Kingdom Hearts: Warriors of Light

Crash Landing-Chapter 12

It was time to move on. Everyone was bustling and packing up to leave Olympus Coliseum and head out to other worlds. Hercules was planning on coming this time as well. The problem was that everyone was fighting over who would ride in which ship. For the most part, Sora, Goofy and Donald didn't mind sticking together, but Kita's ship was going to get awfully heavy if everyone else jumped into hers.

"I'm going on Kita's ship whether you like it or not!" Hercules was shouting in Riku's face. Riku had been guarding the entrance to Kita's Gummi Ship while Ni-Ne and Kita packed up.

"I'm telling you, this ship's full," Riku said rather calmly into Hercules' red face.

"Who says? I've known Kita longer than you," Hercules tried to reason. "So move your butt on over with your friend Sora into the other ship!"

"My stuff's already on this one," Riku said, now starting to get a little agitated. "What's the matter? Allergic to ducks or something?"

"Hey!" Donald said hearing Riku's cruel joke. "Why I otta-,"

"Come on Donald, we've gotta keep packing," Goofy said trying to stop Donald from lashing out on Riku.

"Listen Riku, I'm getting on this ship whether you like it or not!" Hercules screamed. He dropped all his stuff on the spot and reached down and picked Riku up right off his feet. Riku bit down on Hercules arm and caused him to yell loudly. Riku dropped to the ground then proceeded to kick Hercules feet out from under him. It only took a millisecond for Hercules to shoot his arm out and grab Riku's wrist as he began to twist it.

"AHHH!" Riku shouted feeling as though his arm were about to break. The two boys were going at it like wolves. Everyone else had completely stopped what they were doing to stare at the pathetic sight.

"FREEZE!" Ni-Ne shouted casting a spell that caused Hercules and Riku to freeze instantly. They were still trying to yell at each other despite the fact their mouths didn't move anymore and it came out sounding like ferocious mumbles. "That was getting annoying," Ni-Ne said walking over to the entangled boys.

Ti-Day cast a hover charm causing the two to lift up into the air. "I think we should separate them," Ti-Day suggested. "I call dibs on Riku, so Herc can go with you Sora."

"Um, thanks?" Sora said not sure what to think. He was hoping Hercules wouldn't want to start a fight with him too. Ti-Day pried the two apart and hovered each of them into a separated ship.

"No unfreezing until take off, got it?" Ti-Day said carelessly throwing Hercules luggage into Donald's Gummi Ship. "Kita, I hope you don't mind me picking Riku? Less stuff to move around."

"Well, I guess as long as all three of you aren't with me, I'll live," Kita said with a strange look on her face. She wasn't all that fond of Hercules or Riku because as far as she was concerned, they were both annoying. "Good thinking though Ni-Ne. I won't mind if you keep the spell on them for the rest of eternity," Kita said smiling. Ni-Ne laughed.

"Are we ready now?" Donald asked as he had finished packing and was more than eager to get a move on.

"Yeah, lets go," Kita said sounding business like. Everyone jumped onto their ship and they were off, flying through space once more.

The journey was quite. Ni-Ne had obviously taken Kita seriously and kept the freeze spell on Riku. Though he couldn't move his body, his eyes were undoubtedly staring up at Ni-Ne evilly. He just stared and stared and Ni-Ne never once gave in to free him. It was amusing to listen to him mumble. Pom-Pom made it his job to bounce on Riku as many times as possible.

"I think he said I'd like a banana split," Ti-Day joked. Everyone laughed. Apparently Ti-Day had made a game out of it. Most often he would say something as far away from what it sounded like as possible. "No, I don't have any nail clippers!" he shouted at Riku who seemed to groan louder and louder every time Ti-Day spoke.

"You're funny Ti-Day," Ni-Ne said who was laughing so hard her face was pink.

"I try," Ti-Day said, boasting about himself.

"We're loosing altitude!" Kita shouted shaking the controls. Everyone tensed up looking forward in panic. "Ti-Day, your gonna have to jump! The ship's too heavy. Your head's getting too big!" Kita started laughing. Ni-Ne and Ti-Day looked like they'd just seen a ghost.

Riku started laughing as though it had somehow been his joke. Kita spun her head around and glared at him. He shut up instantly. He was in no position to push buttons since he couldn't move at all. Eventually Ni-Ne and Ti-Day had calmed their nerves and found it in their hearts to forgive Kita for such a big scare. Not long after, Donald's voice came over the intercom and announced the approach to another world. Everyone but Riku was able to look out the window and see a jungle type world ahead.

"Man that's a lot of trees," Ti-Day said gazing out at the world below. Having lived in Hallow Bastion their whole life, Kita and Ti-Day had only known to be surrounded by water. The jungle below seemed to glow green with forestation.

"Donald, where are we going to land?" Kita asked looking down on the heavily vegetated forest.

"Just follow me," Donald said steering his Gummi Ship down towards the world. Closer and closer they swooped through the trees. Kita was having trouble steering through all the trunks and vines without snagging anything.

"Slow down Donald!" Kita shouted feeling panicky. All of the sudden Donald's ship hit an invisible wall and came crashing down. Kita was in shock, as she tried to avoid the same fate. She was going too fast to stop. They were heading off in a diagonal, but somehow the invisible wall must have moved and Kita's ship slapped the corner of it and sent the ship spiraling out of control in another direction.

"AHH!" Everyone was yelling in the ship. They spun and tumbled several hundred feet away from Donald's ship and finally slammed firmly into the ground. Kita was thrown from the ship, as was everyone else. Kita's head hit a tree and she blacked out.

"Hey, are you ok?" Riku's voice was saying airily. Kita slowly opened her eyes. There before her was a fuzzy vision of Riku who appeared to be unfrozen.

"What?" Kita said, feeling a huge headache coming on and a large bump on her head. Kita tried to get up, but only managed to stand for a second or two before feeling so dizzy she began to sway and then started to fall.

"I gotcha. Careful now," Riku said catching her before she hit the ground. His embrace was strong and protective. Kita was too weary to fling him off. "You hit a tree after we crashed," Riku informed her.

"Where's Ti-Day and Ni-Ne?" Kita asked sounding almost drunk.

"I'm not sure," Riku said, still hanging on to the limp Kita. "I could hear them screaming while I was still frozen. I think something carried them off."

Kita seemed to find some of her old composure. "How did you get unfrozen?" she asked.

"I'm guessing the spell wore off," Riku said sensing Kita was slowing coming back to her old self. "But I'm glad or else I couldn't have come over here and found you. Who knows what would have eaten you."

"I wasn't gonna get eaten," Kita said irritably.

"Well I'm not that confident about Ti-Day and Ni-Ne," I have no idea where they are and they sounded pretty bad. Kita looked to the ground. She was worried about them. And worse, she was in no shape to go rescuing them. But worst of all, she was now stuck alone with Riku.

"You guys alright?" Hercules asked Donald, Goofy and Sora who he had took the liberty of rescuing from the crashed Gummi Ship and piling them all on top of one another.

"Get off of me!" Donald yelled being crushed by Goofy and Sora's weight. Sora and Goofy rolled off, both rubbing their heads.

"What happened?" Sora asked. "We were just flying and out of nowhere we hit a wall?"

"It was invisible!" Donald said in his defense. "I didn't see anything there."

"Maybe it was a h-heartless," Goofy said sounding scared.

"I hope not," Sora said. "That thing would have to be huge!"

"You never know," Donald said. "Heartless come in many shapes and sizes. I wonder how Kita and the others made it by."

"I saw them hit it too," Hercules said. "They nicked it and flew off someplace else. They could be miles away by now."

"This is just great," Donald said. "Now we have to go round up all the kids again."

"Don't say it like that," Hercules said looking agitated. "They could be in big trouble. Hopefully they're not hurt. By the looks of it they needed a miracle not to have all died in a crash." Suddenly the group was surrounded by a bunch of squealing heartless that looked like monkeys. "This complicates things."

"Powerwilds!" Goofy said, pointing at them in fear.

Sora looked up at all the heartless. He had come to save these worlds from their plagues of heartless, and now it was time to do it. He jumped up on his feet, drew his Key Blade, and stood ready to kick butt. "Bring it on," he said, and soon all his pals were doing the same.

"Let her go!" Ti-Day shouted trying to keep up with some heartless who had captured Ni-Ne. One of the heartless kept knocking Ti-Day over causing him to fall farther and farther behind and unable to reach Ni-Ne and save her. But his heart was too strong to give up. He keep getting back up again and again, ready to fight.

"Help, Ti-Day!" Ni-Ne screamed. She had lost use of her key blade and was being held tightly.

"Ni-Ne!" Ti-Day shouted, running after her, hardly able to see where the heartless were headed next. Up ahead he could see a cave the heartless must have been headed for.

Ni-Ne was brought into the cave and immediately a stone was rolled over the entrance that would prevent Ti-Day from getting in. She was carelessly thrown to the ground before a few more heartless grabbed her and tied her up in a tangle of jungle vines. A man's laugh was heard in the darkness of the cave.

"Well well, look who we have here," he said, cackling evilly. Ni-Ne struggled to free herself from the vines when the silhouette of the man appeared over her head.

"So, you're the infamous Ni-Ne Nite, the Heartless Hybrid," the man said. "No wonder Ansem wanted you and Maleficent."

"Who is Maleficent?" Ni-Ne asked. "And who are you!" she screamed getting annoyed from being bonded on the ground the way she was.

"The name's Clayton," he said. Behind him a gigantic heartless appeared. It looked like a chameleon as it slowly went from invisible to solid form. The giant Stealth Sneak followed him and cooed. "Maleficent is a witch interested in opening the door to the Darkness. I heard that's where all the heartless live and are created. Maybe..." His head turned and he stared into Ni-Ne's eyes. Ni-Ne was starting to get scared. It was bad enough being hunted down by Ansem, and now she had this Clayton and Maleficent to worry about.

There was a rapping noise coming from the stone that had been rolled over the cave opening. It must have been Ti-Day who had finally caught up. "Ti-Day, help me!" Ni-Ne shouted since she couldn't move. "I'm in here!"

"Ni-Ne! I'll get you out!" Ti-Day shouted on the other side. His voice was muffled through the thick stone.

"It's hopeless for you now," Clayton said laughing at Ni-Ne. "He'll never get in!"

"What to do, what to do," Ti-Day was saying to himself. A faint picture came to his head. He remembered back to the time he and Kita had arrived at Halloween Town and he had first used his all-powerful staff. "Ah ha!" Ti-Day cracked his fingers, raised his staff and concentrated on the huge bolder blocking his path to Ni-Ne. "OBLIDERATE!" he shouted, and the bolder blew to bits. As the dusty smoke cleared, Ti-Day ran forward leaving all his fear behind him. "I'm coming Ni-Ne!"