A/N: Sorry for the wait, guys! Life is goin' schizo-fritz on me as of right now, but I won't let that set me behind too much. :D
OMGOMGOMG KINGDOM HEARTS: DREAM DROP DISTANCE CAME OUT TODAY IN JAPAN! *throws confetti* Anyone else cheating and watching the cutscenes on YouTube with me?
Anon Reply...
nin4: Yes, the keyblades are here! I'm glad that you can't tell which side is truly good; that was my goal. *evil grin* You're the chief of police now? Yen Sid doesn't stand a chance. XD Anyway, no problem! It made sense enough to me. :D
Oh, and one more thing: I would like to give a shoutout to my beta reader, Mystics Apprentice! Without her, my chapters would be pretty yucky.
DISCLAIMER: What if I told you...that I didn't own Kingdom Hearts?
-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-
Olette had no idea what was happening, or when she would manage to escape. All she knew was that she was trapped tumbling around Yen Sid's strange magic creation, clutching for dear life onto Sora's hood and rapidly approaching the other two teens. Had she honestly thought she could save them?
SLAM.
A table crashed into her body, sending her flying into the only unmoving object in the green vortex: the strange rod that appeared to be connected to her friends through eerie, colorful lights.
Without thinking, she grabbed it. Her wings shot out of her back.
Up. Up. Up.
This thought continued to reverberate in her mind as she fought against the earsplitting storm tooth and nail. Maybe, just maybe she would be free from there soon…
Shouting; she could hear it in the distance, possibly from above her. Was it Yen Sid? No, there were two voices. Wait, a third one?
Shadows danced in her eyes. She couldn't last much longer, that much she knew.
A hand wrapped around her wrist, pulling her upward. Who it was, she couldn't care. She couldn't even think or see straight at this point.
The winds seemed to die down around her. She was saved! Slowly, her gold-and-emerald eyes rolled to the back of her head, and her eyelids fell shut.
-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-
It was a strange sensation, floating around in the ring. It was like being almost completely separated from your body with a string tied to your ankle to keep you from flying away. The sights were incredible as well, including a world covered by desert with ancient Arabian villages, and another submerged in water. A simple human high-school was also displayed, as well as a mismatched building flipping in circles with card-men desperately running around. All of these places and many more flew around in rotation at a rapidly increasing pace, until they blurred together in an unending loop of colors.
There are many worlds,
But they share the same sky.
One sky. One destiny.
The blur of worlds suddenly disappeared, and a colorful ship not unlike Even's took its place in the dark sky. Upon closer inspection, five figures could be seen inside of it. Two appeared to be anthropomorphic animals, one being a lanky dog and the other being a blue-clad duck. The other three, however, were oddly familiar humans. One was a girl with auburn hair that fell past her shoulders and hung in her sapphire eyes. She was dressed in a hot-pink, zippered dress, with a black belt and matchingpouch attached hung loosely around her waist.
Kairi.
The other was a silver-haired teenager with piercing aquamarine eyes and lightly tanned skin. He wore simple mortal clothes; blue jeans and a sleeveless jacket under a pale-yellow vest.
Riku.
The third figure was a lean-muscled teen about the same age as the other Kairi. His clothes were baggy and gray, save for accents of color through a navy-blue shirt, yellow pant buckle, and bright red cargo pouches. If it weren't for his spiky brunet hair and cobalt eyes, he would have been completely unrecognizable.
Sora.
They may have appeared a bit older and more human, but there was no mistaking who they were. The trio on board the Gummi Ship was laughing together, sharing a joke that seemed to have sent the duck into a fit of rage. At that moment, the three teenagers gazed out the window and focused on a particular point in space.
"Watcha lookin' at?" the dog questioned, walking up to them. None of the teens answered, but instead merely focused their eyes upon the unseen object and took a few steps towards the window.
"Do you guys see that?" Sora asked his friends. They nodded in response.
"Hm, that's bizarre," Riku commented. "What could it mean?"
"What? I don't see anything," the duck grumbled, pushing himself between Sora and Riku to peer out the window.
"Wait, they're vanishing!" Kairi gasped.
"What are? Just spit it out already!" the duck practically yelled at them.
"I don't know, Donald; it's pretty unbelievable," Sora cautioned lightly, partially to ruffle the duck named Donald's feathers. It worked, because Donald looked as if he was about to explode with anger.
"Be nice, Sora!" Kairi teased. "It was really weird. There were three ghosts that looked like us, but younger and, well…different."
"All that commotion for silly illusions? Bwaargh!" Donald grunted. He let out an unintelligible string of words, and then stomped off.
"Call me crazy, but I think they weren't just illusions," Riku said thoughtfully to Kairi and Sora.
"I have that same feeling," Kairi agreed.
"I guess, but they were pretty crazy. I mean, I had wings!" Sora said with a chuckle.
-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-
"Stupid girl!" Yen Sid roared as Olette leaped into his magical storm. "What do you think you are doing?"
"We could ask the same of you, Master Yen Sid."
A golden-bearded man burst into the room, his piercing amber eyes glaring into Yen Sid's clear ones furiously. His scarlet scarf and white coat billowed ominously behind him in the winds, and in his hands was a heavily-modded machine gun. Even followed closely behind him, wielding a similar weapon.
Yen Sid laughed at the scientists. "You think that you can stop me with your ridiculous weapons?" he asked mockingly. "Nothing can stop me from regaining my—"
"As soon as I fire this weapon, the bullets will get caught in your storm and damage not only the fey, but also your creation," Ansem said seriously. "Do you really want to risk that?"
The warlock pursed his lips. It almost seemed as if he were considering Ansem's threat, until he flung his arm out at a floating desk. It was sent flying into Ansem, only he leapt out of the way and onto it instead of allowing it to collide into him.
"Even, grab the rod!" he shouted. Even nodded in response, falling to the ground and crawling army-style to the edge of the pit. Yen Sid snarled angrily, and began throwing books at the blonde scientist. Ansem swatted them away with his gun, and then pulled himself to a standing position on the desk.
"You have to learn to share your property, old friend," Ansem said in a patronizing manner.
"I can't get what I need if you've dismembered them, can I?" Yen Sid returned.
"Who said I was going to dissect them?" Ansem pointed out. Yen Sid ignored him; instead, he chanted a spell and threw the magic at his rival. Ansem pressed a button on his wristwatch, creating a shield to block the enchantment. With his free hand, he pulled out several small objects and threw them at the warlock. He pushed them to the side with the wind, and they scattered around the room.
BOOM.
They exploded, startling Yen Sid. Ansem seized this opportunity, jumping off the desk with his gun raised high.
SMACK.
He whacked the sorcerer in the stomach, who was sent flying the opposite direction. Suddenly, the wind began to subside, and the two enemies were sent crashing into the floor, one on top of the other.
"I have them!" Even cried. He was pulling himself out of the green, stormy mess with one hand, and a full-sized faery out with the other. Olette had wrapped herself around Yen Sid's shapeless dark object, which was pulling up Sora, Riku, and Kairi. All the fey were out cold, but they were no longer in harm's way.
Almost immediately, the vortex dissipated into the air. The wind followed suit, dropping various objects haphazardly onto the now-weathered floor.
"It appears as if you've lost this time, friend," Ansem said emotionlessly to the warlock, who was trapped in a state of shock. Seeing that Yen Sid was vulnerable, Ansem picked up his machine gun and raised it to Yen Sid's chest.
"Do it, old fool. I can always heal myself!" Yen Sid sneered, breaking from his trance. Ansem gave the weapon a thoughtful look, as if pondering the idea, and then lowered his weapon.
"I don't think that's an appropriate fate just yet," Ansem retorted. "You still have some explaining to do to the citizens of your town."
"What do you mean?" Yen Sid asked. Ansem merely gestured to the room. The walls had been decimated, leaving the spectacle open to viewers everywhere. And view they did; all the misfits had gathered outside the tower to investigate the commotion, and they were now staring openmouthed at the warlock who they had believed was a kind old man.
"We'll be leaving now." On that note, Ansem turned around and walked over to Even's side. He pressed a few buttons on a wrist gadget, and then vanished from the scene.
With that, the town burst into chaos. People were running frantically around the town, some grabbing their belongings and food while others rushed immediately into the indigo train that they had arrived in.
"My people, there is no need to panic!" Yen Sid bellowed desperately. "The situation can be easily explained!"
The people were too frightened to respond; they merely crammed onto the train with a shaky griffin throwing its claws on random buttons. Before long, Yen Sid was left yelling to a ghost town as the indigo train began to chug away.
"No, come back!" he cried hysterically. "I just wanted…wanted it again…" He fell to the ground, angered by his fate. He had gone from the most powerful man on the verge of obtaining happiness, to a now ruined man.
A small crystal ball rolled to his feet. It was his only undamaged possession left in this world.
"I guess it's just you and I, my crystal ball."
-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-
Myde caught the little blonde faery as she collapsed, clutching her head in pain.
"Woah, you okay there?" he asked her, placing her into a chair. She let out an unintelligible groan in response. The silver-haired elf kept rubbing his temples; he seemed to be experiencing a headache as well, albeit to a lesser degree. The bluenette still was as expressionless as ever.
"What is this place?" the male finally asked.
"Well, it's Mister Even's lab," Myde replied, scratching his head thoughtfully. "Who are y'all?"
"I'm not sure," the silver-haired teen admitted. "I have some memories, but they're very…disconnected. How did you find us, anyway?"
"I work here. When I walked in to work, Mister Even had you guys all trapped in these memory pods! He said he created you guys," Myde explained lightly. "But then he took off with Mister Ansem for some sort of emergency."
"Created?" the blonde asked nervously. She appeared to be recovering from her migraine, for color was visibly returning to her cheeks.
"Yep!" Myde said. "He had a collection of some really weird stuff, like faery blood and mermaid scales. Let's not get into that, though." He was not really wanting to discuss his accident.
"But then, why do we have memories?" the elf protested, his aquamarine eyes gleaming anxiously.
"I dunno, I'm no scientist," Myde replied with a shrug. When he saw the crestfallen look on the blonde and silverette's faces, he quickly added, "We may as well start there, though. Maybe we can find something out! What do think of that, Bluey?"
The girl with the midnight-blue hair made no motion to respond, but instead just continued to stare blankly at Myde.
"Oo—okay then. Not creepy at all, nope!" he said, chuckling nervously. "Why don't you go first, Blondie?"
The blonde-haired girl fluttered her translucent wings nervously. "I don't know, I have a lot of memories. It's almost as if they belong to three separate people, but I can't figure out which ones are mine. One's a faery and one's an elf, that much I'm sure. The other is probably a mermaid, but I'm not entirely certain."
"Huh, that's weird," Myde said thoughtfully. "Wouldn't the faery's memories be yours? You're a faery like me, after all."
"I thought so too, but the faery with these memories is a boy."
"Oh." After an awkward pause, Myde continued acting as their psychologist. "Well, I'm sure we'll figure it out eventually. How about you?" he asked, directing this towards the elf.
"Well, I have my memories. At least, I think I do," he replied uncertainly, turning to look at his reflection in the memory pod. "I look different. And then, there's—"
BOOM.
Ansem and Even had appeared in the room, covered in scorch marks and tattered clothing. Each of them had two unconscious teens on their backs, causing them to hunch over and pant heavily.
"You're back!" Myde said happily, leaping up from his position on the floor. "I—"
"I thought I told you to dispose of the prototypes," Ansem said sternly, cutting the rocker faery off. Myde turned to look at the three fey behind him, who were fixated on the unconscious figures with the scientists. "You mean these guys? But they remember stuff; they could use your help in—"
"They are nothing but failed experiments. Dispose of them, Myde," Ansem reasserted.
-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-
Dispose…Dispose…How were they supposed to react to that?
"Sora, dispose of that trash immediately!"
"But Mom…"
"Just do it already!"
"Riku, could you dispose of the excess food?"
"Of course."
Dispose…Dispose…
"But, Mister Ansem, sir—"
"Just do it already!"
"So we are trash after all," the little blonde faery thought. It hurt a little to hear someone say that. Was that supposed to happen? What about the unconscious teens in front of her, with the scientists? Were they trash too?
While she was lost in her musings, the faery, named Myde, was reluctantly gesturing for the three to follow him. The blue-haired one didn't seem to respond, resulting in Myde gently pulling her out of the memory pod and leading her out the door. The blonde faery and the silver-haired male followed in silence.
It seems like they were just trash after all.
-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-
"Okay, follow me! I'm taking you somewhere safe," Myde hissed to them.
"The trash?" the silver-haired one asked curiously.
"No! Why would you think that?" Myde cried, flabbergasted by that suggestion. "To my band's apartment, of course. You'll be fine there; they're nice guys, really."
He led them down the stairs and past the lobby, avoiding Arlene's hateful gaze as they went. "What do you think you're doing, giving punks tours of the facility? This isn't some museum."
"No, of course not!" Myde replied hastily. "I'm just disposing of them—Mister Ansem's orders." Finally, the exit was only a couple steps away; he could do this!
"Be right back, Arlene!" he called happily, ushering the fey out the door. Bringing up the rear, Myde directed them to the left and slammed the door shut.
"Whew, I thought Arlene was gonna fry me again!" Myde panted while wiping invisible sweat from his brow.
"Fry?" the blonde inquired.
"She's a storm nymph, or something like that," Myde explained. "And for some reason, she doesn't like me at all."
They traveled through Radiant Garden Town Square in silence. The town itself was very beautiful, with its eloquently trimmed, lush hedges surrounding the clean brick paths and marble fences. A myriad of flowers lined the bottoms of said hedges and filled the yards of quint little businesses. The buildings themselves were mainly colonial-styled, half-brick buildings that were organized by sizes. Humans appeared to be the main inhabitants, wandering the streets with their lovers and children and going about their daily business. There were a few magical creatures here and there, although it was mainly faeries and elves doing menial work such as gardening.
"This town has the biggest science center of any city or world, so magical creatures can't really do much except minimum wage jobs," Myde explained. "We're kinda a minority here, you could say."
"That's kind of sad," the blonde faery said sympathetically, watching a group of tiny faeries preening the flowers.
"It's not really that bad; we get to do a lot of entertaining!" Myde said happily. "Like my band, for example."
"One of the memories I have is of a faery reserve," the blonde said thoughtfully. "They lived on a reserve and heavily influenced the nearby humans. They made up most of the islands' population, actually. Speaking of which, three of the fey that those people had were the ones from my memories."
"Wha!" Myde exclaimed.
"Yeah, I recognized the other me," the silver-haired teen said. "He seemed older though. I also recognized the red-haired one, but I only remember glimpses of her…"
Before they knew it, they were standing at the foot of a tiny apartment on the far side of town. It was not quite as lush and clean as the town square, with its gray concrete sidewalks and faded cobblestone streets. The apartment building itself was built from dark oak with areas of gray bricks. There were four levels, each one having five small windows. Myde opened the green door and led them up a flight of wooden stairs with peeling white paint. At about the third floor, they left the flight of stairs and turned left down a small corridor until he reached a door labeled "323."
"Here we are!" Myde said cheerfully. He pulled a key out of his pocket and fumbled around with it in the lock, until the door finally swung open.
" 'Ey, Myde!" a voice called from somewhere in the room. "Whatcha doin' back so soon? Didja get fired again?"
"I thought you got a job, Lea!" Myde called back.
"I work the night shift at the coal plant. Got it memorized?"
At that moment, a tall and slender male appeared from around the corner. His skin appeared to be glowing, as though a fire was nearby and illuminating upon him. Fiery, red hair waved wildly behind him, sometimes revealing a streak of red or yellow within. His shockingly jade eyes held little golden sparks that only increased the mischievous look in them.
"Who are your little friends, Myde?" Lea questioned, staring at the three young newcomers.
"Well, they don't really have names," Myde admitted. "Just call them newbies for now. Newbies, this is Lea. He's our resident Fire Spirit!"
"Got it memorized?" Lea said with a smirk, tapping his forehead with flaming fingers.
"Anyway, I'll explain everything later; I have to go back to work. Toodles, and say hi to Isa and Ienzo for me!" On that note, Myde darted out the door and back to the lab, leaving the three young fey with the Fire Spirit.
"So, you kids don't have names?" Lea asked the trio, who shook their heads uncertainly. "What, didja lose your memories in an accident or something?"
"No, we have memories," the blonde explained. "Well, two of us do, at least. They aren't ours, though. We just woke up in the science lab with them, so we're not really sure what happened."
"Those scientists are always up to strange stuff," Lea admitted. "One of them paid me to sit in a box while they ran all sorts of fancy tests or whatever. It was kinda creepy, but the pay was good."
"We didn't get paid," the silver-haired elf pointed out.
"Well, that's cheap," Lea remarked. "Anyway, we need to come up with names for you guys. How about Blondie, Zombie, and Nickel?"
"Um, well…" the blonde faery said uncertainly.
"What on earth are you talking about, Lea?" came a voice from the kitchen. A young teen no older than the newcomers appeared in the doorway. He was a little on the short side with pointed ears and various shades of steel-gray hair that fell over one side ofhis face,nearly concealing his eye entirely. Drops of rain appeared to fall from said hair and in his irises.
"Ienzo emerges!" Lea said with mock surprise. "Meet our newest residents that Myde dropped on our doorstep. We have to figure out names for them."
"What, are they your pets?" Ienzo retorted.
Lea chose to ignore his sarcastic comment, as an idea suddenly sprung into his mind. "Hey, you're creative, right? Why don't you come up with names for them?"
"Why can't you do it?" Ienzo said in a bored tone.
"I did, but they didn't really like my suggestions that much."
"What did you propose?"
"Blondie, Zombie and Nickel."
At this, Ienzo made a face. "I can see why." He turned to the three newcomers and scanned them over. "Well, tell me about yourselves. Make it quick, I'm a bit busy at the moment."