Disney Castle had, for a long time, been one of the most peaceful worlds in the cosmos. Since it was built using the Cornerstone of Light as its foundation, no Heartless could set foot in its corridors. And, in recent times, with the plague of Heartless subsiding in most worlds, many of its inhabitants found themselves rather bored.
This could accurately describe Dale, as the tiny chipmunk was relegated to monitoring the Gummi bay. The red-nosed rodent was having trouble keeping himself awake.
Suddenly, a screen lit up nearby. Lacking anything else to do, Dale wandered over and took a look. He puzzled at the blinking light for a second, before checking a book to decipher its meaning. When he finally found its meaning, he blinked, before going to the intercom.
"Uh, Chip?"
A high-pitched voice responded, in a surly tone, "What is it, Dale?"
"You'd better come here and look at this…" Dale said in a worried tone.
His friend growled, "This better be important, I'm off duty today!"
Within several minutes, a ticked off chipmunk with a black nose prowled into the Gummi bay. Dale gestured to the screen, and Chip looked at it for some time, not understanding, until Dale showed him the book. From the way Chip's expression fell, Dale realized that he had not, indeed, screwed up and misinterpreted the signal.
Looking at each other, the two of them ran out of the Gummi bay as fast as their little legs could carry them, screaming at the top of their lungs.
A Banner Raised
By Ryan Griffin
Inspired by conversations with Shaun Garin and the LJ community khfanficrants
Kingdom Hearts is owned by Disney and Square-Enix. Any characters from the Final Fantasy series are owned by Square-Enix, and any characters from the various Disney franchises are owned by, of course, Disney. They are being used here without permission.
The courtyard was, normally, peaceful and serene, a thing of beauty, each blade of grass, each bush cut to precise measurements. It was a landscaper's dream come true.
At the moment, it was being used as a skateboard arena.
Goofy watched with awe and worry as his son Max flew over the shrubs, glided along the paved cobblestone, flipped onto his hands, and generally performed feats of acrobatics that he hadn't seen since… well, since his travels with Sora around a year ago.
As Max paused to catch his breath, Goofy came up, applauding, "That was great, Maxie! You've really improved!"
Max smiled, "Thanks, Dad!" Goofy threw him a Potion and Max slugged it down in a single gulp, "So, am I as good as Sora, yet?"
Goofy laughed, "Oh, don't worry 'bout that. Sora may be a one-a my best buddies, but you're my only son…" he gave his son an affectionate noogie, and Max, laughing, squirmed out of it, "I only wish the two-a you coulda met. You're a lot alike…"
Max laughed, "Well, someone has to stay here and protect the Queen and the castle while you and Donald were out going from world to world…" he gestured to his own shield, currently resting at the base of a statue.
Goofy scratched his chin, "Ya know, I think the King was saying that next month, he was going to go to the Destiny Islands to see how Sora, Riku, and Kairi are doing… He wants me to go, and I'm sure he'll let you come with us…"
Max brightened, "Really? That'd be great…"
Goofy chuckled, until he heard a loud clattering sound. The door at the base of the statue swung open, sending Max's shield flying into a hedge. From behind the door came Chip and Dale, screaming their heads off.
"Chip? Dale?" Goofy asked, "What's goin' on?"
"Sora!" Dale said, "Riku! Kairi!"
Chip ran up to Goofy, "There's a distress signal from the Destiny Islands! It's urgent! Code Red!"
Goofy's eyes narrowed, and in a sharp tone he rarely, if ever, used, he said, "Max, get PJ and the other guards. Tell them I'm gonna be gone for a while. I'm gonna get Donald and the King!" he scooped up Chip and Dale and ran off to the throne room.
Within the hour, King Mickey was in the Gummi bay, flanked by Donald and Goofy, both dressed in their traveling clothes, Queen Minnie and Lady Daisy. Standing at attention were Max Goof and PJ, both looking at this with a good deal of distress. A year ago, the boys weren't old enough to be involved in these matters. A promotion later, they were now among those who needed to be informed.
"The signal definitely came from the Destiny Islands!" Dale said hurriedly.
"The codebook says that that's the highest urgency! They need you right away!" Chip said.
Mickey sighed, and turned to Minnie, "I'm sorry I have to leave you again, Minnie…"
Minnie held Mickey's hand in hers, "We all have to do things we don't want to at times… Come home safe…"
"And try to hurry it along this time!" Daisy interjected, staring Donald down.
Donald laughed, "Don't worry Daisy! We'll be back as soon as we find Sora and make sure he's safe."
"Y'all take good care of the castle while we're gone, y'hear?" Goofy said to Max and PJ.
"Sir, yes, sir!" PJ said, saluting, "You can count on us!"
"We won't let you down, Dad!" Max said.
"I know ya won't!" Goofy said.
Mickey nodded, "Well, looks like it's time for a new adventure. Chip, Dale, get the Highwind ready for flight! We've got some friends to protect!"
"Right away!" Chip saluted, tapping a keyboard as Dale began pulling switches.
As the red Gummi ship moved to the platform and stopped, Mickey was forced to let go of Minnie's hand. He, Donald, and Goofy waved them off as the door hissed open and the three of them boarded, leaving behind their loved ones.
"I sure hope Sora's gonna be okay…" Donald said, "It's gonna be tough if we have to leave for so long again…"
Goofy chuckled, "Don't worry, Donald, we've fought the Darkness before, and we ended up all right. We just gotta trust in our hearts and everything'll be okey-dokey!"
Mickey laughed, "Yup. Now, let's get going!"
As the Gummi ship flew through space, Mickey found that heading to the Destiny Islands was going to be more of a chore than he'd ever anticipated.
Donald quacked in frustration as he kept the guns firing energy blasts at the vast amount of ships that swarmed them like horseflies. Goofy struggled to keep the shields up, calling out his signature scream of "Yaaaaaahoohoohoooweeeeeeeeee!" as Mickey was forced to pull the ship into a barrel roll to evade a meteor from one side and a wave of enemy ships from another.
"This isn't right," Mickey said, not panicking as his friends were, "Gummi travel hasn't been this difficult in months, especially between the Castle and the Islands… something's REALLY wrong."
He may as well have told this to the wall, as Donald and Goofy were still pressing buttons at fevered paces. Goofy looked like he was about to lose his lunch.
Finally, THANKFULLY, the ordeal ended as the ship pulled up to the familiar world-symbol, a sandy island dotted with palm trees, adorned by a shooting star (that was actually, as their friends had helpfully pointed out, a paopu fruit).
Hoping they were keeping the disturbance to a minimum, the ship landed on one of the islands further out, the same island that the trio had waited on with Kairi, waiting for Sora and Riku to return safely.
As they walked out, Mickey held a hand to block out the tropical sun as he scanned the area. He frowned as he could see nothing. He found a lopsided palm tree he could stand on, and, jumping like a kangaroo, he hopped on top and continued looking back and forth, ears twitching to find the slightest sound.
"Sora!" Donald called out.
"Riku! Kairi!" Goofy called as well, the duck and dog looking forlorn as there was no answer. They walked further out.
Mickey was about to join them, when suddenly, he picked something up, "Hold on!" he called to Donald and Goofy, jumping in front of them, "Something's coming!" he summoned his Keyblade, ready to take on anything that came his way. Donald and Goofy pulled out their staff and shield as well.
Suddenly, all of them could hear the sound of footsteps on sand and heavy breathing. As it came closer and closer, they realized it was almost on top of them. Mickey nodded and gestured to his friends to follow his lead. As it rounded the corner to face them, they leapt into action, rushing their unknown assailant.
"AAAAAAAAAAAIGH!" the unknown, obviously female person cried out in surprise, rushing back and falling on her backside.
Realizing they weren't under attack, Mickey skidded to a stop in the sand, but Donald crashed into him, followed by Goofy, and the three of them tumbled over in a jumble of feathers, fur, sand, and weapons. Spitting out sand and feeling anything but regal, Mickey popped his head out and faced the shocked person, who for some reason was upside down.
"Hiya!" Mickey said, "Sorry for scaring you like that!"
"Th-That's okay," the girl said cautiously, as if she wasn't believing she was talking to a mouse. She was wearing a yellow sundress, and her auburn hair fell to her shoulders, spreading outwards as it reached the tips, "You three are their friends, right? Sora, Riku and Kairi's friends, that they made back when they all went away?"
By now, Goofy had managed to pull himself free and was stumbling around in a daze, while Donald still quacked with incoherent rage as his was still buried headfirst in the beach. Mickey struggled to right himself, "That's right! We came because they called us? Can you tell us where they are?"
The girl looked amazingly worried, "That's the problem, they're gone! All three of them!"
THAT managed to shake the three of them. Donald and Mickey freed themselves from the sand and Goofy shook his head until the dizziness managed to subside. "Gone!" Donald cried, worried anger replacing frustration, "What happened! Where did they go!"
Suddenly, the girl began to tear up, and her words came out as if they'd been blocked by a dam, "Yousee, onedayallofuswerehereontheisland, andwewereallhavingfunlikeusual, butthenthesewierdcreatureshowedupandIthinkIrecognizedthem, theywereallblackandscaryandtheyswarmedusall, andthenSoraRikuandKairiallpulledoutthesestrangeswordsoutofnowhere, andthethingsgotreallymadwhentheysawthemandtheystartedtoganguponthem, andwhennightcameweallwokeupbutthethreeofthemwereallGONE!"
Mickey held up his hands, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down for a minute. Let's start at the beginning. What's your name?"
The girl burbled out "Selphie."
"Selphie, we need to know everything that happened here. First of all, tell me, who sent the distress signal?" Mickey asked.
She sniffed, "I did. Kairi told me that if anything went really wrong I should press the red button on the remote on her nightstand… and things went really, really wrong!"
"And why are the three of them gone?" Mickey asked.
"The… the black things took them away!"
"The Heartless!" Goofy and Donald cried in unison.
Sephie nodded, "That's what Sora and Riku called them, Heartless. Tidus and Wakka were with us, and they told us to get away but none of us would leave them… and, and…"
Sensing the girl was about to panic again, Mickey shushed her, "It's all right, it's all right… now, what happened when they were captured?"
"I… I don't remember… they all started to pile onto the three of them once they brought out the weird swords, and I could hear them yell out for help before everything went black. When I woke up, the three of them were gone, but no one else even had a scratch…"
"What did they yell out?" Donald asked.
"Sora cried out, 'Donald! Goofy!' and Riku called out 'Mickey!'"
All three of them felt their hearts sink into their stomachs as they heard that.
"Thank you so much, Selphie," Mickey said, patting her on the arm, "Thanks to you, maybe we'll be able to find them…"
Selphie sniffed, and nodded.
Mickey turned to his closest friends, "Come on, fellas. We've got to hunt us some Heartless!"
It was midnight before the three of them reconvened at the island. Mickey sighed as he asked, "Did you two find anything?"
Donald shook his head.
"It's like they all knew we were-a comin', so they all went vamoose on us…" Goofy said.
Mickey scratched his head, "This isn't the way they usually operate… normally, we'd be fighting them off in spades, but now they've just gone in, got the three people linked to the Keyblade, and left. They're not trying to swallow the entire world… Something's different here…"
"Hold on a second, there!"
Everyone seemed to jump at the sudden outburst, and suddenly, a presence made itself known. From Mickey's shoulder came another member of their party.
"Gawrsh! It's Jiminy! I guess we forgot you were with us…" Goofy said apologetically.
"Not to worry, boys. I just had an idea… where's Selphie?"
The three, no, four of them walked over to the young girl, who was looking around the Gummi ship in awe. Mickey held Jiminy in his hands, and Selphie had two shocks, first upon hearing his rather loud "Ahem!" while delicately touching the ship, and second upon seeing it come from a cricket.
"Howdy, ma'am. Jiminy Cricket's the name. I just thought I'd ask you some questions about the Heartless you saw…"
"Oh… well, they… um… they looked…" Selphie struggled for the right words.
"Wait a minute, allow me…" Jiminy pulled his journal from his pocket. It was odd, as the book, upon being taken out, was as large as he was. Sephie took it disbelievingly, opened already to the descriptions of the Heartless and Nobodies, complete with pictures so detailed they seemed to stare directly at her.
Selphie flipped through page after page after page, before finally shaking her head, "They didn't look much like any of these… except…" she turned to one page, which showed, back to back, the basic Shadows and their more robust cousins, the Neo-Shadows, "They looked sort of like these, only they were a lot bigger, and they looked stronger. They were about as big as a grown man each…"
All of them digested this new information and felt sick to their stomachs.
"A new form of the Shadow Heartless?" Donald asked with obvious dread.
"And I thought those Neo-Shadows were bad enough…" Goofy said.
"This is more serious than we thought…" Mickey sighed, and he said to Selphie, "Is there anything else you can tell us?"
Selphie looked past the wooden structures, towards a shadowed place, "Before those things got them, the three of them were running to this place…" she walked in to the foliage and cleared away the broad leaves concealing the tunnel.
"Gawrsh, it looks creepy in there…" Goofy said, covering his mouth with his hands.
"Aw, it's not that bad," Donald said, though one could see his knees were involuntarily quaking.
Mickey suppressed the dread this tunnel brought him, and he said, "We should check it out, see what they were looking for…"
The five of them walked down, suddenly, Mickey saw the reason why the cave gave them all an unexplainable feeling of fear, and why it would draw Sora, Riku, and Kairi when they needed reinforcements from another world. Among the scrawling drawings made by generations of children, there was one section, a whole rock, illuminated in the moonlight by an opening at the roof of the cave. An ethereal glow seemed to emanate from it. And Mickey realized it.
"This is the connecting spot… this is where this world is connected to the rest of them… this is their Keyhole…"
And as Mickey ran his hand against the smooth stone, he said, "But it's more… it's also their door…"
As soon as he said this, his Keyblade appeared in his hands. The rock shone with starlight, and as the light faded, it revealed an ornately crafted alabaster door.
Involuntarily, Mickey held up his Keyblade, the tip of which began to glow, an orb of golden light that grew in size, until it was bigger than the mouse itself.
The door flung open, and a charcoal gray swirling abyss threatened to suck all of them in, the suction just enough to pull them towards it, slowly inching towards the door.
Only half-consciously, Mickey aimed his Keyblade to the eye of the storm.
An orb of light shot out from it.
Another followed it. Then another.
Many, many orbs of light spiraled into the abyss, more than could be counted, flashing with each impact in the center. When the last orb connected, a great explosion flashed, and the eye of the storm was replaced with a very familiar image.
It was a Keyhole.
Twirling the Keyblade in his hand, Mickey pointed the Keyblade towards it, and with a resounding click, the Keyhole vanish, the storm subsided, the door closed, and slowly disappeared.
"Gawrsh… what just happened?" Goofy asked.
"Did you seal this world's Keyhole, your Majesty?" Donald asked.
Mickey stared, then shook his head, "No, I don't think I did… It felt more like something was… unlocked…"
On a colossal stone structure that punctuated the horizon, a lion roared in pain, and the savannah cried in worry as he slumped on the hard rock.
In a castle by the shore, a young redhead tended to her feverish husband, looking towards her true home, the sea, for guidance.
In a valley, a handsome prince, unused to his familiar form, tended to his love with worry that ate at his heart. He hated himself whenever he unwittingly snarled at those who got too close to her.
In an opulent palace, a princess fainted. Currently, her boyfriend was on a journey to the opposite end of the world, to find an herb that might cure her. Lucky for him, when you had a flying carpet, those distances weren't much of a problem.
On a ship with black sails, a man staggered to the doorway to the captain's quarters and passed out. His first mate simply dragged him to his bed. He assumed he just had too much rum that night.
Deep in the jungle, a man in a loincloth lay, surrounded by concerned gorillas. They stepped aside as a beautiful woman came , placing a cloth soaked in water on his head.
In a coliseum, the main contender for the cup fell to the ground, to the surprise of his opponent, who hadn't even drawn his sword. The muscle-bound man was soon dragged away by a busty young woman, a satyr, and a winged horse. The contender walked away, his head hung low, for he would be beating no gods that day.
In a mountain pass, a young woman fainted off her horse. A cricket and a small red dragon zipped from her saddlebag, attempting to wake her up, before a proud young man took her onto his own horse, and sped back. Their mission could wait for now.
In a dark, moonlit square, a festival was interrupted. The Pumpkin King had just pulled the biggest scare in the history of Halloweens, but unlike all previous Halloweens, this was a scare that none of them enjoyed.
A chubby boy and a slim girl looked over at their friend with worry. He was lying on the couch and breathing raggedly. Despite their worry, they knew he was gonna be okay. His first words after his initial spell were, "Did I get him?" To boot, he was still holding his Struggle bat.
Mickey sighed as he turned to Donald and Goofy, "Let's get a call in to home. We should let them know this is gonna take a while…"
Author's Notes –
This story was inspired by a post on the LiveJournal community khfanficrants, complaining about the lack of, and, indeed, outright hatred of the Disney aspect of Kingdom Hearts. In response, I decided that the best way to combat that would be to write a Disney-celebration epic myself.
A lot of the aspects of this story were taken from conversations with my good friend Shaun Garin, who is currently writing (alongside a ton of other projects) an epic called "The Pirate's Key". Any similarities between the two are NOT coincidental, but are used with permission.
Also, Max and PJ, in this fic, are older than when they appear in Goof Troop, but not as old as they are in A Goofy Movie. Just for reference.