008 + 1000% SPARKING!
No one shall escape this world in existence!
Those words stung their skin, whether it was deeply darkened, sickly pale, or peach-toned. It stung them all, burying deep within their skin. Their eyes, the three blues and the one golden, stared up wide at the creature before them as it twirled those gigantic torches about.
The creature itself was eroding away. Its mouths drooled black. That, however, didn't halt the earth's shake.
That creature, that thing, slammed those black, boxy torches into the ground, its black fingers curled around the handles. The group fell back, defenseless, and stumbled to their feet.
"We need to get out of here," Ven choked, sounding shaken.
Though shaken as well, Raynie cracked a sarcastic comment, "No, really, blondie?"
The boy shot a glare at her. Yet, he couldn't help but give a frustrated grumble.
"C'mon," he waved his hand, "I know a way out, but all of you have to close your eyes."
Raynie folded her arms, "Not this again..."
"Shut it!" Ven's voice lowered, his eyes nervously gazing up to the cat hanging from the ceiling, "Just close your eyes, cover them with your hands, and--
"Agh!"
A massive choke. As if the boy had been strangled.
He felt himself being thrown backwards. His arms covered in burns. He could only cringe at the sight.
"Ven!" exclaimed Rena, eyes wide.
"I'm okay," the boy choked, "I promise..."
You couldn't see Ven just by simply glancing over at him. He was caged, in black fire to be precise. The flames nearly licked his nose, yet burned his arms deeply. All that over a little attempted escape? Apparently, this angered the creature leering overhead.
Raynie gave a grumble, pulling on her black leather gloves, "Guess we're just gonna have to beat this damn thing..."
"Raynie!" Ven stated with a cringe, "Just don't let Rena defeat the thing, okay?"
She raised a brow, "Why?"
"Remember the whole thing about hearts?"
"Yeah, of course I do! Phft. If you're so worried about that, then I'll make sure the kid doesn't hit it last. But, I don't see how that's a bad thing..."
"Just go fight!" snapped the en-caged boy.
"Okay okay! ...Pushy.
"C'mon kid! Goth boy!" Raynie exclaimed with a wave of her hand.
Rena gave a gulp, her eyes taking a quick glance over to Ven, "O-Okay!"
Raynie pulled her fists together, Adyn's scythe appeared within his grasp, and light with swirls of darkness formed a keyblade within Rena's grasp.
"Let's go, you two!" Raynie gave an exclaim once more, a grin formed wide on her face. They sprung forwards.
The battle begun with the torches slamming into the ground. The Vile Trickster gave the quirky, eeriest laugh, multiple ones at that. Raynie swerved to the side, jumping into the air and slamming a fist into the creature's torso. Adyn flew into the air, swirling his scythe to slash away at the torso as well.
The creature stood up straight. It begun to stomp away with its feet, trying to crush the fighters below.
"Pneumatic Rush!"
Glowing green orbs mixed together into a mad rush of water, twisting and turning. It slammed into the Heartless. The Trickster let out a wild, pain filled screech. Adyn jumped up onto the white table standing overheard, with the help of the chair, and flew into the air once more. He slashed away at the Trickster, whom merely slammed one of the torches into Adyn's chest. The boy let out a cringe and fell to the ground.
The Trickster attacked Raynie by blowing black fire onto the fighter, who was forced to retaliate backwards. Rena hesitantly jumped up onto the same table and jumped into the air, slamming her keyblade into the straightened creature's torso. Adyn followed behind Rena, after he stumbled to his feet. He jumped off of the table once more. However, he aimed upwards and gave a slash deep across the Trickster's tall, strange head.
Raynie opened up a pocket on her belt, pulling out a strange, green orb, and pointed it upwards.
"Blizzard!"
A spiral escaped from within the orb. It was made of snow, swirling and twirling together with snowflakes. It slammed into the Trickster. The creature let out a monstrous screech, especially when the flames from its torches disappeared. Raynie gave a grin as the monster doubled over.
Rena landed flat on the ground and twirled her keyblade around over her hand. The key quickly went flying through the air, as if it were a giant ninja star, and slashed through the creature's center. Raynie jumped high into the air and slammed her fists in a flurry into the beast's trunk.
Yet, the Trickster quickly pulled itself to its feet, torches re-lit and ready to attack once more. It brought the two torches up to its head and black fire quickly escaped from the rectangular cage, engulfing the room in quick flames. But, it had another little 'pest' to worry about now.
Ven! He escaped from the fire-y cage and charged forwards. Jumping high into the air with both keys in his grasp, a pair of huge, deep slashes cut across the Trickster's body, resulting in a high screech from the monster.
"Oy! Blondie!" Raynie exclaimed, now grasping another green sphere. A green light eclipsed the orb and her grasp, before she tossed the light over to Ven at the command 'Full Heal!'. Ven merely watched as the burns around his arms and across his stomach disappeared; though he was pretty amazed, he only gave a quick little nod to Raynie as a thanks.
At the sight of Ven, Rena jumped up onto the chair, then onto the table. She flew off with a kick of her foot, and tempted to slash expertly at the creature's chest. Adyn jumped onto the table as well and a deep slash cut across as he slammed his scythe into the Trickster's torso.
Unfortunately, the Trickster spun around and slammed its torches into Adyn once more, whom stumbled to his feet as he hit the ground. Raynie let out a curse, something about 'stop using up all of my materia!', and a green light eclipsed Adyn as he brushed himself off.
"Heal!" Raynie exclaimed, the green light sinking deep into Adyn's pale skin. He too gave a nod as a thanks, while Raynie just let out a grumble.
Ven spun his keyblades around in his grasp, both of the blades pointing forwards rather than behind him. He glanced at the one in his left hand, feeling in a tingle in his fingers. Expertly, the key in his right hand disappeared. The one in the left was now grasped in both hands. He pointed the point up to the creature, taking in a deep breath.
"Light!"
It started out as a beam of light, a tiny, insignificant beam that came out of the tip of his weapon. It pointed straight at the creature's upper body, who seemed taken aback at the sight of the beam. Then, it became a full blown blast of light, engulfing the whole room and the creature itself.
When the light finally cleared, it screamed. Screamed loud, hard, wild, and in torment. All of the little mouths and eyes on the head lit up, opened wide, and screeched. A hole formed in the middle of its chest, disintegrating the poor creature down to nothing.
The darkness unsheathed its grasp on a red heart that escaped into the ceiling, soon disappearing into nothing.
"Aw right, blondie!" Raynie triumphantly exclaimed.
Ven could only seemed to hold his head, his legs wobbling as he swayed, "Y-Yeah..."
"You okay?"
"'course..."
Raynie gave a grumble, "You don't look okay..."
"No," Ven bend his knees and dung his feet into the ground, removing his hand from his face, "I'm alright. I promise." He gave a smile. He started up at the ceiling, his eyes narrowing with concern.
"But that heart..."
"What was THAT!?" A shocked voice intervened, sounding quite alarmed.
Rena blinked as she saw the doorknob wake up, now on a door, "That? It's a creepy H--"
"Quiet!" Ven pulled a hand over Rena's mouth, reducing his voice to a whisper, "You're meddling if you tell hi--"
"Or butting in..." Raynie folded her arms, giving a sly grin.
"Whatever!"
"Damn fools!" a voice hissed.
The creepy, evil cat had jumped down from its post on the ceiling next to the lamp, curling its paws and arching its back as it stood upon the table. It hissed viciously at the group.
"The thoughtless rise is beginning!"
"Would someone tell me what is going on here!?" the doorknob stared around with wide eyes.
"Well," Raynie begun, "there was this creepy Heartless, ya see, and--"
"Raynie! Shut up!" snapped Ven.
"What!? It asked what was going on!"
"Yeah, but you're meddling!"
"So what?
"You're not allowed to meddle in that sort of stuff!"
"Whatever!" Raynie simply rolled her eyes, "It's not like it's going to know what any of the stuff is!"
Ven could only muster a deep, low growl. Yet, on the other hand, Raynie merely stared up the table, a curious expression formed on her dark-toned face.
"Umm... blondie? Where'd that cat go?"
"Huh?"
The boy turned about. He narrowed his eyes at the sight. The table was vacant. There was nothing there. Nothing strange, anyways.
The room had returned to its normal self, the doors and windows returned as well as those little bottles atop the table. However, that seemed to include that no strange cat was hanging about.
"I dunno..." Ven's mouth curled into a frown, a pensive one at that.
"Wow, you look sleepy, Mr. Doorknob..." Rena cocked her head to the side, deep blue eyes full of curiosity.
"Of course I am, you nitwit!" the object protested, "I just woke up from a nap!"
Ven grumbled. He stood before the doorknob, bending down to look straight at it, "I'm sorry about all of that noise. We had a little thing to take care of..."
The doorknob merely pointed its bulbous nose into the air, yet its eyes showed that it was rather drowsy still, "Oh, nevermind that... I believe I should return to..." it gave a yawn, "my... nap..."
Yet, Ven couldn't help but blink. Something curious indeed.
"Uhh... hey, doorknob?"
The doorknob sleeply rolled up its eyelids, "What?"
"Can you open your mouth a little bit wider for me?"
"Why should I do any sort of... that..." It gave a yawn once more.
Ven quickly tapped Rena on the arm, "Rena! Quick!"
"Huh?" Rena shook her head, "...OH! Keyhole!"
"...ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?" Raynie screamed, eyes wide as her mouth nearly fumbled at a loss of what to say or do.
"Shh!" Ven snapped, "You're gonna wake him up!"
"I'LL WAKE HIM UP IF I WANT TO, DAMMIT!"
"Raynie!" Rena put her index finger over her mouth, as if telling her to 'shush', "Be quiet!"
"Oh! So the kid is bossing me around now!" Raynie let out an intense grumble and begun to vigorously rub her temples, "I can't believe that stupid little thing was here, of all places, in the first place..."
Rena ignored Raynie's annoyed comment. The tomboy jumped to her feet and pointed the weapon straight at the doorknob's mouth when it opened wide to yawn once more. The wind kicked up, swirling around the keyblader, and a beam of light shot out of the tip of the weapon. A locking sound was heard throughout the world, just as the doorknob sleepily closed its mouth once more.
"Erghhhhh!" Raynie growled purely with annoyance, "Can we please just leave now!?"
"Yeah!" Ven grinned triumphantly, "We can!"
--------
Back on the gummi ship again. Everybody wandered inside, Raynie looking triumphant and much happier than she was back in Wonderland.
"Awesome! Next world, here we come!"
Rena stood up on her toes and raised her hand high, "I wanna pick it!"
"Never. Again!"
Rena found a finger pointing at her nose, Raynie towering over her and looking quite angry. She still stood up on her toes and now looked Raynie straight in the eye, arms by her sides as she looked equally annoyed.
"Why not!?"
"Because," Raynie folded her arms, "You just tormented the crap out of me by 'accidently' selecting hat world!"
The teen grinned, looking rather sly as she pointed to herself. "I'm going to pick the next world! And I pick... umm..." She swirled around and pointed to Ven, "BLONDIE! What world should be go to!?"
For a moment, Ven looked scared and surprised, but then he just looked pretty blank. He gave a shrug, "How about the next one closest to here?"
"No! That's boring!" Raynie strolled over to the world map in the middle of the room, "...Hey! This sounds fun!"
"WORLD SELECTED! SEE YA IN OLYMPUS COLISEUM!"
"...That's the closest one, isn't it?" Ven folded his arms, raising a brow.
"No!" Raynie snapped, "IT'S NOT!" Next, she ran over to the pilot's platform, "Now to just..."
She stopped after pressing several buttons on the control panel, standing there and looking dumbstruck.
"...Huh. This is weird."
Adyn, Ven, and Rena had taken their seats in front of the platform, all buckled up and ready to take off. Ven, however, glanced up when he heard a negative beep, almost like there was an error.
"What is it?" the boy questioned, looking up at Raynie.
Raynie begun pressing a button on the panel several times as she furrowed her brow, "The warp drive won't start..."
"YA LITTLE--!"
The windows no longer were showing the outside world. Instead, every window and screen showed one single thing:
"AHHHH!" Raynie screamed and attempted to hide; she covered up the screen on the control panel with her arms, "NOT YOU!!"
Cid!
"Ya stole my ship!" the picture of Cid was highly annoyed. He looked like he was snarling, the little toothpick flicking up and down in his mouth.
"No, I didn't!" Raynie snapped, folding her arms, "Umm... I'M NOT WHO YOU THINK I AM EITHER! See?" She pointed to herself and looked stern, "I'm just disguised as somebody else! Yeah!"
Cid looked quite dumbstruck and not amused one bit, "Then why're they here?"
Raynie stood up straight, "That's their disguises! They're not them; I swear!!"
"Raynie or not..." Cid was back to being very angry, "Ya stole my ship!!"
"So what if I did..." Raynie mumbled, giving a scoff and folding her arms whilst sulking.
"Dammit! Ya better get back here with the damn thing right NOW!"
"MAKE ME, GRAMPS!"
"You know I can disengage the warp drive, right?"
Raynie was speechless.
"GET YER ASS BACK HERE NOW!"
"Alright, alright!" the teen begun waving her hands around and looked very frustrated, "Just don't yell at me if I mess up the ship 'cause I can't warp!"
Cid looked triumphant, just as the screen disappeared; all of the screens and windows quickly turned back to normal.
Immediately, Raynie begun pressing some buttons on the panel, pulling down a few levers and getting ready to start the ship.
"We're going back to Traverse Town... right?" Ven queried.
Raynie gave a scoff, "No... 'course not!"
"RAYNIE!"
"What!?" she snapped, "You're the one that said we have to seal keyholes! We have to get to Hollow Bastion eventually, too!"
Ven vigourously rubbed his temples, "But, we can just go back and get another ship!"
"Yeah, that'll waste my time... We'll just have to go without warp; that's all!"
Ven gave a very, very deep growl now. This completely screamed 'bad idea'! He folded his arms and slouched a bit in his seat, looking quite uneasy.
The ship lifted off of Wonderland's 'gummi dock' and, almost immediately, the ship was flying off into space at a pretty leisurely pace, much to Raynie's dislike. Still, they were moving; they'd be there soon enough.
"Hm?" Raynie blinked, looking curiously down at one of the screens on the panel.
"What?" Ven snapped, glancing up once more.
Rena turned her gaze to the side, out the window, and looked rather taken aback.
"...Raynie?"
Raynie gave a grumble, rubbing her temples, "What?"
"There's a ship out there..."
The pilot glanced up and noticed a little ship flying beside them. There was even a little cooky Heartless inside piloting the thing. When Raynie glanced down at the screens, she gave another grumble.
"And there's some following us... Not good..."
"Oh," Ven sounded apathetic, "And there's asteroids."
"WHAT!?" Raynie screamed, eyes wide.
There came a pretty loud 'crash!' sound, a new dent revealing itself; the thing even managed to crack the windows a little bit on that left side.
"Oh man oh man oh mannnn!" Raynie was pale and looked freaked out beyond belief, "Cid's gonna kill me! Gramps is gonna kill me!!"
Her attempt to dodge, and get away from, the asteroids involved swerving to the side. Those Heartless obviously had something in mind, since when Raynie turned the wheel, she crashed into the ship next to them. The teen gave a very loud curse.
What were these Heartless planning? Could they even plan something out at all...?
"Chip! Dale! Get out here!"
The two little chipmunks came rushing onto the control panel as soon as they were called by Raynie. The teen, however, didn't really notice. She was too busy staring at the tunnel that the ship was now being sucked into.
A black hole? Maybe, maybe not.
"Get into the teeny ships!" Raynie exclaimed, her expression serious.
"We're not allowed to!" shouted Dale.
"The ship won't handle it!" declared Chip.
Raynie glared at them both. She turned her gaze back to the outside world, "I really don't give a crap! GET IN THEM NOW!"
The teen now expertly steered the ship through the cloudy tunnel. She tried to dodge the ships that were trying to shoot at them. But, there wasn't much room in the tunnel itself...
She grabbed the speaker as the Highwind spook. Her voice was piped loud into the interior.
"Everybody buckle up! We're about to fight!"