First of all… I want to thank my awesome reviewers! Although there isn't much to comment on, I'm gonna reply to JaguarKitty2006! And to you… Yep! I've not only beaten the game, but I'm also using a script to aid me. But I won't be relying completely on that script! This isn't the game. This is the novel. Not much difference in story if any, but as you go on, you'll see that many more conversations will be tweaked to fit my desires for this!

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts! And this will be the first and last time I write this stupid disclaimer! You all know I don't!

Chapter 5: Trip to Insanity

"That little squirt took down that Heartless! Who'd have thought it?" Six dark figures sat around a table in an equally dark room. A small, green hologram straight from the booming spaceport of Crescentia showed Sora, Donald, and Goofy all huddled together, talking excitedly. The one that had spoken was gray skinned with a hair of blue fire… literally. He was clothed in a large black robe that covered even his feet.

"Such is the power of the Keyblade. The child's strength is not his own." Another man, this one the exact opposite of the first. Tan skinned and lavishly dressed, this man looked more like a king than the King of the Underworld, Hades, did. Jafar of Agrabah twisted his long beard thoughtfully as he said this.

A large woman, one with octopus-like tentacles instead of feet, spoke next. "Why don't we turn him into a Heartless? That'll settle things quick enough!" She laughed loudly as she envisioned this. If she succeeded in that then she'd never have to worry about Atlantica being saved! Not that she had any worries anyway. Even if Sora managed to get there, she'd be able to dispatch of him easily enough. She was Ursula, the Evil Witch of Atlantica.

The next man, this one having a wicked hook for a hand and a peg leg, laughed with her. "And the brat's friends are the king's lackeys!" His eyes narrowed as he spoke. "Swoggle me eyes, they're all bilge rats by the look of them!"

Oogie Boogie, the creature from Halloween Town who looked more like an overstuffed pillow than an actual enemy, laughed and looked at Captain Hook the pirate. "You're no prize yourself!"

Hook glared at him and as Oogie Boogie laughed again, he yelled, "Shut up!"

"Enough!" The sixth person, Maleficent, said sternly. "Our opinions do not matter. The Keyblade has chosen him." She locked eyes at least once with every person around the table as she spoke. "Will it be he who conquers the darkness?" She paused once more for suspenseful purposes. "Or will the darkness devour him? Only time will tell. Either way, though, he could prove quite useful…"

The others chuckled and said words of agreement, but she didn't hear any of it. Instead her eyes locked on a young silver haired boy who stood in a dark corner of the room, watching the six closely…

***

Leon was busy packing a small bag with special supplies and such as Donald, Goofy, and Sora became better acquainted with each other.

"Magic… you're telling me that you think I can use magic?" Sora asked Donald softly.

"Yes!" The duck quacked sharply, not appreciating Sora's need to repeat him. "The Keyblade obviously has special powers and as a mage, I can sense magic abilities!"

"And… you're going to teach me?" Donald fell silent. "Well?" Sora pressed.

With a sigh, Donald shook his head. "No." Sora's mouth opened and he started to protest but Donald rolled his eyes. "Magic can't be taught. It's something that comes from inside! Once you learn to use it then I can teach you to control it better, but until then…"

Sora pouted and sighed heavily. But before he could say anything, Leon cleared his throat. In his hands, he held two bottles filled with liquid. "I don't suppose you know what these are?" He asked Sora. The teenager shook his head in reply.

With a sigh, Leon continued. "This," He said, indicating one of the bottles, one with a green liquid inside, "is a potion. It will heal many superficial injuries and will also help speed up the healing process for the bigger ones. Most likely you'll need it in the future, so don't ever let your stock of these dwindle." He tossed it to Sora who caught it with ease.

He held up the other bottle that had a red liquid in it. "This is an ether. Fighting will wear you down and quickly. This is made to give you quick and powerful bursts of energy. Enough for a battle, but don't overuse them. It's best to build up your own endurance than rely on these.

"Make sure that you're prepared for your journey ahead. It won't be easy, I can tell you that much. We don't know how far the Heartless have spread, so there is no such thing as over-preparing, you got it?"

Sora nodded slowly, still not sure of what he was getting himself in to…

***

Sora looked at the Gummi Ship in awe. Built entirely from colorful blocks, the Excalibur (when Sora had heard that name, he nearly started jumping in excitement) was a thing of beauty.

"Wow!" He said as he walked around the large ship. "This is amazing! We're actually going to fly in this? It'll take us to other worlds? Does it have a bathroom? How about beds? And what about—"

"Shut up!" Donald quacked loudly. Sora stopped talking immediately. With a heavy sigh, Donald walked up to the ladder leading up to the cockpit. He had the strange feeling that it was going to be a long flight.

Goofy was the next to follow, taking the rungs two at a time because of his long legs. Pluto scrambled up after him. Finally, with a sense of awe, Sora climbed up into the cockpit.

His mouth dropped immediately as he saw the inside. "Like it? King Mickey personally oversaw the construction of this one. It was his own for a while, but then he got himself a new one!"

Sora's eyes remained wide and his mouth open as he looked around some more. The cockpit itself was filled with all kinds of mechanical instruments and such. Lights, buzzers, buttons, and bells lined the consoles and Sora couldn't help but to wonder if they all even had a purpose! He walked along the floor, which he noted was plush, red carpeting. The chairs, three of them in all, were all made of the Gummi material. Sitting down in the closest, Sora noted that they were extremely comfortable. Its shape seemed to change to accommodate Sora's body, which only made Sora smile even more.

"Are you finished admiring the pilot's seat?" Donald asked warily from beside Sora. With a start, Sora realized that a steering wheel was situated directly in front of him.

"Hey, can I drive later?" Sora asked as he got up from the chair, allowing Donald to sit down in his place.

"No." was Donald's only reply. Sora's face fell. With a heavy sigh, he plopped down in the co-pilot's chair and stared out at the walls of the metal hanger that they were in. Goofy sat down in the seat behind the two and buckled up.

"Hold on! It goes real fast!" Donald told Sora as e buckled into his seatbelt. "And always wear your seat—"

"Hey, what's this…?" Sora cut him off while looking at a large red button directly in front of him. Donald's eyes widened and he covered the button his feathered hands.

"Don't push that!" He quacked as he pulled away slowly. "It switches the control from the pilot to the co-pilot!" Sora raised an intrigued eyebrow. Donald saw the look on his face and frowned. "No! You aren't driving!"

Sighing heavily, Sora sat back in his seat and buckled his seatbelt up. "Fine…" He said dejectedly.

"Hey!" A small-sounding voice said from somewhere in front of Sora. Looking around for the voice, Sora found Jiminy Cricket standing on the consol in front of him. "I'm Jiminy Cricket!" The small creature said when his eyes locked with Sora's.

"Um… I'm Sora!" The teenager said in reply. Soon after, he heard Donald give a loud quack of frustration and then the suck muttered something about a 'stupid bug'. He lifted his hand to shake Jiminy's but then he realized that his hand was far too large for the cricket.

"Are you the Keyblade Master?" His new friend asked in awe.

Smiling slowly, Sora replied with a quiet, "Yeah… I guess I am." And then the Enterprise gave a slight shudder and Sora watched as the doors of the Gummi Ship hanger opened and they rocketed out into Inter-space.

***

Leon watched as the Gummi Ship blasted into the night sky of Traverse Town and disappeared among the twinkling stars. "He has no idea what he's gotten himself into…"

Aerith came up from behind him and stood beside him. "No, but none of us did when the Heartless showed up. Yet, we've done pretty good, don't you think?"

"Yeah, you could say that… but Hollow Bastion was different."

"Maybe… but he has the Keyblade. We didn't have that then. And I'm sure the king's people will be able to help him in some way!"

"Whatever…" Leon replied. Aerith giggled some and took his hand in hers. Leon looked down at her and smiled one of his rare smiles. But soon he became serious again and looked back up to the stars where yet another star could be seen blinking out. "I just hope that he stays strong… for all our sakes."

Aerith squeezed his hand tightly and drew closer to him. "He will. I guarantee it." She said out loud, but silently, she prayed that she was right…

***

As Sora's previous elation of going to another world faded, he found himself being bored. Inter-space was quite dull actually. Jiminy's ranting didn't help Sora's boredom at all either. He had run through the story of how he and some puppet named Pinocchio had been swallowed up by a whale at least three times by now.

So, in the meantime, he slept. And while he slept, he dreamt. He dreamed of being back in the Destiny Islands with his friends!

In this said dream, the sun beat down on Sora with intensity unlike he had felt in years. The air seemed to shake as waves of heat rose from the perfect white sands of the beach. It was the hottest day of the year… and he loved every moment of it.

"Sora!" He heard Kairi cry from behind her and he spun around, smiling at her. His grin widened as she ran to him and hugged him tightly. Then, to his surprise, she didn't pull away after a few moments. And when Sora thought she began pulling away, he saw that she only have pulled away a small bit. Just enough to look at Sora face-to-face. The brown-haired teenager soon figured out how close their faces were. Instead of following his immediate instincts, he began moving even closer to her. It was only seconds before their lips touched. And immediately electricity shot through Sora's body.

At first, he tensed slightly, but soon he relaxed and the kiss changed from innocent to desperate. The years of longing to have a romantic relationship with Kairi all poured into this single kiss.

"Interesting dreams you have, Sora." He heard Kairi's voice, and he pulled away, letting go of Kairi.

"What is it?" The dream-Kairi asked, confused why Sora pulled away.

"I always knew that you liked me, at least a little bit, but I never knew you dreamed about me!" Kairi's voice filled Sora's head, yet her mouth didn't move.

"A… dream?" He wondered aloud. And with those words, the beach of Destiny Islands melted away just as it had come and Sora was left in darkness.

Then, a bright light appeared, temporarily blinding Sora. When his eyes adjusted to the brightness, he found Kairi standing in the midst of it. "So, I guess we got our adventure, huh, Sora?" She said excitedly while walking his way, the light following her.

Sighing heavily, Sora sat down heavily on the floor that he couldn't see. "I don't know if I even want it anymore, Kairi… It's not what I had always imagined!"

"What's so different about it?" Sora looked at her and he found that she was sitting next to him, her knees drawn to her chest and her arms wrapped around them.

"Well… for one, I had always imagined you and Riku with me! And… I never thought it'd be so dangerous."

"Oh, give me a break, you bum! A few days ago, you would have jumped for a chance such as this! Going around to other worlds, destroying monsters, and meeting new people—it's your dream, Sora!"

Sora sighed heavily and fought back the exhaustion that began to overtake his body. "Yeah… but after experiencing what little bit I've experienced, I don't want it anymore! I want to go home, Kairi! I want to see you and Riku again! I want to eat my mom's cooking again! I want to explore the islands some more! I want…" He trailed off, now fighting tears.

"It's too late for that." She said in reply. "You have to suck it up and beat this, Sora! You can't go home again! You're stuck and you know it! Why whine about something you can't change?"

Sora sighed once more. He knew that she was right. But he still didn't like it. "I guess you're right… It's just—"

"We're here!" Kairi cried happily, cutting him off.

"What?" Sora asked quizzically. Kairi looked at him grinning.

"Donald! He just said that we're at a new world!"

"What? I don't—" He stopped as his eyes suddenly flew open to see Donald standing over him. Moaning, he rubbed his head as his surroundings took the shape of the interior of the Gummi Ship.

"About time! I've been trying to wake you up for five minutes!"

"Why?"

"We're at another world!" Sora's eyes widened as he remembered Kairi's words. He got out of his chair immediately, just barely missing hitting his head against Donald's duckbill.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" He cried as he pulled his yellow shoes on. "Let's go!" He looked out of the cockpit and his mouth dropped at the sight before him.

The world was very colorful. Reds, greens, blues, and many other colors adorned the distant ground. A huge forest covered most of the world, but Sora could see one area not covered by the forest. From inter-space, it looked like some sort of large meadow.

"We're settin' down right there! Try to wake up Goofy!" Donald said while piloting the craft towards the meadow.

Sora turned around and saw that Goofy was sleeping in his chair. Sora found him hilarious and ended up bursting out laughing. He couldn't even see how anybody could sleep in Goofy's position! His upper body hung off of one side of the chair with his chest and arms pointing to the floor. Then his midsection was on the chair itself, and his waist and everything below were draped over the other side of the chair.

It looked extremely uncomfortable, but Goofy seemed to be sleeping soundly. So soundly, in fact, that no matter what Sora tried, he couldn't wake him up! Pushing, pulling, shaking, yelling, and even kicking! —None of it would wake the sleeping Goof!

Sigh-quacking heavily when he saw this, Donald grabbed a small contraption from the Gummi Consol. "Don't worry about him! I'll just transport us all to the surface and we can wake him up there!"

"Why don't we just land?" Sora wondered out loud. Donald looked at him and shrugged.

"This is faster and I don't see a Gummi Port down there! Now, let's go!" He entered their coordinates into the contraption and a green light enveloped them all. When it faded, they found themselves far above a tiled floor. The walls around them were covered with twisted pictures and paintings. If they had looked up, they would have only seen blackness. But instead, Donald and Sora were much more busy watching as the floor rushed up to the meet them. All the while, Goofy still slept…

At first, they fell quickly, but as they neared the growing floor their descent slowed considerably. By the time the touched down on the ground, they had slowed to the point that their legs absorbed the entire impact with no pain at all.

"Oof!" All except for Goofy, who landed right on his face, rudely waking him from his slumber. "I was having such a nice dream too…" He said with a yawn as he got up.

"Join the club…" Sora said half-heartedly. He wasn't really focused on Goofy at all. Instead he was focusing on the twisted room they had landed in. "Tell me, Donald. Why did you set the transporter to transport us above the ground?" He asked through clenched teeth.

"How was I supposed to know?!" Donald demanding, shaking a feathered fist at the teenager.

Sora opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly something rushed past him. "Oh, my fur and whiskers! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!" The 'something' was actually a white rabbit that bounded past them. Dressed in a small red jacket and gray pants, he was the strangest rabbit Sora had ever seen. He held a large clock that was as large as the rabbit himself!

"I'm here, and I should be there!" The rabbit continued while ignoring Sora and his companions completely. I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" He reached a door and ripped it open, revealing another door. And he ripped that one open, revealing another! And another… and another… and another! Each door was smaller than the last. He kept opening doors until he reached one perfectly his size and walked through it. "The queen, she'll have my head for sure!" Sora heard him say just as he left the room.

"What was that?" Donald wondered aloud. Goofy looked at him and shrugged. Sora looked towards both of them and motioned for the doorways.

"Let's follow him!" He said, already walking toward the strange doors. Before either Donald or Goofy could reply with an agreement or disagreement, he had already gotten down on his hands and knees and crawled through the doorway.

The room was quite a strange one. Many colors adorned the walls and a large fireplace. A small table was in the middle of the room, along with two chairs. On it were two strange looking drinks, one blue and the other red.

But, by far, the strangest thing in the room was the white rabbit… who was now about the size of Sora's foot. It ran across the room and through a very small door at the far side of the room.

"How in the—" Sora was interrupted by the sound of Donald scrambling through the doorway behind him. And then there was a loud thud from the doorway and Sora whipped around just in time to see Goofy fall back on his behind, rubbing his head.

"Hey… the doorway is smaller than the door!" He said, a little disorientated from hitting his head against the doorpost.

"You stupid! How in the world could you not see that?" Donald yelled at Goofy while roughly dragging him into the room, careful not to smack his head against the door again.

Meanwhile, Sora walked towards the small door and knelt down to inspect it. Soon, he found Donald and Goofy at his sides, inspecting it as well.

A large golden doorknob took up half of the wooden door. And it was a strange doorknob at that. The way it was made, it almost looked like a face with the keyhole being a mouth, the handle being a nose, and two lumps being eyes that were closed.

"How did he get so small?" Sora wondered out loud when his mind drifted back to the rabbit.

Donald looked at him and opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off by a sleepy voice. "No, you're simply too big."

For a moment, everything around the three friends froze. All of their eyes locked on the doorknob and Sora could swear that his very heart stopped beating…

…The doorknob that moment ago Sora thought looked like a face had just talked.

And then, time sped up again and in one accord, Sora, Donald, and Goofy all exclaimed, "It talks!"

The doorknob yawned loudly. "Must you be so loud? You woke me up!"

"Good morning!" Goofy said excitedly. He was about to speak further, but the small doorknob interrupted him.

"Good night! I need a bit more sleep." It said snobbishly. And then it closed its eyes and went back to trying to sleep.

"Wait!" Sora exclaimed, causing the doorknob to open one agitated and look at the young brunette. "How do we get small? Like the rabbit."

The doorknob moaned with annoyance. "Why don't you try the bottle on the table?" And with that, it closed its eyes and refused to open them again.

Sora walked over to the table and saw the two bottles sitting there. "Which one makes you shrink…?" He wondered aloud. Then with a smirk, he saw the labels on the bottles. 'Shrinking Drink' was written on one and 'Growing Drink' was written on the other. But even knowing that, he hesitated. He hesitated long enough to get Donald angry.

"What are you waiting for, Sora?" He inquired, his voice betraying his agitation. He bit his lip, not knowing whether it was smart to do it. Something inside of him warned him of… something. Whatever it was, he had a very bad feeling about it.

Donald watched him with lessening patience. Finally, getting angry, he roughly pushed Sora out of the way and grabbed the glass, downing the red drink in one gulp. Wiping his bill, he felt a lurch inside of himself. And then, without warning, the change came. He began to shrink, slowly at first, but it soon sped up to high speeds.

It felt like falling, he noted. Like jumping off a tall building (which he had done on multiple occasions thanks to his temper), he came closer and closer to the ground. Goofy, who towered over him before, now was the size of a skyscraper. Sora was the size of a house. But it didn't end there. He kept shrinking and shrinking! Soon he found that small chips in the linoleum floor were now the size of potholes. Sora's head was higher than the tallest tower of Disney Castle.

Donald Duck as small as a shoe. All it would take was a misplaced step and he would be snuffed out. Even his magic, unless it remained unchanged by the shrinking, would be useless to him at this size. Never before had he felt so helpless… Never before had he felt so scared.

But the stubborn duck wasn't about to let Sora and Goofy know that fact. He would simply change that fear into anger, as he always did! And immediately, he began yelling and quacking for them to hurry up.

***

Sora and Goofy looked around in amazement at the world around them. The room was simply amazing at this size. It was somewhat small before. Only three or four steps could cover the distance, but it was the size of a neighborhood block!

"How do you think the shrinking potion came back like that?" Goofy asked, referring to the fact that after Donald finished off the bottle, the drink had mysteriously regenerated.

"I'm more worried about the fact that everything shrunk! Our clothes and weapons are the same size! I don't get it…" Sora said quietly contemplating the power of the shrinking potion.

"Ahh phooey!" Donald said waving his hand in a condescending way. "Why bother thinking about it? You'll never figure it out anyway!"

"What are you saying?" Sora asked, a hint of anger in his voice. Donald simply smirked and looked around the room some more. Muttering under his breath, Sora did the same.

"Do you think King Mickey is actually around here somewhere?" Goofy asked while looking towards the strange talking door that was now their size.

"Who knows? Let's find out!" Donald said in reply.

"Where do we start?" Sora asked. Donald simply shrugged and walked over to the door.

"Hey! Open up for us now!" He yelled, banging on it. It didn't even say anything in reply. It just slept and, Sora noted, snored. "Open up!" Donald tried to pull on the doorknob, but it didn't budge. "Stupid door…" He muttered while turning back to the duo and smiling sheepishly.

"We need to find somewhere else to go." Goofy said, stating the obvious. With a nod, Sora began walking around the perimeter of the room.

"Watch out!" Donald cried from behind him and Sora turned around only to find a red ball of flame hit him directly in the chest. Crying out, Sora flew back a little bit before hitting the ground roughly. There was a neat circular burn mark in his shirt and a few tattered threads were on fire because of the fireball!

He slapped at the fire haphazardly and got up slowly, resisting the urge to groan in pain. A few feet away, quite a bit more than that with their size, Donald and Goofy were battling with a strange creature.

It flew over their heads at a high speed. It was dressed in a red robe of some sort that had the familiar crest of the Heartless on it. Thin legs that looked useless stuck out from the bottom. Each skeletal leg had three bird-like toes, each with needle-sharp talons, ready to tear away at their victims. Its face was hidden in shadows created by a tall, orange wizard's hat.

Sora charged into the battle, swinging wildly with his Keyblade, but he was surprised as the Heartless flew easily out of range. It was by far the fastest Heartless he had encountered so far. Even with his unnatural speed given to him by the Keyblade, he couldn't hope to match that speed!

Donald gritted his teeth and blasted a fire spell at the red Heartless. It didn't move or even flinch as the smoldering ball hit it. There were no scorch marks and if it was in pain, it didn't show it in the least bit. In fact, it looked… bigger.

Sora's eyes grew as he realized what had happened. "Donald! Don't use—" But it was too late, in anger, Donald had already unleashed a barrage of fire spells, each hitting the Heartless with deadly accuracy. And not once didn't the Heartless even move from its spot above their heads.

But it grew. It grew to at least four times its original size. Sora could only speculate that its magic power had grown just as well. Thankfully, by this time, Donald had realized his folly and had stopped using Fire magic.

FWOOSH! A gigantic fireball rocketed from its wizard's hat heading straight for Donald. But just before it hit, it simply fizzled out, as if it had hit an invisible barrier. From inside this strange barrier, Donald was on one knee, panting heavily.

Aero was a hard spell to use and it used up much of his energy, and after using so much fire magic, it had reduced him to a nearly useless fighter. He simply didn't even have the energy to even stand anymore! But regardless of that, he was alive. If he hadn't cast Aero in the moment that he had, he would be fried duck!

"Donald!" Sora cried as he ran over to his companion. Goofy watched the two warily, but, unlike Sora, he knew that Donald would be all right. He was just tired.

Coming in contact with the strange barrier, Sora could only stand there watching Donald as he breathed heavily. "Are you all right?" He asked while looking in wonder at the barrier, which he could now make out to be a light blue color.

Donald looked at him and nodded slowly before pulling out a red bottle, an Ether, from his supply bag that he had slung over his shoulder. He drank the bottle quickly and immediately felt its rejuvenating affects. Slowly, but strongly, he rose to his feet and cracked his knuckles.

"Show time!" He quacked loudly, causing Sora to back up some while grinning. "Get out of the way, Goofy!" Donald yelled while raising his rod to point at the Heartless. Goofy complied. Releasing the magic barrier, Donald gritted his teeth as he unleashed a powerful Blizzard attack, fueled by the Ether he had just consumed. Small to large ice particles rocketed through the air, creating a whistling sound as they cut through the stillness.
***

"Why didn't you just use that in the first place?" Sora wondered aloud as they walked across the room, still looking for a doorway of some sort. Donald simply waved an uninterested hand his way and continued scanning the room.

"Quick thinking with Aero, Donald!" Goofy commented happily. This time Donald smirked.

"Of course it was!" He said with a prideful air about him. "Quick thinking is what I specialize in! You know—" He was cut off as he tripped over a hole in the tile flooring and fell flat on his beak.

Sora and Goofy both began chuckling at the irony of this and soon their chuckles turned to unadulterated laughter. Donald simply replied by getting up, brushing himself off, and then angrily telling them to shut up with a threat of a Fire attack as incentive.

"Hey, what's that?" Goofy suddenly asked as he recovered from his laughter. He was looking at a hole cut out of a nearby wall, partially hidden by a bed.

"I dunno… Think it leads anywhere?" Sora said in reply while inching closer to it.

"We'll never find out if we don't go! Now, let's go!" Donald suddenly broke into a run towards the hole, his webbed feet slapping loudly on the ground as he ran. Sora ran after him and Goofy followed nearly tripping over his own feet as he did so.

******************

Well, there you go. It took a week or two, but it's finished! That chapter anyway! And anyway, expect the next chapter in a week or two. I'm writing two individual stories (or two different screen names) that I'm trying to devote an equal amount of time and energy to.

The other story is a Sonic the Hedgehog fiction called Sonic the Hedgehog: Prophesy of Chaos. I won't bore you with the details though. Do a search for either that or Harvestboy and Harvestgirl (My other screen name shared with my girlfriend)!

There you go! Go read my fic if you want! If you aren't familiar to Sonic, don't worry about it! It doesn't take place in any Sonic universe. Trust me on this. You don't need any Sonic knowledge to read this! Just read the first page; it gives all the information on the story you should need!

Next time on KH: The Novel: Sora and the gang stumble upon an unfair trial and meet a few interesting people! Cards, queens, and invisible cats all make appearances in the next installment. So stay tuned and keep watch for "Framed!".