Author's Note-Yay! I updated! ..Almost..not..latish… Heh. –smiles and sweatdrops- Well, I tried. These days, it's hard to tear the computer away from my little sister, and a miracle to be able to do so without a fight… -sighs- Anyways, I've been writing, and I must say that in spite of all that I'm currentlydoing, I've managed to write more than I figured I'd be able to. –grins- So hopefully that means faster chapter updates. Anyways, Kingdom Hearts does not belong to me. That should be enough to keep the lawyers away…for now, at least. –smiles and sweatdrops again- Anyways, here's the chapter.
"Mowgli!" Baloo shouted as a piranha-like fish with…legs?…suddenly jumped out of the pond to snap at Mowgli's head. Sora formed his keyblade and ran forward, slashing and killing the fish. It exploded into seemingly black ink.
"So there are Heartless here…" Taro muttered, eyes widening slightly. "Tam, Baloo, Bagheera, get ready to fight if need be. I'm betting that keyhole is somewhere around here, too," he advised, forming his keyblades.
Sora looked over at Mowgli and smiled slightly. Mowgli blinked, sensing a friendly aura coming from the boy. "You okay?" Sora asked.
Mowgli nodded a bit shakily. "U-uh huh…"
"Good," Sora said with relief. A sudden flash of white, black, and blonde from above! Sora glanced around and spotted Taro landing beside him. Mowgli looked over at the blonde as well. There was black Heartless blood staining Taro's black and white shirt.
"Thanks for you being a decoy," Taro said, meeting their gaze. He then looked up at the sky. "They seem to be attacking by both land and sky. Tam and I can probably deal with the flying ones. Think you can cover the groundwork for us? You know, cover our backs?"
Sora grinned. "So long as you cover mine," he replied.
Taro nodded. "Hopefully Baloo and Bagheera can help you with the groundwork, though I'm not sure how well they can fight Heartless…" he added. He looked up, hearing the flap of wings.
The approaching Heartless looked somewhat like vultures, only totally blackwith sharper, longer talons, sharper beaks, a goldenthird eye, and a second pair of wings on their backs. The second pair of wings, the wings that were not even supposed to be there, bore the redHeartless insignia on each wing.
Tam walked over, looking up at the bird Heartless. "Well, here comes the party…" she commented, reaching into her pocket to no doubt select which seed she would use for battle. She pulled her hand out, concentrating for a moment, then forming a long green spike.
Taro glanced over at the weapon. "What kind of plant did that come from?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Lemme just say this: every rose has its thorns," Tam replied enigmatically.
"…That's one big thorn…"
"Heh. All with practice of plant magic mixed with spirit energy, ki," Tam replied. With that, she promptly turned and skewered the Heartless that was about to attack her from behind.
It seemed like a signal of some sort. As soon as she stabbed that Heartless, a flock of Heartlessvultures flew up and out of the trees and out ofthe patches of grass towards them. Sora was surprised that he hadn't noticed them earlier.
The Heartless fish from earlier began toleap out of the surrounding ponds, up and if out, landing with tiny legs on the land. Their dorsal fins looked thin but razor sharp, and the yellow Heartless insignia was set against the blue scales on their bellies.
All of a sudden, complete chaos. They all began hacking away at the Heartless; even Mowgli was helping out somewhat by swiping at the Heartless with a fairly large stick.
"Don't bother with the small fry. Find the leader!"
Sora frowned and blinked, stopping momentarily. What…?
"Oi, Sora! You alright?" Taro called, glancing over.
"I, uh…yeah… I'm fine…" Sora said, blinking. He glanced back at Taro and Tam. "You guys wouldn't have happened to have seen some kind of big monster that could be their leader, have you?"
"If we saw it, I would hope you could, too," Tam called back. She then frowned, her nose twitching as she looked back over her shoulder at the treeline. Her eyes widened. "Sora, get away from the treeline!"
Too late. Sora suddenly fell onto his stomach, a crushing weight on his back! Claws dug into him and he winced, struggling. "Get off!" he yelled.
"Oh, I don't think so, mancub," the familiar voice of Shere Khan said into his ear.
Tam glanced over, then glared and pointed her thorn at Khan. "Maybe you should listen to the kid!" she yelled, feeding a burst of spirit energy into her rose thorn. The thorn extended; Khan had to jump off to avoid it. The thorn blew past and Khan landed, growling a tiger growl.
"Thanks, Tam," Sora said gratefully, jumping up. "No prob- Ah!" Tam exclaimed, tumbling forward as a Heartless rammed into the back of her head.
Taro glanced over, eyes wide. "Tam!"
Shere Khan grinned and started toward the fallen girl. Sora ran in front of Tam, keyblade at the ready. He winced. What am I doing?.! I'm going to die! he thought frantically. But you're doing it because Tam is your friend and she needs your help… another voice in the back of his mind said calmly.
"Fi…" Sora muttered. He frowned. Fi? What? "Fi…" Where was this coming from? It seemed so random…
…And yet, it felt like he was doing something right. In the corner of his eye, he noticed the tip of the keyblade beginning to crackle, beginning to glow.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Orange-reddish sparks, making sharp popping noises began to pour from the tip of the keyblade. Shere Khan suddenly leaped…!
"Sora!" Taro shouted, too far away to help.
Sora gasped, eyes widening as an image of a neon-lit town flashed through his mind, an image of him fighting alongside a humanoid duck and a dog, of him shooting something from the tip of his key, a ball of flame-
"Fire!"
A fireball suddenly shot from the tip of the keyblade, into Shere Khan's face! The cat let out what sounded like a cross between a screech, shriek, and roar, dropping to the ground. "Insolent brat! You're going to pay for that!" he shouted with rage.
"Wow… Forgot I could use that in battle…" Sora muttered.
"Sora!" Mowgli suddenly called. Sora, who had been staring at his keyblade in wonder, looked up and blinked, glancing over.
"Yeah?" Sora asked.
Mowgli held up his stick. "You can make fire. Light my stick!"
Sora blinked again, then shrugged. "Okay, but be careful," he replied as he took careful aim at the stick. "Fire!"
A fireball suddenly shot out, catching the end of the stick aflame. It was right on time, too, because at that very instant, Shere Khan leapt to his feet.
"Distract Shere Khan! The vultures I was talking to earlier said that he's afraid of fire. I've got an idea!" Mowgli called.
"I'll try!" Sora called back. He leapt at the tiger, swiping with his keyblade. Shere Khan jerked his head back, so the tip of the keyblade merely nicked his nose. He roared a roar that would make most grown men drop to their knees in fear, but not Sora. Khan lunged! Sora's eyes widened as he put up the ivory hilt of his keyblade.
"Sora! Look out!" Taro shouted. He tried to make his way over to his friends, but was blocked off by a new wave of crowding Heartless. He growled, glaring. "Dammit…!"
Claws hit the hilt of Sora's keyblade. Sora winced as his knees began to buckle under the force and the weight of the tiger.
"Sora! Don't tell me you're giving up!"
That voice… Time seemed to stop, though in reality, the flicker of memory probably only lasted for a moment. But…there was more…
"Why not?.! It's not like I'm going to win. You're much bigger than me, Riku. It isn't a fair fight!"
"Oh boy. Is that what this is all about? What are you going to do if someone tries to mug you? Just act like a little baby and whine about how it isn't fair? Learn this: life isn't fair. The world isn't fair."
"Alright, Confucius. What can I do?"
"Look, Sora. You're small, kinda wimpy-looking-"
"Hey!"
"-But you can use that to your advantage. You've got speed, yeah, but best of all, you've got the element of surprise."
The element of surprise, that's it! Thanks, Riku…whoever you are, Sora thought. An image of a boy flashed through his mind. A boy with white hair and blue eyes…
"Fire!" Sora shouted. An explosion of flame suddenly shot from his keyblade.
Taro sweatdropped as the fireball blew past his head, only about five inches away, maybe slightly closer. His amber eyes were a little wide. "Hey! Watch where you're aiming those things!" he yelled. "Shere Khan is right in front of you! I am not Shere Khan. Damage to me will not do damage to him!"
But the very sight of the explosion was enough. Shere Khan's eyes widened and he let loose another fearful shriek, then pushed back, away from the fire-producing keyblade the best he could. He landed a few feet away. Sora landed on his back, but at least now he had Shere Khan off of him.
He winced, sitting up. It was then that his eyes caught a very pleasing sight.
While Shere Khan had been trying to crush him, Mowgli had (and how, Sora would never know) managed to tie the tiger's tail around the flaming branch. Now the insane rabid kitty was running around and around in circles, trying desperately to get away from the fire.
Taro sliced through the last of the Heartless and looked up, his eyebrows raising in surprise. Everyone stopped, blinking over at the spooked tiger and watching him run off.
Sora sighed in relief. Taro blinked.
"…Is it over…?" he asked.
Sora blinked, then grinned and nodded. "Yeah. I think it's over…"
"Envy, I see you're back," the woman with long black hair said, standing next to a short fat man with beady little eyes.
The teenager with long, greenish-black hair smirked. "That's right. So what's new?"
"Nothing, as of ye-"
"Wouldn't you be surprised," a voice said from the shadows.
The three conspirators looked up, over at the source of the voice and echoing footsteps. A man with wild red hair, green eyes, and a black coat stepped forward, a grin on his face.
The woman grinned while the teenager glanced over at the man, looking unamused. In fact, a near-annoyed look was on the teenager's face.
"Well, it seems we have a little meddler in our midst," the woman said.
"Let me eat him! Let me eat him!" the short fat man pleaded.
"I don't think that's really in your best interests," the redhead said, smirking.
"Oh?" the woman asked, raising her eyebrows in amusement.
"Homunculi, are you not? My name is Chaos. Embodiment of darkness."
"Well, you're not human. And yet, you're not a homunculus, either," the teenager commented.
"Correct. I was formally a demon, but now I am Non-Existent. As I said, the embodiment of darkness."
"I don't care what you are. What I want to know is why we shouldn't kill you."
"You are all looking for the Philosopher's Stone, are you not? You all want hearts, souls," Chaos deducted.
"You can get us the Philosopher's Stone?" the woman asked, now interested.
"Not at all. However, I do know of something that has the same alchemic properties of the stone. They're called heart fragments…"
Author's Note-Interesting… Music from Savatage ish quite inspiring… Anyways, as you all can see, I'm finally wrapping up the current worlds and getting ready to head on to the next ones. I've got one chosen for each of two out of three of the groups, just need one more… -grins- I'll figure it out, but I wouldn't say no to suggestions. The third world is gonna take a bit longer, anyway. DemonSurfer, the whole Vincent idea sounds good. And about the FFVII… -shakes head, sighing- I need to find my memory card. Well, at least I still remember most of it…and I could always play it again. –shrugs and smiles- Doghouse, yeah, I know what site you're talking about, now. It's in fact one of my research websites. I'll consider it. And like I said, I intend to go more so into Tam's past…gradually. The major info about her past comes later. Anyways, I'll try to update as soon as possible. Hopefully the update estimation on my author's status will be accurate, or at least nearly accurate. I'll see what I can do. In the meantime, please review! Ja ne!