Video Game: Kingdom Hearts SOS: The Road To Light

She looked to Beuce when he offered to take it in her place and shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I have to do it myself." She took a deep breath and collected her thoughts. "You want to help Seiza, and I can respect that, but what if the guardians' wisdom is only good for one use? I just... I have to do it myself." She knew bringing it up was a bad idea, but how else was she supposed to convince him? Everyone had their reasons for wanting to take the exam, but she'd already wasted too much time. This was the last hope she had, and she'd be damned if she didn't try her hardest to take it. "Really, I'm sorry," she said softly. Since they'd arrived, everything had just been a mix of disappointment and regret. She just wanted to be free of it.

 

What if no one was here? wrong place maybe? Is sea salt ice cream really all that great? Was this a dream again? Am I ready for what's to come? Why does the sun set red? Questions after questions flooded through her mind even though some were irevlavent to her current situation. It's hard to say what or who exactly she was hoping to find at the end of this hall but in any case she firmly grasped her over sized key, ready to strike at any time like when trying to hit a down low so one is not to be called out too slow. "Do my ears deceive me or are those voices up ahead?...hmm. To approach with caution, or not to approach with caution, that is the question...which I should be asking inside my head otherwise people will- ah the fudgesicle with what people think of me. I am me and no- Oooo a piece of candy" she bent down only to notice it was mint. "Oh come now...what is this place? The dentist?"

 

"Master Xehanort DIDN'T do this, that's what makes this whole situation even more suspicious."Kross clarified, dragging his fingers over a few physical books, his eyes laid on one sitting at a table, labled 'Mark of Master'. Master Yen Sid had explained to him what the test was about, he'd take it if he felt ready to do so, and even then..would he even be worthy? He sighed and looked back at Ananta, hearing her question and her protest."You guys ending up hurt is the last thing I want"He answered, pulling himself up onto a table and sat, the table not budging an inch under his nimble weight."Can you say for certain that even if we figure thing out together, that we'll win?"He asked her, looking at her with a tiny frown."Can you really say that?"He asked her."This is bigger than all of us, Karina was struck down in one hit by Aux, and she's our strongest. We can't go rushing into this. Even with our magic, I don't think we stand a chance."

 

Beuce let out a heavy sigh. "So, Cat won't give up her spot, I seriously doubt Karina is going to let up on being stubborn and have someone else take her place, Kel probably wants to become a master just as much as the rest of us, and i can't exactly afford to let my chance slip away either. We need some fair way to decide who takes the test..." Beuce said as he put on his thinking cap. Literally, he took out a hat with the word "thinking" written on it and placed it on his head. After a moment, he snapped his fingers, apparently having gotten an idea. Reaching into his pocket seemingly full of random crap they might need (RPG logic op) he pulled out several straws. Some were short, some were long. Gripping them tightly, he held them out.

"Alright. Since we all need to take the mark equally bad, we're going to draw straws. The three with the longest straws get the spots. No complaints about it. Agreed?" He asked, then held out his hand with the straws in it, available for the others to draw them. He looked around at the others. If they didn't agree to this, then there would be conflict, and that wouldn't be helping anyone become a master.

"A simple method, yet very effective. I like it!" Kuma spoke up, apparently approving of the drawing straws method of decision. Now, all that was left was for the others to draw their straws, and see who would be participating in the Mark of Mastery. Who'd get a shot at becoming a master. "Be careful girl, this test is not so easily passed as you seem to think." The giant man said, warning Karina of the test's difficulty.

 

"The words you spit out ate mutual. You currently ate exactly like him towards me. Father like daughter." He ignores the pain and marches out. Before completely leaving, he stops for a moment

"I recommend Base. Karina doesn't have the heart to become one." His tone sounded lifeless. He himself didn't care about the mark of mastery. He knew he was not ready either. Of all the people he has met, only Base and Cat deserved such an honor.

 

During the time spent waiting for the final decision on who would take the mark of mastery, things had gotten pretty interesting. First Beuce had attempted to trade spots with Cat, even saying that he needed all 8 of them. One of them he could guess as to why he would need it, but the other 7 were a complete mystery. Heck two of them would be good enough for Kel. Though his attempts at persuasion were for naught.

Meanwhile whatever had happened between Karina and Eon had only gotten worse as Karina proceeded to back hand the boy, which if not for the current mood of the situation, he'd make a joke off that. More things between the two of them were said, none of which helping anything so he pretty much toned out the few remaining bits of what they were saying.

Finally in an effort Beuce had puled out some straws for them to draw. Considering how bad his luck could be at certains times and how Karina had already taken one, all Kel could do was to take the one he thought was good and hoped that Karina's rash decision had given him a spot.

 

Glen, despite not saying anything about being interested in the Mark of Mastery exams earlier, grabbed one of the straws from Beuce. While the others each had their reasons, his weren't amazingly different from them. If he could beat the Mark of Mastery exam, it'd be proof enough of him being strong enough to take down Vanitas. Sure, he hadn't exactly gotten any stronger since Corona, but that was clearly beginner's luck wasn't it?

"You know, if I don't become a keyblade master, I'm sure going to feel sorry for those that do. I mean, what use is having the title when you aren't the strongest? I could take just about any of you here with one hand behind my back. Except for Cat, that is. I could take her without either of them!" he said, openly insulting Cat. He had seen her combat abilities, and while they were by no means horrible, he was confident as always in his own fighting ability.

 

Ananta sat at a table and looked around the library while Kross looked at the books. If Master Xehanort hadn't done this, then why would Vanitas make such bold moves? Perhaps it's a cover up. Perhaps he's feigning innocence in the whole thing? But who was Ananta to sit here and suspect him of anything. She was a fresh keyblade wielder, she'd only started using it some odd months ago. Maybe even a year, considering they don't keep clocks or calendars around. "If it wasn't Master Xehanort, then who gave Vanitas the idea to go and do such things? Why would he actively search for accomplices? It just doesn't make a lot of sense. What made Vanitas be so evil..." she sighed, turning to see Kross had started to head towards the table she was at. He sat down on it, the table barely moved an inch, and he looked at her with a tiny frown. "Don't know if we'll win, Kross, but we may as well try, right?" she said, frowning a little too. It's not that she meant only a few of them could fight the big bad guys, it's that she meant they would need to all work together to take down the final enemy. "Karina may be strong, but her defense is lacking. She really needs to learn to block attacks sometimes." Ananta said, sighing and crossing her arms. "I know that Kross, but what else can we do but hope and believe at this point?" she said, her eyes resting on the book on the table. "What's this book? 'Mark of Master'? What's that?" she asked.

 

Cat looked at Beuce as he put on his "thinking cap" and pulled out the straws. Kuma seemed pleased with the method, and Karina and Kel took their straws first. She was afraid of failing since this was all a matter of chance, but as she went in to grab her straw, Glen swooped in and took it instead. He promptly tried giving a speech to show off some kind of bravado, but he only ended up coming off as childish. He openly called her out, and she grinned. She was sick of him and his pretentious little self.

"You wanna take the mark? Really?" She didn't move from her spot. "You got drunk in Corona, and even without any booze you just act like a child. If you're just doing this on a whim, what kind of person does that make you?" She felt nothing but contempt for him. He was exactly the kind of person she couldn't stand. He'd only shown some semblance of real resolve once in Corona, and that was when she'd mentioned his daddy issues. She didn't want to take it there now though -- if she did, she'd be no better than him. "Hopping up out of the blue isn't exactly courteous when we've been discussing this. Then again, it's not like anyone ever taught you manners anyway." She left it at that and looked to Beuce's hand. She took a moment to debate and finally grabbed a straw. Even if it wasn't good enough, she'd beg Kuma for a chance. She needed this, not for herself, but... there was no way she'd lose this chance.

 

Getting closer to the room all she could hear them talking about is the mark of mastery exam. "Why does that sound so...familiar ? Is it that one test to define one from other key weilders? " stepping inside shyly, a smiled formed across her face as she saw a group drawing straws. "Heh, guess they use the same method here" she walked quietly across room so she won't disrupt anything and sat on top a pile off boxes where she can get a better view from what's to come. " Guess if I'll ever want to take this test I'll have to watch from the best. "

 

Luna watched as the group argued over which 3 gets to take the Mark of Mastery exam. She heard Beuce speak up suggesting they draw straws to see which 3 gets to take the exam. "I'll partake in this if you guys don't mind." Luna walked over to the group and remembered something as she walked toward the group. "Oh yea! Hey Karina! I know you'e in a bit of a bad mood but do you remember the barrette I gave you to hold onto?" Luna walked over to Karina once she got to the group. "May I have it back? It was a birthday gift from my brother and it's important to me." Luna waited for a response from Karina knowing that she was in no mood to talk to Luna at all.

 

Ever since coming to the Hall of Records, Stratos had kept one ear open to everything that had gone around him, while continually trying to just learn more from this hall. This was a place filled with books as far as the eye could see, so clearly there was probably more knowledge here than he could ever fathom. But hey, something in here had to be useful. After all, the others had already found out about the Elemental Guardians...whatever they were. He also listened to Seiza's whole schpeel about the Mark of Mastery, and how it was needed to find the Guardians. While he was certainly interested in the concept of it, he wasn't going to go participate in one anytime soon. If the last world was any sort of indication, Stratos was far outmatched by just about everyone. It wasn't just Nequa, who had managed to completely and effortlessly knock out the entire group out. It was his other group mates as well. Between Kel's massive strength, Beuce's superior power and tactical prowess, and Ananta just being overall stronger and being the one person to not be knocked out in the fight against Mim, Stratos couldn't help but feel that he wasn't entirely the most useful member of the group. With everyone being just better than him, Stratos felt as though he wasn't deserving of being labeled as "Master" quite yet.

Nevertheless, he wouldn't just give up at that. Stratos had spent a good deal of time reading up on all sorts of things. One of which had to do with the ten stances of a keyblade wielder. While some of them did seem rather impractical to him, Stratos had made a good mental note to keep these in mind for a later date. Then there were the books on magic he had found. Through them he had learned all about the seven tiers of magic. There was the regular spell, than the -ra form of it and finally the -ga form of it. However, after -ga, existed a -za form, said to be twice as powerful as the -ra form. Then there were the three ultimate tiers. The first of which was -gora, which existed to diffuse or nullify an element, to which Stratos remembered Nequa having used Reflegora as an example of it. Then there was -golem, which he remembered both Mizu and Nequa using. Then finally there -gedden. A spell that just encased an entire area in that element. Reading through some examples, he noted that Nequa's mega flare was one such example of -gedden spell. After putting the books down, Stratos resolved that he may be able to become stronger if he were to learn more about these different spells, and just how to use them. Sure the man who practiced one kick ten thousand times was terrifying, but at least the man who knew ten thousand kicks was ready for any situation.

After contemplating whether or not that sounded stupid, he heard Seiza and Merlin talking about some sort of book with its pages scattered across the worlds. He approached Seiza saying, "well, if you need someone to go to other worlds and collect magic pages from them, I'm sure the crew I came here with would be able to lend a helping hand in getting them. After all, helping people is ultimately our number one objective." After he had offered his help for the task, he heard the duck, (whose name he couldn't remember in the slightest,) call out from help from someone. As such he ran over to the creature as fast as possible (with his totally unaltered speed stat.) Drawing out his keyblade, in preparation for the worst, he quickly asked, "what's the problem?"

 

Steel immediately wandered into the labyrinth of bookshelves upon the groups' arrival in the library. He seemingly wandered through the isles endlessly; but in truth he had a pretty good idea of were he was going. After walking for a bit he found what he was looking for. He reached up and grabbed a rather large book off of the shelf. It was old and tattered, with a blue leather binding. "Let's see here..." he muttered as he flipped through the pages. He frowned as he read each topic that wasn't the one he was searching for:
Eye of Newt
SoulCalibur
The Black Cauldron
Jack's Staff
Queen Fyora's Wand
AHA!
He stopped flipping as he found an entry labeled "Soul Note" and began to carefully read over all information that the book contained on the subject, knowing how much it would come in handy later if it existed in this realm, and needing to know what forms of limitations it had. As he finished reading, he heard one of the ducklings shout about trouble. He quickly and carefully placed the book back on it's shelf before running as fast as he could. He arrived at the same time as Stratos (Due to his much greater totally unaltered speed stat). "Dewey. What troublest thou?" He spoke calmly and without much concern. He paused for moment, however, as what he said sunk in... but ultimately shrugged it off seeing as how odd he already was, and awaited the young one's response.

 

Kross stroked his chin, Ananta had a good point, if Vanitas was acting this bold..wait no, Vanitas was exceedingly loyal to Master Xehanort..right?"What made Vanitas so evil was the darkness in his heart."He said in a monotone voice, monologuing what Yen Sid had taught him."Give the darkness no quarter in your heart.."He said, then looked at Ananta. He picked up the book and went over to the table."Mark of Mastery, Master Yen Sid talked a lot about it, and I saw the book in his archives too, apparently it's some test to determine a Keyblade Master. The exam varies but it all comes down to one thing."He laid the book on the table for Ananta to see."Determining the Keyblade Master."He finished before looking up. He heard someone come in, exclaiming about a problem. He froze, a chill going up his spine."Oh no..how did they find us so early?"He said, already knowing with dread of what the panicked duckling was so shaken about. "Ananta!" He turned to her and held out a hand."We gotta get out of here! I know the way, just trust me!"

 

Ananta looked at Kross and listened to what he had to say. A keyblade master? Sounded important. "A master...like Master Xehanort and Master Yen Sid then?" she gasped, looking at the book. If she could become a master, then maybe she could return her world to what it once was. Maybe Crystallis could come back and Ananta could live peacefully for the rest of her life. Staying home and helping her mother and grandmother. What she wouldn't give to go back to the way things used to be. "What I wouldn't give, to go back to living my life the way I lived it once before. I'd trade this keyblade if I could be back on my world and not have a care for anything. I'd love that." she sighed, staring at the book. She closed her eyes for naught but a moment before she heard yelling from behind her. Standing up, she looked to see Dewey was yelling and running about, like his he had seen a horrible event happen. "Something's wrong. I can feel it." Ananta commented, noting how things didn't seem so bright anymore. She looked at Kross, confused by his words. "How? It's pretty easy if one of them...wait..." she stopped speaking, thinking. "What if one of the bad guys is actually a person from this world? Or what if they tortured Mizu...!" she gasped, gritting her teeth and turning to Kross. "Alright, we gotta hurry. We can't let them get away or hurt anyone!" she said, grabbing his hand and running off with him.

 

Kaida had been silent after Hikaru had left. She was trying to let his words sink in, and was unaware, even though she could hear a voice behind her, that she was threatened to be attacked, and when she heard DJ speak, she snapped back to reality, and found herself looking at Vanitas, who was frozen, and DJ, who seemed to have done the freezing, and he asked: "You alright, Kaida?"

Kaida stared for a moment, blinked a couple times before she spoke, "Well I would probably not have been if you didn't stop him so yeah."
"Hehe, 'stop,' get it?"

She let out an annoyed grunt at the pun and she walked a little bit closer to him, still constantly looking towards Vanitas. She kept considering kicking him while he was down, but due to the butt kicking she had earlier, she wasn’t quite sure if that was a good idea.

DJ looked over at Vanitas as well and spoke, "He'll be only out of it for a minute or so, so I've got to fast forward through some stuff with you"
"And what would that be? Should I run over and get the group and Hika- oh no are they going to be alright?!"
“Yue and Lea or heading to the Hall, with Orion joining Kuma at the training grounds, but you've got to listen to what I'm about to say..."

DJ shifted Kaida and himself away from earshot of Vanitas and he whispered, "The world's been locked down... no access through gliders, and the universal clocks have been stopped in place. We're all confined for now."
Kaida’s face appeared to be calm for a moment before she laughed and her face showed clear fear, "Oh... GREAT. That just sounds WONDERFUL. So we've got superhuman here, how many more do we think there are gonna be? And if there's more-" Kaida grabbed DJ’s sleeves and nearly shook him letting out a shout, “HOW ARE WE GETTING OUT OF HERE!?"

DJ forced her to take deep breathes as he spoke, “1 or 2 signatures were detected before the lockdown initiated… I didn't know what it was until I had a thought."
DJ held up two of the belts, one was the Gamma belt Krowley had given to him. Kaida stared in a bit of disbelief before she mumbled, "The belts... the belts aren't affected by this at all?"
“Like I said, the universal belt is rendered useless, but the inner clocks still work! If you and I go back to before the lockdown happened, we can glide out of here and search for answers!"
"That sounds remarkably easy... are we able to take people back in time with us though? What's going to happen to all of the keybladers... the groups that came in? Cat, Glen, Hikaru? Or Seiza? Seiza can't leave after all..." Kaida was clearly showing a lot of worry, feeling like she was committing some sort of betrayal, "I don't know how to feel about abandoning them..."

DJ placed a hand on her shoulder and answered,"... Krowley told me to go through with it. We're the most resourceful in our group. Yue and Lea might be able to escape through darkness, and Merlin through warping, but the transmitters that caused this only allow passage for 1 person. 2 would be pushing it... If there's another route out, it'll reveal itself."
"Krowley knew you'd be leaving with the belt already? How long have you guys known there was an attack happening?"
"Not long, which gives us little time to reflect on it. But know this Kaida... we're only there to leave. We can't change what's already happened. First rule of Time Travel Law.”

Kaida was trying to find out a logical solution to the entire problem, "Can't we leave some sort of warning that this is going to happen? You know... so they could..." She trailed off, getting very quiet, before she pushed DJ’s hand off of her shoulder. "I know the answer you don't have to tell me."
"I know it's hard. Sometimes you have to play out things that make you uncomfortable. But that's a responsibility we're burdened with as a warrior of light. Your friends are resourceful... If there's a way out, they'll find it.”

Kaida used that to justify everything before she nodded,"...Fine... so we're going back and time to a bit before then... then we are leaving... where do we go after that?"
“Disneytown. It's a long whiles away, but it's a place we've always found refuge against weary eyes Find Queen Minnie and tell her the order's in danger... You'll need to do this alone though. I have to find some answers of my own”

Kaida looked over at Vanitas, thinking about how if he wasn’t alone, he had help. She wasn’t trying to figure out if Aux was here, at this point she had almost forgotten about Aux entirely for the situation. She took another deep breath, looked over at DJ and spoke, "Alright then... lets go…"

Kaida grabbed one of the belts DJ offered, and she put it on. She activated it and sent herself back in time, despite still feeling a little bit of regret about leaving her friends behind.