-1Chapter 7: Inox: Predicament

I clutched my stomach as the Gummi ship settled onto the landing platform on Traverse Town.

"I would like to say just one thing: DO NOT let Chris drive the Gummi Ship next time." I said woozily as I stumbled from the gunner compartment. Christy looked slightly green, and Nami unhooked her hands from where they were almost stabbing into the navigational console for dear life. Chris, on the other hand, looked perfectly fine, besides a slightly hidden scowl.

"Come on, you have to admit that it was necessary to avoid their laser cannons." he said. "If I hadn't spun the ship and did those flips, we would've been Heartless dinner."

"Uhhh… since when did heartless fly that good?" Nami said.

"yeah…" Christy agreed. "In the games, they only flew in straight lines."

"And you could tell that they weren't nobody ships." I commented. "But even if your flips were entirely justified… DID YOU HAVE TO KEEP DOING THEM AFTER WE WERE OUT OF THEIR RANGE?"

"Oh, be quiet." Chris muttered, before stalking off to the kitchen section of the ship. The Gummi Ship had many different things: a set of not four, but FIVE bedrooms, a small common area, a cooking compartment, and two bathrooms; these were in addition to the usual cockpit, gunner stations, workstation, weapons lockers, and training room.

Chris quickly returned from the kitchen area, holding a small vial in his hands. He tossed it at me, and I caught it, It turned out to be a pill bottle.

"Motion sickness relief." I read thankfully, before pulling out a pill and dry swallowing it. I tossed to Nami, and she nodded at me. "thank god."

"So we're here in traverse town." Chris said. "anyone know which way it is to the accessory shop? that's where Cid will be, and Cid should know where Leon is."

"Sorry, I'm not such a nerd that I memorize the maps." I said, as I flopped down on the black leather couch. My head was spinning, and my stomach was churning in a way that was deucedly not pleasant.

"I didn't even know that there was a Gummi Ship Landing Bay here." Nami said, apologetically.

"Me either." Christy admitted.

"Shoot." Chris said, slamming his fist against the wall. The loud noise sent slivers of glass through my skull, and I groaned. Luckily, the pills were taking effect, dulling the edge until I was able to sit up normally.

"And what's wrong with asking directions?" I said, getting up and grabbing my shield from where I had leaned it against the wall.

"We don't know who's on that Blood Master dude's side." Chris said. "I'd prefer to keep a VERY low profile until we know exactly who's on our side."

"Well, shouldn't that be obvious?" Nami said. "He's got the Heartless and Ansem working for him, so I guess its safe to say that Maleficent and her crew are with him as well. Duh. You said something about a Naruto character, so I can guess that we'll have to deal with him. Plus, any bad guys we encounter will probably be working for him too."

"Wait up guys." I held up my hand. "We've also got a bigger problem." I paused. "You guys have played Assassin's Creed, right?"

"I know the game." Chris nodded.

"Well, Altair is supposed to be good. But… Well, he's the one who attacked me back home." I confessed.

Christy's face went white. "That means…"

"Yeah." Chris's face was serious. "We could be in for trouble with good guys too." He sighed. "Lets hope that Leon is still on our side." He started walking towards the exit ramp, and I got up to follow him.

"All right." Christy nodded. "Lets go."

"HOLD IT!" I said.

"what is it?" Nami asked.

"We never said who was going to drive on our way out." I said. "I am NOT going to end up like this again. Chris is NOT driving, so who is?"

"You are." Chris said with an evil grin. "Lets see how you fare, dodging Heartless laser shots."

Chris, Nami, Christy, and I entered the first district directly off from the Gummi landing pad. The accessory shop would be right-

"Look out!" Nami pushed me out of the way as a silver blade flashed past me. She drew her keyblade-like sword and engaged our new opponant, who was none other then…

"SQUALL!" we all shouted. Then the heartless were upon us…

…Nami slashed yet another heartless in half, before spinning to give a decapitating strike to Leon, who blocked it with his gunblade and attempted to slash her across the knees. Chris and I stood back to back, I using my shield as a punching blade while Chris used his scissors like ninja weapons. Heartless were coming from all directions, and Chris and I were cut off from Nami, who was fighting Leon. I glanced around for Christy and finally found her as I was bashing in the head of a heartless. She sat cross-legged on the floor a few meters away. I cocked my head, wondering what she was up to. Chris gave a grunt of understanding. "What's she doing?" I asked him.

"Remember back when we were about to fight Sarkis Rhal?" he said as he stabbed a scissor into the face of another shadow. "She scribbled something in her notepad and a dragon appeared. My guess is that she's a minor summoner, and whatever she draws comes to life. She can't probably summon things as strong as her rings, or your bracelet, or my cards, or Nami's orbs, but she's still dangerous.

As Christy scribbled furiously in her notebook, a huge dragon suddenly took form in front of her, breathing a fiery blast that incinerated four Heartless at the same time.

I raised an eyebrow. "if she's actually that powerful, what does she need her rings for?"

"watch." Chris gestured at her, somehow using that movement to avoid a Neoshadow claw.

After a few blasts of fire, however, heartless swarmed over the dragon, and it faded away. The heartless then began charging at Christy again. She put her pencil down, and lifted her ring into the air.

Suddenly, a flash went through the training compartment, and a young man with a sword appeared in front of her. A light beard and moustache graced his face and he was dressed in a green tunic and brown breeches. He raised his sword and started hacking his way into the horde of heartless. As he fought, Christy scribbled yet another doodle into her notebook, and a pair of unicorns ran out of her notebook, horns lowered as they smashed into the battle.

The battle between Leon and Nami was taking a turn for teh worse. Nami would probably have done okay if it was JUST Leon, but she was fighting Leon AND heartless. And at this point, if a ninja jumped out of nowhere, I wouldn't have been surprised. Heck, for all we knew, the Incredible Hulk was waiting a few blocks down.

"Chris!" Christy yelled. "We've got to retreat!"

"YOU retreat!" he yelled. "I'm not going ANYWHERE until that bastard Leon is DEAD!"

As if on cue, Nami's keyblade sword gave Leon's gunblade a smashing hit. The keyblade-sword utterly shattered the gunblade into fragments, and Leon was holding…. Well, a gun with no blade. Nami hesitated a moment, but then with resignation plunged her weapon into Leon's body.

"Now we can fucking retreat!" Chris yelled. I saw Christy wince at this foul language again and rolled my eyes.

Then I felt a pain in my chest. An instant later I heard the sound of a gunshot, and saw Leon falling over.

Shit.

Chris and Christy were almost at the ramp of our Gummi ship, and Nami was in the act of vaulting over me on her way there when it happened. I put a hand to my chest and saw blood.

Suddenly, something primal and animal in feeling roared up inside me. I snatched my bracelet and held it high. Cxnik leaped out and began pushing the heartless back with PSI blasts.

"Inox, come on!" Chris yelled. Everyone was at the doorway, beckoning me to enter the Gummi ship….

But I couldn't.

I had just been shot in the chest. I knew what it was I had to do.

Quickly, before the adrenaline faded, I grabbed the ramp and shoved the doorway to the ship closed; them inside, I and the heartless outside. I raised my bracelet and whispered over it.

Take them away, far away from here.

As if on cue, the Gummi ship started rising into the air, free of the clutches of darkness. I looked at the heartless horde and stood next to Cxnik. He nodded at me.

"Didn't believe it would end quite this soon for us." He said.

I sighed painfully, and lifted my shield. "Well, we weren't paid to believe." I lifted it into a battle stance. "We were paid to fu** sh** up." Taking a leaf from Chris's foul language vocabulary.

The heartless hissed.

And before we died, they learned the true meaning of fear.