"I'm not afraid of the darkness!"
"Kairi!"
"Sora..."
"You care about them? More than your old friends?"
"I made... a promise."
"A promise I made to Naminé to keep her safe. Maybe my memories are fake. But the promise is real to me. That's why ─ I'll keep it."
"All for one, and one for all!"
"You make a good other."
"My friends, they are my power!"
"Kingdom Hearts..."
"Yes, Sora, extract more hearts!"
"Got it memorized?"
"Kairi, remember what you said before? I'm always with you too. I'll come back to you, I promise!"
"I know you will!"
Town of the Invited ─ Inn of Resting
In one of the rooms at the Inn of Resting, the setting was pretty messy, with a bed under a window that overlooked the scenery, a bedlamp with some fish circling around it, a huge chain, and other features that made the design unique from every other room in the building.
Of course, the room wasn't empty, since there was someone sleeping on that same bed: the guest was a boy with spiky brown hair and blue eyes, wearing an outfit that looked almost like black leather, complete with a small jacket with short sleeves over a shirt, baggy shorts, gloves, big shoes and a chain necklace with a crown figure.
The boy was fast asleep. He was tired after seeing all the marvels the town had to offer. He also met Genesis in person, and the goddess of order told him that he was one of many chosen warriors that would fight to save her realm. The boy was excited to know that he was "invited" to fight for the greater good, but he asked why he felt he forgot something, to wich the goddess informed the young hero about the Blanks being created from his memories. He thought that defeating one of these Blanks would help him remember his past, so he set himself the goal of facing them and find the Hope he needed to defeat Tsukuyomi.
But for now, he would have a good rest tonight...
Meanwhile...
Altar
BlazBlue Calamity Trigger Music - Bullet Dance
Noel was fighting against the Successor Replica, the latter copying the girl's movements almost perfectly, since it was a copy of her. Noel began shooting at the enemy with Bolverk, but it was dodging every projectile with ease and came closer to its target and aimed straight at Noel's belly, to wich she dodged and moved behind her look-alike. Then it started speaking.
"Subject name: Noel Vermillion; Code: AZURE; Stats: Balanced; Danger rank: 4; Continuing mission..."
"What?" Noel had no time to talk when the Successor Replica turned to look at her and began shooting again. Noel once again was quick to dodge every bullet coming from the copycat's weapons. She saw an oppening when the enemy was reloading, dashed, and began a combo.
"Und!" Noel stopped in front of the enemy and flung her gun like a boomerang and hit it from leg to chest, making it flinch for the girl to throw a second attack. "Zwei!" She spun around, shooting a bullet to the enemy's face. "Drei!" She raised her left leg and slammed it on the enemy's head, making the look-alike flinch for more seconds for Noel to use her special attack.
"Let's finish this!" Her guns morphed into a huge machine gun while the scenery got a bit darker, thrusting the weapon's tip on the enemy's belly, making it flinch in more pain. Noel took the initiative to shoot a flurry of huge projectiles, all of them hitting home while the enemy began rising from the floor with each hit. Afterwards, Noel took out some sort of missile launcher and aimed sraight to the Successor Replica to deal one more powerful shot. "Say goodbye!" Then the missile was sent flying, pushing the enemy high into the sky and crashing down at high speed to the floor.
*Music stops*
The Successor Replica said its last words before it died into nothing. "Mission failed; Damage to system: critical; Emergency shutdown initialized; Beginning shutdown..."
To Noel's surprise, the enemy shattered into nothing. "What was that?" she asked to herself, "Did that thing want to finish me off? For what?"
Then in a flash of light, she was back in her room.
Inn of Resting ─ Noel's Room
Noel was a bit confused at what happened a few moments ago, but decided to rest for the night. She layed on her bed, and before going to sleep, she had so many questions in her mind. What was that enemy that looked like her? Why did it want to fight? Did this Tsukuyomi person send that robotic replica to eliminate her? Those questions would be left unanswered for now, so she fell asleep.
Meanwhile, in an unknown place...
Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 ReMIX Music - Organization XIII
"What a letdown, guys. Look! You just made some garbage out of a puppet!" said a clown figure, looking through a monitor that displayed the fight that had ocurred a few moments ago, "I can do better toys than that one!"
"At least we got to see a little ofnits potential, so there is some compensation we can give to it," said a gentleman figure nearby, "After all, we began production of these Blanks just recently. We should not be so hard on them."
A hooded figure with a glowing green eye decided to speak. "Well, they paid the price for waking up in that place: they had to forget everything that was enjoyable. Those idiots don't know what they'll go through once shit gets real."
"Unfortunately, we cannot take direct action until Tsukuyomi gives the order," said the gentleman figure, "Perhaps we should just wait a little longer after everyone has gathered."
"Well," the clown figure began, "if they want the party's preparations to last a few more days, then they're making me want to destroy something sooner than they can finish! Can I?"
"No, dumbass!" said the hooded figure, "You can't go around destroying the place without killing one of us by accident! We should just stick to the plan for now."
"Until then..." said the gentleman figure, "...we'll wait for the rest of our allies to gather. And all the while..." He looked at a younger figure, fast asleep, "... the master's vessel shall be prepared."
*Music stops*
Town of the Invited ─ Fountain of Gathering
Morning - 6:30 a.m.
In the fountain, the same boy who arrived to the goddess' realm last night was sitting nearby. He looked like he was waiting for someone, and indeed someone came to the gathering spot. He saw someone, stood up, and called the passerby to his location.
"Huh? Oh." Noel saw a boy calling from the fountain, waving his hand to her. She walked to the boy's location. "Hey there! You must be new around here. I'm Noel Vermillion. It's a pleasure," she greeted.
"I'm Sora. It's nice to meet you, too," said the boy, introducing himself. Then they both shook hands for a moment.
"You must be one of the "Bearers of Hope" that Genesis told me about, right?"
"I sure am!" Sora said while crossing his arms. "I'm no slouch when it comes to fighting! You'll see."
Noel then saw Terra coming to their position. "Hey, Noel. I was thinking, if..." She noticed Sora. "Oh, sorry, didn't see you there. Are you another one of our allies?"
"Yup," he said while nodding once, "Name's Sora. And you are...?"
"Terra," she said, introducing herself to the newcomer, "Pleased to meet you," she said while bowing cordially.
"Not to be rude, or anything," Sora began, "but the night I came here, I saw an arena right around the corner. Wanna go there?"
Noel agreed by saying, "I wanted to hone my skills after coming to this world, so this might be a good chance!"
"As long as the training involves opponents of our level, I'll go with you," said Terra.
"Okay," Sora began, "let's get ready to fight some bad guys!"
And the trio was off to the colisseum.
Town of the Invited ─ Colisseum of the Challengers
Kingdom Hearts HD II.5 ReMIX Music - Sora
Having requested a moderately strong horde of enemies at the entrance's counter, the team of Sora, Terra and Noel was put in a round arena with the audience seats being occupied by different people, moogles and, unusually, some sort of silhouette hiding in the crowd. The figure was an expert at being unnoticed by any passerby in the vicinity, so no one paid attention to the stranger.
"You guys ready to beat the bad guys?" Sora exclaimed while making his weapon appear from a flash of light. The weapon in question was some sort of big key, with a yellow handle and a crown figure in its end. It was what he called the "Keyblade".
"I must fight for everyone!" Noel exclaimed while brandishing Bolverk out of the holsters in her back.
"We must fight as one if we hope to win," Terra said while brandishing a thin blade.
Dissidia 012 Music - FF6 - Battle 1
The enemies came from different entrances around the arena. These enemies were a variety of birds, lizards and an unique type that Sora quickly recognized when he saw monsters that looked like imps cloaked in shadows and had glowing yellow eyes.
"Heartless!? What are they doing here?" Sora wasted no time in swinging his blade at the horde.
Noel was quick to shoot the flock of birds of prey with Bolverk, while Terra used an ice spell to freeze one of the lizards in place, since she was quite knowledgeable about a monster's weakness. She proceeded to shoot some lightning bolts to a bird that was about to attack her, defeating the enemy.
Back with Sora, he was swinging his Keyblade against the Heartless that decided to attack him, since the weapon was dreaded by their kind. Their efforts were worthless since Sora was defeating them one by one quickly, making the monsters vanish. But more of them came, much to his dismay. "They never end, do they?" he said to himself, slashing some armor-wearing Heartless.
Noel tried kicking a lizard monster away, but another bird pecked her head pretty hard. She was a little outmatched, but Terra decided to help with a lightning bolt directed to the bird enemy. "Thanks. You saved me," Noel said.
"No problem," Terra said, "We gotta do our best."
Terra has strengthend her bond with Noel a little.
"Take this!" Sora yelled while impaling his weapon's tip to another Heartless, defeating it. "Who's next?"
The stranger in the cheering audience was noticing that the fighters were capable enough to beat so many enemies at once. He considered helping them, but he didn't want to be discovered as an intruder with unauthorized access to the arena, so he waited a little more.
Terra noticed that another horde of enemies were coming closer, this one having soldiers readying their artillery. "What in the world?" she asked bewildered. "I thought only monsters could fight against us in this place!"
Noel decided to butt in by saying, "I think you didn't notice that the enemies come from our homeworlds."
"Thanks for the info." They resumed their fight, with Terra shooting a fireball to a Heartless that Sora didn't notice was going to attack him from behind.
"Oh, that helps," Sora said, continuing to slash more enemies. He decided to take on the three soldiers, who were shooting at him, but the young fighter blocked all projectiles with his Keyblade. When they started reloading, Sora took the chance to charge at them and swing his weapon at them, finishing with a spinning slash that pushed them all to the ground. Strangely enough, the soldier enemies vanished into thin air. "Huh? They... dissapeared? How?"
Back with Noel, she decided to take on an incoming blue blob monster by shooting at its face with Bolverk. The bullets only made a scratch to it. "Why won't it work?"
"I'll handle this one!" Terra exclaimed, shooting a lightning bolt to the blob, making it melt in defeat. "They can be taken care of with magic. Physical attacks only tickle them," she informed Noel.
"I'll keep that in mind," Noel responded. She noticed a soldier enemy aiming his machine gun at her, and as soon as he began firing, she dodged quickly and spun behind the enemy, bashing him from behind.
It seemed that things were a bit too easy for the three fighters, the intruder thought while hiding in the audience, who was cheering for them. Perhaps they would make good pals one day.
*Music stops*
"I think we're done here," Terra said. Indeed, the field was empty, except for the heroic trio standing close to each other.
There was silence for a moment... but then they heard loud steps coming nearby. Then, from one of the entrances, a mechanical monster entered the arena. Terra recognized the metallic behemoth.
"A Magitek Armor!?"
Dissidia Music - FF6 - The Decisive Battle
"Be careful, everyone! That thing hits very hard!" Terra exclaimed to her allies as they all prepared to fight the monster, being piloted by another enemy soldier.
The Magitek Armor began charging its frontal cannon, and Sora took the initiative to charge to the monster while Noel ran to a safer position and Terra went to another safe spot to charge a powerful spell.
Sora simply jumped in front of the Magitek Armor and continuously slashed it to no end, but the cannon finished charging and shot a flaming beam directly at the Keyblade wielder. "Wah!"
"Sora!" Noel yelled, seeing the boy burned from the attack, but he stood his ground. "Oh, thank goodness, you're okay," she said.
"Don't worry..." Sora responded, catching his breath, "I'll be fine."
Terra used a lightning spell that would leave the enemy tank with great signs of damage in its system, since the spellcaster knew that machines would malfunction with a lightning spell that they were weak against. "Go on attacking it, guys!" she exclaimed to her allies.
"Right on it!" Sora responded, ready to slash away the enemy while Noel morphed her guns into a heavy machine gun and blasted every single bullet to the Magitek Armor.
Sora thought about casting a magic spell of his own, so he shot a lightning bolt from his Keyblade to the sky, which landed on the machine and caused great damage.
The enemy began attacking once again by firing a pair of missiles that were directed to Sora and Noel. Sora was able to dodge one missile, but Noel was a bit too slow on her pace, and got hit by the missile. "Aaah!"
"Noel!" Terra and Sora yelled to her, and both began casting healing spells, Sora doing so with his Keyblade, and Terra extending her palms to Noel.
She recieved a green light that healed her, and she stood up, ready to fight the Magitek Armor once more. "Thanks, guys," she said to her healers.
The mechanical beast was charging its cannon again, and Sora leapt into action, slashing away, while Terra concentrated in order to shoot lightning bolts from her hands and Noel shot more bullets from Bolverk. They were making a great team.
Terra saw that the cannon completed its charge and exclaimed "Run!" to her allies before anyone could be frozen by the icy beam the Magitek Armor fired.
"Let's finish this!" Sora exclaimed to his allies, and they were attacking once again in unison.
"Optic Barrel!" Noel yelled, casting a yellow glyph in midair, wich looked like Bolverk, and shot it, the glyph being casted on the monster.
"Thundara!" Terra yelled, casting lightning bolts above the enemy, wich hit home.
And Sora was ready to give the coup de grace, as he swung down his Keyblade to the Magitek Armor. "It's over!" he exclaimed.
As if on cue, the mechanical enemy was catching fire, and began exploding. The trio got away in order to save themselves from the exploding machine. Then they saw that it disappeared in a big explosion, leaving black smoke behind.
Dissidia AC/NT Music - Victory Fanfare (Heroes)
"That's the power of the Keyblade!" Sora exclaimed, spinning his weapon in front of him and resting it on his shoulder.
"Phew, that was close," Noel said, putting back her guns in their holsters and moving a hand through her long blond hair.
"I'm so glad we won. If we hadn't..." Terra said, putting her left hand on her chest and looking up to the sky.
The figure noticed that the trio were working better in unison rather than doing their own thing. He asked in his mind if it was their bonds strengthening, or perhaps it was the child with the massive key uniting them. Either way, that boy meant something in the long run. Maybe, now that he saw the potential that the little boy had, he considered joining him and the other two girls.
Sora was indeed destined to connect the hearts of his new friends together in order to become stronger. After all, he was chosen not only by destiny, but by Genesis as well.