Timeless River is part of the sixth set of worlds in Kingdom Hearts SOS. It is one of the three "Mickey Worlds" in the groups attempts to hunt down Mickey Mouse throughout his timeline. It has only appeared in Kingdom Heart 2. It is based off of the 1928 short film "Steamboat Willie."
Story[]
I. Black and White[]
After placing their hands upon a strange ink mark, Hikaru, Cailyn, Aden, Rain, D'daear and Luna had all found themselves in a quite unfamiliar setting. The group noticed quite quickly that all of them seemed to have more simple clothing with their bodies having much less defined features. The world around them seemed black and white and their voices had sounded distorted. While the group was, understandably, confused by their new surrounding they found a rather grumpy looking, large cat scouring the area. While they went to go ask him what was up with their surroundings, he simply seemed to be interested in finding a mouse.
The group, believing this to be the same mouse they were looking for, asked further about him. The cat introduced himself as Pete, the captain of a ship, and the mouse he was looking for was his dock hand, Mickey. Not wanting to have Mickey be caught by Pete and thus unable to talk with him, the group offered to go and find him in Pete's stead. After getting his permission the group went to start their hunt. Following a sign that was pointing towards Cornerstone Hill, the group went on their merry way to begin searching for the mouse.
Once the group had made their way to Cornerstone Hill, they were met with a familiar and friendly face in Horace. While the horse man didn't seem to recognize any of the group, he told them all about where Mickey might've gone too. He explained that there were many magic windows about, each that played different memories as if they were a film that one could go through and experience, all created by some magic caused by the Cornerstone of Light. While the group seemed eager to go through each of the windows all at once, Horace informed them they could only go in one at a time, and thus had to pick one to travel through.
II. Window Window in the Air[]
Being presented with six different windows to examine, the group had to come to a consensus as to which one they would go through first. With Aden being the only one with an actual opinion on the matter, they looked at the window with the lightning bolts painted on it, being told how they worked by Horace. With this merely being a window that played a memory, the group sat back and watched the show. The memory depicted Mickey, on a dark and stormy night, going to some mad doctor's lair in an attempt to save his dog from being turned into part chicken. As he went through the lair filled with any manner of animated skeletons and traps, the mouse was eventually caught, and nearly sawed open by the Mad Doctor's tools. However, when all hope was lost, it appeared that it had all been a part of a nightmare Mickey had, and both he and his dog Pluto were both perfectly fine.
Feeling slightly disturbed by the scene he had just watched, Aden deferred the choice of the next window to the rest of the party, to which D'daear had picked the window with the skulls on it. As the window was opened by the group, they were immediately sucked into it. When they next opened their eyes, they were greeted with the sight of a graveyard; tombstones littering the ground, black cats prancing about and owls hooting into the night. As the group stood around, Skeletons started to dance out of the wood work, and started to get into a fight with the keyblade wielders. After the group felled all the skeletons, they had decided to move on to search for the mouse elsewhere, being none the wiser that he had escaped from their grasp in the current window.
Once that was over with, the group was confused as to where Mickey might've been, and decided to check the window with the fire on it. The scene that was depicted there was a burning building, and people trapped inside of it. Through the use of various, suddenly animated, objects, Mickey had managed to calm some of the fire and saved Minnie Mouse who was trapped inside. Not really thinking much else about the window, the group had decided to go and see what the next one held in store for them.
With not many windows left to view, Luna had decided to go and check on the window with the Girder on it. Once again, the group was sucked inside to a new dimension. Once in there, there was a number of hammer heartless, all poised to bring down the surrounding construction zone. Not wanting this to happen, the group moved out and went to dispatch the area of these heartless. After defeating the swarm of heartless, the group still had no luck in finding Mickey, and worse yet, realized that the heartless had followed them through the ink portal.
Nevertheless, with no other leads to go on, the group went into the fifth window, the one with the Cannon. Walking into the window, they found themselves in a miniature city, filled with small houses and offset by one giant cannon in comparison to everything. While there were heartless in planes flying around, the group saw Mickey manning the cannon, and made to his position, though had to help deal with the heartless around the city. As the group finished off the heartless, they saw that Mickey had already taken off, leaving the group and going to the final window. The one with the Horns on it.
III. The Shadow Blot[]
The final window contained another viewable memory. It depicted the actions of Mortimer mouse, a selfish and conceited mouse trying to impress Minnie, and ultimately putting her in danger. Mickey fought to save Minnie and in the end, had bested Mortimer. Unlike all of the memories, though, this one was in vibrant color. However, as it ended, Mickey was ejected from it, and the color seemed to fade entirely. A hand of black ink then reached out of the window, followed by the large form of a strange inky creature.
When he had revealed himself, he told the group that it was he who was behind the world's strange lack of color. Showing an orb containing all the colors of the rainbow, the blot revealed to the group that he was doing this to prevent change from hitting the world. With change would come something new and with that, the discarding of the old. Fearing this, the Shadow Blot had halted this change entirely.
However, the group believed he was false. Advocating change to be a good thing and allowing people to grow, they stood in the face of the large inky creature and fought him. The strange creature proved to be quite the adversary, though with the combined effort of the whole group, they managed to bring down the shadow blot. After he had been bested, Mickey returned the color to its rightful window, and the shadow blot had began to fade. However, before he had vanished, he vowed to never be forgotten, and that he would return in quite the unforgettable way.
IV. Memories[]
Once beaten, Mickey looked to the group, and gestured towards Rain's keyblade. When the group realized that he was searching for the weapon, he then directed them to a locked barnyard. Once they had opened it up, they saw that within was an old film projector. While Mickey was excited to get it back, he was soon dissatisfied as it seemed to be missing a film reel. From behind, the group was met with a cloaked figure, holding the reel. While the group seemed intent on getting the memory back, the man simply posed a question to the whole of the group. What did they fear?
Aden seemed to not want to fail at protecting those he was responsible for. Luna wished not to lose anymore people that she had cared about. D'daear, however, didn't answer, wondering why the man wanted to know their fears in the first place. Revealing that he wanted to know if they'd be able to overcome said fear, the man had decided the answers were satisfactory enough. Giving the reel to the group, he then left, leaving the group saying that he too wished to live in the past.
Once given the film reel, the group watched the final memory be played before them. This one was not of Mickey, and instead of a young black rabbit. It showcased him on a trolley, more rabbits like him all about. However, the trolley had eventually ran into troubles, crashing into a ravine. Barely making it out of there, the first black rabbit had swam away from the wreck, being thankful to still be alive. Once that memory finished, Mickey was apprehended by Pete, being put to work, and the group had left the black and white world, their mission finished.
Characters[]
- Mickey Mouse: A cheery mouse who does not speak and scampers about the world, leading the players on a wild goose chase.
- Pete: A captain of a steamboat and employer of Mickey. Quite short of temper, especially when it comes to Mickey.
- Horace: A friendly horse who is quite knowledgable on the workings of the windows and cornerstone of light.
- Shadow Blot: A strange ink like creature, robbing the world of color and progress. Fears change more than anything.
Participating Players[]
- Hikaru
- Luna
- Aden
- D'daear
- Rain
- Cailyn
Missions[]
- Disembark
- Steamboat Willie (Investigation)
- Skeleton Dance (Brawl)
- The Firefighters (Investigation)
- Building a Building (Brawl)
- The Mad Doctor (Investigation)
- Guliver Mickey (Brawl)
- Mickey's Rival (Investigation)
- Phantom Blot (Boss)
- Trolley Troubles (Investigation)
Boss[]
The Shadow Blot
Trivia[]
- This is the only world to have the main boss be a non-native of the world that was not a heartless or apprentice.
- Quite like in Kingdom Hearts II, the characters design become older looking and the world becomes black and white and the player's sounds become distorted.
- Unlike in Kingdom Hearts II, both Pete and The Cornerstone of Light's role in this world were much less significant in this world.