Sora and Ash awoke to find Donald yelling at someone. They got up and walked over to Donald and Goofy. Goofy looked back at Ash and Sora and said, “Are you guys okay?”
“Yeah, I think so,” said Ash.
“What are you guys doing?” asked Sora. He then looked around and said, “Where are we anyway?”
Suddenly a small chest almost fell on Sora.
Ash groaned as he looked around and said, “It looks like we’re inside a mouth.”
“Uh, you know,” said Goofy, shielding himself with his shield from other falling items, “I think that big ol’ whale Monstro just swallowed us. And for today’s weather, expect showers. Heavy showers!”
“HEY!” yelled Donald up at the top of some stacked wood, “WHO’S THERE?”
A little wooden puppet looked down at them from the stack of wood and said, “It’s me!”
“Oh,” said Donald, relieved, “It’s just Pinocchio…Pinocchio?”
Jiminy Cricket hopped up on Sora’s shoulder and said, “Pinocchio?”
Pinocchio started walking off with some items.
“Pinocch!” said Jiminy, “Where are you going? Pinocch! Come on, everybody! After him! Quick!”
Sora, Ash, Donald, and Goofy followed Pinocchio to a little boat. On the boat was an old man who greeted Pinocchio. “What have you got there, Pinocchio?” he asked.
Pinocchio put down the items he found and said, “With this, we can get out of here, father.”
“Really?” said the old man, “With this big block? You think so?”
Ash and Sora saw that the item was a green gummi block.
“It’s true,” said Sora.
“Yeah,” said Ash.
“Looks like it,” said Sora.
“My name is Geppetto,” said the old man, “I’m Pinocchio’s father. When we got separated, I traveled all over, looking for him. Thank goodness we’re together again.”
Unbeknownst to the others, Pinocchio had walked off somewhere else.
Geppetto picked up the gummi block to put it somewhere else on his boat. “So,” he said, “You seem to know Pinocchio quite well. I hope he was a good boy in my absence. Well, we’ve all had quite a journey. Right, Pinocchio?” He then noticed Pinocchio was missing and called for him.
“We’ll go find him,” said Ash.
Sora, Ash, Donald, and Goofy then went to explore further inside Monstro to look for Pinocchio. They found him acting like he was playing hide-and-seek.
“There you are!” said Ash.
“What are you doing?” said Sora, “Come on, let’s go back.”
“You know, Geppetto’s awfully worried about you,” said Goofy.
“Pinocchio,” said Sora, “Stop fooling around! This is no time for games!”
They then turned and started to walk back toward the mouth where Geppetto’s boat was. Suddenly they heard Riku say, “But, Sora, I thought you liked games.” They turned to find Riku standing behind Pinocchio. “Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the keyblade?” he said.
“Riku?” said Sora and Ash together.
“What are you doing here?” asked Sora.
“Just playing with Pinocchio,” said Riku.
“You know what I mean,” said Sora, “What about Kairi? Did you find her?”
“Maybe,” said Riku, “Catch us and maybe I’ll tell you what I know.”
“Come on!” said Sora.
Riku grabbed Pinocchio’s hand and ran away with him.
“What the-?” said Ash.
Sora, Ash, Donald, and Goofy began to go after Riku and Pinocchio.
Riku ran a little ahead of Pinocchio. He decided to wander around a little before Sora and the others could find him. As he walked, Maleficent appeared behind him from a dark portal and said, “Why do you still care about that boy? He has all but deserted you for the keyblade and his new companions.”
Riku looked at Maleficent and said, “I don’t care about him. I was just messing with him a little.”
Maleficent smiled and said, “Oh really? Of course you were.” She then proceeded to walk past Riku and said, “Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless prey upon it.”
As Maleficent disappeared into a dark portal, Riku shouted, “Mind your own business!” Riku then hear pitter-patters of feet. Pinocchio ran past him through a tunnel. Sora, Ash, Donald, and Goofy were behind him. They stopped when they got to Riku.
“Riku!” said Sora, “What’s the matter with you? What are you thinking?”
“Yeah!” said Ash, “This isn’t like you!”
“Don’t you realize what you’re doing?” said Sora.
Riku put his hands on his hips and said, “I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora. You only seem interested in running around and showing off that keyblade these days. Do you even want to save Kairi?”
Sora looked down and said, “I do.”
Suddenly they heard Pinocchio yell out frightened. Riku, Sora, Ash, Donald, and Goofy ran to where Pinocchio had ran and found him in the bowels of the whale trapped inside a cage-like Heartless, called Parasite Cage, with long, flapping arms.
Riku, Sora, Ash, Donald, and Goofy then battled the Heartless until it released Pinocchio down a hole. Riku quickly jumped down it as well. Sora, Ash, Donald, and Goofy followed.
They landed back in the mouth of the whale, on Geppetto’s boat. They found Geppetto pleading to Riku to give him back Pinocchio.
Riku stood on top of a tower of stacked wood, holding an unconscious Pinocchio. “Sorry, old man,” said Riku, “I have some unfinished business with this puppet.”
“He’s no puppet!” cried Geppetto, “He’s my little boy!”
“He is unusual,” said Riku, “Not many puppets have hearts! I’m not sure, but maybe he can help someone who’s lost theirs.”
“Wait a minute,” said Sora, “Are you talking about Kairi?”
“What do you care about her?” said Riku, making his way to another chamber out of the mouth.
Sora, Ash, Donald, and Goofy quickly followed.
Inside the chamber was the stomach. Riku had sat Pinocchio down. Sora, Ash, Donald, and Goofy then entered behind him.
“Hey,” said Sora, “Let Pinocchio go, Riku.”
Riku turned to face them and said, “A puppet that’s lost its heart to the Heartless, maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi. How about it, Sora? Ash? Let’s join forces to save her. We can do it together!”
“No way!” said Ash, as he, Sora, Donald, and Goofy stood in an attack stance.
“What?” said Riku, taken aback, “You’d rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?”
“Heart or no heart,” said Sora, “At least he still has a conscience.”
“Conscience?” said Riku.
“You might not hear it,” said Sora, “But right now it’s loud and clear. And it’s telling me you’re on the wrong side!”
“Then you leave me no choice,” said Riku.
While they were talking, Jiminy Cricket ran over to Pinocchio. Pinocchio saw Jiminy through half opened eyes and said, “Jiminy, I’m not gonna make it.” Then his nose grew a little to confirm he told a lie. “Oh!” he said, “I guess I’m okay!”
Suddenly the Heartless they had fought earlier landed amongst them. Riku left through a dark portal. Pinocchio and Jiminy ran out of the chamber. Ash, Sora, Donald, and Goofy battled the cage Heartless again, this time having to be careful not to fall in the acidic pools around them.
After a tricky battle, the Heartless disintegrated and was about to blow up and then Sora, Ash, Donald, and Goofy had to quickly escape.
Somewhere, away from Monstro the whale, aboard a pirate ship, Riku looked down at an unconscious Kairi lying on a couch. He was saddened to see her not waking up. Maleficent stood behind him.
“So,” said Riku, “Kairi’s like a lifeless puppet now?”
“Precisely,” said Maleficent.
“And her heart was…”
“Taken by the Heartless, no doubt.”
Riku then turned toward Maleficent in a desperate manner, and said, “Tell me! What can I do?”
Maleficent smiled and said, “There are seven maidens of the purest heart. We call them the princesses of heart. Gather them together, and a door will open to the heart of all worlds. Within lays untold wisdom. There you will surely find a way to recover Kairi’s heart. Now, I’ll grant you a marvelous gift. The power to control the Heartless.”
Riku glowed green as Maleficent casted her spell. The glow then disappeared inside of him. He then looked back at Kairi and said, “Soon, Kairi.”
Back at Monstro, Monstro had sneezed the gummiship with Sora, Ash, Donald, and Goofy inside it out into space. As they flew away in the gummiship, Goofy said, “I sure hope Pinocchio and Geppetto are okay.”
“Yeah,” said Donald, “Hopefully they landed safely somewhere.”
Sora and Ash were concerned over Riku.
“I can’t believe he did that,” said Ash.
“Me too,” said Sora, “Riku…”
(I do not own any of the Kingdom Hearts characters or any of the story line directly linked to the game or series. All said content rights go to Tetsuya Nomura, the creator of Kingdom Hearts and also credit to Square Enix, and Disney).
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