Hey, everyone. I'm still asking for ideas for the story I can tell with The Land of Dragons. I am currently two chapters away from getting to the beginning of that arc. I would appreciate suggestions. Thank you.

Chapter 97

Army of Shinra

The gang stepped out of an alley and looked up to see that they were in front of a theater. The streets were crowded, the sidewalks fairly packed with pedestrians and cars driving smoothly on the roads. The automobile models appeared to be a few decades behind compared to what Sora, Riku and Kairi were familiar with. The civilians' apparel was rather plain, consisting of T- or polo shirts and jeans or dresses and skirts, as well as sneakers or boots. The sun shone down on the city streets, although gray-green clouds obscured the afternoon sky. Looking up, the gang could see the huge tower overlooking the city, the structure ever-present as its great size emphasized how much power its inhabitants must have had over everything.

"Well, this is different," Kairi commented.

"How's that?" Goofy asked.

Kairi shrugged. "It's less of a fantasy setting. Pretty urban," she explained.

Sora and Riku nodded, seeing her point. Most of the other worlds they had visited, more so on Sora's part due to Riku seeing more variety, looked like they had come out of a storybook or a fantasy movie. This was a technologically-developed city and an urban setting, filled with cars, stores, and plain businesses, with little that jumped out at them aside from the skyscraper. Even the atmosphere and ambient colors were muted, which was not much of a case in most worlds aside from Halloween Town and Port Royal.

"I guess our first order of business is checking out that tower," Mickey suggested.

Riku shook his head. "I doubt they'll just let us in, due to simple procedure," he argued. "We can get closer and take a look, maybe see what we can find out."

"Well, let's see if we can find our way there," Aqua said.

"A good way to find your way around is to wander aimlessly and see which ways gets you where," Kairi said.

With that, the party strolled along the sidewalk, looking around as they took in the sights. Nothing was quite as impressive as the landmarks in many of the other worlds they visited, but the city had its own unique splendor. When they reached the end of the block, they turned and waited for the traffic to stop and the crossing light to turn. Aqua was the only one who was unfamiliar with traffic rules, but aside from a brief explanation of the right-of-way, she was able to figure it out easily. When the light turned from a red hand to a white walking stick figure, they took the crosswalk and crossed the street.

As they took the next sidewalk up the avenue, they took notice of a man standing at the corner at the next intersection. He wore a uniform consisting of blue jeans whose ankles were tightened by a pair of crossed-over belts each, a blue short-sleeved Kevlar shirt, brown combat boots, brown gloves, a brown belt with straps that wrapped over the shoulders, rounded metal shoulder pads, angled metal kneepads, a green scarf, a belt around his right thigh which held a metal baton with a perpendicular rod length to keep it from slipping out, and a metal helmet that seemed to obscure the eyes and had a triangle of three red lights on the front face.

"Check out Robocop over there," Aqua said, addressing the sight.

"Looks a little scary for a police officer," Riku argued.

"I guess these guys do things a bit differently," Donald suggested cynically, glancing up at the skyscraper.

"Let's try not to draw too much attention to ourselves," Aqua advised. "We shouldn't risk seeing how they react to outsiders."

"Huh?" Sora blurted in slight confusion.

They continued on their way and turned at the corner, hoping that the officer would not pay too much attention to them. However, the officer turned his head in their direction and noticed that their garb was unfamiliar. He turned to get a better look at them. "Hold it," he called.

Riku sighed, silently cursing their luck. Sora, Mickey and Aqua hoped that they would be able to talk their way out of any potential trouble. The party turned around and faced the officer. All passerby moved around the group and the officer, not wanting to get caught in the middle of whatever was about to happen.

The officer approached the group, sizing each person up, a stern expression on his face. "I don't believe I've seen any of you around here before," he said. "Who are you, and what business do you have in Midgar?"

Mickey made a mental note that the city was called Midgar, while Goofy noticed that it sounded like something Loki had said back in Agrabah. Mickey began considering what to say, having been in a few situations like this before, only to realize that it would be better to let Sora, Riku, Aqua, or Kairi do the talking, as if he were the one speaking, then the officer would focus on him and realize that he was of an unfamiliar species, and things might get more complicated for them.

Sora, figuring that their cover was blown either way, decided to be honest to a fair degree. "Uh, hey. My name's Sora. You're right; my friends and I aren't from around here," he said. Riku and Donald groaned, but he ignored them. "We were traveling and found our way to this city, so we decided to stop in and take a look around."

Kairi giggled. Mickey and Aqua were not sure what to think of his simple but indiscreet explanation. Donald glared at Sora. Goofy was focused on seeing how the officer would react.

Since his eyes were obscured, all that they could make of his expression was an even mouth, so they could not determine what he was thinking as he mulled over Sora's claims. However, it became apparent that he decided that he was not pleased, as he scowled, an expression made more intimidating by the red lights that glowed where they should have seen his eyes.

"Come with me," the officer ordered, moving his hand toward his baton to emphasize that it was not a simple request.

"Is there a problem?" Riku asked, an eyebrow raised.

"I'm going to have to take you back to precinct and to a check. Make sure you're not with them," he explained cryptically. He walked past them, and they began to follow.

"Not with who?" Kairi asked. However, she received no answer.

They continued down the sidewalk, pedestrians stepping aside fearfully to let them through. They took a few turns and crossed the street a few times. Sora, Kairi, Aqua, and Goofy took the opportunity to get a look at the landmarks around the city. The party stopped dead when they heard a loud scream. They saw people running past them in a panic, and a few cars stopped with a squeal as their drivers slammed on the brakes. They turned to locate the source of the commotion, and none save for the officer were surprised by what it turned out to be.

The Heartless in the streets resembled Soldiers, but their bodies were green with black vests, they wore brown pointed combat boots with gray soles, their helmets had green tinted visors hanging over the eyes like on motorcycle helmets, and they carried twin handguns, each with a long blue barrel. Moments after a couple abandoned their car, one of the Heartless fired a purple energy bolt at it, blowing up the engine. Above them, similar-looking fiends flew around, the only difference being the blue glider webs on their backs, having a thin grey frame and being broken up into four shapes, almost reminiscent of butterfly wings.

The officer turned back to the party. "Stay right here. Don't do anything," he ordered. They saw him take a small device out of his pocket, flip it open, and hold it to his head. "We have more of the creatures in Sector 8, Spriggan Road. I repeat: hostile creatures, Sector 8, Spriggan Road. Ground and airborne enemies, all armed. Requesting backup. Hey!" As he was waiting for a response from the other end of the line, the seven outsiders in his custody ran past him.

"We can help," Sora said. He and his companions summoned their weapons. On seeing the strange swords that five of them held, the officer groaned.

Sora charged toward the nearest ground-based Heartless. The gun-toting Trooper, as Jiminy would momentarily label it and its ilk, aimed one of its weapons at him, so Sora ducked behind the driver's-side door of the car that had previously been damaged. When the Heartless pulled the trigger and the gun fired, Sora pushed against the door to hold up against the blast. The remaining glass in the window broke and fell out and the door broke off of its hinges. Still holding onto the door by the inner handle, Sora stood up and ran toward his target, using the door as a shield against the next two shots and looking through the window to keep an eye on his foe. As the Trooper readied another shot, he drew his right arm back and threw his Keyblade. The Kingdom Key arced around the door and hit the side of the Trooper's gun barrel, causing the Heartless to lose balance and fire to the side, hitting one of its compatriots. Taking advantage of its disorientation, Sora summoned his Keyblade back to hand, closed the distance between him and the Heartless, and struck it in the head with the car door. He then twisted to the side and brought the Keyblade down on its head. Switching back and forth using the door and the Key to deal damage, he sent it tumbling backward with a combo finisher. Two gunshots from an aerial fiend forced him to raise the door above his head to block, giving the Trooper time to stand up and fire a blast into his chest, knocking him back and causing him to drop his makeshift shield.

Mickey, Kairi and Donald focused on bringing the airborne Paratroopers down to a manageable level with Gravity magic. In the meantime, Aqua used Thundaga to target all Paratroopers, regardless of altitude. She halted this strategy when she realized that there were still civilians in the Heartless' crossfire. She ran to a couple standing by a shop's window, frozen in terror, and raised her barrier when the Trooper in front of them fired its gun.

"Guys! Cover the civilians!" she shouted. Riku and Goofy looked around, realizing the situation at hand, and nodded. They ran to the defense of the bystanders, with Riku warping across the distance and raising his Dark Shield to block the shots while Goofy made his way on foot and used his shield. Sora, after slicing through his initial opponent, launched himself in a cyclone butterfly kick at another Trooper that was targeting a man who had tripped and fallen. He swung his Keyblade underhand to force the guns upward, then blasted it across the street with a Firaga spell, after which Mickey destroyed it with a strike. He then helped the man to his feet, whereupon the man started running away from the scene.

While the fighting went on, the city trooper watched dumbfounded as he waited for his backup. He heard a storm of footsteps and turned around to see half a dozen more infantrymen approaching, each one carrying a rifle. Behind them, two robots, each with elongated yellow bodies, two arms with vertical circular saw blades attached to the front ends, and two legs with heavy triangular feet attached from the back of the machine body, marched along. The first troop greeted his allies and, seeing himself as insufficiently armed compared to the others, ran to the side.

The troops lined up and dropped to a knee, aiming their guns at the Heartless. Some of them aimed up at the Paratroopers. "Ready!" one of the troops shouted. "Aim! Fire!"

Goofy turned around and let out a yelp as the troops began to fire their guns. He raised his shield to avoid getting shot. His companions turned around and did everything they could to avoid the bullets' path. Sora, who stood with a Trooper between him and the soldiers, raised his Keyblade to block a bullet that passed straight through the Trooper's chest. Kairi dropped to the ground and watched as a bullet struck a NO PARKING sign. Donald heard three bullets hit a car, breaking two windows.

"You idiots! Guns don't work on Heartless!" Riku shouted. But he could not make himself heard over the noise of gunfire.

"We're getting collateral damage!" Donald called out. Mickey looked back and realized that the streets had not been fully evacuated, and even if they had been in light of the Heartless attack, the range of danger had increased greatly.

"There are civilians in the path!" the mouse king warned.

Sora destroyed his enemy with a Firaga spell, then turned to address his companions. "Goofy! Aqua! Cover the people and get them to safety!" he directed. "Everyone else, take out the guns so we can beat the Heartless without getting shot!" An inattentive troop fired his gun, causing a bullet to fly straight at Sora, but he raised his Keyblade and deflected it right back into the rifle's barrel, causing the gun to explode and launch the troop backward.

Goofy and Aqua ran back to locate everyone still in the crossfire, using their shield and Barrier spells, respectively, to repel gunfire. Meanwhile, Sora, Riku, Mickey, Kairi, and Donald worked their way toward the line of troops, taking cover behind cars and mailboxes or using Reflect spells to survive the trip. Some bullets that were reflected back hit and injured a few of the troops, fortunately non-lethally, but the hail of gunfire persisted. From behind a mailbox, Kairi shot a jet of Agua magic to knock a troop onto his back. Two more were knocked down by blasts fired from the Heartless, which were able to act unimpeded.

Eventually, the troops realized that their efforts were not putting a dent in the number of Heartless in the streets, so they gradually stopped firing. One of them took his phone out and typed in a few commands, then beckoned for something to come forward. The robots began to march forward, their blades spinning viciously, as the troops ran to the side, some of them dragging their injured compatriots with them. As the robots moved forward, they twisted their bodies to swing their blades at the Heartless, then charged forward to carve through the fiends. Unfortunately, they also shredded through cars, street signs, and even a storefront.

Witnessing the robots obliterate two of their companions, the Troopers turned their attention to attempting to destroy the robots.

The party surveyed the turn of events. Goofy and Aqua ran up to rejoin them. They were glad to see that they were no longer being shot at, but it looked as though the robots were only causing more destruction.

"We need to get rid of the Heartless so they can stop these crazy things," Kairi said. She pointed her Keyblade at one of the Paratroopers and cast Gravira, bringing the Heartless down so that it was floating only a short distance above her head. Mickey promptly destroyed it with a Pearl spell.

Riku shook his head. "These aren't any peacekeepers I've ever seen," he noted.

"Even the Organization was more subtle," Sora agreed, partly drawing from Roxas' memories.

Before they could discuss the troops' methods any further, one of the Paratroopers dove down and struck one of the robots, knocking off a piece of its casing, before flying back up. Donald destroyed the Heartless with a Blizzaga spell.

The robot froze and began to shift erratically. After a moment where the soldiers looked at it, wondering what was wrong, it suddenly turned around and started to stomp around, swinging its spinning saw blades recklessly. It marched directly toward Riku and swiped at him, but he blocked it with his Keyblade and pushed it back.

The party could hear the troops talking amongst themselves. They could not be sure what they were saying, but one thing was clear: the robot was not acting as it should.

"Uh-oh. It's gone haywire!" Mickey yelped, clearing up whatever confusion there may have been.

Everyone brandished their weapons. "We have to stop it before it hurts anyone," Sora affirmed.

To start the fight with this new adversary, Aqua cast Thundaga, hoping to short it out or stun it. The spell caused it to falter, but did little else. The gang proceeded to move in and attack it from every angle, unleashing a variety of attacks while dodging the robot's saw blades. Donald held back and cast Firaga and Blizzaga while Kairi made sure that she was either directly behind it our out of its range, attacking with her Keyblade while occasionally trying to use Stop, Slow, and Gravity magic. Everyone else used powerful melee attacks, hoping to find a weak point. Fortunately, they did not need to, as each strike formed cracks in the machine's shell and jolted the robot. After a minute, the damage was great enough to cause one of the blades to stall and for the main body to start smoking and crackling with electricity.

After enough damage had been dealt to knock off most of the chassis, Riku jumped into the air and dove onto it, shoving his Keyblade into the engine. The force caused the robot to collapse forward. The rest of the party backed off as a loud metallic knocking and screech sounded from the machine. Riku extracted his Keyblade, the tip of which was drenched in motor oil. As electricity crackled and oil poured from the ruined engine, everyone raised some sort of shield, magical or physical, one second before the robot exploded in a fiery blast, spraying shards of broken metal everywhere. Some of the flying pieces, including the dented and melted blades, pierced and destroyed some of the remaining Heartless, although the majority of the debris was contained due to the Reflect, Barrier and Shield spells and Goofy's shield.

The shields dropped, and Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Aqua took a moment to catch their breaths. However, they could not relax just yet, as they heard one of the troops shout "Freeze!"

They turned around and saw that the troops who had not been debilitated in the earlier part of the battle were aiming their rifles at them. They still seemed to believe them to be enemies.

Mickey looked around uncertainly and realized that all eyes were on him. They were waiting on him to tell them what to do. He sighed and, not wanting any more trouble, unsummoned his Keyblade and put his hands up in surrender. Understanding his decision, the rest of the party followed suit.

No one noticed the other robot shaking abnormally, much like the other one had. It turned and began to march toward the party of its own accord, and it only drew their attention and surprise when it started to spin its blades. Before they could react, it increased its pace.

When the robot was only ten feet away from them, something suddenly dropped from above. In a split second, they made out a human figure carrying a large object, which he swung down as he dropped. The object cut right through the robot's body like a knife in butter, as impossible as it should have seemed given the materials of both weapon and machine. The figure landed on his feet, his back to the party, and he slipped the weapon, which turned out to be an enormous sword that more resembled a thick block of metal filed on one side and the diagonal top into fine bladed edges, onto his back, where it clipped on magnetically. One second later, the front ends of the robot's arms fell off, followed by the front end of the main body, all crashing to the ground.

Sora, Donald and Goofy gasped, recognizing the sword all too well. However, they were then confused, as when they looked further up, they saw a head of spiky hair, but it was not the same color or shape as they expected. Aqua, however, gasped, albeit uncertainly.

"Is that…?" Aqua muttered in disbelief.

The figure turned to look at them over his shoulder and flashed a confident and friendly grin.

For reference, this world will be called Shin-Ra. Like the "Shin-Ra Electric Power Company" label seen in the games, but distinguished from what everyone calls the company, "Shinra" (I still don't understand that, but I'm rolling with it for this).