Chapter 3: Traverse Town

Sora slowly woke up from what seemed like a long slumber by a damp wetness on his face, almost as if a dog was licking him. As he opened his eyes he began to say:

"Riku, you can stop that I know that's—"

But it was not Riku. In fact it was indeed a dog, a brownish dog almost looking like it came out of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. In fact, as he looked at it more closely, it did uncannily resemble Pluto.

"You're not Pluto are you?"

The dog seemed to look at Sora as if it heard its name, like it was called Pluto.

"I must be dreaming, I must be! Floating islands, weird men in brown coats, and a cartoon character! It even started around mushrooms!"

But instead of lying there waiting for himself to wake up, Sora decided to take initiative. Pluto, as Sora began calling him, then ran off probably to find his owner which left Sora alone to explore the town.

He stumbled out of the alleyway and into a town square. He then dizzily walked into a two story building, who had a blond haired man man in his midlife crisis manning the desk. The room had a wooden floor and beige walls, and sported a crystal on the desk. The clerk looked familiar, he looked like one of the Cid Highwinds from the Final Fantasy games Sora used to play when he was alone. Cid began gruffly speaking to him.

"Hey there, how can I… Aw, it's only a kid."

Having a video game character calling you kid is something Sora didn't expect from a dream, and really didn't appreciate.

"I'm not a kid! And you're just a video game character, Cid! Either way, my name's Sora, though it doesn't matter because I'm dreaming. Listening in to those council meetings did a number on me…"

"A video game character? How'd you know my name's Cid? Oh, you must be new to this district Sora. You lost or somethin'?"

"No, I know where I am, dreaming in my house on the islands!"

"Sora, you're not dreaming. You are in Traverse Town, a world for refugees and lost souls alike and bastion against the dark forces that wish to turn us into heartless."

"Do you know where a Riku and Kairi are? They are from the same island as I come from."

"Not sure what you're talkin' about, but this ain't your island"

"Guess I better start looking for my friends."

"Well, good luck with whatever it is you're doing. If you ever run into trouble, you come to me. I'll look out for you."

Sora walked out, quickly scanning the crowd for silver headed boys and auburn headed girls. He saw a big sign touting the second district, which had a hotel, so he decided to go there.

As he entered the dark second district, he saw a man standing there in fear. Suddenly, one of the inky black creatures ran at the man, and the man fell down. Sora could only stare in shock as the creature plunged it's arm into the man and took his heart. Sora realized then that this might be very, very, real. Sora was now very angry at the monsters that took his home, his friends, his family, and now an innocent man's life.

Just then, even more of the monsters pooped out of the ground, so Sora summoned his keyblade to fight them. In his rage he killed almost two dozen of the monsters before they finally stopped showing up and decided to go back to Cid's shop immediately, ignoring the Hotel he wanted to check. The shopkeep simply said,

"Still haven't found 'em? Keep your chin up. Take another look around town."

"I'll try."

So, Sora exited the shop in search of his friends. As he went to the Second District to go look at the Hotel, he heard a voice speaking to him.

"They'll come at you out of nowhere."

Sora then saw the person who was speaking to him, a long brown-haired adult with way too many belts. This man reminded him of Squall from Final Fantasy, which had been a sort of recurring theme.

"Are you Squall?"

"Do I know you? And the name's Leon now! Either way back to the point, those creatures will continue to come at you as long as you keep wielding the Keyblade."

"That makes some sense I guess…"

"But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?"

"My handsome looks, maybe?"

"Never mind. Now, let's see that Keyblade"

Sora summoned the Keyblade.

"Here, that's what it looks like."

"Could you hand it over to me?"

"Why should I? The monsters can only be defeated by this, and without it I'm a sitting duck! But then again, you are Squ-Leon, so maybe I should hand it over."

Sora handed the key over to Leon.

"On second thought, I feel kinda defenseless, can you give it back?"

But Leon didn't have to. The keyblade disappeared out of Leon's hand and back into Sora's. Leon, shocked, spoke:

"What! Okay Sora, come with me. Please get rid of the Keyblade for now. It'll only attract the Heartless."

Sora then walked with Leon to their base, none of them seeming to make conversation. Sora tried to talk about the weather, but after he noticed Leon's gunblade, he didn't want to test his patience.

They entered a building that seemed to be their base. Inside Sora saw a beautiful black haired ninja girl, who then introduced herself.

"Hello, I'm the great ninja Yuffie."

Sora responded, "Hello, I'm the, uhh, beginner Keyblade warrior Sora. And did you say Yuffie?"

"Leon didn't rough you up too much did he? So, about the Keyblade and those monsters, hmm. Those creatures that attacked you are after the Keyblade. But it's your heart they really want, because you wield the Keyblade. We wanted to take the keyblade away from you to keep the monsters away, as they can track the Keyblade."

Leon jumped in. "It was the only way to conceal your heart from them. But it won't work for long. Still hard to believe that you of all people are the chosen one."

"Chosen one? I'm the only one?"

Leon simply responded, "Well, I suppose beggars can't be choosers."

"Can you fill me in on what's going on?" Sora looked eager for information.

"Okay, you know there are many other worlds out there besides your castle and this town, right?" Yuffie began.

"Yeah!"

"They've been secret because they've never been connected. Until now. When the Heartless came, everything changed."

"That's the name of the monsters correct?"

Leon pointed his fingers at sora. "They're called that because they lack hearts."

Yuffie nodded her head. "The darkness in people's hearts—that's what attracts them."

Leon then gazed deep into Sora's eyes. "And there is darkness within every heart."

Yuffie walked closer to Sora. "Hey, have you heard of someone named Ansem? He was the ruler of our city and was studying the Heartless. He recorded all of his findings in a very detailed report."

Sora narrrowed his eyes. "I'm assuming you don't have them, do you?"

Yuffie shook her head. "Its pages are scattered everywhere, to many worlds."

Sora summoned the keyblade and stared at it. "Sounds interesting. Do you know what happened to my world?"

Leon lowered his head and shook it. "You know what? I really don't know"

Sora then got up to leave.

Leon held a hand out to stop him. "Sooner or later, the Heartless will find you. You'd best prepare yourself."

Sora looked Leon dead in the eyes. "Ever since I got off my islands, I've been ready to fight for my life."

Leon nodded. "Yuffie, let's go join Aerith. She should be there now with the other visitors."

As they exited the building, tons of heartless appeared.

Yuffie looked all around at the amount of heartless. "Leon!"

Leon looked at Yuffie. "Yuffie, go!"

A red haired flowery woman reached her arm out. "Yuffie?"

Leon issued a motion to move. "Sora, let's go!"

They entered into an alleyway that led to the second district. There were tons of heartless around, but Leon kept running. "Don't bother with the small fry. Find the leader! Let's go!"

Sora ran through the hotel just in case, while Leon ran to the first district. "Riku! Kairi!" he cried, but there was no response.

Dejected, Sora walked to the First District. There he saw, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith? He pointed to the red haired girl. "Are you Aerith?"

Aeirith held a surprised look i her face. "How'd ya know?"

Leon narrowed his eyes at Sora. "Yeah how DID you know?"

Yuffie was simply silent, but surely was plotting a way to kill him.

Sora shrugged. "You guys are from a video game in my world."

They all breathed a sigh of relief that this boy was not from their city and did not cause this whole thing.

Leon patted Sora on the back. "I think you'll have some luck in the Third District."

Sora then ran as fast as he could, throught the door to the second district, and into the third. He passed by a door with flames on it and saw pieces of a ginormous heartless in the middle. Before he could ponder a way to fight it, he was knocked to the floor by the weight of two beings landing on him.

Sora rushed into battle, but he had a trick up his sleeve. He was sure he had it in one of his zippered pockets, so he opened and shut some zippers looking for— and SLAM. He got knocked down. However, a tiny white bauble rolled onto the floor from out of the open pockets.

The heartless, which Sora dubbed the Guard Armor, steeped on it, releasing a blinding light, and the heartless lost a significant chunk of its health, and its limbs.

Sora summoned his keyblade and used it to stand up. He then launched at the Heartless with all he had, with the two figures helping.

After hacking away at the monster's torso, it disappeared, leaving only the head. Sora then lunged at the head and then struck it with a final blow.

Exhausted, Sora finally looked at his helpers. Donald Duck and Goofy?

Sora moved his pointer finger between them. "Donald Duck and Goofy? I must be dreaming."

He then promptly collapsed.


Waking up, Sora saw he was in a Hotel room. He also saw some chests in there that were locked. So he summoned his Keyblade, thinking he had been kidnapped. However, he looked at his Keyblade and thought about using it to unlock the chest. He tried to fit it in to the hole in the center, but it would not work. In his rage and anger, Sora banged his keyblade against the chest, and voila, it opened. Sora quickly looted the chests and set on his merry way out of there.

Outside, he saw Donald and Goofy looking concerned. Sora tapped them on the back. "Hello, um I'd never thought I'd say this, Donald and Goofy."

Donald narrowed his eyes in anger. "What's the idea you big palooka? You go out there and get yourself knocked out? You had us worried that one of the King's subjects ended up here! But you're just an islander!"

Goofy shook his head. "Now Donald, we cant be yelling at strangers for tryin' to help. It's not his fault that he got exhausted."

Donald stared right into Sora's eyes. "You made us lose the Key! We could see it being swung at the monster, and you just had to throw that bomb there and mess it up."

Sora lowered himself down to Donald's level. "Those bombs are state of the art tools for fighting the Darkness and they're what my dad was working on before he well, disappeared. And you want the key? Well tooooooooo bad, cause I have it!"

Goofy looked between the two. "Gawrsh, calm down! Leon told us about your friends! We have a way to search other worlds."

Sora calmed down and stood up. "Sorry about that, can we be friends?"

Donald huffed. "Apology accepted. And yes, we can."

Sora put his hands behind his head. "So can you show me the ship?"