Sorry, guys, I really haven't finished chapter 2 yet. I've been running cross country for the first time, and I've had some really bad problems with my foot that require therapy. So I'll get this up as soon as possible.
Fanfiction ► The Covalence Effect
- Thread starter giuocob
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haha, im doing cross country for the first time too!
but its ok, sports really wear you out, take as much time as you want
(well, not too long ;D)
but its ok, sports really wear you out, take as much time as you want
(well, not too long ;D)
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2006
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I hope your foot is okay. *massages foot*
Take all the time you need. ~.^
<3
Take all the time you need. ~.^
<3
*bumps*
How has your foot been?
How has your foot been?
Hmm... this is quite the fanfic. I'll catch up on Realm of Shadows later. I love your writing technique.
My foot got quite a lot better. I bought some inserts for my shoes and now it feels just fine. Which is good, because I'm running my first meet on Wednesday.
But, as you know, I've sorely neglected this fic. (Pun half-intended, if you know what I mean.) I should be finish chapter 2 sometime around...now.
CHAPTER 2
The rattling vibrations that violently shook the carpeted floor slowly subsided as the Gummi Ship disappeared below the horizon. In an exciting moment like this, the stairs were too much of a hassle for Sora; he simply vaulted over the railing and fell to the garden below, landing perfectly and slapping the ground to lessen the impact. His friends were just leaving the hall as he sped off to the hangar.
The Gummi ship’s pilot, however, seemed to be in as much as hurry as he was. Even though Sora was sprinting at top speed, he had barely reached the opposite wall of the courtyard when the door leading to his destination creaked open. Out stepped a gray haired figure. “Sora!” he yelled, running toward his friend.
“Riku!” cried Sora in utter joy, also rushing forward. They met in the center and embraced, Riku patting Sora heavily on the back. They released their hold on each other and Sora stepped back, getting a good look at the man he regarded as his older brother. He seemed a bit older than he had been when he had left, less of a boy and more of a man. His features had sharpened and his eyes were keener. Also, he seemed rather weary, assumedly from the long time away from home, but it was nothing unlike the way he had been when they had first returned to Destiny Islands. On the whole, he hadn’t changed much at all.
“So,” remarked Riku cheerfully, “you look well enough. What have you been doing with yourself while I’ve been away? Anything interesting happen at the castle?”
“Oh, lots!” said Sora, a pathetic understatement. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Kairi, who hadn’t been brave enough to take the fifteen foot plunge over the railing and had instead opted to go for the grand staircase, had arrived on the scene. Although her face shone with elation at seeing Riku again, she remained at a distance and observed the two of them. Sora gratefully realized that she was allowing them some time to themselves. ‘Oh my,’ he thought with a pang of realization, ‘he’s in for a real shock when he sees her.’ “Riku, I really have to tell you something right now! It’s about Kairi.”
A shadow of disappointment instantly clouded Riku’s face. “Sora, haven’t you taken anything I’ve told you to heart?” he sighed. “You’re never going to get your keyblade back if this sort of thing keeps up.”
“No, no, it’s not like that!” said Sora hastily. “Listen…”
“No, Sora, you listen!” shouted Riku, becoming very irritated, if not outright angry. “You need to stop thinking about her completely. I didn’t think it would have to come to this, but you just don’t seem to get it. From now on, we’re going to pretend that Kairi never existed. I’m really sorry I’m saying this…I know it’s going to hurt you. But it’s the only way you’re ever going to be able to fight again.”
“Stop!” cried Sora. In distress, he glanced over at Kairi. She seemed absolutely appalled and furious, her teeth gritted together, cheeks burning red. For a moment, Sora thought she was going to summon her keyblade and attack Riku right there and then. She opened her mouth to say something, but if she made any sound, it was drowned out by two explosive cries of “Your Majesty!” from the other side of the courtyard.
Donald and Goofy had elected to take a smaller, concrete staircase to the ground floor that made the journey much quicker; even so, neither one was built for sprinting, and both arrived last. Suddenly, noticing that there were only three people in front of them, they stopped dead in their tracks. “Er…Riku?” asked Goofy timidly, growing pale. “Where is the king?”
This snapped Sora to the realization that Mickey was nowhere to be seen. A cold chill quickly ran throughout his entire body, the issue of Kairi instantly forgotten. Where was Mickey, indeed? Had he been killed battling Heartless? That would be an awful way to shatter what should have been a happy reunion among the three friends. Sora gulped as he waited for Riku’s answer, fearing the worst.
Riku noticed Sora’s plain distress, and he hurried to dispel it. “Oh, no, it’s nothing like you’re thinking! Mickey stayed behind on a planet called Sitadi.” Donald and Goofy blew a collective sigh of relief. “He stayed to talk to an acquaintance of his, an esteemed scientist who knows a lot about Heartless and Nobodies,” Riku continued. Then it was his turn to take on a slightly disconcerted look. “You see…something inexplicable happened while we were on Corón. It’s a planet near Morphos,” he added as Sora raised his eyebrows questioningly. “But one day, as we were getting ready to leave, we were attacked by Naminé!”
“Naminé?!” cried four people at once. Donald jumped backward, completely taken aback. Kairi, still off to the side, took an excited step forward. She was desperate for information about her lost Nobody, and she all but forgot the atrocities Riku had spoken against her in this prospect. Sora was perhaps more surprised than any of them; he had seen Naminé last, struggling in the arms of Ajedel as they disappeared into the portal. Had Riku said ‘attacked’? What could have possessed that fragile creature to make her attack a friend?
“Yes, Naminé!” said Riku eagerly, looking around at all of them, as if he hoped one of them could offer an answer to this quandary. “And she had a keyblade, too! Mickey and managed to fight her off, but we weren’t able to capture her before she got away. I have no idea what could have…wait a minute…” His wandering gaze settled on Kairi, who had been slowly advancing forward. She stopped in her tracks as his eyes widened dramatically. “Who are…you can’t be…” He froze in place like a statue, not a bone in his body moving. “But…you were…how did you…” He glanced wildly at Sora, then back to Kairi, then toward the corner of the courtyard where she had been buried. All that remained of the grave now was a deep hole next to a towering pile of fresh dirt. “Kairi…” Now he began to tremble slightly. Not removing his eyes from the girl who he hadn’t seen in a year, he demanded, “Sora…how…how did this happen?”
Sora couldn’t answer immediately because he had been laughing uncontrollably, face buried in his cupped hands. Something about Riku’s shock struck him as enormously funny and ironic. Later on, he’d feel ashamed of himself for standing there, right in front of Riku, chuckling at his distress. “Well, it’s a long story,” he gasped after collecting himself for a few moments. “But I’ll tell you everything.”
And he did. Sora clearly remembered Ajedel telling him never to share any of his research with another person, not even a close friend. But Ajedel was gone now, possessed by Xehanort, and it didn’t seem right to hold secrets away from Riku, especially now at their reunion. So Sora told him all about the concept of Shadows, how Xehanort had escaped from his realm and stolen Kairi’s soul. Then he related how he and Ajedel had gone back to Destiny Islands, how Naminé had appeared at the castle and unearthed Kairi’s body, how his keyblade had come back, how Kairi had revived, how Ajedel and Naminé had disappeared in that black portal.
Riku’s stare never left Kairi once during the entire story. “Wow,” he muttered simply when Sora had finished. “That’s…that’s just incredible.” For the first time, he seemed to gain the courage to move toward Kairi, cautiously all the same, as if she was some kind of ghost. Stopping in front of her, he began to wring his hands nervously. “Well…Kairi…I’m so happy that you’re alive! And, jeez, I’m really sorry I said those things about you. I just meant it for Sora’s good…I hope you understand…” Even though he towered over her small body, he shrank back before her. “But…I’m really, really happy right now! So, can you forgive me?” This was the first time Riku had asked for someone’s forgiveness for a long time. He extended a tentative arm, intending to shake her hand.
Kairi ignored this gesture and instead rushed forward, embracing him heartily. “Don’t worry!” she laughed. “Why would I hold something like that against you? We’ve been friends ever since I can remember. I’m really happy to see you too!” Riku awkwardly put his arms around Kairi’s waist; he was somewhat unaccustomed to hugging and being hugged.
Sora stood back and smiled as his two friends embraced. This was it, then: for the first time in a year, the three of them were back together again. “So, Riku,” he said after they released each other, “you were gone a lot longer than you said you would be. What were you doing?”
“Oh, right!” exclaimed Riku. He seemed all too eager to relate his tale. “Well, without going into a whole lot of detail, there’s not too much to tell. We left because there was an alarmingly high level of Heartless activity on a planet called Morphos. Mickey said that this place has always been infested with Heartless, but there have lately been ships coming and going from it in huge numbers. It’s as if they’re planning something.
“So, Mickey thought we should go down there and try to figure out what was going on. He said he had been there once before, using a portal on a nearby planet called Anomelia that took him to a dormant volcano. The only problem was, the portal wasn’t there. We spent almost a week scouring that planet, and then many more weeks wandering some other planets Morphos, looking for that portal. Mickey was completely baffled. We never found it, but we did run into Naminé.”
“Tell me more about Naminé,” said Kairi impatiently. “Sora said that that scientist had kidnapped her! Was she okay?”
“Okay?!” cried Riku incredulously. “She nearly killed me! But we decided to end our search for the portal right then. So we went to Sitadi, and Mickey told me to come back here and bring you, Donald, and Goofy to that planet. Said he had a growing feeling that it wasn’t safe at this castle anymore.”
“Well, he was right about that,” said Sora. “There have been…”
A crack of thunder ripped the relative silence of the courtyard as a static electric charge shockwaved through the air and stung the five of them. All eyes turned to Donald, who had drawn his staff. “Heartless!” he spat. “There were three of them just over there, by those bushes!”
Three flashes of light briefly lit up the castle as Sora, Kairi, and Riku each summoned their respective keyblades. “Where?” cried Sora wildly. He followed Donald’s pointing finger to a small hedge near the middle of the courtyard. A single, tiny Heartless sat in the middle of path, gazing at them curiously.
Sora didn’t stop to consider the improbabilities of the situation as he sprinted toward his enemy, keyblade poised to strike a blow straight threw it. Why would a lone Heartless be just sitting there, without any others in sight? It was simply bizarre; no Heartless would do that unless they were under the influence of some greater power.
But it was a cause-and-effect instinct: see the Heartless, kill the Heartless. So as Sora bore down upon his adversary, it never crossed his mind that something might be hiding around the corner. And it wasn’t until he had just impaled the Heartless that a prolonged scream from Kairi alerted him to the trap. But by then it was too late. As he glanced up from the dissipating remains of the Heartless, he saw a lethal gleam of light from the sharpened point of an enormous spear. It had been hurled by someone further down the path, and now it hurtled toward Sora at an incredible speed, merely inches from his unprotected chest.
I hope that bit with Riku came out okay. It seems kinda muddled in my mind...
But, in the next chapter, we shall all see if giuocob is capable of writing a fight scene! *Introduction to Beethoven's 5th plays*
But, as you know, I've sorely neglected this fic. (Pun half-intended, if you know what I mean.) I should be finish chapter 2 sometime around...now.
CHAPTER 2
The rattling vibrations that violently shook the carpeted floor slowly subsided as the Gummi Ship disappeared below the horizon. In an exciting moment like this, the stairs were too much of a hassle for Sora; he simply vaulted over the railing and fell to the garden below, landing perfectly and slapping the ground to lessen the impact. His friends were just leaving the hall as he sped off to the hangar.
The Gummi ship’s pilot, however, seemed to be in as much as hurry as he was. Even though Sora was sprinting at top speed, he had barely reached the opposite wall of the courtyard when the door leading to his destination creaked open. Out stepped a gray haired figure. “Sora!” he yelled, running toward his friend.
“Riku!” cried Sora in utter joy, also rushing forward. They met in the center and embraced, Riku patting Sora heavily on the back. They released their hold on each other and Sora stepped back, getting a good look at the man he regarded as his older brother. He seemed a bit older than he had been when he had left, less of a boy and more of a man. His features had sharpened and his eyes were keener. Also, he seemed rather weary, assumedly from the long time away from home, but it was nothing unlike the way he had been when they had first returned to Destiny Islands. On the whole, he hadn’t changed much at all.
“So,” remarked Riku cheerfully, “you look well enough. What have you been doing with yourself while I’ve been away? Anything interesting happen at the castle?”
“Oh, lots!” said Sora, a pathetic understatement. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Kairi, who hadn’t been brave enough to take the fifteen foot plunge over the railing and had instead opted to go for the grand staircase, had arrived on the scene. Although her face shone with elation at seeing Riku again, she remained at a distance and observed the two of them. Sora gratefully realized that she was allowing them some time to themselves. ‘Oh my,’ he thought with a pang of realization, ‘he’s in for a real shock when he sees her.’ “Riku, I really have to tell you something right now! It’s about Kairi.”
A shadow of disappointment instantly clouded Riku’s face. “Sora, haven’t you taken anything I’ve told you to heart?” he sighed. “You’re never going to get your keyblade back if this sort of thing keeps up.”
“No, no, it’s not like that!” said Sora hastily. “Listen…”
“No, Sora, you listen!” shouted Riku, becoming very irritated, if not outright angry. “You need to stop thinking about her completely. I didn’t think it would have to come to this, but you just don’t seem to get it. From now on, we’re going to pretend that Kairi never existed. I’m really sorry I’m saying this…I know it’s going to hurt you. But it’s the only way you’re ever going to be able to fight again.”
“Stop!” cried Sora. In distress, he glanced over at Kairi. She seemed absolutely appalled and furious, her teeth gritted together, cheeks burning red. For a moment, Sora thought she was going to summon her keyblade and attack Riku right there and then. She opened her mouth to say something, but if she made any sound, it was drowned out by two explosive cries of “Your Majesty!” from the other side of the courtyard.
Donald and Goofy had elected to take a smaller, concrete staircase to the ground floor that made the journey much quicker; even so, neither one was built for sprinting, and both arrived last. Suddenly, noticing that there were only three people in front of them, they stopped dead in their tracks. “Er…Riku?” asked Goofy timidly, growing pale. “Where is the king?”
This snapped Sora to the realization that Mickey was nowhere to be seen. A cold chill quickly ran throughout his entire body, the issue of Kairi instantly forgotten. Where was Mickey, indeed? Had he been killed battling Heartless? That would be an awful way to shatter what should have been a happy reunion among the three friends. Sora gulped as he waited for Riku’s answer, fearing the worst.
Riku noticed Sora’s plain distress, and he hurried to dispel it. “Oh, no, it’s nothing like you’re thinking! Mickey stayed behind on a planet called Sitadi.” Donald and Goofy blew a collective sigh of relief. “He stayed to talk to an acquaintance of his, an esteemed scientist who knows a lot about Heartless and Nobodies,” Riku continued. Then it was his turn to take on a slightly disconcerted look. “You see…something inexplicable happened while we were on Corón. It’s a planet near Morphos,” he added as Sora raised his eyebrows questioningly. “But one day, as we were getting ready to leave, we were attacked by Naminé!”
“Naminé?!” cried four people at once. Donald jumped backward, completely taken aback. Kairi, still off to the side, took an excited step forward. She was desperate for information about her lost Nobody, and she all but forgot the atrocities Riku had spoken against her in this prospect. Sora was perhaps more surprised than any of them; he had seen Naminé last, struggling in the arms of Ajedel as they disappeared into the portal. Had Riku said ‘attacked’? What could have possessed that fragile creature to make her attack a friend?
“Yes, Naminé!” said Riku eagerly, looking around at all of them, as if he hoped one of them could offer an answer to this quandary. “And she had a keyblade, too! Mickey and managed to fight her off, but we weren’t able to capture her before she got away. I have no idea what could have…wait a minute…” His wandering gaze settled on Kairi, who had been slowly advancing forward. She stopped in her tracks as his eyes widened dramatically. “Who are…you can’t be…” He froze in place like a statue, not a bone in his body moving. “But…you were…how did you…” He glanced wildly at Sora, then back to Kairi, then toward the corner of the courtyard where she had been buried. All that remained of the grave now was a deep hole next to a towering pile of fresh dirt. “Kairi…” Now he began to tremble slightly. Not removing his eyes from the girl who he hadn’t seen in a year, he demanded, “Sora…how…how did this happen?”
Sora couldn’t answer immediately because he had been laughing uncontrollably, face buried in his cupped hands. Something about Riku’s shock struck him as enormously funny and ironic. Later on, he’d feel ashamed of himself for standing there, right in front of Riku, chuckling at his distress. “Well, it’s a long story,” he gasped after collecting himself for a few moments. “But I’ll tell you everything.”
And he did. Sora clearly remembered Ajedel telling him never to share any of his research with another person, not even a close friend. But Ajedel was gone now, possessed by Xehanort, and it didn’t seem right to hold secrets away from Riku, especially now at their reunion. So Sora told him all about the concept of Shadows, how Xehanort had escaped from his realm and stolen Kairi’s soul. Then he related how he and Ajedel had gone back to Destiny Islands, how Naminé had appeared at the castle and unearthed Kairi’s body, how his keyblade had come back, how Kairi had revived, how Ajedel and Naminé had disappeared in that black portal.
Riku’s stare never left Kairi once during the entire story. “Wow,” he muttered simply when Sora had finished. “That’s…that’s just incredible.” For the first time, he seemed to gain the courage to move toward Kairi, cautiously all the same, as if she was some kind of ghost. Stopping in front of her, he began to wring his hands nervously. “Well…Kairi…I’m so happy that you’re alive! And, jeez, I’m really sorry I said those things about you. I just meant it for Sora’s good…I hope you understand…” Even though he towered over her small body, he shrank back before her. “But…I’m really, really happy right now! So, can you forgive me?” This was the first time Riku had asked for someone’s forgiveness for a long time. He extended a tentative arm, intending to shake her hand.
Kairi ignored this gesture and instead rushed forward, embracing him heartily. “Don’t worry!” she laughed. “Why would I hold something like that against you? We’ve been friends ever since I can remember. I’m really happy to see you too!” Riku awkwardly put his arms around Kairi’s waist; he was somewhat unaccustomed to hugging and being hugged.
Sora stood back and smiled as his two friends embraced. This was it, then: for the first time in a year, the three of them were back together again. “So, Riku,” he said after they released each other, “you were gone a lot longer than you said you would be. What were you doing?”
“Oh, right!” exclaimed Riku. He seemed all too eager to relate his tale. “Well, without going into a whole lot of detail, there’s not too much to tell. We left because there was an alarmingly high level of Heartless activity on a planet called Morphos. Mickey said that this place has always been infested with Heartless, but there have lately been ships coming and going from it in huge numbers. It’s as if they’re planning something.
“So, Mickey thought we should go down there and try to figure out what was going on. He said he had been there once before, using a portal on a nearby planet called Anomelia that took him to a dormant volcano. The only problem was, the portal wasn’t there. We spent almost a week scouring that planet, and then many more weeks wandering some other planets Morphos, looking for that portal. Mickey was completely baffled. We never found it, but we did run into Naminé.”
“Tell me more about Naminé,” said Kairi impatiently. “Sora said that that scientist had kidnapped her! Was she okay?”
“Okay?!” cried Riku incredulously. “She nearly killed me! But we decided to end our search for the portal right then. So we went to Sitadi, and Mickey told me to come back here and bring you, Donald, and Goofy to that planet. Said he had a growing feeling that it wasn’t safe at this castle anymore.”
“Well, he was right about that,” said Sora. “There have been…”
A crack of thunder ripped the relative silence of the courtyard as a static electric charge shockwaved through the air and stung the five of them. All eyes turned to Donald, who had drawn his staff. “Heartless!” he spat. “There were three of them just over there, by those bushes!”
Three flashes of light briefly lit up the castle as Sora, Kairi, and Riku each summoned their respective keyblades. “Where?” cried Sora wildly. He followed Donald’s pointing finger to a small hedge near the middle of the courtyard. A single, tiny Heartless sat in the middle of path, gazing at them curiously.
Sora didn’t stop to consider the improbabilities of the situation as he sprinted toward his enemy, keyblade poised to strike a blow straight threw it. Why would a lone Heartless be just sitting there, without any others in sight? It was simply bizarre; no Heartless would do that unless they were under the influence of some greater power.
But it was a cause-and-effect instinct: see the Heartless, kill the Heartless. So as Sora bore down upon his adversary, it never crossed his mind that something might be hiding around the corner. And it wasn’t until he had just impaled the Heartless that a prolonged scream from Kairi alerted him to the trap. But by then it was too late. As he glanced up from the dissipating remains of the Heartless, he saw a lethal gleam of light from the sharpened point of an enormous spear. It had been hurled by someone further down the path, and now it hurtled toward Sora at an incredible speed, merely inches from his unprotected chest.
I hope that bit with Riku came out okay. It seems kinda muddled in my mind...
But, in the next chapter, we shall all see if giuocob is capable of writing a fight scene! *Introduction to Beethoven's 5th plays*
AHH! suspense, i cant wait for the next chapter to see what happens! 
The Riku bit came out fine! =D
Awesome chappie!
Also, nice to hear your foot is better! xD
Awesome chappie!
Also, nice to hear your foot is better! xD
- Joined
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Good to hear you're okay!
Yummy update! I like your style so much...
<3
Yummy update! I like your style so much...
<3
Alright everyone, I have no idea what hellish corner of my imagination this chapter came from. All I can say is that I was hyped up on caffeine when I wrote it, and I can promise that nothing like this chapter will EVER escape my mind again. Unless you guys enjoy it, of course...
CHAPTER 3
Sora stood in the middle of the intersecting paths, staring at the spear hurtling toward him like a deer in the headlights. The only sounds he heard were a sharp cry of “no!” from Riku, and a pitiful, drawn out scream from Kairi. ‘Wow, how did I let myself fall for that?’ he thought wryly as the gap between him and that lethal weapon shortened to inches. He felt the burning heat created by the incredible friction between the speeding object and the air sear his chest as he began to realize that he was about to die.
Then something shoved him from the front. It was as if a gust of wind had materialized out of thin air and struck him full force across the chest. Except that no wind Sora had ever encountered had the power to lift a seventeen-year-old boy and fling him airborne like a small pebble in the hand of a mischievous child. Whatever this force was, it knocked him off his feet and sent him flying backwards with almost as much velocity as the spear which now tore past him, a fraction of an inch from his face. Before he realized what had happened, before he even had time to figure out that he was in the air, he slammed into a hedge that collapsed under his weight and buckled to the ground, Sora crashing down with it.
He was unable to move for a few moments after the collision. Everything before his eyes, trees, castle walls, and sky, blended together into one big gray blob that shook violently back and forth. He tried to scramble to his feet, but every direction seemed to be up. Suddenly, his senses were cleared somewhat by an enormous thud somewhere in the distance, and he was able to get on his feet, albeit somewhat shakily.
As Sora rubbed his eyes and looked around, he noticed that the hedge which had intercepted his flight was actually Kairi. She lay face-up on the grass, chest heaving up and down, her mouth frozen open in a silent scream of terror. “Kairi!” yelled an alarmed Sora as he flung himself back on the ground and knelt over her prostrate body. “Are you okay?”
Kairi’s eyes moved slowly, scanning everything in front of her until they rested on Sora’s face, wrinkled in concern. As if this sight gave her strength, she pushed herself into a sitting position, though it seemed to require a great deal of effort. The girl was trembling so violently that she would have immediately fallen back down had Sora not grabbed hold of her upper arm. “S-Sora?” she whispered. “I thought you were dead…”
“No, I’m fine!” said Sora cheerfully, but even as he comforted her, he couldn’t help wondering how he had escaped that fate. How had gotten away from that deadly missile? He knew very well that he wasn’t agile enough to duck instinctively out of the way on his own. And even if he had, such an action shouldn’t propel him fifty feet backwards directly into his friend.
While he was pondering this quandary, Kairi was making a speedy recovery, and she was soon able to rise to her feet without any aid from her supporter. Sora got up as well, and suddenly noticed that Riku, Donald, and Goofy were all staring at them with identical agape mouths. “What…what the hell just happened?” asked Riku, echoing Sora’s thoughts perfectly.
“I have no clue,” admitted Sora, holding tightly onto Kairi’s arm, even though she clearly no longer needed his help. “I just ran over to kill that Heartless, and suddenly this spear appeared out of nowhere and…wait a minute…what happened to the spear?”
It abruptly dawned on all of them that this question was a much more pressing matter than whatever had happened a few minutes ago. It didn’t take long for Sora’s eyes, wandering the border of the courtyard, to find the spear, or what part of it was visible. Its shining silver head had buried itself completely in the marble wall of the castle, leaving only the wooden handle, still shaking wildly from the impact.
Sora summoned his keyblade approached the weapon cautiously, staring in awe at the quivering staff. Even though he couldn’t see the spearhead, it had to be gigantic, based on the thickness of the handle. Had that thing struck him at that speed, it would have easily passed right through his chest and still reached the wall. Whoever had thrown it had to possess incredible strength beyond anything he had ever encountered.
Suddenly, there was a loud twang, like the snap of a bowstring. This was all it took to arouse Sora to his common sense; he had just unwittingly walked right into the pathway along which the spear had traveled. He didn’t need to hear Kairi’s scream to realize he had just wandered into another trap, though she cordially chimed in with this sound effect. He leapt backward just as a second humongous spear, identical to the first one, careened through the air and stuck into the marble face next to its twin. Sora was ready this time…or at least, he thought he was. Nothing could have really prepared him for what he saw when he spun around and prepared to charge at his enemy.
Instead of the huge, muscular man Sora had expected, He found himself staring down the barrel of an enormous crossbow. The thing was positively massive, at least twenty feet long, with a string that could easily circle the perimeter of his bedroom. It was mounted on a cart, bigger than the grand dining table he had eaten at that morning, equipped with a mechanical crane of some sort that was automatically loading yet another spear into the bow. Sora was still gaping at this incredible contraption as it discharged its ammunition, and he once again barely had time to dive out of the way as it whooshed past and embedded itself into the wall.
“What the hell is that thing?” asked an incredulous voice behind him. Riku had rushed to his side in alarm when the second spear had flown past, and now he stared at the thing in front of them with the same awe that had nearly gotten Sora killed seconds before.
“It’s a crossbow,” said Sora simply. “A really big crossbow.” He was too busy pondering other questions to give a more sophisticated answer, such as how this thing had ended up in the middle of the courtyard.
“Well,” said Riku, still gazing at the gigantic weapon. Neither of them said anything else for several moments, both trying to figure out the best course of actions. Then Riku spoke again. “I’d assume that there’s someone…controlling it. So…should we figure out who that is?”
“Yeah, great idea!” exclaimed Sora, glad that Riku had provided him with something to besides standing there, a sitting duck, begging to be shot at again. Now he stepped forward, sizing up his heavy wooden adversary. “Who are you?” he called in a commanding voice.
Twang. A fourth spear flew from the weapon’s barrel directly at Sora, but he was prepared this time. He dropped to the ground and deftly rolled to the side, popping back up unharmed. “I said, who are you?” he challenged again, finally began to feel as bold as he sounded.
A hemispherical hatch, made of blackened metal unlike the solid wood of the rest of the contraption, swung open from halfway down the crossbow’s barrel. Out popped the head and torso of the scrawny man in a black robe, laughing hysterically as he stared at the two friends on the ground. “Har har, scallywags!” he yelled in a raspy voice that sounded distinctly unauthentic. “I come to kill you!”
However surprised Sora had been to see a siege weapon in the castle, it was nothing compared to the astonishment he felt at seeing its operator. He had a deeply wrinkled face, sporting a black eye patch covering his right eye. A few strands of black hair fell from his scalp, which was mostly covered by a bandana emblazoned with a skull and crossbones. Had Sora not been in a position where this man could easily kill him at any moment, he would have laughed out loud. The guy looked like a child dressed as a pirate at a Halloween party. He looked back at Riku, who stared back at him with equal incredulity. “Um…what now?” he asked, scratching his head. It was a perfectly valid question: how does one go about fighting a man playing dress-up, sitting in the cockpit of a deadly weapon?
Before Riku could answer, both were jolted back to reality by another twang. They simultaneously dropped to the ground as another spear passed over them. ‘I need to collect myself!’ thought Sora. As bizarre a situation this was, he was going to get skewered if he didn’t keep his wits about him. So he jumped to his feet and faced his enemy again. “C’mon, tell us, who are you?” he asked again, trying to pretend that he wasn’t talking to a maniacal pirate.
Unfortunately, the man completely smashed Sora’s efforts with his response. “Call me Blackbeard!” he said, in the same gruff, artificial voice. “And I presume you two maggots are Sora and Riku, the two my master told me about! Am I right?”
“Your master?” asked Riku fiercely. He, at least, seemed to have gotten a grip on himself. Sora was still struggling to keep a straight face. “Who is that?”
“I take that as a yes, then,” said Blackbeard, ignoring Riku’s question. “In that case, prepare to die, you filthy maggots!” He disappeared from view, the hatch slamming over his head, as the mechanical crane began loading another projectile into the barrel.
“Well,” said Riku, shouldering his keyblade, “this should be easy.”
“I guess,” replied Sora, though his opinion on the matter was much different. It was going to be hard to fight when he continually felt the urge to break out into laughter. But nonetheless, he had to try.
“Then let’s do it!” screamed Riku as he rushed forward. Taking the cue, Sora followed him, charging down the path at the looming crossbow just as it unleashed another spear right at them.
If you guys don't understand what happened, too bad. I don't either.
CHAPTER 3
Sora stood in the middle of the intersecting paths, staring at the spear hurtling toward him like a deer in the headlights. The only sounds he heard were a sharp cry of “no!” from Riku, and a pitiful, drawn out scream from Kairi. ‘Wow, how did I let myself fall for that?’ he thought wryly as the gap between him and that lethal weapon shortened to inches. He felt the burning heat created by the incredible friction between the speeding object and the air sear his chest as he began to realize that he was about to die.
Then something shoved him from the front. It was as if a gust of wind had materialized out of thin air and struck him full force across the chest. Except that no wind Sora had ever encountered had the power to lift a seventeen-year-old boy and fling him airborne like a small pebble in the hand of a mischievous child. Whatever this force was, it knocked him off his feet and sent him flying backwards with almost as much velocity as the spear which now tore past him, a fraction of an inch from his face. Before he realized what had happened, before he even had time to figure out that he was in the air, he slammed into a hedge that collapsed under his weight and buckled to the ground, Sora crashing down with it.
He was unable to move for a few moments after the collision. Everything before his eyes, trees, castle walls, and sky, blended together into one big gray blob that shook violently back and forth. He tried to scramble to his feet, but every direction seemed to be up. Suddenly, his senses were cleared somewhat by an enormous thud somewhere in the distance, and he was able to get on his feet, albeit somewhat shakily.
As Sora rubbed his eyes and looked around, he noticed that the hedge which had intercepted his flight was actually Kairi. She lay face-up on the grass, chest heaving up and down, her mouth frozen open in a silent scream of terror. “Kairi!” yelled an alarmed Sora as he flung himself back on the ground and knelt over her prostrate body. “Are you okay?”
Kairi’s eyes moved slowly, scanning everything in front of her until they rested on Sora’s face, wrinkled in concern. As if this sight gave her strength, she pushed herself into a sitting position, though it seemed to require a great deal of effort. The girl was trembling so violently that she would have immediately fallen back down had Sora not grabbed hold of her upper arm. “S-Sora?” she whispered. “I thought you were dead…”
“No, I’m fine!” said Sora cheerfully, but even as he comforted her, he couldn’t help wondering how he had escaped that fate. How had gotten away from that deadly missile? He knew very well that he wasn’t agile enough to duck instinctively out of the way on his own. And even if he had, such an action shouldn’t propel him fifty feet backwards directly into his friend.
While he was pondering this quandary, Kairi was making a speedy recovery, and she was soon able to rise to her feet without any aid from her supporter. Sora got up as well, and suddenly noticed that Riku, Donald, and Goofy were all staring at them with identical agape mouths. “What…what the hell just happened?” asked Riku, echoing Sora’s thoughts perfectly.
“I have no clue,” admitted Sora, holding tightly onto Kairi’s arm, even though she clearly no longer needed his help. “I just ran over to kill that Heartless, and suddenly this spear appeared out of nowhere and…wait a minute…what happened to the spear?”
It abruptly dawned on all of them that this question was a much more pressing matter than whatever had happened a few minutes ago. It didn’t take long for Sora’s eyes, wandering the border of the courtyard, to find the spear, or what part of it was visible. Its shining silver head had buried itself completely in the marble wall of the castle, leaving only the wooden handle, still shaking wildly from the impact.
Sora summoned his keyblade approached the weapon cautiously, staring in awe at the quivering staff. Even though he couldn’t see the spearhead, it had to be gigantic, based on the thickness of the handle. Had that thing struck him at that speed, it would have easily passed right through his chest and still reached the wall. Whoever had thrown it had to possess incredible strength beyond anything he had ever encountered.
Suddenly, there was a loud twang, like the snap of a bowstring. This was all it took to arouse Sora to his common sense; he had just unwittingly walked right into the pathway along which the spear had traveled. He didn’t need to hear Kairi’s scream to realize he had just wandered into another trap, though she cordially chimed in with this sound effect. He leapt backward just as a second humongous spear, identical to the first one, careened through the air and stuck into the marble face next to its twin. Sora was ready this time…or at least, he thought he was. Nothing could have really prepared him for what he saw when he spun around and prepared to charge at his enemy.
Instead of the huge, muscular man Sora had expected, He found himself staring down the barrel of an enormous crossbow. The thing was positively massive, at least twenty feet long, with a string that could easily circle the perimeter of his bedroom. It was mounted on a cart, bigger than the grand dining table he had eaten at that morning, equipped with a mechanical crane of some sort that was automatically loading yet another spear into the bow. Sora was still gaping at this incredible contraption as it discharged its ammunition, and he once again barely had time to dive out of the way as it whooshed past and embedded itself into the wall.
“What the hell is that thing?” asked an incredulous voice behind him. Riku had rushed to his side in alarm when the second spear had flown past, and now he stared at the thing in front of them with the same awe that had nearly gotten Sora killed seconds before.
“It’s a crossbow,” said Sora simply. “A really big crossbow.” He was too busy pondering other questions to give a more sophisticated answer, such as how this thing had ended up in the middle of the courtyard.
“Well,” said Riku, still gazing at the gigantic weapon. Neither of them said anything else for several moments, both trying to figure out the best course of actions. Then Riku spoke again. “I’d assume that there’s someone…controlling it. So…should we figure out who that is?”
“Yeah, great idea!” exclaimed Sora, glad that Riku had provided him with something to besides standing there, a sitting duck, begging to be shot at again. Now he stepped forward, sizing up his heavy wooden adversary. “Who are you?” he called in a commanding voice.
Twang. A fourth spear flew from the weapon’s barrel directly at Sora, but he was prepared this time. He dropped to the ground and deftly rolled to the side, popping back up unharmed. “I said, who are you?” he challenged again, finally began to feel as bold as he sounded.
A hemispherical hatch, made of blackened metal unlike the solid wood of the rest of the contraption, swung open from halfway down the crossbow’s barrel. Out popped the head and torso of the scrawny man in a black robe, laughing hysterically as he stared at the two friends on the ground. “Har har, scallywags!” he yelled in a raspy voice that sounded distinctly unauthentic. “I come to kill you!”
However surprised Sora had been to see a siege weapon in the castle, it was nothing compared to the astonishment he felt at seeing its operator. He had a deeply wrinkled face, sporting a black eye patch covering his right eye. A few strands of black hair fell from his scalp, which was mostly covered by a bandana emblazoned with a skull and crossbones. Had Sora not been in a position where this man could easily kill him at any moment, he would have laughed out loud. The guy looked like a child dressed as a pirate at a Halloween party. He looked back at Riku, who stared back at him with equal incredulity. “Um…what now?” he asked, scratching his head. It was a perfectly valid question: how does one go about fighting a man playing dress-up, sitting in the cockpit of a deadly weapon?
Before Riku could answer, both were jolted back to reality by another twang. They simultaneously dropped to the ground as another spear passed over them. ‘I need to collect myself!’ thought Sora. As bizarre a situation this was, he was going to get skewered if he didn’t keep his wits about him. So he jumped to his feet and faced his enemy again. “C’mon, tell us, who are you?” he asked again, trying to pretend that he wasn’t talking to a maniacal pirate.
Unfortunately, the man completely smashed Sora’s efforts with his response. “Call me Blackbeard!” he said, in the same gruff, artificial voice. “And I presume you two maggots are Sora and Riku, the two my master told me about! Am I right?”
“Your master?” asked Riku fiercely. He, at least, seemed to have gotten a grip on himself. Sora was still struggling to keep a straight face. “Who is that?”
“I take that as a yes, then,” said Blackbeard, ignoring Riku’s question. “In that case, prepare to die, you filthy maggots!” He disappeared from view, the hatch slamming over his head, as the mechanical crane began loading another projectile into the barrel.
“Well,” said Riku, shouldering his keyblade, “this should be easy.”
“I guess,” replied Sora, though his opinion on the matter was much different. It was going to be hard to fight when he continually felt the urge to break out into laughter. But nonetheless, he had to try.
“Then let’s do it!” screamed Riku as he rushed forward. Taking the cue, Sora followed him, charging down the path at the looming crossbow just as it unleashed another spear right at them.
If you guys don't understand what happened, too bad. I don't either.
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