He Certainly Didn't See That Coming

[doctorzero]

"THREE!"

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA--"

CRASH!!!

Max, his Pokemon, Kaitlin, Lilia and Climber were sent flying. When Max landed, he saw an upside down Red staring at him. "Hi. You're upside down."

Kaitlin wasted no time in getting back up and running towards the door. "RAAAAAGH!"

She slammed her fist against it in rage. It didn't budge.

A.J., who was sitting on the stairs with Gene, sighed as strummed the guitar he had taken at the restaurant. "Kaitlin, you've been at that thing for the past hour. Maybe you should rest."

It had been a couple hours since they had been teleported back into the mansion. As soon as they saw where they were, Gantz immediately guessed what had happened, leading up to them heading towards the door in order to do what they were intending.

As you can see, it didn't take.

Not only was the door locked, it was also apparently blocked from the other side, sealed in chains, and was now evidently indestructable. A swift inspection of every other exit, plausible or otherwise, showed that they were now impassible in one way or another. When Gantz tried his teleportation spell, nothing happened. And when A.J. attempted to unlock the door with his Keyblade, nothing. And when they tried plowing through the wall Kool-Aid Man style (most certainly not A.J.'s idea, nope) they found that either Kavma had made the rest of the building indestructible too, or whatever it was those demon workers used to fix the place earlier was stronger than they thought.

Naturally, quite a few members of the group were ticked off.

Kaitlin leaned against the door, her eyes closed. "In case I said it before, I'll say it again--I absolutely loathe that man."

[gantzgun74]

Red looked a little confused at Max's commentary and tilted her head in confusion, looking at him oddly. Of course, she watched as Kaitlin walked to the front door only to punch it as hard as she could... It didn't do anything of course, and really, Red was saddened by this. She didn't like seeing her friends upset. Sighing, she looked back to Max and proceeded to help him up.

Gene meanwhile walked up and helped Lilia to her feet. "You okay dear?"

The responding snarl was so loud it wouldn't be surprising if the neighbors could hear it. "GOD DAMN THAT LITTLE @#$#@$ @#$@#$ @#$@#$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS?!?!?!?!?"

As she went on her rant, the Climber pushed himself to his feet and looked to Lilia with a raised eyebrow. "I... Didn't know those words existed..."

"WELL YA DO NOW THROW PILLOW!!!!"

"Hey hey hey." Metal walked into the room with his arms crossed. "Don't take this out on Climber. We're ALL stressed after what's happened..." He looked to Red. "Sides there's a kid present..." Red looked to Metal with her head tilted in curiosity. "Don't worry Red. Just go meet up with Gantz. Should be in the sitting room."

Red nodded at this, and quickly left the lobby.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

In the sitting room, Gantz was pouring through book after book, Rosaline and Nina along with him, reading as well. Why? Gantz knew very well their situation as it stood, so he hoped to be able to find a solution.

Really, the group weren't the only ones concerned about the whole thing. Nina, ever the new blood among the group, was every bit concerned herself. As she read through the books, her mind appeared to be elsewhere. Ever since she had woke up an hour ago, she had hoped to leave the house so she could look for Jack Russel. After all, if she had made it to this world, perhaps Jack did as well... But now she was stuck here. As she red a book, she found a pair of eyes looking at her over the book.

" OH!" She lowered the book to find Red standing there. "Oh it's you... Hello there." Red smiled at the greeting, glad to find someone who wasn't over-reacting to being trapped here. "What brings you here little one?" The question was so simple, and the answer was as simple as Red motioning to the lobby where Nina could hear Lilia raging a bit. "Aaaah... I see. Looking for some quiet..."

She sighed with a smile as Red nodded. To be honest, Nina liked Red the most out of everyone in this group. She was such an innocent...

She reminded Nina so much of her younger sibling... Wherever she was now... Shaking her head, Nina motioned to the space beside her, and Red took the invite with a smile. Red liked Nina too really. She could feel the woman was really hurting... Even if she didn't know why. The once-been inmate sat next to Nina and looked to her with a sweet little smile. Nina returned it gingerly.

"Anything yet guys?"

Gantz's question came quite suddenly catching Nina by surprise.

"Nothing." Rose said a moment later, lowering her book. "I still don't understand what we're looking for..."

The man let out a sigh, as he put away the book he had finished. "I had filled up this library with most of the books I had gained from Roland's library. I had hoped one of these spells would help us escape... But so far... Nadda." With a groan, he turned to Nina. "Anything on your end Nina?"

A shake of her head was the response. "Nothing..." She lowered the book again, looking very concerned. "Gantz... Will we ever get out of here?"

"We will..." A loud growl followed this. "But it'll be AFTER it's too late to do anything about Zero. He'll probably have the entire island destroyed before we can do anything... And that's the OPTIMISTIC viewpoint... It doesn't even make it any better that we have Wally, Otto and their pals upstairs..."

A smile appeared on Rose's face as she walked up to the desk, setting the book she was reading aside. "Well... At least Wally's okay......... Or... At least he isn't a monster..."

'Too bad he's been increasingly down on himself for being one briefly' Rose refrained from saying. Really, knowing Wally was suffering was the LAST thing Gantz needed to hear right now...

[doctorzero]

Meanwhile...

Kaitlin sighed as she turned from the door. "You're right, maybe I should give it a rest for a bit. You know what, I'm going to go talk to Wally and Otto."

Max stood up. "I'll go with you."

"I'll stay down here, thanks," said A.J. "Otto kept looking at me funny earlier."

"Don't mind him, he does that with everyone," Max joked.

A.J. shrugged. "Eh."

As the two of them went upstairs, A.J. stole at glance in Gene and Lilia's direction. Seeing the two of them kept reminding him of Cheryl, along with his band back home.

And to be frank, he was getting homesick.

"Hey..." he said softly, grabbing their attention. "Mind if I play a song?"

---

Meanwhile, Kaitlin and Max were heading for the duo's room upstairs.

"No luck, huh?"

Kaitlin turned to see that Buizel was leaning against the wall, looking away from the two of them. Whoa, deja vu...

Max shook his head. "No, it still won't budge..."

"Hmm."

Kaitlin got the hint. "You can go ahead, I'll be there in a sec," she told Max.

Max gave her a look, but nodded and walked off. Kaitlin turned her attention back to Buizel. "Okay, what?"

"Don't you think it's strange that this Zero guy shows up at the exact same time Kavma's pulling off his stupid hairbrained scheme?" Buizel asked. "It's too much of a coincidence."

"You think Zero's working for Kavma?" Kaitlin asked. She could actually see that happening...

"Maybe, maybe not. I dunno. We haven't seen Zero, so I can't say for sure. James thinks that Kavma's overreacting, though. I mean, even with this deva thing, he can't be worse than Haz--I mean, you know."

Buizel was smart in not finishing the name. Kaitlin's expression darkened. "Well, I just think Kavma's lying to screw with us."

"He never lied to us before," the Sea Weasel pointed out.

"He's never been totally honest, either."

"He's hardly ever lied by omission, he just rephrases things."

Kaitlin glared at her. "Who's side are you on?!"

Buizel sweatdropped. "Sorry."

Silence for a moment...

"Is it weird that I'm guessing everything you're saying to me?"

Buizel just nodded.

---

Meanwhile, Max found James listening in at the door to the duo's room. "Ahem."

The Riolu jumped in fright and turned to see his trainer. "Oh, uh, hi, Max...hehe..."

Max crossed his arms. "What have I said about eavesdropping?"

[gantzgun74]

Inside a room upstairs, one would almost expect it to be sunny and filled with laughter. After all, such was almost always the case when the room had Wally Kisaragi in it, and Wally was perhaps one of the sunniest individuals around......

But today... Today was different.

If one walked into the room, they'd find a somber little scene sitting before them. Wally was seen sitting on the bed, fully awake after his episode back on Mt. Bonsai... But he seemed to be low on cheeriness, made apparent by his lowered head, and sad facial expression. Otto and Rin-Rin meanwhile sat on the bed next to Wally's; or rather, Otto sat, Rin-Rin was laid down on it, making herself comfortable.

Otto wanted so much to say something that would cheer Wally up and get him back to his old self... But, thick as theives as they were, Otto knew that nothing he could say could make the poor young man feel any better. This wound would take time to heal.

................................ The silence was almost deafening, save for Wally sniffling a little bit.

[doctorzero]

The door slowly creaked opened as Max peeked into the room, drawing Otto and Rin's attention. "Hey..."

---

"What I want to know is what Gantz is doing on this island to begin with," Kaitlin muttered, leaning against the wall next to Buizel.

"Did you ask him?"

"I mentioned it, yeah, but he just said that he'd tell us later. He seemed uncomfortable."

"How long do you think he's been here?"

"I asked Rose. She said that they've been here for several months."

---

Max and James walked into the room, Max looking at Wally with concern. "Wally..."

The sight of him was seriously making him feel horrible.

He turned to Otto and cleared his throat. "I'd...like to ask you a couple things, Otto. About what happened on Kavma's ship, I mean."

[gantzgun74]

Otto looked to Max, his face turning from somber to flat in a few seconds. "There isn't much to tell... They tried to take Wally to another room to look over him. To hell if I was going to allow that, so I forced myself along." He scoffed a bit. "They looked him over, no probes, needles, anything like that. They scanned him with an odd machine or two, but they assured me it was just to scan for the D.E.V.A shit."

Rin-Rin spared a look towards him. "I don't trust machines like that, especially from people like them... They remind me of the war and those machine's the monks tried to make.

"No kidding... Pfff, Advanced Tech... Hah..." Otto didn't rightly care that Max wouldn't likely understand what they were talking about; there was plenty of confusion apparent from the whole AU Otto thing. He looked back to Max. "Are their any other questions?"

--------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile downstairs, Misty walked along the hallway, looking quite a bit antsy. Ever since this barrier went up, she had feelings of Cabin Fever starting to grip on her. As much as she LOVED sitting around, she liked flying around and roaming more. "ooooii..."

As she walked, she took in the empty hallways, reasoning that the others were busy elsewhere, trying to figure a way out.

There was the sound of someone opening a door, before it closed once more. Out of the sitting room walked Nina whom appeared to be looking confused. Misty let out a smile.

Maybe it was time to talk to the new girl.

"Hey there."

Nina looked to the alien being at first with a look of aprehension. She was very much aware that Misty wasn't human, and it was in a knights nature as of recent weeks in Radiata. Misty held up her hands. "Hey now, don't give me that look. Just giving you a greeting." Misty said simply as she sat down on a nearby chair. "Sides, I'm a friend. If you can trust Gantz, Rose and the others you can trust me."

............. The soldier slowly lowered her guard, figuring she had a point... "I'm... Sorry... I'm still getting used to this whole thing... Teaming up with non-humans..."

"Non-human agression eh?"

"We were in the middle of a war back on my world."

There was a clicking of her tongue as Misty took this in. "Pffff... Segregation. What a stupid subject; Treating people different just because they may look or act different." Misty turned to Nina frowning. "What are your views on it?"

A surprised look was Nina's response. "Well... I... I do believe that it's necessary in some cases... But the war didn't start on segregation it started because the dwarfs wouldn't give the knights their quota of ore from the mine-"

"Is that really what you believe?"

Misty looked up again, frowning crossly. "Or were you just told that and you accepted it without question?" Nina looked to her crossly. "People like you are all alike. Judging people, ONLY because others are. What are you, a person or a sheep?"

[There will be a point to this.]

[doctorzero]

Max shook his head. "No. Guys, I'm so sorry you got caught up in this."

He sat down in a spare chair. "None of us expected this to happen when we arrived here. Heck, we didn't even think we'd meet YOU here, for that matter. But if we hadn't--"

WHAP!

"Ow!"

James shook his paw at Max, having punched him in the knee. "What did I tell you about thinking about we we should or shouldn't have done?"

Max rubbed his knee. "Right...sorry...heh, and here I thought I was the voice of reason."

A thought then occurred to him. He turned to Rin and asked, "I just had a thought...what do you think that weird ball of light was? I mean, have you ever seen it before?"

[gantzgun74]

Sitting up, Rin looked to Max with a frank expression. "I don't know honestly." She sighed. "All I know is that thing was alive. That's all. Anything beyond that, I couldn't tell in the slightest."

"No kidding." Otto said after a moment. "I don't know what that thing was... But... The way it affected that D.E.V.A. monstrosity... It's gotten me quite curious..."

----------------------------------------------------------

Downstairs, the conversation with Nina and Misty was steadily getting uglier. Anyone with half a brain that passed by that spot would be able to see it.

"I am no sheep."

"Your not doing a good job convincing me of that." Misty returned with a spiteful frown.

Nina growled. "Look. I've told you my views. Segregation is not a pretty subject. It never is. But there do exist people that are different from one another, and humans can't accept differences that quickly."

There was a light growl. "Maybe not. But I wasn't asking for other people's views... I was asking for YOURS."

Misty's question rolled on Nina's ears a moment... And honestly? She seemed somewhat frustrated. ".... Fine... Maybe I do believe it's necessary-"

"Necessary?"

There was an air of malevolence in Misty's tone. "Oh. So it's necessary to treat people different just because they may look and act different?" She floated up out of her chair and looked Nina in the eye. "I wanted to talk so I could see what your like as a person... And it looks like I have my answer. And here's some healthy advice... ADJUST. Your going to be seeing a LOT of non-humans on this island, and they won't take kindly to people treating them differently... Least of all people with your attitude."

And with that, she floated off...

From where she stood, Nina watched as she walked off, looking confused...

It was as if Misty spoke from... Personal experience?

[doctorzero]

Kaitlin stood up. "Can you tell Max I went back downstairs? I want to talk to Gantz about something."

---

"Well, when I saw it, it seemed...I dunno, familiar."

Cue the questioning looks.

"I mean, I don't think I've ever seen it before, it's just that it just felt familiar for some reason. Maybe like Deja Vu? I dunno, it's hard to explain."

He decided to change the subject. "We haven't had any luck getting out of the mansion yet. Gantz is still looking for something that could help, but..."

He didn't need to say anything to make his frustration apparent.

---

Meanwhile, downstairs...

Kaitlin entered the hallway just as soon as Misty left. She spotted Nina and walked over to her.

"Hey, Nina, right? I--hey, is something wrong?"

---

Evan stared at the monitor in frustration.

"What I want to know is how Zero got on the island in the first place."

"Interdimensional portals pop up everywhere in random places. He could've fallen into one."

"Doubt it. I bet he stowed away on the ship."

"How could he? We do hourly scans on the thing, we would've caught him in seconds."

"Could someone remind me how to work this thing?" Evan raised his voice.

"Oh, sure, Captain....?"

"What is it?"

"The monitor's showing something..."

[gantzgun74]

By the time Nina saw Kaitlin approach, what Misty had said was already traveling through her mind. She shook it off however when the girl asked her question. "........ Nothing. It's nothing..."

----------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile in the sitting room.....

Gantz and Rose had made absolutely no progress in their searching since we had last seen them. By now, the two had given up and was now sitting on the floor, Red along with them. Also in the library was Metal Sonic himself, having joined the bunch to see what could be done for research.

............ "Are you sure you couldn't find anything in your library?" The robot's voice appeared, it's tone curious.

"And everything we've found, we've tried." There was a small sigh as Gantz said this. "Kavma's WAAAAY too good at this. He's put to use defenses against everything, imaginable or not."

There was a light nod as Metal pulled out one of the books from the shelf. "You sure? There's still a few more books here."

Rose shook her head. "None of them are about magic though. I doubt they'll help us in any way." When Red looked to the gria pitiably, she sighed a bit more. "Normally I'm more gung-ho about any plan, but we're just not seeing anything. From what Gantz is telling me about Kavma, he'll see anything we throw at him coming a thousand miles away." She shook her head a bit more... "Well... At the very least Tarosuke's still out there."

.........................................

Gantz's eyes widened. "Hey... HEY ROSE YOUR RIGHT! Tarosuke IS still out there!" There was a clever grin on his face as he pulled out his cellphone. "God knows Taro has more experience with magic then the rest of us, maybe he can bust us outta here!"

Metal joined the three on the floor as Gantz dialed in the number, and then pulled the phone to his ear...

There was a ring...........

And another ring..............

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.........

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.........

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing..........

With each ring, Gantz's smile vanished more and more. "..... Taro?" When the answering machine picked up, Gantz quickly hung up and tried again... "Come on Tarosuke... The one big time we need you... Pick up..."

------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile in the Cemetary of Void City we find a solitary cell-phone let out a Vincent Price style cackle....

And right next to it as we zoom out...

Was a hand that appeared red and black... Both colors from the puddle of slowly drying blood it was now in....

The phone only continued cackling....

And the hand never moved to answer it.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Back at the estate, Gantz looked flabbergasted as he took the phone away from his ear once more.

...........................

Metal looked quite curious himself. "... Maybe he's just busy?"

....... "No... Something's wrong. I made absolutely sure before he left that he knew to keep his phone on him at all times, and answer when I call..." Gantz looked both confused yet almost horrified. "He'd answer his phone..."

This lead to both Red and Rose to look to Gantz then to each other with looks of worry on their faces. "Oh my... I hope he's okay... Perverted little troll though he might be... He was still a good kid..."

[doctorzero]

Kaitlin knew full well it wasn't 'nothing', but she wasn't going to press the issue. "Well, if you say so. Come on, I want to talk to you for a bit."

---

"What are the scans showing?"

"Not sure. the wavelength isn't autoclassified.

"Do you think--"

"It's not Thadeus. We'd know about it yesterday."

"Zero?"

"Where are the signals originating?"

"The church."

---

Kaitlin and Nina were now sitting in front of each other in the dining room. Kaitlin was looking over the Radiata Knight curiously.

The Keyblade at her side obviously drew her attention, but she had seen enough Keyblades to the point that she was no longer impressed.

"First off, I'm really sorry that you got caught up in all of this," she apologized. "Max and I have an excuse, but you--well, getting roped into a disaster like this purely by accident has to suck."

She ran her hand through her hair and sighed. "Anyway, did Gantz fill you in on the specifics? Like what the deal is with Kavma and such?"

[gantzgun74]

..........................................

Nina nodded a bit, looking a bit down. "Y-yes... He did..." She sighed a bit before looking away. "We're basically jailed by a man who could be a god from the viewpoing of the people from my home." She picked up the keyblade to take another look at it. "And on top of everything.... This blade just poofs into my lap..." She shook her head. "I don't even know what it is... All I know is that it chose me......... Frankly I don't even know what that means..."

[doctorzero]

"I can sympathize with you there."

"What the--?!"

A.J. was leaning against the door, his own Keyblade slung over his shoulder. "Hey, Kates, what's up?"

"One, don't call me that. TWO--"

"Don't barge in unannounced, I know." A.J. spoke with the air of someone who had dealt with this hundreds of times. "Anyway, Nina, right?" He sat down in an empty chair. "I sorta know how you feel. When I got this thing--" He held out his Keyblade to her. "--I had no idea what it was or why I got it. Heck, it was several months until I found out anything about it. I didn't want it at first, though, because...well, some people didn't seem to like me having it..."

He and Kaitlin exchanged glances.

"One time, we met this guy calling himself Nova," Kaitlin continued. "He said he actually forged Keyblades. Didn't really believe him at first, until--"

"Until mine was snapped in half," A.J. interrupted.

"A.J.--"

"Kaitlin, lemme tell her."

She sighed. "Fine."

"...when it broke, well...it hurt. A lot. Like I just had my own body and soul torn in half. Nova told me that some Keyblade wielders have some kind of connection with their weapons, some more than others. He also said that some Keyblades are even sentient...well, only some, anyway. Mine decided on me because I was only in some...danger at the time, but I dunno about yours. He also said that they appear to whoever they've chosen depending on all sorts of things. Other than any of that, well, we didn't really get the chance to ask him more. Something about secrets no mortal man was ever meant to know, Hail to Clthulu and all that."

"...you do realize that was Jim who said that, right?"

"Hey, who's telling this story, me or you?"

He turned back to Nina. "I hope that was helpful. It WAS helpful, right?"

[gantzgun74]

.................... Nina looked on at AJ taking in what he said a few seconds... Even mintes honestly. The fact that a keyblade was apparently as powerful as that prompted her to look at the blade again. It seemed so simple, elegant in design. Not really what she pictured a sword would look like... Yet neither what she would picture a legendary weapon would look like...

But if a keyblade was so powerful why would one choose her? She was nothing special. Heck she wouldn't classify herself as a particularly good choice for such an amazing priviledge. "........... I wish I could say it was but... It wasn't... This... sounds so amazing... I don't even know why something like this would choose me. ME of all people. There are people I can think of who would be more deserving of this honor then me..."

She sighed as she put the keyblade back on the table. "... I'm not even that strong of will or pure of heart... Apparently."

At that moment, it became very apparent why Misty was so critical with her earlier... What sort of chosen one could she be if all she did was follow orders? Listen to other people's oppinions, no matter how horrible, and establish them as her own...

At that moment, another memory came to her head. A memory of Sir Gawain, a man that was once well respected by the knights until his betrayal, yelled at her for killing a dragon. Calling it 'Hunting for sport'. She still wasn't sure what he meant... But she also remembered how the Light Elves of her world reacted to the slaying of the Water Dragon Kelvin...

And then...

There was Jack Russel... Poor, simple-minded but strong willed Jack Russel, who betrayed the humans... And when they once fought, he showed not the slightest twinge of regret......

And here she was with all the regret in the world... ... ... Trapped in a situation out of her element, one she couldn't hope to understand fully...

A woman of the world was fully and completely stumped for the first time in her short 18 year life...

[doctorzero]

"I don't think you actually NEED to be pure of heart, to be honest," said A.J. "I mean, I'm hardly a paragon of serenity myself."

"Your mastery of that one 'technique' is proof of that," Kaitlin snarked.

A.J. turned a beet red. "W-we promised not to mention that to anyone! You know Cheryl would kill me!"

"Right. Don't ask," Kaitlin added to Nina.

A.J. cleared his throat, regaining his composure. "A-anyway, I wouldn't worry about it right now, Nina. Considering what's going on right now..."

---

Meanwhile, in the sitting room...

Someone knocked.

"It's Max. Can I come in?"