Hearts of Heroes

Hearts of Heroes

Written by The Conflicted Writer

Also written by The Imaginative Writer

First Chapter beta read by amazing Black Sceptor group

Journey of the Heart

“No…” whispered Blumiere. “No… You’re lying! She’s not gone!”

“I’m not sorry, son. Humans are trash compared to us. So I threw her away from this world. This is what you get for letting your heart get the better of you.”

Blumiere was crying white hot tears of pain. How could she be gone? How could his father be so heartless? Did he not care for what happened to another soul?

This scene filled the dreamer with sadness. He was only glad this was a dream… It was a dream, wasn’t it?

“You’ll thank me for this some day,” Blumiere’s father said pleased with himself. “You’ll see.”

“No…” said Blumiere darkly. “You’ll see… rather… you won’t see…”

“No, son, you can’t-”

“I can and I will.”

“Our ancestors could not control that books power!”

“Then why keep it? Do you think you can control the darkness within? You can’t even control your darkness!”

“I… I…”

“That’s what I thought. But I don’t want control… I want it to consume me… I want it to consume everything!” And with that, the universe became doomed.

“Yes… it tells me everything! I will destroy everything! Starting with this pathetic world!”

“Blumiere… how could you!?”

“Blumiere is no more! All that is left is Count Bleck! Bleh heh heh heh heh heh heh… Bleck!” Count Bleck stood over Blumiere’s cowering father.

“Now, since you are so heartless, let’s see how you like really being that way... yelled Count Bleck!” yelled Count Bleck. Count Bleck’s hands glowed with a dark aura. His arms faded away, leaving his hands to float with the power that they had received.

One of the hands reached at Blumiere’s father’s chest. A hole appeared, and the hand pulled a glowing pink heart shape out. Blumiere’s father lost all his color, and faded to nothing. Count Bleck let the heart fall to the ground. It fazed through the ground, and in its place, from the darkness in the room, came a creepy little ant creature with white eyes with red pupils. The creature twitched like mad while its long antenna hung limply.

The Count laughed. The Count cackled. The dreamer cried.

The dreamer was no longer in darkness. Instead, he had his solid form and was in light. The dreamer was in his usual attire, his jean shorts, his red T-shirt, his oversized brown boots, and the special fishing jacket with too many pockets to count. He had everything from the island that he usually had on him, even his toy bat. He ran his white gloved hand over his goggles and through his light brown spiky hair and sighed in confusion. Suddenly, rather comical wedding music started to play.

(Play ‘Wedding Waltz’ from Super Paper Mario)

The dreamer turned around, and saw that he was not alone. Hundreds of what appeared to be two legged turtles where standing in front of a chapel. There were all sorts of variations of the turtles: some were rather plain, while others had hammers and helmets, some wore blue robes and held wands, and weird little mushrooms on feet were standing around cheering with the turtles.

“Do you, Bowser, the evil king of the koopas take Queen Peach to be your beloved wife? Until your games be over?”

“What are ya, kidding?! The answers YESSS!” said a gruff voice. The dreamer looked at the top of large stairs. There, a wedding was taking place. The gruff voice belonged to a very large turtle with a spiky shell, red hair, horns, claws on his hands and feet, black spiked shackles on his arms and neck, and very sharp teeth. He was indeed a ferocious figure, but the dreamer felt that the white tuxedo ruined his general awesomeness.

“Do you, Queen Peach, noble queen of the land of Nintendo, take Bowser to be your beloved husband ‘til you games be over?”

Opposite the turtle, a beautiful woman with blonde hair in a ponytail and wearing a lovely wedding dress, looked like she just woke up was staring angrily at Bowser.

“Not in a million years!” the woman yelled.

Funny, thought the dreamer, he half expected this to be one of those ‘Beauty and the Beast’ moments.

“Yeah, ‘K, see, that answer is not on my schedule,” said another woman’s voice. She was like a human, but with blue skin and bubble gum pink hair. She was dressed like she was in a business meeting instead of at a wedding. Her red rimmed glasses completely hid her eyes and were bent in a way that made her look nasty. The weirdest part was that she was floating. “We’re going to need an ‘I do’ or we can’t continue any farther.”

“Well, why don’t you make me!” snapped the wedding girl.

“’K, yeah, just remember, you asked. But with brain washing powers, that won’t be very hard.” The nasty woman shifted her glasses and square energy rings surrounded the wedding girl.

The dreamer, thinking nothing of his own safety, started shoving through the crowd of turtles and mushrooms to make his way to the impossibly long staircase.

“N… No” said the wedding girl loosely.

“Bleh heh heh heh… her will is strong… remarked Count Bleck,” remarked Count Bleck. This was the first time the dreamer noticed a white cloaked shadow man floating over the Alter. He was the one pronouncing the vows. Aside from the monocle, the large white top hat, the vinyl gloves, the white cloak that turned to shadow on the bottom and was cuffed at the top with a large orange jewel, and the crystal topped cane that this man held, he looked just like the Count Bleck the dreamer had seen in his last dream.

“Not to worry, Count,” said the nasty woman. “No one can resist my mind control powers.”

The nasty woman’s glasses shined bright for a moment and more square rings appeared around the wedding girl.

The wedding girl’s mouth began to move as if someone was forcing a pair of tongue depressors inside it, “I… I do…”

(End ‘Wedding Waltz’)

A horrible shaking ensued right after. Everyone except Count Bleck, the nasty woman, and the dreamer started screaming their heads off. The dreamer almost lost his footing and fell down the infinite white abyss below. From the basin between the monster and the wedding girl, a bright blackness (how can blackness be bright!?) emitted. From the blackness rose a silver heart, though it did not shine like silver did. If you were in the same room as this heart, you would feel the evil, the darkness that it gave off. But the dreamer could feel that this heart was out of place, that this heart was in the wrong love… that this heart bore an empty love.

(Play ‘Birth of a Chaos Heart’ from Super Paper Mario)

“Bleh heh heh heh heh, Bleck! ‘With the joining of a beast and a beauty, the Chaos heart will come to end the worlds.’ Just as foretold in the Dark Prognosticus! At last, the Chaos Heart is born. All shall be destroyed by the hands of… Count Bleck!” Count Bleck boomed while opening his cape to reveal that he had no legs… and that the inside of his cape was a void… and a snappy white vest. “Now… do as I command! Bring the worlds to their knees, devour everything in the darkness, open the void, and let nothing become everything in the universe... commanded Count Bleck!”

“Stop… right… there!”

Count Bleck closed his cloak. “And who dares command Count Bleck?”

“I… dare” said the dreamer, out of breath after finally reaching the top of the stairs. “Man, Zukko was right… I need… to work out more…”

“And just who, asked Count Bleck, are you?” asked Count Bleck.

“My name is Sokka!” proclaimed the dreamer heroically while holding up his wooden bat.

“That’s strange” said the nasty woman pulling out a clip board. “There’s no ‘Sokka’ on the guest list.”

“I bet this wasn’t on your agenda either!” The dreamer ran forward, his bat held high, looking like he was going to clobber the turtle beast. At the last second, the dreamer jumped and landed on the turtle beast’s head, jumped off the turtle beast and hit the heart dead on. He landed perfectly on the other side and helped the Queen to her feet.

“Where did you come?” the Queen asked kindly.

“You know… I have no clue myself,” replied the dreamer smiling goofily.

(End ‘Birth of a Chaos Heart’)

“No! It’s going to overload!” called the nasty woman, the heart began to sputter and shake while its black glow got increasingly creepier.

The Dreamer looked at the heart and chuckled nervously, “Uh… oops?”

The heart suddenly ripped a void open and started sucking in everyone close by, the dreamer had no way to stop himself from getting pulled in as well. The darkness enveloped him and he fell, he fell, and fell, and fell…

Then he wasn’t falling. He stood on a glass platform with a picture of the Queen he had just met… or was that hours ago? He had lost track of the time while falling in the darkness.

The Queen wore a pink dress and was surrounded by little mushroom people. She held her hands like she were praying.

Across the platform stood a creature in a white gown. Or was it a part of her skin? Her arms were green with no visible fingers, she wore a helmet that looked like it was a large leaf, on her chest was a magnificent red rose, her eyes were sharp and determined, yet very kind.

“Come to me,” the woman of leaves called with her mind, Sokka walked up to this strange person and held out his hand. “Hi, I’m Sokka, nice to meet you.”

The woman of grass shook his hand. “Hello, my name is Gardevoir. You were very courageous back in the sanctuary.”

Sokka blushed and put a hand behind his head. “Ah, come on. I didn’t really do anything…”

Gardevoir smiled. “And modest too. The Master made a wise decision when he chose you.”

Sokka looked at Gardevoir and smiled. “Cool! But, what have I been chosen for?”

Gardevoir closed her eyes and the glass below them began to crack. “To save everything.”

The glass broke and he started falling again. He hit another platform, hard I might say. This one had another royal looking figure, she also held her hands in prayer and wore a pink dress, she even had golden hair. This royal, however, had pointed ears and her dress had tassels and fancier designs. Behind her were three golden triangles and the background was a castle and a field. On her left a man in a green tunic was carrying a sword and shield. On her right was a much larger man with blackened skin and had black armor, the dark skinned man looked downright evil.

Around Sokka were three pedestals, one with a shield, one with a staff, one with a sword. All had a strange circular symbol with one line going down and one going across, the two lines met at the mid left corner.

“Power sleeps within you…” said Gardevoir. “To awaken it, you must give it form.”

“Form, huh,” Sokka walked up to the sword.

“The Sword… ferocious courage, the strength of the warrior, holder of terrible power, is this the power you seek?”

“Terrible?” asked Sokka worryingly.

Gardevoir smiled. “Not terrible as in evil, terrible as in great.”

“Oh… In that case, this is the form I want.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, you can’t use a shield to do much… and I never could figure out how to use a staff that well.”

“Very well,” said Gardevoir as the sword turned into stars and flew into Sokka.

“In order to gain, you must give something in return.” She gestured to the remaining shield and staff.

Sokka raised an eyebrow. “Wait, didn’t I just get the sword? I don’t have those things…”

“You must trade their power, not their form.” Gardevoir explained, Sokka shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the shield.

“The shield… the will of the guardian, an unstoppable force and friend to all, is this the power you will give up?”

“Er… maybe not,” Sokka walked over to the staff.

“The staff… the power of the mystic, inner wisdom, the power of wonder and ruin, is this the power you shall give up?”

“Wait a minute, it doesn’t seem very smart to give up either of these. I want to be friends with anybody, and need wisdom to handle whatever comes my way. Why can’t I just keep both?”

“Because, it is against-” Gardevoir turned her head as if listening to someone. “But, Master… very well.”

Gardevoir turned her head back to Sokka. “Both powers are yours to keep. But in exchange, you must give your word to always do what is right, and never detour from your path… even if it means the ultimate sacrifice.”

“That’s what doing the right thing is all about, right?” Sokka put his hand to his heart. “I solemnly promise that I will never do anything wrong and will always do what’s right, even if it kills me.”

The pedestals, seeming to react to his words, sunk into the glass and shattered it. Sokka once again fell into the darkness.

He landed, gently this time, on a glass platform with a blue fox woman on it. She wore little except a loin cloth, she carried a large staff in her hands, behind her was an infinite expanse of stars.

The sword that Sokka had held before appeared in his hand with a flash of light.

A new voice appeared from nowhere. It was deep, commanding, yet so warm that Sokka was in complete peace while listening to it. “There will be times in which you will have to fight. Do not be afraid. Always fight for others, and their belief will fuel your strength.”

Gardevoir sat in the center of the platform. From the ground around her, four of the little black shadow creatures, like what Blumiere’s father became, rose ready to strike her. With blind courage, he ran at them and hit one square in the back. The other three shrunk into the ground and became untouchable shadows. Sokka raised his blade and stabbed at one of the shadows, the moment the blade made contact with it the shadow faded completely. One of the shadows jumped from the ground, ready to claw at Sokka, who managed to see it in time and stabbed his blade right through its chest. He ran over to Gardevoir and inspected her for wounds.

“Behind you!” Gardevoir called as the last shadow jumped from the back. Sokka spun quickly and slashed the shadow in two. He turned around as if nothing had happened and pulled out a little bottle of blue stuff.

Gardevoir stared at him confused. “What are you doing?”

Sokka grinned again. “You’re hurt. There’s a scratch on you arm. This will make it better.”

Gardevoir stared at him, amazed. This boy was so kind, to help a complete stranger. However, Darkness had suddenly appeared below them and swallowed them up.

When the darkness faded Sokka looked around, he was back on his island, but he knew he wasn’t because Gardevoir was there. He stood on the beach surrounded by his three friends, Zach, Delmar, and June.

“The Master wants to know more about you, talk to your friends and answer their questions.” Gardevoir stepped back.

Sokka, still with a grin on his face, walked up to June. Her purple dress flowing in the wind.

“Hey Sokka, what’s most important to you?”

“That’s easy: Friendship and the people that come with it.”

“Friendship, huh? Is friendship such a big deal?”

Sokka could tell this was a fake out thing to make him double guess his morals. “Nice try, but friendship is the most important thing to me.”

Then Sokka walked over to Delmar, who was currently kicking a hacky sack with his feet and bouncing it around.

“So, brudda, what do you want out of life?”

Sokka scratched his head, this one was a little tougher, “To get as much out of it as I can.”

“Not a bad answer, brah.”

Sokka walked over to the quiet Zach, who stared off into the ocean, his eyes not paying attention to the water.

“What are you most afraid of?”

Sokka scrunched his mouth and folded his arms in thought, scratch off what he thought of the last one, this one was really a tough one.

“Gee, I guess I’m afraid of losing my friends.”

This Zach impersonator was really like the real thing, for like Zach, he said nothing more.

Sokka walked over to Gardevoir, who regarded him with amusement.

“Well?” Sokka shrugged his shoulders. “You said talk to each of my friends, aren’t you going to ask me a question?”

Gardevoir gasped slightly at this, her hand flew to her mouth and she smiled, a tear ran down her cheek. “Why are you so nice?”

This time it was Sokka’s turn to be surprised, he paused for a minute before answering, “It just comes natural, seeing others happy makes me happy.”

Gardevoir wiped the tear away before speaking, “Your adventure begins in the dead of night. Your path won’t be an easy one, but a rising sun awaits at your journey’s end.”

Sokka grinned, pumping his fist in the air, “Sounds good to me!”

“The day you will open the door is both far off and very near. Be ready.” Gardevoir said as a bright light shone, blinding Sokka.

Again, Sokka stood on a glass platform. A pink hedgehog girl was smiling on it and held a large red and yellow mallet, in a circle around her were seven diamond shaped jewels, each a color of the rainbow.

At first there was nothing. Sokka started walking around and stood at the edge of the platform, looking into the abyss of darkness. He heard an odd noise and turned around, the shadows had reappeared, there were at least twenty shadows staring at him.

The sword appeared in Sokka’s hands. Instead of just charging at them, Sokka jumped up and landed in the center of them. Willing the power in his blade, he did a 360 degree spin and killed them all in two seconds. A light slowly formed and revealed a glass stairway leading to another platform, without hesitation, Sokka started to climb. Up and up he went, taking his sweet time while resting the blade on his shoulder.

When at last he reached the top, he was surprised to see Gardevoir in the glass. She was surrounded by strange creatures of different sizes and shapes. There were so many that it would take a week just to describe one-quarter of them. Upwards, a light shone down. Sokka stared up into the comforting light.

“Remember…” the warm voice from before called. “The closer you are to the light, the larger your shadow becomes.”

Sokka frowned and slowly turned around, to his surprise (and horror) his shadow had become large and oddly bent, making it look like a look like a larger twisted version of himself. Then it started to rise from the ground and it’s form morphed, as a large muscular creature.

Sokka looked at it, still grinning. This might actually be tough, Sokka thought as he pulled the sword out. Sokka ran towards him and swung at its legs, however the shadowed beast smacked him aside and he tumbled for a bit. Okay… Sokka grimaced, I think I’d better try a new approach. As he got up the shadowed beast raised his hands and brought them crashing down. Sokka rolled out of the way and latched himself to its hand, the shadowed beast lifted its hand and Sokka into the air. Sokka jumped off and went for its head, brining his blade down and stabbing it through its forehead. The creature wailed in pain before falling over, it twitched slightly before the shadowed beast slithered back into Sokka’s shadow.

“Well done, Sokka. You have exceeded all of The Master’s expectations,” A voice called out, Sokka turned around and saw Gardevoir walking up to him.

Sokka put his sword away, “Alright! But, who is The Master?”

“One more thing before you can meet him. Your path has been set. If you truly wish to take it, play this song.” Gardevoir held a hand to her face and played a strange melody. The song made Sokka feel like he was the only one who could do what was being asked of him… whatever was being asked of him.

Sokka’s special guitar that his good friend May had given him appeared in his hands and he played this strange song with Gardevoir.

(Play ‘Oath to Order’ from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask)

The warm voice that had spoken to Sokka began to hum the melody with them. For a little while, all that was heard was music. As the music kept on playing, everything began to shake. Sokka stopped playing, but the music still continued. From the darkness, a giant white gloved hand floated into view. The hand grabbed Sokka and started squeezing him, light began to shine from the hand and enveloped Sokka with a great power.

“Remember…” the warm voice rang, “you wield the strongest weapon of them all…”

As the light continued to shine on him, Sokka slowly started to fade away.

(End ‘Oath to Order’)

For anybody that is actually reading this, thanks a million. I know this story won't get many reviews here, but I hope someone will read it.

Special thanks to Black Sceptor who added all sorts of little details that made this chapter much better. I only hope I can live up to those standards.