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Another day, another chapter. Slight violence warning, but it's a fight scene, what did you expect? Read and enjoy!

Spoiler: Chapter 6: Master Plans and Monologues

They ducked through the opening, tensed and prepared for sneak attacks and traps. The next room over was dark (not that any of the Bats would have difficulty with this). The only source of light was coming from the skylight, a single beam reaching down towards Xehanort, standing in the exact center of the room.

“Finally, we have come to the hour of my victory!”Xehanort’s hands moved dramatically, his voice echoing in the empty chamber. “You have arrived, my thirteenth darkness, my final vessel. The last Nobody.” His face stretched into a mad smile, and he stared.

Directly at Red Hood.

Hood in response grabbed his gun out of its holster and pointed it directly at Xehanort. At the mad man’s words, something inside him shuddered. “What the hell are you talking about?”

He looked over at Batman and Nightwing, whose faces resembled equal amounts of confusion, then he caught a glimpse of Sora. The boy was shocked, frozen in place and staring at Xehanort like the man had just said something horrible. Slowly, Sora’s grip on his Keyblade tightened and he took a step forward staring at Xehanort with a fierce intensity. “There's no way,” he said quietly, then louder, “There's no way you’re making Red Hood into another one of your puppets.”

This statement seemed to break the villain from his gleeful trance and he stared right back at the young hero. “Puppet?” he asked in that gritty evil voice. “But my dear boy, haven’t you realized by now that it is natural for everyone to have darkness in their hearts? This young man will make the decision to join me of his own accord. All he needs is a small push in the right direction.”

Red Hood seemed to be somewhat catching on, and took a few steps forward to stand at the side of Sora. “I might not see eye to eye with all the goody two shoes superheroes out there, but there is no way I would ever reduce myself to the likes of scum like you. These Heartless you release, they are killing innocent people. If you think I would ever be a part of that you are dead wrong. It's sick!”

Sora gave a quick nod, and with a subtle flap of fabric and a slight breeze, both Nightwing and Batman were standing there too, silently supporting him. Hood was inexplicably touched by the action, but quickly blinked and looked back at his enemy. His trigger finger tightened slightly.

Xehanort began to laugh quietly. He put his hands behind his back and shook his head slowly. “You are fighting a losing battle my friend.” he said to the room at large. “You are only trying to cover up your true nature... but if you won't join me that easily, then...”

The tension in the room spiked, and Sora held his breath involuntary. Batman clenched his fists and glared at the man, frowning deeply as he did so. Xehanort disturbed him, possibly as much as some of the villains in Gotham. Even Nightwing was still, suppressing the urge to jump nervously on the balls of his feet. Jason was clenching his teeth. Who was this man that he thought he knew so much about him? The silence stretched on.

Ever so slowly, more laughter vibrated softly around the room. But this sound was different then the humourless sound they had just heard from Xehanort moments ago. This was authentic, new, scary. Sora felt all the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and swallowed hard. He looked around at his companions. Even under the cowl, the Batman’s face had twisted into something dark and inhuman. Nightwing had turned pale and was staring around the room with wide eyes. It was Red Hood however, that caught Sora's attention immediately. His entire body went stiff, his teeth were clenched, and he seemed to be breathing harder than before. He was trembling, and Sora realized that is wasn't because of fear, but pure rage.

Xehanort flashed Red Hood a vicious grin. “I think you will come around to my way of thinking. It shouldn’t take long.”

Batman was the first to move, his hand drawing a batarang and already taking a step forward.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you.”

A third voice, deeper and more gravely then the rest. Batman’s eyes were reduced to slits and he once again froze, analyzing a quickly deteriorating situation.

“Oh no, not him too.” Nightwing breathed from beside Sora.

Stepping out from the shadows draping the back of the room in darkness, Joker and Two Face emerged, surrounded by a wave of Megashadows.

Sora leaned over to Nightwing. “Who are they?” he whispered.

His eyes never leaving the villains in front of them, he replied “Joker and Two Face. A couple of our regular villains.”

“Well, well. All of my favourite people, right here in front of me!” The Joker’s voice caused Sora to shudder involuntarily. Somehow, he didn’t think being a ‘favourite’ of this guy was a good thing. The clown’s eyes flicked to Sora once, briefly, then focused back on Batman and Red Hood. “And one extra, but I think I can let you two bozos take care of him.”

Two Face flipped a coin into the air, catching it on his palm and slapping it onto the back of his other hand. A quick glance and, “Sorry. Looks like I’m out of this fight.”

“Aw, come on now Harv, best two out of three.”

He mulled over the idea. He did like twos. Flipping the coin again and again, the undamaged portion of his face stretched into a smile almost as wide as Joker’s. “Looks like I’m in after all.” He stored his coin, pulling out two pistols, firing at Batman the moment he had a shot.

Batman had already moved, swirling in close to the former-D.A., his fist catching him on the good half of his face. The moment he had moved however, the room started filling with Heartless. No Nobodies this time, for whatever reason. These were Emblem Heartless. The patterns were different from the Pureblood Heartless the Bats had been facing so far, but Sora knew them. Keyblade in hand, he started swinging.

Jason tried to go after Joker, but Nightwing held him back. He started fighting, mind beyond reason as he lunged towards the man who had killed him. Dick had to grab both of his arms, leaning his head close to his brother’s ear, “Hood, listen to me! Hood! Jay! Jay, you can’t go after the Joker. Just let me take care of him. I promise, he won’t hurt you again. Jay!” Eventually, Dick’s whisperings calmed him down. He could tell that Jay was still angry, but not in a way that could send him off the deep end. He looked past the domino masks adorning both of their eyes and an understanding passed between them.

Nightwing nodded, then released Hood and flipped into the Joker’s path. The clown had been racing off to the side, probably to set a bomb or sneak attack them or something, but suddenly lurched back as Nightwing caught him in a roundhouse kick. This was one enemy he didn’t feel like holding back on. He wouldn’t kill the madman, but a broken bone or two wouldn’t be too bad.

Jason was watching Sora fight while he was trying to calm down, and noted that Xehanort was just standing there, watching him. It would probably be a bad idea to fight him up close. Clearly, the villain had a plan and Jason fit in there somehow, despite having never met the guy before. So he darted towards Sora, pulling him out of the way of a fatass Heartless wearing a purple shirt. He shot the thing in the back, smiling slightly as it dissolved. “I got this. Can you take care of baldie over there?”

The kid gave him the most indignant look. “Of course I can!”

“Then get gone!” Shoving him with one hand, Jason shot at a flying yellow thing that shot lightning, knocking off its hat with the first shot, the second one going between its eyes.

Sora cautiously approached Xehanort. The villain, his enemy since the beginning of all of this, hadn’t interfered in the fight yet, preferring to watch the chaos. Or maybe he was just watching Red Hood. Glancing back at his friend (currently leaping over a Large Body so he could reach an Air Soldier with his All Blade), he felt a rare surge of anger. Xehanort, this terrible excuse for a person, had caused so much pain and sadness to his friends. Riku, Kairi, even the ones he hadn’t met yet, but that Mickey had told him about, Terra, Aqua, and Ven. And now he wanted to add Red Hood to the list. Red Hood, who acted like he didn’t care but had gotten himself stabbed multiple times to protect Sora. Who had the worst mouth but toned it down when Batman asked him too. Tough, brave, and kind. Sora refused to let Xehanort hurt him.

“Your fight is with me!” He growled, holding his Keyblade before him.

The man’s gaze came back to rest on Sora. He sighed, shaking his head, but other than that, ignoring Sora as if he were little more than a slight irritation.

“Why do you always feel the need to get in my way?” he questioned. “You know your power could never compare to mine, not when I am once again whole. But yet you are here, blindly challenging a master who could destroy you.”

As Xehanort ranted, dark waves began to slither up from the ground, slowly encircling him. Sora leapt forward and swung down with his blade, which clashed against Xehanort's own darkness-covered Key. He was thrown back by the force of the parry, but caught his feet quickly and launched himself back at the man, righteous anger guiding him. Xehanort too ran forward, and once again their Keyblades met with a shower of black and white sparks. Sora spun to the left, landed and turned to stop his opponent’s weapon by inches. He griped his Key with both hands now, putting his body into pushing his weapon against Xehanort’s blade which was now coming at him in multiple furious strikes. Feeling his feet begin to slip, Sora ducked the next swing, and swept his Keyblade in a low arc trying to knock the man off his feet. Xehanort merely stepped on Sora's Keyblade while swinging his own at the boy’s face. Letting go of his weapon and falling back, Sora could feel the air following the strike as he summoned his blade back into his hand. He flipped back luckily avoiding another blow.

Xehanort sent Sora a chilling gaze while the younger panted, regaining his breath. How could an old man such as Xehanort have so much stamina? Chancing a glance around, Sora saw Nightwing flip past him, the clown following in close pursuit, knife in hand. He didn't see Batman or Red Hood however. Instead his attention snapped back to Xehanort who was striding menacingly forward. Sora raised his Keyblade.

“Fire!”

Balls of flame shot forward, and were met with shards of ice and snow from his opponent. The two continued to shoot spells, every once in a while trying to get a lucky hit in with their blades. They were circling each other, jumping this way and that, trying to best the other. Sora found that though he was much smaller than Xehanort, he was also faster. He focused less on strength and more on the timing and precision of his attacks. Xehanort was the first to get a hit, striking Sora’s left shoulder. He stumbled back, but didn't miss a beat, sidestepping the next attack and rolling to position himself behind the man. He jumped up, slicing with his Keyblade, and he was so close to hitting the man. But his attack missed as Xehanort leapt heavily back. Sora wasn't going to give him time to regroup however. He sprinted forward, striking at the man again and again. It was draining work, but finally Sora saw an opening and instinctively took it. He thrust the tip of the Kingdom Key forward, feeling exhilaration rush through him as the blade made contact with Xehanort’s right side. The man grunted in pain and took another retreating step back. Sora took one forward. He could do this! He could defeat Xehanort.... well maybe not defeat him, but hold him off until the others were free to help. He attacked again and again. He was panting with the effort, but refused to give his enemy any sign of weakness. Xehanort's blade flew by his left ear, and he jerked to his right, then jumped, his Key already beginning to summon the magic.

“Lightning!”

Because he put up his blade to counter, Sora got a second to look at Xehanort’s face closely. He was starting to get tired! Though it was nothing to his own exhaustion it was a start! Thrilled Sora leapt forward for what had to be the hundredth time. Xehanort raised his free hand to grab Sora but the boy was ready. He kicked himself off of the man’s chest before he could grab his throat. Both went stumbling backwards, again giving Sora a much needed chance to catch his breath. This time however, Xehanort needed the reprieve as well. His face was a mask of anger.

“It seems you have learned much in your years of traveling.” He said. “Your skills have improved a great deal. You know how to play your advantages.”

Sora's blue eyes were fixed on the merciless yellow ones in front of him. He was ready for whatever move the man would make.

Suddenly that evil scowl turned into a smile. “However, I know how to play my advantages much better then you, my young hero.”

He was lifting his blade, Sora was preparing for what was sure to be a powerfully dangerous attack. The man pointed his Keyblade to a place behind Sora and shot a beam of pure darkness from its tip. Sora was moving before he could even comprehend the danger. The attack was heading for Red Hood, who was completely unaware of the threat. But could he make it? Sora gathered himself and shot forward in front of the attack. He tried to lift the Keyblade but it was too late. He felt the full impact the beam smash into him, and flew back into an unsuspecting Jason. The two smashed into the floor, sliding to a halt a few feet from one another.

It took Hood a moment to realize what was going on, but as the scene unfolded in front of him, he scrambled to his feet and ran over to the young boy lying on the ground.

“Sora!”

He shook his friend frantically, and Sora's eyes fluttered open.

“N-not fun,” he moaned.

Jason watched helplessly as the kid passed out. After taking a hit like that though, he really couldn’t blame him. His masked eyes swept the room. Almost all of the Heartless were gone, but two squeezes of the trigger took care of those few remaining. He grabbed Sora and jumped out of the way as Xehanort’s Keyblade crashed down on the spot the two had occupied a moment before.

He set Sora down just outside the room. A quick peek through the hole in the wall showed Robin and Red Robin laying on the floor, totally exhausted, but with the room clear of all creatures. After making sure their injuries weren’t too bad (Red Robin had a scratch on his chest but it was already clotting. Robin didn’t look injured), he turned back to face the cause of all of this.

Sure, Jason was tired from fighting three different hordes of Heartless in less than a day. Sure, he had nearly exhausted his bullets and a Heartless wearing a turban (seriously?) had slashed his second favourite rocket launcher in half. And sure, maybe he had twisted his ankle a little in that last cartwheel. But with how much anger he had at this man, Red Hood knew he could take him down, no problem.

Launching himself, All Blades flashing, he came in low. As the geezer swung his blade down to block, Jason stabbed one of the Blades into the ground, changing his trajectory enough to deliver a nasty gash on baldie’s leg. Xehanort merely gritted his teeth, and grabbed Hood’s wrist with his free hand, holding the All Blade in his leg, but also preventing Hood from dodging the next blow. The Keyblade swung upwards and Hood twisted his neck, just barely moving his head out of the way as the Keyblade sliced through his cheekbone. A dead feeling started traveling up his arm. With a shock, he realized that the wrist Xehanort was holding was freezing, and the ice was spreading. Faster than most people believed possible, his other Blade came up and stabbed Xehanort through the forearm. The old man cried out, releasing his grip. Red Hood jumped back a few paces.

Baldie would take a moment recovering from both of his wounds. Both were deep and (Jason knew from experience) painful. Taking a moment, he gazed around the room, noting Batman still in combat with Two Face (who looked like Three Face with how his jaw was turning purple) and Nightwing chasing after Joker, who was laughing like it was a simple game of Chase Me. He turned his eyes back to Xehanort –

– who was covered in green light, his wounds closing up as Jason watched. Seriously, this guy knew healing magic too? Fuuuuu…

He burned with rage, but he had learned to control it. To work past the rage so he could still fight without losing control. He stood back this time, letting the villain come to him. As geezer-face sped towards him, Hood jumped and flipped over his bald head. Landing behind the villain, Hood jabbed one of the All Blades into his shoulder, the other into the back of his knee. The old man turned, slower now that his knee was ruined. Hood rained down a flurry of blows on his enemy, not giving him any time to cast another spell. Baldie held his Keyblade up, blocking as best he could, but with a gaping hole in his shoulder, his blocks were getting weaker and weaker. Finally, Hood smacked the Keyblade away. In a split second, he considered just running the old man through his twisted excuse for a heart. With a snarl, Jason instead smacked him on the head with the hilts of his swords, dropping the old man where he stood.

He stood back, assessing the damage. Massive scratch on his cheek, not bad. Seemed like Sora had been right about the stress thing though. Both of his shoulders were bleeding, as was his side. The more dangerous injury on his sternum seemed fine though. He looked across the battlefield and was rewarded with Batman and Nightwing tying up Two Face and the Joker. Was the Joker’s leg broken? That angle didn’t seem natural. They both looked over to him and he smiled at them. Nightwing smiled back and Batman scowled less deeply. A rustle by the hole in the wall drew Jason’s gaze. Sora stood there, looking dazed, but awake and smiling. A half second later, all of their smiling expressions turned to alarm and horror. Jason turned just in time to see Xehanort, who should have been unconscious for another half a day, rushing towards him, Keyblade pointed –

– nope. Plunging. Keyblade plunging straight through Jason’s heart.

Another chapter enjoy!

Spoiler: Chapter 5: Consequences of Well-Meaning Explosives

Sora was looking forward to this. He was reasonably confident he could handle Xehanort, at least chase him from this world, and as soon as he did, the Heartless would die down to almost nothing. His new friends could definitely handle that. And he would be able to go see Donald and Goofy and Kairi and Riku…

“Oh! Before you go!” He had forgotten another really important thing! “Robin, Red Hood, be careful not to strain where your injuries were too much. They’re healed, but only by magic. They still need time to rest and naturally recover. Otherwise, they can reopen and only time can heal them then.”

The two previously-injured people took a moment to consider. “How far can we strain them? We have to face this threat to Gotham now.” Robin asked.

He thought back to his own battles and how the Cure spells had lasted. “They should be able to hold for most battles. I’ve fought Xehanort before on Cure and it lasted for every bit of it. I just thought I should mention because my friend Riku reopened his leg wound a little while ago.”

Batman stepped forward, looming over Sora. “What were the circumstances for this?”

“Donald said it was probably because he was under a lot of stress. He was fighting Xehanort at the time and they have a bad history.”

Hood nodded, his helmet bobbing up and down. “We’ll keep it in mind. Now let’s go kick some a-”

“Language!”

“-butt.”

The docks had always been a favourite spot of Gotham's lowlifes, what with their rotting wood piers, murky water, and abandoned buildings. It was a spot recently visited by vigilantes and mobsters alike, and the Bat family couldn't help feeling a wave of familiarity as they stepped out into the cool midnight air. It was a cloudless night, and the area was quiet. Maybe a little too quiet considering recent circumstances. Bruce took a deep breath before turning to address his soldiers.

“I want to do this right, no careless moves” he gave a pointed glare at Jason, “and no rushing in without using your head.” Damian gave the slightest of flinches at their leader’s words.

“So what's the plan boss?” Asked an attentive Red Robin.

“Sora, Nightwing and I will be taking the roof, preparing to jump in for a surprise attack. I want you, Hood and Robin to go in for a distraction so we can enter during the resulting chaos.”

Robin gave an obvious “Tt” of displeasure though all but Tim chose to ignore it, the latter giving the youngest a pointed glare before refocusing on Batman.

A few minutes of detailed explanations later, Sora found himself climbing down as silently as he could manage, into a maze of wooden support beams stretching out across the expanse of a vast warehouse's ceiling. It was a good thing he wasn't afraid of heights, because when he looked down, he realized they were about four stories up with very little between them and the cold concrete floor. Though, with a sinking feeling, Sora saw that there was indeed something between them. A collection of Heartless and Nobodies slithering around, twitching and slipping ninjas like into shadows. Ignoring these, he tried to spot who he was really looking for. Where was Xehanort? A minute of careful searching told him the man wasn't there. Or at least, he wasn't in the main part of the warehouse. Several doors lined the walls of the room however, and Sora guessed that the man they were looking for could easily be hiding within the depths of the old building. Batman was counting on that very idea, hoping that once the fighting began, the three of them hidden above could take him by surprise. Sora had never used strategies like this before. It felt weird, like he was deceiving his opponent. He knew that was a ridiculous though and that Xehanort wouldn't hesitate to do the same to him, but he couldn't help feeling slightly guilty. Despite the efficiency, this wasn't how he operated.

“You good Sora?” Nightwing questioned from his left. Sora hadn't even noticed the acrobat settle down next to him.

“Yeah, I'm ready.” He said, readjusting himself to get more comfortable. “When do we start?”

In answer Nightwing gave a quick glance over at Batman who had a few fingers resting on his ear. Sora could just hear the gruff voice issuing commands.

“We are in position. Move in.”

There was a brief moment of silence where Sora noticed how tense he had become. Then, suddenly several things seemed to happen at once.

A wall seemed to break apart, shards of metal and wood flying across the room violently, the unpleasant vibrations from the explosion making Sora tremble slightly. Small pops followed almost simultaneously, light flooded the room. Sora had to put a hand in front of his face because of the intensity of what he now realized were flash grenades. Heartless began to slither into the ground, becoming shadows, while the Nobodies conjugated at the enormous hole in the wall. If Sora hadn't been covering his face, he might have noticed small black projectiles flying into the room, resulting in several Nobodies vanishing on the spot. Then came the unmistakable explosion of Red Hood’s guns. At this point, Sora uncovered his eyes to see Robin, Red Hood and Red Robin putting up a very good distraction. Though unfamiliar with the attack patterns of the Nobodies, Hood and Robin seemed comfortable fighting the Heartless and dodged them with ease, their attacks more often than not hitting their marks. Red Robin's analytical skills seemed to put him at an advantage from the start. He waited, letting the enemies come to him, and then did some experimental dodging, quickly figuring out the most effective way to combat his attackers. Watching the three of them work was amazing.

Then the motion of the room came to an unpredictably sudden stand still. It didn't make sense, one minute there was full blown chaos, the next the Heartless and Nobodies stopped in their tracks, becoming docile. The eerie creek of a door was the explanation. Sora looked to the right of the room, to a door that was slowly opening. He tensed involuntarily.

The door swung open, revealing Xehanort. His eyes gleamed as he gazed across the stilled battlefield. Well, mostly stilled. While the monsters weren’t fighting back, Red Hood and Robin were stealthily attacking everything in sight. Red Robin had jumped onto some crates so he could get a better vantage point of the battlefield. Xehanort took all of this in, his eyes narrowing slightly when they rested on Hood. Then they moved on, sweeping to the rafters where Sora, Batman and Nightwing were hiding.

“You might as well come down.” The amount of gravel in his voice could rival Batman, but while Batman’s voice was flat, devoid of emotion, Xehanort’s held a spark of manic revulsion. Revulsion for the light and all who served it.

More Heartless streamed from the walls, more Nobodies from the floor. Sora was so busy watching the battle below, he had missed the Dragoon floating behind him. He managed to bring his Keyblade up in time to block, but the force of the swing knocked him from his perch, sending him crashing to the ground, vapourizing two or three Shadows with the force of his fall. Jumping up as quickly as he could, he swept his Key in a circle, destroying all of the Heartless around him. They still weren’t attacking, but he felt better with a perimeter. Nightwing was on the ground too, but Batman was nowhere to be seen. Hopefully still in the rafters. He didn’t seem like the type to get surprised.

Xehanort was speaking again. “Much better. My failed vessel, I welcome you to the site of my victory. For it is here that I shall obtain the last darkness and bring about the Second Keyblade War.” His eyes glinted dangerously. “But for now, I need to prepare for the end. Fear not, I shall leave you with plenty of entertainment.” He disappeared through the door, the lock glowing as it was magically sealed.

Nothing my Keyblade can’t open, Sora thought as he started towards the door. And was quickly stopped by an Invisible blocking his path. The silence which had descended on the warehouse when the Heartless and Nobodies stopped fighting returned just as quickly as it had vanished. Pandemonium filled the warehouse as the Nobodies slithered into motion, their quick, jerky, yet still fluid, movements leading to unpredictable and dangerous attacks. The Heartless were much less graceful, but no less powerful, overwhelming with numbers when strength was not sufficient.

The Bats were faster and more powerful however. Nightwing flew above the battle, jumping off of Heartless, landing to jab a Nobody or two with his escrima sticks, then flipping off once again. Red Hood fought them directly, a gun barrel pressed to a Dancer’s head, and All Blade buried deep in a Neo Shadow’s chest. Red Robin watched the enemies, noting each type’s weak points before turning through the battle, bo staff and glider cape flashing. Robin preferred the deadly approach, simply slicing anything to cross his path in two, leaping above them to gain advantage of momentum. Sora’s Keyblade slipped through the horde effortlessly. After so long fighting these creatures, knowing how to defeat them was almost second nature to him. Above them all, a shadow in the rafters smiled proudly.

Red Hood noticed when Batman dropped down into the fray. Presumably because he couldn’t break into where Xehanort was hiding. Whatever that glowing keyhole meant, it was probably lock pick-proof. He shot another one of the white things (a Nobody probably) in the chest, and swung his gun around to the next enemy, one of those Myotises. Copycat bastards. He lined up his sights and squeezed the trigger, giving a frustrated growl when it just clicked. Stupid thing was jammed. He dropped it, grabbing another from his belt, dispatching the Myotis with his All Blade instead. Too bad he wasn’t still bleeding; he could have powered up the All Blade and taken a group of monsters out in one swing instead of going one-by-one. An injury would just slow him down more than would be useful at this point, so he dropped that line of thinking and flew back into the fray. An explosion broke his concentration momentarily. His eyes panned until he found the source of the blast, getting one quick smile in before a massive Nobody with a claymore smacked him on the head. The helmet took the damage, shattering on impact. A piece of the shrapnel cut into his temple, the vicious river of a head wound starting up. Jason smiled a deadly smile and held the All Blade up, red blood dripping onto it.

Tim had ducked out of the fight quickly, trusting his allies and family to handle it. Instead, he grappled up to the second floor, staring intently at the door, determined to figure out how to make it open. From the way Sora was fighting towards the door, he knew of a way to open it and needed to be at the door to do it. Or he could just be after Xehanort and would get stuck when he reached the door like the rest of them were. The lock was still glowing and, knowing magic, lock pick-proof. Would probably electrocute whoever tried too. Or turn them into a kitten. Tim almost preferred the electrocution. Another few moments of thought and suddenly, an answer came to him. Taking out a few explosive batarangs, he tossed them at a spot on the wall which, according to the blueprint he had memorized, led to the next room. Checking to make sure no one was close enough to get caught in the blast, he pressed the remote detonator.

Nightwing was caught off balance by the resulting tremors of the building. He jumped into the air, and landed expertly on a nearby Neoshadow, righting himself in the process. He could see Sora stumble as he had been running towards the locked door, but the boy caught his balance quickly, swinging his blade above his head to avoid being slashed by one of those vicious bat Heartless. The room was suddenly covered in a cloud of dust and smoke from the explosion, and Nightwing could no longer see Sora or any Heartless more than 3 feet away from him. Flipping forward, he swung his escrima sticks with practiced ease at the sound of claws swinging towards him, or when he saw a flash of the black shadowy creatures through the cloud of dust. Thank you sensory deprivation training! He wanted to catch up to Sora and give him a bit of back up. Facing Xehanort alone was probably not in the kid’s best interest.

“Oh crap, oh CRAP, OH CRAP! GUYS!!!”

That was Tim's voice! Nightwing felt his stomach twist into a knot. Looking around frantically his eyes stinging from the grit and smoke, he called desperately “TIM!”

His voice was drowned out, however, by a huge earthshaking crash. This time Nightwing couldn't help it. He fell to the ground, catching himself on his hands and knees, and looked up. Whatever had just caused that had also managed to blow most of the dwindling debris still present in the air away. Sora was lying on the ground about 10 feet in front of Nightwing, covered in broken pieces of wood and cement, and stirring slightly. Dick only had a moment to worry about that however, because as his eyes continued upward, he saw something that he swore made his heart stop. A huge black creature, arms the size of thick tree trunks, tentacles covering its face, twisted black wings jetting out from its curved back, and glowing yellow eyes that pierced the dark room with bone chilling celerity; it was crouched down staring straight at him. He didn't know it, but he was looking into the face of a Darkside.

Jason was having a very good time as he tore through the monsters surrounding him, the All Blades powered up by his own blood. He hadn't had this much fun in... well, who knew when. He didn't often get permission from the Bats to go all out and take down his enemies the way he wanted. Now however, he could fight however he liked. No holding back. As his sword sliced through yet another wave of shadows, darkness trailing behind it like blood, he noticed his visibility dropping. He coughed as dust and smoke from what was probably Tim's explosion reached him. Unfortunately he didn't have his helmet on at the time which would have kept his throat protected. Suddenly he heard the distinctive sound of flesh connecting with flesh and turned to his left, just making out the glowing eyes and pointy ears of Batman.

“We need to get to the door,” the man said roughly between strokes of his enormous fists.

“I know.” Jason spat. “But I saw Sora and-”

He had to stop as a Neoshadow rose from the ground right in front of him taking a cocky swipe at his legs. He simply kicked it out of the way seeing as both swords were preoccupied with enemies at his sides.

“- and Nightwing and Red Robin all over there. So with any luck they can handle their own until we get to them. Where's Robin anyway? I lost track of-”

This time something much bigger cut him off. He was thrown back violently by the force of it crashing down very close to where he and Bats were standing. He felt himself flying through the air and landed heavily against a metal wall. What the hell just happened? His vision was swimming, and he had to blink a few times to clear his head. What had enough force to knock him back like that? The visibility in the room seemed to be much clearer now, and Jason almost wished it wasn't. A huge black arm was drawing back towards that hole in the wall Tim just made. The arm of a huge black Heartless.

Jason sighed and pulled his grapple from his belt. “You got this B? Cause I have something in the Batwing that might help with that.” Batman tossed him an Of-course-I-have-this look, punching another Nobody to the concrete floor. Jason smirked, aimed his grapple and took off, crashing through the window. He landed with a roll and took off running, towards the plane parked a half block away.

Popping the canopy, he jumped into the back seat. Riffling under his usual seat, he pulled out a rocket launcher and four spare rockets. He had used this one to blow up half of the Chinese mafia a couple of years back. Not as fun as Black Mask’s office, but still one hell of a ride. Batman didn’t know he had stashed it here. Ok, he probably knew, but he never bothered removing it, so whatever. Slinging his prize over his shoulder, he barreled back to the warehouse. He launched his grapple through the window he had broken earlier and, angling his body as much as he could, landed right in front of the Heartless blocking the hole in the wall. Hood lined up his sights, aiming right at the monster’s head.

As soon as the rocket left the launcher, Hood grabbed one of his spares, sliding it into ready position. He needn’t have bothered. The rocket hit the Heartless right in the eye, exploding on contact and blowing half of its head off. The creature dissipated. “Huh,” he leaned on his rocket launcher, taking a moment to be underwhelmed by the giant, “that was easier than I expected.”

Sora had been making his gradual way towards the Darkside. Jumping and gliding over the horde had been useless with Beserkers all too willing to knock him back down. So he had gone the ground route, taking Nobodies out one-by-one, Heartless out in groups (what did they expect, standing so close together?). He knew what the Darkside could do and he knew he had to stop it before it could fire dark orbs at his friends or summon more Heartless. He was more than half way there when a dark shape flew right towards the Darkside’s eye.

Another explosion, blowing half of the giant’s face off. Much faster than Sora could have done, the Darkside was defeated, slowly dissolving into darkness. Sora looked over to where the dark shape had come from, to see Hood leaning on a metal cylinder exactly like the one at his apartment.

Shaking his head (he had more important things to worry about right now), he ran for the now-clear hole in the wall, Red Hood, Nightwing and Batman in close pursuit.

The Heartless and Nobodies had finally stopped streaming into the room. From his vantage point above the battlefield, Nightwing was very pleased to see that entire sections of floor had been cleared away. Dropping his escrima stick onto another Nobody’s head, he landed next to Tim.

“Red, Hood managed to get rid of that monster thing. Can you and Robin handle things here while I go in for Xehanort?”

Tim snorted, “These guys are cake once you figure out their patterns. Not only do they never deviate from them, but if you interrupt them, they’ll try to pick up where they left off.” Jabbing the electrical end of his bo staff into another Heartless, he twirled, intercepting a lanky Nobody as it started to curl around his body. “I got this ‘Wing. You help Hood, Sora and Batman.”

Using a Nobody built like Superman as a ladder, Nightwing launched himself into the air, landing on heads and shoulders as he made his way over to Robin. “Little D, me, Bats and Hood are heading into the next room! You finish up here and join us when you’re done!”

Robin sliced a Nobody with swords in half. The fool things couldn’t even wield a sword properly. “Fine, Grayson. But this is the last time I’m cleaning up your mess!”

Dick smiled. “You got it Robin!” Bouncing off of one last head, he landed right behind Batman and Red Hood. He had a feeling what was coming would need all three of them.