Back again for more and now I've got the power of bold writing with me. We also have two new FF cameo appearances here who we'll be seeing more of as the story continues. Also, as of when I finished writing this, it was Tetsuya Nomura's birthday. Of course, when I'll upload this, it won't be but Happy Birthday to the man who made the crossover between Disney and Square possible :)
Chapter 11
Crash Landing
Luna soon came to found, after much anticipation overnight, that the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee were quite the friendly bunch of people. First up was Leon, probably the most anti-social of the group from what she could tell and yet still quite welcoming to her presence. Occasionally, she found him leaning against walls or just murmuring an incoherent sound to show agreement, but first impressions told her he was alright. Next was Aerith, a rather beautiful person not just in looks, but personality as well. Her warmth and tranquillity seemed to bounce off the walls of the room bestowing themselves upon everyone else as well. Then there was Yuffie. While still quite beautiful she seemed to bring off a hyperactive and bubbly demeanour, balancing Aerith's calmness. She called herself 'The Great Ninja Yuffie' though Luna wasn't really convinced. If ninjas were on par with Keyblade wielders (as Yuffie proclaimed), then she looked as if she was a while off yet with her slight clumsiness. Still, she was also quite warm and welcoming with a cheery personality that made Luna beam herself. Cid was stout and stood with a firm back. Luna had already decided as soon as she heard him speak that he was the kind of person you did not want to make angry. And yet, he was quite charming and whereas Leon often stood in the sidelines, Cid decided to stand out getting right down to business in discussing what Luna had professed to be interested in ever since she saw it.
"Yep, I built quite a few Gummi Ships back in the day. Well, I suppose I still do but I mainly just upgrade ships." Cid answered her when she had told him how she loved the Gummi Ship travel.
"How does that work?" Luna asked the broad shouldered man.
"Well there's different type of Gummi blocks, not to mention certain ones only work with certain other parts so you have to study them for quite some time to see the differences." Cid replied as Luna nodded in understanding.
"And certain blocks have strengths and weaknesses such as increasing armour at the expense of manoeuvrability right?" Luna added in.
"Yeah su- Hey! If you already know so damn much 'bout it, then why are you asking me?" The elder man looked her up and down questioningly.
Luna squinted her eyes a bit much like she remembered Shiki doing, "I wish I could say that's my own knowledge but I learnt that from Chip and Dale if you know them."
"Of course I know 'em. How are those little pipsqueaks these days?" Cid wiped a smirk off his face and sat back down on the chair next to his computer.
"They're doing quite alright." Goofy told him.
"Anyway, what's this about an increase in Heartless?" Sora asked wanting to get quickly to the point. Luna slid away from Cid to rejoin Sora and the group meanwhile checking out the rest of Merlin's house. Quite a mess would be Luna's choice of words in describing it, though at the same time Merlin was a powerful wizard so he probably could clean it anytime he wanted to.
Leon detached himself from the wall, "Well, I'm glad someone asked. Around a few weeks ago, we started to notice an increase in Heartless appearing, the artificial kind. Unusual since we did shut down the machine creating them six months ago, we checked recently and it's still down."
"Meaning they have to be appearing from somewhere else, whether it's this world or not we don't know." Aerith continued. Merlin now came in through the door, after finishing his work on repairing the house's wall opposite his. Wiping a sweat from his brow, he sat down on the table in the middle.
"It could be that Maleficent's behind this." Riku continued on to tell the gang what had happened in Disney Castle and what he had managed to deduce.
"That old hag? I wouldn't be surprised." Yuffie agreed the second she heard the name by nodding throughout Riku's speech.
"But it could also be that guy in the hooded cloak as well." While Sora didn't want to rule Maleficent out, his thoughts kept turning back to the guy he had met on Destiny Islands. The only ones who wore those cloaks were people who travelled by use of dark corridors meaning he had an affiliation with the darkness.
Luna who was lost in thought just as much as Sora, suddenly remembered her own encounter, "Wait! I think I might have seen the same person. There was a man in a black hood who told Shiki and me how to beat the Reaper mission. He also sent out that one Heartless, the spider one, after us. Do you think...?"
"It's the same guy? Could be. Whoever he is, we can't allow him to destroy any more worlds." Sora said clenching his fists tightly causing them to grow pale.
Kairi, who noticed this, put a hand on Sora's shoulder to calm him, "Sora, it's not your fault. And don't worry, we'll restore the islands like before and it'll be back, same old same old."
Sora looked back at her before grinning suddenly, "Yeah, don't know what I was worried about. Everything'll be back to normal."
After travelling with Sora for quite some time, it didn't take much for Donald and Goofy to know he was hiding his emotions. He had, after all, done his best to hide his pain of finding out that Kairi had been kidnapped while on their journey to defeat Organization XIII. Even so, they knew best when to lay off the topic.
Kairi who wanted to reassure him further, was cut off quickly by Donald, "Kairi. I'm sure Sora'll be fine."
Kairi was not quite satisfied that Sora was as chirpy as his usual self but took her hand off him for the sake of getting down to the matter which was currently being addressed. Sora mouthed his thanks to Donald before moving over to the other side of the room where Pooh's storybook sat on the desk.
Leon coughed on purpose turning everyone's attention back to him, "Anyway, the point is that it's halting progression on the restoration of this town. There's also been a problem with the security system. Notice anything strange on your way here?"
Sora tapped the storybook before turning around, "Oh yeah! Now that you mention it, I didn't see the security program while we were fighting the Heartless. It defends the town against Heartless." Sora realized quickly explaining to Luna and Max what it was.
"Yeah and that's not the only problem. The whole OS has stopped working meaning no Tron." Cid said moving out of the way to show his monitor to everyone. A blue screen met their eyes filled with random alphanumeric symbols and the occasional 'ERROR' word present.
"You mean you can't contact Tron?" Sora jumped away from the book rushing over to Cid. An urgent look in his eyes.
"Nope. The system's completely crashed." Yuffie slapped her hands together to represent the sudden stop.
Aerith nodded her head, "And it coincided with the increase in Heartless a few weeks ago as well. Their behaviour from what I can tell-"
"From what we can tell, is completely erratic. More so than they've been before actually." Yuffie interjected not wanting Aerith to take all the credit for their discovery.
Sora, Donald and Goofy exchanged worried looks with one another. Tron was one of their friends and a big part in the restoration of the world. Defying the MCP and teaching Tron about the values of friendship had been one of the trio's most cherished moments and the thought of something horrid happening to Tron was something they didn't want to contemplate.
"Maybe you should head out to the castle postern. Leon was just about to head out there himself now that I think about it but I told him to wait for you to come back instead." Merlin said.
"Well I must say Sora. You haven't changed." Leon took his turn to put his hand on Sora's shoulder, but out of respect.
"Of course. How could I be anyone else?" Sora asked going back to genuinely smiling now.
Leon shook his head, indicating that that wasn't the point he was trying to get to but instead of saying anything further, he let go of Sora's shoulder and opened the door. Taking out his Gunblade, Leon turned back to the rest of them.
"Let's go to the computer room. There's something you'll want to see." With that, Leon walked out of the door but stood just outside with his back turned to everyone else.
"Right, we'll see you guys later." Riku said to Aerith, Yuffie, Cid and Merlin. The rest of the group took off with Leon in a hurried pace. Max, who was the last out, quickly got his shield from his bag and then hurried to catch up with the rest of them.
Luna began to recognise more and more of the town from her dreams as the group fought their way through countless more Heartless. While she had been running in her dreams before with her friend, she did briefly remember some of the scenery, at least enough that she could relate it to this visit. Maybe she could find the alleyway where she had encountered the Rhino. Perhaps there she would find clues to her identity, or even the other girls. As she took out one of the shadows moving in on her, she looked over to Sora. She knew she had been sound in thinking to tell him everything soon, but should she really tell him about her dreams? The fact that she had seen him before in the station made Luna feel as if she could trust him and yet, Sora didn't seem to recognise her. Why had he appeared if the two had never met before? Was it simply a coincidence or was there more to it? Luna personally decided that it could not be one, unless it was Sora's twin or something, there was no logical reason for her coming across the same face twice.
"What are those?" Luna shifted her attention away from Sora to focus on the hearts floating into the sky.
"Hearts. When Heartless are defeated, they release hearts which go into the sky. A bit more complicated than that though." Sora explained knocking a Heartless into the air with the back of his Keyblade releasing yet another one of these hearts.
Luna grunted as she was knocked back by a spin kick from a Soldier. She was barely able to keep her footing, using her Dream Seeker as support. Donald's ice magic helped to get rid of the soldier before it could do anymore harm however. Uttering her thanks to the duck, Luna inhaled and exhaled briefly before helping Leon to defeat some of the shadows surrounding him. She soon found out, that Leon, being an expert swordsman, didn't really need her help as he swiftly obliterated the shadows in seconds. These ones, she also noticed, did not release any hearts but she didn't question this. Max and Goofy were also doing a great job working together to defeat the Heartless and it seemed from Luna's eyes that Max was rather content for the time being, though she had a feeling it was more to do with the fact that he was in another world than actually considering this a father-son type bonding deal. Luna took note of the pathway on her right before moving up the stairs. If she recalled correctly, Luna and the other girl had not gone up any stairs in her dream meaning it was likely the alleyway was through there.
The group entered the bailey after Leon opened the gate which guarded the area onwards from unwanted intruders. Immediately they could see quite a bit of improvement to the area, mainly that the townspeople had repaired the broken walls and damaged concrete. There were also now fluorescent tubes on the ceiling lighting up the pathway to outside.
"No Nobodies appearing?" Sora enquired looking out the window. He could still see the great maw stretching as wide as the eye could see. It seemed the redevelopment program had only taken place in the town.
Leon shook his head while observing the hilt of his blade, "They've been pretty quiet in comparison. Almost like they've never existed. To be honest their lack of presence also makes me worried."
"Well, Nobodies don't exist in the first place anyway, but I can see what you're saying." Riku informed though still just as bemused as everyone else at all of these events. Everything had to be connected somehow, the destruction of the islands, the Reapers' Game arriving in Traverse Town, the arrival of a man in a black cloak, the disappearance of the King and the increase in Heartless. Those couldn't be mere coincidences and yet for what it was worth, they could not even begin to see how these were connected. For Sora and Luna, it all came back to the man in black yet for the others they were slightly more concerned for the King and what Maleficent was planning.
"Well howdy there. Haven't seen you guys in a while."
The group turned around to come across three miniature sized fairies; each drabbed in their own personal style of fashion. A good example was the dark and brooding one immediately clashing with the rest of the group's accessories.
"Oh, it's the dullwings." Donald grimaced. It was clear that he wasn't that fond of the trio of treasure hunters or 'thieves' as Sora, Donald and Goofy often called them. Of course the three were not too fussed and were not too enthusiastic of the duck either.
"It's Gullwings, for you information bird brain. And don't you forget it." Rikku, probably the clumsiest of the three, hammered back.
"Don't bother Rikku. He's not worth your time." Paine said in her somber voice as two other fairies attempted to hold Rikku back from kicking Donald up his bill.
"Uh, anyway, what are you three doing here anyway?" Sora asked also trying to calm the beserked Rikku down.
"What else do we do when there's treasure waiting to be found?" Yuna successfully managed to subdue Rikku though she still occasionally threw daggers at Donald.
"So I take it you've found treasure then? What is it?" Kairi asked bending down to the girls' height to speak with them eye to eye. Rikku, at the least, took this as an insult but managed to calm herself just in time.
"Well, if we had an idea, we would know what we were searching for in the first place." Paine remarked coolly.
"So where are you heading off to?" Yuna asked watching Rikku fly around to lose some steam.
"The computer room in the castle. We found out that something happened down there." Explained Sora.
"Well okay then, see ya." Yuna nodded in understand before eventually stopping Rikku from buzzing around excitedly.
"Wait a moment... That's it?" Sora asked as the three headed towards the Borough. The Gullwings turned around.
Yuna blinked a few times in confusion to make sure she had heard him correctly, "What's it?"
"Not gonna help out a bit? I mean we might need your help with the Heartless." Sora said holding in the will to burst out loud laughing at the awkwardness of the moment.
"Why should we? Your treasure's that way, ours is this way. Have fun finding your computer though, whatever treasure floats your boat I guess." Yuna waved before rushing out, Paine following quickly behind.
"Or sinks it, later taters." Rikku managed to get out quickly before Donald took a swipe at her. She managed to avoid the hand and taunted him further by sticking her tongue out before leaving with the others.
"Yeah, you better scram. I really don't like her." Donald snarled stamping his foot down heavily.
"To be honest, I don't think she likes you much herself." Luna commentated snickering at the court wizard's ferociousness.
"Still, why did you think we needed help from them Sora?" Kairi asked standing back up.
"Using them as bait." Sora divulged much to the shock of the others.
"Wow, Sora..." Goofy was at a loss for words.
"Oh come on. I was joking around." Sora lied putting his hands behind his head and walking off down towards the restoration site.
"You know, even if he were joking around. I would have done the same thing." Riku whispered to Donald who chortled in response. Leon who was used to the fairies for quite some time, couldn't help but silently agree with Sora's statement and continued on catching up to Sora with the others at his heel.
"Progress on this part of the town was going quite well, at least until the Heartless started coming in full numbers," Leon told them pointing. What used to be the restoration site now had changed in to a garden path leading all the way up to the castle. The group could tell from what little had been finished that they were in the process of planting plants into the ground along the way. They had done the best with what they could given the formation of the mountains closing in ruining the scenery somewhat, "Doesn't help if everyone's scared off them."
They all continued on, moving up the stairs to the castle postern. Considering other areas of Radiant Garden had changed, the castle in contrast had not. A hole was still present in the pipe attached to the building releasing a lot of steam from within. Going down to the entrance, Sora and the other came across the first two of four ex-Organization members that now resided in the castle.
"Hey Dilan, Aeleus, what's up?" Sora called cheerily walking up to them.
"Ah, Master Sora. So you've returned after six months. Tired of the quiet life already?" Dilan was first to speak looking towards Leon more than the person he was actually talking to. Aeleus closed his eyes, a natural feat for the man, with his hands closed around his axe.
Sora moved his eyes up in thought, "Something like that. In need of any Heartless exterminators? We'll do it for free."
"Ha, funny," Dilan laughed slowly in a sarcastic tone before continuing, "But yes, although we've done rather reasonably well so far, they do appear in the corridors. But they tend to stay out of the study."
"Just like last time then. Don't worry. We'll figure this out." Sora promised looking back to Donald and Goofy who nodded in agreement.
"We'll escort you to the study where you'll meet Even and Ienzo. They'll inform you on the situation in more detail." Dilan disclosed before turning around with Aeleus to walk into the door.
"What, you don't trust us?" Riku asked as they entered into the hallway.
"Would you trust two boys, a duck and dog who've killed you before?" Aeleus spoke up receiving a chuckle from Dilan in approval.
"Oh come on, didn't you go back to your whole selves because of that? And you're still angry about it?" Riku said mimicking Sora's look of disbelief on his face.
"It was a joke. I thought you liked those." Aeleus responded.
"Ha, funny." Sora repeated Dilan's words in the same sarcastic tone as they navigated their way through the needlessly complicated maze of corridors.
"Ah, so you've returned Keyblade Masters." Even said putting whatever he was holding down as he and Ienzo watched Dilan and Aeleus enter with the group.
"Yeah, you really have to stop saying that Even. It creeps me out." Riku told him recalling their first time meeting the scientists and guards. To say it had been awkward was quite the understatement to say the least.
Vexen pulled an innocent face, "Oh? But I'm only stating what I see. Two inexperienced dullards for one."
"Wait, are you referring to me and Luna?" Kairi asked offended. Luna, who had thought he had been referring to Sora and Riku at first as an insult soon scratched her head as the atmosphere in the room changed to that of confusion.
"As I said, two inexperienced dullards. A rather... inept buffoon and what appears to be his son, a greedy impatient duck and two Keyblade Masters, one an idiot and the other deserving the title he holds." Even analysed receiving mixed signals from the others.
"Hey, take that back!" Donald shouted getting ready to send a bolt of lightning Even's way.
"Yeah, that's not nice." Sora agreed shifting his body, sending Jiminy popping out momentarily then back in his hood.
"Uh, guys. The computer?" Reminding everyone of why they were there in the first place, Leon opened up the way to the secret computer room. Here, Tifa stood banging her fists repeatedly onto the keyboard fiercely.
"Woah, don't destroy it! Where's Cloud by the way?" Leon moved Tifa away from the console before she could unleash her fury of rapid kicks and punches on the system like she looked as if she was about to do.
"Who knows? He said he was going to take a little stroll outside of town half an hour ago." Tifa folded her arms huffing impatiently looking forward a blue screen flashed across the screen similar to Cid's computer met their eyes.
"Probably catching up on his Heartless kill count. Can't be surpassed by me now can he?" Sora quipped. After defeating Sephiroth finally, Cloud had taken to being more upbeat and positive, or well at least as upbeat as a guy who had been tormented by ghosts of his past could be.
"Anyway, here's the problem. No communication from Tron whatsoever and the system won't respond to any commands given." Tifa informed however Sora was already well on his own way to banging on the system in Tifa's place bellowing Tron's name.
"Look Sora, we're just as worried as you are about Tron, but banging on the computer is not going to work." Riku said spinning his friend around on the spot to face him.
"I know. But we have to do something!" Sora looked over at the rest of his friends. Donald and Goofy also both looked concerned for Tron, they over anyone else in the room would understand how he felt right now.
"Right now I don't think we can do anything. At best we can upload a back up program to function as the OS in place of the actual system though it may take some time to make, that's according to Cid." Leon clarified. Kairi walked through the door to the Heartless Manufactory, or what was left off it as nothing remained but rubble.
"You destroyed it." Kairi's announcement followed everyone also peering into the room.
"We tried to shut it down at first but we didn't want it falling into the wrong hands so we destroyed it three weeks ago," Leon said, "So Sora, what's your plan?"
Sora looked up at him away from the destroyed Heartless creation machine and then looked at Luna. The two pairs of eyes met briefly before Sora told him off his plans, "Visit Yen Sid and talk to him about what's happened so far. That's the first thing on my mind right now."
"I agree. But before that you probably want to rest up." Leon advised leaving the room.
"They can stay here if they want. We've got quite a lot of rooms available." Ienzo suggested showing them outside Ansem's room in the corridors where multiple doors stood opposite each other before going into the study room.
"Sounds great to me." Kairi said checking out one of the rooms, they seemed quite spacious enough, but then again it was a castle.
"Right, Tifa's also staying here so at least you'll be safe. You can explore the rest of the town if you like. I'll be in the computer room in the meantime though if you need me." Leon told them before walking back into the study.
"Wait a second, what do you mean by 'at least you'll be safe'? Are you insinuating something?" Even clambered stopping Leon in his tracks.
Leon looked back at Even and then forwards again, "Whatever." And with that he walked back into the computer room.
Even's eye twitched furiously as the others walked by him, "Honestly, what's happened to respect for your elders these days? Turning your back on someone when they're talking to you, why I never," Even looked over at the report on his desk before turning to Ienzo, "Would you be so kind as to bring me some tea my dear Ienzo. I fear we're in for a long day."
Luna dragged her head up and down without paying much attention as Donald explained to her the fundamental basics of magic. The two of them, as well as Sora, were currently in what they found the best place to train: the castle gates, just outside the outskirts of town. Sora had told her not to worry much yet she couldn't deny she had worries, whether they were about learning magic primarily, she did not know yet. There was still the case of the alleyway she wanted to investigate and she planned to take Sora there. It was better she tell him about her dreams during their walk than later, she had decided and it seemed like Sora wanted to talk to her as well anyway.
"You got it?" Donald finished finally giving a questioning gaze towards Luna who seemed obvious to be elsewhere.
"Yeah, I got it. Though I don't really think I needed that long speech." Luna told him summoning her Keyblade. She knew she would also have to work on her style of wielding at some point seeing the rest of the group battle so dynamically, whereas she was all over the place.
Donald remained unconvinced and smiled slyly, "Then show me. Fire magic. Now."
Luna pointed Dream Seeker at the big area in front of her leading out to the Great Maw, "Fire!" Nothing happened.
"So you weren't listening then?" Donald proclaimed smug of himself while Sora assumed the role of Leon, leaning against the wall and chuckling softly.
"Well, you know it's kind of hard when you're blabbering non-stop. I can't tell the useful information from the useless." Luna shot back and tried the spell again multiple times meeting failure each time.
"It was all useful!" Donald shouted managing to lift himself of the ground for surprisingly quite some time to show his frustration.
"Okay, I promise I'll listen this time. Go ahead." Luna turned her head away from the duck's spluttering before cooling her own self down and trying to pay full attention.
"Okay, magic has many different forms and types, each with their own use," Donald began again quite shrewdly, "you'll only be able to master the basics for now but over time you'll be able to use any of the others-"
"Amazing... text book definition." What appeared to be the sarcastic tone of a child's voice was heard from behind. Turning around, Donald, Luna and Sora came across two children in quite strange clothes, certainly not the style in Radiant Garden at least.
"Oh be quiet Palom, he is so insufferable at times, I'm so sorry for that." The girl in the pair smacked her brother across the back of the head who himself gave way to another complaint only to be silence with the threat of another back hand.
"Uh, sorry. Who are you?" Donald enquired not really impressed by their garbs. He was in fact quite resisting the urge to laugh.
"Of course you've never heard of us yet and rightly so. But soon we will become well renowned sorcerers of unimaginable power." The boy known as Palom said pulling off a mighty accent.
The girl glared at him before turning back to the trio and smiling, "In other words, my twin idiot of a brother Palom and I'm Porom. Nice to meet you."
"Ah... okay then. And?" Donald said not knowing what to think of the fact that the brother had just called himself a sorcerer.
"Is the Keyblade Master among you? Ah, there you are," Porom went over to Luna seeing the Keyblade in her hand and shook her other hand gleefully, "I've heard so much about you from Master Yen Sid. It's nice to meet you."
"Master Yen Sid?" Sora and Donald jumped in at the same time.
"You know Yen Sid?" Sora asked getting the question out first before Donald.
"Indeed we do. We've become apprentices to him." Porom smiled proudly.
"After weeks, and weeks of convincing him that is." Palom added in rolling his right hand around in circles to emphasise his point.
Donald and Sora looked at each other before having enough and finally bursting out into fits of giggles. Luna put away her Keyblade, her hand still in Porom's.
Calming down just a tiny bit but not enough, Donald jumped in ahead of Sora this time, "Okay, first of all, you've got the wrong Keyblade Wielder. He's over there. Second, as if the great all powerful Master Yen Sid, the same who taught the King, would teach you. Must be someone else."
"Huh, I didn't know there were other Yen Sids out there. Anyway, I'm so sorry ma'am." Palom bowed in apology before heading over to the actual Keyblade Master who was still in uncontrollable fits. Porom waited for Sora to calm down before shaking his hand in the same enthusiastic and kind way she did Luna.
"If you can't believe it how about you go and ask him? I'm sure he'll vouch for us." Palom grinned putting his hands behind his head.
"Okay, first, why would Yen Sid pick you and second, how did you get here? By Gummi Ship? Is Yen Sid here?" Sora asked more serious now than before.
"Well, we did travel all the way from our world to his and he seemed fascinated by our enthusiasm to study. You can ask him the details if you see him. As for how we got here, we teleported." Porom answered stunning both Sora and Donald at her answer of teleportation.
Luna however seemed keen to no more, "You can teleport? Anytime?"
Porom shook her head, "Not exactly anytime. First of all you need to know exactly where you're going. Any vague answer isn't going to help the magic. It's also quite dangerous since you may end up lost in the lanes in between worlds. We had quite an idea about this world when we teleported as we had visited here with Yen Sid about two months ago. When we were going to Yen Sid to help us, we couldn't exactly picture the tower well so we ended up in quite a different place, Twilight Town. It was really scary."
"I wasn't that scared. I knew there was a train that would take us to his tower." Palom exclaimed to which everyone rolled their eyes clearly not believing him.
"Also, the magic requires a recharge period of quite some time depending on how far you travel from your current destination. There's at least a week for us here though I imagine the master doesn't have to wait as long since he's older." Porom finished explaining.
Sora nodded his head slowly, "I see. So you're going to have to wait at least a week before going back to him. So why did you come here?"
"We brought a message from Master Yen Sid telling you that he needs to see you effective immediately. Apparently the situation has changed, whatever that means." Porom pulled out a note and handed it over to Sora. The note pretty much described what Porom had just told him.
"Why didn't he come here to tell us instead?" Sora asked folding the note away and placing it in his pocket.
"You remember the point about teleportation taking up energy? Also the old man probably has a lot to do anyway, he probably wanted us to gain experience in travelling by ourselves or something." Palom stated.
Porom shook her head angrily, "He may be old, but he is powerful."
"And right now, he's teaching us to scrub floors. Not exactly what I had in mind when being taught by an all powerful sorcerer." Palom replied back sighing angrily.
"I'm sure the master means well. There has to be some lesson learned out of it. We just haven't figured it out yet is all." Porom convinced herself only to receive a murmur of disagreement from her twin.
"Sorry but you say you know magic. I'm kind of having a problem with the fire magic at the moment so I was wondering if you could teach me." Luna asserted her stance on the matter even further by summoning her Keyblade once again and holding it firmly in front of her showing Porom.
Porom's features lit up brighter than a light bulb however before she could talk Palom interjected, "That's my line of work. Offensive or black magic. I honestly don't see how you could mess up on fire but I guess it happens even to the best of us sometimes I suppose," Porom stepped forward and put his own hand forward, fire burst out of his hands, hitting the ground in front of Luna's feet and creating a scorch mark, "It's a destructive force, fire right? But don't focus on that. Instead feel the fire's warmth engulf your own body, let it spread through your body towards your finger tips and then release. I don't know how it channels through to a Keyblade but I imagine you'd only have to focus on that warmth entering the weapon instead of your fingers. Try it."
Luna nodded and spun her Keyblade around so the tip faced in front of her instead of to the side. She closed her eyes and used her happiness as a fuel for her warmth. As images of fire spread through her mind, she uttered the name of the spell. A projectile of fire shot out of her Keyblade straight ahead of her. However, it did not have the same effect as when Donald had shown her in Disney Town. The magic only travelled a metre [1] or so before disappearing out of sight. Even so, she was still happy at her progress.
Palom rested his chin upon his hand and nodded his head slightly, "Not bad. Mind you, you'd probably die if you did that in actual combat so you might want to practice. Also you can't really expect the enemy to be that close by surely? I imagine the Heartless wouldn't be so foolish as to go right at you."
"Oh don't be so harsh Palom. You did great Luna." Porom encouraged clapping at Luna's success. While Luna could help but grin a little, she knew that Palom was right. She had to do a lot better than that if she wanted to stand a chance.
"Thank you Palom for the lesson. I'll try harder next time, I promise." Luna stated her thoughts aloud. Donald gawked at the abrupt ending of his own lesson.
"Not try. You will. If you just try, it may as well be all over. Not to put pressure on you of course." Palom answered wisely.
"Of course." Luna answered sarcastically. It was very much a lot of pressure.
"To be fair to her. The Heartless react on instinct anyway so that short distance should be fine when they're coming at her. No pressure either." Sora commented putting his hand on Luna's shoulder.
Luna grimaced at the thought but set it aside for now. Turning back to the twins she asked, "So what are you two going to do now?"
Porom glanced over to Palom for a second before answering, "I think we're going to stay here for a while and help the town out. Nothing like gaining experience and mapping out worlds so we know more about them."
"Also, we get to fight Heartless but details..." Palom said quickly and jumped away to avoid another hit from Porom.
"Okay, have fun everyone. Say hello to the master for me will you." Porom asked waving before dragging her brother off back towards the restoration site. Luna waited for a while before looking back towards Sora and Donald.
Donald, who still had his bill wide open at the time, soon closed it, "I need a break. I'm going back to find Goofy. You guys coming?"
Luna was quick to answer, "No actually, um, Sora and I need to go to check something out."
Sora looked at her questioningly before receiving a wink from the girl, "Oh right, yeah. I did say that didn't I?"
Donald looked at the two weirdly at first before shrugging it off and walking off leaving the two by themselves.
"Right. I need to find something Sora. Can you help me? In the meantime, I'll tell you everything." Luna said impatiently waiting for Sora's answer.
Sora looked straight into Luna's eyes and saw worry. He soon smiled, "Sure. I don't see why not. Anything to keep away from Even and Dilan longer."
So, originally the chapter name of this title was something different but because I didn't want to spend 11,000 words getting to said point you'll see that in the next chapter instead which hopefully will be out soon.
As for the new name, it's supposed to refer to the halt in progress of redevelopment of the town due to the OS crashing. I know, rather subtle.
[1] For those who don't use the metric system, 1 metre would equal 3 feet so you have a rough idea of how short range that fire magic was.
Thanks for reading and please R&R, thanks.