The Crossroads of Existence

[Lycanthrope]

Take it easy on the templates, though. Try making one super mondo one. More organizaed that way. Just have appearance 1, Ap. 2, etc and label which part it coincides with.

[)-(The Anomaly)-(]

Alright....but in the mean time...i'll just keep adding chapters using the advice you gave me.

[Lectori Salutem]

Nice chapter!!!
You're a better writer then me.....

[Mika-Mika ^_^]

HEY! Don't put yourself down like that! Believe me, I was the crappiest writer in the world a couple of years ago. But it takes practice. Try writing a story about a topic you like and come back to it a few weeks later. See if you can see what is wrong and fix the errors.

Anyhow, Frozen Fate and mikep, you two sure had a long conversation. I would've given advice if I had been on. Ah well, whatever. Hmm, yeah, you are a good writer and I'm sure you'll turn out even better with the advice Frozen Fate gave you...

Okay, so keep writing! In the meantime, I'll just go update that story about Kurai... *waves*

[)-(The Anomaly)-(]

((Chapter Three: Terros Falls.))

Xekim and Zachery look on their house one more time before departing. Where they were heading, they didn't know, but they had to start the journey somehow. Xekim took the keys, locked the door and then put the key in his pocket. They were just about the leave the town. There are two exits, through the forest, and through the town. They were heading toward the forest when Xekim heard a scream from the town. He turned slowly and then looked at his brother.

"We need to go back and help them. If we get there in time we could save them."

"You have to save them!" Zachery said to his brother. "You are the one with the power, you're the only one on Terros who can do anything about these creatures you told me about." Xekim looked at Zachery,

"Then stay close." Xekim said taking out the Death of the heart Keyblade. Zachery sighed and they ran towards the town.

The town was disorder. People were running left and right and helping individuals was going to near impossible. The reason they were running was quite obvious. There were small heartless everywhere. Xekim guessed someone was holding a grudge against him. He swung the blade at one of the heartless and it died in a cloud of black smoke. He kept a lot of them from attacking people, but those weren't the problem. Xekim looked up into the sky and saw a black hole. It seemed to be sucking everything in, even people. Xekim felt a light pull, but it wasn't enough to suck him or his brother up, yet.

Xekim swung his keyblade at more of the heartless attacking people and then suddenly, they began to retreat. Xekim made his keyblade vanish and then looked at the enemy. They weren't running away. They seemed to be gathering up into one large heartless. It got larger and larger until it towered over houses and buildings. Xekim took out both keyblades this time and got ready to fight it. The creature swung an enormous arm down on him. Xekim jumped aside, pulling his brother with him.

"Zachery, Run!" Xekim dodged another attack and then jumped onto the creatures arm. He ran up it to the things head and began hacking and slashing. The heartless, later to be known as Darkside, tried to swat his like a fly, but it didn't help, Xekim just kept hacking away at it's head until the Darkside heartless fell slowly...upward? Xekim looked up and felt the black hole pulling the world into it's mouth. Xekim jumped off of the Darkside's carcass as it began to vanish. Xekim ran across town to find Zachery and knew that he had only a good ten minutes left until he was pulled out of this world for good. Xekim searched around the spot where he'd fought and found Zachery. Xekim grabbed his brother's hand as they began to be pulled up.
"Zachery, hold on tight." Zachery agreed and closed his eyes. The were just about there and the brothers locked eyes, just before sinking into unconsciousness.

((Chapter Three Part Two: The Next Day))

Spiraling pools of blackness confused his eyes, making it hard to make out even the largest of things. He wanted to stand up, to see something that would tell him where the hell he was. He moved his hands experimentally, and realized he was tied up. He opened his eyes and felt that he was, blindfolded? That's strange. Xekim was wondering why he was blindfolded when he remembered,
"Zachery, where are you?!"
"Right here Xekim..."
"Are you alright?
"Yes, just blindfolded...you too right."
"yes."
They talk for about ten minutes and that's when he heard voices. He summoned on of his keyblades and cut the rope that was on him. He removed the blindfold and then freed his brother. He looked around and then noticed that they were in a jail cell.
"This day just keeps getting weirder."Xekim said to his brother. Xekim used his keyblade and cut the cell bars and they got out. They left the prison after about twenty minutes of sneaking around and almost being spotted by a guard dog.

When they left the massive prison, they found themselves in a in an even bigger city. There were flying machines and people everywhere. Buildings that seemed to touch the clouds and neon lights everywhere. Xekim looked around to try and make sense of this place and then found a large glowing sign that said

Welcome to Metropolis.

[Lycanthrope]

Hmm... Muchos better. 8.5/10. More descriptive, and better written. Not as flowy as it can be, but it was still good.

[Lectori Salutem]

good chapter!

They're in the big city!

[)-(The Anomaly)-(]

((Shadows in the Streets))

Welcome to Metropolis, the neon sign seemed burned into Xekim's retinas he was on the verge of screaming. Where were they? Why did they end up in this world of all places? Why did his world get consumed and why the hell was he tied up along with his brother in a jail cell?!

All these questions were circling around in Xekim's head. He was surprised his head didn't burst.
"Zachery, we need to find a place to stay." Xekim said looking around for something that remotely resembles an inn. He had no such luck.
"okay, scratch that last statement, we need a map or directory of this city." He began to walk along the city streets and Zachery followed. There were so many people in the place. This one city was probably filled with more people then half the world of Terros. Xekim felt so small. He kept walking, his discomfort increasing as he looked and saw violent acts, poor beggars and pure cruelty. It was pitiful and mildly disgusting to Xekim. Zachery ignored it and kept walking. Xekim walked after him.

After a few minutes they discovered an Inn. It was rather nice, then again that might be the problem.

"Six hundred munny!"
"But i don't have that much..." Said Xekim with a groan.
"Then tough luck kid!"

"I'll pay for them." Said a female voice from the far corner of the lobby floor of this Inn. A woman walked over to Xekim and held out her hand in greeting. Xekim took it cautiously and shook hands with this woman.
"I'm Tifa Lockheart. I'm on my out, but you can have my room. I've paid of for another week on the room. In that time I imagine you can find some money keep the rent up on your own. Tifa walked out the lobby door before Xekim could really thank her. He smiled, got the keys to the room, and ran to the elevator, Zachery chasing close behind.

Xekim sat in the elevator as they ascended the enormous building. It would be a couple minutes until they hit the their floor and Zachery was looking at Xekim in a worried way.

"What?" Xekim asked.
"You look different since the day mom died. Your hair goes from white to black and your skin, it's all pale. you look sick."

"That's none of your business." Xekim said feeling like Zachery was heading towards a fragile subject.
"I'm your brother Xekim, it's as much my business as it is yours."
"Stay out of it!" Xekim said mildly surprised by the anger in his voice.
"No, I'm worried. This isn't like you. you would yell at me like this if you were yourself."
Xekim took out a keyblade and held it to Zachery's neck. He wasn't able to control himself. The damage the darkness had done, was far deeper than just the physical.
"Leave me alone!" He pushed his against the wall and put away his keyblade. Then he looked away from Zachery and then stared at the ceiling. suddenly he felt sad, and scared of himself. what was he becoming. These were the early side affects, what did they damage?

Zachery walked out of the elevator quickly when it arrived at the floor the room was on and Zachery got as far away as he could from Xekim when they got into the well furnished room. Xekim would like to apologize to Zachery, but his brother would understand, not quite yet. Hopefully they would find that Tiera girl soon. Maybe she would have the answers they needed.
((chapter five soon!!))

[Mika-Mika ^_^]

Simply superb! I love your chapters. You're turning into a telented writer! Keep it up! Mika will rate for the first time... 9/10. Only cause' I like your writing. Nyah-ha-han-su!

[Lycanthrope]

8/10.

Superb. But, try making a new paragraph every change in someone talking. Also, there were a few capitalization and punctuation errors, but, they weren't very noticeable. Your writing is improving every chapter.

[Lectori Salutem]

Nice chapter!
It's a short, but not too short...

[)-(The Anomaly)-(]

((Chapter Five: Balthier and Fran))

So it's been a week and Xekim has finally gotten the hang of the city. After that first day in the elevator Zachery has kept his distance from Xekim, but slowly, he's begun to see that Xekim was sorry, and that he wasn't himself. Now the problem was, how to get more than two nights rent in three hours without robbing a bank. At this point there were two options.
1)Find a job, this option is easy enough, the hard part is actually getting the job. adults may not see the value in hiring two thirteen year old to do their dirty work.

2)Start a life in crime, again this one is also simple and yet, the most difficult part is knowing who to rob and get arrested by a friendly man holding a taser.

Xekim and Zachery decided to go for the safe and easy route and find jobs. The work finally began. Xekim had walked up to several businesses and companies to try and earn money, but nothing worked. Eventually Xekim was forced to work for the people of the city, by doing chores and small jobs for fifty to a hundred munny a piece. Anything from getting a cat out of a tree to planting and gardening. By the end of the three hours they ended up with 1800 munny. Enough for three more nights and that's all they intended to stay. After the last night they needed to find a way to get out of this world. This wasn't going to be easy. Obviously, they couldn't pull a ship out of a magic hat and fly away. They needed to buy one. The cheapest ship they could find was 68900 munny. They'd probably be able to earn that much in a year without spending any of it on shelter and food. So the only way to get a ship was, to steal one. No one was willing to give one to them. They had to sneak aboard one and pilot it out of here, but first, they had to find a pilot.

Xekim doubted they would be able to find one that easily but that was first. They needed a pilot who was good and was able to break the law and they were sure they could find one if they auditioned a few people. Xekim had asked around some of the shadier people in the city. He asked other criminals and gangs for any information on a pilot and at last he got a good lead.

"I know a good pilot for you. His name is Balthier. He's usually found in one of the local bars. He travels around with this, rabbit lady. I'm sure if you can pay them, you can get at least one good ride out of them."

"What does Balthier look like?" Xekim asked the man with sudden interest.

"He's a little taller than you by about three inches, he's also got short brown hair and if you see the rabbit lady, you find him."

Xekim took his advice and snuck into a few bars. He was rather tall, but his current outfit wasn't going to cut it. So he bought a new one. It was a black coat like out fit. It was long and down to his ankles and it had a hood to hide his face. He would put it on over his normal out fit and just look like one of the regular shady costumers. He looked around town and found a bar that looked promising. The place was known by the by standards at the Underground. This name was mainly a description of the people who came to this place. Crooks, vandals and murderers in some cases.

Xekim looked around and saw a woman sitting next to a man in the shadows. She was wearing a black, rather revealing outfit, but he was looking at her head. She had long rabbit like ears and Xekim assumed that she was the rabbit lady the man in the alleyway was talking about. He walked over to them and was about to Say something when the rabbit woman took out a knife and held it to his throat. Xekim gasped and the other people in the bar were pretending not to notice, though Xekim saw a couple people turn their heads and watch.

"You should be cautious about where you tread boy, you might get yourself hurt." said the woman with the knife at his throat.

"I'm only here to talk to Balthier, I'm looking for a pilot." Xekim said hoping it worked. the rabbit woman pulled her knife away and gestured for Xekim to sit down across from her and another person who was just now deciding to it forward. He had light skin with brown eyes. he was wearing a brown, nicely disigned vest over a white dress shirt. His hand was covered in rings of every color, and he wore dark brown pants with a gun holster at his side.

"So you're looking for a pilot. Well, that could be easily arranged. What are you planning to pay to seal this deal." Said Balthier in a mildly British accent.

"A ship. I'm planning on taking one and leaving this world."

"Well well. You are planning to give us full control of a ship that we can easily take from you once we board it." Balthier said with a sneer. Xekim didn't have time for this, he took out both keyblades and held them to each one their heads. At the same time, the rabbit woman took out a blade and held it to his head and balthier took out a gun and pointed it directly between Xekim's eyes. Balthier looked around and began to laugh.

"You are starting to act like a real thief now. fine me and my associate Fran will help you. but only if you keep your word." Balthier said.

"I will." Xekim said putting away his keyblades as the Fran and Balthier put away their weapons.

"Very well then, when will you have the ship." Fran said.

"By tomorrow." Xekim said slowly getting up.

"Fine, It was a pleasure doing business with you." Balthier said shaking Xekim hand and sitting back into the shadows. Fran gave Xekim a devilish smile before turning back to Balthier and talking with him. Xekim turned around and walked out of the Bar.

Fran waited for Xekim to leave the bar and then said

"Are we really making a deal with a thirteen year old?

"He's not just some normal kid, and also, it's as good an excuse and any to leave this stupid world." Balthier said taking a sip of his ale.

[Lycanthrope]

8.5/10. Sweet chapter. Your writing is still getting better, and it was easier to read.

You need no tips as of now.

[Haku]

Very great chapter, this story has really come a long way keep up the good work.

[)-(The Anomaly)-(]

((Chapter Six: Departure. ))

"I'm this close to backing out on our deal Xekie." Balthier said holding thumb and forefinger an inch apart.

"My name is Xekim, and also why?!"

"well, to be honest, this ship is a piece of junk. I've never disgraced myself by flying in a ship like this before."

"Suck it up thief, it's the only way you're getting out of this world." Zachery said eyeing Balthier and Fran with an expression that made it look like he just had a sour candy. Zachery didn't like the idea of working with criminals.

"Watch yourself child." Fran said glancing at him for a minute and then looking at the ship again. The ship, was...in need of some care. The paint, well there was no paint on it anymore. The engines were outdated and the window was cracked. It was flyable but, who knows if they'll survive a flight in this machine. Xekim walked into the ship and looked at the controls and upholstery. It wasn't too bad. It was salvageable, anyways. Xekim sat down at the controls and felt how they handled. They were smooth and it seemed that it may have been use a lot, but well handled.

"Well seeing as we're going to repair this thing we need parts and I'll be willing to pay half of the munny. Xekim took out the last 2000 munny he had from working around the town and then said

"There, now buy the parts. I'll try and get the power on. Zachery will go with you. "

"what!" Said Zachery and and Balthier at the same time.

"I need you all to start trusting each other, so the only way for that to happen, is if both spend some time working without me. Oh and also, I need you to buy Zachery something to fight with. He's part of the school martial arts team, so, buy him something to help him with physical combat." Balthier nodded and began walking away towards the center of town. Zachery took one last anxious look at Xekim before following.

Zachery and Balthier went off to buy the part they needed. It wasn't going to be that difficult. A bottle of black spray paint, shield panels, and a laser cannon just in case of an attack in space. These were things you could get at any ship repair shop. Well, not the laser, that we had to get specially from the black market. After they gave the parts to Xekim and Fran so they could repair the ship, Zachery and Balthier went to get Zachery a weapon. Zachery thought about what he wanted and then decided on a pair of Knuckle Knives. They were small and also, just the same kind of weapon he used to practice with at home. He tried them out and they felt comfortable in his hands. He put them away in a small sheath that came with them. Soon after they began to walk back to the ship, something went wrong. Men started coming out of the alleyways. Each of them carrying knives and guns. They surrounded Balthier and Zachery and then one of the men came out of the crowd of people. The man wore a finely tailored suit and he had slicked back hair. The classic build for a rich con-man.

"I am Yelson Heights. You seem to have property of ours." Yelson said with a humorless smile.

"The ship is ours now, you won't get it back." Zachery said calmly to the man.

"Ah, no. That ship has a prototype navigation system. It will allow use to travel through deep space and find new worlds. It's near enough priceless and we want it back." Yelson said gesturing for his man to come closer. Balthier took out three orbs from his pocket. One was red, one was blue and the last one green.

"These are magic essences Zachery." Whispered Balthier. "Use them and they will give you magical abilities. They should be enough to defeat these thugs." Zachery took them and then held the stones in his hand. They began to glow and then they vanished. Zachery felt a new power awaken inside of him. he put his hand forward and a ball of fire appeared in hand. He sent that ball of fire directly at Yelson and one of Yelson's men jumped in front of it taking the blast. The man fell dead, burned. Yelson smile turned into a frown of rage and the his cried

"Attack!!"

Balthier took out a rifle and then fired it at one of the men. He fell to the ground dead, a bullet between his eyes,

"We can't beat them all alone, we need to get Fran and Xekim. We'll need to make an opening and make a run for it." Balthier shot a few more men and Zachery made a white mist in his hands and then fire a steam of icy wind at part of the crowd. They froze and then Zachery took out his two new blades. He did one from ward flip and started killing the henchmen of Yelson. Yelson called more men, but it was too late. Zachery had already opened up a whole in the crowd of men and ran towards the ship, Balthier fired at the men one more time before running with him.

They ran faster and finally had the ship in their sights. Xekim saw them running towards the ship and then looked a few feet behind Balthier and his brother to see the crowd of thugs. Fran did two mid air flips and landed off of the top of the ship and then ran at the crowd, knocking out and killing a lot of them with just her bare hands. Xekim was pressed a button and the power finally came on. He'd been trying to get it working since his brother left with Balthier. He had to rewire the insides and then finally he got it turned on and running. Fran had finished adding the parts we needed, though the paint job wasn't done, that could wait.

Xekim summoned his two keyblades and jumped into the battle. He cut through a lot of the men and then found Yelson. He swung behind him grabbing his arms and holding them behind his back. The Xekim held one of his keyblades to Yelson's neck.

"you really want this ship badly enough that you are willing to lose your life." Xekim said into his ear. Yelson was terrified, he looked at Fran killing his men and then said

"alright, you win, m-men lets leave, we can easily get another system and ship." Yelson was obviously lying, but at least he was done attacking people. Xekim let go of Yelson and then he and his gang of thugs walked away. Xekim smiled and then looked at the others.

"Nice job everyone." Xekim said looking at the men dead or unconscious on the ground. Zachery wasn't looking to happy. Baltheir and Fran was smiling and they walked into the ship. Xekim grabbed Zachery's hand and pulled him into the ship, Zachery was obviously afraid of flying in this thing. Balthier and Fran got into the pilot seats while Xekim and Zachery sat in the back of the ship. Balthier ignited the engine and the navigation system turned on. They began to rise up and then began to travel towards the atmosphere. Finally they were on their way to a new world.

((Sorry for the delay,...i'm back now!))