The World that Never Was, Tuesday Evening - The Rescue
The other end of the portal opened onto a high tower with a flat, wide top. There is a foot-high lip around the edge, and a path leading down. All of the tower and the fortress it connects to are the same white-on-grayish white, and the sky above is blackest night, except for a single heart-shaped moon.
"We're here," Naminé said, trembling slightly. "The World that Never Was."
Sokka looked around. "Okay... So... Do we have a convenient floorplan?"
"We're at the furthest spot possible from the castle basement," Naminé explained. "You can't portal directly there unless you're already in the World that Never Was. She's probably guarded well, so I figured this was safer than being close."
Safer. Not safe. None of this world was safe.
"So if this is the world that never was, why is it here? Because if it never was then... okay I think I just broke my brain."
"It's the Fortress belonging to the Organization," Naminé said with a faint smile. "Thirteen powerful Nobodies. Fewer, now, as Sora's taken out many of them."
Like Marluxia and Larxene, which was no small relief to her personally.
"They've nearly made a cult of it. Being what and who they are. So if this is their base, then they should call it the world that never was, as they don't properly exist, either. We're at the Altar of Nought. All of this Fortress is named like that."
"Wow, melodramatic much?" Dojima asked, looking around. "Would it kill them to hire a professional decorator? It's a bit overdone."
"It could use a few million gallons of blue paint," Sokka agreed. "And a few plants. And a few fewer Organizationeers."
"I'm fond of the color scheme, thank you," Naminé smiled. "But the last I won't object to. Hopefully we won't see any."
She took a deep breath. "All of you stay here. I'll open a portal to Kairi. Then we'll find somewhere safe to take her. How's that for a plan?"
"Yes, but you know how to accent with color, Naminé," Dojima teased. "You don't use only white paints. There's a difference between having a theme, and having an obsession."
"But I like the plan. Portal in, portal out, and we can all go to Chilly Boulder afterwards for a job well done."
Clearly, Dojima is an optimist.
"Aside from the lack of butt-kicking, that sounds like a pretty good plan to me, too," Sokka agreed. "And I'm the plan-y type guy."
"Be careful what you wish for," Naminé frowned. "There are enough Dusks creeping around in the shadows, here. You might have a fight on your hands after all."
She held her hand out in front of her, trying to remember when she'd last felt so nervous. It wasn't the plan. It wasn't even returning here, to the last place she'd ever hoped to be again.
It was calmly trying to open a portal, knowing that the other side would lead her to the one person she knew more about than any other, and the one she'd never met.
Kairi.
Some tall, lumbering berserkers were stomping their way up the ramp, claymores set over their shoulders.
Sokka gave a loud battle cry and threw his boomerang at the approaching nasties. It hit the lead berserker directly in the forehead... and bounced off, leaving the nobody dazed but otherwise unharmed.
Sokka blinked at the boomerang where it laid sadly on the ground. "Boomerang, you failed me!"
Jamie slapped his hand against the wall several times as he watch the berserkers move forward. "I don't supppose we know these jokers' weak spot?"
"It's not in the face!" Sokka remarked, after his failed attempt with the boomerang. "Maybe we need a bigger weapon."
Ooooh, that was a good thought. He grabbed the wrist of an attacking berserker and thwacked at its fingers while it pulled him along, until he got it to drop its claymore.
The berserker stared at Sokka, as if confused by this turn of events, and made an attempt to reclaim the claymore.
It failed.
Sokka... managed to lift it, actually, although his arms would hate him later, and swung it around at the berserker that was reaching for it. "Get AWAY! From! The SNOWMONSTER!!!"
The berserker fell over, in a heap, and disappeared.
Sokka might be on to something, here.
Specifically, he was on the spot where the berserker used to be, doing a little victory dance. Luckily for anyone watching, he turned his sights on the next opponent before he'd gotten to the buttwiggle.
"You'd think I'd be used to things like this, after a semester in Fandom," Dojima said, drawing her Walther slowly. "What are those things? Robots?"
"Nobodies," Sokka answered, with the absolute authority of someone who'd just made a lucky guess. "Not the Naminé kind, the mindless monster kind. They're called Dusks."
Okay, so his luck ran out on that last sentence. But still, who knew he'd actually paid attention when Naminé talked?
"Someday, Sokka, you'll make sense before I've had my coffee," she said, smirking at him before clicking off her safety. "Think if we ask nicely, they'll go elsewhere?"
Jamie shrugged and stepped forward. "Hi! We're kind of just walking around here, would you come back later when we're ready to fight something?"
"Hey, don't blame ME," Sokka told her. "This is Naminé's world. And... let's all stand behind Jamie while he gets hit."
In one fluid motion, the berserkers set their claymores against the ground and began smashing their way closer.
That was probably a 'no,' then.
"So I'm guessing you're not interested in a variety of Amway products," Jamie replied as he began to stomp his feet and call up some more dupes.
"Just be warned: Smash all you want. There's always more Madrox."
Dojima took a moment to boggle, having never seen Jamie duplicate before. "Wow, um, okay. Now that's a Craft I've never seen before. You boys do parties?"
Then she was taking aim at the Nobodies' knees, trying to bring them down like Sokka did. "I think I'm going to have nightmares about giant robots for a week."
One berserker was now trying to cut a swath through the piles of Madrox. It was hard to swing a claymore with so many people around, though.
Another was hopping on one leg, since Dojima had shot out its knees.
A third was running from Sokka, who was waving a claymore of his own.
The berserkers were, perhaps, beginning to regret this attack.
The problem with hitting a Madrox?
More Madroxes.
"We're always for hire," Jamie called out to Dojima as they began to monkeypile on one berserker. "Just give us a security deposit and traveling expenses."
"Yes, very good, expenses, yes, if anyone needs me, I'll just be... hiding." Valentine was good at hiding. Nevermind that there wasn't really anywhere to hide.
Master of cowering. He'd figure something out.
Valentine would not have a hard time cowering. All of the berserkers were now toppling over, shot in the knees, smacked by their own claymores, or covered in Madroxes. And all of them were wishing they had decided to patrol Naught's Skyway today instead.
The portal flickered into place, exactly as she knew it would, and Naminé stepped into it tentatively. Not through. She stood inside the portal and looked into the room opening up before her.
A suspended cage, one she knew only too well, and a girl, standing at the front of it, hands on the bars, pleading with an unseen captor. A girl with dark red hair and a bright pink jumper, with shoes to match.
"This way," Naminé said, a thrill racing to her as she held out her hand to ... Kairi.
Kairi turned to see ... another of those strange inky-black openings. This time there was a blonde girl standing in it, beckoning to her. She put a hand in front of herself, protectively, but there was something strikingly familiar about her.
"Who -- who are you?"
Pluto jumped towards the portal happily. Hello! Hello! He wagged his tail.
It had to be Pluto, Naminé realized; she'd seen him enough in Sora's mind. So Kairi hadn't been alone, here. That was good.
She resisted the urge to lean over and scritch behind Pluto's ears. Unfortunately, they didn't have time.
"Believe in yourself," she said, smiling. "Come on, hurry!"
Her hand didn't waver. Kairi. It was really her.
Believe in herself? Kairi didn't understand.
Maybe she didn't need to. She trusted this girl, instinctively. And she could hardly be worse than those jerks in the black cloaks. Besides, Pluto seemed to like her, and he'd been right about everyone so far.
Believe in herself. Kairi walked over, carefully, and extended one slim hand to take the paler one Naminé was offering.
Both hands glowed. The ring of light they sent off was bright enough to be seen outside the fortress.
Naminé's heart was pounding, and she was still reeling from that flash. That was ... they had ...
No time for that. She stepped backward, out of the portal and back to the Altar of Naught, now blessedly free from Berserkers. She would have to thank them. If she could. Later.
"Kairi," she said, pulling the other girl along. Partly as an introduction, and partly to hear it out loud. It was really her.
"How did you know that?" Kairi stepped out, self-consciously adjusting her dress with the hand that wasn't still clasped with the blonde girl's. She looked around, confused. "I know you, don't I?"
Like a sister I've never met. How is that even possible?
She looked around at the figures standing in a circle around them. "What's going on?"
"We're rescuing you," Sokka told her with a smile.
"I can't argue with that," Kairi grinned. She looked around. "Are we still in that creepy castle?"
"We are," Valentine agreed, glancing around for a moment, and then settling his gaze on Naminé.
He shuffled up close to her and frowned faintly.
"Are you alright?" It was a quietly asked question. For her ears, of course.
Naminé was still holding on to Kairi. Breathing. Focusing. Focusing was very important right now.
She shook her head, quickly. No. No time to explain, never any time to explain.
"We need to go," she said. "They'll be back soon."
She let go of Kairi's hand, a strange shudder passing through her as she did. For just a second, the boundaries flickered, and Naminé wasn't entirely solid. And then it was gone.
A split-second later, Pluto barreled through the portal, full speed, and pounced on Jamie, knocking him to the ground.
Pluto stood over Jamie, happily licking his face and barking. Hello!
"Ooof!" Jamie said landing hard on the floor. "What the-? Where the hell did this dog come from?"
"Pluto!" Kairi called, walking over to them with a smile. "It's okay, he's kinda with me. C'mon, boy, be good."
Pluto barked. He was being good. He was making friends, see?
Jamie just stared at the dog sitting on his chest. "Um. Off? Down? Bad Dog? No biscuit?"
"If you're quite finished," Valentine commented, perhaps not nearly as dryly as he normally would, "we really ought to get moving. Quickly."
Because Naminé was very Not Okay at the moment, and the whole situation had begun to unnerve Valentine far too much, and the sooner they got out of here and got all of this over with, the sooner they could leave and get back to their lives in Fandom, Thank You Very Much.
"Talk to him!" Jamie protested as he tried to gently push the mutt off his chest.
Valentine looked between Naminé and the dog. Dog. Naminé. Kairi. Naminé. Right, then.
And then he pointed at the dog, frowning rather deeply for such a very important man.
"You. Off."
Pluto jumped off of Jamie quite happily. Hello! Hello! He should run in a circle! And then skip down the ramp. The ramp! Didn't they want to go down the ramp? It seemed like fun!
"Your dog is a bit of a spaz, isn't he?" Dojima asked, offering Jamie a hand up. "Rescue party one, bad guys zip. I say we try to keep that score, and listen to the artist. Which way is the exit?"
"Well if the dog knows anything, I'd say the ramp," Jamie said giving Dojima a thankful look.
"Hey, I didn't want to be the one suggesting we listen to the dog, okay?" Dojima teased. "I'm not that immune to strange stuff yet. Give me another week or so."
"We follow Pluto," Naminé said, reaching for Kairi's hand. "This way."
Quickly. There wasn't much time left.
"All right, we follow the puppy," Sokka said with a shrug, and headed down after them.
(OOC: preplayed with the phenomenal sarcasm_guy, multi_madrox, dojima_hime, and importantman. NFI, NFB for distance, OOC is love.)