"I'll go with you guys."
The Gummi XXI.
The King had a new model of the Gummi Ship built, and this one was ten times larger than the originals. Long ago, Mickey had this ship constructed just in case he needed to fit a lot of people in somewhere. Convenient, no?
Not to mention the inside looked pretty smooth as well. The exterior of the ship looked like the original Highwind, but was painted in blue and green colors rather than red and yellow.
After deluding themselves with the atmosphere, Sora, Riku, and Kairi decided to get comfortable. Sora went down in the basement hanger to spend some time with Donald and Goofy, which Kairi secretly did not approve. She wished that Sora would pay her a little more attention.
Oh well, at least she had Riku to keep her company.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Riku said, handing her a sea-salt ice cream bar. "They have some in the mini-fridge."
Kairi smiled and took her ice cream bar. She's loved them ever since Hayner, Pence, and Olette introduced her to them during her brief stay at Twilight Town.
"What's wrong, Kai?" Riku asked with sympathetic eyes. He hated seeing Kairi like this.
"Nothing...it's just..."
"Sora?" He interrupted. She nodded, inevitably. Riku didn't understand, Sora wasn't giving her the time of day at all, and yet he's all this girl thinks about. Here he was trying to be a good friend, and that's all she thought of him as: a good friend.
Why did she love Sora so much? What did he have that he didn't? Well, whatever it was, Riku wanted it. Another reason for Riku to be jealous of his best friend, like he told him back at the Dark Margin.
Riku silently bit on his salty yet sweet ice cream.
Down below, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were playing a game of "funny faces", a game they'd always play when things got a little too tense for their liking. It always cheered them up.
The three were laughing their heads off with Goofy's face, so hard that they all fell down on the soft rug below them. They laid down wit their heads all near each other, still laughing like old times. Soon it died down, and ended with a sigh exhaled by the three in unison.
"I missed you guys." Sora said, breaking the silence.
"We missed you too, Sora." Goofy answered, on Donald's behalf, which was okay, because he agreed.
"I can't wait to see Leon and the gang." Donald brought up.
"Yeah..." Sora agreed.
"So, Sora," Goofy began. "Did ya ever confess to Kairi?"
Sora blushes. Since when did Goofy bring this type of stuff up? Usually it was Donald who'd always tease Sora about Kairi.
"Uh...I don't know what you're t-talking about."
Donald sat up, rolling his eyes. "Please, Sora. Can you cut the act?" Donald said. "We all know you got a thing for the girl."
Sora pouted, "Is it that obvious?"
"You guys are always making googly eyes at each other, how is it not?" The duck responded.
"Besides," Goofy chimed in. "I don't think you do all that you've done for Kairi and not like her. For Pete's sake Sora, ya practically killed yourself for her."
Sora puts a smirk on his face and rubs his nose. "I did, didn't I?"
"You're gonna have to tell her some time, Sora." Donald admitted.
Sora sighed, knowing he was right. If he kept the emotions bottled up, he was going to get sick. And a broken heart isn't healthy when you're trying to save the universe...again if he may add.
They felt the ship land, then giving each other excited looks.
"Oh boy!" Donald yelled out.
The three scurried up the stairs.
...
Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked out of the ship. King Mickey waiting by the door.
"Hurry on up, fellas. You three will go on and give them the details. They'll trust you guys the most, since you all are so close." Mickey exclaimed.
The reunited trio nod and walk off to go find their friends. They knew where to go. They were very familiar with the town now.
The three eventually make their way up to Merlin's place, but before they can enter the room, they are attacked by the Heartless. No, not simple shadows and soldiers, we're talking Behemoths, Invisibles, and Surveillance bots. There were tons of heartless surrounding them, some even from Tron's world.
The three took out their weapons. "There's so many!" Sora yelled.
"But we don't got much of a choice!" Goofy responded.
They all nodded in agreement and began fighting off the Heartless, slashing and bashing with all they had.
Sora started backing up while using his Keyblade to deflect all the blasts being blasted at him. He windmill flipped into the air while spinning his Keyblade, and he proceeded in knocking hard blows in mid-air against some of the flying Heartless.
Meanwhile, Donald and Goofy were holding up okay. Donald was casting numerous spells to keep himself in tact. Goofy was doing the best he could with his lousy shield.
Sora landed on his feet, but as soon as he does, he performs multiple back flips to avoid a pillar being thrown his way. He tosses himself in the air, quickly using his Keyblade to slash the pillar into two pieces. Sora blasted the pieces back to the heartless by casting a Firaga spell.
Sora landed on his feet. He had learned how to fight so well over the years. However, he was caught off guard when he was ambushed by a multitude of heartless, knocking him to the ground. "NO!" He cried. "Donald...Goofy!"
"Sora...!" Goofy yelled out. Looks like they were in the same situation as him. This was it, this was how it all ended. Fine, as long as Sora could die with two of his best friends, that made it okay. Of course, he never told Kairi about how he felt...but...that's okay.
Just when all hope was lost, a high-pitched voice called his name. "SORA!"
Sora looked up in the sky to see Mickey diving down, his Keyblade in hand. Mickey impales a behemoth, light surrounding him. Mickey lands and immediately begins killing the heartless surrounding Sora very fancily.
Sora barely has any strength left. Once Mickey fights a few of the heartless off, he runs up to Sora.
"You got beat up pretty badly!" Mickey denounces. He spins his Keyblade with one hand before pointing it to the sky. "Curaga!"
Sora feels his strength return, and he stands straight up, giving the King a nod before the two face the heartless in their battle stances, back-to-back, soon joined by Donald and Goofy.
"What do we do?" Donald asked. "There's way too many..."
Good question. Sora himself didn't think they could survive this. Where were Leon and the gang? They were right in front of Merlin's house, did they not hear all the loud noises and battle cries?
Just then, a large Buster sword pierces through the heartless like a boomerang. Sora, Donald, and Goofy recognize that sword all too well.
The sword began spinning in fast succession in mid-air before a certain spiky-haired blond flipped down and caught before landing.
It was Cloud, clad in the same outfit he wore during the 1000 Heartless War some time ago.
"Cloud!" Sora and his friends cheered.
Cloud nodded in response before turning his attention back to the heartless, the other four doing the same. In the matter of about ten minutes of fighting, the five finally took down the raid of heartless.
After taking a moment to catch their breathe, Goofy decided to break the ice. "Cloud, do ya happen to know where Leon is?"
Cloud stands up, using his sword for support, speaking in his normal monotone voice, "Should be at Ansem's lab. They don't use Merlin's place as their base anymore."
"That makes sense. There's a lot more valuable information back at Ansem's study." Said Mickey.
"Why are you here?" Cloud asked. "Don't you know it's dangerous here? Heartless are coming in at an all-time high."
Sora pursed his lips, "In case you weren't paying attention all these months, it's kind of our job stop the heartless."
"You're in way over your heads this time around." Cloud continued. "Bigger heartless have been coming here, the town is almost in ruins now. The heartless war was nothing compared to this."
"That's exactly why we're here to stop it!" Mickey said enthusiastically. "We even have a hunch about who may be the cause of this. Ever heard of a man named Xehanort?"
"No." The swordsman simply replied before walking off to an unknown destination.
Cloud was always trying to be some hard ass who didn't give a damn about anything, but Sora and company were used to that by now. Sora knows better than anyone about Cloud's softer side.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked up to Cloud, who was sitting by some steps to the exit of the Olympus Coliseum.
Cloud was at a loss. How could he let Hades trick him like that? He was one step closer to finding Sephiroth, now he took a hundred steps back again. He let his darkness take control. Sephiroth was in for some serious pain dished out with a certain Buster sword-wielding individual.
Sora sensed something was troubling Cloud. Even at fourteen years old, Sora cared about others and their well-being. He gave Cloud a smile with concerned eyes. "Hey, are you alright?"
Cloud looked up to see Sora looking at him. Cloud could almost feel the light shining within this boy. He closed his eyes and put mouth by his clasped hands. "Yeah." He answered simply.
Sora crossed his arms, "Why?"
Cloud looked back up at the boy.
"Why did you go along with him, anyway?" Sora asked.
"Hmph...I'm looking for someone, and Hades promised to help." Cloud began. "I thought the power of darkness would help, but it backfired. I let the darkness consume me, and the light became out of reach. I couldn't...I couldn't find the light..."
Sora uncrosses his arms, and gives Cloud his grin. "You'll find it."
Cloud looks down at the boy.
"I'm searching, too." Sora finished.
"For your light?" Asked the intense fighter. Sora nodded in response. He had lost his light when he was separated from Kairi, but he was beginning to find his light once again with Donald and Goofy. Cloud couldn't help but respect the boy, but he wasn't going to admit that. But he did take out a trinket of his, and he took Sora's hand and placed the trinket in Sora's possession. "Don't lose sight of it." He said while walking off.
Sora smiled as he looked down at the orichalcum Cloud had given him. He knew there was some light in him somewhere. Sora turned around and waved. "How about rematch some time?" The boy proposed. "Fair and square, no dark powers involved!"
Cloud stopped. He admired the boy's persistence, but he had his light to find. He flipped his hair back, "I think I'll pass." He simply answered.
Rejected. Oh well, at least Sora was able to get a little bit of that light out of him. Sora smiled as Cloud made his way.
Soon, Sora found himself in Ansem's lab. It seemed empty.
"Hello!" Goofy yelled out. "Leon!"
"Anybody home?" Mickey yelled out.
Soon, Aerith walked out from the lab portion of Ansem's study to see what all the racket was. "Hey."
"Hi." They all replied.
"I'm guessing you all have seen the situation outside?" Aerith asked.
"Yup. That's why we need to talk to you all." Mickey answered. "Where's everybody else?"
Aerith gestured them to follow her as she led them inside the lab. In there were the likes of Cid, who was typing on the computer, Leon, Yuffie, Tifa, the Gullwings, and Merlin.
"Sora!" Yuffie cheered out.
"Wow, you guys really do have some good timing." Leon said, smirking with his arms crossed.
A/N: I know, lack luster reunion, but remember it's only been about a week since Kingdom Hearts 2 ended, so it really hasn't been that long since they were last together.
"We'd love to chat, but we have some business to attend to." Mickey said, getting straight down to business.
"We were thinking the same thing." Merlin responded.
"We think we may know who's behind this mess," Mickey continued. "But we have a bad feeling that he's stronger than ever at this point. Which means, we need all the help we can get. And even though it's not exactly safe to be bringin' folks from world to world, we trust you all."
They all exchanged glances, wondering if they should agree.
"Sure, we'll help you out." Tifa answered.
"On one condition..." Leon interrupted.
"Yeah! You give us all of your treasure!" Rikku chimed in, temporarily going back to her old ways. Paine whacked Rikku in the head, annoyed with her immaturity. "Ow!"
"If you want us to help ya'll out, you gon' have to help us out first." Cid answered.
"You didn't have to ask," Smiled Sora. "We're all friends, right? We would have done it anyway."
"Forgot who I was dealing with again." Leon muttered.
"As long as you didn't forget about us this time!" Donald yelled out, recalling what the gang told them last time, receiving chuckles out of everybody.
"So, what do we need to do?" Mickey asked.
"I got a hunch that there's somethin' messin' with the town's data system," Cid began. "Some idiot musta hacked into the town's data and reconstructed it for total anarchy. I asked Tron if he knew about it, but he couldn't decode the original source."
Sora, crossing his arms in thought, tries to process what Cid just explained. He was never the brightest when it came to technology and computers. "So...um...basically, the file Tron used to restore Hollow Bastion into Radiant Garden...someone messed it up?"
"That's the basic way of puttin' it." Cid answered.
"So, uh, how do we fix it?" Goofy asked.
"Tron said he needed to send us another reprogramming disc." Yuna answered.
"We sent it to him, but he hasn't responded back since. We're starting to get a little worried about him." Said Aerith.
Sora stepped up and bumped his fist. "Don't worry, we got this!"
"We know," Leon smirked. "So, think you can handle this?"
Sora whips out his Keyblade and twirls it around a little, but just to show off a little. "We took out the MCP, didn't we?" Sora rests his Keyblade on his shoulders.
"Okay," Leon responded. "We're have you take Tifa with you, since she knows how to hack into the I/O Tower communication signals."
"Huh?" Donald asked. Since when did Tifa enter Space Paranoids?
As if reading his mind, Tifa answered, "I go in there from time to time to train. I've never met Tron, though. Anyway, you mind me tagging along?"
"No way!" Sora answered. He always thought Tifa was super hot anyway. About time he got some eye candy (besides Kairi) when he was out adventuring.
"Okay, here's the plan," Leon spoke. "I'm going to go out and check up on things outside. I want Yuffie and Mickey with me to go to the Bailey and secure it. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine, you guys head out into town and protect any civilians. Aerith, you stay here with Cid. Cid, keep working on finding that data. Sora, Donald, Goofy, Tifa...you know what to do."
"Right!" Everyone agreed.
"Alright, let's do this!" Rikku yelled out, and once she did, everybody broke out to do what they were told.
Sora types on the computer, remembering what buttons needed to be pressed in order to get simulated.
Sora, Tifa, Donald, and Goofy run up in front of the simulator and allowed themselves to be sucked into the computer.
...
Meanwhile, in Gummi XXI, Riku and Kairi were still lounging around. They were given the orders to protect the ship while the rest of them were out recruiting. They sure were taking their sweet old time, though.
Kairi had changed her outfit to a more athletic friendlier outfit. She had on a white tank top that didn't cover her belly button, some short shorts to show off her creamy legs, and her hair was tied into a pony tail.
Riku couldn't help but glance a couple times. She looked really good in that outfit. If Sora were here, his nose would be bleeding for sure.
"Damn it," Kairi started. She was beyond bored at this point. "What the hell is taking them so long?"
Riku looked out the window. Hollow Bastion looked a lot different from the last time he was here. He didn't even know it was renamed Radiant Garden. "It looks pretty bad out there. I'm sure that they might have ran into some trouble."
That was possible, Kairi hadn't thought of that. What if Sora got hurt? "Should we go out and look for them?"
Riku shook his head, "Mickey would kill us if something happened to this ship."
That was also true. But still..."What if Sora gets hurt?" She replied.
Ugh, this again. "You...you really like him don't you?"
Kairi hesitated, but she nodded.
"I mean, do you like him?" Riku asked.
Kairi stood up and took a few steps from Riku, her back to him, and her arms behind her back. "Riku," She started. "I think I'm in love him."
And there went his heart. Broken like an old record. But it made sense, after all, Sora went through hell to protect Kairi. What had he done? Given into the darkness. So he couldn't be mad at Kairi for loving Sora, and he couldn't be mad at Sora for being the caring guy he is. Only himself he is angry with, for not doing what Sora did all that time, and that was care about his friends.
He did a miserable job of that.
"I see." Riku simply replied.
...
Sora opened his eyes. He rubbed his head and tried to remember what he was doing. Then the memories flooded back. He was supposed to be finding the reprogramming disc Cid sent to Tron.
He looked around and noticed he was in the Pit Cell, the room where he first met Tron.
Sora walked up to Donald and Goofy, who were staring out the window. The place was very vertigo, lights shining everywhere and data programs were roaming about. It almost looked like some kind of futuristic city. They had on new outfits, too. They lit up and looked kind of weird, but cool.
"What kind of place is this, anyway?" Sora asked rhetorically.
"I don't get any of this..." Donald complained.
"You're all inside a computer system." A voice said to them, not very familiar either.
They turned around to see a man in a suit similar to theirs. He looked almost like a man in his mid-thirties, but there was something off about him.
"Huh?" Goofy simply asked.
"Wait..." Sora stalled.
Sora and Donald looked at each other for a moment, then yelled out in unison, "YOU SAID WE'RE INSIDE A COMPUTER?!"
The man sweat dropped while chuckling nervously. These were definitely users. "Lively, aren't you?" He began. "Allow me to explain. This computer system was a copy of a system created by a corporation called 'Encom' that was used for a variety of data processing. Not long after, this copy of the system was acquired by another user who modified all the programs to suit his desires, renaming the program, 'Hollow Bastion OS'. He used the system to keep up with the town maintenance and his own personal research. My name is Tron, I was a security program on the system, but as you can see, I'm a prison here, just like you. I'm going to guess you three are users."
Sora and his friends sweat dropped. They didn't get a word he just said. "Uh...users?" Sora asked.
Tron chuckled, "Users, the ones who use the system for their own use."
Sora rubbed the back of his head and glanced at his two comrades, asking them what he should do. They shrugged, being just as stumped as him. Sora figured the best thing to do was just introduce themselves. Baby steps, baby steps...
"I'm Sora."
"I'm Donald."
"Nice to meet ya, Tron, I'm Goofy." And so a friendship was born.
Sora stood up and took a look around. He was noticed he was back in his computer outfit. But what he did noticed was that Donald and Goofy weren't around, but only a beautiful black-haired boxer on the ground.
Sora ran up to Tifa and shook her awake. "Hey, wake up, Tifa."
The girl moaned as she fluttered her eyes open, to see the fifteen going on sixteen year old looking at her with concerned eyes.
"You okay?" Asked Sora.
She nodded her head in response. Sora helped her up to her feet, where she was still wobbly and dazed, but quickly came back to her senses and regained her balance.
"Where are we?" She asked.
"Never been in the sector before?" Sora asked. She nodded 'no'. "This is the Pit Cell. It's where I first met Tron."
Tifa noticed they were short of two other heads. "Where's Donald and Goofy?"
"Dunno." Sora said while walking up to the locked that imprisoned them, he spin-slashed it and flipped up into the air, pointing his Keyblade at the lock, unlocking it with his Blade. Tifa was quite impressed, she had never truly seen Sora in action, save one time, but she was fighting too, and wasn't paying much attention to him.
Sora landed and turned back at Tifa with a smile. "But I'm sure they're okay. Now come on, let's go find them and Tron."
Tifa nodded as she followed Sora on the platform that led them deeper into the system. Tifa decided to start up a conversation with Sora, might as well bond with him, since she's never taken interest in getting to know him before.
"So," She started. "When did you first get that Keyblade of yours? You sure do know how to use it."
Sora chuckled, "I got it when I was fourteen. Almost a fluke, honestly, it didn't even choose me first. It chose my best friend, Riku. But he fell to darkness, at the time, of course."
Sora ran up to Riku, who was near the paopu fruit tree, staring off at the huge black hole consuming their island. "Where's Kairi?! I thought she was with you!"
Riku in a trance, answered in a monotone voice, "The door...has opened."
Sora raises a brow. "What?"
Riku turned around to face his friend, a slight smirk on his face. "This is it, Sora! This is our chance to finally be free to go to the outside world."
"What about Kairi-"
"Kairi's coming with us!"
Sora was taken aback by Riku's sudden anger. What had happened to his charismatic, cocky, and confident friend? He wasn't the boy standing in front of him, that's for sure.
"The darkness isn't to be feared Sora, we can't let fear stand in our way. This may be our only chance. I'm not afraid of the darkness!" Riku put his hand out, gesturing Sora to come with him.
Sora wasn't exactly comfortable with this side of Riku. "Riku..."
Then, darkness was beginning to engulf Riku. He couldn't just let his friend be. What the heck was Sora going to do without Riku? Sora reached out, trying his hardest to grab his friend's hand. Riku was acting like a mere statue, a weird, calm look in his eyes as he watched his best friend struggle.
Sora couldn't do it, he couldn't get to Riku. Then, a light appeared, flashing before him so hard it nearly blinded him. When Sora opened his eyes, Riku was gone. But in his hand was a Key...or was it a sword. The words 'Keyblade' echoed in his head.
"Sounds intense." Tifa replied after Sora was done with his story. The two were walking down a large hall. Seemed peaceful enough, too peaceful to be honest. Both kept their guard up, the heartless could strike any moment.
Sora was walking with his hands folded behind his head. "Yup, pretty crazy stuff. But hey, I ended up having a great time. I don't know why, but I keep reminiscing my past journeys lately. I don't know why..."
"Nostalgia?" Tifa asked.
"Maybe," Sora answered. "Funny, because I spent a majority of the time wishing I could so home, or least see Riku and Kairi again. Then I got that, and then I started wanting to go back out and do it all over again."
"I think the adventure lifestyle has just gotten to you." Tifa concluded.
"I think you're right." Sora agreed.
Tifa sensed a sprinkle of sadness in his tone when he said that. "You okay?"
Sora grinned at her again, but even though it was convincing, she saw right through it. Something was on Sora's mind. "Yeah, of course!" Sora said.
Tifa grabbed Sora's arm and stopped him. "No, seriously..." She started. "What's wrong?"
Sora gave up. She wasn't taking no for an answer. "Okay, just promise not to laugh."
"I won't."
"Okay, well...the truth is, there's this girl I really like...and I don't know how to tell her how I feel." He explained.
"Why would I laugh at something like that?" She smiled.
"Because it's corny." He answered, despite the fact that everyone he knew always considered him the king of corniness.
"Who is this girl? It's not...m-me, is it?" She asked hesitantly.
Sora looked at her like she was nuts. Sure, he thought she was sexy, but he like her like that. "No. She's a girl my age. Aren't you like, thirty anyway?"
Tifa's eye twitched. "I'm twenty-two! Do I seriously look thirty to you?"
Sora shrugged, a smirk on his face.
"ANYWAY," Tifa started again. "It's pretty easy, Sora, telling a girl your feelings. Tell them how you feel. Simple as that."
Didn't seem so simple to the Keyblade wielder. "What if she doesn't like me back?"
"You'd be surprised," Tifa started. "You'll be so glad to have gotten your feelings off your chest that you'll get over it quicker than usual. It'll hurt at first but it won't be so bad."
"Speaking from experience?" Sora asked.
"Nope," Tifa smiled. "I just know these things."
Sora rolled his eyes playfully. Just then, of course, a fume of heartless pop up, surrounding the two very skilled fighters. They get in their stances and ready up, while Sora whispered to her, "You ready for this?"
Tifa smirked. Sora was already growing on her. But she had a feeling he had that affect on a lot of people. "Aw, hell yeah." Was her response.