After a lot of screaming, hasty questions, an attempted exorcism, lots of burger parts flying around, and the usage of the Power of Caging by a certain goddess, the kitchen returned to a mostly silent state. Sora was now inside a small metal cage floating over the table, with his legs dangling out and his arms gripping the bars, his face one of confusion and annoyance. Pit stood in front of Sora, pointing one half of his Palutena's bow right at his face like a sword, while he munched on a half-destroyed burger with his other hand.

"Why did you decide to steal from us, food ghost?", Pit said, as he gulped down his portion and took another bite. "Was the feast so delicious that you couldn't resist coming back for one last bite? Is this for all the food lost during the Underworld invasion?"

"Is it for all the burnt patty's in the trash?", muttered Lady Palutena, the drop-dead gorgeous goddess with ankle-length green hair, snow white tunic, and lots of decorative rings.

"Yeah! Wait, come again?"

Suddenly, a very deep grumble erupted from the depths of Sora's tummy, surprising both Palutena and Pit, and making Sora grimace and curl up slightly in pain.

"Hey, um," he said, looking down at the fallen food. "I'm really sorry about the mess. And, well, I really don't know how I ended up here. But, do you think that you could maybe…?" He trailed off as he slowly stretched out one hand through the bars.

Pit didn't miss a beat, looking around for anything that might still be munchable. "Umm… Oh, here we go!"

He found one burger that had escaped from being drenched by the pitcher, straightened it out as best as he could, and then handed it to Sora.

"Is it good?", Pit asked, just as Sora started wolfing down the burger.

"If I've learned anything from seeing you eat Pit, that's a yes.", Palutena said, with newfound interest clear in her voice.

While Pit mumbled something about not eating that badly (as he swallowed the remaining of his burger whole), Palutena did a quick flick of her wrist, and all of the juices and flour vanished off of Sora, leaving him a lot cleaner, and with a rather content smile as he swallowed the last of the burger.

"Well, well! It would appear that we don't have a food ghost in our hands Pit," she said, as she looked Sora over, with a slight frown, "Just a regular human intruder."

"Hmm?", Sora said, as he finally cleared his mouth. "Oh, I'm not-."

Shing! Pit's half-bow was pointed right back at his face, cutting Sora off real effectively.

"So," Pit slowly said, with a frown in his face and steel in his tone. "If you're no food ghost, then how did a human get into Skyworld?"

He would have certainly intimidated Sora, perhaps even to the point of him taking a nervous gulp. However, since the image was kind of ruined by the ketchup around his mouth and the breadcrumbs in his chin, Sora settled on releasing a nervous giggle.

"Well, usually the reason would be that my Gummi ship ("Your what?") decided to place me down somewhere random, but now, I really don't know why-."

BOOM! Palutena and Pit yelped and lost their balance, as the ground suddenly shook and the walls cracked, with the remaining pots rumbling as their ears ringed from the blast.

"WH-WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?", Pit shouted, covering his ears from the pain.

"I don't know, but it's most likely nothing good.", Palutena said inside Pit's head, as she was also grimacing and clutching at her ears. "Quickly, go to assemble the troops!"

"ON IT!" Pit immediately sprinted out of the room, with Palutena regaining her balance for just long enough to perform a twirl, and with it teleport out with a swish.

"HEY, WAIT!", Sora said, with both hands in both ears, and still very much in the cage. "WHAT ABOUT ME?!"

P°P°P°P°P

As Pit ran outside the kitchen, another explosion rocked the temple, scattering debris and making his ears ring even harder.

"AGHH!" Pit clutched his ears as he stumbled, his wings extending out to try and keep him balanced. "LADY PALUTENA! ANY REPORTS?!"

"Pit!", the panic in her voice was louder to Pit than all the ringing. "I need you out there immediately! We are being invaded!"

"WHAT?!", Pit staggered again as another explosion rocked the temple, but this time he didn't allow it to slow him down. He ran full tilt down the corridor, his bow held firmly in one hand and a steely look in his eyes.

Once he reached the outside, he stopped dead on his tracks.

"Oh no."

It was absolute chaos! Centurions were flying to and fro in the air on their stubby wings, either chasing or being chased by weird multicolor creatures zipping through the air, zigzagging between columns and corridors and gaping pits which opened up into the ground far below. The Centurion arrows and shields were met by a wild variety of projectiles. And over in the ground front, things were just as bad, with Strongarms wading their way through an avalanche of enemies, their tree-trunk sized arms sending the invaders flying all around. Even then, Pit saw just as many of his warriors getting flung around, as wave after wave of invaders started popping up from dark portals.

But the thing that made Pit truly stop and stare, was the gigantic ball of purple fire that was just sent hurtling towards the statue of Palutena, right in the middle of the Temple.

The resulting explosion sent another wave of tremors all around, as pieces of the statue were sent everywhere.

"Lady Palutena!", Pit shouted, as he started to run into the fray.

Though groggy and annoyed, Palutena's voice rang in his head. "I'm fine, Pit! Focus on rallying the troops, and figure out quick what is sending those projectiles!"

"Got it!" And with that, and a flourish of his bow, Pit sent a flurry of light arrows through the air as he ran, each hit vaporizing a Heartless in an instant.

"Skyworld, to me!"

S°S°S°S°S

Meanwhile, with a well-cast Aero spell, Sora had been able to break himself out of the cage. Now he was running towards the sounds of battle, eager to help out in repelling the invaders. After all, he had a pretty good idea of who they were.

But as he ran full-tilt through the corridors, a Heartless portal materialized right in front of him with its characteristic VWOOSH.

Dropping to his battle stance, Sora got ready to break through the inevitable horde of Heartless. However, he was taken aback when only a single Shadow appeared out of the portal, with a strange girl dressed in black combat armor standing right behind it.

The Shadow, standing up on its hind legs and throwing its hands out, cried out in a shrill voice.

"TA-!" Before he could finish, another explosion rocked everything, making everyone lose their balance, and making Sora cover his ears again in ear-ringing pain.

"AGHH!" With his face all scrunched up, and his frustration rising, Sora pushed back his lingering confusion. Readying himself again, he ran full tilt at the invaders, ready to barrel right through them.

The Shadow, feeling even more annoyed than Sora, quickly snapped his claws and then vanished into a portal. From where the snap had been produced, a small puff of Darkness started floating up, and up, right towards the girl's face. When it reached her, her eyes, which were half-lidded and threatening on closing, suddenly snapped open, with the yellow parts suddenly brightening up.

As Sora reached her and was just about to push her aside, he caught a flash of silver coming from her left hand, and acting on pure instinct he raised his Keyblade up to his chest, blocking a strike from a knife!

Not missing a beat, the girl raised her right hand, and Sora had just enough time to roll out of the way before a flash of red light charred the rocks where his head had just been.

Standing back up, Sora stabbed with his Keyblade, but she caught it with the back of her knife, sending sparks out and forcing both combatants take a step back.

Sora finally managed to truly get a good look at her. Her posture was entirely too rigid, her weird eyes completely unblinking. The Heartless logo was blazing in her chest, though it had a weird 'Y' shape in the middle, rather than the usual thorns. Instead of a right hand, she seemed to have a cannon-like appendage, with red light slowly pulsing from inside. And instead of a left hand, she now had what looked like a long, wickedly sharp knife, which now was slowly being coated in an aura of Darkness.

As she raised her cannon-arm, Sora also lifted his Keyblade. And just as the two were ready to unleash a simultaneous blast-.

BOOM! The world goes black!

P°P°P°P°P

As he flew high above the temple, Pit could only grimace as he watched another section of the temple explode into debris, as more of the purple artillery rained down. And worst of all, he was pretty sure that one had hit the kitchen!

Growling in indignation, Pit redoubled his speed, his wings glowing brighter as he dodged and weaved through invader and Centurion alike, every now and then taken potshots at the invaders that personally targeted him. He couldn't linger on them long, for he had spotted what was sending all those volleys. High above the sky, going around and round the temple like a vulture, was a gigantic ball of purple and red flames. And as it circled, a new ball of flames could be seen forming right underneath it.

Before the new missile could be thrown down, Pit stopped right underneath it. Drawing back his bow, he charged it up for as long as he could, light accumulating around the blue arrow that had been drawn. And right at the last moment, he let the arrow fly, scattering the purple missile and throwing the purple ball of flame out of its path.

Picking up speed once again, Pit placed himself right in front of the flames, spinning his bow around in a flourish.

"ENEMY OF SKYWORLD, HEAR MY CRY!" shouted Pit at the top of his lungs, as he extended his wings and drew back his bow once more. "AS CAPTAIN OF PALUTENA'S ARMY, AND CHAMPION OF SKYWORLD, I AM HERE TO DROP YOU FROM THE SKY, AND SEND YOUR ARMY BACK! SHOW YOUR FACE AND FIGHT ME, YOU BIG FLAMING COWARD!"

No reply came immediately from the ball, though the flames did start to diminish somewhat. Suddenly, a low, condescending evil laugh came from the depths of the inferno. Suddenly, as the flames were blasted off in all directions, the laughing turned into pure, insane cackling. Of course, Pit at the moment could barely make out the noise through the fading ringing. But he could still perfectly see, and what he saw made his eyes open way wide.

"Big flaming coward? C'mon angel boy, is that really the best you've got?"

Floating in midair was a well built, muscular man, with flaming black hair and purple skin. Streaks of crimson highlights crossed his body in perfect symmetry, all jagged like thunderbolts. He had a pure green emerald right in the middle of his forehead, his eyes perfectly matching it. His mouth was twisted in an arrogant grin, and his arms were spread wide as he showcased the bright blood-red Emblem in the middle of his chest.

"Don't you think Phyrron deserves a more grandiose taunt for his glorious return?"

"PHYRRON?!"

"PHYRRON?!", the voice of Palutena resounded in Pit's skull. "How did you come back from space?!"

"Questions for later little goddess." Extending his hand upwards, he started to create a new ball of black flames, growing in power and heat by the second. "Now it's time for the god of AWESOME to BURN THE HEAVENS!"


Hot take: College is rough, the Holidays were nice, and Kingdom Hearts 3 is a lot of fun.

Anyway, bet none of you remember this guy, huh? I originally planned to use Hades, but I later thought... Nah, too obvious.