Zakura: here comes another chapter from an eccentric old woman.
Usagi: the f…I'm not old!
Zakura: you're 20! That sounds pretty old to me.
Usagi: that's because you're a rabbit with a life-expectancy at little more than 10 years and that's if we're lucky.
Well yes here is another chapter, finished only ten minutes before my 20. Birthday (which does in fact sound scarily old…shudder) but which I'm unable to upload because of the crappiest internet connection ever.
Zakura: aw, it's not the crappiest ever, if it was it wouldn't work at all, at least now it works every other minute or so.
Usagi: hasn't worked in a while now (kicks Rabbit the laptop)
Rabbit: IT'S NOT MY FAULT! (Pouts) I may have a broken screen but I can't help it if the internet signals don't work.
Usagi: whatever, I need someone to blame so I'm blaming you.
Rabbit: (Starts playing "Blame Canada" on iTunes)
Usagi: this has nothing to do with Canada stupid computer… well anyway, here comes another chapter, with once again a short Jak and Daxter reference…well they are there, that's where most of the references end…and my OCs are there too, too lazy to introduce them again since I already did in LiD, they won't play much part here anyway, and most likely only two will be shown beyond this chapter… and a computer who's even dumber than mine is.
Rabbit: WHY DON'T YOU LOVE ME ANYMORE?
Usagi: LET ME GET ON THE INTERNET TO UPLOAD THIS AND MAYBE I'LL LIKE YOU BETTER!
Chapter 16
Return to Haven City
Having said goodbye to their friends (Nanami crying her eyes out) the Highwind was finally ready to take of again.
"The fuel tank is full" Chip the chipmunk said. "But try not to fill it up with demons and take it to the End of the World again".
"Fine, we won't" Riku said. "Hopefully it'll only be two demons, one of which I'm hoping to get rid of soon."
"I sure hope he isn't talking about me" Samehada said.
"No, it wasn't my idea to bring you along but you're not as annoying as bringing a heartless demon fox" Riku said.
"Wow Samehada, you're lucky, that's probably the closest you'll get to get a compliment from Riku" Sora said.
"Nah, I just don't want to pay for any more ice creams" Riku said.
"What ice cream? You never bought the first one you owe me" Sora complained.
"Will you two stop arguing for five minutes so we can leave?" Kairi asked. "Who wants to drive?"
"Not Riku!" Sora said before Riku even had time to open his mouth.
"Hey! I can drive the ship fine" Riku said.
"Sure, but you stink at landing it" Sora said.
Riku looked about to say something, until he remembered Sora was right, about every time he had tried to land the gummi ship it had usually ended with a crash in the past, Chip and Dale had even begged him not to try to land it ever again, since it usually ended with a lot of extra work for them.
So after quite bit of pouting and complains on Riku's side of the Highwind being too hard to control, the gang took of, Sora as a pilot.
"So where to?" Sora asked the demon fox, still in "mini-form", who was standing on the floor next to him, balancing on the dashboard with his front paws.
"I think it's that way" he said, pointing towards a random constellation. "I'm seeing some kind of desert area, and a space station."
"A desert AND a space station? Make up your mind" Riku said.
"No, it's definitely both" Kyuubi said. "The station must have stranded."
"Well there certainly aren't few worlds with deserts out there" Axel said. "There's Agrabah, the Pride Lands got some desert areas I think, and the wasteland areas surrounding Haven City and Spargus of course."
"The latter one sounds familiar" Kyuubi said and seemed to think about it for a short second. "Yes, Buxyuki has definitely heard the word Spargus being mentioned lately."
"Fine, then lets check that out" Sora said.
The Highwind turned around to go into the direction Kyuubi had pointed, towards a world the keybladers hadn't been at for quite some time, not since their last adventure.
Back then it had been first an accident, then once again as an attempt to help Sora who'd been transformed into a heartless. Thinking back it would make sense for Vexen to be there; since it had been there they found the light eco, which apparently helped getting a heartless and nobody back to normal.
After a while they could see their selected destination ahead, a world much covered in wasteland but also a few forests, and finally a large city.
"So where to? Haven City, Spargus or shall we go directly to the wasteland?" Riku asked.
"Is this a good time to mention that I don't do well in deserts?" Samehada asked nervously. "I know I'm a fish out of water normally, and I can breathe in air, but if there's too little humidity…"
"Make a portable fish tank?" Sora suggested.
Kairi couldn't help but giggle at that comment. "Maybe its better if we left him somewhere humid, there's a lake in Haven City isn't it?" she suggested.
"What? I didn't come along to be left behind in some lake! Particularly not in a city, they tend to me polluted…wait, is it polluted? Do you know? Cause a polluted sea is just as bad as a desert" Samehada said.
"Ach, lets just ask the elves okay? Maybe someone there has an idea" Sora suggested.
He drove the gummi ship down to the port, which they had previously chosen as a landing spot, it being the only place that wasn't covered by buildings or ruins of buildings.
As they got out of the ship, Samehada frowned while looking at the water. "It smells bad" he said. "Who knows what's lurking down there?"
"We could just put you in a goldfish bowl" Riku shrugged.
"Are you INSANE? Those cramped things?? In case you haven't noticed I'm a tiny bit larger than your average goldfish!" Samehada asked.
"I thought that space ship looked too colourful to belong here" a new voice suddenly said.
The gang turned around and noticed they weren't alone. There stood a young girl with blue and green hair, alongside an orange female ottsel with blonde hair on her head.
"Keira! Tess, it's been too long" Kairi said happily. "Seems you made it trhough the Kras Cup in one piece?"
"Yup" Keira said giggling. "Jak won the first price".
"With help from Daxter of course" Tess added.
"But if you ask him, he's going to tell you he won the whole thing" Keira said. "And then he'll probably tell you how he singlehandedly defeated Mizo too, probably with an army of metalheads and lurkers to his disposal."
"Mizo worked with metalheads and lurkers?" Axel asked.
"No, but this is Daxter we're talking about after all" Keira said.
"He could write great action stories" Tess said.
"Hey, you guys remember Sora?" Kairi asked, pulling her boyfriend closer to her.
"Why of course, welcome back" Keira said. "You're looking far better than the last time we met."
"Thanks, though that doesn't take much" Sora said.
"Well you've got to tell us the whole stories, the rest of the gang are in the Naughty Ottsel, we can go there" Tess said.
--
There were in fact quite a few people at the Naughty Ottsel.
Most of their old friends were there, Jak, Daxter, Ashelin, Torn, Kate, Tetra, Cornelius and Tanya.
"Well what do you know, if it isn't your old friends with the giant keys" Daxter said.
"Hello to you too" Axel said.
"We were actually here looking for some old friends of ours" Kairi said. "Have you seen a blonde arctic fox, a white nine tailed fox, a pink rabbit and a yellow bird or a blonde woman around?"
"And I thought we had some strange friends" Cornelius said, as Tanya (who sat on top of his goggles) decided to pluck out a thread of his hair. "Ow! Knock it of."
"Not a giant space station in the middle of the desert either?" Kyuubi asked.
"Hey! We know one of those don't we?" Daxter asked, poking Jak.
"Yeah, Erol's old war station fell down just outside Haven City a few years back, is that what you're looking for?" Cornelius asked.
"Could be?" Sora said, looking at Kyuubi.
"Hey, don't look at me; I don't know who owned it previously" the fox said.
"I could take you there, no one's been there in ages though so don't expect it to be clean, well possibly except if your friends are there" Cornelius said, jumping to his feet. "But first of, I see you have some new faces…Is that a fish?"
"Well we've met before, kind of" Sora said. "I'm Sora, the new shadow is Ienzo and that's Kyuubi and Samehada, and yeah he's a fish… which reminds me, he doesn't want to come along to the desert because of the drought, and refuses to wait at the lake, does anyone know anywhere with fresh water he could stay?" he asked while Samehada sighed at the idea of being left behind again.
"I have a fish tank that's clean" Tess said. "As long as he doesn't eat some of my smaller fish."
"I'll try to contain myself, but can't promise anything" Samehada said laughing. "Might be easier if I got something to eat first."
"Then that's settled, next stop the flut-flut-ranch!" Cornelius said.
"That's some detour" Kate said raising an eyebrow. "I know it's supposedly faster to ride a flut-flut than walking but the farm is waaaay past the war station."
"Aw, fine, we'll walk" Cornelius said disappointed, whilst the others laughed at him.
--
"Okay guys, there it is"
The party was standing by a clearing in the wasteland surrounding Haven City, most of the area was covered in desert, and various machine parts lying around, oh yeah, and the massive red war station.
Despite Cornelius' claims of the war station being abounded a few of the engines still appeared to be running.
"There's someone there for sure" Tanya said. "Friends of yours?"
"Maybe, let's check it out" Riku said and started running towards it before even consulting the others.
They made it into the station with ease; it was clear whoever was using it for whatever reasons hadn't found out how to lock the door yet.
However as soon as they had entered a trapdoor opened….two feet behind the heroes.
"Aperture Science would please like to ask you to take a few steps back, and then there will be cake" a strange voice said.
"Yeah right, come out here and make us!" Riku said summoning the Way to Dawn.
"It sounded like a computer Riku" Kairi said.
"And not very smart one at that" Axel remarked.
"Let's ignore what it says and keep going" Sora suggested.
"Hey! Come back here! You're disturbing the test area!" The computer voice said.
Cornelius looked around, spotted a speaker system and then shot it. "Tell it to someone who cares missy" he said.
"You are aware that you only shot one speaker, I am still alive" the voice said, now coming from a different speaker further away.
"A darnit!" Cornelius said.
"Ignore it, we've got company" the heartless fox said.
And sure enough, a white fox suddenly bounced out from a sidedoor.
"Hey, it's Buxyuki, its good to see you boy" Kairi said petting the fox.
"Leave it to Kairi to befriend even the most heartless of monsters" Axel said. "But at least that means Vexen must be here too".
"Affirmative" another voice said as Vexen the polar fox entered. "I hope the computer wasn't causing too much trouble."
"You made that?" Cornelius asked, and pointed at the busted speaker. The other one played the tune of a teasing song.
"No, I did not, I just found the parts lying around in this station and decided to fix it rather than build a PC from scratch. Now I wish I never bothered" Vexen said.
"I'm having even more trouble believing my brother made that" Cornelius said, and gazed at the other speaker, he just now noticed there was a screen bellow it, with a picture of a cake on it. "Must be a fluke, or someone else made it to mess with him."
"Well it can't have been you, you can't even install a computer game on your own PC" Tanya said.
"Hey! I'm not as stupid as you keep claiming I am, I just prioritize differently" Cornelius said. "But if you asked me just how much gunpowder it would need to blow this thing up…"
"Could you please go argue someplace else?" Zexion said. "Actually we were here to talk to you, Larxene claimed you'd come up with a new theory on heartless?"
Vexen was quick to notice the heartless the party had brought along, and grinned.
"So you haven't been out of work since she talked to you" he said. "Well I can clearly see whose heartless that is" he added pointing at Kyuubi. "But who's that?" he asked pointing at Ienzo.
"That would be my brother" Kairi said.
Vexen stared at her. "I was wondering when you would find that out" he said.
"You knew?" Sora asked.
"Well duh, Ienzo and my other Even were co-workers, of course I knew. Besides you probably don't remember but you used to sneak after him on the way to work sometimes" Vexen said.
"I did?" Kairi asked, looking at Zexion.
"You did" the cat said. "But you never got longer than 10 metres out of the house before I spotted you. You were always lousy at hiding."
Kairi glared at him.
"Well I guess there's no need to wait then, but I must warn you, I've only got successfully test the theory once, twice if you count what I saw happened to Sora, so I can't say if it's completely safe yet" Vexen said.
Everyone gazed at Kyuubi.
"What…You want to use ME as a test subject??" the fox said.
Buxyuki started to look nervous too.
"Will there be cake afterwards?" the computer voice said.
"NO GLADOS THERE WON'T BE ANY CAKE!" Vexen yelled.
Everyone stared at him in shock, but the fox merely ignored them.
"Follow me" he said calmly as he entered the next room.
Usagi: That was all. And yes GlaDos is the name of the computer. (And yes it's spelled that way) It's abbreviated of SOMETHING but I can't go check what it was since…
Rabbit: what if I just crash now so you loose this chapter?
Usagi: Did you hear something PSP?
PSP: …
Rabbit: it can't get on the internet either you know…even less since the wireless hasn't worked at all.
Usagi: but I can play Crisis Core on it.
Rabbit: ….I have Sims 2…
Zack: oooh. Sims 2. (Snatches Sims 2 disk and escapes into the PSP)
Rabbit: HEY!
Usagi: Please review…
GlaDos: and then there will be cake.
Rabbit: aw please… Everyone knows the cake is a lie…even if you HAVEN'T played Portal (which btw: Usagi hasn't)
Usagi: YouTube is such a wonderful website…if only I could access it.
Rabbit: ... (turns to the modem) GOD DAMNIT WORK ALREADY! (Kicks modem)
Modem: Zzzzzz
Rabbit: aw for the love of…
Zakura: why are the electronics talking?
PSP: because its boring to be quiet, and both Rabbit and I have speakers so…why not?
Zakura: I can't even find a decent answer to that…
Usagi: please review! And no…there won't be cake... unless you bake one, THEN there will be cake!
And quite obviously the internet connection did return eventually..
Rabbit: (shakes the modem) if you fail on me now I will murder you!