Black Coats: Volume 1

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Arctus unfolded his arms and shifted in place as he listened to the others. Was this how it was always going to be? Petty bickering? Sure it was amusing at first but at this rate... He remained silent and stepped back away from the others to get some room and out of the general line of sight. He didn't have anything else to add anyway. It was better this way.

Arctus's fist clenched. He turned his head towards Kiara and stepped over towards her one foot after another as he silently approached her. Then, without any warning, Arctus struck Kiara in the center of her back with his pommel as he drew his sword and then kicked her behind her knee to force her down before raising his blade to swing downwards at her.

 

Everyone chipped in a little bit on the explanation of what happened. Kiara took a step back in the mean time. Her emotions were too high and she was just annoyed enough that nothing she said would turn out well. The other team seemed to be a little more calm and level headed and dealt with the situation. The girl sat down as per the old mans suggestion, but Kiara made sure to keep close to the girl. It wasn't that she didn't think that Lea or the others could handle it if the girl acted out, but she was the one who brought the girl here. In some way she was her responsibility. Not her responsibility enough however for Kiara to be bothered to help Lea take notes, or ask any additional questions. She listened to the questions though, taking notes on the information. Part of her was with Melus however on not trusting the girl and took everything she said with a grain of salt.

As she listened there was suddenly a pain in her back followed by her knees buckling, Kiara fell forward but already had her hands ready to brace herself and counter. She didn't know what threat was behind her, but she didn't need to know in order to counter. As she hit the ground her hands braced herself as she swung her legs around to trip the person behind her in a sweeping motion. Turning over after she saw Arctus standing above her. "So your fit is escalating is it? Nice try." With that she reached up and blasted fire giving herself a moment to grab her whip. She wished that she had her keyblade that she could summon instantly. Being new to her weapon was a disadvantage here but she would make it work. Taking any opening she could get she tried to get to her feet, hoping between trying to trip him and the fire ball there was time to get up.

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Arctus turned his downswing into a stab towards the ground when she made him lose his balance, using his blade to keep from crashing into the ground. The instant the fire spell was cast he used his own magic, shifting the direction of gravity in the immediate vicinity upwards. Her spell only managed to clip his shoulder. Arctus didn't even react when he got burned as if the attack didn't even register to his mind.

With gravity flowing upwards he was immediately already back on his feet. Arctus swung his sword upwards, sweeping up dirt and rock up towards her face as he ripped it out of the ground. Gravity shifted again, this time back downwards so that he could bring his sword back down on Kiara. During the attack his blade began to let off a bluish-purple glow as he used another of his abilities so that even if Kiara blocked with her whip it would only become heavier and more difficult to use.

 

It seemed that her attacks were enough to get her back on her feet. Kiara was thankful for that as she dodged and ducked back. This wasn't her first fight ever and it sure as hell wouldn't be her last. She knew that she shouldn't fight it though, not because she didn't think that she could win, Kiara knew that she could if she tried, but this was supposed to be a team mate and if she fought him, she might take it too far. It was his own fault of course but that didn't mean she should go all out and try to kill the man. He would be dealt with in time, like this girl would be. Kiara couldn't help but wonder if maybe it was a power of the girl that made them do this, perhaps she shouldn't have been brought along after all. It wasn't the time to focus on that though, not with a fight in front of her.

Using one arm Kiara tried to cover her face as Arctus threw dirt up at her, Kiara got ready for an attack with the other. She was forced to jump back out of the way without attacking the first time, but she wasn't going to hide. As soon as she hit the ground she sent her whip flinging out at his legs, if she could make him collapse and disarm him then that would make her happy. She just wanted this over and done with, before she took it too far. However she wasn't allowed to take it too far as one of the other boys stood in her way, creating a wall of metal between them. Just as that happened, Kiara was also hit with a spell, but not a bad spell, but something to support her. Turning she saw Melus fighting Luther. So she was not the only one to be attacked. It seemed like Melus needed help, and Kiara wasn't about to leave her teammate alone. With Koa creating a wall between them, Kiara turned around and flung her whip towards Luther, hoping to catch him by surprise as she aimed for his arm to get him to drop his weapon. ​

 

Lea watched as one by one, his team mates began to attack the others. Arctus, Luther, and Vallus began to attack the people close to them in a spontaneous act of rebellion. If something happened on their individual trek, that was understandable, but even the ones from his own party were sparring out. What seemed like sportsman-like comradery was disproven from the amount of force each person was willing to use. Lea looked to Koa, who was trying to maintain the peace. He looked at each duo's battle with confusion before turning around to Krista.

The girl was trying to hide a small smirk as her eyes grew abruptly sharper. Lea's eyes widened to the frightening realization. "You.. you're doing this aren't you?" Lea drew out his chakram in a flash of fire and pointed it to her. Her eyes quickly grew wide eyed again at the weapon being pointed at her.
"W-what do you mean sir?..."
"You can drop that right now!" Lea's voice was harsh and booming, his pupils shrinking to show his willingness to strike. "They didn't start acting this way until you got here... Well, they were kind of acting this way- but not to this degree!"
The blonde girl closed her eyes and sigh. "Fine. Personally, I think I was overselling anyways."
Lea gritted his teeth. "So everything you told us was a lie wasn't it?... You were just stalling for time, weren't you?"
"Oh, it was all true. Every word of it. " Her small and fragile voice was now smooth and cunning.
Lea was growing impatient as his allies fought around him. "Then why tell us the truth? Who were you stalling for?"
Krista looked at him with his her piercing green eyes. "For my special ability to take effect. For example." Lea's hand began to slowly lower as he struggled to keep the weapon pointed up, his hand eventually betraying his mental command.
"The ability the Uniform was after was my necklace," she showcase the glowing green stone around her neck. "It gives my power over the hearts of men. It takes a little longer on- ahem- 'older gentlemen.' It's why I couldn't get that old geezer to obey me." She smiled as Lea's arm shook while he lowered his weapon. "My power increases in close range, which is quite unfortunate for a group mostly populated by men," she smirked.
"Nequa," Lea grunted, cursing her name.
"Oh that old hag has nothing to do with this. This is more like... my own personal mutiny. Once I gain the strength of the men from your group, I'm going to overthrow that which. One by one, they will bow to the new queen bee!" she clapped her hands lightly. "Boys, playtime's over. Come guard your queen!" she commanded.
The eyes of Vallus, Arctus, Luther and Lea all turned white. They had turned into an almost zombie like state as they rushed to guard her in a quick movement. They were now eqger to obey Krista's every command.

She looked to Koa and clapped her hands again. "That means you too four eyes." Koa remained unaffected, much to Krista's dismay. "I said, be a good lapdog and GUARD YOUR MASTER!" she boomed.
There was still no effect.

 

As Kiara tried to help deal with one problem, another just popped up, now Vallus was fighting too. With Arctus and Luther to deal with, she didn't have time to also deal with Vallus as well, Aeira would have to handle it herself for now. She couldn't save everyone, not this time, and probably not ever. Just for a moment Kiara took her eyes off of those she was battling, a look to Lea, a plea for help. Why had he not stepped in already? Suddenly out of the corner of her eye she caught a flash of fire. While Kiara couldn't look to Lea again to see what he was doing, she had a suspicion that she was right about her guess earlier. It was the girl controlling them. Of course it was, because that made things her fault... again. It was always and would always be considered her fault and at this point Kiara started to believe that was inevitable, the really question was, how was she going to deal with the situation. And perhaps that was growth, maybe, though she often didn't see it, she was making progress on being more of the person she wanted and less of the person everyone hated.

Krista proceeded to go on about her plans, like all villains do, and call all the men over to her, except Koa for some reason. While she certainly tried to get him to bow to her whim, it didn't seem to be effecting the boy. Well at least that was one more person to help them. Still this was bad, very bad. Kiara needed to stall for time as she thought about what she needed to do next. "You know, are you sure that your boyfriend committed suicide so you could live? I can't see anyone loving you that much. And how could they when you hide behind masks and people all the time. I told that Uniform guy that people weren't objects, but apparently I was talking to the wrong person. It was you who think that people are just dolls to be used and thrown away. I got news for you girly, you will never be the so called "queen bee" with that attitude." She had even Lea on her side here and that was not going to turn out well, no one of them stood a chance facing off head to head with Lea. There had to be a plan somewhere they could use... perhaps that power Koa had used to stop her and Arctus.

Just at Kiara thought that cages burst forth from the ground meanwhile Melus was already providing support. Alright Kiara had her plan. "I will deal with the girl, Aeira, I need you to help protect Koa. He needs to be able to maintain the cages, meaning he will be a target. Do what you can without getting yourself killed. Melus if you find cover take it and provide me with cover fire. If the cages fail we retreat and regroup. No one is fit to fight Lea head on by themselves, and we might not be able to deal with them all safely. If the uniformed guy shows up again, and I know I am guilty of this lass time, but do not engage, he seemed interested in Krista more than anything, let him deal with her." Kiara rattled off her thoughts and orders quickly as she took up her position ready to fight. Perhaps it wasn't her place to try and play leader, but Lea had put some faith in her and it was better this than not having sufficient communication between them. Sure there was a little talking between them, but not enough in her opinion. Besides she had been in plenty of tough battles before and worked with others to overcome them, this was no different, just a different group of people to entrust her life with. While that made her a little nervous, Kiara pushed herself to ignore it. She knew that her time would be short in which she had a chance to do stuff, so she had to act now and not think about what others thought of her.

Taking the opportunity that Koa provided Kiara started moving, but not directly towards Krista. Instead she dodged around making a circle around the caged team members, keeping wide of the cages. She knew that they could still attack her through the cage if she got too close to them. They might also attempt to throw weapons at her, but that was a risk she had to take in order to get in close to Krista. She was after all a closer ranged fighter and couldn't do much from afar. "Lets dance." Kiara echoed Melus' sentiment as she got closer to Krista.​

 

The diversions from Koa were becoming an obstacle. Krista's head jolted left and right as she tried to keep a visual track on all her puppets.
The more she made her mindless followers move, the more agitated she became at Koa's resistance towards her. "You think you're so virtuous, don't you! You men act all chivalrous and charming, but beneath it all you're just cowards." She looked to Karina when it came to her jabbing comment about her former lover not being true to her.

"As far as 'Romeo' was concerned, I was the best thing that ever happened to him. But that's why it's too easy sometimes. Making him off himself was the easiest decision I ever made. All those years of being a good girl. Father's own personal pride and joy... Tedious cotillion after pointless duty. Following that suffocating man's order for my entire life!" She threw Lea to create a larger wall of fire between the factions. "The men of my world were cruel and demanding. And I was young and naive. Not realizing the true power I could hold once I found the appropriate method," she boasted, gripping her necklace. "My heart was strong because I endured. The keyblade chose me because I was meant for greatness! Once I found this amulet, I returned to my home and made all those belligerent men destroy each other!" She laughed psychotically at the memory. "They killed each other like the swine they were!"She flew her hands forward to make all her minions attack. "And now... you will meet their same fate! Now die... Die.... DIE!!!!"" She laughed louder as she flung her puppets around at each defender.

 

This girl was truly crazy. Kiara didn't know how what she endured compared to Kiara's own suffering but it didn't matter she would never go to the lengths that Krista was going to here and now. "Destined for great things. It chose you so you had a chance at a better life. Watch, it will reject you soon enough. You will learn your lesson well enough soon." Kiara said staring Krista down as Krista started commanding their comrades again, first with a wall of fire, it was the perfect distraction that Kiara needed. "When that day comes the difference between you and me, at least I have something to go back to." She couldn't go home but she now had this group and she had the SoS group. If anything happened to her while she might not be liked she was accepted, she doubted Krista could say the same thing.

As the wall of flames went up Kiara let herself get hit and knocked further to the side. Let herself be injured as the flames from Lea heated her skin. She sat there waiting for Krista to completely lose it. The girl was busy yelling die, busy trying to command everyone to do what she wished. Taking advantage of this time, Kiara slowly engulfed some of the flames, keeping herself in top shape as she slowly moved across the ground still trying to seem injured as she made her way closer to Krista. She could see that the people who were supposed to be on their team starting to fight again, she couldn't let it go too far, she needed to stop this before the damage was irreversible.

Just as Lea turned his attention to her, Kiara took the moment to spring to her feet, she was close enough now. Using her whip blade she managed to catch Krista in the arm, getting her attention for a minute, hopefully making her concentration falter as she close the last small space between them. While Kiara would just wanted to kill her here and now, she had to get that necklace away from her first. "Too bad that with all that time you had to grow bitter, you never bothered to grow stronger." She said when it was too late for Krista to call everyone back to stop her, then she ripped the necklace from her neck, pocketing it herself and using her physical strength to keep Krista down for the others to deal with.

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