Of all the offices in the world, none are as fine as King Mickey's. Set on the twelfth floor of Ansem's old castle in an obscure tower, it manages to get a perfect view of Radiant Garden while staying in the shade all day long. The yuppie revolution might demand bigger and shinier offices, but King Mickey decided to go for something a bit smaller. With ten meters door to window and eight meters wall to wall, it's just large enough to carry a full mainframe supercomputer on one wall and a holographic tactical counter in the center. The rest of the space is divided between two plush chairs perpendicular to a coffee table, a tiny desk connected to a filing cabinet, and a refrigerator, with walkways barely a meter wide. An office fit for the modern, modest king.
Today, Mickey has quite the work load. The Heartless have been mobilized the past two months, attacking worlds at random without any visible leadership. The only possible evidence of any direction is the small radar blip at the edge of the system that accompanies every Heartless defeat, but with no pattern to its placement or timing, they can only guess what it means. Is it a beacon? A control ship? A glitch in the system? Nobody knows.
The first world was a fairly easy in and out affair, but each new world has brought tougher and smarter enemies already adept at the appropriate counter-strategies. Orbital bombardment is countered with space-borne Heartless, armor units are torn apart by giant bird-like creatures, and red giants at the front lines deflect gunfire effortlessly. The second world broke a sweat, the third world was a struggle, and the fourth has turned to desperate trench warfare. With only a 5% stake left, all orbital support destroyed or corrupted, and Heartless closing in on all sides, things have turned grim. For the first time in nearly a year, the deployed army has called their commander-in-chief directly.
"This is King Mickey," the regal mouse says towards a camera affixed to the giant monitor of the main frame, "Who is speaking?"
"This is Commander Eades of the 114th company," says some officer visible on the monitor after a twenty second delay.
"Ah, Commander Eades," Mickey starts, "Where is General Mithas?"
"He's rotating his bodyguards right now," Eades answers after another twenty seconds, "I'm in command for the time being."
"Still paranoid as always, huh?" Mickey responds, "Can't blame him. What's the status report?"
"We're still cut off from our supply lines," Eades continues after yet another twenty seconds, "We're down to our last thousand gallons of fuel, eighty G3 tanks, twelve LP-80 howitzers, and barely any ammunition or explosives. We lost four more cities within the past twenty four hours and are about to lose a fifth within the hour. We can't hold out much longer. We need a hero."
"And heroes you shall receive," Mickey answers, "When the blockade became official 36 hours ago, I prepared our finest heroes. Sora, Grandmaster Uina, and the Tourmaline Shamaness are en route, with the Falcon and the Four Winds as their vessels. They should be in the system within a couple hours."
"Really?" Eades says, delayed, in a small bit of disbelief, "Thank you so much, sir."
"Here's what I suggest you do," Mickey starts, walking over to his holographic table and queuing up the map to some mountainous region, "Announce to your men the coming of the heroes. Use one of the broken encryption methods and transmit by radio just enough to reach the whole world; we want to see if the Heartless controller is on the planet. Once you broadcast that, switch back to a secure method for the next parts. Do you still have the victory crates?"
"Yes," Eades responds, a little confused. Mickey uses the delay to draw some troop movement lines with a stylus.
"Throw an hour long party for the rear line," Mickey explains, "Maybe it's a bit disingenuous to have the victory party while we're losing, but everybody will be off the planet within 48 hours regardless of the outcome. Have the front line start withdrawing inwards towards the designated mountain range starting with the lowest threat cities. Figure out which twenty tanks are most likely to break down and leave them behind on auto where they're most likely to suppress the Heartless. Use convoy formations and towing lines to get the other sixty tanks and twelve howitzers to the base of the mountain range as marked. They should all be there around the time when the first party ends."
"Rotate the front and back line," Mickey continues, drawing a couple circles with arrows, "Drop another twenty tanks on auto and start fortifying the mountain range. Have the rear line move the civilians into the marked mines and seal off any connections with the underground rivers. If you feel inclined, arm some of the civilians and put them on guard. When everybody from the rear line is present, throw an hour long party for them. We want morale riding high if this is going to work. Any questions so far?"
"Not yet," Eades responds, delayed.
"I'll leave the fortification of the mountains up to you," Mickey continues, "Use the explosives to flatten a summit within walking distance from the mines. It needs to support two standard mass evacuation troop transports. Have your cartographers find the location of as many ore veins containing copper and zinc as possible and compile the data in U-DOS format. Be ready to evacuate the planet under heavy fire at a moment's notice. Do you understand these orders?"
"Yes, sir," Eades says with a salute, delayed.
"The Grandmaster will be your evacuation control," Mickey says, switching off the holographic display and walking towards the mainframe, "Good luck and godspeed."
With that, Mickey shuts down the mainframe with a couple key strokes. Just another day in the life as the vague ruler of some type of interplanetary government. Mickey casually flips a couple switches, the holograph table descending into the floor and the computer regressing into the wall. With his equipment out of the way, he walks over to the door and opens it to reveal Riku wearing his usual compliment of military duds.
"Thank you for waiting," Mickey says, motioning towards the miniature lounge.
"No problem," Riku answers, walking inside, "What's going on, anyway? Sora mentioned something about an invasion the other day, but he was kind of vague."
"The Heartless attacked a fourth planet," Mickey explains, walking over to the fridge, "Malleus V. Some backwater with only about 70,000 colonists and no major resources. No strategic value whatsoever. They came in through the Corridors of Darkness and attacked a single outpost, waited until a distress call was issued before finishing the job, and then dug in. They didn't fully mobilize until after the fleet arrived and we had all our ground troops on the surface. After that, they then sent some new type of Heartless to take out orbital support and set up a blockade while exterminating our ground forces with extreme prejudice."
"Sounds pretty nasty," Riku says, falling back into one of the big comfy chairs. Mickey grabs a sea salt ice cream bar and walks over to the table.
"I'm concerned," Mickey says in a discouraged tone, handing Riku the frozen treat as he sits down, "The last three attacks were also obvious provocations and each time, they came up with a new counter-strategy. Destroy them with cruise missiles and they develop a suicide flier that stops them before they even reach the front line. Destroy them with tanks and they just create a massive flier that tears them apart. Shooting those down with artillery just increased the number of suicide fliers and made them fast enough to stop even short range shells. You can barely even see the sky when the Heartless are around. Their front lines are these red giants with huge clubs that block most gunfire as they close in to melee. The usual swarm of Shadows and Soldiers clean up once they break through and scatter the troops."
"Sounds very professional," Riku comments, eating away at his light blue frozen treat. It's the simple things in life.
"I don't think it's Maleficent," Mickey continues, "She uses the Heartless as a blunt tool to divert and deter from her real plans. To that end, she gathers easily manipulated, disposable henchmen and rival warlords to do all her dirty work. She's never treated us as anything more than an obstacle and her goals always seem to revolve around obscure arcana and legendary artifacts. Whoever is controlling the Heartless has gone through all this trouble to dissect our tactics and mold new Heartless to counter. The chaotic creatures act with an order and discipline unseen in anything but the finest elite military units. They flank, ambush, isolate, siege, hold, fortify, and demoralize with the best of them. It's rather frightening, really."
"I can imagine," Riku comments, finishing off his carb-filled snack and tossing the stick into a nearby waste bin.
"These new Heartless are real beasts as well," Mickey explains, "All their leaders so far have been modeled after Behemoths, heavily armored and much better at summoning meteors. They're an army in their own right, but whoever is leading them is smart enough to keep them safe. As such, I've cataloged them as Heavy Behemoths. The suicide fliers shall be known as Interceptors, the anti-vehicle giant birds as Rocs, the club wielding giants as Oni, and the new space Heartless as Dominators. I'll write up formal entries to include in the official bestiary for all after this conflict, but you deserve to know about them ahead of time. But enough of that; how are your wards doing?"
"They're okay, I guess," Riku answers, "Nothing that big has happened the past month."
"Danielle doing okay after that surgery?" Mickey asks, rising up towards the fridge.
"I guess," Riku answers, "She's still feeling kind of sad about Greg's disappearance."
"Still?" Mickey asks, opening the fridge and rummaging through the bottles within, "It's been almost three months now. Shouldn't he have found his way back by now?"
"I would think so, but I don't know," Riku answers as he reclines a bit, "She's still a great sorceress with the best wind control I've personally seen short of the late Xaldin, but she's stopped really trying. I'm worried she has lost her focus. How's the search going?"
"There isn't much more I can do," Mickey answers, heading back with a couple bottles in tow, "I have already set a bulletin on Amaterasu, Radiant Garden, and the fleet. Without any leads, we just have to play the waiting game. How is Christopher Jones of Brighton?"
"He seems happy with the Highwind model," Riku answers, cracking open one of the bottles of White Dwarf, "No significant change, otherwise."
"How about Ksenya?" Mickey asks.
"No significant change," Riku answers.
"Ahmed?" Mickey asks.
"No significant change," Riku answers.
"Deirdre?" Mickey asks.
"No significant change," Riku answers, starting to stare off into space. He's obviously used to this sort of thing by now.
"The Frederickson brothers?" Mickey asks, also going into a sort of automated mode.
"No significant change," Riku answers robotically.
"Her Holiness, the High Princess Staümprem Mòrag Fiona Senga Eamag Tòmag VII, Esquire?" Mickey says while maintaining a completely straight face.
"I call her Stompy," Riku answers with a sigh, "No significant change."
"How about Lassjaksta?" Mickey asks.
"No significant change," Riku answers.
"Undossda? Gam Rye? Prior Paolini?" Mickey asks.
"No significant change," Riku answers.
"I guess that just leaves two people," Mickey says, leaning a little into his chair, "Anything new about them?"
"Not really," Riku answers.
"Not even a little?" Mickey prods.
"I guess Kiko is a little less creepy and Chou hasn't had a panic attack in a long time," Riku answers, "Did you have something you wanted to talk about?"
"As an impartial headmaster, I can't hold favorites," Mickey starts, "But in my normative opinion through comparative analysis of everybody's progress, capabilities, and attitude, I have to say that Chou Perltranicjavplusforbas is the most promising new recruit we have and if you and Sora weren't in the student body, possibly also the best student."
"I'm impressed you remember her full name," Riku admits, now more intrigued by this course of discussion, "But why Chou?"
"I promised I'd know everybody like an old friend," Mickey responds in a matter of fact tone, "Yes, Chou has problems. She's physically weak, she's socially awkward, she's very expensive with both her specialized diet and that class I had to set up just for her, but she has two things going for her: work ethic and dedication to her role. Maybe she wasn't born as a worker or soldier, but she has molded herself to both roles admirably."
"I don't think an inspirational success story means that much in the long run," Riku starts, "We have better medics. Stompy can supposedly revive people within a day so long as their Heartless is destroyed."
"I wouldn't put much faith in that," Mickey interjects.
"I don't even get why you keep her in that defensive magic class," Riku continues, "We figured out there's nothing magical about what she does no matter how it appears."
"She needs schedule padding and it isn't hurting her to learn the theory," Mickey answers, "I think about twenty students are misplaced, but school is as much about learning what you don't need so you can figure out what you do."
"You already mentioned the other points," Riku continues, "I just don't know what you're hoping to prove."
"I have a vision," Mickey starts, "Imagine a Feylinus prince or princess in every battalion. Through their mitochondria-stimulation abilities, they remove the need for many medical supplies. No more anesthetics, no more pain killers, no more antibiotics. Don't really need anything but gauze, stitches, and bandages. Morale no longer becomes an issue; a Feylinus can soothe and alleviate fear and doubt directly at the source. In fact, once the battalion becomes accustomed to their Feylinus den mother, they might even start idolizing her and inspire themselves to fight harder to protect her safety and well-being."
"Just that alone would make them one of the most valuable assets to the army," Mickey continues after a brief pause, "But it goes further. Their naturally occurring empathic and telepathic abilities mean they can sense such influence within the troops and root out its source. No more morale undermining through psychic powers. Finally, they can boost the speed, focus, and coordination of people for hours at a time. Imagine using it on snipers, scouts, commandos, you name it. We got to see that in action back on Viesca III. And they do all this without a single magical tie. Simply put, a Feylinus makes everybody a better soldier."
"But Chou is our only Feylinus," Riku interjects, "And she talks so much about how her species hates outsiders and prizes purity within their castes. She was banished for some reason she won't talk about, after all."
"Where we can find one, we can find others," Mickey states, "But anyway, I find an interesting dynamic in one of Chou's more peculiar aspects. She, as the best new recruit, has developed something of a fondness for our worst recruit. It's funny how things work out that way."
"Is that why we keep Kiko?" Riku asks, a little surprised at the implication.
"I wouldn't put it so black and white," Mickey starts, "But yes, that is a pretty good reason in and of itself. I also keep her because she's a celestial transfer. Sure, Yen Sid still doesn't know anything about her, but she's definitely been changed and molded to some ideal. Too bad her skills are actually declining as time goes on. She wouldn't pass muster in the regular military. The fact that she sought us out with information she shouldn't have is pretty interesting as well, but half of that was wrong. Not that I think any seer but Yen Sid has ever been reliable. She's an interesting case, to be certain."
"What do you want to do about her?" Riku asks. He seems to be getting a little uneasy in his chair, as soft as it may be.
"I'm not sure," Mickey starts, "She knows too much for us to set loose. It used to be fortuitous that she ruffled the feathers of the local police department, but we can't send her to them. They have a statute of limitations and we used diplomatic measures to get her off the hook both times. She really doesn't need to know that, though; if we need to get her to do something, it's as good a motivator as any. I don't know... what do you think we should do?"
"How much is it costing us to keep her?" Riku asks. Mickey just sits in his seat, thinking pretty hard on this topic. It's certainly not something to answer lightly, after all.
"Do you know much about economics?" Mickey asks.
"Can't say that I do," Riku answers, apparently sensing a boring lecture coming up.
"There are three types of cost," Mickey explains, "Fixed cost are things that will be the same no matter how many or how few people we train. This castle costs about 350 million munny a year. Taxes on the full 42 square kilometers of land, electricity, water, security, licensing, etc. We also have to pay for all the negative externalities we cause such as pollution from our starships and the public unease of having a foreign military force stationed right at the town's doorstop. Speaking of which, it's not exactly cheap to have what is essentially a giant embassy under our governance. Radiant Garden police aren't even allowed on the premises without permission; I had to spend about 30 million munny in campaign donations just for that privilege alone."
"Damn," Riku comments, "And I thought I was rich with 180,000 munny."
"Other fixed costs probably include the teaching staff," Mickey continues, "They're on fixed salaries with the same benefits and expense accounts whether they teach one student or a thousand. That's about 45 million munny a year. Other things like non-scalar supplies are probably around 10 million a year. Nothing special. That's 405 million munny that we spend regardless of whether or not Kiko attends, so it doesn't count."
"Makes sense," Riku comments.
"Second are variable costs," Mickey continues, "Things that do scale with students. The food they eat, the sheets that have to be washed, the petty cash we give them. Everybody here is on infinite scholarship; we spend as much as it takes to get them through their training. This is also an unpredictable cost; some students may cause more damage, eat less, or require more special aid than other students. I would say each student besides Chou costs about 40,000 munny a year, give or take five thousand. I don't include Chou because she costs about 950,000 munny. It's not cheap to staff an expedition just to get the fungi molds and algae for her diet, but she's well worth it."
"Fascinating," Riku says, starting to stare blankly.
"Third cost is implicit," Mickey continues, ignoring Riku's lack of concrete attention, "Would I be getting better productive efficiency allocating resources to other projects? For example, I keep fourteen space ships docked for training purposes here. Would it not be a better use of them to keep them in active service? Who knows... those fourteen ships might have been the difference between a total victory on Malleus V versus the current debacle. If so, the implied cost is the money I spent to send Sora and Uina out to Malleus on short notice, the penchants for the families of the casualties, and replacing the lost resources. I gave an order to sacrifice up to 40 tanks to insure a safe retreat; that's 80 million munny a tank we have to rebuild."
"...holy crap..." Riku comments after a small delay, the words finally reaching him.
"Well, to answer your question," Mickey says as he finally begins to wrap up, "Kiko's sunk cost so far is somewhere around 350,000 munny. Bail posts, contributions to the police, and things like her food and clothing. However, since she brought superior design handguns and sniper rifles that Uina reverse engineered into our finest firearms yet, I forgive her. Since the school is not excluding someone else to include her and the equipment is drawn from a fixed pool, the implied cost is practically nothing. Keeping her just involves spending the usual student average and that's practically nothing."
"Why don't we just take move her to an apartment in a city far from any spaceport, find her a job, and leave her alone?" Riku asks with total sincerity.
"No," Mickey says sternly.
"But-" Riku attempts.
"All celestial transfers end up for us or against us," Mickey explains, "We would be removing her from what she seems to hold sacred. There is no way she wouldn't hold a grudge against us and end up joining the forces of evil."
"Couldn't we just monitor her, then?" Riku offers, "Keep her from being found?"
"If they want to be found, it doesn't matter how much you try to hide a person," Mickey continues, "Fate will find a way. Besides, that would cost a lot more than just keeping her here. I figure... we need to keep her in our military no matter what. If worse comes to worse, we'll just make her a front line grunt. She's loyal, she can handle a gun, and she's apparently pretty resilient. Besides, Chou likes her and I consider keeping our only Feylinus as happy as possible a major priority. Remember my vision. The better question is how do we get Kiko to realize her full potential?"
"I don't know..." Riku says, standing up and stretching a little, "She's been doing this side-training. Lifting weights and trying to bulk up. I think she sees herself as some warrior and is forcing herself into situations her skills cannot handle."
"See, now we're making progress," Mickey says, getting up for another bottle from the fridge, "Talk her out of this pattern. Convince her to focus on the real objectives and stop trying to be something she isn't. Then, maybe she'll get better. I think she has some other issues she needs to work out, but one problem at a time."
"How do you think we should do that?" Riku asks, sitting back down, "She never follows anyone's advice any longer than it takes for them to give it."
"Not even your's?" Mickey asks, a bit puzzled.
"I keep bringing up the manual and asking her to read it; she never does," Riku explains, thinking a bit on his next words, "I should be fair, though. She has read some parts of it after I brought them up several times, but as far as I can tell, she still hasn't read it cover to cover."
"Still?" Mickey asks, looking a bit agitated, "Those are the most important 226 pages of this entire program "
"I know," Riku starts, "It's pretty horrendous how she doesn't take this seriously."
"It sounds like she has attention problems," Mickey starts, "What you need to do is make your words memorable. You can tell her all you want at dinner and she won't remember. It will just be another dinner where you scolded her and will be out of her mind as she walks through the door wondering why you don't love her. You need to do something unique."
"What do you recommend?" Riku asks.
"There's that festival coming up next week," Mickey starts, "Why not take her to it?"
"You mean as a date?" Riku asks, a slight tinge of discontent in his voice.
"Sure, why not?" Mickey says, "A first date would be very memorable. She does like you, after all."
"But I don't like her," Riku retorts, irritated.
"So?" Mickey says, "I didn't suggest you propose to her. Just take her out for a day on the town. Show her a good time, get to know her, let her know you, and at some point, bring up her problems and how to fix them. It will be memorable and you'll have her full attention to get her to change. I'll leave it up to your discretion what you think needs to be changed to make her a better soldier."
"What if she gets the wrong idea?" Riku asks, still a bit irritated.
"If she does," Mickey starts, "Just let her down gently. The whole point behind dating in the first place is to see if you're compatible, after all. Who knows... maybe you really are meant for her?"
"I seriously doubt that," Riku says, looking away with some minor embarrassment.
"Well, to each their own," Mickey says, "Speaking of the festival, Basil is going to be in town."
"Oh, him," Riku casually tosses out, apparently happy at the change of topic, "Is it just me or does he seem kind of like Pete?"
"He is Pete," Mickey declares, simply and succinctly. Riku just stares blankly for a little before making the softest of sighs, carefully working out those vital next words.
"I don't understand," Riku starts, "I thought Pete was such a troublemaker that you had to banish him twice."
"I did," Mickey admits.
"So why are you buying guns from him?" Riku asks, doing his best to restrain his outcry at something so stupid.
"I destroy my enemies when I make them my friends," Mickey says with a small bit of smug satisfaction, "Honestly, though, Pete isn't that bad of a guy. Grouchy and uncivilized, maybe, but he's not evil or anything. He might not be book smart, but he knows the ins and outs of factory manufacturing and firearms. Before starting up his own steamboat business, he used to work as the manager of an Ajax factory manufacturing hunting rifles. His insights into the process led to the best rifles of their time; the ones we use are only one generation off from that very design. If there's someone I can trust first-hand to make a good gun, it's him."
"Doesn't he hate you, though?" Riku asks.
"I wouldn't call it hate," Mickey starts, "Anyway, I want you to set up a meeting with him. I think his new euphemism is 'shawl', but he'll probably recognize you anyway. He's been subtly sabotaging our guns and I want you to set him straight. I kind of expected it, though; I didn't make it too hard to figure out who we are. We're trying to get on his good side, though, so you're going to order a new shipment with a new design. I'll give you a script. Any questions?"
"I don't like this plan," Riku admits very frankly, "But I trust your judgment."
"Thank you," Mickey says, hopping up out of his seat, "Anything else you want to talk about?"
"Not that I can think of," Riku says, getting up out of his chair. One can tell they know each other pretty well just from their sense of upcoming closure.
"It was nice seeing you," Micky says, shaking Riku's hand pretty well despite being half his size, "Treat yourself with the expense account some time. That's what it's there for."
"I'll think about it," Riku says, awkwardly retracting his hand, "I'll see you later."
--
When one thinks about it, pink is actually a very unusual color. Stereotyped as the ultimate girly color, it can be hard to believe that it used to be seen as a boy color. Indeed, reddish colors were viewed as masculine compared to bluish feminine colors: the inverse of what they ultimately became. How they ended up that way is anybody's guess, but perhaps it was observation of flowers and the favor they have amongst women. Oddly enough, pink isn't that common in nature; plenty of plants but not many animals or insects. Perhaps it's why the color seems to stand out?
Regardless, humanity would certainly have a hard time accepting the catacombs of this alien planet. Bright pink water flows over pink vines and a bright pink pollen washes over the subdued pink stones. Patches of some type of pink moss hang from pink stalagtites, individual pink strands breaking off from the cohesive pink whole. Everywhere one can see, there is nothing but pink in this environment. The only things that aren't pink in these caverns are the two conspicuous humans. One is a buff young girl in a green outfit sitting on a pink mound of... something while the other is an older woman in a tattered and filthy lab coat holding some type of tablet computer. The former seems kind of annoyed while the latter looks just a little uncomfortable. Something on her tablet computer seems to stand out enough to break the tension.
"It looks like King Mickey made a military alliance with the Daeh Yeo Mar Empire," the woman in the lab coat comments. The girl in green makes an irritated grumble as she reclines a bit on her mound.
"Do I look like I care?" the girl quips with moderate irritation.
"Well, Male-" the woman tries to explain.
"Did she give you permission to speak her name?!" the girl shouts with a cross look on her face, suddenly sitting straight up.
"No, ma'am, Miss Mint," the woman cowers, stepping back a little in recoil.
"Use her proper title," the girl in green named Mint commands, mumbling something indistinct but insulting sounding as she reclines back into her mound. The woman in the lab coat composes herself as she considers her next statement.
"The Mistress told me to tell you about anything important while she's away," the woman explains.
"Again, do I look like I care?" Mint retorts.
"Well... if they bolster their ranks with the Etoquin..." the woman says, trailing off as she notices the mound start to rise. Mint sighs as she forms a spike of green crystal from the gem in her bracelet and stabs downwards into the alien creature, spraying some viscous pink fluid all over as the critter clumps back to the ground.
"These things just don't want to die," Mint comments, wiping the pink blood off her face and reclining backwards again. The woman in the lab coat decides she doesn't care enough to finish her sentence, turning away from the barbaric sight as she continues reading her tablet computer. It's not like she has to worry about being beaten up over this. Mint is the one that does all the ass-whuppings in this unit. Perhaps it's by fate that a sickly looking woman in a black cloak walks in accompanied by a gigantic cyborg. The latter is carrying a haphazardly uprooted stone altar with a shiny red prism protruding from the top. He apparently can't even be bothered to properly remove the only valuable part.
"Ah, Dr. Goldwater," the black cloaked woman starts, "You look like you have something important to say."
"Um..." the woman dubbed Goldwater says, trying her best to avoid eye contact, "King Mickey announced an alliance with the Daeh Yeo Mar Empire."
"Those upstarts?" Maleficent dryly comments, continuing her deliberate stride, "We need not worry. They are but a mere annoyance."
"But what about the Etoquin Armored Legion?" Goldwater asks, a mild expression of fear on her face.
"Mere flies," Maleficent comments with a blank expression on her face, "It proves only his desperation. The fool of a king plays into our hands with every move he makes and thinks mere numbers will remedy his inferior tactics. No number of alliances will fix a tactic as misinformed as sending Riku right into our waiting arms. No number of armored walkers will outflank, outmaneuver, or outgun us so long as you are on our side and maintain our invincible Heartless army, my dear scientist general. Once we locate the third prism, no force within or without this universe can stop us from claiming what is rightfully ours. The fool can only delay the inevitable."
"Where is Cenari?" Goldwater asks, not caring to listen to yet another mission statement.
"He battles the so-called Lightside Heartless now," Maleficent explains, motioning forward with her scepter as she continues her stride, "Such bothersome little creatures, pure of essence but just as mindless and ruthless as their corrupted brethren. Perhaps violence is the ultimate reality of all living creatures?"
"Then how are we going to leave this dump?" Mint asks, jumping to her feet and quickly catching pace with her mistress. Goldwater decides to follow a little to Mondale's side. It's always nice to have a gigantic meat shield separating one from the less sympathetic members of their team. Removes the impulse factor.
"Fear not," Maleficent starts, stepping over an eviscerated pink humanoid, "We shall not find ourselves stranded on this abominable world. I ordered only for him to stall; not to eliminate. Once we're back aboard his ship, he shall return and we shall leave this forsaken planet."
"I'm still impressed Neverland could ever hold something like this..." Mint comments as the group make their way out of the caves.
