A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry this chapter took so long. I started a new school in September and it's been taking up all my time. Don't worry, I'll be back on track really soon so don't worry! I'm glad to see so many people read the last chapter and I hope you'll all read this one too!
Oh I have something to say about the last one. It seems someone decided to give me my first flame for it! I was so excited that I deleted it seconds after it was posted! Yup, you got it, the person posted in anonymously! SO now I get to respond, which everyone will see, while no one got to see your flame. I don't care what you think of my work, if you don't like it don't read it. However, the fact that you read every chapter including the last one before posting it is quite funny to me. You read the whole thing first! Than you posted with the name ( ) instead of an actual author name, which means you either you've never written something or your afraid your own work is so bad no one else will ever read it. Either way, it doesn't matter. No one will ever see your poor attempt at an insult anyway!
Ok, I'm done insulting people. To anyone else that wants to flame, do it with a real name, or I'll delete it and make fun of you for it! To the rest, enjoy the story!
"Why would the Nobodies take Sally?" Sora asked, swinging his Keyblade at a dancer, only for it to slide away.
"They didn't bother to say!" Jack grabbed a dancer and hurled it across the room, where it burst into a black cloud and faded away.
"Can we discuss this after the fight?" Riku yelled. "I hate these things!"
Harry nodded absently. The things were more agile and a Snitch, avoiding everything he threw at them! Only jack had been able to catch them. He whipped his wand around and let loose a cutting curse, only for the Dancer to bend backwards to avoid it. Damn and that was his fastest spell too! "Screw this!" With a flash of steal, the dancer vanished. "Much better!"
Suddenly the room went quiet as the remaining dancers turned their faceless heads to stare at his blade. Everyone watched as their heads shifted to gaze at him before turning black. With a glance at his sword, Harry grinned and took a step forward. The Dancers turned and fled, arms flailing behind them. "What the hell…."
"Harry, what'd you do!" Rain called, sheathing her daggers.
"How should I know? No one's ever told me what this bloody sword does!"
"Why don't you ask then?"
"When has Artanis every given a straight answer? Or even a normal one?"
"Hey guys…Maybe we should follow the dancers…" Sora interrupted.
"Right!"
"Where'd they go?" Riku asked as the large group reached the street.
"Maybe they remembered how to shadow travel…." Kairi muttered.
"Look, over there!" Rain pointed, just as a dancer disappeared between the trees of the woods.
"What's over there?" Sora asked.
"The holiday forest…" Jack growled, and took off running after the Nobody, the others struggling to keep up.
"What's the holiday forest?" Harry asked the others as they darted between the trees.
"Well this is Halloween town, and I know there's a tree that acts as a portal to Christmas town, so maybe there's a forest with trees that go to other holiday towns…"
"There's a Christmas town? What does Santa live there or something?" Rain's sarcasm was obvious.
"Yup. He's got a pretty big work shop. Hey, we should visit later! He did say he likes having guests." Sora spoke up, oblivious.
"Santa's real?" Rain was shocked.
"You're a mutant, I'm a wizard, and we're in another dimension. How can something like that surprise you?" Harry asked.
"I wonder if I'm on the nice list…"
"Are you even listening?"
"I wonder if he really has reindeer…"
Harry sighed. Apparently the idea of Santa Clause was too much for the poor girl. She was starting to sound like a six year old on Christmas Eve! Hell she was still muttering about it, even with no one listening!
"We're here" Jack called as he stepped out into a wide clearing. The teens broke through the tree line, to find several taller trees in the middle of an open clearing, each with a door on it.
"Did you see which door they went in?" Kairi asked.
"No, the clearing was already empty." He admitted.
"So which door do we go through?" Riku asked.
"We'll have to try all of them." Harry muttered. Without waiting for the others he pulled open a door with a four-leaf clover on it. Glancing in he shook his head "If they went in here, they got away from it quick." He closed it again.
Quickly, the others moved to open doors, finding no sign of the Nobodies they were chasing. With a shake of his head, Harry preached to pull open another door, when a black cloud appeared and he fell back. "What the hell!"
Looking up from the ground, Harry found himself face to face with a pair or large ghost like creatures. They had black, ball like heads with large yellow eyes. Their bodies were wrapped in pale green coats and white gloves. With a strange, pointy toothed grin, they hovered over him. Bright beams of light burst from their eyes before locking onto the downed teen.
"Not good!" He muttered. One of the ghosts twitched and he rolled away, just as a sharp claw slashed the ground where his head had been. "Not good, not good!" He muttered as he rolled away, another set of claws slashed behind him.
"Harry!" Rain shouted, hurling a blue beam into the right ghost, which spun away from Harry as the attack struck.
"Carrier Ghosts!" Riku shouted as his blade appeared.
"Fire!" Sora yelled and a ball of fire slammed into the other ghost, driving it away from Harry. "Harry get away, if they grab you, they'll posses you and suck your heart out!"
"This has got to be the lamest thing I've ever run from" Harry muttered. Sora's quick explanation left much to be desired. Suck out his heart? How lame was that! If it weren't for the razor sharp claws that almost took his head off, he'd of laughed at the other teen. With a groan, he jumped to his feet and drew his wands, firing a pair of stunners at the ghosts, who sprang into the air to dodge the spells.
"We need to keep them on the ground" Riku growled out as he jumped up and knocked one out of the sky. Sora tried to do the same, only to miss and get tossed away with a clawed hand.
"Sora!" Kairi shouted, running to her friend as he hit the ground.
"Need to get it on the ground…" Harry muttered as he stepped next to Rain. "Any ideas?"
"You wouldn't happen to have a spell that could push it down do you?"
"Sorry, we only learned how to make stuff float…" Harry admitted.
"Wish we could just make it come to us or something…" She muttered.
"…Stupid, stupid, stupid…" Harry muttered. With a jab, he aimed both wands at the highest ghost. "Accio!" The wand tips flashed as the ghost suddenly jerked in the air, before flying right towards them.
"What are you doing!" She shouted, as the ghost raised its claws.
"Didn't think it all the way through!" He admitted as they dived to the sides and the ghost clawed the ground between them. "Reducto!" He shouted, pointing a wand at its side. The Ghost didn't even react as it burst into a black cloud and a strange glowing hurt flew away.
"You got it!" She called happily, climbing back to her feet.
"Ugh…I landed on a rock…" He muttered as he rose to his knees, clutching his back.
"You're an idiot, you know that?" she said with a sigh.
"RIKU!" Kairi's voice called out. The two teens turned as the second ghost rose into the air, holding Riku in its clawed hands. Riku gave a cry as the ghost started glowing, trying to suck out his heart.
"What do you know, that actually is frightening." Harry muttered. With a groan, he pushed himself up, only to stumble slightly. "Ok, maybe it was a big rock…"
"Put him down!" Kairi yelled. Her hand whipped around as if she was throwing something, only for a flower covered Keyblade to appear, spinning through the air. With a flash, it cut through the ghost, who dropped Riku before vanishing.
"AH!" Riku cried as he fell to the ground. "What was that for Kairi!"
"Well it worked, didn't it!"
"It hurt too you know!"
"Hey guys?" Sora called "Where's Jack?"
"What do you mean, he's gone?" Sora asked as the group came back to the clearing.
"We couldn't find him" Kairi admitted.
"No Trace." Riku admitted.
"He was standing pretty close to that Easter tree when those ghost things appeared. Maybe we should look there?" Harry offered.
"Why would he be in there?" Sora asked.
Harry paused for a moment, glancing at Rain who shook her head. Rolling his eyes, he sighed. "Well he was there when the door opened, and now he's not here anymore. Either he went on ahead without us, or something grabbed him."
"But why that door?"
"Why would they have guards on the door if it wasn't important?" Harry pointed out.
"He's got a point, Sora" Riku spoke up.
"So let's go" Harry grabbed the doorknob and pulled the egg shaped door open.
"It's really….Colorful here isn't it?" Rain asked.
Harry glanced around and nodded "Well Easter can be rather colorful…This place is full of flowers too and….Was that a baby chicken?"
Rain glanced around to watch a baby chicken fly past Harry's head "looks like it."
"This seems like an odd place for kidnapers to hide…"
"Seems like an odd place in general" Rain agreed.
"Never understood Easter anyway" Harry said after a few moments of silence. "My aunt tried to explain it once, but I couldn't figure out how some giant rabbit and a bunch of eggs fit in with it all."
"Maybe Jesus used to steal eggs or something?" Rain offered.
"Think he could've grabbed that egg?" Harry asks pointing to a man sized egg surrounded by flowers.
"I don't think Wolverine could grab that…" she muttered as they walked towards it.
"I wonder if it's made of chocolate…." Harry muttered. "Why did that idiot Sora tell us to split up? It never works."
"What are you muttering about?" Rain called from the other side of the egg.
"Who put Sora in…" He stopped, staring at the egg "Is it hatching?" he asked, as he watched a crack spread through the egg.
"I think so, it's cracking over here too."
"Wonder what has an egg this big…" The two stepped back to watch the egg hatch. Ah the miracles of nature. Is there anything more beautiful or potentially disturbing than the miracle that is child birth? Watching a new life come into the world, its eyes wide, screaming at the top of its lungs, could anything be more special? The two continues to watch as this new and exotic life came into existan…Suddenly the egg burst open, sending shards everywhere, revealing a strange creature, like an egg, broken in half, with strange demonic eyes glaring out at them. Across its shell was the heartless symbol, which vanished in a blur as the creature started to spin.
"Didn't see that coming" Rain muttered. The spinning egg was suddenly covered in flames before flying at them. With a cry of alarm, Harry pulled Rain away from the spinning ball or fire. "Ow! Let go of my arm you idiot!"
"Shut up and move!" He snapped, diving away as it whipped around. The flames surged as it tried to ram the young wizard.
"What the hell is this thing?" She called as she threw a blue beam at it, only to miss as the creature changed directions.
"A Flaming death egg? Who cares, it's trying to kill us!" Harry hurled a cutting curse, only for it to glance off and slam into the flowers.
"Well what are we supposed to do, I'm not fire proof you know!" She pulled her daggers and jumped back as the egg flew by, aiming for the wizard.
"Reducto!" the spell bounced off the egg and slammed into the ground, digging a deep crater that the egg fell into, only to fly straight into the air on the other side. Harry watched as it fell back in , popping out again only to once again fall in like a flaming skateboarder in a deep bowl. "Well that's not what I was aiming for but it works…"
"It's like Spike when he does those tournaments…." Rain muttered, watching the egg with morbid fascination.
"It's almost sad actually. My spells just bounced right off its shell. But to be defeated by a hole in the ground is…" He shook his head as the egg spun in the air. The egg suddenly flashed, and a stream of fire shot out, propelling it straight at the two teens. "Protego!" A pair of shields appeared around them as Harry's wands cut through the air. The flaming egg slammed into the shield and bounced off, the two teens falling back as it soared away.
"How didn't we see that coming?…" Harry groaned.
"Thanks for the shield" Rain said, staring up at the sky."I think I'm just gonna lie here for a minute."
"Crap, it's coming back…" Harry climbed to his feet as the flaming object barreled towards them. With a sigh, Harry drew his swords and waited. He'd only get one shot, before the thing turned to take out Rain. He almost started laughing at the absurdity of it, there he was, wielding the sword of Gryffindor in battle against a large flaming egg to protect Rain Masters of all people. As the burning monster reached him, he slid to the side and swung his sword as hard as he could. A crack like wood breaking reached his ears as the sword cut right through egg's shell. Stunned, he watched as it burst into a black cloud, and a glowing heart appeared. To Harry's shock, rather than flying away, the heart flew to his sword and sank into the blade, the stone in the hilt glowing brightly. "What the hell…"
"What? What happened?" Rain slowly climbed to her feet, clutching her ribs. She must of landed harder than he thought.
"Nothing…" he muttered. "I beat the flaming egg of doom."
"Good…" She groaned.
"Come here." The girl complied and he pressed his hand to her side "Cure…" his hand glowed white and relief spread across her face.
"Thanks"
"No problem"
"Should we go find the others?"
"No I'm sure their fine…" they glanced up as a bolt of lightning tore through the sky on the other side of town.
"Fine huh?"
"Shut up and run"
"That's a lot of evil flaming egg things…" Harry muttered. They'd walked across what Harry assumed was Easter town, to find the three key wielders trying to fight a group of five demon eggs.
"Should we help them?" Rain asked.
"I'm not sure…" Harry admitted. "I would, but Riku struck me as the kind to get mad if we interfered with his fight. Sora too actually."
"Well what do we do then?"
"We could sit and watch? I'm sure they'll ask for our help if they need it." He smirked.
"You sure? It doesn't look like their doing all that well actually, especially Kairi" The girl points out. It's true; Riku and Kairi are each fighting two of the egg things, while Sora chases after the fifth.
"Ok, you made your point…" He raises his want and took aim "Bombarda!" The spell flew from his wand and slammed into one of the eggs attacking Kairi, where it exploded. The egg thing vanished in a black cloud as the other span away.
"My turn!" Rain called as she launched a blue beam which flew into the face of the egg attacking Riku. The egg shrieked and reeled back, trying to blink away the blinding light. Riku slashed his blade between the shell halves and the monster vanished in a cloud.
"Good aim" Harry muttered as Riku quickly overwhelmed his other opponent.
"Yours was better" Rain answered. "How do you make them so strong? Nothing I throw has that much power."
"I'm not entirely sure. Artanis implied that emotions make spells stronger, maybe I'm drawing on that." He shrugged.
"The professor always told me I shouldn't let my emotions influence me…He said…"
"That they would control you right? Ya, the old goat used to say something similar. I'm not sure what to think, but I do know that when I'm angry my exploding curse gets stronger…"
"It's that simple?"
"Seems to be…"
"I guess I'll give it a try."
"Looks like Sora's the only one left." Riku and Kairi had destroyed the last monster and turned to watch Sora chase the egg around like an idiot. "If he stopped it would probably come right to him."
"He isn't the smartest hero I've ever heard of…" Rain agreed.
"His heart's in the right place thought."
"Have fun chasing the evil eggs of flaming insanity?" Harry asked.
"Stupid…Heartless…So fast…" Sora panted out. He'd finally managed to kill the thing after he tripped and it circled around to attack him. Apparently he'd started the fight trying to blast the thing with lightning too, which was why he was so tired.
"So did you guys find Jack?" Kairi asked.
"No, just another one of those egg things. Harry was gonna try and eat it before it attacked us…" Rain answered.
"What? It's Easter town! I thought the giant egg may be chocolate!"
"Sora said the same thing" Kairi whispered to Rain. The two girls broke into a fit of giggling as the two boys pouted.
"So where do we go now?" Riku muttered. He wasn't so happy that the 'outsiders' had interfered, even if they'd helped.
"Well this IS Easter town, maybe we can ask the Easter Bunny if he's seen anything?" Kairi suggested. The others agreed, it was as good an idea as any they had. Together the five teens made their way to the center of town. For some reason, mostly because Kairi and Rain said so, they made their way to the giant carrot shaped house. Personally, Harry thought it was a little too obvious, but felt it was better not to say anything, especially after Riku did and Kairi hit him.
The house it's self was pretty strange. A bright orange house shaped like a carrot was weird even to a boy who'd stayed at the Burrow a few times. Hopefully there weren't any gnomes here…
"That's a big vegetable…" Sora muttered, staring straight up.
"And what are YOU doing here, Key Bearer?" A voice called from behind them. The group whipped around, Keyblades appearing as fast as Harry drew his wand.
"Organization XIII!" Sora shouted. Across the street, a figure stood, wearing in a strange black robe covered in metal chains. The hood was up, but Harry assumed from the voice the figure was a man.
"Where?" the figure asked, glancing around franticly. "Oh, you mean me? No, no, I'm not with them. You destroyed them all, if I remember, I just like the outfit." The man laughed. "But I digress, what ARE you doing here?"
"We're looking for our friends Jack and Sally….And Donald and Goofy." Sora growled out.
"The skeleton and his doll?" The man seemed surprised. "Well that's easy! They're with the dog and annoying duck you mentioned. Don't worry; we'll take good care of them!" He laughed again.
"What have you done to them!" Sora snapped, taking a step forward.
"Calm yourself, key bearer. We have no intention of hurting them. We just want to study them, is all. Find out how such beings can have hearts when we can't. It isn't really fair, you see, that a man made doll should get a heart when us Nobodies can't."
"Let my friends go!" Sora shouted, running forward and swinging his blade for the man's head.
"Ah!" The man cried and vanished in a shadowy portal. "Be careful! You almost took my head off with that thing!" He reappeared on the roof of the building across from the carrot.
"Let them go!" Sora shouted up to him.
"Na uh." The man said waving a finger at them. "We need them for our study! We'll let them go when we're done!"
"Fire!" Kairi's spell flew past the man's head, only missing because he dropped to the roof to avoid it.
"Stop that!" He snapped at them. "That's not nice at all! I was trying to be polite but if you insist on being such mean bullies I'll have to bring my big friend to play with you….EPP!" He dove away as another spell flew past. "That's it!" He snapped his fingers and a loud ruble sounded from across the city. The teens turned, only to find the big orange monstrosity blocking their view. "Well now, if you'll excuse me, I have to have a heart to heart with a queen about her card solders." The man vanished into a dark portal as another roar reached their ears.
"This can't be good" Harry muttered. Whatever was making that noise must be huge!
"It sounds like it's bigger than that sentinel!" Rain cried out. They'd only managed to beat that robot with Harry's help, and even he had trouble!
"It sounds like it's coming towards us…What do we do?" Kairi asked.
"If we leave in may destroy the town and take everyone's hearts! We have to fight it!" Sora shouted.
"We don't even know what it is yet!" Riku pointed out.
"Well, it sounds like we're gonna find out!" Harry called. Suddenly, a large dark red claw grabbed the side of the carrot house. The teen's eyes widened as, with no visible effort, it slammed the house to the street. Where it once stood, a giant red being glared down at them. Roughly human shaped, the beast had two red eyes, barely visible behind its black goat like helmet. A pair of spikes stood out from its shoulders, leading to incredibly long arms that seemed to be wrapped in red and black fabric. Its body was hidden behind more black armor, while its legs though oddly short compared to its arms, were covered in more strange fabric. Its hands and feet hidden within metal armor that resembled blood red claws.
"Holly shit…" Rain muttered, staring into the eyes of a monster easily 5 stories tall. "I wonder if we can surrender…"
"You're certain?" Artanis asked the strange Cat person next to him.
"Yes sir. It seems the blond man was indeed able to keep his magic after the virus turned him. Unfortunately, he no longer possesses the intelligence to use it."
"What of our tests with his associates and the G-Virus?" He asked.
"Well the first test subject sort've exploded. We haven't figured out why yet, but his entire being exploded."
"That is unfortunate. And the other?"
"He had a much more favorable reaction. His body started mutating at an alarming rate, tripling in mass and growing to almost twice his original size."
"And his magic? Does he still retain his mana? Can he still use it?"
"Yes sir. He has full control over his magic, and has in fact used it multiple times. Unfortunately, he also lacks intelligence, and has used it only by instinct." The cat man shuddered slightly.
"What?" Artanis asked, eyebrow raised. "What did the test subject do?"
"He used it to escape containment and proceeded to track down the blond subject…"
"…Did it kill the Malfoy?" Artanis asked. He may have to make another trip to that school and inform the man's son…
"Uh…no sir. Actually, it turns out the G-virus causes the subject to seek out similar genetic material in the hopes of breeding new carriers…"
"…Well inbreeding is fairly rampant in their world…" Even Artanis cringed at the idea. Not even he wanted to watch a giant mutant monster try to do THAT to the zombified Malfoy... "So what happened then?"
"Well sir, it seems that….as the G-Virus attempted to…impregnate the other subject, their magic reacted. Somehow the two fused together into one being. It doesn't exactly resemble a human any more, but it is able to communicate to a small degree. It asked for food and for something called Draco…"
"Really now?" Artanis said, turning to the Neko. "So they fused together and now they have enough intelligence to speak, even at a very basic level…Astounding. And what of the creature's magic?"
"Our tests show that their cores fused to make a much larger one, but so far all it has done so far is make floating balls of light, which it seems to find incredibly amusing."
"Astounding. I never would have foreseen such an outcome. Apparently the G-Virus is more volatile than our original tests suggested…Or perhaps it is the fusion of the two viruses through magical means led to an unforeseen evolution…"
"Sir, how would you like us to proceed?"
"Continue to monitor the creature. Keep it fed and healthy, but otherwise do nothing. I'm going to see if I can't find more tests subjects. Perhaps we can fuse more of them to it to increase its intelligence…"
"Yes sir" The man saluted. "Oh uh sir, before you go?"
"Yes?"
"We received a message from your…Sister. She said she wishes to accompany you on your next uh…She called it an outing sir, she wants to go with you the next time you go to the world where you found the blond subject."
"Did she say that?"
"Well no…She actually said she wants to go with you on 'your next outing to the world of sticks and blonds' to find more 'playthings' for you."
"All right, Ill contact her and have her meet me in route. Get back to work." With that the planes walker vanished, leaving the Cat man alone.
"I'm glad I don't live in that world…" he muttered before fleeing the room.
"How are we supposed to fight that thing!" Rain shouted. The teens scattered as the monster's claw slammed into the ground.
"I have no bloody idea!" Harry shouted back. He had his wands drawn, but he couldn't think of a single spell that could work against something so big.
"Try hitting it!" Sora shouted as he swung his blade. 'KLANG' the Keyblade bounced off its armored hand, not even scratching the tough metal. With a flick, the creature knocked him away.
"My turn!" Riku jumped into the air and swung his blade for the creature's arm, only for it to catch him with its other hand. With a roar, it hurled him after Sora.
"Fire!" Kairi screamed. A ball of fire slammed into the creature's chest, where it exploded before fading away, revealing a singed but unharmed plate of armor. "Not good!" she yelled. The creature turned to her and roared bolts of lighting flying from the spikes on its shoulders and striking the ground behind her as she jumped away.
A blue beam of light drove into its arm, causing the creature to hiss in pain. Angrily, it turned to Rain. With a sound like a rubber band snapping, its arm extended, and its metal glove reached for the girl.
"Don't touch her!" Harry shouted, releasing a pair of cutting curses at its arm. Faster than he expected, its arm retracted and his spells slammed into the clawed glove, where they dug thin scratches into the metal. His eyes widened in surprise before the arm shot towards him. He cried out in pain as the glove closed around him and pulled him back. Suddenly he found himself face to face with the glaring creature.
"Harry no!" Rain shouted.
"Put him down!" A pair of Keyblades flew into the air, only to bounce off the armored hand. Sora and Kairi watched as the beast completely ignored their weapons as it squeezed the young wizard.
"Let me go!" Harry shouted as the monster roared at him. He winced as the hand tightened. His world was going black. He could barley breath! He was going to die in the hands of a giant monster, in a dimension he'd never heard of. He'd never see his world again, he'd never see the twins or Hermione again…Where was Artanis when he was needed? Wasn't he supposed to help him achieve his destiny?
"Let go!" A beam of red light slammed into the creatures head and exploded. With a cry of pain, the beast dropped the poor wizard as it grabbed its face in pain. Without a sound, harry tumbled from the monsters grasp and fell, like a ragdoll, to the ground. Riku jumped foreword and caught him before he could slam into the hard dirt.
"You ok?" he asked the wounded wizard.
"I've been worse….Been better too…" Harry admitted.
"Kairi can fix you up." The boy carried him over to the red head and set him on the ground.
"Curaga!" she muttered as she pressed her hands to his chest. Both teens glowed with a bright light as she cast the healing spell.
The creature roared, drawing the other's attention back to the beast. Half its helmet was missing, revealing a badly damaged face. Its eye was shut tight, but the other continues to glare. The creature's mouth opened to roar again and a tooth fell out before vanishing in a black cloud.
"How'd you do that?" Sora asked.
"I'm not sure…" Rain admitted. She'd never done a red beam before….And she'd never seen on explode. It was a lot like Harry's blasting curse actually….Well Artanis did say she could do a lot of what he could…"Come on, we need to keep the beast away so she can heal Harry!" She pulled her two daggers and the three ran foreword.
"Hey Riku! Did you notice it protects the places that aren't armored?" Sora asked.
"Ya, I noticed that pretty quickly actually" He shot back. "But it's too fast for us to hit them!"
"I know, but if Rain can blast off more of its armor it won't be able to protect everything!"
"That's actually a good plan" The girl cut in. Not like they had any others. "You guys have to distract it so I can get a shot though."
"Leave it to us!" The two ran ahead, blades drawn, and began attacking the creature as fast as they could. With a roar, the creature took swings at the pair, hopping to kill the annoyance and get to the evil being that had hurt it.
"Emotions help…" Rain muttered softly. She remembered the feeling when she hurled that beam. It was different from the blue one, which felt like water flowing. The red one felt more like holding a burning match as the fire reached your fingers. It was hot and gave a sense of excitement. Drawing on that feeling, she raised her hands. Both took on a red glow as the energy grew. It used to take her a long time to prepare the blue beam, but it was almost instinctive now. She'd have to practice this new one to get to the same level.
"Sora move!" Riku shouted. The two dived away as a bolt of lightning struck the ground, carving a deep trench into the dirt.
"NOW!" Rain shouted. Another red beam leapt from her fingers and cut through the air. The two key bearers jumped away. The monster turned to the shout, only for the red beam to slam into its armored chest and explode. The beast howled in pain as it collapsed backwards, a cloud of smoke filling the air where it once stood.
"Did we beat it?" Sora asked, panting.
"It's still here isn't it?" Riku answered, pointing to the downed beast. "It would've disappeared if we had."
Rain collapsed to her knees, panting heavily. She'd never used so much energy before, and she felt like she'd run a marathon. 'How does Harry throw so much power around…' she thought as she tried to catch her breath. The beast gave an injured cry as it struggled to rise. "Crap…It's getting back up." She muttered. She didn't have enough strength to throw another attack like that. She probably couldn't even do another blue beam like this.
"Riku!"
"I know Sora" they both watched as the beast fought to rise. Screeching in pain, it managed to rise to its knees. With a roar, it glared at the two. Its chest armor was gone, leaving only raged pieces of metal against a scorched wound. They could just make out the Nobody symbol on its flesh. The two teens glanced at each other, their eyes meeting. They nodded, and both broke out running straight for the wounded beast.
"You alright Harry?" Kairi asked.
"I don't think I've ever had something squeeze me to death before…" He admitted.
"Things try to kill you often?" she asked. She looked tired; apparently the spell took a lot of effort to use.
"Pretty much monthly" he pushed himself up. "That's why I want to learn those healing spells…I'll need them."
A roar drew their attention. Their heads turned to watch as Riku and Sora attacked the wounded Nobody. The beast took a swipe, only for the two to duck past and attack its chest. They slashed right through it, and the beast burst into a black cloud before it ever noticed the wounds.
"Glad that's over" Kairi said.
"Good. I don't really want to get squeezed again."
"Harry!" Rain ran over and tackled him in a hug, causing Kairi to laugh.
"Ow, damn it, get off! I've already been squeezed once today!
"I did it! I used that blasting curse!" She said happily, climbing off.
"Congratulations." He muttered "can you help me up now?"
"Ya, ya" she grabbed his arm and pulled him up.
"Ugh, I'm still all sore…"
"Ungrateful bastard" Rain muttered, shoving him. "Whatever, I'm in too good a mood for you! I helped kill a giant monster!"
"Ya but the guy got away, with Jack and Sally." Sora said sadly.
"We'll just have to go after them" Kairi shot back. "He said he had Donald and Goofy too right?"
"She's right Sora, he did."
"But where'd he go?" Sora asked.
"He said something about a queen and card solders…" Harry pointed out.
"Card solders?" Riku muttered. "Why does that sound familiar?"
"I've fought card solders before." Sora spoke up. "The queen sent them after us when we tried to help Alice back in…Wonder…Land…"
"Sora you idiot!" They all shouted.
"What is that thing?" Harry asked, staring up at the large yellow and red plane…thing…
"It's our Gummy Ship. We use it to move between worlds of course!" Sora said happily.
"What's a Gummy Ship?" Rain asked.
"What? If you don't know, then how did you get here?" Riku asked. He only knew of two ways to get between worlds, a Gummy Ship and the dark portals.
"Our guardian brought us." Harry said with a shrug. "I don't know how he does any of what he does."
"He can travel between worlds?"
"If you listen to him, he can do anything and everything."
"So why don't we ask him for help?" Sora asked.
"Because he'd laugh, tell us it's our problem, than warn us about evil Swiss cheese wielding squirrels and ask us not to die before leaving. He's not all...there…"
The three Key Bearers stared in silence. They'd dealt with some weird things, but Swiss cheese wielding squirrels? Then again, they did mention their guardian was a bit off…But still, squirrels?
"So this thing can fly between worlds? How long will it take to get to this Wonderland place?" Rain interrupted. She didn't feel like trying to explain the insanity that brought them there.
"It used to only take a few hours." Sora offered. "But it'll take about a week now."
"Why so long?"
"Sora here sealed most of the pathways to keep the heartless from destroying them, so we have to take the long way around." Riku smirked as Sora scratched the back of his head.
"Well let's get going. The sooner we leave the sooner we find your friends!"
"Alright, so Kairi said you want to learn the stronger healing spells, right?" Sora asked.
Harry nodded. "I know Cure, but it's not strong enough if something worse happens. Like being squeezed by that monster…"
"Ya, Kairi had to use one of her stronger spells for that. Curaga is the second strongest healing spell I know actually. But you need to learn Cura first."
"Well what do I need to use it?"
"You already know that Cure fixes cuts and bruises, it's basically just unguided healing energy. Cura needs more direction. It's meant to fix broken and dislocated bones, but it can also heal internal bruising, and minor concussions. Basically, you need to concentrate on what you want it to fix."
"So if I want to fix a broken bone?"
"You need to concentrate on where the bone is broken, the same for dislocated joints and bruising, though the person will still be pretty sore when you're done. For a concussion though, you need to spread it out through the person's head. If you try to focus it too much you could miss something and do more harm than good."
"So…How do I practice?"
"That's why I'm here." Riku said, standing up.
"Huh?"
"You said you wanted to learn how to fight" his blade appeared in his hand. "Draw your blade and let's go!"
"HUH!"
"You got your ass kicked" Rain taunted.
"Shut up…" Harry muttered as he ran his glowing hands over his broken leg.
"So you learned the spell huh?"
"Didn't have much choice…" Riku had been very…enthusiastic about teaching. The boy was very good with his blade, and probably the quickest person Harry had ever seen. It was great incentive to learn the spell. Learning to wield his blade, however, was proving difficult. He was barley an amateur at best, and he only had a week to learn as much as he could before they got to wonderland.
"So what's next?" Rain asked. She'd spent the day sparing with Kairi. Apparently Logan had been training the girl longer than Harry thought, since she was much better than the other girl, which embarrassed him even more, since Kairi beat him too.
"Sora said I should practice with Riku for the week. If I get the spell done by the end, he'll show me the next level. Plus" Harry admitted with a sigh, "I might be able to learn something about using this sword."
"Oh that reminds me! Riku asked me to help you train as well!" She grinned as his face suddenly paled. "I'm so glad you're looking forward to it! It's gonna be so much fun!"
"I'm impressed. You've done better than I expected." Artanis said happily.
"Shut up!" Harry snapped into his phone. He'd been training almost nonstop since they'd gotten onto the Gummy Ship. Riku was a task driver, and Sora refused to teach him the next level until he was ready. On the plus side he'd had plenty of practice. He must've broken every limb at least twice, and is hand at least four times. On the plus side, he was pretty even with Rain now. Much to everyone's surprise, he was a quick learner. Oh sure, he couldn't do anything fancy, but he could swing and stab pretty well, and dodge better than any of them. All that practice with Dudley must've paid off. Riku was actually impressed enough to make Sora teach him how to do a Dodge Roll. Basically it was the same as his double shield, only while moving but it would take him a while to figure out the timing.
"So you learned the third level healing than?"
"Ya, no thanks to you!" They were about a day away from Wonderland when the Walker decided to call. Unfortunately, he'd called mid-fight, which had distracted Harry long enough for Rain to cut his arm pretty bad. She'd been apologizing constantly since, but He just shrugged it off. It was enough to prompt Sora to teach him the next level of healing spells. Harry was surprised at how complicated it was. Not only did it use more power and control than the last two combined, but he had to make sure the magic was spinning around the injury or wound at a constant rate. The bigger the wound, the slower it had to spin. It was hard to judge the speed needed, but luckily the spell it's self helped. The magic WANTED to spin at the right speed; it just had trouble keeping it accurate. All he had to do was make sure it didn't go nuts, which saved him the trouble of finding the right speed.
"Not my fault you let your guard down." Artanis laughed. Of course he found it hilarious, to the point that he forgot why he'd called. He'd hung up and hadn't called back again till now.
"You knew we were training! I don't know how but you knew!"
"Sure and monkeys eat apples" Artanis said absently. "Do you want to hear the news or not?"
Harry stared at the phone for a moment, monkeys and apples? Shaking his head, he sighed. "What's so important?" He hated that damn walker!
"Well the first thing is that Granger says hi."
"WHAT! You talked to Hermione! When? What's been going on back home? Is she ok? Are the twins alright? Sirius, Remus? ANSWER ME!"
"Wanna take a breath so I can talk, or are you trying to pass out from lack of oxygen? One of us needs to breathe after all…"
"TALK!"
"Fine! All your friends are fine. I only saw Granger for a moment when I was picking up a few test subjects. On the plus side, the dark lord's been laying low since then, but it won't last long."
"T…test subjects?" Harry muttered. He didn't know what kind of tests the insane man may do, but he was sure he didn't want any innocent people being involved in them.
"Just some of those mask wearing guys. They went after the wand maker and I interrupted. Oh and that old guy is pretty freaked out. Apparently you and I are worse than the dark lord combined or some crap like that."
"So he still thinks I'm guilty?" He'd been hopping the truth would get out so he could rub it in the faces of all his FORMER friends.
"Ya, pretty adamant about it, actually it was a bit fanatical really…"
Harry sighed "So what other news do you have?"
"I'll be picking you two up soon; it's time to move on."
"What about the people here? They need our help to find their friends!"
"They've done fine for years without you two. You can't help everyone everywhere Potter. You need to go on to your destiny just as they do."
"Fine, when will you be here?" Harry hated giving in; he wanted to help his friends! But he'd never win against Artanis, especially in an argument. The psycho would just ignore everything he said and drag him away anyway…Better to just agree and see if he could help while he still had time.
"Soon. No idea when. I'm afraid the clock that was monitoring the time in your world broke recently. I have to fix it before I come pick you up, so I have no idea when that will actually be."
"So you have no idea what time it is here?"
"Not a clue."
"So it could take you weeks to come get us? Or minutes?"
"Yup!"
"So why call now? Why not wait till your just leaving to let us know?"
"Err…Ok bye!" 'CLICK'
"Idiot…"
"Harry, Sora said we're coming up on Wonderland. We need to get ready to go." Rain called from the door.
"…Alright, I'll be ready in a minute."
"This is wonderland?" Harry asked, looking around. It looked like a normal room, if you ignored the dozens of clocks on the walls. The loud ticking was a bit creepy, but the doors definitely took the cake. A bunch of doors, one right behind the other, and each smaller than the one before it, were standing open, giving a rather strange effect.
"No, this is just the rabbit hole. For some reason, whenever we come here we get dropped in this hole." Sora answered.
"That's a little…Do you hear voices?" Rain asked suddenly.
"Ya, from the end of the hall." The group all tried for the door at once, only to get stuck. After a bit of pushing, Sora made it through. With a grin, he made his way down the hallway, the others following.
"Sora!" A voice cried.
The group soon filled a small room full of normal furniture and another teenager. Harry glanced around the cramped room; the table in the middle was causing the most problems. 'Drink me?' he thought, staring at a bottle on the table. 'Who would listen to that? Why's that door so small?' He stared at the small, rodent sized door.
"Hello Alice." Sora said happily.
"It's nice to see you again. It's been ever so long since I last saw you. And who are your friends?"
"Well that's Riku, Harry, and Rain" He said, pointing them out. "And you remember Kairi right?"
"Of course, It's a pleasure to meet you all, and a please to see you again Miss Kairi." Alice smiled and gave them a curtsy.
"Hey" Riku muttered.
"Hi" Rain nodded.
"It's nice to see you again" Kairi added.
Harry grinned and stepped forward. With a small sweep, he bowed to the teen girl. "It is a pleasure to meet you Miss Alice. I Apologies for my companions lack of manors."
The girl giggled slightly and held a hand to him, which he pressed to his lips before rising. "My, aren't you a proper gentleman."
Rain snorted. "Proper my ass…"
Riku snorted while Alice's hands shot to her mouth, hiding her smile. "My word"
Harry glared at Rain before turning back. "I apologize for that as well. I'm afraid not all of us know how to talk to a beautiful woman." Harry grinned at the blushing girl. She had long blond hair, which hung loosely in the back. A blue tank top was just visible under her white apron. A blue skirt hung down to her knees, revealing white stockings that let to blue shoes.
"My, but aren't you quite the charmer" She giggled. She was all set to call Sora's new friend a hooligan, the coat and black clothes practically screamed trouble! But the way he talked, and that smile…Maybe a little trouble wasn't so bad…
"As much…Fun…as this is" Rain said with a glare at Harry. "We're here for a reason, and there's nowhere to go in this room."
"Sure there is!" Sora said happily. He grabbed the bottle off the table and took a drink. "Drink up!" He tossed it to Riku.
"Are you nuts!" The boy shouted. "You just drank from some random bottle?"
"It's quite safe" Alice pouted. She'd quite liked talking to the dark haired boy, but she was more curious why they were there.
"Alright" Harry said, grabbing the bottle. With a nod to Alice, he too took a drink before handing it to her. She too took a drink before putting it back on the table. The others watched in shock as the three teens started to shrink. "Wow, that was an interesting feeling" Harry said as the three watched their giant friends scramble to drink the weird potion.
"So why are you all here?" Alice asked.
"We're looking for Sora's friends and the man that took them said he was coming here next." Harry answered. "He said something about card soldiers."
"Oh, but they serve the red queen! No wonder the Rabbit told me there was an emergency!"
"An emergency? That must mean he's already here" Sora shouted as the others finally joined them. Without waiting, he took off running, the others following.
"He's so impulsive." Harry sighed. "Here" he held his hand out to Alice. "Let's go before everything goes bad."
The girl blushed, but took his hand and together they rushed after their friends.
"That wasn't very nice!" The cloaked man growled to the queen. "All I wanted was to borrow some of your solders, but now look at them!" All around him, the card solders were on the ground, groaning in pain. "I'm still taking them, but it could have been so much easier if you'd just agreed!"
"You monster! How dare you attack my Cards!"
"You told them to attack me" He shot back.
"Are you questioning me!"
"There he is!" A voice interrupted.
Both figures turned to see a group of six teens come rushing into the queen's court.
"Ah, Key bearer and friends!" the man waved happily. "It's good to see you're still alive! I would have been so disappointed if you'd of been destroyed by such a week Nobody."
"It destroyed most of Easter town!" Rain yelled at him.
"Really? Wow, maybe it WAS too hard for you all…"
"Where are our friends?" Sora asked his key appearing.
"What, did you think I'd bring them with me everywhere? They're back at the base."
"Well where is that then?" Riku shouted.
"You don't actually expect me to tell you, do you?" The man asked. "I mean, maybe if you had beaten me in a fight I might consider it, but you haven't even attacked me yet."
Riku and Sora instantly dived foreword, only for the man to jump over their swinging blades. Kairi threw a Fire spell, only for him to bat it into Rain's blue beam, causing them to blow up, hurling Rain to the ground.
"Is that all you've got? Well that's not nice at all!"
"Alice, could you stay here while I go stop him from hurting the others?" Harry asked.
"Ok…" She wanted to help, but she wasn't much of a fighter. She'd been practicing as much as she could since she was kidnapped, but this was on a whole other level.
"Thanks." He kissed her hand again before letting go. With a smirk he drew his wands and stepped forward. "How about you try me?"
"Oh my, aren't you nice, protecting your friends?"
"Thank you." Harry smiled politely, before swishing his wands. A pair of cutting curses slashed through the air.
"Epp!" The man dived away, avoiding one, only for the other to cut into the hem of his cloak. "That wasn't nice!" He shouted as he got back to his feet.
"Sorry, I thought you were ready." He smirked and took a step, before whipping his wands around. A rapid stream of cutters flew like a cloud towards the man.
"Not nice!" The man vanished into a dark portal, and the curses slashed straight through the hedge wall behind him. He reappeared next to the young wizard, swinging a strange blade, like a knife only held backwards and curved towards his opponent.
Harry ducked under the swing and kicked out, only for the man to spin away. He flicked his wand again and a stunner flew through the air, only to get batted away with a blade. The man took a step towards him, only to duck as Riku slashed at his head.
'CLANG' the man caught his follow up swing with his blade, before pulling back. Riku, off balance fell forward, and the man kicked him, tossing him away. "Epp!"' the man dove away as Sora tried to tackle him from the side.
"Get back here!" Sora shouted, swinging again. The man jumped back, dodging the swing, before pointing his off hand at the teen. A light flashed and Sora flew away, crashing into the hedge wall.
"That wasn't nice!" The man shouted. He absently blocked another fire spell before blasting Kairi off her feet as well. "None of you are very nice!"
"How's this for nice!" Rain shouted, hurling a red beam at him. The man turned and batted it back at her with no effort. "Ah crap!" She dove away as the spell slammed into the stand behind her. The stand exploded instantly, showering her in splinters.
"Reducto!" The man turned to Harry, just as the spell slammed into the ground in front of him. The explosion hurled the man away, only to get hit with another stunner before hitting the ground. With a smirk, Harry walked up to his downed opponent. "That shut him up."
"That wasn't very nice!" The man shouted, spinning into the air.
"Gah!" Harry cried as the man's blade slashed his face. Screaming in pain, He fell to his knees, clutching his bleeding face.
"Not nice, Not nice at all!" The man calmly walked away, grabbing a pair of card solders before walking into the forest. "Stupid world…Why do I have to go through the forest to leave it? Not nice at all! Full of mean heartless…" The man muttered before disappearing.
"Harry!" Alice shouted, running over.
"Curaga…" Harry muttered, pressing his hands to his face. He could barley concentrate, the man almost hit his damn eye! He never knew anything could be worse that the Cruciatus curse! He could feel the magic working, He was tired, he'd used a lot of energy in that curse and the healing spell used even more. Not to mention the blood loss.
"Are you ok?" A voice asked.
He sighed softly as he felt the spell end. His hand fell to the ground with a soft thump. "Hey Alice." He muttered. He looked up at her with his unharmed eye. "Glad your ok." He collapsed to the ground unconscious, the world going black instantly.
A/N And that's that. Once again, sorry it took so long. Ill work really hard to get the next chapter done. Looks like we're almost done with Kingdom Hearts, so I'll Offer the same challange as last time. Anyone who can guess the next world gets a prize! Same rules, same prize! Oh, but it might take me a little while to get the reviews, I'm going away for a few days, so no telling when you'll get your reward. Oh well, till next time!
DON'T DIE!