Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy.
Co-Author: Dynamis
Proof read by: Shirozora
Rocks showered down all around the bottom of the dormant volcano as the explosion echoed around. A single beam of sunlight shone down and illuminated the dark cave. A muscular figure stood in the light.
"I love it when I win," said Roark with a smile.
The soldiers pulled a cart over and positioned it under the hole. One gave a nod to another who was on top and he pulled a lever. The top popped open and a hot air balloon started inflating. Once it had inflated they hooked the container with the crystal in it to the bottom.
"Take her up," yelled Roark. The balloon started to rise. Once the container had cleared Roark's vision, he saw the group," We've got company!"
Gunfire and the sounds of battle filled the area. The soldiers started firing at the Atlantian vehicles while Roark climbed aboard the balloon. The soldiers jumped down into a trench and started firing mortar rounds into the air. A round hit the bottom of one of the Atlantian vehicles.
It hurled into a group of soldiers and exploded. Several soldiers dodged the explosion and continued to fire at Milo and the others. The balloon continued to rise with Roark and the Lieutenant on board.
Milo looked over at a corner of the cave and saw small, one-man planes rising into the air. He continued to watch as the planes banked around the balloon and started firing machineguns as they descended in their direction.
"Holy smokes!" yelled Milo as he steered the vehicle to the side to avoid the rain of bullets," I thought you said he only had guns!"
"What I said was he's never surprised!" yelled Audrey in response.
Sora looked around the cave from the back of Milo's vehicle.
"Take me down over there," yelled Sora over the noise. "The Heartless are starting to pop up."
Milo piloted the vehicle down near the ground and Sora, Donald, and Goofy jumped off. They were immediately greeted by a group of heartless.
"Let's go!" yelled Sora swiping his Keyblade in a horizontal line taking out three Shadows. He felt a sharp pain in his back as a Soldier Heartless came up from behind and gave him a good kick. A well-placed fireball from Donald took care of him.
"Sora!" yelled Goofy tossing a potion to him.
"Thanks," said Sora as he used it.
The trio continued to battle bravely for several minutes. Just as before, the waves of Heartless seemed endless.
"Is it just me," said Sora as he took out three more," Or are we a bit rusty?"
"Maybe they're better," said Goofy plowing through a fresh wave.
The heartless certainly were fiercer. They also seemed more coordinated; they didn't just pop up and attack like in the past. Sora held them off as he looked for the reason why. He looked up at the slowly rising balloon. Roark was leaning out to the side and was giving commands.
"Milo!" yelled Sora looking in his direction. Milo looked at him," If Roark keeps giving commands, we're not gonna be able to take these Heartless out!"
Milo gave a nod to show he understood. A bright flash of blue suddenly lit up the cave as a beam of energy shot from Vinny's vehicle.
"Okay," said Vinny while looking at his hand," Now things are getting good."
"Vinny!" yelled Milo pulling up beside him," We have to stop the balloon from reaching the top of that shaft and distract Roark from giving orders."
Vinny gave a nod and the two were off.
The trio was now holding position on top of a hill, but just barely.
"Donald!" yelled Sora batting back an air soldier," How are you holding?"
The duck cast Thunder on an approaching group, dwindling their numbers," Okay for now."
No sooner had he said that did two more groups appear, each one harboring a Behemoth. The two titanic Heartless gave a roar and charged at the hill.
"Get ready!" yelled Goofy as he positioned himself in front of the other two, shield at the ready. Sora and Donald kept the Heartless from making a rear attack. The Behemoths were almost to their position.
"Contact!" yelled Sora. Suddenly two streams of blue light shot by the group and annihilated the Behemoths and the groups of Soldiers and Shadows around them. The three looked up to see two Atlantian-manned vehicles fly overhead. They continued on and took out the truck launching the planes.
Audrey and Sweet were hanging onto the chain attaching the container with the crystal to the balloon. Sparks were flying from Audrey's hands as she moved a saw back and forth.
"I thought you said this thing could saw through a femur in twenty-eight seconds." yelled Audrey sawing feverishly.
"Less talk, more saw," yelled Sweet in response.
Milo was making several swoops overhead, but couldn't get too close because Roark was manning a machine gun. A quick shot from Vinny fried it and Roark noticed Audrey and Sweet.
"Looks like somebody's working over time," said Roark looking over side. He looked at the lieutenant as she untied a bomb and dropped it. A faint whistling sound filled the air as it fell about fifteen feet and exploded against Audrey's hovering vehicle.
"Come on girl, time's up," said Sweet pulling her off as the whistling sound filled the air again. No sooner had he pulled her off did a bomb go off on the container.
Sora watched the aerial battle unfolding in the cavern above. The Heartless were still attacking, but the Atlantians were helping. He saw Milo steer his vehicle around and head straight for the balloon. Milo jumped off at the last second and grabbed one of the ropes tied around the balloon. The vehicle pierced one of the smaller balloons on the side.
"We're losing altitude," yelled Roark looking over the side as the balloon dropped from the loss of the side balloon," Lighten the load."
The lieutenant started throwing barrels and other assorted things off the side of the balloon.
"That's it," she said watching the last barrel fall, " unless somebody wants to jump." She suddenly felt a strong grip on her shoulders.
"Ladies first," said Roark giving her a strong push. He looked over the side, but was met by her feet swinging up to hit him in the face. He fell back against the catwalk.
"You said we were in this together!" yelled the lieutenant kicking him across the face again," You promised me a percentage!" She brought her foot around again but Roark caught it.
"Next time get it in writing!" yelled Roark flinging her off the side.
"Roark!" yelled Helga as she fell to the rocky cave floor.
"Nothing personal!" yelled Roark over the side with a smile. A snapping noise caught his attention and he turned his head in time to catch Milo as he swung into him. The two fell off the side and Roark barely managed to grab a rope. The two slid and landed on the wooden catwalk on the lower part of the balloon. Roark landed on his back and Milo landed on the railing, barely keeping himself from falling over into the two spinning blades.
"Well, I gotta hand it to you," yelled Roark over noise of the blades," You're a bigger pain in the neck than I would have thought possible."
Milo stood up and threw a punch, but Roark caught it in his muscular hand and beat him in the face with it. Milo flew back and broke a section of railing off; it got caught in the blades, stopping them. Milo barely held on. The whir of the blades building up pressure was beginning to fill the air.
"I consider myself an even tempered man," continued Roark, walking to the side," It takes a lot to get under my skin." He bent over and looked at Milo between the blades," But congratulations, you just won the solid gold cupie doll."
Milo reached over and grabbed one of the chains.
Sora and the trio looked over at the figure that had fallen from the balloon.
"Should we help her," asked Sora hitting another Air Soldier. She started to move a little. Suddenly a hand rose into the air and a flare shot up from the gun she was holding. Sora looked on as the balloon burst into flames.
Roark looked up in disbelief as the balloon was engulfed by orange flames. He reached overt and broke a glass case marked "In case of fire."
Milo looked in horror as Roark jumped after him with an axe that had been in the container. He slid down the chain narrowly missing a swipe from Roark.
"Tired, Mr. Thatch?" asked Roark, swiping again. Milo hung over the side of the container and swung to the left to avoid a vertical chop from Roark. The glass on the front of the container burst as the axe made contact. Milo noticed a strange glow emanating from the shards.
"It's a darn shame," said Roark pulling the axe back up. Milo grabbed a piece of the glass. "Cause I'm just getting warmed up!" yelled Roark putting his hands around Milo's throat.
Milo made a quick slash with the glass across Roark's wrist. Roark let out a low, inhuman shriek of pain. His arm suddenly started turning a dark shade of blue with red lines running up and down it. The color spread across his body before he was engulfed.
Milo scurried up the chains toward the balloon. He reached the top and looked down at the thing that was once Commander Roark. It stood motionless.
"Oh, thank heaven," said Milo with a tired tone. A large blue hand suddenly grabbed the chain beside him, and the mutated face of Roark rose to meet him.
"Look out!" yelled a voice from the side. Sora suddenly jumped off of Vinny's craft and gave Roark a hard hit with his Keyblade. The creature screamed before it broke into thousands of pieces. The shards flew everywhere and several cut the chains holding the container to the balloon. The container, Milo, and Sora fell to the ground and hit with a painful thud.
The balloon fell near the area and a great explosion followed. Donald and Goofy ran to help Sora and Milo. A low rumbling sound suddenly filled the air.
"The volcano!" yelled Mole jumping up and down in fear," She awakes!" The rumbling was becoming more pronounced.
"Hey, I didn't do it," said Vinny, holding a lit stick of dynamite. He quickly put it out.
Milo grabbed a chain and hooked it around the container with Kida and the crystal inside. Audrey took it and hooked to Vinny's craft. Donald, Goofy, and Sora jumped on with the others.
They started to take off, but a snapping sound was heard. The hook had broken off the container.
"No!" yelled Sora and Milo at the same time. Milo repelled down the chain with Sora close behind. The two hooked the chain around the container and held on for dear life. Magma was spewing out of the cavern floor by now and sweat was making it hard for the two to hang on as they flew.
Sora looked over the side in time to see the digger pass by, watching as it was quickly engulfed in lava. They quickly made it back to the city. Sora and Milo jumped off the container as the crafts landed.
Donald came over and gave Sora a good smack on the head," Don't you ever do anything like that again!"
Milo grabbed a spear and tried to pry the container open.
Mole yelled something that no one under stood and Sweet translated," Milo, Mole says the walls gonna blow!"
Just as he said that the spear came loose and the container broke apart and floated around the entity inside. Bright blue lines started to consume the city in the way a vine does a tree. Every thing was bathed in the crystals glow.
The carvings of Atlantis's past kings burst through the ground and floated into the air with the crystal. They began to spin; each individual stone was a blur. Suddenly a beam of blue light shot from the spinning vortex, then another, and another. Several more followed.
"Wow," said Donald with an amazed look. Rumbling noises were heard as statues several hundred feet tall arose from the waters around Atlantis. They all moved to what seemed to be a designated position and put out their gigantic stone arms.
Several loud booming noises were heard as the statues clapped their hands together. When they pulled the hands apart, they formed what seemed to be a wall of blue energy. All of the walls they made rose and expanded, merged, and formed one giant dome over the city.
The wall broke and magma spewed forth. All Sora and gang could see was a blur of orange as in rose and covered the dome. All went dark as the energy cooled the magma.
All was quiet. A faint cracking sound was heard and beams of blue light shot out of cracks in the hard magma. The cooled lava broke away and fell off the dome, exposing the city again.
A steam filled the air as newly formed waterfalls cooled the hot magma. Milo looked at the crystal and saw a figure descending from it. He ran forward and caught Kida as she fell into his arms. Her eyes opened.
"Milo?" she asked looking into his eyes. Her gaze suddenly fell to her hand; a bracelet was clutched within it. The bracelet her mother had taken when she was chosen. She pulled Milo into a hug, and they both looked out over the city. The steam was clearing.