ToL: Chapter 16
[Underestimated Powers]
It did not take long for Adam and Alexander to arrive at their destination. They needed to go to buy some clothes, seeing that Alexander did not have anything else on him but the black cloak from before and the clothes that they took from Eddy's dad without his permission because he and his wife were not home (they were going to give his clothes back to him once their chore was done).
After trying on several things, they finally bought a few that fit him; one was two sets of casual wear for going to places and home, and the other was an outfit for adventuring. They also bought a camping backpack for him to store said things in along with some supplies and snacks for the road.
Alexander had bought a long-sleeved dark blue flannel jacket that went a little past his waist; it was currently tied around his waist like a belt, "Seems like this would be good for me to have that isn't that weird black cloak," he told Adam when he picked out the flannel jacket.
"That was a lot painless than I was expecting," Adam stated as the two men walked out of the sports and outdoor store they entered earlier, "It still took forever to find a good backpack for your trip."
"Uh, I guess so?" Alexander replied, not really understanding why Adam seemed so tired. The concept of 'shop till you drop' was not something he was familiar with.
Adam took out his cell phone to look at what time it was; it read 4:35 pm, "We should head back to where I'm staying," he said, "I don't want to leave Olivia alone right now."
Alexander nodded his head as the two men began to walk back toward Adam's car. As they were walking back, the two men began to hear a lot of police sirens close by. They saw a ton of police cars drive past them, heading towards the local park. An incident had happened there.
"… I have a bad feeling all of a sudden," Adam stated with a frown before turning to Alexander, "Usually I would avoid getting involved with things like this, but it could be the Heartless sprung up again. We should go and help them."
"Okay."
Adam and Alexander rushed over to where Adam's car was parked and jumped into the driver and front passenger seat, putting Alexander's backpack in the back seat. Adam cranked his car before driving off to where the commotion was. It did not take them that long to find where the commotion was; they drove into the parking lot next to a park. The police cars from earlier were also there.
The two men exited the car, only to be seen by an officer nearby, "Hey! You folks should get out of here while you can! Those weird shadow bugs started showing up again in the park."
"Don't worry, we came here to help!" Adam stated to the officer, "We know how to handle them!"
The officer looked a bit stunned but only nodded his head without any sort of complaint. Adam turned to Alexander, "Let's go!"
Adam and Alexander ran ahead to where they could see a few officers trying to fight the Heartless on their own with varying degrees of success; they were using riot gear to try and fight them. They were told by the higher-ups that they should not use any sort of guns; their fighting would potentially cause panic or mass hysteria if the public kept hearing the gunfire every time. Sadly, this made it more difficult to fight the Heartless threat against the town, only saving their guns to use as a last resort or for any bigger Heartless.
It was then that a dark portal appeared close to Adam and Alexander. A chubby anamorphic cat of some kind walked out of it, "I see my little Heartless are doin' a good job at causin' a ruckus!" he said to himself with a hint of pride.
Adam and Alexander turned to the big cat, "Y-You're the one summoning them here?!" Adam asked in anger.
"I sure did! My dear friend Maleficent is helpin' some bloke here get revenge on some dumb brats," the big cat continued to brag when he turned to face them, "Anyways, I'm only here to make sure things go well. And then I, the mighty Pete, can finally get a bit o' recognition!"
"… You do realize you're telling this to someone who KNOWS what's going on and those dumb brats you mentioned, right?"
There was a long pause between them after Adam's statement.
"You're not that smart, are you?"
"H-Hey! I'm not gonna take that kinda attitude from you!" Pete growled to Adam before snapping his fingers. A few Red Nocturnes and Shadow Heartless popped into existence or rose from the ground, "Take 'em out!" he commanded.
Adam and Alexander narrowed their eyes as they got into a fighting stance. Adam took out Olivia's hunter knife instead of his revolver; she usually kept this knife with her when she went to dangerous places, but now she did not need it anymore due to her pregnancy. Olivia could not fight in the state she was currently in, leaving her knife with Adam.
Alexander stood there for a second before remembering what the king said earlier; that he had a Keyblade that he could potentially summon to fight this threat. Alexander held out his hand as a bright light began to form in his palm; the actions he was doing felt familiar like he had done this so many times before. Once the light died down, Alexander could see that he had a Keyblade in his hand. It was the same Starlight Keyblade that Eddy uses, with the same colors and appearance.
Pete noticed what Alexander had summoned, "Wait a sec! That's cheatin'!" Pete said with disbelief, "I'd thought all those Keybladers were in Radiant Garden right now! What gives?!"
Alexander got into a fighting stance, ready to fight the Heartless in front of him. The two men ran ahead to the group of Heartless, with Adam slashing twice at the first Shadow Heartless in front of him, killing it in two blows.
One of the Red Nocturnes was about to charge up a Fire spell toward Adam before Alexander noticed it; he pointed his Keyblade to the group of Heartless, "Zettablizzard!"
A big, strong blast of ice and snow came from his Keyblade. Both Adam and Pete had to quickly back away so they would not get hit by it; the spell was extremely powerful. All the Heartless in front of Alexander were now frozen in place; the ice began to crack before it shattered into pieces along with all the Heartless inside it. The hearts held inside them were released back into the air, returning to Kingdom Hearts.
"ALEX!" Adam yelped as he looked at Alexander in complete shock.
"Whoa! I don't even think the king's magic's that strong!" Pete said, stunned at how strong the Blizzard spell was. He made a glare to them before he began to form a dark portal behind him, "I gotta tell Maleficent about this Alex guy!"
"Huh? Hey, wait!" Adam yelled to Pete to stop him, but he was ignored. Pete had left, taking the remaining Heartless with him that the police were fighting. Unfortunately, it sounded like Pete heard Adam shout out Alexander's name, 'I hope that doesn't come back to bite any of us.'
Everything fell silent for a short moment before Adam ran back over to Alexander, "Alex, what the hell! That spell was too strong!" he said in a slightly angry tone, "You could have hurt more than just the Heartless with that!"
Alexander seemed confused at his tone of voice, "But I needed to beat those creatures, right? Ice beats fire…"
Adam made an exasperated sigh as he facepalmed, trying to calm himself down, "Don't worry, I get that. Just be careful next time, okay? Pay better attention to your surroundings."
"Okay…" Alexander replied with a slow nod of his head.
The police officers on the scene came over to the two men, inquiring them what they did to make them retreat, which Adam had to explain to them with as much detail as they needed to know. Adam already knew the police force was aware of the Heartless threat from their higher-ups, but he had to explain who Alexander was and how he could help them if they needed it.
Alexander could only stand beside him as Adam talked to the officers, still unsure why he got angry at him for using the right element to defeat the enemy, "Did I do something wrong?" he asked Adam when he was done talking with the officers.
"No, not at all!" Adam replied with a pat on his shoulder, "You helped the officers fight against something they normally don't need to handle, so it's a good thing!"
"Huh? But you sounded angry a minute ago…"
"Oh, that? You don't need to worry about what I said," Adam stated, "I just didn't expect you to have magic like that, let alone some of the most powerful tier of spells; the king told me what they were. Only a few people have ever mastered Zetta spells."
"… Really?"
"Yes."
Alexander looked down toward the Keyblade in his hand, 'Did I also use these spells when I was my normal self? I can't remember at all…'
"Anyway, we should head back home," Adam stated, noticing Alexander's silence, "I need to give back Luis's clothes that you had on before; that's Eddy's dad."
"Oh, right," Alexander replied, dismissing his Keyblade, "He wasn't there when we came by earlier. Do you think he's there now?"
Adam nodded his head, "Probably. We should go visit him and his wife."
Meanwhile, back in Radiant Garden at the dorm, we could see May in her assigned room with her sisters, who had both woken up not long ago. She was telling them what happened and why they were here… Well, at least as best as she could.
"Do you really expect us to believe that?" Lee asked her sister with a frown on her face.
"B-But is all true!" May stated, "We're in a different world! A-And the three Eds are—"
"Don't you DARE say another word!" Marie yelled to her, "You're just trying to mess with us!"
Marie got up from her bed and ran out of the room, much to May's sadness and Lee's annoyance. Marie dashed down the hallway, trying to see where the staircase was to get to the ground floor. She soon found the stairs, running down them before looking to find the exit of the building. Once she reached the first floor, she could see the huge rest area nearby along with the exit. But as soon as Marie ran to the front door to open it and leave…
Bonk!
"Ouch!" / "Oof!"
She ran into someone as they were trying to come inside the building. The person Marie ran into was Shayla, who recovered a few seconds faster than Marie when they ran into each other.
"Oh geez! Are you okay?" Shayla asked Marie when she noticed who was in front of her.
Marie looked toward Shayla before a weird feeling struck her; she suddenly felt a strange type of anger for some reason but had no clue why, "Yeah, I'm okay," she grumbled before making a suspicious glare at the girl she did not know, "Who are you?! Where am I? You gotta tell me!"
Shayla stared at Marie, realizing she did not remember what had happened earlier, "Well, my name's Shayla and this place is—"
"Shayla?" questioned a familiar voice behind her, "Who are you talking to…?!"
Shayla and Marie turned back to the entrance to see Double D, who was standing there with Eddy behind him along with Katrina. They had just arrived back from Merlin's house after telling him what happened to Iris a moment ago. Ed was currently with Ebony, who was still recovering in her room.
The two Eds froze in place when they saw that Marie was awake; Double D felt the most panicked, "A Kanker!" Eddy yelped as he hid behind the door frame, peeking his head out behind it to see what would happen next.
Strangely, Double D did not run away. He stood his ground with a look of uncertainty forming across his face. He was beginning to feel nervous, not knowing how Marie would even react to him being here.
Marie widened her eyes at Double D, realizing that he was real, "Wait, May was telling us the truth? You're all really here?!" she ran over to Double D but did not hug him (even though she wanted to), "Hey there, Double D!"
"H-Hello there, Marie…" Double D replied, swallowing his nerve before looking at her and then at Shayla. Thankfully, he could see that Shayla did not seem jealous of Marie's presence; she knew that Double D and Marie were only friends and nothing more after talking about it with him yesterday (AKA: Marie was permanently friend-zoned), "I-It is, umm… V-Very nice to see you again."
Shayla walked over to Double D's side, making sure that Marie was not being controlled, "Are you feeling better?" she asked.
"Uh, yeah?" Marie replied to her as Katrina walked over to them, "What the heck's going on? May told us some really weird stuff…"
"Don't worry, we can explain things," Shayla said, gesturing for Marie to sit in the rest area beside them, "You might want to sit down for now. It's a long story."
Once Marie walked away to sit at the rest area, Double D sighed in relief, trying to calm himself down from the sudden encounter. He knew that talking to the three sisters needed to be done once they all recovered, but he still felt extremely nervous to see them again after so many years: especially Marie.
Eddy slowly walked inside the dorm, closing the front door behind him; he could see that Marie was the only one of the three currently down here… or so he thought.
"Heh, looks like May wasn't lying after all!"
Eddy came to a stop when he heard Lee's voice; she had just come down the stairs from the room she was in, 'Oh god no…'
Strangely, Lee did not approach Eddy at all even though she saw him but rather went over to the rest area where Marie was sitting down. Eddy stood there for a split second in disbelief; he'd thought for sure Lee would come up to him…
Eddy could feel Katrina gently grab his hand as she stood beside him, "It's going to be okay," she said to him, "I don't know the details about your history together, but it looks like she's moved on from you."
Eddy stared at Katrina before making a shocked face, "Wait, how do you know for sure?!"
"I was talking with May earlier; mostly to ask some general questions about her sisters," Katrina replied, "She told me that Lee found another boy she was interested in at their school and that they're currently dating. Judging by what May said, it sounds like they're pretty serious about their relationship, so I wouldn't think she would do anything behind his back with you… At least I hope not."
Eddy felt a great sense of relief wash over him at the news, "Heh… Sucks to be that sap she's dating, but whatever floats their boats! Now she'll finally leave me alone!" he laughed before turning back to the group, "I guess they gotta know what's going on."
The two teens walked over to the rest area to sit down. Katrina smiled at Eddy, seeing that the news she shared helped him be less afraid of these three sisters.
Author's Note (May 14th, 2024): Oh hey, an update! There's not much happening at the moment for me, just chipping away at finishing some games before any new releases catch my attention.
