Wrong Side of the Tracks
Disclaimer: Same as before...
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The group left the prison not a moment too soon. For the sounds of spetsnaz and teams of Soviet Marines breaking into the prison could be heard. Grenades exploded as doors were smashed in and bursts of gunfire blazed into the rooms.
Lance suddenly froze in his tracks, his eyes rolled into his head. "Oh no!" Cyclops said, "Alvers! Snap out of it!!!"
"He can't!" Pietro shouted, "He's gone into one of his trances. Magneto's really done a number on him!"
"Can we carry him?" Piotr said, trying to grab Lance but saw that Lance's feet were rooted into the ground.
"Great, the Russians will be here any second and Lance is stuck in a trance!" Pietro said, "Great, I'm starting to sound like Roadblock."
Lance found himself in a mysterious realm. It was dark, save for a single pane of glass that he stood upon, much like that of a stained glass relic.
"Where am I?" Lance shouted, "I know someone's here! This isn't time to mess with me! My friends are in danger!"
"Your world is in danger." An Australian accented voice replied.
"Who...what...where are you?" Lance said as he looked around, seeing nothing.
A shower of blue orbs, recognizable as that of a Whitelighter, appeared. Standing in the middle of the orbs was a lean framed man, with short black hair. His clothing was fairly nondescript, a pair of jeans and hiking boots, a plain tan t-shirt and a blue light jacket.
"I am Brumby, you're guide..."
"Guide me back to my friends! They're in trouble..." Lance shouted.
"Worry not of what is outside. Follow me and have faith." Brumby said, "I feel your fear, Lance...but trust me."
"OK. So if I'm supposed to trust you, where the hell are we?" Lance asked.
"I'm not sure, entirely, but I know that you and I exist outside of time whenever we enter this realm." Brumby replied.
Lance was about to reply when Brumby vanished. "Wh-where are you?"
Before Lance appeared three items. A sword. A shield. A magical staff. "Select one of these..." a disembodied voice, definitely not Brumby's, said.
Lance looked, and decided for a moment and selected the sword. "Is this really what you want?"
"Yes!" Lance shouted, impatiently.
The same three items displayed. "Which item will you give up...?"
Lance thought for a second. He wasn't about to give the sword away, the staff might have some magical ability, and the shield...
Lance tossed the shield away. With the sword he could attack whatever was going to show up anyway.
"Is this the form you wish to take?" The voice asked.
"Yes." Lance replied impatiently.
A stained glass ramp appeared and Lance followed it to another platform in the darkness. Standing on the platform was Brumby again.
"You face a dangerous foe, the Heartless seek to consume all." Brumby replied.
"I know, we've been chasing them around for months." Lance replied.
"But do you know the true extent of the damage the Heartless have wrought?" Brumby replied, "Thousands of worlds destroyed. Their hearts cosumed and forever lost to the cosmos."
Brumby gestured again and Lance could see a world, a beautiful world of verdent forests, peaceful hamlets, in the foothills of high mountains and a castle overlooking a river. The sun shone high, bathing the land in its warm glow.
Brumby gestured again. It was like an IMAX movie, Lance could smell the smoke, could hear the sounds of battle, the cries of the wounded and dying.
He saw a band of elf like humans, wearing what looked like battered armor, wielding swords, halbreds, and axes battling against several strange looking skeletal Heartless. The defenders of Hyrule were fighting even as their world was dying.
The sky was blood red, interrupted only by plumes of gray-black smoke and dense clouds.
"Link!" Zelda shouted, "Watch out!"
Zelda flung a boomerang that decapitated a Neoshadow about to run Link through from behind as he hacked away at a Large Body.
Link turned for one second, giving his beloved a grateful smile. The Large Body saw an opening and swung a severely cut arm at Link about to clothesline him when a Moblin jumped over the hero's shoulders and buried a spear into the creature's eye.
"You watch your back..." The Moblin said.
In a rare moment of cooperation Ganon's monsters were fighting alongside Hyrule's other residents against the plague that sought to consume them all.
Before Link could acknowledge two Air Soldiers dived from the skies, lifting the Moblin screaming several hundred feet into the air and dropping him head first into the swarm of Heartless.
Several Octorocks on the side of the castle spat boulders that crushed Heartless underneath the rolling boulders. A rock smashed into an Air Soldier, sending him spinning out of the air where Zelda flung another of her boomerangs, cleaving off a wing and sending him falling into a swarm of Moblins that smashed the creature to death, stomping it beneath their feet.
The Moblins were fighting against a swarm of several Large Bodies, shoving against it, swinging swords and maces.
An Octorock boulder smashed into the Large Bodies, and accidentally crushing two Moblins.
A band of Hyrulian defenders stood back to back, swords and shields at the ready as several Soldier Heartless and Nobodies surrounded them. They hacked at anything that neared them.
Link shouted, "Follow me!"
Several nearby Hyrulians, alongside several Moblins and Skeletal Warriors, trying to hack their way to the trapped warriors.
The trapped Hyrulian warriors hacked away at any Heartless that got too close to their wall-like formation of swords and shields. But the sheer numbers began to tell. Even as Link and the band of warriors behind him hacked their way towards the besieged fighters, they began to fall, one by one.
Link swore angrily as the last of the fighters was overwhelmed, stabbed and slashed to death by the scimitars of many Bandit Heartless.
"ZELDA!" He shouted as several Heartless surrounded the Hyrulian Princess. A glowing heart shaped device floated into the sky as Link, maddened with grief, hacked his way into the mob of Heartless as several more converged on the hero's position...
The scene of Hyrule's last valiant gasps ended.
"Fear not, wielder of the Keyblade." Brumby said, "Other worlds have thrown the tyranny of the Heartless from their shoulders."
"For instance on my world, the Germans were once allies of the Heartless..." Brumby continued.
Brumby gestured again. All around Lance could see the devastated ruin of the German city of Hamburg. First pounded by the British Royal Air Force at night, and the United States Army Air Force by day during the Round the Clock Bombing campaign, the city was already in ruins.
A German tank pushed out of the ruins of a smashed building. Mere hours ago the Hamburg Garrison had mutinied against their Heartless allies, killing them wherever they were to be found. Lance recognized it as a World War II German Tiger Tank from a model on Ted's bedside table.
All throughout Germany, almost ninety percent of the Reich's armed forces had turned against Maleficent and the Heartless.
The scene shifted again showing an enraged Maleficent: "The Hamburg garrison rebelled?" Maleficent began, speaking to an unseen voice, "Level a German city. I will not have mutinies in ranks..."
Hours later, on shortwave radios all over Europe, German soldiers heard the following announcement: "Soldiers and people of Germany. For nearly six years we have stood hand in hand. I have helped your leaders bring power and prosperity, restoring Germany's rightful position among the nations." Maleficent's voice echoed, "However, a small group of cowards chose to mutiny at Hamburg. An example must be made...A few hours ago the Heartless reduced Boblingen to ashes. I know only a few malcontents in the Reich were responsible, but to the traitors I issue the following: Let it be known that for every act of rebellion another German city will be destroyed to the last child."
All around numerous shortwave radios, shock and horror pervaded. Minds began to turn. At first those who turned against the Heartless were a minority in the German armed forces, but after Maleficent's threat the German armed forces, save for a few hardcore Facists, turned against the Heartless.
The scene flashed to a bunker near the Potsdam garrison. Several German soldiers around a radio turned and started shooting several nearby Shadow Heartless in their bunker. Lance watched as the Heartless were being ruthlessly slaughtered by the now angered Germans.
The scene changed again, this time on the Rhine front. All over the German side of the lines, shooting erupted. Allied troops on the line grabbed rifles and helmets and rushed to take their positions on the line.
A scout peeked through his binoculars. "Sir," he shouted, "The Germans. They're attacking the Heartless' positions..."
Lance saw through the scout's eyes, the view of several German soldiers attacking Heartless. A lone Focke-Wulf 190 fighter bomber dropped from the skies, dropping a bomb on a cluster of fleeing Heartless.
The scene shifted again. Maleficent shrieked as a Holy Fire consumed her. Standing over her was Prue Halliwell, saying a vanquishing spell that consumed Maleficent.
"The Eldest Halliwell, yet to return to this world, vanquished Maleficent." Brumby said.
The vision shifted again, to a vision of Lance's nightmare. Three hooded figures. A pained Kitty suspended between them.
Lance saw Kitty, suspended in midair, held there by invisible forces. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth, melding with the tears and sweat leaking down her face. Her uniform was torn in several places, exposing skin and wounds, blood mixing with the fabric. She wasn't dead. She wasn't unconscious either. She was alive. Her face was bruised as well. One eye was swollen shut; the other contained enough pain for a dozen.
"Lance…" Kitty said, weakly.
Surrounding Kitty were three men with full length black robes, their hands outstretched before them, strange energy pulsing into Kitty…
"Lance…Help me…" Kitty groaned.
"You can't save her Lance." Said the voice, "You're nothing but a hood…"
"No!" Lance screamed, as he clutched a mysterious looking key-sword in his hands, charging towards the men, just as they launched a burst of killing energy into Kitty.
"BASTARDS!" Lance screamed, swinging the Keyblade, decapitating the first robed man, then the second, and the third.
Gasping from the effort and the grief, Lance raced over to Kitty, holding her limp body in his arms, feeling acid dread well up inside him. "No, please, don't leave me…I'm lost without you…Kitty…please hold on…"
As the wind shifted, the hood on one of the beheaded corpses shifted aside. Lance gasped in horror as he saw the face of the dead man was none other than his own…
"What…" Lance began, "Why...how did you know...?"
"I haven't much more time to explain." Brumby said, "But as your Guardian I will be looking out for you. At any time you can simply call my name and I will appear…"
Lance returned from the trance finding himself just outside the prison complex. "Alvers, let's get out of here!" Cyclops shouted.
Lance staggered a couple steps before falling over. "Oh my God, Lance?" Kitty said, running to his side. Their eyes locked for a brief instance, Kitty's showing the utmost concern and compassion, Lance's showing utter pain and fear.
A door burst open near them, several running Metroville Security Troops from inside the prison were gunned down by pursuing Russians. Cyclops fired an optic burst and Avalanche collapsed the entrance.
The group fled the scene hurriedly, fleeing towards an alleyway. From the roof leapt several strange creatures. They were about as tall as Roadblock but thinner, with red and white splotched carapaces and arms with lethal looking scimitars, like those of a praying mantis. A mixed symbol, a blend of the COBRA snake-head, the Heartless insignia and the symbol of the Nobody was branded onto each creature's armored chest. Their eyes glowed blue.
"What the…What are those things?" Cyclops asked.
"Don't look at me," Fielder replied, "These isn't any Heartless I've ever heard of…"
"Those look like COBRA-La Royal Guards...but crossbred with something nasty." Shipwreck began.
As one the creatures attacked with a high pitched piercing shriek. Roadblock opened fire with his M240G, hitting one of the creatures with a stream of lead that acted like a fire hose. The creature continued to advance despite the gunfire shoving at it, before its chestplate cracked and it fell dead.
One leapt straight towards Emily and the Frank-Heartless let out a bellow of rage and attacked the Scythe-Heartless. The thing swung a sword-like arm at Frank, grazing him. He wrestled the creature on the ground.
Fielder aimed his shotgun at it. Emily slapped it down, "You'll hit Frank!"
"No I won't!" Fielder shouted.
Another Scythe Heartless crossed its sword arms and scraped them together, sending an electric spark. Dash dodged it with a sprint and began running up a wall, the creature still trying to target him.
"Can't touch this…nah…nah…nah…nah!!!" Dash said, doing an M.C. Hammer impression.
"Lame! Lame! Lame! Lame!" Pietro shouted, to the rhythm of the song, "Dash is lame…"
Pietro ran like a whirlwind around the Scythe Heartless, confusing it and lifting it into the air, allowing Cover Girl to hit it with her M-16 numerous times.
Blob ran in to help Frank, stomping on the Heartless' head, splattering black blood and gray matter all over the place.
"Uck...Cover Girl, next time you kill something could you maybe not splatter it everywhere..." Pietro said as he wiped Heartless blood off his uniform.
"Wimp." Dash remarked.
"Lame-O..." Pietro replied.
"Can you guys quit for about five seconds!" Cyclops shouted, "We've kind of got issues, who knows how many more of those genetically altered Cobra-La Royal Guards are lurking around here..."
"Man, Toad's gonna be sad that he missed this." Xi remarked, "All those bug guts everywhere."
"Tainted with Heartless stink though..." Lance remarked.
"Guys, we've gotta keep heading for Promontory Hill before the Russians get there." Fielder remarked.
"I'm a little worried about these symbols."Shipwreck continued, pointing at the combined Heartless, Nobody, and Cobra La insignia.
"That's further sign that our old enemy's reared its ugly head..." Roadblock said, "And that means one more group's thrown its lot in with the Heartless in its stead."
"We can't afford to worry about that right now." Cover Girl said.
"She's right. We've got to head to Promontory Hill and get back to our world. Hopefully Lifeline or the Charmed Ones might figure out a way to help Frank." Shipwreck continued. Kurt groaned just then, "And we need to get Kurt to Lifeline, pronto."
The group continued on...
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"I admit it was clever of your geneticists to combine select Heartless and Nobody genes with those of my Royal Guard..." Golobulus began.
"They're definitely stronger for it."Syndrome replied, his artificial infra-red eye glowing.
"But I could use a field test for my new Heartless..." Golobulus began.
"Come to think of it, my Omnidroid Mk. IVs could use a test as well." Syndrome continued, "I've added a troop carrying bay which can carry upwards of a thousand Heartless of all types, and those Heartless can reinforce their numbers by capturing new hearts and creating the occasional Nobody, as well as reinforcing the hull and added better learning software combined with a new obedience program which can't be overridden."
Syndrome continued to mull the point until deciding, "Those Jugglers have been bugging me for help regarding the Iranians lately. What a perfect opportunity to test my Omnidroid, your new Heartless, harvest some more new hearts, and give those Jugglers the illusion that I'm helping them out. Kill four birds with one stone."
Syndrome turned to some of his henchmen, "Fire the Omnidroid Mk.IV prototype at Bandar Abbas, the Iranian's most important naval base...I can't think of a better testing ground."
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Promontory Hill was already the site of a battle. The numerous tubes which contained the Cobra-La Heartless were shattered open, their occupants now roaming the island, harvesting hearts.
An advance team of Soviet Spetsnaz fighters broke into the facility from three different angles with the intent of capturing the copy of the ACME C5 unit Metroville was rumored to be creating.
The Soviets broke into the facility from three different angles. From the roof they rappeled through the top windows. From below they tunneled in through an old salt mine. And they smashed through the front and back entrances to the facility.
They went through with lightning speed, killing any guards or Heartless they encountered in the facility. They searched room by room not knowing that a deadly surprise awaited them...
The Prototype struck suddenly, and violently, leaping down from atop a ceiling into the midst of a team of seven commandoes, shredding them apart in less than a few seconds.
Another team spotted the Prototype crouched amidst the bloodied corpses of their mates and opened fire, a full fusillade, with at least a few rounds striking home. The Prototype roared as if stung by a bee before leaping high into the air and drop kicking the nearest Spetsnaz trooper. His teammates turned and opened fire, either hitting each other or missing the Prototype entirely.
The creature roamed the halls as it stalked for things to kill...
---
"Shouldn't be too much further..." Fielder replied, "But it looks like some other folks have been by here."
"It sounds like the Soviets got here before us." Frank said, "Dear God I hope they didn't mess with the equipment..."
Bodies were everywhere, with arcs and pools of blood spattered about. "Looks like something's been here..."
"Where are the techs?" Shipwreck said, from outside.
"All over the place." Fielder remarked, "And so were the burglers..."
In the middle of the floor was a squad of Spetsnaz infiltrators, dismembered and ripped to shreds. On the wall was evidence of a rather one-sided firefight. Bullet holes peppered the wall, as well as telltale splatters of black blood.
"I don't think our Metroville friends were responsible for this..." Bobby remarked. Several Metroville security troops lay ripped to shreds by the Prototype's claws.
"Maybe our Cobra-La friends?" Fielder replied, "Lord knows there's an asston of those guys now running around the Island."
"Whatever it is, I hope it's far far away from here." Cover Girl remarked.
"Knowing us, that's not going to be the case." Shipwreck replied, loading up both Desert Eagles...
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TBC
