Chapter 11: Chris Talonflight: Surprise
I awoke groggily. Yuffie, as usual, was still asleep. I smiled as I looked down on her sleeping form. I stood and stretched, allowing my newly relaxed muscles to work off my sleep.
I exited the room, snatching a towel, and headed for my bathroom. Turning the knobs on the shower, I managed to get the water to an optimal temperature. I stood there, allowing the warm water to wash over me.
After my shower, I dressed and entered the training room. I switched on the controls, and entered my desired settings.
A hologram of Leon appeared in the arena. At the same time, Nudge appeared from a dark portal behind me. I smirked, and bent down to pet my friend.
"Squeak!" my small shadow heartless squealed, and jumped up to sit on my shoulder.
"You ready?" I asked my friend. Nudge nodded, and jumped down to the arena floor. I followed suit. When we landed, a barrier came up around the edges of the arena and the lights turned from a calm blue to a fierce red.
Holo-Leon and I clashed; his gunblade against my Soul Eater. Holo-Leon pushed me back a few feet, before I did a back flip behind me. I landed, and fired a weak bolt of dark energy at him. He dodged it, and began firing blasts at me from his gunblade. I used the darkness to propel me through midair in a gliding move. Then I called on Nudge to throw me towards Holo-Leon. My ally did as required, as well as conjuring a dark shield around me when I landed behind Holo-Leon. Holo-Leon was distracted with fending off Nudge, and I took the opportunity to kick him down. However, Holo-Leon then summoned a circle of explosions around him, knocking Nudge into a wall. I then engaged him in a slashing duel for a few moments. Then, when I again locked blades with him, I summoned a storm of black electricity. The storm slammed into Holo-Leon, sending him flying, but he managed to land on his feet. Holo-Leon had deflected the brunt of the attack with more explosions. I growled. Nudge ran up to me and hopped on my shoulders. He swayed for a moment, and then seemed to fuse with me. As a result from the excess darkness, I went darkness-form: The name I had dubbed the form of me when I had the black fighting outfit with the Heartless symbol, as well as the blindfold. I summoned the second Soul-Eater, and faced off with Holo-Leon again. Holo-Leon charged me. I deflected his gunblade with my two Soul Eaters. I launched myself into a karate kick, which missed, but I used my momentum to rebound off the wall and slam into the ground, creating a dark shockwave. The shockwave slammed into Holo-Leon, who recovered quickly, and fired a blast at me with his gunblade, knocking me from my feet. I rolled, and came up on Holo-Leon's left. I then sank into the ground, like a shadow heartless, and dashed around Holo-Leon. The wall of darkness I inscribed around him stayed there after I surfaced. Then I made the trap close in on him. However, when the wall exploded, Holo-Leon stood there, having used a Reflect spell at the last second. In anger, I slammed my swords together, and called on the power of Last Chaos, the dark keyblade. I flew at him. He tried to block my strike, but my animal strength broke his block, and pushed him back. He dodged. I grabbed his blade with my darkness covered hand, and wrenched it away. It fell on the other side of the makeshift arena. I then kicked him in the stomach, hurling him to the ground. I reared back for the final blow, and slashed through the Holo-Leon's neck.
The lights in the arena turned from red to blue. I sighed, and walked back to the control panel, shutting off the combat system. Nudge gave a sigh, and hopped along beside me. I reached down to pet him, and he squealed. Nudge wandered into the kitchen, and opened a container of orange juice. I walked into the bedroom, where I picked up Yuffie. Yuffie was still asleep, and she barely stirred as I picked her up. I carried her to the living room, where she finally started to stir.
"Wha…" she mumbled. "Wha… happen….to…th…bed?"
"Rise and shine, princess." I teased. Yuffie blinked her eyes, which focused on my face. A tired smile lit her eyes.
"Hi… What time is it?" she asked.
"Eleven thirty. After last night, I decided we needed the sleep." I said. "You have to get going if we want to meet with the king and still have you meet Frostmourne and Rodney before going to the space station."
"oh, right, I forgot." she yawned, but made no attempt to escape my grasp. "Carry me to my closet."
"Lazy." I teased, but I did as required, depositing her on her feet in front of her closet, where she proceeded to pick out her clothes. She selected a pair of white and purple shorts, and a purple shirt with a white heart symbol on it. Over this she put on a ceremonial ninja chest piece of white armor, which covered her chest and upper back, as well as her shoulders. On her calves, she strapped on a set of purple ninja leggings.
"Your wearing the ceremonial ninja armor." I noted.
"I know." she rolled her eyes. "But seriously, I think that appearances count."
I raised an eyebrow. "Says the person who met me wearing practically nothing but a headband."
"Don't lie, you enjoyed it." Yuffie poked me in the stomach. "that reminds me, where's that headband of mine?"
"What, isn't there a ceremonial ninja headband?" I joked.
"My headband is automatically ceremonial." she waved it off, wrapping her headband around her head. After pulling on a pair of fingerless gloves, she strapped her giant shuriken to her back, and began depositing kunai and shuriken into slits and pockets which I hadn't even been able to see.
"Okay, I'm ready!" she said, smiling up at me.
"Lets go then!" I smiled back, bending down slightly to kiss her before opening a portal. We walked through hand in hand, and emerged in Disney Castle. It was at that moment that I realized something.
"Umm… do you have any idea how to get to the throne room?" I asked Yuffie, completely at a loss.
"Your guess is as good at mine." she shrugged. Seeing the downcast expression on my face, she squeezed my hand gently. "But don't worry. We'll get there."
After several minutes of wandering the castle, I was turning a corner ahead of Yuffie when I saw two figures ahead of me, both clad in black coats, their backs to me. One of them had spiky red hair, and had on several spiky rings. The other one had his hood up, but I could see several knives in his hands. Both the rings on the first figure's fingers and the knives held by the second figure flickered as if reflecting flame.
I looked at Yuffie, and held up a finger for silence. She silently poked her head around the corner, looking at the figures.
I stealthily summoned Soul Eater, walking quietly up behind the figures. When I reached the closer one, the one with the hood and the knives, I clamped my hand on his shoulder and spun him around.
He lashed out with his knives. I saw a tongue of flame shoot from the knives as he slashed with them in an expert manner. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw flame blossoming in the hands of the other figure. Yuffie slashed with her keyblade, and the figure dodged.
"What the hell!" the hooded figure yelled as I charged at him. I started as I hear the voice, and nearly got slashed open by his flaming knives.
I knew that voice.
I leapt backwards, grabbing Yuffie and pulling her with me. I stared at the two figures standing in front of me. As I watched, the figure with the spiky hair engulfed his coat in flames, causing it to burn away, revealing a black and red tank top, with a dark gray button down collared shirt worn on top, unbuttoned, along with a pair of jeans. His arms were wrapped with white bandages. The second, hooded figure suddenly snapped his fingers causing red flame markings to cover his previously black top, which I realized now was merely a hoodie, not an Organization coat.
"Jesus? Kemar?" I asked. The two figures started, before straightening up.
"Oh shit…" the one with spiky hair said. "Chris?"
"Duh, Jesus." I smirked. "I haven't seen you guys for years."
Kemar, the one with the hood, lowered his hood, revealing his curly hair. He shook his head. "Dude. I know that the King was going to have us meet today, but I didn't know you had the darkness in you."
"the darkness is mine in the way that the fire is yours." I glanced at their weapons. "So you have clawing rings and knives. Your both fire-types, too. I guess this is the surprise that the king was telling me about."
"Unfortunately, you found it." a voice squeaked from behind me. I turned around, looked left and right, looked up, and then finally looked down and saw the king.
"Oh!" I exclaimed. "Sorry, your majesty."
"They were the surprise: the knowledge that quite a few people in your world actually have suppressed powers. We found quite a few of them, and their actually undergoing training here in Disney castle." The King explained. "You'll meet others as we go along."
We all fell into step as the king began walking. Jesus and Kemar walked with us. Jesus noticed Yuffie first, since he had fought her briefly.
"I don't believe we've been properly introduced." he spoke smoothly. "I'm Jesus Cruz. What's your name?"
Yuffie looked at him, slightly amused. "Hey! I'm Yuffie Kisaragi Stromwind, the strongest ninja ever!"
"You're a ninja?" Jesus said. "Awesome!"
I rolled my eyes.
"Are you doing anything after this?" Jesus asked.
Yuffie winked discreetly at me. "Actually, I'm not doing anything. How about you?"
"Really?" Jesus said. "Me neither. How about we hang out somewhere?"
"And here we are!" the king said, obviously trying to fend off an impending fight over Yuffie. "This is the first of the training halls." he led us into a large square room. One of the walls was glass, and I realized we were in an overseers box overlooking the training area. "In this room is trainee 042. She has developed the ability to harness wind, similar to Xaldin, the former member of Organization XIII. However, instead of lances, she has these." he pointed down to the arena.
Hovering completely motionless above the ground was a girl with Chinese-American features. Her face was lit with concentration, and her hands were held out slightly to her sides, palms up. Rotating around her at incredible speeds were six different swords. As I watched, heartless continued to try and jump at her, but each time a sword would flicker out, and kill it, before returning to its rotation.
"Wind Blade." Kemar commented. "She likes that move.
"I don't believe it." I was more focused on her identity. Her hair was similar to Yuffie's in length and style. However, her hair had a green streak in the front. Her eyes, also, were not purple, but a deep brown. I nudged Kemar in the side.
"You still wanna tap that, huh?" I asked, teasingly.
Kemar glared. "that was HIGH SCHOOL, for god's sake!"
"What? Did you call me?" Jesus said.
"Huh?" Yuffie asked, confused.
"He said 'God'." Jesus protested.
I grabbed the microphone that was connected to the speakers. "Watch this." I said to the people in the room. Turning on the mike, I yelled.
"CHAN IS A MAN WITH A PLAN!" (For anyone who goes to my school, you should recognize this).
My friend from High school, Cynthia Chan, jumped two feet off of her platform of air. I grinned, and waved. When she saw me, she rolled her eyes, waved, and tried to suppress a smirk, while her wind blades decapitated yet another heartless.
"I had a feeling you'd show up." she yelled.
"Nice to see you too, Cynthia." I smirked. I then followed the King out of the cubicle, and into an adjacent one.
"Trainee number 041, ice-type." Kemar explained. "Ability to manipulate all under the cold's control."
"Daniel Chase." I smirked. Danny was scything a large sword through a group of heartless in a style similar to Saix from Organization XIII. He stopped suddenly, turned around in a 360 spin, causing ice spikes to shoot from his body. He parried a blow from a Paladin Heartless, a new kind I hadn't yet seen. The Paladin carried a double ended longsword, and was shaped like a man with a small head.
Chase snapped his fingers, and a white orb flew from the end of his sword, slamming into a Paladin Heartless, causing it to fly backwards. While it was still in midair, it froze solid, immobilized completely. When it his the ground, it shattered into fragments. The head of the Paladin came bouncing towards him. With a quick slash, he shattered it as well.
"He designed that sword himself." Jesus commented. "He named it 'Fate's Bad End'."
"Anyone who ends up facing that sword is certainly on Fate's Bad End." I nodded.
Daniel spotted me. He slashed a heartless in half, dodged under a Paladin's strike, and waved at me.
"Trainees 013 and 472 are in here, training together." the king led me into another overseer's booth. In the room below, I saw an African-American young man wielding a pure black scythe. The scythe seemed to crackle with a strange dark energy, but then would shine for an instant when he swung it, creating a white blur. Also, teleporting around the room was a second trainee, with Dutch-American features, firing a pair of large handguns. As I watched, he teleported up to a higher elevation. He pressed a switch in his guns, and inserted the barrel of the first gun into the second one. Also, the barrel of the second gun extended. After a few more modifications, he was holding a high-tech sniper rifle. From his new elevation, he fired at the simulated drones that were encircling the scythe wielder.
"Trainee 013, Keith Davis, wielding his personal battle scythe Skeith." Kemar said. "Don't you remember him? He went to high school with us."
"Yes, I do." I smiled reminiscently at the memory of the light hearted joker from my high school days. Days that seemed so long ago, now.
"And I believe you recognize trainee 472." the king pointed out.
"Yeah I do." I grinned, before opening a dark portal. I walked through it, entering the training grounds. "Jesse."
Instantly, a bullet bounced of the ground inches away from me. I flinched, before staring at Jesse. He saw that I was no ordinary heartless, and traded his sniper rifle for his pistols. Teleporting down, he started teleporting to random locations, firing at me. I merely summoned a shield of darkness around me, encasing me as I walked slowly towards Keith. I snapped my fingers, drawing his attention. He jumped at me, but I ducked under his scythe and blocked a riposte with Soul Eater. I jumped backwards, dodging a sniper shot from Jesse. Keith slashed at me yet again, which I deflected with a dark shield.
"Hey Keith." I said, chuckling. Keith started, and stared, his Skeith scythe disintegrating in his hands as he unconsciously dismissed it.
"Oh shit, Chris?" he laughed. "Where you been?"
Jesse's pistol shot brought me back into the present, and I barely ducked the shot by reflex. I back-flipped and kicked at Jesse. The instant before I hit him, he teleported to my other side. He swung the butt of his gun at me, and I dodged. He fired, and I ducked, before firing a dark Firaga. I glanced at my left armored arm, and concentrated hard. Sure enough, the black armor of my arm slowly grew white techno lines on it. I swung my hand, and it left a slight afterimage. This was the only light-based move I knew how to do: I named it Light Claws. I lashed out with it again, and Jesse dodged, before teleporting to the ground, next to Keith.
"Your good." he smirked. "Now who the hell are you?"
I feigned hurt. "Jesse! Are you serious? You don't recognize your own brother?"
Jesse flinched. "Ohhh! My bad! Seriously! I didn't recognize you!" then his embarrassment faded into anger. "So what if I didn't recognize you! You've been gone for around four years! How would I recognize you?"
I laughed. "Your still as temperamental as always, Jess."
"Don't make me kick your ass." he warned.
"You can't." I smirked.
"And why not?" he asked, his voice dangerous.
"Because the king is right behind you." I explained.
Jesse whirled, and saw the king standing there. The king shook his head.
"I know that brothers are supposed to fight, but couldn't you two make peace for a few minutes?" the king tried to pacify. Jesse was still bristling, but he waved the king off, returning to his training. I smirked.
"He's still as tempermental as he always was." I grinned, speaking to the king. "Sorry for upsetting him, but hey: I gotta make up my sibling annoyance quota for all those years I missed!"
The king smiled a bit at that. We came up on a large room, similar to a lounge. The king left us here.
"I'm sure you guys have things you want to talk about." he explained. "You haven't seen each other for years; you should catch up." with that, he scurried from the room, seemingly intent on avoiding witnessing a battle between me and Jesus over Yuffie.
As if on cue, as soon as the king left the room, Jesus turned on the charm. "Hey Yuffie, after this, do you want to go to Destiny Islands with us?" He asked. "We were all going to go to the beach."
"The king is letting you borrow his Gummi Ship?" I asked.
"Yeah." they nodded. "Since we're the first ones to complete our training, we get a vacation."
Yuffie grinned, and winked discreetly at me again. "Well, are you sure your ready to battle the Harbingers?"
"Definitely." Jesus nodded.
Yuffie stood, and stretched. However, in the middle of the stretch, we heard a ssssthunk noise, and all looked at Jesus to see a shuriken sticking out of the wall an inch away from his face,
Yuffie smiled predatorily. "You sure about that?"
Jesus stood slowly. "Was that a challenge?" he smirked.
"Definitely." Yuffie smiled.
Yuffie was smirking confidently. She didn't even look tired. In her right hand was her giant shuriken, and in her left was a kunai.
Jesus, on the other hand, looked exhausted. His hands were covered in flame, and his eyes were et determinedly on Yuffie.
Yuffie suddenly disappeared in a flash of smoke. She reappeared behind Jesus, slashing at him with her kunai. Jesus managed to dodge forwards, avoiding her slash, and lashed out with his fist, flame coming from it in a stream, directed at Yuffie.
Yuffie hurled a kunai at him. He intercepted it with a fireball. She dodged past him, slicing at him with another kunai as she ran. Then Jesus threw a large fireball. Yuffie threw her giant X shaped Shuriken. The two projectiles bounced off of each other, the fireball dissipating, the giant shuriken landing in Yuffie's hands.
"Out of the way!" Jesus yelled, as he ran forwards, leaving a trail of flames behind. Yuffie dodged, hurling shurikens and kunai at him. He countered with fireballs.
This battle had been going on for the last hour. During this hour, Kemar and I had successfully eaten ice cream, gone to see the final three trainees (Locks, who wielded brass knuckles Imbued with limited gravity powers; Kaelin, who wielded a sword suspiciously similar to that sword from Inu-Yasha; and Sparky, who wore stylish clothes and a nice hat, and decimated his opponents with a cane sword.
"All right guys, time to stop." I called, opening a dark portal to the arena floor. Yuffie relaxed, sheathing her weapons and walking over to me. She hadn't even used her keyblade. She turned around and leaned on me, facing Jesus. I crossed my arms over her, hugging her from behind. I arched my eyebrow at Jesus, who frowned. I discreetly tapped my wedding ring against Yuffie's, and Jesus's eyes widened.
He hadn't realized he was hitting on a married woman.
I laughed, and waved him over. "Come on. I've got to drop Yuffie off at the Gummi Hanger. She's going to inspect Ashley's own personal ISS." I frowned. "Are you sure that you want to go?"
"You know I am." she nodded. "It'll be fine." she grabbed my hand. "I'll be going with Frostmourne, Chris. To him, even a type A Harbinger would be just a bit of fun. While he took care of it, he would be telling me a story about a bit of REAL trouble, like an army of High Inquisitors."
"All right, all right, I know when I'm beat." I put up my Hands in surrender.
We all walked out of the room, and realized that none of us knew how to get to the Hanger. That was a laugh.