Author's Note-Hey, I'm updating early! Anyways, it really sucks that school starts back in about a week. But hopefully it won't slow down updates! Here our heroes will meet their first Disney movie cast. I don't own Kingdom Hearts, so please don't sue me! Enjoy!
"Are you sure that you're leading us the right way?" Taro whispered. He, Sora, and Tam skulked in the shadows at the docks. Tam wouldn't allow them to raise their voices, for fear that the Heartless might hear.
"Yes, I am. This is my part of town, where I grew up. Now shhh..." Tam said confidently.
"So that's why you're wearing our rival school's uniform..." Taro muttered, but he shut up quickly. They finally came to an old brick building. Taro remembered hearing that it had once been a fire station, but a new one had been built across town where it was more convenient. This one looked like it was falling apart. He wasn't sure how anybody could live here without worrying that the place would fall down on top of them. To add to the old abandoned flair, the darkening sky gave it an almost eerie look.
Tam beckoned the two boys forward. "C'mon..." she said. She knocked on the front door. "Hello? Hello!" she called.
Taro and Sora exchanged glances as they sweatdropped. "So much for being quiet, huh?" Sora commented. Taro just shrugged.
"Sooner or later she's just going to confuse the hell out of me..." Taro said, shaking his head. Sora just smiled goofily. Tam glared over at them.
"Shut up or the Heartless are gonna eat you first." She said.
"The Heartless don't eat people.." Taro said, sweatdropping further.
Tam raised an eyebrow. "Wanna bet?" She banged on the door again. "Hello?"
Taro shook his head again. "Face it, Tam, the Heartless probably got them a-"
"Don't touch that, Vinny!" There was a quite large explosion of pink smoke, coming from the third-story window. "I told you not to touch that, Vinny! Now look what you've done! Now Milo and I are going to have to start on it all over again!" The head of a black-haired girl popped out of the window. "Yeah? Whaddaya want?" she called down at them.
"We're in need of a gummi ship. Think you can help us?" Tam called back up.
Pause. Then, "Yeah, sure. Kida, let them in!" The head disappeared back inside the building.
Tam smirked over at them. "See? I told you there was still people here." She said.
Taro sighed and rolled his eyes. "Women and their intuition." He said. It was Sora's turn to just smile and shake his head.
The door was opened by a young woman with tanned skin and long white hair.
"Hi. My name is Tam and these are my friends, Taro and Sora. We were hoping to do some business with you guys." Tam said, giving the woman a winning smile.
The woman smiled back and stepped to the side to let them in. "I'm Kida." She said. "We repair machinery, build machinery-"
"Build gummi ships?" Tam interjected. "Because that's why we came."
Kida nodded. "Of course. Everybody is getting off this planet ever since the Heartless came along."
"You know about the Heartless?" Taro questioned, blinking.
The woman rolled her eyes. "Tch. Sure I know about them. They destroyed our world. We came here to seek refuge and set up shop, but apparently even this world come within their grasp." Kida said, crossing her arms. She then looked straight at Taro. "In fact, you look like one of them."
Taro straightened. "What?! I do not look like a Heartless!" Taro argued indignantly.
"With all that black he's wearing, he could pass off as one." Sora whispered to Tam. Tam snickered.
"Not a Heartless! The non-existent!"
"The wha-"
"Get out! I never want to see you in this room again!" A girl's voice yelled from upstairs. The teens sweatdropped as a man with a thick, black mustache and a bit of a flat head came sliding quickly down the pole, slightly frazzled.
Kida smirked. "You messed with her new design, didn't you? Even after she told you not to?"
The man held up two hollow rods and balls in his hands. When he spoke, it was with a thick accent. "What? I thought that she would want a few lasers on there...maybe a couple of explosives..." he said, tossing a couple of the balls up and down in his hand. The teens took a wary step back as they realized that what he was really tossing was the said explosives.
He looked over at the teenagers almost questionably, but he didn't have time to ask...well, anything really, because at that moment, the black- haired girl from earlier and a tall but knobby young man with glasses went sliding down the pole. The girl went glancing over at them and rolled her eyes. "Tch. I used to take lunch money from kids like these." She sneered.
Taro formed a keyblade in his hand. He didn't really expect to fight- he was quite tired of it, really. But his trust in strange new people had diminished in the past twenty-four to forty-eight hours quite quickly.
However, the girl didn't seem too take the threat too seriously. "Oho, so you're going to beat me up with a giant ke-"
Until she gave him a second glance. Her eyes widened. "What is a non- existent doing in here?!" she demanded.
"I am not a non-existent!" Taro shot back.
"That's what the non-existent wear!"
"That is true. They do wear jackets like that." The knobby man agreed, nodding.
"Well I'm not." Taro sighed exasperatedly. "My name is Kimoto Taro from the other side of town. Look, if you need proof, then just look in the phone book. My parents' names are Saitou and Tsuki Kimoto." He said.
Wrong. His last name was really Hajime, but his father was an undercover cop. Therefore, the last name everybody knew him by was Kimoto.
Kida rolled her eyes. "It's probably just a fashion statement by now. You know: crazy teens." She said with a wave. "Remember, one of those other boys was wearing it earlier.
Taro's eyes widened. "A boy? Wearing a coat just like mine? Did he have white hair?" he asked.
"There were two boys. Both with white hair."
""Well...was one of them wearing a blindfold?"
The four thought for a moment. "Hey, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure there was. Yeah. I think the other boy called him...Riku."
"Riku!" Taro and Sora exclaimed at once.
Tam sweatdropped as she looked back and forth at the two boys. She sighed. "Why am I always the one to be kept out of the psychic loop?" she demanded. Sora shrugged.
Taro ignored them. "Riku...yeah. Do you know where he and the other boy went?"
"Gone." The black-haired girl said.
"Gone?" Taro repeated.
"Yep. Gone. The two of them bought a gummi ship and took off."
"...Oh..." Taro said, slightly disheartened. Okay, he had to admit. Maybe a little more than slightly.
"How do you know about the non-existent, by the way?" Tam asked a bit curiously.
"We're refugees. Our world was destroyed by the Heartless, but the first sign of bad news was when the non-existents began to show up. But back then they had been dubbed as 'unknowns.'" The knobby man said.
"I see..." Tam said, apparently losing her interest about halfway through his explanation for some reason.
"I'm Milo, by the way."
"Audrey." The black-haired girl seconded.
"And I'm Vinny." The bomb-man said.
"Now, what is it that you want?" Audrey asked.
"We need a gummi ship." Sora replied.
"Another bunch leaving the planet, huh?" Audrey sighed.
"Well, we're not really trying to escape. You see..." Taro started. And with that, he and his friends explained their plight.
"Well, we're building a new model. If you can wait for about an hour, we'll be done and happy to lend it to you." Milo said.
Taro smiled. "Thanks." He said.
So with that, they waited for about an hour until Milo finally came out, grinning and with grease stains on his face. "It's finished." He announced, wiping grease off his hands on his trousers.
Tam frowned. "Why are you four staying here? You know that the planet will eventually be destroyed by the Heartless."
"We already left our own world and made this one our home. We plan to stick it out here for as long as we can." Kida said.
"Until the end..." Sora whispered.
Audrey nodded. "Until the very end. When the planet starts falling apart, then we'll start making our way to Traverse Town." She said defiantly. "We can ward off the Heartless and the unknowns well enough until then. You kids just focus on stopping the Heartless and their plans."
Taro nodded and then frowned. "Oh, by the way. If this planet starts to fall apart... If you happen to see a young boy with shoulder-length black hair by the name of Kiyoshi in Traverse Town... He's my cousin... Make sure that he stays out of trouble for me. Okay?" he asked.
Kida smiled. "No problem." She said. Taro smiled.
"Thanks." He said as he boarded. His friends said their goodbyes to the group of mechanics and followed.
The mechanics watched the ship blast off. Kida smiled. "Well, there goes three kids with the worlds on their shoulders." She said.
"Yeah. I don't know whether to be happy or scared." Audrey said.
Her three comrades blinked down at her, then smiled and shook their heads.
Author's Note-Geez. I need to rent Atlantis again... -sweatdrops- Hopefully I didn't get anyone too ooc. .Oh, and by the way, if you're wondering what's going on with Riku, he will be in the next chapter. And I plan on bringing in a bit of Final Fantasy Seven in the next chapter as well... Anyways, please review! Ja ne!