[b][center]Chapter 8: How Not To Coordinate an Invasion[/center][/b]

Carter was watching the cameras from his building, located near the Chimeran Tower. "Seneschal, we're gonna want to send out everything we've got, pronto," he said into his comm unit. A pause. "Okay, man. Everything we've got on your end. Yeah, you heard me. I'll call out mine. Oh shut up, we don't have time for a monologue!"

The blonde, brown-eyed man in black, modern combat armor then cut the connection, walked to a console, and bashed his fist on a button. A loud alarm sounded, and the chaos began.

"That's for my brother, a**holes."

---

The alarm had been raised across the city. And so, the mostly quiet roads became vibrant with activity.

Many Splicers of all types, including the experimental Brute types, emerged, teleporting, climbing, or running into the action. Protectors, more commonly called Big Daddies, came in four types, the drill-armed Bouncers, the rivet gunner Rosies, the explosive launching Rumblers, and the chaotic Alpha Series.

Covenant troops burst from the buildings as well. The rhino-skinned gorillas known as Brutes, the reptilian Jackal snipers and normal combatants, the combined worms known as Hunters coming in pairs. Buglike Drones flew over rooftops. The short, gas tank wearing Grunts ran along with the others on the ground. Engineers, with their hovering, squidlike bodies, hovered among them, giving blue, form-fitting energy shields to all Omega combatants.

Using weapons from Energy Swords to Gravity Hammers to normal metal swords, metal shields to Jackal Point-Defense System energy shield-producing gauntlets, human armored members of the Knights Templar charged into battle or fired their bows down from rooftops alongside the Jackals with Maquis Longshots and Beam Rifles.

The Chimera came in force as well. Massive Titans and Tyrannosaurus Rex-like Marauders came alongside lanky Gray Jacks and more humanoid Hybrids, in normal forms and their Advanced counterparts. The canine Howlers barked madly as they charged into the fray, accompanied by the metal armored Steelheads wielding their cover-penetrating Auger rifles. Leaper forms and their similar Rollers swarmed the city. The smaller Slipskulls, approximately the size of children, lept from building to building, with other forms as well as metal, orblike Chimeran attack and hunter drones that soared through the alleys.

Covenant Banshee planes and the Covenant dropships known as Phantoms flew from Gummi Space, aiming for the streets.

---

Only a select few people in the area, exactly four, had the ability to see what was happening in the dark depression below the white Castle That Never Was. Only three knew of its occurance, and only two actually saw it happen, caused it to occur at all.

There was a swishing sound audible to those two, as a prinprick of muted white light appeared in the center of the hole, growing quicker by the second. Black, fanged tentacles, hundreds of them, emerged from this portal of light, this Gateway to the Darkness. Within a minute, the pathway, altered to be to wherever the Darklings called home as well as the Otherworld, the mind of the shadowy influence itself, was the side of the entire depression. The demon arms retreated inward....

....and the Otherworld itself was open to help.

Without a word, both figures disappeared in swirls of darkness. Things were getting even more complicated for these heroes, for these opponents would not die easily.

Zombies and hellish monsters were tricky like that.

---

About fifteen Chimeran drones of both types, along with the same number of building-hopping Slipskulls and two Covenant Engineers, chased Greg's trio through the streets.

"Sh**! How're we gonna kill these guys?!" Greg asked, his Rapture pistol firing at the enemies a few times to little effect due to their shields. A few shots from the Chimeran constructs and organic forms grazed his right leg, causing him to wince.

"We're getting close to the Tower!" Isaac shouted as they ran. "Hold them off!"

"How?!" The group split up, the Zivaku brothers ducking into one alley as two of the drones were finally destroyed by their attacks, Hayner ducking into another.

From the other alley, the Twilight Town native told them what they needed to know and do. "These things have shields that we'll need a lot of power to destroy, power we don't have here. Get going!"

Both Aselians were incredulous. "No, we c--"

"Don't argue! We need to split these guys up!" With that, he ran off in the opposite direction from the Tower, half of the enemies in pursuit. "Just destroy that thing!" he called back to them.

[i]"Hayner!"[/i] Greg shouted, to no response over the din of battle. "Damn it!"

Isaac pointed to the enormous construct that was their target.

Greg thought. If Hayner died here, he truly was a hero. If not, well...he still was. They needed his help, if he had managed to survive this long. But he knew they needed to keep moving. For the worlds.

With that, the two sprinted off, the remaining enemies taking notice and continuing the pursuit.

---

A flurry of Dark Aura shots hit a trio of Grunts, luckily not being supported by Engineer shields. Unluckily, a Titan was behind them, and aimed a LAARK rocket launcher at the quintet nearing the Brink of Despair.

"Scatter!" Angel shouted, and the group readily did so, splitting apart as the Maquis weapon's secondary fire was activated. Ten small rockets shot out, two homing in on each of the males.

Audrey bent her sword at an odd angle, and tossed it, the sword somehow flying around like a boomerang.  Marianna created a strong gust of wind, which threw back several of the missiles to their owners, while Audrey's sword hit all the remaining explosives before they could reach the heroes, and the sword/boomerang flew back into her hand easily.

Another volley of Dark Aura shots took out Riku's and Seifer's explosives.

Hawk was less lucky. Although adrenaline did allow him to dodge one of the rockets with a backflip, the other caught him right in the leg, sending him sprawling.

Angel ran to his past, picking him up and looking toward the Titan.  He pointed his sword with his free hand...

The green plasma blasts rained from the sky, aiming for the heroes from Banshees. Luckily, no heroes were hit, dodging again as best as they could. Even more luckily, a stray Banshee bomb hit the Titan Chimera, overheading it to the point of explosive in a shower of gore, and the two Banshees split up to attack different targets.

Unluckily, when the dust and blood settled, both the Dawn Walker and Twilight Towner were gone.

Hawk, using a Hi-Potion to heal himself, shouted into his comm radio. "Riku! Seifer!"

[i]"Lost sight of you all, but I'll be fine,"[/i] Alamsy said.

[i]"Same here,"[/i] Riku said. [i]"They're coming in for another go. I think they know where we are, since we've got one on each of us. We need to split up. No arguing, Seifer."[/i] Then he cut out, a grumbling Twilight Towner following suit shortly after.

Before either Hawk Shadowflash could speak, Audrey stopped them.  "It's their choice, guys!  Let's keep going, for them!  If Reaper's up there-"

"He is." Using their mutual darkness sense, the Shadowflashes knew that something was going on in the Castle. They also sensed a greater darkness still. A very specific Darkness. The Otherworld. This was not good. Only Isaac could tell them where the source was.

Wordlessly, Audrey, Marianna, Hawk, and Angel continued on their way. The bridge of light across the Brink of Despair was just ahead, more opponents audible coming close from tge front and back.

---

Axel was lost.

There was really no other way to describe it. Not long after the attack, he had lost sight of the rest of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee in the fray. He was doing well, if the burning and/or slashed up bodies of men around him was an indication. The big, bulky Splicers were new, but didn't seem to be anything he couldn't handle. Just bigger targets.

"Whoa!" The ex-Number VIII jumped back as a Banshee fell to the ground, smoking from a massive electric surge and water-drenching. He shouted into his radio as one of his Eternal Flames chakram returned to him from a successful throw. "Watch it! You almost hit me!"

[i]"Sorry!"[/i] the four mages on the other line apologized quickly.

The last Organization member with a physical body left it at that. In the distance, he saw a Scarab.

Chaos over the radio. [i]"Shooter's down! We can't hold this much longer! Hurry up!"[/i] Grace, as a swoosh of water could be heard.

[i]"Hayner got split from us!"[/i] Isaac, with gunfire and screeches on the line as well. Almost at the same time, [i]"Seifer and Riku're gone. Not dead, but split off."[/i] And [i]"Confound it! Axel is missing!"[/i]

Fan[i]tas[/i]tic. Well, only one thing left to do. Axel saw the Scarab looming higher, though he was still far from it. He could change that quickly enough.

A blaze streaking behind his attacks, the Flurry of the Dancing Flames sped up.

---

"Get down!" Demi pulled Kynthia to the ground as a Covenant Drone swarm flew overhead, firing plasma rifles, plasma pistols, and Needlers of their native Haloverse, as well as Chimeran Reaper dual submachine guns.

Kairi flattened her back against a wall, taking out her Oblivion deck as fast as she could and drawing a Blizzard card as well as an attack card. Drawing the Memorial Keyblade, she shouted as she threw it at the Yamne'e swarm. "Blizzard Raid!" A frozen Keyblade struck the enemies as they turned for another go-around, flash freezing about six and killing them via shattering on the ground.

Then the horde opened fire. Blue and green plasma, pink explosive needles, and red energy bolts kept Kynthia and her future separate from their friend, forcing them to run to avoid being shot.

"Kairi, come on!" Kynthia shouted back. She swung her Moon Scythe. [i]"Moon Wave!"[/i] The incomplete Kingdom Hearts in the sky acting as a moon, the silver energy wave fueled by her rage was made even stronger, effectively halving the force in one swing and making white-green blood spill on the street. But with the Engineers floating toward their location, that advantage was temporary at best. "Kairi!"

[i]"I can't go with you!"[/i] came the red-haired Princess of Heart over the radio. Apparently she had been far separated from them in the fray. [i]"There's too many, and more coming! Just go, destroy that Carrier! I'll do what I can to help!"[/i]

"But--"

[i]"Kyn, please don't argue this! I have Sain with me to scan! Just do it for me! For Sora!"[/i]

That shut her up.

"You heard her, Mini-Me," Demi said, and the two continued onward.

---

[i]"We're falling apart!" "Help!" "Kairi's on her own!" "They keep coming!"[/i]

The barrage of messages, the panic, was not helping Black Paladin to concentrate as he rode through the streets, ignoring the fleshy speed bumps along the way. What was taking Kaith so long? They needed help. Just their group couldn't handle everyone.

[i]Zivaku, whatever you're getting better be worth it.[/i]