1886/A Black Dome In Shiva

A Black Dome In Shiva
Date of Scene:	26 March 2015
Location:	Galianda
Synopsis:	A small dome village in Shiva is attacked by Heartless.
Cast of Characters:	Deelel, 385, 624, 626, 628, 629, 630, 633, 655, Starbound Flotilla

---

Aqua (624) has posed:
    Shiva is an awful, cold place.

    Endless plains of white snow, chilling and constant winds, broken only by the massive dome cities visible here, and there, and there too, technology from Ramuh making live in Shiva possible... by secluding people from the harsher elements in bubbles. Though Phoenix lights the sky, its heat barely reaches this continent. Dress warmly, you'll need it for the brief walk.

    The Warp Gate on the Great Span allows people to drop within a five minutes walking distance of the dome, which is much smaller than the larger cities here. Can't have nothing but massive structures; some clans, some warlords, prefer their holdings smaller. Dome villages, rather than cities.

    The entrance to this dome is a reinforced blast door; it hasn't been breached, so there's no other way in. They must have liked their privacy quite a bit.

    AQUA is waiting at the entrance of the dome, and is likely in the process of manually opening the blast door courtesy of her Keyblade by the time people show up. She's fully armored, for once, helmet and all, with the cape, likely because it's cold here, and she knows she's expecting a fight.

    From the outside, nothing looks unusual in the dome.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel had been curious about Galianda, she'd visited before and has become friends at least with Kyra. However after the incident at the festival when she first actually went there? She'd been kept away either by issues at home, dealing with the ISOs. Or not wanting to make things worse given the political situation there. However events have now conspired to bring her back here.

Deelel didn't seem to be bothered by the cold of Shiva, she feels it but she's not losing vital body heat an organic would she's just wearing her normal world wandering outfit, the body suit, the baggy pants, however to day she's got a long cloak on which is clearly grid tech.

"Heartless...?"

She recalls the one Aqua, she and others fought, she also recalls the one they found in Argon. Why was there another there? She banked her light jet descending towards the dome. Her jet turns into a wire frames. She also has a light staff in hand as she looks to Aqua, while puting the rod for the jet into her cloak somewhere.

"Greetings, Aqua. I'd been hoping to find you but now isn't the time for it? We got work to do don't we?"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
As luck would have it, Yuna was finishing up an autograph session a couple of worlds away from Galianda when the SOS went out; Elner picked up the distress call and made sure Yuna was ready for potential combat - by initiating her transformation before she could even change out of the dress she was wearing for the autographs.

Elner and Yuna emerge from a warpgate near the entrance to the dome, with Yuna already in her Light Suit and the Matrix Divider in her hands, while the little robo-faerie is flitting along next to Yuna's shoulder, sensors already running for whatever details can be gleaned. "Hey Deelel," Yuna greets the program with a grin and a wave; she hasn't met Aqua before, so she settles for a polite bow to the Keyblade-wielder, at least when Aqua can spare the attention in Yuna's direction.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    'Bleh politics' is Kyra's firm stance on that matter. She doesn't really care what sort of opinions the Shivans form of her presence here. The fact of the matter is she's fought these things before and knows that they can be a problem.

    Of course, Kyra's come dressed for the occasion, ditching the hoodie for a much thicker coat and a thick pair of goggles. She's also looped her supply belts and bandoliers outside of said coat as well. The CURE-ALL is already in her hands as she comes running up to the outside of the dome-looks like she's getting pretty good at hauling that heavy weapon around.

    "-oh, good luck hacking those things. Busting down one of their blast doors is-" Kyra's words die as if they were frozen in the air as she watches Aqua open the door with her Keyblade. "Oh. Awesome!"

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
Kamon is coming from the moon. It's a short jaunt compared to the Extraversals coming in. He doesn't need to spend long getting his stuff; he grabs a belt and bandolier full of items first and throws it on, and then his coat over that on the way out the door. The other Light Warriors would've heard the alarm. He'll meet any of them who can make it out there on the way.

The Odynari comes out of the warpgate and makes the five-minute walk a fair bit shorter by going at an even jog, unwilling to tire himself out before he even gets to the fight. He arrives at the front door and stops, spotting the people already assembled and the door already getting unlocked. He's got a plain-looking longsword in one hand, held by the scabbard just below the cross-guard. It doesn't look like he's about to stab anyone, but he does look rushed.

"We heard the alert. What's ther situation? Are we in yet?"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    God bless the COLD PROTECTION nanoskin. If the Starbounders didn't have that sort of thing, they'd be freezing their asses off, probably lethally. As it stands, they're all armored up now and trudging their way here: Moonfin, the fishman, is in elaborate full-body armor that looks like a cross between a diving suit and a samurai's armor. Biteblade, the humanoid plant, is in durasteel plating with elaborately carved wood and bone ornaments. Pavo the bird-girl wears a pirate-styled set of mesoamerican-style armor. Albert the monkey-man is wearing elaborate dystopian commando armor reconstructed with a 'rebel spy' aesthetic, George (just plain human) with a set of futuristic EVA-combat and exploration armor suit that glows a gentle blue, and Seft the robot wearing full-on medieval knight armor with a soft energized glow below its plates.

    Albert grunts at Kyra. "It is a key." He says, as he trudges his way to the front door. He says this as if it is perfectly logical. In a way, it is! "You there. With the key. Do you need assistance?" If Aqua needs any help getting in, Albert is going to order George to help out with one of his big slapped-together makeshift bombs, alongside some Matter Manipulator digging.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
Running alongside Kamon is Dominic. His normal attire suffices for Cold Weather so long as he's keeping physically active, so he doesn't have a special outfit on. His breath mists in the air as he jogs alongside the Odynari, "Well, I suppose this could potentially make Multiversals look good if they help out."

"But Shiva might take offense at it too," He ponders aloud, running over potential spins in his head: 'Extraverse natives shame shivans by robbing them of the honor of defending their domes' or something like that.

"Muh. We should just help where we can," He decides, stopping next to Kamon when he approaches the door. He echoes Kamon's sentiment, "My name is Dominic Masoch. I am here to help, if I am capable."

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan Sagittarius cheats. Many suspects him of this, everyday. He is a Thief, after all. Being a cheater, going around the rules, finding the other way in, holding a distracting piece of wood in somebody face and then kicking them in the groin is pratically what a Thief do. Today is no exceptions. He arrived a few kilometres away, landing into the snow as he usually does to travel, then usually hoofs it on the rest there by foot.

     He's still pretty fast. Soan arrives behind the party, covered in head to toe in a cheap-but-warm looking wool scarf, mittens, a nice long cloak, a toque(with a moogle pompom on the top), a snow suit for pants and nice boots.

     "Mmmhmmphmph." Soan greets appearing, looking over at Aqua... brandishing a key. Hahaha, oh, she think she can unloc--holy crap. She did. The door obeyed to her.

     A part of Soan is impressed. The other is indignated. He pull down his scarf a bit, to be able to speak. "I heard the alert, too." He comments, eyeing familiar people, including fellow Light Warriors -- and Aqua. "I guess we'll have to find out. Everyone, formations."

Aqua (624) has posed:
    For those curious, Aqua did in fact bop the blast door with a large key-shaped weapon, sparkles happened, and the door just yielded. Mostly. It's still a blast door and it's cold as hell, so it doesn't so much 'open' as 'cooperate'. There's a second blast door past a hallway which will get the same treatment; it's a airlock, after all. Don't want the cold winds and snow just blasting in everytime someone needs in or out.

    The wandering knight gives greetings to everyone as they arrive, mostly waves. Helmet's on and all, so.

    "I don't know what to expect," she answers those who ask about that, before shaking her head at Albert. "I've got this. I think. It would probably be bad if we damaged the doors or dome, these people seem to need it." It'll probably be the extent of her noteworthy participation here, though.

    With everyone gathered, entering the dome is easy. The blast doors can be closed behind people without a hassle. Inside the dome, the village appears much more rustic than the technological bubble implies. Huts, small houses. The village warlord's hut, very slightly larger, sits in the dead center of the place. There are guards everywhere-- these are obviously not friendly, welcoming Shivans. Most seem to be Fighters, maybe Berserkers, or Knights, basically people in thick armor wearing the colors of their little clan, white and green. They're just kind of standing there, though.

    They don't react to people coming in.

    They stare ahead, like in a trance.

    Aqua scratches the back of her helmet, which is kind of awkward in retrospect. "I don't... see anything out of place. Maybe the local chief would know what happened?" When in doubt, go to the biggest building? People can certainly go where they want.

    There's the barracks, the warlord's hut, the various random huts and houses, the inn, shop, blacksmith. It's a village, after all!

    Doesn't seem to be anyone but the soldiers, though.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
It's WAY too quiet, is Yuna's first thought, given that there was an S.O.S. coming out from here. "Elner, is that distress signal still transmitting?" she asks the robo-faerie. "See if you can home in on it - I hate to think we missed all of it ..."

She hefts the Matrix Divider, which resembles a high-tech hybrid of a sword and a (beam) rifle, and lets Elner home in on the distress call that led us here. If the S.O.S. *isn't* still broadcasting, then the chief's/warlord's hut does seem like the best place to start ... but finding the person who actually called for help is probably better than that. Presumably, they won't be in the clan's white-and-green colors, but you never know.

(She's also being careful that she doesn't accidentally point her weapon *at* anyone, ally or native or otherwise. She knows safe weapons-handling.)

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan Sagittarius, as soon the blast doors obey to whatever magic Aqua's keyblade is bringing to bear, have a subtle, but significant reaction. There is a faint grimace, before he pull his scarf tightly around his nose and mouth once more. The smell of things hit him like a truck, as if opening a particularly bad box of eggs forgotten in the back of the fridge for a year or two.

     "I can tell you what's wrong." Soan replies, after he recovered his voice. His helmet usually helps with raw stench like this. Having a hyper sensitive nose is not always a good thing. The scarf has to do for now. "It's that they're not screaming at us for opening the blast door."

     Soan gives Kamon, Kyra and Dominic a look, nodding at them. "Yeah. Let's take a look around."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Just because it /looks/ like a key doesn't mean it /is/ one." Kyra razzes Albert as he lumbers past her to join Aqua at the door. She continues waiting, in fact, for more people to venture forwards though she herself seems to gravitate towards her fellow Light Warriors-that is Kamon, Dominic, and Soan.

    Though she doesn't want to admit it out loud, Dominic is right about the spin, knowing what she does and what she's seen about Shiva's politics so far. "If they take offense, I think that means the problem is /them/." Kyra says flippantly, her tone revealing just where she thinks Shiva can stick its politics.

    Kyra follows inside, one hand already reaching for one of her flasks of liquid napalm. But once in, she looks around in confusion, not seeing a single Heartless present. "Well this is...um. Unusual. Yeah. Usually someone would be chewing us out for coming in uninvited by now. So Yuna will track the signal...the rest of us can look around?" Clearly she doesn't like the thought of splitting up but splitting up as groups was completely okay. "Or try talking to someone."

    Kyra actually attempts the latter-but not without waving a hand in front of a surly-looking warrior's face first. "Uhh...hi?"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks over to Yuna for a moment and nods her head a little bit.

"Greetings Yuna."

She turns to see Kyra for a moment then to Aqua as she watches the keyblade.

"It seems I have no need for light charges today."

She's also grinning at Kyra.

"Good to see you and ah Kamon. Heartless from the sounds of it."

She looks over to see some of the Starbounders arriving she nods a bit to Albert and George as they arrive. Moonfin, biteblade and Pavo get noticed as well. She also notices the arrival of Soan who seems to be ready for things too. Dominic gets a nod.

"I think any aid with this is going to be welcome."

She enters the dome just after Aqua and wonders nothing seems wrong, and this alone in and of it self worries her a lot.

"We likely should but there's something about this that has me on edge. I suggest we remain on our guard."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Weapons ready." Albert says, aggressively. The Starbound Flotilla draw their motley assortment of very gently glowing melee weapons; a katana for Moonfin, a cutlass for Pavo, and some kind of powered baton for George, all glowing, Meanwhile Seft is drawing a Mojave-style laser pistol, Biteblade has a powerful, ultramodern compound bow, and Albert has a hefty single-shot grenade launcher.

    They take positions at the door they just entered and examine the environment. "Keep those operatives who are investigating covered. We should have all local security on us for breaching the main defensive bottleneck, and we do not." The monkeyman orders the Starbounders into a protective array that's meant to keep a position secure against potential assault from within the dome, but also to be able to immediately open fire if something threatens those who are heading further on to investigate. The Starbounders aren't planning on getting caught in the obvious trap or triggerable fight here, and so they intend to be prepared if someone else does...

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
    "Ah shit, I know how this is going to get spinned," Dominic admits to Kyra, taking a rare moment to swear as he does so. He looks to her and then flatly says, "'Ramuh Unable to Protect Dome. Extraversal Invasions Worsen.'" He sighs, unhappy he can actually predict an accurate headline like that.

    Dominic's plan of action as the doors open is to fall in with Soan and Kyra's ongoing plan: Look around and stick with the group, "Kyra. I want you to be ca-" He cuts off when she's waving her hand in front of a warrior's face, "That's... not healthy. Maybe give him an examination for a sickness?" He suggests to the white mage.

    His hand falls to the hilt of his sword, gripping it defensively in case something goes wrong.

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
"We'll just have to do what we can to keep them from getting offended, I guess," Kamon asides to Dominic, a little awkwardly. How do you keep the alternatingly traditional and progressive warlords from getting pissed at every little thing?

Dominic's problem, he supposes, and moves on.

Kamon moves in with the other Light Warriors and is immediately struck by how weird this whole situation is. He expected fighting, and carnage. There is neither. "Uh... huh." He glances at the monkey Starbounder. "Yeah. Nobody looks like they're ready to yell at us, so..." He trails off, frowning. Soan gives him a little bit of intel about then, and he's put more on-guard.

Struck by sudden curiosity, Kamon heads to the nearest house. Something that looks residential. There are only soldiers, but there should be a bunch of people. "Hello? Anyone here?"

Aqua (624) has posed:
    Additional dome information: the inside is only slightly warmer than the outside. The construction looks a bit shody-- further inspection would show this isn't QUITE Ramuhan technology but a Shivan offshoot, attempt to replicate, or just a warlord who threatened or paid a machinist into trying to build his own dome because GOD DAMNIT IF THE RAMUHANS CAN MAKE DOMES SO CAN WE. It doesn't look like it'll fall apart or anything but it's definitely more fragile-looking than a real domed city should look.

    The SOS can be tracked to a radio just near the town square. It's on the ground, still transmitting, evidently dropped in the commotion. There are plenty of traces of fighting, claw marks in the walls, ground and hut fabrics, the countless tiny footprints of the Heartless in the very light layer of snow. No blood or corpses, though.

    The guard does not respond to Kyra.
    Nor does he have life signs.
    Though standing, the body is limp. She could grab his arms and flail them around if she wanted, the guy might as well be asleep standing up.

    Kamon intrudes in a residence. It's eerily quiet and empty, with the furniture broken in pieces from large claw and teeth marks. No sign of the owners, although there's likely some goods to plunder. A few potions, some food, arbitrary personal belongings and clothes, gil.

    Aqua sticks with the group, unwilling to risk splitting up.

    It wouldn't be too difficult for Soan to smell the largest quantity of 'wrong' around is in the warlord's hut.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "H-hey, I know what I'm doing!" Kyra says as Dominic extorts her to be careful, growing flustered. With no response to her question, Kyra DOES get to something a bit more examination-related, pulling out a tiny penlight and leaning up to check to see if the guard's pupils dialate.

    They don't. Kyra checks for a pulse. He has none. Kyra backs away.

    "This man is dead." Kyra announces with some shock. "...but he's not /undead/ and I know my undead."

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
    "I never said you did not know what you were doing," Dominic clarifies to Kyra when she gets flustered, "This has all the signs of an ambush." He says, leaning in to inspect the guard on his own, "Non-responsive guard, abandoned city, distress call."

    He looks to the girl, "I am just worried about you, okay? I know you can do your Job. But what if he had attacked you or something?" He points out, scowling when she declares him dead.

    He taps the man on the chest a few times, trying to see if he falls over or something, "Dead, but not undead. Are there any diseases that could do such a thing?" He asks of the medical professional.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna studies the fallen radio where it lies for a moment, then looks around the area. Whoever dropped it, if they left tracks, probably had those same tracks obscured in the course of the fighting. Yuna's not really a tracker type anyway - she wouldn't be able to tell whose footprints are whose, except for 'shoes' vs. 'claws' in the snowy imprints.

The report that all of the guards who were standing around are actually dead sends a chill down her spine while she's trying to figure out what to do - a chill that has nothing to do with the snow-covered surroundings; while she's not all that comfortable, the chill is kept at bay by her Light Suit's power, even though her thighs and her upper arms are essentially bare. "Elner, start scanning for life signs - all of them, and let us know if there's anyone that you can't account for from among the responders," she says to her robo-faerie companion.

While Elner's doing that, Yuna carefully picks up the fallen radio and tries to turn off the S.O.S. There's no point in letting the battery run down, after all: if anyone is left to rescue here, the rescuers are on-site too.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     It is becoming increasingly clear to Soan what whatever has been doing this is very dangerous. Whatever caused people to die, staring in empty space, at their /post/, is a big thing. Dangerous. He's going to need some artillery.

     The Thief makes a decision, looking about, his eyes riveted on the Warlord's Hut. This is where everything is at. Survivors... are not likely to be there. If there is any, it'll be around in other huts. "I'll go look around." Soan says, pulling down his scarf for a moment looking at the assembled people. "If there is any disease that do this, Dominic, well, I hope it's not contagious after it's done it's thing. I'll take a look about."

     Then, Soan vanishes. It's not strictly magic, or even something supernatural, but if he don't want to be see, well, he's not going to be seen. He goes look into another house, getting himself still in sight of the group -- he'll need a little isolation later, if things explodes as he fear they will.

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
Kamon comes out of the residence. He doesn't look terribly happy. (He leaves the stuff inside behind.)

"These 'Heartless,'" Kamon says, looking over at Deelel. He starts heading towards the warlord's hut at a fast walk. "Can they do something like this? Is this something you've seen before, somewhere else?" He caught the name, and he's heard it before, too. It's an eerie one, that's for sure.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks about the town she gets it's a bit lower tech but it's still functional, hey if it works right? She however pause s they find the radio. There's no body but she doesn't expect one to be honest. She looks about and now has a bar in hand, it shortly expands into a full out staff.

"So one dead at his post humm the Heartless don't leave bodies. They went up in a puff of smoke when I fought them before."

She's not been at an actuall successful attack so she has no idea about the nature of successful attack.

"They struck Afterus and focused on the population of an small villiage, one was ... for lack of a better term blocking the way to my home world in the cybercore."

She gestures to Aqua.

"She's more of an expert than I am."

Still there was something about these things, she saw them in a vision once and felt like she knew them on some level. Or that they knew her? It was hard to put into words and had troubled her ever since.

She does however seem to be moving to keeping alert, and looking to shadows, looking for the baleful gold glow that might give away a heartless lurking in the dark.

"Aqua? You got any ideas about this?"

Aqua (624) has posed:
    ~MOMENTS AGO~
    Xion's blade slams into the cold, icy blade-hand of the large humanoid Heartless inside the chief's hut. At ten foot tall and covered in armor, the former warlord is unusually agile, using one of its two large knives to block, before zipping to the side rapidly.

    It stands there staring, yellow eyes the only feature of the black humanoid under that grey and blue steel. It becomes blurry, its speed kicking in! Here it comes!

    ~NOW~

    As Dominic taps the guard, he... remains motionless. There is only the slightest amount of resistance present, the bare minimum needed to remain standing when pushed or shoved, even gently. Dominic is an expert fencer though; he can tell, this body's balance is... not normal. It's not actually standing on its feet at all. Is that a string, atop the helmet? A tiny, tiny string, like spider silk.

    Phoenix shines in the sky, and only now does its light shine in just the right angle that the spider web becomes visible, briefly. It's massive, located right over the warlord's hut, reaching out for the guards.

    Aqua shakes her head. "I'm not sure. Usually the Heartless just consume people whole. They're... clean, I guess you'd say."

    Breaking the silence, the door to the chief's hut suddenly bursts open, as XION is hurled into it and out of the building from the inside. Through it, one can see the Chill Ripper, the black, yellow-eyed humanoid in full armor, its hands replaced by obviously ice-themed knives.

    This causes the guards to shudder, and then fall over. Black mist and liquid spews out of them, as the Heartless form from their shadows and the corpses dissipate. There's several dozens of them, pitch black humanoids, same bright yellow eyes, in various degrees of armor (there's some knights, berserkers, archers, soldiers).

    And the last attraction, a massive black, red and green spider, with a large pair of yellow eyes, perching itself atop the hut. Someone went and triggered the trap, and now you're surrounded.

Xion (630) has posed:
    In a shower of splinters, Xion crashes through the warlord's hut, her keyblade sent spinning off behind her as she lands on the ground, eats pavement, and bounces.

    It's not graceful. She's cut up, bloody, and looks like she was put through the wringer. She comes to a parabolic rest in a black-coated pile, a bloody sprawl on the pavement, before slowly peeling herself up. "You're going to give me what you stole!" She announces, though weakly, and drags herself to her feet, calling her keyblade to her hand in a blink and a metallic 'shwing'. "You're going to give me what I need!" She yells, desperately, at the Heartless-turned-Warlord. Or... wait, no. Strike that. Reverse it.

    It is then, and only then, when she percieves the other people around her. "S-stay back! It's dangerous. I'm fine, but...!" She calls, before seeing the armored Aqua.

    She doesn't know it's Aqua. But she does see the keyblade.

    "You can't! I need it! I need that... that /thing/ alive! Mostly. I need /that/ part of it!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Naturally enough, the sound of a door getting broken open by a body flying through it snaps Yuna's attention away from the radio and directly to the hut; as she's doing that, the Soldier types are slowly manifesting - and Yuna has an inkling of how the fight must have gone. The Heartless invaded or infected the people they found here, possibly ... whether they were incubating, or just hiding while feeding, or whatever--

Then she spots movement further up, and lifts her gaze to see the Venom Spider perched atop the hut.

"KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! DON'T COME OVER HERE!!!"

... and immediately *freaks the hell out*, screaming and opening fire, bolts of concussive radiant force leaping from the Matrix Divider's muzzle as quickly as she can pull the trigger. At least her aim is pretty consistently at the Venom Spider, so her allies shouldn't be in any danger - unless they try to engage the spider in melee while Yuna's shooting at it, or something like that.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "A..aww. Yeah, I know that, Dominic. But with all these people here, I guess I'm feeeling pretty safe? But still, I've got a bad feeling about this-in my professional medical opinion, if this guy is dead he should not be standing like that unless something else is holding him up. Maybe one of those Heartless got inside him? I've seen them melt into shadows before." At this point, Kyra puts away her penlight and takes out her phone, recording some video of the dead man standing. The commotion of the guard hut makes her swing around that way, inadvertantly showing Xion being thrown clear of the guard hut by the Chill Ripper. Her attention diverts back to the guard and Kyra gets the chance to witness the birth of the Heartless from the dead man. "Ooooh shit, there was one inside him....there's one in all of them, oh shit!"

    Later her video will show that this is th epoint where it gets super shakey-cam, briefly showing the Venom Spider off in the distance before ending as Kyra puts her phone away and backs off. Her now freed hand flickers as she chants, moving behind Dominic at the very least, though with the guards everywhere finding suitable cover is difficult.

    "Protectga!" she finishes, the last syllable emphasized with force. The white magic fortunately functions correctly, spreading the physical damage-reducing spell out to /everyone/ here that's come to fight Heartless. Everyone.

Roxas (629) has posed:
    A smoky black portal billows up out of the ground several yards away from the warlord's hut. A figure steps out of it, all clad in a long black coat, a pair of metal chains clinking against its chest. Ordinarily this would all be incredibly ominous and probably a good sign of who is responsible for this mess, but as often occurs when ROXAS shows up, he just comes off as the awkward teenager he is. Mostly.

    The first thing he does is rifle around in his pockets and then chuck a POTION at Xion, which is of course the most appropriate way to deliver some kind of healing to an ally. By chucking it whole in its bottle at them as hard as possible. After he's through ATTEMPTING to make sure that Xion doesn't just drop dead, that's when the gesticulating and complaints start coming.

    "Aw, c'mon Xion, give me a break! You can't keep taking off like this!" Roxas summons his Keyblade to hand with a distinctive ringing *CHNK*, moving over to stand near Xion and help defend her. There's some pretty big targets out here (and lots more besides), but he figures that Xion is in more need of defending than those things are in need of being busted up.

    He keeps complaining as he takes up a battle stance next to the girl, "Saix is going to have a fit at us if we keep splitting up! Did I make you mad, or something...?"

    More likely, they keep ending up "separated" for the same reason Xion doesn't really want Aqua around. Whatever's going on, Roxas is too clueless to wrap his head around it without being filled in pretty directly. Oh well.

Xion (630) has posed:
    Xion gets POTIONED in the FACE. The glass bottle shatters! GLASS GETS EVERYWHERE IN HER FACE!

    But it's okay because it's a potion, and with a little shwing, the glass falls away and her bleeding face wound clears up. Thanks, kinetically delivered potions!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The Starbounders, thankfully, stayed at the door. They're not surrounded, they're containment, presumably. While there's not many, they're a cohesive squad. Without a single moment of delay, they get to work. George sweeps his Matter Manipulator in clean motions, drawing in large quantities of the snow and immediately reforming them into extremely, EXTREMELY primitive terrain advantage formations. Meanwhile, George, Biteblade, and Seft all open fire shortly after performing a powerful ENERGY LEAP onto the higher structures, concentrating on the massive SPIDER, hearing and acknowledging Xion's request for now, without asking why. Albert has a heravy, explosive grenade launcher, Biteblade has large EXPLOSIVE ARROWS, and Seft employs searing beams of laser weaponry!

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
    Dominic's sword is out in a flash as the guard turns into some manner of Heartless monster. The shimmering blade of Mithril is brought up and held tightly in Dominic's right hand, "A trap! It goes to figure." He remarks, a bit sad that this man either died or was never alive to begin with.

    As Kyra films and moves behind Dominic for cover, he shifts his footing and holds the blade tightly. He holds off on any fancy Fencer Techniques for the moment, opting instead to just try to strike at the Heartless that came from the soldier closest to them with his Rapier.

    "Perhaps they're vulnerable to Holy," He remarks to Kyra in a calm tone, immediately going into his professional stance, "They are very resembling towards dark or unholy beings, are they not?" He asks to her.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     It's like clockwork. Soan goes away, hidden from the group to do some 'reconnaisance', everything starts exploding when he is away. Xion bursting out of the Chieftain's hut is not unnoticed, neither are the various guards ripping out into the shape of the Heartless. The stench. That's what it was. It was them, within the poor people's shapes. Wearing their skin. Corrupting from within. It's time to bring the righteous countermeasure, he feels. He trust his friends to be fine, but it's no reason to not do what he can to help.

     Soan removes a mitten, clasping the dragon amulet from beneath his layers of clothing. He pushes himself out of view, behind several huts and covered enough, he feels. He takes a deep breath, then squeezes on the artifact.

     "By the Wisdom and the Might of the Dragons, May thine light of all the world be shone upon all." Soan casts, a shimmering, burning flames bursting forth from his amulet covers him. It crackles ferociously, drowning the young man's body to only leave his face uncovered. He can feel the tremendous strength underlying, nutured over years of training, surging outward and reacting with the amulet, giving shape and form to the quickly solidifing lava over his body.

     Molten rubies covers his hands, strenghtening into a thick, always moving current of energy. Obsidian solidifies, urged foward by coursing lightning. When things starts getting loud, Soan leaps upward in the dome. Even if it is a tiny dome, comparatively, it still has quite the, excuse the term, 'skysphere' to it.

     Spectral steel solidies above the obsidian, leaving behind in it's wake a stylized, dangerous full plate armo, lovingly crafted to evoke something dangerous, inhuman, draconic. A Greatspear materialize into his hand, with the magma forming over his head to set into the shape of an helmet as he reach the arc of his jump.

     As he plummet downward, a feet firmly stamped on the back end of the spear's back edge, held with both hands, he intones as he aims for the gigantic spider.

     "BY THE SKIES ABOVE THE SKY!"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Meanwhile, at a slightly lower step, the melee Starbounders are trying to ensure that the Soldiers don't get near. Moonfin and Pavo, particularly, will engage any that close in on them with their bladed weapons, which are using a variety of complicated energy technologies to enhance their cutting and blocking power alongside Kyra's useful enhancements. George takes the ground floor, attempting to establish more mobile tactics; if anyone wants to link up with their more defensible position, they'll be guided. Kyra, for example, gets a shout from Albert: "/Do not/ let them surround you! We've a defended position, Kyra, get here if they begin closing!"
    Dominic gets a shout from George. "Hey guy! Melee mountain's this way if you need your back covered! Don't let 'em get in the surrounding formations and all while you're meatshielding, right?"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel there's a twitch inside Deelel for lack of a bette rterm as the Heartless bust their way in? Her staff is held out and both ends power up humming, egerised like her id Disc often is. She seems ready to fight at Xion she frowns she wonders why b ut she's got more things to worry about. Like the heartless here, she's going to worry about taking these viri down. Seriously if her guess is right? These Heartless are a Userspace Virus. She throws off the cloaks which vanishes into wireframes then nothing.

"Kyra give us what support you can, this won't be easy."

Then Roxas makes himself known his back up is welcome she looks up to him for a moment.

She pauses for a moment and then there it comes. Dragoon Man has appeared she pauses for half a second at his arrival.

"That would be logical Dominic give it a try, they didn't like my light disc or staff last time!"

She flips into the air with her staff in hand, she flips into the air and lands closer to the thing that used to be the warlord.

"Hey ugly! You want some of this?!"

She may end up bouncing about the battle zone but for now she's going after it hopefully She strikes several times with the powered end of her staff trying to get it's attention.

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
Several things happen, one after another. It's kind of how things go when linear time is involved. They don't always involve this much creepy smoke and monsters made of killing ink, though.

Kamon gets his only-kinda-helpful answers right before things go straight to hell. He draws the sword he's carrying -- straight blade, double-edged -- and gets ready to use it, scanning the interior of the dome to check the position of the Heartless as they spawn. He just needs to know where they are in relation to him so he doesn't get 100% blindsided. Kamon takes a breath --

A somewhat blank, "Xion?" replaces his normal kiai. He recognizes the Definitely A Dark Knight Honest And For Truly, Definitely, and, "Is that a giant spider? Man, I hate spiders --" He glances over his shoulder. He's nearer the two black-coated types than his party. He'll make it work. "Dominic, keep them off Kyra!"

Kamon jumps forward, coming at one of the Soldiers with a heavy downward slash of that terribly plain sword of his. He keeps the metal and leather scabbard in his left hand and strikes with the actual sword in his right. Maybe he can parry with it in a pinch? "Keep together and back up; we shouldn't be this far ahead," he says, speaking in Xion and Roxas' general direction.

This would be easier to judge if he could see what they could do on some kind of /party screen/.

Aqua (624) has posed:
    Aqua is very confused. Why is Xion so...
    Well, what does she want from a Heartless? Out of a desire not to anger her, she'll actually stay back for now. Her Keyblade shines with a bright white light, and she shoots it up overhead, where the light pulses and then blasts towards everyone else.

    Where Kyra gives everyone PROTECT, Aqua gives everyone HASTE. Delicious, delicious buffs.

    Yuna immediatly opens fire on the Venom Spider; the shot pelts its somewhat sturdier front, leaving scorch marks and visibly angering the beast.

    Dominic stabs one of the soldiers; its melts into a puddle of shadows, presumably dead. One down, fifty to go! These aren't very sturdy, at least in a direct contest.

    Soan disappears. He will, sadly, not bear witness to DRAGOON MAN's heroism, which is a damn shame. The MYSTERIOUS HERO slams onto the spider's back, spear lodging itself into the beast. It shrieks, but it's quite the tough creature.

    To Deelel and Dominic, Aqua confirms: "Light and holy will hurt them, they're creatures of darkness!" If their appearance wasn't enough to guess.

    Deelel leaps past Xion and Roxas to engage the Chill Ripper; her staff strikes smash into the knives of the former warlord, the Heartless evidently skilled-- and fast. But Deelel wanted to distract it, and that's mission accomplished.

    The Starbounders split up; ranged attacks add to the damage caused by Yuna, lasers and explosives scorching but not gibbing the large spider. It grows visibly angrier, thanks to its expressive humanoid face.

    Moonfin, Pavo (and George?) will find their weapons useful in cutting the soldiers up, especially as they start swaming in like ants. Cutting the Heartless isn't too difficult, though it's hard to say if they're dying or melting into black mud to reform later.

    Kamon discovers much the same. The soldiers are grunts. Dangerous in large numbers (and to normal people), but picked apart one by one, they're pretty average. Nothing is left on his sword either, no blood, no black goop.

    With the hive thoroughly agitated, the counterattacks start rolling in. The MELEE STARBOUNDERS, KYRA, DOMINIC, AQUA and KAMON are getting swarmed by the soldiers, who swing swords, shields, axes and their claws, trying to pile in like this is a football match. The RANGED STARBOUNDERS and YUNA are the target of the spider's fury, as it unleashes a green-ish, sickly, poisonous breath-laser towards them. DRAGOON MAN has to play rodeo with the thing, as it tries to shake him off its back by hopping to another rooftop and making a lot of abrupt, jerking movements. Finally, DEELEL gets the Chill Ripper to charge straight at her, with blinding speed at that. XION and ROXAS, being directly behind DEELEL, are going to have to move too, most likely.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Wellll I'll just have to try-make sure they don't get to me." Kyra says hastily, checking behind her as Albert starts to shout, indicating he and his own's position as a safe space for the remaining living people in the dome (that is...them). "Alright Albert, we copy!"

    Aqua is happy to confirm what Dominic suggested, leading Kyra to immedaiately start capitalizing on the opportunity. Fortunately, this bit of magic of hers seems to be functional as well, if slower than the others. It isn't long before a glowing-white spellcircle opens up on the ground as if it were the targeting sight for a blast from above. Turns out that this is exactly the case because once the spell finishes, a massive beam of holy energy drops from the shell of the dome as if it had passed through it from the sky. The dome itself remains unbroken, though.

    The holy energy will harm the approaching Heartless but it will not do anything to the non-Heartless people here-unless they happen to secretly be evil demons or something like that.

    "Look!" Kyra points out dramatically because she damn well loves doing this, "It's /Dragoon Man/!" A small 'eep' escapes her as she quickly angles herself towards the defensive position of the Starbounders while remaining around Dominic, leery of any gaps that would enable to Heartless to cut her off from either.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
Yuna actually does own a shield which would be really handy right about now ... except that she's too busy freaking out and lavishing her version of beamspam on the spider to actually call Shugoseiheki out of her inventory, at least not in time to do much good. She DOES break off her trigger-pulling and try to 'parry' the breath-laser with the Matrix Divider, though.

This only works to the extent that, instead of getting solidly nailed by the spider's ranged attack, Yuna is instead flung head-over-heels off her feet with a shriek that combines ongoing entomophobia* with abrupt pain, and ends up with her half-buried in a snowdrift.

On the plus side, the shock and the cold of the snowdrift help shake Yuna out of her terrified state, and she actually thinks to ask her allies if the spider has any useful weak points. Pending an answer, she extracts herself from the snow far enough to resume shooting - fighting back another surge of fearful aversion, and trying to aim more specifically for things like the spider's eyes. It can't spit venom so well if it's blind, right? ... or at least, while it can spit, it won't be able to *aim* as well. Hopefully.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
    Dominic is less focused on overt offensive actions and more on a defense-oriented sort of attacking. As a DPS-Dodge-Tank in this scenario, assigned as such by Kamon, a lot of his effort is more towards intercepting any Heartless that may try to move towards Kyra as she shifts her position on the battlefield.

    Because she's the healer and the logistical crux (Being a giant bucket of holy magic) of a lot of his plans, she actually tends to be the one that most dictates positioning in these scenarios. She moves towards the defensive position of the Starbounders and Dominic moves with her easily.

    Any Soldiers that move in towards them as they go, Dominic strikes at with flicks of his nimble blade. He does stop to echo Kyra, "Oh wow, it is. Truly he's a hero to people of all nations! Admirable!" Dominic says loudly.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel Says "Understood!"

She calls out to Aqua, well she's suited to help with that, isn't she? Before she can do another strike? She feels like she's being over clocked, the haste spell has taken effect and well? Deelel's really moving now almost blurring a little bit with her movements as she's now trying to help Xion, and Roxas with the Chill Ripper. She scores a hit, and she noticed she's managed to distract it. Hopefully Xion and Roxas can do whatever they need to do here.

"I'll try to keep it busy but be quick about what you need from this thing!"

She's now got the Chill Ripper coming right at her, she leaps with everything she's got, trying to get out of harms way. She also hopes Roxas and Xion can get out of the way.

IF she evades unharmed she's going assault the heartless from behind with several staff strikes, some will have the powered tip, others will not, but the point is to keep it after her, right?

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Rodero is a lost art in Gallianda. Horses are not nearly as tamed, Chocobos are nearly extinct, left to the rich to keep. DRAGOON MAN has difficulties of staying on the bucking spider beast. Still, better him than anybody else here attracting it's attention and ire. Gritting beneath his helmet, Soan holds on the best he can through the shaking of the spider monster. His finger slips from one hand, remaining dangling holding dear to life with his other holding the firmly stuck spear.

     "It's no use to resist, foul creature!" Soan's voice, disorted by several layers of reverb, maskings and raw draconic armor-making bullshit he can't even explain himself, echoes through the air as he's dragged over the rooftops. He heaves on himself to grasp his spear again, feet gracelessly flailing in the air to gain a grip on it's leg, succeeds, then use the brief seconds he has of stability to drive the spear deeper into the carapace.

     Then he twists, taking in a deep breath, light pouring out of his hands into his weapon, coursing through it like flames -- with the end destination the wound he created.

     "BY THE LIGHT, BE PURGED, CHAOS SPAWN!"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The Starbounders are good with melee combat. But their equipment is still only recently up to par. With new corporate backing they were able to rush out some durasteel weaponry, but it's not enough. Jarring impacts against Moonfin's katana and Pavo's cutlass cause the Starbounders to lose endurance and suffer heavy, unsettling impacts to the arms and shoulders, and occasional strikes might get through, slamming brutally against armor. But they're a lot better now, these days, and they're working in great cohesion. And they're cutting down a lot. Whether they'll come back is another matter. The first step to killing something immortal permanently is to kill it once.

    George finishes off the fortifications of sorts and gets back to work, cutting a path for Kyra and Dominic to take to the Starbounders, and the Starbounders themselves making a concentrated effort to ensure that the pair go unflanked. This also reinforces their own lines a bit, so thank goodness. Now they have another swordsman and some heavy artillery!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Meanwhile, the three at the top suffer some damage. Biteblade is particularly vulnerable to acidic attacks, and as such, after the first blast of laser-breath, the poisoned Floran is shoved to cover by Albert and Seft. The latter is immune to poison, and as such becomes the primary tank for Albert, who only has the most mild resistance. Biteblade, of course, does the thing a Floran should logically do when dealing with a bout of any kind of wounding, poisoning, or similar injury: Immediately eat someone. They're going to try to put their bow away, draw their blades, and pounce one of the soldiers, intending to brutally rip off and devour an arm. This is likely as anything else to fail, unfortunately, turning to gross muck and falling out of their mouth if they can manage to take one down in the first place. This leaves the Flotilla's most effective combatant at about half efficiency permanently.

    Shiiiiiit.

    WELL, no matter. The Floran shifts to the melee team, unable to sustain more of that damage, while Seft presents a more direct challenge to the spider, being an attacker immune to the breath weapons it's firing. She's responding with yet another volley of laser fire from one hand while Albert hands off his grenade launcher for her to fire from the other. It's mildly badass, but only really mildly.

Xion (630) has posed:
    Xion is buffed, and generally people support her instruction to leave the Chill Whatever to her. That Emblem Heartless has something she wants. But, as people charge in, challenging the beast, her expression both grim and frustrated. "We have to defeat the chaff, but... Light won't work on the Emblem Heartless! Not permanently..." She grits her teeth, bringing up her blade and dodging out of the way of the oncoming attack, supported at range by the Starbounders, magically by Kyra, and martially by all present. And people listen to her.

    Sort of.

    And so, Xion leaps into action herself. "Sorry, Roxas. But I had to! There's no other way I'll do this. There's no other good way to get them. Short of..." Xion trails off. She looks like she has a stomach ache.

    "Just... Don't get in my way! I'll take what I need, and then you can deal with the rest, Roxas! They're all Emblem Heartless, so... I'll..."

    She looks around, a bit distraught (again, like she has a stomacheache - sick, not emotionally conflicted) - before charging off again.

    Xion is reckless. And there's another problem. Compared to most people in the room...

    Xion isn't that strong, either, and her charge is inexpert and foolish.

    There's a lot of hutzpa in it, though. Or perhaps simple lack of fear. Because Xion is fearless!

    She's also pretty -less in a lot of other ways, but as she tries to swing her keyblade into the Warlord's Dark Heart, she lets out a little yelp. Frustration? Maybe.

Roxas (629) has posed:
    "But..."

    Roxas skirts out of the way of the charge directed at Deelel, which will most likely carry right on past and into him if she doesn't stop it somehow. He's not certain how she might go about accomplishing that, but he's not actually going to chance it. His first reflex is to follow after Xion, which is exactly what he does, intent on assisting her endeavour here. He is forced to stop short, however, when he realizes that there's nothing he can actually do that won't result in the Heart of any of these creatures being released and lost.

    If Xion wants to perform her experiment, he's got to just stand back and let it happen.

    So that's what he does, planting the tip of his Keyblade in the ground and resting both of his hands on the hilt, observing intently. If there's -really- a need for it, he'll jump in. But if it's really just a matter of stealing Hearts from the Heartless directly... wouldn't that be worth it?

    He's pretty sure it won't work that way. As long as Xion is okay after this is through, though, it can't hurt to try it.

    Standing there, looking vaguely regal in his resting pose, Roxas looks over towards Aqua. He frowns at the sensation that races through him. It's not new, he's felt it every time he's looked at her. It's frustrating, a self-sustaining loop that cuts off midway through getting anywhere. The information is there, but the bridges don't exist in his mind.

    He lifts his shoulders in a great shrug, to indicate to Aqua that he's got no idea what his fellow black coat is up to.

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
Kamon feels the spells settle on him and knows what they are immediately. He's practiced enough to know the feeling of Haste, and a solid Protect has a visual flair to it. It'll help more than a little. The trick, he finds, is knowing how to use them to their full effect.

His sword passes through the Soldier like it was made of cardboard. It goes right through, passing between armor plates and exiting the other side of the thing's body. It melts down into black sludge, and his weapon is... clean? That, more than anything, strikes Kamon as strange. Did he actually kill it, or did it just evade him by discorporating?

Dozens more pile in all at once. Kamon's thoughts are interrupted by a surge of violence. The Soldiers use whatever they have at hand, getting in close and using numbers and brute force over finesse. Kamon, buffed and armed with something that isn't absolutely awful, decides it's time for a workout.

The first Soldier that crosses his path does it in a leap, single-bit axe raised up. Kamon lowers his center of gravity and swings up and out, bisecting it neatly, the two pieces liquefying before it gets near him. It turns back into smoke and inky liquid, and the Hasted Odynari takes a step to the left and swings his arm back the other way, cutting down a second Soldier on the backswing. The remains fall around him; he steps between the two, right into the horde.

More Heartless crowd in. Kamon blocks a high slash from one and kicks the legs out from under another, shoving the first back and splitting the helmet of a third with a pommel strike. The kicked Heartless claws at his ankles, and he dances away, magically-augmented speed carrying him just out of reach for a second and back in to stomp on its wrist, or what passes for one. Kamon finishes it with a quick cut, the limb beneath his foot collapsing into black mud just in time for him to get tackled by the second.

The Parivir hits the ground, rotating enough to turn the fall into a roll. He ends up on top of the Soldier, the shell-like Protect flaring up when it tries to dig its claws into him. He drives the scabbard into the thing's eye -- his sword is suddenly tied up against a sword-wielding one coming in from the side -- and jumps back up as it abruptly ceases being solid. He's got his feet back under him, rounding on the others and straightening out his footwork.

Kamon exhales, inhales again. He takes in the battlefield. The Extraversals fighting in formation have things handled. Kyra and Dominic are working with them; Dragoon Man is here, so either way they're fine. The people with the weird weapons are doing okay, they must've fought these before. Xion looks like she needs help. He should head that way. That other guy...

"Hey, you!" Kamon yells. He's looking at you, Roxas. "Are you gonna use that thing," he points the scabbard at the Keyblade, turning the gesture into a crescent slash with the sword in his other hand, "or are you just gonna stand there and waste space?!"

Aqua (624) has posed:
    Kyra calls down holy light, with expected results. The light sears and burns away the Heartless that try to get too close, causing significant damage and putting a large holy in the swarm of soldiers. Never anger a decent White Mage if you're weak to light-elemental damage.

    Yuna lands a shot in the spider's right eye; it looks positively pissed now, and has lost its depth perception. If only it had eight eyes, like a real spider.

    Dominic's blade, while it's no Holy spell, isn't any less effective and tearing the shadows apart-- well, skewering them and causing them to poof into black mist and/or goop.

    Deelel might get grazed, if anything at all, by the icy blades of the Chill Ripper. They cause the wound to freeze, which is quite painful, but it's doubtful it can land a cut deep enough for it to matter. Coming in from behind has the advantage it can't parry, though, allowing her to land several strikes with her staff, damaging the armor (and presumably the black humanoid within).

    DRAGOON MAN hangs on, driving the spear further into... well, whatever's under that carapace. Darkness, mostly. It's solid but it doesn't really feel like flesh or muscles. Whatever it is, it hurts, because the spider is still extremely agitated and trying to shake him off. It doesn't help when Soan injects light directly into the thing, whcih causes very significant damage. So much so, in fact, that the spider suddenly breaks in half-- its abdomen and four hind legs dissolving, while its head and four front legs suddenly spin around to face the hero no longer on its back.

    While the melee Starbounders assist with the continued cutting of a path through the unending swarm of soldiers, the ranged ones fare a bit worse. Biteblade chomps into a soldier, getting to chew on a good quantity of solid shadows before the Heartless dissipates. Given Biteblade's moral leanings, it actually tastes okay. It's not especially filling, but it's enough for whatever the Floran needed a meal for. Odd texture, though. Can't be helped, it's solidified darkness. The other two focus on the spider-- the explosions slam into the half that's left (which will have an effect in its attack segment).

    Xion charges in... and slams her blade into the Heartless.
    Unfortunately, it remains stuck there.

    Kamon starts beating on the Heartless, finding that solid shadows are not especially tough. The armor is overall tougher to cut into than the black entities inside the suits, making it not difficult to reduce their numbers by aiming right.

    Aqua, for her part, returns Roxas' shrug. She has NO idea either, don't ask her. But she's a bit busy helping keep the soldiers off Kyra.

    As before, DOMINIC, the MELEE STARBOUNDERS, KAMON and AQUA are beset by the horde-- not Kyra, because she's being covered from every angle, giving her free reign. But on top of the soldiers, two slightly larger ones surface-- a Luna Bandit, brandishing twin knives, comes in from behind to backstab Dominic! Meanwhile, a Lance Soldier, thinner, taller, with a big cavalry lance, thrusts forward, shooting a shockwave that threatens Kamon and the Starbounders in one stroke.

    The half-spider was about to try biting DRAGOON MAN but between its shot eye and the sudden EXPLOSION, it staggers. This looks like a good time to finish it off!

    The Chill Ripper, battered by Deelel from behind, uses one of its icy daggers to touch Xion's blade, attempting to freeze it inside the wound so that she cannot retrieve it, and possibly catch her hand if she won't let go either. And then it would try cutting her with its other knife-hand, ignoring Deelel.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    The opened gap in the numbers is promptly taken advantage of, between Kyra's own magic and the efforts of George and the other melee-bound Starbounders. Before the gap closes, she has met up with the Starbounders, Dominic still nearby, and finds herself in a very comfortable position of complete coverage.

    An internal sign of relief escapes her as she realizes this. From this position, it gives her the perfect option to set up another heavy blast of holy magic. Exactly like before, it creates a 'targeting' circle upon the ground, glowing brightly, centered on Kyra and thus striking the Heartless now assaulting her defenders. And again like before, it doesn't hit her teammates.

    But following the Holy, Kyra grasps the CURE-ALL in both hands and points it straight up over her, cranking the MP input to 'high' It behaves exactly like a grenade launcher, shooting a spherical package of mana directly up into the air where it arcs and falls over Kyra and the fighters-Dom included, of course, if he was not fast enough. The energy isn't destructive, of course, and manifests as a cure spell of little strength.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel does listen to Xion at this, okay so they got a way to make it stay down? She's not going to argue too much about it. She hears Xion over the radio, she had hoped to distract the thing for what she intended to do. That doesn't seem to be the plan anymore she calls out.

"Right!"

She's going to be trying to keep this thing busy as she can. Deelel however was not quick enough to avoid getting getting hit there's a cut on her side, it slices through the outfit and into her body. The ice forces the wound open so to speak and its glows the same colour of blue as her tattoos on her arm. Its painful but Deelel can manage, there's no water in her body so it could have been a lot worse, there's no chance of frost bite!

She scores a few hits however and she sees the Chill Ripper has ignored her, so she goes for a strike to the head with the fully powered tip.

She does keep an eye on her friends who are getting swarmed pretty hard. She takes a second this could leave her open, and out of a pocket she pulls what looks like a hockey puck, to the untrained eye. Kyra would darn well know what it is however as Deelel throws it to her, yelling.

"Kyra! Catch!"

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
By this point, Yuna is getting her head further back together - and given that Dragoon Man seems to be hard on the now-half-blind spider, not to mention that the pack of reasonably-friendly aliens are having some SERIOUS trouble with the mooks, she figures she can switch sub-missions.

Towards that end, the Matrix Divider disappears in a flicker of light, and Yuna scrambles back to her feet; in the place of her hybrid weapon, a fairly simple sword appears - still sleek and high-tech-looking, but it's a *sword*, not a sword-rifle cross-up. It's also something that she can kind of handle with one hand, unlike the Matrix Divider.

"Shugoseiheki!"

Yuna's call elicits the appearance of a nice big kite shield - the Wall of the Guardian Star, as she named it, materializing on her left arm. Thusly equipped, she hurries towards the Starbounders, starting to slash her way through some of the Soldier-type Heartless to reinforce the melee group who are basically holding our line of retreat.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
    Passive Skill: Reflex - Avoid all standard Fight attacks. - 350/350 AP (Learned)

    As the twin-bladed bandit appears behind Dominic and goes for a backstab, the Fencer's natural spacial awareness kicks in. He slides forward and turns around, both blades drawing shallow cuts in the back of his jacket and into the flesh of his back. They both bleed lightly, but considering it was aiming for a backstab, it could have been way worse.

    Especially considering it's immediately healed back up by Kyra dropping bombs everywhere.

    Dominic easily moves his feet, stepping lightly as he lifts the blade again and then slashes at the Luna Bandit to keep it distracted for other people to attack it.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Soan finds the firm ground of a roof beneath his feet as he explodes the spider from within. He was expecting something lethal, just nothing so /viceral/. It's not a shock to him. What's more interesting, is the thing is STILL going after him. The heavily armoured Dragoon lands in a crouching position, pushing himself up to his feet by levering himself with his Great Spear.

     A glance downward is given at the others. The alien crowd seems to be fighting fine, even if they are trouble. His fellow Light Warriors are in formation, just fine. Kamon had his regular snap mid-fight at some bloke -- Roxas, he think -- not doing much. Aqua is fighting. They're fine.

     Then the Spider tries to bite him. This brief moment distraction allows it to get close enough as he return his attention on it. DRAGOON MAN takes a deep breath, air sucking in through his helmet, a sort of cavernous stream of air, deep, rumbling.

     What follows is a torrent of burning, bright flames, pouring out of the dragon-shaped mask of the Dragoon, powering into the remains of the Spider, flowing erratically in each direction after hitting the bulk of the severed beast, likely outpouring into some of the lesser Heartless.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Biteblade is running around with a pair of knives. While the meal doesn't fill, it does provide a bit of a boost in an assortment of other ways, amping up their body's capacity while the poison is cleansed by Kyra's spell. Immediately back into efficient combat levels, they leap into action with the exhausted Moonfin, George, and Pavo. Both Biteblade and Pavo leap high into the air, leaving Moonfin and George to contend with the lance, attempting to come down on the Lance Soldier both at once, with Biteblade's whirlwind of durasteel blades making them a frantic buzzsaw of enthusiastic, hissing murder! Moonfin and George aren't so lucky in mobility. Moonfin manages to block the thrust with a heavy slam against the flat of his blade, jarring him and cutting his endurance down to critically low levels, while George is outright lanced in the chest, launched back towards his fortifications heavily, left prone!

    Moonfin has to move to protect George, and Seft turns her attention from the rapidly disabled spider to him. Dragoon Man can handle this shit himself. She's trying to help Moonfin and George now. Ideally, Aqua and possibly Kamon can handle the majority of the remaining less specialized Soldiers, distinct from the one in particular that Pavo is trying to pin down and stab, while Biteblade seems intent on simply and swiftly dismembering and lacerating them as fast as possible, if they can! Albert, for now, has recovered as well: He intends to go to help back up Dominic. Drawing a hefty energized durasteel warhammer, with a head as big as his own, he leaps off of the fortifications he established and intends to slam the hammer down onto the Luna Bandit from above. Ideally, this will be timed perfectly with Dominic doing a swift, dramatic flourishing gesture while it's either crushed or smashed away. There'll be a tangible shockwave of force through the snow.

Kamon Lionward (628) has posed:
Kamon is in the zone. Unfortunately, so is an asshole with a cavalry lance and a shockwave attack.

The shockwave knocks Kamon clear off his feet. He gets tossed back away from the Heartless swarm, hitting the light snow and sliding into the side of a nearby hut. The wall wobbles but, thankfully, doesn't come down on top of him. Kamon is back on his feet in a hurry, battered but not out of it in the least -- and then gets a sprinkling of healing, which helps reduce the battering to a mere bruising. He shoots Kyra a thumbs-up from nearby, and rushes back into the thick of it.

Kamon jumps. He doesn't quite Jump, but he gets some good height; he clears the front rank of Heartless and promptly goomba stomps one of the smaller ones, cleaving a Soldier that tries to interpose itself between him and his goal. He jumps again, getting on top of some wreckage nearby, giving him a little bit of height for a third and final leap...

...right at the Chill Ripper.

"BLOOD OF IFRIT!" Kamon yells. He's dropped the scabbard, taking hold of the sword with both hands at the apex of his jump. A glow runs up the leading edge, striking the point and sparking off it like a flare. Sparks fly, and a haze engulfs the blade and trails off into the air around it. "SHIMMERING!"

         FLAIR > SHIMMERING BLADE

"BLADE!"

He comes down next to it and swipes horizontally. A plume of heat and fire washes off of him, a swirling gout turned into a spreading cone. It leaves the air hot and hazy where it passes, evaporating snow and scorching wood and generally making it difficult for things struck by it to discern friend from foe. The sword he's holding is suddenly much hotter, the edge glowing from heat rather than the odd technique.

It should do something about that frost keeping Xion's weapon stuck, too.

Xion (630) has posed:
    With others - like Deelel - attacking the Chill Jerkface, Xion has a pretty straightforward plan. It goes pretty much like this: Get Close.

    Unfortunately, as Deelel goes wild with supportive (and, well, legitimately helpful for her purposes) attacks, her keyblade is driven into the Heartless... And is stuck there, swiftly covered in rime. As is her hands, and her arms.

    She cries out. In pain, in frustration.

    She's frozen, and she kicks her black-booted feet at the Chill Ripper, futilely. "Ugh... I'm... I'm stuck!" She announces, as she tries to drive her feet into the chilly body. But it doesn't work. In fact, much like Briar Rabbit (or Brer) and the Tar Baby, Xion just succeeds in getting more stuck. Now with 400 percent more Frost Bite!

    But then Kamon swings his burning blade, and while it undoubtably slashes through the Chill Jagoff, it also melts her hands free. But she doesn't go for the stuck-in blade, no.

    With this opportunity, with the Heartless de-frozen, Xion does something entirely out of character. She drives her fist, and then her clawing hands, into that crossed-x emblem upon the dark thing's chest. "Give it to me! You stole it! From that man! Even if you need it to live, I need it more!" She exclaims, ramming her fist into the emblem, even as it's assaulted and cut by Deelel and Kamon.

    "Give me... THAT STOLEN HEART!"

Roxas (629) has posed:
    "I guess I'm going to waste space. My friend has something to do here, and if I help out more than I already have, I'll just mess it up." Roxas answers Kamon, a little sheepishly. It's clear that he'd rather be out there helping, but it's equally clear that he values what Xion is attempting to do. So, awkwardly, he continues to just stand around and not help despite having a specialized tool to do exactly what needs to be done in this situation. The fact is, while Roxas is talented enough to go in and fight with other weapons if he needed to... well, he hasn't got any!

    Comes with the territory of having a weapon that you can just poof into existence in your hand if you really need to. Not much use for a back-up weapon, when yours can't really be taken away.

    The way Xion is acting, though... he watches in silence for a time, as she's frozen, and as the one who chastised him burns away the ice keeping her in place. The Keyblade he's leaning on vanishes with a distinctive *chnk*, and he follows up with another quick session of rifling through his pockets and producing a bottle of restorative. This one gets chucked at Xion's back.

    There's got to be a better delivery method for these things.

    Afterwards, Roxas begins a slow approach. Xion is talking an awful lot. Enough, he's sure, to get them both in trouble once they get back home, if anybody hears about it. That's not the worst of it, though. He's sure there's no way what she's doing could possibly work. How's she going to react when, inevitably, the Heart slips away from her?

    Roxas isn't certain, but he'll be sure to be there. To join the fight for real, if need be, but mostly to make sure Xion doesn't break down somehow.

Aqua (624) has posed:
    Kyra calls down yet another orbital strike of holy energy; predictably it has the same result as before, with the soldiers essentially being vaporized by the blast, and for as long as it lasts (and its afterglow remains) preventing them from approaching the party safely. By now there are very, very few soldiers left.

    Yuna tears into the remaining soldiers, coming in with cover.

    Dominic abuses dodging skills and then skewers the Luna Bandit, holding it in place. This one seems a bit sturdier, it's not 'dying' right away despite the obvious damage caused.

    DRAGOON MAN just kind of breathes fire on the spider. This is an appropriate response, as the giant half-spider is now dying in a fire. And moments later, there's not much left of it at all.

    Biteblade and Pavo work together to severely cripple the Lance Soldier; though a bit taller and more important looking, it's not that big a notch above the regular soldiers. Stronger armor, mostly! Which, between those two, isn't in any state to protect anyone again. By the time they're done being a whirlwind of pain, the Lance Soldier has died.

    Albert, meanwhile, applies a warhammer to the Luna Bandit, combining its might with Dominic's swift, immobilizing thrust. The result is a very dead Luna Bandit.

    Kamon clears through what's left of the soldiers on his way to the Chill Ripper. The plume of fire seems ESPECIALLY effective, not only melting the ice, but also reducing the size of the Heartless's knife-hands. Predictably, the ice-themed Heartless is weak to fire, and the damage from that attack forces it down on one knee momentarily.

    Xion uses the opportunity to plunge her hand into heart-shaped emblem of the Heartless. It's kind of sturdy and armored, but she's driving on raw shonen rage right there. She rips in, and pulls out... well, it's a heart. What did you expect? It's sort of crystaline, red, slightly transluscent. It also won't last very long in her hand like that! Whatever means Ansem used to stuff hearts in a bottle in his lab, likely aren't at Xion's disposal right now.

    The Chill Ripper, essentially drained of its life, dissolves into black mist and disappears as well. The Heartless, finally, are gone.

    This leaves the dome up for looting. There are survivors, no doubt barricaded in basements (what few houses have them), but for the most part, very few survivors. This dome actually belongs to the Shivans, though, not to the Ramuhans. The warlord's house contains the plans his machinist used to construct it, and an assortment of ice-themed weapons on racks if people want to loot them.

    There is, mostly, only Xion and whatever she's doing left to tend to, which causes Aqua to take her helmet off and finally run up to the younger teen, to see what the Hell is going on.

Yuna Kagurazaka (385) has posed:
With the Heartless all defeated, Yuna and Elner will be turning their attention to trying to find the outsider whose radio was used to transmit the S.O.S. that drew everyone's attention here in the first place.

She is, at the moment, trying hard not to think about how many people may have died because of the Heartless attack.

Dominic Masoch (655) has posed:
    In the aftermath of the combat against the Soldiers, Dominic pants a bit as he holds his weapon. With no blood to clean off, he simply flicks it out of force of habit and then sheaths it at his hip. While not difficult foes to dispatch, their numbers had been strenuous to manage and he's more than slightly exhausted. As a Fencer, he wasn't great at killing Swarms of Things, having only one or two moves that could do such a thing. And yet despite this, two of his most recent sorties had been against large numbers of enemies.

    He makes a mental note to adapt his fighting style for this. Best not to get caught a third time.

    After he has a few moments to catch his breath and come back to his senses, he looks around carefully and tries to take in the full scope of what's going on outside the immediate combat he had address. And uh... boy is there a lot going on. First things first, though: Albert gets a polite nod.

    "My thanks for the assistance." Dominic says to him a moment later, then turning his eyes outwards towards the 'battlefield'.

    He isn't sure where to start, so he kind of keeps staring.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     The spider is no more. Dragoon Man is satisfied. What he is more... confused about however is what is happening below. The creepy, weird girl -- one that goes portals of darkness, as he well remember -- pulls something straight out of some crazy chaos cultists would do by ripping an, admittedly, Heartless's heart out.

     This contradiction confounds him, as well as the movement itself, causing Dragoon Man to leap off from the ledges, landing near the party. He gives the Starbounders, the Aliens, a look. His glowing eyes narrows slightly, before turning them to Xion.

     "What," Dragoon Man's disorted voice, echoing through the spectral metal of his helmet. "In the Dragons was that, lady?"

     The helmet turns toward Aqua, Roxas, who both seems more informed than him. His friends are fine. A lady is already finding the survivors. He has time for this.

     "Any explanations you are willing to give us?"

Xion (630) has posed:
    As she drives her hands with all of her shojo fury, Xion does something really weird. She drives her fist in and GRABS something, and withdraws the 'dripping' (it's falling apart into the puddle of darkness that the ex-warlord left) Heart.

    Then, Xion, with the crystalline heart in her hands, does something really really really weird.

    Double weird.

    Turbo weird.

    She takes it and presses it into her chest. Which, you know, goes about as well as you'd think. Her coat just kind of gets darkness smeared on it. She hugs it to her chest, she tries to chew on it, and nothing works. As she tries, in vain, to jam the heart inside of her somehow, the crystalline thing becomes dark and black and drips away into nothingness. Back to the darkness, where the Chill Ripper went.

    Xion falls to her knees, her keyblade disappearing in a 'shwink'. "It... it didn't work." She murmurs, after having fervently tried to absorb/eat/merge with SOMEONE'S STOLEN HEART.

    To DRAGOON MAN, Xion looks up, her eyes cold and dead. She looks like she also has a stomach flu, from her expression, but she's just... dead-eyed. "It's... it's my problem. Don't worry about it. I'll be fine. I just thought... Maybe it could work out. He's dead, and there's no bringing him back. But his Heart could maybe help me. D-don't... worry about it."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    George remains where he is. Seft goes to tend to him a bit, but if Kyra would be kind enough to help him out, it'd make things a lot easier on the Starbounders, given that they lack more than nanowrap bandages and first aid. With the Heartless dealt with, Pavo immediately moves in to loot. ICE WEAPONS are fixed upon; the Starbounders, or at least Pavo are eager to steal them for CRYO-TECH DEVELOPMENT! The bird-woman will immediately move to steal everything that's not bolted down.

    Albert, meanwhile, simply gives a small respectful salute to Dominic, with a short affirming apegrunt. "And to you as well." He says, simply. And then he takes a military stance, with his hammer head-down in the ground.

    Seft, meanwhile, calls out briefly to Xion. "Incredulous. With all due respect, it is not your problem, it is the problem of the victims living in this dome. If that is all the answer you wish to provide the hero with that in mind, then that is what we will accept." There's a tense sort of buzz-beep noise! "Sheepish. But you seem in opposition to these forces, and the circumstances seem complicated. We will not pry. I hope you find what you need and that it involves less outbreaks of whatever these entities may be."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel lowers her staff at this point and powers it down, then returns it to it's baton configuration. She sighs as she looks out at the dome.

"You know they are going to spin this to work people up into a frenzy."

She puts the baton into her clothing and summons her cloak back.

"We need to check the Chief's home there might be clues, also we need to check about the city of there's any sorts of security systems we might be able to access them."

She looks to Dragoon Man and nods.

"Good to see you here, your help was most welcome."

She's about to say more but watches was Xion does she stares for a moment wondering what she did. Wait what just happened there? She shakes her head a bit then thinks.

"More encounters with these, there was another on my world but that heartless was acting odd, it was ... watching us and /ran/ when we noticed it. We need to keep closer tabs on these attacks and see if there's some sort of pattern."

Xion (630) has posed:
    "Oh. Um... Sorry." Xion mutters as Seft addresses her. "It's just that the Heartless are drawn to Hearts of Darkness. They crawl through the Corridors of Darkness, and consume Hearts. People like me, or Roxas, or..." Aqua has her helmet off. "Oh! Or Aqua, over there, can use our Keyblades to put the hearts back to where they're supposed to be and purify them."

    "My... my circumstances don't have anything to do with this outbreak. I just, um... Need to see if I can use a Heart. For... personal reasons. I-I'm not like a heartless at all, though!" She raises both black-gloved hands. "See, Heartless get powerful by /eating/ hearts. I couldn't do anything to that heart. I... didn't really think I could, but I had to try."

    She affects an apologetic look. "I can't tell you any more. Well, except about heartless, I can tell you all about them. Or Roxas can! Or, well, Aqua. They're a scourge, that want to eat all the hearts in the world."

Xion (630) has posed:
    Xion makes a little face, as she realized she said something a little wrong. "But putting the hearts back doesn't un-dead the people. ... Sorry."

Aqua (624) has posed:
    That was creepy as hell.

    Aqua kind of frowns, unsure how to explain it. Instead, she turns to face the others-- Dominic, Kyra and Dragoon Man, at least. "I'm sorry. It's probably my fault the Heartless came here. I'm supposed to be hunting them, but there's a lot of them and I can't be everywhere... they probably locked onto the hostilities here in Shiva and figured they could have a meal. Well... they did have a meal. They probably won't be back anytime soon, at least..."

    She can't confirm that, but here's hoping.

    "Xion, are you... sure you're okay? That was a bit creepy." A BIT. Actually a lot. That was disturbing as Hell for Aqua to watch.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Satisfied, Kyra stows the CURE-ALL behind her back. She doesn't announce 'good battle'! Or anything like that quite yet, listening to the chatter amongst their group on the radio channel. She'll have to review the footage she captured later, as grisly as it was. Solemly, she turns to George.

    Since it was just him at the moment, she'll step up with Seft and gently lay a hand on him. Magic rushes forth, the simple Cure spell executing without issue.

    To Aqua's apology, Kyra finallly speaks up, "Your fault? No, I wouldn't say that, especially not within earshot of another Shivan. They'd love to straight-up blame YOU even if it was their jerkass behavior that attracted the Heartless here. But...uh, so what's this you say about Heartless being attracted to hostilities? Because I can name lots of places in the multiverse where that happens."

Roxas (629) has posed:
    "They'll eat the heart -of- your world, if they get far enough. Then everybody in the whole world gets eaten by the darkness, all at once." Roxas chimes in, approaching Xion more closely. He looks towards Dragoon Man, and gives a shake of his head, though it's hard to notice with his hood up like this. "We didn't bring them here. They just go where they want to, through the darkness between everything. We hunt them and put them down, so their Hearts can return to where they came from. Xion wanted to see if maybe somebody could hang onto a Heart directly, but it doesn't really work that way. It seemed important though, so I let her try."

    "Sorry for not helping out much." Roxas pulls his hood down, smiling sheepishly around at anyone in the general area. "But, if it happens again I should be able to help fix the problem pretty quick. I think I've already met some of you before. My name's Roxas." He doesn't introduce Xion, because Xion gets around a lot more than he does lately. That was part of what he was complaining about earlier.

    To Aqua, he says, "Um, well... I'm not her, but maybe we shouldn't talk about it out here. It's really complicated, but I promise it wasn't anything harmful." At least, not directly. Roxas wonders -why- that doesn't work, though. It's pretty much what the Heartless do. So why can't they just take a 'loose' Heart from one of the Heartless?

    It'd be awfully convenient, which of course is precisely why it would never work.

Aqua (624) has posed:
    "It's hard to really say," Aqua answers Kyra. "The Heartless just... hunt. They look for hearts. Hearts full of darkness attract them more. I don't really want to think about them having an infinite buffet that I can't keep an eye on, either..." Nope, now she just feels... really bad, actually.

    Infinite worlds.

    Even if they can't eat them all, how do you protect something that's virtually infinite in scope?

    She sighs.

    Her attention turns to Roxas, and she nods. "Sure. Private matters should be handled privately, sorry.

Soan Sagittarius (633) has posed:
     Dragoon Man stands tall, patiently regarding Xion as she explain what is going on, or at least to the best of her capacities. She says a lot of things, that ultimately adds up to 'this is very creepy, creepy girl, why are you so creepy, did you just shove a crystal heart into your chest good Dragons that's creepy.'

     Dragoon Man nods at Deelel, before turning his attention toward Aqua, similarly listening to her explanations as well as the lazy boy, Roxas', own. Dragoon Man rumbles, staring down at the later boy.

     "Then I shall take you to your offer in the future." Dragoon Man echoes, neutraly. "I wish for more information about theses 'Heartless'. The held the vile Stench of Chaos. If Chaos is involved,"

     Dragoon Man's eyes flares briefly.

     "Then it /is/ a Dragoon's duty."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks over to Aqua for a moment and then to Xion. She pauses but won't press things too hard she doe swonder a bit about it but she'll ask another time, it doesn't seem like a good time to ask her more about it. Roxas gets her attention as she listens in detail. She thinks for a moment then speaks up looking to everyone.

"Look whatever the case is if you need help against them, just call me. They thretened Afterus, somehow sealed my home and I'd not even be able to get back there if not for Aqua's help."

She also listens as Dragoon Man throws in for this.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Hearts full of darkness attract them more." Kyra says thoughtfully, looking around the now mostly-empty dome city. Distracted as she is about this, the thought of looting does enter her mind. Were a Shivan raiding party here, sure, they would loot the hell out of this place and it'd be thought socially acceptable. But non-Shivans? Even 'worse' to them, non-Galiandans? More stupid politica fodder-

    "Eating the /heart/ of the world?" Kyra stares owlishly at Roxas, "That's a thing? Worlds have hearts to eat?" There's a long pause before she adds, as if in afterthought, "Oh yeah, I remember you, you were at Afterus too, right?"