Nuovo Amico

Before I start, thanks to CeciliaHeart for April.

RECAP: In the last chapter, I told you about how I had lost me home and my twin brother, Wordly, to the Heartless. After I passed out, I was sent to another World where I met a little kid… who turned out to be nearly two years older than me. But he had lost his home to the Heartless as well, so together, we decided to go out to another World and seek vengeance.

"… So this gigantic building is your garage?" I asked, looking over the warehouse sized space. He nodded a yes at me. "Damn, a lot of people must get their Worlds taken away from them."

"Yeah. Unfortunately, A lot of people have been appearing. The Heartless must be making their second Rise. Hey! I don't think we've exchanged names. My bad. I'm Matt Kolas."

Oh yeah… We didn't. "I'm Issac Gamble. Whoa." Matt had just opened the door in his garage, and inside was… everything. There were old cars, new cars, weird looking ships, and I think at one point I saw the Sputnik. "Where'd you get all this?"

"When people came to Traverse Town, sometimes items come with them A lot of it is damaged, but a few of 'em," he looked at one of the ships, "come good as new." We walked farther into the warehouse, passing more cars, bikes, and for some reason Tricycles. Our walk ended as Matt stopped at a green and white flying saucer.

"You have a UFO?"

"Oh, is that what you call them on your World? We call them Gummi Ships. This is my pride and joy, the Lotus. I built her myself." He pressed a button and a door slid open, revealing a sleek, blue and white interior. I stepped up a small ladder that led inside, and this thing was tricked out.

It may have been small on the outside, but the inside was much larger.

"Come on, this way to the cockpit." He led me through a series of kitchens and bathrooms until we finally walked into a room with two bolted down chairs and a pair of steering handles.

"Can you drive this?" I asked, looking at his small body.

"We'll find out soon enough!" He hopped into the left chair, and I into the right. He started flipping switches and pressing buttons, doing the normal preflight checks, and a thought came to mind.

"Hey, so are you going to open the ceiling of the warehouse so we can get out of here?"

"What'd you say?" He pressed a big button that said 'LAUNCH' on it, I heard a crash, and we were outside. "Damn it. I need to get some removable ceiling pieces."

The ride was uneventful, save that we were in a space ship. He actually flew it pretty well, we didn't wreck into anything… not that there's anything to really crash into in the middle of space. After a few hours at the wheel, we eventually started to see a World out in the distance.

"Wow! So that's what a World looks like! It's awesome!"

Matt looked at it. "Yeah, it's beautiful. Looks like this is where our journey begins, Isaac."

Matt gently landed the Lotus just outside a market square, and we stepped outside. We casually strode into the square and glanced at the goods. Well, I glanced. Matt gazed and 'ooh'ed and 'ah'ed until we went up a flight of stairs and I bumped into something.

"oop, Sorry 'bout that." I turned to see who it was, and to my surprise, I had bumped into a duck wearing a fine coat and a top hat.

"It's okay, lad. Scrooge Duck has never minded a bump here or there." He looked me over. Why, are two new to town?"

Matt stepped up to him. "Yeah, we just arrived. What is this place?"

"This, little lad, is Radiant Garden. We just changed it recently from Hollow Bastion. Good thing, too. That name was gloomier than a stocking full of charcoal."

"Hey, we've got to go, Mr. Scrooge. It was nice meetin' you!" We ran down a smooth flight of steps down to a crowded housing district. Then, they appeared again.

The Heartless. There were a few that looked like soldiers, and a few others that were short and had antenna. Both breeds with the same yellow eyes. At this point, I had just realized I had forgotten to bring an important part of a fight.

"What the hell?! Why didn't I remember to get a weapon or something!?" One of the Soldiers jumped at me, but before it land an attack on me, a flash of black swept by me, and the Soldier was no longer there.

"Thanks, Matt!" I yelled.

"No problem… What did I do?"

"Hey!" A female voice called out. I looked up at the top of one of the gigantic walls surround the Housing District. There stood a girl with mid back length brunette hair, my age maybe, holding a double-edged French saber. "You're a bit of a moron, aren't 'cha?"

Before I could answer, more Heartless started swarming Matt and I. The girl threw something down. Without thinking, I gripped what looked like a handle and tried to tug out whatever it was. I closed my eyes and swung as the Heartless started their attack. I continued swinging wildly.

"Dude! Dude! The Heartless are gone! Stop singing around that katana!"

I opened my eyes and the girl walked up to me.

"Wow… that was… funny. Was this your first fight with a katana?"

I started blushing, but I couldn't help it. I was embarrassed...and She was pretty.

"So what if it was?... Oh yeah!" I sheathed the sword and tried to give it to her. "Here."

She pushed the sheath back to me. "No, keep it. But take good care of it. It was my dad's. And you remind me of him. I lost him and my mom to the darkness a few years back."

"That's too bad."

"Yeah. But before then, I was drowning in the Darkness. My parents being lost brought me to the light. Now, I just hunt down the Heartless. Oh, sorry. I'm April. I think I heard your name. Isacc, right?"

"Uh huh."

"And you little brother, what's his?"

"Actually, Matt's not my brother… and he's not little. He's almost Sixteen." Matt gave a nod. " So you want to hunt down the Heartless?"

"Yeah. The less of those things there are, the better."

I stuck out my hand for her to take. "Then April, I want you to join Fereint in Der Light. We can barely kill one of those things, and I think you'll enjoy what'll happen as we go along. So will you help us?"

She furrowed her brow and looked at us. Then she grinned and took my hand. She walked with us, in combat boots, black jeans, and t-shirt, and all, to the Lotus for our next world. That day, we had gained a Nuovo Amico.

Italian