Three people walked down the steps of a hollow tower. The staircase was on the outer part, creating a big, empty space in the middle.
One of these figures was Eddy. In his hand was what appeared to be a magic staff with a small 'wizard's hat' at its tip. Ahead of him, Ed walked with Tony on his head.
"Ed….," Eddy stared at the huge building structure as he walked further down, "how long have you had this down here?"
"Since as long as I can remember, Eddy," Ed answered dumbly. He was wearing a traffic cone as a helmet for some unknown reason.
Eddy rolled his eyes. He asked, "So what happened to your world, Timmy?"
"It's 'Tony', Eddy," the swamp kid answered as he turned around on Ed's 'helmet'.
"Whatever. What happened?"
"It was terrible!" Tony hollered. "We were scattered. And, as far as I can see, I'm the only one who made it here."
"How was it destroyed?"
"These dark creatures came and attacked, taking people's hearts right out of their chests like magic!" Tony gestured with widespread arms.
"I bet they were the aliens from I cannot stand the mash potatoes!" Ed said with a hopeful grin. "With huge ears, stinky feet, and NO EYES!"
"…."
"…."
Tony and Eddy were silent at that.
"They didn't look the least bit like that, did they?" Eddy asked sceptically.
"Nope," Tony shook his head.
"Boy, Plank, I sure hope we don't end up like that, eh, buddy?" a fourth voice said from the back of the group.
"Why's Mellon Head coming along on this trip?" Eddy grumbled.
"Well, I don't mind?" Tony shrugged. "The more, the merrier."
"You've obviously never met Jonny 2x4."
'Jonny' was a big-headed boy of probably the same age as the others. Like Tony, a tooth popped out of his mouth awkwardly. He wore sandals, a simple white T-shirt, and simple green-blue trousers. He held with him in his hands a plank of wood with crayon-drawn eyes and mouth. "This world you're talking about…," he said, "…are there more out there?"
"Yeah, there are," Tony answered.
"Jonny…," Eddy began.
"Oh, I get it," the big-headed boy understood. "When we're at other worlds, we can't let on where we're from."
"We gotta protect the world border, guys!" Ed added with a large grin.
"It's 'order', Ed," Eddy corrected.
"Oh…yeah," Ed chuckled stupidly. "I'd like to order some bacon if you please…"
Eddy let loose an annoyed breath.
The staircase ended at a tunnel. The group headed through, towards a pair of large, automatic doors.
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The doors slip open, allowing them to step into a new room. And what a room it was.
It resembled a giant garage. Stairs led to a control room from the catwalk's main entrance. Steam hissed and gears clicked as a ship was being prepared. Robot arms moved left and right as lights flashed all around.
An intercom was present at the end of the catwalk. Eddy approached it nervously and spoke into it, "…..Uh…Eddy to whoever runs this place. Get the Gummi Ship ready."
"What do you think I am?" a bored voice answered. "Some kind of slave?"
"Raf-raf-raf!" a dog's barking.
"Not now, Odie. I'm busy here."
"Just get the ship going and we'll be outta here!" Eddy screeched.
"Okay, okay. Sheesh……"
In the control room, a tubby, orange cat got off the intercom. He stopped leaning his feline body over the controls and stood up straight. He glared at the dog. "What did I tell you about barking when I'm on the job?" he asked without his lips moving.
"Raf!" a long-eared, yellow dog answered.
"Exactly," Garfield jumped down from the stool and headed for another button. "Why do I always end up with the idiots? And on the boring world?" his face was stern. "Oh well," he pressed a single button while on tiptoes; the controls where at a lower level here.
Robot arms with four-fingered, cartoon-like hands lowered towards Ed, Eddy, Tony, and Jonny.
"Wooo," Jonny stared in amazement. "Aren't they neat, Plank?"
The piece of wood was silent.
"Yeah, I know!" Jonny laughed.
"Me first!" Ed jumped up and down. "Me first!"
"I'm the captain!" Eddy pushed him aside with his staff. "So, I'm first!"
"Aww, but Eddy--!" Ed moaned, but was cut off.
"'But' nothing!"
"Just let him go," Tony told Ed.
A 'hand' descended, grabbed Eddy by his shirt, lifted him up, and carried him to the ship that was in the centre of the room. Ed was next, followed by Tony, and Jonny and Plank.
The Gummi Ship had a long, orange nose with a yellow stripe acting as a ring around it. Under the nose, there was a single, white turret. One trapezium-shaped, blue wing stuck out from each side at the back. Two cylinders, probably its thrusters, stuck underneath it at the back. Lastly, a dome rested between the wings.
"Prepare for launch," Garfield's voice echoed throughout the garage.
Everything began to vibrate.
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Inside the cockpit, there where three seats set out in a triangular pattern. At the main seat, a consol of buttons and levers was set up. Eddy sat there and Ed sat on the right side with Tony still on his head. Jonny and Plank--mostly Jonny--stood at the edge of the dome.
Sarah and Jimmy stood on the catwalk, waving goodbye. Jonny gleefully waved back.
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"Ten……nine……eight……seven," Garfield counted down "……six…"
A set of doors began to part slowly, showing a seemingly endless tunnel.
"…five……four……three…"
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Eddy grabbed the controls.
Ed buckled up, excited.
Tony held onto Ed's cone/helmet.
Jonny finally sat down on the remaining seat. He held onto Plank tightly.
"…two……one."
"BLAST OFF!" Eddy pointed a finger forward.
A brightly coloured arrow appeared in their way, pointing down. Another set of doors parted almost instantly below the Gummi Ship. As a result, the vessel fell below instead of going forward.
"AAAAAAAAAGH!" Eddy and Tony screamed, Eddy's lips riding up his face, exposing his gums.
"WEEEEEEEEEE!" Ed and Jonny held their arms up like as if they where on a rollercoaster. Both of their lips rose up their faces, exposing their gums. Plank was in one of Jonny's hands and was silent as always.
K-K-K-K-K-K
From under the cul-de-sac, the ship dropped down, twirled around, and shot off into deep space. When it was far enough, it emitted a tiny twinkle.
K-K-K-K-K-K
Back home, Sora was lying down on his bed with his hands under his head. He looked up towards a toy boat he built years ago. It hung from the ceiling by string. Two cloth dolls filled with beans 'rode' the ship. Like the drawings in the cave, they had cartoon-like faces. One looked male and the other looked female.
Sora always pictured them to be him and Kairi.
"I just can't wait…once we set sail. It'll be great." Kairi's words played in his head.
A clap of thunder jolted him back to reality. He sat up with a start and looked out the window above his bed. The sky was darkened by both clouds and night. Wind was blowing at an alarming speed.
"A storm?" Sora had no idea that the weather change would be so sudden. He gasped, "Oh no! The raft!" He quickly opened the window and jumped out.
"Sora! Dinner's ready!" a female voice called from another part of the house. "Sora?"
He was already gone.
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"What's that?" Sora stared at the dark sky.
A huge sphere was above him. Sparks of energy danced around the red-yellow thing as debris was sucked right into it.
He made his way to docks and noticed something. "Riku's boat…and Kairi's!" they were still there.
Suddenly, several shadows appeared on the ground, solidifying to form yellow-eyed, antenna-bearing, clawed, dark creatures.
Sora was terrified. He remembered them from that dream he had two days ago. There was no way he could outmatch such a large swarm, so he ran as fast as he could. He climbed the seaside shack and ran across the small bridge to the little island.
Riku was standing in the middle of it, his back facing the spiky-haired teen.
Sora ran, panting, "Riku! Where's Kairi? I thought she was with you!"
"The door…….has opened," Riku said without facing him.
"What?"
"The door has opened, Sora!" Riku spun around and repeated. "We can go to other worlds now!" his back faced Sora again.
"Where's Kairi?.!" at the moment, Sora really couldn't care less about other worlds.
"Kairi's coming with us!" Riku spat. His back faced the other boy again. "We may never see our parents again," he said, his head hanging. "This is our only chance….," his head tilted in the direction of the sphere. "We can't let fear stop us. I'm not afraid of the darkness!" he slowly rotated to face Sora again and held his arm out, again just like the dream.
The moment he did this, a pool of darkness opened below him. He didn't sink, but familiar dark tendrils emerged and began to suck him in.
Sora reached to grab it, but didn't. It was as if some sort of unknown force was pushing him away from his friend. He failed, and Riku disappeared completely.
Sora was now on his rear. He felt different then, as if much stronger. In his hand, there was…..a key? Or was it a sword? It had a black handle that his hand was currently wrapped around. The yellow frame that surrounded the handle was more or less shaped like a square. Hanging off the frame around the handle was a small chain with an emblem at the end. The emblem looked like a 'CN' in black and white. Its shaft was long, and at the very end was the 'key' section of the weapon. The end almost looked like a King's crown, only flat.
'Keyblade…………,' a voice in his head said, '……Keyblade…………'
He could definitely fight the creatures with this. One of them approached him from the side. Sora swung his blade into it, sending the creature flying into another one. Sora side-stepped a slash from a third, and quickly stabbed it in the head. Another two came at once. Sora brought his blade down in a downward swipe. The shadows flattened against the sand, moved around, and rose to Sora's side. He blocked one of them with his blade, kicked the other one into another advancing creature, brought the blade back, and did a three-sixty into the one he was blocking.
This was getting tiresome. As more appeared, Sora knew that he couldn't keep this going forever, so he ran again.
"Perhaps…the….secret….place is……..safe," he panted to himself.
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He came up from crawling in and ran down the path.
In the chalk room, Kairi stood.
"Kairi!" Sora yelled. "Thank goodness you're…..alright?"
She had turned around slowly. Her eyes were half-closed in pure exhaustion. Her mouth hung open from lack of strength.
"Kairi?"
"Sora……," she managed and held a weak and out to him.
Suddenly, the door with no handle or knob flew open with a burst of wind. Sora managed to keep his footing, but Kairi didn't. She was blown off her feet. Sora attempted to catch her with widespread arms, but the moment Kairi would have come in contact with him, she disappeared.
Sora didn't have time to wonder why, because the wind had increased and succeeded in pushing him off his yellow-booted feet.
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He awoke to find himself back on the small island. Upon rising to his feet, his eyes widened. He was on a piece of the island, yes…a piece of the island that was suspended in midair right below the sphere. More debris rose from the 'floating island' and were sucked into the vortex.
He heard a rumbling, and turned around. "Oh…no…"
The same monster he fought before had risen and was readying a fist.
Sora bit his lip, "Guess I gotta fight this…..darkside if I wanna have time to think of getting outta here," he held his Keyblade at the ready.
Darkside shook its fist and plunged it into the round….no, his entire arm. It came out with a glowing ball. Sora ran and struck the thing's wrists, which, for some reason, held in place. Darkside's hand rose, allowing the new sphere or energy to fly into the sky. As a result, several tiny balls descended.
Sora was nearly hit by one.
The next thing Darkside did was just what it did at the first encounter. It clenched its fist and thrust it forward. A pool of darkness formed around it, producing several glowing yellow eyes. Darkside kept absolutely still. Sora ran up the long, dark arm and began hacking away at the tentacled head.
The balls of energy were still falling from above. Sora took care to avoid them and still attack the head.
The arm retracted, and Darkside watched.
Sora had its minions to deal with again. There were five of them. He plonked one on the head, stabbed it, and did a three-sixty. Not only was the dark creature defeated, but the spin move had also hit another one.
Sora blocked a leaping one with his Keyblade held at a horizontal angle. He then pushed his weight on it and sent it to its doom over the edge.
SLICE!
Sora was unaware of the enemy behind him until it scratched him in the back.
"Dah!" Sora hollered. "Rrrgh!" he whacked it on the head in annoyance.
The other two came from all sides.
Sora stabbed and killed one, kicked the other, and sunk his Keyblade into the one that had scratched him.
There was only one left. It turned into a shadow, moved around, and came up right in front of Sora.
SLINK!
Sora destroyed it by impaling its torso.
Darkside bent down on its knees, summoning strength. Projectiles ejected from its empty space of a chest, and headed for Sora.
He knew exactly what to do in a time like this. He ran behind the giant thing and jumped at its head. He swiped and swiped and swiped his key blade in hopes of destroying this thing like before.
Just like last time, Darkisde let out a growl, defeated. The dark fiend rose up as the vortex's strength grew stronger.
Sora held on tight for dear life to a tree root that was stuck deep in the soil. His luck ran out as the root snapped, and he was taken up.
"NO!" he struggled in the air, but to no avail.
Sora was sucked into the vortex.