Yay! Enter Sora!

I posted this within a day of the last one because... because... Just because I COULD. XD And because I just saw the Transformers movie, and it inspired me, for some odd reason... Yeah.

Before any of you ask, NO, Char and Sora will not make out the instant they see each other. God, no. xP
Char: Don't you wish...
Me: You know what, maybe I DO!

Disclaimer- If I owned Kingdom Hearts, this would be the actual storyline, and Sora would've gotten with Char in the end instead of Kairi.
Char: (facepalm)

The trains raced past one another, sending the sounds of metallic whooshes through the air. A small, dark figure stepped off one of these trains. Although they had a hood up, there was no mistaking the large round ears that poked up from the top of the hood.

Sora blinked his eyes open. The first thing he saw was an unfamiliar boy, standing with his back to him as though far away; all that the Keybearer could make out of the other was that he had blond hair and wore a white shirt. "Sora?" the boy called.

"Who are you?" Sora asked sleepily.

A burst of light replaced the blond in Sora's line of sight, and before he had time to recover from this, he could hear familiar voices.

"Sora!"

"Sora, wake up, a-hyuck!"

The brunette opened his eyes. His first thought was what am I doing in here?

"Sora!" Goofy called again.

Sora felt a soft rumbling beneath him, and then he could see the confines of his chamber beginning to open outward. He yawned and lifted his arms up behind his head in a stretch.

And then he realized that he'd outgrown his clothes; Donald and Goofy giggled at each other at that.

Great.

His minor irritation with that was instantly replaced with happiness at seeing his two friends again. "Donald! Goofy!" he cried, leaping out of the pod to give them a hug.

Jiminy Cricket jumped out of Sora's pocket, landing on the boy's shoulder, and yawned and stretched like Sora had. "That was some nap."

"You mean…" Sora frowned. "We were sleeping?"

"We must've been, or I don't think we'd be so drowsy."

"When d'ya think we went to sleep?" Goofy asked.

"Hm…" Sora crossed his arms over his chest in thought, as did Donald. "We… defeated Ansem… restored peace to the world… found Kairi… and then we went to look for Riku. I think that's right so far?" At Donald and Goofy's nods of confirmation, Sora put a thumb and forefinger to his chin to think better. After a moment of trying to remember, he sighed in defeat and turned his head to look at the cricket on his shoulder. "What does it say in your journal, Jiminy?"

The bug in question got out his small notebook and flipped through it. His tiny brow furrowed in confusion. "Huh, there's only one sentence." He presented it to the others. "It says, 'Thank Namine'. Hm… wonder who that is?"

Donald put his hands on his hips. "Some journal that is," he growled.

Jiminy blinked nervously. "Um, what say we find out where we are?"

Sora shrugged. "Doesn't sound like a bad idea."

They were in the middle of the mansion hall when they heard sudden footsteps on the stairs behind them. Sora instantly summoned his Keyblade, while Donald and Goofy whipped out their respective weapons of staff and shield. The person was obviously pacing above them and, from the sound of their voice, very agitated as well. Sora could only catch bits and pieces of what she – for that was what her voice identified her as – was saying.

"…don't see why I have to accompany the bozos… why can't… idiotic plan in the first place… don't care if he doesn't want Sora to 'see his darkness', it's stupid…"

"Who's there?" Donald yelled at last.

The footsteps stopped at once, followed by swearing and cursing that made Sora wince.

"I didn't think anybody lived in this mansion," Goofy said. "So we got the right to know who you are."

There was a thumping noise, and Donald leaped back in surprise, nearly falling on his rear as he did so, when a dark-coated, hooded figure leaped down from the stairs. "Sorry, but I'm only interested in talking to the Keybearer."

Sora gave a start. "How do you know –"

The woman sighed. "I've done my research, y'know." She pointed at the Kingdom Key with a half-gloved hand. "And you've still got it out, moron."

Trying to hide how flustered he was, Sora made the weapon vanish and glared at her. "Tough talk for someone who chooses to hide her face in a hood."

The woman made a derisive sound. "Fine, then, if that's how it is." And without another word she reached up and took the hood down, revealing long red hair with messy bangs and ice-blue eyes. She didn't look any older than sixteen. "Happy?" she asked irritably, showing her sharp canines as she did so.

Donald and Goofy gulped at the fangs, as did Sora. The female rolled her eyes. "It's a birth defect, okay? Nothing to get your undies in a tight about."

Kingdom Hearts, this girl was annoying Sora and Donald. "Just name your business so we can pummel you!" the duck said aggressively, raising his staff for emphasis.

The girl raised her head to look at Sora, who was standing behind Donald and Goofy. "Is he always like that?" she asked, nodding toward the mage.

Sora rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, as did Goofy. "Er… well…"

"Hey!" Donald squawked.

She sighed. "Okay, well, since you asked so politely, I'll get to my point." Taking a deep breath, as though to steel herself, she looked at Sora. "Wherever you are, I'm coming too."

"Whaaaat?" Sora and Donald cried; Goofy merely looked bemused.

"And why might that be?" the dog asked, lowering his shield slightly.

"Yeah, seriously," Sora added, his voice high-pitched with incredulity. "That was sudden. You can't just be wanting an adventure or anything, right?" Or going with us to find Riku, he added silently. This girl doesn't even know Riku, so why would she care?

The girl rolled her eyes. "I have my reasons. Now, are you going to take me along or not?"

Sora hesitated, and then turned to Donald and Goofy. "What do you guys think?"

"Obviously not," Donald said fervently at once.

"I dunno, Sora," Goofy said thoughtfully. "If she acts the way she does now in battle, I think she'd be kinda valuable." He blinked at the incredulous looks on his friends' faces.

"Are you crazy, Goofy?" Sora asked with feeling. "We can't just go around picking up any old person who wants to journey with us."

"Sometime before my mid-life crisis, thank you!" the girl called in annoyance.

Char listened to them talk in what she supposed they thought were hushed whispers. She frowned to herself at Donald's vehement response. Am I really that bitchy?

The obvious answer was yes, as Riku had told her at least a thousand times – though not exactly in the same wording, of course. She tried not to heave a sigh. As much as Char hated to admit it – and believe her, she loathed having to admit it – she actually missed the little emo kid. Before he'd let the darkness take over him for good and taken that creepy new form, the two of them had been thick as thieves. It was actually rather fun annoying DiZ and lurking about the virtual Twilight Town; it reminded her of that golden age when the worst thing she'd had to worry about was a stray Heartless, or whether or not she would be able to turn in that spare research on time.

The golden age before –

Well… no good thinking about that right now.

Honestly, the only reason she had bothered to actually do as she was told for once was because Riku had been the one to ask her to do it. Mostly because, even as he pleaded with her to do this for him, she had seen a flash of the younger Riku, the one she had first met with DiZ, in his eyes.

"Hey, you!" Char blinked out of her reverie to find Sora waving a hand in her face. She promptly narrowed her eyes at the blatant violation of her personal space. "What is it now, Key-boy?"

Sora frowned at the nickname, but kept talking. "Well… we've decided…" He sighed irritably, his tone grudging. "We've decided you can come with us."

"But don't think we're going to like it," Donald added, glaring at Char.

Char rolled her eyes. "Who said I had to like it either?"

Goofy quickly stepped between them before a fight could break out. "Er, I think we should just go explore the town outside."

"Yeah, I think we should," Sora said, sounding like he had lockjaw.

"I'm Goofy, by the way," the dog introduced. "And he's Donald, and he's Sora."

As if I didn't know already; I've only been watching your memories for the past year now, Char thought dryly. "I'm Charisa Nightblaze; call me anything but Char and I'll rip your eyes out."

"Not even –" Sora began teasingly, but flinched as she whipped her head toward him.

"That means anything, Key-boy." With that she tossed her hair back so her bangs were out of her eyes and started for the door. "You coming?" she called back roughly without turning around.

Hastily the trio made to follow, and Donald muttered "How fun is this journey going to be?" under his breath.

"You know," Sora murmured as they were walking down an alleyway, "I think I've been to this town before."

Donald, Goofy and Char, who had been walking ahead, turned to look at him as he crossed his arms over his chest to think. "What's it called?" Donald asked.

Sora thought a moment; something was nagging at the back of his mind, but when he tried to catch it, like a butterfly it flitted just out of reach. He shook his head and straightened. "Huh. Guess I must've imagined it."

Char rolled her eyes and started back ahead, looking as though she wanted to be on her way as quickly as possible; yet after a few moments she stopped and let the others catch up. She's hiding something, thought Goofy.

The four of them entered the room at the back of the alley, pushing aside the red curtain at the door in the process. Sora noticed there were a lot of boxes lying around in this room. He let his gaze rove around before they settled on three kids who looked to be about his or Char's age. One had wild blond hair and wore a gray shirt and camouflage pants; another was overweight, with a red shirt that had an unknown insignia on it and black hair. The last one was female, brown-haired, and wore an orange shirt over khaki pants. The trio was sitting there, looking bored out of their minds, as though waiting for something to happen.

Then the trio looked up and noticed the four trespassers standing almost awkwardly at the door. Sora, Donald and Goofy were looking around, but Char, who was pretending to examine her nails in boredom, had a strange look on her face. Like she recognized this scene from somewhere.

"What do you want?" the boy with blond hair asked aggressively, sliding up off the box he was sitting on.

"Uh, nothing," Sora said hastily, putting up his hands in what was supposed to be a gesture of peace. "Just wondering what was back here."

Char made a mental note: Sora is not the king of subtlety.

"Well, now you know that this is our spot," growled the blond.

However, the overweight boy stood up and walked right up to Sora. "What?" the brunette asked, uncomfortable under the other's stare.

"You're new around here, right?" the other asked at last. "I'm Pence. And that's Olette." He pointed to the girl, who waved and smiled at them.

The blond looked startled and somewhat annoyed at his friend's outgoing gesture, but he came up to stand beside Pence anyway. "Hayner. Nice to meet you all, but we've got things to do."

He left, leaving them all in awkward silence for a moment before Olette walked up. "Hey, did you guys finish your summer homework?"

"Homework?" Sora looked confused; Char could understand why. It was kind of hard to think about school when you were busy saving the worlds from Heartless. The boy exchanged a glance with Donald and Goofy, who merely shrugged in confusion, and then tentatively looked at Char. She was about to glare right back at him when she remembered the wording of Riku's request. Sure, she may be basically the "babysitter" here, but that didn't mean she had to scare the crap out of the brunette.

So in response, she just shrugged too, and Sora relaxed slightly.

He turned back to Pence and Olette, who hadn't seemed to notice the uneasy interaction between Sora and Char. "So, what're your names?" Pence asked.

"Oh, sorry," Goofy said, grinning as best a dog could. "We're Sora, Donald, Goofy…" He pointed to each of them as he spoke their name.

"And Char," the redhead in question cut in. For some odd reason, it felt like if she let one of them introduce her, then it would be too much like they were all friends.

And, Kingdom Hearts willing, she was not going to become friends with any of these dorks.

Goofy blinked slightly at her hostile approach, but said nothing.

Pence and Olette exchanged glances, then Olette spoke. "We just met someone who was looking for you three." She made a hand motion toward Sora, Donald and Goofy.

"He sure seemed like he was in a hurry," Pence said. "He was wearing a coat a lot like yours," he added, directing these words at Char. "Except the hood of his was drawn up so I couldn't see his face. But he had these big round ears." He outlined said 'big round ears' on his head with his fingers as he spoke.

The trio looked thoughtful for a moment; Char just stood there, silently willing for them to understand. Then Donald shouted excitedly, "The King!", and Goofy nodded as well.

Sora grinned and turned to Pence and Olette. "Where'd you see him?"

"At the station," replied Pence, and Olette nodded.

"Thanks!" the brown-haired boy said, still with that infernal grin on his face. Honestly, can't he learn to hide his emotions every once in a while? It can't be plainer how excited he is that King Mickey's here, Char thought, irritated.

"Well," Olette was saying, "we'd better get back to that assignment." She ran out of the room, in the direction where Hayner had gone. Pence tossed a quick "nice meeting you" over his shoulder as he followed.

Donald and Goofy's dark gazes followed the boy and the girl before turning back to Sora and Char. "Oh, boy!" Donald squawked. "The King's trying to find us."

"Will you shut up?" Char hissed, and in an instant her hand was over his mouth. Donald struggled and tried to speak against the green leather of her half-glove, but to no avail. "You never know who might be listening." Sora and Goofy looked bemusedly at each other, their eyes clearly bringing up the question of whether or not she was crazy. This only annoyed the girl even more.

Oh yeah, I'm really crazy. Crazy like a bloody fox, I should say. You don't know about the Organization yet – just you watch.

She took her hand away and Donald gave her a glare that, if looks could kill, would've rendered her fly food on the spot.

"Well, anyway," Sora said after a moment, "we have to get to the station."

"Yep!" Goofy said, and the two ran out of the room. After one final glare from Donald, the duck followed suit.

At that moment, Char seriously considered going back on Riku's orders. He hadn't said she couldn't, after all – he had only assumed that she would listen and do as she was told. However, unfortunately for him, she wasn't the damsel-in-distress, flock-to-men-when-depressed, obey-any-order type. That would show him he couldn't just tell her to run off with Sora and be done with it.

Then she felt the look of triumph on her face at imagining it fade. What good would it do, anyway, to just leave now, when more than likely Riku had turned off the beam to the virtual Twilight Town, and thereby to their headquarters as well? She would have nowhere else to go, having no Gummi ship to take her to any other world.

And not to mention, she mentally chuckled, that the only time she'd ever driven a Gummi ship, Riku had stumbled out, retching, and barely managed to say "Never letting you drive again". She felt a soft grin flit across her countenance at the memory.

"Hey, Char!" Sora had poked his head back through the curtain and had his spiky, chocolate-colored head tilted to the side. "Er, are you coming?"

In that moment, seeing the naïve look in the boy's eyes, Char realized she couldn't go back on Riku's orders now. No, the minute she had been spotted pacing above the stairs, she had dug herself good and deep into this task. And by Kingdom Hearts, she had to accomplish it, gently nudge Sora onto the right path. For the sake of her revenge and DiZ's on the Organization.

She flashed the brunette a grin, but undoubtedly due to her fangs it came out looking more like a sardonic smirk. "Yeah."

Sora blinked. "Um, are you okay?"

"Never better," Char answered, more brusquely this time. She could easily see that her change of mood had bemused the Keybearer, as shown by his wrinkled brow and nervous tone. She stepped up, brushing the curtain aside with the sweep of one hand and causing Sora to nearly fall over as she almost crashed into him.

"Oh, and just to warn you…" Char smirked wider. "I have mood swings. Thought I should tell you."

Sora gulped and nodded, jogging back ahead to Donald and Goofy – which looked rather funny, really, considering that his clothes were way too small for him. Char allowed her smirk to fade only a little.

Maybe Riku had been wise in letting her do this… it was definitely going to be fun, as far as she was concerned…

Mwahaha. Oh, Char, you sadistic little bitch, you...

Also, I'm kind of concerned about IC-ness for Sora, Donald and Goofy. The Disney chars are surprisingly hard to write (since you hardly ever see them truly angry or sad or ANYTHING other than happy; seriously, they're just stereotypical Disney franchise as far as I'm concerned), and Sora... well, I have difficulty writing characters that aren't like me, and Sora's not like me at all. He's... Sora. xP

So, I'd like some feedback on that from you KH fanatics out there. (And YES, I know at least some of you are reading this - I've gotten over 200 hits on this fic. -.- Seriously, 200 hits and only 10 reviews? There's a problem here, people - do you just have trouble keeping awake for anything that's not yaoi?)