We arrived at the beautiful city of Venice, with the canals running through the city like veins through a lovely woman. The lights that came through the shops and houses were a stunning view. The moonlight reflected off the water in a most glorious fashion that left me gasping for breath at the beauty of it. The smell of the water was slightly revolting, but the sounds were also very beautiful.
"Just over here, Sora. Not much further," said Ezio as he pointed to a building coming up on the left.
"So what exactly does Leonardo do?" I inquired as we came closer to the door of the building.
Ezio explained, "Leonardo da Vinci is one of the greatest painters, and engineer, in all of Italia. He has helped me through a lot of problems over the years, including one where he built me a flying machine. He is very advanced in cryptic code, which is how he fixed my Hidden Blade and improved upon it. Now not only do I have two at my disposal, but I also have a hidden pistol and a poison blade!"
"So he is worth his merit. Excellent, do you think he would be able to work with the Keyblade?" I asked Ezio.
"Decisamente," Ezio said as he knocked on the door of the building.
A young man answered the door and looked at me, then to Mario, then finally Ezio. "Ah! Ezio! How have you been? Have you brought me anymore Codex Pages?" Leonardo asked in a very warm tone.
"No, Leonardo, but I have brought this young man in need of an adjustment to his weapon," Ezio explained.
"Oh, how so? Oh! Where are my manners? Come in, come in! Sit down. Now, let me see your armament, young one." I summoned the Keyblade and handed it to Leonardo. "Ah, this is an intriguing sword, and how do you wish to have it altered?"
"I was hoping you could make it into a Hidden Blade like Ezio here has," I told Leonardo.
"Ah… that is a nice choice, but do you think you could tell me what this sword is made of?" asked Leonardo as he looked at the blade from various angles.
"I don't know what it is made of, exactly, but it has some magic properties. It can transform using these items," I explained, pulling the key charms out of my pocket, "and it adds various effects to my Keyblade."
"Eccellente! I will see what I can do. While I work, have a seat over there," he said, pointing over to a bench near a wall. Ezio, Mario, and I went over and sat on the bench. I looked around the room seeing a ton of paintings, schematics, and papers with a whole lot of math. I observed Leonardo himself, noticing that he was dressed in clothes similar to Mario's, albeit a little puffier. That brought forth a question in
"Hey, Ezio, what year is it?" The room around me dissolved into a big open space that was a stark white color. Graphics of DNA zoomed by in a serpentine fashion. Places from Italy flashed before my eyes. "What is this?"
A voice with a British accent resonated throughout the room. "I believe I can answer that for you. You are in a machine invented to look back at a person's 'genetic memories', called the Animus. We brought you here to help our friend's ancestor, Ezio, unlock the Vault in Rome that a man named Rodrigo Borgia tried to unlock back in 1499. Ezio stopped him, but after that the Animus has no record of anything until about a month later, where Ezio's uncle is killed."
"We? Who's we?" I asked the mysterious voice.
"We have a whole team of Assassins that are working on this project. One of them is Ezio's descendent, Desmond Miles. Our computer wizard is Rebecca Crane. Lucy Stillman is also an operator of the Animus. And I am Shaun Hastings, an organizer of the Assassins in the field."
"Ok, so I'm just here as a way to relay the information that happens in that vault. Is Desmond in here too?" I asked Shaun.
"Right here, Sora," a voice said from behind me. I whipped around and saw Desmond standing right behind me in the same robes Ezio was wearing, with his hood down. He looked exactly like Ezio in almost every way. From the scar on his top lip, to the look of his eyes. "Hey, I am the one that is controlling Ezio's actions through your time in the Animus, but it is still his memories, so they will play out as they did when he experienced them, with you added to them."
"Right, so when will Leonardo be ready with my Keyblade?" I asked Desmond.
"About now, I would guess," Desmond said. The whiteness of the room around us dissolved into the familiar look of Leonardo da Vinci's workshop. Leonardo held up a small trinket and exclaimed happily, then walked over to where Ezio, Mario, and I were sitting on the bench.
"Fantastico! It is done, Sora. Here is the key to transforming your sword," Leonardo said handing me a charm that looked like the symbol on Ezio's belt. I latched the charm onto the chain of my Keyblade. A flash of light, and it was gone from my hands.
"What happened to my Keyblade?" I asked Leonardo with a look of confusion on my face. I looked all over my body to see if anything had changed, and for the first time, I noticed that my magic clothes had turned into a set of black robes similar to Ezio's, but with the usual keyhole on my belt.
"Summon your Keyblade, bring it forth," Leonardo told me. I nodded and concentrated on the Keyblade. I thrust my arms out to my side, and two blades extended from beneath my sleeves. I looked at them in amazement, gazing in wonderment how they gleamed in the dim light of the workshop. "And you have a sword in case you get in a stick situation."
"Wow, these are amazing! Thank you, Leonardo. Ezio, I'm ready for my Assassin training," I said, a determined flare in my soul.
"Then we shall start immediately, and then you will be ready," Ezio told me. We turned to leave the workshop when the room turned dark. Dark creatures poured out of the wall and lunged at the cowering form of Leonardo.
