AN: References used: Teen Titans, Marvel/X-Men, Kingdom Hearts (our focus), Bleach, Final Fantasy (I: Dawn of Souls, VII, X, XII, and XIII), Call of Duty, Naruto, Pokémon, Nintendo, 300, Dragonball Z, and Johnny Test. In this chapter: Fantasia and Hercules.
Chapter 5 — Triple Threats
-Trio Alpha's path-
Mooch, Slowpoke and Bongo find themselves on what appeared to them as a savage island. The land supporting it was fractured, and the water around it was a vivid purple.
"Dude... this place is wrecked." said Slowpoke.
"Hmm..." Mooch sounded.
"What's up, Mooch?" Bongo asked.
"My zanpakutō... I can sense it, but it's still a ways from where we are now." Mooch replied.
"Oh yeah, your sword did fly into this place."
"When it does that, it's after some special ability that is important to have if I want to survive, and if possible, bring victory to the Titans. It helped me get rid of Subspace with the Mirror of the Zodiac, that giant golden circle emblem you guys saw when you guys got out of the place. I can't use it again for a while, so hopefully, I won't be facing some heavy force soon."
"You should abandon that hope..." said a nearby male voice.
"Who's there?" Slowpoke questioned, as he and his brothers were battle-ready, automatically grasping their Sacred powers. They decided not to ascend to Legendary because they would use up too much energy too fast in that state, and even more if they were to go to Ascended Legendary. They had to conserve themselves.
"An elite ruler of darkness..." he replied, as his back was shown to the three brothers. He had long white hair, and he wore a long beige coat over his white vest and black pants.
"That's not explaining enough. Identify yourself, now." Mooch demanded.
The man turned around. "It is I, Ansem! You should realize now that this realm is one of darkness, and that all three of your hearts must submit to one thing: eternal darkness."
Bongo crossed his arms. "Oh, did you tell Wrinkle that too?"
"I honestly don't know who you speak of, but he must be someone that you are after... am I correct?"
"Yes. About what you said about our hearts and darkness... yeah, not gonna happen, man." Slowpoke told him.
Ansem brought his arm in while clenching his fist. "All hearts are created from darkness!"
"Ansem, even you should know that that's not true. You're telling the wrong people about how hearts are created. We're the Bean Titans, so allow us to shed a little light through your mind... one way or another." Mooch explained.
Suddenly, a shadic figure that appeared to be a guardian appeared beside Ansem.
"By all means, try!" Ansem exclaimed, floating around the area.
"Flame Whips!" Bongo yelled, swinging his fists behind him to create long lashes of flame appear. He held one in each of his hands. Bongo swung one of the whips at Ansem.
"Guardian!" he beckoned, as his shadic apparition suddenly appeared in front of him, protecting him from the fire.
"What the hell? That thing doesn't look hurt at all, and it's on fire..." Bongo murmured.
"Maybe we just gotta hit it harder! Meteor Crush!" Slowpoke shouted, preparing to punch the guardian with earth-breaking heavy force.
His fist actually threw Ansem and his guardian through a nearby hut, but his guardian was still protected even though Ansem took a share of pain to his back.
"That thing isn't even scratched. What's with it?" Slowpoke wondered.
"They're both Heartless." Mooch claimed with certainty.
"What?" Bongo uttered.
"Think about it. Your fire and Slowpoke's earth-based fist didn't do so much as to make his guardian even flinch. Since it's a Heartless, it must be weak to light."
"So we can hit it with a Kamehameha or I can slow it down with my optic laser." Slowpoke figured, thinking through the situation.
"It won't be that easy. We're trying to get to Ansem too, and believe it or not, he's a Heartless too. Of course he doesn't look like it, but his guardian wouldn't be protecting him if he wasn't, as he said before, an elite ruler of darkness. If we're going to take them out, we'll have to use one big Kamehameha... and unfortunately, I'm the only one with the Super Kamehameha."
"No problem... all banana-for-brains and I have to do is hold Ansem down before you fire it."
"Too bad you won't get to!" called a familiar voice, flying in from a distance.
"That's... Wrinkle!" Bongo acclaimed.
"In the flesh." he responded, appearing next to Ansem, whose guardian shielded him from the bulldog.
"No... stand down, my guardian. He seems promising to me." Ansem ordered.
Wrinkle scanned Ansem and saw the Heartless emblem on his chest. "You must be Ansem." Wrinkle said.
"Yes I am. Do I need to enlighten you about the darkness?"
"I already have an idea, thank you. However, unlike these three rebels, I am in favor of your views."
Ansem's guardian disappeared when it sensed that Ansem was willing to listen to Wrinkle. "That's good to hear. So, have you come here for a reason?"
"One that is beneficial for the both of us. Just follow me, and ignore these three." Wrinkle told him.
Wrinkle and Ansem flew towards the hidden cove in the interior of the island.
"You're not getting away, Wrinkle! Dragon Fang Eruption!" shouted Bongo, unleashing his signature fire blast where it would interrupt their path. Strange enough, Wrinkle and Ansem kept moving...
"Bowser... they're yours." Wrinkle murmured, just before he and Ansem hit the fire. Around the same time, the Koopa King suddenly warped in front of the fire blast and consumed it whole, while Wrinkle and Ansem escaped.
"Oh crap..." Bongo said under his breath, after seeing what the Acolyte had done.
Bowser had steam coming out of his nose. "Here... let me return the favor!" Bowser growled, shooting the fire back at the three Titans with double force in a massive fireball that moved fast.
"DEFENSES! NOW!" Mooch quickly warned his trio, assuming his Iron Defense.
"Armor of the Mantle...!" Slowpoke exclaimed with an inflection at the end, hoping not to suffer too much pain from the fire.
"Helio Shield!" Bongo shouted, calling his perfect barrier for any fire-based move.
The scene quickly changed so that the island was in bird's-eye view. An explosion of flames erupted all over the island, and a ring of fire stood on the outer rim of it. The scene fades to black, for now.
-Trio Bravo's path-
"Huh? Where are we now?" Christina questioned.
She, Megan and Sly found themselves on a region where a massive mountain was set in the middle. The other half of the mountain was shielded by a heavy ring of clouds.
"That mountain... it looks familiar." Megan wondered.
"Mt. Olympus." Sly guessed.
"Isn't that like... Ancient Greece?" said Christina.
"Isn't that lava?" Megan asked, pointing at the mountain, which now had magma oozing down from it.
"The Magma Titan. We're in trouble. The Titans are loose, and I'm not talking about us." Sly proclaimed.
"Well, at least one of them are out of the way." Christina said optimistically.
Megan turned around. "Um... you might've spoken too soon."
Before Sly and Christina looked back, the other three Titans had fallen in defeat from the battle on Mt. Olympus. Once they looked where Megan was looking, they realized that there was one more Titan.
"WHERE'S HERCULES?" the Cyclops yelled towards Trio Bravo. He looked a bit bruised after being previously beaten by a weakened hero.
"He's probably busy right now. Besides, you need a MAJOR breath mint." Christina replied.
"NO ONE TALKS TO ME LIKE THAT! HAAAA!" the cyclops outbursted, preparing to smash the three with both of his fists at once. He had his fists above his head, before he threw them down.
Without a word, Trio Bravo used Flash Step to escape the Cyclops's quaking force. (Music starts: "Airship Fortress" — as heard from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.)
"That's one way to get him angry..." Megan murmured.
"Sorry." Christina said.
"He's not gonna leave us alone. We'll have to make him like all his fellow Titans—defeated." Sly assumed.
"Well, with all of that fat on him, how are we even gonna move him?" Christina wondered.
"We'll find a way." Sly responded. "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
2,000 Slys appeared and ran in to get as close to the Titan as possible.
Before she could follow her brother, Christina was barred by Megan.
"How many of those "stink" bombs can you throw at him?" the squirrel asked.
"Countless."
"We need to weaken his defense, and one bomb isn't gonna do the job."
"I see what you mean." Christina said, beginning to conjure as many as 200 Expose Bombs, which weaken any defenses that some force may have.
Megan activated her Sharingan to open her Blue Mage-like ability to choose from a variety of jutsus. She thought about blowing the Cyclops away after the bombs were thrown. Some of the Sly clones came to take the bombs and toss them at every part of the Titan's body.
"AAH! NOW I REALLY STINK." said the Cyclops.
"I have your remedy right here... your permanent remedy. Wind Scythe Jutsu!" Megan shouted, releasing a heavy razor gust of air that cut away at the Cyclops violently while sending him flying into the cosmos.
"Jeez..." Christina said, looking at the sky.
"I know... he flew far." Sly claimed.
"Yeah... but I didn't know my stink bombs were that strong."
"Let's not make jokes about this now." Megan insisted.
Unexpectedly, the three Bean Titans felt an instant bend in the air and looked toward the base of Mt. Olympus. A portal was there now, but it was guarded by dark blue Heartless with a sort of helm on their heads, called Knights.
"They're another kind of Heartless, aren't they?" Christina complained, dropping her arms down and swinging them slightly.
Megan did not say a word. She kept her Sharingan eyes on to look through her skills. The only things that would work are her Shadow Possession techniques; she had to find some time to study light-based skills.
"Christina." Sly called, setting her upright by her shoulder. "I made that pact earlier for a reason. We'll make it out of this, I promise. Don't lose hope."
Christina smiled a little. "Okay... but the only light attack I have is my strongest move."
"Which is why I stocked a lot of Ethers for us. We won't run out of energy."
"Let's do this then!" Megan exclaimed, charging into the army of Knights with two kunai knives in hand.
"Clear a path." Sly told his sister, before following Megan.
"All right." she said, powering to Legendary and focusing a lot of energy through to her hands. "Solarbeam!" she shouted, taking out over half of the Knights with an oversized blast of light.
"Whoa... her Solarbeam was never that big. And the sun isn't even out." Megan murmured, nearly being hit by it.
"Don't stop moving! We're cutting through!" Sly shouted, wielding two Rasengans and beginning to plow through the Knights to the portal behind them. These spheres of chakra were different, however, in that they did not wither away or outburst when Sly struck a target. They both stayed intact. Sly called them Aces.
"In that case..." Megan began, pulling out her windmill shuriken, "let's make this quick. Hyper Dash." she finished, emulating Hippie's speed and using it to burst forward and cut through every remaining Knight like a swift razor blade.
Christina used Flash Step to reach Sly, who was facing the portal. Megan soon joined them.
"Wait, how aren't they coming back to life like the little ones did?" Christina asked.
"Any element, except for light, wouldn't work on these Heartless. No one said that they were immune to purebred weapons." Megan said.
Both girls stopped talking when they sensed Sly's energy increase. They looked and saw that his Kyuubi chakra was manifesting (no tails yet).
"I sense an Acolyte's presence through this wormhole, and it's getting bigger. Trio Alpha is there too—I sense Mooch's energy clearly." Sly told them.
"Let's help them!" Christina said, jumping in first, followed by Megan, then Sly.
-Trio Charlie's path-
The female trio of the New 12 found themselves floating under a night sky, with an indigo mountain in their sights.
"Why do I have the feeling something bad is about to happen?" Ewey wondered.
"This is Bald Mountain." Hoppity identified.
"Is that a bad thing?" Lucy asked.
"In our case, yes."
(Music starts: "Night on Bald Mountain" — as heard from Fantasia.)
Once Hoppity recognized the mountain that was in sight, the ground below them started to tremble even though they were not physically standing on it. At the same time, a gigantic dark devil, known as Chernabog, emerged from the peak of the mountain, opening it at the top.
"Oh... crap." Ewey uttered, a bit shocked at the sight of the demon.
Chernabog released a fire blast at the three Titans.
"Look out!" Lucy exclaimed.
"Pyrus Denius!" Hoppity chanted, deliberately using her wizardry to create a fire-repellant shield to protect her team.
"We're lucky that you're on our team, Hop." Ewey said with relief.
"I know, but don't get too comfortable yet. The three of us are protected from any fire attack for five minutes, so we gotta take that thing down before time's up."
"Piece of cake." Lucy claimed.
"Not really..." Hoppity interjected. "We are the best team against darkness, but at the same time, all of those Heartless are drawn to us."
"We're floating in midair... how can they attack us?" Ewey interrogated.
After she said that, spherical Heartless with two horns and short curled tails (Darkballs) popped in all over the place.
"If they're floating in midair." Lucy answered.
"We cut through." Hoppity declared, taking the initiative by using her Super Psywave (her best blast) right from the start. It cleared the way of any Darkball in the line of the blast, but it diminished in strength by the time it reached Chernabog. She flew through the path she opened.
"Half and Half?" Lucy suggested to Ewey, asking if they would each take on a half of the remaining Darkball army.
"That could work... but I have a better idea." Ewey responded, summoning her Heavenbow again.
"No, Ewey!" Lucy cried, remembering what Bonnie said about how the Heartless are especially drawn to the Heavenbow.
The Darkballs immediately swarmed all over the lamb. Lucy began to come for her aid by executing a few of the outside Heartless with her Psi-Katana. She soon saw the Heavenbow go back to the atmosphere; Ewey must've either sent it back or she was "consumed" by the Darkballs.
"Angel Mode!" Ewey shouted, immediately bursting out of the crowd of Darkballs and emitting a bright light around her body, which was eliminating any source of darkness around her (i.e. the Heartless).
"Ewey?" Lucy murmured, while relieved to see that she was okay.
"As long as I'm in Angel Mode, they can be drawn to me all they like... they're only wasting their own time." she said. She turned to Chernabog and used Flash Step to appear next to Hoppity, who was not doing too well against the foe.
"Ewey? Shouldn't you save you save your power?" Hoppity asked her.
"No need. I'm about to run out of Ascended time anyways, so I'd rather finish him now."
Chernabog began to raise his arms up, to unleash a massive uprising of fire.
"Stun Spark." Ewey mentioned, snapping her fingers at the foe, instantly paralyzing it. She summoned her Heavenbow back again, to settle things with Heaven's Sacred Arrow. Ewey fired it right through Chernabog's head, causing him to burn away in a massive indigo flame. The opening he created in the mountain was left behind, which led to the trio's new path.
"That's it?" Lucy questioned, smoke-warping next to the other two girls.
Ewey powered down automatically, due to the time limit she mentioned. "Not quite."
Suddenly, Darkballs appeared and stormed the entire area again, flying closer and closer to the three female Bean Titans.
"Your turn, Lucy. Get us out of here!" Hoppity said.
"To where?"
"ANYWHERE BUT HERE!" shouted Ewey, seeing the Darkballs planning to attack all at once.
"All right, but I can only use this sparingly." Lucy began to say.
"Just do it!" Ewey exclaimed.
"Telepulse!" Lucy finally said, warping her team to a random, but reasonable location, while at the same time, releasing a crimson psionic pulse upon teleportation. She was right to say that she could only use it sparingly, in that it takes up a lot of energy and because it was used to greatly damage an army of foes, hence, every Darkball in the area.
-Trio Delta's path-
Ears, Felix and Bonnie are warped into a cave dwelling with a bright green floor. One end of the corridor shines with an opening of light on it, while the other end has an emblem shaped like a keyhole on it.
"This path looks easy enough." Felix said.
"Is that our goal?" Ears asked, pointing at the keyhole.
Felix touched five places around it, setting up his Voltage Blast Charge. "Right after I bust it open, it will be."
"Hit the deck..." Bonnie uttered, as Felix channeled his electricity in a circular bodily motion with arm movements.
"HAH!" Felix yelled, emitting an intense lightning bolt through two of his fingers at the keyhole. He automatically assumed that he opened a new path, so he went into the smoke... only to run into something solid. "Hey... what?"
"What is it, Fee-lee?" Bonnie asked, as the smoke cleared away.
"I hit something."
Ears was shocked. "That wall is still there?" he thought, seeing the emblem without a scratch.
"What the..." Felix started to say, before he, Ears and Bonnie felt the ground shake once.
They looked behind them and saw another Behemoth.
"Again?" Felix murmured.
"I'll handle this." Bonnie said, as the Heartless beast charged for the trio.
"With what? None of us have light moves." Ears pointed out.
"Wrong. Here's one of mine..." Bonnie replied, spreading her hands wide in front of her face. "Solar Flare!"
A blinding light flashed before everyone's eyes, and eliminated the Behemoth on the spot.
"Whoa..." was what Ears could only say. It only took flickers of light to take down a giant.
"Check out the sign again." Felix alerted the team, as a fraction of the wall emblem disappeared.
"Do we have to fight more Heartless to open it completely?" Ears wondered.
"That would be a yes..." Bonnie said, looking at an entire swarm of Heartless—consisting of Neoshadows and Darkballs.
"We're boned." Ears assumed.
The Heartless came closer and closer until they suddenly stopped and then turned around as if they had a sense of smell, which they don't. They turned to a great source of light—Ewey's Heavenbow. One Darkball was shot and killed by one of her light arrows.
"Don't like arrows? Try knives!" Lucy shouted, releasing countless psionic knives to take down many of the Heartless in the corridor. This caused most of the wall emblem to disappear.
"Keep your skin on, Ears." Hoppity told him.
"Looks like they're okay." Felix said.
"Shard of Lightning!" Ears said, quickly grabbing Felix and Bonnie to move them away from a demon-like Heartless with a blue sword—an Invisible.
"Thanks, Ears. Okay... he's new." Bonnie said, never seeing that Heartless before.
The Invisible threw down its sword and disappeared.
"Where is it?" Ewey wondered.
Hoppity used her mind to determine what was going to happen next. "Guys, if purple flames surround you, get out of the circle they create."
Felix was the one who was surrounded by the very flames. Before they closed in on him, he dodged the Invisible by Flash Step.
"Ewey—use Holy on the sword... it's going back to get it." Hoppity perceived.
"I'm on it! Holy!"
It was just as Hoppity said. The Heartless reappeared to grab its sword, but before it could move from that spot, Ewey's light blast executed it. The final part of the "keyhole" opened; a new path was set for Trios Charlie and Delta. The coast was clear now, so the six of them went in and wound up in a safe zone, where another portal appeared to them.
"That's an island. The monkey boys are there! And they're in trouble..." Hoppity saw.
"What kind of trouble?" Bonnie asked.
"Acolyte trouble."
"What're we waitin' on? Come on!" Felix said, jumping in first.
The rest followed immediately.
/-/
An Acolyte battle, next.