Chapter Text
A long bus ride up a mountain during one of the hottest days of August was definitely not how Asa Kingston would choose to spend their day, assuming they ever had a choice in anything. It was too hot with a broken AC and windows that didn’t open, and it was too loud, too many other teens chatting loudly about how they spent summer as well as the yelling teen in the very back. Sometimes it was hard for Asa to think that they all attended St. Olive’s.
Located high in the mountains of Pennsylvania, St. Olive’s Academy for Gifted Students is a boarding high school usually for the super smart and rich, as well as those who are given one of the many scholarships offered by the school. While it was a modern school in the United States, it honestly had the appearance of a medieval castle in Europe. And with the large wall surrounding it, most students ended up calling the school “The Keep”.
Asa sighed, leaning their head against the bus window. When they turn to look out, they are greeted by the sight of themself. Short black hair paired with pale skin and gray eyes wasn’t the most exciting of appearances, but that was more than fine for Asa, as they would rather blend into the background than be out there for everyone to see. Scrunching up their nose, Asa focused their attention to the outside, watching the trees zoom by as they let their mind wander.
Someone placing a hand on their shoulder broke Asa out of their thoughts. Turning to face the other, Asa couldn’t help but let a small smile cross their lips. The hand belonged to a 17 year old, a rather pretty girl with a soft smile of her own. With long strawberry blonde hair pulled into a loose braid, perfect peachy skin and clear blue eyes, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that she was a young beauty.
“Are you feeling okay, Asa? Do you need anything? Are you getting sick again?” The questions asked by the girl were getting more incessant, and there most likely would have been more questions had Asa not cover the girl’s mouth.
“I’m fine, Odette. Just thinking,” Asa stated, removing their hand from Odette’s mouth. Odette Tasse, long time friend of Asa’s, smiled in relief as she turned her attention back to the book in her lap, leaving Asa to let their smile fall off their face and turn back to the window. Watching the scenery, same thing they had been doing for an hour, ended up with Asa falling asleep, even with how loud it was on the bus.
Eventually, they were shaken awake by Odette, seeing that the bus had pulled into the gates of St. Olive’s. After letting a majority of the other students go ahead, Asa and Odette stood up, Asa groaning as they did so, exited the bus, and grabbed their bags from the underside of the bus. Asa swung their duffle bag over a shoulder as Odette extend the grip of her flower-print rolling suitcase. Belongings in hand, the two friends joined the stream of students entering the school.
However, as this happened, someone in the front started screaming as a tall being materialized out of thin air. Made entirely of darkness, like some sort of living shadow, the being clearly towered over the group of students, nearly reaching the height of the main school building. With no details easily made out, especially with the harsh glare of the late summer sun, it was no surprise when everyone started panicking and screaming.
Almost instinctively, Asa grabbed Odette’s arm and pulled her along, pushing through the now fleeing students to find somewhere to hide. But before the two could reach a safe area, a loud roar caught everyone’s attention. Where a student that had been frozen in terror once stood, now stood another shadowy creature, this one more solid and taking on a horse-like shape. It let out another roar as the first being disappeared, a ball of some sort dark energy shooting out of the horse creature’s mouth and into the ground near Asa and Odette, creating a large crater and throwing the two onto the ground a little ways away, now separated.
Groaning, Asa sat up, rubbing their back. Looking around, they noticed Odette lying on the ground a ways away, unconscious. Fear filled Asa as their face paled, and they quickly stood up, rushing over. Before they could reach Odette, Asa was knocked back by something smacking into their face, causing both them and the mysterious object to land on the ground.
“I’m going to have a huge bruise tomorrow,” Asa muttered, staring up at the sky with deadpan expression. Movement out of the corner of their vision caused them to move their head, and they were surprised by what they saw. What had been moving around was some sort of creature. Looking similar to small cat with butterfly-esque wings, it was mostly a pure white, with the wings a powder blue color that match it’s eyes. Across it’s body was a multicolored bag that had a large tear in it.
“Oh no. Oh no. This is so very very bad!” The creature was clearly panicking over something, it also sounded rather masculine, but more along the lines of a young pre-teen boy. It, or well he, was looking around, and Asa noticed the two rings held in his hands.
“Um, do you need help?” Asa had no idea why they asked that, but the reaction was relatively funny. The creature shrieked, jumping and losing his grip on the rings he held, causing them to fly into the air. Asa quickly grabbed the rings, surprised to feel a warmth and a slight red glow come from the contact. The surprise only grew when the creature suddenly flew at them with a happy sounding squeal.
“I found one!” The creature suddenly yelled, attaching himself to Asa’s arm. “My name is Monarch, and you’re one of the people I’ve been looking for! I know because the Heart Rings reacted to you! You’re one of the Beat Warriors!”
Asa blinked, caught off-guard by everything. This sounded extremely similar to the magical girl anime that Odette liked to gush about, Cutie Pures or something. Ignoring the creature, Monarch, for the moment, Asa just looked down at the rings they had grabbed.
Two rings with gold bands, the most noticeable thing about them were the two giant heart-shaped gems directly in the middle of the rings. The gems appeared to be rubies, dark red with what looked to be fire designs carved into the gems. There was just, something about them that seemed so captivating, which led to Asa putting them on their index fingers.
There was another glow, this one bigger and brighter, with some sort of fire effect to it as well. While beautiful, it did also attract the attention of the horse shadow. Letting out another roar, it charged towards Asa, who ran quickly in the other direction, incidentally away from the other students and the knocked out Odette. Monarch simply held on tighter.
Eventually, Asa and Monarch came across a more isolated part of the school, away from other people. Unfortunately, the horse thing followed them, and looked even more terrifying and angry up close. Swears flashed through Asa’s mind as they silently apologized to Odette, for leaving the other behind in many ways now. Their internal monologue was interrupted by Monarch suddenly appearing in front of them.
“Use the rings to fight the Shade, Beat Warrior!” He excitedly yelled, ignoring Asa’s incredulous look. “Turn the rings so they face each other, clap your hands together, and say what comes into your mind!”
Asa looked at the rings and sighed, seeing no other way to do anything. Turning the rings so the heart gems faced each other, Asa glanced up first at Monarch’s beaming face then the horse creature, and clapped their hands together. A bright light burst from the rings as they hit together, and a phrase popped into Asa’s head.
“Hit the Beat! Transform!” Asa yelled out, causing the light to envelop them and lift them into the air. Snapping their fingers, fire covered them for a brief moment. As the fire and light subsided, Asa landed on the ground and struck a pose.
“The fiery passion, Beat Heart!” They called out, punching the air afterwards, causing a small blast of fire. After blinking a bit, Asa finally realized what had just happened. And finally realized what they were wearing.
The t-shirt and shorts they had been wearing had gone, and was replaced by a new outfit, consisting of a black short sleeved bodysuit that went down to their knees under an orange vest with heart-shaped gem buttons and a hood, a pair of red shorts that ended just above their knees, dark red fingerless gloves, and black boots. Looking in the window near them, they saw that their black hair was now a dark red, though it kept the same style, and had a red heart-shaped hair clip holding the right side of their bangs, as well as their gray eyes now being a reddish-orange color.
“You did it! You’re Beat Heart!” Monarch was now dancing around Beat Heart, the excitement in his voice having grown, which honestly was a surprise.
The two’s moment was shattered when the Shade roared again, and lashed out a hoof to crush them. Beat Heart grabbed Monarch and jumped, clearing the attack and managing to land on the roof of the nearby school building.
“Any suggestions on how to beat this thing?” Beat Heart asked, letting Monarch go now that they were relatively safer. “Use your powers or your weapon!” came the almost expected reply.
“Thanks, that’s really helpful,” Heart muttered under their breath even as they looked down at their hands, trying to think of a way to access anything that could help them with the Shade. A thought, one that didn’t seem quite their own, came into Heart’s head, and with no other solution to think of, they followed along with it.
Clapping their hands together, a red fire starts to form at their palms. Slowly, Heart begins to separate their hands, the fire starting to coalesce into what eventually looks like a handle sticking out of their left hand. Grabbing the handle, Heart gives it a twirl, resting the fire weapon on their shoulder, where the fire solidifies into a double edged axe about the same height as Heart.
The axe had a black handle with red, orange, and yellow fire designs along it, giving the appearance of snaking up the handle to the actual blades. The blades themselves were red, and shaped like hearts, with gold filigree designs. Overall, the blades looked incredibly sharp, and despite obviously weighing a lot, it felt like nearly nothing to Heart.
The moment of admiring the axe was over when the Shade let out another roar, this time accompanied by a large ball of shadows being shot at Heart. In a panic, Heart ended up swinging their axe as if it was a baseball bat, actually managing to hit the shadow ball back into the Shade, causing it to stagger and fall from the hit.
“I don’t think that’s how your weapon is supposed to be used…” Monarch commentated, staring at the Shade that was struggling to get back on its feet. Heart just shrugged.
“I can use the Heartbeat Axe however I want. My weapon, my rules,” Heart responded. “Now, be quiet, I want to end the Shade while it’s still down.”
“Raging Heart Inferno!” Heart shouted as they clapped their hands together, fire bursting to life around their hands. They made a heart shape with their hands, pointing it towards the Shade. The fire that had previously been around Heart’s hands immediately shot out towards the Shade as a heart-shaped pillar of flames, catching the Shade on fire. The Shade let out one more roar before bursting into a bright white light.
Once the light faded away, and Heart was finally able to see without black spots in their vision, the boy who had been the Shade was unconscious on the ground, and the damage to the school that the Shade made has been cleared, as if nothing had ever happened. Heart quickly jumped down to the ground, and just in time, as a flash of fire ended the transformation and Asa was left back in their normal appearance.
“We did it! We won!” Monarch shouted, dancing around Asa, who just looked as tired as they felt. “And now you need to help find the other Beat rings and the other Beat Warriors!”
That snapped Asa out of the exhausted trance they had fallen into, staring at Monarch in shock.
“I have to do what?!” Asa asked in surprise, Monarch stopping his dance to look at Asa.
“Well, as you have the Heart rings, you’ll be the leader of the team, which means you have to help find the others, and the rings I lost!” Monarch explained cheerfully, twirling in place and not noticing Asa’s face going pale.
Asa slumped against the closest wall and buried their head in their hands, exhaustion, shock, and surprise driving all thoughts but one out of their mind.
“What have I gotten myself into?”