A/N Final part of Heroes Will Rise Chapter 2! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist (Brotherhood), Pokemon, Camp Camp, Psyren, Kingdom Hearts, DBZ, SAO, One Piece, Fairy Tail, Hunter x Hunter, Ben 10, The Incredibles, Blue Exorcist, Fairly Oddparents, Arrow, or any other media you may recognize characters and settings from in this story.
Nexus HWR 2.9 Where am I?:
Chhhh, dooff, schhh, do-doof, crashing waves slammed into a sandy shore and the riptide pulled them back out just as fast. shhhhhhh... DOOF! The next wave that crashed was much larger than those before it, slamming down into the beach with a heavy crash.
Water washed onto shore and the dry sand higher up on the beach was covered in it for a few seconds before the wave was pulled back out by the tide. When it left though, it forgot something behind on the sand. Flat on his stomach, lay a young man. His face was in the sand, slightly turned to the side, and his eyes were closed. The long sleeved shirt he was wearing was missing its left sleeve, and his soaked navy-blue sweatpants picked up sand that dried beneath the boy, making it stick to him. The sound of the crashing waves continued down the beach a little from where the boy lay, but no other waves reached as high as the stray one that pushed him up this far.
The teenager lying on the beach started to moan after lying in the sun for quite some time. He felt uncomfortable lying there, and he moved around a little trying to make himself comfortable. No matter where he moved though, he only seemed to make his situation worse as it felt like sand was attaching to his damp body. Damp body? He thought, slowly opening his eyes as he rolled onto his back. The boy sat up and stared ahead of him down a short few feet of beach before the water line where wet sand started. He watched the water come up with a wave and then go back out, and come back in again. Past the water line all he could see was ocean for miles until the horizon. Guess I got hit by a wave, he dropped back down on his back, planning on continuing his nap. As he lay back however, someone was leaning over him, smiling down with a small smile on her face. The little girl with short red hair and a white tank top on giggled as she saw his surprised expression. He snapped back to his sitting-up position and spun around, "Kairi!" As soon as he exclaimed it, he became confused.
Behind where he was sitting up, there was no girl standing looking down at him. Actually there was no one behind him, but what surprised him the most was not the fact that the girl he thought he saw was not even real. The most surprising thing was the sight of the beach behind him. It led straight into a forest full of incredibly tall trees. The trees were a hundred feet tall at the shortest, with long dark brown branches that went in all directions, and dark green leaves hanging off of them that made it hard to see past the front line of trees.
Sora got up to his feet shakily. He stared straight at the forest behind him, Where's the treehouse? And the waterfall? He looked left and right down the beach and his eyes opened wider at how long the beach went in either direction. This isn't the Children's Island. "Riku? Kairi?" Sora looked around and took a step forward, then almost fell as he did not expect the size step he just took. The boy with spiky brown hair looked down at his body, and besides the fact that he didn't recognize his clothes, he found it crazy how tall he was. "What is going on?" He wondered aloud, staring down at his feet which were not wearing any shoes, and looked bigger than the last time he saw them. They are bigger right? Bigger than when? He tilted his head to the right and closed his eyes. Where am I? What was the last thing I was doing? I was… that dream! That giant monster, it swallowed me up!
Chh-chh His eyes snapped back open and he stared ahead at the treeline where he could have sworn he just heard rustling leaves. "Hello?" He called out, taking another step towards that forest. "Whatever's going on here, I-" Sora brought both hands up to the sides of his heads and clenched his eyes shut in pain. In his mind flashed an image of Riku sinking down into darkness, holding a hand out towards him. Kairi flew his way and he held out both of his arms, in his mind he could see himself raising up both arms, but she slammed into him and went straight through. Then he saw himself lifting off the island and flying up into a black hole in the sky, staring the entire time down at the island below while it ripped apart. Chh-chh-chh, Sora's eyes snapped back open again and although he was freaking out a little, he managed to calm down enough to look totally confused at the creature hanging off a tree branch at the edge of the forest.
The little monster was holding onto a branch by its long purple tail. At the end of the tail looked like a white human hand, only with three fingers that were grabbing onto the branch to keep the monkey-like creature upside down. "Aipom," the Pokemon called over to the teen in front of it.
It stared with large eyes over at the teenager who smiled at it, "Hello there," Sora said to the small creature. Aipom tilted its head curiously at the boy who just tilted his head in response. "This is crazy," Sora whispered out loud, though he couldn't help but smile at the creature. He held out a hand towards it in an innocent manner, though it did seem to retreat a little, frowning at the boy with a very human mouth of its own. "Don't worry," Sora told the Pokemon, "I won't hurt you. Is Aipom your name?"
"Ai-pom, Aipom Aipom, Ai-ere, bad-pom, people here, bad. Stay away…" Sora stuck his fingers in his ears and twisted them around a few times. He thought he was hearing things as the creature suddenly started speaking to him.
Sora pulled his fingers out of his ears, but as the Pokemon kept talking he felt he could understand it. "Hey Aipom," Sora started, and the Pokemon's eyes widened itself. "Where are these bad people?" He looked past the strange monster and looked into the forest behind it.
"You understand?" the creature asked, dropping its tail from around the tree branch and hopping down the sand towards Sora.
The brown haired teen nodded his head, then as he was, he brought his hands up to his temples again. He clenched his eyes as his mind filled with not pain, but memories. He saw himself waking up in front of a yellow dog licking his face. He was walking around and a duck and different dog, both wearing clothing, fell onto him. "I'm Donald. Goofy. All for one, and one for all!" Sora's eyes snapped open, "Donald! Goofy!" He looked down at the purple creature in front of him as he remembered his friends. The Aipom was looking up at this teenager with a confused look, but Sora started anyway, "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know if my friends are here? Kairi, Riku, Donald, Goofy?"
The creature with purple fur just shook its head over and over. Finally it said, "Sorry, only people here are bad people. Stay away."
"Huh?" Sora questioned, looking behind the animal and into the forest behind it. "There can't only be bad people," the boy argued. He took a step but the Aipom leapt in front of him and started yelling about how he should not go into the forest. Sora smiled down at the creature and said, "Don't worry, I can handle myself. I'm a hero-" As he said it, he saw himself standing in the Olympic Coliseum, crowds cheering around him as he Donald and Goofy fought dozens of monsters. "I hereby dub thee, junior heroes…" He could see Phil's face as the goat man made him an honorary hero. He saw himself fighting those dark monsters, and he saw what he was fighting them with. Sora's face lit up and he looked down at his right hand, Keyblade. His right hand illuminated with light and Aipom leapt backwards, staring at the kid with a new look on his face. "See?" Sora asked Aipom, "I can take care of-" as he was about to say 'myself,' the Aipom started glaring at him and then turned around. It ran off into the forest and jumped up into the trees to swing away. "Hey wait up!" Sora called after it.
The teen ran towards the edge of the forest, but by the time he reached it he had already lost sight of Aipom. "Hmm," he hummed, lowering his Keyblade back down so that it vanished into a bunch of shards of light. "I wonder what upset him?" He looked into the forest and grinned, "Alright, Riku, Kairi, I'm coming!" He charged through the trees with a determined smile on his face.
Thousand Sunny
"What do you mean you can't find him?" Riku asked in an angry tone to the two in front of him.
Timmy leaned back a little nervously and he lowered his gaze from the silver haired boy. Nami stepped forward and in front of the child, "It isn't their fault," she scolded the teenager.
"I can't find him," Goku stated. The entire crew of the Thousand Sunny turned to the muscular man wearing an orange gi. The Saiyan had black spiky hair and normally looked like the happiest person on the ship, even during dire circumstances. At the moment though, his lips were flat, his expression serious. "It's as if," the man stopped speaking and looked over towards Kairi who was not far from Riku.
"How did this happen?!" Riku yelled around at everyone. He clenched his fists angrily in front of him while most of the others just backed away after his shout.
Nami lowered back down her gaze since staring harshly at Riku felt wrong at the moment. "It must have been during the storm."
"The storm lasted three days!" Ben exclaimed. "How could no one have noticed?!"
"Ben's right," Timmy brought up, floating up in the air a little so everyone could see him. "Me or Goku would have sensed it, so, I guess it had to be last night."
"I'm confused," Luffy stated, though he kept his voice semi-quiet as the mood seemed to call for it.
A few of the others closer to the pirate captain looked in at him sadly. Sanji put a hand on his captain's left shoulder and Luffy looked confusedly into the chef's eye that wasn't covered by his hairdo. Sanji had a cigarette in his mouth already lit, so he reached up and took it out before saying in a low voice, "If Goku can't sense his energy, then he's probably gone." He looked into Luffy's eyes and saw the other pirate still didn't get it. Sanji sighed and said in a more straight-forward tone, "He fell in during the night. Luffy, he's, dead."
Luffy's lower lip lowered slowly and his eyes bugged out three times their normal size in slow motion. He started shaking his head and then closed his lowered jaw. "No," the captain said in a firm tone. A few others who heard what Sanji said to Luffy looked over at the rubberman in surprise. Luffy cupped his hands to his mouth, "Listen up! Nami!" He shouted, and the navigator of the ship spun and looked over to her captain. She was surprised to hear him, and she and everyone else watched as Luffy reached back and grabbed his straw hat. He put it up on his head and shouted, "Turn the ship around!"
"Wh-What?" Nami asked confusedly.
"We're going to find Sora," Luffy said in a firm tone.
Natsu looked across the deck at the pirate and growled, "Didn't you hear what the May- what Goku just said?" Luffy looked right back into the Dragon Slayer's eyes as Natsu continued, "Sora's energy is gone. He's-"
"I never said that," Goku stated, and Natsu spun and looked at the taller man confusedly, as he could've sworn Goku just did. The Mayor of Pao town continued, "I said I can't feel his energy."
Gray nodded his head from next to Natsu, "So you're saying it could be like Metropolis?" the ice mage asked. A few of the others looked to him and Gray kept talking, "In Aebrith power blockers are not uncommon either."
"That's right," Dash said with an excited smile, the little boy finding some hope for the first time since find out what this discussion was about.
A lot of others started smiling too as they thought all hope was lost, but then a voice spoke up. "Hate to rain on your parades," they looked over to see Killua sitting on the railing in front of the kitchen. "Where would Sora have gotten one of these power-hiders?" His question made most of those who were optimistic lose those hopeful looks. The white haired kid continued, "I don't like it as much as anyone else, but Sora is-"
"He's alive."
Everyone turned over towards where Riku was yelling before and the teen himself turned around to look at Kairi behind him. She had her hands lifted up in front of her heart and she said again, "He's alive. I can feel him."
"Huh? Really?" Goku asked the girl a few feet away from him. He tried sensing out Sora again, but he still couldn't feel the boy anywhere.
"Yes, he isn't far away," Kairi continued. She'd been separated from Sora by entirely different worlds before. She knew what it was like to be away from him. The feeling she felt in her heart now though, was that he was closeby. Luffy smiled over at Kairi and she looked back at the rubberman right in the eyes. He nodded his head and then called out for everyone to start turning the Thousand Sunny around.
Killua frowned over at Kairi. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again as he saw how many people looked optimistic again. Jeez, you're all just fooling yourselves. She's just sad about her boyfriend and is stuck in the denial stage of grief. At least Riku made it to anger first. Wonder how long it will take them to reach acceptance?
Killua was not the only one doubting Kairi's heart. A few of the others looked over at the girl sadly, even as they listened to Luffy's orders and turned the ship around. Usopp stood next to Franky at the helm and Nami stood on the other side of the cyborg, telling them where to point the ship considering the path they took the previous night. "Oi," Usopp whispered, and the other two looked his way to see him staring off the bow into the distance. "What do you think the chances are Sora's still alive?"
His voice was pretty quiet, but Kirito and Sanji who were jogging by heard the long-nosed man's question too. Franky frowned deeper and Nami turned away, as she had tried not to think about it and just went with what Luffy said. After a second, Kirito spoke up, "He probably is." The four pirates near him all looked over in surprise, expecting the black haired teen to be the most negative in this situation. Kirito continued as he looked off the side of the ship, "I don't know where he is, but I doubt a storm could kill that guy."
"But Goku said-"
"And I don't doubt him," Kirito stated, cutting Usopp off. "And I have no idea where Sora would find something to mask his energy while in the middle of drowning," he continued. Kirito closed his eyes and thought about a conversation he had on this very deck with Sora the previous week. He thought about the countless worlds Sora told him about, about his amazing adventures with Donald and Goofy. He imagined the Underworld base where Timmy and Goku, and he, had lost, but it was Sora who defeated the leader of the base. Kirito chuckled under his breath and continued walking the direction he was going before, "But I believe in Sora. He's alive."
"Hey Jasper, wait up," Sora called out to the eight year old boy running ahead of him.
"You have to get away from here," the boy called back to the teen chasing him. "The people on this island won't stop hunting you. Father Cornello has them all fooled!"
"But I don't even know where here is!" Sora called over to the boy. The kid disappeared behind a tree and Sora kept running until he saw some light through a clearing. He ran all the way to the edge of the trees and stepped through them into a huge clearing. The forest continued in a large circle surrounding a large temple that looked to be in the process of being built. At the base of the temple, people were gathered, chanting and doing circles around a fire while a man stood on a risen platform above them. The bald man was wearing a headdress and a rag over his waist, but nothing more.
There were four people walking in from the right side of the trees, holding a stick between them with a person tied to it by his hands and feet. The man was screaming, while the other people in the circle kept chanting like crazy people. It was around sunset and the bald man on the platform called out, "Quickly now! This heathen went against the word of GOD!" He lifted up his right hand and a red rock glistened on his index finger. Out of thin air, a staff appeared in his hand and he slammed it down on the platform, making the people down below tremble in fear.
"Hey!" Sora yelled, and he started sprinting towards the people. The large group of people dressed in rags, with face paint on and chanting murderous chants, turned in shock to see a figure dressed much better than them running over. "Put that guy down!" He yelled at the four who were holding up the screaming man. He rose his right hand and in it formed a weapon out of thin air, the same thing that Father Cornello just did. Oh! That must be why Aipom was scared of me. "I don't know what's going on, but that Cornello guy isn't God!"
Cornello stared at the figure in shock too. Does he have a Philosopher's Stone too?! This is impossible! The priest who had brainwashed all these people into listening to him pointed his staff forward and yelled, "Another heathen! He makes a mockery of our faith with his falsehoods!"
Dozens of people turned and picked up weapons to charge at Sora with. He furrowed his brow and pointed his Keyblade over at the four people who did not put down their sacrifice yet. "Fire!" He yelled.
Sora's Keyblade started shaking, making the others charging at him slow down and stop. Sora himself was surprised at how much power was going into his weapon, and his mind suddenly flashed to standing in Merlin's attic, practicing his magic with Donald and Goofy at his sides. That's right, my magic is stronger! And I look even older now, wait, how old am I? Sora was not focusing on his magic, but when the giant fireball shot out of his Keyblade it was hard not to be surprised by it.
The fireball exploded at the feet of the men holding the prisoner, and they freaked out, running away while dropping the older man. Sora ran over and dove next to the man, slashing at his binds that came off when he did. Sora turned around and rose up his Keyblade defensively as five spears dropped out of the air towards him. He managed to block two, but three others crashed into him. He oofed, then opened back up his eyes as he realized those attacks didn't hurt him that much. His mind flashed again and he was standing in a room full of lava, facing off against a giant red genie. Again it flashed and he had a long merman tail, and he was swimming around an enormous octopus woman even larger than the genie. Jafar, Ursula, I've fought monsters much stronger than this guy! Sora smiled and took a step back towards Cornello, but he heard coughing behind him and looked down at the guy he freed.
The elderly man was wearing a dirty white shirt and looked like he was pretty messed up. Blood trickled down from the corners of his mouth, and Sora could hear angry shouting behind him along with his main enemy commanding the other people to attack. "Come on," Sora said, making a split-second decision. He ran at the old man and grabbed him by the dirty shirt, lifting him up with ease and continuing to run towards the forest while his Keyblade vanished into light particles.
Back at the base of the temple, Cornello was shaking with rage. He looked around at the hundred plus people near him and shouted, "GET THEM! DO NOT LET THOSE TWO ESCAPE THIS ISLAND!" No one can discover this island! It must stay hidden! Cornello lifted off the platform and flew up in the air, then lowered down to the ground. He was panting a little and he looked back at the temple behind him. His people were charging off into the forest, but he walked back towards the temple's doors. The temple looked to be under construction because he told his people that God demanded it be bigger, and they were adding more floors to it. He stepped inside the finished first floor though and walked to the end of the room where the idol stood on a podium.
Father Cornello pressed his right hand against the idol and the Philosopher's Stone on his finger glowed for a second. His mouth opened and he let out a deep breath of relief as the eye on the totem's head started to glow red as well. His body filled with strength and the false priest grinned before turning back around and walking away from the totem. He only took two steps, before lifting off the ground and floating the rest of the way to the door.
Sora kept running through the forest while holding the old injured man over his shoulder. The guy was conscious, but he looked like he had been beaten a few times before they were going to sacrifice him. "I'll get you out of here," Sora promised the man.
"Th-ank you," the man rasped out. He spat some blood from his mouth and looked in at the teenager carrying him. "Who are you?"
"I'm Sora," the boy replied. "And I have no idea where I am." He added, just in case this man thought he had a plan or something.
"Haha, ha, ha," the guy with gray hair laughed despite his injuries.
"How about you? What's your name?" Sora asked the man he was carrying away from the sounds of shouting.
The old man replied, "Oak, Samuel Oak."
"You sure this is a good idea?" Ben asked his best friend as Riku stood in front of him on the deck. The silver haired teen was holding up a belt covered in little red and white balls. "Without Sora here, they may not listen to you."
"We have to get more eyes in the sky," Riku told the boy next to him. "Now," he looked around at the other six on the ship's grassy deck with him. "Let's let them out."
Everyone grabbed a few pokeballs each from the belt Sora kept in the boys' room. Luffy released two of them by pressing the buttons on the balls, and little red lights appeared in front of him. A small yellow mouse formed next to a tiny green fairy thing. Pikachu and Celebi looked forward in surprise that Luffy was the one to release them. "Pika!" Pikachu yelled, and looked around for Sora who he did not see anywhere.
"Bi Bii," Celebi exclaimed, doing a flip in the air.
All around the ship, red lights lit up and pokemon emerged from the balls. Timmy was the only one of them who had seen all of Sora's pokemon out before, so the group still on the ship were staring around in surprise each time a creature appeared. Goku, Timmy, Rin, Kirito, Sanji, and Juvia were all out searching the nearby ocean for Sora, but none of them had returned with any positive news yet. When Riku returned, many of them had lost hope since there was no way Sora's closest friend would give up if there was any hope left, but Riku did not return because he lost hope.
The silver haired teen released one of the pokeballs and gawked at the sight of the red light that emerged from it. The light shot up a few hundred feet, and inside of it an enormous orange dragon appeared. The Dragonite dropped into the water and made a wave that splashed over the side and got all of them wet. It treaded water with the majority of its body over the sea and some of the people on the ship were starting to get nervous as they were surrounded by powerful beasts without their master.
"Ah! What is that?!" Usopp yelled as he looked at the dragon. He looked at the pokeball in his hand and took a few deep breaths. "It will be fine Usopp. You have the smallest pokemon in existence in your hand. Just believe!" He pressed down the button and looked ahead with hopeful eyes. In front of him formed a massive green Tyrannitar that made his jaw drop to the floor. It landed on the front of the Sunny and pressed the entire front of the ship down. "Go BACK!" Usopp yelled and pressed the button again, returning the Pokemon to its ball. He took a few deep breaths and stared at the ball in his hand in shock that such a monster lived inside it.
Around the ship, above it, and on top of it, Pokemon started yelling in their native tongues at each other. Everyone was confused with all of them shouting nonsense at the same times, but a voice echoed out around them. "Where is Sora?" The voice seemed to come from above even though they all heard it directly in their minds. They looked up where Lugia was floating with Mew doing circles around it, seeming to be looking for Sora. Lugia continued, "He does not seem to be here."
"He's not," the silver haired boy who came up with this plan shouted. Riku looked around, "We think he fell off the ship last night, and we need as many eyes as we can looking around for him."
Lugia's eyes widened and so did the rest of the Pokemon since they all understood Riku. Pikachu looked over at the side of the ship and the little mouse ran over to the edge, peering off the side at the ocean below. "Pika pii," he said, his voice sounding scared.
"Grr," Blaziken growled, marching over to the side of the ship too and looking out into the distance. "Blaze," it muttered in a deep voice.
"Bee!" Celebi shouted. The little fairy Pokemon floated over in front of Lugia and looked in the Guardian of the Sea's eyes. "Bi, Bee!"
"No Celebi, I do not believe Sora wishes that we turn back time for him." Lugia's voice echoed around and the group gawked at the little fairy that was suggesting turning back time. "I believe that Sora is still alive. We should find him." Celebi started nodding to the much bigger Pokemon, then flew off with Mew doing a flip and chasing right after it.
Lugia itself flew up high in the air, then pulled its wings in to its sides and dove down. The enormous Pokemon crashed into the water and dove straight down, going to look for its Master there. Dragonite turned away from the ship and started wading away, but heard shouts and cries from behind it. The giant Pokemon looked back and saw the rest of Sora's Pokemon calling out to it. With the exception of Feraligatr, who jumped off the side and started swimming away, the rest of the Pokemon jumped up on Dragonite's hand as the dragon reached it forward for them.
"Whoa," Usopp whispered in awe as every single one of Sora's Pokemon went off looking for him. "You think they have a better chance of finding him now?"
"Nope," Killua said. The long nosed pirate spun around and saw Killua sitting on the railing behind them. He didn't help release the Pokemon and he wasn't helping looking. "It's hopeless. You guys can hope all you want, but we're wasting time."
"Sora is alive Killua," Riku stated. He turned around and looked at Killua without the angry look the kid expected to look at him with. Riku smiled a little and said, "Kairi is right. If she thinks Sora is alive, then we should trust her."
"Why?" Killua asked him. "Why would we believe her?"
"Have faith," the older boy with spiky hair stated. "In your comrades."
Killua scoffed and leaned back, lying down on the railing. He's dead. Wasting any time on hope is foolish. It will only make you all the more depressed when you realize he isn't coming back. He sighed and stared up at the sky that was getting dark as the suns were already almost all down. Damn, and Sora was one of the ones I liked.
"Just a little farther," Samuel Oak told the boy carrying him over his shoulder.
Sora ran relentlessly yet did not feel the least bit tired. He looked down at his body and his strange clothes that he never remembered getting in the first place. As he looked closer at them, his mind flashed for a second to him standing at the top of a tower with Donald and Goofy. He looked older in this flash than the others and three different colored fairies flew over to him, waving their wands and changing him out of the clothes he left his home island in. The memory stopped and Sora started smiling, Yen Sid's tower. I remember it. And… that was after we closed the door. Sora came to a stop, his foggy mind clearing up.
"I know, it isn't much," the gray haired man on his shoulder said. Sora had no idea what he was talking about, but that was because he was so distracted by his own returning memories that he did not notice the small hut just between the trees in front of him. He walked over and heard coughing over his shoulder again. Sora looked to his right shoulder and the first thing he noticed was the splash of red on his own shoulder. The next thing was the pale face of the old man with blood speckled around his lips. "Sorry," Oak muttered with a weak smile, referring to the splash of blood on Sora's shoulder.
"Just hold on," Sora told the guy. He rushed over to the building and threw open the door. Sora ran inside and across the small one-room hut to a bed opposite the door. He lay Oak down carefully, "Mr. Oak," he whispered, seeing the guy cough a few more times.
"Haha-ha, please," Oak started. "Call me Professor Oak. Or, the Pokemon professor."
"Cure," Sora said, having pulled out his Keyblade while the old man spoke.
Oak felt his vision get a little less blurry and he stopped chuckling as much like he was on the verge of death. His eyes focused on the weapon Sora pulled out of thin air and his eyes narrowed at it. "Where did you get that weapon?" He asked darkly. Oak sat up and winced, but pushed away Sora's hand when the teen tried to ease him back down. "Young man," Oak started harshly, "do not tell me that you too have acquired a Philosopher's Stone?"
"What's that?" Sora asked confusedly. He held up his weapon, "This is a Keyblade." The weapon in his hands dissolved into light fragments and floated away.
"Hmm," the Professor hummed.
"So," Sora started. He grabbed a chair next to the bed and pulled it up next to Oak's side. "Why were they trying to kill you?"
"Ahh," Professor Oak sighed. "Father Cornello has the entire island fooled. What he calls the 'Word of God' is actually a Philosopher's Stone. I also discovered the formula for creating one of these stones. The main ingredient is," he paused for a second and then finished, "Living human sacrifices."
Sora's mouth curved into a deep frown. Oak continued without noticing the shift in Sora's demeanor, "There's something else he is hiding too. I don't know what it is, but he is capable of performing extraordinary feats and I know that no God is involved."
"So all those people with him," Sora began. "They're only following him because he's making them right?"
Oak hesitated and then sighed again. "At first they were. After a while though, I believe they truly started to believe Cornello spoke for God."
"So if I'm going to beat him I need to show the people he isn't really a prophet first," Sora muttered aloud.
Oak's eyes widened and he reached forward, grabbing Sora by the wrist. "Beat him?" He asked stunned. "Cornello can fly. He can lift people with his mind, pull weapons out of thin air…"
"I've faced worse," Sora said confidently. He remembered being on top of a pirate ship, fighting Captain Hook and flying around with Peter Pan. "Besides, I can fly too!"
"Oh, well then-ack, ugh ack," Oak started a coughing fit and some blood splashed out of his mouth.
Sora's eyes widened and he rose his hand to form his Keyblade. Oak held up his palm telling Sora to stop. "It's not something, you can fix," he said with a small smile. He looked up at the boy who was looking down with such a concerned look. "I'm dying," he admitted. "Long before Cornello's followers beat me, I discovered I had a disease. It's killed many people on this island. I'm afraid I've reached a stage where no amount of medicine can help me."
"I might be able to," Sora whispered. He looked sadly down at the old man, "There's no point in not trying."
"Yes there is," Oak replied. His voice sounded the same as usual, but it had a sadder mood behind his words. "I am an old man. Even if you were to help me, I will not last on this harsh world much longer. If only I could return to my world-"
"You know about different worlds?" Sora asked in shock. Professor Oak stared back at the boy confusedly, then nodded his head slowly. "Whoa," Sora said. "How did you learn about them? Did your world get destroyed too?"
Oak stared blankly at the teen for ten seconds before stating in a monotone voice, "What are you on about?"
Sora blinked a few times, and then his hands shot up to the sides of his head. He had another flash, but it was so much more vivid than the others. He and Riku were sitting next to each other, but no one else was around. The two of them were not fighting anyone, or trying to find a way to get home. They were just sitting on a gloomy shore surrounded by darkness on all sides. They sat together in that world of darkness until a sudden flash lit up in front of them. Something appeared inside the flash… The boy's expression fell and Oak became confused as Sora lowered his hands from his head. "Nexus," he whispered.
"Wow, when you said you didn't know where you were, you really meant it! Haha ack, ha-ack," Oak coughed up a storm again. Sora didn't care what the old Professor said anymore and he pulled out his Keyblade, using healing magic on the man again. The old man stopped coughing and he whispered, "Thank you. Sora, you are a good person."
"Thanks," Sora replied, a smile coming back to his face. "Now," he stood up out of his seat and a more stern expression came to his face. Oak's eyes widened as he had not seen the boy look like this yet. Sora recalled everything up until he got to Nexus. His memories flooded back and all of his experiences were back with him again. His Three Wishes Keyblade appeared in one hand, and a pure white one named Oathkeeper appeared in his left to contrast the golden one in his left. "It's time to teach Father Cornello a lesson."
Sora turned and started for the door. Oak stared at the boy's back and he started panicking. He sat up fast, "Sora!" he called out. The boy stopped at the door, but the Professor knew he would not be held back for long. "At least let me help you, you crazy kid," he said, standing up with an effort and walking to the left side of his mostly empty hut. Oak reached a desk with some papers on it and he reached for the desk drawer. He pulled the drawer out and grabbed two specific red and white balls that were inside it. "These are Pokeballs," the Professor began, while Sora stared closely at the objects.
"I'm Ash and this is Pikachu, he's a Pokemon…" Sora smiled at the sudden memory and interrupted the Professor. "I know what're in them."
Oak looked surprised for a second, then just chuckled and nodded. "Of course you do," he said. He walked over and handed them to Sora carefully. "They will help you stop Cornello."
"Are you sure I can have them?" Sora asked the Professor.
"You saved my life," Oak rasped out. He started coughing again but stopped himself long enough to finish, "I want you to watch over them, when I'm gone."
"Well, don't let that be too soon, okay?" Sora asked. He stood up fully and looked at the two pokeballs in his hands while Oak sat back down on his bed. "I promise," Sora began, pocketing the pokeballs and looking back at the Pokemon Professor. "I'll stop Cornello."
"I, believe you will," Oak whispered back.
Sora turned and sprinted out of the hut as fast as he could, which was much faster than he thought he could. Memories of Nexus kept rushing back to him and he ground his teeth in pain as his head was hurting. He felt like he had remembered everything, except he had no idea if he really did since he did not know how he got to this island. He didn't remember why he would be out on the ocean either, to get stuck on an island in the first place.
What is going on?
Kirito looked up at the sky in the west and watched as the third and final sun hit the horizon. He was in the middle of the ocean with no one else around him, standing on top of his Red Gyarados's head. "Alright big guy," Kirito began and looked down at his dragon's face. "Let's head back to the ship. Remember where it's anchored?"
"Raa," Gyarados roared in response. It turned and started swimming off the direction they came from so Kirito assumed that was a 'yes.'
As his large red Pokémon carried him over the water he kept looking around in the off chance he would see a boy swimming around out here. "Come on Sora," Kirito mumbled under his breath. "I refuse to believe you died in such an insignificant way. You are by far the craziest person I have ever met." The teen looked straight up and whispered, "A magical multiversal weapon chose you as its wielder and with it you saved the multiverse, twice." He thought about all the stories Sora told him when they both woke up from nightmares the night before going to Atlantis. "There is no way you drowned."
But Goku said his power was missing. How would Sora have gotten something to mask his energy in the middle of the ocean? Why would he have even done it? Wouldn't he want us to find him… if he was still alive? Kirito shook his head trying to get rid of his doubts, and he saw the Thousand Sunny getting closer to him. His Gyarados carried him all the way up to the edge of the ship and Kirito hopped down as his Gyarados's head was taller than the ship's deck. He turned and called back his Pokémon, then turned around and saw five people staring at him waiting for some news.
"Nothing," he said, and they all sighed and continued on their way.
Gray was in the middle of a heated conversation with some pirates up on the bow and Kirito decided to head up there and see what the commotion was about. He climbed up the steps and heard Luffy finishing, "Until we find Sora, we're not going."
"We'll be here forever then," Gray growled back at him. Luffy frowned at the ice mage and Gray said, "I'm sorry Luffy, but everyone's just pretending they think he's still out there. We all know that Sora didn't magically find a way to hide his energy when he fell off the ship."
"You don't know-" Nami began.
"So give me an explanation as to what happened," Gray told her. She opened her mouth, but came up blank. "That's right," Gray said. He looked around at the other two pirates up there and neither Franky nor Usopp had an explanation either. Gray turned back to Luffy, "We have somewhere to be. I've been compliant with the leisurely way in which we're getting there, but this is a pointless break and we're actually going backwards."
"You just want to leave Sora?" Kirito asked, stepping forward and glaring at Gray.
Gray spun to see the younger man walking up to him. He shook his head a few times, "I don't want to, but I've already accepted the reality. We aren't leaving anyone behind. He's gone."
All of the others heard how Gray's voice became sadder towards the end. He put his hands in his pockets and started walking away from them, "I know you all think so too. Sooner or later we'll have to leave, and someone's going to have to break it to Kairi."
"Registeel, use stomp!" Sora shouted as he flew through the air at his opponent. The enemy in the sky laughed and flew out of the way as Sora charged him. He spun as he flew by the man though and he pointed Oathkeeper at him, "Gravira!" A ball of black formed above his enemy's head and for the first time since he appeared, the man stopped laughing.
On the ground, Registeel stomped his large foot down at the bald chubby man in front of him, but Father Cornello held up his right palm and stopped the attack before it hit him. He was struggling to hold back the huge Pokémon, and as he held it, a smaller creature was standing behind him. "Use Metronome, Togepi! Sora shouted as he flew down towards where his black gravity magic was dropping the stronger opponent.
Togepi shimmered light as it shook its pointy hands and did a little dance. Cornello looked back confusedly at the tiny egg shell with a face sticking out of the top of it. "What do you expect this thing to-"
Togepi opened up its mouth and a huge beam of white light shot out. The Hyper Beam flew into Cornello who tried putting up a forcefield behind him but it got smashed straight through. He was thrown into the taller, silver Pokémon behind him with seven red eyes in the center of its body. It wrapped its arms around Cornello and Sora shouted, "Great, now-"
"Raa!" the man Sora was swinging his Keyblade down towards glowed white for a second and jumped back out of Sora's range. He had on a gray beanie that covered up the top half of his face making it look like he could not see. He had long light-silver hair falling straight down his back and at the sides of his head so it fell to his waist. He wore a white cloak that covered his legs and had long sleeves, along with a strange head-piece that curved up behind the top of his head almost like a hood except it did not curve over the top of his head but stopped when pointing straight up. The man grinned a mouth full of white teeth and said, "Alright brat, you're starting to get on my nerves. Dholaki's going to show you why you never should have come to this island."
Dholaki put his right hand out in front of him and the ground around Sora lit up. He barely had a second to react, and as he screamed and the ground exploded, he heard Dholaki shout at him, "Explosia!" The white explosion ripped up the ground and Sora crossed his arms inside it. When the explosion faded, Sora snapped his eyes open and glared forward at the psychicer who lost his smile. "What the Hell?" Dholaki muttered as Sora lowered his arms back to his sides and held his Keyblades in a ready position.
"Registeel, use Take Down," Sora commanded. He did not turn around, but he felt the ground under his feet shake and heard Cornello yell out in pain.
Sora just kept staring into Dholaki's beanie where he assumed the man's eyes were hiding behind it. "Listen to me!" Sora shouted. He stood in a huge open area that was only illuminated because of the torches set up all around the surrounding treeline. All the people hiding just outside the clearing looked in and saw Sora standing there in the middle of the field. The boy came charging out of the woods a little while ago and started kicking Cornello's butt, only for Cornello to call out for "God's" help when he started losing. "God" showed up and now Cornello was down and this teenager was facing off against the man Cornello had them worshipping all this time. Now that they finally saw him, he certainly did not look like a God, but his ability to make the ground explode just by pointing his hand at it made most people not willing to say differently.
"Cornello was not a priest, and Dholaki is not a God! And I'll prove it to you!" Sora's body lifted off the ground again, but instead of flying towards his enemy, his body covered in bright white light. Final Form should show this guy who's boss. Sora felt himself transforming, but his clothes were not turning white, and he did not gain Keyblades that would fly over him. Instead, his entire body surrounded in a black veil that pressed against his body. When the white light was gone, people backed up in fear at the sight of the black creature with the same spiky hair that Sora had, but that was the only similarity between the two. The black creature had no clothes, no weapons, it was just a pitch black form with long tendrils of darkness seeping off of it.
Wasn't going for Anti-Form, but whatever. Sora thought, and then his mouth curled open. His mouth glowed white and even Dholaki felt unnerved by it. Now I need to show these people that they are not Gods. I need to kill them in front of everyone. Sora took a step forward and then what he just thought echoed in his mind and he froze. What the Hell was- In his mind something else flashed, a vision tainted with a black veil of darkness in his mind. He saw people screaming and shooting at him, and dying as the him in the memory ripped through them. He started panting and the Anti-Form Sora was confusing everyone around him who thought he was about to start attacking Dholaki.
Dholaki decided he had had enough. He rose up his hands and put his right hand on top of his left. Then, he spread apart his hands and a ball of white light appeared in the middle. The further he spread his hands the bigger the ball became, and a smaller black condensed core grew in the middle. It grew huge, and then all at once shrunk into the size of a baseball, though the black core in the middle kept spinning around like it was as strong as it was when it was huge. "Condensed, EXPLOSIA!" Dholaki shouted.
As the ball of light got close to Sora, the dark figure who was hesitating snapped open its white eyes. It shot forward and jumped right over the ball of light flying at it. Dholaki's eyes widened as Anti-Form Sora shot towards him like a missile. The ball of light exploded where Sora just was, but Sora was faster than the explosion's edge and shot towards Dholaki without looking back. The taller man tried dodging to the left but Sora spun around in midair with his black tendrils spinning around him. They whipped into the psychicer and then Sora slashed his claws across Dholaki's chest.
"Raah," Dholaki got thrown backwards. All the people watching from behind trees stepped out. The explosion Dholaki made was huge and scary, but they just watched him yell out in pain.
"He hurt him," a woman whispered. She blinked a few times and muttered, "A God couldn't get hurt by just anyone."
"We've been lied to," a man called out.
"I always knew it!"
"What if that kid is actually a God too?" someone else shouted.
"No! Oak must have been right! Cornello was tricking us with that power of his!" The people around the trees started moving in and a few of them were lifting up the spears that Cornello made them chase Sora and Oak around the island with before.
Sora ran at Dholaki who glowed white again and started hitting him back. Some of his hits made Sora get knocked back and tumble away, but the kid kept getting back up. He kept running around at Dholaki and slashing him with his claws, but Dholaki could see the kid was getting tired. Sora was charging him at one point, when his body glowed white and all of a sudden he transformed back into his normal self. He stood there in tattered clothes with scratches all over his body since he could not heal while in Anti-Form. He lifted up his right hand and his Kingdom Key formed in it. The silver Keyblade with the yellow hilt pointed up and Sora called out, "Cure!"
His cuts and bruises vanished and Sora smirked across at his opponent who was still panting while he felt just fine. Dholaki snarled at Sora, then snapped his head right and a spear just missed its mark. It came so close actually that Dholaki's right cheek got a cut on it and the man started to shake in rage. The people around them may not have thought him a God anymore, but a lot of them were still terrified of him, and Dholaki spun his head to glare at the man who threw the spear at him. The man in rags stepped back afraid, but he gulped and kept glaring at the creepy enemy with strange powers who pretended to be their God for so long now.
"Get out of here Dholaki!" Sora shouted at his opponent. "The people know you aren't a God anymore! And take Father Cornello with you. The two of you are done tormenting this island."
Dholaki heard a lot of shouts of agreement coming from around them and he snarled in fury. Then, his snarl vanished and a grin came to his face instead. "Take that fool with me? You must be joking," Dholaki laughed and his body surrounded in a white glow much brighter than any before. It turned into a bright sphere of white light surrounding his entire body and five feet in every direction around him. "If I am no longer revered as a God, I lose the power that comes with it! In that case, what need do I have for any of you?"
Sora had a terrible feeling in his gut. Dholaki laughed and the aura surrounding him grew larger. "Everyone get back!" Sora shouted as he himself charged Dholaki.
Dholaki's aura started to bubble and all at once hundreds of beams of light shot out from him in every direction. "STARSHIP EXPLOSIA!"
"Riku, we looked all day," Ben whispered to the older teen.
"I'm not giving up," Riku said. He kept his arms crossed and kept frowning at the two in front of him. "If Kairi says he's still alive, then I'm going to believe her."
"That's why we're here Riku," Ben said. Riku looked down at his younger friend, and then next to him at Luffy who had a shadowed look over his face. Ben continued, "We, want you to be the one who tells her."
"Tells her what?" Riku snapped.
"That Sora's dead," Ben replied softly. Riku was shaking and Ben continued, "She's not accepting it, and because of that neither are you. You know though Riku, Timmy and Goku can sense our individual friends in Pao, all the way in Metropolis, around the entire world." Riku ground his teeth and looked away as his younger friend finished, "Why wouldn't they be able to feel Sora?"
"Because," Riku snapped. He glared back at Ben, and then after a few seconds his gaze softened. "It doesn't matter why," Riku said. "There has to be a reason. Something that we're not considering. I know the chances that Sora somehow found a power blocker and put it on are slim, but maybe there's another reason."
Ben did not say anything, but Riku could see the thirteen year old was pitying him. "I mean it Ben," Riku said in a more serious tone. "I'm going to keep looking." He turned and without another word he leapt off the ship and started flying away.
The younger boy reached his left hand after him, then sighed as Riku was already gone into the night. He turned to Luffy next to him who was staring down at the floor with his black hair shadowing his eyes. "Now what do we do? Riku was supposed to tell Kairi, but-"
"I've got it," Luffy said. He turned and started walking away.
"Are you sure?" Ben asked. "I mean, shouldn't her friend-"
"I traveled with Sora and Kairi for half a year," Luffy said and glanced back at Ben who turned away with a small look of guilt on his face. He always noticed Luffy looked a little closer to Sora than to most other people who were not actually on his crew. "After that day we found them," Luffy explained and Ben nodded his head.
"I know," Ben said. Luffy looked at him confusedly and Ben took a deep breath. It was pitch black out, so late in the night that it felt more like morning already. They had been outside for long enough though that their eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and Luffy could see the guilt on Ben's face. He looked up and stared into Luffy's eyes, and said, "A few months, after that day Riku fell to the darkness, I saw you." Luffy's eyes opened wide and Ben continued, "When, when I saw Usopp wasn't with you three, I didn't think you would want to see me. I thought you would think I was a coward since I didn't stay and help you fight Ansem. So, when you turned and shouted into the bushes, I ran off."
Luffy frowned at the kid in front of him. He turned around and started walking away, but spoke up, "You weren't a coward on that day, since your grandpa knocked you out and took you away against your will." Luffy kept talking as he rounded the corner in front of Ben and left his sight, "You were a coward, because you didn't come out of the bushes." He kept walking without looking back to see how Ben took what he said. It was harsh, but he meant it. I would have wanted to see you back then. I wanted to know if you three made it out alright.
The pirate captain walked around the cabin and was going to head to the door and head inside, when he spotted the person he was looking for up at the bow. The ship was currently anchored so no one was at the helm behind her, and when Kairi felt the footsteps coming up to the bow she turned around. She smiled and said, "Hello Luffy," before turning back and staring out over the ocean.
Luffy walked all the way up to her side, and he turned to see the smile on her face. The smile he wanted to believe was just an excessive amount of hope. The smile of denial.
"Kairi," Luffy began.
"You know," Kairi started. She interrupted him but kept staring out at the ocean. The auburn haired girl continued, "I am worried about him. Everyone sees me smiling and thinks I have this blind hope that Sora is okay, but just because I know he's alive, doesn't mean I know he's doing alright." She lifted up her hand to her heart and whispered quieter, "Just a little earlier, I felt a pain in my heart and knew something must have happened to him. I don't know what it was, but I'm worried about him Luffy."
"How?" Luffy whispered. He looked out over the same water Kairi was looking over and he asked, "How can you know, that he's alive out there?"
"I just do," Kairi responded.
"No," Luffy muttered. He turned to Kairi and stated, "Tomorrow, we're going to have to keep going."
"Why's that?" Kairi asked.
"Well, because we have to get to Aebrith. I want to find my crew, or find out what happened to them," Luffy said.
As he said it, Kairi went, "Ahh, I see." Luffy became confused by her statement and after she said it she looked into his confused eyes, "Is that why you don't believe me?" Luffy's own eyes widened and Kairi continued, "Because you don't know whether or not Zoro and Chopper are okay?" Luffy lowered his bottom lip and Kairi turned back out over the water. "I'm sorry Luffy. I know it must be hard not knowing what's been happening to them all this time, but don't worry-"
"Don't worry?" Luffy asked incredulously. He was starting to get a little angry and he clenched his fists at his sides. "I didn't get to see my crew for two years, and then right after I got reunited with them, we got separated again. And now, I haven't seen Zoro or Chopper in over two more years. I don't know where they are, or if they're alive, or if just like Sora, they-"
"Luffy," Kairi began in a serious tone. She turned to him and put her hands on her hips. He stopped talking as he saw Kairi frowning at him, one of her rare, very rare, frowns. "Why do you think Sora is dead?"
He looked at her questioningly, wondering if she was serious with the question. Thinking he was dead seemed to be the common thought of most people on the ship, and they all had logical reasons for why they thought so. The real question to him seemed to be, 'Why do you think he is alive?' Kairi looked like she wanted an answer though so he started, "Well, Goku and Timmy can't feel his energy."
"Okay," Kairi said. "But Goku even said that that does not mean he is dead."
"Yeah, but then why can't they feel him?" Luffy asked.
Kairi shrugged her shoulders at him, but her mouth curled back up into a smile. "Luffy, the only evidence that anyone here has that Sora is gone is what you just said. And that's not really evidence at all. There's no proof. But everyone is still so quick to give up on him, after just a day, or less for most of us." She looked him in the eyes, "Why do you think that is?"
"Huh?" he questioned, confused at what she was asking.
"Why do you think everyone is so quick to give up on Sora?" She asked. Seeing that he did not have an answer, she had one for him. "They do it because they don't know him like you and I do. They do it because they don't have the same faith that you and I do. And Luffy, I know you have faith. Out of everyone, you should know best that no matter how impossible the chances might seem, good things do happen." Luffy's eyes started to widen larger and Kairi nodded her head, "You thought you were all alone here after Usopp, but then we found Brook. And after that day with Tetsuo, you were devastated. We never gave up though. No matter how unlikely it seemed, we kept pushing on, and we found your crew Luffy. Back then we didn't have any evidence that they were still alive either."
Luffy started nodding his head and Kairi smiled at him before looking back out over the water. "I'll be alright Luffy. I'm more worried about you." She glanced back at him, "I know how close you and Sora are, so I don't want you to have to grieve for him. I can already tell Riku is, and he's going to be so relieved when we find Sora, but I would rather you just be able to laugh it off and say, 'I knew it all along.' Okay? Just keep believing Luffy. You never cared about the logical reasons before anyway," she said and started laughing.
Luffy began to laugh too, and he nodded his head some more. "Yeah," he said. He shook his head around a few times and slapped himself on the cheeks. "What am I doing? Let's keep looking for him tomorrow."
"Got it," Kairi agreed and nodded back at him.
The next morning, the crew had all gathered up on the deck. Kirito was going to head out to go searching the nearby ocean on his Red Gyarados again, but most people around him were arguing about getting on the way.
"His Pokémon never came back last night," Nami said sadly. "Guess their loyalty was to Sora and not his pokeballs," she looked over at the pile of pokeballs stacked up next to the wall behind the swing-set on the grass deck.
"Maybe they didn't come back because they found him," Dash offered.
"Yeah, and why wouldn't they come back with him?" Sanji asked the younger blond next to him. He had a cigarette in his mouth and he continued, "I searched all over the sky yesterday, Goku, Timmy, Rin, and Riku did too. We didn't see any islands for miles. The closest ones were inhabited, but Sora was not on any of them."
"Hey Luffy," Ben hissed at the taller man on his right side. He looked to the port side where Kairi was staring out over the water and then turned back to the pirate captain. "What gives? Weren't you going to tell her about Sora? And didn't you say we were going to leave this morning?"
"Sora's still alive," Luffy stated. Ben sweatdropped at the reversal of attitude from last night. Luffy was more his cheery self than ever and the others frowned at the captain who ultimately decided their destination.
"So what? Are we going to just sit here until you decide he's not anymore?" Someone asked behind Luffy. He turned and saw Killua leaning back against the wall with a frown on his face. "I have places to go search for my friend other than this boat. How long do you think you're going to keep grasping for straws?"
Luffy opened his mouth, but another kid spoke up on his left first. "Killua's right," Timmy said. "I'm a genius, and the odds that Sora is alive are slim to none. I would give you a percentage but I would have to say several zeroes after the decimal's place before hitting a single number. There's a one in a hundred million chance that-"
"Hey look!" Kairi shouted.
Everyone on the deck spun to the port side and they all jogged over at the same time. Eighteen people and a cat stared off the port side of the ship and stared two miles over the ocean at something strange going on on the water. There was a weird shimmering in the air and all of a sudden the water underneath the shimmering started to disappear. In place of the water, became an island. The island was not huge. They could see the eastern and western sides of it from the south, and both sides were probably only about a few miles apart, maybe half a dozen total. The island was covered in trees, and surrounding the island all around it were these strange buoys in the water.
"Oh my God," Gray muttered as he stared at the buoys. "Those are, the same buoys that surround all of Aebrith." The others would have looked at him if they were not too busy staring at the island in awe. Those buoys in the water were smoking, and more of them were bursting into flames every second. There was a boy on shore pointing a weapon in the shape of a key off of the sand and firing it at buoys, while all around him giant creatures shot flames, water, lightning, or beams of light into other buoys all along the shoreline.
Killua stared at the island with eyes as wide as saucers. There's no way! How? Even if that place, the chances, how?! He kept shaking his head as everything he knew told him the chances of this were so small it was beyond belief. Timmy was gawking with similar shock and he started mumbling under his breath wondering where he miscalculated.
On the shore of the island two miles away, Sora lowered down his Keyblade and stared out in the distance as he spotted something appear in front of him. The boat that he saw started to turn after a few seconds and it sailed his way, giving him a perfect view of the sail on it. He saw the sail and the Straw Hat symbol on it, and Sora's eyes popped open wide. Luffy! The Straw Hats. Natsu, and Gray and Juvia. That's right, we went to Metropolis, and beat the Underworld and Tetsuo alliance, and then we decided to go to Aebrith. Rin, Kirito, Goku, Timmy, I remember now. I remember everything! Riku, Kairi, you guys didn't give up on me.
As Sora was thinking, he fell down to his butt and started panting exhausted breaths. His shirt was ripped, torn so that the top left of it was gone. It only went up over his right shoulder now, though his right sleeve was gone too. His left pant leg was missing as well and he showed up on the island without any shoes on in the first place. Sora sighed in relief as the ship sailed towards him. "Glad it's finally over."
Six Hours Before
"STARSHIP EXPLOSIA!" Dholaki yelled. Bursts of explosive light shot out of his aura in every direction. There were people all around them though, and Sora could not let those attacks blow up.
Sora knew he survived Dholaki's earlier attack only because he was stronger than the average person, and that those people would not be able to survive if they got hit. So, he did the only logical thing. He flew at Dholaki and yelled out at the top of his lungs, "PROTENDRA!" He only just remembered as he decided to use it that he learned another level to the spell while on Nexus. The high level magic created a spherical bubble that surrounded both Sora and Dholaki it was so big. When the beams of light hit the edges of the bubble, they went off immediately and everyone around the protective bubble stared in in awe and horror as their savior trapped himself inside the bubble with all those explosions.
Dholaki screamed, "You idi-" before the explosions filled the entire forcefield. Sora's magic held firm and the explosions were kept inside it. The teen himself dropped one of his Keyblades and yelled out in pain as the explosions occurred all around him. He opened up his eyes though and glared forward through the forcefield. He saw his opponent yelling out in fury and he started charging at the man even as the light surrounded them both. Dholaki turned his head and saw a shadow sprinting through the light.
Sora pulled his Keyblade back, and he slammed it down as Dholaki screamed out. His Keyblade slammed into the man's chest, directly on his left side on the Illumina Core that Dholaki had implanted in his chest. The man screamed out as Sora's weapon collided with it, and the collision-point with his Keyblade and the core started to glow a brighter white than the light of the explosion around them. Sora's magical bubble faded and the people outside it had to shield their eyes as a bright white light shone out into the darkness of the night and enveloped all of them.
Sora lowered his Keyblade from Dholaki and stared at him inside the white light. Dholaki's core was showing and there was a crack going down the middle of it, and more cracks quickly branching out from the main one. Dholaki was holding up his hands and panicking as he stumbled back inside the light. "I'm sorry," Sora apologized to his enemy. "You hurt too many innocent people." He lifted his Keyblade and shot forward, stopping only once he got to Dholaki's other side. The man stood there still for a moment, and then the core on his chest shattered and his entire body dissolved.
The light faded and Sora stood alone in the middle of the clearing now. He finally dropped his Keyblade and it shattered into light as he did. Sora looked up and around at everyone around him, and then all at once they started to cheer. Cornello was unconscious on the ground nearby, and Dholaki was gone. They were saved.
"You did it!"
"Our savior!"
Sora gave them all a soft smile, before stumbling to his right and grabbing the side of his head. More memories of Nexus came back to him and he muttered under his breath, "I found Riku. We got him back," he shook his head a few times and looked back up at the people in front of him. He opened his mouth, and then his eyes went wide and he exclaimed, "Professor Oak!" Something twinged in his heart and he started sprinting back towards the Professor's hut. At the sight of Togepi and Registeel in front of him already running that way, he knew something was wrong.
Sora charged through the trees ignoring the shouts from people behind him back at the clearing. A small boy stepped forward between a few people and stared after the older teen.
The spiky haired Keybearer reached the hut and ran inside. As he did, he saw Oak on the floor, a puddle of blood beneath his face. It looked like the man was reaching for his desk and Sora ran over, sliding down onto his knees and turning the professor over. "Professor Oak! Professor Oak!" He shook the man around a little and sighed in relief as Oak's eyes opened up. "Thank goodness, I thought-"
"Sora," Oak said in slight surprise. His surprise quickly shifted and his mouth curled up into a satisfied smile. "Ahh, so I take it Cornello is defeated?"
Sora nodded his head a few times, though he did not like that resigned tone in Oak's voice. Sora smiled anyway and said, "I took out that God he claimed to speak for too. It was just some other jerk with strange powers."
"Is that why you are so beat up?" Oak asked. He looked at the boy in front of him who was bleeding out of cuts on his face and arms. "Why have you not used that healing magic on yourself yet?" Oak asked him.
Sora opened his eyes in surprise and then chuckled. "Sorry, I thought something was wrong, so I wanted to come make sure you were alright first."
Oak started to laugh, and a few seconds after he did his laughs quieted down. He was not coughing anymore, but his face was pale and he looked tired, so very tired. "Well Sora, it looks like you took good care of those two." Sora turned around and saw the two Pokémon standing behind him. Registeel and Togepi both had sad looks on their faces that made Sora spin back looking afraid as he stared down at Professor Oak. Seeing him here like this, dying, it made Sora's chest hurt. Suddenly something else flashed in his mind and Sora clenched his teeth hard as he remembered Ash dying in his arms just like this, with his Pokémon crying around him. He had already remembered that part of his life, but it came back to him so vividly all of a sudden.
Oak continued softly, "I know I can trust you young man." He took a huge breath and then made a small motion to the desk with his head. "I let you use the two strongest Pokémon I had as I was afraid Cornello would hurt the others. Please, take them as well though. Take care of them. I am sorry to put this burden on you, but I am afraid I do not trust the others on this island, for, obvious reasons." He chuckled once and then fell quiet. He took a few breaths out of his nose and whispered, "There is also, a Pokédex in there that you can take with you. I'm sure, it will come of good use." Oak blinked his eyes slowly and when he opened them just a little bit again he saw Sora's eyes looking so afraid, "Do not fear my boy, like I said, I am an old man."
Sora snapped his head up all of a sudden. He spun around and looked into the doorway and his eyes went wide. "Jasper!" Sora exclaimed. The little boy with nicely combed brown hair stepped into the hut and Sora continued, "Do you have any doctors on the island? He's-"
"Jasper?" Oak asked, and he leaned his head up a little. Oak's eyes widened and he whispered, "Ah, so then it is my time. I figured."
"Huh?" Sora asked, spinning back to Oak. He spun back to Jasper, the kid who appeared in the forest earlier that day and warned him not to face Cornello.
"Thank you Sora," Jasper said as he walked closer to Professor Oak. As he walked further into the room, his body started to become less solid, so Sora could see the wall behind him. The teenager stood up fast and stared at Jasper who walked up next to him and the old man on the ground. "By defeating Cornello, you've made it so I can finally rest in peace." Jasper's body started to fade some more.
"You, were dead?" Sora asked in shock.
"Jasper was supposedly killed by God when he questioned Cornello's teachings," Oak whispered.
Jasper held out a hand to Oak and smiled at the old man. "Let's go," the boy said in a friendly way.
Sora opened his eyes wide and looked back at Oak who nodded his head at Jasper. Oak turned a little to Sora as he rose up his own right hand, "Goodbye, Sora." His hand touched Jasper's, and then it fell limp back down to his side. As it did though, Jasper's body turned into a ball of light and floated up, and another ball of light floated out of Professor Oak and followed him up.
Sora wiped his eyes and put a smile on his face. He looked up and said, "Goodbye." The teen looked down and saw the two Pokémon in front of him looking pretty sad, but after the lights floated through the ceiling they looked down at him too. Registeel was still halfway in the doorway as even bending down it could not fit fully through the door. "Okay guys," Sora started. "I know I didn't introduce myself before so I'm sorry about that, but I'm Sora. For now on, you guys are going to come with me, okay?"
Togepi nodded its head and put a smile on its face too. The little creature that looked like an egg thought about Sora sacrificing himself to help all those people, and Registeel nodded its head as it thought about the same moment. This was a Master they could get behind, especially if it was what Oak wanted. Sora turned and walked over to Oak's desk, went inside and dug out the other pokeballs and also the Pokédex the man mentioned. He turned it on to check if it had batteries then put it in his bag when he saw it worked.
Sora headed for the door and took one step outside. He only made it that far before a small pink creature flew down through the trees and stopped in front of his face. It had a cute face and slender body along with a long pink tail. Sora recognized the creature as did the other Pokémon around him. He was just about to release the other ones to explain to them what happened, but he was distracted by the legendary Pokémon in front of him first. "Mew!" Sora exclaimed. The pink creature did a swirl around him and started nuzzling up against his face after. Sora put an arm around his Pokémon and pet its back as he laughed, "Yeah, it's good to see you too. Hey! If you're here, then the rest of the guys must be around somewhere too right? Could you bring them all here?"
Mew nodded its head a few times and did a flip in the air. The ancient Pokémon flew off and Sora smiled, then sighed as he remembered what he had to do now. He let out Oak's other Pokémon and started the explanation of what happened.
Present
"This is unreal," Nami said, rubbing her eyes for the fourth time that minute as she stood at the bow of the ship. They were only a half mile away from shore now and the closer they got the more unbelievable the sight before them became.
Sora was sitting on shore directly in front of him, and sitting on his left shoulder was a small purple Pokémon with a long tail that had a white hand at the end of it. It looked a little like a monkey, and the Aipom was messing with Sora's hair as he stared out at them. The teen lifted up his right hand and waved now that he could see the people standing on the bow of the ship. The Thousand Sunny kept getting closer and the people on it were looking around the shore in awe. Sora's Dragonite was standing in the shallow water to Sora's right, the orange dragon standing four hundred feet tall. Flying around up in the air close to Dragonite's shoulders was another orange dragon, this one only ten feet tall and blowing fire out of its mouth excitedly. Charizard was happy they found Sora and it continued doing a victory flight up above the island. Another flying creature flew even higher up in victory loops around the island, the Legendary Guardian of the Sea Lugia.
Kangaskhan and Feraligatr stood next to each other on Sora's left, looking over at the boy who saved them from Giovanni with thankful and relieved looks. They were worried he was not okay, but despite his injuries he assured all of his Pokémon that he was quite alright. The two of them were standing alongside Blaziken in front of a taller Pokémon made of steel, and Registeel was introducing itself to its new comrades. Mew was also flying around, but unlike Charizard it was just doing little spins above Sora's head and would dip down every once in a while to tap Aipom on the shoulder and then fly up in the air and giggle as Aipom looked around unable to figure out who just did that. Celebi giggled along with Mew, as did the Togepi sitting behind Sora and watching in amusement.
There were three other new Pokémon behind Togepi: an Azumarill, a Scyther, and a Bronzor. The blue, green, and bluish-green Pokémon were still sad about Professor Oak, but seeing this large family of Pokémon in front of them they felt better about knowing they had someone to care for them now. Sitting on Sora's lap was a yellow mouse that Sora was patting its head. "I'm sorry about that Pikachu," Sora told the Pokémon that looked more relieved than any of them. "I hit my head and slipped off the ship, but I wish my friends didn't let you guys out. I didn't mean to make you all worry."
What the people on the approaching Thousand Sunny may have been most surprised at though, was the crowd of people behind Sora and his Pokémon. They were all standing at the treeline as Sora had told them his friends would be coming. All the people wearing rags were shouting thanks over to him. They looked dirty, tired, but very grateful.
As the ship got closer they heard someone yell, "We'll keep Cornello locked up! He'll never hurt anyone again."
"We can't thank you enough!"
Sora looked back at all the people and saw one of them frowning. He ignored the one man and just smiled at the rest of them. There was one person in the crowd who said they should use Cornello's Philosopher's Stone that Sora mentioned to try and create a better life on the island. Sora told them they would have to do it on their own though, without the help of something as despicable as the Philosopher's Stone. Then, he had smashed the red rock with his Keyblade. It annoyed the man, but Sora knew he would get over it.
"Be good now," Sora called to them all. He carefully nudged Pikachu off him and stood up to his feet. He looked back and joked, "Don't go joining any more religious cults."
The people he called it to did not find it as funny as he did, but he got a small chuckle from it. He turned back around and smiled towards the ship coming towards him. It was almost at shore now and he could make out the faces of all his friends looking at him. "Well," Sora said and crossed his arms, "it took you long enough. One cloaking mechanism and a bunch of power blockers kept you guys from finding me for a whole day? I hope you didn't give up on me did you?"
Luffy called down to him, "Of course I didn't."
"Me either," Kairi called. She cupped her hands to her mouth and added in a hushed yell, "But Riku totally did!"
"Did not!" Riku shouted. "I looked all night."
"Thanks," Sora said, smiling up at his best friend who looked away after Sora said it. Sora grinned and hopped up in the air so that he started flying above the shore. He flew up in between Mew and Celebi and looked around at all the people around him. He looked at his friends on the ship and the new ones on the island. He looked at all his Pokémon and Sora nodded his head. "Alright," he turned and looked Luffy right in the eyes, "you ready to keep going Captain?"
Luffy nodded his head once and he reached behind his back. He grabbed his straw hat and put it on top of his head, "Yosh!" Luffy spun around and called out, "Sora's back! Next stop, Aebrith!"
A/N Sora's alive! Haha, we all knew that, so not really much tension there, but I hope you liked it anyway. Father Cornello from FMA(B), Professor Oak from Pokemon (as well as a lot of Pokemon), Dholaki from Psyren, and Jasper from Camp Camp are some new characters seen in this chapter (even if most of them died, or in Jasper's case, were already dead). Also, if you remember in the disclaimer I said that I didn't own Arrow, because that totem thing that Cornello used was like the totems in the recent season of Arrow that Damien Dahrk and Rider had. Yes, the same Rider who tortured Sora in that flashback and made him go nuts just because he was searching for a certain artifact... Well, thanks for reading! 'Till next time!
joebob323 chapter 13 . Feb 1
Great job with the introduction of a new character, just wondering, what world/anime is he from? Nice chapter, loved the fighting! Natsu finally gets the spotlight from Laxus! XD
Thanks! Yugo was from Wakfu, a pretty cool action/adventure cartoon from France that I watched on Netflix recently. Glad you liked the action scene!
Espada-001 chapter 13 . Feb 1
Well first off I gotta say that I'm less sure about Luffy's strength now. :( I just finished looking up a lot of information and did quite a bit of math and research. The only real source I had to go off of was the weight of the boulder Luffy lifted after the war of the best. After a long and arduous task I came to the conclusion that it weighed around 24 tons. I wanted to do the math for when Luffy pushed those two buildings apart but I don't have the patience for it and I'm tired although I do want to point out that he was heavily injured at the time and he had 2 years of training after that feat before being taken to Nexus. Anyway moving onto this chapter. I did enjoy the battle scenes although I have no clue about who the new guy is. And for the idea that at least one day out of the year where the suns would pretty much scorch the place isn't hard to believe. If anything you'd think it would happen more often. :) (lol) Anyway since I don't know who the new character is there's not much else for me to say this chapter. Although I would like to say that I enjoyed the interaction with Mysterion last chapter and I had a good laugh with his Batman skills. Anyway until next time have a good night and I can't wait for the next chapter!
Thanks for the review! Yeah, I did some research too after I wrote the chapter as I realized that maybe I wrote it too hastily, but I still stick with picking Killua as the winner. Glad you liked the new chapter and character, even if Yugo did head off on his own after (hence why he wasn't in this chapter). The Day of Fire idea just kind of came to me and I was like, "yeah, why not have weird weather stuff? It's a big world." XD so thanks! Mysterion makes his first appearance in Heroes Will Rise through Killua's flashbacks, and he definitely resembled Batman a little huh... ;) Anyway, thanks again to everyone who reviewed, faved, and followed this story! 'Till next time!