Longer chapters are always made of yay. Or something. I had no idea what to name this chapter, I hope this works.
To clear up any confusion beforehand, there are no OCs in this story. There'd be no plot twist if there were. So, who might the man in the black cloak be...? We'll have to wait and see, but rest assured, you won't be waiting for too long!
Amity Invasion
By FlikFreak
Chapter Nine: Everyone's Got a Secret
Sora found himself staring at the roof in the middle of the night. It was difficult to sleep knowing that the heartless were running about, but somehow he managed to do it. What bothered him at the moment, however, wasn't the heartless, but Danny. When he first heard them speaking, he knew that Vlad and Danny didn't get along. He had been almost all the way up the stairs when he heard remarks being shot back and forth like bullets in a western shootout. He had hoped to intervene to calm down the tension, but something didn't seem right about the visitor. Sora's instinct had turned out to be right when Vlad commented about his family.
I wonder how they're doing anyway, Sora thought lazily. I haven't seen Mom and Dad in two years. I sure hope they aren't worried about me…
As though to quell his anxiety, Sora felt a quick rush of warmth through him: a feeling he recognized as the keyblade being summoned. He checked his hand and, sure enough, there it was. He gave a half-grin to no one in particular. The keyblade was indeed a sentient weapon; it had a tendency to appear whenever Sora needed it most, whether in a battle or just for some reassurance. Keeping a happy face on, even in the darkest of times, was something that Sora had come to be good at, but it never stopped him from having doubts.
"Can't sleep, I take it?"
Sora turned over in his sleeping bag just in time to see Danny Phantom finish phasing through his bedroom window. The keyblade master shrugged and sat up, hand still clutching the keyblade. "Not a bit," Sora replied tiredly, stretching one arm and yawning. "What're you doing out?"
Danny shrugged. "Ghost patrol. Luckily no one's out tonight. There haven't been that many ghost attacks since the heartless showed up."
"You don't think the ghosts became heartless, do you?" Sora asked.
"I doubt it," Danny replied. "The ones in the ghost zone are probably busy trying to keep the heartless away. Skulker's probably handling them all solo."
Sora blinked. "Skulker? You've got someone following you?"
Danny chuckled. "Well, he actually does do that. He's a ghost that wears a high-tech battle suit. Says he's the greatest warrior of the Ghost Zone and never stops coming after me."
"Great," Sora commented almost sarcastically. "You have more than one arch-nemesis." Just like me. Organization XIII, Maleficent…I wonder how many he's got.
"Skulker isn't really like that," Danny replied, shifting quietly back to human form. "Sure, he's my enemy and all, but he's actually helped me every now and then…sometimes without actually knowing it. He never admits why though…just says that it gives him more of a reason to hunt me and rest my pelt at the foot of his bed."
Sora wrinkled his nose. "That's disgusting," he groaned, trying not to form a mental image and failing.
"Disgusting is right," the halfa said, pulling the blankets over himself again. "Anyway, I'm going to head back to sleep. You should too if we're going to if we're going to head to the Nasty Burger tomorrow." With that, Danny fell silent.
Glancing at the keyblade momentarily as though asking it what to do, Sora finally shrugged and slunk back into his sleeping bag, dismissing the weapon in a subtle shower of sparkles. It wasn't easy drifting back to sleep, but he managed to pull it off as he always did. Let's just hope tomorrow isn't as packed as today was.
Sora woke up the next morning at about the same time Danny did. When the two made it downstairs, they found a note waiting on the table:
Danny,
Your father and I are spending most of the day in town today. There are leftovers in the fridge if you get hungry. Let Jazz know if you head to town and make sure you're home in time for your curfew. Don't play in the lab.
Love, Mom
Danny stared at the note with a narrow gaze. "That's odd," he began. "I thought something came up yesterday when they were in town a whole lot, but they're gone again today, too."
"Does that happen often?" Sora asked, partially knowing what the answer was going to be.
Confirming his suspicion, the halfa shook his head. "Not really. Last time this happened they wound up kidnapped by ghosts to power some sort of ghost pirate ship, but when that happened they were hypnotized and just said that they were going on a cruise. I wonder what they're up to."
It was at that moment hat Jazz entered the kitchen, a book under one of her arms. "Good morning," she mumbled, apparently still half-asleep.
Danny grinned. "Stay up late reading?"
"Not really," the girl responded a bit stiffly, casting an odd glance at Sora. "I was doing research…"
Sora was about to ask about the research when he noticed Jazz's expression become very strained. He had seen that look before on several of the people he had met in the past (and he had even seen it on himself several times) when they were hiding something. Danny just grinned and headed for the refrigerator. "Cereal okay for you for breakfast, Sora?" he asked.
"Yeah," Sora replied. "Anything's good, just as long as it's food."
Danny grinned and pulled out the milk. He had prepared the bowls of cereal and was about to prepare breakfast when Jazz called one last remark over her shoulder. "By the way, Danny, we're out of milk. Mom and Dad are using the leftover milk jugs to keep some of the ectoplasmic residue samples. I'll be at the library if you need me."
Both boys stared blankly as the girl closed the door behind her. A sizzling sound caught their attention as they looked down at the cereal bowl that Danny had just prepared: a single drop of what he thought was milk had caused his breakfast to glow for a few moments before frying to a crisp. Sora swallowed nervously. "I think I just lost my appetite," he groaned.
"Dry cereal okay with you?" Danny asked.
Sora nodded, groaning inwardly. "Better than eating anything radioactive."
After breakfast, Sora and Danny headed upstairs to pass the time. Eventually they settled on firing up Doomed, which Sora was very eager to try. When he logged in and started up his avatar, however, he noticed something very familiar about it. It looked just like him, but he was wearing a dark grey outfit covered in blue linear designs, complete with a circuit-style helmet and key-shaped weapon.
Well what do you know, Sora said in his mind, chuckling at the inside joke. That's how I look whenever I go into Ansem's computer.
"Nice avatar," Danny commented. "How'd you design him?"
Sora grinned proudly. "Specializing in close-range attacks, electrokinesis and environmental perception."
"That's a hard type to start out with," Danny said, blinking. "You're pretty good with it."
"It's my specialty," Sora replied simply.
Friar Tuck: hey sora
Kingdomkey: hey tuck wats up?
Friar Tuck: just playing alittle b4 we meet at the nasty burger
Kingdomkey: cool
Kingdomkey: dannys showing me the ropes
Friar Tuck: nice
Friar Tuck hi danny
Danny grinned at the screen while Sora picked up a key and headed for the next level.
Kingdomkey: danny sez hi
Friar Tuck: u have a close combat char?
Kingdomkey: yeah its my favorite kind
Friar Tuck: u got electro too? sweet
Sora continued firing through levels in attempt to catch up with Tucker when he came across a suspicious looking hallway. It had no shading like it was supposed to. Curious, Sora began to head for it when Danny stopped him. "I wouldn't go there if I were you."
"Why not?" Sora asked.
"It's level zero," Danny replied, a hint of dry humor in his voice. "A glitch in the program. One way in, no way out." He paused in thought. "Well, there is a way out but it doesn't exactly work."
It wasn't long before Sora had caught up with Tucker (much to Danny's surprise). While they plowed their way through monsters, Sora struck up conversation with Danny. "Are you and Tucker the only people besides me that play this game?"
"That I know of?" Danny replied. "No. Sam plays, too, and she kicks our butt a lot."
Sora's eyes widened considerably and he barely dodged a blast from an enemy sniper. "Not bad! I can't see her doing that, though."
Danny laughed. "We couldn't either," he said. "But once we found out it was her she joined our team."
Chaos: Hey, Tuck.
"Speak of the devil," the halfa observed.
Friar Tuck: hey sam
Kingdomkey: hi sam
Chaos: Who's this?
Friar Tuck: it's sora
Chaos: Hi, Sora! Danny showing you the ropes?
Kingdomkey: yeah
Kingdomkey: playing close range is fun
Chaos: You've got Electrokinesis, too. Did you base your avatar off of yourself or something?
Kingdomkey: yeah
Kingdomkey: more than I thought
"More than you thought?" Danny asked.
Sora laughed. "Another long story," he replied.
Friar Tuck: gtg guys, ill meet u at the nb
Chaos: I'll get going, too. Mom wants me to clean my room before I go anywhere today. See you guys soon!
Friar Tuck has logged out.
Chaos has logged out.
"NB?" Sora echoed.
"The Nasty Burger," Danny replied. "Tucker and Sam live closer than we do. They're probably going to head over there right now.
"Wait a minute," Sora began, piecing together a few things in his mind. "If they live closer and they're leaving already, does that mean we're going to be late if we leave now?"
Danny smirked. "Not really."
Sora blinked in confusion until he discerned the look on his friend's face. He knew that expression anywhere; Riku had used it when he had the idea to build the raft. "Um…so how are we going to get there without breaking several laws of physics?"
"Easy," Danny replied, transforming into his ghostly alter-ego.
That's pretty self-explanatory, Sora noted.
Danny grabbed a pencil and paper. "I'll leave a note for Jazz that we're at the Nasty Burger. You log out of Doomed and wait for me in here."
As Danny vanished through the wall, Sora quickly logged out of the game and shut off the computer. Within moments, Danny was back. Before Sora could ask what the plan was, the halfa was already filling him in. "We're flying there."
"Flying?" Sora echoed. Sure, he was capable of flight himself, but he preferred not to use it unless absolutely necessary, regardless of how much fun it was. "I know you can fly, but what about me?"
"Hello?" Danny said, crossing his arms slyly. "Ghost powers? I have more strength than normal when I'm a ghost. I can carry you."
Before the keyblade master could protest, Danny had grabbed him and taken off for the window. Sora braced himself for impact, but a strange tingling feeling swept through him and before he knew it they were outside, the wind whipping past them and the city underneath a complete blur. Sora's eyes widened in shock. "This is awesome!" he cried.
"I know," Danny replied. "And at this rate we'll be there in less than two minutes!"
"Aren't we going to be seen?"
"Nah. We're both invisible right now."
Sora at first doubted his friend, but when he turned to glance at his own hand, which he suddenly found was nowhere to be seen, he dropped his questions.
It wasn't long before the two arrived at the restaurant in question. Danny brought Sora to the back behind a dumpster at first so he could slip into human form. As they entered, they quickly found the table where Sam and Tucker were seated and joined in. "Sorry we're late," Danny said, grinning oddly.
"You're only late by a few minutes," Tucker replied, glancing at his PDA.
Sam smirked. "Defying the laws of physics again?" she asked.
Danny nodded. "Yeah," he replied as he and Sora sat down. He immediately lowered his voice. "So, about this whole heartless thing…"
"You first," Tucker said immediately.
Sora caught Danny's eye and gave forward an abridged version of the explanation he had given the halfa the previous night about what the heartless were, carefully leaving out the part about the world vanishing if they reached the world's heart, instead only saying that he heartless should not reach it. "If I can find the keyhole, I'll be able to stop them and get this under control. Until then we'll just have to do what we can."
"As a Goth, the whole darkness thing should be appealing to me," Sam said dryly as usual, "But that's just way too much for my style."
"There's more," Danny said. "Vlad was at my house last night. He knew about the attack that happened near my house."
"Why am I not surprised?" Sam commented.
"He also seems to know about Sora," the halfa continued. "More than he should, actually. We can't be sure yet if he's a part of this mess, but he knows way too much not to."
"I say we keep an eye on him just in case," Sora agreed. "After all, didn't you see him with a guy in a black cloak, Tucker?"
The techno-geek nodded. "Yeah, and I got a picture of him just last night after I headed home. Take a look." He pulled out his PDA and showed it to the group. Vlad, dressed in his usual attire, standing next to a suspiciously black-cloaked man. Eyes widening, Sora grabbed the PDA from the boy's hand. Tucker gave him a half-glare for the gesture. "Hey, what was that for?"
"I know that cloak anywhere," Sora grumbled quietly, ignoring Tucker's question. "That guy's from Organization XIII."
"Organization XIII?" Danny asked. "Who're they, a bunch of people obsessed with back luck?"
Sora shook his head. "No. They're a group of people called Nobodies, people without hearts. I thought I'd wiped all of their officers out. Looks like I missed one."
"So, is this the guy bringing the heartless here?" Sam asked.
"Probably," Sora replied. "At least, he's the one that introduced them. If he was seen with the mayor, then he's either trying to pull that guy's strings or Vlad really is the one commanding them."
"It's painfully obvious if you ask me," Tucker said. "He's hanging out with him and he's talking about stuff he shouldn't know from what I gather. If that doesn't have 'I'm your enemy' written all over it, I don't know what does."
"Hey, Fen-turd!"
The annoying sound of Dash's voice was quickly followed by an equally obnoxious mayonnaise-covered bun finding a new home on the back of Danny's head. The halfa groaned, his eyes flickering green for the slightest second before Sora gripped his shoulder. "Don't react and they won't get what they want," he warned.
"I beg to differ," Danny grumbled as he removed the offending bread from his hair, but Sora could tell that he agreed anyway.
"Getting a little revenge wouldn't hurt though," Sora added, winking.
Danny grinned, but placed a hand in the air in disagreement. "No thanks. Last time I did that I ended up in a huge mess involving switching places with a ghost that haunted my locker."
"It didn't end well either," Tucker added.
"There's something else suspicious going on," Danny began. "When Sora and I were headed down for breakfast, my parents were already gone. They haven't been away so often in a long time, and I don't think it's a coincidence."
"I'd be glad if I were you," Sam mumbled. "Your parents are about as annoying and crazy as mine are."
Sora noticed a strange look in Danny's eyes as the halfa replied. "I'm happy, sure, but it just doesn't seem right. Remember what happened the last time my parents vanished? Everyone's parents ended up being the power source for Youngblood's pirate ship."
"But it's just your parents this time," Tucker pointed out. "Is Jazz with them?"
"No," Danny replied, "But she said she's been researching."
"I think it's a bit more than that," Sora said suddenly, getting everyone's interest. "I may not know Jazz as well as you guys or especially Danny, but she didn't seem like she was telling us everything when she mentioned research. I might be getting a bit paranoid, but wouldn't she be telling Danny a few details at least?"
Surprisingly, Danny nodded in agreement. "She was probably doing something related to ghost hunting," he said. "She knew my secret for a while but I didn't find out until later. She probably thinks you're still innocent, Sora."
"Innocent?" Sora echoed in disbelief. "I didn't commit any crimes."
"Figure of speech."
"So what now?" Sam asked. "We know who brought these things here, and we have a pretty good idea who's controlling them."
"If we find the keyhole and seal it up, we'll be able to stop them," Sora explained. "It's our only option right now. The only problem is, we have to find it before they do, and we have no idea where it is."
"I doubt Clockwork will appreciate another visit," Tucker groaned.
Sora shook his head. He definitely doesn't seem like the type. The only way I've known in the past where the keyhole was located was this weird feeling I got…that or the keyblade just acted on its own. "There's one way to know where it is though, but it's hard to explain. I can usually sense it when I get near it, but other times the keyblade just acts on its own to point it out. It's different for every place I go, so you'll just have to trust me on this."
"So we're wandering around in the dark," Danny concluded. When Sora nodded, he shrugged. "Well, it could be worse."
As though on cue, a burst of screams erupted from outside the restaurant. On instinct, Sora leapt up and raced out the door to find the source; Danny and the others weren't far behind. Once outside, he found that the assailant was, in fact, an enormous but familiar heartless. His eyes quickly traveled over the creature's form to identify it: cloven hooves, violet colored skin, two very large tusks and a horn on its forehead, tiny eyes… "A behemoth," he grumbled. "It's been ages since I've seen one of these."
"Anyone up for playing matador?" Tucker asked no one in particular, a hint of fear in his voice.
"You familiar with this thing?" Sam asked Sora.
"Very," The keyblade master replied, nodding. "It's a behemoth, a very powerful heartless. This isn't the first time I've run into one, and every time I do I hope it's the last time."
"I take back what I said earlier," Danny said, wincing. "Things just got a lot worse!"
Kingdom Hearts gets most of its love in the sequel and Organization XIII. It's about time we got some good old-fashioned heartless in on the job. Behemoths are so much fun!
Anywho. This chapter is over 3,000 words long. WOOT!
