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Xion	PREVIOUSLY, ON KINGDOM HEARTS - AGES: OPERATION T-REXUAR: A major operation catalyzed by external assistance saw the Galbadian Army (G-Forces) special operations branch deploy to secure the war-pocked wreckage of the Train Graveyard. Thanks to assistance by multiversal heroes and guided by the elite pathfinder ZACK FAIR, the operations team was able to navigate the magical labyrinth of esoteric and sympathetic garbage terrain to find a hidden Clock-Tower overlooking the Keyblade Graveyard, and defeat the being that crawled out of the Darkfont (a literal fountain of darkness) called JENOVA. Notable for this event was the importance of the train lines for the defense (and economy) of the Galbadian Union. One of the arterial train stops on the Galbadian rail lines, comprising a four-station pileup is the (self-styled, largely) 'Occupied' town of Timber. Timber is 'Occupied' because it is in vogue for the population to support one of the *literal dozens* of resistance organizations that exist as vague social clubs and ne'er-do-wells and punk groups that lash out at the Galbadian control of the area. During the Sorceress War, Timber was annexed by G-Forces as a major staging ground... and then Galbadia never left. No formal surrender or vassalization was ever issued, and while the governor of the area declared that their 'military allies' were here for 'protection', it was basically understood: Timber was occupied territory, this was the situation, and it was the situation for the long term. The Call To Action Today: ZACK FAIR just got promoted to Specialist First Class and is celebrating with his 'team' (see: People reassigned to being his support structure because he graduated to Big PC Energy) between missions at a bar in Timber. His broad invitation is to 'those heroes that showed up' with promise of 'either shots or some real action'. The town itself has a tangible feeling of being at military alert - pairs of blue-armored G-Forces regulars patrol around the city. Bulky, red-armored officers mill about larger public spaces or set up outside of APC lean-to tents and file paperwork on anachronistic holographic screens. The civilian population either soldier-watch from their stoops to peer at the soldiers marching their boots across the cobblestone streets, or go about their day with the brisk pace of a people used to getting asked questions if they loiter too long. Like a breath just short of an exhale, the energy is apprehensive. Outside the bar, Wedge, a blue-armored G-Forces soldier with a noticibly flashy chest and shoulder patch plays some strange 3x3 grid card game with a child at a patio table. He appears to be losing. Inside the bar, the spike-haired Big PC Energy Zack Fair (same unit patch) hits on a long-haired girl with a long blue knit sleeveless sweater situation. She seems to be far less into Zack than Zack is into her. Zack has an empty pint in front of him. The girl has a full pint in front of her. He animatedly discusses in the vague terms of someone in-the-know about a serious operation up in the nearby mountains. There is the retching sound of a large-bodied man in the bathroom. Biggs (bulky red-armored G-Forces officer) must have had too much fun.
Cantio	Although Cantio wasn't actually at the previous operation, she's heard enough through the grapevine that the situation in Galbadia would be worth looking into. Granted, that doesn't make it any less suspicious for someone unfamiliar to just show up, but... Well.     That's exactly what she does anyway. Thankfully, she's got a pale grayish-blue coat draped around her to help blend in a little better, but the purple hair is still kind of heavy on the purple without a hat or anything to cover THAT up. Still, she seems to fit in well enough (relatively), drinking from a pint of something (probably soda) while watching the exhilirating card game between WEDGE and CHILD.      "There's a lot of things at work in this game, aren't there? Amazing..." Alas, she doesn't linger there too long since the real target of her investigation is inside, and she waves a polite goodbye to WEDGE and CHILD before heading into check in on her target... Striking out, from the looks of it. Time to be a good wingman out of nowhere! "You're getting involved in that? Oh my... Won't it be dangerous, though?" She asks a little too exaggeratedly.
Cordelay Levail	Cordelay enters the bar with an air of confidence, her self-assured nature evident in every step. While her knowledge of the events leading up to this celebration is spotty at best, the promise of multiversal warriors being present is enough to pique her interest. The bar, however, does not. Trying to ignore the sound of retching from the bathroom, Cordelay orders a drink and sits near the flirt and the lady he's pressing his attentions on. "This town must be used to military occupation, if life continues so normally under their watch." She muses, notably unperturbed by said presence herself.
Roxas	Roxas was invited because he was present during the prior operations, but he... couldn't really tell anybody /why/ he came. He's not exactly the sort of person who fits into a bar, though his ability to Simply Show Up and damn doors or bouncers prevents anybody from troubling to toss him out for being underaged. You can bet that nobody is going to serve him anything alcoholic, though. He's just obviously too young. Which is why he's sitting at a table adjacent to Zack and the woman he's pestering, absent-mindedly prodding at a basket full of pretzels with cheese dip. He blinks at it, as if trying to focus on it properly. "Hey... Mr. Fair?" He's not even looking at the recently-promoted soldier when he speaks. He lifts a hand to point towards the woman's drink, "I don't think she's really enjoying herself." The words are said so lifelessly and blunt that you can only imagine he doesn't understand exactly how hard he's shutting Zack down with that sort of interjection-- and of course he doesn't. Roxas is ambiguously something-teen and hanging out in a bar, and all of his friends are faking sincere social interaction. "Say--" Roxas doesn't really pause his thoughts between Hard Shutting Zack Down By Proxy, "Is this the sort of thing people are supposed to want? Promotions?" Cordelay catches his attention. Roxas nods towards her, a little dully, "Most places that were at the center of the Sorceress War are at least a little like this. I wasn't alive back then, but it was supposed to be pretty crazy. People disliked magic users for a long time."
Tamamo	Tamamo no Mae has, naturally, arrived here together with Lilian Rook. The extent of her prior knowledge of the area is solely her knowledge related to Xion, either personally or from Lilian's mentioned affairs. Something about a book that she's never quite gotten around to looking at.     Bars and pubs are generally well-understood locations to most, but have yet to feature prominently in her own visitations while within the same hemisphere of any culture related to this one. Others will have to judge whether the long, white summer dress with detached sleeves is appropriate for the environment. If anything, it seems like it's going to get dirty awfully easily, with all these boots tramping about.     At least, it can be pointed out, she isn't the only one sporting that sort of separated, shoulder-baring look, though the rest of several outfits still leaves her wondering. "Is that sort of ribbed look in fashion?" is directed at her companion, mostly quietly.
Riku	Riku doesn't generally hold much truck with the Galbadians himself, but the events of Operation T-Rexaur were... a thing. Weird Crap seems to follow Zack like his shadow, and him getting promoted just means that he's probably going to get into more trouble. Riku, for his part, doesn't show up in his usual Batman manner. He actually arrives in Timber using... conventional transportation: A motorcycle. The sight of the marching Galbadians gets a small frown from Riku, but he says nothing, nor does he cause trouble for the soldiers. He parks out before the bar, adjusting the new addition to his costume: a short, normal steel blade on his back. There is a wave to Wedge, Riku continuing inside. His gaze sweeps the place, and settles on Zack and the woman with him. "Hey." He says to the pair as he approaches. "Long time no see." He says in a neutral sort of greeting. He turns and leans against a bare spot on the wall, not being presumptuous enough to sit at the table immediately.
Seifer Almasy	Seifer Almasy is definitely not avoiding the lady in blue.      He has definitely not applied a tiny bit of a disguise kit (enough to give him a little bit more of a goatee than he has ever worn in his life) (he kinda likes it, he might keep it) to change the shape of his face. He has definitely not put on a wig (it matches his hair color) (it looks like he grew it out) (he kinda likes it). He definitely did not do this in the bathroom next to Biggs, with a bit of "hang in there buddy" passerby sink sympathy because that's what you do. He definitely did not do it because he noticed the lady in blue before she noticed him.      He actually didn't wear his coat today, though, because that stupid pokemon got into his laundry. That part is actually not because of the lady in blue.      No, really. The Moon Cell is going to lose his socks. He's certain of it.      Seifer is definitely not avoiding a very awkward conversation. Nope. He's going outside just to see Wedge's card game. He's passing through the bar with a glass of milk in hand, because he doesn't drink, and because anybody stupid enough to pick a fight with a guy built like a linebacker and call him a sissy deserves what's gonna happen to them in the immediate aftermath.      Seifer does not look like a sad anime boy. Seifer looks like an adult. Take that, Squall. There's memes about this.      So, very studiously *avoiding* the lady in blue's gaze, he passes by behind her only long enough to raise his glass at Zack in a 'yo, good work' gesture, and then goes hurrying for the door to watch Wedge fail at card games.      Riku's arrival gives him a moment's pause. He stands there in the door, awkwardly, sort of...looking at him. Finally, he decides on, "Hey."      And then he goes for the door before anybody calls him by name.
Lilian Rook	"'Supposed to'. That's a good phrase. A complicated one. Fittingly complicated, even." That seems to be Lilian's opinion (i.e. factual reply) to Roxas' question. "Let's say, he's well within his rights to be happy about it; and making an occasion of a time you felt proud of yourself and pleased about things in general is best time to have one. It internalizes better. You make stronger memories of it."     Despite the fact that she has absolutely the most clean line of consequence for why she is here, from arriving in Galbadia initiatlly, to discovering the Heartless in the waterways, to putting in the request for a joint strike operation on the Train Graveyard, unable to leave it alone, to spearheading T-Rexuar, to going home with a magical book, and not only meeting, but working alongside Zack (and Biggs and Wedge too) personally, there's no question whatsoever as to 'why she might be involved, or at least have bee contacted'. She instead spends the whole time silently asking herself why she bothered.     Considering it's Zack, she hasn't overdone it today. No clue what Timber would be like, but it's safe to assume certain things. She's opted for a 'country' look in the sense that one sees it in an expensive subscription-based magazine and absolutely believes that's what people in the country wear, going for the clean white cuffed and tied blouse aesthetic, dark red checkered skirt and ribbon, black leggings, brass buttons, just the one small bag, no ostentanteous jewelry (outside her apparently very very favourite lily hairpin). It still looks like slightly too much. A 'how do you do, fellow rurals' kind of college girl tour problem.     "A sometimes fad." she replies to Tamamo. "I don't know what that's supposed to be. Punky but homespun? The girl next door aesthetic on top of . . . Well, perhaps the shoes are necessary for a place like this, but." This is not quite solely due to her inability to say something unconditionally nice about other girls while Tamamo is around. She looks slightly confused, -- nay, concerned-- peering over laced fingers. She does not order anything yet. She unironically asks for a drink menu, and then presumably not really getting one, spends a bunch of time at the bar swiveling her seat back and forth slowly, radiating a 3.6 Roentgen rated 'don't bother me' feeling in addition to the higher radiation of 'being perfect'.     It's probably rude to interrupt Zack to ask him the question on her mind. Spying Seifer, she holds her fingers as if she's about to snap them and call him over, but she pauses in the middle of the gesture, probably assuming that if he knew anything, he's forgotten it. So she bothers Roxas first. "What is this town supposed to be exactly? 'Occupied'? It looks like a proper nowhere. I'd call it self-important to even title itself 'occupied', but it appears that Galbadia really wants to be here anyways. Why? As in, for what purpose? I can't imagine anything valuable about it. Why not bring the boys home?"
Sumiko	Sumiko who never turns down a free party with people she may or may not vaguely know walks up to the bar to notice Wedge losing a children's card game to a child.  She looks over and leans over Wedge for a moment, looking at his hand and then the table.  Thoughtfully, she nods as if she gets the situation and then carefully whispers into Wedge's ear.   'Tetra master is the better card game,' she says, nodding as if she imparted great wisdom to the loser.  Then casually walks into the bar.  Her eyes roam and fighting the urge to find a corner and brood there, she heads towards the center of the action instead.   "Hey, congrats!" she says towards Zach.  "So how about a free round for us?  Or just me.  I'm not picky," She says as sweetly as possible and looks towards others.  Roxas is also talking to Zack, though she missed what that was about.  Lilian and her Tamamo were there too.  There is a moment she looks at them funny.  Pauses shake her head and try a smile instead.   "Sorry, still remembering experiences are not always mine.  I /still/ don't get her problem with you," she says towards Lilian, and towards Tamamo, "I haven't REALLY gotten to know you.  Though I know the other manifestation of you.  So...that's also a thing."
Cordelay Levail	Cordelay listens to Roxas's explanation and nods, leisurely consuming her drink as Lillian interjects. She then looks over to Zack and raises her empty glass. "Congratulations on your promotion, Master Zack. I am Cordelay Levail, daughter of Sartaire the Dragon of Sioran. A pleasure to meet you." She tucks a stray curl of golden hair behind her ear as she speaks, smiling slightly. Her eyes then flit to the lady in blue Zack is hitting on and adds, "And who might your... companion be?" She then spots Sumiko and raises her still-empty glass in gretting. "Ah, Lady Sumiko!"
Seifer Almasy	"Tetra Master is terrible," Seifer says on the way out, which may or may not blow his cover, but a man's gotta have his principles.
Sumiko	"Your face is terrible," Sumiko says on the way in to notSeifer. His cover might be blown, but she's not going out of her way to say anything more. Though it seems she's letting him and Riku have it out first. Befure she goes to reintroduce herself to Riku. BOY THAT WON'T BE ACKWARD! She waves towards Cordelay, "Evening, and no lady is needed. Just plain Sumiko."
Xion	As it turns out: It is pretty suspicious for a colorful crew of people with weird traits to show up in an occupied town under what is not called but clearly is martial law! Thankfully, unlike a party of three to five characters with stand-out designs in a pixellated hellscape of PSX-era environmental smear hired to do a domestic terrorism by the daughter of the french military junta, the multiversal arrivals are being invited by the totally legitimate special operations group of a world power. So: you're cool! OUTSIDE THE BAR, MAN LOSING IN CHILDREN'S CARD GAME: Wedge isn't an especially bad player, but he does seem to take too long considering his moves and then intentionally play suboptimally, while talking out his turns. The child, on the other hand, is a ruthless grinder who has not tasted defeat in weeks and is putting on a halfhearted show of 'wow mister!' while playing a full set of mid-level rare cards. Wedge is getting fleeced, in other words. Cantio - and Seifer - interrogate him in turn. "Hey, Triple Triad is the best card game ever created! It's simple to pick up, easy to learn, and there are tons of regional rules to keep it interesting!" He loses another hand and forks over more cards to the child. "Look, mister slick-back, you'd be using your chaff too if you were playing Costa rules." Wedge complains, drawing another handful of common garbage cards out of a hard-shelled card box. For those not in the know: Costa Del Sol is a beachside tourist trap resort famous for being extremely pretty and having some of the most awful regional rules for Triple Triad in existance. It is unclear which of the two, between the vicious child and the poor well-travelled soldier, who has 'forced' the other to play such terrible rules. INSIDE THE BAR: Zack is verbally gunned down in the street, sitting back to clutch his chest. "Dang, kid, you don't have a safety, do you?" The freshly promoted man complains. "The nice lady was *very* in-" Rinoa raises a hand, first to stop Zack, then to hide her mouth as she just starts laughing at Zack's expense. "The 'nice lady', mister 'Specialist First Class Zack Fair'? He's right, by the way." Leaning back to cross her arms, Rinoa assumes the classic stance of a woman who is just waiting for Zack to continue digging his grave before jumping into it, the hawklike focus of someone who does this on the regular. 'Go ahead' she smiles pleasantly at Zack's fumbling. 'Find a new and exciting way to fit your whole ankle in your mouth now'. Zack, a freshly promoted 'PC Energy' specialist, has an excape vector: the honest questions of children. "What I meant to say is: It's very important to celebrate important promotions. The G-Forces have a pretty visionary method of recognizing talent. The regular army ranks don't really contain people of specialist talents or abilities, so it recognizes 'Specialists' into three ranks, or classes. Because of you guys --" Zack salutes at Riku, before transitioning into a seated bow at Lilian while they approach to help explain. "-- I made First Class. I basically outrank anyone short of Commander Hewley or General Fury in the field. Isn't that right, Biggs?!" A particularly suffering groan issues from the bathroom. Zack smiles. "That's right." Rinoa is discussed, specifically about her questionable fashion, and raises a finger to collar level, pointing up. "I'm an investigative journalist. Rinoa Heartlily." If her name sounds like a pseudonym, that's because it either is or she has easily thirty percent more protagonist energy than the First-Class PC Energy of Zack Fair. Seifer tries to dodge the spotlight, but Zack seems to key into the opposite - especially at the Tetra Master commentary. "Almasy! Fancy seeing you here." Zack rises to almost shove into a hand-grip of the Adult Man who is not a child soldier. "Did Balamb actually get my requisition for a SeeD for the upcoming operation?" Rinoa's eyes track Zack as he moves, her attention hanging on his words even more. Zack is all good spirits.
Xion	"Hey, with this many people, even if those terrorists-" Rinoa's jaw clenches as Zack speaks. "-get any ideas, we'll be there to take them, won't we?" At the door of the bar, Sumiko calls for Zack to buy her a drink, and Zack seeks Wedge. A quick attention-getting whistle from Zack makes Wedge look up, shake his head, and then get back to his game of (losing at) cards. Zack shrugs. "Sure, missy, they've got juice. Tell the barman it's on me. Aren't you..." He leans in. "A little young to order alcohol at a bar?" Biggs finally stumbles from the bathroom. "When's Jessie getting here? Hate being on standby..." Zack throws a goodboy thumbs up at Biggs. "Standby means we get to brief our friends." Biggs kicks the ground, before windmill-arming back to stability. "Hate briefings too..." Zack frowns. "Aren't you a /Major/?"
Cantio	Triple Triad. Cantio's going to need to remember that name if she ever wants to look it up for something to do at home. "I wonder if we could come up with some of our own, then..." She murmurs to herself, letting those gears churn even while she's inside the bar proper.     "Erk... I-I don't think you're supposed to say that out loud." Cantio stage-whispers to Roxas at his observation about Zack and the woman with the full drink, purposely avoiding eye contact with the woman after that juuust in case. In doing so, though, she spots Cordelay and offers her a brief wave, then notices Riku seeming to recognize tonight's contact. There's quite a few people here that recognize him, even, including Seifer and Sumiko who she also vaguely recognizes... The voices of! She remains quiet at first, holding back a snicker at Rinoa seeming to revel in Zack's suffering.     Unfortunately, Zack mentions terrorists, Rinoa looks tenser, and Cantio finally speaks up again. "Apologies if this is going to be covered in the brief, but these terrorists... Do they have any outside support? Other agencies, nations, celebrities or other media darlings?"      And then she orders some juice from the bar. Her soda's already finished, and she needs more drink.
Tamamo	"Yes, it does seem a bit... unswept?" Tamamo politely falls back to this particular synonym for 'grimy' in describing the streets. Her own sandals, no matter how fantastically thick, are unlikely to measure up to boot country.     Modes of dress aside, this is some sort of social occasion, and having little idea what this place is about or who a number of these people are does nothing to detract from that. Conversely, she does recognize... let's see, Roxas is an easy one, and Seifer's voice gets a slight turning of one ear. His is not a voice she would soon misplace, and her ears are quite sharp, though she did not arrive with any expectation of seeing him about, so it's not something to immediately draw more attention. Sumiko's arrival is far more 'immediate.' She gets a searching stare through golden eyes that seem to flash with a little more light than should be in the room, and a "Hmm," followed by "this is so. Well, well. I should hazard no guesses as to what preconceptions another story of myself has granted you. Rather, 'it is of no matter,' I would most likely think."     Having likewise found no help with a drinks menu, she curiously asks Zack, "Oh, but we did interrupt your conversation of... what was it, now? Military plans and operations, the movement of soldiers, something of this sort?"
Seifer Almasy	Ohhhh, Zack, you *son of a <goosehonk>.*      Seifer is stopped in mid-stride. His commentary to Wedge goes forgotten. His desire to mention that Costa Rules are really easy as long as you (are Seifer, Dumb Minigame Master) put together a deck that can take advantage of things like "random" and "chaos" by having average numbers on every side to counteract peoples' big stompy things that tend to have obvious weak points.      This is entirely forgotten as Zack greets him. That freeze-up is the freeze-up of a man who is almost suicidally brave in nearly every circumstance except this precise one.      "Fair! Congratulations on your promotion!"      He grabs Zack in what seems like a friendly over-the-shoulder hug. Then he lowers his voice substantially, so only Zack can hear. "Maybe don't go shouting about the whole SeeD and Balamb thing in a bar full of randoms, huh?"      "But no. Garden didn't send me. I'm here because you sent a message going 'hey drinks on me', and I figured I'd come out and rep Concord interests and say hi, and, oh, yeah, *that's my ex you're hitting on*."      He just lets that hang there in front of Zack for a moment. "You maybe see why I didn't say anything when I raised the glass?"      But Seifer is really not the sort to run away from his problems, no matter how awkward they are, once he's been put in a position where he can really decide that even trying was kind of stupid and uncharacteristic and born entirely from having no idea how to deal with the situation. Usually he just charges straight in. This is kind of, uh, outside his wheelhouse, so to speak.      He releases Zack, straightens, and sighs. He puts on his best Seifer Almasy smile, which is a pretty good, pretty chivalric, smile, and says, "Hey, Rinoa."      "I would've called, but the world kinda disappeared on us. Still looking for...my friends. Somewhere in the darkness."      "I feel like that's a pretty good reason."      His smile sort of fades away. It's false bravado, and he knows it.      He closes his eyes.      "I'm sorry. 'bout pretty much everything." That's a *hard* thing for Seifer to say.
Riku	There is a long, quiet look from Riku, a certain Dr. Pepper of emotions crossing his face that make it impossible to identify which specific one might be the most prominent as Seifer arrives and passes by. "Hey." He says in return to Not!Seifer. He doesn't go any farther. There's some things that have to be dealt with carefully and it seems this is not the time for renewing old acquaintences. In the meantime, he mostly watches the not very complicated dance of Lilian establishing herself in the environment like she is wont to do. Her associate gets a glance as well, with an arch of an eyebrow, but he doesn't address Tamamo or Lilian, not engaging being the optimal play in this situation. There is an odd look on his face, however, as he looks over to Sumiko, a tightening of the jawline not in aggression, but a point of clear discomfort at the person he's looking at. Yeah, that's not going to be awkward at all. Zack's movements break the moment, allowing him to shift his attention safely to give a wave in response to Zack. "Looks like things are working out for you. Congratulations on your promotion." He offers to Zack while he has a moment, but then he lets the man continue barrelling forward as necessary. The casual mention of SeeD gets a light narrowing of the eyes, perhaps lending credence to the whole little warning about not doing that. Instead, the words 'investigative reporter' come up and suddenly his eyes flick to Rinoa, watching her and the way she's watching Zack. And then back to Zack. And then back to Rinoa. There is a little smirk on his face at that, and he shrugs for no apparent reason. "I have no intentions to make trouble tonight." He says. "I might end trouble if it happens though."
Roxas	"Oh, um... no, that's not what I mean." Roxas's gaze turns to Lilian for a moment, his features brightening to a dim smile. It's obvious that he likes seeing her here, although it's equally obvious that this isn't the answer he's looking for. He dips a chunk of pretzel into cheese sauce, nibbling at it in relative silence as he ponders a way to explain what he's actually searching for. While he does so, he offers Lilian a pretzel without remark. But she asks him a question that distracts him from his existential angst. He takes a deep breath and replies, "So, this place isn't somewherre I go a lot except as a junction point to getting to other places, but basically being a junction point /is/ why it's important. Back during the Sorceress War, railway supply lines through here were vitally important. Galbadia rolled in and fortified it because if they didn't the Sorceress Adel would've had a major advantage-- this country wasn't strong enough to secure itself at the time." "But," He raises an index finger, "after the war, they just never left. So it's only really important because the trains are important, but you always have G-Forces hanging around. I don't think it's any worse than Deling City, but the locals don't like it much because... you know. Foreign soldiers not going away." Further pondering of existential dread is averted by Zack and Rinoa. "A 'safety'? Should I not have said that?" He wonders. Regarding the matter of celebration overall, Roxas replies, "It's not that I don't get wanting to have a good time, or even doing something special because something good happened. But I suppose I don't really get what a person is supposed to want. 'Success' is easy to say, but..." But it doesn't really help him. Success at what? Roxas shoots Rinoa a funny look and, once more proving that he has no safety, asks, "An investigative journalist in /Timber/? Are you bad at your job?"
Xion	* Do the 'Terrorists' have outside support? Zack shakes his head. "No." Rinoa nods emphatically. "Of course." They look at each other. Simultaneously, they both change their answer. Zack shrugs. "Probably." Rinoa looks down at her full drink. "Definitely not." Those with enhanced hearing may catch a 'yet' appended to the end of her words, under her breath. * Did we interrupt you discussing state secrets? Please, more state secrets. & Zack, you son of a sailor, how dare you out me. Zack gives Seifer a wink as the pair draw close in a show of 'brotherly love'. "Relax, special forces man. Of course GARDEN is on the side of Galbadia, and working closely with peacekeeping forces to ensure regional stability. Do you think GARDEN would really take contract work from domestic terrorists?" Rinoa coughs so hard as to require a beverage, and absentmindedly begins drinking her beer at this point to mask her full reaction. Zack's grin redoubles, and he claps Seifer on the shoulder before returning to his seat at the table. He cannot put his boots up on the table while a lady sits across from him, but he damn sure chad manspreads while lifting the dregs of his beer to his lips. "Of course I know she's your ex, Almasy. I'm First Class now, not Military Intelligence." He jokes. Rinoa, on-again-off-again-mystery-woman-of-globetrotting-danger, has found that her hands have become mildly magnetically attracted to her face. Fingers press and sworl into her temples. "Hello, Seifer. I got into--" Domestic terrorism. "--journalism, if you'd believe it." Nobody does.
Sumiko	Sumiko whistles, but stops when Zack comments on her age.  "Aren't you too old to be buying me a drink?  I don't complain about the small details, and neither should you!" She says and is now at the bar so it's far too late Zack.  Far. Too. Late. Ordering a large glass of the local beer she turns back towards Tamamo.  "Mood.  I get that.  Trust me, I really get that.  Don't worry, I'm basing my opinion on you based on what you do.  So far, I'm impressed...you know what that whole situation in no child soul land..." she shudders.  "You and the doc did good work." Turning towards Riku finally, she sighs.  Alright, let's get this over with.  "Sumiko.  Not Sumiko, she's...very dead.  I'm the body, so that's why I sound like her.  I have...moooost of the memories we had when joined, but not all of them.  I still felt compelled to help out with your thing.  Please do me a favor and not look at me like I'm Sumiko like Rean and Touta do.  Like, holy shit..."
Tamamo	Tamamo asks some questions, not to Rinoa, about what an 'investigative journalist' is, and gets some replies. How potentially scandalous. Rather than following up on that, she zeroes in on Roxas's exposition. "The Sorceress War, was it? Oh, this must already be quite a familiar topic for all who live here, but I would appreciate any humoring of my curiosity on this 'Sorceress Adel' opponent you have mentioned."     And then Rinoa is saying something interesting. "Well, a reporter would know such things, if she were quite good at her job, yes?" Are you good at your job, Rinoa?     How fortunate, for her, that Tamamo has no cause to bother. 'Yet.'     Seifer is the most obviously 'unmasked' of any here, but Tamamo isn't going to bother him, either, just yet. Others are already doing a great job of that. She responds to Sumiko, once more, instead. "Oh, you heard of this matter, then? Yes, Mr. Blackwell is quite adept in his field. Alas, much more remains to be done to cure that land's encompassing condition."
Cordelay Levail	Cordelay sighs at the scene playing out before her, shaking her head. "You have my sympathies, Lady Rinoa, for having to deal with this band. It cannot be easy." She orders another drink and sips it slowly before musing, "Your line of work sounds fascinating, however. I would love to hear some of your tales." Sumiko's mention of Rean and Touta make Cordelay wince slightly, but it also draws her attention to the literal foxy lady Sumiko is speaking with. She looks curiously at Tamamo for a few moments before getting up and making her way over to introduce herself. "I do not believe we've met. My name is Cordelay Levail, the daughter of Sartaire the Dragon. May I ask your name?"
Xion	* Ok, Explain This Shit: Rinoa is first up at bat. "I'm not actually from Timber, but I went on a soul-searching journey after Seifer here--" She thumbs back at him. "Left to save the world. I work for the Timber Maniacs magazine now. We publish the *truth* about what really goes on in Timber." Zack snorts. "It's a tabloid piece that riles up dissent in the region. But I, a Specialist First Class, agreed to a special interview on an upcoming major operation in the region to put the people of Timber at ease, and show the smiling face of brotherhood that Galbadia extends to all its provinces!" A crock of stuff, considering Timber *is not a Galbadian province*. "The president of Galbadia is taking a special train from Deling City to Timber, this afternoon, to begin talks of offical membership into the Galbadian Union for the Timber province, with all the rights and protections that offers. Of course, part of that agreement will mean a permanent military presence in the region, but..." Zack trails off. "... Timber is halfway to everywhere. Its role in the war, and in the continent's economic stability, cannot be overstated." Rinoa steadily loses color as she buoys herself with her drink. She has nothing further to comment on this. "High Command has decided to form a special operations team to first-respond to 'weird stuff' that happens, and I got picked to lead it. We're on standby in case the President's train gets attacked, since any terrorist who'd want to stop the talks would be striking from the Timber side of things. Until the last stretch, through the mountains, the area is controlled by Commander Hewley's forces. It's a total milk run." Zack seems to be talking specifically to Rinoa. * Hey, are you a good investigative journalist? "I am very good at my job." Rinoa replies, clipped in a way that reveals she's not some dopey Girl Next Door specifically - or she has far more fire inside than she lets on. With all of Zack's revelations on the table, when she gets up it is sudden and chair-squealing. "I have to use the bathroom." She announces, before immediately attempting to leave out the front door. Zack seems excessively pleased with this result. Stopping at the door, she turns to Seifer. "I'm sorry too." As she leaves, there's an audible 'h-hey!' from Wedge, and then the sound of a man getting literally bodied by a large mammal and then barking at regular intervals.
Seifer Almasy	"You're gonna pay for this, Fair," Seifer mutters to Zack, "You're gonna pay for this *hard*."      Seifer's look is the same as Rinoa's temple-rubbing. His lips have become magnetically attracted to each other, a thin, thin line between them. "Yeah? Yeah, it, uh, that sounds like a good look for you. Are you, like, doin' the byline, or are you on TV? You'd be good on TV." He knows she's not on TV and he knows she's not on the byline. He is well aware that Rinoa is not an investigative journalist. What he remembers of Rinoa does not line up with 'investigative journalist'.      Outspoken princesses do not go into *investigative journalist* as a career profession when they have outspoken ideals, they go into running (inept) (amateur) (incompetent) domestic terrorist cells.      "You'd be good on TV," he repeats, because that is as close as he can come to 'please don't get yourself caught on camera.'      Tamamo's presence gets him to look skyward. He just stares at the ceiling, like he's trying to avoid some sort of really weird situation where his wife's twin is standing three feet from his ex and he has to contemplate how to bring up the whole situation in a manner that *isn't* 'hey I married a moon computer ghost sorceress and now I'm King of the Moon.'      Granted, it's been *five years*, he's well within his rights to move on after 'the entire world collapsed into the darkness as far as he knew,' but still.      That's one of those things that's *real* hard to explain.      Instead, when he looks back at Rinoa, he's smiling over his milk. "I'm glad you're okay."      He's definitely changed, that's for sure. Ordinarily he'd probably be telling Roxas off about how any living investigative journalist in Timber is probably pretty good at their job, being a big strong White Knight guy. The fact that he's just standing there, quietly, letting Rinoa deal with it herself...      Well, that's certainly not the Seifer from back then, the guy who went 'oh yeah you wanna start a terrorism thing, lemme introduce you to the Headmaster of Terrorism Academy, I'll hook you up and get you started and everything' and pretty much just took charge of stuff. Seifer's got a more...authoritative look to him now, a legit authority instead of a thug and a bully. The thug and the bully's still there, but it's more drill sergeant now. It's probably a nice change.      "I saw your dad," he adds helpfully, and evasively, "He's, uh. He's doing good."      Rinoa leaves.      Seifer turns and punches Zack in the face.      There are a lot of reasons he's punching Zack in the face. Start with 'casually revealing secrets about clandestine military operations to a whole bunch of uncertified randos' and move all the way down to 'putting me in an awkward spot with my ex.'      Now *that's* the bully Seifer.
Roxas	"Well..." Roxas scratches his head in response to Tamamo's question, "A Sorceress is different from just somebody who uses magic. They inherit it when another Sorceress dies. Nobody knows exactly how many shards of power there are, but they're finite. Adel was a Sorceress who turned up in a country called Esthar, insinuated herself into its power structure as a sort of advisor, and then managed to take power. She also had scientists study her powers to make all sorts of weird magic-technology. She wanted to take control of the whole world." "It was a pretty long and vicious war, but I can't say much about it. I wasn't there. Supposedly the last Keyblade knights died during that time, and it caused a lot of prejudice towards Sorceresses. Most magic users went underground out of concern for their safety until Shiny Chariot came along and used magic to entertain in a really public way that made magic... I don't know. Feel safe again? The whole country of Esthar has closed itself off to the outside world since all of that, too." "Supposedly, the Sorceress herself was tricked into entering a prototype space craft, sealed in, and launched into space." He concludes, as if that is a /remotely/ normal story in any way.
Cantio	How awkward. Cantio deliberately avoids looking at Zack, Rinoa, and Seifer during that awkward exchange, only looking back over when her questions are answered in the most confusingly contradictory way possible. She looks even more confused when they take the opposite tacks mere moments later, and she taps in a 'maybe' into the prepared document on her phone.     There's going to be a whole lot of 'maybes' tonight, judging from the other answers and things being said. All things considered, she's not even entirely sure who's playing which sides, but it's certainly interesting enough for her to keep tapping those 'maybes' into that phone.      Thankfully, she doesn't quite recognize many of the other names being thrown around unrelated to the Galbadia situation, so she doesn't take nearly as many notes on that.      Once the briefing goes down and the mission is revealed, Cantio's about to speak up when Rinoa reveals BATHROOM TROUBLES and promptly books it right out of there. "I have some m..." She starts, then stops. Best not to get in-between whatever that's all about, although she does take a note about that in her phone. Also, Rinoa's earlier reaction to Zack talking about Timber being occupied on a more official basic sooner rather than later.      Definitely taking notes on the Sorceress War. She listens to Roxas rather closely despite not asking anything about that herself, although there's a blank expression that comes once Roxas speaks of the cosmic yeeting. "Is she... Still in there? Could she still be plotting out there?" She asks aloud, suddenly looking strangely excited.     Some food for thought later. She jumps a bit when Seifer goes for that punch, standing stock still for several moments to try and process what's going on with all that. "Wh...? Oh geez, oh no. Hey, let's just try to calm down a little, alright?"
Xion	*Zack: Get sassed at by a child. "Do you want the drink, or do you want to accuse me of something? Seriously." He returns, putting his feet up on the table now and crossing his hands behind his head. Don't worry, Sumiko! Your revenge comes swiftly when Seifer hauls off and feeds Zack a knuckle sandwhich, sending him from a thirty-degree back-tilt in his chair to being sprawled out on the floor, his chair CLANG-ing against the stone floor, and his limbs flailing in the awkward involuntary response of rapid inner ear changes. Biggs, slowly, does that 'dramatic step foward into any sort of aggressive stance' about ten seconds too late to the party to actually be a meaningful reaction. "You can't punch a senior G-Forces member and get away with it--!!!" He bellows. The barman ducks behind the bar and groans. "Take it out-SIDE!" Zack just starts laughing. "Dang. Dang! You've got a hell of a hook, Almasy! They teach you to swing like that at Garden?"
Sumiko	"Yeah, I was there," Sumiko says towards Tamamo.  "It was pretty hectic, so I don't blame you for not remembering.  I was with the group trying to subdue the lord.  That whole situation is messed up, and yeah...I kinda figured the problem wasn't so easily solved," Mikoto says.   However, the situation forms towards Zack, Rinoa, and Seifer.  Sumiko gives a look towards Zack.  She's not sure why in the hell a military guy is giving away secrets in a place that is...very much in not-quite open rebellion.   Rinoa goes to leave, and Sumiko frowns.  Well, she was going to ask about clothes nearby...but oh well!  Sumiko moves to empty her glass when Biggs gets up.  Right after Seifer decked Zack, and Sumiko holds a leg out to trip the very blasted guy.   "Oh no, my leg just shot out there..."
Cantio	After the drop, Cantio moves over to Zack to cast a light healing spell on his face. If nothing else, it might at least soothe the pain! She's trying to keep it subtle, too, but... Well.     It's moderately flashy healing magic. Everyone knows what that stuff looks like.
Seifer Almasy	"No, *I* taught me punch like that!"      Biggs steps forward. Seifer gives him one of those *Look At My Face, Do You Really Want Some Of This, Guy* looks that he's real, real good at as he pulls the wig off (he's decided he doesn't like the long hair and it's in the way) (the goatee might stay) (he's on the fence).      Seifer leans down to grab Zack by the arm, drag him up, and says, very very quietly, "I already got that you're not stupid enough to blab all this crap without a reason, so that one's just for me. You put me in a situation like that again and I'm gonna hit you so hard you'll be in a First-Class hospital for a First-Class month."      Then he lets Zack go.
Seifer Almasy	"It hit me about thirty seconds before I hit you," he adds.
Lilian Rook	Lilian returns a less severely 'intentionally too-neutral' stare to Sumiko than last time they'd coincidentally brushed paths. By the barest degrees, but, still, less. "She was a black hole of a person. An empty pit, and things just fell into her. That rare type eventually runs into people with more things that them, who can't be bought, baited, bullied, or betrayed, and looking at that pit where all of their things used to be eventually drives them mad. The most charitable thing I can say is that she did her best for as long as she was able, trying to weave those contradicting bits and pieces copied from other people into a strong enough mesh to catch them on the way down, but I suppose living on borrowed time like that, it was an exercise in trying to stitch a parachute before hitting the ground."     "I hope she was grateful to you for the time she got, in the end. They always spend it without thinking, and die with a pile of stranded things left behind."     The words have the specific taste of thoughts that've gradually pieced together on their own, in little genuine fragments that wash together in an ocean of apathy. Loud enough for Tamamo to hear just fine, and for someone else to overhear if they were listening in. Lilian thinks just a moment longer, tapping on the counter, and quite firmly decides on something with very strong whiskey.     She takes her time going through a very large portion of it, before finding her ability to smile politely for Rinoa. "Oh, is that so? Investigative journalism. I've heard it tends to be either a very exciting and relatively valuable job, or a joke of a career that drop outs take to try and score VIP passes. Tell me, what's it like for you?" Lilian delivers that 'I've heard' in the way of 'I have very strong opinions about it, but please, go on'. Her eyes subtly saccade to the clenching of her jaw, then swivel back to Zack.     "For instance, if it isn't too much of a spoiler, what brings you here? 'Occupied' as it is, this town seems perfectly boring." She springboards off of what Roxas explains, having such perfect timing that she does, finally, get to snap her fingers. "For instance, anything to do with those trains? You might say I've something of an interest in Galbadia's trains." She then laughs at a joke that only like three people in the room are going to get, plus the G-Trio. "It's the only thing I could imagine a terrorist would care to attack, after all." The proffered pretzel is taken is taken with grace and sort of promptly disappears once Roxas isn't looking.     "Lilian Isabelle Rook, by the way." She extends a hand out of courtesy, deliberating on some choice or another. "Dame Commander. Ring of Solstice." She has chosen the not-obviously-pseudomilitary one.
Tamamo	Cordelay is introducing herself. "Oh, why, hello, Cordelay Levail." Tamamo always gets the pronunciation right, after hearing it once. It's a specific knack. "I am Tamamo no Mae, daughter of..." She tilts her head, as if needing to think about this one, "...none, to put it in simple terms." She doesn't mention not knowing the name Sartaire, only because that would be impolite.     Seifer is looking awkward. Tamamo gives him a smile. It probably won't help, because identifying the specifics of smiles isn't in his skillset, and he's trying not to look, anyway.     Rinoa is leaving. She did not fool Tamamo, no. Still, that's not her business.     Roxas is explaining matters of magic. "'Shards of power,' is it? And so she sought to use this study to break free from the limitation through artificial means." How very human. "Oh, and what is this 'Shiny Chariot'? An entertainer like those, ah, 'stage magicians'?     Seifer is punching someone. Tamamo is halfway between a look of concern and a frown of disapproval.     Sumiko is answering. "Oh, my! My apologies. I fear I could see little else after hearing that the midwife would be slain, and the child stillborn." The child was not, in the usual sense, 'stillborn,' but it's a fair description.
Riku	Riku was just getting his equilibrium back when Sumiko crashes into it with no survivors. The look on his face melts into something searching as he gazes at Sumiko. Something intense. He absolutely isn't looking at her like she's Mikoto. He's looking at her like she's something entirely different. Someone? Something? Something like that. It's almost like Riku had just had a certain very similar crisis recently. Still, he relaxes, the powerful emotions playing visibly over his face being reined in and replaced with that cool, detached expression that he usually wears. "Sure. However you want to handle it." He says. "... And thank you for your help." If he has any objections, he's not voicing them. Instead he looks over to Zack, and then Rinoa again at that claim of putting people at ease. His mouth opens, and then closes again, and he just shakes his head, his own hand moving to his head as he sighs. What DOES get his attention is what follows it up. "The President of Galbadia is coming /this afternoon/?" He asks, suddenly paying close attention. "No wonder why security is so amped up." He says. Milk run, indeed... When Rinoa suddenly decide she 'needs to use the bathroom', Riku nods lightly. That basically all but confirms the fairly obvious subtext that 'investigative journalist' is absolutely not her actual job at the moment. He does not, however, decide to leave after her. He is sure he can find her if he really wants to.
Xion	* BIGGS: Eat shit. Biggs, tripped, eats an incredible amount of floor, drunkenly spilling up over himself and skidding along the floor a few inches. "Ow." * Zack: Get 'helped up'! (Also, threatened) Zack gingerly accepts Seifer's grip in being assisted back to his feet, his shiner of a bruise being assuaged by Cantio's healing magic. "I guess that's why they pay you the big attache bucks to look pretty while the G-Forces do all the lifting, huh?" Zack loudly grouses. More intimately, Zack's smile tightens. "Don't tell me you hit me that hard if you already figured it out, Almasy." He grumbles. "First one's free. Try it again and you'll see what 'First Class' means. That's my First Class promise." The manviolence parade eases off when Zack splits from Seifer, favoring Tamamo specifically. "Miss Heartlily is suspected of being a terrorist informant. If she's part of one of the groups planning to hit the train, it's likely that hearing we're waiting for them will make this bloodless and easy. Sometimes, it's a First Class' duty to do Military Intel's job." Outside, the sounds of <dog> are replaced with a thwupping air-cuting sound and the turbines of multiple engines. Zack's hip radio crackles. "Sir, word from the lead train is that they're under attack." A rather casual female voice drawls. "I've brought the bird up. Did you get some friends?" Zack pulls up his radio. "Jessie! Glad you could make it. Is Wedge alright? I heard a dog." SIDE RINOA: Interrogated about her choice of career on her way out, Rinoa barely pauses. "I think 'proving yourself' is a cliche, but it's what I'm here to do." She offers, on her way out. It really just more and more proves that Rinoa is exactly what everyone has marked her as -- because Zack is apparently '''good at his job''', which apparently involves counterespionage. OUTSIDE: There's little sign of Rinoa, as there's a numerosity of alleyways she could have disappeared into. The entire square outside is occupied by a rather jammed-in VTOL heli-transport, ramp-down towards the entrance of the bar. WEDGE is currently face-down on the cobbles, table and card-game-in-progress upturned by an enormous DOG standing triumphantly over the insensate soldier. Jessie, clearly an engineer, wears a cut-down version of the blue uniform sans helmet (she has goggles) in technician's faituges green and her hair in a ponytail, leaning on a strap at the ramp. Zack leads the party outside, Biggs staggering to his feet and taking up the rear. "Jessie!" Zack calls to the pilot hanging out at the ramp. "Retrieve the lieutenant." Jessie blanches. "From the dog?" Zack nods. "From the dog." Jessie makes great pains to gingerly approach the large dog and shove the large animal (who seems entirely content to be bodily adjusted off Wedge with a panting dog-ish :) expression), dragging Wedge up the ramp. "When we get airborne, please alert garrison command that Rinoa is to be detained for questioning." Zack adds, gesturing for the squad to join him in the rather large aircraft. "We've got a train to save."
Seifer Almasy	Tamamo's smile is sort of appreciated, but also sort of weird. See again the Wife's Twin thing. He's a little too distracted to bother trying to piece together what it means, though; there's way more important going on, and also, he always sort of feels awkward looking at her face. It's one of those...those things. He's reconciled it, mostly, but boy is he not in a reconciling mood after that. So he kind of...avoids looking at her especially hard, and it's kind of telling how much that whole 'Rinoa' thing has him rattled. He's usually a lot better at this, at projecting the swaggering exterior.      He takes a deep breath. Giving Zack *any* kind of credit right now has him *super* annoyed, but, again, you don't just walk in, announce 'hey buddy I know what's up', and then say I'm With Intelligence, and not have some kind of plan.      Especially not with Rinoa in the r-      -oom.      Ohhhhh, good.      Now he's in the middle of *this*, too.      Another deep breath. He shakes his hand. "What the heck is your face made of, anyway? Huh? Concrete?"      He hit Zack that hard because he wanted to.      Zack moves to leave, and Seifer is faced with the worst choice of his life.      Because this is, in a very roundabout way, **HIS FAULT**.      It is, in fact, really directly his fault. He gave her the means. He gave her the method. He gave her the hookup. He gave her the in.      And now she's going to get captured because of it.      But if he moves, if *he personally* moves, then GARDEN is exposed. GARDEN is right in the crossfire. The headmaster helped put this together. All it'd take is Seifer going off to rescue her and it'd be an *admission* of guilt.      His fists clench.      And he's gotta do it.      Because he's that kind of guy, right? You can't leave the princess in danger.      Knights don't do that.
Roxas	"Nobody outside of Esthar really knows. It's a safe bet, but..." Roxas shrugs. He seems too absorbed in this to notice the peculiarities of the interactions with Rinoa, or even Seifer punching Zack. Regarding Shiny Chariot, Roxas does something he otherwise KNOWS is rude and just takes out a cell phone. After a moment of searching he flips it around, displaying somebody's shaky illegal recording of an ongoing show --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTsJCv3RU7I#t=0m30s "Kind of," He says, "but was a real Witch. Not a Sorceress, but the learn-magic-at-school kind. Most 'respectable' figures didn't really approve of her, but back then practitioners were pretty scared and sort of hated themselves. I guess Shiny Chariot just made things less grim for them. She's been out of the public spotlight for a long time now, but I don't think people make much of a big deal of her anymore." "Personally," Roxas says as the video comes to an end, flipping his phone back around, "I think it's pretty amazing, to turn things around like that." As things escalate and people start moving outside, Roxas gets up -- taking his basket of pretzels with him. He pauses just outside the door, staring at Wedge-- no, wait, he's looking at the dog. The dog allows Jessie to extricate Wedge. Roxas throws a pretzel to the dog, and then boards the VTOL at Zack's request. He looks a little lost, and ends up just sitting in a corner seat eating pretzels with a puzzled expression on his face.
Sumiko	Sumiko waves a hand at Tamamo, "Don't worry about it.  The situation was a fucked one and we all were trying to do our best without falling into whatever that world is.  We got through it.  I dunno if trying to take from you some of your power to try and help would have helped much.  I was edging in on 'no' because it seemed to be a more 'skill over substance' thing.  Also, it is rude to just do it to people you're working with, out of the blue.." she says, though she would still do it if it suited her. Lilian has a lot to say, to which she can only laugh.  "No, that's about right for her.  I hate to say it, but some people shouldn't get power and she was one of those.  As for grateful?" She pauses thinking about it a moment, "I think she was.  It's hard to be cognitive of others when you're like her.  Rean got it, I think...Touta?  He did not, and still thinks that someday I'm going to move back in like I'm the same person.  Really, that hurts the most." After another refill, she drinks half of it, "We can chat on it more later if you want.  If not, then we can chat about other things," She says, as nice as she can. Riku and she have a moment, "Yeah, this complicated shit sucks.  I had to deal with being me again and helping out with your old man problems.  Don't get me wrong, it was my choice and all, but whew..." she laughs, holding out her free hand to Riku, "Well, let's say hello again.  I appreciate your maturity on it...but then again, that seems to be your thing.  Also, you're welcome." Biggs eats shit, and she laughs at him.  However, the whole situation seems to shift.  There is a frown, as she starts drinking this one down too, and gets one to go.  Outside, she goes to the dog immediately, "Oh who's a good dog!" she says, giving it a pet.   "So what...this whole thing is a trap then?  Using your own president as bait?  Bold move their cotton."
Cantio	Zack plays Seifer, and that actually has Cantio inwardly marveling at the intellect of the not-quite-simpleton. "If she's a suspect in all of this, then..." Shecrosses her arms and rubs her chin lightly, nodding after a few moments. "That /would/ explain the exit... It could also be cold feet, but there's no way of knowing for sure just yet."     So much going on at once, and it gets more complicated once the group is on the move again. Following Zack outside, she raises an eyebrow when lieutenants and dogs are mentioned, and she outright laughs when Wedge is unceremoniously rescued by the big dog. She offers him a napkin a few moments later, then climbs into the vehicle while getting to work herself.     It involves bringing out some drones. "If there's going to be an attack on the President, then having extra eyes in the sky should work in our favor." She explains, ready to send them out once the vehicle takes to the skies. What she neglects to tell anyone, though...     Is that the drones don't have any actual cameras on them. She can't see a thing through them. Instead, they all have speakers on them, and the drones themselves are only lightly armored. After hearing from Seifer, it's theb est she can manage on short notice.     Now she just needs to hope that one of them gets shot down in the right place or by the right person.
Riku	Zack actually looks pretty good for having a face made out of concrete. Riku doesn't get involved in that. Though the distinctive sound of a distant recording of a magical show gets his attention for a moment, his eyes flicking to Roxas as he tilts his head, trying to listen in without being too obvious about it. Given it's now a crowded bar this is harder than it seems. Someone talkin' bout Witches up in here. Sumiko again Crush Punches his attention though and drags it back in her direction. "Old men are the worse." Riku says glibly, nodding in agreement. He does, however, give her the decency of shaking her hand. "Sure. Nice to meet you, Sumiko. My name is Riku." He says, his expression unchanging as he gives her another moment. "My maturity's been kind of overrated." He says, perhaps giving a glance at some people around to mark that. "But I'm trying to figure things out and do better. I have a lot to sort out still. But I'll see you around, okay?" At that point, Riku leave the building. Instead of getting on the VTOL, he gets back on his bike and rides off, making an appearance of leaving the area... That is, before he turns and surrepetitiously reenters Timber on foot with a less obvious method of movement, quickly scaling up a wall and beginning to head from rooftop to rooftop looking for signs of Rinoa. Unfortunately for Zack, Riku doesn't seem like he's lining up with Galbadia on this one.
Tamamo	"Oh, are you quite alright, now?" Tamamo asks Zack, though it does seem to her like he probably is. Maybe his head is harder than Seifer's fist. And yet, he /did/ accomplish his intel mission...     Lilian has ordered whiskey, Roxas has told her a story involving sorceresses in rocket ships, and has just shown her a rather fascinating little show on his pocket computer ("Oh, she has quite the showmanship,") when the man of the hour leaves to go and defend a train from a terrorist attack, one surely aided by a journalist, and possibly but probably not by a dog.     Tamamo does not order a drink, but she does look to Lilian. "This seems rather a departure from initial plans on this outing, no? Are we obliged to join them on their dangerous rescue operation, would you say? It does seem rather as if a number of people may be in need of having their lives saved, but I have hardly dressed for it." That particular objection of hers is nonsensical for several reasons, as Lilian is likely to realize.
Cordelay Levail	Cordelay boards the craft with Zack and the others, her expression a stoic, emotionless mask. Her hands drift to her twin swords as she contemplates the complex situation she's become embroiled in and her role in it. "How long until we arrive at the operation site?" She asks tersely, her body tensed and her warrior's spirit almost palpable to those around her. Cordelay is in her element now, ready to unleash her might upon her enemies - whoever they may be.
Xion	* Bold Move, Cotton: Zack, at the top of the ramp, laughs at the whole situation. His healed shiner of a black eye. His stance is casual, fingers curled around a strap-hook in the frame of the aircraft. "I'm better than fine. This sort of thing is what I live for!" Heroic special operations adventures, not... not getting punched in the face. "What, you think I sat through a six hour with-a-test-at-the-end briefing from Military Intelligence on the details of this operation to leak it to terrorists because we'd *actually* put the President at risk?" Zack laughs. "He's not due for a week or three. It's a fiction, but it wasn't important for there to be any risk. They just had to believe it." His grin is rakish, his overall look the smouldering look of a hot spikehair in uniform with the unshakeable confidence of a protagonist-designate. "The test, by the way? Aced it." He didn't. He had to retake it. But right now, he's living in the world where everything is an oo-rah success. Dragging Biggs and Wedge into the VTOL, Jessie pulls up a display inside. "The front train is passing through the mountain range right now. We only have one shot to make an aerial interception with time to spare: They'll leave the mountains and enter the Timber forest area, where the tracks begin to converge. The G-Forces have already stopped the chaser trains and closed the other rail lines in preparation for our operation, but the regular forces in the area are tied up keeping a cordon. Our decoy president is in the executive car, and there should be a full security detail. The whole thing's gone radio silent, which means we need to secure the train *before* it reaches the Timber station and inform Central what the malfunction is." Jessie taps at the display a few times, and it switches to a top-down view of the train. "Central Command has declared it entirely unacceptable for any damage to be caused to the Timber railway station, or the Galbadia-Timber line, which rules out a missile strike. It's down to us to clear the three train cars, secure the Decoy President, and if possible, rescue any G-Forces trapped in the train. I'll start figuring out targets once we're airborne." Zack gives a two-finger wave at Tamamo. "If you're not dressed for the dance, ma'am, no harm in finding a seat. We're professionals." He gives a knowing smirk towards Lilian, at Tamamo's side. "We'll get it done. You coming, Lilian?"
Lilian Rook	"Shot off in a rocket sounds like a hell of a way to take someone out. In terms of theatrics, but in the sense of what it represents as well. I can only imagine, if she's gone for good, it must have been a manner of slowly running out of oxygen. One can only try to fathom what a woman like that's last thoughts would be over that long span of time." Lilian contemplates the end of this particular history with a look on her face that slowly shifts side to side across it. A half expression of 'I don't like this' tries to work itself out, then fades away. "I suppose we may never know if she shared that power to share it, or solely to win her war."     It should take even Roxas all of five whole seconds to guess at that idea that Lilian perhaps is one of those people who thinks dimly of someone using their god-given magical gifts as a stage entertainer, public approval or not. One of history's greats remembered as a mere i-dor-u.     Even hearing that the president is on the train, and the train is under attack, though, Lilian's general countenance of semi-relaxed, semi-resigned, un-entertained time killing doesn't budge an iota. She downs the rest of her glass, throws X quantity of money on the counter, and opines, without a shred of ostensible reason to do so, "It'll work itself out. In a way, at least. It should be good for a funny story later. I can tell who that girl is trying to be, and who she actually is; at a glance, even. There's no hiding it with a knit sweater dress and a clipboard. There's no hiding it at all, without the right training." Only now does she glance at Seifer Meaningfully.     Then, she gets up. Patting down her skirt, Lilian sighs, aiming the arc of her walk out the door to come near Zack, so she can say "Once again, I suppose, you're fortunate to know me. But this time you've inconvenienced me by coming dressed for a rustic tavern." Those are her *excessively* 'well-chosen' choice of words for this location. "Were you already thinking of entertaining her by the time you'd asked? Depending on your answer, I may be obliged to get unhappy." Again, excessively 'well-chosen'. Still, despite that, she can't help but laugh a little at Tamamo having the same thought. It's a rare type of laughter, without a hint of sarcasm, dry humour, or a private joke.     "Of course we aren't obliged to do anything at all. But I have a certain casual relationship with that particular Galbadian brass, and I'd feel sorry leaving those three in the company of . . ." She makes hand motions at the people she doesn't know (especially those with animal ears) without finishing her sentence. The whole thing is fairly facetious. "You can stay here if you like. You know more than anyone that I can be here the minute you need me." She says it like she only half expects Tamamo to take it seriously.     She favours Zack with a shallow, ghostly grin on the way to the VTOL, sticking out her hand to the nearest Galbadian who doesn't look like he's doing much. "Weapon." she says. It is not a request. It is a single word that oozes an undeniable sort of primal authority recognizable only to the part of the brain responsible for recognizing threatening rustles in trees. Whether it's some guy doing guard duty or someone on the VTOL doesn't really matter. "Of course. It needs to get *done* doesn't it?" Smoothing her skirt down again as she sits and crosses her knees, she starts committing Jessie's debrief to her own smart device without pause, fingers moving with lightning swiftness, drawing out her own map of the area. "Good. Almost ideal, even. It's a pleasure to work with the competents again." she says. "Do we know how they boarded the main line if the flanking trains have been halted?" She is in That Mode.
Seifer Almasy	Lilian gives him a Meaningful Look. He returns it. There's really no point in pretending they don't both know that they both have the same kind of training. It's not like anybody but Zack is gonna pick up on it, and oh, no, Zack might realize that Seifer has intelligence training! Shocker.      Seifer doesn't move for the VTOL. He puts his hands in his pockets and watches Zack carefully. "Sorry," he says, "GARDEN's not working with you on this one." He holds up his hands. "My hands are tied, pal. Good luck."      You're gonna need it.      With that, Seifer turns away and heads back into the bar.      So he can take the back route.      He may not remember any of this place, but Seifer's always been a gut instinct kinda guy anyway, and his gut says Rinoa'd probably double back and duck into some building somewhere because otherwise she'd get spotted from above. He, himself, sheds his blue belly shirt for some discarded clothes out of a garbage bin and a cap over his blonde hair. Now he looks like any other jackass.      Time to go hunting.
Sumiko	"Huh," Sumiko says, "Not bad, but are you sure you should be so open about it?  I haven't even gotten payment options yet.  I don't work for free," she says, but is already moving up the transport's entryway.  Regardless, she sits down and holds out an arm. Glass forms in her hand and forms into a blade.  She'd rather have it ready than not, as things were about to get hot.
Cantio	"That sounds straightforward enough. Secure the vehicles, secure the not-President and the G-Forces, and... Apprehend the terrorists, all in one fell swoop. Very efficient..." Cantio comments with some rather obvious appreciation for the plan, although there's also a hint of apprehension in her tone. She's trying not to let anything slip, after all, even as her drones start to fan out. Lights turn on and sweep in what probably looks like a very convincing 'search', but... Well.     Cantio can't see shit from in there. She can just keep track of their general positions on their phone, occasionally dragging their icons around to send them in other directions within the general operation zone.     All that's left is to wait for the operation itself to start, preferrably with good news. She'll likely have to recall her drones by the time the operation starts proper, but it's the best she can think of to try and get something out to Rinoa until then.
Roxas	"Yeah, I know, right?" Roxas reacts to Tamamo, regarding Shiny Chariot. To Lilian, Roxas shrugs, "I guess so. But I think that most practitioners would be able to get back. I don't think the Nevernever usually goes to space, but if you /send/ somebody there, I think there would be a path. Maybe..." He doesn't seem confident about that, "it's not like people have a lot of reasons to check. It's not like sending a satellite through the Nevernever would be a good idea." He doesn't seem to have a strong opinion of the plan, or why they're needed. Not, at least, until he listens to it for a while. Not just Zack, but Seifer too. Slowly, sitting in one of the doorside seats of the VTOL, his neutral-to-lightly-pleasant expression gives way to a troubled one. "You're lying." The first person Roxas says it to is, strangely, Seifer. It's an odd pick, because he's not the first person to be lying here, or even the most obvious. The young man leans back in his seat, looking up at the ceiling. "If..." "Somebody had told you to not do something you really wanted to do, you would want to do it even worse." The way he's talking, Roxas isn't going, 'Aha! Gotcha, you're definitely a saboteur.' It seems more like he caught up with the rampant dishonesty and is bummed out by it.
Seifer Almasy	Seifer gives Roxas a grin as he steps back.      "Yep."      "Everybody here's lyin'."      "Get used to it, kiddo."      And then he turns and heads for the bar.
Xion	TRAIN CHALLENGE: Lilian is wordlessly handed one of the G-Force garrison's G-Sabers, without even the cursory glance to confirm given to Zack. Of the party, Lilian is the closest to a known element, and the simple way she moves and acts engenders 'Sergeant in motion' reactions from the professional soldiery. Her going with a First Class' operation is just the icing on the cake. Jessie slips into the pilot cabin and closes the flight door as the Galbadian VTOL takes off, the ramp closing as the craft achieves lift. After a few seconds, Jessie's voice rings out over the internal intercom. "Hold onto something: I'm going to switch from turbine to jets to get us to chase distance." The holographic display switches to an 'outside view' as the VTOL rockets off away from Timber, along a kudzu of train-tracks that thin out as distance is gotten between the city and the transport. On approach, as hillsides disappear behind an opened throttle, the first thing that anyone notices is thick, black smoke. Far worse than coal, with sand-like shimmering sparkles interspersed among the cloud. Even though they're flying towards Deling City's strange atemporal nighttime, the suddenness of the ink-darkened sky is offputting. Milling around in the trees are odd shapes and glowing eyes that are far more malicious than mere wild beasts. Zack says A Cuss, clenching his fist. "Jessie, confirm: Is that Starscourge?" From the cockpit intercom, Jessie clicks her tongue. "Affirmative. Gear's in the locker." Zack, with surprising levels of balance for a literal rocketing, rattling military transport, unclips from his jump seat to move to a locker in the personell hold, getting a half-dozen sets of tactical face-shielded masks with breathing apparati. "We've just ruled out domestic terrorists. Alright. Here's the score." Zack begins, looping the mask over his skull where it ruins his hairdo, prior to pulling it down over his face. Anyone who needs a facemask for 'magical bullshit airborn issue' is rendered one before the layout, gets one. ENGINE CAR: The front of the train is the most clear of any direct, smoking awfulness or monsters, but the *part that drives the train* being *unoccupied* is its own concern. Someone adept at at least mechanical operation should probably operate the train's controls and guide the train to a halt - but only after the train is close enough to Timber that the G-Forces garrison in Timber can recover the train. Otherwise, it's more work for everyone! Furthermore, securing the engine car means the train won't crash or explode or fly off the rails. All of that is bad! Ideally, the train pulls into the station, or a bit short of such, in a controlled way. There is no way to enter the ENGINE CAR via a window: an access door between the DECOY CAR and the ENGINE CAR must be used, making tactical insertion difficult. OBJECTIVES: * Disable the engine, preventing a crash. (Primary) * Ensure the train remains functional. (Secondary) DECOY PRESIDENT CAR: The most smoking, most dangerous approach is directly towards the DECOY CAR. The Decoy President has been infected with the magical disease 'Starscourge', which not only is Extremely Bad and Turns You Into A Magical Demon, but is currently leaking the stuff all over. The massive, zombified monster takes up most of the extra-large train car and appears to be infecting the soldiers stationed in the car. The Decoy President should be eliminated, and any powers that destroy contagion or demonic presence levied to oust this threat to the safety of everyone - Galbadian and Timber included. Starscourge is not immediately corruptive to people with Big PC Energy, but huffing the stuff cannot be good for you. This is the most important car to get done right. OBJECTIVES:* Defeat Demon '???' (Primary) * Ensure no threats to Timber remain active inside the train. (Primary) Zack is very clear that this is the most dangerous job, and entry to the car is available via junction between ENGINE and CABIN cars as well as WINDOWS, but making your target is hard due to the the presence of thick Starscourge being an animate asshole cloud.
Xion	CABIN CARS: There are two cars filled with a dozen ex-G-FORCES soldiers who are in varying states of demonic infection. Most are beyond help, but some could potentially be saved. The most expedient and sure method of containment is, unfortunately, 'they all die'. Zack's briefing is grim about this fact, but the lives of 'the entire garrison plus the civilians in Timber plus the surity of the usefulness of the rail line' isn't something twelve questionable lives tilts the favor of. OBJECTIVES: * Defeat Corrupted G-Forces (Primary) * Ensure no threats to Timber remain active inside the train. (Primary) * Capture least-infected G-Forces members for treatment. (Tertiary) Zack and the G-Trio assure the team they can handle at *least* one task themselves. They're professionals, after all. After approaching, the jet engine turns off, the VTOL returning to turbine powered flight with a lurch of decelleration, the rear gate opening. Biggs ajusts his helmet, forcing a handful of pills down his throat, which he chews on before swallowing. They're sober-up pills. He will feel awful -- later. For now, he needs to be functional. Wedge gets out a zipline gun, firing a line to the roof of each of the three sets of target cars - the ENGINE, the DECOY, and the second CABIN. Zack, at the opened deck, shouts over the thrum of turbine. "If you don't make the jump, we can't swing back and get you! Do it right the first time!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL6ZkBtPTKE
Cordelay Levail	Cordelay dons her facemask as the ziplines are fired, leaping out immediately afterward to grab the one to the decoy car and ride it down. The clouds of Starscourge obscure her vision somewhat, but not enough to prevent her from swinging feet-first at a window and tumbling into the car with her typical grace. Her twin swords are out before she's even risen to her feet, lashing out at the corrupted soldiers and the monstrous beast that was once the decoy president. Her movements are precise, swift and brutal - every strike aimed at inflicting as much damage as possible, whether by close-range thrusts and slashes or swinging her swords by the chains at the pommels like flying guillotines. The daughter of the Dragon is truly in her element, and it shows.
Sumiko	Sumiko gets ready to jump.  She's going second, so she lets Lilian and Cordelay go first.  Crouching, she waits for them to hit their windows before she leaps.  However, instead of going for a window, a strange lizard-like creature is formed out of glass.  It lands on the outside of the train, sticking to the side of the train. Running around, Sumiko blasts into the car with shots from her glass.  Glass spikes that shatter on contact aim to try and help pin down or kill the remaining rando zombos, before she focuses on the former president.  The mask provided to her from Zack was fortunate, giving her protection from the scourage itself. "Holy shit, I didn't know the president was this /ugly/..." She says, aghast at just how mutated the creature is.  "Don't worry, I have experience in putting down people like you.  Try not to resist too much!" she says, as she zips in and out through windows.  Upside down, to the right, she can basically answer calls to shell with glass from nearly any direction.
Roxas	Roxas takes a facemask, but just sort of looks at it for a long, long while before he actually puts it on. There's not a heck of a lot of time to work with, so by the time they're positioned to actually 'go' anywhere, he's only just getting the thing on. But even as he does so, he's thinking. Starscourge is commonly thought to have a lot in common with Heartless, and Heartless are nothing but desire. The thought prompts a silvery Keyblade to come into being in his left hand-- a little longer than his normal Keyblade, silvery and ornate, with a tooth that bears a partway broken heart. Desire... desire, desire. Roxas jumps, turning into a beam of light as he descends, and coming to a halt above the nearest CABIN car. He comes back into being there, where he immediately removes his mask, jumps down between the cars, and enters. They can't be saved. They can't be saved, and he knows it. But that's not quite right-- they can't be saved as they are. There's no power he has to purge the Starscourge. Roxas inhales the particulate-heavy air deliberately, pushing in among the G-Soldiers. That's true, but he can turn them into something that can't support the Starscourge at all. He thrusts the tip of the silvery Keyblade into the chest of the nearest G-Soldier. It does not meet flesh. It is not reaching for flesh. It is reaching for what's underneath. Roxas turns the keyblade with a troublingly echoing click, as an aperture that is not truly meant to be opened, is. Seifer Almasy would have been able to recognize it. But probably no one else. Another deep breath, and Roxas pushes forward. He fights as he would normally fight, but for the single goal-- he's not here to "kill" them, he's not here to destroy their bodies. He's here to take their Hearts, and so take away the Starscourge's foothold. But that's not why he's really here. On every other occasion, Roxas has simply gone with the flow. Fought for somebody else's cause, or because it seemed like the thing to do. Today, though, he's reaching. He breathes in the Starscourge with every withdrawal, exhaling sharply in time with every thrust.
Cantio	It's go time. Alas, Cantio's drones have to be recalled, although there's some small relief in the fact that she doesn't actually have to replace any of the things now. The black smoke is the first thing she notices, grimacing slightly at thesight and the ambient stench hitting her even from inside the VTOL. It's the talk of ruling out domestic terrorists that has her raising an eyebrow, though, even as she takes a mask for herself and gets it on with little fuss despite all the hair.     "But if this isn't their work, then who...?"     She'll have to worry about that later. The first priority is making sure the train doesn't crash and burn and kill everyone, so she goes for the ENGINE zipline. "I'll leave the others to you, then. Be careful, everyone!"     There's a brief moment of childish glee at going down the zipline, and then Cantio shifts right into her workface immediately upon landing. Leaving the DECOY PRESIDENT CAR to her allies, she leaves her back exposed while slipping between the DECOY and ENGINE cars, popping that access door open to go right into the ENGINE CAR.     That's when Cantio finally gets her chance to shine (maybe). Even though she hasn't necessarily driven any kind of vehicle before, she's a whiz at figuring out machines and stuff. She doesn't do it through learning the controls properly or anything, though. Instead, she holds her hands out, and a miniature army of drones shimmers into existence around her. They start swarming the controls, into the engine, and even spreading onto the train car itself.     Through the swarm of machines, she learns how it works, how it all pieces together. Cantio holds her hand to her side, and the drones form into a power drill right there. She gets to work patching up the controls first to make sure they don't explode on her, and then she works on actually getting the vehicle itself under control.
Xion	SIDE RINOA: Alleys and rooftops are a good way to chase someone who's wearing an outfit you could probably pick out from *gosh darn space*. It is not for lack of skill or trying that Riku wasn't re-united with his friends: his dogged pursuit across the roofing slate of Timber gets him back into the game quickly. Speaking of dogged pursuits, it's not scraps of blue that clue him in, but a furry friend in browns and tans. A rather powerful dog is likewise on the rooftops (which are merely second-and-third-stories, it's a old European-style town), scrabbling adroitly across shake and slate roofs making a beeline for a large building which declares, in big letters: TIMBER MANIACS It's actually a publication, for real? Seifer needs no help making his way to exactly the same building, though entering through the front door is a bit of a hassle - two Galbadian MPs are idling near the door trying to not look busy while clearly waiting to detain anyone who tries to go for the door. If Rinoa went in that way, she'd already be in the hands of the G-Forces. There sure are street-level windows, though. One hangs open, rattling gently in the wind. There's another open window on the roof level. Making one's way inside the Timber Maniacs building reveals plenty of old issues stacked up and tied down, with plenty of weird tabloid titles and unsubtly veiled seperatist sentiments. Once inside, though, the ears of the two men are confronted with an argument going on in the third floor: "We need to stop the mission, right now! People are going to get hurt, they're sending *special forces* to stop the train. It's a *trap*!" Rinoa's voice pleads. A male voice, exasperated, responds. "Princess, listen to me! We're not there! We didn't go! Our guys got stopped at the interchange. There was a whole batallion of soldiers checking every set of papers. We couldn't fit a fly through that dragnet, much less a whole train." Rinoa is adamant. "Then who is Zack and going to stop?!" The male voice is confused, distraught. "I don't /know/! But you promised that you could get SeeD to help us. Where are they?" Rinoa's voice is quiet. You can only hear it listening at the door, or just beyond. "SeeD isn't coming. We'll do it ourselves."
Seifer Almasy	That's like the perfect intro line.      Seifer hits the floor from the window and just sort of produces his gunblade. He walks straight up into the third floor without pause. When he opens the door, he's twirling his gunblade like an old-style cowboy, except it's much more dangerous because he could literally cut his foot off with it.      Somebody else could, anyway.      "Hey."      "What's up."      "I'm SeeD."      "An' I'm here to help."      Yeah, he's gone *one hundred percent* Spaghetti Western Hero here. The sheer *level* of smug grin on his face has to be *seen* to be believed. Seifer is at Heroposting levels of smug grin. He is Anime Supervillain levels of smug grin. He is looking *right* at Rinoa. Gone is the awkwardness from earlier; they had that out. That was relationship drama. This is Mission.      "It's not on the books," he says as he walks forward, the grin disappearing in favor of his more serious face, "And it's not gonna be. Whether GARDEN knows or cares about you, I dunno."      "But I'm here."      "An' I still ain't the kinda guy to let a princess go into danger without a knight at her side."      There's another of those looks at Rinoa. It's apologetic, for what happened - but he's here now, isn't he? She's in trouble, and he's here. They may not be able to be what they used to be, but...      ...but damned if Seifer Almasy isn't gonna take responsibility for his screw-ups.      "I've got my own people, and they're inside. I can ask 'em what they got goin' on in a minute, once I think they're clear. But you guys not bein' in there is a relief."      "So, Rinoa Heartily," Seifer says, standing up and shouldering Hyperion, "You tell me what you need done, an' I'll tell you how we get there. That's what I'm here for."      "You can count on me."      He means it.
Lilian Rook	Lilian only needs a second of looking at the display to make up her mind, but she spends several taking it in, for purposes multifold. Whatever she takes away, she says to Zach "Doubly so, now.", no doubt in reference to him being 'fortunate to know her'. "This had perhaps been a bit of a whim, but now it's such a mess that I can't just look away from it." she sighs. "I take back what I'd been thinking about this place. Clearly the G-Forces' presence is needed practically everywhere." She isn't facetious. She sounds entirely, one hundred percent serious about that.     Some small amount of time is passed on the VTOL where she demands that the people she doesn't know divulge their talents 'in twenty words or less' and begins giving them formation orders on which row to stack up in for the inevitable breach and clear, nobody having asked. "I'll handle the decoy president's car. I'm the most suited to handling that situation. For the love of God, don't all pile up like baby ducks and try to overdo it. There are three target zones for a reason. More than two, maybe three, extras will get in the way. These are *small* areas."     She takes a mask very begrudgingly, not really knowing the extent of what magical mutation smog does, but never having been one to egregious under-prepare. While she is doing so, she prompts Zack to exposit on whatever Starscourge is and where it comes from some more. Radio support character style. She also makes completely sure that mask straps go *around* the back of her head and not through her hair. "It looks as if my guarantee to handle the civilians with you people rampaging around is unnecessary. I trust the 'First Class' soldier to take care of any of his comrades that could still make it. Operation T-Rexuar showed me enough of Galbadian policy on battle casualties." That is, ubiquitous tactical battle-healing and line rotation. Even the support NPCs have healing abilities that Lilian doesn't.     "If they don't look like a hulk of pulsing white meat, incapacitate them and bring them to the fourth car back. When we work this back to Timber, I can ask Tamamo to see to them. Evil miasmas and the like should be within her wheelhouse." Lilian says that part, and only that part, with genuine faith, rather than just dry professional assessment.
Lilian Rook	She gives the G-saber a few experimental twirls and tilts, says "A little point-heavy." through the mask, and then, given the VTOL's moment of dramatically opening its doors, she tilts and falls out of the transport hold face down, accelerating at a steep, sweeping plunge, punching a swirling bullet hole through the fog, and then goes right through the roof of the decoy cabin, striking the ceiling hull with pond ripples of black static instead of a meaty crash.     She did not, quite notably, include herself in the breach sequence she'd outlined before. When the first wave have bust through the traditional routes and occupied the attention of the assorted monsters -- as is an inalienable reflex in the first half-second of combat, not strategy -- she streaks in straight down the engine-most third, through the spine of the room, behind the arc her cooperators are clustered in.     Lilian doesn't have on her tactical outfit. She doesn't have any high-tech weaponry with her. The space is too enclosed for her to want to wield magic. Literally all she has is the standard issue military sword she'd grabbed. This means her options are currently very, very limited.     That is, limited to shallowly tapping into her primary skillset, instead of casually blasting the problem from forty paces.     A high speed stroke carves straight across the former president's tumorous mass from behind, carotid to opposite hip, doubled and tripled on by two full rounding cuts to the first quarter before she hits the ground. Her lightning plunge stops soundlessly -- weightlessly -- when he shoe clacks against the train car floor, leaning sharply into the angle she'd come from, from which she zips across the standing area to the opposite seats -- putting four more cuts through the back of both legs with an effortless wrists-only dempsey roll of flashing arcs -- and kicking off back into the air again, snagging the grotesquely malformed head with one hand, as she turns upside down over the demon at the apex of her arc, and thrusts the G-saber through its throat with the other, grasping the end of the blade by the blunted back, and then spinning back to ground with a high-g death roll, using the blade like a lever through its neck to turn its head around seven or eight full revolutions.     Even from there, she only bounces on her heels when landing right side up again, flinging an arc of blood at a perfect level to splatter into the faces of assorted infected soldiers, aimed to blind them with whatever goop the monster bleeds. She advances forward towards the engine car from there, smoothly delivering lightning quick cuts that are perfectly timed with her steps as she passes former soldiers, striking only to lop off limbs and heads the instant they come within range without slowing. The style is as if the tip of her commandeered sword is a guided weapon, and the rest is tracing through those deadly arcs after its path is already decided, flickering through its paces at tremendous speed for sheer, intimate understanding of how to manipulate the entire blade.
Lilian Rook	It's such a fundamentally massive difference from her usual way of going about shooting the problem that it's almost as if she's a different person. In fact, if anything, she seems *less* focused than usual. The process is almost automatic. Engraved into her fingers in ways that shooting clearly isn't.     Previously the president or not, the things in front of her aren't human. They are so much demonically poisoned threat-meat. Away from ground zero, they might still have a chance, but she can't look at this situation as much more than a gathering of plague-ridden cadavers that hadn't fallen down yet, needing to be disposed of for risk of infection. To that purpose, she then begins smashing the windows and knocking open the doors, hauling the dead to hurl them out the train and into the wilderness somewhere, aiming to 'air the train out' of corruption, lacking an alternative means at the moment. The train, at least, cannot be allowed to pull into Timber while smoking with dark corruption. She'll record and mark the sites of each drop, relaying them to Jessie in the VTOL for retrieval later, as she goes, but assumes that littering the nowhere landscape out here won't be a problem in the short term.
Riku	Following the big dog across the rooftops seems to be a good enough hint. Most dogs tend to avoid heights for Reasons involving not being cats. However, Angelo is a Good Boy. "How is..." He asks to himself at the sight of the big strong doggo romping around on the roof like it's nothing unusual. "That's really impressive." It does, however, take an act of will to not skid to a halt when he sees the TIMBER MANIACS sign. "It's actually a publication?" He mouths to himself, clearly surprised and completely unaware Seifer, too, is headed for the same location he is. Still, it only takes a glance onto the ground to see the 'soldiers on break' keeping an eye on the building. If this is supposed to be a resistance hideout, they're doing a bad job of hiding that fact. There might be additional plainsclothes ones hanging about too. But that's a different problem. Thankfully, he doesn't need to even deal with it. The open window on the roof level is more than enough. He doesn't know how Angelo is going to get into the building, but Riku takes a practiced jump, dropping down onto the windowsill and hauling himself in with barely an eyeblink. Once inside, Riku hears the argument. Oh good, Rinoa was also able to figure out Zack was feeding her a line. But the response gets a surprise. "Wait, something else...?" Still, he chooses to enter the room from the other side, stepping in like there isn't a care in the world. "You're not alone." He says, simply, as he enters. Then he pauses, looking across the room at Seifer's dramatic entrance. Then at Rinoa and the man. Then back at Seifer. His eyes narrow for a moment... "Huh." He says. "Well, I guess this is going to be different." He folds his arms, letting Seifer make his pitch. Seifer has an impassioned speech. He has connections. He has confidence. He has years of training and skill. Riku has... Well, it's something of a question of what he actually has at the moment. "I have contacts you guys can make use of as well. People who spend their lives working to do the kinds of things you want to do. As for me... Well, I might not be a knight. But something tells me you don't think of yourself as a princess, either. I'll help, if you want it."
Xion	THE VTOL: The G-Trio and Zack made a commitment to help the team -- to handle any task the team didn't feel capable of handling. With Biggs sobered up, he keys the pilot cabin lock and slides into the co-pilot chair, adequate at the position enough to wordlessly take manual control of the systems. The VTOL remains as rock steady as any operative could expect, giving everyone plenty of room and time to operate from the interception platform. Wedge, seeing Cantio make her beeline for the Engine Car, retrieves a case from under the jump-seats, unlimbering a completely normal egregiously over-sized anti-material marksman rifle. As if the transport is a flat plane on solid ground, Wedge (with some small assistance from Zack) assembles the Demon-blasting specialist weapon, fitting the forward bipod into a divot just inside of the top of the ramp, strapping into the floor of the compartment. The entire sequence takes about a minute at the most, reflecting the high degree of drilling a special forces team would obviously have, and Zack leans forward to cut the zip-lines to the train once everyone is away and Wedge is set up. "Alright. We're moving to overwatch positions." Zack comments, the transport leaning to the side and dropping in altitude to bring Wedge's gun-barrel into range. Steadied at the knees, with one fist gripping a handle, Zack's iced veins still earns a quip. "Good thing Garden turned this job down: They'd just use GF to sweep the train, and then we couldn't look cool doing this."
Xion	ENGINE CAR: Cantio's drones make swift work of figuring out the inner workings of the train, easily finding exactly the buttons NOT to push: emergency break, accellerator, car release, and a few that wouldn't necessarily be obvious. Chief among the found options: Door control. The geniuses at whichever train-yard made this specific model decided that remote operation of the doors was a fantastic control and security feature for their flagship executive line. Cantio, with this power, seals off the ENGINE and DECOY cars, not having to deal with any of the disgusting zombie demons and the source of the Starscourge infection, having an almost pastoral time playing with the train for the remainder of the mission. It, like most trains, are about one afternoon of fun before realizing it's all like that and trains exist in a state of waiting, coming, or going.
Xion	CABIN CARS: There's only one person who goes there, like a bolt of light, but as the VTOL angles to give Roxas support, the Nobody is already in the business of using his Master of Unlocking blade to free the infected G-Forces soldiers from the infected part. In terms of spiritual surgery, the Keyblade is the one sure-fire way to seperate the infected 'too far gone' parts from the clean, good parts of their spiritual heirarchy. It just also ensures the victim's transition from a complete human being into 'something else'. Of all the circumstances, however, none of Roxas' mercy unlockings suffer from rapid personality dispersal to become Dusks (or any other random sort of Nobody)... yet. Their final fate is to be seen. All of them gasp, stagger, and drop to the ground unconscious after being 'freed' of that which was killing them. Wedge, watching through a scope, doesn't get it. "Zack, he took off his mask. What's wrong with that kid?" Zack shrugs. "He's some sort of destined hero. Does he need help?" Wedge peers through his scope. "Don't think so." Zack bangs his hand against the fuselage twice. "Veer around, see if they need help against the Demon. I want to see if R&D was actually telling the truth when they said this rifle would put a round through a Red Giant." Wedge winces. "It'll put a hole through a train, Zack." Zack beams down at Wedge, who doesn't look up. "Trains are a lot softer targets than Red Giants, that's true." There's a reason limiting damage was optional.
Xion	DECOY CABIN This is the big test. With the train under control, and the flanks secure in a lightning attack, all that's left is to destroy the 'ringleader'. The infection vector. Patient zero. It was once a person, but now it is a surpassingly disgusting monster. It oozes miasma, pustules popping not with secretions but with puffs of Starscourge like a fetid flower pollenating the air. With the flanks utterly secure, Sumiko has all the time in the world to pop off with more than a sassy word, summoning a hail of cutting blades while Cordelay swings wide guillotines from chained weapons that scythe down the too-far-gone chaff. The worst of the victims are three-quarters pustule, one-quarter shambling zombie, but the 'President' is an entire seperate beast. The lesser undead are seperated from their heads or pinned to the ground and have their brains or hearts crushed or carved out, Lilian's expert bladework with the simple (if tip-heavy) G-Saber a show of fundamentals that causes even the eternally put-upon Wedge to whistle. Zack, in the VTOL, leans down to his sharpshooter. "What's going on? I can't see anything through the fog." Wedge, chuckles, despite the dire (and disgusting) situation. "This scope can't record and I wish it could. We could use this as a training video." Zack leans back, guffawing. "Dang! That good? What does that make me, B-rations?" Wedge, the eternal goodboy, makes a neutral utterance. "Still First Class, sir. Should I take the shot?" Zack leans back to sit down on a jumpseat, shrugging and spreading his arms out across the backs of the uncomfortable transport seating. "Best guess, lieutenant." Lifting his finger from the trigger well to lay it across the side of the guard, Wedge carefully adjusts his scope. "Yes, sir." The massive zombified form of corruption is something that resists cutting and carving, naturally resistant to most physical forms of attack -- but without using explosives, the entire team can become far more surgical. Working in conjunction, the fundamentals of 'the blade', meeting in three dimensions by three sets of directing forces, attack ferociously until a large smoking 'package', in a seemingly perpetual state of being just-post-detonation, is carved free from the zombified hulk. With its excision, the massive zombie loses its animating force like a balloon popped by a large pin, messily exhausting itself on the plush carpet. Without causing any exterior damage to the train... The mission accomplishes itself. Cantio brings the train to a stop just past the cordon-line for the Galbadian Army, and a team of regulars in fully armored HazMat gear approach with... Scrubbers. And sponges. Ew.
Xion	STAGING AREA: Shortly after the train comes to a stop, Zack's VTOL touches down nearby in an open patch of land, the First Class marching out with his hands in his pockets to flag down the successful team after they step off the train. "Well hey there. You'll want to take a shower when you're done, absolutely, but some time in the sun should fix you up. Report any weirdness to Deling Central and we'll get you hooked up with a spiritualist, but..." Wedge, enormous rifle and all, totters down the ramp. "That was amazing!" He exclaims, having to re-case his unused weapon on the landing site. Zack smiles. "Mission accomplished, is what he meant to say. You did great. Perfect score."
Cantio	On this night, Cantio quickly realizes that trains are kind of... Bland. Sure, all the moving parts working in tandem are interesting to figure out, but that could be said for just about any machine that moves in more than two directions.     Still, mission accomplished, and with time to spare! Stepping out of the train, she breathes a heavy sigh of relief, then removes her mask to try it again. Much better. "Absolutely.. Is everyone alright? If anyone's injured, please step over this way!"     She's taking that healer assignment seriously, even if she wasn't around to do it during the actual fighting. Zack's talk of scores, though, gets a blank stare from Cantio. "Eh? We're getting points on this?"
Cordelay Levail	Cordelay manages a smile despite being covered in zombie nastiness, wiping her swords down and sheathing them with a flourish. "It was not what I expected going in..." She pulls off the grimy mask and hands it off to the HazMat team in disgust. "...but it was a valuable experience nonetheless. And Timber should now be safe from infection, correct?" She looks around at everyone with a proud expression before saluting the rest of the team with a fist clasped to her chest. "Thank you for your support, everyone."
Sumiko	POP.   Sumiko, now covered in crap frowns.  Wiping it from the front of her face mask and shaking it off she tries to shake off what she can.  Leaping off from the train a moment later when everything slows down she lands.  Zack is out there already and the amazing stuff comes out.   "Yeah, it was cool, thanks.  I really need a bath now...ugh..." she says, thinking.  Maybe go the extra mile and do the whole hot springs thing.
Roxas	Bodies hit the ground around him, not dead, though the practical difference in the short-term is practically nil. Roxas breathes in the air, heading towards the next car, but-- he's already done. Dozens of shining red lights rise through the air from the bodies, floating intangibly through the ceiling and drifting away into the sky. To him, it's nothing bad. To him, it's just one state to another. There's nothing wrong with being broken, exactly, is there? He knows, in the end, that they won't see it that way. Their families probably won't, either. A stab of annoyance races through him at the thought. Quests to fix the broken by taking them apart and putting them back together again, but the person inbetween just goes away. Roxas walks among the fallen, collecting dog tags. It's better if they at least know who will be going through a transition, even if it arguably makes it easier for them to try to... do... something about it. A gentle curve of darkness fills out along the edge of the broken heart on Lost Memory, thin, transparent, fragile. Like a piece of stained glass added after the rest was finished, and not by a craftsman equal to the original. Unfinished, the ornate Keyblade is banished. Not long after the train is brought to a halt, and Roxas disembarks before the hazmat team. Dogtags dangle from his left hand, all held in a cluster. They rattle as he heads towards Zack, raising them with a deliberate shake that causes them to jingle together in a pronounced way. "These people are going to end up being Nobodies, if they have it in them. If you treat them okay, they might decide to still be the people on these tags. If you don't, they'll probably decide to be somebody else." Roxas explains, a flicker of spirit returning to his voice. But he looks -- and sounds -- frustrated. Once the dogtags are taken from him, he scratches at the back of his head and says, "I thought I'd want /something/ by now." Without clarifying or speaking to anybody else, Roxas heads off for decontamination.
Xion	MEANWHILE, SIDE RINOA Rinoa Heartilly, 'Princess', and radical seperatist investigative journalist, is confronted by a man helicoptering his sword as he enters a totally normal publication house discussion with-- A man in a *goddamn beret*. He's so typecast it hurts. -- a TOTALLY NORMAL editor, grabs both Riku and Seifer by the collar, announces "NOPE!" and drags both by the lapel through the door to the third story stairwell. "You can't *be* here. You're not supposed to *be* here yet. I sent my request to GARDEN *months* ago, and they said they were sending the Legendary SeeD to solve Timber's problems. Who sent you?!" From behind, Angelo barks happily and wags her tail. Rinoa is dumbfounded. "Angelo, this is *not* what you're supposed to find for me!" Angelo happily barks again. Rinoa can't contain herself, and pushes past Riku and Seifer to muss Angelo's ears. "We've talked about this! When I say 'I need help', you don't find whoever will follow you! This is how I go to *jail*, Angelo! This is not what we agreed to use the power of Angelo Search for!" Rinoa looks up at Riku, first. "I'm sorry. My dog is very smart, and she can find important things. All the time, in fact. Sorry to draw you into my disaster." To Seifer, Rinoa is a bit more... distant. "Seifer, you can't. I know what being a SeeD means to you. The reason we need to stop Galbadia... Well, Angelo and I found out that..." Her voice drops to a whisper. "Angelo and I found out that the Sorceress is returning. We need to find the Legendary SeeD before it's too late."
Seifer Almasy	The guy tries to grab Seifer by the collar.      Seifer whirls on him. "You wanna try that again? Huh? You wanna try an' grab me by the collar and *see* if I'm tellin' the truth or not?"      The tone in Seifer's voice is familiar to both Riku and Sora. That is not Nice Seifer.      Once he's satisfied that the guy is no longer stupid enough to try and actively manhandle a trained black ops agent because of a contract dispute, he turns back to Rinoa and hooks an arm around Riku. "Riku is my friend."      Technically true.      By proxy.      Like once removed.      It kinda counts.      He saved Riku from Darkness, so that's like *at least* one Social Link.      "You can count on 'im. 'sides, he'd get involved in this even if you told him 'no', 'cause you're terrorists and so is he."      Seifer wiggles his hand around Riku's hand. "Amateur terrorist."      Then Rinoa says something that makes Seifer's face get very, very dark. It echoes the editor's statement, but Seifer was more interested in making sure that somebody no combat training was not, in fact, stupid enough to grab a trained black ops agent from behind and try and drag him somewhere else.      Not dark in the sense of angry. Not dark in the sense of malicious. It's that dark where there's a shadow over the top half of his face. "Oh yeah? You need to find a hero, huh. Gotta find a legendary hero to save the world."      Story of my life.      Story of my life.      Story of my life.      All the bad feelings he'd had towards Sora, all the obnoxious bullying he'd put the guy who became his best friend in the whole world, come rushing back. All the unpleasant thoughts, all the self-directed anger. You're not good enough to be the destined hero. You're not good enough to save the world. You're the number two guy. You're always gonna be the number two guy. You're always gonna be second best. You work yourself to the bone as hard as you can but it doesn't make up for destiny. Doesn't make up for being born special. For winning the lottery.      You can try as hard as you want but you'll never be the knight you want to be.      All the ugly thoughts he thought he'd put away, that he thought he'd pushed down, that he thought he'd gotten over when he'd become friends with Sora, come rushing back. There's a wound in his soul ripped open by somebody he cared about, somebody he *told* could rely on him, and all the dark thoughts come running back down his mind.      "Yeah, well."      "You ain't got the Legendary SeeD."      "You got me."      "You can take the miracle you got or you can wait for the miracle you ain't."      "But according to *my team*," Seifer says, pointing his thumb at his chest, "Your target train almost rolled into the station covered in Starscourge. You almost lost Timber. An' you had no idea what was goin' on. You're blind, deaf, and dumb-" He obviously means in the *saying* sense, Rinoa, not the stupid sense, "-an' you're outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered, out-planned, an' you're sittin' here waitin' for a guy to sweep you off your feet an' solve all your problems."      "Don't gimme that crap. Don't tell me 'I know how much being a SeeD means to you.' If a SeeD gets sent here then GARDEN's in danger with or without me. An' you know what?"      He points a finger at Rinoa. "You mean somethin' to me, too. Maybe not what you used to mean - five years is a long friggin' time, an' a lotta stuff's happened - but you're still important to me. If nothin' else, we're still friends."      "You just try an' convince Seifer Almasy to abandon his friend."      "G'wan. See how that works. Or ask Riku. It'll be a heck of a lot faster."
Riku	The guy in the beret is in fact super typecast. If this is what they're dealing with, no wonder why the place has G-Forces sitting out in front just waiting to nab people in lazy mode. Riku then gets dragged by said guy in the beret. He deals with it with less anger than Seifer does, but he still gives the man the stinkeye. "I sent me. I noticed Rinoa getting information from someone on the other side, figured out what was going on, confirmed it was a setup, and then came to go let you guys know." He thumbs towards Rinoa. "Turns out she also was smart enough to figure that out, good on her." He shakes his head. "Well, I kind of did see the dog and followed him here." He admits, shrugging. "Did you know he can handle rooftop navigation? Pretty amazing dog." He turns to Rinoa and shakes his head, waving a hand. "Story of my life." He says, unconsciously echoing Seifer's thoughts. The same Seifer who just said Riku was his friend. Riku stiffens as he has that arm hooked around him... And then he relaxes. "... Yeah. It's fine." He says. Specifically to what, he doesn't indicate. If nothing else, maybe there's some new groundwork there. "I know... an organization like this one. But larger. More training. Better resources. They can help you with your fight." Riku says, being slightly evasive about his true association with the Watch. He doesn't take the Legendary SeeD thing like Seifer does. He's not even technically supposed to be here at all. "You didn't ask for me or my help. But you can have it if you want." He says, shaking his head. "Maybe..." He pauses, glancing over to Seifer in alarm. "Starscourge? Here? What the hell." He says, grimacing. But he does shake his head at the last. "Believe me. I tried to get rid of this guy for months." He says. "It was a mess." Not a lie. Not even a little bit.
Lilian Rook	Done with the revolting problem, Lilian takes some short measure of time to examine the cancerous wart of corruption carved out of the largest monster, both with the lighest of physical testing and with an examination of its magical profile, before it, too, goes. She quickly polices the adjacent two cabins to see that all is well, and then as the train eventually squeals to a halt and the cleanup team arrives, she flips and tosses the G-saber hilt-first towards the nearest person with his hands free. The edge isn't even chipped.     Then, she begins hunting around for anyone who seems sort of still alive. If there is a single trooper on the train who isn't a corpse or essentially a corpse in everything but name, she will call for Tamamo as originally advised. Otherwise, she says to Zack "Don't worry, I intend to burn these clothes and buy a replacement." with an uncertain level of how serious she can be, given having somehow studiously avoided a single drop of zombie blood on them, and "Unfortunate that I didn' get to fight on the roof at any point."     Then it's to Roxas, with a very Significant "You're going to tell me all about what that means, later."     And then, "So, this has nothing to do with that woman at all? What do you intend to do about her?"
Xion	THE STAGING AREA: Zack laughs -- a characteristic guffaw of good humor, as he raises a fist to pump it at head-level towards Lilian. "It's the only way to be sure. Fantastic job as usual. I'll tell Central to expect a bill at attache rates. Bagging five SeeD-quality assistants makes light work for us. Sorry about the roof, though." He lowers his fist back to his waist, thumbs hooked into his pockets. "If I hear of any more train heists I'll know who to call." He's asked for the deets on Rinoa, and Zack shrugs. "Buy her another beer? She's been gone for the bathroom for a while." He muses, a distant smirk of someone who will probably get decked later. He probably gets decked a lot. It's probably why his face is made of concrete.
Cordelay Levail	Cordelay watches the exchange between Lilian and Zack and sighs, shaking her head. The mention of Rinoa, however, shifts her mind in gear again. Zack had been baiting Rinoa into attacking the train, dropping hints to lure her into a trap. But the Starscourge didn't seem like a planned part of the operation. Cordelay is a warrior, not a spymaster, but she still feels like there's a bigger picture to this that she isn't seeing. "Master Zack," she interjects, "forgive my intrusion, but this Starscourge has me concerned. How could it have infected a train under G-Force's watch so easily? I am aware that you are soldiers, not physicians, but it seems like a troubling state of affairs."
Xion	Rinoa Heartilly looks Seifer dead in the eye. These two have history. They have chemistry. It's Been A Day. There's something there, obviously. There's something that goes unspoken, no matter how many words are said. Angelo makes a sad noise, a harbinger of the very deliberate words that form on Rinoa's lips. "Seifer Almasy. It cannot be you. Anyone but you. It..." She looks away. She can't hold his gaze. She steps to the doorframe, Angelo passing between Riku and Seifer at her heels. The Timber Resistance member is nowhere to be found - bolted out a window or into a rabbit-hole. He's gone after Seifer gave him the bad news. It leaves Rinoa there, blue-weaved Situation trailing in her wake, determination the steel that a deep pain rests upon. Her eyes speak volumes - close to the threshold of crying but furiously blinked away. "It'd be too much." She turns, clasping her hands behind her back and leaning forward a bit, down the doorframe. She puts on a smile with the expert ability of a person who has lived in high society. It's almost convincing, except for the eyes. She can't muster those. "Thank you for the offers of help. Really. Both of you. I know that Seifer is one of the best, and if you're his friend, you're probably pretty close." She straightens. "It's not about destined heroes, this time. It's something I have to see through, to the end." They've seen that look. Both Riku, and Seifer. They've seen that look in the faces of those most dear and close to their hearts. Perhaps they've heard the words, too. "If it was just a Keyblade, it would find its way to your hands." She seems to say specifically at Riku. "If it was something as simple as swordplay and a dream, you'd be the leading man." She *absolutely* says to Seifer. Then... It's a movie, a slide-show. The last moments are a spellbinding sequence of heartbeats. "Zefar isn't the man the world needs." Rinoa turns, crossing the space between the doorframe and the window in two J-ARPG steps, and leaps out the opening, tumbling acrobatically to street level to land right in front of the MPs, and much to their shouting, makes her sprinting escape through the cobblestone maze that she's memorized. Angelo, dogsmiling in the doorframe, pleasantly impedes any interception attempts with the power of <dog>. It is, of course, merely a <dog>, and can only slow them down... But do they *really* want to pursue? Is that their heart's true desire? Angelo, sensing need, after a few moments of waiting, pads into the room to find a key, hold the key in her teeth, unlocks a drawer, and finds a bag of gummy-worms stashed away. "Bark!" Angelo confirms, at the end of a successful Angelo Search.
Xion	The Hazmat team draws out the package the trio of elites had carved from the zombified remains of the decoy president, curiously synched to the question being asked. They gingerly move the now-empty package into a containment case for transport. Zack nods along with Coredlay. "The Starscourge... Well, the simple explanation is 'terrorism', and the long explanation..." Zack sighs. "Someone who wanted a big messy dirty bomb set that up." He points at the package's sealed-away state. "Someone who wanted maximum casualties and maximum damage. Not to Galbadia or Timber, but both, everyone, at the same time. There's a reason it couldn't have been Timber: No Timber Resistance member would ever bring Starscourge *into* their town. It wouldn't happen. So it can't be them." Zack sighs, spreading out his arms. "You handled it so well that Mil-Int will pick this over for four months and tell us something we already know, or something. If demons are getting smart enough to dirty bomb our trains, we'll have to up or security sweeps. We'll make sure it doesn't happen again, and if it does, we'll be ready for it. That's what stewards of the world do: Make sure it doesn't happen twice."
Sumiko	"But it doesn't rule out Galbadia," Sumiko says with a look towards Zack. "I don't mean you either..." there is a pause, "Why stop a bomb you set off? It doesn't count out people in your military who might see that Timber serverely weakened and her upstanding soldiers baring the blunt of the assault to save her to look good."
Cordelay Levail	Cordelay frowns. "That is a possibility, but would such a rogue faction be able to set such a plan up without detection? Furthermore, the infection could not have been obvious when the train departed - if it had already progressed to such a state, the departure point in Deling City would have been exposed. I do not know the onset time for Starscourge, but would it be able to cause such total corruption during the length of a single train ride to Timber?" She brushes some stray hair out of her face and muses, "While rogue Galbadians are a possibility, I believe a third party, enemy to both Galbadia and Timber, seems the more likely culprit."
Xion	Zack nods. "That's my read too. Sure, it'd be convenient for it to be internal or Timber, but there's a whole world full of problems under rocks. It's our job to find the right rocks and lift them up. Galbadia wants Timber - Train depots don't work right filled with angry demons." He gives Sumiko and Cordelay a thumbs-up. "But I like how you're thinking."
Cordelay Levail	"True, there is no reason to launch an attack capable of decimating a town in a valuable logistics hub. Which raises the issue of who our mystery assailant is..." Cordelay shakes her head. "I know too little of Starscourge and the political situation here to hazard a guess. Perhaps I can find someone with greater knowledge than I to answer these questions."
Xion	"Appreciate the help! We'll get our own people on it, and let you know. You can probably talk to that SeeD, Almasy, about following up." Zack taps his nose. "He's got the right skillset, at least."
Cordelay Levail	Cordelay nods. "I will take your advice to heart. Farewell, Master Zack, and keep yourself and your people safe." With that Cordelay salutes and walks away, eager to finally get all this disgusting zombie juice off her.