8Yaaahy, new installment, new installment! Woo! Chicken is tasty!
Disclaimer I've always been entwined with PotC. ...But never joined.
Chapter One: Dive into the Heart
Kingdom Hearts. The words sounded so strange. They were at once sappy and girlish, and deep and noble. The armored figure shifted his weight from foot to foot and had to ask. "What is it?"
"It's a game in my world," replied the teenager nearby, eyebrows furrowing sympathetically to his confusion.
"A game...?"
"I shouldn't bother to explain it."
"I wouldn't understand if you did," he conceded with a shake of his head. There was a thoughtful pause. "Then let's go."
"Are you sure you're ready?"
"As I'll ever be."
"All righty then." She held out her hand, which he reached for and squeezed gently. "We'll be back as soon as we can, Tia Dalma."
"Don' be hasty, chil'. Take ya time," her Teacher reassured her.
The girl nodded and turned back to her companion. "Let's get going." Humming to herself, she conjured a mist out of nowhere. They both closed their eyes and waited for the sensation of falling.
He felt chilled as what he assumed to be a breeze caressed him from the window. Air whistled in his ears, and the ground momentarily disappeared from beneath his feet. There was a sudden jolt and both of his knees gave out, and he lurched forward. A wave of nausea hit him when he opened his eyes again, and he had to wait for his vision to clear before he could see that, yes, they were in the girl's living room. The cat sat on the couch, unperturbed, casually drawing a paw over her ear.
"Hello, Zoë," he greeted her, extending a hand. She took one sniff at his armor and took off.
"I don't think she likes it."
"Well that makes two of us." She gave him a 'then-why-are-you-wearing-it-if-you-don't-like-it' look, which he ignored.
Smiling apologetically, she turned on the game and reached out to touch the television screen. Her hand went through. And so, they climbed into the portal, and hopefully into the world that held Jack Sparrow's Laughter.
—
Her feet touched the ground safely and she looked around, head tilted curiously and observantly to one side. She stood at the center of the Marketplace of Hollow Bastion. "Oh, this is too cool!" However, she suddenly felt then that something was wrong. "James?" She whirled around. He was nowhere in sight, and she found she was alone in the Marketplace. Oh great. She'd lost him. She jogged into town, eyes peeled for any sign of him. A house with umbrellas on its roof caught her eye, and she ducked in to ask around.
"I'm sorry, Miss, I haven't seen your friend either," the elderly wizard replied after she'd described him. "Perhaps you might find him in the Bailey."
"All right, I'll check there. Thanks."
"Good luck, young lady. Come and see me if you find him—I'll have something for you."
"Oh. Okay." She stepped out of the magician's house, thinking Grreeeaaatt... finding James has become a Sidequest, as she hurried around a bend to a steep, lengthy stone stairway. She took them on all fours, as was a habit of hers, so as she could both get to the top faster and save her energy.
With few steps left to the top, the sounds of a struggle reached her ears. Someone cried out with effort and a sword could be heard swinging through the air. It landed a hit. "Graah! Come on! Who wants some?" She poked her head over the wall to see James. Surrounded by small, black, adorably cute shadow creatures. "Form an orderly line and I'll have you all one by one—and no breaking rum bottles over my head this time!" He swung his sword in a wide arc, taking out several Shadows in its path, which dissolved into darkness and oblivion, only to be replaced by more. His other sword lay uselessly out of reach, likely because he had been taken by surprise.
"James!" She dashed out, grabbed the blade, and battled her way to him. The Shadows came in throngs. Even Soldiers and NeoShadows, other similar monsters, were joining the brawl. The humans stood back to back as the Heartless advanced. "I'm sorry. I should have told you about this stuff before we came. I just expected things to start out all peaceful."
"Warn me next time, then. But for now, how do we beat them all?"
"I'm not sure. It's like they just won't stop coming. And our weapons don't seem to be doing as much damage as I'd like."
"And also, why is that you're the only one who got a new outfit while I'm stuck with this blasted armour?"
"What?" Everything stopped. Even the Heartless had ceased their attacks to stare at her. She looked down at herself. "Oh sweet! I got Sora's outfit! Well, forget this." She tossed the sword to James.
"Wot?"
She didn't bother explaining. Instead, she held out a gloved hand, palm down, eyes closed in concentration. In a flash of light, an obnoxiously large and decorated key appeared in her hand. "I'm kinda glad I had this equipped before we got here," she grinned, swinging the huge Keyblade in a lethal arc and taking out many. The battle raged on, and finally, as the ever-above-the-horizon sun peaked at its zenith, marking what would have been midnight in this world, the Heartless stopped coming. "Whew, that took forever."
"Yes." He leaned against a wall wearily, panting for breath.
"You okay?"
He regained his winds enough to answer, "I feel drained."
"Did they land a lot of hits?" He nodded, still at a loss for breath. She reached thoughtfully into one of the many pockets, pulling out a small glass jar, and tossed it to him. "Drink this."
"What...?"
"It's a potion. Not the magical kind—it's just called that. It'll get your health points back up."
"Health points?"
"This game is built on a complex point system. For instance, your health and energy are measured in a certain number of points. Every time you take a hit, those points go down. And when they reach zero..."
"I understand. And this regains lost points?"
She shrugged. "Forty of them anyway. We can regain the rest when we stop off at a savepoint to record our progress."
"Here's an idea: how about I just stop asking?"
"Prolly a good idea."
He nodded, tipping his head back and emptying the jar of its contents. The glass dropped from his hand and shattered against the ground as he grimaced. "That is the most bitter thing I have ever tasted!"
"I didn't really expect it to have a taste. Come on, there are fountains everywhere. You can wash the taste out there." She pointed the trusty Ultima Weapon at the shattered glass and it repaired itself. She looked up with a grin, only to drop it to find he had disappeared once again from her side. "James?" She could hear him gargling and muttering to himself about 'horrid flavours' below. She sighed and giggled, descending the stairs once more.
"Where to now?" he asked as he turned to face her, wiping his mouth on his fist.
"We should check in with Merlin."
"Merlin? The legendary wizard consort of King Arthur?"
"The very same. Except not. He's a more fictionalized version of the character in this game. Finding you had become a Sidequest, and if I go and see him we'll get some item or other that will help us out."
"I won't ask."
"Good. Now come on, it's just around the corner." She led the way and soon they had reached the house, nestled in a corner between other buildings in the maze that was the town.
"There are parasols on the roof."
"It's a theme from the original movie that was adapted into this part of the game."
"This part — so there are others?"
"Well, the game is like a medley of classic movies and a famous series of games."
"I...all right."
She rolled her eyes in good humor. "Come on," and she led him inside.
"Ah. Good. You both have been reunited. Here, take this." The wizard handed her an old, long, battered dark red scarf.
Her eyes revealed an ever calculating mind as she observed it, then whirled around to face James—who was warily eyeing the swirling, glowing savepoint in the corner—crying, "It's perfect!"
"Whoa!" He hadn't been expecting her to wrap the item round his neck and pull him down to her level.
"In retrospect, I suppose I could have asked you to crouch for me, but it would have killed the mood!"
"And you never think before you act," he growled crossly as she wrapped the scarf twice around his neck and tied it in a knot. The lengthy remainder hung one end in front of his shoulder, one end behind.
"Like when we first met? You agreed to help us, and I hugged you right out of the blue." This got a smile out of him.
"That wasn't the only thing you did out of the blue that day," he replied wryly.
She grinned and smoothed the scarf over his armor, a hand gently on his arm, once again taking in the worn leather. "You know, you would have taken a lot more damage if it weren't for this," she murmured.
"Doesn't mean I have to like it."
She shrugged, motioning for him to stand again. "It looks...complete. Quick, strike a pose!" With a shhinng, he had drawn both his swords and leaned down into a fighting stance, scarf-ends waving as he did. "Nice. You almost look like a Final Fantasy character."
"Er...is that good?"
She folded her hands behind her head. "Well...you blend in. That oughta preserve world order for just a little while longer, hey? Now, in order to get to the place in the claws, we'll need a ship." James perked up at the word. "That swirly thing you look like you want nothing to do with? That's the dock. Don't look so apprehensive! You can also regain all of your points by standing in it. But I suppose that since I forgot to warn you about this realm before, then I should probably do it now. You see, characters in the game have the ability to use elemental magic." His eyes suddenly found hers from where they had been roving about circular room. That got his attention. "Anything sounding like 'Blizzard' is ice related, Fire for fire, Air for Air, and Cure for healing . Self explanatory. Now, like with health, we only have a limited amount of magic. Every time you cast a spell, the points that record your magic will go down. In my case, Curaga will use up all of my magic, and it will take thirty seconds for those points to regenerate."
"Thirty seconds is a lot of time in a battle."
"Don't I know it. Now for an example." She looked around for a reasonable target. "Freeze!" she pointed her Keyblade at the large, expensive-looking computer taking up half the wall. In a blast of cold air, it had frozen in great blocks of ice. The other characters that had until then been aimlessly walking about the room rushed over to berate her. "Fine fine," she grumbled, and set flames to the ice. Somehow, the computer was undamaged. James was beginning to wonder if he'd ever understand what was going on. "D'you want to try?" He nodded eagerly. "Take our your weapons and point them at your target." He obeyed. "Now, think about freezing it and say 'Blizzard.'" He pursed his lips. "Or 'Freeze' if you would prefer that. I know some of this stuff sounds silly."
He pointed the blades at the crackling fire on the hearth, their tips touching slightly. "Freeze," the former-Commodore growled. In an explosion of heat and light, Blizzagun fired from his swords with enough force that he was sent reeling backwards, and even the girl was pushed off her feet. They both stood and stared—Amy filled with awe, James shaken and surprised—and saw that the laws of physics had been defied: the flames themselves had frozen solid in sharp, dagger-like icicles, and an abundant coating of frost on the stone wall surrounded the site. "Well," was all he could manage in comment.
At the risk of being scolded by the game's characters again, Ames summoned Ultima once more, and took up a certain stance. "Fire!" Flames swirled around her, and the ice disappeared. The flames continued to crackle in the fireplace like nothing had happened.
"How were you not burned yourself?" James exclaimed. "Those flames—they surrounded you and yet you are unharmed!"
She nodded. "This game prevents players—that's us—from getting hurt unless damaged by an enemy." Their eyes met. "This is an awful lot to take in, isn't it?"
He growled to himself. "I'd never thought there could be such a thing as 'Realm-sickness', but it would appear that I have contracted it."
She patted him on the shoulder. "I know how you feel. Believe me. As soon as we find Jack's laugh, we can be out of here. Back at the bayou, yeah?"
"Aye."
"With the trees and the water and the stillness."
"And Teacher," he added onto the list.
Her expressive eyes suddenly grew guarded, some unknown emotion smouldering within. Concern filled James when he noticed this. "Right. And Teacher. And the sooner we find Jack, the sooner we can get back. So let's embark." They both looked toward the swirling green light that was the gateway to their ship. They stepped into it, and with a flash of light and a momentary floating sensation, they had arrived on the ship.
There was a lot of reconstruction in this chapter. Not so much plot-wise, that happens in the next installment, but rather I tried to explain the game without explaining the game. Last time I just wrote it like it happened in-game, and that ended up being not only confusing for those who were not familiar with the game, but also long and rather unrelated to the plot.
Hope you enjoyed! Was it an improvement? Or, if this is your first time through this story, was it followable?
Please Review!