Episode 3

Cast Away

Sean was lying awake in his bed, with Blood and Rain sleeping on the floor on both sides of it. He thought about what Rain said earlier. I admit I was a little afraid at first, too, her voice echoed in his mind. But I'm ready now. I just can't wait; once we hit the road – you, me, and Blood – it'll be great.

He took a glance at the slumbering Rain on the floor. He smiled and whispered to himself, "She's right. It'll be great once we all get going." After a brief pause, he leaned over to pet Rain and whispered again with confidence, "Now I'm ready, too. Thanks, girl."

Back in his bed, Sean lay down and sighed. Knowing that he was no longer nervous, he closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

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A few hours later, Sean woke up from his peaceful sleep, realizing that it was unusually dark outside. Shifting around to get a better view out the window, he could see only blackness outside but could hear the wind whipping strongly. "What, a storm?" he asked himself.

Realizing that this could be a potentially threatening storm, Sean shouted out to the darkness, "Rain? Blood? We've gotta get down to the basement! This looks like a real nasty storm!" But he got no response. After a few seconds, he reached over to where Blood usually sleeps to get him up. "Blood? Hey, you –"

He stopped mid-sentence when he saw that Blood wasn't there. Blood was completely gone. As Sean wondered where he could've gone, he shifted over to the other side to check up on Rain. "Hey, Rain," he asked as he reached over, "You know where your -?" She was gone, too.

Oh no…Not both of them, he thought to himself with dread. But he knew it wouldn't do any good to just sit in his bed and worry. He had to get out and look for them. With that task in mind, Sean got out of bed and got dressed, grabbing his baseball ball on the way out.

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Neither Blood nor Rain was in the house. Sean would have no choice but to actually go out into the storm. But where could they possibly have gone at a time like this?, he wondered as he went out the front door and into the street. It was just as black outside as he saw from his bedroom. Up in the sky there was a massive sphere of pulsing dark energy.

While he was trying to think about where Blood and Rain could've gone, Sean noticed something stirring behind him. Glancing backwards, he saw mysterious shadow creatures emerging from the ground, and a large group of them. Sean turned shocked as the creatures stared back at him with glowing yellow eyes and twitching antennae.

After a brief shock, Sean spun around to face the invaders, baseball bat armed and ready. "Don't come any closer, you…Whatever you things are!," he yelled as he held the bat low. The creatures seemed slightly intimidated, but kept creeping towards him. "I'm warning you," he said as he slightly moved backward, "Don't mess with me! I've been fighting with Blood for years!"

Then, like a wild animal, one of the creatures laid low for a moment, then pounced right towards Sean. He took a swing at it with his bat, but the weapon seemed to go right through it. The creature knocked him backward as Sean tried to take more swings. On his back, he faced the creature as it tried to thrust its claw onto where his heart lay. He grabbed its claw and threw it aside, realizing that his bat is doing absolutely no damage to these…things.

It's no use, he thought, I can't even deliver a solid hit! As another one of the creatures lunged toward him, he rolled out of the way, got back on his feet, and took off down the street. The creatures, in turn, gave chase. He ran as fast as he could, his mind racing as to where to look for Blood and Rain.

Wait…The forest!, he assured himself. I'll look there first! He ran off toward the nearest house, then past it towards the forest preserve. The creatures were still on his trail.

As he approached the forest, Sean finally spotted Blood sitting on their favorite hill. Glad to have finally found his friend, Sean headed straight for the hill. As soon as the creatures saw him heading in that direction, they sunk back into the ground.

At the hill, Sean ran up to see Blood just sitting there, looking out onto the town. Stopping to catch his breath, Sean said to Blood, "Blood! There you are! Wh…What are you doing out here?? And where's Rain??"

Blood glanced at his friend, saying, "Ah, Sean. I thought you'd never get here…" As he finished speaking, a pillar of darkness sprouted right under his paws. Sean was completely shocked and taken aback by this pillar, but Blood didn't seem fazed at all as he turned around. "Come with me, Sean," he said, somewhat visible from the outside. "We can go to the outside world now."

Completely shocked, Sean tried talking and could only say, "But…Rain!" "Don't worry," Blood said, noticing Sean's concern, "She should be coming with us."

Sean finally decided to go into the pillar to try and get Blood out. But before he could enter it, it suddenly expanded and covered Sean in tendrils of darkness. Blood then held his paw out, signaling Sean to get a hold of it. But Sean was struggling inside the growing darkness, and he found it difficult to even move. Sensing Sean's desperation, Blood teased, "Whatsa matter, Sean? You afraid of the dark?"

Sean tried desperately to get to Blood, but soon his friend was completely engulfed by the darkness. It surrounded Sean, too, until it was entirely pitch black around him. He could move again, but there was no sign of Blood anywhere. Recovering from before, Sean shouted, "Blood?? Blood! Blood, where are you?!?"

But don't be afraid.

Sean knew that voice was not Blood, but was surprised to hear it at a time like this. "It's that voice again!," he told himself. Then he felt his right arm lift up as a radiant light burst forth from his palm, consuming the entire dark space he was in.

You possess the most powerful weapon in the universe…

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After the blinding light dimmed, Sean found himself back on the hill. He saw that Blood was gone, had vanished into the darkness. When he looked down at his arm, he jumped in surprise. His baseball bat had been replaced with a new, strange weapon. It was a sword, but it was shaped like a giant key, with the teeth as the blade and a hanging keychain below the hilt shaped like a wolf head.

"What the…What is this thing??" he asked himself as he held the weapon straight up. Keyblade, the voice spoke again, as if answering Sean's question. The strength within you.

"Key…Blade?" he repeated. Behind him, another one of the shadow creatures emerged from the ground and proceeded to attack Sean. Almost by instinct, Sean spun right around and hit the creature with his new Keyblade. With that one hit, the creature disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke. I can't believe it, he thought as he marveled at how his new weapon quickly disposed of the creature, A solid hit!

Soon afterward, more shadows came up. Realizing that now he has a fighting chance against the invaders, he brandished the Keyblade and held it low. One of the creatures pounced towards him, but he swung the Keyblade and easily defeated it. He rushed forward as he slashed at the creatures, until they were all gone.

Wow, that easily took care of them, Sean thought as he looked back onto the hill. But he soon realized that he still had to find Rain. But the question is, where could SHE be?, he wondered.

Then, as if it was reading Sean's mind, the Keyblade lifted up and pointed right into the forest, sensing a powerful energy. Sean was confused at first, but he knew he didn't have much time to think about it. Realizing that the Keyblade may know where Rain is, he said, "OK, Keyblade thingy…You lead the way!" Trusting the weapon, he headed deep into the forest.

In the forest, more shadow creatures came out of nowhere to attack Sean. He only destroyed the ones directly in his way, as he had to hurry to Rain's location. Finally, he reached the heart of the forest, where the big tree hollow rested.

But he noticed something strange when he arrived. A large ornate door had appeared at the entrance to the hollow. Where'd that come from?, he wondered as he approached the door. The Keyblade was pointing right into the hollow, and the door didn't seem to be locked, so he just opened it and headed right through.

As soon as he entered the hollow, he saw Rain standing right in front of the large wooden door. "Rain! Boy, I'm so glad to have –" He stopped speaking, noticing that something was seriously wrong with her. She was standing, but her legs looked weak. It looked like she was about to collapse. Glancing backward, Rain said weakly, "S…Sean…"

Before Sean could say another word, a large keyhole flashed briefly on the door before it burst wide open. Darkness and storm-force winds blew right out it, and Rain flew towards Sean. "Don't worry, girl!" Sean shouted against the wind, "I've got you!" He spread his arms outward, preparing to catch her. "I've got you! I've got –"

Then he realized that she passed right through him. Not only that, but she had disappeared entirely. He was so stunned that he had lost both his friends that the winds from the door swept him off his feet and blew him back outside.

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Sean landed back outside the hollow with a thud. On his back, he heard strong winds whipping all around him. Sitting back up, he saw trees, houses, just pieces of Forest Hill swirling around in a massive maelstrom of darkness. He was sitting on a huge chunk of earth, suspended in the air just a few miles short of the massive dark sphere that was in the sky earlier.

Sean couldn't believe what was happening around him. And as if we wasn't shocked enough, he saw his own shadow expanding and morphing, much as it did in his dreams. It became bigger, and transformed into a monstrous shadow creature. It looked a lot like the others, only it had a full head of what looked like hair, as well as long arms, short legs, and a heart-shaped hole in the middle of its body.

Jolting back to his feet, Sean tried running away, but soon realized that there was nowhere to run. The platform he was on was suspended in thin air, and trying to leave would only lead to disaster. As the large shadow creature stared him down, it took its hand and thrust it right into the ground. Sean rolled right out of the way as a pool of darkness formed around the hand and released more shadow creatures.

He stood right back up, Keyblade brandished. He knew that now he would have no choice but to fight.

The smaller shadows rushed at Sean, but he easily disposed of them. No use going for the smaller ones, he thought to himself. I've gotta get the big one!

The boss withdrew its hand from the earth as Sean attempted to take a swing at it. He was too late; the hand was almost out of harm's way. Aren't you a little TOO big?, he thought. How am I supposed to bring you down? He looked at the boss for a weak spot.

As Sean evaluated the face, the boss knelt down, pelvis forward, and built up energy in the hole in its body. Oh no, that doesn't look good, Sean thought as dark fireballs came out of the boss's body and started homing onto his location. He lifted the Keyblade up to his face to block the first fireball, which exploded with dark energy. He then started running around the boss, attempting to dodge the rest of the wave. He just missed the next three fireballs. When he went back around to the front of the boss, the Keyblade pointed to its face. A weak spot?, he wondered as he slowed down to get a better view.

But the last fireball from the wave hit him, and he fell to his side. But he got right back up and continued the fight. OK, but how do I get it?, he thought about the boss's face.

The boss lifted its hand up again, and again plunged it into the earth. Jumping out of the way, Sean finally saw a way to get to the face. Running through the pool of darkness the hand formed, he jumped up onto the big arm and ran up it to the face. Once he got to the weak spot, Sean delivered a series of slashes to it. When he was just about to fall, he grabbed one of the boss's strands of hair and continued slashing at the face.

The boss was unable to see, but it took its hand out of the ground, stood upright, and tried to swat Sean. Sean didn't see the hand in time to block it, so he was swatted away and back onto the ground.

On his knees, Sean felt weak all over. However, he remembered the few Potions he kept in his pocket just in case. The boss attempted to swat him, but Sean rolled right out of the way as he pulled out and consumed one of his Potions. He instantly perked back up, and recovered his strength.

A giant black fist was heading right for him, but he rolled away again. Then, realizing that the boss had left itself open, Sean got back up and jumped onto the fist. He ran back up to the face and, before he could fall off again, he thrust the Keyblade deep into the face. After a flash of light, Sean fell back to the ground as the boss clutched its face in pain. Darkness was pouring out of it, and it was losing its strength. Its entire body was dissolving as it was lifted off the platform and disappeared into the gigantic sphere.

Standing up, Sean shouted, "Yes!". But there wasn't much time for celebration, as Sean quickly noticed that the sphere was trying to pull him in, too. He rushed for the nearest tree trunk and attempted to hang on. But the trunk was steadily losing its grip on the earth.

The trunk eventually broke off and lifted off into the giant sphere, taking Sean with it. Sean yelled as he was lifted up by the strong suction force, and then he suddenly blacked out.

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Rob, Hobbes, and Cody strode out onto the makeshift cobblestone and metallic ground of the Gadget Town plaza. Then Cody looked up at the night sky and noticed something. "Huh?," he expressed as he looked up. Both Rob and Hobbes turned around. "What, Cody? Are we about to be hit by a meteor, or something?," Rob sarcastically asked. "No," said Cody. "Look up! A star's going out!"

Everyone looked up to see a large star flash, then disappear completely. "That…That was another world, wasn't it?," Hobbes asked a concerned Cody and a shocked Rob. "Probably," Cody responded.

Hobbes paused for a moment, then said, "In that case, we'd better hurry and find the human with the key right away." "Great," said Rob. "That's what's gonna happen to other worlds if we don't get up and running with this 'key' business??" "Yeah," Cody responded. "That's why we have to find it quickly."

With that in mind, the heroes headed off to look around.

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A while later, a small white robot with a motorized scrubbing brush and a single wheel entered the plaza for daily clean-up. It zipped through the plaza, frantically scrubbing the ground. It went up the steps to the Accessory Shop, and then looked toward the alleyway next to it. "FOREIGN CONTAMINANT," its computer told it as it detected something in the alley.

Channeling its frustration in a series of incoherent beeps, the robot rushed right into the alleyway. But it stopped in its tracks as soon as it saw Sean lying there, seemingly unconscious. It slowly approached him and looked over him. He was covered in "foreign contaminant", and after a while, the robot started cleaning him.

Feeling the brush on him, Sean jolted right up with a short shout. The robot jumped backward, shocked that he was moving after all. As it stood right in front of him, Sean said, "Wh-What's going on? A…robot?" The robot then identified itself as, "M-O." "'MO'?" he inquired. As he stood back up, he noticed that something was wrong. Looking around, he inquired, "Wha…Wait a sec….Wh…Where am I?"

The walkway under him was cobblestone stacked on top of yellow metal, and, by the looks of it, whoever worked on it didn't finish. Just about everything in the alleyway had a yellow metallic feel to it. "Wait," he said to himself, "I…I was sucked into that giant…thing, and…But, how did I get here?"

Sean then looked down at M-O, saying, "Hmm…I don't suppose you would know where we are?" But M-O's only response was him cleaning Sean's shoes, followed by a disgruntled series of beeps and him leaving Sean behind. "Hey…Wait up!," Sean shouted as M-O left the alleyway.

Sean sighed, then said to himself, "Well, guess I might as well try and figure out where I am." Then Sean left the alleyway himself, unaware of a mysterious man with wolf claws spying on him from a nearby rooftop…