Riku slashed through the Guardian with Soul Eater like a knife through butter, never slowing down for anything. Sora was right beside him and gave a huge thumbs up when he looked over to him. He smashed his Kingdom Key into a large guard who didn't even see it coming. Though they didn't ever say a word to each other, the same thought was going through their heads.
"Damn, the security to this place sucks…"
It was just as he thought that when a message came through his communicator.
"This is Masamune. The Heartless look to be changing. Has something happened at the factory?"
Riku groaned. Of course, if things got easy on one end of the mission, they would get a whole lot worse on the other side.
"We haven't done anything yet. All that's happened is we've taken out a few guards. Keep us updated." Riku was quick to reply to the message. He swung at another Guardian who had jumped out of a nearby hallway and kept running. Hopefully they could find the centre of the factory sooner rather than later.
While Riku was worrying about the outcome of the mission, Sora was having a blast taking out Guardians. It was fun, but it was easy as well. Secretly, he wished that they could have some Heartless to fight. They would probably be a bit more of a challenge.
For those wondering; yes, Sora had totally forgotten his defeat at the hands of one of the same Guardians that he seemed to think were easy.
They ran a few more minutes, weaving through the empty alleyways of the Heartless Factory. Riku was starting to get annoyed at the lack of results when a door marked with the Logo of the Heartless caught his eye.
"Sora, wait up," Riku ordered. The boy in question slid to a halt as Riku began to examine the heavy steel door. "That blade of yours can open any door, right?"
Sora lifted an eyebrow. "Yeah?" He questioned.
"Open this door," RIku asked.
Sora gave a shrug, but he complied quickly as he held his blade up to the door and closed his eyes. Below his feet, a crown shape appeared as a bright light shot out of the tip of his Keyblade.
The two doors slid into the walls and revealed a dark room with conveyor belts and large machines bearing the same logo as the door.
Bingo. Riku thought.
"Wow…" Sora gaped. Without any other thoughts, the two walked into the "assembly" line and started looking around for a power generator.
"I told them that things would get bad if they let all the Heartless leave…" A loud and cackling voice echoed across the large room.
The teens took a few tentative steps backwards looking in all directions in a battle stance. Riku planned to dash out the door as soon as possible. But, as he tried to flee, he slammed into a barrier of completely transparent hexagonal panels that clearly weren't there a few seconds ago.
" No no no no no…" The voice cackled some more. "Can't have two little troublemakers running around causing whatever ruckus they felt like, can we? If I was in charge, you'd all be at the bottom of the sandy sea by now…."
The boys looked to each other with confused faces. What was it talking about?
Riku regained his composure and looked out to the centre of the factory. "Show Yourself!"
"I'll show myself to whatever the heck I feel like!" It snapped. Then, while spinning around, a man in long yellow robes and clown make-up descended from the ceiling and landed on top of what looked like a gas tank.
"Ooh look!" The man said with a maniacal smile. "If it isn't a pair of POSERS!" He laughed.
Sora bent his knees a little and prepared to push of the ground while Riku lifted his blade to a comfortable position.
"Senator Kefka," He growled. "Also known as the Nutty Senator."
The smile did not fade as two spheres of fire started to float in his hands.
"Let's do a little dance, shall we?" He sneered.
Imagine that you're a bird flying in the sky over the Heartless Factory. Then, imagine that the factory has no roof and you can see all the individual rooms.
If you can't imagine that, I pity you greatly.
Anyways, the reason I'm telling you to do this is so you can see what it looks like and how inefficient it is. Basically, the factory is built so that a thick cement wall without doors cut right through the centre of the factory.
Why was it made this way? The answer is quite simple, really.
They put an idiot in charge of construction.
It was because of this that Axel and Roxas would not be able to meet up with the other assault crew.
Roxas slashed at another guard, constantly getting more annoyed at the lack of progress they were making. He jumped over the next one and stabbed him in the back.
"Why is this TAKING SO LONG!" Axel growled loudly as his Eternal Flames ripped through another Guardian. Actual flames were beginning to expand around the magical weapons as his anger rose.
Axel was a cool guy most of the time, but when he got mad…
He got really mad.
Roxas jumped back to Axel's side as he began to pant a little from the exertion he was putting himself through. His black cloak was somewhat tattered by the blades and other weapons that had come at him. Axel was in pretty much the same condition. They had managed to drive away the guards anyhow.
"If we can't find the actual production plant, there has to be a power source or something…"
Axel just snarled and put his hand to his ear.
"This is Eternal Flame," He said, trying his best to hide his anger. "It's been like hours since we've been here and we still haven't found anything! Does ANYONE have anything we can go on!"
Roxas fully expected to hear a radio message from their leader echo into his little device, so he was surprised when the voice of Zexion came through the speaker.
"This is the Book of Retribution," said the quiet voice. "Unfortunately, a strange force has caused us to lose connection with our faithful leader."
"Wait, what!" Axel and Roxas said in unison.
"It is quite shocking, isn't it? But that isn't the point… Anyways, can you please tell me which side you entered the factory?"
The two boys looked at each other, rather suspicious of Zexion's ability to totally ignore the fact their leader was AWOL, but they didn't really have a choice in the matter, so he was the only one they could possibly ask.
"Uh… East side…" Axel stammered.
A dark chuckle came through the devices. Zexion obviously thought something was hiliarious.
"Hmhmhm… Oh, I apologize… It should be notice that from the East side, it is rather impossible to get to the factory."
Axel practically punched a hole through a wall as soon as he said it.
"However, there are some other things that could prove useful…"
Roxas looked up to Axel, who was yelling in agony at the pain in his hand before he replied to Zexion.
"Alright, what do you have planned then?"
"Though the factory is located on the other side of the building, the power source is on your side. You should go looking for a suspicious hidden door…" Zexion explained.
Roxas hesitated for a second, but he knew that it was exactly what he had to do.
"Alright, Book of Retribution, we'll keep in touch." He then hung up his device and looked over to the now recovered Axel.
"We better get going…" Roxas stammered, desperately trying to hide his laughter.
Axel just flicked him on the forehead and headed down the hallway.
"C'mon..." He growled.
"Wait, did you say Cloud!" Aerith said in shock. She had to push Yuffie and Kairi out of the way just to get to the cheerful blonde.
"Uh-huh!" She said with a smile.
"He did come and get us after all…" A deeper voice came from the shadow of the tower. Walking out from there was a grey haired girl wearing leather and lots of black.
"Oh, there you are Paine!" Rikku cheered.
"Hmph," She grunted.
"Hey, where's Yunie and Cloud?" Rikku asked her partner, running up right to her face. Paine just rolled her eyes and whispered into her ear.
A face of realization appeared from Rikku as the plan was remembered. The whole time, the rest of the resistance was just staring at them in awe.
"What the heck's goin' on?" Yuffie asked.
"I have no idea…" Kairi replied. She was about to look over to hear Aerith's opinion, but she already seemed to be wrapped in her own thoughts. Auron just adjusted his glasses and looked back over to the leading streets, still prepared for a possible enemy ambush.
"Anyways…" Rikku continued, dragging out the word to bring the attention back to herself. "This is Paine! She's one of the Gullwings, just like me!"
"Hey…" She said while looking at her nails.
An awkward silence went through the area.
"So…" Yuffie spoke up. "We've finished up over here. Now what?"
More awkward silence.
"Well, I guess we just wait here then," Kairi replied.
"Or we could go help out," A strong, masculine voice called across the area.
Again, everyone's attention moved to one point. All except for Paine and Rikku who already knew what was coming.
A familiar blond head could be seen bobbing up the street.
Sora dodged another fire ball and ran at Kefka once again. He jumped to take a swing at him, but he was quick to dance out of the way and send another wave of fire at him. Sora was hit across the chest and knocked into a nearby wall.
He grunted in pain as Riku ran up the wall and shot off with dark energy forming in his hand. He released the energy at Kefka while spinning in a circle with Soul Eater at the ready.
Kefka was cackling wildly as the dark fire exploded in his face. He was knocked off guard and took another strike to the face from Soul Eater. Kefka still didn't react that much.
Riku landed on the ground while panting heavily as Kefka floated slowly to the tip of a gas tank. Sora ran up beside Riku with a large scorch mark across his clothes and with little energy left.
"We didn't have to try… To take this place out…" Sora panted. "Kefka's been doing most of the work for us."
Sure enough, Sora had made a very viable point. Upon looking around the Factory, there were scorch marks and damage all over the place that were mostly destroyed by Kefka.
"Well well, are the little toys tired now?" Kefka chuckled maniacally. "Cause if you are, I can end this right now."
Sora furthered his grasp on his Keyblade as Kefka lifted his hand to the sky. A sphere of dark energy along with a ring of white formed around the hand.
"Then it might be time to face my Heartless ANGEL!"
The boys closed their eyes and braced themselves for the worst. They wait several seconds. Yet, the powerful attack they were expecting never came. Instead, there was just the sound of a loud smack and silence.
Riku was the first to open his eyes.
What he saw was an unconscious Kefka lying on top of the large tank with a man standing on top of him. The man was cloaked in black with his face hidden from view.
Sora pushed himself off of the ground and looked up to the man, much like Riku.
"Hmph," He grunted. Then, before anything else could happen, the man jumped off of the building and landed behind the boys and pushed the door open. He pushed up a dark wall between him in the boys.
"No one will get in my way…" He mumbled.
Before Riku could even say anything, the man had gone, trapping Sora and Riku in a factory between a dark wall and a scorched room.
"Well… This sucks." Sora mumbled.
Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry I'm late with this one (lots of stuff going on(including lack of inspiration…)) but at least it's here in its pretty bad limelight. Yeah… This isn't my best chapter. Thanks to all who are supporting this and I'm sure that many are happy to see our ex-SOLDIER show his face.
Ah well. I'll try to get the next one out by Monday. Thanks Readers!
-FrozenXIII'sFire