~*.*Disciples of the Keyblade*.*~
Title: Control
Rating: K+ for safety.
Warnings: A teen getting hurt. Poor teen.
Characters: Master Eraqus, Ventus, Aqua, Terra
Summary: The trio discovers the fine art of Keyblade Riding and its benefits—provided they survive in one piece. Pre-BBS.
Special Notes: My apologies for taking so long, UnVeRsEd! Yes, this prompt is brought to you by the lovely UnVeRsEd. My only excuses are school and laziness. I had a great deal of fun writing this, I hope you all enjoy! Also, more on the pairing issue at the bottom.
~***~
It was a clear, beautiful day in the Land of Departure. The sky was a breathtaking blue, no mist had crept in from the mountains, and the sun was releasing just enough heat to keep it warm without it being hot, accompanied by a gentle breeze from the west.
A perfect day, Eraqus had resolved, to teach his apprentices the fine art of Keyblade Riding.
Aqua was outside of the gold and white castle performing stretches, keeping an eye on Ventus and Terra as the other two did the same. The athletic girl performed a cartwheel, pushing off of the springy grass, coming to a halt in front of the youngest disciple.
"You only do that because we can't," Ven said with a grin, folding his arms behind his head.
"Of course not!" Aqua put on an expression of shock.
"Yes, you do. You flip more than you walk." Terra snorted, straightening from his stretch, smirking.
Aqua shrugged indifferently, pondering whether or not it would be worth it to trade witty banter with her friend. Luckily her problem was solved as Eraqus came out of the castle and approached them, smiling faintly.
"Good morning!" Ven waved cheerily before remembering his manners and adding, "Master."
Eraqus nodded and waited until the others had finished their greetings before beginning. "Today, I think we'll do something besides combat practice and magical defense. True, what I am about to teach you still traces its roots to magic, but only for the incantation needed to summon your Rides."
"Our Rides?" Ven echoed incredulously.
"Yes, Ventus. I am about to teach you what makes it possible for Keybearers to travel between the worlds."
Ven opened his mouth, shut it, and instead raised his hand.
"No, we're not world traveling today."
The hand was still in the air. Aqua stifled a giggle and Terra turned his head, hiding his smile.
"Yes, Ventus?" Eraqus sighed.
"You mean these Rider things can fly?"
"How else are they going to cross worlds? Walk?" Terra scoffed, rolling his eyes.
Ven bristled. "Hey, I'm just asking questions!"
"Quit it you two," Aqua scolded, still trying to conceal her grin.
Master Eraqus rubbed his forehead for two seconds, eyes closed, before growling, "All of you stop." When silence reigned once more, he continued. "All your questions will be answered once we actually begin our exercise. Not every Keybearer can perform this spell, but I believe you three are capable of such a feat. Now everyone, watch." He removed his own glittering silver Keyblade and tossed it in the air, eyes closed briefly as he concentrated. In a burst of white light, a strange craft settled down about three feet away from him, to the right in the clearing just outside the castle.
The vehicle was roughly triangular, with the nose of the vessel ending in a sharp point, like a sword-tip. The ship was a dark silver-gray, with a thin seat in the middle and two handles not unlike those of a motorcycle. Spikes from the craft faced outwards as if to detour anyone that came too close, and right underneath the metal frame, two metallic turrets were facing forward.
In short, the thing was sleek, sharp, and positively oozing a deadly radiance.
A chorus of "Whoa!" soon followed, where even Terra didn't know what to say. Aqua took a tentative step forward to inspect the vessel, azure eyes gleaming.
"That's awesome!" Ven punched a fist in the air and immediately raced to the side of the craft, touching its edges.
Eraqus let his apprentices examine his Ride for a minute, noting how even the composed Terra seemed utterly enthralled at the sight. He waved them away when the time had expired and instead stepped onto his vehicle, settling into its seat. "When you three try this, I want your armor on at all times. Understand?"
They nodded obediently, but as usual, Ventus had a question. "But Master, why don't you have your armor on?"
"I've ridden these since before you were born." Eraqus smiled a little. "You don't have to wear your protective gear when you gain some experience. Now watch. And learn." He tightened his grip on the handles and kicked the device into high gear. It lifted into the air smoothly with a spectacular roar, bright ivory fire somehow not singeing the grass. He ducked and dove, wove and flew, looped and spun around the golden chains of the castle and past mountain peaks. The Ride seemed to obey his every command flawlessly, performing impossible stunts with a finesse that machines should not have been capable of doing.
Whipping around the vessel, Eraqus hovered close to the ground and pressed two fingers to a few buttons on the handles. From the small barrels of the guns placed on the bottom of the spiked metal bands, twin beams of bluish white emitted from somewhere within, completely decimating a large boulder. The stone shards blasted everywhere, clattering to the ground in a flurry of brown debris. Aqua quickly threw a crystalline, transparent shield around them so the rocks wouldn't hurt the trio of protégés.
"Whoa!" The disciples repeated, completely captivated.
Without seemingly pressing any buttons or levers, Eraqus caused the spiked metal bands on the front of his Ride to unravel themselves and dart forward, hacking a small sapling to the ground in one slice, as easily as if the tree had been wet paper.
Plunging so high into the skies that Aqua and the others lost sight of him, Eraqus descended in a sky diving spiral before coming to a halt one inch above the earth. He calmly stepped off of the craft and flicked his hand. The ship vanished in a bolt of white energy that flowed into his hand before forming his simple, skeleton key-like Keyblade, which he also dismissed a moment later.
Silence. Then:
"Master, wow, that was amazing!"
"We're going to learn that? What are we waiting for?"
"Incredible work, I'm impressed, Master!"
Eraqus chuckled softly. "Yes, you are going to learn that. I don't recommend, no matter what you may think, using your Rides for no apparent reason. They are not toys, they are dangerous devices only used for world traveling and nothing else. Understood?"
"Completely, Master." Aqua dipped her head as did the others.
"Then let me teach you how to summon them." Eraqus took a deep breath before launching into the inner workings of the spell. Apparently it wasn't like Firaga or Curaga even, which meant no words such as "Fire!" or "Heal!" were necessary. It wasn't a voice activated spell, rather, one had to summon their Keyblades and toss them somewhere, preferably up and a little to the side—"Unless you want a ship to materialize on your hand."—and, in a matter similar to calling their weapons in the first place, they then had to say the words of magic in their heads before the Keyblade hit the ground, with the proper energy behind it.
That was putting it simply. To say the least, even Aqua was having trouble grasping the concept, and she was the magical expert of the group.
Slamming her shoulder piece, causing a brief, transparent green digital animation to swirl, Aqua changed into her armor. The silver-blue material was strong and durable, almost unbreakable, thin and made perfectly just for her. (The benefits of magic.) Regardless it still added a few pounds of metal, and before she had learned proper balance, the whole suit used to throw her attacks off due to its extra weight. Terra and Ven were doing the same on either side of her.
After ten minutes of tossing her Keyblade around and trying to understand the spell, Aqua was the first to succeed, which surprised no one, least of all Master Eraqus.
The ship came to a stop right in front of her; naturally drawn to her like her Keyblade was if someone tried to snatch it from her grip. Aqua quickly glanced at her mentor, and when he just nodded once, she examined the ship with a curious eye.
It was also triangular, and the same color as her armor, a blue-silver. The nose of the craft was sharply pointed, with a sapphire gem cresting the top, glowing faintly. The frame was sturdy and of medium width, crossed by two thicker gray bars for support. The wings were swept back and thick in comparison to the slim structure of the vessel, edged with spikes and pointed barbs facing outwards. Blue fire danced, contained in an almost perfect oval, on the tips of the wings. Directly behind the seat, with the controls connected to the wings on either side, a sharp half-circle the color of metallic snow protected the back.
"Wow, Aqua!" Ven was the first to break the silence, forgetting the Keyblade he had just thrown into the air. He approached the craft, but before he got too close, his weapon came back down straight on Terra's head, luckily handle first.
Terra looked like he was going to swear, but Eraqus had a strict no profanity policy. He instead clenched his head and stalked around, growling and muttering a stream of words, kicking Ven's Keyblade to the side.
"Oh! Sorry, Terra!" Ven scrambled back to help his friend, and Aqua shook herself out of her stunned reverie, stepping onto the device. As soon as her fingers closed around the handles, she felt almost like an electric current had gone through her. Everything about the ship she was now acutely aware of, including the wings, the thin but powerful cannons on the front, and the strength of the engine fire. She knew instantly that the front; triangular part could be rearranged to form a more precise aiming system than just rapidly shooting out laser beams, almost like a gun turret.
It was all very surprising.
But, Aqua allowed herself to think, so cool!
Without further ado, she gripped the handles and spiraled straight upwards, seeing the world through the magically transparent visor. The fact she could look out perfectly through her helmet only worked on her end, anyone else looking at her face would only see her blue armor.
The craft responded perfectly to her every thought, like an extension of her body, like how her Keyblade felt like an extension of her arm. The Ride spiraled effortlessly through the sky, around tall rocks and under or above the great golden chains. She flew straight up to the top of the castle, spun around its tip, and then descended so fast that she almost lifted out of her seat. She pulled up at the last instant, feeling giddy, smiling inside of her helmet as the engine backwash almost swept Terra off of his feet. Aqua caused her Ride to spin around like a top, going right under Ven's Keyblade as it went up for the umpteenth time that day.
She had only just cleared it when his weapon burst into his own Ride. She performed a loop the loop and came to an almost instant stop by his side. Removing her helmet for a minute, Aqua shook her hair loose and looked curiously at Ventus's craft.
It was quite unlike hers or Eraqus's, being dark gray and gold. The nose of the vehicle, like hers, had a gem on the front, though his was a radiant green. It also wasn't quite so pointed, more round. Two gray wings, starting nearer the end than the front, flared back dramatically, ribbed with an underside of bright yellow. He had one engine housing a large blue ball of fire, but there was strangely no seat, just a flat surface on the top. Undeterred, Ven gave an energetic shout and leaped straight onto the middle, which was covered with intricate, thin silver designs and swirls.
He put his arms out, readjusted his helmet briefly, and said, "Catch me if you can, Aqua!" He took off instantly as if his ship was a mere skateboard, climbing into the sky with a shimmering streak of cerulean left behind. She placed her own helmet back on and followed, a part of her wondering how he could be pointed straight up and not be falling, secretly fearing what might happen if he did fall.
Ventus wasn't frightened, soaring upside down and waving at her, and Aqua decided magic must be holding him in place, accelerating to his speed. Ven gave her a high five upside down before dropping into a perilous nose dive.
They were side by side, falling past the clouds, when someone blasted in between them, almost knocking Aqua and Ven off of their Rides.
Aqua got a good look at the triumphant Terra's craft. Patterned with gold and brown, the tail end of the vessel lifted upward and split into two peaks, the ship was forwarded by a bright red crystal and protected on either side by scythe-like blue blades that turned inwards and jutted out on either side of the nose. Terra was leaned over the controls and his seat like someone riding a space faring motorcycle, his engine spitting out a constant purple blaze.
"Took you long enough!" Ven called over the sound of the fire.
"I was only a minute behind you! And my brains were scrambled thanks to a certain Keyblade to the head!" Terra shot back, obviously mad but with no real venom in his voice.
Aqua remarked, "It took you both long enough! I was here for almost fifteen minutes."
"You're just smart," Ven waved aside the comment. "So that's normal. But I beat Terra!" With that he spun around and blasted off as Terra growled and set off in pursuit.
Aqua decided to stop them before they killed themselves—in case Terra "accidentally" unleashed the considerable power of his cannons.
Watching the three streaks of light, blue and purple, sail off through the clouds and sky, Eraqus sat down to mediate.
He'd have to teach them to open portals soon to get to other worlds, and how to fight whatever they may encounter on the way. Space wasn't a friendly place. But they needed to familiarize themselves with their vessels anyway, so why not let his pupils enjoy a friendly competition with each other? He'd know if any of them injured themselves.
Already several miles away, Aqua, Terra, and Ven were skydiving, seeing who would dare pull up first.
~***~
How was it? I have to thank YouTube for helping me find the videos I needed to examine the Keyblade Rider thing. Rather fun to write and see. Hope I did it right, UnVeRsEd!
Anyway. On the pairing issue, I might just play the neutrality card and keep them as friends. Why? Well I'll just tick off half of you guys for picking one pairing and not another, and I never intended for pairings to be in here anyway. However, one reviewer did note that I have apparent hints of VenxAqua in here. I looked. Maybe Aqua has a soft spot for Ven—who doesn't? XD—and maybe Ven was a little more hurt by her laughter for example, but that could be taken as friendship, right?
I think…
I'll dwell on the pairing issue for a while, but until then, neutrality is what I'm going for.
If you can't tell, Aqua is my favorite BBS character. XD
Thanks very much to everyone that has reviewed, put this on story alert, and favorites!