Hello everyone, and welcome back to The X-Keepers!

Well, considering that more than likely some people will rage out near the end of this chapter, I will say right now that following this chapter, I will be having a follow up statement prepared to post on The X-Keepers' Facebook page, but for now that is all I'm saying...

In the meantime, let's celebrate the fact that we are going to be getting a crap-ton of KH3 news next month! Anyone? No? You just want to read the story now? Sigh, figures. Anyway, enjoy!

Kingdom Hearts and all related media are owned by SquareEnix/Disney

CHAPTER 14

"You know, I was kind of expecting this, but at the same time, this is pretty cold, Silver, even for you." Skyward Wing called out to the cyborg Pirate, as his men had Sky and SoraAlam surrounded.

"I understand your being upset, Skyward, and I do apologize." Silver told his old friend, as he gazed out at the gold-ridden world, "But after all these years of searching, I have finally found the loot of a thousand worlds! And it's all mine for the taking." Silver clenched his fist in determination, as Sky continued to scowl at his old friend.

SoraAlam, meanwhile, watched the figures in the black coats move down onto their deck, approaching Silver.

"That it is, my dear friend." One of the coats, who was upright in a sophisticated manner, told the pirate, "Which is exactly why you should savor this moment while it lasts."

Silver, catching the coat's tone, questioned, "What do you mean 'while it lasts'?"

The other man in the coat, who was hunched over, began giggling to himself. "Ho ho ho, brother. He doesn't know, does he?" He asked wickedly.

Silver, switching his sword onto his robotic arm, started approaching the two coats, angered. "Don't I know what?" He asked, as the upright coat walked forward.

"You seem to be forgetting the fact that Flint had this entire planet ready to blow if anyone found his treasure." The coat responded, to which Silver was having none of.

"Blasphemy!" He exclaimed, "Why would he set traps if he himself was being left behind?"

"Why the answer is simple!" The hunched-over coat answered, smiling, "If he couldn't have it for himself…no one could."

Thus, when the upright coat snapped his fingers, the beams above the planet shot down onto the core, causing a massive earthquake. Everyone on the ship tumbled onto the ground, before catching their footing again. Silver looked out to see that a massive sinkhole was forming, and that the loot was disappearing into it. In shock and fright of losing everything, Silver gathered himself up off the ground, and leaped off of the ship.

"Every man for himself!" He cried out, as the other pirates also dashed from the ship to collect the gold.

As everyone bolted, the coats turned their attention to Sky and SoraAlam, whom were quick to get defensive. "All of this, just to draw us out?" Sky questioned, "Sounds pretty pathetic to me!"

"Let me guess," SoraAlam chimed in, "This is to ensure that we don't get in your way?"

The upright coat laughed, as he began to remove his hood, "You two are quite the smart ones."

As his hood fell back, SoraAlam and Sky looked upon the man's features. He was dark skinned and bared golden eyes, as well as green dreadlocks for hair, while a mechanical looking monocle sat upon his left eye. He smiled at the duo, as his hunched over accomplice, whom continued to giggle, joined him in removing his own hood.

"Yes, dear brother, but what is the mind without a little madness?" The coat asked, as his hood fell back, revealing his face to the duo. He too was dark-skinned and bared golden eyes, but his own blonde hair was much spikier than his comrade, while also wearing mechanical goggles on his forehead.

He grinned at the duo through his golden tooth, as Sky and SoraAlam slightly winced at the man's creepy features.

"When's the last time you brushed your teeth?" Sky whined, as the coat took a second to think.

"About three weeks ago, give or take." He replied with a nonchalant shrug, as his partner waved his arm out.

"Enough stalling, Itazura." The coat barked out, "It's high time we carried out our mission as brother asked, is it not?"

The hunched over coat, Itazura, nodded to his companion, "I thought you'd never ask, Keisan." He chuckled, as the Keyblade wielders stood confused.

"Just how many of you guys are there?" SoraAlam asked impatiently.

"Enough to dispose of all of you, make no mistake." The upright coat, Keisan, replied, "Now, seeing as how we've now gotten the chance to get to know each other…" Just then, Keisan waved his arm about, as his weapon, a whip, appeared in his hand. He cracked it through the air before he threw it to the side of him, attaching the whip to latch onto a cutlass in the middle of a pile of loot. Keisan then pulled the whip back to him, pulling the cutlass to him as well, which he caught in his hand and pointed at the duo, darkly stating, "En garde."

Wasting no time, SoraAlam summoned Maximum Control into his hands, as he darted for Keisan, whom merely leapt out of the way of his opponent, as the two began to duel. Meanwhile, Sky summoned his own Keyblade as he followed Itazura up to the top of the ship, as the coat began to laugh once more, summoning his own weapon.

"Time to play, Keyblade master!" He cried out, as he summoned his weapons, a pair of nunchakus, as he twirled them about before enter his battle stance.

Sky then began to smile himself. "Ohhhhh," he realized, "A fellow chucker, eh?" Just then, Sky, held out his Keyblade on the opposite ends of both his hands, as the weapon then began to morph into something different. Before long, Sky's weapon had drastically changed, as he too now held a nunchaku in his hand, which he twirled around even better than Itazura did, before dropping back into his battle stance.

As Itazura stood confused at what his opponent just did, Sky simply shrugged. "Keyblade Transformations." He stated, "Not bad, huh?" Itazura, confused and enraged at his opponent, cried out as he attempted to engage his foe. Sky, however, simply sidestepped his attack, and slashed his opponent off the boat.

Back on the lower end of the boat, SoraAlam kept trying to slash at Keisan, but the coat simply blocked every single one of his attacks effortlessly.

"You lack skill," Keisan taunted, "Yet you possess much valor." SoraAlam tried to block out his opponent, as Keisan slammed the young boy against a post behind him, before clashing blades once again, "You have courage, yet you're unfocused." He continued, as he pinned SoraAlam against the railing of the ship, almost overboard. "It seems that my theory about Keyblade Wielders is true." Keisan estimated, grinning in SoraAlam face, before the young boy ignited his Keyblade in a blast of Fira, knocking Keisan off his feet and onto the ground, dropping his cutlass.

"Was being unpredictable on that list too?" SoraAlam asked smartly, before dropping back into his battle stance.

Keisan, though initially enraged, suddenly looked at SoraAlam with the oddest of looks. His eyes were squinted in confusion, yet displayed a hint of shock. "You…" He gasped, as SoraAlam looked at his opponent, also confused.

In this instant of hesitation, Keisan summoned his whip back and immediately tripped SoraAlam off his feet, as he himself regained his footing. "Also, to answer your question, being very predictable was quite high on my 'list'." The man taunted once more before, turning up toward the upper half of the ship. "Itazura!" He called out, "It's time we made our exit."

Itazura, who was practically running away from Sky at this point, reached his partner in record time. "That it is, dear brother." He replied, as the duo leaped off the boat and into a pool of darkness, with Itazura crying out, "So long, scrubs!"

Sky and SoraAlam were about to follow, before another massive quake hit, knocking the heroes onto their feet. SoraAlam slid to his friends side, after Sky had fallen onto the lower deck.

"Sky, you alright?" SoraAlam asked, picking his friend up.

"Yeah," Sky replied, "I'm fine, I- LOOK OUT!"

Sky then immediately tackled SoraAlam to the side, as the massive beam started cutting through the ship, creating a massive sinkhole beneath the young Keyblade wielders. Narrowly avoiding their demise, SoraAlam caught the edge of the hole, while Sky was clinging to SoraAlam's foot.

"Next time, a little heads up would be nice!" SoraAlam called out, while Sky looked around the best he could.

"Can you see the exit?" Sky asked.

SoraAlam tried to look and see, but he looked upward, he noticed the sinkhole growing bigger, thus causing his grip on the edge to slide out. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" SoraAlam yelled out, before his entire grasp was gone and he and Sky were starting to freefall.

"Gotcha!"

Before the duo could fall any further, SoraAlam arm was grasped firmly by what felt like a robotic hand. Looking up, the duo saw a friendly face pulling them up.

"Silver!" Sky exclaimed.

"Hold on, lads! Almost there!" Silver called out, as he managed to get the duo out of the hole and back onto solid-ish ground.

"What ever happened to 'every man for himself'?" Sky asked his old friend.

"Not when a friend of mine is danger!" Silver stated proudly.

"You had me at gunpoint!" Sky shot back.

"Did I not teach you anything about theatrics, Skyward, honestly?" Silver explained, until another rupture interrupted them.

"Yeah, guys, best we argue about this when we're not about to become buried in gold." SoraAlam stated, to which the two nodded and got to their feet.

However, looking out at how far the exit was, Silver started to realize something. "Wait a second; even if we get out of here, this place is still rigged to blow sky high. How do we plan on out running an explosion that could blow an entire planet to smithereens?"

Sky, thinking of a plan, looked out at the exit, and remembered something when he caught a glimpse of the map.

"We don't have to out run it!" Sky realized, to which the other two were confused.

"Wait, what?" Silver asked, as Sky summoned his Keyblade Glider.

"Just trust me on this." Sky told the old pirate, before turning to his friend, "SoraAlam, you lead."

"On it." SoraAlam stated, as he summoned his owned glider while Silver hopped into his sidecar. Quickly, the trio blasted off, hoping to reach the portal in time.

"How long do you think we have before the place blows?" SoraAlam asked, to which Silver shrugged.

"I don't know. A few more seconds at least." He replied, looking back to see the beams starting to collapse and fall to the ground, ready to trigger the explosion.

"C'mon, just a little bit more! C'mon!" Sky muttered, as he and his comrades flew as fast as they could to the portal's exit just as the beams hit the ground, causing the explosion to go off, and chase our heroes out. Just as SoraAlam and Silver made it out of the portal, Sky flipped over the map on his glider and pushed another button to close the portal. Thus, just as the explosion began to hit the portal, the window collapsed, causing the leftover inferno to fizz out into a massive smoke screen.

As coughing and gagging galore started to come from every pirate around, the smoke started to clear, leaving Sky and SoraAlam lying on the ground facing the massive crater again.

As the duo tried to catch their breath, Sky then started to giggle a bit, to which SoraAlam sighed. "I am never going off on my own with you ever again." He groaned, as Sky climbed to his feet.

"Oh man, that was awesome!" Sky exclaimed, as Silver came up from behind him and patted him on the back.

"A mighty job well done, lad." Silver said, "and here I thought you lost your touch."

"Same goes for you too, I guess." Sky replied, looking up to his old friend, "You really saved us back there. Thank you Silver."

As Sky went for a handshake, Silver started to laugh, as he brought his old friend into a big hug. "No, my boy. Thank you, for making me care again."

Sky then too started to laugh as he looked down at the orb, and seeing the few bits left to it start to crumble to bits. "Sorry I ruined your chance at a fortune." Sky said, but didn't hear a reply from his friend.

"Silver?" Sky asked, before turned around to see him helping his men load a huge pile of gold into their nearby raft.

Sky, slack jawed, gathered himself up and walked over to the raft. "What's all this?" He asked, to which Silver stuttered to answer as he got aboard the boat.

"Um, yes, well, this was loot we had with us already, and we were going to…" Silver started to mumble, before Sky shook his head, unimpressed.

"And here I thought you changed." Sky said, to which Silver smiled.

"Hey, what did I used to tell you? The real treasure isn't about what you have here," he said, as he pointed to the loot, "It's about what you keep with you, in here." He then pointed to his head, to which Sky smiled at before the boat started to take off. "Pleasure as always, Skyward." Silver said, as he tipped his hat, before the boat rocketed off into the sky.

"What a scumbag." Sky jokingly sighed, as SoraAlam came to his side.

"How exactly do you guys know each other, again?" He asked, as Sky looked at him funny.

"Long story short: we are never going to Montressor." He answered. SoraAlam, though was about to question Sky's reply, simply shrugged it off, as he followed his friend back into the forest.

"Literally, Cynical, I just finished healing. All I want is just a little bit more sleep." VoltEditzz groaned, as the duo laid in their respective sleeping bags, while in the middle of them, HMK snored mightily loud, causing Cynical to cover his ears in frustration.

"Well it's kind of hard for one of us to do, seeing as how Wreck-It Ralph over here won't control his nostrils!" Cynical whispered over to Volt, who in turn just groaned while also covered his ears.

"You get your bolts kicked in by the darkness and this is how you're supposed to recover," He muttered, "Just perfect."

Suddenly, a rustle in the bushes caused HMK to finally wake up, as Sky and SoraAlam emerged. "Good morning, you two." HMK greeted with a yawn, as the other two boys looked at the duo's ragged appearance.

"What happened to you two?" Cynical asked.

"Yeah, where were you guys?" Volt also asked.

However, in unison, Sky and SoraAlam simply answered, "Don't ask."

Walking past the group, the two of them started packing their things, while everyone else just looked at each other, confused. Shrugging it off, mostly due to him still being in his groggy state, HMK rose from his bed, as he also started to pack his things. Deciding to follow suit, Cynical and Volt also gathered their belongings together, as the group started to go on their way once more.

I'm so sorry. After hearring those clips from the late nights at PAX, I couldn't resist!

So, yeah, I don't think I have to really explain why you guys are probably raging right now. Like I said, I'll explain everything over on The X-Keepers' official Facebook page, so please, after you're done reading this, head over there and you'll know what's up.

With that said, two more of our villains, Keisan and Itazura, have emerged. Both were pretty hard to write, but I think their introduction was a pretty memorable one if I do say so myself! Oh, and if you need a better picture of what Itazura's hair looks like, it's looks like he just went Super Sayian, so there that is. Also, if you're curious about what their voices sound like, here's an updated cast list of our villains:

? -?

Shinshi - Maurice LaMarche (Calculon [Futurama])

Keisan - Mathew Mercer (Levi [Attack on Titan])

Kurai - Clancy Brown (Lex Luthor [Superman: TAS])

Itazura - James Arnold Taylor (Ratchet [Ratchet & Clank])

? - ?

Only two member remaining. The top dog and his lovely assistant... (There's your hint, now don't bug me about it!)

And with that all said, I'd say that brings us to the end of this chapter. Until next time, feel free to comment (No Trolling!) and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!

P.S. Props to anyone who can find the TMNT reference!