Chapter 2
"Morning Leon!"
Squall Leonheart groaned loudly and put his head in his hands. Yuffie's high-pitched voice struck a note that was just a little too cheerful for this early in the day. The teenage girl pranced up behind where he was seated at Ansem's computer, draping her arms over his shoulders. "Aw, c'mon! What's with the face Leon?"
At least she's finally stopped calling me Squall… Leon thought to himself. Besides, she already knew very well that he wasn't a morning person; she just derived some strange pleasure from testing his patience. He attempted to ignore the small, hyperactive ninja behind him and to continue his routine checkup on the city defenses, but Yuffie would have none of that.
"LEEEOOOOONNNN!" she whined. "You're not listening to me!"
"Little louder." Leon finally replied. "I'm not sure they heard you upstairs."
"Uh-oh!" Yuffie chimed. "Looks like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed!"
"Don't you have something to do?" He grumbled as he got out of his chair, and turned to face her. Yuffie's singsong voice was beginning to grate on him. She just stood there, grinning up at him with that silly smile.
"Not really." She said. "Annoying you is pretty fun, Squall. Besides, you-HEY!"
Leon grabbed her head, pulled it tightly to his side with a laugh and started rubbing his fist into the top of her head.
"MMF! Stop it!" Yuffie's muffled voice protested as Leon's knuckles dug into her scalp. She gripped his wrists in an attempt to pry herself loose from her captor. "Lemme go, get off! That's not fair!"
Leon didn't respond, laughing again. She may have been annoying as hell and overly hyper, but Yuffie always somehow managed to get him in a good mood, even when she tried to irritate him. Plus it was a guilty pleasure of his to feed her some of her own medicine every now and then.
"Alright, alright!" Yuffie squealed from somewhere around his stomach.
"Can't hear you." She was right, this WAS fun.
"Get off!" She yelled.
"Say it." Leon's voice was stern, but the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile.
"What? Oh come on, no way!"
"Say it!"
"Ow! Okay, OKAY! Uncle, Uncle! I give up!"
"Uh…am I interrupting anything?" Leon and Yuffie turned to see a very amused Sora grinning at them from the doorway.
"No, not really." Leon responded in his typical nonchalant nature, ignoring the fact that a seriously ticked-off girl was held firmly against his side.
"We're just having a nice little chat." Huffed Yuffie as she awkwardly attempted to worm her way out from under Leon's arm. She stumbled backwards with a tiny yelp as Leon suddenly (and deliberately) released his grip, and she fell to the floor with a dull thud. Once she had clumsily made her way back to her feet, Leon received a swift kick in the shin.
"Did you want something?" Leon asked, rubbing his leg.
"Yeah," Sora replied, getting back to business; Events like that were pretty much commonplace around here. "I was just wondering if you'd seen Kairi around? Doesn't she like to hang out with Yuffie down here?"
"Yeah, but I haven't seen her today…" Yuffie said. "Did you check the market?"
"Yeah, I already checked out the market, but I didn't see her anywhere."
"I see that didn't stop you from getting some ice cream though." Said Yuffie with a teasing grin, pointing to the blue popsicle in Sora's hand.
Sora shrugged, putting on his best guilty face. "It's good…"
"Well, sorry, but Kairi hasn't been down here." Said Leon.
"I don't know where else she'd be…" Yuffie mused, scratching her head. "Oh, wait! I haven't seen Aerith around either, so they might have gone out to the fields outside of town. Aerith really seems to like the flowers out there."
"Alright, I guess I can go look. Haven't been down there for a while anyway." Said Sora, turning to leave. "Let me know if you see her." He had hardly taken two steps when a robotic voice blared from the computer.
WARNING. WARNING. WARNING.
Sora turned slowly around to face Leon. "That's not a good sign, is it?"
Leon stared at the computer screen, which was flashing bright red. "No." he said quietly. "It's not."
THWACK!
"Nice one." Riku complimented as he watched the heartless soldier sail through the air and land a very good distance away, producing a cloud of dust and a muffled thud. "There's one that won't be getting back up."
As if on cue a pink heart-shaped orb rose up from the spot where the heartless had landed, vanishing into thin air a few meters up.
The two of them were at the far end of the Great Maw, which was the best location in Radiant Garden for what Riku had affectionately dubbed 'Heartless-Hammering'.
"You're up." was Cloud Strife's only response as he stepped aside, giving Riku room to swing. The last heartless charged head on in a blind rage, and Riku took his stance, planting his feet and sending the heartless soaring into the air above them. Another thud sounded, but the crater was still several feet short of any of the ones cloud had landed.
"Just cause you've got a big sword..." Riku muttered as he turned away from the field of craters.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night." Cloud replied with a grin.
"So this is seriously what you do in your spare time?" Riku asked.
"Sometimes." Cloud said without turning. "Why?"
"No reason, I just always figured you were off doing something important."
Cloud allowed himself a small laugh, and then they both turned as they heard Sora's voice calling out "Riku! Cloud!"
Sora, was rushing towards them out of the caves towards them, urgency in his eyes.
"This doesn't look like good news…" Riku said as Sora reached them, panting heavily.
"We have to get to the Gummi ship." Sora managed to say as he tried to catch his breath. "There's been a Heartless attack."
Riku felt a lead weight drop down into his stomach. A Heartless attack? After all this time? They hadn't had to deal with a full-scale attack in months! Sure there were still several left in Radiant Garden and the other worlds, but the ones that were still around were just stragglers wandering around aimlessly looking for hearts, easily taken care of by the world's inhabitants. Any threat the heartless had once posed had disappeared a long time ago!
"I couldn't believe it either…" Sora was saying. "But it's happening."
"Where?" Riku mechanically asked.
"Wonderland."
"All I'm saying is that SOMEBODY should go with them!" Yuffie raved as the group gathered around the launch pad to see the Gummi ship off. "At least let me go! They're just kids!"
"And you are…?" Tifa questioned with a raised eyebrow.
Yuffie opened her mouth to say something back, but closed it again when she couldn't think of a response. "Well, I could still help…" she muttered.
Tifa smiled. She knew Yuffie just wanted another chance to be in the action. She'd been getting more and more antsy in the months since their last big battle, and it had gotten to the point where she would wander around the outermost regions of Radiant Garden for hours on end just to battle a single wayward heartless.
"Those two can handle themselves." Said Cloud, appearing at her side. "I wouldn't worry about it. They've gotten pretty strong now."
"I know, I know…" Yuffie sulked. "Good thing I taught 'em everything I know, huh?" she said, giving a sudden grin.
A short distance away, Sora, Riku and Leon were huddled in a tight circle.
"Different?" Riku was saying. "What do you mean, it's different?"
"I meant what I said." Leon coldly responded. "The readings the computer was getting from Wonderland aren't like they usually are. They just seemed…off, somehow."
"Are you sure it wasn't just the computer?" Sora asked. "I mean, it's been a few months since it's been used for that. Maybe it's just warming back up or something."
"…Maybe." Leon admitted. "But I don't think we should take any chances. While you're there look for anything out of the ordinary. You already know what the heartless can do if they gather enough energy, so be careful and let us know if anything happens."
"Roger." Replied Sora with a mock-salute. "Don't worry about it, Sora and Riku are on the case! We'll take care of everything!"
Leon nodded, and walked off saying "Good luck." Riku walked off as well, to grab the small bag he was taking, leaving Sora to check through his own bag one more time to make sure he had remembered potions.
"SORA!" he turned to see Kairi running towards him. "Oh thank God, I thought I had missed you…" She said, coming to a stop in front of him. "I heard you're leaving…" her eyes were dark with worry, and they cautiously avoided his as the beautiful redhead looked away.
"I-it's not for very long." Sora comforted her. "We just have to go and take care of a heartless problem, and then we'll be back before you know it." He smiled, and softly cupped her chin, turning her head so that he could look right into her eyes. "I promise."
Before he knew it, Kairi had enveloped him in one of the biggest hugs of his life. He wrapped his arms around her, squeezing back just as tightly. Finally they parted, and Kairi allowed herself a tiny smile.
"Be careful…" she breathed.
And then she did something Sora never would have expected. She leaned, kissed him on the cheek, and then turned away, blushing furiously as she walked off. As she passed Riku, she stopped long enough to say, "Make sure he doesn't get himself hurt." and gave him a quick hug before she left.
"You got it." Was Riku's response as he slung his sword over his shoulder and walked over to join Sora at the Gummi ship.
"What's the matter with you?" he asked, shooting Sora a strange look. The brown haired boy was just standing there, touching the right side of his face with an almost hilariously vacant expression. "Hello? Earth to Sora!" Riku yelled as he waved a hand in front of Sora's face.
"Wha-? Oh, right…" Sora shook his head rapidly and turned to make his way up into the ship.
"You alright?" Riku asked. "You looked pretty out of it."
"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just…thinking."
Riku shrugged, climbing up into the cockpit and strapping himself in next to his best friend. "You sure you don't want to go to Disney Castle and get Donald and Goofy?" he asked as they got situated. Those two had been by Sora's side almost 24/7 for the past several months, and had just recently gone back home for a little vacation and a much needed rest.
"Nah, it's okay. They deserve some time off for a while. Besides, I think we can handle this." Sora grinned as he flicked the first button in the ignition sequence. Riku mirrored his grin in response, and the two of them turned to wave goodbye to everybody who had gathered to see them off.
Sora eagerly scanned the faces for any sign of Kairi, disappointed when he didn't see her face anywhere in the crowd. Finally, just a few seconds before takeoff, he spotted her peeking out from behind the crowd. Their eyes met, and she smiled shyly as she waved to him. Sora barely had time to wave in return before the engines roared to life, and the Gummi ship rose up slowly into the air.
"Ready?" Riku turned to him, his hands on the warp button.
Sora flashed him a thumbs up. "Let's do it."
Riku pressed down on the button, and the world around them turned into a swirling vortex of bright colored energy as they blew through space towards their target.
*Phew*!
Chapter two is finally up, and we're finally getting the actual story rolling! This took a little longer than I thought, but I've been busy with getting ready for finals, so leave me alone.
Anyway, if you're wondering how they all got back to Radiant Garden, it'll all be explained eventually, I promise.
Reviews and constructive criticisms are always welcome, and I hope you enjoyed it!
