Fan Fiction ❯ Black Orchid ❯ Garn and the Firestone ( Chapter 19 )

Ach: I thought I would post this yesterday… but the fates would not have it… oh well… And, my church drama is tomorrow! Yay! "The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ as told through the music of the 80s" woohoo… and I'm helping Katie-san on her story… otherwise known as Nekodoshi… READ HER FIC! "Nakineiri Itami". It's VERYVERYVERY GOOOD!

And… my second thought, which I meant to bring up last chapter… why are people convinced Eriks is evil? I mean, all he did was kill Hades… and Sora used to beat up on Hades all the time… and… he DID use a holy move… but then again, I intend to turn my reader's perception of light and dark upside down… mwahahahahaha... makes me laugh at all those fics who's summaries are along the lines of "oh no! darkness! Light save us!"

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"I think he does mean the Heartless," said Arc dryly, viewing the scene before him. The gorilla they had seen earlier was now surrounded by Heartless, though these were of a different type. These seem to have taken to their surroundings, as they now resembled monkeys, some bluish gray and aggressive looking, others yellow and hopping around, brandishing slingshots in a way that would have been menacing if it hadn't been so comical. Despite the sense it made for their new form, several green mage Heartless were flying around, ready to provide support to the others. "I feel demeaned, having to fight these…"

"Terk!" said Tarzan, bounding out of the tent and towards the mass of Heartless. Waving his crude, but proven sturdy spear, he crashed into the shadowy mob.

"Demeaned or not, let's help!" said Orchid, charging in after him. Shrugging, Montblanc and Arc joined in. Orchid led off by casting Demi on several of the Heartless, then unleashing salvos of fireballs, freezing winds, torrents of water, and bolts of lightning. She had found that, true to its name, Spellweaver gave her plenty of power to cast spells with. Before, casting this many spells would leave her gasping for air on the ground, but now she merely felt exhilarated by the rushing energy. It wasn't long before the four of them had cleared out the Heartless.

The trio stood by as Tarzan talked with the shaken gorilla in their grunting, undecipherable language. After a few minutes, they finished, and the gorilla loped back into the safety of the tent.

"So, what happened, kupo?" asked Montblanc, walking over to the hunched over man.

"Terk says… the shadows… attacking gorillas," explained Tarzan. With that, he ran out of the camp, obviously expecting them to follow. The trio quickly ran after him.

-!-

"So… izat the last of them?" asked Arc, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his left. He had long since abandoned his white trench coat, and thanks to the jungle heat, his black shirt was plastered to his well-built body with sweat.

"Here… at least," panted Orchid, her white tank top clinging to her similarly, having left her sweatshirt and sleeves in the tent with Arc's coat when they had passed through again, having gone in one direction, up the vines and through the trees, even back to the tree house, and now had come back through the camp and left in the other direction. They had just finished off a group of Heartless surrounding a gorilla in a dead end area surrounded by cliffs. She sat down on a ledge that Montblanc had been standing on. She was exhausted from the constant fighting, as was the moogle and Arc. As much as he was fueled to keep fighting for his primate family, Tarzan was also looking tired, but nonetheless wary.

"Danger," he muttered, sniffing the air. He turned quickly at the sound of rustling leaves. He cried, "Sabor!"

The angry jungle cat leapt out of the foliage, barreling into the spear-wielding jungle man. Knocked on his back, Tarzan shoved with his spear, sending the jaguar flying over him to land amidst the trio. Sabor leapt at Arc and left a nasty set of claw marks across his chest, shredding his black shirt in the process, before he could respond then leapt away. Montblanc did his best to hit the cat with magic, but it was too agile and dodged easily out of the way. Tarzan attempted to strike it with his spear, but it dodged away from him, only to come face to face with Orchid's hand. And the fireball therein.

"Fire!" yelled Orchid, letting Sabor take it full on in the face. The savage cat was sent sprawling, clawing at its scorched fur. While it was occupied with this, Montblanc and Arc both took the opportunity to close in on it, and by the time it was on its feet again, they were close enough to unleash their attacks. Sabor quickly ran from between them, but not before tasting lighting and stone. Tarzan leapt, and brought his spear down hard on the cat's skull, knocking it down. He stood over it menacingly and stared, as if daring it to strike back. Sabor stared back, then looked away, and then ran for its life.

"What is that cat's deal?" asked Orchid. She didn't have time to contemplate this, because they heard a scream. A human scream.

"Jane!" they all yelled. The three turned to go back to the camp, but Tarzan was already far ahead of them. What he found was a disaster.

The tents had been knocked over and left in a jumble of canvas and stakes. Tables had been overturned, and books and research papers where scattered everywhere. Crates had been smashed, spilling their contents across the ground. There was no sign of anybody, except for a trail of black spots, looking like drippings from a shadow.

'Or a Heartless,' Orchid thought to herself as she surveyed the wreckage. Walking over, she stuck her finger into one of the puddles of darkness. Straightening up, she rubbed it between thumb and forefinger; it was slick, like oil, and cold to the touch, sapping the heat from her hand. She wiped it off before looking up again.

"I guess we follow these, kupo," said Montblanc, who was also looking at the dark markings and poking them suspiciously with his rod. The four of them followed the trail of shadow and destruction out of the camp, through a lagoon of lazy hippopotami, and up a vine, now slick with oozing darkness. When they got to the top, they were high among the branches. Looking around, they could occasionally see scared gorillas peeking out from among the leaves.

"They are… scared," said Tarzan. "They do not like… shadow. Danger… to heart."

They walked quietly among the branches, their silence caused by the lack of noise in the forest. No birds called, nor did any monkeys chatter. All was still. The jungle was afraid.

They came to a vine crawling up a tree. Tarzan motioned upwards, then quickly began his ascent up the tree, using the vine as his ladder. The trio quickly followed.

When they got to the top, they were in a sort of natural room around the trunk, walled in by dense foliage and branches, but hollow and spacious here. They saw a large hulking dark figure walking away from them, carrying a struggling form under one humongous arm.

"So… you're here," he said, stopping. He threw Jane roughly to one side, where she crashed into a solid looking branch and slumped to the floor.

"Jane!" yelled Tarzan, leaping towards her now unconscious form. One monstrous arm swung out and slammed into him, sending him flying back towards where the other three stood. The behemoth of a person turned around to face them.

He was huge and towered above them, despite being hunched over. His frame was enormous and sturdy, and his arms were thick as logs, his hands even bigger than Arc's single stone gauntlet. His hulking posture left his hands near to the ground, similar to Tarzan, but much more gargantuan and ground smashing looking rather than agile lolloping. He was the embodiment of "brute force".

He stared at them, bottom half and left side of his face covered in darkness, the eye a Heartless yellow orb. His dirty hair above his blocky, chiseled jaw was wild and matted, looking close to an animal's fur. He was dressed in a patchwork of shaggy clothes and plates of metal.

"What are you? A Heartless?" asked Orchid, unnerved by the man, or what she assumed had once been one.

"Not… a Heartless," said the man, although he didn't sound quite sure of himself. "I am… Garn."

"I don't care what you are, but you're on the wrong side," growled Arc, pointing out the monkey-like Heartless that had formed around the man, and were obviously on his side. He took a fighting stance and pushed up his yellow shades.

"Elias… said to kill the one that holds…that," rumbled Garn, pointing at Spellweaver, which Orchid was now holding defensively in her hands.

"You… won't hurt … friends!" shouted Tarzan. He launched himself at the hulking man and was followed in his charge by Orchid. Montblanc busied himself with destroying the Heartless that appeared, with Arc's help.

This time, Tarzan was ready for Garn's swinging arm, and instead of striking it he latched on with his free arm and both legs, then began climbing up it towards him, trying his best not to be shaken off. While Garn was distracted like this, Orchid took this chance to jump and lunge up at the towering man's chest, her keyblade striking him hard in the center. Bellowing in rage, Garn brought his free arm around and grabbed Orchid in one humongous hand.

"He…lp…" she managed to gasp, his hand slowly crushing her body.

"Let go of her!" shouted Arc as he came crashing down on the titanic man's head, his tinted lenses glinting dangerously. Struck square in the face by the stone gauntlet, Garn released his hold on Orchid, but in his stumbling, he also managed to smash both Tarzan and Arc into some of the many branches around them.

"Thunder!" yelled Montblanc, raising his rod aloft. Bolts of lightening came crashing through the canopy, finding home along Garn's arms and shoulders. The smell of burnt ozone filled the treetop coliseum. Roaring his defiance, Garn began lumbering towards Montblanc, a sight as huge and unstoppable as a glacier.

"Oh, no you don't!" yelled Orchid, who he had forgotten in his rage. She pointed Spellweaver at the hulking colossus's back. "Demi!"

A black sphere of magic formed around Garn, distorting his form, and further morphing his image as it flattened and crushed him flat as a drawing upon the leafy ground of the canopy room. Then the spell was done, and he sprung back up like an unwanted weed, though it was obvious to see that he was heavily weakened by it.

He let out another bellowing roar as Tarzan's spear stabbed into his back through a gap in his mismatched armor. Hanging on as the behemoth of a man raged about wildly, he twisted and pushed the spear in farther, but Garn wouldn't die. He continued to flail and fight, even as blazing salvos of fire struck him and blows rained down on him on all sides.

"How can we beat him?" asked Orchid, as she found herself slammed into a thick branch once again. She was at the brink of exhaustion, and she could see her companions were nearing the same. Then something happened. By chance, a plate of armor on Garn's chest was knocked loose by Arc. "That mark!"

The Heartless symbol, though only partially complete, was imprinted upon Garn's shadow darkened chest.

Reap when the time is ripe! Destroy the taint!

The voice from eternity.

"Take this!" yelled Orchid, plunging the keyblade into the Heartless emblem. It stuck, and was pulled out of her hands as Garn stumbled back, mortally wounded. Rays of light shot out from between patches of his patchwork dress of furs and armor, and the Heartless like side of his face burst apart in the torrent of light. Suddenly, he exploded into inky black particles, all of which were siphoned back into the Spellweaver. The keyblade hung for a moment in the air where Garn once was, then fell to the leafy floor.

"Jane!" cried Tarzan, rushing over to the fallen woman. She groaned and stirred a little, but didn't wake up.

"She'll be okay, kupo," said Montblanc. He walked over, and waved his wand over the two of them. "Cure."

Meanwhile, Orchid had picked up Spellweaver again. She could feel it twitching in her hand.

"It's close isn't it?" she asked softly as Arc walked up to her.

"What is?" he questioned.

"The keyhole." With that, she spun on her heel and pointed the keyblade at the trunk of the tree which branches they stood among. A ray of light shot out and struck it, and slowly, the moss and lichen that covered the tree peeled away, revealing a keyhole. There was an omnipresent click, and then the keyhole was gone.

"Thank…you," said Tarzan, as Orchid walked over to him and Jane. "Have…this."

He dropped something into her hand. Upon inspection, it appeared to be a small metal cage on a chain, its insides dark. When she held it up to the light, none shone through its bars; it seemed to contain darkness itself.

"Where did you get this from, kupo?" asked Montblanc staring at it.

"Up," Tarzan responded simply.

"It… must have come when the barriers fell again, huh?" asked Orchid. Tarzan merely nodded. "But… what is it?"

"It's a key chain, kupo," said Montblanc. Seeing Orchid's doubtful look, he reached over and replaced Spellweaver's key chain with the new one. The change was immediate.

The vine hand guards turned black, and spiky rose-thorns sprung from them at random intervals. The same happened to the handle and haft. The spiral vine blade was replaced with a large ivy-like leaf, also black, but with shimmering silver-gray speckles in it. The keyblade pulsed darkly, almost radiating purple-black light.

"This blade… is Poison Ivy," said Orchid, her eyes distant. She pointed it at a nearby flower that was budding on the ground from a vine. "Poison."

A globule of green sickliness formed around the black bud and burst like a murky bubble in a swamp. She watched as the flower wilted and died.

"This blade… gives me new abilities… but I lost Demi… and Spellweaver's magic. But I do have power."

To prove this, she swung Poison Ivy at a nearby branch, as thick around as her leg, and sliced through with incredible ease.

"That's really kupo!" exclaimed Montblanc.

"Huh? Oh," said Orchid, shaking her head, as if trying to clear it. Then she looked up again. "Well, let's get Jane back to the tent."

Tarzan nodded and grabbed Jane, then jumped down the hole they came in through. Montblanc went after him, and Orchid followed, pausing only to turn back to Arc, who was looking at the tree trunk.

"Come on, Arc, let's go!" she shouted, then ducked out of sight as she climbed down. He still just stood there.

"But something dropped out…" he trailed off. He finally found it. At the base of the trunk, hidden among the leaves and debris, was a glowing red gem. Walking over, he could have sworn he saw flames flickering in it. As he reached down to pick it up, there was flaring inferno before him, and a voice like a fiery demon.

"RELEASE ME."

And then it was gone. He picked up the flickering gem and looked at it. It was smooth and round, like a pebble from a stream, though it was a clear red, like a ruby, with orange and yellow streaks through it. They looked to him like they moved, though it could have been a trick of the light.

"Arc! Hurry it up, Stonehenge!" came the yell from below. He pocketed the gem quickly and went down to them.

-!-!-!-

"So… Garn has fallen," said Elias, staring at the three figures around the table.

"I never liked him anyways," said the thin man with the wheedling voice. He was currently juggling several sabers in the gloom.

"You never like anyone," said the one with flowing white hair, his refined voice cutting the silence perfectly, "and nobody likes you."

"It matters not," said Elias, turning from them. "They shall soon face one of Ansem's leftover pets."

"Will it stop them?" asked the druid-like man, crossing his thick arms.

"Perhaps…perhaps not…we shall see."