Kingdom Hearts (IC)

[Melpomene]

In Aemulus, Ihsan, Koit and Koribian it was the middle of the day when it turned to night. The skies filled with black, and stars began raining from the sky. Shadows twisted and formed, eyes blinking open within their depths. Slowly, Heartless crawled out, lurking in the once sun-filled corridors and fields. They didn't attack, just lurked there, watching people move around on their business. Waiting, watching. Waiting some more. The day-that-turned-to-night slowly slid back to reveal sun. Light spilt down on the Heartless creatures, showing them to be solid entities. The Shadows sat there, trying to shrink into the natural shadows as much as possible.

Waiting... watching...

Waiting.

Koin walked from the portal into a town. An unnatural-looking town. It was built high into the sky, with rich-looking town houses. He glanced around the Jewle of Ihsan, confused and bewildered. He had portaled somewhere! Koin was slightly giddy with his confusion, walking around the sidewalk. He paced, paced, before noticing something odd; the shadows moved. Koin turned, seeing a Heartless roaming around. 'Odd,' the boy thought. He turned, running along the sidewalk, mentally noting where or where Heartless weren't. Turning to make sure none were following, Koin turned again, only to run face-first into the sidewalk.

Groaning, the boy sat up, rubbing his bloody face. His nose and forehead were a bit skinned, but other than that he was fine. Koin glanced around to find other pedestrians, seeing only one or two. He checked their responces to the shadows, wondering if they, too, noticed.

[Tiny crested flint]

    It was a tipical day for Mr. Whopple as he busied himself about his kitchen after the lunch rush.  It was then that he paused to look out the window and saw the sky was turning the shades of nighttime.  The hippo blinked once in surprise then turned back to work saying under his breath "wow, it's after dark already? I'm not near ready for the dinner rush.  Hmm, mabey I'm not ready to take on chef Kanto tomarrow in the city of Ishan." 
*crash!*
    Grunda slammed his fist down on the counter and reached for his cleaver.  "If these drunken jerks don't quit breakin' my glasses..... that's it, this is gonna be the last time!" He stormed out of the kitchen into the area behind the bar and scanned the room for the source of the trouble. 
    "Whichever one of you fools is wreaking my property is gonna get one heck of a....." It seemed another argument had errupted and...
    "no, wait that's not it this time" he thought to himself when he saw every costormer in stunned silence and all faces pointed toward the window.  The chef began to follow their gaze. In the background someone said "what in the world....the stars are falling?"  Looking out the window himself, Grunda now saw the the sky was, indeed full of falling stars!
    A few moments later the scene mysteriously ended and the sky changed back to that of mid-afternoon.  Another moment of silence passed to see if anything else would happen.  Then rapid conversation on the event broke out among the costomers.  Grunda just shrugged and went to sweep up the broken glass, thinking to himself "well it seems I'll be headin' off to Ishan today anyway since I wasn't actually lagging."  He knew he should have been more worried about the strange event but just didn't see how it affected him.
    Later, after the final 'last call' off the day, Grunda quickly packed all the ingredients and utensils he would need, hefted his giant sauce-pan over his shoulder, and set off to meet his friend who would take him to Ishan.  "I wonder if I'll see anything interesting while in the city, mabey I'll take a tour of the Jewels."

Just after arriving in the city, Grunda took his mind off his cook-off to check his surroundings and saw movements in every shadow.  What the...?  Yellow eyes began to appear in the shadows, eyes that Grunda remembered.  His right hand instantly went to the pan hooked across his back as the other curled around a steak knife on his belt, ready to throw.  He didn't like the number of eyes looking back at him and thought "I guess my meeting with chef Kanto will be canceled after all"  Grunda set off at a run, away from the area, away from the shadows he remembered.  Unknowingly he was headed in the direction of the Jewels.

[Lushin]

Volt steps off the transport back to Ishan in the City level and looks around. He see's the happens and shakes his head.
"Oh that looks promiseing"
He starts to walk down the street then notices the eyes looking at him form the shadows. He flips the hood up on his shirt and sends a charge into his right arm. He continues walking.
"Why am I back here? I should have stayed at Zurine. At least there I knew what was trying to kill me"

[Zaon]

Deadra was sitting by a window reading a book about the heartless and how there are two, or rather, were two types.
Emblem, which were created by a machine and have a brand on them to seperate them from the so called 'pure' heartless. The 'Pure' heartless are made of darkness and the more one's heart gives into drakness the stronger the pure heartless becomes. Pure heartless are identifyable by the fact they are pure black expect for two yellow eyes. Of course those with a stroung heart are able to keep their form and memories even if they are a heartless.
Outside the castle the sky turned to nighttime and Deadra turned his head to see stars falling from the sky and noticed a couple fading. "This must be the work of the heartless," Said Deadra as he watched with glee. Of course soon the the stars stoped falling and the sky turned back to day. He sighed and put the book down and walked through the liabrary he was in. He wondered if he could use the power of darkness at will to travel to other worlds as the heartless did so he could help them in their endevor. He knew it would draw the attention of those who might have a keyblade like him. It would be intreaging to fight one considering what he has learned so far about the keyblade considering the limited information in the liabrary.

[Azlan]

Ze strolled along casually, munching on a sugar-encrusted, fried pastry stick.  The boy had little to do this day, as he was in between studies, a type of vacation one might say. 

Of all the citizens of Ihsan, of the Jewel or the City, Ze seemed aware of the surroundings.  The shadows seemed different this day.  No one else seemed to pay much heed to the darkness earlier or the raining of stars.

Looking much like a little soldier or a prince, Ze carried a blade and a gun of some type, though he never seemed to use the former.  Military school had been very keen on training him in his natural talents and turning them towards a profession in the Guard of Ihsan.  Perhaps because of these or maybe they recognized him from the vids, most people greeted or bowed politely to him as he passed (in actuality most think the little soldier is cute if anything).  Zezare was the son of one of the most powerful men of Ihsan, even if they were on strained terms at the moment.

He turned a corner onto a less occupied street, however the shadows loomed more ominously here in the shade of a large mansion.

Ze was instantly afraid of these things, he was not sure of what they might be, but reason gave way to instinct and he ran.

The boy glanced behind him, a brief mistake, for when he turned to look where he was going, another boy was in his path.  Perhaps in some odd twist of fate, the other was also not paying much attention to where he was going.

Ze dashed to the side, but his foot clipped Koin but briefly aiding him in his impact with the sidewalk.

He ran his hand through his hair, a pale purple in color, and gazed down at the poor boy who had not yet noticed him, "are you alright?  That was a nasty tumble you took."

Zezare became quiet as the shadowy forms loomed a bit closer.  "That is not normal."

[Drake Manaweilder]

Drake was both scared and fascinated by the sudden darkness and falling stars as he sat by his friends on a small hill in the suburbs of the city.
"Woah, look at that!" Henry, an eagle-morph with red eyes, said, pointing at some glowing yellow dots nearby. "Are those the stars?"
Crawling twords some of the dots, Drake drew his sword, the faint glow partally illuminating the area.
"No, they can't be, too many, too small- geyuh!" pulling his hand off a strange creature he had leaned on in the dark.
"What are they!?" Kayla, a feline with sky blue eyes and black hair, said with a twinge of fear. She hated being in the dark, and the fact that they were surounded by weird siluettes and yellow dots that were looking more and more like eyes certanly wasen't helping her. Or the others for that matter. The three of them stood back to back, waiting for something to happen, for the silence to end.

Night turned back into day, and the group remained somewhat shaken, as the dots receeded into the shadow of whatever they could find.

[Kenji]

-Day 1
It was a lazy day in Omanaki, as it usually is in such a small village. The sun was high in the noon sky, and the villagers were going about their average duties. At the edge of town, on a farm owned by the village's only agriculturalist, beneath a tall tree, sat the fire elemental feline called Kadais. The night before, farmer Halen Finora, a large boar of a man, heard his chicken coop being attacked by an unknown bestial assailant, so they asked Kadais to stand guard. The ranch hands passed by the resting feline as they worked the fields, waving and thanking him for pulling guard duty on such short notice. They were disappointed, however, when Kadais didn't respond to them. They felt as if he was mad at them for being dragged out in the middle of the night to guard a cold farm. He sat there, holding his swallow straight up from the ground to help keep him balanced, as well as to help pull himself up quickly should the need arise. Chickens and sheep passed in the grass nearby as leaves blew in the wind. It was a mostly quiet day.... until an odd, deep sound permeated the air. The chickens around the tree clucked and ran off, scared away by the source of the sound: Kadais's snoring. Sometime in the early morning he had fallen asleep, due to a combination of exhaustion and utter boredom. Soon after he had begun snoring, one of the ranch hands came to let him know that it was time for lunch. Kadais stretched out, combed any falling leaves out of his long white hair, stumbled to his feet, and headed to the farm house for everyone's favorite pastime: lunch.

"So did our uninvited guest return for a second try?", Halen asked, a bit of worry in his voice. Kadais shook his head. "Not a sign nor trace. Whatever it was must've gotten scared off." Farmer Halen nodded his head as he held his drink to his lips. "However...", Kadais noted, "It was strange. I didn't hear a sound all night. Literally, not a one. It was as if the entire forest was devoid of life." Halen's wife Morgana, a sow who's size was in contrast to Halen's, chimed in, "Oh I'm sure that's just the hot days around here. The temperature's been so high lately, the poor creatures were probably just exhausted." The conversation seemed to trail off there. After lunch, Morgana packed some food into a small bag and gave them to Kadais as thanks for the all-nighter. Afterwards, he headed off back to home. He rounded out the day by doing tasks around the house. Wood splitting, weeding, and overall upkeep. The closer it came to getting dark, the less villagers were out and about. A few hours after sunset, all the villagers had headed to bed, leaving Kadais the only awake villager. With the last bit of his chores finally finished, he headed inside for a nice sleep, himself.

-Day 2
He sat there on a hill outside town for hours, pondering life, the islands, and the unusual quietness of the previous night. He was just thinking about heading back to the village. It was a rather cloudy day over Omanaki, which was unusual for this time of year. But it was about to get much weirder. The sky suddenly shifted to an ominous shade of black. Kadais looked up and noticed an unusually bright star in the sky. He glanced up at it, but within a few seconds, the light disappeared completely. "The heck.. Since when do stars go out?" He stood there, staring off into the dark sky. A few moments passed, and a red glint appeared amongst the black and the stars, nearby where the first star blinked out. He stared at it, watching it streak across the sky. "What in the...", he muttered, completely clueless as to what the object was. The object looked as if it kept getting faster and faster. Finally, Kadais realized where it was going and braced himself. The object shot through the sky, a loud crackling and whistling sound echoing behind it. It finally came to a halt, slamming into the ground but a few yards away. Never one to disobey that natural curiosity, Kadais hurried over to see what the object was. When he got there he found that, strangely, the object hadn't even made a dent in the ground. He cautiously walked over, leaning down to examine the object. It was a good sized, white, block looking object. He reached over and picked it up, noting the strange, soft texture it possessed. "What on Aemulus is this thing...", he whispered to himself. He stood there, nothing on his mind but the strange block, when suddenly, sounds echoed through the woods. He heard rustling from all angles in the foliage, and decided it was time to head back home. He sat in his room, on the edge of his bed and glanced at the block one last time before storing it in a compartment beneath his floorboards. He laid down and eventually drifted off to sleep while trying to assess the situation. However, his dreams had intentions other than a peaceful rest. Once he had closed his eyes, all he saw was black. Black, and lots of moving yellow circles.

[Boog]

Restriction had just flown in from the heart of darkness. Despite the universal laws of comedy, his arms were in no way tired.
Fan out and find the keyhole... He told his brethren, organizing strike teams, Three groups of ten to twenty shadows, with three gargoyles for air support and five neo shadows to lead. Go. Find. When it is found, call us and we shall join you and take the keyhole. Report back to me daily, in this forest. He gazed out from the woods at a nearby town and a name occured to him, Omanaki... He shook himself with a start. That was one of those Memories, and memories were bad.
Realizing that he'd wandered off from his brethren, he quickly darted deeper into the forest. His brethren were there. They would protect him. Because if there was any of those memories that haunted him it was the first ones he'd ever experienced, with things chasing him and catching him because he had nobody to protect him...

[RJ]

Amayax laid on the rooftop of the ramshackle building she had made a make-shift home in, staring up at the night sky.

"Tomorrow is Shy Day," she muttered to herself. "But Shy Day means I'll be too timid to go out searching."

The blonde-haired girl sat up and gazed over the rooftops of Korbinian. The other buildings surrounding hers were also rather ramshackle and abandoned... though she couldn't say she didn't have a hand in it herself. The urges had been getting stronger during the past year... there were times when she didn't even put planning into her attacks first.

"Not putting thought into what I do- you'd almost think I was a Heartless." She sighed and shrugged, a slight smile on her face. "Good thing today is Benevolent Day today, or else I'd be very angry about that."

A glimmer of light caught her eye and she turned her face to the sky.

The stars were falling.

Amayax stood up, continuing to stare. In her hand, a Keyblade appeared.

"Something has changed..."

[Sirius Griffon]

Aratol found herself a nice place to make camp art, or rather for the moment to sit down. It was sitting upon the edge of a cliff, at a height most would be sickened to even think about. But the dragoon found the height to be rather calming, relaxing. And the view, well, could one ask for any better? Overlooking the endless plains, plains that were honey gold with the touch of Autumn upon it.

This was the life really. How many others of her kind got to see such sights? She smiled gently... until she noted the sun's wamrth had completely vanished. Startled she looked up to find it had completely vanished, going to night within a single blink. Moments later the darkness dispelled into shadows, and she frowned deeply getting up from her spot.

She had seen them before. Bringing out her keyblade she held it in hand, waiting for them to make the first move with an offensive stance. Let the little children try to attack, they would be in for quite the lovely surprise. After all, she wasnt about to let them have their way!



Faye laughed deeply, his smile wide as he rubbed down a horse's neck. "Oh yes, I knew that sugar cube would get you to behave you ornery little fool! Come on, lets get you into the stable and all set for the stablehands to make lovely for tomorrow's parade! Oh youll love it Bessie! Theyll gussy you all up and draw pictures and youll be the belle of the ball! I promise!"

The horse suddenly whinnied, a shriek of terror as it reared. "Easy girl, easy! Itll be fun youll... see?" He looked up to find the sudden night, the shadows, and a cold chill ran down his spine. He somehow managed to calm the horse, taking her inside before walking back out but finding no more signs of the shadows. he FELT them, but he didnt see them. Oh well, must have been the trick of the mind after a long day! No worries!

[Melpomene]

Koin turned to glance at Ze, then the Shadows growing closer. He nodded to the other boy, "I'm fine. Those're normal. You need to go somewhere safe. Hide, and defend yourself if they attack." Then, making sure everything was on right, Koin nodded to Ze, "You do have somewhere safe, right?"

Oh, if he didn't, Koin was going to curse himself seven ways to hell. He wasn't suited to protect anyone at the moment, nor did he particularly wish to. But he wasn't sure of what this world's customs were, or their society. He wished he had studied sky-cities more. He played with the pocket watch at his neck, finding comfort from its constant ticking. It was a perfect thing to help him slow his breath and think rationally. One step at a time, one gear in motion which would eventually set the others off with it. A Shadow moved a bit closer, and Koin moved away, somewhat nervous about them being so close. "I don't HAVE one," he hissed to the Heartless, waving a hand as if to dismiss it. The Heartless simply tilted a head, and scooted forward.

[Azlan]

Ze gave a sideways glance to Koin at his comment about how these shadows were normal, "normal, how are these normal?  I've never seen anything like them... though, I might have read something about them,"

The boy thought for a moment, back to his military school days and snapped his fingers, "they resemble the stories of creatures called Heartless, but if these are those then I do not think anywhere here is safe.  I do have a place, but it is... not safe."

Ze noticed the shadow scooting forward, towards Koin.  He curled his left hand into a fist briefly and then extended his index and middle fingers.  Between his them was a luminous purple globe, about the size of a ping pong ball.  With a quick flick, the purple ball landed in front of the advancing shadow making a small explosion of purple energy.

The Heartless scooted away from the warning shot, when it had retreated into the shadows in a cluster of others, it tilted its head towards one of them and then regarded Ze.

Trying to look the part of a brave and stalwart warrior, Ze faced them dead on.  He appeared calm and cool on the outside, but within his insides were doing somersaults, "leave him alone, we have nothing for you here."

Unphased and intrigued by the small burst of Soul, the contingent advanced in a more aggressive manner.

"Oops, I think that had the wrong affect... I think you might want to run now."

[Boog]

Restriction was still deep into the forest, amidst the rest of the forces he had with him. Everything was going according to-
Hearts... His head snapped up in surprise, his brethren following suit, Strong hearts. Such... The pull was incredible. He felt as if he would float toward the owners of those hearts if he lifted his feet from the ground, So many strong hearts...
As if on cue, a gargoyle careened into the ground nearby, its wings ragged from the haste it had made.
Danger! Report! I report! There is danger! Other heartless clustered around, all wondering what could have happened, Danger!
Explain, Restriction's request was unneeded. Already, the story had circulated amongst those there as only its kind could, and a mental uproar arose from the assembled heartless.
Shadowkiller!
Blindinglight!
Heartfreer!
Keyblade, Restriction thought to himself in horror, Keyblades! Many!
The heartless reached the only logical conclusion. He panicked.
Twenty Flying Ships! Thirty Large Bodies! More! EVERYONE! Get them! According to the plan, they were to be held back until the keyhole was found. However, there was no room in Restriction's head for plans with terror taking up so much space, Except the Defenders! I need the Defenders right here!

[Kenji]

-Day 3
"Aaah! Look out!", Kadais yelled as he awoke, sitting up in his bed. He glanced around, surprised to be in his room. "Ugh... what a nightmare.", he sat, thinking. "No more going to bed on an empty stomach. ..." Kadais glanced down at his floor, remembering the night before. He creaked open the floorboard and removed the white block. He took the block and headed outside, eager to learn more about his new toy. He ran to the local alchemist's shop and set the block on a table, smiling eagerly. "Need.. identified.. white thing..!", he yelled, panting between words. "Whoa, slow down there, lad. What's got you so worked up?", the alchemist asked, rather curious. Kadais took a second to catch his breath. "I found this.. white thing, over near the shore. It fell from the sky, but didn't even make a dent in the ground. It looks kind of like a squishy rock. Make anything of it?" The alchemist picked up his eye loupe and examined the block. "Hmm.. interesting.. I see.", the alchemist talked to himself as he examined the object, "This isn't a rock you've got here, lad. I don't know too much about the details, but what you've got here appears to be what most people refer to as a 'Gummi'. I've heard people use these things to travel the stars and--" Kadais interrupted him abruptly, "What? Seriously?! I can fly with one of these things?" "Err, not so fast there, lad. This Gummi alone won't do you any good. You'll need quite a few pieces before you can fly anywhere. Why, you'd need a body to the ship, a cockpit, and--" The alchemist was once again cut off, but this time not by a question. A loud male scream came from outside the shop. Kadais hurried out of the shop, yelling back to the alchemist "Keep that safe for me, I'll be back!" With that, he headed outside, only to see a strange, small, black creature with yellow eyes. Eyes that reminded him of his nightmare from that dark day. It hopped towards one of the town's children, seeming to twitch about as it went. Kadais grabbed the closest thing to him, a steel shovel, and jumped towards the creature. He took a swing at the creature, just as it turned to look, and nabbed a direct hit on the creature's head. The creature seemed to explode in a dark poof as it died, a heart the size of a small melon floated up from the spot, vanishing in the air. "A.... heart....?", Kadais pondered as he stood there in awe. The sounds of villagers screaming surrounded him, as groups of those creatures seemed to appear out of the shadows of every corner in town.

[Zaon]

Deadra went back to the window where he had left the book and picked the book back up. He was getting a little impaitent and lonely. So far the only 'visitors' he had were some of the 'shadows' he had learned to summon and some kids from the town in the distance who would come up here for dares. The kids were easy to scare off course some... disapeared. He kept them locked in the castle and let the Heartless he had learned to summon chase them. To him it was great fun watching them run and then watch as the heartless would mulitply. It was like having his own unique bodygaurds... unfortunately He didn't know how the heartless traveled between worlds and that's what he truely wished to know. That way he could spread distruction over all worlds as per the legend he had read in one of the books.

[Boog]

Restriction watched a heart in the distance float through the air, and panic siezed him.
It's dangerous here. I have to get away. But how to get away from something when I don't know what it is? He paced back and forth, and eventually looked up at the guards he had with him.
I go to find what has happened. Defenders, be ready to appear. Neo Shadows, with me. After all, it stood to reason that to avoid something, he'd have to know where they were and what they looked like. Please let it not be a keyblade please please please... With a snap of his fingers, he vanished.

... He reappeared with his escort in an allyway, amidst the shadows already there. That one! One of the small heartless cried, pointing at Kadais, That one!
Restriction stayed back, trying to be invisible as he memorized the feline's face That one is dangerous. I must avoid that one. Terrified of being seen, he stepped back, about to snap his fingers and disappear again...

[RJ]

"It's been quite a while since I've seen a Heartless," Amayax commented as black wriggling shadows emerged out of the roof before her. "You'd think you guys would have come sooner to try and take my Keyblade."

She held the white Keyblade out at them, seeing them seem to flinch at it, yet still hop around eagerly.

"But, there's nothing much to gain from attacking me;" She smiled at them, her benevolent roleplay still sticking. "I would not become a Heartless, and you would only be killing someone who never intended to use the Keyblade for its true purposes anyway. There's only danger here for you. I know you guys don't think much, but I'm sure you can listen."

The Heartless continued to hop around, refusing to budge. Amayax's smile faded a little with a look of concern.

"Well, I did warn you at least. It's just too bad that there's nothing much I can gain from defeating you all either. But at least your arrival has given me a sign that I could leave this world."

She placed two hands on the hilt of her Keyblade...

[Lushin]

Volt continued to walk down the street as the yellow eyes flowed him down the street. It seemed the shadows didn't know for sure what to think of this man with metal on his body. Volt had a slight smile on his face under his hood. His right eye glowed red from beneath his hood as he turned to face the shadows.
"It's clean you don't seem to understand what I am. Let me just tell you whatever it is your looking for you won't find with me" Volt raised his right  hand, in a fist,  near his face as electricity arked acrossed his knockles.
"I'm really not in the mood for a fight so I would suggest you go pick on someone else"
Volt continued to walk down the street until he heard a little girl screaming for help coming from a near by alley.
"Damnit. I really don't need this today" Volt heads off in the direction of the scream.

[Melpomene]

Koin looked to Ze, blinking slightly. "Heartless are instinctive! Kill or be killed! You're gonna run with me," he ordered, making to grab him by the arm when time stopped for all but those who wield Keyblades. Another spectacular event for the day, with all of the stopped images fading into gray a disembodied voice rising; made only to be heard by Keybladers.

"All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it, grows, consumes it. Such is its nature. In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came. You see, darkness is the heart's true essence."

Just then, as quickly as it had come, time restored itself and Koin was sent back into motion. He reached for Ze's arm, about to escape at a sprint when a Gargoyle came from the depths of shadows. The boy's hand instinctively changed direction, pulling out his scimitar and thrusting for the Heartless. His blade hit, though it did almost nothing to the stone creature. Koin's blow kicked, and with the surprise of the defense, he had let go of his weapon. Cursing in a very unchild-like way, Koin glanced to Ze. "On the count of three, then?" he whispered, watching the scimitar slide into the depths of Heartless.

Well, that was beautiful.

((Yes, Ansem quote, but NO, it's not Ansem. ))

[Kenji]

-Day 3
Kadais kept swinging at the strange monsters. It had felt like hours, though truthfully it has only been mere minutes. Many of the villagers had grabbed what they could find, hoping to help fend off these shadows of evil. Mothers ran from the village, taking their children, and anything they could grab in time, with them. Some of the villagers, men, women and children alike, were caught before they could escape and were overwhelmed by the mass of enemies. They seemed to completely disappear, hearts floating up from where they were, only to be absorbed by the creatures as new creatures replaced the hapless villagers. The shadows were pushing back, then seemed to slow their attack. They hopped back a few paces. It almost appeared as if they were retreating, but life's not that easy. From the middle of the crowd, a larger shadow moved across the ground. It stopped but a few feet away from Kadais, and rose to a creature at least twice the height of the rest. It looked more human in shape and the two antennae on it's head were longer than it's own body; enter the Neo Shadow. Kadais swung the shovel at the new creature. Without even flinching, the creature took one swipe and snapped the shovel in half. "Oh yeah, THAT'S fair!", Kadais yelled in frustration. He was getting tired and now had no weapon to defend himself with. He turned his head and glanced at the alchemist's shop* ".....Bye!" Kadais turned and bolted for the shop, the creatures following him. He ran in and grabbed his Gummi, then ran out the back door, heading for home to grab a real weapon. "Give 'em hell before they send you to it". That was the thought running through his head.

[Zaon]

Deadra put the book on the shelf and left the liabrary. He had entered the foryer and was on his way to the entrance to see what has happening in the village. Before he would do that though he wanted to send the heartless out to attack. He summoned a single shadow Heartless and said, "I want you to take all the heartless of this castle and go attack the village till there isn't a single heart left." After that the shadow disapeered to go off and collect the rest of the heartless running through the castle.

He left through the front gates hoping to reach the village after the heartless did. He summoned his keyblade to his side and smirked. "It's time to wreak some havok boys," He said as he walked down the hill as heartless began to emerge from the castle and head towards the village he was going to attack.

[Azlan]

The boy had reached out for Koin's hand as the other had prepared to lead them off in a retreat from the Heartless.  The emergence of a stone creature, made Ze take a few uncertain steps back.  It looked more dangerous and down-to-business then the shadowy figures.  A brief thought immediately entered his mind, Zinx.  The young warrior-to-be reached for the blade at his right side.

Koin was the faster and Ze watched the sword deflect off the stony hide of the Gargoyle.  He reconsidered grabbing for his own sword and concentrated on saving himself and the apparent younger boy.   

As the other blade slid into darkness, he made a fruitless grab for it, "your sword..."  He stopped the action, as this was no time to worry about such things.  Ze drew his hands up and with a flick of his fingers, he now had eight little globes similar to the purple one he used earlier except that these were red.

He nodded to Koin, "yes, on three" 

Ze mirrored the other's counting, "One... two... three!"

As they burst into action, Ze scattered the eight balls all around them.  The resulting fiery explosions and chaos they aroused would aid in their escape.

   

[Tiny crested flint]

   Grunda was now running through the Jewels of Ishan, in a rage that the forces which had taken his family dared to return.  Though the shadows didn't make any moves toward him, Grunda could see the eyes following him.  At the time he saw no indication of any attack from them, so for now the hippo was merely on guard and looking for a way to aid in ridding the city of them.  As he ran, two figures appeared in the distance, then many.  Most of the shapes resolved into the shapes of the horrid shadow creatures which surrounded the first two.  The figures in the center both appeared human and wore shirts of grey each with a colored sash.  The area around them suddenly flashed with red bursts of light.  But the shadows were still advancing.

   Grunda saw this and his blood boiled and added to his rage.  "Here was their attack," he thought "and here they have the same wicked goals as last time."    Grunda snapped.    He hefted his pan to his shoulder, sprinted at full speed to the crowd, and plowed straight through the line of shadows, shouting at the top of his lungs "YOU DEMONS SHALL NOT SEPARATE ANOTHER FAMILY THIS DAY!!

   His charge knocked aside many of the creatures (having been thrown into chaos by the red flashes) away from the humans while he kept running forward holding his improvised battering ram in front.  He saw a much larger shadow loom before him and without thinking, Grunda twisted and put his full momentum into clubbing the monster to the ground.  The pan struck its chest and Grunda felt that it was rock hard.  The impact threatened to shake the pan from his grip but with tremendous force he held on and struck the large creature down.

   Turning quickly to the two humans, he shouted breathlessly (for the attack had tired Grunda greatly) "Run to some kind of safety! I will follow."  He turned again to see that his blow had only disoriented the beast momentarily and the small ones were coming closer again. "Hurry! Get out of here!"

[Lushin]

Volt entered the alley he heard the scream coming from. Upon entering he saw a small girl being swarmed by the shadows. Volt charged his right arm and slammed his hand into the ground, sending electricity arching across the ground towards the little girl and the shadows. A bolt of electricity hit each of the shadows as they attacked the little girl. She screamed in terror of becomeing one of them, but that was not to be as a bolt of electricity hit her aswell, Killing her and her attackers in a heartbeat. Volt shook his head as he turned and left the alley. The shadows seemed to give him a wide birth as he passed by with electricty arching up and down his arm. As he walked he let out a low growl.

[Boog]

Restriction continued to follow the Kadais, clambering up the side of a building and chasing as he went along the street. He was slowly but surely calming down, his fear (while not quelled) lessened by having an objective. This boy was Dangerous. Dangerous things were Bad.
As he bolted from the back door of the shop, he openly gave chase while still making certain that his guards were well ahead of him.
"Stopra!" There. He can't hurt you if he's frozen. Of course, if the spell didn't take, he is still Dangerous and I'm charging right toward him, He fell back a little bit more, his confidense in this attempt failing. Slowing to a stop as three of his guards, two Soldiers and a Neo Shadow, he hefted his lock and hoped this wasn't a mistake.

[Kenji]

(Post 4)

Kadais found himself slowing down, but oddly not from being tired. "Ugh... what's going on?", he muttered. He began moving at half of his speed, at everything he was doing. He hadn't been fully hit by the Stop magic, and had instead had been dumbed down to a Slow. He slowly turned to the oncoming horde... literally.. and dropped his Gummi "Alright... if that's how it's... gonna be..." He moved his arms back to the sides and began glowing a faint orange and yellow. His hands began igniting with active flames. "Burn in..... hell!", he screamed as he thrust both arms forward, unleashing a wave of fire straight at the field of black. The fire on his tail flared up behind him the moment he began launching flames.

[Boog]

Oh no! Restriction lunged out of the way as flames obliterated the Neo Shadow and one of the Soldiers. The rest of his guards immediatly surged forward as he began to swing his lock by its chain, building momentum and slowly letting it get further and further from him.
Gotta be fast, gotta be really fast. Oh, what on earth am I doing?

[Melpomene]

Koin ran a few steps before Heartless arose on that side as well. He turned direction, grabbing Ze by the wrist and dragging him with him. Just then, another came along, shoving down the Heartless. Koin, have just barely made any leeway, stopped to watch. How... how in the world? But then their ally shouted at them to move and Koin took off again. His small legs took long strides, moving faster than they could ever remember. They began to burn even after moments of running so hard, but Koin made himself loose focus on bodily matters. He told himself to fight a monster's instinct with his own.

So, Koin led the way as they ran, even though he had no idea where he was headed. After a couple minutes of sprinting, Koin had to slow down and look to Ze. He didn't want to distract his breathing to speak, so simply fell behind the other boy, signifying that he lead now. To wherever they were heading. Koin glanced back, wondering idly if their random helper had followed or not.

The Heartless in front of Amayax shrank back into the roof, scuttling away from her. From the same side of the roof the Shadow had come from, a Dark Thorn arose. It roared, moving a large claw down at the Nobody Keyblader as if to smash her in.

[RJ]

"I guess you guys might be better listeners than I gave you credit for," commented Amayax as the Shadow Heartless began to scuttle back from her. "Maybe you're not as stup-"

Amayax's words were cut short as a new Heartless appeared before her- a Dark Thorn. Before she could even say a word, it roared, slamming a hand down towards her.

Amayax quickly held her Keyblade above her, bracing herself with two palms against it. The Dark Thorn's hand smashed against it and continued down, the girl's strength no match for it. She gave a cry as she was sent through the roof and into the room below.

"Damn it," she muttered as she laid on her back and stared up through the hole in the roof. She sorely rose to her feet again and rubbed her back. "I don't know if I can take one this strong."

She gazed back up at the hole.

[Azlan]

Ze's arm was nearly wrenched from its socket as he was dragged off by Koin.  The intervention of Grunda likely saved them as the strange fellow had opened up a hole for them to dash through.

Ze was pulled along as Koin ran.  The young one had amazing stamina, as it was a struggle for Ze to keep up.  He managed to gaze back to see if their rescuer had followed.   Adrenaline was pumping through his blood stream, but it slowly lost its edge and his legs and lungs began to burn.  Very near his limit, the other finally slowed and fell behind him.   

Ze rubbed his sore wrist as he gazed about, taking a deep breath he motioned for Koin to follow him, "this way, we need to get to my house.  I have to tell my father what is happening, he can warn the military."  He paused for a second and smiled warmly, "Zezare, but everyone calls me Ze... I'm sorry for being so rude, too much was happening for introductions.  Come, we will be safe at my house."

Ze lead the other boy through the streets, pausing only briefly to allow a larger shadow creature to pass before they proceeded.  They reached the wall of beautifully sculpted hedge and Ze motioned Koin over to the bolt hole he had concealed in the mansion's fence-line.  The whole lead into the palatial grounds of one of the most prominent mansions in all of the Jewels.

"My family's house, it's nice."  said Ze in a tremendously understated way.