Chapter Text
Giving into the darkness of one's heart yielded a heartless. A strong one. And this one was... alarming...
"King Mickey. A word with you." A mantis like entity called on a communicator. His hand went to the screen with the child finalbecoming one, surprising the other heartless that had approached him.
"Whatcha doin' Zorak? Watchin' OK K.O.?" A tiger esque entity jumped onto the mantis. "Wasn't it cancelled?"
"Get off of me Brak! This is serious! Our worlds don't have the defenses against what KO has just become."
"What are you talking about?"
"Shouldn't you be feeding Mr. Tickles?"
"Oh! Right!"
Chapter Text
All was quiet where Mickey was. Dealing with the Kingdom had been easy with Sora visiting so often. It was as if he had his own three musketeers that were able to do many of the things he needed. He didn’t dislike it, per se, but he was much more used to running around and traveling to different worlds. So when Chip and Dale came running in with pale looks on their faces, Mickey had to calm his beating heart as they approached. “Emergency! It’s an Emergency! King Mickey!”
“What is it?” He asked, leaning forward from his throne to stare down at the chipmunks.
“We got a message!” Chip began.
“Across dimensions!” Dale finished.
“This thing…called Zorak. He called saying he needs a word with you!”
“Try getting back to him.” There must have been a reason as to why the world contracts were being broken like so. The Heartless were for Mickey’s Dimension to deal with, and hopefully quarantine. If they were out…
“Hm. Well. That’s a tad unexpected, but welcome.” Shadowy Figure looked at the shadow heartless in front of him. Resembling a Neo Shadow, but not with the typical insect antennae. It looked to be more of a mane of hair. The expected beady yellow eyes were instead purple, matching the sharp teeth that glowed. As it seemed to stabilize, its body now looked to have armor protecting it, and on the ground was the expected Nobody that came from having such a powerful will.
“I bet you can carry that body with your strength. If you follow me, I’ll show you how to get even more.”
The shadow heartless’ sharp teeth formed into a grin. It slung the body over its shoulder, and the trio went away from the plaza.
Chapter Text
“Have you seen him at all?” Enid asked Rad.
“Not since he left to throw away the garbage.” Rad told her.
“Can you man the counter while I go look for him?”
“Why should you go?”
“You’re the one who has been on him like a jerk! You say he might not catch up to us!?”
“K.O. isn’t one to hold a grudge, and your icy cold heart doesn’t do well to connect to others. I on the other hand can at least connect on a bro-to-bro level.”
“Rad, I have two younger brothers, I’m sure that I can deal with helping K.O. better than you can.”
“WHAT ARE YOU SLACKERS GOING ON ABOUT!” Mr. Gar shouted. Enid and Rad flinched and finally noticed a line forming that Enid and Rad were too busy arguing to notice.
Enid shivered and looked up at her boss. “K.O. hasn’t come back yet, sir.”
Mr. Gar let out a sigh. “You worry about yourselves. I’ll find him.” He reassured them. “Now, GET BACK TO WORK!”
Rad and Enid did so with reluctance, and Mr. Gar walked back to his office, looking at some of the camera’s playback. Once he had spotted the young boy, he kept his sight on the different cameras that would see him, switching between them.
“Good hustle. Good hustle!? I don’t want ‘good hustle.’ I want power!” He threw his broom, and some mysterious stranger caught it from across the gully.
Mr. Gar’s heart sank as K.O. followed the stranger. How long ago was this!? Where was the kid? He needed to…he needed to tell Carol about this. He couldn’t risk panicking Rad and Enid about this. He needed to steel his courage. And his heart.
“So…I need to leave? Away from the worlds I know?”
King Mickey nodded. “Donald and Goofy can’t go with you, but you could see if Riku and Kairi could go with you.”
“How long do you think I’ll be gone?”
“Well, the thing about dimensions is that some age faster than others. I don’t know how speedy this…other dimension has grown since we’ve last seen one another. We had a very strict no contact. Especially when the heartless started to form. I’m sure Zorak can tell you more about it.”
Mickey opened a hidden door, and Sora found a stranger Gummi Ship. “Wait, I can’t fly this by myself.”
“You won’t have to. You can use the communicator to contact Zorak or Riku or Kairi.”
Sora nodded and went inside the gummi ship. He called up Riku and Kairi. “Hey guys.”
“Sora! It’s good to hear from you!” Kairi cheered. “Riku! Sora’s on the line!”
There was a pause. “Well well, how’s the King’s mousy-teer doing?”
“I’m going to need some help. I’m…I’m going to be traveling between worlds again. I want your guys’s help. Please…”
“Of course we’ll help!”
“Yeah, what are friends for?” Riku agreed with Kairi. “But what about Donald and Goofy?”
Sora smiled. “Can’t wait to see you guys. Now…King Mickey said… Donald and Goofy would not be able to go to this place. It’s like some…other dimension. That’s how Mickey described it.”
Chapter Text
Sora excitedly hugged Riku and Kairi when they arrived, a big smile on his face. Riku patted Sora on his back. “Yeah yeah, good to see you too.”
“It really is great to see you again.” Kairi smiled.
“The feeling is mutual. Now, come on. We need to get onto this…I think it’s a Gummi Ship.” Sora frowned.
“Doesn’t look like any Gummi Ship I’ve ever seen.” Riku stepped onto it first, looking over everything.
Sora went on next, followed by Kairi. “I mean, it’s still a spaceship.” Kairi walked to the back.
Sora watched her walk, then looked to Riku who was in the co-pilot’s chair. Sora smirked a bit. Something that he was better at than Riku.
Sora got into the pilot’s chair and looked over what he remembered about Gummi Ships. “Riku, you need to smile,” Sora teased.
“What?”
“Well Gummi Ships don’t run without everyone smiling.”
Riku laughed at that.
“There we go, we’re all happy here!” Sora began to press some buttons randomly, trying to figure out how to get the ship started. A holo-gram popped up and showed that it started to call someone.
It only rang for a little bit before someone picked up the line. “Brak, get out of here I have a call to take!” A mantis creature seemed to press his foot against the face of a cat with a horrible underbite.
“A call? Do I know them?” The cat grabbed the mantis creature’s ankle.
“NO!”
“Oh, lame!” The cat creature left.
The mantis turned and looked at them all. “Oh, good. You must be the three keyblade wielders King Mickey is sending me. My name is Zorak. Unfortunately, we have a bit of a…problem. As you know, there are heartless and nobodies in your dimension. And while I do like a good mess of things, the heartless and nobodies act in their own way.” He began to press some buttons and the ship door closed. “I’m sending you the coordinates of the world you need to go to to stop them. Now, about knowing about ‘other worlds…’”
“We have to make sure that they don’t know about them?” Sora finished.
“Actually, no.”
Riku sat up to look at the hologram of the mantis creature.
“You see, this place that you’re going to, there are universes that naturally cross with this place, not to mention there are some others who can create portals to other worlds as well. But you just really need to find those…” Zorbak looked behind both of his shoulders, “those heartless and nobodies. If they were to find the portal between worlds, things could be catastrophic.”
Sora nodded “Got it. Stop the heartless, as per usual. And lock up portals as well?”
“As best as you can. I suppose. Some worlds are so intertwined that there is no portal, they just exist within one another.”
Sora frowned but then nodded. “Got it. Let’s go stop those heartless!”
Chapter Text
Shadowy watched his heartless as the two stepped inside of Venomous’s home.
Professor Venomous came up, the usual blank expression on his face. “Oh, good. You’ve arrived with both of them.”
“Of course I did.”
“What’s going on?” The shadowy heartless growled, letting the body on his shoulder now flop onto the ground.
“Oh good. It speaks.” Professor Venomous walked over and checked for any bruises on the body. “Be careful with this body. Got it?”
The shadow growled.
“Let me.” Shadowy rested his hand on Professor Venomous’s shoulder then knelt to the shadow’s eye level. “Do you have a name that you want us to call you?”
The shadow blinked.
“Well, do you like the name Turbo?”
The shadow nodded, sharp teeth showing.
“Then Turbo it is.” Shadowy then looked to the others. “What are you thinking for nobody names?”
“Possibly Iaxok. Or Xokia.”
“Just pick your first name.” Shadowy rolled his eyes and held hands with Turbo. “We’re going to make you so strong!”
Turbo laughed and let its teeth curl into a smile.
Venomous rolled his eyes with a huff. “So we have his heartless, and his nobody…”
Shadowy nodded to Venomous then looked back to Turbo. “Hang on, the grownups need to discuss something.
Venomous raised an eyebrow and followed Shadowy into another room. “Do you think they’ll be strong enough?”
“They should be. We know their potential. I’m more worried about controlling them.”
“I’ve been spying on KO since he first started at the plaza. One of his little friends has been studying him too. There was something about him taking risks for older male attention. If that’s the case, controlling them will be easy.”
“In any case, the Nobody should not be around the Heartless for too long. We don’t want them to recombine.”
“With how dark and impure KO’s heart was, I’d be surprised if they ever came across that.”
“You said one of KO’s friends was studying him. If his heart had the patience to endure that, then it would only be a matter of time before the Nobody tries to reconnect to his heart.”
“Please, you never tried to reconnect with me .”
“They are still children. Unless KO’s already been taught to bury his emotions, I doubt that they wouldn’t.”
“The heartless has existed in him. He suffers a hero’s folly, seeking power and wanting to be the strongest.”
“You know that’s not what I’m talking about.”
“Urgh. I hate talking to you.”
Chapter Text
Mr. Gar gulped as he thought things over in his head again. Carol had already forgiven an unforgivable action, but there was no way she would forgive him for this…losing her son…the only person she could count on being a constant in her life. Taken away after Mr. Gar had… She needed to know. And if by the end of it the two hated him, then he would just have to live with it.
“Carol!” He swung opening the door, interrupting the lesson.
“Eugene?”
“Carol, something bad’s happened…”
“Woah. Okay.” Carol nodded to the girls and it was clear that lessons were done for the day.
Some women went slower, watching Carol approach. They were ready with their watch phones just in case.
“Let’s go to your office and talk about it, okay?”
Mr. Gar sighed and nodded.
The two went into Gar’s Bodega, Enid and Rad having half a mind to watch as the two went to Mr. Gar’s Office.
“What do you think they’re talking about?” Rad asked.
“Probably something dealing with Carol renting the space?” Enid shrugged with a frown.
Rad nodded, frowning too. They didn’t want to know what was keeping their little buddy.
Down in Mr. Gar’s office, Mr. Gar replayed what K.O. was saying. He looked down, to the ground.
“…Why did he?”
“It’s my fault. I was the one who pushed him like that.”
“Eugene… It’s not.”
“B-but he was saying-”
“Even if…you told him that…KO’s always been a little impatient when it came to being a hero. We’ll find him he couldn’t have gotten far.”
Lord Boxman was preparing to send over an upgraded Mega Darrell when Ernesto called him. “Sir, Professor Venomous and his entourage is here to see you.”
“Wh-what!?” Boxman squaked. “Send him in! Send them in!” Boxman patted down his hair and sat up a bit, trying to look his best.
Soon enough Professor Venomous came in, along with a hooded stranger of similar height. Beside the two was a child each. Besides the stranger was a near shadow-like creature, and the one holding Venomous’s hand was one that looked like K.O. from that infernal Plaza.
“Oh, Professor, it is so great to see you! What can I do for you?”
“Joyful you asked, Lord Boxman.” Professor Venomous eyed him carefully. “Come out from behind your desk.”
Boxman did so, reaching out to shake Venomous’s hand. He then croaked out a gasp as the shadowy figure attacked him. It was a slash from an inhuman hand in his lower belly that caused deep pain. As if his heart was being ripped out and his blood was all over the ground. Except when Boxman looked, there was a plume of black, inky smoke. He could feel everything draining as suddenly a cartoonish looking heart appeared from his chest. He couldn’t stop the tears from coming out, but they felt like they were in that very heart the stranger took in his hand.
Shadowy Figure turned to Turbo. “See, this is the first step to getting stronger.” Taking the heart from the air, Shadowy pressed it into himself, the heart disappearing into him. “Hearts. Heart allow us to have more heartless in the world, just like us. And not only that, but watch.”
What limited energy was left from where the heart was dipped into the inky black that Boxman’s body had leaked, soon forming and taking all of it. It rose in the air in a spherical form, with limbs soon sprouting out of its bottom, opposite parts on its equator, then the back. Its head came out like a bird hatching out of an egg, and soon its true form was there. It looked like a dragon, with feathery wings for feet and a mechanical sphere with several different hatches all over its body, but the one most pronounced were the ones on its chest. Where Shadowy had attacked the body, was the same heart like logo that was imprinted on Turbo’s body.
“I have your heart. I have the power. I am in control of it.” Shadowy explained as he raised his hand then lowered it. Mindlessly, the new heartless obeyed. It landed on the ground, using its bird like arms and snake tail to keep itself up.
“As for the body, that’s where you and I come in, Iaxok.” Professor Venomous snapped and the body began to get up. Only it wasn’t Boxman’s body. At least, it didn’t look like him. It moved robotically. Its eyes looked like Boxman's cybernetic enhancements, with arms that resembled tightly coiled springs. It had stubby little legs that looked like it couldn’t get it far. A far cry from the mobility of flight the heartless seemed to have.
“We have stronger wills. We overpower the weaker ones. They must listen to us.” Professor Venomous then looked down to Iaxok. “And that means that when you two go on a mission to get your first heart, you’ll also be able to control them.”
“Why would we need to do that?”
“There are other worlds that this place is connected to, and we need to be strong enough to break free from the shackles of one world. Why be stuck in one lowly world to rule, when we can rule them all?”
Chapter Text
Sora, Riku, and Kairi landed safely in the other dimension. They had landed in quite a…populated area. “Are you sure this is okay?” Sora looked back to the hologram.
“Yes. People get aliens, superheroes, all kinds of people who some even look just like you. Just…just find the heartless quickly before things get out of hand.” The mantis seemed quite irritated at the older teens. With that, the call ended and the three began to get out of the ship. They were greeted with…quite the menagerie of characters walking around.
It looked like a mini-mall area. A skeleton like Jack but short, and a bear that was like a brown Pooh Bear were talking together. A person that reminded Sora of someone that may or may not be from Mulan’s world? It was hard to tell for him, but the man was talking to a blonde man and the two seemed to be enthralled in the conversation, they were so deep into it.
“The place certainly is lively.” Kairi commented as she stepped out to stand next to Sora. Riku was the last one who came out, followed by the ship’s doors closing.
“Almost reminds me of Traverse town, but way more light.” Sora nodded.
“Maybe more like Twilight town, then?” Kairi smirked as she looked at him.
“Let’s not focus on the name.” Riku sighed. Seriously? He thought to himself, they’re still slackers. No wonder Sora hasn’t unlocked a heart to purity yet. Probably why he had to call Kairi and myself. He shook his head. No, he’s my friend.
“Something wrong, Riku?” Sora looked over at the white haired young man.
“‘M fine. Once we defeat the heartless, maybe then we can explore if we want. But we’re a long way from home.”
“Well, this could be the place to start. Anyone talking about some weird shadows, or the heartless mark should help point us in the right direction.” Kairi started to walk a little ahead of them.
Sora and Riku both quickened their pace as the group came into the main store called “Gar’s Hero Supply and Bodega.”
Their steps slowed as they saw no one working what appeared to be the only register. But it only took a few steps for Sora to call out. “Hello? We’re here at the front-”
“Sora.” Riku’s voice raised in warning.
A purple haired person around Sora’s age came out, as well as a green skinned person with an afro.
“Welcome to Gar’s.” The purple haired person said in a dull tone.
“What do you two need?” The green skinned person looked at them with tired, almost red eyes.
“Hi, I’m Sora. This are my friends, Riku and Kairi-”
Riku pushed forward. “We’re looking for a Shadow-like creature. Usually with yellow eyes?”
“A shadow creature?” The green skinned person smirked and looked at his coworker. “Well Enid has some shadow magic-”
“SHUT UP RAD!” Enid growled. Though it seemed that it was teasing. Like Riku used to do to Sora.
“Well, did it have a mark on it?” Kairi piped up. “A heart with a thorny X in it? Something like that?”
Enid and Rad shook their heads. “No,” Enid looked up to them. “But if we find anything, we’ll let you know. If you help us too.”
“What do you need help with?” Sora asked.
“Our little buddy, KO…he hasn’t come back from taking the garbage out.”
“Could you go check up on him?” Rad’s ears drooped a bit, “we’re…he never stays out this long.”
“Where exactly would it be?”
“The east side of the plaza. Just head towards where the ditch is on that side.” Enid pointed to her left, the group’s right.
Sora headed out first, followed by Kairi and Riku.
“So, a missing… little buddy.” Riku’s voice was dry.
“A missing kid.” Kairi reiterated.
“We just have to see if he’s over there.” Sora reminded. The group went to the side and saw two adults calling out for KO, the child’s name.
“What do we do in this moment?” Kairi whispered.
“We go back?” Riku shrugged.
Suddenly, alarms began to blare.