Fellowship & Fairydust

Looking out the window of Scrooge’s ship, I found myself staring in awe at the sights I now beheld. It was so beautiful, seeing the space that existed between worlds. It was like the images of outer space that I saw in school, except the sky was different colors. Instead of being a gloomy black, I saw patches of red, yellow, green, blue, and every color I could think of. It was like seeing a classic painting come to life. “Jace, you’ve got to see this,” I told my cousin as I looked at him. 

“You know I hate that name.” He told me without glancing my way, filling me with sadness. He wasn’t even trying to enjoy the adventure we found ourselves on. We had the opportunity of a lifetime exploring something that until now science would’ve laughed at, and he just wanted to be sour. 

Turning away from the window, I resumed sitting in my seat. “Can’t you at least try to enjoy this, Jason?”
“How can I? We’re out here in a spacecraft being piloted by an old duck while the person who destroyed our ticket home is out there doing who-knows-what.”

“Oh, she’s right, lad,” Scrooge said. “You may as well take in the sights. It will make a lasting first impression.”

That made me think of something I’ve been meaning to ask him. “Scrooge? How did you find out about other worlds? Didn’t you come from somewhere else?”
“Aye, lass. I came from Disney Town. There, I was a successful businessman, but things had been getting too easy for my taste. That was when I met Merlin, who offered to take me to a world where I could do more business. Now I’m making a profit on three worlds.” That last statement made the old duck chuckle. 

My cousin then turned to look at Scrooge. “So that’s it? You came to other worlds to make money?”

“Well, of course. I’m not about to turn down what could be a successful venture. Not to mention it sounded like a grand adventure. You should know when I was your age I was quite the explorer. I solved countless mysteries and rewrote history so many times they had to revise several textbooks five times in one year. And I did it all by being smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies.” 

I found that pretty impressive. It sounded like Scrooge was a veteran when it came to adventures, and could make sure we got the supplies we needed at a good price. Maybe it was a good thing we agreed to his terms. He seemed to know what he was doing. 

With a sigh, Jason went over to the window and began looking at the sights. He didn’t say anything, but I could tell my cousin was impressed by what he saw. It was more breathtaking than I had imagined, and I hoped it would help him learn to enjoy the trip. That was until he tensed up. “Vessels incoming on the starboard side.” 

That caused me to take a look through the window and gasped at what I saw. Several ships were coming towards us that looked like torpedos, except they had helicopter blades on the sides that were strange to look at. Also, the heads of the torpedoes had these heart insignias on them that were also crossed out. “What are those?” 

“Heartless!” Scrooge said as he looked at us. “Get to the controls. Fire the lasers. There. By your seats!” 

Looking I saw some sort of control appear that hadn’t been there before. Sitting down, I found my seat moving forward to be closer to the controls. Taking them, I saw a targeting system appear before me on the window, surprising me. As soon as the first Heartless appeared, I pulled the trigger on my control. My shot was way off target, didn’t even come close to the Heartless. 

“Clair. Focus. Wait until they’re in your range.” Jason told me. I heard him click and the lasers fire. There were explosions behind me as a testimony that he hit his mark. The elder duck was laughing so hard as he piloted the ship through the space around us, maneuvering between the Heartless like he had done this many times. That just made it harder for me to concentrate on shooting the Heartless things. 

I could hear Jason clicking away behind me with so much fury. I forgot he could be good at video games when he wanted to though Uncle Kendall usually only tolerated shooter or military strategy games. Guess all the practice at the simulators was now paying off. If only I could hit one of those things.

That was when I saw something strange outside. It looked like there were floating ruins all around us. Raising an eyebrow, I stopped pressing the trigger to look at them. “Huh? What?” 

“Why are there ruins in space?” Jason asked as he stopped firing for a second. That moment of hesitation caused the ship to jerk around and throw us out of our seats. 

With a groan, Scrooge pulled himself back to the controls. “Focus on the Heartless. If they get through to another world it’ll spell disaster.” 

I wasn’t sure why that was, but I had a feeling it wasn’t a good idea to argue with him. Something about torpedo-shaped monsters creeped me out. Getting back into my seat, Jason and I resumed firing at those things. I could tell he was hitting the ones that came in range due to the explosions, while I kept on missing them. This strategy wasn’t working. If I didn’t do something the ones I was missing were going to hit us. But what could I do? 

What a minute. There was something about that particular pillar and wall. Maybe, just maybe, if I hit it… waiting for it to come in range, I pressed the trigger and shot at the structure. Direct hit! With a crack and a rumble, the structure fell over on the Torpedo Heads. Hey, I didn’t know what to call them. The point was the blast managed to make the structure fall over, crushing the Heartless things by the weight of them. 

Then we were engulfed by a flash of light and we then found ourselves hovering over a world. It looked like it was a huge desert with a city in the middle, with ruins strewn all around it. What in the world? This was not a planet. 

“Ah, here we are. Agrabah.” Scrooge said as he got up. “Donald’s told me all about this place. It’ll be a nice start to creating a multi-world business empire.”

“Not so fast,” Jason said as he forced Scrooge back to his seat. “Those things out there. What are they, and how do you know about them?”

“Now, come lad. You don’t think…”
“Don’t tell me what I think. You knew what they were, and didn’t bother to warn us. Now spill. What are they?”
“Please, Mr. McDuck,” I said. “If we’re going to run into them, we need to know what we’re dealing with.”

With a sigh, he looked at us. “You’re right about that, lass. The creatures we just faced are called Heartless. They’re creatures that come into existence when a person surrenders to the darkness within their hearts. Anger, jealousy, greed. All those are examples of what can lure the Heartless to a person.”

“Wait. Did you say they are attracted to people?” I asked him. 

“Aye, lass. I did. That is why a Heartless exists. They look for the darkness in the hearts of other beings, and if the darkness is strong in one’s heart, they consume it.”

“What?!” 

“Those things are man-eaters?” Jason asked as he looked out the window. 

“Yes and no.” The duck said. “A man-eater implies that it eats your flesh. When a Heartless swallows a heart, they consume a person’s essence, their being, everything that makes someone who they are. In their place comes another of the Heartless. That’s how they come into being, and their whole purpose is to make more of them.”

Jason and I looked at each other. This had gotten a whole lot scarier than I thought it would, with what sounded like the threat of demons from some Gri-forsaken netherworld that could make us suffer a fate worse than death. Maybe this wasn’t a good thing to be doing after all. 

“And you expect us to just waltz out there with no training and fight these things?” Jason asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Well, of course. You’ve got a Keyblade, and that is the only thing that can vanquish the Heartless. They fear the Keyblade above all things. Besides, Heartless sightings have been down ever since Xehanort was defeated. You’ll both be fine. Now, let us press on. We’ve got new places to explore.” 

As Scrooge prepared to beam us down I thought about it all. It was a scary thing to think about, facing monsters that could destroy everything I was just by taking my heart. It had seemed like a great fantasy adventure I used to read about, but now I was filled with fear. And I thought the liftoff in the space program had been scary…

 

***

 

Phiran 2, 92 KA…

I gulped with reservation as our spacecraft entered the final preparations for us to lift off. This was the biggest moment of my life, of all of Harthyn’s history, because we were about to enter the age of space exploration. There were eleven others on the shuttle to the Yeller Space Station, the base of operations for the Herald Program. All of them were chatting away with each other about their interests and lives. I wished I could access the books I brought with me, but they were in my bag and inaccessible to me while we prepared for liftoff. I couldn’t even reach the holo-screen in my pocket. 

“Oh, would you look at that? Mrs. Relic doesn’t have a book in her face.” One of the girls teased me. I knew her as one of the popular kids in school who got the best grades, so I suppose it was a no-brainer that she would be a part of the program. But her words earned the attention of the other flyers. 

“What’s the matter? Afraid of facing the real world?”
“Why are you here? Yeller must be mad to allow a natural-born into this program.” 

“Go back home. Let the real people do this work, not someone whose skills were left to chance by their parents.” 

The usual things they said to me. Things I had gotten used to. It was part of my life. Why should their words hurt any less than they have before? It wasn’t like anybody cared anymore. I wasn’t created through cloning, and I was only half-Hocamli. Two big strikes against me. 

“Hey.” I heard Jason say from the other side of the shuttle. With a clamor rising from the other side, I saw him getting out of his seat and climbing over everyone who was seated between me and him. From the grunts and cries, it was clear he was not being gentle with his movements either. Arriving next to me, he pushed the person out of his seat and took it for himself. “Find your seat. And shut it about what she likes.”

“Or what?” One of the other boys asked him. 

“Or I’ll chuck you out the airlock when we take off.” 

“Attention everyone. Please take your seats and keep yourselves strapped in. Liftoff will commence in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two one, ignition.” While the countdown was going on everyone scrambled to a seat and made sure their harnesses were secured.

When the roar of the engines started, I screamed. I admit it. It was loud like someone had opened the gates of the underworld and let loose all manner of monsters, and when I realized we were leaving the atmosphere, the terror was more than anything I had felt before.

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