CHAPTER 1
~ Unconventional Warfare ~
On the outside, the tall, rocky mountain looked perfectly normal. It was a bit larger than most mountains in Japan, but other than the occasional falling rock, it was generally peaceful on the surface.
Deep within the side of the mountain, however, it was another story entirely. Black-cloaked men and women of all shapes and sizes scurried about in hallways carved out of the ancient mountain rock, chattering back and forth as they went. Somewhere even further down in the mountain, an alarm began to sound. Despite its silent outer layer, the home base of the group known as Organization XIII was total chaos on the inside.
In one particular hallway, several members were running along with their hoods down, talking amongst themselves as they went. A young woman with long, dark hair and rather large breasts was in the front, followed closely by a child wearing a cowboy hat.
"That was another Fangirl alarm..."
"Another one already!? Those guys who got sent out on the last one aren't even back yet!"
A short and pudgy man with an afro, waddling along a few feet behind the other two and struggling to keep up, cursed loudly.
"Dammit, that's the fourth one today!"
Everyone else in the hall probably would have turned to look at him, if they weren't too busy rushing around trying to figure out what was going on.
"That means they're probably gonna start sending guys like us out pretty soon," the fat man grumbled, "This can't possibly get any worse!"
The three cloaked people suddenly skidded to a halt as a man twice their size stepped into the hallway from one of the nearby rooms. He turned to face them, and held up his hands slightly, motioning for them to stop.
"It wouldn't be wise to say such a thing," the huge man said, his deep voice echoing slightly in the hallway.
"Lexaeus?", the dark-haired girl asked, "What's going on?"
The huge man said nothing; he only stepped aside, motioning for the other three to go into the room he had just come from. They all nodded, and quickly followed his directions, filing into the room. One wall of the room was almost completely covered by a network of technology, with multiple screens all connected to a series of futuristic-looking computer towers. There were three chairs in front of the computer system, but only one was occupied--a tiny, pale-skinned girl, barely visible from behind the chair, just sat and stared blankly at the screen in front of her.
"Naminé... these three would like to see what's going on."
The little girl looked at Lexaeus for a second, then nodded and turned back toward the computer. She typed a series of commands into the keyboard, going slowly and carefully to avoid making any mistakes.
"Dammit, where's Zagan when ya need him?", the fat man blurted out, apparently annoyed at how long Naminé was taking to set up the computer. "When that guy's in here, he types so fast ya can hardly see his fingers movin'!"
"He had to go to the bathroom," Naminé said, barely above a whisper. "He asked me to operate the Fangirl Detection System for him while he was gone."
After a few more seconds, the little girl finished what she was doing, and four different maps popped up on the largest screen. Each map was splattered with bright pink dots, signifying recent Fangirl activity; in three of the four, those pink dots were joined by silvery-colored markings that showed the current positions of all the Organization XIII members who had been sent out to deal with the infestations.
On one of the maps, the pink dots were rapidly fading away. The silver marks were advancing to the west, heading toward one last cluster of Fangirls that had splintered off from the main group. The second and third maps, however, were still covered in a pink fuzz whose outer layers were only beginning to be chipped away. On the fourth map, where no Organization members were present, the pink mass had spread out and covered up an area approximately the size of a large building.
Naminé pushed another button, and labels flashed into existence above each of the silver marks symbolizing Organization members. On the first map, where the Fangirls were almost cleared out, three of the marks were now accompanied by the Roman numerals "II," "III," and "X." The second map's silver marks were topped off by Roman numerals as well--"VII," "XI," and "XII." And on the third map, where the Fangirl swarm had barely been touched, a final trio of numbers appeared: "VI," "VIII," and "IX."
Along with the numbered marks, each screen had several with small pictures instead of numbers. These symbolized those members of the Organization who, like Naminé and the other three who had gathered in the computer room, did not have any ranking within the group--that is, anyone other than the top thirteen officials.
"Hmm... it looks like most of the stronger fighters are already out there," the dark-haired girl mumbled as she scanned the four maps on the screen.
She turned toward Lexaeus for a second, then continued.
"Other than you, and Xemnas himself... there's not really anyone left who could take out a whole swarm..."
"You forgot Roxas again," the kid in the cowboy hat noted. Lexaeus nodded and smiled slightly--and though both of them had missed the fact that Vexen was still around as well, he didn't mention it.
"I dunno, Banbu," the fat man said, "You really think Samurai Kid can take out a whole swarm by himself?"
"Well, uh... who says he's gotta go by himself?"
"Hmm... Banbu may have a point."
Lexaeus simply sat back and watched as the three younger members argued back and forth. Just by their words and actions, he could tell which one of the higher-ranking members had trained them. Banbu, the youngest member in the entire Organization, seemed to have inherited Axel's friendship with Roxas... as well as his tendency to jump into things without thinking them through first. The portly Tundo had become a surprisingly powerful fighter under Xaldin's watch, and had also picked up a few of the hairy elf's bad habits: worrying a bit too much about what could happen, and cracking jokes just a bit too often. Not to mention his atrocious table manners. And finally, Vi--the calm, dark-haired girl, who always paid attention to the available facts and spent a lot of time--perhaps even a bit too much time--thinking things over before making any final decisions... it was clear that Lexaeus had trained her himself.
They're growing up fast, he thought, just barely cracking a smile once again.
"Xigbar, Xaldin, and Luxord should be coming back soon," Naminé said, causing the others to suddenly stop arguing and pay attention to the screen. All but a few of the pink dots on the first map had vanished, and the silver marks of the Organization had gathered toward the center of the area.
"Naminé... send the van out to pick them up," Lexaeus said, turning away from the girl at the computers and facing the other three. "Vi, Tundo, and Banbu... follow me."
Outside of the base, the mountain rumbled for a few seconds before a large slab of rock suddenly shifted, revealing a tunnel that went deep beneath the surface of the mountainside. Hardly a second passed before a bizarre vehicle (which looked a lot like a Volkswagen van) came rocketing out of the tunnel, flying through the air for a few moments before flashing with energy and disappearing off into the distance.
Minutes later, the van flashed into existence once again--this time packed full of black-cloaked passengers, with Luxord sitting in the driver's seat. The gambler's favorite pair of fuzzy dice, which were clearly not there when the van left the base, had already found their way onto the rear-view mirror.
The van flew into the base and rolled along the tunnel, slowing down as it went. Eventually it came to a complete stop, and all of its doors slowly began to swing open, its occupants still sore from their latest battle and not moving quite as quickly as they could.
Xigbar hopped out of the passenger's-side window, slowing his fall using his gravity-defying powers before limping off toward the main hallway of the base. He was soon followed by Xaldin and Luxord, both of which had several visible burns and slashes in their cloaks. The handful of lower-ranking members stood around the van for a few minutes, talking a little and examining each other's wounds, before they slowly began to shuffle away in the same direction as their superior officers.
The worn-out group was nearly bowled over by Roxas and Banbu as they came rushing into the tunnel where the Dimensional Hippievan was waiting. Vi and Tundo came into the room afterward, waiting for the returning members to get out of the way first before running to catch up with the two younger boys. Finally, Lexaeus walked into the tunnel, briefly talking to Luxord about the results of the mission before heading over toward the van.
"Hey, Lexaeus, you're coming too?"
"That's right," he answered. "The base should be safe enough without me, now that Xigbar, Xaldin, and Luxord have returned."
Lexaeus squeezed himself into the van, taking the driver's seat--as he, after all, was the only one of them who had any experience operating the Dimensional Hippievan. Vi and Tundo climbed into the side door and quickly moved into the back seats, while Roxas and Banbu each sat down in one of the two seats in the middle.
"Now," Lexaeus said, addressing the other members of his team, "This mission will be a first for all of you... a real Fangirl swarm."
"I want all of you to be careful--we don't know for sure what these Fangirls are capable of." He glanced back at Banbu for a few seconds.
"If, at any time, you feel that you won't be able to continue fighting," he continued, "Yell for help."
Tundo snickered, then quickly quieted down when he noticed that Lexaeus was now staring directly at him.
"I'm serious," the huge man said, looking away from Tundo. "If any of you reach a point in the mission where you are unable to fight, call on me. Don't try to fight beyond your limit."
Once everyone had put on their seatbelts, Lexaeus turned back toward the front windshield and started the van. At first, it shook and made a lot of noise like most vehicles, but then Lexaeus pressed another button on the van's control panel and everything changed.
First, the van began to roll forward slowly. With every second that passed, its speed increased; Tundo, Banbu, and Roxas's eyes all went wide with fear as the van suddenly broke the sound barrier and went speeding toward the light at the end of the tunnel. Vi, being a bit more calm than the others, simply latched tightly onto her seat and braced herself for the flight.
The van came flying out of the mountain at last, launching off into the air and going even faster than before. Finally, Lexaeus reached down and pressed another button. A beam of energy was projected from some device on top of the van, tearing open a portal in the air that rapidly expanded so that the bulky vehicle could fit through. Once the entirety of the van had passed through the portal, it closed up with a flash of energy, and it appeared that the van had completely vanished.
Instead, it was now hurtling through a bizarre space beyond the portal, with swirling colors all around it. Shapes of cities and landmarks below would occasionally flicker into existence, only to vanish again in a matter of seconds. Just when the younger members had finally gotten used to the strange void, the van passed through another portal and they found themselves back in normal space once again.
The van rolled to a stop just short of a cracked, yellow curb. They had landed in a parking lot, just a few yards in front of a massive, dome-roofed building that looked like it was probably used for concerts or conventions--both of which tended to attract large numbers of Fangirls.
"We're here," Lexaeus said, opening the driver's-side door of the van and letting it swing open. "From what the map showed, it seems that the Fangirl swarm is somewhere within that building."
The younger members unbuckled their seatbelts and hopped out of the van's side door, each of them summoning their weapons as they went. Two Japanese-style swords, one blade black and the other white, simultaneously flashed into existence in Roxas's hands. A streak of purplish-black energy swirled around one of Vi's hands before forming into the shape of a long paintbrush with a sharp-looking point on one end. Banbu held out his left hand, and thin streams of golden light seemed to drip from his fingers for a few seconds before solidifying into a yo-yo emblazoned with the Organization's symbol. And finally, a sphere of yellow-orange energy surrounded Tundo's raised hands with a deafening rush of sound, becoming progressively quieter as it condensed into an enormous hammer.
"I'll get the door."
Lexaeus raised his right hand toward the closest entrance and lowered his head slightly, seemingly concentrating on something. The ground in front of the door shifted and cracked, rattling all of the nearby doors and windows. The huge man closed his hand into a fist, and a slab of concrete uprooted itself from the sidewalk; when he thrust his hand forward, the chunk of sidewalk propelled itself into the door, instantly knocking it off of its hinges and sending it flying off into one of the interior walls of the building.
A chorus of strange, distorted-sounding squeals erupted from somewhere further into the building. Roxas grunted and paused in the middle of a step, his eyes widening slightly--he recognized those sounds. They were the voices of Fangirls.
"Those sounds you hear are Fangirls... you've heard them before, haven't you?"
Lexaeus glanced around to each of the younger Organization members, then nodded and took a small step toward the open door.
"Of course, all of you have... otherwise you would have never joined Organization XIII."
The giant of a man now summoned his weapon as well, reaching out his hand as if grabbing on to something just barely out of reach. Wisps of dark, reddish-orange energy surged up around his body for a moment, then encircled his arm; there was a bright flash, and the reddish energy was gone, replaced by a truly massive weapon with a black, axe-like blade. He hoisted his tomahawk up onto his shoulder, then began to give out orders to each of the other members of his team.
"Tundo and Vi, go in through the front door. Roxas and Banbu, jump up to the second floor and clear out any Fangirls you find," he said, using his free hand to point toward various parts of the building. "I will stay on this side and fight off any Fangirls who come to investigate all the noise."
Roxas and Banbu slipped through an open window, almost silently entering the second floor of the building. While they could hear the squeals of Fangirls in the distance, there didn't appear to be any in the immediate area. In fact, there didn't appear to be anyone on the second floor...
The two kids heard small footsteps coming from around the next corner, and both of them froze in place. There were no Fangirlish voices to be heard, but that wasn't always an indication that none of the creatures were present--some of them were much more intelligent than others, and a few types even had the power to disguise themselves as normal humans.
After a few minutes, the footsteps finally reached the corner. Their source was not a Fangirl, but a young boy--probably no older than Roxas was, with a number of clawmark-shaped cuts in his shirt and some bleeding gashes beneath it. He appeared to have difficulty walking, and though he was barely ten feet away from them, he hadn't yet noticed the presence of the two Organization members.
"Whoa," Roxas said, lowering his weapons. "What happened to you? What're you doing here?"
The kid staggered slightly, grabbing onto the wall to keep himself from falling. He looked up at Roxas and Banbu, apparently not shocked at all by their odd clothes or the fact that they were carrying weapons.
"Wha... who're you guys supposed to be?", the kid muttered, "Some kind of weird Final Fantasy fan-characters? Those prop weapons look awful..."
The two cloaked boys stared at the injured kid for a second before remembering that the Organization and its activities were not well known to the general public. Only the highest levels of government in a handful of countries knew for sure that they even existed, and even they didn't know much beyond the basics.
"Uh, no, we're... uh... Organization XIII."
"Organization who? Never heard of it."
"Forget it," Roxas groaned. "Anyway, what happened to you? How'd you get all those nasty scrapes?"
The kid glanced down at his stomach, where one of the Fangirls' claws had shredded through his shirt and cut into the skin underneath. The wound had soaked the lower half of his shirt in blood, though the bleeding seemed to be slowing down a bit now.
"My girlfriend... we were walking around downstairs," he said, "That is, until she just stopped walking, and changed into this weird... thing..."
He sat down next to the wall, apparently too tired to stand anymore, then continued.
"And then my sister... she turned into another one of 'em... and they both chased me down one of the hallways."
"Hmm," Banbu said, spinning his yo-yo up and down in his hand as he listened to the other kid's story. "So... how did you manage to get away?"
"Well, I, uh... I had a Sephiroth sword made of duct tape, but then I dropped it, and... well, I jumped into an elevator and came up here."
From around the next corner, there was a quiet "ding!" and the sound of an elevator door sliding open. Almost immediately, Fangirlish squeals filled the second-floor hallway.
"Stay here," Roxas said, readying his twin katanas as he ran past the injured boy, "We'll make sure no more of those things get to you."
Back down on the first floor, Vi and Tundo had just walked through the front door. Unlike the one that Lexaeus had forced open earlier, the building's main entrance was not locked; this meant that the two were able to pass through without making much noise or alerting the Fangirls to their presence.
The two slowly began to walk through the front halls of the building, stopping just in front of a set of double-doors leading into a huge room. Inside, there were tables set up all over, with merchandise from various anime series set up on top of them. Costumes--well, mostly just pieces of costumes--and fake weapons littered the floor. Strange music, apparently in Japanese, was playing from the one speaker left intact; the other three speakers were lying on the floor in pieces, most likely either destroyed by the Fangirls or knocked over by other people in their rush to get out of the room. Several big-screen televisions were set up on a few of the tables, but none showed anything other than plain blue screens or black-and-white fuzz.
"Looks like we're too late," Vi whispered. "The Fangirls must have left this room when they heard Lexaeus make his entrance."
"Nah, there's no way they could've all cleared out that fast," Tundo said, looking around at the tables as he passed them. "There's gotta be a few of 'em still hanging around here somewhere!"
The dark-haired girl turned toward Tundo, planning to tell him to keep his voice down. Before she could say a word, however, a humanoid shape suddenly appeared behind the fat man, crawling out from underneath one of the tables and then standing up to its full height. It raised up one of its clawed hands, and a red glow began to form around its fingertips...
"Tundo! DUCK!!"
Vi leaped out of the way, knocking several volumes of manga off of a table as she went tumbling to the floor. Tundo ducked as quickly as possible, but it was not quite fast enough--a ball of flame burst forth from the Fangirl's hand and whizzed over his head, causing the top of his afro to catch fire.
The fat man stood back up, lightly patting his hair with his hammer until the flames were extinguished. He then turned to face the Fangirl that had almost pulled off a surprise attack on him.
"Oh yeah, I know what this is," he said, brandishing his hammer, "This here is a Flamer Fangirl... not too bright, but they're supposed to be pretty nasty fighters."
"You've got a few things in common," Vi mumbled, just barely loud enough to be heard.
The Fangirl charged, but before it could reach its tubby opponent, it was sent flying by a powerful side-swing of his hammer. Tundo got a running start and hopped over several tables, moving with surprising agility for his size and closing the distance between himself and the Fangirl before it had managed to stand up. He swung his hammer down, planning to smash the Fangirl with one powerful blow, but the creature rolled out of the way. Tundo's attack only managed to smash a few of the floor tiles, leaving a small crater behind and generating a shockwave that knocked some papers off of the tables nearby.
Tundo readied his hammer as the Fangirl rushed at him once again, but instead of attacking, it stopped for a moment before jumping high into the air above him. He swung his hammer wildly in an attempt to swat the creature out of the sky, but all of his strikes missed; the heavy weapon was just too slow to catch the Fangirl before it was out of his reach.
"I'll handle this one," Vi said, raising up her paintbrush and making some squiggly motions in midair. A dark purple fog began to form in the air above Tundo, and by the time the Fangirl had noticed, it was already coming back down too quickly to change direction. The purple fog suddenly darkened even further and solidified, creating what looked like a pitch-black trampoline that hovered in the air several feet above the top of Tundo's head.
Sprrrroing!! The Fangirl collided with the black trampoline feet-first, causing it to launch back upward with incredible speed. The creature's head smashed through the ceiling, knocking loose chunks of plaster which rained down on the room below. After a few seconds, it stopped moving and began to glow with a strange, greenish light before shattering into what appeared to be fragments of computer code.
The flurry of transparent zeros and ones filled the air for a moment before disintegrating away into nothing, leaving behind no trace of the Fangirl's existence.
Lexaeus stood perfectly still in front of the open doorframe, listening to the Fangirlish squeals in the distance as they came closer and closer to his position. He had not yet heard the sounds of combat from the other sections of the building--which meant that the majority of the Fangirl swarm was likely headed toward him.
He readied his tomahawk as the sounds of Fangirl footsteps reached his ears, stepping away from the door slightly and facing the corner of the hall where the swarm would soon arrive. Hardly a minute passed before the first wave came into view--a group of the common Glomper Fangirls, who used their elongated arms to latch onto their victims and drain away their energy.
"Hello," he said to the group as they stopped running and turned to face him for the first time. "I've been waiting for you."
The Glompers made faces of disgust, their dot-like eyes shifting into the shape of the letter "X" and their mouths contorting to resemble the letter "P." It was a well-known fact that, among Fangirls, Lexaeus was perhaps the least-liked member of the Organization. You see, Fangirls tend to be incredibly shallow creatures, and appearance has never exactly been one of Lexaeus's strong points.
"Ewww, it's that big oaf Lexaeus!", one of them shrieked, waving its abnormally long arms in the air.
"Darn! I wanted Axel or Zexion instead!"
"Or Marluxia, hee hee!"
Lexaeus smiled and raised his hand toward the vile creatures, preparing to flatten the lot of them with a single attack.
"Oh, I'm afraid Marluxia wouldn't be interested," he said, using his power over rocks to lift the crumbling slab of concrete once again. The Fangirls' faces twisted into looks of anger for just a second before they were all smashed against the wall by the flying chunk of sidewalk. Bright green light flooded the hallway, and then the Fangirls were no more.
Roxas stopped in the middle of the hallway and stared. He found himself faced with at least a dozen Fangirls, all squealing and shoving past each other in a mad dash to get out of the elevator and continue their chase.
"Hey, Banbu!", he called back toward his younger friend, "I think I might need a little help over here!"
Before any help could arrive, the Fangirls began their assault. A Flamer Fangirl, resembling a young girl with red hair tied back in a ponytail, thrust both of its clawed hands forward and sent a blast of fire in Roxas's direction. Roxas dodged and intercepted the attack with his twin katanas, slicing through the fireball so that it exploded harmlessly in midair rather than hitting the wall and catching fire to the building around them.
Two more Fangirls, this time of the Glomper variety, ran in a zig-zagging pattern toward the young warrior, jumping to tackle him at the last second with their arms outstretched. He hit the floor and rolled out of the way, causing the two Fangirls to collide in midair and become tangled up in each other's arms. Roxas jumped back to his feet and delivered a double slash to the Fangirls' midsections, ensuring that they wouldn't get another chance to grab at him--they glowed with green light for a second, then shattered and dissolved away.
Roxas failed to notice the presence of a third Glomper, which had somehow snuck behind him while he was concentrating on the first two, until it was too late. The Fangirl's arms entered his view for a split-second before clamping down around his chest, pinning his own arms down and preventing him from using his weapons.
"Arggh!"
He felt his power begin to drain away as the Fangirl tightened its grip, squealing and giggling all the while. Just when he thought he was starting to pass out, there was a loud thwack! and the Fangirl's grip instantly loosened.
Banbu tugged the string of his yo-yo, causing it to return to his hand so quickly that its movement could barely be seen. The Fangirl, now with a large, red welt on the side of its face, went flying into the wall and collapsed upon impact.
The creature struggled to stand up, digging its claws into the wall in order to regain its balance. Just as the third Glomper turned to face its newest opponent, Banbu's yo-yo came flying in again, smacking it right between the eyes and knocking it out cold. The youngest member of the Organization walked over to the unconscious Fangirl and slammed his weapon down into the back of the creature's neck, killing it almost instantly.
"And stay down, this time!"
Roxas slumped to his knees as the Fangirl flashed and shattered, jabbing his twin swords into the floor to keep himself from falling even further. He was now breathing heavily--the Fangirl had drained his energy much faster than he had expected.
"Don't let those things touch you," he gasped in between breaths, glancing back and forth between Banbu and the remaining Fangirls. "You're too young... there's no way your body'd be able to handle an energy-draining attack like that."
Banbu shrugged slightly, paying more attention to the Fangirls than to Roxas.
"Don't worry about it," he said, swinging his yo-yo at the nearest group of Fangirls so that they would back away to avoid it, "It's not like I'm planning on getting in close to 'em or anything."
The younger boy continued swinging his weapon around at the Fangirls, backing them further and further away from the corner of the hallway where Roxas was standing. Somehow, the swarm had managed to avoid all of his attacks, but fortunately they were all too busy dodging to get in any attacks of their own.
Back at the corner of the hall, Roxas finally stood up and pulled his swords out of the floor.
"You're not even hitting them," he grumbled, watching as Banbu continued his flurry of attacks on the Fangirls.
"Yeah, I know," Banbu yelled. Pausing briefly between attacks, he turned back toward Roxas for a second and pointed up at the ceiling above the Fangirls.
Roxas ran to catch up with the boy and stared at the ceiling for a second, then got a confused look on his face.
"Huh? What were you pointing at? There's nothing there!"
"Not yet," Banbu said in between swings. "You're the one with the swords--carve open a sunroof for me!"
"A sunroof? You've gotta be..."
Roxas stopped in mid-sentence, suddenly remembering something that Axel had mentioned before.
"That Banbu kid? His power works a lot like Saix's. Doesn't seem all that tough at first, but once even a little bit of sunlight touches his weapon... watch out."
Tundo and Vi wandered across the mostly-empty convention center, occasionally shoving tables aside in order to clear a path. Apparently, the chaos caused by the Fangirl outbreak had scared off all of the other convention-goers; the two were unable to find even a single person, living or dead, among the rows of tables.
"Think it's about time to go check another room?", Tundo asked, resting his hammer on one shoulder while he scratched his head.
Vi nodded, and pointed toward a door on the far side of the room that had been knocked off of its hinges and was covered in strange clawmarks.
"They may have moved on by now," she said, "But it looks like some of the Fangirls went that way."
Tundo shoved a big-screen TV out of the way and made a beeline for the door, not really paying much attention to anything in his way. Several times, he stubbed his toes on boxes and action figures that had fallen to the floor during the Fangirl attack; once, he almost tripped over an especially large toy robot.
"Dammit, who the hell left that thing there!?"
"Someone probably threw it at the Fangirls on the way out," Vi mumbled, glancing at what was left of the plastic robot after Tundo had nearly fallen on top of it. "Just watch where you're going... there's probably a lot more stuff like that lying around."
Eventually, after several more giant-robot accidents were narrowly avoided, the two Organization members reached the open door on the other side of the room. Vi peeked around the corner, then waved to Tundo, signifying that the hall outside seemed to be clear of Fangirls. Tundo bumped her out of the way and waddled through the door to take a look for himself.
"Hmm... yep, you're right. No Fangirls here."
Suddenly, there was a series of loud crashing sounds from the other side of the building, followed by the angry screams of dozens of Fangirls. Vi looked back across the room they had just left, but couldn't see anything--the door on the other side of the room was still closed.
"They must be concentrating on Lexaeus..."
"Heh, too bad for them," Tundo chuckled. "I don't think I've everseen a Fangirl that could take a hit from Lexaeus."
A light breeze began to blow through the hallway, and Tundo stretched his arms, yawned, and leaned his hammer up against the wall. The breeze became stronger, and immediately Vi noticed something fishy about it.
"Tundo... don't let your guard down," she said, pinching one of his arms to snap him back to attention. "There weren't any doors or windows open on this end of the building when we came in."
Three waves of Glomper Fangirls had come forward to attack Lexaeus, and each group had ended up the same way--smashed against a wall by the slab of uprooted sidewalk concrete and instantly destroyed. Now, the concrete was beginning to break into smaller pieces, and there were still dozens of Fangirls remaining in the hallway.
Three Glompers jumped toward Lexaeus while another group began to circle around behind him, planning to attack from all sides to throw their opponent off balance. As expected, their plan failed spectacularly--just as the Fangirls were about to reach him, Lexaeus flexed his muscles and grunted, causing a wave of reddish-orange energy to flare up around him. The Fangirls were sent flying off in all directions, smashing into the walls and splattering into a shower of green light and computer code. The floor of the building shook for a few seconds afterward, forcing the remaining Fangirls to stop moving in order to keep themselves from falling over.
Lexaeus lifted his hand and aimed it toward the group of Fangirls filling the hallway, then quickly swung it to the side. The pieces of concrete that littered the floor rose up, then went flying down the hallway, ricocheting off the walls as they went. One fragment smashed into a Fangirl, then bounced off the wall and collided with a second one, crushing them both. A flurry of small pieces struck some of the creatures in the head, knocking them to the floor where they were soon trampled by their fellow Fangirls. When the concrete finally settled, nearly half of them were gone.
The huge man raised his tomahawk and stepped forward, preparing to finish off the last remaining Fangirls with his weapon in order to avoid causing any more unnecessary damage to the building around them. He was within three feet of the swarm when he noticed that something in the air had changed. An odd breeze had begun to blow through the hallway, and the Fangirls suddenly stopped moving and turned away from Lexaeus.
For several seconds, the creatures remained silent and unmoving, as if listening for some far-off sound that only they could hear. Lexaeus took another step toward them, and was amazed to find that even the Fangirls closest to him didn't react to his presence.
"What is this...?"
Slowly, the Fangirls began moving again, talking amongst themselves so quickly that Lexaeus was unable to make out any words. Finally, one of them turned back toward the Organization member and spoke up.
"Hee hee... we're taking a break, silly!", the creature giggled. "Our boss just arrived to finish this job for us, so we're done for today."
Lexaeus prepared to swing his weapon down on the Fangirl, but stopped in mid-swing when he noticed that a computer at the end of the hallway had turned on. He had seen this happen many times before--it was the way the Fangirls traveled, and how they could escape from the scene of a battle so quickly. By passing through the Internet itself, they became able to hop from one computer to another, teleporting halfway across the world in a matter of seconds.
One by one, all of the Fangirls were pulled into the computer's screen, which was filled by a bizarre, swirling pattern of pinks, whites, and reds that a computer as old as this one should not have been capable of displaying. Once they had all vanished into the depths of the Internet, the spiral pattern faded away, and the computer instantly shut down.
Lexaeus dematerialized his weapon, then slowly walked over to the computer, watching its screen for any signs of further Fangirl activity as he went. He crouched down next to the machine and carefully disconnected its power supply cord from the wall, ensuring that no more Fangirls would be coming through the Internet... at least for a little while.
While Banbu continued to swing away wildly at the Fangirls, Roxas went to work on the ceiling. He jumped up and jabbed one sword into it for support, then immediately began hacking away with the other, cleaving a good-sized chunk out of the wood and plaster above him. As the chopped-up portion of the ceiling began to creak and give way, Roxas dropped to the floor and rolled to the side just in time to avoid the falling debris.
Light flooded into the room through the makeshift sunroof, illuminating every last bit of plaster dust that filled the air. When the clouds of dust faded, Roxas and Banbu were standing side-by-side in front of the Fangirls, who were still wiping the dust out of their eyes and squealing angrily.
Banbu raised his yo-yo into the air, revealing that its shape had changed slightly--the string of golden energy that connected it to his hand was now a chain, with each link shaped like the spikes of the Organization's symbol. The symbol on the yo-yo itself had begun to glow slightly, and a faint aura now surrounded the entire weapon.
The Fangirls' faces shifted into expressions of anger, and they began to charge at the two boys. Banbu swung his yo-yo at the nearest one, smacking it in the jaw and sending it flying backward. A shockwave erupted from the point of impact, knocking two more Fangirls aside; before they were able to recover, they were sliced in half by Roxas' twin blades.
Another Glomper Fangirl stood up behind Roxas, but before it could latch onto him, a chain of energy whipped around its midsection and pulled it away. Banbu punched the creature in the face, then jumped up and kicked it in the chest with both feet, sending it spinning across the hallway and crashing to the floor. Another blow from the boy's yo-yo finished off the Fangirl, illuminating the hallway with an odd greenish-yellow light as the sun's rays and the green flash from the Fangirl's death mixed together.
The two cloaked boys backed away from the Fangirls for a second to catch their breath, readying their weapons for another wave of Fangirl assaults. However, the attack never came--instead, a light breeze drifted into the room, and the Fangirls seemed to freeze in place, staring off in some random direction and completely ignoring Roxas and Banbu.
On the other end of the hall, the wounded boy was sitting down and fiddling with a laptop computer. He nearly threw the computer up in the air when the screen suddenly changed into a rotating spiral of pink; a moment later, when he glanced up and saw Fangirls flying through the air toward him, he panicked and ran off down another hallway, leaving the computer behind. Each of the Fangirls entered the computer's screen and vanished, and then the pink whirlpool faded away, a simple Windows desktop reappearing in its place.
"Uh, Roxas?", Banbu asked, dematerializing his weapon and staring at the laptop as if he had never seen one before in his life. "Has anything like that ever happened before?"
Roxas shrugged as he dematerialized his weapons as well, then walked over to the computer to get a closer look.
"I've never seen it before," he answered, "But Axel did say that these things can travel through the Internet... maybe that's what just happened."
"So they just... ran away? Since when do Fangirls run away?"
"Good question," Roxas mumbled, looking through the computer's files to see if they contained any clues. "Fangirls are supposed to be mindless zombies, pretty much... but these seemed a little different."
"Yeah... I wonder why they all just stopped moving like that?"
Roxas turned off the laptop and closed it, then sat it back down on the floor and turned to face Banbu again.
"They looked almost like they were listening to something," he said, thinking back to the way that the Fangirls all looked off in the same direction and ignored them. "But I couldn't hear anything except for..."
Banbu and Roxas both noticed, at exactly the same moment, the one suspicious thing that they hadn't considered before.
"The wind."
"I closed the window on the way in," Banbu pointed out, "So... there shouldn't be any wind blowing inside the building."
Back down on the first floor, the wind had grown even stronger. Vi's hair was now whipping around all over the place, making it difficult for her to see what was going on. Both of the Organization members' cloaks were flapping around like flags in the wind. Books, papers, and small toys from inside the convention center were being thrown about. Even Tundo's afro was moving--though it was only swaying back and forth a little.
"What the hell is this?"
"I... I don't know!", Vi said, raising her voice slightly for the first time while struggling to keep her hair out of her face. After a few seconds of grappling with the rogue hairs, she yanked all of it back and waved her paintbrush in the air above it, creating a black strip of cloth that tied it all back into a ponytail.
"But whatever it is," she continued, "I'm betting the Fangirls had something to do with it..."
On the other end of the hall, the wind seemed to be condensing into a miniature tornado. The ceiling above it began to crack slightly, and several floor tiles below it went flying off down the hall, forcing Vi and Tundo to jump out of the way to avoid them. The fluorescent lights that lit the hallways, mounted on the ceiling, flickered and went out one by one. And in the center of the swirling winds, two points of red light became visible, slowly revealing themselves... like eyes opening.
"Uh... Vi?", Tundo said, prodding the girl's shoulder with the handle of his hammer. "That sure doesn't look like any Fangirl I've ever seen..."