Fellowship & Fairydust

“Mortem!” Gasping, I summoned my Keyblade, Divine Way it seemed to whisper its name into my mind. As the green stone that attached itself to my weapon caused the chain to rattle a bit, I prepared to face the dark warrior. 

With a scoff, he said, “Chill out. As surprised as I am to see you here, and as rodents no less, I’m not interested in the heart of the princess at the moment.” 

Raising an eyebrow, Kairi then voiced the thought that was in my head. “Then why are you here?”

“Mortem. Do you know these two?” A feminine voice inquired, making me realize that the dark warrior was not alone. Coming in behind him were two mice.

“Unfortunately for the braided girl.” Mortem answered before looking my way. “Now put that thing away before I knock it out of your hands.” 

Before I could think of anything to say the piece of furniture we were under suddenly started to move. Turning my gaze was met with the nostril of one of the alligators trying to get at us. How did that thing realize we were underneath here? Before I could figure it out Mortem just swung his Keyblade and cut the reptile on the nose.

Pulling back in pain made the animal toss over the piece of furniture, exposing us. The two mice that knew Mortem wasted no time running away from them and I was about to follow them. However, I let out a cry when I felt something step on my tail. “Oh, no you don’t.” Mortem said. “You want to live? You fight these things.”
“Are you insane? They’re the size of kaiju!” I protested. 

Of course, the two monsters tried to eat us while we were talking, but both of them hit some sort of crystalline force field that appeared around us. The Barrier Spell. I remember reading about that, and I could see Kairi casting it while Mortem acted like nothing was wrong. “And you’re a Keyblade Bearer. Act like it.” 

“Did you not hear me? They’re as big as kaiju!” 

“The size of the monster is irrelevant. When you hold a Keyblade they should be afraid of you. If you’re too scared to fight, stay out of the way.” With that, he tossed me aside while he turned to face both predators. “You’re with me, Keyblade Princess.” 

 

MORTEM’S POV

What a joke. That girl has a Keyblade and she’s still afraid of fighting foes bigger than herself? I swear, just like with that hot-headed idiot, her Keyblade must’ve chosen poorly. Whatever, I don’t have time for cowards. 

And meanwhile here I was having to work alongside one of my targets, this Keyblade Princess… I had no idea why I was calling her that. The name just popped into my head for some reason. I mean sure, Kairi was a Princess of Heart who can wield a Keyblade, so it’s obvious how I’d come up with Keyblade Princess, and yet I couldn’t shake this feeling that I’ve called someone else that before. Ugh, it didn’t matter right now, as I had two oversized lizards to deal with.

Once the princess dismissed her barrier spell, I opened up with a fusillade of Dark Firaga spells. The two brutes snorted in a mixture of agitation and confusion, so I could only assume they never encountered prey that fought back. Turning to the one that I had fought in the bayou I held up my weapon. “Ready for some more scars, you prehistoric reject?” 

Eyes widening at my words, the one I fought before lunged at me with jaws wide open. It didn’t get close enough before a piece of furniture slammed down on top of its head. While I saw it was a large chair there was only one being at this size who could’ve lifted it. “Impressive, Leroy.” 

“Nothing to it.” The red monster said as we turned to face the other beast. As it snarled at us, Leroy snarled back before leaping upon it. The reptile’s eyes widened as it was picked up with ease by the little guy who laughed as he spun the green beast around before throwing it to the other side of the room. I had to admit, it was quite amusing to see such a little creature lifting a much larger one. For a small beast, he certainly was proving himself useful.

I glanced at the other gator to see Kairi pelting it with spells. The Blizzaga spells she pelted it with seemed to make the animal uncomfortable, and made it take a few steps back. However, that was when I saw a gleam in its eyes. “Look out!” I warned as the animal began to swing its tail at her. Even though the tail managed to make contact the damage was lessened by the Barrier she managed to put up in time, though it was still enough to knock her back against the wall.

As she cried out, something strange happened. In an instant, I didn’t see the princess, but someone else in pain. The person I saw before, but who was she? Not knowing was getting under my skin, and in that instant, I felt my rage flare-up. Not anger in not knowing, but anger at seeing that person in pain. Don’t ask me why, but all I knew was now these leatherheads were going to get it.

My darkness burst out, summoning a bunch of Unversed as my Keyblade converted into its scythe mode. My Unversed proceeded to swarm both gators as I charged the one that attacked Kairi. It tried to snap up the Unversed to little effect, but soon several red cuts appeared all across its snout. Crying out in pain the massive head reared up in an attempt to throw me off, but I only embedded my scythe’s blade into its nose so I wouldn’t be thrown off. Summoning a large surge of dark energy, larger than what I had summoned before, I blasted both reptiles back into an old organ. Metal pipes clanged against the wood as organ pieces went flying all over. 

“What in heaven’s name is going on in here?” I heard the woman, Madame Medusa, return to the area to see the mess it now was. “Brutus! Nero! What have you two been up– aaaaahhhh!” The woman screamed before she scrambled up a smaller chair. “Snoops! There are mice in here! Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!” 

She must’ve seen the others because her lackey came in trying to hit the others with a broom of all things. You had got to be kidding me. Running over to where they were among the wreckage, I returned my Keyblade to its true form and ran up the broom to the man Snoops. For some reason, my gift kicked in, the ability to see the light and darkness in the hearts of others. Needless to say, both had high amounts of darkness in them, but there was something else as well on his hands. Gunpowder? But that means… he shot me down? Oh, he had gone from inconvenience to target of my wrath!

With a snarl, I transformed my weapon into its bazooka mode, and blasted the fat man with a surge of darkness. With a cry of pain, the man held his burnt face while he fell backward into the woman who he served. Narrowing my eyes at both of them, I poured all the darkness I could into my bazooka and prepared to end them. 

Right before I could pull the trigger something hit me from the side and knocked me to where the princess had reunited with those who couldn’t be bothered to fight the walking handbags before. Growling curses under my breath I turned to see a human-sized Heartless standing between me and my prey. It had a resemblance to a Pirate, but instead of a sword it carried a pickaxe, and it had a warped parrot head instead. A few loose blades did protrude from its arms like fractured bones piercing the skin. “Are you freaking kidding me?!” 

“What kind of Heartless is that?” Clair asked the princess who stood ready to face it.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before.” That was the answer she gave. 

“Crookedtoo,” I said, not knowing how the name came into my head. Must be the connection to the darkness. “And it’s going down.” 

With a roar, the Heartless swung its weapon at us, but I simply leaped over it. Pointing my weapon at the beak, I blasted it with more darkness. However, that didn’t seem to affect the Heartless one bit. Eyes widening, I moved to attack it with my Keyblade only for it to raise its arm at me. Before I could react it fired some of the blades in its arms at me, and I cried out as they cut me while the force of their movement forced me off the pickaxe.

“Mortem!” Bianca called out to me. “Be careful!”

“Gee, thanks!” I snapped as I leaped up to attack it again, but before I could launch an attack the gigantic abomination hit me with the pickaxe, sending me flying against the wall. I growled as I stood up, doing my best to ignore the pain. My anger grew as I gathered my darkness into my Keyblade. I pointed it at the large Heartless and fired a beam of darkness which hit it square in the chest. 

As it clutched its chest in pain I smirked upon feeling the satisfaction of hurting it, but I let my guard down and it almost cost me. With a squawk the Heartless spun around like a twister, swinging its pickaxe the whole time. Rolling over, Leroy grabbed the pickaxe before it could hit me and managed to throw it back into the wall where Medusa and Snoops had been not too long ago. Now I was starting to appreciate having the little guy on my side. 

Changing my Keyblade back into its scythe mode I ran forward and leaped upon the pickaxe. Charging forward along the wooden shaft I swung my weapon at the head of the Heartless. Shrieking in pain it did its best to throw me off by shaking its head, but I stabbed my blade into its temple in determination to end its existence. And I felt a strange sense of pleasure in making it hurt.

Then there was an explosion and silence.

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