Sell you a Bridge chapter 347

July 4th 2016 Quadratum, 3:00 PM EDT

"Haha."  Said the anthropomorphic mouse kind. "Sorry about that. Almost had him.  That old ghost Luxu is a slippery one. Didn't expect the Master of  Masters to be involved in this mess." His big dark eyes were creased at  the corners from his huge grin, and from his aura I could tell this guy  was a genuinely pure hearted person. He reminded me a lot of Sora,  actually, but WAY more powerful. Like...holy shit.

"Your  majesty!" Came the stereo voices of Donald and Goofy as they ran over. I  looked around and sure enough, everyone was heading back. Roxas was  trudging over with Namine, looking kind of exhausted and with the  bottoms of his pants burned, but otherwise unharmed.

I  gave the mouse king a nod. "Thanks for the save King Mickey. That was a  tougher fight than I was expecting. You mentioned that guy's name was  Luxu? I thought it was Xigbar. Whoever he was he was one of the scarier  fighters I've met." Like...not quite on Darkseid's level, but I'd put  him at the same strength as Kalibak, and WAY smarter and more  resourceful.

Mickey just laughed. "You were still holding  back quite a bit. Probably smart given all the others around here. No  reason to tip your hand if we can team up and keep some secrets." He  held out a gloved hand. "Nice ta meetcha. Just call me Mickey. You  aren't one of my subjects after all. As for Luxu...that's not his real  body. It was more like possession. He's a disciple of the Master of  Masters. I don't think he's personally involved in this though."

I  nodded. "Yeah, I got that from his aura. I think he was a plant inside  the Organization and I kicked an anthill when I fought Xigbar. Not sure  if he's coming back, but I hope not. I'm Morgan by the way. Morgan  O'Malley." I gestured behind me. "You know most of the others, but the  three brunettes are Zatanna Zatara, mistress of magic, and Beautiful  Dreamer, one of the New Gods. The short one is our daughter, Morana  O'Malley."

There was a pulse of shock and affection  through one of the bonds, and it took me a second to realize that I'd  never named my daughter out loud like that. Not with the last name too. I  turned to smile at her, and caught her turning around trying to hid her  suspiciously shiny eyes. We both pretended not to notice that.

Mickey  smiled at them and waved. "I'm well acquainted with the New Gods, and  I've heard of Beautiful Dreamer. The Forever People are famous  explorers, it's a shame we never got to meet before now. Miss Zatarra,  Miss O'Malley, It's nice to meet you both." He looked around in concern.  "We should get out of the street before someone else shows up. Do all  of you mind?"

Waving him off, I shook my head. "Not at  all. Roxas, what happened with Axel by the way? Are you ok?" The  keyblade wielder looked tired and not a little shaken.

"I'm  fine." He said tiredly. "Axel and I...I owed him a fight. When he saw  the king take off Xigbar's arm he used the distraction to slip away. I  have to say I'm surprised you were able to fight him head on like that. I  know you took on Marluxia but he and Xigbar are in a totally different  weight class. He's always been one of the most mysterious members of the  Organization."

I grimaced as I rolled the shoulder I'd  let him impale. "You don't fucking say?" At his flinch, I chuckled a  bit. "Don't sweat it man. You just said he's mysterious. I'm not going  to bitch because you didn't know something."

"Yeah." Piped  up Zee. "That would make him a massive hypocrite. Morgan doesn't even  know what HE'S doing most of the time." At my mock glare she just stuck  out her tongue at me, and I rolled my eyes. "Anyway, we can hole up in  this building right here." She said pointing to an unobtrusive office  building. "I can set us up some wards to make sure no one knows we're  there." She turned to Mickey with a smile. "I'd love some help if you're  interested your majesty. Master Yen Sid had nothing but good things to  say about your magic skills."

The king looked surprised.  "You know Master Yen Sid?" We started off into the building. "That's  wonderful. I was worried when the tower moved. I tried to get in contact  through some of our alternative methods but nothing came of it. Once of  my agents checked in Twilight Town and he reported that the tower had  vanished. Judging by your fight with those two I'm guessing the  Organization found him?"

Zee nodded solemnly. "They did.  They couldn't get past the wards, but Master Yen Sid was worried about  staying in place to let the enemy assault them freely." As we entered  the building, we picked an office and Zee gestured us in. "Alright, this  room is small enough that I should be able to ward it up pretty tight,  give me a minute." She called Star Seeker, getting a shocked glance from  Mickey before she started to cast and he jumped in to help.

The  walls of the office crawled with arcane script and runes as the two of  them stacked shields on shields to make sure we wouldn't be found or  overheard. It was a smart plan really. We were RIGHT next to where we'd  fought the others. No one would think we'd stuck around, and if they did  they'd try scrying us first. Once magic confirmed we were gone they'd  probably just move on.

Once that was done, we all took a  seat in one of the chairs scattered around. Despite the lack of people  or any signs of life (not even a plant) there WAS furniture in the  office, even if it looked both old and unused.

"So." I  said seriously. "Mickey. You were here to find Riku right? I take it you  haven't had any luck?" I'd really been hoping they were together  actually, so it was kind of a let down, but we were halfway finished at  least, and that wasn't nothing.

He shook his head. "Not  yet. I've narrowed down what parts of the city he's NOT in at least.  Which took more effort than expected. But I've been avoiding all the  other things around here. There aren't just Organization members. I've  seen some other things that I didn't recognize skulking around too. I  don't know what this place is or why it's like this but I want to leave  as soon as possible."

Which begged the question. "Why did  Riku come here to begin with? You came to find him right? But what was  he looking for in this empty ass world."

He blinked at us.  "You don't know?" He asked hesitantly. At our impatient head shakes he  sighed. "He's looking for Kairi. She's here. Ansem brought her here to  shelter her from the Organization. She was attacked in Destiny islands  and we decided it wasn't safe. Ansem was supposed to meet me here to let  me take over, but I didn't realize the Organization would find out.  They leaked it to Riku, who came himself to save her, because THEY don't  have her either and Ansem is missing now."

"Ansem is the  teacher guy. The one whose students make up the Organization?" He'd been  mentioned in a few of the journals, but I hadn't realized he was  someone they knew. Although...actually Sora had mentioned him too.  "Wait, wasn't Ansem the guy Sora said he beat before he and Kairi got  separated?"

"No." Said Mickey without hesitation. "He was a  heartless who called himself Ansem, just like the leader of the  Organization calls himself Xemnas and claims to be Ansem's nobody. In  reality they're both just puppets for the real leader of Organization  13, a keyblade Master named Xehanort. They're his heartless and Nobody  respectively, but they were created when he was possessing another body,  so they look different. They use the name Ansem because it's  convenient."

"So...Xehanort is the guy I'm going to be  fighting when I get to Scala ad Caelum?" This shit was giving ME a  headache, and I had perfect recall. At his nod though, I just brushed it  off. Who cared about all the backstory bullshit. I knew who to beat  down when I got there and what needed doing. This complicated soul thing  was all them. "Alright fine, so Kairi is here, which is a good thing  for us because it means less travel, right?"

Mickey shook  his head, "Ansem is a master magician. If someone took her from him and  subdued him it means they're powerful. I wouldn't assume anything. We  need to find Riku, he's been here longer than I have and should have a  better idea of Kairi's situation."

Which left us back at  square one, but that was fine. Kairi being here would save us a trip  anyway, it was just...I had a terrible feeling things here weren't as  simple as they seemed. I'd seen the Organization, and there seemed to be  a few of them, but Mickey had said he'd seen others around here. They  could just be locals, but given how empty this shithole was, I was more  inclined to believe they were other forces working for Barbatos.

The  only thing I could think of was that there was another fucking Batman  here, and probably a scary one. The absolute worst position to be in  with regards to a Batman was to be in the dark blindly searching around  while they waited in the shadows. I really hoped it was another thug  like the Devastator. If it was someone sneakier this was going to be a  pain in the ass.

"You have some leads though right? You  mentioned eliminating the places you know he isn't. If you can get me  close I should be able to track him down." My knack for aura was  extremely useful for tracking, as long as I had a place the person had  actually been in my sight. I'd gotten the ability originally to track  down Paula for Artemis and it had been crazy useful even in Gotham, not  to mention a literal abandoned city with minimal aura traces to sort  through.

He nodded. "The last place I need to check is  downtown. It's a big area though. You're sure you'll be able to find  clues?" He seemed excited about the possibility of finally making  progress, and I wondered how long he'd been here looking. This city was  huge, so searching almost all of it couldn't have been a quick process.

I  confirmed that I could, and with that decided the lot of us decided to  rest up a bit before heading back out. Roxas looked exhausted, and  Mickey's holy spell had been a huge drain if the amount of power was  anything to go by. While we waited, I closed my eyes and entered the  outer body trance.

The void grimoire was extremely complex  and hard to decode, but the use of levels of decryption through  superposition of the letters meant that once I'd gotten through enough  of the first and second page I could continue to digest the rest  mentally. I'd been working on it lately, and with the boost from the  most recent mental enhancement I'd picked up (a bottle of pills called  NZT that would increase mental activity by 300%) I could study it  without having to reveal the book itself.

As I worked, I  considered my next steps, and made plans to save up points while I was  here for another mental boost soon. I'd seen a really interesting email  with an offer for a futuristic cranial implant that I was dying to try  out, I just had to get enough to afford it. Although...I glanced at my  phone. My ability to crank out the keyblades had not only given me new  ideas, it had also trained my tolerance for my power substantially.  Nodding to myself, I decided. Next time we stopped to rest, I'd have Zee  set up a ritual to focus my powers. I was getting that implant.