Hey people.

Are you ready for some action? Well, it has come! I split this chapter up into two parts, so the next chapter should just as much fun. :D

I would like to thank Lunar Berserker for reading and reviewing my chapters regularly. It gives me the motivation I need to keep writing more! So, thank you Lunar Berserker!

Also, a big thanks to my Beta Reader, Mystics Apprentice! :D

-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-

It was a calm, peaceful evening in Radiant Garden. The kiosks had all cleared, the stores were closed, and families sat together outside to admire the stars dotting the night sky. It was the most photogenic scene one could imagine. After all, it was Radiant Garden – the perfect world.

There was one particular household, a family of five, relaxing under the stars. The parents were sitting on the desk of their little half-brick, colonial-style house while the three young children played in the grass. The eldest, a boy roughly around the age of eleven, was blowing bubbles high into the air, giggling as the younger ones tried desperately to pop them. Finally, the youngest one burst into tears of frustration, which was shortly followed by the tears of the other child. This caused the mom to reprimand the boy, urging him not to torture his sisters. The brother grudgingly obliged, and began blowing bubbles towards the young girls as opposed to over their heads.

Suddenly, the boy stopped blowing the bubbles. He cocked his head to the side, frowning in concentration. "Do you hear that?" he asked his parents, turning to face them.

His mother sighed in frustration. "Daniel, please stop this nonsense. You're going to scare your sist –"

"I heard it too!" the youngest one chirped.

"Me too!" added the other sister. "It sounds like Daddy when he's hungry."

Sure enough, a low rumbling noise could be heard in the distance. The longer they listened, the more the family noticed that the sound was steadily growing louder and louder. The house began to shudder violently, almost as if a machine was approaching –

CRASH.

The children screamed as a dark object barreled through their roof, sending shingles and chunks of wall plummeting to the ground. The parents rushed to the side of their frightened children, trying to shield them from the debris.

BOOM.

The thundering noise came from somewhere nearby. Overcome by curiosity, the boy called Daniel opened his eyes and glanced in the direction from which it came. He was not expecting to see a train buried into the base of the science laboratory a mere hundred yards away.

-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-

Inside the train, a warlock was dusting off his dark blue robes. Beside him, a crystal ball in a cushioned box flashed in dangerous shades of orange and yellow.

"That should do the trick," the crystal ball said, its voice filled with satisfaction. "That was quite an idea you came up with."

The warlock, however, didn't seem quite as confident. "Are you certain that the Heartless we need are below the laboratory?"

"I am quite sure," the crystal ball assured Yen Sid. "The sewers below are old and decrepit; the walls should have collapsed somewhat in order for the smaller Heartless to slip out."

As if to assure the warlock, a small, monkey-like Heartless clambered out of the ruins. Another followed it shortly thereafter, and together they sniffed the air. Slowly, as if sensing Yen Sid's power, they scampered over to the crashed train and stared at the old warlock expectantly.

"Go, do whatever you please," Yen Sid told the creatures, "as long as you give the occupants of this building a distraction."

A hungry gleam filled the Heartless' eyes. The dark creatures eagerly darted off to create mayhem.

"Well, that was simple enough," Yen Sid mused. He picked up the crystal ball and the spell book beside him. "Come; let us not waste any time." On that note, he took off into the laboratory.

-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-

"Ugh, my arm hurts!" Sora complained as he walked down the hallway.

"Tell me about it," Kairi agreed grumpily, rubbing her right arm for emphasis. She just couldn't believe how many times they had to poke each of them to get whatever they wanted; shouldn't it only take one needle? It wasn't as though it'd make a difference whether they got numerous samples from blood or skin, as it was all from the same person, anyway.

Science confused her to no end.

Together, she and Sora approached the open hospital door and slipped through to fall onto their respective beds, eager to relax and escape from the tedious testing and Even's quirky comments.

After a few minutes of sweet, sweet silence, Sora asked, "When is Riku coming up here?"

Kairi scratched her head with her good arm. "Um, I believe Even said he wanted to keep Riku a minute longer for something or other, so he shouldn't be too long," she finally replied. Sora nodded in response, returning to stare lazily at the ceiling.

"I hope we get some sea salt ice cream tomorrow," Sora said suddenly, excitement lining his voice. "Maybe we could get a break and hang out with the kids who work there. It would be nice to meet some friends in the area while we're stuck in the lab area." He chucked lightly at the last part.

In the darkness, Kairi smiled slightly. It was kind of cute that Sora wished to spend his birthday in such a simple way: meeting new friends, eating ice cream, and just being happy in general. "That would be wonderful," she replied softly.

"I saw Even preparing some sort of pool in the lab before we left," he continued. "I bet tomorrow he's gonna make us swim laps after making it impossible for us to move our arms. You could probably do it pretty easily though, being a mermaid and all. Right?"

Swimming in the water? That actually sounded kind of fun to Kairi. "You bet!" Kairi replied enthusiastically. "It feels like it's been a while since I last swam and all – not that there's anything wrong with walking," she added hastily.

Suddenly, and idea popped into the girl's head. "Hey, how about we turn it into a race?" she suggested with a grin.

This statement perked Sora's interest. "A race? What kind of race?"

"Whoever can complete the testing in the pool fastest gets two sticks of sea salt ice cream during the lunch break!" she responded proudly.

Sora grinned mischievously. Now this was something to look forward to. "Oh, you're on!" he challenged. "Now, we just have to get Riku on –"

Rumble Rumble. RUMBLE.

The entire lab began shaking, causing objects to slide off desks and fall from the walls. A glass vase shattered beside Sora, sending glass shards flying across the room. Sora quickly leapt out of bed and pressed his back to the wall, dodging the majority of the flying debris.

BOOM.

A loud noise echoed through the lab, as if something had barreled into its sturdy walls. Thankfully, the building's shuddering ended abruptly with the boom.

Kairi slowly pulled herself up from the floor (which she somehow ended up on during the commotion) and grabbed the bedpost with a shaky hand. On the other side of the room, she could hear Sora panting heavily.

"What in the worlds was that?" he finally exclaimed between breaths.

"I don't –" Kairi began, but she stopped abruptly. Her indigo eyes had wandered to a curious shadow standing in the doorway…

-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-

"What in the worlds was that?" Riku hissed, rubbing his head. He had taken a nasty fall during the incident and whacked his head on one of Even's large metal machines, something that would definitely leave a mark.

The scientist himself had already stood up and was observing the damage done to his room. The vials that he used to collect the samples that day were all intact, thanks to his decision to use plastic containers instead of glass. "Thank goodness for my good decisions!" he thought with relief as he counted the last vial on the ground.

"Um, hello?" Riku said in an annoyed tone. This drew the scientist from his thoughts, who turned to the teenage elf behind him. "Yes, what is it?" Even asked the elf shortly.

Surely this scientist was trying to purposefully annoy him. He took a deep breath before calmly asking, "Do you have any ideas as to what may have just happened?"

Even scratched his chin in thought. "I have no clue, to be honest. Radiant Garden has no nearby fault lines, so it couldn't have been an earthquake. I'll head downstairs to investigate; why don't you go find your friends?"

This seemed like a good enough plan for Riku. He nodded and took off at a brisk pace, stopping only to listen when Even shouted, "Take the stairs! The elevators are probably out of order."

Riku was up the stairwell to the hospital floor in a matter of seconds, thanks to his elven speed. He was almost to the hospital bay doors when a familiar voice cried, "Stop!"

Was that Kairi? He didn't have much time to ponder that, for his attention was now directed at a shadowy figure standing in the doorway. It was not much taller than Riku's waistline at its full height, including the top of its silvery helmet. On its chest was a heart-like symbol with a red 'X' in the center, similar in color to its spindly claws. Its unblinking yellow eyes went from staring down the occupants of the room to the new arrival, Riku himself. Slowly, it sauntered over to the elf, its claws poised above its head.

Thump.

A pillow came flying out of the hospital room, hitting the creature smack-dab in the middle of the back. It fell on its stomach, leaving it momentarily stunned.

"We have to run!" Kairi cried, her voice shaking. Riku nodded and took off, Kairi and Sora at his heels. They darted down the stairwell together, closing and locking the doors to every level behind them. Finally, they reached the way to the lobby. Sora slammed the final stairwell door closed and darted down the spiral staircase, landing just behind Kairi and Riku in the lobby.

"Hey, why are you guys just –" Sora started, but Riku hissed at him to be quiet. Curious, Sora peeked around them to see what the holdup was.

He was not expecting to see Arlene viciously attacking a swarm of shadowy creatures. She was fighting tooth and nail with the beings trying to climb up and claw her by giving them a taste of their own medicine with her long nails and throwing them across the room.

ZAP. One unfortunate soldier-like shadow tried to climb up her leg. Arlene snarled and sent a wave of electricity at it, and it disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

"Well, what are you kiddos staring at?" she snapped at the trio as she zapped another creature. "Go get Ansem or something to stop this crap!"

Sora hesitated. "What about you?" he asked.

"Well, I would be fine if you, I don't know, got Ansem to get this under control!" she hissed, clawing at another Heartless.

"She's right; the sooner we get to Ansem, the better," Riku said. With that, they turned to the hallway to their right and darted off, in hopes of finding Ansem.

Arlene was alone once again with the Heartless, whose numbers seemed to have suddenly multiplied. A smirk played across the storm spirit's lips. She quickly summoned several pale-yellow kunai from thin air and shifted to a much more soldier-like stance, a mischievous glint appearing in her eyes.

"Oh, it's on!" she shouted with an evil grin.

The Heartless didn't appear to stand a chance.

-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-

Inside Ansem's office, a particular brunette faery crawled out from under the scientist's wooden desk.

"What on earth was that?" she exclaimed, turning to Master Ansem. The blond himself was still sitting on his chair, his face a sickly pale. At the sight of this, Olette's shock turned into concern for the wise man.

"Master Ansem, sir?" she asked. "What's that matter?"

Ansem didn't respond to her. He merely stared at the foot of his desk with unblinking amber eyes. Suddenly, his eyes whipped to the doorway. The door had been knocked right down, and three ant-like shadows stood in the midst of the door's rubble.

"Heartless!" Ansem hissed. "How did they escape?"

Olette stared at him. "Heartless?" she asked questioningly.

"There's no time to explain," Ansem replied quickly, rising from his chair. "We must get somewhere safe immediately. Head straight down the hall and take a left until you see the hangar doors; I shall meet you there."

Now Olette was growing scared. "But what about the others?"

"I shall go find them. Hurry!" he urged her. Olette nodded and shrunk to her faery size. Just as she darted over the Heartless' head, Ansem shouted, "Remember the number code 142656!"

"142656. Got it!" she called back.

The faery girl zoomed down the hallway, avoiding fallen objects and wall rubble. She was nearly at the end of the hallway when SMACK!

"Why, hello there, Miss Olette," said a voice that sent chills down Olette's spine. She slowly looked up to see none other than Yen Sid himself standing before her. His beard was a lot scruffier than before and his robes were a little darker, but it was definitely the same frightening warlock. She could only stare at him with wide eyes, causing Yen Sid to chuckle.

"You don't seem to have the same fighting spirit that you did the last time we met," he commented with a smile. "I wonder why that is?"

That was a good question. "Where was all the fire I had before?" she wondered mentally. "Darn it! toughen up, Olette!"

The warlock took no notice of the brunette's inner conflict; he merely examined a map he had pulled out from his robes thoughtfully. After a minute, he rolled them up and told Olette, "Well, it was a pleasure seeing you once more, but I have work to do. I hope you discovered what you sought from the scientists!" On that note he was off, leaving Olette alone in the corridor.

-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-

"Excuse me, do you know where Master Ansem's office is?" Kairi pleaded to a red-haired lab assistant, who looked suspiciously like a troll. He silently pointed down the hallway and to the right with a burly hand.

"Thank you so much!" she said graciously. Sora and Riku nodded and then took off, leaving the familiar assistant to smash the incoming Heartless. As soon as the trio rounded the corner, they fortunately ran right into Ansem the Wise himself.

"Master Ansem!" Kairi cried. "There are shadows everywhere, and they're attacking us and the staff! Arlene is –"

"There's no time to explain!" Ansem cut her off hastily. "We have to get out of here using my gummi ship; there's no stopping the Heartless!" He gestured for them follow him down a narrow hallway to their left. "We're flying out of here!"

Suddenly, Sora froze. "Wait, we're just going to abandon your employees and everyone in town?" he asked incredulously.

"And if you don't hurry, you're going down with them!" Ansem retorted. "You haven't seen what those monstrosities can do. They –"

"That doesn't make it right!" Sora shouted. "What about Arlene, and Myde, and Naminé, and –"

"I'm sorry about your friends, but there's no time! Myde just left anyway." He grabbed Riku's wrist to drag him down the hallway, but Riku pulled it away. "No, we aren't just leaving people to die! You get the gummi ship ready," he said harshly, glaring at the scientist. "Come on, Sora and Kairi."

Sora grinned at Riku's reaction. "Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" he said enthusiastically. He turned down the hallway that they had come from and ran off, accompanied by a determined Riku and Kairi. Ansem desperately reached out his arm, but it was a futile act – the trio was off once more.

Ansem sighed in resignation. "Be safe," he muttered under his breath. As he ran to the hangar doors (which Olette had opened earlier), he couldn't help but wonder if Yen Sid was onto something with his "strong hearts" theory involving those children. They had selflessly run off to try and round up survivors, while he had resorted to relying on his animalistic instinct for survival.

Guilt welled up inside of him as he darted into the hangar doors. Olette was waiting for him in the gummi ship, where she had opened the doors to allow the scientist entrance.

"We will wait a few minutes before flying off," he reported quietly to the faery. She nodded in return. Together, they sat in silence with their own thoughts.

-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-

The three teens had just run down the hallway, stopping only to tell the orange-haired trollish assistant to run to the gummi ship. As soon as they entered the lobby, they noticed that the Heartless' numbers had increased dramatically. Arlene was cornered by the desk, slaying the creatures with her gleaming kunai. For each one she killed, however, a few more seemed to take its place. Arlene may have been a fighter, but she was wearing down; she couldn't keep going forever.

"Arlene!" Sora shouted above the commotion.

The nymph shot him a weary look over the Heartless. "What is it now, brats?"

Riku punted a Heartless that wandered too close to his foot. "Ansem has a ship; it's just down the hall!" he called.

"Well, that's good news," she panted, hurling four kunai at nearing Heartless. "But how in Hades am I supposed to GET THERE?"

She was right. The Heartless were still concentrated mainly around the nymph herself, since only a few had even noticed the three young fey. Sora, Riku, and Kairi shot each other a questioning glance, as if wondering what to do.

It was Kairi who was the first to offer a suggestion. "We need to distract them and lead them out the doorway," she gestured to the entrance, which was completely barricaded by the shadowy creatures.

It was better than nothing. They had to get outside anyway to find Myde. Sora ripped off one of his gloves and threw it at the Heartless.

"Hey, shadow-thingies! Over here!" he shouted tauntingly. Several of the dark beings whipped around, noticing the newcomers. They began slowly crawling over, like a pack of wolves hunting its prey.

"Okay, now!" Riku ordered. The three of them made a beeline for the door. The Heartless reacted quickly, scampering at their heels. They were quickly joined by the Heartless that had been barricading the door, freeing the trio's escape. This small joy, however, was obliterated by the fact that the heartless pursuing the fey had now increased in number.

"No biggie," Kairi muttered under her breath, as if to convince herself. She pushed a Heartless to the side with her hand and forced another to the side with her leg. All they had to do was break through the tiny creatures for a little longer. Push along for ten more feet. Nine more. Eight more…

They made it! Kairi slammed her hand down on the button, causing the doors to swing open. The three teens tumbled outside, along with many of the Heartless. The shadowy beings were now preoccupied with their new environment, leaving only a couple pestering the three of them.

"Thanks, kiddies!" Arlene shouted to the open doors.

"Well, I suppose that is better than being called brats," Riku muttered under his breath. Arlene dodged the few remaining Heartless and headed for the hallway opening. She had almost completely disappeared from view when –

Blam.

A huge glob of darkness burst out of the lobby floor. Arlene froze in her tracks. This wasn't like the other Heartless; it was huge and spherical, like an evil wrecking ball with three whip-like appendages. Its eyes flew directly to Arlene, and within seconds it had knocked her flat on the ground.

Then, it did something strange. It reached one whip-arm into Arlene's chest. Her aqua eyes flew wide open, and she gasped in pain as the creature pulled something from her stomach.

It was a heart. A large, red glowing heart.

Then, just like that, Arlene's body vanished into thin air.

Kairi stared in shock at what had just happened. In the distance, she thought she heard Sora yelling. The dark ball turned to them as the lobby doors swung shut. Suddenly, someone was pulling her wrist. They had to find Myde and any other people, the voice seemed to say. She said something in response, although she could not remember what. Was she going into shock?

She must have been. After all, she had just witnessed Arlene's death.

-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-