Chapter 28: Two Viruses

All of them met back at Merlin's house and quickly told of their stories. "Being a fox though…that was really weird?" Roxas said scratching the back of his head.

"Well, so we know three of the Seekers. Luxord, Larxene, and Vexen. Plus this other you heard could be another," Axel said counting with his fingers.

"So now we have three parts of the Royal scroll," Donald said.

"Eleven more to go!" Goofy said.

"Eleven," Riku groaned fingering the summon charm Wall-E had given him. It looked like an old boot with a small green plant growing out of it.

Sora than took some soup the Merlin offered. "Thanks."

"So Merlin, did you find out anything more about where we can find more pieces to the Royal Scroll?" Namine asked.

"As a matter of fact, according to Ansem's computer, there is a part of the scroll in Radiant Garden," Merlin said.

"Where?" Kairi asked.

"I don't know. The computer hasn't been working since I found that out. We can't get it to work at all."

"Well, looks like Tron ran into some trouble," Sora said.

"But we've got worse problems."

Everyone turned to see Leon holding the door open. Cloud than walked in carrying Aerith bridal style. A white cloth was over her forehead. "What happened?" Mickey asked.

The party moved out of the way as Cloud set Aerith down on the bed, a dark blotch now visible through the cloth. "A virus…Geostigma…" Cloud said.

Leon shook his head. "It's a very nasty virus, we can't even figure out a cure for it."

"And Sephiroth is behind it," Cloud said.

"Now we don't know that for sure, but there's a possibility considering you two have run into each other before," Leon said.

"So…we're going to have to go after Sephiroth?" Donald asked.

Cloud shook his head. "He hasn't been here of late. We just have to focus on finding a cure and somehow restoring the computer system. The security system went down again and there are more heartless yet again."

"Well, me, Sora and Donald know Tron, I'm sure we could get to the bottom of this computer problem," Goofy said.

"Mind if I tag along Sora? I'm interested in Tron since we never got to meet under the circumstances," the King said.

"Sure," Sora said and started to lead the nine people out of Merlin's house. They had just begun to walk towards the castle when heartless appeared around them. "Where'd they come from?" Namine bringing out Artist's touch.

"Those would be mine girl!"

Sora turned to see a lizard with a familiar saw-staff weapon. "You!" Sora said.

"Ba'Gaman, was it not," Axel said.

"Aye, and it's time you all paid the price for walking into my land!"

"Your land? This is Radiant Garden!" Kairi said.

"Well, it'll be mine very soon. The bombs are already in place."

"Bombs?" Goofy said.

"Exactly, when the computer detonates them, Radiant Garden will become Radiant Wasteland!"

"So you're the one who wrecked the computer!" Donald yelled.

Ba'Gaman shrugged. "That's up to you to figure out. Heartless, annihilate them!"

Ba'Gaman than ran out at the nine took out their weapons. A large legion of heartless began to flock around them. "This is going to be interesting," Roxas said.

"Look, we'll have to split!" Sora said.

"Fellas!" Mickey said talking to Goofy and Donald after taking out a heartless. "We've got to go and try to fix the computer!"

"Yes your majesty!" Donald said using a Thunder spell on a Soldier Heartless.

"I'll go with you," Riku said slashing through a Neoshadow. "You'll need to save your strength before you get to Tron."

The four ran towards the castle as Sora and Kairi slashed through three heartless. Meanwhile Axel sent a wall of flames up scorching several heartless. Namine than telepathically swiped her keyblade through the heartless like a pencil, and Roxas jumped and spun crazily through heartless taking them out. After a number of minutes, the numbers of heartless were less, but several Brutes showed up. "This is crazy," Roxas said.

"Of course Roxas. Why do you think they're called heartless?" Axel joked.

Roxas gave a small smile. "Just like old times, hey Axel?"

Axel threw both his Charklams into the mass of heartless. "Burn!"

Namine brought back Artist's touch and parried a blow from a Soldier. "Sora. Kairi. You've got to go and find the bombs. The others may stop the bombs from going off, but we need to get rid of them anyway."

"But the heartless," Sora objected.

"Nothing we can't handle," Roxas said giving Sora a wink.

"Come on Sora, let's head back into the city," Kairi said running back.

Reluctantly, Sora followed her. Roxas than ran next to Namine and took out a heartless from behind her. "Thanks," the Memory Witch said.

"No problem," the Key to Destiny replied.

"Stop talking and keep fighting!" Axel said blocking the blow form a Brute's claws.

Namine nodded. "Roxas!"

"Let's do this!"

Artist's Touch whirled out of Namine's hands and struck into the ground between the two. Lines of ink shot around the ground incasing the heartless nearby into a series of shapes. Roxas than threw both of his keyblades as they twirled around in a Strike Raid, but with Namine's power the keyblades flew around in the path the ink had drawn as the keyblades continued to whirl around and finish off over twenty heartless. Oathkeeper and Oblivion flew back into Roxas' hands as Namine took Artist's touch out of the ground. "You look tired," Roxas said.

"It's hard to do something like that."

Axel than jumped between the two. "The least you two could do was learn how to do some elemental magic. All I've got is fire. We could use some other elements too."

Roxas than looked at five Brutes approaching them. "Hey Axel, you remember that old trick we used to do?"

Axel gave a smile. "Now that is what I'm talking about!"

"Axel!"

"Turn up the heat!"

The two charged together as they swung keyblades and charklams simultaneously, both of their weapons ablaze. They cut effortlessly through three brutes together, and than jumped so the remaining two stood between them. Roxas than threw Oathkeeper in a Strike Raid as Axel threw one of his charklams. The weapons crossed through the air, both still ablaze cutting at the brutes. Axel than caught Oathkeeper as Roxas caught Axel's charklam and both pounded the weapons onto the ground as pillars of flame erupted between the two vanquishing the heartless. The two than tossed their weapons back to their rightful owners. "All right, who's next?" Axel yelled, pumped.

But the heartless began to retreat. "Huh? Hey! Come back here! Where you going?!" Axel yelled after them.

Roxas ignored Axel's shouts and walked over to Namine. "You okay?" Namine asked.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Don't worry about me," Roxas said.

Than out of nowhere, Roxas leaned in and gave Namine a peck on the cheek. Both stepped back in shock. "I'm sorry!" Roxas said immediately. "I didn't mean to do that! I don't know where that came from!"

Namine actually giggled as Roxas started to blush. "No, it's alright."

Axel only than turned around and noticed what had happened. But he decided not to interfere. "Come on. We'd better go after Sora and Kairi and find the bombs," Namine said walking back towards the city of Radiant Garden.

Roxas just stood there slightly dazed. Axel walked up the Roxas and hit him on the back of his head. "Idiot."

"Hey! What was that for?"

"Not kissing her on the lip genius. Roxas, I've known for a long time you liked Namine. The same thing is with Sora and Kairi. You just got to do something about it."

Roxas shook his head. "Right now isn't the best time to start a relationship Axel."

"1,000 munny."

"Huh?"

"1,000 munny you kiss her on the lips next time."

"What?!"

"You heard me," Axel said walking in the direction Namine went.

"I wouldn't do that!"

"Than the bet's on."

Roxas shook his head. "You really haven't changed, have you Axel?"

*****

Riku watched as Mickey, Donald, and Goofy became beamed into the computer system. He would have gone with, but someone had to make sure nothing interfered with the computer while they were in there. He walked around what used to be Ansem's office. Torn apart, pieces lay here and there. He looked through old papers, but nothing important, nor any sign of the Royal Scroll. "It's not here if that's what you're looking for."

Riku spun around to see Samen. "You again."

"Yes, me Riku. So, it seems everyone has done well so far," the masked Soulz said walking around Ansem's office.

"How do you know the Royal Scroll isn't in here?" Riku said.

"I looked myself. After all, I told you about the Royal Scroll, remember? I want to stop the Seekers as well. However, I have not found any more pieces. But I was able to fins out more information."

"On what?"

"There will need to be more than the five."

"Huh?"

"More than five keyblade wielders will be needed to stop whatever the Seekers plan to do at the Crossroad. Ones that walk their own paths."

"You're not making any sense. Tell me what's going on!"

Samen just walked out of Ansem's office. Riku ran after him after a hesitation. He followed him through the maze of the castle hallways and came back outside to the entrance to the castle. But Samen was no where to be seen. But something stopped Riku. He could taste something in air. A darkness. A powerful darkness. Before he knew it, everything around him went dark, and he was standing on nothing. Just darkness all around him. Than a dark portal opened up in front of him, and a figure walked out, and the portal disappeared. The strong scent of the darkness coming from this being was even stronger than Xehanort's heartless. This couldn't be good. He drew Road to Dawn and readied himself. "Who are you?"

The figure did not respond as a cloak of darkness wrapped over the person as if a living suit of darkness had embraced the being. A sword like weapon grew from the gooey looking suit as two red eyes appeared where the head was. Than Riku lost conciousness.


Namine's Keyblade Trace

Axel's Weapon Trade-off

Back to Radient Garden, and there's trouble already! The summon guessing is still up for game for anyone. Review to say the summon and you'll get to come up with a Soulz! And I was actually able to update this fast. Amazing. Please Review and give suggestions as always.

Dezblade