NemesisSP

More of a concept sketch, but something I felt like sharing.

Very nice sketch regardless of the lack of a Lux image.

Very nicely done. The drums are quite good.

Chapter 2: Dive Into The Heart Traverse Town was quiet at the moment, with hardly anyone outside of their residences. And if they came out, they’d hurry with what they were doing so they could return home. It had been that way ever since Iris had gotten here so many months ago. She and her team had been sent her as part of an extended field training. To get used to the possibility that they would have to be in any one world for any length at a time. It was a time that was soon to be coming to an end, Iris knew. It was almost time to move on to a new world, their first world where they’d be sent on their own. Without instructors to guide them, as a test to see if they could handle it. If they could, it would open up a variety of possibilities for them. Places that were far more interesting than Traverse Town. Iris opened the door to the apartment that she and her squad were living in. She went over to the first room on the right and knocked. “Alright, I just finished surveying the First and Second Districts. How’s coming along here. “Excellent. Just working on a report.” A teenage boy’s voice answered. “The doors unlocked if you want to check.” “I think I’ll pass, Hope.” Iris said as she walked away, but stopped briefly. “You already make food?” “No, I just had Irvine go out to get some pizza.” Hope replied, the door opening as he does. He was a silver haired boy of about fourteen. He was wearing an orange and yellow jacket, with black gloves and green pants and shoes. He also wore a green neckerchief and was a few inches shorter than Iris “He was driving me a little crazy, actually.” Iris smirked a bit at that. Hope was probably the smartest of the group, but he also tended to get annoyed fairly easily. “He does tend to do that.” Iris said as she went and got them some drinks. “What are you reporting on?” “I was updating my database on secret passages and caverns around the town.” Hope said as he accepted the drink. “There are quite a lot more than we expected. I have a few theories that I think you-“ “I hope you haven’t eaten yet!” A calm, suave voice called from the entrance way. Tall and dressed in long brown coat with a black cowboy hat on his head, stood Irvine, one hand holding two boxes of pizza and the other flourishing around in the air. “For I have brought dinner!” “So we can see.” Iris said, though she stifled a chuckle. “You have good timing, we just mentioned you.” “About what a reliably handsome fellow I am?” Irvine said as he winked. “More like what a slacker you are.” Iris cheerfully said as she very quickly but still careful took the boxes from Irvine, who looked like he was about to prat fall. “I’m wounded, I do my part!” Irvine replied. Hope crossed his arms. “Only if you can’t get away with it.” He said dryly. Iris shook her head in mock exasperation as she got some plates to use. “Hey, I brought the food, so you can’t complain.” Irvine shrugged as he grabbed himself a slice and went to sit down on the couch. “Oh, I’m sure we could find ways, cowboy.” Iris said as she sat down as well and took a bite. “Still, you aren’t completely useless.” “I take that as a compliment, my dear Iris.” Irvine said. “And might I say that you are looking lovely today.” “Save it, it’s not going to happen.” Hope replied as he sat down as well. “How many times do you have to be turned down before you quit it?” I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Irvine shrugged. “You think so little of me.” “Besides, we all know who Iris likes.” Hope said as he cracked a smile and looked at her. “I have it on good authority that his group is here too.” “You don’t know anything about who I like.” Iris says and the playfully bumped her arm against Hope’s. “After all, we all know I only have eyes for you.” Hope almost spit out his drink, but he managed to hold it in. “T-that’s not funny! Not at all!” Hope stuttered as he rubbed his hand against his nose, presumably trying to hide a light shade of pink from showing up on his cheeks. This prompted laughter from both Iris and Irvine, followed shortly by Hope himself. “And I already know they’re here.” Iris told them. “Oh, how’s that?” Irvine asked. “I happened to run into Omega, of course.” Iris said. “Just a few minutes before I headed back here.” “And how was he?” Hope asked, a slight smile back on his face. “He honestly seemed to be doing well.” Iris said before taking another bite. Omega fell for what felt like forever. He had closed his eyes the moment he had started to, though he didn’t know exactly why. His fall slowly felt like it was losing momentum, and soon enough, it felt more like he was slowly drifting down to the bottom of this dark place. He slowly turned over and reopened his eyes. His feet touch solid ground and he looked around It felt familiar for some reason, although he could not quite place it. He stood on some kind of platform, which glowed a bright white as he looked down to inspect it. This place was strange, alien and yet somehow familiar. Omega couldn't quite place it, but he felt a strange sensation concerning this place. He stepped forward, and had to cover his eyes as a bright flash came from the platform, almost blinding him. Omega opened his eyes slowly when the light faded and was very shocked by what he saw. The black area was now covered in a glass portrait. The glass work showed him, asleep and peaceful looking. Next to him, in circular frames were Lulu and Zell's faces, though they were awake, and next to them were three crown shaped symbols that he was sure he had never seen before. They were all in a large frame of their own, and that was framed by Omega's slightly curled body. On the bottom was what looked like a town, with a castle in it, perhaps? The town was another thing that was familiar, but once again, Omega couldn't tell why from how abstract the image was. More crown symbols surrounded them and except for Omega and the town, all of them were a dark blue color, with some lighter shades of the color for the crown symbols and his friends' faces. Omega did not have time to wonder about the meaning of the glass painting, as at that moment the voice he had heard before started talking. The Darkness is growing…. Omega thought the voice sounded vague with that. “I know. The worlds are under assault by the Heartless. So that’s why, because they just keep coming.” You are needed for when the Darkness comes. Take up your weapon and help maintain the balance. “What?” A sword, staff and shield appeared before him. He didn’t know what was going on, but he moved to the sword on instinct without even looking at the other two items that had appeared. He grabbed the sword and looked it over carefully. The handle was blue, while the pommel was yellow. The hilt of the sword was also yellow and there was an insignia that looked very familiar on it. He had seen it before, but like everything else about this place he couldn’t quite place it. He looked and saw the other weapons disappearing. Be careful… Omega looked behind him just in time to see a Shadow Heartless try to attack him. He jumped out of the way and slashed at it. It bursts into a black cloud and floated away, while more Shadows began to materialize as well. They tried attacking Omega from all around, but he dodged and jumped of them, slashing when he landed. It didn’t take long to clear them out. He looked at the sword for a moment. A pathway appeared and led from this station on to the next. Omega ran up the steps and saw the exact same portrait as the other platform, only a green this time instead of blue. Omega looked around the image on the platform again. He didn’t understand what this place was, or why he was here. Or why he had the strange feeling that he had been here before. What do you value most? Omega folded his arms at the question. He was very sure what he valued most. “Lulu and Zell are the only thing I ever had. What could be more important than them?” Do you want the power to protect them? “I do.” Omega said. “Of course I do, more than anything!” Walk through the door, and awaken that power A door appeared at the other end of the platform. Omega hesitated for a moment, but approached the door. He came out the other side onto another platform, but it was red this time instead of blue or green. He walked up to the center of the new platform. The path ahead of you has many roads. Past this point, moving forward is not always certain At that, he turned around just in time to see a dark entity emerge from behind him. It was a huge Pureblood Heartless, but it was not one that he had ever seen before. It had a heart shaped hole in its abdomen, and tiny wings on its back. Its glowing yellow eyes were the only thing about its face that could be seen, as the rest was covered by black tendrils. If you cannot defend against the Darkness, your power will be worthless to anyone It raised its fist to strike, Omega readied his sword and jumped out of the way as the fist came crashing down to platform. A black vortex opened and Shadows began to materialize out of it. Omega ignored them and slashed at the hand until it withdrew. Omega easily destroyed the Shadows when the Heartless did that, and waited for another attack. The Heartless knelt down and suddenly struck its hand down onto the station, creating a shockwave. Omega barely managed to jump over it. He looked and noticed that the Heatless had not destroyed the platform, but had opened up another vortex and was pull a large orb of Darkness out of it. Omega ran to the Heartless and started attacking, hoping to stun it or something before it used that. Unfortunately, the attacks didn’t slow the Heartless down and it unleashed the orb. The orb broke into smaller ones and Omega tried his best to avoid them, which he succeeded in, but one almost came close to hitting his left arm. The Heartless leaned back, another orb of darkness appearing in the heart shaped hole in its abdomen. Three blasts of dark energy shot out and flew towards Omega, who managed to jump out of the way. Another volley came flying at him and he jumped out of the again. A third volley flew right at Omega and this time, he had to block it with his sword instead of dodging. The impact nearly knocked him off balance, but he managed to regain his footing as the Heartless raised its fist yet again. It brought the fist down and Omega stumbled as he tried to dodge and fell to the ground, the sword slipped from his hand and fell to the floor of the platform with a clang. Omega reached out to the place where it had landed and grabbed it. He turned and saw that Shadows were now surrounding him. He slashed out and destroyed them the moment they tried to come closer and regained his footing. He thought over his options as the huge Heartless prepared for another attack. It leaned forward giving Omega a quick opening. He jumped at it right as it was reeling back and stabbed his sword into its head. There was billowing sound as the blade sunk into the Heartless, followed only by an inky blackness that seemed to consume everything around Omega. Your power is slowly awakening. But you must hurry, or everything will be consumed by the Darkness. Omega jerked awake and found that he sitting up against the wall near the door to the second district. He yawned a little and closed his eyes again. The dream he just had may have been strange, but it felt very real at the same time. It was strange, he didn’t realize he had even been sleeping. But he must have been. “Of course I find you napping somewhere, again.” came Lulu’s voice. Omega opened his eyes again and looked at her. She folded her arms in a disapproving manner, a gesture he was quite familiar with after all these years. “Well, I didn’t actually mean to fall asleep.” He said. “I just didn’t know how tired I was. And I had the strangest dream.” “I’m sure you did.” Lulu said. She was now right in front of him and was probably ready to scold him more. Omega yawned again, got up and stretched. “Oh good, you two are right there.” Said another voice. Zell was walking over to them. “The ship’s all ready, we can leave early if ya both want.” “I’m fine with that.” Omega said wanting to get started as quickly as possible. “I think we should probably go train a little before setting off.” Lulu interjected and the other two stared at her. It was completely like Lulu to want to make sure they were in tip top condition for any fight. That was probably why she was the designated leader and not Omega or Zell. And that was what they both admired about her. “We will not be able to do it on the ship, so doing it now is essential.” “Alright." Omega said, pulling his gunblade out. “Fight to the Third District then?” he asked. “Of course.” Lulu says, also pulling out her Moogle doll. “Sounds good to me!” Zell nodded, cracking his knuckles as went over and opened the door to the Second District. All three of them ran through it the moment it was it was open wide enough. Almost at once, Shadow Heartless appeared and jumped toward them, but one vertical slash made them explode into dark vapor. As the Shadows fell three new Heartless, Soldiers, appeared to take their place. They had helmets covering their heads and their bodies were dark, with tan mixed in for their “outfits”. One of them spun like a propeller at Omega, only for a burst of Fire from Lulu to hit it square in the chest. The other two Soldiers jumped in to attack, only to be kicked back by Zell. They hit the ground hard, unlike Zell, who had landed lightly on his feet. He clenched his hands into fists and began to pummel one of the Soldiers until it burst into vapor as well. The other one attempted to attack him as well. Shadows and Soldiers were the only Heartless they encountered as they fought their way to the Third District. This wasn’t anything new, so it didn’t concern them much. What they were not expecting was for there to be no Heartless in the Third District as they entered. “I do not like this.” Lulu said as she looked around to the statue of the two dogs in one corner of the square district. “I would bet that this is when the big Heartless comes to kill us.” Zell commented, sounding rather excited about this possibility. And no sooner had he said that when a bunch of what looked like pieces of an armor fell to the ground in front of them and then assembled into a large body, with a head falling down right where it should be. The armor was predominately white with red, blue and yellow mixed in as well. The Heartless symbol was visible on its torso. This is what they called the Guard Armor and it only appeared on occasion. They had heard rumors of it, but had not actually fought it until today. “Told you so!” Zell said jumping into a battle stance as the Guard Armor began stomping over to them. The Heartless’ arms, still disconnected from the torso, began spinning around it like a tornado of claws. All three of them made sure to stay until they stopped, at which point all three began their attack. Omega and Zell went in for a physical assault, while Lulu waited in the back and fired spells off at the Guard Armor. The best strategy they found was to take out the arms first. As Omega’s gunblade and Zell’s fist hit the right arm it attempted to fly out of reach and then strike back at them. It managed to hit them, prompting the both of them to use a potion each. The right arm fell rather quickly and the Guard Armor jumped up and crashed down over by Lulu, knocking her down. She got up quickly and tried moving away from it. Omega wasn’t quite as good at magic as his friend was, but he fired off a Thunder spell at the Heartless, which hit its remaining limbs and its torso, but didn’t seem to do much damage to it as it tried punching at Lulu. Zell jumped over to her aid and blocked the punch and counterattacking with his own. Lulu cast another Fire spell that hit the arm right as it was coming at Zell and it exploded. The legs were next. They proved to be much tougher than the arms, but not by very much. Zell started attacking the right leg while Lulu fired at the left with her magic. Omega performed a powerful slash that hit both legs, but wasn’t able to do it a second time for awhile, so he stuck to basic slicing or shooting he was forced to stay at a distance. The legs kicked and slammed against their attackers, but ultimately they fell just like the arms. And now there was just the torso to deal with. The torso began spinning very fast, knocking the three friends down. Without its limbs this was the only attack available to the Guard Armor, making much easier to take down. And then the Guard Armor fell, exploded and faded away. “That was a good exercise run.” Zell said stretching a little. “Yeah, I guess we should get to the Gummi Ship hangers.” Omega said. “Yes, probably the best idea to do.” A voice that none of them recognized said from behind them. It sounded formal and businesslike. They turned to see a man with black hair and black suit with a long coat over it. "After all, you've already wasted valuable time as it is." “Who are you?” Omega asked at once. He was getting a bad feeling from this man, and these feelings usually turned out to be correct. “It doesn’t matter who I am right now.” The man said, flashing a smile that Omega liked even less. The man was looking right at him. He had purple eyes, but that only made him seem more strange and unnatural than he already was. “Although truthfully, it doesn’t matter if you go to the Gummi Ship hangers either.” “And what does that mean?” Lulu said. She was holding her Moogle doll tight to her chest, readying herself for another fight. Omega did the same thing, gripping the handle of his gunblade. “It means they’ll all be dead by the time you get there.” The man continued, with that horrible grin still on his face. "Not like you would have been able to save them even if you had hurried there anyway." He added, flicking his hand around in a flippant manner as he said this, as if he was dismissing some minor problem that was beneath his notice. “WHAT!?” all three of them said at once. “Who are you and what do you know about what’s happening!?” Zell said. The man laughed. A cruel and deep laugh that sent chills down the spines of all three of them. “Why tell you when you can just see for yourself?” “Don’t play games with us!” Omega snapped at him, running forward and slicing at the man. But his gunblade didn’t hit anything and he almost fell to the ground. He quickly steadied himself and looked behind him. The man was standing behind Zell and Lulu, who jumped away from him. “If you wish to know more, then you’ll have to see for yourself, Chosen wielder of the Keyblade.” The man said, fading away again. “What?” Omega said, lowering his weapon. “Keyblade?” “Omega, we don’t have time.” Lulu said. “Let’s hurry to the hangers.” She was already heading for the door of the Second District. Zell was following her, but Omega stood in the same spot. Zell looked back at him. “What’s wrong?” Omega was thinking about that strange dream he had earlier and the man’s words. He could barely remember the dream, he had dismissed it so casually. Whatever the dream had been about, he had a feeling that somehow they were connected. He could just feel it in his gut. He shook his head and put it aside. Lulu was right; they didn’t have time to worry about this. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s get going!” He said, running after his friends. Above the District, a small blue creature had heard and seen the entirety of the events that had happened below. Upon hearing the word “Keyblade” and before the three teenagers were even running, he had made up his mind. He crawled over the wall of the Third District, planning on getting in their ship without them noticing him. After all, he knew every shortcut in this city, so it wouldn’t be hard.

I would love for her to be doing a new song for Kingdom Hearts III. It just wouldn't be the same if they chose a new singer.

I can't decide! They'd all be fun to see in Halloween Town.

Thanks very much. And yes, there will be a strong FFVIII influence throughout, but elements from all over the main series will be present. Though I'm gonna try sticking with characters that Nomura designed for the most part, that doesn't mean that certain characters he didn't won't be appearing.

Heh, shading is hard to do, just got to keep at it.

I started writing this story 10 years ago. Obviously, it isn't the same story it started out as. In fact, this is possibly the tenth revision to what I originally had in mind. I'll go further into what I had in mind once we reach the end of the story. I have already written the first few chapters of this version and hope to post them each within the next few days. I'll also draw art for the series as we go along. The first ones I'm fully working on that will be posted once all current chapters 1 through 3 are uploaded. When I started writing it, there were plenty of tropes and ideas that were frequently used by other writers that you might be familiar with. I decided to keep them just so I could do my own take on them, since the basic concept of this story is that it is the Final Fantasy side of the original. What that means isn't that they go to FF worlds, though. (Changed my mind! ) I'm open to any critiques or thoughts. I want to improve as a writer, because the two main characters of the fic are rather important to me and my own future. So no pressure there. I also will try keeping this as close in rating to what the actual games stick to, so there won't be hardcore blood and foul language. And some music tracks to keep in mind! Dearly Beloved, well it's not Kingdom Hearts without this song. The version used as the main theme for this story is the HD version of the original. https://www.youtube.com/embed/RNHzt6pVlrE Theme Song: Hikari/Simple and Clean by Utada Hikaru (because it also isn't KH without Utada!) Well, hopefully this doesn't suck and that you enjoy it. -------- Kingdom Hearts The Other Story Chapter 1: The Starting Point The small world of Traverse Town was a world of sanctuary. A town for those who had lost their home. It's old fashioned buildings and eternal night sky was strange, but the timeless feel of the world made it a good safe house for its lost inhabitants. It was very quiet tonight and was that way most nights, there was one problem with it. And that was the Heartless. Beings seemingly without hearts, creatures of the darkness and pure evil as were clear by their very existence and intentions. The citizens of Traverse Town did their best to avoid them, and usually stayed in their homes unless they had to go out. Thankfully, they only came out during certain periods of time and when that happened, everyone in the town knew and took the appropriate steps to avoid trouble. Only a few of the townsfolk were brave enough to fight any of them whenever an attack took place. In the Third District of Traverse Town, several individuals were doing just that. Breaking the quiet of the night with their fighting, but doing so only for the protection of the citizens who dwelled there. A small black creature with yellow eyes, designated as a Shadow, tried to scurry away as a blast of fire struck it and it disintegrated. A young woman, probably no older than 15, with black hair and a dark blue school uniform of some kind, approached the spot where it had been only seconds ago. “Got another Shadow over here!” she said to her companions. Clutched to her chest a white doll with a big red nose and a pom-pom coming out of its head. She had been using it to channel her magic through. “Good,” said a brown haired teenager with dark blue eyes. He too wore a dark blue school uniform and was wielding a weapon known as a gunblade, which came in two varieties. One was a gun attached to the blade that, when the trigger was pulled, sent vibrations through the blade that could increase the deadliness of the attack. The kind he had a mechanism that switches between a gun and a sword mode. He swung the weapon in its sword mode at two Heartless that jumped at him. These were only slightly bigger than the shadows, were of a dark brown color and had armored helmeted heads that still exposed their blank black faces and yellow eyes. There was a large insignia on its chest and it had dark claws on its hands. “Got two Soldiers for me.” He said as he sliced one in half, followed quickly by the other. “Ha! I got three Large Bodies!” their other friend said; as he quickly kicked one into an exposed electrical plug. He had blond hair that he had spiked up in the front, with mostly blue and red clothing on. He didn’t have a weapon like his friends, he fought entirely with his fists and feet. “They should really fix this place up, don’t ya think?” “I agree, Zell.” The gunblade wielding teenager said, slicing through a down more Heartless. As another came at him however, the gunblade quickly changed into a gun that he shot the Heartless with. “What’s our count, Lulu?” The young woman shot off more blasts of fire. “I’d say about forty each.” She said. “Which would be about one hundred and twelve in total? Looks like we’re all cleared, Omega.” “Good, then we should wrap up soon.” Omega said, blocking a Heartless’ claws from striking him. “Just a few more to go, I think.” He said as he stabbed through it. It took them a few more moments to clear up the rest of the Heartless, but by the time they were done, the whole of the District, as well as the second had been cleared. “Whew, that was a long one.” Omega said, wiping his arm across his forehead and placing his gunblade in its holster. “I think we did pretty well, though.” Zell said as he punched the air above his head. “The citizens of this town don’t have to worry while I’m here!” “What about when you sleep?” Lulu asked with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “SO, let’s go report back and grab something to eat!” Zell said, completely ignoring his friends comment. “What are you guys up for? I’m paying this time.” “That Ratatouille place looked good.” Omega commented. “Something within my price range, please!” Zell replied, though he was laughing a little. Indeed, as they left they were laughing, acting as though everything was normal. And this was their idea of normal, so it didn’t seem out of place for them at all. It was an hour after they had finished their report, and now they were sitting in the small diner in First District. “Did you guys see the look on Rusty’s face in the debriefing?” Zell asked, chuckling lightly. “It was priceless!” “Yeah, being told that three punks did better fighting Heartless in one night than you have in nine years tends to do that.” Lulu said, trying to remain stoic. She started laughing as well after a few seconds. “And yes, it really was.” “And it came from Instructor Trepe, too.” Omega commented. “So it had to sting.” All three of them had been sitting there, laughing away and driving several of the other people who came by insane. But they didn’t care, they hadn’t been able to go out at all for a while, and so it felt good to just hang out and not worry about Heartless or anything related to them. “This was a pretty good place.” Omega noted. “We’ll have to come again at some point?” “I completely agree with that.” Zell said, raising his glass as if to toast his friend before taking another swig from it. “I agree.” Lulu said as well. “As long as Zell pays again.” She quickly added, causing Zell to spit out his drink at the suggestion. A waiter walked up to them. “Is that all for this evening?” Zell nodded and the waiter handed him a bill. “Yikes, that really was expensive.” Zell said, grimacing a little. “Sure you have enough munny, Zell? I can pay for half, if you want.” “Nah, I’m good, bud.” Zell said, pulling out some munny and handing it to the waiter. “You guys ready to turn in?” “No, not really.” Omega said, getting up. “But we probably should.” “Good to know.” Zell said, getting up as well. Lulu simply nodded as she got up. “HEY! STOP THAT THING!” someone called out. The three of them looked just in time to see something rush past them. It looked blue, but they couldn’t make out what it was. “What is that, a dog?” Omega asked. “Don’t know.” Zell said. The man who yelled out ran up to them, looking very angry. “Why didn’t you stop that that monster?!” “Why would we? Didn’t look like it was doing anything wrong.” Omega said. “Wasn’t doing anything wrong, it was stealing food from my store!” the man said. “What was it?” Lulu interjected. “I don’t know, but what about my food?!” The man said, obviously seething with anger. He began to move to where whatever it was had run to, only to be stopped when Omega grabbed him by the arm. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Omega said. “The Heartless might not be completely gone. A few stragglers could be lurking around that corner, for instance.” The man’s face automatically filled with fear, and he retreated back in the direction that he had come from “Your people skills are as impressive as usual.” Lulu said as she walked past Omega. “Well, I’m not going to let some idiot go and get themselves killed.” Omega replied, as he followed after her. “It’s already hard enough keeping the Heartless at bay as it is without people like him giving them more to add to their numbers.” Zell chuckled as he walked past. “Admit it.” Zell said, now walking alongside Omega. “You just didn’t want whatever that thing was to starve.” “Not really.” Omega said in a neutral kind of tone, but gave Zell a friendly offhand punch to the arm. He suddenly stopped though. He wasn’t sure, but it felt like someone was watching him, perhaps that creature that had run off. He turned around to look, but there was no one there. Thinking that it was probably just his imagination, he quickly hurried off after his friends. It was always night in Traverse Town, so it was often difficult for many to get used to it, especially when it comes to the time. Omega was used to it though, having lived here for so long. It was actually very early in the morning, and Omega and the others were walking around the First District. They were supposed to be meeting their Instructor, who had said to meet her at the entrance to the Second District. Omega, Lulu and Zell were part of the SeeD Program, a type of mercenary group, although it was originally a program more akin to Special Forces. After the Heartless started attacking nine years ago, the world that SeeD was originally set in was lost, and it was retooled into an Anti-Heartless mercenary group by an important world, although what world that was, it was a Level 9 secret, and since Cadets like Omega and his friends were only Level 1 holders, they were not in on it. Today, SeeD consisted of over two hundred members, with almost twenty worlds that they were stationed at. Quistis Trepe was a woman who looked to be in her early twenties, but carried herself as though she was older than that. She was not the strictest Instructor, and because of this, she was also among the most popular. She was wearing her regular clothes today, instead of her uniform. Her blond hair was still done up in the style she usually had it in, with it tied up in back, while two long fringes at her sides that framed her face. “Alright, you three.” She said as they approached. “Today will be a major Field Exam. One that has been carefully decided ever since the previous night” Omega, Lulu and Zell stood at attention and did not state anything. It would be disrespectful to interrupt with something that did not have relevance to the subject. “Your performance yesterday was incredible, and we decided that you were ready for the Exam.” Instructor Trepe continued. “We have just received word that one of our training worlds, Codenamed “Specter” to be precise, has come under attack by a large force of Heartless.” This information came as no real surprise. After all, “Specter” was a world that was filled with Darkness, which made it a perfect place to start off SeeD training. Omega and his friends had once gone there and had found it to be a slightly unpleasant place. “Since most of the more experienced members are off world, they need back up. A team from each of our training worlds will be sent to Specter to help stop the Heartless.” She said. “You three are to depart Traverse Town and head to Specter to help with the defense. This is an important mission; we cannot allow Specter to fall to the Heartless. Do you all understand?” “Yes ma’am!” “Good. You have three hours to departure.” Instructor Trepe said. She looked all three of them in the face, and gave them a kind smile. “Good luck. Dismissed!” Omega, Lulu and Zell saluted, which the Instructor did as well before leaving. The three of them waited until she was out of sight before they started talking. “Great, we finally get a real mission!” Zell said, grinning broadly. “Told you guys that they would!” “Yeah, it would appear you were right.” Lulu said. “But I’m not sure going back to Specter is a good thing.” “Of course it isn’t.” Zell said. “It’s a horrible place yeah, but soon, we’ll be real SeeD members, and get real missions, that don’t involve Specter at all!” “Yeah, all we need to do is finish this mission.” Omega said. “We can’t afford to screw up. Who knows when we’ll be eligible for the next Exam?” Lulu looked thoughtful for a moment before looking up at the other two. “You’re right. I say we go and prepare for the mission before we leave.” She said. She took a quick glance at the two of them. “I’ll handle the preparations; I’ll meet you two at Cid’s later.” And with that, she walked off. Omega and Zell. Zell turned to him. “I’m going to go over to Cid’s right now, and get the ship ready. What are you going to do?” “Well, I’m sure Lulu will be doing the supplying, I’m not sure. I guess I can always go info surfing.” Omega commented casually, but at the same time he started looking around. “Think she’ll have any idea of what’s happening in Specter?” Zell asked, doing the same. “Hard to say, but since she’s Level 4, she could.” Omega replied. “Though, some information is better than nothing. Walking into a battlefield without knowing anything will just get us killed.” “Okay, but you be careful.” Zell said having made sure no one was listening to them. “She’ll get in really big trouble if the higher ups find out she’s been giving us top secret info that we aren’t allowed.” “I know.” Omega replied. “I’ll see you later.” “See ya.” Omega stood outside the door, hoping that he wouldn’t be here long. The place always gave him the creeps. The door opened after a few minutes. “Okay, come back next week just in case.” A young woman’s voice said, as another SeeD cadet walked out the door. A young woman in a white suit, with shoulder length black hair, appeared as well. “Remember, no strenuous activities until you recover.” “Hello Aki” Omega said, stepping forward. The doctor looked at him. “Oh, hey Omega, come on in.” Omega did so. “How’s life as a doctor going?” “Oh fine, just fine.” Aki said. She had a worried expression on her face, which slightly worried Omega. “ “I see.” “So, how can I help you today, my friend?” Aki said, sitting down. “I’m just here to tell you that we’re going to be heading off in a few hours.” Omega replied. “To Specter.” “Oh, so you guys are the ones going?” Aki said, sitting up in her seat. Omega nodded. “Yeah. I wasn’t given much info on it, though.” “I know, we haven’t either.” Aki said. “Dr. Kadowaki was sent off earlier without much of a briefing as to why.” “Why weren’t you called in too?” Omega asked. “Don’t know, but I’m worried. Dr. Kadowaki always keeps me filled on what is going on when she can. So this must be something very serious.” “Yeah, I know.” Omega agreed. “But you’ve got to know something, like what happened?” “All I know is that there was some kind of incident.” Aki said. “Apparently, a couple of cadets stumbled upon something. Something that put them both in serious intensive care, and had something to do with the first wave of the Heartless attack! And whatever it was has been classified a Level 10 secret.” Omega looked at Aki in shock. Level 10 was the highest level of security that SeeD had. Only a select few were even at Level 10 clearance, and if that was the case, Omega knew he wasn’t going to be getting anything more from this. He just stood there silently, folding his arms in thought. “I’m sorry, but that’s all I know.” Aki said. “It’s okay. Thanks anyway.” Omega replied, heading for the door. “No problem.” Aki said. “Hey!” Omega turned to look at her. “Good luck.” “Thanks.” Omega said, and he left afterwards. He wasn’t sure what to think about what he had just heard. Whatever happened in Specter was definitely worse than Instructor Trepe had let on, but he still had no idea what had caused it. And it looked like he wasn’t going to, if it was a Level 10 secret. It was right as he was at the door to the First District that he heard it. They need your help…. Omega stopped when he heard that and looked around. “Hello? Anyone there?!” Nothing. Omega was confused, but shrugged a little. It had probably been his imagination. He went through the door and headed towards Cid’s shop when he heard it again. But you are not ready… “What?” Omega said, coming to a stop again. He didn’t know why he had said that, or why he was hearing these voices. All he knew was that it wasn’t making him feel comfortable. Trying to shake off his unease, he didn’t realize that he wasn’t alone anymore. “Are you alright?” Omega turned to look at who had spoken and saw a girl wearing a blue jacket and black jeans staring at him in concern. He knew her, her name was Iris and she was a SeeD cadet, just like he was. She had put red highlights in her brown hair since the last time he had seen her, however, which he thought made her look very pretty. “Oh, yeah. I’m fine.” Omega lied. “No need to worry about me. I’m just peachy over here.” He continued, trying to sound as cheerful as possible, though Iris just chuckled. Though he never really got a chance to hang out with her because they were on separate teams, every time he did, a kind of fluttering feeling appeared in his stomach that he wasn’t sure he like. Or disliked, for that matter. “Alright then.” Iris replied, smiling slightly. “It’s been awhile, Omega.” The feeling intensified, but he ignored it. “It really has, Iris.” Omega said, giving her a small smile as well. “How has it been?” “Oh, you know the usual stuff.” Iris replied. “Just the patrolling of the town and all its districts, killing any Heartless that pops up. You?” “Pretty much the same.” Omega said. “Though, on some nice occasions I get to meet up with old friends that I haven’t talked to in awhile.” His blue eyes met her green eyes for a moment before they both started laughing. “Yeah, I miss it too.” Iris said and for a moment Omega thought he saw a brief blush appear on her face. “Hey, how about after this mission we hang out more?” That fluttering feeling started to grow again and his heart started pounding with it. “Sounds cool, though I’m guessing it might still be a while.” Omega replied, trying to pretend like nothing was wrong with him. “Probably, but I’m sure we can make it work.” Iris said as she started walking past him. “See you soon, alright?” “You definitely will!” Omega said, smiling again. She returned it and walked away, that fluttering feeling becoming almost unbearable now until see left. He felt happy though, and he hoped that nothing would get him down. But then he heard it again…. You must be ready………Or darkness will conquer everything. Before Omega could say or do anything, the world went pitch black, and it felt like he was falling. To be continued....

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC3v5bpF9z6uFrBdjADzfxA Don't have much going on currently, but might as well.

Thanks very much, was quite appreciated. And yeah, I think I'll post the story here when I feel it is ready. I'm just going through some partial rewrites of the first few chapters and they'll be ready for posting at least.

This one is just more of a silly sketch I did for my own Kingdom Hearts story. (Which I keep putting off because I'm a perfectionist) Not much more to it, just felt like sharing.

Thank you very much. The Charizard one is my favorite too. As for the coloring, it depends of course. With Mega Charizard X, it was easy getting the base colors down for the Pokemon himself, the real trick was making sure the contrast and shading were spot on. Particularly for the flames. As for the effects, they were a bit more tricky to do. I had to do quite a bit of blending to make them come out naturally. I'll be trying for some Kingdom Hearts related art next time.

The Charizard and Starforce pics were done on paper first and then I digitally inked and colored them. Starforce sketch: http://nemesissp13.deviantart.com/art/MegaManStarForce-sketch-568145645 This was actually the first time I had drawn these specific Mega Man characters. I had the Official Complete Works with me, which was a tremendous help. I wanted the colors to really match with Shinsuke Komaki's excellent illustrations, so the fact that I managed to get it close is good. Charizard sketch: http://nemesissp13.deviantart.com/art/Mega-Charizard-X-Sketch-617366332 The Stitch one was done entirely digitally, though.

I did indeed make it. Started as something I sketched on paper before completing it digitally. Thanks very much, btw. These two are a bit older, but still worth showing

I figured that I'd be a bit more active and that means showing some of my artwork that I've done. Here is my DA page for more, but for now I'll just post my most recent pic. http://nemesissp13.deviantart.com/ I hope you enjoy the pics!

People are entitled to complain about something if they don't like it. I'm not defending either side, I am just pointing that out. If you personally don't see the point, there is nothing wrong with that. But at the same time, why try and stop other people who have legit concerns about the people who spread lies about the series? Pointing out a site has no integrity when it comes to journalism is not wrong in and of itself. You're basically telling those people they don't have a right to complain because ultimately the gesture is pointless. But at the same time, your comment can also be deemed pointless because it doesn't solve anything. It's not about being insecure, it's about making sure your own thoughts don't get drowned out by the negative press. As for why they care, it's as simple that many people simply don't see it like you or I do. I couldn't care less about IGN, I don't read reviews of games anymore from any site, I only pointed out how they have no journalistic integrity. You made it clear you don't see the point either. So are we not falling into that same trap of letting other peoples opinions dictate what we do? Is that not the reason you commented? Because you didn't like how many people were slamming IGN?

And what good is it gonna do complaining that other people are complaining about it? IGN might be expressing their opinion, but that's not the issue. The issue is their unprofessionalism, lack of research put into their articles, despite claiming to be journalists. The reason people are annoyed by their articles is because they tend to be loaded with mistakes about the series and those wanting to get into the series via reading those articles might get a bad impression of it. If it was just an opinion that was the problem, your point would be valid. However, for many of us it is not that simple.

I didn't care for the movie for the most part. It was a mess of a story, with uninteresting characters outside of Regis and Nyx, but I did like the visuals and music. It had plenty of potential, but it was overstuffed and way too short to adequately have all of these plot lines and develop them in a satisfying way. It was an incredibly... average movie at best. And no, I agree with you about Luna. She's just not particularly interesting to begin with and despite so many people claiming that she has inner strength, that still doesn't change that she makes stupidly suicidal decisions that make things worse. But she seems to have her fans. I once tried to open a discussion about her on another forum about her character in Kingsglaive and it was a disaster.

Roxas and Namine never died, though. Even Xion's death was merely ceasing to exist as a separate person outside of Sora. The concept of death as we know it doesn't exist in Kingdom Hearts and Nomura confirmed this a long time ago. That doesn't mean there hasn't been permanent deaths in the series. As non-canon has it is, I'm pretty sure Clayton wouldn't come back even if they were allowed to still use Deep Jungle. He wasn't turned into a Heartless, after all. Mufasa also is still dead from before the first game even began, as are a few others. It is understandable that having a permanent death of one of the main characters might up the stakes somewhat, but think about this. When DC and Marvel decided they were going to in a completely new direction for several of their stories, they came up with several stories that had a huge amount of shock deaths intended to give the stories more lasting consequences. Forgetting that dropping the bridge on a character doesn't make a story better. The same thing can be said here. Killing off characters for the sake of killing them off doesn't raise the stakes. It just shows you like shock value over engaging character and story development.

IGN has no shred of credibility when it comes to Kingdom Hearts or other titles, they long since lost it when they couldn't even get easy facts right. Though, does it really surprise anyone that they don't have journalistic integrity?

Definitely an original story, either focusing more on Eraqus and Xehanort or otherwise following a new cast of characters.

Never played Danganranpa, but I have seen several things about it and theyre just too different to compare with each other. It's like comparing Star Wars and LOTR. They both share a light versus dark conflict with characters that are flawed and are trilogies, but are otherwise so different that comparing them only highlights how different they are and not just because they're different genres.

Honestly, I've recently replayed 3D in order to get a feel of the gameplay again to draw my speculation of HD and while the basic gameplay will be the same, the experience won't. Don't forget that part of a KH experience is with the console as much as the gameplay. Not only will the 3D aspect probably be dropped for the most part, but things that required the touch screen will have to be cut and replaced with a variant for the PS4 touch pad. And there's also the confirmation of new Dream Eaters and it's not going to be the same experience. FFXIII was always intended to be a PS3 exclusive, but it was changed for the international release to be multiplatform. It wasn't until after the international release that a 360 port was made.

I would love a Kingdom Hearts movie! By anyone other than Takeshi Nozue, I mean!