Kingdom Hearts: Recollect

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"W-what?" Kara asked, flustered and caught off guard. She hadn't moved really when the girl had pushed her, but right at that moment she felt very much like she wanted to back away and turn around, to try to avoid this situation. She didn't know the girl, but it clearly wasn't the same both ways. Apparently she'd said she was going to help this girl and the group she'd been with, that certainly sounded like the kind of thing she'd say. Not surprisingly she couldn't remember doing anything like that, and the raven haired girl before her wasn't a familiar face; just how much had Rhia taken from them?

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're talking about. I-I didn't do anything to your heart, and I don't remember anything at all. All I know is someone called Rhia did something with some machine to take away our memories, I'm sorry I don't know more" she said, her voice a little shaky as she responded. Conflict was not something Kara sought out, or enjoyed in any aspect, let alone when there was someone in tears before her and presumably she was to blame. Was she to blame?

 

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Seeing the person, or rather the girl open up the door Chrono was going to ask them a question, but that moment was lost when when the girl ran right at Kara. Kara looked to be just as confused as Chrono was at all this. Random girl is being chased by heartless, they deal with the heartless now said girl is accusing Kara of doing something to her heart. "Okay, so what was it that had happened to your heart?" This seemed like a good idea to ask in order to get an idea on what it was specifically that Kara was being accused of.

 

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The whispering was getting louder, but more coherent. Daeni stuck close to Relli, but when Cerdic came back, she jumped. "Eep!" she exclaimed, tripping on a flashlight and falling down. "W...A...A flashlight?" she said, staring at it from where she fell. She stood up and rubbed her butt. It was sore and now it was dusty from this crypt. Daeni picked up the flashlight and handed it to Relli. "You can carry it since you wanted to come down here anyway." she said.

 

The girl listened to the words and felt angry that they didn't remember, but considering there were holes in her own memory, she couldn't completely blame them. She stood up and took a deep breath and said, "We put out a distress call a little while ago... we have had a bit of a heartless problem, not big as this currently but big, for a while... and your team, L.I.G.H.T., answered it. You guys said you would uncover the source and get rid of the heartless."

She wiped her eyes and said, "A lot of holes are there from that point on, but there's one thing I can't forget. I remember my chest feeling like it was burning, and there was this splintering pain that just kept getting worse, and I watched as... darkness was sucked out of my heart." she sounded just as confused to put those to words as the words themselves sounded confusing. She looked at the group and said, "I don't know anyone by the name of Ria but there was someone walking through the town a few days ago, and they were just surrounded by darkness. They kept a hood up, though, and the heartless seemed to... come to them at their call? I didn't trust them, but at the time I was still really weak and couldn't move."

 

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Chrono listened in to what the girl was telling them with some form of hope that something she told them would start ringing any bells in his memory. Unfortunately that wasn't the case as nothing she said sounded familiar to him at all. They had arrived to find the source for the heartless here and from the description of the hooded guy, that appeared to be a good place to start. In fact, hearing that the heartless were heeding the call of the hooded person, he thought back to their encounter with Ria and how the swarm of heartless did just that against them. Maybe the two were one in the same after all. "Did you see where the hooded figure went?" Assuming that Ria and the hooded person that she saw walked through the village are connected if not the same person, then whenever they went could have some more answers to the various questions that they had.

 

"Give back what you stole."

Relli continued forward into the darkness, the light dim to the point of being unable to see beyond five feet into the crypt, despite the light of the outside pouring in through the door. It was almost as though the darkness was blocking it, making it unable to shine in its depths, repelling it. The whispers were louder than ever in their ears, making them want to cover their ears with their hands, it was so deafening. Vaguely, they can hear noises and voices behind them, meaning the others had followed them in, but they were indiscernible over the din around them. Relli wondered if the others could hear them as loud as they could.

"Give back my balance."

Relli stepped forward until they were standing right in front of the wall of darkness. Looking up and around, there was no way to go but through it, but the prince was reluctant to step though, even with the voices egging them on. They weren't frightened, not really, but it was unsettling. They shook their hair out of their eyes and prepared to step through.

"You thief, give it back!"

A yelp sounded behind them, and Relli whipped around, startled, to find Daeni on the ground. She stood, slowly, and picked up an object on the ground. She looked at it a moment, then handed it to Relli, saying something. They couldn't hear her, not really, but they got the gist, and so, took the flashlight. "Thanks," they replied hoarsely, throat dry and not working well. Behind Daeni, they could see the others had followed them.

"Give back what is mine!"

Relli turned back to the darkness and turned on the flashlight. It didn't help much, but it was better than nothing. So, Relli took a deep breath, and stepped further into the crypt.

 

Cutscene Start

As the flashlight illuminated the crypt, nothing seemed to particularly be disturbed in the crypt. By that meaning, nothing was desecrated and that was highly fortunate. However, at the back of the crypt, a stone seemed to have been moved from the wall, and that stone was on the ground next to a book.

The book was leather bound and had nothing on the front. But on the inside, it was labeled,

"The Journal of Ryce Alber. If found, please return to Ryce Aevum, the new caretaker of this journal."

Looking through the journal, there were many notes that seemed pretty destroyed. But a few were recoverable. There were sections dedicated to the creation of the Extractor, and there were side notes written in a different ink that seemed to annotate and comment on many thoughts in the journal. If one chose to read more of the journal.

But once it was picked up, heartless began to appear outside of the crypt, ready to jump at the group once they left. Except for Chrys of course, who was outside of the crypt (or at least as far as the coordinator is aware):

Only Chrys is aware of the heartless at this moment. He can preemptively strike as well, giving him an immediate double the damage per BP. (meaning, if your max is 20 BP. You can do 40BP's worth of damage. While only writing 20BP's worth of words. Party on!)

Shadows: 10/10 (5 BP)
Giga Shadows: 5/5 (10 BP)
Mega Shadow: 1/1 (50 BP)

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"I-I don't know. Last time I saw them was a few days ago... and the people? I- I don't-" The girl looked over their shoulders and stepped back in fear as a voice said, "Time doesn't necessarily matter to me though. A few days ago? Maybe more like five minutes ago. Though I guess you would assume someone with a handle on time would do better than this."

Before they could turn around, there was a noise of something being summoned out and a noise of pain. As the group turned, Ria was there. Holding Xen up by the face saying, "Not as cautious as you were then. I thought at the very least you'd be the one keeping your keyblade out in case this happened."

Ria looked to the rest of the group and said, "What happened to all that tight-knit unity you had? I mean, I know I just let you guys go, but I'm disappointed you aren't working at least a little faster. Talking to each other maybe?" Ria looked at the group and said, "Maybe this method would actually go slower. But again, the more I lose, the clearer it gets. But I would like to know where our little stragglers are. And I know one way I can."

The darkness began to lift up and swirl around Ria until Xen began to become consumed by it. There was a loud bit of screaming before the darkness subsided and Xen's glasses dropped to the ground and Ria let out a breath of fresh air, "Now that's what I'm talking about. Information. Clear information."

The girl shook and said, "D-did they just kill him?"
"Ding ding ding. A correct answer from the unimportant one. Though I think they could have guessed too..." Ria looked straight at Kara before saying, "Especially our fearless leader here. I always thought you were on top of things. Or is that Chrys' job, doing all the busy work while you take all the leader credit?"

 

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When Alder had started speaking about the Extractor, detailing the purpose of it was not what he'd thought he'd hear from Alder. The fact that it could extract darkness was one thing, and a curious thing at that, but Chrono was more focused on the fact that he'd woken up next to the broken machine. Other than the holes that were still in his memory, he didn't feel any different, still this was something to ask Alder about. Or that's what the original plan was.

Unfortunately Chrono was right in his assumption that the hooded figure that the girl saw and Ria were one in the same for Ria had once again appeared before them. In what appeared to be a flash, Ria had not only gotten past them, but taken hold of Xen. At first there was just a small noise of pain when they all turned around to see, then came the darkness. Darkness and screaming was all that he heard until they both faded and the only thing left of Xen was his glasses.

"Damn you!" Was all that he managed to his. His grip tighten and when his keyblade had appeared in his hand, it tightened further. They had just stood there, helplessly as Xen was killed right before them. The pained screams still echoed within his head as his focus honed in on Ria. The anger inside him was screaming at him, urging him to charge forward and attack like Alder had done. However, he did not. Chrono stood there both on guard and prepared to strike should he need to.

 

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Daeni followed Relli along, watching in front as they finally made their way to the back of the crypt. Luckily, nothing was messed with as far as they could see. Although, they did see the stone on the ground and Cerdic managed to find the journal that probably came out from behind that stone.

Daeni listened to him and nodded. "We should leave, but we need to see what this journal says...if we can even understand it." she said, stepping forward and taking the journal. She then opened it and saw the name Aevum. "Aevum again..." she said. She flipped through it and saw the newer ink written around things before she closed it.

"This book belongs to Aevum. That person who Ria mentioned and Alder seemed to recall. We better find this person and return the journal." Daeni suggested. She tucked the journal in her pocket and turned to the stone. She reached down and strained to lift it before placing it in the hole. She then pushed it back in and wiped her hands. "We gave back the stone at least." she said, sounding triumphant.

 

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Standing by the entrance, Chrys dutifully kept watch on the others. He contemplated the whispers as the others all went about being themselves, whether that be curious and resourceful or… easily frightened. The mysterious flashlight was flipped on, and he found himself itching; just waiting for something to go terribly wrong.


He didn’t have to wait all that much longer.


Before too long, multiple shadows sprang forth from the ground. Some were small… and some were not so small. Gritting his teeth and tightening the grip on his keyblade, Chrys leapt towards the target with a shout.


“Heartless!” His shout echoed throughout the crypt as his weapon ripped through the thick black smoke that seemed to make up the lesser creature, and it vanished with a shocked hiss.His shout should have been more than enough warning for his allies deeper in, so he decided to continue his preemptive strike on the heartless. Hoping to prevent them for traveling much further in, Chrys gathered the necessary magic at the end of his keyblade. Dodging a scratch or two, he cast a Zero Gravity towards the path. Several of the creatures began to float in the air… only for more to begin crawling that way.“Seriously?” He let an exasperated grunt as he ran in and began slashing. He was already extremely annoyed at these enemies, and the fight hadn’t really even begun yet. He hoped that he and the other members of light wouldn’t wind up dealing with this too often; he didn’t know what kind of life they had led before, but they already went through far too much mindless violence in less than twenty four hours…


A bit too much running about too, since he was essentially trying to get as many hits he could on everything that moved. Getting in a preemptive strike was nice and all, but as many enemies as there were, it was also quite a hassle. Especially since he was pretty much doing all of it alone. Where the heck were they?


Planting one last blow into the Mega Shadow and casting a stop spell on the lesser ones surrounding it, Chrys leapt off to find his team.

“What are you all doing?! We are being attacked! You need to be more aware of your surroundings!” He rose a hand to prevent Cerdic from making his inevitable comment. “Except for X because he’s so amazing, and never does anything less than perfectly. He just chose to be nice and wait on the rest of you.” His extremely sarcastic comment was finished with an eye roll, knowing full well that the man would take it at face value as a compliment.

Words: 446
BP Spent: 40
Heartless Defeated: 1 Shadow
Damage Dealt: 1 Point to remaining Shadows
1 Point to all Gigas Shadows
21 Points to Mega Shadow

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Of course, the shadows didn't take kindly to being hit before they had a chance to strike. Even the floating ones weren't particularly fond of a zero gravity attack. The remaining horde decided to close in more towards the crypt, to keep the others sealed inside. While those shadows got closer, the giga shadows decided to surround themselves around Chrys with almost a tactical way of separating him away from the group (since he wasn't in the crypt after all)

The group towards the crypt started to pour on in quickly towards the other four. They didn't get an attack in because of how much they had to move.

The giga shadows kept circling around Chrys quickly until one lunged a slash at his back.

The mega shadow just kind of chilled.

Players
Chrys: 15/25 HP
Cerdic: 25/25 HP
Daeni: 25/25 HP
Marley: 20/20 HP
Relli: 25/25 HP

Heartless (because thanks for the math fam now you get the separate HP for each of them I hope you're happy)

(total shadows left, 9)
Shadow: 4/5
Shadow: 4/5
Shadow: 4/5
Shadow: 4/5
Shadow: 4/5
Shadow: 4/5
Shadow: 4/5
Shadow: 4/5
Shadow: 4/5

(total gigas left, 5)
Gigas Shadow: 9/10
Gigas Shadow: 9/10
Gigas Shadow: 9/10
Gigas Shadow: 9/10
Gigas Shadow: 9/10

Mega Shadow: 29/50

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Ria had a low evil chuckle happen as Alder lunged at them. They didn't even make an effort to dodge. They just let Alder slash at them. And it certainly was not a light hit to take. It hurt a lot and Ria stumbled forward and immediately looked at the group saying, "I told you, the more I lose, the better I get... didn't I?" he looked over at them and said, "I just felt so much release there. Thank you, my friend."

Ria summoned out not a keyblade, but a staff like weapon. And they raised it in the air before curing themselves and turning to the group, "I'm not here to fight you though. I need to find all those missing people and I know where to go. I also need to find my journal. I seem to have misplaced it. I thought I left it in the cave with the extractor. But I think I left it somewhere else before our experiment."

Ria didn't even turn to look at the rest of the group they just finished up saying, "I'm gonna wager you don't remember that though. I wager some of you don't remember anything. Some of you, I don't want to remember anything." they summoned away their staff and as they left, they peered over at Chloe for a second, but a long enough of a second before saying in a different voice, "Or maybe you should all leave while you can." and then Ria disappeared once more into the darkness before Alder could get another hit.

 

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Despite the anger that he was currently feeling when Ria had mentioned something about a journal, Chrono couldn't help but to wonder if the journal that they were referring to was the one that he'd remembered earlier. "Wait, what journal are you talking about?" Ria had already gone by the time he had asked. Damn, now Chrono really wanted to know what the journal was. If it really had information on the extractor, information that Alder may or may not already know, then there could be more answers in it.

 

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Marley had been somewhat silent throughout the trip through the crypt. Not because they were particularly scared or paralyzed by the sight. Quite the opposite. They couldn't help but "oooh" and "aahh" at the haunting sounds continued to grow, becoming more audible as they traveled downward. Eventually they changed from incoherent whispers to something more along the lines of demands. Marely didn't know what they were asking to give back, but wasn't really deterred in their simpleminded expedition of the area. Soon enough the group stumbled across a journal that had been lying on the ground, one that seemed to be related to that weird robed figure they had fought earlier. While Marely was most certainly curious as to what was inside the journal, they hadn't picked it up and wasn't going to pounce on the person for it, especially while inside the crypt where they couldn't read it. With all that said and done, the quartet seemed to have been finished with exploring the area, before they heard Chrys yelling out something.

"Heartless?" Marley's interest seemed to be piqued at the singular word. As though a switch had been flipped inside, they drew their keyblade out, and with a wide grin said, "alllriiiight, let's get to it!" As Cerdic stated he had to go clean up the mess of being damned or something, Marley couldn't help but wave him off and say, "good luck with the cleaning, Mr. Janitor." Of course, they had no intention of letting the man do all of this by himself, heavens no, and after a brief moment of waiting and watching him only really swat at the heartless, Marley followed after him. While the heartless that he had struck were recovering, the heartless he hadn't were still making their way towards the crypt, which forced Marley to break through them before they could get to see whatever was outside.

Of the heartless that Cerdic hadn't swatted, there were five. A perfect amount for the keyblade wielder if they did say so themselves. As the first of the shadows had presented itself to them, it jumped at Marley, claws at the ready, only to be met with a large key. As the blade swung through the shadow, it burst into a puff of darkness. Looking past it, the other four started to encroach near them. Allowing magic to swirl onto the tip of their keyblade, Marley rushed forward, shooting an ice spike before pivoting on their foot and slashing. The blizzard spell had crashed into one of the heartless, killing it, while Marley slash had swept across a wide arc cutting into the other three, be they on ground or in the air. With that over and done with, the path was more clear than before, with some stragglers left behind, but Marely attempted to rush up and out of the crypt. As they did, they yelled back, "come on you two, don't want to miss out on the fun here now do you?"

Word Count: 499
BP Spent: 20

Remaining Heartless:

(total shadows left, 4)
Shadow: 3/5
Shadow: 3/5
Shadow: 3/5
Shadow: 3/5

(total gigas left, 5)
Gigas Shadow: 7/10
Gigas Shadow: 7/10
Gigas Shadow: 7/10
Gigas Shadow: 9/10
Gigas Shadow: 9/10

Mega Shadow: 19/50