Chapter II: Invasions and Investigations

The Shadow's glowing yellow eyes stared into Tracy's, as if it had no idea where it was. If he understood the Heartless enough, he knew what it was thinking, if it could think. I'm just a "living sample" to that thing, he thought fearfully, Bad, bad, bad, bad!

Without warning — or was its presence warning enough? — the Heartless pounced towards him, waving its tiny claws wildly at Tracy. The youth was the faster of the two, though, and the wood rod connected with the Shadow's head with a loud bang, sending the creature colliding into Tracy's dresser drawers. It recovered quickly, but Tracy attacked once more, using a low thrust with the staff to send the Heartless rolling back into the closet like a pool ball to the corner pocket.

Am I even hurting it? Starlight wondered briefly.

Stubbornly, the Shadow launched another attack, but Tracy dodged the tackle, bringing their fight into the slightly more open area of the teenager's room. Tracy whirled to face the Heartless foe, and the Shadow did the same to him. A heartbeat passed before it struck again. Tracy pushed the rod forward and hit the Heartless's head, and it fell to the ground. The young boy pressed the advantage, and he jabbed repeatedly into the body of the Shadow with the end of his staff, never allowing it time to recover and strike back. With eleven powerful jabs, it vanished into thin air as a glowing heart rose from where it had been.

Tracy exhaled in short-lived relief before he told himself, "The Heartless are like ants. Where there's one..."

A banging noise coupled with the clanging of metal sounded from outside his bedroom door.

"...there's more," he finished. His mind paired the clanging of metal and Heartless together, and the sum was not something he was happy with. Soldiers... Or worse...

The boy moved to the curtain in front of his desk, risking to look outside. His jaw dropped in astonishment when it hit him that the bright white snow that had been on the ground — the snow that caused school to be canceled the next day — was gone without a trace. In its place was green grass, brown dirt, gray concrete, and the dimness of a Sunday twilight with no sign of Heartless, but he knew that could change instantly. Tracy glances momentarily at his phone, pondering over the possibilities.

Like the police would actually believe me, he commented in his thoughts as the banging and the clanging at his door continued, Who would? Then again, if it's happening here, then it might be happening all over Madison. If that's the case, then this world's pretty much screwed, I'd say... Unless...

His eyes darted to his PlayStation 2, sitting on the floor in front of his television set. Above the gaming console, his collection of DVD's and minuscule set of two PS2 games(Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X) rested on a small shelf.

The Heartless from Kingdom Hearts... If they're real, then that means that—

The door was finally busted open by the small contingent of Soldier Heartless, and Tracy's thoughts were shattered. Knowing that "Do or die" wasn't the best strategy in this instance, he did the only logical thing. He raced to the other door to his room and ran away. Luckily, the second door led almost directly to the back door of his house, and in less than ten seconds, he was running into his back yard fleeing from an enemy he never dreamed of facing.

—————

Stars blanketed the sky over Traverse Town, covering the town in an eternal night. The starlight was the dominant source of luminescence, since the most of the lampposts in town were dimmed or completely dark altogether, while several of the buildings seemed to have fallen into serious neglect and disrepair. When Ansem was defeated and the worlds destroyed by the Heartless were restored, the majority of Traverse Town's population, which consisted of refugees from those worlds, returned to their former homes and worlds with a few exceptions. With the sudden population decrease, the city's overall environment took a dramatic downward plummet, turning from a bustling municipality to a nearly-deserted town almost overnight. From the general appearance of the three districts to the interiors of buildings themselves, the sudden alteration was chiefly apparent. Traverse Town had seen better days.

Though the mad rampage of the Heartless through the local universal neighborhood was put to a stop, it was a common belief that the Heartless were far from extinct. Some people postulated that the Heartless were biding their time in some distant part of the universe, waiting for the chance to strike again and bring chaos to the world order once again. Then, as if to prove those theories correct, Traverse Town received its first new guest from another world on the same night a distant star was snuffed out of the sky. This black omen was followed a week later by another arrival, and five days after the second arrival, four more arrived from their world. As terrifying as it was, the fact was true.

"The Heartless are back in the game," a young boy said to himself as he walked into the Second District. "They're devastating more worlds now than ever. And just when we thought it was—"

"—safe?" finished the voice of a young man, possibly in his late teens.

The boy screamed in surprise and collapsed to the ground, holding his hands to his head. "Whatever it is," he yelled out, "I didn't do it! Please don't hurt me!"

"Whoa, whoa! Easy there, little fella," the older individual attempted to comfort, "I'm not gonna hurt you!"

The genuine tone of the elder one's voice seemed to calm the child, and he looked around cautiously. When he failed to see the speaker, he asked of the other, "Wh-where a-are you?"

To answer, the mysterious stranger stepped out from a doorway in front of the youth. "I'm not gonna hurt you," he said again, holding his empty hands up to his sides. "I just need some answers."

"Answers?" the boy repeated, keeping his head down and avoiding looking at the young man's face. "Like wh-what?"

"Well, for starters, what are these Heartless things?"

"You don't even know that?" scoffed the child as he finally regained his courage and stood up before the stranger and examined him. "Who are you?"

He was obviously a new arrival, but the young one had never seen a man with a tail before. The newcomer's dark blonde hair came down in nearly every direction, but his face was kept clearly visible. His green eyes were looking at the boy with a child-like innocence which showed that he truly meant no harm. In addition to his light-colored tail, his garments were also peculiar. He wore a blue vest over a white shirt without sleeves. His hands were covered by gray gloves with large, azure arm bands. His pants were equally blue with a light tan belt around his waist, which held holsters for twin daggers, and he wore white boots. Though the man himself seemed in good health, his clothes bore several tears and scars, mostly small cuts and scrapes.

The man responded to the kid's question, "Me? I'm... a little new around here."

—————

The twilight provided enough sunlight to allow Tracy to flee without fear of tripping or slipping, and he swiftly made his way to the grass hills beyond the limits of his back yard. In the summertime, he walked through the hills often, since it was the fastest route between his house and the local mall. Bushes and trees formed the outskirts of a privately-owned forest to his right, while he could already spot an abandoned tennis court that topped a tall and distant hill. Between Starlight and that court, a small valley operated as an old relaxation spot for Tracy, where he went on many occasions to unwind and think. A fence stood between him and the valley, but it had been flattened in two spots by natural forces, allowing passage to those who knew of them.

He slowed his pace as he came to the downhill incline, and he turned to the right, leading to a wide, grassy path. In the middle of the path was a seemingly-random assortment in the shape of a short, wide, rectangular box. Bricks made up the corners of it, the outer layers were simple sheets of old, rusted metal of unknown origins, and rocks and pebbles were scattered around it. It was about three meters long, two meters wide, and came up to Starlight's knee. Tracy had known of its existence ever since he found the path, but he never knew who made it or for what purpose, but when he saw a strange blue light emanating from the various cracks and holes in the metal, the boy decided that it was worth a closer look.

First giving the vicinity a thorough scan for Heartless, Tracy approached the container cautiously, keeping a firm grip on his weapon and wishing in hindsight that he'd chosen to use one of the swords on his wall. Looking the metal over for a moment, he found a place where it could be easily lifted, and inhaling like it was his last breath, he did so and peered within. The sight beneath triggered the primitive-but-effective fight-or-flight response when it fully registered in his mind.

It was the outline of a large keyhole, shining pale blue within its hiding place.

He dropped the metal sheet back down and took several steps away from the Keyhole, managing to remain balanced and not tumble downhill. "Keyhole," he whispered, and it struck him instantly. The Heartless are drawn to the Keyhole. They sense its presence, and if they find it, then... Then we're as good as dead. Staff brought ready, he looked around again, but there were still no Heartless foes in sight. "'To stay is death. To go is death,'" he quoted to himself aloud.

As if fate itself were cursing young Tracy Starlight, the shining cerulean light of the Keyhole transformed itself into a starlet glow, and the sky dimmed instantly into the blackness of night, and only the crimson Keyhole gave Tracy light. It was then that he felt them, the Heartless, circling around him like undead, unseen, unheard specters. The cold chill of Madison night overtook Tracy, adding itself to the despairing environment. They're here, he told himself, but even as he tried to bring his pathetic rod to bear, Tracy knew that it was a futile gesture, born from the mind of a desperate child yearning to live and breathe on, but even in the face of the overwhelming darkness, he couldn't surrender, roll over to die alone in that way. The air around him grew more frigid with every moment that passed, and the pallid yellow dots of Heartless eyes became visible. Even with this sight and the Keyhole's glow, it was fighting with a blindfold, something that Tracy hadn't practiced at. Trying, attempting, striving, he lashed out at the dark creatures, but the staff felt only air. For minutes, hours, days, it seemed to go on in his mind until the unthinkable happened.

The light of Madison's Keyhole went out.