Kingdom Hearts: Mutants of Twilight

by RogueFanKC

Set in the Misfitverse! The heroes and the Organization are stunned to see who now harnesses the Chalice of Kingdom Hearts after the bloody battles! However, it's a hollow victory when Falco and Octavia then inform the X-Men, Joes, and Misfits of a rather unpleasant secret about the Keyblades that Pluto has been keeping from them...

36. Talisman of Water, Talisman of Wind

Author's Notes: first off, I wanted to apologize for the lateness of this chapter. Not only did I have school, I had a midterm this past Wednesday (I got an "A" though, so I'm happy), but I'm at least finally glad to see that I'm finally done with this! I just hope the wait was worth it! Second, I dedicate this chapter to the comic character, Steve Rogers (a.k.a. Captain America) who was tragically killed in the beginning of March (Cap, we honor you, fictional character or not, for what you stand for and no, not all of us believe that America is about MySpace and NASCAR. Rest in peace, Cap). I wish to thank each and every one of my reviewers and readers for being so patient and understanding about real life getting in the way. It means a lot to me to have that support. That said, enjoy this chapter as the Talismans of Twilight are now finally revealed in…

CHAPTER 36: Talisman of Water, Talisman of Wind

"Fugate, what's the status?" Colonel Flagg asked through his communicator discreetly through his communicator, hidden in the shadows of the gigantic sewage pipes running underneath New York. The reinforced steel and metal was cold and slick with grime, water, and God knows how much gunk and crap that got sent down here. The other soldiers alongside the colonel were grateful that their polymer body suits of black and black, computerized visors covering every inch of their faces and eyes were also waterproof.

Clock King's voice replied, punctual and stoic as ever on the encrypted and magical transmission, "Affirmative. The electrical power has been abolished to the firm, causing the effective blackout. Security systems have ceased for three point seven seconds until back-up power is prompted to redirect their back-up power, which should be…now."

"And the bombs underneath the sewer system in the basement?"

"Going off on schedule in ten point twenty-six seconds, right as Calendar and her team are over at the lower southwestern side of the center to help organize the computer systems maintain their network. And from the roster and surveillance all around the world, Waller informs me that their reserves at the headquarters are severely depleted enough to be of little resistance, especially since the majority are in Kentucky. And…now."

Flagg was pleased when he felt the vibration of the explosions ring softly throughout the piping network, knowing that it ruptured the pipe to one of the city's main sewage lines which fortunately happened to run underneath the south eastern-end of the Ghostbusters' headquarters. Whatever Ghostbusters that were remaining on duty would come rushing towards the emergency to prevent the entire wing from flooding. And if they were considered too weak to fight against the other paranormal threats occurring during the world riots and chaos, then they would hardly be a match against them.

"Given that a normal human can run in brief speeds of up to twenty miles per hour, especially in periods of panic, fear, and emergency, and that it is approximately a median of a quarter mile from a triangulation of the sewage line from the north, west, and northwestern ends of the company, from all four levels, any helpers should arrive within three-quarters of a minute, a given considering the superhuman abilities of several of the paranormals. But including the factors of the Ghostbusters being disorganized enough from the sudden setback and the first five to ten seconds of initial confusion, we shall allow a grace period of two minutes for them to head towards the sewage main explosion and the inevitable fire."

"Finally, some action," muttered Deadshot, as he checked his pistols.

"I beg to differ," Captain Boomerang gulped. It was clear that he was starting to have second thoughts about doing five years of this to gain amnesty and a presidential pardon for his past crimes. He wasn't so sure about the assertion that the Ghostbusters wouldn't hunt him down once this was all done and over with, and the thought of pissing off a Slayer or a witch or heaven forbid, a bloodthirsty demon, was enough to make him potentially wet his pants.

Of course, not that there wasn't an additional backup for Task Force X to ensure their safety as well…

"Fugate, activate the override," Flagg commanded as the two minutes finished ticking by on his synchronized watch.

"The security systems have been overloaded and are now under our command," the Clock King said as he clicked away at the computer console at Cadmus' headquarters.

"Perform system lockdown," Flagg responded.

"Lockdown engaged and taken effect in one point eight seconds. All doorways and entrances have been locked and are unresponsive to the…"

The members of Task force X noticed that the Clock King trailed off for several seconds into silence before they could hear the sounds of alarms blaring above them, loud enough to be audible even from their position underground.

"What the hell? Was this supposed to be part of the operation?" Deadshot asked.

"Not that I know of," admitted Captain Boomerang.

"Fugate, what the hell is going on up there?!"

"There is another crisis, one at the nuclear reactor core at the northeastern end of the lower levels of the company. There is a malfunction with the Ghostbusters' nuclear reactor, their main power generator, and it wasn't caused by the blackout we created, not that it was possible to do so in the first place. Now the Ghostbusters are dealing with not only the system override and the sewage main, but to prevent their nuclear power supply from causing a power failure large enough to take out the entire company at once in the possible explosion."

Flagg blinked from behind his visor before he hissed with budding rage at Plastique, nearly snarling with accusation, "Are you trying to sabotage us, Plastique?!"

The female member of Task Force X held up her hands in a gesture that was both surrendering and angry, outraged even, as she waspishly snapped back, "Hey, as much as I'd love to take credit for trying to blow up those demons to Kingdom Come, it wasn't me. Remember, none of us are willing to screw this up since you injected us with those explosive nanites, and we didn't even get a chance to get into this building."

"Plastique is correct, Colonel. There is absolutely no way she nor anyone else in the team would know about the security system of their nuclear power source, since it one of the few portions of the headquarters that cannot be provided by Wendell. And I additionally doubt that either she or the other members used an ad-libbed and hackneyed contingency plan of leaking oneirogenic gas all over the headquarters and thus endanger our mission. Those trapped in various rooms and chambers have enough fail-safe mechanisms to be free from the gaseous effects, but they will not be able to get to the reactor core. Those that are not locked in the rooms may succumb to the gas and thus may still not be able to get down to the nuclear power source."

"Oneirogenic - ?! What the hell?! You mean sleeping gas?!" Flagg barked.

"So…then that means all the freaks who are wandering about that aren't locked down are asleep and won't be able to shut down and fix their nuclear reactor? Maybe we should get the hell out while we still can, mates," Captain Boomerang suggested, only to be angrily reprimanded by the colonel.

"You stay where you are, soldier!"

"And if anything, it is fortunate. According to the blueprints, what we need is in the northwestern end of the heart of company at the lowest underground level, meaning that it should be far enough for you to be isolated from the other Ghostbusters and long enough for you to get what Waller wants before they catch on. And there is a sixty-nine percent probability that those aboard can stop the core from exploding, but this increases the chances that they shall be too incapacitated to deal with us and stop your from your primary mission."

"Wow, talk about Lady Luck. This'll be even easier than I thought," Plastique remarked, taken aback but smiling at the apparent good fortune. Temple's voice instantly cut her down harshly.

"Do not be cocky. This distraction may be fruitful, but it in an unexpected and potentially uncontrollable variable in this mission that could jeopardize us. We do not know who or what was the primary cause of this, which may mean that there may be a concurrent attack against them, given the number of adversaries they have in their history. Additionally, sleeping gas has no effect on some paranormals such as vampires and phantoms, which means that we do not have absolutely zero resistance. If the Ghostbusters do not contain their nuclear reactor from exploding, it would most likely take out the entire block within thirty five point eighty seven seconds. Granted, it is on a much, much smaller scale as compared to Chernobyl, but it is worrisome enough considering that this is New York. Imminent death will come within a quarter of a second from the extreme heat, and acute radiation poisoning will result from exposure to ionization after four Sieverts. And we have additionally wasted about four minutes and thirty five point seven seconds out of the buffer of additional space we had set aside as of now. The plan must be executed within the span of two minutes if we are to succeed."

"Focus on the mission," Flagg commanded with cold steel, his voice so feral and brutal that one had to wonder if Rick Flagg had anything that resembled a soul inside his body, "Our primary target will not be compromised. If the Ghostbusters fail to take care of this emergency, Waller can use it as further justification to legislate all means to persecute paranormals."

"We better. Lord knows how much I'm not willing to be at the wrong end off some demon or a bloodthirsty vampire. And if they get blown up and as long as we're far away, well…c'est la vie," grumbled Deadshot, cocking his guns, all of the bullets consisting of silver with a hollow center of holy water, held in place with a thin covering of silica gel.

"I agree; the sooner we're away from these paranormal freaks, the better," Captain Boomerang muttered, shivering at the thought of being in the building where demons, monsters, witches, Slayers, and vampires ran rampant. He may have been a low-life, but even he had his standards.

"Fine…let's get to work. Oxygen filters equipped, everyone. And remember Waller's orders: not a single casualty, or else you'll all be back serving your deaths and prison sentences before you can even attempt to run and flee out of the country," Flagg commanded with unbending steel as he and Task Force X began the execution of the siege into the Ghostbusters' headquarters. Meanwhile, as the group set out underneath the sewers, two additional figures from the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club were watching the spectacle outside the Ghostbusters Incorporated at a safe distance, the pandemonium and faint but audible sounds of Defcon sirens blaring full-force inside the building being music to their ears.

"Enjoying this?" Harry Leland chuckled. After all, any strike against their enemies was entertaining to say the least. And the release of the sleeping gas in the building's ventilation vents along with the nanites that Donald Pierce had his Reavers design specifically (and magically enhanced by Vexen of Organization Thirteen) to overload the Ghostbusters' security systems and electrical reactors to cause a rather daunting and alarming energy overload in the energy core would further ensure that Amanda Waller would get what she wanted.

After all, a pawn every now and then needed a little assistance on any chessboard.

"Somewhat…" grumbled Pierce, although it was plainly obvious that he would rather be with Selene and Frost right now, making sure that they didn't screw up. And Lord knows how much he wanted that boost of competence and good image in Lord Imperial's eyes so that he could put an end to the butt-kissing and being the second-tier errand boy.

To tell the truth, he was more than hoping for the Queens' collective failure…

---

Dashing as swiftly as a fierce gust of wind, Falco and Octavia tore through the many corridors of Shaw Industries, their feet not making a sound as they sprinted. And they could sense it. Some inborn feeling in their hearts, in their souls, tugging them towards the lower regions of the mammoth and professional edifice.

The two took great care to halt at each corner and either attacked and pummeled a random guard into unconsciousness or took a detour to avoid the numerous others crawling throughout the premises. They weren't ordinary human sentries. All were dressed in special white-polymer body uniforms and bullet-proof vests, a by-product of Shaw's industrial achievements in weapons and his defense contracts with numerous agencies for the United States Department of Defense. And they were all additionally armed with tasers, electric shock batons, sound grenades, and gigantic, white PHASR flash rifles, all meant to incapacitate and subdue any intruder effectively and cleanly so that they could be taken in for questioning. Of course, Shaw also had all of the men and women under his payroll armed with semi-automatic handguns with armor-piercing bullets, each with a tiny microchip for tracking in order to hunt down their wounded target in order for a quick finish (just in case taking one alive was no longer feasible or no longer preferred).

And given that there were electronic eyes, security cameras, and that the guard's visors were armed with heat-seeking, thermographic equipment, it would have been nigh difficult for anyone to bypass the legions of security that were assigned to watch over the corporation at tightly spaced intervals in pairs or in groups of three.

Not that there haven't been security setbacks before. Shaw wasn't exactly pleased when Deadpool managed to make off with his research team's only proto-type of the "Façade Virus" after killing twelve of his guards from his firm in Japan several years ago (and he had to marvel the assassin's ability to kill one woman by merely jamming her security identification card-pass up her nostrils, rupturing the frontal portion of her brain). And that was nowhere as furious as he was when Gorilla Grodd somehow managed to make off with a good number of his financial assets and sensitive, confidential database archives from the database servers in Germany (thankfully, nothing the implicated the existence of the Hellfire Club, but it was bad enough). And many people would rather forget or disavow the time Shaw personally killed the head chief of the "Spencer Mansion Project" when the one, lone experiment that cost him much money and years of kissing up to the Umbrella Corporation went up in flames (literally) after the vigilante Punisher somehow mysteriously managed to kill the Tyrant with the help of Jill Valentine and her team from S.T.A.R.S, despite assurance from the late project manager that no living being could ever make it past the city and security defenses of the Arklay Research Facility and discover its secrets.

Needless to say, Umbrella broke off things with Shaw Industries instantaneously after that (and no one in the Hellfire Club was stupid enough to attack them outright for their audacity so they were forced to suffer the financial and resourceful loss).

And unfortunately for Sebastian Shaw, this was going to happen again as Falco and Octavia both managed to attack three guards guarding the door to the first sub-level basement running underneath the building, punching, kicking (and in Falco's case, using a Reflega spell when one guard tried to shoot him). The two men and one woman lackeys went down swiftly and easily before they could even attempt to radio in an alert. And none of the security cameras were fully functional on the account that Octavia had effectively frozen all the images using her water spells before she and Falco trapped the Misfits, X-Men, and Joes outside the company.

"By the seven seas…" murmured Octavia, wiping her brow, "So many security guards! I'm surprised that there are so many active on duty! We have not yet run into a single corridor without narrowly avoiding the guards before they could alert and detect our presences. We need to get the Talisman and leave quickly, otherwise we'll be caught."

"Actually, if anything, this is a good sign," Falco muttered as he relinquished one guard of his electronic identification card tag before he hefted the senseless man over his shoulder adroitly and went over to the heavily barricaded door, "If there was a lack of security, then I'd be suspicious and wondering if this wasn't a set-up. But because this place is crawling with guards, enough to make the term 'paranoid' seem like an understatement, then it definitely proves something's up."

"Can you work the security codes?" the female agent asked softly as Falco slid in the identification card on the control panel before placing the unconscious man's ungloved hand on the hand-scanner, detecting the fingerprint and the warmth of an alive human being.

"Well, it's definitely not up to the level of technology we had on Corneria…" grumbled Falco as he dropped the unconscious sentry off his shoulder unceremoniously.

The console clicked and beeped, blinking a green light from its LED screen before the doors began to slide open, heavily groaning as the metal doors, constructed from a mixture of reinforced steel and actual adamantium and titanium alloys.

"But I can manage…" Falco said snarkily enough as he and Octavia dashed towards the first underground level, where they could sense the ebb of power being even stronger. Oh, they were so close…

But had they stopped to look at the three security lookouts that they had managed to defeat, they would have noticed that they would have began to crumble and change, reverting from skin and flesh to actual dirt and clumps of earth and dust. They disintegrated, unnoticed by anyone, and as one, so did the other guards in the building, leaving nothing behind but clumps of mud and filth.

For they weren't actually humans, but golems, magically created into lifelike dolls and decoys, thanks to a certain Black Queen…

Within the span of thirty seconds, Falco and Octavia finally managed to break their way into the primary basement, a chamber that was certainly enormous and about the size of a small park, wide and open, but riddled with various weapons, vehicles, engines, and aircraft parts meant for future and horrific developments of warfare and weaponry. It was clean and organized, but there wasn't much open space save for the very center of the room, guarded with a highly sensitive security system of invisible, ion lasers latticing all around a marble stand, rectangular, wide, and tall, displaying a black object in a glass case.

And there, they saw it, now finally able to get a close up view of the weapon inside the diamond panel. It was a giant broadsword made of black obsidian, completely as dark as the blackest night sky at the witching hours. Double-edged and razor sharp with a curved, pointed tip, the detail of the blade was carved of black crystal, impressively honed to have a width span of four or five inches and a fuller in the center, and so keenly polished that Falco and Octavia could see their reflections on the surface. The weapon had a slightly curved, simple crossguard and semi-circle rainguard, turned upwards, and a thick handle and a pointed pommelstone of black rock, carved like an exquisite diamond.

And even within a short distance, Octavia and Falco could all feel something…powerful, as if an oppressive force was trying to lightly shove the two warriors aside, pushing them like the similar ends between two polarized magnets.

"Could it be…?" asked Octavia with awe and anticipated hope. After so long of endless strife, death, and warfare. Falco couldn't answer; he too was too enthusiastic and building with encouragement that this was one of the Talismans of Twilight. And they couldn't deny that they could sense a powerful force of magic, a distinct feeling of energy.

Falco reached out slowly, his wing shaking…

And then he sensed something approaching them fast from above.

Falco let loose a foul oath as he and Octavia sprang backwards away from the incoming energy attack, the white energy ball striking the very spot where they were only seconds go. The two skidded to a stop, looking at the smoking crater for a split second before looking at the two figures descending down from the ceiling, their fall slowed down to a graceful pace as they gently touched the floor.

It was Selene and a hooded Organization member. Though Falco had no idea about who the hell Selene was (he never ran into her), he was certainly more than wary of the warrior sent by the Thirteenth Order.

"I'm sorry, but the sword is property of the Inner Circle, little bird. Of course, you're more than willing to forfeit your life for it," Selene said with a smug smirk as she summoned a cloud of dark energy from her hands. Falco and Octavia looked like they weren't going to back down easily, especially since this all but confirmed that this really was a Talisman to begin with. And Falco was personally in the mood to kill.

But then Falco's eyes widened a bit as the Organization then effortlessly summoned out his weapons in a flash of gleaming white, appearing in each of his gloved hands in graceful battle positions were the white and silver Oathkeeper and the black Oblivion Keyblades. The avian and the octopus-female humanoid were taken aback. Then that meant…

"Roxas?" croaked Falco. He was going to fight against them after all?

Selene gave Roxas a quizzical look, one eyebrow raised as she clearly saw that Falco and Octavia were more disturbed with the notion of Roxas fighting them than normal, asking with cold interest, "I take it there's a story behind this?"

"It's nothing," Roxas responded back shortly.

Falco's eyes narrowed; so that's the way it was going to be. Octavia, however, was still shocked and pained.

"Roxas…don't do this…please…" the Tigershark begged. Wordlessly, Roxas just began to twirl both of the Keyblades in his hands rapidly before he sprang up high in the air and actually hovered above them, the two agents in his sight. With a flourish, the cloaked soldier crossed the two Keyblades in an "X" fashion over his head, causing them both of glow dangerously before they flashed. Instantaneously, a rainfall of white streams of magical force, stronger than anything Octavia or Falco had ever experienced, thundered down in the room all around them, invoking pillars of energy to erupt all around them, invoking a cage and trapping them in an impenetrable circle. All the nearby components and precious weapon-prototypes and aircrafts nearby were automatically ruined and rendered into pieces of smoldering and flaming wreckage.

"No…" Octavia gasped. But Roxas wasn't finished as the radiance from his Oathkeeper and Oblivion started to glow even brighter, and to their collective dread and astonishment, a circle of glowing Organization symbols emerged and materialized on the ground underneath the floating Organization member. The circle of insignias began to spin, faster and faster, before Roxas then brandished his two Keyblades apart and they began to spin in his palms, rotating in mere blurs that the blades of a helicopter.

"Crap," Falco could only utter, taken completely by surprise, as enormous spheres of wispy yet intensely hot, glowing force began to descend down upon the Cornerian pilot and the Tigershark, a cascade of searing attacks ready to incinerate and blitz them where they stood. Falco then summoned a hexagon-shaped force-field right in front of himself, taking the hits at full-force. Thankfully, the small screen held firm as Falco managed to reflect off much of the incoming projectiles back at Roxas. But it then became clear that no mattered how much he tried deflecting the energy attacks, none of them hit Roxas or even came close to a narrow margin. And Falco couldn't be brought to a standstill forever.

Thankfully, Octavia intervened as she raised her hands over her head.

"Aquara Tigershark Tsunami!"

Roxas automatically stopped his assault and dodged the incoming torrent of water, snaking across the room with the same force of Niagara Falls, all concentrated into one lone whirlwind of clear liquid, threatening to crush him. Roxas then went on the defensive as he then actually began hacking away at the water right before it could get within close proximity, his Keyblades faster than the human eye could process. And to Octavia's surprise, he was effectively lacerating and slicing away, hewing the water so that it wouldn't even crush him. In fact, it was effectively being splattered and diverted away from him so that not even a single drop touched his black cloak.

He was good. So Falco decided to get his shot now while he could.

He dashed out, his body outlined with silver as he cried, "Aeroga Shadow Phantasm!"

Octavia then joined in as she summoned another spell of powerful waves, the water suddenly encapsulating along the winds bathing Falco, giving him the rather daunting and powerful appearance of a silver bird bathed in blue and silver flames, rocketing towards Roxas and very nearly breaking the sound barrier with its speed. Exactly the same attack that they had used before on Larxene when she attacked the Eloi in Maine.

Unfortunately, Falco would soon learn that this was exactly what Roxas was waiting for.

With that, Roxas disappeared before he became a white blur and sped towards Falco, surprising the avian a bit.

"What the hell - ?!" was all Falco could squawk out before he felt the oppressive force from both of the Organization member's Keyblades being flourished right at the millisecond before Falco unity attack of water and wind collided with the Oathkeeper and Oblivion.

Regrettably, the dual Keyblades won. Falco swore it felt as if a ten-ton wrecking ball slammed with full, brutal force directly into him, face first.

WHAM!

Falco screamed as he was sent flying backwards, far into the opposite end of the room before he crashed into the remains of a test assault-Jeep running on hydrogen-cells for the military, landing hard and the force of the backlash from Roxas' counterattack nearly breaking every bone in his body. But he was seriously injured nonetheless.

Octavia was by his side instantly, invoking her Curaga magic to begin to bathe her friend, healing him and hopefully bringing him back to full strength. Alas, that would take some time and that was a luxury they didn't have. Octavia was only given several seconds before she narrowly avoided a shaft of black magic that would have crippled her had she not madly strafed to the right, the black magic missing her by inches. Selene was impressed as her left hand was still radiating with power from the discharge. Even Thor should have had trouble dodging that shot (as much as he could attest when she faced the Norse God centuries ago); the King apparently trained the survivors well…

Octavia didn't even bother to indulge in a verbal comeback as she was about to summon another water attack to overwhelm and drown Selene, but because she was so distracted from Selene attacking her that she didn't see Roxas from above doing a somersault-movement in the air, his Keyblades causing rings of white energy to appear and glow all around him as he descended down.

The octopus-humanoid didn't have a chance and she was struck down repeatedly before she sank to the floor, unconscious as Roxas cruelly hewed her midsections, drawing the heads of his weapons across her back and chest.

"No…stop…" the avian rasped weakly, managing to recover a substantial amount of strength from Octavia's Curaga magic as it briefly bathed him with its regenerative properties. Roxas simply hefted up the unconscious female warrior over his shoulder, not caring if her blood was starting to drip and soak into the fabric of his cloak.

"Oh, and Falco?" Selene said rather flippantly as she smashed the glass case shielding the black, enormous sword from the display, causing the alarms and the security from all around to blare, tripping the sirens to blare throughout the entire building. She finally grabbed hold of the sword with one hand and hefted it, despite the fact that it appeared to weigh like a solid bar of iron.

"We still have the Talisman. You lose."

Falco actually saw red as Roxas summoned a portal underneath their feet, and they sank into the floor, vanishing deep below into the ground. Despite being sore, Falco was absolutely apoplectic and already berating himself for being so cocky, but now he was filled with an animalistic and uncontrollable urge to fight, to kill, to protect his friend.

Falco forced himself not to panic, steeling himself to think for his sake and Octavia's. Down, they were going down. So that meant that the lower six levels underneath was a safe bet that that was where Selene and Roxas were headed.

"Damn it!" Falco cursed before he fled, as swiftly as the wind, making no noise as he forgot all caution and foresight as he swiftly flew, half dashing on his feet, anger and rage coursing through his body as he followed the paths that would take him deeper below the Earth's surface. There was only one thought in his mind besides beating the living snot out of the two opponents.

I've already lost Fox and my family. I'll be damned if I lose one more friend too!

---

Ten minutes later, despite the sirens ringing piercingly through the stillness of the night…

"Now where did they go?! They could be anywhere or long gone at this point," groaned Scarlet Witch as she and the other Misfits, X-Men, and Joes emerged and stormed into the front offices of the Shaw Industries, despite the alarms blaring at full force. Along them with Leomon was a vast assemblage of heroes who thankfully were able to arrive post-haste and as speedily as they could towards the state of Kentucky. Not only did this include the original founders of the Justice League as well as Supergirl and Batgirl, but Captain America and Black Widow of S.H.I.E.L.D, Wildstar and Jinx, Pete Wisdom of A.U.N.T.I.E, the Teen Titans and the Titans East, and a large and efficient group of Ghostbusters sent by Jenny Calendar which not only included Quentin Blud, the Charmed Ones, and the Scoobies and Slayers that fought at the battle in San Francisco with Blackheart and Zankou (bar Andrew, Xander, and Giles), but many of the paranormals that accompanied the X-Men and Misfits during their missions to deal with the various Heartless invasions all over the world. Barring Hellboy, Shippo, Spider Man, Daemona and Kira of the Phantom Investigators (they were more passive in their powers than offensive), the group actually included the new, younger Ghostbusters of Eduardo, Kylie, Garrett, and Roland (armed with proton guns and pistols) as well as Inuyasha's band, the Monster Fighters, Jericho and Casey, the Spirit Detectives, Danny Phantom and Agent Jay from the Men in Black, Felicia of the Darkstalkers, and Yoh and the Shamans (minus Anna).

Allo, the other Dinosaucers, and the Secret Scouts weren't with them. And for a very good reason…

And yet even with all of these, Leomon critically mused to himself that against all thirteen members of the Organization, it still may not be enough. Meanwhile, in response to Wanda's question, the Triplets were furiously typing away with their pink scanners.

"We're not sure…" Brittany said as she clicked on her console, madly typing away at the keys, and getting abnormal levels of energy and magic throughout the entire complex and placing them ion the schematics and blueprints of the Shaw Industries office branch she and her other sisters hacked and stole earlier in the week. She was right to be worried; the entire area was surrounded with numerous energy barriers, traps, and shields, not to mention that for such a prestigious company, it had numerous corridors, levels, and offices as well as several underground basements and hangars for their aircrafts (understandable since Shaw Industries was had defense contracts with the United States military).

It would take them a long time to split up and search for each and every room, chamber, and foyer and level on the entire property. Too long in fact. And some people were thinking of the same thing.

"Maybe we should split up and search separately. With my speed, I should be able to search everywhere in a minute or two," Quicksilver piped up, volunteering instantly.

"Actually, with my speed, I should be able to find where there are in a matter of seconds," the Flash chimed in automatically with a very, very arrogant grin, almost leering in Pietro's face, and Quicksilver was so tempted to punch him. But before either of the speedsters dashed off, Leomon's voice then rang out in a warning.

"Don't dash off. The Organization probably has numerous snares spread throughout the entire company complex in case you and the other heroes managed to get in here. Since they're only interested in Falco and Octavia and the Keyblades, then anyone else who was unlucky enough to not know what the hell they were doing, they'll set off the magical traps and…well, try not to think about it."

"Amidamaru? What's wrong?" Yoh the Shaman asked, his eyes showing concern as his samurai ghost materialized into visibility, only to show that the specter was visibly shaking with discomfort.

"Your lion friend speaks the truth. There is powerful magic residing here. It could be fatal if we tamper with it or go wander off without thinking a contingency plan," the shaman's spirit guide warned in affirmation.

"It's Materia. I can sense it…and it can be harmful to you if it's in the Hellfire Club's hands," Leomon said gravely.

"MATERIA?!" chorused a good portion of the heroes in shock, the X-Men especially and they seemed particularly wary. Multiple couldn't help but ask a question, despite his teammates giving him a collective look.

"Is it that bad?"

"It can be good or bad, kid, depending on how it's used. In our hands, it'll be a good asset. But in the enemy's hands or in the ones of idiots who don't know how to use it, you won't have much of a chance without being careful," the lion swordsman replied.

"Damn. Now I wish you guys didn't destroy the ones Sage stole from the Hellfire Club. We could have used it here," whispered Wavedancer to Jean. The red-haired telekinetic's throat went dry suddenly as she wisely decided to not answer…

"In other words, if they're intent of making sure that Falco and Octavia get that sword from the Hellfire Club, then we better follow their path since that's the safest and most likely route that doesn't have anything unpleasant in store that will enable us to get to wherever the Hellfire Club's got that Talisman of Twilight. Once we reach that part, we'll be able to get the Talisman from Falco and Octavia after we beat the living crap of out them and rescue the civilians whose hearts hold the other two Talismans of Twilight," Hawkgirl said.

"Ah, a gal after my own heart," Garret the Ghostbuster said with a little ardor as he twirled his bo staff while sitting in his wheelchair.

"But this doesn't make any sense though," Colossus wondered out loud, "If the sword is already in the hands of the Hellfire Club, and if they have the civilians who have the Talismans, why make it public? Why give enough of an incentive for Falco and Octavia and the rest of us to try to take it away from them? There's no reason to inform us of something like this."

"Don't think we haven't though of that, but for now, we don't have any choice. We have to go after Falco and Octavia, wherever they are, and stop them before it's too late and either the people who have the Talismans die or if the Hellfire Club manages to get to them first. We're not fools, but we can't just stand by and do nothing," Superman pointed out.

"Actually, didn't you guys just notice something odd about this whole company?" Wildstar asked, his eyes narrowed in thought, "I mean, for an industrial complex owned by Sebastian Shaw, doesn't anyone find it weird that we haven't spotted a security guard around this whole place? Not at the front desk, not outside on the grounds, and I don't see one anywhere when we came in. And the Hellfire Club isn't stupid to leave something of theirs unguarded. But the whole security system all over the place is going bonkers, and yet I haven't seen a cop pull in yet!"

He had a point.

"Dude, you're right," Beast Boy remarked, blinking as it hit him, "I was expecting a huge bunch of guys armed to teeth to immediately come out and attack us."

"And I don't sense anyone around us with my telepathy. We're alone, which is kind of weird considering that the security systems going haywire like this should have brought some sort of attention," Jean confirmed.

"That is indeed odd. Perhaps these guards are merely playing a game of seek-and-hide?" the Titan Starfire asked blithely, and no one decided to correct the orange-skinned Tamaranean.

"Actually, that's the thing. If there were guards around here, I'd at least pick up a scent of something human, but…I don't. All I smell is, surprisingly enough, dirt," blinked Felicia of the Darkstalkers.

"Dirt?" echoed Natalie of the Monster Fighters Incorporated.

"Perhaps you are mistaken," Spirit suggested, although he had a feeling he should have known better.

Low Light then said, "I dunno. Something tells me Falco and Octavia aren't going to go through their plan as smoothly as they said. We'd better find them, now and fast."

"Any ideas on what they're going to do?" drawled Magma with contempt at Leomon (and not surprisingly, many of the heroes were giving him suspicious looks since they couldn't say for certainly that he wasn't doing this because it benefited him).

"No…I just…have a suspicion, that's all," Leomon growled at the Nova Roman princess, just as hostile.

"Boy, that's the lamest excuse I've ever heard, yo. And coming from me, that's saying something!" grumbled Toad. He obviously wasn't very charitable towards the Digimon. Dragonfly was pensive before she suggested another alternative.

"Maybe we should split up regardless of the traps. At least we'd cover a lot more ground, and I'm sure if we're extra careful, and with the Keyblades and the paranormals from the Ghostbusters helping detect whatever tricks the Inner Circle has here, we won't be in any danger."

Toad was instantly approving as he said exuberantly, pointing at his Disney summon, "Yeah, yo! And Genie here's just as powerful as any of those creeps! We should be able to handle ourselves fine!"

"Aw, shucks, Toad, you're flattering me!" Genie preened.

"No, Leomon's right. This easily smells of a set-up. We'll need everyone we can throw at this if the Hellfire Club is so confident, and if this is a trap, then splitting up would make it easier for them to do the ol' divide-and-conquer trick," Green Lantern said brusquely, trying to put himself in the Organization's shoes and wondering what would be the best way to anticipate and counter their next move.

"And that's not all we smell. We got Lombardi's scent. He went through that corridor," Wolverine said, pointing at the fifth entrance-way at the east-northeast section of the main chamber. Apparently, his bloodhound senses were quite handy especially now. Low Light turned to the Triplets expectantly.

"Trinity, where does that lead to?"

"There's only one way: it goes downwards! That pathway leads straight into the underground passageways and sub-levels underneath! He's going to the basements! And…yikes, there's seven levels, all of them totaling up to half a mile deep in the Earth's crust! Falco could be on any one of them!" Daria exclaimed, bringing for the imaging on her screen. Jean groaned, realizing that running there would be on time. Nightcrawler saw the predicament too.

"I can't teleport there! Not if I don't know where it is or if I've never been there!" Kurt groaned.

"And I can't teleport us into the wrong room either, not unless we wanted to give away our positions to the Hellfire Club and alert Shaw and the others that we're here or set off any of those magical traps Yoh's spirit warned us about!" Supergirl groaned, realizing that if they smashed their way through the floors, it could very well lead to the same thing.

"Superman, think you can do a little X-Ray vision?" Low Light suggested, but the Kryptonian leader shook his head.

"Actually, surprisingly enough, all the walls and floors are lined with lead. I can't see through them," Superman said in slight surprise, although he should have expected it considering that the Inner Circle was resourceful and dangerously clever.

"And adamantium and titanium as well, so don't bother thinking we can easily blast through that stuff as well. Our scanners say that each floor is covered with a layer of those metals, reinforced with steel and each three inches thick," Brittany groaned, getting the schematics on her screen. She had to give credit; the Inner Circle really knew when to cover every base of their defenses.

"Not a problem. Martian Manhunter and me'll just phase all of us through the floors in no time! That way, nothing can hurt all of us! Everyone, join hands! The two of us together should be enough to do this!" the ghost-boy named Danny Phantom ordered, and quickly, everyone linked towards each other as the Martian and the ghost-boy took the lead (with Raven and Piper Halliwell taking the reluctant Leomon's paws) before they attempted to phase the whole group through the ground.

Emphasis on "attempted to" for as hard as Danny and J'onn tried, they were unable to shift their party's molecular density to move past the floor.

"I do not understand," J'onn said with surprise.

"What's going on?! Why aren't we phasing through?! It should have worked!" the Slayer Chao-Ahn asked in confusion, but Leomon exhaled wearily through his nose in disappointment as he answered.

"The Materia. It won't let us pass. Don't underestimate the limitless potential it has or that it can do."

"How do you know so much about it?" asked Black Widow suspiciously, giving the furry behemoth a glare. Leomon looked a bit defensive as he growled, baring one side of his teeth.

"I just do," he rumbled. Again, not the most comforting of answers, but there was no time to argue now as Wonder Woman then pointed to the hallway.

"Then there's no choice. We better get running and hopefully, we'll be able to catch up to them."

"Uh…is that even a good idea?" Jericho asked wryly, the Phantom Investigator looking like he'd rather stay behind. Quentin the dhampir obviously wasn't allowing that as he grabbed the boy with a simple movement by the collar of the boy's shirt as everyone dashed off (with Wolverine, Green Lantern, and Roadblock making sure that Leomon went in front of them).

"You got a better idea? No? Then shut up and run," Quentin retorted shortly .

---

"Fire Bird!" roared Falco as he rocketed through the metal doors to the final and last floor, not caring if he was going to alert the security teams in the company to his whereabouts (he would have gladly fought and killed them all just to get Octavia back). As he made his way through the metal and twisted sheets of metal, he then took in his surroundings, hoping that this level wasn't empty and abandoned like all the other five ones he madly searched over.

The blue-feathered falcon finally arrived to the seventh and final floor of the company, and it was indeed a bit surprising when the warrior took in the view, not a room one would expect for a company owned by Sebastian Shaw. To put it shortly, it was a grand foyer, the distance from the roof to the floor being more than twenty feet and about the size of a football field, certainly spacious enough to allow a helicopter or a small aircraft to be stored with a big enough berth all around. The walls were polished reinforced metal, with support rafter embedded to the surfaces at well-spaced intervals, and up high above the ceiling, so brightly shining that Falco could barely look at them, were powerful floodlights, bathing the room with pure white. And the white marble floor (a small surprise) only intensified the blinding glare.

But then the avian's beady yellow eyes narrowed as he saw that entire assembly room wasn't completely bare, thank Corneria. There was an unconscious form of Octavia, injured and bleeding badly from the lacerations on her body, as she was raised in a crucified position, her arms extended outwards and her legs locked together. The cruel sadists actually crucified Octavia against a giant black physical representation of the Organization symbol, with her hands partially phased into the surface of the three spikes of the star-portion of the emblem and her legs fastened to the lower base of the character.

And right next to her, standing side by side with the sword in her hand and the Keyblades in his hands were Selene and Roxas, now showing his face and his hood to his cloak drawn back, showing his blond hair and cold blue eyes and youthful face.

OK, screw their history. Whatever mercy he owed to Roxas was dead…and so would Roxas and Selene be once he got a chance to pummel them full out.

"Let her go," Falco snarled, his feathers on his plumage actually sticking out in anger, like cold pricks of ice.

"Come take her then. Or…is the Talisman more important to you that her?" Roxas asked with the intention to goad and infuriate the avian. It worked as Falco could feel nothing else but his fury and livid emotions, the strength of it surpassing every single moment of anger he ever had in his past (even surprisingly when he discovered Leomon siding with the Misfits over them). Rational thought and common sense were pushed aside, despite that Falco should have known better, but he was so incensed and upset that nothing could hold him back. Giving off a shrill cry like any hawk, only enraged beyond all calm thought and possible range of all human emotions, Falco flew straight towards Roxas and Selene, invoking his magic.

But then he was absolutely shocked when he couldn't even utter a single word. His throat felt hot and frozen at the same time, as if his voice completely left him. And to add on to the precariousness of the situation, his gifts and spell-casting from the Aeroga Elementa kingdom completely stopped working. No winds came out to envelop and strength his body with enough force to rip them apart or hack his way through.

He was completely powerless.

And the shock of this was exactly why the black-colored hex-bolt appeared from nowhere and struck from Falco's blind-spot, searing the blue falcon with intense bad-luck energy cast from one Jennifer Stavros who calmly emerged from the invisible concealment cast by Tarot's "Invisibility" card.

"Hey, what do you know, Empath? You were right. Telepathically shielded doesn't mean that he's resistant to emotional manipulations! Looks like I owe you another five-hundred!" giggled the blond teenager as the Cornerian pilot crashed to the floor, the hex running through his body and literally causing every nerve in his flesh to scream as if doused with gasoline and lit on fire.

So Selene and Roxas weren't alone, eh? Well, then he'd just have to take out the weakest opponent first then, and with a snarl, forcing himself to extract himself from his fetal position on the floor, Falco leapt high in the air, wings outstretched and his feet ready to deliver a strike kick at the mutant girl below.

But then Tarot emerged from behind, hidden next to Selene and taking full advantage of Falco's distraction.

"Harpoon card!" yelled Tarot, the red-haired girl instantly summoning a long and certainly wince-worthy looking giant harpoon made of cold iron and a painfully, curved pointed head, materializing out of thin air when she drew her card. In a blink of an eye, as if guided by an invisible hand, the harpoon pointed directly at the avian before it flew, tearing through the air.

Instincts and reflexes screaming, Falco then summoned a square, invisible force-field with both of his wings to block the incoming projectile and hopefully have it deflect directly back at the Hellions. So imagine his surprise when nothing happened when he tried to summon his magic and the harpoon fully embedded and bore through the area where his shoulder bone met his arm socket.

It was extremely excruciating and swift. Falco silently yelped in surprise as he crashed from his position in midair, landing hard on his side and causing the metal pole sticking through his left shoulder to ache and throb even more so. Nerves burning and horrified at the smell of fresh blood, Falco weakly picked himself up with his right arm. What the hell happened? Why didn't his magical spells and protective barriers show up before?

"A little handy effect called Silence…" Selene purred, "Vexen is such a genius with Materia, isn't he? It's a shame that such materials do not exist here on this planet for I could have easily used them in the past against my former opponents with Green Materia. And some that are quite wonderful such as Despell, Confu, Beserk, and my personal favorite, Debarrier."

Damn it. So much for Reflega then.

And then it hit him that will Green Materia in Selene's control, he couldn't use his magic.

Oh…shit.

So now the option to use his magic as a defensive chance pretty much went out of the window.

Falco tried to hiss weakly, panting and feeling like her ran ten miles nonstop at full speed, his head buzzing with fatigue. But like before, he remained mute. And he was so tired; he could barely keep his eyes open. Selene, however, appeared to be reading his mind as she cocked her head and smiled even further, absolutely looking more and more like a demonic succubus.

"Feeling a little under the weather, Falco? You should, considering that the Bio and Slow spells from the Materia are additionally poisoning you as well. At best, you've only got half of your strength and agility, not to mention your defensives and physical vigor plummeted to practically zero as long as you're in this room. Of course, not that it shall affect my person or the other Hellions thanks to my protective magic. And the only reason I'm telling you this now is because you won't even leave this foyer alive, so it's not going to make much of a difference anyway."

Falco gave her a look that clearly said he was going to take her with him. And the sword. But then he realized the Hellions were moving slowly and stealthily, their combat and training from Emma's sessions clearly showing as they formed a crescent line-formation from behind, clearly not stupid enough to encircle him and risk attacking each other. They were all there: Tarot, Monet, Roulette, Empath, Beef, Bevatron, and Jetstream. And there in the middle, right between Beef and Jetstream, was Emma Frost, smiling with vindictive pleasure as she crossed her arms over her chest.

What the hell?

"What? You were actually thinking that you could take us all on since we've gotten beaten before by the X-Men and Misfits? Sorry, not with that no-magic rule the Materia's causing here and your Sushi-Girl not here to watch your back," Jetstream chuckled.

"And that's the funny thing about mutant powers, you feather-duster. They aren't generated by magic, which means that though you can't use your powers, we can use ours," Monet chimed in with poisoned sweetness. Falco's blood ran cold as he momentarily forgot the harpoon sticking out of his shoulder.

He was in so much trouble.

"Hellions…Beta attack formation. Full strike," the White Queen said with a fulfilled chuckle, giving the coded commands to her prized students from the Massachusetts Academy. Oh, this was going to be good, and the look of devastated insight as Falco grasped the dire and dreadful mistake he had just blundered into.

He had no idea what to do now.

Tarot struck again, opting to go ahead before her other teammates as she drew a card from the pack in her hands right before Falco went for his laser pistol, saying lazily in a bored manner, "Shield card."

Falco cursed as his few and only powerful blasts of red, laser energy merely deflected off harmlessly from the energy shield that Marie has psycho-kinetically created, protecting the Hellions from the discharges of energy that Falco shot at them. Not that he was able to get far, and another black-disc sent by Roulette managed to knock the pistol out of his hands, shattering it and causing it to break into pieces. Now his pistol, the one he kept ever since he became a member of Starfox and one of the last ties he had to Corneria was completely demolished.

"And of course, good luck trying to use your other powers and fighting skills. That bad-luck hex I hit you with the first time is enough to cause anything of yours to malfunction in our favor," the blonde Roulette giggled maliciously. Falco gritted his teeth, still unwilling to just stand still and accept his death easily.

But then before he could move, his body suddenly jerked to a standstill, ignoring the commands from his brain to move, to dash out of the way, to do anything but stand still. But then the telekinetic lift off the ground by Monet clued him in as to why he was rendered immobile. And he then suddenly remembered that Monet was just as powerful as Jean Grey herself. And he didn't forget when she threw him threw the glass skylight of Bayville Mall when Cyclops got infected with the Heartless.

And with a flick of her hand, Monet simply reminded Falco the precarious danger of underestimating a telekinetic as she threw him hard against a nearby metal wall.

WHAM!

Falco was introduced to the wall face-first, and he swore he felt two of his teeth crack along with his beak. Monet then flung him against the wall again, this time even harder.

WHAM!

The right side of his jaw was now numb along with his right shoulder. Falco was lucky that he didn't slam headfirst considering the force would have likely broken his neck and killed him instantly. Unfortunately, death would have been the less painful option. And the Hellion wasn't the type to be merciful as she forcefully drew him back and rammed him against the wall a third time.

WHAM!

Falco honestly couldn't say that one bothered him much. Despite the flashes of light before his very eyes and the buzzing on his head where the back of his skull cracked against the wall. He barely even felt it.

WHAM!

Falco landed on his right side hard, and now his right thigh was numb from the fact that his leg slammed into the wall with as much impact as if someone took a heavy club to his body.

"Monet, please, let us have a turn now. No need for you to have all the fun, and I wish to go before he expires and I'm robbed of a chance to shine," the young man named Fabian said in a slightly impatient manner, adjusting the sleeves of his purple and silver uniform.

"Of course. I was starting to get bored anyway. It's not as fun when you can't hear them scream," Monet sighed as she power slammed Falco hard on the ground, not even flinching when she was sure she heard the unmistakable sound of bone breaking. The avian's leg snapped from the impact. But there was more coming as the electrokinetic ambled towards the dazed and hurt warrior.

"I head that falcon tastes like chicken," grinned Bevatron as he grabbed the limp form of Falco by the shoulders, the teenager's fingers crackling with electricity, "Well, there's only one way to find out after our little barbeque…"

Falco was then subjected to the worst kind of electrocution a living and sentient being could ever go through, feeling the Hellion surge hundreds of volts of power into him, not enough to kill him (barely) but certainly enough to make every nerve cell and fiber in his muscles and nervous system scream and burn with jarring, new levels that went beyond any physical pain. He was sure his brain must have been damaged a bit from the way his eyesight kept blurring and his head was buzzing. At first he thought he was imagining things when he swore he could smell something sweet in the air. Until it slowly dawned on his that he was smelling his flesh being burnt as smoke started to scorch off his red jacket and his feathers crinkled and shriveled, turning black.

"Yuck, you've really got to work on your cooking skills," Haroun grimaced, waving a hand in front of his face to dispel the odor of burnt feathers. Falco swore that his tongue has the faint taste of bile as his skin and blood couldn't hold on to this torture much longer, and with as much strength as he could, the avian did a fabulous sweep kick. This caught Bevatron by surprise, but he was hardly worried as he neatly caught himself by doing a handstand and back-flipping gymnastically to safety. Apparently, Emma trained her Hellions quite well for the past several months since the Steel City mission.

But then Manuel decided to add in to the fun with a little emotional pulling as he used his mutant powers.

"You're scared, aren't you? You have no idea if you'll even win? You hate it that you could actually lose, don't you?"

Falco could barely control himself as he forced himself not to grimace at his fear; he could barely hold it in and there was no way he was going to give that smarky twerp the satisfaction of breaking down.

"You hate yourself, don't you?" Empath grinned as he sadistically managed to strike right to Falco's heart in one of the few chinks in his armor, one of the secretive exposed wounds to his soul, "You still feel guilty about how you're the only survivor, don't you?"

"Stop it…" hissed Falco to himself, but since he was still mute from the Silence effects of the Support Materia, he couldn't utter even a ghost of a whisper. He was forced to endure the memories, his grief and inner anguish from survivor's guilt now glaringly increased. It was like going through the worst memory of your life, reliving it, and then feeling so distraught at being forced to remember that every bit of hope in your body was extinguished and you felt as if you wanted to give up and die.

And yet Falco was still attentive enough to see Empath taking the butt of a small pistol from his pocket, and feeling that there was suddenly a chance he could still win, Falco sprang on his good leg and delivered a fierce haymaker, taking the Hellion completely by surprise. The slender teenager dropped his firearm, and Falco instantly snatched it, and before he took aim, military training at the fleet academy rising instinctively, before he took aim and fired at the Hellions.

Click! Click! Click! Click!

Falco blinked; the gun…was empty. Nothing came out of it.

"Surprise…" drawled Empath smugly as Tarot took out another card from her deck and held it out, face-first to the stunned Falco.

"Fire card," she intoned sweetly. Quickly, out of the card came a red-hot firestorm of flames and heat, swirling all around as it zoomed out.

Falco dropped the gun as the fireball struck him in the stomach, engulfing his body and actually making his wounds even worse by actually singing them and causing them to turn black from the heat. Falco weakly panted, coughing and now suffering even worse burns than before as he erratically and unsteadily rose to his feet. But then he was confused when Empath was now holding the retrieved gun in his hands, pointing it at Falco.

Falco was puzzled before he decided to give it up as a stupid move to scare him and he rushed forward, intent on breaking Empath's neck.

Bang, bang!

Falco twitched and fell to his knees, feeling the two bullet wounds that were now bleeding through his jacket, both of them striking full in the chest. Though nowhere near his heart, they were bad enough.

"Oh, dear…" Manuel said with much insincerity and aloofness as his voice could allow, "Silly me, I made a mistake. This gun isn't empty. The last two holdings have real bullets. I just did that as a precaution in case you ever managed to steal my weapon away from me. And this was to pay for the punch to my face, you cocky asshole."

Damn, thought Falco to himself as he rasped in pain from the bullet wounds puncturing his lungs and slowly but surely increasing the pressure inside the organs, making it harder and harder to breathe as they were collapsing by the precious second.

But Falco then forgot the pains from his blisters, lungs, and burns as there was a new pain clamped around his neck, and the avian gurgled and choked, his neck threatening to break off as he was lifted off his feet.

"Hey, look what the cat dragged in!" the Hellion Beef chortled as he hefted the falcon humanoid by his neck with one hand, squeezing slowly and excruciatingly with his super-strength and threatening to completely crush his windpipe. Hacking, Falco writhed and squirmed, his face starting to flush dangerously from the lack of air before he got desperate and did his best to kick the teen in the torso, arm, and abdominals. Unfortunately, not only was the avian weakened from the effects of the Green Materia, but Buford was build and as solid as a metal wall. And though a bit annoying, it was like as if the brawny teenager was being hit by a kindergartener.

Falco then tried a tactic he saw Rona the Slayer use in Steel City when she faced the Hellion, and with as much of a reach as he could, he kicked out and made contact with Beef's crotch…only to have this foot and toes instantly ache in pain as if he kicked a metal wall.

What the hell?

"Nice try, Falco, but I'm wearin' a cup this time! One made of adamantium!" Beef couldn't help but cockily brag as he then reached out with his other hand and grabbed Falco's left wing. Falco screamed without a sound, nearly crying like a shrill hawk, as with a deft movement of his wrist, Beef broke Falco's appendage. Falco didn't have to look down to see that the bone was now sticking out of the flesh and feathers, didn't have to open his eyes to feeling the blood pool down his arm despite the excruciating agony of his arm growing numb and cold.

Bevatron couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in exasperation at Beef's foolishness as he quipped, "Are you trying to advertise the fact, Beef? It's like giving the X-Losers and the Misfit Morons an opening."

"Shaddup."

And to increase the level of his maliciousness, Beef then made a fist with his right hand and rammed it into the soft part of Falco's stomach, causing the bird humanoid to feel the bile gather in his esophagus. He did his best not to vomit; he had his pride on the line, and it was keeping him from weeping in pain from being punched in the gut by a superhuman teenager. Thankfully, the pain in his arm was momentarily forgotten as the brawny Hellion then flung him far against the wall. Hoping for some luck, Falco did his best to brace his landing feet first in order to break his fall and safely bounce off the hard surface, despite Roulette's bad-luck hex still cursing his body. But then Jetstream came thundering from above, catching the blue-feathered humanoid full from behind in the back, rocketing with forces close to the triple digits.

The extraterrestrial was lucky to barely to have survived as he crashed to the blood, leaving a red smear as she skidded to a stop on the marble floor, his skin burning painfully from the friction. Shakily, Falco tried to rise again, but the Moroccan mutant zoomed low to the ground and struck the bird again with the same intensity as a car, fists outstretched and catching Falco in the back again.

And again in the stomach as Jetstream actually picked off the alien and carried him up high in the air, causing all the wind to be knocked out of Falco painfully before Haroun sadistically dropped him from the very top of the room, nearly touching the ceiling. And with Falco's fractured wing by Beast, there was no way he could slow down. Not that Jetstream helped matters by delivering a final blow with his propulsion, causing Falco to actually accelerate and plummet to the metal floor.

WHAM!

Falco's back was now broken, his spinal cord snapped from the fall. And it hurt so very badly. Though he could still feel pain, the pilot could no longer move his legs.

Falco was now left severely beaten and close to losing consciousness completely; there wasn't a single part of his body, internal or external, that was crying with anguish. Already, lying on his back, his breathing was labored and his body was losing its warmth bit by bit, despite the burns he was toting, because the clean, spotless marble floor was starting to stain red with his pooling blood from his wounds.

But despite how painful his wounds were, it was nowhere close to the real pain from one thought coming to his head.

He failed.

And as a result, Fox and the people from Corneria, Octavia, the King…everyone was going to pay the price.

He was grateful that Leomon wasn't here to witness his humiliation. Hell, had he switched places with the lion, he'd be laughing (considering he still hated how Leomon betrayed them). But there was little time to dwell on that as Beef then roughly grabbed Falco by the scruff of the neck again and held him still from behind, kneeling on the floor and pinning the avian's shoulder's and arms tightly to prevent him from escaping as Emma Frost ambled over in a demurely fashion, her high heels clicking across the floor. She was now holding the sword Talisman she got from Selene.

"We have done well, have we not, Headmistress?" Haroun asked, satisfied as he watched as a spectator along with the other Hellion students, already content at having a chance to be valiant in battle, "We finally got the ones the Organization have been after."

The avian, despite being woozy from the pain and agony tearing at every nerve and muscle fiber in his body, couldn't help but perk his head up at that sentence. What the hell was the Hellion talking about? But then Falco's blood then froze as the White Queen gave her response as she brought the sword inches away from the soft spot between Falco's eyes.

"Yes, Jetstream, you and the other Hellions have done marvelously well, and for that, you shall all be well rewarded for finally capturing the two beings who hold the Talismans of Twilight."

---

"Geez, how many frickin' floors are underneath this dumb company?! Couldn't we have used the elevator?!" Adam of the Monster Fighters Incorporated complained as he and the others rushed down the stairs, sprinting or flying. It was finally past the sixth floor, and already he had a painful ache in his side.

"Do you have any idea of how dumb that just sounded?" Piper Halliwell couldn't help but remark condescendingly. The eldest of the Charmed sisters had a point.

Adam couldn't help but quip at Danny Phantom who was flying next to him, "Must be nice to fly and all…"

"Do you hear me complaining?" the teen said with more smugness than allowed as they headed towards the doors in the far distance at the end of the pristine and bare corridor of white that would lead them to the seventh and final underground chamber underneath the industrial complex. It was indeed gigantic and mammoth, built with reinforced steel, lead, and adamantium and it actually seemed more appropriate as an entrance way to an aircraft hangar for a military base.

"And here we go! Eat my dust, Jerk-Off!" the Flash teased as he started to run with his super-speed.

"In your dreams! I'm the better speedster!" Quicksilver growled as he dashed off a millisecond later after the red-clad Justice League member.

"I got first dibs on giving some payback to those two assholes!" the Slayer Faith yelled as she charged alongside with Supergirl, who was always a "punch first, ask questions later" person (much to her cousin's discomfort). But before anyone could warn them to stop, the instant Flash and Quicksilver touched the metal doors, there was a giant flash of light and with a furious and intense energy discharge, the four heroes were sent flying backwards, yelling in surprise…before they literally came to a crashing heap on top of a good portion of the Misfits, X-Men, Beach Head, Trey the Shaman, Miroku, and the several of the Titans East.

"Whoever's sitting on my head, can you. Please. Get. Off. Of. ME!" yelled the muffled voice of Beach Head, whose face was being squished against the carpet considering that Nightcrawler and Gambit were sprawled on top him in dog-pile fashion.

"Ow…" groaned Quicksilver before he noticed that he was actually lying right on top of Flash himself in a suggestive position, their faces only inches away from each other (which soon melted away instantly into shock and revelation).

"ACK! Get-the-hell-away-from-me-you-sicko!" they both shouted.

"Oh, I wouldn't give for a camera," grinned Hawkgirl as the two speedsters yelped and scurried away from each other in disgust and loathing. Shame, she could have used the blackmail material…

"What happened? Another force-field from Organization Thirteen?" Wolverine gruffly asked.

Cyborg the Titan activated his scanner on his left arm before he got the schematics on the strange energy that seemed to indeed be encompassing the entire seventh underground level of Shaw Industries with a potent and familiar magical signature. The robotic warrior stated, "Yep, and a really strong one too. Y'all might want to know that this is way stronger than any shield we've encountered before when fighting against the Heartless. And oddly enough, it's the same magical signature that we've been sensing coming from the company before during our stakeouts. It's the origin of where all that funky energy is coming from."

"And if Falco and Octavia are here since this is where their scents lead them, then this is where the Hellfire Club's keeping the Talismans," Felicia replied.

"Of course they would use a barrier to keep nosy unwanted visitors out. This is one of the few things that seem to be coveted by the Organization members as a winning tactic against us in the war. Why else wouldn't the Hellfire Club want to keep us from interfering?" John Stewart drawled sarcastically at Supergirl who was doing her best to gain her bearings (touching the seal was enough to even make her stunned).

"GL, I love you and I know you're a Founder and all, but give me an 'I-told-you-so' and I'm going to give you a fat lip," Kara retorted sharply from her sprawled position on the ground, despite it being incredibly audacious and rude to say such a thing to a founder of the Justice League, already irritated at being so foolish and being caught off-guard, but then she felt her irritation break apart into fury when she felt an uncomfortable sensation on her rear. In a blink of an eye, she reached behind and grabbed the hand that was fondling her butt to find that it was the Japanese priest, Miroku.

Kara's eyes began to glow red and her mouth bared a twitching snarl. Miroku gulped with fear, realizing that his previous act might not have been so wise to try on a superhuman extraterrestrial.

"Uh…heh-heh…sorry, I couldn't resist?" the Ghostbuster tried to chuckle weakly. Supergirl, with one eye twitching, turned to Sango, Kagome, and Superman with a vindictive look on her face.

"May I?" she asked sweetly with gritted teeth.

"Everyone else does," sighed Kagome, giving in and resigned (she wasn't dumb enough to tell a Kryptonian "no").

"I'd encourage it, actually," Sango muttered, giving Miroku an unsympathetic and dark glare.

Superman's was the most surprising as he said with a little more smugness than allowed, "Just don't kill him, Kara."

Miroku barely had enough time to react as Supergirl nodded before making a fist and sucker-punched the Japanese priest in the stomach. Hard. And enough to make Miroku to think that he was puking his guts out. And the knee to his groin didn't much in his matters either…

"Memo to self: warn Xander to not ask Supergirl on a date anytime soon," the Slayer Vi whispered to her friend, Rona, clandestinely, as Miroku slid to the floor, cradling his nether-regions. The aforementioned African-American vampire slayer could have sworn that she saw Superman smirk right then and there…

"So now what do we do? Smash our way through it? Maybe if we all blast it at once, we might be able to wear down that energy barrier long enough to break it," Edurado the Ghostbuster suggested, and his wife gave him a deadpanned glare.

"Honestly, you need to learn that not everything can be solved with blasting the heck out of something and hoping for the best," Kylie griped.

"And if it's like the past energy force-fields the Organization's tried before, then my magic won't be able to smash through it," Genie said worriedly.

"And we can't phase or teleport into there either since D-Man and J'onn weren't able to do it before. So what about the Keyblades? Wavedancer, didn't you and the other Misfits use those things to unlock the barriers before when the Heartless attacked at the Pit and the Slayer academy? Well, try it now! Can't you do it?" Agent Jay suggested, hefting his proton beam.

The other Misfits looked slightly hesitant as Avalanche pointed out, "But it didn't work before when we were trapped in that bubble when Falco and Octavia ambushed us, so it might not even work now!"

"Maybe you're just doing it wrong. Maybe you need to try harder. And we don't have any time for hesitation or stalling. Just try something at least!" pressed Batgirl with encouragement, desperate to give it another chance. Cyclops looked like he was about to open his mouth, but Jean, catching on, fiercely elbowed her boyfriend in the side to keep him quiet. Althea knew that they could at least give it another shot and that time was of the essence.

"Don't argue! Just do what Agent Jay says! Misfits, take out your Keyblades and concentrate on envisioning on unlocking that barrier! Just follow my lead and hope that the second time's the charm!"

"Uh…dude, shouldn't it go 'third time's the charm'?" queried a puzzled Beast Boy thoughtlessly.

"Shut up, Beast Boy," chorused a good number of the heroes around the Teen Titan as Wavedancer and her teammates summoned forth their respective scepter and Keyblades in a flurry of multicolored lights. With their eyes closed and their weapons out in front, each of the eleven Keyblades and the white scepter of power, they concentrated hard in silence as the seconds slowly ticked by.

"Hope this works," muttered Shipwreck.

"But what if it doesn't? What if it failed to help us like when we got sealed in that barrier caused by Falco and Octavia? Then what do we do?" Storm asked.

"I guess we'll have to just blast our way through then. We'd have no choice," Cyclops mused, his brain formulating several back-up plans of other less discreet ways of getting to Falco and Octavia first. Mushu the dragon had to smile at that while nestled around the collar of Wanda's uniform.

"I knew there was something I had to like about you, Cykey-boy!" Mushu couldn't help but banter with a toothy grin.

It was then that the Slayer, Caridad, noticed that one of them was missing and no longer in the group.

"You guys?" piped up Caridad, alarmed, "Where's Leomon?"

Every one of the heroes all turned and perked their heads and eyes up, glancing all around wildly. But the Filipino Slayer spoke the truth; the tawny-furred Digimon lion was nowhere to be seen (and that was difficult since he was easily the tallest of any of the heroes). He had somehow surreptitiously left them before they could notice.

"He's gone!" groaned Cyclops, suddenly feeling very, very stupid.

Hiei the Spirit Detective frowned as he said stoically, "And he's far from our position. I cannot sense him with my third eye."

"Or my telepathy either. Not that any of the telepaths we know of could have done it to begin with. If we couldn't do it for Falco and Octavia, we won't be able to do it on Leomon either," Jean said with much unease.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted him! He's left us to do his dirty work!" Beach Head raged, turning red behind his green ski mask. The Teen Titan Raven whirled on the Joe ranger angrily.

"He wouldn't do that," Raven protested in a calm and stoic voice, though she was starting to get a little bubble of frustration. Some, understandably, fully agreed with Beach Head.

"Raven, stop trying to defend him!" the Titan Aqualad snapped with hostility, "If he let all those Joes get attacked when the Heartless invaded the Pit, then it's pretty obvious that he's not doing this because he wants to help us! It's to help himself! Don't you remember?! He's not doing this to help us, but to help the Sovereign and Champion! That's his true mission, and if we don't benefit him, then it's no wonder that'll dump us faster than an undertow current!"

"He's not evil, Aqualad! He must have a reason for leaving!" the Scooby Willow piped up hotly in Raven's defense (and the white-robed Titan shot the witch a grateful look). The Slayer Kennedy then bit her tongue to keep herself from retorting back resentfully as she spoke in carefully controlled voice.

"Willow, honey, just because he saved us a couple of times doesn't mean we owe him anything. Yeah, he's not evil, but he's not on our side, remember? Just because he's against the Heartless and we share the same enemy doesn't mean we should trust him fully."

"Oh, so saving our bacon during the fight at San Francisco and helping defeat Trigon doesn't qualify as being on our side, then what does, Kennedy?!" snapped the Slayer Shannon disdainfully.

Kid Gloves irritably remarked, "Willow, Shannon, look at the facts: he lets the Misfits and X-Men go just so that they can call of us here because he told us that he needed help to protect the Talismans, but if he's so intent on protecting them, then why bail on us now when we're so close? That logically doesn't make sense. You don't ask for a united front for insurance only to abandon it later without achieving anything! He's gotta be planning something if he's willing to drop us like this!"

"Oh shut up, Kay! I'll believe it when you have proof!" snapped Piper.

"Don't you tell him to shut up! And unlike you, the rest of us aren't willing to be in the Leomon fan-club!" Rapunzel snapped back, defending her teammate.

"Will you all stop?! Honestly, now is not the time!" Phoebe Halliwell angrily spoke out as she brought her hand out right in front of the squabbling. Just before they could either ignore the Wiccan or tell her to butt out, there was a tremendous flash of light and to everyone's amazement, a giant keyhole emerged in the barrier, glowing and outlined in white, shining brighter by the second. All the Misfits winced and grimaced a bit in discomfort as their bodies began glowing in their respective colors of their Elementa Kingdoms before there was a terrific blaze of blinding luminescence. With a faint noise, the force-field of powerful magic shimmered and disintegrated. When it subsided and with a collective groan, Althea and the Misfits fell to their knees, seriously weakened and feeling dizzy, too weak to even stand much less walk or run.

That was not an easy barrier to unlock; it was ten times more difficult for them to unlock and dispel than the barriers the Organization used on them before.

"You kids all right?" Cover Girl asked worriedly as she knelt next to the kids along with several of the other Joes.

"It was too much…I'm not sure we could even do that again…" panted Dragonfly, short of breath and feeling like she wanted to vomit, on her hands and knees and trying to brace herself.

"They must have used too much of their internal strength from their Keyblades," Storm murmured worriedly, "Maybe we should let them rest a bit, especially if - "

"No, we're fine. Especially now that Bambi and Tinkerbell are out…" wheezed Wavedancer heavily as she was assisted to a standing position by Dumbo, using the elephant as a lean-to.

"On the upside, the barrier's gone! We can all get in and stop Falco and Octavia! And…uh-oh…" trailed off Cyborg. The Titan Robin narrowed his eyes behind his mask.

"What do you mean, 'uh-oh'?" the Titan leader asked.

"Scanners are showing he and Octavia aren't alone…"

---

The two beings that had the Talismans?

She couldn't have meant…

Falco blinked, startled and flabbergasted, his mouth slightly agape. Emma had to admit that it was amusing to see the usually cocky bird humanoid looking lost and confused.

She had to be lying.

But there was no indication of it from the other people. The Hellions, each and every one of them, were smiling with eager and conceited smiles, as if they were self-satisfied. Selene herself was cocking her head in amusement, as if she just won a grand prize after playing a game, only she was more interested in seeing which one of the many number of ways she envisioned one could do to a flesh and blood body Emma would take in causing Falco's execution. Roxas was standing next to the imprisoned and limp for of Octavia, frowning but no trace of anger or malice, no recognition of the avian and the octopus-woman now at his mercy. Just pure, pessimistic, dangerous, indifference.

They weren't joking. They were deadly serious.

Despite being mute, Falco managed to work his words through his facial expression as he scoffed bravely with disdain and self-loathing. The White Queen was even more of a blonde naïf than he thought. She was completely wrong. There's no way in all of Corneria and Andross that he would even have a pure heart strong enough to hold a Talisman. Emma however could read his expression of denial. To wipe the smirk off Falco's face, she cruelly placed one high-heeled foot on his broken leg and stepped hard.

Falco arched his body slightly as he couldn't help but let loose a noiseless and hushed holler from Emma applying pressure on the broken bone, making it worse, and the way Beef was holding him down wasn't bringing much comfort either. Falco grit his teeth, trying to endure the new pain as the White Queen of the Inner Circle loomed over her prisoner.

Emma's smile became absolutely spine-chilling as she said with aplomb, "Don't believe me? Think I'm wrong? Think we've mistaken in thinking that your heart has one of the Talismans that you and your female companion have been coveting for so long? Perhaps…but you are a Priest of Twilight."

The avian's eyes, despite the pain coursing through his body and from his wounds, absolutely went shock-still and widened slightly as his breath quaked in his throat. How did she and the Organization know? Emma had the pleasure of seeing that shaft hit home as she brought the tip of her sword to Falco's flesh center of his throat.

The woman sneered, "You and Octavia may have been excellent at hiding that fact from the general public before the last Gathering, but Roxas and the other members of Organization weren't so easy to fool. Nothing of yours could have escaped their attention with the Oracle. Still, it was an impressively clever ploy."

"Yes, I have to admit, your dumb King was smarter than anyone of the Organization thought. And it should have made sense since the Organization learned that only a Priest of Twilight can use a Talisman of Twilight, and with all the pathetic tricks he taught you, you would have been able to defend yourself if you needed to," Monet preened, running her fingers through her hair in a bored manner.

Roulette then remarked, "Yeah, who would have guessed it? What's the best place to hide a Talisman of Twilight? You hide it in the heart of the only person who can use it, and no one else suspected that it was in your chicken heart because you were searching for the Talismans in other people. You even threw off the people in the Inner Circle on that one."

"And with the third priest killed from the siege, you and Octavia are the only ones left. This trap couldn't have been more perfect," Selene chuckled.

Falco paled; they practically gave the enemy a wonderful chance to grab the Talismans and eliminate the only beings that could help summon forth the Sovereign's power in the first place, all in one fell swoop. Without them, the Organization would surely triumph…and Falco's cockiness and stubborn hostility proved too costly.

He had made a horrendous mistake.

Emma enjoyed the look of pure defeat on the avian's face as she leaned over closer, fully intent on milking this for all it was worth.

"Perhaps it is better that your esteemed King isn't here to see this. He'd probably be even more ashamed of you and Octavia for making such a huge tactical blunder and perhaps even regret taking you in after all that worthless kindness and healing he offered you, not that you weren't already a lost cause. Perhaps it was better that you did this as opposed to getting kicked out in a similar manner of how you and Fox McCloud parted ways, hm?"

Falco's eye twitched at the mention of his dead friend.

Falco then did the most impertinent and audaciously insulting move he could ever make in his situation, not caring anymore about his safety as long as it would piss that witch off.

He hacked softly and with as much exertion as he could muster, he spat right into Emma Frost's face. All of the Hellions were taken aback and slightly fearful (a few such as Monet and Empath gasped sharply). Selene herself raised an eyebrow in admiration; she couldn't deny that Falco had brass ones.

And Falco couldn't help but smirk through his cracked break at the sight of the shell-shocked and stupefied White Queen of the Inner Circle looking like she was having a stroke as the blob of blood mixed with saliva and mucus slid off her right eye and dribbled down her cheek. The one look of a mixture of offense, outrage, and humiliation at the hit to her pride was nothing short of priceless. Manuel took out a handkerchief and eagerly handed it to his headmistress.

"Thank you, Empath…" said Emma in a tightly, restrained voice, simmering and growing angrier with each syllable at her captive, "Oh, and for the record, no one likes a brown-noser. We do not need you to be the next Donald Pierce, Empath."

Empath turned crimson with humiliation and resentment, considering it was just a little too close to the truth while his teammates snickered with disdainful glee. The White Queen felt her left temple throb. Considering he was mentally shielded, she couldn't use her telepathy, but a swift death would be too good for him.

Emma then wordlessly transformed into her diamond form, each and every bit of her body and clothing now shining white and sparkling under the lights overhead. And before Falco could even flinch, she solidly slapped Falco hard and swiftly across the cheek, cracking his head to the side. Falco bit back an oath as he felt his face go immediately numb and he was sure that blood was already starting to come out of the bruised skin. Emma had to admit that felt good, but she needed something…nastier.

The White Queen then had a very pleasing thought as she then idly ran two smooth and cold slim fingers slowly across the red fabric of Falco's jacket, teasing the fingernails on the warrior's chest. Falco was at first puzzled, despite one chunk of his face starting to throb and swell from the bruising.

"I think I may want to take my time to slowly savor this," the telepathic blonde droned in a sultry manner as, to everyone's slight astonishment, she straddled Falco and continued to run her fingers ever so slightly across his jacket before unzipping it, exposing his black long-sleeved shirt underneath. Falco felt the sudden urge to vomit. Was she seducing him? Because the sensation of her skin touching his body was enough to make him want to retch and sicken him to the pit of his stomach.

But that revulsion and nausea was instantly forgotten as Emma then began to dig her fingers into Falco's fleshy part of his abdomen, actually ripping through his clothing and burrowing into the skin, feathers and tissue. Falco cringed before he bucked in pain as he tried to squirm away, but Beef tightened his hold on his hostage.

"Aw, what's the matter, chicken-boy?" sneered the fair-haired Buford, "Don't like it when things get a little rough? Don't leave yet! The fun's just beginning."

And it was absolutely torturous and unbearable. Falco couldn't keep a straight face when there were now three deep gouge marks on his stomach, already bleeding and feeling as if someone took a power drill and sadistically bore the wells, one after the other, into his gut. Falco was now shuddering in slight spasms as Emma held up her diamond hand, stained with red blood from the bird humanoid.

"Diamond's one of the hardest minerals on the planet, my dear, Falco. Shall we see what happens if I try an entire hand instead of the fingers?" the telepath suggested with sick amusement.

Before Falco could think of the double-entendre or spit in Emma Frost's face again, Emma extended all the fingers in her right hands, each as straight as nails, before she swiftly plunged her entire diamond appendage directly into the avian's stomach, sinking into the flesh up to her wrist. Falco couldn't take it any more as he screamed (still mute) arching up his back, feeling the tears of suffering burn out of his eyes. He nearly passed out as the lining to his stomach ripped to shreds like wet paper, leaking the acid into his bloodstream.

Falco felt the bile and blood trickle out of one corner of his mouth as he felt the White Queen dig around his internal organs, causing massive trauma and failure that would slowly but surely make his death more and more imminent. Already, Emma was showing no signs of stopping. After she finished rupturing his stomach, she then managed to grab hold of the bird's lower intestinal tract and maliciously pulled on his intestines, intent on disemboweling him, one organ at a time, blood and gore now starting to litter the ground as Falco felt the tug being excruciating, so intensely painful that one could not possibly fully understand what it felt like to be disassembled and have your innards ripped out one by one as your body felt more numb by the second from blood loss.

"Don't worry, Falco. I fully intend to kill you before you decide to pass away and rob me of that privilege," the White Queen said coyly.

Falco would have gladly spit in Emma's face again if he wasn't so overcome with paralyzing torment and suffering (and if Beef wasn't clamping his beak shut with one hand, threatening to break it).

But then as Falco felt he couldn't humanly take much more of this…

"STOP IT!" rang out a voice, nearly shrieking.

There was a sudden lull in the violence as they all turned, even Falco and Emma Frost herself, one hand still gripped around a bloody wad of flesh. There, looking absolutely horrified, was a somewhat nauseated and horrified Octavia, looking at Falco with worry. She managed to regain consciousness only to see to her aghast that Emma was slowly ripping Falco apart, piece by piece.

Falco still couldn't say what was worse: the fact that Octavia was seeing him in such a humiliating position or the fact that she was actually more worried about him than herself. He didn't want her to pity him, damn it!

Still, the female Tigershark was completely grateful as she said with relief, "Falco…"

"Hmph, I'm impressed. Her heart is strong. She managed to overpower the Sleep magic cast on her by the Materia," Roxas said stoically.

"Shall we deal with her, Miss Frost?" Jetstream asked, suggesting that he and the other Hellions help take care of this, but then Emma held up her hand as she excruciatingly and utterly extracted it from Falco's body, like a banner of red.

She then knew what was the best way to break Falco before killing him for the Talisman in his heart.

"Hellions, stand down. Roxas, be a gentleman and lower down Octavia to the ground, if you please."

Roxas gave a stony look at the White Queen before he raised a gloved hand at the Organization symbol where the Tigershark was crucified and fastened and softly used his ability and magic to lower her imprisonment to the marble floor.

Emma then nodded to the Black Queen of the Inner Circle as she tossed the obsidian sword at the External.

"Selene, would you care to do the honors?"

Falco's heart actually skipped a beat as his eyes widened in awareness.

"Always a pleasure, Emma, and thank you. You know how I always enjoy a good kill every now and then…" Selene said simply as he deftly caught the spinning, black blade and effectively grasped it by its handle with a lot more dexterity and battle-ability than the sorceress let on. And before Octavia could blink, the raven-haired witch swiftly plunged the sword into Octavia's chest, right into her heart.

Octavia let out a soft gasp, her eyes wide.

Falco let out a silent roar as he helplessly was forced to watch Octavia's body jerk and spasm a bit from having the sharp weapon gore into her body, and to his revulsion and woe, his friend gave several seconds of death spasms, quivering slightly as the blood stopped flowing in her veins, her chest feeling as if someone pumped molten iron into her lungs.

Despite not being able to breathe, Octavia gave Falco a long unreadable look before her face softened a bit. As Selene sadistically turned the sword, burrowing it deeper into the female captive, the Tigershark gave a final small jerk.

Octavia died as she went limp, her eyes closed and head slumped forward without a sound, the tentacles from her head now limply swaying like corpses hanging on a noose. The sword was still embedded in her body, dripping blood into the white ground.

The woman's body vanished as it began to glow in an azure shimmer, the green-colored flesh and skin fading and disintegrating bit by bit before it disappeared into thin air and wisps of light, ascending her soul to the heavens. The blade Selene used to kill the Tigershark was now free, and with no body to hold on to, it clattered to the floor, stained with fluid and bits of flesh and gore. But it hardly disgusted the Black Queen as the mutant woman simply picked it up again as a pink heart crystal suddenly emerged, free from its physical owner, and began to slowly float upwards.

Falco blinked; the sword had the power to do this? To take away a person's heart?

But then he remembered the stories of the dark Keyblade blessed by Riku that he used to open the keyhole in Hollow Bastion and the tales of Sora using it to…

There was no point denying it; it had to have been one of the Talismans of Twilight. And the Hellfire Club already had it in their hands.

With that, there was a soft flash of light before Octavia's heart began to illuminate in a soft sheen of dark blue and to Falco's horror…it began to slowly transform.

What? She couldn't have been one of…

With a soft burst of salty-tasting mist and fog, the heart slowly faded into a large hand-held mirror, made of cloudy crystal and carved with strange designs of roses and thorns around the slim handle. The glass was oval-shaped and all around the surface were carved, wavy depictions of surf and water, artistic and refined. But what was the most noticeable about the glowing mirror was the set of two designs, one at the back of the mirror and one within the looking glass itself. In the back of the oval mirror depicted a red rose in full bloom and superimposed on the rose was a white outline of a heart with a white keyhole inside. And in the front of the mirror was a yellow crown of gold, exactly similar to the symbol that Althea invoked as part of the trinity to heal all the victims infected with the Hellfire Heartless spores.

Oh no…

"The Enchanted Mirror…" Roxas announced with barely any excitement, as if accepting the find as serenely as one would find a penny. Nice, but not even worth a second thought.

As Octavia's body fully disintegrated, the cold vise of ice around Falco's tightened around his chest and gut so painfully that Falco was amazed he didn't pass out from the ghastly and staggering revelation. They found it. One of the Talismans of Twilight. One of the few powers that could save everyone and end the war once and for all.

And Falco was completely and utterly devastated as Octavia perishing before his very eyes instantly brought back the recurring nightmare of his past. He swore he could hear Fox screaming again as the Heartless crushed him to death, the cries for help from Slippy as he radioed in his frantic call for help before he died in the explosion at the military base.

Falco could hear his mind screaming one lone mantra over and over again amid the memories of Octavia's voice echoing in his head, increasing his guilt and remorse ten-fold with each word…

"Once the wielder of the Keyblade comes along with the Heartless, three people will die! Falco, I know what it means to achieve our goal and fight at the Gathering, but this means us killing innocents!"

You weren't supposed to die…

"And you honestly think that Leomon will be willing to go through with it? I don't like forcing him to choose in this, especially since this has been hard on him too…and it's obvious he has some concern for the heroes he has run into this world during the past escapades. In fact, it would be reasonable to say that his heart has inadvertently connected to the X-Men and Misfits and their allies."

You weren't supposed to die…

"You know…it's actually scary to see you being so…open and considerate like this."

You weren't supposed to die!

"Let's do this, then."

It was supposed to be him, his death, his end that was supposed to help save Fox and the others. But now, everyone close to him either left him or perished, leaving him more alone than before. And Octavia, his only friend he had left, one of the few who he couldn't push away, the only one who kept him somewhat in line…

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Tarot couldn't help but remark, having her eyes widen at the sparkling mirror shining above them.

"Not really. Now hurry up and get the other Talisman from that bird," Roxas ordered none too gently, hardly caring about aesthetics as long as he completed his mission as he strode over towards the mirror.

Monet muttered under her breath at the Organization member, "I'd like to give him the bird."

Roxas had to admit that he would have preferred it had he been angry at the Hellion's smart remark because it would have been better than being nothing but stoic and only having the faintest trace of some sort of emotion as Selene tossed the sword towards Emma who caught it deftly with one diamond arm.

"Your Majesty…" thought Falco silently to himself, whimpering, as he looked upwards to the heavens, "What did I do to deserve…"

Falco stopped; he knew better than to ask that one.

"Octavia didn't deserve that…I was the one who was willing…"

Was this his punishment?

"And now…you're next, you miserable, avian bastard!" the White Queen crowed as she raised the sword, ready to plunge it into Falco's torso to share Octavia's fate. Falco didn't care anymore. If this was the end…

But then a miracle happened.

"Gotcha!" yelled Roland as four proton beams shot through the air, one knocking the sword directly out of Emma's hand (and since she was in diamond form, it didn't hurt her) and one beam actually snared Roxas, encircling him with rings of radioactive energy, preventing him fully reaching out and grabbing the mirror Talisman. Selene was left stunned and helpless (her inability to use magic due to the Green Materia was a serious handicap) while the other Hellions were about to attack automatically, but then the four proton beams were enough to create an energy array for Quentin to strike next.

Without a word, swiftly, Quentin activated his modified ghost-trap, holding the circular, yellow, metallic disk out in front of him with both hands, and with a click, the panels to the trap opened like a blossoming flower. And thanks to the four Ghostbusters proton beams, it was able to specifically target within the elliptical bounds of the energy array. Instantly, a fierce and powerful vortex began to thunder and to suck all the enemies in the room towards it, creating an intense funnel of gravitational pull. Falco at first thought he was dying until he saw the White Queen and Beef beginning to lose their footing and balance.

"AAAA!" they all roared, desperately trying to fight the pull, with Monet attempting to hold herself and her teammates with her telekinesis and Jetstream attempting to rocket out of the path of the ghost trap. But each and every one of them, even Roxas and Selene, couldn't escape the strain and lure of the dimensional black hole, and with a roar, they all were jerked into the rift, their bodies contorting as they siphoned into the small mechanical trap and with a giant hiss, the trap clicked shut and the vortex stopped, leaving the room with nothing but the sword, the mirror, and a weakened and completely injured yet bewildered Falco, still lying frozen on his back on the floor in a drying pool of blood.

He was safe.

"Tinkerbell, heal him please…" begged Whitelighter in the background, and though unable to prop himself up and turn around to look because of the extent of his injuries, Falco then saw the glowing, twinkling fairy, chiming like little bells, flutter into his line of vision before she touched his beak with one hand, the Disney fairy healing his wounds in seconds, healing his broken back and mending his internal organs whole again, erasing the gaping, gory hole in his stomach.

Woozy and his head still reeling but feeling a bit better and stronger, Falco weakly looked up to see his saviors, which turned out to be the X-Men, the Misfits, and the G.I. Joe handlers along with their various allies. Falco wasn't sure what to feel, but shame, relief, and sadness were some of the main ones. And the Misfits (with their Disney summons and their Keyblades) and the X-Men were standing alongside next to the four Ghostbusters along with Quentin who was holding a slightly modified ghost trap, this time meant to trap being other than those of paranormal and ectoplasmic origins (Egon worked on it with his research team ever since the Heartless and Organization first appeared in San Francisco).

"It's done," exhaled Kylie with relief.

"Good thing it worked. Willow and Egon weren't sure that this prototype wouldn't overload, especially with the power levels of these jerks," Garrett exhaled with a pent-up breath, thankful it went easier than expected.

"Where did you send them?" Storm asked the red-haired teenager.

"In a pocket dimensional rift where they will be hopefully placed in suspended animation inside the trap, like we do for most other ghosts. Don't worry, they won't get hurt and all that junk, though it'll be no less than they deserve. But it won't last. Egon said that it'll only hold within several minutes or so, Storm," Eduardo answered back.

"Good, then that should be enough for us to grab what we came to get and get out before the Organization gets wind of this," Jinx the ex-H.I.V.E student (and current West Coast Misfit) murmured.

"Impressive. Not even the Justice League has such advanced technology to imprison and detain paranormal threats," Martian Manhunter said, awed.

Falco's sides weren't aching as much and the wounds were now almost virtually erased, the blood, lesions, and burns marks completely faded away from Tinkerbell's pixie dust. He didn't know what to feel about this.

"You know, a simple 'thank you' would suffice for this 'red-headed whore' as you so bluntly put it in the past," Jean Grey said coldly with sternness, like a teacher lecturing her pupil and one hand on her hip.

"Genie held ya' in place, so that's why you didn't get sucked into the vortex, Falco. Although frankly, I wouldn't mind it so much if you did," Wolverine said without much tact. Genie, who was hovering to the left of the Canadian mutant, gave a sly, knowing and proud grin.

"And don't flatter yourself. We're doing this because it's the right thing to do, not because it's for you," Cyclops added grimly.

Falco then managed to dryly croak out of his sandpapery tongue and throat, his first words being, "How did you…you're not affected by the Materia?"

Many of them members of the group indicated with their heads or their thumbs to two of the Disney Summons already out, Tinkerbell and Bambi. Upon closer look, Bambi was flashing repeatedly over and over with the aura of Woodra magic, like a beacon of green stars while Tinkerbell was constantly bathing everyone in the group with her pixie dust. In fact, each and every hero was glowing, just like Falco.

Xi explained, "Well, thankfully, Materia doesn't cancel out our Disney summons or our Keyblades. And strangely enough, Tinkerbell's healing and Bambi's mana powers are enough to make sure that we don't succumb to any negative effects like you just did. Leomon…Leomon warned us before we came here."

Leomon. Damn it, he got the last laugh over this after all, and Falco wanted to just roll up into a fetal position and die as he actually appeared ashamed.

"What's the matter, Falco?" growled Spirit with distaste, "Surprised that you needed our help, exactly like General Hawk told you before?"

Falco Lombardi couldn't have hit the bottom any further as his insides curdled with ice as he then recalled his words with General Hawk as they finished probing Cover Girl's heart when she became infected with the spores.

"When you two will be in need of help, don't come crying back to us."

"Don't make me laugh, Joe. That'll never happen."

Karma never failed in this universe.

Falco was starting to wish that he did die as he cradled in his with both hands. Seeing his one and only friend die before his very eyes was devastating. And right now, the belief that to sacrifice a few to save everyone was especially nauseating…

"Oh, by Andross, why? Why? Why?" Falco moaned softly, the irony not lost on him. The King shouldn't have trusted him with this…

"You know…I know this would be bad taste, but like I even care in this case. We told you so, Falco. So how do you like the taste of dirt? Or would eating crow not be considered cannibalism in this case?" Quicksilver couldn't help but remark.

"Quicksilver! Be considerate for once!" growled Superman.

"Actually, I have to side with him on this one. I'm definitely enjoying this," Cyclops put in none too gently.

At the same time, Batman turned one eye to Quentin Blud, the dhampir field leader of the Ghostbusters, and asked with caution, "Did that dimensional rift get rid of them?"

"I doubt it. They can come back. And add that Organization guy with the Keyblades and the Hellions and the fact that everyone's after the Talismans, I don't think we can hold them off much longer, even with this trap dimensional technology Spengler and his team worked on," the dhampir answered bluntly, looking long at the component that contained them. Batman frowned; that wasn't the best answer he was hoping for.

"Why couldn't you guys just use your magic to get rid of them? You guys are just as powerful as Selene, and Giles said in his classes, an old associate in Chinatown told him that magic must defeat magic," Danny Phantom asked, puzzled and turning to the Scooby, Willow, and the Charmed Ones.

"We couldn't for some reason. Our magic doesn't work here, or it's being nullified somehow. I couldn't even orb into this place," Paige said helplessly.

"It's the Green Materia," croaked a despondent Falco from behind his feathers covering his face, "You can't use any magic in this room as long as it's activated."

A few of the heroes looked at Falco with something akin to incredulous disbelief before Inuyasha summoned out his father's fang with a flash of light, Jinx managed to create a pink ball of hex chaos magic in one hand, Kuwabara summoned his Spirit sword along with Yoh's spirit, Amidamaru, emerged into visibility, and Supergirl brought forth her wings of fire from the Phoenix Force. Apparently, unlike Willow and the Charmed Ones, some of them still had their powers.

Rio the Shaman looked at Falco before he said wryly with some thought, "I guess…since not all magic's not the same, then not all magic can be broken by that Materia vibe, my feathered friend."

At the same time, everyone else was staring at the black sword that was lying on the ground, the crystal surface gleaming under the light of the levitating mirror, surrounded by a sphere of translucent, beautiful radiance, like a bubble. A sword and a mirror…and yet many were hesitant to touch it, especially since they didn't know what to expect.

"Batgirl, it's just like you said!" Supergirl exclaimed.

"But if Luthor had the sword…then who…died to give us the mirror, yo?" blinked Toad, asking morbidly. Roadblock instantly felt angry as the machine-gunner glared at the Cornerian pilot, obviously not caring much about his current emotional state.

"Who did you kill, Falco? Talk now, or else we force you to spill," the Joe soldier growled.

"I didn't kill anyone…" croaked Falco, his eyes now stinging as he looked at the marble floor, but he wouldn't let them see him cry (he had his pride, the only thing he had left, to think about), "Emma Frost, Selene, and the Hellions ambushed me and Octavia."

"They were waiting for you?!" gasped the Titan Mas.

"So it was a trap sent by the Hellfire Club! Luthor let out that information on purpose!" his brother Menos exclaimed, piecing it together.

"But…where's Octavia then? Why isn't she here…?" began Bree, but then she felt the Watcher Wood place his hand on her shoulder, shaking his head gravely. And from the looks of a few others such as Batman, Quentin, Hawkgirl, Kylie, and Blind Master, they figured it out too.

"She's dead, isn't she?" Kylie asked quietly with sympathy, and instantly, there was silence from everyone in the crowd as they looked at Falco. Falco suppressed the urge to vomit and break down as she shakily inhaled and quivered.

"That's why they made that announcement about holding the sword Talisman. It's so that they could lure me and Octavia so they could take the Talismans from our hearts once they killed us," he explained in a grating, strangled choke.

There was a moment of silence.

It then clicked in everyone's minds.

"Wait a goddamned minute!" roared Beach Head, now completely furious (and who could blame him, considering all the trouble and hell Octavia and Falco had put them through while fighting against the Heartless), "You mean after all the crap you put us through…!"

"All the times you injured and fought against us in order to get to a person's heart…" Black Widow continued for the ranger in shock, the Uzi submachine-guns limp in her hands.

"All the people you let die because you got so high and mighty in looking for some dumb Sovereign and Champion and not caring about involving yourselves…!" Wildstar said with growing rage and anger at the memories of Muir Isle coming to his mind.

"And all this time, it was you?! You and Octavia had the Talismans all along?! In YOUR hearts?!" Casey the Phantom Investigator yelped, his eyes wide behind his glasses. Falco's silence was more than enough for a confirmation.

"I don't believe this! Then why the hell did you go through all that with us and the Heartless?! Why didn't you just use them yourselves then?!" Trey the Shaman Ghostbuster gasped.

J'onn then could correctly guess, from the look of astonishment, grief, disbelief, and loathing from Falco's face (even though he couldn't read his mind), why Falco did not previously use the Talismans if he and Octavia had them in the first place. And from a few of the dawning looks of realization from several such as Robin, Hawkgirl, Wolverine, and Wavedancer, they too could realize why.

"They didn't know…" Martian Manhunter said. Inuyasha just snapped impatiently.

"What do you mean 'they didn't know'?!" barked the dog demon half-breed, misunderstanding the statement, "Of course they knew about the Talismans! They've been sitting on the sidelines and letting innocent people die and been fighting us at - !"

"They didn't know they had them in their hearts. Octavia and Falco thought that the Talismans of Twilight resided in three other people, but they never suspected that they themselves had two of them in their own bodies," J'onn said strongly and with grave seriousness, interrupting Inuyasha's tirade.

"Whoa…talk about irony," Boom-Boom quipped, "I never would have guessed that it was these two all along!"

"None of us did, Boom-Boom," Wavedancer said, "And something tells me that was probably why whoever did that to them, possibly this King Leomon goes on about, chose to hide those Talismans in them in the first place."

"Duh, it's the oldest trick in the book, like how no one suspected Kanto being in charge of H.A.T.E. was really from Apokolips!" Jamie piped up in a slightly cheeky manner, "The last place you suspect to look for something is when it's in plain sight!"

"Well, it wasn't a total loss…we got a Talisman and got rid of the octo-witch all in one!" Daria said with happiness.

"Girls!" reprimanded Shipwreck sternly.

"Oh, come on Daddy! Like a lot of us aren't sorry this is happening to Falco! He's not our friend!" retorted Quinn.

"That's no excuse to take pleasure at someone's misfortune, Trinity!" Superman scolded.

"And the connarde Falco's gotta live with this for the rest of his life. Remy have to admit that payback's sweet on this one," agreed the Cajun X-Man.

"Wait a minute…" said Cover Girl slowly, recalling Batgirl's infamous premonition, "If the Talismans of the sword and the mirror are here, then that means…"

"…then that means that the last Talisman that's leftover in Falco's heart is the shield," Supergirl said, blinking in realization, finishing Courtney's trailed off sentence.

Falco's head remained darkened by the shadows of remorse and angered, cheated misery as he just stared blankly at the Talismans in front of him while everyone else was either too stunned at the revelation, their minds reeling, or some were doing their best to rationalize what was the next best course of action.

"So…what is it that we should do now of this moment?" Starfire asked, her green eyes troubled. She could honestly say that she truly felt sorry for Falco right now, especially since he had to witness Octavia dying before his very eyes.

"Take the Talismans before the Organization and the Hellfire Club have a chance to get them. Allo and the other Dinosaucers can't keep us hidden much longer…" Amanda Firestarter said worriedly, cutting directly to the issue.

Batman just gave a disapproving frown; he never allowed murder as an option. Some weren't all right by that suggestion and were in full agreement with the Dark Knight of Gotham.

"No, we will not even consider that, Ms. Firestarter," Captain America said sternly.

"Remy says all's fair in love and war, and on that note, Gambit thinks there's going to be a long line of people who want to pluck that dead duck. That homme is just getting' what he deserves," Gambit pointed out.

"Gee, an eager murderer and a lying, two-timing thief. No wonder Rogue dumped you…" drawled Nightcrawler nastily, and Gambit had to be physically restrained by Kid Gloves and Colossus before he could tackle the furry German teenager and bash his head in right there and then. Nightcrawler then turned to Wolverine and Roadblock, troubled and ignoring how close Remy's twitching fingers came to throttling his neck.

"And I'm not just saying this because it's against to what Gambit says. We can't kill Falco, even if he has done rotten things to all of us. We're supposed to be better than that," Kurt said.

"Nightcrawler's gotta point," Shipwreck said with some sadness as he glanced at the silent Falco, his head bowed down, "I mean, c'mon, he just lost his best friend and realized he caused a whole lot of trouble for nothing and has ta' live with seeing Octavia getting' killed in front of him. He practically lost everything. It's gotta be hard on him."

"Good, because the bastard deserves it," Beach Head said without much hesitation or sympathy.

"Maybe…maybe we can take him in and have him under our protection. I mean, we already have two of the Talismans, and we really don't need one more, right? Two should be powerful enough and that way, no one else will die," Roland the Ghostbuster suggested hesitantly, making a grim face. He, like several others, absolutely hated the idea of sacrifice.

But Jean Grey had enough as she yelled with dire urgency.

"As much as I'd like to make sure that the Organization Thirteen or the Hellfire Club doesn't get the Talismans or kills anyone, I don't think now is the best time to be standing around and arguing while the Ghostbusters says that there's a chance Selene and the Hellions could come back! We need to get out of here while we still can!"

Jean had a point as everyone turned to the despondent and broken Cornerian pilot, still looking at the floor with a defeated expression and mourning as he stared at where Octavia's body disappeared and where the mirror was now floating serenely above. Or was.

"Got it!" Quicksilver said automatically as he zipped forward and grabbed the floating mirror. Some were actually shocked and fearful.

"Quicksilver, you hyperactive, nutty, buzz!" Roadblock shouted, angry but more worried, "We don't know what that mirror does! Touching it might cause a total magical malfunction, so drop it before anything bad happens to your body functions!"

"Uh…" blinked Quicksilver before he gave his body a look over, seeing as how touching the Talisman had absolutely no negative effect, "Nothing's wrong with me."

"Not one word, any of you!" Low Light barked before several (most noticeably Flash, Supergirl, Scarlet Witch, Gambit, Toad, and Blob) could all open their mouths in response.

"Oh come on! He set himself up for that one! We deserve a chance to knock it out of the park from the Jerk-Off!" Flash whined. Quicksilver glared at the Justice League speedster but he gracefully didn't say anything as Falco then hollowly spoke from the sidelines.

"You won't be able to use that anyway. Only a Priest of Twilight can use the Talismans, and…I'm the only one left. Octavia and the third priest are already…dead…"

That last word was enough to make Falco vomit as he looked at the group of heroes. Some automatically saw the convoluted predicament of this fact rather quickly.

"A Priest of Twilight?" Wood repeated, trying to commit it to memory.

"In other words, you're the only one who can use the tools to bring forth whatever this Sovereign and Champion are," Bumblebee gasped in shock, a hand to her mouth.

"But since the last Talisman is in your heart…" Captain America realized out loud.

"The only way we can truly win the war with the Heartless is that you die, but if we do that, then no one can use the Talismans. We'd be pretty much screwing ourselves over," finished the Titan Speedy, his eyes wide behind his mask as nervously fingered the grip of his bow.

Multiple still looked uncomfortable as he protested, "But even if Falco does have the last Talisman, we can't just kill him! It's wrong!"

"Oh, come on! He was going to do the same thing if the Talismans were in someone else's heart, and look at all the trouble and crap he did to everyone ever since they showed up! He and that octopus-woman let people die! I agree with Gambit! He's just getting whatever's coming to him!" the Slayer Dana argued.

"Dana, we don't murder. It is against our code. We do not kill nor let anyone die, whether they be an enemy or an ally," Wonder Woman remarked sternly.

"Correction: it's against the Justice League's code, not everyone's," highlighted Blind Master flatly.

"And it does not make this right, Gabriel! Falco is someone in need, and the fact that the Talisman is in his heart means that we should protect him rather than kill him!" Storm hotly chastised.

It was then that Batman had absolutely enough as he said gruffly though a pause in the arguing.

"We're talking in circles. Let's go. We'll take Falco with us and escape before the Organization gets wind of this setback."

"But what about - " began the Slayer Shannon, only to be roughly cut down verbally by Yusuke the Spirit Detective.

"No, he's right. We can't worry about Leomon or Octavia now. Let's just take the bird-boy and get out of here while we still can. He's safer with us, we won't kill him for now, and this way, the Talismans are out of those Thirteenth Order's goons' hands," the paranormal detective said roughly, not giving Shannon a chance to continue her question.

"Let's go then. Falco, come with us. We can keep you safe over at the X-Mansion. I'm sure the Professor wouldn't mind if you truly were in need of help and since the Institute is shielded, you won't be attacked there," Cyclops offered.

"Hold it, Cyclops. Since this involves the Heartless and because Falco and Octavia have caused grievance against the Joes a hell of a lot more, he's going to be held at the Pit where he can be under solitary confinement and where he will also be kept under close watch. I'm pulling military rank over this one. He's going to the Pit," Wavedancer said strongly with a growl.

"Yeah, so we can beat the holy snot out of him first," grumbled Toad.

"Are you selling tickets? Because I want to be first in that line," Wolverine growled.

"Not before me, you're not! I still have to pay that jerk back for shooting me in the leg!" protested the Flash.

"We called dibs first," responded back Blind Master, Low Light, and Cover Girl sharply.

"This isn't the time for a debate," Batman said, his voice close to barking and irritated that it appeared that Scott and Althea were both going to go into sniping argument over this, "Let's go."

"No," Falco said at last, his voice echoing slightly in the empty chasm of the chamber. Everyone's gaze whirled on the blue falcon in shock as he then overcame his previous grief and replaced it with a hardened, stubborn resolve of defiance.

"I'm not going with you," he repeated, each word on edge.

Colossus (bless him) tried to reason with the bird as he said with compassion, "Comrade Falco, be reasonable. The Organization Thirteen will come after you, and if it means protecting the world and helping get everyone's hearts back, then why not? Please, come with us! We can help you fight against the Heartless! There's nothing else to lose! And we…we have the Keyblades on our side. Is that really so bad? You can trust us! We're the good guys!"

Kurama the Spirit Detective then tried alongside the X-Man as he said gracefully, "Please, Falco, do not make this difficult for us or for yourself. There is no point fighting amongst ourselves."

"I said I'm not going with you," Falco said with cold finality as he glared at the heroes. It was clear he made his decision.

This challenge, not surprisingly, started to wear down many individuals' collective patience.

"I'm sorry, you must actually think you got a choice in this matter, asswipe," Kuwabara growled, unsheathing his red energy sword of spirit aura.

"You're coming with us, Falco, even if we have to beat you senseless, tie you up, and drag your tail-feathers out of Shaw Industries by force," Hawkgirl threatened, holding up her mace and tapping it against the palm of her hand symbolically. Falco couldn't help but be a smart-aleck at that sentence.

"Funny, I would have pegged Wonder Woman as the kinkier female founder of the League," he drawled, and before anyone could reach out and grab Falco (and Wonder Woman wanted to personally ram Shayera's N'th metal weapon down his throat), he nimbly made a dash for the obsidian sword that was lying on the floor with one arm, faster than many of their eyes could process. And since magic was nullified, the Charmed Ones and the Scooby Willow couldn't keep him still with any spells. And Flash was too taken aback by Falco's comment (and the look of wrath on Diana and Bruce's faces) while Quicksilver was too busy snorting to even dash off. And as the Titan Robin let loose several birdarangs along with several steel ninja stars from Blind Master and before any of the X-Men could think to fire bola missiles to incapacitate him, the avian slammed his free hand on the marble floor and said with a concentrated snarl of remorse and pain.

"In the name of the Aeroga Kingdom and in the name of the Elementa Trinity…" as he miraculously dodged the metal projectiles, whizzing by his head and body by no greater than an inch or two. Instantly, in mere fractions of a second, the entire room burst with a roar of ferocious, pressured gusts of air, as powerful as any Category Three tornado. Several, such as Toad and Multiple were nearly knocked off their feet, and many of the other heroes had to try hard to make sure that they wouldn't lose their bearings.

"What's going on?!" gasped Sango as she did her best to shield her eyes from the wind painfully drying out her retinas with cold, ferocious gusts of air, "I thought he couldn't use magic in this room! So how is he able to use it now?!"

"We don't know! Our scanners can't explain it! We don't analyze everything! And don't throw anything at it! It'll just reflect it back at us!" Quinn yelped as loudly as she could as there was now a powerful column of wind encasing Falco in the middle of the room and barricading him apart from the gathered assemblage of the Joes, mutants, and their allies. She was saying this right as Jinx and Inuyasha were about to strike with a pink hex-bolt and his Tetsusaiga sword, effectively stopping them.

Quentin frowned as his enhanced senses were blaring from the abnormal levels of magical energy; this wasn't a typical barrier of wind, and in order for Falco to still use it with the presence of Green Materia (when the witches of the Ghostbusters couldn't), he was certainly more powerful than he let on. Exhausted but still defiantly satisfied, Falco panted, sweat trickling down the sides of his head.

"Thanks for giving me my voice back and healing me. It was all I needed to do this final spell," he squawked hoarsely. A few gave Justin and Xi a dry look of exasperation.

"You know, technically, upon retrospect, we should have seen that one coming," Xi admitted with some weary embarrassment

"Add another notch to your screw-ups, chubby cheeks," grumbled Quicksilver. Whitelighter winced.

"Hey, how were we supposed to know he'd do this if we healed him?" the Misfit whined sheepishly.

Wonder Woman looked at Toad as she asked with restraint, "Toad, about the idea of having of a line of people giving our Mr. Lombardi a well-deserved thrashing? Right now, I can't say I disapprove…"

Pete Wisdom then growled before shouting as loudly as he could over the din, "Give it up, Falco, every exit's blocked! There's no way in hell you can bloody out run us, and if we don't drag your arse in, the Organization and the Hellfire Club will! And they won't have any qualms about killing you! There's no where else to escape, so you might as well drop the bloody drama and come with us! At least you have a chance to survive!"

"Who said I wanted to survive?"

The British agent blinked, taken aback. That answer came out of a lifeless shell. Falco then gave a weary and mercurial look to the heroes before he made he final plea.

"Take the Talisman from my heart and use it and the mirror to fight against the Heartless. Once you have all three of the Talismans, you'll be able to find the Sovereign and the Champion. And then all the people who died will come back to life. I'm not entirely sure…but it's the best chance you've got. Much better than if I was around."

Everyone just stared at the blue-feathered alien before they realized what he was offering. Falco didn't create the barrier to distract them so that he could escape; he created the barrier so that they wouldn't be able to stop him.

"You're…sacrificing yourself?" Blob asked, blinking.

Falco didn't answer Fred before he turned to the leaders of the Misfits and the X-Men.

"Oh yeah…almost forgot. Cyclops, Wavedancer…sorry for everything I did to you and your other friends and the Joes," Falco added with some afterthought. Cyclops and Jean, both stunned, could only nod their acknowledgement dumbly.

"It doesn't have to end this way," pleaded Bree, trying to break though. It had no effect as Falco then turned the sword upside-down, the pointed end of the blade directed at the floor and gripped the handle with both hands, his body shaking with fear.

Damn. This was going to be hard.

"Falco…" whispered Wavedancer, white in the face. Yes, she certainly held much resentment against him for Octavia and his action in the past, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for the avian. And though she could tell that none of them could really do anything to stop him, she didn't want this, another death. She had witnessed so many already due to the Heartless and the Organization to accept it.

Superman then made one last effort as he held out a hand, yelling and trying convince the avian, "Falco, stop! You don't have to do this! We can fight and save the world and everyone without the Talismans! There's no need to kill yourself! We can help you! We can help you find the Sovereign and Champion you're looking for! There's been enough death because of this! We don't want you to kill yourself!"

"You've got to be kidding me," Beast Boy muttered crossly, rolling his eyes. It was apparent that he wasn't going to mind particularly if Falco offed himself (and this statement earned him a slap from Rapunzel upside the Titan's head).

"Ow! What was that for?!" protested the shape-shifter.

"Did you have to even ask?!" Rapunzel snapped, annoyed.

Falco then made a resolute face of acceptance as he gave Superman a baleful look.

"You're an awful liar, Boy Scout. But thanks for trying…"

With that and a swift movement, Falco plunged the blade of the sword into his chest, in the middle of his ribcage. A few people gasped as they were surprised that the Cornerian pilot even had enough of the nerve in him to stab himself as the audience would see the very tip of the black blade protruding out of his back, sending a geyser of blood. Falco, despite bracing himself and summoning every ounce of nerve he had, made a strangled croak and wheeze.

Oh God, it hurt so much…

Falco made a death shudder, the sword gruesomely sticking out of his head and his jacked now stained with fresh blood as he wobbled, remaining on his feet before he cast a final lost look at the wide-eyed and astonished crowd. He was actually surprised to see that a few of them pained and saddened, that Batgirl, Dragonfly, Magma, Kagome, and Multiple had tears in their eyes, and that Superman himself actually looked like he lost a friend.

One step, then two, and Falco gave a weak rasp before he pitched back, unable to breathe and losing strength rapidly, blood starting to trickle again out of his yellow beak.

"But…I wasn't lying," Superman said with some sorrow as Falco toppled to the floor, falling on his back. He landed with a solid thump, his hand twitching unconsciously from the lack of blood flowing into his veins. Still, the pain wasn't as bad now; it was starting to lessen thanks to the numbing and his body growing cold.

And in reality, it wasn't as dismal as expected. He did the right thing and…he could swear he could almost envision Peppy, Slippy, General Pepper, and Fox all looking at him sadly, bathed in a blinding white array of halos of light as his vision of the ceiling dimmed.

"Fox…everyone…I'm sorry…" whispered Falco as he died, his body began to glow in a faint halo of silver before it disintegrated, bit by bit, exactly like the many people who have perished by losing their hearts to the Heartless. And sensing that their caster was dying, the barrier of silver air and pressurized currents lessened bit by bit before they faded and calmed down into a peaceful silence as Falco's body flashed once before a pink heart crystal, surrounded in an orb of soft, rosy light, radiating in a cyclic rhythm. The black sword of obsidian, previously sticking out of Falco's deteriorating body, clanked noisily to the floor.

To everyone's shock, as Falco's pink heart floated up high above in the air for all to see, it stopped in place, as if grabbed by an invisible hand, before there was a soft burst of white light. Now glowing even brighter, the heart began to fade away before the white aura fully transformed it into a giant, majestic shield, resting in the center of a sphere of silver essence. There was a faint burst of wind, a cool refreshing breeze, which wafted into everyone's faces when the Talisman fully materialized. The shield was round and tear-drop shaped, but at the top and bottom ends, the edges narrowed to a point and were sharp and tapered like a spear point. And additionally, the top portion of the shield had two additional barbs in the shape of feathers, pointing out of the sides, like sharpened wings. The metal of the Talisman was dark blue, like Falco's plumage, with its edges were inlaid with a rim of razor-sharp silver, keen and polished. In the center of the shield was a golden mark of a crown and underneath was a white heart with the symbol of a keyhole inside. And on the sides of the heart were three silver bird wings along with the bottom of the heart, at the tip, was an inset symbol of a blue bird, its wings and feet outstretched and akimbo.

They had found all of the Talismans of Twilight. But no one felt particularly triumphant and joyous as the last specks of light from Falco's body faded into the void.

Author's Note: Surprised, eh? Actually, some people were able to guess that it was Falco and Octavia all along who had two of the Talismans (if you recall the similar plot from Sailor Moon S). And check back in three weeks or so for the next chapter, for this is far from over! The Organization and the Hellfire Club will not take this new development lying down, and once all the Talismans of Twilight are found, it is an epic battle as the battle becomes a full-out, no-holds barred, battle between Organization Thirteen, Selene, and the Hellions versus the X-Men, Misfits, Joes, and their allies all in one ultimate brawl! But there is a wild card with this battle as the one chance for the claim of the Sovereign's power comes to play, and if anything, the X-Men and Misfits will be in the biggest fight yet as not one but two or three secrets are revealed in the fight for the ultimate power for the side of light and the side of darkness in the next chapter, "The Third Priest". As to who is/was the third priest, I'm not saying. I have already left plenty of hints as to the identity of who the last priest really is. Until then, ready and enjoy! And thank you!