Summary: When Carly, Sam, and Freddie buy a new video game from a shady shop, just how crazy will things get when they try to play it?
Disclaimer: All I own's this story and these bon-bons I'm eating. Dan Schneider owns iCarly and Tetsuya Nomaru owns Kingdom Hearts. So leave me alone, copyright people! …These are pretty good bon-bons, though…
iFight For the Light: Chapter 14
Tiring. That's what this whole thing was. Oh yeah, and unbelievable. Because while it was important that I reach the top of the castle, where Freddie and Carly both probably were, we were seemingly getting nowhere.
We had to take lift after lift, and fight heartless after heartless in a seemingly endless cycle. And while the castle's exterior and ledges were beautiful, it took all my power to fight off the urge to throw myself off said ledges—to just jump away from it all; away from the heartless and the lifts; away from the whole tedious process all-together.
The trek was getting really annoying and tensions began to run high. I had no clue that the castle was this tall, and I'd be willing to bet all the ham I could ever eat that the other guys were in the same boat as me. Everyone's moods had plummeted, and we were practically all at each other's throats by the time we found the giant lift that must've looked like the embodiment of hope to our eyes.
As we all ran aboard as fast as we could, we directed our gazes to the sky as the tram began to rise. The top of the castle was relatively close now, and we all breathed a sigh of relief. That is, until what looked like dragons swooped down and began attacking us—kicking and scratching at our bodies with their talons.
"Dragons?!" I yelled in astonishment over the screeching creatures, slashing at them with the best of my abilities.
"No! They're heartless!" Jonah called back as he ducked a swipe from the supposed heartless in front of him. "Wyverns, to be specific!"
"Oh, great!" I shouted in sarcasm. "New ones!"
"Where do these things keep coming from?!" Gibby bellowed, probably instinctually as he zapped the wyvern in front of him with electricity.
"Uh, hello?!" I called in return. "Base of ultimate darkness? Ring any bells?"
Gibby didn't respond, and Shane hadn't said a word as he struggled to fight for himself as well as protect everyone else at the same time.
The only thing we'd accomplished by the time the lift stopped was drawing more heartless to us. There were about six or seven hovering over our whole group, and as soon as we were able, we jumped off the tram and ran into the nearest open door, closing it and locking it to the best of our abilities behind us.
Panting, we gripped the walls around us for support, and with shallow breaths, Gibby called out a cure spell that healed the whole group.
I grimaced at my right hand that hanged limply in the makeshift sling. "Still broken," I mumbled.
Gibby tossed a lop-sided frown in my direction. "I'm sorry, Sam. I can't understand why I'm not able to heal you." He shrugged. "Maybe I'm just not as powerful as Principal Franklin said I was," he said as his sad face became full-blown.
My eyebrows furrowed in sadness. Before Gibby looked back my way, I had a cool and collected nonchalant, neutral expression on my face. "Hey, it's cool," I said shrugging. "Everything happens for a reason."
My eyes widened and my cheeks glowed a bit as I realized that I had echoed Freddie's words from when we'd woken up on the island. My eyebrows knit together once again, but quickly went back to normal when I took notice of everyone staring at me.
Clearing my throat awkwardly, I spoke. "Right, well…" I said, pausing. "Let's look around to see where we have to go." As I spun around, my shoulders dropped, and I sighed in exasperation.
Ahead of us lay a long corridor. You didn't have to be a video game expert to know that a long, empty hallway was a bad omen.
I heard a gulp from behind me, but when I turned around all the guys were standing straight and still. The gulper must've regained composure. "Well," I began, throwing my left arm out to the waiting corridor. "Come on, you cowardly nerds. Let's show this hallway who's boss."
The only one to seemingly not take my quip seriously was Jonah, who rolled his eyes as he walked to my side. But then again, he'd probably navigated these halls more than once in the past so there were no surprises waiting for him.
As we walked, almost huddled, at a normal speed that, for some reason seemed to feel like trudging our way through thigh-high mud, I was surprised that no one—especially Gibby—actually cried out in fear. No. Seriously. I half-expected the little dweeb to start moaning, "I do believe in spooks, I do, I do, I do," or something to that accord, because this whole situation felt like a scene from some movie. It felt far too cinematic to be real, and yet, it was.
Once we had reached the end of the long corridor, we peaked around the corner of the wall that led into the next large room cautiously.
In the huge black room—that was only illuminated by the single window located close to the ceiling—stood Freddie and Valerie engaged in conversation. Well, a one-sided conversation because it seemed Valerie was doing all the talking as one might expect.
Freddie stood, and the obnoxious girl sat on what looked like a bench of some sort. But when she giggled and swung her legs whimsically, I realized what she was really sitting on—it was what looked to be a glass coffin. And resting inside it was my best friend Carly.
That was it. Screw stealth. I bared my teeth as a fire roared inside of me and caused me to stomp into the room, screaming. "You ugly, no-good, rotten, snot-mouthed witch! Let Carly out of there or I will personally knock you off of every inch of this castle!"
Freddie smirked maliciously at me while Valerie glared in disgust, both giving me a complete once-over. "Um, how about 'no'?" she rolled her eyes.
My face tensed, my blood boiled, and my fingers curled into claws as I let out a primal roar. Running at Valerie, I grabbed onto the collar of her cloak with my left hand and let all my force empty onto her, successfully forcing her to the ground. "Let her go now!" I shouted.
Valerie threw her head back on the cold stone floor and giggled tremendously.
'Oh you think it's funny?" I shouted as I, sitting on top of her, pulled her up slightly by the collar I still had hold of and then slammed her head back to the ground. "I'm gonna beat the laugh right out of you, you fudgebag!"
At this her face turned serious, and she seemed to look back to Freddie for guidance.
In a cold, hardened tone, he said, "Get rid of the fools. I'll watch the girl."
And then she smirked. "You really should be more careful, Sam," Valerie said in her sickeningly sweet tone. "You don't even know what you just initiated."
Suddenly as Jonah, Gibby, and Shane called to me, I became aware of the fact that the piece of flooring we were sitting on was quickly levitating into the air. While I was distracted, Valerie, too, levitated, and landed herself right back on her feet on the floating island of stone.
My feet crashed to the ground and I turned toward her with wide, surprised eyes.
Her gaze seemed to grow wider with exhilaration as her smirking lips curled up to reveal her pearly whites in a vicious grin. "Bye, bye, Sammy," Valerie called as I was suddenly thrown away from her by some unseen force.
I crashed to the floor, and Gibby called my name, immediately running with Jonah and Shane to my side.
Valerie's giggles soon transformed into maniacal laughter, and as she lifted a hand, the stone island on which she now stood glowed a shadowy and smoky blue with power. Heartless of every kind appeared around us, and Gibby and Shane quickly pulled me to my feet as Jonah ran instantaneously into the fray, slashing and punching.
"Come on!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. "Let's get out there and cover him!"
And so, we, too, rushed into battle. I couldn't tell how everyone else was doing, because I couldn't turn my back on these heartless for a second—they were insanely fast—but I was doing okay.
The only problem is that the fight was never-ending. As many heartless as we defeated, more just kept springing up. And the new ones were always seemingly stronger and faster than the last. It was truly ridiculous—we really were getting nowhere.
And then the thought hit me—it was just like a vampire movie. In every classic vampire story, the way to kill all the other ones is to destroy the head vampire. And right now, that head vampire was Valerie. In fact, she was a bit of a vampire, but more like the ones that sucked lives rather than blood. Just don't know where she put all the lives she stole because she clearly didn't have one of her own. That much was obvious. But that was beside the point.
Sneaking behind the island of stone, luring only one large heartless with me, and leaving the rest to Gibby, Shane, and Jonah, I concocted a plan to get where Valerie was unnoticed.
Grinning, I had found my plan, and I gave the heartless a taunt with a nod of my head. It took the bait and ran at me, but as soon as it was close enough, I jumped up and onto its body for leverage. Then, I swiftly jumped once more onto the platform, silent as the invisible ninja that I'd always hoped to one day become.
My grin stretched noticeably wider. "Hey, Valeficent," I called, coolly, combining her true name with the name of the person whom I saw her as.
The witch turned around in bewilderment and I just shrugged in return.
"Gotta say, head trauma suits you."
Valerie's perplexed look became more pronounced, but before she could even tilt her head, I smacked her across the face with my keyblade, sending her soaring into a wall and to the ground.
Instantly, the floating island melted back into the floor, and the heartless disappeared. I received a few complimentarily whistles from my teammates over my handy-work.
Smirking, I placed my left hand on my hip and held my head high with pride. Valerie's face was red from the blow I had dealt it, and she spat blood to the floor. Not even a second after, she glowed as she healed herself.
"Now, Valerie," I said, leaning down to stand just above her eyelevel. "Spitting blood's not very lady-like."
The glare she shot me had to be a replica of one I'd seen in the Jonas Book of World Records, because she was angrier than I'd seen anyone be in a long time. And the thought that I had caused what I saw in front of me only made my smirk grow—made the victorious and satisfied feeling I held in my gut increase exponentially.
As we all stood in triumph, the fact that Freddie was definitely not Freddie became more obvious as he sauntered up to Valerie and asked if she needed help, calling her by the name "Maleficent." He might've spoken in Freddie's voice, and had Freddie's body, but whoever was in control upstairs was not my good ol' dork.
I watched him in suspicion as my gaze shifted to his hand, which now held an entirely new, entirely black (except for the handle) keyblade.
Gibby appeared to be, again, in the dark to what everyone else seemingly already knew when he asked, "Is that…a keyblade?"
Freddie turned to us, smirking. "Yes, it's a keyblade. But unlike Sam's—" he gestured with a hand towards my gold and silver weapon. "—Which seals people's hearts, mine has the power to unlock them."
We stood in silence, with absolutely no idea what to say. All our faces were set in determined glares as Freddie chuckled, as if laughing at our efforts.
"Would you like a demonstration?" he asked, tilting his head to the side.
None of us answered—we simply held our ground, ready to strike if need be.
Freddie's head slowly righted itself and his eyes flashed in excitement, as his smirk grew more pronounced.
Suddenly, he thrust the keyblade backward and straight into Valerie's chest without even having to look at his target.
We all gasped in shock. Not that we liked Valerie at all—and it was kind of comforting to see her get stabbed—but just what was he up to? No matter what, you don't stab your ally.
Valerie wrenched on the floor, her eyes wide in surprise. Her limbs scrunched as she whimpered, pain clearly etched on every inch of her face.
Freddie turned back to her, swiftly removing the blade, but not before giving it a noticeable twist first. "You know what to do, Maleficent. Embrace the darkness—let it fill your heart and mind!"
I had had enough of this guy and I glared in disgust. But as I was about to strike him, Valerie's whimpers transformed into laughter. And she weakly stood herself up, leaning on the wall for support. "I feel it," she whispered as she began to glow that disgusting shade of green. "Darkness..." And then she pushed herself completely from the wall, throwing her head back and her arms out as she cried, "Pure darkness!!"
At that moment, Valerie erupted into green flames which quickly grew until a roar sounded from inside the fire, and commanded the flames to die.
Standing before us was a giant black dragon with glowing green eyes. Valerie's voice melded with a beastly growl as she called out, "Prepare to die, Puckett!"
It was then that my shock subsided, and taking its place was pure determination. "Not by your hands in any universe, Valerie!" I boomed.
The dragon seemed to laugh. "Oh, I didn't intend to use hands!" she growled as a fresh wave of scalding green fire came shooting towards us.
We just barely managed to roll out of the way—Jonah and I to the left, and Gibby and Shane to the right.
There was no doubt that this was going to be one hell of a battle.
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AN: I cannot possibly tell you how much fun I had writing this chapter. Granted, it's shorter than most of the recent ones, but it was just so amazing to write. I really felt like I was in Sam's shoes for this one. The content flowed so freely it was as if Sam was right here, dictating every word of what I should say. Truly, completely phenomenal. Anyway, thank you so very much for all your awesome reviews—I've gotten some of the kindest words ever, from you lot =D I really hope you enjoyed Chapter 14 as much as I did! Until next time!
-Fictions