Author's Notes: Hey guys, glad you like the fanfic so far. But before we get onto the fourth chapter, there's something I'd like to address. You might have noticed it, but anonymous reviews are no longer allowed. Why is that? Well, one anonymous reviewer unfortunately left spam that basically was a whole lot of demands trying to dictate how this story would go. So, instead of making a fuss about that, I basically had to clean up the mess quietly, which also led to the review box being a little less full than it had been.
So, I would like to make this clear. I already have a set direction for how this story will go, so no need to make large anonymous posts about what should be put in, okay? Not that you really should with another person's stories anyhow. That's only common courtesy.
With that out of the way, I would however like to thank my other reviewers for their kinder words. You guys are great and I hope you guys enjoy more of the story going forward.
As for Nesthor5000, well, like I said, I got a set direction for how the story will go. You at least get a pass since that was a question and not a demand, so thank you for your question either way.
And thanks to The Swordslinger for beta-ing my story. Make sure to check him out sometime. He's a great writer too.
Now, onto chapter four! Hope you don't mind this being a pretty wordy chapter seeing as this is more preparation for the next world and an introduction to the gummi ship than anything else. Nothing like a bit of expansion to get into world-building, no?
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With everything having settled down after the Guard Armor was defeated, the heroes and their new friends have made it back to Traverse Town after Sora used his keyblade to open the route back from the Third District with his keyblade. Leon and Yuffie stood before the group of nine with another woman by their side. A beautiful lady with green eyes and long, brown hair styled into a braid down her back with curls framing her face. Silver bracelets adorned her wrists while a loose, lilac belt hung around her waist with a black string tied into a bow on it. She wore a pink dress with magenta lining and buttons going down the front, all of which were buttoned except for the last two. A black string was tied in the same fashion as the one on her belt around her neck. Last but not least, she wasn't too girly as her outfit made her out to be for she wore a pair of practical brown boots.
Donald and Goofy were kind enough to explain that the brunette, a young woman by the name of Aerith, had talked to them about matters at the same time the group was talking to Leon and Yuffie. Fortunately for Jimmy, Leon and Yuffie took it upon themselves to explain their situation to her so he didn't have to. Personally, he felt that always having to explain it himself would get annoying for him after a while.
"Make sure you're prepared for the journey ahead of you." Leon told them. "We don't know how far the Heartless have spread."
"Check out the shops here." Yuffie encouraged that. "They've got some pretty neat stuff!"
"And here, this is from all of us. 500 Munny. Spend it as you see fit." Aerith handed Sora a whole bunch of the familiar yellow and blue orbs; the same ones the group would find when they were fighting the Heartless. She also added, "And this is from Leon."
"Hm." Leon of course closed his eyes and looked away as she gave the keybearer a very shiny, golden bottle decorated with moons and stars.
"Sweet! Another elixir! Thank you." Sora was grateful for it at the very least.
"Good luck!" Yuffie said last before heading to the nearby inn.
"I hope you find your friends." Aerith parted as well with that sincere wish before joining the self-proclaimed great ninja.
That of course left Leon with the group as he looked seriously back at them. What last parting piece of advice was he going to give them? Something about making sure to be well-armed? Perhaps a warning about being careful with the Heartless? Or maybe even looking out for the Syndicate in case they pose a threat? Well…
"Look out for each other." Leon told them all. "Keep your spirits up."
Short and straight to the point. It was surprisingly optimistic. The group watched as Leon joined with his friends over at the inn. Despite his cold appearance, he was indeed someone who cared about the well-being of others. Even if he sounded blunt or perhaps even uncaring at times. Leon was indeed an ally they could rely on.
"Awwww, he's such a soft serve~." Spongebob of course smiled at this part of Leon they got to see. "Good thing he's got nothing to worry about, right, guys?"
"Sure, but on an unrelated note, who knew they actually spell money like 'munny' here?" Timmy watched Sora put the 'munny' in his pocket. He also chortled as he followed up with, "Hey, maybe next time Crocker tries failing me for spelling, I can say that it's spelled that way in another world. Not like he can argue at this point!"
"Timmy, please don't get ideas." Jimmy told his friend. "Good spelling is important, regardless of the teacher grading your performance."
"Says the boy genius." The buck-toothed ten-year old rolled his eyes at that.
"Says common sense," was the retort.
"Hey hey, guys, no need to bicker when we just got this stuff, okay?" Danny cooled things down between the two of them.
"Danny's right." Donald agreed. "Now, the gummi ship is outside that gate."
Everyone looked towards the large door with the farewell sign above it. The group had seen it before in their rush to get to Cid's shop, but they weren't able to think much about it at the time. That being said, if it was the exit from this world to the space beyond, it would make sense how Donald and Goofy came to this world without needing a warp portal or experiencing their world being destroyed. But what Donald said before mentioning the gate finally registered in their heads. Did he say what they thought he said?
"The what?" Sora, Spongebob, Danny, Timmy, Jimmy, and Wanda asked at once.
"That's our ship." Donald was going to explain more, but Goofy cut him off.
"Wait 'til you see it!" The dog told them with a smile.
Donald simply shook his head at the captain of the royal knights before snapping one feathered finger.
"Hold on." The court mage looked to Sora before his hands began to glow a red light. "Sora, this is for you."
Donald then sent some of that light towards Sora, letting him glow a slight red as he felt a warm sensation fill his chest. The boy who held the key looked at his weapon in wonder as tried figuring out just what that amazing feeling he just felt was. Then he felt something burn in the back of his mind. Gradually, he figured out just what happened, and looked at his Keyblade with an eager grin on his face.
"Now you can use magic, too." Donald told him. "But remember, such power is not infinite. Magic uses up your mana pool. You'll have to stock up on ethers in order to keep your magic up so you can create those spells."
"In other words, to manifest the newfound function your Keyblade possesses," and Jimmy already came up with a scientific equivalent he immediately convinced himself with, "you'll have to use your Keyblade as a channeling system so its nanomachines can create whatever 'spell' you desire to 'cast'. I swear, whoever designed this weapon must've been a genius!"
"..." Donald looked unimpressed with Jimmy's reasoning and whispered to Timmy, "Is he going to be like that the whole time?"
"Yyyyyyep." Timmy answered, also unimpressed.
Donald muttered under his breath for a second. Clearly, dealing with Jimmy's disbelief in magic was going to be a chore to deal with. But he was the court mage. He could handle a few skeptics. He always proved them wrong before… er, for better or worse.
"Goofy," Donald looked back to his friend, "give him that other thing."
"What?" Goofy looked a little clueless as he looked at the duck.
"You know!" Said duck facepalmed.
"Oh, yeah." The dog chuckled before looking towards Sora and placed something in Sora's hand. "Here, this should help you dodge attacks a bit easier. It's an Ability called Dodge Roll."
"Ability?" Danny asked, feeling like something was off with that. "With a capital A?"
"Abilities allow you to do all sorts of things." Goofy explained. "Guess we should look for 'em along the way, huh?"
"Wait," Spongebob blinked, "there's an Ability for just rolling on the ground? Isn't that kinda the most basic thing people are able to do anyway?"
At that, the group stood silent, contemplating the fry cook's words. That was an incredibly good point. Wasn't rolling out of the way just a normal fight-or-flight response in battle? What was the point of having an Ability that just gives someone the… well, ability to do that? With that logic, the Ability in of itself sounded silly.
"...So, is the gummi ship made out of actual gum?" Cosmo of course asked a stupid question. "I tell ya, I hadn't had a good chew of the stuff in days!"
"Okay, is that it?" Fortunately, Sora took that as a cue to just move on and ignore the leaps in logic and common sense. "Let's get going!"
"Not 'til we're ready!" Donald told him sternly. "We should use that item shop to stock up on items before we head out."
"Well, I see big adventures coming our way!" Then the group heard a voice they didn't recognize come apparently out of nowhere. "Looks like it's up to me to keep track of it all in my journal!"
"Wait, who was that?" Timmy asked, looking around.
"Oh, right, I almost forgot." Donald then turned around, knelt to the ground and picked something up in his hands before showing it to Sora and the others. "This is our other companion who's coming with us."
The seven looked at the duck's hands to see not a thing, but in fact a very small someone. A cricket stood on the mage's feathered palm, a finely dressed one who stood on two legs. He had olive skin, thin black eyebrows, four-fingered hands in white gloves, and very formal attire. The outfit consisted of a royal blue top hat with an orange band near the base, a red vest with a single, pink button on the front, a yellow ascot, a black blazer, a high-collared white shirt, tan pants, and yellow shoes with black tips. For any rainy day, he also carried a red umbrella.
"Oops. Where are my manners?" The very small individual chuckled sheepishly before tipping his hat to them. "Cricket's the name. Jiminy Cricket, at your service. I'll be chronicling our adventures from here on."
"Cricket?" Danny blinked. "Uh, no offense, but you don't exactly look like one."
"Beg pardon?" Jiminy was confused by that comment.
"He's kinda right, Mr. 'Cricket'." Spongebob agreed. "If anything, you look more like a very small person than you do an insect."
"I do?" The apparent cricket looked at himself, checking his feet and his back. "Hm. Well, I never noticed that. But not sure what I can tell you outside of that being what I am."
"So where have you been this whole time?" Spongebob asked.
"Oh, nice and safe in Goofy's hat." Jiminy hopped over to Goofy's shoulder, also showing that he could at least jump like a cricket, and then hopped again into Goofy's hat. "Believe it or not, it's nice and cozy there. And you don't need to worry about explaining your part, boys. I've already gotten that written down."
Jimmy Neutron let out a breath of relief from that.
"Oh good. At least someone else appreciates taking notes." The boy genius was glad to hear it from the chronicler.
"So, are you from the same world Donald and Goofy are from?" Timmy asked.
"No, I come from another world entirely." Jiminy explained. "Sadly, my world disappeared too. It was terrible. We were scattered. And as far as I could see, it appeared that I was the only one to make it to Donald and Goofy's home, Disney Castle."
"So this phenomenon of 'stars going out' is really just the widespread destruction of worlds…" Jimmy Neutron tapped his chin in thought. "No doubt perpetrated by the Heartless. We'll need to act fast if we're to save our worlds from both this calamity of darkness and the Syndicate at once."
"Then let's start by stocking up at the item shop." Donald pointed out again. "We'll need them."
With that, the group walked towards the nearby item shop. As they were walking past the trio of Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith on the way there, Spongebob waved over to them and called, "Don't worry, guys! We'll also find those poor Dalmatian puppies as fast as we can!"
"Pffft…" Yuffie actually had to stifle a laugh as Leon looked a little surprised by how Spongebob just knew about that. "Thanks! Squall's been worrying nonstop about them!"
"Call me Leon." He of course tried shaking that off.
"You're really cute sometimes, you know that?" The Great Ninja Yuffie continued to tease.
"..."
"Thank you for being so considerate." Aerith smiled at the sponge.
Spongebob simply laughed and replied, "Hey, we made a promise to find them for their parents. We'll make sure to keep it."
After assuring Squ– ahem, Leon and company about their mission to save the puppies, he and his friends made their way inside the item shop. A rather small, but somewhat clean one-room with a weight scale up against the wall near the counter, a ceiling fan currently not moving, a few signs and posters and even mirrors attached to the walls. Pretty mundane, but it was harmless enough and could possibly make some amount of small business. Behind the counter were about four shelves containing items such as produce and medicine. But above all that…
"Hello Unca Donald!" Three similar sounding voices greeted at once.
"Wak?!" Donald exclaimed in shock. "Boys?!"
Standing around in the shop were three small duck boys similar to Donald himself. They each wore the same outfit. A shirt and a baseball cap. However, each one wore different colors. One red, one blue, and one green. One of them was sitting on the counter. They seemed to share Donald's eyes too.
"Ahyuck! Well I'll be!" Goofy said in pleasant surprise. "If it ain't Huey, Dewey, and Louie! How've you boys been?"
"We've been fine, Goofy!" The one in red, replied. "We recently just set up a shop here in Traverse Town. And we're gonna earn enough munny here to go on our own adventure."
"Wait, so you guys know each other?" Danny asked.
"Sure do." Goofy nodded. "These three are Donald's nephews! Huey's in red, Dewey's in blue, and Louie's in green. They often had fun with Donald whenever he had to take care of them back home."
"At my expense!" Donald shot at that, then he narrowed his eyes at the trio. "Also, what are you three doing all the way out here? Shouldn't you be back home?"
"Sure, but with the success of the ice-cream machine back in Disney Town," Dewey answered, "we decided to see if we can make it big in other worlds like Unca Scrooge has."
"And seeing as Traverse Town was the best spot for shopping, we decided to set up our item shop here!" Louie added. "I'm in charge of keepin' the shop clean. It's easier than our bedroom!"
"You don't say?" Timmy looked around. "Maybe because it's not your bedroom?"
"Hm. Maybe." The nephew in green considered that. "Oh, by the way, Unca Donald, Goofy, who are your friends?"
"In short order," Donald grumbled, "Sora, the wielder of the key. Jiminy Cricket, our chronicler. And Danny, Timmy, Jimmy, Spongebob, Cosmo, Wanda, and Goddard. They're basically joining in."
"Could also say the same about you guys, you know." Danny snarked, making Donald grumble even more.
"Well, welcome to our item shop!" The nephew in blue greeted them. "I hand-picked everything on these shelves. We carry only the best!"
"Sorry, Unca Donald!" Huey told his uncle. "No family discounts!"
"What?!" Now that annoyed the court mage for sure. "But we're trying to find the king! Why not give a discount?!"
"We're trying to run a business, not a trading venture. We'd lose munny if we started giving people discounts this early." Louie replied. "However, if you plan on selling something, we could give you munny for it. Unca Scrooge says that's reasonable business practice too."
"I swear, they're learning too much from Uncle Scrooge…" Donald muttered. "Speaking of him, why aren't you at his place either?"
"Scrooge is currently out traveling on business with Webby." His nephew in red answered. "Apparently he's helping her 'broaden her horizons outside of her dolls'."
"Was that really what he said?" Dewey asked.
"Eh, maybe not, but at least we don't need to make the shop all cute or anything."
With that shot, all three nephews chortled. Donald seemed to grumble while crossing his arms and Goofy only chuckled. To the others, it felt like they were left out of the loop on an inside joke. As such, all they could do was shrug towards each other.
"Anyway," the nephew in blue looked to the whole group and went to business, "are you looking to buy? Or maybe you have something to sell?"
"We're here to shop." Sora confirmed.
"Alright!" Dewey then stood up and went over towards their shelves. "Now, we got potions, hi-potions, and ethers for decent prices. We also got Tents if you need everybody back in good shape. As for weapons, we got staves and shields so you came just in time, Unca Donald and Goofy! For 300 munny, Unca Donald can have the Morning Star, which can make his magic stronger, though for 450 he could have the Warhammer, which he can whack people with but it's not really a magic thing. For you, Goofy, both at 450 munny each, we got the Smasher, which is small but packs a punch, and the Stout Shield, which is more defensive."
"Wow. That is rather pricey." Wanda noted the prices. "How much do we have?"
"Well, we got 500 from Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith…" Jimmy did the calculations in his head. "Combine that with all the munny we accumulated from those Heartless, and that should come to approximately about…"
Goddard of course finished his creator's thought process for him by printing out a piece of paper from his mouth. Jimmy then took out the note, pat Goddard's head, and looked over it like a receipt.
"1447 munny." Jimmy tapped his chin at that. "We could buy a few potions and at least two weapons, one for Donald and one for Goofy, with that. But then again, we'd have to consider how expensive the hi-potions and ethers are, not to mention the necessity of the 'tents'. I mean, are we really going to bother using the tents at any time? Granted, they sound useful, but they're more expensive than even the ethers. Not to mention buying a tent would also limit us on weapon purchases, so…"
"Or we could save money on the likes of healing items since we can apparently get them from offing Heartless?" Timmy suggested.
"Fair point. That gives us less options to deal with." The boy genius nodded. "In that case, that means we could easily afford three of the four weapons offered."
"So why not just buy that Morning Star staff for Donald and the two shields for Goofy?" The average kid no one understood went along. "Clearly he needs more magic– ahem, 'firepower' than he does attack power."
"You know, Timmy," Jimmy began as he looked towards the buck-toothed boy, "you seem to know a lot about how to narrow down options for the best possible ones. Why don't you use that to improve your grades?"
"Nah, this is totally different." Timmy shook his head. "We're literally just getting weapons and potions from an item shop like in a video game. You just have to know how to manage your money and work accordingly so you don't mess yourself up later in the game."
"But Timmy, a lot of that comprehension you use for games could easily help your education!" Jimmy felt like facepalming. "You wouldn't get so many Fs!"
"Oh, Crocker would find a way." Timmy recalled the many times Crocker would just give Fs just to be petty.
Everyone just watched this conversation go on, brows raised and eyelids blinking slowly. First, this was just a simple reaction to Jimmy Neutron mulling over what to purchase. Then it just became a reaction towards Timmy and Jimmy's conversation about school work. Donald could just feel one of his eyes twitching at the pointless conversation he was listening to. He didn't approve of them joining in on their quest to find the king either, and yet they still managed to just force themselves in because they were close to the keybearer.
"Um…" Sora of course took out the munny and put it on the counter. "Maybe we can get the Morning Star, Smasher, and Stout Shield, please?"
"Perfect! Now just a second." Dewey of course got off the counter and walked off to get the weapons.
"Ahyuck! That was certainly a conversation." Goofy chuckled after that.
Donald simply groaned, wanting so much to just leave this world and move along. He'd probably deal with more of this law-defying group's nonsense along their journey, but better than hearing it in a shop.
So, as they left the store, Donald held a new staff in hand. The handle was mainly blue with an orange wrap rimmed with yellow near the tip, and the staff itself was tipped with a gold star. In all honesty, some of the heroes would say it resembled more of a large pen than anything else. As for Goofy, he had two shields, one in each hand. In his left, a small, circular blue shield with a green fleur emblem gracing it. In his right, a large, yellow shield designed like a square bottomed with the lower half of a circle, black bolts embedded in the sides and bottom, and decorated with blue bars.
"Hmmm… Now what do ya suppose I go with?" Goofy was looking between the two shields he had. "I mean, both look good, but apparently one's better at defendin' and the other's better at attackin'."
"Well, seeing as defending seems to be your thing on top of offense, why not add deflecting blows to your repertoire?" Danny figured. "The Stout Shield seems good for that."
"Hm…" Goofy rubbed his chin, considering the ghost boy's point.
"Yeah, but the Smasher clearly has more strength behind it, right?" Sora was busy looking at the smaller shield. "Sure, it's smaller, but if it packs more of a punch, why not use it?"
"Huh…" Goofy was also considering the keybearer's point. Oh, just what to choose?
"You'll think about it when we're on the ship." Donald finally said before moving ahead of them. "Now c'mon, let's go already!"
Following the court mage, the rest of the group went through the doors, heading out from Traverse Town and into what appeared to be a vast expanse of space. Empty compared to even the somewhat sparse population in the 1st District, the entire place was similar to that of a docking garage. Outside of maybe one to two spaceships that appeared to be parked, it was one in particular that they found Donald and Goofy standing in front of. A ship… that appeared to be made out of blocks. Colored blocks for that matter.
Pretty simplistic in design. It resembled a red and yellow blocky fighter plane, with a bubbled dome acting as the cockpit, a cannon underneath the body, two engines shaped like missiles, and white fins. In the back, there was a pair of rocket thrusters.
"And here it is! Our gummi ship! The Kingdom. What do ya think?" Goofy showed Sora and company their rocket, letting the group marvel at it.
Well, almost all of them. Jimmy Neutron was busy just looking over the ship. Its blocky design was definitely something that was a bit out there in terms of tech design. And this was coming from the boy genius who could make a shrink ray from a TV remote and even a communications satellite out of a toaster. However, ignoring his own ego going hand-in-hand with his genius, Jimmy couldn't help but feel rather underwhelmed. Clearly, to Jimmy, his Strato XL was a ship of better design.
Either way, Jimmy felt it best to at least be gentle when it came to criticism. After all, it wasn't like Donald or Goofy invented it, clearly.
"Hey! Get offa there!" He heard Donald shout at someone. He noted Cosmo was trying to bite on one of the finns, but after a few failed attempts at it, Cosmo flew back and stuck out his tongue in disgust.
"The name is a lie!" Cosmo sounded bothered by the taste. "This tastes NOTHING like gum!"
"Cosmo, they clearly didn't mean it being made out of gum or even gummies." Wanda of course flew up to her husband. "It's probably just the name of the material used for the ship."
"That's right!" A very high-pitched voice confirmed. Then, before anyone could search for the source, a video-screen suddenly appeared in the dome of the ship, revealing two peculiar figures. Another high-pitched, yet slightly deeper voice added, "And boy is there a lot for you to know about handling one of these!"
On the screen was a pair of anthropomorphized chipmunks, and were just as small. One of them had brown fur over most of his body, excluding the fur on his face, neck, the front of his belly, and around his eyes, which was buff-colored. He had triangular ears on top of his head, a white mouth, and a black nose. He had three toes on each foot and four fingers on each hand. He wore seal brown gloves, each with a gold, horizontal line near the bottom. He also wore an apron of sorts with red shoulder straps secured to black buttons, while the apron itself was yellow with an outline of the same color as his fur. The yellow section sported green stitching lining the edge, and the other section had brown stitching. There was a slanted, blue pocket on the front of the apron with a red three-circle symbol surrounded by a yellow gear. He also had two teeth, set together, in the center of his upper jaw.
The other had two, bucked teeth in his top jaw, a larger, red nose, slightly lighter-colored fur, and a mohawk-like crest of fur on the top of his head. Unlike the first one's ears, which faced roughly forward, the second one's pointed in opposite directions, to the left and right. His gloves were also a lighter shade than the first one's, and his apron had the inverse color scheme; that is, the yellow section on his apron was buff-colored, and vice versa, the same being true for the two different stitching colors on the apron.
"Hey there, guys!" The first chipmunk greeted the whole group. "I'm Chip, and this is my brother Dale!"
"We're the operators behind the gummi ship!" The second one, Dale said. "If there's anything you need to know about how gummi ships work, just ask us."
"So a talking duck, a talking dog, and now talking chipmunks." Timmy Turner noted. "Going to guess you guys are from a world that only animals live on. Must be tough."
"What makes you say that?" Goofy blinked, not getting it.
"Um, guys?" Spongebob noted something off about the ship. "Doesn't the cockpit seem… small?"
Everyone looked up to the gummi ship's cockpit. Sure enough, inside the bubble-like dome, there only appeared to be three seats inside. And considering the group appeared to be 10 in all (not counting Jiminy Cricket due to his small size)...
"Oh, well, would you look at that?" Donald supposedly sounded disappointed, but it also sounded fake to those with enough wits to understand sarcasm. "Looks like there's only room for three people! No room for more! What a shame. Guess we can't fit everybody in."
"Gawrsh, now that's too bad…" Goofy, however, was more genuine with his disappointment. "Sorry guys…"
"Yeah, yeah, sorry, whatever." Donald of course waved that off and then went to, ahem, 'sympathetically' pat Sora's four friends on the shoulders. "It's too bad you can't come."
"Aww…" Spongebob seemed to be the only one of the group who bought Donald's act. "And here we were, ready to go on an adventure together, even after we did the F.U.N. song…"
"I wouldn't be so quick to throw in the towel yet, Spongebob." Jimmy pointedly avoided Donald's hand and walked over towards the vid-screen with the two chipmunks, inadvertently making the court magician stumble on his webbed feet. "Chip and Dale, was it? Since you two clearly seem to know about handling this ship, then perhaps you can tell us. What exactly is the material used for it? Judging by their name, they seem rather rubbery and elastic. Not exactly sure if that's a proper material for a rocket, personally."
"Oh, those would be gummi blocks, and they're quite special." Chip explained. "Back in the day, they used to be Star Shards; crystals shaped like stars that can teleport whoever uses them to other worlds."
"But since they did it randomly if the user didn't know how to use them, the king had refined them into a proper material used to create gummi ships." Dale added. "As you can see, the Kingdom here is one of the final products."
"A special interstellar material used for crafting spacecrafts, eh?" Jimmy sounded intrigued by this. Considering more, he asked next, "Then by that logic, it should be possible to modify this ship so it would have a more suitable cockpit for all of us to fit inside?"
"Oh, I don't think so!" Donald of course tried to deny that. "I mean it's not like we have spare gummi blocks on hand."
"Well it's a good thing I'm always prepared!"
And then, seen apparently coming out of the dome and flying along the top of the ship, a small figure waved up to the group from their small flying machine. A female, anthropomorphic mouse the same size as Chip and Dale, with long sandy blonde hair, light blue eyes, and a pink nose. She appeared to be wearing a set of mechanic's overalls colored purple and blue on her person, a zipper currently at her waist showing the top was a little open with a black tank top shirt underneath. Just underneath the zipper and around her waist was a tool belt with a pouch attached, along with a few minor belts just underneath it. A hole in the back of her uniform apparently allowed her tail to move freely. And on her overalls was an emblem similar to Sora's pendant, but sewed in as a patch on the left hip. Atop her head were an interesting set of mechanic's goggles that appeared to have four lenses, and on her ears were a set of earrings that looked like lightning bolts. On her hands were a set of large work gloves; both had belts around them, tightened to lessen the risk of falling off.
As for her little ship, it resembled a lavender block with a rocket thruster in the back. Orbiting around the ship was a small, white cannon that had its own little rocket thruster as well.
"Gadget?" Donald, Goofy, Chip, and Dale all exclaimed at once, surprised.
"Yep! Gadget Hackwrench, royal gummi mechanic, at your service." The mouse introduced herself properly.
"What are you doing here?" Donald demanded to know, getting more annoyed with all these surprises today. "Weren't you supposed to be back home?"
"I was, but it's also come to my attention that with all the Heartless appearing, they've started causing trouble out in space, too." Gadget told them. "Seeing as eventually, stronger Heartless ships will end up becoming a problem, I decided to join the adventure so I can help upgrade the gummi ship with proper specs and gummi blocks. Trust me, you're going to need them."
"Wait, you're the mechanic?" Jimmy had trouble believing that. "I could've sworn that Chip and Dale did that."
"No, we're just the operators." Dale shook his head, denying Jimmy's belief. "We basically just make sure everything that prepares the gummi ship for launch is set."
"That's true, and the system for that in of itself was all Gadget's doing." Chip explained. "If you want to meet the real brains behind the likes of gummi ship manufacturing, Gadget's the girl to look for!"
"Aw, thank you guys." Gadget appreciated the praise. "Now, if you guys just want to make it so you can all fit into this ship, I can help you out with that. Just hope you don't mind if I also recommend a few added improvements like a couple Laser Gummis, improved Armor Gummis, build in new Weapon Gummis, perhaps even some Wing Gummis for better maneuverability…"
"Look, we do not need–" Jimmy was about to politely refuse when one of those options suddenly echoed in his brain. "Wait, did you just say Laser Gummis? That's a type of gummi block we can use?"
"Sure is!" Gadget flew over towards the boy genius at that. "And that's not all! There are other Special Gummis such as the Drain-Gs, which can get gummi blocks and other items from far away; Esuna-Gs, which reveal hidden gummi blocks and such…"
"Hmmm… Interesting…" Jimmy Neutron grew more fascinated by what he was hearing. "Goddard, make sure to take notes. I'd like to know more about all these parts. I believe that if I figure out enough about them, we could potentially set up blueprints for more improved ships."
"That's a wonderful idea!" Gadget concurred. "Of course, I already got a few myself if you want to look them over."
"Really? That would be fantastic! While we're at it, maybe we can also start working right now?"
"Of course! We can get right into the Gummi Garage. From there, I'll just show you how to create a gummi ship. First, we'll need to build one by following the blueprints. Fortunately I brought enough parts with me so we can improve the Kingdom's cockpit…"
And from there, Jimmy and Goddard were in the midst of working hard with Gadget on the Kingdom. The boy genius and the royal mechanic were already talking at length over the process of Gummi Ship customization and building one from scratch. Obviously a ship couldn't fly without a Cockpit Gummi or an Engine Gummi. Jimmy had also found that the system's use of a three-dimensional grid had made placing certain blocks in a proper spot much easier to put them together, and manipulating the grid itself provided additional perspective to aid in that. As they went to work on the Kingdom, Sora, Spongebob, and Goofy all looked intrigued as they watched, Jiminy taking notes in Goofy's hat. Timmy and Danny were looking bored and just waited for them to be finished. Donald just looked annoyed, his chance of having unnecessary people not butt in on their mission foiled by pure convenience. Cosmo and Wanda were playing a game of cards, though when Wanda looked back to see how the ship was doing, she didn't notice her husband peeking at her hand before looking back, only to find him whistling innocently; at least she was smart enough to figure out what he was doing.
They all then heard Jimmy clearing his throat to get their attention. He stood in front of the ship, with Gadget just flying right next to him.
"Gentlemen, apologies for keeping you waiting," he said, "but without further ado, with the assistance of Miss Hackwrench, I give you… the Kingdom 1.1!"
And with that, the two showed off the improved ship… which appeared similar to its original design but it seemed longer. A couple Cockpit Gummis were built in, creating a larger single cockpit with nine chairs built in, rather than just the three. Outside of that, it didn't look that different.
"1.1?" Danny asked about the name. "Why not call it Mk II or something?"
"We considered that, but in hindsight, the Mk II would imply that we did more substantial upgrades to the original model outside of the cockpits." Gadget explained. "So far, we've only added an improved targeting system and a radar to detect incoming enemies."
"We've decided it would be best to put adding more weapons and specifications on hold until we've tested the Kingdom 1.1's current firepower, armor and maneuverability." The hero from Retroville added. "The best way to test this would be as we head on towards the first world on the map helpfully provided by Chip & Dale."
"Then let's not waste time." Donald decided to just push past Jimmy and get onto the ship. "Everybody on board, or you'll be left behind!"
"But I haven't even gotten to how we improved the ship's capture function!" Jimmy tried to tell him. But the duck was not interested in hearing it. "...Well, someone has no appreciation for the fine arts of rocket craftsmanship."
"I thought it was cool." Sora told the boy genius.
"Me too!" Spongebob agreed.
"Yeah, and you solved our chair problem!" Goofy said to him. "That's praise-worthy in my book."
"Golly, thank you guys! Just happy that we could prepare this ship for the dangers ahead." Gadget then flew her ship towards Sora. "And you must be Sora, right? The Keyblade Master?"
"Uh, yeah, that's right." Sora nodded. "Is there something you need, Gadget?"
"Give me a second, just gotta set this to auto-pilot…" She said, fidgeting with the controls.
Once she finished, she jumped right out of the ship and into Sora's hair, taking him by surprise. Gadget of course popped out and jumped onto his shoulder. Taking a moment to inspect the distance from the base of his neck from the shoulder towards his cranium, Gadget then jumped back into his hair. Sora giggled a bit, feeling a little ticklish from her moving around in it. She popped out once more and inspected one of his spiky bangs.
"Huh… so this is all natural." She mused. "I was honestly expecting this to be fake."
"What do you mean fake?" Sora asked. "This really is how my hair looks!"
"Well at least it's not a spiked mohawk." Gadget either ignored his response or just didn't hear him, still checking over his hair. "Surprisingly comfortable too. I just might have an easier time resting up here. You don't mind, do you?"
"Uh… I guess not?" Sora didn't really know what to make of it, but it wasn't like she was doing anything harmful on his head.
"Hey, now we both have little people on our heads!" Goofy laughed when he just realized the minor detail. This was punctuated by Jiminy tipping his hat in Gadget's direction and Gadget waving back.
"Will you get up here, already?" Donald's annoyed voice quacked at them.
"Coming!" Everyone else replied.
Thus, everybody got themselves situated in the new, expanded cockpit of the Kingdom 1.1. Sora, Donald, and Goofy sat in the front three chairs. Spongebob, Jimmy, Timmy and Danny sat in the four behind them. Goddard took one other seat, while Cosmo and Wanda… 'poofed' a fishbowl into Timmy's hands and turned themselves into goldfish living inside it, leaving the one remaining chair empty.
"Prepare for liftoff!" Donald announced.
"Wait, who's going to steer the ship?" The ghost boy asked, looking towards the steering wheel that vaguely resembled a heart with a gold crown probably acting as the 'car horn'. "Not like most of us have their driver's licenses, right?"
"Well, I drove a rocket once." Spongebob said. "It belonged to my friend Sandy. It uh… it kinda crashed a couple times."
"I steered similar ships a couple times." Timmy also answered. "They were mainly control sticks and buttons, though."
"Well, seeing as I helped improve the ship, on top of being an expert in rocket ships myself," Jimmy got out of his seat and began walking towards the steering wheel, "it only makes sense that I can steer us along."
"Oh no, you don't!" Donald then pulled Jimmy away from the wheel. "This isn't your ship, and I drove it here in the first place! I'll drive!"
"Actually," Gadget spoke up from Sora's hair, "I think if anyone should steer, it should be Sora. After all, he is the Keyblade Master. Besides, he seems the least likely to fight over it."
"Wait, are you sure about that?" Sora asked, surprised to hear that.
"Do you want to hear those two continue arguing?" the mouse retorted.
Donald just sighed and let Jimmy go. The boy genius dusted off the sleeves of his shirt with a slight glare at the duck before both approached Sora at both sides.
"I suppose it's only fair." Donald conceded. "We'll help you out with driving so you don't end up crashing the ship into a stray asteroid."
"And fortunately, I'll help you with navigating along with handling the weapon systems." Jimmy told him. "You just take the wheel and steer."
Sora looked between his two new friends, slowly getting up from his chair and walking towards the steering wheel and holding the two sides. His grip however was a little loose. Why wouldn't it be? He didn't look sure that he could really steer. Like the others, he didn't have any license to pilot.
"Don't worry. Steerin' the gummi ship is easy." Goofy patted Sora's shoulder. "Just move the wheel down to go up, and move it up to go down. Goin' left and right is more straightforward. You can even pull the wheel towards ya to slow down."
"Um… Like this…?" Sora steadily moved the wheel downwards.
And just like that, the gummi ship began to float up off the ground. Soon, it was high enough that it was hovering a few feet off of the dock.
"Yeah, that's it!" Gadget encouraged him. "Now, just push forward, and we're off!"
"Got it!" The islander, feeling better about his skills, did just that. "Here we go!"
And with that, the Kingdom 1.1 blasted away into the vast reaches of space! Their journey had, for sure, begun in earnest. As they flew on their way, Spongebob took the time to admire the space outside their ship. So many stars in the distance, no doubt other worlds in the far-reaching galaxy. And what he knew before as the black void of space was in fact an array of comforting blue, with auroras of green and yellow. The fact that space could be so colorful almost brought a tear to his eyes.
But of course, as expected it wouldn't be an easy trek through space without obstacles in their path. Having to avoid the odd formations that appeared, from colorful shapes and blocks to even peculiar blocks that were easily destroyed with the cannon, was but one thing to deal with. Indeed, the Heartless had their own ships to hinder their progress, trying to ram at them or even move in odd formations to avoid being shot at. But at this point, the Heartless were arguably easy to shoot down, and from their remnants were gummi blocks and even displaced blueprints for them to collect. By the time they managed to blow apart another group of asteroids in their path, Sora was more than confident in his abilities to handle the Gummi Ship.
"Leaping Leptons, look at all this!" And Jimmy too was ecstatic at all the materials and blueprints they have collected. "So much to work with, so much to research…! This is leagues beyond anything I have ever witnessed in the space around my world!"
Goddard barked in agreement with his inventor.
"More importantly, did you see all those ships Sora blew apart?" Timmy was more excited for the damage they dealt. "Boom! Bang! Talk about awesome!"
"Not bad for your first trip through space, Sora." Gadget congratulated him. "Great job!"
"Hey, thanks!" Sora smiled at her praise. "Thanks to you guys, I think I've gotten the hang of this."
"Look!" Spongebob pointed ahead. "New world up ahead!"
The group looked to the distance in front of them, and indeed there was a planet coming up on the horizon before them. In fact, a particularly odd-looking one. The world itself appeared oval-shaped, colored in red and pink squares bearing hearts of their opposite color within each square. On the top part of the world, there was a large hedge maze along with massive heart-like structures made out of rose stalks and shrubbery. Smaller, similar ones poked out from the planet's side. Near them was what appeared to be a large black and white castle formed like chess pieces. Protruding from the bottom of the world were a few large trees at home for a forest, along with a somewhat humble cottage with a chimney protruding from the roof.
"That has got to be… the weirdest-looking planet I have ever seen." Danny Phantom stated. "Do all worlds look this odd around here? I mean, it looks nothing like I would've expected."
"Well, what did you expect?" Donald asked.
"Something comparable to our worlds or something." the halfa admitted. "Like, maybe another alternate version of Earth."
"How would that look?" Goofy was a little curious about what this 'Earth' was like.
"Hooo boy, how to explain that?" Danny scratched his head, muttering under his breath.
"We'll talk about geographical differences of planets later, guys." Jimmy Neutron told the group. "It's time we disembark and begin our mission. Is everyone ready?"
"Aye aye, Jimmy!" Spongebob saluted. Then his salute reluctantly came down. "Um… how ARE we going to disembark?"
"That's… a very good question." Jimmy nodded. "Gadget, where IS the disembarking mechanism?"
"Oh, that's easy." Gadget answered. "Sora, if you would press the crown please?"
The Keybearer looked to the steering wheel, noting the gold crown in the center.
"This one?" Sora then pressed it without really waiting for an answer.
"That's it!" Gadget confirmed. "Alright, hope you don't mind a slight tickling sensation!"
And with that, the whole group found themselves being engulfed by light as the gummi ship flew closer towards the world. The light grew brighter and brighter until at last, the group all vanished. Their first world beyond Traverse Town was awaiting them. But did they know what it was they were going to be in for?
—-
A boy was waking up, finding himself on the cold, hard ground. With a groan, he shook his head as he got up on his feet, trying to get his bearings. This definitely wasn't his room back home. This appeared to be a gold-tinted cell in some kind of dungeon. And worse, there was his wooden sword hanging on the wall just a bit outside his cell!
"Hey, you finally got up, man?" He heard a voice addressing him and looked to see he apparently had a cellmate. Well, make that two. "You've been sleeping like that for a while…"
The boy looked at these two other boys. They looked younger than him, perhaps ten years old. The one who spoke to him was blond, had turquoise eyes and wore an olive green coat over a black shirt and jeans. He also had braces on his teeth. The other boy was an African-American boy who was bald, wearing a light blue sweater vest over a white shirt. He also had gray pants with black shoes. His pupils were colored blue. They seemed to be looking at him curiously, as if they hadn't seen someone like him before.
"Yeah, I'm fine." The older boy answered, scratching his head as he looked around. "Who are you guys? …And where are we?"
"My name's Chester. Chester McBadBat." The blonde child, Chester, answered, making the older boy raise a brow at the last name. "And this is A.J. We'd say welcome to Dimmsdale, but…"
"You can't really call it Dimmsdale when your crazy school teacher turns into a dictator and turns it into Slavesdale." The other boy, A.J., finished for him.
"Slavesdale…?" That didn't sound like a good name at all. Where even was he in proximity to the islands?
"What about you, stranger?" Chester asked. "What's your name?"
The older boy was about 13 years old. He wore a small, short-sleeved shirt with white sleeves, yellow hems yellow center, and white lining around the center. This shirt was open, exposing his chest. His hair was sandy blond and his eyes were blue. He had a small X-shaped scar on his right cheek. He wore unique navy pants with uneven legs, with his right pant leg reaching just past his knee, and his left reaching to just about mid-thigh. The left leg had a diagonal zipper on it, presumably a pocket, and he wore a black fanny pack with the pouch facing forward, showing another diagonal zipper. He finally wore sandals that were yellow and black, with the addition of pale green.
"Me? My name's Tidus." He introduced himself. "You wouldn't happen to know how close this place is to Destiny Islands, would you?"
The two younger boys looked at each other, confused expressions on their faces. They then looked back at him.
"We don't know any place called that, man." Chester shook his head.
"This is the first time we've heard about something like that, and seen someone like you." A.J. replied. "Could you perhaps describe which tropical island it must be?"
"Tropical islands?" Now that confused Tidus. Where was he even?
"Hey! Keep it down there, prisoners!" A deep, gravelly voice called from a higher spot. "Lord Crocker does not need unwanted disturbances while he is out!"
Seeing that unnecessary trouble was the last thing they needed, Tidus went close to the two boys and knelt down to their level, speaking with a more hushed tone, "So, who is this Crocker guy? What's going on here?"
"Yeah, you're definitely new around here." Chester figured before explaining, "Okay, so this place used to be called Dimmsale, right. We used to be students at Dimmsdale Elementary and were some of the unpopular kids. In our homeroom, we had this teacher, Mr. Crocker. Nasty piece of work. Gave everybody Fs and would genuinely just be crazy about Fairy God Parents existing."
"But then, one day, he suddenly had this entire army of monsters in tanks and heavy weaponry take over the entire town. Now he rules over all Dimmsdale, renamed it Slavesdale, yet still insists that fairies exist." A.J. added.
"How do you know they don't?" Tidus asked.
Chester and A.J. turned to each other. Not a word spoken. And then the two just began laughing their guts off! Tidus could only blink at this reaction. It's not like he said anything funny, did he?
"Fairies exist? You gotta be kidding!" A.J. laughed. "Man, there has been no scientific evidence to prove that!"
"You should've seen Crockpot try!" Chester said between chortles. "Bad photos, crazy inventions, he was the entire laughing stock of Dimmsdale before he took over!"
…Okay, so maybe there was a reason this Crocker put them in prison. Yeesh, he could get not having the greatest evidence to show, but darn. Either way, Tidus turned from the laughing pair of children and then noticed someone else in another cell nearby. A tall girl, he figured around his own age, powdering her face even in this dismal dungeon. She wore a lavender sweater with a lavender headband which held her raven hair back, and a white mini skirt with white matching boots. She had blue eyes and she also wore lavender eyeshadow and black eyeliner. All in all, a pretty girl.
"Hey, who's–" Tidus was about to ask, but then he found himself cut off.
The reason being everyone heard the sound of a wooden door creaking open, silencing the two boys in their laughter. They ended up holding each other closely as they shivered in fear, as if they knew what was coming.
"Ugh, do we seriously have to take this new twerp in?" The voice of a teenage girl complained, though her very voice seemed to make Chester and A.J. sweat. "He doesn't even look that special. Probably could be just some stupid tourist for all we know."
"That's because you're thinking too locally, girl." A more mature, sensual voice replied, making Chester and A.J. fret even further. "You're fully aware by now that there's life outside this dust ball of a planet. It should be evident by his appearance and clothes that he is not of this world."
"Well I say you're going way into this geeky stuff like this exchange student I know," the first voice replied, "but whatever. So long as I get to use the rack on him."
"...Welp, nice knowing you pal." Chester then told Tidus before hiding under the prison bed.
"Yes, for how short it was." A.J. concurred before doing the same.
Tidus could feel his eyelids closing halfway, unimpressed by the two boys and their cowardice. Then he found two figures standing right in front of him, on the other side of the bars. Both of them were women, but clearly one was human. The human girl was a teenager about three years his elder, with red hair with a ponytail, pink eyes, pink lipstick, an outie belly button, and she was wearing a short green midriff T-shirt, and black pants and shoes. She'd arguably be quite attractive, if not for the fact that her face promised torture and sadistic torment at her pleasure. The other woman was at the height of a human adult. She had yellow skin, elf-like ears, and a pair of curled antennae on her head resembling that of a butterfly. She wore an emerald-colored corset, skirt, garter on the right leg, and knee-high boots. She also had crystal earrings and a crystal headdress, and she wore black lipstick. She had long purple hair and green colored pupils. While she didn't seem to share her partner's intent of sadistic pleasure at his torment, she seemed more intent on him.
"Well look at that, the twerp finally got up from his nap." The human girl said with a mockingly sweet voice. "Did you enjoy your rest, little guy~?"
"Who are you calling twerp?" Tidus took offense to that. "You only look a couple years older than I do."
But Tidus was immediately shut up by the sight of a sword of flames right in front of his face.
"You shall only speak once you're allowed, boy." The yellow-skinned woman stated, holding the weapon towards him. "And mark my words. You will tell us everything you know about the worlds beyond our own."
Of course, under her breath, Tidus could only barely hear her whisper one thing he didn't get.
"Perhaps even about a boy in a mask…"