New York, New York. A city filled with brilliant lights and noises that deafened those who were unused to the clamor, a place where the streets were packed with people and taxis, all trying in a hurry to go nowhere in particular. Never was it night; the lights of the little shops and towering skyscrapers made sure of that. The place could be stressful and playful at the same time. Even catastrophes couldn't dampen its spirit for long. At least, it used to be like that. Now, only the bravest souls dared to venture inside the concrete jungle and fewer still that dared to live anywhere near it. The majority of the place's new inhabitants didn't share the same lively spirit as the former ones, the new tenants being unnatural creatures that were drawn to the immense amount of life use to be there, creatures known as Heartless.
By this time, electricity no longer existed in New York City, the sun the only source of light. Today, that light did little to brighten the streets due to the cloud cover, and now the shadows grew as night approached. Being creatures of darkness, more Heartless stepped out of the gloom and into the streets, these looking like mummies with extra long arms and legs. Tonight's special was Wight Knights.
Through the shadows a girl walked, each of her footsteps measured and her eyes scouring the streets for threats. With the brown coat she wore that reached to her knees and the hood pulled up, she could pass as another apparition of the night. She fit right in with the darkness, knowing exactly which shadows would hide her best and which to avoid because they could harbor Heartless. The experience she gained from the time she spent as a leader on the streets allowed her such knowledge.A small, dark Shadow popped up from the darkness in front of her, which she dispatched quickly with her sword. The past two years have been like this, always in a hurry, those infernal creatures jumping up out of the darkness wherever I go, wherever anyone is. Snarling, she plunged her sword into more Heartless, each disappeared in a puff of black smoke. As willingly as she fought them, she only wanted a chance to get back to the cave in Central Park she shared with the younger children she and her friends took care of. Their parents had been turned into Heartless and they wouldn't have lasted very long on their own.
Things had been different. Two years ago few people had known about the Heartless, those who spoke of them sent to insane asylums. All that changed when the first Heartless appeared with more soon following until their world became overrun by them. Those who had dark hearts turned into Heartless, along with a few Nobodies that the remaining military forces promptly destroyed. The people who lived through the first few waves either had to learn how to survive, be killed, or be turned into a Heartless later on. Jae, the girl who fought the Heartless, found this out firsthand.
In the beginning, when the first wave of Heartless came through, she believed they would not come for her or family because they were not dark people. They had been generous and willing to help others; they had the purest souls one could ever find. All of this changed one day when she came home to find her family as Shadows, the simplest kind of Heartless. Not knowing what else to do, Jae grabbed the sword that sat on the mantle and slashed them, falling to the floor after she killed them all. The very fact that the Heartless could enter a home, a place she thought to be a safe haven, shook her, not to mention that they took her family right out from under her nose. After thinking about it for a while, she decided that there was darkness in everyone's heart and that the Heartless would attack anyone and everyone. Nowhere could be considered safe from the beasts. With her naivety gone, Jae set out to find others like her who had lost their family to the Heartless, adopting both adults and children at first, but all the adults she located turned into Heartless relatively quickly because they had turned so bitter and dark from their loss. Those who managed to fend off depression still proved to be more of a hinder than help. One time a man had nearly led a mass of Heartless straight into their hiding spot in an attempt to escape from them instead of leading them away and protecting the group like any older child would have done, so it worked better having only teens and children staying together. Plus, there was less fighting and people got along better without having an over-demanding, controlling figure looming over their heads. Twelve people stayed under one room, seven children under ten and five between eleven and eighteen. Three of them, including Jae, could fight and not become seriously wounded in the process.
The past, present, and the nature of the Heartless ran though her mind as she raced down the street, fear coursing through her as she waved the sword around frantically. The Heartless kept coming and coming without any sign of stopping their relentless attack. What will they do if I don't come back? Roger and Alexia can't fend the Heartless off all by themselves, and Kate, little Kate, she gets so scared when I'm gone for a long time. And I have the food for the next week as well. I have to get back home, I have to! What can I do, there's so many of them and they keep coming. Ngh. In mid-swing something clicked in her mind, making her heart harden. This is ridiculous. Why do I doubt my capabilities or those of my friends? Sam is turning out to be quite the little sniper and should be ready to carry a gun in about a week, and Kate needs to grow up a bit. They have emergency food, so nothing horrible should happen if I don't get back. Besides, there's no reason why I shouldn't get back. I've survived for this long. With a grimace on her face she destroyed Heartless left and right, vowing that she would see her adopted family again.
As soon as she finished off the last of the Heartless and positive no more would pop out, rain fell from the ominous black clouds, darkening the streets so much she couldn't see more than a few feet in any direction. Suddenly, more Heartless popped up from dark portals in the ground, these looking much stronger than the Wight Knights she just killed. They were completely black and had a build like a human's, but these could never be mistaken for a person.
"Neoshadows," Jae hissed. Neoshadows placed as one of the most powerful Heartless she faced on a weekly basis, but even then only one of them came at her at a time. Now five circled her like hungry sharks. "You will get out of my way!" she screamed, and stabbed at the nearest one. It danced out of her reach while another slammed into her back. Gasping for breath and trying to stay upright, Jae turned around to face the attacker, but it already melted into the shadows by the time she looked back. Unlike most Heartless, Neos could melt into and out of the shadows with ease, which made them extremely hard to eliminate. The fact that they had a nasty habit of coming back out from the shadows right under their opponent's feet didn't help any. With visibility being so low Jae could not see the dark circles on the ground chasing her as she zigzagged through the street. Sometimes the tactic worked to avoid the Heartless, although it did better when she could see.
One by one the Neoshadows popped up out of the ground. Once they came out of the shadows, Neoshadows produced a ring of light, which seriously injured whatever in came into contact with. Jae ran away from them as fast as she could. However, it proved that her efforts were in vain; they had encircled her and there was nowhere to go. What's with these guys? Heartless aren't this smart, Jae panicked as the rings closed in on her. Luckily, they stopped before they could all hit her, but she was wounded nonetheless from the barrage of light. She evaluated her situation. She stood in almost complete darkness, only the Neoshadows' eyes could be seen, the place where she lived with her friends was a good fourth of a mile away, and the Heartless were using pack behavior instead of the straightforward attacks she normally countered.
"You guys aren't gonna make it easy on me, are ya?" she said as she stood up. "But you will make one great story: Jae defeats Neoshadows. I can see their faces now as I think about telling them how I got rid of every last one of you by myself." Jae laughed maniacally as she dashed towards the first one she saw and plunged her sword into it, making it disappear into thin air. "Who's next," she cried as she looked over the remaining Heartless. The next two attacks were successful as well, but she grew more tired by the second. It wouldn't be long before she couldn't fight any longer. As she staggered towards the next one, water streamed down from her hair into her eyes, disorientating her. The Neoshadows seized the opportunity and jumped her. It missed her chest, but it knocked into her as it flew past and caused her to fall. She barely had enough time to recover from having the wind knocked out of her before they came in for another assault.
"You…will not…have...my…heart!" she panted, pointing her sword at one of the attackers in an attempt at defense. She had seen hearts stolen from people and was not eager to experience it first-hand. Luckily, one fell on the point, but she could not defend from them both. No maneuver could have made her fast enough to slice through the second Heartless. In one swipe it had her heart in its claws. Jae stared at it for a second before darkness consumed her, the protective light she carried in her heart gone forever, but she kept fighting. I…want…my heart…back! I…will never…give in…to darkness! To anyone stupid enough to stand around to watch, it looked like the girl with black hair writhed on the ground, but inside she was fighting off Heartless after Heartless with her sword. Then a new enemy appeared to take the place of the Heartless, what is called a Dusk, a type of Nobody. Jae didn't know this, nor did she care. The creature possessed enough qualities to be put in the Heartless territory for her and therefore an enemy.
Every slippery Dusk she destroyed, but more appeared from dark portals, each just as odd and varied in their looks as the next one, but Jae was in a rage. Not a single Nobody so much as touched her, but it was not enough. Despite her best efforts, the darkness consumed her just like it would have any other person.
"No!" she screamed, slashing at the black tendrils, ending up cutting herself. The darkness raced into her, taking the shortest way into her being. All of the power it provided knocked her out cold.