Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Kingdom Hearts Route B ❯ Todayland ( Chapter 7 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, nor any of the Disney Characters in this story. The following is purely fan made. Please support the original work.

 

 

Chapter 7: Todayland

 

 

 

A cloaked figure laughed silently into the void. A wave of fresh air moved through the realm of darkness. The walls between the worlds were getting weaker. The figure flew over the black platforms. The heartless stirred at his nearness, but he ignored them.

There was a light he was chasing, a light struggling against the darkness that had captured it. He needed to find it, to use it to escape, to set his plan into motion. He felt the bright warmth of it in the distance, and as he got closer, the light's power cut through the gloom of the dark realm.

Then something jumped at him and he was blinded by a white wave of energy. Like a wave, it threw him back.

The cloaked figure paused. Something was keeping him away every time he made a move. He couldn't reach the light, but it didn't matter. Soon, he would be free to go to the outside world.

 

 

 

The merchant had been very happy with the three star-shaped rubies that Sora, Donald and Goofy had given him. He described the caravan driver that had given him the thalassa shell. To the trio's surprise, the man the merchant had sent them to hadn't been in the palace.

They found him outside, in the destroyed city, helping women and children gather their belongings from the broken homes. He was a tall, handsome man, with silver hair tucked underneath his blue and gold bandana. Daggers rested on his hips, and he wore a series of exotic scarves and belts over his blue pants.

"Excuse us," Goofy began politely, "but are you a caravan driver?"

The young man turned around and bowed. "Locke Cole, and I'm a world class treasure hunter, not a caravan driver."

"Gosh, sorry Mr. Cole."

The young man laughed. "Locke is fine. What can I do for you?"

Sora held up the thalassa shell. "Can you tell us where you found this?"

"Sorry," Locke shrugged, "a treasure hunter never reveals his best hunting spots."

"We don't want to steal your thunder. We just want to know if there was something odd about the place where you found this shell."

Locke crossed his arms. "Odd? Like?"

Sora bit down on his tongue. How was he going to get this guy to tell him about the thalassa shell without revealing the existence of other worlds?

He dug into his pocket and took out Kairi's good luck charm.

"My friend made this. She made me promise to give it back. I haven't seen her in a while and well-"

Locke stared between the charm and the thalassa shell. "She used those shells to make that? You must really be important to her if she gave you something she worked so hard on."

Sora felt a tingly sensation in his heart. "Well, uh, yeah, I guess."

"All right, kid. I'll tell you where I found the shell, but I don't think it'll help you much."

"Why?"

"Well, because you might not believe me."

"Try me."

Locke hustled them away from the women he had been helping. Once they were out of earshot from the other civilians, he began his story.

"I'm not from around here, you see. I go wherever there's treasure, especially treasure that's out of this world, if you catch my drift."

Donald and Goofy shared a look.

Sora, still being cautious, used his words wisely. "You mean, like a different world?"

Locke snapped his fingers. "Bingo. What do you think? Sounds crazy right?"

Sora's keyblade appeared in his hands. "Not at all. We're out of this world too."

Locke quirked an eyebrow at the keyblade but didn't make a comment toward it.

"Lots of things from different worlds got blown around back when the walls separating worlds were gone. I went from place to place finding things that don't belong. Think I found that shell on a beach somewhere a few months back. Been carrying it around in my pocket for a while. Then something happened to the worlds and I ended up stuck here."

Sora felt his chest deflate. He must have been talking about when the heartless attacked the worlds and destroyed Destiny Islands. Once the worlds had been restored, they had been cut off from each other and that must have been why Locke was stuck in Agrabah.

"Wait. How come you didn't go back to your own world?"

"Already found all the treasure there. Didn't feel the need to return."

"That's not what I meant. When we restored the worlds, you should have gone back home, not been stuck here."

"We?" Locke repeated.

There was no use in hiding the truth when Locke already knew about the existence of other worlds. Sora, Donald and Goofy explained about their mission, about how they defeated Ansem, and that they were looking for their lost friends. When they were finished, Locke closed his eyes, as though meditating on their story.

"Sounds like you guys have had it pretty rough. You have no clue where your friends are?"

"All we know is that they might be in a realm of darkness, but we can't just-"

"Sounds like you need another set of eyes." Locke winked.

"What do you mean?"

"Someone should stay behind in that castle you mentioned and keep an eye out. I'm volunteering myself. Besides, what kind of world traversing treasure hunter stays in one place?"

"But-"

"Aw let him come." Donald said.

Goofy and Sora squinted at him.

Goofy scratched his temple. "Are ya sure, Donald?"

"Yeah, I didn't expect to hear that from you."

Donald tapped his foot. "Well, he has a point. We need someone to stand guard while we go from world to world to make sure nothing gets in or out, like Jasmine said."

"Really?" Sora leaned down to glare hard into the duck's eyes. "This wouldn't have something to do with the fact that Locke's a treasure hunter and that you want some of his bounty, now would it?"

Donald looked away. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I understand if you don't trust me," Locke said, "so how about this."

He dug into one of his many pockets and produced a green gem. Donald's eyes widened. He stared at it with a star stuck expression. Locke held the gem high, out of Donald's reach. In the sun, the gem gleamed, revealing an inner red fire within.

"What's that?"

"Magicite. A rare, powerful treasure from my world," Locke explained. "It's very important to me. I'll offer it up to you as collateral. As long you have that, I won't do anything out of the ordinary, I promise. Do we have a deal?"

Sora looked at the gem in Locke's hand. "Before that, I want to know what you want. You can't just come along with us for only treasure."

Locke shrugged. "Well, for one, I don't like staying in one place too long. Plus, I want to help you guys."

Donald jumped up and down. "Come on, Sora, just take it."

"I don't think Locke's a bad guy," said Goofy. "After all, he was helping all those civilians earlier."

Jiminy whispered in Sora's ear. "It's your decision. I'll support you either way."

Sora thought about Jasmine's warning, and about how Dr. Facilier had entered Agrabah without any of them seeing. He took the magicite from Locke's hand.

 

 

 

Kairi stopped mid step.

Oswald turned around to look at her. "Something wrong?"

"That light we're chasing. It's closer then ever now."

Kairi closed her eyes. Somewhere nearby, there was a warm, honey feeling that made her feel giddy. Yet, it was behind something cold and angry and the whiplash of feeling two powerful but opposite things at once made Kairi's joints feel tingly and weak.

Excitement was shinning in Oswald's wide eyes.

"Then what are we waiting for. Let's go get it. Which way is it?"

Kairi turned in a circle. She felt the warm and cold sensations on her feet and walked toward the edge of the platform they were standing on. Pluto sniffed the floor as he walked behind her. When he looked down over the cliff, he barked and pointed with his nose.

"You can feel it down there too, boy?"

Oswald came to stand next to them. Down below, the darkness flowed like a black river.

"We should be very careful," Kairi said, "I can feel a powerful darkness down there too."

Oswald held out his hand. "Are you ready?"

Pluto jumped into Kairi's arms. With one hand holding the dog and the other grasping Oswald's, Kairi nodded.

"I'm ready."

"Okay. Here we go!"

With his powerful, rabbit legs, Oswald jumped, pulling Kairi and Pluto up into the air with him. As they descended down into the darkness below, magic pooled at the end of Oswald's wand. Kairi focused on the light down below, and on gathering magical power within herself, in case they ran into any heartless. Just as they descended down into the abyss, she felt another light.

It was only for a second, but the light was familiar, reminding her of her days chasing two boys on the beach. Then it was gone, leaving Kairi with a lonely feeling. She looked up at the platform they had just fallen from.

"Riku?"

 

 

 

Locke walked around the hall of Castle Oblivion, knocking on the walls and pressing his ear to the ground. Sora, Donald and Goofy watched him from the top stair in front of the diminutional door. Locke tapped on the decorative pillars with his daggers. Then he raised his hand in the air, and chanted. "Thunder!"

Lightning rained down from the sky, charring the ground Locke was standing on. He stood with his hand on his chin, deep in thought. Then he turned to Sora, Donald and Goofy.

"There's a draft. I'm willing to bet that there's a secret door here somewhere."

Sora went to the wall that had changed the last time they were there. It was paper thin. He could almost see a dark horizon beyond it. He pulled out his keyblade and smacked the wall. The wall shivered as though it were made from jelly, yet it didn't break.

"I think this wall is getting weaker. I thought it looked weird the last time we were here." Sora turned to look at the door on the other side of the room. "Maybe it changes every time we travel through there."

"Looks like I'm going to keep an eye on this wall while you guys head out into another world. Bring me something shiny, will ya?"

Locke sat down next to the wall and busied himself with sharpening his daggers.

"Let us know if anything interesting happens when we get back," Sora said.

At the door, he turned around to look at Locke one more time. Then he walked though the doorway with Donald and Goofy.

They stepped out onto the greenest lawn Sora had ever seen in his life. The sky was a perfect blue and in the distance, beyond a crystal clear lake, a city stood tall. Without hesitation, Sora, Donald and Goofy rushed toward the town. The closer they got, the more marvelous the city became.

People in giant soap bubbles flew around perfectly rounded towers. Skyscappers rose up in seconds, like inflatable balloons, from strange contraptions labeled, "instabuildings." The sidewalks and bridges between each building were covered by perfectly green grass. There were rails and rails of trams taking businessmen, children and families all around the sky scrappers. Not a single drop of smog, grime, or pollution existed in the city.

Unable to resist, Sora, Donald and Goofy raced to the top of the nearest building. On the roof of the building was a bubble machine. They stood excitedly in line, waiting to stand under the giant bubble wand. As soon as Sora's turn came, he practically raced to the circular platform. A bubble ring came down over his head, and a moment later, he was floating in a clear sphere. Behind him, Donald and Goofy floated in their own bubbles, marveling at the views of the city below.

Sora looked down at all the trams moving to and fro below him and the tops of the buildings with their perfect rooftop gardens. He floated to another building and a giant gloved hand poked his bubble. It popped. Before Sora could scream, he was looping down a tube-slide so fast, he couldn't resist throwing up his hands like he were on a roller coaster. The slide ended at the bottom of the building, and Sora slid out onto soft, smooth grass.

He leaned back in the grass and laughed, catching his breath, just as an excited Donald and Goofy landed out of the tube slide right behind him. Sora helped his friends up and couldn't resist jumping up and down with them in childish glee.

"This place is amazing," Sora said between pants, "what a city!"

In the next second, Sora instantly regretted his words. As if appearing just to ruin their good mood, black bowler hats popped out of the air. Tentacles came out of the bottoms of the hats. They floated in the air, twitching like poisonous jellyfish, heartless emblems shining on the top of each hat.

Donald groaned. "Why does this always happen?"

He raised his staff and send a blizzard spell careening out at the nearest heartless. Sora and Goofy charged into battle right behind Donald. Sora slashed through several heartless at once, smashing them to bits with his keyblade without ever noticing one of the heartless sneak up behind him.

The heartless' metal tentacles reached out and plucked Sora right off the ground, raising him up into the air. Struggling to get free, Sora spotted another heartless zooming toward him, its metal tentacles sharpening into a spear, ready to run him through.

Sora threw his kepblade with all the force he could muster and it sliced through the incoming heartless, but he was helpless to stop the others that were still flying toward him. Down below, Donald jumped up on Goody's shield and was thrown up into the air. He rose up right in front of Sora, raised his staff and bellowed.

"Thundaga!"

The heartless exploded as the lightning zinged through them. Donald and Sora fell, landing on their feet just as Goofy crushed the last heartless.

They never even got the chance to question why there were heartless in such a perfect city, because, just then, a boy ran up to them.

"Suspicious newcomers. You're coming with me!"

He reached out and grabbed Sora's arm, dragging him.

Sora pulled his arm away from the strange boy. "What's your deal? You can't just grab someone like that."

"Young man-"

"Young? You're like the same age as me."

"I am a member of the police force in this city and I order you," he pointed between Sora's eyes, "to come with me and explain the appearance of those strange creatures."

"You mean the heartless?"

"Aha! So you do know what those creatures are. You've just admitted guilt, my friend."

"What?"

By this time, Donald and Goofy had stepped between Sora and the boy.

Donald stomped his foot. "Hey, you brat, didn't anyone teach ya it's not polite to just grab people like that?"

"Now, now," Goofy began. "Why don't we all just calm down?" He turned toward the boy. "Excuse me, mister-"

The boy smoothed back his glossy, black hair. "Robinson, Wilbur Robinson."

"Mr. Robinson. Can you tell us why you're so upset?"

Wilber Robinson looked at the back of his nails. "I'm a time traveling spy from the future and this is my city. It's my job to make sure nothing goes wrong here."

"Has something gone wrong here?"

"Yes. Those strange creatures have been appearing and causing all kinds of trouble."

"Then maybe we can help you. We're sorta good at handling the heartless. Why don't you calmly explain to us what's going on."

Wilbur Robinson squinted shrewdly at Goofy and then gave Sora and Donald a once over. The duck and the keyblade master glared back at him. Finally, Wilbur sighed and brushed off imaginary dust from his shoulder.

"Fine. Let's go to my place. I'll explain things there. "

Sora had expected that a "time traveling spy from the future" would take them to some super, secret, underground facility, not to a big, fancy house on a beautiful, green hill. A giant, golden letter "R" hung above the front door.

Wildbur went up the steps toward the door. On the left and right sides of the entrance were two potted trees. When Sora, Donald, and Goofy went up the steps to the porch, someone's head popped out one of the giant pots.

Donald screamed, jumping into Goofy's arms. Sora's keyblade appeared in his hand and he pointed it toward the head. A man with a pointy nose and sunglasses smiled.

"Hey," he nodded toward the door, "ring my doorbell."

There was a voice from behind them. Turning, there was an identical head coming out of the other pot.

"No, ring my doorbell. It's cooler!"

"Uncle Spike, Uncle Dimitri," Wilbur huffed, "we don't have time for this. We're on a very important mission."

Uncles Spike and Dimitri blew raspberries at him.

If Sora thought two heads coming out a flower pot was the strangest thing he would see that day, he was so wrong. A second after Wilbur had knocked on the door, a giant, one-eyed, purple squid opened it.

This time, Goofy screamed, hiding behind Donald.

The squid took one look at Wilbur and moved out of the way. Wilbur moved to enter the house but stopped when he noticed that no one was following.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

Sora, his keyblade still in his hand, pointed at the door. "That giant squid doesn't bother you."

"Squid? How dare you. That's my trusted butler, Lefty. Now come on!"

Sora couldn't help ducking awkwardly as he entered the house behind Wilbur. The "butler" stared at them with its giant eye as they entered. Once inside, Lefty closed the door and slithered away.

The interior of the house was just as bright and sunny as the city had been to and Sora would have thought it were a perfectly normal home, if it weren't for the fact that the room suddenly rumbled and a giant train moved across the foyer. A woman sat on top, screaming, "yee-haw!"

"What was that," Donald asked.

"That was Aunt Billy and her toy train."

"That was a toy train?"

"Sure was," said someone new.

Sora, Donald and Goofy jumped. A old man, who was wearing all of his clothes completely backwards, had appeared behind them.

"Grandpa," Wilbur said, "have you seen Dad anywhere?"

"Don't think so," said Grandpa, "but I think Grandma Lucile might have seen him last."

"Where is she?"

"Baking cookies."

It turned out that "baking cookies" really meant that Grandma Lucile was having a dance party for one. They found her dancing under a disco ball in a large, empty room. Sora, Donald and Goofy couldn't resist not dancing as they walked under the disco lights.

Grandma Lucile didn't stop grooving even when Wilbur asked her where to to find his father.

"Ask, Uncle Art."

Uncle Art was a pizza delivery guy and by the time Wilbur and the others had caught up to him in the topiary garden, he was already flying away on a delivery in his flying saucer. Luckily, Uncle Fritz and his wife, who was actually a wooden puppet on Uncle Fritz's hand, told them to talk to Wilber's mom, Franny.

Wilbur lead the way to a room that, even with the door closed, was loud with jazz music. When they entered, Donald and Goofy clapped excitedly at the sight of a whole ensemble of frogs singing, dancing, playing the guitar, piano, drums, trumpets, all while being conducted by a tall, pretty lady that shared Wilbur's glossy, black hair and brown eyes.

Wilbur didn't even bother to talk to his mother. He sat back and listened to the music. Sora, Donald and Goofy danced along, until the number ended. Then they gave the frogs and their conductor a standing ovation.

When the frogs and the conductor bowed, Sora thought about Naveen and Tiana and how Franny would have loved to meet them.

"Thank you! Thank you," Franny said.

Standing, she noticed, Sora, Donald and Goofy. "Oh. Wilbur, looks like you've made some new friends."

"Mom, have you seen Dad?"

"Said he was going to go give Uncle Joe a new waistband."

Sora, Donald and Goofy groaned but followed Wilbur to the next family member.

Uncle Joe was busy eating PB&J in front of a TV and he sent them to Uncle Gaston, who fired them out of a canon to see Uncle Fritz's son and daughter, Talula and Lazo, who then (finally!) told them that Wilbur's dad was in the garage, which led everyone back to the foyer where they had started.

"A-yuck, what a nice family."

"That was so much fun," Donald chuckled.

"Yeah," Sora said to Wilbur, "your family is really something."

"Thanks."

"Okay, so we're back here," Donald said. "Now what?"

"We need to get to the garage," said Wilbur.

Then he pulled a string that hung down from the ceiling and the ground split open beneath Sora, Donald and Goofy. Screaming, Sora looped and bounced in a long, glass tube before he landed on his feet in the cavernous garage.

Donald and Goofy crashed onto the floor behind him. The next second, Wilbur landed easily on his feet.

Sora stomped up to the Wilbur. "Couldn't you have warned us?"

Wilbur put a hand up in front of Sora's face. "No time for that." He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted. "CARL!"

"Kid I'm right here, you don't have to shout."

A golden robot with long, spaghetti arms and legs walked out into the light from the shadowy corners of the garage. The robot snapped his fingers and the garage lit up. The entire room was full of all kinds of contraptions and tools and in the middle of it all were what looked like two rocket ships, one blue, and one red.

Donald and Goofy got close to the red rocket ship, excitedly bouncing up and down.

"Sora! It's like the gummi ship," they said.

Wilbur popped up between Donald, Goofy and the "gummi ship."

"Hey, hey, hey! Hands off the time machine!"

Sora felt an irresistible urge to go to the other rocket-ship and climb onto one of its wings.

"A time machine? No way! That's so cool!"

"Hey! Get down from there! Carl!"

The robot's arms stretched out and looped around Sora's waist like a rope, taking him off the time machine and putting him back down on the ground.

"Listen kid, the last time we had a spiky haired boy try and take the time machine out for a spin, we almost put the fate of the entire timeline in jeopardy. Be careful, will ya?"

Sora couldn't bring himself to feel too guilty when a literal robot (which was really cool) was the one scolding him, but he apologized anyway.

"So, what's with the red, blue and green trio?" Carl asked Wilber.

"That is an excellent question," Wilbur said. "But first, where is Dad?"

"Just a sec."

Car's arm stretched and stretched all the way to a corner of the room, where a pair of legs were sticking out from under a massive, black cube. Carl's arm looped around the legs and the next second, a blond man was pulled through the air toward them.

Dangling upside down, his lab coat hanging form his shoulders, Wilber's dad waved.

"Hello."

Sora, Donald and Goofy waved back awkwardly.

Carl flipped Wilber's dad right side up and put him back on his feet.

"Hey, Cornelius. Wilbur's got something to say to you."

Cornelius adjusted the glasses on his nose. "Wilbur, can't you introduce me to your friends first?"

"Oh right, this is," Wilbur stopped. "Uh, I don't actually know their names."

After some introductions, Wilbur finally got the chance to speak to Cornelius.

"Those strange creatures that we've been seeing lately, these three took them down without a sweat."

"Really? How?"

"I guess you can call us exterminators," Sora said.

"That's really good news," said Cornelius. "I've been running around for days, trying to come up with an invention that can get rid of those things and-"

One second, Cornelius Robinson was in front of them, the next he was gone. Sora, Donald, Goofy, Wilbur and Carl stared at the empty space where he had just been. Sora rubbed his eyes and when he opened them, he realized that he hadn't been seeing things.

Cornelius really was gone.

"Dad?" Wilber called.

There was no response.

"Carl, did you see?"

But Carl was gone too and the next second the garage looked as though it were glitching. The surrounding walls and ceiling faded in and out of focus.

Sora summoned his keyblade, but there was no enemy to fight. "What's going on? Where did your Dad go?"

Wilbur ran to the red rocket ship and opened the door, jumping inside. "Come on," he shouted.

Sora, Donald and Goofy jumped into the time machine and sat in the seats behind Wilbur. They buckled up while Wilbur was frantically pressing buttons. The rocket ship roared to life and then they were floating off the garage floor.

Outside, the glitching became worse as everything turned red hot, melting. The ground split open, the walls crackled, and then all the inventions and contraptions around the room began to explode one by one.

"Hold on tight!"

Wilbur punched a red button and a second later, Sora was pressed into his seat as the ship flew through a long tube of colorful light. When the ship stopped, they were no longer in the beautiful, clean, gleaming city they had seen. The buildings were made of brick and steel. Rain poured down from the sky, pitter-pattering on the glass doom of the rocket ship, or time machine.

The city below was grimy and the air had a polluted grey glow to it.

Goofy pressed his nose to the glass next to his seat, looking down. "Where are we? What just happened?"

"We jumped back to the past," Wilbur explained. "I think something happened to my Dad when he was a kid."

"How do you know that," Sora asked.

"Because Carl was invented by my dad. If Carl disappeared then that means that Dad never invented him. If we don't find my Dad and fix the problem, the entire future will disappear. And so will I."

 

 

 

Kairi, Oswald and Pluto floated down and down and down. The chasm below felt as though it had no end, and the heartless watched them from dark cliffs as they descended deeper and deeper. Yet, they did not attack. Strange.

The lower they went, the more the happiness of the light warmed Kairi while the anger of the darkness gnawed at her. Whatever was down there was both dangerous and rewarding.

Were they even floating downward, Kairi began to wonder. The platforms they passed looked as though they were flipped upside down. Had they gone so far that they had immersed on the other side of the realm of darkness, like a kid who believed that digging through a planet would lead to them standing upside down on the other side.

When her feet finally touched the ground, Pluto wriggled out of Kairi's hold. He ran around sniffing with his rear in the air, his tail sticking straight up and alert. Kairi stretched her arm, which had stiffened from holding Pluto for so long.

Oswald noticed and helped her aching muscles with a cure spell. Thanking him, Kairi searched for the source of the strong light and incredible darkness she felt. Then she saw it.

Down the road they stood on, was a massive arch that stretched up several meters from the ground like a giant open mouth, ready to swallow them if they passed below it. The arch was decorated by black, stone barbs, like shark teeth, that jutted out in every direction, cutting into the nearby platforms that were unfortunate enough to float too close.

Beyond the arch was another terror. A black sphere with purple, blue, and neon red energy was floating there. Kairi could see lighting flashing within the sphere. Rubble floated around the sphere like the outer ring of a planet. Whatever was inside that darkness, Kairi new there would be no turning back once they entered it.

"You nervous?" Oswald said.

"Kind of. But I came here to find that light and I'm going in."

Oswald grinned at her and then held out his hand. "You ready?"

Grasping it, Kairi winked at him, summoning up her magical energy, getting ready for a fight she knew was coming.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

 

 

 

Jiminy's Journal

Locke Cole (First appeared in Final Fantasy VI, 1994): Self proclaimed treasure hunter who seems to have a soft spot for women. He's friendly and loves to joke around. Locke has agreed to keep an eye out in Castle Oblivion while Sora and company visit the other worlds.

Wilbur Robinson (First Appeared in Meet The Robinsons, 2007): The son of Frannie and Cornelius Robinson. An overconfident boy from the future, the world Wilbur lives in is a direct result of all his father's inventions. Wilbur's a bit impatient, but seems to have the future's best interest at heart. His life is on the line if Sora, Donald and Goofy don't help him figure out what went wrong in the past.

Carl (First Appeared in Meet The Robinsons, 2007): A golden robot made by Wilbur's dad. He has arms that can stretch for long distances and is always trying to keep Wilbur out of trouble.

The Robinson Family (First Appeared in Meet The Robinsons, 2007): Okay, Bud, Fritz and Joe are Brothers. Fritz is married to Petunia (who is a cranky puppet). Talula and Lazlo are their children. Joe is married to Aunt Billy. Lefty (the squid) is the butler. Spike and Dimitri are twins (and the Robinsons don't know who they're related to). Lucille is married to Bud and Wilbur's Dad, Cornelius, is their son. Cornelius is married to Frannie and her brothers are Gaston and Art.