"Can we please do something PvP?" Witty groaned, plopping down onto the sand with a thud. Light raised a brow and looked down at him, folding his arms over his chest.
"All you ever do is whine about PvP," he commented. "Why don't you just go to Olympus Coliseum and do some PvP there?"
"What's the point?" Witty sighed. "I don't want any of the skins and I don't care about rankings."
"Because you want challenging PvP so bad," Ito suggested, kicking around a coconut Scat had spawned.
"I don't understand what the draw of player versus player is," Midnight hummed. "I just like going to all the Disney worlds. I don't think fighting is even necessary in this game."
"Did you even play Kingdom Hearts?" Witty remarked, sitting up. Midnight reddened, and Witty smirked. He knew he was right. In response, Light kicked some sand at Witty's side.
"Lighten up," Light scolded. "Any Disney or Final Fantasy fan is more than welcome here. You know that."
"I just think it's weird so many people play KHO without playing at least one KH game."
"And I think you're weird for your obsession with PvP, but you don't see me kicking you off our server."
"Good thing, too, or else I'd kick your ass and take all your stuff on the public server."
"You and what army?"
Witty stood up, arms tight to his side, jaw clenched. Light just rolled his eyes.
"I know you're looking for a fight, Wit, but if you're hoping to find it here, keep looking."
"What's the matter? Scared I'll beat you?"
Light knew where this argument would go. Witty would coax him into summoning his Keyblade, they'd spar each other into a draw, and both be exhausted for nothing. He decided to ignore the silvernette.
"So about that RP," he began. "I was thinking we could pick up where we left KHIII."
"We can't continue KHIII without Yuki and Princess!" Midnight exclaimed.
"Sure we could. Both Kairi and Namine are off training to be Key-Bearers," Light countered. "Besides, if we don't get a move on, that game will come out before we get too far into the RP!"
"You just want me to be Xehanort so you have an excuse to kick me around," Witty snorted. Light ignored him.
"So what do you say? Let's get started!" Light clapped his hands and beamed. "Scat, set up the mainland!"
"Roger that, sir," said Scat, and a keyboard appeared before him and he started tapping away.
"But I don't want to be Xehanort right now," Witty whined.
"That sounds like a personal problem," Light shrugged.
"Why don't we have Sora and Riku train first? A friendly, open-ended spar?"
"Here he goes again," Ito sighed. "Come on, Midnight. Let's go make Key-Bearer costumes for Kusa and Zalaria."
"Ooo new costumes! I'm down!" Midnight cheered, and the pair put their hands up to their temples. They stood there a moment, but nothing happened.
"Hmm… what gives?" Midnight muttered. "I can't access my customization screen."
"Scat, stop screwing around for a sec so we can at least log into our customizations," Ito said. Scat looked up at him, mildly perturbed.
"I'm not doing anything that would interfere with that," he replied. "It's probably a bug with the server. They've been happening a lot lately."
"Then make a better server," Ito snapped. Scat just rolled his eyes.
"You wanna do it?"
"Uh… no thanks. I'll leave the nerd stuff to you."
"Says the guy who plays a VR Kingdom Hearts game and roleplays all the time."
"Takes one to know one!"
As Scat and Ito went back and forth, Witty had summoned up his Keyblade and was waggling it in Light's face.
"Come on, Sora, don't you want some practice fighting the darkness?" he prodded, the Way to the Dawn inches from Light's nose. Smirking, Light fell into character.
"Cut it out, Riku," he returned. "Besides, you're not really the darkness anymore. I know you wouldn't use it just for fun!"
"Hmph, caught me red-handed. But I don't need darkness to beat a runt like you!"
"Alright, fine, but just one match!"
"Unless I lose!"
Light had just summoned his Keyblade when he heard sniggering not too far behind him. He knew Ito was going to give him a hard time about giving in to Witty's PvP desire, so he turned to make a comment. To his surprise, Ito was not standing behind him. Instead, it was someone he had never seen before. He was a tall man, with short, slicked back gray hair, and a black, tailored suit. His hands were in his pockets and he stood tall, much taller than Light. Light peeked around him to see Ito and Midnight staring at him with confused looks, and Scat was frantically typing on his keyboard.
"Uh, hi?" Light said, turning to face the newcomer full-on. "Are you… er, one of Scat's friends?"
"Scat? What kind of childish username is that?" the man sneered.
"You must be Witty's friend then," Light said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Witty shouted. "And besides, I've never seen that guy in my life!"
"I can't access his profile!" Ito said.
"Or his username!" Midnight chimed in.
"That's part of his profile…" Ito reminded her.
Light's brow furrowed and he took a step back from the man. Scat was still frantically typing away on his computer. There were two possibilities: One, Yuki had logged back into their private server and was really trolling them. Two, someone had hacked their way onto their server.
"Look, Mr. Mystery Guy, I'm not sure how you found your way onto our server, but you'd be more than welcome to stay if you'd like," Light began. "But it is a little weird that your profile isn't showing up—"
"Tch, I don't want to stick around on your silly little roleplaying server," the man chortled. "I'm just paying a quick visit."
"Yeah, checking out the surrounding servers is a great way to get acquainted with KHO," Light quipped back shortly. "Usually people start with public servers, though."
The man laughed, and he raised a brow. His eyes darted around, as though he was looking at something Light couldn't see. He then turned swiftly on his heel.
"HeartOfLight, Level 50, Specialization: Melee," he rattled off. "And your inventory is full of crap. Boring. Now let's see… Ah. MidnightMoon35, Level 5, Specialization: Magic. Nice Orichalcum+ pulls you got recently. You wouldn't mind sharing, would you?"
Light looked over his shoulder at Witty, who was mirroring his own expression. The concern was etched clearly in their faces; the content of another player's inventory was not viewable to other players, unless some very illegal hacks were in use.
Midnight, Ito, and Scat, on the other hand, were both mesmerized and shocked into stillness by the newcomer's seemingly endless wealth of knowledge. Light acted first, darting around the strange man and putting himself between him and his friends.
"Glad you've got some kind of Xray Hack activated, but I'm afraid you're not gonna be able to use that here," Light said tensely. "How about you go ahead and log yourself off before I report you? This is me asking nicely."
"Report me? Ha! You don't even know my username," the man laughed. Well, he'd caught that bluff, so he couldn't be a new player. "I really don't want to waste time with you, so just let me KO your little friend, take the loot, and I'll be on my way."
"Scat, lock PvP for this server," Light ordered. A small squeak emitted from Scat's throat.
"I can't," he replied. "I can't modify the server at all. I think that guy locked me out!"
"Looks like I've found the brains of the operation," the man sneered. "Guess I'll put you on the list to loot from as well, if only to delete all your source code."
"Fat chance!"
Witty roared from behind the man, Keyblade raised as he dived in for an attack. But the man was quick, side-stepping the blow and practically teleporting several yards to the side. His hands never left his pockets. Witty was not to be discouraged or deprived of his PvP, and so he struck again. The man teleported around effortlessly, and despite Witty's best attempts to predict his movements, he always seemed to be a second too late.
After the seventh round of this, which Light had spent ushering Ito, Midnight, and Scat further down the beach and into the treehouse for safekeeping, the man yawned and stretched.
"Okay, this is boring now," he mumbled, then raised a hand at Witty. "How about you pause?"
There was a slight glitch in the system, where the world around seemed to flicker for a moment, and suddenly Witty stopped moving. His eyes darted around, but he said nothing and didn't move a muscle. Light's brow furrowed and he hopped down from the treehouse, still able to move freely.
"What did you do to him?" Light demanded, grip tightening on his own Keyblade.
"A simple Freeze Hack," the man replied. "It will last until I take damage, which will never happen thanks to my Invincibility Hack. Unluckily for me, both of you two have no good loot on you. Surprising, for a couple of max levelers. What do you do here? Your silly roleplaying games all day?"
"That's none of your business," Light growled. "If you know what's good for you, you'll unfreeze him and get out of here. Don't you have something better to do than to pick on non-hostiles?"
"No, not really. I mean, I usually loot from whoever I come across, but when I see a private roleplaying server, I can't help myself. I indulge. I can't stand pathetic LARPers."
The man pivoted himself to face Witty again, and a black Keyblade materialized into his hand. It was sharp, with a blade as sharp as a knife. It was covered in red gemstones, but other than that was remarkably unmemorable. No doubt it was modded from Leon's gunblade, an item supposedly available to only NPCs due to its imbalanced power.
Before the man even jumped at Witty to attack, Light's hand had flown to his temple and he began tapping away at a keyboard that had appeared in front of him. Seconds later, time seemed to slow down around him, and Witty very slowly began to react to the assault. But there wasn't nearly enough time.
Light dashed forward, moving at full speed as the rest of the world dragged on around him. He hooked his arm in Witty's, yanking him out of the way as the hacker hurled himself forward in slow motion. As Light and Witty spun back around to face him, time returned to normal.
The man looked dazed for a moment, then turned back to Light and Witty, frustration worn plainly on his face. Witty just looked at Light, confused.
"What the hell was that?" both Witty and the hacker asked in unison.
"Don't worry about it," was Light's reply. "So, Hacker Friend, you were leaving right?"
The man laughed softly, shaking his head, and his body relaxed. That didn't cause Light to loosen a single muscle, however, and he kept his eyes locked on the hacker as he released Witty's arm. The man looked up, sticking a hand in his pocket, and his eyes started darting around again. Light took the opportunity to rush him, swinging hard at his chest and pushing a good few feet back with the blow.
The man grunted, doubling over, but he wore a smirk on his face.
"Invincibility Hack, remember?" he sneered. "Didn't hurt a bit, and my HP's still at 100%. Not yours, though."
He raised his hand at Light, and very suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his chest. In his peripheral, he could see his HUD's HP instantly start dropping at an alarming rate. Gritting his teeth, Light flashed his hand to his temple again and started typing away, and the HP stagnated at 50%. The man's eyes narrowed and he lowered his hand.
"How are you—" he started.
"A Drain Hack? Really? You have a world of hacking possibilities and you hit me with a Drain Hack?" Light shook his head. "A Regen Hack counters that with hardly any effort. And it runs indefinitely. Try again, buddy."
The man stared at him, bewildered, but he didn't let it phase him for too long. He let out a growl and charged at Light, swinging hard with his blade. Light caught it with his own Keyblade, pushing him off with hardly any effort.
"Strength-buff Hacks aren't gonna cut it either," Light chided. "You're going to have to be more creative."
"Listen here you little shit!" the man snarled, backing up. "You think you're cool because you can hack too? I'll report your ass!"
"Go for it. I'd love to see the username attached to the report," Light shrugged. "I have a lot more witnesses on my side. And no, KOing them isn't going to change their statements, so don't even think about it."
"Alright, if you're so damn good, how come you haven't booted me yet?"
"Because I'm still trying to figure out who you are." Light's eyes were darting across his own personal screen now, browsing his own code. "If I boot you off, you can just go torment some other non-hostiles or newbies. We can't have that."
"That does it!" The man stomped his foot, making Light look away from his code, prepared for another attack. However, the hacker put his hand up to his temple and raised a hand toward Light. "CMD\InitiateHackIRL!"
"What the fu—" Witty started, but the hacker was already launching himself at Light before he could hear the rest.
The flurry of blows the man hurled at Light wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting, but it was something he could keep up with. There were certainly advantages to being a skilled player, after all. At this point, though, the hacker was merely taking out his frustrations. His Drain Hack had deactivated long ago, and Light's Regen Hack had already restored his health to 100%. Even if he took a hit or two, his health would go back up in no time. Now it was just a matter of wearing the guy out so he let his guard down just long enough for Light to find his user information and report him…
Light made a small misstep and had his weapon arm thrown back by a particularly hard hit form the hacker. He brought up his free arm, ready to block his core from taking the brunt of the damage. When the gunblade mod struck his arm, he expected the usual dull pain sensation simulated by the GameOVR headset. What he received was about a thousand times more excruciating, making him cry out and fall backwards.
The burning pain in his arm was unlike anything he'd ever felt. It was like he had quite literally taken the full force of that weapon slicing his arm, and though there was no blood in KHO, he could almost feel a warm liquid running down from the place he'd been struck. It had been enough to disorient him for a second, but only just.
The man had taken too much pleasure in landing a hit, and had given Light far too much time to recover. Light rolled to the side to avoid the hacker's next strike, and he stood in the same, fluid motion. Spinning around, Light's Keyblade connected with the man's back, hitting him hard and knocking him to the ground. He sputtered, rolling into the sand. Light didn't give him a chance to even blink before he had planted a foot on his weapon arm, and pointed the Keyblade in his face.
"Profile info. Now," he demanded. The man struggled, but eventually found that no amount of resistance was going to save him now.
"CMD\Disengage," he muttered quietly, then a username flickered over his head. Belfix, it read.
"Belfix, huh?" Light mused. "No numbers or special characters? You must be an original. Dang, what a shame you're about to lose everything."
"The report's already been sent," Scat said from above, still hanging out in the treehouse with Ito and Midnight. "The moderators should be here any second."
"So what was that CMD nonsense?" Light asked, digging his foot a little harder onto Belfix's arm, making him cringe.
"The CMD nonsense?" Witty repeated. "What about you?! What about your hacking nonsense, period!?"
"Isn't hacking grounds for permanent banning?" Midnight chirped quietly.
"Only if you get caught," Belfix mumbled. "So congrats man, you got me, but you got yourself, too."
"This is a private server," Light replied. "No footage, but you've got five reports on you for entering a private server uninvited, which is very obviously hacking. And you've got nothing on me."
"Except four witnesses."
Light looked up at his friends. He had to admit, they were all looking at him very differently. His face fell, but only for a moment.
"They're my friends," he said. "I think they'll understand."
"For now," Belfix said, and there was a hum as someone entered the server.
Standing on the other end of the beach was perhaps the most gorgeous Kairi cosplay avatar Light had ever seen. Rendered in meticulous detail, down to each strand of hair, the Kairi came towards them, her eyes locked on Belfix. Gold text hovered above her head, reading [Moderator] Kairi. Light very suddenly felt like he had just taken another Belfix attack to the gut.
"Belfix?" she asked, looking at him. He seemed to freeze at her voice. "We've been looking for you for a while."
"Glad to hear I'm so wanted by you, Miss," he snorted. "Perhaps we can talk it out."
"Perhaps not." Kairi turned her gaze to Light. "Step back, HeartOfLight."
Light was so surprised to hear her say his username in the most perfect Hayden Panetierre impression he'd ever heard that he almost didn't register the words she'd actually said. She raised a brow at him and then it hit, and he quickly jumped back.
Kairi summoned her Keyblade and a light shined from its tip, then enveloped Belfix as he stood.
"No, wait!" he exclaimed. "I can explain! It was… this kid! He made it look I was hacking this whole time! I was just—"
He was gone before he could even finish. Slowly, Scat, Ito, and Midnight came down from the treehouse and joined Witty and Light's side. They all appeared a bit dumbstruck, but Kairi simply flipped her hair over her shoulder and dismissed her Keyblade. She took a deep breath, then turned back to them.
"Sorry about him," she said, her tone much softer now, and even her expression had become kinder as she looked them over. "That was Belfix, one of KHO's most wanted hackers. I'm glad you all seem to be okay. Did he KO anyone? We can restore their inventory and levels if we're lucky."
"Nope!" Midnight beamed. "Light took care of him before he could do that!"
Light must have turned a little pink, because Witty snorted.
"Is that so?" Kairi said, turning her eyes to Light. She looked him up and down slowly, and he had to do a mental check to make sure he wasn't in his underwear or something otherwise embarrassing. "HeartOfLight… you defeated him on your own?"
"I mean, Witty here helped—" Light started.
"Oh no, don't think you can put this off on me," Witty interrupted. "That guy did a Freezer Hack or whatever you called it on me two seconds into the fight. If it weren't for you, I'd be back at Level 1 right now."
Kairi's eyes never left Light.
"So you single-handedly apprehended Belfix?" she repeated.
"I… er… guess so…" Light's voice was very tiny.
"Impressive." But she didn't sound impressive. She sounded passive, at best. At worst, almost cold. "HeartOfLight, I'd like for you to come with me."
She turned quicky and opened a hand in front of her. A portal appeared, shining white like a giant star. She turned back to Light and clasped her hands behind her back.
"Well, go on," she said.
"Uh, actually, I think I need to log off," Light stammered. "My parents are—"
"HeartOfLight, I insist."
Light glanced at his friends from the corner of his eyes. Their faces were a mixture of excitement and concern.
"O-Of course," Light managed, then dismissed his Keyblade and stepped forward. He walked into the light, letting its warmth envelope him, abundantly aware that Moderator Kairi was right behind him.