Great Minds Think Alike

In a land far away from Wartwood and Toad Tower was

NEWTOPIA

A sprawling kingdom with many newts and scholars. This kingdom and some of its people were known for their knowledge.

However, we're not here to discuss this place (yet), because within this kingdom, in one room in particular in the castle, a redhead girl was setting up her phone as a camera.

{Insert Kairi's theme kh 2.5}

Vlog # 50

When the girl appeared on screen she was revealed to be Kairi.

"Hello! It's me again! This is vlog #50 of my "adventures in Newtopia." story." she said.

"Today, Marcy and I…"

"Hello there." Marcy said as she popped in.

"Wanted to talk about something that happened a couple of days ago that changed EVERYTHING!" Kairi said.

"Show em Kairi!" Marcy said in excitement.

"Ok, ok, here goes." Kairi said.

She held out her hand and in a flash of light, a keyblade appeared in her hand. This keyblade had a floral design to it compared to Sora's. The Keyblade is round and curvaceous to the point of appearing harmless. One side of the hilt is formed in the shape of a breaking ocean wave, while the other is formed into a beige vine of sand that wraps around the shaft, which is colored to resemble a sunset. The vine connects to a bouquet of colorful flowers, which form the teeth of the Keyblade and entwine to outline a heart. Finally, a red silken keychain attached to the hilt has a charm that resembles a star like fruit.

"Ta-da!" Kairi said.

"This is so anime!" Marcy said.

"We believe it's an ancient weapon of unknown origin. And for some reason it looks like a giant key." Kairi explained.

"OOH! Can I tell them about it?" Marcy asked

"Uh, sure." Kairi said.

"Ok. so it all started about a week ago…"

ONE WEEK EARLIER

{insert music: Laughter and merriment kh 2.5}

In a string of four shots (in typical anime fashion), we see Kairi in her new Newtopian ranger outfit. The outfit consisted of a burgundy velvet capelet with a hood that had cute animal ears (kinda like Emilia from Re Zero except shorter); the capelet was connected by a gold two-button clasp. Underneath was a sleeveless white blouse with a burgundy corset belt tied around it embroidered with gold flowers and a long fingerless glove on her right arm. Below was a skirt that was black on one side and plaid on the other with spats that reached to her knees. Finally, for footwear she had on black boots.

Kairi smiled and giggled as she admired her outfit.

"I can't believe it's finally done!" Kairi said in amazement.

"I know! You look amazing!" Marcy said while grabbing her by the shoulders.

"Thanks so much Bernardo." Kairi said

"It took a lot longer than usual but I had to make sure it looked perfect. An excellent mixture of beauty and ferocity." he said

"I love it." Kairi said.

{music ends}

The three were soon interrupted when a newt by the name of Lady Olivia came in.

"Lady Olivia!" Kairi exclaimed as she bowed.

Marcy tried as well but ended up tripping over herself before standing upright again.

"It's nice to see you both as well. I must say your new attire suits you." Olivia said

"Do you like it?" Kairi asked.

"I love it." Olivia said.

"Is there something up?" Marcy asked.

"Oh right, yes. Both of you follow me." Olivia said as she led them out of the room.

{Insert new music: Scent of Silence kh 2.5}

They continued walking through the halls of the castle until they reached the balcony that overlooked everything.

"What's going on?" Kairi asked.

"We have a problem." Olivia said.

"What kinda problem?" Marcy asked.

"Well you see, our guards have been disappearing lately and those that are left refuse to go find them." Olivia explained.

"Why is that?" Kairi asked.

"Well there's this rumor going around that they've been captured by monsters. More specifically, shadow monsters." Olivia said.

"*gasp* just like in that one game, "Noir Replicate!" Marcy exclaimed.

"...yes. I guess you could say that." Olivia said.

"Wait, so they've been captured by those shadow monsters. Those…shades?" Kairi questioned while Marcy's eyes lit upon Kairi saying that word.

"Not a bad name, but yes. The only ones who know about this are those in the garrison and a select few in the king's court, meaning you two as well. Now King Andrias doesn't want to cause a mass panic, so he wants this dealt with at the utmost discretion." Olivia continued.

"What are we supposed to do?" Kairi asked.

"You two, alongside the Newtopian captain, will lead a search for the missing soldiers and see if you can bring them home." she finished.

"We won't let you down m'lady." Marcy said.

"I know you won't. Go to the war room and meet with Triple B. The captain should be there with them." Olivia instructed.

"On it." Kairi said.

As the human girls left, Olivia said under her breath,

"May your heart be your guiding key."

{music ends}

War room (bottom floor)

Inside the war room was the newtopian captain with his hood up talking to three newts in cloaks. One was purple, one was blue, and one was red, with all three of them wearing glasses. The captain's face on the other hand could not be seen since his hood was up.

The room had some banners of the Newtopian symbol on the walls near the windows and others hung up by polyester ropes; there was a roundtable in the middle of the room with books stacked on the edge and a map laid out with some figurines on top. There were four chairs at the table but were spread out since the people sitting in them are currently standing with a chandelier above the table.

"Ok, what do we know so far?" the captain asked.

"Well, we know they live in dark places." the red one said.

"They live in a cave at the cliff edge of Newtopia." the blue one said.

"And they mostly hunt at night." the purple one said.

"OTHER than that." the captain said.

"Well…we don't really know." the blue one said.

"You mean, YOU don't know Branson." the purple one said.

"Oh, I don't see you coming up with something, Bartley." the blue one named Branson said while poking him.

"Well, it's clear neither of you have anything."

Branson/Bartley: "Shut up Blair!"

"Guys! Not helping." the captain said.

Kairi and Marcy entered the room as they were arguing, causing the three to straighten up. Upon noticing this, the captain turned around and saw the two.

"Commanders! What brings you here?" Blair said.

"We came to meet the captain, is he here?" Kairi asked.

"You're looking at him." the captain said, gaining their attention.

He removed his hood and was revealed to be a yellow newt with short silver hair. He wore a blue cape that had the newtopian symbol on it, with silver chest armor similar to Marcy's bronze one over his white shirt underneath. He had gauntlets on his forearms along with blue pants and brown fur boots.

"Who are you?" Marcy asked.

"Who am I?!" he said with offense

Triple B: "oh no."

"I am Captain Finral! Scourge of the coliseum! Defeater of Risky Boots! And…"

"The youngest newt ever to become captain of the great newtopian army!" he finished as he jumped on the table.

Imaginary anime sparkles illuminated his face as the girls looked at him dumbfounded while triple b facepalmed.

"Yunan had too much of an effect on you." Branson said, making Finral blush and chuckle nervously.

"You're the captain?" Marcy questioned.

"Yeah, what about it?" he said as he jumped down from the table.

"No offense, but we were expecting you to be…older." Kairi said.

Upon closer inspection, the Finral looked closer to their age, no more than fourteen or fifteen years old.

"What part of the youngest newt ever to become captain did you miss?" he said.

Marcy and Kairi looked at each other unsure of what to say.

"Do you want me to explain it again?" he asked, to which triple b shouted "no!" in response

"Uh, captain, these are the humans Olivia told you about." Bartley said.

"Oh. Marcy and Kairi? Well why didn't you say so?" Finral said as he walked up and examined them.

He looked them over, touched the tips of their hair, even lifted up Marcy's skirt a bit until she smacked his hand away.

"Hey!" she exclaimed.

"Apologies. Nice to meet you both. I'm Captain Finral." he said.

"Kairi Miyan."

"Marcy Wu."

"So if you two are here, then that means you know of our predicament, right?" he asked with the girls nodding in response.

"Good. Come look at this." he continued as he led them to the table.

On the map, there miniature black figures clustered in one large area on the cliffside on the outskirts of Newtopia.

"From what Triple B has told me, these guys like to hang out near Newtopia on the cliffside; However, we are still unsure where they're coming from over there. The only clue we're getting is that there's some sort of cave they're hiding in." Finral explained.

"We also believe that's where the missing soldiers are as well. So, the plan is, go in, save the guards, then blow up the place and get out." Finral finished.

"So Finn, how would this plan work?" Kairi asked.

"Don't call me Finn. and the plan will work using these." Finral said as he pulled out something.

That something was blue mushrooms with skulls on it.

"What are those? *gasp* are these-"

"Exploding mushrooms? Yes." Finral answered.

"I was gonna ask if they're the types that give you powers, like in Mario." Marcy said.

Finral looked at her weird then looked at Kairi.

"Is she always like this?" he asked.

"Yeah, but I'm used to it." Kairi answered

"*sigh* they're called Boom Shrooms. It's a fungus that can also be used as an explosive. One tap and you'll only have a few minutes before they explode. We'll set these at the entrance and deeper into the tunnel that way, we'll cause a cave in so they'll never be able to hide there again." Finral explained.

"Nice plan." Kairi said

"All three of us will get three shrooms each and place them in key areas in the tunnel that are vulnerable. If all goes well, the guards will be saved and we all go home by dinner."

"Now let's move out!" Finral said.

Marcy/Kairi: "Right!"

As the captain and humans left, Triple B looked worried.

"Are we quite sure they can do this?"

"Have faith in them. We have to."

Later, outside of Newtopia

Finral and the girls were on the cliffside that overlooked the kingdom, walking down the road that led to their destination.

"Alright, we should be coming up upon it right now." Finral said.

They then stopped walking when they got far enough and started looking around. Finral looked at the ground and saw footprints and kneeled down to see where they led; however, the tracks unfortunately were scattered all over the place making it impossible to find out where to go.

"Where is it?" Kairi asked.

"Guess we got to spread out to find it." Finral said.

"Right then! Let's go." Marcy said before tripping over herself

"I'm okay." she said with her thumb up.

Finral looked at her weirdly as the three dispersed and searched the area for a cave entrance. Finral decided to keep following the tracks with the hope that eventually, they'll lead somewhere while the girls searched the beach area.

"Hmm. it's gotta be here. Marcy do you think you could-"

"Found it!" Marcy said while pointing to the side of them.

"What? How?" Kairi questioned.

"I just paid attention to the dark swirling hole in front of us." Marcy answered.

"Swirling hole?" Kairi questioned again.

He then looked to where Marcy was pointing and was surprised by what she was talking about. It was a large dark portal in the middle of the cliffside that had an eerie feeling to it when Kairi looked at it deeper.

"Whoa." Kairi said.

"I know right? It wasn't a cave system. It must be a secret passage to another dimension! This must be how they were able to come in and out as they please and why they haven't found them." Marcy explained.

"That actually makes so much sense." Kairi said.

"Finn! We found it!" Kairi shouted, getting the captain's attention.

Hearing this, he jumped off and floated down using a glider, amazing the girls as he landed in front of them.

"I told you don't call me that." he said whilst putting it away.

"Can I get one of those?" Kairi asked.

"No. Now what were you saying?" he asked.

"We found the entrance, but it's not what you were expecting." Kairi said.

"What do you mean?" he asked until he turned around and saw the portal.

"Oh. That's what you mean." he said.

"Yep. secret portal." Marcy said.

"Alright, we're gonna have to be strategic about this. We don't know what's in that portal, so Kairi still got your shrooms?" he asked.

"Yep." she said while gesturing to her bag which she tapped, alarming him.

"Be careful! A single tap and those things will go off." Finral said.

"Sorry, geez." Kairi said.

"Okay. so what we'll do is we'll place them on the wall and start them, then we get the guards and get out, got it?" he asked.

"Got it." she said.

"Now lets-"

"MARCY REGINA WU!" Marcy shouted as she ran to the portal.

"Wait! What are you-"

Those words were in vain as Marcy went through the portal leaving the captain and redhead shocked as she dropped the bag of shrooms.

"What…what just happened?" Finral asked.

"She just ran in! Hold this, I'm going after her!" Kairi said as she passed the bag to Finral after picking it up.

"Kairi! Wait!"

That would also be in vain as Kairi disappeared through the portal as well.

"For the love of- stick to the plan!" he shouted.

He ran to the portal, took out two shrooms and placed them on opposite sides of the wall. He then looked at the portal and gulped as he activated the explosives.

"This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy." he repeated to himself as he stepped back.

"AAAAHHH!" he shouted as he jumped into the portal after the girls.

Meanwhile, a black-coated feminine figure from afar had been watching the group intently. This was Cere, one of three siblings from before.

"And so it begins." Cere said as she opened a dark portal and walked through it.

?

Kairi's eyes slowly opened as she stood up off the ground trying to steady herself. She shook her head and then heard a groan next to her and saw Finral on his knees holding his head.

"Finral?" she questioned.

"Are you girls cracked?! Did you forget about the mission?" He exclaimed.

"It's not my fault! Marcy jumped in, what was I supposed to do?" Kairi said.

"*sigh* Well, where is she now? Did you see her before you noticed me?" Finral asked.

Kairi looked around and found Marcy at the end of the dark road from where they were standing.

"Marcy!" Kairi shouted as she ran to her friend.

"Hey! Wait up!" Finral said running after her.

Once they reached her, Kairi put her hands on her knees as she breathed heavily.

"Marcy! You can't just go off on your own like that! Do you have any idea how dangerous-"

At that moment, Kairi noticed her friend was looking up at the sky in astonishment, causing her to look up as well. Once she and Finral did, a chill ran up Kairi's spine.

{insert music: Night in the Dark Dream}

The terrain was nothing like they've seen before, with stone-like land masses that were either on the ground or overhead that had glowing blue cracks within them, with a sky that was eternally dark, without a spec of light to be seen.

The three stood in stunned silence as they observed their surroundings until one of them asked the obvious question.

"Where…are we?"

(World Logo: The Dark World)

Next time: Great Minds Think Alike Part 2

An: and now you know why this took so long. Kairi and the gang are now in the dark realm on a mission to rescue missing soldiers, will they escape? Find out next time.

But in all seriousness, this took way longer than it was supposed to, because for the life of me, I didn't know how I wanted to go about this route. Originally they were gonna be in a cave, but then I thought, "why not send them to the realm of darkness instead?" it seemed like a better idea, and it was, but I just didn't know how I wanted to do it

Then I looked at the way the secret bosses in 1 and 2 were implemented so I decided to go off on that. That's also why I decided to split this into 2 parts

Another problem I had was how to write Marcy. I know what she was like in the original show, but I didn't know how to transfer that over to this. Matt said she wasn't neurodivergent, but he was glad we took it that way. I know it's a small thing but it deeply frustrates me when I can't write a character to be the same as they were originally.

Thank you guys for your support and telling me that the shutdown rumor was false, now with that knowledge I feel better and more confident. I guess I was just basing this off something I saw and didn't decide to look into.

One more thing, the chapters getting cut into parts is gonna be major for part 3 cause stuff's gonna go down and I'll have that season have more stakes than it initially did in the series. So have this arc as your first taste of what's to come later as part 2 will have foreshadowing and story bits I mentioned initially in the last chapter.

Thanks again and I'll see you guys, gals, and non-binary pals next time. Byeee!