Chapter 3: Starting a Final Fantasy
Ash and Pikachu were thankful to run into Tifa. She neutralized Team Rocket and threw Jessie like a javelin. She should try out for the Olympics in Rio. They, along with Donald and Goofy, entered the hideout occupied by Leon and Aerith. "You have a problem with ducks and dogs working together?" Donald quacked at Ash.
"No, I just find it hard to believe that you're walking, talking animals, let alone those helping Sora," Ash tried to correct. "Not to mention that this King Mickey I heard in my dream is a mouse like Pikachu." What about that cat that was with Team Rocket? Donald stopped by the doorway with his wings tucked away in disgust.
"Phooey! He needs to get out more often." Ash and Tifa came forward to meet Leon.
"So, you must be the new keyblade wielder," he addressed. "With Malificent running amok, we need all the help we can get. I'm Leon and this is Aerith." The brunette young woman came forward, extending a hand.
"Hello there," she greeted. Seeing the hand, Ash clasped and shook it with his own. "It's nice to meet the new holder of the keyblade. Who might you be?"
"It's Ash Ketchum," he introduced himself. Pikachu hopped from Tifa's shoulder onto Ash's head. "And my Pokémon friend, Pikachu." Pikachu flashed a peace sign, his introduction. Aerith got excited about Pikachu, even snagging him from the cap.
"You're adorable!" Seeing how much Aerith held Pikachu, Ash realized what Tifa meant after she stopped Team Rocket.
("I'm being loved!") Pikachu squeaked. Apparently, he's forgotten what Ash said when Tifa entered just after knocking Jessie senseless. Leon wanted to return to the subject.
"So, how did you acquire the keyblade?" he questioned Ash. The new holder tried to recall what happened to have the keyblade in his hands.
"Honestly, I don't know," he shrugged. "I found myself surrounded by Heartless before I heard a voice telling me to swing my arm out. When I did, the keyblade was in my hands and I fought back against them." Leon looked disturbed. Something didn't quite fit.
"Interesting... This voice..." He may be asking about the voice's gender. "Was it a man?" Ash thought back once more.
"Not quite man but a boy's voice." The pieces of this puzzle were now fitting to create a picture.
"Just as I feared. Sora reached out for someone and found you to be his successor. Do you have any formal training?" Ash shook his head. Leon had an issue on his mind. "We have a problem. And with Cloud and Zidane in other worlds, I may be the only one to properly train you." How ironic that a trainer was going under training.
"No problem! I can learn pretty fast." Hearing his confidence told Leon that he was ready.
"Then let's step out." Everyone followed Ash and Leon out to the streets. Donald, Goofy and Pikachu stood behind Ash who brought out his keyblade. "Alright, you have Sora's keyblade. Let me draw out mine." He unsheathed what looked to be a mix of a sword and a revolver. That's a weird sword design.
"What in the world is that?" Tifa chose to help Ash on that.
"He's got a gunblade," she clarified. Leon pointed the giant steel blade at Ash, now with padding on the blade. Preventing any wounds?
"Ready?" Leon asked. A nod from Ash brought the spar to a start. Ash raced in, the keyblade's prongs over his head and holding the weapon like a baseball bat. "Rookie..." Ash swung the keyblade but was blocked by the revolver part of the gunblade. Leon effortlessly shooed Ash away from such a beginner's attack. "Don't come charging in like you have a club and want to bash heads in. Keep your weapon concealed until you can get a clean strike." Easy for him to say, that keyblade's about as big as Ash is.
"So...like this?" he asked as he ran back at Leon, his weapon lower and the prongs nearly touching the ground. He swung at the same area but used the other side of the blade, striking the padding. Leon realized Ash swung backwards and noticed something more when Ash pulled his blade off and spun his body and keyblade for an overhead strike. Leon rose his gunblade in time to block the attack. Ash was a little upset. Returning to his corner, Leon lowered his blade.
"Not bad! Using the back of the keyblade to gather force for that attack...you have potential." Ash smiled and raced back in again. This time, Leon didn't want to hold back. The flurry of swinging steel was fast and furious. Suddenly, an upswing from Ash fired a tiny fireball to the sky. He saw the fireball and leaped after it. One chopping swing nailed the fireball which broke and rained on Leon. The opponent saw the rain of fire, covering up while the flames plummeted on top of him. Even after the rain of fire stopped, everyone awed at the ability Ash performed.
("Was that Ember?!") Pikachu squeaked in shock, oddly not his own.
"Whoa!" Tifa gasped. "Did he use magic? And combine it?!" What magic was it? Someone would answer but it wasn't from the crowd.
"That's Sora's magic he learned in the memory of the keyblade," an old man spoke out. All turned to the voice, an aged man in a pointy blue hat, blue robe and long beard. He also wore tiny circular glasses. Donald quacked at who the oldie was.
"It's Merlin!" he gawked. This was the one who told Ash about the situation at hand. Still, this was an odd way of seeing who was calling out to him.
"You're Merlin?" he asked to verify. Merlin scoffed at the puzzled look on Ash's face.
"I could have waited for you at my workshop but when I saw that Fire, I had to come by and make sure," he explained. When he reached Ash and saw the keyblade, Merlin waived his hand over the weapon. "Sora's memories are infused into the keyblade and it's slowly recognizing the new wielder. Soon enough, the spells like Blizzard, Thunder, Aero and Cure will return to the blade and help him." Who knew there was so much power within the keyblade. "Somehow, you have the ability to combine magic with basic attacks, creating maneuvers capable of mesmerizing the Heartless." A scary technique and one Ash couldn't wait to unleash.
("Is the keyblade that powerful?") Pikachu wondered. Merlin heard Pikachu, finally seeing the mouse for the first time.
"So you're the company of the new keyblade master." Merlin placed his hand between the ears of the Pokémon, glowing blue.
("This is strange...") A minute later, Merlin removed his hand. Pikachu shook off the palming to get his mind straight about what just happened.
"You and this boy have gone through a lot together. Indeed you are the pride of him." Pikachu felt humbled to receive this praise by Merlin.
"Well, thank you very..." Pikachu...spoke human? This sudden and new item for him freaked the poor mouse out of his fur. "Wait a minute! I'm talking human!" Usually, that's a good thing. Pikachu wasn't ready for such a transformation of his voice. "What did you do to me?!" Merlin wasn't ashamed by what he did.
"I just used a spell to help understand animals. The spell can be removed by my hands. However, it's my method you to know you better." Ash didn't really like the way Merlin manipulated Pikachu's voice. Still, hearing Pikachu talk like he would could help understand the two even more.
"Okay, but when this is all over, I want my voice back. I don't wanna be the next Meowth." Aerith hoisted the mouse toward her chest, trying to comfort the still shocked rodent.
"There are more talking animals throughout the universe you can talk to," she pointed out. Pikachu had a thought to Aerith's observation. With what could be on his way, his language would confuse everyone on the way.
"I see your point." Something Aerith said triggered a memory from Merlin.
"Thank you for reminding me, Miss Aerith," he praised. This alerted the others into the wonderment of his visit.
"What do you mean?" Tifa asked.
"It's the universe. It has expanded since Sora traveled with Goofy and Donald. Along with Wonderland, Agrabah and Hollow Bastion to name a few, new worlds like Port Royale, Mahora and Seireti have emerged with Heartless on the attack." New areas for Goofy and Donald as they're about to team up with Ash and head to find Sora.
"We should make a stop to Destiny Island to see how Kairi's holding up," Goofy suggested. A new name had surfaced for Ash.
"Who's Kairi?" he wondered.
"She's a friend of Sora," Donald replied. "Those two and Rikku grew up on Destiny Island before the Heartless attacked. When we take care of some of the worlds, we'll use the Gummi Ship to take you and Pikachu to see it for yourselves." An island getaway?
"Sounds like a plan." Merlin was satisfied that the keyblade found someone worthy after all. Still, he needed to make sure Ash could do the job.
"Can I...we depend on you to seal the worlds from Malificent and the Heartless?" Merlin questioned. "I don't want Sora to regret providing you the main weapon to someone who can't perform the tasks." This was a tall order. Ash felt that if the Heartless aren't stopped, his world could be next.
"Merlin, I've yet to let anyone down with something like this. I'm not gonna start now." Leon sensed the confidence with Ash and knew he was capable for a mission like this.
"That's an answer I like to hear," he muttered. "Let's head to the hangar." All but Merlin proceeded on when Ash noticed the wizard hanging back.
"What about you, Merlin?" The wizard had a plan of his own.
"I'll continue to search for Sora," he announced. "If anything comes up, I'll contact you on the Gummi Ship." Ash put his faith in Merlin to find the original keyblade wielder.
"Deal. Keep in touch." Ash raced to catch up with the rest. At a hangar, a grown blond man and two chipmunks put the last touches on a huge multicolored vessel with a domed cockpit, guns, missile launchers and boosters. The blond wore a dirty white t-shirt and jeans. One of the two chipmunks had a red nose while the other had black.
"Cid!" Leon called out. The blond turned to the group, a piece of grass sticking out of his mouth.
"Leon, right on time!" Cid smiled. "The Gummi Ship's ready to go." Ash stood forward to see what the Gummi Ship looked like.
"So that's a Gummi Ship?" he surveyed. "I wanna say another word besides impressive..." Cid observed Ash, wondering if this was the new hero of the universe. That's right, He-Man! Take a back seat to this!
"Cid, this is Ash Ketchum," Tifa spoke up. "He'll be going around to fight the Heartless." Cid was skeptical.
"This runt?" he laughed. "Well, if those two are helping him, I got no choice in the matter, do I?" Not necessarily. "Chip, Dale, release the restraints!" The chipmunks slammed a few buttons which let loose the Gummi Ship from the ground in which it began to float. Ash bobbed a nod, ready to go with Pikachu, Goofy and Donald coming from behind. The chipmunks opened a hangar door leading outside. This was it. It's not the adventure Ash wanted but with a universe at risk, he had to take it. The booster engines ignited. The ramp extended out to the night sky.
"All statuses are green!" announced the red-nosed chipmunk.
"All occupants are restrained!" the black-nosed chipmunk reported. "Dale, begin the countdown!"
"10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1... Blast off!" The Gummi Ship shot out of the hangar like a cannon and zoomed up to space. The mission began.
"So, where do we go first?" Pikachu pondered.
TO BE CONTINUED...
(And this is where you control where Ash, Pikachu, Donald and Goofy go to. I only provided examples but you can put your suggestions along with your review. The world will be decided after my next Soul Calibur chapter.)
