A/N: This is an AU adventure fic based on a technologically advanced world. It will include KH-only characters, FF characters and Disney characters. There won't be any major pairing, but there will be subtext -- of the het, yuri and yaoi kind (but not in this prologue). However, this fic is mostly gen. I'm not revolving around romance here. Fair warning before you read! I would also like to mention that I hate breaking my line breakers. Fuckers.


Kairi walks through the halls lightly, a small echo following her steps as she hums a light-hearted song. She stops once she reaches a slightly opened door, a small smile reaching her lips. She shakes her head and sighs softly, amused.

"Sora, you lazy bum," Kairi mutters, walking through the door. The room is completely dark, and, if she listens closely, she can make out the sound of soft snoring. She chuckles as she opens the light and then moves to the source of the sound. Sora is leaning against the wall, head drooping. Kairi's smile is almost vicious as she repeats:

"Sora, you lazy bum." A snore is her answer and she leans down, grinning fully. "Wake up," she calls at him, louder this time. Still nothing. "You asked for it," she tells him, unable to keep the laughter from her voice. She reaches out and flicks his ear.

Sora shoots up with a cry, almost hitting his forehead on hers, but Kairi moves away before the connection, laughing fully now. Sora sends a hurt look at her, mock-glaring.

"What did you do that for, Kairi?" Sora whines, rubbing at his ear. Kairi shrugs in answer, brushing some stray hair behind her ear, still smiling. She tilts her head to the side, putting one hand on her hip.

"You were sleeping, you lazy bum," she repeats herself -- not that Sora knows she's said it before -- with a grin, "Skipping out on us? Don't you want to finish it?"

Sora rubs the back of his head, chuckling sheepishly. He opens his mouth to answer when a voice cuts him off.

"I could ask the same thing to you, Kairi," Riku enters the room, throwing a wrench towards Sora as he scrambles to get up and almost receives it directly on his face, sharp reflexes saving him from being knocked out by his friend, "Weren't you supposed to be working, too?"

The girl laughs in answer. "Ha! You caught me," she exclaims, clasping her hands together, completely unbothered.

Sora grins at Kairi as they share a look and laugh, Riku's eyes rolling to the sky, a smile tugging at his lips too. Their older friend shrugs, as if it can't be helped.

"I guess I'm the only one who wants to finish our prototype," he declares, and then, after looking at Kairi, adds, "Even if Kairi got her hair all tied up already."

"No way!" Sora yells out, brandishing the wrench like a sword. "We're almost done, of course we want to finish the prototype!"

Kairi tightens her ponytail, nodding eagerly. "Since we're all together, we should work on it now. Tron's in the other room."

Riku pushes the wrench away from his direction with an amused look to Sora, turning back to Kairi. "Tron, huh? Is that why you're making yourself all pretty for a programming job?"

She makes a face as an answer as Sora sporfles and Riku smirks. "It's not my fault he's more of a man then both of you," the redhead declares decidedly and the boys' smiles turn to complaints as she laughs and moves out.

"C'mon," she tells them, "Let's get to work."

THISWASALINE

They have been working on a prototype Artificial Intelligence, AI, for some months now. Kairi, their programming expert, has had most of her work done already, preparing what this new series they want to create will do, how it will react. She's been rarely seen without her laptop, the afore-mentioned Tron, during this time. The help of the Tron program, an AI brain inside her computer, was very useful for the teenagers and they're extremely grateful for it. Tron was a gift from her scarce father -- a famous programmer before he'd died -- when she was very young. The AI has been with her nearly all her life.

Sora, himself, is a mechanic specialist -- he's the one who built the body. Sora's detail work is impressive, considering how lazy he is, Riku often jokes. And it is impressive, but not because of Sora's laziness, but simply because Sora is one of the most talented mechanics in the whole of the DI sector. His mother taught him all he knew, he'll declare proudly to anyone who asks, which is half of the truth. There's simply nothing that can explain what happened when the three were younger, how they all got to their level of expertise. It's not something the DI sector would accept. Not something society as a whole would, really. So he leaves it at that.

Riku's part in this is more fine-print. He's the one who got the idea, and he's the one who will do the finishing touches -- the skin, the hair. The little details people will look at first when looking at an AI. Riku is the one who will make it the most humanlike as possible, and he's the one who invented the prototype in the first place, really. Sora and Kairi are his partners regardless, and all Riku truly wants is to get out of the DI sector with both of them thanks to their prototype.

All they wanted was freedom and to create a type of AI that would be useful for humanity.

But everyone makes mistakes.

BUTFFNET

Sora wakes up in the middle of the night, his wristwratch beeping loudly on the nightstand. He struggles to take hold of it for a few seconds, still half asleep. He looks confused as he presses a button, changing the function to short e-mail alerts sent by Tron that Kairi programmed into it. The message flashes before his eyes as he drops his watch and jumps to his feet, putting his clothes on quickly over his boxers and running out, abandoning the watch to the floor.

The message flashes on the floor:

Our part of the DI sector is under attack, it reads, They're after the prototype.

WASADICK

The panic Sora is feeling is nothing compared to the adrenaline that rushes through him as he runs through the streets, wishing for the first time he didn't live as far from their corner of the DI sector as he did.

He runs through the building faster than he's ever run in his life. There's no one around -- and that's reason enough to be worried. There's always a guard, some late-night workers, or even just random homeless people taking shelter in the center. The doors aren't locked, the lights are all off and Sora can hear his footsteps echo around him as he rushes from place to place, looking for either Riku, Kairi, the prototype or whoever was trying to steal it. He doesn't even think about the fact that he doesn't have a weapon, not even the wrench he sometimes carries around with him. He simply knows that their work-- theirfuture -- is in danger, and there's a good chance so are Riku and Kairi. He has to get to them.

He halts to a stop once he sees Riku in one of the rooms. There are some black things around him, advancing slowly. The material they seem to be made of -- because there is no way those things are natural, even with the mutations some things suffered -- makes a horrible sound that chills Sora deep in his bones as they move, yet at the same time he knows they could very well be silent as a tomb if they wished for it. He staggers for a moment, unsure, and then moves in, swiftly, kicking one of the creatures away. This barely moves it a foot.

"Riku!" Sora calls out, trying to move amongst the black mass surrounding his friend. Riku turns to look at him and Sora stops, frozen by the mix of horror and determination on Riku's face. And a trace of -- is it ... guilt?

"Sora, what are you--" Riku is interrupted by one of those things trying to claw at Sora and he takes hold of a wrench in his pocket, throwing it at the thing before it could do any damage. Sora recognizes it as the one Riku threw him earlier. Sora tries to move around the things again, but it's no use. He holds out his hand.

"Riku, come on!"

But Riku only shakes his head, softly. "I -- I made a mistake," Riku rushes out, "I wanted to get out so much that I..."

"Riku, you can tell me later, we gotta go!" Sora cuts him off, gesturing wildly. The things are slow, as if not wanting to attack, and -- that's not something Sora feels like pondering much. So far, it just means they can go out and get Kairi and the prototype before -- before something happens.

Riku hesitates for a second, before motioning for him to go. "I'll take care of these guys! Go and find Kairi, I'll --" and here he pauses, looking around the room before staring back at Sora grimly, "I'll join you later."

At the mention of Kairi, the robots -- or so Sora thinks they are -- move, as if one, twitching, coming closer and faster, whereas before they seemed to be almost standing still except for the random attack. Sora takes the wrench Riku threw him earlier to fight some off, but they're -- excited, now, and the thought is simply terrifying.

"But Riku --"

"Just go!"

Sora staggers, hesitates, but Riku seems set on his idea, and if there's one person more stubborn than Sora, it's Riku. The faster he finds Kairi, the faster they can all get out of here. He nods to Riku before turning and dashing out of the room. He doesn't look back as he hears the door close behind him, somehow, he simply runs faster. He has to find Kairi, so they can both get Riku and he can stop beingstupid, and --

He looks back as the explosion sounds out, the sector behind him catching on fire at the same speed he's running, and his breath catches in his throat as his eyes widen and the thought suddenly hits him -- Riku blew them all up. Except Riku was in there, that's why he wanted Sora to go, that's why -- that's why --

"Sora!" Kairi's voice yells out, and he turns back to look at her, confronted with the same stricken expression that must be on his face. She's figured it out, too, that Riku is -- Riku is -- Sora staggers to a stop, shaking like a leaf, unable to run anymore. Riku is --

"Sora, behind you!" And this time Kairi sounds horrified, and Sora doesn't even have time to turn to look behind him as something hits his head and he falls.

After that, everything goes black. And the last thing Sora hears is the roar of the fire around them at the same time as Kairi cries out again.

And then, nothing.


A/N: So, how is this for a start? I am open to concrit for anything, anytime -- please be aware, however, that this is simply the prologue. Meaning the story does quite a jump around chapter one, I do believe. My beta and I went over this, but if you find any mistakes, please tell me. :) I hope you enjoyed it.