Bait 'n' Switch! (Kairi!!!)

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Destiny Islands
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Once more, the whistle, the corridor. Kairi was being summoned. By the King of Disney Castle, no less.

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Disney Castle - Gummi Hangar
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Crawling out of a jefferies tube in a brightly colored ship, Mickey wiped his forehead.

"Finally ready!"

He was definitely not regal. Wearing blue denim overalls, black shoes, and a spare set of gloves, Mickey looked afright for all the grease he was covered in. Yelling up to the cockpit of the green behemoth, he gave the OK.

"Alright, Chip! See if that did it!"

As soon as he said that, the ship groaned to life, straining against the clamps that held it in place. Smiling wide, he walked away, grabbing a towel, roughly rubbing himself about the head.

"Alright, that's good! Kill it!"

The engine's roar died down, only letting its features be shown.

This vessel was a giant human-shaped beast. Many headlights were attached to every flat surface. A Big Bridge towered out of the top. Okay armnaments, with incredible armor...

The Mars Peak. One of the bulkiest ships in Mickey's possession. One of Kairi's choices. Back in the shadows of the hangar, a cross-shaped ship sat waiting. ...This would be good. Walking through a tunnel in the wall, he emerged clean as a whistle, in his normal clothes.

"Gosh, I hope she heard me! I can't wait!"

Kairi had been sitting on the beach, watching the waves again. She'd taken to doing that a lot lately, especially since her mother was still in the hospital. She'd been by the house several times, but it was just depressing to walk through the rubble that used to be her home.

Of course, matters hadn't been any better since she'd watched Namine be taken from them by the Darkness. She didn't even know if her own Nobody had managed to escape or not. Kairi didn't like feeling helpless. It was awful.

So when she heard Mickey's whistle ring out, she hoped that he had some good news for her. She could really use some good news.

She walked through the Corridor and into Disney Castle to see King Mickey waiting for her. She smiled at him. "You called for me, your Majesty?"

Smiling when he heard her voice, Mickey turned to look at her.

"Well, Kairi, I- YOOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!!!!"

Easily clearing ten feet, Mickey was dazed when he landed. Pulling his tail around, he frowned. ...A Mousetrap.

"Remind me to punt Dale later. And, as for why you're here..."

The cross-shaped ship came floating out of the shadows. All blacks and dark reds. Leviathan Peak. The speedster. Coming out of a hangar door were two of the same ship. All white wings and weapons. The Bahamut Peak. They all joined the green behemoth.

"I thought you could use a distraction, so... I'm gonna teach you how to fly a Gummi Ship! But, first, ya gotta choose one! Go ahead, I got plenty!"

...Yeah, even for a distraction tactic, this was big. It was like learning to drive.

She had to admit, Kairi laughed. Oh, she covered her mouth to hide the smile and did her best to swallow the giggle, but she laughed at the image of Mickey jumping into the air as the mousetrap snapped closed on his tail.

And then she giggled again at the thought of Mickey sending Dale into orbit with one well-placed kick.

But then she was well and truly distracted by what Mickey had to show her. So this was why he called her over. She was stunned for a moment. "I'm . . . gonna be able . . . to fly a Gummi Ship?"

She grinned wide and dove to tackle the King with a huge hug. "Thank you!" Eventually she let him go and went back to staring at the ships. "Oooh, I don't know how to decide!"

He didn't figure she'd know right away. Smiling, he took her hand, leading her to the cross-shaped ship.

"Well, why don't we take the Highwind for now? See how you like it!"

Pulling a tube to him, he yelled into it.

"Hello up there! Mickey Mouse to Launch Crew! Anytime you're ready!"

Before Kairi knew what was happening, she was in the cockpit of the Gummi Ship. They'd been warped aboiard, with Kairi in "the big chair". Mickey sat not too far from her. The sound of a lift lurching to life pulled the Highwind Peak up. As it did, two much smaller ships came up alongside, looking much like the Highwind. ...It became readily apparent that these things were larger than they looked! The lift locked into place, as the microcraft hovered alongside their ship.

"Well, Kairi? After this, there's no turning back. Are you SURE you wanna do this?"

Kairi smiled nervously. Her heart was racing inside her chest and she trembled with excitement. Still, the thought of actually being able to pilot her own Gummi Ship . . . she wasn't going to lose this chance with her own nervousness.

She looked over at Mickey and grinned. "Yeah, I'm sure." She looked at the controls for a moment. "Uhm . . . what do I do?"

Truth be told, this was the first time she'd ever sat in a Gummi Ship. Sora had told her about them, complete with wild arm motions and jumping on things to simulate some of the battles he'd been in while trying to find her. Riku had spent more time using the Corridors to travel from world to world, though he didn't talk much about that time. Still, she figured that he had some experience with flying a Gummi Ship or something similar.

Kairi, though, this was her first time on one, and definitely her first time sitting in the pilot's seat of one. The butterflies in her stomach might have been dragons for the size and ferocity with which they made her twist with nervousness, fear, and excitement.

"OH! Right!"

Getting up from his seat, Mickey tapped a series of buttons on the main console. From the console telescoped up a yoke. (No kidding, that's what they're called.)

"Pretty simple. Left and right works like you'd expect. Pull to bring the nose up, push to bring it down. The throttle lever on your right controls your speed. Left trigger fires the main cannons, right trigger sets the laser array looking for a target. The red button on the top there?"

He pointed out a small red button on the left side of the yoke, in easy reach of her thumb. There was a matching blue one on the right.

"That's your turbo. Blue one sets off a barrel roll. The little joystick on the right side of the yoke rotates the camera and brings up the viewscreen. Don't worry about the Teeny Ships, I'll take care of those. Any questions?"

It was almost impossibly simple. Six little controls.

...THIS would be fun.

Kairi looked at the yoke with wide eyes. Six little controls . . . and all she could think about was the hazards of underestimating the ingenuity of fools. She swallowed carefully and reached out to put her hands on the device.

She carefully touched each control, reminding herself what each one did. Then she took a deep breath. "Alright, Kairi," she murmured, "you can do this." So why was she shaking like a leaf? She'd jumped off a ledge to attack Heartless with her bare hands without thinking about it. Why was she so scared of one . . . very large . . . flying vessel?

It took some fumbling to find the launch sequence. A pleading look got a chuckle and some help and then the ship was lifted into position, rising up through a huge tube to be pushed out into what looked like a cloud-filled cosmos.

For a moment she thought her stomach had leapt up into her throat. She was . . . she was actually doing this? Unfortunately, she knew full well that it couldn't stay this easy for long . . . could it?

...That was strange... There weren't any ships. Usually, there were some Grapplers at this stage...

The alarms went off. Something was coming up on the side. And, according to te telemetry, ti was a-comin' FAST.

The sound of cannons being fired could be heard. Both from the Teeny Ships... ...And whatever was coming up behind them.

"Kairi! Bring us up alongside, quick!"

No sooner had he said this than the Gummi Ship was rocked by SOMETHING hitting it, and hitting hard. Mickey was nearly thrown out of his chair by the impact.

"Something's wrong... That felt like an impact, not a shot..."

Great, just flipping great. First time in a Gummi Ship control chair and she lands in the middle of something gone wrong. Kairi grimaced at what had to be yet another example of how being a Princess is not always all it's cracked up to be.

Kairi struggled not to dissolve into sheer panic. "How do I do that?"

Out of instinct she moved the yoke to the side, trying to get them away from whatever was hitting the side of the ship. It seemed to work, or so she hoped.

She was not going to start crying now. She was just not going to. "Why does this always happen to me?"