Alright, I've decided to put all the Training Series stories into one big story!
This is the First of Four Parts!
Kingdom Hearts © to Disney and Square Enix!
A-Team © to Universal Television
Maybe You Can Hire
"Ugh! You're such a jerk!" Kairi threw her hands up in the air and stormed away.
Riku sighed before turning to glare at Lea; the pyro looked exceptionally guilty. "Sorry Riku, I shouldn't have said that.
"Don't apologize to me. Go talk to her." The Keyblade Master watched as Lea walked over to where Kairi stood, arms crossed.
When Riku offered to train Lea and Kairi he had no idea they'd clash this hard. He figured, since Lea's Nobody had kidnapped Kairi, that there would be some tension. But, these two mixed like oil and water. He could see that Lea was trying to befriend Kairi, but she was refusing to cooperate.
Though Lea had made only a joke, Kairi took if offensively and now she was angry… again. Soon, after about five minutes of Lea trying to apologize, Kairi finally nodded and gave in. However, if Riku knew these two, there would be another spat soon.
"Riku," The boy jumped as Merlin appeared in a puff of smoke. "Oh, sorry, I only came to tell you that Master Yen Sid wants to see you and Kairi in his study."
"Thanks. Kairi, come here!" She jogged over to him, seemingly glad to be away from Lea. "Master Yen Sid wants us."
"Alright!" The princess took off for the door.
Riku watched her go; Lea came up behind him and sighed. "I don't know if she'll ever trust me…"
"She'll come around eventually, Lea. You'll see…"
The pyro gave a smile. "Yeah, you're right."
"There you are, Riku!" Kairi stood in front of the old wizard's desk.
Yen Sid nodded. Riku, I would like you two to travel to another world. As Keyblade wielders, you are supposed to keep the worlds in check and are allowed to assist in certain world affairs. As part of Kairi's training, as well as Lea's, I will have you take one or both of them to another world to assist." He stood up. "This world, in particular is very strange. There are rare instances when a world prevents one from summoning a Keyblade or using magic, forcing you to rely on other abilities. This is one such world."
"Then how do we leave from there if we can't use our Keyblades to create a corridor?"
The wizard placed a star shard on the table. "This will take you there and then return you here, to the tower, once you are finished. Now, I shall be able to monitor your location and I will do so every so often. If I check and I am unable to find you, or if you are in a dangerous position, I will either bring you back or send Lea to assist."
Riku nodded and took the star shard. "Alright. We'll leave right away."
"I wonder why we were sent here. What in this world do we need to help correct?"
The boy shrugged. "I'm sure the situation will present itself…" He looked around. "But I think a good place to start would be over there." His finder pointed at a barn, surrounded by vehicles.
The two snuck towards the barn, slipping past two armed guards. They sat in the shadows, peering between slats on the walls. Inside, a fighting ring of some sorts had been constructed out of old wood, above this, past the further two sides, were wooden bleachers, filled with fifty to sixty men. Police officers, as one could see by their uniforms, stood around the ring as two men fought it out. One of the officers stood between the bleachers and recorded the fight on film.
The larger of the two fighters, a man with tanned skin and black hair, seemed to be winning the fight. The two Keybearers watched as he gave a massive punch and sent his opponent crumpling to the ground. The spectators went wild.
A rather round police officer stepped into the ring, grinning; he turned around to the crowd. "How should we end it!?"
"FINISH HIM!"
Kairi's eyes widened. "Riku, they don't mean to kill the man who lost the fight?" Riku didn't respond.
"Finish him, Jase." The large officer looked at the winner of the fight.
"No Warden!" Jase said firmly. The warden pulled a pistol from his hip and pointed it at Jase. But turned it on the fallen man and pulled the trigger.
Riku fought the urge to charge in and stop that man, but without a Keyblade, he'd be easily beaten by sheer numbers. Kairi hid her face in her hands. "Riku, why did he have to do that!?"
"I'm sorry, Kairi…" He stood up, holding out a hand to her, when a sharp pain exploded in the back of his head and his world turned black. Kairi moved to turn, when she too was struck in the back of the head.
Two police officers dragged them to a prison truck and threw them in. One closed the doors and grinned. I wonder what Warden Beale will do to these two spies?"
"I bet it'll be interesting!"
As the barn emptied, for the fight was done, the police officers started up the truck and drove off, with Riku and Kairi in the back.
"HEY! WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!" The pyro growled as the black and red van nearly hit him.
A muscular man, with dark skin and a Mohawk, rolled down the window. "Then you stay out of my way, sucker!"
Lea took a deep breath to calm himself. "Look, sorry. I'm new around here. Oh, by the way, do you know the way to Strikersville prison?"
"Oh, and why do you want to know that?" A man with white hair, holding a cigar between his teeth, came around the van.
"I may or may not be planning to break two of my friends out…" Lea grinned, trying to come off as joking.
The van door opened, and a man with dirty-blonde hair grinned out. "You don't say…"
"Hey, Hannibal," a woman looked out at the man with the cigar. "Maybe he could help us and we help him."
Hannibal took the cigar out of his mouth. "Well, sir, we just happen to be on a similar venture to Strikersville prison. To rescue a friend of B.A.'s." He jabbed a thumb towards the driver. "Maybe, if you assist us, we could get your friends out too."
"Works for me!"
"What's your name kid?"
"The name's Lea…" he scowled, "and I'm not a kid."
Hannibal grinned. "Nice to meet you Lea. I'm Hannibal Smith, this is B.A., that's Face, Amy, and Murdock." The pyro had noticed the man in the back seat, beside Amy, wearing a baseball cap, but the man hadn't spoken yet.
As Lea climbed in beside Face, Amy spoke up. "So what do your two friends look like?"
"One's about eighteen years old, with silver hair, and the other is a girl with red hair, who's about 17."
Then, Murdock spoke, in a dramatic voice. "How dare that villainous swine! Taking captive two young people in the flower of their youth!"
"Um," Face leaned over, "he's insane… literally."
Lea's eyes widened. What kind of people had he fallen in with?
"Wait, so we're trying to get arrested?"
Hannibal took the cigar out of his mouth, as he climbed into the passenger seat of the rental car. "That's right. And getting arrested is the easy part." B.A. took the wheel, while Lea and Murdock sat in the back.
The Keyblade wielder had heard plenty of crazy plans in the past, but this was ridiculous; playing drunk to get arrested and then, while being locked up themselves, they break out Jase, Riku, and Kairi. At least Face and Amy were on the outside, so the plan could work…
The man with the Mohawk hit the gas and the car sped wildly down the road, out of control. It didn't take long for two troopers to pull them over.
"Alright! Get out of the car!"
The four stumbled out of the car; Lea felt silly, pretending to be drunk, but he kept up the act. The white haired man, took his cigar out of his mouth and lumbered towards the officers. "Heya sweetheart…! Mind getting me another round…?"
"Shut up!"
"Aw, forget it pops," the pyro slurred, "that elephant won't get us nuthin'…"
The large officer loomed over Lea. "Who you calling elephant, punk!?"
"Hmm… well, you're the only one around here big enough to be an elephant." Hannibal wobbled and grinned.
"WHY YOU LITTLE!?" the officer charged forward, only for his partner to hold him back. "ARREST THEM! TAKE THEM DOWNTOWN! CALL SHERIFF BEALE! TELL HIM, WE CAUGHT SOME YANKEES SPEEDIN' THROUGH TOWN!"
The partner spoke quietly, either to calm his companion, or to hide something. "Hey, calm down. Remember, the judge is send down an investigator, and we could get in serious trouble." The officer nodded and took a deep breath, before the two of them climbed back into their car and drove off.
"Well, that didn't work…"
"You're crazy, Hannibal! While we're trying to get arrested, Jase could be murdered!" B.A. growled.
The pyro nodded. "And who knows what's happening to Riku and Kairi!"
The white-haired man suddenly got a strange look in his eyes. "B.A., let me drive."
As they pulled out onto the road, Murdock sighed. "He's on the jazz."
"The jazz?"
The crazy man grinned wildly and spoke ominously. "Oh, you'll see…"
The car turned into the parking lot of the sheriff's office. Hannibal aimed the car at one wall and floored it. The car sped towards the wall, and Lea's eyes widened. For a moment, they went airborne, before they smashed through the thin, sheetrock wall.
As they recovered, the sheriff, who had been sitting at the desk that their car now sat atop stood up and ran over to the driver's side and stammered. "Y-YOURE ALL GOING TO JAIL!"
Hannibal merely grinned, taking the cigar out of this mouth. "Thank you…"
"I hate the jazz…"
Lea felt so uncomfortable in these prison clothes, but he supposed it was for the best; Riku had been telling him to ditch that old coat anyways. He jerked as the prison truck came to a stop.
The back of the truck opened and a man, who'd cuffed them, by the name of Sneed, yelled at them. All of them jumped out, except for B.A. "Hey! Get out of there!"
"Um, sir." Hannibal smiled. "My friend here is a deaf and a mute, only I can speak with him, in sign language."
"Tell him to get out then!"
Now, Lea didn't know what this sign language was, but he hoped that B.A. playing deaf and dumb would work. Sneed seemed to fall for it as Hannibal held out his cuffed wrists. "If you want me to be able to speak with him, you'll need to un-cuff me." The man was quickly un-cuffed and he began to wave his hands in strange ways, in order to fake this 'sign language'. B.A., got out of the truck and the four of them were led inside Strikersville prison.
Lea looked around nervously. According to Hannibal, this prison was holding illegal fights and killing the losers. They offered the winners a chance to escape, but were then hunted down and killed. The plan was to get B.A., Hannibal, and himself put as candidates for the fight program. So, they assumed there would be some kind of test in the prison yard.
Murdock, as planned, was taken away for psychiatric evaluation, and he needed it anyways. The pyro looked around for his friends. A group of men, huddled around a fenced in area, caught his eye. A few seemed to be trying to climb the eight-foot fence; Lea and the others pushed past and saw why.
Kairi sat in the fenced in area, dressed in prison clothes. The only way to see her was through the chain-link gate, which everyone huddled around. Lea growled as he heard all the men cat-calling her, and trying to get her to come to them.
One man, managed to get over the fence. The princess stood up, backing away, ready to fight back. However, this man was pretty hefty and would easily be able to overpower her. Lea turned to Hannibal. "I need over that fence, now!"
The man nodded and cupped his hands, allowing the pyro to get high enough the launch himself over the fence. He grabbed the man around the neck and held on tight.
"Lea!?" Kairi couldn't believe it, but here he was.
The other man was trying to get out of the young man's hold, but soon his struggling stopped and his eyes closed. Lea laid him down and smiled up at Kairi. "You ok?"
"You have no idea how happy I am to see you!" She ran up to him, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Wow, Princess. Never thought you'd hug me…"
She let go and smirked. "Don't push it. But I am glad to see you. They took Riku away and hid me in here. Apparently, they're not supposed to keep women here, but they didn't want me telling anyone what they're doing…"
"The fights?"
"How did you…?"
Lea grinned. "I made some friends." His voice lowered. "They're here to help break you, Riku, and another guy out." He turned around to see Hannibal used a shovel to break the gate lock. "And here they are…"
"So, Lea, this is Kairi?"
"Yes it is. Kairi, I'd like you to meet Hannibal and B.A." The girl curtsied.
A largely built man, came in and got in front of B.A.. He didn't seem interested in Kairi. "Hello meat! I'm your boss around here, names Deke; now, turn out your pockets!" He turned, reaching into Hannibal's shirt pocket, pulling out one of the cigars.
"That is personal property," The white-haired man took the cigar back, before pulling a cigarette pack from Deke's pocket. "Hey, dirtball, you know anything about a Jase Tataro or a kid named Riku?"
The man snarled but, with B.A. looming nearby, he decided to turn away. "I don't have to answer to you!" Hannibal tossed him back his cigarettes before Deke left.
Kairi looked up at Lea, who had stepped in front of her when Deke had come near. "Lea, I was wondering…"
"Yes?"
"Why are you helping us? And, I don't just mean right now; why are you helping Riku, me, and Sora at all? You were part of the Organization; you fought against us and kidnapped me. Why would you help us now?"
"Well…" He scratched the back of his head. "There are several reasons…" He got a faraway look in his eyes, one of sorrow.
However, just as he was about to speak, one of the other prisoners, who'd had his eyes on Kairi, came up behind Lea with a shovel in hand. The princess shoved the pyro out of the way and the man missed. But he dropped the shovel and grabbed Kairi's arm. The girl twisted out of his grip and kicked him in the stomach.
Lea grabbed the man and spun around, chopping the man in the back of the neck, sending him crumpling to the ground. "That's what happens when you mess with us."
"You two make quite the team." Hannibal nodded. The two Keybearers laughed. If only he knew…
A large man, bigger than Deke came in, going up to B.A. "Turn out your pockets!" B.A. didn't move at all.
"Um," Lea piped up. "He's deaf and mute, so he can't understand you. He can't even read lips, but my friend here can use sign language to speak to him, if you'd like."
"Do it then!"
Hannibal used his 'sign language' Hannibal and B.A. exchanged 'words', before Hannibal turned to the large man. "What did he say?"
"He said, that he won't do anything for a pompous sloth that has no more brains then a dead dinosaur… and that your mother is a fat walrus."
The man yelled in rage before slugging the man with the mohawk. B.A. took the hit and punched back, laying the man out, with one blow.
"Nice job!"
Minutes later, Sneed came walking over to them. "All of you follow me. Even you, missy."
As they followed the deputy, Hannibal turned back to Lea and grinned. "I love it when a plan comes together.
Lea saw Face and Amy as Sneed led the four of them down to some cells further into the prison. According to Hannibal's plan, Face was pretending to be a prison psychologist, while Amy was supposed to be following a story on the prison, for a newspaper.
When they reached their new cells, Kairi recognized the man, punching the bag that hung from the ceiling as Jase. Riku held the bag for Jase, as he punched it. Riku turned and saw Lea and Kairi. He looked surprised and came over, the instant they were in the cell. "How did this happen?"
"Riku! I came to rescue you guys!"
"Good job…" the Keyblade Master turned to Kairi. "And you were supposed to stay out of danger, and away from the fights."
Lea held up a hand. "That was kinda my fault. She saved me from getting beaned with a shovel."
"Huh? I thought you didn't trust him, Kairi?"
The girl shrugged and looked at the other red-head. "We're… working on that." She looked around, "Where did B.A. and Hannibal go?"
"The warden just took them. So, how do you expect us to escape now that you're in the same boat as us?" Riku cocked an eyebrow at Lea.
The pyro smiled. "Hannibal's got that all covered, trust me." With that, he sat down, leaning against the wall.
Riku and Kairi shrugged and sat beside him. "Lea, you never finished telling me why you were helping us…"
"Oh yeah." He smiled. "Well, for starters, I felt like I should make up for what I did to you and Sora. You know that I feel bad about kidnapping you, and I've been trying to make up for it. Another reason is, that I made a promise; a promise to always bring my friends back. Now that Roxas is gone, helping Sora is the best way to keep that promise, and now that Xehanort has Isa, I want to save him as well. And then there's…" he paused. "Oh, never mind the last one, the first two are reason enough."
The two islanders looked at each other and then back at Lea, who now had his eyes closed. Riku found his reasoning sound, and Kairi too, but she felt like that third reason included her and she wanted to understand why, but she decided to not ask.
Silence reigned until Hannibal and B.A. came back. Hannibal winked at Lea. "It's all coming together."
Minutes turned to hours in that dark cell before Warden Beale, Sneed, and another deputy named Trask, came to the cell. They opened the door and moved Jason, B.A., Lea, Riku, and Kairi out. "Let's go. Mr. Smith, tell your friend to hold out his hands. He's leaving, along with Jase and the kids."
"Why are we leaving?" Hannibal wined as the others were cuffed.
"Not you, just them. We're have a tournament tonight. Riku vs. Lea, Baraccus vs. Kairi, and the winners will face off. The winner of those matches will fight Jase." B.A. glanced at Kairi, who looked genuinely concerned, as they were led off.
They all stayed silent until they got into the prison truck. B.A. spoke up, surprising Riku and Kairi. "Don't worry, he looked at the girl. I'll try not to hit you, but I don't want us both to die, so we've got to make it look real. Just keep moving and I'll act like I move slowly until help shows up."
"B.A.," Jase looked at his old friend. "I'm sorry, but none of us are getting out of this one."
Kairi looked at the cuff which held her and B.A. together; Lea, Riku, and Jase stood, at gunpoint off to the side. B.A. had been slowly throwing punches, so she could dodge, but the crowd was getting annoyed and yelling for the real fighting to start.
The girl threw a few punches and kicks, knowing it wouldn't hurt the large man, but she didn't see the massive fist coming towards her. B.A.'s fist hit her cheek, sending her world spiraling. The princess's knees buckled and she fell, much to the delight of the spectators.
The warden stepped into the ring and pointed to Kairi. "Finish her!"
Before anything else could be done, the barn doors smashed open and a black and red van backed in. The back doors swung open and Hannibal, holding an automatic rifle, fired a bunch of rounds over everyone's heads. B.A. grabbed Warden Beale in a headlock.
Hannibal smirked and yelled. "Alright, everyone you're all going to sit down, nice and easy. And, throw all your weapons into the ring. Let's go!" Everyone did as they were told. "Hey guards, un-cuff my friends before I put a few holes in you!" The guards moved quickly to do his bidding.
"I knew you guys wouldn't let us down." B.A. smiled as he was un-cuffed.
"Wait! You're not mute anymore!?"
"That's right, sucker! And you're not warden anymore!"
"Hey Warden!" the silver-haired Keyblade Master walked up to Beale and slugged him. "That's for putting Kairi in the ring!"
Lea picked up Kairi and he and Riku left. "I think they can handle those guys…"
"No kidding. Hey, Kairi, are you alright?"
"Yeah…" she groaned, "but my cheek feels like it's on fire."
"We'll have Master Yen Sid check on it, when we get back." The pyro set her down and reached into his shirt. "So glad they didn't take this from me, like they took yours." He pulled out a Star Shard.
"Lea, thanks."
The pyro smiled. "Don't thank me just yet…" He activated the star shard and they shot off into the starry night.
First Part of the Training Series is done!
I hope you guys enjoyed it!
As I do in all my stories, I will put Bible verses at the bottom of each chapter. If you don't want to read them, then don't. I do know some people who like seeing them down here. If you don't like it, please do not get on my case. The verses are here to encourage, not to condemn.
1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV
"No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it."