KINGDOM HEARTS

LIMITLESS UNIVERSE:

THE BEGINNING

CHAPTER ELEVEN: CELESTIAL BEING

Sora had been at the wheel for a long time and the length of the trip was getting to him. As he was keeping his eyes forward at the endless space, his eyes would pull themselves shut and he would have to force them open. He had been staring into what looked like the same empty space for so long, he often wondered if they were going the right way. Goofy was with him in the cockpit. He was fitting the pictures he had taken into a photo album one by one and grouping them by world, which was easy since they had only been to one world. Goofy's shift was over, so it was alright for him to be laying around.

Donald came up from the lower deck and approached Sora from behind. "Sora, that's enough, let me take over."

"I'm alright, Donald." responded Sora.

"No, you're not, let me drive now."

Ryutaros fell out of Sora's body and became sand on the ground. "Hey, you want to hear a joke? It'll wake you up."

"Nah, I'm good." Sora responded.

Donald crossed his arms. "What's keeping you going?"

"I want to see the world we're supposed to stop at." he replied.

"I'll call you when we get there." Donald came up along Sora's side and grabbed the wheel. "Right now, you need to get some rest."

Jiminy jumped out of Sora's hood. "Donald's right, you need to be in top shape, especially if it comes down to a fight."

Sora sighed, but they were right. Everyone needed to be well rested, even if it comes down to fighting the Heartless. "Okay Donald, take over." Sora got up out of the seat and began to head below deck. Ryutaros tried to follow behind him, but Donald manages to keep him in the cockpit. It was below deck where there was a pair of bunk beds. Sora's was the one on bottom and to the left of the stairs. He threw his shoes off and tossed himself onto the bed. He put his hands behind his head and just stared at the mattress above him. Sora could not help but think about what he could be encountering next and what this new adventure will bring to him. Also, who is Decade and why is Riku chasing him? Whatever the answers may be, he knew he was about to get them soon. Sora closed his eyes and let himself doze off.

"Sora!"

Sora sprung up from his bed and looked around. He looked at his clock to see that he had only been asleep for about two hours, but the sudden alarm of Donald's voice made him wide awake. Donald called down to him again. Sora jumped into his shoes and fan up the stairs as fast as possible. "What's wrong Donald, are we being attacked?"

"No, look!" Donald pointed out the window towards the front of the ship.

Sora gazed in that direction to see an incredibly large black sphere right in front of them. Sora did not know what he was looking at, but he could tell that something was wrong with this picture. "What is it?"

"It looks like a whole world covered in Heartless!" Goofy said in a panic.

"But which one?" Sora said as he gazed at the sphere to see if he can identify any characteristics he could use to identify the world with.

"Judging by what the computer is telling us…it's Collision City…" Donald replied. With this knowledge, the crew looked to what remained of their destination as it lies ahead of them engulfed in dark clouds.

Jiminy jumped on the console of the ship. "Oh-no, the Heartless got here too?"

"This place, is where we were going?" Ryutaros asked.

"No…no…no, this can't be right!" Sora panicked. "What about Zeta?! That person who's supposed to help us is down there!"

"But Sora, if we get too close, we'll get swarmed by Heartless!" Goofy warned, "We have to move away!"

As soon as Donald started to pull away from the Heartless infested world, the alarm went off on the ship. "What is it?!" Sora asked Donald.

Donald looked at the radar. "Uh-oh! Hunters!"

"Hunters?!" Sora looked ahead of the gummi ship to see about a dozen X shaped Heartless flying at them. Following behind them were the weaker Heartless ships, but that did not lighten the situation. "Get us out of here!" Donald began to turn the ship around and fly as far away as possible when they started taking fire from the Heartless. In all of the commotion, Jiminy took refuge in Sora's hood again.

Ryutaros started running around from one end of the cockpit to the other in a panic. "Oh man, we are so fucked, people!"

"Shut up! I'll get us out of this!" Donald exclaimed as he relies on his many years of experiences with flying gummi ships to get them out of their current situation.

Unfortunately, the gun fire was not letting up and the ship began to take hits. Goofy covered his face in his hands as the situation became scarier for them, but he peaked through his fingers to see if the problem took a turn for the better just to see a Hunter closing in on them from behind. "Yikes, behind us!" he pointed.

Sora looked back to see the Hunter open up its fins and clamp down on the gummi ship. The shock that came after threw Sora out of his seat and onto his back. He quickly flipped himself over to see the Hunter's face staring into the cockpit as it closed its grip on them even more. "Guys, we need to do something—FAST!"

"She won't break free!" Donald called out as he pushed the ship to its limits.

"It's been nice knowing y'all!" Ryutaros announced.

Sora glared at their adversary and clenched his fist. "This is not how it all ends…this can't be…we still have things to accomplish…" Sora called forth is keyblade, "…and I still need to find Riku!" Just as Sora was ready to expect the worst, a huge blade came down out of nowhere and cut the Hunter's head from its clamp-like fins. As it flew clear of the gummi ship, a pink beam passed right through it and destroyed the head. "What the—?!"

Sora turned his head to the front of the gummi ship to see large, humanoid robots fly pass them and start firing upon the Heartless. One of them was a large, white robot with cannons mounted on its shoulders and a large gun in hand. Another was orange and it flew by in the shape of a plane at first, but transformed shortly after and started hailing down on the Heartless with a rapid-fire beam weapon. The third one was green and fired off shots from a distance at enemies too far for Sora to see on his own. The fourth one, the one that was wielding a blade, was white and blue and had a pair of cone shaped features on its shoulders and hovered around the gummi ship like an escort. Each one of them had a bright green light following behind them. "Gwarsh, who are they?" Goofy asked.

"I dunno, but those look a lot like those mobile suit things." Sora responded. "But they don't look like A-Laws."

"These guys saved us." commented Jiminy, who finally decided to come out of hiding.

Donald's eye followed the sword wielding mobile suit as it moved gracefully in between the gummi ship and the battle and turned to face them. Then it lifted its left arm and pointed behind them. "Huh? What's it doing?"

Goofy followed its finger and looked to see a ship in front of the gummi ship. "Hey guys, look at that!"

Sora, Donald, Jiminy, and Ryutaros all had their attentions gained by Goofy and looked to notice the same thing approaching them. "Is that their ship?" Donald asked.

"It's huge!" exclaimed Sora. Then he nudged Donald. "Donald, fly us over to it; I think he wants us to come aboard." Donald nodded to Sora and regain control of the ship as he flew them to their rescuers' transport. It was a large blue ship with wings out in front of its nose and stretched out behind the large containers that were attached to the sides of the ship. Both of them opened up and welcomed the gummi ship in. Following behind them were the different colored robot giants that also sought entrance into the ship the same way.

It did not take long for all four of the mobile suits and the gummi ship to all get in before the doors closed. Sora and the others waited until it was okay for them to leave the ship. "I wonder who's on this ship." Sora pondered.

Donald, Goofy, and Sora were all close to pressing themselves up against the dome-like cockpit window as they looked around the area for signs of being able to leave the ship. However, it was not long until four individuals in blue, green, purple, and orange body suits approached the ship. Following them was a small yellow robot. The one in the blue motioned to them. "Sora, they want us to come out." Jiminy announced from Sora's shoulder.

Sora nodded. "Okay." After opening the hatch, the crew of four exited the ship slowly and approached the others. Sora noticed that the four men with tinted helmet visors seemed confused to see him and the others and they each had one hand either behind their backs, or holding a gun in plain sight. "Uh, we come in peace?" Sora stated nervously thinking that these people have every intention of shooting them otherwise.

"Gwarsh, they're kinda scary lookin'." Goofy pointed out.

"Now I've seen everything." commented the man in the green. "I think it's safe guys." One by one, each of them began removing their helmets to reveal that they are in fact people. The man in the green appeared to be around Leon's age and had long brown hair. The man in the orange appeared to be a bit younger with black hair and darker shim, but his most captivating feature were the two different colored eyes; one gold and the other grey. The one in the blue had darker skin and messy black hair and appeared to be around the same age as Riku, if not, older. The last one in the purple was very feminine with purple hair cut cleanly right above his or her shoulders and very light skin. Sora will later admit that this person was very pretty. "Well, it's not too often that we come across a crew like this."

"I don't think we ever come across a crew like this." stated the man in the orange.

The man in the green approached Sora with a friendly smile. "So, what's your name, young man?"

"Uh, Sora." he answered.

The man extended his hand. "Nice to meet ya, name's Lockon Stratos."

It was probably one of the most unusual names that Sora has ever heard, but at the same time it sounded cool to him. Sora accepted the hand shake. "Same here."

Donald, seeing that it was safe, also approached Lockon. "I'm Donald Duck."

Goofy also join in the introductions. "And I'm Goofy."

"Man, you guys are like a traveling circus!" Lockon commented. "Come and meet my associates." He motioned to the other three.

Sora approached the man in blue. "Hi, I'm Sora. What's your name?"

"Setsuna F. Seiei." He responded in a rather flat tone. "It's good to know you are not an enemy, we could use all of the allies we can get right now."

At the same time, Donald was getting to know the man in orange. "I'm Donald Duck."

"Allelujah Haptism." He greeted with a friendly hand shake as well.

Goofy approached the other one dressed in purple. "A-hyuk, I'm goofy, what's your name, miss?"

Goofy's conversational partner looked like he/she was still trying to register Goofy's existence before responding. "Tieria Erde."

Goofy was taken aback by Tieria's voice. "Wow, you're a boy?"

Sora's attention was grasped when Tieria's gender was brought to light. "What? No way!" he said. "You're not a really pretty girl; you're actually a really pretty guy!?"

"I get that response often."

Sora scratched the back of his head as he tried to wrap his head around this. "Uh, okay…yeah." He looked around at the people around him. "Uh, thanks for coming to save us out there, and it's nice to meet all of you."

Suddenly, a large amount of sand bursted out of Sora and formed Ryutaros. "Hey, aren't you forgetting about me?!" The group's natural response to this phenomenon was to draw their guns and hold them at Ryutaros. "Whoa…" He put his hands up.

Sora pulled Lockon's gun down. "No wait, don't shoot! Ryutaros's quite harmless!"

"What is that thing?" Allelujah questioned.

"It's just a stupid Imagin." Donald stated while crossing his arms. "Nothing but trouble."

Setsuna and the others relaxed after Ryutaros was confirmed to be not a threat. "Talking sand monsters…now we've seen everything."

"Not quite." Jiminy jumped out from hiding and onto Sora's shoulder. He was writing down information in his journal and began motioning with his pen. "Lockon Stratos, Allelujah Haptism, Tieria Erde, and Setsuna F. Seiei." After registering their names, he jumped to the ground. "I'm Jiminy Cricket, the crew's journalist; I'm guessing you four are the ones in those mobile suits."

Tieria squatted down to get a close look at Jiminy. "That's correct."

"You people had great timing back there, but I wish you could save of a few more seconds of scare next time." Jiminy closed his journal. "You seem quite accepting of the nature of the people you just encountered, Tieria, I'm impressed."

"At this point, I'm pretty accepting of having a meaningful conversation with my refrigerator." Tieria stood up again. "Either way, when this is all over, I'm going to put myself through a series of sanity tests."

"Well, while we're in the middle of introducing pets, I'd like you all to meet my partner, Haro." Lockon picked up the small ball with the face and put it under his arm.

"Hello, Sora! Hello, Sora!" Haro spoke.

"Oh wow, that's so cool!" Sora commented.

"Actually, I'm not a pet." Jiminy stated. "Also, I want to confirm something with the four of you."

"What is it?" responded Setsuna.

"Are those mobile suits called Gundam?"

"Yes, but how do you know that?"

"Gundams?" Sora repeated the word, and then it hit him. "Wait, does that mean you guys are Celestial Being?!"

"So you've heard of us?" asked Lockon.

"Yeah, the A-Laws are looking for you guys."

"Are you guys with the A-Laws." questioned Tieria.

"What? No way!" Donald responded. "Those guys are all a bunch of morons like that Patrick guy!"

"Although there was that one cute one." commented Ryutaros.

"Oh, you mean Soma Peris?" asked Sora.

Allelujah responded immediately to that name. "Soma Peris!? You saw her?!"

"Yeah she was pretty nice to us, actually." Sora added. "Why, do you know here?"

"Yeah…in a way."

Setsuna put his hand on Sora's shoulder. "We've confirmed that you people are not a threat, we'll take you to see the rest of the crew, now."

"Yes, Miss. Sumeragi will want to meet all of you." Tieria stated. "Follow us to the ship's briefing room."

From Sora's guesses, Sumeragi was most likely their commander. He nodded and allowed the four pilots to lead them out of the hanger where their gummi ship would sit soundly as they met with the crew. Tieria was leading as they travelled through a brightly lit corridor of white walls and sliding doors. It was very much a maze, but somehow, they knew where they were going. Eventually, Tieria stopped in front of a door that looked just like the rest of them and opened it up with a press of a button. He turned to their guests and motioned. "Please go in, they are already inside."

"Okay." Sora headed in first, slowly, with Goofy and Donald trailing behind and Jiminy on Donald's hat. As Sora walked in, he found the room to be occupied by five other people; three women and two men, all in matching uniforms with different colors. One of the men, perhaps the oldest person in the room, had short black hair and wore glasses. His uniform's primary colors were black. Next to him was a younger man, but older than Sora, with very short hair and a muscular build. His uniform was also black with its sleeves rolled up. The youngest of the women was about 14 with a yellow uniform and blue skirt instead of the pants that everyone else wore with blown hair tied up on the sides of her head. She looked extremely excited to see Goofy and Donald when they entered behind Sora. Next was a pink haired girl around Sora's age that had a pink and green uniform that was almost as surprised to see the trio. Finally, the more mature woman that stood among them wore a confused expression. She wore a light purple uniform had brown hair that reached down to her shoulders. The air in the room was nothing short of awkward and confusing. "Um…hi?"

The brown haired woman nodded lightly. "…okay, maybe I do have a drinking problem."

"It's not your alcoholism, Miss. Sumeragi," Setsuna assured. "what you are seeing is real."

"Oh my gosh, really?!" the younger of the girls spoke with excitement.

"Holy shit." spoke the older gentleman as he adjusted his glasses. "I knew we were to expect strange and new things, but I think the standard has just been set."

The older woman nodded lightly in response to her crewmate's comments. "Okay…so, you were the ones on that ship?"

"Yeah." Sora clarified. "I'm Sora."

"Donald Duck." Donald spoke.

"Name's Goofy." Goofy declared.

Jiminy made himself noticeable by jumping up and down on Donald's hat. "I'm Jiminy Cricket."

"Quite a crowd, aren't they, Miss. Sumeragi." said Lockon.

Sora looked to Lockon and back to the burnet woman he was speaking to. "Oh, you're Sumeragi."

"Yes, Sumeragi Lee Noriega." She answered.

The younger burnet quickly approached Sora and grabbed his hand to shake it with excitement. "I'm Milena Vashti, Nice to meet you!"

"I'm Feldt Grace." said the pink haired girl, softly.

"Name's Ian Vashti," said the older man. "I'm the ship's mechanic."

"Name's Lasse Aeon." stated the man next to Ian. "ship's gunner and helmsman."

"Wait, only you people fly this huge ship?" Sora said in disbelief.

"Yeah, we are a bit understaffed, but we're working on that." stated Ian. "Speaking of staff, how'd you meet your crew?"

Sora looked back to Goofy and the others. "Oh, it's a long story."

Sumeragi approached. "I see you've met the Gundam Meisters."

"Yeah, but they were a little intimidating at first."

"We were following necessary precautionary measures." commented Tieria.

"You guys don't look like bad people, I wonder if the A-Laws know that." said Goofy.

"The A-Laws don't really know the identities of Celestial Being," Sumeragi Stated. "But it can be assumed that they know quite a bit right now."

Sora surveyed the room once more to examine the people before he came up with a question. "Where do you guys come from?"

"We come from Earth." Setsuna Stated. "Do you know of it?"

"Well yeah, I come from Earth."

"I see, so we can assume that the other worlds out there are alternate Earths." Setsuna said.

"So you guys are aware of the other worlds?"

"Only just recently." Lasse answered. "We realized that there was something otherworldly going on around us when our home was attacked by those same black creatures from before."

"What?" Donald replied. "You guys' world was attacked by the Heartless too?!"

"Yeah, we were swarmed by them." Allelujah stated. "It was like a living nightmare."

"Well, did you stop them?" Sora asked hoping for a yes. The robots they possessed were huge and, from what Sora had seen, very powerful; powerful enough to stop the Heartless. "You did right?" There was silence and everyone had a regretful expression on their faces. "No way…not even your Gundams can stop them…?"

"No…" Setsuna said. "While we fought hard, we could not prevent the swarm from engulfing our home. It was a worldwide invasion."

"Just like my home…" Sora commented to level with the others.

Sumeragi decided to speak up. "When we lost our home, we quickly learned about the other worlds as we moved throughout space in hopes of finding refuge."

The soft spoken Feldt Grace stepped forward to add to the conversation. "We were able to make refuge at some of our hidden bases in the area that had not been found out, but we're now traveling to the other worlds in hopes of finding others we can help."

"When we came to the conclusion that all of the worlds were being targeted by these…"

"Heartless." Donald stated.

"…Heartless, we decided that we could try to stop the spreading of their forces and save anyone we can." Lockon put his hand on his hip and shifted his weight to one leg. "That' why we picked you guys up."

"That's Celestial Being's mission." stated Setsuna. "We want to end this conflict."

"You're not alone there, Setsuna." said Jiminy. "We're also working towards fixing things."

"You guys?" said Lasse in great disbelief. "No offence, but you guys don't really look like combatants."

"You'd be surprised." Donald said proudly. "We've managed to stop the Heartless once before."

"What?" Tieria was a bit shocked. "You know how to stop those creatures?"

"Yeah, because we know who's controlling them and we're pretty sure she's still in charge." Sora said.

"Who is it?"

"A witch named Maleficent." Sora answered. "She controls the Heartless to control all of the worlds and she just employed a new kind of Heartless that can manipulate people to do her bidding."

"Tell us, was this Maleficent down on that world we were at earlier?" asked Ian.

"No, but someone who was supposed to help us was."

"Who was it?" asked Setsuna.

"Zeta Ishikawa." Sora said. "He's supposed to be this great warrior that could help us stop Maleficent's plans, but we don't know what's happened to him."

"This man lived on that world?" asked Setsuna.

"Yeah, but for all we know, the Heartless have gotten to him already."

"That's terrible." said Feldt.

"Is there the slightest chance that this person is still alive?" asked Tieria.

"We've never met him before, but we know that he is a very powerful man." commented Jiminy. "There might be a chance that he was not destroyed, but captured by Maleficent because she wants to use his power to her advantage."

"That's right!" Sora said. "She might be trying to control him with the new Heartless!"

"Then we should rescue him." stated Setsuna. He turned to his superior. "What do you think, Miss. Sumeragi?"

Sumeragi appeared to be pondering what to do given the current information. "When we reach one of our satellite bases, we'll be able to resupply and receive the equipment we need to keep fighting." The others waited for her final decision. "This is the best information we've gotten in a long time and I think we should follow it."

"Then we've got a plan?" asked Lockon, smiling with anticipation.

"Our mission is to rescue Zeta Ishikawa as we travel to the other worlds for leads on his location." Sumeragi stated. "To do this, we need everything you know about the situation and the Heartless, Sora. So we request that you stay with us."

"Got it!" Sora said.

"Stay Sora! Stay Sora!" repeated Haro as it floated around.

"We'll tell you everything we know." said Jiminy.

"Alright, we've gotten on track!" said Ian.

Feldt stepped forward and spoke to Sora. "If you're going to stay, let me show you around the ship."

"Okay, that sounds good."

Milena joined in. "I want to help too!" She took Donald by the hand and pulled him to the door. Goofy followed behind in haste. Sora and Feldt followed behind.

As they were leaving the room and Sumeragi was discussing the other details of the plan, Allelujah headed after Sora. "Sora, wait!"

Sora stopped in the hall and turned to Allelujah. "Huh, what's up, Allelujah?"

"You said you met Soma Peris once before, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, do you know her?"

"I do…is she alright?"

"Yeah, she's fine." Sora answered. "She's important to you, isn't she?"

Allelujah sighed. "Yeah."

Sora walked up to him. "I know what it's like to be far from the person you really care about." He put his hand on Allelujah's shoulder. "Don't worry; I'm sure everything will be fin between you two."

Allelujah smiled and nodded. "That's for that, Sora."

"If you ever need to talk about it, just come to me." Sora said. "I'll listen."

"Okay." Allelujah looked back to the briefing room. "I should get back, I need to hear this."

"Okay, I'll catch you later." As Allelujah headed back to the briefing room, Sora's powerless feeling from losing his island began to lift from him as he began to feel the alliance he had made with the Meisters and the rest of the crew. They would prove to be very powerful allies later on his adventure as he shares their struggles and their enemies as it turns out that they will share a common enemy.