Kingdom Hearts: Chasing Shadows

Mark is a bit taken aback when he hears a young girl's voice answering, and an older man chastising her. What to do... what to say? he wondered to himself, gazing out of his cockpit canopy to watch the other ship, which his ship was slowly approaching. "I'm... ah.... Mark.... I saw you guys drifting out in space, is something wrong with your ship or something?" he asked tenitavly.

OOC: I'm certian I misspelled something....

 

"Quit complaining," Nox told Xigbar, walking through the dark portal. "We're simply following my Queen's orders. I'm not happy about teaming up with you either." He entered the Pride Lands, inside the Oasis. Nox didn't feel his body change in any way, but he had been changed into a black furred lion cub. He hadn't noticed until he caught his reflection in one of the watering holes. "Well, this is new," Nox commented.
---

"Well, the Pride Lands is a different kind of world than most of you have probably seen," Sora commented. He then heard the voice over the monitor. He made his way over to the microphone, to communicate with whoever was calling them. "Hello? This is Sora; is anybody else there with you? There's noting wrong with our ship, but thanks for asking. We're just trying to find somewhere to land."

 

Xigbar started to laugh insanely as he stared at Nox as a cub. He, himself, hadn't changed at all, "Man you look like some kid! Ahahahaha, you have to be kidding me!" Bending down he pulled at Nox's furry ears and ruffled his fur, "Ah this is some joke! I wonder what the Queen would say if she saw you like this!"

Riku growled and tried to cover Akii's mouth but she squirmed out of his grasp, "Mark! We're going to the Pride Lands! Do you want to go with us?! Pretty pweeeeeasssseeee!"

Marluxia arrogantly walked his way through the entrance gate to Beast's Castle and approached the front door when he stopped, "What is this? An old development...so everything is the same as before. Except...he's no longer a beast...I doubt we can manipulate his heart now. But...he is nothing more than another human with the Princess as his bride." Marluxia sighed and touched his forehead, "What to do...we don't even know who we're looking for here..."

Xenree, Zexion and Larxene crunched across the barren wasteland of the Keyblade Graveyard. Zexion scribbling down notes about the multiples of Keyblades lying around, useless, as Larxene kicked what Keyblades were still standing, "Stupid Keyblade wielders!" Xenree glared at her, "Be careful of what you say, Larxene. Your Queen is a Keyblade wielder." She blushed and ducked her head without a word. Zexion chuckled and buried his nose in his book.

 

Nox was not amused by Xigbar's foolishness. He growled at him, frightened by the thought of Xenree seeing him like this. He then bit into Xigbar's arms, his new fangs piercing through the coat and his skin.

 

Shinji listened to Sora who said it was a world different than others he seen. "Interesting..." He thought before the commuications line was answered and some person named Mark who sounded nervous, perhaps this was this first time talkign to someone else?

"You are one hyperactive girl Akii, You sure you wnat to invite someone we don't know with us? For all we know, he could be working for our enemies or perhaps, he's someone who shouldn't be invovled in our quest." he suggested to her.

 

Mark types a few commands on the control consol of his ship, bringing up the navigation charts and looking for the Pride Lands, "Ah... no, there isn't anyone else with me," he began, while looking at the measly amount of information his computer had on the Pride Lands, some sort of desert world.
I wonder why they are going there, he thought to himself, then listening as the little girl begged him to come with them. "I... ah, could probably help you guys with your 'quest', I don't have anything better to do, and I hear that there has been heartless activity in that section of space, you guys might need a keyblader like myself to help you out of some tough situations," he offered, not realizing that he was speaking to a shipful of keyblade weilders.

 

OOC: Sorry for not posting.

Nikolai examined the surrounding area. It was a large castle, one that rivaled Castle Oblivion in terms of size. "You say the one who owns this castle was once a beast? Then perhaps we should capture him and see if the Queen can turn him back into a beast, one that will serve her and her purpose." Nikolai explained. "It's the only thing I can think of that would be worth our time."

 

Marluxia flicked his hair, causing rose petals to fall around him, "If the Queen didn't order it, I suggest we not bother with it just yet. Let us find her acquaintance first." Pushing on the door proved futile and thus Marluxia was stumped once again. "First...how to get inside."

Xigbar snatched back his arm with a howl of pain, "OW! I see somebody doesn't like to be manhandled...unless the one doing the handling is our beloved Queen." He chuckled and straightened, taking a few steps into the jungle around them. The warmth was almost unbearable for him, but he'd have to make due, as this was their mission and he was determined just like the others to prove he was useful.

Xenree stopped at a lone Keyblade in the middle of nowhere. The ground around it was turning black. Grinning, Xenree grabbed ahold of it's handle, sending dark pulses into it and into the ground. It responded immediately with a single jolt up her arm. "So...this is where you lie. How pitiful. Time to wake up, Vanitas." With that, she yanked the Keyblade out of the ground and darkness spurted upwards into the sky.

Akii smiled innocently at Shinji, "Of course it is. Mark can't be a bad person, he has a Gummi Ship... And hell~lloooo, he's a Keyblade wielder." Riku scoffed, "Yeah...as if we don't have enough of those already. It's not like Sora and I aren't Keyblade Masters."

 

Mark listened to the conversation between Shinji, Aki, and Riku, blinking in suprise, "You... ah.... have Keyblade Masters on-board?" he asked, almost desperatly.
Mark brought Flamma Fatis through a wide, banking turn that brought him within eyesight of the other ship's window. The Red-orange ship cut through the vacuum, gliding to a stand-still just ten meters off the bow of the larger ship. Flamma Fatis was tilted at a 45 degree angle to Sora's ship.
Now that Flamma Fatis was closer, the people aboard Sora's ship would be able to see it with more clarity, a small, nimble craft that looked somewhat like a fighter jet, with a few weapons in symetrical holes along the bow, and missle launchers (lasers) attached to the underside of the wings.

 

Shinji heard Mark's desperate tone of voice before as he kept his arms crossed. "Come to think of it, why are there so many Keyblade wielders now? Is it because of the crisis we're facing?" He asked everyone, he always thought the Keyblade remained to eb just a one-of-a-kind weapon but with these peopel suddenly wielding them, it was like it wasn't that special anymore.

 

"I would have to guess so," said Carrie, as she summoned her keyblade, the Fire Within. "Each of us also has our own reasons for fighting-so I guess that the keyblades will also help us with that-whatever our reasons may be,"

 

"Could be that more chosen wielders have showed up or something." Keel said as he summoned his keyblade, Fortune Striker. He'd never really thought about why he had a keyblade or why there were so many wielders now. Personaly, it didn't really matter to him

 

Mark nodded to himself as he listened to this conversation, staring through the other Gummi ship's window, trying to get a look at the other keyblade weilders. He stretched his arm out, away from himself and summoned hisSleeping Lion keyblade, careful not to damage any of the equipment in his ship's cockpit as he did so. "I don't know why it came to me, I just know that it did, and that I have to do something with it now."

 

Nikolai examined the castle, trying to find a way inside without being seen. There were several windows, but it was impossible to tell weather or not somebody was inside. "It is night here...It is possible that those who own this castle are asleep right now. We could just go through the front door, but we would have to be sure no one is waiting on the other side. What do you think, Marluxia?"

 

Marluxia wandered along the side of the castle, "The front door is barred from the inside... If we break it down, the noise will wake whoever is inside."

Akii squirmed out of Riku's hands and smiled, "You all have Keyblades because of the Dark Queen's existance. Only recently was she created from a Somebody of execptional power and destiny. In fact....if I remember correctly...the coming of the Dark Queen means the awakening of the Eight Princess of Heart. That's what papa told me, right papa?" she looked to Riku and he sighed, "I don't remember saying any of that. But....if there is an eighth Princess of Heart, then...it's our job to protect her." he looked to Sora with absolute seriousness just like before.

Larxene and Zexion were tossed back into a pile of Keyblades and Xenree chuckled, "You are strong. How lovely...Vanitas." Vanitas, a boy wearing a skin tight red and black suit with a black helmet covering his face, relaxed his battle pose and let his Keyblade disappear. "I serve only the strongest."

 

"Sounds to me you know who the other Princresses of Heart are." he trailed off and looked at Sora. "But we shouldn't probably discuss this for now, I believe we were headed to the Pride Lands?" he asked everyone as he waited for their answers.

 

"Sounds like a plan." Keel said.

 

"Better then sitting here doing nothing," said Carrie.

 

Mark sped his ship up, flying over Sora's gummi ship, then comming around to fly off the starboard side, "I hope you guys don't mind me tagging along... but I just have a feeling like this is what I'm supposed to do," he said, releasing Sleeping Lion for the moment. The elegant and deadly silver keyblade dissolved into flames, vanishing into thin air. "I've been waiting for a long time to find out why I was born... something tells me that I'll find out soon enough."

 

Nikolai thought some more. They could use the front door, and the windows were a bad idea. Then it hit him. "Couldn't we use the dark corridors to take us inside? I doubt we would wake anybody doing that." Nikolai suggested.