I fell through the darkness, my scream echoing around me. I closed my eyes and prayed that it would end soon. Then I was harshly spewed out of the portal. I let out an eep as I hit the floor. I heard gasps all around me and a strangely familiar voice exclaimed, "Where did she come from!?" I opened my eyes and found three achingly familiar faces staring at me with concerned expressions.
"Hey, are you okay?" A boy with spiky black hair and a headband held out a hand to me. I grabbed it and shakily stood up.
"W-where am I?" I asked, even though I was pretty sure I already knew.
"You're in Twilight Town," A girl with chocolate brown hair and emerald green eyes said.
"What happened?" I asked.
"You came flying out of some hole in the wall!" The spiky haired boy exclaimed, using his hands to illustrate.
"I think it should be us asking you what happened." Another boy with sandy blond hair that was spiked up in the front and brown eyes came over to me.
"I don't exactly know..." I murmured. They wouldn't have believed me if I told them anyway.
"What's your name?" The girl asked.
"Kora." I said simply.
"My names Olette." The girl said with a smile.
"I'm Pence." The black-haired boy said.
"Name's Hayner." The last boy said. He didn't look half as interested in me as the others.
"Doesn't this seem kinda like deja vu?" Olette asked the boys thoughtfully.
"Yeah! The same thing happened to that one girl, Kairi!" Pence explained.
"Oh yeah! I forgot about Kairi. I wonder how she's doing..." Olette looked thoughtful for a moment, but then she turned back to me. "So do you remember where you came from?"
I shook my head. There was no way that I'd be able to explain my world to them.
"That stinks. Maybe we could have helped you get back to it." Olette explained.
I shrugged. And looked around. We were in the usual spot. "Nice place." I said smiling.
"Thanks! We call it the usual spot." Pence explained.
"Hate to interrupt, but the Struggle competition is about to start." Hayner said heading for the exit. "Can't exactly be late for that."
"Hey, Kora, wanna come?" Pence asked.
I knew I had to act clueless or they'd get suspicious. "What's the Struggle competition?" I asked innocently.
"It's where a bunch of Twilight Town's best fighters duke it out in the sandlot in town. They all have a bunch of orbs and their opponent has to try to take them. Whoever has the most orbs in the end wins the round." Pence explained
I nodded. "I guess I could watch,"
"C'mon then!" Olette half dragged me out of the usual spot and pulled me through town. Finally we came to the sandlot where a stage was set up for the event. Setzer stood in front of the stage, surrounded by fan girls and Seifer, Fuu, Rai, and Vivi were clustered in a corner of the the lot. All of them had disappointed looks on their faces. Right as we entered, the referee approached Hayner.
"Sorry kids, but we don't have enough competitors for the competition today. I'm afraid it's been canceled." He explained.
Hayner looked really upset. "I've been looking forward to the Struggle competition all summer!" he exclaimed.
"Well, if you can find one more person to compete then maybe we can hold the competition..." the ref said thoughtfully.
I suddenly had an idea. "I'll compete!" I said stepping forward.
Hayner looked at me in surprise and Olette's eyes widened. "Are you sure?" she asked. I nodded.
"Alright!" The ref shouted. "Looks like the competition can go on thanks to Hayner's friend..."
"Kora." I said to him.
"Hayner's friend Kora!" He finished. Everyone cheered.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Pence asked me. "These guys are tough. Especially Hayner. He won last year!"
I nodded going over their attack patterns in my head.
The ref got up onto the stage and began to address the huge crowds gathering around the stage.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Struggle-fiends of Twilight Town! It's time for summer's most sizzling clash! That's right! Today is the day for the Struggle and title match!" People everywhere cheered and pumped their fists. "Who will be the one to break through the ranks and take on our champion, Setzer!?"
From the corner of the sandlot I heard Rai shout "Seifer, ya'know?"
When the crowds quieted a little the ref continued, "And who will leave today as our new Struggle champion!?"
Olette and Pence shouted, "Hayner! Kora!" While that fan girls screamed "Setzerrrrrrrr!"
Setzer stood casually on the stage,waving to the crowd and the fan girls screamed even louder.
"Yes, the crowd is fired up, so you know what comes next: Lets...STRUGGLE!" The ref exclaimed. The crowd cheered really loud and fireworks shot up from behind a building. As the ref introduced the other competitors, I began to plan my battle strategy. When he came to me I looked around at the crowd, suddenly beginning to feel nervous.
"And I've never seen this girl in town before! folks, literally out of nowhere, the only girl brave enough to compete, Kora!" The announcer exclaimed.
I felt my face turn red with embarrassment as the crowd began to cheer for me. Among the crowd I could make out Pence and Olette, pumping their fists and shouting "Go Kora!"
As the announcer introduced the prizes that the winner would receive, I began to feel even more nervous. I knew that these people had trained for the competition. I had just come flying out of the wall from a different world and decided that I wanted to fight. I was too deep in thought to listen to the rules, but I heard the gist of it. 100 orbs, take opponents orbs, whoever has more orbs in the end wins. I looked at the chalkboard on which the matches were written on. First it was me and Hayner. I felt butterflies in my stomach as I was guided up onto the stage. The ref patted our shoulders and walked off the stage.
"Don't think that just because you're new in town I'm gonna go easy on you." Hayner said pointing his sword at me.
"I'd be offended if you did." I said with a weak smile. The ref announced the first round and when he shouted "STRUGGLE!" Hayner sprang at me, swinging his foam sword down on me. I blocked with my own sword and the force of Hayner's attack pushed me backwards slightly. He come to the ground I rushed at him. He blocked, thinking I would aim for his upper body, but at the last moment I ducked down and hit his legs out from under him. Orbs flew everywhere and I grabbed them quickly while Hayner got up.
"You aren't half bad." He said with a smile. He ran over to me and swung at my head. I ducked and when I came back up I landed a hit on his shoulder. More orbs rolled on the floor and I picked them up. There was only 30 seconds left for the round. All I really had to do was survive. I dodged Hayner's attacks, jumping, blocking, and ducking to avoid every one of them. Finally a buzzer sounded to signal that the match was over. I had barely broken a sweat, but Hayner stood with his hands on his knees, panting.
"Good game," I said.
He looked up at me with a suprised look on his face. "You're pretty good!" he exclaimed. Olette and Pence cheered really loudly. I smiled and waved at them. Olette gave me a thumbs up and I gave her one back.
The ref came over to me and lifted my hand in the air, shouting, "And the winner is... Kora!" The crowd cheered. "This new kid in town can really fight! Oh, and Hayner put up a good fight too!" Hayner shrugged and walked off the stage. As he walked off, Seifer brushed past him saying "Out of my way!"
"What, you in a rush to lose?" Hayner jeered.
I felt something brush my leg and I looked down to see Vivi. I jumped back in surprise. He looked up at me and gave a weird laugh. I walked off stage, Vivi's gaze following me all the way. I went and stood beside Olette to watch the match.
"Don't mess with your elders." Seifer taunted.
"Whew, just look at those sparks fly!" The announcer exclaimed. "I guess Seifer didn't expect to be fighting one of his own boys!"
The match started and Vivi sprang forward and Seifer just barely jumped back in time. Vivi followed Seifer, throwing complicated combos.
"When did Vivi get so tough?" Hayner asked.
Then I realized something. In the game Vivi got tough when he was possessed by a dusk. And dusks meant Organization XIII. And the Organization was trying to capture me. I turned to Olette and was going to tell her that I wanted to withdrawal from the competition, when the match was suddenly announced over.
"I-I'm not sure what just happened...um...but...the winner is Vivi!" The crowd hesitated, but eventually broke into a weak cheer for Vivi who had waddled off the stage.
"That's not Vivi." Seifer said as he passed by us. "Thrash 'im." And with that he and his gang left the sandlot.
The ref came over and announced that Hayner had been moved up to third place since Seifer quit the match. I just stared at Vivi. Hayner cheered and Olette nudged me. "You did great out there before!" She exclaimed.
"Yeah! Hayner probably did'nt expect to get beat by a girl!" Pence added.
I laughed, but then my laugh was cut short as the ref announced the next round.
"You're up!" Olette said.
"Good luck Kora!" Pence exclaimed as I walked onto the stage.
Me and Vivi stood side by side as the ref handed us our swords. "Keep it clean you two." He said. Vivi snatched his and went to stand opposite me. I gulped as the match was announced.
"STRUGGLE!" The ref yelled. I was about to attack Vivi when it happened. Everything just froze except for me and Vivi. Hayner, Pence, and Olette were frozen in their cheering positions. It was even creepier in real life then it was in the game. Vivi blinked and in a burst of swirling white light he morphed into a dusk. The dusk began to multiply and within a matter of seconds I was surrounded an every side. I willed for my struggle sword to become a keyblade, but it never did.
"Somebody help!" I screamed, the fear growing inside me. Suddenly there was a loud whoosh and all of the dusks disappeared.
"Ah, so this is where Demyx accidentally sent you to!" My heart stopped at the sound of a voice. I whipped around and saw a black hooded figure standing about five feet away from me.
"W-what do you want from me?" I asked him.
"I want you to come with me before another Organization member comes and takes you."
"Who are you?" I asked, squinting to see if I could tell who it was.
"I'm a friend and me, Demyx, and Larxene are the only ones in black hoods that you should trust. Got it memorized?"
"Axel!?" I asked
He pulled down his hood to reveal his spiky red hair and green eyes. He walked up to me. "You're lucky that my dusks found you before Xemnas did." He said. "Now come on, we need to take you to Hollow Bastion."
"But how do I know I can trust you?" I asked. "Last I checked you seemed to be quite the turncoat." I said, proud of myself for using a sophisticated word.
"Aww c'mon Kora! Don't be that way! You know I play for the good side now!" He held out his hand to me. "And besides, if you don't come with me you'll most likely end up being taken by a less friendly member of the organization."
I didn't fully trust him, but he was right. The other members of the Organization probably wouldn't even introduce themselves before taking me away. Which reminded me...
"Axel, why are they trying to take me?" I asked.
Axel looked around "We don't exactly have time for a Q&A right now kid. The Organization is searching every world to find out where you went. If we don't get out of here soon then one of the less benevolent members might run off with you."
I looked down at my feet for a moment, thinking. Axel IS the best member when it comes to ethical views and he kept eye contact the whole time so I guess he isn't lying... I looked up at Axel who stood impatiently waiting for my answer.
"Alright." I said "I'll go." I gingerly reached out to take his gloved hand. I grabbed it and he smiled.
"I promise I'll answer all of your questions later." He said. Then he opened a dark corridor that immediately enveloped us in darkness.