A/N: Hey! What's going on, people? It's me! Legacy...back...again...Where have I been? Well, just dealing with life mostly. Dabbling here and there with ideas for stories, most of which were thrown in the imaginary dumpster. Others were thrown in my computer's trashcan...and some in my actual trashcan. But that's not why we're here today/tonight! One of the stories that I've been working on for the past (I want to say) 3 months or so, is a crossover between two of my favorite video game series: Kingdom Hearts and Pokemon. I'm not completely sold on the idea of writing out a full Pokemon journey for Sora since there are still some important details that I need to sort out for this to work AND be entertaining to read so in the meantime, I decided I would do an introductory chapter and see what you guys think of the premise in the reviews. There isn't much to go off of because this is literally the first hour or so of Kingdom Hearts I with some Pokemon elements inserted here and there. Anyways, I'm sure you all (for those of you who still have me on their alerts for some reason) missed my rambles at the beginning of my stories but I think you guys would much rather read the story so here we go! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts is directed by Tetsuya Nomura and all of its original and Final Fantasy characters are owned by Square Enix. Pokémon is directed by Satoshi Taijiri and all of its characters are owned by Nintendo and the Pokémon Company. Lastly, all Disney characters featured in this fanfiction are owned by the Walt Disney Company. This is a fan-based creation meant to celebrate the existence of these wonderful characters and the stories that they appear in.
Pokémon: Sky, Land, and Sea
At the age of fourteen, every child in the Kye Region that aspired to become a pokémon trainer was sent a starter pokémon from the regional professor, Professor Sage. The day that Sora received his starter pokémon was the day that he and his friends could finally explore the region and all that it had to offer them from the metropolitan city of San Fransokyo at the base of the Kye-Joh mountains to the scorching desert city of Agrabah in the southwest. They were going to see it all and they would be by each other's sides through it all.
As usual, Sora lay on the shore of the small island that he and his friends would play on. He napped peacefully without a care in the world as the pristine tides washed over his bare feet. Unbeknownst to Sora, a girl with ruby red hair was making her way down the wooden stairs from the dock with something in her hands that she hid behind her back. When she noticed that Sora was asleep, she smiled and rolled her eyes before making her way around him. The girl stood over him and watched as he slept, unable to fight the smile that tugged at her lips.
It started out as a soft, warm smile but was tainted with mischief when an idea popped into her head. She reached for the collapsed poké ball that acted as the pendant for her necklace, detached it, and expanded it so she could call out her pokémon. There was a bright flash of energy that materialized itself at her side as a popplio.
"Pop!" she said joyfully as she clapped her flippers.
"Aqua!" Kairi said with a hushed voice which then fell to a whisper. "We're going to wake Sora, up, okay?"
Aqua nodded as she pulled herself closer to Sora. On Kairi's command, the popplio blew out a water bubble from her nose. When it popped, droplets sprinkled onto the boy's face which caused to shoot up to sit upright. "Woah!" He looked around at the ocean, thinking that a wave splashed him but when he heard Kairi's distinct laughter, he turned around and said, Give me a break, Kairi." The two teens began laughing.
"Sora, you lazy bum. I knew I'd find you snoozing down here."
"No! This huge black thing swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe, I couldn't–ow!"
Just then, Kairi knocked him on the head with the object that she was hiding behind her back, which fell onto the sand in front of him. He looked down wide-eyed when he recognized that it was a poké ball.
"Are you still dreaming?" she asked.
Sora plucked the poke ball from the spot where it rested and shot up from the sand as he said, "Please don't tell me I still am. Kairi do you know what this is?!" He held the poke ball inches from Kairi's face, forgetting to respect her personal space.
The girl pushed a strand of her auburn hair to the side as she giggled and responded, "Of course I know what it is. Your mom told me to drop if off for you since someone's been away from home all day."
"Can you blame me? I came to help Riku with the raft, so we'd have some way to make it to the mainland."
Riku arrived just in time to hear Sora say that so he quickly responded, "Oh yeah, what a big help you've been." The silver-haired boy held a log under his arm as he approached his friends. Kairi giggled as Sora just scratched the back of his head, feeling guilty from being exposed. "Are you forgetting that we're only building the raft because your mom said that the only way she's letting you go on a journey is if you can get to the mainland? Otherwise, me and Kairi would've been well on our ways to being masters."
Sora mocked Riku with a hand puppet which made Kairi giggle.
Riku raised an eyebrow at him before saying, "Here, you take over." The silver-haired boy then dropped the log into Sora's hands, which made the brunette drop the poke ball back onto the sand.
"Oh?!" Riku said when he noticed the device. "I see you finally got your starter pokémon." He reached down to pick it up and held it in front of everyone. "And it hasn't even been a day but you're already losing it?"
Sora said, "Hey! No fair. My hands are kinda full if you haven't noticed." His voice strained as he set the heavy log on the ground. "Here, give it back." He reached his hand out, expecting Riku to give it back immediately.
Riku pulled back and said, "Only if you agree that the ship is going to be named Highwind?"
"What? No way! I thought we settled on–"
"Alright, how about this?" Riku interrupted. "Now that we both have our starters we can have a battle to decide what we're naming the raft."
"What? That's not fair," Sora said with the stomp of his foot. "You've had your litten for a few months already and I just got my pokémon."
"Are you scared?" Riku taunted. Sora's poke ball lay on the palm of his hand.
Sora locked eyes with him but then dropped his gaze to the poké ball. He contemplated it for a moment but ultimately gave in to the challenge. Sora swiped the poké ball from his hand and expanded it. "Just give me a sec to at least get to know my pokémon."
"Yeah, that's fair," Riku said as he gave Sora some space.
"Gee, nice of you two to include me and Aqua," Kairi said as she walked over to the far end of the beach. "I guess I'll be referee?"
Realizing his mistake, Riku shook his head and said, "No, no! I mean, yeah, we could use a referee but I wasn't trying to exclude you."
Kairi burst into laughter as she said, "I'm just teasing you. I really don't care much for the raft's name. I'm just excited to finally be starting our journey!"
Sora smiled over at his friends before focusing his attention on the poké ball. He watched it for a moment, planning out what the first thing he would say to his pokémon would be. Nothing sounded all that well in his head, so he finally decided to just call his starter out and see where things went from there.
With a smile, he tossed the ball into the air and said, "Let's go!" With a flash, a rowlet with shaggy hair appeared midair. He flapped his wings to descend softly on the beach. "Wow! Hey, my name is Sora!" The boy shouted excitedly as he crouched down to get a better look at his pokémon. The rowlet simply tilted his head, curious of the spiky-haired brunette before him. Without warning, the rowlet jumped onto Sora's head and nested in the mess. "Nice to meet you, I guess," Sora said with a chuckle.
The pokémon made Sora and Kairi laugh but Riku seemed less amused. "Are you done fooling around, Sora?" he asked with his fist on his hip.
"Huh? Oh, right!" Sora reached to pull the rowlet out of his hair to find that the avian was already sound asleep. A small bubble expanded and contracted in the rowlet's nostril as he breathed.
"Aw, he's so cute," Kairi said sweetly.
"Popplio!" Aqua agreed.
"You want to see the rowlet?" Kairi asked her pokémon. The popplio responded with a nod. "Sora, mind if I see your pokémon for a second?"
"Huh? Yeah, no problem!"
Kairi took hold of the rowlet and placed him on the sand so that Aqua could get a closer look. When she noticed that the rowlet had a bubble in his nose, she made one of her own. Kairi started laughing as she pointed out, "Hey Sora, look! Aqua and Ventus are matching."
"Ventus?" Sora questioned.
"Well yeah, I thought we agreed that we were going to name our pokémon after ourselves in that old language. Aqua can swim, your rowlet can fly so he should be called Ventus, and Riku's litten stays on the ground so he named him Terra."
"Oh yeah, I guess that makes sense. Alright then! Your name is Ventus!" Sora said dramatically as he pointed to his pokémon, who continued to sleep.
"He sure likes to sleep a lot," Kairi said with a giggle.
"Something that he and his trainer have in common," Riku taunted.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?"
"It means that sometimes I confuse you for a komala, shorty."
"Who you callin' short?"
"The kid I have to look down to when I talk to him."
"You just have to look down because your girl's hair is covering your face."
"What did you say?!"
Riku began chasing Sora around the beach but failed to get his hands on him so the taller boy reached into his pocket to pull out a poké ball. He intended on using Terra to help him catch Sora but once the litten caught sight of Ventus, he planned on toying with him. Terra pounced on Ventus, which woke the avian up and begin flapping his wings in an attempt to escape from his attacker. Ventus retaliated by pecking at Terra to create an opening for an escape. Once the rowlet was free, he flew up to keep his distance. Terra responded with a spray of hot embers that he shot from his mouth.
The boys stopped running when they noticed this. Riku commented, "Looks like they're ready to battle. Hey Sora, let's change the agreement."
"Huh? To what?"
"Winner gets to share a paopu with Kairi."
"Wha…wait a minute…"
Before Sora could respond, Riku ran towards Terra and said, "Keep up the pressure!"
"Ah!" Sora said as he realized that Ventus was in trouble.
At that point, Terra had chased Ventus up the stairs, never easing up on the ember attacks that he would launch at his target. In response, Ventus would launch a flurry of leaves from nearby bushes. The leaves were coated in Ventus' energy which sharpened them enough that they could cut at Terra. This made him approach the avian more carefully.
Riku called out, "Terra, stay on the move! Don't let him hit you and when you see an opening, use ember."
The litten kept leaping around the area, making it difficult for any leafage attacks to land. Sora found himself unsure of what to tell Ventus that he was not already doing. After a while, Terra landed an ember on Ventus' wing which made him crash down onto the sand.
"Now scratch him!"
Terra pounced onto Ventus, scratching the rowlet's face and wings. Ventus growled which startled Terra long enough to push him away with a tackle.
"That's it!" Sora cheered. He ran to a nearby bush and beckoned to Ventus. "Throw some more leaves at him!"
Ventus nodded before flying towards that bush to use leafage again. The barrage landed many hits on Terra, once again making him stagger.
"Tackle him!" Ventus flew forward as fast as his wings could push him but Terra countered with a pointblank ember that scorched the rowlet's feathers. The tackle still connected but the burn left Ventus vulnerable to Terra's next flurry of scratch attacks. Having sustained so much damage, Ventus collapsed to the floor, too exhausted and hurt to move anymore.
When Riku noticed this, he called Terra back into his poké ball and said, "Good work in that battle."
Sora ran to Ventus and picked him up to apologize, "I'm so sorry, I couldn't help you more in that battle. You were doing really good on your own, though. I just wish I could've guided you better." Sora called Ventus back into his poké ball and walked over to his friends.
"Sora, are you okay?" Kairi asked.
"Yeah, I'll be fine. I just didn't know what to do once they started fighting."
"How would you fight against me when we were kids swinging wooden swords at each other?" Riku asked.
"I mean, you would always win back then too…" Sora said dejectedly.
"Yeah, but you got better each time. What would you do to last longer?"
"Dodge more and watch your movements more carefully."
"Well, there you go. You just have to teach Ventus to do the same and he'll get better at battling too."
"You think so?" Sora asked.
"Of course. Alright, so I say that we get back to build the raft, guys. We've still got some work to do."
"Right."
After working the entire day on the raft, the trio was almost prepared to begin their journey. The next day, they would gather some food for the trip to the mainland and set sail but all that was left to do for the day was watch the sunset as they sat on paopu tree.
"I can't believe we're finished with the raft, guys," Kairi said.
Unlike his friends, Riku leaned against the tree trunk with his arms across over his chest. He responded, "Yeah, tomorrow we set sail for the mainland."
"What should we do when we get there?"
Riku answered, "Well if we go North, we'll land on Port Royal where the first gym is at so I think we should go there."
"Whaaa—?! What about the pirates?"
"Sora, there are no pirates. That's just something your mom tells you so you won't go swimming out too far into the ocean. Besides, Port Royal is the closest city to us and passenger boats come to and from there all the time."
"I guess…I still think we should be careful with the pirates."
"Well, what about Prankster's Paradise?" Kairi suggested. It's a little further up the coast but it should be safe.
Sora's eyes widened from excitement as he bounced up and down, barely able to control himself.
"No, there's no gym there," Riku said.
"So what?" Sora asked. "We can go there for the amusement park."
Riku rolled his eyes and said, "Sora, do you want to become the best trainer there is or do you want to waste your time at a kitty park?"
"Why can't I do both?"
"Because the sooner your collect all 8 badges, the sooner you get to take on the Elite Four. You get better as a trainer by battling strong trainers. Don't you want to be the champion?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, then I'm going to leave you in the dust if all you do is goof off."
Sora sighed and said, "Yeah, I guess you're right." With renewed determination, he said, "Let's do it, then. To Port Royal!"
Riku and Kairi laughed at his sudden enthusiasm but they reminded him that they were not leaving until the following day.
"Speaking of which, I'm going to do a last minute inventory of the supplies we have so far," Riku said as he started walking towards the bridge.
"Kay!" Sora called.
Once Riku was out of earshot, Kairi said, "You know, Riku's changed."
"What do you mean?"
"Well…" she thought about what she was going to say but seemed hesitant.
"You okay?"
Kairi responded, "Sora, let's take the raft and go—just the two of us!"
"Huh?" Sora shifted in his seat as he looked at her with shock.
Kairi giggled and said, "Just kidding!"
As the brunette relaxed, he asked, "What's gotten into you? You're the one that's changed, Kairi."
"Maybe…You know, I was a little afraid at first, but now I'm ready. No matter where I go or what I see, I know I'll always have you. Right?"
"Yeah, of course!"
"That's good. Sora, don't ever change." Kairi slid down the trunk to stand up. She never once broke her gaze as she watched the sun. "I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great."
Sora looked from her to the horizon and said nothing for the remainder of their time alone. She did not either. It wasn't until Riku called to them from across the bridge that Kairi started walking back towards the small rowboats at the dock. Sora followed behind but once Kairi had entered the shed that led downstairs to the beach, Riku called his name to get his attention. As the boy turned around, he saw something flying towards him. It was a paopu fruit which he managed to catch.
"You wanted one, didn't you?"
"A paopu fruit…" Sora looked at it, beginning to remember the bet that they had made before the battle.
"If two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. They'll remain a part of each other's lives no matter what." As Riku passed Sora, he said, "Come on, I know you want to try it."
"What are you talking—?" Sora's cheeked lit up like a Christmas Tree at the thought of sharing one with Kairi but then he realized something. "Wait, but you won our battle."
Riku stopped and turned to say, "What? Did you think that was for real? I was just kidding. But I do get to name the ship Highwind." He then turned around and walked away, leaving Sora to stare at the paopu fruit before discarding it and following his friends to the boats. They needed to get some rest because the next day, their journey would begin.