From the reviews that were posted, it seems that some people don't understand the concept of what I'm trying to do here. I'm not deliberately 'contradicting the game,' I know very well that there were two Twilight Towns, and two of every person there. Later on, there will be an explanation for why the people in the 'real' Twilight town are remembering things that they shouldn't.
"So what finally got them to change their minds?" Seifer was wondering. He sat in the empty sand-lot and stared down at his water bottle. They were waiting for the police arrive so they could ask some questions.
"Finally got proof that the kid existed." Fuu said in her silky smooth voice.
"Yer' never gonna' believe this one, boss." Rai said, gesturing with the hand holding his protein shake.
"Hmm?"
"Roxas had a criminal record."
Rai was right for once; Seifer didn't believe it, he just snorted at them.
"It's true." Vivi piped up.
Seifer snapped out of it. With a smirk, he asked. "So, what'd he get nailed for? Graffiti? Skate-boarding where he wasn't supposed to? Being just that damn aggravating?"
"Assault and Battery." Fuu said.
Seifer had to raise his eyebrows in disbelief.
"They got mug shots and everything. Some detectives came down to show us some pictures."
"Who'd he beat up?" Seifer asked.
"That's why we're supposed to be waiting here until the police arrive again." Vivi said. "According to the report, it was you."
Seifer spat water all over the diminutive member of his circle, and then burst out laughing. "A-ha ha haha ha! Haw haw haha ha!" he gripped his sides and slapped his knee. "You had me going there for a minute!" He guffawed, and continued laughing. But none of the others thought it was quite so funny.
"We're totally serious." Fuu said.
"We didn't think you'd believe it eithah, so we made sure those cops would bring back some of dem files." Rai said.
Silence reigned for another ten minutes until the police arrived. Two men in button-down shirts led the way, and strode confidently over. They were followed by the same two cops who had been in the search party.
Being the town disciplinary committee, Seifer and his group worked with the police on many occasions. They all knew the drill, and calmly gave their names for the record, etc, etc, and the two men pulled up another bench for them to sit on so they could start this talk.
"Seifer, this is starting to be a very touchy issue we have here." One of them started. The other one lit up a cigarette and looked bored. "This started out as a wild goose chase for an alleged missing person, and it's looking more and more like a murder case by the minute."
"My friends tell me that I'm somehow part of this report you guys have." Seifer said. The man handed over a case summary for him to read.
Opening the manila envelope, Seifer first saw what was definitely a picture of that damn punk, Roxas. He had sort of bored/annoyed look on his face, and he was backed up against that lined wall that showed the person's height. The only real notable thing about this picture, aside from the obvious, was that Roxas appeared to be wearing all black. Which stuck in his mind for some reason.
The file captions and reports were written in the usual clipped professional tone, boring, but at least it got to the point. According to the report, the suspect had allegedly been apprehended out on the streets after curfew by one Town Disciplinary Committee (TDD) #1. After a brief exchange of words, in which TDC Seifer Yamada had attempted to obtain the under-aged youth's name, and order him home, the situation had escalated into violence. Neighbors had called the police when they had heard the angry voices on the street, and a black-and-white had arrived at the scene to find the TDC1 in need of immediate medical assistance, and the kid was still going at it. There was another, unidentified, person in the vicinity, who apparently was trying to pull the suspect off of the victim. This person fled ad the appearance of the police. The suspect surrendered without incident.
Seifer flipped the page, and almost wished he hadn't. Now, it was his own face splashed over the files, pictures of him bruised and beaten. One hand flew up to finger a scar on his temple, mostly hidden by hair and hat. He couldn't recall actually ever getting that scar, but in the pictures, he had a long gash in that spot. He hurriedly busied himself with the text portions.
The suspect had refused to talk and refused the right to council. His finger prints drew no record from anywhere in town, or in any of the neighboring towns.
This last one bothered Seifer. Where had he come from?
While 'the victim' had definitely been attacked by some sort of weapon, none were found at the scene or on the suspect. While the going theory that the unidentified witness had possibly removed whatever had been used, some evidence suggested other wise. Here the report got a little vague and iffy. The boy had apparently struck an over-zealous interrogator down, and the marks on the man were definitely not caused by bare hands. Comparisons between the victim and the injured detective were similar, and probably done by the same tool. The officer in question mentioned seeing some 'flash of light' before the boy hit him with a weapon he couldn't identify.
Seifer frowned. None of this sounded like the Roxas he had known.
Another inconsistency was the fact that, despite being searched thoroughly several times, the kid kept on getting out of where he should be and into where he shouldn't. The brat was a regular Houdini. While he made no statements and gave no answers, he didn't seem to be in a real hurry to get any where, for he never once used his lock-picking skills to try and get out. This may have been due to prior knowledge of incoming events, as after a little over twenty-four hours in police custody, a fire had broken out in the building, and the suspect walked out the doors, greeted the arsonist cordially, and disappeared into thin air.
Seifer had to re-read that last part. He remembered the time the police headquarters had nearly burned down. He hadn't heard anything about any breakouts. In fact, he couldn't really remember at all what he had been doing at the time. And that whole 'disappearing into thin air' deal made him nervous; one could say that Roxas had done just that a couple months ago. He handed back the file.
The detective that was now mostly hidden in the fallen night and his own personal cloud of smoke took back the file. His partner took over the talking once again.
"You can see how this is causing some problems over at headquarters." He said.
"Tell me something." Seifer said to him. "Do you remember the break out at all?"
The man sighed. "I remember the fire. I don't remember there being a kid there."
"What about the officers whose names are on the reports? What about them?"
"That's for the police to handle."
Seifer accepted that there were probably some very confused police out there who were either remembering weird things or trying to rationalize the strange holes in their memories.
"So." The man continued. "Kid comes to town, and from the looks of it, he's not alone. Goes looking for fights, or maybe he just doesn't know about the curfew, and doesn't take kindly to authority. Doesn't care about going to jail, because he knows his buddies will bust him out."
"Uh-huh."
"But what I don't get is the other stuff. I mean, somehow he was able to get into school and live around town for a real long time without anyone questioning where he came from. He even was able to pull the wool over your eyes. But then, what, something bigger and badder than him and his buddies comes into town, and wipes him out with out anyone noticing?"
Seifer nodded and added his piece. "Nobody around here has ever dealt with anything that could alter someone's memories or steal our very words. We don't have any clue as to who might be involved, or what might be at stake. But I think I might know someone who does."
"Yeah? And who would that be?"
"Another person who seems to be forgotten by every one as soon as he leaves."
"Oh?"
"Hey, Rai? Fuu? Do you remember last year's struggle champion?" Seifer asked.
"Huh? Yeah, it was some kid." Fuu said.
"He only got in because the tournament got rained on and had to be delayed." Rai said.
"Annoying."
"Short kid. Spiky hair. Fought like a devil from hell."
The group fell silent.
Vivi hesitantly spoke. "Does…anyone else… think that that guy looked a bit like Roxas?"
"I've already spoken with those three troublemakers." Seifer said. "Guy's name was 'Sora,' I didn't catch a last name. He's not from around here either. And seems to come and go as he pleases with no one the wiser."
"Where would we find this guy?" the detective asked.
"No idea. And the kids don't, either."
"And you're certain of that?"
"Pretty sure. Roxas was their friend, they want him back more than anyone. They may have been hesitant to come forward with information, but I don't think that they were withholding anything. Have you talked to the kid's neighbors?"
"Mrs. Wright already gave her statement."
"Hmmm." Seifer was feeling edgy again. This was another dead end, and was getting them nowhere.
"What are we going to do about all this?" Seifer asked.
"We already have officers combing through his former residence. And missing person's posters are being printed up as we speak."
"Anything else?"
The mans sighed. "To be honest, it doesn't look good. Statistically, the odds of finding him alive after all this time are slim. Add to the fact that we have no suspects, or even a real clue of foul play? This is going to take a lot of luck."
"What about the mansion?"
"What about it?" the detective asked, knowing exactly what mansion was The Mansion. "We've got the owner on the phone, and at this point we'll be lucky if no one gets in trouble for breaking and entering."
"It is the most secluded place in town. And those kids were crawling all over it right before he disappeared."
"Maybe. But we still need to start in more easily accessible places."
The next day, the three friends were up with the sun, and sat glumly at the top of the clock tower, shuddering against the wind that wrapped around them in February's chill. Hayner stared with contempt at the people scurrying around on the ground.
"We're never going to find him, are we?" Olette said softly.
Hayner just harrumphed, and Pence shook his head sadly.
"Sora could help us." Pence said. "Where ever he is, he would be able to help."
"But he's not here. Forget about him. We'll need to do this on our own." Hayner said
"But we've got the entire town helping us search." Said Olette. "Hey, look, there's Seifer." She pointed down the long drop to the ground.
Down below, Seifer and the rest of the disciplinary committee craned their necks to see the three up on the tower.
"How on Earth do they get up there?" Seifer wondered aloud. Everyone else just shrugged.
"That guy really pisses me off." Hayner said suddenly. He shook his fist at the ant-sized people.
"So what else is new?" said Pence.
"We're at a standstill." Olette rationalized. "What could we be doing that we're not?"
"We should get inside that mansion." Pence answered.
"Bah. There's nothing there but junk."
"Only on the upper levels." Pecnce defended his ideas. "That lab in the basement had a lot of really good stuff. If I can find some way to contact Sora…"
"Why does it always come back to that guy?" Hayner said angrily.
"Because he's involved in ways we can't imagine." Olette said. "Because he has experience looking for people who are hopelessly lost. Because he deals with weird shit like this all the time."
Down on the ground, the tiny figures of Seifer and his gang appeared to be causing some kind of scene.
"How are we supposed to get them down here?" Rai asked as he jumped up and down and waved at them.
"Dunno. Just try and get their attention. They'll figure it out." Seifer said, half-heartedly waving his arms.
"What is that moron doing?" Pence wondered.
"Maybe he's trying to catch something." Olette said. "Catch the pretty birdies, Rai." She cooed. "Catch the pretty birdies."
"Doofus doesn't realize they're not going to come down a play." Hayner said.
"Aww, don't pick on him." Pence chastised. "It's not his fault he's missing a chromosome."
"They're not coming down." Fuu observed.
"We'll just have to try harder." Vivi joined in in jumping up and down.
"Well will you look at that." Hayner pointed out. "Looks like stupidity is contagious."
"Maybe they're, I dunno, stepping on bugs or something." Pence said.
"Eww. That's an awful lot of bugs." Olette was sickened.
"Hey, I just thought of something." Hayner said. "When Kairi showed up, she just appeared out of nowhere."
"Yeah. What of it?"
"Well, when Sora would visit, he always came from somewhere else. Like he was just visiting from out of town."
"And?"
"Sora seemed really surprised that Kairi had just shown up like that. Like that wasn't a normal way to travel. So…"
"So?"
"So maybe Sora had some other way of getting around. Not the train, or something like a car, but some machine or magical carpet or something that would get him around to the different he would visit."
"Hmm." Pence pondered. "That would make sense. Especially if it was a combination of the two, which would explain why nobody in a space shuttle has ever gotten to any other world like our own."
"Yeah. But more importantly, maybe somewhere out there is some leftovers of how he was getting around, some clue as to how him and all those strange people were getting into our world."
"But where would we look?" Olette asked.
Hayner was very disappointed to once again find that there was nothing down this lead.
"Don't look so glum." Pence patted him on the back. "It was a good idea. I'm sure it'll be of some help once we figure out how to use it."
"I still think that the best place to start searching would be in that mansion. Their technology was much the same, so they have to have some sort of inter-world communication device."
"THE GHOST TRAIN!" Hayner shouted suddenly. Pence and Olette jumped at his voice.
"Don't do that!" Olette slapped his shoulder. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, and, what's worse, I nearly fell off!"
"Sorry." Hayner muttered. "But think about. We saw with our own eyes, Sora and Goofy and Donald getting on that thing. We know it exists. We know it leads to somewhere we've never been. And we know that where ever it is that it goes, you can get to other worlds from there, because Sora had to get his transportation from somewhere."
"Hey! That's an even better idea!" Pence exclaimed.
"And it's actually something we can do!" Olette said excitedly.
"Bua-ha-ha-ha! And were actually at the train station!" Hayner looked as if a great load had been taken off his shoulders.
The three of them stared down at the people on the ground. Seifer and all of his gang were bouncing up and down, and their voices carried softly over the distance. More people had joined in, and no less than a dozen individuals were, well, 'stomping bugs.'
"Let's stay up here for a little while longer." Olette said shakily.
"Sounds like a plan." Hayner said.
If anyone has anymore questions (or comments), then go ahead and review.
