The Sorcerer Wars
The Heartless
"So here's the deal," said Nick, "You go looking for this "keyhole" with the "heartless" that I send to accompany you. Got it?"
"Yes Nick," said Lachlan, "but, I'm a little curious, where are those guys that you brought back from other worlds, and why aren't we looking for the artefacts anymore?"
"I assure you," said Nick, his eyes twinkling with an evil glint, "you will never see those people again. As for the artefacts; I have already found those myself, and we will not need them if my plans for the keyhole are successful. Now I will warn you, if your heart is vulnerable even for a second while you are working with my heartless, they will take your heart. You must keep complete self control over yourself."
"I understand," said Lachlan, solemnly.
"Though you can't control the heartless yourself, I can," said Nick, "and I have ordered them to obey you to the letter. If you need more heartless, you will be able to summon them using your will, unless of course, your heart is faltering. You can use the heartless to attack others, defend yourself or carry out operations. However, you will also need to take sorcerers, as heartless only act on instinct, but our sorcerers will think and be perceptive."
"OK. So I take some heartless, and some sorcerers and search for the "keyhole". Got it, but, where should I look?" asked Lachlan.
Nick chuckled darkly.
"It could be anywhere in this world. I haven't been able to narrow it down at all. It will most likely be in an area of high magical concentration. Now I must go. I will search the Southern Hemisphere, you search the Northern," finished Nick.
"But where will Zac search? Is he already off searching somewhere?" asked Lachlan
Nick's head drooped as he looked at the ground. Not meeting Lachlan's eyes, Nick said sadly:
"Zac is.. another person that you will most likely never see again."
With that, Nick disappeared in a flash of red energy.
Lachlan stood very still for a few moments, shivering slightly. He looked up at the ceiling sadly.
"Why.." said his faltering voice, as he disappeared in a flash of grey energy, leaving the dark chamber empty.
…
"So, why exactly are we here?" asked Brandon.
"Because there have been reports of massive variations in the weather," said Sam.
"But what does that have to do with us?" asked Brandon.
"Wherever there's weird weather, Lachlan's probably not far off from it," said Sam.
"Oh," said Brandon. "And, um, why are we looking for Lachlan?"
"Because, if we can take away Nick's closest supporters, then he'll be all alone and more open to attack," said Ashlee impatiently.
"Oh," said Brandon. "I thought it might be something like that. Then, why did we teleport to a place a mile away from the objective location and why are we walking the rest of the way?"
"So that we aren't detected, but if you don't shut your big mouth, we can kiss the element of surprise goodbye," growled Ashlee impatiently.
Brandon stomped on in silence for the remainder of the trek.
This particular trek was through a tropical rainforest on a small island in the Indonesian Archipelago. As the three friends continued towards their destination, Ashlee glowed with a soft green energy due to her being surrounded by the abundance of plants and animals around her. Sam and Brandon, being used to this simply ignored her, as did most of the 10 law enforcement squad officers they had with them. The weather was extremely warm, and would have been unbearable if it weren't for Sam using some clever magic to keep his squad cool.
As they drew near their destination, the centre of the island, Sam was about to turn around and brief the squad when suddenly there was a flash of pink energy right in front of him and Karen ran into him, sending both of them crashing to the ground.
Sam got up slowly, rubbing his arm where he fell on it, but Karen leapt to her feet, looking around in fear as she did so. She didn't seem to notice that she had just knocked Sam over.
"Uh, Karen," said Sam, "Are you OK?"
Karen jumped at the sound of her name and finally seemed to notice Sam for the first time.
"Sam! Am I glad to see you!" cried Karen, "Listen, you've got to help me!"
"And why do I need to do that?" asked Sam patiently.
"Well…" said Karen, "Nick's trying to kill me."
"WHAT?" cried Ashlee, Brandon and Sam in unison.
"I know, I know," said Karen, "It's all my fault. You see, Nick never loved me. I loved him, so I used my magic to make him love me. But somehow, I think the darkness in his heart has grown so much that my powers over him have been neutralised. When he found out, he came after me, and I don't think its long before he finds me again."
"Karen," said Sam, "Did you cast your spell on Nick before or after he started doing evil?"
"Before," said Karen, "I hate the way he is now."
Sam seemed to consider this for a moment, and then,
"Squad Team Alpha, prepare for battle!"
The squad formed into a line facing Karen and the three ranking officers.
"Karen, Ashlee, Brandon," said Sam, "Get behind the line."
As Karen moved behind the line, Ashlee and Brandon moved forward to stand beside Sam in attacking positions.
"We're not gonna let you do this alone," said Ashlee.
"Yeah, friends stick together," said Brandon.
"Well, get ready," said Sam, "because I can sense that Nick is about to arrive."
In a flash of flame and darkness, Nick appeared before Sam and the squad. He looked around for a moment, only showing surprise for a split-second after he arrived.
"Well, well, well," sneered Nick, "If it isn't Commander Sam and his bumbling band of law enforcer morons. A pleasure as always."
Nick sunk into a sarcastic bow, holding his cape out behind him.
"Nick, I know you're not going to surrender," said Sam, "and I realise how powerful you are, but I can not let you harm a vulnerable sorcerer, even if she did play a dirty trick on you."
"Well Sam," said Nick, "This is just another example of the power of darkness. The darkness inside me became so great that it released me from this foul witch's curse. Now step aside before I make you, Sam. I will take great pleasure in blasting all of you out of the way, do not doubt that."
"I am not stepping down, Nick!" cried Sam.
Nick looked Sam in the eyes for a moment, and then began to laugh. It was an evil laugh that sent a shiver down the spines of all present.
"Well, Sam," sneered Nick, "I'm rather disappointed that you're too stupid to realise when its time to give up; But then again, I'm kind of glad that you didn't, because this gives me a chance to test out my new… Acquisitions…"
Nick tapped the ground lightly with his staff. There was a quick flash of dark energy, and suddenly, Nick was not alone. In front of him stood ten strange looking creatures that writhed and twitched where they stood. The creatures were human shaped except they had claws instead of fingers and the only clothing they wore were black boots that ended in a curl of material, and the silver helmets with a spike in the centre of the top, pointing upwards. They were predominantly blue, except their claws were red and on their chests was a symbol that was a black heart outlined in red with a cross coming in from the outlines and crossing in the middle of the heart. Their heads bore no distinguishable face, and were completely black except for two small yellow eyes.
"What are they, Nick?" asked Sam in a worried voice.
"These are Heartless, Sam," said Nick simply, "They are the result of a person losing their heart. When this happens, the person's heart leaves their body and transforms into a heartless. The body then disappears. If you destroy a heartless, the heart is released and travels to a world called "Kingdom Hearts", the heart of all worlds. However, the facts are the least of your troubles at the moment."
"Did you learn this from those guys from the other worlds, Nick?" asked Sam angrily.
"No, I disposed of them after I found someone else in another world. Someone who is by far smarter than those idiots," said Nick lazily.
"Well, I don't care how smart they are, Nick," cried Sam, "Stop messing in other worlds and stop trying to destroy our world!"
"Oh, I'm not trying to destroy it. I'm trying to CONTROL IT!" cried Nick maniacally, "Heartless! Attack these idiots, and take Karen back to my base in the Arctic Circle!"
When he finished saying this, Nick disappeared in a burst of fire and darkness, and the heartless leapt at the squad. Two squad members were immediately silenced, as their hearts, glowing with pink energy, were taken out of their bodies, floated away slightly, transformed into two more heartless, and then disappeared in a flash of dark energy. Sam quickly retaliated by blasting three of the heartless with blue energy, causing three hearts to be released, and rise into the sky, disappearing in a flash of pink energy at a particular height. The heartless took 3 more hearts whilst one heartless ran over to Karen and grabbed her, preventing her escape. The sorcerers were finding it hard to hit the heartless, and only Sam, Ashlee and Brandon seemed to be having any luck. Finally, when there were only 5 squad members, 4 heartless and the three ranked officers left, the 3 heartless still fighting ran over to the one that held Karen. They all grabbed hold of her and they all disappeared in a burst of flame and darkness.
Panting, Sam turned to address the remaining squad members.
"I fear that you will be in danger should we encounter any more heartless. This being the case, Captain Brandon, Corporal Ashlee and I can handle this ourselves. You are all dismissed. I don't want to put you in any more danger. Go back to HQ and warn the Intelligence Department of this new threat."
The 5 officers saluted and disappeared in a flash of multi-coloured light.
Sam turned to Brandon and Ashlee.
"This is terrible!" cried Ashlee, who was panting and sweaty, "Nick can't just bring in these Heartless and go around taking people's hearts!"
"Yeah," said Brandon, "This time, he's gone too far."
"Well, the only way we're gonna get to the bottom of this is by defeating Nick and forcing the information out of him," said Sam, "and a critical step we can take towards this is taking Lachlan down. Are you two willing to continue on our objective, just the three of us, against Heartless, sorcerers and whatever else Nick and Lachlan can throw at us?"
"Of course we are!" cried Ashlee.
"You bet your a-"
"Brandon! Language!"
"Sorry Ashlee."
"Well," said Sam, "We haven't got any more time to lose. Let's get this over with!"
The three companions continued running towards their destination, staffs raised and ready to fight.
…
"The Keyhole is not here, Nick,"
"Damn it. I'll admit, though; my hopes weren't very high."
"Shall I pull out then?"
"No,"
Lachlan and Nick stood facing each other in a circular clearing in the centre of the Indonesian Island. The beautiful blue sky was visible overhead and there was not a cloud in the sky.
"What reason do I have to stay, Nick?" asked Lachlan.
"Sam and his fools are on their way here," sneered Nick, "They detected your weather patterns and traced you here. I want you to wait here for them and when they get here prevent them from leaving. Now, if you use your imagination, you can summon a powerful Heartless. Heartless come in various shapes and sizes, and if you concentrate hard enough, you will be able to summon one that you can work with to defeat Sam, Brandon and Ashlee. Summon this heartless and crush them. I don't want to hear from you again, until they are dead, or have lost their hearts. Is that understood?"
Lachlan swallowed but said nothing.
"Is that understood?" asked Nick again, firmer this time.
"Y-yes Nick," said Lachlan, voice shaking slightly.
"Good," said Nick darkly, "I'd hate to think that your resolve was weakening. Oh look, here they come now!"
Lachlan turned around to see Sam, Brandon and Ashlee running through the trees towards him.
"Do not let me down"
Lachlan turned again to see the last bit of flame as Nick left him. Another turn and Lachlan was facing the approaching party, preparing for the confrontation that was sure to follow.
To Be Continued… … …