[center][h3]Aberration[/h3]
[b]Sector 7[/b]
Goldlewis, Roxas’ [@Double], Karin’s [@Zoey Boey], Midna’s [@DracoLunaris], Pit’s [@Yankee]
[b]Word Count:[/b] 5475 (+6)

[img]https://i.imgur.com/y3q7zJB.png[/img][/center]

The hummer soon emerged from the tunnel’s confines onto an elevated highway near the Sector 7 hub, its surface littered by wrecks engulfed in flame. Much like Kunad Highway as seen by the Seekers earlier that day on their flight in to Midgar, where roads snaked around one another at a variety of elevations, a number of other paved bridges could be seen in every direction. This sprawling interchange was where traffic both into and out of Sector 7 got redirected through the proper tunnels to reach their destinations, but with the area in crisis, the whole stack of interconnected overpasses and underpasses looked like one big nightmare. Goldlewis had no choice but to slow down to maneuver around the wrecks as the team tried to push forward in pursuit of that determined officer. Plenty of Filthwings filled the skies, demanding everyone’s attention to avoid any lethally lucky shots.

Midna at least got a chance to get plenty of practice with her Charr Pirate Musket, its unlimited ammunition meaning she could just keep shooting over and over till she hit whatever was attacking them. Assuming someone else didn’t get it first. To do this, the princess leaned out the window, and holding her shadowhand in front of her like a shield, while pressing the barrel of the musket between middle and pointer finger, and aiming though the same. Whatever energy blasts didn't hit Midna's shield usually ended up being deflected by Pit's, as the Orbitars flitted back and forth blocking shots. The weapons' own shots were on the weaker side so he stuck to protecting the car, leaving all the airborne targets to the princess.

It wasn’t long before the heroes found their quarry. Up ahead, a bus lay with its totaled front end punched through the highway’s concrete barrier, a good third of it suspended over nothingness. More crashed cars crowded its backend, aflame and seemingly ready to explode at any moment. Just above the busted vehicle floated a strange anomaly–a jagged, deep red tear in reality, teeming with vivid crimson particles. “Aw, hell. It’s a goddamn gate!” Goldlewis spotted that policeman running toward the bus on foot, having seemingly lost his motorcycle somewhere along the way, and the veteran soon saw why. There were civilians trapped in the bus, and though they’d already squeezed their children out of the windows in the hopes that they’d flee to safety, the adults couldn’t get out. Their crying kids wanted to run to them, but their parents yelled at them to stay away, and a couple [url=https://i.imgur.com/pqxDLf5.png]very short adults[/url] who’d managed to escape along with the children tried to keep them in line. Goldlewis put the hummer in park and threw open the door. “We’ve gotta help ‘em out, quickly, before…!”

As if on queue, the cries of panic from inside the bus turned to a hideous mixture of pain and terror. The people on board began to twist and spasm, suffused by red particles and in a chorus of haunting screams they transformed. Red crystals erupted from their bodies, their skin twisted into gray, stonelike flesh, and their appendages erupted into unnatural weapons. As the shrieking children cowered the new aberrations tore free from the bus. Without a word, the policeman extended his X-baton and engaged them in combat.

[color=Gold]”Th-They’re all [i]people[/i]?”[/color] Roxas stammered, suddenly getting a sick feeling in his stomach. All those aberrations and mutants that he and Karin had dispatched on the semi-truck. They had all been… [i][b]people[/b][/i]? Roxas was no stranger to the concept of people becoming monsters. He knew full well where creatures like Heartless and Nobodies all came from. But in those cases, the victims themselves would be restored after their Heartless and Nobodies were destroyed respectively. These things… they weren’t like that - at least as far as the Keyblade Wielder knew. Those people could very well be gone, with no way to save them.

The Keybearer lost his grip on his weapons - both of them slipping from his hands and falling to the ground before vanishing in a flash of white and black respectively. He was feeling weak at the knee and dropped to a kneeling position. Was it exhaustion? The overwhelming guilt of so many people being lost? Both? After a moment he managed to push himself back to his feet. His eyes narrowed and his expression hardened into one of determination and resolve. He couldn’t let this get to him. He had to do something. And helping that lone policeman was as good a place to start as any.

Roxas suddenly broke into a sprint toward the action. When he got close he leaped off of a wrecked car and used flowmotion to kick himself off of two airborne aberrations before finally landing on the ground near where the policeman stood - Keyblades drawn and ready to lend him a helping hand.

Karin gasped as she watched orphans be made in front of her eyes. [color=fff200]”How dare..?!”[/color] She dashed into battle, boiling with indignant fury. 

Midna raced after him on wolfos back, the hound leaping from vehicle to vehicle as she shouted out the question she thought was key [color=Aquamarine]”How do we stop that happening to the kids? Or us?”[/color]

Behind her, Goldlewis was running as fast as he could. “Stay away from the gate, and finish this quickly!” he roared.

Rather than go to face the monsters directly, Midna moved straight to the children urging them to go [color=Aquamarine]”Back that way, quick”[/color] directing them towards the hummer, because it was better than nothing. They tottered, staggered, and tripped in that direction. Then she raised the shield she had equipped while riding over, and put herself between them and danger as she moved to escort them to somewhere, anywhere, that was safer than where they were right now.

Pit was on their heels, only slightly slower. Mid-run he'd traded the Orbitars for the bow, the weapon a comfort in his hands once more. He didn't shy away from facing down the humans turned monsters, though his expression had grown more grim than it had been previously. Seeing humans corrupted like that was awful, and a big reminder that life wasn't fair - else this kind of thing wouldn't happen to innocent people. But if they didn't deal with them as monstrosities now, they wouldn't be able to save the people that still could be saved.

Pit skidded to a halt beside Roxas and drew his bow, sending an arrow of light slamming into an aberration that had started towards Midna and the children. He glanced between the police officer they'd been chasing and Goldlewis, adding his own question to Midna's.

[color=lightgoldenrodyellow]"And how do we close that thing?!"[/color]

The officer cartwheeled backward to dodged a flesh-shredding double claw slash from an aberration, then leaped forward. His flying kick struck the monster in the chest, and he landed with a diagonal baton strike. A second strike came right on its heels, followed by a revolving kick to the head with momentum that carried through into a sweep. The baton in his hand transformed in a wave of blue particles as he swung it overhead, becoming a giant blunt-edged gladius easily four feet in length. With it the officer cracked down on the aberrations head, dispatching it.

His eyes flashed toward the newcomers. Capable strangers were not so rare a sight in Midgar, and police or not, he needed the help. “My X-baton can destroy the gate,” he said. “Keep the aberrations off my back and I’ll get it shut. And if any of you start feeling sick, get out of here IMMEDIATELY, understand?”

[color=Gold]”Got it!”[/color]

[color=lightgoldenrodyellow]"Okay!"[/color]

The Seekers had no other choice but to, and without hesitation put the plan in action. Goldlewis deployed a Thunderbird grenade to chase an aberration down and blow it up, then bore down a shield-bearing mutant with his coffin like a wrecking ball. With one mighty swing he broke its guard wide open. He [url=https://i.imgur.com/srgWhY3.png]stomped down[/url] hard enough to not just crush the aberration’s foot but crack the pavement beneath it, then knocked it down with a sweep of his own and brought his coffin down with a withering Behemoth Typhoon. Of course, the one he’d detonated with his Thunderbird jumped at him the next moment. In total, there were eleven remaining aberrations: two with bows atop the bus and blocking the gate, four with two sets of giant claws apiece, three with long, pointy lance-arms, one with a deformed shield plus club, and one with two giant fists. That last one had been a rather large man, made bigger still by his aberration, and he stood almost as tall as Goldlewis himself.

Midna herself focused on the children, despite her being rapidly demonstrating she was bad with kids. She was aided in this by her fellow small folk, the Lalafell trying to herd the kids away from danger as best they could.

[color=Aquamarine]”Come on, move, we need to get you away from the portal”[/color] she insisted as she grabbed and hauled a bawling child who Goldlewis had just orphaned away from the fight. The child, a boy of barely a half dozen years, struggled, trying to run to what was left of his mother. Then he was pulled close as the universe attempted an act of twisted mercy to reunite them, delivered at the tips of the mutant’s arrows, only for Midna to deny that fate with her shield … and her shoulder.

She cursed wordlessly as crimson fowled her black suit, only to in the next breath commanded [color=Aquamarine]”Javelins, take down those archers!”[/color] as she went right back to child corralling despite her injury.

As she pulled back, her strikers stepped forwards to provide ranged support to the heroes. Four frozen Chilfos raised frozen spears and hurled them forth, then disappeared. In contrast the three amazonian initiates all darted for the cover of a burnt out car, using it as cover from which they periodically popped up to hurl psionic spears at the archers, or any other targets of opportunity, before going on cooldown. To their chagrin the shield-bearing aberration seemed to take its protection job seriously, and blocked a couple shots meant for the archers.

As for Roxas, he took it upon himself to watch the policeman’s back. His intended purpose was to make sure not a single mutant got past him in some attempt to get to the officer or the gate. And boy did they try. Many of the clawed ones attempted to attack Roxas or sneak past him. But thankfully, he was able to make good use of his Dual Counter technique to keep from being swarmed while also keeping them from getting by him.

Unfortunately, after that stunt on the semi-truck, Roxas had no MP to spare at the moment. It would be a little bit longer before he was recharged enough to start shooting spells again. But that didn’t mean he was completely out of ranged attack options. At one point Roxas threw both of his Keyblades in opposite circular motions. This resulted in them both circling around him two times each in opposite directions as a small A.O.E. against the mutants trying to get past him. Afterward it was a simple matter to re-summon the weapons back in his hands again.

Karin, ready to dish out some pain to the creatures that steal the bodies of the innocent, picked a fight with the biggest monster she could find. The giant aberration with two fists was her target, and she dashed forward. She jumped at the last moment, coming in at a steep angle to spin and kick the monster in the back of the head. The monster was already turning with a lariat, and swatted Karin up and away, shrugging off her kick with the momentum of the hit. She landed with a roll and silently chastised herself for losing her cool. Then she dashed back in. This time, she waited for the monster to strike first, and it obliged, crushing the ground she was just standing on as she sidestepped. She did a series of palm strikes, finishing off with an elbow to shove the monster down. Normally it would have fallen over, but it’s big hands let it stay up as it grabbed the ground and threw itself bodily at Karin. She blocked the impact and skidded backwards, trying to stop it. 

Karin struck its face with a palm and it reeled, but on the second hit it steeled itself in her direction and went for a grab. She leapt out of the way- just short! It snagged her ankle and she lost her balance, falling onto the ground for a brief moment. It brought it’s fist down upon her midsection, and the heiress was crushed into the ground and bounced.  [color=fff200][i]”Oof!”[/i][/color]  It went to do it again and she rolled out of the way, wiping her lip. 

While Midna's strikers rained attacks on the farthest enemies and Roxas, Karin, and Goldlewis took on those closest, Pit moved to intercept some of the other aberrations as before they could cause any more problems. He opened with two arrows aimed at the shield wielder. As expected it raised the mutated limb up to block, but the streaks of light veered to either side of it and then crashed back together on each of its flanks. It grunted and turned to block a third arrow coming at it, leaving itself open for Pit to get up close. He spun the bow blade in his hands, slicing the aberration until he spotted movement in the corner of his vision.

[color=lightgoldenrodyellow]"Whoa!"[/color] he exclaimed, jumping backward to avoid a sharpened appendage stabbing into him. Another of the lance-arm aberrations joined in, lunging both of its arms forward to skewer the angel. Pit deployed the Orbitar shield for a quick block, regaining his bearings to go back on the offensive. 

The lancers split up and dodged sideways to circle around the angel, not unlike how he’d split his arrows to hit the shieldbearer a moment earlier, then attacked from both sides in quick succession with vicious thrusts. It was a test of both agility and tenacity to fend them both off at once. Blue and gold flashed around Pit furiously as he worked to block, parry, and deflect the rapid strikes. What did slip by were glancing blows, leaving thin cuts on his arms and side. The club-armed aberration that had been skulking nearby finally decided to try and repay Pit for the damage he'd inflicted on it, with a screech it lifted its arm up and brought it down heavily in an attempt to cave the angel's head in. Pit caught it with the bow, both of his hands on the handle to push up while the mutant pushed down. He was seemingly locked in a stalemate, which the lancers both rushed in to capitalize on. They came at him in a pincer attack again, but their target was not as trapped as he seemed. The bow split in the middle, letting the monster's club fall to the ground as Pit propelled himself backward with a mighty flap of his wings. He could feel the sting of a shallow cut on his cheek from one of the lancers getting too close, and let out a sigh of relief that it hadn't been worse. He clicked the two halves of the bow back together and spun it once in his hands, letting his determination carry him forward to engage the aberrations again.

Up on top of the bus, Roxas’ spin maneuver managed to disperse the two archers to give the officer room to work, but after getting clipped the aberrations backed off toward either end of the vehicle. The one at the front let loose a barrage of rapid-fire projectiles with decent spread, while the other charged an arrow. Roxas couldn’t effectively deal with both at once, but Goldlewis lent a hand. He’d bulled through the chaos behind the policeman and his escort as a sort of rearguard, bashing aberrations left and right, and now he jumped onto a car to bounce off the hood even higher in the air. A glyph-enabled airdash allowed him to close the distance to the sniper, which pivoted to shoot him, but with his coffin held in front of him like a shield Goldlewis tanked the hit. In reply five arms reached out to [url=https://i.imgur.com/1FTUsj3.png]strike repeatedly[/url] in a pinwheel blow, and when Goldlewis landed on the bus a [url=https://i.imgur.com/BB7yOOc.png]final punch[/url] sent the archer flying away. The other aberration, out on the precipice above a lethal drop, was Roxas’ to deal with.

…

“You two, get off the bus!” the policeman called. He had laid into the gate with his X-baton in Gladius mode, cleaving into the red tear with big, heavy swings. Where the two collided the red matter gave way, but each blow only chipped it, so it would take another minute to break down. “Red matter is pouring out of the gate, you have to minimize your exposure!”

[color=Gold]”But-!”[/color] Roxas started to protest, but reluctantly agreed anyway.

Without a word Goldlewis obliged, jumping down from the bus to the asphalt of the highway. When he spotted Pit fighting one against three, he ran up to help even the odds. Though Pit couldn't spare him a glance while facing down the enemies, when he noted the man’s approach he asked with a slight grin, [color=lightgoldenrodyellow]"You want a pointy one or - uh, the other one?"[/color]

“Whatever’s convenient!” Goldlewis lashed out into one of the lancers from behind with a superlative [url=https://i.imgur.com/GlnqtyM.png]backfist[/url], knocking it aside. It stumbled but kept itself from falling with its lance, using it to launch itself back into the fray. It went low and jabbed Goldlewis twice in the foot as he tried to wind up a Behemoth Typhoon, then followed up with a flurry of stabs. Rather than risk more damage the veteran blocked them, taking minor chip damage. When it went for a final stab he backdashed for distance and pulled out the Skyfish, but by the time he opened fire the aberration was already on the move. It ran in a circle around him, taking a few bullets but not enough for Goldlewis to put it down. When the minigun clicked empty it charged in, springboarding off the weapon’s barrel for a killer jump strike. Goldlewis stopped it in the nick of time with a well-placed elbow, then came down with an overhead Behemoth Typhoon to turn the monster to dust.

Instead, the aberration veered to the side, and as the coffin cracked the ground it buried its lance in his stomach, just beneath the ribs. “Agh!” The veteran’s weapon slammed to the ground, and he clamped his hands on the aberration’s lance. “Grrrrah!” Teeth gritted, he snapped he deformed arm like a lobster claw, then grabbed the monster by the shoulders. “You!” He lifted it up and bashed it with a mighty headbutt. “Damn!” Another headbut cracked its face. “FOOL!” Upon taking the final headbutt the aberration’s head exploded, and as it slumped to the ground Goldlewis sat down hard on his coffin, trying to put pressure on the stab wound.

With one less enemy to contend with, Pit could focus less on defense and move in to finish the other aberrations off. He jumped as the monster's club came down at him again, spinning the bladed bow at its head. It screeched as its face was torn up, and by the time it raised its shield to prevent more damage Pit was already rounding on the other lancer. He blocked one stab with his weapon and caught the other on his bracer. He shoved the lancer away and then thrust the sharp end of his bow behind himself, catching the aberration behind him off guard with a jab to its gut. He spun again, this time quick summoning the Upperdash Arm to shoot forward and plow into the shieldbearer, cracking its hardened limb and sending it up into the air. In a flash he pulled the bow up into a regular firing stance and peppered it with arrows, and when it fell to the ground it began to turn to ash.

[i]Still one more,[/i] he reminded himself, turning the bow on the lancer. The light arrow he fired struck it in the chest, though it did little to slow it down. It practically threw itself at Pit pointy-ends first, the force behind the double strike enough to force the bow away. Pit blinked in surprise, though when the lancer straightened up with intent to follow its attack with a couple more stabs it found that the bow had once again been split into two, both of the blades slashing down through each of the aberration's shoulders in a cross shape. It staggered for a moment before it too fell dead.

The lancer that Goldlewis had taken off his back had been dealt with, and as for Goldlewis himself -

[color=lightgoldenrodyellow]"Are you okay?"[/color] Pit asked, eyes wide, though with no healing abilities to speak of though he couldn't do much at the moment to help either way.

Roxas - despite having done what the policeman told him - opted to remain relatively near the bus. Hopefully he was far enough anyway to not be affected by the gate, but the policeman had told them to get away if they started feeling sick. Roxas wasn’t feeling sick yet so he figured he was still safe from the gate for the time being.

By that time the two remaining clawed aberrations, recovered from Goldlewis’ sideswipe and driven back from the gate by Roxas, charged for Midna and the civilians. They seized the opportunity presented by an opening to bear down on the children, some of them belonging to the people they themselves had once been, but the kids’ protectors weren’t about to let that happen. The male lalafell pulled out and took aim with a [url=https://i.imgur.com/178lpLy.png]Manganese Arquebus[/url], and though his aim was unsteady, his shots helped open the way for Midna to deal with them personally.

Midna, who was still holding her wound shut having been too busy handling children to use some of the healing gel she had in her pocket dimension, turned a masked face towards the monsters, a single glowering eye all that was visible of her face. Within it, no fear was found

[color=Aquamarine]”Bear and bug, go!”[/color] she commanded, opening portals and unleashing beastial titans which she commanded to [color=Aquamarine]”Slow them!”[/color]  

A fusion of wolfos, dragon, bear and machine lunged for from her left, a mass of metal and flesh that towered over the clawed mutant as it bore down upon it. It tried to dodge to the side, only for a paw to reach out and smash into it, the side swipe driving causing it to crumple and fall to the ground.

Said fellow faced the Buzzing form of Midna’s Vibrava, and it did not even need to approach to attack. Instead the highway below it glowed with cracks of power, which then burst upwards, the power of the earth blasting it from beneath and launching it skywards. It rose, and then received a devastating crunch for the pokemon’s insectile jaws, before being dropped down atop the bear batted one.

Rather than finish the job however, that was all the short amount of time Midna could sustain the spells supersizing them, and so they dropped away, leaving the mutants picking themselves up to face Minda herself.

Midna, and the massive ball of runes and turquoise magic she had hefted above her head in a shadow hand.

[color=Aquamarine]”Twilight-”[/color] Midna shouted, taking notes from a certain street fighter and naming her attack as she slammed the massive ball of power down atop the pair [color=Aquamarine]”-Volley Bomb!”[/color]

The sphere of power passed through them harmlessly for a moment, until it was half inside the ground. That was when it detonated, blasting the pair of mutants into ash. The princess didn’t even bother to watch this, having already turned away to keep ushering the children away. 

As Midna succeeded, the pre-occupied Karin tried to finish off her foe as quickly as possible. She spun around the creature and drove her elbow into its back, then kicked out at its knee. It toppled on purpose, looking to crush her, but this time she was too fast. She canceled into a dash to the side and came back in just as fast, slamming the creature into the air with a palm thrust. As it fell back down she used the same arm to slam it away.  This time it was too overwhelmed to stop her jump in attack. She stomped its head into the ground, and then slid into the monster, forcing it to stand. [color=fff200][i]”Ressen Ha!”[/i][/color] She exploded upward with an EX-attack, her arms pinwheeling as she bifurcated the upper half of the beast and rose above it. She landed lightly and then whirled around to see how the children were doing. She hadn’t expected that to take so long! That wasn’t good enough!

[color=fff200]”Thank you, Midna!”[/color] She called out, relieved.

[color=Gold]”How much longer to go?”[/color] Roxas called back to the policeman. He’d been holding his position after getting down from on top of the bus - but he’d been watching his fellow Seekers finish off the stragglers. He was still trying to stick with his original goal, which was keeping any of the mutants from getting past him and attacking the policeman.

With a yell the officer jumped up, performing an overhead flip. “It’s OVER!” He came down with a hefty two-handed blow and cleaved through what remained of the gate. It blew apart in a burst of red lightning and fluctuating pixels, which quickly fizzled out. “...Thank you for your help.” For a brief moment he crouched there, catching his breath, before he stood up. Noise and motion from the sky drew his attention to a [url=https://i.imgur.com/js1MTzI.png]police helicopter[/url] on approach, its unique futuristic design featuring a ring-shaped rotor instead of the typical blades. It flew deeper into the chaos, in so doing drawing the policeman’s gaze to a battle unfolding further down the road. A temporary evacuation shelter had been set up, but it was under attack by a handful of aberrations, with only a couple fellow officers on the case. He jumped down on the opposite side of the bus and sprinted toward the action.

As he left, however, Karin and Midna began to realize something was wrong with some of the children. Their cries and wails had taken on a fever pitch, not just from sadness but from pain as well. At this point, their suffering couldn’t possibly be just mental, and whatever it was seemed to be affecting the lalafells, too. Those who’d gotten closest to the chaos, as well as the lalafell woman, suddenly collapsed. As the others either ran in every direction or stood paralyzed in fear, the stricken twisted and contorted in agony, and finally transformed into aberrations themselves. After another moment they too went on the offensive.

[color=Gold]”Come on!”[/color] said Roxas as his shoulders sagged with fatigue, [color=Gold]”Give us a break!”[/color]

“Pachacha!” the lalafell man cried out, tears streaming down his face as he succumbed to a coughing fit. The thing that had been his girlfriend rounded on him and struck him with her claws, sending him skidding backward. As she approached to finish the job he shakily pointed his arquebus her way, but thinking better of it turned it upon himself instead.

[color=fff200]”Good God!”[/color] Without even thinking, Karin dashed in to direct the gun away from the man. She turned her back to the aberration that used to be the person’s lover to interpose herself between the creature and the man. 

Roxas, getting frustrated, quickly threw Oblivion at the attacking aberration and made a mad dash toward it, [color=Gold]”I’m not losing anyone else!”[/color] he aimed his second blade and fired off a Blizzaga that left behind a thin trail of ice on the ground in its wake. Roxas hopped on and used flowmotion to grind the ice rail and cover the distance in a much shorter time.

Once in melee range he re-summoned Oathkeeper and tried to focus, [color=Gold]”Alright, if my Keyblade can free people from Galeem then I don’t see why it can’t do the same for these people too…”[/color] He didn’t know how smart of a move this was. Or if it was even possible. But he was tired of feeling like he couldn’t help these people. He lunged forward and thrust the tip of the weapon into what he hoped was aberration’s heart and attempted to free the innocent person as if freeing them from Galeem. The thrust amounted to a normal attack as the aberration reacted, twisting off the keyblade’s point to turn around and attack Roxas instead.

That left Roxas no choice. He barely managed to block the attack in time, but was at least able to knock the aberration back with Dual Counter. Then he blasted it with a Dual Shot.

[color=Aquamarine]”Goddesses preserve us”[/color] came a curse from Midna as the princess who had found herself surrounded by new foes. While she had been praying that whatever Roxas was pulling would work, a shadow hand was holding off an archer, while she used her shield to block lance strikes, and her wolfos was hopping back and forth to try and keep them out the claws of a third and a fourth. 

Now that his ploy had failed, the princess muttered [color=Aquamarine]”They're already gone. Like stalchildren”[/color] to herself to convince to do what needed to be done, swallowed, and then gritted her teeth. 

She crushed the diminutive archer held in her shadow hand in a single action, and then raised the ash dripping palm up, pulsing out an expanding  orange ring of energy around her, wreathing the other two in shadows. A claw slipped past her guard, racking her mottled skin through her suit as she charged the attack, but she bore it for a moment longer, and then released.

The dark energy zone lashed out, orange lightning coursing through the mutant children, and then the wolfos she was astride lunged, and in a flash ripped out three throats and left the shaking princess surrounded by ash and the spirits of dead aberrations. 

Seeing this, Karin snatched the gun from the person’s hands and stared at him. [color=fff200]”I-…”[/color]

[Color=Gold]"What are we supposed to do?"[/color] He was stumped. If the Keyblade failed, then what other answer was there? That's when it hit him. His Keyblade wasn't the only thing that could free people! He dispelled his weapons and faced the increasingly sick lalafell man, [color=Gold]"Please… please work…"[/color] he said as he manifested a pink Friend Heart and then threw it at the man.

The heart made contact not a moment too soon. Its touch cleansed the poor fellow from the corruption mere seconds away before the red matter density in his system would have reached the point of aberration. He slumped down against the highway railing, panting, but wide-eyed as if he’d been suddenly jolted awake. “I thought I was gonna…” He looked around, a cold sweat beaded on his brow. “But…Pachacha…”

What could Karin even say? [color=fff200]”I’m sorry. You must get yourself to safety.”[/color] She said.

The lalafell took a shaky breath. “R-right.” Looking around at the frightened kids still uncorrupted enough to escape aberration, he furrowed his brow, then reached out for his arquebus. “Please. I’ll need it to signal for help. And if any more show up.” Karin nodded solemnly and handed him the weapon back. Despite the losses, their presence made a difference. Karin gave Roxas a grateful look for thinking faster than she could at that moment.

[color=fff200]”The same for the rest of you!”[/color] Karin shouted. She swept a hand in the direction of any civilians or children who had been frozen in shock. 

After Pit crushed enough aberration spirits at Goldlewis’ bidding to find him some Medicine, the veteran got to his feet, a harrowed look upon his face. “Goddamn redshift,” he spat. His eyes fell on a leftover aberration spirit and he made to stomp it, only to give it a second look. “Hol’ up a second.” He squinted at the mote. It looked more red than usual, and within the off-color light wasn’t a human spirit, but the twisted visage of an aberration. “Weren’t these people a minute ago? Is this how spirits normally work…?” With an uneasy grunt he hefted his coffin to continue after the policeman.

Karin didn’t answer, not able to theorize at that moment. She passed by Midna and set a steady hand on her shoulder. [color=fff200]”Come. There is yet more to be done.”[/color] With that she went to follow Goldlewis to the next theater of battle.