I bring tidings of joy and joyfulness! The next chapter has arrived! It was late because I was out of town last weekend, and then I got a respiratory infection which I am still recovering from, but it is here now!
And so we go...
-*31*-
Regular Lawbreakers
It had been two days since the keybearers had been admitted into the Velo- City General HospitalDirst sat upright in his hospital bed, which was set in a position so that he could easily watch the small television screen that was placed in the left corner of the room. Of course, all he had been getting from it was thumb excercise from flipping channels for about an hour. Since he had awoken from a quick nap about, he had just sat in the sterile room and dumbly stared at the television. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of monotony, Alélë entered the room with a clipboard. The nurse glanced at it for a moment, then looked at Dirst with a smile on her face.
"Well, Dirst, it looks like you're ready to leave here. The last check on you shows that you have healed at an abnormal rate, just like your friends in the adjacent rooms. Where exactly are you from?"
"Celestial Convent," Dirst replied, the pangs of nostalgia reverberating inside of him.
"Hmmm... Don't know that world. Well, we brought you some new clothes, and whenever you're ready we'll take you back outside." With that, the nurse quickly walked outside, grabbed the clothes she had mentioned, placed them on a side table, and closed the door as she went out.
Dirst slowly got out of bed, the bruises from the explosion still troubling him somewhat. He stretched his back, then walked over to the table where Alélë had placed the clothes. He took off his hospital gown, then put on the khaki pair of baggy cargo pants. He slipped on the dark grey t-shirt and then a black fleece vest with a zipper running down the front, and slipped on a pair of sneakers that were red with black stripes on the side. Everything fit well. He laced up the shoes, then headed outside the room.
The hallway was just as white and clean as the room was, and several nurses and doctors were going to and from the various rooms. In front of Dirst was a window that ran the length of the hallway, letting in a view of the residential district.
Dirst saw Alélë at the nurse's station at the end of the hallway. He walked down to greet her and called out her name as well. She turned and responded.
"Yes, Dirst?"
"I was wondering where my friends were. Could you point me in their direction?"
"Why of course! They are in the main lobby."
"And that is...
where exactly?"
"First floor. The elevators right here will take you straight down there."
"Great," Dirst said, then added a quick, "thank you." Before Alélë had time to respond, Dirst was in an elevator and heading down to the first floor. The elevator ride was smooth and quick, and when the doors opened Dirst saw Harmony and Nire waiting in front of the main desk. Dirst walked forward to meet them.
"Hi. How are you?"
Harmony shrugged, then smiled. "A little worse for wear, but I'm good enough to go!"
"The doctors rebuffed my shell and replaced all the nerve wires in the suit, so I am better than before," Nire nonchalantly stated.
"Well, that makes three up and ready keybearers," Dirst replied. They each walked out of the hospital, and then onto the street. It was nearing noon when Dirst finally asked.
"So... err... what world
are we on?"
"Velo-City," Harmony and Nire said in unison.
"I'm gonna take a guess: you two used to live on this planet, no?"
Harmony nodded. "My mom was a Congresswoman in the Governing Assembly." She then sighed, the flashback of her mother's body on the couch along with her brother Balian. The dark memory of the aging mercenary... and the albino.
"I too lived here," Nire said. "My parents were doctors at this very hospital. That is, until Helios came. He destroyed the car my parents and I were in. I bear the scars of that incident today, insided this shell."
"I'm sorry about your parents, Nire," Dirst said in a quiet voice. "But that's why were going after him. To avenge all those who have been lost to his evil and make sure that no one else falls prey to it!" By the end of his sentence, Dirst was almost shouting.
"So...," Harmony said, trying to change subject. "Do we have any munny?"
Dirst checked his pockets, trying to see if Alélë had slipped him any cash in the clothes. He found a pouch in one pocket. He opened it up and counted the contents.
"One thousand in here. How about you?"
"Eight hundred stored in a shell compartment," Nire answered.
"The doctor gave me eleven hundred munny, "Harmony replied.
"So that gives us...," Dirst quickly counted it up,"twenty-nine hundred munny. What can we get with that?"
"Food, maybe a room for the night," Harmony speculated. "But we need to find out where Helios is. It shouldn't be
too hard... should it?"
"There's an idea," Nire said. "We should go around town, looking for anything that might lead us to Helios."
"Yeah, but we should stick together," Dirst added. "It may go slower, but I don't know my way around here, and we can't easily communicate with each other."
They all agreed on this proposition, then chose to head towards Market District in downtown Velo-City. Harmony and Nire knew that the Tudor Street Library in that district would perhaps hold a clue.
The walk down to the edge of the Market District was about a half-mile. Along the way, the three kept their eyes out for anything that might hold a clue as to where Helios might be: a poster, billboard, flyer, anything. Nothing came up, so they continued on to the library. When they reached it, it was about two in the afternoon. The three headed into the massive marble structure. Inside was three levels of around fifty shelves, each holding around three hundred different volumes. Each level had a different theme. One was fiction, one non-fiction, and the other reference.
The three first headed to a desk on the first floor, the one for reference books. An elderly man who looked to be in his mid-seventies greeted the keybearers with a smile and a hello.
"What can I do for you? Any topic you wish to search in particular?"
"Yes sir," Harmony answered, who had previous been elected the speaker for the group. "I was wondering if you had anything concerning Helios." Harmony was interested in seeing the man's reaction.
"As in the criminal Helios, or the brand of fluorescent lighting?" The librarian asked.
"The criminal," Harmony added.
"What do you need this for?"
Harmony took a quick look at Dirst, then looked back at the librarian. "In our civics class, we are studying master criminals. The subject we three were given was Helios."
Seemingly satisfied with the lie, the Librarian turned to a flat screen computer and began typing in all sorts of numbers and letters. After about a minute of searching, the Librarian turned back.
"The only references we have on him are in the encyclopedias, which are over to my left. Anything else?"
"No, thank you."
The old man nodded, and the trio of keybearers walked away.
Nire leaned over to Harmony as they headed over to the encyclopedia shelf. "You are a good actor, you know."
Harmony smiled. "I try."
Meanwhile, Dirst had already begun to peruse the volumes on the wall, and it didn't take long before he found one labeled 'H'. He pulled it out of its place and set it down on a table next to the shelf. He pulled up a chair, and Nire and Harmony sat next to him. He quickly began flipping through the volume, watching as the page labels changed from Haa to Haj to Hap to Haz, and finally he landed on Hel, and he slowed his search until finally his eyes found what they had been searching for.
"Helios- Universally Wanted Criminal
Nothing known of early life. First known record of Helios comes when he pops as a congressman in Velo-City. He was a radical, often promoting bills that would harm the people for his own profit. He was eventually kicked out of the Governing Assembly, but his revenged followed when he killed Congresswoman Leia Raiana and her son, Balian Raiana. He was banished from Velo-City, but around a year later he reappeared as the governor of Radiant Garden. He ruled successfully for one month, then turned on the people and led an enormous army of Heartless to terrorize the world. He was stopped by Grand Officer Fury and banished to the Prison of the Void. It has been rumored that he had a personal stronghold on the world of Willow Castle."
"Willow Castle," Dirst murmured. "That's our best bet."
"Yeah. Now, we can just take the gummi... ship..." Harmony remembered the reason they were in the hospital.
"How do we get to Helios?" Nire asked. "We have no gummi ship."
"We could borrow one..." Dirst said.
"STEAL?!" Harmony shouted. Dirst put a finger to his lips, motioning her to silence. She immediately shrunk down, then began again. "Steal?! We can't just steal a gummi ship. We don't know where to get one!"
"They have some at the Potentate's Port," Nire said.
"Where's that?" Dirst said.
"Wait!" Harmony said with force. Dirst and Nire looked at her. "I'm sure that there is another way to get a gummi ship other than theft."
"Unfortunately, we don't have enough money to even by car, much less a gummi shp," Nire said. "So, I'm afraid that stealing a gummi ship is our only chance at getting to this Willow Castle place. Like I said, I know there are some at Potentate's Port. Besides, we have the keyblade-." He was cut off by Harmony.
"And the port police have guns! What could a keyblade do to a gun? Unlock the safety?"
"Harmony, calm down. " Dirst said. "Yes, stealing a gummi ship is not the most risk free of ventures, but its the only way we have to get at Helios. So, are you with us or not?"
Harmony sighed. "Against my better judgement... I guess you're right, and I'm in."
"Good. So, where is this Potentate's Port?"
"About a half-mile past market street. It's a wide stretch of the old racetrack that has been converted into a spaceport. People who have their own gummi ships keep them locked up there. However, we will have to sneak past the port police's security cameras."
"Let's just get over there, and one we know the lay out of the cameras, we'll form a plan, okay?"
Harmony and Nire nodded. With that, Dirst placed the encyclopedia back on the shelf. They headed back out of the library, and the old librarian waved good bye to them. However, they were to rapped up in their own thoughts to respond.
(*) (*) (*)
The wire fence around Potentate's Port loomed forbodingly before the keybearers. The razor wire that adorned the top definitely gave them a little fear about their plan. Nire looked back and forth, then turned to face the other two.
"Well, I don't see any cameras right here. So, this is the gate by which we enter."
"How?" Harmony asked. "It's locked."
"Ah, the power of keyblade,"Dirst said. He summoned up his, Lightside, and then pointed it at the padlock that held the gate closed from intruders. Instantly, a beam of white light shout forth, and the lock clicked open. Harmony pulled it out of the gate, and Nire pushed it open. They were in.
They slowly made their way towards the closest gummi ship they could find. Unfortunately, that was about one hundred yards of open, clear space down the way. No wonder there weren't any cameras. They ducked low, hoping it would help, and jogged towards the nearest gummi ship. It was a black, conical ship that had three sets of grey wings running on it. It was of superb aerodynamic shape, and it would make for a fast get away.
It was a miracle that the three keybearers weren't caught on the open expanse that led to the sleek ship they were going to steal. The three of them eased up to it, and Nire pulled a latch that would open the hatch. It was unlocked, a total surprise to the three. And it was there that their luck ran out.
The alarm from the gummi ship blared out at them. Across the way, one of the port policemen heard the commotion and looked at the three. Without questioning them, he immediately pulled out the pistol at his side and opened fire. A bulled hit the wing right in front of Dirst's face. Without further encouragement, the three hopped in the gummi ship. Another bullet hit the fuselage of the gummi ship. Dirst looked around the cockpit. Thankfully, the console, steering, and propulsion were nearly identical to that of the old gummi ship. He immediately pressed the ignition button , pulled back on the steering wheel, and then pressed his foot down on the green acceleration pad. The ship immediately rose off of the ground and flew upward. The port policeman pulled out his radio, made a dispatch, and then stopped firing.
Dirst looked back for a moment as the guard stopped firing then turned back forward as they began to leave the atmosphere. There was a slight resistance as the ship left, but then they were sailing away. Dirst was content looking forward until he saw several red dots materialize from far away. As they neared, Dirst remembered what they were.
The Heartless Armada...