Of Keys and Hammers

by zcritic88

In a realm beyond, the Four Chaos has taken notice of a realm tied close to the heart. They squirmed into the darkness and sought to corrupt if to reach a prize beyond the light. Will the Light of Order, be able to repel this ancient evil?

30. Protocol

During a new day in Radiant Garden. Sora, Riku and Kairi listened to a train blowing its horn as a woman in armor approached to watch something. Anatesis perked Wanda up and let her, Stalwing and Moonfang watch an event. "Ya done amazing things while you were here General and if it wasn't for you, ideas like... that, wouldn't have happened." The General looked to the trio and the train with a defeated look in her eyes. "...It wouldn't Lady Ana... so.. it didn't go completely up in smoke."

Riku tensed and approached Wanda, giving the general a back rub of pity. "Come on, if you can do that kind of work to a whole town, you can do it again." Wanda felt her wounded pride and relaxed to various sounds as she watched the train deposit something. Kairi noticed two more figures coming, Aqua moving her left hand to a clear circle and Kendry mimicking it, she waved. "Good morning Master, morning Ken." The blonde boy waved good morning and felt an idea coming as Aqua felt a dark despair in the general. "Good... morning." Riku signaled Sora to whisper the story to Aqua, the spiky haired boy did so as a trio of Mickey, Goofy and Donald arrived. Ana asked the mouse. "So now this world is connected to three places and if we are not exploring away from them, we can use them for a change of scenery."

Mickey nodded. "Yep." He watched Aqua feel nothing but pity for Wanda's ordeal as Sora finished. "That's why she is depressed." Aqua understood and wanted to get ready for her daily lesson. "She put so much effort and pride that it wounded her heart." She exhaled and knew what Mickey wanted. "Good morning you're majesty. Give me one more day and I'll go see Master Yen Sid. One of my students has been practicing for a shot lock all night and he is trying to perfect it."

Ken waved his hand in a circle and asked. "A fire from the heart... rapid... fire... fire balls." He brought out his two keyblades and looked upon the circle keychain on his burning blade. "But how?" He yawned and went to a bench, eager to watch an ensuing fight. "I'm good, just... Yawn!" He took out a stash of chocolate pellets and munched on three, perking up as Sora readied for the battle and Mickey understood. "We are all trying to get back to what's important."

Sora felt a little nervous about who his opponent was and smiled the worry away. "Never thought this would happen so soon." Aqua agreed and gave a grateful bow. "Neither did I. Thank you, for everything."

She drew out her keyblade as the audience stood to the side, Sora drew out the hunny spout and realized what she meant. Aqua dashed after Sora and let loose a quick combo the boy rolled out of the way from and parried, he was kicked back and slid to a lamp post to get out of the way of an ice ball, he flew back to Aqua and pushed her back with a couple quick swings. Aqua back flipped and let loose a chilly aura, she countered and knocked the boy silly with the force of a blizzard and tried to finish him off with a glaciating blast. Sora glided away from the blast, flew into Aqua's personal space and struck a couple more times, rolled out of the way of a point blank fire ball and with a burst of sugary vigor, raised his blade in the air. "Here we go!" The keyblade enlarged and fell apart in honey pots, the bees that made up the teeth flew out of the honey.

Two of the bees flew to the boys hands and took shape into duel wielding pistols. Catching the audience by surprise and giving Aqua a reason to jump far out of the way, she tried to focus on him for a shot lock and watched the pistols form glowing wads of honey, Sora felt the tide turning in his favor and fired a barrage of honey wands that were supported by bees. Aqua attempted to dodge and was caught in a combo, Sora felt a gentle breeze in the wind and raised his right pistol in the air, wisps of honey formed in both and more wisps circled around the pistol. Sora fused the pistols together and caused it to take the form of a honey bomb launcher, Aqua flowed out of the way from the initial blasts and flew at the boy to try and stop him, she was knocked back and focused to fire three beams of red, yellow and blue, knocking Sora back as he caused the honey launcher to fire a forming blob of honey that resembled a big bee that fired upon Aqua and exploded in many globs. The launcher returned back to the keyblade as the battle concluded. Aqua was covered in honey as she and Sora panted, feeling like a demonstration was made, the keyblade master asked. "Even without guidance, your heart and the keyblade connected like you been one... hmm." She and Sora shook hands to concluded a match, Sora exhaled. "I... can tell you trained for a long time."

The audience clapped in congratulations, Ken tried to keep himself awake, closed his eyes for a moment and felt himself standing on a hard cave floor. He was disoriented and felt a deep darkness around, save for a flicker of light that caught him by surprise, a white robed angel with four arms, its lower arms were folded and its upper left aim raised into the air. It flung a spear of dark light at the boy, Ken yelped into the waking world. "I'm awake, I'm awake!" Sora and Aqua were caught by surprise as they watched the panicking boy fall off the bench, like he saw a nightmare. Both attempted to ask as Ken dismissed it and answered. "I saw it, the actual form change can turn a blade into another weapon like guns and a launcher, it can get more crazy than that! Miss Aqua, what you did was what you showed yesterday and put it all...all-" He bobbed himself in the head to keep himself awake Sora asked him. "We get it, you were watching and listening! You're regretting being up all night?"

Ken nodded with migraines and Aqua allowed him to dismiss himself. "This was today's lesson in understanding some more advanced styles and you got most of the answers right... at least... the ones you finished. You can go get some sleep." Ken looked thankful and forgotten about the angel that lurked in the dark. "I...I should, then practice again." He ran off back home as Kairi shook her head with worries, she smiled to both as Sora had a text message. "Wha?" He asked Donald and Goofy. "Something is going on at the lab, we should go check it out."

The two understood as Mickey volunteered to go with them, with four gone, Kairi asked her teacher. "Master, what do you know about summons?" Aqua thought of one method and shook her head. "We need someone who has a different way of summoning before I can talk about that, there is one I used while traveling the realms, but I thought it was just a spell bound trinket Arreia crafted." Kairi snapped her fingers as Riku considered it tough luck. "We might know another, but now isn't a good time." He readied for a trip out of town. "I'm going to check on the vale, those Orruks have been acting way too quiet. Try not to get bored." He walked out as Anatesis offered to follow. "Hold it, going into Orruk territory isn't the safest decision around." Wanda agreed and got on her gryphon. "Especially if they are sharing it with grots, they are just going to keep agitating one another."

Moonfang followed bored, leaving just Kairi and Aqua alone. The girl wasn't going to give up and asked. "Master, how do you do a command style?" Aqua asked her back. "What are the major magics you use?" Kairi remembered three. "Fire, water and healing...hmmm." Aqua envisioned what Kairi had planned for the last spell. "Healing while you are attacking?! That... could be interesting." She remembered a place in town that would work for target practice. "Come on, we might take a while."

At the lab.

Leon and Cid were typing at a computer that had an odd, green icon resembling an ankh that wasn't going away as Ienzo answered just as confused. "It just... appeared during the morning and it kept itself over the security program." He noticed Sora, Donald, Goofy and Mickey arriving and sighed. "Thank you for coming. Sora, Donald, Goofy, I heard you been taken to a world inside this computer once, is that correct?"

Sora remembered fondly. "A...mainframe...mainframe computer system. We didn't exactly go in because we wanted to, some of us got carried away." Donald remembered it differently and stomped his foot in a temper. "That wasn't my fault."

Leon remembered exactly how it happened. "A unwanted visitor jumped down on the keyboard and Donald tried to chase it off... he ended up jumping on the keyboard and ticked off a Master Control Program." Ienzo nodded with memories. "So this is what Ansem meant when he said he copied a computer system? I know someone who said something about installing an MCP into this. What happened." Cid coughed abruptly. "The MCP kept causing trouble until he hijacked the security program and let loose a ton of Heartless. That's when we all chipped in a way to delete the MCP and get things back to normal, a friend of theirs took over the system and fixed things up."

Sora nodded with a smile. "Tron." He looked at the green icon and asked. "Is this something he found for us?" Leon wanted to find that out. "It doesn't look like anything we seen before, Ienzo... you got any ideas?" The scientist looked at icon and had a feeling something was off. "It looks alien to me and this icon took over any security commands we had remotely ready."

Mickey felt the odd feeling himself. "I hope Tron is okay in there, if this came into the system-" Cid gasped and tried to type a program on the computer. "Then this ain't no bug." Leon and Ienzo cringed in horror as Goofy asked. "Someone sent this?!"

Ienzo answered with urgency. "As with any computer virus, Tron might be in great danger." The trio gasped, Sora blurted. "A virus?!" Cid agreed with that and tried to ready a program. "Like the kind you get when you catch a cold, once it gets into a computer system, it can mess ya up." Blip! The man was taken aback by the black screen with the image of something coffin shaped and with a green alien ankh at its central top. "Wha-" Sora, Donald and Goofy took a closer look, a cold fear glowed with in their hearts, the boy asked. "So this means we... can't go in there to see whats up?!" Leon asked the three and pressed a button to show various, alien symbols. "Do you know any of this?! This is the exact problem we had when deleting that-" "Bzzzwhaaaah. BWWWWWIII!"

The sound of what they hope wasn't an alarm struck their ears, a voice most strange echoed from all around. "Ah, so this drew the famous keyblade wielder I heard so much about here. Welcome Sora, Donald, Goofy." Sora drew out his keyblade and barked. "Who are you and what did you do to Tron?!" The voice gasped in shock. "You knew of the administrator of the OS system? So I was right to preserve him." Sora readied to swing at what ever was coming as Leon felt a repeat of a past event, he tried to stand in the way and was flung aside by a green electrical whip, the voice broke in joy over something. "To have such a prize in my collection would be a moment to remember for the eons." A red circle like structure glowed green, Leon attempted to get up as Mickey tried to strike the device, he was flung all the same by a particle whip as the virus program readied. "Consider this a grea-"

Wrrrrrr- BZZZZT!

They noticed a faint blue color distorting in the green and the virus's cheerful voice turning to that of a panic. "Wha...what are you-" PEW! Sora, Donald and Goofy were shot by beams, became still and before the groups eyes, broke down into pixels that became absorbed into the blue circle. The helpless observers went to the computer to find a mess of pixels distorting, like the computer was attempting to fight the virus. PEW!

The screen distort into an all black with the coffin like symbol once more, the voice returned, it didn't raise itself, yet it gave off a tone of annoyance. "What a meddlesome program. But no matter, those three will be dealt with, as a parting gift." Ienzo was the first to notice a vast hallway down bellow become a deathly green. "I find it appropriate to show the many things I created from this system, surely you won't find them easy to ignore."

Leon and Mickey knew the undertones, opened a door leading down and made a dash, both computer geeks stayed behind to try and breach the hacked system. Down bellow, Leon and Mickey saw sinister figures standing ready to confront the defenders, twenty robotic skeletons that give off a green glow in the eyes and held in their hands, glowing rifles that were more of a transparent tube, the skeletons aimed to fire.

With in a computer system.

Sora, Donald and Goofy slowly stirred to find themselves in what looked to be a mixture of a virtual city and a virtual warehouse, it gave a usual blue glow that was quickly distorting into black with green lines. Sora looked up to the sky to find a green beam and drew out the hunny like keyblade as he looked upon his friends, they were grey scale and in grey armor that had cyan glowing lines. Sora himself found he was in that attire and realized what happened. "Tron... tried to stop him." Goofy watched the black and green spreading and heard a metallic buzzing. "Gwarsh, how long has this virus been in here?"

Donald didn't want to know as something flew down from the darkened sky, tiny green eyes and shapes resembling scarabs, leading from the center was a large machine like spider with a gun on its back, the vast swarm descended upon the trio, Goofy took his shield and waited for the swarm to close in, he spun himself like a twister to break apart the scarabs as Donald raised his staff in the air to call down thunder. Sora joined in with his own, together they wiped out most of the scarabs, the spider shot against the three with particle evaporating, green beams and swiped against Goofy with its claws. It glowed and caused a green light to shine, bringing more scarabs into the swarm.

Sora dashed after the spider as he and his friends heard marching, Donald and Goofy focused on the smaller scarabs as Sora smashed the spider's lens and kicked it into the ground, watching the machine lay on the ground. One thing for certain. "These are not heartless... what are they?"

March! March! "BWWWZT!"

The trio turned to a corridor towards their left to find a legion of twenty, robotic skeletons with shining rifles that let the trio know they don't want to be hit by those. The skeletons aimed their guns at them and fired, Sora and Goofy stood side by side to set off a protection spell, green lightning struck the barrier and slowly stripped it away, molecule by molecule. Sora focused upon the machines, hovered and aimed from the tip of the hunny spout and fired a glob of honey upon the machines, knocking them down and catching them in a sticky situation, Donald fired down another thunder spell to keep the machines down as Sora and Goofy charged after the machines, making quick work of them and breaking them apart with the blunt damage. Donald followed them as Sora turned to find a hallway leading to an platform that would take them across an otherwise bottomless pit. "What ever they are, we can smash them up." He smiled as Donald agreed. "They aren't so tough, but we got to find out where they came from." The two went to the platform as Goofy looked back and five of the machines crawling back up, with five more putting themselves back together with green lightning. "G...Guys." The duo turned, in disbelief at the undead warriors repairing themselves, Donald quacked. "Run!"

The three went to the platform and felt it slide downward, towards an unknown path under where they intended to go. They watched the warriors march after them and flying nearby, a floating wagon like machine, driven by a robotic skeleton arrived for them. The trio watched the warriors march in two rows of five and climb in the wagon. The warriors placed their guns into the sides and position themselves in uniformity. Sora and Donald instinctively readied for the ark flying after them. The ark took flight after them and readied a green glow from its bottom guns. A barrier formed around the ark as Donald shot fire balls and Sora form changed the hunny spout into blasters, both shots bounced against the quantum shield. Goofy took his shield and stood in front of the duo to block a barrage of ten shots, Sora took a last resort as the ark was upon them and in firing range. His shifted his blasters into a launcher and fired, doing significant damage to the ark and slowing it down from the damage. The ark wasn't giving up and the pilot took an orb and raised it, giving off a green glow that resonated across the grid, it was alerting the virus's forces of intruders, Sora fired once more and felt his keyblade revert back, feeling annoyed by what was coming.

PEW! Two orange disks flew at the ark in the speed of light and penetrated through the shield, striking the pilot and causing it to short circuit in orange energy, the ark ceased its glow and fell into the abyss. Sora, Donald and Goofy yelped in shock and turned around to find the disks returning to a cavern across the grid, did a mysterious program helped them? Sora squinted his eyes to find ten, sturdy looking undead skeletons with carbines attached to wires, a cyclops like skeleton that was on top of a metallic spider and two arks much like the ones he saw before, except its passengers where replaced by a large, scary looking gun in each ark. The cyclops like skeleton took out a staff and ordered the arks to do something as the skeletons aimed their carbines, Sora knew what it was. "It's going to fire on us if we don't-" He saw a faint, blue pillar to the east of the arks, focused and asked his friends. "I'll keep the big ones busy, you two try to put up with the others till this thing gets there."

Donald and Goofy watch the boy focus and flowed towards the blue pillar, the cyclops turned and approached to confront the anomaly. Sora shot himself against the wall and pierced through two of the arks, breaking concentration and annoying the cyclops. The cyclops aimed his staff as its spider spawned tiny scarabs that flew to the arks, repairing the damage Sora had done. The staff fired beams of light that caused minor if stinging amounts of pain to the boy, he put a connection together as the arks tried again to fire.

He struck the arks in melee combat and pierced through again to push the two around, he turned his keyblade into blasters and taunted. "Let's see how these guys will do without you!" He fired a barrage at the cyclops to snare him in honey and fused the blasters into a launcher, knocking the cyclops on his back and watching green lightning fizzle away. The boy fired a blob at one of the arks and another at the other, he went back to the other ark and noticed Donald and Goofy enduring the shots long enough for the platform to reach its destination, Goofy shield bashed against the skeletons as Donald focused and aimed his staff to the sky, causing a pillar of blue electricity to strike down upon the less damaged ark and sent it into a short circuit as Sora melee the other for heavy enough damage that it stopped glowing and fell into a mighty thud. The boy shot an inferno at the other ark and watched it explode in green energy. He had a closer look to his surroundings and found the inside of a black labyrinths, with a direction towards the left and right, to the left was ten more skeletons with tube like blasters, to the right was a giant, spider like tank with a skeleton driving it. On the tanks belly was a heat ray that glowed bright red. Sora yelped and rolled back to his friends, who attacked the reanimated skeletons in an attempt to make sure they stayed down.

They felt a burning red light and turned, the trio split apart to avoid the burning ray. Goofy and Donald were to the left as Sora was to the right, the skeletons took their blasters as the stalker gave a beep to the boy. Sora set up a deflection spell and felt himself pushed back by the combined fire power of green light. Donald yelled and called down a thunderstorm. "Scram already!"

BOOM!

The skeletons took the shocking lightning as Goofy flung his shield to them like a boomerang. "Yeah!" Boom! The skeleton squad fell limp, five tried to repair themselves as Sora went after them to quickly finish them off, leaving the stalker to attempt to slash at him with its many legs. A leg slashed at him and cause a major cut on his shoulder, Donald used a healing spell as the boy slide underneath the belly and struck at the ray, seeing the machine had a quantum shield as well and yelling out his frustration. "Come on, how many of these things are there?!" The spider mech turned towards the boy and raised its legs high, unaware of two disks coming at it from the the left and sinking into the mecha's core. Orange light glowed and caused the machine to break down in pixels, deleting it.

Sora watched the disks return to a figure from the far hall that lead to a two way corridor, one path leads forward and the other leads to the right. "Tr-" He stopped himself and found a black humanoid figure with small orange highlights all over a suit that leaves no face, the figure caught two black disks that had an orange line. "That isn't-" The figure fled to the right, Sora followed on an instinct. Donald and Goofy followed to shout. "Wait up!"

On a turn, the three found wrecked remains of three small speeders with still skeletons and a hallway leading towards a room. They saw orange light colliding with green light. They followed to a wide room with a pillar in the center, looking like four cubes were missing in place and having dead scarabs litter around the four. They found a humanoid figure Sora identified, being shrouded in a cloud of metallic insects that were deployed from the cloak of a metallic skeleton in what they assume is a metal hood. The skeleton's rib cage looked blue, his shoulders had blue highlights and he held a staff that gave off a green glow. The humanoid figure paused in a kneel, gave a beep and a flicker as the skeleton looked like he was finished. "That should keep you obedient for a little longer."

The skeleton looked at Sora and his friends, greeting them with a gracious bow. "Ah, you finally arrived. I presumed you three would have been overwhelmed by my warriors, immortals, arks, that cryptek Amabi and the triarch stalker." He introduced himself. "It takes quite some skill to survive the Necrons, with or without the interference of... Rinzler. I am the conqueror of this system, Trazyn." Sora pitied the program that was getting up against his own free will and glared at Trazyn. "You're conquering nothing, give us Tron back and get lost!"

Trazyn chuckled to Sora. "I'm afraid I will not do that, for he is the crown jewel of my collection with in this data bank." Donald growled and readied his wand. "This isn't yours, put it back the way it was." Goofy agreed with him. "What are you doing with all the data."

Trazyn appreciated an intelligent question from a lower life form. "I'm glad you asked." He held in front of them a bright blue cube. "I am here to collect valuable data on the research of the man who created all this. Anything that would prove... intriguing, would be preserved, any that are not." He clenched the cube and caused it to become black with green lights, the black cube reconfigured into a scarab that scurried away. "Will be... repurposed to aid in my adventure. Much like what I attempt to do with Rinzler, but he is too stubborn."

Sora felt confused by the talk of data and readied to attack. "You're hurting him, you know he doesn't want tuis," He charged after Trazyn and was knocked off his feet from a flying kick, Rinzler crouched to Sora and readied a fatal blow as Trazyn asked him. "As much as the two of you don't wish to clash blade? Hmm." Trazyn was in thought as he took out a glowing green cube. "Perhaps this would aid the two of you in...acquainting yourselves... providing you find a way to escape this."

He pressed a button and readied to throw, Donald focused on him and yelled. "Stay away from them!" BOOM! A bolt of lighting shot from his staff and struck Trazyn in the chest, causing him to give off a glow and reveal an illusion that showed a lesser skeletal lord that gave a static shriek and fell dead. The cube flickered and drew the skeleton into a green prison. Leaving Sora to knock Rinzler off and was uncertain of how to break him out of Trazyn's control. "Come on, snap out of it!"

Rinzler back flipped to a cube, caused it to glow orange and tossed an orange disk at the boy, who dodged and flew after him, Rinzler jumped to another cube and watched the keyblade shine, striking it and causing it to give a reddish glow. The cube connected to a socket and floated towards it, Sora flew again to dodge the second disk and skid out of the way of the returning disk, he struck and Rinzler jumped to another. Goofy noticed something as he and Donald felt something lurking from bellow, they waddled out of the way and found three beetle like machines with long coiling tails and whip like claws emerge. "Sora, I think Rinzler is trying to get ya to do-" SWOOSH!

Rinzler sparked from orange to green and tossed a disk at Goofy, he flew after Sora for a brutal punch, the boy took it to the face and fell to the ground. He felt something in the figure trying to fight back and jumped to the cube with an understanding. "If we put this thing back together-" Goofy and Donald tried running away from the wraith like machines as the shield bearer yelled. "Hurry!"

Sora taped it and sent it to the tower along with the previous two, leaving one more. Sora looked down to find Rinzler leaping after him, the boy flew to a wall to dodge, wall dashed and flew to the last cube, tapping it and sending it to the tower. He flew down after the wraith like beetles and tried to beat them back, his blade slid past the three and they charged up a beam from their single eye. Flash! The pillar shined blue light and pulsed against the darkness, causing the cube, wraiths and Rinzler to disappear and leave behind a grey scale room with blue glowing lines.

The trio felt a sense of safety and fell to relax in sanctuary, they noticed a doorway leading deeper that was giving off that black and green glow. Donald sighed. "What a mess." Goofy agreed with him. "Unless we get rid of the Necrons, the whole system is going to be scrambled." Sora nodded and worried. "If we don't stop that virus, more like Tron and Rinzler are going to be hurt by it." Donald teased a bit he seen from the boy. "Typical, we don't even know Rinzler and you want to help him anyways." Sora had a guess of who Rinzler might be. "He could be part of the whole...security thing. It's been a while since we left Tron and this computer is a lot bigger on the inside." Goofy felt it made sense. "He must be a security program made a while back," He looked to the door way forward. "We need to hurry along before Trazyn figures out how to take this place again."

Bleep!

A man's voice echoed. "Sora, Donald, Goofy, can you here me?!" They recognized Ienzo's voice and let them know they can, Sora yelled out. "Hey, what's going on our there?" Ienzo answered. "Not good, this Virus has been keeping Leon and the King busy. You three are in the security net work right now, how were you able to debug it?" Goofy answered that. "We had a bit of help from someone fighting this virus. It's been scrambling him too and it been filling this whole thing is getting dangerous" It felt like someone across a keyboard slammed at something in anger. "Grr. And what of the virus? How are you surviving against that?" Sora cringed. "Not good, the virus has been sending tough enemies called Necrons our way. The Virus calls itself Trazyn."

The scientist from the world outside put together more about the virus and sounded like he noticed something. Click! "...Well, well. This someone helping you has left a surprise in the I/O of the system... but what could it-" The trio heard a pause and the man gave an order. "Sora, Donald, Goofy, further ahead should reroute you towards the I/O. There is no way a security program would manage this on his own." The trio looked to each other with a smile and knew who was trying to help them, Sora yelled out. "Thanks for the tip!" Ienzo listened to that. "Don't thank me yet, if the virus has identified you, it will double its efforts to stop you. Just... know when a battle isn't worth it." The trio understood, Sora felt reenergized and lead the way. "Come on, let's stop this mess."

In a canyon far away from town

Riku looked upon the sinister ruins of Villain's Vale and saw hints of fighting with in the ruins. Wanda growled and took out a telescope. "Typical of Orruks, the Ironjawz know their place in the order... but the Bonesplitterz and grots..." Anatesis agreed with that. "That's a fight waiting to happen." Wanda looked closer and was confused. "Wha... those... are those-" She gave the telescope to Ana, who saw a horde of Ironjawz and Bonesplitters fighting along side each other against an intruding force with in the tower, an army that is a mixture of bones and darkness. "...That can't be the undead?! How are they-" Riku took the scope and felt like something wrong was happening. " Shackled Shadows?! The Horned-" He sensed more. "It's him, Wanda, Ana... we need to stop this guy! Now!"

Wanda knew who Riku was talking about and let him on Stalwing. "Ana, this Horned King is a goon of Nagash! Someone needs to warn the town in case we don't come back!" Ana held to her hammer and ordered Moonfang. "Go let them know danger is coming!"

The Dracoth nodded and dashed back to town, the gryphon and Stormcast took flight towards the ruins. Where they had a closer look at the Orruks fighting back the bones that kept regenerating, even with a Mawcrusha, an ethereal Manticore and an ethereal Chimera in battle. Riku focused and flowed to a misshapen undead monstrosity as Ana shot enveloped her in a storm cloud.

WOOSH! BOOM!

A wave of Shackled Shadows scattered from a suave of light and lightning, the dark energy filling the bones faded away, a brute laughed like he had the time of his life. "Did ya see that smack! HA!" GROWL!

A Mawcrusha scared the brute into behaving and rushed through the door, being too big to fit in and for Dragon Hackah to loose his temper. "What the hell! Well go make a-" Anatesis yelled light thunder. "Orruk, what is the meaning of this?!"

Dragon Hackah noticed the Stormcast with the keyblade and Riku, he yelled back and pointed up the tower. "I tell ya what, some skelly git is charging into the tower of Spidahs and making a mess up there! Those grots are mine to boss around."

SWOOP! A gryphon landed and didn't wish to let his master near the Orruks, Wanda ordered her steed. "Stalwing, stay in the air and wait," She looked up to the tower and listened to the sounds of screeching. "Something is definitely going on up there." She looked to the Megaboss and asked. "You want to keep this vale as your own, wait until that noise goes away and smash through that wall above."

The Orruk tugged at his Mawcrusha and had him take flight, Ana lead the way in. "Come on, we got to remind Nagash's forces that they are NOT welcome here!" Riku agreed with that, looked at the dimwitted Orruks and ran into the tower, half worried about the lost hearts.

In a house in the town.

Kendry was in an average bedroom that was filled with a wide variety of scify movies in the shelves, sleeping away for most of the hour. A desire kept worming into his mind and he cringed in his sleep. He woke up with a feeling of a chill and fell back asleep, closing his eyes and finding himself trapped in the same cave he was during noon. He was confronting that same angel that lurked in the darkness, the angel shot a speak of light, the boy rolled out of the way and fired upon the angel. The angel caused two glowing white ring to form mid air, he formed an orb of dark power and shot it into the ring next to him. Ken looked to the ring hovering above the angel and dashed out of the way, he fired again and the angel flew towards him. The lurker in the darkness caused his upper left hand to glow like a bladed sword of energy and swiped it to the boy.

Ken rolled to the angel's side and swung his burning blade at the creature, seeing the damage being done, the angel curled his wings close and Ken infused his gun like blade with fire. He shot as fast as he can and watch the angel split into two. "Not this again."

The two angels approached side by side with a blade of light energy. Ken shot himself out of the way and turned to fire the two at once, one of the angels vanished as the other raised his upper hands into the air and caused a glowing ring of fire open a way into the void. Ken noticed the other angel appearing in the distant right to form a ring of white light, he looked to his left and back to the angel with the fire ring. He ran to the right as a barrage of fire balls fired down upon him and an orb of darkness flung itself to him. BOOM!

The angel raised his arms high in the air without warning, Ken jumped back to the scorch marks and watched the dark explosion as he made a quick charge with his gun and fired, the angel formed a large white ring and flew through it, appearing right next to its clone and flying into the air, Ken remembered something yelled. "Come on, that faraway?!"

The angels shot a beam together, Ken focused in anger and shot himself to the air, he spun his burning blade into a small circle and yelled down. "GO AWAY!" The circle burned into a dark rift and with an outburst, a barrage of fire balls shot out of the ring, scorching the two angels into smouldering figures and sending both falling to the ground pitifully, he saw something sparkle with in one of the corpses and approached. He rummaged and found a flicker of light fly from the angels hood, he reached for it, realized what he done and cringed. "EEK! If I show Miss that, she will be mad at me!"

Puff! Ken felt himself waking out tired, freed from the grip of a nightmare, he smelled ashes and dragged himself out of bed to find the Firekeeper facing herself to him with a question. "Wielder of the Flame, was that a dreadful nightmare from the abyss itself?" Ken shivered and crouched. "It's the same nightmare I kept having for an hour, it's always the same angel... killing me over and over." He looked down to his hands and laughed. "In the final one, I finally got that shot lock down... but not the one I want. Firekeeper, was that ring a way into the dark?!" The Firekeeper nodded. "And through that ring, destruction comes." Ken got off his bed, took out his burning blade and mimicked the circle, perfecting it and opening a way into the dark, he growled and swiped it away. "No, no, no! I can't show her this. There has to be another way for this or that whole morning would have been for nothing."

The Firekeeper asked him earnestly. "But...Kendry, the brighter the flame, the darker the shadows. What other way is there to harness the power of the forbidden sun?" Ken shook his head and felt he was being tested. "There isn't, but what does the fire give?" The Firekeeper answered. "Light... this power needs to draw from the light. Not from thy anger."

Ken felt stranded and tried once more, the same results from before, he swiped it away and asked. "Even if I ask her, she would not approve of where this came from. But...she is my teacher, do I... ask?" The Firekeeper sighed and answered. "That is thy choice to make, even with the fire, thou are lost." Ken swallowed and took the risk. "She knows a lot more of these things than I do. Hopefully... this doesn't get me kicked out." The Firekeeper didn't think that and faded from the ashes. "It's less than likely, but could that be the shadow this power is coming from?"

Click, Ken watched the door open, his mother came knocking to ask. "Are... you okay?" The boy nodded to his mother. "I had a bad dream and I need to get back to my day." He munched on a chocolate covered coffee bean to energize himself, the woman supported the decision and stepped out of the way. "Don't go scaring anyone, you were only asleep for an hour." Ken promised her. "I'll try not to."

He walked out of his room and out of his house to the outside world, seeing flashes of fire that was going out of control and walking towards it. Finding Kairi letting loose a combo while embedded in fire, causing flames to go towards directions beyond her intention and was trying to keep up with Aqua's finesse. The teacher felt enough was enough and switched to ice magic to cool the flames down. "Kairi, don't be afraid of the fire, it is destructive but in your hands it is something that will help you fight back against those that will try to hurt your friends."

Kairi sweated and wanted to cool down. "I know, but what if I hurt them by accident?" Aqua tapped her foot and sensed someone coming, she turned around to find Ken looking half perked. "You're awake this soon?" Ken nodded and looked on in confusion. "I am, fire's a pretty crazy thing. I'm not one to say much since I tend to... stay away from people when I use fire."

Kairi remembered certain bursts and agreed with him. "You're pretty dangerous when you push that power." Aqua was tempted to suggest holding off on using any fire related commands and noticed a question in her other student. "Kendry, did something happen?" The student nodded, swallowed and answered. "I was having a cycle of nightmares right from when I nearly fell asleep on you all the way to recently. It's some angel lurking in the dark constantly kicking my butt... until I beat him back. I... may or may not have made a step on the shot lock, but it is far from ready."

Aqua gasped impressed. "And that is what you use to beat that dark lurker? But... is your move real?" Ken nodded, aimed his burning blade to an open area and asked. "Please don't be mad, this is the reason why it isn't complete." He spun the drawing of a burning ring, he pulled out to show a hole that darkened into an abyss, Kairi backed away as Ken felt a rush of terror and let loose a barrage of intense fire balls that created burning patches of flame.

Kairi quenched the fire as Ken closed his eyes in expecting a verbal lashing or worst, Aqua exhaled from her nostrils and agreed with him. "It's nowhere near ready. Did this come from that nightmare?" Ken nodded. "When it was using that on me... a lot and again when I finished it off with that move." He stiffened and Aqua felt the emotions she was seeing. "Ken, relax! That's why this power is of the darkness."

The boy opened his eyes and felt a scolding, Aqua calmed herself. "Anger from the cycle of the nightmare... and fear of what I would think about this once you realized what you done. This is not something you wanted to show me and for good reasons." She gently guided him to a bench and she slowly smiled. "But you came when you knew why this power is just... wrong. Rather than allow this to keep going until... a more dangerous time."

Kairi spoke in defense of her rival. "But Master, Ken knows not to mess around with darkness! This is just an accident that he is trying to fix." Ken appreciated the back up. "I know, people messing around with that is how monsters like Xaw'rak happen. I... just need to focus away from that shot lock until I'm better in the head." Aqua wanted to ask the name, Kairi whispered it to her teachers ear. Horror jolted into the teachers eyes and she requested. "Stop... stop. Kendry, we are to never talk about that. For all that is good, that thing is an abomination that needs to be forgotten about." Kendry nearly agreed as Kairi advised. "Or... just not talked about, now we know that is possible... what's to stop another lunatic from doing it again?" Aqua agreed back. "An excellent point, it must never be allowed to exist again." Kairi closed her eyes and let out the horrifying part. "Because someone allowed this to happen to themselves. Master, is there anything... new you learned while traveling the realms?"

Ken knew of one. "Miss turned into a pheonix and wiped out some baddies. That's pretty cool." Aqua questioned if she should show those abilities off. "There is another like it that is about a... frostheart pheonix. But those shouldn't be played with out here."

Kairi had a name for that. "The Pheonix Bomb? Hmm." Ken felt the thought coming. "Miss... is there any place besides that arena out of town we can... use for things like that?" Aqua knows of one and answered. "There is, but we can't use it right now. I'll tell you why when I can." The students accepted that, Kairi thought she was energized enough to try again. "Master, I'm going to try a safer element for now." She stood in front of a make shift targeting dummy and let loose a quick combo, she enveloped herself with water and let loose a combo resembling a whip of water, the bystanders walking about watched where it was going. A Dracoth came charging and roaring an alarm.

Up in a Tower in Villain's Vale.

Riku, Wanda and Ana climbed to a ruined nest that was littered with dead spiders and skeletal goblins bound by a dark cloud, swarming against a scuttleboss on his giant spider. Stingy Bites and his spider Skits desperately stabbed against the undead horde. Riku took Way to Dawn and without hesitation, carved into the undead horde with a strong desire to protect, putting a large portion of the dead to rest as Anatesis swiped her hammer against the heartless, lightning enveloped the darkness and left behind the bones. Stingy Bites and his spider went into an agitated frenzy and tried to attack the new batch of intruders. "NO! YOU AIN'T GETTING ME AND SKITTS!" SWIPE! SWIPE! PARRY!

Wanda parried the two as the horde of twenty skeletons went for the key bearers that combo together and let loose a miniature star of light and lightning. The two stabbed the star together and caused it to go supernova upon undead, wiping them all away and leaving Stingy Bites and his steed behind. Wanda barked to him. "Listen to me, we came to deal with who ever is responsible for this! If he isn't stopped, we will have an army of the undead heading to our door! Are you going to keep this up?" She pushed the goblin back that fanatically yelled to Skitts. "Come on, Spidah Mudah's in deep trouble!" The spider agreed, turned and rushed to a stair way leading up, to the highest point of the tower, where a massive nest of pale spiders were seen crushed.

Anatesis and Riku glared at the skeletal drake pinning down the Arachnarok that was fighting back against a horned lich in red robes that was reaching for a crazed goblin shaman that hit him across the face with a bone staff. The Arachnarok's legs were harassed by undead goblin skeletons and the Horned King reached the limits of his patience. "If you will not serve me, then perhaps she will!" He grabbed the goblin by his neck and hurled him back towards the group, Skitts shrieked and charged with his rider. The dragon swiped the goblin back as Riku attempted to focus a flow motion, GRAB!

Skeletal hands reached from the darkness and held firmly onto the trio's legs, Ana growled and barked. "Fight us you coward, before we send ya back to your dark master in pieces!"

The Horned King ignored her and focused a spectral bolt of darkness. "In a moment, brazen warrior. What an odd find to come to the aid of these loathsome creatures." Wanda didn't care about that. "They are the least of our worries, but you.." Riku felt something holding him down and called the Horned King out. "You and your monster of a master keep trying to mess with our worlds!" The Horned King shot the darkened spirit at the Arachnarok, causing her to bleed in darkness and caused the crazed goblins to yell in unison. "SPIDAH MADAH!"

SMASH! A wall was smashed open, letting in Dark Smasher and his Orruk master, the Horned King cringed and heard bellowing from bellow. "A band of savages actually care about worlds not meant for them?!" Dragon Hackah stomped on the back of his Mawcrusha and barked. "Shut up already! You iz messing up me waaagh!" He ordered Dark Smasher. "Let's chomp up some bones!"

The Mawcrusha agreed and flew after the undead dragon, the Horned King felt it wasn't worth it and yanked his steed's reigns, having it take flight into the sky. Dark Smasher chomped at the dragons tail, tore off a pierce of bone and followed its prey, leaving behind an Arachnarok that quickly enveloped into darkness and shrieked at the three, charging at them as Venom Dancer glowed with magic and caused the hands to break down. "Spidah Madah gone mad!"

Ana let Wanda jump onto her back and flew high above to dodge as Riku dashed out of the way of chitinous legs, Stingy Bites and Skitts gasped and jumped out of the way as Venom Dancah jumped to the back of Skitts and shot out an arcane bolt to get the Arachnaroks attention. His insane cringe and chittering prayers for mercy caused the darkness to become worse, Riku closed his eyes, hovered in the air and aimed his keyblade at the Arachnarok. "We all knew this was coming." He fired dim projectiles at the Arachnarok to injure and draw her attention as a Gryphon flew from the wall and joined the battle, pouncing upon the spiders rear and leaving Ana to toss Wanda at the spiders head. The General smacked the spider and caused it to become disoriented and to bleed darkness. Riku flew to the general, sweep her off her feet and landed by the door as he yelled. "Ana, send this spider back home! She suffered enough."

Anatesis nodded, raised her hammer into the air and caused it to expand and shift into a lance, the Arachnarok looked above and tried to swipe at the Stormcast that somersaulted and flew herself down to the Spidah Madah.

Stingy Bites hid Venom Dancah's vision from the site as Skitts covered its eyes, watching the lance pierce the spiders head and cause the body to envelop in lightning, obliterating the remaining undead and causing the spider to fall to the ground. Giving off a pulse that glowed in an odd light as the body broke down, like its form was containing itself into something. Thud! A green stone landed as the spider disappeared, the dark shade attempted to fly away and left Stingy Bites to snarl. "Kill the dark thing!"

Skitts looked, glared at the ghost and rushed after it, Venom Dancah was allowed to look and yelled with a burst of tears. "Ya did this to her!" He caused Skitts go glow and pounce on the ghost like heartless, biting down upon it with oozing venom that quickly caused it to dissolve as Riku went to pick up the stone, feel a great power with in and jump onto Stalwing with Wanda, the general kept a proud blush as Ana shot a thunder bolt at the heartless for a finisher and ordered. "Come on, let's give the Horned King a piece of our mind!"

Stalwing agreed and followed Ana out of the window, leaving the crazed goblins to an odd predicament. They looked upon the canyon and found Dark Smasher punching the Horned King's dragon into bits and bones as Dragon Hackah grabbed the lich by the neck, strangled him and hurled him down to the cavern bellow where the dragons bones fell down towards. THUD! Riku and Ana looked close and watched the Horned King sink into the darkness along with his dark steed, fleeing for his life and leaving Dark Smasher to punch the fading shadows in frustration, Dragon Hackah yelled something to the Mawcrusha and had it give up, the beast growled and retreated to the Vale. The Stormcast shook her head with pity. "Fighting and survival is all the Forces of Destruction know and love. This realm was never meant with them in mind."

Riku agreed with that. "And without that, they are... dying off." He had an idea and asked the ladies. "But maybe we have a way to keep them happy. We need to go see the guys at the computer room." Wanda sighed and asked. "What could they have for these brutes?" Riku answered with guilt in mind. "Their teacher has made a project involving virtual reality and we could use the... crazy minds of the Orruks to make the virtual world seem... real to them. Ana, do you remember the Realm of Beasts?" The Stormcast does. "I could help with the ideas."

In the Virtual World.

Sora, Donald and Goofy fought against a group of ten Necrons that were equipped with an axe and shield, quickly making sure the ten were laid low and not get up. They jumped through window with in a long tower reaching up to the sky and eerily, found the inner structure as they remembered it, to their right was a red door and to their left was a blue tunnel. The hall way in front of them were of a black and green, eating its way with in. They knew what ever was holding the virus's corruption back wasn't to last for long. They went down the tunnel to their left and found themselves in a circular room with a purple circular platform, a yellow computer and by the foot of the platform was an object that made Sora worry, a small black chakram that had a glow of blue. He picked it up and felt a presence close to the heart, a feminine voice the trio recognized spoke from above. "Phew! You are still alive in there, thank goodness." The trio shouted in unison. "Aerith?!"

In the real world.

Aerith looked upon Yuffie as she dashed through a door to assist in containing an outbreak as Merlin and Cid had a cd disk ready. Ienzo was keeping quiet as the woman in the pink looked upon a screen with the trio holding the chakram. "It's been getting a bit hectic deeper in the lab. Hmm." Ienzo took over the audio and asked. "That... disc, may we have a look at it?"

Sora nodded and stepped into the purple circle, he raised the disk up as Aerith put the cd in. A screen flashed with the sign as Cid watched the disk leave Sora's hands. In a few minutes, Aerith was surprised. "This already had the program?!"

Merlin was just as surprised. "Could it be that this is one and the same?!" Sora gasped and looked above. "That really is Tron's?! But it looked... like...Rinzler's."

His mouth dropped in a realization, Donald and Goofy realized the connection as Cid blurted it out. "That Rinzler was Tron the whole time?!" Sora kept silent as the cd rom popped out, Ienzo found that possible and asked. "Was Rinzler... the only native program you found that was able to delete parts of the virus?"

The silence said yes as the chakram returned, Sora held onto it and looked resolved to do something. "We need to save Tron from this virus... but...how are we suppose to-" The chakram gave off a faint glow, Sora looked to be in a trance as Aerith answered. "You have Tron's disk, you can delete the virus out of his system."

Sora took out his hand and caused his keyblade to form, it looked much more digital, with a disk being the blades hilt and a disk being the tip and teeth. Blue circuit lines radiated across the teeth. Bleep! The screen vanished and caused the group to worry, the alien like coffin flashed in front of the screen and politely warned them. "I'm afraid I cannot allow anymore of this interference. If you all insist on defending the town, you should do so and marvel at architecture you might consider... exotic."

The group quickly understood what the virus meant, Aerith volunteered to rush out. "It's sent something out there! I'll go warn Tifa and the others! Try...try to get control back to the system."

She rushed out, left the rest of the group to the puzzle and made it to the east district, finding Cloud being bounced back by an large odd black pyramid with a green glow, a green crystal and turret mounted guns on the four corners. Tifa punched the pyramid with all her might and was bounced back by sturdy, alien metal, causing but a dent. Aerith knew that if that wasn't able to do much. "That is-" Cloud asked. "Aerith, was this what Leon was busy with?"

The pyramid floated ominously and shot a particle whip at the man, sending him flying back and opening a door, revealing a green gate that had ripples with in, releasing a twenty squad of metallic skeletons. Aerith cast a heal for Cloud and answered. "Yep." PEW! BOOM! Tifa heard a distant explosion and readied his fists. "Something about the gate doesn't feel right." She looked up to the crystal as Cloud got up and focused on the warriors, the trio knew which part to focus on and ready for battle.

Simultaneously.

Kendry asked Moonfang a nonsensical question. "You saw a tone of daemons coming?!" He readied his two blades as the Dracoth shook her head. Kairi saw a collection of pixels forming into black with green. "It's these things?!" The Dracoth shook her head and readied to fight as Aqua understood the answer. "It isn't, but this is our new problem now."

The pixels took form of four pillars with a green crystal, the crystal crackled electricity as more risen, a pyramid, Kendry aimed at the crystal as Aqua felt malicious intent from the gem and pulled him out of the way. PEW! BOOM! A bolt of lightning struck from the crystal as Aqua jumped out of the way with her student. The pyramid took form from the darkness and revealed four turret guns at each of its corners.

The foreboding structure opened a gate to let loose something, Kairi readied her keyblade without fear. "We just need to beat up what's coming out then smash that crystal. Easy." March! March! Out came ten skeletal warriors with a wrist mounted, glowing green gun on their right arms and a two sided blade in their left hand. They looked rather durable as Ken was let free and tensed. "If we don't, it's going to wreck the whole town." Moonfang felt the foes to look similar to what she was trying to warn the town about and growled as Aqua noticed a pyramid rising to the west of the town, uncontested. "If we don't hurry these things will-" Ken and Kairi noticed another pyramid to the east, looking like it was contested. The students readied with their teacher, to deal with otherworldly threat.

In the computer program.

Sora put the chakram away as Goofy and Donald were the first to notice the black and green merging into the I/O. Sora felt a program with in his blade and readied to confront the approaching foe. Five of the beetle like wraiths slithered through the walls and a spider like beetle with a scarab swarm crawling through the entrance. Sora tensed for battle and had a comeback for the silent foes. "Let's go squish some bugs!"

Goofy and Donald readied their weapons as Sora launched himself against the wraiths and swung, causing the phasing body to distort in pixels and flail. Sora let loose a quick finisher and struck the program in the eye, causing it to turn blue and vanish in pixels. He smiled against the four that rushed after him with whip coils, he caused his blade to enlarge and split into two chakrams, he hurled them against the four and sent them flipping. He watched the disks fly back to him like boomerangs that glowed a blue line, caught them and hurled them back to the wraiths, then a third time that caused the four to glow blue and break down into pixels. Deleting them from existence as Goofy and Donald realized Sora had most of the fight over. The boy rolled in front of the scarab swarm, floated the two disks together and formed a hilted staff with the two disks at the tip. He aimed at them and fired a blue beam, vaporizing them from the system and piercing the spider, causing it to spasm and break down like the others before.

Donald and Goofy were nearly silent as Sora felt justice was made, he yelled out to the program "Anyone else want to be next?" Goofy advised. "Sora, we don't know what else this virus got." Donald agreed with that. "We antagonized it enough already." Sora felt something was coming and readied to charge. "Come on, we need to find Tron."

The trio entered the hall way and found a small barge carrying a skeletal overlord that held a staff and commanded two lesser skeletons to operate a gun bellow. Accompanying them were five skimmers that carried carbines bellow. Donald shot lightning to two of the skimmers to the right as Goofy charged shield first against the other two. Sora dashed to the middle skimmer, dodged a green shot and jumped high to avoid the gun from the command barge. He struck against the skimmer and with a few blows, caused it to fizzle into blue light, the skeletal overlord readied his staff and caused it to glow into a scythe of green energy, the barge charged after Sora. The boy repeated what he did to the last virus programs, split his keyblade into chakrams and skid backwards, throwing the disks at the barge and puncturing the quantum shielding, the overlord felt the pain and was hit back. Sora repeated two more times and watched the barge crackle in a malfunction, he fused the chakrams together to form the staff, aimed at point blank range and fired, deleting the overlord and warning his friends. "Watch out!"

Goofy noticed the beam that disintegrated the middle skimmer and shoved the two skimmers he was dealing with into the beam, Donald stepped out of the way and smugly smiled to another two that mindlessly tried to fire. PEW! They were deleted from the system.

Sora's staff returned to a keyblade and he noticed something on his back twitching, a single black and blue disk floated off and before him, he noticed something flickered in the middle of the ring, a black figure that had a glow of green. Rinzler extended his hand and caused the blue disk to shine to a green, the disk flew back to the infected program. Sora, Donald and Goofy hesitated as Rinzler caught the disk and readied to do battle as he pulled out a second disk. The black and green walls surrounded the duo and formed into a cage like arena, with a ceiling resembling the floor. Sora kept his guard and promised an old friend. "Hang in there Tron, I'll get you out of this."

Rinzler tossed the disk on his right and caused it to shoot out in the speed of light. Sora was caught off guard and was knocked back, Goofy charged after the figure and was knocked on his stomach as Donald used another thunder bolt. Sora rolled back on his feet and parried a lightning fast charge from Rinzler, his watched sparks fly and pushed back, Rinzler spun back and tossed another disk. Sora jumped after him and let loose a small melee combo, Rinzler quickly kicked and Sora dodged. The boy shot a thunder bolt to cause considerable amount of damage and flipped to dodge a returning disk, Rinzler caught the disk and ran up a wall, causing an alarm to blare. Sora, Donald and Goofy felt themselves falling to the ceiling, the disorienting feeling left Donald and Goofy exposed to a quick disk throw as Sora split his keyblades into two chakrams and tossed them at Rinzler.

Striking the program back and causing him to back flip as his own disks returned. Rinzler caught them and nimbly dodged the returning disks. Sora caught his and saw Rinzler somersaulting towards him. The two parried blow for blow and caused sparks to fly, Sora kicked Rinzler back and tossed his left chakram at the program, causing it to shift and plant itself onto Rinzler's chest. Sora felt something calling out and caused his right chakram to hover and glow like a button. Rinzler charged after the boy as his chest glowed, Sora pressed the button and caused a ripple of data around the program.

Rinzler stopped and sparkled from green to orange, a faint, recognizable voice that was in a technological tone muttered. "Sora...friends." Sora felt some hope, passed a heal to Donald and Goofy and pleaded. "Come on Tron, we know you are still in there!" Rinzler tried to fight the infection as the alarm blared, he jolted in pain and returned to battle. BLEEP! BLEEP!

Sora, Donald and Goofy felt themselves falling once more, they landed with a clearer sense of balance as Sora's disks returned to him and formed into a boy landed and watched Rinzler jump after him, he dashed to his left and watched a shock wave of an orange light sparkle. Rinzler hesitated for a moment and hurled a disk at Sora, giving Goofy time to charge with his shield and for Donald to shoot a fire ball. Sora dodged as Rinzler jumped above his friends, caught the disc and sliced, the boy parried and hacked back. Rinzler back flipped and threw both disks towards him, Sora dodged to the left, struck once more and split his keyblade into two disks. He waited for Rinzler to catch his disks and threw low, hitting the program back and causing it to float backwards, the returning disks caught him in a stun and gave Sora the chance he needed.

He caught his disks and threw his left one at Rinzler's chest, the boys right disk hovered like a button that glowed in unison with the button at Rinzler. Press! Ones and zeros radiated and caused a diamond shaped cluster of polygons to appear and form six circling squares. A heart shaped disk shined in the center of the diamond and caused the body to shine into blue. The squares closed in and the polygons disappeared with in. Rinzler fell on his back and caused the blackened floor to return to blue. Donald and Goofy approached as Sora lowered himself to shake the program awake. "Come on Tron, wake up. Please wake up."

He tried to lift the heavy, adult sized body up, desperate for a quick response, the body stirred and was given a small laugh. "Ha!...Ha!...G...good to see...you're safe." Sora let go and felt over joyed as he and his friends responded in unison. "Tron!" They noticed their old friend was still in his Rinzler form and wondered the detail of what happened as the program stood up and watched the walls break down. He addressed them in a delayed reaction. "I...hope you...got my message through all this. A hacker...sent a virus to this system and it corrupted a large portion of the data stored here."

He exhaled as Sora asked. "Like what it... tried to do to you?" Tron nodded, tensed and readied his two disks as he saw something green flicker in mid air. "The...virus...tried... to reprogram me. My...data...was...fragmented...its...not...working...like it is suppose to." His disks crackled and the program was confident in the part of him that was functional. "Your friends...are...in... trouble." The flicker crackled and took shape as Goofy asked. "If we delete the Trazyn, will that turn everything back to normal?" Donald wasn't so certain as Sora guessed. "All the data will be messed up, but... beating Trazyn will stop the Necronz. Then our friends will help fix everything up," He looked to Tron with a vow. "I promise we will."

Tron looked forward to that as the energy took shape into a naked, green humanoid body that crackled in lightning and wore a small harness that covered its mouth and shoulders, on its chest was a golden coffin. He readied determined. "It...will...be...up to the users! I will...fight for the users! My...friends." The humanoid shot green lightning at the four, Tron jumped to the wall and flung his disks at the monster as Sora rolled under, Donald and Goofy attempted to jump out of the way and were caught in the blast. They spasm as the disks made impact with the ethereal monster, interrupting it as Sora jumped to its face and let loose. The monster faded through the blows, its hands became tendrils of energy that reached for the boy as Tron jumped towards it, caught the disks and struck its back in lightning fast speeds. The monster felt the damage, flew to the center of the platform and caused the open ceiling to glow brightly, Goofy and Donald realized they were falling down, the duck yelled. "Watch out, its falling stars!"

Sora and Tron back flipped together, the boy split his keyblade back to two disks, the duo dodged the falling stars and flung their disks. The monster faded through Tron's and ignored the laws of force as Sora's caused a blue sparkle, deleting part of its particles. The monster felt fear and flew out of the way of the returning disks, the duo flew them again and pelted the monster, slowly weakening it as Sora turned his disks into a staff and fired a beam at the monster as Tron merged his disks together to fire his own beam. They punctured the monsters chest and causing it to slowly turn blue, it broke apart into data and causing the body to twist and turn against reality. PEW! BOOM! An explosion was felt and the hall way felt restored once more to a blue color.

The voice of Trazyn echoed with a hint of annoyance. "Hmm, how were you able to override that?! The mindshackles were set to absolute." Sora answered back with a tired yell. "You don't know anything about what goes on outside of a program, do you?" Trazyn answered without once breaking the polite tone. "Perhaps I do not, this is what separates beings of flesh and soul from a collection of data?"

Tron looked up and answered. "It's...because...we...work...together as user and...program. Show yourself." Trazyn gave a small laugh. "I cannot transcend that part of the system, but if you wish to... voice your complaint, I am awaiting you right with in the central computer. You're friends are not appreciating the splendor of the Monoliths nor where such an idea came from."

Sora rolled his eyes and yelled. "Yeah, yeah, your and everything else you made are fake. Are you even going to try and be yourself?" The voice stopped its tone, like the virus was thinking about that, in the silence, Sora asked. "Come on, let's go before this gets worse." The group agreed and reached to a station with a minor thing missing for their progression. Tron wanted to curse out of his bugged mind. "Oh, digits! He took the solar sailer too?!"

Goofy and Donald looked down the tunnel leading to a green line pointing to the sky. Sora asked with built up anger. "Why is it always a game to him?!" Blip! The voice of a man echoed. "Sora, Donald, Goofy... you." Tron looked above and waved. "Hello...friend, we...are missing an important program...to...get...us...over...to...the source of this virus... Could you help us?" Sora, Donald and Goofy listened to Ienzo's voice, the man answered and typed. "Right away!"

Sora felt like someone nearby was assisting the man and asked. "Are you... going to make us another sailer station?" The voice of an engineer answered. "Something even better. Just give us a few minutes to set up the download, you been clearing out all the junk and that virus might try something funny if we just replace the thing." Tron looked forward to that and was smiling under his mask. "Alright! Good luck."

Out in the garden.

Kairi, Aqua and Moonfang struck the Necrons down with a combination of water bolts and lightning, Kairi enveloped herself in a veil of water and carved into them with a mighty tide as Aqua and Moonfang electrocuted the robots with electricity. Ken flew around the monolith in an distraction and switched between swiping a blade weilding pretorians, shooting them and striking pitifully at the monolith. The ladies were making quick work of the skeletons as Ken fused his burning blade with his gun to turn it into something akin to a melta gun. The crystal fired at the boy that flew high to the crystal, held his gun with two hands and yelled. "JUST BLOW UP ALREADY!"

PEW!

The crystal's surroundings melted in fire and tried to repair itself like flesh to a wound. PEW! Another shot caused the crystal to sink into melted metal and green energy. Ken aimed down and fired. PEW! The monolith neared a collapse on its own and the boy separated his keyblades, growled at the fact it wasn't enough, spun Cadia's Light and felt like flinging something as he let himself drop. Woosh! An orb of light was flung into the hole like a grenade, he landed back to the ground and heard a deep explosion, the monolith's green lines flickered and it ceased its hovering, it fell and halted its glow, leaving behind a smoldering pyramid. Ken turned around towards the Monolith causing distruction in the west of the town against air, earth and ice. "Miss, can I take this one? No one is able to actually stop that."

Aqua looked at Kairi, nodded together and hummed as they looked to Moonfang, who stomped her front two claws impatiently. SWOOSH! The four looked up to find a Gryphon and Anatesis flying towards the free monolith. Aqua had to change her mind. "If they couldn't stop that thing before we take the other one down. Moonfang, go help them." The Dracoth nodded and took off to the west as Ken gave a bow to his teacher and rival in respect, the ladies dashed to the east with the boy following. Finding Cloud slicing five skeletal warriors in half and Tifa trying once more to punch into the monolith. Aerith cast protection spell upon the two as the monolith's weaponry tried to obliterate the duo. The warriors slowly put themselves together as Kairi launched herself into an active squad of ten like a watery torpedo. Leaving them exposed to a barrage of thunder from Aqua. Cloud and Tifa looked relieved that helped arrived as Kendry focused on the safety of the town and tried to fuse his blades together. Tink! Tink!

The group heard a faint noise of penetration and watched the monolith break down in magnetic pixels, its hovering power was drained and it landed in a thud, it was slowly breaking down. The would be rescuers stared at the monolith being absorbed, leaving behind two fist sized crystals. Leap! Swipe! Thud! In place of the monolith was a knight Kairi gasped and yelled to. "Garland!"

The knight laughed in triumph and placed the crystals away. "Ha! Ha! Young lady, do you have any idea where these horrors came from?! Born from a virus's machinations and altered to fit the virus's design. It's machines defy gravity and its form is bound in magnetism, a perfect harvest for me." Aerith gasped. "Virus?! Did you created that?! Sora and the others are in danger bec-" Garland shook his head and wagged his finger. "No, I played no hand in the virus's affairs, I was simply informed and came at just the opportune time." Ken readied his keyblades regardless. "Even so, we can't let you do... what ever you are doing."

Kairi agreed and was ready to join her rival in a strike as Garland opened a corridor and stepped back into it. "Since you have been such a great assistence, I will reward you with a hint. At the summit of the gods peril, the storm blows, through a realm of reflection, ye will fall into oblivion."

The corridor closed and the knight laughed away, the keyblade duo growled as Cloud felt half of the riddle. "Summit... gods...Olympus?!" He and Aerith looked to each other as Tifa heard intense thunder and an explosion, feeling jealous and asking. "But... what about the other half of that riddle?"

Aerith shrugged as Kairi listed down. "He has.. the elements of fire, water, earth and wind. He took a lot of ice magic, time magic, life magic... and now... magnetism and gravity." Aqua gasped. "The elements of magic?! He needs to find electricity and... reflection magic to complete that collection."

Cloud nodded to that. "You will find plenty of electricity near Olympus if you get on the wrong side of Zeus." Ken looked to the vast distance, was blabbering and caused the group to look upon a forming mass of dark pixels in the center of the town.

A gargantuan structure near the size of the castle loomed from the rift, a wide black obelisk, decorated from all its sides in large metalic leeches that seem to be staring upon them. On its four sides were round orbs feeding into guns. Cloud, Aerith and Tifa looked exhausted as Aqua gave off a sweat. Kairi realized her teacher was nervous at the size and insisted. "Master we... got to stop this-" Kendry readied his weapons and watched a Stormcast fly after the obelisk, he smiled with confidence. "We can, let's take this-" PULSE! The obelisk pulsed and caused Anatesis to spin out of control and landing bellow. The group realized flying wasn't going to work as two of the guns aimed at them.

In the computer room.

Cid placed a disk inside an I/O and gave Ienzo the chance needed. Seeing a flat ship meant for four people. The scientist thanked the engineer and looked at the design. "Excellent, this should do as a replacement." Tap! Tap!

Cid had his own news for him. "We better hurry and shut that virus down before those pyramids blow us all up," Ienzo agreed with that. "Even gave me a message a minute ago. He, Dilian and Aeleus barely kept that...Monolith busy until someone much stronger came to deal with it. When Aeleus or Tifa had problems with them, then what was sent... isn't appealing." He watched the station that Sora, Donald, Goofy and the altered Tron awaited within and pressed a button. "Cid just sent you four something to finally track down that virus. A...light jet."

PEW! A black, folded ship pixilated in the place of the solar sailer, the ship glowed bright white lights. It opened a door for the four to walk in, Tron tried to wave to the two, not staring at them. "Thank you,... we... will clear things from here." Rumble! Rumble! The two heard havoc outside and counted the seconds.

In the computer.

Sora was smiling wide like a young boy. Donald and Goofy manned the main, three person cock pit. Tron took the back seat for the rear gun and asked. "Do...you...remember the way?" They three nodded as Donald took the pilot seat. "Straight ahead." Sora and Goofy have a grip on two sets of joy sticks that were complimented with shining blue buttons. Feeling the side guns move as Tron was comfortable in the tail gun. Donald grabbed onto his joy stick and pressed a button, the group felt the jet wings unfold and turn to the tunnel leading out, flying into a vast void of black tiles that were marked by pixels. ZOOM!

The jet flew in high speeds and pushed against the trio, nearly pulling their lips against their face as they adjusted. Tron fired something from behind and alerted. "Scythes, incoming!" Donald looked at the screen showing a rear view and found a trio of black, crescent ships piloted by robotic skeletons. The three ships had a ray like gun bellow, glowing brightly, Donald pulled against the joy stick and caused the jet to fall behind the scythes that missed their lethal looking death rays. "Fire!"

Sora and Goofy focused on the right most scythe, firing beams of white light that caused its crescent wing to break apart and fall into the digital sea. The other two scythes adjusted the guns bellow, the side guns rotated to their rear as the death ray flipped backwards. The guns glowed as Donald directed the jet to the right and accelerated. "Sora, look at the screen and aim!"

The boy did so and saw the image of the ship flying past the left side of a scythe, he fired and caused the jet to slow down and be subjected to the rear gun finishing it off. Donald looked down at the screen and notice the remaining scythe try to ram the jet. Donald had the jet fly above to dodge and left Goofy and Tron to pick it off.

The four cheered in victory and kept a smooth flight towards what looked to be a massive pyramid on top of an island. Sora asked Donald. "Where did you know how to fly a plane?" The duck answered proudly. "I learned it at the navy before I became a magician." Sora had no idea what a navy is and awkwardly kept his other question to himself as the jet reached the island and slowed the jet Tron looked at something from the jets tail and was in disbelief. "It...was...here?" The three wondered what, landed the jet and parked it, the four walked out to find a purple and grey solar sailer with in a green force field. Goofy wasn't impressed and had his eyes half closed. "It was stolen the whole time?!"

The rest were just as annoyed, the pyramid looked relatively unguarded as Sora and Tron charged in, the boy had his keyblade ready as the program had his chakram glowing blue. The mage and shield bearer followed, entering what looked to be a massive, alien throne room. Trazyn sat upon the throne comfortably as five ten squad rows of Necrons, lead from the front by one Necron Lord in each, wielding a staff of light and awaited the overlord's command. Trazyn counted a piece of data cube as useful and sent it into the vast vault. "Ah, this sounds intriguing. The password for the DTD... that would be useful if my creator decides to visit the town again." He noticed the four and greeted them like guest into a museum. "Welcome, I see that your friends found a way to assist you through that-" He laughed in the humor. "complication." He stood up high and knew Sora and Tron have the power to just delete him. "Before we partake in such a barbaric act, I have considered what you said."

Sora wasn't buying the trick. "Yeah right, you're just putting up an act." Trazyn pressed his hands together and answered. "Oh no," He looked upon Tron with admiration. "For a program to embrace being an anomaly is a treasure among the vast system, among those that do as they were built. Never questioning a greater purpose. For a program to forge such bonds with these... users and to fight back against those who threaten them-" He clapped to Tron. "Bravo." Tron readied to throw his disk as Trazyn contemplated. "Yet for me, I am but a simulacrum designed to infect and destroy. Could this vast collection." He raised his hand towards the vaults of data. "Be what the original loved to do? Is this truly what I desire?" He shrugged and looked content. "Perhaps some day I would like to meet the original Trazyn and see how close my programmer was to perfecting me. That is what I truly wish."

The door behind the four closed and left behind the darkness, with the green tesla glow illuminating the way as the four half regretted crushing the virus's dream. Tron tossed his right disk mid air and let it float as Sora aimed his keyblade at the disk. PEW! A beam of light shot at Trazyn, deleting the skeleton and causing a lord from the back left to radiate into the form of Trazyn. "But alas, it is time I finally finish this game. My collection would be at its most... sublime with you four."

The Necrons aimed their guns as Goofy realized. "Trazyn is using the fancy looking guards as doubles! If we get rid of them first, we might get the real one!" Sora and Tron understood, the boy jumped to the right as the program jumped to the left. They dived into the separate rows of warriors and carved into them, causing the many to break apart in pixels as Trazyn approached Sora with his staff in hand. Goofy raised his shield and gave Donald a boost to jump high into the air with his wand and shoot down a rain of fire, ice and lightning, knocking the infantry down and for the two remaining lords to use a shiny green orb and use them to bring back the dead.

Trazyn let loose a swarm of scarabs upon the boy by surprise, the very ones that scrambled Tron. Sora set up a reflective barrier as Tron spun to kick the skeletons down and threw a chakram at Trazyn, stopping his scarab attack and giving Sora the change to form change into his own disks. He threw two at Trazyn and kicked him back into the boomerang, he caught them and tossed them at the lord and three of his minions, causing more of the virus to become deleted. The boomerang deleted a lord and left Trazyn to suffer from a point blank formation of a staff.

Tron jumped to the back right lord and out of the way, Sora obliterated Trazyn and a whole squadron of warriors with their lord. Leaving the middle front by their lonesome and the back right lord to take the form of Trazyn. Goofy spun to the front row warriors and gave Sora the chance to throw himself at the remaining lord, stabbing it through the chest and bringing deletion. Trazyn sighed alone and readied his cloak. "That which I infected, could be infected again!"

He flung small scarabs at Tron, the program had a white shine with in and pulsed, causing the scarabs to fizzle away and leave the Overlord cornered. Tron kicked Trazyn back and flung his disks at the virus, causing it to fizzle in blue light, the lord jumped up and struck Tron with his staff. Sora rushed after the virus and swung, Trazyn parried and it felt like he was smiling at the keyblade. "A keychain that unlocks greater potential. Where did you get the idea of form changing?"

Sora wasn't answering and struck Trazyn in the face as Tron shook off the damage and watched the boy form change his blade, flinging Trazyn and giving the skeleton a swift beating. Sora and Tron stood side by side, the duo used their disks to form a staff and aimed it at the virus. Trazyn got up and stilled before his obliteration. "Fascinating."

PEW! A massive beam engulfed the virus and caused it to glow blue, the entire pyramid gave off a blue glow. Goofy and Donald felt what was happening. WOOSH! Pixels broke apart from the virus and the arena broke apart with it, like an instant, the four felt the blue light shine and were above a blue light. Free from footing and they looked to find an inner dome severely damaged, blocks of data laid on the other end of the dome, as far as the eye can see. Tron realized what was to happen and tried to warn of something, gravity took hold and the four fell into the lake. In a splash, the four felt themselves in a continuous fall, surrounded by a blue void. Deeper into the dark, Tron tried to control himself in the fall, grabbed a disk and threw it to Sora. "Catch!"

The boy listened, caught the disk and felt it fly towards a falling Donald, the duck held on to the boys legs as the disk flew to Goofy, the shield bearer caught the ducks legs. The trio felt the disk elevate them back to the surface and to a stable edge. Thud! Sora dropped the disk and watched it fly back into the pit. The trio relaxed to Tron's fate, it wasn't the first time he was in that pit and he was perfectly fine. Clap! Clap! Clap!

The trio looked to their right and found an armored man in red robes, flickering in and out of existence and had a hint of green fire. Donald quacked and put the connections in place. "Ahriman!" The sorcerer nodded and kept clapping. "Very good, so much knowledge about the data in this world by observing. That virus has served me well, despite all this-" He pointed his staff to the data blocks. "Having to be postponed." Sora jumped up and drew his blade. "You sent that virus?!" Ahriman nodded and had his gaze upon him. "Indeed Sora and by luring you here, all is in place." He glowed and aimed his hand to the three, pinning Goofy and Donald down as Sora felt something gazing upon his mind, feelings of uncomfortableness were exposed as Ahriman asked politely. "But enough about you. Come along Roxas, show me your story."

Sora and a certain person deep with in gasped in shock. They tried to shield their mind and felt misireble memories flash before their eyes, former allies calling the name Roxas, a red spiky haired friend both recognized. Sora felt he was hallucinating more and felt he saw Roxas approaching Ahriman with his keyblades ready, whimpering desperately. "Get out!"

Ahriman ignored his plea. "It's no wonder you're fate was special among the others, you are a rare breed of Nobody, from one who became a heartless and lived to tell the tale. In a little more my use for you will be at a-" FLASH! Sora and Roxas felt themselves on top of a tower, sitting next to an odd, blurred figure. It looked to be slightly smaller then they and had short black hair. FLASH! The memories flicked like a page of a book, Sora and his other half held in their hands that same black haired figure, causing both to cry tears. Both were begging as one. "S...Stop." Ahriman looked confused at what he found. "This...person, seems to have been very important to you Roxas, but why is this memory so... faded?! Hmm."

Rumble, rumble. The duo felt Ahriman's grip lessening in their minds, the Sorcerer stopped and let himself fade. "I think I seen enough, so begins my next study." The mental hold lessened, Sora and Roxas felt confused and hurt, why was a memory they couldn't remember nestled deep with in the mind?

PEW! Thud!

Sora, Donald and Goofy felt the shine of light and found themselves before the duo of Ienzo and Cid. The scientist asked without a hesitation. "That Sorcerer was behind this?! Sora, Donald, Goofy are you alright?" Donald and Goofy were more concerned for the boy who felt like he was having a head ache. "Ahhg. What is he up to?!"

Cid had no idea and felt the rumbling stopping, he looked down a window to find Leon, Yuffie and Mickey all tired out from a constant fighting. "This is a mess thinking about." Bleep! Cid and Ienzo noticed the system attempting a self repair, they typed away as Goofy asked. "So Tron is going to be alright?"

Cid pressed a few buttons and nodded. "He'll be fine after we defrag all the bugs that Trazyn Virus did to him." Ienzo agreed with that and watched the lab door open. "For a program like that to pull through after nearly being unmade... could a heart come even from that?"

Leon, Yuffie and Mickey entered and saw the trio laying down, the trio got themselves up to let them know they are fine. Sora asked Mickey. "Could we talk once we check the town... again?" The mouse nodded as Ienzo informed him. "This knowledge needs to be spread along and soon."

Outside the castle.

A vast group of fifteen people tried their best effort to attack the obelisk firing all its guns at them, failing spectacularly as Riku, Kairi and Aqua were blown to a corner, Anatesis and Moonfang kept trying to survive off of desperate heals from Aerith as they jumped after the obelisk and failed. Ken firing for all he can and wasn't able to even reach the high floating fortress as Cloud and Tifa's attempts at a leap end in a failing thud of gravity sending the two falling down hard, Wanda ordering six strangers to focus on the green orbs and Elrena yelling at her. "Do you think we are not trying that!"

The obelisk and the wrecked monoliths gave off a blue glow and dissolved in pixels, fading away from existence, Riku was the most dazed and asked. "What...what the heck was that?!" Anatesis was sore and answered. "I don't want to know, but it looks like it's...gone." Kairi tried to get her dazed teacher up and was thankful for that. "Someone deleted that... virus we heard about, but how did this happen in the first place."

Aqua regained her vision and felt a concussion as she noticed Sora, Donald, Goofy and Mickey arriving to see a complete wreckage, the four were speechless as Mickey called a meeting. Alright settle down, what happened?"