Nicktoons & Disney Heroes UNITE!

by Dr.Dude

An evil Syndicate spanning four worlds has formed in order to work for the common goal of universal domination, and it is up to four heroes from those worlds to band together and stop them. However, a slight mistake has brought them to a new world entirely, and an even bigger adventure unfolds alongside their own as they join with a boy holding a key.

18. A Bitter Reunion

Finally, after having accomplished their mission of freeing Amity Park from the Syndicate's clutches, our heroes have returned to the Gummi Ship so they could make their way back to Traverse Town. Going through that same green portal that led them to Amity Park, they found themselves back in Sora's universe, colorful space and all. As they passed by Deep Jungle, with Tarzan looking nostalgic as he watched his home go by, Selphie, their new accomplice, was marveling at the cockpit around her. They unfortunately didn't have the time to make a new seat for her, though Sora did promise that they could make one for her later. Having said that, both Donald and Jimmy seemed to give Sora looks of concern before looking at each other in a rare show of agreement. They would no doubt have to talk about this idea later.

"Let me get this straight…" Selphie started as the whole story so far was being explained to her. She held her head, massaging her temples with her index fingers, "Our world suddenly went poof, and that brought Sora to this Traverse Town place and me to Amity Park, right?"

"That's the theory, anyway." Jimmy explained to her politely. "Though how you got into our universe from yours is something we still have no idea how it happened."

"And this Vlad guy, he was part of this evil group taking over your worlds?" Sora's friend continued, pouting pensively. "But when you guys first went to deal with him, you instead got sent to Traverse Town too, and you met Sora soon after?"

"Yeah, that checks out." Danny nodded. "Gotta say, you're really catching onto this weirdness quick. Figured you'd be a little more shocked."

"I woke up in a cell, made friends with a ghost princess and dealt with a fruit loop with ghost powers obsessed with some other guy's wife." She shrugged as she finished massaging her head to ease the new wave of information. It helped slightly as she looked at them, "The fact that there is a different world like Sora, Riku, and Kairi often talked about just shows they were right the entire time."

"Feels pretty odd being right about something this big," Sora commented.

"Probably weren't expecting the whole 'different universe' part though, were ya?" Timmy figured.

"Nope. Don't think anybody did, least of all Sora." She teased the current pilot.

"Hey, I could understand it easily!" Sora rebutted as he shot down more Heartless ships. "Jimmy just had to say it a few times for everyone who didn't hear about it."

"Don't remind me." The boy genius rubbed his temples as Goddard went up to Selphie with a bark, to which she petted his metal head. "I've had to do it four times alone when we first arrived in Traverse Town. As much as repetition helps storing knowledge, stagnation leads to downfalls. Here's hoping I don't need to keep repeating it whenever we find someone new."

"You mean if we find someone new." Donald pointed out, rubbing his beak with a pensive look. "Who knows if the Syndicate brought on more than just the Heartless and Clayton? They could probably just be the only recruits they got."

"Or probably just more recent additions." Gadget debated. "Jimmy, are you sure there isn't any way you can think of to explain how Calamitous copied the plans to your Universe Portal Machine?"

While Selphie was busy lightly scratching Goddard behind the ears, making his tail wag, Jimmy answered, "Unfortunately, I still have yet to figure that out. There is no possible way for any of my systems to get hacked from outside, and Calamitous' habit of not finishing anything should leave him without a suitable method for that. So how…?"

"He can't finish doin' stuff, but he could finish makin' a copy of your Universe Portal Machine?" Goofy asked, confused by that logic.

"He says he's been taking classes and shock therapy, but I have my doubts." The boy genius of Retroville replied.

"Oooh! We're passing by Wonderland!" Spongebob noticed the peculiar world as they flew by. "Hope that mean ol' queen hasn't cut off any new heads lately."

"Now THAT sounds like a story to tell." Selphie looked at the yellow sponge at that. "Mind telling me what happened over there?"

"Quite a lot of strange doings, I should say." Jiminy Cricket answered atop Goofy's hat, writing in his journal as he did. "Chasing a white rabbit, shrinking and growing, a strange kangaroo court– and that was when we were only there for about an hour or so."

"All of that and a girl getting kidnapped by one of my enemies, so none of us saw that coming either." The ghost boy added with a sigh. "Honestly, it was weird just being in a place so odd. Especially when you consider our worlds and what we're dealing with."

"Oh yes, because a walking-talking sponge, a buck-toothed star-slinger, a boy with a forehead as big as his ego, a halfa, a mouse engineer, a journalist cricket, a court wizard duck, a bipedal dog knight, an ape-man, and an annoyingly cheerful boy who uses a key as a weapon are PERFECTLY within the realms of normality."

That sarcastic tone drove everyone to look towards Sora… or more specifically, his ring finger, where the gem on his ring was glowing. Almost everyone who knew about it had forgotten about Sora accidentally having Desiree bound to him as his personal genie and with the ring as her vessel. Not to mention they were so busy fighting Vlad that it didn't even come up once during that, or even in the aftermath when they were just getting everything all set and normal before they left. Of course, most of the party gave the ring looks when they just remembered what the ghost genie tried to do when they got into Vlad's castle.

"Oh look who's talking, candy pants." Danny retorted.

"Yeah, you tried t– candy pants?" The wizard was going to start, but then was caught off guard by Danny's weird name for her.

"Long story short, the first time we fought, she caused a flood of cotton candy." The ghost boy explained with a groan.

"Oh." The duck then cleared his throat and looked back to the ring, hands on his hips as he gave it a glare, "Anyway, yeah, you tried to kill us the moment you thought Sora's wish gave you power! You don't get to butt in."

"Wait, what?" Selphie was taken aback by this news.

"Right, while we were in Amity Park," Sora admitted, sounding sheepish, "we had to split up to cover some ground, and after beating this large Heartless, I ended up meeting Desiree who was probably trying to get me to wish for something specific, now that I think about it. Unfortunately, I accidentally wished for her to be my personal genie instead, and she's now basically stuck with us because of me. Can't exactly blame her for having an attitude because of that."

"I can when she was clearly trying to twist your wish to find your friends to something that benefitted herself." Gadget stated.

"Please, I'm hardly a fan of my current circumstances either, vermin." Desiree's voice shot back, making Gadget scowl. "I did not wish to get bound to the service of a mere boy who spoke before he thought."

"Yup, that's Sora in a nutshell." Selphie teased, although she could see that happening.

"Come on, Selphie!" The wielder of the Keyblade pleaded to his friend. "I already told her I was sorry!"

Selphie simply giggled. Sora hadn't changed one bit, even after being taken from his world and having all these other characters by his side and going on adventures. He was still that cute goofball who often had his eyes on the stars with Riku and Kairi. The guy she told about the legend of the Paopu fruit with clearly unsubtle undertones, and didn't even bat an eye before asking if she wanted to spar with him. Still so clueless…

Probably won't be long before he ends up warming that genie's heart up, too, she figured.

"Oh, we're here!" Cosmo's voice called out, getting their attention to the world ahead of them. "Weird how it feels like this is the first we've actually gotten a good look at it."

Indeed it did, seeing as they didn't bother getting a good look at the world when going for a pit stop before. The top half covered in Victorian-era buildings, they could see the three districts being signified by three landmarks while the buildings basically stuck out around the world's 'equator', so to speak. Standing tall, right in the middle, was the jewelry and accessory shop with the 'Jewelry' sign shining brightly. To its left was the Second District's fountain with glistening lights and a small three-pronged light post sitting next to it. To its right was the Third District's fountain with the two dogs, one a tramp and the other a fine breed, brushing their noses together with a depiction of a bowl and a candle lit in a bottle before them. Yet on the underside of the world, in the midst of tall, spiky rocks, there appeared to be this peculiar building shaped like a wizard's hat with a hooked top.

"Huh, wonder what that building down there is about?" Spongebob wondered. He then gulped, adding, "Looks kinda spooky…"

"Don't be bothered too much by it, Spongebob," the royal chronicler assured the sea sponge, "it's more than likely just a humble little spot outside of the districts."

"Can you really say there's an 'outside' when the town itself is practically the world?" Wanda felt the need to ask. "The worlds we've been to have honestly been rather small."

"Keep in mind it's not like we've gone around the world in our own worlds, Wanda." Timmy told his fairy godmother. "It's probably bigger than it looks, like with Danny's world."

"Or maybe we've somehow gotten smaller!" Cosmo gasped. "Did we drink that potion in Wonderland again?!"

Desiree could be heard groaning, muttering about being surrounded by idiots. It was promptly ignored.

"I'm seriously dying to hear more of this story when we land, you know." Selphie told her friend as he got ready to press the crown button.

"And we will! But for now, you're gonna love how Traverse Town looks!" And with a smile, he pressed it, warping them all from the ship.

Our heroes thus reappeared in the First District of Traverse Town, and both Tarzan and Selphie marveled at the sight before them. The red brick ground, the Victorian era buildings, the night sky, the beautiful neon-light signs, the shop… all of them were a wonder to behold. Sure, Selphie was in a more modern world before, but that whole time she was mostly stuck in a castle dungeon cell and a cage. She didn't have much time to marvel at the city proper. For Tarzan, even he was too busy with the Heartless and Syndicate troops to really marvel at Amity Park and how different from the jungle it was. But now, without any Heartless or enemies being pests, they could take a good look at their surroundings.

But then Selphie stopped when she noticed a youth just standing near the left lamp post. A short boy with tan skin, and wearing sandals. At first, she thought it was Tidus, but then she saw he had no scar on his cheek, his hair was brown, his eyes were also brown and stuck half-lidded, he wore a white-ish undershirt under an orange vest with white rims, green shorts with zippers and two back pockets, and a black belt. The sandals were also pretty simple with a wholly yellow strap on each with the soles being a military brown. Seeing it wasn't actually their friend made her sulk.

Assuring her, Sora put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Hey, don't worry. If things go as they have, we'll find Tidus and Wakka too, along with Riku and Kairi."

Selphie smiled at Sora's kind words. Even if he was a bit clueless, somehow he always knew just what to say to make someone feel better.

"Hey guys! Welcome back!"

Our heroes heard the call and saw none other than Yuffie waving at them, basically directing them to come to her. So they did, with Selphie and Tarzan following up behind them. The great ninja seemed to notice the new people as well, looking surprised.

"I see you guys got some new people in your party." She said. "Who are they?"

"Oh, this is Selphie, one of Sora's friends. We saved her when she was a prisoner of one of our villains." Spongebob introduced them to her, starting with the girl. Then directing Yuffie towards the jungle man, he said, "And this is Tarzan! He joined us after we took care of some trouble in his world."

"Hi there!" Selphie greeted.

"Hello." Tarzan did so as well.

"Uh, great to meet you!" Yuffie blinked, then she amended her surprise by saying, "Anyway, glad to meet you two and all, and great you got to find one of your friends, Sora, but, uh… you guys DO know what the World Order is, right?"

"Oh boy, this again?" Timmy rolled his eyes.

"Look, Yuffie, I understand your skepticism," Jimmy said, "and we already had this conversation among ourselves. Considering what we're facing and how this has also affected his home, we asked Tarzan to help us out and we're bound to need his help. If you're worried about how he'll adjust, don't worry. We'll keep him on his two feet."

"And probably hands at times." Danny mentioned. "Being raised by gorillas has him do that."

At first, the group thought that Yuffie would have a problem with this, seeing as apparently this World Order was considered important in this world. After all, she did appear to show concern with the knowledge that Tarzan was brought with them from his own world. However, the great ninja then let out a breath of relief before wiping her brow. Donald didn't seem to expect that reaction more than the others, though. What was up with her reaction?

"Oh thank Minerva!" Yuffie said at last. "Finally, someone else thinks this World Order thing is so dumb! Seriously, with everything we went through, you'd think we'd figure asking other worlds for help, but no! Even Squall says it's 'none of their business' and Aerith just says, 'we can't risk other people getting in danger'! I mean, what else were we supposed to do? Wait for the Keyblade bearer the whole time? Sure, that worked out, but still!"

It was noted how she made a gruff voice when describing Squall and a falsetto for Aerith, but that was beside the point.

With a grateful smile on her face, Yuffie continued, "But seriously, you probably won't hear this from them, but you guys clearly got the right idea of getting more people to help you out with your journey. With all these Heartless appearing day by day, even Squall would struggle dealing with them all by himself. We NEED help."

"Glad you agree." Jimmy was relieved at least someone in this universe was willing to look past the World Order. "Anyway, speaking of Leon, have you perchance seen him? We need to ask him a few things about what we discovered in the worlds we went to so far."

"Leon's probably at the underground cavern. He trains there often." She explained. "You know, the channel in the alleyway is connected to the cavern. But it's blocked by metal bars and I still have no idea how he even gets in there. I'm sure you guys can think of something, right?"

"Traverse Town alleyway. Got it." Sora nodded. "We'll just head through the Second District and take the door there."

"Hold on, Sora, before we–"

Donald was unfortunately cut off when Yuffie said, "Actually, there's a shortcut to the alleyway from here. Just go to the alley to the left of the Accessory Shop and behind the Item Shop and you should see it."

"As in the place where I woke up here?" The Keyblade bearer looked out towards the area. "Huh. Didn't figure there was a shortcut through there. Just some rickety wooden wall."

"Then we'll just make our way through on our own, kind of a no-brainer at this point." Danny said, moving right up the stairs.

"I dunno, guys," the fry cook followed the ghost boy alongside the others, "doesn't destruction of property seem a little excessive? Not to mention illegal?"

"Hey, it's not our property, not our problem." The average kid shrugged it off.

"Timmy, there are only so many ways I can describe what's wrong with that thought process." His fairy godmother lectured him.

"Yes indeed." The cricket on Goofy's hat agreed. "Thoughts like that will never put you on the path of being a decent young man. Why, if you engaged in that thought process back at that ominous circus, you could very well have turned into a j–"

"GAH! The nagging!" Timmy's fairy godfather shrieked. "It's becoming two-fold! Make it stop!"

"You guys certainly are eccentric, aren't you?" Selphie couldn't help but muse with a grin.

"You don't know the half of it." Jimmy shook his head in exasperation. "Anyhow, let's get moving. Leon's not going to find himself."

Goddard barked in agreement, walking by his master's side. As Selphie went ahead, Donald gave Jimmy an expectant look, to which the boy genius nodded, but also gestured that they unfortunately couldn't do it right now. The duck let out an exasperated sigh and decided to let it be for the moment, and so they caught up with the others. Sure enough, they made it just in time to see Danny using his ghost powers to make a hole in the wooden wall for the group to go through. Spongebob still didn't seem sure about doing it, but he recognized there wasn't much he could say at that point, hoping this wouldn't cause them problems later.

Once they went through the hole, and indeed eventually made it to the alleyway… our heroes found the way was blocked by four large crates. It would have been bad news, if not for the fact there was a treasure chest right between them and our heroes. Sora, taking out his Keyblade, thus did as expected and tapped the chest. Then three Dalmatian puppies of course popped out and again dogpiled him, making him laugh as they licked him all over. Selphie cooed at the sight of them and picked one of those puppies up, giggling as he licked her face next.

"Oh my gosh, these puppies are so adorable!" Selphie gladly petted the dog licking her. "Who would be so cruel as to put them in a chest?"

"Apparently when their world was gone, these puppies were scattered all across the universe," Gadget explained, "so we're looking for them as a favor to their parents. How much does this make now?"

"We have 69 puppies left, Gadget." Spongebob answered. "So we found 30 so far. Oh, Pongo and Perdita have to be so happy we got many of their puppies back home!"

"Hmmm…" Tarzan went over to the crates in their way, just as Jimmy used the Spotted Deck to warp the puppies to their home.

"What's up, Tarzan?" The Keyblade bearer asked him.

Tarzan didn't respond. Instead he cricked his neck before rearing his hands back and then began pushing the top crates off of the bottom ones, sending them to the ground with a heavy crash. With that, he looked back to the group with a smile.

"Way through." He said.

Just then, the familiar forms of the Heartless appeared! A new one popped out of the woodwork, looking similar to the Red Nocturnes and Blue Rhapsodies, but the body was yellow. The tip of their hats began to spark as they rumbled in place before they summoned lightning to strike down at the party! Fortunately, they could see what was coming and thus avoided the points of striking lightning. But then they found the new Heartless, these Yellow Operas, were not alone!

Joining them was yet another variant but with green bodies instead. Green Requiems, they were dubbed. They moved slowly, but they tended to sparkle and apparently heal any damage they left on their fellows, not to mention they were resistant to magic (or elemental as one Jimmy Neutron would stubbornly put it) damage. As such, they proved to be a new nuisance as they could heal up the Heartless that would get in their way. But fortunately, being slow moving yet they could also be easy to destroy, and thus they went down faster than the Yellow Operas they spawned with.

With that mess all sorted out, the group finally made it to the channel Yuffie told them about, and sure enough the way inside was blocked by metal bars.

"Okay, so, this one shouldn't take a second, but I'd also like to avoid causing a cave-in and ruin our way out." The halfa said. "Any suggestions on this one?"

"We could just charge it all together and bring 'em down that way." Goofy suggested. "We got the numbers, after all."

"Yeah, I'd rather not break anything doing that…" Selphie cleared her throat at that.

"Hmm… Maybe we can freeze these bars and break them?" The average kid no one understood figured. "I'd try that with the Ice Glove, but I don't want to freeze myself in the ice along with it."

"Oh, then Blizzard should handle this one!" Donald saw he could handle this one and readied his Warhammer. He then swung it forward, sending a flurry of ice and calling out, "Blizzard!"

And of course, once the spell hit, the bars were frozen solid. The court wizard then took the opportunity to use his hammer and swung it at the ice, breaking the bars into bits. Satisfied from the applause he got from that, he went on with the others towards the waterway's depths. Or at least they would have, if not for one thing.

"Wait, hold on. Is it just me or is the water getting… deeper?" The normally happy sea sponge asked.

"There's no reason it shouldn't." The boy genius told his ally. "After all, since we're going in through the waterway here, we're probably going to need to swim the rest of the way to find Leon. Shouldn't be that difficult."

"Er, actually, about that…" Spongebob nervously chuckled. "It might be better if you guys go on without me on this one. Maybe you can tell Leon I said hello and I'm keeping track of all the puppies we're rescuing, huh?"

"What do you mean, Spongebob?" Sora asked, looking as confused by this hesitation as the others. "It shouldn't be that long of a swim there."

"I…"

The fry cook then sighed, feeling he was unable to avoid saying it much longer. And right on cue, to everyone's only deepened confusion, a purple seahorse tube float with orange spots inflated around his waist.

"I can't swim." He confessed.

"...You can't swim?" Danny asked.

"Uh huh."

"But… you're a sea creature." Jimmy pointed out.

"Mm-hm."

"You live underwater." Timmy also added. "Breathe it, in fact."

"That's right."

"You're literally a sea sponge, who lives in a world that's completely aquatic… and yet you can't swim." Donald deadpanned.

"Yeah, what's your point?" The sea sponge asked.

"Yeah, what's so strange about him bein' unable to swim?" Goofy asked too.

At that, Danny just facepalmed, as did Donald. Timmy just looked deadpan, apparently used to nonsensical things in his life. Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, was unfortunately trying to figure out just how a sea creature from a world purely underwater could not even swim. It simply defied the laws of physics and all rational comprehension! Just what could he have missed about Bikini Bottom that could explain such a fallacy?

But while they were busy with their own reactions, Sora instead sympathized with the sea sponge. Poor guy, being unable to swim even in his own environment. He really wanted to help him out. But how? Perhaps Spongebob could get on his back? He shouldn't be too heavy.

"Ok, how about I just fly you over? How about that?" Danny suggested before Sora could suggest helping, making the boy sigh.

"Oh yeah, that would be great!" Spongebob then threw the floaty off and away… somewhere. Nobody could tell where it just vanished. "Thanks, Danny!"

"Happy to help."

With that, Danny picked up Spongebob and hovered in the air while the others in the party got to swim through the channel. Eventually, most of them swam into a dank, cavernous area with all the rocks and ground practically being green, though in the back there appeared to be some sort of ornate doorway leading to some sort of stairway, illuminated by two torch vases on the sides. There was also another treasure chest hidden just within. But their eyes were set on the two people who were also there. Leon, swinging his sword in place while looking down a path of submerged rocks leading towards a mural of a crescent moon amidst a night sky. There was also Aerith, who was watching Leon before taking notice of the others.

"Oh, welcome back, boys!" Aerith greeted, getting Squall to stop swinging and watch them get up on slightly drier land and shake some water out of their clothes. She then noticed the two newcomers while Danny was setting Spongebob down on the ground. "Oh, and who are these?"

"Are these your friends?" Leon asked gruffly.

"Um, technically, but not in the way you mean." Sora explained. "This is Selphie, a friend of mine from Destiny Islands, so yeah, she's one of my friends in the sense that we were friends and she's from my world. And this is Tarzan, from Deep Jungle, and he's a friend we've made recently. He's helping us out with this whole Syndicate thing."

"And before you say anything," Jimmy already knew what the expected response was going to be, "we recruited Tarzan because they got one of his enemies involved, so we'll be needing his help in order to stop the Syndicate and save our worlds. The World Order was considered, but unfortunately we can't rely on it in order to succeed."

"...Good grief," the warrior grunted before rubbing his temples, "you sure know how to bring trouble, don't you?"

"Oh wow, he actually said the 'good grief' line." Danny lightly chuckled. "You really are an edgy guy, aren't you?"

Leon didn't bother responding to that one, only asking, "So, what brings you here outside of this? Did you find anything else?"

"Hoo boy, where do we start?" The sea sponge wondered. "Let's see, aside from other worlds, the Heartless just keep getting more and more dangerous and they also go around with a certain theme… well, kinda. I mean, the only one that fit the theme of Wonderland was the Trickmaster and we only fought that near the end of our trip there. We didn't fight any Heartless that looked Grecian over at Olympus Coliseum. Oh, but there WERE these monkey Heartless over at Tarzan's home, not to mention this large lizard, and–"

"Anything other than new Heartless?" The brooding youth cut in.

"Yes, a portal to one of our worlds did end up opening, and we managed to save Amity Park from the clutches of the Syndicate." Jimmy explained shortly. "We have also discovered that the Heartless are also working for the Syndicate, making things unfortunately more problematic for both of our universes. There's also the fact they kidnapped this one girl from another world, Alice, but we're not sure the reason why."

At this bit of information, Aerith frowned and Leon seemed to take it in. That was certainly a lot of information that could impact their universe all at once. This evil organization from another universe easily handling the Heartless and already causing trouble in the worlds in their universe? Quite a concern. But still, Leon could tell there was more they had yet to tell.

"You also want to ask about something else, don't you?" He figured.

"Like just one of if not the weirdest part." Timmy nodded. "While we were traveling, we found at least three mysterious glowing keyholes at random spots that Sora's Keyblade just shot a beam at and locked."

"Including my world, Amity Park." Danny added.

And that was it. Leon's expression could tell.

"So, you found the Keyhole." He said.

"Uh, keyholes. More than one." The average kid reiterated.

"But yeah." Sora nodded. "The Keyblade locked them automatically."

"Good." Aerith nodded.

"Also, 'Keyhole'?" Selphie asked. "That's capitalized for a good reason, I take it?"

Leon nodded, explaining, "Every world among the stars has a Keyhole. And each one leads to the heart of that world. There must be one in this town as well."

"What do you mean?" Spongebob asked.

"It was in Ansem's report." Aerith explained, though Selphie and Tarzan didn't know who that was.

"The Heartless enter through the Keyhole and do something to the world's core." Squall continued, crossing his arms and closing his eyes.

"Er… something?" The ghost boy had an uneasy feeling. "Like what? What happens to the world?"

Aerith sighed deeply, though her expression did not change from its solemn appearance. If these boys (and one girl from the looks of it) needed to know the whole truth, it would have to be now. Otherwise…

"In the end," she answered, "it disappears."

Our heroes all jumped in shock, exclaiming all at once, "What?!"

"You mean that Wonderland, Deep Jungle… even Amity Park were almost completely destroyed by the Heartless?!" Spongebob was already freaking out. "How do these monsters just keep getting scarier?!"

"And that's… what happened to our home…?" Selphie couldn't help but shake. "That's-"

"But how?" Wanda had to ask. "This whole thing about Keyblades, Keyholes, and even the Heartless aren't even native to our universe. We only just discovered all of this by accident!"

"Wait, wouldn't that mean the rest of our worlds have these Keyholes, too?" Cosmo had another rare moment of comprehension. "Oh no! Fairy World's in worse danger than it already is!"

"As is Retroville…" Jimmy agreed, Goddard whimpering near him. "The Syndicate have no idea just what it is they have at their disposal."

"Sora, this is why your key is so important." The lionheart addressed the islander. "The Heartless are a grave threat not just to you, but to everyone around you and beyond."

"Please lock the Keyholes." Aerith requested. "You're the only one who can."

Everyone looked to Sora at that. The boy scratched his head, comprehending his situation. It was a lot to take in for a boy who was only 14 and only just getting used to using the Keyblade and seeing other worlds. Being asked to literally save the universe (two at most)? It was definitely a bit much.

"I don't know…" He muttered, unsure.

"Seeing other worlds would probably serve you well." Leon told him.

"Yeah, that's right!" Donald looked to Sora at that.

"We gotta find your friends!" Goofy told him. "And King Mickey!"

"Not to mention we gotta stop the Syndicate!" The sea sponge felt his positivity coming back. "Don't worry, Sora! We got your back just as I'm sure you got ours!"

"I guess you're right…" The Keyblade wielder supposed, then he stood up tall with more confidence. "Okay! I'll do it!"

Leon nodded in approval as Sora's friends all cheered him on. The boy was hardly whom he thought would be good for the Keyblade at first, but at least he knew to take on a challenge. Even if that challenge was the right thing to do. With that said, he silently turned around to get back to his training. But then he felt a tap on his shoulder, making him turn to see none other than Tarzan looking at him.

"What?" He asked.

"Blocks. Leon know." Tarzan communicated.

With a raised brow, Leon turned towards the party, a brow raised in question about what the jungle man meant.

"Oh, right!" Sora recalled just before Donald and Jimmy held out the gummi blocks they obtained in Wonderland and Deep Jungle. "Hey Leon, these gummi blocks are different from the others. Do you know what they're for?"

Leon didn't immediately answer. Instead he put a hand to his face, just staying quiet while looking to be in thought. Or perhaps he was just busy contemplating something. Either way, the silence was getting rather awkward.

"...Being silent isn't exactly an answer, you know." Timmy deadpanned.

"Ask Cid." Aerith answered for Leon. "He should know. After all, gummi blocks are his specialty."

"That does remind me," the boy genius recalled, "I need to see him about my Portable UPM. He might not have finished it yet, but I could suggest a few ways to hasten the process."

"Do you really think he's not gonna be able to fix something you made?" Gadget asked him.

"My inventions are hardly common knowledge in this universe, and to be honest, even as gummi ship technology intrigues me, I do have my doubts about how it could be applied to the Portable UPM since it's vastly different from the technology in our own universe. I'm at least willing to see how he tried, though." He replied.

"Modesty, thy name is Jimmy Neutron." The buck-toothed boy deadpanned.

The party then turned to go on their way to meet Cid, but before they could, Leon addressed the spiky-haired boy, "Wait, Sora. Take this with you." he walked over to Sora and placed something in his hand, telling him, "This stone holds some mysterious power. I've been carrying it for luck. I want you to hold onto it."

"Aw, Leon, you really are a nice guy under that gruff exterior. Kinda like Squidward!" Spongebob said with a knowing grin on his face.

However, Jimmy noticed something very familiar about that item Leon gave Sora. Taking out the gems he found in Wonderland, Deep Jungle, and Amity Park, he could instantly notice the resemblance. It was another one of these mysterious gems! If Leon had one of these, he had to know what they could do, and why these 'Keyholes' had them. Couldn't hurt to ask.

"Hold on. Leon," he began. "How do you use these? We've been finding them practically everywhere we go, and we've yet to even ascertain their purpose. If you have one of these, you must know, don't you?"

…Leon just crossed his arms and closed his eyes, keeping quiet.

"Uh, Leon?" Sora asked, wondering what the silence is about.

"...I think we basically asked all that we could from Leon for now." Jiminy Cricket said to his friends. "It's probably best we go see what we can learn from Cid back in the First District."

"Sounds good." Selphie finally said after taking her time to take in her world being gone because of the Heartless. "Then we can figure out how to really kick these Heartless to the curb!"

Sora, in complete agreement with Selphie, nodded, "Yeah, let's go!"

"Ah, hold on!" Donald held Sora back, however. "Sora, mind if me and Jimmy talk to you for a second?"

"Huh? About what?" He asked, getting pulled along towards the doorway.

"This will only take a minute, Sora." Jimmy could see what Donald was doing and went with him.

Though they left their party confused about what they were doing, the party shrugged and decided that they could wait on the trio. That being said, Donald pulled Sora onto the stairway before sitting right on the treasure chest like a chair. Jimmy basically stood next to him as they both faced the wielder of the Keyblade.

"What's the matter, guys?" He asked. "And what are all the serious looks about?"

Donald let out a sigh before asking the boy genius, "Do you want to start, or should I?"

"I'll take care of it." Jimmy assured him before clearing his throat. "Now, Sora, we're glad that a friend of yours survived your world being destroyed and that we got her to safety. However, having her join the party is something Donald and I are not sure we're okay with."

"Huh?" The islander blinked at this. "What do you mean? We can't just leave Selphie by herself! Besides, she can fight!"

"With what?" Donald asked.

"A… jump rope?" The moment Sora realized what he was saying out loud, he could tell that wasn't exactly a good answer. "I-I mean, she was really good with it whenever we sparred! Getting hit by it hurt!"

"Sora, no offense," the boy genius felt he had to be blunt on this one, "but sparring with jump rope is not much when compared to using your Keyblade. You've gotten stronger the more you fought with it, yes, but Selphie hasn't even gotten into fights, even since coming here. We've just been taking charge while she was behind us."

"But guys, we can't just–" Sora tried to argue, but it went unheard.

"Tarzan's an exception since he's an adult and he can fight." Donald said sternly. "We can't risk putting Selphie in danger. Do you understand?"

Sora didn't answer. He wanted to say no, but it wasn't like he could refute them at the moment.

"Look, if anything about this changes, we'll think about it." The boy genius told Sora. "For now, Selphie's in more danger just being with us than she was as Vlad's prisoner. We'll just have to find her a place to stay while we're here."

But would the others understand, Sora wondered. Would they share the same thoughts on this as Donald and Jimmy? What would Selphie think? Would she even react well to being left out? What could he tell her?

All the while, Selphie was just standing over near the mural, admiring the moon up close. Danny was standing right next to her, mainly so she wouldn't be lonely since Sora was busy talking with the duck and the boy with the cowlick. She seemed to like it, but the ghost boy wasn't the biggest art enthusiast. Still, he had to wonder who even painted something where it could practically be washed away by the water any time it starts to rain?

…Wait, COULD it rain in Traverse Town? Could it even be daytime here?

"So," Selphie finally spoke, making Danny snap out of his thoughts, "how much you wanna bet they're concerned about me sticking around and want to find me a place here while they go around having adventures in other worlds?"

"What makes you say that?" The halfa asked, though he did look away.

"C'mon, like I didn't notice the looks they would give each other from time to time or just trailing behind me like they think I can't hear." Sora's friend rolled her eyes. "They're using the idea that I was stuck in a cell back in Amity Park that I'm hardly capable of defending myself. Sora, being who he is, will probably go with the idea for a bit until something changes his mind or conveniently proves he was right to have me around. So, I'm just going to have to show a good reason for that, and that's always the easy part of convincing Sora."

"And you plan to accomplish this… how?" He asked, intrigued.

"Well, I hate to ask a favor, but…" She looked at him with puppy dog eyes. "Oh pwease, could you spawe some munny fow meee~?"

Danny just looked at her with half-lidded eyes and a raised eyebrow.

"...That's your plan?" He asked. "Asking me for money?"

"It's not like I got money myself at the moment." She replied, hanging her head low for a moment before looking up to try to convince the boy. "Besides, there's an item shop where we're going, right? It's bound to have a weapon just right for me."

"Wait, so all item shops in this universe can sell weapons without any issues?" The ghost boy blinked.

"Of course, obviously. Doesn't yours have weapons or armor to spare?" She asked back.

"...Uh… there's a long story involved with that."

The sound of barking then got their attention and made them look towards that doorway where Jimmy and Donald took Sora. Sure enough, Sora finally got to open that chest, and once more got a face full of happy Dalmatian puppies. The boy genius already went to work sending them back home with the Spotted Deck while the court wizard muttered under his breath about dogs. Selphie moaned, having missed a chance to pet more puppies. But with that, the group was ready to move on back to see Cid.

"And that just about makes 66 puppies left to find!" The sea sponge of course counted. "We're practically a third of the way there already!"

"Who Ansem?" Tarzan felt the need to ask; Selphie had to admit she was curious about that, too.

"Renowned researcher who was studying the Heartless in this universe before his world fell to ruin. In a way, he's similar to Professor Archimedes Porter." Jimmy explained. "I would love to have his reports on hand, but unfortunately Aerith said they were scattered and thus we don't have them on hand. That sets us back on dealing with the Heartless more efficiently, but the most we can do in that regard is continue fighting as we normally do."

"Oh, before we head to Cid's, why don't we go check on the Dalmatians and see how they're doin'?" Goofy suggested. "We've already collected about 33 of Pongo and Perdita's puppies, so it should be nice to see if things got any better."

Goddard barked in agreement, already running around Jimmy's legs to convince him. Of course, the boy genius couldn't resist his pet trying to be cute, so he shrugged in acceptance and figured there wasn't any harm. So, as they left the channel and returned to the alleyway, they went over towards the door to their left and went inside. The group found themselves in the house's den, where a couple of puppies were already doing their thing. Be it up in front of the nearby television, sitting on the sofa, or barking away at each other.

The puppies looked up to see who came in, but the moment they all saw Sora…

"Oh… Ooooooh noooo…" Despite what he said, Sora couldn't help the smile forming as he saw the dogs' tail-wagging increase in speed.

And just like that, the puppies immediately sprang into action, yipping and barking as they all rushed towards the boy who freed them. Of course, Sora wasn't taken by surprise this time and chuckled as they all rushed to his feet, trying to reach up to him. Apparently the noise was heard in the room just beyond the white door ahead of them next to the lamp with the conical lamp shade, and some curious taps were heard behind it. Selphie of course picked one up in her hands and let it lick her face.

"Aw, these puppies are just too precious~!" She cooed. "And you said that there's 99 of these adorable pooches in all?"

"Indeed, despite all laws of known biology stating that such an occurrence should be a complete impossibility." Jimmy said, a bit annoyed with the idea but unable to stay that way as he watched Goddard play with the puppies.

Of course, the party continued through the house, next going into the dining room. There was of course a dinner table with four chairs around it; two on one side, two on the other… and a few puppies just coming from underneath to see what the commotion was about. There was a pair of wine racks with five bottles of wine each just sitting at the left wall of the room near a desk with a potted flower atop it, and in the upper left corner was a large set of shelves with an abundance of fine glasses. And to the right wall were four more chairs and another large case with several drawers containing silverware of all shapes and sizes, topped by more shelves with more glasses. The puppies in that room were just as happy to see the crowd led by their savior and followed suit as they went into the next room.

The living room had a pretty relaxing atmosphere, with a fancy fireplace right in the center of the left wall beneath a golden portrait of Pongo and Perdita snuggling together. There was a sofa that a couple pups were sleeping under while another pup was just yawning on top of it. Across from it was a large blue table with a white and red table-cloth and across from that was a soft green armchair. There were also two puppies on top of a table near the door to the next room, playing a little bit close to another potted plant. But thankfully for the plant, the group ended up catching the puppies' attention and joined their brothers and sisters in the excitement.

Spongebob couldn't help but giggle as they even nuzzled against him.

"Aw, just look at these little guys, so happy to see us!" The fry cook scratched under one pup's chin. "Next to Gar-bear, I've never seen anything so cute in my entire life~."

"Hey Wanda, do you think we should get a dog?" Cosmo asked his wife.

"I don't know, Cosmo," Wanda told her husband, "the last time we had to deal with a dog, we had to save Timmy from getting fixed in Doidle's place. Besides, us having a dog probably wouldn't do us any favors. But so long as he's just a regular dog and doesn't make much noise, maybe… no, no, it would still be a bit too much responsibility for you, dear."

"Aw…" He of course was disappointed.

Upon getting all the happy barks of welcome, the party finally made it back to the familiar setting of the piano room, where Pongo and Perdita were already in better spirits as a puppy was jumping and barking at them. They were surprised to see someone coming in from inside their house, but they were happy to see it was none other than Sora, those other humans, the yellow square, and the robot dog from before. Not to mention they were amused by all the people clearly giving all the people a bunch of attention. Goddard greeted them with a bark, and both adult Dalmatians already got into a conversation with him as the puppies played. Watching this, Timmy ended up getting an idea.

"Hey Tarzan," the ten-year old boy looked to the jungle man, who just had a puppy in his arms, "you can understand animals, right? What do you think they're saying?"

"Tarzan can't say." Tarzan shook his head. "It rude to interrupt, Jane told."

After that, Goddard came back to the group with Pongo and Perdita as well. Pongo surprisingly pushed towards Sora a little present while the screen in Goddard's chest opened up. Curious, the Keyblade bearer picked up the box while the boy genius looked over the text being typed out.

"Hm, it appears that Pongo and Perdita are delighted to see their puppies again, even if it's not all of them just yet." Jimmy read from the screen. "So, as thanks for getting a third of their puppies back, Pongo and Perdita want to give Sora a few gifts since their puppies said it was him who let them out."

"Gifts? For me?" The islander was surprised and flattered to hear that.

With that, he opened the box to see what was inside. To his surprise, it was about three gummi blocks! With that, Gadget popped out of his hair and got to examining them. She saw they were, in order, a Curaga-G, a Firaga-G, and a Thundara-G. All of which were very decent gummi blocks that could upgrade the Kingdom's performance when they would get installed. With that, Sora put the gummi blocks away and pet Pongo and Perdita's hands, more than grateful for the present.

But of course, they had to leave and continue on towards Cid's, so they bid farewell to the Dalmatians and promised to find the others for them. After some soft head pats and coos from Selphie, they went through the front door and back into the Second District, where they of course dealt with the Heartless on the way there, collecting more munny and items. Selphie especially took to the munny that was left behind before it went and disappeared. Though that begged the question…

"Hey Jimmy," Spongebob asked, "why is it that whenever we beat the Heartless, the stuff they leave behind disappears after a while?"

"That… is a very good question of which I'm sure there's an answer." Jimmy had to admit, he didn't get that yet either. "Perhaps the Heartless have this failsafe mechanism to prevent their enemies from salvaging anything from them that could prove useful."

"What, so Heartless are robots now?" Timmy snarked.

"Alien biology is often strange." The boy genius replied. "Plus it's not like we can really dissect one of these Heartless to figure them out."

"I'd rather not think about seeing the inside of one of those things, thanks." Danny deadpanned.

"Us neither." Sora, Donald, Gadget, Spongebob, and Selphie all agreed.

They made it back to the First District, mainly relieved to finally not have to deal with the Heartless for a bit. Of course, while most of the party went towards the Accessory Shop, Selphie went away from the group to head towards the Item Shop. Sora noticed this and asked where Selphie was going.

"Don't worry, just figuring I could get some stuff for the road ahead." She answered. "I'll probably catch up when you guys are done."

"O-Okay, if you say so." He accepted that. Then once he saw her just go into the item shop, he sighed and looked at the duck and the boy with the cowlick, "Are you guys really sure she can't come with us? It's clear she's intent on helping out."

"Remember, Sora, she can't fight and we can't risk putting her in danger." The boy genius reminded him.

With that, the party went into the accessory shop… except for Tarzan. He seemed to be looking at the item shop with curiosity plain as day on his face. But with the bulk of the party, they went up to the desk and watched as Cid was, quite conveniently, already working on Jimmy's Portable UPM. He apparently had his goggles over his eyes as he was handling a part of it with a screwdriver. He put them up and looked satisfied, having succeeded at what he did. Then he noticed the group before him and greeted them.

"Glad to see ya, boys. Looks like you've all been busy." Cid said. "I've been at work with Jimmy's device here. Managed to get that fried circuit fixed, but it apparently still needs some fine tuning to get back up to snuff. Might need some getting used to the gummi blocks bein' used for it. But I'm optimistic I can get it finished in a few hours."

"Wow, really?" Jimmy was surprised to hear that. "That's… actually quite impressive. Good to hear, Cid. But we're here for something else right now."

"What've you got there?" Cid asked as Jimmy and Donald placed something on his desk. Of course, he recognized the two items instantly. "Hey! Well if it ain't a couple of gummi blocks. Speak of the Hades."

"Yup." Donald nodded. But then he caught onto that last part, "Hey wait a minute, how do you know Ha–"

"What's this one for?" Goofy asked, making Donald grumble at being cut off.

At that, Cid looked just about gobsmacked and exclaimed, "You're kiddin' me! You're flyin' a gummi ship and you don't know nothin' about navigation gummis? Not even your mechanic?"

Gadget cleared her throat, looking sheepish as she hid behind a bit of Sora's hair. Cid couldn't help but facepalm at this.

"Bunch of pinheads. Interspace ain't no playground." Cid grumbled.

"There's a lot we don't know. So what!" The Keybearer rebutted, a bit offended at the man's harsh words while also trying to comfort Gadget.

"Well, to be fair, we haven't exactly settled on whether it's 'Gummi' with a capital G or not, like if it's either 'Gummi Ship' or just the normal 'gummi ship'." Spongebob pointed out. "But I'm sure somebody will help us figure that out."

No one seemed to pay attention to that.

"We have to use the gummi ship to go to other worlds." Sora continued, even showing off his latest Keyblade, the Ecto-Exterminator, for emphasis. "We don't have a choice."

"Woah, easy." Cid held up a hand to calm him down. "I didn't know. No hard feelings, all right?"

"Could've used a bit more tact in that case, then." Danny crossed his arms.

Scratching his head, the gummi expert told them, "Fine, I guess I could lend y'all a hand then."

"Thanks." The islander accepted that, at least.

Cid then cleared his throat, noting that Jimmy was already pulling out a notepad to take notes while Gadget popped out of Sora's hair to pay attention as he began to explain, "Basically, with navigation gummies, you can go to new places. You want one on your ship, right?"

The group nodded in confirmation. Being able to get to more worlds, as well as being able to get back to the worlds in the other universe that still need saving, would definitely benefit them on their quest.

"I'll install it for you." Cid told them. "Normally this'd be no charge, but I got this thing I gotta go deliver first."

"What do you need to deliver?" Timmy asked.

Cid then pulled something out from under the counter. It appeared to be an old book, somewhat dusty and had seen better days. The cover was white while framed as a portrait with a light brown border that also made up the spine and back of the book. It appeared to be sealed shut thanks to a gold latch with a keyhole. Oddly, there seemed to be no title or picture to show what it was about.

"Just this book." Cid pushed it over to them with Spongebob picking up the book and looking it over. "It's real old. When the guy brought it in, it was practically falling apart. Too beat up to restore it to the way it was. But overall, I did a decent job puttin' it back together. Still, it's missin' a few pages though and the key for it got lost somewhere."

"What a shame." The fry cook said as he wiped some dust off of the cover. "A book like this seems pretty unique."

"Do you mind deliverin' it for me?" The middle-aged man asked. "It's the old house past the Third District. Look for a big fire sign."

"Third District, big fire sign, old house…" Jiminy Cricket was also writing the details down in his journal. "Should be easy enough to find."

Suddenly, the ground rumbled and shook! Everyone struggled to keep standing as they were taken by surprise. Then if that weren't enough, a loud ringing sounded in their ears. Though they managed to avoid falling on their backsides, their eardrums were nearly bursting as the sound echoed around them. They nursed their ears once the sound finally died down.

"Wh-What was that?" Sora had to ask after that.

Cid let out a peculiar hum as he answered, "The bell at the gizmo shop is ringing."

"The gizmo shop?" The halfa echoed. "You mean that place in the Second District that was out of power and had dozens of Shadows just coming at us wave after wave?"

"Oh yeah, weirdly the most colorful place around here." Cosmo recalled. "Seriously, most of this place is usually just red roofs and gray bricks."

"Feel free to check it out if you want, but deliver that book for me, first." The gummi expert told them, ignoring the fairy. "When you're done, stop by the house in the Third District. I'll be there."

"You got it!" Sora gave a thumbs up.

Of course, as the party exited the Accessory Shop, the boy genius couldn't help but remark to his allies, "I'm actually impressed Cid even managed to get as far as he is with my invention."

"Pretty stunning someone can handle your genius, huh?" Gadget couldn't help but tease.

"Ha hah, very funny." Jimmy rolled his eyes as Goddard played a sitcom laugh track right on cue. "But anyhow, let's go see about this delivery. Cid said we should find this old house behind a sign with fire on it. Considering how small the Third District is in comparison to the First and Second, we should be able to find it easily."

"Hey, uh… where's Tarzan?" Goofy just noticed something was off about their number.

"Hey guys, we're back!"

Selphie's voice was followed by her coming up to the group alongside Tarzan, whom they noticed was holding a new weapon in hand. It appeared to be a more modern lance in comparison to his original handmade spear, made with more metal and steel than wood and rock. That being said, the steel also seemed to split between colors along the length. Just under the sharp, steel point, the pole had a green section before that was followed by a silver section. The section Tarzan's hand held was the longest one, colored red, before the bottom section returned to silver and was tipped orange. Either way, he seemed satisfied with what he had got.

"Oh! Tarzan, you got a new weapon? That looks neat!" Spongebob admired the handiwork. "What is it?"

"It called 'Slash Lance'." Tarzan explained, holding it out so they could see. "It on sale in Item Shop. Selphie help buy it for Tarzan."

"Selphie did?" Sora, Donald, and Jimmy all asked at once.

"Yep, sure did." The girl in question nodded. "And I got something for myself too~"

Selphie showed off her own purchase: a pair of peculiar nunchaku. The handles were blue, but were tipped black on both ends and connected by a black chain. On their other tips were spiked metal balls to hit enemies with. She then swung them around with expert skill and precision, further surprising the trio.

"This one's called the Morning Star." She said, "Figured since fighting with a jump rope wouldn't help, I could get an actual weapon. Thankfully with the munny I picked up from all those Heartless you beat up on the way here from the second district, I could afford this and a new weapon for Tarzan."

"Wait, so you're telling me the boys can also sell more than just staves and shields?" Donald was aghast at this revelation.

"I mean, it's an item shop, why wouldn't they?" Selphie found it weird that she was asked something similar just a while ago from Danny.

Danny felt it probably wasn't best that he should mention he did give in and gave her some of the munny he got in the midst of fighting.

"Selphie, are you sure you should've spent munny on that?" The boy genius asked. "I mean, if you want to fight, you have got to know that this is more dangerous than it looks–"

"I sparred with Sora and Riku often, just like Tidus and Wakka." Selphie cut him off. "Trust me. Next time we run into some Heartless, you're going to see just what I can really do~."

The boy genius and the wizard weren't entirely sure about that. After all, Selphie had been mostly staying back up until this point since coming to Traverse Town. Was she trying to prove she could be helpful now that she was with Sora? At first they thought their problem was trying to convince Sora otherwise. Now it appeared trying to convince her otherwise would be the more difficult one.

But with no way to do it now, they had no choice but to continue onto the Third District. With the doorway there thankfully unlocked, they made their way to the Third District without any real issue… up until the usual round of Heartless appeared. Soldiers, Red Nocturnes and Air Soldiers of course made up the bulk of them with no Large Bodies assisting them. That was when Tarzan and Selphie's new weapons came into play. The jungle man's skill with a spear continued to shine, but the improved Slash Lance had increased the damage he inflicted and even let him take down multiple Heartless at once. No need to worry about him, they could tell.

While our heroes were worried about how Selphie would handle them, to their shock, there was no need for them to do so. Despite what Sora told them about her skill with a jump rope back on Destiny Island, Selphie used her nunchakus with more than incredible ease on the Heartless. Whacking them across their faces with the spiked balls and lashing them out a long distance with the chains to take out Heartless that were further away. She even proved to be a most agile dodger, easily evading kicks, slashes, and fireballs aplenty. In no time, the monsters she faced were nothing but smoke and materials.

Sora was definitely the most surprised by this, asking Selphie, "Selphie. Were you… always this strong? I mean, every time we sparred…"

His friend giggled and patted his shoulder, telling him, "Oh Sora, did you really think I wasn't holding back that entire time?"

"But, you always asked me to not hold back…"

"Because it would be too easy otherwise." She explained. "Why else would the jump rope hurt as much as it did? The only reason Riku beat me whenever we sparred was because he's been training more than you have back then."

Sora still remained a bit gobsmacked at this influx of new information. So Selphie was in fact holding back the entire time, and Riku was stronger than her then? Meaning the times he actually did win against Riku were pure luck? Well, that was an eye opener. But then again, seeing as he had been fighting with the Keyblade, he was stronger too. Maybe they could spar again sometime to see how strong she really was.

"...Well, guess we can't complain about her coming then." Jimmy admitted to Donald.

"Guess not." Donald replied, feeling awkward.

"Oh hey, there's the sign!" Gadget pointed to the alleyway nearby.

And indeed, at the end of that alley was a doorway with the doorframe coated in runes, and a brown wooden door with a more than obvious stylized flame emblazoned on the door. Yet there didn't seem to be any doorknob or lock for Sora's Keyblade to handle. From the outset, it appeared that there was no proper way to open it. But it didn't take long for at least one of them to come up with a solution.

"This might be a mechanism requiring an elemental trigger." The boy genius considered. "Sora, see if you can activate the Keyblade's flamethrower function on this door."

"You mean cast a Fire spell?" He asked.

"Again, hardly magic." The expected response came and made most of the party roll their eyes at this point. "Just use fire to get the door open."

With a shrug, Sora aimed his Keyblade at the door and cast Fire upon it. The moment he did and the fire hit the door, it was not set alight, but the fire sign began blinking, and then moved upward, revealing the way inside. The party went in, going down a long, cavernous path, eventually coming to a larger area nearly engulfed in water. In the middle of this watery room was a small island with a stone house sitting right atop it. The house had a balcony and awnings that resembled the curls of a beard, with a chimney resembling a pipe and tipped with a wooden caricature of an owl flipping about in the wind. The house's roof and third story was designed in the form of a large, pink wizard's hat with a couple umbrellas sticking out of it.

The way there had no set path outside of a few large rocks that seemed to move about in the water.

"Wow, that place sure looks fancy!" Cosmo commented on it. "Kinda looks like a few places back home!"

"There's a lot of swimming involved in this visit, isn't there?" Spongebob couldn't help but sound a little despondent.

"If you'd like to learn, I could try teaching you how to swim, Spongebob." Sora suggested.

"Oh, you would?" Spongebob was pleasantly surprised to hear that. "Now that would be fantastic, Sora! Thank you!"

"Not right now though, guys." Danny told them as he picked up Spongebob. "Let's just go see who we gotta deliver this old book to."

With that, as Danny flew Spongebob over, the others began putting their jumping skills to work again along the rocks. Fortunately, even with more than a few stumbles on Goofy's part, they managed to get onto the other side after helping each other along. But to their surprise, when they went to enter the house, they found that the front door was barred with wooden planks and even barely covered by an old piece of pink cloth. So how were they supposed to get in now? It wasn't as though they could find a back door somewhere, could they?

"Oh hey, there's a way in here!" Selphie discovered one.

Just a few steps around the left of the front door, and there was indeed a section of the stone house that was broken apart, and only a green, aged curtain acting as a makeshift door. Well, a pseudo-door they could get through was better than one they couldn't go through at all. So, they all went inside. However, it turned out the inside of the house was completely empty! Nothing but more stone, plus some central stand in the middle of the room that too was empty. Not one sign of life, much less any sign of someone expecting a book. Just an old, musty room.

"Alright, this is creepy now with no one here." Timmy commented as they looked around. "You think whoever lived here didn't tell Cid they were leaving and forgot about getting their book back?"

"Hm… it just might be the case. Rather disappointing, but there is nothing much we can do about it." The boy genius sighed. "We better go tell Cid the bad news."

"Aw, here I was eager to meet somebody new." The sea sponge was also disappointed. "But we probably shouldn't overstay our welcome here, or else we'll look like squatters. What do you think, Sora? …Sora?"

But the lack of response from their first ally in this universe drove the original quartet to look towards the Keyblade bearer in question. Once more, like in Deep Jungle, he seemed to be staring at nothing, deaf to the world around him. Once was confusing enough, but for it to happen twice was enough to give them concern. They tried looking at that same spot, but they didn't find anything worth noticing. Just more stone bricks.

Sora started reaching out to something, mumbling something to himself.

"Sora?"

Goofy's question suddenly got the boy's attention, with him seeing the duck and dog both having confusion on their faces. Then when he turned around, he looked surprised to see nothing there.

"Hey, Sora, are you alright?" Selphie asked him with concern. "You just seemed to zone out at the wall there."

"Uh, yeah… Yeah, I'm alright, don't worry." Sora told her, but the group could tell something was off.

"You sure?" The halfa asked. "This isn't exactly the first time this happened to you."

"It's not?" Donald, Goofy, Jiminy and even Selphie asked at the same time.

"Yeah." Timmy nodded. "When we first met Tarzan, he was distracted by something he thought he saw behind him. But nothing was there."

"Wait, so you guys didn't…?" Sora looked to his first four friends on this adventure, looking surprised they noticed something like that.

"Sorry, Sora, but whatever you thought you saw, we didn't, and we were there," Jimmy told him, Goddard shaking his head next to him, "just like now. Perhaps if you could explain what you saw, we could deduce what is going on sooner rather than later."

"Or perhaps his obsessive need to find his friends has made him delusional." Desiree's voice spoke sardonically again from the ring.

"Hey! None of that talk, miss genie ghost!" Spongebob didn't approve of her attitude. "This is serious."

"Well, well."

Rather suddenly, shockingly even, an aged voice cut off any further progress into Sora's peculiar situation. Our heroes looked to see none other than an elderly man with pale skin and thin arms and legs. His nose was a bit large and his black eyes were rather small and close-set. He wore spectacles with circular lenses. He seemed to be balding and had short, white hair on the sides and back of his head. He also had bushy eyebrows, a walrus mustache, and a long, floor-length beard, all of which were white.

He was dressed in a sky blue cloak that stopped just above his ankles and had large, hanging sleeves. He wore pointed slippers and a tall, floppy, conical hat, both of which were the same sky blue color as his cloak. In his left hand was a very obvious wand; a very long, featureless, brown rod with a small bump on one end. In the other was an old-fashioned, orange briefcase with yellow handles and openings. The man seemed to pull off the very picture of a typical fantasy wizard.

"You've arrived sooner than I expected." The man spoke as he looked from Sora to the rest of our heroes as they stared at him. "And in such a large band, too! Goodness, this is quite the surprise."

"Wha… You knew we were coming?" The Keyblade bearer asked as he went towards the wise figure.

"But of course." The man confirmed as everyone else also approached him. "Admittedly, I was expecting you to be a little late coming here, what with all that business in other worlds about you."

"Are you… a Heartless?" escaped Sora's lips.

"Sora, look at the guy." Danny deadpanned. "No yellow eyes. No attacking you on sight. You REALLY think he's a Heartless?"

The islander sheepishly chuckled at Danny bringing up the obvious. Selphie had to giggle. Even with that weird bit of him zoning out, he was still being clueless as usual. She could live with that.

The man appeared amused by the idea as well and answered, "Oh, my. No. Least, I should hope not. Ahem. My name is Merlin. As you can see, I am a sorcerer. I spend much of my time traveling. It's good to be home here in Zero District."

"Woah woah woah!" Timmy exclaimed as he heard his name. "Merlin? THE Merlin? Like, 'Sword-in the-Stone-helps-Arthur-Pendragon-become-king' Merlin?"

"Why yes, that's correct." The man, Merlin, nodded. "You're certainly well-learned, aren't you?"

"...more like I had a bit of experience with this sort of situation before, long story." The average kid explained, his fairies also looking surprised by the appearance of this man.

Jimmy too was gaping at this man. Merlin, the mythological sorcerer from the legend of the sword in the stone? He was real in this universe, too? He shouldn't be so surprised about that, all things considered, but still, he was utterly flabbergasted to see such a renowned figure here. And one that supposedly exemplifies the one thing he would try to disprove: magic.

"Anyhow, your king has requested my help." The wizard directed his gaze to Donald and Goofy.

"King Mickey?" The knight-captain was surprised to hear that.

"Yes, indeed." Merlin nodded. "Donald, Goofy. And who might the rest of you be?"

"Oh, I'm Spongebob Squarepants, Mr. Merlin sir!" Spongebob happily greeted.

"Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius." Next greeted Jimmy, though he kept a suspicious eye on the wizard.

"Timmy Turner, with two mag– er… Fairy Programs, Cosmo and Wanda." Timmy introduced him and his wish-granters, though keeping their cover in front of most of the party.

"Danny Phantom. Ghostly superhero." The halfa greeted.

"Selphie Tilmitt." Sora's friend spun in place with a wink and pose.

"Tarzan." The jungle man was simple.

"And I'm Sora." The Keybearer finished off.

"Desiree, if anyone even cares about that at this point." The ghost genie commented, getting Merlin's attention while also making most of the party who knew her jump.

"Hm… That's something we'll have to talk about sooner or later." He noted before clearing his throat. "Ahem. Anyhow, it seems the key has been found, and with quite a bit of company by your side."

"What did the king ask you to do?" Donald asked, trying to avoid looking back at Sora's ring finger.

"Just a moment…" The wizard told them before approaching the stone stand. "I'll just need to unpack my things and have the study set up. Shouldn't be but a minute or two, you know."

"Wait, how exactly are you…?" The boy from Retroville asked as the sorcerer went up the stairs and stood right in the center of the stand, setting his bag down on the floor.

Clearing his throat, Merlin thus began by somehow opening his bag with but a mere couple of taps from his wand.

"Higitus figitus zumbakazing," he began, momentarily getting his beard tangled in the wand just before getting that undone, "I want your attention, everything."

The bag seemed to rustle before opening up with golden sparkles.

"We're settling in now. Come on, let's go." Merlin told whatever was in the bag. When he noticed a sugar bowl trying to poke out with a spoon, he sternly told it, "No, no, not you. Furniture always comes first, you know."

And just like that, objects that appeared small began floating out of the bag, one by one, began to grow in size and started settling into the room. Be they the likes of tables, bookcases and books, silverware and pottery, and all manner of things. Everyone else was watching this in awe while Jimmy was trying to rationalize everything that he was seeing before him. Goddard's jaw even literally dropped by falling off its hinges with a metallic thud. Merlin was too busy getting everything unpacked to really notice.

"Hockety pockety wockety wack," the wizard continued,

"Abra cabra dabra nack,
Expand in size, big and tall,
There's plenty of space and room for all.

Higitus figitus migitus mum,

Prestidigitorium!"

"This… This can't be possible." Jimmy still was in denial as the silverware began expanding next. "There has to be a rational explanation. There has to be!"

"Jimmy, you're looking at Merlin the Wizard, the guy who knows magic like the back of his hand, actually working magic before your eyes without any tricks up his sleeve." Timmy told him. "Seriously, after dealing with the likes of Olympus and magic being constant here, just accept it already."

"To be fair, the Merlin we know was kind of a con artist." Wanda pointed out to her godchild.

"Not to mention a mooch." Cosmo didn't like that memory. "We had to kick him out of our goldfish bowl so he could find his own gig instead of living off our fish food!"

"Cosmo, we just pretend to be goldfish, we don't actually eat fish food." His wife told him.

"Maybe you don't." His response made her facepalm.

"Alakafez, balakazez," Merlin continued as the line of expanding belongings got bigger,

"Malakamez meripides,

Hockety pockety wockety... What?!"

Just then, he suddenly had the entire line come to a complete stop, with everyone ducking to avoid anything potentially falling on them. What was the reason for this, one may ask? Why, none other than that rather impatient sugar bowl that tried cutting in line before a tea set.

"Now, stop, stop, stop, stop." The sorcerer marched over towards the sugar bowl and lectured it. "See here, sugar bowl! You're getting rough! That poor old tea set is cracked enough."

And with that, Merlin went back into position, although the sugar bowl did spitefully hit the teapot with its spoon.

"Now, let's start again." He went to continue, but then he found himself forgetting where he was. "Let's start aga… oh… where was I?"

"Um, something about hot pockets?" Spongebob guessed.

"Oh, I'd love a hot pocket right now." Goofy rubbed his stomach at that.

"Uh… hockety pockety?" Danny helped.

"Oh, yes, yes, that's right," With that, Merlin continued,

"Hockety pockety wockety wack,

Odds and ends and bric a brac~

I'll be with you in a minute, sons! Unpacking is nearly done."

"Woah, look out!" Selphie ducked, avoiding a large and old-fashioned desk. "Bigger stuff incoming!"

"How much there…?" Tarzan couldn't help but wonder.

"Uh, Mr. Merlin, sir?" Spongebob kept to the ground so he could avoid breaking stuff that was coming out. "Are you sure you can fit all this in such a small space?"

"Fret not, everything's nearly set!" Merlin assured the sea sponge.

"Dum goo-dily doo-dily doo-dily dum~

This is the best part, now!

Higitus figitus migitus mum

Prestidigitonium

Higitus figitus migitus mum

Prestidigitonium!"

And with that last note, Merlin jumped and sat right back down in a waiting armchair with wooden arms and pink cushions, sitting before a set table coated in a white tablesheet, and an already prepared cup of tea waiting for him. The whole group looked around in amazement. The room was now practically full of things, be it a telescope set near one window, bottles and beakers filled with all sorts of concoctions, piles of of books all stacked on each other, a work desk with old blueprints and old-fashioned rockets and steam engines, a prepared bed with but one book upon it, a pipe along the wall connecting from the floor to the ceiling, a chalkboard with the alphabet written in different formats, and so on. It was breathtaking just how Merlin managed to turn what was once an empty room into a full and bustling study.

"There, now." Merlin mused as he had sipped some of his tea. "Anyway, your king asked me to train you in the art of magic. We can start anytime you like. Simply let me know when you're ready to begin the training."

"Magic training? Awesome!" Timmy liked the sound of that. "This would be perfect for us to get a better handle on our skills then!"

"But some of us don't even USE magic, Timmy." The ghost boy reminded the average kid. "Plus, someone's still a skeptic."

"But.. I… no.. how…?" Jimmy was still coming to grips.

"Oh, and one more thing." Merlin recalled something else and looked towards one corner of the room. "Might I direct you to that little carriage over there?"

"Carriage?" Sora echoed as they all looked.

By the way they came in, there was indeed a small carriage, and quite a fanciful one. A horse-drawn coach, in fact. It appeared rather pumpkin shaped. In the light illuminated by the one torch in the room, most of the coach from the main body to even the wheels appeared green. The frame on the door, the sigil of a stylized C, the night lantern, and the tip of the coach appeared gold, and there was a window in the door drawn with open red curtains.

At first, it seemed nothing special. However, then blue sparkles appeared in the air before they gathered upon that coach. And then, in a flash of light, the coach had transformed into a woman. In fact, a rotund, elderly woman with gray hair, pale skin, and a long, white wand. She dressed in a lavender cloak with a hood and a pink interior. She also wore a pink bow just under her neck, and she had a pleasant smile on her face. She appeared to give off the vibe of a welcoming grandmother.

"Hello there, dears." She greeted them with kindness. "I'm the Fairy Godmother. Your king asked me to help, too. Like Merlin, I will assist throughout your journey."

"THE Fairy Godmother? From Cinderella?" The average kid asked with his eyes bugging out as his fairies looked equally amazed.

"Working with a competent Merlin the wizard?" Wanda too couldn't believe her eyes.

"Wow! Who knew this day would be chock full of surprises?" Cosmo figured. "Hey, let's go talk to her! Fairy Godmother to Fairy God–"

Wanda quickly covered Cosmo's mouth before he blurted out their big secret.

"Now, I do not know how much we can be of help," the wizard said to the party, "but do stop by anytime. There is much about the world of magic to discover."

"Maybe you can start by helping us convince Jimmy here magic is an actual thing and basically stop him from over-rationalizing everything?" Donald commented, looking at the boy genius.

"But absolutely nothing here makes any sense whatsoever!" The boy from Retroville had to defend himself. "He had to have used some kind of shrink ray to make all this fit into his bag! Something in his 'wand' had to trigger some kind of reverse effect! This–"

"Ah, I see." Merlin chuckled at this. "You're a young man of a very scientific mind, aren't you?"

Clearing his throat at this, Jimmy replied, "That I am, Merlin 'the wizard'. And no offense, but this magic business is–"

"Now, now, young lad, I'm not here to bully you into believing magic is real." The sorcerer politely interrupted. "If anything, I'm glad that you don't actually need to rely on magic in order to move forward. Now, hardly bragging on my part, I assure you, but even if I'm a powerful wizard, soothsayer, prognosticator, and able to see the future centuries ahead of our time– even being there, that hardly means magic is an absolute necessity. After all, a proper education involves mathematics, history, biology, social science, English, Latin, French–"

"Merlin dear, you're rambling again." The Fairy Godmother politely cut him off with a tease.

"Er, well, yes, ah, ahem." Merlin sheepishly cleared his throat. "Anyhow, James, was it? If you're interested, I need not teach you magic, but rather on other things. After all, it's not like magic is the be-all, end-all of knowledge people make it out to be."

"Oh…" Jimmy was actually surprised by this. Rather than just continue this whole line of 'magic actually exists', this Merlin would rather see him learn in other, more logical methods? That was pretty reasonable. At the very least Merlin wouldn't get on his case about his more scientific approach. "That would actually be preferable, sir."

"Oh, no need for that 'sir' bit." The old wizard chuckled at this. "Just plain old 'Merlin' will do."

"Uh, s– ah, Merlin? Not to detract from this conversation, but," Spongebob then came up to the wizard and pulled out the old book Cid handed to them, "we were actually asked by Cid over at the Accessory Shop to come deliver this to you."

"Oh, that book…" Merlin took the book and adjusted his glasses, looking it over. "Thank you for bringing this, young man. I trust you wish to know what kind of book it is?"

"Oh yeah!" The fry cook eagerly nodded. "That would answer so many questions!"

The knowledgeable sorcerer frowned as he replied, "Sadly, I don't even know, myself. In fact, it's not mine. Somehow, it found its way into my bag one day. It was such a curious book, I asked Cid to repair it for me. Well, I guess I'll put it here somewhere, for now."

Merlin then used his magic to have the book float in the air, continuing as he placed it on the nightstand near the head of his bed, "This book holds a great secret. The missing pages will unlock it. Wherever they are, I'm sure you'll find them and put them back in place. My best regards to Cid for repairing it for me."

"Alright, that kind of explains a bit about the book… I guess." The halfa figured. "But we also got these stones from our adventures, plus this one we got from Leon. Can you tell us about them?"

"Oh, I'm afraid I'm not the expert when it comes to those, lad." Merlin sheepishly chuckled. "You should ask the Fairy Godmother about that."

"Not exactly providing much in terms of answers, is he?" The buck-toothed child muttered under his breath.

"Timmy, don't be rude. He's trying his best here." Selphie told him off.

"More than the Merlin we know of, though that's not saying much," Wanda concurred.

Seeing that at least someone could give an answer to what the gems were about, the group went over towards the Fairy Godmother next. Sora and Jimmy held out the ones they had collected for her to see.

"Do you know what these are?" The Keyblade bearer asked.

"Oh, the poor things!" The kindly old woman had a sad look on her face. "They have been turned into summon gems."

"Summon gems?" The boy genius asked.

"These little creatures lived in worlds that were consumed by darkness." She explained. "When a world vanishes, so do its inhabitants. But these all had such strong hearts, they became gems instead of vanishing with their worlds."

"Oh dear. That's a shame they couldn't have escaped their worlds' destruction…" Jiminy Cricket said with sympathy.

"Can they regain themselves?" Gadget asked.

"Yes, but only their spirits. Now, watch!" She answered, though she also muttered, "Good thing I kept it out instead of hiding it so I wouldn't forget…"

And with a wave of her wand, she chanted, "Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!"

And in a flash of sparkles, the gems all began to glow and float in the air. Then they shot right inside Sora's chest! Taken by surprise, the islander felt up his chest to feel if he had any holes. Somehow, he did not. Naturally, everyone else with him was confused as well.

"Uh… what just happened?" Danny asked.

"Yeah? What happened with the gems?" Spongebob asked as well. "Are they gone?"

"Oh, they're not gone, dears." The Fairy Godmother giggled. "They're now part of Sora's heart and his magic. Whenever he calls, they will help you. Now, if you find any more of these, bring them to me. And don't worry, when their worlds are restored they will return there. Please help save them."

"Don't worry, we will." Sora nodded, getting pretty used to the idea of magic quick.

"Now, you'd best go see Cid before going anywhere else." Merlin reminded the lot. "I trust that he and the others have something important to tell you."

"We did take care of the delivery for him, so that's fair." Gadget said. "He said he and the others would be at that house over in the Third District, right?"

"Thanks for having us, Merlin!" Selphie told the mage as the group began to leave. "Hope to see you again, Miss Fairy Godmother!"

"Safe travels, now!" The kindly old woman waved back as they went.

"And we'll be back with those pages, too!" The sea sponge added.

So with that, upon leaving the house, our heroes decided to make their way back to the Third District. Of course, they also found that there were a couple chests nearby. One atop a stack of three boxes and one on a floating rock far off to the side of the area. Danny of course used his powers to get those chests closer, and so Sora unlocked them. One appeared to be another peculiar item, and the other, well…

"Aw, they're still so adorable!" Selphie cooed as three more puppies covered Sora's face.

"Wow, 63 puppies left to find!" Spongebob counted. "We're really making good time on these little guys."

"So many spots! Spots everywhere!" Sora laughed between getting licked.

Of course, Jimmy used the Spotted Deck to once again send the puppies back home, and so they continued moving right along. Heading back into the Third District, the group was suddenly ambushed by a pair of Soldier Heartless and prepared for another fight. But then, the Heartless were easily destroyed from behind by someone else! Sora and Selphie gasped in surprise at the figure before them. A boy of 15 years with pale skin, bright blue-green eyes, and silver hair.

He wore a vest that had a yellow collar and was yellow in the front and black on the sides and back. The vest had two black crisscrossing straps that went over his chest and on his upper back that were trimmed with white and had a white stud on each end. Just above each of his wrists were tight black bracelets and on his hands were black and gray gloves that reached just to the base of his thumb. He wore a black belt with a silver rectangular buckle high on his waist which secured his dark blue-gray pants. His pants were mostly covered by blue wading pants held up by black straps almost identical to the ones on his vest, except they were each layered and had more studs, as well as not being crisscrossed. The wading pants were tightened at the ankle with small black belts. His shoes were white and blue, with some yellow strings on the inner sides, some of which criss-crossed each other. The shoes each had two black straps with white trim and gray soles. And in his right hand was a falchion-esque sword, with a red, purple and blue blade shaped like a demonic wing. Its handle bore a blue eye, and the handle itself consisted of dark braids.

With a swing, the boy greeted Sora with, "There you are. What's going on?"

Sora and Selphie couldn't believe their eyes. Could it be…?

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed, moving towards the boy…

…And trying to stretch his mouth to see if he was real.

And of course to prove it, the other boy, Riku, got Sora's hands off, telling him, "Hey, hey, cut it out."

"I'm not dreaming this time, right?" The spiky-haired boy asked.

"I hope not." His friend replied, brushing his hair back. "Took forever to find you."

"It's great to see you again, Riku!" Selphie of course came up next to Sora, happy to see him.

"Hey, Selphie! You're here too!" Riku was happy to see two of his friends.

Watching this interaction, the rest of our heroes couldn't help but feel happy that Sora managed to find another of his friends in almost a record time. Spongebob especially. After all, a friend of Sora's was sure to be a friend of theirs. And with the way Riku beat those Heartless, he was sure to be a dependable ally!

…His weapon was a bit spooky there, but he was sure they could handle that.

"Wait a second," The party heard Sora ask Riku as they went into the center of the district, "where's Kairi?"

Riku, looking surprised, asked back, "Isn't she with you? I mean, Selphie is, so…"

Selphie sadly shook her head, telling him, "Sadly, no. So far, Sora was the only one from home I found… or who found me, I guess."

But even after hearing that bit of sad news, Riku didn't seem too phased.

"Well, don't worry." He assured them as he walked past them. "I'm sure she made it off the island, too. We're finally free. Hey, she might even be looking for us now."

But as the group was watching him talk, they didn't seem to notice a Shadow starting to rise from the ground, slowly approaching them. Then Tarzan's nose began to twitch…

"We'll all be together again soon." Riku continued, apparently unaware of the coming threat. "Don't worry. Just leave everything to me. I know this–"

"Sora!"

Just then, Tarzan called out Sora's name, and the Keyblade bearer quickly turned and cut the Shadow down just as it tried to attack him from behind! Riku turned back in surprise to see Sora having done it with the Keyblade in hand. Danny and Jimmy took note of Riku's expression, of the shock that was hidden in his eyes. He really didn't expect Sora would be capable of something like this.

Sora then turned back and held his Keyblade over his shoulder with pride, asking, "Leave it to who?"

"Hoo boy, there's the competitive attitude again." The human girl on the team giggled at this.

Riku, still a bit surprised, walked up to his friend and asked, "Sora, what did you–?"

"I've been looking for you and Kairi, too," the islander explained, also gesturing to his allies, "with their help."

It seemed as though Riku finally took notice of everyone else with Sora and Selphie, and Danny could tell from the look on his face that he didn't seem too impressed… or perhaps he had less than good feelings about them being there? He also noted that Riku's gaze seemed to be focused on him more than the others. What was it? The whole matching hair thing? It's not like they met before until now.

"...Who are they?" Riku finally asked, though a hint of concern was there in his voice. Too bad it went unnoticed for the most part.

"Ahem." Donald cleared his throat to start. "My name is–"

"We've visited so many places and worlds, looking for you." Sora cut the court wizard off in his eagerness to talk to his friend, making the mallard grumble.

"Really?" Riku sounded a little skeptical. "What do you know? I never would have guessed."

"Sora!" Spongebob spoke up and admonished his friend. "You know it's rude to cut people off when they're introducing themselves! Here, let me do that." The fry cook then came up and shook Riku's hand, telling him, "Hi, I'm Spongebob Squarepants! Any friend of Sora and Selphie's is a friend of mine!"

Not exactly prepared to actually interact with these other people, apparently, he replied, "Uh, sure. Glad you think so."

"And these are our friends, and hopefully yours too!" Spongebob gestured to the rest of the party, "Danny Phantom, ghostly superhero…"

"Hey there." Danny greeted, though he couldn't help but feel something was off about how Riku was looking at him.

"Timmy Turner," the happy-go-lucky sea sponge went down the line, "along with Cosmo and Wanda…"

"Hey, if you were to add an extra 'k' to your name, would you be a different character?" stupidly asked Cosmo. "You might even sound like Timmy!"

"How would making his name 'Rikku' make him sound like me?" The average kid couldn't help but ask.

"I dunno. It sounds like it does."

"And here we got our resident leader, Jimmy Neutron, boy genius," Spongebob then introduced the boy with the cowlick, "and his faithful companion, Goddard! He basically helped bring us together to start with."

"So… leader, huh?" Riku gave a raised brow towards Jimmy and Goddard, who barked in his direction.

"We haven't exactly decided on that yet." Donald pointed out.

"Would you rather Sora be the leader?" Jimmy asked back.

"...Good point." The court wizard admitted.

"Hey…" Sora knew a shot when there was one. Riku could at least admit to stifling a chuckle on that one.

"These guys are Donald and Goofy." Spongebob introduced the court wizard and the knight-captain next. "They're searching for their king who had gone missing. Oh, and on Goofy's hat is their royal chronicler, Jiminy Cricket. He's basically been writing everything down for us the entire time."

Riku blinked, squinting his eyes to see the cricket indeed on Goofy's hat. He even saw Jiminy smile and tip his hat to him. What could he say in response to that?

"...That's a cricket?" He blinked.

Jiminy, surprised to hear that question, mused, "Huh, that's the second time someone asked that. Do I really not look like a cricket?"

"Then we got Gadget Hackwrench, who lives in Sora's hair right now…" Spongebob gestured to the fieldmouse coincidentally poking her head out upon being mentioned. "She's really smart and often helps out Jimmy with a bunch of his inventions!"

"It's not like I can take all the credit." Gadget put out there. "We simply share an interest in gummi technology and putting it to good use."

"And finally, here's Tarzan!" Spongebob finally got to the last member of their troupe. "He's from another world and is helping us out too! And get this, he was raised by gorillas, and…"

But then Tarzan went up to Riku and seemed to look very focused on him. Riku, being but a teenager in comparison to Tarzan an adult, couldn't help but feel pretty small as the jungle man practically towered over him in height. Not to mention the fact the man was walking around him, as if trying to find something. Then there was the fact he was probably sniffing him. Riku couldn't help but feel a little weirded out.

"Uh…" Riku spoke up, trying to take a step back. "Can I help you…?"

"Hm… Riku… friend?" Tarzan asked.

"Yeah, yeah!" The Keyblade bearer spoke up, recognizing the ape man asking that before. "Riku's definitely a friend!"

"Ahem. Forgetting someone again?" Drawled a familiar female voice from Sora's finger.

"O-Oh, right." The fry cook sheepishly chuckled. "There's also Desiree, this genie-ghost who now basically serves Sora. She's not exactly happy about it, though…"

"Oh, and guess what?" Goofy then came up and put his hands on Sora's shoulders, thankfully allowing Riku to get some distance from the jungle man's peculiar approach. "Sora's the Keyblade master."

"Who would've thought it?" The court wizard snarked, rolling his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" The Keyblade master turned towards Donald at that.

"Hey now, c'mon guys!" Spongebob tried to break it up. "No need to get into a fight! We're all friends here."

"So, this is called a Keyblade?"

"Well, yes, it is, but it's less of a 'blade' and more of a–" Jimmy went to explain, only to let out a surprised "Wha–!?"

There, in Riku's grasp and held out before him, was none other than Sora's Kingdom Key Keyblade! The entire party was surprised to see him suddenly have it when they had known it to be always in Sora's grasp. The Keyblade's owner too was surprised, and then went over to get it back. But then Riku seemed to jump back and let Sora trip onto the ground. As he held it above himself, as if looking it over, the original quartet looked at each other in confusion and wondered just how he got it without Sora noticing.

Selphie couldn't help but frown too. She knew Riku would usually tease Sora a few times like this back on the islands, but it wasn't without cause or explanation. Not like the spiky-haired boy couldn't take a thrown log or even pushed off the mini-island into the water. But it has always been good fun. Something about this felt a bit… mean-spirited?

Riku, apparently finished while Sora was getting back on his feet, called, "Catch!"

Then he threw the Keyblade back to Sora, who caught it in his hand and it transformed back into the Ecto-Exterminator. Sora didn't seem to notice the expression on Riku's face as he steadied himself. Why would he? After all, he was back with another one of his friends. This was surely a sign of good things to come.

"Okay, so, you're coming with us, right?" Sora asked, eager to hear Riku say yes. "We've got this awesome rocket. Wait 'til you see it!"

But Riku oddly didn't seem to match Sora's own enthusiasm. In fact, in comparison to how this reunion started out, he had suddenly become a bit more taciturn. Though Sora was clearly expecting a confirmation, the rest of the party couldn't help but sense a feeling of tension in the air. Selphie, most of all, could tell. So, she walked up to Riku and spoke for them.

"Hey, Riku? Are you alright?" She asked, getting his attention. "If it's about how large the group has gotten, trust me. We're still basically searching for everybody. We might even find Tidus and Wakka too along with Kairi."

"Just 'might'...?" He asked softly. He then looked to Selphie directly, asking next, "Selphie, where exactly did you end up after… what happened?"

"Oh, me?" She blinked at that peculiar question. "Well, I woke up in Amity Park as a prisoner of some fruit loop named Vlad Plasmius before Sora and the others beat him and got me out."

"...I see." Selphie couldn't figure out what Riku's expression was. But then he looked to Sora and said, "Sorry, but I'm gonna have to refuse."

"What?" Sora was definitely not expecting something that was basically a no. "Why?"

"Nothing personal." He replied. "I just recalled there's just something I have to do by myself."

"Are you sure?" His friend still wanted to convince him. "If it's something important, we can do it together, just like old times! And with everyone else with us, we could–"

"I can't afford to be distracted right now, Sora."

His firm response cut Sora off and then he turned around towards the First District door.

"You just continue going around doing what you're doing. You got enough people helping." He told him, walking off. "We'll see each other again, I'm sure."

"But, Riku…"

Without another word, Riku left through those doors, leaving the group there in the Third District. Sora couldn't help but sigh in disappointment, as did Spongebob. The sea sponge was really looking forward to having another friend help them out with saving the universe. And this meeting started out well enough too. What happened?

The disappointment didn't last too long on Sora's part though, and so he put his hands behind his head, saying, "Oh, well. At least he's okay. And who knows? Maybe we'll run into Kairi soon, too."

"You're way too nice," Danny said in surprise, though even he himself didn't know if he was complimenting the boy or warning him.

"I guess that counts for something." Spongebob accepted that. "Still, it would have been great if Riku would've come with us. He looked like he could really handle himself in a fight for sure!"

"Yeah, he certainly can, huh…?" Danny still couldn't help but feel something was off. And now that he thought about it, maybe something familiar about him, too.

…what was it?

"Wonder where he got that freaky sword from?" Timmy wondered.

"I'm sure we can ask more questions once we see Riku again, fellows." Jimmy explained. "For now, let's go to the house upstairs. There's still business to attend to."

In agreement, the group began making their way towards the upper level of the Third District, though Tarzan's movements were slower. Though the ape man's introduction to Riku seemed unorthodox to anyone just watching, there was something about Riku that he seemed to catch onto that no one else did. He didn't say it out loud, since this was Sora's friend he was just meeting, but there was a smell that he believed shouldn't be there. A familiar, foreboding stench. A scent that was distinctly… dark.

But other than that, the party found their destination in mere seconds. What was once a vacant house with the lights off was suddenly illuminated, and the door was unlocked. The house appeared to be a simple one-room apartment, having seen a bit of time pass with only the rare bit of upkeep to keep it hospitable. Some of the rafters were broken, no doubt chewed apart while only one simple lantern made up the one source of light in the room. The wallpaper, a colorful melon pattern, was also steadily wearing away and revealing the wood panels behind them, just as there were large panels of wood holding the walls steady. There was a single old brown wardrobe in one corner of the room while the one bed laid across from it. In another corner there was a pile of boxes and crates sitting against the wall while sitting at the door's right side was a podium with an old chest; the other side of the door had a yellow cupboard with a green vase and a couple of straw boxes upon it. In the center of the room was a humble table with a white table sheet having an ornate gold design, with a straw basket carrying colorful boxes of old, no doubt stale snacks in them.

Aside from all that, there was Cid and Leon talking with each other in front of the box pile while Yuffie and Aerith were near the bed. When they heard the door open and saw the group coming in, the four got close together with Cid at the head and Leon leaning against the wall.

"Looks like you guys took care of that delivery for me." The gummi expert then noticed Selphie and Tarzan with them. "And they are…?"

"New friends of theirs." Leon summed up. "Just go with it."

"...A'ight, if you say so." Cid went with it and shrugged. "Anyway, have you guys ever heard of Maleficent?"

Just then, cracks ended up forming in the walls, distracting everyone for a second.

"...No, first we've heard that name." Timmy answered, also noticing Cosmo and Wanda feeling a bit of a chill for some reason. Why did he get a sense of deja vu for a second?

"Well, I heard she's in town. Best watch yourselves." Cid warned.

"Who is he?" Sora asked.

"A witch, man, she's a witch!" The shopkeep practically shouted, shocking them. "One of the most wicked fairies the universe has ever seen."

"Wicked fairies?!" Cosmo and Wanda exclaimed at this, suddenly poofing back into Timmy's Star Flinger and backpack.

"Geez, what's up with you guys?" Their godchild couldn't help but ask.

"Timmy, wicked fairies are the worst sort of horror stories you hear back in Fairy World." Wanda explained.

"They're worse than anti-fairies, they were regular fairies who became pure evil!" Cosmo was basically panicking. "Everything they do, it always leads to the worst things happening!"

Wanda nodded as she fretted, "Fairies who use their magic for their own gain tend to be petty, but the extreme cases where they succumb to such corruption leads to something beyond words. They turn into something that wants to erase all that is good and pure!"

"Like sinking Atlantis?" Timmy deadpanned.

"ALL OF CAMELOT FELL BECAUSE OF WICKED FAIRIES!"

Leon cleared his throat to get the conversation back on track.

"She's the reason this town is full of Heartless." He said. "Best listen to your friends there. Don't take her lightly."

"She's been using the Heartless for years." Aerith mentioned.

"We lost our world thanks to her." Leon added.

"One day, a swarm of Heartless took over our world!" Cid continued. "I got out of that mess and came here with these guys after pretty much draggin' them by the diapers."

"That was nine years ago." Squall finished.

"That's awful!" Donald crossed his arms and tapped his webbed foot.

"You're telling me!" Spongebob concurred. "That's not even average supervillain evil. That's… advanced evil."

"Our ruler was a wise man named Ansem." Leon began, only for Yuffie to cut in with, "Some called him 'Ansem the Wise'!"

The scarfaced youth continued, "He dedicated his life to studying the Heartless."

"His report should tell us how to get rid of the Heartless." Cid said. "But we don't have it on hand. I'm sure Maleficent's got most of the pages."

Once more, Cosmo and Wanda got chills while one of the boxes fell from the stack and fell to the floor, breaking apart upon impact and making the group jump. Not even mentioning Vicky's name caused such a reaction. Now Timmy had to believe there was more than just deja vu at work.

"Other than that, the navigation gummis are installed and ready to go." He told the group. "You find another one, you bring it to me. Heck, I threw in a warp gummi for the heck of it."

"A warp gummi?" Gadget poked out again in excitement. "That's fantastic!"

"Might I assume we can travel to other worlds easier with such a gummi?" Jimmy was intrigued by this particular gummi.

"Of course we can, although only to worlds we've been to before." The gummi ship mechanic explained. "But in the same vein, once we reach new ones, the gummi automatically records their location into the ship's systems for easier travel!"

"Sounds like a perfect way to do some rethreading just in case," Jimmy mentally noted.

With that, Cid then stretched and said, "Alright, better get back to my real job. What's my real job? You'll see. Come over to the First District and I'll see you behind the Accessory Shop. I should even have Jimmy's Portable UPM ready by then."

"Actually, before that…" Aerith spoke up. "I've been thinking about the bell in the Second District."

"You mean the one that rang a bit ago and nearly knocked us off our feet?" The ghost boy asked.

"Yeah, the one above the gizmo shop." Yuffie confirmed. "There's a legend about it, you know."

"But it's all boarded up. Nobody can get in there." Aerith shook her head. "The ladder to reach it was even taken down too."

"Aw, it should be set back up by now." Cid waved it off. "Go check it out. Ring it three times to see if anything happens."

"Three times… why is it always three?" The average kid had to ask.

"Good luck?" Goofy guessed.

"In any case, we're just about to have our business here wrapped up before we move on." Jimmy stated. "Gentlemen, let's head to the gizmo shop!"

—-

However, earlier in that long conversation…

"You see? It's just as I told you." Maleficent spoke as she took in the scene in the house from outside. And by her side, his expression seeming focused on the window, was Riku. "While you toiled away trying to find your dear friend, he quite simply replaced you with some new companions. Evidently, now he values them far more than he does you." She also gestured to Selphie, who stood close to Sora. "Why, even one of your other friends remains by his side, yet not the one whom you claim to be the closest to you both." She then placed a gentle hand as she gestured to the ghost boy with her staff, adding, "And lo, he is even friends with the ghost child who has caused your beloved Valerie so much trouble, upending her life in an instant, and humiliated you right in front of her. Is that not insult upon injury?"

Riku's glare at the window seemed to harden and his hands clenched into fists. He really didn't want to believe it. He had such faith that Sora wouldn't change in spite of being separated from his closest friends. But having met him and the others he now stood with, apparently now accustomed to playing hero and going on adventures instead of focusing on finding his real friends, Riku could not help but fear it was the truth. Sora had changed.

"You're better off without that wretched boy." The dark fairy told him, comforting him with honeyed words. "Now, think no more of him, and come with me. I'll help you find what you're searching for…"

Riku didn't need to be convinced. After all, the proof was right in front of him. If he couldn't rely on Sora or Selphie to find the others, then he would do it on his own or even take Maleficent's help. He was not easily distracted by childish games anymore.

…But even so, learning that Selphie had been a prisoner of Vlad Masters the entire time did keep him from completely holding it against her. Sora freeing Selphie was more than likely a happy little accident or just another thing he could parade around as an accomplishment as a 'hero'. She more than likely didn't know any better. Neither would Tidus or Wakka, he figured.

He then sighed, gently turning from Maleficent's hand, saying, "I'm gonna go check on Valerie. See how she's doing."

He didn't notice the light frown her lips had made, but it also didn't stay for long.

"As you wish." She then turned, beginning to disappear in dark flames. "I'll be waiting once you're finished."

Once she was gone, Riku continued marching forward, opening a dark portal before himself. He wasn't like Sora. He knew what he had to do. For now, though, he needed a more welcoming person to talk to. After all, his partner would understand this, wouldn't she?

As he went through the portal, he could barely hear the sound of electric guitar strings in the wind…

—-

And with that, Chapter 18 is done and in a shorter amount of time than the last one! …And probably with more text too. Geez, a lot of dialogue went into this one, I tell ya. I even figured I could include the boss fight to wrap this chapter up, but honestly it felt like a bit much all at once by now, so at the very least we can look forward to it next chapter! We'll just have to wait until after the next chapter of Defier of Destiny, though.

Thanks again to Akito the Boxer for beta-reading and fine-tuning this chapter, and also thanks to The Lord of Pages for helping provide the right names and descriptions for certain household items, not to mention a couple other little ideas! Without them, this couldn't have been made possible.

And again with the shameless plug, but this story now has a TV Tropes page! It's honestly still pretty small at the moment, and even some of the other sections only have up to a few of the beginning chapters and there's no character page yet, so if you want to help expand upon it, go right ahead!

See you all next time as we finish up the 2nd visit to Traverse Town, fight a boss with a special guest, and finally get Jimmy back his Portable UPM!