Chapter 7

"See anything?"

Riku lowered the newspaper he was pretending to read and studied the crowded street and sidewalk across from him, leaning on a tree in the local park.

"Negative. You?"

"No."

Riku sighed. "Let me know when you see anyone familiar from the criminal records."

"What do you think I've been doing for the past hour?"

Riku smirked. "Checking me out."

He waved to Xion, who was sitting at an outdoor cafe across the street and quickly looked away from Riku. He could see the hint of an amused smile on her face, one that caused his insides to warm up.

"Just focus on the mission."

Riku chuckled as he continued to scan the crowd. "If you say so."

His eyes eventually rested on a black phone booth across the street, where he spotted a bald man wearing a white button up shirt, grey slacks, and had a tattoo of a thorned vine swirling from the left side of his face to down his neck. The man was speaking into the phone, his words inaudible due to Riku's distance. Riku swore he's seen this man before.

"I think I've found someone," said Riku. "I'll send you a picture to cross-check with the files we have."

Riku pulled out his cell phone and snapped a picture, sending it to Xion. After a few seconds, Xion responded through the earpiece with the much needed information.

"His callsign is Twilight Thorn. Real name is unknown, Crimes include aggrivated assult, armed robbery, four counts of murder, drug smuggling, and a prostitution ring."

"So basically our everyday scum," Riku commented. "What's he still doing on the street?"

"His file says that he was bailed out by an unknown benefactor."

"Cloaked Schemer?"

"Most likely."

"He's exiting the phone booth."

"Follow him and take him in for questioning."

Riku waited for a chance to quickly walk across the street and started to follow his query. He weaved in and out through the crowd, trying not to get too close for the suspect to become suspicious, but not far enough to lose him. Just as Riku was catching up to his target, the Thorn got into a taxi and drove off.

Riku cursed. He flagged down another oncoming taxi and jumped in.

"Follow that cab up ahead," Riku ordered urgently. "Now!"

The taxi driver shrugged and drove off after the target. He seemed to do these kind of things often, because the driver kept the perfect distance when tailing the other cab. After about ten minutes of stalking, Riku noticed something odd as they passed the public library for about the third time.

"What the hell is this guy doing?" Riku muttered. The cab he was following was going in circles. Then, at that moment, Riku heard Xion's voice through his earpiece.

"Riku, we have a huge problem!"

"What is it?"

"I was just looking through Twilight Thorn's file again, and in his picture, the tattoo was on the right side of his face. In the picture, the man's tattoo was on the left side!"

Riku's eyes widened in realization. "An imposter."

"It's a distraction! The real Twilight Thorn is somewhere else in the city!"

"Stop the car!" Riku ordered.

The driver pulled the cab to the curb, and Riku jumped out of it, running down the sidewalk.

"Comb the city, we need to find this guy!" Riku said frantically.

"What about the imposter?"

"Forget about him, he was a body double, nothing more! He won't know anything about the Cloak Schemer!"

Riku scanned the crowds as he ran, looking for any possible hint of Twilight Thorn's presence. He froze as he heard police sirens speed past him, the crusiers halting in front of First Radiant Garden Bank. Riku decided this was worth investigating, so he pulled out his P99 and rushed across the street to join the police officers taking cover behind their vehicles.

"Hey, get out of here kid! This is police buisness!"

Riku ignored him and grinned as he saw the real Twilight Thorn exiting the bank with a rather large sack of munny and a handgun. The cops stood from their cover and took aim at the criminal.

"Drop your weapon or we will shoot!"

"No!" Riku shouted. "I need him alive!"

The thief hear Riku and spotted him amongst the crowd of cops. His eyes widened as he recognized the Turk uniform, then he dropped the sack and took off, dodging the bullets fired at him by the police.

"Damn!" Riku muttered as he gave chase. The sidewalk that was crowded mere seconds ago was now deserted, the people most likely taking shelter upon hearing the gunshots. This just made the chase easier.

"Xion, I found him robbing the First Radiant Garden Bank and am currently in pursuit. Check the museum and search for any clues as to how he robbed it."

Riku picked up the pace as his target ran into an alleyway and started climbing up a fire escape, Riku close behind. The criminal jumped through a window at the top of the fire escape, Riku climbing the steps as fast as he could in order to catch up. He flew through the window and speeded towards the busted down door just in time to see Thorn go through the door leading to the stairs. Riku ran after him, witnessing the door to the roof close as he started to climb the stairs. Once he got to the top, he opened the door leading to the roof and proceeded with caution. So far, he saw no sign of Thorn. The rooftop was practically barren.

Then, Riku heard the sound of a gun being cocked from behind him. He ducked just as a shot was fired, turned and tackled Twilight Thorn to the ground, knocking the gun out of his hand. Riku delivered a few punches to the criminal's jaw, but the latter threw Riku off of him and started towards the gun. However, Riku got to it first and pointed it at Thorn.

"All I want is information," Riku said. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way."

Thorn smirked and kicked the gun out of Riku's hand, sending it flying to the streets below.

"Hard way it is then." Riku smirked as he rubbed his hand.

Thorn rushed towards Riku with his fist curled up. However, before he could deliver a blow, Riku grabbed the fist and bent it, effectively breaking the target's wrist. Riku then delivered several more punches to the man's face, chest, and finished off with a swift kick to the stomach. Thorn flew backwards and hit the door to the staircase, knocking it down, with him curling up in pain on the ground. Riku then unholstered his P99 and pointed it at Thorn.

"Get up!" Riku shouted.

Thorn did as he was told, feebly rising from the ground and staring at Riku with a look of contempt.

"Step away from the staircase and approach me from my left."

Thorn looked as if he was about to comply, but turned and started down the stairs. Riku fired his weapon, hitting the back of Thorn's left leg and watched with satisfaction as Thorn let out a cry and stumbled down the stairs. Riku followed him and grabbed Thorn by the back of his shirt, dragging him back up the stairs, throwing him out the door and back onto the roof, and closed the door behind him. He raised his gun.

"How did you rob the bank?"

Thorn grunted as he struggled to stand up, limping on his right leg.

"Why does that matter?"

"Tell me or I shoot."

Thorn gasped in pain and stumbled. "I used a virus that shut down the bank's defense system. I just plugged a flashdrive containing the virus into one of the clerk's computers and walked into the safes without a problem."

"Who gave you the virus?" Riku asked. "Tell me!"

Thorn's eyes darted to something above Riku. "Ask him."

Riku turned and looked up above the rooftop door to see a man with spiky red hair and tear drop tattoes sitting there, smirking as he loaded a Barreta 92.

"Riku! Long time no see!"

"Lea," Riku greeted. "Or is it Axel now?"

"Axel. A-X-E-L, got it memorized?"

Axel pointed to his temple as he was saying this. Riku turned his gun on him. Axel clicked his tongue.

"Why the hostility all of a sudden?"

"You're involved in this," Riku said with a glare.

Axel gave a mock gasp. "Why would you say that?"

"You and your boss, Mr. Chaolan, are in a file of suspects for the identity of the Cloaked Schemer."

Axel then tilted his head to look over Riku's shoulder. "Aw look, he's trying to get away."

Riku turned to se Twilight Thorn limping in the opposite direction of the old friends.

"Kind of sad, really."

Axel raised his gun and shot the back of Thorn's good leg. Thorn howled and crumpled to the ground, propping himself up with his hands and turned himself over facing Riku, who turned back to Axel.

"Why are you doing this? Why are you assisting in terrorism?"

Axel nodded towards the crippled criminal. "Kill him, and I'll tell you."

Riku looked over at Thorn with a stab of pity. "I'm not an executioner."

"Come on, killing comes with the job," Axel said.

"There's a difference between killing in self defense and killing an unarmed prisoner."

"Not really," Axel shrugged. "Taking a life is taking a life. Besides, no one will miss him. You'd actually be doing this city a favor by making sure there's one less pimp, robber, what ever else this guy is."

Riku sighed, walking towards Thorn and raising his pistol as he looked into the thug's eyes. There was a pleading look in them, but Riku was unable to tell whether they were begging to be spared or to just get it over with. Riku pulled the trigger.

The shot hit him right between the eyes, and Riku watched as the thug crumpled with a puddle of blood surrounding his head. He turned to see Axel clapping.

"Congragulations. You just made your first kill."

Riku raised his P99 at Axel. "Now tell me what happened."

Axel sighed. "I dropped out of college here because I couldn't afford to pay the bill. I spent a few months on the street, looking for a job. I was desparate, I even became a giggalo for a while."

Axel paused. "Then, one of my clients, Larxene, took pity on me. Which is bizarre considering how most of the time she's a heartless bitch. She bought me out of that life and introduced me to Zexion, who offered me a job as Vice President for his software front in exchange for helping him in his terrorist plots and becoming a member of the Organization."

Riku raised a brow. "What organization?"

"Not important."

"Of course it is! You're implying that there's more of you!"

Axel smirked. "I didn't imply anything. Tell you what..."

Axel jumped down and reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out a slip of paper.

"Take it," he said.

Riku hesitantly grabbed the slip and quickly read through it.

You are invited to a formal gathering at Zexion Chaolan's mansion.

This invitation allows you and one other person access, but must be shown at the front gates.

"You can bring your lady friend," Axel teased. "She's pretty cute."

Riku gave Axel an incredulous look. "Why the hell are you inviting me to this?"

"Think of it as an opprotunity to get ahead in the game," Axel said nonchalantly. "But I should warn you, my Organization doesn't play fair."

Axel laughed as he disappeared through a dark portal, leaving a perturbed Riku standing on the rooftop, clutching the invitation.

Reverse

"Are we there yet?"

Everyone aboard the gummiship groaned.

"No Deadpool," groaned Sora. "For the 30th fucking time, we are not there yet."

"Oh, okay."

A brief silence followed, where Sora let out a relived sigh as he let his guard down.

"Are we there yet?"

Spoony grabbed one of Deadpool's pistols from a control console and unloaded it into Deadpool. Even he was annoyed by Deadpool's childish behavior.

"Ow!" he exclaimed defensively. "Just because I have an advanced healing factor, that doesn't mean getting shot doesn't hurt."

"I thought you said you were used to it?" Spoony mocked.

"Yeah, used to getting stabbed, shot, mutilated, poisoned..."

Three hours have passed and Deadpool was still listing off various fatal injuries he was able to survive. Sora was resting his head against the captain's chair, praying that the Merc with a Mouth would eventually shut up, while Spoony's eye was twitching. Naminé however, was still piloting the ship, seemingly tuning out Deadpool.

"...Castrated, blown up, shot repeatedly by Rorschach in that one web series..."

"AHHHHHH!" Spoony lost it. "ARE WE THERE YET!?"

"Yes," Naminé said brightly.

Outside the cockpit, the four of them could see the city of Radiant Garden below them. Straight ahead was the castle of Hollow Bastion. The castle looked old and decrepit, but also looked steampunk in nature, adding a somewhat unnerving feeling to the overall atmosphere of the place.

"Alright, the Committee said they would have a landing party waiting for us at the base of Hollow Bastion," Sora said. "There they are."

A group of people were standing in front of the entry way to the castle, several of them waving. The gummiship carefully landed on a circular platform, then exited the ship to greet their employers.

Sora grinned. "Hey, how's it going?"

None of the Committee members responded.

"Um...where can I find the leader of this group?"

"You want to speak to Auron, ya?"

A young man with red hair spiked up in the front and a boy about Sora's age with wavy blond hair made their way to the mercenaries.

"The name's Wakka, mon," the callicked man greeted.

"And I'm Tidus," the blond boyu said proudly. "Star player of the Zanarkand Abes-"

"I've only known you for two seconds and I already want to utterly slaughter both of you," Spoony said in a venomous tone. "I despise you both with the intensity of ten thousand suns, and if I have to put up with you two longer than I have to, I will butcher both of you with an honest to God smile on my face and feed your entrails to whatever dangerous predators exist in this part of the world as I incinerate both of your corpses and dance on your ashes for two years straight."

A stunned silence hung in the air as everyone stared at Spoony in disturbed disbelief.

"Looks like the rage he expressed in his Final Fantasy X review is starting to catch up to him in this fic," Deadpool said.

"Whoa, take it easy man," Tidus said worriedly, waving his hands. "We don't want any trouble..."

"Wakka! Tidus! What are you two doing?"

The Committee made way for a new person approaching the SeeD students, and Sora's eyes widened as the person drew closer.

It was a girl. Probably the most attractive girl he's ever seen. She had shoulder length red hair, smooth, creamy skin, and wore some pink dress that had zippers all around it and a hood on the back that perfectly fitted her petite figure. Her eyes were probably what caught Sora off guard the most. He couldn't tell whether they were a dark blue or a shade of violet, but as soon as he found them, he didn't want to look away.

"So, which one of you is the squad leader?" the girl asked.

Spoony shoved Sora forward, who cleared his throat.

"I-I am," he answered nervously.

The girl smiled and held out her hand for Sora to shake. "I'm Kairi Hikaru, second-in-command of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee."

Sora grinned and shook Kairi's hand, feeling his insides freeze up as he touched her flesh.

"Sora Fair."

Kairi's eyes widened. "You're Zack's son?"

Sora raised an eyebrow. "How do you-?"

"Auron's been wondering when he was going to meet you," Kairi said excitedly. "Right this way."

Rebirth

"I still think it's a trap."

Riku sighed as he put the virus infected flashdrive back on the desk and walked towards the mirror, tightening his belt as he walked.

"Of course it's a trap," he said as he finished buttoning up his white dress shirt. "But hopefully we can skirt around it and use this as an opprotunity to catch this son of a bitch."

"If you say so," Xion called from the bathroom. "But do I really have to wear this?"

"You're the one who picked it out!"

"I know, but now that I'm actually wearing it, I don't know if it's too much or what."

"Let me see," Riku said.

The door to the bathroom opened, and Riku's jaw dropped as low as it could possibly go.

Xion looked stunning. She was wearing a backless, sea salt blue dress with a neckline that didn't plunge too far down but still left enough of her chest exposed to distract any man (or woman) that came into contact with her. She wore seashell earings and kept her raven hair down, and her face had no traces of too much makeup, in fact if Riku didn't know better, he'd say that Xion wasn't wearing makeup. Not that she needed it. At all.

"Wow," Riku said. "You look...um, wow."

Xion smiled. "What, you've never seen a girl in a dress before?"

"I have," Riku chuckled. "But I've never been rendered speechless by one."

"Thanks. You don't look too bad yourself."

Xion raised an eyebrow. "How come you're not wearing the bowtie?"

Riku groaned. "I don't do ties. Especially bowties."

Xion tisked. "Come on, we need you to look classy."

"I can pull off classy without the damn tie."

"Riku, every other man will be wearing a tuxedo with a bowtie."

"Sorry, but I'm not a conformist." Riku smirked.

Xion grabbed the bowtie off the dresser while Riku wasn't looking and put on a seductive smile.

"You know, I always found men going against society's standards to be...arousing."

She purred the last word. Riku looked over at Xion in surprise.

"What?"

"You heard me."

Xion was getting closer to Riku. He wanted to move out of the way and remind Xion that they were supposed to try to be friends, but at the same time he wanted to just stand there and let Xion do whatever she wanted to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned towards his ear. Riku shivered, hoping Xion wouldn't notice.

"Why is it that a woman has to use a man's lust to get him to do what she wants?" she whispered.

"Umm...X-Xion?" Riku stuttered.

"Shh, it's okay. I'll be gentle."

Riku felt his throat tighten. Then, Xion let go of him and stepped back smiling in triumph. Riku looked down at his neck to see the bowtie tied perfectly around it.

"There. Now you look like you belong in that party," she said triumphantly.

Riku opened his mouth and closed it. He chose not to respond and instead opted to put on his dinner jacket and walk to the hotel room door, opening it and holding it open.

"After you."

Xion grinned and walked towards the door and cupped Riku's chin.

"Why, thank you darling."

She then went down the hall to the elevator, leaving Riku looking after her in stupified disbelief.

"What the fu-"

Deadpool: Alright, sorry to cut off right there, but it's time for a new segment I like to call... Deadpool's Wheel. Of. Torture!

An audience gave thunderous applause and wolf whistled and cheered on the merc with a mouth, who gave a humble bow and blew kisses into the crowd.

Deadpool: Alright, Alright, settle down folks. Now, not alot of you readers out there have been reviewing this story recently. I mean, come on. Stories on this site thrive on reviews, and reading a story without reviewing is like eating at a restaurant without paying the bill. And I know, I know, the author acknowledges that he doesn't review many stories himself, making him a hypocrite, but he wishes to change that in exchange for reviews for his own stories. I, however, found that not to be as fun, so I tied him up and locked him in the broom closet in the hallway. I tried bribing him by trying to hook him up with Emma Frost, but she said to wait for about 10 years.

A screen shows footage from the closet with Project Deathstar tied up in rope kicking at the door.

Project Deathstar: Wade! Get me out of here right now or I'll get Cable! Or Rorschach. Whoever will hurt you the most!

Deadpool: (laughs) What a card. But anyway, in order to get you guys to review, in this segment, everytime a new chapter gets posted, I kidnap and tie up two well known and loved Kingdom Hearts characters, and have a guest spin the wheel to decide the method of torture used. The characters can only be saved if people review. So let's introduce our victims for today!

The audience cheered as a spotlight shown on a red curtain.

Deadpool: Behind this curtain are two characters with more fangirls than any other character in this franchise combined. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Riku and Axel!

The curtain is lifted to reveal Riku and Axel tied to chairs, struggling to get free. The crowd cheers even harder.

Riku: What the hell am I doing here?

Axel: Let us go you psycho!

Deadpool: (laughs) No. Anyway, my wheel spinning guest today is someone who is well known for taking pleasure in causing pain to people he doesn't like. I give you... Vegeta, prince of the Saiyans!

Vegeta is standing next to the torture wheel and glares as the crowd cheers.

Vegeta: This sounds suspiciously alot like the stupid Ginyus' show.

Deadpool: Come on, man! I know you love cold blooded torture!

Vegeta smirks.

Vegeta: You bet your ass I do!

Vegeta spins the wheel and it lands on 24 hours straight of listening to mashups of Rebecca Black and Nikki Minaj.

Riku and Axel's eyes widen.

Riku: No...

Axel: Please! Not that!

Deadpool pulls out a boombox.

Deadpool: Alright folks, you know what to do. Start leaving reviews, and you might be able to save these poor guys' sanities. It's all up to you.

Vegeta: This is going to be good.

Deadpool and Vegeta laugh as Riku and Axel start screaming.

A/N: But seriously, can you pllllleeeeaaasssseee review? It gets lonely without them :(