6. Claymores
Yzma quickly scurried back out to the tea table. "My apologies," she said hurriedly as she retook her seat.
"Don't worry about it," Donald told her. "Roman was almost done telling us his story." He didn't even look at Yzma; his eyes were glued on Roman, and he was visibly distraught.
"As I was saying," Roman continued somberly, "I was just trying to get out of the city when all of a sudden, Tin Man's robo-soldiers stopped firing on the Grimm and started firing on US. The people. I mean, I knew the guy had a few screws loose, but I didn't think he was a genocidal maniac! All I knew was that I had to get out of there. So I ran. As you can see, I avoided getting shot by any of the robo-freaks, but it sounded like a lot of the people of Vale…weren't so lucky. I found these three waiting for me outside of town, and we decided to hop the first airship out of Vale and head for Haven. That's where we've been conducting business ever since. Sometimes I think about the kingdom we left behind, and I just…can't BELIEVE it." He hung his head.
"Gawrsh," Goofy replied, on the verge of tears. "That was one sad story…"
"Awwwwwww," Donald moaned.
"It's been hard on all of us," Snatcher picked up, gently patting Roman on the back. "Especially with the looming fear that the General might come after us next. But we've been determined not to let this set us far back! Life shall go on!"
"Good thinkin'!" Goofy commented.
By then, Mickey had also returned to the table. "Sorry 'bout that," he apologized. "What'd I miss?"
"Roman told us all about the kingdom they were from on their world," Donald recapitulated, "and it's really sad! There was a war, and terrible villains, and creatures that sound like Heartless, only stronger!"
"Gosh," Mickey replied. "I had no idea."
Of course you didn't, Yzma thought, glaring at Mickey. That Datascape should have told him about the Grimm at least. The mouse was putting up a good poker face to make sure no one knew about his little research trip.
"I move we transition to a happier subject," Snatcher suggested.
"Y'know, fellas," Mickey brought up, "I had been hopin' to see some of this Dust in action. Are ya sure there isn't any you can show us?"
"Well…" Roman fished about in his pockets to find a few other crystals. "I'd say the red one still packs too much of a punch, but I COULD show you a few others…"
The Huntsman leaned over to Yzma. "Did you find what we were looking for?" he whispered.
"That and more," she hissed back. "We wait for word from Mozenrath before we make a move."
...
Once Yzma had finished explaining the Datascape to Mozenrath and Wuya, the pair had hustled up to finish and pocket the shrinking solution. They found Mim and Aghoul strolling along the coasts of Waterfall; Mim sought out as many water lilies as she could find to wither in order to have something to do while the pair talked about all manner of things grotesque. Mozenrath made short work of catching them up on the state of affairs.
"This 'Datascape' most likely has even more information on the worlds than I do," Mozenrath explained. "I have no doubt that it would lead us right to the other eleven artifacts we're looking for to pull off this spell. Not to mention it would let us know about the various pressure points of the worlds we want to rule. Say we wanted to reel in a few smaller catches on the way to the Heart of All Worlds. Now, we can either have the four we already stationed there take forever trying to dig it up without getting found out…or we can storm the castle."
"You realize you could probably get into the grounds if you left your gauntlet behind," Aghoul suggested.
Mozenrath scowled. "Not an option. Besides, that would leave me without any firepower."
"Well, we can't take any of OUR magic into the grounds," Wuya reminded him.
"So what do we do?" Mim asked. "Use someone else's magic?"
"Or…" An idea occurred to Wuya. "In this case, Jack Spicer would usually send a horde of his incompetent robots. Where you can't use magic, you can use technology."
"Merlin's always complaining about technology!" Mim replied. "Calls it all one big mess, he does!"
"It is," Wuya confirmed, "unless you can get it to work for you."
"I didn't think there WAS technology on your world," Aghoul pointed out.
Mim shook her head. "There's not! But Merlin goes zippity-zap around to all the different worlds. The way I learned about so many of them was following him around to shake things up! And there's one world where he complains about the technology more than anywhere else!"
"And that world would be?" Mozenrath asked.
Mim named a place he was well acquainted with already. And knowing what he did about it, Mozenrath realized it more than likely held a reservoir of potential weaponry for his scheme.
...
The town of Radiant Garden bustled with afternoon shoppers seeking out everything from weaponry to ice cream to bolster their personal supplies. Among the colorful wooden shops and evenly tiled streets peppered here and there with foliage, three teenagers made their way through the crowd: a brunette boy dressed in black, a silver-haired boy in yellow and blue, and a red-haired girl in pink. Several of the townspeople recognized them, as they were frequent visitors of this town and had done many an incredible deed to protect the world. The names of the Keybearers Sora, Riku, and Kairi were somewhat well known.
At the counter of the accessory shop, Kairi held out both wrists, each encased in a different bangle. "Okay," she asked her two male companions. "Which one do you think is better?" She held up her right wrist, showcasing the red bangle upon it. "This one will protect me from fire." Then the left wrist, ringed with blue. "But THIS one will protect me from ice. What do you think?"
"Hmmmm." Sora thought it over. "Whenever I get in a fight, I tend to see a lot more fire."
"They're both important," Riku pointed out. "Can you afford both?"
Kairi nodded. "But I didn't know if I'd have to save for anything else. Like potions and ethers."
"Once you learn the Cure spell, you won't need as many potions," Riku pointed out. "It's better to be protected from the elements."
Kairi nodded. "Okay!" She turned to the counter, retrieving a purse from which she removed a handful of glimmering munny crystals. "I'll take both."
As the trio turned away from the shop, Kairi asked, "So…is there anything else that's important to have in order to become the next Keybearer?"
"There is one more VERY important thing," Sora emphasized.
"What's that?"
Riku didn't say a word. Somehow, he knew what the answer would be.
"Ice cream!" Sora said with a smile. "My treat!"
Riku grinned. "That's pretty important."
The line outside Scrooge McDuck's ice cream parlor was rather long, as it tended to get on warmer days, but the three friends didn't mind waiting. "After this," Sora suggested, "we should visit Leon and the rest of the Restoration Committee. I wonder how they're doing!"
Riku noticed Kairi staring in the opposite direction of the parlor, out toward the massive castle. "How does it feel after all this time?" he asked.
"Strange," Kairi answered. "I know this is the world I come from. But it's all so different from what I remember. Part of me feels like I'm at home, and part of me feels like I've never been here before."
"We'll stop at the library in the castle," Sora promised. "I KNOW you've been there, and that place hasn't changed much."
"I think I remember a bit of it," Kairi confirmed. "I think I even remember my favorite book. I wonder if it's still there."
"We'll find out," Riku promised. "Just don't drip any ice cream on it when you read, okay?"
"I won't! I'm more worried about Sora doing that."
"Hey!" Sora retorted.
"She has a point," Riku chuckled. "You do spill food a lot."
"Oh yeah? Well…your room's always a mess!"
"You wanna go there?" Riku put Sora ("Hey! Stop that!") in a teasing headlock, ruffling his spiky hair.
...
Mozenrath, Wuya, Mim, and Aghoul stepped out of their Corridor on the other side of town, beyond the bailey. There were no shops here, and no throng of people to lend this part of the city life.
"Watch your back," Mozenrath warned. "Maleficent likes to call this world a base of operations. She'll have eyes everywhere, and it will be crawling with Heartless."
On cue, a Darkball Heartless materialized in midair, turning its spherical body so that it faced the four sorcerers. They braced for action, but before anyone could make a move, a white circle of energy formed on the ground beneath the creature. A glowing sphere shot upward from it, colliding with the Heartless; the way the creature shuddered, it appeared to have dealt out a lot of pain. The Heartless quivered, then dissipated.
"Well, that was anticlimactic," Aghoul sighed.
"Actually," Wuya pointed out, "I thought it was interesting. I wonder if there are any more of those."
"Something about all this seems familiar," Mim mused.
"We don't have time to mess around," Mozenrath asserted. "We need to figure out the next step of our plan. Mim, if you've been here, you can't be seen in town without causing a riot."
"And proud of it!" Mim said enthusiastically.
"That leaves the other three of us," Mozenrath continued, beginning to walk in the downtown direction, "to search the town. Unless, of course, we wanted to go directly to the castle – "
A host of Darkballs sprang up right in Mozenrath's path. And yet again, before Mozenrath could blast them out of existence, the white energy circles appeared on the ground and took care of the job for him.
"Now I remember!" Mim recalled. "They're called Claymores! All I know about them is that Merlin hates them!"
"Do you know where they come from?" Mozenrath asked.
"Well, I would presume that committee that Merlin's always hanging around," Mim mused. "Why do you ask?"
"If they could do that to a Heartless," Mozenrath pointed out, "think about what they might do if they were turned on the Disney Castle royalty."
"I like the way you think," Wuya purred. "Now, how do we get these Claymores for ourselves?"
"Tell me more about this…committee that you've seen Merlin with," Mozenrath urged.
"Well," Mim recalled, "they keep trying to put the town back together after what Maleficent did to it. They all used to meet in Merlin's house, but now I think they use the castle. They figured out it's safer there. Safer from things like me, that is!"
"Well, then," Aghoul mused, "all we have to do is teleport inside that castle, and…"
"I wouldn't advise just teleporting inside a building we've never been to before," Mozenrath interrupted. "Unless, of course, Mim has."
Mim shook her head. "Nope! Never been inside!"
"I make it a rule never to appear somewhere if I don't know where all the walls and furniture are," Mozenrath explained. "That way, I avoid the nasty fate of ending up with a wall splitting me in half. And the more people teleport somewhere unknown, the greater chance there is of someone getting split in half by a wall. That's why you always want to start outdoors when you make a portal to a world you've never been to."
Wuya flinched at the mention of being severed in two by a wall. Mim and Aghoul both found the idea delightful so long as it wasn't happening to them.
"We'll need to find another way into the castle," Mozenrath muttered, casting his gaze about. His eyes alit upon the wall that ran the perimeter of the kingdom. "I wonder…"
In a flash, Mozenrath had brought himself, Mim, Wuya, and Aghoul to the top of that wall. An empty canal ran across its surface; there had very clearly been water in it at one point. Towers were set along the wall at intervals.
"What are we doing?" Aghoul wondered out loud.
"Playing a hunch," Mozenrath told him. "After all, all the water in a kingdom tends to come from the same place."
...
The towers along the wall led into a dark and spacious system of underground canals that both brought fresh water to the fountains and plumbing of the city and carried away its sewage. The paths that Mozenrath found his way along were presumably for maintenance purposes. His three companions followed him closely all the while. Mozenrath kept in mind the location of the castle as he'd seen it on the surface, making sure to angle his path in that direction. Every now and again, he would come across a locked gate, but those were easily melted away with a bit of magic. Entire stone walls would block the way at other times, but a carefully planted skull bomb easily reduced any one to rubble, revealing a larger network of canals beyond.
The further Mozenrath progressed, the more he felt a looming presence. "We're getting pretty close to a lot of raw magic," he announced. "That bodes well for us getting closer to the castle."
When the resonance of the magic became overwhelming, Mozenrath began the journey upward, finding a stairway. More locked doors and gates met their demises at the hands of the four sorcerers. Finally, they found themselves in new scenery: the crowded, greenish walls of the subterranean waters gave over to metallic silver.
They had made it inside the bowels of the Radiant Garden castle.
Upon examination, they found several rooms of interest. One chamber, seeming almost to be a mile high by a mile wide, was filled with what seemed to be cannons.
"Are these weapons?" Aghoul wondered out loud.
"Why would anyone build this many cannons just to point them at each other inside of a room?" Wuya snapped.
"It looks more like a factory of some kind," Mozenrath observed. "This might be what we want. Or it might not. I'm looking for some kind of information repository."
"Like a computer?" Wuya corrected.
Such a device was found in an adjacent room to the factory. The terminal was quite large, with a screen several feet across. "That will have the information you're looking for," Wuya pointed out.
Mozenrath hovered over the terminal, not quite sure what to do with it. He tapped a key experimentally, trying his best to look like he knew what he was doing.
"Oh…HERE!" Wuya shoved him out of the way, taking over the keyboard. "I'd better not be the only person in the entire group who knows how to USE one of these things!"
Her fingers flew over the keys, typing queries about Claymores. Eventually, she was able to load up a program marked "Radiant Garden Defense Systems." It was guarded with a five-level password. Wuya thought it over before typing the word "Merlin" experimentally; it was accepted.
"Who are the other members of this committee that Merlin throws in his lot with?" she asked Mim.
"Well, let's see." Mim rummaged around in her memory. "There's Cid – "
Wuya's attempt was marked as an error.
"That's 'Cid' with a 'C,'" Mim corrected.
That time, the name went through.
"Yuffie," Mim rattled off. "Leon."
Two more correct hits.
"And what was that last one?" Mim asked herself. "Eris?"
Rejected.
"Alice."
Rejected.
"Try 'Aeris' with an 'A' at the beginning."
Rejected.
"Oh! OH! AERITH! THAT WAS IT!"
The program unlocked fully. "I'm in the Claymore system," Wuya announced. "Find me a CD to copy it to."
Mozenrath, Mim, and Aghoul looked at her blankly.
Wuya gave a sigh of exasperation. "A round, flat object that has a label on one side and is shiny on the other."
Still trying to look like he knew what he was doing, Mozenrath rummaged around the room until he came up with a tray of blank compact discs. Wuya inserted one into the terminal, initiating a backup copy of the Claymore program onto the disc.
"HEY!" a voice barked out from behind the four mages. "What the FUCK do you think yer doin' in here?"
The quartet whirled to see a very angry and rather well-built blond man in a white T-shirt and blue pants glaring at them with arms folded. Behind him were a raven-haired girl in black leather, a long-haired brunette woman in a pink sundress, and a long-haired brunette man sporting a jacket and pants of black along with far more belts than he needed.
"Don't tell me," Aghoul groaned. "Cid, Yuffie, Leon, and Aerith."
"How do you know our NAMES?" Yuffie gaped.
"Because one of them has been here before," Leon answered, striding to the front of the group while reaching back to draw a weapon from its sheath. "That witch is one of Merlin's enemies." He withdrew his bright silver gunblade, aiming it at the four intruders.
"You're RIGHT!" Yuffie realized, retrieving several shuriken from her pockets. "That IS her!"
"Don't draw your weapons just yet," Aerith cautioned. She looked to the intruders with concern. "Why are you here?" she asked.
"To take what's not ours," Wuya replied with a toothy grin. She spun in place, gathering up a ball of energy that she let loose upon Aerith.
A swirl of golden stars surrounded Aerith, blocking the bolt. Yuffie threw herself in between Aerith and Yuffie, charging the Heylin witch by flipping hand over foot over hand over foot, dealing a kick toward Wuya's face. Wuya was able to catch Yuffie's foot in one hand, twisting the young ninja around and slamming her against the floor. Yuffie squirmed out of Wuya's grip and leapt to her feet, striking out again and again; Wuya parried or dodged every blow and returned several of her own. Yuffie leapt back a few feet, loosing a trio of shuriken at Wuya; Wuya grabbed all three out of the air nimbly, shooting them right back at their owner. Yuffie winced as cold metal bit into her upper arms.
Aghoul lobbed a skull-shaped bomb at Cid, who responded by tossing a stick of lit dynamite. The explosives crossed paths in midair en route to their targets. Cid ducked and rolled to avoid the exploding skull; Aghoul hit the ground and let the dynamite pass over him. After the great BOOM, Aghoul and Cid both returned to their feet, Cid drawing a spear and Aghoul calling up a scythe. "Think you can just go an' hurt my family like that?" Cid raged, leaping into the air to drive his spear downward at Aghoul.
"I was planning on hurting a lot of families in the long run!" Aghoul laughed, barely dodging the spear and letting Cid drive it into the ground before swinging his scythe at Cid's head. Cid ducked just in time, wrenching his spear free from the ground in order to clash it against the scythe.
Mim immediately went to the form of the panther, lunging at Leon. Leon raised his blade and swung it hard in response, aiming right at her exposed stomach. Halfway through her flight, Mim transformed into a falcon, swooping upward, out of reach of the blade. She turned in midair to dive straight down at Leon; he set off three rounds of fire at her, and she dodged all, colliding with his face and leaving deep scratches around his eyes. Leon was barely able to bat her away with the flat of the blade before she could blind him.
Mozenrath and Aerith had reached a stalemate. Mozenrath cast blast after blast of brilliant blue energy at the woman in the pink sundress, but her entire body shimmered with gold, indicating a deflection spell that caused all of Mozenrath's shots to simply bounce off of her. She retaliated with a spell made of white light, but Mozenrath was able to put up his own deflection shield before it could do any damage.
"But why?" Aerith reiterated. "Why are you doing this?"
"Simply put," Mozenrath told her, launching another projectile, "I've decided your Claymores should become our Claymores."
"What are you going to do with them?" Aerith asked; Mozenrath's blasts bounced off her again, and she refocused her magic from defense to offense in order to let another burst of white light out at him.
"Using them on those teeny little Heartless was just wasted potential," Mozenrath remarked, waving a hand to blow the holy attack aside. "Now, if you could just be a good girl and go back to fixing the ruffles on that dress or something, that would make my job a lot easi – "
He was caught off guard by Aerith's next blast, thrown backward against the wall.
"Thank you," Wuya told Aerith over her shoulder. "Saved me the trouble." She threw Yuffie over her shoulder while casting a glance at the computer screen. The data was only 50 percent copied.
...
Kairi removed a red-spined book from the castle library shelf. "It is still here," she said reverently. "It's a book of old fairy tales from this world." She flipped through the pages, looking at the delicate script, the intricate illustrations. "The story of The Green Unicorn. The Dragon and the Chalice. The Five Clever Sisters. It's all here. My grandmother used to read these to me every night!"
"Hey, I have an idea!" Sora suggested. "Maybe you could read some of them to us!"
"Are you kidding?" Riku laughed. "That's kid's stuff." Though as childish as the idea sounded, he had to admit he was interested.
"That sounds like fun!" Kairi exclaimed.
"Okay, fine," Riku relented. "But only because you two want to."
"I think you secretly want to hear the stories, too," Sora teased, lightly elbowing Riku.
"…Maybe." Riku gave a sincere smile.
A loud crash alerted the trio to the fact that they probably wouldn't be investigating the fairy tales of Radiant Garden that day. "What was that?" Sora wondered out loud.
More rumbling and crashing followed. "Sounds like trouble," Riku commented.
"It sounds like it's coming from the lower level!" Sora identified. His Keyblade materialized in his hand in a streak of light, and he slung it over his back. "Come on! Let's go!" He broke into a run, heading out of the library.
Riku followed for a few steps before noticing that Kairi wasn't following. And when he stopped to see why, Sora noticed that neither was following him, and he also halted. "What's wrong?" Sora asked.
"I…" Kairi hesitated.
"You don't know if you can handle whatever's down there, if it is a real problem?" Riku guessed.
"I don't want to get in your way," Kairi said softly.
"Are you kidding?" Sora encouraged. "You did GREAT back at the World That Never Was! That's why Yen Sid wanted to see YOU so bad! You'll do great here too!"
"And you won't get in our way," Riku confirmed.
Kairi's brow furrowed. Then she gave a nod, breaking into a run for the library door. Sora and Riku resumed their course as well.
...
An enormous shuriken appeared in Yuffie's hand. She flung it, and it circled around the room once before honing in on Wuya. Wuya let it get as close as it could before leaping up into the air, levitating so that the giant shuriken passed right under her and made a beeline for its thrower. Yuffie sidestepped slightly too late; a cry of pain escaped her lips as blood flowed from a newly opened gash in her side.
Leon had struggled with his blade against the horns of a water buffalo Mim until the witch had just decided to transform into an elephant and bowl Leon right over. She realized she could have squished him right then and there, but it was more fun for her to take the form of a goat first so that she could dance on his back as she trampled him slowly.
Cid and Aghoul were almost even matches with scythe and spear. All it took was for Cid to slip once, and the scythe blade cut into him, drawing crimson blood that stained the front of his white shirt.
Hearing and seeing her friends in distress, Aerith broke the stalemate, focusing her energy neither on offense or defense but on a full-party Curaga. As healing magic settled in over Yuffie, Leon, and Cid, rejuvenating them, Aerith was thrown backward into the wall by Mozenrath's next blast; her head swam and her ears rang. She collapsed to the floor, disoriented.
"AERITH!" Yuffie cried, abandoning Wuya to run in between Mozenrath and her fallen friend. This only allowed Wuya and Mozenrath to fire bolts of plasma at Yuffie at the same time, knocking her completely out cold. Wuya then turned her attention to helping Aghoul; she flipped through the air and planted a kick square on Cid's back, knocking him to the ground. Mim, in the meantime, had disarmed Leon, using her goat form to knock the gunblade from his hand, and once he was without a weapon, she was easily able to wind around him in the body of a boa constrictor, squeezing him ever tighter.
When Sora, Riku, and Kairi burst into the room, it was to see Mozenrath trying to decide whether to give the killing blow to Aerith or Yuffie, Aghoul with his scythe at Cid's neck, and Mim expelling the life from Leon's lungs. It took them no longer than a split second to realize action needed to be taken.
Riku launched into a Dark Splicer, shooting his entire body, Keyblade outward, at Aghoul. As he rammed into the undead sorcerer, Aghoul dropped the scythe in shock, trying to run. Back and forth Riku shot across the room, slamming into Aghoul quite a few times and whacking him with the Keyblade.
Kairi ran right up toward Mim and slammed her Keyblade into the boa's head. With an "OUCH!", the snake collapsed to the floor, freeing up Leon, who ran for his blade immediately.
Sora launched his Keyblade at Mozenrath, and it collided, throwing the sorcerer off balance. No sooner had he retrieved it than he threw it again, hitting Mozenrath while he was already down. This Strike Raid went on far too quickly for Mozenrath to begin charging up another blast. Once it ended, Sora charged Mozenrath directly, swinging his blade; Mozenrath quickly raised his right hand to shield his face.
Wuya looked around at the scene. Mim was getting absolutely battered by the redhead girl. The silver-haired boy was far too quick for Aghoul; Wuya watched him try to produce a skull bomb only for the Keybearer to shoot it with Dark Firaga, causing it to explode in Aghoul's hands. The spiky-haired boy was whaling on Mozenrath faster than Mozenrath could get any attack braced, and the poor sorcerer was now just trying to keep the boy from bruising his face. And on top of it all, Leon had just picked up his sword and Cid had shaken off Aghoul's last attack, meaning the fight was about to become four on five.
A "ding" let her know the Claymore data had been completely written onto the disc. At the very least, they'd gotten what they came for. Wuya quickly spun and ejected the disc, then telekinetically ripped the entire computer terminal out of its spot against the wall and launched it hard at Leon. Leon responded by slicing clean through the flying terminal with his blade, causing the two halves to fall to either side of him, sparking with electricity.
Gritting her teeth, Wuya conceded defeat. "Let's GO!" she urged before disappearing into a Corridor of Darkness.
Having been thoroughly beaten and humiliated, Mozenrath, Mim, and Aghoul did the same, all hoping that they had the same destination in mind.
Once they were gone, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Leon, and Cid halted a moment to survey the scene and catch their collective breath. "Who were THEY?" Sora asked.
"One of them was an enemy of Merlin's," Leon explained. "The others…I don't know. This was the first time I'd seen any of them."
"They were after our Claymore technology for some goddamn reason," Cid added, "and from the looks of it, they got ahold of it!"
"Sora!" Riku called out, drawing attention to the unconscious Aerith and Yuffie. "Kairi!"
"Oh, no!" Kairi cried once she saw their prone bodies.
"They're okay," Riku informed them. "Just out cold." He lightly touched Aerith's shoulder. "Heal."
"Heal!" Sora echoed, pointing his Keyblade at Yuffie.
The two women were cured of the shock from Mozenrath's attacks, and slowly, groggily, they began to stand. "Urgh…did they get away?" Yuffie groaned.
"Yeah," Sora told her. "But we're just glad you're all right."
"Did they get…?" Aerith began.
"Yes," Leon confirmed.
"I don't like this," Riku stated. "Something tells me we haven't heard the last of those four."
...
Mozenrath, Wuya, Mim, and Aghoul were all livid, and they all knew this about each other the second they arrived back at Mt. Ebott.
"THAT was a fluke," Mozenrath growled. "He caught me off guard."
"What WERE those things, anyway?" Aghoul raged. "Who ever thought making a sword shaped like a key was a good idea? It's one of the stupidest things I've ever seen!"
"Stupider than an oversized gardening tool for a weapon?" Wuya retorted.
"The weaponized scythe is a tradition that goes all the way back to the Grim Reaper!" Mim argued.
"The weaponized – what she said!" Aghoul chimed in.
"Let's just…FORGET that happened," Mozenrath snarled. "We need to find a way to get those Claymores to do what we want."
"Back to Hotland?" Mim suggested.
"No," Mozenrath told her. "We need live test subjects."
"But we have all sorts of those right outside this mountain!" Aghoul pointed out.
"We need to keep a low profile in Knightdock," Mozenrath informed him. "If they find out there's a legion of conquerors in this mountain, we might have a whole army to deal with trying to stamp us out."
"You let Torchwick run around shooting whoever he wants in town," Wuya pointed out.
"Because he never lets anyone pick up his trail," Mozenrath reminded her, "and because he brings back supplies for free."
"Well?" Aghoul turned to Mim. "You seem to be full of knowledge about other worlds lately. Where can we go?"
"Hmmmmmmmm…" Mim thought it over. "Now, I don't know if they have the computer technology we need, but I can think of a place that's disgustingly happy that I want to take down a peg."
Mozenrath shrugged. "That works for me."
...
Even though it had been broad daylight in Disney Town and Radiant Garden not too long ago, the new world where the four sorcerers arrived seemed to be in the dusk hours.
"Have I ever mentioned that I hate sunshine?" Mim asked.
"I don't believe you did," Aghoul answered.
"Well, I do," Mim huffed, arms folded, "but I hate sunSETS even more! And this world is ALWAYS in a sunset!"
"That's probably why it's called 'Twilight Town,'" Wuya pointed out.
"All the more reason we should make it miserable!" Mim emphasized.
"Now," Mozenrath wondered out loud, looking around at the buildings that towered above him, "where do you suppose we can find a computer where we can test out our new trump card?"
The city was immeasurably huge. The four wandered around for a while, looking for a town hall or a factory of some sort – anything that might have a more advanced computer system than your average home. After locating a train station, Mozenrath kept it in the back of his mind, thinking perhaps they would have to ride on to another district in order to find a place to get their work done. He was just about to cut his losses and suggest that plan of action when Wuya discovered the hole in the wall.
That on its own was worth investigating. It seemed odd that a town like this should have such a conspicuous gap in its wall that no one had bothered to patch up. It led into a forest, and Mozenrath couldn't help but wonder if it was an intentional entrance to a new path or just damage from some recent catastrophe. That question only became more prominent when on the other side of the forest, a great mansion with arched windows and an iron gate loomed.
"A computer system might be a little too much to ask out of this place," Mozenrath observed, "but it's still worth investigation. You don't know anything about this, do you, Mim?"
"Not a clue!" Mim chirped.
The gates were locked, but once again, no lock Mozenrath had met yet proved a match for his magic. Once the iron bars were sufficiently melted, the quartet strode on into the front yard.
They split up inside the mansion, each looking at a different room. Aghoul surveyed a room where a thick wooden table had been smashed in half by some immense force, wondering what sort of conflict had gone down inside this house. A taxidermized unicorn head on the wall also caught his attention, striking him as something the Huntsman might enjoy. Mim poked around the front lobby, noticing that a small castle sculpture in a glass case had toppled over there; she shattered the case for good measure. Upstairs, Mozenrath found a room that was completely white, and was trying to work out the significance.
Wuya burst into the white room, announcing, "I found something you're going to want to see."
The downstairs library had a giant hole in the floor, where a stairway led to the blue, metallic basement. And in that basement was situated an incredibly complex computer system, one with at least ten different screens. Its design alone put the Radiant Garden terminal to shame.
"Well, that's a stroke of luck," Mozenrath remarked as he and his three companions looked over the intricate system. He sat down at it, looking around at the different screens, trying to figure out how to turn the entire thing on to begin with.
After he'd sat there cluelessly for thirty seconds, Wuya cleared her throat.
"Wuya," Mozenrath said, getting up out of the seat. "You found this room. Would you like to do the honors?"
"And here I thought you'd never ask." Wuya produced the Claymore disc, inserting it into the system as she sat down. With a few keystrokes, she brought the Claymore program up on one screen and a surveillance shot of one of the squares of Twilight Town – the base of a hill, where several people were gathered watching a street performer knock a ball into the air on the edge of a bat – on the opposite. "Now," she asked, "shall we wreak havoc?"
"Back in Radiant Garden, the Claymores just targeted Heartless," Mozenrath pointed out. "Can you change what they target?"
"To what?"
"To human beings."
Wuya grinned. "Let's find out."
...
In the square, the grandstander had just knocked the ball into the air for the hundredth consecutive time, and the highest yet. As he rushed to catch it on its fall, he basked in the cheers he earned from the rapt audience.
Then, all of a sudden, he found himself lying flat on his back, having been very painfully thrown off course by something that had sprung up from the ground. A second Claymore caught the ball on the way down and burst it.
The audience only had a few seconds to stare in confusion before they too were surrounded by Claymores. Then the mass panic set in.
...
Mim and Aghoul couldn't stop giggling as they watched the Claymores devastate the people of Twilight Town. The gleaming energy weapons chased the people out of the square and down every avenue.
Wuya leaned back, crossing one leg over the other. "I could watch this all day."
"So could I," Mozenrath remarked, "but this isn't what we came for. Now switch it so the Claymores only target animals."
"And why would I do that?" Wuya asked.
"Because all four of our associates in Disney Castle are human," Mozenrath pointed out, "but everyone else who lives in that town is not."
"Give me a minute," Wuya told him. "I need to cross-reference an animal database to input all the species you want to fry." If she ever had Jack Spicer to thank for anything at all, it was teaching her the way around a computer. The boy was good for literally nothing else.
"We'll just enjoy the show in the meantime," Mozenrath replied as Wuya set to work.
...
Two girls had been chased into an alley by one of the rogue Claymores. They found themselves backed up against the wall as the light sphere came closer and cloer.
"Maybe we can jump over it!" one of them said worriedly. "Before it goes off!"
The Claymore began to fire rapidly into the air as it neared.
"No!" the other girl shrieked. "NO! Nononononononono – "
Just before it could get close enough to zap the pair, the Claymore halted. Sensing a new target – a rat living in one of the walls – it veered off to the side and disappeared.
"…What just happened?" the first girl asked.
"Don't ask about it!" the second cried. "Just RUN!"
The wall next to them exploded as the Claymore went after the rat, spurring their hasty retreat all the further.
...
"There," Wuya announced. "The deed is done."
"Good," Mozenrath told her. "Now, the fun begins." He withdrew his scroll, dialing the number of Roman Torchwick.