Welcome back. I'll keep trucking along and hopefully someone reviews. Any feedback would be appreciated (very!) The plot thickens as this goes on, too, so don't worry.

chap 2

Squall spun, and metal rang on metal. He'd never seen a Defender Heartless up close; nor had he ever seen one wield anything other than the customary dog-headed shield. This one had the shield, as well as an enormous sword--the spot where it had met the Lionheart had left a notch on the gunblade's edge. Squall held, somehow, but his arms quivered beneath the strain of the power of the Defender. The thing was one and a half times his height, its purple arms as large at the bicep as he was at the waist. The Heartless continued to force down; Squall fell to one knee, not letting the larger blade get any nearer to him.

But he'd forgotten about the shield.

The three-eyed dog snarled loudly as the Defender pressed the shield forward, trying to get the creature's needle-sharp fangs within biting distance. In unison the thing's eyes began to glow an icy blue; it was prepping to fire a Blizzara spell. Squall saw this and, biting his tongue in concentration, pressed against the Defender to try to get back to his feet. Above him, on the trellis, Aerith shrugged away Yuffie's hold and charged toward the railing, hands raised. The ninja lunged after her.

"Get off!" the older girl snarled; Yuffie took a step back, surprised at her vivacity. "He needs help!" She didn't object; Aerith--forcing away a flood of mental weariness from the Gravity spells--began to chant.

Squall managed one forceful forward shove, knocking the Defender's sword back long enough for him to roll away. As he swiveled back to his feet, though, he got a nasty shock: he'd forgotten the shield's spell. He was reminded as several icy javelins shot past him, many of them slicing long, thin cuts into his clothing and skin. It took all he could manage with the gunblade to knock the larger, deadlier ice-spears out of the air before they could hit him.

The three-eyed dog continued to pump out magic and the Defender was advancing towards Squall, shield forward and sword raised high. Squall tripped over an upraised section of concrete as he backed away; a gasp of pain escaped him as a large blade of ice imbedded itself briefly in his right shoulder. Ignoring the wedge-shaped chunk that was torn from his arm as the ice flew on, he lunged back to his feet.

"Squall!" Yuffie cried. He looked up as a glistening crimson fireball took the Defender in the back and the dog-shield's assault finally got cut short. That wasn't why she'd yelled, though. The shadows were swarming again, milling in a shifting black group that was headed straight for Squall. He cursed silently under his breath and, thanking Aerith mentally for stunning the Defender, retook the gunblade in both hands and lurched back against the smaller Heartless.

"What are we going to do?" Yuffie whispered. Aerith, panting, leaned heavily against the castle's locked doors. An instant later there was a metallic click as the girl's staff slid from its compact form to its full size. Her green eyes held a steely glint.

"We're going to help." The other girl hesitated, but pulled out her shuriken anyway.

"Okay." Together, the two of them broke into a run.

It was probably commendable that they were since the shadows were too numerous to count and the Defender was recovering from the temporary shock that the collision of conflicting elements had created. Even in the middle of a butterfly complex maneuver, Squall saw the girls coming.

"Stay back!" he roared. "It's too--" The sentence trailed into a choking intake of breath; Yuffie froze mid-stride, mouth open in horror. Aerith had more battle sense and picked up speed, smashing shadows out of her way as she tried to get to Squall and the dog-headed shield that had just sunk its teeth deep into his flesh.

To be continued...hopefully...

Squall seems to get the crap end of it constantly, eh? It'll take more than just his blade to take care of this...