Author's note: I do not own the rights of Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to both Disney and Square Enix. At this point on, the chapters will be shorter, but the story will not be short in total, I will make sure of that.
Chapter six: Birth of the Sea-Salt Trio.
Next morning...well, next midday really, considering how Axel slept in like a log while everyone else got up earlier, the pyro walked into the lounge area, stretching his arms up while giving out a loud and tired yawn, greeting, "Mornin'..." before catching sight of Roxas who strangely was looking around. Axel's never seen anyone in the Organization looking...worried like Roxas before. This was a bit of a surprise to the redhead.
"Axel," Roxas began as he noticed his friend, "Have you seen Xion?"
"Nope." Axel replied, before going over to the couch and made himself comfortable, adding, "Maybe she's still in bed."
Roxas looked at the clock, and pointed out, "But it's past noon."
Realising that the kid had a point, even though in his mind, Axel thought, 'I just woke up, ya know...' while he just said, "...Yeah." not borthing to hide the sarcasm.
"I've been here since all morning, Kupo." The Moogle added to get his costumers' attentions, adding, "But I haven't seen her at all."
"What?" Roxas asked in disbelief. "Then, where is she?"
Axel shrugged, "Maybe she got up much earlier than everyone else." though that seemed unlikely. He hasn't even properly met Xion yet.
Unfortunately, Saix came into the room, and while he answered Roxas's question on where Xion was, which she was in Twilight Town on her mission to eliminate a giant Heartless, he also simply told Roxas to use his energy of worry for collecting Hearts instead, which the blond, still annoyed and hating Saix more everyday, angrily opened a corridor and raced in, finding the blue-haired man impaitence.
Axel seemed to think so too, while Saix glared at him, telling him to stop spoiling him before walking off. The redhead shook his head. Geez, the blue-haired man didn't seem to realise that Roxas was still new, but then again, he was hard on everyone else and everyone reacted to him differently.
In total, Axel didn't voice it, but Saix was a jerk.
""Collect Hearts. Collect Hearts." Shut up, Saix!" Roxas ranted as he destoryed as many Heartless as possible. Roxas used this anger to eliminate the Heartless and collect hearts quicker than usual, considering how many of them he was collecting, but even collecting like, what, a hundred now wasn't enough in Saix's eyes.
What did he want, a million!?
After the mission, Roxas returned to the clock tower, expecting Xion, but again, she wasn't there. Did something happen to her? Suddenly, a corridor opened up, and Roxas turned, half-hoping it was Xion, but was disappointed when he saw that was Axel who greeted, "Hey."
"Oh, it's you, Axel." Roxas sighed.
Half-annoyed by this greeting, Axel replied in strong sarcasm, "Nice to see you too." before sitting down next to the blond's right, asking, "Xion not coming today either?"
"No, and her mission was here. I thought she would come." Roxas replied, before having his hands over his eyes to block the sun's light as he squitted his eyes to see if he could make his vision go closer like a megaglass(or whatever the hell it's called), wondering, "Maybe I can see her from here."
Seeing this made Axel snicker, and he asked, trying not to laugh, "Want me to bring you a telescope?" still amazed on how much this kid can make him smile, something that he hasn't done in years, well, smiling like this in amusement like he had a heart when he was a human.
Still, he followed Roxas's direction, only for both of them to blink in surprise when they saw somewhat a flash exploding in the thick trees of the forest outside the town's walls. "Do you think it's Xion?" Roxas exclaimed.
"She's sure displaying huge fireworks." Axel thought, having his right hand over his eyes to prevent himself from getting blind from the sun. Even he was stunned at what was going on.
"You think she's okay?" Roxas asked.
"Hmmm..." Axel thought, unaware that Roxas was having a bad gut feeling that Xion could be in danger. It didn't help when Axel added, "For one thing...she might be having trouble."
Unable to stand the thought of Xion having trouble, Roxas quickly stood up and declared, "I'm gonna go check!" teleporting himself through a corridor of darkness.
"Hey, Roxas!" Axel protested as he stood up as well, but he was too late. Sighing, he placed his hands on his hips and looked skyward, grumbling, "For cryin' out loud." wondering if he was this bad when he was Roxas's age...pyschically, anyway.
Roxas in the meantime, appeared in the woods, near an old mansion. As he looked around for any signs of Xion, he spotted her familiar figure and black hair, and he rushed over to her, seeing how exhausted she looked.
"Xion! Are you alright?" Roxas called out. As Xion was surprised to see him, he said to her, "Do you need and Exilir?"
However, Xion saw something behind him and gasped, "Roxas, look out!"
But it was too late, as a giant Lizard-Heartless stomped it's foot on top of Roxas, pinning him to the ground. Xion tried to use her powers, but she was weakened and collasped to the ground, falling into unconsciousness. The Heartless was about to finish off the two when it suddenly screamed out in agony as it was being pinned and stabbed on the back by a Chakram, causing it to let go of Roxas.
Axel, who had also arrived, scooped up the two youngest Nobodies while glaring at the Heartless before jumping out of the way to a safe distance but not too far from the Heartless, before dropping the two onto the ground, saying to the blond-haired boy, "Get up, Roxas!"
Hearing Axel's voice, Roxas jolted up, looking like a mess and half-dizzy(anime style), exclaiming, "Axel!?"
"You're supposed to be saving her butt, not getting yours kicked!" Axel scolded, while mentally finding himself strangely relieved that Roxas was okay. The other Nobody, who he now knew was Xion, was still out-cold but she was still alive. He was surprised that she looked like Kairi and Namine, but decided to worry about that later.
"Xion?" Roxas cried out, seeing the girl's unconscious form.
"She's okay, just lost consciousness." Axel assured, before turning to see that that giand Lizard-Heartless was groggly getting back up, and it was a tough but goofy-looking one, as he added, "We have to take out this guy first!" referring to the Heartless.
Roxas nodded in agreement, and as he stood up and summoned his Keyblade, he muttered, "Time for some Heart collecting!" while Axel resummoned his Chakrams in silent agreement.
Both charged at both sides of the Heartless who didn't stand a chance after this. Once Roxas and Axel arrived, it was screwed. It was completely destroyed and the heart floated up all the way to the Organization's growing Kingdom Hearts. Once they knew that they completed their 'unofficial' mission, Roxas rushed over to Xion and helped her up once she regained consciousness.
"You okay, Xion?" Roxas asked, handing her a exilir to help her recover.
"R-Roxas?" Xion asked, still groggly herself.
"The Exilir was a bargain, but..." Roxas began.
Seeing Xion's confusion, Axel, standing behind Roxas, said, "Don't worry. We took care of the Heartless." having a bit of dirt on himself like the other two.
Xion, seeing Axel for the very first time, but not yet knowing he's the same person Roxas is friends with, asked the blond-haired Nobody, "Who's he?"
"Oh!" Roxas remembered, "Xion, this is Axel. My friend I told you about."
"Got it memorized?" Axel added, saying his catch-phrase while tapping the side of his head. He then suggested, "Why don't we go and get recovered and then have some ice cream?"
Half an hour later finds the trio back at the Clock Tower after buying ice cream, and Roxas sat in the middle of his two friends, for he was now happy that both of his friends and himself were finally having ice cream together, just like he promised Xion. Axel, who knew that he would get used to Xion's company, was still skeptically curious of the girl. She seemed sweet, though.
However, as the two boys ate their ice cream, Xion, who still couldn't summon her Keyblade, looked saddened as she gazed down below, not even noticing that her ice cream was melting. Roxas and Axel both noticed this and side-glanced at her in confusion.
"Eat up. It's gonna melt." Roxas told Xion who just nodded.
Seeing Xion's sad expression and lack of eating the ice cream, Axel couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong? I thought you'd wolf it down."
"Did something happen?" Roxas added.
"We're here for you if you want to get it off your chest." Axel assured Xion, then looked at Roxas for an agreement, "Right, Roxas?"
Roxas nodded, "He's right. That's what friends are for."
Despite the support of her two new friends, Xion still felt a twinge of fear and guilt in her chest, as she openedly admitted, "I can't... I can't use the Keyblade anymore." shocking Roxas and Axel, as she continued, "And without the Keyblade, I'm useless."
After Xion told them on how all of the sudden she couldn't use the Keyblade and how she can't collect hearts, she was on the verge of crying, which was also unusual for Nobodies as far as Axel knew. Even so, even he wasn't immune to a sad girl, and it made him feel uncomfortable. If anyone else in the Organization found out, it would be the first time a member would literally turn into a Dusk. The very thought of that made his stomach twist uncomfortably.
"Is there anything we could do?" Roxas asked to Axel, for some support.
"I wish there was, but there's nothing we ca-" Axel cuts himself off as an idea formed in his head. His face brightened suddenly and he muttered, "Hold on...I have an idea."
Roxas and Xion both looked at him, both feeling hope growing inside their chests.
Despite Saix's supicions, and how Roxas had mentioned "Motivation" and Axel adding to it that would mean collecting more hearts than usual, putting "Two Half-Pints together and you get a whole", Roxas and Xion were both assigned on missions together, until Xion secretly regained her ability to wield her Keyblade. That was Axel's idea-for Roxas to work double-duty which the blond was more than determinded to do so.
When the two of them returned from their mission, Axel made sure they were alone and the three of them were together.
"Thanks, Axel. This was a great idea." Roxas smiled, and Xion nodded in agreement.
"No problem." Axel smirked, then cautioned to Roxas, "But you do realise you have to do Xion's job too, right?"
Roxas shook his head, saying, "No. I have to do more than that! So that way Saix won't have any reason to complain!" which made Axel smile in surprise and approvement.
"I'm sorry for making you do all this." Xion sighed, feeling guilty again.
"That's okay! Leave it to me!" Roxas stated.
"Yeah," Axel replied, as he ruffled Xion's hair, adding, "Friends help each other out in their time in need. Right, Roxas?"
"Yeah." Roxas nodded, and he and Xion held hands, making her smile along with her two friends whom she began to get close to.
"Thank you, Roxas, Axel." Xion said, now really smiling. Having friends was a great thing after all.
Back with Sora and his group...back when they first encountered Ash and his friends...
"The Heartless...?" Ash asked, as Sora and the others explained about the Heartless to him, Misty, Brock and Pikachu, while little Togepi, being a baby Pokemon, didn't understand any of this. After witnessing those strange black things and that how it was kind of best that Ash and his friends knew about their mission, and had to have them keep this a secret.
"Yeah, they go after people's hearts." Sora explained, "They're very dangerous."
"And if they get your heart, you'd turn into a heartless too." Goofy added, still spooked on the experience he'd heard from Sora.
Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu all paled at this, and each of them held a hand to their chest, as if wanting to protect their own hearts. Brock was shivering and he muttered scaredly, "That gives me the goosebumps."
"I don't wanna turn into a heartless." Ash agreed.
"It sounds just as bad as Bug-Type Pokemon, and those Heartless looked like giant bugs too!" Misty exclaimed.
"What do you mean?" Namine asked at Misty's comment. "Some insects are harmless."
"Yeah, what's so bad about them?" Donald added.
Ash then leaned over to Sora's group and whispered, "Misty's afraid of Bug-Pokemon."
At first confused, then they understood and Sora tried not to laugh, while Goofy said in understanding, "Oh, right. Ah-hyuck. Misty has Bug-Phobia. That's okay, everybody's really scared of somethin'. But I still think that Donald can be a chicken most times."
At this response, Donald whacked Goofy's leg with his hand, causing the latter to jump and hop while holding his sore knee, yelling out in pain comically. "What was that for? That really hurt!" Goofy cried out.
"Who're you callin' a chicken!?" Donald exclaimed angrily.
"It's kinda true." Sora muttered, "On the other hand, I guess Misty's a chicken when it comes to insects." only for Misty to stomp towards him and she stamped her foot hard on his foot and he cried out in pain, comically.
"Who're you calling a chicken?" Misty repeated, growling. Namine giggled at Sora and Goofy's reactions, while Ash, Pikachu and Brock all sighed in exasperation. To them, having Donald around was like having an extra Misty.
"Did I say chicken?" Sora asked, before saying apologetically to the red-haired girl, "I uh, must've meant that you're an expert when it comes to insects." while mentally grumbling, 'Man. What is it with girls?'
After explaining almost everything, Ash and his friends agreed to keep it a secret, and decided to help Sora, Donald, Goofy and Namine to see if there was a way off their world so that they could continue their search for Riku and King Mickey, while showing them the world of humans and Pokemon, telling them about how their world works, and how Ash dreams of becoming a Pokemon Master and loves exploring.
Just then, Pikachu sensed something and looked to it's left, causing everyone else to follow the small Pokemon's gaze, with Ash asking, "You see something, Pikachu?"
"Pika!" Pikachu pointed.
Sora noticed something, and blinked as an bigger than normal-sized green and cute looking caterpiller with black eyes and a pink attena crawled out, along with more of them. "Wow. These guys are cute." he admitted, smiling, bending lowering to get a closer look and one smiled at him in retur before rejoining it's friends.
"Wow, a bunch of Caterpie." Brock thought.
"Cute little fellas." Donald thought, as one approached him and he patted it on the head, and he smiled happily as it happily nodded it's head, liking him and he laughed.
"And friendly too. Ay-hyuck!" Goofy added as another Caterpie crawled onto his shoulder, before it and the Caterpie Donald was patting rejoined their friends. Namine was saying hello to one who liked her as well, before saying goodbye and it rejoined it's friends too.
Ash, remembering his Butterfree, couldn't resist and said, "I haven't caught a Caterpie in a long time." and was about to rush over to catch one, when Misty, who was the only one who lothed the cute Pokemon, pulled him by the collar and pulled him away to the opposite direction.
"Yeah, and you're not gonna start now!" Misty declared.
"Just one little Caterpie?" Ash pleaded like a small child over a mother for a piece of candy.
"Unbelievable..." Sora muttered, unable to believe that Misty's even afraid of an adorable Caterpie, just as the bushes in the direction Misty was heading to moved, and he and the others realised it was danger.
"Look out, Misty! Somethin's in the bushes in front of ya!" Goofy cried out, alarmed.
"Well, as long it's not a Caterpie or a Heartless, who cares?" Misty responded, only for an angry looking Pinsir to come out and growl. Seeing this, Misty comically chuckled nervously, before screaming in pure fear, and run right back to the others, practically swinging Ash behind her as she cried out, "A Pinsir's even worse than a Caterpie!" leaving a trail of dust behind.
"She is scared of insects." Namine thought.
"She's starting to freak me out." Sora admitted, about Misty's reactions.
A bit later, after calming Misty down, the group continued on their way, and, they were seeing more Pokemon, and were having conversations, and Sora and Ash seemed to be getting along well, while Namine played with Pikachu and Togepi, Donald telling Misty jokes which made her laugh, and Brock and Goofy both having a nice understanding and friendly conversations.
However, just as they entered a clearing of the forest, and were nearing a town, in front of them, was a very large figure who was looking for something, his back to the group who looked at each other, before approaching the figure before stopping ten feet away from him.
"Hey, so what's going on?" Ash asked to the figure.
The figure cackled and he answered, "I've just sent some of my lackies to search for this here forest, to see if the li'l pink fella is as strong as they say. Word is, it's a legendary and powerful Pokemon. Which makes it a perfect shield for me." and what he said next shocked the group, "See, once it turns into a Heartless, it'll do as I say."
"Did you just say a Heartless!?" Misty demanded, finding herself angered and disgusted.
"That's right. They're those things that come out in folk's , with all those Heartless at her side, my dear friend Maleficent is gonna conquer everything!" The figure continued, which now confused the group, which also stunned Sora, Donald, Goofy and Namine.
"Who's Maleficent?" Ash asked.
"Someone who we had to fight and had used Riku to kidnap Kairi and six Princessses." Sora briefly explained.
"And since I got me a debt to pay, I'm goin' 'round to a bunch of different worlds and buildin' an army of Heartless, special for her." The figure continued, ignoring the others, before mentally smacking himself for giving out too much detail, and that he was speaking to people smaller than him, and without turning around, scolded them rudely, "Why am I talkin' to you pipsqueaks anyway? Go on, scram! I'm behind schedule as it is."
"Uh, you might want to find something nicer to do." Brock suggested.
"Yeah, turning people and Pokemon into heartless is not very nice." Ash added. "In fact, it's disgusting!"
"Yeah, go find something else to do! You can't force anyone to turn into Heartless and control them!" Misty added, not hiding her anger.
"Says who?" the figure demanded as he finally turned around, but then gapped in shock as his gazed turned to Donald and Goofy, and exclaimed, "Wha...AAAH! It's you!"
"PETE!?" Donald and Goofy both exclaimed in shock and disbelief, recongising the villian they and Mickey fought against for a long time before Pete's banishment. They thought they'd never see him again.
"Pete?" Ash, Misty, Brock and Namine repeated in confusion, while Sora just stared, blinking, along with Pikachu, and Togepi.
"Pika?" Pikachu asked.
"Togi?" Togepi added.
Pete wasn't too happy to see two of his enemies again, and demanded in anger, "What are you two nimrods doin' here!?"
"What are YOU doin' here!?" Donald demanded back in equal anger and more annoyance.
"So you know him?" Sora asked to Goofy who nodded.
"We sure do," Goofy began, now more confused than ever, "Pete's been causin' trouble for ages! Her Majesty, Queen Minnie, banished him to another Dimension a long time ago."
Ash crossed his arms and admitted, "Sounds like a big, fat, single version of Team Rocket. I wish we could send those guys to another dimension."
"But if he was banished to another dimension, how come he's still here?" Brock asked.
"I'm wonderin' about that too." Goofy shrugged, just as clueless.
Hearing this made Pete laugh evilly, and he answered to the little bunch of squirts confusion, "You wanna know how, eh? Well, Maleficent busted me out, that's how!" before going on, "Now, your world-no, no no, ALL the worlds, are gonna belong to yours truly. Cause Maleficent's gonna help me conquer 'em!"
"Maleficent...huh." Sora thought, before bursting into laughter with Donald, Goofy and Namine, all of them knowing that it was an impossible task since they already defeated Maleficent back at Hollow Bastion. Ash, Pikachu, Misty and Brock all looked at each other, shrugging in confusion at the moment.
"What are you laughing at!?" Pete demanded, not realising on what actually happened, "Why, Maleficent's power is so great that-"
"She's toast!" Sora giggled, referring that Maleficent was gone, much to Pete's astonded and disbelieved shock.
"Huh!?" Pete exclaimed.
Realising what Sora meant, Ash then tried to laugh, while saying, "Oh, I get it. She's not around anymore, is she?" laughing at the fact that Pete cluelessly didn't even know of Maleficent's untimely demise. Misty and Brock also caught on and they and Pikachu all tried not to laugh either.
"Sorry, but Maleficent can't help ya now." Goofy shrugged while trying to hold in his own laughter.
"Whaddaya mean!?" Pete asked, as Donald snickered and Namine giggled. He then finally caught on and pointed at them accusing and in anger, "YOU! So you're the ones that did it!" pointing at all of them.
"Hey, don't look at us." Ash shrugged, referring to himself, Misty, Brock, Pikachu and Togepi, "We're just Pokemon Trainers."
"And we mighta had something to do with it." Sora admitted, grinning as he placed his hands behind his head.
Pete growled in anger, but held in most of it to control it. But just as he was about to command the Heartless to attack, suddenly, a net appeared out of nowhere and caught something, much to everyone's shock. To their left, was Team Rocket who returned.
"You guys again!?" Sora asked, in annoyed disbelief.
"Not you again!" Ash growled. "It's already bad enough that we have a fat bad guy here!"
Jessie ignored Ash's comment and laughed evilly, "That was easy!"
"Too easy!" James agreed.
"Team Rocket just snagged Pikachu!" Meowth said happily, only for him and his two companions to see Pikachu standing next to Ash, the yellow Pokemon muttering, "Pika?"
"Pika?" James asked, shocked and dumbfounded.
"What did we catch?" Jessie asked, only for her, James and Meowth to find that they accidently caught Pete in their net, and he was cramped inside it on the ground, clearly not happy.
At the most ridiculous sight, Sora, Namine, Donald, Goofy, Jiminy, Ash, Pikachu, Misty and Brock tried not to laugh, but in the end, bursted into hysterical laughter, unable to help themselves.
They laughed so hard that Pikachu accidently unleashes a Thunderbolt attack which not only zapped Team Rocket, but it also zapped Pete as the four villians all were comically electrocuted, before a small explosion caused them to be blasted off into the air.
"You big fat idiot! You got in our way!" Jessie yelled at Pete.
"YOU'RE the ones who got in MY way!" Pete argued, before glaring down at the group below and yelled out, "You'll pay for this, you little squirts!"
"We lost our chance to get Pikachu." Meowth groaned.
James nodded in agreement, "And we're stuck with this big dummy."
"Who're you callin' a dummy!?" Pete demanded.
"If you don't shut up, I'm gonna take off your head!" Jessie growled.
"Team Rocket's blasting off again!" Jessie, James and Meowth screamed out.
"...What did ya's say?" Pete asked, as he and Team Rocket disappeared in the sky-Team Rocket style.
"That was easy." Sora admitted as he and his friends watched the bad guys go.
"Way to go, Pikachu." Ash praised to his Pokemon who thanked him happily, climbing back onto his shoulder.
"Sora, look!" Namine suddenly pipped up, pointing at a rock in front of them. The others followed her gaze, and were all stunned to see a Keyhole encrusted in it.
"A Keyhole?" Ash asked.
"If it weren't for Team Rocket, Pete would've driven this world into Darkness." Sora thought. "I'd better seal it before the Heartless come back." summoning his Keyblade, much to the trainers' amazement. He pointed the Keyblade at the keyhole, and the beam of light shot out of it and into the Keyhole, closing it up, causing it to vanish and protected this world from the darkness.
Ash and his friends were stunned, and he muttered, "Whoa...that was awesome." referring to the power of Sora's Keyblade. "I wish I had one of those."
"Heartless, Heartless, Heartless!" Donald grumbled, "Things haven't changed one bit!"
"I guess it's a good thing we're on the job then." Goofy thought.
"So...the worlds really aren't at peace." Sora thought, thinking back to what Namine mentioned.
Namine sighed, and muttered, "Maybe there's someone else who's causing more trouble with the Heartless...and maybe with the Nobodies." feeling a little scared.
"Not that I have any idea on what's reall going on, but I sure wish there was something I could do to help." Ash thought.
"Hey, why don't we head over to town and figure things out there?" Misty suggested.
The others thought it was a good idea and continued on towards the town in hopes in finding answers as well as finding a new transport in getting to other worlds to continue the search to find Riku and King Mickey and once again probably protect the worlds from the Heartless.
A/N: Please continue your amazing reviews, fellow readers, and do look forward to the chapter as we catch up to Riku, King Mickey and Aqua next time, as well as the Sea-Salt trio, and a danger that would change everything for the Organization...and put an end to Xehanort's plots forever.