AN/ HEY! Maybe this is a few chapters late, but if you want some art of Joseph, I've drawn him a few times! Links on profiles don't work anymore, but if you head to the ftpcast blogspot (the url is sitting on my profile) and dig up Joseph's character page, you can find 'em all there!

Chapter 13: Walk the Plank!

"So, what's next?" Sora asked, leaning against the back of the couch where Riku was sitting.

Riku quickly shoved something back in his pocket and glanced up at Sora. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

"You're coming with me, right?"

"Well, yeah," Riku muttered. "But that doesn't mean I need to make your decisions for you. I'm only tagging along so you don't get yourself into a huge mess or something."

"Why would you think-" Sora began, but stopped, remembering quite a few good reasons why Riku would think such a thing. "Never mind," he muttered.

"We're traveling the worlds, right?" Riku asked, moving past what Sora said. "Where do you want to go first?"

"I don't know…" Sora shrugged.

"Hollow Bastion?" Riku suggested.

Sora quickly shook his head no.

"Why not?" Riku asked. "I thought it was a good idea, considering what happened there, it would be like you were starting at the core of the problem."

"That's exactly why I can't go," Sora muttered. "What if Maleficent's there?"

Riku frowned. "Why would that be a problem?"

"She was the one who dragged me down into the Darkness in the first place," Sora explained.

"Then you'd want revenge, right?"

Sora shook his head again. "I- I don't think…" he paused, and then continued quietly: "I'm not strong enough to face her. Just talking about her, the darkness is rearing up inside me, as if trying to get control again. I can't face her until I'm stronger."

Riku frowned, deciding not to question this logic. "Alright… any other ideas?"

"You could always go to Neverland!" Joseph suggested as he walked by. "And if you do, can I come with you? I don't get out of Castle Oblivion much."

"Why not?" Sora asked, glancing over at Joseph.

"29 won't let me go anywhere alone," Joseph replied. "And… everyone's usually too busy to take me anywhere."

"Who's 29?" Sora asked.

"He's the Vexen Replica that looks after me," Joseph answered. "Didn't I already mention that?"

"Might have…" Sora muttered. "I can never remember what number goes with what replica though." He scratched his head and shrugged. "I should probably start trying to figure that out…"

"Probably," Riku and Joseph said at the same time.

Sora sighed.

"So, Neverland, right?" Joseph said.

"I don't see why not," Riku muttered.

Sora nodded, and then pulled out his star shard, handing it to Joseph. "You're taking us though. I don't want to end up on Captain Hook's ship by mistake."
"Got it," Joseph laughed.

In a flash of light, they disappeared.

xxx

Thud!

The three of them landed flat on their faces.

"Ug," Joseph moaned, pushing himself up. "Talk about a rough landing." He quickly shook his head to clear it. "Sorry about that!"

"It's alright," Sora muttered, also shaking his head to clear it.

Riku pushed himself up, and frowned. He could hardly hear a thing. His ears were ringing. He followed Joseph's example and shook his head to clear it. It worked surprisingly well.

Sora groaned. Riku began to ask why, but found he didn't need to.

They were on Captain Hook's ship.

"Joseph! I told you not to bring us here!" Sora hissed.

"Sorry!" Joseph said, again. "Do you think transporting three people is easy!" He sighed. "Oh well, since we're here, why don't we try and steal some treasure!"

Both Sora and Riku turned to him in disbelief.

"What!" he asked. "Haven't you ever wanted to steal treasure from a pirate? I thought it would be fun! Cause, you know, they're pirates, all tough and stuff! I would think stealing treasure from them would be hard, since they're greedy and protective of their treasure. And if you could steal their treasure, then you'd be like- super amazing or something!"

"No," Riku replied simply.

"Aww!" Joseph whined. "Why not!"

"Listen, Joseph," Sora said calmly. "I really don't want to stay on this ship long. So no stealing treasure, alright?"

"Fine," he muttered.

"So how are you planning on getting off of this ship?" Riku asked, turning to Sora.

Sora shrugged, and then paused to think about it. "It doesn't look like we're too far from the shore…" he said after a moment. "We could always just jump ship and swim to land."

"Yeah, that would work," Riku agreed. "Let's do that now before we get noticed."

"Too late," Joseph whispered, pointing in the direction of a few pirates (none of which were Captain Hook, thankfully) who had noticed them.

"Quick," Riku hissed, darting behind a crate so they wouldn't be seen. Sora and Joseph followed him.

"Now how are we going to get off?" Sora asked.

Joseph was staring at the pirates thoughtfully. "You guys go ahead," he said after a moment. "I'll distract them while you escape."

"No, Joseph, you can't do that!" Riku said frantically. "29 would kill me if you got hurt."

"I'll be fine!" Joseph insisted, pulling out his wooden sword and starting to hop over the crate. He turned back to them with a wicked grin. "Besides, maybe I can grab some gold off of them." He hopped over the crates and then proceeded to 'distract' the pirates. Distracting them, however, entailed whacking them with his wooden sword.

"Come on," Sora hissed, tugging on Riku's sleeve. "They won't notice us now. These pirates are a bit dumb. They can only focus on one thing at a time."

Riku began to question how Sora knew that, but decided better of it. Sora hoisted himself up and over the railing of the ship, and then dropped down into the water. He landed with a surprisingly quiet splash. Riku glanced over at Joseph, who was now engaged in a sword fight with one of the pirates and doing rather well. He sighed and then followed after Sora.

"Where's Joseph?" Sora asked, once Riku was in the water.

"Still fighting a pirate," Riku replied as he began to swim for shore.

"Wait up!" Sora called, swimming after him.

"Back you pirates! Back!" Joseph warned, stabbing at them with his sword. They were, obviously, not threatened, considering Joseph's sword was made of wood. But that wasn't stopping him from using it.

One of the pirates grabbed him from behind.

"Hey!" he shouted, shocked. "Let go of me you dirty pirate!"

"What should we do with 'im?" the pirate holding him asked.

"Make him walk the plank!" another replied.

"You want me to walk the plank!" Joseph asked. "Fine! I'll walk the plank!" He broke free from the pirate who was holding him, stuck his wooden sword in his belt (where he had been keeping it previously) and then made his way over to the plank.

Several swords were jabbing him in the back, forcing him to the end of the plank. Once at the edge, he turned around to the pirates, stuck his tongue out at them, and then dove off the plank and into the water.

Splash!

The pirates all glanced over the edge of the ship, to see where he had gone. He didn't resurface right away.

"Is he dead?" one of the pirates asked.

He wasn't.

Only a few seconds later, Joseph's head broke through the surface of the water. He looked up at the pirates and laughed, before turning to the shore, where Sora and Riku were. He flashed them a devilish grin and then made his way over.

"Nice one!" Sora laughed.

"Thanks," Joseph replied, trying to dry out his wet shirt. It wasn't working rather well. "I'm so glad I came along! It's not every day you get to walk the plank." He laughed, and then turned to Riku. "What now? Are we going to start hunting Heartless or something?"

Riku turned to Sora.

Sora frowned. "Yeah, I guess that was the plan," he muttered. "Just fight random Heartless."

"Okay!" Joseph pulled out his wooden sword.

"Just don't go after any large ones, alright?" Riku asked.

Joseph nodded.

The next fifteen or twenty minutes consisted entirely of the destruction of random Heartless. Or, rather, Sora destroying random Heartless. Joseph managed to fend for his own, though he only actually managed to kill one Heartless (and how he did so remains a mystery). Riku wasn't really fighting, figuring he'd just end up slaughtering the Heartless without giving Sora a fair chance. He did, however, kill all the Heartless that bothered him, or any Heartless that snuck up on Joseph. He ignored most of the Heartless that snuck up on Sora, still with the intent of giving Sora a fair chance.

"Alright, I think that's it for this area!" Sora called, finishing off the last of the Heartless around him. "Should we move on?"

"Yeah," Riku nodded, swiftly killing the two Joseph was still fighting.

"Hey!" Joseph whined, not for the first time. He was, however, ignored (not for the first time either).

The three of them started walking towards the next area. Joseph was still whining about Riku killing the Heartless he had been fighting. Riku was arguing with him. Sora, however, wasn't paying much attention. He was tired of listening to Riku and Joseph argue about the same thing over and over again, considering they had been arguing about this (or something similar to this) since two areas ago.

Sora paused suddenly, catching something out of the corner of his eye. Something was moving in the trees. Something dark.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing as the thing stopped.

"What's what?" Joseph asked in return, looking.

"That!"

Riku turned to look, and frowned after examining the area where Sora was pointing. "Sora, I don't see anything," he said slowly. "Are you sure something's there?"

The thing disappeared into the denser forest.

Sora sighed. "Well, there was," he muttered, and then turned back to Joseph and Riku, who were looking at him weird. "You guys think I'm crazy, don't you?"

Joseph shrugged and started to say something, but Riku cut him off.

"No, there might have been something there," Riku said. "Do you want me to go look?"

Sora shook his head. "No, it's gone now."

"It was probably just an animal or something," Joseph laughed, starting to walk again.

That definitely wasn't an animal… Sora thought, and sighed again. Well, whatever…

"Heartless!" Riku called, pulling his blade. He charged into battle, Joseph not far behind.

Sora pulled his blade and began to follow them, but something made him pause again. It was a voice. He couldn't describe it, but the voice sounded exactly like it belonged to that thing he had just seen.

And the voice said: "By the way, you're the only one who can see me. Don't bother pointing me out again."

The voice sounded like it was laughing at him.

It probably was.

Sora shook his head, and then started fighting some Heartless.