Episode 14: Japanese Jolts Part 1 – The Dark Forest
Japan, also known as the Land of the Rising Sun, was a place Zack and many members of his team always wanted to go to, as the land was pristine beautiful, full of mystery, wonder, excitement, and culture. But for now, with the looming threat of darkness spreading across the world through treacherous means ever increasing the time for relaxation and discovery would have to be put on hold. Zack and his team had to get to Japan on the double after hearing that was the next target of the Dark Master, his followers, and Dr. Venom's associates, plus who knows what other sorts of evil was lurking about behind every tree, on every mountain slope, and deep inside every lake or in the neighboring oceans.
As of now, when the Z-Team emerged from the portal after their encounter with 5 deadly sea monsers, their first task was to pinpoint a good place to start investigating. Yet simultaneously, Zack felt a sense of familiarity with this place, for their drop off point was a small village outside of Kyoto, where there was a temple, a theater, and a training ground for martial arts. Nearby, there was a range of mountains and a dense, lush forest, beautiful night or day, but was rumored to have creatures of the night lurking about, no one dared enter at that time period.
Leading his team, Zack escorted them to a quiet area just outside the temple where there was an area to sit down for a meal or have a meeting. This area would be their briefing table for what was going to happen next, a full-scale investigation and perhaps a few big battles. Without any further ado, everyone sat down in their seats and had their eyes on Zack.
"Alright everyone, here in Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun, there are all sorts of beings we call Yokai. We've encountered several of these beings back at the clubhouse a while ago, defeated most of them, and tamed one. How these things are handled varies between creatures, some can be tamed, some can be defeated, some we need more spiritual power that our weapons and magic can't handle. On the way here we encountered one such Yokai, the Umibozu, aka the sea monk. You'll remember the name of it from one of the Sphinx's riddles. Mickey, you may look it up for us in the book I gave you." Mickey took out the guidebook and searched through it, when he found the page with it, he held it aloft so everyone can see, the illustration of the monster matched what they encountered earlier.
"It says here the creature was once a monk who was thrown out at sea, denying him of a proper burial….so it emerged as the Umibozu…." Mickey read aloud.
"That's the way things work here in this mystic land..." continued Zack. "If you died a horrible death or some other unusual circumstance, one can return as a ghost, a monster, or even a demon..." Everyone's eyes opened wide and their ears pricked at the sound of that. "Here's another example, Mickey get ready, the Tenome…." Mickey scrolled through the pages until he found the entry then held it up. On the page was an illustration of what looked like a bald man, but missing his eyes in his head, instead they were on the palms of his hands.
"What a strange being!" replied Donald.
"Quite right duck…..the story behind this evil being which feeds on human essence, is that he was once a blind elderly man wandering around at night, until he was attacked by a gang of bandits, beaten till he was dead, but not before saying this: "If only I could see their faces! If only I had eyes to see, even if they were on the palms of my hands!"" The other team members were awestruck with Zack's story, upon hearing this they knew they would have to be very careful. "However, there's hope inside every Pandora's Box, there are some Yokai we could recruit without trouble, one of them is a Baku, this might look frightening, but it eats only one thing…..bad dreams!" Mickey scrolled through to find it and then held the book aloft, the illustration showed a dark tapir or elephant-like creature. "Another that could be recruitable is the Kitsune as long you see more than one tail it can have up to nine, they have a plethora of powers that can aid us such as projecting illusions, generating heat, and detecting evil" Mickey scrolled through for an entry on that and then held the book up showing an illustration of a orange-red furred fox being with nine tails.
"Sounds interesting Zack, but how do we know which ones we can trust?" asked Simba.
"Yes it sounds like these Yokai are tricky creatures…." added Elsa. "Good thing we have Zack's threat detector…."
"That alone won't always work, these different types of creatures can take many forms and can ambush us when you least expect it." added Zack. "Follow me you bunch to the theater, there's a story to tell, to sharpen your instincts." He led his team over to the theater area of the village where a play was about to start. The stage wasn't like the traditional stage, there were no curtains, just a medium sized square area just with some lights, columns, and at the left side there was a visible gated corridor, also illuminated. At the back of the stage there was what looked like a medium sized cabinet. At the top of the stage was a very long screen for the subtitles.
Without further ado the play began when the Z-Team sat themselves down. To start there was the sound of wood banging on wood in a rhythm. The first player to arrive from the corridor to the stage was a woman wearing a somber mask wearing a kimono, as she arrived she sat down, and in a sorrowful tone, pondered the loneliness of her long life as she was cleaning the floor. After a few minutes a man, but without a mask entered as well, representing a monk, entered as well, he asked the woman for shelter as it was pouring outside, a drum was heard representing thunder. The woman gladly obliged and went to grab a bowl for the monk, who immediately ate. Once he was done, he asked for a fire, which the woman agreed to, but warns the monk not to check in the cabinet. She leaves to the corridor to find some wood. After a minute, the monk's curiosity is piqued and decides to check the cabinet, but gets a shock, he reveals to the audience that there are skeletons in her cabinet, revealing that she is actually a horrific demon in disguise who eats her guests. The old woman reappears this time as a frightening demon, wearing a red mask with horns, intimidates the monk for a bit, but then pulls out a sutra from his yukata and recites it dispelling the demon away. With the evil repelled he monk leaves and the play ends. After the play ends Zack beckoned his team away and led them into the edge of a dark forest.
"Be on your guards everyone, who knows what might just out of the shadows..." he advised them all, and everyone nodded in response. With his sword in flame like a torch in his right hand and the Threat Detector in his left, he led his team down a dark trail in the forest. It was only a few minutes when around the sound of a nearby stream, they heard a strange rustling of leaves noise, yet the Threat Detector didn't sense anything. Looking around, with weapons out, they searched for the source of the noise as it grew louder and louder, eventually some odd shape just emerged in front of them, pitch black. Everyone took up stances as the shape emerged, but when Zack shown the light on it, it looked like a big black tapir, covered in dense fur with some tusks, Zack and the rest of his members were relieved that they just found themselves a Baku. Pluto stepped forward to sniff the strange creature, who showed no sign of fear and allowed itself to be approached by the dog. Pluto barked in relief and beckoned the creature to the rest of the group.
"Minnie?" Zack asked.
"Yes Zack?" she replied.
"Do you have a mirror in your purse? That thing would be most useful for unveiling disguises, the creatures here are very cunning, they can ambush you when you least expect it" Minnie dug a little bit in her purse and pulled out a little hand mirror. "Perfect, that will do to unmask the enemies." Just a few seconds later a mysterious squatted monk with his eyes crossed was sitting along the trail.
"Excuse me you bunch, come over here and look at me!" the monk said.
"Find out if he's a demon Minnie, roll over to the side." ordered Zack, Minnie did so just as the group was approaching the strange monk. She held up the mirror and instead of a normal human, she saw some grotesque features as it had a flexible neck and rows of fangs.
"Zack he's not normal!" Minnie replied
"Mikoshita! (I see higher!)" shouted Zack, causing the monk to disappear just as it's neck started to stretch and slowly reveal its hideousness.
"Gawrsh! What was that?" asked Goofy.
"The Mikoshi-Nyudo the anticipating priest who's actually a hideous giant in disguise, it was going to ask you to look into it's eyes only for its neck to stretch so high up till you fall over allowing it to literally bite you in the neck and eat you." Everyone's eyes widened at the sound of that. Just to the left of them, a strange black smoke emerged from a hollow in the ground with glowing red eyes.
"Enenra! Everyone be careful!" shouted Zack as the strange smoke being flung embers and billows of smoke left and right attacking the Team. Aladdin dodged one shot of embers and then held up his scimitar, then shouted "Squall Gust!" emitted a gust of wind which only blowed the Enenra away a bit and then stormed back. Moana then held out her oar and shouted "Hydro Surge!" spraying the being with water causing the being to disappear.
The Team trekked further into the forest with the Baku in tow, they found themselves near a clearing overlooking the city of Kyoto in the distance. Suddenly a strong surge of wind was felt, but where the source of the wind was coming from, the Z-Team noticed some unusual creatures flowing in the wind, what looked like weasels with sickles for arms.
"Kamaitachi! Aladdin get ready to counter blow them!" Aladdin did that pointing his scimitar and shouted "Squall Gust!" emitting a gust of wind to counter the creatures' wind, it soon turned into a tug-o-war between the winds each one fluctuating and who knows which side would emerge victorious. A rustle in the bushes was heard and out emerged a strange red-orange vulpine creature with seven furry tails. It noticed the commotion and leaped into the fray, lurched its body a bit and then emitted a mysterious yelp, an glowing red burning aura emitted out of the creature's body where the Kamaitachi were, burning them to a crisp as they were being blown away by Aladdin's wind. Once that was over, the aura died out, and then the vulpine creature slowly approached Zack, with a sniff and a friendly bark.
"Looks like we have another friend, a Zenko Kitsune, this is a great one to have, she'll benefit for us greatly." said Zack smiling and giving the fox creature a friendly petting. Pluto, Rajah, and the Baku came over to investigate the strange being, finding it equally friendly amongst the chatter.
"What a relief, we'll need all the help we can get in these woods, and country." remarked Elsa.
"Well said, you can never be too careful with the Yokai." Everyone nodded. Zack, Elsa, and the Kitsune led the team downwards into the thick dark area of the of the forest, it felt more than a mile, down and up. They just approached an open area of the forest when out of nowhere a small quake was felt beneath their feet, they held still, not knowing what it was that was going to happen. Just then, large bone-like hands shot out of the ground, grabbing everyone except the Baku and the Kitsune who just barked and trumpeted at the plight of their new masters. The grip in the bone hands was tight, impossible for the Z-Team to escape or draw their weapons. In a matter of seconds after they were caught, a dark cloud emerged from the pitch blackness of the night with glowing yellow eyes and an evil laugh.
"You've been lucky before Z-Team, but now your luck has just about ran out!" the voice laughed demonically.
"Dakmogon!" shouted Zack, everyone's eyes widened in astonishment that this was the very Dark Master they were against the whole time.
"What you see is only a projection, not the whole picture, you were lucky to thwart my plans so far, but you've been unsuccessful in the building of my power and my form. With every fear and pain my power grows and with every soul I claim from the monsters summoned by my followers from the unfortunates you fail to save, my form develops. It will only be a matter of time before I cover the world in eternal darkness!" Dakmogon laughed.
"You won't get away with this Dakmogon!" shouted Elsa.
"Yeah, the power of friendship and love will always prevail!" added Simba. Pluto barked and Rajah growled in agreement to Simba's statement.
"You've got all of us to contend with and all our supporters!" added Mickey, but Dakmogon just laughed evilly at their boasts.
"You've got many supporters, but I've got mine as well, my Shadow Monks and Dr. Venom's scientists. As for you Zack Burner, I'll have the real pleasure of watching you suffer!" The gaseous form of Dakmogon emitted some wispy blue fires out on the captured Zack, pummeling him relentlessly, the pain was excruciating, his pained screams hurt the ears and hearts of his fellow team members as they helplessly watched their leader being tortured, until he was incapacitated. When he was incapacitated, the bone hand dropped him.
"Zack!" His teammates shrieked in horror as their leader fell.
"Your leader isn't dead yet, but I've got something else for him! Scientists unleash the centipede!" Several scientists came out with a glass tank carrying a much larger than average centipede, red in color. The scientists unleashed the centipede on Zack which crawled over him and bit him in the arm. "Your weapons and magic won't stop me Z-Team, for now you have to try and figure out a way to save him, not that it will do you any good while I expand my army of darkness. There is an herb that can save him, but it's up in the snowy mountain up above, but my followers have already unleashed one ancient terror there, the Yuki-Onna and none of you have the power to stop her without Zack's magic, and you have 24 hours to find it and save him, good luck you'll need it!" Dakmogan mocked the Z-Team's plight as he disappeared along with his scientists, into the darkness.
The remaining Z-Team members were released as the bone hands dropped them and vanished into the Earth. Immediately they looked with concern at their fallen, incapacitated leader, wondering how they were going to save him against insurmountable odds, both in the darkness and the icy terrain ahead.
To Be Continued….