Seventy-Three
My Heart for a Kingdom, part 2

"Soooora…"

Sora stirred in his sleep, turning towards the voice.

"Sooooora…focus, Sora…Soooooora…"

He emitted a groan and blinked awake, staring down Buizel.

"Oh, he lives—hey dude!" Buizel greeted.

"Uuuugh…what happened?" Sora muttered, sitting up and finding himself on the couch. At the moment, the other Pokémon were on the topic of getting breakfast—he was knocked out all night.

"You got K.O.-ed from Rotom…you got serious thrill issues, dude," Buizel answered, sitting on the couch next to him.

"I didn't exactly MEAN for that to happen, so…" Sora trailed. "…where's Goofy and Donald?"

"Helping with breakf—"

"AIOOOOOOW!"

Donald went running past, tail feathers on fire. Frogadier shot a Hydro Pump after him, effectively putting out the fire and slamming the duck into the wall.

"NOT…HELPING," Donald growled, sliding down it.

"In my defense, you were WAY too close to the stove!" Frogadier argued.

"The stove is a fox, dragon, and mink, I think that's a problem in itself!"

Fennekin, Charizard, and Quilava were using their Blaze ability to heat the food…involuntarily. Fennekin clicked her claws on the floor impatiently in a wave motion, glaring daggers at Flygon as he held the frying pan above her.

"Why were we doing this again?" Charizard asked, shoved up next to her.

"Rotom short-circuited the stove…and microwave…and just about every electrical appliance we have," Quilava explained, Charizard's tail in his face.

"I said I was sorry!" Rotom protested from the table. "MORNING, SOARROUGH!"

"It's…Sora, actually," Sora corrected.

"So this is a normal thing for you?" Goofy asked from alongside Flygon, armed with a frying pan and bacon.

"No, not usually," Flygon answered.

"Wait, can't Reevee21 just order up a new stove?" Chestnaught asked.

"Yea! I haven't heard any unnecessary narration for a while now!" Zoroark asked, tilting her head back.

"She's probably doing an algebra lesson or something," Absol grunted, gnawing on a pancake.

"If she was, she wouldn't be writing this," Shaymin whispered.

"Who's Reevee21?" Sora asked.

"Our author," Buizel answered.

"Author?" Donald repeated. "We're in a book?"

. . .

"…she didn't say anything," Luxio blinked. "HEY REEVS, HOW'S IT GOING UP THERE?!" he screeched, startling everyone.

. . .

"…I SAID, HOW'S IT GOING UP THERE, EH? HEEEY!" Luxio continued.

"She is missing," Lucario announced, not sensing the narrating platforms' aura.

"We can hear that," Charizard stated.

"Would that be a problem?" Sora asked.

"Yea, if she leaves, so does everyone else," Kirlia answered. "We're figments of her imagination….okay, Fennekin, Absol, Luxio, Chestnaught, Aipom—wherever he is, and myself might live because we're OCs."

"YES!" Fennekin fist-pumped.

"OH COME ON!" Charizard roared, firing a Flamethrower directly under Goofy's frying pan and cooking the bacon to perfection.

"We should find her, then!" Sora declared, standing up.

"And there's bound to be Heartless running amuck around here," Kirlia said, glancing around suspiciously.

"I don't know, how often does your author think of Heartless?" Donald asked.

. . .

"…all that silence is creeping me out," Serperior shuddered.

"What are we waiting for?" Quilava declared, shuffling out of the heating pile. "ONWARD!"

Five seconds later…

"You have no idea how to get up there, do you?" Absol asked, rolling his eyes.

"We'll find a way," Quilava insisted.

"How about through the air vent?" Sora suggested, pointing to a vent about ten feet off the ground.

The other Pokémon looked at it as well. It was pretty high, but it was the only other exit besides the door and hole in the platform/ceiling.

And no height was going to stop them from getting back their author.

"Aww, even when she leaves, Reev still has that manor of shoving this fic with fluff," Zoroark cooed.

"What are you talking about? I didn't hear a thing!" Donald insisted.

"It's part of the story illusion," Treeko said. "…oh, you want me to climb the wall?"

"YES, YOU IDIOT, NOT GET TO IT!" Luxio shouted, head-butting Treeko onto the wall.

The lizard landed with a pained "OOF!" and started on his way upwards while Swellow flew to his chest to grab vines.

Treeko made it to the vent covering, pried it open with his diamond sword, and jumped inside as Swellow passed him the vines. He took them and threw them down, shouting, "Climb up!"

"Half of us don't have thumbs!" Quilava said, gesturing to Fennekin, Luxio, Absol, Serperior, Buizel, Shaymin, Lucario, and Kirlia.

"Au-huck, ladies first," Goofy chuckled, making a bowing gesture to Zoroark.

"Such a gentlemen," Zoroark said bashfully, clawing her way up the vine.

They each made their way up, Chestnaught and the other thumbed characters helping Quilava and anyone else without hands up.

However, Flygon and Charizard both crawled up and one and got their necks stuck in the vent.

"OW."

"Okay, just—you move that way—"

"I'm immobile, can you get your arm out of this—"

"GARCH!"

"Sorry—"

"Oh for crying out loud!" Kirlia groaned, grabbing Charizard by the horns and dragging him in the four-foot high space. Flygon crawled in afterwards, taking the vent cover and replacing it in its spot.

"We didn't think this through, did we?" Sora asked, seeing how everyone was crammed together.

"Do we ever?" Absol moaned.

"Alright, it turns right up ahead, LET'S GO!" Treeko shouted, lifting his sword heroically and leading the way down the air vent.

It turned right, left, downwards, upwards, dead-ended, and even went up at a sideways angle at one point.

"This is going to be a looooong time skip," Donald sighed.

"See? You're getting the hang of book-speak!" Serperior cheered.

FIVE…HOURS…LATER…

All was silent in the narrating platform, the room shadowed spare for the determined light of one laptop screen.

Suddenly, the air vent was brutally kicked open by a duck foot and crashed into the other wall.

"FINALLY," Donald groaned, falling out in a feathery sprawl on the floor.

"Good. My allergies were acting up in there," Flygon sniffed, climbing out.

"So, this is where Reevee21 does her writing?" Sora asked, looking around.

"In the book, yes," Quilava answered, jumping out after him.

"I thought you said she was the author?"

"She is, but she's also a character in this work. In reality, the REAL world, she could type up a chapter—a day for us—anytime, anywhere. But as a character in this book, for when she says something extra or answers one of our questions, she does it here."

"How do you hear her?"

"We're not entirely sure; either through that hole in the floor," Quilava pointed to the hole, "or through the vent system."

"And she has full power over your actions," Sora repeated.

"And anyone else in the fic—you're being puppeted by her as she types and don't even realize it."

"…whoa," Goofy echoed.

"I know…deep stuff, man," Buizel whistled. "…what happened to my accent?!"

. . .

"So she was supposed to say something right there?" Donald asked.

"Yea; that's why we've got to find her, so she can keep going," Shaymin answered.

Suddenly, something knocked on the door.

"I'll get it!" Chestnaught proclaimed, running to the door and flinging it open. He blocked the way, though, but froze and stared at the group before him.

"…well, who is it?" Zoroark pressed.

"Kirlia…you wouldn't happen to have your keyblade on hand, would you?"

"HEARTLESS!" Serperior screamed as they swarmed over Chestnaught and towards Sora and company.

"We'll handle this," Sora smirked, his keyblade appearing in his hands.

"Naw, you'll just get in my way!" Kirlia waved, summoning her own.

"Who's getting in whose way now?" Zoroark smirked.

"YOU BEINGS OF DARKNESS HAVE TAKEN ENOUGH WORLDS ALREADY!" Donald squawked. "DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THE FAN'S!"

"Darkness?" Absol repeated.

Fennekin whistled, summoning the thirty or so blue Pikmin of her once vast army. She glanced around before a flint appeared above her head like a light bulb.

Her eyes glowed the darkest pink with an incredibly powerful Psychic attack, summoning the spirits of the other Pikmin she had.

"ARMY! ATTAAAAACK!" She bellowed, commanding all the Pikmin to attack the heartless. They did, and both were locked in arm-to-arm combat.

"Darkness," Absol said again, sitting on the sidelines with Zoroark.

The fight had been a losing battle. Even with the help of Fennekin's half-spirit army, they only held their ground for a few minutes before the Heartless had overwhelmed them.

"Darkness means dark," Zoroark whispered to Absol. "And if that's true…"

Both Pokémon gained wide smiles at their plot.

"WE'RE DOOOMED!" Rotom wailed, pinned down in a pile of scratching Heartless.

"THERE'S TOO MANY OF THEM!" Sora yelled.

"I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD END THIS WAY!" Serperior wailed.

"I LOVE YOU GUYS! SORA, DONALD, GOOFY, IT WAS NICE MEETING YOU!" Quilava shouted.

Suddenly, Zoroark and Absol's united voices echoed through the room.

"EN HUT!"

The Heartless suddenly straightened and looked to them, waiting.

"DROP THE CATCH!" Zoroark bellowed.

The Heartless let go of the Pokémon, Sora, Donald, and Goofy, the fighters landing roughly but free from them.

"Good," Absol said patiently, "now DROP AND GIVE ME TWENTY!"

Amazingly, the heart-lost creatures fell to the floor and proceeded to do twenty push-ups. They were rough and hardly possible, but were definitely push-ups.

"…Hey Zoroark, can I borrow your newly-forged Heartless army sometime…?" Fennekin asked politely.

"What?!" Sora exclaimed. "How can they control them!?"

"Because they're both Dark types!" Kirlia gasped. "They live, eat, and breathe darkness without even realizing it! That's how they can command them!"

"I've been living with two Heartless-controlling 'mon for the majority of my life?" Treeko asked. "…cool."

"Dang right its cool!" Zoroark laughed.

"Um, don't Heartless consume people with a lot of darkness?" Goofy asked innocently.

"…OH, SHOOT—" Absol and Zoroark said simultaneously as the Heartless had a change of non-existent heart and jumped at their previous leaders.

Suddenly, the laptop started to vibrate. A white flash encased the room, sucking them all into a vortex.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH!"

Will our beloved characters ever see the artificial light of the PC box again?
Will Zoroark and Absol regain control over their newfound ability?
Whatever happened to Reevee21, Percy, Zelda, Agumon, and Pit?
Will we be hearing from these narrators ever again?
Or will a previous narrator step in to save them all and fix this mess…?

TO BE CONTINUED…

(Review, follow, and favorite for more WGDitPC-and don't forget to hug your Eevee, I say that for Reevee21!)

(...I'm the narrator for the Pokémon battles. Don't panic.)