Oh No, Not another One!

By James the Fox

"Are you ready… to BRAWL?"

Sora: "You may be, but the American Release isn't."

"… Shut up, you're ruining my delusions of laying the smackdown on the Master Hand as Sonic, or maybe PKMN Trainer…"

Link: "You could pick me."

"No… Not you. Sure, I played you in Melee, but it was your young self. I can't take playing you as your older self…"

Sonic: "You're too slow!"

"Oh, and Sonic… Just because I'm thinking of playing as you, doesn't mean I think you're the coolest. I'm still holding out a vague hope that Tails is playable in the next Smash Brothers, whenever that comes out…"

Sonic: (Looking dejected)

"… That won't work on me."

Sonic: (Devastated)

"……… Okay, you're… kinda cool. But only kinda. Anyway… FALCON UPDATE!"

Sora: "Show your moves!"

(3rd Person POV. Party: Donald, Goofy. Location???)

"Where are we?" Goofy asked, though there was noone nearby who knew the answer. "Gwarsh… I hope James is alright…" Goofy hung his head as he and his partner sat in the middle of a clearing surrounded by bamboo.

"Aw, who needs him?" Donald grumbled, still furious. "We can find the king without him. Besides, he'd probably slow us down, making us go to worlds like this…" The court wizard was, indeed, annoyed. What on earth made that brat think he could just swoop in and grab the controls like that, anyway?

"Gosh, Donald, you don't have to be so hard on him…" Goofy rebuked his friend. "After all, he was kinda in the right."

"Eh?"

"Whether we thought there was a chance of finding them or not, James came along with us because we said we'd help him find his friends. We can't just go back on that, right?"

"Hmph!" Donald closed his eyes, stubbornly crossing his arms.

Goofy sighed, starting to be annoyed with his comrade's behavior. He was a VERY patient person, and that was a good thing, considering his longtime partner's tendencies. Nearly opposite to each other, one person's strengths canceled out the other's weaknesses.

But where did James fit into that? The goof sighed, pulling his brain back into overdrive for the umpteenth time since meeting James. The boy had good skills in combat, especially for his age. He was also apparently fairly talented in other things, if his drawing was any indication. He even seemingly had some kind of sixth sense that allowed him to see what kind of abilities his opponents had… Was that just a power the Keyblade had, or was it something else? Goofy chalked that up to 'study/ask about later.'

On the other hand, James was also secretive at times, constantly hiding things that he declared as 'none of your business… at least for now.' He was also extremely overconfident at times. Goofy remembered their battle with Cloud. James had said that he had known all along Cloud had had that attack, yet hadn't expected Cloud to use it? What kind of thinking was that? Goofy brought to mind one of the rules he had memorized from his Adventurer's Guide: "Never underestimate your foe. If you have gathered intelligence of a person's skills, fight with the expectation that the foe was going at his best, exceeding the skills you know of." James had good judgment in some cases, but none in others. In general, he exhibited attitudes similar both to greenhorns and skilled veterans. Goofy clutched his head, annoyed. There was just too little information for him to wrap himself around…

Goofy was snapped out of his thoughts by a shocked squawk from Donald who was face to face with a large ape. Goofy watched the simian run away, dropping a small, familiar-looking block as he went. Goofy picked it up.

"It looks like… a Gummi Block!" Goofy gasped as he continued. "But it looks different from what we used for our ship…" Donald looked up at that.

"Then that could mean…" Donald looked at Goofy, absolutely embarrassed. "James was right. The King might have been here…"

Goofy smiled good-naturedly. "Now that we've got that sorted out, we should go find him. If we're lucky, we might find the King, too!" He gave a signature "H-yuck!" and left on a path to the deeper parts of the forest, Donald following.

A few minutes later, another person came out of the bamboo forest, barely missing the group that had been there only minutes before…

(3rd Person POV. Party: Holly/Chewbacca, Mark, Wilson, Caleb. Location: Oathkeeper)

"James…" Holly muttered to herself for the two THOUSANDTH time since they left Olympus Coliseum (Caleb had been keeping count). She was very torn up about the choice they had made. On one hand, she knew that was the choice that needed to be made 'For the greater good.'

Damn, how she HATED that phrase! Ever since reading Dumbledore-bashing fanfiction, she had grown to detest the phrase Dumbledore had used so often to justify his actions. And yet, here she was, using it! It made her want to rip her own guts out.

On her other hand, she just knew, somehow, that James would be able to find Cloud, despite what Hades had said. He was the best at the game, so of course he'd know where Cloud would go…

She sighed again. Was she really so sure? James was good, but he wasn't able to read minds. From what Mark said, Cloud had never left Olympus in the game, except after the game was over… Still, she hated choices like this, which always left her wondering, 'What if I had chosen the other path?'

A headache was coming on, so Holly stopped her thinking, which was currently running around in circles, and went to sleep.

However, images of a ghostly James floating around her head, screaming "WHY?" to her over and over again kept her from having the best sleep…

"We're here," Mark said, looking at the unmistakable visage of Traverse Town. Holly awoke, and as they neared the world, they suddenly found themselves at the front gate of the town's first district. The youngest in the group walked purposefully to the Equipment Shop in the center of the district, his friends following him. As they stepped in, they saw a old blond man behind the counter, reading an obviously dirty magazine. Holly cringed, resisting her first impulse to pound the man into paste.

The old man looked up from his magazine, and upon seeing the kids, swore and hastily stowed the reading material into a pocket in his jacket. "Er… Can I help you runts?" Cid said, obviously annoyed at the interruption.

"We'd like an upgrade to our ship's navigation system," Wilson said as though having just seen the perverted material was nothing major. "We have the pieces we need, but we don't have the know-how to install them."

"Hah! What use would you have for something like that?"

"We're trying to get somewhere, and we need this upgrade to figure out exactly WHERE the place we seek is…" Mark said, a slight blush still on his face. "So, are you gonna help us, or what?"

Cid grumbled incoherently. "How much munny do you have?"

"Uh… Well…" Mark was embarrassed. Of COURSE he wasn't going to give it to them for free! They didn't have hero status like Sora did, after all… "We'll be back. How much do we need?" Mark asked.

Cid shrugged. "About five thousand munny."

"WHAT!?" came the collective voices, along with an indignant bark. That… That would take FOREVER! They didn't have that kind of time!

"Sorry, but that is really hard. Feel lucky, kids, because if you didn't already have the parts, this would be about twenty thousand munny."

Mark sighed. "Well, we had best get a move on… We've got to get that munny…"

Cid called to them before they left the building. "Hey! If it's munny you're looking for, try the Help Wanted board to the right of the Gate. I just wouldn't recommend the errands that take you out of the First District unless you've got some fighting skills good against the Heartless!" Mark turned around and thanked the man, leaving for the Gate as he did. As they left, Cid grinned as he pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

(3rd Person POV. Party: James, Tarzan. Location: Deep Jungle)

It had taken MUCH longer to get through the jungle than in the game. HOURS longer, in fact. However, James was willing to forgive. Especially with what he was doing now.

James laughed with glee as he slid down the trees alongside Tarzan. "This is AWESOME!" he shouted, having the time of his life… until he hit a branch.

"Nice move, dumbass," Volt said, laughing his butt off at James' expense.

'Oh, shut it,' James replied before gasping in pain. He looked down, seeing that his wound had only gotten worse from moving around. What's worse, he didn't have any potions on him, having used the last of the one's he had to heal from Cloud's near-fatal attack.

"C-crap…" He said, falling into unconsciousness as Tarzan jumped to his aid.

When he awoke, he found himself in a tent that was vaguely familiar to him… Deep Jungle… Jane's Camp! He got up, cringing from the wound on his side. He looked at it (taking note with a blush that he was now in naught but his underwear), seeing that it was bandaged up. He noted that the cloth below him, serving as a makeshift bed, had a good splotch of red on it. He shivered at the thought, and walked outside, noticing three figures: Jane, Tarzan… and Clayton. James felt a desire to kill the man right where he stood, and was ready to do so… Except that he was wounded, had no clothing save for underwear, and was planning to face a guy with a shotgun. Sure, the Keyblade was good, but he couldn't block a bullet to the head. So instead, he looked about, seeing his clothing hanging on a clothesline. Sighing with relief, he took his shorts, gloves,(which were still wet, unfortunately) and gloves, and proceeded to walk to the small group. Jane was the first to notice him, and greeted him kindly, offering him a seat.

"So, then, Tarzan tells me that your name is James, right?"

"Yeah." James replied. "Hey, by the way… you wouldn't happen to have seen two people somewhere in this forest? The short one who looks like a duck is Donald, and the tall, clumsy one is Goofy. I need to find them. I also think some other friends of mine, Riku and Kairi, are here, too…"

"Well, James, we have yet to see anyone like that, and you aren't going out there until your wound is healed completely. So you need to rest."

"&?&X. You find friends there," Tarzan advised, and though James already knew what he was saying, he pretended he didn't, sparking the flame that would lead to the Keyhole. Instead, he was thinking of Jane's answer.

'Crap. Not the answer I was looking for. I REALLY need to learn Cure.' "That's fine. Could you go search for them? They can't be too far…"

(3rd Person POV. Party: Donald, Goofy. Location: Deep Jungle)

The duo walked up to the tree house, staring at it in awe.

"Amazing…" Donald murmured, as though speaking too loudly would cause it to explode into a thousand little pieces.

"Yeah…" Goofy said with equal silence, walking in and looking about until he suddenly found something that caught his eye. "Donald!" He called in shock, bringing the duck to him. Right below a large hole in the ceiling, there was a small pile of rubble. However, that itself wasn't the major detail. Among the rubble were little dabs of blood.

Fresh blood.

"You don't think…" Goofy asked his friend.

"James must have not had the best landing of the three of us, huh?" Donald asked rhetorically. He then noticed small dabs of blood leading out of the tree house. "Well, at least he's still alive enough to walk about…"

"We should follow his path, Donald! He might need us!" Goofy said and, without waiting for Donald's reply, followed the path. Donald sighed before following.

They followed for a few hours, finding that they had passed by his path before, not noticing. But now, they feared, for as they followed the trail, the splotches of blood got bigger and bigger. Then, on a large branch, after a smaller branch, the blood had gotten really bad. They continued on the path, eventually jumping down into the middle of a campground.

"Hm?" They jumped as they heard a voice behind them, facing a young brown-haired woman. "Wait a moment," She said, looking at the two of them closely. "I take it that you two are Donald and Goofy, right?" The two nodded dumbly. "Oh! Good to see you! I just sent a group to find you. James was pretty worried about you two…"

"Wait, you saw James?" Goofy exclaimed in disbelief. "Is he alright? We saw a trail of blood, and it led us here, and…"

"He's alright, given his condition. He has a pretty bad cut on his side, but he still was able to wake up and walk about for a while until we made him go back to sleep."

Goofy sighed in relief, and while Donald seemed to partially relax.

"Oh, I'll get him for making us worry about him like that!" Donald squawked, temper starting to rise.

"Not until he's better!" Jane protested, but the duck had already barged into the tent.

Several loud rumblings occurred, and Donald flew out of the tent. James walked out, Keyblade out and ready for battle.

"Donald, if you're going to just barge in on me while I've still got a wound, you could at least give me a Potion or something first."

Donald blushed in embarrassment a little before raising his staff. "Cure!" At once, the spell took effect, and James' wound was nothing more than a memory. The boy jumped up, spinning the Keyblade in joy before plunging it into the ground and standing on it.

"Alright!" James grinned before jumping off of his weapon. "So… Now what, guys?" He already knew of the Gummi Piece they must have found, and was ready.

"We found a Gummi Block, James…" Goofy said, looking at James as he presented the piece. "However, it's not the kind we used in building our ship, so…"

"It might belong to the King," Donald finished. "We're going to look about and hopefully find a hint of where the King might have gone after being here."

"What about our ship?" James asked.

"Don't worry bout that!" Donald grinned. "It's obviously got to be at the Gummi Garage. It always ends up there."

"Oh! Okay…" James rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. 'That's how it works... I guess the ship autopilots itself to the Garage.' "So, who's up for a little exploring?"

(Party Change: James, Donald, Goofy, Tarzan)

Exploring, unfortunately, wasn't particularly invigorating. The next few days were spent hunting for clues, raiding the chests that were about, and various other not-very-fun things. James almost wished that Heartless were about.

However, to him, the most annoying thing was his wardrobe. His shirt was in tatters, ripped beyond repair, and Cid's jacket was way too warm for this weather. So, James had no choice but to take one of CLAYTON'S shirts. Not only were they too big for him, but he hated wearing the clothing of his foe. Not at all nice.

However, eventually, things heated up, and the Heartless made their presence known, Clayton vanishing only a few minutes beforehand. James was quick to find and rescue the captured apes, and was rewarded just as quickly with Gummi Blocks (Seriously, where did they GET these things?). Almost immediately afterwards, Jane and one of the younger apes, Turk, were captured. James, Tarzan, and Goofy made quick work of the fruit, reducing it to nothing in minutes. Jane, once freed, told them of Clayton, who was attempting to capture and kill the Gorillas. As the quartet of heroes rushed to where Clayton was, James attempted to get Donald to do something for him.

"I need to learn that healing spell. I'd rather not be in the situation I was in when we arrived, eh? No healing Items, no one who could heal me, you know."

"Sure, James," Donald replied. "After this is over, I'll teach ya."

"Thanks," James concluded the conversation just before reaching Clayton, who was just about to fire his gun. He took out the Keyblade, started glowing as he activated Sonic Blade…

…And vanished in a blur of speed. James instantly reappeared above Clayton, diving in a crouching stance, Keyblade suddenly longer, before the man even knew what was coming. James landed on the Hunter-turned-Heartless, stabbing as he did, and vanished again. He appeared once more, repeating the cycle from a different angle, shining brighter every time. Upon the fifth time, James was engulfed in light as he screamed:

"Dragoon Dive!" He dived one last time, piercing the man from directly above before jumping to the ground behind the hunter. Clayton fell to his knees, several holes in him, all of which oozing with darkness.

'That tears it… He's no longer human,' James concluded as the Heartless stood once more, and a wall busted into rubble, all seemingly from nothing. James looked carefully, noting the blur that was the Stealth Sneak. Clayton, fully healed, jumped up to ride the chameleon-like Heartless, a feat that was both nearly impossible, and gave the Heartless' position away. The melee fighters charged while Donald stayed out of harm's way, pelting the monsters with Thunder and healing the fighters with Cure. James jumped back after Stealth Sneak landed a heavy blast of energy on him and summoned Volt, who instantly rushed into the fray. After being healed by Donald, James went after him, the duo scoring several hits. Finally, James jumped off of Tarzan's spear and threw the Pikachu at Clayton.

Volt grinned as he clung to Clayton's face. "Cha pika, chuka, chuka pichu, ka cha pi pik a ka…" ("Don't worry, you poor, poor bastard, this won't hurt me at all…") "PIKA KACHUPI, CHU!" ("THUNDAJA TO THE FACE, BITCH!")

As a tremendous lightshow of over the top violence began, James looked at the others. "I think Volt likes hurting people WAY too much. Actually, though, he kinda reminds me of an old friend…"

(3rd Person POV. Party: Wilson. Location: Traverse Town)

As he was busy cleaning the attic of the Moogle's Synthesis Shop, Wilson suddenly sneezed.

"Man, must be all this dust…"

(3rd Person POV. Party: James, Volt, Donald, Goofy, Tarzan. Location: Deep Jungle)

Volt jumped off of Clayton's face, and the burnt-to-a-crisp hunter fell from his perch, paralyzed. The Chameleon was in a similar state, and fell as well, landing right on top of Clayton, and they both vanished in bursts of darkness.

James sighed as he walked to where they stood. "Really unfortunate, the things people do in greed…"

Just then, he suddenly found himself flying into the air at high speeds before landing on a ledge he could have simply CLIMBED! Stupid Kerchak…

After his friends found themselves similarly hurled through the air, James followed Tarzan into the caves, until the group finally came across the Keyhole. James pulled out the Keyblade, feeling called by the Keyhole, and in the same sequence that had happened in Olympus and Wonderland occurred here as well. James put away the Keyblade afterwards, picking up the small Gummi and Keychain that came out of it. He smirked inwardly. With this Gummi and the one they had found in Wonderland… The group was finally able to go deeper into the worlds. That is, once Cid installed it.

"&?&X. Find friends there," Tarzan repeated.

"Hm?" Donald looked the ape-man, and James 'suddenly' perked up in realization.

"Heart. &?&X is gorilla for 'Heart.' Friends in our heart…" James smiled. "Pretty sappy, but I can understand that sentiment…" He closed his eyes, remembering, fully this time, his old family and friends. 'Though I may never see you again, I'll never forget you completely…'

Tarzan nodded. "Friends… Same heart. Clayton lose heart. No heart, no see friends. No heart… No friends."

Donald bowed his head. "James… I'm sorry."

"It's alright. I forgave you long ago, silly goose!" James said with a wink. Everyone laughed as this prompted Donald to chase James about with thunder spells. But all knew that this was only temporary anger, simple playing around between friends…

Save maybe for Donald, that last Thunder spell looked like it would have hurt…

James smirked, wearing Cid's jacket open, revealing his bare chest (He couldn't bear to wear Clayton's shirt anymore, and his shirt was way out of the picture.), as he attached the Jungle King to the Keyblade. At once, the Keyblade transformed into a form made out of wood. It was longer than the Kingdom Key variation, and was, despite its appearance, stronger, the Key itself being a bit sharper than the Kingdom Key. He then ran to catch up with Donald and Goofy, who were already in the Gummi Garage.

"So, what now?" James asked as they sat in their ship.

"YOU GET HELL, THAT'S WHAT!" Cried two very annoyed, very high voices as James was pummeled by two little balls of fur. James quickly found himself overwhelmed, and it took the combined forces of Donald and Goofy to get Chip and Dale off of James. As they did, Donald laughed at a rather bruised James.

"Well, anyway…" James said as Donald cast Cure on him.

"That's odd…" Goofy muttered. "There don't seem to be any worlds beyond here…"

"Maybe we should check with Leon and the others…" James quipped.

"Yeah," Donald agreed. With that, the ship left the Gummi port and flew to Traverse Town…

Shortly into the ride, Donald decided to begin teaching James Cure.

"… you just need to focus your magic like so, and think of healing. Try it!" Donald finished his long explanation, and James took the Keyblade and thrust it into the air, calling the words:

"Cure!"

…

"Uh… Cure!"

…

"Cure! Cure! Cure?"

Donald sighed. This might take a while…

"Well, there you have it. Deep Jungle is now dealt with. Now, what happens next, you ask? Well, next chapter has a return to Traverse Town, a small revelation, a new summon, and James' attempts to save an 'old' friend from the darkness…"

Riku: "In other words, you're going to do much of the same old same old."

"Maybe. Bwahahaha! Until then, though, see you next update!"