Kingdom Hearts: XIII Beats

[zeone3000]

Finally, you awaken to a familiar mix of senstations. First, the cool ground on your cheek and the palm of your hands. Wait... ground? That means gravity! You are no longer floating in an endless void of darkness.

You hear the crackling of electricity, the hissing of steam and the movement of machines.

You finally open your eyes, the lights being dim eases the sting. You see what looks a giant keyhole border by copper tubes made from a mix of colors. You are laying on a platform with the same tubes lining one of the walls, all leading to the keyhole. As well as other tubing running down the other walls. A poair of control panels sit on opposite ends of the platform, mirroring themselves. Finally, a two sets of stairs lead down on both sides.

All of you lay around a shallow crater in the red floor. A battle was definitely fought here and what a fight it must have been.

[Regalus]

Christopher stirred from the sudden pressure he felt pressing upon his body. He fought to remain in the comfortable embrace of his dreams, and such happy dreams that they were. Alas, the siren call of metal on metal and the sweet melodies of dancing sparks would deny him that. So it was that the young boy was forced back into the walking world.

He groaned for a bit as his arms tried to raise his body for the first time in what felt like an eternity. He considered standing but quickly found it to be too much of a hassle to try; so he settled for simply sitting up on the ground. Soon stretching and making a loud yawn, before he raised his glasses to rub the morning fog left in his sleepy eyes.

[Assurau]

The hum of machinery sang in the background of Palom's mind. The repetitive motion sounded so familiar as a lullaby sung by a old friend. However, there was a new sensation. It was cold, hard, and pressing on his face. Had he fallen asleep on the floor of some workshop again?

Grogginess began to vanish as Palom awoke. His body ached as if he had been asleep for a long time. Deciding not to prolong the issue any further, he pushed himself of the ground and began to survey his surroundings.

" Ok, this is definately not Bakiri's workshop."

[Jacior]

Bakiri twitched and grunted as he tried to get comfortable against the floor, rolling over to lie his head on his arm. Wait. What? He wasn't floating anymore. And was a plethora of noises and sounds and smells. He rolled back onto his back stretching and arching his back against the cool floor. He yawned at sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

He stretched again, in several more ways before really taking a look around. Bakiri felt around, just to feel everything that was around him. Mostly, the floor and the edge of the crater. Someone was talking... Palom? Was this another dream in the darkness? It wasn't unlikely, but it had been a time since he had dreamed. After a while, it seemed he was just dreamed out.

"Palom?" He looked around to the other people laying around. "Chris? Alen? Where are we? Is this another dream?" There was a kid there that Bakiri couldn't remember seeing before, but who knows.

[Durami]

"And that's my final offer" Alen muttered to himself as he turned lightly to one side...wait turned? Alen sat up quickly and began patting himself before the blood rushed to his head as if to punish him for acting in such a hasty manner. Haste is not what we do Alen, calm down and think...

Machinery humming everywhere, A crater on the ground...a bunch of kids in the middle of it...somehow this all needs to be connected. He thought to himself before shaking his head once more to fend off the feeling of drowsiness, When in doubt, Socialize. You know, I always thought I'd be a lot older before I woke up on a cold floor not knowing where I was or how long I've been out...

[Toad477]

Lexin moaned as his sense began to come back. A quiet rumbling, which turned into mechanical noises as the sounds became clearer. He sat up before even trying to open his eyes and slapped himself on the cheeks a couple times to wake himself up. His eyes sting as they adjusted to the light as if he had been sleeping forever, but he was sure only moments had passed. Before his vision was clear he heard his long-time friend Alenbair making jokes. He laughed as he stood up slowly and looked around, his body feeling like a ton of bricks.

"Heh...I'm pretty sure it's not possible to drink as much as I must have to feel this bad."

Lexin noticed other kids from his town too...Palom who was always arguing with him about which heroes were best while he would always disagree based on the weapon they used. There was also a young boy named Christopher who he had saved from a notorious group of bullies on a few occasions. The other boy he only knew from rumors of his odd experiments, but he had never personally met him. He walked over to Alen and stretched his hand out.

"You alright? Any idea what all of this is?"

[Durami]

Alen grabbed lexins hands and rose to his feet, patting off his clothes and stretching slightly while taking a look around his surroundings,"Well I have no clue where we are at the moment, or what any of this is...I do know that with the price of lead these days this must have been pretty expensive and with the size of those pipes..."

Alen is now lost in thought. You'll get no answer's from him.

[Toad477]

Lexin walked around, making sure everyone was okay. It appeared that everyone had been in the same sleep state he and Alen had been in. We walked over to the control panel on one side then the other, reading any labels that could be seen.

[Regalus]

To be honest. Christopher had no idea what the heck was going on. let alone why everyone else was there. " Thank you Lexin," he said as he grabbed the older boy's hand to stand up. "Where are we?" he asked to no one in particular as he began to take in the environment.

Looking around he couldn't seem to piece together where they all where. It was clear that they were in a lab of some sort. He inspected the area near the keyhole, as it seemed to be a place of importance; but he couldn't figure out why. He didn't recognize most of the equipment from any of his books back home....

"Home..." he trailed off for a moment as a nagging feeling of forgetting something important began burning inside him, until the fog was finally cleared. " The attack!," he exclaimed as he turned back to face the group. "Radiant Garden's was attacked by heartless wasn't it?!"

[Toad477]

Lexin continued to look at the control panels as Chris spoke. He glanced up at him as he spoke.

Is that what those things were?

Suddenly Lexin remembered something...Garnetta....his expression changed as he stared blankly at the control panel, he had a look of calm fury in his eyes. He looked around for the witch, but found only familiar faces. He took a deep breath and calmed down....he was normally much more laid back...he was not used to the feeling he had just had...he didn't like it.

[Jacior]

Bakiri climbed to his feet and performed a few streches. First he reached and touched his toes, then he pulled his arms to the side, and ended by literally bending over backwards and placing his palms on the ground. He finished by pushing up with his feet and propelling himself into a handstand, landing on his feet.

He walked over to one of the terminal stations. "I have no idea where we are. Anyone seen this place before?" Bakiri asked, tentativly trying to deduce the controls' purpose. Cid was always saying how Bakiri... Wait. Cid? Memories came flooding back. He remembered the attack just as Chris was saying it out loud.

"Oh stars. I completely forgot!" He seemed to pick up quite a bit of energy, and started running around the lab haphazardly. "The attack! The Heartless! Radiant Garden, doomed to destruction!" He stopped. "But, what happened? Where are we? Why are we here? What's happened to Radiant Garden and all its inhabitants?" Bakiri stopped again as his stomach growled rather loudly in the lab space. "Where can we get something to eat?"

[Regalus]

" Now's not the time to think about food, we need to focus and...," he trailed off, interrupted by a most ungentlemanly roar erupting from his own stomach. Flustered by the sudden realization he couldn't do much else but smile and laugh awkwardly.

"Well, I guess that's even more reason to find our way out," he said as he started walking towards the stairs on the right. "We aren't going to get much done standing in one place, anyone coming down with me to find a way out?" he asked while standing right at the top of the stairs.

[Durami]

Alen placed his hands in his pockets and began a to hum a gentle tune while walking towards Christopher robin. "I've read enough horror books to know where this is going, stick to the serious person with the British accent, they always survive."

[Assurau]

Palom breathed a sigh of relief. At least he wasn't alone in this mess. Bakiri was here and so was Lexin, the sword-loving nut from the blacksmith's. Christopher Robin was here as well. To say that he wasn't pleased to see the little skirt-chasing Englishman was an understatement. However, remembering Chris's many infractions, Palom began to remember his family and then the attack on Radiant Gardens.

Hearing Bakiri's confirmation of the heartless, Palom began to wonder. From the legends he read and had heard, the heartless never left a victim. So how was he here? The last thing he remembered was going into a dead-end alley. So he should have become a heartless, but here he was whole and normal for the most part.
"Hey guys, where were you before you passed out?", said Palom approaching Chris and the others.

[zeone3000]

Lexin finds nothing useful of note on the panels, just dials and glowing buttons.

From the top of the stairs, Christopher can see that the stairs winds around and down the platform.

[Regalus]

"Mr...uhm, Allen was it? This isn't a story book," he replies as he begins walking down the winding stair case.

"Not really; can't recall falling asleep either. The last thing I can recall is running from the horde," he explains in response, a bit dismay by his own self revelation. You'd think he'd at least remember falling asleep.

[Durami]

All I remember is everything getting dark, then I woke up with this feeling of being ripped off somehow... Alen stated as he walked behind Christopher Also I ain't taking any chances, If It isn't true then I don't lose anything. If it is true I stand a larger chance of survival with you

Alen smiles broadly and places his right hand on Christophers shoulder But hey, No stress yah know?

[Assurau]

" Then what about you Bakiri and you Sword nut? What do you guys remember?", as he continued down the stairs with the group.

[Toad477]

Lexin shruged as he found nothing indicating the funtion of the control panels and made his way towards the stairs. He casually walked down the steps as he took in the surroundings, it was truly an odd place to wind up, especially after only being unconscious for what could not have been more than a day.

This was on our world? What purpose could it serve?

Lexin looked at Palom and shook his head.

"Nothing that would explain any of this....i met a fellow sword collector after i got mauled by those things...heartless? I saw the town being over run by them...then i made a deal with the man...guess that's why i'm alive. Not sure why we all ended up here though..."

[Jacior]

Bakiri put a finger on his temple. "I was... digging through a refuse bin looking for parts." He said, following the others. "When I climbed out... The Heartless were everywhere. I couldn't even run." He let his hand drop and shook his head. "Other than that, I can only remember lots of electricity. But it might have been a dream about one of my inventions." He hopped down the steps two and three at a time. His stomach growled again. "I might be having a little trouble thinking though. Can we go get something to eat?"

[zeone3000]

A short trip down the stairs reveals a wide red carpet that leads to a bigger room, it also completely borders a purple carpet with a strange red & black symbol. The red carpet continues out and up a set of stairs, directly across the room and through a passage way.

Six braziers line two sides of the carpet, three on each side. Parallel to each of them on the walls is a chamber of sorts. You could see one just like it sitting up high, across from the giant keyhole back on the platform.

[Regalus]

Christopher eyed the emblem curiously; it seemed to have some importance, given that they had seen it twice now, but he couldn't recognize it for anything. Granted he did think it looked kind of like a heart, which only made it seem weirder. That said he continued marching towards what appeared to be the exit, keeping a careful eye out for anything suspicious.

[Toad477]

Lexin eyed each brazier carfeully before walking towards the first chamber on the left and peering in, ready to jump back should something not so friendly be inside.

[zeone3000]

Lexin finds nothing of note in the space.

[Toad477]

Lexin frowned as he turned to catch up with the group.

"psh that's no fun...what are these for then?"

Lexin shruged and made his way up the stairs as he wondered what the decorations and rooms were for. He was eager to leave this place as soon as he could, he had been a little edgy since the attack, though his nerves were slowly settling.

[Durami]

Alen Followed behind Christopher robin with his arms raised above his head, bent so that he's grabbing each of his arms, his feet moving to the beat of his humming, you'd assume him to be happy go lucky, his eyes are what betray it , his eyes which can be seen shifting to degrees of intense concentration as he's slowly scanning the room for any traces of danger

As calm and silly as Alen can seem, at this moment he's tense and expecting danger.

[Assurau]

As Palom walked along with the group, his eyes caught sight of the heart-like emblem. It seemed so familiar. As he pondered, the image hit him as he crashed into the group.

" Guys, I recognize this emblem. Some of the Heartless that attacked had it, so i'm guessing we are not safe.",said Palom.

[Jacior]

Bakiri looked at the strage markings. "It kind of looks like a heart. But, with barbed wire on it." He announced to the room. He follows the others down the hall, bouncing slightly as he walked. "Where do you suppose we are?" He wasn't afraid. Just intensely curious.

[Durami]

"So this marking is the same from the kind the woman who attacked our area was from, and there was a giant crater nearby...Could something be going on? could we have been dropped here by something to try and help get our revenge? Alen said in a serious tone, all humour suddenly vanishing from his face momentarily, before suddenly turning back into a smile "Is the sorta thing I'm sure Palom and Lex must be thinking"

[Toad477]

Lexin gritted his teethand clenched his fists as he got to the top of the stairs. Flashes of the attack still playing in his mind. His mother and father....Garnetta....and this woman that led the heartless to Radiant Garden would not be getting away with it if he could help it.

"I want a more than a little payback, but yeah, let me at'em."