Usagi: I would like to point out that no demons were harmed during the writing of this chapter…they were already injured.

Chapter 5

Demonic Rescue

The demons were invited inside along with their human friends.

Captain Gordon introduced himself as the Defender of Earth; he was also accompanied by his assistant Jennifer and the all-purpose-robot Thursday.

"I don't blame you for never having heard of me since we are a long way from home" Gordon explained. "But back on Earth I was seen as the biggest hero on the planet!"

"That's odd, considering in the Netherworld he's considered the biggest dofus on the planet" Etna said. "But once again, we are NOT here to tell your life-story Gordon".

"So what have you been up to lately? We haven't seen you in ages" Kairi said.

"Please tell me everything is fine and you just came to say hi" Demyx begged.

"If everything had been fine I would never have shared a space ship with this moron to get here" Etna said. "As a matter of fact, we need your help, or more precisely Laharl needs your help, and that means us too because if he's in trouble he's going to cause trouble for us and the entire Netherworld!"

"Danger, Danger" the robot said (un)helpfully.

"What happened?" Sora asked.

"Well… do you remember that fox we met just before you guys left?" Etna asked.

"Who could forget, he was creepy" Demyx whined.

"That little runt was nothing, that's why the prince wanted to find his heartless, and boy did we find it" Etna said.

"Well to be fair, that stranger found it" Flonne said.

"What stranger?" Riku asked.

"There was this man who showed up at the castle one day, only a few weeks ago" Flonne explained. "I knew there was something weird about him the moment he entered, he didn't look like a demon, and there was something about him that gave me a creepy feeling, even more so than your average demon."

"Wait…this guy, how did he look like?" Demyx said.

"We couldn't really see him properly, he was wearing a cloak and sunglasses to hide his face" Etna said. "Besides he was standing next to a gigantic nine-tailed demon fox, I was more worried about that one."

"It was mean dood" one of the prinnies said.

"It was horrible dood" another one said shivering.

"We didn't see it but it sounded pretty bad, not to mention judging by the state of the castle" Jennifer said.

"Let me guess, he couldn't control the heartless fox so it attacked?" Riku said. "I told him something like that would happen."

"Yeah, how can he be so stupid? Ignoring the advice he got to stay clear of heartless and the forces of darkness?" Sora said.

"Shut up Sora" Riku muttered.

"Yeah, that's pretty much how it happened" Etna said. "Laharl sent his vassals to attack the fox but the stranger summoned a whole bunch of more heartless, even stronger than the ones on our side, the ones that WERE on our side, as it didn't take long before they turned on us too. Flonne and I only just managed to escape unscathed."

"By sacrificing about fifty of us dood!" one of the prinnies complained.

"Oh I wouldn't worry about them, they'll just be reborn" Etna assured the penguin-demons. "Soon after these guys appeared, so we decided to go here to look for help".

"That's some story you guys, but how did you find this place?" Mickey asked.

"It sure wasn't easy" Gordon said. "Not even Thursday had the coordinates to your position, but we have mapped quite a few other worlds, so we decided to ask around then we figured you guys seem to have been just about everywhere."

"Luckily in one world we met a small dragon who told us he knew you, he mentioned this city" Jennifer explained.

"That must have been Mushu" Goofy said. "He used to help us on our first adventure".

"What happened to Laharl?" Kairi asked.

"We don't know, we couldn't find him anywhere" Etna said. "We need your help to try to find him, and drive the heartless out."

"Well then I say we go help" Kairi said.

"NO!" Demyx yelled.

"I hate to say it but this time I agree with Demyx, a demon world is dangerous" Mickey said.

"Yes… what he said" Demyx said. "Demons are definitely not good."

"We've been there once before and no one died" Riku said. "Not even Sora and he was a shadow".

"I thought we agreed not to talk about that?" Sora said.

"When you were there last time were you ever attacked by random demons?" Mickey asked.

"Maybe once…or twice…" Riku admitted. "But they were weaklings!"

"That might be but what if you were to encounter any really STRONG demons? They're very aggressive creatures and many won't think twice about attacking humans" Mickey said.

"The mouse has got a point there" Etna said.

"So you're saying we should just let the demons perish is that it?" Riku asked.

"You don't have to" Donald said. "You just need a good disguise."

"That one has to be good, a pair of plastic wings and a fake tail won't work" Etna said.

"I wasn't talking about plastic wings and tail" Donald said sounding offended.

"Hey yeah, you could give us a good disguise right Donald?" Sora suggested.

"I could" the duck said. "But I was thinking more about letting you do it yourselves, you've been flying of alone a lot lately so it could be useful."

"You can teach us how to transform? Cool!" Kairi said.

"Of course, it's not that hard" Donald said. "Just use your keyblades like you would use any other spell and concentrate on the form you want to take."

"That sounds simple enough, let me try" Sora said and summoned the Kingdom Key.

He pointed the keyblade out in front of him and soon a light started coming out if it. The light grew bigger until it surrounded Sora completely, everyone watched with excitement as the light faded and revealed….a lion cub.

"That's so cute!" Kairi said as most of the others in the room started giggling (except for Etna and Riku who both started laughing loudly).

"What the? What went wrong?" Sora said.

"Er…yeah…its not hard when you've trained at it, and its easier to go into a form which you've been in before, just try again and I'm sure you'll do better" Donald said.

"I'll show you" Sora growled to Etna and Riku and picked up the keyblade he had lost with his teeth. "Come on, human-like creature with wings and a tail. How hard can that be?" he muttered as light surrounded him again.

This time he did manage to transform himself into a human with wings and tail, too bad he didn't have any feet to stand on so he fell to the ground. Looking back at his body he realised the upper half was like his Halloween Town-costume, the lower was a dolphin-tail.

This time everyone in the room broke out into laughter, even the fallen angel Flonne and Sora was getting increasingly more annoyed.

He glanced over at the demons before trying one last time, as he finally got to his feet he looked almost normal again, except that he seemed to have kept his vampirebat-wings, only now they were red, and he had gotten a long thin red tail sticking out from his back. On his head, were two tiny white horns and his ears were a lot sharper than usual.

"How do I look?" he asked once the laughter had died out somewhat.

"Like a devil" Etna said. "And it suits you."

"Bet I can do it faster than you" Riku said.

"Be careful with all that betting of yours you already owe me an ice cream" Sora reminded him as the light from Road to Dawn surrounded his friend.

When the light vanished, a silver-coated ottsel sat on the floor.

"Not that easy is it?" Sora said as the rest of the room broke out in laughter again.

"Next time we try out a new transformation, let's do it in an empty room" Riku said before trying a second time.

"Agreed" Sora said.

As the light disappeared again Riku was still sitting on the floor, now as a small round furry creature with a fluffy tail.

"What on earth is that?" Sora asked the question everyone else would ask if they hadn't been too busy laughing.

"I think I'm a Tasmanian devil" Riku said, trying to ignore the laughter around him as he examined his new body.

"Close, but it won't do" Etna said between her giggles. "Humans might be shooting practise but if you show up in the Netherworld looking like that someone's gonna eat you."
Trying a third time, Riku finally managed to summon the tail and wings… But he was still a Tasmanian devil.

"That was three, now who was going to do it faster than me?" Sora asked.

"Okay fine, I admit it. But you've transformed more often than I have" Riku said. "Only time I changed was when Donald turned me into an ottsel that one day… and its not easy holding a keyblade without any hands!"

"Now this is getting ridiculous" Donald said and pulled out his wand. A ray of magical light shot out of it and hit Riku, as the light vanished once more he was a real demon, no fur in sight, with a pair of red bat wings and the same long demon tail and pointy ears that Sora had.

"Don't worry about it, you'll get the hang of it soon enough" Donald assured him as Riku just glared at him. "Do you need any help Kairi?"

"Nah, I'll manage" Kairi said. Donald looked around and saw her standing next to Merlin's bed where Zexion was also sitting. But the most noticeable thing on Kairi was that she already had a pair of red wings and tail, in almost the same colour as her hair, and the pointy ears, she grinned at the boys who couldn't help but stare.

"It helps to have a big brother who's a master of illusions" she said.

"Transformations are easy, I just wish my powers were enough to get me out of this cat-body" Zexion said.

"Wow, you guys are looking good, no lowlevel demon would pick on you know" Etna said.

"What about the high-level ones?" Sora asked.

"They pick on anyone. You can't help that" Etna said shrugging.

"There's just one thing, our eyes are still the same, don't demons usually have red eyes?" Kairi said.

"Usually. But don't worry about it, some demons have blue and green eyes too, unusual but it happens" Etna said.

"Well if that's settled shall we go?" Kairi asked eagerly.

"Absolutely not!" said a new voice.

"Damn…I knew we forgot something" Zexion muttered, as his and Kairi's mother suddenly had appeared in the door.

"Mom… My friends need help; we've got to save them!" Kairi said.

"I won't have my daughter running of to some demon-world! You could get hurt" Nanami said.

"It's okay mom, after all I have Sora and Riku to protect me right?" Kairi said.

The way Nanami looked at Sora however proved she didn't really think that was an improvement.

"I've been looking for you for so long honey, I don't say this to be mean I just don't want you to loose you again like I lost your brother" the woman said as Zexion crawled under Merlin's bed sheets.

"But don't you think there might be a demon mother in the Netherworld thinking the same thing?" Kairi tried.

"Kai, maybe you should sit this one out"

Kairi stared at Sora in disbelief, again.

"Don't give me that look, Riku and I can handle it, don't worry" Sora said.

"That's not what bothers me, you've left me behind before, and you have no idea what it's like knowing you are out there fighting while I'm safe at home!" Kairi said. "Please mom, I promise I'll be careful."
"If it helps, demons aren't really as bad as many people think they are" Flonne said. "In fact many are quite nice."

Nanami didn't seem all too impressed with this news, and just gazed at the fallen angel. Kairi sighed.

"Fine, I'll stay home" she said.

"I'll call you once we get there" Sora said.

"Oh that won't be necessary" Kairi said.

"Good, do we need any mushy good byes first or shall we just go before the Netherworld goes to hell…more than it already is?" Etna asked. "We can take Gordon's ship its more than big enough".

"But I was going to go home and have some pizza!" Gordon said.

Etna, Flonne and Jennifer glared at him.

"But who can worry about food when the demon world is in danger?" the defender of earth said, doing a heroic pose again.

"Where did you find that looser?" Axel asked.

"He kind of crashed down on our doorstep so we decided to keep him. The poor thing wouldn't last a minute without help" Etna said.

"I heard that" Gordon said.

"Be careful Sora" Kairi said.

"Aren't I always?" Sora asked.

"No you're not, that's what I'm telling you to be careful" Kairi said.

"You know… Maybe I should wait here with Kairi to…protect her…right" Demyx suggested.

"She doesn't need protecting back here beaver-boy, you're coming with us" Riku said and picked up the beaver by his tail and dragged him outside.

Everyone else left the room too to see the guys of, but Kairi and Zexion (who was still hiding under the bed sheets) stayed behind for a while longer.

"Zexion? Would you be able to open a dark portal between Radiant Garden and the Netherworld?" Kairi asked.

"Technically as a responsible big brother I should tell you that using those portals too much is very dangerous for a person who doesn't want to loose his heart, you know that?" the lump under the bed sheets said.

"Yes, but are you a responsible brother?" Kairi asked.

"Nope. But lets wait till tonight, if mother notices she'll go nuts" Zexion said.

"I knew I could count on you" Kairi said and picked up the cat before she ran outside.

Usagi: once again, I'm sorry for another long chapter with little more than talking, but hopefully you found Sora and Riku's attempts at transformation as funny as I did:3

Sora: you cruel little…

Usagi: I know. There's been another mention of the Mysterious Stranger and we might be closer to figuring out who he is…and he's not Naruto.

Mysterious Stranger: Believe it!

Usagi: Laharl has gone missing and no one knows where he is…wonder what happened to him (Innocent whistle)

Sora: I don't like the sound of that whistling…

Demyx: I told you going to the Netherworld was a bad idea.

Mysterious Stranger: oh it's not that bad… I see trees of green here…red roses too.

Demyx: GET AWAY FROM ME! (Hides in Merlin's bed)

Zexion: get out of here (kicks him out)
Axel: say…is Demyx acting more scared than usual?

Usagi: no… he's always been like that…

Axel: I can't remember him ever being THAT scared…

Usagi: no no. Demyx's behaviour is completely natural and it's totally not foreshadowing. He's just scared of demons.

Sora: but no demon has harmed him before.

Usagi: He's acting completely normal. End of story.

Zakura: or is he? Maybe he DOES have a valid reason to be scared? OTHER than the possibility of meeting a gigantic demon fox?

Flonne: what could be scarier than that?

Demyx: I can think of some things…

Usagi: I don't doubt that. Please review people.