(a/n: Yay! I got reviews! *hugz*)
Chapter Two: Chair Wielding Beauty
Transverse Town
Squall fell gracelessly onto his back, the wind being knocked out of him. He sat up after a moment of staring at the night sky and then rubbed his head. Where was he? Dozens of shops were lined around him, and the scene reminded him of a cross between Deling City and Dollet. Perhaps even bits of Winhill, by the old-fashioned shops and cobble stone pathways. He was lying in the middle of the street, but there didn't seem to be any vehicles coming to hit him. In fact, there didn't seem to be any sign of life.
He was about to sit up when a teenage girl fell on top of him, followed by a fat man who nearly killed him.
" Sorry!" the girl chirped, scrabbling off of him and dusting off the little clothes she had on. She was scrawny with short black hair and a big smile. He didn't like her. The man had rolled to the side and groaned before getting up as well.
" Where the @*&$& are we?" he asked, looking around. " Hey kid, where are we?"
Squall shrugged. He had no idea; a hole opened in front of him when he was fighting against some bizarre black creatures and with no other way out, he took it. Well, any place was better than at home.
" Waaaaaaaaah! I wanna go hooooooomeee!" the girl screeched, her voice wailing through the night sky. She fell to the ground and continued to sob.
" @^&$R&$, I'm outta here." Before Squall could protest to being left behind with the siren, the blonde man had seemingly vanished. Squall hated screaming women, even more so the one in front of him. She shrieked more than Selphie, and her face had turned an interesting purple. He stood watching her with a dead glare until the shriek penetrated into him to such an extent that a steady buzzing sound filled his ears.
" Listen, it's going to be all right," Squall soothed. The girl suddenly stopped and blinked her watery eyes.
" Really?" She then wiped her tear stained cheeks and stood up with a smile on her face. " What do we do then?"
Squall looked around in stupor. All of the stores were seemingly closed. There was the possibility of renting out a room for the night, but he didn't have money and it was doubtful the girl did either. Maybe it was better when she was crying; perhaps people would have given them money to live off of. He was debated whether or not to cause her to cry again when something dark caught his eye.
Taking a step forward, the creature matched his move by coming out entirely from the side of a building nearby.
" What is that?" the girl asked, wrinkling her nose. Squall didn't answer, but he didn't like the looks of it either. The familiarity of it frightened him, as it was almost a de-leved form of what he had been fighting in Balamb. The creature was like a giant ant, black with luminous yellow eyes and tiny rounded fingers. It made a strange sound, a cross between a hiccup and suction, then it jumped up and scratched the girl's leg.
" You little bastard!" she shouted, pulling out a ninja star. With an easy flick, she tossed the weapon and the creature burst into dozens of yellow and green orbs. " That was easy."
She was relieved, but Squall knew better. There were always reinforcements. He pulled out his gunblade, ignoring the girl's wide eyes in regarding his weapon. A horrendous silence washed over them, and it wasn't until the girl began to open her mouth that a scream pierced the air. Squall quickly moved toward the sound, and past a few lifeless houses and shops he arrived at a dead end in an alleyway.
" You won't get me that easily!"
He turned around and saw a woman advancing on him with a chair. Her hair was tousled and fragments of it were out of its braid, and her sleeveless pink dress had spots of soot on it.
" Do you need some help?" Squall asked, not really knowing what else to say. The woman laughed, placing the chair down for a moment.
" Oh, I should have known they would bring out a creature looking like a human," she said, her voice light and captivating. Squall put back his gunblade and took a step toward her, but she quickly picked up the chair and jabbed it at him. " Damned Heartless..." she muttered.
" Heartless?"
" AEEEEEEEEERIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTHHHHHHH!!!"
Squall jumped as the woman with brown hair was knocked down by the small ninja. The chair broke into a few pieces and the woman groaned.
" Get off of me!" she shouted, attempting to push the girl off. Squall crossed the distance between them in three long strides and picked up young girl across the waist. The girl didn't appear aggravated, only happy, her eyes crazily transfixed on the woman who was now standing and dusting herself off.
" You're alive, Aerith!" The teenager squealed. " Cloud is gonna be so happy when he hears this!"
Aerith furrowed her brows, then crossed her arms, appearing very perplexed.
" Cloud? I don't know any 'Cloud'. And how do you know my name?"
The girl's face fell in an instant and she became limp in Squall's hands.
" You don't...remember? Midgar, Cloud, Sephiroth...anything?"
Aerith's expression softened and she motioned for Squall to let down the girl. The girl took a few steps towards Aerith, but kept a fair distance from her. Aerith herself was not sure what to do, and finally she decided to sit on a square crate near them.
" I'm from Midgar," she said, nervously twiddling with her silver bracelet. " I have no idea how I got here. One moment I was selling a flower to a blonde man, then next I was here."
" So you do know Cloud!" the girl suddenly piped, sitting next to Aerith. " Blonde, Mako-ish eyes...hot."
Aerirh laughed. " Yeah, that's what he looked like. But I didn't catch his name."
" Hold it," Squall said, walking up to the girls. " I don't know any of you, and I have no idea what I'm doing here. Maybe we should leave the reunion for when we're in a more stable situation."
" I'm Yuffie," the ninja said, holding out a hand. Squall's arms remained crossed and she took it back without insult.
" I suppose you know that I'm Aerith," the pink clad woman said. " Would you tell us who you are now?"
" Leon," Squall said without hesitation. He had been going with that name for three years now, and it had grown on him. 'Squall' was too recognizable, and it only reminded him of Garden...and other things.
" A nice name," she said, her smile never faltering. " Now that we know one another, how about telling me where we are?"
Squall looked around with a grim feeling. The town almost seemed to be closing in on them, the houses so utterly lifeless, the streets still bare. But there was that sound. Instinctively, his gunblade was whipped out and pointed towards the opening of the alley. Yuffie took a stance as well, and he presumed she was a fighter as he was. Aerith, though, remained cautious but held no weapon.
" Those creatures..." Aerith whispered.
Suddenly, dozens of the little black monsters bombarded them. Squall sliced through many of them easily, and Yuffie seemed to have equal luck. In a few minutes, only orbs of green and yellow were left.
" You know what they are?" Squall asked. " They seem too easy to defeat."
" Heartless," Aerith said in a low voice. " I've been here long enough to learn the names of those horrible creatures. They consume hearts of people, which is why there is no one here."
She walked past Squall without a second glance, leaving him aggravated and bewildered. Wordlessly, he followed in a storm and caught her arm, spinning her around.
" Listen, you--"
" Get your hands off of me!" In one powerful swing, she knocked Squall in the head -and unconscious.
Tidus loosened his grip on his wooden sword, causing it to fall softly into the sand. The place he was in was paradise: tall palm trees were scattered along the beach, an endless sea, and best of all, his father was no where in sight.
He jumped up and laughed, but someone's laugh followed not soon after. He looked around, feeling his face become hot from embarrassment. On the nearby dock, a small girl around his age was rocking her feet above the water and giggling at him.
" Hey, who are you?" Tidus shouted. The girl motioned for him to come to her, and he did so, taking a seat next to her on the dock.
" Selphie," the girl introduced. " You?"
" Tidus...so...d'ya know where we are?"
The girl shrugged and pointed behind her.
" Ask him."
Tidus turned around to see a larger boy with wild red hair throwing a blitzball up and down. He seemed bored with it, and Tidus didn't blame him. Tidus hated blitzballs, and everything about them. And it wasn't just because of his father. Well...actually, it was. In fact, a thought came to the blonde boy and he ran up to the kid with the whacked up hair.
" Hey, you Blitz?" Tidus asked coolly.
The boy stopped throwing the ball up and stared at Tidus before laughing and clapping him on the back.
" Ya man, of course. Care for a demo?" Without waiting for an answer, he threw the ball behind him and the sound of someone squealing was heard. The boy grinned at Tidus and motioned for him to go behind the tree where the cry came from. Tidus shrugged, but his insides were turning as he went toward the tree.
Behind was a boy with unnaturally spiky brown hair. He was rubbing his head and looked angry, staring at the blitzball in confusion.
" Wakka never relents..." he muttered, standing up with the blitzball. He tossed it to Tidus, then asked where someone named Kyrie was. Tidus mumbled some incomprehensive answer, and the boy went running toward a nearby shack. Once he was out of sight, Tidus ran back to the boy with red hair, who was laughing at his target.
" He never learns, ya?" he asked, punching Tidus on the shoulder. Tidus stumbled back and glared at the boy.
" Who are you?" he asked. " And why does it seem like you know me?"
" I'm Wakka," the other boy responded. " And we do know each other. Except, in da memories of dem." He pointed to a round wooden platform where three kids their age were talking. The boy with brown hair, a girl and a boy with silver hair.
"Who are they?"
" Sora, Kyrie and Riku," Wakka said, beginning to walk toward Selphie, who remained on the dock. " They've been 'ere for who knows when, but dey assume that dey know us. So we jus' play along." He laughed at Tidus's perturbed expression before saying, "Besides, we can whip Sora's ass easily. That kid is no better than a chicken."
" And Riku?"
" I wouldn't try it," Selphie said, adding in her own two cents. " But perhaps with the three of us..."
" Selphie, you're jus' gonna get in the way wit' dat pathetic rope," Wakka said, but was punished hastily by Selphie whipping him smartly across the arse. Tidus watched as the two of them faced of against each other, realizing quickly that this was going to be his life, and that he was going to enjoy it.
" Is he awake yet?" Aerith wondered, looming fretfully over Leon's unconscious form. " I never expected him to go down so easily!"
She bunched her hands up, then broke them apart. This went on for five minutes before she settled on sitting on the side of the hotel bed and just watch him. He frightened her slightly, yet reminded her of Zack, a love of hers that was yet to return. Leon's hair was grown out, messy yet beautiful. He had a scar between his eyes, which made her think that he was part of some mercenary force. Some magnificent weapon could only have caused a cut like that. His form was muscular, which added to why she was so afraid of him. Yet...yet he seemed gentle. But maybe that was just because he was sleeping.
"Well, does he look awake to you?" the girl named Yuffie asked, not even looking up from the ninja stars she was fiddling with. This girl claimed to know Aerith, but she had never seen the teenager before in her life. She also kept referring to someone by the name of 'Cloud'. She had seen what fit the description of him in Sector 6, but they barely even held a conversation, him being so eager to leave to wherever he was going to.
Aerith sighed, her eyes first on the slumbering Leon, to the ninja and to the ceiling. These people claimed not to know why they were here, and she believed them. She had only arrived a few days before them, now grateful for some company. The reasons behind her arriving in Transverse Town were beyond her. One moment she was tending her flowers, the next she was standing on a cobble stone path and having to fend for her life from wretched little creatures.
" Rin..."
" Hmm?" Aerith's ears perked at the mumbling sounds Leon was making; he was beginning to regain consciousness. He shuffled for a bit before slowly opening his steely eyes and fixing them on Aerith with question in their depths.
" I'm so very sorry, Leon!" Aerith apologized, standing up and bowing a few times. " Gomen!"
" It's okay," Leon mumbled, although the tone of his voice revealed that it obviously wasn't. "It's not normally that I'm knocked out by someone in pink, though."
She wasn't sure if it was a joke or insult, but either way, she kept her mouth shut. Leon swung his legs over the side of the bed and was about to get up when Yuffie ran up and hugged him so intensely, that he fell back onto the bed. Aerith stifled a giggle as Leon fought for the girl to get off of him until she noticed the expression on his face once he had wrestled her off.
" You're not a very happy guy, are you?" Aerith asked in good humor. Leon, though, glared at her.
" You wouldn't be either if everyone you cared about was killed by a swarm of creatures, creatures that you failed to stop!" He held onto the last word before shuddering and dropping back onto the bed. Aerith hung back, her hands shaking from what -she failed to know but was soon to find out. A moment after Leon let out his spiel, a bizarre flash came over her and she could see a man in black with silver hair. His eyes were what frightened her the most; void, lifeless and Mako infested.
" Aerith? AERITH!"
Aerith opened her eyes and Yuffie stopped shouting in her ear. The two people were looking at her as if she had gone mad.
" What is it?"
" You kept calling out someone's name..." Leon said, crossing his arms. " Yuffie almost went into cardiac arrest."
" Did not!" Yuffie protested, although she was trembling. " It...just was that she said his name. Sephiroth."
At once, Aerith's heart clenched and she bit her inner lip. That name...she had heard it before.
" Okay...so she's crazy and you're on speed," Leon suddenly said, breaking Aerith's thought. Both of the women stared at him until Yuffie snapped back, " Oh yeah, and you're an emotional slob, from the looks of it. Not to mention you have an unhealthy obsession with belts!"
Leon was about to talk back when the door opened and in stepped what looked like a giant mouse. At once Yuffie shrieked and picked up a nearby lamp then used the piece of furniture to beat the giant rodent. She didn't stop until Leon, who also appeared slightly disturbed, pulled her off. Aerith remained quiet, not knowing what to think.
" Oh, thanks!" the mouse said in an amazingly high pitched voice, then held out a white gloved hand for Leon to take. The man hesitated before clasping the animated hand.
" And you are...?" he asked.
" Mickey," the mouse introduced, and Yuffie stifled a giggle. " I'm the King of this universe."
" That's...nice." Aerith could see that Leon's eye was twitching, from what was overwhelming disbelief.
" Isn't it? Anyway, I'm here to ask for your help. All of you." Mickey moved his big eyes to each of them, then continued. " The Heartless have taken over your home lands, which is why you're here. They threaten our world now, which is why we need your help. You must protect the land until the Keyblade Master is found. Then, we will see what happens."
An unnerving silence passed, Leon perhaps being still shocked by the mouse and Yuffie struggling to keep from laughing.
" Keyblade Master?" Aerith finally asked.
" The holder of the key that unlocks worlds. He will be the only one who can fully stop the Heartless," Mickey explained. " I know this is a lot to ask, but--"
" We'll do it," Leon cut in, leaning against the wall and crossing his belted arms. Aerith made a note to herself to ask what was up with his clothing later on. Mickey, meanwhile, had a large smile on his face and he jumped up ecstatically.
" Great! Now, I must be going, but keep this in mind -read his words." The mouse suddenly darted and once out of sight, Yuffie began to laugh hysterically.
" I'm dreaming!" she gasped between laughs. " I mean, a giant mouse asking for our help? It's crazy!"
" Not so..." Leon said, quietly. " Now we must find out what he was talking about with that book..."
" How do you know it's a book?" Aerith asked. Leon shrugged, causing Aerith to sigh and shake her head. " I think Yuffie has a point. A riddle talking mouse who claims to be King of some universe is not something we see everyday."
" Well...I guess now it is," Leon replied, leisurely picking up his gunblade and swinging it over his shoulder.
(a/n: *cough* My friend suggested that I include some drama into this, so I just want to see what the rest of you feel. Mainly humor? Romance? Drama? I take suggestions seriously if they're good, so review! Hee hee.)