B-B-B-Back from my little vacation and completely rejuvenated. I actually couldn't wait to start writing again so during downtime that I had I began writing for at least two more chapters of this story. This is one of them and you won't have to wait long to read the other either. Both of them are pretty action packed as well so enjoy!


Chapter 39

Battle in the Metropolis

It was another one of those strange bust wonderful times. They had gone completely from being stupefied at how they would escape the island to now travelling through the air in a caravan strapped to a rocket they were using to get to the city faster.

Uh huh, try thinking that again with a straight face, Luna.

It was creative and witty and utterly amazing and-

"Luna, earth to Luna, you still there?"

Luna drew her eyes away from the fluffy white cottons that were floating just below her. It was Donald who had interrupted her thoughts.

"We're almost there! Get ready," he announced. Their journey had only taken an hour in all. She was surprised it had been that quick. Indeed, judging by the uncomfortable feeling in her stomach, they were descending slowly but surely and the rocket was beginning to slow down in speed.

They were most likely going to fight that robot again, the Omnidroid, Sora had called it. They had barely any time to devise a strategy to beat it. Luna hoped then, that having more assistance this time in the form of a family of supers would be enough to take it on effortlessly. It was only Goofy that couldn't help them. Noticing that he had been unusually absent and depressed during their trip for this very reason, Luna had sat with him to provide comfort.

"Y'know, that shield was special," the sulking Goofy begun as Luna patted his back gently. "The king gave it to me as a present for serving under him for so long, or at least that was the official reason he had to give at the ceremony. When were alone he said the real reason was because we were the best of pals. It really warmed my heart when he said that, and I've tried to keep it well maintained ever since. I feel like I've let him."

Luna shook her head vigorously, wanting to offer her own opinion quickly. "You haven't, Goofy. You haven't let him down. That bond that you guys share is stronger than any material thing that you can be given, I think. Mickey probably thought the same thing as well which is why he called you his best friend. I don't think any object, broken or not, can replace that."

Goofy slowly looked up, his eyes watery in a way that Luna had never seen before. They weren't the tears of joy she was used to from him, that was for sure.

"You're right. Thanks Luna, you're a real pal, y'know that? But even then, I know the shield couldn't replace our friendship but… Max…"

Luna's mouth formed a perfect "o" upon realizing what Goofy had meant. "I see. You wanted to pass on your shield to Max."
"I was thinking that after I finished this journey with you and Sora, I might resign as captain of the knights and ask if Max could take my place. All I know is that I'm getting a bit too old for this," he explained with a chuckle.

"Oh, don't be like that. I'd say you're still pretty spry," Luna commented tilting her head coquettishly.

"If I was then I wouldn't be getting hit on the noggin by heavy objects all the time." Goofy chuckled at this before continuing, "But even I don't know how long I'll be able to get away with that. If Max is up to it after he gets back with Riku and Kairi, then I'll ask the King. If not, then I guess I'll have to remain as captain until I find a suitable candidate."

"Out of interest, what would you do after retiring then?" Luna asked. Goofy wiped the still tears from his face and rubbed his chin while pondering this. The answer seemed to soon come to him like a lightbulb had switched on in his head. Luna thought that she could see it too.

"Hmm, you know I've always wanted to be a fisherman. Max and me used to go out to sea when he was young, not that we caught a lot of fish but it was a fun experience anyway."

"That's great, Goofy! My dad was a fisherman. I remember all the times that I've went fishing with him. It's really fun, or at least the parts where I didn't fall into the water were anyway."

Goofy snapped his fingers at this. "Then maybe we should go fishing together sometime. Ahyuck, yep! You, me, Sora and Max, we should definitely go after this is all done!"

Luna couldn't help but let out a big grin at this suggestion. Goofy certainly seemed a lot more like his usual self now. Chirpy and absolutely overwhelming with positive energy, he was the prime motivational influence within the group. It simply wouldn't do to have him be the opposite of that.

"I'd love to Goofy, but that's all a while from now, right?" she asked somewhat hopefully.

"Of course! No need to worry. I'm gonna make sure that I protect the both of you from whoever these Moira's Crescent and KRONOS folks are. That'll be my final mission, or it would be if I had my shield." Goofy let out a huge sigh and looked down again in sadness.

Uh oh, think of something quick Luna.

"Well you're still helping by just being here, Goofy. If you could keep Stephanie safe for us, that'd be enough, because sometimes we may not be there for her."

So it had been decided that Goofy and Stephanie would stay in the caravan while the others fought. The words had felt like something Luna had to say and yet something she didn't want to admit. The fact that, try as she might, she couldn't always be there for her new little sister was a painful admittance. She only had two eyes in front, and the only thing she could do was be there for her when she wasn't fighting, but what about when she was?

A heavy thud threw her off her footing only to be caught by Sora who must have been expecting it. After thanking him, she peered through the window to see that they had hit a freeway, with Helen driving them hastily through the heavy traffic.

"This is going to take forever at this rate, we'll never make it!" Bob burrowed his face into his hands in annoyance.

"Don't give up now. We'll just take a detour then," Helen replied.

"A detour? What do you me-AAAH!" Sora was lifted off his feet and was thrown into one of the side windows as Helen drove the car off the freeway and onto a similar looking one below it.

"I see it!" Donald pointed at the window next to him. Luna quickly made her way over to him before Helen could do something else crazy. She heard sirens and multiple shots ringing out, hitting against metal. The shots were ineffective. The Omnidroid didn't even seem so much as budge in response. It lifted on of its robotic arms up, clearly poised to attack and-

Her view was obstructed as the vehicle entered a tunnel.

"This tunnel should take us directly to the robot. Hold on everyone, I'm breaking a few rules of the road here."

Sora managed to pull his face away from the window he had come in contact with and frowned at Helen. "I only wish you had told us that before."

The artificial lights that illuminated the long tunnel eventually gave way to natural light and buildings as tall as the ones in Alexander, but more modern and consistent in design.

"And to think that just an hour ago we were somewhere completely different… the world sure can be a scary thing, huh, Stephanie?" Luna looked to the eight year old who was sitting on Violet's lap and was being held tight by her.

"Haha, it is crazy. Isn't it?" Stephanie nodded in agreement.

The caravan soon came to a stop and all of its members save Stephanie and Goofy quickly got out only to watch as Syndrome 'battled' against the Omnidroid. He flew around the Omnidroid like an annoying fly on what appeared to be some kind of jet boots that allowed him to stay up in the air. At the end of the day however, it was just theatrics.

Luna watched with nothing but disgust in her eyes as Syndrome pretended to put up a fight against the robot when in reality he was only dismantling its parts through a remote that was attached to his wrist. She guessed it really was true that you tended to notice more imperfections about a person you disliked. That was probably how she had noticed the remote in the first place.

He had managed to gather a considerable crowd as well, who watched in amazement as Syndrome felled one arm after another. Before he could finish this, something that he hadn't predicted and Luna and the others easily could have, had happened. As Syndrome was working on the taking off the third leg, the robot seemed to become self-aware of the situation.

It refused to let itself be taken apart anymore.

Another tentacle was raised from behind Syndrome which moved forward swiftly and slammed into his back. Syndrome flew up, but the Omnidroid was quicker. It grabbed Syndrome by the leg and lifted him up into the air, grabbed the remote device from his wrist and threw it away. Finally its claws squeezed at one of Syndrome's jet boots and crushed them before flinging him away.

Syndrome spiralled off with the remaining jet boot into the lake and landed in the water with a small splash. Luna stifled a small laugh. She had the feeling she wasn't the only one.

"Time to spring into action, we're the only ones who can do this. We can't allow that thing to escape," Helen said. She was about to move when Bob grabbed onto her arm. This the short-sided effect of not actually stopping her but extending her elastic arm instead.

"Wait a second. You all need to stay in the caravan. I can handle this," he said though not directly looking at her.

Luna frowned. "I'm sorry, I thought we were doing this together."

"Yes, Bob. Was all that about never lying again just some attempt to woo me on to your good side again?" Helen asked in an annoyed tone.

"No, it's not like that. I just-"

"Sometimes I just don't understand what's going on in your head and it's not like you'll let me in-"

"I'm telling you now, it's just that-"

"And I worry about you constantly but you always seem to push me away and-"

"I CAN'T LOSE YOU AGAIN!"

Silence followed after Bob had yelled these words, other than the rampaging robot that was ahead of them of course. For the few seconds it was worth though, that robot didn't really seem to matter. It was just muffled background noise. Luna and the others with her were merely observers to Helen and Bob's pain—the pain of losing each other.

"Not again," he continued more softly. "I'm weak. I almost lost you last time and I'm not sure… if I can protect you this time."

Helen looked up at her husband with a sad smile and allowed her arm to drag her body towards him. When she was within close distance, she put up a loving hand and caressed the side of his face.

"You won't lose me. You'll never be alone, Bob. Besides, we're heroes! What's the worst that could happen, right?"

Luna looked Sora's way and then back again. She could have sworn she had heard Sora mumble the word 'hero' after Helen had finished.

"Hey hey hey, enough with the lovey dovey. Let's go be heroes then!" Dash yelled ecstatically.

"Watch out!" Sora yelled, quickly summoning his Keyblade. The Omnidroid had grabbed a car from a selection parked on next to each other and threw it at them. Sora timed his jump and sliced through the car quickly. Helen ran past the two cleanly cut pieces and used the two street lamps opposite each other as a rubber band. She was propelled forward and landed just a few feet away from Omnidroid. She proceeded to further extend herself from one building to another across the road.

The Omnidroid soon crossed the human wire that Helen had created and tripped over it. Sora, Luna and Donald soon joined in, unloading an impressive display of Ice magic in order to glue its arms to the ground. They followed up with a variation of spells on the main body, all of which refused to put a single dent on it.

Donald scowled at the fact that his magic would be ineffective. "The body is resistant to magic? Aww, more great news to brighten up my day. Just how far did this Syndrome guy plan ahead?"

"Syndrome used the Omnidroids to record the data from previous Supers which each subsequent version then took into account. If the last model recorded your data, it's not too much of a surprise," Bob explained.

"And not just that. He and the rest of KRONOS have a whole heap of information on us so I wouldn't be surprised if he developed them based on our data as well," added Sora.

"But it's not entirely resistant to our magic though. The tentacles apparently aren't so you can focus on that, Donald," Luna pointed out.

"I might be able to take it out, but I need to charge up my Ars Arcanum," Sora said though Luna could tell he was already beginning whatever he was talking about because his Keyblade and body were glowing.

"Charge? Sora, what do you mean?" Luna asked. "Actually, forget that. I trust you. We just need to stall for time, right? How long?"

Sora quickly shrugged with a strained face. "No idea actually. This is my first time trying this method. It's something me and Neuge came up with. Outside of training, I have no idea how it will work. I might even mess up."

"Sora, that's not like you." Luna did her best to assure him. "You're not gonna fail. We're going to give you the time you need so hang in there… I can't believe it's me that's giving you the pep talk and not the other way around."

"It's just one of those days, I guess," Sora said somewhat tiredly. Whatever it was that he was doing was weighing on him significantly.

"Yeah, one of those days…" Luna repeated with a nod. For a brief moment, they stared into each other's eyes only to both look away with a slight blush. Luna cleared her throat and looked to the others. "Right, let's do our best while Sora does his- uh, thing."

Everyone nodded and split up in order to limit whatever available options the Omnidroid had. The Omnidroid went into attack Helen only for its claw to be intercepted and deflected by Violet's forcefield. Donald raised his staff and conjured tall icicles from underneath the Omnidroid. This knocked the robot off his balance allowing Bob to knock it flat off its feet with what could be called a truly incredible punch.

As for Luna, she had spotted immediately what her next move was going to be.

"Dash, I need you to get that remote, pronto!" she called to him from afar.

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Dash yelled, already running for the device that Luna had pointed to. She could only hope that it wasn't broken.

"Luna, get out of the way!" Sora yelled to her suddenly. Luna looked back at the Omnidroid and just barely cartwheeled away in time as a red beam of light struck where she had previously been.

The smell of scorching concrete wafted its way into Luna's nostrils, a powerful smell that caused her to step back and trip over a hump in the road. The heat was almost unbearable even from where she was sitting and she could feel the smoke tickle her tongue.

From its sideways position, the Omnidroid's visor grew a bright red once more before firing off another beam of light at Luna, and a second, and a third.

Get up, Luna. You have two legs for a reason. Move!

A silly motivation or not, Luna listened to the little voice in her head and forced herself onto her feet quickly before dodging the first beam. There was no time to rest after her first move, and with little room to manoeuvre, she trusted both her instincts and skills from her time in ballet. She bent her knees and arched her body backward. The beam sailed right above her stomach and hit the building behind her. The impact however, since she was close enough, blew her forwards and onto the ground once more.

The final attack was then almost impossible to dodge because Luna wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time. She wanted to believe it was almost impossible because if there was anything this journey had taught her, it was that nothing was impossible. Of course that usually applied to things within her control and this was not really one of those times… but there was always hope.

This "hope" came in the form of a small but incredibly fast delivery from certain death.

Dash had taken hold of her hand and had dragged her away before she could even process what had happened. She felt light, both in body and mind. Objects and buildings flashed by in a blur and by the time everything became still and normal, Luna still had no idea what was going on.

"Wow, that was… wow… oh dear, I don't know what even happened there but thanks, Dash," Luna complimented. She was still just getting over seeing her life flash before her eyes.

"That's what happens when you try to show off," replied Dash smugly.

"And you weren't?" Luna shot back. Dash grinned and opened the opposite hand of the one he had taken hold of her with. In his hand was the device Syndrome had dropped, there was no mistake about it.

"A two-for-one special. Nice going, bud." Luna accepted the remote into her hands and turned her attention to the Omnidroid. The robot had already gotten up but Bob, Helen, Violet and Donald were doing their best to contain the threat. Now all she had to do was make sure she didn't mess up.

But she had absolutely no idea how to use the device. In front of her was a remote that had several buttons, none of which she knew was responsible for what.

"Where's the manual when you need one?" Luna muttered to herself as she struggled between which button to press. Well in any case, she supposed that in this kind of situation there really was only one thing she could do.

Before she could attempt to press all of the buttons at once, the Omnidroid had spotted the remote in her possession and retracted its arms, smoothly transforming into a giant sphere. Luna took off into a run as the ball came rolling down the street after her. It was very easily like something out of a wacky cartoon she used to watch on Saturday mornings.

If there was anything else that linked her situation to a cartoon, it was her losing her footing and tripping. Her hand had lost its grip in that moment and the device flew out of her hands into the middle of the road. With little else aside from a lake next to her, Luna held her breath and rolled into the water before the Omnidroid could flatten her.

Like Syndrome, she fell in with a simple splash but her mind was anything but simple at the moment. She could feel herself being dragged deeper and deeper into the lake's depths. When she looked below her, she saw them. The ghostly and pale, yet clear features of her parents. Their hands were gripped firmly around Luna's like prison cuffs and she was being dragged down by them.

Upon seeing them, Luna was immediately taken by fear. She had completely forgotten to hold her breath and by the time she realized that her parents weren't really there and it was only her that was gripping her hands tightly, she grasped at her neck and fought desperately to get back to the surface in order to regain air.

She was failing. She was once again feeling lightheaded and her arms and legs were getting tired. She was about to give up, but she had forgotten her own thoughts of how nothing was impossible. A hand grabbed onto hers and was pulling her up and out. The incident was nostalgic, reminiscent of when she had almost drowned in Radiant Garden, and the time when her dad had saved her during their fishing trip one time. But it was Sora, just like before, who had pulled her out once again and lay her on the ground.

"You have a knack for falling into water, huh?" Sora joked as Luna coughed and hacked up water she had been swallowing. Beside him was a brightly blue glowing Kingdom Key.

"And I'm starting to think you have sixth sense for knowing when I'm in danger," Luna stuttered jokingly, slightly shivering from the cold. She tried to sound humorous but deep down she was afraid. It had happened again. There was something wrong with her, she knew it. Why was this happening? No, the answer was pretty obvious when she thought about it. Instead she should have been asking, why her?

"Ah, it's nothing. You would have done the same thing, I'm sure." Sora ran his hands through his wet now slightly less spiky hair.

"So what exactly are you planning? Did you finish it or did my little swimming trip interrupt things?" Luna asked. Her clothes clung to her frame all wet and cold. She feared that if she stayed in them longer, she might catch a cold.

"Don't worry. I-I have ev-everythi… under c-contro…" Sora let out a loud yawn and fell forward.

"Sora!" Luna cried out and quickly bent down to check on him. He was struggling to keep his eyes open. But what had even happened? One moment, Sora had dived into cold water just to save her, the next he was nearly out cold.

An audible ringing sound next to her ear shifted her gaze to the Keyblade that remained unattended to. Her hand invited its way around the handle and a familiar warmth wrapped its way around her arms.

"This… this is Sora's warmth… and someone else's? Why does it feel so familiar?" Luna looked away from the Kingdom Key in time to see Dash flip forward and fall onto his back, his speed unable to outrun the missiles that the Omnidroid was equipped with. She looked back at the Keyblade. She felt it spreading though her entire body. With this power, with Sora's strength, and her own, she could do this. She had to do this. She was the only one who could.

Luna brazenly ignored her cold body and made to advance forward when she felt a hand brush against her arm only to slide off it soon after. Luna looked down in surprise to see Sora trying to stand up.

"I'm fine… I can… handle this…" Sora held onto Luna's arms for support as she slowly stood back up and weakly extended his hand forward for the Kingdom Key. "Trust me…"

The entire time, Sora's gaze never left her. He was practically forcing his eyes open to show his conviction, despite the toll that had been taken on his body. She had no right to take that away from him.

She nodded and handed the Keyblade back to him. Suddenly it was as if Sora had become a stronger person and Luna had become weaker once more. The warmth had left her body and she was cold once more.

"That was your mana, wasn't it? You somehow poured it into the Keyblade which is why you were like that," Luna realized. How had he and Neuge even developed such a technique anyway? She had taught Luna different things from Sora as a way of getting them to adapt to their strengths and weaknesses.

"Yeah. It's like how we direct our mana into our hands to use magic, except I'm transferring it into my Keyblade. If I'm not careful and overdo it, it could- well… I feel really great right now!" Sora seemed to be back to his old self, as if he hadn't just dropped right in front of her beforehand.

"So what can I do to help then?" Luna asked.

"You, Donald and the others just need to keep that thing distracted so I can get to it. Don't worry, I'll be quick," Sora said. Luna nodded and brought Dream Seeker back into her hand before running past him.

Sora watched carefully as Luna started casting Blizzard magic along with Donald to freeze the robotic tentacles in place. He winced and began walking. The mana that had been absorbed into his Keyblade had drained his energy completely. His body was not his own. It was as if a ton of bricks had been bestowed on his back for him to carry. His legs were not his own. They shook and knocked against each other violently protesting his use of them. He ignored their cries though. He didn't care, not anymore. What he was focused on now was one thing and one thing only.

I can't falter. Not now. Have to save my friends…

As long as he had legs, he would use them. As long as he had arms, he would fight. As long as he had a head on his shoulders, he would stare into the face of death not with a whimper, but with courage and boldness. In his mind it was already decided—he would save his friends or die trying.

He took off into a full speed run, warping to move greater distances. Some of the Omnidroid's claws broke away from the ice they were contained in and worked their way to Sora. Rather than dodging these tentacles, he met them head on, parrying them with the glowing Kingdom Key and knocking them away. Before the Omnidroid could bring its leg down on Sora again, the tentacle in question separated from its body and fell to the ground. Sora stopped in his tracks briefly and turned to see Violet with the remote that Luna had dropped earlier.

"Thanks," he uttered quickly before continuing on. The Omnidroid turned its head toward Violet and fired a laser her way but she projected a small forcefield and repelled the beam before pressing another button, another tentacle detaching from the Omnidroid in response.

The Omnidroid brought its arms into its body and transformed once again into its spherical form. It started its roll to Violet but something got in its way that halted its tracks. Sora had jumped in the way and held the Keyblade by the chain, twirling it around and clashing with the still rolling sphere. Theoretically this shouldn't have stopped the Omnidroid in its tracks but the power of the Keyblade seemed to be more than a match to counter the Omnidroid's speed and weight.

Sparks and smoke littered the street as the two objects clashed. Sora only expressed his surprise that this had actually worked for a few seconds before putting all his strength into push back against the Omnidroid.

CHING!

He had done it. He had won. The Keyblade found its mark and slowed down to cut through the Omnidroid's thick armor. Sora put whatever remaining strength he had into completely tearing through the Omnidroid's body. Whatever resistance the armor had made for the Keyblade had soon disappeared when the blade reappeared out of the other side of the body.

The Keyblade disappeared from Sora's hands and he breathed heavily as the Omnidroid went completely limp. Its circuitry was fried and electricity was starting to crackle around its body. Luna quickly ran up to him and dragged him away before the Omnidroid could explode but instead, it simply collapsed and shut down.

"Sora, promise me something? Don't ever use that again. If you overdid it and something bad happened, I don't know what I'd do," she said, pulling him into a needy hug. The dampness of their clothes made things somewhat uncomfortable but they tried their best to ignore it.

"Yeah, I can't believe that happened myself." Sora looked below Luna's shoulders to see pale hands barely resembling his own trembling violently and uncontrollably. That couldn't be a good sign.

Luna pulled away as the Parr family and Donald came to join them.

"That was… pretty impressive," Bob complimented giving Sora a slap on the back. Sora gritted his teeth at the sharpness of the slap. He would be keeping this to himself but the guy really needed to learn how to control his strength.

"I don't think now is the time for celebrating. Look at them, they're drenched," Helen pointed out to Bob before turning back to him. "How about coming to our house then? It's not too far and you can warm up there and have dinner with us. Oh, that and you haven't met the baby of the family yet. Jack Jack is his name. He doesn't really have any superpowers like we do but that doesn't make him any less important. I hope the babysitter isn't having any problems. I laid out the clothes on the bed and his diapers, told her where the food is and-"

"Honey, you're rambling again," Bob said, using the opportunity to summarise. "We'd be honored to have you guys stay for the day."
"Deal," Luna said quickly. Even if she wasn't a part of the family, she would give anything to sit in a house and eat a family dinner again. It had dawned on her that she had taken so many things with her own family for granted and had never really appreciated them. She wanted to feel that way again, that and she wasn't exactly ready to head back to the Gummi Ship yet.

As they made their way back to the caravan however, both Luna and Sora couldn't help but think that they had forgotten something. It was that something that would inevitably ruin any chance of having the normal family dinner Luna wanted to experience again.