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Stand in the Rain

Chapter Ten:

Meet Squad Seven

"Master, the soldier failed." Katsumoto knelt down while his red cloak touched the ground. The sound of rattling chains came from his neck as he looked up. Taro stayed in the shadows so that even his figure was hard to make out.

"I knew he would. You should have known not to send in an inexperienced soldier."

"My apologies, Master." He bowed his head again for fear of being shock through his chains.

"This time send in the trackers along with a few nobodies."

"But Master, they will be defeated as well."

"As long as one comes back alive, that is all I need."

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The rays of the sun shone brightly threw the crack in the curtains. Tori rolled over to keep the sun from her face. Kairi began to wake up after sleeping well throughout the rest of the night. She sat up and rubbed her sleepy eyes. After stretching her arms and legs, she just fell back on the bed again and snuggled into the cozy sheets. In the hallway, the Beast lazily made his way to Riku and Sora's room. His sharp claws dragged as he drug his pawed feet. He knocked on the door then went in. Riku lay on the futon with a leg and an arm hanging over while on his back. Sora lay on the bed across from Riku with his arms and legs spread across the bed.

"Get up you two." The Beast was too tired and lay in the middle of the floor. The knocking made Kairi get up and she made her way to the open door. She saw all three of them sleeping lazily like boys do.

"Hey you guys get up." She yawned then made her way to the bed. With her eyes half closed, she pushed Sora out of bed.

"Ow! Ok, ok I'm awake." Sora yawned and rubbed his eyes. He shivered from the cool morning air and went for his sweatshirt. His grey sweats dragged as he walked and he put on his navy hooded sweatshirt. Riku was rudely wakened by being pushed onto the Beast.

"Hey!" The Beast pushed Riku off and sleepily stood up. Riku staggered to his feet and rubbed his shoulder.

"Hurry up! We're supposed to be on the ship already!" Kairi ran back to her room and into the bathroom to get ready. Tori slept through all the noise and shifted a little.

Sora attempted to get back in bed but Riku shoved him into the bathroom. While Sora was getting ready, Riku woke up Cloud. He entered the room and was about to wake him up but stopped. He remembered the last time he woke up Cloud. Cloud had swiftly turned and punched him in the face as a reflex. Riku readied himself… Slowly he put his hand towards Cloud's shoulder… Cloud turned around and Riku jumped and fell on his butt. Cloud started laughing and got out of bed.

"You woke me up when you opened the door." Cloud laughed as he zipped up a black sweatshirt over a silver shirt with a lion symbol on it.

"That wasn't funny asshole." Riku stood up and shamefully went to his room while Cloud put on jeans that were torn in the knees. He sat on the bed and realized how chilly it was in the castle in the mornings. Everyone finished getting ready and was saying their goodbyes to their friends of the castle. Sora had a feeling they would be back soon any ensured the castle of their return.

They entered the ship and an envelope was found on the dash board. Sora opened it as the others entered the ship.

"Hey it's from King Mickey." Riku grabbed the paper from Sora. "Riku! Give it back!"

"It says that he's on Leon's trail and to meet him at these coordinates." Riku turned the paper over to find a detail map. "I guess we just follow this." Cloud took the paper from Riku to look at the map.

"What does he mean he's on Leon's trail? Is Leon trying to run from us or something?" Kairi questioned as Cloud ignored them and concentrated hard on the map. He knew something was wrong. After the big commotion last night he searched Leon's room and found a crumpled ball of paper containing a note from King Mickey. Why would he ask Leon to meet him alone and them tell the rest of us that he's searching for him? Why did Leon disappear? Where is he? Is he ok? Did King Mickey really know where he was? Questions filled his mind as the others discussed it. He focused on the map again. He studied every world in the books but he had never seen this place before. If fact the only familiar thing was passing Hollow Bastion or Radiant Garden what it was called these days.

"Have any of you seen this place before?" Cloud interrupted their conversation and held out the map for them to see. They stopped their arguments and studied the map.

"Isn't that Hollow Bastion?" Kairi pointed at the small drawing of the world.

"Yeah but what all the rest of these worlds?" The map show a strange door-type entry that lead to the new worlds. Tori starred at the map…

"Daddy, lemme see!" A man with short brown hair handed her the paper. She couldn't see his face given that the sun shone in her eyes when she looked up at him. She felt important while holding the paper since adults don't take six year olds seriously. It looked as though it was forgotten long ago for it was tattered and delicate. They were sitting under a cherry tree in the cool fall breeze blew against them.

"Don't rip it now. Here," he turned it over so she was able to see it right side up. "Now see this? This is Hollow Bastion, where we are. But what nobody knows about is this place right here." He pointed to the door-type entry a little ways from Hollow Bastion. "This is where amazing things can happen. It's called The Shadow's Gate. Unfortunately when we get close to it, it hides."

"Then how do we get in?" Her little voice was sweet and innocent. He chuckled and then pulled a flower from his sleeve. She awed in amazement as he handed her the pink flower. It looked as if it came from spring itself.

"Anything is possible if you believe it can happen."

Tori snapped out of it and the others continued talking as if time waited for her. "Well if King Mickey told us to meet him there then let's go." They paused as if startled.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Sora jumped in the main pilot seat and started the engines. Riku took the seat to Sora's right and Cloud took the seat to Sora's left. Tori and Kairi took a seat as they shot into space. Together they gossiped like kids again. Tori felt like she actually had a home, with friends. She smiled as thoughts of friends filled her mind.

Hours pasted and Kairi and Tori fell asleep against each other's heads. The ship was about six hours from Hollow Bastion. Sora's controls were locked and set for the course as was Cloud and Riku's. Sora's head began to bob as his eyes refused to stay open any longer. At the same time he refused to move from his seat while Riku tried to persuade him to rest. Cloud yawned and then stood from his chair.

"Well, I'm gonna rest for awhile." He walked through the automatic doors and down to the sleeping quarters. Riku looked over his shoulder seeing that Kairi and Tori were still sleeping, to his knowledge. Sora looked as well and they then looked at each other.

"So…" Riku tried to whisper as best he could.

"You like her." Sora knew it was coming and had secretly noticed how they look at each other when the other isn't looking. He knew it instantly because he looks the same way at Kairi. Riku got red in the face, thankful it was only them two.

"What makes you think that? Who said anything about me liking anybody? I never said anything about Tori." He crossed his arms as heat rose throughout his cheeks and onto his ears.

Sora just smiled bigger. "I never said who. You like Tori!" They kept their voices down.

"Oh yeah well, you like Kairi not like it's a big surprise to anyone." Sora flustered but not half as much as Riku.

"Oh yeah! Well," Sora stopped at the sudden noise of the girls shifting. They slowly looked over their chairs to find that they had hardly moved.

"I say we forget 'bout this conversation and get them to their beds, then go to sleep ourselves." Riku kept his eyes on them as he whispered to Sora.

"I second that, let's go." The quietly walked towards them. Sora looked and Riku and Riku looked at Sora. They didn't want to wake them up so both moved them gently until Sora had Kairi in his arms and Tori was in Riku's. They carried them down to the sleeping quarters. In the two beds across the room, they set them down slowly to not wake them. Once under blankets and soft pillows, Tori and Kairi shift subconsciously until they felt comfortable. On the other side of the room, Cloud looked sound asleep and three empty beds were along side of him.

"That's strange, if King Mickey was after Leon then why would he put six beds in the ship?" Riku shrugged at Sora's assumption and lazily pulled off his shirt and jumped under the covers. Sora did the same and then looked over at the empty bed next to him before dozing off.

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"He wants us send out trackers?! They haven't even finished their training!" Kenji was Lieutenant under Katsumoto and had the duty of preparations until further notice.

"I know…" Katsumoto looked away and Kenji understood.

"… How many…"

"I suppose six would be fine." Kenji turned with frustration and headed to the hallway.

"Kenji… only one is intended to return." Kenji looked over his shoulder and his ears lay against his head. He said nothing and closed the door behind him. As he walked down the dim hallway he put on his hood and straightened his armor. He walked past the sleeping quarters and down a fleet of dark stairs. At the end of the stairs was a heavy steel door and a dirty old key pad to the left. Looking straight at the keypad, it scanned his eyes and then required a pass code. He punched in four numbers and the heavy door unlocked its self, opening for him. Vicious growls, barks, and snapping sounds came from the growing red eyes in the old rusted cages.

Kenji growled back. "Shut up!" They all instantly became silent and some even wined and went closer to the back of their cages. "Six are to be departed on a tacking mission requested by the Master." He hit a red button on the wall next to the light switch and all the cage doors opened. "Squad seven come with me, the rest of you report to Lieutenant 27 for your training."

Six sets of glowing red eyes stayed while the rest headed for the door. Kenji followed through the door and six trailed behind him. The first soldier out the door had brown fur with white fur going from under his chin all the way to the under side of his bushy tail including the tips of his ears and the inside of his legs. His body structure was like a lion but had white spiked fur along the back of his neck to the end of his shoulder blades. On his left shoulder he had three blue stripes and a spiked metal collar like Kenji's. He was the biggest of all squad seven with his shoulders reaching three and a half feet and six and half feet long excluding his tail. Once the light hit him his eyes became sky blue.

"This squad isn't ready you know." He whispered to Kenji.

"I'm aware of that but we have no choice in the matter." The second one out had the body structure that was more similar to a tiger. He was just a little smaller than the size of the first one and had dark green fur with a light green underside and two stripes across each side of his cheeks. He bore no collar and kept his blood red eyes once in the light.

"I still don't understand why the Master stuck me with squad seven. I've had more training than these losers." The first one ignored him and continued to silently follow Kenji. "Hey Zen why the hell are you here? Do something wrong? Oh yeah that's right, you got your captain rank striped from you." Zen growled and tried to continue ignoring him.

"Keep your mouth shut Seto or did you forget all of your failures as a Lieutenant?" Kenji shamed him and kept walking down the hall. The third had the body structure of a lion but had black scales instead of fur. His ears were holes at the sides of his head and horns replaced where ears would have been. Spikes started from his head and ended at the edge of his tail. His canine teeth on top and bottom over lapped slightly on the outside of his mouth. Scales from his neck and along his underside were a light yellow color and his also bore no collar and had blood red eyes. He was the same size as Seto and had black dragon-like wings folded on his sides.

"Don't even open your mouth Ruji." He kept silent and stayed behind Seto.

The fourth stepped into the light following Ruji. He was structured like an overgrown wolf and bore the same metal collar as Kenji and Zen. He was bigger than Seto but smaller than Zen. His fur was navy blue with a gold colored underside. On his forehead was a gold arrow symbol and unusual white eyes.

"Leave him alone he's still new 'round here or did you forget that too?" He had a laid back sarcastic tone in his voice as he walked behind them.

"Stay out of it Kai and I'm guessing that you're here 'cause you followed that idiot up there right?" Kai ignored him and showed Seto that no damage was taken. The fifth walked out and had an overgrown wolf structure. His fur was red on the top of his head to the end of his tail and the rest was white. He was the smallest so far and had amber eyes. He had a black crescent moon shape on his left hip and didn't dare open his mouth because of intimidation by the others. Kenji stopped walking and the others did the same. A transmission was heard through his ear piece.

"Squad seven Soldier number 78 report to the infirmary you will not be attending this mission." The last one out the door was hardly seen and made his way to the infirmary.

"So why does he get off?" Zen whispered to Kenji.

"He's new and probably not going to make it."

"Oh." They kept quiet and followed Kenji to the airship departure station.