AN: I'm really sorry that there haven't been any updates in like 3 months...I've been too busy with real life to actually write...hopefully I'll be able to budget my time better in the future...But sadly, for now, this is all I have for you guys.

Hope you like it any way :)

Disclaimer: I don't have time to steal other people's work...all the characters and whatnot belong to whoever created them...

Sora clenched the cell phone closer to his ear so he could hear better through the bickering taking place in the gummi ship around him. Kairi's voice traveled through the device, quiet, distant and tormented with never ending static, but there nonetheless, a simple reminder for Sora that he was not alone. "Sora? You still there?" The girl's voice called through the receiver. Despite the lack of volume, Sora could tell from her tone that she was raising her voice so that he could hear her better, she'd been doing it through the entire conversation as the reception, and background noise on the boy's end, got worse and worse. At this point, she was probably screaming into her own phone.

"Yeah, I'm here, did you get everything I told you?"

"Yup! And I wrote it all down, I'll run this over to Leon and the others in a little bit."

"Good idea...and Kairi, be careful okay?"

"I'm always careful Sora."

"No, I mean...these heartless are targeting alchemists to try and get back the power that's being drained...and...well, there are alchemists in Radiant Garden right now...so they might show up...I mean, more might show up...just be careful okay?"

"Yes Daddy..." Sora could hear her giggling on the other end of the line. He raised his glance a little to examine his traveling companions, still bickering like a dysfunctional family. Ed met his gaze for a moment, a questioning look in his eyes. Sora smirked.

"Tell Winry that Ed says hi okay?" Ed turned bright red at that, and had there not been 5 feet and several people in the way, he may have tackled Sora right through the window.

"Okay!" Kairi's cheery voice revealed her ignorance to the situation on Sora's end of the line. "Call me later okay? Keep me posted!"

"Right!" And with that, the two of them hung up.

Sora held the phone in his lap, playing with the charm that hung off of the corner. He looked up at his companions with a sly smile, meeting Ed's glare last. Ed was just about ready to kill him. "SORA YOU SON OF A-"

Kairi placed the phone on the table and picked up the sheet of quickly scribbled notes. Sora had told her everything they had learned in the Land of Dragons and asked her to deliver the information to the others, which she had happily agreed to do. She scanned the information she'd written down, and her heart sank as she realized the danger inherent within the information. They were up against new, strange enemies. Ones who were harder to kill than the heartless...than the nobodies. Enemies who they knew little about and little about what they were after. "Sora...you're worried about me but..."

"Everything okay?" Kairi jumped when Winry spoke. She'd completely forgotten that the blond girl was in the room, taking a break from work in the gummy ship workshop to mooch off of Merlin's fridge for a snack.

"Yeah...it's just, I'm worried about them..."

"I'm sure it's nothing they can't handle." Winry took a bite out of an old slice of pizza and made a face. "Ewwww." She quickly wrapped the food and tossed it in the trash, returning to the fridge to find something else.

Kairi stared at the phone, "I hope you're right..." Just then, the phone lit up and made a small beeping sound as it received a text message. Kairi flipped open the device and stared at the little screen and the strange message that sat there:

sORa Sas HE lIks U! 3

Despite the pore typing and horrific spelling, Kairi knew immediately what the message said, and was sure that she was about as red as her hair by the time Winry returned with a bowl of stale cereal and a look of utter confusion plastered across her face.

"GIMME THE PHONE!" Sora tackled Ed to the ground and the cellphone went flying across the floor of the tiny cabin, landing in front of Riku's chair. The silver haired boy picked up the phone and looked at the message that had just been sent through.

He smirked and turned to Ed, "Your texting skills need some work." But considering he'd never used a cellphone before, and that Sora had been wrestling to get the phone back the entire time, it was rather impressive that the message had made it through at all.

Sora pushed himself up and held out his hand. "Can I have it back now!" His face red with anger and humiliation.

"No." Riku slipped the phone into his pocket. "We need to focus, where do we go next?"

"What?"

"What world should we go to? We need to find these homuncu-whatever-they-are and stop them before they do something irreversible."

"Do we even know what they're after?" Ed asked, as he pulled himself back into a chair.

"Take a guess." Riku said, staring at Sora, challenging his intelligence.

"Kingdom Hearts..."

"Wait...what is that again? You guys keep talking about it..." Al scanned all faces waiting for an explanation.

"The heart of all worlds." Goofy offered.

"The thing that separates the realms of light and darkness." Riku added.

"The source of a great and dangerous power." Sora concluded.

"Great." Said Al, scowling, "I now know about as much as I did 10 minutes ago!"

"If it falls into the wrong hands, it'd be really really bad." Riku said, "That's the best explanation I can give, 'cause truth is, I don't fully understand it myself."

"How bad is really bad?" Ed ventured.

"I know that countless warriors have given their lives to keep it locked up..." Sora said.

"I see..." Ed stared off in thought.

"These...things...wouldn't be the first to try and unlock that power, others have tried...and failed...they probably know that, that's probably why they're trying to get rid of us. They want us out of the way so they can succeed where the others failed." Riku said.

"What are they trying to do with that power?" Al asked.

"Hell if I know." Was all Riku could say. "Others have tried to recreate the universe, take over the world, the usual stereotypical acts of evil..."

"Any of those could be bad if the humonculi are behind it." Ed said, rejoining the conversation.

"And there's also the risk that they can't control the heartless..." Riku added.

"Can that happen?"

"It's happened before...I think...It's not easy for those with hearts to control creatures who consume hearts...historically, or at least in my experience, humans haven't been able to do it."

"Well, they're not human you know." Ed said.

"Yeah, I got that when he jumped off the cliff." Said Sora.

"Still, they could lose control of them, and I'm going to venture and say that they are the ones who fed them the power of alchemy." Riku added.

"You think they destroyed our world?"

"There's a chance."

Ed looked pissed, Al looked worried, but none of this changed the fact that they had an army of powered up heartless who may go out of control at any moment and seven semi-immortal baddies waiting for them in the near future.

"IF I MAY!" Donald suddenly snapped from his position in the driver's seat. "WHERE IN THE NAME OF THE KING ARE WE GOING!"

AN: Sorry that not much happens...there'll be a new world in the next chapter, whenever that gets written, and I promise it'll be longer!

Hope you liked it!