Chapter 13: Upgrades:
San Fransokyo – Up In The Sky:
"ON YOUR LEFT!" Ventus shouted as he dove his Keyblade Glider to the side to avoid the razor sharp wings of the enemy aircraft streaking through the skies. Baymax (with Hiro Hamada riding on the robot's back) and Terra swiftly veered out of the way as the smaller craft streaked past. Off in the distance, Coalition Navy Gummi Ships bombarded the larger command ship with laser fire. But despite the fact that a large chunk of the Coalition fleet was firing at that thing on all cylinders, the ominous looking spaceship didn't appear to even have so much as a dent in it from the Coalition assault. Where did the Hellfire Club get this thing? Ventus wondered to himself.
Everyone knew that there were still worlds out there that weren't part of Coalition territory, but most of them were near enough to Coalition space that the Intelligence Network knew which ones were capable of space travel and which ones weren't. So where this vessel came from was another mystery added to a rapidly growing pile of mysteries. Hopefully someone, nobody cared whether it was a Keyblade Wielders, C.I.N. Agent, or some random civilian from Destiny Islands, got to the bottom of the pile and figured out what was going on.
Personally, Ven's Munny was on Vanitas ultimately being the one to put all the pieces together. Cassim had adjusted to leading the Intelligence divison quite well, as his status as a former thief meant he had a keen knowledge of how criminal underworlds were run and what made the people in them tick. But much of the success of Coalition Intelligence over the last six years could primarily be attributed to Vanitas and the fact that, as Xehanort's apprentice and surrogate son for the first four years of his life, he'd picked up his former master's skills as a consummate chess master. Ven's brother (even if Sora and Ven weren't related, the fact that Van, as he came to be called, had been created form Ventus' inner darkness meant that everyone considered him the blonde Key bearer's dark twin) was practically born to be the master spy he'd become.
Ven shifted his thoughts back to the present in time to dodge another attack run from the smaller blade-winged ships. Unfortunately, the force of a stray explosion from the cannons of a passing Gummi Ship knocked him off his glider and sent him plummeting hundreds of feet into the ocean. Thankfully, his armor protected him, enabling him to stay conscious and recognize the swarms of Heartless surging around beneath the ocean. Thanks to the upgrades done to his armor by Edna Mode, moving around in the water was relatively easy. Noticing that the Heartless were searching for something, Ven summoned his Keyblade back to his hand (and reverting it from glider form in the process) and got to work eliminating the dark monsters lurking beneath the waves.
The Heartless were easily dispatched by a few Keyblade swings and a smattering of Blizzaga and Thundaga spells. With the monsters defeated, Ven turned his weapon back into glider form and burst out from beneath the surface of the water just in time to dodge the flaming wreckage of a Coalition Gummi Ship as it crashed into the ocean below. As he flew back up to join the battle once more, an enemy space craft raced by heading downwards. But to Ventus' horror, this ship was making a beeline for the Intelligence base. With a sense of dawning horror, Ven gunned the engine of his glider as he raced after the rapidly descending aircraft, desperately hoping to destroy the ship before it could crash into the compound.
The battle was winding down in the Daybreak Coalition's favor, but none of that registered to the blonde-haired Keyblade Wielder as he speed through the air with Terra and Baymax (and Hiro) pulling up behind him to join in this desperate race against the clock. With each passing second they gained more ground against the kamikaze spacecraft, but it wasn't going to be enough. The Keyblade Wielders, teen tech guru, and Personal Healthcare Companion could only watch in shock and horror as the obsidian ship slammed into the small island, demolishing the Coalition Intelligence base as it skidded from one end of the small strip of land to the other.
Ventus and Terra dismissed their Gliders and reverted them back into Keyblades as they leaped down to the ruins of the Intelligence base on Akuma Island. All around them, injured C.I.N. Agents were dragging themselves to their feet and either helping out the other wounded or passing out Hi-Potions so that at least some of the island's staff would be prepared to face whatever enemy was still inside the ebon spacecraft. As the two Keyblade Masters stood in the burning wreckage of the compound, a creaking sound echoed across the islands as a ramp lowered from what was clearly the front of the ship. Everyone braced themselves, preparing for a fight.
But they weren't prepared for what came next, as several strange looking figures who looked like elves wearing porcelain masks came charging out of the ship, firing off plasma rifles left and right. While Ven, Terra, and a handful of C.I.N. Agents were able to get Reflega spells up in time, several more fell from the relentless assault. Ven boiled with anger as he and the others began moving to cover the wounded agents and shield them from enemy fire. Especially when some of the dark elves broke away from the rest of their formation and headed towards the staircase to pick off the wounded in the lower levels of the facility.
While Ven charged after the splinter group, Terra stayed to cover the retreat as Gummi Ships providing air support arrived to evacuate the wounded to San Fransokyo General Hospital. He was shocked when one of them tossed a grenade that caused one of the Gummi Ships providing cover fire to collapse in on itself in what looked like a miniature black hole. Hurry up, Ven, he urged his surrogate brother as he waded his way through the elven troops, hoping to eliminate or incapacitate them before they could start using those grenades on the evacuees. He had no intention of dying and leaving his son to grow up without a father.
As the last of the elves collapsed to the ground, Terra looked up and saw through the visor of his armor three more of the attacks walking calmly down the ramp of the ship. But the thing about this group is that while the third elf trailing in the back was no different than the rest, the two in the front were not wearing any masks whatsoever. The one on Terra's right had pale skin and carried himself with an authority that clearly marked him as the leader. Which meant that the one on Terra's left was the leader's second-in-command.
"I am Malekith, ruler of Svartalfheim," the pale one spoke first. "I have come on behalf of Maleficent and her Hellfire Club. But my first and only loyalty is to my people, so this once I shall offer you mercy. Provide me with information on where to find the Reality Stone and I will spare your lives."
"As if we'd ever accept a deal from someone who's already slaughtered hundreds of people in this attack alone," Terra retorted angrily, the beginnings of a Dark Firaga spell swirling silently around his clenched fist. "We'll pass." Malekith only smirked in response.
"Very well," the Dark Elf leader replied. "As you humans enjoy saying, 'have it your way'." With that, he gestured to the foot soldier standing behind him. As Malekith and his lieutenant turned on their heels and marched back to their ship, the unarmed Dark Elf stepped forward and pulled a small, glowing stone from his belt. As the elf crushed the stone in his fist, Terra's stomach twisted in knots as the elven warrior writhed and shrieked in pain while the glow of the stone spread all over his body. Seconds later, the glow faded, and where once an unarmed and defenseless foot soldier was now stood a large, bulked up behemoth. Realizing what the stone did, Terra took charge and raced forward, swinging his Keyblade at the enemy.
The battle to contain the bestial warrior raged on for the next hour as Ventus, Baymax, and the rest of Big Hero Six joined in. The enhanced elf proved to be a formidable opponent, but between the combined skill of five superheroes, a crime-fighting robot, and two full-fledged Keyblade Masters, the monstrous soldier finally fell. The fact that they had been able to pilfer the berseker's black hole grenade certainly helped. But during the chaos, Malekith had flown the crashed vessel back to his command ship and departed, vanishing into thin air as if the entire ship had flown through a Corridor of Darkness.
While both Key bearers were relieved that whatever Maleficent was searching for was not in San Fransokyo, the high casualties of the battle laid heavy on their hearts. They spend the rest of the night gathering up the bodies of the fallen and preparing to transport them back to their home worlds for burial. Not even the elderly Fa Zhou had been spared from the Dark Elves' massacre. As Terra and Ven boarded the Gummi Ship escorting the bodies of the fallen back home for their respective funerals, Terra couldn't help but think of what would happen to his family if he had been caught up in one of those miniature black holes. He just prayed that he'd never have to find out.
Unknown World – Unknown Location:
"YOU IDIOTS!" N.I. roared in fury as she slammed her fist down on her desk. In front of her, the three Legionnaires sent to Zootopia flinched at the anger in her words. "One of the core philosophies of the Legion is that we operate IN SECRET! And what do you do when cornered by the enemy? Announce your identity and start blabbing about the Endgame like it's your first day. Could you be any more incompetent?" Ordinarily, disciplinary hearings would be held at another base with the entire council presiding over the hearing as judges. But considering the scope of what these three imbeciles had done, N.I. felt that it wasn't worth the effort for a trial and she needed to skip straight to the sentencing."
"Please forgive us, Madame N.I.," the woman in command of the strike team begged, shaking in fear. "We meant no disrespect. We only wished to strike fear into the heart of our foes through the use of psychological warfare." Unfortunately for the ashamed Legionnaires, this did nothing to temper their commander in chief's foul mood. N.I.'s light brown eyes burned with a fiery passion as she glared at the legionnaires standing before her.
"Your intentions may have been in the right place," she countered. "But that doesn't excuse the stupidity of your execution. I'm hear by suspending you all from active field missions for the next six months. Until then, you'll be scrubbing all the toilets on each of our bases. Perhaps that will teach you all to keep your mouths shut when facing those false guardians." Glumly, the three soldiers bowed submissively before shuffling out of the room. Once the door had been shut behind then, the leader of the Legion groaned in frustration as she laid her head in her hands. Honestly. Most of the Legion's operatives had been alive for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. They should all know better than to let critical information slip like that.
And the worst part was that they had told it directly to Sora. Madame N.I.'s eyes burned with anger as she thought of the man whose crimes were well known. After Xehanort's attempt to corrupt him, he had inadvertently become immersed in Darkness, and yet he dared to wield the sacred power of the X – Blade. Such blasphemy could not be allowed to go unpunished. And now those three imbeciles had telegraphed their future moves. Her one consolation was that what little the idiots had revealed to the Coalition forces had been vague enough that nothing too damaging had gotten out. The Endgame could still proceed on schedule. Soon, the world would be whole, darkness and all who wielded it would be cleansed from the universe, and The Legion would guide mankind towards a bright, glorious future.
I just wanted to clarify a small detail about the Vanitas and Loki section. The C.I.N. agents know of the Avengers through Monsters Inc.'s observations of the human world (Earth), since they have to get the info on the kids they scare/make laugh somehow. But they don't monitor world news or anything, so when C.I.N. Agents to go to Earth later on in the saga, they will be going in completely blind to the geopolitical climate and things like S.H.I.E.L.D., HYDRA, and Asgard.
Yes, the Dark Elf mini-ship crashing into the C.I.N. base is a Shout-Out to Thor: The Dark World when they crash their ship into the throne room of Asgard's royal palace. Just a fun little nod since the events of that film didn't happen in this universe, but I nevertheless wanted to acknowledge that fun sequence from the movie.
On Ven's comments about Vanitas being a Chessmaster, I figured that he'd probably have learned things from Xehanort beyond dark powers and combat skills. So Vanitas being skilled at seeing the big picture and how all the pieces fit on the board so to speak makes sense as something he'd picked up from Old Baldy.
And yes, I did name drop the crazy hilarious awesomeness that is Edna Mode. Yes, a world for The Incredibles will be appearing, but in my KH5 story, not in this one. And no, it's not a Tethered world, but why and how it resembles Earth culture will be explained when it's finally visited. And a quick head's up, after KH5, the final 4 stories in the Acolytes of Chaos saga will be set entirely on Earth. So no new worlds after KH5.
Another cryptic hint towards the Legion's goals. Because even a simple statement like that fails to reveal the totality of what N.I. and her followers are planning to do. But I think you all get the idea that they see anyone who uses darkness as evil, whether it's someone like Xehanort who gives Darkness a bad reputation, or someone like Riku who uses it for good.
Malekith's machinations won't take shape until later chapters, but I think it's obvious to all of you at this point that he's going to pull a "Dragon With An Agenda" on Maleficent later on. His one and only loyalty is to his people, and Maleficent is simply a means to an end for him, and vice versa. The bad guy civil war won't be starting until Malekith and Maleficent each decide that the other has outlived their usefulness. ;)
Tragedy strikes the Fa family. Mulan seeking to avenge her father's murder will be a recurring plot point throughout the saga as the heroes and other warriors of the Daybreak Coalition come into conflict with Maleficent and her cabal.
Alright folks, next chapter is when we move over to the Darkwing Duck world. After that world is concluded, we'll pop over to a world that's been around since KH1, and one that Square has been trying to put in since KH1 but has never been able to (hint: the only Pixar film to have 2 (soon to be 3) sequels ;) )