A/N: I have PLOT! ^_^ And a whole lot of caffeine in my system...
Chapter 3: The Battle Begins
By the time the sun began to rise in Los Angeles, over thirty Hollows had appeared in the city, and that number was growing quickly. Taken by complete surprise, the guardians of the city, the Fanfiction Author Fighters, had a delay in how quickly they could act. To add to the confusion, several members were taking care of business in other worlds, limiting their efficiency in covering the massive urban sprawl. All the while, X Prodigy and Phoenix of the Darkness were still missing.
But not for much longer.
HOWHOWHOW
"What hit me…" X shook his head, and looked up. The rays of the sun just barely brushed the horizon. It would soon be daylight. Around 5 AM. Genius idea, absolutely perfect. Probably almost died. If that attack hadn't gotten rid of the Hollows, we probably would be dead.
Wow, X never struck me as the kind of guy to see anything positive in anything.
"Stuff it, I'm tired of listening to you."
"I'll keep quiet if you will, I feel like Thor's pounding on the inside of my skull," Phoenix said. She pinched the skin between her eyebrows.
Can empathize with that… X breathed deeply.
"If you aren't going to shut up, then neither will I," Phoenix muttered.
"I get it, you don't need to say it twice," X scoffed. Idiot.
"Evidently, I do, ginger."
X ground his teeth together. "There's enough problems without devolving to name-calling."
"Hypocrite."
"What are you talking about?"
"Do you have short-term memory loss or something? You just called me an idiot, idiot!"
X was silent for a moment. Then: Phoenix, have you become a psychic sometime in the past few days?
"Uh…no? Wait…"
Phoenix suddenly felt an unpleasant sensation that must have resembled the one felt like a dog when they were yanked back by their collar—and Phoenix promised at that moment that she would never do that again.
X turned on the spot, looking every direction for any sign of a white duster or a sky blue keyblade. If you can hear me, think of the words 'Dusk and Dawn'.
"Why?" What the heck…
And I can hear what she's…forget it, doesn't matter whether I say it out loud or not. "I heard that 'what the hell'. Where are you?"
"Um…" Phoenix crossed her arms over her chest. "I guess…I don't know, there's a dumpster around a hundred feet away. I think I destroyed that one…Hold on, I heard that, and that's impossi—"
"Is there a—"
"Yes, a broken plasma screen to my right, but there's got to be a better explanation—"
X ignored her protests in favor of snatching up a discarded piece of glass, cautious of the broken edges. He held it up carefully, and said several four-letter words in succession. "What did I do to deserve this?"
Looking back at him was a half-unfamiliar reflection, scowling in irritation. Only the left half of his Hollow mask remained, but it wasn't exactly his own face on the opposite side—androgynous, with an indeterminable age. His eyes were the same color, blood red. His coat was the same as ever, but he wore a silver gauntlet on his right hand.
In the glass, crimson eyes flashed to emerald, and Phoenix's voice came out, "Somewhere out there, Karma is just giggling like mad right about now."
HOWHOWHOW
Los Angeles, 8:00 A.M.
The Hollow resembled a Cat Sith, but only in its coloring; it stood up on its hind legs, and the proportions were closer to that of a human, besides being ten feet tall. Flat blades resembling those used in a guillotine protruded from its arms. The blades sang as the Hollow swept through the air at BlackcatRin.
Rin calmly loosened her sword from its sheath. The Hollow, already its pride injured from its failure to land anything more than scratches on Rin, charged madly without taking care to prevent openings. Rin breathed out as she fully drew her sword and swept it around, a torrent of wind tracing the blade and expanding as she struck the creature. Its mask was blown apart into a thousand pieces, and its body dissolved. Rin breathed back in. Windcutter.
"Watch it!" A flash of silver, and an inhuman cry. Rin turned, and saw ShadowDJ, the Grim Reaper's apprentice, in a recovery position from striking with his scythe, his weapon out wide and his body low to the ground. The egg-like creature he had attacked—just before it leaped onto Rin—was turning to ash. "Some spider-thing made a bunch of eggs, they didn't disappear when it was destroyed," DJ explained in brief. "Annoying, more than anything, drain your stamina if they touch you."
"Ah," Rin said. "Thanks."
They turned around, standing back-to-back as a chain formed, link-by-link, creating a levitating circle with a twenty-foot radius. On opposite sides of the circle, identical bodies were created; genderless, with jet-black flesh and masks depicting a screaming face. Their arms were a foot too long for their 8 foot tall forms, while their legs ended in flat stubs.
The chain cut apart in two places, leaving the two bodies of the Hollow with chain whips on the ends of its arms. By the time the bodies thought to move, DJ and Rin had begun their assault.
DJ expertly attacked Alpha with his scythe, closing in as near as he dared—so long as he was not too far out, even if he were struck by one of the chains, it would not be moving fast enough to do any severe damage. Meanwhile, Rin took a different approach; her movements were quick enough to let her dodge Beta's swipes. Her pupils became snakelike as she used the openings to attack with a combination of bursts of flame and cutting winds.
Alpha's chains came back, and flew straight at DJ. He spun his scythe blade-over-end to deflect the attack, came close, and brought his weapon down point-first. Alpha's right arm was severed off at the shoulder.
Beta, ignorant to its other half's plight, swept each chain across its body; Rin dropped to the ground to dodge, before coming back up to drive her sword through Beta's chest. It seemed to ignore it, only lunging forward at Rin. She dropped back, and the end of a chain flew at her. She launched herself forward and upward, landing lightly upon the chain and taking off as fast as she could, just barely reaching Beta before the chain went slack; she pulled her sword free, flipped over its back, and ran it through, this time twisting her sword and dragging it through the Hollow's body to remove it. The sudden torrent that had allowed her to move so agilely quietly died down.
It was then that the chains of both halves of the Hollow rejoined with a pang! Each half—one literally disarmed, the other mutilated—were dragged together. Each body lost its form, fusing entirely with the other. From the mass, a new body formed; this alone, with white flesh in place of black, and the same mask resized to accommodate the Hollow's nearly twice-as-large form. The chains wound around its arms and legs, and it roared in wrath.
"Great," DJ said, preparing to fight again, but Rin put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back. She stayed silent, instead pointing to a figure descending rapidly from the sky in explanation.
The Hollow really never knew what hit it; after all, it is not too often that a Half-Demon who has been magically or otherwise forced into the same body as that of a teenage girl (who hate each other, for that matter), drops from the sky, carrying a ridiculously large broadsword that was longer than he was tall, and splits one perfectly in half.
X sheathed Rebellion, having retrieved it and his other weapons from the HQ.
Seriously, was that even necessary? Dropping from the sky like an angel of death… Phoenix reconsidered it. Actually, that's kind of awesome.
"Told ya," X said. He turned to Rin and DJ. "You guys okay?"
"…Za?" was what DJ said in reply. "Uh…X?"
"Duh."
Rin hesitated before speaking. "Phoenix?"
Green eyes. "Yeah." She grimaced. "It's complicated, confusing, and we don't know anything more about it than the two of you do."
"That's…weird. I mean…" DJ shook his head.
"Yeah, we know," Phoenix said.
Red eyes. "We can sit here exchanging pointless words all day, or we can do work that needs to be done." X drew Dusk and shot one of the egg-like Hollows that had been sneaking up on them.
And not die, Phoenix added.
As a massive Hollow that looked like nothing so much as a giant worm reared up across the square from them, Rin said "Incidentally, do you two have anything to do with these Hollows?"
"You're the second person who's said that," X noted. "TL assumed the same thing when we ran into him earlier."
Green eyes. "Well, it would kind of make sense, we were fighting a Hollow, and suddenly a whole army of them show up in L.A…"
"The answer is, no," X said pointedly. "No clue where they came from, but we had nothing to do with it."
X was not lying, exactly; the army of Hollows entering Los Angeles was directly connected to X Prodigy and Phoenix of the Darkness, but he had no way of knowing that at the time.
HOWHOWHOW
Master Xehanort's Castle, The Keyblade Graveyard, 12:00 P.M.
"An unexpected development," the old man, Master Xehanort, said. "I admit I underestimated the potency of the bait. But this is not necessarily one we cannot use." His voice was creaky, like an old rocking chair, and weak from age, but a layer of malice lay beneath it. "After all, with these children running like rats, spread thin across the city, nobody would notice for quite a while if they went missing."
"Though that boy could be a problem," said a man whose face was hidden by mask and hood. Both yellow, but a sickening shade; his garb was that of a classical supervillain, though that did not mean he could be underestimated as just another madman. The Hobgoblin, AKA Roderick Kingsley, was an old and powerful enemy of Spider-Man's. Taking up his title after discovering the lair of the original Green Goblin, he used it to sabotage companies which rivaled his own fashion design firm, with Spider-Man foiling his plans time after time. Finally, Norman Osborn, the first Green Goblin, bought out Kingsley's company from beneath him. With a grudge against too many people, Hobgoblin wanted revenge.
"He's one of that group's strongest, you said," Hobgoblin continued. "He won't be easy to defeat."
"But they're distracted by their dislike for one another," Xehanort said. "In addition, their stamina will be drained from fighting nigh-on constantly. Vanitas should have little trouble in subduing them."
"However," said the White Witch, Jadis. "Are there not other options besides that girl? There are other keybearers in the universe, still; even the sister—"
"—is more sure of herself, and has far too much light in her heart to be of any use," said Xehanort.
"If you intend to bring up the keyblade master," said a man with cornrows in his hair and very impressive sideburns, "Even he would be able to tell that something was wrong. Sora—" He gave the slightest hint of a twitch. "—may be naïve, but he has good instincts. And even if he were fooled, his friends would not." The man's name was Xaldin. Once a member of the feared Organization XIII, Xaldin was a Nobody, a being with no heart, no emotions, little more than a shadow. And he had good reason to know about the master of the keyblade, Sora. It had been that boy who had defeated him, leaving Xaldin to fade into darkness. It had been an indeterminable time before somebody—that somebody being the old man across the room from him—had restored his body and mind to the physical world. Like Hobgoblin, Xaldin wanted revenge, but he had another goal, his goal in his first life of regaining his heart.
Xaldin said "Compared to the idea of involving Sora in a plan without expecting him to even unintentionally ruin it…it would be easier to make a Nobody cry."
An incredibly large humanoid wearing Aztec leather armor and a headdress spoke in a deep, rolling voice several alien words that meant something along the lines of "Challenge accepted!" His name was Ogre; a supremely powerful being who seemed to be nothing more than a mindless beast and yet had a level of sentience; he was a living weapon, capable of absorbing the essences of warriors he had defeated to obtain their skills. It was his only purpose in life.
Two different individuals in the chamber seemed apathetic to the discussion at hand. The first was a woman who was quite literally an enigma—if she was referred to, it was by the name Unknown. In place of eyes, glowing white spheres lay in her sockets. A substance resembling tar covered her naked body, concealing her modesty. Only she knew her true identity; Jun Kazama, a young woman with a desire to do good, only to be possessed by a powerful wolf demon. Unknown's intentions were unknown.
The second individual was one of the least human there; Baraka was a being called a Tarkata, from a place called Outworld. A monsterous creature that resembled a cross between a vampire and Wolverine, Baraka was also the only one of the eleven who had a previous connection to the Author Fighters. Once, in a Mortal Kombat tournament, he had fought the Spirit Warrior Melody Yushino, and was beaten badly. Despite the assumption that he would want revenge, it would not seem so; like Unknown, his reasons for allying himself with these ten other villains were a mystery.
"Okay, that's just great, everyone here is a bunch of bastards who for the most part want revenge, and everyone's psychotic," said the Nostalgia Critic, ready to do what he did best. "But so far there's been nothing elaborated on, just a bunch of ambiguous phrases thrown around, and none of us besides the ice queen—" The Critic's hat was suddenly turned to stone. "—and Mr. Silent Treatment—" Vanitas did not acknowledge the Critic. "—know what's going on here! EXPLAIN, OLD MAN, EXPLAIN!"
A thin, light blue lance flew through the air, burying itself a bare inch away from the Nostalgia Critic's head. Despite claims as to the impossibility of the occurrence, the Critic would have sworn that Xaldin was smirking.
"He has a point, I suppose," said Xehanort. He intertwined his fingers, silent for a moment as he searched for a starting point. "It was over a decade ago—nearer to fifteen years—that I began to feel the wear of age. Though my mind was sharp, my skills perfect, my body was failing me. In order to stave off death, I created several different paths I might take; the one I hoped for, the possession of a young keyblade apprentice, only partially succeeded, at the cost of my memories. This path was the least desirable, for the side effects.
"In this castle wrought from a blood-soaked battlefield, I wove a spell which created a Time Lock—if the passage of time is a line, a Time Lock pinches off a few moments in time, and saves it. A copy of myself and my apprentice, Vanitas—the versions now before you—were sealed, with a few requirements necessary for the Time Lock to open: first, complete death, the body a shell, the soul destroyed, the heart returned to Kingdom Hearts; and second, a sacrifice of human blood."
"The side effects?" Tai Lung said simply, the first time he had spoken in this meeting.
Xehanort closed his eyes. "Yes. The least worrying, and more likely a result of the strange nature of his existence, Vanitas has lost his faculties in the process." He looked to the being of pure darkness a moment, created from a fractured-off piece of another young keyblade apprentice's heart. "The most inhibiting; Vanitas and I have both lost the ability to grow, to become stronger than we were before, restrained to the point we were at when I created the Time Lock. In addition, the spell is yet incomplete; a vast majority of my strength remains unavailable to me—though that which remains is more than enough to defeat any foe." The implication was clear enough. Even if he was weakened, Xehanort would be able to defeat any one of these villains who dared to try and take advantage of this opportunity. "To restore my strength—well, it is a 'seal', after all. Thus why we require a keyblade, one from this time period which retains its full power to open any lock."
"And that's where bird-girl comes in," said Hobgoblin.
"Precisely." Xehanort smiled a cruel smile. "And from there, there will be nothing left to hold us—" Me. "—back from our—" My. "—goals.
"Some wish vengeance on those who wrongfully believed themselves to be morally superior. Some wish for power. Some wish for respect." Xehanort stood. "Let those wishes become a reality. To the future; to an infinite ice crossing the surface of every world; to the Hounds of Winter."
Baraka, the Guard
Unknown, the Priestess
Xaldin, the Count
Vanitas, the Bishop
Jadis, the Lady
Hobgoblin, the Earl
The Nostalgia Critic, the Duke
Ogre, the Jack
Tai Lung, the Ace
Master Xehanort, the King
Plip.
A/N: Thanks for reading.