CHAPTER XXXIX
SHOCK AND AWE
As Pete grew nearer, Kairi, Donald and Goofy were pushed out of the square by Biggs and Wedge. "He's got some Materia on his side…we'd only get in his way," Biggs explained.
"No way! C'mon, so does Pete! He still needs our help!" Kairi protested. Wedge put his finger up to his lips, indicating for her to be quiet. She frowned and unsummoned her keyblade, crossing her arms with an angry look on her face.
Sora had stopped glowing yellow, and he knew that the materia had taken affect. He dashed at Pete, who quickly reached out and grabbed Sora by the scruff of the shirt and threw him at the gazebo. The gazebo cracked and splintered from the force with which Sora hit it…Pete was strong, but it didn't seem like the materia was giving him any special powers…
As though his mind was playing a cruel joke on him, Pete stuck his arms up in the air as he began to glow green once more…
"Great," Sora mumbled to himself. He stood up and brushed the splinters from his suit.
The sky turned light…even though it never truly seemed to be 'daytime' in Emptiness Crossing, the normal dark aura of the city was replaced with a much brighter sky. Overhead, clouds swirled as spirals popped up all over the sky…Sora caught himself looking at them in awe as he was punched in the face by Pete, sending him into the shattered remains of the gazebo. He hopped back to his feet and slashed at the ground, propelling himself upward – as he dropped down, he spun like a top, catching Pete in the whirlwind, doing massive damage to the bumbling bad-guy.
As Pete sailed away from Sora and into a steel girder over a wall, the spirals overhead turned dark. Immediately, Sora could see why the green materia was so powerful – instead of summoning a creature to fight, it was used to cast mighty spells, more powerful than any Sora had ever learned.
Kairi, Donald and Goofy looked up at the dark swirls in the sky, mouths agape. They were about to ask what was happening, when their answer came…
Giant boulders, the size of massive papaou trees, started to rain down from the sky, striking the ground and smashing the concrete to bits. Sora was hit by two boulders in a row, sending him reeling backwards into the ashes of Biggs and Wedge's house. He got up in time to dodge three more, but they were coming down too fast, striking him and badly damaging his health…
"Sora! Watch it!" Goofy called out, to no avail. Sora was hit with boulder after boulder, and soon, he wasn't even moving as the boulder rain continued around him.
Pete laughed maniacally, wiping a tear of joy from his eye. "I like this materia stuff! I'll have to bring the rest of it to Maleficent…" he said, focusing on Wedge and Biggs.
As he walked through the square, the rain of boulders split, leaving a safe path for him. He was learning how to control the spell…
Sora's motionless body lay on the ground, in a pile of crushed debris. He gasped as he regained consciousness; rolling over to look at the sky…the spell had to be over… But his fears were confirmed when he saw yet another slew of boulders hurtling toward the ground where he lay…it was going to take all of his strength to survive this impact…
Suddenly, he glowed yellow for just a brief moment just before the boulder hit the ground where he lay – when the dust cleared, Sora was no longer laying on the ground.
In fact, Sora was standing clear on the other side of the square, much to his own surprise. As Pete noticed him, still very much alive, he turned and did a charging headbutt towards Sora. At the last moment, Sora managed to dodge the attack…but not by normal means…
His body flashed with strange lines as he disappeared and reappeared a few feet away. Pete went crashing through a wall, his massive head stuck where Sora should have been standing. Sora looked at his own hands in awe of his new ability…
He knew what the materia he had used enabled him to do – it was unbelievable, but it allowed him to warp within a small area – and he liked it. As Pete pulled his head free from the wall, Sora looked up toward the sky – Pete's new rage fueled more and more boulders to hurtle downward at Sora…and even worse, the ground now shook as jagged stalagmites broke free and jabbed upward, knocking Sora upward, into an oncoming boulder.
Sora concentrated and warped ten feet out of the way of the nearest boulder, placing him right behind Pete. He launched into a volley of swings and uppercuts, knocking Pete into his own jagged rock pillars. As he struck them, the rain of boulders ceased and the spell, Sora knew, was over. It had to have consumed all of Pete's magic…leaving him open for some offensive magic of Sora's own.
He looked at Pete and then concentrated on a spot in the air above him – warping, he disappeared and ended up just where he had hoped. He aimed his keyblade down at Pete, and calling out 'blizzaga!', he expected shards of issue to shoot at Pete down below…
But he soon realized he was out of magic power…he looked down helplessly as Pete stared up, charging a massive uppercut…Sora tried to warp, anywhere…but that, too, needed magic…he fell awkwardly onto Pete's fist as it connected with a thunderous crack, sending Sora into the sky once more, like the childish street performance he had tried back in Twilight Town.
As he landed on his back near Biggs and Wedge, he could see that Pete was very dizzy, having a hard time just standing up. As Biggs, Wedge and Kairi walked past Sora and toward Pete, he couldn't keep his head up any longer…his eyes closed as he felt the restorative magic of cure start to heal him…he heard Pete's voice, cowardly as ever.
"I think I'll save dis one for another day, pipsqueaks…" he said, fingering the red materia in his pocket. He turned on his heel and ran back through the alley as Goofy and Donald lifted Sora to his feet.
Biggs and Wedge surveyed the damage…their house had burned to the ground, thanks to Maleficent, and the gazebo was smashed to bits. The concrete was torn up all around the square, and massive chunks of boulders were peppered over the landscape. It was a wreck.
Biggs shook his head as he opened the smaller treasure chest, taking out the contents and replacing them with the purple and blue materia. He handed the two small trinkets to Wedge as he hid the small lockbox in his cargo pocket, and turned to Sora and Kairi.
"Thanks for opening our eyes, kids," Biggs said, trying not to make eye contact.
"Yeah…our eyes are open…thanks…" echoed Wedge. He held out the two trinkets – one looked like a small hammer hanging from a keychain, and the other was a keychain with a spiked javelin on it. He looked at Kairi and Sora and back down to the trinkets.
"We found these eons ago…we knew they were for something called 'the keyblade'…but we never managed to get our hands on one of them. I've gotta say, it looks like a powerful weapon…maybe these will help," Biggs said, indicating them to take the keychains.
"Yeah…the keyblade kind of chooses its weilder…even though I'm sure you guys are great thieves, you couldn't steal it if you tried…" Sora said, smiling a little. "Thanks. I'm sure they'll help."
Kairi replaced the coin keychain with the javelin, turning her key into the Thieves' Honor keyblade – it was rusty looking, with a shorter than normal blade, but it had a treasure chest for the handle and three harpoons like Wedge's for the key. Sora's keyblade turned into the Darklighter as he replaced his Treasure Hunter…it looked similar to Kairi's, except the key was longer and had two glowing red prongs for the teeth.
"What are you going to do now? Do you think you'll be safe here?" Kairi asked, looking at the damage and then up to the castle.
"Maleficent and that Pete guy probably won't bother us, if you guys leave…not to be rude…" Biggs said.
"Yeah, rude, it is NOT meant to be!" Wedge mimicked.
"But, I have a feeling the citizens of The World That Never Was will respond pretty positively to the Rebellion of Emptiness Crossing…we won't stand idly by as Maleficent tries to take control, that's for sure…" Biggs said, not entirely sure of his plan.
Kairi unclipped her micro-com and handed it to Wedge. "This communicator will let you talk to anyone in our group of friends, so if you ever need help, just tap it and speak," she said, holding up a peace sign. "And if you happen to find anything out about who Maleficent's working with, let us know..."
Sora reached his hand out and shook Biggs' meaty hand. "We've gotta stick together…but for now, we need to get back to our home and check on our friend, Riku. We'll see you soon, guys."
With that, Donald, Goofy, Kairi and Sora left Emptiness Crossing, heading back through the alley toward the Barrett.
Behind them, they could hear Wedge and Biggs speaking to the townspeople from the pedestal Maleficent had been using for all those months…a rebellion was just the thing Sora and his friends needed…a whole new group of friends to ally themselves with was always a welcome addition.
