Kingdom Hearts: Inheritance

Chapter 6

Crossing the Timeless River was the easy part, taking a raft from the dock. Hacking into the wilderness beyond it made for much slower progress as not many of Disney Town's residents were ever forced to travel out this far. Cael swinging his keyblade until his arm was sore, Max bashing away at branches and underbrush with his shield; yet there was a characteristic lack of conversation between them that couldn't just be chalked up to being tired from the earlier events of the day. Max took the first opportunity to speak up, when they found their way into something of a clear area they could take a short rest at.

"It can't be too far from here... and I'm glad we finally get a chance to hang out together and do something fun-like," he said, focusing on the silver lining in it all, and how their usual schedule had often gotten in the way.

"It's not skateboarding, but you're right," came Cael's reply quickly. Clearly he was also willing to talk, but the focus on finding their missing teacher (and idol) and then being forced to take a seperate path from his friends to do that was weighing on his heart. "It's kinda like the stories we heard about Sora leaving his home island to go adventuring with Donald and your dad. We get to be heroes too... kinda. I mean, I just got a proper keyblade and all, but I'm not sure I'd call smacking at plants a good story just yet."

"Couldn't Sora and Riku ride their keyblades?" Max recalled, barely understanding the technique involved.

Of course, Cael just laughed off the absurd notion. "I'm nowhere even close to that level. And Sora's got like, the best Keyblade out there. It can do all sorts of stuff, and open anything. Mine might be able to unlock a lunchbox at the most."

As if to spite him for his comment and lack of faith, the air-aspected blade in Cael's hand promptly dissolved in much the same way it had formed. The suddenness left both of the boys in shock.

"Nice going. You pissed it off," Max bluntly pointed out.

"I didn't know keyblades could hear!" Cael snapped back, just reinforcing how naive he was.
There was more to it though, Cael feeling a subtle pull in his body now before spotting faint green wisps flowing and leading them forward. "I think... we need to go this way."

Indeed, it wasn't far at all before they found the expected catastrophe of broken trees and uprooted earth caused by a crashlanding ship. Further up the gash, the Highwind was surely there and completely trashed. The engines were still coughing out smoke, and the gummi wings were torn apart with the pieces scattered everywhere.

"Yup, it's totalled. Let's place the beacon like Chip and Dale said and then we can head back. It's getting late," Max prompted, using his shield to block the now-setting sun from getting into his eyes.

"Yeah, but..." Cael paused, tilting his head with idle fancy while looking over the wreckage. "This is the first time I've actually got to see the Highwind up close, Max. Even if it is kind of broken right now, I want to see the inside." The ship itself had gotten some modifications over the years, though it was still a bit more compact than he expected. Also, with his keyblade still refusing to reform and the sun setting, Cael had little interest in trying to fight their way back through the dense forest if he could avoid it.

"You're the boss. Actually, what are the chances that there's a bunk for sleeping in there, and we could just catch a ride back when they send the retreival team?" Max gave in, flipping over to the same thought line as Cael. Shrugging, he set about looking for ways to pop the hatch.

"That's the spirit!" Cael flashed his usual grin. Kicking it out here with Max like it was a camping trip was just his style.

When they managed to break into the cockpit, Cael wasted no time hopping into the 'Captain Chair', fiddling around with the dead controls. "Okay, gang! Let's warp to Hollow Bastion!" he said, pretending like he was Sora and that it would respond.

Max rolled his eyes, knowing that Cael was sometimes given to such sillyness, but to their combined surprise the ship still did something. It wasn't picking up to take off, but it wasn't doing nothing either. A red light started blinking on the console before a screen then lit up, printing out blocky text:
'CRITICAL SYSTEMS FAILURE_'
'WARP GUMMI ACTIVATION ERROR_'
'IMMEDIATE SERVICE REQUIRED_'
'Would you like to run GyroHelp (Y/N)_'

It took Cael a couple seconds to make sense of what just happened. "I really need to stop assuming that things can't hear me. It wants to... run a program now?"

"Yeah..." Max said, coming to the same conclusion. However, the system then took it as an affirmative response to the prompt, the holographic head of an unfamiliar male anthro-chicken wearing tiny spectacles then popping up on the console in front of them.

"Whoa!" the two wheeled back in surprise.

"If you are hearing this recording, then odds are your Warp Gummy no longer works and you are now hopelessly stranded out in subspace!" it spoke, far too excited for any situation where it would be warranted. The beaked image then followed up, "Luckily, thanks to the planning of Scrooge McDuck's Gummi Mechanical Workshop, your ship was fittted with my experimental failsafe invention, the Gyro Recaller! All you have to do to activate it is remove the damaged block from the engine core and attatch the blue wire leading from the black unit on the side into the base of the remaining platform. Make sure to stay on the platform though; the Workshop is not responsible for what may happen otherwise. Good luck!"

The holo-head blinked out and the ship went back to its quiet state from before. Max and Cael exchanged glances, equally at a loss as to what they stumbled upon. The red haired 'captain' commented first though. "That was... helpful. Think it might be some clue as to where Sora went?"

"No idea. If we check out this 'recaller' though, it might tell us how the ship arrived with no pilot?" Max put in, adding to a hot streak of good questions to ask. Together they hopped out and started pulling off the back panels to investigate, and it was clear that the pad had not been wired to activate yet; the warp gummi was still in place. Sticking the beacon for Chip and Dale onto the side like they promised, the rest was just a matter of following the instructions of the hologram.

"And this wire goes...here," Cael talked out his action, the pad starting to glow blue.

The voice of the holographic inventor then broadcast from the black box. "Gyro Recaller active in 5 seconds!" Max was thankfully close by and Cael reached out a hand to pull him up to the platform with him.

Max wasn't sure if it was just a snap reaction or a sense that they should go together to wherever it would be sending them, but he didn't hesitate either. "Now leaving: Disney Town! All aboard!" crowed Cael, feeling like this was getting one step closer in closing the gap between him and his fellow students. "Tsuna and Reki will sure be surprised to see us!"

Enveloped in blue light from the device, it flashed, and they were greeted by the sight of the largest city either of them had ever seen.


Author's Notes: "Life is like a hurricane..." *sings*

This took me longer to sit down and write than I expected, and it doesn't feel like a great chapter to me. It's literally just getting Max and Cael from Disney Town into the next world without the same Star Shard cheese that Reki and Tsuna got. But it does feature a new ability by Cael's weapon that I've dubbed "Follow the Wind" where it will lead in him in directions he needs to go. This may come up later.
Really looking forward to this next chapter, I kind of expect it's going to be MUCH BIGGER in word count. If there's anything you want to see, do let me know!

All non-original characters belong to their respective creators, primarily being Disney and Square Enix; this is a work of fan fiction.