Organization XIV - The Story So Far

The fat creature dissolved like all the others, succumbing to the damage. However, all along the walls, more of its ilk appeared, looking around at first, confused by the lack of their cannon-shaped allies. It didn't take them long to spot the two on the ground, however, and they began to hop down from their perches on the wall and charge over at them.

One of them wasn't much of an issue; it hadn't taken much to bring it down, and its back was defenseless. But such a large group spelled trouble; with so many of them, and their fronts being more resilient than their backs, they would inadvertently guard one another and fill the air with swinging limbs. One of them was slow and predictable, but a whole mass was a chaotic whirl with no lack of stopping power, all focused on the two of them.

Jacqueline had rarely been this far gone, this quickly, and she had certainly never done so voluntarily. Her body screamed against her, the exhaustion from spending so much internal energy causing her to shake slightly. Her vision had started to come back, and she seemed to be recovering from that initial impact... but not quite. Her movements were stiff, and she had few options. There was one thing, however, and she'd need a moment for it to work. Just the one would do. 

"Dispatch. I've got... a potion. But I need a moment. To drink it," she explained to the best of her ability. "Just a few seconds. Buy me that and I'll wipe them out for you. Deal?" Pulling the bottle out of her pouch, she gripped it as tightly as her weak muscles would allow, leaning on her spear for support.

Dispatch sighed with relief. "Don't scare me like that. Thought they got ya. Alright, a couple seconds'll be no big deal."

It wasn't entirely true - he had a wealth of strong moves he could use on one opponent. But they were surrounded. On his own, he could probably have done it without much effort, but anything he could try that could clear out enemies on all sides would hit his allies, too, and that wasn't something he could afford in that moment. For now, it seemed like the best move would be just to react to whichever of the creatures moved first.

Dispatch's muscles tightened. He hated waiting games.

One of them noticed Jackie's stationary position and preoccupation, slamming a hand into its massive belly before charging forward at the two of them. It immediately collided with one of the closer bodies and went rolling away, its momentum deflected and stunning its ally.

Meanwhile, two more moved in - about all the space would allow, given their size - and aimed to swat the pair aside with their giant mitts. The first one aimed straight for Dispatch, while the second waited until the first was done before stepping forward and trying to slap Jacqueline out of the courtyard.

Dispatch hopped up over the hand of the first creature, using its face as a springboard to propel himself in front of Jackie, stopping the monster's swipe. Deciding it wasn't the time for fancy tricks, he simply pushed back against the monster, planning to take away its balance.

The first enemy fell over with a loud, bouncy thud, while the second, surprised that such a small thing was willing to push it back directly - and succeeding at it - was caught off-guard enough that it stumbled back a step, its footing lost. The others were now blocked by the bodies of their brethren and couldn't move in; not finishing them off immediately proved to be advantageous for the pair at the moment.

In a span of a few meager seconds, Jackie had grabbed the bottle from her pouch, uncorked it, and chucked the contents back into her own throat. The tingly tonic burned as it brushed its way down her throat, her body involuntarily kicking into overdrive to heal itself. Dropping the bottle to the ground, Jackie gripped her spear in two hands and lunged at the body that had taken a swipe at her. The thick fat of the Heartless nearly submerged her spear, distending inwards... before bursting into nothingness as her bottle shattered on the floor. "Thanks, Wild Child. Needed a pick-me-up."

One down, only about twelve to go. With both of them on their feet, the odds were a lot better.

The remaining mass of large-bodied Heartless attempted to avenge their fallen member, in their slow, clumsy, dangerous way, swinging their limbs around and throwing themselves at the duo. Taking them all head-on would be difficult, but still doable. With the wall next to them, there was at least one side they couldn't be attacked from; not unless the Heartless somehow climbed the walls. That wasn't in the cards.

There was, however, a broken section of the interior wall. The supports keeping up the slab of rock had collapsed long ago, and it was conveniently half as high as the rest of the battlements, making it a good spot for climbing. However, the Heartless were in the way of that feature.

Jackie dropped to the floor to trip another charging Heartless, before rolling out from under the collapsed Heartless and jamming her spear into its softer back. The Heartless burst, and in the smog left behind, she dashed through and swept aside the clumsy fist of another before kicking it onto its back, watching it flail helplessly. Leaving it for the moment, Jackie used its belly as a spring to move to Dispatch, using her spear like a hammer to crush the helmet of a Heartless that had mindlessly wandered behind him. She wordlessly took up a spot at his back, her stance mimicking his as to not trip him. Glaring at the next contender, she blocked a charge by holding her spear across her body two-handed, then riposted by stabbing the gut again. Tiresome, a bit boring, but a job to be done. With numbers like these, there was something big here, she was certain.

Dispatch smirked, impressed by his partner's sudden recovery. Now that he had the chance, he could afford to be a little flashier, so he front-flipped over the nearest monster, turning around to slice it down the middle as he touched down, his feet barely hitting the ground before he sprang through the black cloud to stab the next creature, pulling his sword upwards through its head. Another of them charged toward him on its belly, but he spun around and it passed by him harmlessly, receiving a slash across the back for its troubles. The nearest of his enemies vanquished, he glanced around in hopes of finding his next target.

Seeing that their normal attacks weren't working, and that these people were capable of killing them in a single strike each, the Heartless opted for a rather strange tactic: bouncing up and down on their fat bellies. By doing this, they would periodically crash into the ground, hopefully inflicting serious damage if they happened to land on anyone, or at least startle them with the shockwave. And they would remain in the air for a while, making them difficult to attack outside of the brief moment in which they were on the ground.

It was... extremely weird and stupid-looking. But frankly, this was the last attempt on their part to strike back against opponents who, clearly, had them outclassed. Without the support of cannons, these things had no chance. This was just their final gambit.

Caught off-guard by the maneuver, Dispatch suffered a grazing blow by one of them, but for their size, these enemies weren't as powerful as the cannons, and the hit wasn't direct, so the pain wasn't even a distraction. As his opponent crashed towards him once again, he extended one leg skyward, catching the creature, and flung it back into the air. He jumped to follow it, and with a backflip that was really just for flair, kicked it down towards its nearest partner on the ground.

...however, Jackie had to dive out of the way as the two collided and were sent rocketing in seperate directions, the ground-bound one speeding through the space she had just occupied. Following its rebound visually, Jackie propped her spear forward as if bracing for a charge, and the fat heartless cleanly pierced itself upon her spear. Jackie whirled around, kicking another one up to Dispatch.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed. He'd already begun his descent, and had no time to draw his blade as it hurtled toward him. So rather than his sword, he drew back his fist and slammed it into the monster.

The effect was not what he'd expected. It was surprisingly rubbery, and though he'd thought it would spring back off his fist, he hadn't realized it would also bounce him even higher into the air. Good thing I'm not scared of heights, he thought to himself.

Jackie rolled her eyes at the visual exchange, darting underneath the falling fat heartless and raising her spear. The weight was more than anticipated, as the heartless had gone into terminal velocity, but luckily Jackie's form kept the spear upright and when all was said and done she only had to account for light smothering. She kicked three of the last six upwards again before whipping around and crushing the helms of the last three on the ground. Turning upwards, she watched the air for Dispatch to send them down. I should hope he's capable of a soft landing... maybe I'll save one for him.

Dispatch watched Jackie's assault as he fell, prepared this time for when she flung the final three enemies at him. He leaned back, allowing one of them to sail past him, and extended his palm. Just for fun, why not?

"Boom," he said, and let loose a burst of energy, destroying it and propelling him toward the ground, where he touched down with surprising grace beside the woman. He looked up to confirm that yes, there were two left. He turned to her and proposed, "One each?"

The remnants of the Heartless stopped bouncing, exchanging a look before waddling away as fast as possible, further into the courtyard and in the direction of the castle. Watching their numbers be reduced like that must've broken their confidence. That, and in practical terms, two of them weren't much of a threat to a skilled fighter.

Jackie took aim at first at the two fleeing bodies, before thinking better of it and gesturing to Dispatch. "They don't seem particularly smart, but they seem afraid. Maybe what they're running to is safety, or the big boss that we're looking for. Maybe that witch we read about on the sign." She smirked. "Care to chase after them for a moment?"

"Ha! Crafty!" said Dispatch. This woman would make a decent Saiyan! "Let one go now so we can get all of 'em later, huh? Sure, why not!"

As they followed the rotund creatures further through the courtyard, they caught sight of the dilapidated front door to the black spire. It looked functional enough, but it certainly wasn't inviting. No other Heartless appeared; it seemed like the ambush had been all the ones present in the area. That made sense; there were a lot of them, and it had gotten a little packed before. Jackie's lightning had probably fried a bunch of cannons that were out of sight before.

Curiously, the large-bodied Heartless ran not for the door, but for the corner. There was clearly nowhere to escape to. Even if there were a hole in the wall hidden by shadow, there was no way either of them would fit. Then something strange happened. The one that got there first disappeared. It looked like the darkness just swallowed it up and vanished. The second one would quickly follow.

"What?" Dispatch immediately went on guard. Were these things fast, too? No. No, he couldn't sense them around. They really had just vanished. He crossed his arms. "Well...that didn't work out..." He looked around, wondering where they should turn next. There was something further in, that much he could tell for sure, but how to get there was another story.

For a moment, he considered simply blasting a hole in the walls, but the place didn't seem to be in the best condition, and it'd probably be a bad thing to just bring it all down on top of their heads. So...they were stuck trying to make progress the old-fashioned way. Dispatch turned to his partner. "What d'ya think?"

"It didn't look like they did something involving incredibly fast movement... if they could have done that, I'm sure they would have used their bulk to slam us." Looking around, spying the door and the overall layout, Jackie frowns. "I think they simply ran in a straight line away from us. After they had some distance... they vanished, to the Dark itself." Holding her spear in the crook of her arms, she frowns, crosses her arms, and looks downward. "The door, while disused, takes us to what seems like an important part of the castle. Though ruins like these tend to have secrets hidden about, bobbles and trinkets to discover from neglect and ignorance alike. Though... the castle I visited was rather orderly. I can't make sense of this in the least, it's opulence for its own sake... or would have been." Jackie crouches down to her haunches, resting on her heels. "I could use a short rest, but could you scan around and see if there's anything waiting in ambush, at least?"

Dispatch nodded. "Right," he said. He'd only done a quick search for their energy, and it was pretty familiar. A better search would be a good idea. He closed his eyes, trying to find whether anything might be alive nearby, evil or otherwise.

There was that feeling of squirming evil lurking within the castle; there were definitely Heartless inside. And more than that, there was someone inside who - while surrounded by the darkness - didn't seem to be a Heartless themselves. The courtyard and walls, however, were clear of enemies, as untidy and full of rubble as they were.

Dispatch nodded. Looked like he hadn't missed anything, at least. Opening his eyes, he said, "Well, there's plenty of enemies around, but none of 'em are close enough to worry about. Weird thing is, though, there's someone further in, kinda feels like one of those guys we've been fighting, but...not. Like they've been using Evil-brand bath soap or something. Still, that's a ways off. It's safe enough to take a break if we need it."