[IC] Kingdom Hearts: The Lights of the Multiverse Redux [No Longer Full]

[Arty Fox]

Mac

“Mate.” Mac said simply. “The heck?”

Very wise words from a very confused man. On the plus side though Drake had been kind enough to take care of all the nearby heartless. With that thought Mac carefully eyed a nearby shadow for any Shadows that may be hiding within it. The harder Mac thought about it the less certain he became that Drake had actually taken care of all the Heartless.

He was certain that a few had gotten away, but they didn’t seem to be coming after him…

“How did my life end up like this?”

Mac continued to grumble and gripe about his terrible life choices, of which there were many, whilst jogging through the towns empty streets and cobble roads. Mac quickly became unnerved at how quite it was and the absence of any Heartless only worked to unsettle him even more. A discarded toy on the street. A car with its doors left open. Chairs and tables of a little café overturned in panic.

Mac had the sneaking suspicion that there was something was happening close by, something very important that maybe he shouldn’t be missing out on.

Cheese

Upon a roof top Cheese knelt whilst surveying the scene playing out before her. She could tell that Drake and the others were very powerful, their magic almost crashing over the area in waves she could almost see if she concentrated hard enough. She grudgingly admitted they would all have made valuable additions to The Goblin Kings guard.

Cheese was itching to fight, itching to get in there and rip apart the Philippa woman limb from limb. A tighten grip on her blade and a deep breath later Cheese reconsidered her options. She had been ordered to make illusions and help out the civilians, and also find the princesses of Heart. Nora was a Princess of Heart and required saving.

With Seth providing a distraction Cheese saw her chance. Wings flapping furiously Cheese dashed across the sky at Philippa with teeth bared and knife held high with a piercing shriek. A small shadow jumped down the brick walls towards the others.

[Letter Bee]

"YOU BASTARD!" Nora shouted at Seth with anger and loathing. "Nate, shoot him!" she said to her husband, who was already aiming his Gauss Gun and firing at Seth, the speedy projectile released would blast off the other Nobody's arm unless he quickly shielded himself or opened a portal.

In the meantime, Philippa, sighting Cheese's blind rush towards her, would swing her rapier not at the fairy, but rather at the air itself, sending out a wave of white energy that would hit the fae fighter, presumably still shrunk into her thumb size, pushing her several feet back while burning her body and wings.

"Cheese!" shouted Tocsax, casting a Curaga at the Faerie Creature (only to find that it was [SPOILER: an illusion]), before saying to Philippa, facing her golden eyes:

"Your power over borders has improved since I last saw you, it seems. Now, can you manifest your Keyblade already? I don't think I want to see you hold back any longer."

"You're not the boss of me, I'm already Half-Leo," Philippa said as she made her rapier disappear anyway...only to replace it with a Keybalde that was as long and thin as it could be while still supporting a couple of 'bittings' close to the end, with a hilt and guard that was much like an actual fencing rapier. She then slashed at the ground before the party facing her, and all of a sudden, Seth's link to the sand binding Nate would be severed; he can no longer control it, freeing Nate!

"Sever Magic," Tocsax would then say, "a technique that severs one's ability to control magical effects remotely - it doesn't work on fireballs or magical projectiles whose magical effects you don't control, unless they're homing fireballs or projectiles, in which case they fly around unguided!" With that, he hoped to give Seth and the others the obvious countermeasure to the spell.

"Oh!" said Philippa, "that is not the only thing I can do anymore." And with that, she drew an imaginary circle in the air, and a white circle made of light appeared around her, Nate, and Nora!

"A Circle of Protection?!" Tocsax shouted, as a certain someone sneaking towards the area of protection would find themselves feeling as though the air had transformed into metal. He would then face the others and say:

"That sort of power makes the air affect supernatural creatures in the same way as their specific weakness does! Werewolves find that the air within the circle is like silver, Vampires like sunlight, and that sort of stuff! Damnit, I should have known Philippa would be able to use her power over borders in such a way!"

"Oh, I have more!" Philippa prepared one last trick; drawing a triangle on the air above the ground, she would conjure up a triangle-shaped box wherever Drake was - it didn't matter whether he had moved or not, he would still be engulfed in a triangle-shaped barrier of Light, Light that was anathema to his Heartless side, aggravating it!

"For someone who's against the 'Tyranny of Light'," said Tocsax, "you seem to use that power a lot."

"Fight fire with fire," Philippa said, "also, I'm not trying to kill Drake's Heartless side, I'm trying to exorcise it from him...so I can then take control of the resulting entity and destroy you all, and there's nothing you can do about it. Oh, and it'll probably kill Mr. Bounty Hunter."

"Don't be overconfident in your power over Borders," Tocsax would say grimly, his aura crackling with Light and Darkness. "My group can still win this."

"I'd like to see them try," Philippa said.

@Double@Arty Fox@SMS@Rex

[Double]

The sand moved as if it had a mind of its own. Nate apparently had the mind to shoot Seth before he was fully trapped. Fortunate for the Nobody, then, that his sand jutted up from his feet and formed a giant hand of sorts to literally catch the man's shot. That was about the last bit of control Seth had over his sand, though. Philippa, the enemy Nobody, used some kind severing technique to cut Seth off from the sand, and so all of it that he conjured fell harmlessly to the ground also releasing Nate in the process.

"Welp, that can't be good..." Seth said, silently chuckling to himself. The other Nobody then proceeded to encase herself and her allies in protective circles of Light, "...also not good." he quipped, thankfully unaffected by the metallic air. Fortunately for him, much of Philippa's countermeasures seemed to focus on Cheese and Drake more than anyone else. That left the Nobody himself relatively free to continue the assault on his own terms. And thankfully, he may have had just the trick up his sleeve.

"Uncontrolled projectiles, eh?" Seth mused, remembering Toxsac's advice, "Okay then... is this uncontrolled enough for ya?" at those words he performed a short hop and literally drop-kicked the ground below him. This kicked up a surprisingly massive amount of sand that proceeded fly out in the general directions of Nate, Nora, and Philippa in the shape of spiky projectiles. Of course, the protective circles would likely blunt much of the potential damage, but it would probably make one hell of a distraction. A distraction the Nobody could make good use of.

"Here we go." he mused again, his playful grin returning to his face as opposed to the dead serious look he sported earlier. He seemed to hop into the ground and vanish, having in fact opened up a quick Corridor at his feet and used it as a means to temporarily disappear from enemy sight. Next thing everyone knew, a Corridor quickly opened right over Philippa's head, dropping a hooded Seth from the air above. He'd already used the time to enter a drop-kick position, not to mention used his brief time within the Corridor to fall enough distance that he generated a considerable amount of momentum.

Those circles of Philippa's could protect them from magic, but how well would it do against a literal boot to the head coming down at a high speed velocity?

[Arty Fox]

Cheese

The illusion dissipated upon impact from Philippas attack, it was useless distraction but one that had given Cheese the chance to get herself closer to the others.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Cheese appeared beside Tocsax.

Cheese dashed over towards the barrier of light containing Drake. He was a heavy hitter filled to the brim with magic, and a sure fire way to save the Princess. Normally to undo a protection spell one would need to gather various materials such as salt, ashes and a candle but generally such spells were the same as anything else: hit it hard enough and it’ll break.

Just as she got to the barrier Cheese saw a child duck into one of the buildings of the square, the door slamming shut once they were through, and in the windows scared faces peered at the battle. Cheese swore loudly and instead headed over to the building. She had to protect the civilians. The door was again torn open as she approached filled with faces and hands of the people beckoning her in.

Once she was in Cheese was plunged into semi-darkness and the people babbled in French at her checking her over for injuries, asking questions or simply just shouting at each other to shut up.

“No, no, no, no stop, get off, just, stop it, listen to me.” She brushed off their hands trying to get them to listen. Eventually she unfurled her wings and the hallway was dimly lit by ethereal glow of them. There was a stunned hush.

“Elle est un demon!” A shivering voice from the back. “non, elle est une fée.” Another voice replied.

“Listen, I can get you out.” The sounds of the battle drifted in through the walls, the people closest to the window repressed a gasp. “But I can only take two people at a time and you have to be quiet!” Cheese hissed, and hoped very much one of them understood her.

Thankfully it seemed that one of the people did speak English and in hushed tones hurriedly relayed the message. “You do how?” The old lady asked.

To answer her Cheese simply grabbed the two closest people and then concentrated. The three of them shimmered and then disappeared completely which made one man, grasping a metal crucifix around his neck, shriek in terror before he was quickly muffled by several hands.

“Open the door and don’t run.” Cheese ordered and they complied.

Mac

Mac meanwhile had managed to find the edge of the village, a small corner shop, several cafes, a bike shop and the local pub which had a very nice selection of ales and wines. He had not however been able to find the others which, given how small the village seemed to be, was really starting to get on his nerves. Following the sounds of what he presumed to be the battle though taking place somewhere seemed to be taking him towards the central square of the village, at least he presumed it was the central square but as he had never really studied either French or whatever the Swiss language was he had no idea.

Further up the street he saw a small group of people running towards him, maybe three or four, looking very distressed. They were shouting at him as they go closer and making gestures for him to go the other way.

“Guess I’m going the right way then.” He ignored them as they passed and continued on.

“Mac!?” Cheese appeared out of thin air with two other people. They simply ran off after thanking her. “Where the hell have you been? This Philippa cow showed up with another Princess of Heart and is attacking everyone. Look just c’mon I’ll get you there and I’ll explain.”

“Sorry I got lost after fighting some Heartless.” Taking her hand Mac felt something like water rushing over his body and was unsurprised to find himself invisible. “This place is like a maze and I couldn’t find anyone. Why aren’t you fighting?”

“She’s got a protection spell up, I can’t get near her without getting burned.” Cheese snarled and tugged for him to move faster. “She has another protection spell around Drake, he’s one of our heavy hitters so you need to get him out of there while I try and get all the civilians to safety.”

As they rounded the corner into the square Mac felt his blood run cold at the sight of the fight. Encountering such a sight in the Fae realm was one thing but here in what Mac felt to be the Real World…it was another thing entirely. He would have to ask for more training sessions.

“Mac take this.” Cheese took hold of his wrist as she pressed the leather handle of her knife into his hand. “Use it and your Key-blade to brake the protection around Drake before it kills him. I’ll help as soon as I’ve gotten the last few people out.”

And with that she let go. With a numbing dread filling him Mac felt himself become visible again. With Key-Blade in one hand and Cheeses knife in the other he sprinted over to Drake, making sure to keep him between Mac and the Philippa woman in the sky above.

“Okay then mate, let’s try and get you out shall we?” Mac was forced to squint against the barriers blinding light though it was impossible to tell. “Then you can play with that flying cow up there can’t you.”

Mac hacked away at the barriers skin only for Cheeses knife to bounce off helplessly with a joyful ‘ping’. Again and again he tried with the same result. Growling with frustration Mac set the point of the blade against the shield and then smacked it with the base of his blade. The tip sunk into it. He hit it again and it sunk deeper creating patterns of cracks around the knife. Now he was getting somewhere.

[Rex]

@Arty Fox@Letter Bee

Drake winched as he felt the triangle’s power try and pull the Shadow Nexus from him, but no matter how bad the pain got. His sadistic crooked smile stayed on his face. He suddenly punched the triangle and began to laugh.

“How predictable, you pathetic creatures using magic thinking you’re fighting other magic users. You have no idea what you’re dealing with. My powers over the shadows are granted to me thanks to science. I’m a living breathing weapon!” Drake said. The sides of his mouth dripped with saliva as he continued to speak, “You’re just delaying the inevitable. Once I’m free, I’ll enjoy tearing your skin from your bones.” The longer he stayed in this state, the more animalistic he became. It was like this side of him brought out his most sadistic self.

Mac seemed to come and began to attack the triangle. He smacked it with a knife, but it had no effect. He then began to smack it with his Keyblade and it seemed to be working. Drake watched, but would now and again move his gaze to Philippa and his smile seemed to grow. It was like he was a wild animal waiting to be let out for a hunt. His urge to kill over to him as his snake head tendrils began to slam themselves against the sides of the barrier to try and break it.

"A word to the wise. Once this barrier is gone" Drake said to Mac as he looked at Philippa before he looked back to Mac and added, "Run"

[Letter Bee]

The sand projectiles would distract Nate, but Nora would be able to pull Philippa away from her position just before Seth's 'portal-drop-kick' would hit her head. Philippa would then use this opportunity to try and stab the Nobody with her sword, in conjunction with Nate pulling out his knife and doing the same. Nora, meanwhile, would shoot at Mac and Cheese with her Gauss rifle, in order to prevent them from getting Drake out!

Should Drake escape anyway, as well as rush towards her and Philippa, Nora would lift up her right arm, and bright light would shine from it, causing the bounty hunter's Shadow Nexus Tentacles to disintigrate, and his body to feel...warm, almost superheated. The Light she was giving out, it was anathema to his Shadow Nexus/Heartless side, and was destroying it!

@Double@Arty Fox@SMS@Rex

[Double]

The surprise attack failed. Nora managed to predict it and get Philippa out of the way. That was legitimately surprising, since very few people are ever able see such an attack coming. This husband-and-wife team was becoming more of a nuisance than Seth first pegged them for. It wasn't hard to avoid the incoming counterattack. All the Nobody had to do was toss open a Corridor at the ground below him and let his own momentum do the rest of the work. He stayed briefly on the Other Side, using the moment of respite to consider his options.

"The Princess and her gun-toting hubby needs to be taken out of this fight. The Princess's pure heart makes her a difficult target, but the husband...?" an idea formed in his head, one much more sensible and less evil than his first plan was. He didn't think he'd have to bust that out this soon, but that seemed to be only surefire way he could disarm and disable Nate from fighting any further.

"Sorry about breaking your one rule, old man..." Seth muttered to himself, clasping his hands together and letting the knuckles crack, "...but these guys aren't giving me much choice in the matter." before he went on the move again, Seth briefly remembered a time he spent with a certain monk. Well, he was a fallen monk actually, having rebuked his previous faith in light of a betrayal the man once suffered. By the time Seth knew him, he'd already left his world behind, and became the leader of an infamous crew of Space Pirates. Ganma, the man's name was. The memory Seth recalled was one filled with brutal training. Ganma had agreed to share the secret of his martial art technique with the Nobody, but only on the stipulation that he would kill Seth himself if the Nobody proved unable to learn it. Well, needless to say, Seth passed, and learned the basics of the man's technique.

In the present, Seth opened up another Corridor that would take him back to the battle, specifically giving him a position to lunge at Nate from behind. Better leave the gloves on for this. Don't wanna kill the guy. Indeed, Seth normally removed his black gloves in order to give the technique he was about to employ full power, but left them on for this instance so that the brunt of the damage would be blunted in order to spare Nate's life. The Nobody lunged forward, fists raised and - unlike previous physical strikes - had gone into an actual formal martial arts stance. On the other side of the portal, Nate found himself under attack from behind. It didn't matter if he raised his rifle to block the blow, Seth's right fist would punch right through it, snapping it like a twig and reducing the central parts to little more than harmless scrap metal. Without stopping his charge, Seth launched his left fist at Nate in a powerful uppercut. Like the rifle, Nate's armor wouldn't be able to stop the attack, instead the Nobody's fist left a gaping hole in the armor where it impacted, and the rest of the armor became cracked or reduced to dust in other places. The impact of the uppercut was enough to launch Nate up for a few feet before he came crashing back to the ground in a heap.

"Fist of Destruction..." Seth said softly, deciding to clue the others in on what he just did, "...Double Impact." he then chuckled, regaining his usual playful composure, "Picked it up from a... friend, a long time ago." The name of the martial art would not likely be familiar to anyone, except perhaps for Mai. The "friend" Seth learned it from never talked much about his home world, but there possibly existed a similar version of this martial art on her Earth, perhaps where the fallen monk Ganma originally learned the technique from.

"Your husband will probably be catching Z's for a while." Seth said to Nora, almost reassuring her that Nate was indeed alive and suffered no permanent damage, "Good thing I left my gloves on... or he might not have been so fortunate." at this, he actually removed the gloves, so that any further attack made by the Fist of Destruction would come at full power and with nothing held back. This was a threat directed entirely at Philippa, to make sure she had a good grasp of who her Nobody opponent was.

[Ryteb Pymeroce]

Ryteb's bubble would, by some miracle, enter the dimensional bubble protecting Alternate Mysterious Tower, a square-bottomed high rectangle that was built before a shallow sea, the shallow sea whose shores Ryteb's bubble would wash up on. From said shore, a path of yellow bricks appeared, leading to the doors of the tower, where a man in with a white beard and grey-black hair, wearing a richly decorated robe of blue and gold and a ceremonial headdress decipting an 18-year old boy with silver hair, waited. Once Ryteb reached the man, who, according to his magical senses, would be a wizard just as powerful, if not more so, than his former master, Odin, the man would say:

"It's rare I get visitors to my tower unannounced. But I'd recognize Odin's magic anywhere; what happened to him?"

Ryteb was taken aback at this. "You knew my master? Who are you, old man?"

"Yes, I did; I know most wizards of his calibre. Either way, my name is Alexios Apokaukos, and I think you need something to eat," Alexios would then open the doors of his tower, where inside, magical brooms with arms growing out of their shafts were already serving tuna sandwhiches and milk tea.

In the shock and adrenaline, Ryteb had not noticed his stomach growling like the guardian of Hades. He walked up to the table, and began to bite into a sandwich

Should Ryteb begin eating, Alexios would then ask again:

"So, what did happen to Odin?"

Ryteb gulped down his mouthful, a few tears in his eyes. "He's gone. Terra Atum itself is gone, taken by the darkness... and by traitors."

Apokaukos' eyes glinted in rage, rage not directed at Ryteb, before he continued:

"Elaborate. Last message Odin sent me was that he had taken two apprentices, Ryteb and...Restam? I presume you must be Ryteb. Now, again, tell me everything."

"His name was Retsam, and it all comes back to the Heartless." Ryteb began, "When they first appeared on Terra Atum, Odin was intriged by these beings who possessed what seemed like life, yet were not of the elements. We began to study these beings, and the magic of which they are based. That is..." Ryteb paused and rubbed his left arm, "Until the accident. It was only by Odin's intervention that I am alive today. After that he stopped the experiments, and banned us from interacting with the darkness. I obeyed... and I thought that Retsam did as well."

A sigh.

"That old man...one of the first warnings I give to Magi of his caliber is to never, ever meddle with the Darkness or the Light, and by that, to not try to aborb them into your very natures." He would then look at Ryteb, saying:

"Anyway...I'm presuming you want revenge, as well as to save more people from what happened at Terra Atum. There is a way you can do that, but we'll have to do something about that dark arm of yours'."

The stare continued.

"We can either use a gigantic infusion of Light - the Cornerstone in Renovation or a Princess of Heart can do - or, and this is the harder part, you can learn to live with the Darkness, use willpower, self-restraint, and acceptance that Darkness is a natural part of the world to walk the Path of Dawn, which would then lead to another realization: That you can consume Darkness and turn it into Light. What would you prefer?"

Ryteb looked at his hand, then back towards the wizard. And he realized what choice he had to make. "Well, I can't really see myself getting a princess, I mean, I haven't talked to a girl since... I don't remember." he said, cracking a grin, "But I also can't accept the darkness inside me. After what I saw... I don't think I'll ever be able to reconcile. I'm going to find my own way of dealing with it, without the aid of the Light or the Dark. After all, it's my path to walk."

"Then, I will tell you what you need to do, so that you can go with my blessing," said Apokaukos. He would then tell Ryteb the story of Ascot, the X-Blade, and the Multiverse, as well as about how the quest was to bring him back using the Princesses of Heart, seven women with Hearts of Pure Light. Once he was finished, he would then continue:

"Also, if The Team wins, your world can be restored; same for your master."

"So, what you're saying is, we have to find not one, but seven princesses of pure hearts, bathe this guy Ascot in some bright light, and then the multiverse get's fixed. Sounds simple enough, but what's the catch?"

"You're going to be hunted by the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness, which in turn are made up of Leo, Leo's Nobody, Leo's Heartless, Leo's Younger Self, and various people possessed by Leo, all of which have Keyblades. The reason they're not piling up on you immidiately? Well, because they're not a full thirteen; they want to possess a really powerful Keyblader to fill up their numbers, and they're waiting for the perfect opportunity to get that," Apokaukos explained.

Ryteb summoned his own keyblade as Apokaukos said that. "Well, it's a good thing that I'm just a small-fry keyblade wielder then. I'd hate to be someone really impressive."

A chuckle at that.

"So," said the wizard, "do you want to be teleported to The Team's position right away, or do you want some rest?"

"Let's dive right in at the deep end." Ryteb smiled, "I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"

"Very well then," said Apokaukos, as he teleported Ryteb to where Seth and the others were fighting!

[Arty Fox]

Chease

Cheese was at the time still invisible, but the fact that Philippa had managed to get a few shots far too close for comfort made her change
her current approach to evacuating the citizens. Casting a quick glance over at Mac, who had leapt to safety.

“We can’t go out there.” Cheese slammed the door shut behind her. “How many are left?”

Dashing into the darkened living room Cheese counted four citizen’s left standing away from the curtained windows.

“What about a garden?” Cheese asked.

Cheese then repeated hurriedly a few times before one of the citizens nodded understanding. Taking her by the arm the young boy lead Cheese and the other three citizens through the small kitchen and out into the garden that was bordered by neat brown wooden fencing on either side and a tall hedge at the bottom.

“il y a une clôture métallique!” The boy pulled Cheese back from the hedge. Even in another language Cheese recognised the word. Parting a few of the branches revealed the back of another house through a chain-link fence. “All up” the boy pointed to the top of the hedge. It was far too high to jump or even climb.

Cheese Grabbed the child under his armpits and the pair became invisible. “Stay quiet.” She ordered and flew him over the hedge. After repeating this with the other citizens Cheese hopped back over the hedge one last time and into the house.

Mac

Mac swore several times behind the stone bench whilst it was being chipped away by Nora’s attacks. There was then a pause in the rain of bullets and Mac tentatively poked his head around. He had left Cheeses knife embedded in the barrier around Drake where it hung in the middle of the spider web of cracks that had only grown larger under the barrage of stray bullets. At present though it looked like Seth had managed take out one of the terrible trio leaving just Nora and Philippa to deal with.

Mac took the chance to shout at Drake. “Just hit it you, stupid ba” Another wave of bullets forced him back.

“Mac.” Cheese appeared beside him looking drained and breathing heavily. “Where’s my knife?”

Mac simply pointed in the vague direction of where he had left it which earned him a very annoyed look. Without a word more Cheese emptied out of her pockets a candle, a bar of soap, a half used cigarette, a salt shaker and a small plastic container.

“The heck are you planning?”

“A Dispelling spell. It’ll take down any barriers and protection spells nearby, if I do it right anyway.” Cheese explained and held the cigarette up to his face. “I need the ashes from this. Smoke it.”

Mac just stared down at the cigarette. “Cheese I’m trying to quit; I don’t even have my lighter on m-”

Before he could finish another person then appeared beside them and while to Mac they just looked like some strange teenager, Cheese immediately recognised the magic brewing inside them.

“Light these.” She ordered with the candle and cigarette held out.

[Ryteb Pymeroce]

Ryteb was resisting the urge to throw up. What was the old saying, don't swim nor teleport less than half an hour after eating. For the first minute he didn't even pay attention to his surrounding, being brought back into focus when this strange woman started shoving things in his face. A candle and a cigarette.

"No thank you ma'am, I'm not allowed to smoke." Ryteb said, before his brain finally shifted back into gear, "Wait, really? You are asking me, a mage of considerable power and wisdom, to preform the service of a matchstick?"

The youth raised his hand, and flames of many colours appeared around him. His eyes glowed with an aura of mischief to them. "What is your next wish milady? You know you only get three right?"

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

((Collab between Vault and Letter Bee))

V2 would find himself in the central square of a French - Swiss village, where two groups, one led by an sadistic-looking woman with a Keyblade, the other presumably led by an 18-year old with black eyes and messy black hair, were facing each other, with the sadistic-looking woman, whose short-cropped, but neat, black hair and fierce blue eyes shouted:

"Damn you, Apokaukos and Shahrukh! You think to swarm me with numbers? Fine, then, I'll bring in some minions of my own!" Opening a Corridor of Darkness, she shouted:

"Baron Carlstein, I need you!" And with that, a fat man clad in a silk tuxedo, with brown hair and bushy eyebrows, carring a golden Keyblade shaped like an aristocrat's cane but with biteings, walked through, his beardless face in a frown.

"Should have known you cannot do it alone, Philippa." He would then turn towards v2:

"My name is Baron Engelhart von Carlstein, one of the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness. I have power over Munny just as Philippa has powers over Borders. And so," he would continue, as a shining ring made up of a mass of gold coins appeared around him, "I have to ask, is there some way I can buy you off?"

"Understood. You are my enemies." v2 said, robotic and emotionless as he snapped into a fighting stance so quickly you'd think he was a statue. This was somewhat exiting. Normally he would not be able to move nearly that fast. Moving that quickly, that precisely, was far too robotic to do in from of the adoring public. He did not have the opportunity to make full use of his body very often. "Thank you for the clarification. Identifying friend from foe in this situation would have proven otherwise problematic."

In particular, across the battlefield, he was registering the signature of something like a heartless. In the absence of clarification he would have gone right for that. That was not taking into account the not-quite-human signatures he was getting from here. This was going to prove difficult even with two apparent enemies right in front of him.

The antennea on his shoulders popped out, channeling into the finger he pointed at the fat man. "LIGHTHEART JAB!" He screamed, the electricity flying off in an arc toward him. Inwardly, he frowned. He disliked the Attack Name Protocol when it wasn't necessary.

"Reflaza!" shouted Baron Carlstein at the same time v2 cried out his attack. A green triangular barrier would surround the Seeker of Darkness, and cause the lightning to bounce off it and back to the robot!

"Ha!" spoke the baron, "you forget, my elemental concept might be relatively weak, but I am still a Keyblade Wielder!"

The lightning struck the robot, but didn't seem to cause him any distrss. The lighning split and was absorbed back into the antennea, which retracted back into his body. "I did not comment." He said, steaking forward under rocket power. He held out his hand, his blade snapping into pace in the strange way it always did, and bringing it down onto the fat man.

Only for Baron Carlstein to block the blow with his Keyblade-cane, before summoning a sheet of dollar bills to envelop v2!

While v2 was fighting, the Baron would then take out a Summon Charm and shout out:

"Summon, Owl of Athens!"

An ordinary-looking owl would then appear beside Baron Carlstein, then say, with the voice of an old man:

"What do you wish?"

"Tell me what this robot boy wants, and I'll give you enough money for 1000 burnt offerings!" the Baron replied as he conjured up clones of himself made up of Munny to further bother v2, buying time for himself.

The owl began whispering into Baron Carlstein's ears...

[SMS]

"Over here! Quick!"

Mai's orders towards the civilians were short, but efficient. She was able to guide a good amount of civilians out of the village for their safety from the Heartless. The Large Bodies and Red Nocturnes proved to be a nuisance for her, as this was her first time encountering such enemy types. Even at a glance, she had sustained some injuries from said Heartless, but nonetheless kept her poise and acted as if she was unharmed to keep the civilians calm and under control, something she often did back in her home world.

Once the coast was clear, one of the last men in the crowd to join called out to her and began pointing towards central square. From what she understood, apparently there was something really big happening there.

"Oh crap!" The girl got too... comfortable in her situation, as it was something she was very used to doing a lot. Just as she was about to rush out, a sting in her right ankle momentarily paralyzed her as she regained her composure. "This is gonna be a nuisance. I'll need to be careful." It was an injury she sustained from a Large Body several minutes beforehand. It had blindsided her and caused her to land on her feet awkwardly and forcefully as she recovered from the attack.

"Did something bigger appear?" Was the first question that popped into her head. The sounds of a big battle in the square were echoing through the now empty streets, even as a few Heartless did pop up here and there, of which Mai quickly dispatched.

Once she arrived at the edges of the square, she took a moment to assess the situation. "Who the heck are all of these new guys?!" It didn't feel like she was gone for too long, but now there seemed to have been at least five more non-Heartless people she didn't recognize present and fighting. She couldn't tell friend or foe at first, but when she saw familiar faces on one side, it was clear to her that the others left weren't friendlies.

"What is going on here?" One of her supposed friendlies was getting ganged up on by figures that looked like the fat person in the farther back. "Is he behind this?" She poised herself for an offense, aiming her Keyblade at the big guy before closing her eyes to focus.

"One silent step." In a flash, the girl was just a few feet away from the fat person. "Two steps infinite." Mai pulled back her Keyblade as far as she could, "Three steps, a blade absolute!," before thrusting it forward in a piercing motion towards him. "Three stage thrust!" This move was one of her family's deadliest sword techniques. In theory, it is comprised of three thrusts that "occur and exist at the same time and place". Such a technique would normally not be blockable, and be very powerful. However, with Mai's very grounded logic and mindset, she isn't able to properly execute the technique, and instead in her state, it is just three very powerful thrusts that occur one after another.

That was the idea at least. "This is bad." She put too much pressure on her right ankle during her movement, and in her second of pain, caused her attacks to slow down and give her target some time to retaliate or block should he have noticed her arrival despite his size.

[Rex]

@Arty Fox@Double@Letter Bee
The rain of bullets hit the barrier and the cracks spread around the triangle. The snake head tendrils slammed themselves into the sides of the barrier. Drakes blood lust grew as he saw the cracks form all around the barrier the snake head tendrils spun around his body and filled the inside of the barrier in darkness. When there was a break from the rain of bullets the barrier finally broke and the fragments of the barrier fell to the ground. The tendrils stopped spinning and the snake heads looked around. Drake's blood lust had overflowed and took over him as his pulps were small and twitching as he saw everyone as a potential object to quell his lust for blood. While in the barrier he had bitten down on his bottom lip and now a small trickle of blood dripped from the cut.

Drake lifted his hands to the air and screamed, “The killing floor is open!” snake head tendrils shot out of his shadow on the ground. They didn’t just go after Nora and Nate, but everyone around him. The Shadow Nexus was screaming to him to make something bleed and he didn’t care if it was friend or foe. He wanted to see something killed, Something bleed, and torn apart.

A group of shadow heartless appeared to try and stop the tendrils. The tendrils attacked and tore into the heartless. One of the snake head tendrils ripped off one of the hearltess’s arms before going in for the kill. The tendrils ripped and tore violently through the heartless. Even if they were made of darkness. They didn’t deserve such brutal attacks.

Four Snake head tendrils combined into one massive tendril and headed towards Nora. Something in Drakes mind screamed to kill her. It screamed to make her bleed, make her suffer, make her beg for death.

[Letter Bee]

"He'd better be all right, or you will -" Nora said, her eyebrows furrowed in anger while her lips were pursed. Her attention then turned to Drake, who was now attacking her with an extra-large tentacle of Capital-D Darkness.

"Oh, no, you don't!" she said as her entire body glowed with bright Light, disintegrating the front and middle parts of the gigantic tentacle, and the Bounty Hunter's gaze would recoil from the flash, just as Philippa said:

"Good going, Nora! But don't destroy this fool yet; let him kill his friends!" The woman complied by not increasing the flow of light, radiating just enough to keep herself and her group safe, but not enough to keep the tentacles from launching themselves at Mac, Cheese, Ryteb, and Seth.

In the meantime, Baron Carlstein would block Mai's weakened thrusts with his sword-cane, before turning back to v2:

"You know, Master Leo can give you a Heart. And since I am one of the thirteen - currently twelve - incarnations of Master Leo, that means that I can give you a Heart, even though my Element doesn't cover that aspect. And don't worry, I don't lie, not when honesty serves better."

Tocsax, meanwhile, would be casting a Curaga at Mai, healing her of her wounds, before casting Haste, Protect, and Shell.

Philippa, meanwhile, would draw her sword...but then recieve a mental call, one that would cause her to grab her head in shock.

"Carlstein!" she would say, "give up trying to hire the boy and let's go! Master Leo has business with us..."

"What a shame," said Carlstein, before he opened portals that pulled in himself, Nate, Nora, and Philippa back to places unknown. This would leave the group 'free' to deal with Drake's Heartless side, which, free from Nora's light, would be strengthened, about to go on a rampage!

"I usually hold back...but it seems I have to cut loose now," Tocsax said as he then transformed his Keyblade an Ultima Cannon, before opening several portals around Drake in order to absorb any excess energy and thus prevent collateral damage. He would then fire the Ultima Cannon at the Bounty Hunter, launching a first, then a second, sphere of energy at him, hoping against hope that the man had enough stamina not to die from the impact.

@Double@Arty Fox@SMS@Rex@Ryteb Pymeroce@Gentlemanvaultboy

[Double]

They all just... fled. Well, there was a lot more to it than just that, but still. Drake got free of his imprisonment, and then proceeded to attack anything and everything that moved. Mac, Cheese, Mai and a newcomer made it into the scene just before this, which of course only gave Drake's snakes more people to attack. Why did these things always have to get complicated? Whatever happened to the good old days when battles ended once the enemy was gone? Seth chuckled to himself, but sounded noticeably exasperated. This was becoming a very troublesome job, very quickly.

"What? No gratitude for sparing the husband?" this little quip was all Seth had to say when Nora chose not to protect any of the people who weren't already on her side. Well, fine, if she was going to be that way then perhaps Seth wouldn't bother showing any mercy next time around? Oh, who was he fooling? Of course he would. If he went around killing without mercy, the others would get angry with him. Sometimes he hated being one of the good guys. This was one of those times.

Drake's shadow attacks didn't seem to be all that bothered about Seth. Well, he was supposed to be part-Heartless, right? Guess that was true after all, the snakes were probably more interested in people with Hearts. Even so, a stray tendril or two did make their way toward Seth's general direction, and he dealt with them the only way one should deal with snakes. He literally stomped them to death, them dissipating from the impacts, "This... is going to become annoying later isn't it?" the Nobody muttered, already sensing this little distraction to be the first of many times that Drake's... nature caused him to become a liability. He might moved to put Drake down, it wouldn't have been hard, all he had to do was portal behind him and deliver a knockout blow to the back of his head or something. End of problem. Seth stopped, though, when Tocsax decided to try a more... flashy solution.

Seth shrugged at the display, "Eh, too flashy for my taste." he said with a grin followed by his trademark chuckle. He'd put his black gloves back on by this point, and was now stuffing those hands into his pockets as per usual. Battle seemed over for now... Drake notwithstanding.

[Ryteb Pymeroce]

Ryteb's arm twitched slightly at the sudden influx of dark magic, barely managing to dodge one of the snake heads attacking him. He saw that it seemed to be attacking everyone in the immediate area, which definitely included him. The young mage tried to remember back to Odin's lessons on dealing with creatures similar to this, only to be reminded that at that time he was concentrating on a prank. Well, screw it the thing was attacking, the obvious solution was to attack it back. For this, he summoned his Keyblade. He wasn't sure why, but when he held the blade his magic felt more powerful, like he had a deeper connection to the elements of the world.

"You want something to chew on you overgrown worm?" Ryteb yelled, "How about an ice cream? Blizzara!"

Out of his keyblade came an orb of ice, which flew towards the nearest snake heads. Upon contact with the tendril, it exploded in a storm of cold air, freezing them in place. That's... four down, and a hundred-odd more to go.

"Anyone got any snake repellant?" Ryteb asked, cracking a nervous grin.

[Arty Fox]

Mac and Cheese

“For crying out loud!” Cheese yelled.

She had literally just gotten all the things she needed to destroy Philippa’s shield and the gosh darn cow decided to run. All that effort, wasted. She and Mac peered carefully over the top of the bench.

“Guess we need another plan.” Mac puffed on the cigarette.

“I don’t need the ashes any more Mac, you can stop smoking” Cheese despised the smell of cigarettes.

“I’ve had a relapse.”

Cheese had seen the enemy withdraw with a painful stab of magic in her gut; she had been tasked to find and help the Princess of heart and Cheese had let her go! But currently the most urgent matter was keeping Mac safe. The others were already doing their part to combat Drake, the designated heavy hitter being more of a double edged blade, unleashing their own attacks to stave off the tendrils and force them back. Cheese could feel waves of magic crashing around them all sending chills up and down her spine. The strange thing Tocsax wielded drew her attention especially looking some strange combination of technology and magic.

There off to the right Cheese saw knot of tendrils twist and writhe, surging towards them. She shouted for Mac to get down as she tore the Key Blade from his hands, her own knife still sitting beside crazy Drakes feet. Just in time, the tendrils bounced off the blade with a mighty ‘bang’ but they weren’t even given a sliver of a second’s rest before Cheese set upon them with a vicious strike that carved the tendrils apart. Then the Key Blade simply vanished from her grip.

Mac had been watching Cheese fighting against the tendrils with a mixture of fear and awe, and the same could be said to the others as well who wielded powers and skills far beyond his own. However, just as it seemed to him that Cheese could win and pull them all through he felt the weight of the Key Blade back in his hand and saw Cheese being swallowed by the tendrils.

“Drake, what the heck are you doing?” He scrambled up from the ground, beating away at the tendrils snaking towards him as best he could.

With a horrible drop in his stomach Mac felt something wrap around his legs and pull him up into the air. Upside down and being thrown about Mac saw another few tendrils dash towards the new arrival and whilst Mac tried to warn him, in his panicked stated it probably sounded more like a string of garbled words. Was that a robot he saw?

The twisting mass of tendrils holding Cheese crashed back down beside Toxsac and Mai, for moment it looked like it would charge at them too but from the looks of it the snake like tendrils were a bit pre-occupied. Cheese shrieked when she managed to partially tear herself out of the mass, bruises and cuts decorating her. But her features looked twisted and slightly less human; nails looking more talon like than ever before, teeth sinking deep into the flesh of a snake, even her wings tattered and torn looked like shards of glass. Cheese was using every bit of magic she could to hold herself together.

@Ryteb Pymeroce@Double@Letter Bee@Rex@SMS@Gentlemanvaultboy

[Ryteb Pymeroce]

Ryteb dodged back from the tentacles, using Aero to both move himself and push back the tentacles. Were snake monsters common on this world, or was he just unlucky? Seeing that they were coming at him from three sides, he felt like the latter was a more accurate statement. Pointing his keyblade at the ground, he whispered: "Aerora."

The spell sent him fifteen feet up into the air. Wrapping himself in the wind, he turned in midair, and landed on the nearest availible landing spot. Another tendril, though this one was holding a guy upside down in the air. A guy with a strange looking box for a head. Weird. Standing on the tendril, his arm twinged even more than it had before. It seemed like the darkness was calling out to itself. 'Put that on the backburner.' he thought to himself, 'this guy needs help.'

"Hey, how's it hanging?" Ryteb joked, batting away attacking tendrils with his keyblade while trying to stay on the swaying tendril, "I know this might be difficult, but try to brace yourself. Thundera!"

As he spoke the words, he raised his keyblade. A small cloud formed, and rained down lightning in a five foot radius around Ryteb. Like he planned, the shock caused the tendril to release the box man. Unfortunately, it also caused the tendril to buck, and send Ryteb crashing to the ground. Where there were a bunch of snake heads that looked fairly pissed off were waiting for him.

"Uh... nice demon snakes?" He laughed nervously.

[Rex]

The snake tendrils continued their attacks on everyone around them, but stopped when Tocsax brought out his cannon. They quickly left their targets and slithered back towards Drake. They wrapped around him and created the black egg just before the first sphere of energy hit it. The egg quivered but stood strong. A second sphere hit and the egg quivered again but stood strong. However, the third strike caused crakes to form on the egg. More and more spheres hit the egg and more and more cracks formed.

The egg shattered as the next sphere slammed into and as the next sphere rushed towards Drake. His smile grew just as the sphere slammed into his abdomen. It exploded and shot him, into the air before he fell back down and crashed into the ground. Drake lay on the ground for a few minutes before he came to.

He quickly sat up and clutched his ribs as the pain shot through him. The sphere had cracked a few ribs and bruised the muscle wall. On top of that, he was feeling the effects of using his Shadow Nexus side. It felt like tiny needles were coursing through his skin and veins as he winced and kept himself from screaming from the pain. Damn it. I was hoping not to show that side of me. Or at least not this early Drake thought.

Once the pain started to be bearable he slowly got to his feet and brought his watch towards him. The hologram appeared again and he pushed a few images before what looked like a pez dispenser appeared from the clock face. He took it in his right hand and tipped it so a white pill fell from it. He took the pill and swallowed it before he sighed and finally looked towards the rest of the group.

“Welp, better this over and done with,” Drake said to himself

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

It took a moment even after their creator had fled for the monetary facsimiles to collapse in on themselves, sending tinkling, glittery little orblets bouncing out across the battlefield like ping-pong balls. The fat man had been unnaturally capable of defending himself. He walked over and collected one of the scattered pieces of Munny. His abilities were interesting. It was indeterminate exactly how extensive the Baron's control of Muney truly was, but at its fullest extent it was a harrowing thought. v2 hoped these clones and the dollar storm were the extent of it. He dropped the piece back to the ground. He didn't like the idea of being bought and paid for.

Looking around the battlefield he could no longer see the large, semi-heartless signature he had picked up. He did register that one of the strange entities like the fat man was still present, but none seemed to be attacking him. The fight here, at least, was over. However, he was still picking up heartless signatures in the town around him.

"Heartless are still present in the area." He said. He didn't yell or shout it, but he said it stone faced and loudly.