
Great Barrier Reef
“Axel,” said Xemnas to the red-haired assassin. “Care to explain your actions?”
“Why, whatever do you mean?” asked Axel mockingly.
“We know you went to that last Fixed Point,” said Xaldin. “But why?”
“Oh, that,” said Axel, as though he just remembered something. “Well, we need to split those two keyblade wielders up, right? That’s what I’m doing.”
“By giving one of them extra power?” demanded Xigbar. “Wouldn’t that make him MORE dangerous to us?”
“Hey, when the two of them leave each other, you’ll be thanking me,” said Axel.
“I’ve heard enough,” said Xaldin. “I say we kill him now.”
“Wait,” said Xemnas. “What are you planning, Axel?”
Axel grinned wickedly, before explaining his plans…
“I don’t understand,” sighed Kairi. “Why is Sora gaining such powerful new moves, and I’m stuck here playing catch-up? I’m pretty sure I’ve had my keyblade longer than him.”
“Try not to let it get to you,” said Penny, trying to reassure her friend. “Maybe you’ll learn new moves that he won’t, and it’ll all balance out.”
“Maybe…” started Kairi, as the door opened, revealing a small chicken standing there.
“Kairi, Penny,” said Ace. “We have a…erm, situation.”
“What? Like a new Fixed Point to go to?” asked Kairi.
“Umm…not quite,” said Ace. “Come on, she’s in the main computer room.”
Kairi and Penny followed Ace through the corridors until they reached the computer room. When they entered, they saw Queen Elsa, Sora, Lewis, Hiro, and another lady, much shorter than the rest of them.
“Ah, you must be the other one,” said the woman. “A bit young, but I can work with it.”
“Umm…who is…” started Kairi.
“I am Edna Mode, but you call me E honey,” said the woman. “Now, do you two honestly believe you’re properly attired to be saving the world? Bah, pathetic.”
“She just showed up out of nowhere,” said Lewis. “I have no idea…”
“Dahling, when you’ve worked around superheroes your whole life, you learn a thing or two about time travel,” said Edna.
“Superheroes?” asked Sora. “Oh, you mean like Mr. Incredible and Frozone?”
“Yeah, yeah, they’re just clients to me,” said Edna. “But this, this could be my greatest project yet.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think we need new clothes,” said Elsa.
“First thing, dahling, lose the cape,” said Edna, pointing to Elsa’s cloak.
“Excuse me?” demanded Elsa. “I am a queen, and will wear whatever I…”
“Dahling, if you’re a queen, I’m a goddess,” said Edna. “Now, cape off.” Elsa gaped at her, as though she couldn’t be more offended (which she probably couldn’t). Before she could say anything, one of the computers started beeping.
“Guys,” said Hiro, checking what was happening. “Organization members in a Fixed Point.”
“Where are they?” asked Sora.
“They are…in the ocean?” said Hiro, somewhat confused. “Yep, the ocean, just off the coast of Australia.”
“You mean…on an island or something?” asked Kairi.
“Nope, under the sea,” said Hiro. “We probably have some scuba suits somewhere…”
“You’re kidding, right?” asked Edna, though making it clear that she didn’t want an answer. “You give me ten minutes, I’ll make something better.”
“I don’t like this,” said Sora, talking about what Edna had put him and Kairi in.
“Dahling, when you’re battling the villains and not needing to come up for air, you’ll thank me,” said Edna.
“We’re here,” said Lewis, lowering the time machine down to the water.
“Excellent,” said Edna, picking up Sora and Kairi. “Well, have fun dahlings. Let me know how these forms work out for you.” Without another word, she threw the two keyblade-swordfish (keybladefish? Keyfish? Whatever) into the ocean.
“I knew I didn’t like this,” said Sora.
“Hey, on the plus side, you get to see me naked,” said Kairi flirtingly.
“Well, i…erm,” stammered Sora, unsure how to reply to that.
Kairi giggled at Sora’s embarrassment. “Come on Sora, let’s go see what’s going on,” she called, swimming down towards the reef.
“Hey, wait up,” said Sora, swimming after her. As they reached the bottom of the ocean, the two stopped to gaze at the beauty of the reef, surrounded by hundreds, maybe thousands of fish. Above them, Sora heard something odd. “Is that…a motor?” he asked, just as a boat passed by. “Wow, this place is incredible.” Sora continued to marvel at the view until he heard someone yelling.
“HAS ANYBODY SEEN A BOAT!? PLEASE! A WHITE BOAT! THEY TOOK MY SON! MY SON! HELP ME, PLEASE!” yelled a clown fish, swimming frantically through the crowds of fish towards them.
“LOOK OUT!” yelled Kairi as the clown fish swam straight into her. Luckily, because of her size, she hardly budged, but she did accidentally knock a blue tang.
“Hey, watch it,” said the blue tang.
“Sorry, sorry, I’m trying to find a boat. They took my son,” said the frantic clown fish.
“A boat? Hey, I’ve seen one of those,” said the blue tang.
“You have? Where?” asked the clown fish, a hint of relief in his voice.
“Come on, follow me,” said the blue tang, swimming away quickly.
“Oh, thankyou thankyou thankyou,” said the clown fish, chasing after the other fish.
“You think it’s the Organization?” asked Sora.
“I dunno,” said Kairi. “It sounds like someone just went fishing and caught his son. Still, it’s the best lead we have, so…” Without another word, Kairi swam after the two, Sora in tow.
The blue tang swam quickly for about thirty seconds, before slowing down and glancing over her shoulder. She picked up the pace again, and started swimming in strange circles. “Wow, this fish must have a really good memory to know the boat swam in such weird directions,” said Sora.
“Something’s odd,” said Kairi. “Like…”
“Will you QUIT IT?!” snapped the blue tang, turning on the clown fish all of a sudden. “Trying to swim here.”
“What? But…you were showing me where the boat went,” said the clown fish.
“A boat? Hey, I saw one of them,” said the blue tang. “Follow me…”
“Wait, wait, wait,” said the clown fish. “You already said that.”
“Oh, did I?” asked the blue tang. “I’m sorry. I suffer from short term memory loss.”
“What?” said the clown fish. “You mean…great, now how am I supposed to find my son?”
“Hey, maybe we can help,” said Sora, swimming up to them. “My name’s Sora, and this is my friend Kairi.”
“I’m Marlin,” said the clown fish. “And there’s probably not much point asking little miss forgetful her name…”
“Dory,” said the blue tang.
“…and there’s not much point trying to help, since there’s no way I’m finding that boat,” said Marlin, turning around to swim home, only to run into a giant shark.
“’ello fishies, my name is Bruce,” said the shark. “And have I got something fun in store for you.” Sora, Kairi, and Marlin started at the shark in fear, while Dory looked kind of excited.
“Wha…where am I?” asked Nemo, swimming around in this strange new environment. He swam straight ahead, only to bump his head on some kind of invisible wall.
“You’re in a tank, kid,” said a voice above him. Nemo looked up to see a pink starfish just above him. “You know, like the one at the pet store?”
“Pet…store?” asked Nemo, unsure what she was talking about.
“He’s not from a pet store,” said a Moorish Idol, swimming up to Nemo. “You’re from the ocean, aren’t ya kid?”
“The ocean?!” asked a royal gramma fish. “He hasn’t been properly decontaminated. Jacques?”
“Oui?” responded a cleaner shrimp (apparently Jacques), who immediately started cleaning Nemo.
As Jacques finished, Nemo looked out of the tank into the room beyond. “Hey, who’s that?” asked Nemo.
“Oh, that’s just Phil, the dentist,” said a pufferfish.
“No, the person wearing black,” said Nemo.
“That’s just his patient,” said a damselfish.
Nemo looked out at the man. Was it his imagination, or was the man staring right at him?
“Alright, let’s bring this meeting of Fish-Friendly Sharks to order,” said Bruce. “Now, what have we learned from last week?”
“That fish are friends, not food,” said Anchor and Chum, a hammerhead shark and mako shark respectively.
“Right,” said Bruce. “So, last week I told everyone to bring a fish friend. I’ve got four, so if anyone’s forgotten…”
“Err, I might have,” said Chum innocently, trying to hide a fish skeleton in his teeth.
“It’s okay, take one of mine,” said Bruce, pushing Marlin over to him.
“No, thanks, I’m okay…” started Marlin as he trailed off. “Hey, is that a mask?”
“Oh, that,” said Anchor. “Some diver just dropped it here on their way past.”
“One of the divers who took my son was wearing a mask like that,” said Marlin. “Maybe there’s a clue on it?”
“Ooh, I’ll check,” said Dory, swimming to the mask. Unfortunately, she scraped past Sora’s key/sword thing, cutting herself. “Ow, that’s sharp.”
“You okay there Dor…Dor…” started Bruce, as he got a whiff of Dory’s blood. “Here,fishy, fishy, fishy.”
“Oh no, BRUCE, REMEMBER THE PROGRAM!” yelled Anchor, trying to restrain him with Chum.
“Come on, just one bite,” said Bruce, struggling to get away.
“Marlin, Dory, get the mask and get away,” said Kairi, getting between the two small fish and Bruce. “We’ll handle him.”
“Great, you can be the appetiser,” said Bruce, breaking free of the smaller sharks.
“Try it,” said Sora, swiping at Bruce with his sword. He caught Bruce on the nose, but the large shark managed to nip at Sora’s fin, spilling more blood and putting Bruce into more of a frenzy.
“Leave him alone,” said Kairi, swimming at Bruce from the side. Unfortunately, Bruce chose that moment to charge at Sora, causing Kairi to miss.
Sora, not knowing what else to do, rolled out of the way. ‘Hey, that move was kind of cool,’ thought Sora. ‘I’ll call it the Dodge Roll’.
“Guys, we got the mask,” said Dory. “It says ‘P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney’, whatever that means.”
“That’s good,” said Sora. “Now we just need to get away.”
“Hey, does anyone know what these round things that have danger written on them do?” asked Dory, who was examining a floating mine.
“Well, that solves that,” said Sora, turning to Kairi. “Get those two out of here.” As Kairi swam away, Sora turned to face Bruce. “Hey Brucie, want some fish?”
“GIMME!” yelled the shark, swimming straight at Sora. Sora waited until the last moment, then swam straight up and out of the way. Bruce rammed into the mine, only realising at the last moment his mistake.
Sora swam after Kairi, Marlin, and Dory, just as the four of them were caught in the explosion of the mine…
“We have a patient,” called Peach, bringing the tank gang to attention.
“What’s he going to be giving this one?” asked Deb.
“Nice looking young blonde girl like that? Probably eats too much candy. I’m guessing a filling,” said Bloat.
Nemo peered out at the girl in the dentist’s chair, and immediately noticed something odd. “Hey, is it normal for two different people to wearing exactly the same thing?” asked Nemo.
“Well, people do tend to make their clothes on mass,” said Gurgle.
“But usually men and women wear different things,” said Gill. “We’ve had a man and a woman wearing those long black coats.”
“New fashion?” suggested Jacques.
“No, something’s up,” said Gill. “And I don’t like the way she’s eyeing Nemo. Kid, what would you say if I got you back to the ocean?”
“That would be great,” said Nemo. “But…I’m a long way from my dad…”
“Kid, you might want to take your chances in the ocean rather than with those two,” said Gill. “Now, where’s Nigel when you need him?” As if on cue, a pelican crashed into the window. The stunned bird slid down onto an awning, before lifting himself up and opening the window.
“G’day,” Nigel said to the fish. “How ya goin’?”
“Nigel, we have a Code Red,” said Gill. “Can you get little Nemo out of here?”
“No problem mate,” said Nigel. “May I ask why?”
“That girl’s been eyeing him suspiciously,” said Gill.
“It’s not Darla, is it?” asked Nigel.
“Who’s Darla?” asked Nemo.
“Dentist’s niece. It’s a long story,” said Nigel, shaking his head and looking down. “Poor Chuckles. Anyway, get in my mouth.”
Nemo gave Nigel a look of shock and confusion. “Umm…what?”
“Trust me,” said Nigel. “I’ll drop you in the harbour, then you just have to get as far away from here as possible.” Nemo still looked concerned, but he still swam up to meet the pelican, and jumped into Nigel’s mouth. “Awright, hang on kid,” Nigel mumbled as he turned around and flew to the sea.
Sora slowly opened his eyes. “What…happened?” he asked, then noticed he was moving fairly fast. “Where are we going?”
“Alright dude, you made it,” came a voice next to Sora’s head. Sora turned around to see a turtle swimming next to him. “That was pretty gnarly, taking on those sharks like that.”
“Sharks?” said Sora, then he remembered. “Oh, my friends…”
“Don’t worry dude, they’re fine,” said the turtle. “That girl swordfish you’re with, she dragged you in here.”
“And where is here?” asked Sora.
“The East Australia Current, man,” said the turtle. “Fastest way to Sydney, ya know?”
“Sydney?” said Sora. “Oh, right, Nemo’s there.”
“That’s why we’re taking you,” said the turtle. “I’m Crush, by the way.”
“Sora,” said Sora, trying to shake Crush’s fin with his with no luck.
“Sora, you’re okay,” said Kairi, swimming up to him. “Hey, in that place with the sharks, I found some fennel. That was one of the things Linguini needed, right?”
“Err…yeah,” said Sora, taking the can. “But should we really be giving him something that’s been sitting underwater for who knows how long?”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” said Kairi. “Hey Crush, are we nearly there?”
“Oh yeah, your exit’s coming up soon,” said Crush. “You better go find your little dudes.”
“We’re right here,” said Dory, dragging Marlin with her. “Where was here again?”
“Okay, Squirt’s gonna explain the exit procedure, so grab your exit buddy,” said Crush, dipping his head to reveal a much smaller turtle.
“Good afternoon,” said Squirt. “We're gonna have a great jump today! Okay, crank a hard cutback as you hit the wall! There's a screaming bottom turn, so watch out! Remember: rip it, roll it and punch it!”
The four fish stared at him in confusion. “Umm…what?” asked Sora.
“Alright, off you go,” said Crush, pushing them down a swirling vortex in the water. The group screamed in terror, but soon the rapid pull of the water was over.
“That was so cool,” said Dory. “I mean, I don’t remember what it was, but it was cool.”
“Come on, we have to get to Nemo,” said Marlin, swimming towards a nearby harbour. The rest of the group followed close behind. They swam for about a minute, then something dropped into the ocean in front of them.
“Hey, what’s that?” asked Dory, swimming straight at whatever it was in front of them. “Hey, it’s a kid.”
“Excuse me, but you wouldn’t have happened to see my father anywhere?” asked Nemo.
“Father…father…Nope, don’t think I’ve seen any fathers around here,” said Dory.
“Nemo? Is that you?” said Marlin, swimming up to him. “NEMO!”
“DAD!” yelled Nemo, swimming up and giving his dad a hug.
“Nemo,” said Marlin. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Aww, how touching,” came a female voice. “It’s too bad though, he needs to come with us.” The group of fish turned around to see two people in black coats in an air bubble; one a man, one a woman. The man held a sitar and appeared to be focused on keeping the air bubble around the two. The woman held a bunch of throwing knives between her fingers.
“He’s not going anywhere,” said Marlin. “I just got him back. I don’t care how much bigger than me you are, you’re NOT taking him away from me without a fight.”
“Actually, I was kind of hoping for that,” said Larxene. “You know what conducts well in salt water? Electricity.” Bolts of lightning shot out of her hands, zapping the group.
“Marlin…get out of here…” wheezed Sora. “We’ll handle…these guys.”
“Oh, you’re so noble,” said Larxene. “Too bad, really…”
“Larxene, just grab the fish,” Demyx grunted.
“Alright, fine,” said Larxene, snatching up Nemo in a single swipe. “Spoil sport.”
“OH NO YOU DON’T!” yelled Marlin, charging at Larxene. Larxene sighed as she sent another bolt of lightning at Marlin, who pushed through his obvious pain and into the air bubble. Unfortunately, his aim was off, and he hit Demyx instead.
“OWW! Hey, watch it,” said Demyx, smacking Marlin back into the ocean. But not before Kairi saw something.
“Sora, their air bubble,” said Kairi. “It faltered when Marlin hit that guy.”
“And it seemed to hurt him more than it should have,” said Sora. “Maybe that guy controls water, like his friend controls electricity. Which means…” Sora swam straight at the male Organization member.
“Again?” said Larxene, sighing with resignation. “They just don’t learn.” Larxene sent a bolt of electricity at Sora, who swam straight for Demyx. Demyx watched in amusement, then his eyes widened as he realised what was happening.
“Larxene, STOP!” yelled Demyx, but it was too late. Sora burst through the air bubble, and impaled Demyx on his sword. The electricity Larxene was firing at Sora flowed down Sora’s sword and into Demyx, frying the watery musician. Larxene suddenly realised her mistake and stopped her attack, but by that point it was too late. Demyx gave a moan of pain, then vanished.
The air bubble collapsed, but Larxene was quick, opening a dark portal behind her and swimming straight for it.
“NO! NEMO!” yelled Marlin, swimming towards the portal.
“Marlin, stop,” said Kairi, stopping the distraught father before the portal closed. “Where she’s going, you won’t survive. There’s nowhere near enough water for a fish like you.”
“But…Nemo…” started Marlin.
“We’ll get him back,” said Sora. “We’re not normally fish. We’re people, and we’ll defeat the Organization before they can finish whatever they’re planning.”
Marlin stared at him in confusion. “You’re…human? How?” he asked. “You know what? Forget it. If you can get my son back…”
“We will,” said Sora. “Right Kairi?”
“Yeah…” said Kairi. “But Sora…”
“What’s wrong?” asked Sora.
“You’re getting so powerful,” said Kairi. “I feel like I’m getting left behind. I want to be as strong as you, but any time we have a chance to train is taken up by missions.”
“What are you saying?” asked Sora, already guessing the answer.
“I’m sorry Sora,” said Kairi. “But I’m gonna go off on my own for a little while.”
“Ooh, I have something for you,” said Dory, as a glowing light appeared in her fin. “This guy’s a septopus who can hide you in plain sight if you need it. I think I knew him once, but I don’t remember.”
“Thank you,” said Kairi, taking the ball. “Tell Elsa I’m sorry.” Kairi held up the glowing ball, then vanished before their eyes.
“Kairi…” started Sora, just as something crashed down to the water above them. Sora looked up to see the door of the time machine opening.
“Dahling, we’re going home now,” said Edna, reaching down from the time machine to pick up Sora. “Where’s the girl?”
“She’s gone,” said Sora sadly.
“Hey now, don’t be like that,” said Edna. “Come on in and tell E all about it.”