Chapter 5: A Whole New World

MAX

I looked around to see we were no longer in the green forest.

We now stood in a large room with three normal sized chairs and two small ones.

Nudge got close to me and said, "Max, there's no exits..."

Sora smirked and said, "We have teleporters. Besides I don't think you want to fly on the paths between worlds without a Gummi Ship."

I looked at him and asked, "We're not in our world right now?"

Sora walked over to a thing of metal shutters and pressed a button. The shutters open to show the deep vallyies of space and a strange looking planet.

Sora smiled and said, "That's your world. I belive it's called Orbis Terrarium."

The King hopped up and asked, "You still remember that?"

Sora laughed and said, "I never forget the name of a world."

Me and the flock remained fairly quite as we noticed that the room which to us was quite small.

Riku looked at us and asked, "Are you guys okay?"

Sora shook his head and said, "We all been in cages for a really long time. We all kind of developed claustphobia."

Riku looked at Sora and asked, "Then why aren't you freaking out?"

Sora smiled and said, "Because I know this place. It's new small and cramped places I'm scared of."

The king walked up to us and said, "Don't worry we'll be out of here soon."

Donald and Goofy sat down and controls came up. Goofy looked up and asked, "Where to your Majesty?"

The King replied, "Hollow Bastion, some old friends have been wanting to see you Sora."

I nodded and said, "Can we hurry this up? It's really small in here..."

Sora nodded and said, "Full steam ahead!"

The world shrank as we got farther away.

Sora looked at it and said, "Erasers may be a problem there, but not anywhere else."

I looked up at him and said, "Really? They can't follow us?"

He smiled and said, "Never again."

I couldn't help but let a smile out. Finally they can leave my family alone.

The King stepped up to us and said, "I can't tell you what to do, but some worlds will understand your wings and powers, and some won't. So choose wisely when you deside to go flying."

Sora nodded and said, "Like flying in Halloween Town might be okay, but a place like Port Royal it's probalbly best to keep your wings tucked. Best not let Jack know about your wings."

Gazzy asked, "How many worlds are there?"

The King smiled and said, "We don't really know we been discovering new ones all the time."

Donald turned to us and said, "We're here."

Kairi smiled and said, "Well then let's go down there and see them!"

The King smiled and said, "You go ahead, Me, Donald, and Goofy have to work on the ship."

Riku nodded and said, "Activating the Gummi Portal..."

We know were in a long series of stone canals with a light violet sky above us.

Sora smiled and said, "Man, I missed Hollow Bastion."

"SORA?!"

A girl with short black hair jumped down from a wall and began hugging him.

Sora groaned, "It's good to see you too Yuffie, but could you not hug so hard. It's really hurting me."

Yuffie back up and said, "Sorry, don't know my own strength."

Yuffie looked Sora over and said, "Man you've changed alot since we last saw you six months ago."

Sora gave a sad smile and said, "Yeah, I know. I've gotten that, a lot lately."

Yuffie looked at us and said, "Hi there, I'm Yuffie. Who are you guys?"

I looked at Sora and he said, "No one here is after you, I promise you can use your real names."

I sighed and said, "I'm Maximum Ride, Max for short, this is Angel, Gasman, Nudge, Iggy, and Fang."

Total yelled, "And..."

I groaned and said, "And this is Total our talking dog."

Yuffie looked at Total and said, "I've known a few talking dogs before. Maybe you like to meet one."

Total jumped in excitement but ended up on to a wall fifteen feet into the air.

Yuffie looked up and said, "I can catch you if you jump."

Total yelled, "NO! Angel come and get me!"

Angel smiled and said, "I'm coming Total."

Yuffie stared in awe as Angel unfurled her pure white wings and flew up to Total.

Yuffie smiled and said, "No wonder her name is Angel."

I looked at her and asked, "Your not freaked out by her having wings?"

Yuffie replied, "No, her wings are beautiful and absolutely amazing."

I look at Sora and asked, "Is this a no or a go place on flying?"

Sora smiled and said, "Definate go."

I smiled and said, "Let's fly."

Everyone unfurled their wings, except for Sora, who I think wanted to wait before showing them.

We flew up into the sky moving, along the clouds and catching the view of Hallow Bastion.

Yuffie smiled and said, "Sora you got some really cool new friends."

Sora yelled, "Hey, when your done meet us at Merlin's house. Can't miss it."

I nodded and then flew farther into the light violet sky.

After about 10 minutes of flying around, I found, what I think was Merlin's house.

The flock followed me as I landed in front of the strange door.

It was blue and covered in bright yellow stars.

The door opened and a man with a long white beard, a blue pointy hat, and pair of reading glasses stood in the doorway.

He said, "Well I'll be..."

I relized we hadn't tucked our wings back in.

The man smiled and said, "This is increadible! You're increadible! Children with wings, most amazing!"

Sora and his group walked up behind us and he said, "Well, I see you met Merlin."

Merlin looked at Sora and said, "Sora, my boy! There you are! Please come in the gang is all here."

The flock and I tucked our wings in and walked inside.

The place was a lot bigger on the inside, I almost called it a TARDIS.

God, I hate the fact I almost made that joke, Fang might have called me a geek for even knowing about Doctor Who.

Four other people were in the room along with...

I kid you not, three little fairies.

Sora walked in with a smile on his face.

A man with dark brown hair and a scar going across his nose walked up to Sora. "You been missing for a long time Sora."

Sora nodded and said, "I know Leon, but I couldn't help it."

A blonde man smoking a cigerate looked at him and said, "Your quite a bit taller than I remember you."

Sora gave a small laugh and said, "Well I am growing boy, Cid."

Another blonde with a large sword on his back said, "Yeah, but you shot up like two feet."

Sora shrugged and said, "A lot happened Cloud. I really mean a lot."

The girl with brown hair looked at him and asked, "What happened Sora?" Sora looked up and said, "I'll get to that Aerith but first, I'd like you to meet my new friends."

We all introuduced ourselves.

Yuffie jumped up and said, "You guys should show them! It's so awesome!"

Merlin nodded and said, "You saw them too?! They are spectatuiar aren't they?"

I sighed and said, "Well it's going to come up sooner or later today, so let's get the big part over with."

I slowly untucked my wings and extended them to the full extent, being careful not to break anything.

The flock soon followed by revealing their own wings.

The three men stood there completely silent and dumbfounded.

Aerith smiled and said, "They're so beautiful. Can you really fly?"

I nodded and said, "Not the best idea in here though."

We all tucked our wings back in.

Leon looked at Sora and asked, "Where did you meet these guys?"

Sora sighed and said, "In the place I was taken to for six months, a gentics lab in Orbis Terrarum called, The School."

I stepped forward and said, "They specialized in creating human hybrids, especially with kids..."

Merlin stared and said, "So your an avain human hybrid."

Nudge replied, "We like Avain Americans or bird kids to put it simply."

Sora took a deep breath and said, "They took me to that horrible place, and then they did this to me..."

He slowly unfurled his beautiful set of silver and white wings.

The group stared completely wide-eyed as Sora curled them inward.

The three faires flew around him looking at them and then the small blonde one said, "They're real that for certain. Stiched right in to his back, it connects to the muscles and everything. They're a physical part of him."

The dark haired one said, "Well duh Rikku. Both Yuna and me could tell that."

Rikku looked at the dark haired fairy and said, "You don't have to be so grumpy Paine, I was explaining it to the others."

The rest of the group just stood there staring at Sora and his set of wings.

He eventulaly told them the full story, about us, the erasers, The School, and about Riku and Kairi rescue.

Sora seem to feel very odd having his wings out the entire time he talked. He finally just tucked them away in the mist of the, to prevent more awkwardness.

After the story Leon looked at Sora dead on and said, "That place sounds...horrible."

I nodded and said, "We grew up there, we've seen a lot more than Sora has."

Riku replied, "When we found them, Sora and these guys they looked like they were starving. They ate four cans of food each!"

Sora look at Riku and said, "You try having a metabolism that needs 3500 calories a day."

Gazzy laughed and said, "Plus we're natually thin that way we aren't weighed down while flying. We are around hundred pounds."

Iggy stared to walk forward and tripped over some books.

He yelled, "I hate being blind. Will someone tell me what the room looks like so I don't trip over more things?"

Rikku flew up to Iggy and said, "Your blind?"

He stood back up and said, "Yeah, so can you tell me where everything is? I don't want to trip again."

Rikku vividly started describing the room while Iggy listen patiently.

When she was done Iggy said, "Thank you."

I smirked and said, "Iggy your talking to a fairy..."

Rikku looked at me and said, "We're not fairies. We're the Gullwings!"

He shook his head and said, "As long as I can get around, I'll be fine."

He walked around the piles of books up to near we were standing.

Angel looked over at a book sitting on a pedestal.

She looked at Sora and asked, "Sora, why are there thoughts coming from this book?"

Sora picked up the book and said, "This is a entire world, Angel. One of my best pal's live here. His name is Pooh Bear."

Cid looked at her and asked, "Did she just say she heard thoughts from Pooh's book?"

I sighed and said, "Angel, you should really try to keep a lid on you telepthy."

Yuffie looked at her and said, "She reads minds? Cool!"

I have to say, being called cool for once is...well cool.

Merlin stepped up and gave Sora a book.

He smiled and said, "This is a book some more adavnce spells and some basic spells in case you might want to teach your companions."

He nodded and said, "Thank you Merlin."

Cloud stepped up to him and said, "That took some real guts to admit that story to us."

I looked at the group and said, "Enough with the gloom and doom, let go outside and we can show you what we really can do."

Sora smirked and said, "Yeah, I really need the fresh air."

We walked outside the door with the group close behind us.

Gazzy immediately took off and said, "Come on Iggy! The sky is fine!"

Iggy laughed and said, "Really, Gazzy I couldn't tell on the account of my blindness."

Gazzy replied, "You sure don't act like it!"

I yelled, "Come on you guys, let just go for a flight!"

The rest of the flock and Sora took off to the sky.

We watched as the group on the ground saw us soaring throught the sky.

Sora flew higher up to get a better view when he stopped dead in his tracks.

I looked at him as a look of horror appeared on his face.

I looked at what he was looking at.

There was a tower and it was being over taken by small black creatures.

I looked at Sora and asked, "What is that?"

Sora replied in a soft whisper, "The heartless..."