Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and everything else belongs to Walt Disney and Square-Enix.
The OCs and their alter-ego that appear in this story belong to their respective authors. More information about them are found in the "Original Characters' Intro" chapter.
::KINGDOM HEARTS III Online HD::
-A Hero has Risen-
Kingdom Hearts III - Online HD!!
Your HD Mission:: Infiltrate the Blackhearts' Dominion's Facility. The New XIII is your enemies. They are a group of perfect nobodies and strange villains grouped together on one dead-set mission to collect hearts. You have 2:00 Time Limit.
GO!
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A glass wall on a large glass bridge shattered in million bits, letting in strong winds to blow violently inside. A Keybearer, mounted on a high-speed motor jet made his entrance and with his Keyblade as a gun started firing a rain of energy bullets at a bunch of people who were on the bridge. Gun-wielding soldiers started swarming the bridge to see what was going on to notice the bloodshed happening by the unlikely hero.
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Rian Rivers was glued to his HDTV screen, game controller on hand, and fingers constantly mashing the buttons as he witness the crucial event.
"Yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about, baby!" he exclaimed, controlling the mysterious motor-jet riding Keybearer with his controller, "Massive damages! Major killin' !"
His right hand quickly let go of his controller to push a sync button on his headset, then went back to the game.
"Hey yo! Blazen! You there, man?" he called the other KH player on the other line.
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"Right behind ya, Johnny Boy!" a voice caught the mysterious Keybearer's attention. It was that of another Keyblade player's character Blazen, who was hanging on a rope ladder pulled down by his dashing flying airship, the Sun Flier. It was dark-gold and tricked out with black-and-white graffiti.
"It's Thunder." Johnny, or Thunder as he preferred to be called, corrected Blazen.
"Like I care!" Blazen grinned at him before he raised one arm up toward his Sun Flier and the airship morphed back to his Keyblade. He then separates them and posed with one Keyblade behind his back (like Sora's Valor Form).
SECURITY HAS BEEN BREACHED! MOVE! MOVE! MOOOVE!
More gun-wielding soldiers stormed in the glass bridge and the two Keyblade Masters jumped into action, endlessly delivering blows and blitz of their Keyblade attacks on every soldier. Blazen was quick and fast at knee which was hard for the soldiers to retaliate, while Johnny was well-balanced both in attack and defense, making hitting him difficult as he had the tendency to block every attack he received. The battle felt like it went on for hours!
The two heroes saw more soldiers coming toward them from afar.
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"Aw man! More of them?" Rian complained to his other KH partner.
"Hey! No big deal, Johnny Boy! We can clean them up like dusts off floors!" replied the other KH partner through Rian's headset.
Rian grinned. He knew exactly what his partner was thinking, "Ohh! I know what it's time for?" Rian quickly reached another button on his headset and a translucent dark-red frames covered his eyes.
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Thunder and Blazen pulled up similar frames also. Thunder's frames was from his dark-red sunglasses while Blazen was hovering right by his face. A target sign was displayed on the screen of their frames, blinking and choosing their approaching enemies.
They pointed their Keyblades in front of them, ready for attack and cried, "FOCUS MODE!!"
Thunder's Keyblade shot his targeted enemies mercilessly with more energy bullets, this time bigger than ever, while Blazen engulfed himself in flames, flew up in the air, and started shooting out multiple flames balls at his targeted enemies also. The enemies quickly got overwhelmed. Thunder and Blazen, who returned to his normal form, high-fived.
"Awesome man! That was tight!" Blazen sounded pumped.
"Yeah! Oh and by the way, it's Thunder." Thunder corrected Blazen again.
"Yeah sure, Johnny Boy!" Blazen laughed and flew ahead of Thunder. Thunder followed. But the duo stopped running when a large behemoth crashed in, blocking their path.
"Ohh man!" Blazen freaked out at the size of that thing.
"Ohh crap!" Thunder stuttered.
The Behemoth opened his jaws and let out a ferocious roar.
Thunder and Blazen looked at each other, fully determined.
"You ready man?" Blazen asked.
"I've been ready since first grade!" Thunder grinned and the two Keybearers charged at the Behemoth, delivering their best blows, but only doing slight damages at the Behemoth. The Behemoth raised his feet up in the air and landed on the ground, causing a massive quake and a crescent beam to escape from its paws midair, nailing the Keyblade heroes full-force on their stomach. They went flying to the ground.
They started getting up and they got surprised at the Behemoth charging toward them and tossed his large horns at them. Thunder's body slammed hard on the ceiling before landing on the ground, and Blazen crashed through a glass window, and more winds started to gush in. Blazen held on to the edge of the glass bridge for dear life.
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"HEY! What the hell?!" Rian jumped off his seat at this sudden turn of events.
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The Behemoth roared wildly again as Thunder slowly and painfully got up on his feet and saw his friend in trouble.
"Blazen!" Thunder exclaimed.
"Yo! Watch out!" Blazen warned.
Thunder saw two paws dropping near his head. He nimbly dodge-rolled it. The Behemoth landed another horn thrust to its right. Thunder struck his back hard on a wall near the glass one. Thunder's vision started blurring.
The behemoth wasn't done. He charged toward Thunder, but Thunder dodge-rolled again. The behemoth didn't stop charging. As it reached the wall, he curved into a large ball and rolled around the bridge in pursuit of Thunder.
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"You gotta be kiddin' me!" Rian got at the edge of his seat and urgently started punching out button combos, sweats started pouring down his forehead, and panic grieved his face.
"Blazen! You better do something here!"
"HELLOOOO! WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M TRYING TO DO HERE?!" called out the player who was controlling Blazen on Rian's headset.
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Blazen finally got on his feet, but was standing right at the edge of the bridge. He suddenly watched a fleet of airships flying above Thunder and the Behemoth and shooting massive explosions everywhere.
Thunder with his Keyblade started shooting endlessly at the invincible Behemoth ball that was charging toward him. Before the Behemoth ball got the chance to reach Thunder, a massive explosion pulled them apart. Shards spread out everywhere and Thunder, Blazen, and the Behemoth Ball went flying into the war-infested skies.
"SUN Flier!!" Blazen glowed a ruby colored aura around him and threw his Keyblade up in the air. The Keyblade transformed back into the Sun Flier and the airship zoomed right below the falling Blazen. Blazen landed into the ship right on his pilot seat and piloted the ship toward the falling Thunder. Thunder fell onto a seat right besides Blazen. Thunder looked dazed.
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"You're okay man?" the player on Rian's headset asked.
Rian breathed a sigh of relief as he reclined back to his chair, "Now I am." But then he jumped back again, "WHAT THE--?!"
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The Behemoth uncurled from its ball shape and suddenly spread out wings from his back and went in pursuit of the Sun Flier.
"Target identified! Flying Behemoth. Located at 0.1 mile!" the Sun Flier locator sounded.
"The Behemoth flies?" Thunder exclaimed at the sight of the flying creature.
"I can lose it man!" Blazen shifted gear and the Sun Flier started swinging around the skies. The Behemoth followed in the same fashion.
"I can't believe we're gonna fail the mission!" Thunder shouted.
"We can't fail!" Blazen exclaimed, "Our hearts is at stake he--ahh!"
The Sun Flier suddenly shook up violently. Thunder and Blazen's eyes dilated at the sight of one of the Sun Flier's wing being ripped out of its body. They then spotted the Behemoth flying right besides them. The Behemoth rammed onto the ship.
"AAHH!!" they screamed.
BOOM!!
Another explosion happened. An army of airships got spotted behind them, and a multitude of flying heartless was at their tail. They were surrounded.
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"Shoot! They're too many of them!" The player playing Blazen panicked at yet another sudden turn of events. Rian was back at the edge of his seat, drawn into the adrenaline-rushing action.
"We can't lose man! We can't ---AAAAHHH!!!" Rian gasped and the player playing Blazen screamed at the same time they saw their ship exploding. The wounded Thunder and Blazen began falling, prompting the enemies to went all-out assault on them with a barricade of shots, bombarding them at high-speed, their HP depleted to a drop-dead zero.
***
A startled Rian jumped out. He just woke up from a straight-up high-octane dream. Yes. Everything that happened: Thunder and Blazen infiltrating that facility, battling the Behemoth, Rian panicking with his player in crime on the headset as he was controlling the game… it was all a dream.
But what really made him jumped out of his sleep was that he was making his sleepy noises again… in front of his History Class!
The students stifled their laughter when the history professor approached Rian.
"Mr. Rivers. It looks like you have something interesting to share to the class." he said with a cagey stare, "Care to talk about it?"
Rian looked around the class. All eyes were on him. Many of these eyes were teasing, like the eyes of someone trying to hold back provocative laughter. Rian turned back to his History professor and grinned, "Before I do talk about it sir, how much of that did you hear?"
"Oh, I've heard enough." The history professor smiled back through his thick mustache.
"Then my work here is done."
The class exploded in laughter as the professor's smile vanished from his face. Rian stopped smiling as well, knowing what was coming.
***
"Rian!"
Rian jumped at a girl's sudden voice hiding behind his locker. He closed his locker to see her. She wore a white sweatshirt that said "live for rock", navy jeans, red converses, and gloves that were black and white.
"Taylor!" he called her, "What the--!" he sighed, already knowing why she was here in the first place, "Look, if you're gonna badger me into giving you that sixty bucks for the game, not right now." he pointed his thumb over his shoulder, "I gotta go."
He turned to leave but Taylor stopped him, "Actually, that's not why I'm here f--!" she suddenly paused and gave him a good questionable look. "Wait? You owe me sixty bucks?"
Rian's eyes boggled, "You forgot?"
"No. I just said it to freak you out." she said honestly, "Speaking of game, I heard about class. Dreaming about KH3 Online HD again?"
"Okay, okay, I was dreaming about it and I was battling a Behemoth in there." Rian began, "But in my defense, my battle against it was a way to explore its natural habitat y'know? Simple as that. And since, y'know, we're learning about that mythological creature in History class, I technically got, y'know, participation point!"
"We're learning about the Behemoth in Biology class." Taylor corrected him.
Rian grabbed his sunglasses, wore them, and wrapped his arm around Taylor's shoulder, "Girl, your bro is an outlaw in the school. Just show him some support could ya?" he coolly pointed his fingers at her, clicking with his tongue, before taking off.
Taylor shook her head, smiling before heading out, unknown that something was lurking behind the shadows. It revealed its face. It was a heartless. It sneakily crawled out from beneath the ground and scurried across the emptying hallways into the school's main office.
***
Meanwhile at Disney Castle, Donald once again took another trip to the Audience Chamber.
"Good morning Your Majesty." he said joyfully, "It's nice to see you this morn--!"
… and once again he found the throne was missing its king.
"Aw, come on!!" he quacked. He then looked around the throne room, expecting someone else. But he didn't see anyone. He finally called out, "Uhh… Pluto?"
Pluto appeared from its hiding place. This time he was not carrying a letter on his jaws. He looked like he was sleeping. Donald got really concerned, "Wh-where is the King?"
Pluto cocked his head on one side, looking puzzled. Donald knew that look.
"Ya kiddin' me?" Donald exclaimed, "You don't know where the King is? Aw, that's just great. Great. Great. Great!"
"Woof!" Pluto barked on cue.
"GOOOOOFYYYYYYY!!!" Donald's cry echoed throughout the castle. But Goofy didn't hear a thing. He was sleeping in the courtyard, again.
Donald suddenly teleported in front of Goofy and pointed at him. Goofy started to float telepathically in the air and Donald began swinging wildly his fingers, crying out, "Goofy! Wake up, dang it!"
Goofy twirled wildly above Donald on cue to the duck's swinging finger. Donald had apparently cast a Zero Gravira spell on him.
"WHOOOOAAAAOOHOOHOOHOOHOOOEY!!!"
Donald swung his finger down and Goofy landed on the grassy ground hard. Goofy looked dazed. But that didn't stop Donald to jump on him and shaking him by the colon, "Goofy! Wake up! The King is missing! Again!"
"Uhh… Donald?" Goofy's eyes boggled, "Since when do you have three heads?"
Donald ignored Goofy's question, "Come on! We gotta go find him!"
Donald turned on his heel and was just about to take off but then he stopped to scream at the sight of an uninvited figure that had sneaked up behind him, "QUAAAAACK!!"
"YAAAAHOOOOEY!!" Goofy jumped at the figure's sight also. The figure was clad in a gold and red knight's armor, donning a black cape and wielding a Keyblade. Goofy and Donald immediately recognized him.
"Your King is with me." the knight said.
"Terra?" Donald gasped.
"Hiya, Terra!" Goofy greeted him.
"What's going on here?" Donald demanded, "And why is the King with you?"
"You'll know." Terra replied, "Once I take you to him."
[--- --- ---]
Rian entered the office to attend another grounding meeting with the principal.
"Rian Rivers." the secretary, a 52-year old grunting hag, didn't sound surprised to see the young man again, "Seeing the principal again I presume?"
"Yep." Rian said confidently, and then asked, "Is this gonna go on my personal records? Cuz if it is, I'd love to go in there in style, y'know? Like it should be written in stars, like 'Rian Rivers, Celebrity Outlaw'! Cool and neglectful! Huh?"
He broadly smiled at the secretary, who didn't smile back. She just stared at him blankly. Rian stopped smiling again. "Too cool?"
"The principal will see you in five." the secretary said, turning her eyes back to work.
Rian opened his mouth to speak but the secretary cut him off, her eyes on him again, "And by five, I mean minutes, not hours. Just have a seat."
Rian sat comfortably on his seat, waiting patiently for his turn to see the principal. But then he caught sight of something weird crawling the ceiling. It was the heartless. What was a heartless doing here? Outside KH3 Online HD where it was supposed to be in. He looked around the people in the office to see if they were noticing something weird. They didn't budged. He bewilderedly watched the heartless slipping into the principal's office through the door's narrow hole and stood up alerted.
"Whoa!" he cried out, catching everyone's attention. Rian grinned nervously, "Umm… Heh, heh. C-can I go see him now?"
"He's with another student, Mr. Rivers." the secretary said.
Rian couldn't help it. He had to go through that door to stop that creature bad. "but I just have to get there now. It's… kinda urgent."
"EEEP!!"
Rian heard a scream inside the office, prompting him to burst inside. He caught the principal with a drama student who seemed to be rehearsing her drama scream.
"HEY!" the principal exclaimed, "Mr. Rivers! What are you doing here?"
Rian saw the heartless crawling behind the principal and looked ready to strike.
"Principal Law, look out!" Rian ran, leapt on the table and jumped on the heartless who vanished into thin air. Rian landed right on the Principal. The Drama girl screamed. Everyone in the main office barged inside to stop Rian but it was too late.
Rian and the Principal eyeballed each other. The principal's glare looked like they were about to thrash Rian literally, "What is wrong with you?" the principal growled under his breath.
Rian quickly got up, flushed with embarrassment at what just happened. He didn't know how to explain this as he helped the principal on his feet. The office staffs went to help the principal as well. "Err… I'm so sorry, sir. It just that… I saw something… like a cockroach or something."
"A cockroach? Really?" the principal growled under his breath, sounding unconvinced.
"Well… I… I…" Rian turned to face the staffs and the snobbish girl, "Wait, didn't you all saw that?"
"I only saw myself being tackled to the ground." the principal said and the witnesses agreed.
"But…" Rian stuttered, "it was crawling about everywhere! It was freaky! It was a heartless!"
He stopped talking. Like he shouldn't have said that, acknowledging that everyone in the school, including the principal, knew what a heartless was.
"Have you been playing 'Kingdom Hearts III Online HD' again during school periods?" The principal muttered.
Rian gulped, "Only last summer."
***
"Seriously, a heartless?" Taylor couldn't believe a word coming out of Rian's mouth later that day as the duo were heading home. Taylor was not just one of Rian's best friends, she was a neighbor and a KH player in the KH3 Online HD community. So she also knew pretty much everything about the game.
"Look, I know what I saw." Rian said in protest, "It was crawling up the wall, and dancing about everywhere… like a freaky cockroach. Seriously, have you seen one?"
"Only in trashy restaurants." Taylor reminisced the time she dined at a trashy restaurant. Oh boy, the mental picture wasn't that pretty. She choked at the thought.
"I'm serious." Rian did sound serious.
"Okay, let's say that you did saw a heartless, what then? You're gonna transform into oh, I don't know, Johnny Thunder Keyblade, and battle him till he falls?"
Rian glowed at the thought, "Yes." he pointed at her. Taylor rolled her eyes, but Rian continued, "Yes, yes. That's just what I would do? What would you do? Take a Raid Roach Killer Spray and shoot it till it dies? I don't think so, girlfriend."
"No. But Ooh! I would transform into Soledad and end its life with a blazing Hurricane Fatal Mode!" Taylor grinned at the thought.
Rian rolled his eyes, "Now, let's not get carried away." he said, "And by the way, it's Thunder."
Someone wrapped in a dark hooded robe, similar to Organization XIII, was watching Rian and Taylor closely in a stalking manner. Rian sensed its presence and stopped.
"Wait." he said, "Do you feel that?"
"What?" Taylor blinked.
Rian looked around, "We're being followed." he responded.
Taylor looked around also. She then faced Rian, "Yeah…" she said, "We're being followed all right. By the entire city!"
Rian noticed everyone passing by. Midlight City was a big city, and there were twice as many people passing by each day as a regular metropolitan city. Rian faced Taylor and shrugged, "Hey, look on the bright side, at least you're safe."
"Just face it, Rian." Taylor teased, "You've been playing too many video games."
Taylor then took off.
Rian scoffed, "I'm not playing too many video games. Video games are so not messing with my head." He then headed down a street corner down a narrow alleyway, the secret passageway he passed through every time he heads home. And every time he went down that street, he'll notice this broken mirror, and every time he wouldn't care much for it.
But today, as he passed through, he stopped to stare at his reflection. Shocked to see that what the mirror displayed was not him.
It was Johnny. Johnny Thunder Keyblade.
"What the…?" Rian was staring at the reflection of his KH avatar. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a couple of times to see his actual reflection in the mirror.
"O-Kay. Maybe it is messing with my he… what the?!"
He suddenly saw beaming glowing eyes appearing in the mirror and a large heartless, shaped like a seven-foot human but in a gross manner, pulled out of the mirror and tackled Rian down.
"Ahhh!" Rian landed hard on the ground. He stared right at the menacing heartless and noticed its arms were glowing and it had large claws. The large heartless dug its claw toward Rian. Rian moved his hands toward in an attempt to block and a Keyblade appeared to his grasp. Rian managed to push the heartless off and jumped back on his feet. He stared at the Keyblade he held at his grasp in awe before facing himself surrounded by ten or twenty heartless, with the gruesome one as the chief.
"This can't be…" he stared back and forth at the Keyblade and the creatures.
The heartless without hesitation jumped at him. Rian swung his Keyblade horizontally and a massive thunder jolt crashed on the ground full-force, rending the heartless. Rian went flying like a speeding train and crashed right on the broken mirror and the wall before landed hard on rough ground. The Keyblade vanished from his grasp.
The wounded Rian slowly got up and saw more heartless materializing through the clearing smokescreen. Rian saw his Keyblade was gone from his grasp and without much choice he took off. The heartless went in pursuit. Rian quickly stopped when he saw more heartless blocking his path. He looked trapped and was in no way out of this one.
"What's going on? Why am I seeing heartless?" he thought.
The heartless army were closing in on him. He spotted a huge piece of wood and grabbed it.
"Stay back!" he shouted, menacing the approaching creatures, but they were still approaching. The heartless finally jumped on him. He quickly swung the piece of wood with all his might, striking them hard. But the creatures kept coming at him, and finally they all grabbed Rian and pinned him down.
"HEY!" he shouted, "Let go!"
The heartless with the gruesome claws approached Rian and paralyzed him with a cold murderous glare. Rian knew he was finished.
But suddenly the heartless vanished before it had the chance to pierce Rian's chest with its claw, only to be replaced by a Keyblade. The creatures turned their attention to the Keyblade wielder, Terra. Terra was no longer in his masked costume. His hair was brown and pointy. His eyes were fierce-blue. He wore a gray tight shirt with a red cross on it, a golden shoulder pad that reached his elbow, a Chasers' symbol on his belt buckle, large samurai baggy pants, and heavy soldier shoes.
The heartless let go of Rian to face Terra lividly.
Terra faced Rian, "Quick." he said before summoning his Keyblade, "Summon your Keyblade!" he ordered.
"You saved me." Rian stared at Terra dumbfounded, "But… who are you and why did you--!"
"Do you really need to talk about that now?" Terra said as the creatures took their strike. He swung a couple of times at them and they recoiled. "Summon your Keyblade, now!" His calm voice took a tone.
"But I can't!" Rian protested, "I'm just a kid! I don't even know how to--!" Rian stopped talking upon noticing the Keyblade at his grasp instead of the piece of wood he held. "…summon the Keyblade." he blinked.
The creatures faced Rian. They rammed at him, but Rian dodged by leaping in the air and landed right behind them, joining Terra.
Terra and Rian teamed up against the creatures, and together they swung their Keyblades like crazy, wiping out every single one of the creatures with every graceful massive damaging belt. The creatures were no more. The Keyblades disappeared from their masters' grasp.
"Phew! Man, what a rush!" Rian sighed. He then faced Terra, "Hey, man! Thanks for your--!"
"Just watch your back next time, boy." Terra told him, "Unless you wanna get your heart erased."
"What?" Rian exclaimed, "What are you talking about?"
Terra disappeared in a glowing light.
"Hey!" Rian shouted. Terra was gone.
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Next Chapter:: The Behemoth that Came Down from Heaven