Yay!
C&C as usual.
Chapter 18
The Heartless slowly edged closer. They moved instinctively, as if they had no purpose but to destroy us; they were machines of death. The only thing going through their heads was to kill. I roared, charging at the monstrous horde. The Keyblade appeared in my hand; I gripped it tightly, feeling sweat ease out of my palm, making it slippery. I felt adrenaline pumping through my body, fouling the fire. I unleashed a swing at a pack of Heartless and they exploded in balls of black. Small glowing hearts drifted into the sky as the Heartless were destroyed. The others behind me were doing just as well, destroying as many Heartless as they could. The toys were doing a brilliant job of exterminating the Heartless; Jessie lashed at them with her whip, Buzz blew entire holes through the shocked Heartless’ bodies with his laser, Woody blasted them to hell with his pistols, Ham madly hurled coins at them, Bullseye would trample them, and Rex would ‘use his head’. Literally. As we easily mowed down the shadow Heartless, the larger, more intimidating Heartless began to move forwards. The soldiers shot at us, but we dodged the small plastic bullets with ease. Ham wasn’t as fortunate. He fell to the ground, struck by a bullet, but fortunately he wasn’t fatally wounded.
“Ham!” Woody shouted, racing over to aid his fallen comrade. When he reached the helpless toy, he took a small jar from his pocket. It had a shimmering green liquid inside. I stared at it for a moment. It swirled around inside the bottle as if it had a life of its own. Woody opened Ham’s lifeless mouth and poured the concoction down. Ham jumped up as if nothing had ever happened to him. “Man, I need some of those,” I muttered to myself, laughing.
That one second of hesitation blew up in my face, in the form of getting slammed into the ground. I looked up, but it was too late. A huge ball, a Bouncer was above me, ready to crush me in my vulnerable state. I flinched. Slam. Right down on me. I felt as if my ribs had been crushed.
“Hikaru! Drink it!” Buzz shouted, tossing one of those bottles over to me. I reached out in desperation, but the glass slipped on my fingers, sending the bottle falling to the ground. I bit my lip, fearing the worst. If the bottle cracked, then I would surely be doomed. It made contact. A large clink rattled in my ears. I opened my eyes. The bottle was intact! The ball landed on my back again. I screamed, sensing more internal damage. I crawled towards the bottle and opened it. I took down all of the liquid in one go. It was amazingly revitalizing. I felt alive again. I got up, just like Ham had only seconds ago. The Heartless were in their hundreds; thousands even. Realisation hit me. “We can’t fight them! We need to run! Find Mitsuko before it’s too late!” I shouted. But it had been five days… maybe it was already too late.
We ran along, dodging Heartless as they dived at us without fear. One of them clawed at my face. I fell back, defenceless. “Hikaru!” Buzz shouted, stopping in his tracks and going back to smack the Heartless off my face with his boot.
“Goddamn,” I mumbled, clasping my hand around Buzz’s as he helped me back onto my feet. “Thanks, Buzz.”
“No problem; now let’s get going!”
The others nodded, following me up the stairs. Another Bouncer confronted us as we reached the peak of the stairs.
“I have an idea!” I called back. It was amusing how only during adrenaline charged moments I was able to do anything of use. Woody looked at me, expecting something amazing. My tactics were cheap, but effective. I ran at the ball and plunged the Keyblade into its body. “Grab onto my leg!” I cried out, grabbing the Heartless’ body. The toys ran over and grabbed on. The Bouncer spun wildly into the air, just like a balloon which had its knot undone. I held on with all my strength. I heard the screams of the other toys who were holding onto each other, forming a peculiar sort of chain. I felt the wind blowing out from the Heartless billowing into my face, making my mouth dry. As the Heartless began to lose its momentum, we all jumped off. We landed roughly onto an overhead land, crawling with Heartless. “What was the point of that?!” Slinky, the dog shouted.
“Just trust me!”
The Heartless approached slowly in small groups. “Hold to something!” I shouted, raising my Keyblade in my right hand and drawing it back. My heart was beating like a drum, perpetually ringing in my ears.
“This doesn’t look good,” Rex muttered worriedly, placing his tiny claws around Woody’s arm.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Woody said, turning back to everybody behind him as he grabbed my arm. “At least I think he does…”
I grabbed the cable which held the lamp up and then struck the lower half of the pole, sending the lamp plummeting to the ground as we all dangled limply from the ceiling. The Heartless who waited for us below the lamp titled their heads upward, not sure of what to do. Smash. Sparks flew in all directions, destroying all of the Heartless under us.
“How are we gonna get back down?” Jessie shouted.
“Leave that to me!” Buzz exclaimed confidently in his heroic voice. He placed one hand on his chest, above his heart. “Hikaru… when I say, let go of the cable…” Buzz uttered severely. I gulped and nodded back to him.
“Three…” Buzz whispered.
“Buzz… are you sure about this? Don’t you remember what happened last time…?” Woody said, looking concerned. I felt my grip loosening.
“Two…”
“We can trust him, Woody…” said Slinky.
“One… Buzz Lightyear, to the rescue!” Buzz called out, pressing the bright red button on his suit. Two wings exploded out of his back as we plummeted to the ground. We were flying!
“Wow!” Jessie muttered. “I didn’t expect that to actually work…”
“That’s amazing, Buzz!” Woody called. “Wait a sec…” Woody’s voice softened. “Where’s Bullseye?” Woody screamed, as panic filled his eyes.
We continued gliding downwards as Woody’s eyes went left to right, searching frantically for his beloved horse.
“Woody! I need to get down! I can’t keep this up!” Buzz muttered, wiping the sweat off his forehead with a spare hand. “My suit can’t take this pressure for much longer!”
“There!” Woody shouted, pointing at the ground. There, right below us was the horse, Bullseye. We landed on the ground in a large heap near Bullseye. He wasn’t moving. The motionless horse was surrounded by a ring of the demonic Heartless. Right next to him was a Heartless unlike any other I had seen. It was just like the shadows, but more humanoid. Its antennae were stretched longer, and bulging blue veins stuck out of its head. We all looked around for a second or so, and we all realised as we saw a glowing red object floating in the Heartless’ hands; it had consumed Bullseye’s heart.
---------------G-O-O-F-Y-&-D-O-N-A-L-D-----------
The gummi ship drifted in vast darkness of space, heading towards its destination. “Aw garwsh, I saw Sora before! But then he just disappeared!” Goofy said.
“You were probably just daydreaming!” Donald shouted. It had been more than a year since they had seen Sora, and more than two since they’ve seen King Mickey.
“You think that Sora could be…”
“No! Goofy! Don’t think like that! Sora is still alive and he’s probably just waiting for us!” Donald boomed.
“You’re right. Sora’s The Keyblade Master!” Goofy said, correcting himself. Goofy chuckled at his own forgetfulness. In all of their experiences with Sora, he had never been defeated in battle, and they weren’t about to believe he had died.
They were going to Hollow Bastion; a mysterious world which they had visited before on countless occasions, where they believed they would be able to find Sora or the King.
“I wonder where you could be, Sora…” Goofy whispered, staring out the window at the beautiful scenery, hoping that they’d be able to meet their friend again. They both missed him dearly, and would go to the ends of the Universe to find him.
The journey was peaceful, devoid of any Heartless in any form. They thought about Sora, and where he could’ve ended up. The last time they saw him was at the crossroads. They had split up, thinking that they’d be able to make more progress; they were obviously wrong. Goofy and Donald ended up in a place known as Twilight Town. They had searched there, thinking that Sora could already be waiting for them. They never found him. There was an island nearby which seemed familiar to the duo. It was the place where the three of them fought the epic battle against Ansem. The island; Sora’s island. They had checked there as well, but to no avail. They had thought of giving up hope, but they knew couldn’t; Sora wouldn’t ever abandon them, and they would never abandon him. In spite of all their pain and misfortune, they continued; their friendship was too strong, and nothing would stop them from searching.
The gummi ship reached a steady halt. They began to land, as carefully as possible by the rising falls, a natural anomaly unique to Hollow Bastion. “Well, Goofy? Are you ready?” Donald asked, stepping onto the cool blue stone.
“Yup, ready!” Goofy replied. They both hopped out of the aircraft and made their way to the castle. It was as glum as ever. Then, a voice.
“Why are you here? The king is long gone,” it said.
“King Mickey was here?!” Donald and Goofy both shouted, turning around. There was nobody there. They turned back, thinking that it was just their imaginations, but standing right in front of them was a person. A hooded person, face covered in a veil of shadow. “The king is gone. Why are you here?” the person asked.
“We’re looking for Sora!” Donald quacked.
“Yup, yup, yahuck,” Goofy added. Donald looked at Goofy, an eyebrow raised.
“What?” Goofy said, shrugging his shoulders.
Donald turned back around to face their mysterious foe. “Do you know where Sora…”
The person was gone; vanished into nothing.
----------------H-I-K-A-R-U-------------
“Buh-buh-ullseye?” Woody stuttered, trying to peer over the shoulders of the Heartless. Everyone stared in shock at the lifeless body. His eyes were wide open, empty. Woody glared at the Heartless; the Heartless that had taken his beloved friend’s heart.
“You damn Heartless!” He screamed, running towards the creature in the centre, intent on killing it. He rushed forwards, shooting all the Heartless in his way. As the Heartless in the centre saw Woody, it leapt into the air and onto the stairs. “GET IT!” Jessie shouted, teary eyed. I had hardly known the horse, but I couldn’t help feel depressed like all the other toys. I didn’t want something like that to happen to Mitsuko.
We all went after it, except for Woody, who stood by himself. I looked back. “Woody! C’mon!” I shouted. He sat down, next to the horse’s inanimate figure.
“Bullseye, I’m sorry,” he whimpered, patting the mane despite knowing he wouldn’t be able to wake his lost friend. The Heartless surrounding the two of them slowly backed away, knowing that their job was done. I stood there, watching. I felt a tear form in my eye, slightly distorting my vision. I imaged feeling Woody’s pain; the pain of losing a close friend. “Woody,” I muttered. He looked up. “We have to go. It’s too late for him now.” Woody got up, facing the nightmare that he knew was reality.
“Okay… Let’s go,” Woody said, looking back at Bullseye and wiping his tears away.
We both ran up the stairs, looking around for the others. “Buzz!” Woody shouted. There was no reply. Where did they go? We both looked around, our eyes only finding Heartless.
“We’ll look for them later! I have to find Mitsuko!” I shouted. Woody hesitated, but followed. We ran along the upper hallway, checking each room. We couldn’t spot any life forms other than he Heartless, let alone the other toys or Mitsuko. Where could they be? I asked myself.
They had run upstairs, yet we couldn’t find them up here. “Where else should we check?” I asked, turning to Woody.
“We can try downstairs… Maybe they were lead back down by that Heartless…” Woody muttered, still feeling the after-effects Bullseye’s death.
“But it’s full of Heartless!” I shouted.
“Exactly! If Mitsuko was captured by the Heartless then wouldn’t she be heavily guarded?” Woody explained. “I sure hope she doesn’t end up like poor Bullseye; for your sake.”
“Thanks…” I said back, patting Woody on the shoulder. “I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything to help your friend.”
“Don’t worry about it… let’s just keep going.”
If she had been kidnapped, then the Heartless probably wouldn’t want her to escape, or at that, anybody coming to rescue her. “Then it’s downstairs we go!”
We leapt down, swatting Heartless who’d jump at us away. We landed softly on the ground and began to sprint. A huge horde of Heartless was apparently after us. There were hundreds of them, thundering behind us.
“Run faster!” Woody shouted, as we reached the living room. We climbed onto a couch and hid behind the armrest. They passed us as if we didn’t even exist. They didn’t seem like they were in a rush. They marched like soldiers at some kind of parade. We jumped off the couch and slowly followed, curious of where they were going. They led us to the kitchen where they all stopped.
“Why’d they stop?” I whispered. Woody was staring up, his eyes transfixed on something or other. “What?” I muttered, nudging Woody beside me. I looked up. There, standing in front of the hundreds and thousands of Heartless, all gathered from around the house was the Heartless that had taken Bullseye’s heart. But it was different. It was inside what appeared to be a huge suit of armour composed of parts of broken toys. Like Frankenstein’s monster. As I gazed up, a smile formed on my lips. Woody’s fists tightened and I saw the anger in his eyes. “There it is Woody… Ready to kick some ass?”
