Chapter 1
Suspicions
Mike Wazowski typed the recall number for Boo's door into the laugh floor operator's pad without even looking. He had done this so many times over the past few weeks that it had become second nature to him. As the door delivery system hummed and whirred above their heads, Mike turned to look at his friend Sully, who was tending to some last-minute paperwork at Mike's old desk.
It was all part of their routine, plausible deniability in case someone ever caught Mike recalling a door that was supposed to have been destroyed. At first, Sully was against the plan. having told Mike that if they were caught, he wanted them to face their punishment together, but Mike insisted on the contingency. Worried what would happen to Boo if they both suddenly disappeared.
Tonight, was different than normal though, tonight Sully wasn't even trying to look busy. He was just blankly staring at the sheets and reports that were supposed to be signed and submitted an hour from now.
Mike frowned and walked over to Sully, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, you feeling alright?"
Sully slowly looked up at him, as if he has just woken up from a dream.
"Yeah yeah I'm fine I was just…I was just thinking about Sora. When I did I got hit with this weird sinking feeling in my stomach, like like-"
The sensation that Sully was describing hit Mike like he had just been dropped into cold water.
"Like when you're going over the drop on a roller coaster."
Sully nodded quickly as Mike took a seat at the desk across from him.
"Yeah exactly like that!"
"Have you heard from Sora?" Mike asked, pulling up the position of Boo's door on the computer. He had made sure to keep the door as deep in storage as he could, even making sure to override the request for the shredding of multiple doors in the same sector of the storage area, as they kept Boo's door hidden from prying eyes.
"Nothing in the past few weeks. I hope he's doing alright." Sully sighed.
"Hey did you ever think that maybe-"
"They weren't actually exterminators?" Mike finished as he looked back at his friend.
"Yeah! I mean you remember when we got a bunch of psiworms in the apartment? The building manager had to call the exterminators and they looked nothing like Sora and his friends. They had no uniforms or anything." Sully exclaimed.
"I know I first had my suspicions after Sora scared Boo with his powers," Mike replied.
…
Donald yelped as he was thrown backward into a bank of capacitors, sparks flying as he crushed the electrical components within before crumpling to the floor, smoke rolling off his clothes.
"Donald!" Goofy shouted, running over to his fallen comrade.
"Donald get up!" Sora said, batting away an Unversed as more of them scuttled over the chain-link fence that surrounded them to get into battle.
Sully roared as he picked up one of the creatures and threw it into one of the ceiling lights, glass and sparks raining down on Sora as he fought his way toward Goofy and Donald.
"They've got us cornered!" Mike shouted he tried to keep the Unversed away from Boo.
"Mike, get Boo out of here!" Sully bellowed, crushing and Unversed with his fists
"What about you guys?" Mike asked as he picked her up.
"We'll hold 'em off as long as we can! Just keep Boo safe!" Sully told him as a cluster of unversed fell upon him from above. Sully roared and snarled, trying to throw them off but they quickly pulled him to the ground.
Sora's eyes went wide in alarm when he saw this before looking back at Goofy to see he was also becoming encircled by the Unversed. Sora leveled his keyblade at a smaller capacitor bank, shooting a fireball at its base, the metal hissed as Sora slashed at the capacitor, a gust of wind jumping from in between the teeth of the keyblade, knocking the capacitor on its side and giving Goofy some much-needed cover.
As Mike scooped up Boo rushed away from the battle, the chain-link fence that surrounded the generators and capacitors of the maintenance area started sparking as tendrils of electricity rushed and jumped across its length. Mike jumped back from the fence, looking for a way out some larger Unversed, mixed with a small group of Heartless entered the fray.
Sora scanned the area around him, struggling to decide who to help, unaware of the black tendrils that were sprouting up from the ground around his feet. As fear seized his heart like a vice, Goofy extended a hand to Sora in worry, trying to calm him but it was too late.
A pillar of black and purple flames swallowed up the young man and when he emerged, it was like his entire form was covered in thick black ink that flowed off his limbs and pooled around his feet. Sora's eyes now looked hollow, lit up only by a pair of faint sickly yellow-colored orbs.
Sora dashed forward, almost teleporting to the nearest Heartless and bisecting it in one slash before starting an attack on the largest one, hitting it up into the air by striking from below before shooting it with several balls of ice. The creature was frozen solid as it fell to the earth, shattering into a dozen large pieces. Sora jumped up and twisted his body to kick one of the shards into an unversed, who was struck and obliterated in an instant.
The last of the Unversed that remained tried to retreat as Sora lifted his keyblade into the air, and the ice shards melted into streams of water that Sora then sent after the remaining creatures, cutting them down as the ran away.
With the enemy decimated, Sora stood alone in the heart of the battlefield, whipping his head around to see if there were any left who would challenge him. As he looked around, his yellow eyes met Boo's and she whimpered and turned away from him while Mike tried to comfort her.
Sora's gaze remained fixated on her as the inky darkness rolled off his form, like the invincible faucet that was soaking him in shadow had finally been shut off. Sora dropped his keyblade as he returned to his old self almost falling over before Goofy and a revived Donald rushed over to steady him.
"Thanks, guys." Sora sighed.
"Are you alright? You haven't had an episode like that in a while." Donald asked.
Sora nodded slowly as Mike and Sully cautiously walked over to them.
"Sorry, you guys had to see that," Sora said as Sully picked up his keyblade and handed up to him.
"You don't have to apologize for anything, if you hadn't done that we might have been done for," Sully told him.
Sora looked up, seeing that Boo was still trying to avoid looking at him.
"Oh no, I think I scared her," Sora muttered.
"Don't feel too bad Sora. She's just a little kid, I don't think there's any way we can get her to understand what just happened." Goofy assured him.
"I know, but I still feel bad though," Sora replied, frowning as he crossed his arms before snapping his fingers.
"I got it." He said with a grin before walking over to Mike.
"Hey, Boo?" He said gently.
She slowly turned to look at him out of the corner of her eye.
"I'm sorry I scared you. Can I make it up to you?"
No response, she was still barely looking at him.
"Has Sully or Mike ever given you an airplane ride?" Sora asked, putting as much emphasis as he could on the last two words to make it sound like the most exciting thing in the world.
Boo was looking at him again and slowly she shook her head.
Sora let out an exaggerated gasp.
"They haven't? Can you believe that guys?" He continued, looking at Donald and Goofy who shook their heads before he looked back to Boo.
"Do you want me to give you an airplane ride?"
After hesitating for a minute, Boo slowly nodded.
Sora smiled and jumped up and down excitedly, twirling his keyblade as he asked Mike to set her down in the middle of the room.
"Ok Boo, put your arms out like this," Sora said, putting up his arms to imitate the form of an airplane. Boo quickly mirrored him and Sora gave her a thumbs up.
"That's perfect! Hold still for me ok?" Sora asked her as he pointed his keyblade at her feet and a small torrent of wind encircled her. Slowly and carefully, he raised Boo into the air.
The little girl started to giggle as he lifted her higher into the air before he slowly spun in place, gently moving Boo up and down as she flew around him.
Donald and Goofy looked at one another in relief when they saw Sora smiling as he played with Boo, the terror of their battles with the forces of darkness nothing but a rapidly fading memory.
Before the night was over, Sora made sure to promise Boo that he would come back to give her another airplane ride someday.
…
"So if they weren't exterminators, then who are they?" Mike wondered as the laugh floor's claxon sounded, signaling the arrival of a door.
Sully shrugged as he stood up walking over to Boo's door as it powered up.
"I guess we can always ask em when they get back." He told his friend as he opened Boo's door to find her sitting at the foot of her bed, scribbling in her sketchbook.
"Huh, she's already awake," Mike muttered, carefully stepping around the drawings that were scattered around on the floor around her bed.
"Hey Boo," Sully said with a smile as she stood up and raised her arms, asking to be picked up.
"You look tired." He told her as he pulled her into his embrace. "You ok?"
Boo shook her head before resting her head on his shoulder.
"Hey Mike, maybe we should help her get back to sleep and head home early tonight. She looks like she hasn't been sleeping well." Sully explained, turning to Mike who bent down to pick up one of Boo's drawings.
"Mike?" He asked, taking a few steps closer to his friend who was closely studying the drawing.
"What's wrong?"
"Look at this," Mike said, showing Sully the drawing, which showed a desert plateau filled with keys, driven into the earth.
"What do those look like to you?"
"They look like the different versions of that key that Sora had," Sully replied as Mike picked up another drawing.
"Look at this one."
The drawing showed a figured dressed in red and black with big spiky hair, fighting against a giant seething mass of yellowed eyed monsters, the ground around him filled with keys.
Sully found one that looked more recent showing what must have been Sora, Donald, and Goofy fighting against an armored figure with the head of some horned creature.
The pair exchanged a nervous look as they looked at the Boo's most recent drawing, the one she was working on before they came in, it showed Sora sitting on a palm tree with a girl but Sora's form seemed to be disintegrating, almost like he was made of sand that was being blown away by the wind.
Sully tapped on Sora's vanishing form with a claw.
"Wonder what this is about."
"Hey, Boo?" Mike asked, holding the drawing up to her and pointing to Sora.
"What's this?"
Boo got a sad look in her eyes as she waved at the drawing.
"Bye-bye."
"Bye-bye?" Mike asked looking at the drawing again, before looking up at Sully nervously.
The same sinking sensation that hit them earlier found its way back into their hearts but now it was worse. The sensation was punctuated by an inescapable dread.
"Something's wrong," Mike muttered, finding himself unable to put the drawing down.
…
A.N-Hope you guys liked this little story! Starbound is going to be a collection of one-shots like these that centers around Sora's disappearance and its aftermath post KH3. Expect warm fuzzies and angst in equal measure. This first one was based on the first time I triggered rage form in KH3, I was low on health in a Monstropolis fight and saw a drive form pop up so I hit the button instinctively. You can imagine my surprise when I transformed into anti sora but after the fight was over, part of me worried about how Boo would have handled the situation.
I'm torn which world to explore next as I have outlines for Hercules, Frozen, and Little Mermaid. So I'll let you guys decide which one you would wanna see first! Sound off and let me know what you think!
Until next time,
See yah!