Aerith did something that was rather unexpected when she saw the blond mercenary return to the ruined City of Lumina.
She didn't show any sort of shock or surprise. Her only reaction was to walk right up to him, slap him across the face and began scolding him for leaving the city unannounced.
"You're supposed to tell people when you leave! You can't just get up without notice and…"
Yeah, the lecture went on for several minutes, but the whole "OMG Cloud's back" thing wore off as soon as she started yelling at him. They had moved on to the plan of helping out the others.
"They obviously need it if they aren't back yet." Kairi explained.
"Yeah… The guys get things done a lot faster than this normally…" Yuffie whispered to Kairi and Rikku. They had huddled up in the parking lot. Well, all except for Cloud, Aerith, Auron and Paine who were all doing something else.
"Ooh! Sounds like fun!" Rikku interjected. "But… I think we should wait for Yunie first."
"Oh, right. There's a third Gullwing, right?" Kairi asked.
Rikku smiled. "Uh-huh. Yuna, the leader of our ragtag group of treasure hunters."
Kairi nodded a little and then took a look around the parking lot. She was rather surprised to see that Paine had come up to the circle.
"You obviously weren't paying attention when I said she was going on ahead." She snapped at Rikku.
Rikku looked confused at first, but her face finally lit up in realization. "Oh, Right!" She gasped.
"More Heartless coming," Auron said loudly. Everyone's attention, including Aerith and the now lectured Cloud; they all looked back to the same street.
Another swarm of shadowy creatures were coming at them. They seemed relatively the same as they had last time, yet there was one that was somewhat different from the rest of them.
Kairi brought out her Keyblade again and stood in a stance directly beside Yuffie with her Star spinning around her hand. Aerith had brought out her spear again and Rikku and Paine got into a fighting stance since neither of them held weapons.
"That was my last grenade too…" Rikku mumbled.
Paine gave a shrug and looked back to the oncoming wave. Yet, this group seemed different. It seemed much more organized. They almost looked like an army. Then, it suddenly made sense. There was a different Heartless leading the group.
The Heartless had a strange bladed helmet upon its head and its body had a sort of reddish hue. Its hands were large blades surrounded by some strange barrels. It had rather large feet as well and a strange mane of brown going down its back.
"Hmph…" Auron grunted, pulling his sword off of his shoulder.
"Get ready Cloud!" Aerith yelled.
"I'm right beside you…" Cloud snarled.
Soon, the next wave was upon them. More Shadows came at them, but with extra numbers, the wave was easier to deal with.
Cloud, with his large blade swinging; he ran through the crowds, slicing at anything he came by. Another Soldier Heartless jumped out of the wave at him, but he cut through it without any effort. Then, a red dome-like Heartless in crimson blasted out of the crowd and started raining crimson bombs on the field.
Yuffie jumped out of the wave and threw her Shuriken through a bunch of the bombs as they exploded in the air. Then, Kairi jumped into the air as well and shot a Blizzard at the dome-shaped heartless beside her.
Rikku and Paine were having a blast as the beat up the Heartless on the ground. Rikku slammed her fist into a Shadow and flipped back over Paine so she could axe-kick the next Heartless. Paine was almost strong enough to take out what was left by herself. A few punches here and there could be enough to take them out.
After a few minutes, the wave of Heartless began to dissipate, leaving less to deal with until, finally, the strange boss Heartless jumped out of the fray and landed in the middle of the parking lot, surrounded by the resistance members.
"Get ready." Auron called. Everyone got into a fighting stance around the beast and waited for the first move.
It was unfortunate that the first move was a wave of fire from the barrels on its hands.
Sora continued to bang on the black wall blocking the door. He hit it over and over with his Keyblade, yet it wouldn't budge. The Keyblade wouldn't even unlock it for them.
Riku, on the other hand was busy finishing with Kefka by throwing him into one of the worker lockers and tying a rope he had found around. It was really the best he could do since he had nothing to suppress magic.
He let out a loud sigh and sat down, leaning next to the locker. His attempts to call people with his communication device had failed. The room had literally no reception.
"DAMN IT!" Sora snapped, finally just kicking the door and falling onto his butt.
Riku chuckled a little. Despite the seriousness of the situation, it was still pretty hilarious witnessing someone fall over.
"Are we still trapped here?" Riku yelled across the factory floor.
"Yeah…" Sora gasped, lacking breath.
Riku sighed again and pulled a small black and red device from his pocket. It had an LED timer on it that kept flashing 30:00 over and over again. It was the bomb they were supposed to use to blow up the factory. Despite being in the destination, it was a pretty bad idea to blow the place skyward.
You know, since they were still inside it?
"Now what are we supposed to do…" Sora sighed. He had stood up by now and was leaning against one of the gas tanks with his hands behind his head. The smell of machinery and oil was beginning to bother him, but he refused to show it.
"I don't know." Riku replied quietly. He was wrought with guilt at getting into the situation.
Sora, sensing the feeling of failure in his friend, he quickly changed the subject. "I wonder what that guy wanted anyways. He didn't seem like a Guardian."
"You're right…" Riku contemplated, silently thanking Sora for the change of pace. "He seemed to have something else in mind. He must really want it if he decided to trap us in this room."
"But what could he want? Why is he trying so hard to get it?"
"I guess we'll just have to figure that out."
"After we get out of this room, anyways…" Sora said shyly.
Riku chuckled a little more. "Right… Any plans, Keybearer?"
Sora moved his hand to his chin and sat back down, getting into a thinking position, whatever that means.
He looked around the scorched and ruined factory for anything that could be of any use. There wasn't much that could help them, since the dark and ominous barrier blocking the door seemed to be immune to everything. It was then that Sora's gaze moved upward and he saw a mesh catwalk going across the factory at the top, roughly 300 metres off of the ground.
"That's it!" Sora exclaimed as he jumped to his feet.
Riku was rather surprised that Sora had an idea. To him, the chances of escaping the factory had appeared hopeless.
"All we have to do is get up to that platform." Sora explained while pointing at the catwalk.
Riku looked up and, sure enough, the platform could be seen from where Sora was standing. There it was, their way out; their one line of escape.
"Now, all we need to do is find a way up there," Sora said.
Riku groaned and flopped back onto the ground.
"Great, another problem to figure out…" Riku thought to himself.
Axel threw his chakram as another Guardian jumped out of the hallway. It cut through his head and he ran to grab it and kept going. Roxas was right behind him as he cut through a Guardian with one Keyblade and did a flip over the next one. They came to a fork in the hallway and looked around.
"Alright, Book, where to next..." Roxas whispered into his communicator.
"From where you are, you should take the left hallway and then the door on the right. That should bring you directly to the door of the Power Room."
They were quick to follow orders from their shadowy friend. They didn't even spend a second waiting for a fighter to show up and cause any more difficulties. They quickly turned left and bolted down the hall. The door was easy to find, especially since it was marked with the strange logo that was found on all of the Heartless.
Roxas gave a sideways glance to Axel, who was quick to nod as he threw one of his chakrams over his shoulder. Roxas nodded in reply and placed his hand on the door. What was strange was the fact that it just pushed right open, without a need to unlock it or put in some code.
The reason was soon revealed when they saw a dark, cloaked figure standing in front of a glowing tube with a small, star-like crystal floating inside. The man turned around quickly as a blur of black appeared in his hand and revealed a rather rustic looking blade in a familiar shape.
"A Keyblade…" Said Axel and Roxas in unison.
The group scatter quickly at the first blast. They were lucky too, as the shot had caused a huge explosion, leaving a crater behind.
Cloud, who had rolled into a nearby alley; he jumped out again and was the first to attempt a strike. He leaped into the air above the bladed Heartless and dropped from above to do some damage. The Heartless was a lot faster than it looked, as it had already moved out of the way. Before he even had a chance to guard, he was struck across the chest and knocked into a wall.
Flames suddenly started to burst from its feet and it shot itself into the wall Cloud was knocked into. Cloud was still recovering from the first strike and had no time to prepare.
Thankfully, Auron cut through the side of the beast while knocking it out of the way. Auron jumped back and landed beside Cloud, helping him back on his feet.
"Pay more attention next time." Auron said quietly.
"Hmph." Cloud grunted in reply, bracing his sword strongly.
Their eyes darted to the Heartless as it jumped out of the pile of rubble and prepared for another strike. Instead of unleashing a large explosion like before, it unleashed a flurry of fireballs from its barrels at the two swordsmen. They raised their blades to guard against the spheres, but they started to get pushed back. The fireballs kept pushing them further and further backwards. Even Auron was having trouble keeping his ground against the wave of fire.
It was now that Kairi decided she was tired of standing back so, after staring across the lot to Aerith, who agreed with her plan. There was a very small delay in blasts, and that's when they jumped in.
"Reflect!" They yelled in unison. As the creature released another large blast, they jumped in front of the blast as a barrier formed around each of them. They lifted their weapons up and winced as the large sphere of fire slammed against the wall.
"Get 'em now!" The girls yelled, desperately trying to hold the fire ball in place. Auron and Cloud nodded and ran out from behind the barrier. Auron's blade started to glow red as a white light formed around Cloud's Buster Sword.
The bolted at him from both directions and prepared to strike. In the blink of an eye, Auron had dived beneath the GunBlade Heartless and knocked him into the air. Cloud vaulted off of the ground and knocked him back down. Auron then slammed his sword into the ground and a swarm of spirits shot out of the ground and knocked him back into the air where Cloud trapped him in a flurry of slashes. Then, with one final move, Auron jumped into the air as Cloud slammed down on it, catching him in a scissor move.
They landed on their knees on opposite sides of the Heartless and it fell to the ground, exploding into smog of dark smoke. Black vapour exploded from the creature as a strange dark icon floated into the sky.
It was then that the other members of the group ran out of the alleys and circled the mass that used to be a powerful Heartless. Cloud and Auron pushed off of the ground and joined the others, gasping for breath.
"Glad that's over with," Cloud gasped. Rikku was quick to nod at his statement.
On the other side of the lot, Yuffie and Paine were helping Kairi and Aerith off of the ground. Some small words of gratitude where exchanged as the grouped up with everyone else. They were all a little worried that the beast hadn't disappeared like all of the rest of them. The one thing was that it started to look almost… Human.
"What's with this thing?" Yuffie asked.
"No idea." Paine grumbled.
"Hmph," Auron agreed.
It was then that Aerith suddenly had an idea.
"Here, let me try something." She said.
They had no other plan, so the group was quick to back away. Aerith lifted her spear to the air and closed her eyes.
"Cure…" She said quietly with her eyes closed. A white light surrounded the darkish mass on the ground and the remaining darkness dissipated from the place.
There, what remained were an unconscious man and a silver blade with a gun for a handle.
"Wow… Didn't see that coming…" Rikku whispered.
Kairi dropped down beside him and tried to wake him up.
"Excuse me, are you alright?" She asked softly.
The man tried to push off of the ground, but he stumbled back to the ground quickly. He managed to let out one phrase before completely passing out.
"Anti…Power…"
Author's Note:
Hello again! I know I haven't been as consistent recently, but there's been a lot going on. Also, my inspiration came back, which helps a lot.
Now might be the time to let you know not to expect anything from me in November due to NaNoWriMo and such. Still, I appreciate all of the Readers and I hope that I can still keep pumping out chapters.
Thanks!
-FrozenXIII'sFire