Chapter 3
Gummi Ship
Sora, Donald, and Goofy had been flying for a while now. It had been a few hours since they left the Big Apple. Just then they saw a keyhole about ten times the size of the ship appear out of nowhere and in front of them. All three of them gasped.
"A gate!", Donald and Goofy yelled out in unison.
"Where did it come from? We never opened any keyholes.", Sora looked confused.
"Well, somebody musta opened it.", said Goofy, "I say we fly into it and see what's there!"
They flew though the gate and right away found several Heartless ships. Right away, Sora grabbed the guns controls.
"Yeah! I haven't done this for a while!", his eyes gleamed.
"Sora, this isn't a game you know!", Donald jumped up, clearly disappointed with him.
Sora smiled weakly, "Lighten up, Donald. I'm just having fun."
The Gummi Ship weaved left and right, dodging the ships and blasting a handful of them out of the black endless sky. Things seemed to be going smoothly until a huge grey fish-like monster slowly approached the ship. Sora, looking overconfident blasted all the cannons at the monster. The monster then shot a large powerful beam that rocked the ship as it hit. Everyone flew from their chairs and hit the floor of the cockpit. Donald was clinging to Goofy and they were both shaking.
"Garwsh", said Goofy, "W-what is that?"
"Sora!", screamed Donald, "Why'd you go and shoot that big balooka!"
Sora glanced back at them, "I d-didn't think it would be that powerful..."
The creature was preparing to shoot another beam at them. Sora, Donald, and Goofy all winced, awaiting the next blow. It never came however; another beam clashed with the monsters and they both canceled eachother out in a huge explosion. They all looked up and suddenly a familiar voice could be heard over the ship's radio.
"Yeeehaw! Here we go! Hold onto your asses, boys!"
An enormous airship, at least a hundred times bigger than the Gummi Ship, came into view. A large opening opened from it and an unseen force began pulling the Gummi Ship in. Once the entire ship was inside, the opening closed and the owner of the voice walked over to the Gummi Ship: it was Cid Highwind.
"Cid!", the three yelled out, very relieved to see him.
They opened the ship door and ran out towards the airship captain.
"Cid, thanks for saving us.", Sora smiled, "Why are you all the way out here?"
"Save yer questions 'till later, kid."
Cid ran out through a door and Sora, Donald, and Goofy ran after him. They were in the ship's control room and Cid quickly sat down in a chair at the cockpit. The other three looked around in amazement at the interior of the giant ship.
Then Sora ran over to Cid, "What is that thing?"
"I dunno...", said Cid, "Big guy came outta no where and started chasing us."
"It's called Sin..."
The four of them jumped as the owner of another voice joined them in the control room. He was an older man with short black and grey hair, a long red jacket, and rectangular sun glasses.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy smiled and got up, "Auron!"
Cid got up too but wasn't smiling. In fact he looked annoyed, "Who the hell are you, and how'd you get on this ship?"
"My name is not important and I got on in Traverse Town.", said Auron sternly, "That monster is Sin and it is indestructible by common means. They say that Sin is mankind's punishment for all the evil and darkness in their hearts."
"Kinda like a Heartless?", Goofy asked.
"Almost", said Auron, "But not quite..."
Cid looked annoyed, "So what in the name of Jenova do we do?"
"What else?", asked Sora, "Fend the thing off!"
Sora ran out the door and Goofy, reluctantly followed by Donald, went after him. Cid watched them go, wide eyed.
"The hell! You dumbasses are gonna be killed!"
Auron put his hand in front of Cid, "Let them go. Sora's heart is in the right place. He won't die that easily."
Meanwhile Sora had found his way to the deck of the ship. Sin was only yards away from them. Sora drew his keyblade and prepared for battle.
Sin flew forward and attempted to slam it's fin into Sora but he quickly dodged the fin and got several hits from his keyblade on it. Sin pulled back a few yards and began charging it's beam. Sora was soon joined by Goofy and Donald. Goofy hurled his shield at Sin like a chakram and Donald shot several fireballs from his staff. Sora's keyblade burst into flames and he threw it like a flaming boomerang at Sin.
Nothing they did could stop Sin from blasting the beam at them. Just then, Cid's voice could be heard from some kind of intercom.
"HOLD ON!"
The ship suddenly turned to the left, dodging the beam but sending Sora, Donald, and Goofy flying. Suddenly a strong hand grabbed Sora and threw him back onto the middle of the deck. Auron had come to help them and grabbed Donald and Goofy and saved them as well.
Auron removed his glasses and looked at Sin with narrow eyes. For a while it didn't look like Sin was about to attack. After a long several seconds, the monster turned and flew off into the darkness. Sora, Donald, and Goofy smiled with unbelief and ran over to Auron.
"Sin!", said Sora, "It saw you and left."
"How did you do that?", asked Donald.
"Yer sure you ain't some kinda hero, Auron?", smiled Goofy.
Auron shook his head and sighed, "I already told you...I'm no hero..."
He turned around and headed back into the ship. Goofy shrugged and the three followed him inside.
Back in the control room, Cid smiled, "Great work guys. You kicked that monster's ass!"
Sora smiled weakly, "Yeah, we pummeled him a little. But Auron really scared him off."
Cid got up and walked over to Auron, "Guess I owe ya an apology, Mr. Auron. If you can do that monster scaring thing more often, yer welcome to come with us!"
Auron was silent but nodded.
Goofy then spoke up, "By the way, Cid. Where are ya goin'?"
"Yeah, I didn't tell yer yet. Radiant Garden is back!", said Cid smiling, "Whatever ya did, yer sure helped."
Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked at each other.
"Actually Cid", said Sora reluctantly, "we didn't do anything."
"We even saw the gate appearin' as we got to it.", said Goofy.
"I see...", said Cid looking down, "Well...guess that just means some other keyblade wielder beat ya to the punch."
All of a sudden Sora's eyes widened.
"You think Riku's out there too?", he asked enthusiastically.
"He could be.", said Auron.
Just then, the control room door opened and Yuffie came in yawning dressed in pajamas and carrying a stuffed Moogle.
"What's going on guys...?", she then gasped when she saw Sora and hid the plushie behind her back, "Sora!"
Sora smirked, "I didn't know you slept with stuffed animals, Yuffie."
Yuffie glared at him, red in the face, "I do not!"
Tifa came in after her, followed by Leon. Sora looked at them with narrow eyes.
"You were all here the entire time and you left us to deal with Sin alone?", he asked flatly.
"Can't say much for myself but Yuffie was sleeping like a baby and I could hear Squall snoring from the girl's bunk room.", Tifa crossed her arms.
Leon glanced at Tifa with narrow eyes before facing Sora, "Aeris is still sleeping but other than her, the gang's all here."
Sora noticed Tifa looking sadly at the ground and looked concerned.
"What's the matter, Tifa?", he asked.
She sighed, "Cloud hasn't returned since he went to fight Sephiroth in Radiant Garden. We never saw him in Traverse Town so I'm worried he..."
"Don't worry about Cloud. He's the best swordsman ever!", Sora smiled encouragingly.
Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement.
Tifa nodded, "You're right. Cloud is going to be just fine."
The airship was now approaching Radiant Garden. Everyone looked out the large window at the world ahead of them.
Yuffie was jumping up and down hugging her stuffed Moogle, "Yay! I can't wait to see how home is doing!"
Radiant Garden
Cid landed the enormous airship and soon everyone was out and on land. Sora gasped; Radiant Garden was looking more beautiful than ever. It looked even bigger and better than the pictures Tron showed them of the town when it was first built. It even looked like the technology had gotten better: on a few corners of the square, there were large floating screens showing news reporters and people playing an strange underwater soccer-like game.
"Looks like they built us one of them blitzball stadiums.", said Cid, "I ain't never gonna get any sleep with those damn kids playing every night..."
Auron chuckled; something Sora never saw him do.
"Hey!", yelled Goofy, "Auron just laughed!"
Sora smirked, "And I thought you were Mr. Serious."
Auron straightened up and fixed his sunglasses, "I have some business to attend to. Thank you...everyone."
Sora and the others watched him go.
Cid grunted, "Who is he? And why'd he stow away on the Highwind just to get to Radiant Garden anyways?"
"Who knows?", Donald shrugged.
*Sora looked around again.*
"Wow, this place really has become more advanced."
*Cid grunted.*
"Yeah, and I'm already gettin' my ass punished for it..."
"Punishment...that gets me thinking about what Auron said 'bout that monster, Sin.", said Goofy, "Does he have anythin' to do with this?"
"Sin? Our punishment for our technology? Ridiculous..."
*A young man with short blond hair, wearing a white business suit approached them. He was being followed by two men, each wearing black suits and sunglasses. One man was large, tan skinned, and bald while the other was thin and had spiky red hair.*
*Leon, Tifa, and Yuffie looked at the blond man with narrow eyes. Tifa spoke first.*
"Rufus..."
*Rufus crossed his arms.*
"That's President Shinra to you.", he turned to Sora, Donald, and Goofy, "You three. I never seen you three around here; you must be new. I am the president of Shinra, Radiant Garden's power company. All the technology you see, the lights, the monitors, are all the work of Shinra."
"You guys make more than just lights and monitors, Rufus.", Tifa said hatefully. "You make boot camps that train genetically mutated soldiers and hideous reactors that suck the life-force from the planet!"
*Rufus smirked.*
"You are making sound evil and barbaric. SOLDIER is only our defense force and the Mako energy we harvest is our clean bright path to the future. No harm could come from us, least of all Sin. On the contrary, we will use Shinra technology to blow that monster out of the air!"
Sora's eyes lit up, "You can do that? How? That monster is huge!"
Rufus smirked, "That's confidential. You will see it when it happens. Come Rude, Leno..."
Rufus started away and the two men in suits followed him. The red haired man stopped and turned to Sora, "Shinra is unveiling its plan at the company meeting in ten minutes. Feel free to eavesdrop."
He smiled and went after Rufus and Rude. Donald and Goofy looked at him oddly as he disappeared.
"Who does he think he is?", glared Donald, "Freak..."
"I dunno...", thought Goofy, "But the feller seems familiar..."
Sora nodded still looking out in the direction the guy left, "Goofy's right, he does look familiar..."
After a few seconds, Sora gasped and looked up. Cid, Leon, and the others were still with them.
Cid shrugged, "Go ahead and look for keyholes, unlock gates, or whatever the hell ya do. Thanks for helpin' us take care of Sin back there."
Leon nodded, "Yeah, take care, Sora."
Tifa walked up to Sora, "This is for Cloud if you find him."
She hugged Sora and he blushed. After a few seconds he pulled away and straightened up.
"Alright, but I don't think it would be the same coming from me.", he smirked.
Everyone chuckled at this. Sora, Donald, and Goofy waved as they ran off.
"Argh!", groaned Sora,"We don't even know where the Shinra headquarters are..."
"Hmm...", thought Goofy, "Maybe it's in that tall building that says 'Shin-ra."
He pointed to a muti-story building on the side of town that sure enough had a large light-up sign that read 'Shin-ra' in all capital letters. Sora and Donald looked back at Goofy hunched over with narrow eyes.
"Well...it's still not going to be that simple..."
Sora started in the direction of the Shin-ra building. Donald stepped in front of him.
"Sora, why do you wanna go there?", he asked.
"Don't you wanna see how they are going to kill Sin?", he asked, "That thing was huge!"
"We should be searching for Heartless and so far we haven't seen any.", Donald said crossing his arms.
"Well if we haven't seen any, than there probably not causing any trouble. Let's go!", Sora ran ahead.
Goofy looked at Donald before following leaving him no choice but to go to.
Once outside the building, Sora found himself once again lost.
"That guy never said where in the building the meeting was."
Just then, he saw a suspicious looking man enter the building. He was large, dark-skinned, and had a buzz cut. He also wore a vest and camouflage-print pants. He glanced around quickly before running inside.
"That guy looked suspicious.", said Sora.
"Hey!", thought Goofy, "Maybe he's tryin' to watch the meeting like us!"
"Yeah", Sora nodded, "Maybe he knows where it is. Let's follow him!"
They ran into the building and attempted to follow him around. As soon as they got inside, however, they lost him. As they walked into the building, they found they were in a huge round lobby. At the other end of the lobby were elevators. They ran up to them and saw there was a sign that listed the different floors. Finally they found a floor that read "meeting room". They boarded the elevator and rode it to that floor.
When the elevator doors opened, they saw they were in a small room and opposite of the elevator was a closed set of double-doors.
"I bet the meeting is in there.", said Sora, "But we can't use the doors..."
He noticed a pretty large vent in the wall adjacent to the doors. The hatch was open as if somebody had crawled through not too long ago. Sora motioned to Donald and Goofy and they crawled in. In a few seconds going down the vent, Sora found a grate that faced the meeting room from overhead. The room had a rectangular table with several people in seats around it. Rufus sat at the end of the table, staring at everyone.
"Thank you for coming.", he said, "We all know why we are here: to discuss how we are to deal with the monstrosity that threatens Radiant Garden."
A young woman stood up. She had short blond hair and wore a reveling red dress. Her blue eyes and slanted eyebrows gave sort of a mischievous and deceptive look.
"Me and Professor Hojo have devised a perfect plan to get rid of Sin.", she said smirking, "We will hunt for pieces of Huge Materia. After they return, we will load the Huge Materia into a rocket and blast Sin out of the sky with it! Kyahahahaha!"
A black haired man with round glasses, most likely Professor Hojo, adjusted his glasses on his face. Rufus rubbed his chin, pretending to ponder the idea.
"An excellent idea, Miss Scarlet", he responded, "but do we have the technology to do that?"
"Don't worry about that!", the woman he called Miss Scarlet said, " I have already sent out troops to search for the Huge Materia. We've already found one in pitiful little mining village near one of our reactors."
Just then, the sound of a door flying open was heard and the large man Sora, Donald, and Goofy saw before appeared in the room bellow and jumped onto the table. He pointed at Rufus with his right arm, with Sora noticed had a large cannon where his arm should have been.
"You leave Corel alone you f*#%in' piece of s#/t!", he yelled.
"Wow...", whispered Goofy, "He swears more than Cid."
"Is this the most profanity this series has ever seen?", asked Donald.
Rufus sat still and kept his cool, even while the man pointed his gun-arm in his face.
"There is no need for profanity...", he reached over and pressed a button on the edge of his seat. In a few seconds the men he introduced earlier as Leno and Rude ran into the room. Leno looked at the huge guy with wide eyes.
"Um...Hello!", he pulled two metal sticks out of his coat and glared at the man.
Sora felt a kick from behind.
"Donald, Goofy...!", he looked back whispering sharply.
Then he saw a large red-furred dog was pinning down his companions. Sora gasped and leaned against the grate which opened beneath him, sending him falling to the meeting room bellow and landing right on the big guy with the gun-arm. Anger sparked in the huge guys eyes and he was about to throw him off when Leno quickly grabbed Sora and pulled him out of the way.
"Yo! Watch it, Sora.", Leno turned on his sticks which started humming like tasers. He threw one at the large guy like a boomerang and caught it as it came back.
Sora drew his keyblade and they both attacked him. The man shot streams of bullets at them from his gun-arm which they both dodged before continuing to hack away at his health.
"Take this, fools!", he held his gun arm steady as it began charging up. A second later he launched a huge energy ball at them. Sora barely avoided it by dodge rolling. Leno jumped out of the way, joined his two taizers together and formed a square chakram and threw the sparking ring at the man. He fell over and lay on the ground.
"Damn...Turks...", he breathed heavily.
Suddenly two men carrying long guns ran into the room. One had long black hair and a red outfit with a cape and the other had a brown cowboy hat.
"Wallace, we gotta retreat for now!", yelled the man in the cowboy hat running to the large man's side.
The black haired man glared silently at Rufus and then Hojo before running out the door. The red dog from in the vent was in front of the elevator and in seconds, the four of them were getting away.
Once they were gone, Leno looked up, "Is everyone okay?"
Rufus, Miss Scarlet, and Hojo were still there unhurt.
"Who were they?", asked Sora getting up.
"AVALANCHE...", said Rufus, "They are a group of rebels who do not believe in what we do at Shinra."
"C-Corel...", Sora thought, "Is that the village that you sent those troops to?"
"So you were eavesdropping on our little meeting...", Rufus glared at him, "Rude, Leno...take care of him..."
Leno stood in front of Sora.
"No...I will take care of this one myself...", Leno faced downward so his eyes were cast in shadows.
Rufus nodded in approval and Leno grabbed Sora by his collar and tossed him into an open elevator. He followed him, slapping his nightstick against his open palm.
When the elevator door closed, Leno put away his nightstick and leaned back.
"You dope, I told you to watch the meeting. Not bust in and start a fight."
He took off his glasses, revealing his slanted blue eyes and the tattoos on his cheeks.
Sora smirked, "I knew it was you all along, Axel."
"The name's Leno, got it memorized.", said Leno/Axel, "Though Leno's a fake name given to me when I joined the Turks."
"That's...kinda confusing...", said Sora, "Anyways I'm so glad you're alive. What happened?"
"I was reborn...somehow. After I died as a Nobody, I found myself floating in this world of light. Then I saw this Heartless come over to me. It wasn't threatening like other Heartless. It came over slowly as if it was hesitating or surprised to see me."
"So...any Nobodies can be reborn if they meet...their own Heartless? You met your Heartless!"
"Hm...maybe that's it...", thought Lea, "Or maybe they both need to be killed first. Sora...I think...I was in the afterlife...or maybe Kingdom Hearts..."
Both were silent for a moment, taking it all in. Finally the elevator door opened and they went out. Lea lead Sora outside the building. Suddenly his eyes widened slightly.
"Wait right here!", he ran down a street and came back a few seconds later with two teal colored ice cream pops.
Sora smiled, "Seasalt ice-cream..."
Lea handed him a pop before licking his own, "Just like old times. A little treat before you go on your way."
"But...", Sora remembered the man with the gun arm, Wallace, "What about Corel? Are the Shinra going to destroy it looking for that Materia thing? Why'd you join those guys, Lea?"
"That's the reason I joined the Turk branch of the Shinra. I'll make sure nobody gets hurt, got it memorized?", Lea smiled.
Sora nodded, "Good luck, Lea. I'm sure I'll see you again soon."
Sora started away, when he rounded the corner he gasped. The dog they saw before was facing him...and Donald and Goofy were both behind him. Then...
"You are not like the Shinra or the Turks. In fact, you are more like us than we thought...", said the dog in a slight British accent, "I am Nanaki, but you may call me whatever you wish. I can't speak for the humans in my group but I have no quarrel with you."
Sora just blinked, clearly shocked. Nanaki bowed and turned to run away.
"Sorry for sneaking up on you in the vent..."
Sora, Donald, and Goofy watched the large dog run away.
Sora shrugged, "Well that was weird... Come on, you guys. There are other worlds waiting for us!"
All three of them walked away and head for the entrance of the city.