Drive Fact #2: One of the best places to level Master Form is at the Solar Simulation at Space Paranoids. Go back and forth between the two destinations. Magnega and Thundaga are your friends.
Driving Me Crazy
Chapter Three: Drive-Thru
Sora was the first to attack. He dashed forward and dove around the Nobodies, confusing them in the process. He then jumped and gave a wide arc, taking out half of their number.
Finora gasped as more arrived to take their fallen allies' place. One Dusk glided upwards and was ready to impale Sora behind his back when it got blasted into the window, shattering it. The Keyblade master turn his head to see Wisora's right hand smoking. The magician calmly looked at Valora.
"See? I told you they are resourceful."
The red Sora merely rolled his eyes. "Yeah, but without the Keyblade, three of us are sitting ducks! And you prolly won't be able to cast that badass spell you've always wanted to try."
Wisora face-faulted at Valora, obviously being nailed by those words. Touché.
Shade gave a loud howl as he joined Sora in the fray of the white bodies. Finora tried to intercept him, but failed.
"Ah! Shade! Be careful!"
The heartless ignore him, his senses tingling with delight and hunger for violence as he grasped a Dusk by the throat and snapped its neck in one squeeze. Shade merely grinned as the Nobody lay dead in his hands. Flinging the dissolving corpse, he continued to ravage through the crowd of Nobodies.
"Whee! Heeheehee!"
Sora looked at the crazed heartless and wondered was he like that when he accidentally asked for too much power? He shrugged off the thought as he spun his Keyblade over his head, wiping out as many as he could, but more kept coming.
The Master saw that the situation starting looked grim. He knew they had a snowball's chance in hell if the able-bodied were able to keep on fighting. Wisora had a limit on how much he can cast, and Shade was having a little too much fun killing and ripping out limbs, heads, and skins. Master did not want to know how long can the heartless control himself before he goes on a wild massacre, possibly injuring the Family along the way. Well, as for Sora, good luck finding his friends!
"Retreat!" Master yelled as he opened the front door and hollered over his shoulder.
"Wisora! Take Val and Fin! We're gonna go find a warp out and head towards Twilight Town! Shade will do the rest."
"Why the heck does he need to go to Twilight Town?" Valora perked his eyes at the Wisdom form as he grabbed Finora and headed out the door.
"Yen Sid," The other replied curtly, blasting the nobodies that surrounded the three with a whirl of fireballs.
"Who—oh. Him. Should've known." Valora shrugged as he dragged the flying silver boy out the door, but Finora grasped the edge of the door frame and popped his head into the room full of Nobodies and the remaining two Soras. He pointed at the dark anti-form.
"Shade! Make sure Sora comes out alive!" Finora commanded the heartless before he was pushed out the door by Wisora.
And Shade obediently replied before he smacked his fist into the skull of a Nobody, "Ku!"
Meanwhile, Sora saw his other selves leaving the room. Shifting his Keyblade a bit, he reached out towards them.
"Hey! Wait!"
But his view was block by more Nobodies. He was ready to beat them down into a bloody pulp until his arm was grasped by a sickly smooth claw. He turned and saw Shade, grinning madly.
"What are you doing?"
"Kuuuu…" The heartless was pointing at the broken glass window.
"Uhh…" Sora stared dumfounded. Then the dark form sunk low into the ground. The next thing he knew, he was grasping Shade by the neck as the anti-form grabbed Sora by his legs and lifted him up on his back piggy–back style.
"Whoa!"
The next thing Sora knew, they were soaring into the rain with pieces of glass shards flying afterwards as Shade bounded off the broken window, squealing with exhilaration. Mind you, they were thirty stories high from a building, and Shade was plummeting fast. As for Sora, he has been bucked off a giant twenty-story high heartless, jumped a near thirty feet into the air to chuck a chandelier into the ground at Beast's castle, and rode on a back of a flying heartless dragon. Somehow, the thirty story high dive flipped his stomach five times.
WHUMPH! CRACK! Shade landed on the cold damp streets, cracking the dark concrete. He crouched until his torso touched the broken wet floor, absorbing the shock from the fall as well as the weight of the human riding him.
Thump! Thump! Thump! The broken glass pieces embedded themselves dangerously close to them. Sora could feel his heart flopping against his ribcage.
Now shadow heartless began to creep up to the boy and his Anti-form, curious of sensing two beings that are yet the same. Sora stumbled off Shade and readied his Keyblade, whereas Shade sniffed the humid air for his other family members.
"Kuru! Kuru!" The heartless beckoned Sora as it bounded away towards the scent on his feet and hands. Puddles of water splashed where he landed as he sprinted across the street and into a dark alley.
Brushing a few heartless aside and vanquishing the rest with a well-placed Magnega, Sora rested his Keyblade on his shoulders as he dashed forward and followed suit.
After a few heartless encounters, Sora soon found himself staring at a large pale green portal Axel created for Sora and his friends to save Kairi as a gift from his dying figure.
Shade stood up and walked into the portal, leaving the Keyblade master alone in the cold wet world. Sora turned around and stared at the white castle in the sky. Rain gently fell on the figure as his solemn blue eyes continued to stare at the castle.
"Kairi…" It was all he could say at the moment.
"I'll come back somehow…"
Sora then heard a hiss and he turned his head towards the portal. Shade's head was still at the entrance of the portal, hissing at the lone teenager to come hither. Sora sighed and followed the heartless into the portal.
"Geez, Sora! You looked like you've been hit with a water balloon or something!" Valora commented on the nearly soaked clothes as he leaned on the wall in the back of the computer room in the old mansion.
Sora looked at himself and coughed. "No, I'm fine. Huh?"
His Wisdom form approached him and planted his hands firmly onto his wet chest. Muttering a few words, Sora's clothes looked like it came out of a dryer, but his hair remained wet.
"Wow, this is awesome! You should teach me some of that."
"You did, but you fell asleep during Donald's lectures," Wisora drawled as he whipped his body around and walked away. Sora laughed half-heartedly, scratching his head. Since when did I learned that?
Finora, whose form Sora couldn't recognize, sat on the floor, patting Shade on the head.
"You're a good boy, Shade. Good boy."
Shade purred and laid his head onto the silver boy's shoulder. His dark hand pawed at the tiny angel wings on Finora's back, which seem to have a mind of their own. Master paced the floor, pondering on what he should do next.
"Hm…"
"So what now, chief?" Valora perked his eyebrows at Master, while leaning against the wall.
Master's eyes studied the entrance of the basement, determining the enemies behind it as Finora and Shade pointed out.
"We are going to the Tower first, so we are going to ride the train in Twilight Town."
"That's cool with me." Valora brought his hands up, shrugging.
"Problem is that some of us lacked Keyblades." The yellow form gazed over at Sora, who was still distraught by the sheer numbers of himself in one room.
"Correction, sir. You mean all of us," Wisora spoke.
"Shade does not need one because he is a heartless," Master replied, pointing at the dark wispy form.
"But, Master!" Finora butted in, which caused him to stop rubbing Shade on the head, "Even if Shade is a heartless, he can still wield a keyblade."
"How so?" Master put his hands oh his hips. "A Keyblade chooses the user with the strongest hearts."
"But Shade is part of a stronger heart. So, I believe that he can wield if he wants to. Isn't that right Shade?"
The heartless gave a wide yawn before it laid itself onto Finora's lap.
"Kuu…Ku."
Finora frowned a bit before he fiddled with his crooked halo.
"'Kay, guys. Let's stick to the topic," Valora impatiently spoke up. "I want my Keyblades. And that kid Sora over there has them."
He pointed at Sora, who had snapped back into reality… or whatever the reality was.
"You want my-what?" he blinked.
"Keyblades. You know. GIANT FUCKIN' KEYS that KICKS HEARTLESS ASS?" The Valor form strode up to Sora and leaned very close towards his face. His eyes had the familiar brightness of Sora's, but with a slight hint of fiery passion and jittery hyperactivity.
"Valora!" Wisora hissed fiercely as he pried his counterpart from Sora. "What did I say about watching your language?"
"Kiss my ass, Wisora," Valora glared, obviously pissed that he can't do diddly-squat towards any enemies at the moment.
"Hey guys?" Sora smiled serenely. "If you guys need them, I can lend some spare keychains."
"Ah! That'll be grand, kiddo." Valora all of a sudden forgot about bullying Sora or insulting Wisora and made a huge grin from ear to ear.
Sora dug into his right pocket and placed his keychains in a decent pile on the seat where all the computer monitors were located. Pale white light gleams onto the pile with ominous awe.
"It's the least I can do, since I can no longer transform or worse yet, lost Donald and Goofy." He shrugged.
"Naw. You didn't lose them; they are just part of us. Don't you remember when you first became me?" Valora casually walked towards the pile and pulled out a silver Mickey Mouse symbol and a medallion with a dragon engraved on its golden surface.
Sora remembered when he and his pals were nearly being clobbered by Shan-Yu, until Sora asked for great strength. He became Valora, and felt a mind of someone who was willing to take risks for a greater purpose. With his insane reflexes and amazing skills he managed to defeat Shan-Yu's heartless form at the price of Goofy's spirit.
"Yeah, Goofy help me out in pretty tight situations," Sora smiled.
In a flash of light, two Keyblades appeared in Valora's hand. One of them is the Kingdom Key and the other was a red Keyblade with flames as the shaft of the blade, which surrounded a golden orb at the keyhead. Sora remembered it as a reward for helping out Mulan to save China from the Huns invasion.
"Haha! Hell yeah! Now that's more like it." The red form grinned broadly, whirling his new Keyblades. His hands were glowing bright red as red electricity surrounded his limbs.
Master then approached the pile and turned his head towards the Keyblade master, "You would not mind?"
Sora shook his head. "Not at all."
Then the Master form proceeded to pick out his set of keychains. In a blaze of golden light, a skeletal dragon's head appeared on his right hand, whereas the Sleeping Lion spun lazily on the palm of his left hand.
"Thank you very much, Sora."
Wisora was next to chose his Keyblade. He spotted something that looked like a potential medium to channel his vast knowledge of magic. Hanging on its end is a familiar red chakra. Sora felt a pang of sadness and guilt washing over him. Axel's sacrifice was in vain. Sora somehow screwed up and now he left the world to which Axel created a portal, leaving Kairi in the hands of those who would treat her like sub-human.
In a whirl of blue smoke, the Bond of Flame appeared in the Wisdom form's hands. Wisora closely calculated the power of the Keyblade. It is not as strong as the Ultima, but it will do. His cold blue eyes spotted Sora and he knew what he had picked brought bad memories.
"Do not worry. We will get Kairi back." He said slowly. "I shall promise you that."
He gave a long smile as he spun the Keyblade behind his back out of habit. Then, as if by magic, he slid away. Sora eyed Wisora as the bottom of his blue shoes emitted sparkles. The form came to a halt, holding the Keyblade in a backhand.
"Finora? It is your turn." Wisora spun a one-eighty turn and pointed his Keyblade at the sitting form of light.
"Oh…okay!" As Finora got up, his feet started to levitate from the floor by a few inches or so. Shade grumbled a bit before he resumed his nap.
The silver form carefully examined the small pile of keychains.
"Wow. There's so many to choose from! I wonder what to pick-ah!" Something caught Finora in his eyes. He pried the keychain from the pile. It was a star made out of seashells strung on a tight-woven braid. Sora looked at it in surprise. He swore that he put that lucky charm in his left pocket, where his prized possessions were held. But how did it get in his right pocket?
"Oh! Shiny!" Finora exclaimed as he picked up what looks like a wolf biting on a ring. Suddenly, his wings exploded into a brilliant silver color as his tiny wings were replaced by two Keyblades. One of them looked like a black car key, which Sora received from Tifa after an intense battle with Sephiroth, and the other was thin pure white, with a six-pointed star in wondrous colors of purple, blue, and yellow.
"Ah. I remember! Kairi gave you this didn't she?" Finora floated higher, pointed at the outstretched white Keyblade that was perched on his right shoulder.
Sora nodded slowly, "She told me to not to lose it."
"Then I won't. Okay? I promise!" The angelic being spun around, his Keyblades outstretched.
Valora rolled his eyes, "What a show off."
Wisora said nothing.
"Well then. I owe Sora a debt for providing us Keyblades, so let us leave and come back as one person afterwards." The Master looked at his Drive family and readied his Keyblades, but Valora was the first to kick the door towards upstairs.
"All right men! Let's kick some serious can of whoop-ass! Hahah!" He grinned dangerously.
End of Chapter 3.