Netherworld Lights

Chapter one: The Encounter

Sora didn't mind taking a break from his journey, much to his companion's surprise. Usually he was in a rush to find the friends he was separated from all this time, to find out what Organization XIII was using the Nobodies for, and to find King Mickey. But it also occurred to Donald and Goofy their companion, Sora, was indeed a young boy and sometimes he didn't mind having a little fun. So what if he was a hero to the worlds, as were Donald and Goofy, he still wanted to enjoy himself.

So they decided to go to Hollow Bastion to take a break, they weren't disappointed by the generosity of the townspeople there. Scrooge McDuck invited Sora, Hewey, Dewey and Louie (as well as anyone else who wanted to indulge) to his ice cream stand in the evenings. Sora's face would beam at the ice cream, even though he insisted that he was almost too old to get so excited over a simple frozen delight.

Donald would sit on the edge of town that overlooked the gloomy castle, his mind always wandering to the whereabouts of their king. Goofy would be... well Goofy, and find simple pastimes in the town, that ultimately ended up slightly dangerous because of his clumsy nature.

It was on such an evening that something happened to disrupt their fun, peaceful stay at Hollow Bastion.

All that day, and part of the afternoon, Sora had been bothering the stern Leon about borrowing his Gunblade. Leon, being the serious man he was, refused to let the boy take the weapon insisting that he would end up hurting himself. Sora knew that it was a dangerous weapon, but wouldn't give up the battle so easily. Yuffie, the ninja, and Merlin also got into the discussion: they both agreed with Leon naturally. Before Sora could come up with a proper comeback for, "You'll put your eye out", they were interrupted by Scrooge McDuck.

Entering Merlin's house Scrooge, followed by the triplets and Donald, rushed towards Merlin asking in his accented voice, "Is that Cid slacking again?"

The blonde Cid, who was sitting in front of the Security System computer, whirled around at the sound of the accusation, "Wha'cha goin'a say I'm slacking for? I sit at this desk making sure that cockamamie device keeps the town safe all day long! Merlin don't even let me get somethin' to eat sometimes!"

The town's greatest defense was the computerized Heartless detecting program, and it was always functioning (with the exception of when Sora and the other's had to save it). As soon as a Heartless attacked within the city, the system would counterattack by popping up nearby the Heartless and reducing their energy until they were either defeated by someone else or the system itself.

"Mr. McDuck," Sora began, seeing the worried look the older duck held as well as the triplets' faces, "What's going on?"

But it wasn't any use: Scrooge was already trying to accuse Cid of taking an unsceduled break causing the town to be in danger. Merlin and Yuffie took it upon themselves to stop the upset Scrooge and Cid from further fighting. Yuffie took ahold of Cid's arm, while Merlin began to try and calm down the angry duck.

Donald shook his head, answering Sora, "It's horrible... the entire ice cream stand is destroyed. We found it like that, Scrooge was unconscious in the freezer, thank goodness it wasn't closed completely."

Sora's mouth was agape, "Just like that? Were their Heartless still around?"

"No," Donald shook his head, "Goofy stayed their to make sure nothing else happened."

Leon, who'd been quietly listening to the entire scene from a distance approached the shocked Sora and Donald, "Maybe the Heartless aren't involved in this at all. Cid's been at the machine all day, we know that, so maybe it's not a Heartless... just someone without a heart..."

Sora nodded in agreement, starting for the door with Donald closely in tow, "We'll check it out!"

Scrooge McDuck, his anger dampened now due to Merlin and Yuffie's efforts, called out, "Wait, Lad! Be careful and take this!"

Turning back around Sora held up his hand just in time to catch a small key that Scrooge tossed his way. Looking at the small, plain key Sora's eyes turned back to Scrooge questioningly. Scrooge said, "It's the lock to the freezer. When it closes it locks automatically... if anything dangerous happens just be sure that no one gets stuck inside of the freezer..."

It was a strange request but Sora smiled, nodding once more, left promptly saying with his usual enthusiastic manner, "Let's go, Donald!"

When they arrived Sora found it was just as Donald told him: the ice cream stand was completely destroyed. Yet there was no sign of Goofy anywhere, the shield carrying guard usually made his presence known no matter where he went. Sora cupped his hands around his mouth, yelling, "Goof-f-f-fy..."

It wasn't but a few seconds that a reply came, in the form of a strange sound from the direction of the ice cream stand's gigantic freezer. Sora quickly realized it was a very fortunate thing that Scrooge had given them the key to the room, for inside he knew they would find Goofy. Donald and Sora rushed to the freezer, using the key to open the door--sure enough out stumbled the half-icy guard.

Goofy rubbed at his shoulders with his arms, his teeth chattering, "Hya-yuk! T-Thanks guys!"

"Goofy," Sora shook his head, "How in the world did you get stuck in there?"

The guard just shrugged his shoulders and resumed trying to warm himself. Sora and Donald gave him their most puzzled look, then looked in the direction of the freezer. Walking up to the door the Keyblade's chosen glanced over the door, narrowing his eyes, "Someone must have closed it behind you. Who could do such a thing, you could've been hurt!"

Donald nodded his head in agreement, "I bet you it was a Heartless after all!"

Goofy shook his head, "Now that I come to think of it, something did seem strange about me being shut up in that there freezer. I could've swore someone was laughing as the door shut."

Sora, Donald and Goofy were all puzzled by this mystery.

"Hey, boneheads!" Called out a harsh voice, all three of the heroes began to search for the origin, "I got something to ask you, if you don't mind!"

"There!" Donald said, pointing with the end of his wizard's rod to a newly arrived figure just on top of the ice cream stand. "Heartless?"

But it wasn't a heartless at all. Not any that they'd seen before, that Sora could tell. This was a duck, like Donald and Uncle Scrooge, but he wore a strange costume: with a fedora on his head and a mask on his face.

Sora called out, "Who are you, Mister! You wouldn't happen to know who messed up Scrooge's shop, would you?"

"Know? I'm the one that did it, kid!" Cackled the duck, his eyes narrowing, "Now I have a question: where do they keep the cash in this sappy little ice cream shack? I searched and searched--all I found was this--" The figure held out a large coin purse, the top pouring out with munny. Sora's eyes lit up, as did Donald and Goofy, never had they saw so much munny in one place. "Don't tell me this junk is worth something!"

"Hey, that doesn't belong to you, give it back!" Sora demanded, watching Donald beside him lick his beak (still staring at the money). "Leon was right! You aren't a Heartless, but you still have no heart! Why would you do something like that, mister?"

"It's not mister, it's NegaDuck. And I did it because I wanted to, kid! If you want this back, take it back--if you can!" NegaDuck cackled holding the bag up high in the air. To NegaDuck's taunt Sora, Donald and Goofy all took a serious mood. Reaching behind him the boy took out a large weapon, notably swordlike yet instead of a blade it was shaped like a large key. NegaDuck held in a laugh at the ridiculous looking weapon as he watched the other two pull out their own. Donald carried what looked to be a wand with a large hat on the end, and Goofy an oversized shield.

"What a pathetic bunch you are! Those weapons couldn't stop a troupe of teenaged girls at a sale at the mall, let alone NegaDuck!" Pointing to the key in particular NegaDuck made a flashy gesture as he began to search behind his back for his own weapon. Thinking to himself, 'The Chainsaw would do these three good. They'll be running at the first sight of it!' But to his displeasure as he pulled out his weapon he was shocked to see that it was not his trusty Chainsaw. Instead NegaDuck pulled out a large, long handled hammer. The color scheme matching his outfit perfectly.

"What the h...?" NegaDuck yelled as he inspected the object he held now. It wasn't any of his weapons, he deduced within an instant. "What is this thing?"

Goofy covered his mouth as he watched the villain's confused face. Soon Sora and Donald joined their companion in the laughter. Sora put his hands on his hips, "You know it'd be easier to just give up the munny right now, Negy... whatever..."

The duck wasn't listening.

NegaDuck's inspection of the weapon turned up a small card located near the grip area of the hammer. It read, 'The Troublemaker: A weapon for all of those who desire to cause trouble to all those who don't want it. (P.S. Air Combo Plus One)'. "Whatever this means..." NegaDuck muttered. But he knew he would have to work with it, after all it wasn't tacky looking by any means. It looked well-crafted and expensive.

Raising the hammer, NegaDuck shouted, "All right! Now I'm ready!"

Sora, Donald and Goofy were all three seated in a circle at the base of the ice cream parlor playing cards. All three had heavy concentration on the game they played. Suddenly, Goofy shouted with delight, "Gin!"

Donald grumbled and Sora let a small giggle pass his lips. NegaDuck was not amused: "Will you knobs pay me some attention? It's not like this munny, or whatever, is going to save itself!"

Sora stood up, brushing off his ebony outfit as he prepared for battle once more. "Fine, fine. Bring it on!"

With that Sora did a fantastic leap into the sky, his weapon aimed directly for the masked villain. NegaDuck, amazed by the boy's feat, had no more than a moment to prepare for the strike against him. Blocking the keyblade's attack with his lengthy handle of the sword. Gritting his teeth Sora pressed the keyblade down with more power than NegaDuck thought possible for a mere child to accomplish. NegaDuck broke the blocking position; stumbling backwards and raising the hammer once more.

Sora smiled for a moment, "Wan'a give up Scrooge's munny yet?"

"Not a chance!" NegaDuck snarled lunging forward to make a broad swing with the weapon. Sora jumped sideways to avoid the weapon's blow and out of the corner of his eye spotted his companion's joining him on the roof of the ice cream parlor. "You're about to chance your mind!"

NegaDuck's eyes grew as he watched Goofy hurl his shield like a Frisbee through the air. Dodging this attack was nearly impossible for NegaDuck, who was unexperienced with this type of combat. Knocked back from the attack NegaDuck grimaced, "What's with you guys! You shouldn't be able to have these kinds of powers!"

"You think their somethin'?" Cackled Donald raising his wand in the air. It seemed giving up was no longer an option they were giving NegaDuck. "Blizzara!"

A large ice crystal appeared from nowhere in front of NegaDuck. Attaching itself to his hammer, the ice rapidly grew in formation until it covered the top of NegaDuck's hands, freezing them in place. Shivering both in cold and anger the villain took another swing, this time with all of his might trying both to hit the opponents and to knock free his hands. Throwing the end of the hammer downward, into the ground, he watched in shock as the hammer let loose an eruption of shockwaves covering the roof of the building.

Sora and Goofy were knocked from the roof. Goofy landing on the ground below with a distressed, "Yahhhow-w-w-w!"

The boy, however, hovered midair and returned an attack instantly to his foe. The power of this hit greater than all those before: Sora send NegaDuck flying away. Not only did the villain fly into the air, it would seem that it would be sometime before he would land all together. Sora wasted no time as he jumped into the air following the helpless NegaDuck in his pained flight. NegaDuck's eyes caught Sora's own, and the keyblade's owner gave him a taunting gesture before using his weapon to knock NegaDuck away. The masked duck's state was similar to a homerun hit at a baseball game as he disappeared into the air. "See ya later, NegyDuck!" Sora called gleefully as he fell back safely to the ground. Striking a pose as he did, "That'll teach him!"

"But... Sora..." Goofy called from the ground.

"Yea?" Sora asked, seeing Donald shake his head and slap his own forehead. "What's wrong guys?"

"What about the munny!" Donald asked in frustration. "He's gotten away!"

"Oh no. I forgot..." A teardrop formed over Sora's head. "Sorry guys..."

Author's Notes: Woah. I can't believe I got so many people reviewing on just an introduction. Thank you all for the reviews! Also, to Mrs/Mr. Just-A-Fan: I truly am quite scared of putting my story in the KH section. All of the KHs fictions I've saw so far are all "Sora Falls in Love With Axel and Runs Away" and "Nomine Loves Saix for No Reason"-ish. v.v; I'm a coward. Anyhow, I hope I got Uncle Scrooge down. I've only saw him in comics and very few Ducktales episodes. Thanks!