A/N: Welcome to this week's edition of "Heart, Soul, and Mind". Today, we're travelling over to Misterie's place to find out what the deal is with the Devil wanting us so bad and to get some gear! However, it seems there might be trouble along the way...stay tuned!

(Normal P.O.V)

It was a few hours after the girls broke out of the casino and the group returned the disguises the boys borrowed from Porkrind's, they were on their way to Misterie's shop, hoping to get some answers regarding the Devil and his scam. While Liam was caught up with what Lexie told him regarding the Devil wanting her, Natty and Katie to join his creepy family, he was still lost on why and how that would help him in world domination.

"Still blows my mind. He wants you as his daughter." Liam claimed. "I mean,

doesn't he know that you and Natty are Christians?"

Lexie (now wearing her hat after Liam gave it back to her along the way) rolled her eyes as she replied, "We already told him that…I think all those past millennium of being cast off and basically condemned by God had finally driven him marbles."

"He clearly is delusional." Natty chimed in. "I mean, why would I want to be his daughter when I'm perfectly fine with my family back home?"

Kaichi turned to Katie as he exclaimed in disgust, "And I can't believe that he wants you to MARRY him!"

"Why again?" Mugman asked. "Seems a bit weird for him to marry a mortal."

"We don't know." Natty shrugged. "The big moron didn't bother to give us an answer.

Liam shrugged and then he and the rest heard Hilda call out "Coming in for a landing! Hold on tight!"

She dove down and came to a screeching halt on the ground. The group slipped off and gazed over at Misterie's shop as Hilda transformed back to her normal self.

"So…this is her shop huh?" Lexie asked.

"Interesting. Never seen a shop like this before." Natty commented.

"Oh trust me you'll love it." Liam mentioned. "She's got more Nintendo merch than Nintendo World itself!"

Matt took a sad sigh. "Still sad you didn't buy Nintendo World for me."

"And we both know why." Liam stated, rubbing his back.

Lexie couldn't help but laugh; Matt was so cute, even he was a bit spoiled.

"Well, there ya go. Hopefully you girls will get some things cleared up." Hilda commented."

"Thanks Hilda, appreciate all you've done." Natty smiled.

"Yes, girl, you've been awesome!" Lexie beamed with a smile. "Thank you so much!"

Hilda smiled. "Oh, thank you Lexie. I just wanna help after the boys helped Inkwell."

"No worries, Hilda." Cuphead beamed, giving her a thumbs up.

"Yes, thank you." Katie smiled.

Hilda nodded and then claimed, "Now I'm going to head out, unless you guys need any more assistance?"

"I think we're okay for now." Lexie replied. "Thanks again, for everything."

"No problem. I'm going to find Cagney and warn him of the Devil, just taking precautions."

The group nodded and Hilda hopped on a cloud and headed out of the area.

"Bye, Hilda!" Matt called, waving good bye.

"Well, that takes care of that." Mugman stated. "Sooo, lets head inside and talk to Madam Misterie."

"Right." Lexie nodded.

She rolled her eyes as she added, "I'm sure she'll give us more straight answers than Ol' Scratch Butt back there."

Cuphead snorted and started laughing. ""Ol' Scratch Butt"! I like that! I'm totally using that!"

Lexie laughed along with Cuphead as she replied, "If ya really wanna be insulting, you can just shorten it to 'Scratch Butt'."

Katie held back a giggle while Cuphead doubled over laughing.

Mugman however, rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Of course Cups finds any insult funny."

"Oh, no worries, Mugsy, we were just having fun, but you gotta admit it was pretty funny." Natty smiled as she put an arm around his shoulder.

"Yeah it was, but he's still evil and can hurt people badly." He argued. "Don't wanna take it overboard."

Lexie sighed while she rubbed her neck, which was still sore from her own encounter.

"Yeah, I definitely learned that the hard way."

She then smirked while she added, "But, at least he's got a big ugly ol' scar on his face. Can't possibly win over Katie now."

Liam nodded and replied "Let's head inside and see if she can help you three out."

The group nodded and headed towards the shop. They turned the handle and the door opened, slipping inside. Natty and Lexie hadn't seen the inside of the shop but when they saw all the Nintendo merch, their eyes grew wide.

"Holy CANNOLI!" Lexie exclaimed. "I haven't seen this much merch since my time at Nintendo World!"

"Same! Natty squealed. "Oh, man, I would LOVE to own a shop like this!"

"I've been so concerned about asking Misterie about how I could find you guys, I barely had time to get a better look around." Katie breathed as she looked over some plushies. "Oh, wow! She also has some plushies from Ori and the Blind Forest! I have yet to complete that game but I've always wanted one of those! Ori is so CUTE!"

She then spotted a Sonic the Hedgehog themed yo-yo with a picture of Sonic looking like he's about to do his trademark Spin Dash, reminding her of such a yo-yo she had gotten as a prize from a box of Kellogg's Frosties cereal when she was a kid.

Lexie immediately wandered from the rest of the group looking at some items on a shelf.

"Oh my goddddd….there's so much Mario stuff here. I'm having a fangirl heart attack!" She squealed.

"Yo, there's like soooo many cute Kirby plushies!" Natty called. "Is it wrong that a 23 year old girl still wants one?"

"NO, not at all!" Lexie exclaimed. "I'm 24 and I want one too!"

"I'm 34 and I'm still into Pokemon and Kingdom Hearts!" Katie piped up.

"Come on! Let's check out the merch!" Natty beamed.

While the girls squealed with delight and wandered from shelf to shelf, Liam had to smile.

"This is probably the first time I've seen her this happy since Comic Con." Liam thought to himself.

Katie, composing herself from her fangirling, then moved to the far side of the shop and called, "Hello? Misterie, are you here? I'm back! And I had found my friends and brought them back like you said! Misterie?"

There was no reply, not even a screech from Aren. Where on earth was this mysterious painted wolf?

Natty looked over and wondered "Did she leave?"

Lexie rolled her eyes while shaking her head, "Well that's just terrific…"

She then darted her eyes nervously and asked, "Um…I guess we wait for her?"

"I guess that'll be fine." Natty shrugged.

"Yeah, might be the safest bet for now-omigosh are those POWER UPS?!"

"Wait, SHUT UP! Lemme see!" Natty squealed, rushing over.

Katie rolled her eyes with a smile as she watched the girls swooning over the plethora of Mario power ups.

"Dude, I'm soooo tempted to touch that fire flower!" Lexie squealed in excitement.

"You're telling me! I want to try my luck at being invincible with that Power Star." Natty smiled.

"I wanna fly around with the Tanooki leaf!"

"I would love to climb walls and scratch my foes with the Super Bell!"

"OH MY GOD you'd be sooooo cute as a cat!"

"Ha! Ha! So true!"

"I wonder what my suit color would be…?"

"Ohh, that's a good thought. I know Peach's cat suit was pink, so I guess that's taken."

"And Mario's was yellow…"

Katie watched her friends gush some more until she spotted something interesting to her. High above a shelf was…

"A Keyblade…?"

"Wait, shut up, like from Kingdom Hearts!?" Natty piped up.

"No WAY!" Lexie exclaimed. "That's SO AWESOME!

Lexie and Natty rushed over and sure enough, Katie was holding a Keyblade. An actual Keyblade from Kingdom Hearts.

The Keyblade was beautiful and elegantly crafted. It was mostly blue in color. The hand guard was shaped like wings and the teeth were shaped like a feathery yet draconic wing. The chain had a few pearl white and light blue beads and the keychain was a small book. The Keyblade also has a radiant crystal blue gemstone embedded into it.

Although she can't explain it, Katie felt oddly drawn to the Keyblade just like she had with the blue gemstone in the book, as though it was made specially just for her.

"Ah, I'm liking this shop already!" Lexie beamed.

"Same!" Natty smiled.

Next to the Keyblade was what appeared to be a paintbrush. Lexie wasn't sure why, but something about it called to her. Similar to the yellow gem from the book.

"Hey…this kinda looks like Bowser Jr's paintbrush in Super Mario Sunshine!" Lexie mused, picking it up. "Wicked cool!"

As Natty looked around the shelf, she noticed an object that looked like a wand, that had the same style and feel as an Inkwell pen. Like Lexie, she was drawn to it, no pun intended, the same way she felt when she gazed at the pink gemstone.

Picking it up, she examined it and smiled. "Huh, this wand reminds me of the stylust for my Nintendo DS when I played Mario Party and other games. Sweet!"

"You had a stylus like that?" Lexie asked. "Ugh so jelly."

"Why would you want her jelly?" Cuphead asked.

Lexie wheezed out while laughing. "Jelly is short for jealous, silly goose!"

"Ohhhhhh, I see." Cuphead smiled, while Mugman rolled his eyes.

"And people wonder how he's the older brother." He muttered.

Kaichi quietly snickered to himself at the statement.

Suddenly, for some reason, all three girls felt…strange. Like a dark presence was approaching.

"Hey guys?" Lexie gasped. "Y'all feeling something…dark?"

"Yeah…I'm getting that feeling too." Natty replied, starting to feel uneasy.

"I feel the same." Katie chimed in. "W-what do you think it could be?"

Lexie could barely get two words out when…

*SLAM!*

The door suddenly opened to reveal none other than-

"King Dice?!" Everyone exclaimed.

"The one and only! Glad to see you again." He smirked.

Katie glared at Dice as she demanded, "What do you want, you pompous old cheese cube?!"

"No need to get excited, Ms. Gemwing, it's more of what my employer wants." He cooly stated. "He was a bit upset when you three left. Didn't even bother to say goodbye."

"Aw, what a shame." Lexie pouted with a sarcastic undertone. "Hope your 'employer' is healing from the 'scratch' on his face."

Dice gave a smirk at that comment. "I can tell that it was full of puns, Lexie, very cute of you."

Liam stepped in front of Lexie with a glare as he snapped, "Hey! You stay back!"

Dice arched an eyebrow in confusion as Liam glared at him.

"And you are..?"

"I'm Liam, Lexie's boyfriend." He sternly replied.

There was a short pause from Dice as he stared at Liam. Then, after about ten seconds, he burst out laughing. Not a laugh for people to join in, but an evil and wicked laugh.

"Hey!" Lexie shouted. "That ain't funny! Back OFF!"

"Cut that out!" Natty snapped.

Katie looked confused. Why did Dice think that was funny?

Once Dice finished laughing, he cleared his throat and replied to Liam, "You, dating Lexie? Wow, that's a good one!"

"But I AM her boyfriend!" Liam protested.

Lexie held out a hand in front of Liam while she snapped at Dice, "And just why do you think that's YOUR business! He's MY boyfriend, so either say something nice, or SCREW OFF!"

"I'm just saying I'm surprised you'd stoop low for someone like him." He shrugged.

Katie gaped her mouth in shock before her face morphed into anger, "For your information, blockhead, he's a proper gentleman who knows how to treat a woman right…unlike YOU!"

"Well, like I stated to pinkie over here, dating is a 'flex arrangement.' I'm not one to back down from a challenge such as Ms. Luthor."

"Stop calling me that!" Natty shouted. "I get it, I wear a pink shirt. Since you can't call me by my original name, I'll just keep calling you 'blockhead'!"

"And maybe I'll keep punching you like I did before!" Lexie chimed in.

"Before?" Katie asked.

"Awww, are you referring to that little chat in that pocket dimension I took you to before hitting the casino?" Dice sneered. "That same one where I, slipped a kiss on your sweet lips?"

Lexie growled as she raged, "That was against my will, you MORON!"

"Whoa, whoa, back up!" Liam chimed in. "What happened?"

"I done told this idiot THREE TIMES I was datin' you, Lee!" Lexie snapped, turning to Dice. "But you were all like 'Oh well, I don't see him in the area so chill with me' and he freakin' KISSED ME!"

"Wait…he did WHAT?!" Katie exclaimed.

"EEEWWW!" Matt, Kaichi and the Cup Brothers gagged.

"Oh, gross!" Natty exclaimed. "I knew you were disgusting but you took it WAY too far!"

Enraged, Liam stormed to Dice, ushering Lexie behind him, shouting, "You FREAK! How DARE you come on to Lexie like that!"

Any sane person would have raised their hands like 'Okay, bro it's cool' and backed off. Nope, not King Dice. As he smirked with a dopey grin like an idiot.

"Awww, but I did enjoy that. Besides, I loved keeping you close and safe in my arms, and I hope to do that again very, very soon."

"You PERVERT!" Lexie shouted. "You keep your NASTY self away from me!"

"Or what? You may have had a good tussle with the boss, but in case it slipped your mind, he's very powerful and so am I."

"Oh yeah, dice for brains?" Cuphead snapped. "Maybe your math is off, since there's one of you and seven of us!"

"Is that so? Well, I guess you're right. I suppose I should head out and go back…however, I did not come alone."

With a snap of his fingers, imps and card guards appeared before the group.

"Nice going, Cups…" Mugman deadpanned, facepalming.

"Heh heh, uh, my bad?" Cuphead sheepishly replied.

"For future reference, don't ever say that line." Lexie advised.

"That, and 'how could things get worse?'." Natty added. "Always a bad call to say that."

Lexie rushed to the shelf where she previously found the power ups and half haphazardly grabbed the first one she could touch.

It was the cat suit, but her costume was more like Rosalina's; all black.

"Uh okay…not the power up I meant to grab, but whatever."

"Yo, that looks awesome!" Natty squealed. "Power ups are real! I totally called it!"

"Erm, Nat? Got baddies to fight remember?"

"Oh, right, sorry."

"Well, isn't that cute?" Dice sneered. "Since you're now using that ability, I think I'll refer to you as my little kitty cat."

"Aw, C'MON!" Lexie yelled. "SERIOUSLY?!"

"Oh gross, get a life!" Natty shouted.

Some cards tried to jump at Lexie, but she scratched and clawed with deadly accuracy.

"Okay this is great and all, but I really wanna get something else." Lexie grimaced. "I'm feeling self conscious in a cat suit now, thanks a lot blockhead!"

"Don't mention it, my sweet kitty cat." Dice replied.

Lexie growled, "THAT'S IT!"

She swiped past several imps and cards alike and charged toward Dice to maul the living crap out of him. But….he had other plans.

Once Lexie approached him, ready to beat the living daylights out, suddenly, his hand glowed purple and when he grabbed her suit, the power up vanished and she was back in her usual attire.

"Uh oh…ah stupid Mario power ups…"

"Oh, you thought I was coming in unprepared, huh?" Dice asked. "Please. The boss gave me and another fella some new abilities. He figured they would come in handy."

Before Lexie could do or say anything else, Dice grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her, trapping her in his grip.

"HEY! LET HER GO!" Liam shouted.

"Get your hands OFF ME!" Lexie demanded. "LEMME GO!"

"I told you I'd get you in my arms again." He purred. "Now, how about you give me another sweet kiss?"

"Not on your life, you sick PERVER-!"

Just then, before she could finish, he managed to give her a kiss, but because her head turned, he got her cheek instead. And it was still enough to make Kaichi's fur and tail puff up in disgust.

"Blech!" The Sprigon retched.

"Argh, tell me about it." Natty shuddered. She remembered how disgusted she felt when Dice spoke about Lexie in the funhouse but seeing what she dealt with made her sick to her stomach.

"Awww, you made me miss." Dice replied, giving Lexie a fake pouty face.

"Well, that's too bad!" Lexie snapped. "You already got yours! Against my WILL might I add!"

With all that was happening, Katie began to feel very, very angry. She began to breathe heavily, glaring at Dice hatefully more than she did before, and began to growl at him. This was no ordinary growl. This one sounded…draconic.

Natty took notice and asked, "Uh, Kate, you alright?"

"How dare you…" Katie growled at Dice in a coldly low voice. Her fists were getting tighter and tighter.

"Uh, you doing okay?" Liam asked nervously.

Even Dice took notice but didn't think too much about it.

"Hmm, interesting, never heard this from you before." He stated. "Boss said you were scared like a little mouse."

"Oh, you did NOT just go there!" Lexie snapped.

Now, Katie. Was. TICKED.

Her pupils then began to dilate into draconic slits as she glared at Dice some more, who arched a confused eyebrow.

"Uhh, what's going on?" He asked.

"How DARE you!" She shouted, her voice getting louder, baring her teeth as she shuddered with burning rage.

Now, the group was becoming a bit more nervous about this, moving back away from Katie. Even Lexie took notice and began to feel a bit uneasy.

"Uh…Kate? You good?"

"Katie? Are-are you okay?" Kaichi asked, who hovered back towards Liam.

"Miss Katie?" Mugman meekly asked.

Then, Katie let out a draconic roar, screaming out, "HOW DARE YOU!"

Then to everyone's surprise, she lunged at the surprised Dice, who released Lexie at that same moment, and…

*SMACK!*

She slammed her fist so hard into his face, it literally made that blockhead of his spin.

Once he got his head to stop spinning, looking a bit dizzy in the process, Natty couldn't help but laugh.

"Okay, that was startling, but that was really funny."

"Okay, that-that was weird." Dice replied, feeling dizzy.

Katie saw nothing but red as she snarled, "How dare you force yourself onto a young woman like THAT! You sick, disgusting, good for nothing old CREEPER! I oughta knock you into NEXT YEAR!"

Everyone was silent, and shocked. Lexie and Natty knew Katie to be a very sweet friend and always stood up for them, like that incident at Comic Con, but this was a whole new side of her.

While Dice was a bit shocked himself, he smirked a bit before replying, "Well, looks like I got you outta your little shell. I'm sure the boss would love to know about this."

He then stated, "Well, I didn't come all this way to taunt you three. Since you are persistent, let's see how you handle these minions?"

The goons were getting a bit closer and while Liam, Matt and the Cup boys did a good job keeping them back, the girls felt outnumbered. They needed to use something, but nothing was a good weapon to use.

Or was there?

Thinking fast, the girls ran back to the shelf and grabbed the items they previously saw.

Lexie picked up the paintbrush. Suddenly, she flinched as the paintbrush burst into a light and transformed into a Keyblade as well. The "key" part of it was replaced with a brush end and the hand guard had butterfly-shaped angelic wings. Near the brush end were three beads, two yellow with orange in the middle, the charm is a butterfly.

"Whoa, jeez!" Natty gasped.

"Whoa!" Katie and Kacihi both exclaimed.

"Like I said, I really like this shop." Lexie beamed.

Natty grabbed the wand and moved it around a bit. In an instant, a burst of color splashed out making it into a Keyblade as well. It started out as a 'rough sketch' before more details, colors, and shape were added. The 'key' itself looked like an inkwell pen with a red ruby at the end. There were gold strands that looked like tassels with the colors of pink, yellow and blue, and the charm at the end was a gold star.

"Yoooooo, this is coool!" Natty squealed.

"Dude, that's seriously cool! I love your Keyblade!" Lexie commented.

"Thanks! Oh, man, my brother would be jealous to see this!" Natty added.

"Man, I always wanted a Keyblade!" Lexie mentioned, gazing at hers in awe.

"Same!" Katie agreed.

"That's so cool!" Liam gasped.

"Wow!" Matt beamed, looking at the Keyblade with stars in his eyes.

Natty pondered over for a second before claiming, "Oooh, I feel an awesome hero story coming! Think about it! We find a strange object in a strange land, it gives us power, we go through hardship, good times, the creamy inbetween and at the end, we realize that friendship is the greatest weapon of all time."

"That would make a great video game." Katie smiled.

"So, what's Kingdom Hearts?" Mugman asked, as he blasted one of the imps away.

"That's long story for another time." Natty sheepishly replied. "Believe me, its a loooong one."

Mugman nodded and proceeded to help his brother in battle.

"Okay, now that you got some weapons, let's bash some baddies!" Liam claimed.

The girls nodded and prepared for battle. They didn't know how this was going to go…but one thing was certain. They weren't gonna surrender; not easily.

"Bring it!" Katie shouted.

"Good day for a swell battle…" Lexie announced.

"IT'S ON!" Natty cried.

Soon, the girls joined the fight, fending off baddies while trying to figure out how their Keyblades work. The trio were familiar with the game and story of Kingdom Hearts, as well as the legend of the Keyblade itself, but actually holding and using one was easier said than done.

"Okay, this is a bit more complicated than I thought it was gonna be…" Natty mentioned, while pushing back an imp.

Katie, who was a fast learner, managed to get a good grip on her Keyblade while whacking an imp away from her.

"Get back!" She shouted.

Then to her surprise, the Keyblade transformed itself into an elegant bow with wings at each end similar to the hand guard.

"Whoa! This is new!" Katie exclaimed.

"Yooooo, that's so cool!" Natty gasped.

"That's amazing!" Lexie beamed. She then proceeded to smack another imp that came charging at her. While she had a good fighting grip on it, something still bothered her.

"Okay, I'm confused how to get this Keyblade to blast-!"

Before she could finish, the key end brushed against the floor and it sprouted paint that turned into one of those machine gun things that are stationary on the ground from Super Smash bros. It then began blasting lasers, driving away the minions.

Once it stopped, she looked at it bewildered. " Uh...okay, that works."

"Now that's impressive!" Katie smiled, giving her a thumbs up.

Natty was helping Liam fight off a few cards, pushing them back and striking a few. Just then, the key turned into a wand. She was confused at first but then suddenly her mind began to fill and understand spells. The interesting thing was the spells were written in a different language, but yet she was able to understand them. With new magic in her mind, she began to cast spells. One of the spells had a huge water wave knock back the cards and a few imps.

"Whoa! Nat, how'd you do that?!" Lexie gasped.

"I-I have no idea! It's like spells formed in my head and I somehow understood them!" Natty claimed, shaking from both being nervous and feeling excited.

"Well, whatever it is, keep going!" Lexie commented. Nat nodded and proceeded to cast spells.

Concentrating, Katie imagined an arrow made out of starry energy and shot it at a deck of cards, impaling them and pinning them to a wall. "Ha! Nice!" She giggled.

Seeing the two tapping into their Keyblades, Lexie decided to try out hers. She swiped on the floor and created a red Koopa shell and sics it on the cards. "Okay this is some Kirby Canvas Curse crap going on!" She shouted.

As she hit a few goons, while trying to aim at Dice, Natty looked over and got an idea.

"Lex! I have an idea! Mario and Luigi Bros attacks!"

Lexie looked over at Natty and smirked. "Ah, I see what you're doing there…"

Creating another Koopa Shell, she kicked it hitting a card and then it went to Natty who proceeded the process. It went on for a bit, getting faster and faster until Nat shouted "Time for the final strike!" She kick it as hard as i can hitting the goons, knocking them back hard. "Alright! That's what I'm talking about!"

Lexie gave her a high five claiming "Nice job, Nat!"

"Thanks! I guess playing Dream Team and Paper Jam really paid off!" Natty smiled.

Katie, who was helping Cuphead, shot more arrows at a couple of imps, one managing to hit one right in the butt with an ethereal arrow.

*BOINK!*

"Ow!" The imp cried, shouting like the one who got hit in The Cuphead Show episode "Sweater Off Dead!", when the Devil was having a party for his 'hard work' and 'dedication'.

Lexie started laughing "Nice one, Kate!"

Natty and Kaichi laughed along as well, seeing how goofy that was.

"Great aim, Kate!" Liam called out. "You take archery by any chance?"

"Thanks!" Katie smiled. "I have for two years straight!"

"Nice!"

"Ha! Ha! Awesome!" Matt beamed. "Hey, Lee! Watch this!" He then swung the yo-yo until a burst of stars fired out at the imps, causing them to comically run away.

"Awesome Matt! Looks like Kirby's yo yo huh?" Lexie asked.

"Yeah! It's so cool!" Matt beamed.

"Awesome job bro!" Liam smiled, ruffling his hair.

"Now that's one awesome toy!" Katie stated.

With all that was happening, the heroes managed to defeat the goons and now faced Dice. He was quite surprised at how well they took down his minions, especially in a short amount of time.

"Gonna cry uncle now, blockhead?" Lexie asked, pointing her paintbrush at him.

"Remember, there's no shame in quitting. Well, maybe a little shame." Natty smirked.

"I would quit now, Dice! You're outnumbered! Again!" Cuphead reminded him.

Katie glared at him, ready for whatever he had planned. He simply smirked and replied, "Hmm It seems I have a bit of a challenge on my hands. No matter, I'll be seeing you later." Then he created a portal underneath him and left.

The group took a sigh, a bit worn out from the fight and glad he was gone.

"Good riddance. Thought the guy would never leave." Natty huffed.

"You're telling me. That was a crazy fight." Liam mentioned. "Now I get how Sora feels when dealing with the Heartless and other bizarre monsters."

"Whew...glad that's over with-!" Lexie stated, but was interrupted by a loud and agonizing scream.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

A/N: Uh oh! Someone's in DEEP trouble! Who was it that was screaming, and why? What schenangians was Dice up to this time? Find out on the next chapter of "Heart, Soul and Mind"!