Hearts of Monsters.
Authors note: Hello once again folks. I know it's been a slow two chapters, but we finally get to see some action here. So sit back, relax, and pump up the volume on whatever battle music you want. Enjoy.
After Sora heard the scream he immediately took off in its direction. "Sora! Wait!" He heard Tsukune call after him but Sora couldn't just wait around when someone might be in trouble. Tsukune wasn't nearly as fast Sora as he zipped down the halls of the school. Sora was on site within moments and the site was more or less what you'd expect. A young girl with short pale purple hair, blue eyes and the same uniform as Moka was trembling on the ground with her back against a wall outside of the school building. Above this girl was a tall hooded figure in a black coat that went almost all the way down to her ankles. The hooded figure began to crouch down and reach out to the girl's neck before she heard a voice. "HEY!" She turned her head and saw a young teenager with spiky brown hair and dark clothes running full speed at her. Sora leapt into the air and used that momentum to propel himself into a spin as a light began to shine in his hand. "BACK OFF!" He yelled feet away from this mystery attacker as his Keyblade 'Kingdom Key' materialized in a flash of light. But before Sora's weapon could find its mark something shot up from the ground and deflected his attack, knocking him back. Sora staggered but quickly regained his balance before he took a low stance to see what deflected his attack, and what he saw was strange to say the least. It looked like a Shadow Heartless but it was almost completely covered in chains from its neck (assuming it had a neck.) Hung from a chain was a padlock. On it was an elaborate mixture of the Heartless and the Nobodie's symbols on the front. "Heartless." The hooded figure commanded with a light feminine voice. Several more Chained Shadows materialized from the ground and glared menacingly at Sora. "Keep him busy." The creatures obeyed while the mystery girl turned to face the other on the ground. The Heartless that deflected Sora's earlier attack was the first to leap into the fray making an overhead strike at the young Keyblade wielder. Sora parried the attack with his Keyblade and pushed the creature back using the momentum from that push to charge at his attacker. Sora went for a wide diagonal swing and landed a strong hit on the creature's head with a small gold flash. After the Heartless was hit by the Keyblade it dissipated into a puff of dark smoke leaving absolutely nothing of its remains. The next wave of Heartless rapidly approached Sora and he took his usual stance ready for a fight. "Sora!" He heard a familiar voice call and risked a glance at its direction and what he saw made his heart leap into his throat. Tsukune was standing at the corner of the building with his eyes wide with shock while Moka and the others rounded the corner. "Sora, behind you!" Moka shouted and Sora's attention snapped back to the fight. The Heartless were already in the air and about to pounce. But by the skin of his teeth Sora managed to swing his Keyblade and knocked the beasts back, he didn't hit with enough force to destroy them but it was still enough to save his life. "What are you doing here!?" Sora demanded as he looked back towards his new friends. "You ran off without a word and we thought-" Kurumu started before she was cut off at the site of a Heartless leaping towards her. Fortunately, before the Chained Shadow could make it to Kurumu, the Kingdom Key came spinning through the air and knocked her attacker out of existence. The Keyblade then changed its direction and flew back to Sora and as soon as he caught the blade he whipped around and knocked away another Chained Shadow. "Get out of here guys, now!" Sora ordered before he blocked another strike. "What? We're not leaving you to fight these things alone." Tsukune said determined to help him. "Just go! I can't protect all of you and fight these things at the same time." As Sora finished he noticed two Heartless inches away from his head. They were too close, there was no time to react, he was done for! But then from out of nowhere two large ice spikes flew through the air and into the Heartless shattering on impact as the creatures disappeared. Sora turned around once more to look at his friends and what he saw was almost as strange as the chained Heartless. Mizore was holding her arm out and her once slim pale fingers were now large claws made completely of ice. "Worry about yourself kid." Kurumu exclaimed charging into the battle. Kurumu's pink nails became long and clawlike while large, batlike wings shot out from her back and a thin black tail sprouted. "Yeah!" Yukari cheered pulling out a stick with a large pink heart at the end and a blue five pointed star in the middle. "We can take care of ourselves and we can help." Sora was surprised to say the least.
After she gave the order and turned around to face her target the hooded girl then grabbed the helpless damsel by her neck and slid her up the wall. The poor girl kicked her feet weekly as she was held in the air. The hooded figure held her free hand over the girl's chest and muttered some strange words, after which a bright gold light shone from the center of her torso. She then reached for the light but his soon as her fingertip made contact she pulled her arm back as what looked like a black lightning sparked across her hand. "You're not her." She said to the now unconscious girl before she released her grip. After the student fell to the ground in a slump the hooded girl turned to face the boy that tried to attack her earlier and saw not only him fighting the Heartless, but a whole team of girls fighting and beating the Heartless. And once she saw Mizore something in her clicked and she knew that she found her real target. "Heartless, separate the ice user from the others." The hooded girl commanded, and the Heartless somehow managed to separate Mizore from the others by simply swarming them so their focus would stay on the Heartless. "Now girl, you're mine." The cloaked girl said menacingly as she raised her left hand. And in a flash of cold, icy blue light a Keyblade materialized in her hand. It was a thin but solid build with a mix of light blue and dark purple and several spikes of ice with a blue diamond shaped crystal at the end of the blade to give it the shape Keyblades are known for. The guard around the hilt looked like rounded jagged icicles giving it a very aggressive appearance. And at the end of a chain at the bottom of the hilt was a snowman sporting a very angry face. "That's an interesting weapon." Mizore said in a casual voice and the mystery girl snorted. "A poor choice of last words." She muttered taking a hunched stance holding her Keyblade in front of her with a backhanded grip.
Before anyone could blink, the cloaked Keyblade wielder was only a few feet from Mizore and was about to take a swing. Fortunately, Mizore managed to pull up her ice claw and defend herself against the attack. She was still knocked back several feet, but the damage was not as bad as it could've been. The cloaked girl wasted no time in performing a follow-up attack. With blinding speed, she attacked that Mizore from every direction at once. It wasn't until the 12th strike that Mizore finally managed to catch and freeze her attackers weapon in a pillar of ice. The girl released her Keyblade and jumped back to gain some distance. "What are you going to do now without your weapon?" Mizore taunted in a monotone voice. The girl gave no response, instead she simply raised her left arm in a similar manner to when she first summoned her Keyblade. The blade encased in ice then disappeared in a flash of blue light before re-materializing in the mystery girl's hand. She then charged at Mizore, ready for another series of fast strikes. But Sora managed to slip through the Heartless and got between the girl and her target while blocking the strike she made on reflex. "You alright Mizore?" Sora asked. "I'm fine, but you be careful. That weirdo is insanely fast." Mizore responded sounding slightly less monotone and usual. "So she's fast huh? Well so am I!" Sora said confidently. Now that Sora could see the girl's weapon, he noticed that something about it seemed… off. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but there was something about the icy Keyblade that seemed unnatural. But before Sora could analyze it any further, the cloaked girl lunged at Sora and her key blade became wrapped in ice as she went for an overhead strike. Sora only barely managed to defend himself from the powerful attack before he heard a new voice call out. "Hold it right there!" And an orange bolt of light flew through the air. The hooded girl only barely managed to avoid a hit in the face from the light as she flipped away from Sora with all the grace of a swan. Sora turned around to see who the new combatant was. And he saw a young woman holding a type of staff with a purple gem within a loop at the end. She wore a pink corset, a long black skirt with frills at the end and high-heeled shoes. Her hair was dark brown and tied into two ponytails on either side of her head while the rest of it fell naturally. "You with the key, and you in the hood, what are you doing?" The new girl demanded. "Ruby!" Yukari shouted as she defeated another Heartless, and Ruby turned her attention to the girl. "Sora's all right, he's with us. It's the one in the cloak that's the enemy!" Yukari explained while fending off another attack. "What?" Ruby said sounding confused. The mystery girl then took this opportunity and lunged full speed at Mizore. Fortunately Sora made it in the nick of time to stop the girls attack and pushed her away. Ruby raised her staff and the purple gem glowed brightly before it launched a dark red light at the hooded girl. The girl was still regaining her balance from Sora's earlier push, she couldn't recover in time to dodge the oncoming attack. But in a flash of black and light silver, the girl was saved by another hooded figure who wielded his own silver and dark blue Keyblade. This new Keyblade was a little longer than most with a mix of light silver and dark blue forming the basic shape and was decorated with several crescent moons. "Tsunukex…" The hooded girl said with the thinnest traces of resentment behind the obvious annoyance. "We're done here." The new stranger identified as 'Tsunukex' stated in a calm voice. "No. We're not." The girl said defiantly. "I finally found my target and I am not about to let her go." She stated tightening her grip on the icy Keyblade. "And I have found mine, but-" Tsunukex said before he used his Keyblade to block an attack from Kurumu who had just finished off the Chained Shadows. Meanwhile, several winged tarot cards flew towards the girl. Tsunukex gave a powerful swing and knocked Kurumu several feet back while the hooded girl gave a flurry swings that froze and shattered the tarot cards on impact. "Were outnumbered and outgunned, we should retreat for now and try again another time." Tsunukex explained. "Fine." The girl said begrudgingly. A shadowy pool of mist then formed below their feet as to key blades disappeared and flashes of icy and silver blue light. "You're not going anywhere!" Kurumu exclaimed, with a beat of her wings she flew toward the strangers, her long pink claws poised to strike. But all she cut through was the air and black fog.
"Hey! Where'd they go!?" Kurumu demanded while the darkness dissipated. "They can't have gone far." Yukari stated. "If they escaped using the darkness, then they're long gone." Sora explained as his own Keyblade vanished into a flash of white light. "Moka, can you give me a hand with this?" Tsukune asked as he picked up the unconscious girl. "Sure." Moka responded walking over to help. "Excuse me. But would someone tell me what is going on?" The girl known as Ruby asked in a harsh and serious tone. "It's a long story." Mizore said after everyone past a look at each other.Ruby gave an exasperated sigh before she pointed her staff for Tsukune and Moka. "Moka, Tsukune, get that girl to the nurses office." She ordered, and the two complied. "You three." Ruby said turning to face the other girls. "Get to your dorms and clean yourselves up." She said. "But, Ruby–" Kurumu protested still wanting to chase those strangers. "Go." Ruby insisted, and Kurumu begrudgingly complied followed by Yukari and Mizore. "And you." Ruby said pointing towards Sora. "Me?" He questioned, taken by surprise. "We need to talk."
Authors note: wooooo… Done. I hope that chapter turned out and I think it did. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I feel like I'm starting to lose my edge after the last chapter. Well, anyway. Thank you guys so much for reading this story, I'm sorry it took so long, but I've been trying to juggle a few different projects lately. Leave any comments or constructive criticism in the comments section. Thank you.