Chapter 4:Friendship
Sora hit the concrete roughly and rolled like he had been taught to help absorb the shock. When he rose to his feet, he felt someone grab him and throw him to the ground. Seconds later, another type of Heartless flew overhead. It looked somewhat like the Soldier Heartless, but there were some big differences. For one, it had two leathery wings that jutted from its back. And it had a leather hand one that covered nearly its entire face. Goggles were situated over its eyes and on top of the hat rose a strange propeller of some sort.
"Ow!" Sora cried as he felt whoever threw him to the ground fall on top of him. He caught a glance of the person and found that it was Leon.
"It's called an Air Soldier. Weak but very dangerous. It will often swoop down from high up and kill its prey before he can even react." Leon explained while looking towards the winged Heartless. "Start paying attention! We can't afford to have you killed!" He said suddenly before downing the Air Soldier via the gun part of his gunblade.
"Oh yeah, thanks." Sora muttered as he got up after Leon rolled off of him. He saw a burst of red energy fly from the gunblade's barrel and he watched as yet another one of those Air Soldiers died in a puff of black smoke.
Sora clenched tightly onto his Keyblade and when the next Air Soldier came swooping in, it found itself impaled on the blade. Sora watch it as it looked down to where the Keyblade jutted from its abdomen and then it looked up at Sora. Its yellow eyes glowed brightly from behind the goggles and soon they began to dim. Then in a puff of smoke, it vanished. Sora however could still see the yellow eyes burning into his soul…
"Sora, watch out!" Leon's voice slammed into Sora's mind and instinctively he ducked, watching out for another Air Soldier. Instead, he felt something slam into him from behind and he fell forward.
Not bothering to see whether it was Leon or not, he rolled over to see what Leon had called a Shadow Heartless glaring down at him, claws ready to tear his heart from him. He knocked it off with the Keyblade and then before it could get up, nailed it to the ground with the Keyblade. It disappeared.
Sora cleared his mind of thoughts and pressed forward into the fray, slashing wildly with the Keyblade. He called up the speed and strength of the Keyblade and soon was decimating the Heartless forces. No Heartless could possibly protect itself from the Keyblade! But soon he found that no matter how many he destroyed, more kept coming. He was already tiring and Heartless were rising faster than he was putting them down!
"Leon! There's too many!" He called out before crashing the Keyblade into a Soldier. Leon looked back at him and grunted in agreement. Then he slashed another three Heartless and began pushing for the entrance to the Second District, from where they could make their way to the First District, where Yuffie had probably already taken care of the Heartless there.
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Goofy slowly pulled the door away from Donald who was flattened against the wall. The duck gave out a small quack, but other than that he didn't move at all. "Come on, Donald! We have to go!" Goofy cried before peeling his friend off the wall.
The two ran out of the hotel room and out of the hotel itself seconds later. Turning a sharp left, they ran across the platform towards a building with a tall steeple. "Come on, in here!" Donald quacked before rushing into the building, only to find a room with all kinds of strange contraptions. It was extremely colorful and bright.
"Gawrsh… It's so… so…"
"Come on, you big palooka! We still have to find that key!"
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"Sora! Hurry!" Leon cried as he cleared the path out of the alleyway and into the Second District. He took off like a shot, Sora at his heels, and the multitude of Heartless behind him.
KA-BOOM! A powerful blast of energy exploded from the muzzle of the gunblade and Sora resisted the urge to cover his ears. He hadn't noticed the volume of the gunblade during the fray in the alley.
The blast of energy slammed into a Large Body and killed it, causing it to fall back and crush a few Shadows before disappearing into the black smoke of the Heartless.
Suddenly, Leon fell forward. Ironically, it wasn't from a Heartless but just a loose brick on the ground. Regardless of what caused it, it still stunned Leon slightly and gave the Heartless a chance to swarm him.
Sora rushed towards him, but an Air Soldier hindered his progress. He quickly dispatched it, but before he could reach Leon, some of the swarm surrounded him, blocking the view of Leon completely.
And then, help was there. A throwing star slammed into an Air Soldier, causing it to fall in a heap of smoke. It was immediately followed by another three stars, which cleared out the Heartless enough for Sora to finish them off and rush to Leon's aid.
He had scratches, shallow and deep, all over his body and it looked like his ankle had been sprained. Squall Leonhart, now known as Leon, was not happy. Yet he still fought, cutting through waves and waves of Heartless. Yet they kept coming. And while there was an infinite amount of Heartless, there was only one of Leon. He couldn't keep up the fight for long.
But before he could ponder that much longer, many Heartless disappeared in a puff of smoke, replaced by the images of Sora and Yuffie. Both of them wore huge grins on their faces. And why shouldn't they smile? They had after all just saved Leon instead of vise versa! The smiles soon melted away when Leon gave them a glare that would freeze a fireball solid.
Leon limped forward, still presenting a formidable opponent to anything daring to cross his path. Sora and Yuffie followed, destroying anything left after Leon.
Soon enough, they reached the safe haven of the First District. And immediately, all three of them collapsed against the door. They had earned their rest.
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"The Heartless are multiplying rapidly. I'm afraid if we don't find out why soon, not even the First District will be safe from them." Aerith stated the obvious. Leon merely grunted a reply.
They were all gathered in Cid's house in the First District. Leon was sitting on Cid's bed at the moment. His ankle, along with the rest of his wounds, was bandaged.
"So, let's find out why!" Sora interjected excitedly. He was ignored.
"What do we do?" Yuffie asked, earning a glare from the fourteen-year-old boy.
"What can we do?" Cid asked. "With Leon out of commission, we've lost our greatest fighter! Yuffie can't take on those Heartless by herself and I'm getting a little too old for this close combat fighting thing."
Leon snorted and said, "Moron…" under his breath. Out loud he said, "I'm not out of commission."
"Oh, yes, you are!" Yuffie said. "You're staying right in that bed until that ankle heals fully! You'll get yourself killed out there if you aren't at full capacity!"
"You're forgetting about me." Sora said loudly. He was once again ignored.
"Stop acting like an over-protective mother." Leon said sternly. Yuffie smirked and quickly punched him in the ankle, causing him to yelp in surprise and pain.
"You are staying in bed!" Yuffie said again. Leon merely glared at her but didn't reply.
Sora sighed heavily and banged his Keyblade on the wooden floor, causing every eye in the room to focus on him. "How about this? I'll go find out what's causing them to appear quickly! It'll be easier, I think!"
Cid laughed loudly. "You? You think you can take on the Heartless? You'll be dead before you even reach the—"
"All right." Leon's calm voice stopped Cid immediately. "Take your Keyblade and find out what's causing it." He looked at Yuffie. "Yuffie, go with him. He still doesn't understand the Heartless well, and he'll probably need your knowledge of them."
The room fell silent and Sora smiled slowly. "Let's go now, before we're ambushed or something." said the boy before tightening his grip on the Keyblade and leaving the house. Yuffie followed after grabbing a bag of ninja stars.
Aerith looked at Leon. "I hope you know what you're doing." Leon didn't reply but in his mind, he found himself hoping so as well.
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"So, Yuffie, how'd you get hooked up with a stiff like Leon?'" Sora asked as the two walked through the Second District. She didn't reply for a while.
"Well… When our world was destroyed, we all ended up here. We didn't know each other at the time though. We actually met once when we both ended up trapped in the Third District by the Heartless. It was strange. They just surrounded us and only attacked when we attacked them. We found out why moments later though…"
"What was it?"
"Well, this huge Heartless suddenly fell from the sky! It was actually a big suit of armor! We dubbed it Guard Armor."
"Why'd you call it that?"
Yuffie frowned. "You know… I don't really know… Ask Squ—Leon. He's the one who came up with it."
"So, how'd you beat it?" asked the curious teenager. Yuffie rolled her eyes.
"Well, we simply attacked it! It wasn't easy, mind you, but Leon and me together were able to take it down! Of course, I could have done it alone though!"
Sora laughed and looked around as they walked through the Second District. "Hey… does it seem strange to you that there's no Heartless around here? They're all… gone!"
Yuffie noticed that he was right. "Yeah… it does…" She snapped her fingers and got a look of thoughtfulness on her features. "I'm sure I've seen this happen before… What was it…? Something happened afterwards…"
Sora interrupted her. "Look, it's the Third District!" She looked up and sure enough, they had ventured through the alley leading to the large double doors that were the entrance to the Third District.
"Wow." She said softly. "That was fast."
Sora grinned at her. "It's because you're so used to fighting Heartless while walking towards the Third District, I guess!"
"Maybe…" Yuffie said. Something at the back of her mind was bothering her. Something warned her not to walk through those doors. Something told her that whatever was behind those doors could prove deadly. That very something was the same thing that told her that the situation she was in was very familiar.
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It saw that the Keyblade was very close this time. And the entity felt an undeniable hunger for the Master's heart. It had to have that heart—the heart deemed worthy by the accursed blade.
So bright in the world of darkness that it lived. While all hearts shone with their own brilliance, this one was as bright as a hundred suns. All because of that Keyblade. It strengthened his heart!
But no matter, it would soon be feasting on that very heart. Maybe this would quench its everlasting hunger. Maybe this would change this entity back to what it used to be. Maybe… maybe… Most likely not. But the entity did not realize that. It did not think in the way people with hearts thought. All it knew was that unending hunger and the desire to quench it.
And so it began to reach for the Master again. It called its minions to surround him and his friend of a weaker heart. And then it began to take shape, beginning with the armored helmet and moving onto the other pieces of armor…
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"Are you crazy?!" Donald quacked as Goofy hopped from the rooftop of the strange building they had just been in to another.
"Nope." Donald's comrade said before running forward and hopping onto another rooftop.
"Get back here!" Donald screamed as he hopped up and down to emphasize his point. But if Goofy heard him, he didn't show it. With a overly dramatic sigh, Donald followed, hopping across the rooftops.
"What are you doing?" He asked once he reached where Goofy had stopped. His friend look back at Donald and smiled.
"Just checking something out." Then he stepped into an empty house through an open window.
"Goofy!" Donald quacked in frustration. Following Goofy, he walked through the deserted house and out another window. They ended up on a small ledge over looking the expansive Third District.
And then, the duo found themselves surrounded by two small black creatures with glowing yellow eyes.
"Gawrsh, are these the Heartless guys?" He looked to Donald who looked back up at him.
"Let's get 'em, Goofy!" His duck friend cried while swinging wildly at a Heartless with his magician's rod. It dodged easily. And then, in a pincer attack, the two Heartless that surrounded Donald and Goofy rushed forward and grabbed them. Then, with a heave, they threw the friends over the ledge and down towards two people who stood below…
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The Third District was a lavishly lit place. Neon lights were everywhere. And Sora loved every single square inch of this place.
"Wow! This place is amazing!" He said as he turned around in slow circles so he could see the entirety of the district. Yuffie rolled her eyes.
"Keep your eyes open."
Sora looked at her. "You sound like Leon." This, of course, caused her to frown and then with a smile, stick her tongue out at him.
"Shut up!" She said playfully. "But really," She grew serious again. "Something doesn't feel right about all of this."
The sound of two people yelling and screaming filled her ears and she looked around. Sora did so as well. But there was nobody around. But the yells got louder and louder and soon Yuffie realized where they were coming from… straight up. Looking up, she saw the two figures falling quickly, but, before she could react, they landed straight on Sora.
"Ow!" Sora cried as he collapsed under the weight of the two. Yuffie now had a better look at the two who had fallen. One was a strange duck covered with white feathers and the other was a tall, black furred… dog-like creature. "What just—" Sora was cut off by the two.
"The Key!" Donald and Goofy cried at the same time. They quickly got off Sora and brushed themselves off. Donald opened his mouth to speak to the disoriented Sora, but a yell of frustration interrupted him.
Yuffie cursed loudly as the memories of that fateful day when she met Leon came back to her. "Shoot! Sora, get ready!" Chills ran down her back as she watched as Shadows and Soldiers arose from the ground, lining the edges of the Third District.
"What is it?" Sora asked as he looked at the Heartless that surrounded the four.
"Yeah! What's goin' on?" Donald quacked.
"It's Guard Armor! It's back!"
"What?!" Sora cried, but suddenly without warning two gigantic purple boots clattered to the ground. They were followed by two metal gloves with claws for fingers of the same size. Then, at last, the body, a large purple cylinder, and its armored head crashed to the ground.
"It's Guard Armor!" Yuffie screamed as the armored pieces floated up into the air and formed the body of the large Guard Armor.
The large Heartless took one step towards the four and suddenly it was upon them! Twisting its body around, it swung its arms with blinding speed, leaving a purple trail of light behind them. If it wasn't for the power of the Keyblade and Sora's quick thinking, he would have already been down for the count.
Quickly, he brought the Keyblade to block the arms and surprisingly the arms clanked off the Keyblade. But other than that, the Guard Armor had not been affected at all. Sora had just managed to buy himself and the others a few seconds of time.
"Attack the body!" Yuffie cried before back flipping through the air, releasing quite a few ninja stars in Guard Armor's direction. Many of them bounced off his heavy armor, but a few pierced. No damage was done though.
"Goofy! Block me!" Donald said to his friend as he pointed his rod at the Guard Armor. The end glowed red for a moment and then a red fireball flew from it and crashed into the large body of the Guard Armor. It left a large black spot on it, but it still didn't seem that Guard Armor was hurting in the least bit.
Sora was amazed to see magic like that though. Never having seen any kind of magic before, it was a pleasant surprise to find that one of his allies was able to wield it. He only hoped that the duck could do more damage than a black spot!
The Guard Armor took a step towards the nuisance that was Donald and swung a clawed fist in his direction. Only Goofy's shield was able to block the blow, but the shield ended up on the other side of the district because of it. Forgetting Donald completely, Goofy ran after it.
Donald looked around nervously when he realized that there was nobody else around to protect him. He pointed his rod at the Heartless again and prepared to hit him with a stronger Blizzard attack, but before he could let go, the Guard Armor's fist closed around him and he was lifted off the ground.
"Put me down! You stupid Heartless, put me down! Let me go!" Donald quacked in fury as he pounded against the metal hand. In reply the Guard Armor began to squeeze him slightly, causing Donald to quack even louder. "Quit that, you dumb thing!" He gave another loud quack, this one including some pain, as the Guard Armor squeezed tighter. He soon found that his quacks got weaker and weaker the tighter Guard Armor squeezed.
Sora, reacting to Donald's cries of fury and pain, jumped, using the power of the Keyblade to propel him farther than he had ever jumped before, and slammed the powerful blade down on Guard Armor's fist…
…And the fist simply fell off. It just fell to the ground, fingers still squeezing Donald.
Landing next to the hand, Sora quickly got to work prying the fingers away from the choking duck. He had just succeeded when Yuffie screamed from behind him. Spinning around to see what the problem was, all he saw was Guard Armor's other fist flying towards his face.
Stars exploded from all around him as he found himself lifting off the ground and flying through the air until he crashed into the far wall of the Third District. With a yell of pain, he fell to the floor in a heap.
He stayed like that for a while. He simply couldn't move. He couldn't even open his eyes. Is this… is this what it feels to die? He wondered. He heard heavy footsteps coming in his direction and he realized that Guard Armor was coming to finish the job. I'm sorry… Kairi. I couldn't find you…
Suddenly, he felt a warm rush through his body. All the pain that was once there disappeared as quickly as he had come and he found that he could move freely! He opened his eyes too see the last of a green wisp of light disappear. The duck's rod glowed bright green for a few seconds. The duck had just healed him, Sora realized with a smile. Giving his new ally a thumb's up, he turned back to Guard Armor, which was indeed coming his way.
"You won't get away with that again!" Sora cried, letting the full power of the Keyblade flow through his veins strengthening him in every single way. Guard Armor's fists (the one that had fallen was now a part of the body again) spun quickly again, threatening to destroy Sora once and for all.
But Sora hardly moved. Time seemed to slow as the fist came closer, but even as it came within ten feet of Sora, he did not budge. He simply stared at it as it came closer and closer. And then when it was within a few feet, Sora brought the Keyblade down upon it with a speed faster than the fist itself moved!
There was a loud clang and Sora watched in amazement as the fist that had just threatened to kill him flew away from the body and crashed into another wall, a dented and broken mess. With the trademark puff of black smoke from the Heartless, it disappeared.
Cries of joy and victory reached his ears and he grinned at his friends before turning his attention back to the opponent that was still very much so formidable.
The Guard Armor seemed slightly confused when it realized that its arm was completely gone. But it recovered quickly, its attention locking onto Sora once more.
The teenager waited for his opponent to make a move. He waited for the last fist to come flying in his direction, but it never came. They simply stood there, staring each other down for a long while. Guard Armor seemed to have frozen in place.
Becoming impatient, Sora let loose a war cry and jumped up into the air, despite Yuffie's scream of warning, and attacked Guard Armor with a flurry of midair attacks. Each time the Keyblade hit the Guard Armor's body, it left a large dent in the metal and Sora was quite satisfied that he was doing damage.
All of a sudden though, his movements stopped. Metal claws enveloped him and he felt the life being squeezed out of him. "No!" He cried as he fought the fist.
Fireballs exploded against the Guard Armor's back, but it paid Donald no attention. Instead it brought Sora up to its metal helmet and peered at him with its beady yellow eyes. Without words, it told Sora that his fate had been sealed…
And then with amazing speed, he threw the boy to the ground and leapt up, falling back onto him with his full weight…
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"No!" Yuffie cried as she watched Guard Armor dispatch of Sora with ease. There's no way he would have been able to survive that kind of weight. He would have had every ounce of life squeezed from his body. The Keyblade master was now a bloody spot on the ground.
Yet, when the Guard Armor rose slowly to its feet again, there was no blood where Sora had been. A flash of hope appeared in her heart and she smiled. But her smile disappeared as the Guard Armor found her with its eyes and began walking toward her.
Readying some more throwing stars, she was prepared for the battle ahead. Positioning herself on the balls of her feet, she waited until the last possible moment to leap out of the way of Guard Armor's fist.
But that moment never came. For in a flash of sparks, the arm was sent flying away from the Heartless and was put through a similar situation as the first one.
Sora now stood in front of her, bent low with his Keyblade in an offensive position. His clothes were a little tattered, but other than that, he was fine. Cries of surprise erupted from Donald and Goofy who had both thought this boy was finished. "Sora!" Yuffie cried in equal surprise.
He turned around and grinned at her. "What? You think I'm gonna let a little body slam finish me? In fact, I had moved out of the way by the time—"
"Look out!" Yuffie said, cutting him off. Unwilling to be caught off guard again, Sora immediately jumped out of the way as the large 'head' of the Guard Armor flew from its place on the large body and flew straight towards where Sora had just been. But instead of being hit, Sora swung his Keyblade roughly batting it straight back to the Guard Armor.
There was a loud clank and it stumbled back, its head hovering in front of it. When it stopped, the head went back to its normal position hovering above the body and the four were given a view of the damage done. There was a huge dent right in the middle of Guard Armor's chest and whatever that had caused made the large Heartless slow down considerably.
And Sora, along with the other three, took full advantage of that. Sora went straight for the body, hacking at it with the Keyblade over and over again, only stopping to fall back to the ground and then jump back up using the Keyblade's power to give him more strength. Yuffie stayed back, throwing stars flying from her hands whenever she saw an opening. Goofy worked hard to trip up the Guard Armor by slamming into its legs over and over again with his shield while Donald stayed back as well, blasting away with assorted magic attacks.
And then it all ended when Sora jumped even higher than ever, upper cutting the Guard Armor's head with his Keyblade. The head flew up vertically. It just went straight up, higher and higher. And then it began its descent, falling with blinding speed.
BANG! CRAAAAACK! The head crashed right back into place, but instead of hovering above, it was going at such a speed that it slammed right into the 'neck' of the Guard Armor. But it didn't stop there. Instead, the head sunk deep into the body, creating a visible crack in the metal body.
It emitted no roar of pain or anguish. Instead, it just stood there, its head in its chest, completely still. And then a shaft of light shot out from the crack in its armor. And the four watched as that shaft of light seemingly ate away at the Guard Armor until it finally disappeared in a puff of smoke. In its place was a large and shining heart that flew up into the dark sky and out of their view…
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"So… you were looking for me?" Sora asked the two standing in front of them.
They have broken away from Yuffie, who was distracted by yelling at Leon for even daring to come over to the Third District even though he didn't get hurt at all on the way.
"Uh-huh!" The two replied at the same time. Their voices nearly made Sora burst out laughing. From the duck's quacking voice to the dog-like person's slower voice, they were the truest odd couple that Sora had ever met.
"They too have been searching for the Keyblade and its wielder, Sora." The teenager jumped slightly at Leon's voice and found that he now stood right behind him.
Goofy looked at Sora then to Leon. Catching the look in Leon's eye, he turned his glance back to Sora. "Hey, why don't you come with us? We can visit other worlds on our ship!"
Sora's eyes lit up for a moment and then they darkened again. In a low but hearable voice, he said, "I wonder if I could find Riku or Kairi…"
"Of course!" Donald interjected, sounding not too sure of himself. Goofy looked at him in bewilderment and bent down low to talk to him privately.
"Are you sure?" He asked softly.
"Who knows? But we need him to come with us to find King Mickey!" Goofy looked at his friend, disappointed that Donald would lie to this boy just to fulfill their goals, but he didn't say anything against it.
Sora opened his mouth to reply, but Leon cut him off. "Sora, you should go with them. Especially if you want to find your friends." Sora, biting his lip, nodded in agreement. Donald saw the look of sadness on his face and frowned.
"You can't come along looking like that! No sad faces! Got it?" Goofy leaned forward smiling at Sora.
"You gotta look funny, like us!" He didn't see Leon raise a curious eyebrow from behind Sora. He was interested to see where this was going.
Donald rolled his eyes and pushed Goofy away in frustration. "This boat runs on happy faces!"
"Happy…?" Sora said softly, as if contemplating what it meant. Looking down to the floor, he breathed deeply and then he grinned widely. His eyes widened to their extent and the irises rolled back. He made a strange 'Eee' sound while doing this as well.
Donald and Goofy stared at him for a few moments and then they both burst out laughing. Donald held his gut while rolling around on the floor as he laughed. Sora was amused that these two could find his silly face so funny.
"That's one funny face!" Goofy said while slapping his knee.
"Okay, why not? I'll go with you guys!" Sora said much more happily than before. Then the two straightened themselves out and Donald held out a hand to be shaken.
"Donald." He quacked. Sora shook his hand.
"The name's Goofy!" His companion said shaking Sora's other hand vigorously.
"I'm Sora!" He replied as he politely pulled his hand free of Goofy's grasp.
Sharing a look with Goofy, Donald stuck his hand out, palm down. With a grin, Goofy slapped his hand down on it. Catching on, Sora put his own hand onto theirs, laughing slightly as he did it. "All for one and one for all!" Goofy added once it had been done.