For those of you still wondering about my brother, he’s doing much better: he and my mom went back to his apartment on Saturday, and he’ll be going back for surgery in a few weeks to have his gallbladder removed.

But in the meantime, I have other issues to deal with. About a month ago, I got my own PS2 as a gift from a friend and coworker of mine, buying a copy of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II at the same time, but it took him about two or three weeks to find the other two parts I needed for it: the controller and the memory card. With my brother being in the hospital last week, I was really in no mood to try and play it. But today, I finally managed to get the whole thing set up to go, and made it all the way through my first day on the Destiny Islands. Never did manage to win the three-on-one battle of Tidus, Wakka and Selphie against me, though I entered it twice. Battled Riku three times - lost the first on a technicality (fell off the island), but went back and faced him again, and won. Twice.

However, while I was putting the game away, something most unexpected happened: it glowed. And the Heart Shard we’ve been tracking down appeared from the disc, floating over into the bag where I keep my strategy guides.

“Whoa.”

After putting the game and my system away (my Dad would freak out if he found out I actually got the whole thing set up), I went downstairs to talk to my live-ins and see about getting a group of them to deliver the shard. Unfortunately, right as I made it to the door, I heard the sound of an explosion outside, and saw Antagony herself storming up to the house. It took a moment before I remembered we’d been planning for this day all week... and another moment before I realized just who else was out there.

She’d brought along an entire army of Vehicon drones. I’m not entirely sure where she got them all - probably scavenged from some other reality she’d visited before coming here. There were a lot of them: Tank drones, Aero drones, Cycle drones, Copter drones, six-wheeled Assault drones based on the Blast Charge toy, Demolition drones based on the Scavenger toy, and Stealth drones based on the Spy Streak toy. They were also accompanied by an X-wing... but instead of the red-on-white color scheme I was familiar with, this one was red-on-black. And as I soon found out, it was also a Transformer. I had no idea what its name was yet. Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long to find out.

“Devil X! Take the Vehicons and get rid of those fools!” Antagony bellowed as Vash and the others emerged from the New Eden gate. “The boy with the heart shard is mine!”

“Yes Ma’m!” the X-wing shouted. “TRANSFORM!”

I watched in horror as he (it had a male voice) transformed, revealing a mostly red interior, as well as the overwhelmingly black armor from his X-wing form. Most of the other Vehicons changed as well behind him. I summed it up best for all of us right then.

“Oh crud.”

Grabbing the bag with the heart shard in it, I looked around for an exit. Finally, I settled on the side door of our kitchen, and took off down the road. Not sure why. I guess I figured at the time that getting the shard and myself as far away from Antagony as possible was as good an idea as any. Besides, I’d already had one close encounter with her, and I was in no hurry to repeat the experience.

Unfortunately, she felt otherwise. Looking back, I spotted one ticked-off ant scrambling after me. Six legs are apparently faster than two, and she caught up to me relatively quickly. Transforming in front of me, she reached out a hand. “Give me the shard.”

“Not a chance,” I replied.

Antagony laughed. “So foolish. Just like last time. I won’t ask again, boy. Give me the shard.”

“Never.”

“Then face... oblivion!”

As her gun started to fire, I reached into the bag and actually touched the shard for the first time. I don’t know why. But then, something happened.

It flashed. I felt as if time had stopped... or at least slowed down to almost nothing. Then, before my eyes, the shard began to glow too brightly for me to make it out anymore. But I swear I felt it squirming about in my hand. And for just a moment, I thought I heard Stan Bush’s “The Touch” start playing in the background.

Then, time snapped back to normal, and I heard Antagony gasp. Actually, I think I did too. (I also heard an explosion further away, but that wasn’t us.)

This was for two reasons. First, I was covered in a glowing shield that had absorbed the blast of acid.

Second, the shard had changed itself into something completely different. It was shaped like a giant key. The main body of the key was made up of two long tubes, right next to one another, each with the serrated edges of a chainsaw blade. The ending part (what is that called, anyway?) faced upwards, looking just like the rounded end of the chainsaw, but with the same serrated edge as the rest of the key. The hilt looked like the stock of a shotgun, but with a grip in the middle, as all Keyblades had. For that was exactly what this was: a Keyblade. The chain at the end of the grip had what appeared to be a sawed off shotgun on it with a chainsaw blade sticking out of the stock.

Antagony stared. “WHAT is that!?”

As the shield faded, I grinned. “This... is my BOOMSTICK!”

She blinked.

“You have obviously never watched “Army of Darkness”.”

“I’m evil, what do you expect?”

“Good point.” Yanking the chain at the end of my new Keyblade, I started the blades going. “And so’s this.”

I won’t bore you with the rest of the fight, but suffice to say, the Keyblade told me what to do. In short, I kicked her tail all the way down the street, and she decided enough was enough. As I watched her fleeing, the Keyblade started to glow. I guessed it had had enough, and was changing back into a shard. But imagine my surprise when it floated out of my hand, leaving the Keyblade behind and ceasing to glow as it landed in the bag where it had fallen. I looked at the Keyblade, dismissed it, and called it back a moment later. “Whoa.”

Then, almost as a second thought, I quoted he who had inspired this weapon. “Groovy.”

By the time I got back to my house, the battle was all over. I found out quickly that Vash and the others had somehow managed to obtain the parts for an Empion mine, like the one I’d suggested Kenya use against Nemesis Prime and Galvatron, and lured the Vehicons, including Devil X, into the entryway for the Hellgate before they set off the mine, disabling every single drone caught in the blast radius. Fortunately, the mine was one-shot only, and had no lingering effects on the area arond the blast. This meant the Dinobots and Brad the Ninelives, whose mechanical bodies had the advantage of being larger and stronger than most of us, could handle the work of hauling all of the disabled Transformers out of the Hellgate. Fortunately, they didn’t mind. Everyone else there did what they could, including me. But after a bit, even I had to take a break.

I found Knives examining the unconscious Devil X. “What’s up?”

Knives gestured to his chest cavity. “We thought this guy had a Spark, Mouse.”

“And...”

“He doesn’t. There’s no sign he ever had one. Just a laser core and a primitive brain, like the ones the Dinobots had before they got Sparks.”

“So he was little more than a slightly more intelligent drone.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, he IS an X-wing. Think the other Autobots and Decepticons might be able to fix him up?”

“Probably.”

“Good. We aren’t going to need all these drones cluttering up the yard. I hate to split up the team now, but I think we’ll have to for a few days. If we send most of these guys to Kentucky, Rose and Prime could certainly make better use of them. Take X here with you. Tell them I want him repaired, reprogrammed and repainted. I’ll send the designs along with you.”

“You want Prime to give him a Spark?”

“Why not?”

After some debate, it was decided that Knives, Rai-Dei the Blade, Brad the Ninelives, Monev the Gale, Adam, Ginkotsu, Kyokotsu, Slag and Taro would head down to Kentucky in the shuttle to deliver most of the Vehicons to Rose and Prime and drop off the defunct Devil X with them until his repairs were complete. As agreed, I sent the designs for his new color scheme, including X’s new name, with Knives.

Meanwhile, we still had another mission. I’m sending Meryl, Abi, Ranma and his twin Marxan to Keily’s place to deliver the heart shard we recovered. They’ll be using a couple of repaired Cycle drones for the trip - we kept quite a few that just had to be reprogrammed after the mine was set off. The others that we fixed up are stashed in a special corner of New Eden (same place we keep the shuttle that took us to Babylon Palace and back).

After all this mess was cleaned up, I found a place to sit, summoned the Boomstick Keyblade again and looked at it.

“Double dollar for your thoughts?”

I looked up. “Hey, Vash.”

“Hey yourself.” He sat. “What’s up?”

I sighed. “I’m just thinking. Sure, I’ve got noble goals, just like you did back on Gunsmoke. But I still don’t know what I did to deserve this Keyblade. I mean, I just touched one of Keily’s heart shards, and got this for doing it. But why me, when it could have just as easily been you?”

“Mouse...”

“Yes Vash?”

“You’re a good guy, Mouse. You brought all of us together to fight the darkness by seeing it and turning away from it, helping us create New Eden to serve as a haven for those like us. With that kind of a heart, it’s no wonder this Keyblade chose you. Sure, that heart shard gave you the way to reach it, even without an Awakening like Sora, Roxas and Riku went through. But it’s still part of you, and I can’t think of anyone else here who deserves it better than you.”

I smiled. “Thanks, Vash. I needed that.”

“Not a problem. Come on now, let’s go get some donuts!”

Laughing, I got up and followed him, dismissing my Keyblade as I went. I guess that old saying is true: the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And the really amazing thing about everything that happened today? We got it all finished before my dad got home from work.

Until next time...

Anon e Mouse Jr.

The latest news is in. My brother is feeling better, but he's still going to be in the hospital until at least the end of the week, and there will definately have to be more surgery before this is done, but he's in stable condition and is improving.

The diagnosis is acute gallstone pancreatitis - in other words, gallstones and a bunch of sludge formed in his gallbladder, some of it escaped to plug up the ducts of the liver and pancreas, and the rest plugged up the bile duct. Infection set in as a result, and has further plugged up other parts of his digestive system. From what we've learned, it does not appear that the gallbladder has perforated, as was originally feared. Barring further complications, he should be back in his apartment by the weekend, assuming the antibiotics continue working as effectively as they are now. Then, after two to three weeks of a highly restricted diet (and lots more antibiotics) he will return to the hospital for removal of the gallbladder.

This is very good news, and I thank everyone here for their prayers. They've definately helped.

Meanwhile, partially to get my mind off of things and partially to work off that big lunch I had, I went for a long walk earlier. And in the process, I ran into Antagony again. Seems she's still lurking around, searching for that heart shard. Unfortunately, I still have no idea where it is. Luckily, neither does she. Or her master Naraku. Also luckily, she couldn't act against me, since we were out by a rather busy highway at the time, and she wasn't willing to take the chance of anyone else possibly seeing her at the time. However, she did leave me with a warning: she's coming back to my house in a week, and if I don't hand over the heart shard then, only one of us is going to walk away intact. The other won't be walking anywhere, ever again.

And she meant it.

Luckily, I've already taken precautions. The Gung-Ho Guns and the rest of my live-ins are standing by, and we're stocking up on the necessary supplies. Including a few surprises. When Antagony comes back, we'll be ready for her and anyone or anything else she brings. Even her boss. And hopefully, we'll have found the heart shard by then as well. If she tries to take it from me, it'll be the last thing she ever does. No matter what.

Until next time...

Anon e Mouse Jr.

Earlier today, not too long ago, my family got some news from Virginia. And it was bad.

My older brother is in the emergancy room of a hospital, in critical condition, suffering from a gallstone attack that has resulted in an inflamed, possibly perforated or ruptured gallbladder (they don’t know which yet). And it’s turned ugly, probably septic, at least from all I’ve been able to learn. Right now, they’re just trying to get him rehydrated and increase his chances of surviving the operation tomorrow.

My family, unfortunately, has a history of issues involving such attacks. And in July ‘05, about ten months before we formed the Terran Resistance, I too was in the hospital. In my case, it was from a ruptured appendix, which had also turned septic. Due to this and other complications, I stayed there for ten days, and believe me, it was not fun. Fortunately, I survived the experience, though my appendix did not. And about a month later, I met Vash and Knives in person for the first time.

Our prayers go out to my brother tonight, in the hopes that he too will be as lucky as I was. And I’m asking everyone in the Resistance to send out their prayers to him as well. With his current condition, he needs all the help he can get.

More news as we get it.

Until next time...

Anon e Mouse Jr.