Org. XIV (story)

"You're too slow," Archer chided, "You need to quit relying on those things you call a Persona and train yourself too."

"Lance, what exacly is the clock tower?" She grabbed her carrying bag and pulled out a book and began to read while they were walking.

"The building with the best view in the city." Lance put his arm across Thalia's shoulders pulling her close, "It's a place that's full of memories for most of us." He explained.

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Nick shrugged, "I'm working on it. I'm still not back to full physical capabilities."

"Oh sounds fun." She drifted back to her book to divert and attention to her.

<You realize that by "Strike" I meant with his sword, right? The following post is written accordingly.>

Dispatch was surprised that the girl would choose to take an upward slash to the stomach, to the point where he was barely able to dodge her counterattack. He sidestepped, but it burned the edge of his shoulder. Not bad...at the very least, she'd lasted longer than her friend. Dispatch ran in, but jumped at the last second and slashed at Naomi's shoulder.

Naomi proceeded to dodge, but she was grazed. She then pulled out her longswords and slashed his legs.

Dispatch landed, and immediately backflipped over Naomi's longswords. Definitely better than Sammy. Dispatch grinned at the thought. He then landed on his feet, his face once again serious, and jumped in with a stab meant to cut her hip.

Naomi then proceeded to jump onto his blade.

<game reference here.>

<Game reference...as if that's not in a million games and movies.>

Dispatch's sword dropped with the added weight of a human girl, and Dispatch used his forward momentum to punch her in the stomach. Hard enough to hurt, not hard enough to penetrate.

<A certain boss from the N64 era>

She hopped back and lunged at him, kicking him in the face.

Dispatch tilted his head to the side and grabbed the kick with his other hand. He refused to allow the same thing to work three times. He spun in a half-circle and tossed Naomi as though she were a frisbee.

"Either way, 'Synthetic body' sounds better than 'SynthBody'. Maybe if you HAD to abbreviate it due to character limitations... lookin' at you, Frionel, and you, Leonhart. Final Fantasy II and its damn character limit. Six letters... bah. I may have a six-letter name, but, uh... meh." Rexial gave up with his attempt to make a point.

"...Well, you should be ashamed. You girlfriend is a more skillful fighter than you. You're giving me the impression that you underestimated Dispatch. Then again, you took one slash and went down, She took a slash and just kept on goin'. Tougher stuff."



"...Yeah, memories..." Aleri drifted out of focus for a second... but quickly snapped back to reality when he realized that he had few conscious memories of the place. He had fought Siks there, and hung out with Lance and Co. the other day, but beyond that... he couldn't actually remember any times. Siks said that Rexial had recruited him there, but he had never regained his memory fully.

"Well, I think the name 'Clock Tower' is pretty self-explanatory. The offical name is 'Station Tower', because it's a clock tower with bells, with the train station built into the base, and raised tracks coming out of it. Sorry to distract you from you book and all, I just thought you oughta know."

"Well it may be self-explanitory but in this world not everthing is what it seems. Don't worry you didnt distract me from the book. Thanks for the explanation." I placed the book back onto my bag. "So Lance what all are we going to do today?"

Lance shrugged, "Maybe hit the beach after this. Depends really." He said as they arrived in the station plaza. Several people left the station and headed their direction.

<Nebula, your chance to have Vita or Hayner and Co. show up if you want.>

"Sounds fun. I could really go for a tan." She smiled and laughed.

"We're the only things that aren't as we appear in this world..." Aleri muttered. "...Aside from the Seven Wonders. And those were all disproven, except the eighth wonder. The one about the girl in the mansion window..." He shut himself up to prevent himself from going into a detailed explanation of the Seven Wonders of Twilight Town. Play Kingdom Hearts II for details.

<Rexial: Did you just plug KHII?
Nebula: I guess I did.
Aleri: It IS a Kingdom Hearts Forum, it's expected that people will know about it, but possible that they don't.
Rexial: Shut up, Al, nobody likes you.
Aleri: i_i ... >:( *Whacks him upside the head with TELOS* You were saying?
Rexial: X_X Point taken. You're not the punching bag you were when you showed up. You still fall down the stairs, though... clutz.>

Aleri looked to the left, having sensed a familiar presense. "Oh, hey!"

Pence had spotted the group, and ran over to them, out of breath. "Ah, uh, what's-your-name... Al!"

Hayner and Olette came rushing in from different entrances, wondering how Pence had gotten there first, being the slowest runner. "Oh, it's you guys. I didn't think you would be back again so soon." Olette said cheerfully.

The leader of their ragtag group didn't have time for pleasantries, though. "Guys, Vita's gone missing!"

Eira pushed herself from behind everyone. "Um. Hi my name is Eira. I just recently joined it's nice to meet all of you. Who is Vita if I may ask." She placed her bags down.

Pence focused on Eira. "Oh, you just started attending their school? What's it like?"

She was spared the trouble of making up an explanation by Hayner interrupting again. "C'mon, no time for that! Vita's a girl who lives around here, we see her from time to time. The guys you're with were here the other day, and she was hanging out with 'em."

"She really took to A-" Olette started, silenced by Hayner again.

"Don't you guys gunderstand that this is a CRISIS!? Somebody has disappeared! There's no time for small talk!" Hayner yelled, smashing his fist into his palm. "So she's missing, and we need to find her. Who knows what happened!?"

"Calm down. You won't come up with any good ideas by going insane over the disappearance. Take the time to come up with what you think might have happened and find the most plausible situation and work your way from there. If you just rush into the situation without thinking we will get no where. So where are some places she likes to go or has anyone been out to get her because of something she may have done?"

Hayner was too busy freaking otu to think, so Olette and Pence picked up the slack. "We don't know her all that well, to be honest." Pence muttered. "We didn't hang out with her nearly as much as we do with each other. In fact, she tends to hang around Seifer, and Hayner steers clear of him. And where he goes, we go."

"She wasn't really the kind of person you could hold a grudge against, though." Olette added. "She may have had the habit of punching people, but she was strangely agreeable. I doubt anybody could really hate her enough to get rid of her... I mean, Seifer and Hayner are the only people in town who would ever, by any stretch, seek revenge, and neither of them hate her at all."

Meanwhile, Aleri was freaking out in his own way: muttering and clutching his head.

"Is... is he alright?!" Pence asked.

"Wait when u mean agreeable. Do u mean she agrees with other people a lot and seifer you said hates hayner so do u think he mitt have tricked her into thinking he had something she may have needed and used that knowing you all would go looking for her? It's a hunch but it is worth a shot to atleast check in on him. Right?"

"Well... people just kinda... agreed with her. She was nice." Pence stated. He really didn't want to admit that he was enjoying this. He liked playing the detective.

Aleri chimed in, his voice dangerously shaky. "Don't say 'was'." He almost looked physically ill.

"Seifer, of course!" Hayner yelled, completely livid. "He took her as a hostage to get revenge on us and that guy who beat him up!"

"Were you even listening to what she said?" Pence asked bluntly.

Aleri regained a little of his composure. Just a little. "J-Just so you kn-know, the guy who-o beat Seifer up-p was Sik-ks, another f...friend of ours... I doubt you're r-right... but we... have to make sure." He almost summoned his keyblade, but stopped himself. He made a dash forthe Sandlot, leaving the others in the dust.

Hayner ran after him, mad as heck.

"Oh no I didn't mean to cause all of this." She gained a saddened expression and followed after them. "Hold up we can't catch up." She placed her hands on her knees and fell to the ground and watched them as they ran away.

Lance and Co. gave chase. Lance thinking ahead sent a mental message to Aleri.

If it's the heartless, leave it to me. I can keep my powers discreet and just look like I'm street fighting. Unless, you're good at fisticuffs?

Maya stayed behind with Eira, "Are you alright? Maya knows she doesn't like being left alone." She smiled a little.

Aleri took a few seconds to respond to Lance.

Rrrrrrgh, I don't get it! The heartless being to blame is the most plausible answer so far, but... Argh! I can't understand why they would target her! WHY!?
...
...
Sorry... I lost it for a sec. Forgive me, I shouldn't be bothered by it so much... Kizu and Maxi disappeared the other day, too, and I didn't bat an eye, but now somebody I've only talked to once goes missing, and I...
...
W...well, to answer your question, I'm not the guy you want for that. Nathan's good with his fists, but I'm not nearly as good. I've been practicing, but I'm not that good. Ridiculous strength'll have to count for something, though, right?