And now we hit chapter three, starting to get into the groove of the whole thing now. You can also expect updates from me either on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays.
BTW, if anyone actually remembers the show and movie Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, you will notice that my Star Command looks different. That's because I wanted it to be different, and I find it looks much cooler. It took me AGES to find a shot of Commander Nebula though.
Disclaimer: I don't own it… and this time I really wish I did. Why? Because I put in what would have been the greatest Fighter-Interceptor ever, had the project not been scrapped by Diefenbaker! If you don't already know what I'm talking about, you will later in the chapter.
-A-D-
Light's Growth
Chapter III: Star Command
Sora found himself being rudely awoken from his state of dreaming the next day by Aiwemon. His partner digimon was shaking him gently with his small wings and muttering insistently that he had to get up. Sora wholeheartedly disagreed and showed it with the way he turned back into his pillow. He had been having such a nice dream too, more like a memory really. It had been the memory of the previous day after he and Tigger had bounced against each other to Rabbit's house, where Tigger won by several seconds. He and Kairi had joined Rabbit and Pooh (who had also dropped by) for lunch, and afterwards they had helped Winnie the Pooh get honey from his favourite honey tree before the two of them collapsed underneath the shade of the large tree on the hill and just laid down together and watched the sun dip lower and lower before it finally set.
Sora smiled. Yesterday had been a wonderful day, but some of the servants had apparently spied on them in the postern and when they got back to the castle they both had to endure Kensworth and Helia starting to sing Mamma Mia off-key as soon as they entered through the front doors together.
Apparently the two of them were rather like King Raithen and Queen Keila had been when they were young. Sora later found out that that was true when he sneaked out with Cid, Riku, and Roxas to go to Cid's computer in Merlin's house. There were a lot of pictures of the departed King and Queen together as young lovers all the way through to being husband and wife and mother and father, which made Sora confident that Kairi would love her Christmas present when the big day eventually rolled around.
"Wake up Sora," Aiwemon said, shaking a little more earnestly.
Sora rolled over a bit more and gathered the dark blue fleece blankets around him tighter to make it more comfortable. "Five more minutes Aiwë."
"Sora, don't make me use my talons," Aiwemon threatened. Sora groaned and lazily opened his eyes.
"Okay fine I'm up," he said, throwing the covers off with his automail arm. He had found that the metal kept itself quite warm while underneath the blankets with him, so it wasn't uncomfortable to place both of his hands to his face and rub it. "What time is it?"
"Time enough that King Mickey has asked that everyone who is going to Star Command meet him in the castle's entrance hall," Aiwemon answered.
"What without breakfast?" Sora asked, slapping the sides of his face to wake himself up.
"If there is still breakfast left," Aiwemon muttered, glancing at the clock. Sora followed his gaze and his eyes bugged out.
"It's past ten already!"
-A-D-
King Mickey looked around anxiously at the group assembled by him in the entrance hall of the castle. He had himself, Donald, Goofy, Max, and Jiminy Cricket, Axel, Mulan, Mushu, and Cricky, Kairi, Menelmon, and Naminé, Sir Roxas, Riku, Yuffie, and Tifa, the princesses of heart and those they brought with them, Asterix, Obelix, and Dogmatix, Winry, Pinako, Major Armstrong, Den, Edward and Alphonse Elric, and he also had Tom and Sora and Roxas' family, Sal, Sade, Sikora, and Victoria. Peter Banning had left the previous night to return to his world and family.
The only ones missing were Sora and Aiwemon.
King Mickey heard the scampering of feet off to his left and he looked past the golden fountain of the mermaid to the hall on the castle's east wing. Sora was scrambling down it, his jacket haphazardly thrown on over a black t-shirt and the top button of his jeans undone. His crown pendant was flapping against the black background it was overtop and his silver Crest of Valour was hidden underneath the shirt. He was busy trying to get his brown gloves on his hands while two pieces of buttered toast loaded with creamy peanut butter were clutched between his teeth. Aiwemon was flying along next to him.
King Mickey smiled. It was quite a humourous sight to see the Keyblade Master in such a state of early-morning rushing disarray.
Sora mumbled something that was muffled by the two pieces of toast that took up the expanse of his mouth as he approached.
"Swallow before you talk Roxas," Axel said. "I don't want bits of Keyblade Master food and spittle landing on my cloak." Sora removed the toast from his mouth and gave Axel a retort before biting down on one of the slices of toast.
"Now that we are all here," King Mickey said. "I think we can head off." He motioned, and the group started to make its way over the polished white floors of the entrance hall towards the front doors of the castle.
"Sora you need to wake up earlier," his aunt Victoria said, coming next to him, "breakfast is important."
"I know Auntie Victoria," he said in a moan. "But sleeping is important too, especially for someone like me."
"Someone like you?" Sade asked humourously.
"I'm still growing Sade," answered Sora thickly, through a bite of his toast. "I need my sleep."
"Well you don't need beauty sleep and that's for sure," Roxas said, rubbing Sora's head roughly. "You're never going to be as handsome as me."
"Well how was your date with Naminé yesterday blondie?" Sora asked, rolling his eyes.
"It was nice," Roxas answered. "You and Kairi?"
"Nice," replied Sora.
Sikora turned around and started walking backwards as the sun momentarily began blinding Sora. "You guys are so dumb. Is that all you can say?"
"Well what would you like us to say?" Sora asked in indignation before taking a bite of his toast to stave off answering further.
"Yeah," Roxas said, coming to his brother's defence. "You want us to say something along the lines that our girlfriends are the funnest, funniest, cutest, and most beautiful girls there ever were and that we fell in love with them all over again yesterday?"
"Smooth Roxas," said Axel. "You just helped your cousin's case."
"Was it true though?" Mulan asked simultaneously with Jasmine.
"Instead of asking us about Kairi and Naminé," Sora said quickly. "Why don't we ask Donald about Daisy?"
"Wak?"
"Yeah bill-beak," Mushu began, laying atop Mulan's shoulder. "How's your relationship with the girl duck?"
"Daisy?" Cinderella asked.
"Daisy is Donald's very special sweetheart," explained Goofy.
"Oh Donald," Snow White cooed. "You never told us you had a sweetheart."
"It wasn't something we needed to talk about," Donald grumbled, folding his arms over each other. Sora laughed. Donald was always prone to forgetting about his dates with Daisy, which made her angry at him, which continually made him want to avoid the subject. He could tell that the court magician loved her, and he'd seen Daisy's eyes and knew that she loved him, but with how often Donald forgot about a date he was surprised that she was still seeing him. There had to be enough that went right for the spark between the two of them to have stayed.
Sora glanced over at Kairi as she walked with Naminé and the other princesses of heart and smiled. He knew that they had rekindled and flared that spark yesterday. Sora looked towards Riku and Yuffie for a second before he gazed in front of his feet again.
He did a double-take. "Riku! Your hair is silver again!"
Riku paused for a second while everyone looked at him. "Yeah, I finally stopped putting a little bit of blue dye into it," he answered. "It was getting too hard to describe what colour my hair was to everyone." Sora laughed and shook his head.
They had to make a quick stop by the castle stables on the way over to the gummi hangar where the Avenger the Highwind, and the Hunter were. His relatives had to pick up the four chocobos they had brought with them. It had been decided that they were going to be going back to Destiny Islands after going to Star Command to see Sora and Roxas off. Sade and Sikora had missed a whole week of school, and the rest of the chocobos were probably very stressed at not having any contact with humans apart from the few stable hands that worked on the ranch for Sal and Victoria.
When they reached the base where the gummi hangars were, it was to find that the Highwind and Hunter were already out on the flight line and flanking, but still being dwarfed by, the massive Avenger, King Mickey's ship looking far too much like a replica of an Imperial Star Destroyer from Star Wars for it to have been anything else. Anyone who hadn't seen the Avenger before stopped dead in their tracks and stared at it in awe. Even the few gummi mechanics that Radiant Garden had, all of them having been trained by Cid Highwind, were shaking their heads in disbelief at the Avenger.
Sade's chocobo started to snort and buck his head as he tried to lead it towards the enormous white vessel. "Easy now Beaky," he said, his gloved hand held fast on the reigns as he restrained the beast. "It's just a ship, it'll be over soon. Soon you'll be back on the islands and you'll be having the best oats this side of Will's farm. What do you say?"
Beaky the chocobo looked at him for a second before letting out a great 'Kweh!' of excitement. Sora laughed as he watched Sade's grip slacken on Beaky's reigns as the yellow chocobo reared up its head. In another moment Sora's mouth had dropped open as Beaky began pulling his master towards the ship in a rush, with Sade's laughed coming back to them on a wind.
"I don't know about you," Genie said, "but that ain't no ordinary spring chicken."
They split up into three groups. The majority of them would go aboard the Avenger with King Mickey, while Sora, Riku, and Kairi, along with Donald, Goofy, Max, Jiminy, and Yuffie would board the Highwind, and Roxas, Naminé, Axel, and Tom would take the Hunter. The Highwind and Hunter would follow the Avenger and provide escort to the vastly larger vessel, not that it really needed it.
Sora strapped himself into the pilot's chair in the Highwind's bridge, Donald and Goofy taking their respective places to his right and left as they had before on their last journey together. Donald opened up a communications link with both the Hunter and Avenger and Sora spoke.
"We're ready whenever you are your majesty." As he spoke his hands were already flying over the controls to power up the engines.
"We're good to go over here too," Axel said.
"Just give us a minute fellas," spoke King Mickey. "It takes more time to get the Avenger ready than your ships."
"It's because your ship's so much bigger Your Majesty," said Goofy.
"Well it'll come in handy when we actually have a fleet," answered King Mickey. "So we'll have one cruiser already done and ready. All we'll need will be a crew to keep her running smoothly all the time instead of having her sit on dry docks for ages. Okay, engines are warming up fellas. We're ready to go now too. All ships prepare for liftoff."
"Alright here we go," Sora said. The three ships on the flight line began to lift off of the ground, the blue lights from their engines flaring as each of them shuddered slightly upon overcoming the gravity of the world. The Avenger's nose started to turn skyward slowly, slowly gaining a little bit of height to avoid crashing its aft end into the ground. Sora and Roxas in the Highwind and Hunter duo kept the speeds of their ships in check as they gained altitude, waiting for the large triangular vessel to bring up its angle so that it could climb faster. It took a few seconds, but soon the Avenger had increased the angle that pointed it into the sky and she began to gain on the Highwind and the Hunter until the two smaller ships were in front and above the white capital ship, keeping pace and staying in a protective escort formation with it.
"Nicely done Your Majesty," Axel's voice came in on the communication's channel.
"Thanks Axel," replied King Mickey. "Now let's get over to Star Command. I'm sending you the coordinates now."
The screen in front of Goofy blipped and Sora looked over at him as the anthropomorph began to speak. "We've received the coordinates King Mickey; I'm setting a course for Star Command now."
"Course for Star Command set," Roxas confirmed. "Ready when you guys are."
"Be in for a long trip guys," King Mickey said. "Our worlds are in a relatively sheltered and far-off corner of the galaxy, Star Command is much further in. Prepare to jump to warp space on my mark."
"Standing by," Sora answered, his fingers twitching as he held them above the button to activate the Highwind's warp drive.
"Now!"
"Punch it!" Axel said. Sora jammed his whole fist down on the button. At once all the stars around them turned into blue streaks and the whole world around them became a swirling blue portal as they travelled through warp space towards their destination.
Sora unbuckled himself from his seat, Donald and Goofy doing likewise, and the three friends left the bridge and into the ship's lounge. The couch was already occupied by Riku and Yuffie, with the girl looking a faintly queasy. Sora remembered Yuffie saying that she got airsick, and it appeared that it really only happened rarely, because Riku was looking at Yuffie with concern rather than sympathy. Also on the couch sat Kairi. Max was in a comfy chair, and Jiminy was on the chair's armrest. Aiwemon and Menelmon were nowhere to be seen, but that would likely change soon after they'd explored the gummi ship for the first time. Goofy's son was staring at the blank and black screen of the television, and Jiminy was writing something in a tiny book that Sora recognized as his journal.
The Royal Chronicler looked up as Sora entered with Donald and Goofy and called towards him. "Sora! You and Kairi really must tell me everything that has happened since you both left Disney Castle," he said, pointing at his journal. "I've missed quite a lot of entries to the journal, nearly an entire adventure already."
"Okay Jiminy," Sora said, plopping down on the couch next to Kairi. "Come over here, and Kairi and I will tell you everything. I've already told you most of what happened in Neverland. Max, help us out."
-A-D-
Tidus sighed as he sat atop of the roof of the house in Twilight Town he and his mother lived in. The new subdivision of Sunset Terrace where they were was quite nice, not nearly as good as the islands, but it was still a nice place to live. It had turned into late afternoon after school had ended, and he was waiting atop his roof for the other islanders who had come to this world after the fall of Felra.
He had finally found a great use for the flat-topped roofs that connected nearly every house on the street, apart from just sitting and watching the sunset with Wakka and Selphie. His mother didn't think it was a very good idea, nor did she think it was safe at all, but she did give in in resignation at the sad fact that he and many of his friends that came with them from the islands would be going off tomorrow to their basic training, and they did need the practice after all.
That was why Tidus was sitting beside a blue Struggle bat, watching the nearly continuously setting sun while he waited for everyone else to arrive. He had quickly and on a spur of the moment organized the small group of them into a tournament to see who among them was the best melee combatant before they would leave for their training in the morning.
Unfortunately, they still had schoolwork to do while they were training, but Tidus wouldn't tell his mother that he was shoving it off to the side in lieu of safer (yet truly more dangerous) tasks.
"Hey Tidus!" Tidus turned his head to see Wakka approaching from the roof of the house to his right. He heard another call and smiled as Selphie suddenly sat down next to him on his left.
"Hey there Selphie," he said.
"Hi Tidus," replied the brown-haired girl, seeming to bounce slightly as she leg her legs dangle over the rooftop. "So, is it just us from the islands or what?"
"Yep," Tidus confirmed, "Just those of us from the islands: me, you, Wakka, Jeff, Anar, Isil, Kia, and the others." Wakka sat down next to them and pounded fists with Tidus as the three of them waited for the others to arrive. The Struggle bat that Selphie had was lightly bobbing in her hand.
"I never thought that I'd be doing something like this in my life."
"Huh?" Tidus asked, looking curiously at Selphie.
"It's like we're joining the Guardians or something," she said, looking towards both Tidus and Wakka. Tidus nodded his head. The Guardians were an organization back on the islands that kept the cities, towns, and people safe from the fiends that wandered the islands. They unfortunately hadn't been too much of an asset when Cossex attacked, not having had a clue what the Heartless or Nobodies were.
"Guardians," Wakka grunted slightly. He looked at Tidus and the two of them shared a smile.
"Guardians of High Summoner Yuna unite!" Tidus said, giving Wakka a high-five.
"What are you two talking about?" Selphie asked, granting both of them a look of confusion.
"Just something we did when we were on another world when the islands fell into darkness Selphie," Tidus replied quickly. "There was nothing big about it."
"Just saved the world and all that jazz," Wakka added, smiling broadly at the girl, "you know, hero stuff." Wakka's grin quickly left his face as Selphie struck the top of Tidus' head with her bat.
"You mean you guys were off adventuring without me?" she asked, her face livid enough to scare Tidus. "Why didn't you tell me? Kairi at least knew that Sora and Riku were off saving the worlds!"
"We didn't want everyone to think that we had gone crazy!" Tidus explained in a very quick breath, his arms over of his head to try and fend off another assault. "I ask you Selphie, before we knew about Sora, Riku, and Kairi, would you have believed us if we told you we had been transported to another world and saved it from evil?" Tidus opened his half-closed and cringing eyes and peered through his flailed arms to look at Selphie. She had put down her Struggle bat and was looking off to the twilight sun.
"No," she said at last, looking down regretfully. "I wouldn't have believed you."
"There, problem solved yah?" Wakka said. "If you want Selphie, we can tell you all about it later yah, even the crush old Tidus here had." He shoved Tidus on the shoulder and the boy with dirty-blonde hair grimaced at the red-haired blitzer.
"Wakka," he hissed. Tidus suddenly felt two light hands on his shoulders and he knew instantly that Selphie was standing behind him now.
"Ooh," she giggled. "A crush huh? So who was it?" Tidus forced himself to hold back a gasp and quickly glanced at Selphie's face before blushing and looking down at his dangling feet. She was smiling, but her eyes were closed so he couldn't see if there was anything in them. He suddenly found himself in a very awkward position. He had loved Yuna, and he knew that now. But he did not understand his relationship with the energetic girl behind him, who was lightly shoving his shoulders back and forth and moaning for him to tell her who he had had a crush on.
He would almost have said that his relationship with Selphie was like Hayner's with Olette, except Hayner had actually gathered up the courage to ask her out.
Tidus looked back at Selphie for a few seconds, just looking at her in the yellow dress she was wearing. Her green eyes were very prominent when they had opened up once more, and they were looking at his curiously. "You remember that girl Yuna back on Radiant Garden?" he asked.
Selphie nodded. "Yes. Ooh! That's who it was huh?"
"Yah, he had a crush on Yuna," Wakka said, laughing slightly. "And she had a crush on 'im. And the two of them even kissed!"
Tidus expected Selphie to squeal and start pestering him for details, what he did not expect was to feel his back collide painfully with his own roof and for the brown haired girl to scream, "YOU DID WHAT WITH HER?"
He sensed Wakka scrambling out of the way and Tidus looked sheepishly at Selphie like he was caught in a trap. The previous bout of anger she'd had after finding out that they'd gone on adventures, which he had known had really been at least somewhat playful was completely dwarfed by this. Selphie was terrifying him right now. Her green eyes were on fire, almost unearthly in appearance.
"Would it help if I said that I no longer loved Yuna that way?" Tidus asked quietly through a forced grin.
Selphie's anger dissipated and she cocked her head at Tidus in confusion. "Huh?"
"She's just a friend to me now Selph," Tidus continued. "It was simple infatuation, nothing more."
"Then this calls for celebration!" Selphie said excitedly. She left Tidus scratching his head and looking at Wakka in confusion before she quickly returned with four bars of sea-salt ice cream.
"Uh, why celebrate?" Wakka asked as he took his bar of ice cream.
"Because now there won't be some other girl dragging the three of us down," Selphie said happily, licking each ice cream in turn as she held one in her left hand and the other in her right.
"What about Wakka and Lulu?" Tidus asked in passing.
"Hey, nothing happened between me and Lu," Wakka said quickly. "We just became close friends ya."
"Close friends," Tidus snorted. "Yeah right, you were never apart from her."
"Well you stuck close to both Yuna and Rikku," Wakka retorted.
"What's this about Rikku?" Selphie asked, looking at Tidus. "Don't tell me you had two girlfriends you polygamous pervert."
"I didn't!" Tidus exclaimed, looking at Selphie in feigned shock that she'd even think that. "Rikku's just a good friend that I got along well with. And she was the one who saved my life when I first dropped into Spira."
"So you owe your life to a girl..." Selphie teased, shoving him slightly with her shoulder since both her hands were occupied.
"Hey my ice cream!" Tidus shouted, watching as the bar of blue left his grasp and tumbled to the ground beneath them. "Thanks a lot Selphie."
"Hey!"
Tidus turned his head to see that Anar, Isil, Jeffery, Kia, and a number of older teens and the few adults that felt bothered enough to join in the competition clambering up onto the crisscrossing network of flat square roofs along the street.
Tidus smiled and grabbed his Struggle bat before he got to his feet. It looked like it was going to be a promising evening.
-A-D-
Sora yawned and looked out from the bridge of the Highwind in as they came out of warp space. Many hours had passed by while they travelled, and he, Kairi, and Max had told Jiminy and the others everything that had happened to them since they left Disney Castle. Aiwemon and Menelmon came back from exploring the ship just after they had finished talking about how they had been captured and subsequently escaped from captivity in The Castle That Never Was, and so they were present to help explain in a bit more detail to Jiminy about the Digital World and the digidestined. Likewise, Riku and Yuffie explained everything that had happened since Sora and Kairi had left Destiny Islands. It was hard for all of them when they came to the part of the destruction of the city of Felra, but apart from that most of them were able to keep the sorrowful emotions in check. Donald and Goofy also told them of the few worlds they had been to, some of which surprised Sora. The tale of Basil of Baker Street interested him and that of the quite fearful and emotionally unstable Emperor Kuzco was only able to make him laugh. After the storytelling was done, he had taken a nap, from which he had only recently awoken from.
Sora frowned slightly, and then his eyes snapped open and he leaned forward, blinking and pinching himself to make sure he wasn't still asleep.
"Whoa!" he said, awestruck. He quickly shook his head frantically and punched a button to turn on the intercom.
"You guys had better come up to the bridge to see this," he said. He removed his thumb from the button and rubbed his eyes again just as frantic footsteps heralded the arrival of the rest of them.
"Wow," Yuffie's voice carried the collective thought of the group. Always before when Sora had come out of warp space it was to see a world before him, this time there was a different surprise in store for him. In front of the Highwind stood a building constructed entirely in space, and a massive one at that. The only words one could use to describe it would be that it was a space station alright. The white structure towered over the Highwind, even the Avenger for that matter. Its top was a circular dome that would not have looked out of place on a mushroom, and it had a cylindrical body that stretched downwards. From the cylindrical shaft there were numerous spires that stretched out, a few large ships (not as large as the Avenger but still sizable) attached to these spires, their function obviously that of docking with vessels. Sora couldn't gauge their exact size, but when he looked at the distance reading that Highwind was giving him he couldn't help but gulp. They were undoubtedly easily four times the size of the Highwind, but then, his gummi ship was very small and rather like a shuttle of sorts when compared to the Avenger.
He almost wondered aloud how many ships the size of his could be fitted into that place, but was stopped by the sudden siren of an incoming transmission. He looked to Donald Duck and the court magician pressed the button to broadcast it through the bridge.
"Do you see the size of that thing?" Roxas' voice asked. "It's freaking huge!" Sora looked again and noticed that they were receiving another transmission, two actually. He looked at Donald again and again he complied and patched them through.
"Unidentified ships," a male voice warned sternly, "this is Leftenant Commander Neil Solar, Captain of the SCS Judicator. You have entered a restricted area. Please throttle down and state your intentions. If you do not comply, we will open fire."
Sora tensed nervously as one of the larger vessels that was not docked with the massive space station began to turn towards them while he killed his engines and brought his ship to a halt. The ship was rounded slightly in the front of the centre, with a visible view screen showing that that was the bridge, the view screen continuing even to the ship's top to give officers a view close enough to having a bubble cockpit like in the Highwind. The ship's fuselage was rectangular (apart from the curve at the front) and thin, but only thin by the standards of the ship's size, it was still easily three times as thick as the Highwind's complete height. About halfway down the ship the sides of the fuselage began to curve outwards in a half-ellipse shape before driving back forward in two arched wings that steadily narrowed until they became pointed and tipped in a battery of heavy cannons. The rear portion of the wings was as wide as the rest of the ship, but the front tipped with the powerful weaponry was quite thin in comparison. From the Highwind's position, Sora could make out three red rectangles painted across the top of the off-white ship's fuselage, and two blue arrowheads with rounded tops painted above the curves in the wings. The blue glow from the ship's engines was barely visible beyond the empennage.
In all, the unknown ship was probably around four hundred metres long from bow to stern, thirty to thirty-five metres in height, and a little more than three hundred metres from the edge of the starboard wing to the edge of the port wing.
Sora took all of this in within three seconds, gulping again when he realized that the batteries on each wingtip were one and a half times as large as the ship he was piloting, and it was probably packing other weapons that he couldn't make out from this distance. He took one glance towards the Avenger and felt his confidence grow slightly. No matter how menacing or powerful this unknown ship coming towards them was, the sight of the Imperial Star Destroyer replica (all one point six kilometres long with over a hundred hidden weapon emplacements of it!) gave him a little more courage. He shook his head slightly when he heard a voice come in over the com channel.
"This is King Mickey Mouse, of the DCS Avenger," King Mickey said.
"This is Keyblade Master Prince Sora, Captain of the Highwind," Sora said, making dead sure that his voice was steady.
"This is Keyblade Master Sir Roxas Dual Blade, Captain of the Hunter," Roxas' voice came on.
"We are carrying the Princesses of Heart, the Wielders of the Keyblade, and the Princesses of Radiant Garden," King Mickey continued. "We also have a meeting with your Commanding Officer, Commander Nebula."
Either the station or the ship, whichever it was that had hailed the three of their ships (Sora assumed that it was the ship, given that the Lieutenant Commander had said SCS Judicator, which he took to mean Star Command Ship Judicator), stayed silent and Sora quickly looked past Avenger's hull towards his brother's ship. There had been a barely perceptible quiver in Roxas' voice.
You okay bro?
I'm sweating bullets over here Sora, Roxas replied. The shields on our ships are nothing to be laughed at, but that thing looks like could take us out in one hit with those cannons, shields or no shields!
If it turns ugly, we'll just have to avoid the big guns and hit it from every other direction, Sora replied. And pray that we don't get hit too hard by something else if it's got more guns than that. Plus, I think the Avenger could handle it by herself.
Yeah, but she can't handle the rest of them by herself now can she?
Well no...
"What are they waiting for?" Kairi whispered anxiously. Sora noticed her eyes locked on the ship that had halted more or less in front of them, eyeing them behind its massive light-blue tinted view screen that kept them from seeing inside but no doubt let those on the inside see them. Sora figured that it was probably a ruse. There was no way that the bridge for a ship that size would be that noticeable and easy to attack, not to mention quite so large. There had to be a smaller section of it that was the true bridge, but it was blended in so well it was impossible to determine where it was.
The voice came back and Sora instantly looked towards his console. "Our apologies Your Majesty, Masters. Highwind and Hunter, you are cleared for landing in hangar bay fourteen. Avenger, you will be escorted by the frigate SCS Judicator while you dock at sector C-3. Highwind and Hunter, you will both be shown the way in by a fighter escort."
"Thank you," Sora said, his nerves leaving him as he throttled the ship up again. "Roxas, stick with me so we can find this hangar, all right?"
"Yeah yeah yeah," Roxas replied over the radio as the Hunter began moving to form up on Sora's wing. "You know, we're all going to need call signs sooner or later."
"It's an honour to see that there are still wielders," Lieutenant Commander Solar said again over the radio as the two small ships flew straight past the now manoeuvring frigate. Sora glanced down out of curiosity and noticed that the Judicator had four large engines on her stern. Making a small noise to himself out of satisfaction for finding out that tiny tidbit of useless information, he turned his attention to trying to find this docking bay on the massive space station, or at least, the escort that was supposed to take them to the hangar bay. A new blip came up on his sensors and Sora looked down. Two smaller craft than the Highwind were approaching from the front. Donald noticed they were being hailed and opened up yet another channel.
"Highwind, Hunter this is Abel Four," a female voice said over the radio. "Can you see us?"
"She sounds young and hot," Riku whispered to Sora. Glancing slightly back at Kairi, who appeared not to heard, Sora nodded his head marginally.
Sora looked away from Riku, frowned, and checked his instruments again. "Well, on my sensors I can, but I can't quite, oh there you are!" Sora said as he suddenly spotted two white dots coming towards his and Roxas' ships. He strained his eyes for a moment to see what they looked like, but then his eyes found it easier when the two fighters whizzed right past. He still didn't get a clear look, but as soon as the one on his left had come to his level and slowly began to pass him, he got a good look at the fighter.
"Whoa!" Roxas said.
The fighter was sleek. The front of its cone was black, which lead up slightly to a small concealed cockpit at the front of the fighter. Just to the side and below the cockpit the circular cone stopped as the fuselage added in a small rectangular addition that stretched the whole length of the craft, and Sora could see the tips of the cannons in it. At the top of the fuselage there were delta wings that had become part of the fighter itself, and a tail that stretched up at the back at a one hundred and thirty degree angle. Two thick black engines glowed blue at the back of the fighter craft. Apart from the front of the cone, the fighter was entirely white. Sora was also able to spot an ensign on the side of the fuselage in front of where the delta wings spanned out over the craft, and on either side of the wings. The ensign was a blue circle with a white interior, a red maple leaf in the centre. (A/N 1)
At first, Sora thought that he'd never seen anything like it before, and then he thought that it looked a little bit like a paper airplane. But it didn't matter to him. The craft was absolutely beautiful and looked like it would be a thrill to fly in!
"Roger that Highwind," Abel Four's voice said, the pilot in the fighter to his left nodding her head at him from underneath her white helmet and giving him a thumbs up sign. "We'll lead you in."
"Thanks," Sora replied, adjusting the Highwind's course slightly to follow. "Hey, what do you guys call that interceptor you're in?"
"This bird?" Abel Four asked, a bit of pride more than evident in her voice. "Well, her designation is the F-105, but we call her the Arrow."
"The Arrow..." Sora said, sighing with a smile on his face as he looked at the craft that was about a third of the size of the Highwind.
"Snap out of it Sora," Naminé sang over the radio. "You can gawk at the ship with Roxas later. First you need to land safely."
Sora blushed both at Naminé's words and the laughter that was coming from the others on the bridge with him. The only one that he could say wasn't laughing was Max, as he too had been staring at the beautiful fighter with itching fingers.
"Hello Highwind and Hunter," another voice said, this one male and sounding like the pilot was in his early thirties. "This is Abel Five speaking and Abel Four and I will be your escorts this evening. To your left you will see the empty depths of space, lit up by a marvellous turquoise aurora. On your right you will see a blue nebula, within which lies an odd formation of solid matter in the form of purple rock formations that look extremely uncomfortable to crash into and an asteroid field. We recommend not going in there if you wish to come out alive. If you turned around and looked behind you, which you will not do since we are on a schedule, you will see the continuation of the beautiful aurora that is to your left. In front of you is the wondrous space station that is Star Command. No photographs until landing has commenced please. Our estimated time of arrival is three minutes. Thank you."
"Abel Five what was that?" asked Abel Four in a humourous tone while Sora and the others sniggered in laughter.
"Well I'm so bored lieutenant," Abel Five replied. "This is the most exciting thing that's happened since the scrap with that flight of Heartless ships four weeks ago. It's been dull ever since."
"Well things are bound to get interesting soon Abel Five," Goofy said, "we're here now."
"Yeah," Donald added. "Things always start to go screwy whenever we show up somewhere."
"Never fails," confirmed Sora.
"Well," Abel Four replied, "let's hope they don't get too far out of hand."
"We can handle it," Sora said nonchalantly.
"And if he can't," Axel started speaking over the radio, "we will. By the way, what are your guys' names anyway?"
"Lieutenant Dreyson," Abel Four answered.
"Lieutenant Patteson," replied Abel Five.
"Well I'm Axel, got it memorized?"
"Here we go again," Roxas muttered in a slightly audible undertone over the radio just as Axel was saying his catch phrase.
"Say Abel, I mean uh, Lieutenant Dreyson, can I ask you something?" Axel asked.
"Sure thing Axel," the lieutenant replied.
"If you looked into a mirror and held up eleven roses, what would you see?"
Sora nearly closed his eyes and held onto his smirk if for nothing else than to keep himself from laughing at Axel. It was a good pickup line, but the chances of it actually working were slim. Kairi's hand was quaking against his shoulder as she restrained her giggles, Aiwemon and Menelmon were looking quizzically at each other, and the others were all waiting with breath filled with withheld laughter for the female pilot to reply. All except for Jiminy, he was already laughing quietly and rolling on Sora's other shoulder.
"I don't know," Lieutenant Dreyson replied in an unmistakably clueless tone, "a bouquet missing one of its dozen roses?"
"No," Axel answered, "you'd see twelve of the most beautiful things in the world."
There was a very pregnant pause, the only noise in anyone's ears the sound of the engines, as everyone's breath was held.
Abel Four's voice broke the silence first. Sora nearly lost his mind at how shy it now sounded. "Thank you. That's really sweet of you Axel."
It had worked! That finally put a one on the scoreboard underneath Axel's name.
"You're welcome," Axel said. "You have a pretty voice you know."
"You really think so?"
"Are you trying to get 'er into your pants Axel?" Tom asked.
Axel's reply came back irritatedly. "No I'm not. Are you saying that she doesn't have a pretty voice?"
"Well, yeah she does 'ave that."
"What about you Roxas, do you think her voice is pretty?"
"If I say yes, Naminé will hit me."
"No I won't Roxas."
"Okay. Then yes. You have a pretty voice lieutenant. Ow! Naminé!"
"I lied."
Kairi laughed next to Sora and leaned her head against his shoulder. The activity on the other gummi ship sounded quite entertaining.
"Do you think her voice is pretty Sora?" Kairi asked innocently in Sora's ear. Sora rolled his eyes.
"Kairi..."
"I want to know Sora, and I think the lieutenant wants to know what the Chosen Master of the Keyblade thinks," Kairi persisted. "Right lieutenant?"
"I- I'm not used to this kind of attention miss," the female pilot stuttered while her wing mate laughed. "But, I do suppose that it would be nice to know."
Sora sighed and looked at Riku. They grinned at each other before Sora spoke. "Riku and I have decided that your voice is not pretty Lieutenant Dreyson," he said. He paused for a second while everyone was silent. "We think you sound hot!"
Sora quickly twisted around in his seat to the best of his ability with his restraints on and grasped Kairi's arm as it moved on a collision course with his shoulder. "But no girl is as cute, pretty, hot, gorgeous, or beautiful as you are Kairi," he whispered before giving her a kiss on the lips.
"Attention flirters," interrupted Lieutenant Patteson, "we are approaching hangar bay fourteen."
"Star Command to Abel Four and Five, thanks for bringing them in," an older male voice said, coming onto the radio. Sora realized that he must be the controller for the hangar bay. "You are dismissed."
"Roger that Star Command," Abel Four said, "Abel Four rejoining formation."
"Abel Five rejoining formation," said her wing mate. "Hey Axel, I think you owe us a drink or two."
"Buy your own Patteson," Axel laughed. "The only ones I'm buying drinks for tonight are me and the beautiful Lieutenant Dreyson, got it memorized?"
"I think I'll take you up on that offer Axel," Abel Four said over the radio. "How's tonight at nine sound?"
Sora looked at Donald and the duck obliged in shutting off that channel. He was already receiving docking instructions from Star Command and it was getting a little bit difficult to try and listen to the man while the two pilots in their beautiful fighters kept bantering with Axel.
-A-D-
Commander Nebula was a man who liked paperwork as much as fire likes water. The two of them just don't work well together. This is why the CO of Star Command began rubbing his grey moustache that shot far beyond the sides of his head excitedly with his dark skinned hand, his arching grey eyebrows that also stretched beyond normal limitations of how far off the side of a head an eyebrow should grow twitching slightly above his black eyes. He could now put that whole stack of paperwork that he hadn't bother to touch all day even though he knew he should have behind him.
Urophi Magellan of Twilight Town was already seated at the briefing table, and he had already conferred with the Commander that he was more than content to sit in and listen to the briefing rather than take an active part in it. His only interest at the moment was what they knew, and discussing other matters between himself, King Mickey, and the Commander when the three of them could speak in private together.
The door to the briefing room opened and he stood up in his white and green suit, a set of golden wings painted on the front of the white chest armour of a space ranger. Into his office entered a variety of people, a large mouse the first one to enter. Commander Nebula smiled and stepped past the long oval table to shake hands with the mouse. "It's good to see you again Your Majesty."
"How ya doing Commander?" King Mickey asked.
Commander Nebula chuckled slightly. "I wish the paperwork would stop coming in. Ah, Wielder Asterix. It is nice to see you again too."
"Likewise Commander Nebula," Asterix said, taking off his winged helmet and dipping into a sweeping bow. "What do you have for us?"
"Before we start the briefing, why don't we introduce everyone?" Commander Nebula asked, looking around at everyone in slight confusion even through his smile. He raised a hand towards Twilight Town's mayor. "I'm sure some of you have met Urophi Magellan, mayor of Twilight Town before."
"I haven't ," a boy with spiked brown hair said. "Nice to meet you."
"Wonderful to see all of you," Urophi said, nodding his head.
"Now we'll introduce everyone with us," King Mickey said. "These six here are princesses of heart. This is Jasmine, Belle, Aurora, Snow White, Cinderella, and Alice. Uh, these are the people they have brought with them: Aladdin, Genie, Abu, Carpet and Iago with Jasmine, Prince Alain with Belle, we uh... told Gaston and Lefou that they couldn't come in with us, Prince Philip with Aurora, Prince Ryan with Snow White and Prince Charming with Cinderella, and this is Penelope, Alice's older sister."
"Very nice to meet you Commander," Penelope said.
"The pleasure is all mine Madame," replied Commander Nebula, nodding his head.
"And these are the others," King Mickey continued while the people he mentioned already took seats. "Major Armstrong and Edward and Alphonse Elric, they're alchemists, and Winry and Pinako Rockbell and their dog Den, automail mechanics, all from Amestris. This is Mulan, her Guardian Dragon Mushu, and her lucky cricket Cricky from Land of Dragons."
"It grieved me to learn that your world was lost my lady," said Commander Nebula, bowing to her in respect. "It will be avenged."
"I know it will Commander," Mulan said as she bowed back. "I refuse to let Maleficent and the Heartless get away with this."
Asterix continued with the introductions. "This is my best friend Obelix and his dog Dogmatix. Make sure that you have the galleys cooking boar. This is Axel."
"Yo!" Axel said, raising a hand.
"Axel?" Commander Nebula asked in surprise. "As in Number VIII of the late Organization XIII?"
"Don't worry Commander," Axel said nonchalantly. "I play on the side of the good guys."
"When it suits you," A boy with spiky blonde hair muttered through a grin.
"You're a good guy Rox," Axel said. "So that will always make me a good guy. Got it memorized?"
"This is the Captain of my Knights," King Mickey continued, "and my court magician, Goofy and Donald. This is Goofy's son Max, this is Jiminy Cricket from Town of Wishes and these are Tifa Lockheart, Tom Marcinek, and Yuffie Kisaragi from Radiant Garden, and the twin princesses of Radiant Garden and the other two princesses of heart: Princesses Kairi and Naminé Talerith."
"An honour to meet you both, Your Royal Highnesses," said Commander Nebula, dipping his arm under his abdomen and bowing in front of both sixteen year old girls. Kairi blushed and Naminé giggled and it took a second for both of them to curtsey in return.
"This is Menelmon," Kairi said, motioning towards the small bird on her shoulder, "my digimon partner."
"Hello," Menelmon said. Commander Nebula smiled and took Menelmon's wing in his hand and shook it gently.
"Hello Menelmon."
"And these ones here are Master Riku," continued King Mickey, "and one of my knights, Master Sir Roxas Dual Blade. Both are from Destiny Islands."
"Two Keyblade Masters from Destiny Islands," Commander Nebula said in awe. "That is something."
"Well technically all five of us are," the boy with gravity-defying chocolate hair said, smirking.
Commander Nebula frowned at him. There was something similar about this boy to him. He knew he hadn't seen him before in his life, or anyone who looked like him. He figured he must have glanced over a description in his paperwork somewhere. "And who are you?"
"I'm Sora," the teenage boy replied. "I'm Prince of Pride Rock and the Chosen Master of the Keyblade, also from Destiny Islands. Kairi's lived on the islands for most of her life, and so Naminé is also technically from there as well, given that she and Roxas used to be Kairi's and my Nobodies. And this is Aiwemon, my digimon partner," he added cocking his head to the shoulder upon which another bird, this one with brown feathers and a white-feathered head, sat.
Commander Nebula smiled and gripped Sora's hand. "The Chosen Master of the Keyblade huh? Who'd have thought that you'd be the one to save us all twice?"
"Hey what's that supposed to mean?" Sora asked.
"I'm just joking," Commander Nebula asked. "I've learned by now to never judge a person by their size or age. And I've been briefed on all of you, good job kids. So who are the rest of you?"
"These are our relatives," Roxas answered. "Sora's and my uncle Sal, our aunt Victoria, and our cousins Sade and Sikora."
"Hello sir," Sade said suddenly, his back arching backwards in an attempt to make it completely straight and his arm coming up in a salute.
Commander Nebula frowned at him. "One, you came to attention wrong. Two, you aren't even standing at attention properly. Three, your salute is wrong too. Four, you aren't in uniform. Five, we're not wearing headdress, so you wouldn't salute anyway. Six, you aren't in the military so why are you attempting to salute me?"
Sade slumped while laughs at his expense ensued and rubbed the back of his head. Commander Nebula softened up and chuckled himself. "Seven, I like your enthusiasm, but let's start the briefing shall we?" Those who were still standing took their seats around the table and Commander Nebula watched their seating patterns, mentally smiling at the arrangements that took place. He couldn't help but notice that the Keyblade's Chosen Master has holding the hand of the red-haired princess of Radiant Garden under the table. Giving his head the most minute of shakes while still keeping his smile only a figment in his mind, he tapped a button at the head of the table.
A small device built into the table in the shape of a pyramid immediately came to life, beams of light coming from it and striking both a screen at one end of the room and creating a floating hologram of a map of their spiral galaxy above the device. Commander Nebula watched with satisfaction at the awed looks of everyone present apart from King Mickey and Asterix.
"Cool," Axel said, nodding his head.
"Here's where we are," Commander Nebula said, pointing at the floating holographic galaxy, the map itself changing by rotating and zooming until it reached the point her was talking about, "Star Command, a little close to the interior edge of this arm. Down in this arm of the galaxy are the worlds you have visited before Sora: Radiant Garden, Destiny Islands, Twilight Town, Disney Castle, Agrabah, Deep Jungle and the like. You'll notice how they all form a kind of close-knit group with how close to each other they are, with a number of worlds around them that you haven't visited from what I can tell. Town of Wishes, The Big Top, and Sherwood Forest are among them. Over here is the Earth that has the Autobots on it, which you know about Master Riku, quite a distance from your home I'd say, and Gaul lies over in this arm, as you are well aware Wielder Asterix."
"That's right," Asterix said, nodding. "You sure travelled around a lot Riku."
"Hn," Riku said. "No wonder it took days to reach each of them then."
"We weren't using the Highwind's warp drive either Riku," Max reminded him.
"If you hadn't used your warp drives it would have taken you at least three weeks to make it here from Radiant Garden instead of ten hours," Commander Nebula said. He looked to the map again. "From what little intelligence we have on Maleficent since we downsized our espionage group we know that she is here," he pointed to a point deep within an arm that was on the complete opposite side of the galaxy from where they were, "in a land known as Mordor, on a world called Middle-Earth."
"Right," Naminé said, nodding slightly. "Master Yen Sid told me and Roxas a bit about that world. And we've told the others what we remember of what he told us. She's allied with someone named Sauron right?"
"I can't confirm that," Commander Nebula said, "unless you have other sources. All we know is that this is the site where she is building herself a fortress, and working on some other plan, what it is we don't know. The enemy presence was tight and our best rangers barely made it out without being captured or killed just to bring us this tidbit of information. Our network as I mentioned before is very weak. The numbers of Heartless present is unknown, but Captain Lightyear said that there were millions there, so any attempt to attack her now would be suicidal for anyone. He might have been exaggerating, but it is still too dangerous to attack."
"Okay," Alice said.
"Anything else we should know?" Aladdin asked.
"Yes actually there are a few more points I would like to make," Commander Nebula said. He looked over at the screen and the insignia of the soldiers that came to Radiant Garden with Maleficent appeared. "Our analysts have looked over the emblem you sent to us Your Majesty, and we have tracked down where it is from." The image on the screen changed to a picture of a bald man with a small brown beard that wound around his mouth with a tiny goatee flicking the air underneath his chin. His black eyes gazed into each of them.
"This is Kane," Commander Nebula said. "He is the leader of a terrorist organization on one of the worlds called Earth, this one having been designated Earth E, or Earth Echo. His organization is called The Brotherhood of NOD, or simply put, NOD or The Brotherhood. Their strength is unknown, but they are well equipped and according to our data have numbers that make our own seem very small. Their preference in weapons is mostly limited to projectile weaponry: guns and missiles mostly, while it is also known that they have tanks at their disposal and have an affinity for some forms of highly advanced stealth technology. About Maleficent's other known allies we already know as much as we can about them. Nixion, Pete, Hämsterviel, Jadis of Narnia, Sauron, as you have said Princess Naminé, all are dangerous except for Pete, though he likely is stronger now."
He looked back to the map and had it bring up the arm of the galaxy that all of them were from. "There are also a number of worlds close to your homes that are currently under the threat of Heartless attack. If anything is to be secure, these worlds must be protected and their keyholes sealed."
"Do we know any of them?" Sora asked anxiously.
"None of them have been visited before by you or anyone here with you except for His Majesty King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, Master Sora," Commander Nebula answered. "Amestris, Ant Island, Atlantis, and the Great Barrier Reef. Maleficent seemed to have a thing with 'A's this time around. But, these are the only worlds currently under threat, and the threat I should mention is light."
"Light or not light," Ed said quickly, "my world is being threatened. Al, we have to get back there."
"We'll go too Ed," Naminé said. "Roxas and I went to get Winry and you all came along with her, we should be the ones to bring you back to your home."
"And you also have to seal the keyhole," Goofy said. "That way the Heartless won't be comin' back to try and destroy your world."
"Yuffie, Max, Asterix, Obelix, Dogmatix, and I were already heading for Atlantis when we found out that Sora and Kairi were both placed in hospital in Radiant Garden," Riku said. "We'll go to Atlantis."
"And we were in Ant Island," Donald added.
"So we'll check it out again and seal its keyhole," said King Mickey.
"So does that give us the Great Barrier Reef?" Sora asked.
"No offence Sora," Jasmine suddenly said, "but I think I'd like to try Aladdin's and my hand at this."
"Jasmine?" Sora asked in disbelief. "You want to go to a world with Heartless."
"I'll never be able to get better if I don't live with the danger like you and Aladdin have Sora," Jasmine said. "And besides, I have this." Jasmine closed her eyes and held out her hand. There was a flash of light and a two-foot long falchion appeared in her hand.
"Is that a-?" Aladdin asked.
"No," Jasmine said, staring at the weapon in her hand, the blade of which was a bronze colour. "This is not a Keyblade. This is a weapon that I was holding in a dream I had last night, where I was on a lot of different stained-glass platforms, and forced to fight shadows. Thessaura's voice told me that it is much like a Keyblade, though its powers are less and it cannot lock or unlock any lock. It can still seal keyholes though."
"This is definitely interesting," Riku said, nodding his head slightly as her weapon vanished. "So Jasmine and Aladdin will go to the Great Barrier Reef."
"I'll go with them," Tifa said, interrupting Riku. Eyes strayed towards the woman and she placed her hands on her hips. "Well, Jasmine needs someone else to teach her how to fight doesn't she?"
"I guess so," Aladdin said, scratching his head. "And if you can keep Jasmine from being hurt Tifa, that'd be great."
"Aladdin..." Jasmine sighed.
"I'm worried Jasmine," he said. "Ever since Cossex started showing up, I've been more worried about you than I've ever been. This is getting big."
"And I'm a big girl Aladdin," Jasmine retorted, "and not just another helpless princess. It was my light that kept you safe when Cossex came the first time, and it will be my light that will keep the darkness from beating us again." Aladdin came up at a loss for words and groaned, shaking his head at Jasmine's victory.
"Asterix," King Mickey said, looking at his friend from years before. "Would it bother you if I asked if you and Obelix could go to Disney Castle to help train my people for battle? They could really use your experience."
"Asterix," Obelix said quickly, "do they have boar there?"
"Yes we have boar," King Mickey replied.
"We'll do it!" Obelix said happily, his tongue already smacking his lips. "I've always wanted to impart my knowledge of thumping Romans to others."
"Yeah, generally the Romans themselves," Max said while smiling.
"Well I can't help that it's so much fun," Obelix said.
"Axel," began King Mickey.
"You want me and Mulan to go to Twilight Town if it isn't too much trouble to help out Urophi and his boys like we did for Tidus' gang," said Axel.
King Mickey looked taken aback for a moment. "Well, yes, that's the idea." King Mickey looked at Urophi, who had been silent throughout the whole briefing. "Do you have a problem Mayor Urophi Magellan?"
He shrugged and leaned forward slightly. "Some of the officers might have a problem but I don't. Anyone who has any real combat experience will be a valuable asset amongst the training staff. But what I'm really afraid of is that we're going to need most of our men working on building or manning ships instead of ground forces."
"That is a distinct possibility," Commander Nebula said in a sombre tone.
"We'll also need some people to help teach our guys how to fly," Magellan continued, looking at Commander Nebula. "Do you think you can scrounge up some pilots for us?"
"I'll set up a meeting with my Squadron Leaders tonight and pitch the idea to them and get them to canvas their men. Anyone who will want to go will be assigned first thing in the morning."
"We'll need simulators," Magellan began.
"You'll get them," Commander Nebula assured. He looked at King Mickey quickly before the monarch could begin to speak. "And I'll ensure that your mechanics get the schematics and technical documents to the F-105 and B-40."
"What about capital ships?" King Mickey asked.
"We'll worry about those after Radiant Garden's elections," Urophi said.
Axel stretched his arms behind his head and glanced at the hero of China, "You up for training newbies Mulan?"
"I will train them as Shang trained us, and I trained the girls in my village," Mulan answered.
"Well then, we accept Your Majesty," Axel said.
"And the rest of us will go back to our worlds and wait until the day we're needed," Belle said, looking at the rest of the princesses of heart, all of whom nodded except for Kairi.
"So where does that leave us?" Aiwemon asked, looking at Sora.
"Uh, I don't know Aiwemon," replied his partner.
"We did unlock that one gateway before we left the Digital World for Destiny Islands," Kairi said, remembering back that far. "Could we check out that world Sora?"
Sora frowned. "Wait a second. Why are we still unsealing gateways to pathways between worlds when it looks like we can already travel from any world to any other world without doing that? Have the worlds all become connected again?"
"The worlds have never truly been completely disconnected from each other," answered King Mickey. "Some of the gummi routes we've used recently have been forgotten pathways that were never sealed off. But now with the amount of Heartless and darkness that has flown from the Realm of Darkness into Maleficent, it appears that all barriers have shattered for good."
"All the worlds are open," Commander Nebula said. "So if you and Princess Kairi feel that you need to go to this world that you have unlocked a pathway to, Master Sora, I say that you should follow your heart's command and go."
"Then it's all decided," King Mickey said. "Tomorrow we'll split up and go our separate ways. When you're done at the world you go to, meet back here before deciding where else to go."
"We'll furnish you all with supplies as well," Star Command's CO said. "Communicators, canteens, and new magical clothes that will change your form and their own shape when you arrive on worlds appropriate. I think you know Flora Fauna and Merryweather."
Sora smiled. "Yeah, we know those three."
-A-D-
Seeing Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather again in the morning was much like Sora had expected from his previous experience with them as they stood in the hangar bay where they had landed the Highwind and the Hunter. Each of them had selected a different design for everyone, or at the least had decided on a different colour of the same outfit a person was wearing. Flurries of blue, pink, and green sparkles shot from their wands or the clothes of the person who was stuck under their scrutinising gaze as each took a shot at changing colour.
Sora yawned and placed his hands behind his head in his trademark pose. He'd had it easiest, the three good fairies had remembered the first time they had made clothes for him and had simply remade his old black outfit for him. The only difference was that he'd requested that his hooded vest become a jacket instead, that his fingerless gloves be full gloves, and that he had a pair of boots on instead of sneakers. He was still self-conscious about his automail left arm, and preferred that it would not be seen by anyone until he had come to trust them enough with his secret. Jiminy was resting contentedly in the hood that he had grown familiar to lying in, and Sora knew for a fact that the Royal Chronicler was not about to be left behind by him on this journey.
Sora looked again at the group in front of the three good fairies. It appeared that the only ones they were actually making or remaking clothes for were him, Kairi, and Naminé. The rest all got to keep their old clothes with an added wash of magic in them.
"Are they always this fussy?" Aladdin asked Aurora, looking at the woman in her beige dress as another flurry of green assaulted a frustrated Naminé.
"For years," she giggled.
"Will you three just do it together like you did for Sora?" Riku asked after another minute of watching Naminé's turquoise shirt and white jean shorts change colour and style for the twelfth time. The three good fairies looked at Riku in annoyance for a second before waving their wands together, the streams of magic blending into one.
"Thank you Riku," Naminé said exasperatedly, looking over herself with a semi-pleased face. Sora leaned forward in interest to get a better look at her. Her former white sundress was underneath a yellow top that stretched from the middle of her bust to just a few inches beneath the base of her bosom, silver flames accenting it and it was edged in black. There was a black hood attached to the back of the yellow top, passing over her sleeveless shoulders. A black strip of fabric covered her hips before melding into a miniskirt of the same yellow as the top. Silver designs once more accented it, and since her back was turned to Sora, he was able to see a crescent moon with two wings on the side of it spanning the bottom of the crease in the back of it, two small silver flames coming down on either side from the black fabric that topped it. Her boots now went a quarter of the way up her slender shins, and were again the yellow of above, mixed with black on the heel and ankle. Zippers were on the side of the boots, the zipper shaped in the emblem of Organization XIII.
Naminé is hot Roxas.
Thank you, I know. I'll be sure to tell her that Sora.
The girl in question looked uncertainly at Roxas and Sora saw his brother smile broadly. "Beautiful," was the first of three words that left his lips, "and hot." Naminé smiled back at Roxas. Now that she was facing Sora, he could see that the circlet that had wound around her forehead was gone, the sky-blue gemstone that had been set in its centre now hanging from a necklace.
"We have one more thing for you dear," Flora said, inclining her head at Merryweather. The fairy in blue stepped up to Naminé and gave her something. Naminé summoned her Keyblade into her right hand and switched the keychain on it. There was a bright flash and Sora looked at the new blade Naminé now held. The keychain was the same as the emblem of the nobodies and Organization XIII, and that theme was evident in the Keyblade's design. The guard was a dark blue ring, an amethyst stone set in the front. The metal of the Keyblade was mostly silver in colour, and curved around in two different bands to form an empty hollow in the shape of the emblem of Organization XIII. The lower band then had its outside edge curved slightly inwards before jutting out and shrinking slowly to a sharp point. The upper band bent into something of an 'X' shape with the lower part of the 'X' melding into a solid line that ran parallel to the inside edge of the other band. The upper part of the 'X' was wide and like a bat's wings, with the hollow on the inside in the shape of a heart. The rim around the heart was pink, and the pink had seeped into the surrounding metal before fading back to the silver.
It was an intricate Keyblade and it made Sora stare at it for a few minutes just so that he could make sure he understood what he was seeing. What he did see though was Naminé's smile.
"Nobody's Pride," she said aloud, looking at her new Keyblade. "That is your name." Hs then looked at Kairi as she dismissed her Keyblade. "Your turn to deal with them sis."
Kairi groaned at Naminé's giggle and stepped forward to be inspected by Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. Roxas gave Naminé a little kiss on the cheek which caused her to giggle slightly louder. The three good fairies looked at each other before waving their wands at Kairi.
She was back in her old white blouse and pink dress with the black hood. She had kept her boots from before though, except instead of them being white, they were now pink.
"Well that sure is anti-climactic," Sora heard Kairi mutter as she looked over herself. He laughed and came up to her before kissing her cheek.
"You still look lovely though," he said, wrapping his arms around her and kissing the back of her neck. He could feel a shiver run down Kairi's spine at the touch of his lips there and made a mental note to remember that spot.
"Is everyone ready?" King Mickey asked, coming into the hangar bay, accompanied by Commander Nebula.
Sora nodded his head and swung around, still holding Kairi in her arms and causing her to shriek slightly as he picked her up to bring her with him. "I'm ready whenever Kairi's ready to conjure our portal out of here," he said over Kairi's laughs at what he had just done. It was true, they had been given their communicators from Star Command and canteens the previous night, been taught how to use the communicators, and Sora's pockets and Kairi's purse were stuffed full of Hi-potions and ethers. Everyone else who was going adventuring right now was ready too. Sora had passed the Highwind over to Max, who would be captain of the vessel while he went with Riku and Yuffie to Atlantis.
Kairi waved her hand and a shimmering portal of light opened up in the hangar bay a few feet away from them. Sora gave his girlfriend another kiss on the cheek and was about to enter it before he stopped.
"Sora?" Donald asked, seeing him cease moving. Sora pretended as if he didn't hear Donald and turned around, jogging towards a small group of four people instead.
"Bye Uncle Sal," he said, giving his uncle and godfather a hug. "Bye Auntie Victoria."
"Goodbye Sora," his aunt said, hugging him like he was her own son. "Be careful and stay safe."
"I will," Sora mumbled. He then turned to his two cousins. "Bye Sade, Sikora."
"Bye Sora," Sikora said, giving her older cousin a hug.
"See you around Sora," added Sade, shaking his hand after Sikora was finished. "You will make the festival right?"
"Of course I will!" Sora said. "I've never missed one yet. Well, apart from being asleep through the last one."
"That's because we've celebrated your birthday for the past three years the day of the festival," Sade said, shaking his head. "Take care."
Sora nodded his head and waved goodbye to all of them once more before he gave Roxas a brotherly pat on the back and pounded fists with Riku. He entered the portal with Kairi, who had just finished up saying her own goodbyes. Aiwemon and Menelmon flew in after them and Jiminy Cricket scrambled up onto Sora's shoulder just as the portal closed behind them.
"Wow," he said, looking at the landscape lit by starlight. "And so begins another adventure."
Within minutes of the portal closing, ships began leaving Star Command, taking their occupants towards adventures of their own.
Radio chatter could be heard from between the occupants of two of the ships, a small fighter and a larger ship that was flying along next to it. "You're still coming with us then?"
"Of course I am Axel," Lt. Dreyson said. "Someone needs to teach those Twilight Town boys how to fly."
"Won't you get into trouble though?" Axel asked.
"I have three days' leave," she answered. "I volunteered and my CO's already assigned me along with two others from our squadron and there are six more from the other two squadrons coming. I'm leaving early with you guys because of my leave. And, I don't think you'd be able to keep yourself out of trouble with Mushu around you, got it memorized?"
"You know," Axel said after a moment, "I think you're the only person I've met besides me who that line suits."
-A-D-
And so The War begins...
(A/N 1): I don't care that I rarely do these little Author's Notes, I just had to put one in. That Interceptor is Canadian and I am making damn sure that everyone realizes it!
I still believe that there is a CF-105 Avro Arrow hidden somewhere in this country, and that one day the Arrow program will be re-instated. However, there is no such aircraft as the B-40 and its designation is solely because there were forty chapters in The Beginning and this is really the beginning of The War, so that's why.
For Naminé's outfit and Keyblade go to DeviantArt and search the words Naminé Master Keyblade. It's the first picture.
May the Grace of the Valar Protect You
Shire Folk