Ha HA! Another chapter!

It had been several hours since they'd left the Magical Kingdom, and so far their trip had been silent. Donald was focused entirely on making sure that the Gumi Ship did not stray from its charted path. Goofy himself was, as usual, unconscious in his chair. This left Sora, the Keyblade Master, brimming with both teenage hormonal and magical energies, extremely bored.

He desperately wanted to smash something, but common sense told him that smashing up a space ship in-flight was not a great idea. He also wanted to practice his Drive form, but Goofy was still sleeping and Donald was simply not to be bothered.

So Sora let his mind wander and the paranoid centers of his brain immediately responded. 'We're going at top-speed, and its been hours since we've left the castle. So how come we haven't seen any change of scenery? No lighter or darker hues in space, no asteroids or Gummi formations. Nothing. Doesn't that strike you as a little odd?' One part of him said, and Sora had to admit, it had a point.

The voice seized its oppurtunity and dove in. 'All I'm saying, is that you'd better take a closer look at that star-chart. Maybe Pete has sent you on a wild goose-chase.' Sora shook his own head to clear his mind.

'I'm not going to bother checking that chart.' The assertive Sora said. 'Donald's been doing nothing but driving the ship and staring at the chart. He would've noticed something wrong by now.'

Paranoia, by nature, disagreed. 'Donald is too worried about his girl-friend to think straight. You saw the look in Pete's eyes! He's got to be plotting something. He's playing you for a sucker. All of you.'

Sora sighed. 'I'm getting bored with this conversation. I've made up my mind. The King trusts Pete, enough to be the Captain of the Royal Guard while Goofy's away. If the King trusts him. Then I trust him.'

'You barely even know the King! Everthing you've ever heard about him is off-hand remarks from Donald and Goofy over the past 2 years. And what? A King can't be wrong? He's still human...-ish...'

Sora didn't reply to himself, but instead forced his thoughts away from the what-ifs. He tried instead to focus on something, anything else. But at the end of another hour with no change, Sora unbuckled himself from his seat and moved to peer over Donald's shoulder at the star-chart.

However, as soon as Sora stood up there was a change. Outer space slowly began to shift from pitch-black to a milky-yellow, and ships came into view. Instantly, Sora knew there was trouble. The mass of ships were firing amongst each other and several explosions could bee seen. Two large ships could be seen descending upon a nearby, tropical-looking planet while a third followed behind more slowly.

It occured to Sora that those three ships all looked like old-fashioned boats, the rest of the flying craft could easily be identified as Heartless vessels. Then Sora realized that the third boat, the slowest one was the main target in the attacks. The Heartless were all aiming and firing on that one ship, while the first two seemed to be trying to escape.

"Donald! We've got to help that ship out!" Sora called to the duck who was watching the battle warily. "There could be innocent people on it!"

"We don't have time Sora! And for we have no idea who's onboard that vessel! Its not like the Heartless care who they attack! All they want is the heart of somebody else. Good, evil, it doesn't matter! For all we know they could be attacking pirates! We have no idea who's on that ship and we oughta keep it that way!" Donald said with emphasis.

"Donald!" Sora said, getting angry. "We have to help them no matter what." Donald didn't reply but he did sit and watch the battle a little longer. "C'mon! I can't believe you have to think about this!"

"Donald..."A warning voice came from behind them. Goofy had woken up due to all of the commotion. "Donald, I gotta reckon Sora is right on this one."

Donald growled and frowned, but grabbed the controls and steered them toward the fight. "I know I'm going to regret this!" Sora heard him mutter, but Sora just smiled because knew that Donald's grumbling was just a force of habit to keep his 'we-should-do-what-is-important-for-the-mission-' act up. Donald was doing the right thing, and Donald knew it as well as Sora did.

The Heartless took notice of them quickly, as well as the plummeting ship. Both fired upon them. Donald swerved their ship out of harm's way, but let out a string of squawking curses all the same. "What do they think they're doing, firing at us! We're the good-guys!"

"I don't think they know that!" Sora shouted back from his place at the guns. (Specifically, the lasers.) "Until we know who they are we can't fire back! Just try to avoid them!" A large and obviously magically powered cannon-ball streaked past them. "Easy for you to say!" Donald snapped.

After they took down a few Heartless ships though, the blasts from the slow boat ceased. "See!" Sora exclaimed happily, "I told you they'd figure it out in the end!" A huge laser smashed into them right underneath the cockpit. They were sent spinning through space, and due to gravity, were now plummeting alongside the slow boat towards the tropical-looking planet.

"I've lost control!" Donald was shouting. "The circuits are fried! The joysticks are jammed! We're going to crash!"

"Oh come on! Not again!' Sora shouted back. They were hit hard by another barrage of lazers from the Heartless. The last image Sora saw before he blacked out was a vast ocean, rushing up to greet them.

Sora woke with a start. Someone was kicking him. There was loud noise everywhere. Sound pressed in upon him from all sides. Sora found himself already in an upright postition, and his hands were bound with thick rope.

Sora turned his cramped and aching neck to the side and saw a door ajar. Through the crack he could see men and one or two women dancing merrily and drinking heavily. He looked to the other side where he saw an extremely annoyed Donald staring at him. Sora would've fallen over in surprise-inspired fear if he wasn't propped up against a wall. Goofy was on his side, asleep with his head in Donald's lap. Both of his companions were also bound with rope.

After catching his breath, Sora asked the usual question after crashing, blacking out, and coming to. (After all, it was basically a ritual for them.) "Wass goin' on?" In a mumbling whisper.

"What's going on!" Donald quietly hissed under his breath, "Bloody PIRATES! That's what's going on! I TOLD you we shouldn't have helped them! But do you Ever LISTEN!" Donald had lost the control on his voice on the words that explained the irony.

Sora was aabout to reply when Sora heard the music promptly shut off and the voices outside drop to hushed tones. Sora shot Donald a quick Now-look-what-you've-done! Glare and turned to the door.

He heard footsteps. Heavy footsteps made by boots. Slow footsteps made by a person who knew what he was doing. The footsteps stopped and the door was swung fully open. A tall earring-ed man stood before them, but the light that streamed in was behind him and Sora could not get a good look at his face. The man signaled to his comrades behind him. "Grab 'em" he ordered. Quickly, sever pairs of large, muscular arms picked Sora, Donald and the dozing Goofy up and hurled them further on deck out into the open.

Sora landed with an "Oof" and recovered, rolling to look at his captors. Out of the corner of his eye Sora saw Donald do the same and Goofy woke up. The tall man stepped before them again. He wore an utterly ridiculous outfit, from his old-fashioned leather boots to the top of his feathered musketter hat. He was tanned, mustached, and goateed. He wore a a sheathed sword and a musket on his belt.

He spoke. He had a slightly slurring, but still somehow clear way of speaking. He smelled of heavy alcohol. Sora couldn't help but grin. The man was definately a pirate. And any regular teenager has wanted to be a pirate at sometime in their lives. For Sora, this was an obsession over an extended period of time since way back before Kairi even arrived on the Destiny Islands. This man was Sora's hero.

"Welcome! To our once impressive stolen vessel, the Interceptor." The man said, making wide, greatly exaggerated gestures the enitre time. "And we are your hosts! The Pirates of cursed (he pronounced it cur-said) ship the Black Pearl! And I am your humble leader of his rif-raff." He said indicating the rest of the crew who promptly cheered and held up mugs of beer.

The man grinned and twirled the end of his mustache. "You can call me, Captain! Jack Sparrow."

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