Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this story that you may recognize from various works of fiction.
Nexus HWR 18.1 Gaara of the Desert:
Natsu, Sanji, Usopp, Franky, and Riku
"We're getting close now, only five miles away." The five men in the back of a Resistance truck lifted their gazes towards the front of the vehicle. One of the two people accompanying them north was standing between the front seats and the back section of the vehicle where they were seated. She had blonde hair bundled up above the top of her head, a pair of green earrings on, and wore a common blue Resistance uniform like many the men in the back had seen Resistance fighters wearing in casual spaces recently. Crowley Hamon turned from the men and pressed a button on a panel on the wall to her left, "Go on up and check it out if you'd like. The area around here isn't much to look at though," she added, before turning to head back to the front seats.
The back of the truck was six meters tall and stretched far enough back that ten times the amount of people as were riding in it could have fit. Usopp stood up closest to where the panel on the ceiling opened up and where the ladder prongs stuck themselves out of the wall after Crowley pressed the button. He walked towards them and started climbing up without a word, while the three who were a little behind him on the truck's wall seats were a little slower. Franky, Sanji, and Natsu had uncomfortable looks on their faces, and the three of them turned to look a few seats farther back where Riku was sitting. He was not all the way at the back of the truck, but there had been enough of a gap between him and Usopp that any conversation the group was having either included one or the other.
"Let's go check it out," Riku mentioned as he neared the other three. He waited for one of them to go ahead of him, as he did not want to be the next one on top of the truck. Natsu did not care much about the awkwardness between the two, so he just nodded and turned for the ladder to climb up himself. The others followed after him, and Riku was the final one on top of the vehicle. He stood up on top of it and found it was easier than one would think. The top of the vehicle was not made of the same steel as the inside walls, almost like it intentionally had more friction against their shoes. Riku looked down at the strange floor for a second, then he lifted his gaze and stared around in awe at the desert around them.
Their group had crossed a desert on their initial journey east after landing in Dressrosa, but the sand back then was darker and there was at least a little scattered vegetation around. This beige desert was as barren as they could imagine. It was an endless expanse of sand dunes in every direction. The heat was sweltering, and even though for the past few weeks they each had thought it was getting colder and colder, it suddenly felt like the middle of summer again. The inside of the windowless truck was air-conditioned, so the men who were wearing their cold-weather clothing from back when they departed from the south started sweating. Natsu took off his sweater right away, and he dropped it to the floor below him while letting out a sigh of fresh air. He leaned his body back and let the wind rush through his hair, a wind not as powerful as it should have been thanks to the barriers on the front and sides of the truck. The new magic and pill combo had him feeling great even on a fast-moving vehicle like this.
"I'd suggest holding onto that," Riku mentioned, and Natsu turned to the spiky silver haired man. The nineteen year old who took off his own sweatshirt continued while holding it under his left arm, "It might be hot now, but my guess is a place like this gets freezing at night. Even colder than where we just came from probably."
"Huh," Natsu muttered. He looked down at his sweatshirt, shrugged, then pressed his right foot on top of it and gave it a nudge back towards the hole into the truck. His sweatshirt stopped short, and Riku sighed but kicked it the last bit of the way to drop back inside, then he dropped his own in after it as he figured it was not a bad idea.
A little speaker on the front of the vehicle crackled with some feedback to make the five on top of the vehicle spin to it. Franky and Sanji were about to go toss their warm overclothes back inside too, but they stopped to listen to the driver's deep voice that came out of the speaker. "Just over that next dune to the north if you can see it," the Resistance Captain who was sent with them announced. Ramba Ral pulled back on the throttle next to his seat in the truck below, and he eased up on the gas pedal to slow the truck that was zooming across the sandy landscape.
Hamon turned to the driver on her left after he slowed down, and she questioned the dark haired man whose mustache and eyebrows were oddly gray, "So, do you think the stories about these guys are really true?"
Ramba chuckled, then said, "Type in the newest codes." Hamon looked back to see there was a blinking yellow light in front of her, and she started typing in the codes so the Resistance base ahead would not fire upon them. Ramba continued while she did that, "I don't know if they're all true, but the Resistance usually takes credit when it's due. I doubt they'd be telling us that Natsu boy took down the Fire Lord if it had been anyone else."
"Should you really be calling the man who defeated a High Lord a 'boy' when he's so close to you?" Crowley Hamon leaned over the center between their seats and whispered into Ramba's ear, "He might hear you."
Ramba chuckled some more, and he said, "These guys might not be Resistance, but they seem like some stand-up gentlemen. Rather than waste my energy fearing them," Ramba looked out the windshield and a determined, confident look spread on his face. The Super Saiyan, the Keyblade, Dragon Slayer. "I'll put my faith in their abilities. You just wait, Hamon," he said, and the woman next to him opened her eyes wider at the brimming confidence in his. "Those men up there are going to change this world."
On top of the truck, the five men being discussed below opened their eyes wide and stepped closer to the front wind barrier. Although some sand was knocked up by their vehicle and flew around them, they had a pretty clear view over the dune they were driving up, and they could see something rising out of the sand behind it. The building was made out of a stone that looked the same color as the light sand around them, and it rose out from beneath the sand, showing that it was a fortress a mile wide that looked to stretch back around equal distance in length. Their eyes opened wider as after the top square rose out from beneath the ground, another, wider and longer square of building rose up from beneath that. The lower floor was closer to two miles in width and length, and it was twice as tall as the upper floor, looking up to a hundred feet in height.
Franky let out an impressed whistle. "I'd like to meet the architect who built that," he said with a grin on his face, more talking about the system to hide under the sand than the building itself which was not the largest Resistance fortress they had seen in the past day. Sanji nodded his head as he lit up a cigarette, also examining the building's specs in amazement. His eyes focused less on how it rose out from the sand though, and more on the holes that appeared all over the tops of each floor. At the top of the dune they were peaking over, the pirate chef had a good view down on the top of the first story of the Resistance base ahead. He spotted holes appear all over it, he assumed that they were likely closed to keep sand out while the base was hidden. Out from those holes arose turrets that looked to be meant to prevent air assaults, though from the way the cannons snapped down after rising while pointed straight up, Sanji figured they could be used against ground assault as well.
"This is what it takes to be a base on the front lines huh?" Riku mentioned, examining the fortress closely. I don't see any clear structural weaknesses from first glance, but that's a given. How powerful those turrets are makes all the difference. Considering the base was hidden underground before our arrival, I'm guessing not strong enough to defend them from whatever we're going up against.
"Looks like they know we're here," Usopp said, and he pointed towards the left side of the base from their perspective.
They were coming up from the south, so Usopp was pointing at the west side of the fortress where part of the palish-gold sand-colored wall was lifting up into the wall. It was a gateway much larger than the truck they were on, and Natsu mentioned, "I wonder if there are any Scarabs in there?" The others looked at him in a little confusion, but Riku and Usopp each remembered where they had heard that name before.
While Sanji asked Natsu what a Scarab was, Usopp looked past the three on his right towards Riku on the opposite side of the truck's front. They made eye contact, each of them thinking about the conversation they had had with Kairi only minutes before she was taken. They had asked her all about the journey in the south, and Kairi had told them all the different ways they had traveled, one of which was by Scarab Tank. Natsu finished explaining the vehicle to Sanji, and Franky mentioned that if there was one inside the garage they were heading towards, he would want to take a look at it to see if he could build one for their group. Usopp finally looked away from Riku when Franky asked if he would want to take a look with him, and Usopp cracked a small smile as he replied affirmatively.
When Usopp turned, Riku looked back towards the base himself. They were slowing down and nearing the entrance, but his mind was thousands of miles away. Kairi… What am I doing? You're out there, alone and probably scared- well, knowing you actually, the corners of Riku's mouth lifted a small amount. Sora said that we needed to get stronger during this month, but then he left to go find you. I know that's what he's doing. I should be helping him though, not fighting a war on the opposite side of the damn continent. It's my fault they took you, Kairi. I want to come right now, but, Noxagh, if he's anywhere near as powerful as Gohan, I need more power.
Riku's head bowed a little and his silver bangs shadowed over his light green eyes. No, that's not it. I have all the power I need, but I'm still hesitant to bring it out. His shadowed eyes darted to his left where a long-nosed man was still talking to his cyborg nakama. I have the darkness under control, fully under control for the first time in my life. It will never be enough for him though to just show control. Not using it isn't an option though, not now, not with what's at stake. Riku clenched his fists at his sides, Whatever it takes to get stronger. Whatever I need to do, to protect my friends, to save Kairi, and, to save the world.
"This is where we've gotta leave you," Ramba Ral told the group who were already walking away from his truck in the garage. They looked back at the Resistance Captain, and the man standing next to his beautiful Lieutenant continued, "Go up those steps there and straight down the hall, then head up the stairs. The Commander who called for assistance will be waiting for you in the command room."
"Yeah, we don't know where that is," Sanji muttered back at the older man.
"Hahaha!" Ramba laughed. He turned his back to them and climbed back up into his truck, calling out, "I'm sure you'll be able to find him. They're waiting for you, so I'm sure anyone around will be able to point you in the right direction."
"Good luck," Hamon added to the men in front of her. She gave them a smile, then she turned and got back into the truck as well.
"Farewell Hamon-chan!" Sanji shouted and did a spin.
"Thank you for taking us here," Riku added with a nod of his head towards the woman who glanced back after Sanji's loud goodbye. He could tell they were busy people considering they were leaving immediately after dropping him and his friends off, so he figured he should thank them for taking the time to bring them here. She waved him off though as if it were nothing, then she turned to Sanji and winked, making the chef fly backwards with blood spurting from his nose like a faucet.
"You're them?"
The four who were facing the truck closer to the open Resistance garage, and the chef laying flat on his back with eyes in the shape of hearts, turned to look farther into the garage they already got a quick look at. There were five other trucks like the long one they just entered in on the left side of the door lined up against the outer wall, while to the right of them in the much wider open area of the base there were many other larger vehicles. Natsu had pointed out a Scarab as soon as they entered, but there was only one of them, and unlike the purple one he had seen before, this one matched the sandy color of the base's exterior, and the color of all the other vehicles around them. There were a few small speeders meant for five or six people, a line of personal speeder bikes twenty deep, and past the Scarab near the opposite wall, the group thought they caught a glimpse at some more traditional looking tanks, also sand-colored.
The group turned to see a woman standing at the top of a staircase at the back of the garage. There was a long walkway going either way to her sides, and she was leaning forward on a railing on the edge of the walkway right next to the top of the stairs. She had her arms crossed over the metal railing, and she examined each of the men in front of her as they turned her way. Her eyes lingered on Natsu when she looked at him, That's the guy? Doesn't look like much. Well, whatever, he'll have to do for now. "Alright boys," the blonde woman in all white leather began. She stood up straight and lifted a hand that she curled her fingers in with, "Let's go."
"Who are you?" Natsu questioned as he started for the steps. "And what are we doing here?" He continued, getting an annoyed pitch to his tone. "I told them to send me to the biggest fight they could find," he punched his fists together and smirked. "So where's the enemy?"
"Three questions huh?" the woman with long blonde hair that curled at the bottom asked. Natsu's smug expression faltered as she sighed at him, then she responded, "As for who I am, the name is Sara Lance. As for what you're doing here, I don't really know why the Commander thought we needed help. I figured we could handle it with the personnel on hand." Natsu got a tick mark on the side of his head, while the four climbing the steps behind him glanced at each other wondering what they were doing there if there was no imminent threat like they thought. "But as for the enemy, he's down the hall," Sara finished, and the surprised men in front of her all saw the woman's expression go dark as she said it.
Sara turned from the men and started down the long white-walled hallway behind her. Two men were walking towards the garage from the other end of the hall, and as the five behind Sara followed after her, those men stepped in front of their guide and stopped her. Sara grumbled under her breath, then snapped, "Move. I'm bringing them to see the prisoner."
The two men in front of Sara had such short hair that it looked recently shaven. The bigger guy had on a pair of gray sweats and a gray t-shirt, and he had a pair of goggles with red around the dark lenses pulled up over his forehead. The smaller man than his brutish partner also had on a pair of goggles though they were a light blue shade, and he wore all black from head to toe including a long-sleeved shirt even though the inside of the base was not much cooler than the desert outside of it. "So these are the infamous companions," the smaller man, Leonard Snart, said while looking the men in front of him up and down.
"'Companions?'" Sanji questioned.
"That's what we're calling you," the bigger man said. Mick Rory had a gun glowing red on his left side just like his partner had a gun that glowed blue on his own. Mick smirked at the men before him who looked confused by the nickname.
"The companions of Son Goku," Snart clarified.
Natsu ground his teeth at that, his fists balled up, and his lips curled away to show his bared teeth to the men past Sara. She was still facing the other Resistance members in front of her, so she did not notice Natsu's hostile attitude, but Snart and Rory did. The two of them reached down to their waists, and the corners of Natsu's mouth curled up at the threatening action. Sara glanced behind her to find out why the other two reached for their weapons, then she brought her hands up on of either side of her. "Stop it," she said in a commanding tone. "We don't have time for this. Snart, Mick, don't you have maintenance duty?"
"You already know the answer to that," Mick grumbled. "Considering you're the one who put us on it."
"And I told you to get to it over twenty minutes ago. Spanner needs a few extra hands, now go," she pointed with the hand she was holding up behind her, and Mick growled in annoyance while Snart just nodded his head with a sly smile.
The two of them moved out of Sara's way and continued down the hall where they were originally headed, but as they were about to pass Natsu, he stepped out and stared straight into Leonard Snart's eyes from a few inches away. Natsu's eyes looked dangerous, but he moved so fast into the man's way that Snart did not dare reach for his weapon again. He tried to keep his cool smile on his face, but he could not help the sweat from appearing on either side. Natsu smirked at the sight of the sweat, then he lifted his left hand in front of him and it burst into flames, making Mick Rory's eyes grow wide and his mouth curl into a huge smirk. "Goku might be the strongest, but I'm the one going to shake up this continent the most." The flames vanished and Natsu shoved past Snart roughly with his shoulder, knocking the less muscular man to the side a few steps, "Don't you forget it."
"Ahahaha! AHAHA!" Mick Rory started cracking up as Natsu walked off, and he had to turn to see why the man was laughing so loudly. Mick lifted the gun from his side, but he did not point it after Natsu and the others who glanced back with him, instead he pointed it straight up and yelled, "I like you!" The laughing man pulled the trigger of his glowing orange weapon, and flames shot out of the barrel into the air above him.
"Not in the base Mick!" Sara shouted behind her. The man who once went by the alias Heat Wave on his own world kept laughing, then he turned and walked away to follow Snart towards the garage.
"Those were some, interesting guys," Riku mentioned to the woman he walked up to. He walked on Sara's right side and continued, "They looked more like criminals than heroes risking their lives on the front lines."
Sara chuckled a few times, Criminals? Captain Cold and Heat Wave? Nooo, the sarcastic response she came up with in her head stayed in her head. Aloud, Sara responded, "We are not actually on the front lines." The other three behind them and even Natsu who had jogged to catch back up lifted their eyebrows in surprise, and in Natsu's case frowned deeply at the revelation. Sara continued, "This is the regional headquarters in charge of operations. That's why we're hidden underground. The families of front line fighters live here, Zeta Squad is in charge of protecting them, at least this branch of Zeta is."
"This branch?" Riku questioned. They hit the end of the hall, but instead of heading through a doorway that looked to lead to some stairs going both down and up, she turned right and started heading down another wider hallway.
There was a set of double doors in front of them, and Sara pulled out a key card from her pocket that she flashed in front of a panel next to the door. The panel blinked green and she pushed the doors in to enter the wider hallway that was off limits to many others inside the base. She continued speaking once they were through the doors, "Yes, this branch. Zeta Squad is the largest of the Resistance Special Forces Squads. Unlike most of the others, Zeta is not a small group of powerful individuals who carry out the most dangerous missions. Instead, our duties range in scale from escort detail of supply lines, to guarding cities in the interior at risk of attack, to protection of bases like these where it is not assured that we will see combat, but we'll be able to assist when needed."
"So, what are we doing here?" Natsu questioned. Sara frowned as he had already asked that question, but Natsu continued this time, "I told them to send me into a battle, not to the second line of defense to sit out the fight." Sara frowned deeper as she felt like that was directed specifically at Zeta Squad.
"I am one of eight co-leaders of Zeta Squad," Sara said in a low voice while she continued towards a black door at the end of the hallway. They were passing some white doors on either side of the hall with windows on them, and the five following her were occasionally glancing inside the rooms they passed to see weapons, laboratories, and some rooms that they did not even understand the contents of. The black door seemed ominous though, and the closer they got to it, the more likely it seemed that it was their destination. Sara continued in a darker tone, "My branch of Zeta specifically has seen combat on twelve of our last fourteen assigned missions. I assure you, we are not 'sitting out' this war."
Natsu lost his annoyed frown, easing up a little on how he was coming off. He figured sounding too eager was not giving him a good image in this woman's eyes, as from the tone of her voice, she had probably lost comrades in some of those missions. "May I just say," Sanji began, and Sara turned around wondering what he was about to say given his serious tone. His head snapped up and his eyes were back in the shapes of hearts, "Watching you walk away-"
Usopp slammed a fist into the back of Sanji's head while he was mid-perv and yelled, "Not now!"
Sara shook her head in disbelief and turned back around. Usopp glared at Sanji when the chef turned to him, "We already look stupid enough without you creeping on every woman in the Resistance!"
"We don't look stupid," Natsu snapped. "Well, I mean except for your long nose," he added.
"I was talking about you!" Usopp exclaimed back.
Riku followed closely with Sara while the others argued behind him, and he started in a soft voice for only her to hear, "Unlike what they may seem, these guys are actually very strong. I don't know where you land on the 'companions of Son Goku' thought process, but I assure you we are more than just that."
"Oh I know," Sara replied. "I've heard all about your exploits since showing up in Dressrosa-"
"Well before Dressrosa, they destroyed the Forever Kingdom and took down the Forever King who was a Lord of the Emperor, am I correct?" Sara turned right and looked at the silver haired young man in surprise. He continued though, "And before that, they stopped an invasion in Atlantis, but before any of that, they took down the most powerful government on the second biggest continent on this world. It was rotten, just like the Cooperative, but they did it. Son Goku and some other very strong people helped, but each person in our group is strong in their own way. I'm sure you're going to be amazed by the things we can do."
Sara paused for a second, glanced behind her, and took a new look at the four men talking to each other behind her. The one with the long nose looked back her way, so she turned away before they could make eye contact. She walked up to the black door, and she knocked a fist on it four times. "What? Your key card won't work on this one?" Usopp questioned the blonde in front of him.
"This is the most secure room in the base," Sara explained. She lifted her gaze above the door, and the others looked up too to see half of a black ball sticking out of the white wall above it. There was a small red dot on the ball that seemed to light up a little brighter, then a loud click came from inside the doorway. "Alright," Sara said, and she stepped forward while pressing a hand against the knob-less door. "Time to meet the Commander. He's one of the Resistance top brass, but he's never at Resistance HQ since he stays here in the desert to protect his country."
Sara pushed the door open more, showing that the room on the other side was just as black as the door. The pitch black floor and walls covered every side of the room except for a glass pane on the opposite side of the room as the door they were entering from. The group entered behind Sara, and she stood to the side while holding the door open so that she could close it right behind Natsu when he entered last. The door locked shut behind them, then Sara stepped up again to stand between the two groups in the room. There were the five near the door and five who were already inside the black room, only one of whom was still looking through the glass into a small white box on the other side that was illuminated very brightly compared to theirs. That man had wavy red hair a similar length to Natsu's pink, he wore a long-sleeved dark red shirt, and on his back was a large sand-colored gourd with a cork on top of it.
"I introduce you to the Kazekage, the leader of the Village Hidden in the Sand, a member nation of the Resistance." The man turned around to face the people behind him, showing he had a red tattoo of the Kanji for 'Love' on the left side of his forehead partially covered by his red bangs. He had black rings around his eyes which had light green irises but no pupils in the centers of them. His lips were curled down a bit, and he looked angry for some reason. Sara finished her introduction as the man looked at the people she was introducing him to, "This is Gaara of the Desert, Commander of Operations in the Northeast."
"Good to meet you," Riku greeted the man who had just made eye contact with him. The tall boy with long silver hair looked past him through the glass where he saw something that piqued his interest. "Who is that?"
"Hey," a girl on Gaara's left snapped. Riku glanced towards her, and the twenty year old girl with long brown hair glared into his eyes. "Don't you think you should introduce yourself? I don't know you."
"Octavia," Gaara said calmly and lifted a hand for her to be quiet. "There is no need for that. If Riku wishes to get straight to business, that works well for me." He nodded seriously at Riku, then looked around at the others on Riku's left, "I already know all of your names, so we can skip introductions. Natsu Dragneel, good job taking down the Fire Lord." After saying it, Gaara turned away and looked back through the glass behind him. Natsu opened his mouth to brag or more likely boast about how there was nothing to brag about, but not even having the chance to do either made the Dragon Slayer's forehead scrunch up in aggravation.
Riku walked forward, taking the initiative to get to whatever they were called there for without wasting more time. He walked between Gaara and the young woman on his right side who kept glaring at him. Sara spotted this, and she turned to the man on Octavia's left side, "Bellamy." The taller man next to Octavia turned her way. "Spanner needs some help in the maintenance garage, take your sister and head over there."
Bellamy Blake nodded his head, then said, "Come on, O'." He walked towards the door with Octavia following behind him, though she continued to frown at the casual way at which these non-Resistance members just strolled in.
"Who is that man?" Riku asked again, now that he got a better look at the figure on the other side of the glass.
The others who were with Riku and still focused on the brother and sister who had not left the room yet, refocused and walked up to Riku's side where the Blakes just were. They each looked through the glass at the room on the other side where there was a single rectangular white table, an empty chair on the side closer to them, and a chair on the far side with a man sitting in it. He was wearing a white jumpsuit that looked like it had been given to him by the Resistance, as such a dark figure would never be wearing such light clothing. He had black tattoos all over his face, piercings through his nose and ears, and what at first glance looked like eye-liner around his eyes was shown at closer inspection to be tattoos on his eyelids and around them so that it could not be washed off.
"That," a man on Gaara's other side began. One of the other two men in the room besides Gaara, he wore a black Resistance uniform matching the man on his left's, as well as the two younger Resistance members who just left the room. John Shepard turned inwards towards Riku, and finished, "Is what we're trying to find out."
"Bastard won't tell us a thing," Kaiden Alenko added. The light-skinned man in his mid-twenties looked a little younger than Shepard, with no facial hair unlike Shepard's black mustache and thin beard. Kaiden glared through the glass at the man sitting calmly in the next room, "Don't even know who he fights for."
"I don't understand," Usopp began. He stepped back from the glass and looked to Sara who still stood behind them, "You don't know who this guy is fighting for? Aren't you fighting a war here?"
"Yes," Sara responded, "but it is not that simple."
Gaara continued, turning to the pirate sharpshooter as he did, "We are at the corner of free lands. Resistance control stretches to the west of here before curving up to the north, and the border also goes straight south of here before curving farther out to the east. The Village Hidden in the Sand is not far from here, so we have to hold this corner position, despite our situation." Gaara looked to Natsu who had a completely confused look on his face, "We sit just on our side of a three-way border. To our east is the border of territory disputed between us and Arachne, while to our north is the more defined southern border of the Alvarez Empire."
Natsu nodded along, but he looked a little confused by that last part, so Shepard specified, "High Lord Spriggan's territory."
Natsu's eyebrows narrowed in, Zeref. He was not the only one to gain an angered expression though, as Franky thought about the girl who broke his back, and the other three all thought about how they found Ben after their fateful fight with the Spriggan 12. Gaara spoke up after seeing their looks, "I see you are familiar with them. The tactics being used this time are strange though, for either Arachne or Zeref. This man, is the fourth spy found in the Hidden Sand Village in under two weeks."
"At least you're good at finding them," Sanji mentioned. Spies were notoriously hard to catch, so finding four in such a short time sounded impressive.
"Finding them was one thing, catching them is another matter entirely," Gaara said while looking through the glass into the man's dark eyes. The figure had short black hair and seemed to be looking straight back through the glass into Gaara's eyes, even though it was a one-way mirror. Gaara continued in a dark tone, "The other three killed themselves instead of letting themselves be captured." The others who had not heard this yet opened their eyes wide, and Gaara continued, "All of them did it by taking poison tablets they had hidden in their teeth. I stopped this one by drying his mouth and filling it with sand. I kept him from dissolving or chewing up the poison, managing to keep him alive, but since then we have not been able to get anything out of him."
"Is he that tight-lipped?" Riku questioned.
Sanji had a bad feeling in his chest. He darted his eyes to his left to see Riku glaring through the glass at the man on the other side.
Gaara frowned deeper and shook his head no. "I understand what you are asking, but the Resistance has laws against physical torture." Riku nodded in understanding, though he did not lose his harsh glare through the glass. Gaara continued, "We have tried sleep depravation, threats, offered him a pardon. It has been four days, and we are no closer to discovering which of our enemies is planning an attack. Nothing has worked."
Alright, it looks like we are on the front lines, Natsu thought. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and glared through the glass at the enemy, Be one of Zeref's goons. I want to get that bastard back for what he did to Ben.
"Have you tried fear?" Riku asked. Gaara turned right to the taller man next to him, and Riku turned left to look into his eyes. The others in Riku's group on his right looked over, and Franky gulped at the question Riku just asked. It would not have been as terrifying a question if anyone else had asked it, anyone else in the world. Sanji also got a bead of sweat on his face, while Usopp's eyes just shadowed over and he started taking deep breaths.
"What kind of fear you talkin'?" Kaiden asked. "Because we've threatened the guy with all sorts. Life in prison, the death penalty. Even though we don't really have him on any crimes, we know-"
"I'm not talking about threats," Riku said, his voice cold and chilling to the bone. "Give me five minutes," Riku told the red-haired ninja next to him. "I swear, I will not lay a finger on the man in there, but we will have answers."
"How can you be so sure?" Shepard asked the younger man.
Riku kept looking into Gaara's eyes, and he could see the ninja was looking right back to try and find out what Riku was talking about. Gaara saw the looks his comrades had on their faces when Riku spoke up, and from those reactions alone he felt that it was worth a try. "Well," Gaara began, "after calling you up here to help, I must accept now that it has been offered. Do not break our rules though," Gaara warned.
"I understand," Riku replied.
"Alright, come over here," Kaiden began. "There's a door-"
"I don't need it," Riku interrupted. He turned his attention back to the small white room in front of him, and then a black circle formed on the floor beneath his feet. It was even darker than the black floor of the room already was, and out from it came dark tendrils that wrapped up his body and completely surrounded him in darkness.
Shepard and Kaiden each backed away, Usopp glared angrily towards the portal surrounding Riku, and then they all looked through the glass as they heard a noise of surprise come from the prisoner. The man sitting on the other side of the table calmed himself after the initial surprise of a black portal appearing in the middle of the room, and his mouth returned to a small grin. He looked a little insane, but the smile on his face looked more like he thought he was in complete control of the situation. Out from the portal stepped Riku, and the man in front of Riku stayed quiet as Riku stood there looking into his dark eyes.
Riku's portal vanished behind him, but he did not move. Riku did not take a seat, nor did he step any closer to the table, nor did he say a single word. Ten seconds passed. Then twenty. Riku saw the smallest drop of liquid on the bottom of the prisoner's left sideburn, not yet dripping down the side of his face. The darkness is under my control. I can do, anything, with its power. Riku closed his eyes, and his own vision became nothing but blackness. A second later, the white walls around him, the floor and ceiling as well, and even the glass that on his side just looked like a mirror, all of it turned to darkness.
Those trying to watch from a room over become unable to, and Sara spun to the cyborg next to her, "What is this? What is he doing?!"
"Riku-bro is, complicated," Franky replied, unable to come up with anything else while staring nervously into the darkness through the glass.
Usopp opened his mouth, but he closed it slowly and just seethed silently to himself. Sanji noticed the furious look on his nakama's face getting darker, but he was too focused on the noises he started to hear on the other side of the glass to say anything to him. Everyone in the black room lowered their bottom lips as they heard the low growling coming from the darkness. It echoed over the speakers they must have had in the next room over, and then the screams started.
"What is he doing?!" Shepard shouted.
Gaara lifted his hands, but Sanji held out a hand and called out, "Wait. He told you he isn't going to hurt the guy."
"What do those sound like to you?" Gaara questioned the pirate who just stopped him. "Those are screams of pain-"
"No," Natsu countered. His expression was dark, and he muttered with a bead of sweat rolling down his face now. When Riku mentioned it at first, he was the only one of his friends not to react as he had been considering it himself and thought he might do a good job of intimidating the man into talking. What he could hear on the other side of the glass now though, he knew he could not have done. "Those are screams of fear," Natsu muttered.
"Try sheer terror," Kaiden whispered, his face paling whiter every second.
The screams stopped coming from the other side, then all was silent in the dark void of the next room. "If he killed the prisoner," Sara began in a threatening tone to the others in front of her.
"He didn't," Franky assured her. I hope, the cyborg thought afterwards, hoping Riku would not prove him wrong.
The darkness on the other side of the glass started to thin a little while after the screaming stopped. It had not been the full five minutes Riku had asked for, it had barely been three, but it was already over. Riku stood in the same spot he did when he appeared inside that room, and the man in front of him was still sitting on his chair across the table from them. The man no longer smiled though, he no longer looked to be in any sort of control- of himself, or his bowels. His skin was pale, his eyes were huge and darting every direction, and he kept murmuring under his breath.
"We couldn't even get the guy to open his damn mouth," Kaiden muttered. "And now, he won't close it?"
Riku turned away from the man, and he let out a deep breath to get rid of the grim expression on his face. He stepped towards the glass in front of him, but a portal shot out of the ground before he walked right into it. Another portal appeared on the opposite side of that wall that Riku then walked out of. He turned to Gaara, the only one in the room who did not look at least a little hesitant of him at the moment. Gaara did not, because from the look on Riku's face, he knew the silver haired teen had been successful. "Who is coming?" Gaara asked.
Riku furrowed his brow and muttered, "You called us here to help defend this base against an upcoming attack from either Arachne or Zeref. But you were wrong, that man isn't from either of their countries." Gaara's eyes widened, the others gained confused looks on their faces, and Riku's own friends looked at him oddly. "He and the other spies aren't from any of the High Lords or Lords around here, but from the organization that he called, Al-Tharmen."
Natsu's ears perked up and his expression darkened, Gaara gained a thoughtful but serious look to his face, but Sara got the darkest look in her eyes. "Al-Tharmen," she hissed. Those who did not know as much about it looked towards her, and she explained to them, "I wish I could say that it's better we're not up against a nation, but they're dangerous. Al-Tharmen is the largest criminal underworld of Aebrith."
"Criminal underworld, huh?" Sanji asked, pulling out his cigarettes and lighting one.
Franky punched a big red fist into his other open red palm, "Alright!"
Sara looked around confusedly at the men around her who were getting too pumped up for the dark information she just passed on to them. Riku got a small grin on his own face though and Sara looked into his eyes wondering why that was. "I forgot to mention when I told you what we could do before," he began, "but destroying criminal organizations, that's our specialty."
A/N Thanks for reading! Gaara appears! As do a bunch of other characters at this base who I'll add to a list down below. I've had most of this chapter written out for 3 years now from back when I was struggling to write the end of Chapter 16. Tons of new characters introduced. Another Commander of the Resistance and some more explanation to the Squads that we've always heard about, this time Zeta. Al-Tharmen is messing around near the Village Hidden in the Sand. What are they up to? What will this arc lead to?! No spoilers. XD Hope you enjoyed the intro to the arc though, as chapter 18 is going to be following this group of our Main Characters who left the Resistance HQ around the same time. Look forward to the coming chapters... And as always, 'til next time!
Smlluffy67 chapter 119 . 13h ago
To quote Dr gero from dragon ball z abridged First WHAT and Secondly THE FUCK of all the ways sora met up with kairi during the first days this is not what I expected and once again you keep making my jaw drop like eneru after fighting luffy for the first time also viral nooooo also you have to options when it comes to what gurren lagann ost to listen to either fight the power or ending 3 in summary an amazing flashback chapter
XD Haha yeah that chapter was a bit wild, huh? Really felt like I was writing one of the first chapters again with the early flashbacks and how crazy everything was. I was listening to Sorairo Days on repeat while writing the fight, which is the final fight ost against the Anti-Spiral. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the new chapter too! And thanks for reviewing!
One Piece: Sanji, Usopp, Franky
Kingdom Hearts: Sora, Riku, Kairi
Gundam: Ramba Ral, Crowley Hamon
The 100: Bellamy Blake, Octavia Blake
Mass Effect: John Shepard, Kaidan Alenko
Naruto: Gaara
Legends of Tomorrow: Sara Lance, Heat Wave (Snart), Captain Cold (Mick Rory)
Hitman Reborn: Spanner
Halo: Scarab
Magi: Al-Tharmen
Fairy Tail: Natsu, Zeref, Spriggan 12
Ben 10: Ben
Avatar TLA: Sozin
-Think I got everyone. If you ever don't recognize a character in this story and I fail to put them down in a list like this, feel free to shoot me a review asking me where I got them from. They're all from somewhere!