As he wandered around the corner from the entrance to Cid's shop, Sora walked down a winding path leading to a pair of giant doors. Going by the rather obvious '2' sign atop the door, it must have been the Second District of this town. Apparently those ones were locked off so he decided to go through the others. Unfortunately, his hopes that he might find Riku and Kairi were dashed in favor of something much MUCH worse.

The first thing Sora saw when he entered this new part of town was a man running away with an expression of pure terror. Sora barely had time to register what was happening as the man fell onto the ground, rotating around so his elbows propped himself. For less than a second later, the man made a choking gasp as some...THING sunk its clawed hand into his chest. It was a humanoid creature with a most twisted appearance of a helmet akin a medieval soldier or even a knight, minus the clearly twisted, sharp jagged toothed ridges of the helmet's 'mouth'. Under the open visor were glowing yellow eyes and what looked like jagged teeth forming a wicked, distorted grin. As the monster retracted its claw, it held something in it, and left a swirling hole where the claw had entered.

What the creature held in its hand was a large glowing red object shaped like a heart. The creature sunk into the shimmering thing, and the mans body vanished into thin air an instant later. Sora was horrified from the turn of events that he couldn't even try to stop what happened, let alone make sense of it as the distorted soldier like monster vanished in a swirl of darkness.

When it was gone, Sora's gaze shifted between where the creature disappeared and where the man did. No trace of him whatsoever. But something did emerge. Something that chilled Sora's bones emerging from an assortment of pitch black puddles. "It's those creatures from the island!" Sora's eyes widened and in a knee jerk reaction, held out his hand to defend himself as all of them suddenly began jumping toward him.

Suddenly, a flash of light illuminated within his right hand. And just like that, the Keyblade emerged again. With a more calm demeanor, he focused and fought them all. One by one, swing by swing, the little creatures fell fortunately as easily as on the island. He he was struck once but fortunately it was a minor nick. And unlike on the island, much to his relief, the strange enemies weren't constantly pouring in this time. The seemed to stop after the...second wave? Sora couldn't even keep count. His time fighting these creatures was such a mixed up blur.

"Okay...On with the search." Sora said with a sigh, trying to banish that head-rush from the sudden skirmish. As he walked on through the district. The first thing he noticed was a hotel upon the upper walkway on the left side of the district. A place to take shelter hopefully, assuming those creatures didn't attack him again. Which seemed to be some sick, twisted running gag ever since he got this Keyblade thing.

As he walked inside however, he didn't notice that a little ways down, another door leading to that same hotel opened with a certain red and black clad huntress exiting. "Huh. I thought I heard something out here...Oh well." Ruby said with a shrug, deciding to keep walking on. This place was quite fascinating, though a bit...lacking in occupants. She wasn't even sure what this Traverse Town truly was. Though she likely would have known by now had she been able to concentrate on Cid's explanation...which given her state of affairs when she woke up, was not going to happen til she cleared her head. So she shuffled off down a little alleyway toward a rather curious looking shop under a bell tower.

And by another equally crazy work of unfortunate timing, the main double door to the district opened up again to reveal Donald and Goofy. "Doesn't look like he's here." Goofy said, looking around the rather vacant district. It seemed they still had no idea where this 'Leon' fellow was. "Keep looking." Donald said as they walked about. They needed to complete their mission regardless of whether they knew what this 'Leon' looked like. Though...all things considered, the King probably should have given them a description to make it easier.

Sora meanwhile looked everywhere in the hallway to the hotel. Nobody seemed to be there. With how dark it was outside, he assumed people may have just retired to bed. He went to the front desk and rang the bell. Several moments passed but nobody came. "I guess the front desk hours are over." he sighed, leaving the hotel at the other doors down the other end of the hall.

Yet again, as he exited the way Ruby went, Donald and Goofy entered the hotel through the same door Sora did. As Sora exited, his attention too was caught by the bell tower. Unable to help himself, he walked inside to see if anyone was there. But he was met with nothing but spinning gears and cogs, likely for the clock itself. What was even more curious was that it was running yet nobody seemed to be maintaining the machinery. Still, it wasn't the oddest thing he had seen today.

While he was inside, Donald and Goofy came out the hotel, knowing nobody was there. "Hmph. Where is he?" Donald said while looking around with his hand like a brim to keep his focus at the front of himself.

Goofy did the same thing and called out for who they sought. "Leeeooon!"

Meanwhile, Ruby was checking out a clothing store that was curiously open with nobody inside. She was running her hand along the unfamiliar attire with a fascinated hum. "The clothes sure are different than what we had in Vale." The mere thought of her home made her slip back into an air of melancholy worry. But that vanished as she perked up hearing a loud noise outside the shop. It sounded like a voice calling out for something or someone. But when she rushed to the door to peer outside to find the source, she saw nothing and no one. "Am I going crazy?" she wondered in annoyance before going back into the clothing store.

When she did, Sora came out the bell tower building. And Donald walked in it as he did so, right along Goofy.

As if by some quirk of fate, all three parties seemed to keep missing one another every which way they went. The moment Sora chose to go back to the first district of town, Ruby walked through a different door, and Donald and Goofy just emerged at the top of the clock tower! "He's not here either." Donald grumbled with an impatient tap of his webbed foot. "This could take a while..." Goofy said wearily as he looked around from their higher perch. So close yet so far from meeting one another.

Now feeling a lot more clearheaded, Ruby made her way back to Cid's shop, hoping she'd be able to pay attention to what he had to say this time. As she entered the door to the second floor, despite the closed sign on the front, it seemed fate was just determined to not have her find the source of that familiar voice she heard. For once again, she and Sora JUST missed seeing each other as Sora was looking through the window of an empty shop with a locked door. That lock however was not among the myriad of things running through the boy's mind.

Sora just couldn't make sense of the questions in his head. What was going on? How in the world did he get here? How did those creatures from his island find him here? More importantly, where were Riku and Kairi? He had no idea where to even start.

"They'll come at you out of nowhere." A low, calm, voice suddenly reached Sora's ears, making him turn on his heels at the sound. "Who're you?"

The distant yet focused sounding voice belonged to a tall light skinned young man with brown hair and a scar over his face clad in black leather pants, black boots covered by his pantlegs, a brown leather belt loosely hanging from his waist, a white t-shirt, and a black leather jacket with what looked to be red angel wings on the back and a red insignia on his shoulder identical to the silver lion-like necklace around his neck.

"And they'll keep on coming, as long as you continue to wield the Keyblade." he continued, pointing to the weapon in question. He knew what this thing was? "But why? Why would it choose a kid like you?" he asked in disbelief, rubbing his brow. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Why did everyone keep calling him a kid?! "Nevermind that. Now. Let's see that Keyblade." The young man said, stepping toward Sora.

"What?! There's no way you're getting this!" Sora protested, striking a defensive stance against this stranger. He didn't know who this guy was or what he wanted, but he wasn't about to give up the one thing that allowed him to fight those...things.

As if expecting him to resist, Sora's quarry reached down and pulled out a most unusual weapon. A weapon that looked to be a mixture of a magnum revolver and a sword, and brandished it in a very laissez-faire manner, clearly not too concerned about whatever Sora could do. "Alright. Then have it your way." If the kid wanted a fight, then a fight he'd get.

Sora focused intently on the strange the weapon the older man held in his hand. He was initially more worried about that, but his eyes widened when he saw the man's free hand glow with a yellow-orange light that expanded in his palm which was…aimed right at Sora? The next moment, a gunfire-like BANG went off, and Sora barely had time to move out of the way as a ball of pure fire sailed in his direction. Thankfully Sora managed to narrowly avoid it, but he could feel the intense heat from it merely passing him. Even small cinders grazed Sora's skin, making him pant with shock as his eyes shifted to where the ball impacted in a flash of ciders and the one who launched it.

"A fireball? How did he-?"

Sora was so busy trying to register what he just saw, that he didn't notice the man was now in front of him. He moved fast that he was right in front of Sora and swung his weapon of his weapon down at the boy. A touch of fear spread through him but Sora managed to get away again and started running. He went down the stairs away from as fast as he could but the brown haired man simply jumped five feet in the air as if it were nothing at all. That one lazy looking jump managed to clear the distance, making the man land in front of Sora to cut him off.

A yelp of shock from being caught off guard once again, Sora stopped in his tracks and momentarily looked behind him. This man was almost inhuman with the flames and his physical capabilities. It was unsettling. Especially how he looked down at Sora with an unfeeling expression and said almost nothing. Despite his worry, Sora remained strong and took his personal fighting stance with Keyblade held in both hands.

It was like this fight was no big deal for this strange man. The way he walked toward Sora with that sword...gun...thing like he was just taking a stroll, showing no of being winded despite his intense looking actions, it was too much to believe.

Yet as he took his fighting stance again, Sora refused to run away. He wasn't going to just give up this Keblade thing to some guy just because he told him to. When he managed to get in striking range, Sora swung frantically, and amazingly managed to strike his opponent. Though by the time he finished with his third strike, he only realized he'd left himself open when the man's weapon swung down at him. Amazingly, he didn't feel the blade cut into his flesh. In fact, from the stinging pain he felt and the faint swelling on his head that rose from it, he realized that he just got hit by the blunt end of the weapon instead of the blade! Was this guy holding back? Did he think Sora wasn't worth the effort!?

That just got Sora even more angry as he began to wail on his foe, who simply blocked and deflected his strikes before parrying Sora and knocking him back. Raising his hand again, Sora's opponent gathered another ball of fire in his palm and launched it. The beaten and weary boy desperately reacted, flailing the Keyblade, and suddenly, to the surprise of both, Sora managed to hit the ball of fire right back at him!

The impact made the mysterious man lurch and fall to his knees, as if he hadn't expected it. Sora forced himself to his feet, wobbling a bit as he tried to stand taller than his opponent. But...boy did he feel dizzy. "N...Now you're gonna...You're g...uhg..."

THUD

Sora didn't even have energy to finish the sentence as he suddenly fell backwards and passed out. More still, his foe was pushing himself to his feet, as if he hadn't been hit by a ball of fire. Indeed, he hadn't even started trying yet. The poor kid just tired himself out.

"Aw. You're slipping, Leon." Rang out the chipper voice of a young woman, causing this man, Leon, to look over his shoulder at the source behind him. She had short black hair kept at the sides by a metal headband with two green tassels. The rest of her clothes consisted of a yellow scarf, a green tube top held up by two belts, tan short-shorts with another loose blue belt around her waist, white socks reaching about the middle of her thighs, orange shoes and mesh sleeves on her arms that disappeared into orange fingerless gloves with black bands constricting on the ends.

"I went easy on him," Leon said truthfully as he straightened up, looking at Sora's weapon. It was clear he didn't think very highly about someone like Sora getting something like that. How such an item was in the possession of a child without any real combat experience or skill was worrying. "Looks like things are worse than we thought. A lot worse." he finished, looking down at Sora's unconscious form with a skeptical shake of his head. The poor kid was in for a headache, both physical and mental once he woke up.

While Sora was having that heavily one-sided battle with Leon, just inside of Cid's shop, Ruby made her way down the stairway to the gruff shop owner. "Hey Cid. I'm back...Cid?" The middle aged blonde man was looking out his front door with his hands crossed. Ruby wasn't sure what he was doing, but as she approached him, she faintly heard him say, "Huh...So that kid is the one, eh? Well ain't that just peachy." in a mildly sarcastic tone. "Uhhh, Cid?" Hearing her call out to him, Cid turned around to see the confused huntress. "Ah, there ya are Ruby. You're just in time. My friends and I...well, let's just say they found somethin' super important. Somethin' you're probably gonna wanna stick around for. So I hope you managed to clear that head o' yours cause you're gonna have a lot more to take in." That...was not a good sign. But it was better than being in the dark about all of this...which was mostly her own fault in technically. "Uhhh, oookay?" She wasn't sure how to react, so she just settled for sitting down on the couch while Cid sat on the footrest.

At that very same time, wandering along the rather dark alleyway, Donald and Goofy still had no luck finding Leon. By now, they had certainly gotten lost. "Gawrsh, there's nobody here. Sure is spooky." Goofy said, nervously nibbling on his left hand as he looked around uneasily. "Aw phooey. I'm not scared." The instant Donald said that, he felt a tap on his shoulder from behind. He let out a quacking cry of shock and practically flew up into the air, scrambling onto Goofy's back. "Excuse me, did the King send you?" A feminine voice, soft and gentle as a spring zephyr and just as heartwarming, inquired. Drawing the attention of the pair, they looked behind themselves to find it belonged to a young woman with seafoam green eyes, flowing brown hair with a part down the middle tied into a long braid that went down to her hips. There was a veritable menagerie of meetings, and soon to be explanations going around town. And with any luck, some much needed answers as well.