Hello everyone, and welcome back to The X-Keepers!
Just in time for The X-Keepers PAX East trip, we continue on with our adventures in Port Royal, as more hijinks ensue and BIG stuff happens. But, we'll get to that in a sec...
In the meantime, lets just wrap up this little intro so we can get to the good stuff. Enjoy today's chapter!
Kingdom Hearts and all related media are owned by SquareEnix/Disney
CHAPTER 10
VoltEditzz traversed through the streets, trying to find where HMK had gone. He had been walking for quite some time now, and had found no trace of him anywhere. He had really hoped that HMK hadn't gotten himself into trouble. A bad temper was one thing, but having a bad temper while harboring power over darkness? It just sounded like a disaster waiting to happen. Walking into one of the town squares, Volt looked around again, trying to find his friend, though still with no success.
The young Keyblade wielder groaned. "C'mon, where are you?" Volt muttered, as he laid eyes on the courthouse not that far from him. People were gathering around it quickly, meaning something must have been going on.
"Did you hear? They caught one of his cohorts!" Volt overheard someone say, "I hear he had some weird sword with him." That last part caught Volt's attention immediately. HMK must have got himself in trouble! Deciding to investigate, Volt made his way over toward the courthouse, just as some people were beginning to move away.
Finally, as Volt made it to the entrance, he saw HMK being pushed into a carriage, alongside another strange prisoner. Volt wanted to act as quickly as he could, but after noticing the large amount of guards surrounding the area, that didn't really sound like the best of options.
"I got to get him out of there." He muttered, before ducking into the alley behind him. Thus, Volt summoned his Jetpack and began to follow the carriage. Wherever it would lead him, he hoped he could get HMK to safety.
"I must tell you, mate, you did a lot better on that retched podium than most of the other blokes I've had to scurry out of there." Jack explained to HMK, as the young Keyblade wielder was dumbfounded from what he was hearing.
"Wait, you did that on purpose?" He questioned, "Then why am I being sent to prison?"
"Because you're not," Jack answered, pointing to the front of the carriage, "I paid off the driver. We're instead headed for port, that way you can find yourself a nice ship to take off with and leave before anyone even notices you're gone!"
HMK sighed relief, though was a bit hesitant. "Well in that case, I'm really thankful," He said, "But I'm actually with some friends. With any luck they're probably looking for me."
The hint of sorrow in HMK's voice caught Jack's attention. "You say that like it's a bad thing, mate." He said, to which HMK decided to fill his new acquaintance in on his troubles.
"Well, I recently had a bit of a fight with one of them, all because he thinks he should be leader over me."
"Ah fighting over position of Captain, I see," Jack said, pulling out a flask of water from his back pocket, "Well, I can tell you from personal experience, that never ends well, mate." Jack took a swig of his water, while HMK still gloomed across the carriage.
"You're telling me." He replied, "Now at this rate, we're never going to find that man in the black coat."
"Man in a black coat, you say?" Jack immediately turned his attention to HMK at this new revelation, "That sounds oddly familiar…"
HMK sat there, puzzled at Jack's reaction. "You've seen him before?" He asked the pirate, as Jack put away his flask to talk.
But before he could say anymore, the carriage came to a sudden halt, putting a grin across Jack's face. "Ah, we must've taken the shortcut." He exclaimed, as he and HMK headed for the exit to the carriage.
However, when the carriage had opened, the docks were nowhere in sight. Instead, barrages of rifles were held in front of them, with many angry royal guards pointing them at the duo. Both HMK and especially Jack were dumbfounded at what they were seeing. It had seemed that the driver Jack had paid off was being paid a little bit more from the opposing party.
Not sure what exactly to say, HMK whispered to Jack, "The docks wouldn't happen to be anywhere around here would they?"
Jack, still as a drunken pirate could be, simply responded, "…nope."
The halls and corridors of the royal palace were beautiful to say the least, but for now, that wasn't top priority for HMK to notice. As the sun shown bright through the windows, both he and Jack were dragged by their toes, a guard on either one of their arms, into what looked like a dining room. As they were continued to be dragged, the guards placed the duo in two separate chairs, side by side, and proceeded to shackle their hands and feet to the chairs.
As the guards exited, HMK looked to his the pirate beside him. "So, what grand scheme do you have for getting us out of here?" HMK asked.
Jack, meanwhile, was shaking his shackles quite loudly. "Quite difficult to say," He replied, "But we shouldn't be here much longer, mate, I guarantee you." Jack then continued to play around with his confinement, while HMK, annoyed, looked around the large room.
"What exactly did you do to get us here, Jack?" HMK asked. But before the pirate could answer, another voice entered the conversation.
"I'm afraid he did nothing, my dear boy." The voice said in a gentlemanly tone, as a corridor of darkness emitted from the centre of the room, where two figures in black coats entered the room, staring down HMK, whom identified one of them, who was hulking in stature to his companion, as the one who attacked him in the streets.
"In fact, most of this arrangement is because of you." The other figure spoke, as he raised a hand toward the hectic one, who only continued to look more confused as the conversation went on.
"I don't understand. Who are you people?" He demanded, as the man stepped back a bit.
"Oh, of course, where are my manners?" He said, as he went to pull his hood back, before his partner briefly stopped him.
"Are you sure we should be unmasking ourselves in front of these fools?" The man whispered in his low, booming voice, "What happens if this plan backfires?"
"Oh, come now, Kurai, we shouldn't be keeping our identities from brother. That would just be plain rude." The coat whispered back, as he continued to pull back his hood, as did his cohort with a heavy sigh.
Both appeared to have dark skin and golden eyes, while the larger man had a bald head and a black goatee, while the other man had a slicker hairstyle, which was coloured blue, as well as an earring on both ears resembling a Fleur-de-lis.
HMK looked at these two with great detail. He felt as though he had seen these two before, but he just couldn't figure out where.
"Now then, you asked who we are." The man then stepped forward with a small bow, "My name is Shinshi. You've met my cohort, Kurai." HMK looked past Shinshi at the large Kurai, who was mostly trying to avoid eye contact. "He's not much of a talker," Shinshi added.
"I beg to differ." HMK scoffed, as Jack decided to re-enter the conversation.
"Well, I'm sure you all have much to discuss, but if you would be so kind as to let me off and on my merry way, I will gladly let you all have your fun." The pirate said with a smile, only for Shinshi to let out a small laugh.
"I apologize, my friend." He replied, "But it seems an old acquaintance of yours hasn't had his opportunity to see with you."
Jack raised an eyebrow, confused. "Come again?" He asked, as Shinshi raised his hand toward the door behind him, which opened on command. From there, a figure could be seen through the door, as it began to step into the room. As the doors closed behind the figure, he stepped into the group with a bow, as Jack immediately recognized him.
"Apologize for my lateness, dear guests," The man greeted, "Other pressing matters had to be attended to."
"Nonsense," Shinshi replied, "If anything, you are right on schedule."
The man then continued to look upon Jack with a wicked smile. "Glad to see you again, Jack." He said, as the pirate smiled toward one of his own.
"Barbossa." Jack greeted, "Nice to see a fellow pirate make good of himself."
"Pirate? Nay. Privateer, on a sanctioned mission, under the authority and protection of the Crown." Barbossa chuckled, as Jack's former enemy pointed to the white wig placed atop of his head.
Jack simply shrugged, "As may be. First. What has become of my beloved Pearl?"
Barbossa then sighed, pointing to his wooden peg leg, "I lost the Pearl as I lost my leg!" He answered, "I defended her mightily enough, but she be sunk, nonetheless."
As Barbossa spoke, HMK noticed Jack becoming much angrier than he had ever seen him, as he was practically shaking in his seat. "You lost the Pearl?!" Jack growled, tugging at his shackles as he tried to lunge at Barbossa.
"The Pearl? What's that?" HMK asked, as Jack calmed down enough to explain.
"The Black Pearl. My ship, and prized possession, until someone stole from me." Jack glared at Barbossa, who only continued to retaliate.
"Under your command, the Pearl would have sunk ages ago, Jack," He spat, "Be lucky it had been afloat for as long as it has."
"That ship meant everything to me, Hector, and you knew that very well when you took mutiny against me." Jack argued back.
"The crew rallied behind me while you lounged in the gallows for all we knew." Barbossa shot back.
As the two continued to argue, HMK couldn't help but see something between the two pirates, as they bickered over who should have been captain. Kind of like how he and Sky argued over who should have been leader. Now after witnessing this, he knew that if one of them was leader, it would lead to the team's downfall, or worse. He couldn't let that happen if they were to get to the bottom of things.
During the argument, Shinshi and Kurai stood back, watching the feud take place, before Kurai decided that he had enough of this arguing. "Barbossa, this has gone on long enough!" Kurai boomed, "I believe we have other matters to attend to!"
Barbossa, snapping out of his rant, simply returned to his devilish grin. "That I believe you do." He said to the cloaked figures as he turned back to Jack one more time. "Jack, our sands be all but run. Where's the harm in joining the winning side?"
Jack, being a lot calmer than he has in a while, simply wore a blank expression across his face. "I understand everything," he said dully, "except for that hat."
Then, suddenly, and without warning, Jack snapped free from his shackles, and stood up in front of Barbossa, before tripping him off of his peg leg and onto the ground, pulling a pistol from Barbossa's pocket before he fell. Jack then turned and fired the pistol at HMK's shackles, collectively freeing him as well, before darting for the stairs, with Shinshi and Kurai not even bothering to go after him.
Barbossa, pulling himself up off of the ground, glared at the two figures. "What are you doing? You're letting him escape!" He asked, to which Shinshi scoffed, summoning a corridor of darkness behind Barbossa.
"Oh please, dear sir, it's not like he was the main objective." He simply waved off, as Kurai approached Barbossa from the side, and effectively pushed the former pirate through the corridor, as it disappeared in front of the duo.
HMK, pulling himself from the chair, stared at the two men, whom locked eyes with their captor. "Now, brother, there will be much for us to discuss, but if you come with us, all will be explained." Shinshi stated, as he held out a hand to HMK, whom only backed away in disgust.
"After you destroyed my home and almost tried to have me and my friends killed?" HMK responded, summoning his Keyblade, "Yeah, thanks but no thanks!"
Kurai scoffed, "Very well, then I guess you will not be leaving here alive." He said, as he threw a hand into the air, as both he and Shinshi disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke, replacing them with a small horde of Heartless in the room, surrounding HMK. Preparing for the incoming attacks, HMK raised his Keyblade to block the Heartless, unknowing that a silhouetted figure was flying toward the window behind him.
Finally, the figure smashed through the window, and immediately fired off shots of Thundaga in every direction, before landing beside HMK with his Keyblade posed out to the side, before dismissing it from his hand to look at his friend.
"Need a hand?" VoltEditzz remarked, as HMK dismissed his Keyblade.
"How did you find me?" He asked.
"Wasn't that hard, considering everyone in town has been talking about you." Volt explained, to which HMK rubbed the back of his neck.
"Yeah, I got to work on my incognito skills." He sheepishly remarked, as the two noticed more Heartless gathering into the room.
"We should probably get out of here." HMK said, to which Volt agreed.
"Which way?" Volt asked, as HMK looked around the room for an answer. Finally, remembering where Jack had gone off to, HMK pointed to the stairs.
"That way, c'mon!" He called out, as he and Volt darted for the stairs, evading the Heartless the best they could.
The two continued to trek throughout the castle, trying to find a way out, until they eventually came to a dead end, facing a window. "Great, now where do we go?" Volt asked.
"You didn't really think the 'escape' part of rescuing me through, did you?" HMK remarked.
"This is my first time, ok! I'm kinda making it up as I go!" Volt said in a panic, as the two looked around to find something to help them. It was by mere chance that HMK noticed that the window behind them could open, as he looked out at the street below, as carriages strolled along.
"Problem solved," HMK said, opening the window all the way, as Volt clicked in on his plan.
Together, the duo moved out onto the windowsill, as they tried to figure out their next step. As they looked around for more options, Volt looked back inside the building, only to see Shinshi and Kurai further down the hallway, glaring at him. Finally, Kurai fired off a massive blast of dark energy toward Volt, as he turned back to the ledge, as the blast flew past behind him and out above the street. However, the blast was powerful enough that it managed to catch both Volt and HMK off balance, as they both fell off the ledge, and began plummeting toward the ground.
But before the duo could land, they immediately caught themselves on an incoming carriage, landing on top of its roof. As they climbed to their feet, they noticed Kurai's darkness began to form into more hordes of Heartless, as they began to chase the carriage down the street.
"These guys just don't know when to quit do they?" Volt asked, out of breath.
"In most cases they never do!" The two Keyblade wielders whipped around at the sound of another voice, as HMK recognized the carriage driver as none other than the pirate he was captive with.
"Jack!" HMK exclaimed, as the elusive captain grinned at his new acquaintance.
"You might want to hold onto something, mate!" Jack responded, "This might be a rough getaway!"
Nodding to the pirate, HMK turned back to Volt, Keyblades now in hand, as the two tried to evade the incoming swarms of Heartless, as Jack steered the chase all across the town square.
"This is getting ridiculous!" Sky fumed, as SoraAlam and Cynical followed him down one of the alleys of town.
"You don't have to tell us twice." Cynical groaned, hoping that the nomad's complaining would subside soon.
"I mean, honestly, we've search this entire town and not once have we found any-"
Before Sky could finish his rant, a speeding carriage cut in front of where he was about to walk, as SoraAlam and Cynical joined him in noticing a massive swarm of Heartless chasing after said carriage.
"I take that back." Sky commented, as SoraAlam chimed in.
"Come on, we gotta go after them!" He said, as every sprinted down the street.
"Finally, some excitement!" Cynical cheered, as Sky and SoraAlam summoned their gliders, to which everyone boarded and blasted toward the chase.
Hoping from one moving carriage to the next, HMK and Volt hacked their way through the piles and piles of Heartless that poured onto the street, throwing everything they had at the enemy. Volt, landing back on Jack's carriage, shot off bolts of Thundaga in every direction, as the Heartless fell one by one. HMK, meanwhile, hung low on the carriage edges, as he burned the chasing Heartless to a crisp, as they attempted to close in on the Keyblade wielders.
"They just keep coming!" Volt exclaimed, as HMK joined him on top of the roof.
Jack, thinking of a way to help his new friends, spotted a carriage carrying coal, as an idea formed in his mind. Pulling his flintlock from his side, he aimed at a lantern hanging above the carriage and fired, setting all of the coals in the carriage on fire, and also causing them to fall out onto the streets, evaporating the Heartless until they had all cleared out. HMK and Volt both stared at amazement as well as sigh from relief, as Jack steered the carriage into a nearby alley.
As Jack tied the horse's straps to the carriage, Jack, as well as Volt and HMK, leaped from the carriage as it continued down the alley. Getting to their feet, the trio look back to see the new barricade they had created.
"Well, it seems we won't have any need for more squabbles now." Jack stated in his usual swagger, as Volt and HMK tried to catch their breaths.
"That, we can agree on." HMK sighed, as he and Volt heard a familiar voice calling out.
"Guys! Hey!" The duo looked to see SoraAlam, as well as Cynical and Skyward Wing, closing in on the two, as they dismissed their gliders as they approached the group.
"Are you guys ok?" Cynical asked.
"Eh, nothing we couldn't have handled." Volt shrugged, "How about you guys? Did you find anything helpful?"
"Nothing." SoraAlam replied, "Everywhere we looked we couldn't find anything."
"For all we know, he wasn't even here." Cynical sighed.
"Actually, he was." Everyone turned to see HMK with a hand raised, "And it wasn't just one person."
"There's more than one?" SoraAlam questioned, to which everyone stared attentively at HMK.
"I don't know how many more," HMK explained, "but whoever is causing trouble, they're not alone. And their probably not going to stop until we're all toast."
"Then it's high time we get a move on." Sky said, "The more people causing trouble means the more pain that's caused to others."
"Wait Sky," HMK called out to Sky, who stopped before he could go any further, "I actually want to apologize for earlier. I was a little out of line, and I don't think it's wise that we fight over something so unimportant."
Sky, taken aback by HMK's words, tried to think of how to reply. "Yeah, I guess I was a bit out of line too." He said back, "I just thought that we might need someone to be there for the team if anyone was to go down."
"Don't worry," HMK said, putting a hand on his shoulder, "We'll all be there for each other. From here on out, there's no leader amongst us. We're all equal." Everyone nodded accordingly, deciding that was the best course of action to go off of.
Inserting himself into the conversation, Jack swaggered beside the group. "Well, looks like you lot will have a lot on your hands, what with having to save the worlds and all." He said, making everyone do a double take.
"Wait, how do you know we're from another world?" SoraAlam questioned, to which Jack pointed to the group.
"After you've seen one Keyblade, mate, it's not that hard to figure out." He grinned, "After all, I managed to figure that out when I first met young Sora."
Everyone's jaws dropped at the name Jack just mentioned.
"You knew Sora?!" Sky gasped, as did everyone, as Jack went onto explain.
"Of course. Was a brave lad indeed, along with his other companions." He said, "Would have made a fine pirate one day, if I may say so myself."
Everyone was in awe. "You wouldn't have happened to know what happened to him, do you?" Cynical decided to ask.
Jack was about to explain, until he heard a whistle being blown in the distance. "Looks like that will have to wait for another time, lads." The pirate cursed, as moved past the group, heading for the opposite direction of the alley, before he turned back to face the group. "You all wouldn't happen to be in need of a ship, would you?" he asked.
"No, I think we'll be alright." Volt answered, as everyone knew that it was time for them to depart.
"Well then," Jack said with a small salute, "I bid you all adieu."
With a nod, the two parties separated, as the group prepared to move on to the next world. However, before he could summon his glider, HMK heard Jack call back out to him.
"Oi, glasses!" He heard, as HMK looked back to see Jack toss something his way. As he caught it in his hand, HMK looked at what looked like a small gold token, with a skull symbol melded into it.
"What's this for?" HMK asked, as Jack grinned through his golden tooth once again.
"Let it be known, that a pirate is never left unrewarded for his efforts, savvy?" Knowing what his new friend meant by this, HMK smiled, as saluted back to Jack, before taking off after his friends.
As the young Keyblade wielder flew off on his glider, Jack turned back to walk down the alley, while humming a little tune to himself, with a small smile across his face. "Drink up, me harties, yo-ho."
[Cue He's a Pirate!]
And thus brings our visit to Port Royal to a close. However, that doesn't mean we won't encounter other worlds including pirates...but, that's all I'll say on that matter...
Also, of course I can't go any further without mentioning the introduction of two of our villains, Shinshi and Kurai. There is of course more to these two than appears, but we'll burn that bridge when we get to it. And just to give you guys an idea of what their voices might sound like, here is a small cast list for our villains:
? - ?
Shinshi - Maurice LaMarche (Calculon [Futurama])
? - ?
Kurai - Clancy Brown (Lex Luthor [Superman TAS])
? - ?
? - ?
But wait? What's with the four blank spots? Oh, we'll get those soon enough...
But until then, that concludes this chapter. Until next time, feel free to comment (No Trolling!) and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!