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Chapter 11 : Outcry
The darkness of the hole opened up to a long hall. Roof and floor could not be seen when their came out on the stairs. What they did see in the faint light was cages hanging from the roof. They were empty but made Tooth flinch a little. But the group did not stop, as they continued to step in Pitch's kingdom, weapons ready. In the darkness below something moved. North glazed at it and pointed the others to be quiet. Bunnymund nodded and slowly leaded them down the stairs. Sandi went last, hesitantly turning after making sure there was no attack coming from behind.
Suddenly something fell against him and burying him. The others spun around, taking aim to help their friend. And froze. North blinked. Tooth's mouth fell open. Kagome pinched her arm and it hurt. Jack had to hold back a grin. Bunnymund shouted:"What?!" There laid Ayumi, Sandi buried underneath her chest. "Aua."she whimpered and opened her eyes. Seeing Sandi peek out from below, she turned in a deep red and jumped off her. "Gomanasai!"
"Ayumi, is everything okay?" a soft voice called out of inside the tunnel. The Guardians' eyes became even bigger when Yuka walked out. Kagome let her hair hang. "Kiara, you traitor.",she murmured, watching Eri follow out behind Yuka. "I told you to stay home!" Bunnymund went into a fist, immediately being nose to nose with the katana-holder, you fool. "WE are no PUSH-AROUNDS, you idiot!", she shot back, while Souta walked out behind her, massaging his temples. "I fell a heartache coming ..." Kiara jumped of his shoulder and gave the other group a you-had-it-coming-glace.
Black sand shot out every corner. Sandi let his sand shot up in a wall to block the first attack, but a black arrow came shooting from a different direction. Kiara jumped forward and ripped the small man out of the line of fire by biting his collar. She wasn't long in the air before she collapsed sleeping in her small form. Shocked, Sandi picked her up quickly while destroying a attacking nightmare with his whip. Turning around he realized they were in some corridor. Alone.
Despite for what he might have hoped, the others did not even notice. When he later asked, Ayumi would always only murmel in "Hentai, hentai, hentai..." darkly. As for now she used her katana to beat the crap out of the nightmare-boy that had dared to pull her away from her fighting friends by her bra. Realizing that he wasn't dying because she had forgotten to take the sheet off, she stopped a moment to do so. The boy used the moment to rise a gun and a blade shot past the girl's face. Cutting the bullet into two. North nodded at the sheel-shocked girl and cut the boy down. Turning back around to the main battle he shouted:"Govna! Where did the wall come from!"
"Pitch is trying to seperate us!" Souta shouted, as he sorted through the telepathic voices coming from all directions. They were so loud. It made it hard to think. Souta!, Kagome cried in her mind and the boy jumped when one of her arrows shot passed him and Yuka before a nightmare could reach them. Tooth fought the sand creatures that came from above. Bunnymund took out a dragon to their left as he ran behind Eri and his sister towards them, with Jack keeping their backs free. The boy could see it in their mind. Having to watch after him and Yuka kept them from fighting all the way. No, I won't!,Souta refused and used his staff to attack a nightmare.
It transformed into a sand-skeleton and caught the staff, pulling the boy forward. He stumpled, but Eri made a dash around it and stabbed the skeleton in the back. The exploding sand made him jump backwards. A boomerang shot through the nightmares, that came up from behind her, and Bunnymund suddenly stood besides her. Suddenly the ground under them gave away. Tooth raced after them to catch them. All three disappeared in the ground. Souta stared a moment, before he heard their cursing thoughts. They're alive.
Yuka screamed when the ground gave away under her. She clinched to the closet thing and earned a surprised "What the -?!". Kagome turned in midair and pulled her friend closer. "Hold on to my back!"she recovered quickly and freed her bow from the girl's stone hold to stop the nightmares, that came from every corner. Her arrow illuminated the whole place -a sure sign that for some reason there where suddenly less enemies. And when the light fated and they landed, the miko saw why. "Ano... Why are we in a kitchen, Kagome?"
Jack had frozen all the nightmares at once upon seeing Kagome disapear between the sand. The ice shattered, leaving behind in the a empty space. Wind picked up around him and he was just thinking of flying down there and look for her, when Souta called. "Jack! There not down there! Nee-san and Yuka-san landed in some kitchen to the left." The boy's words caused the spirit to look at him in bewilderment. "What? How do you know that?" -"I can hear them. I can also hear Pitch watching each of us, so please don't ask for details." He stopped for a second. "Not that I really understand myself." Are you a mind-reader or something. Don't te- "Bingo." And the spirit wondered how to deal with that. "You will, if you meant what came from you on the flight here." Wha-!? How much did-!? "Everything." Jack is as winter spirit not capable of paling or getting red and mumbled: "Let's get everyone together..." -"Jack, one more thing. I not only hear our group and Pitch."
-ooo-
Tooth looked around the hallway again. "This is exactly what I meant about it being to dangerous! Pitch is to strong. Weak girls should stay home!" After they had been separated from the others, they had found themselves in some dark corridor. "Oh, yeah, sure. You knew this would happen. That is why you fell for it, isn't it?!" The hole in the roof, they had crashed through, had disappeared together with the nightmares. "I mean the princept here, idiot!" As if Pitch would have suddenly lost interest in them. "Let's talk about being being thankful after someone saved-" -"You mean after I saved you again." -"I saved you here!" It was to odd. "And I know that it is dangerous -That's why we are here, baka?" -"I managed for centuries without a suicidal girl, thank you." What could have caused this. "I'm not suicidal! You are, baka!" -"Idiot, I-" -"And your the baka!"
"Stop bibbering like an old married couple!"the fairy spun around to her fighting friends. "There are thousand of childrens to save! We are getting weaker every second! Our group got separated! Pitch is obliviously planning something! And your shouting is giving me a heartache! So shut it! And focus!" The two in front of he were shocked, making her sigh in relief. Till... "I didn't know the tooth fairy could curse.."Eri whispered to Bunnymund, not taking her eyes off said fairy. Neither did the Easter Bunny, as he leaned closer and whispered back: "Me neither. I m- What is that smell?!"
Before anyone could answer, the floor below broke open, ripped apart by countless tentacle. Eri jumped backyards from one only to be caught by a second one. Bunnymund froze while fighting off the tentacles coming after him and turned to free her, only to have three tentacles get a hold on his arms and left leg. Tooth raced from the tentacles' reach that kept breaking through the floor. "This couldn't be Mitc ..or?" Up front came a exit and she didn't hesitated to fly out. A hall
Behind her, an monster of the size of a big family house broke out of the wall, leaving her barely the time to dodge the flying rocks. She rounded and stared at the scene before her. The monster, who's main body looked like a lose bunch of bloody meat, waved his million thin tentacles around. In the mess she could make out Bunnymund and Eri, who desperately tried to free themselves. Tooth's wings moved quicker in anger. It really was Mitc. Well, the monster in the closet was one of Pitch's earliest I thought he betrayed and left him seven centuries ago. She saw it pulling her friends closer to the main body and attacked. Mitc was famous for eating everything it could touch.
-ooo-
North sighed in relief when he saw the exit. This pipe was starting to be annoying. After all, he was a big man. And the pipe, while being the only way they could move forward, was getting more narrow with every inch they moved forward. In the end, Ayumi had to push so he could out. While the girl climbed out, he looked around and his eyes widen. His place looked like his workshop, but he refused to believe it was his place. No. It couldn't. Toys and Christmas decoration laid broken on the floor. The walls had holes and some of the furniture were broken.
"Isn't it lovely?" asked a voice and the two spun around. On one of the intact tables sat a small green-skinned, oni-like man. He wore a lose black kimono and a small hat. Beside him laid a staff with two heads, one of an young woman and one of an old man. North's grip on his swords tightened as the other male smiled and pointed around. "This is what Christmas should be like, don't ya think?"the man said and pointed around.
"Jaken Grinch, what are you doing here?" North growled, finding it a hard time to control his anger. They hated each other, oh yes. And this place wasn't real! No, his home was safe. This was just an illusion, made to confuse him. That's all. "I thought you and Pitch hated each other. How come you being in his lair?" His question earned him a smile. Ayumi moved closer to him and unsheeted her own sword hesitantly as Jaken stood up and took his staff. "Long story.",he smiled. "From a long time ago. None your brain could process."
North throw a chair to block the attacking fire ball and charged. Jaken dodged the blades and aimed with the bottom of this staff at the big man's stomach, which the later quickly with one sword blocked. Attacking with his other weapon he forced the Grinch back, before he had to jump behind a table to escape a fire ball. Not wasting a breath, he attacked again.
-ooo-
Jack kept Souta behind himself as he moved closer to the next exit, his staff in front of him. They had to go through the hall up front to get the others, apparently. There is one of the strange voices you hear?he asked Souta, who nodded and hold his own staff close. He tried stubbornly to not look afraid. The spirit could understand and thought quickly: Don't worry. I protect you. This earned him a short thankful glace, but didn't seem to calm the boy down. Trying to ignore that fact, Jack focused at the task at hand. Whoever the people behind those voices were, it was clear to see that they were Pitch allies. Which was strange, since Pitch didn't have friends -he told him so himself a year ago. So who were those guys?
After looking at Souta a moment, Jack shot out of the corridor with Souta in one arm and send a ice wave towards the direction the boy had tointed at. They heard a surprised gaps, but a blade cut through the ice, turning it to ashes. Before them stood a man in black robes, who wore a skull-mask and held a scythe. "Kukuku... How interesting."he said. "Who would have thought you could sense me. But on the other side, you are the boy that made Pitch look old last year." As he spoke, skeletons rose out of the ground around Jack and Souta. "But we shall see...",smiled the grim reaper and sat down. His skeletons attacked the boys immediately. Jack sent ice wave after ice wave, while Souta hit everything with his staff that came to close. The undead were no hard opporant, but there also seemed.
-ooo-
Yuka and Kagome had left the kitchen and were running down the hallway. "Do you really think it is okay to not look for the others?" Yuka asked her friend worried. "I mean, they-" -"If they're alive, they will be looking for the children, too." Kagome cut her off, leaving out the alternative, in which searching their friends would be a waste of time. And they didn't have time. Through she wasn't looking for the children. Or her own mother. No, she followed Shikon's aura. She had to save them. And where Shikon was, was Pitch. When she took care of Pitch, the others would have no problem saving everyone. She didn't have the strength to do everything, so she had to trust them. But Yuka... It had been a stupid idea for her to come. How was she supposed to protect her while fighting Pitch. On the other side she couldn't leave her behind without any protection now either.
Tap.
Kagome stopped so suddenly, that Yuka, who had been running behind her, dumped into her. "What is...?"she started, but stopped when she saw what the miko saw. In front of them stood a woman, about two years older than them. She had pale skin, long, black hair, that went past her butt and wore an elegant white kimono. Her face was similiar to Kagome's except for her brown eyes, but Yuka would never have problem keeping them apart due to the cold in the woman's eyes and her cruel smile. "Long time, no see, Kagome."
"Kikyou.",Kagome growled and balled her fist, trying to regain her clam. Her feelings mustn't control her actions. If she fought full strength now, she will never win against Pitch. But she had to protect Yuka from that stupid clay.
(To be continued...)
I believe someone asked for more IY-charactere, so ... hope you liked it. Please review.