Disclaimer: "Llllllllaides and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, fan fiction dot net is proud to present the next chapter of Kingdom Hearts: Cartoon Adventures!" "And if you're not down with that, we've got two words for ya, fan art!" Okay, now that my introduction based on DX is out of the way, I can introduce this chapter thusly. In case you guys were wondering, the reason I hadn't updated in a bit was because something was up with the site and the email alerts wouldn't come in. Thankfully, it got fixed and I can now start writing and posting more since you all out there asked for it. Now for the moment a lot of you have been waiting for. It's off to Traverse Town! Yes, I'm keeping it Traverse Town like a lot of the writers, but only because I couldn't decide what other alternatives could have been used. Nonetheless, expect a few surprise cameos for the Dalmatians and the Item Shop crew replacements. Final Fantasy fans, I hope you can contain your excitement! Will Sora finally meet Daffy and Porky? Let's find out. Oh, and just a fair warning to be on the safe side, this chapter will contain use of tobacco. That being said, let's see where our adventure takes us. Enjoy!
Chapter 4: Going downtown to Traverse Town
Daffy Duck was asleep in his pilot's chair. It was so peaceful and quiet. In space, no noise could be made. Unless it was in the inside of the ship, when a ring from the computer Porky set to wake Daffy up made all sorts of noises. Daffy flipped his chair back and yelled almost upside down. He cupped a hand up to his beak.
"I'm up already! Shut that thing off!" Daffy shouted.
Porky ran in and quickly covered his ears at the loudness. He quickly reached over and pulled a lever to make the noises stop.
"Whew!" Porky sighed wiping his forehead, "W-w-we're nearing our approach to T-t-traverse Town, sir."
Daffy sprung up in his chair with a smile, "Excellent! Time to land this baby and do a little explor-i-ating." Daffy grabbed a microphone and spoke into it, putting on a pilot's hat while he was at it, "This is your pilot speaking. We have turned on the fasten seatbelt signs. Please make sure the seats are in an upright position and remain seated until the ship has come to a complete stop. Thank you again for flying twenty fourth and a half century rocket boosters! That is all," Daffy put down the microphone and took off his pilot's hat before looking at the controls, "Let's see now, which one of these is the landing mechanism?"
Porky popped his head out from behind Daffy's seat and pointed, "Th-th-there it is!"
"You mean this button?" Daffy asked while pointing at a switch labeled 'This button'.
"N-n-no, I meant that button!" Porky corrected.
Daffy pushed the correct switch, which was labeled 'That button'. The engines at the bottom stopped and the ship started falling at a rather fast speed. Luckily, a parachute came out of the top of the ship. It descended slowly down until it made it to the landing pad. The doors opened up and Daffy and Porky stepped out.
Porky looked back inside the ship, "Y-y-you two better come with us."
"Beep, beep!" beeped the Road Runner as he ran past. The Coyote walked out of the ship after.
"W-w-wait here, Penny. We'll be back as soon as we fin-fin-fin, once we locate this "key"," Porky told penny inside.
"Alright. Be careful," Penny warned.
The doors closed as Dodgers looked at his eager young space cadet, "This should be the place. Let's find a store and get a change of clothes."
"Y-y-yes, sir!" Porky saluted.
Traverse Town had the architecture to that of a High Victorian Gothic style that was seen the England during the nineteenth century. The sky was always dark blue and black with stars, always shrouded in nighttime and the town itself was made of fragments from the many worlds that had disappeared as Bugs Bunny said in his letter. People who lived here were survivors of the destruction of their home worlds and were oblivious to the fact they got there through corridors of darkness. The town itself was separated by three different districts. The first district was where Daffy and Porky headed once they got out on the street. Their space age jumpsuits were now replaced with special traveling clothes that were not only stylish, but also made them fit amongst the commoners.
Daffy's clothing was a blue suit, like a wizard's type suit with a hat to match. The suit included pockets and a few zippers while the hat had a black stripe stitched across. He also wore yellow wristbands. Porky's outfit consisted of a green shirt under a black leather vest with pockets and zippers as well. As a change of pace, he also wore cargo pants that were yellowish tan and had a black belt. He also wore goggles on his head.
"It s-s-sure was nice of the clerk to give us a d-d-discount," Porky mentioned.
"I can't get over the fact that after all these years, you're finally wearing pants!" Daffy exclaimed baffled.
The two walked along the open until Porky stopped when he noticed something in the sky and tried to get Daffy's attention, "L-l-look up in the sky!"
Daffy rolled his eyes in disbelief, "I know, not plane, nor, bird, nor even frog. It's just little old Underdog."
"Th-th-that's not what I meant!" Porky told him annoyed with his hands on his hips.
"What's the matter then? Did a kid lose a balloon?" Daffy asked with a shrug.
Porky shook his head and pointed upward. Daffy looked to see what he meant and both were stood in awe and shock at what they saw.
"I c-c-can't believe it! A star is going out!" Porky announced. Boy, he wasn't kidding. A star blinked out from the sky and vanished in the blink of an eye. That could only mean one thing. Another world was lost. Porky looked back at Daffy with concern in his eyes, "My w-w-what an unfortunate set of circumstance."
Daffy put his hands on his face with an overly dramatic demeanor, "Oh! Agony! AG-O-NY!" He calmed down and looked back at Porky, "Say…that means another world disappeared along with it. We better hurry while there are still worlds left to save."
Porky nodded and the two Looney friends, along with the Coyote, walked further into town in search of the "key" and the man called Leon. It was going to be the most epic adventure a Tune ever had.
Welcome to Traverse Town
The first district was made up of various shops for people to buy supplies. It had a rocky road with two grassy islands that had lampposts. A coffee shop with tables and a balcony was on the left side where people liked to eat. Various colored lights flashed across the town, almost like Christmas lights. The buildings had lanterns on as well as odd looking windows and red roofs. One shop had a sign that read "Items" while the shop up the stairs with a chain railing said, "Jewelry". A mailbox stood next to the stairs and two double doors on the right side. A sign on a pole read "East" and "West" with two gloved fingers pointing in both directions.
The Road Runner ran up ahead, speedy as usual as Porky and Daffy walked and pondered about the first place to look.
Daffy crossed his arms and rubbed a finger against his chin, "Let's see now. Key…Where would I be if I was a person with a special "Key"? A key rack? A key smith? Hmm…"
"I think our b-b-best bet is to find Leon," Porky suggested, "He should be ar-ar-ar- he should be here someplace. Whoops!" Porky yelped. He slipped and fell on his back. He rubbed his wound as he sat up, "Ouch," a banana peel landed on his head and he assumed that he slipped on it. He looked at you, the readers to say, "Either someone is an l-l-l-litterbug in this town or likes to g-g-g-go for cheap laughs!"
Porky stood back up and put the banana peel in the garbage. Meanwhile, Daffy was looking at the ground with a magnifying glass like a detective searching for clues. He continued walking and even walked up one of the buildings unaware of gravity. Porky looked up at Daffy and then put his eyes on you, the readers and pulled out a sign that said, "Pretty defying, isn't he?" Daffy got to the top of the roof and once on the other end, put his free hand above his eyes to look around. All he saw was another shop, a couple of crates and barrels, as well as more stairs to make it to the upper levels. There were also two double doors, which led to the second district. As Daffy walked back down to where he was, Porky was noticing the Coyote looking down an alleyway. The Coyote tapped his foot a bit and scratched his back since the Road Runner was the one who ran down said alley.
"D-d-daffy," Porky motioned trying to get the duck's attention, "M-m-maybe we should…"
"Look on another side of town?" Daffy interrupted, "Can't say I blame you. I don't see one person out here, much less with one with any keys," Daffy put the magnifying glass around Porky's neck. It had no lens at all!
"B-b-but I think that…" Porky tried to say, but Daffy cut him off again.
Daffy shushed with a finger up to his lip, "Can't you see I'm hot on the trail?"
Daffy continued to walk as Porky took the lens less magnifying glass off his neck and put it in his pocket. He motioned over to the Coyote, "Well, f-f-find the Road Runner and tell him we n-n-need to go."
In the alleyway, the Road Runner was standing before a fallen figure unconscious against a building behind some crates and barrels. It was none other than Sora. Had Daffy and Porky actually went down the alley, they would have found him without much trouble. The Road Runner bent its head down and nudged his beak against Sora's cheek. Sora groaned a bit with droopy eyes. His vision was a bit blurry and for a second thought he was sleeping.
"What a dream. I dreamt that I fought all these creatures. It was nuts," Sora whispered.
The Road Runner stuck its tongue and did it's usual, "Beep, Beep!"
Sora's eyes snapped awake and he stood up straight with a gasp, "Whoa! This isn't a dream! This isn't even my bedroom!" Sora got up to his feet and observed his surroundings, moving his head slowly like a surveillance camera, "Where am I?" he asked himself as he looked at a wooden fence, "Oh boy. Something tells me I'm not on my islands anymore," He noticed the Road Runner looking at him and asked, "Hey, bird. Do you know where we are?"
The Coyote put his fingers between his teeth and let out a whistle. This caught the Road Runner's attention. The Coyote swung his hand in a let's go type gesture. The Road Runner clapped his feet together and sped away.
"Beep, Beep!" It said before the Coyote gave chase.
"Wait!" Sora called reaching out his hand, "I'm in the middle of nowhere!" Sora walked out of the alley. No place for a kid to be. When Sora stepped out into the open and look at the town, he couldn't believe what he saw, "Wow! Would you get a look at this," he said to himself, "So weird…this couldn't be any city I ever saw," Sora thought for a second and one explanation came to his head, "I'm, in another world!"
It finally happened. Sora was getting his first glimpse at exploring a whole new world. He walked down the stairs and took in his surroundings. The district was so beautiful with all the lights and the nighttime atmosphere made it feel like it was a night in a big city like New York, or Los Angeles, or Chicago, or Seattle. It was nothing like the scenery back at Sora's home. Sora had a grin from ear to ear at this new experience. However, that grin would soon turn into a frown. There was still one thing that was bothering him about this. How did he get there?
"While I'm happy to see this city and all, I don't even know how I got here," Sora thought, "I should ask around and see if anyone knows more about this place."
Sora talked to a woman at the coffee shop first. The lady replied, "Everyone in this town has a secret past. It's best not to ask them about it."
Sora next talked to a boy around his age, who was standing near a lamppost. He told Sora that, "I ended up here and got separated from my mom and dad. I don't know where they are, but I hope they're okay."
Sora then talked to a man standing next to a doubled door that looked like it wouldn't open as the man described, "You'll have to go around back if you want to head to the other two districts. The doors are boarded up and locked."
Finally, Sora talked to a large man who told him the importance of having currency for the shops, "You won't get much for free in this town. If you find any munny around, it's a good idea to keep it in your pockets. Around here, munny talks."
The man left and Sora pondered to himself, "Well, that solves that problem, but I've got a bigger problem," Sora looked to notice the item shop, "Maybe someone in there can help me."
The inside of the item shop was pretty basic. It had a counter with shelves behind it displaying various items, a stairway leading to another exit, and a scale to test your weight. One of the store attendants was on a ladder fixing the ceiling fan. It was a large, anthropomorphic adult rooster with white feathers, a red comb and wattle, dark red/brownish feathers on its head and tail, and a yellowish orange beak and feet.
The rooster sang a little tune to the sound of "Camptown Races", "La, da, dum, da, da, de, da dum. Doo-DAH! Doo-DAH! La, da, dum, da, da, de, da, dum. Oh, Doo-Dah Day!"
The rooster climbed down the ladder, but suddenly shivered when he felt the door open, "Someone, I say, someone close the door. I feel a draft," he said in his thick southern accent, which sounded like Senator Claghorn, a character from a radio program in the 1940's Fred Allen radio show.
Sora closed the door behind him since he was the one who opened it to come in, "Excuse me."
The rooster turned around to notice Sora and greeted him, "Well, hello there, boy! Foghorn Leghorn's the name. Farmhouse rooster's my clam to fame. What can I do you for?"
"Well, Mr. Leghorn, I was wondering if you…" Sora stopped his sentence when he noticed something peculiar about who he was talking to, "What's with the chicken suit?"
"Chicken suit?" asked Foghorn, who laughed off the question like Sora was joking, "Why, it's perfectly obvious. I AM a chicken. Rooster, that is."
"I'm serious! You're no rooster!" Sora disagreed.
"Alright, son, then what am I?" Foghorn asked playing a long.
"You're just a man in a costume," Sora guessed.
Foghorn was appalled at the accusation, "Costume! Why that's absurd! I am not, nor have I ever, I say, have I ever been a human," He looked at you, the viewers and said, "Nice kid, but he doesn't listen to a word you say," He looked back at Sora, continuing his rant, "You got it all wrong, son. Where I come from, many of the animals have hands, can talk, walk on two legs; they even live in houses amongst the people."
Sora didn't believe it at first and decided he needed proof, "Okay, Mr. Leghorn, prove me wrong."
"Hmm…prove you wrong, eh?" Foghorn wondered while tapping his fingers against his beak. He put his index finger up as an idea came to his head, "I got it!" a light bulb flashed above his head, but then shorted out a bit. Foghorn looked up and tapped the light, which was really the light on the wall, "I should, I say, I should do something about that light."
"Hello! Remember me?" Sora cried waving his arms to try to get Foghorn's attention.
"Oh, right!" Foghorn unzipped his feathers and took it off like it was a full body suit. Foghorn now had exposed skin and polka dotted underwear, much to Sora's surprise, "Pay attention, Boy! As you can see, my feathers could be the only thing that qualifies, I say, qualifies as a suit," he put his feathers back on and zipped it up, "Any of this sitting in, boy?"
Sora was about to speak when he though he smelled something. In fact the smell was coming from a streaking aura coming from behind the counter. Sora stuck his tongue out in disgust from such a strong stench, "What is that smell!?"
The smell came from a skunk, which was looking over things on the shelves as he sang a French tune. He was black all over, save for white fur covering his face all the way down his stomach, a white stripe going down his back to his bushy tail, and white inside his ears. He also had a black nose.
"Affair d'amour? Affair d'coeur? Je ne sais quoi ... je vis en espoir," the skunk sang. He took a bottle of the shelf and took off the cap to smell the fragrance inside, "Mmmm m mm ... un smella voo feenay ..." he put the bottle down, humming the tune.
Sora just covered his nose from the odor, "Pew that stinks!"
The skunk overheard this and stepped out from behind the counter, "Not pew, Le Pew."
"Say that again?" Sora didn't quite catch that.
"My name is Pepe Le Pew," introduced the skunk with a French accent, resembling the voice of "Professor Le Blanc", a character from the old Jack Benny program, "I am responsible for keeping le store clean," Pepe looked at Foghorn a bit curious, "I come off too strong, do I not? No?"
"Arriba! Arriba! Andale! 'Andale! Arriba! Arriba! Arriba!" a shout came from the back room.
Sora looked towards the desk and noticed from a trail of dust that was coming onto the counter. When the dust cleared, it revealed a small mouse standing on the counter. He had brown fur, a black nose and pink skin in his ears. He also had four whiskers and wore an oversized yellow sombrero, a white shirt and pants, and a red ascot.
"Hello, senior costumer," greeted the mouse in a Spanish accent, "You looking to buy, sell or trade?"
"And what are you supposed to be?" Sora asked getting a bit uneasy. The thought of three talking animals was starting to freak him out.
"I am Speedy Gonzales, the fastest mouse in all Mexico," Speedy answered, though he pronounced the country as MA-HEE-CO.
Sora started to back away. The skunk and the mouse were too short to be people in costumes. The young teenager thought of all possible explanations for how this could be possible. He couldn't handle the fact that three animals were talking to him and acting like people, after all, who heard of such a thing outside of television?
"This is so freaky. Either I bumped my head too hard or I'm hallucinating," Sora tried to convince himself, "You guys can't be real!"
"Come now, young man. You must not doubt your senses about this," Pepe tried to tell him, "Do not be afraid of what you see."
"I'm sorry. I just never met any animals that could talk before," Sora confessed, "Where I come from, animals just don't speak like people." just then, a thought popped in Sora's head. It was what Foghorn said about where he came from. Sora hoped his hunch was going to be correct, "Wait a second."
"Oui, messieur," nodded Pepe, "We are, how do you say, outsiders."
"Si, but we came here and opened a shop to raise enough munny to go on an adventure all our own," Speedy started day dreaming, "All the places to go and people to see. Such singings, such dancing's!"
Sora, who was now over his initial shock, smiled a bit, "I suppose anything's possible."
"But of course," Pepe agreed, "Nothing is impossible to those who wish to prove it is. We could spend the rest of our lives finding possible love! The female skunk fettles around ze grand…"
"Anyway," Foghorn interrupted. The last thing he wanted was for Pepe to go on another of his rants about romance, "You want to buy something from us, son, or not?" Foghorn asked putting his hand on Sora's shoulder and showing him around, "We have a wide variety of things just waiting to be purchased, I say, purchased by your hard earned dollars."
Sora reached into his pockets, "I don't have any munny to buy something, but I do have one thing I can sell," he pulled out the pretty stone he won from the race with Riku.
"That rare pretty stone is good for thirty pesos. If you want us to have him, we'll give you some munny to start," Speedy offered.
"Okay, I'll sell it," Sora handed out the pretty stone for them to take.
"Arriba! Arriba! Andale! Andale! Arriba! Arriba! Arriba!" Speedy cried as he ran over at lightning speed to Sora's hand, snatched the pretty stone away, rang up the register and ran back to give Sora the currency. Sora looked at his hand and noticed he had a pouch with thirty munny inside.
"Whoa! You really are the fasted mouse!" Sora complimented the Mexican rodent in aw.
"It's nothing, senior," Speedy smiled humble.
"Please, call me Sora," the boy corrected, "I'll come back when I have more to spend, but right now I need to find more information to where I am."
"I know just the person who can help you out!" Foghorn pointed to the stairs that led to the other door, "Right outside that door, I say, outside that door is an accessory shop. A fellow named Cid," Foghorn looked back at Sora sternly, "Look at me when I'm talking to you, sonny," Foghorn turned his attention back to the door, "Cid can probably tell you more than we can."
"Great! I'll head right over!" Sora went over and climbed up the stairs. When he exited the shop, Foghorn stood at the doorway to say one more thing.
"Just one thing you should know, boy. Cid has a bit of a temper," the rooster warned, "It's so short that if he were a bomb, the fuse would go out soon," he stopped himself finding out he just made a connection, "Short. Fuse. Short fuse! That's a joke!" and with that, he closed the door.
Sora walked by the signs with the pointing fingers that showed him which way and went humph at the obscure directions, "With signs like that you'd think this was a cartoon or something."
Sora opened the door and made his way into the shop. The room had a fire place to Sora's right as well as a couple of couches and a glass display of Jewels. There was a ladder that was on the roof, which led to a second floor. To Sora's left was a shelf with kitchenware inside the small doors. The cashier counter was there as well with a display of a rare jewel. Behind the desk was a man who looked to be middle aged and happened to be the store attendant. He had blonde hair that stood up and blue eyes. Goggles sat on his forehead. He was chewing a long toothpick like piece of wood sticking out of his mouth. He wore a white t-shirt and had a pendent/dog tag around his neck, as well as a large tan belt like clothing around his waist, blue pants, grey socks and black shoes.
The man looked toward the door thinking it was a costumer and spoke with a southern like accent, "Welcome to the accessory shop, how may I…" before he could finish, he changed his attitude once he saw Sora, "Ah, so much for a costumer. It's just some kid."
Sora walked over to the counter and was a bit annoyed at the tone of the attendant, "Don't call me "kid"! I have a name, you know, and it's Sora!"
"Okay! Okay! Don't blow yourself up over nothin'," the attendant told Sora, trying to calm him down. He couldn't help but notice Sora didn't look very happy about something, "Aw, why such a long face, Sora? You look like your bicycle got thrown in the garbage. I bet you're lost."
"Lost? Do I look lost to you!?" Sora protested, "Uh, don't answer that, it's a rhetorical question."
"Well, mine wasn't, so you better answer it, buy somethin' or head to the exit," the attendant motioned with his finger at the door.
"Well, to be honest, I'm not sure where I am. I was wondering if you have any information of where we are," Sora explained.
The attendant took the toothpick out of his mouth and replaced it with a cigarette, "You managed to catch me during my break," he lit the cigarette with a lighter and blew some smoke out of his nose, "Take a seat and I'll tell you what I know."
Sora nodded and took a seat on the bench. Sora explained to the attendant that he lived in a town that had an island where he and his friends liked to play. The attendant told him that this city was a place called Traverse Town. He said Sora wasn't the only one who came here lost and abandoned. Several of the people in the town were victims of having their homes invaded by creatures of darkness and those who survived the onslaughts took refuge here and started life anew now that they left their old homes behind. Sora listened carefully to try and let this all sink in.
"And that's the story, my friend," Cid finished, "Not a happy one, is it?"
Sora shook his head with some deep thought, "So, Traverse Town…I'm really in another world, aren't I, gramps?"
"You could say…" Cid then caught Sora calling him 'gramps' and snapped in a fit, slamming his hand on the counter, "Hey! You don't like me calling you, kid; I don't like you calling me gramps! My name is Cid!"
Sora had his ears covered and his face squinted at how loud Cid's voice got. He put his hands off his ears and tried calming Cid down, "You don't have to yell at me! I'll make sure to call you Cid. Don't get so touchy."
Cid regained his composure and felt a bit guilty for snapping at a kid, "Hey, sorry. I wasn't trying to scare you like that. I have a bit of a short fuse."
"I kind of figured that out the way threw a fit," Sora said in a bit of a kidding tone. He thought in his mind, "Note to self: recommend Cid a good psychiatrist."
"As far as your situation…" Cid said to get back on topic, "I have no idea about what your island is, but this place isn't it. In fact, this town doesn't even have a beach in it or nothin'."
Sora took a moment to think about his current dilemma. He was now in a strange new world totally separated from his island. Most likely, he wasn't going back home anytime soon. This was a dream come true for any child who wanted to go on an exploration, and that was something Sora more than wanted to do. There was just one small problem, he originally planned on exploring along with friends, and the two friends that were going to go with him weren't in this town when he arrived, nor were they found when Sora asked around the district. Sora felt a bit worried about where Riku and Kairi could have gone. He remembered how Riku told him they were going to the outside world and that Kairi would come with them. Sora's decided it was time to go look for them. They could have been in one of the other districts.
"Hey, Cid, it was nice of you to tell me about the city," Sora said grateful, "But I need to get going so I can find Riku and Kairi."
"My pleasure, and good luck with your search. Just come to me if you manage to find trouble. I'll look out for you," Cid assured.
"You'd do that for me?" Sora asked with wide eyes. He was a bit surprised that a person he just met would do such a noble thing.
"Well, somebody has to. If you came alone, that means your parents aren't here. Someone has to keep an eye on a kid, especially around your age," Cid pointed out.
"You have a point there," Sora nodded, "See you later!"
Cid waved goodbye as Sora headed out the door. He shook his head a bit feeling sorry for the young teen, "Poor kid. Well, back to work," he put out his cigarette in an ashtray and put another toothpick in his mouth. He considered it a good alternative since he wasn't allowed to smoke during shifts, just in-between. He caught two people walking into the store. He recognized them right away as the two owed him some cash, "Hey! Where's my munny!?" he demanded. The two quickly sprinted out the door. Cid reached down in the counter and pulled out a spear and chased after them, "You won't get away from me!"
Meanwhile, Sora made his way up the stairs around the back of the shop to get to the two double doors that led to the second district. He noticed a couple of shops weren't open at the moment, but he didn't have much currency, or have the time to shop around. There were more important things to do.
"Sure was nice of Cid to say he's look out for me," Sora thought in his mind. The look on his face soon turned saddened as it just dawned on him that he's never been this far away from his parents, "I wonder if instead of Riku and Kairi I should worry more about what happened to my mom and dad?"
Riku's voice echoed in Sora's mind, "Once we step through and make it out of here, we might not be able to come back to island. I know that it means we may never see our friends or our parents again."
It wouldn't have been much use for Sora to try and call home as a different world means his home phone number wouldn't exist. Sora sniffled a bit at the thought of maybe never seeing his loved ones again. He shook his head to try and get the feeling out. It's a lot better to look at the positive side of things. Sora didn't have to worry about chores, or having to do any schoolwork. He gets to do something different and see a place that's almost the opposite of the islands. Most importantly, Sora had met some new faces when he got here. The more Sora thought about it, the more a smile came across his face. Once he found Riku and Kairi, he was going to start having the time of his life.
With a renewed confidence, Sora opened the double doors and went through to the second district. The second district was separated by two paths. The left path would take you to a small hotel and further up was a building with stained glass windows that made it look like a church, but was really the local gizmo shop and on top of that, the bell tower. The second pathway had a bunch of clothing stores with awnings over the windows and a stairway that led to the lower level which had several benches for people to sit on for a rest. Sora walked forward as the doors closed behind him. At that moment, a man was running down the street in a panic. He fell to the ground on his back.
Sora gasped and quickly asked, "Are you okay, sir!?"
The man did not answer. Sora quickly ran up to him and bent down. He lifted the man's arm up with his hand and shook it a few times before dropping it down. The man was absolutely motionless. Sora put two fingers together and put it against the man's neck to check for a pulse. Getting no response after waiting a few seconds, Sora got up to his feet in shock at what he saw. Sora put his hands to his mouth and walked back slowly. He couldn't believe his eyes.
"He's…he's dead!" Sora said dumbfounded, "What could have killed him?"
Sora got his answer when a dark aura formed around the man's chest with something looking like a heart came floating out. It was the man's own heart, which floated for a little bit before forming into a creature that disappeared in thin air as soon as it came. Sora ran to where the creature was and was awe stricken. What was that strange being that just came and what was the deal with that heart coming out? Sora had never seen something like this before. What just happened left him scratching his head thinking about what just transpired. Those thoughts were interrupted when several shadows formed out of the ground and became solid. Sora recognized them right away.
"It's those creatures from the island! Where did they come from?" Sora wandered. The Keyblade appeared in his hands out of nowhere startling him for a second, but immediately got into a fighting stance, "I'll just have to do what I did last time."
A shadow made its move by going into the ground and sneaking around while another shadow leaped at Sora.
"You just don't stop, do you?" Sora asked rhetorically.
Sora swung his weapon and knocked the Shadow away. The other Shadow came up through the ground. Sora looked back to see it and did a one hundred and eighty degree turn to block its claws with his blade, then he pulled the Keyblade down and around and slashed the Shadow in the face. He grabbed the Shadow and threw it into the others, knocking them back, then gave a mighty slash across and got rid of three of them. A shadow behind Sora leaped on the boys back and scratched his neck. Sora gritted his teeth at the force and put his hand on the back of his neck to feel the scratch. An idea came to the boy and he brought the Keyblade behind his neck, holding with both hands. The sword was between Sora's neck and the Shadows neck. Sora hurried backwards and slammed the Shadow against a wall with the Keyblade, and that did it in.
A bunch of shadows chased after Sora. Sora ran and jumped, grabbing on to an awning. He swung the Keyblade while holding on, slashing a shadow that was trying to attack. Sora flipped onto the awning. He jumped off at the same time a Shadow jumped. Sora slashed the Shadow against the wall, and stuck the Keyblade into its stomach while its back was against it to destroy it. One shadow was going after him, but Sora thought fast and ran to the wall, jumped up and put his foot against it to do a back-flip. When he landed on his feet, the shadow was now in front of him. A second shadow, which he didn't see coming, dropkicked him in the back. Sora stumbled a little and fell, but quickly rolled on his back and got back up.
Sora looked to the left and right of him to see he was now in between the two creatures of the dark. He rubbed his back a bit from the hard kick.
"Better finish you before the numbers game catches up to me," Sora glared.
The two shadows jumped at the same time with its claws ready. Sora jumped up in the air and twirled his Keyblade around, turning his hands in different positions to keep up the pace. The magical sword slashed the shadow to Sora's left into oblivion, came around again, and slashed the Shadow to Sora's right with the same results. Sora landed on one knee, bent down with a hand on the ground, panting a bit. He got back up to a fighting stance and looked around for anymore. When no one appeared after a few seconds, he got out of his stance and relaxed.
"Hey, what's that?" Sora walked over and bent down to pick something off the ground that he spotted. It was munny that got dropped when the shadows were defeated. Sora smirked as he picked up the pieces and put them in his pockets, "EZ munny!" Sora chuckled as he knew he was going to need them if he wanted to shop back in the first district. He put his hands into his pockets when he was finished and went into deep thought.
"I don't know what happened to that guy back there, but I don't feel safe if those black weirdoes are here," Sora said to himself. The young man looked to his left at the hotel deciding that it was the first place he should probably look or ask, "I'll check for Riku and Kairi in there. Maybe one or both of them checked in."
Sora walked over to the hotel doors and went inside. At the very moment the door closed behind him, Daffy and Porky just arrived into the district looking for Leon. Perhaps if Sora stayed in place a little longer, the three would have met.
"I w-w-wonder where we should look first," Porky asked. He walked forward as Daffy spoke.
"He should be around here somewhere," Daffy mentioned, "Let's check the hotel first, see if he's in a room."
Sora looked around the lobby of the hotel as he walked down. It had several tables with pots potted flowers. Several windows were down a row to his right. There were a few paintings on the walls and the walls themselves had various colored wallpapers and designs. The side with all the windows was white with little diamond shapes. The left side was more colorful with shades of tan, red, blue, green, yellow and white. The rooms were to Sora's left and had different colors, each of which most likely indicated what kind of room it was. He hoped it wasn't expensive in case he had to use his munny to spend the night. When he got up to the service desk, he saw a pamphlet with a message from management that mentioned that the hotel was holding a multicultural art exhibit. Sora figured that's what the paintings were about.
Even though the red curtain was down with a sign that said closed, Sora hoped to find someone anyway and rang the bell, "Excuse me! Is there anyone here?"
The curtain opened up a bit and a voice came out, "Ah! Good evening and welcome to the Traverse Town hotel. Are you checking in or here for the art exhibit? The paintings are very nice, aren't they?"
"They are actually," Sora nodded, "But that's not why I'm here. I wanted to ask if two certain people might've gotten a room in the past hour or so."
"Names?" asked the desk clerk.
"Riku or Kairi," Sora replied.
"One moment please," said the clerk before closing the curtains. They remained closed for a few seconds before opening back up, "There's nothing in the book with either name, I'm sorry."
"Oh," Sora sighed in disappointment, "Well, thank you for your time. I'll be back later if I decide to check in myself."
"Thank you, and hope you enjoy your stay in Traverse Town!" and that was the last the voice said before Sora left out the doors. About a moment later, Daffy came bursting in with a panic, jumping up and down on one leg.
Daffy hit the desk bell frantically, sweat pouring down his face, "Can I use the bathroom by any chance?"
The curtain opened up again for the desk clerk to talk, "Hotel residents only."
Porky came in and Daffy quickly pushed him over to the desk, "Hey! S-s-stop that!"
"You do the checking in while I find some place to go before I write my name in the snow!" Daffy demanded. He looked at you, the readers, calm for a second, "Not that there is any snow around here," and quickly rushed through one of the doors.
Porky rolled his eyes and looked at the desk, "D-d-do you have any rooms available?"
The clerk dropped a book on the desk with a pen attached, "Sign in and I'll give you your key. Would you like a free newspaper in the morning?"
"P-p-please," Porky asked as he opened the book up and took the pen.
"Our complimentary clean up service is recommended. We've had some damage done to hotel rooms recently by unwanted creatures," the clerk explained sadly.
"I'm very s-s-s-sorry to hear that," Porky said feeling sincere. The pig finished signing his name, as well as Daffy's, and put the pen down, "There we are."
The clerk handed Porky his room key, "Thank you and enjoy your stay!" and with that, the curtain closed.
"Oh, D-d-daffy!" Porky called.
"Just a minute. Just a minute," Daffy responded from behind a door. A sound of a toilet flushing was heard and Daffy rushed back, almost slipping on the floor, "Whoops! Slippery when wet!"
Porky noticed some toilet paper stuck to the bottom of Daffy's webbed foot, causing him to laugh sheepishly and quickly pick it up, crumple it and throw it away over his shoulder, "L-l-let's go find our room and then we can contin-con-con-keep searching for Mr. Leon."
Daffy nodded and the two headed for their room. Meanwhile, back outside, Sora had just stepped out of the Gizmo shop.
"Nothing in there. The machines weren't even working. Wonder if the engineers are fixing a problem?" Sora pondered in his head, "Better look on the lower level."
Sora jumped down from the path and down to the ground level. A little makeshift shortcut if you will. All these ambushes made him proceed with a bit of caution in case those creatures that keep attacking him came around again. Sora noticed a door in an alley in front of him, which had its lights on and went over to knock.
"They might be asleep," Sora said to himself before going inside. Just as he went in, Porky and Daffy came out to the upper level, again, just missing the boy. It seemed no matter which way Sora went, the two Looney Tunes would be trailing behind.
Daffy cupped his hands to his beak and called out, "Leon!"
Porky did the same, "M-m-mister Leon!"
Daffy took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, "This is preposterous!" he said impatiently as he lit a match and lit up his cigarette, "Where could he be?"
Porky took out a cigarette himself and lit it with a match to smoke, "I'm s-s-sure he's here. W-w-we're just looking hard enough."
Inside the house, Sora looked around and saw no one in sight, "Is anybody home?"
A sound of a yawn came in the room, followed by an elderly voice, "Is it morning already? I was Smurfing like a baby."
"Hello?" Sora shouted, continuing to look around.
"Oh, hello there," answered a nasally sounding voice. Sora thought he was hearing things since he didn't see anyone, "Down here!" instructed the same voice.
Sora looked down on the floor and jumped back startled at what he saw. It was two little blue people, sky blue to be exact, no taller than if you put three apples on top of each other. One wore a white hat and white pants with glasses while the other had a red hat, and red pants plus a white beard. Their hats were in the style of a Phrygian cap, and their trousers left a little hole for their short tails.
"First a rooster, a skunk and a mouse, now I'm seeing gnomes or elves?" Sora asked rubbing his eyes. Things just kept getting weirder and weirder for him at the new people he was meeting.
"Gnomes?" asked the one with glasses.
"Elves?" asked the elderly one.
They both laughed at the Sora's guesses as they were anything but that. This made Sora quirk an eyebrow. What else could these little blue men be? Aliens perhaps? Shrunken people? The two blue creatures stopped laughing and turned their attention back at Sora.
"We're neither of those things. We're Smurfs," the one with glasses corrected.
Sora bent down to get a closer look at them, "What's a Smurf?"
"That's what we are," repeated the one with glasses.
"But you're not. You're a human," the elderly one pointed out.
"Oh, my name is Sora. I was just passing through," Sora reassured.
The one with the glasses made an annoyed look, "Well, it's not polite to go Smurfing around other people's business. There is such a thing as invasion of other people's privacy, meaning that everyone has a right to his or her own private matters and it would be considered inappropriate to Smurf their noses into matters other than their own. This would be as if someone Smurfed into a persons house without thinking of the consequences that…"
The elderly Smurf put his hand over his face in exasperation at the ranting lecture. It was time to put a stop to it and took away the lecturing Smurf's glasses, knowing full well he was near sighted.
"Hey! Papa Smurf, give me back my glasses. I can't see a thing!" Pleaded the lecturing one.
"I will if you promise, Brainy, to stop Smurfing around with your ranting," Papa Smurf said sternly.
"Alright, alright! I promise!" Brainy Smurf yelped with a crack in his voice while reaching out with his hands blindly, "Hurry, before I run into something!"
"Very well," Papa Smurf complied and put the glasses back on Brainy.
Sora gave a light chuckle at the poor Smurf's situation.
"What are you Smurfing at, wise guy?" Brainy glared.
"Don't you mean what am I laughing at?" Sora asked a tad confused with them using the word Smurf frequently as they talked.
"I suppose I should explain. Lift us up to your eye level, and I'll tell you a story the likes of which you haven't heard," Papa Smurf offered.
"This could be interesting," Sora said as he held out his hand.
Brainy and Papa Smurf hopped on as Sora stood back up. Papa Smurf cleared his throat before telling the story, "Ahem. The Smurfs are a species that lived at Smurf village in a forest during medieval Europe. We have a language of our own where we would say Smurf quite often with words and each Smurf had something different about him. They could be a Lazy Smurf, a Grouchy Smurf, or a Brainy Smurf."
"That's me," Brainy interjected.
"Exactly!" Papa Smurf smiled, "We lived for bold adventure whether it is a quest outside the forest or just to get a bite of smurfberries growing on the smilax leaves," Papa then frowned, "But one day, the evil wizard Gargamel cast a spell hoping to get rid of us forever. Brainy and I ended up here and the kind people of the town gave us a place to stay, and we can only assume that the spell separated the rest of the Smurfs, banishing them to other worlds."
"Wow! That's quite a story," Sora said impressed, "I bet you miss your village though."
"We do, and I've been concocting many different formulas and equations to try and Smurf a solution," Brainy explained as he fiddled with his glasses, "And I have some good news and bad news."
"What's that?" Sora asked interested.
"The good news is I found in one of my books that there is a way to get back to Smurf village by a spell. In order to do this spell, we would have to play a magical flute, playing the correct tune for transportation," Brainy pointed to a table with said flute on it, "We just have to think of our home and we'll be back in a matter of moments."
"And the bad news?" Sora dreaded.
"The bad news is that the two of us are the only ones here and don't want to go back to our mushroom houses in the forests with out the rest of the Smurfs. As Papa Smurf told you, many of them were banished to different worlds and we don't have any way of getting there," Sora was about to say something, but Brainy continued on, "I know what you're going to say, but the traveling tune only takes you to places back in our own world, so we cannot use it to go to other worlds ourselves. We wish we could."
Sora felt sorry for the little guys. Separated from the rest of their own kind, lost out there across many different worlds, one way to get back home that came with a price. Sora wished he could do something to help them except he didn't have any means of travel himself to get to other worlds. With him separated from his island without the raft and no sign so far of his friends, he almost felt like he knew how the Smurfs felt. Like he could relate to their situation. Still, something in Sora still wanted to anything he could that might try to help them. Sora put the little guys down on a dresser and spoke up after a small moment of thinking.
"I understand. I don't have a way to go home or my friends with me either. Tell you what," Sora began to negotiate, "I'll keep my eye out to see if any other Smurfs might be in this city, and if I ever find a way to get to other worlds, and that's a big IF, I'll bring them all back here."
The two Smurfs were quite taken a back by this. Here was Sora, a boy whom they just met, who just made an offer to find their lost friends/citizens and bring them back so they can all go home. They didn't know what to say. Brainy was almost speechless, which was a rarity for him, as he would often lecture the other Smurfs until he got on everybody's nerves and paid the price for it. Papa Smurf wondered if he could take the boys words for granted, that maybe he could bring them back and reunite them. He felt so grateful already to Sora, that he wanted to give some sort of reward for doing something he didn't have to do, but offered to do it.
"Would you really do that for us, son?" asked Papa Smurf with hope.
"You don't have to," Brainy reminded Sora.
"I'm not sure how far I can go, but I wouldn't mind doing it. All I would need would be something to carry them in," Sora tapped his finger against the palm of his hand.
"If it's baggage you're worried about, you can take an extra pouch out of the drawer below us," suggested Brainy.
Sora opened the drawer to look inside until he found a medium sized pouch. He showed it to Brainy to make sure he got the right one. Brainy nodded, indicating he was correct.
"There are ninety nine other Smurfs in all to find. When you find them, just put them in the pouch until you bring them back to this house. It's a large number, but don't let that pressure you. Just find what you can," Papa then gave what he felt would be the best motivation to Sora, "But the more you bring back, you'll get plenty back in return."
"Seriously?" Sora asked with wide eyes.
"It's the least I can do to repay you," Papa Smurf obliged.
"Then it's a promise! I'll bring back whatever Smurfs I can find," Sora gripped the pouch with a pumped fist as he said this.
"That's the spirit!" Brainy cheered.
"Well, goodbye and good luck, my lad," Papa Smurf bowed.
"See you when I see you," Sora waved saying goodbye.
The two Smurfs waved as well as Sora went out the door. Once he was gone, Brainy turned to Papa with a worried look.
"Papa Smurf, even Sora agreed with my hypothesis that it's not very likely he'll find anymore than possibly a bunch of Smurfs at best," Brainy thought out loud.
"Yes, I know it's a long shot," agreed Papa, "But Sora might just be the ray of light we've been Smurfing for. A few Smurfs are better than none after all. I just hope he finds them in good condition."
Sora put the pouch into a pocket on his coat before continuing on. He hoped he didn't put too much hope into his two new friends. No doubt it was good that he knows now what a Smurf looks like, so they shouldn't be too hard to find. All it takes is a keen eye on the ground for blue. On the other side of the coin, Sora was glad he tried to be realistic about this mess because he didn't know how many he was going to find. In his mind, he made a mental note to thank Papa Smurf later for any rewards he might get for retrieving his lost villagers. Looking at the ground, Sora didn't see any signs of blue and white, but rather saw signs of black. It was the Shadows once again!
Sora shook his head in annoyance, "You've got to be putting me on!"
The Shadows all eyed Sora and without warning, grabbed on to Sora.
"Hey!" Sora gasped in horror.
He had six Shadows all clamped on to his body. One on his front side, one on his back, one on each of his arms, and one on each of his legs. Sora shook his right arm wildly in hopes of making it let go. He shook his left arm next, then his right leg, finally his left leg. The Shadows wouldn't budge off no matter how hard Sora shook. What did they do in response? Dig their claws into his skin. Sora shouted his lungs out at the sheer pain of sharp nails cutting into his body, feeling like forty eight small knives stabbing him at once. Sora's teeth were gritted, his eyes misty. There was only one way out. Crush them! Bash them! Slay them! Do something before this writer gets carried away…
Sora ran up towards a corner, put his right arm up, and smashed the Shadow against the wall. The impact managed to knock it down and off. Sora brought up his left arm and smashed that Shadow against the wall as well, then he swung his left leg to smash that shadow, then the Shadow on his right leg, next body slamming against the wall to knock the Shadow off his chest. For the finishing touch, he took of his jacket, which got that Shadow of his back. It still had its claws in Sora's jacket, and that was all she wrote as he swung his jacket and whipped the Shadow to the wall. The Shadows were all in a pile, dazed and confused (no pun intended). Sora looked at his arms and legs, he saw his skin not only had scratch marks, but bits of blood trickled out of them. Plus his clothes had been torn apart.
Sora's knees shook as he stared at the state he was in. He put his arms to his side, closing his eyes with a face like he was about to cry. Both hands balled up into fists, the heartbeat inside him was racing, adrenaline started to rush until it reached a boiling point. Sora's sad face quickly turned into an angry one. Glaring at the Shadows, he put his jacket back on, not caring at the moment about any bloodstains that might get on. Drawing his Keyblade, the boy gave a mad battle cry as he slashed violently. The Shadows stood no chance. Sora brought his Keyblade down hard on each shadow like a hammer. Banging them against the floor, he brought it back up and slashed across, to his right, then left, then a swing slash followed by a five hundred and fifty degree spin slash. Each of these blows sliced a Shadow in half, until Sora finished his onslaught by sticking the Keyblade right into the final Shadows shoulder, eliminating it.
Sora panted heavily with sweat producing all over his body. What a rush of energy. Too much of a rush in fact, for he started to feel dizzy. Sora groaned while holding his head and sat down on the stairs. It could have been from the sweat, or perhaps he was loosing more blood than he thought. Take it easy, Sora thought to himself. The Shadows are gone for now. Sora reached into his pocket to pull out another hi-potion he had saved and drank it. As he did, he felt his headache go away, the cuts start to cover up and fade, and even his clothes had its rips sown back together. Sora looked at the bottle with a small smile on his face.
Sora kissed the bottle and whispered, "Thank you, Kairi."
Sora couldn't have been more thankful at that moment that his best friend gave him that healing liquid. When he started to stand up, more Shadows came out in front of the fountain that was against the wall. Sora wanted no part of them after getting such a scratching.
"I'm out of here!" was all Sora said before throwing the glass bottle at a Shadow, bonking it hard in the head.
Sora ran up the stairs as fast as he could and down the path back to the double doors. He knew he'd be safe back in the first district since it was devoid of any Shadows. Looking over his shoulder to make sure none of them would follow him; the teen stepped through, catching his breath while the doors closed behind him.
"I think I finally lost them," Sora sighed with relief, but before he could take two steps, Shadows came up from the ground, making him whine, "Not here, too!"
Sora quickly turned around, paying for it as he bumped his head against the doors.
"Ouch! Jeez!" Sora cringed.
Looking back, he saw the Shadows creeping up to him. Sora sprinted around the menaces, passing any that appeared above the ground while he ran down the stairs. Making it to the accessory shop, Sora tired opening the door, but it was locked. He kept pushing and pushing with it not budging an inch. Giving up, he banged on the door.
"Cid! Open the door! Let me in!" Sora cried hoping he was inside.
Cid was on the phone inside talking with someone, "That's right. The little guy was in here earlier. You better go looking for him if you want him now."
The banging continued and he put his hand over the receiver, "We're closed!"
"It's me, Sora!" the voice outside yelped.
"What the hell is going on?" Cid asked puzzled. He talked back into the phone, "Actually, he's back here right now. I'm puttin' you on hold for a sec. I'll get back to you," he put the phone down, pushing a button to put the person on hold and called outside, "Sora, what's happening out there?"
Back outside, Sora was in a state of panic, "I got a bunch of guys chasing me! They've been bugging me for a long time now and I almost got seriously hurt!"
"Hang on, little buddy! I'll have you in the store in a jiffy!" Cid called back from inside.
Sora looked to his right to notice the creatures were getting dangerously close to him.
"I've got a jiffy!" Sora yelled.
Sounds of several locks were heard clanging on the other side of the door until it opened up. Sora quickly ran in. Afterwards, Cid popped his head out with a grenade in his hand.
"Leave the little guy alone! He's just a kid!" Cid shouted angrily at the Shadows.
Cid bit down on the pick with his teeth and pulled it out of the grenade before throwing it to the Shadow group. He quickly slammed the door and bent down a bit, putting his fingers in his ears since the blast would be a big one. An explosion occurred with a flash of light appearing in the windows for two seconds. Smoke came out of the cracks in the door. Cid glanced over to Sora, who was sitting on the desk trying to calm down.
"You alright?" Cid asked concerned.
Sora looked back and smiled at the man for letting him in, "Yeah, thanks."
"What?" Cid didn't quite catch that, "I can't hear you!"
Sora tried to compress his laughter at the way Cid looked right now. Cid didn't know what was so funny until Sora pointed at him and then pointed at his own head. His ears in particular. Cid still had his fingers in his ears! He pulled them out quickly and laughed a bit embarrassed.
"Okay, maybe my last costumer was right accusing me of having old timers," Cid mentioned while recollecting someone who made that comment as a joke.
"I just have one question. Where did the grenade come from?" Sora had the right to ask because it would be unusual to have a hand grenade when they weren't near a place to find explosives.
"Anything can happen when you can't expect the unexpected. Might as well be prepared," Cid answered, though not really answering the question.
Sora pushed himself off the desk, "Fair enough. At least I now know why the door was locked. Those guys made it here, too."
Cid walked back behind the desk, nodding in agreement at Sora's statement, "They came in, everybody ran, locked their doors and windows, I'm closing up shop until then. Anyway, besides those jerks, you find those friends you looking for?" Sora sighed and closed his eyes, shaking his head sadly that he hadn't found Riku or Kairi yet, "Well, cheer up and take another look around. I'll bet you hadn't searched everywhere just yet."
Sora perked up a bit knowing Cid was right. He hadn't checked the third district yet, and he thought he spotted a door next to the fountain back in the second district, so he gave a small wave to Cid before going back out the door. Once Sora was gone, Cid pushed a button on the phone and picked the receiver back up to talk to the person he had on hold.
"He just left the building. You'll find him right outside near the corner. Alright, goodbye," Cid hung up the phone with that over.
Sora took out the Keyblade to feel safe in case more of the Shadows showed their ugly faces again. A voice came from his left making him stop walking before he went down stairs.
"You might've noticed those monsters will come after you out of nowhere," warned a quiet voice with subtlety in it.
Sora turned to see who that was coming from, "Who are you?"
Out from the corner came a 25 year old man with long brown hair, and was very muscular, who wore black gloves on his hands, small leather belts around his left wrist, two belts that crisscrossed around his hips, including a belt on his black pants, black shoes on his feet, a white t-shirt under a short leather jacket with red wings on his back, and a griever necklace around his neck.
"And each of them will just keep going after you," the man continued without giving Sora an introduction. The stranger pointed at the Keyblade that was still in Sora's hand, "As long as the Keyblade remains in your possession," Sora kept his eye on this mysterious person in case anything happened. The unknown man put his fingers over his eyes indicating some worry, "Now what I want to know is why it would choose a kid of all things?"
"Is that some sort of crack?" Sora snapped offended.
"Forget about it," the stranger started walking towards Sora with his hand reached out to take Keyblade off his hands, "What's important is I see that Keyblade."
Sora got into a defensive position upon hearing that, "Oh no, you don't! You think I would just give it to a total stranger? Dream on! Besides, I need it in case those monsters come back."
The older man glazed his brown eyes on Sora. He remained calm and collected as he spoke, "I'm giving you an easy choice. I suggest you take it if you want those little "problems" off your back, but I understand why you won't since you don't even know me," while he respected Sora's decision, the stranger was pretty intent on obtaining the key shaped sword and took out a weapon. It was a sword with a revolver embedded in it, complete with a trigger and a chain hanging down the handle, "I'll just have to take it the hard way, but you can't say I didn't warn you."
The stranger put his Gunblade in front of him, gripped the handle with both hands, and built up a fire ball by collecting magic. The shot got fired at Sora, but Sora saw this coming as it got built up and jumped away, over the stairs and landing on the lower level. The stranger jumped up and landed where Sora was. The two sword wielders walked around in a circle, Sora walking to the left, the Stranger walking to the right. They didn't take their eyes off each other.
"You missed me with that shot," Sora teased.
"I'll get you eventually," The stranger calmly replied.
The Stranger kept his sword up in his right hand with the blade behind his head until he was ready to strike. Pulling down on the trigger for a round from the gun chamber sent a shockwave through the blade. When he and Sora clashed their weapons together, Sora felt said shockwave with the blades and their hands shaking a bit. Sora never felt such power before, but a Gunblade was no ordinary weapon. The stranger went for a horizontal strike. Sora jumped out of reach and tried a thrust, which the stranger blocked with his sword. The stranger pushed the Keyblade away before clashing with Sora again. They were in a standstill until the stranger gave a left hook to Sora's jaw. Sora responded with a kick to the stranger's stomach. The hit made the stranger keel over for a second. Sora brought his Keyblade down on the stranger. The stranger quickly recovered to bring his Gunblade up, clashing again.
Sora and the stranger clashed their weapons together ten times in what was quickly becoming a vicious duel. The stranger spun out of the way of a thrust from Sora. Sora then ducked a diagonal slash the stranger tried. Sora swung the Keyblade to his right. The stranger hoped to dodge the attack. Coming down, the stranger brought down his blade. Sora had a strategy in mind as that swing left him with a free hand. The stranger and the teen clashed blades with Sora seizing the moment by using his free hand to punch the stranger in the side.. The Stranger winched a bit, but wouldn't let it lose his focus and he clashed with Sora again. Sora pushed back against the force of the Gunblade since he used both hands to push. He got a bit of an advantage, the stranger now struggling much to his own surprise, until the stranger gripped his other hand with his sword and pushed Sora back and out of the lock.
"Having second thoughts?" the Stranger asked.
"Okay, so you're tough, but that won't stop me!" Sora declared.
"You asked for it," the Stranger said without much emotion in his face.
Sora thought this man was an iceman, cold as ice, but that was just the way he came across. The stranger made a run towards Sora ready to strike. Sora noticed he was near a lamppost and decided to take advantage. He threw the Keyblade into the air and jumped up in the process dodging a sword strike. All the stranger hit was the lamppost with a loud clang noise, then Sora caught the Keyblade and hit the stranger's arm as he came down. The stranger clutched his arm, which made him drop the Gunblade unknowingly. Sora charged at his defenseless opponent. The stranger squatted down, put his back to the ground and double kicked Sora's legs, making him fall on the ground hard. The stranger got up and picked up his Gunblade.
"Lucky shot," he groaned a bit.
The stranger pointed the tip of the blade at Sora and shot another fire spell at Sora, who was trying to get up. The shot got him right in the back sending him back and knocking him chest first against a table in the coffee shop. It almost knocked the wind out of Sora.
Sora turned and glared at his fellow dueler, "What a cheap shot getting me in the back!"
The stranger walked over to Sora while speaking, "You need to take whatever advantage you can if you want to beat whoever your facing."
"Take advantage of this!" Sora raised his voice before elbowing the stranger in the chest.
The stranger groaned a little at the hard elbow. Sora took the opportunity to knock the stranger of his feet and was now on top of him. The two clashed with Sora pushing down the Keyblade as the stranger held the Gunblade up with both hands. The stranger rolled over and the two did this around the ground still with their blades locked until the man pushed the boy off and got to his feet. The stranger swung his sword causing Sora to jump away and onto one of the tables. Sora dodged jumped up to avoid another swing, pushed his feet against the support beam and jumped up again, holding onto a ledge to the balcony.
"And the candles are still standing, ladies and gentlemen!" Sora joked with a voice like an announcer.
The stranger jumped up and grabbed on to the ledge himself. He was now right in front of Sora and the two clashed it out again ten times one handed. The stranger then swung forward, wrapped his legs around Sora, let go of the ledge and kicked Sora away. While the stranger landed on his feet, Sora got sent flying. Sora stuck the notch of the Keyblade against the lamppost. That stopped him from going further, but he fell to the ground on his stomach. Sora saw the stranger jump at him with the Gunblade over his head with a battle cry, and got out of the way just in time for the Gunblade to hit nothing but concrete and marble. Sora was starting to get exhausted, sweat pouring down his face. This man definitely had some experience with sword fighting.
"Time for me to end this!" announced the stranger.
The stranger clashed with Sora, only every time the Gunblade got a hit, he pulled the trigger for a shockwave. Sora tried not to let the shockwave phase him, but his pace started to slow down with each strike. The stranger went for his twentieth swing and slashed Sora right in the chest making the boy let out a loud screech in agony. Sora panted hard while holding his front side with crossed arms. The stranger brought his sword up to deliver the final blow. Sora angrily slashed the stranger with his Keyblade right in the shin as payback for what he did.
"Ah! My shin!" shouted the stranger as he got down to one knee. He couldn't believe the willingness of this kid, "No way can I lose!"
Sora panted heavily from the grueling battle he got drawn into, "Serves you right…you big…" before Sora could finish, his vision got blurry and he blacked out, falling on his back unconscious.
The stranger stood back up with some respect in his voice, "He put up a better fight than I expected. I'm impressed."
"And I thought you were slipping, Leon," a voice from behind him said in a joking voice.
The man known as Leon turned his head to see a young girl standing behind him with her knuckles on her hips. She had black/brunet hair and violet eyes. She wore a silver headband around her forehead, a yellow scarf around her neck, a green tank-top with blue straps leaving her stomach exposed, orange open fingered gloves on her hands with some net that stretched back up to her arm pits, yellow shorts with a blue belt, long white stockings on her legs, and orange/yellowish shoes on her feet.
"Cut the comedy, Yuffie," Leon addressed the girl, "I went easy on him. After all, I wasn't trying to hurt him, just get his weapon away from him."
"So what do you want to do with him?" Yuffie asked curious.
"Take him back to the hotel room and lock the doors. Things have gotten worse off than we originally feared," Leon explained looking at Yuffie then looking back at Sora, "A lot worse."
In another place completely separate from Traverse Town, a familiar figure was lying on a floating pillar of ice. It was Riku who has ended up in a different place after all. He slowly opened his eyes trying to wake up, seeing waterfalls in front of him as he lay there like he was too tired to move. What was odd about the falls was that they were going up, not down. Riku got himself up to his feet and glanced at his new environment.
"Where…am I? I've never been to this place before," Riku whispered to himself. He noticed there was no one there with him and quickly got worried that his friends weren't with him as he had hoped. Riku called out with his voice echoing out, "Sora! Kairi! Where are you guys? Can anybody hear me?" Riku looked sad that no one answered, "Where is everybody?"
Up on another platform was a figure, which was over looking the situation. He was a man wearing a goblin costume and get up. His entire body was green from head to toe, complete with pointy ears, yellow eyes and a grin with sharp teeth. The suit, hat, gloves and boots he wore were all purple. In addition to those clothes, he wore a tan belt and had a blue bag on him. What was this sinister being thinking about as he spotted Riku below?
To be continued
Alright! Another chapter is in the books! Funny that I should leave that description of who will be replacing Maleficent in this story, because if you had been paying attention, you'd know it was a very well known super-villain of a certain spider hero who just had a third movie come out in theaters recently in another record breaking smash. Great movie by the way and I hope all of you out there get the chance to see it in case you didn't because you were shut out of the sold out theaters. Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I should be back with a follow up soon. In the meantime, I'm going to continue to look for a job before the summer starts. That's all for now, I hope to see you again right here on fan fiction dot net. See you next time!