The sound of his phone ringing caused the man to leave the room. It was the President calling again. He answered the phone when he got out of the room, and the President was instantly demanding more explication again.
"We have things under control Mister President," the man insisted, adding, "from what we learned from Pinocchio, we've discovered that there has been a breach between the world of fiction and our world. He swears he doesn't know how to fix the problem, but the gate appears to be related to the internet. We quickly gathered a conference of some of the most famous and least famous authors. Hopefully they can combine their creativity to solve the problem…After all, they created this fictional world."
"Are there any preliminary suggestions?" The President asked.
"As far as they can tell, the only solution is to completely destroy the internet…or at least shut it down, sort of like a worldwide reboot. They think that may send everything back, reset the world, but I'm not ready to take such drastic measures. We'll keep working on it."
That ended the conversation, and the man simply rejoined the author conference as if nothing had happened.
"Nori," Sora whispered. When Nori didn't respond—after all, he was sleeping—Sora repeated, "Nori…Nori!" He continued until it was a shout. Still, Nori wouldn't wake up. Neither would Chiyo who happened to be lying next to him in bed. Frustrated, Sora started jumping on the bed and shouting, "NORI!"
Finally, Nori sat up with a moan, mumbling, "What is it?" Chiyo still didn't wake, though.
"Vash made everyone breakfast," Sora replied calmly.
"That's what you woke me up for…go away." Nori fell back down to sleep some more, but he accidentally missed the edge of the bed, falling to the hard floor. "Fine! Fine, I'm up!" He agreed grumpily.
"I didn't do that," Sora defended. "You did that to yourself."
"Whatever," Nori grumbled, climbing to his feet. He leaned down over Chiyo and lightly kissed her forehead whispering, "Chiyo, it's time to get up."
Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled up at Nori.
Sora was astonished. He hopped off the bed commenting, "Next time I'm waking you up that way Nori."
"You do that, and I'll slap you," Nori responded, grasping Chiyo's hand in his and walking toward the kitchen.
"At least you'll be awake," Chiyo joked.
"Does our stove even work?" Nori wondered, remembering the breakfast part.
"I dunno…the house is still standing," Sora answered.
Nori stopped in shock when he reached the living room. Their couch and video games had been replaced by a dinning room table and chairs. Nehemiah had just finished setting dishes out—you know, real dishes—that Nori didn't even know they owned. Vash appeared from the kitchen, looking funny in his hot mitt and apron, but carrying a steaming platter of delicious looking food. Drool forming in his mouth, Nori wandered to the table and sat down.
Dusty was already there, casually waiting in expectation. Becca quickly appeared from the kitchen as well, having been the first out of bed and the one who convinced Vash to make breakfast with her. Nori knew Vash made good breakfast, but he didn't really do it very often. Chiyo sat down in the chair next to Nori, setting his hand in her lap to reconnect the bond between them. Sora had disappeared again but returned with Warren.
Warren's face was peeling really bad, and he rubbed it muttering, "I hate fire," as he sat down at the table.
"Strange coming from someone who's got more fire in his hands than brains in his head," Dusty mocked. That got a few laughs from some people.
He hadn't realized he had sat next to her, so jumping to the side a little, he said, "You again?" He went to change chairs, but by then everyone was sitting, so he had nowhere to move to.
All the food passed around, everyone giving a little, "Thank you," as they served themselves. Everyone except for Warren. He simply noticed Dusty trying to take her first bite. He stopped her when the food was halfway to her mouth saying, "We pray before we eat."
Dusty gave a little embarrassed smile, as she was locked in position with her mouth wide open. Everyone else looked around curiously. Then, Warren continued, "Pray that I won't kill you before we've finished."
Nori broke out laughing, followed by Sora and Warren. Dusty's face filled with anger and embarrassment. He had gotten her back pretty good. Based on the way Nori and Sora were laughing, she could tell he wouldn't really kill her, but that he had done it all to catch her unawares and spite her more.
Dusty stuffed the bite in her mouth and poked her fork at Warren, replying, "I'll get you back for that someday. I will."
"If I don't kill you first," Warren repeated, seeming much more sincere about it that time. He smiled crookedly but continued honestly, "There has been way too much estrogen around here lately. Look, we're eating off porcelain plates and crystal glasses! Before tomorrow we'll tie bows in our hair and prance around in pink tutus."
Sora and Nori glanced at each other worriedly from around Chiyo. This time it was her turn to laugh really loud. "I wouldn't make you do that!" She exclaimed, speaking for the first time to people that she hadn't met before her time in Writers' Block. "Look at me! I'm in skater shoes." When she realized everyone was looking at her, though, she covered her mouth and was quiet again.
After a second of everyone recovering from shock, Dusty agreed by asking, "Does it look like I do ballet? If I were ever wearing a pink tutu, I would let you kill me."
"I like pink," Becca mentioned. "It's a fun word to say, kinda like Fwicha." (Fwicha is a certain sound effect that sounds slightly like a whipping noise.)
That ended the conversation, creating a short, awkward silence during which everyone just ate. When most people were done, and the boys were starting to clear the table—all with hopes that by helping out with that they wouldn't have to do the dishes—someone knocked twice on the front door. The girls were all excited about who it might be. Vash was curious, but not excited. Everyone else, though, knew it was going to be Anakin. After all, it was the weekend.
Anakin—the nine year old, podracing version—didn't wait for someone to open the door for him. He just walked in asking, "Are you ready?" Then he noticed the table in the living room. "You made some major adjustments," he noted as Nehemiah approached him.
Nehemiah smiled. "It's only temporary…Sorry, but we can't go this weekend. We've got a lot of things—"
Dusty and Becca ran between the two of them, interrupting, "Yes we can!"
Becca fell to her knees and begged, "Please, we'll go podracing with you!"
Nori shook his head. "We can't do that…you guys promised to come here to save Tiara."
"That sounds like fun," Chiyo whispered to Nori, pulling him a little towards the door. "We should go."
"Chiyo," Nori insisted, "if you move here with me we can go every weekend. Right now, we've gotta save the world."
"Please," was all Chiyo said, but it got Nori to give in.
He sighed, "I guess…if we don't stay too long. I think the girls will focus better if they get to try first. You girls will have to ride with one of us before you get to try flying on your own, though."
"Dibs!" Becca exclaimed, "I call Anakin!"
Dusty knew she couldn't go with Nori either. All she had to do to figure that out was glance at Chiyo protectively clinging to his arm.
"Well I wouldn't be helpful," Vash noted, "I can't fly either, so I'll just stay here and clean up with Nehemiah."
Sora jumped up excitedly. "Ooh, I'll go. I haven't been in a—" POP!
Becca screamed and jumped into Dusty's arms, crying, "What just happened?"
"Oh, he's just fine," Nehemiah explained as he carried a few dishes to the kitchen. "He's just in his story now."
A second later, Roxas reappeared in his place, looking a little lightheaded. "Who's he?" Dusty asked curiously, "And why is he here instead of Sora?"
"Whoa," Roxas said, dizzily grabbing his head, "I feel…empty." He wobbled, stumbled, and fell to the floor, unconscious.
Nehemiah rushed to his side, being the mature one who, lately, had been left in charge of sick people. Roxas wasn't waking up.
Cocking his head to the side, Nori asked, "Hey Miah, do you got it under control." Nehemiah nodded, so Nori continued, "All right Warren. That means you're with us."
"Great," Warren mumbled under his breath, grabbing his jacket and following everyone out the door, "the last thing on Earth I want to do is fly with this girl."
Dusty took that surprisingly well, smiling and replying, "Then it's a good thing we're not on Earth, are we?"
Six eyes stared down on Wesley as he first started to open his eyes again. At first he didn't recognize them—well, at first, he had thought there were twelve eyes because his vision hadn't cleared yet, but once he had narrowed it down to three people watching him, he still didn't recognize them. He decided to glance around the room instead, to determine where he was. He couldn't figure that out either. All he could tell was that it was a stick hut with a palm branch roof.
The man patted him roughly on the shoulder complimenting, "You fought hard out there kid."
With that, Wesley remembered the voice—along with the battle that had knocked him out. He shrugged, "I've done better."
"But you're injured!" The shorter orange haired girl mentioned. "With how many bruises we found, there's no doubt you weren't fighting to your potential."
"It all makes me wonder what you were doing there," Zoro questioned, crossing his arms.
Wesley knew he had to explain; after all Zoro had explained his reasoning during the middle of the battle. "Uh…" Wesley began, "I was…trying to save Queen Dalma…in my own, different way."
The smile on Wesley's face gave away that he hadn't told the whole story, so Zoro ordered, "Come on boy; spill it all."
"All right, I met this girl named Tiara—my author in fact—who wanted me to break her out of Writers' Block so she could go look for Queen Dalma there."
The longer orange haired girl interrupted, "Wait a second. You're author's name is Tiara too? I wonder if they're all named that."
"Is your author's name Tiara too?" Wesley wondered.
"No…I have a friend," she turned to Zoro, "You met Nori once, didn't you? He brought his author Tiara down to my house. They're the ones who told me the queen was trapped somewhere."
"Nori? It's the same Tiara then," Wesley concluded.
"She was in Writers' Block? What happened? Was Nori with her?"
"Aye, Nori was in there with her. I have no idea how they got there, though. I just know that once I broke them out, they went looking for the queen, and didn't find her. Nori almost died—which I had to save him—and Tiara got captured…prolly in the same place Tia is. I got in pretty big trouble for it all—with these guys, that is."
After a second, Zoro suggested, "We should find them, combine our forces. We may be able to accomplish more that way."
"Uh, no," Wesley countered. "First of all, those crazy guys in cloaks are just following me anywhere I go. I think joining anyone will just hinder your success. Plus, I have no idea where Nori lives. I'd better just fend for myself." He stood up to leave the hut.
"Oh baka Wesley!" The shorter haired girl exclaimed, slapping Wesley on the back to knock some sense into him. "You can't do that—take on the whole dark side by yourself. Do you want to die?"
Wesley grabbed his head in pain and returned to the straw bed he had been on as he responded, "No!"
"Then Nami's right. You won't make it on your own," Zoro agreed. "Stick with us. We seemed to make a pretty good team." He leaned back in his chair confidently.
"No," Wesley argued, "I won't survive whether I'm with you or without…that's a given. Why should I get you in trouble? No, I'll go in there and cause a distraction—what I'm best at—an' while they're dealing with me, you three will actually be able to accomplish something."
Everyone thought for a moment before Zoro decided, "Fine with me."
Nami put her hand on Zoro's chest. "No, that's not fine! We have a policy in our crew that no one with a worthy idea goes down without honest effort on all of our parts. We won't just leave you."
"But just the four of us will never make it without some sort of distraction," Zoro mentioned. "And he doesn't know where his backup is."
"Actually, I was their backup," Wesley corrected.
"Perhaps we can't combine with his gang," Nami noted, "but nothing prevents us from calling our crew together and taking the glory for ourselves." She added mostly for herself, "I'm sure there'll be a reward."
Zoro nodded his head, beginning to agree. "That's not a half-bad idea," he stated.
Wesley looked around in a half shocked state. In all his life there had never been people who wanted to help him. He didn't know what to do. His jaw began to shake as he realized they weren't joking. It would obviously be easier for them if they let Wesley do the distracting, but for some reason they wanted to increase the chance of casualties just to save him. A smile came to his face for a second because of the thought. He wanted to protest, but he wanted to be grateful. What on Earth was that feeling in his stomach? It was like delight mixed with an foreign sense of importance and a nervous fear of betrayal…They weren't actually going to help him, were they?
Zoro held a hand out to help Wesley off the bed. "Come on. We better get outta here."
Unsurely, Wesley accepted the hand, but before they could leave the hut, and unfamiliar laugh came from the corner. They all turned to look as the voice claimed, "Ha! I've found you!" Another cloaked man appeared from another portal. He had pink hair and carried a large scythe.
"Another one!" Nami exclaimed in frustration.
"How many of them are there?" Wesley asked.
"Thirteen…officially," Zoro explained. "One of 'em's missing, though, and there are some people who dress the same and hang out with them who aren't official."
"Why can't they just send the same one every time? I figured out how to escape the redhead," Wesley complained.
"They have sent me," the pink haired man Marluxia bragged, "because the others have failed, and I will not fail!"
"That's a big scythe," Wesley muttered. "He could decapitate us, and we wouldn't even be able to touch him."
"Now would be a good time to have Luffy around," Zoro muttered between his teeth.
"Who?" Wesley wondered.
No one got a chance to answer him, however, because they suddenly heard a loud, "Gomu, gomu no ROCKET!" and a scrawny teenage boy with a straw hat flew through the wall of the house asking, "Did I hear my name?" as he slammed into the back of Marluxia's head.
"Luffy!" Nami exclaimed excitedly. Apparently the boy with the straw hat who could fly was very important to them.
"Why is he going to help us?" Wesley questioned quietly. "Because he can fly?"
"No silly," Zoro laughed slightly, "he can't fly. He's a rubber man."
"A what?"
Luffy was suddenly hurled across the room, landing at Zoro's feet. Zoro nudged him softly with his boot to encourage him to get back up, and Luffy did. Pulling his straw hat more securely on his head, he gripped his hands into fists and prepared to attack Marluxia again. He looked really cheesy standing there with his puny arms like he might dare fight that giant weapon. Then, for some reason he dropped his fists to his sides and turned his head to the side.
In a high pitched, corny voice, he asked, "Pink hair, eh? Are you a boy or a girl?"
That angered Marluxia, and he swung his scythe at Luffy, growling, "Don't mock me!"
Luffy ducked, allowing himself to escape the blow, but putting Zoro right in line of it. Having only a second to think, Zoro amazingly was able to draw all three of his swords and block the attack. Out of the blue, Luffy's arm started stretching until he could reach Marluxia's ankle. He grabbed it, tripping the girly-man. Wesley stared in shock as the arm shrunk back to its normal size. He understood why that would be helpful against the long attacks Marluxia could perform, but it just wasn't natural. He was starting to rethink the joining up with their crew part. Japanese people were so weird.
Luffy was on his feet, stretching out again to punch Marluxia, but in the last second he rethought his decision as Marluxia moved his scythe to slice off his arm. Instead, Luffy moved to the side and grabbed the handle of the scythe, flinging himself around to the back of Marluxia. He didn't let go of the scythe there, however, actually taking hold of it with his other hand as well, thus keeping Marluxia in place. Wesley suddenly noticed that a portal had appeared behind the group of spectators. Drawing his sword, he charged at it and started slashing at it to make it go away. It was no use, though.
Marluxia laughed slightly. "You know that won't work, don't you?"
Wesley smiled embarrassedly for a second. It was worth a try. "What's it for?" He wondered after a moment, "You wouldn't be thinking about cowardly fleeing us, would you?"
"No," he countered, managing to maintain his cool this time. A second later, all five of his enemies were falling into the portal, and he called after them, "I just don't want any more unexpected friends showing up."
Anakin and Becca were way ahead before the race even started. That was obvious. He was designed to be the only human in existence that could fly a podracer. That gave him the advantage. A lap and a half into it, Anakin lapped them. By the third, and final lap, Warren's pod and Nori's pod were still neck and neck, though. What was even better, was that Warren had stopped complaining about having to fly with Dusty. Now that he was in a competition, all that mattered was beating Nori and Chiyo.
He didn't even mind when Dusty shouted to him, "Faster, faster!"
Chiyo just clung to Nori as he tried to pull in front of Warren by turning the podracer upside down over top of them. Dusty screamed and demanded, "Where's the boost?"
Warren smiled slightly, having forgotten about that little trick. He pushed a button and their podracer suddenly zoomed past Nori's. Nori flipped back right side up and sighed. He couldn't boost then because there was a shortcut coming up that Warren didn't know about. He pulled sharply to the left, entering a tunnel that spiraled downward tightly. They popped out of the tunnel just in front of Warren and finished the race in that position. After handing over the keys to the owner of the track, Nori joined Chiyo by the fence. She downed a full bottle of water and then turned to Nori.
"I'm sorry 'bout your shirt Nori," she laughed.
Nori looked down at his shirt that was now covered in vomit and replied, "No problem," though it wasn't sincere in the least.
"I'm sorry for throwing up on you, I mean," Chiyo corrected. "Let's go again!"
Shaking his head in shock, Nori argued, "No way. You couldn't even make it through one time. I'm not taking you again unless you've got some motion sickness pills. I'm gonna go take a shower."
Nori wandered off towards the exit to the track. He was greeted in a not so kindly way by Warren, who asked, "Where'ye off to Odor Boy?" and Dusty who followed with, "Couldn't hold it all in trying to keep up with us, could you?" Nori just smiled sarcastically and kept walking.
Anakin earnestly questioned, "Hey wait. Where are you going?"
Turning around, Nori responded, "Home. Chiyo's not feeling too good…if you couldn't tell." He gestured to his shirt and then addressed Becca, Dusty, and Warren, "You guys can keep flying for a while if you want."
Then he left, and Chiyo hurried after him. After a second, Dusty exclaimed, "My turn!"
Warren rolled his eyes, knowing that he had to let her try to fly her own. She climbed into the driver's seat and was pulling on her helmet as he slid casually into the passenger's seat. He held a smirk on his face for a while, until the curiosity overcame her.
"What?" Dusty questioned, able to tell he had an insult on his mind.
"Nothing," Warren assured, but he quickly continued, "Do you really think you can fly this thing? There's a lot of buttons, you know."
"Yeah," Dusty responded, offended. "I'll do just fine."
The podracers were pulled up to the starting line. Dusty was driving one and Becca was driving the other. They watched as four circles above the starting line lit up on at a time, marking: III, II, I, GO! Both girls slammed their controls forward, and the race was on.
A second later, Warren crawled out of the wreck, complaining, "I can't believe you crashed it. We hadn't even left the starting line, and you already crashed it…and backwards! Podracers don't even go backwards, but somehow you crashed it backwards. I don't know if that's skill or just even more stupidity…"
As they were walking up to the door of the house, Warren was still ranting, "…and of course, I'm gonna have to pay for the damages, 'cuz you certainly don't have the money with you." He sighed. "This is why I don't want you girls touching my things. You can't touch anything without breaking it."
That last sentence trailed off at the end because when they walked in the house, they saw Roxas sitting on the floor in the living room trying his best not to cry as he said, "But…I don't want…to go…to the Castle…That Never Was."