Chapter 11 - Mischief Mangled
The strange creature Sora had seen ducked into the ground when he tried to attack it, causing Sora's Keyblade to glance off the ground and send him stumbling backwards. It moved around in a blue puddle as he scrambled back to his feet, changing direction sporadically. He watched it carefully as Jack ran back over, Kairi stumbling along behind him. Even Sally and Dr. Finkelstein wandered over to observe.
"What is it?" Kairi asked, watching the puddle roll around the empty area.
"I'm not sure," Sora muttered, following it with his eyes, "but it reminds me of a Shadow Heartless. I don't think it's a Heartless, though."
Eventually, the thing jumped back out of its puddle form and landed silently on its feet. It looked kind of like a Heartless, with Shadow-like antennae sticking out from its head. All of its features, however, were melded to its body, making it look more like a clay creature than a more humanoid Shadow. It moved similar to a Shadow as well, but in more of as hesitant manner as opposed to the Shadow's constant twitching. It also lacked the signature yellow Heartless eyes; its eyes were red with white outlines, arranged into peculiar shapes.
"I wonder…" Sora muttered, taking a step closer to the creature. Its head snapped in his direction, but it didn't move from its place.
Kairi placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sora, I don't think you should get near it. We have no clue what it is."
"Don't worry, Kairi. I'll be careful…" Slowly, Sora inched his way towards the creature, sliding along the last few steps. "It doesn't look anything like a Heartless. It… looks kind of squishy…"
In response, the creature stuck out its slender arm in a jabbing motion. It struck Sora's leg, causing him to recoil with a yelp of pain. He gripped his leg, jumping up and down as Kairi summoned her Keyblade and smacked the creature over the head. It vanished in a puff of dust.
"So much for it being squishy, huh?" Kairi said, raising an eyebrow. "How's it feel?"
Sora ran his hand over his shin. "Fine. It just stings a bit now. What was that thing?" he asked, turning to Jack.
Jack could only shrug. "I have no clue. I've never seen anything like that in Halloween Town before now."
"If you hadn't destroyed it, I could have conducted an experiment on it," Dr. Finkelstein grumbled, "Then we would know what it was."
'But… you don't have a lab anymore…' Straightening up, Sora looked around. He saw some movement out of the corner of his eye and instantly rushed after it, back into the square.
"Sora, don't run so fast!" Kairi shouted after him, "I can't keep up that wa-ah!" Without asking for her consent, Jack lifted her into his arms and ran off after Sora.
Keyblade in hand, Sora looked around for whatever it was that he had seen, but it had vanished. He wandered out into the square, wondering for a moment if it was hiding somewhere. As he wandered over to the fountain in the middle of the square, another blue creature jumped out of the water and immediately melded into the ground. It raced quickly around the square, catching Jack's attention so much that he almost dropped Kairi. Finally, it seemed like it found its bearings and it headed out towards the Graveyard.
Chasing after it, the three caught up with it and Sora destroyed it, leaping over a tombstone to club it over the head. "That it?" he asked confidently, "I was hoping these things would be more of a challenge… or that there'd be more of them."
"Don't jinx it, Sora," Kairi said as Jack set her back on her feet.
A whooshing sound made all of them look up in time to see something orange come flying through the sky. It landed in front of them, blasting apart in a fair-sized explosion, knocking them over.
Scrambling to his feet, Sora glared in the direction the explosive had come from. "Lock, Shock, and Barrel!"
The three children, taking off their masks to glance at each other and laugh, sat at the top of a withered tree, resting on branches that looked too weak to support them.
"Who are they?" Kairi asked Jack.
Jack was scowling in their direction. "They're mischief makers. They've caused me plenty of trouble before now, and it doesn't look like they're about to change."
"What are you three up to this time?" Sora shouted.
"The usual!" Lock retorted.
"Making trouble!" the children chorused, throwing bombs in their direction.
They tried dodging and blocking the bomb, trying to make their way towards the tree, but there wasn't enough time. Eventually, they had to retreat out of the children's range. "This isn't working," Kairi grumbled, making sure to keep her dress away from the bomb fragments, "We can't get close enough to attack them, and even then, they're up a tree…"
"You know, I think the tree is the only problem. If they weren't up that tree, they wouldn't be able to cover themselves," Jack pointed out, tapping his chin with his bony fingers.
Sora pondered this for a moment. "Cover… range… tree…tree? That's it! The tree!" Hefting his Keyblade, Sora dove right into an explosion, rolling through it. He stopped in a crouch and pointed his Keyblade at the base of the tree. "Fire!" A ball of fire shot out from the tip of his Keyblade a second before he was knocked onto his back by an explosion. The fireball hit the bottom of the tree and instantly incinerated the old dry wood. Lock, Shock, and Barrel dropped unceremoniously to their backsides.
As all four picked themselves up, Sora shouted at Kairi and Jack. "Get them! Now!"
Hearing this, the three troublemakers began running around frantically. Jack and Kairi stood back, blasting fire at them as they dashed past. Sora joined them after a moment, whacking the nearest one with his Keyblade and firing off magic when he needed to change position. After an exhausting minute, the children regrouped, climbing another tree to resume their attack.
"We won't beat them if things keep going like this!" Kairi snapped, running out of their range as fast as she could.
"Try again!" Jack told her, barely audible over the sound of the explosions, "but focus on only one of them this time!"
Again, Sora tried to dodge into an explosion, but they were prepared, tossing an explosive at his face when he came up. He howled pain, falling on his back, but Kairi took the chance to light the tree with fire from her Keyblade. They toppled back to the ground and dashed around. This time, Jack and Kairi aimed their fire at Barrel, who took the attack head on and collapsed to the ground, grumbling and moaning in pain. Sora, his face blackened, jumped to his feet quick enough to nail Lock with a anger-fueled strike.
The remaining two climbed another tree, but their timing was so off that Jack didn't need to dodge around the blasts to flame the tree. Without any hesitation of restraint, Sora dove them as they dropped, knocking Lock into the pile of ashes. The only one left standing, Shock looked around frantically for an escape route, but there didn't seem to be one. Instead, she dashed away to hide behind a tombstone, but Kairi hit her in the back with a fireball, making her slide headfirst into the dirt.
Wiping the blackness off his face, Sora dismissed his Keyblade. "At least we're done with that. Those annoying little…" He trailed off, catching Kairi's angry expression.
"We should probably ask them what they were up to," she said, dusting off her dress, "Something about all this doesn't feel right."
Jack stepped up, holding Lock and Barrel in his hands. "I'll take them back to Dr. Finkelstein and Sally. We'll probably be able to figure out what they were up to."
"Sounds good," Sora nodded, "We'll clean up here and catch up with you soon."
As Jack walked off, Kairi raised an eyebrow at Sora. "Clean up?"
He shrugged and gestured towards the ashes of the trees. "I figure we shouldn't leave them like this. We should at least… bury them or something."
They set out to work, Sora digging a hole with his Keyblade while Kairi did her best to push the ash piles together. Halfway done, something sent a shiver up his spine and he glanced around. He didn't see anything, but the feeling persisted.
"A rather amusing sight I stumbled on to," a voice said, and Sora thought it sounded familiar.
Snapping his head in the direction of the voice, he didn't see anything, but he followed Kairi's gaze and found it. Someone was sitting on top of one of the giant tombstones, one arm draped across his knee, using the other as support. He was wearing a suit that Sora had seen before, one that Riku had worn while possessed by Ansem, except this one was red with a black cloth as opposed to Riku's blue and white. His face was hidden from view, a smooth black helmet covering his entire head.
"Who are you?" Sora asked, shifting his hold on his Keyblade.
The man chuckled, a sound that sent shivers down his spine. "An interesting question, one you really should know the answer to by now."
"What does that mean?"
He didn't answer immediately, jumping nimbly from his perch. "My name is Vanitas, but that's of little consolation to you. In fact, I have questions for you that will easily be solved in a very straightforward manner," he said and, holding one hand above his head, summoned a metallic, gear-like Keyblade and shifted into a battle stance Sora had seen Riku use, "A battle, to test your true strength."
Sora slid into a battle position and Kairi summoned her Keyblade. "Answer me!" he demanded, "Why are you dressed like that? Why is your stance like that?"
"Words are meaningless now. If you want an answer, you'll find it in our clashing blades," Vanitas answered.
Charging at him, Sora took a swing, but Vanitas back flipped out of the way. He continued attacking, catching the strange warrior as he landed back on his feet. Much to his surprise and excitement, Vanitas took the hits, grunting in pain. The last hit knocked Vanitas back a step and he froze, standing in an unnatural position for too long.
"Sora, up there!" Kairi shouted, and he turned soon enough to see Vanitas to dive down from above, his Keyblade slicing across Sora's front. Sora stumbled backwards, clutching his chest with his free hand. Vanitas moved to continue his assault, but Kairi's Keyblade struck him from behind. He whirled around to block the second and knocked her back a step as he turned her momentum against her.
Sora attacked Vanitas from one side and Kairi joined him on the other, locking Vanitas between their onslaughts. Vanitas was much faster they had expected, though; he blocked all of their attacks with his Keyblade, not one managing to slip past his defense. Suddenly Vanitas jumped back and, when his feet hit the ground, all of him slid into the ground.
"Where'd he go?" Kairi asked, looking around frantically.
"I don't know…" Sora muttered. He spotted something on the ground, a sparking red and black splotch, and reacted just as it slipped under Kairi's feet. Without warning her, he pushed her out of the way in time for Vanitas' strike to make another slice as he emerged from the ground. Sora gritted his teeth against the pain, watching as Vanitas slid back into the ground, moving with startling speed. Making a split second decision, he charged at the splotch. Vanitas reemerged a split second after Sora dodged over him, but instead of the strike he had expected, the enigma blasting him across the back with tendrils of dark lightning.
'If dark fire wasn't bad enough, its dark lightning now?'
Vanitas landed back on the ground and Kairi shot a cast of blizzard magic at him. He back flipped out of the way, giving Sora enough time to get back to his feet and attack. Keyblade met Keyblade as Vanitas blocked the attacks, shifting their battle forwards and backwards to avoid Kairi's magic.
'He's much to skilled for us to handle. Kairi's doing her best, but she can't maneuver and it's causing too many problems. I can't keep covering both of us like this!'
As if sensing the turbulence in Sora's mind, Vanitas shifted an attack to push Sora's Keyblade up, swinging his block into an attack of his own. Pain flared like a roaring fire across his body, making him drop his Keyblade and collapse to the ground, clutching his chest. Kairi's attacks broke off as Vanitas stood over him, his Keyblade poised for a finishing blow. They remained in position, waiting for someone to move first and break the uncertainty in the air.
Finally, Vanitas chuckled. "Now, this isn't any fun. I thought you would entertain me more. I think… this would be more entertaining." He turned and strode calmly in Kairi's direction.
Sora tried to sit up, but the pain overpowered him and he collapsed back to the ground. "Kairi! Get out of here!"
Instead, Kairi stood her ground, ready to fight. Vanitas shifted back into his battle stance and attacked. She managed to block the first few attacks, but the force of her opponent's blows pushed her backwards until her back hit the filthy brick wall. When it did, Vanitas took her momentary lapse of concentration to knock her Keyblade out of her hands. Sora almost couldn't watch.
"This is the end!"
"Kairi!"
BANG.
