Here I am at chapter 5. Sora will now get to experience Traverse Town and get some explanations for everything that's been going on. He also has a nasty encounter with Yuffie. Once again, I own nothing.

I still haven't figured out how to do those line things.

Pluto sniffed the boy lying unconscious in the alley. To tell the truth, Pluto had no idea who this was, but he dressed like his master and smelled pretty friendly. Pluto gave him a big lick on the face. "Gah! Huh?" Too be fair, Sora had never seen a dog that looked like Pluto before. "Is this a dream?" Pluto jumped on him. "It's not a dream!" He quickly pushed Pluto off and gazed out of the alley. "It doesn't look like the islands. It looks more like the slums in Midgar." He turned towards Pluto. "I don't suppose you know where I am?" Pluto's eyes darted and he ran off towards whatever had caught his attention. "I guess not...I must've ended up in another world without Nero..." Sora looked himself over. Everything was there, including his daggers and the key. "This place looks kind of shady. I should probably change into my DEEPGROUND uniform." Their uniforms were actually much more resistant than normal clothing. Otherwise, they would go through uniforms and clothes far too quickly for anyone's taste. Sora took a look at his uniform. Seren had kept the same design. It was just bigger. He shrugged and quickly changed his clothes, but kept his crown charm, putting his other outfit away for now and putting his daggers in the hidden sheaths in his pants and managed to position the key on his back by sticking it in his jacket. That done, he stepped out and got his first good look at Traverse Town. It looked like any other town besides how dark it was. He just went into the first building he saw.

"Hey there, how can I-Oh, it's just a kid." Sora twitched. The guy at the counter was blond with stubble, a toothpick in his mouth, goggles, and an outfit that reminded Sora of Zoro's except the sash was yellow and the pants were blue.

"I'm not a kid! And the name's Sora!"

"Aw, simmer down you brat. What's with the long face? You lost or something?" It looked like the guy wasn't gonna use Sora's name.

"Well, yes and no. Where am I?"

"Eh?" Sora quickly explained to him what had happened prior to his waking up in an alley. "Well, that sucks. You're in Traverse Town."

"Traverse Town, huh?" Sora had certainly never heard of a town like that. "Hey gramps, I'm in another world aren't I?"

"Don't call me gramps! The name's Cid! And this ain't your island. Can't say if you're on another world or not."

"I think I am. Something similar happened to me before." Cid gave him a weird look. "A friend kept it from being too bad. He wasn't around this time."

"Whatever. You buying something or not?"

"Uh, I didn't grab my wallet when I left. Maybe later." He left before Cid could say anything. "Okay, definitely another world. I better see if anyone else ended up here." That decided, Sora started to explore the part of town he was in. He found out was that the town had three districts, and districts two and three were infested with something called 'Heartless.' "I know I don't know anything about these 'Heartless,' but I need to see if I can find anything." That being said, he walked through the doors to the second district.

When Sora walked into the second district he noticed that it seemed perfectly normal. Nothing seemed to be waiting to attack him. Then a man came running and fell down a few feet from Sora. Sora went over to check on him, but then a heart came floating out of the man. Sora blinked at the absurdity of the situation before the heart suddenly got swallowed up by darkness and turned into a little black and blue thing with a helmet that disappeared. The man also disappeared. Sora's eyes widened. "What was that? !" Then several familiar shadows appeared around him. Sora blinked as realization struck. "These are the Heartless? !" At that, they attacked. He didn't really have any trouble fighting them off. "I guess these guys have the same problem. What happened to that guy though? And what was that thing with the helmet? Some other Heartless?" He sighed and kept looking around for anything useful. It seemed that there weren't any people here though, just Heartless. It was the same in the third district. Annoyed, Sora returned to the accessory shop. Cid raised an eyebrow.

"You again? What now?"

"There's nothing but Heartless in districts two and three."

"You must be new if you just now figured that out."

Sora sighed. "I was just kind of hoping I'd find someone I'd know." That seemed to soften Cid a little.

"Everyone's like that here. All the inhabitants are survivors from worlds that were destroyed by Heartless. Might be on some other world. Or maybe you missed them when you were looking."

"I dunno. Some of them are pretty easy to notice. I'll go check anyway." He turned to leave.

"Wait a minute." Sora turned back towards Cid. "Your eyes are glowing. They mako eyes?"

Sora blinked. Was this guy from his old world? "Yeah."

"Shit, how'd that happen?"

"I was in an accident when I was a kid. I ended up exposed to mako because of it. It probably helped me recover." With that, Sora walked out. He didn't want Cid to ask any more questions. Sora looked up at the sky. "What do I do now?"

"They'll come at you out of nowhere." Sora jumped and whirled around to see who had said that. It was a man with brown hair, gray eyes, a scar across his face, black leather clothing, lots of belts, and what appeared to be a gunblade.

"Who are you?" "I didn't even notice him!"

The man didn't answered him. "And they'll keep coming at you, as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade." Here he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?"

Sora twitched. "I'm not a kid."

The man rolled his eyes. "Doesn't matter. Now, let me see that Keyblade."

Sora looked at the large key slung across his back. "It's called a Keyblade?" He looked back at the man. "Not gonna happen."

The man shrugged and brought his gunblade up. "Fine. Have it your way."

Sora did not use the Keyblade as expected. He could tell the man had lots of experience so Sora was going with a weapon he was more comfortable with, his daggers. When Sora caught the gunblade with his daggers, it caught the man by surprise for a second. Then he fired the gun part of his weapon and Sora jumped 45 degrees to the left to attack the man's exposed side. He got a light cut, but the man knocked his arms away and jumped back somewhat. Sora dashed forward to press his attack before that man could fully recover. Unfortunately, the man managed to block with his gunblade. So Sora decided to sidekick him in the ribs. This got a grunt from the man, but he managed to grab Sora's foot and twist it so that Sora was spun and his back was to the man. Sora spun back around, but not fast enough to avoid a bullet to the side. He grit his teeth and threw a dagger at the man's head. The man held his gunblade up to deflect it, and Sora went in low in an attempt to cut, or at least damage, the ligaments in the man's calves. Too bad something hit him in the head hard enough for him to get knocked out. The man grunted and turned towards where the large shuriken had come from. There was a black-haired girl with short hair, a gray headband, a green tank top, yellow shorts, a yellow scarf, and suspenders standing there. He gave her a look.

"Why did you do that?"

The girl gave him a disbelieving look. "He has mako eyes! He was probably with Shinra! Plus, he was going for your ligaments there!"

"I had it covered."

"Yeah right! I can't believe the Keyblade master is one of Shinra's people! Why would it choose one of them? !"

"Just help me carry him back to the hotel room."

So, Sora was taken to a hotel room and put in a bed. Thankfully it didn't take too long for him to start rousing. The girl took advantage of it.

"Wake up you lazy bum!"

Sora groaned. "Kairi?" He opened his eyes and blinked. The girl twitched.

"I'm not Kairi! I'm the great ninja Yuffie!"

Sora sweatdropped. "Uh, sorry. Where am I?"

She gave him a look. "No way. I'm not answering your questions 'till you answer mine!"

"Huh?"

"First off, how long have you been with Shinra?"

Sora's eyes widened as realization hit. "Wait a-You're from Wutai!"

"That's right!"

"I was never in the SOLDIER program! And even if I was, I'd be too young to participate in the Shinra-Wutai War. I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm younger than you!"

Yuffie looked pretty thoughtful. "You have a point there, but why do you have mako eyes?"

"I was found and fostered by one of Shinra's SOLDIERS. Later, I was in a really bad accident. My treatment afterwards included mako treatments, among other things. Then I was left in this other division. It was new and never really did anything before the world disappeared." Sora left out a few things, but what he said was true, and Yuffie seemed to believe him.

"Okay. It seems believable. I'll accept you as my ally!" Sora was getting confused. "Anyway, you're in a hotel room in the second district. We needed to get you away from the Heartless."

"But isn't the second district overrun by Heartless?"

"Hush. It's not too bad for most people, but you have the Keyblade. They're after you for it, but what they really want is your heart. They like strong hearts, and the Keyblade master is supposed to have a strong heart. Sucks to be you." Sora twitched. She said that way too cheerfully for his liking. Maybe she didn't like that he had connections to Shinra. "Well Squall, your turn!"

"That's Leon." Sora swiveled his head so fast he almost got whiplash. Standing there, leaning against the wall, was the man from earlier.

"You!" He reached for his daggers, but found them missing. Yuffie pushed him back on the bed before he could jump off.

"Calm down! He's on our side! Even if he is a jerk!" Leon rolled his eyes and held up a familiar key.

"Hey, that's the key from earlier," said Sora. "It's called a Keyblade?"

Yuffie nodded. "Yeah, we had to get it off of ya to shake the Heartless. Turns out that's how they were tracking you."

"It was the only way to conceal your heart from them," said Leon. "But it won't work for long. Still, it's hard to believe that you of all people are the chosen one." The Keyblade disappeared and reappeared in Sora's hands. Sora gave it a weird look. He'd never seen a weapon do that before. "Well, I suppose beggars can't be choosers."

"Okay, I get that something's up and this key is important. Can I have my daggers back and just leave it with you guys?"

Yuffie grinned and handed him his daggers. "Sorry, but you're stuck with it. The Keyblade chooses its master, and it chose you!"

Sora sighed. Of course it wouldn't be easy. "Can you at least explain what's going on?"

"Well, you obviously know about other worlds."

"Yeah."

"All the different worlds are usually kept secret, but since the Heartless have come, the worlds have started becoming connected."

"What exactly are the Heartless anyway?"

Leon spoke up. "Those without hearts. The darkness in people's hearts-That's what attracts them. And every heart has darkness."

Yuffie nodded. "Hey, have you ever heard of Ansem?" Sora shook his head.

"He's a man who studied the Heartless," explained Leon. "He wrote down his findings in a series of reports, but then his world was destroyed and the pages of the reports were scattered to many worlds."

"Can't we look for them?"

"We could, but there are a lot of worlds out there. It would take a lot of time to find them," said Yuffie.

Leon suddenly spoke up. "We do know that they mentioned a key."

Sora looked at the Keyblade. "You mean this? I know it's more effective against Heartless than my daggers, but is that all?"

"We don't know what it is capable of exactly, but we do know that the Heartless have great fear of it. They'll keep attacking you as long as you wield it," explained Leon.

Sora gave the Keyblade another look-over. It didn't look special. "Why did it choose me?"

"Who knows? It has something to do with your heart though," said Yuffie.

"Great..." Sora thought for a moment. "Hey, what happens to the people who the Heartless don't get if their world is destroyed?"

"Usually, they get flung to other worlds," said Leon.

"Sounds like what Kimihiro said last time." "Okay, then I'm gonna go looking for my family and friends," said Sora.

"That's the spirit!" shouted Yuffie. Sora tucked his daggers into their hidden sheaths. "You're keeping those?"

"Yeah, I've only had the Keyblade for an hour or two. These'll be better if I have to fight other people, like him," said Sora, pointing at Leon. Yuffie shrugged. Leon didn't seem to care.

"You'll have to learn to use it eventually. Be prepared to fight for your life," said Leon. Sora grinned.

"That's not a problem!" That was when Yuffie let out a high-pitched yelp as a Soldier appeared in the middle of the room. Leon reacted by leaping forward and knocking it out the window.

"Yuffie! Go help Aerith!" Yuffie nodded and ran out a nearby door. "Sora, you're with me!" Both leapt out the window to an alley filled with Soldier Heartless. "Don't bother with the small fry! Just find the leader and take it out!" Then Leon went off destroying any Heartless that came his way. Sora unslung the Keyblade and started doing the same. Oddly enough, despite going in the same direction, Sora and Leon ended up getting separated. Sora just took them out while looking for any Heartless that looked different. Too bad he didn't find any. The only odd thing he found was that the Third District seemed to be deserted.

"Weird. There were a lot of Heartless around here earlier." He took a step forward and heard an odd sound. He looked up just in time to have some weird duck and a weird dog land on him. It took a second to recover from the shock. "Ow..."

"The Key!" And then several stone columns rose, blocking any escape paths they might be able to take. On top of each column was a Soldier Heartless that jumped down to attack them. Sora leapt forward and cut one in two. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the duck casting a Fire spell.

"You have materia? !"

The duck gave him a confused look. "Huh?"

"Behind you!" Sora threw the Keyblade at the Soldier sneaking up on the duck from behind. The Soldier was impaled and disappeared in wisps of darkness. Sora immediately dashed over and grabbed the Keyblade before any Heartless could go for him. Fortunately, the Heartless seemed to be all gone. Sora turned towards the duck. "How did you use magic if you don't have any materia?"

"What?"

Before Sora could explain, a pair of metal feet came falling down from the sky. They froze. A metal body with metal arms followed. They got into fighting positions again. A head fell down onto the body and the Heartless sprang to life. Sora's eyes widened slightly.

"What the-The body and limbs all have different life forces! This could take a while. I'll just go for the body since it's in the middle." With that plan in mind, Sora jumped forward with a slash to the body. He was caught off guard by one of the hands flying away from the body and punching him into a wall. "Ow..." "Note to self: It's body parts can separate."

"Cure!" A green glow surrounded Sora. He immediately felt better. Looks like the two animals were on his side.

"Thanks!" Sora took a moment to take a look at the two. The duck was using magic so he must be a mage. The dog was using...a shield? "How do you fight with a shield?" Sora immediately ran towards him. "Hey! The limbs will be able to live separately from the body! One of you go for them!" This got Sora an odd look from the duck, but the dog decided to listen and switched to attacking the feet. Sora returned to attacking the body with wide swings that also hit the arms. He still had to be careful to dodge the arms, especially when they went in a circle, but he was managing to dodge them except for a few minor brushes. The dog was doing a pretty good job too. Both jumped back for a moment after the armor's right arm and left leg suddenly fell apart and disappeared.

"Great! I'm out of magic!" shouted the duck.

"The main body is down to 39%, the hand is down to 13%, and the foot is down to 5%! It won't take much more to get rid of the limbs!"

"Wait! How do you know that? !"

"I'll explain later!" With that said, Sora ran towards the armor and jumped much higher than a human should be able to jump while bringing the Keyblade down on its head. He briefly noted that the dog was now slamming against the remaining arm and the duck was bashing the foot with his staff. He flipped behind the armor and hit it from behind just as its foot shattered. The duck joined the dog in attacking the arm. Sora dodged another swipe from the arm and impaled said arm on the Keyblade, shattering it.

The armor shook for a second before falling to the ground and spinning rapidly. Then it started shooting off all across the ground and it took everything the three had to dodge its movements.

"Blizzard!" Several icicles hit the armor and froze it to the ground. Sora blinked and looked at the smug duck.

"I thought he was out of magic! Did he have an ether?" The three leapt at the armor from all sides and hit it simultaneously. The armor made a creaking sound as it finally crumpled and its helmet fell off. From inside, a sparkling heart came out and flew off as the body disappeared. "Wow..."

"Nice ta meet'cha!" The dog held his hand out. Sora shook it while wondering what he was exactly. "We were looking all over for ya!"

"You were looking for me?"

"They too have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade." Sora turned. It was Leon, along with Yuffie and a woman in a pink dress with green eyes and brown hair in a braid. Maybe she was the 'Aerith' Leon had mentioned earlier.

The two animals nodded and the dog spoke up again. He seemed to be the friendly one of the two. "Hey, why don't you come with us? We can go to other worlds on our vessel."

Sora's face lit up. "You have something that can do that! That'd be great! I need to look for a lot of people!"

"Yeah, you'll probably find your friends," said the duck.

"You sure?"

"Who knows but we need him to help us find the King." Sora twitched at this whispered conversation. It's a well-known fact that mako enhances the senses. Yuffie snickered a bit as she heard it and knew Sora did too.

"Sora, go with them, especially if you want to find your friends," said Leon.

"Yeah, I know Riku's alive, along with the other Tsviets. I'm not so sure about Kairi, but I think she's alive." Sora turned towards the two animals. "What're your names? You never introduced yourselves."

"Donald Duck."

"The name's Goofy."

The two had put their hand on top of each other. Sora grinned and put his hand on top of theirs. "I'm Sora."

"All for one, and one for all!" Sora laughed at Goofy's declaration. Maybe things were looking up.

Meanwhile, it a dark place with many shadowed silhouettes, Sora was being watched.

"That little squirt took down the Heartless. Who'd have thought it?"

"Such is the power of the Keyblade."

"Why don't we turn him into a Heartless? That will settle things quick enough!" This was followed by a cackle.

"And the brat's friends are the king's lackeys. Swoggle me eyes, they're all bilge rats by the look of them!"

"You're no prize yourself!" This was followed by more laughter.

"Shut up!"

"Enough." A pale woman in black walked up. She held a gold staff with a green orb on top, and she appeared to have horns. "The Keyblade has chosen him. Will it be he who conquers the Darkness? Or will the Darkness swallow him? Either way, he could be quite useful."

Back in Traverse Town, Leon's group was giving Sora's group their good-byes.

"Make sure you're prepared for the journey ahead. We don't know how far the Heartless have spread." Leon was all business.

"You should check out the shops here! They've got some pretty neat stuff! No materia though." She sounded oddly disappointed about the lack of mareria.

"This is from all of us." Aerith gave Sora 100 munny. "Spend it as you see fit. And this is for doing so well against Leon." She handed Sora a bottle with a light blue liquid in it.

"Whoa! An elixir! Thanks!"

"Ah, here's something else." Yuffie gave him a leather harness. "It's so you can keep that key in place without sticking it under your clothes. It doesn't look comfortable."

"Thanks."

Yuffie grinned. "Good luck!"

"I hope you find your friends," said Aerith. With that, the three left. Sora quickly put on the harness and slipped the Keyblade into it.

"Okay, now how were you able to tell how much health that Heartless had?" asked Donald.

"Oh, I can see the life auras of any creature. I guess that includes Heartless." Donald and Goofy looked confused. "All living things have an aura. The stronger something is, the more powerful and bright the aura is. If the aura dims, that means that it is hurt or sick. If the aura disappears completely, it dies."

"Wow! That's amazing!" Sora blinked and looked around for the source of the voice. Something small jumped onto Goofy's hat. Upon closer inspection, it was found to be a little bug in clothes with an umbrella and top hat. "Nice to meet you! I'm Jiminy Cricket, professional conscience. Queen Minne asked me to come along to record your journey."

"Wow, that's pretty cool."

"Can we get back on subject?" asked Donald.

"Oh, right, do you know where we can get some potions and ethers?"

"My nephews run a store near here," said Donald.

"Hey, Sora why're your eyes glowin'?" asked Goofy.

"That's just a weird side effect of mako exposure. Don't worry about it." That done, they went to the Duck Store. Three identical ducks with different colored shirts and hats greeted them.

"Hi Uncle Donald!"

"Hi boys. We need some potions and ethers. How much can we get with 574 munny?" Sora had picked up a lot of munny while fighting Heartless and found a couple of potions.

"Two potions and two ethers."

That done, they left the shop.

"So, where's this airship you mentioned?"

"Oh, the gummi ship is just outside the gates," said Donald.

Sora blinked. "Gummi ship?"

"Yep, wait 'til you see it!" said Goofy.

They walked out the gates, and Sora gaped. The ship looked like it was made out of candy. "Okay, now I'm worried."

"You don't know how to pilot it, so we'll be piloting it for now. While Goofy pilots it, I'll teach you some magic, and while I pilot it, he'll teach you some moves," explained Donald.

"Actually, he seems pretty good," said Goofy.

"I'm gonna learn magic that doesn't need materia?" asked Sora. That would be great. The weakness of materia was that you could only carry so many of them and could come to rely on them too much.

"Yeah."

"Well, let's get going then!" With that Sora ran into the gummi ship, ready to start his strange adventure.

Another chapter done

Yeah, the FFVII characters are gonna be the same as from the games. That means Cid will curse. Yuffie was initially distrustful of Sora because she thought he was with Shinra, and she pretty much hates those guys. As for Sora's performance against Leon, I realize most people have trouble with the guy there, but Sora has more combat experience and was able to do better this time around, like with Riku. Sora will continue to alternate between his daggers and the Keyblade for a while, but will eventually become more comfortable with the Keyblade. Oh, and the aura thing, that's just Scan. I'm gonna make it so that he's always had that. Now for another Omake.

Omake: What About the Rest? Part II

"Hey, hey, you alive?" Azul groaned. What was that annoying voice? He'd been practicing at the target range, and...He couldn't remember what happened. He pried his eyes open.

"Great, you are alive!" The speaker was a teenage boy with dark skin and dreadlocks.

"Welcome to The Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude!" That speaker was another teen with blond hair, glasses, and a hoop earring in his left earlobe.

"What?"

Blondie continued talking. "Yeah, some weird vacuum formed in the middle of the station and you and that cannon thing fell out of it. It was really cool. Must've been some sort of interdimensional vortex or something." Anything after that was gibberish to Azul.

"Don't worry. Richie's a super genius. Most of the time no one can understand him." Azul returned to looking at the dreadlocked teen. "By the way, what's with the bazooka thing?" He jerked his thumb at the cannon, which had been propped up in a corner.

"It's a tank cannon."

The teen's eyebrows arched. "Why do you have a tank cannon?'

"Just tell me where I am."

"Dakota City, famous for its mutated gangbangers."

"Mutated gangbangers?"

"Yeah, there was a chemical spill caused by a gang war. It's caused all sorts of problems for the city. On the bright side, the tourism industry has gone up." Okay, something had to be up with this kid if he thought it was good something like that had helped with tourism. On the other hand...

"Are things like that normal?"

"Yeah, but stuff like this didn't start happening until about 20 years ago, give or take."

"Where can I get information on individuals that I'm looking for?"

"The abandoned warehouse district." Now it was Azul's turn to arch his eyebrows. "This town has some serious problems, and that's where a lot of the problem makers hang out."

"Good enough." He walked over to his cannon and lifted it up with ease.

"Dang...You a bang baby?"

"A what?"

"A metahuman."

"I am a Tsviet."

"Sounds Russian."

"I'm leaving." This boy was getting on his nerves.

"See you around!" Azul had a sudden sense of foreboding, but decided to ignore it. That was Kimihiro's territory, not his.