Unfortunately, getting used to waking up in pain doesn't make the pain any less sore. Daniel groaned as he tried to push himself up into a sitting position. Sharp pains that felt like several tiny icicles being pierced into his chest caused him to fail and fall back onto a questionably cushioned surface. After opening his eyes, he discovered a bed was placed under him - wait, no, he must have been taken to the bed.
"Here, drink this." A girl in scantily clad clothing came out of nowhere and shoved a bottle into Dan's face. Despite the pain, Dan bolted out of the way, but ended up on top of another person.
"Hello to you, too," Sora murmured as Dan got off of him and sat against the wall, back on his own side of the bed. "I heard you tried to help me. Thanks for that, I guess." Sora rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
Dan furrowed his brows at that. "What? But where are we?" Another sharp pain caused him to hug his arms around his chest.
"You should really drink this now," the girl once again held the bottle in front of Dan. "I could just keep it for myself or sell it, you know."
"Yuffie," Squall chided from across the room. He was leaning against a door; the only escape route? No, there were two other doors. As long as they didn't lead to a bathroom and a closet, Dan should be fine. Yuffie pouted as she dropped the bottle onto Dan's lap and called Squall a party pooper.
"Hey, how come I didn't get a potion?" Sora complained. This only made Dan more confused by the bottle, although less cautious of it. He picked it up and examined the clear liquid inside of it.
"You didn't take nearly as many hits to knock you out, that's why," Yuffie stuck her tongue out as Sora. "But if you really want one, I guess I could lose one for, say, fifty munhy?"
"What, that's a ridiculous price!" Sora whined. "I've never paid more than thirty munny for one!" Daniel was somewhat amused by the name of the currency they used, but still was unsure of what to do with the potion in his hand. It didn't seem to be the kind of magical potion he would think of. Surprisingly, Sora noticed his hesitations. "So are you going to drink it?"
"Um, y-yes?" Dan stuttered out. Sora decided to have the patience to watch, so Dan opened up the bottle and took a swig. Before he could even think about the lack of a taste, he felt the pain in his chest fade away greatly. He downed the rest of the liquid and felt satisfied by a complete lack of pain. He looked up to notice everyone was still staring at him.
"Uh, thanks," Dan mumbled. Then, trying to regain his voice, he asked, "but where are we? I thought you just wanted that key."
Sora wagged his finger at Dan. "They already told me everything. They took the Keyblade from me to stop the Heartless from tracking me."
Dan raised an eyebrow at him. "That's 'everything?'"
"Well there was other stuff, too!" Sora crossed his arms. "The Heartless attack people to get their hearts, and that can make even more Heartless!" Sora looked down at the floor, a bit shaken, "I actually saw it happen to someone right before meeting you."
"What? That's awful; things like that exist?" Dan looked around at everyone, but they stayed quiet. "Wait, where's my sister?"
"She's fine," Squall answered. "She went to get the two of you new clothes. Your's were no longer wearable after…" He trailed off, not wanting to mention the incident.
"You were a pretty big mess, you know," Yuffie added. 'It took a lot of work to clean you up."
Dan looked at himself, initially unsure of what she meant, before finally realizing his clothes were switched out for a white, cotton shirt and leather pants. "But what - who…" The devilish grin on Yuffie's face answered his questions.
Yuffie and Sora burst into laughter after seeing Dan's face go bright red. "Nice, you match ZSora's outfit now," Yuffie sniggered.
Squall decided to finally step away from the door. "Sora, there are some people I'd like for you to meet. Dan, I'll finished explaining things to you once your sister comes back. There are a few questions I have for you as well. Aerith should be ready, though." Dan was both confused by Squall having questions for him and yet another Final Fantasy character being involved, but decided to go with the flow. As Squall reached for the door, Yuffie shrieked as a medium-sized creature that looked like it was wearing a helmet, like what a suit of armor has, popped into the middle of the room. Leon quickly grabbed his sword and slashed at the creature, causing it to smash through the window behind Dan and Sora. "Come on!" Squall shouted as he opened the door next to them and rushed outside.
Sora instantly got up, but Dan stayed sitting, still shocked at what he saw. "Hurry up, Dan!" Sora beckoned.
"Was that a-" Dan started.
"We need to go, there will be more!" Dan continued to stay still. "Y-your sister, Sam; we need to find her!" Dan shot up at hearing this.
"Right." They ran through the open door and met with Squall in the alleyway below the balcony to their room. He slashed at a few of the Heartless to make a path for them.
"Here." He held out a sword to Dan, who hesitantly took it. "Don't bother with the small fry. Find the leader! Let's go!" He then ran off down the alley.
"Where did he get this from?" Dan glanced at the sword he was given. It looked to be short enough to be held by just one hand and thankfully was light enough as well. He really didn't know much about swords.
Sora ran off the other direction and Dan quickly followed, not wanting to be left behind. Doing as Squall said, they mostly avoided the Heartless they ran across. It would have been suicidal to try to fight all of them. Eventually, they went through a pair of doors labeled "3rd District."
The new district consisted of a square with some level and elevated paths connecting to its corners. Sora and Dan ran down the steps to the square, but stopped near the middle when they heard a loud noise behind them. They looked up in time to see two bodies falling right towards them.
Sora continued running forward to avoid them while Dan dodged to the side. The crash of body hitting body indicated that Sora didn't get out of the way in time. Dan looked over to see a large, humanoid duck and dog in clothing laying on top of Sora. They both seemed dazed, but the sight of Sora's weapon got them out of their stupor as they exclaimed, "the key!"
The ground started to violently shake before proper introductions could take place. Pillars similarly designed to the tile pattern of the floor erupted from the ground, blocking them in the square. The three collapsed figures quickly jumped to their feet as more of the armored Heartless appeared around them. "I hope the two of you can fight," Dan said as he readied his sword.
The duck readily accepted the challenge as he shouted, "fire," with his raspy voice. A ball of fire sprouted form the stave in his hand and shot towards one of the Heartless, exploding it into nothingness. Daniel only took a second to express shock before running in with the others. The dog used a small, circular shield to ram himself into the Heartless while Sora did his usual three-hit combos. Dan tested out a few swings of his sword using only his right hand before deciding quick, vertical swings or stabs seemed to work best for him.
Soon enough, all of the Heartless were taken out. As the four started to group back pu, though, large armor pieces in the shape of body parts fell from the sky. They floated together to form a full body, with a helmet falling directly onto the chest piece to finalize itself. "You've got to be kidding me," the duck said, exasperated.
"We can take it!" Sora shouted, albeit not quite as confidently as he was hoping to sound. Dan, on the other hand, was trying very hard to stop his legs from shaking.
"I - I don't think-" Daniel was interrupted by the dog charging towards the giant Heartless, shouting a war cry that befit how goofy he looked. Sora and the duck followed right after the dog. They all started to whack and slice away at the separate body parts while the Heartless slowly walked forward, each step making a loud, metallic clank as the feet hit the ground.
The Heartless stopped after finally noticing it was being attacked. Its body wouldn't even flinch from the blows! The clawed gauntlets started to circle around the Heartless' body until they turned into a blue blur. Sora nd the duck were sent flying by the quick force, but the dog somehow managed to deflect the gloves with his shield, causing them to fly off and land on the pavement right in front of Dan, stunned.
"Dan, attack them!" Sora shouted.
Daniel started at the gauntlets, glanced over at Sora, then brought his gaze back to the gauntlets. The sword was starting to feel a lot heavier in his hand. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He tried again and was able to whisper, "alright." A lunge brought Dan right to the gauntlets, allowing him to slash and stab at them several times before they were able to regain composure and rise back up into the air.
As they were about to get back to full height, a fireball impacted on them and they disintegrated. The duck jumped up in joy and raspily shouted, "that's how it's done!"
"They can be destroyed." A new found hope pushed away Dan's fears, but his limbs seemed to only want to jitter even more. The others were able to take this time to continue attacking the armor. Sora jumped up to deal some hits to the torso while the dog slammed his shield into one of the feet. The duck shot another ball of fire at the same foot, buit it remained standing. It seemed to be more resilient than the gauntlets.
Dan decided to help out with the feet, but all of the armor suddenly lifted up into the air and started to spin around quickly. With a mighty crash, the armor pieces slammed into the ground knocking everyone flat. The dog with the shield helped Dan back up to his feet. "Gwarsh, this fella looks to have two left feet, huh."
Daniel couldn't tell if the dog was talking about the armor or him, but thankfully Sora was able to deal the last needed damage to take out both of the armor's feet. "Just, uh, one left?" Dan stammered as they all looked up at the floating body. It took no time for it to change tactics as it started to spin around like a top. Everyone braced themselves around the armor waiting to see what would happen.
The armor did not disappoint as it quickly lashed out and swiftly moved around the plaza, slamming and bnouncing away from any wall it hit. Sora dived out of the way as the armor passed him by. The duck and Dan followed suite, but the dog stood his ground, shield held out defensively.
The armor rammed itself into the dog with a mighty force, causing Daniel to flinch, but the dog somehow held his ground. The shield had sparks flying off of it as the armor continued to rapidly spin itself into it. Dan couldn't believe his eyes when it looked like the armor's rotation started to slow. The dog kept up his defense as the armor spun slower and slower, but right as it came to a full stop, some kind of shockwave warped out of the armor and sent the dog flying.
The duck ran over to the dog with one of those potion bottles in hand. Dan's grip on his sword tightened as he watched the armor sway slightly as if it was dizzy. "Sora, now!" Sora nodded then jumped in to attack the armor with Dan. Their flurries of attacks etched around the chest and back of the bell-shaped metal, trying to deal as much damage as they could before the armor continued to attack.
The helmet floating above the body piece finally focused on the two boys attacking it and the armor began to charge up its rotation again. "Not again!" Sora cried out as they continued their assault. The armor's spinning went faster and faster and, as it was getting set to launch, the duck and dog joined in on the attack.
With the four of them combined, the armor violently started shaking and quickly spun to a stop. It then slowly started floating upward, but the helmet rolled out of its levitated position and fell onto the torso below. With a bright, blue flash, the armor disintegrated as a large heart=shaped light floated up into the sky. Daniel watched in awe as the blue heart spirated up and then disappeared.
All at once, the four of them slumped to the ground in exhaustion. "I - I didn't know," Sora took a deep breath, "they can get that big!" The others continued to pant in silence.
The night sky and the cool, tiled floor felt heavenly to Dan as he tried to calm his body. The day had just continued to get crazier and crazier for him. Never would Dan have thought that he would be finding himself in a mysterious town full of game characters and monsters. Just the day before, he had been… A frown appeared on his face. The only thing he could remember was the feeling of falling. When exactly was the "day before?" Where was he before-
"Dan!" Several loud footsteps rapidly made their way to the group. Daniel was pushed further to the ground by Sam as she rammed into him. "You're okay!" She hugged him tightly for a few seconds, then, still clasping his upper arms, began to examine him. "Do you have any cuts, bruises, a headache? Do you feel any kind of burning sensation?"
"No, just embarrassment," Dan pulled his sister and himself up to their feet; his cheeks burning red. Squall and Yuffie stood before them. Yuffie was beaming a smile while Squall scowled as usual. Though there was a slight difference in his eyes. They looked more relaxed.
"So, you were looking for me?" Sora looked at the duck and dog. The three of them were also up now. The two newcomers nodded.
Leon crossed his arms. "They too have been seeking the wielder of the Keyblade." Yuffie affirmed this statement with a nod.
"Why don't you come with us? We can go to other worlds on our vessel," the dog joyfully chatted. This took Daniel by surprise. Sora literally just met them and now they're asking for him to join them in off-world travel? What's next, Yuffie pulling out a ring and proposing to Dan?
No wedding proposal came from Yuffie, but Leon proposed, "Sora, go with them. Especially if you want to find your friends."
"Yeah, I guess," Sora halfheartedly muttered.
The duck wasn't taking any of that though. "But you can't come along looking like that, understand?" He wagged a feathery finger toward Sora. "No frowning. No sad face. Okay?"
"Yeah, ya gotta look funny, like us!" the dog added, pushing himself in front of the duck.
"This boat runs on happy faces," the duck pushed the dog back, allowing both of them to be in the spotlight of the conversation.
Sora looked down at the ground. "Happy?" Everyone started at the boy. Squall and Yuffie looked on with a hint of amusement. The animal duo waited expectantly, holding rather goofy expressions as their example. Daniel had concern all over his face while Samantha - wait, she was staring over at a nearby fountain that had statues of two dogs - actual dogs, not like the one wearing clothes nearby - kissing.
Sora then quickly raised his head up so everyone could see his ridiculous face. His eyes were wide open and a large smile bordering on looking painful left Daniel dumbfounded. Sora lost his composure, becoming embarrassed by the silence, but then the two animals burst out into laughter. Dan couldn't help but chuckle along with them. "Okay, why not? I'll go with you guys." Sora stepped up to the two.
They proceeded to stack their hands together, the duck calling himself "Donald Duck," the dog "Goofy," and Sora "Sora," of course.
Dan walked up to the other boy. "You sure about this?"
"It's the only way I can look for my friends. Besides, what is there to do here?" Dan couldn't really disagree with Sora there. The boy then grinned at Dan, an idea forming in his head. "Hey, why don't you come with us too?"
"What!?" Dan looked around. That came out of more than just his mouth. "We don't have enough room! We can't just add another person to the part," Donald quacked out.
"Two people," Sam corrected. "Where he goes, I go." Daniel nodded his head in agreement. He wasn't just going to abandon her.
Goofy looked questioningly at Donald. "I'm pretty sure our ship can hold five people." The duck slapped his own face in response.
"Maybe they should go with you." Dan wasn't sure if he was more surprised that Squall thought they should go with, or that it was a suggestion and not a definitive statement.
"The more the merrier, right?" Goofy grinned, still looking at his duck companion.
Donald gave a long, exasperated sigh before rasping out, "aw phooey."
"It's decided then!" Sora pumped his fist into the air.
"Wh - wait!" Through all this trouble, Daniel wasn't even sure if he wanted to go on this possibly extremely dangerous adventure with people he just met. He guessed it wasn't like he'd be leaving anything behind but… "Sam, what do you think?"
"Huh?" Samantha held her chin with a hand while surveying the others. "Well, it might be dangerous hanging around a Keyblade if it draws, uh, monsters to us. What would we get by exploring other worlds?"
"I guess we could also look for our friends," Dan stated.
"Our… friends." Sam walked over to the fountain with the dog statues, her back to the others.
Dan began to scratch his nose. "Look, we can sta-"
"'Okay, why not? We'll go with you guys.'" Sam turned around with a smile. The duck signed again, probably having hoped they would stay.
"Did she just copy me?" Sora questioned.
"Oh, right," Daniel put on a smile himself. "I guess you guys did say this boat runs on happy faces."
"Ahyuck, that's right!" Goofy put his hand back out. The other four placed their hands in a stack above his, with Daniel and Samantha saying their names. "All for one and one for all," Goofy concluded.