Chapter 18

The Mission Begins

The door was thrown open, and the Restoration Committee saw Yuffie, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy running inside. However, there was not a lot of room to stop, and the anthropomorphic animals tumbled into each other as well as the humans ahead of them. They picked themselves back up, but had to lean against the wall as they were panting heavily from exhaustion, having run all the way from the infirmary.

Kairi had to take longer to catch her breath, as she was not as used to such activity as the others. When she and Riku could finally stand up straight, she saw to their curiosity three newcomers. They were each about two feet tall and female, and they all floated in midair. The girl in the middle had short brown hair and clashing eye colors, with a blue left eye and a green right eye. She wore a white halter-neck top with a black mark on the chest, a pink jagged bar at the bottom and a pink hoodie, tied together with a black ribbon just below the chest, a yellow armband on each arm, and two ropes tied at the base of her hairdo, one a light blue with a white fur tuft at the end and the other a red length with a hair clip shaped like yellow bird wings and a brown fur tuft at the end. She had a blue short skirt and a blue and white sash that looked like a cropped quarter of a dress over her left leg, as well as blue boots that reached almost all the way up to her knees and were tied with white laces. The girl on her left had green eyes and medium-length blonde hair tied in a ponytail with the bangs held up by a large blue headband. She wore a yellow midriff-baring tank top, an orange skirt with a jagged bottom edge and yellow ribbons on either side, cream-colored detached sleeves, white socks with yellow linings, white shoes with blue soles and shafts that went midway up her shins, and an orange scarf wrapped around her neck which levitated towards the ends. The third girl had brown-gray hair, red eyes, and a pair of black bat-like wings. She wore a black tank top with red shoulder straps, a gray shawl that wrapped over her left shoulder and under her right arm, gray shorts with a red belt wrapped loosely around her waist and a black belt, worn properly, with a skull-shaped buckle, dark gray stockings, evening gloves, and tall boots with black belts wrapped around the counter, vamp and sole.

The girl with heterochromia was watching the visitors regain their composure with polite concern; meanwhile, the blonde girl was in the midst of giggling and the red-eyed girl stared at them with stoic apathy. Riku and Kairi could not help but stare back in curiosity. Riku had never seen anything like them. The closest thing Kairi could compare them to was Tinker Bell, whom Kairi never really knew but had seen through Sora's eyes during the latter part of his first quest (she had been extra aware while on the pirate ship, due to proximity to her own body).

The girl in the middle noticed their expressions. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said, bowing respectfully. "I suppose you have never seen the likes of us before. My name is Yuna."

"I'm Rikku!" the blonde girl said cheerfully.

"Paine," the red-eyed girl muttered.

"We call ourselves the Gullwings," Yuna finished.

"You never actually introduced yourselves to Donald, Goofy and me," Sora commented. "You just said you were 'nothing worth mentioning', then the next time we met you threatened to extort us for all our treasure." He chuckled at that, even while Kairi gave him a double take.

"So, Yuffie said that you found something out?" Mickey said to Leon in a questioning manner.

Leon nodded. "The Gullwings had been spying on Maleficent at our request," he began. "It turns out that, including herself, Pete and the man who's gotten them on this hunt, there are thirteen villains in total."

"Some of them look pretty powerful," Rikku interjected. "Others, not so much."

"They are looking for a bunch of different objects all across the worlds," Yuna continued. "They don't look alike, and they are well-guarded. The man said that when brought together, they would be able to access a power that will allow them to change reality itself."

Everyone's eyes went wide. Mickey and Donald's jaws dropped. But Goofy scratched his head with one finger, appearing confused. "Isn't that pretty much the same as what they've been trying to do before?" he asked. "Maleficent wanted to plunge the worlds into darkness, and Xemnas wanted to create a new world that he would control, both by reaching and taking control of Kingdom Hearts."

"Ah, yes. That's true. But this time, the stakes are much different," Merlin explained. "During their previous endeavors, you were allowed to intervene, and the worlds even put in their power to aid you, because there is a balance between light and darkness that must be kept. However, if one were to rewrite reality, then those rules might be changed. The balance could be rewritten. If Maleficent were to get her hands on that power, then she could snuff light out forever."

With this explanation, Goofy came to share Mickey and Donald's expression. Sora shook his head in disbelief. "Then I guess we need to make sure they don't get there!" he declared.

"We're still trying to find out more from the files on Ansem's computer," Cid explained. "Now that we have an idea what to look for, we can narrow our search down considerably."

"In which case, I suppose we should start searching for the objects ourselves," Mickey said. "We should find and protect as many of them as we can. Right, fellas?"

"But how are we going to do that?" Kairi asked, looking between Mickey and Sora for an answer.

Sora shrugged. "Same as we always do: fly to different worlds and wander around aimlessly until we find something," he replied offhandedly.

Kairi raised an eyebrow and looked at Donald and Goofy. "Is this really how you get things done?" she asked.

The duck and dog thought for a few seconds before nodding. "Yeah, pretty much," Donald answered. "Before, we just flew to whatever the nearest world was, or we opened a path and followed where it led. But we don't have that restriction, I don't think. So I guess we'll just go in a random direction until we find something."

When Yuffie, Aerith and Cid heard this description of how they conduct their business, they laughed out loud. "Oh, you guys are hopeless!" the ninja exclaimed. "Well, you do what you do best."

"Good luck," Yuna said, giving them another bow. Rikku waved good-bye and Paine gave them a nod.

"You might want to pick up some curative items and accessories from the marketplace," Leon suggested.

Sora nodded. "We will. Thanks, guys! We'll be back when we figure something out." The party waved good-bye to the Committee and left the building. They passed through the borough and went through the marketplace, doing just as Leon suggested and stocking up on items, accessories and armor. Then they went down to the landing bay and climbed into the Gummi Ship.

"How about you let me do the flying this time?" Donald grumbled, taking the pilot's seat.

Sora grinned and gladly strapped himself into one of the guest seats while Mickey and Goofy took their places in the Teeny command seat and the gunner seat. Donald initiated liftoff and the ship ascended above the town, before it flew through the world's atmosphere and into the sea between worlds.

This is it. The end of the first visit to Radiant Garden, and now the party is heading off to begin their exploration for real! The next chapters will bring them to a new world that none of them have seen before, though you might be able to guess what it's going to be. Let me know what you think of the story thus far, and stay tuned.