A/N: I made the Guard Armour way bigger. Because I thought I wasn't big enough to be a threat. Plus, first interaction.
~ Storm
Chapter 2
A Place for the Lost
Tempest fiddled with the strap of the pauldron half-heartedly, sitting on a roof with the sunset behind him. Exasperated, he gave up for the moment and took the pauldron off and placed it beside him.
As for Christopher's 'death' (he made it clear he had already died once, painfully as he would have corrected Tempest), he took it as well as he could, after all, death and suffering was common in the alleyways as cat and dog corpses lay there rotting unattended and in Tempest's part of town, murderers were present in said alleyways. He'd learned to stop mourning the dead at some point, as it didn't bode well with survival instincts.
He didn't take it well, even if he says he did. He will never take it well if he were, to be honest. So whatever that cryptic poem meant, Tempest would see it through the best he could.
Tempest took out the red jewelled pendant and rubbed it with his thumb. He didn't plan on wearing it, so he just shoved it back into his pocket and hoped that counted as 'wearing'. Hopefully.
Feeling a bit better, and a little more motivation, he picked the pauldron up and finally clipped on the strap. Rolling his left shoulder, he tested out the weight of the pauldron. Finding it to be alright, he got up from sitting on the roof edge and looked around for a secluded area. Finding none, he left that roof and left for a different view, leaping from rooftop to rooftop looking for one.
Sometimes people would look up and gasp, catching a glimpse of a red jacket whizzing past on the rooftop. Most people wouldn't recognize it, as Tempest never wore bright colours like red while travelling, but he had the nerve to go steal something before he left and that jacket was what he chose. It wasn't really stealing, more like buying something discreetly and leaving the payment on the counter, but Tempest just called it stealing because 'buying something discreetly' was too long for his tastes.
He bypassed the gate that led into the woods, jumping over it and front rolled to lessen the impact before breaking into a sprint again. As soon as the gates were out of sight, Tempest stopped and took a moment to catch his breath.
Seeing a clearing up ahead, Tempest walked over, confident that no one was there. He was met by the rusty gate of a mansion with ivy clinging to its worn brick walls.
"Time to leave…" he told himself quietly, pulling out the serpent-headed keyblade. In one swift motion, like he had done this plenty of times before, pointed the tip at the sky and opened a hole in the barrier. He then flipped the key into the sky before activated the armour, albeit clumsy. As soon as a light flashed in the sky, the armoured figure was gone with the hole in the sky.
_|-w-|_
As he didn't have any experience with travelling in the Lanes between, Tempest simply landed at the nearest world which happened to be where people of darkness swallowed worlds find refugee. That's also how he found out that he has a habit of landing on roofs.
"Ack!" falling face first into it is also a habit he'll probably won't break in a while. Getting up with a groan, the armour and glider fading in a whirl of light, he scanned his surroundings and noted that a)he was on a purple tiled roof, b)it was night time, c) there was a crap ton of lamps and d)people.
Even if it was a different world, Tempest was not one to take huge risks that might mean something in the long term.
'So I'm sticking to rooftops, yes?' he asked himself, dusting off his cloths, 'Also, no messing with other people's crap.'
Standing straight up, he watched people do their daily routine as they wondered about. They all looked worried, tense as if something would pop up and murder them. He hopped to another roof, doing his best to stay silent as he did so.
Most buildings looked as if they were built on a whim, probably to compensate for the influx of people. Or they were torn down or destroyed a lot.
Tempest watched at a spark of light flew in, landing somewhere nearby. He didn't particularly care, just decided that it was another form of space transportation.
Suddenly, dark blobs surrounded him, jumping up to form Shadows. Tempest summoned his blade, not so worried about the threat the ant creatures posed.
'I wonder how different you guys are compared to the spectral versions…' he thought, letting the dark creatures advance before striking them all down.
"Not really," he muttered before taking off again.
Sometime later, a bipedal duck and dog appeared looking and calling for a guy named 'Leon'. Tempest found them interesting, so he stalked them. With good intentions, of course. There was also a kid, running around with a newly created Keyblade in hand and attracting Heartless from a mile away. Clearly, he didn't know what the hell he was holding, only that it can make the Heartless go 'Poof'. Tempest had a mind to go and tell him but refrained from doing so. All he did was quietly take down some Heartless that appeared in his area.
Things got interesting right after the kid left one shop. Another guy stopped him and started speaking to the blade-wielding kid.
All Tempest could catch was the fact how Heartless fear the Keyblade, how they want to destroy the wielder and other generic things. Then the guy with the scar wondered aloud why the keyblade would choose a child.
'Because it did, satisfied?' Tempest answered non-vocally as he watched the kid talk back.
"What's that supposed to mean?" The ignorant kid asked, bending down to a fighting stance.
'Look at that posture, it looks like his spine is broken…' Tempest noted, grinding his teeth a little as he continued to watch the exchange.
"Nevermind," And more yapping. Part of him wanted to see something interesting after a lot of running around and spying. The other part just wanted to find that page. Then the scar guy pulled out a blade. That was crossed with a gun.
'Is...isn't that unnecessary?' As the two crossed blades and started fighting. And the kid was totally outmatched. Well, he did 'win'. But he just fainted shortly afterwards from exertion. The keyblade was held by the scar guy and the kid himself was carried away by another person.
'Well now...Time to move on.' And turned tail and left the area.
_|-w-|_
"Where the hell did all you come from!" Tempest growled, completely annoyed, "This is the fifth wave of you guys!"
An armoured Heartless jumped up from behind him, only to be slashed in half. He leaped to another roof, only to be swarmed again.
"I blame this on the kid who left his Keyblade out too flipping long!" Tempest shouted at the sky before climbing a vertical wall to a taller building.
"Fire!" half the swarm burned as he casted that spell, the other half bit the blade before disappearing into shadows.
"I am so flipping done with all of you!" He shouted, waving his keyblade at the abominations before a large explosion rocked the earth. Turning around, Tempest saw the remains of a large light pillar and two distinct shapes falling. He leaped and ran over a few buildings before reaching a clearing, the kid, duck and dog in a pile on top of each other. More Heartless appeared, blocking off the exits for the trio in the clearing.
"Great. I have a feeling something is going to drop out of the sky…" As soon as all the Heartless were defeated, something fell from the sky.
"I was being sarcastic!" He yelled at the multicoloured Guard Armour as it assembled itself. The trio below didn't take notice of the very pissed Armonian up on the rooftops and instead charged the immediate threat. And they were clearly outmatched, as the towering Heartless managed to sweep them all off their feet for every attack attempted against it. Any aerial assault was easily knocked away.
"I am done sitting and watching, you little piece of crap!" Tempest proclaimed, leaping off the roof and diving into a crevasse in the armour. As soon as he entered, he latched onto a ledge while inside the beast.
"Thunder!" and blasted a spell from inside it, frying its core to a crisp. The Guard Armour shuttered and froze, and before it could collapse and crush Tempest, he swung out the left armhole and scaled the wall before running out of the trio's sight.
The cries of 'Hey! Come back!' didn't stop him, it made him question why the heck did he do that.
'I was pissed at the dumb Heartless, that is a justifiable reason.' he settled on, slipping into a vent and popping out onto another rooftop. He watched for a brief second as the trio hit the dead end he led them to, before moving out of sight.
"Where'd he go?"
"He just disappeared into thin air!"
"Gawsh, do you think he might've used magic?"
'No, I'm just really good at climbing.' Tempest thought spitefully before spotting some pages wedged between two building. He walked over and carefully pried the sheets out, reading them in order of number.
Entry #1
So...I don't see a point in writing a diary, but Saki seems to know why people do this. Only she won't tell me, like most Shamen things. This won't be a daily thing, as I don't feel like wasting time if I could be doing something else that is actually productive. Or maybe venting.
Entry #2
Looks like Saki decided to burn another forest. God this is getting old. Kage won't stop yapping about his 'Magnum Opus' even though he hasn't started working on it. Now even he is being really defensive and not telling me crap. God, Saki is rubbing off on all of us. At least Eraqus is sensible. To a degree.
Entry #3
Scratch that, Eraqus is not sensible. He likes his floor too much. And his training is living hell. Now Saki won't shut up about how good my sandwiches are, I get it, you like the mayo I used but that doesn't mean I made the mayo! This is the most dysfunctional system I had the good will to take part in. God, I hope someone straightens this crap out before I lose my mind.
There's a small envelope in the package too.
Saki's Letters #4
Hey Chris
It's Kage. I'm taking over for now. Lupa's on a mission to patrol a world, apparently, it's called 'Neverland', I think it's right up her alley. (is that how you use it?) other than that, Eraqus is thinking about something, dunno what it is but it's probably just a thing. Oh ya, Also Lupa wanted to send you your diary, you forgot it. So ya, cheers!
Kage
Tempest pulled out Chris' diary and fused the pages back into the book, the envelope was tucked into a sleeve behind the cover. Closing the journal, he put it back into an inner pocket before leaving the area completely via rooftops.
_|-w-|_
Tempest found it nice to know that the armour pieces could be summoned individually. The helmet was currently in his lap, it's back panel flipped open and a few rubber coated wires poking out of it. He had a screwdriver in his mouth and looked pretty focused on his task.
"That should fix the HUB, god was that a mess of wires. Who thought this was a good idea?" Tempest muttered, spitting out the screwdriver. Closing the panel with a click, he put the helmet on his head and checked the display.
"Ha!" Tempest cheered, pumping his arm into the air as the visor display lit up in a pale blue colour. The 'jaw' part separated to accompany his jaw as he talked. It clicked when he shut his mouth, sealing the helmet from the outside.
'At least I know how this works now,' Tempest thought while slipping the helmet off and willing it away.
"HEY KID!"
'Crap.' Was the only thought that ran through his head before he bolted, not even looking down for the person that growled.
"Jeez! What is with kids these days?" Tempest vaulted over a pipe and onto a large, flat roof. He checked the area around him before relaxing just a bit.
"Next world, I'm done here!" He declared, donning the armour and glider before shooting off into the sky along with another speck.
A/N: Nothing too concerning. I have already started the next chapter and for it, I have two words. Disney Hyperion. If it's still Disney, does it still have to be a crossover or no? I'm not too sure about that. I might change TR to crossover, but I'm not too sure. After all, there will be more worlds than just the next one, but if I do it'll be crossover-ception, right? Because Kingom Hearts is already a crossover of Disney and FF? And Disney Hyperion is a branch of Disney? But it's owned by the author, no? So is it even a crossover?
... this just turned onto a rant, didn't it? This is why you don't let a scatterbrain write an author's note; it just gets confusing...
~Storm