Chapter 2 - Random Chatter of the Sun Burned 14 year old.

Chapter 2
I woke up to a cool hand in my forehead. I groaned at the massive migraine. I couldn’t remember what happened. For some reason I thought I was camping. That would explain the headache.
“Max. Maxile. Are you ok?” Someone’s voice said. I thought about the voice real hard then it clicked who it was.
“I’m fine Mas. Killer head ache though,” I said. I groaned as she shifted my head a bit. Then she had both her hands on my head, one on the front, one on the side and over my ear. I heard her whisper something, probably Cura, when a jolt of something cool runs through my head. I sighed as my headache faded completely. “Much better. Thank you so much,” I opened my eyes and winced at the sun. It was almost gone now, but enough to disturb my still sensitive eyes. All the people that had been watching earlier had vanished. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe my brother wouldn’t hear about this after all.
“Finally you wake up. You’ve been out for a half hour. How could you have missed that chain? I mean seriously.” Mas was laughing. One of the many reasons I love Mas is how adept at healing she is. I can take on three people at once, all my Lvl. and as long as she’s with me, I’ll either win, or last a heck of a lot longer than most. Her midnight hair was tied back into a ponytail, and her blue eyes were crinkled into a smile.
“I don’t know. Ask her. She’s the one who did it,” I retorted. It was still confusing to me. I should have been more alert. Speaking of which, I was missing Joymaker. This was panic time for me. I instantly called to it; like I’d seen my brother and instructors do all my life. I felt the usual pull that came before it chinked into my hands. But then the pull stopped.
“I’m not done looking at it!!” I heard someone behind me yell. My stomach dropped out (again. Geeze. I’m gonna have to go to the doctor soon) as I connected the voice to an image in my head. Teeth glinting in a higher sun. I tried spinning around, but realized I was still sitting. What resulted was a kind of flop that made all three of my friends start laughing. There was a forth laugh too. Sophie’s. I glared at Mas until she offered her hand to me. She pulled me up and led me over to the group holding my Blade hostage. It was lying across Sophie lap, and she was inspecting it with a look of approval.
“Your brothers work?” She asked, not even bothering to look up.
“Mmhmm. I’m pretty sure he won’t like you looking at it either. The ownership clause should have kicked in by now,” I said with what I hoped was acid. It didn’t work very well I guess because she just snorted.
Sosh flashed me a grin and said, “She’s cool. I disabled the ownership clause. She says she’s never seen anything like it,” One of the things I hate is when the girls talk like they knew everything about the other chick. But Sosh was an excellent judge of character. If she trusted this bimbo, I guess I’d have to come up with another name for her. Brainless? Idiot? Vicious? Don’t worry. Nicer names will come when my pride heals.
Sophie looked up and stared at me. I was shocked at how different she looked. Her hair was almost brunette now, with only a few blonde highlights. It was the jagged, raw look that a lot of the college kids favored these days. I liked it.
I raised my eyebrows and stared back. She just grinned and said, “You really do look like your brother. Even pout like him too. Has he told you about the time I snapped one of his sticks?” My eyebrows shot up as I took in this information. My brother’s drumsticks, like the rest of our keyblades, were immensely strong. They were infused with energy directly from our hearts. This is what bound them to us. Someone had to be incredibly strong to oven dent one.
“No! I was wondering what happened. He walked around like a whipped dog for a week.” I said. A second too late, I realized how this exchange would sound from the outside from the outside. All three girls burst out laughing. I rolled my eyes and asked Sophie “So what do you think of Joymaker? Pretty cool huh?” She nodded and tried to pluck one of the strings and snapped her hand back as it snapped her. I grinned and said, “He bound it to me well I guess.”
“I’ll say,” Sophie said in a more business like tone. She handed it back to me and said, “Don’t the strings get in the way when you need to use two hands?” She looked genuinely interested. I felt myself open to her a little bit.
“Yah. You have no idea. That’s why I’m trying to work with a splitter. I’m hoping that’ll compensate.” I tried not to ramble. I suddenly was aware of the other conversation that the girls were having. Boys. Ugh. They say us guys are focused on one thing. But look at them.
“Where is that splitter you were using? I missed where it went after I conked you out. J” I swear I could hear the smiley at the end of her sentence.
“I have it right here,” Shyel piped up. As usual, she had been quiet through the entire conversation. She probably knew the most about Blade out of all five of us. She was one of the three kids in my class who can actually make Blade. I don’t know how she does it, but she’s decked out because of it. People pay her for special orders. If she likes the design, she alters it to her taste and keeps one for herself. I’d say she’s the only one in our class I’d worry about fighting. She’s scary when you make her mad.
But she was mellow as she tossed the splitter to me. I reached up to catch it. Instead, it bounced behind me and Sosh ended up handing it back to me. She laughed and asked whether or not I’d recovered from the blow to my head. I felt her run her hands through my hair, and I shivered at the sensation. As usual, the healing had made me intensely sensitive. To everything.
“I’m fine. Does my head pass inspection?” I asked, a little annoyed. Sosh probably heard this in my voice, because she wrapped her arms around my neck and laid her head on my shoulder.
“Mmhmm. It’s fine,” She breathed in my ear. I swatted at her and complained that we were in public.
“Doesn’t usually stop you two,” Mas said flatly. She hated PDA almost as much as she hated homework. For all that don’t know her, that’s a lot. My other two friends laughed and agreed, but Sophie just had a slightly worried look on her face.
“Are you sure your heads ok? I probably shouldn’t have used an illusion to cloak my chain,” She said, actually sounding worried.
“So that’s what happened! That’s not fair!” I said loudly, acting like I as mad, but grinning the entire time. “But really, I’m fine. Fascamp’ll kill me if she finds out I backed down though,” I said, speaking the truth. “Think we have time for another round?” I looked up at the deepening sunset.
“If we set a time limit, yah,” She sounded like she’d rather not have to deal with limiting our battle. She seemed competitive, like me. For people like us, stopping a battle in the middle is like pulling teeth. You get the battle frenzy, but not the thrill and release of winning, or the absolute finality of losing. It probably better to lose than stop in the middle.
Shyel is amazing though. Her face lit up right after Sophie finished saying that, and she jumped up. “What about the keylight magic I just learned in Spec. Ed?” She said, practically dancing on the spot. Special Education is for the advanced kids, or the unusual kids. The kids who were shy and anti-social, and blew the roof off the gym when they hot pissed. Shyel is one of those kids. She loves her placement though. I don’t know how she can concentrate with all that power buzzing through the room.
“Yah. That’d work,” Mas said. She’s in Spec. too, but hers is because she doesn’t “play well with others” as she put s it. She was placed in it for first, third, and eighth hour after an “accident” that happened last year, when a couple of the hornier guys in my grade made a move on her. In my opinion, they look much better now. Even if they do still wince occasionally when they catch sight of themselves in the mirror.
“But, do you have a blade that would refract enough light for the entire field to be illuminated?” She questioned. I guess I looked confused, because she launched into a speech about the nature of light and how they needed to change it for the spell. It was delivered in a fashion that left me and Sosh with our mouths hanging open. Sophie looked up from something on her Com. and said, “I might have to leave early anyway. Fascamp wants me back for a report on the state of the park. And you.” She grinned evilly at me after the last part.
“Wait,” Sosh began, as Mas and Shyel babbled on in geek talk about the spell. “You said the note with the rules on it came from your Aunt. You’re related to Fascamp?” Sosh said, talking like she didn’t quite get it. When all the reply she got was a blank stare from Sophie, she continued, louder still. “You’re related to Fat @$$ Fascamp?”
Sophie just shrugged.
“Yah. I guess you could say that.”
All movement stopped as the news registered. Even Mas and Shyel broke off their conversation, as shocked as the rest of us.
When all we did was stare blankly at her, she threw her hands up in a funny sort of way. “Oh, come on. She’s not that bad,” She said, sounding exasperated. When three out of four eyebrows went up, she said, “Well. She’s been through a lot. She was a general, back when the Heartless invaded a long time ago.” She continued, naming one half of all of our worst nightmare.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~ Whoa!! Information Break~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

You see, outside Keylund (Our country, ‘case you haven’t figured that out) when you give in to the darkness in your heart, you become a Heartless. These little buggers are annoying and hard to kill. Actually, that was the whole point of Sora starting out on his quest, before he found out about Princess Kairi losing her heart. And, consequentially, his best friend Riku left to find said heart. Not all Heartless are evil, but most are. Only the ones like Sora’s heartless, and a handful of others hold onto their humanity.
The other half of our nightmare are the Nobodies. Well, think about it. What happens when your heart is consumed? Your body is left to rot. Most of the time. Sometimes though, more often lately, the body is animated and it becomes a Nobodie. These are just as bad as Heartless, but some hold onto their minds much more than Heartless do. There was even a whole Organization of them back in the day. They looked. Acted, thought and partied just like us. Except they were uber strong ad led hordes of Nobodies against King Mickey and his troops. It’s even rumored Sora’s Nobody was in it for a while. But who knows. Back to the present.

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~ Lets Do The Time Warp Again!!!*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

“Don’t even talk about that,” Mas said, shivering for all of us. Once again, Sosh moved closer to me. I moved into her too. The thought of hose monsters scared me to death. Losing your mind, and your life. Ugh.
“Well. It’s the reality,” She said in a serious tone. Then her Com. beeped and she looked at the screen with distaste. “So is the reality that I have to go. Can we meet up tomorrow for a rematch? I promise not to use any illusions,” She stated the last part with a goofy grin and a scouts salute.
I grinned and said “Sure. Do you need us to walk you to wherever?” By now it was quite dark, and there were a lot of creeps in Battle Park at night. Not all of them had the same recreational ideas as us, if you catch my drift.
Sophie appeared to think about it, then she smiled in a relived sort of way. “That’d be great. Thanks.” She went to get up, and kinda tripped. My arm snapped out to catch her, but I missed. She hit the ground with a thump and just kind of laid there. I seen Mas rub her hands together and whisper something when she didn’t move a second later. But her concern was unneeded. A second later, Sophie started laughing. It was high, hysterical kind of laugh. And it was contagious. Soon we were all giggling. When we’d calmed down, Sophie got up for real. She pulled Shyel up, who pulled up Mas, who helped up Sosh and me. We all turned towards the trail out of the clearing. It was really dark by that point, and getting cold. We had picked that clearing for a reason. It was out of the way, and we could practice out unusual magic with out as many people watching. Unless we were really loud. Oops. Heh.
It was also almost the farthest battle point from the entrance. Once again. Oops. We had to walk the entire half mile out. Dang.
When we’d walked far enough to lose sight of the clearing, I heard Mas ask Sophie where we were headed. “Faculty quarters. I can get home from there after I talk with Fascamp. Thanks again for walking me home you guys.” I couldn’t see much of her face on the dark, but she looked really pretty. Not B-E-A-U-tiful like Sosh, but pretty.
“No prob,” Mas said, play punching Sophie on the shoulder. “We’re heading that way anyway. We have to take our boy over here back to his dorm,” She jerked her head in my direction.
“Really? Why aren’t you just staying with your brother?” Sophie asked.
“He’s on assignment for the College. He’s doing some research off campus or something,” Sosh said. I told her everything. She knew my life as well as I did. At this point, we were holding hands and walking a little closer than necessary.
At this point, we left the flatness of the Bluffs that we usually battled on, and entered the forest part. This was the most beautiful part of Battle Park. And, of course, it was the most dangerous. The idiots who thought they were down and bad (wanksters of course) had laid claim of this area. It was mostly just yelling and screaming, banging your head on a tree and jumping up and down. But sometimes, especially when they’d had something to drink, they could make trouble. I heard someone trip, a scuffle and a curse word.
Then, “I’m ok,” Mas’s voice sounded out of the darkness. It was almost absolute. “Hey, Shyel. Now would be as good a time as any to test out that keylight. Huh?” She said. I heard Shyel stop, and we all followed suit. I heard Shyel muttering under her breath. “Too thick.. No, no. This isn’t strong enough..” She continued for a moment. Then, “Ahh. Here we are,” I heard a clink, and a snap. This would be her attaching whatever charm she’s picked out of her multitude and snapped it on her powder-blue Hilt. A moment for the Blade to form, and then a flash of light. We all blinked away spots, and there was Shyel, grinning with one of the most B-E-A-U-tiful Bladed I’ve ever seen. It was a clear crystal of some kind. It looked jagged, and the rip on the end was something like a lightning-bolt. The hand guard was the same jagged design, arching gracefully around her hand. “LightStriker” She whispered. The name. We were all kind dazed at the sight. It lit up the entire forest around us. But it also cast weird shadows allover.
I seemed to be the first to recover. I groaned and said, “How come you get something cool like LightStriker, and I get Joymaker. WTF?” I said, spelling out the IM language at the end. Shyel smiled big, and Sosh chuckled. Mas and Sophie were still staring at the Blade in Shell’s hands.
“Who commissioned you to make that?” I asked. Someone important, I’d guess.
“Dean Barnart, actually. He and Mistress Donner needed formal Blades. God knows why. They paid nicely for them though, so I’m not complaining.”
We started walking again and Mas kept tripping over her feet as she snuck glances at LightStriker. I will admit that it was an amazing sight. I was more concerned with how close I could get to Sosh without tripping her and being obvious to the others. Mas suddenly made this weird noise in the back of her throat. Like a gurgle that’s eating a word. It was funny, so I smiled.
Mas jumped in front of Shyel and asked, “Does that mean that your have another one like that?” she was practically drooling as she said it. She was walking backwards, and I was just waiting for her to trip.
Shyel sighed, clearly uncomfortable talking about this. Besides being shy and sometimes vicious (Given the right cercmonstances) she’s also incredibly modest. I’m guessing she didn’t want to go any farther with this conversation. But she answered Mas anyway. “Yes, I do. Gee,” She said, sounding sarcastic ”Would you like to see it?”
Mas giggled at an insane frequency, and me and Sosh just looked at each other. Unfortunately, because of the current amount of light, me and Sosh were walking even farther apart. Dang that Shyel. Oh well.
Shyel was trying to shuffle through the mass of Charms attached to her waste one-handed. Finally, she found what she was looking for. Pulling out a Charm that reminded me of the icicles we get in the winter sometimes, I was reminded that I didn’t have a clue what LightStriker’s Charm looked like. I snapped a quick glance at the end of it’s chain. Two lightning bolts, crossed. They looked as fragile as their Blade did. But I had a feeling that Shy had made the entire thing from something stronger than glass. I hoped anyway. It would be wicked to fight with something like that. Hehe. I can only imagine how sharp it would be.
Mas was chanting a stream of thanks you’s as Shyel rolled her eyes and tossed the charm to Mas. Sophie looked kind of overwhelmed by this whole exchange. I often hear people saying that we have more collective energy than any group of people should. We were missing our most energetic member at this point, but he comes later.
Mas stared at the tiny icicle, and pulled her deep blue Hilt from its place on her belt. As the chain flopped into view, Mas gingerly attached the Charm. As usual when a Charm is first attached to a Hilt, you could almost taste the magic as the spells holding the two pieces together first interacted. Then, in a flash, Mas’s Hilt sprang out longer. Mas jumped a bit at the force in the change. The blade was just a strong glow, nearly a meter long. Mas isn’t the tallest person in the world (don’t let her hear you say that though) so this was a longer blade for her. Once it had reached it’s maximum length, she looked at Shyel and asked, “Is that it?” Shy just shook her head. Then, like a branch of pine needles burning, the bright white of the blade broke into fragments. It winged out in small serrations on either side, and the end ground to a wicked point. The glow slowly faded, but there was still a light glow in the core. Mas breathed a silent wow, and stared with wide eyes. For me, it was a little too fancy. But for Mas, feminine and kickass, it was perfect.
“Figured you’d like it,” Shyel said flatly, and started walking again. Me, Sosh and Sophie started walking too. It took Mas a second to snap out of it enough to walk too.
Sophie looked thoughtful in the bright white light (Hehe. Rhymes. Yay!!) of Shyel’s keylight. “So… Lets me get this straight. Shyel makes Keyblades?” There was a sense of wonder in her voice, like she didn’t quite believe it. When Shy didn’t respond, Sosh did for her.
“You know it. Baby girl over here is one of only ten students in 1-13 grade school who’s training as a Charmsmen,” Sosh stated, very matter-of-factly. I could almost see Shyel blush. Most people, our age especially, struggle to even make our Hilts. It requires the complete concentration of your mind, no distractions. I barely got mine done.
Mas stopped admiring the Blade in her hands for a moment to pipe in “Charmswomen, thank you very much,”
“Well sorry, Captain Obvious.” Sosh retorted.
Sophie let out a low whistle of appreciation. “Your lucky to have that kind of skill. You’ll never have to look for a job, that’s for sure.” She was right. Charmsmen, and Charmswomen, made amazing amounts of money. Mostly it was from the proffesional Rumblers. People who fight for entertainment. There really aren’t any other uses for fighting these days. Except for petty fights and Rumble.
“It’s always been easyish for me. I like it. Have you figured out what to name that blade yet Mas?” Shyel said, switching from one subject to the mext without a break in stride. It took Mas a second to realize she was being talked to.
“Huh?” She asked.
“A name for it,”
“Didn’t you name it?”
“No. I made it for you.”
“Really? Thank you. Wait” Mas thought a second. Then she started jumping up and down. “Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!” It was kind of scary. I felt Sosh’s reath on my neck as she laughed. We were getting closer again. Don’t know why. Don’t really care. It was good.
She was still gushing Thank You’s when we dropped Sophie off at the staff apartment buildings. She’d simmered down into a steady admirance by the time we got to the second boys dorm. I hugged Sosh goodnight, gave her a quick peck and then hugged Mas and Shyel. Mas didn’t hardly notice, and was back to idolizing Shyel again when I let her go.
Shaking my head, I walked up the stairs to my room.

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