On Today's Episode: Our keyblade wielding heroes return to Lost Jerusalem in order to see what exactly is happening, but the Restoration Committee has great news: they've found a computer in the castle that Yaldabaoth was seemingly using for his research. But when the trinity goes to investigate it, they find themselves in a world inside of the computer, ruled by a tyrannical super-virus. Can the trinity figure out a way to get back to the real world and figure out what Yaldabaoth was truly planning?
For Today's World: I once again have The Lonnie of Many Names to thank for helping me pick a world for this one, since this is the second "Hollow Bastion" visit and the trip to the TRON stand-in, and I didn't want to just re-use Lyoko again, but Lonnie reminded me of another piece of my childhood that was perfect. For this adventure, our Space Paranoids stand-in will be Mainframe from Reboot. I'm still salty that they ended that show on the ultimate cliffhanger, so...
Episode 12: System Command
"I know I say this a lot, but everything seems calm right now," Maylin admitted when the group all disembarked at the Marketplace to assess the situation.
"That's always what happens," Haruka quipped.
"Wow, this place is amazing," Ellen gasped, taking in the sights of Lost Jerusalem, as the world had really only been the castle and not much else while she'd been under Yaldabaoth's control. "It's all so lively now."
"You can thank MOMO for discovering a new network for hyperspace travel," Nick chuckled. "I heard there was a lot of chaos when the U.M.N. initially collapsed."
"Hey, look!" Sophia gasped as a small troupe of Soldiers and Neoshadows marched up the nearby stairway before vanishing.
"It looks like there's more Heartless flitting about," Haruka stated.
Much to everyone's shock, a trio of Dusks also floated by them.
"Oh, that's definitely not good," Maylin groaned.
"I think we'd better go and check in with everyone," Nick responded.
"They should still be at Restoration Committee Headquarters," Sophia noted.
As they crossed through the Marketplace, they eventually caught sight of a man leaning against the wall by the stairway to the Borough. He has medium length brown hair, brown eyes, and was wearing a white karate gi with the sleeves torn off, a long red headband and a black martial arts belt.
"Is... everything okay?" Haruka asked.
"...I'll get him," Ryu proclaimed. "This time, we're going to settle it. Myself, and the one who embodies all of my darkness."
"You have a dark side running around?" Nick wondered.
"It's his fault," Ryu stated. "His name is Kage. Please let me know if you see him. He looks mostly like me, but with red hair and a murderous expression."
"Got it," Maylin quipped.
"Just be careful," Ryu answered. "He'll mess with your head and make you think darkness is the only way to survive."
"Trust me dude, I've been there," Ellen sighed.
"Hey, everything okay?" Sakura Kasugano asked as she ran up to Ryu, having been searching for him for a while.
"It's nothing," Ryu sighed. "I just didn't want you to get involved."
"You mean, you don't want me there when you go away again?" Sakura asked. "I know you, Ryu, more than you like to admit."
"...listen, even if I go to some faraway place, I'll come back," Ryu answered. "I always do."
"You mean that?" Sakura wondered, easily noticing Ryu's unsure look. "Yeah, you definitely don't look so sure. But I understand. Go and get things settled, 'kay? It's like I told you, no matter how far away you are, once you find your light again... I'm pretty dang sure it'll lead you right back here again, right?"
Ryu simply nodded, grinning slightly as he walked off.
"I really do wonder if he'll be all right," Sakura admitted.
"He'll be fine, I can tell," Nick answered. "When you have something to fight for, there's no way in hell you'd give up so easily."
"True," Sakura chuckled as she ran off to get back to her own training.
The trinity all headed down the stairway to the Borough, but just as they rounded the corner to Restoration Committee headquarters, a small pack of Heartless appeared in front of them. They were mostly just Neoshadows and Soldiers, but there was a new challenger in this group.
The new enemy was a rather small Heartless wearing long predominately green robes with a yellow collar, white highlights and a bleu bottom that covered its feet, as well as a tall cylindrical green and white hat and orange gloves. It was carrying a rather large open book in its hands.
"Oh, I was hoping to never see these things again," Maylin groaned.
"To answer your question, Nick, these things are Bookmasters," Haruka explained. "They like to cast a lot of different spells, and most frustratingly, they're immune to most magic."
"And that's why I hate 'em so much," Maylin quipped as everyone summoned their keyblades for battle.
One of the Bookmasters floated forward and swung its book in a wide sweeping strike to keep the group away before it opened the book to cast a Thunder spell.
Sophia dodged away from the falling bolts before casting Kougaon on the Bookmaster, and much to her relief, it was very effective, outright destroying the Bookmaster.
"...okay, that worked," Maylin quipped.
"It's probably because Sophia's magic is technically an outside-context thing when it comes to us keyblade wielders," Haruka answered.
Meanwhile, a Neoshadow came spiraling through the air towards Nick, but he countered it and sent it flying back with a horizontal swing. The Neoshadow collided with the other Bookmaster and dazed it, leaving it open long enough for Nick to jump forward and cut it apart with an Aerial Finish.
One last Neoshadow sank into the ground and popped back up to grab Nick by the legs, but Ellen quickly blasted it with a Dark Firaga that swiftly ended it.
"Thanks for the save, Ellen," Nick chuckled.
'I already lost you once," Ellen proclaimed. "That's not happening again."
With the way clear, the group continued their trek to the Restoration Committee, not noticing that Lillie was jumping across the rooftops, clearly searching for something.
When they entered the building, they could see Matthews typing furiously at his computer while MOMO assisted him.
"Hey, what's going on here?" Maylin asked.
"Well, well, you're just in time, fellas," Matthews chuckled. "We've got some good news for you, so you might want go and find Ziggy."
"And what news would that be?" Haruka wondered.
"We fonud something really interesting inside the lower levels of the castle," MOMO responded. "It's a supercomputer that we believe Yaldabaoth was using in his research."
"Okay, that's a pretty big discovery," Nick quipped.
"It should have all kinds of information on the Heartless, considering that seemed to be central to his research," Matthews stated.
"You think it might have some info on the Organization, too?" Ellen wondered.
"Can't hurt to give it a try, right?" MOMO stated.
"Okay, so, where exactly is this computer room?" Maylin asked.
"It's in the castle postern," Matthews responded. "Just head to the southeast out of the Borough and follow the path there, can't miss it."
"Just watch your step out there, okay?" MOMO answered. It was then that MOMO finally noticed the new addition to their group and gasped in surprise.
"I was wondering when she'd realize it," Matthews chuckled.
"Oh, my goodness, Nick, you got your girlfriend back!" MOMO laughed as she ran up to shake Ellen's hands. "It's really nice to finally meet you properly, Ellen."
"You guys aren't mad about what I did?" Ellen asked rather tentatively.
"Remember, girlie, you were being body-jacked by a complete lunatic," Matthews quipped. "No one can really fault you for that."
"S-Sorry if I keep apologizing for it," Ellen sighed. "I'm just not used to actually..."
MOMO leaned over to hug Ellen in hopes of dispelling her fears. Thankfully, it seemed to work, and Ellen returned MOMO'S hug before the trinity all left for the Postern, running up the stairway and dealing with a few more Neoshadows before crossing through the Bailey.
"Um, pardon me, but are you all with the Restoration Committee?"
Nick looked around, wondering where that voice had come from.
"Hey, down here, bright eyes!"
Eventually, Nick looked slightly and noticed a trio of tiny fairies with angel wings that had floated down to greet them. The first fairy had long pink hair and blue eyes and was wearing a blue and white maid uniform. The second fairy had short brown hair and dark red eyes and was wearing a similar maid outfit, but with darker colors. The third fairy had short blond hair that spiked upward and parted in the middle and bright green eyes and was wearing an outfit that resembled a cross between a police officer and a flight attendant.
"Okay, if that isn't the darndest thing I've seen yet," Maylin quipped.
"Um, sorry to bother you, but... what's Ziggy's gang up to right now?" Saki asked.
"They've actually got some stuff to do over by the castle postern," Nick answered. "It's kinda important."
"Ooh, we got a scoop, then!" Kurumi laughed.
"Let's report it, shall we?" Karinka quipped.
"Who exactly do you report to?" Haruka wondered.
"To our leader, duh," Kurumi laughed.
"Yeah, you know, that lady named I..." Karinka stated, though Saki quickly covered her mouth to keep her from blurting the name out willy-nilly as Karinka tended to do.
"Don't worry about Karinka, okay?" Saki chuckled. "I assure you, we come in peace."
"You're kidding me," Karinka groaned.
"We are?" Kurumi asked.
"Okay, then, you go and do the talking if it's that much of a problem," Karina snipped before vanishing in a burst of yellow sparkles.
"I'm so sorry about all of this," Saki sighed, bowing to the trinity before vanishing in a burst of blue sparkles.
Kurumi just giggled and struck a pose before vanishing in a flash of pink sparkles.
The trinity all glanced at each other, wondering what the heck that was all about, before continuing to make their way towards the castle through the Restoration Site, a long trail full of materials that the people here were using to rebuild.
Just before they could cross over to the Postern area, another Heartless appeared in front of them, this one having a smooth and conical red body with the Heartless emblem emblazoned on its chest and a yellow flame pattern decorating the base of its body, the top of its body flaring outward and forming a jagged "collar" below its spherical pitch black head, and a conical red hat that was yellow on the inside and had a jagged brim and a thin curled tip.
"Okay, the wizard boys came back, apparently," Nick quipped, noting this one's resemblance to the family of mage Heartless he'd seen a lot of on his initial adventure.
Maylin, however, was in no mood and started furiously whacking the Heartless with Counterpoint.
"...is she okay?" Ellen wondered.
"Yeah, she really hates these guys, even more than Bookmasters," Haruka explained. "This one is a Crimson Jazz, and it's essentially a much stronger version of the Red Nocturne. This stubborn punk likes to plant explosive mines everywhere, and they're both really annoying and resistant to most magic, so Maylin dreads having to fight these things."
"Well, if they're resistant to most magic, and they're also fire mages, let's see how they like getting doused," Nick chuckled.
As the Crimson Jazz floated away from Maylin and closer to the others, Nick raised Oathkeeper and prepared to cast a spell that Maylin knew.
Just before the Crimson Jazz could start laying mines, a spiraling surge of water surrounded Nick for a second before rocketing towards the Crimson Jazz, blasting into it and sending it reeling.
Naturally, Nick took advantage of his opportunity, running forward while the Crimson Jazz was reeling and whacking it a few times with Oathkeeper before finishing it off with an Explosion.
"...that worked?!" Maylin gasped.
"You've seriously never used a Water spell on the fire Heartless?" Nick teased.
"Well, I only developed the Water spell recently, and we haven't run into a Crimson Jazz again until now," Maylin admitted. "Blizzard didn't do all that much to it, so I just figured none of my spells would do much to it, and considering I used to absolutely suck all kinds of ass at melee combat..."
"And also consider that getting close to those things is very dangerous," Haruka quipped.
"I wonder if Wisdom Form would wreck these things," Maylin chuckled.
"Guess we'll try it next time we encounter one," Nick answered. "For now, though, let's just keep moving."
With that out of the way, the group finally made it to the Postern, a large area at the base of the castle with a pathway leading further down and into the corridors at the opposite end.
And waiting for them was none other than Shion Uzuki, a technical member of the Elsa crew who Nick had encountered in Nordopolica on his first adventure, having been tricked by Zagi into fighting Nick.
"Oh, hey, Shion, long time no see!" Nick laughed.
"Same here," Shion stated before studying Nick closely. "You look like you've learned quite a bit since the last time we squared off, huh?"
"Let's just say I forgot it and had to learn it all back, but I learned a lot of new stuff, too," Nick chuckled. "But onto business, you guys found Yaldabaoth's computer?"
"Yes, we did, and the Emperor is very interested in what's on that computer," Shion admitted, and this caught everyone's attention.
"W-Wait, wait, you mean Emperor Clow's over there?!" Maylin gasped.
"Yeah, he's with Ziggy down in the computer room right now," Shion replied.
"Oh, thank goodness, that means he's okay," Sophia sighed in relief.
"Sadly, it doesn't seem like Marie is there," Nick admitted. "After all, I'm sure I'd have sensed her. But at least we can ask Emperor Clow about her, and who knows, maybe that computer can tell us more."
"That sounds like a good idea to me," Shion stated. "The corridors are right down that way. Just head through them and look for a lighter shade of brown on the walls, and you'll find Yaldabaoth's study."
With that in mind, the group all headed down the pathway while Shion ran back towards the Bailey to tell everyone else about her progress.
Inside the Corridors, a large twisting maze of pathways, the trinity all began to search for the right way through, unaware of a small creature resembling a dog crawling across the ceiling above them.
"Oof, this place is spooky," Maylin stuttered.
"Well, it does appear to have been abandoned for a while now, ever since we defeated Yaldabaoth," Sophia admitted.
"Let's hurry and find that study," Nick stated.
After turning down a nearby corner, some more Heartless spawned in front of them, mostly Neoshadows but also including a new one. This new Heartless was bronze-colored, funnel-shaped and mechanical with a diamond-shaped opening in its front, exposing its glowing, yellow eyes, two black rectangular guns with a silver spike on their ends mounted on either side of its body, a silver ring hovering around its base, a silver spike on the top of its head, and its Heartless emblem imprinted just below the opening for its eyes.
"Okay, not what I expected," Nick quipped.
"Those things are Watchers," Haruka explained. "They like to shoot lasers, but not much else, so if you're good on defense, they shouldn't be a problem. Try and grab them, though, so you can use that laser against them."
Nick waited for the Watcher to fire a laser at him, then raised Oathkeeper to deflect it back into another Neoshadow. While the Watcher was surprised, Nick leaped towards it and grabbed it by its base, forcing it to fire a giant laser from its front. Nick turned the Watcher around to obliterate the other Neoshadows with said laser before throwing the Watcher into the wall so Ellen could destroy it with a swing from Starlight.
Thankfully, it was smooth sailing the rest of the way, and when they reached a large square room, they followed Shion's instructions and headed down the side path with the lighter brown on the wall to a door that finally brought them to Yaldabaoth's Study.
The whole room seemed to be in relative disarray, with books strewn about everywhere, broken containers that looked they had once held hearts, and a large portrait of what appeared to be Yaldabaoth himself.
"Jeez, not just a little full of himself, eh?" Maylin sighed.
"I don't know, that doesn't look exactly like Yaldabaoth," Sophia admitted. "I mean, it's a pretty close match, but some features look a little different..."
Before the others could examine the portrait to see if they could spot the differences as well, they heard a knock on a nearby wall.
"So, you made it after all," Ziggy quipped.
"Oh, Ziggy, hey," Haruka stated. "Is the Emperor with you?"
"You'll see him soon enough, I assure you," Ziggy answered. "But this should tide you over until he gets back."
Ziggy touched a part of the wall he was leaning against, and that wall quickly vanished in a flash of light to reveal a passageway that led further into the complex.
"Yaldabaoth's computer is just up ahead," Ziggy proclaimed.
The trinity all walked into the room ahead to behold a large computer system hooked up to the south wall and a large circular device hanging from the north wall.
"Well, shall we try something?" Nick asked.
"I think I'd better try it," Ellen quipped, not noticing the dog from earlier crawling up a nearby wall. "After all, you're not that good with computers, if memory serves."
"Blame my computer class teacher for that one," Nick sighed, knowing Ellen was completely right.
"Um, what the heck is that?!" Maylin gasped, pointing up towards the ceiling.
Everyone looked up to see a tiny Papillion dog with pale brown fur that was a darker shade on her ears, tail, and the sides of her face, with a darker brown patch of fur in the shape of a hear on the back of her head, a large curled lock on her face, bright red eyes, and wearing a pink bow with a gold butterfly pendant.
Komugi sputtered slightly as she slipped off of the rafters and landed feet first on the keyboard, scurrying around it rapidly before dashing away down the hallway, almost sounding like she was laughing.
"Um... what the heck was that all about?" Ellen wondered.
"ATTENTION, CURRENT USER. THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING. ANY FURTHER MISUSE OF THIS TERMINAL WILL RESULT IN IMMEDIATE DEFENSIVE ACTION."
"...who was that?" Nick asked.
"I AM MEGABYTE. I AM THE OVERSEER OF THIS SYSTEM."
"Why does that name sound incredibly ominous?" Maylin quipped before trying to type something on the computer, only for alarms to start blaring in the room.
"DECISION GATE HAS BEEN REACHED. YOU ARE ALL UNDER ARREST."
"Wait, what does that mean?!" Haruka gasped, unaware that the device on the north wall was powering up.
"Everybody, run!" Ziggy shouted, though his warning came too late.
The circular device on the other end of the room started shining with an ominous light before it fired red beams at Nick, Maylin, Haruka, Ellen and Sophia, covering them in data cubes before fragmenting them and sucking them inside the device.
Ziggy could only watch in abject shock.
When Nick could see again, he glanced around his surroundings and found himself in what appeared to be a large, ruined city. Though, much to his surprise, the city looked very blocky and angular, almost like it had jumped straight out of an old school video game.
"Okay, I've definitely seen some weird things on our journeys, but I'm willing to bet that this is a serious contender for the cake."
A sudden jolt of electricity caught Nick's attention, and he turned around just in time to see a bunch of weird blobs shaped like, of all things, television static, surrounding the girls and shocking them into unconsciousness, having clearly caught them off guard.
"All right, who's the wise-ass that just did that crap?" Nick growled as he summoned Uber Sheep to his hands.
"That would be me."
Nick glanced just ahead of him and saw a strange, double square-shaped figure standing there, surrounded by some unfamiliar Heartless.
This Heartless had a thin and mechanical humanoid body made of black material covered in thin yellow circuitry, its head being a black sphere with glowing, yellow eyes, wearing a diamond-shaped helmet with an angular curled antenna connected to its top, its upper arms were quite thin while its forearms were wide and flat, and the Heartless emblem was emblazoned on its chest.
"I am Herr Doktor, and I patrol this sector in the name of its glorious leader," Doktor proclaimed.
"Um, I'm really not liking that name and its implications, so I'm just gonna get to the part where I stomp you and your Heartless for hurting my friends," Nick retorted as one of the Strafers, well, strafed towards him, firing ring-shaped lasers as it did so.
Nick swung Uber Sheep to deflect the laser ring before jumping forward with a Flash Step to destroy the offending Strafer before turning to the others.
Doktor simply pressed a button on his control device and a bunch of Nulls jumped onto Nick, shocking him into unconsciousness as well.
When Nick woke up the second time, all five of them were now stuck inside a cramped cell enclosure.
"Is... everyone okay?" Nick asked as the girls began to wake up.
"I think so," Haruka quipped.
"I'm gonna hurt that square guy for getting the drop on us," Maylin groaned.
"And now onto the question I'm sure is on everyone's minds," Ellen stated, glancing out the window of the cell towards the strange city in the distance. "Where in the absolute fishsticks are we?"
"We appear to be in some kind of computer system," Sophia answered. "As an artificial intelligence myself, I can scan the area code for details."
"Quite the impressive skill list."
Nick glanced towards a monitor at the other end of the cell, where a young man could be seen leaning against the nearby wall, with blue skin and silver-ish hair.
"You are inside a computer system," the figure proclaimed. "This is Mainframe. At least, it used to be. Our home was once taken over by a tyrannical virus called Megabyte, and..."
"Wait, Megabyte? The thing that seems like it runs the whole joint and probably zapped us in here?" Maylin gasped.
"The very same," the figure answered. "Megabyte had completely taken control of the Principal Office, essentially the central core of the system. It was a hard-fought battle, but my friends and I managed to defeat Megabyte. However, our original system was... destroyed."
The figure looked out towards Mainframe. "As I mentioned, that was in the past. At some point, our original system was destroyed, but a copy was saved onto another transfer device by a User," the figure explained. "At one point, I thought all Users would only destroy our world with the Games for some kind of pleasure, but I was thankfully mistaken. This particular User managed to perform a system restore to bring Mainframe back, then customized the system, renaming it 'Lost Jerusalem OS'. This User eventually upgraded the system to be capable of more, so it could also be used for town maintenance and advancing his private research."
The figure chuckled slightly as he realized he had gone off topic. "Oh, sorry, let me introduce myself before I keep rambling your ears off. My name is Bob, and I am a Guardian," Bob proclaimed. "My job is to fight viruses like Megabyte and keep the system free of errors... but now I'm a prisoner just like all of you."
Bob took a good look at the trinity. "With that kind of visual configuration, you must be Users," Bob stated.
"Well, we kinda are," Haruka answered. "We were trying to access the database in this computer system to learn more about the enemies we're fighting."
"That's all well and good, but right now, you need to get out of here," Bob responded. "If Megabyte gets his hands on you, it would not be good. You could be defragmented, and I do not want to know what such a process would do to a User."
"So, then how do we get out of this place?" Ellen wondered.
"This terminal could have done that," Bob admitted, gesturing to the monitor in front of him. "But Megabyte cut the power to the teleporters when he took over. That was a long time ago. If we could bring the energy core in the Ascii Canyon online, we might be able to power it back up again, but... we're stuck. We're not going anywhere unless we find a way to unlock the energy fields trapping us here."
Nick grinned teasingly, Uber Sheep flashing into his hands. "Unlock, you say?" Nick chuckled as he walked up to the gate into the cell and started whacking the energy field. With each strike, small clusters of orbs fell out and were absorbed by the keyblade. After a bit of this, Nick jumped into the air and twisted Uber Sheep in an unlocking motion, and this caused the energy field to defragment and vanish completely.
"How peculiar," Bob chuckled. "You all seem to have some remarkably unique functions. Now that we're free, I'll go with you to Ascii Canyon. After all, you'll need someone who can interface with the energy core, right?"
As the trinity all left the cell and headed towards a nearby elevator, somewhere else, Doktor was communing with Megabyte in his throne room.
"My lord Megabyte, why not just fragment Bob and get it over with?" Doktor wondered. "After all, you vastly eclipse him as you are now, and his friends are all your prisoners..."
"As fun as that would be, I still haven't located the password to the datascape," Megabyte admitted, glancing around the multitude of monitors that displayed everything of note in his version of Mainframe. "And I know that Bob could possibly lead me right to it. As it stands, he's more useful to me alive. ...for now."
"Well, might I suggest a logic probe?" Doktor asked. "With your current processing power, it should be no problem for you."
"I'm afraid that won't work either," Megabyte answered. "The firewalls keeping us in this system are hampering the processing power needed for that."
That was when Megabyte noticed Bob and those other Users heading towards the Ascii Canyon.
"You're dismissed, Doktor. Stop those little brats or else," Megabyte proclaimed.
"Y-Yes, my lord," Doktor stuttered.
Down in the Ascii Canyon, Bob snuck down the nearby corridor, not wanting to draw the attention of any of Megabyte's guards.
Eventually, they all found a side room with a large, cylindrical machine.
"There's the energy core," Bob stated. "I'll need a little time to access it, so keep an eye out for any enemies."
"Will do," Haruka quipped.
With that in mind, Bob moved forward and started typing on the energy core's computer to get it up and running. Almost instantly, a group of what appeared to be zombified binomes started marching into the room, all screeching in some unholy way.
"Oh, that's all we need," Maylin groaned.
"Let's just keep Bob out of trouble," Sophia responded.
As the Zombinomes started shuffling forward, Sophia switched over to her yo-yos and started swinging them around in multiple wide sweeping attacks, making short work of the Zombinomes, given how slow they were.
However, Strafers spawned in on the other side of the room and moved towards Bob much faster.
"Maylin, I think it's time to bring some magical pain," Nick quipped.
"I was thinkin' the exact same thing," Maylin giggled, and she turned around and jumped forward to join hands with Nick so they could merge into Wisdom Form, already aiming Oathkeeper towards the Strafers.
Haruka, Ellen and Sophia continued to strike down the Zombinomes so Wisdom Form Nick could glide around the room and start attacking the Strafers.
"Suck on this, data boys!" Wisdom Form Nick exclaimed as he cast rapid-fire Firaga spells to delete the Strafers before they could get close to Bob.
Thanks to this relay, Bob was eventually able to get the energy core up and running again. Once this happened, the Zombinomes all collapsed into pieces due to the area's firewall also activating again.
"All right, that should do it," Bob quipped. "Now, turnabout is fair play, so... how about you all do something for me?"
"You got it, dude," Ellen chuckled.
"W-Wait, don't you want to hear what it is first?" Bob gasped.
"Hey, you helped us out, so now it's our turn to help you," Maylin stated after separating from Wisdom Form.
"You must be Users, then," Bob chuckled. "Your actions don't often make sense. Let's hurry back to the Pit Cell, then, the area we met."
It was just a short jog back to the Pit Cell, and sure enough, the terminal in the room was working again.
"Okay, so... what did you want us to do?" Nick wondered while Bob reconfigured the terminal to make absolute sure it would work.
"I want you to find the original user of this system," Bob answered. "He should be able to provide the password to access the DTD."
"And that is...?" Ellen asked.
"The DTD is the name the User gave to this dataspace," Bob responded. "Stored there are copies of the original Mainframe system programs, along with anything that's considered sensitive or restricted."
"You think it might have information about the Heartless or the Organization?" Sophia wondered.
"Most likely, if that was something the User was researching," Bob admitted. "And... a number of my Guardian abilities were taken from me the last time I tried to fight Megabyte and his minions. That's why I'm looking for the password. If I can get inside the DTD, then I can access my original backup programs and restore all of my functions. Then, I'll be able to rescue my friends, take down Megabyte, and restore Mainframe to the way it was before he took over."
"You said something about Megabyte taking control, but you stopped him," Maylin quipped. "Did something happen after that?"
"Like I mentioned, I'm actually a backup of an original version of myself, as are all my friends," Bob admitted. "But to me, they're still the real thing."
"So, do you know the User's name?" Nick wondered.
"You mean you don't know?" Bob answered. "It's Yaldabaoth, the User of this system."
Naturally, that shocked the trinity, as even though they knew he'd used the computer to perform his research, they had no idea he'd done all of this before Bob had explained it.
Bob looked over at the terminal screen. "Uh-oh, it looks like Megabyte is onto us," Bob stated. "Don't worry, I'll keep this terminal up and running, but you all need to get out of this system right now!"
"Don't worry, Bob, we'll get you that password," Sophia proclaimed. "Promise!"
Bob kneeled down and pressed a button on the terminal's outer shell. "All right, you're good to go," Bob stated. "Now hurry up!"
Rings of data surrounded the trinity before warping them out of the system.
Even if he didn't outwardly show it, Ziggy was very relieved to see the trinity returning to the computer room in a flash of light.
"Are you all okay?" Ziggy wondered. "Where the hell have you been?"
"Well, it's a long story," Nick admitted as the trinity began to explain everything they'd learned inside of Mainframe.
"So, essentially, Yaldabaoth's research data is out of reach unless we know the password to the DTD," Ziggy stated. "But you've already defeated Yaldabaoth, which means..."
"This might just be one big ol' wild goose chase," Maylin groaned.
"We can't give up, though," Sophia answered. "We made a promise to Bob, didn't we?"
"Yeah, we did," Nick stated. "Let's go and take another look around, shall we?"
Everyone walked back into Yaldabaoth's Study and began searching wherever they could for a clue to what they were looking for.
Eventually, Maylin noticed a strange doodle on the wall right around where Yaldabaoth's self-portrait was hanging. Haruka reached out to grab the picture frame and lift it off the wall, a relatively simple feat for someone as strong as her.
To everyone's confusion, the wall space behind the portrait was filled with a lot of strange doodles, including a sketch of a large heart surrounded by something.
"What's this weird doodle about?" Maylin wondered.
Nick looked at the sketch, reading the words that hadn't faded out due to age.
"Jerusalem... Main... Security... Mainframe... Door..."
"It looks like a diagram," Sophia noted.
"Door... to... darkness?" Nick quipped, until he gasped out loud when he made the connection. "Hey, look! D-T-D! This must be the dataspace Bob mentioned. D-T-D, the Door to Darkness!"
"Convenient," Ziggy chuckled. "But that still leaves us the password, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, that's the problem," Ellen noted.
"Say, everyone, did somebody mention the Door to Darkness?"
Everybody spun around to see who had addressed them, and both Maylin and Haruka were extremely shocked to see a tall, regal man with black hair and eyes, wearing the signature black coat of Organization XIII.
"Is that...?" Sophia asked.
"EMPEROR CLOW!" Maylin and Haruka shouted as they both flung themselves forward to hug Emperor Clow.
"Oh, my god, we finally found you!" Maylin exclaimed.
"Are you doing okay?" Haruka asked. "We haven't seen you since you helped us out in Alola Town, and..."
Emperor Clow quickly raised his finger to signal quiet, before swiftly closing the door behind him.
"Sorry about that," Emperor Clow stated. "I just want to make sure the Organization isn't listening in on us. By the way, you mentioned the door to darkness?"
"To make an extremely long story short, Your Majesty, we're trying to access Yaldabaoth's research computer so we can figure out what exactly he's been up to, and if any of that can help us find our missing friends," Nick explained.
"Apparently, the dataspace in this computer system is nicknamed the DTD, the Door to Darkness, and we're trying to figure out the password, otherwise we're out of luck," Ellen stated.
"Well, if it is referencing the door to darkness, then it can only be opened by the seven Princesses of Heart," Emperor Clow answered. "Their names were... Kobayashi, Fena, Ochako, Hinata, Suletta, Bridget, and Marie, if I remember correctly."
That was when Emperor Clow noticed the self-portrait of Yaldabaoth, the one Sophia had said look slightly different.
"Hey, is that who I think it is?" Emperor Clow gasped.
"Um, yeah, that's the guy, Your Majesty," Maylin sighed.
"I just realized that if you can get into his research data, you might be able to find out where he is," Emperor Clow stated.
"Um, can you not joke around there?" Ellen groaned. "We already defeated the guy, remember?"
"...well, it looks like I've got a lot of explaining to do, don't I?" Emperor Clow admitted.
"Well, we're listening," Haruka quipped.
"Hey, isn't Bob waiting for us?" Sophia asked, and the trinity all gasped, now remembering what they'd come back here for, then looking back at Emperor Clow. After all, they'd just reunited with him after who knew how long, and...
"Don't you worry," Emperor Clow chuckled. "I'm not going anywhere. If the Heartless attack, I'll stand and fight with everybody here."
"The city's got nothing to worry about if you're here," Maylin quipped.
"Then let's talk more later, okay?" Emperor Clow stated. "I'll see you when you get back."
But before the trinity could head back into the computer room, Emperor Clow stopped them when he remembered something important.
"Before you go back, Nick, let me grant those clothes of yours a new power," Emperor Clow stated. "Consider it a thank you present for everything you've done to help us."
Emperor Clow summoned the Kingdom Key D, traced it through the air in a strange pattern, then thrust it forward to surround Nick with a trail of silver light.
Nick began floating in the air, his clothes glowing brightly and his body surrounded by a golden yellow aura of light. Both Maylin and Haruka were also surrounded by that same golden aura.
After a couple seconds, Maylin and Haruka both vanished from sight, and silver light erupted from Nick's clothes.
When the light died down, he had transformed again. Nick's clothes were now primarily black and yellow with three black crosses arranged in a fancy overlapping pattern imprinted on his pants and sleeves. In his left hand, he was twirling Divewing around, a bolt of golden lightning traveling from his hand along the blade. In his right hand, Counterpoint was floating telekinetically close to his hand, spinning occasionally.
"Whoa, this one's a major upgrade," Master Form Nick proclaimed, speaking in a mixture of his own voice, Maylin's voice, and Haruka's voice. "We'll probably have to wait until we get back to Mainframe to see what it does, so we'll be off."
"Be careful in there," Emperor Clow stated as Master Form Nick ran off to head back to Mainframe.
Once back in the Pit Cell (given that it was the only available terminal for them to use at the moment), the trinity all looked around for any sign of Bob. After all, he'd been there when they left.
"Why am I not liking this?" Maylin admitted.
"WARNING: INCOMING GAME. WARNING: INCOMING GAME."
"We really don't have time for games here," Haruka quipped.
"Um, I think we might not have much of a choice!" Sophia exclaimed, pointing towards the skylight of the Pit Cell, where they could now see a gigantic purple cube of energy descending from the sky at rapid speeds, eventually engulfing the Pit Cell and everything in the area.
Inside the game cube, Nick and the girls could now see a gigantic flat landscape almost resembling a racetrack, with a vehicle vaguely resembling a motorcycle crossed with a Light Cycle.
"Welcome to the Game Cube, Users," the booming voice of Megabyte resounded. "You've been chosen to play a game for my amusement. Lose, and you will be subject to immediate defragmentation. Win? Well... no one wins in my game."
"Oh, we'll see about that," Nick retorted as he jumped onto his Light Cycle and sped off down the track, a large ribbon of blue light trailing behind him as he did so.
Nick quickly found he could maneuver the light ribbon while moving to destroy any pesky Heartless that tried to sneak up behind him while he was riding.
Occasionally, a few Strafers would fly in front of him and attempt to shoot him off the track, but Nick simply switched his Light Cycle and switched to turret mode, the gears creating the light ribbon flying to the front of the cycle and allowing Nick to shoot down the Strafers on the track.
After completing a couple laps on the track and not seeming to get anywhere, a large tank-like Heartless plopped down onto the are just outside the track and fired a laser ball at Nick. He swerved his Light Cycle around to avoid the shot, but the sphere continued on to blow a hole in the nearby wall, revealing a path back to Mainframe.
"Hey, it looks like we can get out of here through that hole!" Maylin exclaimed.
Waiting for an opportunity, Nick continued to ride his Light Cycle across the track until he approached the hole in the wall again, at which point he summoned Oathkeeper to his hand and fired a Thunder spell directly down onto the track in front of him, dislodging the Light Cycle from the track so he could ride it towards the hole in the wall.
"Goin' my way, ladies?" Nick quipped as the rest of the trinity all hopped onto the Light Cycle as they rode it out of the game area.
The instant they were out of the game cube, they were all teleported back to the Pit Cell.
"Okay, that was a bit freaky," Maylin admitted. She looked up and saw that the game cube had floated slightly upwards, no longer engulfing the Pit Cell area but still hanging there in the sky.
"H-Hey, is Bob okay?" Sophia gasped when she noticed that Bob was lying on the floor in a weakened state, no doubt having been subjected to Megabyte's 'games' earlier.
"I... I don't get it," Bob groaned. "Why are you all back here?"
"Um, to give you the password, duh," Nick quipped.
"You could have just transmitted the data, you know," Bob noted.
"Hey, I'm not exactly the smartest when it comes to computers, and I'd rather not cause Mainframe any more damage," Nick admitted.
"...fair point and well made," Bob chuckled. "I'll be fine, but we need to access the DTD. Let's hurry back to the Dataspace. It's just beyond the Ascii Canyon where we found the energy core."
On the way there, however, the group was ambushed by another group of Strafers and another new Heartless. This one's most prominent feature was the single, large wheel that comprised its lower body and provided its only means of movement, its body being almost entirely black and covered in red computer circuitry with a long, sleek and oval-shaped head sporting a jagged red antenna on its top, with its glowing yellow eyes just barely visible in the front of its head. Each of its short arms led into grey cylindrical hands tipped with conical red spikes, and its Heartless emblem was on its chest.
"Oh, goody, more newbies," Maylin groaned.
"Actually, ladies, we didn't get a chance to give Master Form a proper test run, since we got separated when we returned here," Nick quipped.
"Ah, I get your drift," Haruka chuckled.
Nick let his keyblade disappear momentarily so that both Maylin and Haruka could rush up and take Nick's hands, allowing them all to merge into Master Form, dual-wielding Divewing and Counterpoint.
"Let's see what this baby is capable of!" Master Form Nick proclaimed as one of the Magnum Loaders charged towards him.
Just before the Magnum Loader could strike with a double thrust from its hand spikes, Master Form Nick leaped forward, twirling both of his keyblades around him in a spinning strike before attacking the other way in a similar fashion, his feet never touching the ground during the combo.
Eventually, Master Form Nick started doing a bunch of acrobatic spins and slashes before finishing with a dramatic cross-strike to destroy the Magnum Loader and a pair of Strafers who wandered too close.
Another bunch of Strafers and even a few Zombinomes came closer, but Master Form Nick started twirling around, creating circles of light around him that magnetically drew all of the nearby enemies closer, before finishing off with an outward flourish that blasted all of the Heartless away.
"Wow, that's pretty dope," Ellen admitted as she watched Master Form Nick go to town.
A Devastator, the tank-like Heartless they'd seen on inside the game cube, rolled towards them, but Master Form Nick lunged forward with a souped-up Thundaga spell in which he somersaulted around the Devastator while dropping a barrage of five juiced-up lightning bolts along his path.
"Whoa, my magic got even more of an upgrade," Master Form Nick quipped as he performed one more Master Strike to finish off the Devastator, clearing the pathway to the Dataspace room, which was a large trapezoid-shaped room with three large computer screens in a triangle formation around the central console.
"All right, then, what's the password?" Bob wondered.
The trinity recited each of the names of the seven Princesses of Heart, and Bob typed them each in. After Marie's name was typed in, a short rumble occurred in the area.
"Did that..." Haruka wondered.
"I think it did," Bob quipped.
Just then, alarms began to blare in the room, leaving the trinity to wonder what had happened now.
"Attention. Now switching DTD database from hibernation mode to active mode. This process will take some time, so please enjoy a game during the switch."
"Oh, jeez, not another game," Maylin groaned.
"This is no game," Bob answered. "If only it were that simple. This looks to be the DTD's final security routine. Stay sharp, everyone!"
The Heartless emblem materialized on all three of the monitors in the room, and Strafers began to spawn en masse around them.
"Oh, this does not bode well," Ellen quipped, looking at the computer console. "It looks like we've only got two minutes to unlock these monitors before something bad happens."
"Okay, so how do we do that?" Nick wondered as he swung Uber Sheep to cut down a Strafer, only for small clusters to fall from the remains and absorb themselves into the keyblade, much like Nick had done to unlock the energy fields at the Pit Cell.
"Hmmmm, that looks promising," Nick chuckled as he continued to slice and dice the Strafers until the blade of Uber Sheep was surrounded by rings of data. Nick ran up to the monitor on the left side of the room, jumped into the air, and twisted Uber Sheep in an unlocking motion, sending a beam of data into the monitor and dispelling the Heartless insignia.
"Nick, shall we go Limit Form?" Sophia offered.
"You read my mind, Sophia," Nick laughed, and Sophia ran over to hug him from behind so they could merge into Limit Form, already aiming Super Yo-Yo for the incoming Strafers.
While Maylin cast Thunder from above to destroy a good number of Strafers, Limit Form Nick waited for a bunch of them to get closer to him before using Strike Raid, even allowing him to pick off a few that had been harassing Bob.
With enough clusters collected, Limit Form Nick ran over to the monitor on the right side of the room and froze it as well, getting rid of the Heartless emblem and leaving only the main console.
"Back, you savages!" Ellen shouted as she used Dark Break, jumping into the air before falling back down and using Starlight to bounce off of the heads of the Strafers like a pogo stick.
While this was happening, Limit Form Nick blitzed through even more clusters of Strafers with a Sonic Blade, giving him enough clusters to run over and freeze the last monitor with about twelve seconds remaining on the countdown.
"Whew, that was close," Maylin sighed in relief.
Bob tentatively walked over to the main console and placed his hand on the main key, light flowing into him and changing his outfit to a silvery-black version of itself and causing a wrist device to appear on his right wrist.
"...it worked! I'm as good as new!" Bob exclaimed. "All of my Guardian functions have been restored, and I even got my keytool Glitch back! Oh, this is good, this is very good."
Suddenly, a bolt of energy shot down from the sky, forcing everyone to scatter as another alarm began to blare.
"Oh, what now?!" Ellen shouted.
"Finally, I have full access to the DTD," the voice of Megabyte cackled. "My takeover of the system can now be complete."
"Okay, I take back what I said," Bob groaned. "This is bad, this is very bad."
"I can't believe you led me right to it, Bob, you fool. I might have anticipated such a simple password. ...oh, what's this? An emergency destruct program for the town outside? Ooh, that sounds like fun. Shall we see how it unfolds?"
"Oh, no you don't, Mega-breath," Bob shot back, placing his hand back on the console and letting light flow back into it for a couple seconds before he typed something on the keypad.
"W-What? Did you... did you change the password?!"
"There, that should buy us some time," Bob stated.
"Wait, what's going on now?" Haruka wondered.
"Megabyte's loading a hostile program into the I/O Tower," Bob answered. "We can't let that thing get out of Mainframe, or it could attack the town outside."
"Then we'd better scoot our collective asses to that tower, quickly!" Maylin proclaimed.
The group all headed out of the Dataspace and back into Ascii Canyon. More Strafers and Magnum Loaders appeared to harass them, but Bob was finally able to show his chops by blasting the Heartless with anti-virus beams and even using his keytool Glitch to conjure oddly appropriate weapons to attack with.
Another lift at the opposite end of the canyon took them to the I/O Tower located around the edge of the city, but when they tried to cross the hallway and take shelter in the communication room just ahead, the Hostile Program itself floated down to greet them, creating a circular wall around the area to box everybody in.
The Hostile Program had a smooth, oval-shaped and indigo-colored upper body lined with light grey and red computer circuitry. Nine red, conical spikes protruded from the upper body, and an opening on its front side revealed its three glowing yellow eyes, arranged in a triangle pattern. The machine's lower body was small, predominantly silver, and lined with indigo and red circuitry, ending in four small, silver appendages.
"Bob, Bob, Bob. It's pointless to resist me. Mainframe is mine, your friends are my prisoners, and it won't be much longer before you're next. All I need to do is get rid of you and this entire system will be mine to control as I please. Why do you constantly insist on delaying the inevitable?"
"Because, Megabyte, that's my duty," Bob proclaimed. "I am a Guardian. My purpose is to mend and defend, to protect my friends, their hopes and dreams, from enemies like you."
"Oh, can the speech for once in your life."
"Here it comes!" Nick exclaimed as the Hostile Program went on the offensive.
Spheres of light fired from the Hostile Program's hands and started following Maylin as she ran around the room to set up a good position to start casting spells.
"Hey, back off, buddy," Nick taunted as he jumped forward to slash Oathkeeper across the Hostile Program's side, only to jump back when it surrounded itself with an electric shock. Nick noticed that more of those clusters fell off of the Hostile Program with each hit he landed.
Ellen ran towards the wall closest to the Hostile Program and leaped off it, giving her enough elevation to start attacking it's bulbous head a few times.
Eventually, Nick managed to pick up enough clusters so that he could use them to freeze the Hostile Program in its place.
"I think it's time we evened the odds," Bob proclaimed, reaching out to press a symbol on his new outfit. "Reboot!"
A column of green light surrounded Bob, and when he came out, he was wearing an outfit very similar to Nick's, and even carrying a keyblade. This keyblade resembled a heavily pixelated version of Nick's Kingdom Key, with a yellow guard with lime-green accents, a silver blade, and neon pink patterns decorating most of the weapon. Its token was a small replica of Mainframe itself, and the keychain was made of multiple Reboot symbols.
"Whoa, did he just..." Ellen gasped.
"I just did a Reboot," Bob explained. "Inside the Games, it's usually how we take forms that adapt us to whatever games we're playing."
Not wasting a moment, Bob ran over to slash his makeshift keyblade, Zero/One, at the Hostile Program as much as he could until the freeze wore off after about ten seconds and the Hostile Program went back on the offensive, raising its hands to fire wide, arcing lasers that it swept around the arena, forcing everyone to stay away from it.
"Okay, this is starting to get annoying," Haruka admitted. "Can somebody stop these stupid lasers?!"
"I think I might be able to help with that," Bob quipped. "Glitch, electro-net!"
Glitch unleashed a pair of electrified nets that covered the Hostile Program's hands and stopped the lasers temporarily, long enough for Nick to get in close and start slashing at it again.
Once Nick had enough clusters, he froze the Hostile Program again, and he and Bob both shared a look that clearly meant "it's time to end this".
With that in mind, both Nick and Bob got into position close to the frozen Hostile Program as Bob opened a data screen in front of him, typing on it rapidly.
"Running executables!" Bob exclaimed as Nick raised Oathkeeper to surround them both with a wave of data and codes that damaged the Hostile Program.
While this was happening, the freeze wore off and the Hostile Program tried to start flying around the room to stay away from its attackers, Bob raised his hand to fire a stream of data cubes out to damage it, interrupting its flight path.
The Hostile Program tried to headbutt Nick and Bob, but Nick raised his own hands to unleash a wave of firewall data around them that interrupted the charge.
Nick and Bob continued their relay for a short while, using the cube wave to attack from afar, and the firewall circle to strike when the Hostile Program got too close.
When they felt it was time to end this, Nick gestured to Bob, who nodded and adjusted the dial on Glitch.
"Glitch, execute firewall program," Bob proclaimed, and ten large computer windows appeared around the Hostile Program, trapping it in its spot.
A smaller window appeared in front of Bob, and he looked back at Nick, who understood what had to be done. Together, Nick and Bob slammed their hands into the screen, and the windows around the Hostile Program all bombarded it with clusters of data cubes and firewalls before exploding upwards into a column of computer data, finally dealing the finishing blow.
The Hostile Program attempted to float upwards, but its armor cracked and broke off before the rest of its body crashed to the ground and exploded into a cluster of glowing polygons that quickly dissipated, along with the wall around the arena.
With that problem finally taken care of, the group all walked back into the Communications Room at the other end of the I/O Tower room, which also had a terminal much like the one in the Pit Cell.
"You know, I really owe you all big time," Bob admitted. "Thanks to you, I've got all of my Guardian functions back up and running, and I think I've really got a good shot of taking system control away from Megabyte. That'd put me one step closer to finding my friends."
"Ol' Mega-face said he had them prisoner," Maylin quipped. "Was that what you were trying to do when you got caught and put in jail?"
"Yeah," Bob answered. "I've been trying to find a way to sneak into the Principal Office, since that's most likely where Megabyte is hiding. I have to defeat him and free my friends. I'm sure it's what the User would want."
"What... Yaldabaoth would want..." Nick sighed before realizing he had to come clean. "Listen, Bob, we didn't actually get the password from Yaldabaoth. We just sorta found it by accident back in the User world. And... well, to be frank, he was our enemy."
"Well, actually... he's my enemy, too," Bob admitted.
"...wait, what?" Ellen wondered.
"According to what I could glean from the system logs, Yaldabaoth took the backup of the original Mainframe system and customized it for his own use," Bob explained. "We were all part of that original system, and we were modified by Yaldabaoth, so that makes him our User. But... Yaldabaoth is also the one who brought back Megabyte. When he initially did the system restore, it put us back at the point when Megabyte had taken over the Principal Office. The Yaldabaoth I knew wouldn't have done that. ...sorry I didn't tell you."
"It's no problem... but now I really think I'm lost," Nick admitted.
"I don't think I completely understand it, either," Bob conceded. "But I think it's Users like you that are gonna figure it out. You have this incredibly ability to take illogical routes and still find the answers you seek. Now, then, you'd better get back to the User world before Megabyte starts acting up again."
Bob gestured to the terminal to his right. "Any data that you need from the DTD can be accessed directly through the User terminal," Bob stated. "Now that I have both Glitch and my Guardian functions back, it should be child's play to keep a dedicated access channel open for you. I changed the password, so you hopefully shouldn't have to worry about Megabyte for a while."
"Access... channel?" Nick wondered. "Not exactly a computer nerd here..."
"I kinda figured you'd ask," Bob chuckled. "It's a very important link between our worlds. It's basically how we stay connected."
As beams of light surrounded the trinity, Bob couldn't help but flash a proud smile.
"You... my friends... are the new password," Bob proclaimed.
'I can handle that," Haruka chuckled.
"Take care of yourself, got it, Bob?" Maylin stated.
"You too, and give my best to the Users," Bob answered. "Stay frosty, everybody!"
And with that, the trinity was warped out of Mainframe. Bob did one last check of the terminal before heading out into the I/O Tower and back into the main city. After all, he still had a lot of searching to do if he hoped to free his friends from Megabyte's clutches.
To be continued...
Drive Form acquired!
Master Form
Form Focus: Merge with Maylin and Haruka to utilize both your strength and magic to its fullest.
Drive Gauge Points Needed: 4
Experience Points: Gain 1 EXP for every small Drive orb collected in this form, and 3 EXP for ever large Drive orb collected in this form.
Action Abilities
Master Strike: Unleashes a powerful finishing combo move that successively attacks a single target.
Disaster: Unleashes a powerful finishing combo move that draws in several enemies and successively deals damage.
Master Magic: Powers up magic to enhance spells.
Growth Ability
Aerial Dodge: Press O in midair to jump again. It is useful for dodging enemy attacks.
Support Abilities
Synch Blade: Equips a keyblade in each hand. The ability of the left hand weapon becomes available as well.
Endless Magic: Unleashes magic combos endlessly.
(x2) Air Combo Plus: Increases maximum combo by 1 when in midair. Equip more to enable more combos.
(x2) Draw: Draws in and obtains nearby orbs. Equip 2 to obtain far orbs.
MP Hastera: Increases MP restoration speed by 50% after MP is fully consumed.
Keyblade acquired!
Zero/One
Strength: 8
Magic: 8
Length: 125
Ability: Thunder Boost (Increases damage done with thunder-based attacks by 20%. Equip more to increase the effect.)
Description: A keyblade newly wrought within the datascape.
On the next episode...
Nick: Okay, that was some kind of an ordeal.
Maylin: Hey, we've finally got access to Yaldabaoth's computer system, so I'd call that a win!
Haruka: Here's just hoping it can tell us what we want to know.
Ellen: Wait, where did Emperor Clow go?
Nick: I'm more concerned with that massive flare of darkness I just felt.
Sophia: You think there are more Heartless in town?
Maylin: Um, not to be a downer, but I think the Heartless might actually be the least of our worries at the moment.
Nick: Well, then, I guess we'll just have to grit our teeth and do what we do best, next time on Kingdom Hearts: Key to Her Heart re:Verse II, "Sinister Shadows"!
Nick, Maylin, Haruka, Ellen and Sophia: May your hearts be your guiding key!