Nazo's Story

Dante

Shortly after Dante asked where the Masters were, they came running out of the building and begin to fight the ever growing swarm of creatures. Master Ren gives them an order to get everyone to safety. Dante watches as they run off, destroying the creatures of darkness as they go in an attempt to save any of the students still running towards the main building. Dante notices Sikes grab his head in pain. "Sikes, you alright?" As if he didn't hear Dante Sikes says they have to go then runs inside. Then the Girl introduces herself to be Azer and he gives a quick smile. "Hello Azer, My name is Dante."

One of the monsters jumps at Dante from the right and he swings his arm, and summons his Keyblade in time to strike it and causes it to fade "Now lets get inside." He notices another monster leap at him from the left and he cause his Keyblade to vanish from his right hand to his left and he takes it out with a swift uppercut and the darkness seeps into the ground. "I don't think were going to win this! The darkness.... I don't know what it's doing but it can't be good for this world!" He thinks out loud to himself more than anyone else as he makes the Keyblade appear in his other hand and destroy another monster as he slowly retreats back into the main building. As he was backing into the building he saw the Masters slowly get surrounded by the dark beings as the black winged man starts to get surrounded by darkness and send a fresh wave of creatures at the Masters.

He keeps fighting any stray creature that comes close to the doors as the last of the students trickle inside and his hand spark with lightning and he fires a spell that hits one creature heading up the steps and tendrils of lightning lash out at other creatures around it. He walks backwards past the threshold and helps the door close. "Do you think the Masters will be okay?" He asks no one in particular. "Of all places..... I thought this place would be safest..." His fingers grasp his necklace absent-mindedly. He leans against the door and takes a deep breath. "Everyone okay?" A few of the other students mumble answers. Dante looks around the room at the faces of the other students and Dante can tell no one knows what to do. He turns towards Sikes. "What should we do?"
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Maverick

Maverick watches as someone he hasn't seen before walks out with a suitcase that transforms into a Machine gun and mow down a large chunk of his heartless. A stray bullet flies towards him and he blocks with the sword in his hand. "Well, that was interesting." He says with a mildly interested look on his face. He also notices the guy that uses a sword run away, saying something about forgetting his sword at home, which causes Maverick to laugh. "How do you get so off guard you forget to bring your own weapon?!" He continues to laugh for a while longer until the guy runs back with his sword in hand and takes out heartless with some skill. From atop the building he took a perch on he notices the girl with long hair run out, guns blazing and hears her talk about how bad things where, as if she was there on time. Even though she was the last one on the field. Maverick sighs and shakes his head, this is what he was up against?

Maverick looks around, trying to find the other guy that was supposed to be around and notices a large Shadow heartless followed by normal sized one and Maverick wonders if that could be the other guy and he cant help but hope there is more to him than just being a larger size of the weakest heartless. He turns his attention back at the Alliance members fighting away down below. His swords slowly float around him as he walks to the edge of the building and looks down and he decides that he wants to play with more directly than just throwing heartless their way. "So Alliance members? Is this the kind of action you were looking for? You all seemed so bored with doing nothing, so i thought why not give you a little bit of something to do?" He says loud enough for them to hear, with a smirk on his face. "Besides, we wouldn't want you getting too comfortable would we? Oh no, that would make things too easy. Although by the looks of your skills, things are going to be easy anyway!" He extends his arm and the two floating swords point at the group. "Lets just see how easy things are going to be." The swords are engulfed in dark blue flame and are launched at the ground on either side of the alliance members group and a wave of flame flows outwards from the swords.

Derran saw Azoth made it to safety and he hoped the same for Rania but before he could check the Shadows surrounded him. Derran growled in frustration but before he could attack he heard a new voice.

"That's a nice lookin' sword you got there buddy, I'll make sure to take good care of it after your gone,"

Derran could see what he thought was another Shadow but it was different from the others and disturbing still, it spoke... Before Derran could react the Shadows attacked and without any openings to dodge Derran had only one shot. Quickly he placed his palm upon the street and muttered some words and a dome of ice encased Derran protecting him from the all-out assault. While this prevented him from being slashed to pieces the ice dome won't protect him forever as he already noticed some cracks from their initial impact. Derran could see the Shadows trying to chip away at his dome, he had to come up with a plan quick. While thinking he called out to the Heartless that spoke.

"Listen here you freak of a Heartless!" "Lineage is not for your grubby little claws!" "But if you like it that much, then I will be more than happy to run it through you!" Derran spoke acting tough. In times of great distress Derran talks like a tough guy to avoid cracking under pressure. For some reason speaking as if your not worried some what helps him not feel so much that way. Perhaps he tricks himself into being confident but some how that might not be the reason. Still no matter how well he pulls of the tough guy routine, it doesn't solve the problem at hand. Eventually this dome will break and these Shadows will kill him.

Derran looked around and decided the best method of action was to use this dome for more the protection. Derran lunged forward breaking the ice in front of him, catching some of the Shadows of guard he quickly slashed bisecting the two Shadows in front of him. Derran slid as he pivoted and turned before the other Shadows. They were separated because of the dome making it more easier to pick some of them off. He charged then leaped towards another Shadow on the left side of the dome and quickly slashed down. It destroyed the Heartless as another lunged at him. Derran dodged the Shadow and made a large swing, bisecting the Heartless. He then soon maneuvered around the battlefield and made a tactical withdraw to a more favorable spot to finish off the remaining Heartless sent to kill him.

Maverick

Maverick watches as the Alliance members dodge his attack with a smile on his face. "Good, now that you're a little more separated it will be more interesting." He says as he makes a motion with his hand, causing his swords to come to him and resume floating around him. "Yes, you have kept this little bastion safe for years, but guess what? Nothing has happened such as this in recent years, it has been peaceful up till now right? You saying you kept this place safe means nothing because there hasn't been anything to protect from. Don't delude yourself!" He notices the one guy with the transforming weapon has jumped on top of a small building out of the corner of his eye and he also notices that his weapon has changed into a gun. "Well, your weapon is interesting." He says before he hears the man yell "Railgun MK. III" and fires a single shoot which he could tell was infused with lightning. With a smirk he infuses his hand that is wrapped in red bandages with darkness and he catches the bullet, the darkness protecting his hand from any damage. "See, you would have got me, if you didn't scream out your attack like that." He drops the bullet from his hand.

"Now as for who i am, my name is Maverick and this is only the beginning." He says as the large heartless confronts the Alliance member with the large sword and hears it speak. "You must be the other member, i was wondering what you looked like and what your powers were. I hope that isn't your only form." He says to his fellow member. Maverick raises an eyebrow when he sees the Alliance member encase himself in ice and watch as it begins to crack due to the onslaught from the heartless. He smiles as Nazo provokes the alliance member and he turns back towards the one with the transforming gun. "Im most interested in fighting you, i don't know how you fight yet." He says as his blades begin to spin faster and faster. When the blades are spinning fast enough to cause enough wind to ruffle his hair he throws one of them at the alliance member and the other one after that.

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Dante

Dante watches the ground continue to be stained by the darkness as more creatures fall, and even more appear. His question was met with silence as he suspected it would, the silence was broken by a monstrous roar coming from outside. "What the hell!?" Dante looks outside and see's that the winged man had his wings extended and floating upward as darkness begins to gather beneath him and an arm is made out of it and from the darkness an even larger version of thee monsters appears. He hears Sikes say something about the Masters falling into a trap and he looks at Sikes with confusion and looks to where he was pointing at. After he realizes he was talking about the darkness released by the monsters he understands and he nods when Sikes asks if the bigger monster will release darkness. "I don't think the world can handle much more darkness!" He says. "If it's destroyed, the world is hurt. If they don't beat it, the world is still hurt...." He turns towards Azer and Sikes. "i don't think this is going to end in a way we want." He says with a depressed look.

Nazo
"Listen here you freak of a Heartless!" "Lineage is not for your grubby little claws!" "But if you like it that much, then I will be more than happy to run it through you!" the man with the large sword said to Nazo. "Oh come now, I'm not a freak, rather I'd use the word 'unique'," Nazo replied to the guy, his eyes flashing again as he emphasized the word 'unique'. "Still, you might be right, hands such as these probably aren't too proper for holding such a sword," that was when Nazo heard Maverick speak to him. "You must be the other member, i was wondering what you looked like and what your powers were. I hope that isn't your only form." Nazo smiled on the inside before speaking back to Maverick, "No, it surely is not," and with those words Nazo started reforming completly soon becoming Invisible, now that Nazo had a mouth he smiled quite wide towards the man with the sword who had retreated. Some flames shot out of Nazo's palm as a sword formed in their place he grabbed its handle and started floating in the air. "Now little man, how about something a bit more of a challenge as those Shadows clearly aren't on par with your level," he said towards his opponent. Gathering some dark energy into his hand he shot it towards the man and then rushed in after it with some quick slashes.
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Azoth
"See, you would have got me, if you didn't scream out your attack like that.""Now as for who i am, my name is Maverick and this is only the beginning.""Im most interested in fighting you, i don't know how you fight yet." Azoth didn't like a single word Maverick spoke. He smirked on the last part of what Maverick said, that meant they were even as besides using fire and swords Azoth didn't know Maverick's actual fighting style. Two spinning sword were thrown at Azoth. He jumped to the side dodging one of the swords, Azoth's feet landing onto the wall of a building as he jumped off of it dodging the other blade, he quickly shot in succesion five bullets at Maverick, two aimed for his heart, one for his head, one for his stomach and the last for a knee before he landed on solid ground rather than onto another rooftop.

Maverick

Maverick Hears Nazo confirm that he has more than one form and watched as the large heartless began changing shape, turning into a more powerful heartless. "Impressive." Maverick says and turns back towards his opponent in time to see that he has dodged his attack and is now on the ground below him and is about to fire at him. Maverick jumps high into the air, flipping backwards as the bullets fly by beneath him and he lands on a different roof top. "Guns are predictable, don't you think?" He says as he stretches out his arm and his swords return to him. "Now." He says as his arm and swords are engulfed in darkness. "Try and dodge this!" He brings his hand back and before he can finish the move a small black orb appears in front of him and he knew what was coming. "Oh man, already? I was hoping for a little more time to see if this guy had a weakness." He says right before a voice with a slight echo emanates from the orb. Phase One is complete. You can stop playing with the maggots now. Return here for the next Phase. Maverick sighs and the darkness engulfing his hand and swords fades and a Corridor of Darkness appears behind him. "That guy works fast, if he wiped out the so called 'Protectors of the light' the best of the best already, then you guys have very little hope. If only we didn't have to hold back, this world would have fallen as well." He slowly backs into the Corridor. "I think i'll leave you with a gift." He motions with his hand a numerous Shadows and Knight Heartless suddenly jump out of the Darkness as Maverick fades into it and the Corridor vanishes as he makes his way to Xero through the darkness

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Dante

Dante watches as the wave of darkness washes over the court yard and he hears Sikes yell and watches as a wall of magic is constructed in the door and blocks the oncoming wave of darkness. Dante notices Sikes flinch as he feels the pressure of the darkness on his shield and he hears Azer say they have to prepare for whats to come. Dante looks at Sikes. "Sikes...... I don't think there is anything we can do, all you're doing is just.....delaying the inevitable." Dante says and he looks at the Keyblade in his hand. "The Masters..... We need to find a way to leave. I think that's the only thing we can do." He says with sorrow as he fumbles with his necklace. Never before has Dante felt so helpless, weak and lost.

Derran was relived to find Rania was fine, even though he could do without the ordering. Still her efforts helped clear him off the rest of the Heartless attacking him. "Yeah, let's go find Azoth and hey, thanks." Derran called out to her as he was about to follow her. Before Derran could get to far he heard that talking Heartless speak again. "Oh come now, I'm not a freak, rather I'd use the word 'unique'," Nazo replied to the guy, his eyes flashing again as he emphasized the word 'unique'. "Still, you might be right, hands such as these probably aren't too proper for holding such a sword,"

Derran wasn't sure what he was rambling about until he saw it assume a new form. It was much less smaller but no less dangerous. Derran had never heard of a Heartless that can make itself look like an entirely different breed of Heartless. Just what is this freak. Derran noticed it speaking to their other enemy. Why didn't it surprise him that they were of course working together? Before Derran could speak it said something again. "Now little man, how about something a bit more of a challenge as those Shadows clearly aren't on par with your level,"

"Crap!" "No time to dodge!" Derran thought to himself as he gritted his teeth. The orb of darkness was shot fast and he was still dumbfounded when the large heartless became an entirely different one. "What kind of Heartless is he!?" Derran thought as the orb was inches from him. "I hope I can block it!" Derran became worried as he placed Lineage on it's broad side as he placed it between him and the orb. The orb collided with Lineage and the force knocked him back. The orb didn't damage him thankfully as he did a handstand and landed on his feet. Just as he narrowly avoided that threat in comes the shapeshifting Heartless with a series of wild strikes. "Ah son of -!" Derran nearly blurted as he side-stepped Nazo but he couldn't avoid all of those blows. While Derran managed to avoid the brunt of the Heartless attacks one of his swings did cut Derran right on his left shoulder. "GAH!" Derran cried in pain as he quickly leapt back away from his attacker.

Derran knelt down and placed his sword over his injured shoulder. He could feel his own blood running down to his hand. "What the hell is this guy!?" "I could barely keep up with him!" Derran began to curse under his breath. "No way!" "No way I will be done in by a lousy Heartless!" Derran shouted as he stood. "It's a good thing I taught myself how to wield Lineage with only one hand otherwise...I'd be done for." Derran thought to himself as he shot a glare at Nazo, filled with rage. "Well come on then!" "Is that your best shot!?" Derran blatantly challenging the Heartless. "I can still fight!" "Just because you injured my shoulder doesn't mean I can't kill you with just one arm." Derran spoke threateningly even, as if the last word was a promise.

Derran furrowed his eyebrows at the being called Nazo and gave him such a glare. Nazo. If only looks could kill. Derran watched Nazo disappear into darkness followed by his sword-flinging associate. But before Maverick disappeared he said something. "That guy works fast, if he wiped out the so called 'Protectors of the light' the best of the best already, then you guys have very little hope. If only we didn't have to hold back, this world would have fallen as well." He slowly backs into the Corridor. "I think i'll leave you with a gift."

Derran bared his teeth together and began to stare Maverick down as well. Talking about adding insult to injury. Judging by what he was saying he seemed to be talking about the Key Wielders. This was further confirmed by Rania's nervous breakdown. Then she spoke of Dante. Dante. Derran thought a moment about Dante. He remembers Dante from his childhood. He, Rania, and himself used to do a lot together when they were younger. We used to be the best of friends, we would do everything together. Not to mention we would always argue who's family was better, was it the Leonharts, the Strifes, or the Leradines. That same old argument, found it's way in our conversations at least everyday. Then we would say we will prove whose better by doing the most missions, or fighting the most evil when we joined the Alliance when we're older. All of that almost seemed like a life time ago. When Derran heard Dante was going to become a Key Wielder....

Derran stomped his foot on the ground when he remembered the day Dante left them. He knew Dante leaving hit Rania harder than himself, he is really special to her. They were inseparable and now he had to leave to go train. Derran couldn't help but feel angry towards Dante. He would never mention it in front of Rania, considering how dear he is too her, but he always hated him for becoming a Key Wielder. Maybe it wasn't so much hate as it was anger, leaving them like that, he knows Rania is proud of him but...it still hurt her... As for him...he just felt betrayed for some reason. Now however, hearing what they spoke of...if it was true....now Derran felt guilty. The last day Dante was here he didn't come to see him off, he didn't say goodbye or anything. In fact he didn't really much talk to him when he heard Dante was to be a Key Wielder. He always avoided him and gave him these hurtful looks. Back then...he wanted to be a Key Wielder.

Now however, he could care less...and that only served to resent the Key Wielders even more. They took his best friend away and they reduced The Alliance to mere sidekicks for them! Always thinking about them made him sick to his stomach. Now though....now he wished he gave Dante some of his time before he left and now he was upset with him up to his death. What kind of friend could he call himself now? Derran sighed. Rania must be filling worse...those two were a lot more closer than he ever was. Derran furrowed his eyebrows once again and looked up to see Shadows and Knights preparing to strike. Despite his injury he fought off the Heartless with his good arm, combined with the formidable skills of Rania and Azoth they finished them off.

After the fight Derran felt weak...he was losing to much blood from the gash in his shoulder left by Nazo. He was thankful they did leave when they did, any longer and Derran wouldn't have made it. Derran looked over to Azoth. He was surprised by his abilities, he was a lot more tougher than he looked. Never judge a book by it's cover they say. He noticed Rania ran off, obviously devastated by the news Maverick told them. Derran then looked to see Azoth fall asleep. It seemed it was over for now and good think too, he felt his head was becoming light and his vision a little fuzzy. He has to leave and dress his wound. Before he did Rania came back giving them orders once again. Yet this time she spoke without her usual confidence. Derran looked around to see the fires were being managed with but the buildings surprisingly didn't look half bad. Sure they were burnt but nothing but surface damage it would seem. Obviously they're goal wasn't to destroy Radiant Garden, no this was the warning shot, next time they will shoot to kill.

This made Derran even more upset. They just toyed with them, calling them weak and useless without the Key Wielders. Damn that Maverick. Derran muttered to himself. Nazo and Maverick, their voice and appearance etched into Derran's mind. They will appear again and next time they have to be ready. With they way they are despite how skilled they are, won't be able to take them down. It was clear to Derran that they are not strong enough to beat them and they weren't even trying. Derran looked to Rania and spoke.

"Yeah and the gash in my shoulder doesn't count for damage does it?" Derran cynically spoke. "Get Azoth to do your lousy damage report, he's more than competent enough!" Derran spat obviously he was upset as well. Derran hunched over walked past Rania, a look of discontent apparent on his face. "I'm going home and dressing my wound...I've already lost too much blood." Derran grimly spoke as he looked at trash can and furiously kicked it over. "CRAP!" Derran shouted in frustration then followed by an angry yell. Derran walked from sight as he headed home, events of they day weighed heavily on his mind.

Azoth
Darkness surrounded him before a light suddenly appeared far off in the distance. He wondered what the light was before is disappeared and was replaced by two glowing eyes. The eyes looking familiar some how but he couldn't quite remember, like something that was just out of reach. Suddenly Azoth woke up finding some kind of pillar of light brightening up the world and just managed to get an idea of where it was coming from before it had vanished. With a quick look around he couldn't spot Derran or Rania and wondered if they were the cause of the light which suddenly made him slightly annoyed that they hadn't bothered waking him up for whatever fun they were probably having making giant pillars of light in the sky and with that thought in mind he left to investigate while the dream he'd had was completly forgotten about.

Azoth hadn't exactly been majorly wounded by the enemies but he did realise he had a couple of small cuts here and there from bits of rubble that had gone flying around from Maverick's attacks and at least one from a heartless that had been lucky enough to get in a surprise attack. The cuts were ignored though as Azoth continued running towards the high spot the light had been at. Eventually he managed to make it to the location where the light had been and saw two guys sleeping against a wall and a girl searching for something, the direction Azoth had entered from put him behind the girl. Curious as to what the girl was looking for and not at all interested in boring people who only ever sleep Azoth walked up to the girl, "Hiya," Azoth said when he'd gotten close enough to talk from normal distance so he didn't need to yell at all, "What cha doin'?" he asked her.
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Nazo
Travelling through the darkness Nazo took the form of a Neoshadow and only just realised that he seemed to be missing his red scarf he liked to wear, he suddenly remembered he'd dropped it when he'd been going towards Radiant Gardens and quickly managed to find it easily enough. Nazo put it on before he soon arrived at a large dark chamber where Xero was sitting on a throne and Maverick was already there. "The members of the Alliance are underwhelming, if you didn't tell us to hold back we would have had Radiant Garden and no one to oppose us. Oh well, that might have made it boring." Maverick had just said as Nazo entered. Nazo did agree but also didn't agree with Maverick, yes he wanted to have Radiant Garden but he wanted the world for himself, after removing everyone from it he would have made use of its large space to store some of his stuff. "So Xero, whats the next part of your plan since it seems you've already started it I'd like to know a bit more of what I can look forward to," Nazo said practically ignoring Maverick as he didn't really feel like talking to the guy.

<Sikes>

Then sudden falling down along with Azoth that was carrying him knocked him awake as he ground, sitting up on the ground as he painfully rubs the back of his head that hit the ground. He was still dazed, but was starting to come around.

"W-what happened?" Her muttered out as he looked around, seeing an unfamiliar place around him. The hitting of his head and the passing out from before still having him with a foggy head as looked around all confused.

"What's going on?...Where's the Masters?...Where is everyone?" He continued saying questions as he slightly got onto his feet, trying his best to not tip over. Still a bit wobbly with his legs, he staggers a bit.

<Xero>

"The members of the Alliance are underwhelming, if you didn't tell us to hold back we would have had Radiant Garden and no one to oppose us. Oh well, that might have made it boring."

Xero looked up as the one named Maverick stepped into the hall, with Nazo following into the room not long behind him.

"So Xero, whats the next part of your plan since it seems you've already started it I'd like to know a bit more of what I can look forward to," Nazo asked him as a clever smirk formed on Xero's face.

"Simple really, the pawns have been set into motion. Now all that we need to do, and guide them on their way." He gives off a chuckle as stood from his throne, swinging his arm across as he looks at the two of them.

"Go to the nearby worlds and lay a trail for them to follow from world to world and take some of my new pets this time. The Heartless may be many, but my Shades are the one thing that will guide this plan into completion."