Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Disney, Square Enix or Detective Comics. They rightfully belong to their respective owners.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Radio/TV
"Headset/Flashback"
-Scene Shift-
Chapter 10: Deep Six
To begin our tale, picture the world.
A reality check can be humbling. It reminds a person of their place in the cosmos. How they're considered a tiny grain of sand in comparison to the ocean of stars.
Now picture the oceans of Earth. Their average death is two-and-a-half miles. Their maximum, more than seven. They cover almost 128,000 square miles of the planet's surface. That's two-thirds of the planet, 97% of the global biosphere. Compared to that, any one person is surely insignificant.
The Phoenicians were arguably the first ones to name the seven seas when they mapped the Mediterranean. The succeeding cultures redefined the seven seas to fit their growing view of the world. The Greeks, the Romans, and ultimately the modern people changed it all as the seas got bigger until they became the known oceans of the world.
Unless they claim the oceans are their domain or at the very least take up residency underneath the watery surface, then they would not know of its mysteries.
For centuries, for generations, no one on the surface world knew there was sentient life under the sea. That changed years ago when King Orin, otherwise known as Arthur Curry and Aquaman, made his debut as a founding member of the Justice League. On that day, people publicly knew of the existence of the long-fabled kingdom of Atlantis.
Well, it wasn't actually a kingdom of Atlantis. There were in fact eight kingdoms -or rather city states- which make up the sunken civilization of the Atlantean continent.
At the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, something stirred. Something dark and twisted.
From those depths, they rose and followed a purpose.
All they could do was go up and up.
Rising to the surface, they could see several things.
For one, a storm was happening. Winds going off, swaying the surface currents to and fro. Thunder and lightning could be seen and heard in the darkened skies above.
Within this storm, there was a large boat trying to traverse to their destination.
Onboard the vessel, many men were working overtime to cover and lock down many containers. It was rather hard in the current conditions, but what choice did they have?
Especially with the primary cargo.
"Watch it! Any of that toxic junk goes into the water, we're all in deep trouble!"
The crew pulled their weight harder as they heard their captain over the speakers.
From the water's surface, the entities from the deep eyed the vessel. Once planning the next course of action, the one leading them all gave the command to enact it.
As the crew was distracted with their tasks, the deep ones boarded the vessel.
"Hurry up, guys! We need to latch these down-GAH!"
One of the crew members nearby whirled around and saw the one man being attacked by something. His scream was relatively loud as the man died in the process.
This wasn't the only kill as others on the ship were attacked.
"What's happening?!"
"What the hell are those things?!"
The lights installed onto the sea vessel illuminated the crew who was boarding them.
They weren't risk-fairing pirates at all. No, they were something else.
The crew looked upon these creatures and could mistake them as a Lovecraftian species with the fish-human appearance. In truth, they were Atlanteans of the more fishier side of things.
Well… some of them, actually.
None of the crew could properly describe them all any further as they were quickly getting slaughtered left and right.
As this went on in the control center, the captain and the others in his crew were radioing in what was happening and requesting assistance. Yet such assistance will be too late.
The door into the control center was breached with one of the invaders coming in and killing another member of the crew. The blood spattered everywhere as carnage ensued with the lights soon going out.
The only person left relatively alive was the ship's captain. He already killed a few of them with the shotgun he pulled out from a locker nearby, but it wasn't enough to help save his life.
A new person entered the control center. Their feet made wet sounds, due to them walking over the spilled blood and meat.
The lightning illuminated the intruder briefly, showing off his features momentarily. They were like the others the captain killed. And in his one hand was a trident.
"What… Who are you?"
The man smiled menacingly at the ship's captain.
"I am excellence. I am perfection. I am Trident. And most of all, I'm your executioner."
With that said the identified "Trident" swung his weapon in a downward arc and cleaved the captain's head off.
It wasn't long before he gave an order to the others to kill the rest of the crew before helping him sink the ship. They followed without complaint and quickly applied clamps to the side of the ship before jumping into the raging waters.
No one of the surface dwellers would find the attacked vessel, for it has mysteriously disappeared. In truth, it has sunk to the bottom of the ocean with all of its contents.
-Morning; Boston, Massachusetts-
When coming here to see the sights of this 400-year-old city, Roxas was enjoying his personal tour on this nice and sunny day.
The buildings were super tiny or super enormous along with them being either super old or super new for a unique sense of visual contrast. Sometimes it's rather interesting when seeing a very old church stationed right next to a skyscraper of all things; showing the apparent work of progress.
Even a number of art museums, both inside and out, are absolutely gorgeous.
Roxas was somewhat glad he was walking when he first came here. Don't get him wrong, he was outright fine with walking in general, but the idea of him riding in any vehicle -let it be a car or a train- was outright alien to him. But if he can get to any destination without driving/riding, that's how he'd do it anyway.
Apparently driving and riding in this city was playing with fire. In fact, living in this city was playing with fire.
Sometimes one could almost die getting run over by a car right in front of a Dunkin' Donuts of all places.
Practically everyone knows New York traffic is an absolute nightmare, but what they know is that New York drivers fear their Boston counterparts.
For an apt movie comparison, New York is Mad Max while Boston can be considered Doomsday (the 2008 film) had a baby with The Purge.
No one is safe, traffic laws are meaningless and the goal is surviving whilst living here, let alone visiting or passing through. Apparently using one's blinker is a sign of weakness. Didn't help that the road maps looked like someone dropped a bowl of noodles on it and decided to commit to its appearance. It was as if the entire city hated the grid system.
Now Roxas thought this was merely an exaggeration when he was planning on checking out this city for a number of reasons. Yet Zatanna was dead serious when telling him this beforehand.
*WEEEOO* *WEEEOO* *WEEEOO*
It didn't help that an armored vehicle was plowing through many cars in the street without stopping.
Presently, Roxas was running and leaping across a number of rooftops in order to catch up to the speeding vehicle. Whoever was inside was swerving all over the road in order to lose the police chasing after them. And their actions were causing havoc to any bystanders along the way.
Being able to relatively get ahead of them Roxas leapt off of the roof at a street corner. Still airborne, he summoned Oblivion into his hand before chucking it hard to the street below.
"Hurry up, dammit!"
The driver nodded as he kept on steering.
He and his crew were able to land a good score today. Weeks of planning for this heist was pulled off spectacularly, except for the minor problem of someone spotting them as they were making their escape.
Thus they were presently trying to flee from the authorities and get to their safehouse that was off the grid.
Suddenly a black object impacted the road ahead of them. It was swift and the driver was too late to swerve out of the way out of instinct; thus kept moving forward.
For the briefest of moments, such a small object could just be run over and could continue onwards.
*BAMMMM* *CRUNCH* *KKKRRKSHH* *BAMMMM*
Except for the factor of said object causing the armored vehicle to become immovable once colliding with it. A sickening sound of crunching and warped metal could be heard with shattered glass happening right after.
A moment later, another blackened object appeared on the street. This time it was Roxas. He went up to the front of the crashed vehicle and pried out his weapon from the wreckage.
As this happened, one of the robbers opened the side door and stumbled out. He regained his bearings and saw the hooded teen approach him. This caused the man to hold up his assault rifle.
"I recommend putting the gun down."
The assailant didn't listen, or perhaps ignored, the request and opened fire at the hooded Nobody with his assault rifle.
*BRRAAAATTTT*
Keyblade in hand, Roxas rapidly spun it around.
*K-TANG*
*K-TANG*
*K-TANG*
*K-TANG*
*K-TANG*
The bullets were blocked and dented in the process, quickly clattering on the cement street one by one.
In a split second, Roxas was right in front of him, held up his hand and casted Sleep upon him. The masked robber was out like a light right then and there, collapsing onto the street with his weapon clattering right with him.
Moments later, police vehicles skidded to a stop some distance away. Officers filed out and quickly got to the vehicle.
With some of the officers prying out the robbers and handcuffing them, one of them spoke to the hooded Nobody.
"Uh, thanks for the save, kid." The officer awkwardly said.
"I'm just here to help." Was the Nobody's plain response.
There was a beat of silence as the cop regarded the boy for a few seconds before coming to his conclusion about the teen. "You're new to this, huh."
Roxas said nothing to the officer, only nodding slightly at the statement, turning to depart, leaving flummoxed cops who shrugged, stating that at least the crime was handled.
With the robbers taken care of, Roxas went off, quickly switched out his Organization attire into his normal one and blended right back in with the local populace.
He was going through a handful of these cities in order to get a bit more experience for his existence. Being an outright stranger to this World, Roxas needed to know what he was going to be working with in the future; especially with how unique it is.
And such a factor will no doubt be difficult for him when finding this World's Keyhole and his tasks for the Dreaming.
At least when he gets the chance to hang out with M'gann and Zatanna again, he'd at least be more acquainted with his surroundings. Not to mention have some more topics to discuss, like this car chase for example.
Coming across a newsstand, his eye caught onto a number of magazines and newspapers with various headlines on their front pages and covers respectively.
"Nuclear Disposal Vessel Attacked…"
Curiosity got the better of him when he saw this particular article, having him grab the newspaper to see what the story was about.
Going off to the side and flipping to the particular page, Roxas read through what caught his brief interest.
After reading through the details, the Nobody returned the newspaper to the stand before walking away.
With the story fresh in his mind, an idea was formed.
'Seems like a good opportunity to finally test out that spell.' Thought Roxas, opening up a Dark Corridor in a wayward alleyway and entering through it.
-In the Atlantic Ocean-
Swimming through the watery depths, Kaldur'ahm of Shayeris -or Kaldur for short- was looking around and searching for a peculiar sea vessel that sank in the ocean the previous night.
Such a thing has occurred countless times over the millennium, which the Atlanteans have grown used to over the years. Many times, they've raided them and taken the spoils of whatever they could get their hands on for some bits of wealth to salvage parts of ships for their own civilization in constructing buildings, vehicles, etc. It helped save time in the mines.
Yet over the past few centuries, the surface dwellers have been using materials that are truly problematic for every ocean out there. Oil and nuclear were generally at the top of the list.
The recently sunk ship was reported to contain a hundred barrels of nuclear waste. Such a thing is very problematic for oceanic life overall.
Ever since King Orin had announced to the surface world that there was life under the sea, there had been some "negotiations" to help remove the sunken vessels, or at the very least their cargo depending on how dire the situation was.
A team had gone out to the vessel earlier today to acquire the nuclear waste, but have yet to report back.
This became rather concerning for Kaldur when this reached his ears.
Not wanting to have his King and Queen worry, he volunteered to go out and see for himself what was occurring and report back when possible.
Nearing his destination, Kaldur was able to quickly spot something in the distance.
"The S.S. Vargas. This is it."
Swimming closer, he saw something was amiss: the lack of cargo.
His mind began to work, having him wonder where all those barrels of toxic waste disappeared to.
'If the recovery team had indeed acquired the cargo, they'd most certainly report it immediately. But I don't see any sign of them.' He thought to himself.
Placing his feet on the metallic hull, Kaldur walked around its surface and soon spotted something floating and drifting about. Coming closer, he found a severed arm with cuts along the length.
Kaldur frowned as he walked away. 'Seems I know now what happened to them.' He began to ponder a little. 'I don't know if I should assume this immediately, but it could be Ocean-Master or Black Manta.'
Ever since King Orin revealed the presence of the Atlanteans nearly a decade ago, a man named Ocean-Master had appeared. He is a scheming mastermind of a villain, thwarting Aquaman and Atlantean authorities in their attempt to apprehend him for years. And in that time, he has caused problems for the aquatic kingdoms in order to reign supreme of the oceans.
Like two years ago, for instance, Ocean-Master led an army at Poseidonis where he engaged Aquaman in battle and managed to emerge victorious. However, thanks to the intervention of Garth and Kaldur'ahm, Aquaman was able to prevail and fend off his foe, forcing him to flee to parts unknown.
And it was through this occurrence did Kaldur's life changed forever as he soon became the official protege of his king and was named Aqualad.
Going back to Ocean-Master, the Atlantean criminal has extremist followers throughout each of the kingdoms. It was rather hard to know who sided with the villain, either as a supporter or merely being hired to be his additional "muscle".
One such person was Black Manta, who is Ocean-Master's top agent. To the surprise of many, he wasn't an Atlantean at all, but a surface-dweller; one who swore vengeance against Aquaman for killing his father years ago among several other factors.
Even then, Black Manta does his own thing and agenda to go against King Orm.
'If this was indeed the work of either of them or associated, then what are they planning with all this waste?'
Kaldur's pondering came to an end when he saw some shifting in the dark. He may have figured it was some ship debris coming loose or some sea life drifting about.
That wasn't the case at all.
Someone was here.
Grasping his water bearers, Aqualad was slowly preparing himself for what may occur.
"Who goes there?" Kaldur called out. "Identify yourself."
As this was said, the person took off.
Kaldur gave chase, swimming as hard as he could.
He chastised himself, realizing he should've stayed quiet before approaching this individual at a closer space. It could've been easier that way when catching this person for questioning.
Yet things were tense given recent events.
Nearing a nearby rock formation, the person he chased seemingly halted slightly before turning to reveal themselves.
Seeing their smiling face, Kaldur's own scrunched when seeing who it was.
"In the name of King Orin, you are under arrest, Trident."
The fish-based Atlantean didn't respond, only smiling more before some things appeared from the dark.
It appeared Trident wasn't alone.
'Accomplices.' Kaldur presumed, quickly bearing his water bearers which glowed underwater as they formed short swords.
Eventually, the light revealed more of their features. It made him tense upon seeing them.
'Trenchers!' He thought with alarm.
Yet something was clearly off about the three groupings of foes.
The first two sets were very similar in appearance, only with different shades of green and blue and some other markings to differentiate them. Aside from this difference, they have four-fingered hands and flippers for feet. Their heads are long and torpedo-shaped, even sporting a pale propeller on their back tip. Their foreheads are decorated by angular, black spirals and it has a fin on either side of its head. Their faces were pitch-black with glowing yellow eyes and wielded tridents and didents.
The third set was more reptilian than fish with bodies composed of several shades of blue while the finds on their head and tail were purple. Their eyes were yellow, surrounded by black with a large white jawbone. They had four webbed fingers on each hand and three toes on each foot. There were silver bands on their wrists and waists while they wore dark shorts. Lastly, they each carried a spear that looked like a giant fish skeleton.
What they all had in common was a symbol reminiscent of a red-lined Heart on their chests. Instead of closing off at the bottom, there was a tri-pronged bottom with the two sides curving upward. And to finish it off, a jagged 'X' is in the center of the symbol.
The "trenchers" swam forward, attacking Kaldur soon after. With this act, Trident fled from the scene.
Forced to defend himself, Aqualad retreated to a degree but couldn't go far. He was quickly becoming surrounded by the "trenchers", even as he was blocking and parrying the varying spears and tridents his enemies wielded.
Before things could proceed further, a whirlwind of water careened right at them, scattering them. Following this, an electric current flew past him, striking a good bunch of enemies. They were vaporized nearly instantly. Another came in soon after to finish the bunch, leaving dark vapors in their wake with glowing lights surfacing and fading away.
Confusion quickly took hold of Kaldur when witnessing this. He expected to see charred remains but only saw something else entirely.
"That was too close."
Looking over, Kaldur saw the new arrival wore a tight water suit made out of some black material. The hood was pulled up, obscuring his features. The only thing Aqualad could make out about him was that he was humanoid.
It wasn't just that, but he wielded a pair of unusual swords reminiscent of keys of all things.
He would've inspected more, or at least talked to him here and now, but the enemies were still present and coming their way for an attack.
Unbeknownst to the Atlantean, he hooded teen eyed the adversaries he and Kaldur now faced. Him seeing the Missledivers and Screwdivers before seeing the other set, the name Spear Lizards coming to mind when naming them.
'Was wondering when the Heartless would show up.' He passively thought before going on the offensive.
The first few attacks nailed a nearby Spear Lizard, and having it screech before another caused it to disburse into darkened vapors. Following it was a Misslediver dying out with several quick and powerful strikes. His key-shaped weapons then blocked and parried the spears from another Missilediver with a Screwdiver. With them open, the hooded teen rushed forward into the watery depths and cleaved them rather swiftly.
Kaldur evaded a water projectile, which was sent out from an arc-shaped motion. Another came his way from another Spear Lizard, prompting him to form a shield from his one water bearer.
Once close, Aqualad used his shield and bashed the enemy, leaving it dazed. He then impaled his one water bearer into the leg before reforming the shield into a club-like weapon to batter it up.
Seemed it wasn't enough as the Spear Lizard used its skeletal lance to knock away the one weapon, but forgot about the other as it quickly cleaved the creature from shoulder to hip and destroyed it into vapors.
The hooded one whirled in the water, striking the adversaries as best he could. His weapons clashed with the occasional skeletal spear and trident-like weapons. On a few occasions, he was able to use their own weapons against them, one way or another.
Several "trenchers" came in when Kaldur wasn't focused enough. He saw at the last moment and was about to be skewered from several sides. However, a hexagonal barrier surrounded him, having the attacks simultaneously blocked and repelled.
Looking over, Aqualad saw the protective spell come from the hooded teen. Once giving him an appreciative nod, Kaldur went back on the offensive.
Despite having some magical defensive measure, the Atlantean wasn't going to leave things up for chance.
Having his water bearers, Kaldur formed one of them into a whip to ensnare an enemy and bring it close. Having the creature near, he used his other water bearer to form a mace and bashed its head in to have it disburse into dark vapors. In another instance, he had an ensnared enemy brought close as his tattoos glowed so electrical currents traveled through and shocked it into defeat.
As this occurred, Kaldur's assistant used one of his stylized swords as a propeller, rocketing him forward before using the other to cleave through another enemy. Some swings and thrusts sent out a magical blast or arcs in the process. Before long, balls of fire shot out and scorched the enemies.
After a number of strikes from the Heartless, the protective barrier around Kaldur cracked and shattered.
'Figured it wouldn't last long.' Kaldur silently noted. 'But it helped with what it could.'
At this instance, their enemies came in from all sides.
The hooded teen saw them all, throwing his two weapons up above his head. "Back off!"
Coming from Kaldur's partner, a blast of wind shot out and blasted the Heartless away. Following this was a whirlwind of water shooting out from his spinning weapons and shredding them up.
"It's over!"
Coming from the hooded one, an ice-based spell shot forward and spread all over in skewering the Heartless. Moments later, he shot out lightning balls which exploded and shocked the various enemies all around.
Before the two knew it, the enemy was surely defeated as no more was in sight.
With the fight over, Kaldur placed his attention on the person who assisted him.
"Thank you for the assist."
"No problem." The weapons in his hand disbursed into moats of varying lights. "It's the least I could do."
The Atlantean eyed the hooded teen, curious about several factors. For one the weapons he wielded were clearly magical, but could not recall anything about them in his studies back at the Academy.
There was something odd about him. Kaldur couldn't quite place it.
"You seem… different." Aqualad stated. "Where are you from?"
There was a beat of silence as the newcomer tried formulating some kind of response.
"...I'm from… kind of far away." Said the hooded teen. "And I'm not really used to these waters."
Kaldur gave him a queer look. "Uh-huh."
All this got was a nervous chuckle from the teen as he pulled back his hood to reveal his blue-eyed, blonde features.
"I'm Roxas if you were wondering." He held out his hand for the Atlantean to take which Aqualad did, the pair having a firm handshake.
"Kaldur'ahm. I thank you for your assistance."
"Don't worry about it."
Kaldur tilted his head slightly, giving the Nobody a scrutinizing look.
Another factor that bugged him slightly was the voice of Roxas was very reminiscent of Robin over at Gotham. Not of the mannerisms, but of how it sounded.
'A coincidence.' Kaldur thought. 'Some voices do sound the same, but don't have the copied feel to them.'
Shaking his thoughts of the matter, Aqualad focused on the one to be more focused on.
"Why were you here?"
Kaldur thought it was strange for Roxas to suddenly appear at his time of need of being overwhelmed by Trident's forces. Made him curious and seek some answers.
"I learned of what happened with the S.S. Vargas and I wanted to check it out." Roxas told his fellow blond.
"A civilian such as yourself -no matter how trained in the mystic arts- should not have come." Kaldur firmly said. "It's dangerous."
Roxas raised a brow at this. "Says who? You're here. And you haven't noticed, I can take care of myself."
"One authorized to investigate this matter." Said the Atlantean. "You could've gotten hurt by those Trenchers-"
"They ain't Trenchers, that's for sure." The blonde teen commented. "Though I was wondering when they'd show up."
Kaldur picked up on this. "You know of these creatures?"
"Been fighting them for nearly as long as I can remember. And it's been a while since I've faced them." No. XIII revealed with a tired shake of his head. "Was wondering when they would make themselves known."
This got the Atlantean a bit curious. "What are they then if they aren't Trenchers?"
"Heartless. Creatures from the Realm of Darkness." Roxas saw the quizzical look on Kaldur's face. "There's a long and detailed explanation about them. But simply put, they're very dangerous for everyone and can replenish their numbers by essentially killing others. And they come in all shapes and sizes, not just aquatic in theme."
"...I see."
"What I am concerned about is them following Trident, given what I've noticed of him having the Heartless move some toxic waste containers away."
This earned Roxas a look.
"How do you know Trident?" Kaldur asked in surprise.
"I don't know-know him. Only fought him briefly. He was saying his name in the third person. He was… really weird."
Kaldur opened his mouth a little before closing it with a blink. 'He does speak in the third person, now that I think about it.' He thought to himself.
"So what's up with this Trident guy anyways? You know him, right?"
Shaking his head a little, Aqualad nodded, focusing back on a proper explanation.
"He's a terrorist. Not as big as Ocean Master and Black Manta, but can be just as dangerous with an ego to match. Believes he's superior and perfect in just about every way, making him do whatever he wants."
"Any idea what he wants with all that toxic waste?"
"Whatever it is, it's not good in the slightest."
The Greater Nobody hummed a little, feeling stumped on the matter. Feeling like he couldn't think of anything, he voiced a thought. "Hey. Since we're after the same guy, we can help each other out."
The Atlantean was silent for a number of moments, weighing his options.
He indeed had a hard time facing these Heartless Roxas spoke of. They were clearly different from the Trenchers he faced some time ago when the world became chaotic. Yet Roxas was able to quickly turn the tide with his skill and magic.
Hopefully, when this is all done and over with, he'll have to kindly ask Roxas to come with him to speak with the King on further matters.
"If you're willing…"
The pair then went off, going back to the S.S. Vargas in order to pick up a trail. Roxas pointed out the general direction the Heartless were going with the toxic waste containers they were transporting.
Both kept an eye out for anything amiss. Seeing possible signs of Trident along with the Heartless.
As this went on, Roxas thought back to some of the circumstances of his current predicament.
The Greater Nobody didn't know if he could typically breathe underwater, given that he's not exactly human and a resident of the Dreaming. His thoughts somewhat drifted back to the spell Donald Duck used on Sora, Goofy and himself when visiting several Worlds in order to blend in. One such occurrence was when Roxas' Somebody visited Atlantica and was able to survive being under the sea.
With his Organization uniform keeping darkness away when traveling through a Dark Corridor, it repels certain laws of a World, like keeping his appearance the same. One such instance was when he went to Halloween Town several times in the past when he used to be in Organization XIII. This meant that despite the spell he used to try and make him fit with the present environment, he didn't exactly change his appearance all that much... aside from being able to breathe underwater and his uniform being more aquatic in nature.
Though he did feel the slight occasional itch and odd feeling in his legs.
Roxas figured that if he didn't wear his uniform, he'd probably be sporting a dolphin tail much like Sora did when he visited the world of Atlantica.
Coming around a certain bend, plumbs of dark vapors appeared from nowhere. From them, the Heartless appeared.
There were several Missile Diver and Screwdivers present, but also some others as well.
The first was jellyfish-like in appearance, having bluish-green tentacles dangling beneath them while having two massive pale blue ones in the front. Their transparent globes had the Heartless emblem on them with the blackened heads inside with crooked, toothy smiles and bright yellow eyes.
The other was eel-like with a slithery body that is largely jagged with extrusions all across which contains a blue sphere at the tip. It has an oval-shaped head, a zig-zagged mouth, two beady yellow eyes and the Heartless emblem was seen on their lower jaw.
These were the Sea Neons and Sea Sprites respectively.
Keyblades flashed into Roxas' hands as he immediately went into battle with Kaldur who quickly drew out his water bearers. The two were quickly met by the opposing forces. Heartless tridents met with Keyblades and water swords soon after with one side trying to slay the other.
Some were taken down rather quickly, others needed some more work done. As such, a more magical approach was needed to overwhelm the physical based Heartless. Electrical currents from Kaldur when channeling them into his weapons to stun and knock them away while Roxas was able freeze a good lot before he and his present partner broke them into pieces. All this was able to do the trick in giving them breathing space.
During the fight, the two spotted Trident amongst the Heartless.
Kaldur sought to get to him first but was quickly surrounded and ensnared by Sea Neons and Sprites. Shortly after capturing him, they attempted to shock Aqualad, one way or another. Unfortunately, their electrical attacks didn't do all that to him, given he flared his magical tattoos to help counteract the attempt. Even if he was getting shocked, he wouldn't be harmed as intended, but can still feel the pain.
This didn't last for long as he was freed soon after as Roxas swam in close and blasted them away.
While the Aqualad took care of his temporary oppressors, the Nobody cleared a path to the one behind this mess with a few Strike Raids.
"Hello there." Keyblades flashed back into Roxas' hands. "How's it hanging?"
Trident swiftly pointed his weapon at the Keybearer. "Keep your thoughts to yourself, inferior fool."
Immediately, Trident fired off magical blasts from his trident. Roxas swiftly evaded a few while batting away others. One magical attack -however- sent the Keybearer away, having him flail in the water as a result.
As this happened, Aqualad tackled Trident, taking him deeper into the water as they battled it out.
Not seeing this, Roxas got up and was about to look for Kaldur when he saw Trident in the corner of his peripheral vision.
Left and right, Roxas was slaying more Heartless in his path to the one behind this present mess. His momentum was getting faster, having him get to Trident all the more quickly at an alarming rate.
As the Atlantean terrorist raised his weapon to block a coming swing, he didn't expect the hooded teen's weapon to cleave right through his own. Despite having it broken, Trident kept up with the offensive, intending to stab and skewer with both halves of his weapon.
With the two duking it out, another battle took place elsewhere.
The two Atlanteans grappled with each other, trying to overwhelm the other. It was an even match, to say the least. While the terrorist wanted to kill Kaldur, the Aqualad was trying to incapacitate him.
Soon enough, Kaldur's water bearers destroyed Trident's weapon and reformed his own into whips. He struck the terrorist several times, soon intending to knock him out when something crashed into him from behind.
Recomposing himself, he saw it was Roxas as he was thrown over. In his mind, it was against a Heartless, but in fact, it was something else.
Looking back to his opponent, Kaldur saw he wasn't there. With a quick glance, he saw Trident swimming away into a dark tunnel.
"He's getting away!" Kaldur called out, swimming onward.
Shaking his head, Roxas looked back and saw the Heartless were gone and so was Trident. He focused back on Aqualad and swam after him.
Once catching up, Roxas saw Kaldur was floating idly. Reason why was him trying to figure out which tunnel Trident swam off to.
"Where were you back there?" Kaldur calmly yet sternly questioned him. "I was fighting against Trident by myself."
Roxas gave his fellow blond a look. "What are you talking about? I was-"
Before he could continue, a familiar figure brushed past his sight. A familiar shape of the enemy he fought today. And he wasn't the only one as Aqualad saw it too, but more of a face in the darkness.
At once, the two pointed to Trident, but at opposite tunnels.
"There he is!/goes!" Both blurted out before looking at each other in confusion.
"I saw him! He's that way!" Said Roxas.
"I'm telling you, he's this way."
"Are you sure it was not a Heartless?"
"I'm pretty sure."
The Keybearer scratched his head, shaking it soon after. "Look. I'll go in this tunnel," he pointed to the left, "you go in the other." he then pointed to the right. "Hopefully one of us will swim into him."
After a moment, Kaldur sighed and nodded. "Agreed."
The two blondes took off into their respective tunnels.
Swimming onwards, Kaldur eventually exited his own tunnel and swam upon a floor with various volcanic vents all about.
Searching all over, Kaldur felt a vent explode right nearby. As this happened, he was tackled from behind. Turning his head slightly, he saw Trident was there trying to skewer him with his weapon. Before he got the chance, Aqualad grabbed his water bearer and jammed it into the enemy's side. Flaring his eel-like tattoos, he quickly electrocuted him.
With the terrorist stunned, Kaldur reared back and smacked him away before punching in across the face with a following kick. With this, Trident fell down hard as his weapon left his grasp. He got up and swam to his weapon just before Kaldur could reach him.
The Aqualad swiftly evaded the swings and thrusts that were intended to kill or maim him. On one such thrust, Kaldur grasped the forked weapon and held it with all his might as Trident kept pushing ever further.
In an instant, the Atlantean hero let go and moved aside, letting Trident fall forward.
What he didn't know was that right at that moment, Trident fell into a volcanic vent just as it exploded and severely wounding him; or perhaps killing him in the end.
Back in the underwater tunnel, Roxas came across a few Heartless and took care of them with relative ease. Before he could venture onward-
"Worthless scum. You cannot defeat perfection."
-he whirled around and saw Trident floating there with his signature weapon.
Roxas scrunched his face a little when eyeing the weapon Trident wielded. "How many of those do you have?"
The only response he got was several magical blasts coming from Trident's weapon. Once more he evaded a good number of them before he swiftly got in close as they were in an apparent deadlock.
"I will win. I always win. I am superior-GAH!"
Trident was interrupted when Roxas gave him a headbutt and knocked him away.
"Here I thought Xaldin had a big ego."
Before the terrorist could act accordingly, a figure came up to him as he wasn't looking and stabbed him from the back. It was soon revealed to be a Misslediver. In mere moments, Trident was surrounded in dark vapors as his glowing heart was ensnared. Soon after, he was broken down and reformed to become a Spear Lizard.
Narrowing his eyes, Roxas swam forward and destroyed the two Heartless with his Keyblades.
With them gone, the Agent of the Dreaming didn't know what to exactly do now. Losing the terrorist to the Heartless while not knowing what the man's plans were with all of those toxic waste containers.
Seeing as he can't exactly cry or be frustrated with it, he needed to find Kaldur and let him know what happened.
Swimming to an apparent surface nearby, Roxas saw he was now within an underwater cavern. There he saw Kaldur resting on a rock.
The moment he walked up to him, Aqualad took notice, stood up and approached him as well.
"I just saw Trident!" They said at the same time. They blinked before speaking again in sync.
"No, you didn't!"
"Yes, I did!"
"Cut it out!"
"That's impossible." Said Kaldur. "I threw him into a volcanic vent before it went off."
"You sure about that? I saw him get turned by a Heartless." Roxas rebuked, pointing in the direction he came from.
This made Kaldur even more confused, making him frustrated in the end.
"Look." Aqualad began calmly but with a tense edge to it. "I just want to catch Trident and bring him to justice for his crimes. And to do that, we need to stop arguing and start working together."
Saying his piece, Kaldur walked away.
"Working together…" Roxas hummed and voiced a pondering question. "What if there isn't just one? What if Trident isn't just some moniker?"
Aqualad cocked a brow upon hearing this, looking back at the Nobody. "What do you mean?"
"Cuz while you faced Trident, I faced off one of my own." Roxas pointed out. "If I didn't know any better, it's like he's everywhere at once."
This got Kaldur to frown in thought.
"Unless he has some sort of magical knowledge of making that happen." He muttered aloud. "But why would you say he's a moniker?"
"People are easy to die, but not ideas." Said Roxas. "Once an idea is formed, it's hard to kill it. Such a thing can apply to a person, depending on who they're based from. Having their will and thoughts live on in another. The only way to really defeat it is to change and beat it down."
The Aqualad frowned, feeling what he said was frightfully true in many aspects. "Speaking from experience?"
"Not really. Only through lessons." Roxas freely admitted.
"Then what you state, Trident isn't just an individual person but merely a name to pass onto someone else through a perhaps group." Kaldur surmised with a frown.
"Makes it feel like the person is eternal. Like with a hydra: take one head out, another gets replaced."
"Until you burn the stump."
"Yup. But back to the idea…"
The Atlantean adopted a pondering pose, thinking more with this present idea. "It would perhaps make sense. Have him appear at multiple locations at the same time, confusing others in the process."
"Like us." Roxas aid, gesturing to himself and the Atlantean.
Kaldur's brows furrowed at this. "That is rather concerning."
"But where would he be now… or one of him?"
"Right here."
The two blondes whirled around, seeing the Atlantean terrorist right then and there.
"Trident!" Aqualad pulled out his water bearers, quickly getting into a fighting stance alongside Roxas as he brought out his Keyblades. "In the name of King Orin, you are under arrest."
"Like you two can stop me." Trident said challengingly.
A Keyblade was raised and aimed at the terrorist. "Newsflash, Trident. You're outnumbered, two to one." Said the Nobody.
"There is no escape." Kaldur added on.
Trident scoffs. "True. But the good thing about me is that there are so… many me's."
"...Why did you say it like that?" Roxas cautiously asked.
All the two blondes got, in turn, was a smile.
The underwater cavern suddenly lights up, revealing what was covered in the dark.
From where the two heroes stood in what was perhaps revealed to be Trident's lair. There were all sorts of odd, sickly-looking contraptions coming out from machines, making them look like some sort of tree; all fueled by the toxic waste containers. Pods were dangling from up high, showing dark figures resting and apparently growing from within. One opened up nearby, dropping the figure to reveal a Trident covered in some plasma-looking substance.
"I think your idea of Trident being a moniker is incorrect." Aqualad muttered, Roxas nodding beside him.
"You're right. These are…"
"Clones." Kaldur confirmed. "Hundreds… perhaps thousands of 'em."
"One Trident is bad, but this is-"
"An army." Chorused the Tridents, their voices echoing within the cavern.
As one, the Trident Clones charged in, attacking the two heroes.
Kaldur leaped into the air, avoiding some magical blasts from some clones. He got behind one of them and took control in a manner by redirecting the trident to the other clones and blasting them. This didn't last long as Kaldur swiftly dashed out of the way as some magical blasts went his way and struck the one Trident clone instead.
Coming out of a recovery roll, Kaldur used his water bearers, forming them into maces to smack and club one Trident after another. He did have to mix it up a bit by grabbing a fallen trident weapon and using it to help defend himself. Even channeling his magic through it to shoot out a number of blasts before swinging and jabbing it about on his surrounding opponents.
Over with Roxas, who was standing on solid ground, he was able to have a better means of fighting.
A Trident went to attack him, trying to skewer him from the side. Roxas immediately evaded by swerving around and striking at the clone's exposed back. With that one taken care of, he nearly repeated the same process with others coming right at him.
Parries, blocks, stabs, swipes and near perfect posture allowed him to perform retaliating strikes to each and every Trident coming their way.
In the midst of all this, he saw Kaldur struggling against his own horde of clones. Magic surrounded Roxas as he focused on his fellow blonde. Once at its peak, the greater Nobody had it explode around his form. He then dashed forward with a Flowmotion, colliding against any and all foes in his wake. This caused them to flail back in pain, one way or another as Roxas got close to the Atlantean.
"Thank you for that." The Atlantean said with appreciation.
"No problem, Kaldur."
The two blonde heroes began working together in order to fend off against the clones.
Unfortunately for them, it wouldn't last long.
One after another, Roxas and Kaldur were overwhelmed, sent flying and crashed into a console that appeared different from all the others from the cloning trees. It short-circuited, due to the heavy impacts against it, causing the hatching sequence to begin with a timer.
Back onto their feet, the two heroes saw this happen with the machine. However, before they could perhaps get to work on it, they took notice they were surrounded by the Trident army.
"My brilliant plan is already a success." Spoke one clone.
"If one of me was perfect-"
Another clone picked up after one other. "-why not make more?"
"You can never have too much of a good thing!"
"Once my army conquers the kingdoms of Atlantis-"
"-I will declare war on the surface world."
"Everyone on the planet will bow down before me."
"And praise my perfection!" Chorused all of the Tridents.
"We're all perfect! Nothing can stop us now!"
A burst of evil laughter echoed throughout the cavern, intensified by Trident and his clone army.
Roxas glanced over to Kaldur. "Any bright ideas?"
"I've got one." Kaldur grunted out.
"Are you ready to die? All of myself is really impatient." Spoke one of the clones.
Kaldur soon spoke something simple, yet complicated to the Tridents. "So, if you're all perfect... which one of you is the best?"
"I am!" Chorused the Trident army, only for them to blink and look at each other. "Huh?"
The Keybearer was somewhat able to pick up what to do, making him smirk in response. "Oh, come on! You can't all be the best! Only one of you can be better than the others, right?"
This was soon able to work with what came next.
"I'm the original. I'm the best!" One shouted.
"No, you're not. I am!" Yelled another.
"You are not the original!"
The tension began to grow as the army of Tridents all began facing one another, some getting in the faces of others whilst some had their weapons pointed at the necks of their fellow clones.
"What? You're kidding me!? I'm the best! I'm the original!"
"I am!"
"No! I am!"
"Nonsense, you inferior fools! I am perfection!"
The cavern soon devolved into a place of discord.
"What are you idiots doing!? I created you all! I'm the original Trident!"
"No you're not!"
And the discord escalated as the clones started beating up and killing each other.
Rather morbid on how the latter detail was going, Roxas and Kaldur seeing the Tridents punch, kick, skewer or cleave each other in various ways.
"Whoa, uh, that was surprisingly easy." Came Roxas' comment.
"Yes, but there are still others wise against the ploy." Kaldur responded, seeing several clones coming right at them.
"Would've thought the smarts would've been shared equally." Said the Nobody, getting into a battle stance. "You mind stopping the machine from hatching all these clones while I hold them off?"
Kaldur turned back to the machine, seeing the countdown was down to a few seconds.
"I believe that won't be possible."
Roxas looked back and saw the countdown had reached zero. And just like that, they could hear an eerie sound throughout the underwater facility as many Trident clones were waking up from their pods.
Quickly acting, Roxas used an Earth spell, ripping a defensive slab from the wet floor to block a clone Trident's energy blasts. Using it again, he had pieces spear out to strike the clone. More blasts shot out, destroying the pieces, yet some were able to reach their mark or even harm other clones nearby in the process.
Coming in to assist, Kaldur whirled out his water whips, striking any and all clones within their reach. He rolled out of the way from some clones diving right at him. Retaliation soon followed with the water bearers forming maces to knock them about.
As a clone came close to Aqualad, blasts exploded from the floor sending it and several others away. Looking down in confusion, Kaldur saw there were several glowing marks encircling him.
"Impressive." He commented, soon gazing at the Nobody. "Your work, no doubt."
"A Mine Shield does wonders at times." Roxas said from nearby, blocking an attack in the process.
Kaldur smirked. "I bet."
Like before with the defensive shield, Kaldur wouldn't let it go to waste as he kept moving and attacking. Some clones came close but were batted away by his weapons whether they formed maces, hammers, swords, or whips. On occasion, the Mine Shield did its work in blasting a cloned terrorist away, leaving them open for any and all of Kaldur's attacks.
Eventually the amount of magical mines ran out with each following explosion, Kaldur didn't let up on his assault. In one instance, he needed to clear up more space around him. He whipped hard to the stalagmites above, breaking them and had them fall. This gave him some breathing space, but not enough. Thus he brought a lot of the nearby water, courtesy of his water bearers and blasted the Trident clones away. More so to meet and counter the magical blasts coming from his enemies.
Suddenly, Kaldur and the Trident clones felt a wave of cold. Instinctively, Kaldur quickly moved out of the way to avoid a magical ice attack from Roxas.
Coming up from a recovery roll, the Aqualad saw Roxas swing his weapons. Slamming one Keyblade into the ground, a massive burst of Blizzaga jetted all over. When the other came down as well, a greater burst of ice sprang out and heavily damaged the clone army. The end result was a large and thick wall of ice surrounding the two in keeping the others out.
"Quite the spell you did there." Kaldur commented.
"Still need refinement on the Diamond Dust technique." Roxas panted out. "I think I put too much into it."
Reaching into his coat, Roxas pulled out something and devoured it before drinking a vial. From his spot, Kaldur saw a blue aura and a green one briefly surrounding his companion.
"What was that?" He soon caught something about to hit him. Opening his hand, he saw a blue twelve-sided item with some symbols apparently floating inside of it. The other was a vial of some glowing green liquid with golden and emerald symbols along the surface. "What are these?"
"A Hi-Ether and Hi-Potion. Helps out on your stamina and magic reserve and health respectively." Said the dark-suited blonde. "And you should take them now, cuz we ain't finished yet."
Glancing over, Kaldur saw a number of clones trying to break through the defensive wall to others climbing over it.
Popping the Ether into his mouth and chewing before washing it down with the potion, Kaldur felt a rush of energy run through his body. The blue glow around him subsided before a green one replaced it, having him feel rejuvenated and seemingly refreshed.
Just as the two were about to resume their fight against the Trident army, something happened.
Left, right and center, plumbs of darkness began to appear in revealing many Heartless amongst the Trident clones.
"Oh look. The Heartless have come out to play."
Seeing the greater numbers than either of them can handle, Kaldur spoke out. "We better flee, now."
"Don't have to tell me twice."
Whirling around, magic surged around Roxas' Keyblades as he swung down and cleaved through the defensive wall behind them. As it crumbled and gave them way out, the pair made their escape by running back and jumping into the water.
If they were to look back, they would've taken notice of what was happening with the clones with the Heartless now present. Of how they turned on the Trident army with more and more dark vapors filling the space.
Swimming with all their might, the two heroes spoke
"We can't let them escape. We need some way to seal the exit."
"Right now, I'm only worried about getting to the exit."
The pair swam harder, rushing through the tunnel and reaching the light at the very end. After nearly a minute, they came out.
Whirling around, the two expected to see the horde of Trident clones and Heartless, only to find nothing.
"Where are they?" Kaldur asked in bewilderment. "They should be after us in droves."
A feeling of dread soon ran through Roxas, soon realizing what happened. From there, the environment soon felt darker as a bellowing pulse-like sound and crashing noises was heard coming from the tunnel.
"Get ready."
Soon enough, a large figure burst out of the tunnel with a large echo resounding throughout the water.
As the powdered debris settled, the two blondes saw a large gray and brown whale-like creature. Its wiped lips are slapped like anchors. Its white teeth are mostly transparent and tinted black on the sides. Right behind them showed a number of Spear Lizards, Missile Divers, Screwdivers, Sea Neons and Sprites. Its bright eyes were yellow. The Heartless emblem was seen along their side behind its fins, which glowed similarly to the cloning pods. The tail was shaped like a trident, which was spinning and glowing.
This unique Trident Tail opened its mouth, unleashing dozens of the lesser Heartless into the water.
Quickly acting, the two heroes began attacking the incoming foes.
Kaldur swiped his water bearers, cleaving through and batting away the various Heartless left and right. On a few occasions, he had to quickly form shields to defend himself before bashing the aquatic foes soon after.
With Roxas, he did as much as his fellow blonde. But at one point, he pointed his Keyblades at the various Heartless. He focused on just about everyone in his peripheral vision. Wisps of magic whirled and gathered towards the tips, condensing greatly as they were being powered up. Reaching their apex, Roxas fired off the Ragnarok Shotlock.
Twice the amount there were, courtesy of the second Keyblade, the rainbow-colored magical attack went everywhere. They explode upon impact, making the resulting vapors rather dense for a time. This gave Roxas an opportunity to swim in and take down many of them with Kaldur soon following.
At this time, they spotted the Trident Tail swimming about with it emanating an echoing sound within the ocean depths.
Seeing where it's presently at, the two heroes broke away from the lesser Heartless to focus on the bigger one. Swimming with all their might, they soon caught up to the whale-like dark entity.
It took notice of them during a turn, having it swing about to and fro. In the process, its trident tail tried to knock them out. They evaded the blow before coming in with their own assault.
For Kaldur, he swam in and plunged his sharpened water bearer into its hide before concentrating. His eel tattoos flared as he sent out an electric current into the whale Heartless. The shock attack might've worked, but it didn't show. Yet Kaldur didn't let up as he used his other water bearer to bash or cut into the mighty beast.
With Roxas, he was blasting the Trident Tail with a variety of spells in his arsenal. Most would be hard to pull off, given he was underwater, but had to make due on limitations.
At one point, the whale Heartless began to glow throughout its body. Having a feeling about what was about to happen, Roxas fought the urge to swim away. Instead, he went right towards Kaldur, trying to reach out and give him a warning.
Unfortunately, his attempt came too late as the Trident Tail sent out a pulse throughout its body as a defensive tactic. Thus it caused Kaldur to be harshly knocked quite a distance away. He would've gone farther if he hadn't gotten caught by Roxas.
"I got you." The Nobody said, keeping his grip firm around the Atlanteans wrist.
"Thank you."
Kaldur looked on, wondering how either of them could take down such a beast.
He had the urge to call upon Atlantis' army to come to this location and help settle the matter. However, this was an unusual case and didn't know how to properly proceed with this dangerous entity.
Not to mention he didn't know how long it'll take for them to arrive. Including the fact that this whale Heartless would get to one of the possible settlements nearby and cause further havoc.
"How can we stop this?" He asked aloud, turning to the Nobody who was the specialist with these creatures. "I doubt we can properly take it out with just ourselves."
Hearing this, Roxas got an idea.
Fishing out the summon charm from underneath his coat, Roxas poured magic into it. A small light shined through his gloved hand. A sign his call was being received. He felt the heat starting to build from within as if wanting to come on through.
"We need help." He called out. "Give us strength."
With the call made, a large orb of light appeared over Roxas' form. Glyphs and runes circled around it before they and the orb disappeared. Soon after, a large plumb of pink vapors appeared within the ocean's depths, causing Kaldur to balk at the new arrival.
"By Posideon..."
It was a Kraken-like creature with an apparent mechanized and bright multi-colored body. This is due to how unnatural it looked, especially with two of the tentacles having large blades coming out of their ends. There was a pair of multi-colored orbs around its elongated head. A certain light appeared from not just its eyes but its bulbous mouth. And an insignia was on the center of its head and above its eyes, which Kaldur didn't know was the emblem of the Dream Eaters.
"What is this creature?" Kaldur breathed out.
"Brawlamari, a Dream Eater."
A roar came from the summoned Dream Eater, soon launching an attack on the Trident Tail with its tentacles.
The mechanized limbs clashed against the whale Heartless, having it cough up a number of lesser Heartless from its gullet.
Seeing this occur, the Nobody and Atlantean were quick to respond as the present Spear Lizards, Screwdivers, Missile Divers, Sea Neons and Sprites came their way.
Channeling magic through him, Roxas let it explode around him once he swung his Keyblades out. The magic soon formed a storm of orbs that orbited all around the Nobody. Once swimming onward and getting in closer to the enemies, the ethereal orbs shot out and collided against the Heartless with various explosions. Even then, Roxas swung his weapons to and fro, not slowing down in the slightest as he carved through the wave of foes.
With Kaldur, he was right behind his quick companion. His water bearers in their sword form as he began cleaving through the Heartless as best he could. On a few occasions, he had to electrify them once close and personal or once ensnaring them with his water whips. With them staggered and momentarily paralyzed, he bashed them with his water maces.
Over with the two large entities, their conflict was still going on. Blasts and bashes were exchanged between the pair of behemoths, small shockwaves occasionally reverberating from their battle.
Swimming upward, the Trident Tail showed its exposed belly. Yet at this time, it lifted up its tail and fired an energy beam from it.
Whipping out its tentacles to the side, the Dream Eater formed a protective barrier around itself. The beam collided and was held there with the magical blast going nearly everywhere.
Some of them ended up reaching over and nearly hitting Roxas and Kaldur in the process.
Whereas the Atlantean was able to evade the blast, the Nobody had to quickly cast Protect. The hexagonal barrier surrounded him, taking up most of the blast.
"That was close." He mutters.
"We still got more." Says Kaldur.
Looking over, Roxas saw more energy blasts coming their way, courtesy of resulting actions between the two giant entities duking it out. He quickly threw up another Protect around not just himself but Kaldur as well.
"This is getting out of hand." Comments Roxas.
"I concur," Kaldur states. "We must end this."
With a nod, the Dreaming agent brought down the defensive spell as both he and the Atlantean went on to strike down the rest of the lesser Heartless.
Raising one Keyblade to the ocean's surface while the other pointed to the Heartless, Roxas cast a volley of Thundaga spells to electrify the remaining enemies. Kaldur then went in to finish the rest with quick swipes from his weapons.
The lesser Heartless were taken care of and no more came their way. Thus the attention of the two heroes was more focused now on the whale Heartless.
Even with the Brawlamari's presence against the Trident Tail, Roxas couldn't let the Dream Eater do all of the fighting. With Kaldur coming in for the assist, the pair went to attack the giant Heartless.
However before they could come close, the Trident Tail saw their approach. With a flap of it's fins, the underwater currents shifted, sending the two young heroes away.
The Nobody and Atlantean were able to recover. As they did, they saw the Brawlamari blast the Heartless with a cannon attack coming from its mouth. The blast had the whale Heartless stagger, leaving it open for all.
With the advantage, the two blonde heroes pressed on with their attacks. Not letting up in the slightest in assisting the Brawlamari in taking down the Trident Tail.
As they got close once more, the whale Heartless was about to send the two heroes away. The attempt was thwarted as the Brawlamari brought its blade tentacles down upon it. The one attack got it open again, having both Nobody and Atlantean lay it on the dark creature.
With a burst of magic, Roxas let loose a fury of Keyblade swipes and jabs against the Trident Tail. In the midst of the onslaught combo, a cyclone of energy erupted from the Nobody for significant damage.
On Kaldur's end, he was stabbing the Heartless as best as he could. When that wasn't enough, he went to electrocute the dark entity once more.
Like before, he saw the glow emanating from the Trident Tail. Not wanting a repeat of earlier, Kaldur quickly backed away to avoid getting blasted away. Yet he was caught in the blast and sent flailing some distance, but not as far as before.
Prior to him going back in to take down the whale Heartless, he saw Roxas rocketing over to assist him. He saw the Nobody's form glow in the process and grasped his hand.
As this happened, Kaldur's body glowed along with his eel tattoos. He suddenly felt overcharged with magic.
Before Aqualad knew it, his body instinctively began to move.
The duo swiftly torpedoed right back to the Trident Tail. Once close, they jabbed their weapons at the Heartless, spinning about all the while. In the midst of it, both unleashed their electrical attacks from Kaldur's bio-electricity to Roxas' Thunder spells. After that occurred, they spun around some more with their blades digging more into the Heartless' hide. To finish things off, the pair plunged their weapons into the exposed innards and unleashed a combined electrical attack to really shock the Trident Tail significantly.
After the rigorous onslaught came to an end, the whale Heartless was staggered. Its maw was kept open and made no move to close it back up.
"What was that?" Kaldur asked in awe, looking down at his hands in time to see the glow that he possessed subsiding.
"I think we just had a Limit Break."
"A Limit Break?"
"Later- Look out!"
Roxas yanked Kaldur away, avoiding the incoming attack coming from the Brawlamari. A condensed laser attack came from its tentacles and struck the Heartless through its opened maw. A light could be seen coming from within as it momentarily burst and exploded before its body settled down.
The Trident Tail floated still, its body absolutely damaged with the gashes around its form. But soon, black mist and vapors began to leak out of the Heartless' body. And just as before, the Heartless slowly disappeared and a large Heart soon materialized and floated away up into the water and disappeared sometime after.
With that, the battle has come to an end.
Roxas gave a small breath of relief, glad that it was all finally over.
Kaldur followed Roxas' action as his shoulders sagged in relief, followed along with a heavy sigh of solace. Him beginning to feel the exhaustion blanketing him to some degree.
As far as they knew, the chaos came to an end with the possible death of Trident and his clone army.
Turning over, Roxas swam over and patted the Dream Eater. "Thanks for the help. You were a great help."
The dream entity let out a sound, emanating its praise to the Keybearer.
And with that, the Dream Eater soon disappeared into a puff of pink smoke and vapors, signifying that its time as a summon has come to an end and returned to the Dreaming.
"And that takes care of that." Boasted Roxas.
"I agree." Kaldur breathed out.
After floating for a few moments in silence, the Keybearer voiced a passing question in his mind. "What now?"
"I need you to come with me."
Roxas gave Kaldur a confused look. "What for?"
"A lot will need to be answered for this day. Not just about your testimony towards Trident, but about what these Heartless are." Kaldur explained. "The King needs to be made aware of these new enemies."
Before he could get a proper response from the greater Nobody-
*Da Da Da Daaa Da Da Da Da Daaaaaaa*
A certain ringtone echoed through the water, getting a confused reaction from Kaldur.
"Sorry about that. That would be me." The Nobody sheepishly said.
Roxas pulled out his Dreamphone from within his coat and looked at who was calling him before answering.
"Hey, Lucien. What's up?"
As the Nobody conversed with the Librarian of Dream's Palace, Kaldur bore a bewildered look on his face. Some questions floated around his mind while trying to figure out what was going on.
"Yeah. I'll be over in a moment." Said Roxas, ending the phone call. Putting away his Dreamphone, he looked back at Aqualad. "Sorry about that, Kaldur. Work called. Raincheck?"
A swirl of glowing sand erupted around Roxas, practically consuming him before the buzzcut blond even had a chance to respond.
Kaldur reached out, trying to stop him from leaving. However, he was too late as the swirl of dream sand disbursed leaving him all alone in the ocean depths.
A number of thoughts were quickly added to what previously was on his mind. His being baffled and concerned were among what he felt right now.
All he could do now was head back to the nearest settlement and report to his king of what just occurred.
-Later, Elsewhere-
In an unspecified and undisclosed location, a meeting took place between six individuals.
"-Onto other matters, how is the Trident situation?" Asked a bald businessman to his fellow "colleagues".
"He's dead, for starters." A woman boredly answered.
"Ended poorly." A man with slicked black hair and a well-trimmed beard tacked on.
"That's an understatement." Stated another with a helmet that was aquatically themed. "Was looking forward to using the project for some future plans concerning the Atlantean kingdoms."
"Cloning an individual with an ego such as Trident's and mass producing him resulted in failure." Spoke a more mechanical, French-tinged voice.
"Especially when having the exact same implanted consciousnesses for a pseudo-hive mind on this scale." Said a man garbed in green clothing.
"At least we know what not to do in future works. Especially with later generations of the Genomorphs." Said the bald businessman rather dismissively.
"Yet another failed business venture." The slick back black-haired man stated with a shake of his head. "Luthor, Ra's, I believe we will need a change in direction to make sure the Genomorphs don't fall into this pitfall."
"You should know that our contingencies are already in effect, Savage." Lex casually said.
In the middle of this conversation, the lone woman in this group shifted her eyes over to the sixth member of this group, a young-looking teen with pointed hair on both ends and sharp, mischievous, if not deadly eyes.
"Klarion, you've been awfully quiet since we began this meeting." Queen Bee of Bialya spoke up, making all turn to the Witch Boy of the assembled individuals.
Lex picked up on this, finally realizing it for the first time. "You're usually chatty and snarky. It was oddly peaceful in this meeting. That's rather… off for someone such as yourself."
The Lord of Chaos shifted in his spot, stroking his feline familiar in order to calm himself down. "Right… sorry. Just a lot on my mind."
That caused the others in attendance to actually pause, sharing looks with each other through their screens.
This was very unlike Klarion. He had a lot on his mind?
Something was clearly bothering the Lord of Chaos.
"Oh?" Bee now leaned in, clearly intrigued by this development. "And pray tell, what could be bothering you so much that you hadn't said a word in this entire meeting?"
"When you guys told me to pop by the underwater lab to leave little to no evidence of our involvement to the Atlantean authorities, I felt some things I haven't sensed in a rather long time."
"...Him being somewhat formal and sounding adult for once. This is a little worrisome, mes amis." The being called the Brain openly admitted,
Vandal Savage exchanged a look with his fellow immortal, Ra's Al Ghul before turning back to the Witch Boy. "And what was it that you sensed, Klarion?"
Klarion looked at the man dead in the eye, not an ounce of his usual air of mischief for Savage to see. "A primal power that even I and several other Lords of Order and Chaos have concerns with on occasion, Vandal."
"...Is he joking?" Queen Bee glanced over to her compatriots.
"Doesn't seem like that." Said the eldest amongst the group.
"That is rather disconcerting." Ocean Master stated with a deep frown.
Lex Luthor emanates a hum before Ra's al Ghul voiced a question some of the others were thinking.
"Do we have the identity of who stopped Trident?"
A video feed was brought up, showing a pair of individuals facing off against the Trident clones. The six were silent in the beginning as they were identifying the two.
"One was Aqualad, Aquaman's protege." Answered Ocean Master. "The other… I do not know."
They all watched as the spiky blond hair, blue-eyed teen called forth two strange weapons that could be equated to oversized keys, fighting against the Trident clones and also enemies they could not identify.
"Someone new onto the scene, no doubt." The Queen of Bialiya says dismissively. "Some novice-"
"Doesn't seem like a novice to me, given what we're seeing here, votre Majesté." Interrupted the Brain.
"He fights well." The Leader of the League of Shadows commended. "Some openings are present, which could be exploited. But it seems they take advantage of such a thing to leave an opponent's guard down to swiftly overtake them. Taking a better look at their style now, I see it's designed to primarily kill with hints of protection."
"You can do more commentary on their fighting style later, Ra's." Lex remarked.
"Pardon me if I can't appreciate it." The aged assassin responded to the businessman. "Rare as it is of such an unorthodox, yet effective style. And those weapons…"
"Even if this person is using some unique magic." Ocean Master added in, backing up Ra's comment.
The footage continued on as the two young heroes fled from the underwater lab as a litany of dark creatures began appearing and apparently consuming the entirety of the Trident clone army.
"And what would these be?" Queen Bee inquired, frowning at the appearance of these bizarre beings.
"What I'm concerned about." The Witch Boy stated with a grim expression.
Savage looked at the Lord of Chaos from the corner of his eyes. "Being what, Klarion?"
"The Heartless."
The others all looked at one another, hoping an answer may be provided but it appeared that none of them had any idea as to what Klarion was referring to.
"And what would they be?" Luthor inquired on behalf of the group.
"An extremely dangerous force this corner of the multiverse hasn't seen in eons. Even before you were born, Vandal." Klarion's deadly seriousness was beginning to put off his compatriots, something they did not like.
For someone like Klarion, who reveled in madness and disorder, to display such an opposite attitude was not something to be ignored.
"If this is concerning, what do you recommend to take care of them?" Savage inquired with complete seriousness.
"The kid with Aqualad." The others looked at Klarion questionably. "He is a Keybearer. He's a goody goody but… we're gonna need him if we are to stand a chance against them; one way or another."
-End Chapter-
AN:
It's been a while, hasn't it?
A lot has happened on my end since I last updated… anything.
To sum things up, I've been in a rut. A lot of my time has been me working and it's been draining me considerably. A lot of the time, depression hits me and consumes me. I try to alleviate this by catching up on books I have at home or trying to properly relax with music, audiobooks and/or cooking. Other than that, while I really wanted to work on my own stories, I've been having a hard time for numerous reasons. Instead I've been helping out my friends free man writer and BulletstormX on Age of Remnant and primarily on Infinite Wars as their co-writer along with I'm Nobody.
I have to thank free man writer in helping me out on this chapter. Him helping out in getting through several of the annoying walls keeping this from being updated.
FMW: Hey I barely helped! Picture me waving my hands like I'm in an anime. And Oppenheimer. WOW. Go see that movie. And maybe Barbie if you're part of the Barbenheimer craze. Jesus H, that was a crowded theater of suits and pink.
Jebest4781: Saw Oppenheimer over the weekend. It was fantastic, even if it was a little slow to me, feeling lost in a few spots. Overall, it was quite enjoyable. And a lot was presented at SDCC this weekend. Plenty of good trailers making me giddy for what's to come.
Now there's another thing I should bring up. Yes I know the DC Summer 2023 event is currently going on being Knight Terrors. I've gotten a number of reviews and PMs about it and here is what I think of it.
Yes I think it's really cool and amazing. I wanna touch on it in some way, given it's heavily dream/nightmare based. However, I do not know how I can properly do an adaptation. Will need to flesh out the story more, not to mention wait for the full comic event to finish and wrap up. This was in fact the one issue I had years ago with why I stopped writing A Nobody, given all these events happening all at once gave me a big anxiety attack and loads of frustration among other things.
For now, I have to play it by ear, let things flow naturally as possible before finding a way to plug in Knight Terrors properly.
Anyways, be sure to review this story guys! Would like the criticisms. Please and thank you!
R&R