[IC] Kingdom Hearts: The Lights of the Multiverse Redux [No Longer Full]

[Rex]

@Arty Fox@SMS@Letter Bee

“Alright, where’s the Tele,” Drake asked Apokaukos, but his questioned went unanswered as he appeared in a new location as he finished, “Porter?” He would have complained about his sudden teleportation, but one of the people in the room he had teleported to took out her weapon and swung it towards him. His instincts kicked in as he jumped back and took out his two revolvers hidden behind his coat. He pointed them at the women and waited for her next attack. However, it didn’t come. He saw she was just startled from his sudden appearance. All three of them were. The other two questioned who he was and how he got there.

“A little trigger happy aren’t we princess?” Drake said to Mai before he placed his two revolvers back in their holders. He looked around before he looked at Mac and Hakim. He pointed to Hakim and said, “You must be the Nobody Apokaukos mentioned.” When Hakim mentioned magic, Drake sighed and rubbed his eyes.

“Great, I’m going to babysit kids who still believe in magic. Lovely,” Drake said before he moved his sleeve up and the hologram from his watch appeared again. He pushed a few images before his watch glowed green and two revolver speed-loaders appeared from his watch. He took them and placed them into his coat pocket for later should he have need for them. He then turned back to the group and said, “So what are we looking at in weaponry? Are you three actually able to wield your weapons?”

[Letter Bee]

"Mai is a Keyblader and adept at melee combat, but hasn't learned how to use what we call Magic yet," spoke an irritated Tocsax. "Mac is also a Keyblader, but isn't as great in combat as Mai; he also hasn't learned Magic yet. As for me..." Tocsax then conjured up his own Keyblade, then surrounded himself in a tornado of light green air, "I'm a Keyblader as well and one of the most powerful here, although there are...constraints on using my power." And by that, he meant the fact that Leo was after him in order to turn his body into a Seeker of Darkness.

"We also have two absent members, Seth, a Sapient Nobody with special powers who can control sand, thanks to mentoring from my best friend Shahrukh, and Cheese, a Fae - a winged woman with more special powers from another world, who is also weak against metal, aka metal literally burns her skin."

"So, yes, I must admit our party is a bit weak right now."

"As for me," spoke Hakim the Wise, "I will not argue with children who do not see how necessary it is that Seth regrow his heart or die trying." And with that, he teleported away, by himself.

"So..." said Tocsax, "as we wait for Seth and Cheese to return, I must ask: what's your name? Mine is Tocsax."

@Double@Arty Fox@SMS@Rex

[Double]

(Collab between Double and Arty Fox)

Cheese felt herself being snapped, pulled, twisted. Finally, her ears popped. Cheese hung onto the Snipers back legs were knotted around the Snipers torso and an arm locked around their neck. The two struggled almost silently for a moment. The sniper had an iron grip around her other hand with dripping red nails.

Cheese shrieked, a shard of pain exploding from her back. Her grip now loosened the sniper pulled her off their back and over the shoulder. Cheese landed heavily on her back without even air to shout when another bolt was fired into her.
-
That one shot alerted the dozens of other Snipers. Some of them moved in slowly, while others began shifting their bodies into crossbow form. Hearing no orders from their commander, the Snipers were acting on a combination of their instinct and basic training. Even so, volleys of shots from this many of them could spell the end for anyone. Fortunate, then, that a familiar chuckle halted their actions. Seth, only just now awakening from his brief moments of unconsciousness, was staring up at the nonexistent sky. Their commander awake again, the Snipers now defaulted to their standby, and quietly awaited orders.

"Did someone... actually follow me here?" it didn't take the Nobody long to notice the cluster of gathering Snipers and so he slowly pushed himself to his feet and hobbled over to investigate. It was... Cheese? Somehow, the fairy managed to follow Seth and the Snipers to the Realm of Darkness, "You... probably shouldn't have followed me, y'know? This is the Realm of Darkness, where all the Heartless come from. People with hearts shouldn't come here if they value their humanity." even so, he waved away the Snipers that surrounded her, and they disappeared to patrol elsewhere.
-
Her mind ticked over once, twice, and then finally a third time. Finally, as she lay sprawled against the dark ground, Cheese understood the situation clearly.

“These useless pricks work for you don’t they?” She took a shaky breath, swore, and then pushed herself into a sitting position. “I’d fire them and get some who actually think.”

Cheese hissed when her back and stomach protested painfully to the movement, but ultimately ignored them to get a good look at her surroundings. To her left there was darkness, and the same to her right, that hid the landscape almost completely and above there was…nothing. Cheese lost herself gaze upwards at the nothingness trying to drink in what was simply not there.

“Mac told me to work with you lot, keep you safe and all that.” Cheese tried to shrug and received another jolt of pain for her efforts. “Wouldn’t worry too much about the darkness, I’m not human anyway.”

Still Cheese felt an uncomfortable chill down her spine that made her think of a carriage on the underground; like an imminent danger was just a mere breath away, a small stumble and she’d have one of the hand rails burning through her flesh. Cheese felt a headache beginning to form making every beat of her heart pound painfully against her skull.

“Does that mean that the Heartless are all around us?” She asked, not quite sure if she use her magic just yet.
-
A smirk from Seth, "These guys are lesser Nobodies - in other words - not quite the same level as Tocsax and me." he said with a wink, "They're usually pretty feral on their own, acting on nothing else but instinct. But they'll follow the orders of a higher ranking Nobody like myself," it'd been awhile since Seth explained how his kind works, but thankfully his memory wasn't failing him, "and trust me: my Snipers are the best of their kind. When they act on their own, Snipers appear in their default form and have to take time to charge their shots or shift into their larger crossbow forms. But I went to the trouble of training mine to appear only after they've shifted or charged their shots. Get what I'm saying?" he finished with a grin, "Anyway, that rock formation is a bit more comfortable to sit near, you'll have something to recline against." he gestured to the spot he hobbled from.

At this he got the fairy on her feet. Both of them were pretty wrecked, but together they made it to the rocks just fine, "To answer your question about the Heartless... in short, yep." as if to prove a point he gestured to the areas around him, "Listen real close, and you'll hear just how not useless my guys are." true to his word, by listening carefully they could hear the faint sounds of Snipers taking shots and the even fainter sound of Heartless dissipating. Seth's Snipers were effectively creating a perimeter around them and picking off any Heartless that came close. Of course, given Cheese's presence here that meant more Heartless than usual would be attracted to their location, but Seth wasn't lying when he said that his Snipers were the best of their kind.

"Oh, by the way..." Seth added, with a chuckle, "...being a human isn't what I meant by humanity. You've got a Heart, and that's all the Heartless care about. I'd stick near me if I were you. Soon enough I'll be able to open up a Corridor to get us out of here. Best not to wander off, I think." he flashed his usual grin.
-
“S’pose they’re not entirely useless.” Cheese fell heavily to the ground, leaning against the rock she cracked a grin of her own. “Though they wouldn’t get rated very highly were I’m from, need more than just some fancy skills and flashy attacks.”

There was a ringing in her ears now that made her grin waver. Cheese knew she was too far away from Mac, she could feel the magic chains clawing unseen beneath her skin. However, the sensation she was feeling now was different than she was used to; normally when she was too far (normally around a mile or so most days) the chains pulled her in one direction. But this time she felt herself being pulled in every direction. Her nails wanted to wanted to go upward while her ribs tugged to her left. Cheese supposed it was because she was now in an entirely different world.

Cheese reapplied her sultry smile with a steadying breath. “I could speed things up for you, but I am going to want something in return.”

Here Cheese decided a demonstration was in order. She tugged and pulled at the magic around her and let it flow down through her arms to her hands. Her eyes shone violet and an ethereal green glow grew out from her hands. Then, breathing deeply, she placed her hands onto the wounds on her abdomen. The burning red skin returned to its previous colour and the bloodied hole knitted themselves closed. Within half a minute there was barely a hint that there had even been any wounds on Cheeses stomach and back.

“I can do the same for your wounds, and give a bit of energy too if you need it.” She looked at him. “All I want are your memories of your home world. Failing that though I suppose a favour of my choosing would be… acceptable.”

Her smile wavered again, the thundering headache refusing to be ignored.
-
Seth could only offer her his usual, "Welp, have you ever trained a legion of creatures who can't exactly think for themselves? I'd say I did a pretty good job with what I had available to me," a wink, "all things considered."

The fairy demonstrated her healing ability. At least, it looked like some kind of healing magic. In any case her wounds were gone and all that seemed to be left was an inherent soreness of some kind. She offered to do the same for Seth, who really only could shrug in response.

"Some healing in exchange for my memories of home? I mean, I guess I could do that..." He didn't know if she would heal him first or scan his memory first, either way the result was the same. There was actually only one available memory for the fairy's perusal. It was a memory of a certain stormy night, wherein a young boy in a blue hoodie found themselves staring down the barrels of a firing squad, armed only with a shoddy gun and standing among a few other dead bodies around. Just when the firing squad opened fire, that was when it went blank. There was nothing else before it, and the memories after were all completely irrelevant as they only involved Seth traveling world to world and occasionally finding himself lounging about at a certain diner run by a certain moogle. Oh, and Seth seemed to be running a perpetually unpayable tab there.

Whatever the case, once the healing was applied, Seth grinned at the fairy, "Ready to go back?" he... didn't exactly give her time to respond. He just threw open a Corridor of Darkness on top of them, similarly to how he previously escaped from Hakim. The Corridor would, naturally, drop them back into the pyramid. Like, literally dropped, "Oof... welp, that may have been a bit bumpier than I intended, but hey, we're back in one piece right?" finally, he chuckled.

[SMS]

The newcomer aimed his weapons toward her, quickly noticing that they were handguns, Mai immediately took on a defensive stance. However, it was clear to her that he only did that in response to her swinging her own weapon at him, and that it was defensive in nature. While she didn't let her guard down yet, him storing them back into their holsters signaled to her that he wasn't here to fight her, or anyone here at least. Hakim leaving was what did make her calm down. With the current danger seemingly out of the way, the girl lets her Keyblade dissipate.

She didn't know what to make of the new guy. He certainly seemed cocky. His watch however, intrigued her. Seeing weapons come out of nowhere surprised her, and she quickly took a hold of his hand which held the watch and was examining the item after he put the weapons away. "H-how did you do that!?", she says as she was lifting his arm up and down as she tried to understand how it worked while completely ignoring the fact that Seth and Cheese had just arrived. Her eyes were sparkling with curiosity.

[Rex]

@SMS@Letter Bee@Arty Fox

Drake tried to respond to Hakim but he teleported away before he could respond. Drake sighed before he said, “Alright, is every damn floor panel a damn teleporter?” when Tocsax asked him his name. Drake was a little hesitant, but if this was the team he would be fighting with. He’d at least humor them. After all: if they were going to save the word. Trust would be the first thing they’d need to have before attempting to fight the Heartless and Nobodies.

“My name'ss Drake Sydell. My associates call me Drake and my targets call me The Death Hunter because,” Drake began to say before he stopped. If they’re fighting against the darkness. It would be wise to keep that under wraps. I trust these people, but not fully. Drake thought before he added, “Never mind why they call me that.” Mai had quickly grabbed his arm and examined his watch. He would have quickly reached for his gun, but he saw the curiosity in her eyes. He figured it was harmless to tell her about his tech.

“It’s called a T-Watch,” Drake said before he gently removed his arm from her grasp and showed her and the rest of the others in the room the hologram that appeared from the clock face. When it appeared he continued to explain, “It digitizes objects into its mainframe to be reformed later. Think of it as a pouch that can hold anything. However, this has both a weight and mass limit. It can’t digitize anything bigger than a car and can’t digitize any living matter. Most of our military uses the T-Watch Alpha for their inventory while commoners use the T-Watch Beta. While the Alpha can carry weapons, medicine, ammunition. The Beta won’t carry weapons, but can carry medicine and also be used to carry groceries and furniture to help with moving. The Bet’s programing won’t allow weapon inside of it. Not even paint ball guns.”

“If I may ask, what kind of worlds are your earths?” Drake asked.

[Letter Bee]

A nod at that from Tocsax, whose attention was divided between Drake's speech and Seth and Cheese's return. When asked about what his Earth was like, Tocsax would just say:

"The Original Earth, which, thanks to Ascot's use of the Light of Kingdom Hearts, both exists and 'is saved', if by 'saved' you mean nothing major happens there anymore. Either way, I think that the middle of a pyramid isn't the best place for exposition; we should go back to our Gummi Ship." And with that, Tocsax opened a Corridor of Darkness back.

"Keep your Hearts strong, guys, even though it's a brief trip!" the young man said as he went inside, gesturing for everyone else to follow him.

Back inside the Gummi Ship

"Okay," said Tocsax, once they were inside the Gummi Ship's lounge, where talking brooms were bringing in tea and biscuits. "We can continue talking about our Earths here. After that, well, we rescue Adelle le' Agathe from the inevitable Heartless attack; knowing Leo and the Circle, they'll delay only to set up an ambush."

@Double@Arty Fox@SMS@Rex

[Arty Fox]

@Letter Bee@Rex@SMS@Double

Mac and Cheese

“Finally.” Cheese gasped. Sucking in the dry and dusty air of the pyramid. “Ugh, it was starting to get uncomfortable there.”

Her bones still ached though nowhere near as much as they had done previously, and a weight that she hadn’t notice pressing down on her was lifted. She supposed that might have been the effect of the Realm of Darkness.

In her hands Cheese held the memory she had taken from Seth. It was like a purple cloud barely bigger than a fist, it felt heavy as if something was dragging it down. It was a bad memory and Cheese looked at it almost with pity. Seth wouldn’t be able to remember what the memory contained and Cheese wondered if maybe that was a good thing, but then again he was a nobody and not a Human so it was possible he would want it back.

“This was your only memory of home.” It was a statement. “It’s a very bad memory filled with bloodshed and pain. I could use it to make a very powerful spell.”

“But home is very important, I’ll take the favour instead if you’d like the memory back.”

She held the memory out to Seth and would disappear the moment he touched it back to its rightful place in his mind, otherwise Cheese would keep hold of it for later use.

Back in the Gummi ship both Mac and Cheese kept their attention upon the newcomer, though Mac did cast a surprised glance at the talking brooms, who seemed to be a delightful curiosity. Both agreed that Drake looked like a cowboy from sci-fi movie of some kind.
“So then Death Hunter.” Mac began with a stirring of tea and no intention of letting it go. “Guess we’ll go first with the whole story telling and world comparisons, surprised we haven’t really done that before now. The being of magical bitterness next to me is Cheese and I’m Mac the giant bag of dick.”

“You are what you eat.” The aforementioned ‘being of magical bitterness’ looked very proud of herself as she scoffed a few very sugary biscuits while Mac looked at her with mock indignation. “Our world is pretty similar to Tocsaxs only that a lot of the Myths and Legends are real, probably a few from yours too like the others. Think Fairies like me, Titans, Forest Nymphs, Baku, Wendigos and all the like.”

Cheese then cast an unsavoury glare at the spoon beside her tea. “What is it with you humans and metal?” An attempt at ‘Transmute’ spell turned into a misshapen plastic rod. “Anyway our World is somewhat split in half, or at least the Humans say so, with my side being known as the Fae Realm and Macs side which is The Side That Is. Well, Estel says it’s the Mundane side but that doesn’t really say what it is.” She then simply shrugged. “Oh! Tocsax, if you think Leo will be setting up an ambush I could try making some illusions for when they do show up, might give us an edge when fighting them.”

As Cheese had been speaking Mac had been entertaining himself by trying to aim a few pieces of biscuit into Hakims own cup of tea, but so far had only managed to make a mess across the table.

“Yeah, where did you and Seth go?” Mac flicked another crumb over. “One minute you were here and the next all those crossbows and you disappeared.”

“Another world, Realm of Darkness. Got dragged there when I was holding onto those floating crossbows.”
“Ouch?”

“Ho yeah.” Cheese nodded and drank her tea. “hurt like hell

[Double]

While Seth might have forgotten memory itself, he didn't forget certain contexts surrounding it. For one thing, he still remembered that it was just a single memory. He also remembered that it was a painful one. While he agreed to exchange his memories for some healing, Seth didn't think she would simply take it. He just assumed she would copy it somehow, but that wasn't the case. With that realization, Seth realized he didn't want to give up the memory. He wanted to remember who he was, not forget it even further. So, when offered the memory back, he took it without a word spoken.

The memory itself flooded into the recesses of his mind once again. It was probably supposed to feel like he was reliving for the first time again, and if he had a Heart he would have probably shed some tears at that moment. That wasn't the case, and those theoretical tears never came. Instead, he just grinned his usual grin... and chuckled to himself.

A trip back to the ship and an elixir later, Seth was more or less back to full strength. Apparently the group was to discuss their Earths now before they officially began their rescue operation. Of everyone, Seth remained unusually quiet, even refraining from his usual jokes and chuckles. He supposed it was about time he shared something with the group, so when it was his turn to speak.

"My Earth... well, it's an Earth where Rome remained a republic, even to this day." he said with an eager grin, "Or was it the one that's still in the Dark Ages?" he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "No no no, that was a different thing entirely. MY Earth is the one that..." he sort of went on like this for a few moments, beginning to describe an Earth only to backpedal and move onto a different description.

"Er... sorry." he said with an innocent shrug, "Memory's kind of shoddy today." he started to tell the truth, but ended up deciding against it. His memories were his own problem, there was no reason to drag anyone else into it.

[SMS]

"T-Watch..." Digitize? Mainframe? These were terminologies that seemed otherworldly for Mai. Thankfully, Drake used simpler words to explain it to her. She wishes to ask more about it, but he pushed the topic onto something else. She decided to pester him about it later on when they get back from France.

Once they were back at the Gummi Ship, she let everyone else talk about their own worlds first before she spoke up. Mac and Cheese's world sounded so cool to her. She remembered her mother reading some bed time stories to her as a child, most of them usually included fairies and other mythical creatures. Even just seeing Cheese was an honor for her. As she was listening to them, she was picking up whatever biscuits Mac was trying to throw across the table in order to keep it nice and tidy. Once he stopped, she unconsciously started eating them one by one as she listened.

The girl wanted to console Seth from having hazy memory, but somehow she could tell that maybe he doesn't want to talk about it just yet. Cheese's description of it earlier worried her. Although she didn't notice them return immediately from wherever they went, she at the very least overheard Cheese's description of Seth's memory before Drake brought up the topic of everyone's worlds.

"Um, from what I understand, my Earth is very similar to the original Earth." The girl takes a seat at the farther side of the room so that she can see everybody else clearly. Crossing her legs before crossing her arms to get herself into her thinking pose. "The major difference is that the Heartless and Nobodies suddenly started appearing in my country just several years after a major war ended while we were still recovering." A pause before she continues. "Since my fellow countrymen banned themselves from modern weaponry, we defended ourselves using swords."

She wondered what Rick's world was like. Their time together was short, but she wanted to learn a bit more about him before he left. Maybe in the future.

"What about you, Drake?"

[Rex]

@SMS@Double@Arty Fox@Letter Bee

Drake followed them into the ship. Once inside and seated, the robot walking brooms brought them tea. He was still amazed that you couldn’t see the metal or machines inside the brooms. Maybe I can take them apart when this is all over with? See what makes them tick Drake thought before he turned his attention to the others.

Mac called him The Death Hunter and Drake just responded, “That’s what my targets call me. If you please just call me Drake. I assure you, you’d not like me as your enemy. My skills are in killing my targets and bring back their heads to my clients to prove I killed them. So please, Drake will be fine. For now anyway.”

Mac and Cheese told them about their world and about the legends and myths that lived there. Once they had finished Drake sat back and thought for a second before he finally said, “Myths and legend are only that. Nothing but old wise tales. I’m sorry, but if there’s no science behind them. Then they’re not real. At least that’s what most of the scientist believe. Many of the creatures in Chrono have adapted because of all the radiation and corruption we humans created during our time of war.”

Seth, the next to speak talked about his earth. Seth seemed to not know what his earth was like, but when Seth mentioned Rome. Drake laughed and said, “I’m sorry. Rome for me is a joke. They fell within months of becoming an empire. They thought they could create gods, but instead they only created a crater.”

Mai’s world intrigued him. A world without fire power made Drake question how a long range attack would work. Her mention of swords made him smile and he said out loud, “Like those old samurai movies I’ve seen over the years. Sounds kind of cool really.” Once she was done he drank the rest of his tea and figured it was his turn.

“My earth is, well like I’m sure most of yours started out the same. Humanity had to evolve and learn to survive. However, humanity in my earth never stopped learning. They let science and technology over take them. Soon robots like the brooms there walked the cities preforming all the jobs. However, you could see the metal and gears moving in the robots. Humanity thrived and science and technology kept humanity in a state of bliss,” Drake said before he sighed and added, “However, like most of us know. Humanity is a greedy being.”

Drake looked up at the rest of them and continued, “Humanity warred over technology and science. If one had something the other did not. They either replicate it or took it. 9 times out of 10 it was just easier to take it by force. Thanks to the constant warring and use of advance scientific weapons. We ravaged our world and it turned into a desolate wasteland.”

Drake sighed again and allowed one of the brooms to refill his tea cup before he continued, “humanity couldn’t live in the world we’d created because of our warring. So we created Arks. Domed cities to live in. Besides eating artificial food, breathing artificial air, and drinking artificial water. It was a good life, but that all changed when we found out what monsters our warring created. Thanks to our weapons, we mutated the creatures into monsters. They attacked our domes and our weapons that we once used to war with could no longer protect us from them. So Humanity turned to science again and created The Genetic Reenactment Conversion.” Drake looked around to see he had confused some of them.

“Simply put: we created Super Soldiers,” Drake explained before he held up his right hand and small spark of lightning swirled around it. He lowered it and Continued, “These Super Soldiers or Angelics as we called them fought off the creatures. We thought we had found the solution, but then the Heartless and Nobodies appeared and our Angelics couldn’t combat them. Mind you we didn’t call them Heartless and Nobodies, but rather Shadows and Nexus. So humanity went back to science and created the Shadow Nexus by capturing the Heartless and Nobodies and extracting their DNA. They wanted to create Super Soldiers with their DNA.” Drake stopped as flashes of flames and the sounds of screams echoed in his mind. He gripped his cup of tea before he sighed to calm himself.

“The first human test subject was a failure and all their research was lost in the explosion,” Drake said. He knew it was a lie, but he still didn’t know if he could trust them. What was inside of him might be a threat. It might even cause them to attack him. So he would keep it a secret. For now anyway.

[Letter Bee]

"True Reason accepts everything that exists, even when it is outside of current scientific understanding," spoke Tocsax, "for someone who laments the overuse of science and technology, you seem stuck in a worldview centred on them." I seem to be stuck with lies today, the young man was a little stressed out; he had noticed both Seth and Drake lying about pertinent facts. But before he can continue, the alarms bleeped.

"Alert, alert, major Heartless incursion detected in the French-Swiss border! Alert, alert!"

"Damnit!" Tocsax got up and opened a Corridor of Darkness. "Everyone, to Agathe's village!"

Once everyone had followed through, they would find themselves in the main square of a small village that was a mix of traditional brick-and-wood houses and modern concrete-and-metal buildings, with solar-powered lampposts and a cell site, signs of how prosperous even small villages were in the French Republic. Of course, the next thing they would see would be fires everywhere, as well as Heartless rampaging and consuming civilians to make more of themselves, so they would probably only take a second to notice these signs.

"Shadows, Soldiers, Large Bodies, and Red Nocturnes; a basic force*," spoke Tocsax even as he conjured up his Keyblade. "Mai, stay close to me; I can't teach you much in battle, but I hope to get a feel for each other's fighting style. Rest of you; Non-Keyblade Wielders, rescue civilians and strike at the Large Bodies...but do not discorporate them; any Heartless 'destroyed' without the Keyblade will only return in a later date! Seth, immobilize Heartless for Mac, so that he can use his Keyblade more effectively! Cheese, do what you talked about!" he meant the illusions.

"And lastly, look for Adelle 'le Agathe, and look out for Leo's minions! In that order!"

*khwiki.com/Shadow

khwiki.com/Soldier

khwiki.com/Large_Body

khwiki.com/Red_Nocturne

@Double@Arty Fox@SMS@Rex

[SMS]

Mai winced at Drake's description of his world. It sounded very gritty, very grisly. Something that would immediately make her want to shut her eyes away from, but at the same time, want to try and fix. Even if she doesn't know how.

Their little meeting was suddenly disrupted when an alarm went off. Everyone was quick to follow through, although Mai did let her comrades go through first and was the last to come out.

What she saw paralyzed her for a moment. The place was in shambles. Screams of pain and agony roared through the village, and the sight of a mother and child being closed in by a group of Heartless sprung her into action.

Brandishing her Keyblade, the girl quickly dashed forward and thrust her weapon against the Soldier that was closest to her, and shortly disappeared after her weapon went through it. The Shadows in their vicinity were quick to react to their comrade falling, and had shifted their focus towards her. As she was clearing out the Heartless that were surrounding the mother and child, she shouted, "Leave the civilians to me!", to the others. Her swift and methodical strikes making short work of the weaker Heartless.

One of the Red Nocturnes at the farther side had shot a fireball towards her, and she couldn't dodge it in time as she was busy with the other Shadows. The fireball pushed her a few inches back and left a burn on her right forearm which she used to block it. "Tch." The pain wasn't unbearable, but it stung. "These guys are new." After a moment, she took her stance and aimed her Keyblade at the Red Nocturne. "I'm just warming up!"

...

After dispatching a few more Heartless from the vicinity of the mother and child, she quickly ran up to them and held out her hand. "Come with me! I'll take you somewhere safe." She didn't exactly have a plan in mind yet, but for the moment, her biggest concern was to get as many civilians to safety as possible, even if she didn't know where that safety was right now. The other Heartless were closing in, so she hoped that they would cooperate immediately.

[Rex]

Drake was about to argue with Tocsax, but the alarms caused him to stop. He followed the rest of the group outside. A large group of Heartless was attacking the people. Tocsax gave everyone an order which angered Drake. Simple rescue of civilians. It’s such a waste of my skills Drake thought. He would not argue however as he charged towards a group of Heartless that surrounded a small group of people.

He quickly took out his two revolvers and shot at the heartless he didn’t hit them however, but hit the ground near them to get their attention. He smiled and said, “What? You think I’m scared of the dark? Come on and try to take me on. I’ll show you why they fear the Death hunter!” the Heartless turned their attention to Drake as he yelled to the group of people, “Don’t just stand there. Move!” the group of Heartless charged towards him. Drake placed his revolvers back in their holders and ran the other way. Damn it! I shouldn’t be running but killing these damn creatures Drake thought before he skidded to a stop and turned towards the Heartless chasing him. He removed his Blaze Blue sword from its sheath and waited. How bad could it be to just attack them? Drake thought. One of the Heartless behind the group, a Large Body slapped its stomach before charging towards Drake. It collided with the Heartless in front of it and sent them flying.

Drake quickly took out one of his revolvers and shot at the Large body. Its shield deflected his bullets as he shouted, “Shit!” he dived to the side as the large body ran past him and slammed into a house. Drake quickly stood back up and said, “When the hell did they get their hands on a Force Field Generator?”

The Large Body walked out of the large hole it left in the wall and slapped its stomach again before it charged towards Drake again. Drake once again rolled out of the way, but this time the Large Body was able to swing one of its arms towards Drake. It’ fist slammed into Drakes body and flung him into the air before he landed hard on the ground. He gasped as it felt like all the air was sucked from his lungs.

The Large body turned towards another group of people and started walking towards them before it stopped and turned towards Drake who had gotten back to his feet. Drake wiped the blood from the side of his mouth as he said, “alright your fat bastard. I’m not playing anymore.” Lightning started to spark around Drake body as he placed his Revolver back into its holder and pointed his sword at the Heartless and added, “You better hope I kill you before it gets a hold of you.”

The Large Body once again charged towards Drake. A smile formed on Drake face before he charged towards the Heartless. He didn’t however see the second Large Body in the area. The second Large Body slammed its stomach into Drake and sent him flying. He skidded across the ground before coming to a stop. For a few seconds Drake lay on the ground before he slowly started to get up.

“Should haven’t have done that,” Drake said as a sadist crooked smile formed on his face. The two Lager Bodies looked at each other before the first slapped its stomach and charged towards Drake. Drake stood up and looked at the Large Body. His hazel brown eyes changed to blood red. His shadow extended and tendrils shot out from it. The tendrils hit the Large Body and pushed it back since they couldn’t break the shield.

The Large Body skidded back and cocked its head at Drake. The tendrils slithered back and their tips formed into snake heads with glowing blood red eyes. Drake licked his lips as he said, “Let’s see if the darkness fears death?”

[Double]

Seth shrugged at his orders, "Crowd control? I mean... if that's what you want." there were a few things Seth could think of that would wipe out the Heartless in droves. They wouldn't be destroyed permanently, but with this world's Keyhole sealed they'd be stuck on the Other Side for quite some time. Well, Seth wasn't about to defy orders, especially not with someone like Hakim out there looking for an excuse to target him again. Or maybe he was just feeling lazy today? It was hard to tell with him.

Stepping into the Corridor, Seth found himself in the fray along with everyone else, "Welp, this kind of sucks." he observed, well-aware he was pointing out the obvious. Then, his left eye flashed blue for a split second before he added, "Better do something about that, then." and at those words he disappeared into a Corridor of his own. This one put him in the center of the chaos, right among some Large Bodies being backed up by a bunch of floating Red Nocturnes. Having no Heart, the Heartless largely ignored the Nobody, deciding instead to focus their efforts on people with actual Hearts to prey upon. That would be their biggest and last mistake.

"You guys aren't making this very interesting, are ya?" Seth quipped, as he did so he stamped his foot on the ground. This stomp sent out a wave of sand in all directions. It wasn't high, in fact the sand was mostly ankle deep. But as it came into contact with the Large Bodies, the areas around their feet grabbed tightly, compacting into a tight trap of sorts. Now, the Large Bodies weren't exactly weaklings, and it looked like they were about rip themselves free of the sand. Those efforts stopped when Seth snapped his fingers, sandy tendrils shooting up around the Large Bodies in order to hold them down even tighter. The Red Nocturnes weren't exactly slacking off during all of this either, in fact right about then they were shooting off a volley of fireballs at Seth, who merely grinned in response to the attack, "Sorry but... too little too late." Seth had been holding the sand firm with his right hand, but with his free hand he threw open a Corridor of Darkness above him to catch the incoming fireballs. He then used the Corridor to redirect them at the Large Bodies trapped in the grip of his sand.

Fireballs from a Red Nocturne weren't especially powerful on their own. But they were still hot, and a whole volley of them could practically superheat targets should they be concentrated enough. This is what more or less happened, only instead of destroying the Large Bodies, the fireballs heated up the sand until the grains all melted together and hardened into crystallized glass. That would hold 'em pretty nicely, even better since Seth no longer had to manually hold the sand together and thus focus his efforts elsewhere... like the Red Nocturnes for example. Sandy tendrils shot out around Seth and this time targeted the Red Nocturnes. Honestly, dispatching this particular batch of Heartless couldn't have been made easier for the Keyblade-wielding folks on the team.

"Welp, like I said... you guys aren't making this very interesting, are ya?"

[Arty Fox]

Mac and Cheese

“Humans.” Cheese clicked her tongue in disgust. “Always the same destroying nature.”

It didn’t surprise her that Drake didn’t believe in fairy tales, rather that it annoyed her to think that despite her very being there wasn’t proof enough! Cheese decided to play a prank on him later and teach him a lesson.

Without even a pause for a breather they were all rushed into battle.

Mac stumbled into the area with keyblade in hand. He had no idea what he was doing. The smells of and sounds of the battle filled his mind. Mac mumbled several swear words trying to figure out what to do whilst the others happily tore through the enemies. The heartless were different to your usual drunken idiot, they looked more imposing.

Mac swore very loudly when a duplicate of himself shimmered into being. No sooner had it appeared it glided away trying to distract a group of heartless from their civilian prey. Further down through the wrecked streets Mac could just make out other fake versions of the others gliding around like statues with wheels.

“What are you doing you freaking idiot!” Cheese shouted from somewhere unseen to his left. “Start hitting them!”

Movement to his right caught Macs attention where a crowd of Shadows accompanied a soldier in the same direction Drake had dashed to around a corner of an empty building. Taking a deep breath Mac charged after them.

“OI you wankers!” The soldiers head popped back around the corner. “Have some of thi-”

Razor sharp claws of shadows reached out from the pools of darkness on the wall for him with their beady yellow eyes. Mac leapt backwards from them just before the shadows spilled onto the scorched ground. He aimed a kick at the closest Shadow only to feel it phase through harmlessly, until an iron grip of its claws wrapped around his leg and tugged.

Macs shout was cut off when he fell and the shadows swarmed. Mac flailed in panic with his key blade against their vicious claws. But while there were many their movements were slow giving Mac all the chances he needed to place in a few hits and bring down their numbers. Eventually Mac got back to his feet and only the soldier was left. Mac then insulted its mother as he delivered the final to its skull.

Taking a moment to feel his face, and a small breather, Mac discovered a large crack running down the screen. “explains why I’m seeing double.” He mumbled.

Mac dashed around the corner just in time to see snakes of darkness lunge towards the Large Bodies. Mac slumped slightly in shock.
Cheese meanwhile was busy high above hacking through a horde of Red Nocturnes that had had the poor judgement of disturbing her with a blade that looked like an oversized thorn. With each hit Mac had taken Cheese had felt small prickles at the back of her mind. She was bound to Mac but as he had told her to follow Toscaxs orders Cheese had reasoned that meant she could be somewhat lenient in her duties to protecting Mac. With the last of the Nocturnes dispatched with Cheese fluttered back to her position atop an old stone gargoyle. She took a deep breath and resumed her previous duties with the illusions.

Cheese was unable to hold both her human appearance and so many illusions at the same time, resulting her being shrunk down to the size of thumb, as they glided through the town. Currently Cheese had two of each member of the team, as well as three more of Tocsax and Mai who, by her understanding of it, would be targeted by Leons organisation.

“For crying out loud why don’t you buzz off!” Cheese shouted up at another approaching Nocturne Horde.

Throughout the town the illusions shimmered and then disappeared leaving the groups of Civilians following them to relative safety once again without a guide.

[Letter Bee]

One of the civilians rescued fit the description of Adelle le' Agathe, a redhead with blue eyes who wore a Swiss costume despite being French; then again, being on the border with the Swiss, it was inevitable that there would be some interchange. The Princess of Heart would then say to Tocsax, who had been dispatching the Heartless immobilized by Seth with precise blows of his Keyblade:

[French: "They were coming for me, weren't they?"] the girl shook in fear.

"Don't worry," Tocsax would reply as he decapitated another Heartless, "we won't let them hurt you." He then looked at Drake, displeased that the man wasn't listening to what he said about the Heartless, and furthermore, was showing Heartless-based powers himself. Then suddenly -

"Enough of this." The voice was feminine, devoid of empathy. As Tocsax cast a Mass Barrier on everyone, a figure descended down from the sky, where a Corridor of Darkness had opened up. Said figure was a woman, with pale white skin, black hair, and golden eyes. She held a rapier in her right hand, and a dagger in her left. As she stomped her foot, the Heartless all disappeared in a puff of dark smoke.

"Hello there," said the woman, whom Seth can tell was a Nobody. "My name is Philippa le' Terre', and I am going to take your precious Princess of Heart away from you." A swipe of her Rapier, and suddenly, more portals opened, and two more people, a man and a woman, entered - Tocsax gasped; the woman was also a Princess of Heart! Philippa smiled.

"Meet Nate and Nora," everyone can see that the two were in body armor made of carbon-fibre and carried Gauss Rifles, a type of railgun that used electromagnetic forces to propel projectiles at immense speeds, punching through defenses with brutal force. "And, yes, Toxy, Nora's a Princess of Heart, one of the people you're looking for, and Nate is her husband. Kill them and you'll end up losing your quest. Not merely that, but if you try and capture or persuade them yourselves, we have their baby, Shaun, as our hostage, meaning that they will keep acting against you should you try nonfatal means of resolution."

"So, here's the riddle," Philippa was gloating, "how can you succeed in a fight where you're not supposed to kill or overly harm two-thirds of the enemy?"

@Double@Arty Fox@SMS@Rex

[Double]

Seth stared up as someone emerged from a Corridor. A Nobody, he was sure of it. Nobodies often had a certain... talent for identifying one of their own, and this was no exception. Of course, that also meant that Philippa - or so she called herself - likely already identified Seth as a Nobody as well. At the very least, this meant they could skip the boring formalities and go straight to the meat and potatoes.

And these meat and potatoes weren't pleasant to swallow, that was for sure. Philippa brought two others with her, a man and his wife and both looked like they came from a completely different world. Nate and Nora, their names were, and the woman was one of the supposed Princesses of Heart. That wasn't the worst of it, no that would be the news that their baby was being held hostage as a bargaining chip to get them to serve Leo, "Well if that don't beat all..." Seth muttered to himself with a quiet chuckle.

"So, here's the riddle," Philippa was gloating, "how can you succeed in a fight where you're not supposed to kill or overly harm two-thirds of the enemy?"

Seth opened his mouth as if to respond, but bit his tongue. There was a surprisingly easy answer to this riddle, but he knew the others wouldn't want to hear it. He even considered implementing the solution himself, which would require that he disobey orders and act on his own, exactly the kind of thing Hakim would want him to do to prove the old bastard right. Still, if preventing the Princess of Heart from falling into enemy hands meant keeping the Multiverse safe, then maybe Seth would just have to swallow his pride and do the logical thing.

It wouldn't be hard. He mused to himself mentally. If the Princess refused to act against them to protect her son, then she could easily be made to remain a neutral party, since the other most important person of her life is standing right there next to her. Sure, it was easy to do what you knew was wrong when you stood united with the person you love. But what if the safety of both people you care most about were hanging in the balance? Help Philippa, and the baby's life is forfeit, but what if continuing to serve her endangered the life of her husband? An impossible decision, but one that would at least guarantee Nora's neutrality if nothing else.

With one motion, Seth made his choice. He reached out a gloved hand, willing sand to scoop up the man named Nate, to entrap him in a tomb of ever-squeezing sand. They're going to hate me for this. That thought didn't leave the Nobody's mind, and as true as it was they needed a way out of this dilemma. If their resident Nobody had to briefly play the villain, then that's what he would do. Assuming Seth's trap was successful, he had only one response for Philippa.

"This is my answer!" he called up to her, eye flashing bright blue and his usual joking tone completely gone. This was the dead serious Seth that was previously confronting Hakim, even he couldn't crack a joke in a time like this, "Sorry Princess, but its either your son or your husband now... if you want my advice... just stay out of this and let my compatriots do their thing... you really don't want me to go any further with this!"

[Letter Bee]

((Collab between Letter Bee and Gentlemenvaultboy))

Shahrukh Mirza the Fifth, Sultan of Timurid Egypt in Renovation, Keyblade Wielder, and redheaded hottie, would arrive in Robotropolis in his small Gummi Ship, having left Fredrick Arwell behind in Mai's world to protect it while he went on a trip to this world. Clothed in a hood, robe, and sand-colored special forces armor underneath, the 19-year old would meet with the local Moogles, telling them:

"I need to arrange a meeting with Souji Kamiya, or rather, the being currently bearing his name. Now."

A second later, an anonymous Moogle scrambled to send an email, asking V2 to come to a meeting with someone who may know his secret! Meeting site - the very hangar in which Shahrukh had made his approach.

---

"This is it grab bag!" The robot yelled, striking a pose in the middle of the street. In front of him a heartless that looked like a giant purple paper back with a scowly face painted on the middle wiggled and writhed, hacking up bikes and cars into the empty road, its body laced with ragged scars. Above him, in the windows he could hear people cheering him on. Well, not him. It brough him joy nonetheless.

He threw his hand behind him as Scrapyard appered in it with a shower of sparks. Slowly he brought the Keyblade in front of him. The orbs on his shoulders extended, lightning cracling between them. He spun the Keyblade once, the lightning flowing into it until even the battered thing was luminous and shining. "Finishing Move: THUNDER HEART RIPPER!"

With that he threw, the blade spinning through the air. It struck the heartless once, twice, three times, circleling it and pouring electricity into the monster before spinning back to him. He caught it, spun it three times, and turned away as the heartless crumpled in on itself and dissolved into a cloud of blackness. Above him the people cheered, laughed, sjputed congradulations and praise from their windows. He looked up at them, smiling a wide smile, and flashed a V sign.

Then he got an notification. He read the email highlighted on the surface of his eye. His smile never faltered. His relaxed, happy stance never changed. He lauged as he waved to the adroring public and jetted off into the sky, looking like he didn't have a care in the world.

---

It was only within the dark of the hanger that v2 changed. His face didn't fall so much as flatline, settleing into a placid look of absolute neutrality. His body language shiftted from a care free, easy going young lad to an uncanny precition, no movemeant wasted at all. He looked around the empty hanger, searching for whoever it was that had decided to be so foolish. "Come out." he said, in a voice that sounded like the owner had no idea what an exclamtion mark even was. "If at all posible I would wish to settle this matter peacefully. Heartless do not blackmail, and I am only obligated to eridicate them."

He can hear a noise from behind him; a 19-year old boy wearing a hood and cloak and special forces armor underneath, with curly red hair and green eyes, had hopped out of seemingly nowhere; a Vanish spell? He would then say:

"Hello, V2. And yes, I know your secret. My name is Sharukh Mirza, and we are kin by being Keyblade Wielders," he then conjured up his Keyblade, which was colored pale yellow and royal blue.

"Not that kinship prevents me from asking something of you in such a way."

"Replica." v2 replied simply.

"Nothing saying Replicas can't be kin," Shahrukh would say nonchalantly. "Either way, I have to ask: How much do you know of the Multiverse?"

v2 is silent for a moment, something playing out behind its eyes. "Multiverse. Many worlds Theory: Correct. My creators manufactured me with help from a non-native species of this world." It pauses, as though considering the next point deeply. "Likely origin point of the Hearthless."

"How would you act if I told you there was a way of reducing Heartless attacks on your world - all worlds - into an inconsequential extent? This will also restore anyone the Heartless turned into one of them, bringing back hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people who would have been as good as dead otherwise? Would you believe me?" Sharukh would continue.

"I would be forced to act upon that knowlage to eradicate the Heartless threat once and for all, to the best that my repocibilities here allow." v2 replied. "Is that what you are telling? If you are just making a hypotheticle, I will become very angry."

"To say that I am making a hypotethical would be a lie," said Shahrukh. "No, I'm telling the truth; there is a way to eradicate the Heartless - at least most of them - and you can help in that. However, you'll have to let me replace you in guarding Robotropolis for the time being. That said, though, as my offer would be innately distrusted, allow me to present you with proof besides my own abilities as a Keyblader."

He would then toss a data drive to v2. This drive contained the knowledge of how exactly the Heartless can be defeated - gather the Seven Princesses of Heart, use them to restore the Heartless of Ascot, the one who split the Multiverse apart in the first place, back into a Human, and then defeat Leo the Second Mathematician and his Thirteen Seekers of Darkness. References to Kingdom Hearts and its light as something to be unleashed were also peppered throughout the data.

"It's all self-consistent," Shahrukh would then say. "So, what do you say? Give me a few months of hero time and your good offices in making the transition, and you can finally free your world from fear."

((To be continued in Part 2))

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

((Part 2 of a collab between Letter Bee and Gentlemenvaultboy))

There were protocols, of course. The Ministry of Science wasn't about to just let its golden boy plug a strange data drive into his neck and get a crippling virus. There had been a battery of tests run on it first, and after a few hours of through scrubbing they'd finally declared the thing clean enough for v2 to view.

Now the two proceeded down a long looping hallway to an old room kept clean mostly for photo shoots. The door slid open, reveling a round, white room. Plush white carpeting covered the entire floor, saved for the tiled kitchen to one side. On another was an enclosed room contain a soft white bed. All around the room bubble windows let in the light, spilling on sports equipment, stacks of old comics, things a boy might reasonable have in his room. In the center was a state of the art holovid, a large circle that displayed television and phone messages.

It was the only thing in the room that ever saw any use.

v2 walked purposly toward the bedroom, expecting Sharukh to follow. Past the useless bed to the closet, he pushed aside clothes he didn't wear until he found a box. Inside the hidden box was a stack of dirty magzines that he dumped unsermoniously out. There, at the bottom of it, he found what he was looking for.

v2 thrust the box of data drives into his hands. "Video. Of Shouji. You will watch all of it." It was less a command and more a statement of fact. "There is a costume. You will wear it. These people need their hero." The "not you" went unspoken. The "not me" also went unspoken. It went unspoken much louder.

A nod.

"Don't worry, I'm a good actor," spoke Shahrukh Mirza the Fifth. "The only problem will be that I am going to have to use a Keychain to alter the appearance of my Keyblade, but I can make or procure one." He smiled.

"So, you do know how to assert yourself."

"When I believe it necessary." v2 said, said, walking over to one of the large bubble windows to look down over the city for what might be the last time. "You may keep your blade as is. Most likely the ministers are already seeding the idea of it through the television show. It is what they did for my key, though in contrast I believe yours is what they would call a 'mid-season upgrade.'"

It was silent for a long time, looking out over the sprawling cityscape. "Query." it said. "Are there so few Keyblade Masters left that you have come seeking me?"

"Yes," spoke Shahrukh. "Our order is decimated, with few survivors, stragglers, and retired members. Leo's purge of us...it was successful enough that we can only start to fight back." He then conjured up a scroll with some Arabic script, then handed it over to v2.

"When you're ready to go, just press the Arabic script, and it'll teleport you to where the others are." He then smiled, remembering how he had asked Apokaukos to write in Arabic instead of Greek for this teleportation scroll.

The robot almost touched the script immediately, but then suddenly stopped. "Second Query." is said. "Kingdom Hearts. If in the course of this I were to come in contact with it would it give me a heart?"

Sharukh shot a piercing glare at v2, saying:

"Anyone who thinks of themselves as a person can grow a Heart, including Nobodies; it just takes time. That data drive I just gave you, it was compiled by Data-Ascot, a computer program who developed his own Heart while searching through the Keyblade Order's corrupted records. If digital data that doesn't even live in the corporeal world can grow a Heart, you can too." Shahrukh spoke with firm conviction.

The machines face was unreadable. "Hypotheticals." It said. "I apologize if I made you angry." With the it touched the script on the paper and was whisked away.

[Rex]

@Letter Bee@Arty Fox
The Large Body smacked its stomach again and leaped into the air before crashing down into the ground. It lay there for a few seconds before it got back up. It looked to see the crushed remains of Drake, but found nothing. It cocked its head to the empty cracked ground as a pitch black egg rose up from the ground behind it. The egg cracked and small fragments fell to the ground and dissipated. Drake smiled as the final remains of the egg shell dissipated.

“My turn,” Drake hissed as the shadow snakes shot towards the Large body. The snake heads morphed into sharp tendrils with barbed edges. Before the Large Body could turn, the tendril pierced into the back of the heartless and out the front. Drake’ sadistic crooked smile seemed to grow as the heartless was violently impaled. The Large Body twitched for a few seconds before it dispersed into a black cloud. Drake smile seemed to disappear as the Heartless disappeared. He sighed, “Oh, there’s no blood.” Drake turned to the rest of the heartless who were standing there watching him. A Shadow heartless seemed to slowly step back which made Drakes Sadistic Crooked smile reappear on his face.

“There is no escape,” Drake said before his shadow tendril shot towards the Heatless and he tips reformed into snake heads. Some of the Heartless shadows were able to flee, but for the unlucky few that got caught. Suffered a violent attack: the snake head shadows seemed like they were devouring the heartless. They tore and ripped into the Shadows dark skin and ripped off some of the heartless arms. A shadow snake head flung a heartless into the air while two more shot towards it. One snake head shadow bit into the heartless’s head while the second bit into its bottom half. The two pulled in opposite directions and tore the heartless in half. Amounts the violent attack, Drake sadistic smile never left his face

Once the heartless were dissipated, Drake felt a small shiver down his spine. His smile grew as he turned to Mac. His blood red eyes seemed to glow. However, Drake wasn’t interested in Mac. Something or someone just appeared that got his attention. He laughed and said to Mac, “I’d play with you, but I sense someone who deserves my attention more.” The snake head tendrils wrapped around Drake and formed the black egg again. as it sunk into the ground Drake laughed, “If you wish to enjoy the show, just remember the first three rows are splash zones.” The egg completely sunk onto the ground.

In the area with Seth, Nate, Nora, and Philippa le' Terre':

The dark egg rose up from the ground and cracked. The pieces fell to the ground and dissipated as Drake’s sadistic crooked smile grew as he laid eyes on the three new comers. He heard Philippa le' Terre' riddle and the shadow snake tendrils rose up from his shadow as their mows opened up and white saliva dripped from them as Drake said, “Honestly, how pathetic can you get to think we’ll just lay down and die?” the snake heads snapped at one another ready for the order to attack.

when Seth threatened the two, Drake laughed, "Seems like another one feels the same way. However, I could care less about your son lady. All I care about is watching you bleed."