Kingdom Hearts III: The Streamlined Edition

Chapter 8: Monstropolis

The lounge of Stone Manor was done in the style of King Louis XIV. It was small compared to Xehanort's study, but it was just as formal, a perfect place where one could put up his feet on the charcoal-colored couch for a drink of oolong or Jasmine tea, converse, or read a book without any interruption. The linoleum tiled floor was raven black and the walls were pearly white and so was the ceiling. A small three-tier electrolier constructed of chromium silver and cut Eos crystal hung above the center of the room. When turned on, it would emit a pure white light that dazzled in tiny little rainbows, bringing color to the room. But as of now, for some reason or another, the electrolier's power had gone weak.

Vanitas was lounging on the couch, drinking a scotch and staring into the silver framed mirror that hung above the unused fireplace. The light was as dim as his own heart, not that it had any light at all. All of it belonged to Ventus.

Ventus...that son of a bitch!

His drunken thoughts turned to the life that should have been his. What his brother got was heaven, while he was stuck in the world of hell that was Xehanort, who, like Ventus before him, abused and neglected him just so he could shape him up into the warrior that he (Xehanort) wanted him to be. His anger acclimatized into rage, and whether it was from the alcohol or his own darkness, he didn't know, but he was incredibly pissed given the way he threw the bottle into the fireplace. He considered returning to his room, but he wasn't sleepy, he was motivated and full of energy. A determined child, scratch that, teen, scratch that again, man, who craved and desired for completion. Completion, of a heart.

He would just have to find Sora, wherever he was and extract Ventus from the spikey-headed bastard himself!

When Sora and the others arrived at the world that was known as Monstropolis, what they had seen upon looking into the reflective puddle of a recent rainfall took them back by surprise. They had all been turned to, how I can I say this? Monsters. Sora had the fur of a grey spider, with his hair having gone as red as blood. His eyes looked bulgy, but not as buggy as Goofy's with his blue-green skin and the way his red and blue eyes turned out, the blue being bigger than the red in a desperate struggle of good against evil.

Donald looked like a cyclops with purple demon wings sticking out from his back with three pointed toes of the darkest blue. Mickey, in all simplicity, looked like a mutant mouse and Riku looked like something out of a 1950s B-movie that told the story of a teenager who got turned into some ghastly looking creature with fur and scales all over his body.

Fortunately for Sora, it wasn't much of a rigamarole type of thing. Like the Toy Box, it just happened as soon as they entered the world, or at least thanks to Donald's magic.

Once they were inside, they be friended a blue furry creature whose heart was as big as his size by the name of James P. Sullivan, or Sully for short, his green cyclops of a roommate Mike and oddly enough, the only human in the room, Boo. She had come out of her door to play with the creatures.

Little did they suspect that Vanitas had been lurking in the shadow. The sight was so sickening (enough to make him envious of the fact that Xehanort had been the only person he could talk to), that he created a huge frog-looking Unversed. Mickey who had encountered these creatures before, was able to identify and explain who they were to Sora, who at first mistook them for the Heartless. The group also agreed to bring Boo back home to her door where she would be safe. When Sora learned that the doors the monsters used served as portals to different worlds, he assumed that the Key to Return Hearts could be behind one of those doors. But he didn't imagine how many doors he would have to look...yet.

Having overheard this information, Vanitas scoured the rest of the factory, hoping to find someone who could aid him in luring Sora over for a proper fight...or perhaps one where he would be left at his knees. He found the remains of an old wooden door lying at the bottom of the door storage that drew his attention. With his own magic, he restored the door back to full working order. It's light turning on, Vanitas entered. The world was in a hot remote area under a boiling sun, fit for red-neck hicks who had an IQ of 50. Lying under a shady tree was a purple iguana-like figure sulking and muttering curses under his breath.