Ketso was reluctant, but he had to go. Piku's Kukumber had a small pod that would get him out... somewhere. He had to start finding Van. The boy walked across the island, collecting supplies. He threw them down on the beach, and he returned there after several trips.
The sand buried Ketso's feet. He watched the fine powder being carried away by the sea. He felt as if he were being pulled, too. He hated it. He'd gotten back sooner than he planned, and still he was being pulled from his home. He stood up, packing his supplies into a sack. While he loaded a heavy coconut into the bag, someone handed him another.
"Thanks," Ketso murmered. It took two more coconuts for him to realize what was going on. "Hey!"
Piku and Gerard were staring at him. "You fool!" Piku yelled. Gerard pointed a finger at him.
"You aren't allowed to run away, young man!" Gerard ordered. Ketso shrugged. Amme suddenly grabbed Ketso's shoulder.
"I am going with you. Me and Piku."
"Well, he's not going anywhere without his father. Especially since the last time we traveled in three, you died."
Ketso stared at them. His eyes started to water, and he sniffed quietly. "You guys are so-"
Then the tears fell for a different reason. Pain. "Stupid Stuffer!" yelled an angry Piku. She had grabbed him by the throat and punched him in the stomach, after jumping of course.
"Don't be so emotional!" Piku shouted. Gerard's eyes started to fill with tears, too.
"I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!" Gerard sniffed. Ketso and Gerard started bawling. Piku smacked the both of them repeatedly. Amme snickered in the shadows.
Suddenly, Piku looked stern. "We're not using the Kukumber for this trip. My baby would get scratched or something. Plus, she's not a war ship."
"A war ship?" Ketso asked, surprised. Piku stared at him.
"Uh, yeah. Don't you watch the news? The heartless have surrounded every planet. Smart heartless." She folded her arms, glaring.
"Well..." Ketso shifted his weight uncomfortably. "What're we using?"
Piku glowered. "I called in a favor."
"What? From who?! You don't have any friends!" Gerard and Ketso gasped. Piku kicked the sand.
"The person I called is DEFINATELY not a friend."
Ketso and Gerard stared at each other blankly. Suddenly, the sound of a massive sword being sliced through the air was clear. It wasn't really loud; just really alien. Ketso looked around curiously. Then, he felt a blast of hot air as flames appeared four feet away from his face. Then, the flames died down. The air seemed to shift, and the island became a blur. Then, the biggest Gummi Ketso had ever seen was visible. He stepped back.
The whole thing was jet black, to begin with. It had a beautiful sheen, dark tinted windows, and a mighty fine crimson stripe following the circumference of the ship. It had long, slender wings- four to be exact, rockets, shield projectors, and laser-jets below the hull, and nets on the top. It must've had at least fifty guns on every side, though they were placed very stylishly, and were either a green that -surprisingly- went great with the red and black, or just the same crimson shade. The best part, however, had to be the swift-looking, gun-covered, night-coloured mini-ships attatched to it's wings. Ketso saw Piku start drooling over the ship, and he wiped his mouth, too. Gerard was turning around in circles saying, "preeeeeeeeeeeeeety". Piku shook her head as a large ramp slid out of the gummi from nowhere. Ketso expected some noble, elite pilot to walk gracefully down the ramp.
A clumsy, five-inch-taller Piku-clone walked down the ramp, waving and smiling kind of stupidly. Piku glowered, picked up a rock, and threw it at the clone's head. The clone dodged the rock but forgot about how steep the ramp was. She rolled down it, hitting her head on the hard step at the bottom of the long board. She rubbed her head and clambered to her feet.
"Hey Piku. Your baby sissy is here. To show you up at Gummi flight. And I brought Pocky!" The girl stroked the ship, and shimmering crimson letters appeared. "Apocolypse" was emblazoned on the side, just before one of the massive wings. Piku scowled.
"Maybe you can BUILD 'em, Sis, but you can't FLY 'em."
"Oh yeah?!"
"Yeah!"
"You wanna bet?!"
"HECK NAWZ! I'll just kick you in the jaw and get it over with!"
"IF YOU CAN REACH!"
"OH I KNOW YOU DIDN'T JUST SAY THAT!" Piku grabbed her sister, throwing her at Ketso's feet. "Ketso, sister. Sister, Ketso."
The girl stood up, brushing herself out. "Hi, Sister Ketso. I'm Kat." She stuck an oil-covered hand out to shake. Ketso wanted to be polite, so he shook it. He tried to wipe it on Piku's shoulder when nobody was looking, but Piku grabbed his hand, turning around and twisting his arm painfully.
"Don't even think about it!" Piku said through gritted teeth. Gerard and Ketso both paled. Ketso turned around, wondering where Amme was. He was surprised to see...
Everyone. Rikku, Yuna, Kaze, Sora, Aozora, Myra, and the people already there. He wasn't pleased to see Yuna, but what're you gonna do?
Kat was giving a tour of "Pocky" suddenly. She described everything in great detail while everyone else drooled.
"Pocky is actually made up of three ships, if you don't count the W.U.R.M.'s," Kat explained. "Arsenal, Defensive, and-"
"YOU HAVE W.U.R.M.'S ON THIS THING?!" Piku yelled excitedly. She was jumping up and down, drooling. Ketso looked confused.
Piku whirled around. "W.U.R.M.'s! They're the greatest gummi weapon EVER! Designed by yours cooly and made by Kat!"
Ketso still looked blank. Piku sighed, exasperated.
"W.U.R.M.'s! Weapon Utilizing Retaining Machines. In Ketso language, it means "A MACHINE WITH TONZA WEAPONS"!" Piku was ecstatic. She suddenly became serious, glaring at her sister. "I call all arsenal."
"I still control you." Kat said, trying to negotiate.
"No. I have arsenal and the main Wurm. Mine. Not yours." Piku insisted.
"I demand a tractor beam to keep you in line." Kat said.
"Bad joke. Your request is nullified by such a bad joke." Piku said dismissively.
"This is my Gummi." Kat challenged.
"The Wurm was MY idea." Piku retorted.
"I built it!" Kat protested.
"I don't care!" Piku yelled. She glared at her sister. Her sister glared back. Piku stared harder. Kat finally wheeled back.
"Fine. I call a tractor beam, but low power, long distance, and you can do whatever you want with my baby. But if you scratch her-"
"-I won't."
"One scratch-"
"-Won't happen."
The two glared at each other harder. Ketso tried to cut the tension with a knife, but he realized it was just a metaphor. Piku and her twin suddenly turned around, walking away in opposite directions. Piku looked as if she were going to punch Yuna in the jaw for a minute, but she decided against it and walked by. Ketso decided to follow her. He saw that she was heading towards the Arsenal wing of the huge gummi, because there were signs that said "ARSENAL THIS WAY, MUFFIN STUFFAH!".
"What's the deal?" Ketso asked when he caught up with Piku.
"I get to play with the guns," Piku smiled. Ketso became incredibly nervous.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A few hours later, everyone was called into the big living room of the gummi. It had three, but the Main ship inside of Pocky had the biggest one. Everyone was spread out on lavish furniture, fluffy pillows, and a Pengy-shaped bean-bag chair. Kat and Piku appeared.
"We are now in space. Amme is tracking Van, and she has a reading. There is just one problem." Kat said, looking pale.
"It's positively the best thing ever." Piku said, happily.
"It's the most terrible thing I've ever seen."
"It's absolutely AWESOME!"
"My baby could get scratched."
"I GET TO PLAY WITH GUNS!" Piku yelled suddenly. Everyone winced. They looked around.
"What's the problem?" Ketso asked, confused. Piku pulled a small remote out of her pocket. It looked as if Kat had regretted giving Piku a set of keys to Pocky. Piku pressed a small button, and suddenly, everyone was staring out into space, which was slightly neon-green because of the hyper shields on the ship.
"I don't see anything..." Gerard said, confused. Ketso and the others nodded. Amme appeared suddenly, too. She clicked another button.
"De-shielding the enemy ships," she explained. Ketso looked around. Had to be a heartless army. Couldn't be that big.
Suddenly, a few flashes of light struck the sky. He looked around. More flashes. More ships. Soon, the sky was filled with wind. Kat looked like she might spew on cue. Piku was nearly shaking with joy.
"Man yer stations! It's ten thousand to one!" Piku said, as about that number of Heartless ships pulled up, surrounding the gummi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So there.