Chapter 11

Bizarre Confrontation

They reentered the Bizarre Room, standing firmly on the floor. They went to check on the Doorknob and found him to still be asleep, but undisturbed.

"Shh… He's trying to sleep." They turned to see the Cheshire Cat appear on the table. They ran over to the table and climbed onto the chair to reach the tabletop, except for Kara, who simply flew. When they were all on the table, the cat stood up and turned to face them. "The shadows should be here soon. Are you prepared for the worst?" He let out a chuckle and shrugged. "If not… too bad." He vanished just as quickly as he had appeared.

Before they had a chance to process what he had said, a giant Heartless dropped from the ceiling. It pushed itself off of the floor and did a backflip over the table. It stood up to its full height, allowing the party to get a good look at the monster before them. It was a skinny creature, with rail-thin legs that split back and forth and bent like scissor jacks, zigzagging arms that appeared to be made of black paper which ended in flat hands with wire-thin fingers, black feet with high heels and tips that curled straight up, and a cylindrical head that was made up of five sections, each with its own face. It had red and black colors in alternating sections, sometimes divided with some yellow strips, and some of its joints were purple. Its color scheme, aside from the purple, reminded Kara of the Queen of Hearts' gown. There was a Heartless emblem on top of its head.

The Trickmaster Heartless crossed its arms and conjured a pair of purple juggling clubs, then spread them out again. It began to dance, juggling its clubs as it did so, signaling the start of the flight.

"Uh-oh. This one's big," Goofy said.

"I think if we return to our normal size, it won't be that threatening," Donald remarked. He turned around to take a sip from the orange jar only to watch both jars flatten themselves out, becoming useless. "Aw, phooey."

Sora summoned the Keyblade. "I guess we're just going to have to do this the hard way," he said.
The Trickmaster marched toward them and swung its club over the table at them. Sora and Goofy jumped to avoid the attack while Kara hovered up, but Donald was hit and swept off onto the floor. Sora jumped off of the table and hit the Heartless' chest three times in midair before he dropped to the floor. The Trickmaster brought its clubs down on him and Donald, sending them sprawling.

Goofy threw his shield like a discus. It hit the Heartless in the head, bounced off, and returned to his hand. Kara flew up and punched Trickmaster in the head, causing it to stumble backward and nearly drop its clubs. It caught the clubs, cleared its head, and swatted Kara with one of the props. While the blow did not harm her, she was still sent flying. She crashed into the wall, breaking a shelf on impact. A teddy bear that had been propped up on the shelf fell onto the couch below. When the bear landed, a drawing of a book on the corner table transformed into a real book. Kara thought this was odd, but decided not to worry about it and rejoined the fray.

Sora helped Donald to his feet, then ran to climb back up to the tabletop. However, before he could jump onto the chair, the Trickmaster tossed its clubs into the air and clapped its hands. At its command, the chair flattened down into drawing form. Sora stopped and stared in bewilderment. He glared up at the Trickmaster in annoyance, then, with a will to defy it, jumped up as high as he could and grabbed the ledge of the table. He climbed up with Goofy's help, then rolled out of the way as the Heartless slammed its clubs down.

Goofy threw his shield again, and Sora followed up by jumping off of the table and delivering an aerial combo to the Heartless' chest. Donald sent a few Fire spells up at his foe, aiming for the chest and head after finding that attacking the feet had no effect. Kara flew in to punch it again, but it swatted her up with its club. She hit the ceiling and landed on one of the lanterns, slightly dazed. When she reoriented herself, she shot her heat vision at the top of the Heartless' head. The searing pain in its scalp caused it to lose focus, dropping one of its clubs. Seeing an opening, Goofy threw his shield, striking it in the face. The Trickmaster collapsed, dropping to its knees and slumping down, stunned. Everyone saw the opportunity open up. Kara and Goofy dropped to the floor and joined Sora and Donald in whaling on the Heartless, now that it was immobile and at a level that they could reach.

After several seconds, the Trickmaster regained consciousness and stood back up, picking its clubs up as it did so. Knowing that the first thing any of them would do would be to climb back onto the table to get within range again, it tossed its clubs into the air and clapped its hands, causing the table to flatten itself into a drawing again in a puff of smoke. It juggled confidently, daring its opponents to challenge its control over the domain.

Its first memory in its current state took place in the castle's croquet garden. It felt a familiarity with the place, though it was unsure of what was going on, so it stretched and contracted itself to hide in the shadows as it maneuvered around. After sneaking past the flat guards and making its way into the hedge maze, it stopped when it saw some strange creatures, most of which were marked with weird symbols. They were certainly unusual, but it felt as though they were the same as it. It seemed set to watch them curiously, but it felt drawn to climb out of its hiding place when one of the red ones conjured a fireball. Although it could not create fire on its own, it seemed to be attracted to the flame in a way that it could not comprehend.

It was then that the phantom appeared. It wondered what the figure was. He did not seem like the creatures at all, though he was not quite like the flat guards. He told it to search for two things of great value. It had thought that they would be in the castle, so it searched every inch, finding it easier to stretch itself and hide in every shadow, but it found nothing. It made its way to the outdoor courtroom, where it spied the fat queen lording over her flat guards. It was then that it had felt a hunger toward something about all those present, but it felt a strong intention to consume the queen. It rose out of the shadows, calling more creatures to assist it in the attack, and expanding its size to dominate the space. Retaliation by the soldiers and disorienting trickery by a purple cat led to its assistants being destroyed and forced it to flee. In fear of reprisal after losing its forces, it desired a scapegoat, and as such shaped the shadow of a girl whom it had felt wander around the woods earlier. It was not until she had arrived at the castle grounds that it realized that she was one of the things it had been told to seek, and that turning the queen's attention to her would have been a fatal mistake.

The Trickmaster marched over to the stove, ignited it, and held its clubs over the flames. The clubs were instantly set on fire, so the Trickmaster returned to the fight, now juggling flaming clubs.

Sora looked around, trying to find a way to gain a vantage point to get close to the Heartless' head and torso. Turning around, he saw the corner table, which was the highest point he could access on his own. But that would also allow the Heartless to box them into a corner. At least he, Donald and Goofy would have a fighting chance. "This way!" he called to his friends as he ran to the table, clambering onto the couch to reach it.

Kara flew around the Heartless, flying in for a punch every so often. On her third try, the Trickmaster managed to hit her with a club, swatting her away and bouncing her off of the ceiling, a wall, the adjacent wall, and the floor. She picked herself up, cleared her head, used freeze breath to extinguish the flames on her shirt, and shot back into the air.

"Alright. We'll need to put the flames out before we can try to get close," Donald said.

Sora nodded. He aimed the Keyblade at one of the clubs and cast Blizzard. However, with the way the Heartless was juggling, none of the ice crystals made contact. Donald pointed his staff up and cast Blizzard, but his attempt failed as well. They both tried again, to no avail. Kara tried to help with her freeze breath, but she was also having no luck as the Heartless would not keep its clubs still. She tried to grab one of the clubs, but the Heartless simply swatted her aside before she could get a grip.

Goofy had stepped back to let Sora and Donald take charge. He knew that he could not attack up close and that throwing his shield would probably get in their way. Noticing the book that had become real moments before, he examined it curiously. He opened the cover and saw that a hole had been cut out of the pages, and there was a pale blue crystal tucked into the hole. Mythril? he thought as he took the crystal out. What's this doing in a book? Oh, well. Not the strangest thing around here. He shrugged and pocketed the ore.

After dodging a fireball blown off of the clubs by the Trickmaster, Sora watched the clubs fly is it returned to juggling. He kept track of the pattern of the Heartless tossing its clubs into the air and determined how he was going to act. He took a deep breath and raised the Keyblade, aimed it the way he wanted, and waited for the right moment. "Deep Freeze!" he shouted, choosing a new invocation with a more familiar association of the spell's effects. The spell was cast, and two ice crystals hit the clubs, exploding into a mist that enveloped them and put the flames out, while the central crystal hit the Heartless in its lowest face. He cheered in triumph, then jumped up to attack the Heartless. In between his combos, Donald cast spells while Goofy threw his shield and Kara shot heat vision at the head.

The Trickmaster decided to go for a new tactic. It had run out of ways to get one over the boy, the mage and the knight, and its standard attacks did no actual harm to the flying girl. There was, however, one thing that it knew would harm her, and since she hit the hardest, it would take her out of commission. With a sleight of hand trick, it dismissed one of its clubs and conjured the glowing green rock.

It had to think fast or the girl would lose her head soon enough. It could rise up and have its fellow creatures drag her into the shadows, but its prior experience dealing with the flat guards discouraged it from that idea. The arrival of the four strangers was a lucky twist of fate. They offered to prove that the girl was not responsible for the attack, so the guards locked her in the cage with the curtain. From there, it determined that things could go either way, but going off of the darkness that it had sensed in the queen's heart, as well as the way she responded to trivial slights, it determined that she would simply have the girl executed if they failed and become hostile toward the strangers if they succeeded.

It felt a strong connection to the land, and found that it could bend the earth and gravity. Testing its powers, it created windows that showed localized areas. It then had an idea, and it created boxes that contained viewpoints that showed points that the creatures had interacted with, then scattered the boxes around in places that the strangers would find. It then watched their progress, gauging their capabilities. It sensed a powerful light from the boy and the girl. For the boy, it seemed to be a quality that shone in his heart and manifested itself more abundantly in the giant key he held, which made it very uneasy. For the girl, the light seemed to fill every cell of her being, and there may have been a relationship between that light and the feats that she was able to accomplish. As it watched them gather the evidence and fight the creatures, it took note of their strengths, their magic, the power of the key, and most intriguingly the effect that the glowing green rock had on the girl.

When the boy presented the evidence, it felt the urge to project an image of one of the creatures when the box was opened for a bit of dramatic flair. Once the curtain was drawn on the girl, it struck immediately. It had a creature drag her into a portal to wherever the phantom wanted her to go before she could even react. Since that part of the job was taken care of, it focused its search for the other target, which it had sensed was in the room with the pink walls. It moved itself into the room to strike, but found that the target would not reveal itself in the current circumstances, so it decided to wait for the circumstances to change so it can complete its goal. Anticipating the possibility of the boy, the girl, the mage, and the knight coming to try to stop it, it altered the room so that the gravity would affect anyone who entered differently depending on the path they used to enter, so that they would not attain a high ground advantage by dropping from the ceiling onto the stove or the water faucet.

The rock's rays hit Kara immediately. Feeling incredibly weak and dizzy, she fell out of the air and hit the ground. She exhaled sharply on impact, feeling great pain in her leg from the crash.

"Kara!" Sora called out. The Trickmaster turned to approach her so that it could finish her off with its green club. Unwilling to let that happen, Sora threw the Keyblade up, hitting it in the head. He sighed as he watched the weapon clatter to the ground and moved to retrieve it.

"Sora! Just call it back to your hand!" Donald advised, interrupting him before he could do something unnecessary.

"Huh?" Sora stopped himself and turned back to Donald, confused. To clarify his point, Donald dismissed his staff, then summoned it again. "Oh." He turned to look directly at the Keyblade and reached his hand out, willing it to appear in his grasp. Just like it had left Leon's hand and appeared in his own back in Traverse Town, the Keyblade vanished in a flash of light and reappeared in his hand. "Thanks," he said. Donald let out a sigh. He could tell that Sora had received no training or experience before their first meeting; even the greenest of Keybearers would have learned to do that, or at least he thought so. If he had not told him, what would he have done if someone had tried to steal it and run around with it?

Sora threw the Keyblade again, summoning it back to his hand immediately after it hit the Heartless on the head. In between his attacks, Goofy threw his shield with the same effect, though it aerodynamically flew and dropped back down for him to catch, and Donald cast Blizzard and called down bolts of lightning. After yet another blow from the Keyblade, the Trickmaster buckled over and fell to its knees, dropping its clubs as it went down.

Sora, Donald and Goofy jumped off of the table and gathered around the green rock. "How do we get rid of it?" Donald asked.

Goofy looked around the room in search of a way to dispose of the rock. When he saw the open book again, he had an idea. "Let's get it in the book," he suggested. Without waiting for them to make sense of what he had said, he scooped the rock up onto the concave side of his shield, climbed onto the table, and dropped it into the hole in the pages. Sora and Donald caught up to him just as he closed the book. However, green rays of light still shone through the pages, and Kara was still splayed on the floor, in pain from the radiation. Goofy scratched his noggin contemplatively. "How do we get the book to disappear?" he wondered aloud.

Sora crossed his arms. "This book used to be a drawing, right? How did it become real in the first place?" he asked.

"I think it was when that teddy bear fell onto the sofa," Goofy explained.

Sora and Donald turned to look at the stuffed bear. Sora considered how the Wonderland rules would relate the bear falling to the book becoming real, and something clicked. "I think we need to move the bear," he said. He jumped onto the couch and tried to push the bear off, but he was too small. Goofy ran around to the other side to help him. Goofy had the strength to move the bear on his own, but he did not have the leverage, so he and Sora worked together to throw the bear off of the couch. As it tumbled to the floor, the book sank into the table, becoming nothing more than a drawing once again. There was no green radiation shining from it.

Without missing a beat, Sora, Donald and Goofy ran over to check on Kara. They sighed with relief as the green glow faded from her veins, though she still seemed weak and hurt, and her leg sat at an odd angle. Donald raised his staff and shouted "Heal!" Green mist fell over Kara, being absorbed into her skin. She began to breathe evenly, and her leg reset into a proper position. She pushed herself up, and Sora helped her to her feet.

"Thanks," she said. Sora and Donald nodded in reply. They turned to face the Trickmaster, which was starting to come to. "Let's put an end to this thing's games." As it reached for its remaining club, she ran over at super speed and blew cold breath over it. Frost formed on the club as it froze through. She then picked it up and threw it at the opposite wall, letting it shatter on impact. Realizing that it was in trouble, the Trickmaster tried to get up quickly, but Kara leapt up and punched it in the top face, then dragged it down to the floor by the head and pinned it down. Sora ran over as it flailed around in a futile effort to free itself. He stopped next to Kara, raised the Keyblade, and drove the tip straight into the middle face as hard as he could.

The Heartless spasmed violently before collapsing flat on the floor. It was completely immobile save for its paper arms, which waved about mindlessly in the air. A sphere of light glowed from its chest, and a crystalline heart, much like the one that had been released by the Guard Armor, floated up before vanishing. Streams of blue light bled off of the Heartless' body like a flame as the vanquished monster dissolved into light particles. Kara relaxed, realizing that she was no longer holding onto anything, and Sora saw that the Keyblade was not stuck in anything more than the cracked floor.

Sora, Kara, Donald, and Goofy turned to face each other, watching the last of the light particles fade away. "We did it!" Sora cheered.

"That Heartless couldn't stop us!" Donald bragged.

"You feeling alright, Kara?" Goofy asked, concerned for her well-being after her exposure to the green rock's radiation.

Kara nodded. "Still a bit woozy, but I'm fine now. Thanks," she replied.

From the other side of the room, they heard a yawn. They turned to see that the Doorknob had woken up. Wondering what the Heartless had wanted to go after him for, they approached him.

"What a racket," he complained. "How's a doorknob to get any sleep?" He yawned again, and a shape lit up within his mouth. The party peered closer, curious, and saw that it was shaped like an old-fashioned keyhole. The shape began to glow brilliantly.

Sora felt energy swirl around the Keyblade and saw light wrap around the tip. Star shapes formed around the light, and the tip began to glow. The Keyblade suddenly moved on its own, jolting Sora as it aimed itself at the keyhole in the Doorknob's mouth. A beam of light shot out of the tip and into the keyhole. He heard the sound of a lock engaging as the light faded and the Doorknob's mouth closed. Sora regained control of the Keyblade and he stood up straight, staring at the weapon in bemusement.

"What was that?" Donald asked.

"Did you hear that? It sounded like something closed," Kara said.

"Huh. Maybe that was what that Heartless was after," Goofy guessed.

"But what was it? And why did the Keyblade react like that?" Sora wondered aloud.

The table rose back up behind them, along with the chair and the size-changing jars, and the Cheshire Cat appeared on top of it. "Splendid. You're quite the heroes," the cat commended, gaining their attention. They turned to address him and ask a question that lingered after defeating the master of the shadows. "If you're looking for Alice, I'm afraid she's not here," he said, as if he had read their minds. "She's gone! Taken away. Off with the shadows, into darkness." Having nothing more to say, the Cheshire Cat vanished.

"She's just… gone?" Sora said sadly. They had gone through all of that, but they still were not able to find her?

Kara put her hand on his shoulder to comfort him. "Hey, maybe we can still find her. She might be on another world," she suggested.

"She's right," Donald agreed. "Let's head back to the ship."

They drank from the orange jar and returned to their original sizes, then reentered the room that they had first dropped into when arriving in Wonderland. Donald checked a device that connected to the Gummi Ship and found that the point they were standing in did still serve as a viable point to beam up and down. He entered a command into the device, and all four of them were warped up into the ship. They took their seats in the cockpit and Donald brought the console displays up to each of them. Sora noticed that more nodes had appeared on the render map of the world. Jiminy climbed out of Sora's pocket and jumped on top of the display in front of Sora.

"Oh, hey, Jiminy. I kinda forgot about you," Goofy admitted.

"Were you still in my pocket the whole time? But you didn't drink the potion. Did you shrink with us?" Sora asked.

"I don't know. It might have been the same case as with your clothes and the stuff in your pocket," Jiminy surmised. "I guess it treated me as a part of your person and shrank me with you."

"Oh, well. That just makes it less trouble for us," Donald said. "Did you take some good notes on Wonderland?"

Jiminy nodded and patted his blazer, where he had his journal pocketed. "Yep. I've got to say, that world was pretty strange. But it was nice getting to learn about it and the people who live there."

"Yeah, I guess it was nice getting to see it," Donald conceded, nodding in assent. "But I don't think I want to go back there again."

"Well, when we find Alice, we can take her to her own world," Goofy said. With that, a somber silence fell over the ship. They were all swallowed with regret for being unable to save Alice.

"What do you think happened to her?" Kara asked.

"That cat said that the Heartless took her. Can we really be sure that she didn't lose her heart?" Donald wondered.

Kara shuddered at the memory of the man who was attacked and consumed by Heartless. A chill went up her spine at the thought of that same fate befalling an innocent young girl like Alice.

"I don't think that happened," Sora said. All eyes turned to him, wondering why he thought so. "I think she might still be alive."

"What makes you so sure?" Kara asked.

Sora shook his head. "I don't know. I just… have a feeling." He put his hand over his heart to emphasize.

"You might be right," Goofy said. "Besides, if she did lose her heart to the Heartless, don't you think the Cheshire Cat woulda said so? Instead, he just said she was taken. I'm sure we'll find her somewhere along the way."

Kara smiled. "Okay. Then let's go find her." She stared up through the window out into space. "So, where to next?"

Sora brought the world map up on the radar and turned it to face Donald. Donald tapped on a dot that signified one of the nearby worlds, then nodded. "That one. Set a course." Sora turned the screen back to himself and did as he said. Everyone buckled in for the ride. Donald started the engine, put the ship in gear, and launched for the next world.