CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
I glided through the Lanes Between, casually swaying back and forth on my glider.
Where am I going to go next? I thought. I didn't see any new places to visit...
As I cruised along, I saw another glider flying in front of me.
"Terra!" I called, but as I did, the air rumbled and made my ears vibrate. I glanced behind me and my eyes followed a ginormous ship shaped like a space-whale. It sailed past me and flew above Terra. I watched as the gravitational pull of the space ship sucked Terra into it. "Hey! Give me back my friend!"
I crouched my knees and leaned forward to pick up speed. Drawing nearer to the ship, I saw a small trapdoor attached to the bottom. I jumped, but missed the first time. The second time, I grabbed onto the door, but it flew open. I cried out as I gripped the latch with one hand and dangled in space. I watched my glider tumble away into the purple voids, but I reached out my arm and it disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing as Ultima Weapon in my hand. I forced myself to create momentum, an extremely hard action when swinging against the currents. I grunt and hoisted myself up, squeezing through the latch and landing inside the ship. The trapdoor closed, and I sat on the ground, pausing for a moment to recover my breath and rest my cramping abs from its strenuous exercise. They felt as if I just endured a thousand crunches. I reverted to my regular clothing and climbed to my feet, holding my sore stomach as I stood.
"Now... where am I?" I said to myself as I looked around. I was in what looked to be some sort of high-tech, futuristic janitor's closet.
I pushed the door open and flinched at the giant room on the other side, filled with tiny rooms. Each room consisted of only a bed, and there was a giant slate of green energy field over each one. Some of the rooms were lit, but a grand majority of the rooms were dark.
"Is he the one?" a voice said.
"Yes, Grand Councilwoman." another voice, at least three octaves lower, said. "I've confined him until we can determine what he is."
I looked up and squinted in disbelief at the two aliens standing on a platform raised multiple stories in the air. I saw several other platforms, so I snuck over to one and used it to launched myself up into the air. I squinted to try and distinguish the creatures, but they were anything I had ever seen before. One was the size of an elephant, with beefy muscles, gray skin, and he wore a black jumpsuit. The other creature, the Grand Councilwoman, was less than half his size and as skinny as a stick, with a long neck, green skin, and a black and yellow jumpsuit with a long piece of black fabric attached to the shirt that skimmed the floor. I tried to see through the energy field, but it was too green to see through from this distance.
"Where... where am I?!" a familiar voice called from the cell. Terra.
The two aliens ignored him and traveled back to the ground. I glanced between the aliens on the ground and Terra's cell. I guess there was only one way to get over there. I took a deep breath and mustered up whatever courage I had left. I took off at a sprint towards the edge of the platform and launched myself off. Terra saw me sailing in the air and gasped. I summoned Ultima Weapon and pointed it at his cell. Light collected at the beam and shot at the cell. The green energy field faded as I realized I started to fall down instead of across. I forced myself to stay silent to avoid being caught as I shot my hands out towards the ledge of the cell. Terra grasped my hands, and I dangled in the air. I stared at the ground and panted, baffled that that worked.
"Thanks." I whispered to Terra. He glared at me like a father getting ready to rebuke his child for jumping in the deep end of a pool without floaties, and I smiled innocently. He pulled me up into his cell and I laid on the ground.
"What were you thinking?!" Terra whispered harshly.
"I was thinking that you were kidnapped and being held hostage by aliens, so I had to get you out of here before they started doing crazy experiments on you." I said, climbing to my feet. "You're welcome."
Terra sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Whatever. Thanks, I guess."
"Take cover! Leave it to me to handle these fiends!" the elephant-sized alien said. The smaller alien ran for the door at the end of the room while the giant alien pointed a gun aimlessly between a group of Floods. "Whatever you are, you're under arrest... eventually!"
The two aliens escaped to the other room, and the Floods continued to pursue. Terra and I looked at each other and nodded before we ran to the edge of the cell and jumped. We landed on the ground in front of the horde of Floods and summoned our Keyblades. After we destroyed the Unversed, we heard a muffled clap.
"Very impressive display."
We looked to one of the lit cells and saw a small, obese alien standing with his hands behind his back. He had indigo skin, two sets of eyes- his main pair and two smaller pairs diagonal to them- and he wore a blue and light blue striped prison jumpsuit. Terra and I stared at the alien for a few moments.
"Let's go." Terra said. I nodded and we walked towards the door.
"Wait! You help!" the alien cried in his thick Russian accent. "I have been imprisoned on ridiculous charges!"
We stopped walking, and I scoffed.
"Is that so?" Terra said.
"I am innocent scientist who created galaxy's most destructive- uh, I mean... constructive species of all times. Why, my experiment could annihilate creatures you fought so hard! He is bulletproof, fireproof, and can think faster than supercomputer. He can see in the dark and move objects 3,000 times his rather diminutive size. And for reasons preposterous, the Federation Council fears him. They take him away from me and throw me here in small, stuffy, rather badly lit cell."
"You created an indestructible and possible deadly force and claim to be innocent?" I said, crossing my arms. "You're not very good at pleading your case."
"Bah, you are just like rest! Everyone always get antsy in pantses when somebody more powerful is in the neighborhood." The alien shifted his two pairs of eyes as Terra. "You understand, perhaps?"
Terra paused to stare at his Keyblade.
"We must make to rescue him, or he'll be banished to far reaches of space!"
"...Okay then. Take us to him." Terra said. I grabbed his arm.
"What are you doing?" I whispered. "He and his creation could be dangerous!"
"You told me I needed to trust you. Now it's your turn to trust me."
I sighed. "All right."
Terra pointed Earthshaker at the alien's cell and unlocked the energy field. He jumped out of his cell and waddled over to us. He was roughly half of Terra's size.
"Experiment 626." the alien said. "Is name I give to adorable, fluffy creature you are helping for to rescue. And I am genius scientist who created him, Dr. Jumba Jookiba."
"I'm Terra." Terra said.
"And I'm Hallie." I said.
"Pleasure is all ours. 626 is this way. Hurry!" Jumba said, waddling down the hallway towards the door.
"I hope you're not wrong about this guy." I said, crossing my arms.
"Me too." Terra said.
We followed Jumba out of the cell pit and down the hallway to a transporter that carried us to the other side of the ship. We fought against the Jellyshades, Tank Topplers, Scrappers, and Sonic Blasters that stood in our way. As we went deeper into the ship, the color of the hallways changed, from blue to light green, then to dark purple. We entered a large, green-tinted room, immediately drawing our attention to the small, blue, barking alien jumping around in a small, cylindrical glass tube. He wore an orange jumpsuit with red knee patches. He had a big nose, long ears, antennae on his head, and four arms, each with a set of razor-sharp claws. He roared and snarled at us.
"Amazing, is he not?" Jumba said, walking towards 626. "Such tremendous power in such itty-bitty package. Truly, he is the one and that's the only- the mightiest creature in all of galaxy. And his only, singular instinct- to destroy everything he touches! See?"
"Destroy?!" I said as Jumba pressed a button that made the glass around 626 fade. He looked around curiously and purred excitedly. He lunged at Terra and landed on his back.
"Whoa-! Hey!" Terra cried as 626 crawled over his body. He jumped and stuck to the ceiling, dangling Terra's Wayfinder in one of his paws. Terra gasped as he frantically patted his side pocket. "Give that back!"
"Too late, is already marked for destruction." Jumba said.
"No, stop! My friend gave me that!" Terra cried. His voice cracked, and this moment of vulnerability surprised me. I've never seen Terra lose his calm and stony composure before. Especially over something given to him by his best friend. I smiled to myself.
""Friend"? Are you joking?" Jumba said, bursting into a deep, phlegmy cackle that jiggled his belly. "Such concept is totally lost on 626!"
Experiment 626 purred as he examined Terra's Wayfinder before he tossed it to the ground with a disgusted "Blech!" and scurried across the ceiling. Terra walked over and picked his Wayfinder up, examining the orange, glass star.
"Funny... This whole time I've been telling myself I want to be stronger, more independent..." Terra said. "But the second I let my heart do the talking, I find out how little I really know myself. And how much I miss them."
I pulled out my red Wayfinder and held it out next to Terra's. "You know, so long as you keep Aqua and Ventus in your heart, they'll always be close." I said, holding the glass star in both hands. He'll always be close. We stashed our Wayfinders away and turned back to Jumba. "I'm not so sure your experiment is living up to his "destructive" purpose."
"Maybe, in his heart, he wants friends just like the rest of us." Terra said.
"Impossible! Pshah! He has no actual feelings- only destructive instincts I have carefully chosen for him. Or perhaps you need another demonstration of my evil geniusness!" Jumba pulled out a tiny, green orb with an evil smile. He cackled as he dropped the orb into a vial of water. The orb glowed neon, then burst with light. We cover our eyes, and when the light subsided, the air crackled with electricity. I uncovered my eyes and jumped back as a bolt of lightning crash down at my feet.
A yellow alien, Experiment 221, was the same size as 626, but with a sinister grin plastered on his face and two arms instead of four, stood at the center of the room. He snapped his teeth at us, emitting an energy shield around his small body. He floated around the room as the tips of his super-long antennae glowed. I jumped in the air and slammed my Keyblade into him like a baseball bat. He went flying into the wall. He quickly recovered and lunged at me. Terra yanked me out of the way as a dome of powerful electric energy exploded from Experiment 221. Once the dome disappeared, Terra jumped in the air and slammed his Keyblade down, and a column of orange and black energy erupted from the ground and blasted 221 into the air. I jumped up above 221 and whacked him on the head with the butt of my Keyblade. He crashed to the ground and reverted to the tiny, green orb.
"Oh... You'll be all right, little one." Jumba said, falling to his hands and knees and speaking to the orb. Terra and I walked up to the fat alien and glared down at him. The door opened, and we looked to see Experiment 626 crawling towards us. Jumba hoisted himself back to his feet and turned around. "What is it? Why have you returned?"
626 scowled and barked at Jumba in gibberish.
"Maybe he's wondering what a friend is." Terra said, walking towards the small, blue alien.
"Ridiculous!" Jumba said.
"My name is Terra." Terra said to 626.
626 stared up at Terra curiously. "Teh...rah..." he said.
I walked over and joined the two. "I'm Hallie." I said.
"Haa...lee..."
"I can't really explain friendship, but when you feel it, you'll know it." Terra said, resting a hand on his chest.
"Not if I have any say in matter!" Jumba said. "You are only meant to think about what it is you will destroy next. Now, I fix what is wrong with you."
626 snarled and snorted at Jumba. Suddenly, the room filled with flashing, red lights and sirens.
"Red alert! Red alert! Experiment 626 and two prisoners have escaped from the cell bay. Security, locate the fugitives immediately!" a voice in the intercom boomed. "Repeat. Experiment 626 and two prisoners-"
626 scurried for the door. "Not so fast!" Jumba cried as he chased after the blue alien.
"Well, I can't stay here and get caught." Terra said, touching the orb on his armor and changing into his Keyblade Armor.
"Are you serious, Terra?!" I said, placing my hands on my hips. "Well, I'm staying and keeping those guys safe. See you later, I guess."
Terra nodded and summoned a portal to the Lanes Between. He climbed onto his glider and disappeared into the portal.
"Ven, Hallie, Aqua..." I heard Terra said. "I'll find some way to make things right."
I turned back to the spot where the portal once churned and I stared at the ground. The door burst open and Floods crawled into the room. I summoned Ultima Weapon.
"I'd better find Jumba and 626 before the Unversed... or that elephant alien... finds them first." I said.
