The Time Break Saga 3D: Asleep at Dawn

by The Unplanner

Organization XIII was defeated, Kingdom Hearts was destroyed, and the Time Breaks are all closed, but it's too early to celebrate. Unfortunately, it's also to early to send the newest Keyblade wielders off to war. Can Kairi, Lambda, and Xion stop tripping over each other's weapons in time to stop the Keyblade War?

10. Dreams of Flying

Asleep at Dawn

Chapter 10: Dreams of Flying

-"Bet Ya Feel Lighter Now!"-

A/N: Work on this chapter started quickly, compared to the last few. Thank you for nagging, The Mighty Gyarapie!

...On the other hand, then I got stuck in the middle for more than a month again. Still, it's indirectly thanks to The Mighty Gyarapie that I broke out of it - if he hadn't kept constantly disparaging my favorite 3DS eShop shovelware game, Iron Combat: War in the Air, I would've kept trying to work a few cameos from it into this chapter. As soon as I stopped trying to do that, the whole plan clicked into place. Thank you for being mean, The Mighty Gyarapie!

Warning: mild suggestive themes/potential triggers, along with the usual swearing from Hazama, etc. You know the drill.

Note: A lot of people will speak mostly in italics in this Training World, not just Namine.

Disclaimer: As usual, I don't own Kingdom Hearts or BlazBlue. I also don't own Strike Witches or the rest of the World Witches franchise. If I owned any part of anything presented here, Kingdom Hearts III would take even LONGER to come out, but BlazBlue: Centralfiction would have an English dub. No money is being made from this fan-work, etc. etc.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Sky of Battle: Base: Runway...

The first thing the group noticed was the weather. A warm, clear, sunny day greeted them. They were on a wide, flat road leading directly into a huge hangar, which was part of a larger military base. Even this mild weather made the blacktop under their feet uncomfortably hot...but only two of them were actually standing on the ground.

Taking one look at the setup, Kairi asked, "What are the chances that we actually need to explore this whole base?"

Lambda replied, "Scanning...very low. Remember, our target isn't in there...it's up there!" She pointed into the sky past the end of the runway, although nothing could be seen in that direction except a sparse grassland and some mountains in the distance. Lambda had already located the boss, but it was so far away that the only data she could gather was that its power output was ridiculously strong.

An unknown, deep female voice pointed out, "That's great info and all...but I think our first problem is a bit more immediate!"

Kairi did a double take. "Who's there? ...Wait, is that you, Hazama?! What happened to you?"

It was indeed him...er, her. Her green hair was now much longer, flowing down her back like a cape, which went well with her new black bodysuit and black-painted armor. An angled visor covered Hazama's eyes, obscuring them from view. (There was no red lens visible in the middle of the visor, perhaps as an indication that Hazama's real eyes were always shut anyway.) A metal frame surrounded a modestly-sized pair of breasts covered only by the bodysuit. On her wrists were long gloves of the same material as the bodysuit, and attached to these were a pair of cylindrical devices that looked like guns. Her legs were encased in the signature leg blades of a Murakumo Unit, painted mostly silver instead of black. Lastly, Geminus Anguium: Ouroboros had emerged completely from its portal and now floated behind her back. The head of the chain had bitten the other end and started circling endlessly.

Lambda took a close look. "Scanning...it looks like Hazama's still an Azure Grimoire. The BlazBlue can take whatever form its wielder needs...so I guess that's what happened. It's a good thing he didn't actually transform into a Murakumo Unit; that might have resulted in the Black Beast."

Hazama groaned. "I knew something unsavory was going to happen if I stuck around. On the other hand, I wasn't particularly attached to looking like Terumi. Still, if Merlin was going to prank me by turning me female, couldn't he at least have given me a proper set of boobs?"

"WHAT?!" Kairi flushed beet-red and covered her face.

Hazama smirked. "I suppose that's actually another benefit - more trolling! And hey, I can't complain about the spike-throwing wrist guns!" Hazama raised her arms in front of her, and a pair of extremely sharp spikes burst out of the guns, embedding themselves in the blacktop of the Runway. "I'm still going to change back after we're done with this, though." Ouroboros suddenly unlatched from itself and zipped over to the spent spikes, consuming them so Hazama could launch them again. Then it returned to its new rest position behind her back. "But enough about me - what about all of you? I can see a few changes."

Xion looked down at herself. "Whoa, cool! Look at me, I'm like a super fighting robot!" Her whole body was encased in rounded black armor, with very wide boots and gauntlets. Well, one gauntlet: her right hand was covered by a cannon. Her head was covered by a round helmet with no particularly outstanding features except for the tinted visor over her eyes, while her nose and mouth were left exposed. Judging from the way her eyes could be seen as glowing green circles under the visor, Xion had gained more mechanical aspects than just the armor.

"Let me test a few things..." She summoned Forget-Me-Not to her left hand, but it was a bit too large and cumbersome to wield in a one-handed grip, so she left it levitating by her side. "Good thing I just learned how to do that! Now let's try this cannon...wait, I'm getting some kind of report..." Glowing lines of text flashed on her visor, but since they were reversed and scrolled up out of sight so quickly, no one but her could read them.

"Okay, so that's how it all works. Rocket boots, check." Xion was suddenly lifted into the air by jets of reddish fire from the bottoms of her feet. After a few seconds, she fell back to the ground, bending her knees a bit with the impact as the blacktop cracked slightly. "Well, there's no way I can fly all the way to the boss with just this, but I bet I can make it work if I combine it with Sonic Blade."

"Arm Cannon..." Gripping the cannon with her free hand, she aimed at the spot Hazama hit with her spikes. Yellow light gathered at the end of the cannon, creating a distinct humming sound, and then the cannon spat a ball of yellow plasma about the size of a baseball, which flew straight out of the barrel slower than a bullet but faster than a thrown ball. The plasma shot hit the tarmac and burst with a small explosion, spraying bits of debris every which way. "...Check! I could charge my shot to make it bigger and stronger, too."

Kairi mentioned, "Lucky you; you get to aim! In most games with this sort of weapon, you can only shoot forward."

Ignoring Kairi, Xion grabbed a piece of debris from the explosion and tossed it into the air, deliberately letting it land on her helmet. A grid of blue energy surrounded her whole body from a moment, following the contours of her armor and repelling the mock attack. "Defense screen, check. All of the new features are online and functional."

Lambda gave her a thumbs-up. "Nice!" As for Lambda herself, she suddenly realized that she was also slightly changed, having acquired armor and flight-capable leg blades like Hazama's. She also wore a visor just like her old Battle Mode had. It had been more than a week since she'd worn this visor, but she was still so used to its presence that she hardly noticed when it returned.

Lambda ran a checksum and got back a familiar status report. "I'm all suited up and ready to go, too. Oh, wait, there's one thing I should check..." She summoned Elysium to her hand and sighed in relief that her leg blades were still there. "Good, my Keyblade is freed up to do other things. In fact..." She concentrated on an image of her old Petals. Elysium responded by flashing out of existence in a swirl of green holograms, and a familiar set of eight floating blades appeared by a similar effect behind her back. Their green-edged, black blades shone in the sunlight. "Oh, I have missed these so much! Check out Elysium's alternate Petal Blades form, everyone!" Lambda hung them in a circle around her waist and spun them for a second, then dismissed her Keyblade. All of the Petal Blades vanished in swirls of green rectangles.

Kairi nodded appreciatively, but then pouted a little. "How come I'm the only one who didn't get any robot parts?" She still looked exactly the same. "I feel a bit left out."

Hazama shrugged. "Maybe it's an incentive to explore the base and find some way to fly with the rest of us. I mean, there's got to be something you can use in that hangar."

"Good idea, Hazama." Kairi regarded the hangar. The huge, slightly rusty shutter leading onto the runway was closed tight, but problems like this were not problems for Keyblade wielders. She summoned Destiny's Embrace and fired a Release beam, causing the hangar door to glow blue-white for a moment and raise itself smoothly out of sight.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Base: Hangar...

"And what could be behind door number ONE?!" Xion called out to no one in particular, like a game show host. Adjusting to the lower light inside the hangar, the team saw that there were no planes inside. There was a line of harnesses designed to hold pairs of strange silver-painted devices, though. They looked like they should be worn over one's legs like a Murakumo Unit's leg blades, but these were completely rounded with stubby wings sticking out from the outer sides, rather than flattened on the sides with a cutting blade on the front. There was no knee joint, so the legs of the wearer would be held rigid. The MoogleCorp logo was emblazoned behind each cylinder's wing.

"Are these what I'm supposed to use?" Kairi asked. "Also, before it's too late, will I need some kind of special training to actually fly with these?"

A new, high-pitched voice answered Kairi's questions with a few more questions. "Who are all of you? When did you get here? I thought I was brought here all alone!" Standing in a doorway at the other side of the hangar was a girl no older than Kairi, but almost a full head shorter. Her brown hair had two slightly longer locks that drifted sideways away from her bangs, but she was otherwise fairly nondescript in an adorable-little-kid way.

The most interesting thing about her was what she was wearing...or rather, what she wasn't wearing. She had a sailor uniform top, complete with a blue ascot, and white slippers designed to be easily kicked off, but she wore no skirt or pants at all with the outfit. Luckily, she had a typical one-piece swimsuit underneath the top, but the effect was rather unsettling, to say the least.

If the girl was concerned about her apparent wardrobe malfunction, she showed no sign of it. Rather, she rushed around the harnesses to approach the group with a happy smile. "Oh, thank goodness! I was worried I'd been brought here alone! I just woke up here today, and I thought it was weird that Major Sakamoto hadn't called us out for the morning drills...oh, where are my manners? I'm Sergeant Yoshika Miyafuji! It's nice to meet you! Are those things you're wearing a new kind of Striker Unit?"

Xion blinked behind her visor. "Er, um, er..."

Hazama smiled bemusedly, though with a faint edge of irritation; this "Yoshika" kid had one of the most annoying voices he'd ever heard, and she just seemed to keep talking and talking.

Kairi took point in the conversation, much to Lambda's relief. "Hello, er, Yoshika? Did I say that right? We just arrived here, too. We're here to destroy some kind of giant enemy flying up in the sky, but we have no idea what it is or how I'm going to get up there. These three have their own ways to fly, but I don't. And...what's a 'Striker Unit?'"

"So those suits aren't Striker Units? I thought everyone knew what those were. Without those, the Neuroi would've destroyed the whole world by now!"

"The what did what about what?" Xion mumbled, totally lost.

Lambda decided that they'd never get anywhere without getting a few things straight. "I have no idea what those terms mean, but that's to be expected; we came from a different world. Judging by what you've said, you've come here from a different world, too, but I bet if we accomplish what we came here to do, you can go back to your own world."

Yoshika blinked owlishly. "Really? Are you sure?"

"We have no idea if it'll work, actually," Hazama put in, "but there is a good chance that it's true, and we're going to have to beat up that monster one way or another, so if you have nothing better to do, we'd appreciate any help you can provide. For starters, those things in the harnesses. Are those the Striker Units you've been going on about?"

Yoshika looked behind her and finally noticed the harnesses. "Yes, they are! I've never heard of any manufacturer called 'MoogleCorp', but these are definitely Striker Units! If you can use magic, you can put these on and fly! Don't worry, I was trained as one of the Strike Witches! I can show you how it works...er..."

Kairi giggled as Yoshika tried to convey that she didn't know anyone's name. "My name is Kairi, and I'd love to learn how to fly one of these things. With me are Lambda, Xion, and Hazama." She indicated each of her allies in turn.

"Okay, it's nice to meet you all! Anyway, Kairi, the first thing to do is take your shoes and socks off. You can't put anything that's not skintight inside the Striker Unit, or it'll break." Well, that certainly explained why Yoshika wasn't wearing much on her lower half. The little girl removed her slippers and jumped over the back of one of the harnesses, landing perfectly feet-first in a Striker Unit pair.

Suddenly, dog ears and a short tail unfolded from her head and back, and the Striker Unit loudly roared to life. Tiny blades of blue energy extended from the bottom of the units and spun around like propellers. Yoshika appeared to concentrate for a moment, and created a blue magic circle on the ground below her that pushed her upward a bit, although the harness held her in place. She spoke a bit louder to be heard over the magic engines. "See? That's how you put it on! Then you pull this lever to launch."

Kairi eyed the contraption apprehensively. "Will I get animal ears and stuff, too?"

Yoshika scratched her chin. "I dunno; the only people who can use a Striker in my world are witches, and that's just part of how we use magic. Actually, your world's magic might not even work with the Striker Unit. Don't worry, if it won't work, then the engines just won't start up."

"I'd better try it out, then." Kairi bent down behind the next harness on Yoshika's right and removed her shoes, then untied the ribbons on her feet. "I'm really regretting wearing ribbons instead of socks now."

Namine asked, "I was meaning to ask, why did you think it was a good idea to put ribbons on your feet in the first place? You knew we were going to be fighting and such. At least that short skirt turned out to be mandatory."

Yoshika looked around in surprise. "What? Who's there? Is there another person with you, and I just didn't see her?"

Kairi hummed as she finished unlacing her ribbons and shoes and storing them in her Pouch of Holding. "That's Namine. I'll introduce you in a moment." She didn't answer Namine's question.

She jumped over the harness as Yoshika had done, landed in her own Striker, and felt a curious, ticklish buzzing sensation as the engines whirred to life around her legs and began pulling on her mana. The feeling was somewhat disconnected, though; it wouldn't have surprised Kairi if the Striker Unit was bigger on the inside, or perhaps it shunted her legs into another dimension. Luckily, no animal features of any kind sprouted from her body.

"It's working! But...this will drain my mana really fast. The way we use magic must be different from 'witches'. Maybe if I use the Power of Light instead...there!" Kairi gently eased away from the mana drain, causing the propellers of the Striker to slow down, and then funneled some Light from her heart into the machine. Immediately, the propellers whirred back up to full speed, and Kairi could tell that powering them this way was much more sustainable. A fuzzy circle of Light surrounded her feet. The magic circle was nothing like the sharp, intricate pattern Yoshika had produced, but it buoyed Kairi the same way. "I probably shouldn't try to cast Holy while flying, but otherwise I'm good to go!"

Yoshika explained, "Okay, if it's your first time putting on a Striker Unit, it should try to let you know the basic controls. Do you feel anything?"

Kairi held a hand to her head and furrowed her brow. "Yeah, there are some impressions, but I'm having trouble making any sense of them..."

"Here, let me help." Namine used her power to metaphorically catch the new thoughts and memories, which were flitting against Kairi's mind like flies trying to get past a window, and sorted them out into something Kairi could use. As she did so, she told Yoshika, "My name is Namine. I'm a part of Kairi who was split off into my own person a while ago. I came back to her later, but I'm still me."

Lambda added, "Take our word for it, it's just too complicated to explain the whole situation. All you really need to know is that Namine has power over certain people's memories, but you and Hazama aren't on the list of people she can affect."

Yoshika replied, "Okay, that...makes sense, I guess? I was never very good at keeping track of complicated stuff."

"Like Lambda said, it's not something you need to worry about. Let's just continue..." Kairi pulled a lever on the harness, causing the bottom part of it to shoot forward along the floor and shove her out onto the runway at full speed, Striker Unit and all. "Aah! I don't know how to stop!"

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Over the Grassland...

Yoshika threw her own lever and yelled ahead, "Don't stop! Keep going! You've got to get going fast enough to take off!"

"O-okay!" Kairi grit her teeth and faced forward, trying to increase the unit's output while staying stable. She wobbled once, twice, and finally lifted higher into the air just as she ran out of runway to use. The magic circle below her faded away as she climbed way up. "Wow! I'm flying!"

Yoshika breezed past her with practiced ease. "Great! Now let's try turning!" She tilted one leg up and the other down, causing her to bank hard to the right. "Don't overdo it at first, or you'll spin out!"

"Right...no pressure or anything..." Kairi tentatively copied Yoshika's movements, managing a shallower turn. Now that she'd gotten over the initial surprise, she started to calm down a little, and found that controlling the Striker Unit was actually quite intuitive. After a few more turns, she felt like she'd gotten the hang of it.

"Wait for us!" Xion called up from the ground below. She summoned her Sonic Blade, set the sword hovering behind her back, and used the combined lift of the wings and her new rocket boots to shoot straight up. When the rockets cut off, Xion was still able to climb a little higher from the momentum and hang in midair at the same altitude as Kairi and Yoshika. Shorter rocket bursts let her maneuver whichever way she wanted. "This setup would be way more useful on the ground, but I'll make do."

Lambda and Hazama shot up into the air with their leg blades, showing off much finer control. "Okay, are we ready to go fight that boss?"

Yoshika led Kairi over to the others and showed her how to hover in one place by turning upright and bending slightly forward. "I think we're ready...oh, wait, I forgot to bring a gun!"

Kairi yelped, "A gun?!" Even after all the adventuring she'd done, the concept of a gun seemed more...real, and immediately dangerous, than a Keyblade.

"Well, of course! How would I have fought in the battles for Britannia and Romagna if I didn't have a gun? Although I admit I was really hesitant to actually use one at first...anyway, I'll be back in a moment! I'm sure there must be an armory somewhere in that base!" While the other girls tried to reconcile Yoshika's young and innocent appearance with her nonchalant admission that she was a veteran child soldier, the wayward Strike Witch zoomed back down to the Base to locate a weapon.

Hazama asked, "Show of hands, who wants to ditch Yoshika and go tackle the boss right now?" She raised her hand. "I feel like I'll throw up if I have to listen to her squeak much more."

Lambda choked up while trying to cover a laugh. "She's not that bad...okay, she is. But you already asked her to help out, and if she can fight, that's as useful as teaching Kairi to fly."

Kairi shook her head at Hazama's proposal. "Let's definitely wait. I need a bit more time to practice, anyway." She did a few loops and turns, circling around the rest of the group.

"This is fun! Do a barrel roll!" Namine seemed to be enjoying the ride. Kairi giggled along with her and tried rolling, and managed to pull off a pretty slick barrel roll (aileron roll, actually, but neither she nor Namine knew that) that could help her dodge slightly to the side in combat.

Xion shrugged, carrying on the conversation with Hazama. "If Yoshika didn't squeak so much, I probably wouldn't be able to hear her at all, between the wind and the engine noises."

Lambda perked up suddenly. "Proximity alert. There's still someone else up here!" She swiveled around in midair and pointed at a dark object flying toward the group at high speed.

"Is it an enemy?" Xion aimed at it with her arm cannon.

"I'm not sure..."

Lambda had no more time to theorize, because the mysterious entity had reached the party, seeming to teleport the last fifty meters of distance. Now that it was closer, they could see it had a clear resemblance to Yoshika or another Striker-wearing witch, but it was made entirely out of some kind of pitch-black metal. A helmet that looked like rigid hair obscured its "face" while the design of its torso and tubular arms made it seem to be wearing a long sweater (including a swell to indicate breasts, for some reason), all made out of the same metal. Angular patches of some blue, shiny material marked its otherwise completely black shell on its animal-like ears and on the wings of its Striker Unit-like legs, and red hexagons glowed on the ends of its "sleeves". It hung there in midair without any visible method of propulsion, regarding the group with its eyeless face.

"Scanning...target is a sentient, non-organic life form. Species unknown. Threat level: B, due to below-average defenses. What we're looking at is some kind of brittle, armored shell around a tiny core in its chest. If we have to fight it, we'll have to get through the armor to find and hit that core. Detected weapon systems include..."

The entity interrupted Lambda's report with a strange, reverberating sound, somewhere between metal scraping against wire and some kind of quasi-organic animal whining. It moved back in midair a bit, seeming to recognize that Lambda viewed it as a threat.

Lambda held her head. "What...my radio? It's trying to communicate, but it's on every channel at once. Demodulating...decoding...almost got it...there! I'll put it on my external speaker."

A slightly distorted, emotionless version of Lambda's voice came from inside her throat, independent from her mouth. "Unknown creatures, respond if this communication attempt is successful."

"Yes, we understand you now. Who or what are you, anyway?" Lambda spoke out loud and sent the same message via radio, to be sure the entity understood.

"This unit is Neuroi Witch-type special unit 0003. Communication with Hive 2953 was lost approximately 36,000 standard seconds ago. The Hive is compromised by unknown hostiles. This unit has no option but to request aid from local life-forms."

Lambda nodded. "So you're one of the 'Neuroi' that Yoshika was talking about...here, I'm sending you some standard unit conversions to help simplify communications. That way, you can say '10 hours' instead of '36,000 seconds'."

The "Neuroi" responded over the radio, but remained unnervingly motionless. "Data acquired."

Hazama recalled, "Yoshika said she was fighting against the Neuroi, right? Won't it cause a scene when she gets back here, if we're hanging out and chatting with one?"

Xion shrugged. "Maybe, but I bet this Hive it's talking about is the boss we're looking for."

The Neuroi actually moved in response to that name, raising its head and moving backward a bit. So at least it could hear and understand spoken words as easily as radio transmissions. "Term recognized: Yoshika. Data records found in inter-Hive database. Full designation, 'Yoshika Miyafuji.' Selected by Hive 2810 as the original template for Witch-type Neuroi units. Species: human. Aligned with hostile factions resisting attempts by Hive 2810 and Hive 3001 to harvest planetary energy and materials. Considered extremely dangerous if threatened, but records indicate that peaceful contact was made between Yoshika Miyafuji and Hive 2810. Attention: all memory records will auto-delete in 14 hours, unless contact with Hive 2953 is re-established. Replaying relevant record..."

A holographic screen sprung up in front of the Neuroi, showing a memory from a different world, from the viewpoint of a different but identical-looking Witch-type Neuroi that flew around and played with Yoshika for a few minutes, then later led her back to its Hive to show her some kind of conspiracy of humans experimenting on Neuroi cores.

"Conclusion: in abnormal circumstances such as the current emergency, Yoshika Miyafuji is an acceptable resource or ally."

Xion floated closer to Kairi and murmured, "I feel like, if we keep hanging around this Neuroi, it'll start growing a heart of its own, like Tron did."

Kairi raised an eyebrow. "Like who did?"

Namine got the reference, however. "That's a good point, Xion. Well, it can't be a bad thing, can it?"

Lambda nodded. "I'm certainly in favor." She addressed the Neuroi: "To start out, from now on, I'm going to call you 'Three'. It's a lot easier to say than 'Neuroi Witch-type special unit 0003'. One thing you ought to know about humans and other human-like intelligent life is that we like short and simple concepts. Also, names are important. In fact, you might want to come up with an even better name for yourself one day."

"Acknowledged. This unit is assigned temporary self-designation 'Three'."

Lambda smiled. "Good. Now, Three, about the Hive, you said it was attacked by something else and you lost contact? What's that all about?"

Three explained, "All Neuroi units follow orders from the Hive that created them. All Hives follow orders from the central Neuroi consciousness, although the Neuroi hierarchy above the Hive level is irrelevant to the current emergency. If a Hive is destroyed, all Neuroi units under its command are also destroyed. This unit, Three, is no longer connected to its creator, Hive 2953, due to the unknown hostiles corrupting and controlling it. All other Neuroi units on this planet were inside or near the Hive during the attack 10 hours ago, and were corrupted through their connection to the Hive. Due to its assignment to reconnaissance of this unfamiliar planet, Three was the only unit far enough away to cut communications in time to avoid corruption."

Hazama tilted her head and guessed, "So you want us to save your Hive so you can restore your connection, is that right?"

"Affirmative. However, due to having cut its connection from the Hive voluntarily, Three will be designated as a defector and marked for destruction by other Neuroi once the Hive's normal functions resume."

Xion gasped. "So they'll kill you for breaking the rules...but you still want to save them? That's...actually kind of admirable."

Kairi clenched a fist. "Well, you've convinced me. Let's go save the Hive, then! The target we're looking for is probably the thing possessing it, not the Hive itself."

"It wouldn't be the first time a Heartless has possessed something inorganic," Namine agreed.

"Hey! Wait for meee!" Yoshika squealed as she rejoined the group, cradling a sizable machine gun that looked even bigger compared to her tiny arms. "I've got my gun, and - wait, is that...? It's a Neuroi that looks like a witch! I made friends with one of those once!"

"Affirmative. Yoshika Miyafuji made non-hostile contact with Neuroi Witch-type special prototype unit 0000. This unit is Neuroi Witch-type special unit 0003, temporarily designated 'Three'. Your allies have agreed to provide assistance to purge unknown hostiles from Hive 2810."

Yoshika took a moment to puzzle through all the long words. "Sooo...you're a different Neuroi, but you knew the one that was my friend, and your Hive needs our help. Okay, let's go! I always thought the best way to stop the Neuroi from attacking humanity was to be friends with them, anyway, so I'll keep taking every chance I get!"

Hazama chuckled. "It's almost nostalgic having someone around that relies so heavily on robo-speak. We were headed that way anyway, but I'll let Three here tag along."

Xion punched the air with her free fist. "Then let's go! Sonic Blade!" She got a head-start by using her wings' eponymous special move to launch herself forward.

Lambda called after her, "Xion, that's the wrong way! The target's that way!"

Xion yelled back, "What...say? Lam...I can't...you...!" She'd launched herself right out of earshot.

"Oh, right!" Yoshika fumbled in her shirt for a moment. "I brought radios!" She brought out a few metal discs with stars printed on them. "Witches use these to talk to each other while flying. Lambda doesn't seem to need one, but I do. Here, Kairi, you can have one, too."

"Thanks." Kairi fit the little device in her ear. "Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear!" Lambda replied. "Hazama, you should have an internal radio, too, right? I'll get Xion on the line as well. Three, you can use this channel as well if you use the translation package I'm sending you."

Three replied over the radio. "Acknowledged. Data received."

Xion joined the channel as she realigned herself for another lunge. "Whoops! I'll get it right this time! Sonic Blade!"

Kairi leaned forward and got moving. "Alright, let's catch up to her and fly in formation. At this rate, we'll be done in no time!"

Xion groaned, "You do know that by saying that, you've just doomed us to some kind of setback, right?"

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Over the Mountains...

"What do you mean...oh, right, it must be an anime thing." Kairi nodded; she'd noticed a similar trend in her games. "Well, whatever happens, dealing with it would still be faster than getting through those mountains on foot."

She referred to the mountains the group was passing over at that moment. This world was laid out in concentric rings of bland landscapes - the Base was in the middle of the Grasslands, which were surrounded by the impassable, yet uniformly-placed Mountains, which were in turn surrounded by the Ocean, which stretched out to the horizon with nary an island in sight. The group's target was somewhere out over the Ocean. Each ring was miles wide, and the terrain of the Mountains was too difficult to cover on foot, but with their new, world-specific flight abilities, the team could travel the radius of the world in just a few minutes.

Xion pointed out, "It's not just anime; Donald had to deal with this fate-tempting problem from Sora."

"We should watch out," Yoshika put in. "We don't know how far the possessed Neuroi have spread, and there might even be other people being brought here from other worlds besides mine."

Namine called, "I don't see any people, but here come some Heartless!" Luckily, her voice could be picked up by Kairi's radio. "Lots of them are coming up from below!"

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Defeat all of the Heartless!

Lambda looked down at the mountains below and scanned the incoming threats. "We've got ten Aeroplanes and thirty Wyverns. The Wyverns are grouped into three squads of ten, each led by an additional Tailbunker. The Tailbunkers are each a B-class threat, while the others are collectively C-class. The Aeroplanes and Tailbunkers have projectile attacks."

"Doesn't sound too tough," Kairi replied, then slapped her forehead. "Argh, I've got to stop saying things like that!"

Yoshika asked, "So these things are 'Heartless?'"

Xion replied, "Yep, and there are a lot of other types to see. Shoot 'em before they take your heart and turn you into one of them!" She fired a bolt from her Arm Cannon, but missed the fast-moving targets.

"They can do that?!"

"Sure, if you suck at fighting back." Hazama launched some spikes, managing to nail the head of one of the Aeroplanes. "See? They break easily. They keep coming back later unless you use a Keyblade, but that gun of yours can certainly get them off our backs."

Kairi tried to get a Heartless in her sights to cast a spell. "Something's off about this. The Wyverns are all flying in formation...whoa!"

The three squads of Wyverns had been circling the heroines, and all thirty of them suddenly rammed inward with spiraling tackles from every direction. Kairi chopped a wing off one as she dodged, but another one rammed right into her.

"This is bad! The Heartless never had such good teamwork before!" Lambda repelled a tackle with her Petal Blades, then summoned two basic Options to return fire, but she had to dodge another tackle and an Aeroplane's machine guns.

Three's legs were entirely destroyed by another Wyvern, but its core was safe in its torso, and it responded by blasting the Heartless with red beams from its hands. Three's legs regenerated in seconds, regrowing the broken parts of its shell as the Heartless banked around for another pass. "Warning. High probability that this unit will be destroyed if current tactics continue."

"I'll defend you, Three!" Yoshika rushed over to Three and held her hands out against another swoop, generating a blue barrier that looked like an intricate magic circle. "I won't let them get you! There's no way these Heartless can break my shield!"

Kairi veered away from the group. "We've got to split up and force them to break this pattern! Lambda, Hazama, take down the Aeroplanes. Yoshika, you keep defending Three - keep moving and try to keep the attention of the Wyverns. Xion, you're with me. We're going to take down those Tailbunkers; there must be a reason they haven't attacked yet."

Lambda reported, "Radio transmissions and traces of Darkness detected. It looks like you're right; the Tailbunkers are getting orders from the corrupted Hive, then following them by bossing around the other Heartless because they're the strongest. Take down the leaders, and their formation will fall apart. Now terminating assigned targets." She dove under another Wyvern to get close to two of the Aeroplanes, then peppered them with shots from her Options.

Hazama chased down an Aeroplane from behind, then cut off its escape by sending Ouroboros ahead of it. Chomp! "I've gotta hand it to you, Kairi; this is a pretty good plan for your first time taking your job as team leader seriously. I don't know why you kept treating this like a democracy."

Kairi paused for a moment, then got back to hacking away at a Tailbunker's wings. "Wait, why am I the leader? I thought we were all just friends. Bind!" By limiting the spell area to snag only the Tailbunker's spiked, club-like tail, Kairi bypassed its status resistance and successfully bound it in place. "Xion! It's all yours!"

Xion answered, "That. You're the leader because you can get your people where they need to be. Sonic Blade!" She blasted through the Tailbunker with a speedy lunge, destroying it. A shot from her Arm Cannon got the attention of a second Tailbunker, which foolishly drew close.

"I think you're a good leader, Kairi. I'm sure Commander Minna would agree." Yoshika fired her machine gun at an incoming swarm of Wyverns, destroying all but four of them. The survivors bounced off her barrier and were shot down by Three's beams.

"Current tactics have greatly increased probability of success." Three shot down another Aeroplane.

Lambda surrounded three Aeroplanes alongside Hazama and Ouroboros. "The Heartless may have some teamwork, but it's no match for ours!"

"This is pretty fun!" Xion sliced at the Tailbunker with her ScimitArs, then destroyed it with a point-blank charged shot from her Arm Cannon. The giant, blue ball of plasma kept going and destroyed the last two Aeroplanes. "Ragnarok!" Before heading to attack the last Tailbunker, she summoned Ouroboros and fired a swarm of homing magic bolts that decimated another swarm of Wyverns.

"Gravity Option!" Now that the Aeroplanes were defeated, Lambda transformed one of her Options into her new satellite-shaped variant, then sent it into the last swarm of Wyverns. As the Heartless bumbled into the purple column of magic surrounding the Gravity Option, they plunged out of the sky and crashed into the rocky mountains below.

"Just one left!" The last Tailbunker made another surprisingly intelligent move and turned away to retreat from the battle. Kairi rushed toward it, but it vanished. The redhead shrugged and dismissed her Keyblade. "I guess that means we win! Great work, everyone!"

Xion fired a celebratory plasma shot into the air. "Go, Team Kairi!"

Hazama chuckled. "Is that what we're calling ourselves now? Eh, why the hell not?"

Kairi sighed. "I suppose it saves me the trouble of trying to come up with an acronym out of our names or something. I almost thought of one, but then Hazama joined."

Lambda pointed out, "This way certainly rolls off the tongue well enough. It's a little early to celebrate, though. We're only halfway to the target."

Three put in, "The Hive is defended by several corrupted Neuroi units, which should be destroyed before attempting to approach the Hive itself. Confirmed that these Heartless had inferior offensive and defensive capabilities compared to standard Neuroi units."

Namine replied, "Even so, we're all getting stronger, too. Even you, Three. Did you notice your beams became stronger after Yoshika moved to defend you?"

"Checking records...confirmed. Magic power conversion efficiency increased by 20%. Cause unknown."

Namine told it, "It's because you've started growing a heart of your own, Three. A heart is what lets you experience emotions and bonds with other people. There's also a purely practical benefit: you need to have a heart to generate your own mana, which would help the Neuroi not need to invade planets."

"...Acknowledged. This unit...I will attempt to present this information to the central Neuroi consciousness, pending purge of hostiles from Hive 2953. Chance of success: minimal, but..."

Lambda finished, "...But you still want to try. I understand. That desire to help others is why Yoshika protected you, and now you want to pay it forward. That's how hearts grow."

Hazama chuckled. "Aw, they grow up so fast! Before you do any of that, though there's still the little issue of those giant alien planes up ahead."

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Over the Ocean...

The "giant alien planes" Hazama referred to were definitely corrupted Neuroi. There were five of them; each was formed of blocky arrangements of black and purple hexagons in the vague shape of a fighter jet, and each was surrounded by a faint cloud of Darkness. Purple blobs clung to various spots on their hulls, surrounded by vein-like lines of Darkness. The Neuroi were several times larger than the human aircraft they mimicked, but also moved much slower. As they reacted to Team Kairi's approach by turning towards the party, they made a similar sound to the one Three made earlier, but at a much lower pitch.

Lambda scanned the enemy. "Scanning...aerial Neuroi units analyzed. Individual threat level: B. Capable of firing Darkness-corrupted beam attacks from purple armor sections. Each Neuroi is covered in several Shadow Blobs; destroying these may disrupt the Heartless' corrupting influence. The Neuroi itself can only be destroyed by breaking through its armor and attacking the core. Cores located; sending data to allied HUD displays."

A red dot appeared on each of the Neuroi in Xion's and Hazama's vision, indicating the location of the core. Hazama smirked. "How convenient!"

Xion summoned all of her weapons and began charging her Arm Cannon. "Sure is, but I'd rather try to free them before destroying them."

Kairi summoned her Keyblade. "It's worth a shot! Head for the closest one; try and keep it between us and the other four."

Team Kairi zoomed into battle...

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

A/N: Stopping here to get something posted before video games eat my life in December. There are still a few surprises to look forward to in the latter half of this Training World arc, but don't hold your breath...you'll need it to play/squee over Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Kingdom Hearts III is so...close...! I'm not going to be able to finish this story before it comes out, which is probably for the best if this crossover continues into yet another book.