[@Savo]...

"Ah... Sorry!" 

Raily shouted apologetically, but she was more happy than anything else. She never thought she would find joy in hearing that grumpy, irritable voice in her entire life. 

"Fancy seeing you here, Wallflower! Looks like all it took was an all-out invasion to get you to leave that dinky old shop of yours for once!"

The two of them weren't exactly 'friends', but she liked the loner mechanic well enough, finding his reactions funny. Though that feeling might not be reciprocated from the other side. She would go to his odd little pipe-shop once in a while for advice on machines. Whenever Raily was stumped about a design herself, she liked seeing things from an outside perspective. She didn't want to bother Cid with her novice questions, figuring the busy old geezer had better things to do. So she figured it was best to ask someone she viewed as a peer. Most of the time though, that 'advice' was just irritated grunts to leave him alone and offhanded remarks on how she was stupid for using sparkles as a power source. She can never see eye-to-eye with him on such matters, often leading to heated arguments. How could he not understand? Sparkles, when properly utilized, possessed a much stronger charge retention rate than any simple electrical battery. Even if using one did have a high risk of internal overloads. Maybe it was because of their vastly conflicting backgrounds, one being in magic and the other in science? Regardless, each encounter would end with the two of them bashing heads and Raily leaving the shop in a huff, vowing never to return. Only for her to show up a week or so later to show him another invention, already forgiving him for his mean comments. 

Seeing Ambrose now, swatting away the alien invaders with great strength, Raily viewed him in a new light. He reminded her of some of the seniors members on the defense force, with how he stood stalwart in the face of many. She wanted to cheer him on, shout out to how cool he looked. But her smile quickly turned to a look of worry. The separate swarms that had been chasing the two of them had now combined into a horde that now surrounded Ambrose. It seemed they intended on picking off the easier target first.

She aimed her wand at him, hoping to lift him to safety with an Aero spell, but suddenly the horde froze around them. The trigger seemed to be the gauntlet device he was wielding. She was amazed. 

"Whoa...! You've gotta show me how you do that!"

But judging by his serious expression, she knew there wasn't much time before the effect would wear off. Flipping over the mass of stilled gray figures, Raily landed beside Ambrose and gave him a quick wink. 

"You're not the only one with tricks. Let's test that swinging arm of yours!" She says, tapping his shoulder with her wand, casting 'Cure' on him, and bounding straight into the gray mass in the same movement. She flew like a swift sparrow, squeezing through the narrow cracks between the bodies until she finally reached the center. Turning and facing Ambrose, she bent down to one knee and prepared herself. Dapper is now striking a pose atop her hat. The one-eyed cat was either now totally into it, or had already given up all hope of making it out alive. 

With one last breath, she shouts at the top of her lungs. "Batter up!" 

In a jumping twirl, she points her cracked wand to the sky and casts the biggest Aero spell she could. Immediately a small purple twister formed around them, with Raily in the center. The violent winds scooped up the surrounding Nobodies, helpless to the pull of the vacuum as she continued to suspend them there for Ambrose to strike. Raily could feel her mana depleting rapidly, so this was probably their only shot to clear out the horde. Otherwise she'd be stuck in the middle of all of them.

...