's karate chops! Bertrand then decided it was time to switch tactics and thus changed from a panther into a menacing wasp! He buzzed as he flew about in the air, stinger poised and ready to impale anyone foolish enough to come close.

"Ugh, I hate wasps!" Donald shivered at the sight of it.

"I think pretty much everybody hates wasps." Timmy commented.

"Who wouldn't with those stingers?" Cosmo added. "Those freaky bodies, those menacing mandibles, the stick legs…"

"Oh, you think that's bad?" Bertrand spoke through the mandibles, "Then see if you can handle this!"

The ghostly wasp then flew all over the area, making that irritating buzzing sound as he used those wings to their full volume and even tried to impale our heroes with his stinger. He even fired ghost rays from the eyes for good measure. However, Tarzan mitigated the damage by casting Wind Armor on himself and his friends, further irritating the ghost. Immediately the wasp charged towards the jungle man, trying to grapple with his spear in an attempt to get a good stab in. But Tarzan was stronger than Bertrand believed, and so left himself open to a good smack in the face from Danny, flinging him into the central rod and getting electrocuted.

With an aggravated shout, Bertrand once again changed forms, this time shifting into a green-clad ninja and pulling out shurikens before throwing them. The Wind Armor at least held so the shurikens were deflected, but Timmy couldn't help but make another comment.

"A ninja? Really? That's the best you could come up with for this fight?" The average kid snarked.

"Right, like I'm going to get a lecture from the ten year old twerp who fights by launching stars!" Bertrand retorted.

"And there's the 'twerp' line." The ten year old rolled his eyes. "Gee, how original. You know, for someone meant to get on our nerves, you're not really good at it."

"The day I get belittled by a brat," Bertrand really lost it then, "is the day I get–"

But Spectra's henchman ghost couldn't finish his rant, as he then found himself enveloped by a blue beam and felt his body being forcefully pulled into a thermos. The very same thermos that Danny had picked up back at his home. He could barely scream as he felt his entire essence being pulled into the canister before being sealed inside. The ghost boy smirked as he then looked towards his female antagonist.

"That's one-for-two down, Spectra!" Danny called to her as she floated in with a sneer. "Ready to make it even?"

"Please, like you have a chance against me just because you took out my flunky." Spectra was hardly affected by the taunt. "And unlike last time, you don't have your gross father's DNA to give you an edge. Lately, I've gotten myself some new strengths~."

Her hands glowed green at first, but then they became purple and Heartless appeared! Sure enough, Search Ghosts and their alternate versions had been summoned and began floating towards our heroes. The ghosts with boxing gloves, Rush Ghosts Jimmy thus dubbed, worked with heavy blows that Goofy had to struggle to deflect with his shield, and they were immune to physical attacks too. This at least left them susceptible to magic attacks and long-ranged blasts from Timmy's Star Flinger and Jimmy's Tornado Blaster. The clawed ones, Shred Ghosts, were fast and struck true with their claws, making them difficult to hit. They had to get further on the defensive against these ones, but fortunately their high speed meant they could also be tricked into getting shocked by the electricity from the generator; being fast didn't mean being smart. The bigger problem were the vampiric types, the Trick Ghosts. While they could absorb magic, their main ability was to lower our heroes' strength. This was to make up for their weak defense, so they wouldn't be destroyed in a few hits.

Somehow, Danny wasn't surprised that Spectra would have Heartless that dampen others as her go-to grunts.

"Woah woah woah woah woah woah!" Spongebob fought to regain his balance after barely managing to destroy a Shred Ghost and almost falling off an edge. "Guys, fighting in such a narrow spot isn't really doing us favors! You think we could figure out a good way to get out of this jam before we fall?"

"Spongebob's right, fellas." Jiminy Cricket agreed. "We let Spectra keep sending these ghosts on us, we'll never get that generator destroyed!"

"Alright, then I'll just take care of Spectra up close and personal." The ghost boy flew up. "You guys take care of the generator!"

Seeing the ghost boy was going for a one-on-one fight with her, Spectra smirked and engaged him in battle. As the two flew in the sky, our heroes got busy trying to deal with the Heartless ghosts still plaguing them and trying to keep the central rod frozen long enough to try and destroy the lesser rods. They were lucky enough to manage to have one rod destroyed before one of the ghosts yet again broke the ice keeping the central rod contained. But those Shred Ghosts just kept dodging their attacks with great speed. To combat this, Sora recalled the spell he learned and used Blind on the Shred Ghosts, blinding them and making the move aimlessly, unable to see where they were going.

Finally, the Shred Ghosts were taken down, but they still had to deal with the Rush and Trick Ghosts. The Rush Ghosts forced Sora and Donald to expel more magic on them to take them down, and the Trick Ghosts making them less powerful made taking down the Rush Ghosts only that much of a chore and a drain on their magic power. Timmy had to resort to pelting them with his stars since at the very least while they were magical, they didn't cost magic power to use. Fighting the Trick Ghosts with solely melee attacks was also a difficult achievement since the lowered strength made it take longer to destroy them. But once the last Trick Ghost was destroyed, the party felt their power come back, and thus the magic power also dealt with the Rush Ghosts with more ease.

The last Heartless beaten, Gadget told our heroes, "Alright, now we can finally focus on that generator! Let's get it down and wait for Danny to come back!"

Speaking of Danny, he was still in that air fight against Spectra. The pair kept exchanging ghost rays at each other with Spectra managing to barely slip away from Danny's melee blows. However, she also mixed up her attacks with balls of purple electricity and fired them in bulk at the ghost boy. The halfa swerved and flew around the electric balls and charged up a fist with ectoplasmic energy. Breaking through, he finally landed a decent blow against Spectra, sending her flying back with a shout.

Growling as she felt her face stinging from the punch, she said to him, "You certainly have no issue with hitting a woman, don't you, ghost boy?"

"The issue is with hitting a lady, which you aren't," he shot back.

"I see you still have such a delicate touch with women," she glared. "No wonder you're single and oh so desperate for an airhead's attention."

"Like an old crone has any right to lecture when she steals youth from miserable kids!" Danny retorted. "And more currently, working with a Syndicate to take over the multiverse!"

Scoffing at the 'old crone' jab, Spectra replied, "A girl has to keep her looks and know who the winning side is. And last I checked, the Syndicate has the upper hand while you and your fellow freaks have only just barely started getting into action. I don't know about you, boy, but it's clear the Syndicate is going to win in the long run, and I'm going to stick around to see it~."

Danny then took out the Fenton Thermos to capture Spectra, but quickly did she throw him off with another blast before creating more distance.

"Just like how I don't plan on getting stuck in your tin can like my stubby servant." She added. "Go ahead and have your fun with Plasmius. Not like any unlikely victory here matters in the grand scheme of things with what they have planned. Oh, and tell your spiky-haired friend that I have big plans of my own for his sunny disposition."

She then proceeded to laugh and flew off into the distance before Danny could have a chance of catching up. The ghost boy tsked as he put the Fenton Thermos away. While he could give chase, he couldn't leave his friends on their own. Not when they were so close to fighting Vlad and ending his hold on Amity Park. He then began flying back, hoping they had finished off the Heartless and destroyed the generator while he was off.

Back with our heroes, now with the Heartless out of the way, the generator indeed proved to be a welcome relief and ease, being easily destroyed. And with its destruction, the portcullis blocking the way up towards Vlad's throne room was risen, and the way was open. They jumped the platforms and made their way towards the staircase leading up to the large set of doors. Danny, relieved to see his friends were alright, landed next to them.

"How'd things go with that freaky lady, Danny?" Spongebob asked him.

"Sadly, she got away. I got a feeling we're going to end up dealing with her again sometime." The halfa answered. To the keybearer, he told him, "And she apparently wants to mess with you more, so that's also an issue."

"Oh great." Sora sighed at that. "First Desiree is upset with me…"

"That's putting it mildly." Donald snarked.

"Now I have a ghost villainess who has me as her target for trouble." He finished. But then he shook his head and focused on the door. "That's not important. We have to go rescue Selphie."

"Right." Danny looked up to the door with his friends. "Now that the ghost portal is out of the picture, let's go find Vlad!"

"Be prepared, guys." Jimmy warned. "Just because the ghost portal is now inactive doesn't mean Vlad won't be our biggest challenge yet."

"Time to put an end to this spectral reign of terror!" Timmy concurred as they approached the door.

"Dramatic, I love it!" Cosmo cheered.

All the same, though, Dorathea was starting to worry. She hadn't found her pendant once during their trek through the castle, and none of the guards had it on them. She was almost expecting that ruthless Spectra woman to actually have it on her, but evidently not. Otherwise, she would have used it. Then she considered something. If not the minions or even the other ghosts, then what if…!

Oh, she truly hoped it wouldn't be the case. For all their sakes…

—-

Jazz, Akira, Sam and Tucker, along with Delilah, were still waiting from where they were left behind. While Tucker was trying to use his PDA to reach out to someone who could help them out of the castle, Sam was tapping her foot, waiting for any sort of news from Danny, and Jazz was just checking on the Fenton Peeler, though she also took a critical eye towards Akira. The delinquent took to laying on the floor and taking a nap. Delilah was watching him while scratching her head, making curious grunts. Danny's sister then sighed and walked over to Akira, nudging his shoulder to wake him up.

"Hey, Akira, come on." Jazz told him. "This is no time to take a nap."

Akira, grunting as he opened one eye, replied, "Why not? It's not like we've got any major threats coming after us now. And besides, all we gotta do is wait for the others to beat Plasmius, right? So it ain't like we got any real urgency. You also got a weapon on you and I got powers. Just relax."

"And we're the ones who don't even have either right now." Sam reminded him, gesturing to herself and Tucker. "How can you afford to be so nonchalant about this?"

"Eh, I dealt with worse. Way worse." He answered with a shrug. "That's a long story in itself, though."

"Why not tell it?" Tucker asked. "It's not like we're going to be leaving anytime soon with the luck I'm getting."

"Because you still have to concentrate on getting that call." The delinquent rebutted. "You got your priorities, I got mine."

"Which is just napping." Jazz deadpanned.

"It's called a power nap."

"Still napping, Akira."

"...Do you ever get the feeling those two bicker because they're an item?" Tucker asked Sam as they watched Jazz and Akira rebut each other.

"No, Akira just presses Jazz's buttons often because he doesn't care about how he's perceived by the rest of the school." Sam replied, rolling her eyes at Tucker thinking of stereotypes… but then she had a thoughtful look on her face, "Would explain why he doesn't back down from Dash Baxter."

But just then, Delilah began beating her chest and making loud grunts and roars, confusing the four youths. What could possibly be making her react in such a way, they wondered. Then Akira felt a tense feeling run down his spine. A feeling he recognized. Such…

HATRED.

"Look out!" He got up and shouted.

Thanks to Akira's warning, the three youths managed to avoid a few blue ghost rays fired from the air. They looked up and saw none other than a familiar member of Danny's rogue's gallery. Kitty. However, while her fists were emitting a blue glow, her head was hanging downward, not facing them. Her aforementioned fists were clenched tight, not to mention shaking. Not exactly a familiar sight when it came to Kitty. Especially since she had her boyfriend's necklace around her neck.

"Hey, it's Kitty! Didn't we deal with her just a bit ago?" Tucker recognized her. "Why does she look all ominous like that?"

"...Where is he…?" Kitty asked, still not looking up, her voice barely above a whisper.

"If you're looking for Danny, he's not even here!" Sam answered. "He's taking care of more important business to deal with you right now."

"Not the ghost boy." The ghost girl grit her teeth. "Where is the boy with the key? The spiky hair? That irritating smile?"

"Wait… could she be talking about Sora?" Jazz pondered this.

But Akira had a stern glare on his face as he stared at the ghost girl. The others couldn't tell, but he could see something else just swirling around her. Red and black miasma just flowed around her being. A dreaded seed, having already taken root in a heart pained by loss. A mind seeking nothing but vengeance.

HATRED, POTENT AND PURE.

"Nowhere you can reach him now. What's it to you?" Akira answered, stepping forward.

That was something she clearly didn't want to hear, as the miasma only seemed to grow fiercer and her head raised, her eyes glowing red and her makeup staining her face from dried tears. If she even had blood to spare, her fingers digging into her skin would surely have shed it. The three youths of Casper High backed up when they saw her anger on full display, but the delinquent still stood tall. He did not intend on backing down from this encounter.

"I won't ask you again." Kitty brought up a glowing fist. "Where. Is. My Boyfriend's. Murderer?"

"Murderer?" Sam, Jazz, and Tucker echoed.

"Your boyfriend became a giant monster through his own fault from what I heard." The exchange student replied. "If you want someone to blame so badly, blame him and not the guy who was busy saving people from your boyfriend being an idiot."

"SHUT UP!"

Then Akira had to dodge a ghost ray that was actually shot at him. He held back a sigh. He figured that this was going to turn into a fight. She was too angry to listen to reason, and she really didn't want to hear anything bad about her deader than dead boyfriend. He got that. But even so…

UNYIELDING HATE.

"I'll tell you what, lady." The biker told her, putting his hands in his pockets. "You wanna go and pick a fight with Sora, then you'll have to get through me first!"

At this, a smirk most unfriendly appeared on Kitty's fist as her fists glowed blue again.

"Gladly."

—-

Well this took quite a while and a half. Sorry about the wait, guys, but with Christmas having come and gone and readjusting myself to a routine for the new year (on top of being lectured in real life just because I didn't respond to one e-mail in a punctual manner; did NOT need that), it understandably took me a while to finally get this chapter finished. Now, before I get into the real meat of this author's note, allow me to just address something.

I said it once and I'll say it again. NO SPAMMING IN THE REVIEW SECTION. If you have something that you can't say in one review, then at least try to dm me about it. Don't use the review section as an excuse to throw complaints around ad nauseam. Not to mention they get hard to read when they're all bunched together and don't exactly have the best understanding of sentence structure. Just take that into consideration, okay?

But to answer this sort of spam in question, I simply ask you to be patient. There aren't any plot holes. Just like how Final Fantasy characters exist in the Kingdom Hearts universe (and The World Ends With You for Dream Drop Distance, but that's an exception and it was also a Nomura work), characters from other Square Enix games will cameo in the Nick worlds. Akira Tadokoro from Live A Live is one of those cameos for Amity Park. And no, he's not going to join the main party once the world is done.

And Nicktoons Unite! basically runs on a different canon from the shows it uses for obvious reasons. Please don't overthink on 'canon storylines', especially on a fanfic that basically takes canon and bends it on its knee. Seriously. Just don't.

Okay. With that out of the way, I hope you guys enjoyed the latest installment of the fanfic, and the next chapter will be the finale of the Amity Park Arc. Thanks again to The Swordslinger for beta'ing this fanfic. See you next time! Should probably be a while since I'll work on the next chapter of Defier of Destiny. Should be a bit easier to handle too.