Kingdom Hearts: Echoplex II

EP9 - Season 2 (Second & Third Trauma)

[A] Chirithy: What is this place? Who are these people? Why are they treating Asukazen and the other children this way?

The questions multiplied, but the answers were as elusive as the shadows that danced at the edge of the dream.

One of the uniformed figures, a man with a weathered face and eyes that held the weight of countless sleepless nights, paced before the assembly of children. His arms were crossed behind his back, his posture rigid, as if holding himself together against the encroaching tide of despair.

The situation was dire, far worse than anyone could have predicted. It had been three days since the invasion began, three days since those... things... first emerged from the shadows, their black, oily bodies slithering through the streets, their yellow eyes burning with a cold predatory hunger.

Tanks rumbled through deserted streets, their cannons spitting fire and fury at the encroaching darkness. Fighter jets screamed across the sky, raining down hellfire upon the writhing masses of Heartless. Soldiers emptied magazine after magazine into the seemingly endless horde, their bullets tearing through flesh and mist.

Ntothing seemed to stop them, Bullets tore through their shadowy forms, leaving gaping holes that sealed themselves within seconds. Explosives ripped them apart, scattering their bodies like confetti in the wind, only for the fragments to coalesce and reform, their numbers undiminished.

Missiles rained down from the sky, leaving craters in the earth and reducing buildings to rubble, but the Heartless emerged from the dust and debris unscathed. Sulfuric acid melted their forms into puddles of black ooze, but the puddles bubbled and pulsed, reconstituting into their original shapes with an unnerving fluidity.

Even tactical warheads, once the apex of human destructive capability, were now reduced to expensive fireworks. The mushroom clouds blossoming against the twilight sky, offered a fleeting spectacle of devastation, but the respite was short-lived. When the dust settled, fresh waves would emerge from swirling portals of darkness hours later.

It was a war of attrition, a Sisyphean task that chipped away at the morale of even the most hardened soldiers. Victory, it seemed, was an illusion, a mirage that receded with every step forward. The Heartless were not simply resilient, they were a force that defied the laws of physics and the limitations of human weaponry.

In the United States, the military unleashed its full might, transforming major cities into warzones. The streets of New York, once teeming with life, became a battlefield, the skyscrapers echoing with the sounds of gunfire and explosions. In Los Angeles, the Hollywood sign stood as a silent witness to the carnage below, its iconic letters warped and twisted by the darkness that had engulfed the city. Chicago, San Francisco, Miami... all fell, their defenses overwhelmed, their populations decimated.

Europe fared no better. London, Paris, Rome... ancient cities steeped in history and culture, reduced to rubble and ash. The Colosseum, where gladiators once battled for glory, became a hunting ground for the Heartless, its ancient stones stained with the blood of the innocent.

Asia, Africa, South America... the darkness spread like a plague, consuming everything in its path. Nations that had once been rivals now found themselves united in their desperation, their armies fighting side-by-side against a common enemy. But it was a losing battle, a futile struggle against an unstoppable tide of darkness.

But there was one glimmer of hope, a single, improbable advantage that had emerged from the chaos. On the first day of the invasion, a thousand children, scattered across the globe, had undergone a bizarre transformation.

Key-shaped weapons, seemingly conjured from thin air, had appeared in their hands, weapons that possessed the power to permanently eradicate those creatures. It was a discovery that had sent shockwaves through the world's governments, a desperate lifeline in the face of annihilation.