Kingdom Hearts: Lights In Darkness

Chapter 6: Danville (part 1)

The sun shone brightly in the city streets. Ezra was slightly confused. If this world was apparently on the verge of falling to Darkness, why was it so bright and warm? He voiced his question to Kanan.

"Why are you wondering this now?" Sabine asked, "The Warehouse was also bright and warm, but you're just asking this now?"

"Sabine," Kanan said, "it's a valid question. But," he said turning the statement to Ezra, "just because a world is at risk of falling to darkness, it doesn't change the weather of a world until it's actively falling."

"But still," Ezra said, "this world is very bright. I can't sense much Darkness here."

They stopped in front of a very strangely built building. It looked like a section from the top was intentionally removed to the side.

"What kind of building is this?" Zeb asked.

Doofenshmirtz Evil Incorporated! they all heard a jingle sing from seemingly nowhere.

"Evil?" Sabine asked, "That seems like a good source of Darkness to me."

"Let's go and see who this 'Doofenshmirtz' is," Hera said.

They walked to the doors and pulled them. They refused to open. Ezra summoned his keyblade and tapped the doors. A click sounded and they opened, allowing them to walk in. They looked at the directory and saw that Doofenshmirtz was on the top floor. And the elevator was out of order. They went to the stairwell and looked up. The stairs spiraled up, leaving an open square.

"We have to climb all the way up there?" Ezra asked.

"Not quite," Kanan said, "watch this."

He clung to the side of one of the inner walls and leapt up three stories to the opposite wall. Then to the other side three stories up.

"What the--" Sabine asked.

"Athletic Flow," Hera said, following suit with Zeb coming after, "it's easy to do."

Ezra and Sabine glanced at each other. She leapt at the higher section of stairs and continued up. Ezra went for the second highest and continued up. All five were at the top within a fraction of the time it'd have taken climbing up normally. Sabine looked at Kanan for a sense of approval that she was faster, but he was looking down the hall, searching for whichever direction Doofenshmirtz's area was. He motioned for everyone to follow him when he found the door leading to him. They followed to the door. Kanan quietly opened it and they stealthily crept in. All the lights were out, so they didn't see anything that could indicate a trap. They all dove when they heard a series of high pitched beeps and a rushing sound. Something slammed on the ground just behind Zeb, and they all summoned their weapons. The lights came up and a pharmacist with a pointy nose, thin neck and jutting chin was standing several yards away.

"Ah, Perr--" he said in a gravelly voice, noticing the five arrivals, "wait a second, you guys aren't Perry the Platypus."

"Whosy the whatsawus?" Ezra asked.

"Perry the Platypus, he's about yay high, wears a fedora, has teal fur."

Seemingly for no reason whatsoever, black shadows with yellow eyes started rising from the floor. Multiple floating creatures with yellow eyes and either red, blue, yellow, or green bodies and hats appeared too.

"Oh, no," the pharmacist said, "not these guys again!"

"Heartless," Zeb said, throwing his shield at one of the shadows, "Mr. Pharmacist, take cover!"

"I'm not a pharmacist! I'm an-- oh forget it. Taking cover."

Ezra dashed forward and began hacking at the shadows. Sabine leapt for the floating ones, throwing her keyblade and taking out several Heartless. Kanan cast lightning on a group of shadows, dissipating them. Zeb ran at a group of floating Heartless bashing several with his shield. Hera cast fire at two floating blue Heartless, destroying them. A shadow leapt at Kanan, but he swatted it away. A couple minutes later, all of the Heartless were gone. The pharmacist walked put from behind his cover.

"Wow," he said, "those are some pretty impressive weapons. I-I-I have to study them."

"Why would a pharmacist want to study a keyblade?" Sabine asked.

"I'm not a pharmacist. I'm Doctor Heinz Doofenshmirtz. I'm am evil scientist."

Sabine's look of shock wore off quick and she pointed the tip of her keyblade at his throat.

"So you're evil?" Sabine asked.

"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa," Doofenshmirtz said, "back up a second. Why does it matter if I am?"

"Because evil is a good brooding ground for Darkness. Where Darkness is, Heartless follow."

"Heartless?"

"Those things we destroyed."

"So THAT'S what they're called. Listen, I have no clue what you're even talking about. Those Heartless just started showing up one day and they began destroying a lot of my Inators. It's really inconsiderate of them to take Perry's job."

They heard some form of buzzing from the balcony behind Doofenshmirtz.

"Speak of the devil." He said.

A small teal creature with a bill, webbed feet, and large flat tail wearing a fedora leapt into the room. From somewhere none of them could pinpoint, they heard what sounded like female singers singing Perry!

"Ugh," Doofenshmirtz said, "Hello Perry the Platypus. Sorry for the unenthusiastic greeting, but these people just kind of barged in accusing me of consorting with dark creatures called Heartless."

Perry looked around in somewhat confusion.

"Oh,yeah," Doofenshmirtz said, "sorry about not trapping you. They already tripped it, and the Heartless destroyed my Thermostat-Raiserinator."

The wielders all dematerialized their weapons and looked at him in confusion.

"What?" Ezra asked.

"Basicall," Doof responded, "I shoot City Hall with it, their thermostat raises the temperature to an unbearable heat, forcing everyone out, then I can just walk right in and take over the Tristate Area."

Perry made an unintelligible chattering sound.

"It is NOT a bad idea," Doof responded, "nobody inside, nobody to stop me."

"Back to the question of the Heartless," Kanan said, "if you're not the source of the Heartless, then who is?"

"Well, I can't say for sure. The only person that comes to mind is a somewhat colleague. Rodney."

Next part coming soon.