Thank you to DinoWriter23 for your help.
The next day, Yuffie headed downstairs, yawning as she rubbed some sleep out of her eyes. There, she saw at least most of the group had woken up, but Anne was still asleep, hugging her pillow. Sora was snoring lightly as his blanket halfway off the cot. Chase was sitting up in his cot, though he was half-asleep.
"Lazy bum..." Kairi giggled lightly when she noticed Sora. It reminded her of the times Sora would take a nap on the beach when they were supposed to be working on their raft.
"Morning, everyone..." Yuffie greeted. When she noticed the other three sleepyheads, she smirked lightly. She pulled out an airhorn that she had kept around just in case when it came to waking up Cid or Leon and gave it a loud honk.
The three were almost immediately woken up by the blaring sound. Anne bolted up in her cot, clutching her pillow tightly. "GAH! GOOD MORNING!" she blurted out with wide eyes. Sora fell out of his cot, landing on the floor with a thud as Chase yelped, looking around with a wide eyed expression. Dylan, Clair, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy all let out chuckles at the sight.
Yuffie smiled mischievously as she put the airhorn back in her bag. "Hey, sleepyheads. Cid and the Doctor are still working on the Gummi Ship, but I think they're almost done. You can check on them if you want. Oh, and Merlin says he'd like to teach Nash how to use magic in battle, so he's gonna need this room pretty soon." she told them before heading back up the stairs. "Oh, and Aerith and Merlin cooked up some breakfast if you want any!"
Jason stretched, yawning in the process. Anne had calmed down by this point and pulled herself out of the cot. The smell of bacon and pancakes had hit their noses, which woke them up enough to motivate the still tired ones to head upstairs as Chase's stomach growled.
There, they found a table had been set with several chairs and plates of food, thanks to Merlin. "Well, come on, now. Eat up! You'll need the energy when you head back out."
Anne took a bite first, smiling before she dug right in. The rest started to eat as well, happy to have some food in their stomachs.
They then heard the door open as the Doctor and Cid stepped inside. "Well, good morning, everyone!" the Doctor remarked cheerfully as he took a seat at the table. Cid yawned as he dug right in.
"So, how's it going with the ship?" Riku asked after he swallowed a bite of his pancakes.
"Quite well, actually. We worked most of the night on it. We should be done soon. Hope you don't mind, but I added a few special features that should come in handy on your journey, since your group appears to keep growing." the Doctor told them as he took a bite of his own plate, which made the group raise an eyebrow. What did he add to the Gummi Ship?
Sora figured that he might as well check it out after breakfast.
"That smells delicious!" someone chimed, earning looks of confusion from the group as they looked around to try and find the source of the voice. "Down here."
They looked down on the table and were shocked to see a small cricket wearing a top hat, as well as a black jacket with a red waistcoat and brown trousers as he carried a small red umbrella. "Hello!"
Anne let out a cry of surprise as she tilted her seat back, then fell out of it by accident as Nash, Dylan, Jason, Clair, Chase, and Aurora stared at it with wide eyes. However, Sora, Donald, and Goofy had recognized him.
"Jiminy!"
"What is that?!" Nash asked, grabbing something to hit him with, but Lea grabbed his wrist to stop him.
"Whoa, it's okay!" the pyro told him as Anne used the table to pull herself back up.
The cricket tipped his hat before them. "My name is Jiminy Cricket, at your service."
"He's tagged along on our last couple of major adventures and wrote down what happened during them in his journals." Sora explained, then turned to Jiminy. "What are you doing here?"
"I went with his Majesty and he asked that I join you for this journey, so I stayed here to wait for you to come back so I could join you. I meant to let you know I was here yesterday, but everyone looked rather busy." He then looked up at Sora. "Now, I believe I've missed out on a lot. Think you could help me catch up?"
"Sure thing." Sora nodded with a smile, allowing the cricket to climb onto his shoulder as he offered him a small piece of his breakfast.
"So now we've got a talking bug with us..." Jason muttered to himself. Now he'd seen everything...
After breakfast was finished, and once Jiminy had been told about what has happened so far, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Dylan, Chase, Jason, and Anne had stepped outside with the Doctor and Cid to check on the ship. The Gummi Ship looked the same outside, but based by what the Doctor was saying, the inside must have had a different look, but they couldn't check it out at the moment.
Out of the corner of her eye, Anne noticed the blue police box that she ran into yesterday parked not too far away. "Hey, Doctor? By any chance, is that thing yours?" she asked out of curiosity.
"Hm?" The Doctor glanced over at the box in question. "Ah, that. That's my TARDIS. Almost forgot I brought it over here."
"A... TARDIS?" Goofy asked, tilting his head.
"It stands for Time and Relative Dimension in Space." the Doctor replied without missing a beat as he handed Cid another strangely shaped Gummi piece. "It can travel anywhere through time and space. And it's mine."
"Wait, what?" Chase did a double take as he looked at the box.
"THAT thing can do that?" Jason asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You could say so. Go ahead, step inside and take a look if you want." the Doctor said, trying to hide an eager look.
"That thing's so small. How are we all supposed to fit in there?" Dylan pointed out. Donald walked up to it, pushing the doors open. Everyone's jaw dropped upon seeing the inside of it. Instead of a small, cramped space, they saw a large control room with white circles on rusty, brown walls. The support beams within it were shaped like tree branches as they curved around. At the center was a circular control panel that had a sort of transparent cylinder in the middle. They could even see a door near it that led to somewhere else.
"Whoa..." they all gasped. Sora, Chase, Dylan, and Anne couldn't resist as they stepped inside, gawking at everything around them. It was like another dimension was in this thing!
"No... way!" Anne gasped, her voice echoing inside of it.
Jason peered in, then looked back outside at the exterior as his jaw dropped. "How...?"
"It's... It's bigger on the inside!" Chase exclaimed as he ran out. Dylan could only stammer at the sight before them.
The Doctor smiled proudly. "Surprise!" he joked. "See, don't judge a book by it's cover."
"Hey, Doc! Hand me that one yellow block, would ya?" Cid called from inside the Gummi Ship. The man in the pinstripe suit grabbed the piece mentioned and slipped back inside for a moment before poking his head back out.
"I think we're just about done! Why don't you gather the others and let them know?" he suggested to them before ducking back into the ship.
Having snapped out of their stupor, they complied and started to head back into the building, but Sora paused to look back at the TARDIS, as did Jason and Anne. The Doctor had a ship that was bigger on the inside and could travel through space? Just who was this guy?
"Hey, guys! Come on!" Chase called to the two, snapping them out of it. They looked back at the TARDIS one more time before running into Merlin's house.
There, they found most of the team getting ready to leave. "At least we got some shuteye before we left..." Lea remarked, stretching once more as he helped put up some of the dishes.
"Says the guy who stayed in the Gummi Ship the whole time on the last world we visited." Kairi quipped with a smirk.
"Oh, ha ha."
Sora chuckled at the banter between the two as he spoke up. "Hey, guys? They said the ship's just about ready to use."
"I'll let Nash know, then." Riku said, heading down the stairs, where Nash was currently finishing up learning how to use the basic spells. He was doing a decent job, though his skills seemed to be more in using the sais.
"Well done, you'll get there, soon. Just keep practicing." Merlin told him after he had cast a good Aero spell.
"Hey, Nash." Riku made his presence known as he poked his head through the doorway. "It's time to go. You ready?"
The black haired teen dusted himself off after the wind from Aero had died down, then gave a nod. "Yeah, I think so..." he replied. Riku gestured for him to follow as they headed up the stairs with Merlin following them.
"How was the training going for you?" Riku asked the newest member of the team as they ascended the stairs.
Nash shuddered at the thought of the rough training session he went through yesterday. "Those guys hit hard... at least I can fight, now. The magic training was a little hard cause of the flying furniture trying to ram into you."
"It'll get harder from here. We'll try to help you get some more training in along the way." Riku told him once they reached the rest of the team.
Clair turned to Merlin. "Thank you for teaching us more about the spells, Merlin."
"It's no problem, my dear. You're coming along quite well with your magic skills. Just keep practicing." he praised her, then turned to the others. "Good luck, everyone."
Leon nodded as he took a sip of tea. "Be careful out there. The Organization's bound to try and catch you by surprise."
"Stay safe, everyone." Aerith wished them.
"Kick their butts, okay?!" Yuffie grinned.
Sora smiled, giving them a thumbs up. "You bet." he promised. "We'll be back soon. Bye, guys!"
The others waved goodbye as they stepped out of the door together. Sora then led the team to where the ship had been parked. Cid walked down the platform as he dusted his hands off. "There you go, y'all. It's all set and ready to go. We did add another seat just like you asked. We also got the communicator fixed and added a teleporting button to beam you down."
"Beam us down?" Nash asked.
"You know, teleport you onto the world without having to park the ship itself. Makes it easier than having to get up and walk out of it." Cid told him as the Doctor stepped out of the ship.
"Would you like to take a look at the new features?" he smiled. The group exchanged a look before Kairi took the first steps and walked inside. They could hear a gasp shortly after.
"Kairi?" Sora asked, a bit concerned. "Are you okay?"
The red haired Princess of Heart scrambled to the doorway, looking at everyone with an excited expression. "You've gotta come see this!" she told them. Though they were a bit confused, the team entered the Gummi Ship as well. To their surprise, the cockpit seemed a bit larger, and there was also more room to walk in. There were a couple doors that weren't there before, so Anne decided to check one of them out.
The moment she opened the door, her jaw dropped so low it looked like it would fall off. "What?!"
Before her was a large, empty room that seemed to be larger than the ship itself. Upon hearing her cry of shock, the rest of the group peered into the room.
"How is this in here?!" Donald squawked.
"Oh, just a little bit of Time Lord knowledge and tech, as well as some special Gummi Blocks. That's for you guys if you ever feel like you could use some training." the Doctor replied casually as he stepped inside, walking past them to another door and opening it up, revealing beds inside. "This is for you, since you probably won't want to be sleeping in those chairs all the time. There's a room for each of you, if you wish to have your own. Just in case, since your group appears to keep growing, I've install a feature that will automatically add a new chair if anyone else joins you."
"Wow, that's... that's pretty useful." Clair remarked, still trying to get over the shock of how the ship now seemed to be bigger on the inside than on the outside. She then realized what the Doctor had said earlier. "Wait, what's a Time Lord?"
"It's what I am." the Doctor replied vaguely as he turned on his heel to leave. Before they could ask any more questions, he stopped and turned to face them. "Oh, and before you go, Mickey asked me to tell you that he needed to tell you something. Something very important."
Sora rose an eyebrow. "What is it?"
"He didn't tell me exactly what, but it was important enough that he had to find you. He didn't mention where he was going, though, but you might be able to catch him out there." the Doctor told them. "Now, you all should probably get going. Allons-y!"
He then left the Gummi Ship before anyone could ask him anything else. Sora opened his mouth, but no words came out. He shook his head and headed to the front of the ship where the controls were.
The spiky haired teen pressed a button as the monitor came on, revealing two small chipmunks on the screen. One had a brown fur and a black nose, the other had light brown fur, but had a red nose. Both of them wore a type of apron with a set of gloves.
"Finally! We've been trying to contact you for ages!" one of them exclaimed in a high, squeaky voice.
"Hey, Chip. Hey, Dale." Sora greeted with a smile as Donald and Goofy peered at the screen as well. "Sorry... we kind of forgot to contact you, and the communicator had to be repaired since we crashed the ship a while ago."
"Your navigators are chipmunks?!" Anne asked incredulously.
"Surprise?" Donald shrugged.
"Who are they?" the chipmunk with the red nose asked, noticing the rest of the team behind the three.
"They're members of the group. Everyone, meet Chip and Dale. Chip's the one with the black nose, Dale is the one with the red one." Sora explained.
"Uh... hi?" Chase waved.
Sora sat down in the pilot's seat as he grasped the controls. Seeing this, everyone got into their own seats as well. Nash was grateful that he now had a chair to sit in. A few members of the group looked out the window to see Leon, Cid, Yuffie, Aerith, Merlin, and the Doctor waving goodbye to them, so they waved back.
"Alright, let's go, everyone!" he declared as he started the Gummi Ship up. The engines roared to life as the neon colored ship slowly rose off the ground. Seeing this, the five outside backed away to give it room. "Lift off!"
And with that, the Gummi Ship blasted off into the sky, leaving the world of Radiant Garden behind.
Josh sat atop a boulder in a dark area of an unknown world. He had a frown etched on his face. The psychotic teen was still rather angry about being beaten back in Halloween Town by those... those freaks. And that wimp Nash even decided to join them...
He clenched his fists angrily. This power was supposed to make him stronger! Not make him lose to those weak losers!
And those weapons... they were unlike anything he had ever seen before...
Whatever they were... they were strong. He wanted to find out exactly what they were.
Josh silently stood up, holding his hand out as he summoned a corridor of darkness, stepping into it as he left the area.
In a mysterious room dimly lit by green lights with metal walls, a dark portal appeared as a man in a black coat stepped out of it. Wordlessly, he approached a computer with several monitors that were bunched together, all held up by metal plates and wires that connected to a circular metal beam above the person. Next to the computer was some sort of platform.
The hooded man stared at the strange computer for a moment before holding out his hand at the screen. A dark orb materialized as it floated into the monitor. He then typed in a sequence on the keyboard. A moment later, the Heartless symbol flashed across the screen, followed by several beepings as windows popped up with a strange shape that looked like an eye appearing in the largest one.
Smirking under his hood, the man summoned another dark corridor before stepping inside it, leaving the room now that his work was done.
Meanwhile, with the rest of the team, they were currently checking out the new features added to the Gummi Ship as Sora piloted it through the Lanes Between.
"Guys, this is so awesome!" Chase exclaimed as he ran around in the new training room, looking like a blur thanks to his speed.
Clair was still in awe at the changes that had been made. How were Cid and the Doctor able to do this?
Nash was currently relaxing on one of the beds in the sleeping quarters, having a content smile on his face. He felt like he hadn't rested on a nice, soft bed in a long time. Anne was staring out the window, observing the sky as Dylan sat near her, occasionally glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.
Jason and Aurora walked into the training room, taking a quick look around. "This will definitely be useful. We'll be able to get some more training in without having to stop at certain places to do so." Aurora commented.
However, everyone's attention was drawn by the sound of beeping coming from the monitor. Sora blinked, but pressed a button as Chip and Dale appeared on the screen. "What's up, guys?" he asked while the others gathered in the cockpit to see what was going on.
"Sora, we're picking up some strange signals!" Chip told him.
Dale added, "And they're strong, too!"
"Signals? What do you mean?" Sora asked curiously as he leaned forward in his seat.
"We don't know exactly, but we did manage to decrypt some of them, and this was among the signals." Chip explained before an image that appeared to be a strange eye with one line at the top and three lines at the bottom, with the middle one longer than the two that surrounded it.
"What is that?" Riku asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We, uh, don't know really. It looks like some kind of eye. We've been trying to decipher more of the signals, but it's kinda hard." Dale replied, scratching his head.
"Well, where are they coming from?" Anne asked. To answer her question, a kind of map appeared on the screen.
Sora gripped the controls as everyone quickly got into their seats. "What do you guys say we go check it out?" he asked, looking over his shoulder.
He earned several nods. "This might not be something we should ignore." Dylan said. The eye that appeared on the monitor was rather strange. What could it have meant?
The Keyblade wielder in the pilot's seat turned back forward, deciding to put the ship into warp drive to get their faster. "Let's go, then." he said as the ship blasted off again, this time, at a faster speed.
They could see bright lights outside the ship as they sped towards the mysterious new world, until the Gummi ship eventually came to a halt.
"We're there." Sora announced, then reached to press another button. "Get ready for this one, guys."
"Why?" Chase asked, blinking as he tilted his head.
"Cause we're about to be teleported." The spiky haired teenager pressed the button and they were all beamed down one by one.
The team found themselves standing in some kind of forest once they had left the ship.
"Where are we?" Goofy wondered as he looked around. It certainly didn't look like any of the worlds they had visited before. It seemed kind of peaceful at the moment. Dylan found himself standing atop of a manhole cover, so he quickly stepped aside.
The group looked around, then noticed a set of buildings in the distance.
"We can probably get a better idea where we're at over there." Jason told them.
"Sounds like a good plan." Lea remarked as they then headed in the direction of the buildings as they wove their way past the trees.
Jason paused as he couldn't help but look back at the manhole. What was that doing in the middle of a forest? It seemed out of place.
He knelt down to examine it, then realized the others were walking away, so he quickly caught up with them.
As they made it out of the forest, they found themselves on some sort of campus, with several buildings here and there, and some smaller ones in the distance. "Oh, not another school..." Anne groaned, slumping her shoulders.
"People need somewhere to learn." Jason told her. "Not like we're looking to enroll you."
"... did you just make a joke?" Clair asked her cousin.
"I guess I did." Jason said with a shrug.
"Wow..." Chase chuckled.
It was then a burly man with a stubble wearing a red sweatshirt and gray pants, as well as a headband and a bandage on his face, made his way over to them. "Hey! You!"
Sora blinked, pointing to himself. "Us...?"
"Yeah, you! What are you doing out during class?" he scowled, then blinked. "Wait a minute... I don't think I've seen you around here before..."
"That's because we don't go to this school. We're visitors." Lea said quickly.
"Uh... yeah. That's it!" Anne agreed. The others went along with it, as well.
The man blinked with surprise, actually buying it. "Oh... my bad. Try not to disturb the students during classes, then." He paused as he noticed Donald and Goofy. "Weird time to be wearing costumes, isn't i t?" he said to the two.
He then walked away, leaving the group standing there.
"Costumes?" Goofy asked.
"Just go with it." Lea advised with a whisper.
It was then they heard a bell ring and moments later, students stepped out of the buildings, eager to get out of their classes as they chatted with their friends while heading to spots in the courtyard to hang out.
The group acted natural as they went along with it. "Nothing strange about us... Just a bunch of strange teens hanging out." Chase said to himself.
No one seemed to notice them as they walked around. Clair looked around, but froze and did a double take when she saw somebody sitting on a bench alone as they read a book. It was a teenage girl with dark brown hair wearing an open maroon sweater with a white shirt and a pink skirt.
"Clair? What's wrong?" Chase asked as he noticed his new girlfriend's expression. She gestured to the girl she was staring at, so Jason and Aurora followed her gaze, then looked surprised when they saw her.
"Is that...?" Jason trailed off.
Clair's eyes lit up before she ran to where the girl was. "Stella!"
She looked up when she heard her name. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw Clair running towards her. "Clair?!" she gasped. Clair hugged her as soon as she reached her, which Stella quickly returned with a smile. She then noticed the others. "Jason? Aurora?!"
Jason gave a short wave, though he was just as surprised to see her. "Hey..."
"What are you doing here?" Stella asked curiously.
"We could ask you the same thing." Aurora replied.
"After those... those things came to Harthyn, I tried to get away from them, but I was sucked into something, then I saw black. The next thing I knew, I woke up here at Kadic Academy. The principal of this school was kind enough to let me stay here for a bit since I had nowhere to go." Stella explained. "I've been here ever since."
"It must've been hard." Clair said with sympathy.
She nodded. "I could understand everyone, but I couldn't read their texts."
"It was the same with me." Clair explained, then looked to Chase with a smile. "But Chase has been showing me how to read a kind of language."
"Chase?"
"Oh. Right. Everyone, this is Stella Valleys." Clair introduced as she and Stella pulled apart from the hug.
"She's one of your friends you mentioned before?" Chase realized.
Stella, though confused, gave a warm smile to them. "Hello there."
Most of the group gave nods of acknowledgement, waves, or 'hellos' themselves.
"Stella, this is Chase Enheart. He's my... boyfriend." Clair introduced, a blush appearing on her face as she gestured to Chase.
She blinked at that. "The school bookworm found a boyfriend?"
Clair smiled shyly. "Surprised?"
"Of course I am." Stella replied before Clair led her over to where the others stood.
"I'm Chase's brother, Dylan. This is Anne, Nash, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Riku, Kairi, and Lea." Dylan introduced. Jiminy made his presence known, waving his umbrella. "And this is Jiminy Cricket."
"Nice to meet you." Anne added, waving.
"It's my pleasure." Stella nodded, though a little confused at the sight of Jiminy, Donald, and Goofy. She looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was watching before she turned back to them. "Can I... talk to you about something?"
She gestured for them to follow her to the woods where no one could see them. Once they were out of sight, Stella turned back to the group. "When I was running away from those things... something appeared in my hand. It was still in my hand when I woke up here."
"Did it look like a key mixed together with a sword?" Jason asked, surprising her.
"Yes..." Stella confirmed.
"You have a Keyblade, too?" Clair gasped.
"Is... that what its called?" Stella asked curiously as she held out her hand, calling forth her Keyblade. The blade had pages with scribblings on them that surrounded it up to the teeth, where it had the shape of an open book. The hilt was colored maroon, and the guard was colored a dark pink. As for the keychain, it was a bookmark.
The rest were surprised by her Keyblade. Clair, Jason, and Aurora exchanged a look before they summoned their own to show to her.
"You guys have them, too?"
"So do we." Anne said as those who could summon a Keyblade revealed them before quickly dismissing them.
Stella's eyes widened. "What exactly is going on...?"
"You, uh... might want to sit down for this." Kairi told her as they led her back to the courtyard to find a bench for them to sit at.
"Hey, who are those guys?" a short teen with his blonde hair with a purple splotch in it done up in a cone wondered as he exited the cafeteria with his friends. He was wearing a short sleeved purple hoodie with a dark, long sleeved shirt underneath it.
"No idea... I've never seen them before..." A teenager with brown hair wearing a dark green jacket over a dark brown shirt with a pair of jeans.
"They look like they know that Stella girl." A tall girl dressed in completely in black, save for the blue stars on the bottom of her shirt, noted.
A blonde boy with glasses wearing a red sweater with brown khakis seemed distracted by his laptop beeping, so he checked it out, but blinked. "Huh?"
"Is something wrong, Jeremy?" A girl with short, pink hair asked. She wore a dark pink dress with a pair of pink leggings that came to below her knees and dark pink boots that had pom poms hanging on the sides.
"That's weird. Must be a false alarm..." he shrugged as he put it back in his bag. However, he had this nagging feeling, that something wasn't right...
Back with the group, Stella blinked with surprise. "So you're saying that there's more worlds than just this one and Harthyn?"
"Yes." Riku nodded. "And we're fighting the Heartless, Nobodies, and Organization XIII while we travel through these worlds."
"This sounds like some complicated anime thing." Stella said.
"You have anime on your world?" Anne asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes. You do, too?"
Anne nodded, confirming it. Stella smiled at that. She then remembered something. "Oh, right. I almost forgot. While I've been staying here, I've noticed some strange things happening." she told them in a quiet tone, looking around to check if anyone was watching. "But each time, there's a bright flash of light and everything is set back to before the strange stuff happens, almost like time was reversed. And everyone else forgets what happens during that, but I remember, for some reason."
Jason took interest in that. "What kind of things?"
"People acting strange... these smoke like figures floating around..."
The group looked at each other. "Could this be Xehanort's doing?" Aurora asked.
"Hm... based on what you've said about him... I don't know." Stella admitted.
"Well, we came here because our navigators found a strange signal and it traced back to here." Goofy explained.
"It could be connected." Jason guessed. Sora nodded in agreement.
"We need to find out more about this." Riku said, thinking about what Stella had told them. Time reversal? Bright flashes of light?
"How do we find out whats causing it, though? I don't think anyone would remember if they knew about it." Dylan said.
"Hmm..." Anne crossed her arms. "He's got a point."
Clair scratched her head, trying to figure out what they should do.
"I did notice something during each of the times these things have been happening. It involved something that looked like an eye. I once saw someone with that symbol in their eyes, and even saw the same one on some screens a few times, and I always see this group of students run into the forest, or towards the boiler room." Stella told them. That gained their attention.
"Can you point out those students?" Jason asked. "Maybe they know something."
Stella looked in a direction, then saw them. "Over there. I do know a couple of those guys, since they've stopped to talk to me sometimes."
The group looked to see a bunch of teens in a group. One of them had his hair done up in a cone shape while one of them had pink hair, almost reminding them of Sakura.
"... are you sure it was a false alarm?" one of the teens asked the boy with glasses.
"It could be..." he said quietly, then noticed the group coming over to them.
"Excuse me?" Kairi asked politely, prompting them to stop their conversation.
"Um... hello." the brown haired boy greeted, raising an eyebrow.
"Have you guys, uh, noticed anything strange around here?" Dylan asked, deciding to get to the point. However, they shook their heads in reply.
"No... weird looking monsters? Or guys in black coats?" Sora asked. The group of students seemed to stiffen at 'monsters'.
"Nope, can't say we have." the shortest of the teens, the boy with the spiked hair, said.
Jason didn't show anything, but he knew that they knew something. Something they didn't want to share.
"Well, hello, there." the cone haired teen smiled as he noticed Kairi, deciding to change the subject. "Hey, my name's Odd Della Robbia. What's yours?"
"Not interested." Kairi deadpanned without missing a beat. Odd's eyes widened before he wilted, earning laughs from the other four teens behind him.
"Well, there you have it, Odd. Not every girl will fall for your charms." the brown haired teen remarked, patting him on the back before looking at the team. "I'm Ulrich. Ulrich Stern."
"Yumi Ishiyama. Nice to meet you." the black clad girl greeted.
The girl with pink hair smiled kindly. "My name's Aelita Stones. Nice to meet you." she introduced herself, giving a friendly wave. "Are you friends of Stella? We noticed you were talking to her, earlier."
Clair nodded, confirming this.
"I'm Jeremy. Jeremy Belpois." the one with the glasses introduced, though he seemed to be distracted. "I don't think I've seen you here before..."
"That's because we're all visitors. We, uh, got a call from Stella and decided to come and visit her." Anne lied. Jeremy peered at them over his glasses before he fixed his laptop bag. Jason got the impression this guy was as suspicious of the group as he was of them.
"One more thing. Does this symbol mean anything to you guys?" Dylan asked, pulling out a piece of paper as he sketched the symbol on it, showing it to the group of students. They shook their heads, but the group saw the students tense at the sign.
"Nope, never saw that before in my life." Ulrich denied, shoving his hands into his pockets with a shrug. Jason could tell they were hiding something. Riku, Clair, Dylan, and Aurora were suspicious as well.
"Well... if you notice anything weird, let us know, alright?" Riku told them, crossing his arms as he narrowed his aquamarine eyes.
"Uh, s-sure! No problem." Odd nervously grinned, rubbing his neck. The team turned to leave the students alone, but Jason lingered behind, looking at them with suspicion for a moment before he left as well.
Once they were out of sight, the students looked at each other with worry. "They know about the eye of XANA?" Yumi whispered, her eyes wide with astonishment. "How?"
"You don't think they've discovered the lab, do you?" Aelita asked, fearing the worst had happened.
"One way to find out." Ulrich said.
"We should keep an eye on those guys." Jeremy agreed. These 'visitors' were very suspicious... how could they have known what the eye of XANA looks like?
He then heard beeping coming from his laptop again, so he pulled it out to check on it, but what he saw on the monitor shocked him. "What?!"
Meanwhile, Sissi Delmas, the daughter of the principal, was strutting down a path with an impatient look on her face. "What is keeping those two dorks so long?!" she frowned as she checked her phone. Her two 'friends' were supposed to meet her here at least ten minutes ago.
Suddenly, she heard the sound of leaves rustling behind her. She froze and turned to see a bush shaking a bit. "Herb? Nicholas? Is this your idea of a joke?!" she scowled.
When she got no response, she became even more annoyed. "Alright, you two, come out!"
Her look of annoyance changed to one of fear as something leapt out of the bushes and charged right at her.
"Those guys obviously know something about the stuff that Stella had mentioned." Aurora noted, crossing her arms. "Did you see their reactions?"
Jason nodded in agreement. "What could this symbol mean to them?" he wondered, crossing his arms. Stella was a bit surprised to see that he and Aurora weren't arguing at the moment, like they always would back on Harthyn.
"Did you two grow up while I was away?" Stella wondered.
Jason shrugged as he and Aurora exchanged a look. "We, uh... came to an understanding." he explained, deciding to kept the details to himself.
It was then they heard a crash, followed by a scream as a teenage girl with black hair wearing a pink shirt that showed off her stomach with a pair of jeans ran away from something. "Get away from me!" she shrieked.
The group was shocked to see some sort of monster chasing the girl. It had the Heartless insignia on it, but it also had the symbol from before.
"Heartless!" Sora gasped as several students yelled in fear and ran away. He summoned his Keyblade as the monster noticed them.
"That's what a Heartless looks like?!" Stella asked.
"No, trust me, they have MANY different forms!" Riku said as he called forth Way to Dawn. Together, the rest of the team ran to attack the Heartless.
Stella looked at her hand before summoning her own Keyblade as well and charged into the fray. The Heartless had the appearance of a large crab, though it had black legs and yellow, beady eyes as it prepared to fire a laser at them.
"Look out!" Clair warned her friend. Stella gasped and dove down just in time to avoid getting hit by the laser as it hit the spot where she was previously at, leaving a bit the ground scorched.
"Question: why a crab? There isn't an ocean near here." Jason said.
The crab tried to stab them with its sharp legs. Sora noticed that its movements sounded mechanical, then an idea popped into his head. "Thundara!" he yelled, casting the spell as thunder rained down on the Heartless, zapping it. That seemed to do the trick. The Heartless collapsed as a heart emerged from it, but to their surprise, instead of it vanishing, it collapsed as smoke rose from it.
Lea cautiously approached it, poking it with his Keyblade to double check. "It's dead... but why didn't it disappear?"
"I don't know... but look. It has the same symbol we saw back in the ship." Dylan pointed out.
"So weird..." Clair said.
Chase looked up and his eyes widened before he grabbed Clair, diving down. "Watch out!"
A laser sailed over their heads, barely missing the couple by inches. Clair sat up wide-eyed, looking for the thing that shot it. She was shocked seeing a block like creature approaching. It had a black and yellow color scheme, with one side having a set of yellow eyes as the Heartless symbol was above them. The other sides had the eye symbol on them.
"Hey, Blocky! Do you mind?!" Chase called.
The head spun around before aiming at them. "Uh oh." Chase paled.
It prepared to fire another laser at the two, so they scrambled out of the way as they nearly got hit. Anne tried throwing her Keyblade, but it spun around and actually deflected it. Anne paled before she dove behind a rock. "Okay, so that didn't work..." she muttered.
Nearby, Jeremy and his friends were hiding behind the cafeteria building as they witnessed the battle. "Are those Krabs and Bloks...? But they look so different!" Odd noticed.
"Forget that, look at those guys! They're fighting them head on like they've done this before!" Ulrich told him. "And those weapons... I've never seen anything like those."
"What do you think this means?" Aelita asked.
"They obviously know how to fight these things..." Jeremy noted as he checked his laptop quickly. "XANA attack, but... something seems wrong... I can't tell what, exactly."
A laser hit the corner of the cafeteria, prompting them all to duck down just in case.
Anne rolled underneath one of the strange Heartless. Her Keyblade returned to her hand as she did, so she attacked it, slicing one of its legs off and knocking it off balance. She then slammed her Keyblade into it before stabbing it in the eye symbol, causing it to go limp.
Sora tried attacking the block like Heartless, but his Keyblade bounced off.
"Stab the Blok in the eye!" Ulrich called to him, seeing he was having trouble. Sora heard and did so, jabbing his Keyblade into one of the eye symbols as soon as it stopped spinning its head. Immediately, the creature went stiff before it collapsed as Sora yanked his Keyblade out.
"I can't believe that worked." Anne said.
Chase had gotten up. "Like Zedd's Putties, from Power Rangers. Hit the symbol and they die."
"Power what?" Riku asked.
"Hold on, how do you know how to attack these things?" Sora asked the students as they poked their heads around the corner.
Odd scratched his head. "Uh..."
"We can't explain it right now." Aelita told them, then she gasped as she noticed a hornet like Heartless flying towards them. "Behind you!"
Lea whirled around before shooting a fireball at it, sending it down to the ground as it was incapacitated. Dylan stabbed it in the eye symbol with his sword. The students, as well as Stella, was shocked seeing the display.
Chase just froze at the sight of it as it laid near his feet. "W... W-W... WASP! GIANT WASP!" he yelled in panic, leaping back.
"Whoa, what's wrong?!" Jason asked as he looked at him.
"I'm scared of wasps, okay?!" Chase admitted, his eyes wide as he edged away from the giant, wasp like Heartless that was lying motionless on the ground.
Clair's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?"
Chase nodded quickly, so Clair grabbed his hand. He then noticed another Heartless coming to attack, so he took hold of Clair and sped out of the way.
It was then Stella noticed Aelita and the other four students running off into the woods, just like the last few times.
"Where are they going?" Goofy asked, using his shield to block a laser from another crab like Heartless.
A Heartless then headed in the direction the students ran in. Sora's eyes widened, realizing they were in trouble. "This way!"
Lea, however, stayed behind. "I'll help the other students get to safety. You go on ahead!"
"I'll help you out!" Nash said, heading to Lea's side.
"Are you sure?" Chase called back to them.
"Yeah, you guys just keep moving!"
"You be careful!" Riku said as the pyro and teen ran off with their weapons drawn. The rest of the team, as well as their newest addition, ran into the woods.
Riku was quick to dispatch the Heartless that was going after them. They hid behind some bushes and saw the students come to the manhole that Jason saw earlier. They could hear them talking among themselves.
"What is going on here?" Ulrich asked.
"I don't know. Somehow, those guys know how to fight these things, and they know what XANA's symbol looks like." Jeremy said as he knelt down to lift the cover.
Jason and Aurora narrowed their eyes as they spied on them. So they DID know what the symbol was... What else were they hiding? Did they make whatever it was? As soon as that theory popped into Jason's head, he shook it away. They didn't act like the creators of this XANA.
"We've gotta get to the factory. Come on, guys." Jeremy told his friends before he climbed into the manhole, with the others following them one by one. Ulrich was the last one to enter it, taking a quick look around as he pulled the cover back over it.
The group stepped out of their hiding places as they approached the manhole.
"Factory?" Chase asked.
Stella shrugged. "There's an abandoned factory just along the river."
Riku knelt down and pulled the cover off. "Maybe this leads to it." he said to the group.
"But why would they go to an abandoned factory, though?" Anne asked.
"Only one way to find out." Riku replied before he climbed in. The group exchanged a look or two, some of them with ones of uncertainty.
"Well, it's not like we haven't gone through the sewers before..." Chase remarked, prompting Stella to raise a confused eyebrow.
"We had to slip into the sewers to sneak past some witches that were chasing us on one of the worlds we were on." Clair told her friend, noticing her expression while Chase climbed into the manhole next. Clair then climbed in after. Stella blinked, hesitating before following her. Jason went down as well.
Sora followed next, looking down to make sure he wouldn't slip as Kairi followed as well. Anne, Dylan, Donald, and Goofy climbed down as well with Aurora being the last to enter it, checking over her shoulder to make sure that nothing was following them.
Once they were all on the bottom, Anne noticed some skid marks on the ground. "Check it out. These marks are heading that way." she noted as she pointed in the direction.
"Then that's where we're going." Jason said.
Together, they headed down the sidewalk in the sewers. "Guys? Are you sure it was a good idea to let Nash and Lea go off on their own like that?" Anne then asked, looking back in the direction they came from.
"They were following what their hearts said, Anne." Kairi told her.
"And Lea knows what he's doing." Riku added. "He'll be there to help out Nash if he's in trouble."
Anne nodded at that as they continued through the sewers.
Eventually, the skid marks stopped as they found that they ended at another ladder. Through a set of bars where the water was floating out of, they could see a large river, as well as part of a building.
Sora was the first to climb up, pushing the cover off as he poked his head out, seeing that they arrived at some kind of bridge that led to a large factory. He pulled himself out, then moved to help pull the others out as they climbed up one by one.
"This is it. This was the factory I mentioned." Stella told them as she looked up at it. "I've never seen it up close before, though..."
"I'm surprised it hasn't been demolished." Chase remarked, taking a quick look over the factory.
"Well, let's see what's inside." Donald told them, gesturing for them to follow as he walked to the entrance. However, Anne froze when they came to the edge and noticed the stairway was broken and the lower level was about ten to fifteen feet below them. A set of ropes dangled before them.
"Uh... i-is there another way around?" Anne gulped.
Jason looked around, but he couldn't see a faster way down. "I don't think so. Besides, we don't really have time to look for another way around." he told her as he grabbed a rope. "I'll go first."
He then slid down it, reaching the ground with no problem at all. He then called up, "It's okay, guys! It's safe to use."
Chase took a rope and slid down with Clair following shortly after. "Yahoo!" Chase whooped while Clair let out a small laugh. "You guys gotta try this!"
Sora grabbed the rope without hesitation and slid down with Riku and Kairi following close behind. The rest slid down the rope one by one until it was just Anne left, who was standing away from the edge, shaking a bit.
"I'm down here, Anne." Dylan called up to her. "It's okay!"
"What's wrong?" Stella asked Clair curiously.
"She's... she's afraid of heights." Clair explained, looking up.
"You're kidding me, right?" Stella asked.
"Not at all. To make matters worse, she nearly fell off a cliff a while ago." Clair shuddered at the memory. Jason and Aurora kept silent at that.
"Well, you've got plenty of people to catch you." Stella called up to the green eyed teen.
"Yeah. And it's not high like the cliff." Jason called to try and ease her worries, then realized he said the wrong thing as Anne shot him a small glare, making him feel a little guilty.
Anne then gulped, shakily reaching out and grabbing a rope.
Clair gave a nod. "Good, good... now slide down. If you fall, we'll catch you."
She tried to go slow. However, she slid down faster than she was hoping, so she let out a cry and shut her eyes tightly until she stopped sliding when she was an inch above the ground. She hesitated before cracking an eye open.
"You can let go now." Aurora pointed out.
She blinked when she realized she was safe and let go, breathing out a sigh of relief as she was on solid ground again.
"See? That wasn't so hard, was it?" Dylan smiled lightly.
"I-I guess not..."
Sora then noticed an old elevator nearby and rose an eyebrow, approaching it. "It looks like it still works."
"Going down. Next stop, the Mystery Department." Chase joked.
"Let's see where it goes." Riku said as they all piled in, though it was a bit of a tight squeeze. He pressed the button and the door shut as the elevator started going down, thankfully not plummeting.
A moment later, it stopped as the door lifted, revealing another door as it seemed to make a hissing noise as it opened up as well, and to their surprise, saw a room with metal walls with a strange looking computer with many monitors and a hologram next to it. What surprised them was Jeremy and his friends at the computer. Jeremy, who was sitting in the computer chair, looked alarmed at the sight of them.
"You?!" Jeremy gasped, his jaw dropping.
"So this is what you were hiding." Jason said, crossing his arms.
"What are you doing here?"
"We followed you." Aurora said simply as they stepped out of the elevator together. Jeremy looked like he wanted to hit himself.
"This is where you guys keep running off to...?" Stella wondered as she looked around with surprise.
"That's some computer." Chase joked, walking over to examine it. "How many games can you play on it?"
"Uh..." Odd nervously rubbed the back of his head. "Well, now that you think about it-"
"Odd." Ulrich and Yumi shot him deadpan looks, making him shut his mouth quickly.
Jason looked up at the strange computer, examining it. It was very different from Harthynian computers. It had a very primitive look to it, yet something about it seemed to say it was more advance than his world. "What kind of computer is this?" he wondered.
"Um... it's kind of hard to explain-" Jeremy tried to change the subject, but several windows popped up on the monitor beeping as red exclamation marks appeared. "Not again!" He turned his attention back to the computer as he typed away.
Jason peeked over his shoulder. "What's going on?"
"Nothing you need to worry about." Jeremy said, not answering his question as he typed away. However, another warning window popped up, followed by the Heartless symbol. "Again? What is it with this sign?"
"Heartless." Sora frowned as he saw it.
"You know what they are?" Yumi asked, remembering hearing him use that term earlier against the monsters from before.
"They're pests, and we're the pest control." Chase said, folding his arms with a smirk.
Jeremy frowned deeply as he continued to type codes in on the keyboard. "Somehow those things have gotten into the computer..."
"Digital Heartless. Now I'm worried." Clair muttered.
"And now they're coming out of the computer..." Riku realized.
"We need to stop them on the inside." Jason said. "Before they can get out."
Donald glanced up at the teen. "How do we do that, though?"
"You cant just delete them from here like you can with a program." Jeremy told them.
"What to you mean?" Dylan asked.
Aelita sighed, looking at Jeremy. "We have to tell them."
That seemed to shock the bespectacled teenager. "But-"
"There's more to this computer, isn't there?" Jason deduced. The group of students exchanged a look. After a moment, Ulrich gave a heavy sigh.
"You have to swear not to tell a soul." Ulrich told them with a serious look on his face.
Chase nodded. "If there's one thing we know how to do, it's keep a secret."
Jeremy sighed, closing his eyes for a moment before he looked back at the group before him. "This is a supercomputer that contains a virtual world called Lyoko."
"There's a world in that computer?!" Jason, Aurora, Clair, and Stella were all shocked.
Anne, Chase, and Dylan's jaws dropped. Sora and Kairi were a bit surprised, but it did sound familiar to the former, as well as Riku. Almost like Space Paranoids or the Grid.
"Yes..." Yumi looked away from the monitor at them. "We go there to fight an evil AI called XANA, who wants to get us out of his way for his plans. He sends his monsters to fight us on Lyoko when he activates a tower to launch an attack on the real world."
"And he'll sometimes send the monsters here." Ulrich added. "He's also possessed people and things, sent polymorphic spectres after us, tried to kill us numerous times..."
Stella couldn't believe what they were hearing as her eyes were wide with astonishment.
"Guess we now know the culprit behind all this." Anne noted, placing a hand on her hip. "How do you fight this XANA?"
"Jeremy sends us into Lyoko so we can help Aelita get to the tower. Only she can deactivate the tower to stop XANA's attack." Ulrich explained.
"Then if all the stuff XANA did is true, how come nobody mentions it?" Goofy wondered.
"The Return to the Past. It's a program that allows us to reverse time to fix all the damage XANA had done during the attack, sending everything to before it happened. It also wipes anyone's memories about the attack and if they discover the factory."
That explained a lot to Stella, but she didn't say anything. She kept the fact that she had remembered everything that happened during those times away from the Kadic students.
"Why don't you tell anyone about this thing if XANA's so dangerous, then?" Dylan asked.
Yumi sighed. "No one would believe us. And if they did... then they would probably take it the wrong way. They would try and take the supercomputer and maybe even lock us up."
"It's the only way we can fight XANA. If the supercomputer were to fall into the wrong hands, say one who would want to use it for their own purposes..." Jeremy looked down, shaking his head as he tried not to think of the possibilities.
Jason nodded. "Something like this is too dangerous. And yet it's the only hope for the world."
"Which is why we have to keep it a secret, because if we have no way to get into Lyoko, we'll have no way of fighting XANA." Jeremy said, adjusting his glasses.
"We understand." Anne told him. "You said the Heartless are in Lyoko, right? Then why don't you send us there?"
Jeremy's eyes widened, jerking around to face them. "Absolutely not!" he protested.
"Why not?" Sora asked.
"We just met you."
"He has a point." Jason agreed.
Kairi nodded. "That may be true, but we're your best chance at getting rid of the Heartless in Lyoko."
"How do you know that?"
"You saw us fight those things earlier." Aurora reminded.
"Jeremy, maybe we should let them-" Aelita said.
"Aelita, you remember what happened with William." Jeremy shook his head.
Dylan rose an eyebrow. "Who?"
"We let him into our group, but on his first mission on Lyoko, XANA tricked us, separating us from William and managed to possess him. He's now XANA's slave and attacks us when we go to deactivate towers." Ulrich explained. "We're trying to free him from his control."
"Crap." Clair said, using a word she had heard her friends use.
"We can assure you that will not happen. We're ready for anything." Riku told them.
Stella thought about it. "How about a trial run instead? Test us out, see if we can help you. If you like us, you can send others. If not..."
"... that sounds like it could work." Odd said after a moment as he turned to his friends. "If they promise not to tell anyone about Lyoko, of course."
Jeremy thought about it. "It would increase chances of avoiding a mistake. But who were you thinking of sending?"
Everyone turned to look at Anne.
The teenager blinked with surprise. "Uh... guys?"
She then looked around, and realized they were volunteering her.
"... aw crap."
Moments later, Anne was in the elevator as it went further down. She sighed, hoping that nothing would go wrong.
She then found herself in a room with three cylinders that opened up. She rose an eyebrow upon seeing them.
"Step into a scanner, Anne." Jeremy said over the intercom.
Anne took a deep breath to steady herself before stepping into one of the cylinders. To her surprise, it closed behind her, trapping her inside. "Wha-? Hey!"
Back in the lab, the group watched as Jeremy started to type in a sequence of codes. "What's going on?" Clair asked with confusion.
"Watch and see." Odd smirked.
"Transfer, Anne." Jeremy announced. In the scanner, Anne felt a gust of wind below her, causing her hair to fly up a bit. She shut her eyes tightly as she felt herself being lifted off the ground a bit. On the computer in the lab, it showed a card, as well as a figure being loaded. The team stared in surprise at what they were witnessing.
"Scanner, Anne."
The wind seemed to feel stronger than before now to the teenager.
Jeremy pressed a key as the ID card on the screen finished loading, as well as the figure next to it
"Virtualization!"
In the scanner, Anne saw a brilliant flash of light as her hair was blown upwards, forcing her to shut her eyes again. The next thing she knew, she was hovering ten feet in the air above a white platform.
"Huh?!" was all she got out before she roughly landed on the ground. She let out a groan of pain as she sat up, shaking her head. Once she regained her senses, she gasped as she saw she was in an ice like landscape. "Where am I?"
Anne then looked down and realized her outfit had changed. She now wore a black, gray, and blue bodysuit with blue and black boots, as well as a black and gray short sleeved shirt with a pair of fingerless gloves that came up to her elbows with blue patches on her elbows. "Uh... what?"
"Welcome to Lyoko, Anne."