On a particularly blustery day in the Magical World, Gabriel was visiting the city of Radiant Garden in order to meet the wizard, Merlin. With him today were Jasiri- like always- as well as Lena. Logan also decided to tag along, needing something to do since Destiny was visiting her friends back at the Great Barrier Reef.
"Man, I'm so excited to meet Merlin!" Logan said, pumping a fist. "Another one of Sora's mentors I can cross off my list."
"You're a Keyblade wielder now, aren't you?" Jasiri asked.
Logan nodded, holding out his hand to summon his Keyblade, Fenrir. "Yeah, I did. It took a lot of work, and I'm still training how to fully use it, but I'm getting there for sure. Plus, now I can do this!" With a flash of light, the Keyblade transformed into a new form. This one was golden with a silver cent sign as the handle and a gold dollar sign as the teeth. "Check it out!"
"Woah, I've never seen a Keyblade like that one before!" Gabriel exclaimed.
"it's called Quackpot, and I got it when I was in the Ducktales world," Logan explained. "Turns out that if you make a deep enough connection with the people of a certain world, you can gain new Keyblades like how Sora does after completing a world. My connection with Dewey and his friends earned my this one."
"I was there when he got it, actually," Lena said. "It was pretty cool."
"You'll have to show me what it can do some time," Gabriel said.
The quartet soon arrived at Merlin's house in Radiant Garden, where it looked like the wizard currently wasn't home. He did leave a note on the door, however. "To whoever reads this, I'm currently out on business. If you need to use my book, it's currently back with its original owner. Please ask them nicely about reading it if you like. They should be around Fountain Court this time of day."
"Wow, that's a really informative note," Logan mused.
"I'm pretty sure Merlin enchanted it so that the note would tell the reader what they needed to know," Lena said. "In our case, that means that the 'surprise' that Merlin left for Gabriel must be with his book."
"Then let's head over to Fountain Court," Gabriel stated.
The four headed that way, taking note of how Radiant Garden had changed. The Restoration Committee was doing a great job and rebuilding the city, with the world now looking much closer to how it did before it fell to darkness. They had even managed to rebuild the Fountain Court, a massive fountain with multiple levels to admire and jump around in.
"This takes me back to playing Birth by Sleep," Gabriel said.
They didn't have time to admire the view as a cry for help alerted them to danger. At the top of the fountain was a little girl surrounded by strange alien-like creatures. Soon more creatures suddenly appeared, prompting the heroes to jump into action: Gabriel summoned Fantasia, Jasiri barred her fangs, Lena levitated with magic, and Logan summoned his Keyblade.
"The heck are these things?" Lena asked.
"Unversed, manifestations of negative emotions," Gabriel explained. "Normally you'd need a Keyblade to defeat them, so lucky for us that Logan tagged along."
"Let's get up there and save that girl," Logan said.
The four charged forward to battle the Unversed, Jasiri jumping at the grunt-like Flood with her claws and fangs to tear into it. Lena fired magic bolts to push back the float pot Unversed, while Gabriel swiped his hand to cut the bird-like Archravens out of the sky. Logan jumped back as a large Unversed spawned in front of him, his Keyblade bouncing right off its large belly.
"That's a Tank Toppler! If you attack it from the front, it'll start ticking down like a time bomb!" Gabriel explained. "You have to hit the valve in the back!"
"I've got this one," Lena said, flying around to the back of the Tank Toppler and firing a beam at its valve, doing massive damage to the Unversed. "Leave the small fry to me and Jasiri. You two go save that girl!"
Logan and Gabriel nodded, leaving the ladies behind as they jumped up the fountain platforms to reach the top. "Let's speed this up," Logan said. "Freeze!" His Keyblade shot out a blast of ice magic, freezing the water in the fountain and turning it into an ice rink. "There. Now we can skate across."
More Unversed spawned, this time the annoying plant-like monsters known as Mandrakes. They tossed their leaves like boomerangs to attack the heroes, with Gabriel and Logan having to jump over the projectiles to get in close. The raven held out a hand, his magic forming around it to create a dragon claw made of magic. "Wyvern Slash!" he called, swiping at the air and creating energy waves that cut through the Mandrakes like hot butter.
"Where'd you learn that!?" Logan exclaimed.
"In the Mirrorverse I pushed my powers so much that I can now summon my dragon soul without transforming," Gabriel explained. The claw disappeared quickly as they climbed higher up the fountain. "Unfortunately, it also comes with the drawback that I can't use my full dragon transformation for as long anymore."
"Any new power is good though," Logan said. "Look, there's a few more of those big guys surrounding that girl. Let's team up to take them down!"
Gabriel nodded, holding out a hand to Logan's Keyblade as he switched over to Quackpot. The Keyblade wielder charged up a golden fireball at the end of the blade, with Gabriel surrounding the attack with Fantasia. "Harmony Jackpot!" the two shouted, firing off the attack that hit the Unversed dead-on. The enemies exploded into Munny, with a little flare of music mixed in as they disappeared. Once they were defeated, the other Unversed disappeared as well, not wanting to stick around once their target had been saved.
"That was cool!" Logan cheered. "That Harmony thing… is that a new power too?"
"Yeah. I can combine powers with others by tapping into their own innate Fantasia," Gabriel explained. With the danger past, the Dream Keeper went over to the girl to make sure she was okay. "You're safe now."
"Thank you," the girl said. She then held up the book in her possession. "I don't know what would have happened if they took this from me."
"Madeline!" a voice called. Logan used an ice spell to create a slide of the two to return to ground level and meet Lena and Jasiri at the bottom. With them was a man with brown hair wearing a white shirt and red vest, who quickly scooped up Madeline into a hug. "Thank goodness you're safe!"
"Obi-Wan Kenobi?" Logan said in confusion. "Are you undercover or something? You look weird without the beard."
"Who?" the man asked.
"Logan, that's Christopher Robin," Gabriel said.
That made Logan do a double take. "Wait, what!? But Christopher Robin is a kid!"
"Well, like all kids, I grew up," Christopher Robin explained. "This is my daughter, Madeline Robin. Thank you all for keeping her safe."
"Just doing our job," Lena said with a shrug.
"If you're Christopher Robin, and your daughter has Merlin's book, that must mean that the book is the one for Winnie the Pooh!" Logan said.
Gabriel just kinda gave him a look. "What other book would Merlin have been referring too?" the raven questioned.
"Such a kid…" Lena shook her head.
"I'm a young adult, thank you very much!" Logan shouted.
Jasiri giggled at their antics. She then turned to Madeline. "So, do you think we could see the book? Merlin said he wanted us to see it, so I'd love to read it!"
Madeline nodded, kneeling down to show the hyena the book. When she opened it, however, the wind picked up and blew pages right out of the book. Christopher Robin gasped, running around to try and catch the pages to no avail. Madeline quickly closed the book, with one last page flying out, which Gabriel quickly caught.
"Oh no, the book!" Christopher Robin cried.
"Geez, the wind really picked up there all of a sudden," Lena said. "Oh well, we can always get a new book, right?"
"Lena, this isn't just any book, but a magic, one-of-a-kind book!" Logan explained. "Winnie the Pooh and all his friends live in the book, so if the pages go missing, then so does the entire Hundred Acre Wood!"
"At least we got the one page," Gabriel said. He held it out for Madeline to put back, the page magically reattaching itself to the spine.
The book shimmered, then opened up as a beam of light came out of it. A small blue thing came flying out of the book, which quickly fell to the ground and right onto Gabriel's head. It was a little bluebird, the poor creature letting out a groan before looking around in confusion. "Huh, where am I?" the bird asked in a feminine voice. She then looked down at Gabriel. "And who are you?"
"I'm Gabriel the Dream Keeper," Gabriel introduced himself. "And these are my friends Jasiri, Lena, Logan, Christopher Robin, and his daughter Madeline."
"Christopher Robin?" the bird said. She looked over at the man and waved. "Hello! It's been a while since we met, but you must remember me from the time we all decorated the Christmas tree together!"
Christopher Robin gave a nod. "Yes, you're Kessie, Rabbit's kid."
"Rabbit has a kid!?" Logan said in shock.
"Oh yeah, Kessie was introduced as Rabbit's adopted daughter he saved from a snowstorm in the animated series," Gabriel explained. "She may be young, but she has a good head on her shoulders and an endless curiosity to learn and be helpful to others."
"Nice to meet you, Kessie," Madeline said with a smile, holding out her hands for the bluebird to land in.
"Nice to meet you too, Madeline," Kessie said with a laugh. She held a wing to her head and rubbed it. "Now then, what was I doing before I got here? I'm pretty sure I was going to meet… someone. Oh no, I think I got brain drain for what I was doing!"
Suddenly a swirl of white magic came into the area, and Merlin the wizard appeared from it. "I say now, what seems to be the trouble?" he asked.
"Merlin, thank goodness you're here," Christopher Robin said. "It seems we're having trouble with the book again."
"Ah yes. I should really see to getting a better binding for this old thing," Merlin said, taking the book and inspecting it.
"Who's this guy?" Kessie asked.
"Merlin is a wizard from the land of Camelot, the one who trained King Arthur before he came, well, King Arthur," Gabriel explained.
"Oh, like in… someone-I-know's stories!" Kessie said.
"I think something funky is going on with bluebird's memories here," Lena said.
"Yes, it appears that when the pages of the book were lost, so did the memories of the characters within it," Merlin said, closing the book.
"So, Pooh and all the others are trapped in the lost pages until we get them back, and they won't remember each other until we get said pages back as well," Logan said. "You know, I'm pretty sure Sora had to go through something similar to this as well."
Gabriel looked to Kessie and the book, then took on a determined expression. "Merlin, I'd like to be the one to find all the missing pages," the raven said.
"Ah, I know you would say that," the wizard replied with a twinkle in his eye. "Gabriel, my boy, Yen Sid and I were discussing how after all you've done for the Magical World, now might be the best time for you to branch out to skills beyond Fantasia."
"Wait, does this mean…?" Jasiri gasped.
"Yes, Queen Jasiri, it's time that Gabriel learns the art of wielding a Keyblade," Merlin nodded.
Logan smiled and gave his friend a pat on the back. "That's awesome, my dude!"
"Heh, I thought you'd be more jealous that I can also wield a Keyblade," Gabriel chuckled.
Logan shook his head. "Nah, I'm not bothered by that. Besides, the more people there are to fight back against Heartless and other monsters, the better."
"But what about the book?" Christopher Robin asked.
"As part of Gabriel's training, he will collect the pages of the book that have been scattered throughout the Magical World," Merlin explained. He handed the book over to Gabriel. "Originally I just wanted you to go into the book to help Pooh and his friends for your training, but this will have to do. Just put the pages back once you find them and pieces of the Hundred Acre Wood will be restored. Once you have all of them, meet me at Yen Sid's tower for your Keyblade exam."
"Will do, Merlin," Gabriel said with a salute.
"Can I come with you?" Kessie asked, flying up to Gabriel's face. "I'm really good and finding things, and I want to find my friends… even if I can't remember who they are right now."
"Sure you can," Gabriel replied, letting Kessie sit on his shoulder. He pointed forward with confidence. "Let's find those missing pages, restore the Hundred Acre Wood, and prove that I have what it takes to wield a Keyblade!"
"I can help look for the pages too," Logan said. "In fact, I'll make a call to some of my friends to help out as well. You should meet them sometime, Gabriel. You really did miss a lot while you were gone."
"All in good time," Gabriel said.
"Remember to pace yourself," Merlin said. "There's no need to rush to find the pages. In fact, with how magical the book is, I'm sure some pages will be hiding until the moment is right. Magic is a funny thing at times."
The raven gave a nod before turning to Christopher Robin and Madeline. "I'll make sure that all of your friends will get home safely. That's a Dream Keeper promise."
With a new mission, Gabriel, alongside his friends and new ally Kessie, set out to find the pages of Pooh's book.
Author's Note
If you didn't know, Logan has his own story called "The Adventures of Logan" which is a spin-off of the main Magical World. His new Keyblade is from that story, and while I do recommend you give his story a read as it's a lot of fun, I'll be sure to fill you guys in on any characters or ideas that I bring over into this story. Quackpot isn't a real Keyblade but one that Logan created himself, which has the unique spell Golden Fire that can turn enemies into money (like the Gold Flower in New Super Mario Bros 2).
And just like in "Kingdom Hearts 2", Gabriel is out to find the pages of the Winnie the Pooh book. It was fun getting to use characters from the "Christopher Robin" movie, which is actually pretty good by the way. Kessie is from "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" and was a main character in "Book of Pooh", where she quickly became one of my favorites of the Hundred Acre Wood gang. I hope she gets brought back in future Winnie the Pooh content, as I think she could be good friends with Roo and Lumpy as they're the youngest of the animals in the wood.
Next Time: Gabriel has to fill in as conductor at PhilharMagic, and things don't go as planned…