Anywhere's Better than Here (Open)

[Beat]

Since he reunited with Joshua and met Anti-Sora, Beat had come across a bit more information. The twitchy, shadow-like creatures were called Heartless and this place was an entirely different world from the Shiyuba he knew and loved. While Anti-Sora struck him as odd but not terrible, the default types of Heartless attacked without any warning, giving him no choice but to fight in turn. By this point Beat had gotten over Anti’s attachment to the creatures. If they wanted to fight him and try to kill him, then they were no better than the Reapers and the Noise. He’d take the Heartless out of the way in the same he did to them.

Other than the Heartless and the dreary nature of the world, things weren’t that bad. He could find odd jobs to earn money, he had rented a room to sleep in, and even though the food wasn’t what he usually ate, he rarely went hungry. Most of the people in the town were castaways as well, so they could relate to his situation and were normally friendly. Overall, considering stories of other worlds people ended up in, Traverse Town wasn’t a bad place to be. And Beat hated every minute of it. Whenever he heard of a Heartless consuming the heart of a person, all he could think of was Rhyme and if what happened to her. It made his hands shake to consider the possibility that she was on a different world all alone with no one there to take care of her or keep her safe from the Heartless. She fought with pins, not physically like he did but with special abilities, and he knew she was perfectly capable of fighting, but not without a partner. Not without him there.

Beat groaned and covered his face with a hand, shoving away his lunch. Thinking about his little sister abandoned in some other world had ruined his appetite. He knew how to get off this world well enough, simply by buying a gummi ship, but there was no way he would be able to afford one in time to reach Rhyme. Maybe someone would give him a ride, but then he might be stuck in a different world with even less of a chance of getting to his sister. The boy snarled and stood up suddenly, slamming his fist down on the table in frustration. “C’mon, there has to be a way outta here! I can’t be stayin’ forever! I hafta find Rhyme!”

Such outbursts had become common for him and occurred more and more frequently as his anger built. They were never directed at an individual, but rather the situation in general. No one could give him an alternative to the gummi ships, something he desperately needed. After a moment Beat sat back down again, resigned to his helplessness once again. In an hour or two he’d be shouting again, but for now he didn’t know what to do or even where to start. Beat poked at his plate sourly.

“Jus’ keep waiting for me, Rhyme… I’ll find you.”

[Ventus]

Ventus would have traveled to numerous worlds before during his chase after Vanitas though none would be similar to this one. Traverse town would be a place of horror and nightmares .The streets would be plagued by small savaged creatures with tiny yellow eyes observing every movement you make within the darkness. As it would be the end of all ,the moment where you put your guards down.

It would have been weeks, since the boy began his search for clues about his past memories, though no significant results would be made as the youth is thinking about maybe giving up. Wondering on the dark streets alone , the boy would try to keep his eyes sharp and his guard up at all time. After all , who knows when one of these little creatures will jump out and give you a surprise attack from the back? Analyzing the street while turning left toward the intersection of a boulevard , the youth would have discovered the presence of a man. He would be tall in comparison with himself and fairly muscular , though he would seem rather depressed. Walking toward the man as no particular harm would be shown , Ventus would walk toward the man and greet in a monotonic voice.

[green]''Hey there mister. May I know what is causing you to be so depressed and frustrated?''[/green]

[Marluxia]

If there was one thing that the boy named Beat and the pink haired Nobody named Marluxia had in common at this very moment, it was frustration. Despite being a hollow shell and not acting like he had emotions for as long as he remembered, the pink haired Nobody found that emotions were becoming common place for him the more he walked about in the worlds. He wasn’t sure what it meant for he did not feel the beat of a Heart when he checked, so where these emotions came from was beyond him and after a while of pondering them, he just accepted the fact that they were there and he’d have to deal with it. End of story.

While the new emotions were confusing, they were the cause of minor agitation for the Nobody who kept himself busy with his current purpose of finding information and figuring out where the Organization members were. While he had found Namine and even Xion, he hadn’t run into any of the numbered members and Xemnas had not shown himself at all. Not knowing what the Nobody could be up to was agitating to say the least, but he guess he should be happy about the lack of encounters with the man. While he was by no means loyal to any of the members in the Organization, he did not wish harm upon most of them; however, Xemnas was another story. There was just something about the obsessed Nobody that made Marluxia’s blood boil, made him want to see him taken down in any way. At first, he thought this desire to tear Xemnas down was because of personal interests being threatened by the man breathing, but the more he thought about it the more Marluxia began to think there was something deeper driving that desire, but what he could not figure out and at the moment didn’t feel like even trying to figure out.

He was on his own time schedule now and refused to go back to Organization even if they were all brought back somehow. He needed to hunt down the other members to find out where their loyalties rested or if they were like him out on his own. He also need to know how many of the group he had to deal with. Granted, he wasn’t exactly nice to anyone and he had used quite a few members for his own goals, so he didn’t expect them to trust him if he did run into them; however, he was sure with time, he could convince some to give him another chance. He needed trust and loyalty to himself from others. This way, he would not have to worry about trouble or betrayals. It made people easy to use and in turn get things done. Sure, he could take any task on alone, but having others there playing their parts made plans fall into place easier and the pace moved quite nicely when everything was in harmony. He was not asking anyone to pledge their allegiance to him or anything like that. All he was asking was that when he needed someone to do something or be there, they would be with no fussing or questioning. Work as one with him and he in turn would have no reason to eliminate said person. He’d give aid and protection to those who were loyal to him. Turn against him and you’d pay dearly for the offense.

In any case, the Nobody was finding those sort of folk hard to come by. He needed someone like Larxene, who would stick with him until the end, but he didn’t know if she was alive either. Of the Organization members he knew, she was one that he actually would be happy to see if she had been brought back like he had. She was useful and loyal to him before, he wondered if she’d work with him again. In time, he’d learn the answers to what he sought. In time.

As for the moment, the Graceful Assassin was still in information finding mode. He wandered from one place to the other not being surprised that Heartless were still about and causing chaos. He spotted some dusk that were lose, but for the most part the creatures seemed to be moving without a cause, so he did not worry about them much. As he traveled, he heard whispers of wars between Light and Dark and while this intrigued him, he did not have any plans to join a fight until he had at least figured out some of the information he was searching for and had a firmer standing on this uneven terrain he was dealing with. As he traveled, he had come across a what appeared to be a useful find when he had returned to the mansion in Twilight Town.

Unlike before, he did not meet the girl called Olette. Instead, he had appeared directly in the mansion and made a beeline for the labs she had pointed out when he had encountered her before and chatted with her in this place. He was not concerned about the child’s whereabouts or if she had found her way out of Twilight Town, he only wanted the secrets the labs held. Finding the labs were easy enough since the path down to them remained open most likely from someone entering in the past. From the dust that had collected on the path, he knew that no one had been here in a while, so maybe that was a good thing. Maybe the information he sought was still safe and sound; however, after walking down the stairs and finding mostly ruins the Nobody began to wonder if this place would turn up anything interesting at all. The cracked tubes and old computer were certainly not going to help him. The computer had been destroyed by some force and papers were scattered everywhere. Picking up some of the papers had led to fruitless finds. Useless numbers and words smudge so badly that they could not be read. Disappointed, Marluxia had let the papers drop back to the floor as he dusted off the dirt and dust that had gotten on his black gloves when he had been investigating. He was about to call this place a dead end, when his cold blue eyes caught something hiding in a corner.

Curious as to what the white colored item was he headed over to it and kneeled down before it. It was a white book, a journal to be precise, that had begun to turn grey from age; however, there was a name upon the journal that caused a smile of triumph to cross the Nobody’s pretty face.
Ansem the Wise’s journal, huh? he thought as he reached out for the book. Surely, this would give him some answers; however, the Nobody did not find out if his hunch was right or not for as he reached out for the book, the darkness that clung to the corner came to life and lashed out at him.

Hissing in pain, Marluxia snatched his hand away from the book holding his left hand in his right as if he had been burned. He looked down at his injured hand finding the glove had been torn revealing the pale skin underneath. Three red marks were beginning to appear as blood came to surface of the shallow wound. Blood…it had been a long time since he actually had to worry about bleeding, most opponents had not been able to touch him or hurt him badly within in battle. The darkness which he knew was a Heartless had gotten lucky at catching him off guard, but now it was going to pay with its life.

Marluxia’s cold eyes looked over at the Heartless just in time to see it sinking into the darkness along with the book. Oh, so now it wanted him to chase it down? Fine by him. He could use a hunt to dust off his skills as an assassin. It had been a long time since Marluxia actually had to actively work for what he wanted, so he was going to enjoy this little distraction. He let the creature get a head start before pursuing it using a Corridor of his own. He tracked the creature through the Darkness until it finally exited into a world that radiated a balance of chaos and calm; however, the balance of the world did not bother the Nobody. He was here for the Heartless.

His Corridor opened into a back alley of a town resting under a black sky full of stars. The Nobody noticed that these stars occasionally blacked out while others simply appeared. Symbolism of worlds being changed from Light to Dark perhaps? Maybe, but right now the Nobody did not care. Where did that Heartless go?

As the Corridor closed, he looked around the area taking note that there were other Heartless waiting to get out of their dark hiding spots and attack. The Nobody smirked at this. Clever little Shadow to bring him here to a place where many of its kind thrived. It would making finding the creature hard indeed; however, while the creature believed it was toying with him, it would learn he’d have no problem destroying every last one of the Hearless to find that book it had stolen if he became bored or agitated with this hunt. It had best keep his interest, if it wanted to live a little longer.

As if reading his thoughts, the thief quickly moved from the shadows and down the alley, heading towards the streets with the book held above its head. He only caught of glimpse of the creature and the book before it had disappeared out of sight. Still enjoying the hunt, Marluxia walked from the alley and out into the streets of the town. As he looked at the bright lights and smelt the different scents of life in this town, he took note that out of all the place he had been, he did not stick out like a sore thumb here. Nobody bothered him or wondered where he had come from. It was like the people simply accepted that he was here and nothing more. Good. He wouldn’t have to worry about civilians asking….

Marluxia was distracted from his hunt when he heard a voice yell out something along the lines of “there has to be a way out here” and turned to face the direction of the voice. A child, this time a male, was standing at a table his meal pushed aside as he leaned on the table unleashing his anger. Feisty and maybe useable…if he could find out why he wanted to leave so badly. Marluxia headed towards the angered boy, planning to make him a deal and test his usefulness when another got to the child before him. One oddly familiar. He stopped a safe distance away from the pair where he was within talking and hearing range. He heard the familiar one speaking and could’ve sworn that the child was indeed the young Nobody he had in mind, but here was something off. While the child looked like the Key of Destiny and even sounded like him, his clothing and attitude was different. This one appeared empty, but yet he was not. There was a Heart there, but something about it made the boy feel almost like a Nobody. He could “see” this boy’s aura slightly. A glow that was similar to Light, but dimmer and harder to read. It was confusing. What was he? A Nobody or not? How could something be inbetween a Somebody and Nobody and still exist? Another mystery of life, he did care to ponder. What matter was answers and how either of these two could fit into his plans. He stepped forward, his face mask with a fake smile on it.

“Did I hear you say something about getting out of here?” he asked the boy that had yelled and then giving him a moment to answer. He turned his attention to the other.

“Roxas, it has been a while has it not? Why are you here?” he asked still remaining “friendly”. It was getting easier to pretend he had emotions the more he was forced to do it, so he had to wonder why he didn’t use the trick before. Perhaps what he saw as useless was really helpful after all. The play certainly seemed to work on those with Hearts, but everyone was different, so who was to say how these two would react. Even though he did not expect anything from the boy that reminded him of Roxas. He seemed to be…what was the word? Zombified? Was that even a word? Well, it was going to be now because the word fit the boy. He looked zoned out and even spoke in a monotone fashion just like Roxas did when he first came to the Organization; however, the more he stayed within the boy’s presence, the more he had to wonder who he really was. Roxas would not be as confusing to decipher as this one was. What was he and what useful potential did he have? A keyblade perhaps to go with that look? He could test this all provided he got everyone on board that is. He needed their desires and wishes. With them, he could plan and move the pieces so that in the end, he would benefit even better than the pawns themselves.

[Beat]

While Beat didn’t know what he would do to find a way off of Traverse Town, he did know that sitting around would never bring him closer to Rhyme. Gummi ships couldn’t be the only form of transportation between worlds. Someone had to know a different way. Beat stood and threw the correct amount of money on the table to pay for the meal, ready to leave, but a boy with spiky blonde hair distracted him from leaving. Obviously the guy was new in town, since most people who were in hearing range of him knew of his problem. His yelling made sure of that.

The skater paused before answering the stranger and narrowed his eyes, distrustful of him. It didn’t seem to him as if the guy cared whatsoever about why he just screamed his problems to the world. More than likely, the newcomer was simply annoyed with him for being so noisy. That was nothing new though. Even back home where people were more comfortable with him, others would become exasperated rather quickly because of his impulsiveness, but Beat didn’t care. Whether they liked him or not wasn’t his problem. He crossed his arm over his chest and linked his hand to his shoulder, a step away from walking away from the whole thing. The last thing he needed was someone getting on his case.

“I’m stuck here and my lil’ sis is lost somewhere else. That answer it for you, yo?” he said warily. “I gotta get goin’ so I can find a way out of Trav Town. I can’t leave her alone like this.” Beat knocked his skateboard off the leg of his chair and to the ground just as another man walked up to the two of them. After a good look at him, Beat shook his head and chuckled. And he thought Phones had a weird hairstyle. If he saw the man from the back he would’ve thought the person was a girl. Why in the world would someone have their hair be pink? It looked utterly ridiculous, and to top it all off it needed cutting, as in it should’ve been cut months ago. There had been a Reaper whom he knew back in Shiyuba, Uzuki, but it fit her. This guy, not so much.

As much amusement he found in the man’s hair, his attention was quickly shifted to more important matters. Maybe this person would take him out of this world. Even though he acknowledged the fact that he might be stuck on a less promising world with an even slimmer chance of finding Rhyme if he tagged along with someone who might not stick with him until he found his sister, he didn’t have much of a choice. If this guy offered him a ride, he’d take it without looking back.

Still, something about him made Beat rather uneasy, the same way he felt when he was around Heartless. Such feelings were uncalled for, as this person was much more welcoming and friendly than the last, but he couldn’t shake it. It didn’t matter though. He’d take the risk that he wasn’t one to be trusted if it meant transportation.

“Yeah, jus’ like I told him, yo.” Beat jerked his head towards the blonde. “I need to find Rhyme.” The boy waited to see what the two would do. Either they would prove to be a huge waste of time, or he’d be getting himself into a huge mess with their help. The latter brought a small smile to his face. This place became boring a long time ago. A little excitement was long overdue.