//------------------------------// // CH30: Sword Art Arrival // Story: Kingdom Hearts F.I.M: Rise of The Elements // by Spirit Shift //------------------------------// Sitting on his favorite couch, in his lakeside home, next to his loving wife, Kirito steepled his fingers and let out a sigh of unease. Next to him sat his soul mate and best friend. Asuna rubbed his arm reassuringly. “It’s alright. Everything will be fine,” she tried to assure. Kirito, the legendary Beater, also known as the Black Swordsman and one of the most powerful characters in Sword Art Online, gave his wife a long weary gaze. “No it wont. We’ve got no more options and we can’t do it by ourselves.” Lightning Flash Asuna, the one who tamed the famed soloer and the former leader of the head guild, gave her husband a determined gaze. “We can recruit others. Surely there has to be some people left?” Frustrated, Kirito replied, “There aren't any... And even if there were none of them have the motivation to fight seriously. It’d just be a suicide mission for them.” He sighed once again as he fell back and slumped down into his couch. “Which turns it into a suicide mission for us.” Yawning, he rubbed his eyes. “I’m just… tired. Maybe we should--” “No!” Asuna threw her face into his, forcing her to look into her light hazel eyes. “You’re not going to give up. I won’t let you.” Grabbing his shirt collar, she pulled him up from his slump to look deeper into her eyes. “You made a promise to us that day when you fought Heathcliff that you would reach the 100th floor and get us all out of here. Are you really going to give up on that?” Kirito looked at her, completely baffled. Smiling nervously, he said, “I-I just meant that we should give it a rest for today. We’ve been out trying to recruit since the sun came up and… I’m tired.” Asuna simply stared at him for a few seconds, blushing slightly, before narrowing her eyes in a glare. She released her grip, letting him fall back onto the couch while she got up to walk away. “I’m done with you. Sleep here tonight.” Kirito bounced back up and reached out for her from the edge of the couch. “Wait what did I do? You were the one that jumped to conclusions!” he protested. She turned and pointed at him. “It’s your fault for acting all moody and saying stuff like,” she lowered her voice in a poor imitation of his, “we’ve got no more options” What was I supposed to think?” Kirito chuckled nervously and opened his mouth to defend himself, however, a different voice cut him off before he could say anything. “Mama! Papa!” The couple turned to see little Yui run into the living room with an ecstatic smile spread across her face. “What is it, Yui?” asked Asuna, curious about what could get her daughter so excited. Yui looked between her parents, waiting for just the right time to reveal her discovery. “I saw a shooting star!” Both Asuna’s and Kirito’s eyes went wide with surprise. “What?!” they exclaimed. ~~~ The familly quickly equipped their armor and equipment and followed Yui down to the 10th floor of Aincrad, the floating castle world that they were trapped on. When Yui asked why they were concerned and surprised they responded that Sword Art Online had no such program for falling stars so such a thing should have been either a glitch or impossible. Arriving in a pillar of blueish light, the couple both gave looked on in awe at the large crowd that had gathered around a large green machine that had crashed into the middle of the city courtyard. The machine itself had apparently crashed into the ground, fracturing the stone and spreading the shards of data around. The crowd was abuzz with curiosity and wonder. “Did they add new features?” asked one girl, wearing a dark cloak around her shoulders. “Is this some kind of scripted event? wondered a boy wearing a soldier's cap. Curious, he flicked his wrist down to check his menu. "I don't see anything in my log." Closing his menu, he then turned to his friend and asked, “Are we being invaded by aliens?” The taller man put a finger to his chin and hummed in thought. “No, that’s impossible, unless Kayaba’s gotten bored. It’s more likely either a new event or...” his eyes went wide, “it’s from the outside!” Everyone turned to the man, some with shocked faces and others of disbelief. They turned back towards the ship, only when they began hearing several voices from inside. Kirito and Asuna slowly entered into the crowd in an attempt to get a closer look. Asuna gently held Yui by her shoulders, intent on keeping her close should the worst happen. *Cough* *Cough* “Woo wee, that was some rocky landin.” “Oh geez… my head!” “I think I broke a nail! Oh sweet Sora I did!” “Jeez, Rarity will you calm down. Pinkie, open the door already.” “Oh my gosh guys, do you think we made it?” Everyone in the crown began to chatter amongst themselves for a time before finally the door to the machine started to open outwards. Some of the more cautioned, battle hardened fighters,  reached for their weapons. While some cowered away nervously. Kirito and Asuna, however, seemed more interested than worried. The side door slowly opened, briefly releasing a cloud of smoke before allowing a bright smiling face to poke out and look around. She sucked in a large gasp and yelled back into the ship. “Guys we did make it. Good job, Maud!” She then took another look around. “And they brought us a welcome party!” Another head poked itself out above the first, this one sporting just about every color of the rainbow. “They aren't demons or anything are they? Our last two welcome parties weren't all that fun,” she grumbled, examining her surroundings. The pink haired one smiled up at the other one. “Well, I wouldn’t say that Dashie, We met little Yuna remember. And then there was Radiant Gardens.” “What are you two talking about? Get out of the doorway!” Pinkie and Dash quickly exited the ship and made way for three other girls. Soon enough all five of them were standing in front of their ship, staring curiously at the people surrounding them. “Well these guys look like they're ready to pick a fight,” Dash observed, slamming a fist into her palm. “Rachelle!” hissed Twilight. “They’re clearly just startled.” She pointed at the sky. “I would be too if a ship just fell from the sky! We should--” “E-Excuse me!” The five girls turned to look at a young looking girl that was wearing a brown cloak and a brown turban. She hesitated once she had their attention, but continued nonetheless. “A-are you people from the outside?” “Well duh!” Pinkie grinned and gestured grandly to her ship. “We have a ship. Of course we’re from the outside.” The girl stared at her for a few more seconds. Slowly, her face changed into a wide smile and tears formed in her eyes. Instantly, the crowd broke out in an array of frantic cheers and celebration. Even Asuna herself struggled to comprehend the idea of someone coming to save them. “C-could it really be true? Have they really come to save us?” she asked, staring in wide eyed shock. Never in her dreams would she have expected people to somehow break into the game to save them. It seemed almost like a dream. Pinkie shared a glance at the others and shrugged. “Speaking of which...“ Tongue in cheek, Pinkie reached into her hair and pulled out her Keyblade, snapping a few tangled strands in the process. Kirito let out a small gasp at the appearance of her unique weapon. After gently rubbing her head in pain, she turned on her head and shot a beam of pinkish light into the keyhole shaped indent on the side, banishing the machine. Oddly enough, instead of disappearing in a flash of light, it burst into thousands of tiny shimmering fragments. “Ohhh, pretty!” she giggled. Every single cheer simultaneously ended. The girls all watched as the crowds merry faces dissolved while they watched the particles fall to the ground. After a few seconds of anxious silence, a random person with brown spiked hair shot out and grabbed Pinkie by the shoulders. He turned her around and glared at her with wide, crazed eyes that were wet with budding tears. “What’s wrong with you? Why would you do that?! Now you're stuck here with us!” Dash moved to Pinkie’s side and shoved the boy off. “Back off!” Finally coming to their senses the crowd screamed in a chorus of angry protests. A complete reversal from their previous cheers of support. Asuna’s head slumped forward. “I knew that it was too good to be true.” Feeling her mother's grip on her shoulders tighten, Yui turned her head up and gave Asuna a comforting smile. She then turned to her father, only to see him staring at the group of girls intently, his mouth stuck in a straight line. Taking a step back, Dash and the others flinched at the sound of the noise. “What are they mad about?” she yelled, trying to reach the others’ ears over the noise. “Ah don’t know,” answered AJ, “but they seemed really happy ‘bout the Gummy. Pinkie can’t ya bring it back out?” Pinkie nodded. “Guys it’s alright! I can bring it back out!”  back around Pinkie shot another beam onto the ground. The light coalesced into an orb that soon grew to increasingly large levels. Reaching its apex, the orb exploded outwards, revealing nothing. Confused, the Pink haired girl tried once more. However, this time the orb failed to even grow twice a large is before. Chuckling nervously, Pinkie turned to meet not only the glares from the enraged mob, but also the annoyed and angry faces of her best friends. She opened her mouth to say something, but a loud ring cut her off. *Ring*Buzz*Ring*Buzz* Pinkie lifted her arm to see that her keyblade was vibrating and ringing. “One sec, I gotta take this.” She turned back around and held the handle of the weapon up to her ear while holding the keychain to her mouth. “Hello? Oh Hi Maud! Wait, what? Really… Only once, huh? Okie-Doki then. Oh my gosh! Hi! No... no, Tigger… no I gotta… I gotta go alright. Yes I promise, Pinkie Promise. Alright byebye!” Pinkie stuffed the weapon back into her hair and turned around in a smile. “So… I’ve got good news and bad news.” The girls and the people all stared at her with identical looks of confusion, though the girls had a touch of nervousness with them as well. Taking their silence as permission to proceed, she said, “Well the bad news is that Maud says that the ship came under attack by some unknown force when we landed and to only call it back when it’s time to leave.” “What?!” screamed the girls. “She also said that the unknown force deleted a lot of the ships data and that most of the data on various worlds were lost. Not the ones that we were planning on going to, but pretty much everything else.” “What?!” screamed Twilight. “But!” she stopped. “But… the good news is that I just found a new power for my Keyblade… Yay?” Pinkie waved her arms, cheering weakly. Rarity pushed past Twilight and stomped up to Pinkie, wearing a clearly forced smile. “Diane… darling… If I’m hearing you correctly, you’re saying that we can only summon the Gummy once?” Pinkie smiled. “Yup, and only when we’re ready to leave.” Dash scratched the back of her head lazily. “Well that’s not really much of a problem. We don’t really use the ship until we need to go anyway.” Rarity turned her glare on her, causing Dash to flinch slightly. Rarity’s already forced looking smile turned into one that made her look manic and disturbed. “No. Nononono, Rachelle you don’t understand! All of our stuff is on the ship. We came out without it. All of our supplies and money. My spare clothes and beauty supplies. If we are to stay here for any length of time we’re going to need those items.” AJ thought on it. “Ah gotta agree with Rares on this one. Unless we find someplace tah crash,” she shrugged, “we’re pretty much up a creek without a paddle on this one.” “I’ll let you stay with me!” a voice screamed out from the crowd. The girls turned to see a tall dark skinned man wearing samurai armour. “I’ll let you stay with me if you use that ship to get me outta here!” “What?” another voice yelled. “No way! Why do you get to leave? Take us instead!” “No, please!” another woman yelled. She stood over several of the children whom had gathered to see the commotion. “If you can only make one trip please take these children with you! They don’t deserve to be here.” “I want to see my wife again!” “I want to see my family!” “I’m sick of living like this!” The crowd erupted in comments and pleas, all of them begging for their release. The girls looked around nervously, completely in the dark about the situation. Twilight regretted not reading up on this world before Pinkie hit the randomizer, while Dash and AJ were worried that they would have to fight someone and were getting ready to summon their own weapons, and Rarity was still reeling over the loss of her supplies. “Guys!” Everyone quieted down and turned to one lone man standing at the head of the group. Twilight recognized it as the one who started the panic by grabbing Pinkie. “We can all fit in their ship so we shouldn’t fight one another.” He turned to the girls. “What we need to do it get that key she had! It has the skill we need to summon it!” The girls reeled back at his declaration. Dash tried to speak up, “Hey! Hold on!” But she was cut off by screams of agreement from the crowd. “He’s right!” “We need to get it away from her before she wastes it!” A woman stepped up. “Are you sure?” The man turned to her and nodded. “Plus, you saw her. She was talking to someone in the real world. That key is our ticket out of here!” His words seemed to have the desired effect on the crowd as they all began to rally behind him. Some of them dared to even pull out their own weapons. Desperate for salvation, the people began to close in on the girls. “Give us the key and we’ll let you go!” “Just surrender. I don’t want to become a red player!” “Screw that! Just hire Laughing Coffin to take care of them!” Frightened, the girls backed into one another, forming a tight circle. On instinct they each pulled out their own Keyblades. Asuna looked on in horror, shocked that this is was what became of the people of SAO. They were so desperate for escape that each one of them would be willing to harm innocent girls. “Kirito we have to--” she turned to see that the swordsman was no longer standing next to her. She looked down to Yui and asked, “Where did he go?” Yui pointed towards the crowd. as the enraged players marched on them the girls grew more and more nervous. They weren't sure what to do at this point. Twilight had told them not to attack at first, but they were getting too close. Unable to hold herself back, Dash flared her glowing wings in an instinctive show of aggression. The sight of them caused everyone in the crowd to back off slightly, cautious over this new element. Their hesitance lasted just long enough for Kirito to act. Jumping from the crowd into the center of the girls, he lifted a large crystalline sphere into the air and called out; “Group Teleport: Home Point!” In a bright flash of light all six of them vanished completely, leaving behind an empty area surrounded by several dozen irate players. Unnoticed by them, there was another smaller flash behind them as two other players disappeared.