997/Heartless in the Boondocks

Heartless in the Boondocks
Date of Scene:	18 November 2014
Location:	Afterus - City of Home - City Center
Synopsis:	Heartless attack a remote rural community in Afterus! Oh no! (Intro scene for Aqua, Roxas and Xion.)
Cast of Characters:	Deelel, 20, 27, 43, 76, 624, 626, 627, 629, 630

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Aqua (624) has posed:
    The Boondocks of Afterus! Or at least, of the City of Home. It's a pretty isolated place, but it has a Warp Gate and transporter pads, so it's completely possible to arrive by chance or accident. More than likely, the cause of arrival of the sudden wave of darkness and the obvious violence it brings with it.

    The sun is high up in the sky, shining its yellow light onto the area. It'd be cold otherwise, this time of year, but not cold enough to dissuade these folks from just moving elsewhere. They must really enjoy this remote life. By the time people arrive, the wave of black foes has already reached the farm and the surrounding buildings; there's a convenience store, a warehouse, a tiny clinic, and then houses for the most part.

    The gate leading into the barn of the FARM has been barricaded shut. A young woman, with blue hair and eyes, damaged armor w/ cape and a key-shaped sword is standing in front of it, pushing back the smaller Heartless, ant-like black humanoids between a foot and two tall, but that swarm in great numbers. She is assisted by two carapacians, humanoids covered in black exoskeletons. One is the EGREGIOUS FARMER, and his pitchfork has a shotgun duct-taped on it. The other is the RUNTY ASSISTANT, slightly smaller and wielding a rake.

    The CLINIC is defended by a lone white carapacian, the SCURRILOUS DOCTOR, wielding a pair of large scalpels. His foes are less mundane; along with the small ant-like Shadows, numerous Heartless that look like salamanders keep repeating glub glub glub. They have bright red emblems on their chests (essentially a red heart with a cross inside).

    The WAREHOUSE is already overrun but screams are still coming from the inside. Shadows are plentiful here but there's a bigger concentration of more colorful Heartless, namely ones that look like crocodiles (nak nak nak) and iguanas (thip thip thip), which are bigger and seem stronger. They all also have those red emblems on their chests.

    The STORE and nearby HOUSES are on the brink of being brought down by carapacian-like Heartless, larger, bulkier humanoids with insectoid armor plating all over (and the same red emblems on their chests).

    Looks like it's not too late to save the townsfolk.

Deelel has posed:
Before time started for this world a band of four kids and assorted others from across the multiverse helped to give birth to this world. Before time started for this worls she was there but for the longest time she was not there however since it's return Deelel had paid close attention to this place she'd had a part in making. She also tended to try to put her money where her mouth was. Today would be such a day as she was high over head on her light jet and one might see the craft above as Deelel baishes it, the craft turning to wire frames and vanishing. She grabs the rod as she starts to fall and the lift chute kicks in even as she falls from on high light staff in hand at this point. There had been prayers for help in all likelyhood and ... they would be answered. Deelel falls light staff in hand and the chute vanishes after a moment as hse come sin for a landing with he weaposn into the thick of the heartless at the Clinic. There's a plusehd shock of energy which very well could scatter them. Her body suit and hair might be supricous and the mark upon the cloak she throws away is that of the one known as the PROGRAM.

"...so my vision was right."

She makes use of the staff as she launches her self into the thick of things. Then Xion's words come back to her, Heartless? Are these the monsters of which the woman spoke?

BGM http://youtu.be/7ARqdiYASpE

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Not only is the sky dark, but the ground is shaking too?

    That is the only warning the Heartless by the store area get before several earthen spikes shoot up from the ground and knocks into several of the Heartless there. Those not struck by the spikes might have to work on avoiding rubble and stray rocks. And the person responsible makes her presence known as a loud, somewhat squeaky voice can be heard yelling out. "Move out of the way, dunderheads! There are more where that came from!" Toph Beifong stands tall, pointing a dirty finger in the direction of the Heartless.

    No, this isn't what she thought she would encounter on her research trip to check out the earth and minerals in the area. But whatever! Trouble needs to be solved, and these people obviously need help! Who is she to sit back when there are battles to be fought? Especially when lives are at stake?

Roxas (629) has posed:
A HOODED FIGURE emerges from a swirl of darkness atop the roof of the WAREHOUSE. Though his appearance is concealed by a great black coat, it's easy to make the assumption that this is a teenager based on his height and generally human silhouette. It is also easy to make the assumption that the mysterious stranger in black is responsible for this entire mess, because he had a rather ominous look about him. The only thing is... his entrance is less than graceful. The reason for this is simple: The Darkness that runs parallel to this world is swarming with Heartless. They chase through the corridors like ants emerging from the depths of their nest here. Indeed, simply by blindly opening a portal into the surroundings, the young man releases a few more into the environment.

"C-c'mon, it's getting too rough in there!" He calls to nobody visible. Roxas himself nearly staggers off the edge of the warehouse on his emergence, but quickly regains his footing and skirts out of the way of the Heartless that had been harassing him. A black figure topples off the roof past him, landing below. The sounds of screams attract it. But as for the young man himself, it would appear as if he's waiting for somebody else.

Either he is making gestures to the wind, or he's waving frantically at that portal from the darkness that he just emerged through. Either way, there's a shady-looking guy up on top of the building with people screaming inside... and he just happened to let more of the things causing trouble here into the environment.

This is a great opportunity for massive, hilarious misunderstandings.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
Initial probes through the multiverse happened to quickly gain contact with Afterus. The unusual location appeared to possess some possibilities for resource acquisition and manufacturing deals with the unusual natives.

This is why he had been traveling to the WAREHOUSE, as a place to store GOODS is a prime place to find someone to speak to about TRADE OPPORTUNITIES.

God, now he's doing it.

Souji does not display irritation. Such a thing is a betrayal for lesser people. His suite of weaponized emotional response tends towards various flavors of disdain, scorn, and backhanded compliments. These beings, however, appear unresponsive to his instinctive attempts to push them out of his way through presence alone. The beings appear to be either too high level or not swayed by such ploys, which only serves to cause Souji to stand there, staring at the beings. They matched the description that the enigmatic 'Fourteen' provided earlier. Could these be the Heartless she spoke of? If that is the case...

His hand moves, pulling the crimson cord from his blade. "Be you god or man, none shall stand against my blade. Murasame..." He says, placing his hand upon the ancestral weapon.

His eyes narrow slightly. "It is time to feed." There is a blur of motion, and a thin line of black as the blade cuts through the air. A shear wave rolls out towards the Shadows before there is an eruption, a crack of thunder as lightning blasts through the trail of the weapon.

He brings the weapon upward, poising to strike again. The exposed blade is black, incised deeply with dully glowing crimson runes. An ominous, hungry spirit hangs around the weapon like a pall. He does not seem to note Roxas' presence. Is he not paying attention, or does he seem to believe Roxas is not a threat?

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Originally, Kyra was attempting to find a place called the 'Caverns of Prophecy' that Kamon was currently fighting a spear-wielding plant army within. She did not succeed, winding up wandering around a bizzare backwater world with strange inhabitants that she was hesitant to approach. In the end, she forced herself to talk to the white-carpaced SCURRILOUS DOCTOR to at least extract some semblence of information on where exactly she was. Contact was awkward and just when she thought she was getting somewhere, all hell had broken loose and strange-looking aggressive monsters had appeared.

    Something about the way they looked and moved made Kyra's blood boil.

    Moments before, she had unzipped the front of her hoodie and flung the now open flaps aside to expose the pair of bandoliers hidden beneath it, criss-crossing over her chest, carrying rows of filled vials and flasks. Lacking in melee skills, the SCURRILOUS DOCTOR was used as cover, enabling her to work free several larger flasks containing a dark red-hued liquid.

    "Not plants..." she tells the carpacian. "But I bet they still burn." Stepping diagonally from him to his flank, Kyra hurls the flask into the Heartless mob. Once the glass breaks, the liquid explodes into a violent pillar of flame.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Jono's sort of taken to listening for distress calls on the radio. And when he heard one coming from that neutral place Afterus he got his fiery behind in gear. Motorcycle is always faster though he'll have to go by the warpgate. Not an issue. He's used to them. He pauses at the warpgate on his world to arrange his wrappings. More precisely to get them out of the way. And then rides through. So a few moments later on Afterus the warpgate activates...

...And through it rides a young man with messy brown hair and muddy brown eyes. Long black coat, black jeans, lug-sole boots. He'd look like a typical teenager if it weren't for one thing.

The fact that his FACE IS ON FIRE! Well not exactly. But just below his nose whatever features of his face would be seem to fade into that oddly liquid-looking staticky red-and-orange flames. It's in his chest too. It shines a bright yellow at his chest, turns orange as it leaves his chest cavity, and fades to red at the ends.

He pulls the bike to a stop just outside and to the side of the warpgate and dismounts. Looks at the situation. Houses have civilians in 'em right? Then that's where he's heading. On foot. Any of these weird ant-things get in his way and he blasts them. Surprisingly it's not fire

Onikaze Kenshin (76) has posed:
    'Come to Aftertus, Onikaze Kenshin. You can recover from your wounds there.'
    'That Endbringer sure did a number on you, a vacation would be nice. You're Syndicate, so maybe Afterus?'
    'You travel so many places, how come you've never been to Afterus?'

    The wanderer known as Onikaze Kenshin makes a mental note not to take external advice on where he travels in the future. A scant three days out of extensive surgery and the travelling blade has already found himself embroiled in another invasive presence on another world. He will later reflect on this and decide it to be the nature of wind that he finds the forces of capricious whim force him into another melee so soon.

    This will be later. For now, he's just very goddamn annoyed. Or as annoyed that someone as mellow as Kenshin can be.

    At THE CLINIC, a swordsman bursts out of a treatment room with a blast of wind and swords. He'd been getting a checkup from SCURRILOUS DOCTOR for the giant gash that Leviathan had left in him on Friday. The diagnosis had been a resounding 'Wait, why are you wandering around, you should be in bed'. Luckily, before this diagnosis could be enforced, Shit Got Real.
    And so that brings us to Onikaze Kenshin. Wearing his normal dress pants, but currently shirtless (well, technically shirtless. His entire chest and abdomen are wrapped in heavy gauze and bandage), the wandering blade dances between the numerous Heartless that plague the CLINIC's Halls. They're not a great challenge for him at the peak of his fitness, but he's injured already, and so they're taking some effort for him to deal with as he tries to flick his sword and behead several of the Salamander Heartless.

    The front of his bandages are already slowly blossoming with a red flow, the exertion of fighting so soon after he was injured so badly causing his old wound to open. To Kyra, he simply lets out a pained, "Greetings."

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
Above the mess of black creatures, a multi-colored streak blurs across the sky. It moves fast, like a bolt out of the blue, speeding overhead the sea of dark... things. Back and forth, it zig-zags around buildings, just barely avoiding clipping one here and there.

And the blur just about zigs into a statue when it should have zagged away.

Rainbow Dash screeetches to a halt, her wings back-flapping quickly. Hooves are outstretched in front of her as if she were trying to actually use them to stop on thin air. Finally she stops, just about a quarter of an inch from stone.

"Seriously? Worst place for a statue," She mutters, pushing fogged goggles up from her eyes. When she glances down again, her wings almost skip a beat. "I'm pretty sure Scratch didn't say anything about creepy black things living here!" The pegasus looks up at a scream from one of the nearby houses. "Or big insect things!"

Dash pulls her goggles back down over eyes. Upon one forelimb, a golden band glows brightly with the harmonic energy of Loyalty drawn from her bond with the Element. "Time to take out the buggy trash!" Crimson energy flashes briefly, and when it fades, lightweight, golden armor has materialized upon her equine frame. Wings beat down in several powerful strokes, speeding the pegasus towards the ant-like Heartless assaulting the houses. "HEY UGLIES!"

Xion (630) has posed:
    Don't worry, Roxas! You aren't yelling to the air! You're yelling...

    To a yet more hapless female teenager, who dives through the portal the first DARK COATED TEENAGER had torn in the world, landing on her front and sort of skidding to a halt. Ostenisbly before the portal closes. "Next time... Let's not do that! I prefer not getting eaten. Why are they so riled u-..." She wonders, before seeing... Well lookit all these heartless. Just piles of them. A black wave.

    "Wow I bet this world is making up the last world I was at, Ro... I mean, Thirteen!" 'Fourteen', aka, Xion comments, casually looking out at the PILE OF HEARTLESS. "So... What do you want to do? Watch? Fight? ... Something else?" The girl wonders, pointing out at the heartless with a black-gloved hand.

    The hooded girl looks to the hooded boy as the Heartless that came with the pair of them... Probably uselessly start wrecking shit. No Hearts here!

Aqua (624) has posed:
    At the CLINIC, the Heartless are almost immediatly overpowered. Though there's a fair amount of Shadows and salamander-esque ones, the tiny beings can't quite match the sudden appearance of several angry Elites backing the already somewhat decent at defending himself Scurrilous Doctor. Deelel dives right in, finding that the ant-like Heartless, upon significant damage or impact, dissolve into shadows which sink into the ground and disappear. Kyra Hyral finds out the same happens when they burn, her explosive concoction blowing a large hole into the black horde. SD turns to her and lets off a gruff grunt. "Yea. G'job."

    Onikaze Kenshin isn't far behind, his sword cleanly cutting what remains of the Heartless assaulting the clinic. The salamanders, unlike the ants, do not merely dissipate into shadows; each of them leaves behind a gleaming, crystaline heart (the symbol, not the organ), about the size of a fist. Some are blue, some purple, some red, although they don't feel too different for it.

    SD turns to glare at Kenshin. "Yo. Ain't gonna say a thing 'cus of the bad shit, but you get back'n bed after this or I'll make ya, doctor's order."
    For a white carapacian he's not too nice.

    The WAREHOUSE certainly would have been a good place for trade opportunities. This place grows all manners of exotic fruits and vegetables, some of which grow even in winter. Souji Murasame could have gotten pretty good deals here. Unfortunately the Heartless are kind of assholes! Inside the building, the man finds a few dozen of the beasts, about half of which are crocodiles or iguanas, the other half being bland Shadows. There are a few dead bodies here, human workers it looks like. Murasame is brought to bear and starts cutting the creatures up; after the fifth or sixth, they slither into the shadows and withdraw. The ground rumbles!

    And out of it, a massive black hand surges, with a large hole in its wrist area, shaped like a heart, that goes all the way through. There's nothing attached to the hand, it's just a big hand. It tries to grab ahold of, and crush, the man.

    The STORE and HOUSES receive aid, in the form of Toph's earth spikes, which slow the creatures' progress greatly. Even the stronger, carapacian-like Heartless are easy to knock aroung, at least for now. Two perish outright, leaving floating hearts hovering above the ground where they went down.

    Jonothon shoots fire which is not actually fire but still looks pretty swank, heavily distracting the Heartless from their preys. Killing a few, dropping a few more hearts, their bright yellow eyes lock onto the teen as he rides through.

    Rainbow Dash charges in, and with ramming speed turns more of the Shadows into patches of darkness that dissipate into the ground. The remaining Shadows slither out of view.

    Jonothon and Toph come under assault, as the carapcian-like Heartless produce tommy guns and fire pellets of darkness (this word is starting to come up a lot!) at them. They're not really bullets, more magical impact rounds. Rainbow Dash doesn't get shot at, but rather is suddenly assaulted by a flying, pitch black horse, unoriginally dubbed a Night Mare. Bright yellow eyes, red flames around its hooves and mane, and the red emblem of the Heartless somewhere under its head. It gallops through the air effortlessly, and attempts to slam into the pegasus.

    The FARM continues being defended by Aqua and the two farmers, although it seems the amount of Heartless there is steadily increasing as they go down elsewhere. The knight is doing her best though! Occasionally one can glimpse ice or lightning shooting out of her Keyblade as she fights.

    Roxas and Xion linger on the rooftop, their arrival portal releasing more Shadows into the wild. The Heartless seem to be ignoring them for the most part. That's probably even more suspicious!

Roxas (629) has posed:
"Do you know what Saix would say if I passed up this many Heartless? I'd get chewed out all night long. Anyway, we've gotta help these people, even if it looks like they're already getting plenty of help as it is." Roxas says to Xion, looking down towards Souji as he does. That guy looks like he has things well in hand, but the sounds coming from the inside of this building they're on... well, they're not very pretty. Seems like the matter is settled though. These two are going to enter the melee, or at very least the first of the pair is. It remains to be seen if the girl shares the same worries that the boy does on the subject... she hasn't been around quite as long yet. Not that it's a huge gap between them, really. A few months at most.

Roxas summons his Keyblade to hand with a metallic ringing and a flash of light. The simple yellow-and-metallic weapon probably looks ridiculous to anyone with a real weapon, but it proves its usefulness in fairly short order... well, probably anyway. The hooded young man jumps down and throws the Keyblade towards the mass of Heartless nearest to the warehouse door, aiming specifically to try and clear a group that Souji isn't already handling.

On his descent itself, he gathers a brilliant white energy into one fist and drives it into the ground beneath him upon landing. A variant of his usual Light-elemental techniques, it causes a small shockwave of light energy to burst up from beneath him within a small radius. Enough to keep the Heartless off of him while he recovers from the fall and calls his weapon back to hand, probably not enough to actually do much unless he was lucky and jumped on something's head.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    Hey, that voice is familiar...!

    "Rainbow!" Toph calls up to the pegasus pony, raising her head a bit towards the skies. There's no way she mistakes a voice! "What is going on here?"

    Though when she feels two of the Heartless perish and disappear, the blind earthbender can't help but look momentarily confused. "Huh?" Little time to think about that however...!

    As Toph notices the Heartless aiming /something/ at them, she isn't slow to react and kicks into the ground, raising two walls, one for her and one for Jonothon in attempt to block the fire as best as she can. Yet as the darkness rains into the walls her eyes widen in shock. "What the crud are they firing at us? Those aren't real bullets...!" Even as the wall begins crumbling from the attacks, Toph throws her arms forward in a split palm attack, and the wall in front of her is sent crumbling forward at the Heartless! "And where did these things come from?!"

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Jono would have more attention on those people arriving. But there's a BUNCH of stuff going on. Like. A BUNCH. He does however notice a discrepancy. Those hooded people arriving seemed to bring more of these things with them. But... they're also fighting them? Could they have been chased here by these things then? And maybe these things just took an opportunity and started tearing stuff up because it couldn't get them?

The thinking does distract Jono for long enough that he doesn't see the Heartless-Carapacians with their tommy guns immediately. Until they fire! He raises his hands in what he knows is going to be an ineffectual attempt to shield his face. He doesn't really care much about his torso... it's hollow and won't be much of a problem if he gets his there. However his brain is in his head and he'd like to keep that intact. He shuts his eyes...

...And somehow doesn't get hit. He carefully peeks over his raised arms... and sees the walls of earth raised there to block the projectiles. What...? Oh right. The earth um... bender girl. That's right.

He looks to Toph with a nod. "Thanks for the save!" Even so he's not staying in place. He dodges out from behind the wall as it finally crumbles before him and fires a large wide blast at the Heartless attempting to turn he and Toph into Swiss cheese.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks to SD and nods slightly.

"You did well protecting this place."

She turns her atteniton to see if there are any more heartless around here. She's got to wonder about about these things what are they she thought of what she thoughts With that in mind Deelel is taking off like a shot but she says one last thing.

"Keep everyone one inside and keep alert."

She pulls a baton off her hip a wire frame forms about her body and soon she's riding a light cycle as she speeds for the farm hopefully catching some of the heartless in her wake wall, or? Running them over.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra's need for explosions is momentarily sated. There was just something very satisfying about seeing those little ant-like creatures evaporate into a fine black mist-yes, even without the gore that Kyra has come to expect when she drops napalm on something. She gives the doctor a grin and pulls out a second flask. "Oh heya Deelel, glad to see you again."

    Kenshin passes by and into the remaining lizard-like Heartless, which draws a breath of relief from Kyra-for now she has /two/ durable individuals to take refuge behind. That relief slowly evaporates as she too notices the samurai's condition. "Yes as an almost-doctor, I think you're not in any condition to fight! Look at you, you're bleeding already!" The flask is transfered to her left hand while the other reaches across to underneath her left arm, working free an unloaded needle gun from its holster (which also had been conveniently hidden by her hoodie). "Hold still for a second so I can get a potion into you so we can stop the bleeding at least for the rest of this clusterfuck."

    The second flask of napalm is returned to a loop on one of her bandoliers, exchanged for a liquid-filled dart. The dart is quickly slotted into the needlegun as Kyra takes off after Kenshin.

    "This will only hurt for a second!!"

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
OH SNAP SUDDENLY MASTER HAND FIGHT.

If Souji were less competent, the erupting hand would catch him off guard. However, as soon as the ground rumbles, Souji gestures with his free hand. there is a flash and a burst of wind, and he is immediately in the air, flipping back through it and skidding backwards in a deadly ballet a moment before the hand erupts. The initial assault goes predictably wide, but Souji has no time to rest as it strikes again. He is forced to stay mobile and engage in defensive maneuvers as the thing starts smashing and grabbing at him. This doesn't prevet a glancing hit from sending him flying into a wall. He rebounds off of it with a loud noise of snapping planks, and he grimaces. He actually got /hit/. Before the hand can capitalize on it though, a wild ROXAS appears. Souji glances over at the boy, and squints at the Keyblade that he uses. It seems more well-formed than the one Fourteen used. "Hmm." He utters, noncommittally though his anger.

He flicks up a hand and launches a shimmering ball of time at the enemy. The ball lands and expands, creating an area of slow-time that hangs there for several moments as Souji strikes through several times. The splinters fly, majestically hanging in midair and adding to the special effects budget significantly. As soon as Souji passes through, the field collapses, the heir coming to a stop beyond the giant hand. He is not certain that it is defeated.

"Who are you?" He asks Roxas, simply. There is no need to waste time on irrelevancies in the middle of an actually challenging battle.

Onikaze Kenshin (76) has posed:
    Kenshin frowns at both Kyra and SD as he reassures them, "The wind moves unbroken, so the blades which cut it leave only passing disruptions in its flow." He notes in his usual cryptic and philosophical way of reassuring both the doctor and the almost-doctor that he is going to be fine. He smiles slightly at the both of them in an attempt to not look as injured as he is.

    But he won't run from Kyra, despite the young woman being charging at him with a loaded needle gun of a strange substance. The mountain stands strong, water rushes, fire blazes through, but the wind? The wind misdirects!

    And so he tries to distract Kyra before she can shoot him, "If you are almost a doctor, does this particular medical condition strike you as familiar or foreign?" He asks, pointing to the crystal hearts hanging in the air, clearly not sure what to make of them.

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
As Rainbow Dash's gold armored hooves kick into a few of the inky black bodies, she doesn't bother to wonder why it feels different from kicking anything else. She just kicks out her other hoof, sending the things back to wherever they came from.

"Hah!" Dash whips around, lashing out a hoof, "Take that! These guys aren't so tough!" Ears prick up at the sound of a familiar voice. "Hey Toph!" She flashes a grin in the Earthbender's direction. "Beats me! Kick butt first, ask questions-Whoa!"

The black form of the equine Heartless comes bearing down upon Rainbow Dash. It slams into her, making armor crack and buckle. The wind leaves her wings, sending the rainbow pegasus crashing to the ground. She topples head over wings past Toph and Jonothon, before finally being stopped by the wall of a building. "I'm okay!" She slides hooves underneath her, forcing herself up to all fours. "Maaaaybe a little tougher than I thought." Her wings flare out, and wind visibly ripples around them, feathers rustling up. "But I'm WAY tougher!"

Dash takes off in a burst of wind and a flash of color. The wind around her wings builds with each flap, until they're more like visible spheres of compressed wind. She strafes right past the Night Mare and quickly spins. Wings bat one sphere at the Heartless, followed by the other in quick succession, like a batting a pair of giant, painful baseballs.

Xion (630) has posed:
    "You mean us, right? I mean, that's why we're together!" Xion calls to Roxas, having confirmed that, hey, maybe there's not a compelling reason to stick to the weird names. Which weren't their own names! Which was bad. It was wrong to deny your identity. Xion felt that very strongly. And by 'felt' she means 'thinks very hard because she has a Will and not a Heart'.

    She stands on that rooftop, sort of processing for a bit, before realizing Roxas has jumped into the fray and is attacking the huge pile of heartless!

    She leaps off the roof, landing in a tumble and coming up with her own metallic 'shwing' and a flash of pale light as her copy of the Kingdumb Key materializes, and she charges in after Roxas! THIS IS A GOOD IDEA, BECAUSE THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO WORK TOGETHER.

    This is a bad idea because she's not really paying attention, just following. "Roxas! Wait up!"

Roxas (629) has posed:
Another metallic ringing noise issues forth as Roxas calls his Keyblade back to hand. He looks towards the great Heartless currently fighting Souji and frowns beneath his hood. That thing is a pureblood, so he's not getting any hearts out of it. He probably missed his chance by going to the place with the real trouble instead of the places with all the little trouble. Oh well. Nobody can say that he didn't try... and that formidable-looking guy is asking his name. He calls back, "Nobody important, but my name's Roxas! Uh, I'd say nice to meet you, but... you know..." He doesn't bother gesturing to the destructive nonsense that's been going on around them.

It's already pretty obvious.

"Huh? Oh... oh right, yeah. Us. Yell at us." Roxas isn't used to having a partner that he actually has to be responsible for. Axel was always prone to just wandering off and doing what he wanted, and Saix usually wouldn't give him too hard of a time. Usually. Probably because it was pointless to argue with Axel at length, and also because they're friends. Sort of...? It's a weird situation that Roxas really hasn't puzzled out yet.

Xion (630) has posed:
    Xion, entirely ignoring the sworling battle around her, hefts her keyblade onto her shoulder. "You're important?" She asks, curiously. His phrasing is confusing ONLY FOR XION. IT IS A KINGDOM HEARTS JOKE HA HA HA.

    "Right! I met him yesterday! He had an /awesome/ airship. And goons! And a radio. He's Souji Murasame, of the Murasame... Zai-boots?" She tries, her hooded face looking distinctly afflicted by 'consternation'.

    "Right! I figured out I don't have to hide my name. I'm Xion. It's nice to meet you."

Aqua (624) has posed:
    Over at the WAREHOUSE, Roxas' Keyblade literally flies in, smashing through five or six of the Shadows that were regrouping outside the building after Souji put them in their place. There isn't much left of them, predictably. The shockwave of light when he lands is just as effective, tearing up the two crocodiles that tried their hand at approaching him, thinking they had an opening. They leave two hearts behind! Better collect that stuff up like you collect munny. All the while Souji blows the SFX budget for this scene away, and from here onward all characters will be represented by stick figures instead.
    (Not really.)

    His time effect catches the large hand offguard, and with it caught it's a trival matter to strike several meaningful blows to it. It attempts to recover, after slamming to the ground, but then merely flops over. It seems like it's about to dissipate, but the remaining emblemed Heartless suddenly rush in and swarm onto the hand. They turn into armor; wicked steel gauntlets with spikes and all. With renewed vigor, and now armored, the hand Heartless stands on its fingers like a spider, and suddenly releases a nova of lightning that threatens the whole of the warehouse.

    Just in time for Xion to wander in too!

    Over at the STORE, Toph shields herself and her allies; her guess is correct, these aren't real bullets at all, just dark magic in the shape of bullets. Still, it's not enough to threaten her defenses if she's active about it. The slab she hurls at one of the carapacians basically crushes it outright, leaving a heart behind. Jonothon aims at the second tommy gunner, and blasts him into a puddle of black goop and a heart, with only the heart remaining a second later. What's left of the carapacians and Shadows decide to ignore the houses with civilians still in them, and slither away like shadows on the ground, towards the FARM.

    Rainbow Dash duels the Night Mare, two orbs smashing into the Heartless and making its steadiness, even flying, stagger for a moment. It seems injured, from how it moves, although doesn't really show it due to being mostly pitch black. Rather than try to charge again, the horse opens its mouth and spews large quantities of flames, which threaten not just the pegasus but also the HOUSES below.

    At the CLINIC, SD nods to Deelel. "Yea, yea. Ain't nobody ever start shit in my clinic and walk away with both'er their legs, ain't starting t'day." Kyra and Kenshin remain vaguely there. The hearts remain in place, hovering, spinning very slowly. It's hard to really feel what they are, but if you have the right senses or feel for it, it feels a lot like a soul. Not all of it though. It's not that the soul would have been damaged, more that it's only half of one.

    Deelel rides towards the FARM (crushing Heartless on his way), where Aqua, EF and RA are slowly being overrun. With the other areas now devoid entirely of goons, they've all regrouped here. It's obvious the barn is where most of the children were hidden, and they're the easiest target here now. The Keyblade-wielding knight never leaves the barricaded door, her back against it most of the time to prevent entry into the building or attacks from slamming into it. This results in her getting slammed into numerous times as Heartless try to charge the door but end up against her armor instead-- doesn't look too pleasant for her, all told.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra's actually quite appreciative that Kenshin is not running from her! Though she was really expecting this swordsman to go running off to battle more of the invading creatures in the area-not just running to run from her. Unfortunately, not even the distraction makes Kyra sway in her purpose. She shoots at him right on one of his bare shoulders, unless he stops it. It does hurt for a moment but once the potion empties into him, the dart pops right out of his skin and drops to the ground.

    "An excellent question! I am an almost doctor of Hume medicine and these, seeing as they came out of chattering lizard creatures, are clearly foreign. They also kind of look like precious gems or loot of some kind..."

    Naturally, when presented with things of value left after the vaniquishing of a monster, the first instinct for any well-trained student of Alexander Academy is to pick it up. This is exactly what Kyra does, reaching out for one of the hovering, spinning crystaline hearts. If possible, she'll stuff it in one of the pockets of her hoodie before moving on.

    "We should keep moving, it sounds like there are more of those things still attacking." She tells Kenshin, rushing off to where Deelel rode off to-the FARM.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The thanks from Jonothon earns a sharp nod from the little earthbender. "Throw a glance up at the skies now and then, will you? From what Rainbow says, there are some of them up there too!" She can handle what's on the ground easily enough, but flying attacks are harder to deal with. And she will not have a problem with helping to protect the others near her now.

    When Rainbow crashes into the ground, she huffs. "You aren't going to let the dunderhead get the better of you, are you? Of course you are tougher!" Toph grins. And as expected the pony is back up in the skies within seconds. At least there is less reason to worry with Rainbow up in the skies, the guys on the radio being around and all.

    Somehow it seems like Toph is surprised though when the remaining Heartless melts into shadows on the ground and slither towards the Farm. Immediately Toph halts, then tenses up. "Where did they go?!" she yells to Jonothon. You have the seeing eyes, buddy! Help her out!

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Suddenly a pony goes sailing past him! Jono pauses drawing back slightly to avoid possibly getting hit. "Yer alright?" he asks. She says she is though and gets back in the fight. So he'll assume she is. "Be careful!" He does note with relief that the carapacians shooting at them out of the houses have been dealt with. Or rather that they're heading elsewhere... to a place where they're already having issues. Which isn't so good.

"They're 'eadin' ter that farm!" he calls to Toph. "This way!" And he heads that way himself. "Looks like there's too many of 'em for the people what's there ter take 'em. Mighta been the idea-- split the forces 'o the defenders an' mass their own forces on one spot."

Jono's on foot so Toph shouldn't have much issue following him. He does have a remarkably light tread for a fellow his size. But it's still enough for someone with a seismic sense as developed as Toph's to follow.

Onikaze Kenshin (76) has posed:
    Kenshin seems pretty patient about the fact she winged him in the shoulder with a dart. Or too sluggish to stop her. Or trusting enough to equate that the last person who wanted to help him created a strange healing salve, so this must be a similar situation. Either way, as the dart sticks in his shoulder and then pops out, he can feel the leaking wound in his chest stabilize a bit more. Probably not a full recovery, but it's not bleeding further.

    "I thank you for your kinetic administration of holistic ballistic medical treatment." He says to her simply, looking towards the gems, "The crystals are mystic in nature, but beyond my scope to understand their purpose." He admits before she grabs one and darts off. He leaves the rest floating and then heads after her.

    Instead of running, he's simply gliding next to her as if he were riding on the wind itself. Surfing a breeze, as it were. As he glides along side her, he introduces himself: "I am Onikaze Kenshin, a simple wanderer and student of the Multiverse. And yourself?"

    He'll follow after her to the farm, wind rushing and moving around him as he does so.

Roxas (629) has posed:
"No! I mean I'm NOT important. Not th--" Roxas is distracted trying to correct Xion when all of the emblem Heartless turn into armor for the giant hand that Souji is fighting, and he ends up standing directly in the dungeon hazards as a result. He dashes forward shortly after electricity engulfs him but he's a hair too late to avoid taking any damage whatsoever. It's a wonder he manages to maintain control over his body, but maintain control over his body he does. The smell of burnt flesh and hair wafts off of him and the whole of his body has a rather comically charred look to it.

The black-clad youth pulls a green bottle out of one of his coat pockets, pops the lid with his thumb and swallows a mouthfull of the liquid inside before he acts, looking and smelling slightly less charred than before. Probably some kind of instant restorative that's pretty common out there. Not a huge recovery, but enough of one that he's visibly less injured and his movements aren't hindered by the pain.

Instead of indulging in further NOT PAYING ATTENTION, Roxas goes all-in to beat this gestalt Heartless senseless. It absorbed so many emblem Heartless, it's GOTTA have plenty of hearts in that... armor? Man, this thing is so weird. Roxas leaps towards it and zips around it in the air, maintaining his altitude for a surprising amount of time as he just WAILS on the Heartless Hand with his Keyblade. If it weren't such a giant hand /thing/, it'd be a pretty good air juggle combo he's doing here. As it is, he probably doesn't have the mass to toss it around like he could something smaller.

Oh well.

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
For a scant second, it looks like Rainbow Dash is going to speed right out of the way of the flames billowing for her. And let it engulf the homes underneath. She's certainly fast enough! Wings carry her quickly out of the immediate path of the fire, but instead of flying to safety, she then loops over the flames. She loops under around again, and again, faster and faster.

Around and around Rainbow goes, and a small twister whips up within her loop. As winds whip up, the flames are drawn it, pulling the fire away from the homes before it can engulf them. She grits her teeth as flames come into close proximity to her, singing at her armor. She can even feel the burn through its magical protection! "This is gonna sting you more than it stings me!"

Dash shifts the loop of her flight path and the tip of the twister angles around. It angles BACK towards the Night Mare Heartless. With another shift of her flightpath, the twister shudders, ripples, and spits the flames right back at the Heartless Horse.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
Souji nods at the names that are given, but he instantly corrects Xion when she mispronounces it. "Zaibatsu." He quickly says, and raises his blade back to ready position as he sees the swarm reappear...

And pass him up. "So. A real challenge." Souji hisses as the hand POWERS UP for PHASE TWO. "Come then. Show me your power!"

The hand needs no encouragement for that, as it bulks up and fires a lightning nove. Souji brings the blade up for a defensive strike, attempting to parry it. How the hell do you parry lightning? There is a flash as his own lightning magic strikes against the nova shockwave... And then he is thrown backwards, collapsing to one knee and smouldering as he takes a nasty shock.

"You dare..." He hisses, "To use lightning against a child of Ramuh?" He doesn't seem all that resistant to it, so this must be more of an emotional thing.

Souji then lifts up his katana and strikes, attacking with a sonic boom as he drives the weapon straight for the hand in order to drive it in between some of the armor and pierce the flesh. He darts away, leaving the weapon inside the Heartless...

And then he holds out his hands, streamers of lightning rolling out of his hands as he unleashes intense shock therapy.

Well, it's therapeutic for /him/. "Finish it!" He calls to Roxas and Xion.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is happy to see Kyra, she's fast taking a liking to her. However she's got things to focuson the task at hand fo the moment. She's run over a number of heartless and isn't stopping now she skids the bike vanish and she goes flying though the air a this point she comes in for a landing seein the knight holding the line.

"You have my thanks."

DEelel says as she pulls teh disc off her back and it humms to life as she starts throwing it into the heartless' ranks.

"You have no place on this world creatures!"

Where were they coming from? She seriously wanted to know this. For now she bobs and weaves through the ranks of the enemy her disc lashing out without mercy she's got a whole lot as she tries to slog towards the knight to help her.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Studies show that, when admitted intravaneously, potions heal three times faster and 60% more effectively!" Kyra beams, taking Kenshin's gratitude at face value. Who DOESN'T like being healed? (The undead, actually.) "Why wait to drink a potion anyway when you can keep on fighting, right?"

    At first Kyra doesn't even notice that Kenshin seems capable of just floating along instead of actually running. The effect is finally noticed at his polite introduction, prompting Kyra to glance over and double-take at him. While no stranger to float spells, seeing one out of what she assumed to be a swordsman or samurai was rather unexpected. "My name is Kyra Hyral, I'm a student of Alexander Academy. I'm working with the Union as part of a club my friends are running."

Xion (630) has posed:
    "Right! That!" Xion replies to the correction, as she AGGRESSIVELY PAYS NO ATTENTION TO THE FIGHT. So little attention that the counterattack that Roxas ducks neatly and only gets partially singed, she takes full on and gets REKT.

    When the smoke clears, Xion is laid out on the ground in a sprawl, choking and smoking. She takes a moment to get her free-hand a-glowin' and pressing some TEMPORARY FEELGOODS white magic into herself, before staggering to her feet, Heart's Desire (her Keyblade) raised and pointed. "That..."

    She frowns. "Really hurt." She mutters, before leaping into the air.

    Then she 'double jumps' on mid-air, or, rather, a flattened out springboard Nobody (one of the weird silver ones that is like a wobbly mook that can flatten themselves out). And then a second, and a third. With her Mad Air, she raises Heart's Desire... And a massive bout of lightning hits it.

    And then she's not holding Heart's Desire. She's holding a (visual) copy of Souji's sword, which crackles with a massive burst of lightning. "I'll show you I'm not useless!" She cries, before falling out of the sky, breaking her fall in the most animu way possible.

    By driving a weapon tip-first into the top of it. Potentially in a Slow-enabled Cutscene, which looks Really Cool. Then, she flips off of the heartless, her weapon still buried in the top of it.

    When she lands, she stands up slowly, swiping her hand through the air... Where a massive bolt of lightning strikes the sword like a lightningrod, KRAK-THOOM!

    After this, it disappears, reforming in her hand, where she sheathes it with a flourish.

    Even if the heartless is actively up and trying to murder her.

    BECAUSE THAT'S HOW THAT SORT OF SFX-ATTACK WORKS. YOU GOTTA DO THE WHOLE THING.

Aqua (624) has posed:
    A sidenote on the HEARTS: they sink into the shadows just like how the Heartless died, a few moments later. Attempting to swipe or touch them doesn't seem to do anything, they're kind of incorporeal. An exception is those that were spawned by Roxas' kills, which rather than sink into the shadows dissipate into the air somewhat more peacefully. The same could be observed whenever Aqua whaps any of the emblemed Heartless too.

    Over at the HOUSES, nothing stops Toph and Jonothon from heading for the FARM! It's not that far off, half a minute if you run.

    Rainbow Dash continues her fight with the Night Mare! It becomes one-sided rather quickly. The twister may hurt the pegasus but it hurts the Heartless much, much more when it's turned against it full-force. The flames burn the creature, until there's nothing left but its fading body and heart on the ground; and then, no further traces. Heads (a few carapacians, a few humans, maybe a troll) start poking out the windows and cheering people on.

    Kyra and Kenshin, just the same, don't have many obstacles in their way. They will no doubt meet up with Toph and Jonothon on the edge of the farm, coming around the barn. All four of them pretty much have a huge surprise advantage against the HORDE of Heartless, of all shapes and sizes, swarming the building. It's a sea of black bodies and bright, glowing yellow eyes.

    At the WAREHOUSE, the fight heats up. The hand is a bit too heavy to just toss up into the air, but it's also not that sturdy. Its armor pieces are barely any tankier than the individual Heartless that make it up, so a few good whacks with the Keyblade and the armor shatters off, releasing hearts into the air and exposing the hand's injured spots from Souji's first strikes.

    An angered Souji blasts the hand with a shockwave and then slams his blade into the exposed flesh, courtesy of the force of his blow and Roxas' whacks. It acts like a lightning rod, allowing the high voltage and current to stun the Heartless and leave it completely open to attack.

    Xion follows suit, driving her copy of the blade into the stunned monster, and then opening up with lightning as well. The Heartless shakes violently and then explodes, not in a gory way, it just kind of gets vaporized into black mist and shadows which dissipate moments later. Dozens of hearts are released by Xion, who now has a higher score than Roxas. But really, who's keeping track. (Answer: Saix is.)

    And then there is the FARM. With Deelel's help, it is much easier to start pushing back. Aqua gives a nod, and then points her Keyblade forward. The strands of time around it twist and bend, the two carapacians helping her, as well as Deelel, suddenly gaining the effect of haste.

    Of more concern than receiving buffs from the Keyblade knight is the fact, from amidst the horde of Heartless, emerges a single, massive one. It has an emblem on its chest, same as the others; it's about twenty feet tall, a round, bulky, swole, muscled humanoid, with two massive tusks coming out of its mouth. It charges straight for the barn!

    Aqua's blade shines a bright blue, and suddenly produces a barrier of blue-white semi-transparent hexagons. The ogre slams into it; the barrier cracks, but holds. The ogre punches the barrier. It cracks some more, and Aqua falls to one knee trying to maintain it.

    EF and RA shotgun, pitchfork and rake at the Heartless ineffectively in the meantime. With great speed! But it's still not very effective.

Aqua (624) has posed:
    The narration corrects that all the score belongs to Roxas. Xion will not be getting praise today, or possibly ever.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The farm? Toph nods and isn't slow to follow after Jonothon, apparently having no trouble keeping up with where he is, even if he is light on his feet. "We can take 'em! I'll focus on defense if necessary. Ready?" she suddenly asks.

    Ready for what exactly, you might ask? No explanation is given before Toph kicks her heel hard into the ground, and earthen pillars push herself and Jonothon up and through the air in a controlled leap, or perhaps somewhat controlled leap in Jonothon's case, towards the farm! Hey, the seconds are wasting away here! Hopefully he won't mind a rough landing if he's caught by surprise.

    Either way, the earthbending master crashes into the ground in a crouch, and when the massive Heartless emerges, she frowns and steps forward, throwing her hands forward in a repeated motion, causing several large earthen spikes to shoot up in front of the large enemy in attempt to help Aqua keep that thing back.

Onikaze Kenshin (76) has posed:
    "Ah. I have friends in the Union. If you run into Miss Akemi, Miss Saito, Miss Setsuko, Miss Hope's Living Light, or Jack the Ripper on radio, please tell them I send my greetings," Kenshin says, calmly going through a long list of names that get progressively weirder until the last one is just bizarre, "Is Alexander Academy an enjoyable place?"

    He smiles at Kyra briefly and cordially, "A pleasure to meet you, none the less." The wind rushes to a stop as he comes across the rolling waves of Heartless, "Ah, we shall have to talk more later. A more pressing matter arises."

    Kenshin lands on the ground from his air slide with an easy motion, hand falling to his sheathed sword, "The wind howls loudest just before it shakes loose the mountain," He says to no one in particular and mostly as a focus for his special abilities.

    He draws the blade from its sheath in a swipe up and then swipes directly down, sending a huge gust of razor sharp winds to try to slice through the Heartless.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Akemi...I think I've heard her. Not the others, though, not yet at least. I'm still kind of new." Kyra speaks, breathless as she runs, "Oh, I love it! That school's changed my life!"

    What looks like a heart-shaped gemstone proves to be incorpreal. Kyra is vaguely disappointed by this. "Not much of a crystal. Definitely something left behind...a lifeforce or soul maybe?" Time to move on, either way.

    Finally catching up and convening with not only Deelel but Toph and Jonothon nearby the barn. Though Kyra's never met the former two before, she's quick to assume them as friendlies here. In transit, she'd already stowed the needlegun and brought out the second flask of napalm again. Her eyes gleam with excitement at the target-rich environment.

    "INCOMING!" she warns a little too cheerfully as she hurls the flask far ahead into the dead center of the Heartless horde. She's careful enough to time it after Kenshin has unleashed the air slash so the resultant plume of fire is not blown, say, onto the barn.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is doing pretty good and then she gets buffed with faster response times and she's now blurring a bit as shw teves through the enemies as he fights along side hte Keyblade knight. They are making progress untill an Orge shows up and she kinda stares at it for half a second to get an idea about it.

"Damn...it had to be a minion!"

She says as Aqua's barrier is going down Deelel's got a plan she pulls a puck like thing off her leg fiddles with it and leaps for huge monster she attems to get on it's back plant the photone charge as she flips away? She yells.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

The timer would tick down hopefully and go off here as Deelel comes in for a landing.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Jono asks that too. At least, he starts to. "Ready? Ready for wh--?" He's pre-empted by the appearance of the pillar of earth under his feet that Toph called with her heelkick! And suddenly he's airborne! "GAH!" Fortunately because he's pretty light he won't land that heavily. Also he's been training with the rest of the younger students for this sort of thing so he moves into a roll. Still hurt but he didn't break anything.

He looks up at Toph with a very clear 'what the hell' expression on his face. But he doesn't say anything. There really wasn't time to warn him. His emotional state also might be a little harder for Toph to gauge since he doesn't have a heartbeat or lungs. However he does have bloodflow (somehow) and that's going pretty fast when compared to human normal speed.

He doesn't say anything because there's a bigger problem. And the bigger problem is the elephant in the room. Literally. It's an elephant made of shadows. Or something. Whatever it is he joins Toph in attacking it. As she sends the spikes up in front of it he gets to one side so his blasts don't destroy the spikes. Then he sends a strong blast at the thing. He times it so none of the others helping should be caught in the crossfire.

Roxas (629) has posed:
The great Heartless is dispersed beneath the strength of their onslaught. Roxas had been so focused on whittling the thing down that he didn't have the opportunity to see Xion lose her head and flip out on the thing, except when she jumped up on it right in front of him. In the aftermath he takes a minute to catch his breath, looking between Souji and Xion in semi-silence. It wasn't the roughest fight he's been in, but this kind of thing is tiring even if it only lasts a little while! He rests the tip of his Keyblade against the warehouse floor and leans against it. He hadn't needed the urging to finish the great beast off, but by the end of it... Xion had been the one to deliver the last big attack! It was a pretty weird one, too.

"Hey, good job. I didn't know you could do that." Roxas says to Xion, before tugging his hood back. Underneath the SINISTER HOOD, he just... looks like a young man. Still a teenager to be sure, just like the voice and his size suggested. He looks charred from all the lightning still, but not too terribly bad off. Scuffed up and worse for the wear, but nowhere near out of the fight. "Oh, uh... sorry about all of this. We didn't bring those things here, but I think we let a few extra loose when we ran away from them."

"Sounds like this isn't the only place that stuff is going down, though... we should probably get moving and find where the rest of them are." He observes, glancing towards the warehouse doors nervously. This is an awful lot of activity for this part of the darkness to have. What would draw them to this place, he wonders?

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
When the last of the flames burn out the last of the shadowy Night Mare, Rainbow Dash is hovering amidst the smoke that remains. Though really, it's her that's smoking. Bits of her armor are charred gray her fur singed here and there despite Harmony's magical protection. "Yeah, that's right! Show'd YOU who's boss!" A pause, as she coughs up a few clouds of smoke comically. "... Ow."

Cheering from below catches Dash's attention. She smirks, lifting her head up cockily. "Yup, that's right, totally kicked flank!" She dusts off her shoulders proudly. "I know, seriously awesome."

After padding her own ego a little, Dash loops around just above the rooftops of buildings. And once she's confident that most of them have been cleared out, she speeds off, darting rapidly in the direction of the farm.

Aqua (624) has posed:
    With the WAREHOUSE cleaned, it mostly falls onto Roxas, Xion and Souji to find the others. If Souji wants to "help himself" to the trade goods he came for, well, it's a warehouse, and the workers are in no position to say or do anything! The warehouse mostly contains boxes and boxes of crated food ready for shipping, possibly the only contact with the outside world these people maintain. There's also boxes of seeds for Winterfruit, that thing they grow here even during the winter. But there's a variety of other things too, with mixed value and interest. (Basically: make stuff up if you want.)

    With the action now centered on the FARM, it's the home stretch for this battle. Kyra hurls another of her explosive flasks, which reduces a dozen of the various Heartless into nothing, a clean hole and crater in the pitch black horde.

    Toph's earthen spikes couldn't have better timing; Aqua's barrier doesn't look like it'll take another direct hit, but Toph's spikes can. The ogre's fist slams into them, and it staggers back with an angry roar.

    It is cut then by the winds themselves, Kenshin carving a path through the sea of Shadows/ants directly for the ogre.

    Deelel lands on the ogre's back in the commotion, and then off it. There's an explosion, which rips one of the ogre's arms clean off.

    Its second arm comes off as Jonothon pitches in with his energy blasts. By now it's clear the Heartless aren't winning this one; the horde's thinned, and the boss is literally disarmed.

    Aqua picks herself up, grabs the Master Keeper (her Keyblade) two-handed, and with a surge of ice blue magic, leaps at the Heartless and jams the weapon in there. It freezes the beast solid and shatters it, leaving a cluster of hearts behind, which dissipate skyward moments after.

    The rest of the horde, seeing the ogre fall, flattens on the ground, turning into literal shadows and disappearing in the cracks of the world and other assorted cover. If anyone goes to look, they're as gone as they can be.

    The young woman sighs and motions towards the barn. "I hope none of them managed to sneak inside. The locals had enough time to barricade in there, most of them anyway. Thanks. For the help, I mean." A bit of work later and the building's open, with everyone inside safe, if shaken.

Souji Murasame (627) has posed:
Everything explodes, and Souji's own blade swiftly returns to his own hand. He does not, notably, sheathe it as of yet. The blade is not sheathed until blood has been drawn and the battle is over.

Roxas' commentary draws his attention, and he blinks over at Xion, who is probably waving the sword around like a lunatic after having used her super attack.

Souji frowns, but does or says nothing. "As long as they are also defeated." Souji replies to Roxas. "They appear to be quite dangerous indeed."

He does not bother to steal any of the goods. The stuff here is low value and doing so will degrade his position for later negotiations. He does, however, nod to Roxas. "Let's go." He doesn't say another word, turning away to rush towards the Farm area.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The bigger earth spikes shake as the large Heartless ogre slams them with its fist, and Toph frowns, focusing on keeping the earthen defense together. "Like hell... you will get past!" she cries, inwardly hoping that the others will take advantage of this opportunity before that thing breaks through! And it seems that they do. With everybody present at the farm and combining their efforts it seems that the thing, whatever it is, gets weakened, and Toph can only sense Aqua as she picks up her blade and leaps at the beast. And obviously destroys it like they destroyed the smaller ones.

    It is over.

    Toph lets out a sigh of relief and lowers her arms, sending the earthen spikes back down into the ground before she steps forward. "No problem, lady. I was in the area. Now... you mind letting us know what these weird things were... and who are you for that matter? I haven't heard your voice before on the channels." As for the rest of the Heartless? "Well, it seems like they all took off." She can't see any of them around for now. So maybe they are doing that weird thing they did before. But let's hope not.

Xion (630) has posed:
    Xion lets her sheathed Murasame Katana dissipate back into pale light with a metallic 'shwink!' then she falls to her own knees, breathing hard. "Whoo! That sure was a lot of juice. I really hope there are no more like that!" She offers to the air, sighing and letting her hood fall down, revealing to Souji... Well, what he's already seen. Black short hair, big blue eyes, and... She's Kairi. Kairi with black hair parted the other way.

    You know, Roxas, I didn't know I could either! But then I saw mister Souji's sword, and I got really inspired, and then I did it! It all felt really natural. But you did great too! I..."

    She frowns, looking at her gloves and her singed, smoking lightly coat, as she winces. "I still hurt. Why are the heartless so big and powerful here? Is there something more to them? I hope not... everywhere is like this."

    She glances to Souji - "Oh! Right, these are Heartless. They eat hearts and spread Darkness. Does it all make sense now?" She wonders, before getting up and dusting her knees off. "Right! Where to next, Roxas? Inside? There's probably some heartless inside.

    XION IS VERY CLEARLY NOT WAVING HER SWORD (your sword) AROUND LIKE A LUNATIC, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
When the thing falls and the other shadowants (Jono has no idea what these things are) start retreating Jono sighs in relief. "Whew." He also nods to Toph confirming her words with, "Yeah. They're gone." She seemed to be having trouble seeing them when they flattened out and went shadowy like that so he made sure she knew they were safe.

Then, looking to Aqua (since she seems to know what's going on) and asks, "...So. This common 'round these parts or was that jus' an unforeseen ant infestation on the 'get your proton packs boys' level?" He leaves Toph's question to stand without repeating it. He wants to know what those things were too.

Onikaze Kenshin (76) has posed:
    "And with a powerful gust, and the whisper in the trees, the wind returns to a gentle breeze," Kenshin says seriously, flourishing the blade in his hand and then carefully placing it back in his saya. One hand grips the saya as the other comes off the hilt of the sword.

    He exhales heavily and then turns back towards Kyra, giving her a pleasant smile, "Excellent. Change begets renewal, it is the winds of the new season that carry the seeds of the future. You should tend them and see that they flourish to a bountiful harvest." He says wisely to Kyra, bowing his head a little in a polite gesture.

    His gaze turns towards Aqua, and he debates going to her for answers, since she seems to have the posture of someone who would have them. But for now, he'll content himself being weird and philosophical at Kyra.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel does some good here helping Aqua get a chance to rtecover at this point for a moment. She's looking about at this bpioint and she smiles a little bit at the young woman and says.

"Greetings, I'm Deelel and your help and that of eveyrone else is ... honetly welcome but do you have any idea of those things I saw them once ... when I had a vision some tikme ago."

She's looking about and hasn't quite clicked to just who everyone here is.

"Is every one else all right?"

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
"Get your what?" Rainbow Dash drops down out of the sky next to Toph and Jonothon, landing lightly with a few steady beats of her wings. The lightning bolt crystal set against her neck glows crimson briefly, before the entire suit of armor dissolves in motes of red light. "I'm preeetyy sure those guys never showed up here before. My pal Scratch probably would've said something about freaky weird ink things showing up in one of her hang-outs."

Dash pushes her goggles back up from her eyes, and nods at Toph. "What she said. Who the hay are you?" She squints accusitorially at Aqua.

Roxas (629) has posed:
"You just..." Roxas just sort of stares at Xion, flabberghasted. This really has to be how everybody else felt when they were dealing with him back at the beginning. Only, Xion is well past the zombie stage. She does stuff on her own. It's just that all of that stuff is so incredibly strange even by Nobody standards that he doesn't know how to deal with it. It's been a while since he puzzled out some of the nature of his own origins, so he knows he's quite different from the other Nobodies. Maybe most of them started out more like Xion did than he did? There's no time to think about it though.

"Doesn't matter, we've gotta follow him and deal with whatever's left. Some of them got out here because we came here, so it's our responsibility even if we don't get anymore hearts out of it!" He runs after Souji, beckoning for Xion to follow after him.

As to why the Heartless here are so strong though, Roxas couldn't say. They're definitely not the same no matter where you go, and places closer to darkness naturally have stronger Heartless. This place, though, is barely connected. It's somewhere on the edge of darkness, far away from where the strongest Heartless should be. The Neoshadows that lurk in the vast city beneath the Castle That Never Was are probably the most problematic foes one could encounter on a regular basis.

It's all just speculation though. Maybe there will be some answers at the Farm.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    No sooner than the fire of the flask extinguishes itself, Kyra is looking around for other targets to assail from afar. Kenshin's attack mows down the remaining Heartless, giving them both a clear parth to the much larger ogre. "Nice!" she comments. It seems that, by the time they it, Deelel, Jonothon and Aqua have already finished it off-and with it, the lesser heartless retreat.

    Letting out a breath, Kyra relaxes, calmly resting both of her hands in the front pockets of her hoodie. She doesn't zip it back up, leaving the rows of potions and other materials strapped to her visible. "So!" she calls out, "How's everyone feeling? Need heals? -except for you." Kyra nods to Kenshin, "You need to get your ass back in bed so you can heal properly."

    Kenshin's cryptic but inspiring words give Kyra pause, "New season indeed...especially if you mean a recent Unification...or these new enemies?" She tilts her head, looking at Kenshin curiously, "I get the sense that you're really perceptive." Though everything around here felt like a new enemy to her.

    At the gathering of Elites responsible for fighting off the Heartless, Kyra finds herself again distracted by the second talking pony she's met in just as many days.

Aqua (624) has posed:
    "Heartless. They're... the darkness within people's hearts. They eat hearts, and entire worlds sometimes," Aqua answers, slumping against the wall next to the barn door and allowing herself to hit the ground on her ass without grace. She hurts all over, the rest will be nice.

    Her Keyblade just sort of disappears in a shimmer of purple-blue light and a metallic sheen noise. She looks at Jonothon and shakes her head, probably in time for Roxas, Xion and Souji to hear the explanation. "I have no idea where I am, honestly. I was chasing them, lost track of them for a few seconds and... next thing I knew they picked a new target. It's probably my fault they came this far, sorry."

    She remembers to answer Toph, too.
    "I don't know who I am, sorry. Aqua, I think. That's about it. I try to keep a step ahead of these but I'm not as good as I'd like." And she's also pretty underinformed for the job.

    Her attention turns towards Roxas and Xion when she notices them. More Roxas, really, but only by a bit. She tries to recall and fails, tries to say something and fails, and then averts her gaze, because it's rude to stare.

    She gets up and dusts herself.

    "It should be fine now, they don't tend to stick around when outmatched. That's odd though, I thought there were two large types, and we only beat the one."

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Jono nods to Deelel's words. "Yeah. I'm okay," he assures her. Hooking a thumb at Toph. "Thanks ter her." Toph's earth walls kept him from getting shot after all. Rainbow Dash lands and Jono looks in her direction. "Yer okay?" he asks of her. He might have seen her get er... smoked up there. And he's not sure how pastel ponies react to being flame-broiled.

Kyra's question gets his attention and Jono looks in her direction. "Nah. But thank yer." He's polite as he 'says' it. Telepathic speech and all. Now that things seem to be under control Jono steps back from the group to start getting his fire under control. Which means he's likely going to be facing Roxas, Xion, and Souji when they join the rest of them. Yep. That dude is on fire. He doesn't seem to notice them just yet though. He's too busy wrapping his upper body up.

Onikaze Kenshin (76) has posed:
    "I endeavor to keep an open mind and learn from all things. Perception is required for such a task." He notes to her, "I am what one could call a Sage, or that is the closest term for it. I seek Wisdom so I may share wisdom." He smiles at her once more, carefully avoiding the statement that he should be in bed. He keeps hoping she'll forget about that part.

     To AQUA he has a different statement to make. Still holding his sheathed weapon, he asks to her, "What of the strange crystals that some possessed? What is their purpose?"

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The thanks from Jonothon makes Toph give him a wave of her hand. "Don't sweat it, fly boy."

    Heartless? Weird names... Though when their dietary habits are explained, Toph makes a face. "Ewww, really? That's messed up..." The way her blade disappears is a curiousity, though she doesn't comment on it. "You are in Afterus. But why do you think it's your fault they got here...?" She was fighting them, wasn't she?

    Aqua is easy enough to remember. Though is something wrong with her memory? Concern crosses Toph's face. "I am Toph Beifong, ensign of the Union. Did you and your world recently unify or something?" With the arrival of the others though she can't help but be a bit curious about them. Did they fight as well? She did sense other people in the area, and these seem different from those Heartless things.

    Onikaze's comment seems to surprise her though, and she blinks and points at him. "Hey! What crystals are you talking about?" Figure that an earthbender mostly thinks about crystals as rock formations, huh?

Aqua (624) has posed:
    "I don't know. I noticed when people without Keyblades kill the Heartless the hearts just disappear with them, or don't appear at all, but when you hit them with one they... disappear but in a different way. Even then, only the Heartless with the red logo on their bodies. The all-black ones, nothing happens. Sorry, I really have no idea," Aqua answers Kenshin, looking back towards Toph. "I don't know if it's my fault, it might be. Like I said I was chasing them off another world and they ran in the wrong direction. I chased harder and they kept going. I couldn't say more, their behavior is unpredictable sometimes. Other times they're mindless."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel Smiles over to Kyra as she catches up wuith eveyrone else she looks about for a moment.

"It seems to be that."

She freezes up now and is certain about the vision she had and that worries her. She looks to Aqua and seem to be concerned.

"I can see you can get some healing and a place to rest for the night miss it's the least I can do for you helping us. Your on the world of Afterus and I'm Deelel it's good to meet you and they are hunting you? As for the offer it extends to everyone."

She's got pull here like you wouldn't know seriously.

"Nice work TOph and Jonothon it was interesting to see you in action."

She looks to Aqua thinking for a moment.

"It's still more than we had before this started."

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
"Heartless, huh?" Rainbow Dash lifts a forehoof to rub at her chin. She shrugs, and her wings tuck in against her back. "Never heard of them. But more like Witless if you ask me!" She smirks, hoof stomping back down on the ground. Dash listens to Aqua's explanation, eyeing her as if sizing the new lady up. "Hmm, I guess you seem okay enough." The pegasus lightens up a little, relaxing her stance. "Name's Rainbow Dash!"

A pause. Dash glances back over to the residential area of the city. "You mean that big horse looking one? I took care of that. The thing couldn't stand the heat!" She tilts her head up cockily, grinning."

Which brings it back around to the burns on Dash's body. She grins at Jono, "Yeah, I'm cool. Nothing I can't hand-Ow-le." The bravado fades for a moment when Dash brushes her wing against a burn wrong. She grins, but it's a little forced. "Heh. Okay, maaaybe a little bit on the char broiled side." Kyra's stare wasn't lost on Dash, but the pegasus seems used to the attention.

Roxas (629) has posed:
When Roxas comes into sight of Aqua, a connection is formed. An emotional response occurs, but the physical medium through which the relevant information is stored is partially disconnected. A half-remembered glimpse of three friends is conjured up from the depths of Sora's childhood. This is a person that both the body and the Heart have met before, but there is a divergence in experiences that cannot be reconciled. Experiencing the incompatibility causes Roxas's head to swim, and he has to steady himself using his keyblade to remain upright. The fact that he is unsteady is obvious -- it would only take a stiff breeze to knock him over right now.

"Hey... don't I know you, miss?"

The question is distant and bleary, as if spoken by somebody who is halfway asleep. The metaphysical makeup of Roxas's existence doesn't allow him to do any more than this, and his attention quickly drifts towards the people asking questions all around. He says, "The Heartless are beings of instinct. They want people's Hearts, so they take them. It's not much more complicated than that. They're not smart most of the time, because they're just... feelings in the shadows. And they mostly don't go away because you need special equipment to get rid of them for good."

"But, uh... I think I got ahead of myself here. Hi. I'm Roxas. We were dealing with the Heartless in the building over that way." Roxas introduces himself awkwardly, adjusting the positioning of his Keyblade to better steady himself. The way he's acting, you'd think he took a blow to the head somewhere in all of this mess.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "I can understand keeping an open mind, Kenshin, but at the same time let's not also keep an open wound, okay?" Winking at him to let him know that she's certainly not going to forget the prescription of bed rest for this particular patient, she turns her attention to Jonothan. He APPEARS to be on fire but near as she can tell, doesn't smell or feel any actual fire. It must, she reasons, be an illusion or aura of some kind.

    At last, Aqua gives an explanation for the creatures and their extremely dire nature. "Possibly accounting for the skin-crawling sensation." she notes, "I can't help but get a sense of deja-vu though. Hm. Hey, come on, you're not doing yourself any favors if you blame yourself for those things being here. Don't worry about it." She pauses, "One moment."

    Kyra's awkward staring did have something of a benefit-it's hard for her to miss Rainbow Dash's burns. She sidesteps over to the pegasus, heavy boots clinking as she does, reaching for /something/ under her hoodie. "Rainbow Dash, right? I can give you something for those burns."

Aqua (624) has posed:
    "A place to stay wouldn't be so bad for a night. I'm not hunted, no. At least, I don't think I am..." Aqua uncrosses her arms, considering that carefully as she looks around. IS she hunted? She's pretty sure she isn't. It's more the other way around, lately. She hunts, when she can manage to find them.

    To Kyra, Aqua forces a smile on. "Thanks. I guess it's kind of true, huh? I just wanted to put it out there, in case. I could understand someone being mad my hunt took them here." She nods to the pegasus and Roxas after. "I see. Thank you. Roxas...? I don't... sorry, I don't remember the name, no. Your faces are familiar, that's all. Sorry for staring. I've seen your coats before, though. That design. The wearer never told me who he was. Never took the hood off either."

    It took her this long to actually notice the Keyblade.

    "You two hunt Heartless too? It's nice to see there's still people like that. Can't help but feel you two are a bit young to get involved in something like this, but... you wouldn't go home if I asked, would you?"

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The comment from Deelel does make Toph grin. Oh yes, feed her ego! "You haven't seen half of what I can do yet." And Rainbow's nickname for the Heartless earns a snicker from the blind girl, who reaches out to punch the pegasus pony in the shoulder. "Oooh, that's a good one!"

    It's a bit strange with how Roxas sounds when he addresses Aqua, and Toph arches an eyebrow, merely listening. Well, it would make sense they would know each other, or at least come from the same place if they know about these Heartless things, right? Roxas earns a nod from the earthbender, who nods. "Toph Beifong. So... the area is clear, huh?" Then something strikes her, and she sighs. "I... have to do the report from this, don't I?" Considering the other Unionites present are allies. Damn it! The blind girl groans and crosses her arms across her chest, and she mutters something under her breath as she pouts.

Onikaze Kenshin (76) has posed:
    "Understood, Miss Hyral," The wanderer says to her in a formal tone, not wanting to debate the point further. If she's going to press him on it, he won't hold firm on the stance and will probably return to bedrest shortly.

    After he answers Toph and Aqua first, though, "Several of the creatures that I cut down with my blade left behind floating crystals. It was an odd phenomenon that I thought she may have the answer to. However, since she does not, and I am being urged to return to rest, I should likely take my leave."

    He looks around at the many faces, some he takes notes to meet again and others less so. Still, he will probably be leaving shortly because two separate doctors have told him to get to bed.

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
Rainbow Dash wobbles a little when punched, but takes it like a man. Stallion. Mare. Oh whatever. Grinning, she 'punches' Toph back good naturedly with a forehoof. "Report's aaaall yours, Toph," She says jokingly, "Don't have TOO much fun with it."

The new teens that show up get another one of Dash's appraising looks. But she seems to determine that they're not immediately out to get them. "Special equipment, huh? Well that totally blows."

"Something, huh?" Dash looks over to Kyra, head canted slightly. They sting enough that she bites back her pride. "What do you have? If it's better than that nasty smelling stuff the nurses at home use, I'm game."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel knows not what she does and she tilt sher head a bit.

"You have terrain edit powers as I understand them thats nothing to sneeze at it was funny I figured out how to do the same ... during the past."

Yes flub about creation with native possiblu being able to hear it.

"It seems so officer."

Deelel was going to do it given well Afterus but Toph's made the offer already.

"Ah I see my mistaka dn I'll put in for it and Roxas? Greetings I am Deelel. IT also seems hunting heartless would be wise we don't need another thing spreading across the worlds."

Roxas (629) has posed:
"Nah. This is the only thing I'm good for, so it's got to be what I do. Isn't that how that goes?" Roxas asks of Aqua, seeming to find his balance over the course of the next few moments and putting his Keyblade away. He has no real conception of not going out and working for his keep, even if there's only one thing that he can do. Besides, his friends have a need for him to go out and hunt the Heartless. If he doesn't, they'll never get their Hearts back. It'd be cruel not to act on their behalf when there are so few people in all the worlds capable of offering any sort of help.

Shaking his head a little, the black-clad youth looks around towards all of the others. There's a man with a great fire emanating from him, and a swordsman, and so many other people. Where did they all come from? Outside of the crossroads cities, there's usually not this many people capable of fighting the Heartless. Roxas looks puzzled, not only by his strange feeling of a connection to Aqua, but by this whole situation.

But he manages a grin at Toph. "Yeah. Reports are kind of a pain. Our boss makes us write them too. Don't know if he even really reads all of them... probably just makes sure there's enough words on the paper and then ignores it." Saix is kind of a dick.

To Deelel he says, "Wish we'd met in less of a mess. I'll hang around here and make sure they don't crop back up. But, um... they've already spread pretty far across the worlds, you know." Apparently he's ignorant of the concept of the greater Multiverse, or at very least not familiar enough to know exactly how vast it is.

Xion (630) has posed:
    Toddling after Roxas, Xion sort of wanders blankly in, and sees Aqua, but not her keyblade. Normally, this would be a moment where she would PAUSE and STARE and MEMORIES WOULD FLOOD PAST HER and she would be struck with an intense sense of Deja Vu.

    Instead she just sort of stands around. Like a huge dork. In fact she just sort of shuts down, her eyes glazed over as she stands around, the world around her doing things like talking and relating.

    For Xion, she just kind of tunes out and is lost in her own little world.

    "Huh? Sorry, I sort of zoned out there. Oh! Hello everyone." Xion offers, as pretty much the most belated reaction to anything ever. "Sorry, I was thinking about stuff."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Well I have..." Kyra trails off as Rainbow Dash makes a comment about nasty smelling medicine and suddenly she's reaching into her hoodie on the /other/ side. "...a salve, a shot, or the stuff I use for sunburns but I don't think that last one is going to work out so well."

    Without turning, Kyra holds up her free hand, "Hey again Xion. So these were the things you were talking about yesterday, eh?"

Aqua (624) has posed:
    Aqua looks at Roxas, and then smiles genuinely. It helps her forget she took several nasty hits. "Mm. Thank you. I don't know why but that makes me want to smile. Try to be careful. I hunt Heartless because it's all I remember how to do that can help people. We're bound to cross paths eventually wherever there's a lot of them."

    It seems most of these people know one another already. They don't look like they're even from the same worlds; well, Roxas and Xion do, thanks to the completely inconspicuous black coats of normality.

    "I should go check up on everyone. They only managed to get some people in the barn, I have to make sure the ones who hid in the other buildings made it out. Doublecheck if the Heartless are really gone. Thanks again, everyone."

Xion (630) has posed:
    Xion nods animatedly. "Yep! These are heartless! It's why I was really worried about them invading your world. But, thankfully, that wasn't a problem! And I got to see a bird-sun. That was a good experience!" The now unhooded girl replies, before helpfully remembering she knows basic white magic, and casts a cure spell on herself and Roxas, who are both varying levels of 'cindering wreck'. It mostly makes them smell less like they went through an oven made with lightning.

Toph Beifong (20) has posed:
    The punch back is taken with her usual bravado and toughness, though Toph does stick her tongue out at Rainbow at her joke. "As if! I'm only writing them because Jarvis won't let me do video reports anymore, that slave driver...!" she grumbles. At least Roxas seems to get it! "Thank you! At least I get some sympathy!" She extends a hand motioning towards the other teen. "Except people will read mine, and I will get my reading tutor telling me about all my spelling errors. Pffft. You're lucky. You could just put down random words in the middle of the reports and save yourself some time."

    Of course Toph never gives bad advice. No. Never.

    What is alarming though is to hear that they have apparently spread out far. At that she frowns, looking far more serious. "Really...? They're spread across the multiverse? How? This is the first time I've heard of these things..." Others? You got input on this? Then another person joins them, and Toph turns slightly to the other girl. "Xion, huh? You guys have strange names..." Later when she writes the report she might regret not asking how those names are spelled, but unfortunately that thought doesn't strike her right now.

    "Weeeell. At least we got to help out. You guys let us know if there are more Heartless you need to deal with, okay?" Toph states with a smile. Most of the people present are always up for a fight!

Jonothon Starsmore (27) has posed:
Now that he's got his fire quite literally under wraps Jono looks a little more normal. Y'know... except for the fact that his face is wrapped up from the nose down. He's been quiet for the time being... just listening to the accounts and explanations of those who know what actually happened here and what those things were. He echoes Toph's sentiments though. "Yeah. Yer jus' let me know if these things pop up again," he agrees. Verbally throwing his own hat into the ring there.

Rainbow Dash (43) has posed:
Rainbow Dash wrinkles her nose in distaste at the options Kyra gives her. "Blegh, thanks but no thanks on the shot. Guess I'll take the salve if it's any better than the other stuff."

Roxas (629) has posed:
"Hmm... I wonder if I could get away with that..." Roxas seriously ponders Toph's suggestion, crossing his arms over his chest and gazing away thoughtfully. He's an honest kid maybe not honest enough to not attempting to use some unwise advice for a mostly innocuous report. The only problem is, though... that the corridors around here are pretty packed with Heartless. It's normal for there to be some, but it was bad here even for them. They're not going to be able to leave this world just yet, which is a royal pain. They'll have to figure out someplace to stay in the meantime.

Roxas looks back towards Aqua, and nods in her direction. "Hey. We're going to be around here for a little while, so come talk to us once you've gotten some rest. I've got to take Xion here and find someplace to stay for now. I know a lot of people who have a hard time remembering things about their lives. I'm one of them. So, uh... you know. I guess people like us have to look out for each other."

Besides, he can't help but feel a strong connection to this person, even if he doesn't know why.

To everyone else he says, "It sounds like we'll all be meeting again pretty soon, but for now we'll be seeing you. Oh, um... here." Roxas takes a moment to hand out business cards to anybody who will accept them. Why does this kid have business cards? They all have the number XIII on them, as well as a radio frequency.

"I guess maybe it's weird for me to carry stuff like this, but somebody I knew once did it and it seemed useful to them." He explains. The business card isn't even entirely useless to Toph -- the characters are raised and can be felt out pretty easily. "Anyway, take care and be careful!"

Having said his goodbyes, Roxas gives Xion a bit of a nudge in the ribs with an elbow and takes off -- with or without her in tow, he's sure she has her own weird little ideas of what to do -- in an apparently random direction.

There's an important ritual to be observed, though. So he'll definitely wait.

Xion (630) has posed:
    Sheeon takes a business card too, though she kind of sort of needs to steal one. She is very insistent on getting one, even if Rocksass wouldn't normally want to part with one to her. She finds it very, very important.

    This is because she wants it. She can't actually be Jealous, but she does understand Want.

    Then she just works the card over in her gloved hands, grinning like an idiot before she is nudged in the guts. "Oh. Okay! Bye everyone!" She calls, before drawing up her hood and wandering off.

    She does, in fact, go in a different direction, barely paying attention to where she's going. She is a little tetched in the head for sure.