Episode 18: Web of Spies:
Twilight Town – Mansion Computer Room:
August 18, 2015
"Well?" Cassim asked as Vanitas emerged from the transporter out of the virtual Twilight Town. The new Coalition Intelligence Network had moved into the abandoned mansion a few days ago, and today they were finally cleaning out the lower levels. Since what little was left of the simulation was no longer needed, Vanitas had been sent inside to close the Dark Corridor to the World That Never Was so the digital rooms could finally be deleted from the computer.
"It's done," Vanitas replied with a nod. "The Corridor is closed."
"Excellent," Ienzo commented from his seat at the computer. "Now I can delete what's left of that simulation to free up the computer's memory." Although the former Cloaked Schemer had reopened the old arcade in Radiant Garden, he still made a deal with Coalition Intelligence to serve as an on-call consultant when they needed his assistance. Right now, that was happening a lot more than he wanted since he was the only member of the Intelligence Network with any semblance of tech savviness.
Since moving into the old mansion, the agents of the CIN had been rapidly reconfiguring the space to suit their purposes as a base of operations. One of the castles they'd been given access to was being converted into a prison for criminals too dangerous to incarcerate in other prisons, while the ice castle on Arendelle's North Mountain had become a training facility. Because of the remoteness of the mansion here in Twilight Town, Cassim had decided to turn the mansion into CIN's command center.
In order to make room for the new furniture and equipment, some of the original furniture had to be taken out. The furniture in the dining room remained, along with all the desks and a few other couches and coffee tables, but all of the beds and dressers were cleaned out and sold to make room. What were once bedrooms had now become offices. A few interior rooms were converted into break rooms or a miniature barracks for when agents had to stay overnight, and additional rooms were being created underground.
While Ienzo worked to update the mansion's computer system and connect it to The Grid over in Radiant Garden, Vanitas and Cassim walked upstairs into the mansion library. That too, had been modified. Now a single hatch lead down into the basement instead of the entire floor disappearing. A few minutes later, the two walked into what used to be the White Room. Cassim flipped a switch on the wall, lowering a second, tinted layer of glass in front of the window to ensure the security of the room.
"So what now?" Vanitas asked as they sat at opposite ends of the conference table. "Gaston and those other two went down too easy. They had to be plants to throw us off the scent of the rest of the Hellfire Club."
"I agree," Cassim replied. "But unfortunately the other surviving members had gone to ground to avoid detection. Until we can pinpoint their location the most we can do for now is keep our eyes and ears peeled for any sign of Maleficent or her allies. It's unlikely that the witch actually perished, otherwise her robe would have been incinerated in the explosion when the Battle of Cable Town began. But until she and her cabal resurface, there's little we can do."
Vanitas nodded as he reached under the table and turned on the holographic projector that had been installed a few weeks ago. An instant later security footage of Randall's and Gaston's interrogations in Dwarf Woodlands appeared a few inches above the tabletop. Although the two villains were surprisingly cooperative, they hadn't revealed anything useful. They've definitely been set up to take the fall so the Hellfire Club can rebuild their support network in secret, the dark haired Keyblade wielder thought to himself as he and Cassim discussed what little information the two had actually revealed.
"Any theories on where Maleficent's gone to ground?" he asked one the footage ended.
"A few," Cassim replied thoughtfully. "But given how the military has been cracking down on security these last few weeks, they're all unlikely. Our best move is to have agents stationed on each member world of the Coalition as an early warning system should there be any further signs of Hellfire Club activity." The former King of Thieves' second in command nodded in agreement.
"Then once the Coalition government has stabilized," Vanitas added. "We should reinforce those sentinels with scouts. Maleficent knows she won't be able to stay hidden on any known world for long, so she's most likely gone into hiding on a world we haven't discovered yet. Once everything has calmed down in Coalition space, we need to send our agents out to start scouting undiscovered worlds for any sign of that witch and her cabal. It'll reveal potential candidates for new members of the Coalition and help narrow down the places she can hide. Might as well kill two birds with one swing."
"My thoughts exactly," the director of CIN commented.
The Radiant Garden arcade they reference does indeed contain the Wreck-it Ralph world. Ienzo reopened it during KH3 because he no longer wanted to be a scientist after what he did before the fall of Radiant Garden after BBS.
CIN is pronounced the same as Bahamut SIN from Final Fantasy 7 Adventu Children. It is being set up as a KH-based expy of S.H.I.E.L.D. (even if the actualy S.H.I.E.L.D. will show up at some point), with Cassim (Aladdin's dad for those of you who haven't seen Aladdin and the King of Thieves) taking the Nick Fury-type leadership role with Vanitas as the Maria Hill-esque second in command.
Regarding the technology the CIN has access to, I believe I already mention all the way back in the first Land of Departure chapter that Ven had a table in his bedroom in BBS with a built in hologram projector, so with the advent of the Daybreak Coalition, that technology is spreading to more worlds.
As for the simulated Twilight Town, in TXW I mentioned that DiZ deleted everything except the mansion basement after Sora woke up, because that was my head-canon for how to not throw that into the mix without crowding the story.
Next Chapter: Terra meets Ansem and the apprentices as himself for the first time, and discuss his culpability in what Xehanort did while controlling him.