Strange Apparitions

It only took them a few minutes of swinging from roof top to roof top (or in Sora's case jumping and gliding) to reach the shabby high-rise where Red Hood brought the procession to a halt. He perched on the railing of a fire escape about 10 stores up, and waited as the other two landed beside him.

"I can't believe I've been tricked into wasting my valuable time hanging around here when I could be out helping to patrol Father's city."

"Hey!" Jason said as he slid onto the metal grated floor and pushed open a window. "If you want to whine to someone, then go bug Goldie. He is the one who organized this little party."

Robin jumped nimbly through the window, leaving Sora to carefully climb in after him. He looked around examining the plain furniture and neatly organized books and folders taking up a good amount of space on the table and desk. Robin jumped onto the arm of the single sofa sitting against the far wall and stared at Sora. "You really do have some strange friends Hood."

"Hey!" Sora and Red Hood exclaimed in unison.

"First off," Red Hood started as he began rummaging in a small closet, "I'm sure Nightwing has informed you that I only ran into this guy about an hour ago. He is not my friend!"

"What?!" Sora said sounding hurt. "But I thought we were!"

Jason's head briefly popped out of the closet. "I don't know if you've noticed kid, but I don't really like many people." Then he disappeared once again.

Sora frowned and looked over at the other boy. "Seriously is he always like-"

Robin was no longer crouching on the couch. Instead, he seemed to have found a secret compartment filled with all sorts of weapons. He held a curious expression on his face as he picked up what looked be a long, cylindrical object. Sora couldn't help it, his curiosity won out and he walked over to the smaller boy.

"Todd, what do you think you're doing with a rocket launcher?"

"No names in the- you know what? Never mind." Jason poked his head out of the closet again. Just in time to see Sora pick up the rocket launcher from Robin. "Whoa! Hey, be careful with that! It's still loaded!" He rushed over and grabbed the offending object from Sora's hands. Quickly unloading the ammo, he stored it back in the compartment. "And for your information Robin, this particular rocket launcher has some special memories attached to it. I blew up Black Mask's office with it once." A fond smile crossed his face. "Good times. Now get out of my stuff!"

He slammed the compartment shut and stomped back to the closet. Pulling the first set of Tim's civvies he found, he tossed them to Sora. "Here. You can change in the bathroom if you want. I'll call up Nightwing and see how far he's gotten with the traffic cams."

Shutting the door behind him, Sora carefully unfolded the clothes he had been given. The jeans reminded him of something Riku would wear, and the t shirt and hoodie weren't too different from what he normally has on. Hood had a good eye though. All of the stuff fit perfectly. The shoes felt similar to the ones he had worn in Halloween Town. He took a few experimental steps. It would be a bit of a hassle getting used to the smaller pair, but he should adapt quickly enough.

He unlatched the door, just in time to hear Red Hood shouting into the phone. "You got all of them involved in this?! Why would you do that?! I can understand telling Batgirl, but why does this have to be a whole family affair?"

Sora plopped himself on the couch next to Robin. "What's going on?"

Robin gave him a sideways glance before frowning even deeper. "Tt. Nightwing told Batman, Red Robin and Batgirl about you and your search. Personally, the more people we have searching for this Xehanort person, the sooner we can find him. Then maybe you'll leave."

"What?" Sora was hurt. He was hoping to make friends with Robin. He liked the kid, for all his bad attitude. "You don't want me around?"

Jason tossed the phone at the wall. "Grah! He really bugs me sometimes." Running his hands through his white fringe again, he sat on the sofa between Sora and Robin. "Don't take it personally kid," he said, turning to Sora, "Robin doesn't like anyone. Nightwing is the only one he tolerates. Well, Nightwing and Batcow."

"That's not true!" Robin burst out, "I have affection for Pennyworth the cat and Titus as well!"

"So wait, there's a Batman, a Batgirl and a Batcow?" Sora knew he was interrupting the conversation, but this needed to be answered.

Jason smiled at the expression on Sora's face. Oh, he had no idea. "Batwoman too. And I think there was a Bathound back when Nightwing was Robin."

"Wait, Nightwing was Robin? I thought he was Robin." Sora pointed at the 10 year old at the other end of the sofa. He was seriously confused.

"Well…" said Red Hood. But he was interrupted by one of Robin's signature tt's.

"There have been many Robins before me." He said in a superior voice. "Though all of them have been greatly inferior."

Sora cocked his head at that while Red Hood growled his disapproval. "So...if Nightwing was Robin, why isn't he anymore?"

Robin's eyes might have been covered, but Sora could tell the younger boy was rolling them pretentiously. "Because he got too old for the mantle of Robin. He decided he no longer wanted to work with fa- Batman. I don't expect someone like you to understand!"

"So," Sora said unperturbed, "He was the one who left Batman? Why would you just leave your friend like that? I've known my friends for a long time and that hasn't made me feel any different."

"Whoa whoa whoa kid." Hood cut in quickly. "Don't think for a second that Nightwing didn't have a good reason for leaving. Because he did. All of the Robins did."

Robin crossed his arms and leaned back into the cushions grumbling something about cowardice.

"I don't think I would ever leave my friends." Sora said determinedly. "We stick together no matter what!"

"Well you don't know Batman like we do." Jason grumbled standing up. It seemed he was too irritated to stay still in one place for too long. He walked over to his phone which was lying forgotten on the ground, picking it up, and inspecting the damage that had been done. "In fact you don't know him at all. But I'm sure that will change shortly."

Sora couldn't help feeling a bit excited at this. From what he had heard Batman was someone powerful and important. Respect seemed to be intertwined with the name. Though twisted in with that initial excitement was uneasiness. Sora couldn't quite understand why.

Jason strode over to a window while tapping at his phone. It seemed to be working amazingly. He had broken many of them this way. He looked up slowly and gazed out the window seeing-

"What the-?!"

Sora and Robin bolted to the window, staring in abject horror at the street below. It seemed to be carpeted in a writing mass of darkness.

"So, Sora, before we jump down into that, any tips on how to beat them?" Red Hood strode over to his compartment, grabbing another four or five guns and stowing them on various places on his body.

Sora summoned his Keyblade. "Um… Well, they're not usually very smart. They always have an attack pattern, and if you can figure it out, they're not too difficult. However, the stronger the person's heart was when they were whole, the stronger the Heartless and the tougher they are to beat. Besides that, they're made of pure darkness, so if you have any lights or anything, it might help."

Robin reached into the compartment as well, pulling a few flash grenades. Grabbing a spare katana from the rack on the wall, he threw his leg over the window sill. "I'm going in. You probably won't be needed." He dropped, using a grapple at the last moment to slow his fall.

"Yeah right. Batman will kill me if I send you home in a bodybag." Jason pulled on his helmet and put his head out the window, preparing to jump. Then pulled back in to stare at Sora. "Wait, you said they're made of pure darkness. Does that mean pure evil?"

"Umm…" Sora crossed his arms and thought a moment. "Yeah, I guess so. Why?"

Jason grinned, even though Sora wouldn't be able to see it under the helmet. "No reason. See you down there." He pushed off of the window sill, not even bothering to grab for his grapple. Instead, he picked the largest Heartless he could and angled his body towards it. He landed feet first on it, the sudden vapourization of the creature enough to slow his momentum. He rolled, shooting at any Heartless stupid enough to come close to him.

Once he had emptied his guns, instead of reaching for the next one, he drew the All Blades. Glinting wickedly in each hand, the Blades cut through Heartless as smoothly as a hot knife through butter and twice as fast. After he had cleared an entire block of Heartless, he paused to check the progress of the other two.

To his surprise, Sora and Robin were fighting back to back, both blades swinging wildly flashing in and out of the dark mist, while a wave of Heartless converged around them. Jason started. How had so many of the monsters appeared? He was sure he had killed at least fifty of them! But it seemed like the creatures just kept coming.

Instantly he changed course, pushing off the ground with all the strength he had and charging at the spot the two younger boys were standing just a few seconds ago, but which now resembled a slithering dark mass. To his irritation, fear rose inside his chest. He needed to move faster. Faster!

Get a grip Jason, he snarled to himself. Just concentrate!

It seemed like an eternity running back down that rundown street past screaming civilians and car alarms and a few Heartless here and there. He slashed his swords viciously almost absentmindedly at any enemy who was stupid enough to get in his way. Finally he reached where the majority of Heartless had seemed to converge. He needed to be careful how he approached this. He couldn't just go in swinging his swords like crazy when he didn't know where in the mass of monsters Robin or Sora were. Jason swore. Why did things have to be so difficult!?

With a few precise slashes he began clearing Heartless away, jumping nimbly around to avoid their attacks. Sora had been right: once you understood their attack patterns they were quite predictable. But the sheer numbers of creatures made the task slow going.

"Sora!" He called, hearing a bit more desperation in his voice then he would have liked. "Robin! Are you guys all right!? Can you hear me!?"

There was a muffled response in reply, and Red Hood felt a spark of relief. But the sound came from fairly far into the crowd of monsters, and throwing caution to the wind (something Jason was good at) he began tearing through Heartless, making his way further into the chaos.

It wasn't long before he spotted them. He saw Sora first. He was jumping around desperately, weaving in and out of the creatures' reaches. His Keyblade was glowing and shooting fire at the closest of his opponents. He seemed to be circling something, and it took Jason a moment to realize what it was. Robin! He was on his knees, holding his arm, which was bleeding. But the kid was snarling and trying to stand. That meant that whatever happened to him couldn't be too serious. He was just about to reach the two when he heard a screech from above accompanied by a shadow crossing over him. Looking up, he saw five, no eight, huge, dark, bat-like creatures who seemed to be made out of pure blackness dive towards Sora. The boy was far too preoccupied to notice this new assault. Without thinking Jason jumped towards him.

Swinging his Keyblade, Sora sliced through a Neo Shadow, using the momentum of the maneuver to block an attack from a Darkball. Robin was fighting fiercely next to him, twin katanas flashing in the streetlamps. Both of them used fairly acrobatic maneuvers, jumping to attack. In Robin's case, he used the Heartless themselves as launch pads, stabbing and slashing before leaping off of another creature's head and becoming airborne once more. Sora used the momentum of his swings to keep himself aloft for a combo or two, but had to return to the ground to regain his balance.

It was during one of these times on the ground that he noticed a shadow directly beneath his ally. "ROBIN! LOOK OUT!" he cried, just as the Neo Shadow leapt from the ground spearing Robin's arm, the katana dropping from his grasp. The brightly-clad hero swung down with his other arm, slicing off the Heartless's arm. As he dropped to the ground, he speared its head. Sora ran forward, Keyblade swinging. He took up a defensive position in front of Robin, heart sinking as the circle they had emptied of Heartless filled again.

For a brief second, Sora could have sword he heard Red Hood's voice as he slashed at an approaching group of Shadows. He called out, but there was no response so he continued on, attacking Heartless when he could and defending Robin when he needed to.

He fought with all his might. A Darkball tried to rush him but found itself impaled. As it dissolved into dust, a Giga Shadow swiped at him. He blocked, skidding back a step, and then parried, twisting his body inside the Heartless's swing and slashing with the Keyblade. Behind him, Robin was barely holding his own, the katana in his good arm either blocking or swinging in wide arcs, forcing the dark horde to move back. Sora was pretty impressed. If he had been in Robin's position, he'd probably have been dead minutes ago. As it was, the kid seemed too stubborn to let himself give up.

He continued on, attacking Heartless when he could and defending Robin when he needed to. He had finally cleared another circle around the two, giving them a little leeway. A screech sounded. It was pretty far away, so he ignored it. The second screech, a half second later, was right over his shoulder. Too late, he turned, watching as the Heartless (a new variety, he'd never seen it before), swooped down, claws extended. He braced for the inevitable. The sound of claws tearing into flesh echoed on the street, but no pain accompanied it. Slowly, he looked up…

… at Red Hood, standing with the bat Heartless's claws in his chest, his own sword stabbed up into its head.

AN: Yes, finally, the action chapter. Yes, some people got stabbed. Yes, it will happen a lot. But this is about as descriptive as it will get.

Same deal as always. Written by me and Arrow. Read, enjoy, tell me if I mess up because seriously, I do not want to leave those there. Also, the Bat Heartless need a name. Hopefully soon. Otherwise they'll be stuck with "Bat Heartless" for the rest of the fic. So if you have any suggestions, let me know.

Loxie out!