Chapter I: Flight

"Whoa! So this is a Gummi Ship?!"

Sora's mouth hung open in amazement as he took in the yellow and red contraption before him. It reminded him of the space ships he had read about in comic books back home.

The whole time he had been here in Traverse Town, his heart had been full of homesickness and worry for his friends, but standing right here in front of the ship with the knowledge that he was finally going to visit other worlds—to say he was excited would have been the understatement of the century.

"Nice, ain't it?" chuckled Goofy, clapping a hand on the boy's shoulder. "We just had her renovated last month!"

"What's it called?" asked Sora, still staring up in amazement.

Donald stepped forward, puffing out his chest with pride. "She's called The Daisy!"

"Huh?" said Goofy, taking his hand from Sora's shoulder to scratch his head. "But Donald, I thought her name was The Iwerks-?"

"It's The Daisy!" snapped Donald. "Now, let's shove off. The king's waiting for us, wherever he is."

Sora nodded. "And Riku and Kairi."

"Yeah sure," said Donald. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a small remote with a red button in the center. Pressing the button, the glass dome at the top of the ship slid back. "Alright, everyone into the cockpit!"

Later on, such dismissal of his quest to find his friends would have sparked a confrontation, but for now, Sora was too full of anticipation to be offended. He dashed to the Gummi Ship, scrambled up the small ladder, and dropped into the cockpit.

The inside of the ship was bigger than he imagined it would be, but not by much. Everything, from the floor to the furniture, was some shade of blue or yellow. There were three chairs near the controls and two small beds built into the wall. There was a slim door beside the beds, which Sora assumed led to the latrine.

Goofy smiled at Sora's delight. The boy reminded him of his son Max when he was young, always curious and excitable. But then the memory of Max made his smile falter; he'd only had a moment to say good-bye to his teenaged son before leaving Disney Castle on such short notice and it would likely be months, maybe even years, before he saw him again.

"This is all so cool!" exclaimed Sora, gravitating toward the control panel. "Hey, someday can you guys teach me to drive this?"

"Hey, hey, hey!" shouted Donald, quickly diving into the pilot's chair. "No one touches the controls but me or Chip and Dale!"

"Chip and Dale?" asked Sora.

"Chip n' Dale are the Gummi Ship's engineers," said Goofy as he pulled the glass dome above them shut.

"You mean there's going to be even more people in this ship?" asked Sora. "It's already kind of crammed with the three of us."

Goofy chuckled. "Ah, no worries, Sora! Chip n' Dale are little fellers!"

"Hey, who you calling little, Goof boy?!"

Sora gasped when all of a sudden he felt two small creatures scurry up his body to perch on his shoulders. They were both chipmunks, identically dressed in oil-stained aprons and gloves. The only way to tell each apart were their distinct noses: the chipmunk on his left shoulder had a small black one, whereas his counterpart on Sora's right shoulder had a giant red nose.

"We're the guys who keep the Iwerks runnin'," said the black-nosed chipmunk. "The name's Chip!"

"And I'm Dale," said Chip's companion. "Pleased to meet ya, keybearer!"

"Just call me Sora," said the boy with a nod of his head. "So, is there anyone else I need to know about?"

Just then, he heard a voice at his feet reply, "Why, yes there is!"

Chip and Dale hopped off of Sora as the owner of the voice reached his right shoulder in a single leap. The speaker was a smartly-dressed cricket. He took off his top hat as he greeted Sora with a graceful bow.

"Jiminy Cricket, at your service! I'll be chronicling this adventure for the historical record."

Chip snorted. "That's a fancy way of saying he's going to let Queen Minnie know we're all not misbehaving."

Jiminy was not amused by the answer and slammed the hat back on his head. Just as he was about to fire a nasty retort, Goofy dissolved the tension.

"Well, we better get going! Everyone to yer stations!" He turned to Sora and motioned toward one of the chairs near the control panel. "Better make sure you buckle up when y'take a seat, Sora!"

Sora followed Donald and Goofy, sitting himself down next to the knight. Donald messed with the controls, flipping switches, pulling levers, shouting out instructions to Chip and Dale, who scurried off to another part of the ship. Jiminy asked if he could sit in Sora's pocket; the boy told him to go ahead.

Donald grasped the control handles and exclaimed, "We're off!"

The whole ship trembled as the engine roared to life, causing Sora to clutch the arms of the seat instinctively. He felt them all lift into the air and then shoot past the dark clouds, beyond the stratosphere, and into the midst of the stars.

Sora could hear his own heartbeat in his ears as his blue eyes stared out the window in wonder. In that moment, he felt a bit naïve that he and his friends had once imagined they could get anywhere by raft.

Once the turbulence was over, Jiminy climbed up Sora's arm and perched himself upon the boy's shoulder. His line of sight was the same as the keybearer's: upon the myriad of stars before them.

"That view's really something, isn't it?" Jiminy said. "In all my years, I'd never thought I'd ever get to see the stars up close."

"You mean this is your first time in a Gummi Ship too?" asked Sora. Jiminy chuckled.

"No, I came up with these guys to get to Traverse Town," he said.

"Oh yeah, I forgot…"

Jiminy took off his hat. "This is actually my second time in a ship. Back where I'm from, no one can even fathom the idea of flying in the sky, let alone in space."

"Oh, so you're not from Disney Castle like Donald and Goofy?" asked Sora.

"Nope. My world was swallowed up by the Heartless, just as yours was. One minute, it's just an ordinary evening and then the next minute, those awful creatures were swarming us all and then… well, I must blacked out, because I don't remember a thing after that. When I awoke, I found myself in the palm of her Highness, Queen Minnie. "

The smile faded from Jiminy's face. "I sure do hope my friends are alright… My pal Pinocchio is such a guileless little fellow and I hate the thought of him somewhere all on his own. I was supposed to look after him. And then there's Mr. Geppetto- a nice man but a little absent-minded." He paused for a moment and the silence was uncomfortable. "Gosh, I hope they weren't… you don't suppose they were…?"

"Aw, I'm sure they're out there, Jiminy," said Goofy. "If you managed to escape, then they're probably out there waitin' fer ya on some other world, too!"

"Yes, let's hope so," said Jiminy, his gaze now lost in the stars. "If I could have any wish of mine granted right this moment, then I'd ask that we'd all be safe together, even if we couldn't ever go home again."

Sora pressed his gloved hand to the glass of the window. He found himself sorely missing Riku and Kairi right then, and wished that they were there in the ship with him, laughing and dizzy with excitement for the adventures to come.

He was broken from his reverie when Donald cleared his throat.

"Now guys, remember what we said: no sad faces! We'll never accomplish our mission if we go in without any hope."

"Donald's right," added Goofy. "Why, we haven't even reached the first spot on our itenenany yet!"

"Itinerary!" snapped Donald.

It was easier said than done, but Sora had to admit they were right. He needed to push the anxiety from his mind or he'd go crazy.

"Alright," he said. "Where are we headed, anyway?"

"We don't know yet," said Donald. "All I know is that the radar reads another world some distance away. It'll be an hour or two before we land."

"An hour!" exclaimed Sora. "Aw man…"

"Hey, be patient," said Donald, wagging his feathery finger.

Goofy nodded in agreement. "Yup, and if an impatient feller like Donald can do it, so can you, Sora!"

Sora could have sworn he saw steam emit from Donald as the mage began to slightly tremble. "I AM NOT IMPATIENT!"

Sora leaned back in his seat and stared out the window once more. It would be an interesting journey, at the very least.

A/N: This is my first submission on in years. I love the original KH game to death, and I especially love the friendship between Sora, Donald, and Goofy, which does not get enough attention within the fandom. I'm writing this fan fic as a series of oneshots which take place in between the major events of the first game and all have to do with the trio's growing friendship throughout the story. (Also, I renamed Highwind after Ub Iwerks, one of the greatest animators of all time and one of Mickey Mouse's co-creators. Just to give a cool man a shout-out.)