I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.
Race
Tyler looked around as the light cleared. The world around them was made of candy, including a Nesquik sand pit on their left, and a chocolate milkshake river on the right.
"Jesus," Tyler said. "It's Diabetes Land."
"Looks like it," Sazh nodded. "Let's go find someone to talk to. Hopefully they're friendlier than the heartless."
"That wouldn't be hard," Lightning said. "As long as they don't try to kill us for existing."
They began walking, reaching the gate of a massive candy castle after a few minutes. Tyler knocked and the door opened, a sour candy with arms, lehgs, and a face staring at them
"Uh, hey," Tyler said. "We were wondering if we could ask a few questions? We're looking for someone, and we have reason to believe they came here."
"I don't know about that," the sour candy said monotonously. "Follow me. King Candy might know."
He turned, leading them through the castle to the throne room. Once there, all three knelt. King Candy, a human-looking man with a balding, disproportionately large head, candy-themed clothes, and with a body that complimented his head to make him look like a peanut, greeted them happily.
"Welcome!" King Candy said, throwing his arms out wide, Tyler catching a slight speech impediment. "What can I do for you?"
"We're looking for our friends, Sarah and Alice," Tyler said. "Sarah looks like her," he gestured to Lightning, "and Alice is five."
"Someone's gone Turbo?" King Candy gasped.
"Gone Turbo?" Tyler repeated, confused.
"They left their game," the king explained.
"Game?" Tyler asked. "What are you talking about?"
"Their game!" the king exclaimed."In the arcade! Don't tell me you didn't know!"
"We're...not from around here," Sazh said. "So, have you seen them?"
"It would have been about two days ago," Lightning offered, trying to keep her voice even.
"Well," the king said thoughtfully. "I remember someone with a black cloak saying something about finding a safe place."
"I need to know where he went," Tyler said.
"You could try the other games in the arcade and hope you get lucky," the king suggested. "Or, you could race me, and I could show you a replay of the conversation and see if you find a hint."
"Why not just do it anyway?" Sazh asked.
"Where's the fun in that?" the king asked.
"Sazh?" Tyler asked.
"So, all I have to do is race?" Sazh asked. "Not win?"
"Oh you'll never win the race," the king smiled. "Nope, all you have to do is survive until the finish line."
The others stared at him in confusion.
"Oh, right," the king smiled. "The track has traps, boulders, and other obstacles, as well as weapon items."
"Sazh?" Tyler asked again.
"I'll do it," Sazh nodded.
"I'm coming with you," Tyler said. "Lightning, we'll meet you-"
"At the finish line," Lightning finished. "Odin and I are racing too."
"Okay then!" The king smiled. "Let's go!"
He pulled a lever on his throne and a race car body rose out of the floor, his throne being the only seat in the car. The engine of the candy car roared to life, the car streaking out of the castle instantly. Sazh spun, extending his hand before a massive fireball appeared in front of him, burning away and leaving a red and black two-seater race car behind. At the same time, a blinding light appeared before Lightning, leaving a white and silver horse. Tyler stared at the horse, remembering Odin as the knight from Peter Pan's world.
"That's Odin?" Tyler asked.
"He can transform," Lightning said. "Sazh's does the same, but with a different humanoid form."
"Let's go," Sazh said.
Tyler climbed into the second seat, buckling up, and Sazh sped out of the castle, Odin miraculously keeping pace. They caught up with King Candy at the start-finish line, King Candy having already paid their way, it seemed.
"There you are," King Candy said. "Shall we begin?"
Sazh and Lightning both nodded, a light countdown beginning in front of them. As soon as it was green, all three were off, speeding along a winding track, hitting jumps and dodging through candy cane trees at one point. Finally, both pulled ahead of King Candy, passing several floating cubes a moment later.
Tyler looked back as King Candy smashed through a box, a cannon growing out of the nose of his car. "Cannon!"
Sazh and Lightning both swerved, several blasts of superheated chocolate fudge shooting past, followed by King Candy. Both followed after the king, Tyler summoning his keyblade and leaning out, smashing a cube. A jetpack flipped out of the cube into Tyler's lap. He strapped it to the spoiler behind him and hit the big red button with a picture of fire. The car lurched as it surged forward, passing Odin and gaining on King Candy.
Finally, after about a minute and a half, the flames ended, the jetpack shattering like glass. Within seconds, Odin had caught up, Lightning's own jet pack also shattering. Just as Odin caught up, they went over a jump, landing in a long halfpipe with boulders rolling across the track endlessly. Odin and Sazh began to swerve around them, barely avoiding them.
Suddenly, Odin was clipped by a boulder, spinning as Lightning almost fell off. Another boulder reached the top of its wall, rolling back down toward them as Odin tried to regain his bearings, apparently being dizzy.
"Shit!" Tyler swore, seeing the boulder. "Sazh, eject me!"
Instantly, Tyler's seatbelt released him and his seat launched him into the air. Tyler flipped, falling at Odin and landing in time to slam his keyblade into the boulder, which he noticed was frozen ice cream. He felt his arm shatter, but the boulder diverted, rolling past Odin. Tyler leaned over, grabbed Lightning by the back of her shirt as she grabbed the back of his. Then, he pulled, slowly managing to sit back up without his other arm, clinging to Odin with his legs and managing to pull Lightning up. Finally, Lightning swung her leg over Odin, instantly healing Tyler's arm, the arm remaining partially broken. Lightning wrapped her arms around Tyler's torso, holding him against herself as Odin chased the other two.
After a few more minutes, they reached the finish line, Lightning helping Tyler down before healing him again, managing to fix his arm the rest of the way. Tyler sighed, bending and straightening his arm, sighing.
"You have got to have the worst luck I've ever seen," Lightning said.
"No kidding," Tyler said. "I'm sorry about Atlantis."
"Atlantis?" Lightning asked, confused.
"When we fell off the cliff," Tyler said. "And you were stuck in the truck? I almost got you killed."
"The only thin you did was save my life," Lightning said.
"It was my bad luck that made it happen," Tyler said.
"No," Lightning said. "It was just some random shit. Now let it go. It wasn't your fault, and we have other things to attend to."
Tyler nodded, the two of them walking over to Sazh and King Candy.
"Well, that was less fun than I was hoping, but a deal's a deal," King Candy said, holding out a sort of tablet made of chocolate wafers.
On the screen, a man in a black cloak like their pilot's but with a normal height was talking to a second one.
"They're looking for someplace safe," one was saying. "A place where they'll be protected from the heartless."
"They should be pretty safe here," the other said. "Those soldiers across the way have already agreed to look after them."
"Yes, but how long will they last against heartless?" the first asked. "How long will they even stay here?"
"Not long," the second agreed. "I'm going to leave them to you. And don't forget. The Organization is hunting you. The next time we meet, we'll be enemies."
"I know," the first said. "Hopefully I won't see you around. You're a good man."
"You too," the second said.
Then, both disappeared into a pair of black portals and the footage ended. Tyler stared at it, then looked to the king.
"Soldiers?" Tyler asked.
"It's a new game," the king said. "Hero's something-or-other. Some first-person-shooter, I think. You can get there through the tunnel over there."
Tyler looked around, seeing a tunnel in the distance. He thanked the king, then left with the others.
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