Meanies

Mithos looked around in confusion. This place seemed very familiar… But more importantly, it was shiny! Mithos’s eyes widened as he saw all the amazing shiny things that filled the room. He ran up to one and poked it with his shiny ring. There was a flash of bright light and it was even shinier than before!
“Yippee! It’s shiny!” Mithos cheered. He finally turned away from the shiny devices and noticed the other people in the room. They were all staring at him. He stared back for a moment. Then a huge grin spread across his face. “Marty! I missed you so much!” He had somehow mistaken Colette for Martel. Poor confused Colette soon found herself being hugged by her enemy.
“Get away from her!” Lloyd yelled and whacked Mithos with one of his swords.
“Waaah! That hurt! You’re meanies! Just like Mr. Cactus!” he wailed as tears flowed from his eyes.
“Mr. …Cactus?” Lloyd repeated in disbelief. Noishe whined. (Kratos was the only one who understood that this meant something like “What the heck is wrong with him?”)
“Yeah! Mr. Cactus hurt me when I gave him a hug too! You’re all meanies! And I’ll never share my shiny ring with you!” He held up the ring, accidentally activating it and traveling to an unknown world.
As soon as he vanished, Keyblade, Bookworm, Indigo, and Shade appeared. (Shade’s minions decided to stay behind.) Of course, Shade was still drunk. She looked around the room. Her eyes widened. “Shiny!”
“Why is everyone so acting weird today?” Lloyd asked.
“Explain. Now.” Kratos pointed his sword at Keyblade and Bookworm.
Keyblade ignored him. “Where’s Mithos?”
“He went to another world. And you are not going anywhere until you explain,” Kratos said threateningly.
“Umm… well… It’s kind of a long story…” Bookworm began. Noticing Kratos’s death glare, she decided to make the story short. “I accidentally erased Shade’s memory. And she and Mithos drank some cactus juice that made them act a little weirder than usual.” She glanced at Shade, who was now trying to pat Noishe, the “cute puppy dog”.
“Is this cactus juice a kind of poison?” Raine asked.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that,” Keyblade said, hoping she would not be required to give the curious professor a detailed description of the properties of cactus juice.
“Then do you think this could help?” Raine held out a Panacea Bottle.
“That’s a good idea. Let’s try it!” Keyblade took the Panacea Bottle from Raine.
“Noooo! Shade will kill me when she’s back to normal! If you give her that, you’ll be shortening my life!” Bookworm protested.
“Just give her the Panacea Bottle! She’s scaring Noishe!” Lloyd said irritably. Shade was now trying to find out if the “cute puppy dog” liked being hit with a fireball. Noishe was cowering behind Kratos.
“Here you go, Shade!” Keyblade gave her the Panacea Bottle, despite Bookworm’s desperate pleas.
For a moment, Shade just stared blankly at everyone. She didn’t look so drunk anymore, but she didn’t look particularly sober either. Bookworm started to wonder if the Panacea Bottle did not affect cactus juice. Or maybe the Memory Charm was still in effect. She sighed in relief. Unfortunately, Bookworm’s theories were incorrect. The Panacea Bottle just took a little while to take effect. And the Memory Charm had worn off by now. Shade remembered everything that had happened recently. And she remembered who she wanted revenge against.
“Meep!” Bookworm ducked behind Keyblade. “Stay still! You’re my human shield!”
“You. Are. GOO!” Shade screamed at Bookworm.
Keyblade did not like being a human shield. She quickly moved out of the way, leaving Bookworm unprotected. Keyblade, Indigo, and the Symphonians watched Shade get her revenge against Bookworm. (Indigo really should have been helping Bookworm, but unlike her Rider, she actually did have some sense of self-preservation.) There were a lot of magical explosions, making it difficult to see exactly what was going on. Bookworm kept screaming in pain. Shade appeared to be pummeling her. Eventually, Shade yelled “FIREBALL!” The magical fireball hit Bookworm in the face, reducing her to a pile of potato-scented goo. (Bookworm absolutely detests potatoes.)
“Shade! That wasn’t nice!” Colette had apparently recovered enough from the shock of Mithos’s hug to scold Shade.
“She erased my memory after I saved her life. Then she let me get drunk on cactus juice, tried to blackmail me, almost let me hug a cactus, and then let me drink more cactus juice. She even made me turn into a fuzzy rodent! She’s lucky to even be alive!” Shade poked the Bookworm-goo.
“You were a fuzzy rodent?!” Lloyd laughed.
“So where did Mithos go?” Keyblade decided to change the subject quickly before Lloyd could anger Shade.
“He used that function-changing device,” Sheena pointed to the “shiny” device.
As Keyblade changed the Sorcerer’s Ring’s function, Lloyd said, “Umm… You might want to change Bookworm back now… Noishe likes potatoes…” The large green-and-white dog was sniffing curiously at Bookworm-goo.
When Shade continued to show no signs of turning Bookworm back into non-goo, Raine held up her staff. A magic circle appeared beneath her as she said, “Bring this soul back from purgatory! RESURRECTION!” A bright, multicolored light surrounded Bookworm-goo. When the light faded, she had returned to her human form. She no longer smelled like potatoes, but she was still badly bruised from being pummeled by Shade. Bookworm glared at Shade. She was definitely not going to let her get away with this, but she decided now was not the time for revenge.
“Everybody ready?” Keyblade asked. Bookworm, Shade, and Indigo nodded. Keyblade activated the Sorcerer’s Ring…
A moment later, they stood in the middle of a mall. Mithos was staring at the exploded remains of a DDR machine. Still possessed and drunk, he had accidentally gone home.