Kingdom Hearts : Worlds Apart
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Maxiwill shrugged his shoulders. "Well, if we're gonna beat Organization XIII to getting a heart," he stood up, clenching his fists. A fire of desire burned in him, and his eyes shone with a boyish charm, "We may as well start now!" He looked over his shoulder at Elyxca and Lexstrik, who slowly stood up with him. The boy ran a hand through his gold hair and held out his hand. At this motion, a swirling black cloud appeared before him. As it swirled around, small sparks of purple lightning could be seen flashing about inside. Taking one last look at them, Maxiwill took a step forward. "Don't you two do anything fun while I'm away," he laughed. He entered the darkness. The smoke disappeared from the girls view in small whisps until it was no more. Lexstrik looked at Elyxca and sighed.
"Well, I'm not sure about you," she began, walking away from the site, "but I'm not going to wait around until he gets back." She held up her hand as well, a cloud much like before appearing. Elyxca gripped her hand.
"I'll go with you," she said. A soft smile came from the brown haired girl. Together, they took their steps into the darkness.
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He looked around in the darkness surrounding him. Everything was cold and quiet. He looked down at his hands then over his shoulder. There was a small flickering light. Maxiwill jumped up excitedly and ran over to it. After what felt like an eternity, his hand clasped around the light. In an instant, he felt himself blinded. He shut his eyes tightly and clenched his teeth. Everything around him began to swirl. It was something he felt before, when he had followed the other Organization members. Yet, since he was by himself, it was something exhilirating. He then felt himself stop, landing on a patch of grass. The boy looked up around him. He was standing beside a large metal structure. A soft crackle of fire echoed around him. Suddenly, he heard a loud whoosh. Maxiwill looked up to see a blue fireball shooting upward into the sky. It was a beacon. Slowly, he headed up the ramp to the top of the structure where the fire was being created. He then saw two creatures walking side by side. One was tall, wearing gold armor on his body. Maxiwill could see its scaley skin underneath it. It was taller than he, and much taller than the other creature. This smaller one had what looked like a gas mask on its face. Maxiwill took a step forward, and they immediatly turned to face him. They drew weapons. The tall one had a long, flashing sword in its hand. It was round at the bottom, then moved forward to a point. It sparked dangerously. The small one, however, had a weapon that didn't seem so threatening. It was small, shaped like the letter C. At the points it was glowing a soft green.
"Destroy the human!" the small one squeaked. A glowing green ball formed at the end of the gun, while the tall creature ran toward him with the sword at his side. Maxiwill held up his hands and pushed, as if pushing them away. A strong rush of wind pushed them down to the ground. The green ball fired into the air, alongside the blue flame that had just gone back into the sky. However, this green orb exploded into a green gas and discipated. Maxiwill looked at his hands and smirked.
"Well, will you look at that?" he snapped his fingers, thinking something else would happen. Sure enough, tongues of black smoke wrapped themselves around the golden creature and gripped the hands of the small one. At this point, the taller creature dropped its weapon, it flashing brightly on the ground. The boy strode over and picked it up to examine it closer. The handle was made of a very strong metal, curved to hold a hand comfortably. Heat seemed to emit from the weapon as well. The boy gripped the handle tightly, the sword disappearing in a flash. He was quite taken aback by this. "What might this be?" he looked at the gold creature.
"I will never answer a question from a human..." it growled. There was the sound of a loud shock. Maxiwill held the sparking sword up to the neck of the creature. "Kill me. I have failed my race..." he whispered. This creature had a very deep voice, something that Maxiwill wouldn't have wanted to meet in a dark alley. The boy placed a hand on the creature's chest, wisps of black smoke appearing where his hand had touched. The tall creature began to scream in agony, as if his touch was hurting him.
"If you can walk and talk, you must have a heart?" he smirked, looking at the smaller creature. It was trembling in fright. Maxiwill then looked at the sword in his hand. He let go of the gold one and then raised the sword high above his head.
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"So," Sora began, "What's your name?" Sora put his hands hands behind his head, as if he was enjoying the walk. The sound of a waterfall could be heard in the distance. It was a very soothing sight, regardless of the eerie stillness.
"I am known as the Master Chief," the green one began, "part of a project known as the Spartan Project. I am the last of the Spartans. Spartan 117." Goofy looked at him with his head tilted.
"What happened to the other 116?" he asked, a hand on his chin. The Master Chief stopped, looking at the gun in his hand.
"They are..." the man clenched the handle of the pistol tightly, "MIA. Missing in action." There was a snapping of a twig. Immediatly, Sora and the Spartan turned around, brandishing their weapons. Three small black creatures appeared from behind a tree. They were about three feet tall with round heads and beady yellow eyes. Atop their heads were small black antennae.
"The Heartless!" Sora exclaimed. At this, many more started appearing. More of the small Shadows, but a different one as well. It was slightly taller than the Shadows. They wore what looked like blue jumpsuits with a black heart with red stitches across it. On their heads were metal helmets, worn by knights. Sora gripped his keyblade tighter. He had taken on enemies like this before, but he wondered how the Spartan would take it. He lifted up his pistol and fired a few times at the small Shadow. It burst into a puff of black smoke.
"These are Heartless?" the man said, smirking from under his helmet, "They're not so tough." He fired a few more shots before pulling a clip from his belt and reloading the gun. Goofy hurled the round shield he carried, watching it cut through a Shadow and a Knight, having them disappear just like the first. Sora dashed forward, bringing the Keyblade down on a foe. Donald lifted his wand, bolts of lighting raining from the sky and striking a few of the Heartless.
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The two females arrived in a large town. The sun was setting and everything had an orange glow to it. Elyxca let go of Lexstrik's hand as they appeared into the town. The girl looked around. Something about this place bugged her immensely. It was all eeriely familiar. Although, she was sure she had never been here before. Lexstrik examined her surroundings as well. Her eye was caught by the massive clocktower. "Wow..." she whispered. The girl looked at Elyxca, who was staring at a group of people that were talking amongst themselves. She headed in their direction. "Elyxca!" Lexstrik called, running over to her. The two girls reached the group of four. Two boys, a girl, and a small one who was hidden under a rather large hat. They guessed the one with the white coat and beanie was their 'leader', because the girl whispered something to him that made him turn to them.
"Well well!" he smirked. He had a scar across his nose. He crossed his arms as he examined the two girls, "You look just like that one guy who came through here earlier."
"Really?" Lexstrik whispered. Her first thoughts were Organization XIII, "and who are you?"
"The name's Seifer. I'm the leader of this group here. We're the big boys of Twilight Town," he nodded his head in the direction of the three behind him, "If you're with the Goth Coat Club, the guy went that way." He jabbed his thumb to the right. Lexstrik nodded and left them behind. Elyxca, however, stayed. Something about this boy...had she seen him before? Everything about the four of them was so vaguely familiar, she thought it was just a coincidence. Yet she had never seen them before, had she?
"Elyxca!" the other cloak wearer said. Immediatly, she snapped out of it, running to her companion. Together, they combed the streets of this town. It was about another fifteen minutes before Elyxca stopped and tugged on Lexstrik's hood. She turned to look at the girl before realizing why she stopped. A boy walking in front of them was wearing the cloak of Organization XIII. His hood was down. From the distance, his hair was the only thing that could be described. It was a dull blue, jutting out from the back of his head. It spiked upward. He had two tongues of hair dangling in front of his eyes. He must have seen them; he stopped as well. At that moment, the three of them collected into a small group.
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Maxiwill sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. "This just isn't that fun anymore," he sighed. The boy walked away from a collection of creatures that had started piling up. Most of them were just the same breeds as the ones he had handled when he first arrived, but a new breed had made an appearance to him. They were small with long noses. They also had a fan of skin on the top of their heads, giving the appearance of a mohawk. Their necks looked like turkey necks. These had wrinkly skin, too. Not the fine scales that the bigger creatures had. The boy turned a corner, landing on the other side of the structure. A river ran beside the building and dropped down a hill. Looking over the hill, he noticed four figures. Since he was too far, Maxiwill couldn't quite make out who or what they were. Were they more of those creatures? Or could it possibly be something else? He sat on the edge of the structre, his feet dangling from the side. He decided to wait until they came to him. A small rush of wind ruffled his hair. Maxiwill then blinked at his hands. "If I could do that..." he whispered, "What else could I do?" he closed his eyes. Wind began to flow all around him, his hair whipping around in all directions. He clapped his hands together once. The wind that was swirling became focused and shot toward a tree sitting below him. It blew the leaves directly off the tree, and some of the branches broke. He opened his eyes and smirked. "Wow!" he laughed.
Sora looked up. "Did you hear that?" he asked the group, "It sounded like...wood breaking." the boy gripped the Keyblade, running in the direction of the sound. His eyes met with splintered wood that lay sprawled in all directions. Leaves rested in the grass beside him, yet the closest tree was no less than ten feet away. The spartan approached Sora, along with Goofy and Donald.
"Who's that?" asked the giant. Donald squinted. Goofy did as well, but he seemed to know who it was before any of them.
"Isn't that the guy from Hollow Bastion?" he said, putting a hand on his forehead to keep the sun out of his eyes. Sora squinted as well, shouldering his Keyblade and running up the hill to the metal structure. Sure enough, it was. The keybearer stopped dead in his tracks. The Master Chief and the others approached him.
"Well well, if it isn't Sir Poofy Pants!" Maxiwill laughed, standing up, "How've you been?" he crossed his arms over his chest. The Spartan held up the pistol, aiming it directly at the Nobody. The trigger was pulled and the bullet was fired. Quickly, the Nobody snapped his fingers. A rush of wind lifted him upward, dodging the bullet narrowly. "Someone's a bit grumpy today!" he growled.
"Who are you, anyway!" Donald squwaked. The duck gripped the wand in his hand.
"Wow, you don't know?" the boy sighed, drumming his fingers on his forearm, "I'm Maxiwill." He jumped from the structure, landing on the grass softly. His coat flaired behind him, "It seems like we'll be running into each other a lot more often, eh?" he asked Sora.
"I'd like it better if we didn't..." he growled. The Nobody frowned, staring daggers at the boy. However, he said nothing. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders and started walking toward the ramp back up to the structure. "Don't you ignore us!" Sora growled, pointing at the Nobody with his free hand. The Spartan followed him up the ramp. Wide eyed, Sora followed. Maxiwill jumped slightly, dashing up the ramp to get away from them.
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"So, who are you?" Elyxca asked this new boy.
"I'm Njustix," he said simply. He exmained the two a bit closer, scratching his cheek as he thought, "So, you two are part of Organization XIII?" he asked. Lexstrik shook her head.
"We were turned away," she said, "Not that we care. Right, Elyxca?" The second girl nodded happily. Njustix shook his head.
"That's quite a shame," he said, "I'm hoping to join their ranks. Collecting hearts for Xemnas to get him to notice who I am," he smirked. Elyxca and Lexstrik paused. There was that name again. Xemnas was starting to become quite the popular one, "Maybe when that happens, I'll be part of Organization XIII."
"I doubt that Xemnas will care one way or another how his hearts are collected," Lexstrik said. She was starting to like him less and less with every word that spilled out his mouth, "At least from the way Axel told us." Njustix shrugged. Elyxca blinked at the two. "I doubt he even knows you exist." At this statement, the blue haired boy gripped his slieeve.
"He'll notice! Just you wait!" he barked, "I'll be part of Organization XIII!" He stomped his foot.
"He's a lot like Maxiwill..." Elyxca whispered into Lexstrik's ear. The girls then began laughing at this statement. The male growled to himself, thinking that they were laughing at him. In a rage, he held up his hand and disappeared into a black cloud. The girls blinked at the spot he had left from. A small tongue of black smoke was left behind before it slowly disappeared into a cloud and disappeared. They then laughed a bit more before Elyxca held up her hand to create a swirling black vortex. Together, the two females stepped through; nothing else had interested them in Twilght Town any longer.
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Maxiwill approached the pile of bodies he had made. Sora let out a gasp while the Spartan let out a laugh. "Those things are worse than Heartless, Sora," he explained, "but why he did it, I'd like to know."
"It was for fun. I was hoping I could extract a heart from one of them," he picked up one of the larger bodies.
"He took out an Elite!" Sora exclaimed. The Master Chief pointed at the bottom of the pile, then upwards. The pile was about to Maxiwill's shoulder.
"It looks like he took out plenty of them. Grunts and Jackals, too." Growling, Sora ran at Maxiwill with the Keyblade held out in front of him. He merely yawned at this, clapping his hands together once more. The body fell back onto the pile. Wind blew Sora back, smacking him against the chest of the Master Chief. Maxiwill lifted up the same body once more. It must not have been completely finished; he heard a small growl come from it.
"Come now, Sora..." Maxiwill sighed, "You can't tell me you honestly care about these creatures?" he threw the body to the feet of the two heroes. Goofy and Donald had just arrived at the scene, looking as the Nobody talked to the Spartan and Sora.
"They...they didn't do anything!"
"So? I wanted to find if they had hearts. Took me a while to figure out they couldn't have any. Would that make them Nobodies?" he asked him, "because they don't have hearts! You don't like the way I work...yet you're willing to defend these creatures? Creatures whom HE--" he pointed at the Spartan, "doesn't seem to be a fan of? You're sure an enigma, kid..." Maxiwill sighed. He then lifted his hand into the air. Darkness poured from his palm and became part of the wind itself. The wind then swirled up the pile of Elites and other aliens. The bodies swirled together, some colliding with each other. Darkness enveloped the aliens, the wind still whirling about them madly. When the darkness cleared, a monster that was fused from bits and pieces of the others emerged. It had the same symbol on its forehead as the Knights had on their chests. A black heart, curved at the bottom, then returning to a point. The symbol had bright red stitches down the middle, creating an X in the center of it. Sora gasped, Goofy and Donald jumped in fright and the Master Chief stood his ground.
"He turned them into a Heartless!" Donald cried out, jumping up. Sora gripped the Keyblade a little bit tighter.
"You'd be willing to take the lives of innocent creatures...just to find a heart!" the boy barked, "Why don't you just...disappear!"
"Sora, it pains me to hear you say that!" Maxiwill joked, "It just breaks my heart!" He then paused, placing his hand on his chin. A light laugh escaped him. "Now wait..." he laughed a little louder, "I don't HAVE ONE!" his laugh become a cackle as he lifted himself with the wind to the top of the Heartless. His howls of laughter echoed through the structure itself. The Heartless was large; it towered above Sora and the Spartan. It walked on its hind legs, much like an Elite, but there were six of them. Arms from Grunts jutted out in directions all over its body and the fans of skin from the Jackals crowned the Heartless. It was a dull puke green color, mixed with shades of blue and black all round its body. A large mouth made from the helmets of fallen Elites roared loudly, a long serpent-like tongue rolling out."Now then!" Maxiwill laughed, "Let's get this started! Time to play a game I like to call...Stomp the Sora!" At this, the Heartless jumped into the air. Quickly, the Spartan grabbed Sora by his hood and rolled out of the way. He unclipped another gun from his belt; this one was small and black. When he pulled the trigger, bullets sprayed from it quickly. Sora took his Keyblade and began to fire cold blocks of ice from it. Donald lifted the wand and began raining thunder down upon the monster. Goofy, on the other hand, ran full force, jumping into the Heartless' face. He began to attack it mercilessly with the shiled. Sora then look at the Spartan.
"Ready?" he asked. The Spartan nodded. Together, the two began to attack full force to the creature. Sora, firing ice from his Keyblade and the Master Chief drowning it in bullets. The creature let out a roar, jumping into the air again. He landed on the ground with a thud. The small arms of the Grunts swiped angirly at Goofy, knocking him back to the ground. He landed hard against the metal, sitting up and rubbing his head.
"Gawrsh, that smarts..." he whispered. All the while, Maxiwill stood on the top of the monster, laughing into the sky. Sora ran toward the Heartless, knocking its six legs out from under it with his Keyblade. There was a loud crash as it fell. Maxiwill wobbled for a moment, before regaining his balance and looking down at Sora.
"What're you doing!" he growled. The Master Chief then looked up.
"The beacon," he whispered, "We'll throw it into the beacon!" The armored man ran toward the creature with surprising speed, grabbing its legs. The armor itself must have aided in his strength. With a bit of a struggle, he managed to start lifting the monster.
"Oh, I don't think so!" Maxiwill stomped on the head of his creation. It let out a roar. The monster's long tongue lashed out, reaching behind its own legs to knock the Master Chief away. Sora growled, looking at the beacon, then at the Heartless.
"I think I've got it..." he whispered. He looked at his Keyblade, then at the Spartan, "Master Chief! When it jumps, follow my lead!" Although he was reluctant, the man nodded. The Nobody was too busy laughing to hear this. At a snap of his fingers, the monster jumped into the air. "Now!" Sora commanded. He ran toward the Spartan, jumping up. 117 knew instinctivly to grab the boy and throw him up higher. Following suit, Goofy and Donald jumped. To join in, the armored one picked a round object from his belt. Together, Sora, Goofy and Donald began to assault the Heartless, trying to knock it toward the beacon's flame. Maxiwill looked as his creation was being moved to the blue flames. There wasn't anything he could do, other than clap his hands and blow them away. However, the Master Chief remained on the ground. He threw the object into the air. A loud explosion was heard through out the entire area. The water in the river shook. Maxiwill fell from the creature, heading straight toward the metal structure. He softened the landing by allowing the wind to lift him up slowly before striking it. He stood up, staring as his beloved Heartless was being knocked around like a child's play toy.
"No! No! Noo!" he cried out. The Spartan threw one more grenade. With the help of the explosion and one final smack with the Keyblade, the creature was thrown into the blue flames. Its roars of pain and cries of anguish were loud and clear to all five of them. Goofy and Donald cheered happily and Sora gave a triumphant thumbs up. The Spartan, however, merely stared at the fire blankly. Nobody could see that under the helmet, he wore a soft smile. Something he hadn't done in a while.
"Looks like we beat your little pet!" Sora exclaimed, staring at Maxiwill. He was looking at the metal in disbelief.
"You may have won this time, you punk! But the game isn't over!" He growled, holding up his hand. A swirling black cloud appeared behind him, "Next time, I'll bring something even bigger. And you won't have your armor clad buddy here to help you!" At this, the Master Chief lifted up another grenade, tossing it up and down in his hands. The Nobody gulped and ran through the portal.
"Were you actually going to throw it?" Sora asked as the cloud disappeaered.
"No," he said simply, "it's a dud." The group laughed together on the metal structure, the faint groans of the Heartless finally dying away.
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"OOH!" the boy groaned, returning to the city he and his comrades began to call home, "That kid makes me so angry!" he fumed. Lexstrik and Elyxca looked at him oddly.
"What boy?" they asked together.
"That...Sora brat!" Maxiwill roared, "He happened to be on the world I went to, just as I was trying to find a heart! And wouldn't you know he had little buddies to protect him, too!" He sat down on the curb with a huff and a rather large frown on his face.
"It's okay," Elyxca said, "you tried, right?"
"Yeah..." he sighed, "Well, who's gonna try to find a heart now?" he asked, looking at the two, "Lexstrik? Would you fancy a try?" The girl nodded. "All right, then. Let's just hope that Sora and his little palies aren't there when you arrive."
"I can handle some kid, a dog, and a duck, Maxi. Thank you," she held up her hand to create another black cloud, "Just because you can't doesn't mean none of us can. See you in a few," she disappeared into the darkness. Maxiwill looked at Elyxca, who was staring at the spot Lexstrik had just left from.
"You couldn't even beat a child with a Key..." she whispered, laughing to herself. Instead of getting angry, however, Maxiwill nodded at this.
"There's something about him. I can't quite put my finger on it. But," he eyed her until she looked at him, "I'm certain this won't be the last we see of him."