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Riku walks down the stairs of Mickey’s castle.
“He said that he should be around here somewhere,” he murmurs.
Mickey pops up beside him.
“Hello.”
Riku turns.
“Hey, I was looking for you.”
“I figured.”
“Well, are you ready to go?”
Mickey nods. They head to their gummy ship, taking off to a nearby world.
“So, what did they say over the distress beacon?” Riku asks without taking his eyes off of the asteroid field in front of him.
“Well, they said that there were unknown intruders on their planet. That their military was being overwhelmed as we spoke, and they needed someone to come fight the shadow people. I assumed that meant heartless. That would also explain why the military got overwhelmed so easily.”
“Hm, it definitely sounds right, but something feels off. Did they say that the intruders were shadow people when they first brought them up, or was it once the call was ending?”
“Once it was ending.”
“Alright, were you able to hear anything in the background?”
“Not really, I could barely hear her. There was a lot of static, and she sounded panicked.”
“Ok, well, we’re almost there.”
“Awesome.”
He squints as he enters the atmosphere.
“I’m gonna look for somewhere to land in that forest right next to the town with the castle. That’s probably where the heartless are going to be, and we don’t need our ship destroyed again.”
Mickey nods, making sure he’s strapped in properly. Riku lands in a clearing not far from the treeline.
“There should be another city on the other side of the forest. There’s a desert. That’s what the woman told me, and she said that they have heartless over there too. Can you get there?”
“Yeah, I’ll drop you off here, and find somewhere closer to park the ship. Might have been better if you told me this earlier though.”
“Sorry.”
Once Mickey climbs off, he starts the ship back up. He navigates through the air, trying to spot the end of the forest. It takes a while for him to find it since the forest is massive, but there is a desert on the other side.
“Where’s the town though? Maybe it’s further into the area.”
He keeps flying slowly over the terrain, looking for any sign of life. After ten minutes, he sees a small spark of light in the distance.
“What is that?” he whispers, staring at the speck.
It gets bigger the longer he stares at it. He barely has time to dodge the speck as it flies past him. He turns to see what it was, and it just looks like a ball of light. The next one hits his ship head on. He’s hit by two more as he’s trying to control his landing. The ship hits the ground and he blacks out. All he can feel upon waking up is pain. It blossoms from his chest across his abdomen, and from one of his ankles up his leg. He sits up, hissing as the pain heightens. He stops for a minute to take stock of his injuries. He probes around his ankle, scrunching up his nose.
“That’s definitely broken. My ribs are also definitely broken, and I might have a concussion. All in all, it could have been worse. The ship is completely wrecked though.”
He looks around; everything is broken or thrown around though there are a few spilled containers for water that aren’t actually broken, just empty. He stands up, leaning against the wall to take his weight off of his bad leg. He hobbles over to the first aid kit which is strewn across the floor. He shifts through the contents, organizing everything. After that he pulls his belt off to put it into his mouth. First he wraps his ribs up then he splints his ankle. It’s a while before he can even move after that, so he just lays there, wondering what happened and where Mickey is.
I can’t stay here too long. If someone is after me, I have to get moving before they find the crash site. I flew too far into the desert to make it back to the woods, at least with my ankle like this. I’ll just have to contact someone, and then find somewhere safe to hide out. He sits up.
“Alright, I should have crutches around here somewhere. It should be in one of these compartments,” he says, opening different panels to reveal storage compartments behind them.
He grabs a pair of wooden crutches, then pulls himself off of the floor.
“The whole dashboard is destroyed so I can’t use the gummy ship to contact anyone.”
He grabs his phone, but the screen won’t turn on. He groans.
“I think it’s broken.”
He starts tinkering with it, but it doesn’t take long for him to realize that the whole thing is fried.
What am I going to do now? I… I guess my only option is to hunker down until someone finds me. I don’t know how I’m going to do that, but I’ll have to start making my way towards the treeline.
He makes his way outside. He can see the sun going down, so it’s not hard to determine which direction the forest is. It’s slow going, especially since the crutches aren’t exactly practical with sand. After a couple of hours, he starts looking for someplace to lay low for a while since his ribs are screaming at him and his ankle throbs in time with his heartbeat. Still it’s another hour until he sees an oasis. He makes his way over, pretty sure that it’s not a heat mirage since he hasn’t been out there long enough for that. With the sun already below the horizon, it’s getting cold rather than hot anyway. He sits down near the water, dipping his hand into it.
I’ll stay here for a while. I can’t stay too long, but I need water. If I am being chased, I can’t outrun anyone. I just have to stay ahead of them. I think I’ll just get some sleep for now though.
He props himself up with his back against a tree. The sun is already up, casting its blazing hot rays onto everything. The sand under his legs is hot, but he’s mostly covered by the shade provided by the tree. He fills up the containers for water before attempting to stand. His ankle and ribs have other ideas and he immediately falls back onto his butt.
“Crap.”
He’s completely overworked himself, and it’s almost thirty two hours before he can get moving again. By then it’s dark and cool, so he’s able to get farther than the first time. Much to his surprise, by the time day is breaking, he can see the treeline in the distance.
“I must have been closer than I thought. Guess I fell in this direction during the crash.”
The shade of the trees feels nice since it’s scorching hot by the time he reaches them. From there it’s a short process to find a stream and get settled near it.
“I guess this is where I’m going to stay until Mickey comes to find me. I’m close enough to the treeline that I should be able to tell if reinforcements get here from this side of the forest, but I’m also far enough that they can’t see me.”
He leans back against a tree, letting his eyes close. He dreams of Sora and Kairi and what they might be up to right now.