Sell you a Bridge

by MalcolmTent6730

Have you ever gotten an email telling you you've won a free cruise? Or one for a work out that will get you ripped in ten days? Wouldn't it be crazy if those offers were legit? Well for Morgan O'Malley they can be. Spam becomes real life when his meta powers finally manifest. Hopefully the perks of the super life aren't false advertising.

63. Chapter 63

June 21st 2016 Twilight Town, 10:00 AM EDT

My head hurt. I'd learned so much about myself, about the reasons for things happening to me. Granted, I had more questions still. But most of them were basic shit like 'why me?' which I somehow doubted I'd ever get answers for. The world was crazy, people got powers and had destinies and shit, it was just how things happened. It would be like Superman asking why his planet blew up.

The girls were pretty respectful of the insane weight that had been dropped on my shoulder for the night. They just pulled me into bed to cuddle and let me drift off to sleep in their arms. Rana didn't even bitch about us being cuddly. In the morning though, things seemed...easier. Not much, I had a lot on my plate still, but I always had. I'd accomplished some crazy shit, getting back from New Genesis, beating the labyrinth, fending off the invasion, I was used to insane stakes. I just had to handle it the same way I always had. One thing at a time.

First up I called everyone together to tell them what was going on. I couldn't exactly tell them all of it, without Del around I somehow didn't think explaining details was safe, but I gave them the cliff notes version. We had to find twenty people who could use a keyblade. We had four. They would each be gaining access to their own if they wanted, though I wouldn't force them.

When I mentioned that, they all looked at me like I was an idiot. Wally was the one who chose to state the obvious. "Morgan, bud. Putting aside how far we've all come together and how we need you to get home, you're offering us the chance to gain access to crazy magical powers. The other may be able to use magic without the keyblade, but I can't and honestly, I'm fascinated by the idea of studying the dimensional physics of an item like that. Plus the whole saving the universe thing that you can't really get into. I'm all about that."

Artemis snorted, but she had a smirk on her face. "What my beloved boyfriend means to say is that of course we'll help. The question is do we need to find replacements for anyone here. I know you said you have a way to do this, but it's a big commitment. While most of us are old friends, there are a few new faces who kind of got sucked up in this by accident. Mr. Taylor, Suzie, Tommy, John? You all interested in this kind of thing? I have a suspicion the whole magic thing is going to appeal to John at least, but what about the rest of you?"

John had nodded along, but Taylor and Suzie both looked uncertain. In the end though, they both looked at Sindella. She gave them a reassuring smile and the two of them turned to Artemis with a nod. Taylor answered for them. "We're in. You said it's going to take a while to get everyone a keyblade, so no real rush for us. Sindy will definitely want to be first I think. How are you going to do it?"

I grimaced. "I have an easy enough way for most of you, Artemis will be the toughest, but I think I can manage that." Artemis was connected deeply to Zee through their unique elf race, and I was pretty sure I could use that to link them. other than her, none of the others had been given powers by my ability so I should be able to just buy them keyblades through my email. I'd have to practice brute forcing used up emails back into existence, but it was a simple enough Deception I should be able to manage it.

Still, I was short on points for that at the moment anyway. I'd need some time to top up. For the moment, we had other things to worry about. "We can get to that soon, but for now, I think the biggest issue is tracking down the keyblade wielders who are currently in town. Del said there was two of them here already. Not sure if the Upside Down Man is in on this or just sent us here for his own amusement, but we need to find them before the cloaked assholes do either way. If B-guy knows what I'm doing he's not going to ignore a pair of wielders so close by."

We all turned to Taylor, who rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I can help with that. My gift should be safe to use here, though I'm not sure how well it would work off world. Once we find those two we'll need to come up with a new plan." He took a large bite of pancake to punctuate the point. We were all sitting in the dining room of the inn we'd found, where they supplied complementary breakfast, and enjoying a pretty decent spread laid out in what looked like steam punk chafing dishes.

I'd gotten an omelette from the omelette station, and I savored a big bite of cheese, ham, egg, and some hashbrown. "That's definitely going to help man, thanks." I said after I finished chewing. "But we need to try to blend in too. If we get noticed we might lead them straight to the other wielders. How often can you use your gift exactly? I don't know much about the limitations."

He grimaced. "I can use it once every few days if I'm really exerting myself. That's a good point. I often have to shut it down nearly instantly back in the Nightside, but that helps me keep up my stamina somewhat so it's a mixed bag. I can track down one of them, but probably not the other too soon. Why, you thinking we should split up again?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it worked pretty well last time, barring the whole god beast attack. As long as each of us gets a wielder we should be fine. Though I'm probably going to bring someone with me this time instead of going it alone. Assuming Taylor can find one of the wielders though, that leaves the rest of us looking for the other one. Our first move should be to ask about any weird places in the city to check out."

John, who was sipping a coffee I was pretty sure he'd spiked with something from a flask, shot me a wink and looked over his shoulder at the pretty brunette from the front desk. She'd just come in to check the chafing dishes to see if anything needed to be refilled. John had been flirting with her a bit and she seemed like his accent judging by her blush. "Olette, love. Would you mind if we asked you a few things about your lovely town?"

The green eyed girl flushed again, giving John a shy smile. I rolled my eyes at him. I was sure it was an ego trip since I knew he was pretty serious about Cathy, but since it got us the information we needed I let him have his fun. Olette, the front desk girl, came over to our table, holding a platter that had formerly contained sausages she'd used to refill one of the dishes. "Oh, hello again! Sure, I'm happy to tell you anything you'd like to know."

Artemis rolled her eyes even harder than I had. "Sorry about our friend, he's not really that bad, but if he's creeping you out just let me know and I'll teach him some manners. We're new in town and we were hoping you might be able to tell us some interesting places to check out. We're big fans of urban legends and stuff like that. Are there any places where mysterious things are supposed to happen?"

Of course, we didn't know that weird happenings would lead us to the wielders, but it was as good a place to start as any, plus I could cheat a bit with my ability. Plus this would be less suspicious than just wandering around looking for some unknown pair of people. Even if Taylor could find one of them, finding an unnamed person we had no picture of in a huge town while bat worshipping edgelords combed the streets for them was a long shot.

Olette blushed harder. "Oh, no not at all! I don't think he was being creepy." She gave John another shy look. "I really like your accent. But sure, I can suggest some places. My best friends and I actually kind of look for those kinds of things in our spare time. I'd offer to take you but I picked up this job for summer break and I really need all the hours I can get. I'd be happy to give you a list though."

"That would be lovely dear." Sindella said with a warm smile. "Artemis doesn't mean anything by her teasing. She's a spirited girl and she just likes to make sure John doesn't get a big head. It's sweet of you to stand up for him though. He's a good boy." She said this in that motherly tone that would have sounded condescending from literally anyone else, but from Sindella just seemed really sweet. I swear I saw John of all people blush slightly at the comment.

Giggling slightly, Olette nodded quickly. "Of course. Twilight Town is pretty quiet and normal all things considered." Not counting the literal permanent sunset apparently, but then, I guess she just didn't know how weird that was. "There are seven mysteries in town that are kind of weird though, and they're famous around here. There's the spooky steps, which differ in number when walking up or down, the friend from beyond the wall, which is a weird alley where things are

thrown from nowhere, the moans from the tunnel, the doppleganger, the animated bag, and the ghost train. There's also supposed to be a mysterious girl in the window of the old mansion but that one is pretty hit or miss."

We all just blinked at her. That...was a lot of weird shit for one small town. I mean, all of that sounded like it could be a lead, though I had to ask about the first one. "How...how can the stairs be different numbers going up and down? Also who even noticed that one? Are there seriously people who are so bored they just randomly count steps as they walk around? That's just kind of weird."

"Um..." Olette said with another blush, this one more embarrassment than infatuation. "That one was Rai. I haven't actually confirmed it, and he doesn't pay much attention at the best of times. I have most of the others on good authority though. My friends and I are planning to check them out over the summer to confirm. The ghost train is especially mysterious and that one is well documented." As she talked, her blush got darker until her embarrassment reached critical mass. "Sorry I should go, enjoy your breakfast." She squeaked, bolting away as she muttered to herself for boring the guests with stupid local rumors. I felt kind of bad about it and decided to tip her if possible, she had been really helpful.

The stairs were dumb, but some of the other definitely seemed worth checking out. It at least gave us a place to start. I turned to the others. "Alright, seven wonders, fourteen of us. If we ignore the stairs that is. We pair up and hit each place. It makes sense to be in pairs at least if we run into the bat cultists. Make sure each pair has a heavy hitter. I'll take the mansion, since I had decent luck with that last time." I smiled at my mentor. "Jim, want to come along?" The old ghost tipped his hat with a chuckle as everyone else started picking their partners. The two of us breaking into a mansion. This would be just like old times.

June 21st 2016 Twilight Town, 12:00 PM EDT

Getting everyone sorted out for pairs was annoying. The only real bright side was the realization that 'every team needs a powerhouse' was pretty much pointless in my current group. Every person with us was a scary bastard. Still, I tried to stagger the teams so we had someone with a meta ability covering the most human of us. Artemis was with Kit, Wally was with John, Eddie went with Tommy. Zee was with Sindella, Drea with Suzie, and Taylor with Rana. Since the big detective was our lock for finding one of the wielders it made sense to put my daughter, who was probably the second strongest person here, with him for backup.

We divided up the spots to search. I took the mansion with Jim, as agreed. Zee and Sindella took the ghost train, and honestly I stopped paying attention after that. I made sure I had voo-don't dolls prepared for everyone to block a lethal hit and just made sure everyone could contact us if needed before Jim and I finally left for the mansion, as we stepped out, waving goodbye to Olette after getting directions, I took a deep breath as I enjoyed the crisp air of a pleasant evening in June. Well, not really evening, but since it was sunset here all the time it felt like evening. I had to admit I liked the weather.

"So." I said to Jim as we walked casually down the winding road. "This place is pretty nice right? Like, I could see visiting again sometime. Living in Destiny Islands would be nice, but it's a bit secluded. This place is just crowded enough not to make me feel cut off." I tried not to mention how comfortable I was becoming with the dark energy in the air the longer we stayed. It was mixed with the normal energy of the regular multiverse, which somehow made it feel even more comfortable.

Jim gave me an unamused look. "Oh, are we going to pretend you weren't just handed a possible death sentence?" I rolled my eyes at my teacher, and he just shook his head sadly. "Dear boy, I've known you long enough to know when you're distracting yourself. Your task comes with manageable goals, which helps, but you're a mess for the moment. I'm not going to force you to talk about it, but I wanted you to know that when it's just the two of us there isn't a need to put on a show. Brood if you want to brood."

I sighed heavily, my shoulder slumping as we drew closer to the mansion in the distance. "Well, that didn't take long. For a potential incarnation of Deception I sure don't seem to be any good at it." Or maybe I was, and I'd just wanted someone to notice how upset I was feeling and ask about it. Now that he had though, I found that I didn't really want to talk about it. Just having someone acknowledge how fucked all this was gave me plenty of comfort, but I didn't want to dwell. In the end, I just shook my head. "Thanks but no. I don't want to wallow. I'll talk when I'm ready, for now lets just catch up."

He smiled at that, and we did. He told me about how he'd been feeling during this whole mess. Missing Paula and Claire, pride at how well we were all doing, guilt at not being able to keep up as well as he'd like. I told him about how I felt like I was drowning sometimes, and the girls were the only thing keeping me afloat. We talked for about a half hour, making our way to the mansion which was much further than it had seemed (the place was huge). We were lucky Olette gave good directions or we might not have even found it, size aside. It was mostly hidden by forest and only visible from a certain approach.

Stopping at the gate, I couldn't help but stare up at the large building in appreciation. Jim gave his own whistle as we came to a stop. "Lovely architecture, that is. Never seen a style quite like it. The stained glass in the tower is particularly striking. Don't you think?" I did, and I gave a nod of agreement as I withdrew my keyblade, giving it a quick tap on the padlock so the gates could drop open and let us in.

"Definitely." I said as we entered. "This place is less broken down than I expected from an 'old mansion'. I was figuring we would see some broken windows and splintering wood. This is actually pretty nicely maintained. Either they have a groundskeeping staff, or the girl that Olette mentioned is a neat freak. Do you think she's the other wielder?" That seemed like a long shot to me, but weirdly, part of me almost expected it. It was why I had picked this mission, I felt like aside from John and Rana, who were guaranteed to find one of them, this was the best shot to run into a wielder.

As we approached the front doors and tried them, Jim made a pensive sound. "Maybe. It's difficult to say, really. There's certainly SOMEONE living here. The lack of dust proves that, if nothing else." The doors had opened easily, admitting us to a very empty entrance hall with only a few suits of dull but well maintained armor and a pair of huge staircases to break up the emptiness. Jim rapped his cane on the side of the door, raising his voice. "Hello? Anyone in here? Miss? We were hoping to speak to the owner?"

I gave him a flat look and he just shrugged. "What? We're here to meet with the resident, this place is too big for me to feel like knocking, but there's no reason to be rude. If she can hear us we might save some time. I for one don't fancy wandering around this place for-" He froze, his eyes stopping as he scanned the room. "Ok. That was actually really impressive, love."

Turning to see who he was talking to, I froze too. Less that three feet away from us, a girl had appeared. She had a shy, disarming smile, big shimmering blue eyes, a cascade of platinum hair, and was wearing a white sundress. "Huh." I said in shock. "No kidding. I haven't been snuck up on in years. How did you..." I focused on her aura and then grinned. "Ah, dark corridor. Nice." I might have been more upset about that, thinking her one of Barbatos's servants, if I hadn't noticed something else in her aura. A core of buried light I'd seen in Zee and Drea since I awakened their keyblades.

She gave us a cheerful wave. "Hello. Welcome to my home. My name is Namine. How may I help you?" Despite her easy and welcoming tone, I saw a sort of panicked wariness in her eyes. I could tell we would be in for a bad time if we tried to attack her here, but then, we hadn't come for that.

Jim, sensing her unease, help up both hands soothingly, on still clutching his cane. "Peace, love. No need to worry. We just came to talk to you. The reason is a bit...complicated, but we're friendly. We just need to take our leave as soon as possible. We're just ahead of another group of visitors to this fine town who have reason to seek you out, and if we don't leave before they get here-"

"Then what?" Echoed a loud, drawling voice from above us. We both looked up to see a wildly grinning man with a mane of red hair emerge from a dissipating corridor. I was starting to get really fucking annoyed at dealing with those things. Is this what everyone else felt like dealing with me? The man's bloodthirsty grin fixed on all three of us. "Well now, isn't this lucky. We find the witch and a pair of our targets both. The big boss is going to be so pleased." He clucked his tongue. "But please, I interrupted you so rudely. You were saying what we would do if we found you?"

I grimaced. This guy was...kind of strong. Lots of power, darkness and fire in a sort of combusting wellspring of abyssal energy. His aura was wild as hell, but oddly focused. We could take him, I was just about certain, but I was also pretty sure this asshole wasn't traveling alone. There would be another one showing up soon, if the distortion in the dark energy around him was anything to go by. Sure enough, a second cloaked figure, this one with hood up, emerged from the shadows right beside him. Namine was staring up at them with a resigned horror that made my fists tighten, like she'd already given up all hope of escape.

Seeing the despair in her eyes, the hopelessness, I was reminded intensely of my own musings about the corner I was backed into. This girl was scared, she was being hunted by things she didn't feel prepared to deal with, and they wouldn't leave her alone. She wasn't one of my people, but she would be soon. She was a keyblade wielder who was going to be on my team, and that was enough of a connection for my obsession with protecting my friends to latch onto. I felt frost begin to crawl across the ground around me as my eyes began to glow with a eldritch light.

As if in answer to my obsession, my demonic power roared to live, stoked with flames of wrath that anyone would get in the way of my journey to protect my family. If I didn't get Namine on my side then I could never go home. Never see my mother. Protectiveness, self interest, helpless rage, it all swirled in my chest like a pressure cooker of power and destruction. I was so angry, I just wanted to scream. Wanted to vent all that anger right at these bastards.

The red haired one was snickering. "Aww, look at him. He's getting all upset. It's almost cute he thinks it matters. You gonna throw a tantrum, spooky? Or are you going to come with us quietly. If you do we won't hurt you. We won't even hurt the witch. You can trust ol' Axel. I absolutely wouldn't lie to you about this. Come along quiet and we can all walk out of here happy as clams, got it memorized?"

Namine's shoulder slumped, and the energy roared up higher. I'd never felt this before. Not really. Not like this. I knew what it was though. I'd done something similar more than a few times, it was just normally controlled, normally restrained by my will. This time though, I could feel the power rioting to escape, to be unleashed in a way that I had never experienced before.

I looked at Jim, my eyes still blazing, and nodded over to Namine, creating a quick sphere of energy to show him I needed him to shield her. I couldn't speak right now, not like this, and I'd need to him to keep her safe, because while this next part probably wouldn't kill any of them, it was going to fucking SUCK for anyone who wasn't braced for it. The last few times I did this it had been brutal enough, and I was on a whole other level now.

He gave me a subtle nod and began weaving a spell quickly, layering invisibly protections on her I could only see because of my aura sight. A pair of ghostly skeletal hands enclosed each of them, fingers lacing to create a full sphere before Jim started layering enchantments to reinforce them. Once I saw that was done I turned to Axel and his friend and gave a tight, close lipped smile. Axel smirked at me. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue? I'm waiting for an answer." I could hardly pass up a straight line like that. So I opened my mouth. I unleashed that pressure cooker of power. I barely had time to see Axel's face as the torrent of divine ghost devil ectoplasm exploded from my mouth, but what I did see was pretty funny.

June 21st 2016 Twilight Town, 1:00 PM EDT

The biggest surprise of unleashing the new and improved ghostly wail was that the fucking mansion wasn't leveled. My outburst had been directed and shaped by my intentions, as one might expect of demonic energy, and the intentions of a god were WAY more effective than the intentions of a run of the mill devil. To my absolute shock, the waves of unnatural force imbued into my wail exploded outward, and then BOUNCED off the fucking walls like an echo, amplifying and condensing on the spot where the two cloaked figured were standing.

I was still glad that Namine was under a shield, because even the transmission of all the energy cracked the floors and several of the suits of armor around the edges of the room, but all the damage was cosmetic in the end. Unfortunately, the insane amount of power I dumped out at them wasn't enough to finish the job. The cloaked form stepped forward, and there was a swirl of darkness as he reached out to grab...something. It was kind of a sword, but much bigger and thicker through the blade. Whatever it was, he brought it down with a roar, smashing it head on into the incoming waves of power.

There was a massive rumble as the ground started to quake, and the earth under their feet smashed through both floors of the house, a humongous pillar of stone stabbing up to meet the striking blade as the wail's energy was smashed on the rock like steel on an anvil. As that happened, Axel, the redhead, was already moving, and with a flash of fire a pair of intricate silver hoop blades flashed into existence. He hurled one forward, and with the fury of a shooting star it crashed into the wave of sound and fury just in time for the sword strike to slam IT into the rock too.

The combination caused a terrible explosion that soaked all the force from the attack, bleeding it off so that the actual sound waves barely managed to blow back the hood of the sword wielding man. Still, despite the dispersal of the blast, the two of them looked visibly shaken by the attack. They clearly hadn't anticipated that kind of power. I suspected Barbatos's understanding of my strength was lagging behind, since I hadn't really demonstrated it much since my ascension.

Namine, for her part, was just gaping back and forth between the two men and myself, even as Jim flicked his cane and the skeletal hands swept them into the shadows and out of the mansion. Slipping into the shadows myself I followed them out. The mansion wouldn't stay standing after another exchange, and I didn't need to deal with collapsing buildings on top of my fight. We reappeared in the forest, in a clearing a bit away from the mansion, and the two cultists stepped from swirling darkness right after.

Axel had reclaimed his second chakram, and the two of them had their weapons primed for a fight, but their easy demeanor was gone. "Well." Said Axel tightly. "THAT was dramatic. Like...really dramatic." He gestured at himself. "I have FACE tattoos and I thought that was excessive." I blinked, because I'd kind of assumed the triangular marks were some kind of war paint or magic symbols.

I shrugged. "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I don't suppose that was enough to scare you off?" It wasn't. I could see in their auras they were just getting started. Still, stalling would give my allies time to get prepared. I was pretty sure Namine wanted to help, even if she wasn't confident she could. Jim was much more confident he could make an impact, despite my ascension, my mentor WAS still one of the most powerful magic users on earth. He'd delved deeper into necromancy and death magic than anyone should safely be able to do.

I'd never actually asked Jim how he became a ghost. I knew it wasn't the normal way, and that the Nightside was involved, but he had a metaphysical weight to him that most spirits just didn't. The Shade had been a scary bastard, but Jim had smacked him down head on. Even on this current playing field the Gentleman Ghost was a force to be reckoned with, even if he had to be more of a scalpel than the hammer he was back home.

Letting my armor flow over me, I braced my feet to prepare for the next round. The two opponents didn't seem to know what to make of my torc, but they weren't dismissing it, both of them calling out for power that flooded their auras. The other guy, the bigger one with the butcher's blade, used an earth analogue of the dark energy elemental stuff Axel was tapping, and he had a LOT of it.

I called Tartarus to my hand, and I heard Namine gasp at the sight of it. I guessed she hadn't seen many keyblades before aside from her own. They couldn't be common if twenty of the damn things could create a universe. Axel flinched, but rather than fear I saw a pang of...loss? The keyblade had shaken him deeply, and it took him a minute to snap out of it and answer. "No. We aren't going anywhere. Not until we take you in. You're coming with us, even if we have to drag you."

That got another shrug from me. "Suit yourself man. Your funeral." I flicked out my keyblade, calling on the cold and the dark again as I infused it into a familiar shape. "THUNDER!" A bolt of freezing black force fell from the sky like a plummeting satellite, smashing down toward the pair with much more power than I'd ever used before. I was still buzzing from my obsession mixing with my demonic energy, and those two powers happened to be exactly what I needed for cranking out that spell.

Rock guy with the big sword was pretty fast, and he managed to react in time to the spell, slamming his sword into the ground as a dome of stone erupted from the ground around him and Axel. The lightning hit the stone as it completed it's descent, but unfortunately for rock guy, this wasn't normal lightning. Rather than grounding out, the lightning rolled over the stone, seeping into the darkening rock and leeching out the power and warmth as the earth began to crack and fracture from the cold.

There was a burst of flame from inside the dome, but the rapid change in temperature, while effective against the attack, just caused the stone to explode. Fortunately for me I was in my armor, so as I blurred forward I was able to ignore the blast as the rocks plinked off my metallic form and bring down Tartarus hard on the sword of rock guy was just barely able to bring up in time.

To my shock, he didn't break or stagger at the blast, and that dark earth aura flooded into the ground at his feet, reinforcing it so it didn't even crack. I unleashed a blistering flurry of slashes and attacks with every bit of speed I could crank out from my armor, pumping the demonic energy into enhancing my rate of movement as high as I could possibly get it.

I was shocked to see him manage to block it all. Not because he was able to keep up, but because his guard was so fucking tight I couldn't land any hits on his vitals, and the dark energy had seeped into his flesh, hardening it to an obsidian like stone shell. I saw a skeletal hand rake down to one side, though I couldn't focus on it, and Jim let loose a powerful spell on a distracted Axel.

That worked out well for me, because rock boy was WAY stronger than expected. I probably should have figured Barbatos's personal errand boys would be tough, but this was ridiculous. Bat god is OP please nerf. i slipped back from rock guy, putting up my guard in case of attack. He grinned at me, his face a rictus of pain. "Ok, you're pretty strong. Been a while since anyone pushed me this far. Your sword work is fantastic too. Sadly for you, I train regularly against a guy who uses flying wind lances, so speed isn't going to do the job."

I let the demonic energy fade from me as I began to loosen up my muscles. I had more than just speed. No matter how good his guard was, it couldn't do shit one I broke it. "Fair enough. Guess I'll have to put some english on it then. Before we do this, any chance I can get your name? You're pretty fucking scary, and anyone who develops a defense like yours is worth remembering. The control you need to counted that many attacks that are faster than you is no joke."

His grin widened. "Sure. Call me Lexaeus. And trust me, I know. Took me decades to get good at it. People always assume that defensive sword work is all about standing still and taking hits. Reactive defenses are so much more complicated than that. Deflecting blows in just the right way, knowing which hits I can take, reacting with the smallest possible movements, it's a mess. Curious to see how you're going to handle it. Maybe another speed upgrade? Do you know the haste spell or something?"

I didn't, though I was sure as fuck going to try to learn it now that I knew that was a thing. Still, it wasn't relevant right now. I flooded my armor with more power, but this time I focused the demonic energy on boosting strength. One of the major benefits of the stuff was that it worked based on desire. Force equaled mass times acceleration, so making myself stronger instead of faster shouldn't really have been viable, but magic finds a way, and I felt my body flood with power.

Without pausing to respond, I dashed forward, swinging down on Lexaeus again. He brought up his blade to block, and I saw his eyes widen as his knees buckled slightly before he could catch himself. He gritted his teeth and roared, the energy on his body exploded into a brown black nimbus of power that flooded the black stone shell, imbuing it with thrumming veins of earthly power. With a low bellow he shoved back at me, and actually succeeded in pushing me back a step despite my strength enhancement.

He brought down his blade at me in a cleaving overhand swing that I dove backwards to avoid. At this level of power that shit would have sheared right through my armor. The glow of the veins in his rock shell was getting fucking STRONGER too, and I could feel him increasing in power. To my shock though, when the blow landed a wall of rock shot up from the ground in front of him, blocking him from sight.

I smashed through it, but on the other side I just found a cursing Jim being helped up by Namine. I looked around, but Lexaeus and Axel were both gone. I cursed. "Shit. He noticed the battle was getting out of hand and booked it. Smarter than I gave him credit for. I take it you had Axel on the ropes?"

Jim exhaled noisily. "Miss. Namine here was using come kind of mental magic to throw him off his game and confuse him. I was able to barely put him off balance and had just found an opening when the other one buried me under a sheet of rock." He looked around unhappily. "We ought to go Morgan. Running was the right call because their information was wrong, but that Axel seems like a hothead. They'll be back, and they won't come alone." He was right. Gesturing for Namine to follow, we took off into the forest. I wanted to meet up with the others to check in. Good thing I sent Rana with Taylor. I wasn't sure anyone else could handle one of these assholes. I needed more powerful backup if these guys were all this strong. Luckily, I knew just how to do it. I had to awaken another of my friends to a keyblade.

June 21st 2016 Twilight Town, 2:00 PM EDT

The first thing I did after we got clear was head for Rana. We didn't have a place to stash Namine at the moment, but I needed to reach my daughter in case the other wielder had been attacked like she had. Luckily, when I arrived (keeping track of your kids is easier when they're made from a piece of your heart) she was still fine, and she and Taylor were trying to convince some pop star looking guy with weirdly spiky hair that they needed to talk to him in private.

Rana probably could have managed easy, since physically the kid looked around our age. Taylor, unfortunately, was in his forties, and was tall and wearing a trench coat. His patented John Taylor menace wasn't helping either, and I was pretty sure the man couldn't have been proclaiming stranger danger any harder if he'd been carrying a big glowing sign. When we arrived, the pop star guy noticed us and groaned. "Oh come on, more of you? Look I don't want to join your club or anything."

I wasn't sure how to respond to that, but fortunately, I didn't have to. As he finished talking Namine came into view and he just...stopped. Not like, holy shit she's hot kind of stopped either. His aura lit up like a neon billboard. Heartache, need, confusion, and a bunch of other emotions that passed too quickly for me to understand. It was clear that this guy was heavily affected by Namine, and just as clear he had no fucking idea why.

Her aura looked a bit better. Same general feelings, but without the confusion and the shock. She'd seen him before at the very least, but was just as attached. I just stood there, head shifting back and forth as the stared at each other, before Rana decided to butt in. "Ok this? This is kind of awkward. If you guys are finished eye fucking in the middle of the street maybe we could go somewhere? Between my dad showing up and the massive surge of emotion I felt from him a little while ago, I'm guessing we aren't really safe here."

That kind of jarred me out of the shellshock of seeing whatever weird fated meeting I had just witnessed. "Right." I said helpfully. "Go. We should do that. I'll contact the others and get them back to us." I reached out to Drea and Zee, leaving the latter to get in touch with everyone else (her magic was more versatile than just flooding the whole town with clones. I wasn't sure my clones could stay hidden from these guys) and then led the new guy, my daughter, Taylor, Jim and Namine back to the inn.

I'd considered taking them somewhere else, but I didn't know any other places, and at the very least we hadn't run into any of the cultists there yet. The new guy was quiet as a church mouse as we made our way there, having completely shut down when he saw Namine. She was quiet too, but she'd been quiet before, she seemed like she might just not be a super talky person.

Taylor had tracked the kid down at some kind of station on the other side of town, so when we picked them up, the time it took us to get back to the inn was enough time for the others to meet us there. Zee and Drea swarmed me as soon as I was in sight. "Morgan, thank the gods." Drea seemed almost frantic. "We felt that surge of emotion a little while ago, and then the massive burst of power that came after. If we hadn't felt your relief as you calmed down I would have headed straight for you."

I pulled them against me, giving them each a quick kiss. "It's fine. I'm glad you didn't come find me. The guys we ran into were dangerous, and you had to make sure we found the other wielders." I gestured over my shoulder. "The blonde is Namine, and the one with the drool hasn't mentioned his name yet."

That seemed to snap him out of his reverie, and he scowled at me. "I'm not drooling! And my name is Roxas. Would any of you mind telling me what the hell is going on? I...just realized that I followed a group of random strangers back to their hotel and I'm not really sure why. Who are you people, also did I see Olette downstairs? Is this her summer job? I realize that isn't really relevant to everything else probably, but I'm never letting her live that uniform down."

I snickered at the tone change as he went on, but looked over to Jim. "Hey boss, I need to take care of the new awakening, can you do me a favor and fill him in. Between you and Namine you should be able to bring him up to speed. Hell I'm sure they know things we don't, and if you catch Zee and Drea up on all of it I should be able to pick it up through the bond while I work."

Roxas had no complaints about some quality time with the pretty blonde he'd been mysteriously mooning over, and Jim was happy to help me out. Meanwhile, I had to figure out who the next keyblade recipient was. While they headed over to talk to my girls, I pulled the three oldest members of our group aside (not counting Jim) and offered them the chance to go first. Sindella, Taylor, and Suzie were the ones with the least reason to stick around, and two of them were basic human beings. Scary human beings sure, but they weren't at a level to deal with any of this.

"Alright." I told the three of them. "Like I mentioned, I'll be giving you all keyblades. I'm in a position where I can make that happen at the moment." I had about a hundred thousand points, between daily charges and some ritual stuff Zee and Drea and I had done on the beach. That should be enough to do the keyblade email. I'd need to brute force it into being active again, but I knew much more about my abilities now. I knew I could make that happen, even if I was pretty sure it was the best I could manage.

The three of them looked a bit blindsided. Taylor was the first to speak up. "I didn't expect us to be the first on the list mate." He seemed uncertain. "Are you sure Junior wouldn't be a better fit? Suze and I can take care of ourselves, and Sindy has her magic. Junior could probably use the boost. If not then I think Suzie should go first. I have my gift to fall back on if needed but her guns aren't going to cut it for much longer." He shot her an apologetic smile. "Sorry love."

She just shrugged it off. "You're not wrong. There was a reason I avoided taking jobs on the street of gods. If this thing can give me a powerup that let's me keep you two safe I'm all for it." She smirked at Sindella. "Princess over here isn't suited for combat, you just let me look after that big sexy arse of yours yeah?" Sindella blushed bright red at the statement and I had to bite back a snicker. I was definitely telling Zee about this conversation. Still, good for Taylor managing to make that work. I had been briefly worried Suzie might try to kill her again, but to be fair I didn't know the bounty hunter very well.

They discussed it among themselves for a bit, before finally, they all agreed Suzie should be the first to get a keyblade. With that out of the way I sent Sindella and Taylor to join the others and Suzie and I prepared for the awakening. "Alright, this won't be too crazy. Awakening Zee and Drea was a big production, but that's because I did it manually. You're going to be awakening through my power, so it shouldn't be too complicated. It might be a bit intense but just bear with it."

I opened my phone, focusing on the greyed out keyblade email, and PUSHED. I focused on the inherent falsehood of the email, on its deceptive nature. It wasn't real, not to anyone but me, it was just a lie, and since it was a lie I told with my power, who was to say where that lie ended. Was it really greyed out? Had I already used it? The original email was based on Deception, and I could deceive it again. I focused on the fact and leveraged every ounce of my conceptual weight and effort against the lever of that lie.

It was the hardest thing I'd ever done. My body shook, my nose bled, my knees buckled, and my head pounded as I forced what felt like a partial aneurysm to go off in my fucking brain. When I finally felt the email give and darken on the screen, I triggered the purchase and collapsed. Not blacking out, but barely lucid as I shuddered and twitched on the ground. I felt like I'd almost cracked something important in my soul doing that, but I hadn't. I'd recover. I breathed on the ground for a few minutes, Zee and Drea breaking off from talking with the newbies to rush over to me, but I couldn't hear what they said.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the pain started to recede. My body knit itself together easily once the strain was gone, perks of being part ghost, and I sat up with a groan. "Ow." I croaked. "That was...unpleasant." Still. I felt like next time it would be easier. Maybe not a LOT easier. But easier. Doing this was training, and that would have been worth it even if I hadn't needed to do so. I looked around for Suzie, and saw her leaning against the wall of the room holding a black box. "Oh, it's here. I didn't hear the door."

Zee glared at me. "Yeah no shit moron. That's because your fucking eardrums burst. The blood is still drying on the sides of your face." Her eyes pierced my with incalculable fury for a minute before she thres herself against me, squeezing me so tightly I was worried my ribs might crack. "Don't ever do something like that again without warning us. I felt the pain through the bond and thought you were dying. You said you had a way to do this, but you never said it was THAT. I was terrified I was going to lose you."

Drea nodded dourly, clearly just as upset and I smiled, putting both hands up placatingly. "I'll warn you next time, I promise. It should be easier doing it again anyway." I turned to Suzie. "So, you ready to get your keyblade? I've never seen it done this way from the outside before." I was curious what the awakening would look like. She shrugged and popped the lid on the box, finding a chain like I had.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Is this it? Yours seems bigger." She shrugged and reached down to pick up the black metal chain, showing a weird circular metal disk with a stylized wolfs head on it. As she picked it up, her body tensed, and her head flew back as darkness poured from her eyes and mouth, exploding out from her body. Luckily I wasn't a complete idiot and I'd long since talked to Tommy about isolating the room during this process, so there wasn't a reason to worry about the cultists noticing.

As she finished the process, she slumped against the wall. "Bloody hell. That was deeply uncomfortable." She grinned wolfishly. "Still, reckon it was worth it." She held out a hand and clenched it into a fist, her fingers coming to a stop around the grip of...a keyblade. But not like any of the ones I'd seen before. Our keyblades had all been old style skeleton key type keys. This one was more like a normal car key, except for a few thin bandages along the top and the hilt, which was like the other keyblades. Suzie swiped it through the air back and forth with a cackle. "Oh, yes. I think this will do nicely. Boys and girls, I'd like you to meet my keyblade. Fenrir."

June 21st 2016 Twilight Town, 3:00 PM EDT

The fenrir keyblade looked awesome. Way cooler than mine. I wondered if I could switch, but I felt bad even thinking it. I was pretty sure some keyblade wielders did the swapping thing, but that wasn't how I worked. Tartarus was made from my bloodline, custom forged for me directly. I didn't need a bunch of different keyblades. Just mine. It suited me. I suspected the others would feel the same for the most part. Something about awakening them the way we did made the one you got seem more...weighty.

Once Suzie had her keyblade, we headed over to join the others, who were catching Namine and Roxas up on everything that was happening. Roxas seemed...a bit confused. Not just by the rest of us, but in general. Like he was missing something. Judging by Namine's guilty aura I suspected she had something to do with that. Jim had mentioned she had mental powers. Now wasn't really the time to deal with that though. "Okay." I said. "Now that we found them...now what? I have no clue how to go about finding the others." I turned to Namine. "You're supposed to be connected to one of them?"

She frowned slightly but nodded. "Kairi. Yes. But...also no? I can probably help you find her, but I mostly travel through the dark corridors myself. If those are too dangerous I'm not sure how we would get to her. It's not like I have a gummi ship lying around. I don't really use them. Plus it's not like I have a homing beacon exactly. I can just kind of get a feel for where she is at the moment."

"Which leaves us with no way off this planet." I sighed in annoyance. "We can find something I'm sure, but we need some way to leave soon. I'm not sure how many of those cloaked assholes are around but I'm pretty sure they can call more quick, if they haven't already. We need to get out of here, because with just five of us playing at the right level there's no way we can pull this off. Plus Suzie still needs to be trained with her keyblade."

Zee raised a hand smugly. "I can probably help with that actually. Both parts. See, when we went to go look at the ghost train, we realized the line didn't actually stop at the station. When we followed it down we ended up finding something interesting. A locked tower on some weird floating island. The thing was warded magically up the ass, and I couldn't get in until I manifested Star Seeker. Turns out the tower let me access it because of the keyblade, but you called me back before I could go inside."

That brought me up short. "Wait...what? Do you think there was anyone in there? You mentioned that your keyblade came from some master wizard or something? Is that guy the one in the tower? " We could use a master wizard in our corner. Especially one who had access to a way off this fucking world.

"I think so." She said confidently. "I could feel a strong magic user inside, but I didn't want to go in without telling anyone. If it ISN'T master Yen Sid we could have been in trouble. Whoever is in there has to be a talented caster based on those wards." I was relieved she hadn't done the 'Morgan' thing and just charged in there. She was right that it would have been stupid and dangerous. As a group though we should be safe to head in.

Sindella seemed excited. "The spellwork there was absolutely brilliant! I could have spent days studying the wards. I can't wait to meet this master Yen Sid. He's clearly an extremely old and powerful sorcerer." I smiled a bit at her optimism. Seemed she was pretty sure the man was Yen Sid after all. I didn't blame her, that seemed likely given the Star Seeker's reaction. I wondered if this was the guy who created the structure of the spell images we had been using.

"Well." Said Artemis as she stood up. "Sounds like this is where we need to go. No reason to hang back when we could be getting to safety. Not sure how long it'll take these cultists to find the hotel, but we shouldn't be here when they do unless we want poor Olette to be out of a job." She looked around meaningfully and I nodded along. She had a point.

As everyone filed out I stopped Kit and Eddie. "Hey, I was thinking it over, and with everyone else having access to magic or some kind of gift there's no real obvious person to get a keyblade after Suzie. Taylor had a point about his gift. So with that in mind I was wondering if one of you was interested. Kit, I know you're a literal demon goddess, but Eddie is just a cursed guy with some light pyro powers right?"

Eddie snickered a bit at that. "Yeah, I'm not in the same weight class as everyone else. But I'm not pyrokinetic. I breathe fire and my skin can burn you, but it doesn't go further than that. I can also teleport, but I literally have to go through hell to do it, so I avoid that ability. Infernal portals attract all the wrong sort of attention. Are you sure you want to give me a keyblade though? Not that I don't appreciate it but...you don't know me."

I shrugged. "You followed my cousin to the street of gods and god captured and tortured for her. I can see enough in your aura to know you'd do it again if she needed it too. That's more of a spine than most people I know, and tons more loyalty. Kit deserves someone like that. If I can help keep the person she loves safe, I owe her at least that much." Kit had spent years looking for someone to put her first, and Eddie was definitely that person.

I didn't know him well, but with my abilities I didn't need to. He was a solid guy in the ways that mattered. Kit was looking at me in shock. Her face was human in appearance under the glamours Zee had made for them, and she looked so much like the version of her I remembered from our time in the labyrinth. She hurled herself forward to give me a tight hug, and I couldn't help but smile.

There was no way this was enough to make up for the complete lack of sympathy from me when we were in Gotham together, but it was clearly a good start. Past that I'd have to just keep trying. Eddie though, seemed to almost feel he didn't deserve the gratitude. He gestured to himself. "Man ever since I became like this, or at least like I am under the illusion I guess, no one has ever cared about me. Not really. I had a crush on my best friend Rose for a while, but she never really saw me that way, even if we were pretty tight. No girl gave me the time of day. Kitrina...Kitrina is the first girl who didn't care."

Kit rolled her eyes. "For the five thousandth time. Dating you is not an act of charity. You're a sweet guy with a good heart. Having red skin and white hair doesn't change that. Besides, it's not like people ignored MY condition." Eddie and I shot each other a look at that, both aware that there were definitely guys who would be into the succubus look. Especially given her powers. Kit just ignored us, if she even saw. "I'm grateful every day you decided to stay with me, and I'm so sorry about getting us kidnapped."

I left them to their argument over whose fault it was that Neron caught them, chipping in my own apology before I left, and then caught up to the others. We were all making our way out, though Roxas had stopped to say goodbye to Olette. None of us were quite sure when he'd see her again, and we hadn't been vague about that. He seemed...dazed, but he recognized that he wanted to say goodbye to his friend. She seemed confused where he was going, but he just claimed he was a relative of Artemis and that we'd come to town to pick him up.

Olette seemed too upset by losing him to question it much, and the girl's aura flared slightly pink as she hurled herself at him in tears, telling me she might have a little crush. We finally got out of there, heading for a hill at the back of the town. "So." I asked as we walked. "Why are we going to this hill? I thought we were catching a train."

"Because." Said Zee patiently. "The train doesn't stop at the station. That's why it's a GHOST train. The track doesn't even connect, we need to jump on as it goes by. It always arrives at around sunset." Her voice was confident and full of smugness as she stared cockily towards the tunnel the train would presumably come from. I gave her a minute to figure out why she'd just said something dumb.

Sindella was the first to notice it, pressing a hand to her forehead in exasperation. "Zatanna, sweetie. This is Twilight Town. It's ALWAYS sunset." My girlfriend froze, grimacing at her own slip up as everyone chuckled at her expense, but she took it with grace and aplomb. Everyone knew Zee was a genius, and being a bit of an airhead sometimes didn't change that. Plus when my snickering got too loud I head Artemis cough 'ocean' and immediately shut up. Everyone had dumb moments.

Luckily, it actually wasn't too long until the train came around. We spent an hour or two just relaxing on the hill (which was really nice) before we finally heard the sound we'd been waiting for. It came right through the tunnel we'd been keeping watch on at the base of the hill. I glanced down into the tunnel as we listened to its approach. "Wow. They really made this convenient. Like...aside from this one small fence there's nothing stopping us from hopping down off this hill and onto the train as it passes."

It really was childs play to hop down onto it. I could see how Zee and Sindella got to the tower so easily. We waited for a minute and then as it came by, we all hopped down. With me and Zee here there was no need to worry about anyone falling, I was more than fast enough to catch them. As we slipped through the hatch at the top, I stopped to stare in delight at the train itself. "This is the coolest fucking train I've ever seen!"

Zee giggled at that, slipping her arm into mine. "Isn't it? Purple with gold stars and that cool little wizard hat on top? I love it." We heard a throat clearing from behind and turned to see Rana tapping her foot. Zee just smiled playfully and rolled her eyes. "Alright miss impatient. We're coming. We should be inside when it goes through the portal anyway." With a grin I scooped her up into a princess carry, laughing at her happy squeal and our daughter's groan at our affectionate behavior.

As we dropped down into the train, I looked back at Twilight Town through the windows. I hadn't been here long, but I'd learned more in this place than anywhere I'd ever been, at least about myself. I was going to come back some day to visit. First though, we needed to figure out our next step, and hopefully the owner of the tower would be able to help us. We still had so much left to do, and we could use all the help we could get.

Having a ton of fun with this arc. I love all this KH stuff, and I feel like it twines in so well with the world I've built here. This is probably my favorite arc to write so far. As usual pat-reon has the advance chapters at that site /malcolmtent. Hope you all enjoy.