Yeah...sorry about that wait guys. :/
I have lot's of stuff going on right now, and so my free time is been almost completely obliterated.
I'm not sure when the next chapter will be out; I plan on taking a short break from it during October so that I can (hopefully) write some Halloween one-shots, and I'm not sure if I'll have enough time to write a chapter between now and then.
I did put up a one-shot the other day. It's not Misfits related, but it's kind of more of the style I'm trying to work towards. Feel free to check it out. :)
Many thanks to my beta reader: Mystics Apprentice!
Disclaimer: If you actually think that I own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy...I'm going to have a bad time. :O
-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-
"What is…doing?"
"Suddenly…out."
"He…"
"What the…happened?"
"…know."
"…You think…"
"Sh…waking…"
Sora's eyes flew open. His vision was blurry, but he could make out a redhead to his left and a silver-haired man in the entrance of the room.
"Riku? Kairi?" he groaned, his voice hoarse from lack of use. "Where am I?"
The redhead sighed heavily. "Dude, you're so out of it. I'm not Kairi, I'm Lea – got it memorized?" he said rather irritably.
"Calm down, Lea; that's to be expected from someone who has been unconscious," the figure in the doorway said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Sora rubbed his eyes and blinked, clearing his vision slightly. Sure enough, the figures in the room were not Riku or Kairi. Lea stood in the room, tapping his foot impatiently and grumbling while the gray-haired storm spirit from the apartment rested against the doorframe. Wasn't his name Ienzo or something along those lines?
Grunting, the faery pulled himself into a sitting position and glanced around the room. The walls were a basic blue color, while the floors were tiled with solid yellow and red squares. The yellow four-post bed he had awoken on held the same color scheme, complete with a blue and red quilt he had crumpled up. It vaguely reminded him of his preschool back on Destiny Islands.
"Where am I?" Sora asked Lea, who was now playing with a flame he had summoned.
"We're on the Gummi Ship," he responded casually. "We've been flying aimlessly through space for over a day now, so you haven't missed out on much."
Just then, a blond blur zoomed into the room. "Sora, you're okay!" Myde said happily, landing just beside Lea. Glancing over the teen, Myde let out a whistle. "Wow, wait until everyone sees you!"
Before Sora could ask what on earth the rocker faery was talking about, Myde called out, "Hey! Sora's awake, everyone! Come and see him!"
Kairi bounded into the room, followed closely by Xion, Naminé, and Riku. Each of them appeared to have their fair share of bruises and bandages, although Repliku – who brought up the rear of the group – appeared to have taken the hardest hit with his arm wrapped in a makeshift sling.
"Hey guys!" Sora said cheerfully, waving at the newcomers. "Great to see you all up and running!"
The other teens merely stared at Sora, making the brunet a little uncomfortable. Why wasn't anyone talking?
"Hello!" he called worriedly. "Earth to everyone?"
Riku was the first to speak. "Well, you look refreshingly" – he struggled for an adjective – "bright."
At this statement, Lea chortled slightly. Ienzo flashed the fire spirit a glare, so Lea quickly covered his laughter with a coughing fit. Sora raised an eyebrow, giving Ienzo a questioning glance.
"What we are trying to say is that it appears as though you have finally bloomed." Ienzo clarified in a formal manner.
Did he just hear that correctly? After years upon years of waiting, Sora had finally bloomed? He held his arms out and examined his body, noticing for the first time the intricate white tattoo swirls wrapping around his forearms and his calf muscles. Lea tossed the boy a small hand mirror from his pocket (Sora briefly wondered why Lea had that on hand) so that Sora could see his face. More white swirls curled around his cheek and collar bones, and his eyes now held golden sparks as opposed to clouds. His hair had grown wilder – if that was even possible – and, from what he could see, his wings had grown larger and appreared to be giving off a bright light, as if they were made from pure energy.
"I look so cool!" Sora gasped finally.
Lea chuckled. "Don't get too arrogant yet, kid," he told Sora jokingly.
"Like you should be the one saying that!" Ienzo said indignantly, crossing his arms in disapproval.
"What, gettin' a little jealous, Ienzo?" Lea retorted with a smirk. "Don't worry, not everyone can be as great as me."
"I am perfectly confident with my appearance," Ienzo replied with satisfaction. "However, mere looks won't get you far in life. Remember: books, not looks."
As Lea and Ienzo began bickering – Myde being trapped in the middle of the two – Sora turned to face his friends, his signature grin plastered on his face. "Wadd'ya guys think?" he asked excitedly.
Kairi smiled at him. "Nice! It's like an automatic birthday present!" As soon as she said this, her smile faded and her indigo eyes fixed themselves on her feet. "I'm sorry we couldn't get you anything that you wanted…"
"It's not like they had the time though," Naminé interjected.
Sora waved his hand casually. "Don't worry about it! Besides, I finally bloomed and I have my friends! I don't need much more than that. Besides, now I can grow to be taller and buffer than Riku!"
At this, Riku raised an eyebrow. "I don't think that will occur any time soon, if at all," he replied seriously, but a flash of amusement appeared in his opalescent eyes.
"And what makes you think that?" Sora challenged.
"You're a faery; since when were they ever strong warriors?"
"Hey, there are plenty of tough faeries! Don't listen to stereotypes!"
On the sidelines of the conversation, Naminé and Repliku giggled. Riku turned to face them, his expression changing to something more serious. "Well, now that we're all awake, can we finally get some facts straight and leave for a world?" he asked, his eyes still fixated on an uncomfortable Repliku.
"I was going to say the exact same thing," came a voice from the hallway. Olette – in her regular faery size – was floating just outside the entryway. "Let's go to the cockpit, that way we can map out a course while we get things straightened out," she suggested.
She turned to fly out, but stopped and did a double-take on Sora. "Woah, you finally bloomed!" she gasped. "Nice!"
"Well, let's hurry and start a plan for getting out of here," Ienzo said, who had finished arguing with Lea. He walked down the hallway, followed by the others, leaving Sora, Riku and Kairi alone.
Sora took a step, but a searing pain ran up his foot. "Yipes!" he exclaimed. Why on earth was his foot hurting so badly? He glanced down to find it wrapped in a makeshift splint. "What the heck? What happened?" he asked no one in particular.
Riku and Kairi, who had been walking out the door, turned around to see what their friend was talking about.
"Oh, don't you remember? Your foot got smashed while we were fighting that giant Heartless," Kairi explained. "Ienzo gave you a potion to mend it a bit, but it wasn't quite enough, hence the splint."
"I can tell; it hurts!" Sora complained.
Riku rolled his eyes at the brunet. "Welcome to the club," he said, tapping a large bandage across his forehead.
"But how am I supposed to walk?" he asked, ignoring Riku.
Kairi scratched her head, thinking. "Oh!" she suddenly exclaimed. "You could fly!"
The realization hit Sora like a brick. He could freakin' fly now! He wanted to dance with excitement, but that wasn't going to work out well at the moment. In the meantime, he settled for a fist pump and an enthusiastic "Oh yeah! I should try that!" Clasping his hands together, he shimmered until he reached his normal size. He flapped his wings experimentally, and then leaped into the air. Sure enough, he was flying for the first time in his life. An adrenaline rush like no other was flowing through him, filling him with an indescribable joy. The rush of the air blowing his hair, the freedom from the ground, the high altitude…
He was truly flying!
-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-
In the cockpit Sora settled himself beside Myde and Olette, who were perched on the back of the deep blue pilot's chair. In the co-pilot's chair sat Riku, who hadturned the twirling chair to face the rest of the passengers. Lea, Ienzo, and Repliku each sat in a passenger chair, leaving the three girls to sit on the white-tiled floor. It was unnerving how alike Kairi, Naminé, and Xion appeared, Sora noted mentally.
Riku was the one to start off the conversation. "Okay, first thing's first: where exactly are you three from?" He had asked in a no-nonsense manner, gesturing to Repliku and his friends.
Repliku shot an uneasy look at Naminé, who shrugged helplessly in response. "We don't exactly understand it too well ourselves," he admitted, "but we know that we came from Ansem's lab." A moment of silence passed over the group as the late scientist's name was mentioned. Finally, Naminé confirmed Repliku's statement with a small nod.
"Myde is the one who brought these three to us; perhaps he could explain the situation better," Ienzo suggested.
All eyes turned to the mullet-haired faery, who shifted uncomfortably under all the stares he was getting. "It was an accident, I swear!" he said nervously. "It was my first day on the job and Yen Sid's thingies showed up and messed up Mister Even's collection –"
"Collection of what?" Kairi asked curiously."
Myde scratched his head. "There was a lot of papers with stuff scribbled down, along with things like hair and skin and blood." He shuddered at the thought. "There was also a mermaid scale and a moonlight thingimajiggers," Myde added hurriedly.
"Hm, isn't that what Master Even collected in order to answer our questions back in Yen Sid's Kingdom?" Riku pointed out.
Sora frowned, thinking back to nearly a couple weeks ago. Riku was right; Master Even had asked to run some tests while he was staying at Yen Sid's. "Riku's right about that," Sora confirmed.
"Yep," Kairi said uncertainly, "but I don't understand what that has to do with this."
"I think I understand it now," Riku replied, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "Even was trying to make us, right? However, Yen Sid's creatures vandalized his work and, well, his clones became more of the blend of us three."
"Why the heck would he do something like that?" Sora asked incredulously, to which Lea shrugged.
"They're scientists; they're always doin' crazy junk like that," the fire spirit pointed out.
Riku, however, seemed to have a different opinion. "I'm assuming it was to have an easy way to study us," he said. "Wasn't that what the scientists truly wished to do?"
Suddenly, Ienzo began to clap. "Bravo, Riku; I'm glad someone around here has the ability to use their head." He shot a glare at the lazy redhead. "From what I've surmised, Yen Sid was extremely territorial about you three – there was no way that the scientists could have gotten near you to begin extensive research."
"So, what's the deal with you four?" Lea asked, gesturing to Sora, Kairi, Riku, and Olette. "Where are y'all from? 'Cause we don't know too much about you guys."
"Well, Olette and I are from a reserve on Destiny Islands," Sora began, "and Kairi's from the ocean right by it. I'm not quite sure where Riku's from though."
Sora turned questioningly to Riku, who responded "Elven forest" in a hurried tone. The elf earned a strange look from Lea and Ienzo, but ignored them as Kairi continued speaking for them.
"We all went to Yen Sid's Kingdom for Misfits at the same time, save for Olette – we ran into her there," she explained. "There we found out that Yen Sid was crazy a bit too late, and Master Ansem came and got us out of there."
"And that brings us up to speed!" Olette concluded for them. "Now, how about we stop floating aimlessly through space?"
"I would like to know more about that weapon Riku and Xion managed to summon first," Ienzo stated.
In response, Riku summoned his Way to the Dawn. "I'm not quite sure what it is," he admitted, "but Yen Sid wanted us because of these weapons. I'm the only one of us three who has one at the moment, and I can only assume that Xion has it because of her connection to us."
While Riku was talking, Sora noticed that Xion had been staring right at him for some amount of time. He smiled and waved at her, but she didn't respond. Briefly, he recalled how Naminé had said that both Repliku and Xion couldn't talk, and he decided that must've been the problem.
Wait a minute…Didn't Repliku talk just a few minutes ago?
"Woah, wait a second," Sora interrupted. "Repliku can talk!"
Riku smacked his forehead. Beside him, Lea clapped his hands slowly and deliberately. "Bravo, Captain Obvious!" he told the young faery.
"No wait, he's right!" Kairi interjected. "We were told that both Repliku and Xion couldn't talk because of an accident with a cat. Was that wrong?"
Lea and Ienzo shot Naminé and Repliku a questioning look. "What's up with that?" Lea asked. "Of course Repliku can talk! And Xion too, we recently found out."
On the floor, Naminé rubbed her neck sheepishly. "That's my fault," she said quietly. "We just kind of panicked when we saw you, and, well, Repliku's kind of quiet and Xion couldn't talk then…"
"Wait, what is wrong with Xion?" Riku asked inquisitively. "Why can't she talk?"
"Because she has no memories," Ienzo said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Now, I agree with Olette; let's find somewhere to land. I nominate Destiny Islands, since there is a reserve for us there."
With that, Ienzo stood up and walked over to the touch-screen map to set a location, leaving Sora more confused than ever. What could he have meant when he said that Xion had no memories?
-MISFITS-MISFITS-MISFITS-
Unfortunately, the group soon discovered that "Destiny Islands" was not in the Gummi Ship's database. They had no way of finding where that world was, let alone how to get there. On the plus side, the Gummi Ship held the locations of many other worlds, some being very close to their current position. After a bit of debating, the group finally decided to land on a world called "Traverse Town," which appeared to be the closest world at only an hour away. They hoped to find someone who could aid them in finding Destiny Islands or had the capacity to program its location into the "Navigator Gummi Blocks," as Olette called them. Since she and Ienzo seemed to be the brains of the group, they were nominated to steer the course to this strange new world.
That one hour seemed to last eons to the group, save for Xion, Myde, and Sora. Xion was entranced by the mirror in the bathroom. At the moment, she was currently trying to look behind it, presumably for the strange raven-haired girl on the other side. Sora was enjoying his new ability of flight, and was currently engaged in a game of tag with Myde.
Suddenly, the Gummi Ship began to descend into the clouds. Sora whizzed over to the window, eager to watch the world come into view. The other young teens joined him, eagerly awaiting to see this new world. Finally, the Gummi Ship lurched to a stop.
"Aaaaaaand we're here!" Olette announced.
"Thank goodness! I thought the ride would never end," Lea exclaimed exasperatedly.
"I second that," Kairi said with a yawn. "They could've at least installed a radio."
"I guess it was a bit dull," Repliku said.
Sora and Myde, who had stopped chasing each other by that point, stared incredulously at the bored teenagers.
"How was that boring? We were flying through space!" Myde exclaimed.
"Yeah, really!" Sora added for emphasis.
Lea and Ienzo rolled their eyes, but the rest of the party was much too exhausted to reply to the energetic faery. Instead, they settled for lowering the ramp to the Gummi Ship and finally exiting the cramped aircraft.
Their destination, Traverse Town, was quite different from both Radiant Garden and Destiny Islands. A star-speckled sky revealed that the world was locked in everlasting night, although the numerous antique street lamps seemed to make it almost as bright as day. Whilst cobblestone streets paved the way for pedestrians, they were definitely not in pristine condition. Various sized wooden shops and apartments lined the streets, reminiscent of something out of a Middle Ages city – hand-painted store signs and rowdy taverns included.
Speaking of the tavern, a young man had just exited the rowdy building. His most prominent features appeared to be his enormous stature and well-chiseled muscles, giving him a strong warrior vibe that was completed by the scar right in the middle of his face. Long, wild brown hair (although nowhere near as crazy as Sora's) fell just past his shoulders, resting on the animal skin belted over his shoulder. A small black apron reading "Traverse Town's Terrific Tavern (and Inn)" was tied around his waist, signaling that he was a worker there.
Sora could only gape at the tough-looking man, and he wasn't the only one. He just looked so strong and warrior-like; even those besides the faeries felt absurdly tiny in front of him.
"I thought I had seen everything, being in Traverse Town," the man finally said with a sigh. "You're probably not from around here, are you?"
Riku was the one to finally speak. "Er, yes. We were using this ship to travel…somewhere, but the world we need is not in the database. Since we are not familiar with Gummi Ships, we were hoping to find some assistance here."
The man stared at Riku and the rest of the group for a minute, staring at him like a wolf examines his prey. Sora gulped nervously; hopefully the man would stop any minute.
Thankfully, he did. "You," he said, gesturing to Riku, "are an elf, most likely from the Northern Forest. The redhead is from the Atlantica; she's got 'ocean' written all over her. I also sense an Islander in the group, along with Radiant Garden fey and antiseptic." He wrinkled his nose at the last word before continuing. "I assume you are heading for either Radiant Garden or Destiny Islands."
Everyone stared at the man incredulously. How could he have possibly known all that?
Sora was the one to voice their question, to which the brunet man smirked and replied, "It's surprising what you can find out when you use your senses."
"Leon, what are you doing out here? We have people to serve!" a girl's voice called out.
A raven-haired girl came bouncing out of the tavern, wearing a matching apron over a pair of bright orange mini-shorts. Her short bob cut framed her thin, angular face and accentuated her mischievous gray eyes. She couldn't have been more than three feet tall, but she could easily reach Leon's full height with her large, dragonfly-like wings - a signature trait of a full-blooded pixie. The only peculiar thing about her garb was the ninja forehead protector she wore, something that one doesn't see every day. In fact, Sora was pretty sure that he had only seen them in comics that he sometimes borrowed from his human pixie glanced over the crowd before raising an eyebrow. "What did we pick up today, the Lost Boys?" she asked her friend."Hardly, Yuffie," The man called Leon replied, unamused by her joke. "Just a rag-tag group of teenagers from different worlds. Seems like they've been through a lot today.""You don't know the half of it," Lea muttered under his 's attention turned to the fiery redhead. "Refugees?" she asked."Yeah, I guess you could say that," the fire spirit replied cast the group a sympathetic glance. "I'm sure we could prepare a couple of rooms for y'all for a night or two, although you may be a little cramped. Would you guys be okay with that?""To be honest, I think we'd be fine with anything; we're completely pooped right now," Lea answered, yawning at the end of his statement.
His yawn seemed to have been contagious, for Sora soon found himself letting out a rather large and noisy yawn.
"Sorry 'bout that," he hastily said, chuckling nervously.
The young pixie giggled at his antics. "Well, I guess that means we should hurry up and get those rooms ready, eh?" she said to him, her gray eyes filled with amusement. "C'mon inside while you wait!"
The exhausted party filed into the tavern and waited for about a half an hour, although Sora wasn't entirely sure. Everything was a blur to him, and he couldn't quite figure out what was going on half of the time; in fact, he was pretty certain that he had dozed off at one point, even though he was standing.
"The excitement of the day seems to be catching up to you," Riku commented as they entered a medium-sized hotel room. Sora blinked. When and how did he get here?
Lea brushed straight past the two younger fey and threw himself on the wooden cot, crumpling up the once tidy – albeit plain – bed sheets. A few seconds later, he was snoring away.
"I'm taking the other bed tonight; you get the floor," Riku said simply. Before Sora could process what he had just said, Riku collapsed on the cot on the other side of the room.
Sora sighed resignedly, but grabbed a pillow from Lea's bed and threw it onto the ground. "Tomorrow night I'll definitely get a bed!" he thought determinedly as he dropped onto the hard, wooden floor. Within minutes, however, he was out cold for the night.
-Misfits-Misfits-Misfits-
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