It's a beautiful, sunny day in Hometown, USA. An ideal day to go outside and do any number of activities such as kite flying, soccer, or building a treehouse. However, there's one girl not taking advantage of this beautiful day. A blonde haired girl has locked herself in her room, sobbing into her black pillow with some water dripping onto the dark purple bed spread. Across from her bed is a dresser, with various hair dyes, combs, and mirrors lying on top of it. The only light in the room emanates from a computer, the screen set with a couple Firefox browsers on news sites with a constant Refresh plug-in. Some knocking comes from the door.
"Go away," the girl shouts, sobbing a bit harder.
"Jamie," a woman on the other side, "Please don't be this way."
"How can you be so calm?" Jamie responds, "Emily is probably dead now."
"You shouldn't think that," the woman says.
"What should I think?" Jamie asks, "Dr. Murder escaped custody during transit near our town. He was spotted heading towards Emily's neighborhood around when she was heading home. Her bag was found lying on the sidewalk. She's probably dead now."
"The police caught Dr. Murder," the woman says, "Please let me in."
Jamie ceases sobbing as she hears those words. She rolls out of bed and walks over to the computer, finding that one of the local news websites has the capture of Dr. Murder as a breaking story. The article itself is relatively sparse, promising more details as the police release them. She walks over to the door, unlocking it and letting the woman in. They look at each other for a minute before they embrace each other, Jamie resuming her sobbing as she burrows her head into the woman's shoulder.
"It's okay, Jamie," the woman says, patting her on the back.
"The website said the police haven't released any details yet," Jamie starts, "They must be trying to think of a way to phrase Emily's death."
"Detective Williams called Mrs. Tennenbaum earlier today," the woman starts, "The police couldn't find any evidence that the Strangler kidnapped anybody, let alone Emily."
"You're sure?" Jamie says, lightening up on her sobs.
"Positive," the woman continues, "Emily probably ran away. You said she had a really bad day and was even yelling at you over the phone."
"She wouldn't leave her bag behind like that," Jamie says.
"Please," the woman says, stroking Jamie's head gently, "You need to be strong."
"Why don't the police put out an AMBER Alert on her?" Jamie asks, sniffling.
"The police can't call an AMBER Alert on every missing child," the woman starts, "Not without evidence. Don't worry, I'm sure Emily is fine. She'll probably be picked up by the police when she gets to a major city."
"I'm just so scared," Jamie says, crying some more.
"It will be okay," the woman says. A bright white flash envelops them, overloading the senses and draining all color from the area.
--
Emily starts to wake up, the dream haunting her as she slowly gains consciousness. It definitely has to be a dream, since she watched the Heartless completely destroy her world. Still, she can't help but feel pangs of guilt at the possibility that her friend is distraught at her disappearance. Must be another cruel joke her brain is playing on her. After getting clothed in the same outfit as yesterday, Emily walks out of the room to find Aerith waiting for her.
"Good morning, Kiko," Aerith says, smiling.
"Good morning," Emily responds, wiping some more sleep out of her eyes.
"Are you okay?" Aerith asks, looking concerned, "You seem troubled."
"Oh... no, it's fine," Emily answers, "I just had a bad dream."
"Okay," Aerith says, "If you want to talk about it, I'm here for you."
"Thank you," Emily says, a bit relieved. She doesn't want to alarm Aerith with her creepy dreams of the old world.
"Shall we?" Aerith asks, "We can get breakfast at the mall."
"There's a mall?" Emily asks.
"As of last month, there is," Aerith responds, walking towards the door. Emily follows right behind, excited to see what shopping in Radiant Garden is like.
--
As it turns out, the Radiant Garden Mall is everything Emily expected it to be. Sure, none of her favorite stores such as Forever 21 or Hot Topic are present for obvious reasons, but she was still able to get some good stuff. She now owns a couple pairs of blue jean pants, a bunch of T-shirts with various designs, some underwear, a pair of sneakers, and some luggage to carry it all in. More than enough. Emily doesn't like that Aerith bought all of it for her, but with no money of her own, she didn't have much choice.
Emily and Aerith, both carrying two suitcases each, are now in the decently crowded courtyard of the castle. The castle itself looks largely the same, but all the Heartless imagery has been removed and most of the collapsed parts have been sealed up. Twisting marble spires and elegant brass cage elevators are the order of the day, providing no real symmetry. The area around the castle has been largely renovated, with a greenhouse, a hedge maze, and a landing pad for space ships. There are still one or two space ships sitting on the landing pad, the last of its passengers gathering together to be led to the main courtyard. Riku comes up by their side from behind, carrying a large black binder emblazoned with a logo of a castle and a clipboard.
"Hello, Aerith, Kiko," he says, getting their attention.
"Oh, hi, Riku," Aerith says, a little startled. Emily, still a bit mortified by her actions of the previous night, shies away from him by moving in a little closer to Aerith.
"Um, Kiko," Riku says, bending a little to see around Aerith , "I brought your orientation materials. Also, there's a form you have to fill out."
"...a form?" Emily asks, working up enough confidence to speak to Riku.
"Yeah," Riku says.
"My hands are a bit full, though," Emily says, holding her suitcases up a little.
"Oh, yeah," Riku says, making a waving motion towards something near the crowd. A medium sized robot hovers over fairly briskly, stopping about three meters away from the group. It's done in an ovular design and made of brass plate with various exposed cogs on its top, grinding away in a clockwork fashion. A large, circular extrusion on its bottom emits a soft blue jet flame, four smaller tubes emitting smaller yellow flames at each corner. Four spindly appendages emerge from the center of the back, with three joints and ending in a six digit talon. Three lenses act as eyes, an orange pinpoint light emanating from the largest one.
"What is this?" Emily asks.
"Service robot," Riku answers, opening the black binder, "Place your bags down and step back."
"Okay," Emily replies, placing her suitcases down. Aerith does as well, both of them stepping back. Riku holds the book in front of the robot's eyes, the orange pinpoint darting back and forth rapidly for a second. It gives a couple clicks as it finishes, spinning its appendages to face forward. It grabs the four suitcases, spinning the arms to its sides after it has them secure. The machine then gives off a larger jet flare as it starts hovering upwards, heading towards one of the towers.
"That's pretty cool," Emily remarks, watching it fly away.
"I hope you're ready," Riku starts, "This isn't going to be like a normal school. It will be very hard."
"Oh, that's fine," Emily says, "I'm so excited. I'm going to learn to be a hero!"
"You might want to fill out the clipboard now," Riku says, handing the book and clipboard to Emily.
"Oh," Emily replies, taking a quick glance at the form on the clipboard.
"Well," Aerith starts, "I'm going to head off now. If you need anything, just call me."
"Okay," Emily says, turning to face Aerith, "Thank you for all your help."
"Thank you," Riku says.
"I hope you'll stop by and visit sometime," Aerith says, "Best of luck with school. See you later."
"See you later," Emily and Riku both respond. With that, Aerith walks back through the gate, heading back to the main town.
"Shall we?" Riku asks, motioning towards the crowd of people, "King Mickey is going to give a speech."
"Okay," Emily says, following behind Riku as she starts perusing the form on the clipboard. The first line is just simply 'Name'. That's fairly effortless. She writes in 'Kiko', deciding against finishing with 'Fluffy Pants' due to her realization that it's an absurd last name.
"Kiko," Riku says, giving her a minor jolt.
"Wha?" Emily responds, looking up.
"The speech is about to start," Riku says, pointing at a podium on a wooden stage at the far end of the courtyard.
"Oh," Emily responds, looking at the stage. There are two dozen chairs arranged in a single row, each with a teacher on them. There is a small gap in the chairs in the middle, no doubt to prevent any of them from being blocked by the podium. None of the people really stand out to Emily. She imagined there being some motley crew of misfits, each with appearances just as animated as their personality. Instead, she just sees some nondescript people in fairly standard formal outfits. A brown haired woman with a pale green dress, a man with a crew cut wearing a green military uniform, a man with glasses and a business suit, so on and so forth. It almost bothers her how these people could be substitute teachers at her school in the old world. King Mickey walks up on the stage carrying a stool, placing it down behind the podium and standing on top of it.
"Hello, everybody, and welcome to the opening semester of the Radiant Garden Academy for Exceptional People. I hope your flights here have been pleasant. Now, as you all know, the focus of the Academy is to train you all for a role in fighting the Heartless. While they currently lie in hibernation with only a couple rogue packets occasionally being commandeered, we want to have people that can fight them once they emerge again. As we have found out, their success in destroying worlds comes from the lack of opposition they face. While there have been champions to fight them for as long as they have existed, they are overwhelmed with each emergence. The mythical keyblades might seek out the best wielders, but they are a very small number of people pitted against a universal threat with numbers estimating in the trillions."
"So, I have gathered you all together. Each and every one of you has gone over the program outline and accepted both the full responsibility that signing up holds and also the potential danger involved. Because of the harshness of this program, I limited my original pool to little over a thousand people spread across two hundred worlds. I based potential recruits on their potential in the fields of reflex, tactical awareness, and endurance. Most importantly, though, I based it on the strength in your hearts. Each and every one of you here is pure of heart and resistant of the darkness."
"More than 800 people declined to join. Whether it be due to current obligations or a lack of desire to leave their worlds, I fully respect their choice. And while I'm confident in each and every one of you, I still have to estimate that only half of you will ultimately graduate. Those of you who do make it through, however, will be seasoned veterans capable of acting within any difficult combat situation. The Heartless were sealed away twice with only six active people. Six. And even then, most of the work fell upon two people. If two people could stop the Heartless, imagine what 200 could do."
"As much as I would like to be your headmaster, I have obligations to attend to on my world. As I promise in the course materials, I will talk with each of you personally at least once by the end of this year. The acting headmaster will be Jared Kilpatrick, an accomplished military general of over 40 years. Please give him a hand."
As Mickey finishes the seemingly improvised speech, he hops off the stool and pushes it into the space in between the chairs. A man of about age 60, balding and wrinkled but still in a good physical condition, walks up to the podium. Emily figures that with such an ugly, boring headmaster, she can just take this opportunity to fill out the form. After some usual things such as gender and age, she comes up to the first real question.
What weapons can you use? Also include any unarmed combat styles you know.
Emily doesn't have to think about this for long. Dual knives, dual pistols, and sniper rifles.
What weapons would you like to use?
Emily thinks about this for a minute. She wants to use the keyblade, but they aren't just giving them out at the local convenience store. Swords just aren't the same and an exotic weapon doesn't really offer that much. She comes to the conclusion that for all intents and purposes, she'll be fine with her current proficiencies.
Please list your physical skills:
This is a bit of a toughie for her. She was given the vague description of being an excellent assassin, but she doesn't know what that means. She has incredible dexterity, but what skills does it apply to? All she knows is that she can instinctively put together and take apart her sniper rifle while also being able to maneuver her way around the briefcase. She writes down 'I don't know', describes what she has been able to do so far, and leaves it at that.
Please list your mental skills:
She thinks on this for a little. While she thinks she's a good writer, she remembers that this is a military school. She thinks about how she's able to effortlessly size up any area and situation, describing it as vividly as possible.
Please list your social skills:
Emily just writes down 'none' and leaves it as is.
Please list your magical/psionic skills/affinities:
Emily stumbles on the word 'psionic' for a minute before she remembers back to her short Dungeons and Dragons stint. She doesn't understand why it doesn't say 'psychic', but whatever. She writes down her precognitive abilities, describing how she has no control over them.
Please list your weaknesses. For security reasons, list ONLY the ones that you can eventually overcome. DO NOT list any Achilles' Heels that you have no chance of overcoming:
Emily thinks long and hard on this one. She hates how she's so shy and socially retarded, but is it a weakness that they would take seriously? She decides that there's no harm writing it down. She then thinks back to her problems with the palm tree monster. She got way too excited and didn't act rationally when Maleficent touched her. She didn't acquire a clear shot as fast as she should have. She completely ignored the possibility of jumping to one of the nearby buildings or possibly sliding down one of the sides. She broke her legs after only five stories, which would be a light sentence in her old world but goes against everything she saw in the video games. She writes all this down, adding in some other minor details as well.
On the next page, she doesn't find any more of the form but instead, a page with a lot of cryptic symbols. They're dark red and in really small print, filling the whole page. They're unlike anything she has ever seen before. There aren't any other pages on the clipboard, prompting her to put it away.
"...and that is how I will handle my classes," the small, dull woman with thick bottle glasses standing at the podium finishes, "Without further ado, here's King Mickey."
"Thank you," King Mickey says, barely heard over the P.A. system as the woman bows to him. He bows as well, grabbing the stool and placing it behind the podium as she walks back to her chair. He resumes his speech, "Now that you've met the faculty, it's time we start our basic training. Please find the robot holding your group flag and show it your card. Welcome to the Radiant Garden Academy!"
"Um, Riku?" Emily starts, a look of befuddlement on her face.
"Yeah?" Riku responds, turning to face her.
"I don't know what to do," Emily says, skipping to the chase.
"Oh," Riku says, "Here, let me have that clipboard." Emily hands the clipboard over to Riku, who turns and gives a wave to one of the robots. It zips over, stopping three meters in front of them. Riku holds the clipboard up with the page of cryptic markings in front of the robot, his thumb over one of the symbols. It scans the page, clicking a few times and grabbing the clipboard. It then flies up towards one of the castle spires.
"How does that work, anyway?" Emily asks as Riku starts leading her to a small crowd.
"Oh, it's very complex," Riku starts, "In order to minimize potential subversions of the robots, they're all designed with relatively simple base programs. They have to scan one of these pages to be able to do much of anything. Pages like the one you just saw contain a whole program, the code etched into those symbols. The scanning process pays attention to the code, the shape of the symbols, and small color tints. You also have to hold your thumb over the symbol that matches up with the robot's. If there are any major inconsistencies in the code, the robot will automatically deactivate after sending a beacon signal to the main office."
"That sounds so unnecessary," Emily remarks.
"Anyway," Riku starts, "You have a card in the front of that binder. Take it out and no matter what, do not lose it. You need it to open doors and use the elevators in the castle."
"Which group am I in?" Emily asks.
"Same one as me, Kiko," Riku says, "I got Leon to set it up so we'd be in the same group."
"Thank you!" Emily says, now more excited than ever.
"Anyway, basic training time," Riku says as they stop by a robot, holding his card in front of him. Emily follows suit, with the robot scanning both of their cards. With 40 people standing around the robot, it proceeds to make a couple clicks and start hovering towards one of the castle entrances, with everybody following behind.
