- four years ago –

"Nuusku!! Nuusku!!"

Nuusku tried ignoring the voice, speeding up his walk over the steps to the thirdlevel of castle. Nuusku was offduty this week. Categorically. But the week was already starting to close fast, and he had plenty of time to put off his workload. Just thinkingabout it really got on the crafty cats' nerves, and so he reserved all his time energy thinking of ways to get out of it. You can imagine it was a laughably easy process, but for a technical Genius of evasion who had the lack-a-daisy job that was mostly pushing away responsibility of cleaning up the aftermath of other member's squabbles, it was a proverbial pain in the ass. But now as the figure came into view, a hairy, white mass that came from where he was going; there was no way to avoid it.

Hisname was Kaze. An acknowledgeable academic, and a very furry one too; Nuusku knew that he had an extremely bizarre interest in conducting experiments, and these were experiments that were inclined to always fail. And most of the time, this eccentric idiot wore an orange cap on his shaggy head, and he was rarely seen by anybody but Nuusku. His voice was thick and throaty and he was easily irritated. He was sounding angry as he talked to the smaller-sized feline.

"Where is he?" Kaze bellowed into Nuusku's right ear when he noticed Nuusku wasn't paying any attention to him.

"Hmm? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear what you saying," Nuusku spit in his face without even sounding like he really cared in the least.

"Pay ATTENTION!!" Kaze snarled like an angry parent jabbed an angry finger, but Nuusku found it petty and ridiculous. "Where is Kumagorox?"

Nuusku didn't feel like wasting time with such an idiotic question, and especially one concerning his whereabouts. A moment of silence and the brown cat finally decided to relent to the oddball scientist. "The usual place."

Kaze's expression turned sour and his face scrunched, and Nuusku could tell already just how angry he was. Kaze spoke in a low voice, "That place, huh? The Room of Slumber." He lowered his head and lazed his stare in the direction of the silver-colored walls of the huge castle.

Nuusku was as uncaring as always, unable to see his reason for such pressure. "If it's so urgent, why don't you go and see?"

"Quit joking with me!" Kaze snapped in the tone that said he was ready bite the head off the next person who came up with another ridiculous idea. But his voice grew bitter. "I don't have a choice. I'll have to wait for him. Right when we actually need him, he goes to sleep, and at the worst possible time…" Kaze continued muttering furiously to himself as he walked off past Nuusku. Nuusku leaned his head to the side as he watching him walking past, before putting the whole idiocy behind him and from his mind and walking on his way.

"What a little runt he was. Y' know, I'M not so good in thatplace, either."

Nuusku wasn't surprised, if that was what he expected the other voice to be expecting. He looked up. Sitting on top of one of the beams jutting from side of the entrance into the next area, was another "accomplice" he didn't have much association with. He wore a hood over his huge head, and Nuusku thought that was perfectly fine. He was very ugly, this stranger.

"Well, what do you say to that, Mister Nuusku?" Nuusku didn't take kindly to a sarcastic remark from a freak like Wani, and bit back with one of his own. "So I suppose it's good to eavesdrop, isn't it?"

That 'freak' didn't answer. Nuusku decided to rub more salt in his wound with another disturbing fact he knew. "You and Hakkuru were given the task of seeking the lost ones, more vessels fit to become newmembers. I can't see how you can afford the luxury to waste your time."

Wani showed that he didn't care with a jump down to the floor. "I'm DOING enough crap, already!!" he said with rising anger in his voice. "We already found somebodyyesterday, and I think his new name is… "Ere-" or something fucked up like that. We're now up to eleven members in Hanbar, so go ahead, toss any old shit in my face; you can't even touch me. I've done my part. I've asked-"

" 'Begged', is what you going to say," Nuusku interrupted him with sardonic guile.

"Shut up. I ASKED Filhox to cover for me. I'm on break. I'll get back to work… the next day!"

Continuing to show no mercy at pecking at Wani's contempt, Nuusku brushed him off. "Well, rest fully. I have some work to do myself so I'll take my leave." Nuusku began walking off for the third flight of stairs. That was, until Wani ran up behind him and rested a hand on his shoulder, showing that he was determined to waste his precious time. The second time he heard Wani's obnoxious voice, it was less obnoxious then before. This asshole was too easy to read; Nuusku grew perceptively suspicious of his 'relaxed', palsy gestures and smooth natters.

"Hey, hey, hey!! So harsh!! I'm a pretty easy-going guy! Can't we just I dunno, take ourselves a little break and have a fun and friendly little talk…?"

Nothing that slimy green lizard would say was going to make any sway. None-

"….About, say, Kumagorox's Secret?"

Wait. Except for that. That caught Nuusku's attention.

"…Hmm?"

Wani took several steady steps forward, but not as if he was really going anywhere, but it looked to Nuusku as if sneaky lizard- no, sneaky to Nuusku seemed like a horrible understatement- the lecherous lizard was becoming gradually delirious.

"How long has it been? I suppose, a great length of time? Maybe, greater than that? Who knows? I certainly can't say, because I don't have a clear memory. But I do remember a few things. I remember a great, white, place; it was a place big and wondrous, and very, very green. Vague? Yes it IS. I remember… but that's all Iremember. People with Keys. There were… people with Keys. They said that with great power like that you could become undefeated. Invincible. A god, if you will. I remember black spots. Yeah, they were around. If you touched those, you'd die."

"That's…" Nuusku's voice fell abrupt mid Wani's delirious fanaticizing.

"Bingo. It's called AIDA. It was like, a 'disease'. But it was no ordinary disease. They were around! They were everywhere! But it wasn't like AIDA were an uncommon thing. It was around too, but it's rarely ever seen. People from that world saw potential in AIDA, because of the energy they found they could harness. And they concluded that it was normal, they thought it was harmless to wield and experiment with such power, because… because back then, things in that world were ordinary. Dull. They made laboratories and conducted dangerous experiments. But something happened. Something happened to that world in which AIDA was hiding. Something terrible," Nuusku realized that Wani was speaking not as if he felt sad about whatever Tragedy he was imagining, he sounded like he took some kind of sick pleasure. Wani suddenly gave a dark snicker.

"But nobody remembers that," Nuusku pointed out.

"Yes I KNOW. Just listen. Listen to me. You see, in the aftermath of the chaos that transpired, everyone and everything living had died. But, something remained in that world. Yes, I know it seems impossible, but that is exactly what I remember. Someone without memories rose from the rubble. Somebody… with great powers. Kumagorox? Hell no. His nameless original prolonged his existence to subjugation at the feet of 2 greater beings that possessed incredible powers- Powers of GOD. Isn't this the truth?"

"… And what if it was? What is the meaningof your silly babbling? I wish you'd just leave your fucking baby-shit of an attitude behind."

"Think, you fucking dolt. Where did these 2 beings attain such Great Powers? Powers they imparted on that individual, whose very name has been lost to the annals of time ITSELF? The "Room of Slumber". This individual, he studied under them, the 2 great ones, and learned their secret; over time he became obsessed, a mountain of knowledge, and conducted dangerous pursuits. In time, he turned on them and then rid himself of them. He passed off his old name for… Kumagorox." Wani paused, perplexed. His voice grew steady and he didn't slow down. "But he remained, he strove for a fulfillment he couldn't achieve alone. This led to his want of followers; he eventually found followers and they performed more dangerous experiments with AIDA. And this place, we… the laboratory where we were studying the darkness within people's hearts- that place was sealed away under the 2 great ones'orders, to prevent messing with AIDA. Together with his followers, they undid the magical seal on the door to the dark depths of that horrible laboratory, his first order as the leader. Afterwards, Kumagorox went down there frequently, and I followed behind, making myself scare so that he couldn't even sense me, and I could hear him talking with someone."

Wani paused on a hesitant breath. He turned around quickly making confusing gestures that Nuusku was unable to understand.

"Isn't that odd? Our great and wise leader, sitting down there alone, and he's talking with someone! There shouldn't be anybody else down there."

"You really do enjoy to Eavesdrop," Nuusku smugly pointed out. "And if you're going out on a limb here to try and convince me 'Ghosts' are real, then you're sadly, sadly mistaken."

"Don't kiss up. It's not like I could actually hear what they were saying. I always get a little… sidetracked."

"Hmph."

"Come on, Nuusku. You know you're interested. You are, aren't you?"

"No," was Nuusku's simple and dead reply, before flaunting off his devil-may-care attitude and attempted to brush off the gossipy Number 2 once more. "It's "Interesting" that you have this incredible space of knowledge and secrets at your disposal and let alone your memory, but it has nothing to do with me. My concern of importance is the assignment, and that is what I'm going to do. I suggest you do the same. We don't know how many potential members there are out there, you know. Besides, we're lagging behind in preparations as well as members for our new base."

Wani took this into consideration, and then an over-confident smile graced his scaly lips.

"Our new base. Oh. That "Castle Oblivion" place. How lovely."

"You know damn well you didn't REALLY mean what you just said. Again, I really don't give a fuck about your crazy baby shit."

Wani pretended to be like he really felt offended. "Ah, you hurt my feelings. And I was going to TALK about that."

"You don't have feelings, you talk too much, and you're a sneaky rat. You're pathetic. Need I go on?" Nuusku raised an arrogant eyebrow.

"Keep this in mind when you insult me. NO. Wait. Oh well. Let me ask you another question: "Castle Oblivion". Why is it so important to our "Great" and "Powerful" leader?"

"We were told-"

"NO," Wani's voice was so hushed, quick and stern, Nuusku was this close to awarding that overconfident punk a fit of laughter. "What you know, and what I know are two TOTALLY different things. What you don't know, is that Kumagorox has a reason of his own that he has yet to tell."

Silence followed for only God knew how long, and Nuusku became agitated to learn that he remained that same spot on stairs, eager to hear Wani talk even more.

"With the "Room of Slumber" comes the "Room of Awakening". The other place: THAT is what he seeks. Do you understand now? Hehas found the Room of Slumber, but with our takeover of Castle Oblivion, he hopes to find the twin. The other that is part of the matching pair- the "Room of Awakening" which our Kumagorox didn't create: I have a very strong suspicion, Nuusku. What's so important about 2 rooms? If in one room, Kumagorox talks with someone, let's refer to this person as an Old Friend", then maybe in other room, the room he seeks, perhaps that is where… the other… "Friend" is."

Nuusku turned around and stared at the cloaked figure below; part of the brown cat wanted to believe nothing of Wani's speech-long testimony, which he felt certain was conceived of lies built on lies. Though deep down he resented this nosy gator, the feeling stuck in his mind like a cold weight pressed against his gut that…

…He could've been right.

Chapter 14: Midnight on the Most Beautiful Street in The World

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

- present time–

"Hovis!! Get in here, on the double, NOW!!"

"…Ugh. What is it now?" The 43-year-old butler yawned objectively to his overbearing animal master as he stumbled into the control room of the Gladios.

"BEHOLD!" Blik cleared his voice after an unnecessarily grandiose introduction. "I've finally figured out how to operate the controls!!" But the irony of the next few minutes where Blik was rapidly pressing several buttons like on a keypad were unexciting and misleading. Hovis came this close to gagging then bursting into a series of screechy fits of cackling, if not for his incredible mastery of control over himself: Blik was just making himself look too pathetic. "Yes! And, BEST of all," he added with winning sharp grin, "I think I've found a way to track down this Bloo guy using this machinery and a bunch DNA tracking devices!"

"Well, you've certainly showed me," said his attendant in a dry voice and tone that showed he was anything but.

"Hah! I KNEW it," Blik finished, seeming to be more engrossed into his job of navigating the ship with a greedy eagerness. James swore that Blik's ego couldn't possibly get any bigger. "Hmm. Shouldn't that young boy be up here? After all, it's his friend we're looking for to begin with."

"Don't you be giving me advice! Go do your job!"

"You mean waking Mr. Kazoo?"

"NO! I mean cleaning and spit-shinning this ship!! Besides," Blik added in a much lower voice than before, to his attendants' rare surprise. "The kid's asleep anyway. What good would't do if he knew, and he was like, 1000 Light-years away?"

Blik actually showing concern for somebody other than himself, to James, sounded more like if someone cut open a rock with a pair of scissors. James had a powerful awful feeling of sickness set in his gut, all because of what some half-dead moron of a wealthy feline had just uttered from his mouth.

"… I suppose that would be pointless. Well then, I suppose I'll get to cleaning. Shall I wake Master Gordon and have him take his shift or will you set this ship to Autopilot?"

Blik paused while he deliberated on a decision that seemed absolutely unnecessary.

"…uh, whatever, you go ahead and do that. The first thing you said."

(The Following Morning)

Yawning terribly, Kennedy stretched his arms as he woke up. Nothing clearly felt out of place that morning and he was having the time of his life on such a wild adventure- stuff like anything having to do with Nephilim Xaldin or Dualsphere seemed like an ancient memory now.

"Attention Everyone!! THIS is MR. BLIK!! I ORDER EVERYONE TO GET TO THE SHIP'S BRIDGE, NOW!!"

Ah well, Kennedy thought casually to himself as jumped straight out of bed, duty calls. He seemed to stop worrying so much about who he was or where he really came from; he was really enjoying himself. While he thought of this, he turned around to greet good morning to his 'mentor'. "Morning Old- huh?" Kennedy was surprised to see that James was already gone. "Guess he's at the bridge."

(Bridge)

"What's up, Guys? Man, that was some good breakfast you left for me!" The swaggering, good-natured, Key bearer walked in with everybody assembled inside, and the small black cat with his fatter brother on opposite chairs at the control panels. "Blik, what's going on?"

"Simple, my Green-Haired Doofus," Blik pettily explained to the happy-go-lucky Kennedy. But when he talked again, he directed it towards Mac, who was still having a hard time trying to understand what was going on, even though Blik seemed to take such flair with building suspense. "I and my fat brother Gordon-"

"HEY!!"

"Shut UP! I'm TRYING to Talk! Ahem- we have a lock on Blooregard Q. Kazoo's DNA signature!!"

A shocked gasp ran through the entire room like a big wave, but Mac seemed to be the least shocked, and proved to be when he asked, "Wait. Bloo isn't supposed to have a DNA signature! How could you do that, Imaginary friends don't even have DNA signatures- I think?"

"I found this." Blik produced behind his back- a wooden, stain-covered Paddleball stick with a broken string and missing red ball. "Familiar?"

Mac was even less surprised than before and lowered his lids. "That's Bloo's, all right. But, I didn't take anything like that with me when we got sucked into this universe. I still don't get it."

"Don't worry," Gordon tried reassuring the 8-year-old sage of a child with a friendly wave. "We ran the broken Paddleball over a Scanning Dohickey we just figured out how to use, thanks to Waffle's nosing around!"

"You're Welcome!"

"Anyways, looks like your friend's finger-"

Dully, Mac input, " 'Blob'. My Imaginary Friend is an azure Blob. He doesn't fingers, toes, or even…"

"DON'T put any ideas into my head kid," said Blik who gagged when he failed miserably to picture an Imaginary he had never seen at all to begin with. And as you can imagine, it wasn't a very nice picture.

"So- we found traces that an "Azure Blob" had touched it, and the giant computer screen did the rest!"

Everybody turned their attention to the computer screen that showed several things at once, it a Gigantic map that showed a complete overlay of their entire world journeys, the worlds they've been, the enemies each world had contained before their subsequent sealing away of those particular worlds' keyholes, the an outlines of the paths taken, and so on. It was a disclosure to learn about how far they've traveled in the past few days, jumping straight from planet to planet like a shooting star- the only shortcoming that became evident to them all was learning that the Computer couldn't register any form of ID scan on worlds that they haven't been to yet, and they saw on the ring path (The one that started from Agrabah, split off and in one direction ran past the Undersea Kingdom of Atlantica, and other ran past the insane, terror endorsing world of Halloween Town. But the world, the one that both Altantica and Halloween Town were leaning in a curved line straight towards a blip on the map that computer only had enough understanding to acknowledge and identify as "?". Suffice it to say, it was an unknown destination.

"What sort of World…do you think it is?" Frankie couldn't staring at that luminescent blue icon at the very far right of the screen.

Blik's answer was heavily practical. "I have absolutely no idea."

"Well THAT explains a lot."

"T-THAT's not what I meant! I meant that whatever "World" we're headed to next, Bloo's signal, depending on this sampling from that broken Paddleball, is just beyond it."

"R-really?" Mac burst out screaming in excitement as he startled everybody. "Y-You mean Bloo could be on the World after that? That's great! How soon can we get there!?"

"Cool Your Jets! We're like, what, 3000 or 1000 miles away! We're rolling a pretty slow roller-coaster kind-of ride here."

"Huh?"

"He means," Gordon tried to translate for him, "We don't know how long it'll take to get there."

A persistent Mac inquired, "But… you found him? A-and we can find him on the world after this one?"

"Yeah, that's what I just said!" Blik snapped, before pressing several buttons making the screen disappear temporarily. "So I think the best thing we can do at the moment is get a good night's sleep, before we land."

"WHAT!?" Blik's expression went sour in 3 seconds upon hearing a nebbish little brat snap and object to his order. "That's what I ORDERED. We're going to go to sleep."

"But I just awoke!" Kennedy angrily snarled back.

"Yeah," Blik added to mock him dead. "You woke up 5 hours after the rest of us. You were a pretty heavy sleeper."

"Aw COME ON!! Old man!"

"No. I'm staying out of this one, young man," James bluntly though secretly relished with a grim tone of humor in his voice. "Mr. Blik happens to be right. Unfortunately."

"Ugh…"

"Lad," Gordon spoke gently to the disappointed Key Bearer. "You're just a little hyperactive-"

" 'Hyper…active!?'"

"Yes. It's when you're basically… uh… "off the walls"."

"You're just putting it mildly, Gordon."

"My POINT, Kenny, is that it doesn't hurt to get a little more rest every now and then. You should be in tip-top condition, because you never KNOW-"

"BLAH! BLAH! BLAH!" Blik viciously interrupted him. "If we "Encounter" Hanbar again, it'll be your responsibility to kick their butts, but now, everybody, GO to SLEEP, AGAIN, so we'll be prepared to kick BUTT!! End of DISCUSSION!!"

Nobody dared to object, but nobody could help but feel angry about the unfair proposal either.

(Later)

Kennedy was restless trying to fall back to sleep on his bunk, but he was too infuriated with what Blik said to him earlier that weird morning to concentrate. He would've been glad to send a fist crashing through Blik's perfectly lined teeth, provided there wasn't anybody else around to restrain him from doing so. And even though Gordon told him right there in person, Kennedy boiled like a pot of heated water at the mere thought that Blik considered him 'Hyper-active' and just what the hell did that mean anyway?

"Damn Blik…"

"Now, now…"

"You knew I'm awake?"

"Your voice is just loud, is my understanding." He didn't know if the butler sitting in the bunk below was either kidding around with him, or just simply being honest. Maybe it was both.

"Blik doesn't even have any right to treat me like that. They don't."

"Kenneth. What do you mean, exactly?"

"Like a child."

"hehehe…"

"You found something funny about that, old man?"

"Yes I did. It's a little amusing because you ARE a child. Haven't you been aware of this already?"

"Mmm… no," Kennedy answered back in a sour quality. "I don't consider myself a child."

Is it just me, or is he merely pretending to be blind to this fact? Thought the aging butler with a growing confusion about the odd young boy with green hair. "Well then. Answer me this question. What do you consider yourself?"

"…I don't know."

"Kennedy. You ARE a child. It seems pretty obvious to me," Hovis reminded his idiotic charge.

"And it seems pretty "obvious" to ME that you're actually having fun, swinging a sword around like that and-"

Hovis quickly interrupted the young boy sitting on the top bunk with, "That's merely because my own Masters dragged me along on this idiotic voyage into a journey that's hardly any of my business, when I could've just as EASILY stayed home at the Cramdilly's House and continued my job of cleaning around the house as a "Normal" butler should, because you don't have a blithering clue about where you came from!"

Just hearing the angry rant of his Mentor-of-sorts caused Kennedy to break into a small fit of laughter. "Well, you sure do sound like an old man. But… isn't it fun, though? I mean, don't you get to do this sort of thing often?"

"No. I tend to try and stay out of my Masters various over-the-top silliness. It's an absolute pain on my shoulders, because I have to clean up after them."

"That sounds kind of boring."

"Of course, you wouldn't understand. After all, you're merely a silly little child with bizarre powers, though with what I see my Masters contend with everyday in their home in Bakersfield, I'm hardly surprised. I suppose that wherever you came from, extraordinary feats of danger and magic aren't uncommon, is that it?"

"Well, I told you that I couldn't remember. I don't know who I really am or where I came from."

"Utter nonsense. That's all it is. Your name is "Kennedy" isn't it?"

"No. You, Gordon and Waffle gave me that name. That isn't my real name."

"But it is your 'Temporary' name."

Kennedy fell silent at the end of the sentence. He drank in the silence till something in the back of his mind kept bothering him.

"Hovis?"

The old butler was starting to actually appreciate the peace and quiet for the next few minutes hoping to catch another 40 winks, and was feeling burdened that this unruly, idiot brat decided to open his big mouth again. Alas, he couldn't help but answer.

"What is it now?"

"Where I came from… You think maybe, it's a lot like yours and Mr. Blik and his brother's "World"?"

"Who knows."

"No. Really, where I came from, does it have all the sorts of interesting things like on your Planet, like Big houses, sympathetic people, fruits, delicious food, People who fight and make stupid-ass mistakes and have animals like cats?"

"…I have a strong doubt about it."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, Kenneth, there can only be one kind of planet with one sort of race, though depending on its size or population, or maybe even its' origin of creation, it'd be divided into different ethnicities that tend to follow their law of perception in accordance to the way their world works. In other words, they are unique."

"… I-I didn't understand any of that."

"Ugh. Just get some rest." With that, the conversation ended there, leaving Kennedy to think deeply on stuff he didn't really understand, but was too afraid to admit. Eventually Kennedy fell asleep.

Meanwhile in another room, dark and with just a certain Albino Pigmy Rhino trying to fall asleep on the bottom bunk, he didn't have very much to lean on when it came to planets or having friends or family, or getting into comical mishaps that just happened purely on coincidence. No. That didn't worry him at all. All that stuck itself beneath the sand-colored tough, scaly skin and burlap-woven Kidney Bean fedora were two names: Lazlo and Patsy. Call him crazy, but would it be mad to believe what he had seen? In the empty house of Merlin the Wizard, he saw Patsy, blushing beautiful radiance and everything, but she turned out to be ghost. Then he turns away to find Lazlo again- and some million dimensions away, Clam pretends he can hear a mirror broken into pieces. Denying Lazlo's horrible transformation was insane; he kept forcing Clam to go back to Camp Kidney!

I just can't figure it out, he thought powerlessly to himself. In his thoughts, he could speak out full sentences since he was vocally terse with his communication skills. I know that there's a MONSTER in his body! N-no. It's more like a DEVIL. It's powerful, and it's scary, and it has a Mind of it's OWN…and Lazlo's become a slave to it.

Grimly, he had perfect memories alive of those genuine weird days they fought in that silly tournament, playing like a bad movie with horrible ratings- and it kept getting better. Those flashed towards the time of the short-lived 'invasion' by a selfish ruler, and those flashed to their battle against something that didn't really exist. He winced as the bad reel ran through to when the sun-baked Brazilian monkey… vanished.

But he's looking for a way to cure Patsy's coma, but I want to help him do that, too. So what… why aren't we on the same page, if we want the same thing?!

The Bad reel singed by the edges in his mind, because he woke up with a start to the cold feeling that there was another unknown presence inside the room with him. "Somebody… else in here…?"

WHACK

The last he heard at that point were a bunch of sea-salty laughs.

(Scene Change; Unknown)

Clam woke up at last, but he was feeling uncomfortable with his 'surroundings'. All at once he recognized the running, splintery lines and ant holes as plywood it was unbearably cold and the plywood kept bobbing up and down- that clinched it. Clam realized instantly that he had been kidnapped away onto a pirate ship. He could tell it was a pirate ship, because he could feel the sea-salty air through his narrow nostrils, and his mom, when he was really little told him kneeside of stories about pirates and treasure and incredible adventure, adventures about how pirates would kill or pillage people of their riches and claim the "booty". Those stories he remembered opened up another interesting fact- though Clam was anything but happy thinking about it. The fact that pirates were quick and efficient enough to know how to raid and capture everybody aboard the Gladios wasn't as terrible as the fact that someone knew of their coming and orchestrated it. Clam's brain was working like crazy as he fit it together in barely a second; he had been blindfolded and tied down, but he wasn't anywhere near his new friends, and the sound of the night breeze and the sea-salty air smell told him he was directly out on the deck of the Pirate ship, and that meant whomever orchestrated the sieging of the Gladios was somebody intimately familiar with the crew and this was the next world they coming towards, but who was it?

He struggled with the tied hands on his back and found, to his surprise, that he could undo the knots, and when he did, the ropes fell off, and pulled off the blindfold. He was free.

"Pirate Ship!" He was right in every possible way; he was staring out past a gallant ship beam over a dark, huge expanse of water and black waves, and the sky was dotted with white stars, but it was the smell, even though he and his friends were clearly stranded and in danger, that made the quirky rhino feel strangely excited. He turned around. He jumped over a wooden railing up to the poop deck- he didn't know why in stories they called it that- in order to get a better look at the ship they had been captured on.

"I didn't think you'd make it this far, buddy."

Clam recognized that voice all too well- but it sounded more like a broken note containing very unpleasant feelings attached, falling like dull, heavy hammers on his skull.

Looking up he shuddered as he saw the frowning, wolf-angry gaze of his crazy Brazilian spider monkey of a friend standing on top of the higher railing. "Lazlo!"

"Didn't I tell you to go back to Camp Kidney?"

"No!"

Lazlo wasn't being funny about it any more. "You should have."

"Lazlo shouldn't side with the Heartless!" Clam ran at full speed to engage his crazed friend, but was dead stopped by a hook in front of him. Clam ducked his head and thanked his stars that he did so in time, because a crusty, elegant voice began booming in his ear, "Not so fast!!" The speaker was an elegantly dressed pirate that was unmistakably the Head pirate, dawning a red petticoat with red pants, a pink frock with a white collar, and turned up white socks and black shoes. He had a mustache on his double-necked chin and a grisly, sharp smile, and he black coiled hair on each side, and finally on the top of his head was big, fiery red hat and feathery bonnet. "No Shenanigans aboard my vessel, boy- er, um, uh…"

"Rhino?" Clam absently corrected the clearly incompetent pirate he was dealing with.

"Er, Yes! Yes, Rhino- DON'T CORRECT ME, YOU LITTLE RUNT!!"

Hundreds of Heartless appeared suddenly and right away Clam see they adopted to the nature of this world, whatever it was- as they were all dressed like pirates, jumping up into the air and swinging gigantic, deadly-looking pirate swords.

"Lazlo… this is bad! What you do!!"

"No, Clam. What you're doing is wrong. And the Heartless? They obey ME now. I can save Patsy now! And check this out. I've LEARNED a brand new trick!!" The deluded simian waved his hand in one second, causing something to materialize from the pure darkness forming just below Clam's feet. The thing sprang in front of him like a choking weed, and with a smile that was exactly like his. Clam had only a few seconds of despairing at his former best friends' corrupted alteration and at the same time stare into the empty, glowing yellow eyes of sorry excuse of a copy, before a trap door opened and fell down into the dark shaft with a scream.

The surrounding heartless that had been standing there seemed to absently walk around, while Lazlo ordered Hook, "Hook. Are we on arrival to the island?"

"Of course we are! Smee? Man the lifeboats!"

A pudgy little man came scampering out and screamed, "Yes, Captain!" Before scampering off to attend to other various duties of keeping the ship in tip top shape. "And what do we do with Wendy?" Hook asked the simian who started to casually walk off towards the Captain's cabin. His tone was so icy and completely unlike himself at all. "Drop her off somewhere. We don't need her."

"What!?" came a great groan of angry surprise from the arrogant Captain Hook, "And after all the trouble we went to getting her!? Are you INSANE!?"

"Captain, Wendy isn't one of the seven princesses of Heart. It has to be a young woman with a truly pure heart, otherwise the door won't open; therefore, Wendy is useless. I'm going to speak with Ms. Maleficent now. And make sure Clam and his dumb friends don't leave the ship." Hook stared vacantly at the deranged simian as he was walking off. It was such a pain; he was supposed to be the head captain, but here was, taking orders from something that veered off from the evolutionary chain?

"BLAST that little freak!!"

Smee came running straight back as the Captain horribly contemplated how to deal with the equally arrogant monkey. "Captain what's-!"

"That BLASTED little Monkey is my problem, Smee!!"

"B-But sir," the timid, big-bellied aide to his captain dully noted, "B-but he's the Monkey that successfully explained to us how to break into his former friends ship, fill it with Sleeping Gas, confiscate the ship so it would remain tied down with our Jolly Roger! And more importantly we wouldn't have had any access to weird ship all that delicious food on board!! I-I don't think w-we'd be this successful if it weren't for him, the scary lady, and that other guy…"

Captain Hook bit back a snarl of reluctant agreement and sighed. "Don't remind me…"

Smee went on to say something more that he was still blissfully unaware would make the Captain angry. "A-And captain, you-know-who is also down…"

TICK TOCK

TICK TOCK

TICK TOCK

TICK TOCK

Smee didn't finish what he wanted to say, for in the seconds after he heard the Tick-Tock of a Clock, he saw the expression on his Senior and commander change dramatically. Anger flushed out of his face with a violent shriek- followed by Captain Hook's spontaneous jumping like a frightened Schoolgirl 20 feet into the air with his white-accented hair standing on the surface of his back and horrible, equally girly shriek. "THE GATOR!! IT'S COME BACK FOR ME!!"

"C-captain! No it hasn't. It's in the water, Captain! It can't get to you!!"

"Ooooh, I hope you're right, Smee… I've been a nervous racket!! It took me left hand, and now it wants the other!! Oooh, My Poor Nerves, Smee!!"

(Scene Change; Below Deck)

A cute fairy at best, or at least, that was how she thought of herself, Tinker Bell lightly skimmed the surface of a mirror lying on the table with perfect loop in the air and graceful curve and looked down. There was no doubt of it; perfect in grace, curve, and cleavage- her pretty blonde hair couldn't say especially otherwise. The only flaw was her natural fits of jealousy… and boy, was she jealous. Her fairy Boy, though clearly twice her size was like a complete giant though in reality he was a regular-sized human boy, and he was caught up in 'other things' like this girl that Peter Pan had the gall to bring back to Neverland with them. Of course, she had been captured, and naturally, Peter Pan came up with plan, that somehow 'involved' getting actually captured by Captain Hook. The selfish old coot was more than happy to oblige, savored the feeling of victory of his arch-nemesis who could walk circles around him without even trying even at a dangerous risk, and had his fatty, squat aide have them thrown into confinement below. Peter Pan's plans were always just a bit miscalculated, but he never admits it; and she knew that better than anyone else, because she had to wait on his "Fail-safe" plan to bust out of the semi-impenetrable hold of the nefarious Captain Hook's ship when a golden opportunity came.

But having been stuck for 5 Hours on this infernal sorry heap of sea wood with NOTHING to eat and salty ocean smells filling her tiny nostrils, it sorely drove the fairy crazy.

That and their unexpected company of newly captured inmates who were sharing the same holdingcell with them. And compared to Wendy and her silly brothers that were accompanying her from England, these were three times a stranger bunch of freaks than Captain Hooks' "nefarious" crew of derelict pirates and his newly aiding "Heartless" all put together.

Peter Pan and She made themselves scare and hidden behind a tall mountain of wooden boxes, as they watched and listened in on their conversation, which was centered around somebody else.

"… I saw him!!" an extremely raspy voice Tinker Bell heard amongst them, and sitting on top with a big nose, nearly scared her out of her tiny dress. "I saw Lazlo!" This raspy voice sounded unusually excited.

"You did?" said a feminine voice that was as gentle a cool cross breeze. "That's great."

A thickly accented voice added, "Well? What exactly did he say, Master Clam?"

'Clam'? Tinker Bell thought it silly; what kind of person, or at the very least, creature would have a stupid name like that?

Apparently the voice answered back, and it was the same raspy voice, the one the first thickly accented voice referred to as "Clam". "Uh… He controls Heartless."

"WHAT!?" All voices below screamed in horrible surprise, shocking even Tinker Bell herself; she tried to hide it and keep quiet, considering that she was sitting on Peter Pan's rough, though thin shoulders, and totally enjoying it. But this was a startling development: who exactly was controlling though demon-like things up on the deck?

A voice that was less thick than the second voice Tinker Bell was hearing began: "This is just utter rubbish."

And a completely opposite voice, one that was rowdy, childish and immature said back to less thickly accented voice, "You're… crushing my bones… Old… Man!!"

"Be quiet!"

And a younger, but more resourceful-sounding voice told them both to be quiet and followed it up with, "Guys, we can't be here for long! We have to find Bloo."

And it kept getting stranger. Tinker Bell heard other things that she didn't doubt Peter did as well; they heard weird stories some things about "Keyholes", other worlds, and ridiculous tales of being constantly pursued by… strangers in black coats with murder and emptiness in their eyes. Tinker Bell thought she was going crazy and wondered what would happen.

Eventually for what didn't seem like such an unbearably long time, a very obnoxious, angry booming voice Tinker Bell heard said, "How about GETTING off if we're going to get out of here?"

Frankie peeked up in front of the glass square built into the door. As she peeked through it, she saw the inside the of the ship's side, made of two levels, with a ladder behind a huge support wooden beam that went to the top of the next level, and on the second level were 3 doors, and Frankie wondered what was possibly waiting for them on the other side of any of those doors…

"Hmm?" That was when Frankie finally noticed somebody- or possibly two somethings- were hiding behind the mountain crates she had seen when thrown into the cell by Hook and tied up.

"Who's that?"

Kennedy was still dusting himself off unconcerned about whatever it was that piqued Frankie's curiosity. He was unreasonably angry about the recent turn of events. "Goddamn pirates, I'm gonna PUMMEL their asses into next week! NOBODY puts me to sleep, kidnaps me and GETS away with stealing our ship!!"

Dully, Hovis replied, "You mean OTHER than the ones who DID, Master Kenneth?"

And blindly the Key Bearer replied, "Yes, as matter of-" But he cut himself short of looking a fool while Hovis chuckled at his realization of being tricked. "QUIT PUTTING WORDS INTO MY MOUTH!!"

"Look, kid," Blik said to the young boy in a low, serious voice. "I sympathize with you in that regard and we WILL kick their butts the second we see them, but as it currently stands we're SMACK DAB IN THE BELLY OF THIS TERMITE RIDDEN SCRUNCH-EATING BEAST!!"

"Well you got me there… and I've never actually seen a pirate ship before, it sounds exciting!"

"Aye lad! It's a treasure trove full of adventure!! Sword-swabbling…" Gordon paused for dramatic effect, because he had easily gotten over the anti-climatic shock of being abducted onto a ship hours ago.

"Yeah!?"

"Treasure Looting!!"

"…Yeah!?"

"Sailing the Great White!!"

"…yeah!?" Kennedy's head would've swollen to twice the size that Gordon's would've have.

"Battling Great FOE upon GREAT FOE, like the Sea Serpents of the Dead Man's Isle, or the Leviathan of the Ancient Atlantian Legend, getting mixed up with a beautiful Damsel in distress, fighting against the GREAT POWERS THAT BE THROUGH THE WEATHER, the sea-salty water against our faces, Oh I CAN TASTE it!!"

While Kennedy's mind had gone south for the winter as Gordon painted close to a masterpiece of wild, flashing colors that sparkled in his eyes, and his voice came into sheer awe. "Ad…ven… ture…!?"

Instantly both Mr. Blik and Frankie caught the word "Treasure" and interpreted it into "Cash" instead. "Cash…Treasure… Cash… riches!?" Their eyes began to get that same exact twinkle Kennedy got in his eyes, but for all the wrong reasons.

"Ha! Ha! You BET!! We'll steal the boat, AND the cash, and go on one ourselves!!"

Mac bluntly pointed out that they already were on one- sort of, but Mr. Herriman, being the most practical out of that whole group could do nothing but clasp his head in disappointed with this unlikely grouping of "Warriors" and grumbled, "I'm surrounded by… imbeciles…"

"You guys don't sound like imbeciles to me. You've got dreams, AND you love adventure! That's MY kinda crew!"

"I apologize but they do sound like- who said that just now!?"

"Me! Peter Pan!!" The speaker in a lime-green costume energically swooped out from behind the crate of rank-smelling boxes with a sparkly thing covered constantly a beautiful gold dust. Everybody saw that this young boy was possibly near or slightly just above Kennedy's age with a kind, honest face and brick-colored hair, and while they saw various strange things already, this topped it instantly- this genuine Fairy Boy Adventurer happened to be flying lightly above solid oak floor kicking up a small storm of gold dust, just like his tiny partner, a tinier fairy who looked more like a golden weed. "I see you guys are need of help!"

"Help!?" the flustered angry imaginary friend scoffed doubtfully and infuriatingly at this so-called "Fairy Boy" like he was some kind of hypocrite intentionally set up against his own rational reasoning. "Young man, I will tell you that we certainly aren't in need of- MMM-MM-MMPH MS. MMM!!"

Frankie had her hand covering her employer's mouth, which would have sooner spewed fire, should Mr. Herriman's rage been let unbound. He looked like he would've instead killed him right on sight, because his eyes were catching fire.

"O-kay… Well, looks like you guys are captured by Captain Hook, too."

"WHAT!?" Mr. Herriman would've shrieked at the top of this throat at this overly callous young man who was stepping way out of bounds. But as usual, Frankie kept her hand over his mouth to restrain him firmly.

"Yeah, we are," Mac answered back, seeing how nothing was going to get accomplished by Mr. Herriman's extreme rage or by the predictable idiocy of his inmates. "And we need to escape. Think you can help us out?"

"Well, truth is I'm waiting here for someone. Have you seen a girl named Wendy?"

"Wendy?"

"Yeah. Wendy. She's supposed to be somewhere on this ship."

"Well then 'Genius'", Blik snapped incredulously. "How the hell is it that you're in here, when clearly you can FLY and just bust out of here?"

Peter didn't take such a straightforward question in a calm manner, but kept a cool head nonetheless. "Easy, peasy. I've got an idea to pull one over Ol' Hookhand and rescue Wendy at the same time, so I'm biding my time and waiting for a golden opportunity- while my esteemed partner-in-crime, Tinker Bell surveys the ship." He then turned to the fairy that everybody guessed right was Tinker Bell (though from a distance, she'd looked a little less human in form and more like golden dusted cloud) and said to her, "Tink, whatcha got?"

Everybody in the room kept hearing twinkles from the golden cloud-covered fairy, and Peter vocally interpreted what she said. "What? There's somebody else here? The hull is full to bursting with those black creature pirates? And… Wendy's being kept in a separate room? And a… huh, what are trying to say? There's a monkey, and a Blue Dog on top deck?! Well we'd better hurry!"

"AHEM!!"

"OH fine. I'll get you guys out of here too. By the way, I'm Peter Pan."

Peter flew down to shake the hands of Mac and Kennedy as they introduced themselves. While shaking Peter's hand, Kennedy said, "I'm Kennedy, and don't you think that we're a little weird to be able to fight? And How can you even fly?"

"No." Peter casually flipped once or twice in the air with a triumphant grin. "Not really. Neverland if full of all kinds of crazy Characters, if ya know what I mean!"

"…No?"

"Well, whatever. Anyways, we're only going to get spotted if we travel in a huge troop. We'll just have to go in groups of three to make it even. I'll decide who goes with."

"WHA-MMMMMMMM-MMMMM!?" Came the angry muffled roar of rage from the infuriated former Director of Business Affairs. This time around, it took the futile efforts of 2 or more people to get the undone beast of an imaginary friend to calm down.

"Fair enough," said Kennedy.

"…And after that, we'll deal with the Old Codfish himself. We're in this together, but only until we find Wendy."

(Scene Change; Captain Hook's Room 1 Hour later)

"WHAT THE BLAZES DO YOU MEAN, "THEY ESCAPED", SMEE!?"

"C-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-a-a-a-aptain, I-I-I was only saying that we sent men down there to execute them, and they said that they escaped!!"

"CONFOUND IT!!" Whenever Hook got angry, Smee remembered, his eyes were the searing perfect imitation of a volcano erupting. Hook was smoking from a pipe as he stomped furiously around his quarters, and Smee holding a pitcher of water with ice. "I know what it was, Mr. Smee. PETER… PAN!! That BLASTED Peter Pan!! And he's coming back for me other Hand, Smee!!"

"W-w-well what do we do now, Captain?" the nervous Mr. Smee mumbled into a question hardly anybody would've understood. Hook stopped storming around and twisting his beard and took a more 'kingly' tone. "Have all the men bring Miss Wendy to me Quarters, Smee! And HOP to it!"

Smee didn't waste a second and with accident trips on red carpeting of the floor, ran like a crazy rat down to the other sections of the floors.

Lazlo sat on the soft velvet-crocheted couch watching all of this with awful feelings creeping into his head, and that ended up turning into something even darker than that; it became obvious what was happening- Clam had escaped. Then it meant it was time to leave, because soon enough, he'd be coming up here, and just what the hell would that mean for the monkey, who went through all of this effort to save a girl he really cared about?

Clam was unfit to do it. He couldn't. And like the idiot he really was, he'd let himself become foolish enough to trust his friend would just stay behind.

So Lazlo thought that if Clam wanted it to be that way, that was his problem. Clam only proved to the simian that he couldn't be trusted- never; while his eyes went steely and bitter, he came to realize something else: if he couldn't be trusted, maybe… maybe they weren't really friends after all.

And determinedly he decided that he wasn't going to let some brainless, goofy, rough-skinned, no-good freak get in his way.

(Scene Change; Below)

Tink peeked through several holes of grating and saw Wendy crouched on the floor resting her head against her knees. She looked awful.

"What's the story, Tink?"

Tink flittered back down to Peter Pan, Kennedy, and Clam, who volunteered to stay behind while Mr. Herriman, Frankie and the 2 Cramdilly Felines had the oh-so rewarding Job of distracting the Guards, the deadlier and more dangerous job of locating the Gladios placed on the near-unreliable shoulders of a confident 8-year-old kid and Mr. Blik and his unwilling servant. In a hasty explanation, Tink related what she had seen to a pale-looking Peter Pan, irritated by the comprehension he was just only 1 lousy floor away from the girl he hoped to rescue without any problems.

"Damn… there has to be a way up there! Wendy! Wendy!! Wendy!! Are you in there!?"

"I feel ya right there, Peter," Kennedy added. "Now can you please show us how it is that you can…FLY?"

Peter Pan's expression changed with unbelievable quickness and he said with a joking laugh, "What?"

"Fly. FLY. How do you fly and do that anyway!?"

"Aw, shucks, it's easy! Anyone can Fly! You just have to believe."

This was an interesting philosophy he hadn't heard of, but one that Kennedy didn't seem to care for until much, much later. The only thing that was on his mind was wanting to learn how to fly and- what the heck was with gold dust falling in front of his face? "Huh!?"

Peter added after the long period of silence that followed, "All it takes is some Pixie Dust! With this in effect, you can fly now!!"

"SPARKLY!!" Clam burst out screaming.

"Cool!! Now I can fly!!" Kennedy jumped into the air, and flopped horribly with a bad tumbledown to the floor in a silly-looking heap. Clam stared bemused, and Peter Pan couldn't exactly understand what went wrong, since they should have been able to fly. Kennedy felt twice as humiliated in that moment, when Tinker Bell took full advantage of it and flew over to laugh wildly in his face.

(Scene Change; later)

"Is this the room?"

Kennedy, Peter, and Clam arrived a room with two bunks and a ladder that led to the upper floor. Peter kept staring intently at the sealing. "Something feels weird," he said. Usually care-free and proud, it made someone as similar to him like Kennedy get suspicious. "I'm pretty sure Wendy is just beyond this room!!"

"Then we go upstairs and drop down from that room into the room beyond, don't we?" Kennedy suggested, completely oblivious to still one underlying fact. "What's holding us back?"

"Can't feel it?"

"Nnnnnope, no more than I could feel the power to fly."

"Don't worry, you just gotta keep trying! You'll learn to fly faster than you can blink!!"

"Yeah, I'm kinda doubting that. Can we get going? Hmm?"

That strange Green light appeared in one corner, but almost certainly Kennedy could tell that he was the only one who could see it. "Damn it, I…"

"What's wrong?"

"I have to take care of this." He walked over to the corner, and his bracelet started glowing…

( Mry Rtnmt Cmp )

"That's just weird…"

"Can you stop trying to make friends with floor, kid? Let's go up and rescue Wendy!"

"All right, all right…" Kennedy turned around and headed straight for the ladder, and met with quite a startling surprise, seeing Clam already climbing rapidly to the top of the ladder. "Clam, buddy! Wait up!! Can't you HOLD on? WE'RE COMING UP BEHIND YOU!!"

(Scene Change; Captain Hook's Quarters)

The quirky rhino leaped up from the hole with a wild burst of energy the second he reached the top. Kennedy and Peter Pan followed closely behind, blown away by the boundless fountain of energy they happened to be witnessing. They continued to try and reach the top as fast as possible, though they felt as criminally inefficient.

Meanwhile, Clam made a complete change seconds upon entry. He stood frozen still and had a look of horror on his face. Standing just 2 steps away from him was his friend, but he didn't look anything like he wanted to remember: he was frowning and his eyes were cold. Clam bit his lip from a chill he thought rushed into his skin. It didn't last that long, thankfully, but Clam's pain doubled as Lazlo took a step back into a portal that appeared behind him, and the long-nosed doppelganger that looked exactly like Clam popped in.

"Lazlo!! WAIT!!"

And the bracelet around Clam's wrist radiated.

(Activating Combat Mode)

Boss: Anti-Malcolm

"…aah…"

Kennedy and Peter Pan came floundering up behind to see the bizarre situation before them: two Clams.

"What the hell!? Is that Clam!? But… that's Clam too, isn't it!?"

The "Real" Clam pleaded, "I'm real Clam!!"

But the other repeated in the same voice, "I'm real Clam!!"

"What's going on here!?" screamed Peter. "They look exactly alike!"

"No, he's not ME!" Clam was unbelievably frightened. "He's a copy!!"

(Skill Trigger)

"Sphere Bullet!!" Clam, the real one shot a spread of bullets down at the fake as he jumped two feet in the air-

But that thing dodged the bullets immediately, and Clam looked up on his level to see that shadowy thing that resembled him jumped straight into the air just like him, and at the same time!!

Not even sure what to do next, Clam rushed forward to slash at the hideous creature, but it mimicked that action as well!

CLASH!!

From down below, Kennedy gasped, "It mimicked his exact move!" And though he had no idea why, Kennedy fumbled his hands through his pants pockets frantically for something he thought would be able to stop that sorry excuse of a Rhino's copy. And he pulled out something he couldn't recognize at first- a vein of Berries. "Huh? Oh!!" The strangely acting Key Bearer remembered something Clam had told him about earlier, and while it seemed stupid in its' entirety, Kennedy thought there wasn't much harm in trying. "HEY!! CLONE!!"

The "Clone" and Clam turned around simultaneously in the direction of Kennedy voice and screamed, "What!?"

"You like THIS?" Kennedy dangled the berries right out in the clutches of his fingers with a mischievous grin. "It's a Gooseberry!"

Peter was a little stunned by the ridiculous action his member was taking, and even surprised by the unexpected result as the first Clam standing on the right leaped like happy kangaroo straight after berries sitting in Kennedy's hand. "GOOSEBERRIES!! GIMMIE!!" He screamed like a maniac. And soon enough, Kennedy saw the goal of his plan become obvious. The shadowy figure that looked like Clam was sitting in one corner of the room. That one was the fake.

"Perfect."

(Skill Trigger)

"Eat THIS!!" With a powerful burst of energy soaring through him and into the Keyblade, he hurled it with all of his might to the thing standing in the corner, and the hurled weapon smacked him clean at the chin with deadly force- (critical 5000 point hit)

The Ant-Clam caved and fell on the floor with a grunt. Instantly a pool off darkness seeped from beneath the hallow body, and it retreated straight back into the pool of darkness without a sound.

(Conflict Resolved)

"Woah! That was pretty clever Kennedy!"

Kennedy scratched his head and told him, "hehe… thanks."

"But how did you know that he'd like berries?"

"Uh… I didn't. Clam gave me these in private and he said, 'WE'RE FRIENDS!'. I thought maybe he'd like them at a time like this, and if he did, and other one didn't, that other one had to be the fake!"

"Makes sense to me!" Peter remarked. While they were talking Clam was still too busy gorging himself on his favorite berries of choice until he done and tentatively wiped his mouth of the red-purple stains on his lips. "Well, I'm done here. Wendy's down in the other room." Kennedy would've volunteered to help, but Peter Pan was already flipping open the secret door, jumped in, and then brought Wendy out faster than you could say knife.

"I've got to help Wendy!" He cried seconds after he got Wendy then flew down with her, into the next room. Kennedy and Clam were alone. The Key Bearer's face turned sour upon realizing that Peter Pan didn't show even one once of gratitude.

"Well at least he could've thanked us…" But seeing how it wasn't going to happen at all, the Key bearer and the quirky rhino walked towards the door and prepared themselves for another shock of their lives.

(Scene Change; Outside)

"Peter Pan!?"

Kennedy and Clam jumped down to the deck, where a devastated Hook and Smee and a complete devastating array of Heartless were awaiting below. And they were greeted with a horrible sight: All of theirfriends, minus Peter Pan and Wendy had been captured and tied to the mass, and they were knocked out.

"My name is Kennedy, you crazy bastard."

If looks could kill Hook would've obliterated that cocky punk right on the spot.

"You little Keyblade BRAT!!"

The angry child pulled out his signature choice of weapon, brandished it at Hook and demanded, "I've a question. Well… it's Clam who has the question, but I'll ask it anyway! Where's that monkey!?"

Hook snickered at the silliness of this question, and confident that victory would be his anyway answered, "To Hallow Bastion. Where Maleficent and Organization Hanbar reside. A-but, YOU won't be going there!!" Hook regained his flimsy pillar of confidence, grinned devilishly, and presented a classic-style cage with something sparkly inside that made Kennedy gasp.

"Unless you intend to leave your little pixie friend behind." Hook snarled with same annoying elegant suaveness that Kennedy would've been glad to crumble into a little ball and toss in the trash- but he didn't have any idea how it was he was able to make such bizarre comparison like that.

"nngh!!"

"What'll be brat?" Hook mocked him. "Hand over that Keyblade of yours and I'll spare your lives!! Or you can walk the plank!" Hook pointed with his hook in the direction of the thing he what he talking about. It was a huge plank of oak wood jutting out from ship- and dangling over those dark dangerous waters.

"Kennedy, do something!!" Clam screamed, but several seconds after he started to speak, 3 of 4 Heartless Pirates bounced right over and covered the mouth with the raspy voice, and pinned him to the floor with a painful smack.

Kennedy was crestfallen by the time he realized in this situation he didn't have any choice. And worse, attempting to fight a bloodthirsty pirate all by himself, no friends, no Peter Pan to back him up, and trapped without the Gladios to come and save him, was no different than committing suicide.

"Fine…you win."

"HA! I knew it!! Now then, get on the Plank!!"

Smee instructed the once proud and over-confident Key Bearer to the Plank. With each horrible step Kennedy took on the creaking plank, he kept coming closer to death in the form of a watery grave. By the time he reached the edge, he looked down, and for the first time he really felt afraid; it was a mile high drop into the infinite, wavy blackness, where there was nothing but the reflection of Neverland's stars sitting on top of the surface.

"You can do it! You just have to believe!" came a whispering, believing voice in Kennedy's ear. But where did that come from?

But an infuriated Captain Hook screamed at the top his lungs, "FALL INTO THE WATER ALREADY!!" It disrupted Kennedy's train of thought completely, and with a shock, caused him to fall over into the Black Death.

Captain Hook with an evil grin on his face was victorious at last; he was about to order the Heartless dispatch with the rest of the bilge rats, but in the ominous silence that followed, he realized something was wrong: in fact, something was clearly wrong. Since that brat had fallen off the plank, where was the blood curdling scream and the traditional 'SPLASH'? His face twisted up and he ran over to the side of the ship and looked down.

"Hmm? By the grace of God, what sort of Mockery BE this? Where's that bilge RAT!? The Crocodiles would have surely made a meal of t'boy right now!!"

Unfortunately, what Captain Hook didn't notice was that "Bilge Rat" and Peter Pan were all the way on the OTHER side of the ship and flying in the air. While Kennedy was still in unbelief and complete surprise at his incredibly new abilities and just the very fact he was flying, Peter Pan cleverly took advantage of Hook's stupidity and ineptitude by quietly and quickly cutting off the cords bounding all of Kennedy's friends to the Ship's mass, dislodged Clam from the grip of the Heartless after he knocked them out, and snatched the cage Hook foolishly left on a discarded barrel. Peter Pan then had Kennedy to quickly have bound and gagged the self-centered Pirate's aid, Smee, but both quickly realized that it was unnecessary: Smee, under the disquieting actuality of Hook once again being thwarted by his arch­­-nemesis, made escape by jumping on the nearest lifeboat and undid the rope, causing the boat to fall, and starting to row like crazy from the ship as possible. But meanwhile, Tinker Bell, now freed by Peter Pan took initiative and sprinkled the entire crew of misfits with gold magic dust, giving all of them the ability to fly.

"Confound it, Smee!! That boy disappeared like magic!!"

And Kennedy sudden burst out screaming from right behind Hook, "And Now I'm going to kick your ass!! Like magic!!"

"Heh!?"

Hook turned around and a devastated look of despair entered his face as he took in the whole scene that was his deception: His prisoners were free, the Heartless he owned were defeated, Smee turned tail and deserted the ship, and Peter Pan had Tinker Bell on his shoulder. In fell swoop, his cunning plan which he had "craftily devised" with the help that degenerate simian and canine, was sent hurtling into Dave Jones's Locker.

"B-BLAST YOU, PETER PAN!!" Hook shouted furiously at his arch-nemesis. Peter Pan just smirked confidently as he, Clam, and Kennedy had their weapons drawn, and jabbed a finger in Hooks' direction, and shouted, "Take THAT, ya ol' Codfish!! Now it's YOUR turn to walk the plank!!"

Boss: Hook

(Kennedy: "RE-ANIMATE!!")

(Activating Combat Mode)

"I'll skewer the lot ta'ya!!"

"Like HELL!!" Came the wild war cry as Kennedy ran full speed…

(Attack) "NYYAH!!" And swung it full circle on contact, clobbering away at Hook's field- (1000 point hit!) "How'd ya like THAT!?"

"Meddlesome BRAT!!"

WHIP!!

"Ugh!!" Hook beat the bombastic back with a fierce shove, knocking him on his back.

"PETER PAN, I'LL SKEW YOU TO PIECES!!"

"Try it, 'Codfish'!" Peter Pan closed in the gap swing his dagger while Hook simultaneously swung the silver line of his blade, intent to gorge his enemy down in cold blood.

CLASH!!

Round and round the two rivals went, sending crashes of steel against steel with dead-on accuracy and high quick swipes, and neither side seemed to be giving in as the round of blades intensified. Their arms didn't get sore, and Hook, being an adult and much Stronger as Peter Pan was quicker, snarled brashly when he was pushing the happy-go-lucky fairy boy into a corner. Peter Pan was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by the incredibly elastic reflexes and superior swordsmanship of the wily Captain. But at this point, Clam just wasn't going to turn a blind eye.

(Skill Trigger)

"Get off my FRIEND!! Plectra Bullet!!" Energy soared into the little rhino as he dashed over, jumped straight between Hook and Peter, and launched the spectacular blast down Hook's nozzle- (2400 point hit!)

"NNNNNAAAAAAAAUGGGHH!!" An overwhelmed Hook was literally blown away by the piercing blast, over the starboard and in the water.

Clam grinned his usual goofy smile at the desired results, while Peter Pan with a winning smile flew over to the ships side and this was what he saw.

Captain Hook flew 2 stories into the air with a hysterical shriek. When the battered and bruised Captain was no more wanted by God almighty, the gracious lord sent the egomaniacal decorated pirate to the undeniable whim of Gravity, with a great splash.

As Kennedy ran over and saw the whole scene finish itself, he shuddered and asked Peter in a quivering voice, "I-Is he…?" he couldn't bring himself to say dead. But then that notion was completely dispelled when something even weirder followed as Captain Hook soared 30 feet into the air with a frenzied, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!"

Followed by a scaly green monster with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and irritated yellow eyes- a Crocodile.

"YEEEEEECCCCKKKK!! AAAAAAH!! IT'S COME FOR ME OTHER HAND!! YEEEEK!! WWAAAAH!! HOO!! AAAAAAAH!!" Everybody gathered around to see the ridiculous sight of Captain Hook on his tiptoes "skimming" the surface of the treacherous waters at an unreal speed, followed closely by that same "ticking" Crocodile, always trying to come close and snap its' ferocious, deadly jaws at the sorry excuse of pirate across the horizon.

Both Clam and Peter Pan burst out laughing at the ridiculous sight like it was a classy dinner theater, but a dull, humorless Kennedy didn't see how that was funny at all, and even commented, "Um… so, does this mean we won that fight?"

While this happened, nobody seemed to notice when the neon green oblong around Kennedy's wrist stopped radiating.

(Deactivating Combat Mode/Bend Conflict Resolved)

(Scene Change; Later)

Blik came busting out of the Captain's quarters with Gordon and Waffle screaming, "I've got GREAT NEWS!! We've found the Gladios stored in a compartment at the front of the ship!!"

Frankie came up the small, black cat and said excitedly, "That's great! So now we can get off this planet!"

"Uh, Frankie?" Mac interrupted. "W-What about the Keyhole-"

"WHO cares!? I went down to secret cargo hold, and LOOK WHAT I FOUND!!" the lanky redhead produced a large-sized chest with a large quantity of a pirates' treasure: Gold. Just like her greedy eyes complimenting her hysterical fit of excitement, they shone like twinkling stars.. "I found TREASURE!! NOW WE CAN AFFORD FOOD!! And best of all, I can make repairs to the Gladios when we get back to Traverse Town!!"

But Blik said in a disbelieving tone, "You're going to spend that gold? Oh, NO. No. Screw THAT. We'll have Hovis take of-"

"Mr. Blik!" Gordon snarled in objection to his idiotic brother's selfish decision, forcing Blik to relent. "Fine, fine, fine!! We'll pay for it!!" he paused then started whimpering in an overly dramatic sad voice, "Oh, my beautiful money…"

Frankie shared the same sentiment, but Mac scratched his head confusedly. Peter Pan took this time to talk to a frazzled Tink flying hastily around the fairy boy.

But nobody seemed to see where Kennedy was, until James saw him standing near the head of the of the ship's nose.

Ken seemed incredibly lost in thought and didn't notice his mentor of sorts standing not too far away. His shoulders were slouching and his head bent over, like he had been sick; but that wouldn't have made any sense, otherwise, he'd have been regurgitating waste throughout their entire time on Captain Hook's ship.

"Kenneth?"

"Uh, huh? Oh. Old man."

"Feeling all right?"

Kennedy didn't know how to answer. "Uh… I don't know. Hey did you see me?"

"W-what!?" the obscurity of that last question threw off the aging servant with sickening gusto.

"I was flying." Kennedy's voice changed instantly to unbelieving laughter, and James couldn't figure out what was wrong. "I was really flying!" He then continued on, as if James wasn't even there. "I can't believe it! But, if I believed I could fly and I did, would that mean if I believed really hard, I'd find out who I really am and where I came from? Maybe it is possible." When he turned around he told James, "I'm never going to give up!"

Meanwhile, Peter Pan suddenly announced to everybody on the ship with carefree triumph, "Heads Up, Guys! Tinker Bell says there's something strange up with the Clock Tower in England, where Wendy lives! She says that there's something there!" Then he turned to Tinker Bell, who took on a more confident look, looked as ready as a mercenary. "All right, Tink! Do your stuff!! Onward to ENGLAND!!"

Before any of them had a chance to even blink, the whole crew of strange heroes and a boy with a Keyblade were the gallant witnesses to a spectacular phenomenon of Tinker Bell's shinning dust coating the frame and entire inside of the ship, with a gold "lining" sweeping across its incredible surface to every little detail, and the Grand ship definitely looking so much like a Celestial being from a Fairy Tale ascending past the first radiant star and the silver-speckled clouds in a heavenly journey through the sky.

(Scene Change; London, England, Clocktower)

"I don't believe it." Both one imaginary friend with a thick British accent and bald man wearing a black coat and a black tie with a servants suit ended up huffing out a cliché phrase out simultaneously.

It was a huge city comprised of annexes and boarding houses and narrow cobblestone streets. Lampposts sat on every corner and cars were in the shape of buggies. Houses were in long rows built next to each other and were sometimes 3 stories high with glass oak-line glass bow-windows and sometimes the occasional night park with running waters underneath short bridges, and the beautiful curves of the river flowed down like a mirror and made a perfect reflection of the moon. Evening time turned every one of those boarding houses with long rows into the shape of monoliths, but in terms of their incredible expansion, made England retain a trace of its' haunting beauty.

And coming up fast ahead of them and the golden ship was a huge tower that stood out as the prominent mark of the enchanting city in whose origins blossomed from famous playwrights and navigators and history's greatest struggle.

"What's that?" Kennedy asked what were probably the only two people he figured out would have at least some idea, when the golden ship came up closer to that big, luminous thing in the distance.

"Big… Ben," both Hovis and a mechanical-sounding Mr. Herriman simultaneously uttered.

"Big Ben?"

"A Giant Clock tower that dictates the time, lad," Gordon explained with good sense.

"Wait a second. That's ridiculous. A Giant "Clock" that tells you the time?"

"When you live in England, yeah. People, who live in England, if they aren't wearing watches, can just look at that Giant Clock tower and check the time! Big Ben happens to have four faces on all four sides, which show the exact current time. Pretty convenient, eh?"

The sharp, dull reply from Hovis was, "Yes, well, for people who live in England, and NOT those who live in America."

On the upper deck, Peter Pan stood at the giant steering wheel with Wendy by his side, whom was beyond thrilled to see her home again after a dashing adventure in Neverland. She saw the huge Clock coming up close and she squealed with delight. "I say, Peter, we've arrived!"

"Yep! We'll drop barge here! Can you um, find your way back down!"

"Oh well don't be silly, Peter, I've been and up to the top of Big Ben a great many times!"

Peter expertly steered the ship to the side of Big Ben's narrow Alcove without even breaking a sweat- or one of the peaks decorating the Giant tower with four faces. Peter gallantly carried Wendy over into a modernized niche that ran along all four sides of the tower. Kennedy came up behind and so did the rest, minus the imaginary rabbit and the butler. The long, floppy-eared imaginary was standing on port side of the shipkept staring emptily at massive town below him like he was unbecoming accessory.

"I never imagined England to be this… immense."

Mr. Herriman noticed that James walked up beside him, and his expression was as empty and completely foreign as his.

"Hmm? Don't tell that you and your creator weren't born here."

"Oh. You're asking me a question that makes me judge the possibility that you're not exactly a practical human," the imaginary said to the servant doubtfully.

"Oh no," the 43-year-old servant replied in an acerbic tone. "I'm very, very much practical. I believe this whole "Journey" we've been stuck to traversing, as well as the worlds we've been seeing, and the people we encounter are sheer bosh, bother, and nonsense."

"Hmm. Then why would you come along anyway?"

"Because of that boy."

Mr. Herriman paused to think on what Hovis meant. "Master Kennedy?"

"Yes. Let me explain. He "Fell" into 'my' world, and ended up piquing the fascination of my 'masters', and when he explained that he didn't know where he came from or who he really was, and that other nonsense about his bizarre choice of weaponry being the "Key"- and I say that with a 'literal' implication, I was dragged along. Heh. It happened so fast that I'm starting to lose track. This was clearly something that at first seemed to me as nonsense. It still is, mind you."

"I've been watching, Master James. His behavior is erratic, nonsensical and brash, he says things that are irrelevant and completely idiotic, and he tends to jump into matters that aren't his own, and it's rare to see him act calm. Something else seems to bother me."

Hovis stared at him as a gentle breeze came gusting past. "What is it?"

"I don't mean to be a bother, but does Master Kennedy look up to you?"

You should've seen the look on the old servants' face, shocking enough, as it turned into something between grave and humorous. "What are you saying?"

"Exactly what I mean. I may appear old, and possibly, perhaps older than you are," he added for some decidedly unrelated red herring which made the both of them suddenly break out in some unexpected chuckles. "But I wasn't imagined to life yesterday. He looks up to you as if you were a father, or a mentor of sorts."

"Now that is just taking too far, rabbit," James sharply replied passing it off as a bad joke, though in reality, he felt like he was dying inside; how ridiculous was it, thought that him, a butler? Having a son? Not in a million years. "I don't consider that boy a son."

The old imaginary thought about getting much fun out of rubbing more salt in the wound he hit, but just as he stared in the cold, bitter face of the only person of the entire crew with whom he almost had anything in common with, had prevented him from doing so. Instead, Mr. Herriman tried to steer the conversation in a different direction. "Um, er, so, I assume from your mannerisms, dialect, and refined air that you were born here? In England?"

Suspicious as the question sounded, James refrained from answering as much as he surmised too informative, "Yes. I was, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and say this place we're staring at isn't the "Jolly old England" I'm from."

Mr. Herriman watched the moon and two brightly shining stars to the right. "What about life dwelling here?"

"It wasn't comfortable living, I'm going to leave you at that. You know, it wasn't exactly my 'fine cup a'tea'. Muddy parks, cold summers, smelly teeth, woman smelling like peppermint almost all the whole day and through the afternoon into the evening…"

"Well that's the British for you. I can see where you're coming from. Hmhm…"

"And what's so amusing to you?"

"I feel like we're just ancient relics of a lost era."

James returned that same laugh in agreement. "Heh, heh, well with those ancient bones of yours I'd have to agree with you, Mr. Herriman."

"Ancient!?" the irritable imaginary friend roared in terrible protest. "Well I never!"

Meanwhile, Peter Pan was talking to Wendy in the alcove alone while the others were staring intently at the beautiful lay of downtown England.

"…so, Wendy, are you sure about this? You can't come back to Neverland?"

"Peter…" Wendy was too soft-spoken at times that it almost annoyed her, but she truly did love Peter Pan. "I'm sorry but I have to be here for my brothers as they grow up. But are you really going back?" she asked him, a little more crestfallen about Peter going back than he was of her staying in the real world. "Will we… ever see each other again?"

Peter flipped to a more carefree, upbeat attitude as he was holding her hands and saw to his surprise that her face was turning the same colors as the face-paints of the Indians from the Indian Rock. But that didn't compare to Wendy's surprise: Peter's face was now the shade of cherry.

"Of course we will, Wendy. As long as… you never forget about Neverland… and me…"

But that last second Kennedy coming forward, blissfully unaware of the budding romance, and both people suddenly rudely disrupted their moment by dispatching hands from each other. Wendy coughed one or two times and said, "So, uh, Kennedy was it? W-what are you doing here?"

"You tell me. I don't even have any idea what I'm doing here on this big clock tower of yours." He paused and accidentally kept going. "With four faces and one of them have a lazy hand."

"Lazy?" Wendy didn't understand. Then again, the nightdress-clad maiden couldn't understand Kennedy's bizarre weird choice of clothing, either. "What do you mean, "Lazy"?"

"Uh, well, see Gordon told that clocks have "hands" and I have NO idea what he means, and that the Hands flip up and down, and the clocks on this "Big Ben" all have the same hand doing the same "Dance" and uh… well one of them isn't following the "Dance Steps" exactly." If Kennedy wasn't good with acting, he was certainly good with looking like a big fool on his feet, which Peter and Wendy noticed right away. However, Wendy after a moment's deliberation suddenly interpreted Kennedy's "sentence" as this: That apparently, one of Big Ben's hands were off, and the one facing North was about five minute off to Midnight. But that didn't make any sense. How could that be even possible?

"You mean one of the hands is off? Oh dear. I hope that wouldn't mislead the residents of Yorkenshire below…" she said worrisomely.

But Kennedy came up with a fanatical idea. "Hey, wait a second. What if I whack that loose hand to that Giant 12? Would that make it work?"

"Well, uh, um, I-I'm not so sure about that, Mr. Kenneth its-"

Wendy's response was cut short as a crazy flash of Green whizzed past at an unpredictable speed, like minicab on a wet-dry Sunday afternoon. On the other side, Mac sitting on the ledge of the alcove thinking to himself, when he suddenly jumped and screamed, "YIKES!!" When that same crazy Green blur jumped right out of the alcove with the form and grace and of a dolphin.

"Kennedy!?" Mac gawked incredulously as Kennedy swooped down and appeared to be diving straight into the dark below the clock tower, and several seconds later, came soaring up with trail of pixie dust behind him. But the funny thing was, Kennedy kept having a hard time reaching the right face of the clock tower since he was new to flying. "W-w-w-wo-ah!! He-e-e-ey!!" By the time the impractical wielder of the Keyblade figured out the mechanics to it, he floundered by accident away from Big Ben, upside-down, in one of the most impractical positions you'd ever seen.

Deciding not to waste this much time one lousy little flaw on his part, Kennedy flew straight back to the face of the Clock Tower with the short hand that was pointing left. He drew out his Keyblade and struck the hand with incredible force. The crash of his Keyblade sent the long hand rising up!

"Huh?" but to his disappointment, the hand rose up partially. Determined to figure out what exactly was going on and if this was some gag, Kennedy struck the hand again… and again. The hand fell into place behind the short hand. He waited.

"WOAH!!"

Magic? Or incredible phenomenon taking place in England on that ethereal wind at Midnight? You decide. The face of that clock whose hand the Keyblade struck brightened, and intensified. The bright light would've turned into a beacon that everybody in the entire city of England couldn't avoid seeing. Finally, whatever magic set into play ceased as quickly as it had been activated and the one-night wonder of England, facing the moonlit sky and the second star to the right. The Keyhole shimmered into form on the right side of the clock, contrary to the long hand on the short side.

Immediately Kennedy faced the end of the Keyblade to the Keyhole as the beam of light shot out like a holy arrow, and shot through. Peter Pan, Mac, Frankie, Clam, and Waffle, Gordon, and Mr. Blik came around to the side that Kennedy was facing as they all heard the long-awaited "clicking" sound, signifying that now Neverland would be safe from the threat of the Heartless. And something more- something came falling out of the Keyhole, which Kennedy was quick to fly over and grab.

"It's a… another Gummi?"

Obtained Gummi –

"Alright, Kennedy!!" Waffle cheered.

As Kennedy flew straight up to the top to meet with the others, and passed the Gummi on to Blik, somewhere at highest peak of the Clock Tower, a pair of darkening, angry eyes stared hatefully down at the Keyblade Master and a companion of his the quirky Albino Pigmy rhino and clenched tightly onto the slim pillar top of the entire clock tower and clenched his other hand into a fist as tightly with hellborn resentment unlike anything he had ever experienced before. And both eyes were as black as murder. Wind blew dead into his face and fur with a howling shriek, but he was oblivious to its effects. And without so much as a sound, like a shadow he vanished from the top of that tower into the darkness.

NC: True