-WakingUp-

"Hey! Hey Riku! Looky! Look at me! Look what I can do!"

The silverette turned lazily to his younger friend.

He had used his knees to dangle himself upside-down from the soft bark of the beloved crooked Paopu tree: A dangerous, marvelous feat for any ordinary nine year old. A simple task for a certain presumptuous ten year old.

The sun was high in the clear cobalt sky, baking the golden sand, and combining with the vast salty waves to make a humid, almost sweltering air. That wasn't a problem to the island children playing quite vigorously on the beach; a nearby oasis offered a private, cool pool with waterfall to any child who needed it.

Smugly, the older boy casually remarked,

"Oh, that? Easy as pie. You should see some of the stuff I can do. It's super secret though, so I can't tell you the amazing secrets that Cloud-...Oh well."

The younger boy unhooked his legs, climbing up to straddle the tree, crystalline eyes wide in awe, tanned hands clutching the fabric of bright red shorts.

"Really? Oh my gosh, Riku, you have to tell me!"

Smirking, the silver-headed boy said,

"Okay...only if you-"

They were interrupted by the hurried approach of a blonde boy. Frantically, he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted,

"Sora! Riku! You gotta' help me!"

Both boys stared at the older blonde with anticipation and loyalty in their eyes. Riku called back in a similar fashion of cupping his hands,

"What's wrong Cloud?"

"There's a girl in our clubhouse!"

They gasped in unison. That had been the sole, golden rule of their club:

No. Girls. Allowed!

The brunette growled, and grabbed Riku's arm,

"C'mon Riku! We gotta' get her out before she spreads the cooties! And, and, she's gonna' give 'um to us!"

Shivering, Riku nodded. Girl cooties were not something to be careless with. They fled from the Paopu tree, racing across the wooden bridge, running a little further before meeting with Cloud at the wooden ladder.

Climbing, they heard the angry shouts of the co-leader of the group.

"Get out! You're not allowed to be here!"

Smiling, Riku pulled himself onto a platform-like planks that led to the heavily guarded (by a cloth curtain) entrance of the extended a hand to both Cloud and Sora to help them scramble up the ladder, and opened the curtain so the interior of the play-house was visible to the three boys.

A boy with very short, bright crimson hair that spiked in different directions was glaring at the horrid intruder.

The girl had short inky hair, a change for Riku. The distinguishing signs of a girl was always long hair.

Aside from the short hair, she had large cerulean eyes, much like Sora. She wasn't wearing a dress either, not like a girl should; she adorned herself in black jean-shorts that went an inch above her knees, along with a plain, dark t-shirt.

Was this really a girl?

He wasn't entirely sure, until she opened her mouth,

"Why not? I live on the islands just like you!"

Rolling his eyes, Axel said,

"Because you're an icky girl! A girl! Girls aren't allowed in our club. That's one of our rules! Why don't you play with the other girls?"

Rolling her eyes, she came back with a-

"Because they're too girly for me! They want tea-parties, I want adventure."

Pouting, she rested her right hand on her hip, and pointed with her left to the doorway,

"But what about the brown-haired girl? Or the silver-haired girl? They're coming into your clubhouse, but you aren't yelling at them."

Sora blushed deeply, while Riku glared, retorting with a loud yell of,

"I'm not a gross girl!"

Arching an eyebrow, she looked unamused,

"And the brown-haired girl?"

Cloud growled, while Sora whispered softly, 'I'm not a girl either.' The blonde balled up his fist, shaking it at her,

"He's not a girl either! Besides, even if you weren't a rule-breaking girl, in our club, you have to be ten or older to join! How old are you?"

Smirking, she raised her arms, holding up all ten fingers for emphasis,

"I'm eleven."

With wide-eyes, the boys gave each other knowing looks. Cloud himself had just turned eleven. The girl saw this look on their faces, and went on, hitting them where it hurt most,

"And anyway, what about th' brown-haired girl? She doesn't look ten. She looks around eight t' me."

She emphasized the destruction of Sora's gender, at the same time dwindling him to the status of an eight year old. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. The brunette boy kept his eyes to the ground, his blush increasing with every second, the little whispers of, 'I'm going to be ten soon too,' going unheard.

Riku gave her the meanest glare he could muster; no one insulted his best friend like that.

"Shut up! Sora's a boy, not a dumb girl! He's nine years old, and he's gonna' be ten in a few weeks! So shut up!"

Cloud was next, growling a-

"He's my little brother anyway, he's allowed!"

Her smirk combined with a glare, making her the deadliest creature in the room. She raised two pale bony fists,

"Wanna' fight me?"

Riku's chest puffed up in pride, before deflating slightly.

"I'm not allowed to hit a girl."

Axel quickly backed him up,

"But if he was allowed, he would kick your butt so hard-!"

"Then how about we race? Around the island."

Grinning, the silver-hair boy nodded, while Axel snickered. He was one of the fastest runners on the islands, and the boys knew it.

"Fine. But if I win, you have to go away, and don't come back. You have to go play with the other girls and their tea-parties."

The raven-girl sneered,

"And if I win, I get to take the brown-haired girl with me, and I'll play adventures with her, because you guys aren't nice. But me and her are gonna' have a bunch of fun, and even go into a cool cave I found."

Sora perked up at the sound of this 'cool cave.' He thought he was the only one who knew of its existence until now. Axel threw a questioning look to Cloud, before looking at Sora.

What on earth was she babbling about? A cave? And why did she want Sora? Riku hesitated,

"U-um-"

"What's wrong? You aren't scared of losin' to a' girl, are you?"

Snarling, Sora had to hold his older brother's arms back from hitting the girl. The blonde said,

"You're on!"

Which was why the girl was looking deviously at Sora, who Riku refused to let go of.

"Come on, I won him fair and square. Now cough him up, I get to play adventures with him for today, and tomorrow, and-"

"We never said anything about tomorrow!"

Shrugging she remarked,

"We never said anything about me not having him tomorrow either."

The boys looked among one another. If Sora was taken by this...this...girl, he might get her cooties, and become contagious, and not be able to be apart of the group any more. Not going to take that chance, Axel jumped at her, fists raised, growls in his throat.

Which was how Axel got the bloody nose.

While the girl was explaining to his mother why she felt it was absolutely nessesary to proceed holding Axel down and punching him in the nose.

"And you see, I really don't like hurting people! But I- I, I just didn't know what to do! I'm really sorry for hurting him!"

Smiling, the older woman patted Axel on the back with one hand, and tousled the little girl's hair,

"Don't you worry about it Kiddo. He's going to be alright. And I think he's going to learn not to try to hit girls."

Laughing, she grinned. A little girl with long, crimson hair similar to Axel and his mother's opened the screen door to appear on the porch. She scanned the usual boys, stopping at the black-haired girl.

A new girl. Grinning, she asked,

"You're a girl? What's your name? Wanna' play with me and Selphie?"

The raven-girl smiled,

"X-i-o-n. Shee-on. Xion. Sorry though, I don't wanna' play with you. I'm playin' with the guys right now."

Riku's jaw dropped. He stood, glaring at the evil female.

"We are not playing with you! Axel's mom, why are you making friends with her, instead of making her go away? She's a girl!"

This forced another cackle from the redheaded mother,

"Riku honey, it's okay. I used to be a girl at one time."

Xion cocked her head to the side,

"Aren't you a girl now?"

Axel's mother held a finger to her lips, whispering,

"The guys don't quite understand that yet."

The two laughed, much to the boys displeasure, until being interrupted by a loud yell from Cloud, who pointed to the sky.

"Look!"

In the late-afternoon sky, it looked as if tiny, sparkling stars were forming before their eyes. Xion and Sora 'ahhh'd at the sight, while Riku and Axel, still holding a paper-towel to his nose, stared silently.
The stars were gradually increasing in size, going from small specks to large dots, large dots in the sky to-

"They're falling. The stars are...falling."

Kairi's observation was strikingly correct. The small sparkles appeared to be falling, quickly at that. The older redheaded woman nodded,

"It looks like a meteor shower...how strange, we've never had one on the islands before. I've never seen one in person... You guys are really going to enjoy this."

They stared in awe at the sparkles come closer, until realization hit them.

"Oh my gosh. Sora's..."

Riku's eyes widened,

"Still on the island! He has to see this! Oh my gosh, we have to get him!"

Xion shook her head,

"He'll be able to see it on the island, won't he?"

Shaking his head, Axel stood from the porch, slightly muffled from the blood-spotted paper towel,

"He'sth kinda' sslow, and w'll probably missth it."

Cloud, still staring at the sky, noticed something strange no one else seemed to care about.

"Guys...?"

"Axel, I'll get 'im. You stay here, okay?"

"Guys."

"Nuh- uh. I'm one of the leaders in this group, I'll get him. Besides, I can't stand being near so many girls."

"Guys!"

The boys turned and responded simultaneously,

"What?"

Shaking his head, Cloud pointed to the sky,

"They aren't stars. They aren't meteors either though! Look!"

Everyone on the porch heeded the boys advice. The "stars" had become larger, were falling faster. One could begin to see the faint out line of these unknown objects.

They were not stars.

Axel, (one who had secretly always needed glasses, but refused to wear them) squinted at the incoming objects. The dots turned from falling stars to tiny gray blobs.

"They look like..."

Cloud, on the other hand, who could see with a perfect 20/20 vision, gaped in wonder. They looked something like the robots from the Saturday morning cartoons. Robots that were always the friends. Grinning, he turned his head to Kairi and Xion, who eyed the objects with suspicion and fear.

"It's robots! You know, the ones from the cartoons! Oh my gosh! We're going to meet robots."

Axel's mother eyeballed the blonde with a look, but said nothing on his oddness, instead changing the subject,

"They're getting closer...really close. It almost looks as if-"

"I have to get Sora."

Axel and his mother looked away from the impending objects, both thinking along the same lines,

"No way, Jose."

"Riku, you might get hit. I'm sure Sora's on his way t- you see? There he is."

She pointed, and Riku followed the direction. The brunette boy was walking up the long, dirt path that led to the island home. He too was gazing in awe at the falling stars. Smiling, Riku cupped his hands around his mouth,

"Sora! Hurry up!"

Snapping out of his daze, he looked up in surprise, which promptly turned into one of his goofy grins. He began to run, as fast as no-heel sandles allowed him. Suddenly, the earth beneath their feet shook. The tremors were great, causing both the silver-haired boy and the brunette to fall.

Gripping and rubbing a spot where his head smacked against something hard (what he guessed to be a rock), Riku attempted to get to his feet. He remained at a crouch, the vibrations shook so. Blinking away black dots and blurriness in his vision, he looked for his friend. Around twenty feet away, he could faintly see bright red...shorts.

It took his mind a moment to process the image of his friend, face down in the dirt, still. A high pitched buzzing, beeping noise shattered the air, forcing him to cry out in pain, attempt to shield his ears with his hands.

Wind began to blow at speeds only known to severe hurricanes. Dirt and dust whipped around, striking and stinging his eyes.

He turned around, seeing a redheaded and raven girl run through a doorway at the front of the house, a blonde boy supervising their safety.. A crimson haired boy was sprinting towards him, stumbling a few times, an equally pained expression on his face. A redheaded woman ran past him, heading for the other boy. The boy approached him, lips moving and eyebrows creased in a concentrated glare. Riku didn't understand a word.

Axel rolled his eyes, grabbing Riku's arm and yanking him up.

BOOM!

A loud explosion made them stumble to the ground once more. Fire and heat and smoke erupted around them, making the once peaceful path into a fiery inferno.

After a moment of staring at the shades of red, orange, and yellow, he could feel something at his back. It was similar to a mix of the worst sunburn he had ever had (considering he lived on Destiny Islands, that was saying something) and when he accidentally touched an iron to see if it was on (and sadly finding it was.)

The pain shot up his spine like a bullet.

A scream erupted from the depths of his lungs.

In his spotted vision, he could see the panicked face of Axel, shaking him. Behind Axel, there were enormous, round machines. They looked a bit like the tops of hot air balloons, except instead of colorful cloth, there was bleak metal.

The happy robots that Cloud had spoken about.

Except for a minor detail.

Attached to both left and right side were enormous, bulky canons. Or so, it looked like canons, the nose of a very deadly gun.

The scorching feeling intensified by tens of tens, making him scream all the more louder.

Chaos took place all around him.

It was too much for one ten-year-old mind to handle.

And within moments-

Everything went black.