AN: A somewhat timely update? It must be a sign of the apocalypse! Anyway, chapter 10, written on a blackberry again 'cause my computer's still broken, and I think it's pretty long, well, it looked long on the blackberry, did you know those things have a character limit? XP
And a certain someone that a few of you have been asking about finally appears...
Enjoy
Disclaimer: I'm running out of creative ways to say I don't own this...
"It's quiet...too quiet..."
"Did you really just say that?"
Sora and Ed were glaring daggers at each other...again. Kairi had expressed her joy that they had begun to get along while inside the computer, but Riku had remained skeptical. And sure enough, as soon as they were all inside the gummi ship, all it took were a few short jokes and a couple comments about Sora's intelligence, or lack there of, for the "friendship" to deteriorate into a shouting match. The noise had been brought to an in-transit halt by the threat of flying wrenches but as soon as they had landed in Twilight Town, it had started up again. And now with Sora quoting one of the cheesiest and most overused lines of dialogue in the universe, it was a miracle Ed wasn't hurtling him off the clock tower. Sora had a point though, it was too quiet.
The report they'd been given by Tifa, which in turn had come from the Elrics' friends who were staying in twilight town, had stated that the town was being attacked by heartless. But in the ten minutes that they'd spent arguing in front of the train station, they hadn't seen anything; heartless, human or otherwise.
"Hey can I see the map?" Riku held his hand out and Kairi passed him the piece of paper. He examined it, trying to figure out where they should go first. "Hey, do you know where your friends are?" Riku asked. The question was directed towards Al, who didn't respond. Riku glanced up to see what the boy was doing only to find him completely ensconced in a laptop computer. Leon's laptop to be presise. The photos Ansem had taken in the Elrics' world had been loaded on to it and it had become the source of quite a bit of awe and discussion on the ride over. "Al? You still with us?" Riku ventured.
"What? Oh yeah, what's up?" Al smiled and closed the computer, slipping it back into its bag.
Riku shook his head, "I was just wondering if you knew anything about where your friends might be?"
Al's smile fell, "Sorry, I don't know..."
Well that's discouraging. "Okay, we'll just have to look for them, and anyone for that matter." Riku scanned the map again, his gaze lingered on the abandoned mansion just beyond the city limits. Maybe there.
"THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?"
Riku was shaken from his thoughts by Sora's shouts and looked up to find his childhood friend lifted 4 feet off the ground in a giant stone birdcage the same color as the stone tiles that lined the floor of the train plaza. That and the blue sparks were all clear giveaways to the cage's orgins.
"There! Now you can shout all you want!" Ed smirked, proud of his handy work.
"Ed, let Sora go." Riku said, halfhearted, turning his attention back to the map, what's the quickest way to the mansion?
He didn't get much time to think before he was interrupted again by a bone chilling shriek.
"What was that?" Winry looked incredibly pale.
"Someone's in trouble!" Kairi said.
"Gaah! Let me outta here they need our help!" Sora's shouts went ignored by Ed who was already halfway across the plaza, not that he actually knew where he was going.
"Brother wait for me!" Al ran after him, keeping one hand on the strap of the laptop bag so it wouldn't fall.
Riku summoned his keyblade and bolted after them as well. Donald took the liberty of freeing Sora from his stone prison with a well aimed thunder spell and then the two of them and Goofy took off down market street. Riku stopped at the end of the plaza to call back to Kairi. "Hey! Stay here with the ship ok!"
"Hey! I wanna help too! You can't just leave me here!" But the boys were already gone and her protest went unheard. "Oh you gotta be kidding me!"
"Story of my life." Kairi turned to face Winry who was leaning against the gummi ship with a sympathetic grin. "Wanna learn how to teach 'em a lesson?"
There was no denying it, they were definately in trouble. Hayner, Pence, Olette and 5 others were trapped in the corner of the sandlot, a pack of heartless, as the kids had come to know the creatures, were looming over them.
A little girl clung to Olette's leg, and the teen desperately tried to calm the child while hiding her own fear. How had she ended up in this mess?
The trio had been low on cash, so when she saw a help-wanted ad asking for a babysitter, she jumped at the chance. The girl's name was Elicia, and she was very very sweet, though maybe a little spoiled, it seemed that her father doted on her quite a bit, okay that was an understatement, but it wasn't really Olette's place to judge. It seemed that her familly had recently moved to Twilight Town and both parents had to work to make some money, which left her in need of a babysitter. Olette had taken Elicia to meet Pence, who she'd taken a liking to, and Hayner who, despite just being himself, had actually managed to frighten her, though he eventually managed to win her over with some sea salt ice cream. They'd gone to the Sandlot to play ball but had run into Seifer and his usual gang who were as rude and bossy as usual, despite the presence of a small child.
They hadn't been there very long when the creatures had appeared, and despite Seifer and Hayner's heroic, or idiotic, attempts to fight them off with struggle bats, Olette couldn't imagine why they thought that was going to work, they were stranded and cornered and totally screwed.
"Now would be a really good time for someone to save us!" Pence half-cried.
Hayner wacked him half-heartedly with the struggle bat, "Be a man!"
"Be a man! What does it matter if we're about to die?"
Elicia cringed against Olette who picked up the small child to try and comfort her. "Guys, easy on the whole dying thing!" Both boys nodded in apology.
"No-one's gonna die!" Seifer bolted forward, (useless) struggle bat held high, and no-one was surprised when he was tossed into the air by the heartless and landed hard on the ground behind them. The heartless surrounded him, now would've been a great time for the others to flee, since the heartless weren't paying attention, but they were to afraid to move.
"He needs help!" Hayner stepped forward to save his rival but Pence grabbed his arm.
"Bad idea! You really think you can fight him off with a toy!"
"Well what do you suggest?"
"How 'bout you let the experts handle this?" The kids turned towards the source of the new voice and witnessed seven figures come bolting down Market Street (one on a skateboard) and collide head on with the heartless. An odd assortment of weapons were waved, spells were cast and the pack of heartless was reduced to two sorry individuals who had completely forgotten about their previous target. Seifer and friends took the chance to make a break for it, while Hayner's group grinned in recognition at some old acquaintances.
"Sora! And...wait...I don't actually know you guys." Hayner squinted in confusion at Riku and the Elrics.
"I'm guessing that's Riku." Pence offered.
"Ed! Al!" Elicia squirmed out of Olette's grasp and bolted towards thr boys. Olette managed to grab her arm before she got too close.
"Wait, you know them?"
"Yup! They're friends of daddy's!" She was waving at them, and the one in blue waved back before turning his attention back to the heartless.
"On your right Sora!" Ed shouted, shoving his ally out of the way and blocking an attack from one of the heartless. Sora spun around and he and Ed struck the heartless together, knocking it out of existence.
Ed smiled cockily, "Alchemy may be making 'em stronger somehow, but at least they can't use it."
Sora nodded in agreement, "And it sure as hell ain't making them smarter!"
"Wait!" Donald interrupted the victory party, "Where's the other one?"
"Uhhh..." Sora turned around, but the other heartless was nowhere to be seen. He scanned the lot with his eyes, taking in the shocked looking locals huddled in the corner, but there was no sign of the heartless, and that made no sense.
Suddenly Sora saw a shadow dash across the ground and leap up behind Al.
Ed shouted first, "Al! Look out!" But he was too far and in the wrong position to help his brother. Al turned just as the heartless loomed over him. And just when it seemed like it was too late, the heartless went flying to the right, slammed hard against the wall and stuck there by an array of throwing knives.
"You kids okay?" A tall man with glasses and a bit of a beard and one cowlick that stuck out over his forehead approached the group. His uniform was similar to the one Mustang wore and he was accompanied by a young girl with short brown hair and large glasses that obscured her face.
The girl stumbled up next to the man and turned to him exasperated and out of breath. "Mr. Hughes! Can please rest now?"
The man, Hughes, turned to the girl with a huge grin, "Sheska! Don't tell me your tired already!"
The girl visibly sunk and and whimpered her response, "Of course I am, you just dragged me half way across the town..." Her words trailed off at the end and she slid down on the stone.
"DADDY!" Elicia ran into her father's Waiting arms and congratulated him on beating the "monsters".
Hughes patted his daughter on the head and then turned towards the Elrics and company. "Seriously, you all okay?" The boys nodded and Hughes turned his attention to the weapon in Sora's hand. "By any chance are you-"
"SORA!" Hayner and gang were on top of the keybearer in an instant and the force of the group hug sent the young hero toppling to the ground.
"H-hey guys!" He choked out, kicking away the skateboard he'd "borrowed" on the way down to catch up, "Ah! C-can't breath!"
"Sorry Sora!" Olette apologized and yanked her friends off of the choking keyblade bearer. "Glad you could make it though."
"Same." Sora pushed himself up and surveyed the scene. The Elrics were locked in conversation with the man, Hughes, who seemed to waving something in their faces, wait, were those photographs?
"She's right here! I don't need to see pictures!" Ed yelled.
Riku approached the group, "I'm going to assume that you're the 'friend' who alerted us to the heartless?"
Hughes's face suddenly became more serious, but the smile didn't fade, "Yup, that's me." He turned towards Olette, "Would you mind taking Elicia home for me? I'll pay you extra for your trouble."
"Ah well-"
"She'll do it!" Hayner interrupted, "Come on Elicia! I'll get you more icecream!"
"Really!" The girl climbed into Hayner's grasp and he hoisted her onto his shoulders.
"Sure! We'll get two more!"
"Yay!"
The group trotted off and Olette stopped at the edge of the sandlot. "Tell Kairi we said Hi okay!" Then she turned and ran after her friends.
Uh oh...Sora remembered...Kairi...
The group was relieved to find that Kairi and Winry had waited patiently with the gummi ship. When they returned the girls were sitting on the train station steps talking and laughing about something or other. When she saw them coming Kairi stood up and trotted over to her friends.
"Hey guys!" She seemed a little too cheery.
"Hi." Sora was wary of the cheeryness.
"How'd it go? Are those the friends?" She nodded her head towards Hughes and Sheska.
Sora let his guard down, it was Kairi what did he have to worry about? "Yeah this is Hughes and-" Sora was cut off by a large object colliding suddenly and painfully with his skull. He collapsed to the ground, grasping his throbbing head and wondering if he would be suffering permanent brain damage.
He lifted his head to gaze at Kairi, who was smirking at him, keyblade in hand, "That's for leaving me behind!" She sounded like she was enjoying his pain.
Winry walked up and patted Kairi on the shoulder, "See? It helps right!"
Sora did a double take and was sure his jaw dropped far enough to whack the pavement. "What did you tell her?"
Winry smiled, "Oh, I just gave her some advice on how to take care of herself is all."
Kairi turned towards Riku who visibly flinched. Bet he regrets giving her that keyblade now! Sora thought.
"See what I have to deal with?" Ed had held out a hand to help Sora to his feet.
"I'll never underestimate girls again..." Sora rubbed his head, yeah there was definitely a bumb forming.
"I'd hate to interupt the love fest." Everyone turned bright red at Hughes' words and Sheska shuffled awkwardly out of the line of fire. "We have some important matters to discuss," It was like he had no idea what he'd just said, "Oh, Sora, didn't you have a message you wanted to pass to Kairi?"
"Oh right! Kairi, Olette says hi."
"You saw them? I wanna say hi, do you know where they were going?"
"They were saying something about icecream I think."
"Ok, I'll go look for them!"
Kairi trotted off down market street and after a moment's deliberation, Winry ran after her.
"So about the important stuff." Ed ventured turning to Hughes. "How much do you know?"
"Honestly? Not much." Hughes was smiling and Ed looked just about ready to smack someone!
"What do you mean you don't know anything!" Al put a hand on his brother's shoulder, a vain attempt to try and calm him down.
"Look, all I know is these heartless suddenly attacked. We were able to get around fast enough to get rid of them and we're working out some sort of town defense system, so we should be okay from now on, but I don't think we were the only world attacked, you know?"
Sora thought about that, it made sense. "Maybe we should go see if they're okay."
Ed nodded in agreement, "And maybe we'll find more answers that way."
"All right then! Let's go!"
"I'd hate to interupt." Riku said, "But we can't go anywhere without Kairi and Winry."
"Oh...right." Sora was definitely not used to having his friends around on these adventures.
They spent most of the time waiting by looking through the photographs Ansem had taken in the Elric's world. It seemed like he'd actually been able to see quite a bit in a day, but most of the pictures were of a city that Ed identified as Central.
Eventually, the girls returned, but they weren't alone, Hayner and crew + Elicia were with them, each holding at least one sea salt ice cream, and Seifer was there as well, mich to Hayner's apparent dismay. He appeared to be testing some pickup lines on Winry who just smiled awkwardly while Hayner shouted insult after insult with little to no affect.
"No-one invited you! Go back to doing whatever it is you do!"
"What's the matter kid? Jealous?"
Hayner lit up at that and Sora was convinced he was about to kill Seifer when Ed stood up and walked over to them. He grabbed Seifer with his automail arm and turned him so they were face to face, or rather, so Ed was looking up at Seifer. "Leave her alone." He did not sound amused.
Seifer confirmed everything Sora thought about him with his next words. "What you gonna do about it shorty?" Before anyone could say gunblade, Seifer was on the ground for the second time that day, with little recollection of how he got there, save for a fleeting memory of a shor-fun sized, blond kid flipping him over his shoulder.
Hayner gawked at Ed like an idiot, mouth agape and half melted ice cream dripping down his cheek. "Dude! I have no clue who you are, but that wad the most awesome thing ever!"
"Uh thanks?" Ed looked from Hayner to Winry to Seifer. He pointed his thumb towards the unconscious thug, "So, uh, who is he again?"
Winry took Ed's arm and dragged him towards the station and the ship, "No one you need to worry about."
Sora snickered at the whole scene, so that's what it was like with them. He stood up and waved Kairi over. She said goodbye to her friends as they headed up to the clocktower and went to join Sora.
"So, what next?"
Sora swallowed hard. "Okay, so we think we need to go and make sure everyone knows how to handle these heartless and all, but I would really sleep better at night if you would wait in Radiant Garden where it's safe." He closed his eyes, waiting for a keyblade to the head that never came.
He warily opened his eyes to find Kairi smiling. "I thought you might say that." She said, "But we only have one gummi ship."
Sora looked at the ship, no denying that, "We could drop you off?"
"If you go back right now, Cid'll kill you." Winry said, that was probably true too.
"I have a gummi ship I could lend you." Everyond looked at Hughes in disbelief, "Cid lent it to me so I could bring my family here, I haven't been able to return yet. Just don't crash it.
"Sounds good." Sora nodded, "So, who's going where?"
"We're going with you!" Donald exclaimed, grabbing Goofy by the collar. Riku just nodded in acknowledgment.
"And us." Said Ed signaling to his brother and himself. He turned to Winry with a pleading look on his face. "Please go with Kairi."
She smiled, "Don't worry, I will, but only to run damage control with Cid so he doesn't kill you when you do get back."
Ed sighed in relief regardless of the teasing.
"Sora?" Kairi asked shyly, Sora turned towards her and she grabbed his hand. She dropped something cold and metallic into it. When she released his hand he opened it and found a plain silver cell phone with a decorative charm hanging from it. He recognized the charm, shaped like a star and composed of seashells stitched together.
"Kairi I-"
"I asked Cid for it. You can make calls across worlds with it. Keep in touch okay?" She smiled at him.
Sora blushed, but smiled nonetheless. "Okay, I promise." And with that, they went their separate ways.
AN: WOOT! HUGHES! Took me long enough to get this written, but I think I'm over my writer's block for now so hopefully there will be some more timely updates in the next few weeks...hopefully...
Well, this is a short author's note...
Hope you liked it!