My World

Chap 1 – The Funny-Lookin'

Traverse Town was bustling with people; after the crisis people began to flood the town and merchants began to set up shops around the area. It seemed as though everyone was content with their lives now, no big threats were looming over their horizons and everything was as right as rain. Even the worlds that had been consumed by darkness had resurrected a new.

But all was not well with one little store keeper.

"Damn it!" Cid Highwind slammed his fist against his air conditioner – it puffed a little cloud of cold air before making a screeching sound and completely shutting off.

The Gummi shop hadn't been doing so well after the whole mess with the heartless. His biggest customer, Sora, was now back at Destiny Islands enjoying his time in his own world, like the rest of the galaxy. No one wanted to travel, everyone wanted to stay put in their own worlds. And because of the drop in cash flow, he hadn't the money to afford a new air conditioner to remedy the summer heat wave.

Cid grumbled as he sat himself in a swivel chair placed in front of the air conditioner. He wasted about an hour or so trying to get it to work – and to no avail. He may have been a brilliant Gummi engineer but when it came to women and air conditioners – he was an amateur. But of course he would never admit to these two foibles to anyone.

The shop's bell jingled and a shuffling of feet stepped into his store. Cid immediately jumped to his feet and sprinted over to the potential customers.

"Hello! Welcome to Cid's Aces-" Cid's enthusiasm soon fell to the floor as he found that it was only Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie who had come to visit. "-sory and Gummi shop." He angrily growled out before slumping himself over in his swivel chair.

"Why so glum, chum?" Aerith asked politely, seemingly oblivious to the side argument Yuffie and Leon seemed to have gotten themselves into.

"Eh, well business has been goin' down hill for me. And," Cid looks over at his air conditioner angrily, "the AC ain't workin'."

"Aya! Those are trivial things! What's really troubling you?"

Cid lifted a brow in contemplation. She had a point, money wasn't really a problem, and things around Traverse Town were pretty cheap these days. As for the air conditioner, that thing hadn't been working for years!

"Well I have been wonderin' what Sora has been gettin' himself into."

Then without a word of notice, a loud shout echoed within Cid's store.

"WOULD YOU QUIT CALLING ME SQUALL!" Leon shouted at the top of his lungs at Yuffie, Yuffie tried to suppress her giggles but couldn't and started snorting and chortling at Leon's disposition.

Leon looked at Cid and Aerith, and gently blushed at his sudden outburst.

"Ah, erm, sorry." He shot ice from his eyes at Yuffie, but she was too busy trying to calm down her laughing fit.

Cid rolled his eyes at them, and Aerith simply giggled at the two. She often saw them having silly little arguments at Hollow Bastion and it reminded her of two children quarreling. She sighed as she watched the two; she sometimes wondered if they were always going to be like that – temperamental little children. She turned her attention back at Cid.

"See! I knew something else was troubling you! And lucky you," she smiled, "I happened to invite Sora to come over."

After Aerith had said this, the door opened again followed by the jingle. Everyone turned their heads to the door to find a fairly tall young man with brunette hair.

"Hey guys!" Sora smiled and his teeth seemed to sparkle even brighter against his newly bronze complexion that he received playing under the sun at Destiny Islands. "Heard you were missing me Cid!" He went over to the swivel chair and playfully poked Cid's arm. Cid batted Sora's hand away from him and rubbed his arm.

"What do you ya mean? I didn't even notice you were gone!" Cid smiled jokingly. "C'mere ya kooky kid!" He grabs Sora and starts giving him noogies.

"Hey quit it!"

"Ya!" Yuffie chimed in, "Leave some room for the rest of us!" Yuffie then bounced her way over to Sora and began tickling him. Soon all three of them burst out into light peels of laughter. It had been awhile since they were all able to hang around and joke with each other.

"So, are Kairi and Riku going to come over as well?" Leon interjected as their laughter began to settle.

"They'll be over soon, they just have to – "Then, all at once, the crowds of people outside began screaming in terror running around and nearly stampeding over each other.

Aerith gasped at the sudden sight of things outside Cid's shop. The group had stopped horsing around to maneuver themselves closer to the windows of the shop. Obviously, something must have happened, something dreadful, but none of them could've imagined what it could be. Or perhaps, none of them wanted to imagine what they all believed could've been the problem.

"W-what's going on?" Aerith asked nervously as she watched the masses out of the window running about. The busiest part of Traverse Town now started to thin out.

The jingle from the door started again as Sora stood half way out the store. His previous childlike joy was now replaced with an older more grim demeanor. Sora had grown up tremendously at the end of his journey in saving the worlds from destruction, but to the group he was still just a child. Leon leapt up after Sora followed by Yuffie.

"We're coming with you." Leon said and shortly they were out trying to move against the panicking crowd.

As they were trying to find the source of such grievance they heard people in the crowd crying or cursing, a woman kept shouting, "Their faces! Their faces!" Sora shivered as he realized the gravity of the situation, something really serious happened – something that he felt he wasn't sure he wanted to even find out.

Finally they reached the middle of the first district of Traverse Town, and saw what it was that had upset the masses.

"Oh. My. God." Yuffie uttered quietly as she looked down at the source of dread. Leon merely stood silently, but his fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned a vain white. Sora began to feel sick; his stomach started making somersaults at the sight.

Displayed so carefully across the center floor was the well known and adored Huey, Dewey, and Louie ducks. Someone had taken the time to pluck out all their feathers, and tried shoving it down their throats and even savagely stabbed a few into their eye sockets. Their bodies were lightly cooked and were oozing with some sort of homemade sauce that made it smell strongly of seasoned duck and blood. Across their bodies someone slashed in the words "GAMES JUST STARTED!" and left the razor blade Joker card that had done the scaring by the bodies. There was also another message left, written in what could only be assumed as their blood, and it read "SOMEONE SHOULDA SAID HAMBURGERS INSTEAD OF PEKING DUCK! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Underneath the message it was signed, "THE FUNNY-LOOKIN'"

Never, never in a thousand years could they ever imagine seeing something so…evil! Something was happening; something dark was coming their way.