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Roxas     Insomnia, Kingdom of Lucis

For those who have visited this iteration of Earth before, Insomnia itself is strangely anachronistic. Though it has all the trappings of a modern world, every bit of it feels ten years ahead of what you'd expect Earth to be in this timeframe. Cars are a mix of modern and modern-retro, cutting-edge technology such as self-driven cars intermingle with manual cars and the occasional airship can be seen overhead. It isn't the bizarrely desperate hypertech feeling of Niflheim-- there's less of a sense of things being wrong, even in places that look worse for the wear.

But as it is a Kingdom, the form that law enforcement takes is incredibly anachronistic. Members of the King's guard are as common a sight as regular police, standing out for their distinctive uniforms and melee weaponry. Nobody seems off-put by this in the slightest, but it very much has the air of, 'What if a medieval metropolis carried forward exactly as it was into the modern era.'

Today's mission... is adjudicated by a Moogle, wearing the same cultist robe/long hoodie that the Organization XIII kids do.

"Roxas didn't have time for a briefing, kupo! The Wardens got here earlier than we thought, so he's keeping them busy. It's the apartment building at the end of the street. Hurry it up!"

The meeting points that the Organization choose /always/ seem to be in shifty parts of town. The apartments look like low-cost government housing, and everything is run down. There's a shantytown of homeless living underneath a nearby overpass. A broken down car -- or a thoroughly robbed one -- is stripped nearly bare along a sidewalk.

The apartment building itself is old. There's nothing unacceptable about it, and if not for the neighborhood looking a bit rough it seems perfectly fine. It's not hard to find the source of conflict, though.

The sound of ringing blades can be heard from the entryway, to one side of which is a stairway. It's all going down in a hallway on the third floor. Roxas, in full cultist garb with his hood up, is dueling with a woman who can't be older than he is. She's fighting with a khopesh, but she's not doing very well. She's too defensive, and gives too much ground-- but she briefly manages to get the better of him with some sort of incantation that prompts wiring in the walls to burst out and seize his left arm.

He retaliates immediately with an aggressive, "THUNDAGA!" that makes contact with her sword and lays her out. Even so, Roxas is stuck for the moment.

"I'll get myself out," He waves towards an adjacent apartment door, "there's a real Warden inside, this one is just the apprentice. Go!"

True to his word, there /is/ a real Warden inside, whatever that means. At first glance the man is old-- too old to be wandering about doing this kind of business, in spite of the fact that he is. The last vestiges of grey peppers otherwise white hair. But for all that he looks like he belongs in a retirement home, the Warden moves no slower than a man of fifty in excellent shape.

His sword doesn't match that of his apprentice, instead taking the form of a kyu-gunto. At a glance it could be mistaken for a saber, but on closer inspection it is very definitely a japanese sword. He's in the middle of jerking his blade out of a drawer being used as a shield by a panicked-looking brown-haired teenage girl cornered in the front sitting room.

The girl herself looks to have narrowly avoided a decapitation already-- there's a bloody line across her neck where he evidently scored a passing blow. There's a fair amount of other debris suggesting this has been going on for a short while.

"Water!" The old man calls in response to the first twitch of motion, causing nearby water pipes to burst and spit fine streamers of highly pressurized water through both this apartment and the hallway outside.
Raziel 'A request for aid through the Concord Network had caught my attention, and I had decided to investigate due to the interesting nature of the context of the request.  Though in reality, I had no idea what I was potentially getting myself into at the time..'

Raziel appears before the Moogle, forcing himself into existence through pure force of will to force his spirit to materialize in the material world.  Only to hear that things had already progressed before they could get there, and now time was of the essence.  The goulish features of the Ghost narrowed, but he nodded.  

'The strange creature for me, like something out of a children's storybook dressed in robes that made one look like more of a cultist than such a creature.  With a sigh, I accepted the words at face value, there was no reason to deny it, but I was on guard, lest we are caught off guard.  If it is one thing I have learned through my trials, not everything is what it seems.'

With that, Raziel runs through the city, following the Moogle ably, making sure to keep up, never seeming to get tired or winded.  Keeping the same quick pace the entire time until they arrive.  Already sounds of combat heard.  However, his head jerks up as they surge into the apartment complex.

'The City itself was one of both the so-called modern era by most people and something more from my time.  However, despite the obvious advantages of the modern nature of the city, they're still plagued problems of society.  Decay, homelessness, and lawlessness.  The rot behind the nicer homes, out of sight from those who have made it.  It seems the modern era has often forgotten the obligation those with have towards society and those without pay for it.'

Finally, able to see Roxas, as he waves them off.  He could tell he had the advantage in combat for the moment, flinging around spells he was unfamiliar with.  However, turning to the next one revealed the old man, his blade caught in the makeshift shield of wood, and what looked like someone in a panic trying to barely hold off.  

'It was then I saw what I expected to be a master of the arts.  Someone in his career does not get to be as old as he is without care.' Raziel notes, even as the water bursts through the apartment and hallway,  Raziel braces himself, using his telekinetic gift to part the water, narrowly keeping himself from being washed away.  

With the same gift, he moved to throw a burst of telekinetic power right towards the center of mass of the old man, aiming to send him flying back from the girl.  He would enter, as the soul reaver came to life, glowing with the hunger of the ravenous soul that forged his symbiotic blade.  Well, some days it felt more parasitic.  Still, he stood, in front of the girl with the blade drawn.  

'I could hear the frightened girl behind me, but right now I could only focus on the target in front of me.  I would have to keep this old master from her, for whatever reason he had an interest in her.  The sword he used was not one I was familiar with.  Handled just like a saber, but curved in a strange way I have seen on foreign blades.'

"Do not be afraid," an ironic statement from the ghoul-like man, as he sits guarding the obviously frightened teenaged girl.  "I am here to help.  You should stay behind me until this threat has been dealt with." He says, calmly and confidently.

"And you, sir.  Attacking a girl, regardless of whatever your lord would send you after is unconscionable.  I will give you this chance for you and your apprentice to leave, peacefully, or I shall be forced to deal with you in a way I am sure you are not prepared for." He narrows his burning eyes, vacant and only filled with bluish light, "What say you?"
Axel One of the black-hooded 'cultists', hood up, who is probably Axel based off form and body language (he's leaning against a wall), is waiting for others to show up before he continues. Making sure there's no more reinforcements. When his own arrive, Axel jerks a thumb towards the apartment. "Let's go."

Sprinting inside, a flick of his wrists and a flair of dark energy summons his silver and red chakrams to hand, passing by Roxas. As Roxas says he has himself handled, Axel gestures in affirmative as he moves. "Good luck, Roxas. We'll take it from here."

But as they approach the door, pressurized water blasts out. It's enough to force someone back, and possibly bruise a weaker person, so Axel tries to consider a way through as the water knocks him backwards and almost off his feet. The door is easy, and if there's no other option, he'll try and get through it...but the Nobody looks for a window. If he can leap through one window, dash across the wall, and then leap through an apartment window, he might be able to get some avenue of surprise on the Warden, chakrams flying in his direction to slice into him and force him back.

Besides, it'd also mean less crowding through a single door that'll give their target the avenue to throw a big attack at them all at once.
Riku This kind of ruckus attracts attention, and not the kind of attention that Organization XIII might appreciate, nor the Warden who is expertly dealing with an assault from the doorway.

The arrival doesn't need doorways. There is a surge of dark energy as a line lashes across the distance from the next building over, and a purple-white blur crashes through a window dramatically. And possibly right next to Roxas, ironically enough.

Riku grimaces at the black-clad warrior for a moment. How does he keep ending up in contact with him? From the looks of it, something about Roxas just /pisses him off/.

But that moment passes, and Riku advances, extending a hand to offer it to the girl while Soul Eater is brought up in a defensive posture, preparing to interpose. "Come with me if you want to live." Riku says to the girl in a clipped tone.

What an introduction.
Doctor Strange      Strange enters the building to find Roxas locked in combat with the apprentice. He hovers slightly above the ground, brow furrowed as he listens. There is a wordless nod given to the Organization member, and the Sorcerer Supreme does as he's asked, locating the 'real' Warden.

     No sooner does he arrive than does the Warden attack. The Cloak of Levitation billows out behind Strange, and he quickly floats backwards, avoiding a skewering by a pressurized rod of water. The spell he'd been working on is dropped, hands nicked by the aforementioned water, which leaves a diluted red stain on the wall behind him. He begins a new one.

     His magic is different--rather than calling out the names of spells, he weaves them with motions resembling the martial arts. This spell resembles a series of quick parries from a hard style like Wing Chun, his hands drawing together bands of orange energy until they form a complex, warbling glyph that slowly extrudes the haft of a weapon from its center.

     Strange pulls a spear--a qiang, to be specific--from the mandala, constructed of that same orange energy. It's a bold choice for close quarters, perhaps even a little arrogant. He meets the Warden's gaze directly, if possible, daring him to call the bluff. A one-handed swipe of the spear sends a cone of cold blasting into the pipes, attempting to first freeze the water in the pipes, and then shatter the ice, creating a focused blast of shrapnel aimed down the corridor.

     "I'm Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme," he says as the icy explosion settles, his voice grave and demanding rather than dryly sarcastic as it usually is. "I've come with allies--Sir Raziel, the Angel of Death. Riku, the Heartbrand of Dark. Roxas is making short work of your apprentice, and more of his number are on the way." Strange narrows his eyes.

     "Whatever you think you can find by attacking defenseless kids with /swords/ I guarantee you can find somewhere else--and if you did it looking to test your skills, congratulations. You just found a whole gaggle of worthy opponents."
Xion A race against time to save a person from being executed! Truly, this is a mission of mercy. Well, honestly, Xion does not have a huge emotional investment in saving (or not) the subject of this mission (or much of anything else). The third cultist-in-cultist-clothes isn't anywhere near the first two. In fact, she's nowhere around at all, until shortly after Riku cuts through the air and corridors into the room to Ahnold the target girl.

The window doesn't smash in so much as the pane of glass ceases to exist in vibrating high-frequency buzzing, as a 'third' cultist - Xion - tumbles into the room. A quick turn of her hooded head - largely at the slice on the girl's neck, and Riku being the Big Hero, and a nod.

"Mister Strange, you came!" Xion announces, as he in turn announces everyone else. "This is Riku, he's also a hero. He..."

Xion pauses, searching. "Helped save us from... some of those weird soldiers, didn't he?"

With a soft, twinkling 'shing!', Xion produces a golden 'actually really just an oversized, overdesigned clockwork key' with a broad comb of tines that doesn't really have a distinct handle or striking surface, but, like most Keys in this world, services itself as a weapon when swung. "Trying to chop people's heads off, that's rude!" Xion announces as she sweeps it towards the Warden's guard in a rising slash.
Roxas "Gentle flow." The old Warden says, in english, reeling his blade back in to position it between himself and the incoming telekinetic strike. There is a strange shimmering in the air, which momentarily bleeds away force from Raziel's attack before being breached and striking the man in the chest. He is pushed backwards a solid two yards, the blow knocking the breath for him and probably doing some less-than-obvious internal damage.

Here is the regrettable truth of Raziel's attempt to handle this relatively peacefully in the aftermath: He looks like a Black Court Vampire who feeds exclusively on meth addicts. The Warden of the Council swings his blade about, raising it towards the entry hallway and giving some ground as he assesses the situation. He didn't come here expecting to deal with that strange hooded child, /or/ a Vampire of the Black Court. He's already working with a timer-- eventually, the local authorities will take notice.

The next strike comes from behind, clipping him along the back-- his coat seems to be made of relatively tough or enchanted stuff, because it doesn't penetrate as much as it really /should/, but a line of blood still appears soon after, and Strange's spray of shrapnel peppers his body in a similar fashion.

"I am Warden Arata, of the Council. The young lady is a fugitive who has violated the third law of magic, prohibiting forcible violation of a mortal's mind. The process of such acts are addictive and self-perpetuating. To prevent future offenses and degeneration of the Warlock who has breached the laws, the penalty for this crime is death." He explains, calmly.

But even then the body language says that he's just buying time to assess.

"The FIRST TIME I HEARD OF ANY LAWS OF MAGIC," The girl shouts, half-angry, half-terrified, "WAS WHEN YOU TRIED TO CUT MY HEAD OFF THIRTY SECONDS AGO!"

Warden Arata doesn't even look at her. He's actually had so many people come flying in from the back that when Xion arrives, he whirls and catches her key with his own blade-- only to find that she's hilariously, unreasonably strong. He doesn't even know what the hell she might /be/, because this party is ridiculous.

After getting slammed firmly into the ceiling and having his wounds exacerbated, he's had about enough of this. Evidently coming from the Agent J school of fighting, Warden Arata turns and immediately strikes for the opponent that this makes the /least/ sense for: Dr. Strange. What's weirder is that he swings straight for the spear in particular, and it becomes evident /why/ on contact. That sword shreds magic like a hot knife passing through butter. If Strange takes a close look at it, he'll see that somebody /very specialized/ in making 'a sword to murder wizards' has in fact just spent /months/ on that specifically. Fighting against it using magical constructs is an uphill battle that /this/ guy doesn't have to pay anything at all to maintain. Right now, he seems to be counting on Strange not knowing that for long enough to just straight up murder him in an immediate alpha strike.

This strictly personal attack seems to be reserved for Strange alone. Possibly, he sussed out that Strange is the closest thing he has to natural prey here.

Next, he says something in-- nobody's sure. Possibly ancient egyptian, or some other equally dead language. Sigils come alive on a gauntlet on his left hand, and a band around his right ankle. The frozen water melts abruptly-- and then goes in the opposite direction, coalescing into what can only be described as a cloud of malevolent steam that swirls through the area with lethal pressure and intensity.

As a slightly unfortunate side-effect, visibility is lowered sharply until somebody deals with that.

It's around this time that Riku feels a hand at his shoulder.

"Get me. The FUCK. OUT OF HERE." The girl hisses into his ear, urgently.
Roxas Roxas... glances towards Riku in passing. He's definitely taken notice that this guy keeps showing up, but he doesn't seem to possess any sort of immediate familiarity. A moment later he cuts himself free with his free arm, and-- moves down the hall to relocate the Warden's Apprentice when the murderous mist cloud spills out into the hallway? Yeah, that seems to be what he's doing.
Riku The fact that Strange counts Riku on HIS side causes the Heartbrand to startle for a moment. Not enough to look in his direction (this guy looks like a blademaster and a half, this is not the time for astonished looks), but enough to grimace and grit his teeth.

Instead, he sets himself as he watches the Warden explain what's up. The whole Laws thing that he's being told, well, this sounds like a whole lot of Not His Problem.

His shadow rushes out, wrapping around him in a barrier as the water turns into what is a painful-looking steam bath. He focuses on defense, blurring backwards and using his Eidolon's dark form to bolster his defenses, but well, this is steam. Steam gets places. Painful places.

As it scalds against him, he jolts as he feels the hand grab his shoulder and those hissed words. "I'll get you somewhere safe." He says. A moment later, he reaches out, and pulls open a dark hole in the air, using his free hand to take the girl's and rush out through his portal.

It drops them off on the rooftop of the next building over, the one where he came from in the first place. "Let's go!" He says, running with her as he prepares to open another to get more distance. He needs to get to a better position to get her out of town. The Corridors are inconvenient like that when it comes to longer distance travel.
Raziel The Scalding attack sears through Raziel's body, sending him sprawling to the ground in agony.  Not that it's particularly effective, but rather it caught the Soul Reaver off guard.  Groaning, he rises to his feet again, taking a more...well, savage position.  He is lanky and literally looks like a corpse, as well as moves like one.  It's rather interesting how one can move when you didn't have organs to worry about.

However, even as they fight, his wounds were already knitting and closing, as if the life around him itself was feeding him.  He definitely was out of place in the world, something that should be far long dead...yet not.  However, he speaks affably, and with intelligence far beyond what his body should indicate he has.  

"In what draconian law do you serve that would condemn someone to death for anything short of murder, treason, or the breaking of a blood oath?  More than that...by what right or authority do you claim to enact your judgment?  It does not seem that the authorities of the world value your authority.  Nor does the Concord acknowledge it."

He says before the spectral sword comes in, aiming to stab right through the armor of the knight, ignoring it completely and aiming to carve right towards the chest, and then back around the leg, aiming to try and hamstring the old master.

"However, in keeping to the art of courtesy, I am Raziel," he says, though giving Dr. Strange a souring glance at the title 'Angel of Death'.  He could practically hear the words coming out of his 'benefactors' voice.  "With these terms, you are given one more chance to leave.  I suggest you take it."
Axel Axel makes his hit, but it's not as deadly as he wishes it was. This Warden's dangerous. As he explains the rules, Axel keeps his hood on tight, letting his chakrams return to hand as they spin around in his hands and ignite. And then, the steam comes forth.

As his skin scalds and stings through his hoodie, Axel grimaces, taking a step back, and then, in a flash of darkness, blinking through space towards the Warden, trying to avoid the brunt of the steam from burning him and instead allowing it to just graze him. It also allows him to slice those burning chakrams into the Warden's side, and try and set his coat aflame if he can.

Axel doesn't introduce himself. That's pointless - he's trying to hold this guy off. "Sorry, but we can't let her die. She's too valuable for that, you understand." Of course he doesn't. It doesn't matter. Axel's going to kill him if he has to.
Doctor Strange      Strange, of course, attempts to parry the sword in the classical Chinese form, using the flexible haft of the weapon to flow around the strike and penetrate the Warden's defenses. This is not what happens. What happens is that the sword slices the spear in half like a flimsy piece of string cheese, then promptly disintegrates it. Again, the Cloak of Levitation saves Strange's wizard ass, pulling him backwards and preventing him from getting the same treatment as the spear.

     He is still in one piece, but there is a deep, crimson gash running along his chest that would definitely mean a trip to the hospital for anyone who didn't have command over sorcery as he did. His brow furrows... where has he heard that Law before? Oh. The realization dawns on his face. Warden. Anti-Magical sword. Third Law of Magic. Council. His face pales from the blood loss, beads of sweat forming on his skin.

     He swallows, marshalling his focus. "Well... hate to break it to you, but you're gonna have to pick your battles here, Warden." His fingers cross over his chest and make the mystic sign of Agamotto, opening like an eye and activating the rose gold amulet upon his chest--the Time Stone. A band of congealed time forms upon his wrist in the shape of a chain of clockwise rotating glyphs. He turns the band backwards, and time rewinds itself. To some extent, the wound lessens, blood flowing back into his body and making it merely nasty instead of grievous.

     "Sixth Law--Thou shalt not swim against the currents of time." He waves the Cloak off of him, and it raises off of his shoulders, giving him a skeptical look as only an animated garment can. He then removes his robe to show Arata proof of his sin--and perhaps to show off his pasty, unimpressive physique.

     "You wanna get to the girl, you gotta go through me," says Strange. He smiles as Riku runs off with her. That's good--that works. "He's White Council, Sir Raziel," explains the Sorcerer. "Their order is like mine, meant to protect, but unlike mine, their methods are cold hearted pragmatism, driven by fear. The Wardens are their secret police. It doesn't matter to him that she's just a kid, or poor, or scared, or even that she didn't know what she'd done. It's easier to kill her than to take a chance on her, and the Council is all about what's easy."

     Strange places one hand behind his back. The other is held out in front of him. The Cloak of Levitation shakes its... collar in a 'this is a bad idea' kind of way, but doesn't interfere. He begins to circle the Warden, intent clear in his emerald eyes--if the sword can destroy constructs, then he'll just have to give the Warden the most official hands this side of the Dark Dimension.

     Like a bolt, Strange advances, leaving afterimages in his wake. Taking a page from the Warden's book, he aims to strike at the source of his opponent's strength. The sorcerer dips mid-charge and rises with an upwards, deceptively limber kick in an effort to strike at his chin from below.
Xion Xion manages to pressure the Warden with her absurd strength, locking blades with the magic sword for a few moments before she's shoved off, skipping back with quick feet to re-settle into a 'readied' two handed position, boots blanted wide and left shoulder leading as she leans in to her stance towards the Warden.

It is then the Warden turns the entire area into awful, scalding mist, which is pretty damn hard to dodge, and harder still to resist in a thick black coat.

Instantly sweltering with a heat and a burn that clings to the skin, Xion swings her key through the air uselessly, a gloved hand over her eyes as she blindly swings. Luckily, Riku has already made off with the girl, so when Xion drops the Key to the City (which disappears in a quiet shwing, her now-empty hand clenching into a fist.

"Demi!" She announces, opening her hand back up as a concentrated singularity of dark purple energy sworls and sucks from above her raised palm, vacuuming up the mist in a swift sworl of scalding air, before slinging the explosive ball of gravity at the Warden overhand, timed between two of Strange's strikes to assist in his hitstunning and air juggle.

Then she turns to the window, to call to Riku running down the streets. "Watch out for Insomnia Cops, Riku!" She calls, cupping hands around her mouth to...

Actually, probably neither help nor hurt, as if he was gonna be chased - he probably already is.
Roxas Warden Arata doesn't answer Raziel. There isn't much else to say-- and what there is to say, Dr. Strange says it. He meets the spectral sword with his own-- /this/ one isn't the sort of thing that his weapon is intended to unmake, magical though it is. It is a stranger kind of magic, and one that deals in things that his blade does not. Though perhaps it flickers with effort, Soul Reaver would not be undone by the Warden's blade. There is a clash of magic-infused metal with the Soul Reaver, Arata controlling the direction of the inflicted injuries rather than meaningfully trying to stop them entirely.

The one to his arm strikes cleanly, the one to his chest is deflected so that it rakes his arm, and the attempt to hamstring him is parried altogether. It still leaves one arm bleeding profusely, and he is /very/ clearly not a superhuman in terms of physique.

He murmurs something else, very /literally/ drawing his blood back into his body in fits and starts.

Axel is met with a similar controlling-of-degrees. The Warden brings his sword about to re-angle one of the chakrams, but reaches towards the other with his already-injured arm. More /burns/ are inflicted along his arms and side than blood is drawn, and that seems to have been the idea. Actually making him catch fire wholesale though-- that doesn't seem to be catching.

Probably all the water magic.

The Warden regards Strange with particular care, which turns out to be a good idea (in his head at least) because the man immediately starts using Time magic. Unfortunately it also means he's not paying attention to superstrength child as much as he really ought to, and they come in with a GRAVITY-TIME combo attack that involves a lot of headkicking with extremely disproportionate force.

Arata hits the floor, bleeding from the head and /more than likely/ sporting a few broken teeth to boot. He spits blood on the floor as he rises, almost immediately back to a combat ready stance. But he's flagging. It's easy to get the impression that he wouldn't have done so if he were younger-- but the man's well past his prime.

"It is not easy, Sorcerer Supreme. It is less easy with well-meaning interlopers. But I prefer to be wrong, in these things. It does not happen often." Arata replies. He swipes his blade through the air, but no counterattack comes-- to anyone. A hole yawns open in the world, into which the Warden passes. Within the hole is a sprawling castle town with high walls. The hole itself opens onto what is most certainly the /worst/ part of this castle town. Wherever it is. Whatever it is.

Then a strange sound begins to pass through the surroundings.
Roxas A knife whistles through the open window, and immediately it is followed by a man. But the man bursts into being upon the knife-- he does not pass through the window, or the intervening space. The man wears the familiar garb of the solo patrollers from the city.

Maksim looks from the bloody floors, broken coffee table, a drawer jerked out an end table and then cut in half, and the frozen pipes. It has all the air of a regular policeman surveying the site of an accident, only it seems like he's /absolutely/ seen this exact shit one too many times.

"Kingsglaive Maksim Klim. Mind explaining the noise and property damage?" Maksim says, fishing out a badge that displays his credentials. He looks between Raziel, Xion, and Axel. He gestures with his badge towards Raziel, "You a vampire? You look like hell. Shouldn't your everything be growing back by now?"

"And you two..." He gestures at Xion and Axel, "C'mon. It's like you /want/ to be arrested. Are you with that creepy moogle? You know he makes potions out of phoenix tears, right?"

MEANWHILE UP ON THE ROOFTOPS...

The teenage girl keeps up reasonably well with Riku, but the truth is that whatever she is, it doesn't confer a supernatural physique either. By the time they reach the edge of the rooftop at a full run, she's wheezing-- and she stops dead when she sees the jump she has to make

"Nuh-uh. No way. I can't make that. Can't you just..." Leandra wiggles her fingers ambiguously.
Raziel Raziel narrows his eyes, knowing full well men like him.  Those who were so full of their zealotry that everything else was secondary.  The blade is held defensively, ready to continue the fight.  He nods once towards Strange, understanding what he was saying, but like the old man, there seemed little left to say.  Only action.

'Before the final exchange could be made, the man retreated through what could best be described as a hole in the world itself.  Unable was I to understand how he was able to use such magic, nor was I sure what would happen should I jump in afterward.  So I let the man escape, as it was likely he was not continuing his assault on the young woman.'

The knife gets Raziel's attention, and quickly he moves back into a fighting position, ready to defend himself.  However, it was quickly obvious that the man did not mean them any initial harm, and seemed more to investigate the situation.  

"I am Raziel, member of the Concord.  I was hired to provide assistance in defending a young woman from her attackers, which was apparently a member of a group called 'The Wardens'," He says, truthfully.  Apparently, he has no qualms about being truthful.  

"I am...not a vampire anymore.  I was one in life, but I am a ghost now.  This is simply a projection of my ethereal form I am able to do because of certain gifts I was able to acquire.  I can say no more on my unique resurrection, because I know very little about the circumstances of it, beyond what was told to me...and I am wary of what was told to me.  Though I can tell you in great detail about how I was murdered."

"However, this is not a story that you are likely interested in hearing about.  I acted in defense of a young lady who was acting in self-defense against an attack that was unprovoked.  I also acted in self-defense, attempting to persuade them to back down."
Riku Riku's been possessed of superhuman wells to draw on for some time, he's kind of forgotten what it's like to get tired this soon. So it is that he looks surprised for a moment as the girl loses her breath and stops. "Are you all right?" He asks, looking her over. The situation is obvious, but he looks over at her, and then the gap. "Oh, right."

He frowns, then. "I can't get us out of town until we get to a good place for the Corridors to intersect. It's going to take us some time and we don't know how long that guy is going to chase us."

He looks over to the next roof and opens another of those shadowy portals. "I'll get you to that safe place I mentioned. There's someone I want you to talk to, they can probably help you." He takes things slower, letting Leandra walk along with him so she can catch her breath.

Soul Eater stays in his other hand. You never know when a wizard might pop out of nowhere and try to assassinate you.
Doctor Strange      Strange adopts a defensive posture, bouncing on his heels like a certain style of note. "Then open yourself to the possibility," he says, slightly favoring the sword wound Arata inflicted. "She might suprise you, if you--" The Warden makes his escape. "...gave her the chance," he flatly finishes. He sighs. His robes, and the Cloak of Levitation, fly across the room, and in an instant, he's gone from martial artist back to wizard.

     They are suddenly joined by Maksim, and Strange pays him the courtesy of a bow. "Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. I can fix the property damage, some of which is my fault." He isn't immediately forthcoming with why exactly the property damage occurred. He produces, with a flick of his wrist, a Paladins identification. "Like Sir Raziel here, I came because I was asked to help break up a disturbance." The wizard does give Raziel a frown of disapproval for his forthcoming nature.

     Even /he/ knows you're supposed to keep it short and sweet with cops.

     Strange begins to cast a scrying spell, attempting to find the place that Arata escaped to. If he can find it, he'll open a portal there himself and take a look around for the fleeing warden. That's probably wishful thinking, though. Thinking like a wizard--if he were in Arata's shoes, he'd lay up an illusion or something and portal somewhere else PDQ.
Axel He can't set the Warden on fire, but soon, the fight is over because the Warden retreats. Axel lets him, having had his hood on enough to not be really recognized, as he desummons his chakrams. And then, the police appear. Or, more specifically, Kingsglaive. Axel considers what to do, and decides making himself look more trustworthy is the way to go, so he removes his hood.

The tattoos under his eyes may or may not make him still look suspicious. But the spiky redhead has such a chill attitude that it's hard to think of him as some horrible fixer who had just been considering possibly murdering a Warden. "What he said." There's a gesture to Doctor Strange, deciding to align himself with the one not spilling everything to the cops. "The potions are pretty good, you know. Really, is phoenix tears such a bad thing?" And hopefully, distracting the KG long enough for Riku to make his escape. But then, it dawns on Axel, though his facial expression only changes subtly.

They don't know crap about Riku or where he's taking her, do they?
Xion Xion pulls down her hood. "I don't think any moogles are creepy!" She announces, as the Warden is replaced with the Kingsglaive's Knife (and then, the Kingsglaive Man). They're so..."

Xion's gloves make a crk-k-k of stressed leather as she squeezes her fingers like grabbing two stress balls. "Fluffy!" She says it in that particular 'fuwa-fuwa' way that some people do. "We were saving the girl from the person. Sorry! But Mister Strange is a powerful wizard too, so he can just make everything better. Anyway, the girl left, and I'm Xion. Also, if you mean the moogle in the coat, Mog is the only person I know in Twilight Town who carries the glass bottle soda with the fruit on it. It's the best, you know?"

Mog's superpower is clearly bribing children with Jarrito's.
Roxas "You're a... ghost vampire, who helped somebody deal with a Warden illegally chasing a Warlock in Lucis territory." Maksim repeats, incredulously. But Raziel looks so bizarre that he kind of speaks for himself. He seems a lot more interested in the /Warden in his town/ bit. He replaces his badge at his belt, and shakes his head, "Those guys really have no sense of boundaries. Can't say I blame them though. You get the power to zip around, and it's really hard not to use them."

It's not terribly hard for Strange to open a portal to where he wants to. It's a few layers "down" from here, but not actually that far away.

It's also /super obviously/ Faerie now that he has the opportunity to check it out direct-by-portal. Everything is just too colorful and rich to be actually real. The whole thing feels like a movie set if, somehow, you just straight up made it approximately real.

Faerie. At night.

Arata appears to be gone, though. It's hard to tell how this place connects to anything else on the surface, and experimentation would take a little while.

"Alright. So, Warden comes to try to axe some warlock. Illegally. You guys got wind of it at some point. Came and took care of it. Warden went running, probably to the UG, probably to the other side of the planet from there. Warlock went running. And you're going to fix all this up."

"Phoenix tears are good. Acquiring a steady supply of phoenix tears is creepy." The Kingsglaive asides to Axel.

Maksim looks slightly worried about the things that Xion is saying, but decides that it isn't his problem. He shrugs, "Alright. Well, if you'll do the fixing up so my camera can see it, I'll be getting out of your hair. Sounds like we've got the Council over a barrel for a little while, so I'd say it's a fair enough trade."
Roxas Leandra takes deep breaths before she answers Riku, "I just can't run that fast that long, and I don't... I don't think I could make that gap even if I had a running start. I'd be just as dead as if that guy got ahold of me." She pauses and glances down, "Or maybe just in the hospital, where that guy would come find me I guess. About as dead, just a little delayed. Point is, I couldn't make it."

She seems content to take the short-jump portals, "Well... nobody in /this/ town is gonna help me. Can't say I mind getting far, far away from where those dicks think I am. I'm Leandra by the way."

In the absence of life-threatening danger, she starts getting just a /little/ bit catty. Raising her eyebrows, she grins over at Riku and asks, "'Come with me if you want to live', huh?"

Her eyes flick to Soul Eater, on which she remarks, "You sure wear your Heart on your outside, don't you?"
Riku Riku moves at a brisk pace, letting her walk along with him and not letting her out of arm's reach. "It's fine. I said I'm going to get you to a safe place, and I mean it." He says as they walk. "Don't worry about what you can't do. You can do things I can't, apparently."

They portal from rooftop to rooftop, Riku carefully threading his power to open the Corridors while they move steadily away from the scene of the confrontation. He remains tense, but he does look over to her. "Riku." He replies. He frowns. "What, you didn't like it?" He asks, asiding to her. He shrugs. "I liked the movie. Sue me."

The observation on Soul Eater gets a little laugh. "Yeah, I guess you can say that. Apparently, that's how people like me work. So you know things about Hearts, huh?"
Raziel Raziel just gives the cop a stare, as if to say 'this is just as ridiculous for you as it is for me.'  However, he doesn't give the man who isn't giving him any trouble trouble.  After all, it's all about respect in the end.  

With Strange offering to take care of the damage, and the overall situation looking rather resolved, he basically waits for Strange to do the things, so they can move on.  Apparently, there was more to this situation, and Raziel was now involved in these events.

"Phoenix Tears?" he sounds...weirded out.  "How do you even collect tears from a Firebird?" There is another beat, "Wait...so where did the white haired young man go with the young girl?"
Xion Xion pauses. "You know, I don't know. He's a hero, though, right?"

Xion slides her gloved hands into the side pockets of her coat. You know, the ones for dramatically putting your hands while you stride around like a Level 100 Boss, talking about hearts-darkness-friendship-darkness-keyblade. "Someone like him wouldn't take her anyplace bad, right?"
Doctor Strange      Strange waves the portal away. Yep. More or less what he expected, there. That probably won't be the last they see of him, but now they can at least prepare. That Riku guy can hide her someplace, and maybe they can bring her up to speed on what she can expect from the White Council. Maybe even get them to call of the dogs, and rethink their philosophy, in this one, specific instance.

     That'd be nice, but... he won't hold his breath.

     Throughout this pondering, Strange is silent, rubbing his goatee almost stand-offishly as everyone else discusses the events which just transpired. He does, of course, hear Xion's praise, because being less arrogant now than he was before just means that now he's 'merely' very arrogant, as opposed to 'blindingly.' He makes an affable finger-gun in her direction when she mentions him being able to fix everything, clicking his tongue.

     He then does indeed make an effort to fix everything, using the Time Stone to create a giant, stylized clock face made from glyphs which hovers above the party. Its hands slowly begin to wind backwards, undoing whatever damage isn't causally fixed into place, without also rewinding everyone inside it. This may be because of the brightly glowing green time-bands everyone now has around their wrists.

     "I'll see what I can do about getting them out of everyone's hair for good."
Axel "Fair enough. The dress code probably doesn't help." Axel shrugs playfully towards the Kingsglaive, before stepping out of the way of broken stuff so that Doctor Strange can rewind it. At this point, he decides to click on his radio, though as soon as they get permission to leave he'll also do so. He has no idea where Riku went, so he can't catch up to him. He can, however, be more careful about who he hands over the VIP to in the future, instead of 'weird heroguy strangers'.
Roxas Maksim just shrugs at Raziel. He seems to understand that it's more bizarre to experience than to observe. But that doesn't make it /not/ bizarre to observe. To his question, he replies, "You hurt 'em. Can't die, can they? Not for good, anyway. But they can hurt just fine. Or be moved, I suppose."

Roxas peeks around the corner when TIME REWINDS, but doesn't actually enter the room. This is because he's carrying an unconscious Warden. In fact, he shortly thereafter elects to Corridor out of this place posthaste. There's no good that can come of that guy seeing him.

The Kingsglaive can't help but stare at what's happening. Time Magic isn't ordinary. It's also /justifiably/ pretty illegal. Time magic on this scale? Nnnnope. Way above the bar of what he's witnessed.

"Yeah," he says, "that'll about do it. Try to get our attention next time, yeah? Or just, don't have a next time."

"No," Maksim agrees with Axel as he draws his knife again, "you look like you're planning on cutting a live chocobo open on a stone altar."

He hurls the knife out the window, and vanishes.
Roxas "Nah. Didn't think about it until I didn't have a sword at my throat anymore. Seems pretty to-the-point, no matter where you got it from. So... thanks, for that, Riku." Leandra replies to Riku.

On the subject of Hearts, she falls silent for a little while. It's hard to tell if it put her into a bad mood, or if she's just now processing everything that just happened. Leandra wipes at the blood on her neck.

Eventually...

"Sort of. It's not really like knowing, exactly. It's... I dunno. Like breathing, I guess. Sorry for making you think about breathing. Hey, where are we even going?"
Riku "No problem." Riku says. He seems to be generally short on words compared to her. He shakes hs head. "Don't worry too much about it. My teacher's going to want to help you out and keep you safe from those Wardens, I'm sure."

He finally stops, looking around. "Okay, this looks like it can work." He opens one more portal. "This one is going to take us far away from here. Stay with me, you don't want to get lost."

He looks over to Leandra with that. "We're going to Luna Nova Magical Academy. Safest place I know right now."