Author: Stormforce Early the next morning once everyone had showered, dressed, and ate, the group entered the First District and teleported to the ship. No one had really said a word as the ship sped through space toward its destination, and the only sound on the bridge was the sound of weapons being sharpened. Buffy and her two twins were up front near the pilots seat, the Al Bhed had taken her daggers and was currently sharpening them on her whet rock as the auto-pilot took them toward Hollow Bastion. Buffy number two had taken her nunchaku and was currently practicing with them, and the third Buffy had been given a set of Buffy's daggers, and had gladly taken the sword Willow had offered. After handing Buffy number three a sword, Willow had taken down another and handed it to her twin, and nodded when the newly darkness free twin cocked her head, "Go on, you're gonna need it." she had said and grinned when the twin had taken it and began swinging it around like a pro. The other Willow had strapped her Shooting Star Blaster Edge weapon to her left wrist, and began sharpening the pinwheel-like blade. Willow eyed the weapon and quirked her eyebrows in surprise when her twin sliced a piece of steel pipe in two, "Wow...that's sharp." "Yeah!" The twin agreed with a grin. "Umm...do me a favor, please don't aim that anywhere near me...unless you really have to, okay?" The twin shrugged, "Sure, no problem...and why is it you're sayin' the same thing as Buffy did when we had our first battle together?" "Because she doesn't want her head cut off, that's why!" Buffy number two smirked, and bolted before the redhead could reach her. Willow watched her twin chase Buffy's around the bridge and chuckled, "Anyone else need a weapon?" she asked taking her own sword from the storage closet and glanced over her shoulder to see the negative responses of the others. "Well, I guess..." Willow whispered picking up one of Xander's Blitzballs, "Damn, how could he forget this?" she shook her head and sat the ball on the top shelf before closing the door. Clay watched Willow shut the door before going back to sharpening her Gunblade, and loading the revolver with the strongest ammo she had- armor piercing rounds Xander had given her the day before their world was attacked. The two princesses sat beside Tara and Faith, making a four person circle, and meditated to gather their energy. Donald and Goofy sat across from the meditating girls and watched as their bodies glowed white and glanced at one another. With the power those four girls were gathering they had no need to worry about healing, and knew if Faith used her power the Heartless would be nothing more than a black oily stain on the ground. Goofy watched Tara glow the brightest for a moment before the light dimmed down to match the other's, turning his head toward Donald he saw the duck stare wide eyed at the ex-summoner. Donald glanced around the bridge and shook his head when no one else had noticed the surge of power, only he and Goofy, and it was then they began to wonder exactly what Tara's power would be like when she finally used it. Would it be just as strong as Willow, Buffy and Faith's, or would it be stronger? If Donald was a betting duck, he'd bet that Tara's power would make the other's power look like nothing more than a weak Ultima spell. Just like Donald, Willow had began thinking about their powers, which had lead her to thinking about Tara's. The redhead knew that Tara was much more powerful than she and their group, simply because she had once been a summoner, and if their most powerful spell demolished the Heartless then what would Tara's do? Willow didn't show it, but she was worried. "Heads up!" Buffy called from the pilots seat, "We're getting a distress signal from the Olympus Coliseum." "Can you tell what's going on?" Clay stepped behind the Al Bhed to view the world. Buffy shook her head, "No, only that something big is going down, and it seems Hercules needs some help." "Then lets go." Faith smirked, ready to get in a good warm up before getting to Hollow Bastion. The entire group teleported into the Coliseum only to see hundreds of Heartless of all kinds chasing men, women and children -trying to kill them. The door leading into the fighting ring burst open allowing Phil to run out, and toward them, "Hey! Herc needs help he can't hold them all off!" he shouted dodging a soldier. "We'll take care of these out here, you go inside and see what you can do!" Clay unsheathed her Gunblade. "I will stay here and help." Princess Faith spoke and backed away from the fighting, not because she was afraid, but because she knew her healing spells would be needed. Entering the ring the group stopped dead still and stared, there were just as many if not more Heartless inside, and Hercules was having trouble destroying them all. With a battle cry Willow and Buffy's twins jumped forward, quickly slicing two soldiers in half, and was moving forward once the Heartless had disappeared. The two twins fought their way to Hercules where they helped the young half-god with group after group of advancing Heartless. Willow nodded to Buffy, and just like their twins, shot forward just as a Thunder spell, and Flare spell exploded in the center of at least fifteen Heartless. Willow back flipped avoiding the poison claws of a soldier, and watched as Buffy beheaded the creature before she herself cut another in half. A sharp burning pain shot through the redhead's leg and up to her stomach, turning she saw a Heartless Shadow standing behind her, his claws dripping blood from digging into her leg. With a growl Willow swung her blade down, cutting the creature in half, before sliding away from two more Shadows, and backing away toward the left side of the ring as more and more Heartless grouped up on her. Buffy ducked, causing a soldier to fly over her head, and into a group of shadows, rising quickly, she turned, raising her leg up, and bringing it down in a Axe kick. Jumping into the air the Al Bhed spun around double kicking one of the larger Heartless before landing, and side flipping away. Her pain filled whimper couldn't be heard over the fighting but the long, deep claw marks could clearly be seen oozing blood as Buffy stumbled toward the right side of the ring -with the Heartless following closely. Donald had kept casting Thundaga, Blizzaga, and Aeroga spells on either the Heartless or the group, and the duck was beginning to tire out, but grabbed an Either and kept going. While the Either replenished his MP, Goofy had begun to spin, and shot forward, extending his shield outward, and hitting the Shadows, and Soldiers. Once his attack was finished, Goofy jumped into the air, and landed next to Tara -who at that point was fighting off two Soldiers, and a Shadow. The ex-summoner jumped back to avoid an attack, and thanked Goofy when he destroyed the three enemies for her. Concentrating, Tara summoned Dumbo, and hopped onto his back when the baby elephant appeared. Dumbo began spraying the Heartless as he flew overhead, while Tara began casting Ultima spells on the flying Heartless. Princess Tara began to cast healing spells as soon as she saw any blood on the girls, she caught site of Willow limping away from the Heartless and cast Cura. The princess then turned and saw the blood oozing out of the claw marks, and cast another Cura. Hearing her lover scream princess Tara spun around, and saw her Willow holding her stomach, the princess hurriedly cast a Curaga spell, with another following when the second Buffy fell to her knees from a large gash in her chest. Faith side flipped bringing her blade down in the center of seven Shadows, and smirked when the creatures either disappeared, or were thrown back. Spinning around, she caught two Soldiers, and one of those Dark Ball enemies from Hollow Bastion, knocking them back, and into the arena seats. Faith never saw the flying Heartless nose-diving toward her, until it hit, sending her flying back and into a group of Pot Spiders. With an enraged scream she stood, spun around extending her blade, and destroyed each one of the spiders with a single hit. The area went silent, the Heartless frozen in place, staring at two floating young women on either side of the arena. Willow and Buffy had seen no other way, and had called upon their strongest powers, and were now about to deal the Heartless some pain. Faith spun around, raced toward Tara, and tackled her to the ground as her lover and Willow shouted out the name of their strongest powers, "Ultima!" echoed across the arena and was soon joined by, "Vortex!" Outside Clay's group was having just as much trouble with the Heartless as the others inside, so much in fact that she'd lost count of the groups she had taken out with her Gunblade. Not to mention the magic she'd cast in-between slashes of her sharp-as-a-razor-Gunblade. At least the SeeD didn't have to worry about healing spells, seeing as how the princess was currently taking care of that. The start of the battle had been easy enough, but as time passed more and more groups of at least fifteen Heartless kept appearing, and Clay didn't know how long she or the others could keep the fighting up. Willow had let her Shooting Star fly through the air, severing the heads of three Shadows, and cutting four Soldiers in half, before jumping back to avoid two Dark Ball's. The redhead ducked as the two enemies flew over her head, and the rose as she cast a Holy spell. The spell exploded, killing one of the Dark Balls and wounding the other, Willow side stepped as the ball just barely missed knocking her to the ground, and met Buffy's nunchaku. Willow grinned, spun around, and jumped into the air as two soldiers tried to tackle her, and let her disk fly once more. A soldier flew back and into a group of five shadows when a pair of nunchaku connected with its head, Buffy smirked and roundhouse kicked another. Crouching down the blonde kicked out her right leg and swept two shadows to the ground before quickly bringing her weapon down on their heads. Buffy stood and turned in time to allow her nunchaku to meet a Dark Ball from behind, and smirked at Willow before back flipping away from a Pot Spider. Two screams of pain filled the area causing princess Faith to turn and see Clay holding a stomach wound, and Faith bent over with deep claw marks in her chest. The princess glowed white for a moment before she cast two Curaga spells, healing both girls. Princess Faith raised her dress enough to allow room to bring her leg up, and kicked a soldier away from her. "That's it!" Clay shouted as she began glowing blue, "Shiva!" she once more shouted as the air around her began to cool at a rapid pace, and froze a shadow. The beautiful Guardian Force with blue hair and skin spun in the air encased in a block of ice, once the ice touched the ground it exploded and Shiva glanced around, "Freeze them." Clay spoke and received a nod. Shiva raised her hands as they began glowing light blue and gathered the coldness around her. The Guardian Force twirled once and quickly brought her hands down as a stream of ice shot forward -freezing the Heartless. Shiva stood for a moment regarding her handy work and smiled, "Might I suggest you use the Brothers to finish them off quickly." "Thank you, Shiva, and I was thinking the same thing." Clay grinned and watched the GF disappear in a swirl of ice, "Faith, if you would, please." "My pleasure." The dark haired girl smirked, and nodded just as she began glowing a dark blue. The ground in front of her exploded as the two minotaur brothers appeared, "Destroy them." Faith grinned as the two brothers nodded, and watched as they both sunk their hands into the ground and lifted up. The chunk of Earth flew into the air as the brothers began playing a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. The oldest brother's jaw hit the ground when he lost, and was tossed into the air by his much larger younger brother. As the minotaur hit the falling earth it exploded, shattering the frozen Heartless with it. Once the oldest was back on the ground it appeared as if the earth had never been ripped up, "Thanks guys." "No problem." The youngest said, and disappeared back into the earth with his older brother following. For just a few moments the group stood and waited, when no more Heartless appeared everyone heaved a sigh of relief -that is until they heard Willow and Buffy shouts drift outside, "C'mon, lets go!" Clay ordered as she ran forward, entered the arena doors and ran into the arena where she stopped dead still at seeing the two girls floating in the air. "Whoa!" Buffy stared wide eyed at the other and then looked over to the floating Willow, "What the hell is going on?" "Get down!" Faith shouted having dragged Tara and the princess up into the top section of the bleachers, right along with Donald, Goofy, Hercules, and the other Buffy and Willow. At her shout Clay's group hurried to the top section just in time to turn around and watch the show. Just as in Traverse Town everything went dead silent, just before the wind picked up and began blowing, and the area exploded. On Buffy's side a swirling vortex of wind had picked up the Heartless and at the moment was spinning them around and started shrinking. The Heartless began disappearing with a loud 'pop' just as the vortex exploded. "Well...damn!" Willow number three whistled and blinked before glancing at Clay, "That was powerful." "But is it powerful enough?" A deep male voice asked from behind the group, turning they saw a six-foot tall young man with white-silver hair nearly touching the ground standing on the arena wall. Faith narrowed her eyes not liking the feeling she was getting from the man, "Who in hellfire are you?" "I am Sephiroth." He said and smirked, "Those girls are powerful, but it seems to me they can barely control it." Sephiroth looked down into the arena where both Willow and Buffy were having trouble standing. Tara had no need to stand and listen to the man talk, she needed to go help her wife, and saw Faith following to help Buffy, "What's it to you?" Willow number three asked gripping her sword. Sephiroth grinned, looking the girls over just as a scream drifted into the arena, "Herc! The Heartless are attacking the city!" Phil ran into the arena and motioned the half-god toward the door, "C'mon, they need their hero!" "Go." Clay nodded, "We can take care of anything else here." she said and watched Hercules follow Phil, "Now, what is it that you want?" "Well, I was wondering if your little group could defeat my friend." Sephiroth smirked raising his hand. A stream of energy shot out of his palm toward the center of the arena where a large portal began opening. Tara and Faith had helped Willow and Buffy into the stands just as a large foot hit the ground causing an earthquake-like shaking throughout the area. Turning, the group watched as more, and more of a large creature appeared until all forty-seven feet towered over them. The creature was clear blue in color, and chiseled to look as if it'd been cut out and fused together, glowing reddish-green eyes glared at the group as the monster stepped forward -once more shaking the ground, and causing everyone to fall to their knees, "Meet my friend the Ice Titan." |