Author's note: This chapter will mark the beginning of a new story arc, guys. It was fun having Logan just chilling around and enjoying summer with his friends, but it's time to move on to something more serious.

The sun was shining, and the ocean was brushing against the sand on the seashore of Destiny Island. The only things disturbing the otherwise serene atmosphere were the groans and exclamations of a young man swinging his greatsword. Logan firmly stood on the miniature island off the seashore where Sora and Riku used to practice their sword fighting as kids. The same island that had a palm tree growing Paopu Fruits, those little sweets said by old legends that the two people who shared one would have their destinies intertwined forever.

Logan had been swinging his Owl Buster sword for a while now, feeling the warm sun shining over him and the salty sea breeze brushing against his skin. Not only were the Destiny Islands excellent to train in peace, but also to get away from unwanted attention. Following the whole episode where he drank alcohol for the first time and caused a mess in Epcot, Logan really needed to get away for some time. He was no longer safe in his residence in Animal Kingdom ever since Rocket Raccoon started placing traps around in retribution for his Marvel comment.

"You're still here?" Logan briefly turned his head to see Sora, the Keyblade hero, crossing the bridge to get on the little island. "You've been going at it for hours now; don't you want to take a little break?"

Now that he mentioned it, Logan realized his arms and shoulders were starting to ache from all that training. "Yeah, you're right, a pause would be nice." He flipped the Owl Buster around and planted it in the ground before going to sit on the curved tree where Sora used to sit with his friends. This last one handed a water bottle to his student before sitting down with him.

"I used to come here and watch the sunset with Riku and Kairi all the time," the Keyblade Wielder sighed. "And I can't even remember the number of times Riku kicked my butt at sword practice here. It's really cool that I got to see so many worlds and make so many friends. But there's a small part of me that wishes I could go back to those days of being a kid with not a worry in the world."

"Hm-hm," Logan simply mumbled and took a sip of water.

This response did not go unnoticed by Sora, who leaned to look at his pupil. "Alright, I may not be a therapist or anything, but even I can see that something's bothering you. What is it?"

"Nothing, it's just... I got a lot on my mind right now."

"Is it because of the Epcot accident? Come on, I'm certain everybody has forgotten about it by now," Sora assured his friend with patting his shoulder.

"No, no, that's not it. I know that things have calmed down since I paid for the damage, did my community work and apologized for everything - though I don't think Rocket's gonna stop trapping my house for a while. My worries lay elsewhere..." Pulling his water bottle down, Logan reached for his backpack he left on the curved tree before starting his training, and rummaged into it to pull out a well-designed ticket.

Sora gave a good look at the object. "Is that...?"

"My entry ticket for the Hero's Rumble," Logan confirmed. He brought the object in front of him so he could give it a thoughtful look. "I still can't believe I actually drew the ticket number one. This means I'm gonna have to outlast thirty-nine of the Magical World's best fighters. Accomplishing something like that would be realized from the impossible..."

"Don't say that, man! I'm sure you're gonna have plenty of fun in that competition," Sora reassuringly affirmed.

"That's not what bothers me; I know that it's gonna be fun - I always thrive when taking part in any competition of the Magical World." Logan pulled the ticket back into his backpack, and stared at the sand. "The thing is... I never felt like I did good enough in any of them so far. Every time, I have the impression that in spite of my best efforts, the others are always better than me. Gabriel and Rachel, for example; they make it look so easy, I feel like they're many leagues above me. That's frustrating, y'know?"

Sora crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "So, you're jealous of your friends?"

"Not at all! I know that they succeed because they're awesome - I actually envy them. The reason I'd like to succeed is because that would let me know I'm just as awesome, too." Logan rested his cheek against his hand, still looking at the sand. "I'm tired of always receiving good participation wishes and failing to stand out like Aline and Beth. In the Sorcerer's Arena Tournament, I failed to get my team past the quarter-finals, I did get to third place in the Magical World Grand Prix, but that's a spot I had to share with Toren. I'd like to accomplish something for myself... just once."

Kicking up from the curved tree, Sora got into his friend's face with a confident smile. "In that case, work as hard as you can, get into the event with confidence, and give it your best! I know that failures are hard pills to swallow, but pushing yourself to the limit always give you a better chance at success. That's why you must always do it. Take it from someone who failed the Hades Cup tens of times before finally winning. A feat I'm still proud of even to this day."

Logan stared at his teacher for a moment before giving an unconvincing smile. "You know what, you're right, Sora. I shouldn't care too much about just another competition. It's okay if I just go in there, fight for a while, and then get eliminated. There's always next time."

"What?" Sora asked with a confused frown. "No, that's not what I said. Getting this mentality before the match is sure to making you lose. Accepting failure and outright going after it are two separate things."

"Yeah, but a strong man who fails is still a strong man, right?" Logan asked, never letting go of his unconvincing smile. "Besides, I can always participate another time, and pray to have a more lucky entrance number."

Sora crossed his arms and gave an unusually serious look. "I see what's happening here: you think that if you don't give your best and just accept to lose, it's not gonna count as a failure, but it's actually worst. There's a difference between giving up and knowing when you've had enough. You said you're looking up to Gabriel, right? Well, do you think he easily reached his position as the Dream Keeper? Not at all; Master Yen Sid himself told me he flopped his Fantasia techniques and caused lots of messes before getting his power right."

This statement caused Logan to look at his mentor in surprise. "Really? But.. he's so strong, brave, a natural leader, and such a good spirited guy that it's impossible not to want to follow and back him up."

"I know. But all that strength has to come from a place of failure - I, myself, still have a lot to learn despite having decades of experience under my belt." The young Keyblade Wielder placed his hand on Logan's shoulder. "Listen, Logan; Destiny told me about your whole dilemma of whether to find your own dream or to just forget about it and simply living your life while helping others. You shouldn't abandon your dreams just because they're hard and take a lot of time to reach; the hard roads always lead to beautiful destinations. Maybe not the ones you wanna reach, but it cannot be a horrible one."

Logan remained silent for a while, staring alternately at Sora, his backpack, his sword, and the ocean. And then, a smile formed on his face. "You're right, I should always give my 100%, regardless of the situation! Win or lose, I'm gonna go all out in the Hero's Rumble and do everything I can to win! Thanks, Sora; it did me a lot of good to talk about it."

"Anytime," Sora assured with giving Logan a friendly punch on the shoulder. He started walking away from the miniature island. "I'm gonna go relax on the other side of the land for a while; I'll come and get you when it's dinner time! Riku promised to bring us some food from Little Chef's Bistro in Twilight Town."

A chuckle escaped Logan's mouth. "I'm already salivating at the thought." Now more motivated than before, he picked his sword back up and started swinging it again.


After crossing the seaside shack, Sora found himself on the other side of the island, where he used to race against Riku. He couldn't help but smile at the memory of his last race against his best friend, which was for the right to name the raft they planned to use to leave the island and go explore other worlds. Sure, he lost that race, allowing Riku to name their raft the 'Highwind', but the memory wasn't unpleasant for more

The young man was about to go lay down under a palm tree to take a nap, when a portal appeared before him. Not a normal portal nor one made of darkness, like he was used to seeing; this one was made of pixels. And out of it stepped a rather strange character: a being made of dark blue pixels with glowing ice-blue eyes wearing a tuxedo consisting of a pink shirt underneath a black vest with a black tie around his neck.

"Hello, Sora, I have been wanting to meet you for quite some time now," the character said in a robotic, yet somewhat threatening voice.

"What? Who are you? And how do you know my name?" Sora asked.

"I'm afraid I don't have the time to answer all those questions at the moment. All I can do is ask you to follow me."

Feeling a bit threatened, Sora took a step back and mentally got himself ready to summon his Keyblade. "Forget that! I'm not just gonna follow some random guy I've never met before!"

"You misunderstood me, Sora. I was not giving you a choice." Snapping his fingers, the mysterious character made clouds of pixels come out of his portal and land all around Sora.

Understanding he was in danger, Sora quickly summoned the Ultima Weapon Keyblade (KH3 version) and assumed his fighting stance. The pixel clouds soon took form, revealing a group of hooded figures whose faces could not be seen. However, Sora could easily recognize these black hoods from past experiences.

"It can't be...?!"


Logan dried himself up with a towel after taking a little dip in the fresh, clear waters of the seashore. No better way to refresh yourself after so many hours of intense training. Once dry, he couldn't but admire how solid his body had become from all that training. With a chuckle, he could already imagine how his beloved Destiny would react, next time he'd show up to her with no shirt on.

BOOM!

His train of positive thoughts got interrupted by a sudden explosion coming from the other side of the island that must've rocked the entire place. Turning around, he could see smoke rising up to the skies from over the island's cliff. What the heck happened? At the same time, a thought crossed his mind that made him realize a detail.

"SORA!"

Quickly pulling all of his clothes back on, the young man rushed toward the source of the explosion, jumping over the seaside shack on his way. When he arrived on the scene, Logan stopped dead in his tracks and widened his eyes. Not only because there were traces of a battle all around, with the palm trees burnt and stones destroyed. But also because many figures covered in black hoods were standing alongside a pixel character, one of them holing an unconscious Sora over his shoulder.

"Sora! What have you done to him, jerks?!" Logan asked, angry at the sight of his friend and mentor knocked out. His sight then landed upon the pixel character, and he leaned his head a bit. "Hey, wait a minute... I know you! You're that bad guy from that Disney mobile game! What's your name already... The Collector?"

"The Inventor, yes," he corrected. "I was not expecting the two of us to meet so soon, Logan Jindrak."

Not paying attention to the fact that he knew his name, Logan turned his attention to the hooded figures. "Is that... Organization XII?! But that's impossible! Sora and his friends defeated them all! How did you bring them back?!"

"So many questions," the Inventor sighed. "To answer the last one, these aren't the real members of Organization XII; they're just replicas I made from data recovered in a computer." He then leaned forward with interest. "In fact, would you believe me, if I told you that I managed to create a complete, though slightly altered, numerical version of the World That Never Was from Kingdom Hearts 2?

Logan's eyes once again widened. "What?! How's that possible?!"

"Everything is possible, when you have the correct data, patience, and power to modify a virtual reality to your liking," the Inventor simply said.

"... Okay." Placing his fists on his hips, Logan gave a serious glare at the pixelized one. "But that still doesn't tell me why you came here and knocked my friend out! So spit it out!"

"So impatient... If you want to know that bad, living as the god of a virtual reality isn't that fun. After a while, the solitude and lack of real challenges become intolerable and is enough to make even a computer go crazy," the Inventor explained. "That's why I made the decision to come living here, in the Magical World, by stealing someone's heart, and claim it as mine. Oh, and when I say 'heart', I mean-"

"Yeah, yeah, a figurative one; not the actual organ, I'm familiar with the concept," Logan assured. "What I want to know is why Sora's, of all people?"

"Because, in order to maintain my form and conserve my powers in the Magical World, I need a strong heart. And this young boy's happens to be one of the strongest that can be found. That's why I waited for the right moment to strike and capture him. Unfortunately...," he showed his hand that started fading away into pixels, "... I'm afraid I can't stay for long, as my data are getting erased, the longer I stay here. I will, therefore, take my leave without any further delay."

"Not a chance!" Logan suddenly exclaimed, summoning the Owl Buster, and charging at the enemy. He jumped up with his sword raised, ready to strike the Inventor. This last one, however, did not faze nor move even a bit.

CLANG!

Logan's greatsword got blocked by a strange ice-blue shield held by one of the hooded figures. This figure in question then pushed him back, forcing Logan to skid to a stop. Not giving up, the young man replaced his Owl Buster by the Fenrir Keyblade, and pointed it at the hooded figure to cast a spell.

"Take that! Fire-ARGH!" He didn't get to act, as two wheels of fire struck him in the back, leaving burn marks. As if that wasn't enough, one of the other figures charged forward and smacked him in the stomach at full strength with a huge black and red sword, making him spit saliva, and sending him to fly in the air. To finish the combo, another figure jumped and slashed at the poor man with a scythe before he crashed on the ground.

"That's enough!" the Inventor called before his henchmen could finish the Dream Defender off. With a snap of his finger, he summoned a portal of pixels behind him, and got ready to leave.

Coughing and in a lot of pain, Logan could only look as the hooded figures stepped one by one in the pixel portal, taking Sora with them. "W-Wait...," he groaned. "Get... back..."

The Inventor actually stopped before his portal, and turned around to look at him. "Don't be afraid, Logan Jindrak. You must think I'm a mere villain, like those you faced before, but I'm actually programmed to try and enjoy my schemes as much as possible. That's why I will give you a chance to rescue your friend."

"A... chance...?"

"Yes. Twenty-four hours from the moment I traverse this portal, the passage connecting my virtual World That Never Was and the Magical World will be cut off. You will have until then to assemble the other Dream Defenders and launch an assault to retrieve your friend. If you can defeat my army and win my game, then I will let you have him back. However, should you not come in time, his heart will be mine. In the same vein, should you come, but fail to win my game... then all of your hearts will be mine. One chance, don't miss it."

Logan could only reach his hand in desperation as the Inventor disappeared into the portal. Seconds after it closed, the poor man passed out.


Logan returned to the world of the living, finding himself lying on a towel on the beach. His body was still hurting from the violent hits he took before passing out. The only thing that brought him a bit of relief was the sight of his beloved girlfriend looking over him.

"Logan!" Destiny beamed upon seeing her boyfriend waking up.

"D-Destiny...? What happened?"

"I found you unconscious on the other side of the island. Your ribs were badly damaged, so I brought you to the beach in order to treat you," the whale explained, pointing a flipper at her boyfriend's bandaged torso. "The entire place was destroyed and burnt; what happened back there?"

Everything came back to Logan, and he pushed himself to a sitting position. "Sora! They captured Sora!"

"Who?"

"The Inventor! He's a villain from a Disney mobile game - one I wasn't expecting to meet this summer, if at all," Logan explained. "He managed to create a replica of a Kingdom Hearts world alongside an army of very powerful characters. We need to call Gabriel; he'll know what to do!"

"But Gabriel's gone, remember?" Destiny pointed out. "He left for that world in the mirror with Toren, Aline, Beth, and Double D. They won't be back until he's done training them all."

"We still have to call him. If we don't rescue Sora, this robotic maniac's gonna take away his heart, and we'll lose him forever," Logan insisted. "I'm sure he can put the whole training on hold for now; our friend's in danger! We need to get the rest of the Dream Defenders, too."

Destiny helped Logan back up and waited whilst he sent some calls for help. After a moment of waiting, the young man pulled his cellphone away and turned back to his girlfriend. "So? Are they coming?"

The disappointed expression on Logan's face let her know the answer. "Nope. King Oswald had to close the connection between the Mirroverse and the Magical World for urgent matters - some matters that also involve Gabriel and the others. They don't know when they'll return. Same for the others: Rachel and Poe are gone to hunt some dangerous monster, Silver has gone with Staghart on a romantic tour across France, and Adam is currently in search of an ancient treasure with Melanie somewhere in the Pacific. Even if I send them a message saying that our friend's life is at stake, they won't arrive in time."

"Oh no. What are we gonna do, then?" Destiny asked, not wanting Sora to be abandoned to this terrible fate.

Rubbing his chin, Logan started walking back and forth, trying to come up with an idea. What was he supposed to do? In times like these, it was Gabriel who took action and brought a team together to save the day. And Logan was one of the team members that followed him. Having to take a decision like this was entirely new to him.

Eventually, the young Dream Defender was brought out of his thoughts when he noticed a little object peeking out of his backpack. He kneeled down and reached a hand to pick it up. A little golden medallion with a sun symbol carved into it. Taking a moment to remember where it came from, Logan's eyes widened as an idea formed in his mind.

"... Of course! That's it!" He turned toward his girlfriend. "Destiny! I know what to do!"

"Really? What?"

With a grin in the corner of his mouth, Logan showed the Sun Medallion. "Since the Dream Defenders are gone, we're gonna get help from other friends I made throughout our summer vacations to go in this digital world, and bring Sora back..."

Author's note: As I stated at the start of this chapter, we're done with the fun and chilling stuff; it's time for Logan to take action again! This chapter marks the start of what I will call the 'Rescue Sora Arc'. The Inventor is the main villain of 'Disney Heroes: Battle Mode', a mobile role-playing game. His backstory and motivations haven't completely been revealed yet, so I'm gonna have to shape him the way I think he is as I go on.

I know that most of you guys are probably eagerly awaiting the start of the Hero's Rumble that I announced many chapters earlier... But, see, I had this idea for a while of Logan being forced to take action against a threat that would normally be dealt with by Gabriel and all the Dream Defenders, since none of them are available at the moment. I didn't want to skip this idea and just go to the competition; it's a good chance at developing Logan, all the OCs that joined us recently, and also establish a bond between all of them.

Some might argue here that Sora shouldn't have lost that easily against *replica* Organization XIII, but I just couldn't picture him fighting and winning against ALL of them at once. Especially when he was caught unprepared and didn't have Donald and Goofy to back him up.

Next time: Logan gets his team ready to go rescue his friend and mentor...