Kingdom Hearts: Heartless Have Nightmares Too in Gamer's Gaming

The Road So Far…

Sora, Donald, and Goofy have been chosen by fate to combat the Heartless, a dark race of beings that steal hearts. They attack people and even worlds themselves. The Heartless are led by an consortium of the most evil villains ever to walk the worlds: Jafar, Ursula, Hades, Captain Hook and others. The group is led by the sorceress, Maleficent. Their goal: destruction of their enemies and complete control over all worlds. Our trio of heroes is the only thing standing in their way. Sora, the keyblade wielder whose home world, the Destiny Islands, was destroyed. Sora was bequeathed the power of the keyblade in the midst of the destruction and set out in search of his friends, Riku and Kairi. Donald and Goofy, the court magician and captain of the royal guard of Disney Castle respectively, met up with Sora in their search for their missing king, Mickey, who is also a keyblade wielder. Together, the trio has stopped the Heartless at every turn. They have defended and saved amazing worlds such as Wonderland, The Deep Jungle, Agrabah and, most recently, Atlantica. In Atlantica, the trio found themselves turned into deep sea creatures. While attempting to get their bearings, they met Ariel, a princess of Atlantica, along with her friend Flounder and Sebastian, servant of King Triton, ruler of the seas. After saving Ariel from the Heartless, they followed her back to the court of Triton. Sora revealed that the trio was searching for the Keyhole. Triton became angry and told Sora that he had never heard of the Keyhole. Sora decided to let the matter go for the time being and left the palace with Ariel in search of adventure. Ariel guided the trio to a sunken ship where they discovered a crystal trident that matched an indent they had found inside Ariel’s Grotto. Just as they had returned and placed the trident in place, Triton arrived and lashed out, destroying the crystal trident with a bolt from his own and forbidding Ariel from leaving the palace. Ariel swam away and Triton revealed that he knew Sora was, in fact, a keyblade wielder and commanded him to leave his realm. Sora and company questioned their presence in this world and made toward Triton’s palace to make their departure. However, upon arriving, they found Ariel and the evil sea witch, Ursula, who had tricked Ariel into letting her back into the palace so she could steal Triton’s trident and take over the ocean. Ariel, realizing the mistake she had made, accompanied Sora and company to combat the evil witch. After making their way to Ursula’s lair, the group defeated the evil witch, but she managed to escape. Pursuing her to the middle of the ocean, the group was blindsided when Ursula used the trident to grow her to massive, kraken-like size. Even with the new size, however, she was no match for the power of the Keyblade and the group. With a mighty crash, the sea witch sank into the sands at the bottom of the ocean and Ariel reclaimed the trident for her father. With the symbol of his power returned, Triton showed the group where the Keyhole was and apologized to his daughter for trying to stifle her dreams of exploring new worlds. Sora used the Keyblade to lock the Keyhole away and the trio left Atlantica with new memories and renewed motivation to save the worlds. As they took off, however, it sat in the back of Sora’s mind that his friend Riku had fallen into the darkness and, at some point in the future, he would have to face his friend in combat…

Now…

The trio made their way back to Merlin’s House once more with a torn page in their possession. Once more, Sora opened the mysterious book and was shrunk down onto it’s pages. On a whim, Sora decided to visit Pooh’s house once more. Out in front of the house, Sora found Pooh sitting on a log in front of a fire pit with no fire. Pooh shivered and said he must have spent too much time on the swing. But fire was no problem for Sora. With a flick of his Keyblade, Sora lit the pile of wood and Pooh warmed right up. Pooh thanked him for that and for all the help he had given him and his friends, rewarding him with a piece of mythril. Sora returned to the outer pages of the book and found a new area had opened up in response to the torn page. Sora could see a clearing crowded with tree stumps. Peering closer at the page, Sora was once more sucked into the pages of the book. As Sora walked into the clearing, Owl passed by overhead. In the clearing, Tigger could be see bouncing around as usual, this time with his young friend, Roo. Pooh and Piglet were also in the clearing, looking around at the sights. Walking up to Tigger, the bouncy one declared that this was his bouncing spot and they could bounce around there all day long. Roo agreed, saying that nothing beat bouncing. Tigger invited Sora to bounce too. Sora shrugged and said okay. Owl landed in front of Sora and told him that he would need some pointers to bounce with the finest bouncers in the land. Roo seemed confused how Owl could give advice since he didn’t bounce like he and Tigger did. Owl conceded that he couldn’t master everything. With that, Tigger told Sora just to bounce after him. On a nearby stump, Tigger told Sora just to bounce along behind him. Sora followed the bouncing patterns that Tigger and Roo made perfectly. Tigger had to admit that Sora had gotten pretty good at boucing. Roo said that maybe Sora was ready for the big one. The “big one” was a pot that stood on a stump in the middle of the clearing. Tigger tossed nuts to Sora and Sora had to hit them at the pot in an attempt to smash the pot. It took some time, but Sora finally succeeded in destroying the pot. Inside the now open tree stump, Sora found an AP Up item. Sora decided to bounce around a little more. After talking with Owl, Sora decided to help the wise bird find some Rare Nuts hidden amongst the branches. Sora used Tigger and Roo’s help to launch him to some of the higher branches in the area. Sora managed to find all the rare nuts and the couple of treasure chests in the area. With another job well done, Sora left the area. The Torn Page became a piece of Mythril. With his task completed, Sora returned to normal size in Merlin’s House. With that, the group set out once more to find new worlds.

Back in the gummi ship once more, the trio warped back to Agrabah and flew in the direction of a world barely visible to port. After a more brisk and difficult Heartless threat than they had encountered up to this point, the trio finally made it to the new world…and it’s a pumpkin…Yup, that looks like a pumpkin alright, with many buildings all painted black and a fountain that spewed green water right out front. The crew disembarked from the gummi ship landed smack down in the middle of Halloween Town. Goofy thought Halloween Town was pretty spooky and figured the people here would look spooky. Donald went ahead and pointed out that the trio looked pretty spooky too. Donald was covered in bandages like some sort of mummy. Goofy had a bit of a Frankenstein thing going on, with a tiny orange pumpkin in place of his nose. Sora had spouted bat wings and had what looked like a mask over part of his forehead. Donald figured that if anyone tried to scare them, they could just scare them right back. As a coyote howled in the background, the trio made their way through a nearby gate and into the town itself. In Guillotine Square, they looked up to see a giant ball of black smoke rising into the sky. They didn’t get a chance to think much of it, though, as the Heartless made an appearance. Well, except these Heartless didn’t attack the trio. They just floated in place, doing nothing. As the trio wondered what the hell they had gotten themselves into, an upside down cone shaped man in a suit came out of nowhere and spoke into a megaphone, introducing the master of terror, the king of nightmares, Jack Skellington! The Heartless in the middle of the square moved finally, separating and moving backwards as a tall, gangly skeleton man in a black and white pinstriped suit arose from the fountain. The Mayor, as his ribbon suggested he was, ran up to Jack and told him that the ghosts would be a big hit at this year’s Halloween. Jack was pleased, but felt that the movement of the ghosts still needed work. It just wasn’t quite scary enough. Jack said he would go consult the doctor about it and left with a wave of his hand. The Mayor said he would go attend to decorations, at which point a paler, more anguished face could be seen on the back of his head. This, kids, is why you shouldn’t do drugs. The trio walked up to the Mayor, who complemented them on their costumes, saying they always were looking for new ways to scare people. Sora, Donald, and Goofy then set off toward a gate on the other side of the square where the skeleton man, Jack, had gone. Following Jack’s trail into a house on the other side of the gate, the group found themselves inside a laboratory. On an operating table, one of the Search Ghost Heartless was laying. Jack moaned that he didn’t understand and perhaps the guidance systems were damaged in some explosion. Next to him, a giant-headed guy in a wheelchair, who must be the doctor, told Jack that was nonsense as his devices were always perfect. Jack, looking inside a book, believed he had figured out the problem. The Heartless need a heart. Jack asked if they could add a heart to the device they were using to work on the Heartless. The doctor said that would not be a problem, as a heart was not all that complicated. Jack read out of the book that, to make a heart, they would need a container with a lock. The doctor found one, but moaned that they needed the key to it first. The trio had just walked into the room and overheard the problem. Donald asked Sora if he really meant to unlock the heart for them. Sora figured why not? If they managed to succeed, the trio would no longer have to fight the Heartless. On a much more juvenile level, Sora also wanted to see the Heartless dance. Sora asked if Donald wouldn’t want to see that too. Donald told him no, he didn’t really want to see that. Sora ignored Donald’s lack of enthusiasm and raised the Keyblade, unlocking the heart. Jack Skellington was amazed and asked who Sora was. Sora introduced himself. Jack congratulated him on a job well done and told Sora that he would like him to be a part of this year’s Halloween. Sora asked what the Heartless on the table was doing there. Jack explained that the Heartless had come to town just recently, but Jack was frustrated because he could’t get the Heartless to dance with him. So he and the doctor were trying to improve their guidance system. Ya know, because the Heartless are like freakin’ fighter jets or space ships or something. With that, Jack bade the doctor to continue. The ingredients for a heart included: a pulse, in the form of a frog of course; emotion (terror is an emotion after all), in the form of a tarantula, fingers sliding down a pane of glass; hope and despair, in the form of two snakes eating each other. Friggin’ weird. Anyhow, mixing all of the ingredients together, they had a heart. The doctor activated the device and, before their very eyes, the Heartless sat bolt upright…before collapsing back to the table. The doctor moaned that the experiment had failed. He figured that, perhaps, they were missing some ingredients and suggested that they try adding memory. The doctor called out for Sally as he raised the top part of his head and scratched his brain. The doctor continued to call for Sally, but when she didn’t appear, he became angry and wondered why he had bothered to create her. The doctor told Jack that Sally had the memory they needed and told Jack to track her down. Jack turned around and asked Sora and company if they would like to come along. Sora told him that sounded great and the group set off in search of Sally.

Before leaving the workshop, Sora ran over to bookshelf set against the wall. Something had caught his eye and, as it turns out, it was a Torn Page from the mysterious book. With yet another piece of the puzzle in hand, the group set off. Back in the square, the Mayor called out with his megaphone, this time with his anguished face turned forward. The Mayor yelled that they had a major crisis. The Heartless had gone completely out of control and they couldn’t be stopped. Jack seemed less concerned and figured that maybe the experiments he and the doctor had been doing had triggered something in the Heartless. Jack told the Mayor that everything would be fine. Donald turned to look at Sora and tapped his foot, but Sora just ignored him and the group walked off to find Sally. Making their way into a graveyard just beyond Guillotine Square, Sora suggested they search this place, just as soon as the Heartless were out of the way. The fight against the Heartless drew out some never before seen enemies, called Wight Knights. These Heartless appeared as mummies and could pack quite a punch, but the trio dealt with the new threat as they had all threats up to that point: NO MERCY!!!! After the battle was over, a ghost dog with a glowing red nose rose out of a grave marked Zero. Jack walked up to his spiritual canine companion and asked if he had seen Sally. Zero’s ears had perked up and he flew behind a nearby statue. Sally stood up and asked Jack if something was wrong. Jack said that everything was great. They were going to have the best Halloween ever. All they needed now was Sally’s memory. Sally raised some dead flowers in her hand and asked if those were what Jack meant. Forget-me-nots. Of course… Sally warned Jack that she had a bad feeling about the experiment and the Heartless. Jack told her that nothing else could beat what he had planned. As soon as they gave the Heartless a heart, they would dance just as he had envisioned it. Sally didn’t seem so sure, but Jack told her to trust him. The group walked back towards town and Sally followed, but behind them, three mischievous giggle could be heard coming out of the stone coffin at the far end of the graveyard. The top flew back off the coffin and three demonic looking kids emerged, saying their names. Lock, Shock, and Barrel. The two boys wondered what they should do with the information about the heart, but the girl called them idiots and said the answer was obvious: tell Oogie Boogie. Back with the group, Sora and company returned to Doctor Finkelstein’s laboratory. The group gave the “memory” to the doctor and he told them there was only one more ingredient they needed. They would need “surprise” to complete the heart. He told the group that the Mayor should know where to find it. Meanwhile, back with the trio of troublemaking youngsters, they had returned to Oogie Boogie and told him the news. As they cowered against each other, Oogie laughed and laughed, asking if Jack was indeed making a heart. Oogie said that worked for him. Once he got ahold of the Heart, he said, he would control the Heartless. Back in the laboratory, the group set out to find the Mayor. After finding the town square empty save for the numerous Heartless that attacked them, the group made their way back to the graveyard. The stone casket from before was now partially open, so the group jumped inside and popped out into the Boneyard. In the far corner, the group spotted the Mayor and ran up to ask him about the “surprise”. The Mayor instead told the group that ghosts rose up from the tombstones here. He suggested that they check the tombstones in the order the ghosts appeared and perhaps they could find a clue to what they were searching for. The group did as they were instructed and, after checking the last tombstone, they heard a mighty crash. Behind them, a giant pumpkin had exploded and inside, they found a Jack-in-the-box item. With the Jack-in-the-box in hand, the group made their way back towards Dr. Finkelstein’s lab. The doctor was thrilled with what they had found and placed it into the machine right away to see if it would work on the heart. From behind a nearby bench, Barrel leaped out of nowhere in front of the doctor’s wheelchair. The doctor lost control of the heart and it flew off to the other side of the lab and right into the waiting hands of Lock. With the heart in their possession, Lock, Shock, and Barrel ran off as the doctor waved his fists at the group. The group promised the doctor they would get the heart back and took off after the little hooligans.

In Guillotine Square, the group faced off against another new Heartless, the Gargoyle. The Gargoyles attacked in a manned similar to that of the Air Soldier, but had the power to disappear into a black mist and reappear elsewhere, making them quite the elusive foe. Along with the Wight Knights, Search Ghosts, and Shadows in the area, the group’s combat skills were put to the test, but they managed to wipe out all of the Heartless in the area and move on to the Graveyard. The group followed Zero’s nose as he pursued the troublemaking trio. In the distance, the group could see the youngsters making their way over a land bridge in a walking bathtub. The group followed the path they had used previously to find the Mayor. Back in the Boneyard, the group found an exit to a new area in the body of a giant headed statue. In the next area, Moonlight Hill, the group dispatched an even bigger collection of Heartless before finding a small gravestone they could interact with. Touching the gravestone made the hill itself unfurl and provide a bridge to the next area....the Bridge. Only a few Heartless attacked in this small area so the group dispatched them before continuing on to Oogie’s Manor. As the group entered the area, they saw the three little pains in the ass in their tub going across a bridge to the manor itself. Jack exclaimed that he knew Oogie had been behind the theft. The group then carefully made their way across the rickety bridge to the manor…or at least they tried, but while fighting the Heartless, they fell into the gorge below. Fortunately, the walking tub was moving around the manor and gave the group a lift back up to the manor. The group opened the door at the end of the bridge and began making their way higher outside the manor in an attempt to find an entrance. Near the top of the tower, the group finally found an entrance. Inside, Lock, Shock, and Barrel tossed the heart into a tube and turned to face the group. The group pimp slapped the little shits into oblivion. Defeated, the kids told the group that they were just following orders, saying Oogie Boogie told them to steal the heart. Shock then blamed Barrel, saying he was the one that told Oogie about the heart. Lock agreed. Barrel tried to argue, but Shock cut him off and told him he should be ashamed. Our group of heroes was not so impressed with the three children and searched the room to find some way to reach Oogie. Lock mentioned how the group would never dare touch the lever on the nearby wall and Shock told them they would never find the green door. So, of course, the first thing the group did was to pull the nearby lever before leaving to find the green door. Back outside, the group noticed that one of the cages hanging from the manor had lowered. They dropped down to the wooden platform next to the cage. Inside the cage, they found and Orichalcum. Nearby, there was a doorway that led to another part of the outside of the manor. Following the path leading downward, the group arrived at a green door that led into Oogie’s Torture Chamber. As the group ran into the room, Jack pointed at Oogie and demanded that he return the heart. Oogie told Jack that if he wanted it, he would have to come and get it before swallowing the heart. Oogie called out to the Heartless to help him, but was underwhelmed by the power of the heart when only two Heartless arrived to help him. Oogie became angry and yelled that nobody disrespects him as his Wheel of Torture started up. Oogie attacked with exploding dice various traps on his wheel. Sora noticed that every now and then, some of the buttons would light up. Stepping on the button would cut that section off with metal spikes and raise it up to Oogie’s level, but Sora noticed that they could only get to the part of the level in line with the section that was raised. Sora realized that he would need to step on the button when the section they were in was aligned with the section on the upper level that Oogie was in. Testing out his theory, Sora lined up with Oogie and, when the buttons lit up, he stepped on the closest one, which raised the piece of the wheel they were on and cut off Oogie’s escape, allowing the group to attack Oogie repeatedly. Though it took a few tries and Oogie did his best to fight back, the group managed to defeat the sackclothed menace. Oogie ripped apart at the seams and all manner of bugs and worms crawled out of him, leaving only the heart and an empty sack. Jack realized that the heart he and Dr. Finkelstein had created was a failure after all. In the remains of Oogie, the group found an accessory and Ansem’s Report 7. With Oogie defeated, the group left the Torture Chamber and began making their way back to Halloween Town. However, as they reached the other side of the bridge leading back to town, a small quake shook the earth. The group looked back and saw that, somehow, Oogie had become the manor! Giant balls of darkness spotted the manor. The group figured that Oogie was drawing his power from these balls of darkness and set off to defeat Oogie once and for all. Although the Oogie Manor shook and attacked with fireballs and all Gargoyles, Sora and company would not be denied and, after a lengthy battle all over the Oogie Manor, all the dark balls were destroyed and the Oogie Manor collapsed into nothingness. Where the Oogie Manor had stood, a giant Keyhole suddenly appeared. Sora raised his Keyblade and sealed the Halloweentown Keyhole for good, gaining more knowledge into the power of the stars, upgrading his Gravity spell to Gravira. Back in Halloween Town, Jack wondered out loud to Sally why he had not listened to her. Sally told Jack not to feel bad, that he would come up with another plan for Halloween and that they could do it together. Jack told Sora, Donald, and Goofy that he had no choice and would have to cancel the Heartless Halloween festival for the time being, then gave Sora a new keychain, the Pumpkinhead keychain. Jack told the trio to visit anytime and promised that next year’s Halloween would be the scariest ever. Meanwhile, the doctor was reading the list of ingredients and still couldn’t understand why the heart hadn’t worked. The trio left the laboratory and decide to check the ruins of Oogie’s Manor to see if anything had been left in the destruction. Before arriving, though, Sora decided to take a look at Ansem’s Report 7. Ansem wrote about how he was studying material from meteors that had rained down one night. The foreign material was elastic to the touch and pieces bonded easily when combined. Sounds like gummi pieces to me. Ansem wondered if the material was introduced when he had opened some door and whether such materials drifted through the atmosphere of the world. Finally, he wondered if there were uncharted worlds in the distance, but realized there was no point for, at the time, there was no way to venture outside his world. He and his people were all but prisoners of their own world.

Meanwhile, the trio arrived at the Manor Ruins. In a small indent the ground, the group found a chest that contained three more dalmatians! Alright, sixty down, thirty-nine to go. However, the search revealed nothing else and the group, with yet another world saved from the Heartless, left Halloweentown and made their way back to Merlin’s House with the final Torn Page. After arriving, Sora made his way immediately to the mysterious book and entered it once more. One last area had revealed itself. Sora looked closely and saw a winding, muddy path. Peering ever closer, Sora was sucked back into the pages of the book once more. Entering this new area, Sora spotted Winnie the Pooh walking around in the mud and Tigger bouncing around in the distance. Sora hopped down to where Pooh was and asked what he was doing. Pooh hushed Sora, afraid that “they” would get away. Sora asked who Pooh was talking about and Pooh replied that it was the people that took everyone away. Pooh pointed out footprints in the mud and claimed they belonged to “them”. Pooh said that he and his friends were sticking together to make sure nobody disappeared again, but then he had spotted the footprints and followed them. Suddenly, Pooh noticed everyone was gone and reasoned that “they” had taken his friends away. Sora noticed that they footprints looked very familiar and was about to tell Pooh, but then just decided to tell Pooh that he would find Pooh’s friends. Sora began looking around and first found Eeyore inside some bushes. Eeyore told Sora he was looking for sticks to build his house again. Sora told him that they spot they were in already felt like a house to him. Sora managed to find Rabbit, who had been with Owl, but had lost track of him. Sora brought Rabbit back to Eeyore’s clearing and set off in search of more of Pooh’s friends. On a log overhead, Sora found Tigger bouncing away and brought him to the clearing next. Sora found Owl next, then, with Pooh’s help, they found Piglet in a tree hollow. Finally, Sora found Roo standing on a tree root. Finally, Sora had managed to collect all of Pooh’s friends in one place. The Torn Page became a new item. The scene cut to later that day as darkness overtook the Hundred Acre Wood. Pooh and all of his friends sat around and looked out over the wood. Piglet admitted that he didn’t know what to do when he was all alone. Tigger told Piglet that he needed to be brave. Piglet seems surprised that Tigger hadn’t felt lonely at all. Tigger said of course not. The most wonderful thing about being a Tigger was that he was the only one. But he had to admit, friends are awfully fun too. Pooh meanwhile, was still trying to think of something. In fact, he was busy thinking about what to think about. Sora then told the group that he was off. Piglet asked where he was going. Sora told him that he was going to go looking for his own friends. They were waiting for him. Tigger told Sora to bounce on back again and Piglet said that he hoped Sora found his friends. With that, all of the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood waved goodbye to Sora and Pooh called out, reminding Sora that if he should ever like to visit again, they would all be there to greet him. With that, a comet flew by in the sky. The book complete, the cover filed in with a picture of Sora holding Pooh’s hand and Tigger and Piglet following nearby. A Keyhole appeared on the book and Sora sealed the Keyhole, protecting yet another world and a whole new group of friends. With that, the group decided it was time to visit the one last world they had yet to visit and took off in the gummi ship once more…