Roxas released his keyblade in a blast of light and stuck out his hand to summon a portal. He pointed his face to the sky, squinting at the bright light sifting through the canopy. It was still early. As much as he liked sea-salt ice cream, the thought of sitting on the clock tower alone was unappetizing. A little exploring couldn't hurt.
Roxas took a look around Wonderland's dense forest. It was bustling with the activity of talking flowers and bugs with impossible proportions. Nearly tripping over a few mushrooms, Roxas came across a chest. Retrieving his keyblade once more, he swept the front into the lock with a flourish. It opened with a click, almost inaudible with the rustle of oversized grasses surrounding the area. He brushed a leaf away from his face and bent down to peer into the chest, his features softening with curiosity. With the expression in his eyes and the soft twists of his lips, Roxas didn't look like a nobody. He showed a calm face at all times, just to blend in with the rest of the organization, but his eyes revealed what he was really thinking.
Luckily, most of his companions didn't look into his eyes. He reached into the chest, and a shadow jumped out, nearly colliding with his hand. Roxas leaped back in surprise, pushing his keyblade forward in a quick lunge. Instead of attacking, the heartless sat beside the empty chest, its antennae beginning to unfurl. A dark red collar sat around its neck. Roxas prepared to aim again, but stopped as he realized the creature wasn't moving. He blinked, scanning the huge vines for more of the heartless. It seemed to be alone. Perhaps it wasn't dangerous. Roxas dispelled the thought and swung his weapon in a clean arc. Heartless were heartless, and none could be left to roam the worlds.
The blade collided with a heartless emblem in the center of the collar, and it exploded, gushing black smoke. Roxas dropped the keyblade and coved his eyes with a hand, using his free arm to wave the fumes away. By the time it had filtered into Wonderland's natural air, the heartless had vanished.
Roxas turned in place, abandoning the search. His mission was done; there was no need to put himself in more danger. A group would be more successful in tracking the elusive shadow, anyway.
"Yeah, I'll come with Axel." Roxas spoke the words aloud, as if trying to convince the flowers that he was right. He stuck out a hand and summoned a portal to Twilight Town. Axel might have some answers.
Axel spun on his heel, eliminating the last large body in Agrabah. The nearly-spherical heartless gave one last wobble and fell over, evaporating on the spot. Axel wiped his forehead. He loved having fire magic sear under his skin, and it was nice that he could warm Roxas or tiny Xion with one of his hugs, but sometimes it was just too damn hot. He took one more look around the abandoned marketplace and decided he was good to go. Sticking out a hand, Axel brought a portal out of the dust and stepped into it. The dark purple substance covered his eyes, but he thought he saw a blinking red light before he slipped away.
A boom shattered the air. Axel stumbled onto the pale stone of Twilight Town's plaza. A blast half-rang in his ears, and he wondered if it was his imagination, a misinterpretation of his senses when he walked into the portal. It wasn't an easy journey, the teleportation between two worlds, and Axel often heard snippets of conversations or battles in other worlds.
Axel stopped walking and took a look at the clock tower. He could faintly see Roxas jab his half-eaten ice cream in Xion's direction, and she responded with one of her gentle laughs. He had always seen the two of them as siblings, maybe twins. They had this connection that didn't seem like friendship to Axel, but it sure as hell wasn't—
"Hmph." Like nobodies could feel love.
Axel shook his head and summoned some of his old confidence. He walked over to the ice cream stall. "One bar of your finest sea-salt ice cream, please." He fished a bit of money out of his pocket. Tossing it on the counter, he flashed the cashier a smile and headed to the back of the clock tower. His shoes left an echo on the stairs, but he slowed his steps to surprise his friends at the top.
"Roxas, you're so silly."
"It's a keyblade, Xion! A keyblade made of ice cream." Axel crept up behind the boy. He waved his intact bar in front of his head, teasingly, and said with a smirk,
"The power of the ice cream—what a slogan!"
"Axel! Thought you weren't gonna show." Xion waved, and Axel took a seat beside Roxas. He swung his legs over the ledge and kicked the wall with his heels.
"You OK, Roxas?" Axel took a bite out of the ice cream and let it sit in his mouth. Roxas stopped turning the stick in his hands and shifted to face the redhead. "You aren't worried, are you?"
"I saw a weird heartless today."
"Oh?" Xion turned her head, slipping the wooden stick into her pocket. "What did it look like?" she asked. Roxas scratched his head, focusing on a train in the distance.
"Well, it was a shadow, and it wore a dark collar that exploded! There was smoke everywhere."
"Smoke, huh." Axel leaned forward, his hands on his knees.
"Yeah, and it didn't attack." Roxas sighed and closed his eyes. "Axel, what kind of heartless wouldn't attack?" Axel swallowed the last bit of ice cream, sensing the last salty-sweetness slip away.
"Dunno. Say, I might've seen one of those on my way over here."
"Should we tell Saix?" Xion was always ready to report something fishy. Axel sometimes wondered if she could keep a secret if the situation came about, but he didn't entertain that thought for too long. Xion was loyal. Their friendship came first, and she wouldn't do a thing to change that. "I wonder why it wouldn't attack. Maybe it was waiting for something." Xion had a habit of speaking aloud, and her voice calmed the two boys. Roxas got up, helped Xion off the ledge, and the three headed to the plaza.
"Maybe. Let's mention it to Saix. If nothing else, the Organization should be aware that exploding heartless are on the loose." Xion gave a small laugh.
"You make it sound so ridiculous!" Roxas took out his ice cream stick and waved it through the air.
"Yeah, we'll fight 'em with our new keyblades!" The three laughed together. Axel looked at the other boy longingly. He wished he could stay with those two and their harmless jokes for a little longer.
"Say, Roxas, hold that portal for a minute." Roxas dropped his arm and the shadows receded into the stone. "I'm not gonna be around for a while. I have to go to Castle Oblivion." Roxas and Xion shared a look, and Axel felt a dull burst of annoyance. They'd get closer in his absence. The thought bugged him, and he curled his hands tightly at the thought of the two of them away from his protection.
Axel spread his arms in frustration. "Look, I don't want to go. Just—take care of each other while I'm out, OK?" Roxas took a step away from Xion.
"Promise you'll come back." Axel's only response was a smile. He created a portal and stepped through so the other two could follow.
Roxas walked through the portal. He didn't want to admit it, but his encounter with the shadow ignited something powerful inside him. It felt like a moment of real terror, where fear took ahold of his thoughts and wrenched away his ability to think.
"Roxas!" Xion waved, a few feet ahead.
"Are we reporting, or not?" Roxas nodded and headed to their side. Feelings, even those of fear, were for people with hearts, and that would always be wishful thinking for a nobody.