The title of the chapter naturally comes from the Darkwing Duck theme song. And Vanitas' scene at the end of this chapter reveals a bit more about daily life and politics in the Daybreak Coalition. Just so you all know, most of Vanitas' scenes are going to be on the more mature end of the T-rating scale.
Chapter 15: Darkwing Duck:
St. Canard – The Docks:
After a good fifteen minutes of Donald ranting at Darkwing Duck's attempt to barge in to help with the raid, Sora and Blunt managed to calm Donald down and arrange for Darkwing to lend a hand as long as he and Donald were kept on opposite ends of the warehouse as much as possible. Donald continued to grumble about the local superhero's antics even as Goofy and Sora finished off the popcorn they'd prepared and eaten over the course of the two ducks' racaus disagreement. Of course, this disagreement was largely one-sided, and consisted of Donald insulting Darking even as the caped crime-fighter remained entirely oblivious to the Disney Town magician's complains about his modus operandi. With a signal from Agent Blunt, the strike teams swarmed into the building.
The warehouse was mostly abandoned as Sora, Donald, and Goofy marched through the front door to find the most bizarre sight before them. Hidden behind a curtain in the empty metal building were rows of strange looking contraptions consisting of a large full body harness with thick metal restraints on the sides connected to television screens that were displaying a random assortment of bizarre, kaleidoscopic patterns that were at once unnerving and hypnotic at the same time. The most disturbing element was the fact that prominent local criminals were each strapped into one of these devices, which clearly numbered at least fifty, and a manipulator arm attached to their restrains was holding each of their eyes open. All appeared to be in a fugue state of some kind.
"What is this place?" Sora wondered aloud with a touch of fear in his voice. He was beginning to suspect that this was no longer (or even had never been) a Hellfire Club base. Sure Maleficent was known for torturing information out of people, but never to the extent of something like this. This was clearly something new. The Legion maybe? He wondered as he radioed Agent Blunt and notified him of their findings and his theory. Darkwing Duck blanched with horror at the sight of so many of his usual rogues gallery shackled to these things. Sure, they were bad people, but he'd never wish something like this.
Blunt quickly regained his composure and dispatched half the strike teams to sweep the rest of the building and gathered the rest of the group on the ground floor to free the prisoners and recover as much data on what this whole set up was for while they still had the chance. Most of the villains remained in that far away state where they didn't respond to anything, even after being released form their restraints. Some of them were more coherent, but at the same time were acting so out of character that Darkwing (who was being dangerously serious in light of the situation) was beginning to suspect that these devices were related to mind control somehow.
While C.I.N. analysts began combing over the computers in the hopes of gleaning new information from them, Sora walked over to a central pedestal that appeared to be wired into every single one of those harnesses. Connected to the top of the small pillar of pipes and wires was a metal helmet, almost like football headgear with the words "Hench Co. Attitudinator" engraved on the back of it," and two glass bulbs, one red, one blue, on either side above what would almost be mistaken for ear coverings. Deducing that it was the power source for the screens somehow, the brunette Keyblade Master was about to being disconnecting the cords when a familiar voice called out.
"How unfortunate," the man said. All eyes turned towards the upper level catwalk where a lone figure stood in brown robes, flanked by two others in identical clothing. Sora couldn't remember where he'd heard that voice before, but something about it just put him on edge. His expression hardened in anticipation of a fight as the man continued speaking. "And here I was hoping that when the Endgame was completed, as many people could be saved as possible without having to resort to Praetor Gao's methods. But alas, it seems that only a few of the unworthy can be spared without undergoing The Change."
"You just love to make cryptic comments, don't you?" Sora remarked sarcastically as he, Donald, and Goofy used parkour and Flowmotion skills to reach the upper walkway to block the mysterious man's escape. The brown robes were a dead giveaway that they were once again dealing with this "Legion."
"Hardly, Sora," the man replied. "Although it would seem that you managed to claim what you needed without losing what is dear to you." Sora's face scrunched up in confusion as he tried to figure out what the man was talking about. Deciding that it was just more "cryptic bullshit" as Vanitas so eloquently put it, he returned the man's vague remarks with a glare. "It would seem we have overstayed our welcome here in this darkness-infested city of Saint Canard. It's time we took our leave. Taurus!" He turned as he addressed one of St. Canard's leading crime bosses, who Darkwing Duck had just finished releasing from his restraints. "Stall them for me and your compliance will be rewarded. You know what to do."
"Happy to comply," the anthropomorphic bull answered before slamming his would-be rescuer into the dirt. Sora charged towards the man in charge of the facility in an attempt to stop the Legionnaire from getting away, only to be thrown off the edge of the catwalk by a blast of salmon-colored energy. Donald, and Goofy dove off the walkway to catch their friend as the robed figures vanished through portals of light. As Taurus Bulba singlehandedly faced down the strike team members on the ground floor, a computerized voice called out from the speakers wired around the ceiling.
"Self-Destruct sequence initiated," the voice began. "T – Minus five minutes until thermal detonation."
The instant the self-destruct sequence began counting down, everyone sprang into action. Taurus Bulba and the newly freed villains who weren't restrained charged forwards and began attacking the raiding teams. This forced Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Darkwing to jump into the thick of the fray to keep the bad guys at bay while Agent Blunt began evacuating everyone else out of the building. C.I.N. Agents, UCA troopers, and Saint Canard police officers poured out of the room in a mad rush to escape the imminent explosion while the heroes went up against the bad guys. Darkwing was able to pick off the smaller ones fairly quickly while Sora and his friends used every spell and technique in their repertoires to dodge Bulba's punches and retaliate with their own strikes.
As the countdown wound down, Sora and Donald resorted to attempting to freeze Taurus with Blizzaza spells to keep him contained. Meanwhile, Darkwing was assisting in transporting the detained villains for questioning. If they could figure out just what the Legion was doing to them, then maybe they could figure out just who this group was and what they were planning. Unfortunately, the anthropomorphic bull turned out to be resistant to ice magic and Zero Gravity spells, forcing the group to flee the building mere seconds before the metal structure was blown sky high in a blazing inferno.
The local fire department immediately set to containing the blaze as the SCPD began loading the captive rogues into the back of police cars and armored transport vans. C.I.N. Agents performed a thorough sweep of the area for any signs of further activity from the Legion while Coalition Army troopers accompanied the firefighters into the fire in case there were any survivors hiding in the scorching flames, waiting to plan an ambush against anyone who came in to contain the blaze. As Sora, Donald, and Goofy stared at the grim scene before them, they found that they couldn't shake the gnawing feeling that they knew who the Legionnaire who'd taunted them inside really was beneath his hood.
The Lanes Between – G.S. Existentialist:
"This is not good," Cassim said over the phone as Vanitas contacted him from aboard the C.I.N. courier Gummi Ship the Existentialist. Cassim didn't need to specify what he was talking about. Even if he hadn't already been contacted by Terra and Ventus, the attack on San Fransokyo and subsequent destruction of the local Intelligence base was already all over Coalition-wide news feeds. The base had been a small one, with only a dozen agents based there, while another thirty-eight had arrived to help with the search for the Hellfire Club base. But for the comparatively small Intelligence Network, which deployed only about a hundred and fifty operatives across thirty-two member worlds, it was a devastating blow. With a third of their operatives annihilated in a single attack, the remaining C.I.N. agents would be spread thin until they could hired enough new recruits to fill in the ranks.
Which meant that Vanitas was in for an even bigger headache managing all of this, as he mentally compiled to-do lists and how to rearrange duty rosters for all active agents while the Existentialist sped towards their base in Arendelle. At the top of his list was the installation of anti-aircraft cannons at the remaining C.I.N. facilities, mentally cursing himself for not anticipating ever having to deal with enemies who were perfectly willing to perform kamikaze attacks against their foes. There were Heartless with similar methods, but none of them were large enough to destroy an entire island compound just by crash landing. The dark Key bearer sighed as he hung up and leaned back in his bed and listened the steady vibrations of the ship's bulkhead as they traveled through space.
For all his dark powers, Vanitas preferred the slower methods of travel. While Dark Corridors were convenient and near-instantaneous, he found the low hum of a Gummi Ship's engines as it soared through the lanes between to be a relaxing sensation. Life as a spymaster was a stressful job, and people tended to relieve their stress however it could. For some, it was drinking and exercise. For Vanitas, it was space travel and the occasional one-night stand. Prositution had been non-existent on most Coalition member worlds and outright illegal on others when the alliance had first been formed, but few objected to people having active sex lives as long as women didn't get pregnant from it.
Not that the latter really made a difference to Vanitas, since he had no desire to become a father until he was ready to settle down and get married. Therefore, he took precautions with his dates religiously. Or his female ones at least. While many people on Earth would expect worlds with medieval societies like Enchanted Dominion and Castle of Dreams to shun and revile those of what Earth referred to as the LGBT community, between Heartless attacks and the threat of Maleficent, nobody on any Coalition worlds really cared who a person preferred to have sex with as long as it was consensual and the age difference was considered small enough to be acceptable. Pedophilia was after all, unanimously reviled throughout Coalition Space.
Turning his thoughts back to the present, Vanitas snapped out of his reflection and leaned towards the night stand and turned off the lights. The flight from San Fransokyo back to Twilight Town (he'd personally come to oversee Search and Rescue operations along with the recovery of the base's computer files) was ten hours. With the headache ahead of him, he wasn't going to get a chance to pick up any dates any time soon. Best to get as much sleep now while he still had the chance to do so.
I know last chapter I said hilarity would ensue when Donald and Darkwing interacted, but when I sat down to write this chapter, because of my unfamiliarity with the show, I didn't feel that I could do the comedy of the scene justice, as everyone would be imagining how things went down on their own and each have their individual expectations. So feel free to fill in the gaps with your own interpretation of the Donald/Darkwing comedy show. Sometime, I've felt that when I'm unsure of if I can do something like this justice, leave it vague enough that everyone can fill in the blanks with what they expect of the scene in question.
For those of you who don't recognize the reference, the Existentialist is a shout out to the gloriously hilarious KH parody fanfiction Those Lacking Spines by Organization VI on . It basically stars Xaldin, Vexen, and Lexaeus in a fourth-wall breaking, side-splittingly funny story that makes fun of bad fanfiction clichés and the various foibles of the KH fandom in general, lampooning topics ranging from High School AUs to self-insert Organization member OCs. Give it a read and prepare to laugh so hard you wet your pants. I will be popping in more easter eggs like that every once in a while (I've already used the "Larxene forces the whole Organization to watch Maolin Rouge" reference in one of the interquels between The Xehanort War and this story, but expect to hear TLS' assortment of soul/coffee jokes at some point.)
Daredevil fans will recognize the name Gao and can probably guess what that means. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans who had seen the first half of Season 2 on the other hand, know all too well the meaning of the phrase "Compliance will be rewarded." Kim Possible viewers who have seen the episodes "Bad Boy" and "Stop Team Go" will recognize the Attitudinator. Be afraid for what these elements imply for later in the story, my dear readers. Be very afraid. (Cue maniacal laughter).
The reason I've made the Coalition Intelligence Network so small is because I don'twant them to be this big all-encompassing government organization like S.H.I.E.L.D. was before Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I wanted them to be smaller and more intimate, like S.H.I.E.L.D. post-TWS on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., only with government funding and legitimacy. So now everyone's going to be shortstaffed, presenting a problem for Vanitas now that he needs to start travelling around maneuvering all the remaining chess pieces on the metaphorical board into position.
And yes, those who have already read all of my Acolytes of Chaos fics remember that Vanitas is bisexual in this universe. With him out from under Xeanort's thumb, I decided to make him really get around in his love life as another contrast with Sora. I felt it would be an interesting comparison/contrast in relationships. Sora and Kairi are in a committed relationship but are saving the sex for after marriage, Roxas and Xion are in a relationship but sleep together regularly, and Vanitas just sleeps around. I will be pairing Vanitas up with someone eventually, but it will not be in the Acolytes of Chaos Saga. Rather it will be part of the next saga I have planned in this universe, Invaders From Beyond. Haven't decided who to pair him with yet and I don't want that decision to have to weigh down the story of the AOC saga. So, since IFB is years away from even being started (and I probably won't finish Acolytes of Chaos until at least next year), I decided to save it for then.
Kingdom Hearts fans who know their dialogue will recognize the identity of the guy in charge of this Legion base from his cryptic comment to Sora. For those who recognize who he is, please refrain from spoiling. If you haven't put the pieces together yet from my other cryptic background references during The Xehanort War and the interquels about who and what the Legion is, PLEASE REFRAIN FROM POSTING SPOILERS IN COMMENTS AND REVIEWS. Thank you. I took a big risk by leaving a hint like this so exposed, and I don't want anyone to spoil the fun of guessing for everyone else.
I was originally going to make the Darkwing Duck world 3 chapters, but I couldn't figure out a way to stretch the battle out in a way I felt could fill a whole chapter, so I just truncated it and merged it with this chapter.