Kingdom Hearts: Keys To The Future - Welcome to Wonderland!

[forkinyoureye]

>Everyone: Get your ass kicked.
>Big Damn Hero: Show up.

[shadowedPhoenix]

==>

"Okay. What's everyone got? Bunch of shadow things just got stuck together - got this big creep coming at me now… yah!"
"I said already. It looks human."
"That's kind of creepy, Raf. Mine - get away, you! Fire! - seems to be using bits of pipe and things as weapons? It - it got me-"
"Marin!" his mother yells, as she overhears. As the creature heads for her, you go to intercept. That's not good. But - oh! A good strike on it… hmm. You've bought her time to reply, anyway. "What did I tell you about being prepared?"
"Mom! Yeah, I've, I've got some stuff, I just need to get a chance… whoa! Hyah!"

As his signal goes quiet, you focus on your target. … Targets, now? Oho. You think you've got this. If you can take out that little one that just reformed - aha, yes!
"I'm on it!" you quickly call back to let everyone know. Break it down. Break it up. Probably not a good idea to knock too many apart at one time, there's no way you'll be able to keep track of them, but it seems like a strategy.

"But what about…"



"This one?"

You grit your teeth as it comes back. The thing's human look is just too disconcerting… you're trying as hard as you can to ignore it, ignore the psychological factor, but it's really not helping.

As it lunges for you, you kick at it out of impulse - not expecting it to really do a lot, but if that's enough to get it on the hop - ah! Maybe you've got to think of this in a different light. So to speak, in this context. Ugh, you'd really like to be able to see where you're putting your feet a bit better.

Low attacks, then. Knock it to the ground. Feels a bit like you're fighting dirty, but once again - it's not human, it's not human! It'd do the same to you, no doubt. And then - whatever those things do. It comes close a couple of times… ugh, owch! But launching low fire spells seems to work, it's not letting it come close enough to get you back, and it's cornered. Taking advantage, you lash at its limbs, and it falls.



Now or never. You yell loud enough the boys are probably hearing it as you stab down into its chest, eyes closing at the last moment.



There's a soft giving beneath your blade. A stirring, a movement.

Opening them, now. Did you just…?

...

Huh.

What's that? And what's that sound?



>Big Damn Hero: Show up…?

Alright. You're getting this. That big one looks like it's getting smaller every time you take another out of it. Go in, hit the big one around until it roars, drops off a little one, take it out, wonder what the heck that rumbling is you can hear…

Wait.

A vehicle crashes through the wall of junk. A cargo sled or something from what you can tell. … But from inside the ship? How? Who could…



But you can see everyone else, now. Marin's peering down at his coder, looking a little alarmed. You can see his opponent, too; when he said it was using weapons, he wasn't kidding. The thing's flailing metal pipes and plates and tubes everywhere. Not surprised if it managed to get a few hits in on him, but it seems like he came out okay.
He backs off, running to you - wait, to mom, she's heading over, too. Rafale, too, is clambering over a bulkhead now she's had the space opened up to get through.

"What the-?"

Marin speaks, a little stunned.

"Master Cid sent it. He's not telling me where he is. But he wants to help us, so he thought he'd break us out…"
Okay, you know Masters have their tricks, but this guy managed to find you here? How? Still, you're not complaining - the three of you share relieved smiles.

What remains, the merged shadow creature, though weakened, the armoured monstrosity. They're closing back in.

But at least now you're together, you can sort them out.

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Also I guess I should officially announce this is pretty much the only and best kingdom hearts fan-anything I've read through, and that's a fairly high standard coming from me.

Is that the only one because it's the best, or the best because it's the only one? In any case, thanks. I guess I just love the whole KH setting and craziness and want to explore what possibilities can come from there without retreading the same old same old. I want to do it all justice.

Even if it is slowly.

And a heads-up; away next week, and what internets I get will likely be via 3DS or cybercafe. I may be able to check in on the thread, but updates as such are unlikely. Hopefully I can get one out before I go, but, well, we know I'm not Speedy McUpdate.

[ah2190]

> Finish it off with a Trinity Limit!

[Superdog]

Pose like a team, then...

> Finish it off with a Trinity Limit!

[Xindaris]

Pose like a team because Heartless just got big, then...

> Finish it off with a Trinity Limit!

There we go. Now I think this command works perfectly. If not though:

Trinity Limit: Actually involve moving around and hitting stuff rather than just making a big flash of arbitrary damage or whatever.

[shadowedPhoenix]

>Trinity Limit!

"I think I've got an idea."
"Yeah?"
"Three of us, right? I heard this trick once. This move. We've got to coordinate together, share power."

The others are giving you a weird look.

"You know I trust you, but..."
"Seriously! It works!"
"Fine. If you say so."

You grab hands in an attempt to feel what magic and power the others have. Focus, focus...

Only for the lot of you to get punted half way across the space you're in.

Rafale gives you a look as you get back to your feet. It's hard to tell whether her expression has more pain in it or laughter - gah, you feel bad about letting that happen, but you were sure it'd work! "Seriously. You are not making the plans again," she groans as you regroup. "How about we coordinate on - that shadow looking one? Pierre and me are pretty quick, you make with some covering fire as we get close, and synchronise attacks on it..."
"Yeah. Then we mop up the dropped ones, even your mom can take out little ones - not that she's going to have to - and we focus on your armoured guy."

Well. It's not quite as spectacular as you planned. But you think it'll work.

Three-on-one. At least the number odds are finally in your favour with that thing.

Together, you charge in, working together, moving smoothly to knock that Heartless to pieces.

This'll have to do for a Trinity attack for now.

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This was ... kind of the reason I didn't have 'em Trinity Limit the first time the command came up. Here we have the problem with having characters around level 5 try moves that you probably want to be more like level 50 for...

[Superdog]

5, 50, same thing. Just less flashy boom bang, but same KILL THE HEARTLESS goal. I thought it was perfectly hilarious!

>Cid: Message group. Ensure their safe exit
>Group: Safely Exit

[Xindaris]

>Finish the splitter guy, only to have the armored one use a humongous attack it charged up while you were busy doing something else. Everyone dodge enough to not die, but still take damage and be on dangerously low health.

[shadowedPhoenix]

"Is it just me, or is that thing starting to look a bit smaller?"
"Huh. Not just you, Raf."

You know? You think you're getting into the rhythm of it all. One, two, three; one of you attacking the main body of the big Heartless, two taking out whatever smaller ones it drops, switching around depending on whether you need distance or power… yeah. You've got this. It's almost an anticlimax when you finally get rid of the last few little creatures that made it up, forming loose dark wisps on the air.

"Score one for teamwork."
"Pierre, you spent the whole time yelling 'I've got it' and getting knocked over!"
"Yeah? Worked, didn't it?"

The tension's broken, though. You laugh together - it's good to have done it. You're aching, but you're alive. Now, what about the other problem-

"You three, look ou-"

It's a little hard to pay much attention to what mom's saying, though; a wave of debris and energy shoots through the air. For a moment, there's not a lot going on, except rushing, hurting -

"Ow."

Rafale's groaning. Pierre's getting up, but it's only a second before he falls right back down, looking a bit embarrassed. As for yourself? The floor seems pretty good a place to be right now. Though isn't there something you should be worried about? Oh. Oh, right. That Heartless. You're meant to be - right, meant to be - owch - fighting the thing.

There's a beep. Really? Cid? Now?

Okay, kids, Suzie. Here's the deal. You're doing good, but I'm getting y'all out of there. My job, and all.
I'll take care of our pal with all the toys.

Take care? How? As you manage to shake your head into gear, you see the creature starting to move again. It'd better not be planning another hit like that…! You ran out of anything to fix anyone up a while ago...

"I think Cid's planning something? He says he's getting us out of here…"
"Yeah. Great. He'd best make it quick," Pierre comments as he tries to fend off a flurry of blows.

Before it can do any worse, though, the sled starts moving again; it ploughs through a wall, sunlight starting to stream in.

You read the next post out loud as it hits your screen.

"Just - run!"

You keep the rest of the message to yourself, though, as you belt towards the opening.

Got to say sorry, though, scout. I don't know if I'll be meeting you face to face again for a while. Wish this didn't have to be this way, when I want to help you most… but I didn't have any choice in what's happened.

I'll keep an eye out for you, though. Got a little present for y'all, too, but that'll have to wait until we've got time to talk.

As you make it into the fresh air, the bulkhead collapses behind you - looks like you came out of the ship on the far side from where you came in. A blast of darkness shoots up through the wreckage, and disperses in the air.

You're drained. You're about to fall over. Mom's leaning on your shoulder; Pierre's wandering around looking like he's forgotten how to put one foot in front of the other, Rafale's bent over and gasping for air.

But you've made it.

That's enough for now.

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Arglefargleblargle delayed again. Thanks a freaking lot, jetlag and stuck-at-gloomy-airportlag and general feeling like crud after work. But no more interruptions on the cards in the near future. In fact, I'm expecting to have a lot more time on my hands in a few weeks... let's hope I can make it there without flipping out.

Illustrated updates to return soon. I just needed, once more, to get rolling again - fight scenes really are my weakness, I think. Which in something like KH ... kinda sucks.

[Xindaris]

Hm. The good news about writing (and drawing as well I assume, though I'm not a good artist at all) your weaknesses is you get some practice so you don't have as much trouble doing it the next time you need to. At least, that's my experience: As a writer, I'm good at action and decent at conversation, but fall a little short on things like introspection, properly-placed exposition, and romance...and in my own adventures find myself having to do those precise things I'm inexperienced at sometimes. Then I find it gets a little easier and better each time I have to do that. Anyway.

>For goodness's sake let this be the last giant heartless they have to fight today. Maybe some normal authorities can be all friendly and help them get to a place of rest for a little while.

[Superdog]

Definitely time for a break. Let's get some ice cream to celebrate not dying today! That job can wait until tomorrow.

[shadowedPhoenix]

There's a police officer rushing towards you, disbelief on her face, as you leave the wreckage. It takes a while for the four of you to get your explanations out, Pierre not helping much as he waves an injured arm in the air - seriously, how hasn't he noticed that? you think - and stumbles through a chopped up version of events. You eventually have to cut in just to have anything make sense. Including, perhaps, the fact that yes, three of you are keybearers and two of you used to live there.

Reports taken, though, she softens, leading you away from the scene. Sue and Marin give rather sad looks back as they walk away, and you think you can understand why. It must be hard for them.
You give Marin a brief hug as you walk. He looks grateful for it.

"How about we take a break?" you ask. "You look shattered."
"Heh. You don't look much better yourself," he gently digs back.
"And Pierre's arm looks like it's going to fall off."
"What?" He seems genuinely surprised, looking at it. "Uh. Yeah. I could use somewhere to clean up. Any ideas?"

You do, in fact.

That idea is Skoopo's Place, a cozy little ice cream parlour next door to a rather grand hotel. As Sue heads off to get herself and Marin somewhere to stay for the night, and once Pierre's picked himself up a travel pack of healing gear from a nearby store and sorted himself out, the three of you fall into a booth.



Biggest sundaes on the menu. Seriously, right now, you think you all deserve it.
"So … what now? If that answer involves more giant monsters and less ice cream, though, I don't know if I want to hear it yet."
"… Good question."
"I'm not sure. But we can talk about it when we've finished, right?"

You raise the glass, heavy as it is, with a smile. "To beating the Heartless!"
"Hear, hear."
"To beating the Heartless."

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Back to cute 'n fun times. Back to breathing space. Back to illustrations? I hope so. Although I did draw one panel, thought that it'd be bad pacing to bring it in so soon, and had to not use it. Ah well.

[Krotar]

(New reader, howdie doodie!)
>Group: Save Game? Also, have some small talk while you can. It seems like the three of your are going to be a team. It'd be nice to know more about each other, right?

[Viimesen_Kerran]

>Rafale: reiterate mission-the stolen key business-for Marin's sake, pretend Pierre hasn't already forgotten it.

[Superdog]

>Rafale: reiterate mission-the stolen key business-for Marin's sake, pretend Pierre hasn't already forgotten it.

I was basically right about to re-state this anyway, so seconded. After the ice cream has been devoured, of course.

[shadowedPhoenix]

This is such a change of pace.

One minute, you're fighting for your life. The next, sitting down, talking as if you were just a bunch of normal teens. Well, not that Marin was ever normal, you catch yourself thinking with a chuckle - he gives you a quizzical look, and you shrug.

Pierre speaks up.



"So ...you guys. You two know each other. But I kinda don't know you as well."
"Ah, yeah."
"And what about you?"
"Me? Well, came here from Unseen Highway, lived there all my life, only been offworld a couple of times until this..."
"Huh. Went there once… You guys really like your shinies, don't you?"
"Hey, you visited?"
"I've been everywhere… well, everywhere that isn't some nowhere kind of place?"
"Then what're you doing -" You glare at Pierre before he puts his foot in it. He looks sheepish. "Oh. Right. Ship. Sorry."

The conversation goes on through the bowls of ice cream.
So nice, to be able to relax. You're treasuring this moment. You're suspecting that the boys are, too.

Sooner or later, though, you know you've got to get down to business. And as you scrape the last traces of sauce from the sundae glass, you sigh.

"So… next steps."
"Mm." Marin gives a nod. "I've got to find out just who crashed my home."
"It's … not quite as simple as that."
"Yeah, could we get a recap?" Pierre pauses. "I mean. Marin's going to need the lowdown on the whole thing. That we're doing. Won't he?"
A giggle, and you shake your head. Transparent. So transparent. "Is this why your Master told me to record things?"
"Uh…"
"Alright." You beckon the boys to lean in. "It's a complicated story, but it's a bit like this…"



Quickly as you can, you fill Marin in. The stolen keyblade fragments. The history Master Katya told you. The lot. …Well, Pierre tries to help.

As the story pulls to a close, questions answered, Marin's coder beeps. He gives it a stunned look, and quickly taps a control. A voice message? A gruff, warm tone speaks up - Cid, you guess.

"Are you lot out of your minds?"
"Um."
"You're chasing up on the dark-damned Null Blade? That thing's for real? Heck, kids. I don't know what to say. I'd talk y'all out of it, but if Kate's asked y'all to get involved… Think I need to get you your presents already. Could I have the others' numbers, scout?"

Presents?
In a moment, there's a blip.

"Alright, kids. It's a bit of an experimental system, but ain't no-one better at this stuff, if I say so myself. Used the thing myself and ain't had a problem. I've dropped a little app called unLOCK on your coders. Run it, when you feel like it, take a look. Think about what y'all choose, though, when you do; I ain't sure I can change it when you've set it."
"Um - what is it?"
"Just a bit of help I've been working on. It'll explain itself."

"If you're helping…" Marin swallows.

"Why can't you just be here to help us? You could do this, you could take care of it - we're just apprentices, we're not meant to be going after ancient keys of mythical whatever the heck, we're not meant to be doing anything more than easy missions? Little Heartless outbreaks? But the Wayfinder crashed, we're knee deep in I don't know what stuff, like, stuff Masters are meant to deal with, and it ends up just being us?

Why can't you be here with us?"

Wow. You're pretty sure you've never seen him quite so wound up before. Still… you can't say you blame him for the rant.



He coughs and sits down again.

Hopefully that didn't put anyone off their ice cream.

There's a long sigh. "Kid, I did a bad thing to survive that crash. Broke some rules. Can't really say anything more than that here." A pause. Marin looks down. "Still… You need advice for now, ask me. But can't promise I'll be able to stay in touch if y'all go off world-hopping."
"… You think it'll come to that?"
"Sounds of things? ...Probably already has."

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Hello, new reader! And to the folks who've been following these goings on - wow, we've made it to 100 panels! Well, so say my filenames, anyway. I may be out given all the redos and unused panels I've had. Whee... now to go for the 100 updates! The 100 pages! Thank you all for staying with me through the rough patches.

Wish I'd had something good to do it on. An [S] panel with some Utada in the background. Unfortunately, no such. So we get angry Marin! XD And I have no clue what to do with Flash anyway. I tried it once, made a bouncing ball, walked away...

Maybe that's one for the future.

[Krotar]

>Ask about the Heartless you've encountered and ones you may encounter. How they fight and ways to counter them. Stuff like that.
>Rafale: Ask about the humanoid heartless. Are those things normal, or are they some new breed of Heartless?

[Viimesen_Kerran]

For after the Q&A
> Pierre: run unLOCK and take in the tutorial
>Rafale+Marin: hold off

[forkinyoureye]

>Things: Go wrong

[shadowedPhoenix]

"So." Pierre stretches. "Questions, right?"
"Hang on, before you do-" Marin quickly puts Cid's chat through onto the booth's terminal. A lot less awkward this way than having you all lean over to his coder. "There."
"Sure. Anything you want to know, kid?"
"Yeah. We've been running into Heartless all over the place, right? Big ones. Any tips?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure if there's anything specific I can tell you without a better idea of where y'all plan on going. And that's going to take a li'l more looking into. As for the big guys, though? You were doing good. Just remember your teamwork. If you get split up, don't try and be a hero. Do what you can, but if not, better to run."
"Team moves? The first big one we ran into, me and Rafale managed to pull off this - combo thing, this laser, when we went for it together… I'm not sure what that was. I know we were kind of running out of juice at that point, though." You stifle a snicker at Pierre's description. Still, it's not like you've got a better one.
"…Wish I saw that."
"At a guess? Sounds like a Twin Limit Break." That routine had a name? You're glad to hear it, though, and smile. "That's a good start, especially without practice. See if y'all can set up any more combinations and you'll have a few tricks up your sleeves. But I wouldn't rely on 'em - after all, you don't want to be running on the edge with those guys. Other than that, you get something else like that last 'un, you want to try and find the weak points in the armour. Find the actual darkness to hit. Trying to bash on it ain't going to help. You're going to want to stock up on supplies, too, I'd say. What did we always tell you, scout?"
Marin sounds a little embarrassed as he responds. "I wasn't exactly expecting that, was I?"
"Eh, I'll cut you some slack," Cid replies, warmly, teasing. "You did good. So, kids - anything else?"

You speak up next. "… I've got one."
"Shoot."
"Mine was humanoid. It even had a normal person's clothes on! Well... Is that normal?"
Cid whistles. "Now that's a tricky one. There's stories in a few of the old books about humanoids. Ain't-"
"… What books?" you interrupt, all curiosity, then give an awkward laugh. Don't interrupt the Master. Not good.
He isn't too worried, though, from the sound of his voice. "Cool your jets! I'll send you a link. Ain't sure I quite recall any like that critter you ran into, though. Most of the stories said you could mistake 'em for human in a bad light…"
You pause. "So they're not common?"



"Kid, if you run into another one, get a vid of it. You'll be doing the records a favour. Actually, anything interesting you see, get a snap of it for me, would ya?"
You nod, then realise he can't see it. Voice chat. Right. "Uh. Sure."

"That all? Or want to run anything else by me?"

[Superdog]

See if he knows anything else about the Null Blade.

Also, best to run unLOCK as soon as possible. Never know when another attack may happen...

[Xindaris]

>Play rock-paper-scissors to decide who gets to be the guinea pig pig on unLOCK, trying it first so everyone else can know or at least have some idea of what to expect when they do it, as well as whether or not they should wait till later to do it.
>First two times: Be cycles of each person picking a different one.
>Third time: Someone actually loses and has to try it out.

[shadowedPhoenix]

Hm. So far, so good. Your head full of ...not a lot of good information, you nod along, about to say it's alright, before Rafale speaks up again. "Do you know anything about this key we're meant to be finding?"
Cid chuckles. "Sorry. I ain't a historian. 'Sides, most of the info was wiped. The Null Blade's just a nickname for the thing - could've been anything, really. But one story I heard makes the name kind of appropriate. It's a blade of nothing. There's stories about keyblades of perfect balance, ones of light and dark and all the rest. But this one was supposed to be none of 'em. Solid void."
What's he talking about? "But-"
"…Don't ask me how that works, either. That's all I know, though, kids."
"… Thanks."

"Okay, I'd better log out for the moment. You need me again, you know where to find me. Just drop a line, okay?"
"Right."
"Got it."
"Master, I-"

"You'll be fine, scout. You'll be fine."

Cid's connection closes, and you look between each other. That's that, then.

Something crosses your mind. "So what about this thing he gave us? This unLOCK deal? What's that supposed to be?"
Marin shrugs. "I don't know. He was always working on one thing or another. ...One of us has got to test it, though, right?"
"Mm."
"There's only one fair way to do this." Rafale grins. You're about to worry about what it means, before she goes-



"Rock-paper-scissors."
You let out a breath you didn't know you were holding.

One, two, three. Rafale goes rock, you go paper, Marin scissors.
One, two, three. Scissors for you, paper Rafale, Marin rock. This could get old fast.
One, two-



Ah. You laugh.

"So does that mean I win or double lose?"
"I'm not sure, but you were the only different one, so - I guess you get it?"
"It's okay! I'm up for it - I mean, this should be interesting, right?"

Before you can say anything further, though, you're interrupted.
"Oh, there you three are!"

Marin's mom's just come in. "We're all sorted - I thought you might want your own space, so I got two single rooms for now. It was nearly as cheap. I hope that's alright- we should have somewhere better before long-"
"It's great, mom. Thanks." Marin looks at you - "How about we do this thing up there?"
"Okay, that's actually a good idea." Rafale's laughing a bit at that. Is that a first for him, or something?

A little while later, and you're gathered in Marin's room. "So let's see what this thing is, huh?"



You load the app up via the room terminal, bringing the interface up so that the others can see it clearly.
"Seriously? Text?"
"Master Cid's… more of an engineer. Not an artist type. He used to repair the systems on the Wayfinder for us…"
Right, not time to push the sensitive topic again. "Yeah. Okay."
It takes a second before you notice what it's actually saying.

"… Please code keyblade to use?!" There's a moment of flailing between the three of you. That's a thing you can do? Without wrecking it? Then again, you've technically heard of more complex things, but, well. Keyblades. Not everyday items.

With a swallow, you do so. Heh. It looks kind of cute spinning there on screen.



"...User guide, I guess?"

unLOCK: keyblade skill/form fusion

Use this program to upgrade the potential of your weaponry! Alternate modes and abilities can be accessed from low power levels.

Warning: items used in unLOCK process will be irretrievably combined with keyblade. Decide carefully what will be used.

Between you, you read the details.

"… I get it. It's meant to give us new skills, is it? So if we load it up, we can-"
"Yeah. That's what it sounds like. New powers for the keyblades. New forms for them, too if I'm reading that right? We get our hands on something good, I don't know what, and put it into the system - we get new stuff to play with. Anything we can upload, it looks like?"
"And that could mean anything." You remember the times you and your friends used to hack the restrictions on your home terminals, tripping on into the 'Sphere to hang out- of course, you'd have been in so much trouble if you'd been found out. Coding living beings? Illegal as anything. All kinds of dangerous, too, if you believed the stories. You'd never had any trouble, though, that you recall - maybe you just got lucky. But even on a smaller scale: what would work? Could you get a key-gun mode out of it? A key-shield, how would that work? Or if you shoved something with some magic in there, perhaps it'd even give you - nah, you'll be realistic.

Maybe.

You look at the screen.

"...Looks like we've got a lot of options."

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Another one of those updates that just kept going 'more panels! More!' Plus that hotel room was trickier to draw than I'd expected. So it came out later than I'd hoped. Still, change of scenery...

Fixed a mistake in the last update too, phew. Pierre's Magical See-Through Goggles are now actually coloured in. Woops. Nearly goofed again on Rafale's shirt in panel 3 but caught that one in time...

By the way? Is everyone okay with the 'not explicitly restating commands' format these last few have been in? If not, I'll work them back in.

[Krotar]

I figure the people who got their commands used will recognize it in the update, and that's good enough.

>Group: Remember the basics of CQC. Make KeyGun.
>Player: Save game. You know you're gunna screw this up somehow. Try all the things until you find something useful, then load your game and ONLY do the useful things.

[GG7]

Combine Keyblade with a blade. And then with a Key. I wonder what would result!

but seriously >Combine Keyblade with cool rock you found years ago.

I want his keyblade to stay rock/crystal looking, which is pretty cool.