Glimpses of Darkness *rp thread*

[Shinra]

~Sudden tension~

Deadpool's eyes suddenly darted toward the sound of the scream. Riku suddenly dashed off in the direction and Deadpool followed suit afterward. What was that? As he caught up to Riku he saw a young individual. Not my area of expertise He thought. He soon called upon his one of Renn's trigger spells. "Cura!" Deadpool knew he succeeded as Renn came back into control.

Renn Scowled... "Grr just as I just relaxing..." Renn's eyes soon looked at the individual and his expression suddenly turned from disgust to embarassment. "Oh... so that's why you used Cura... oh Hey Riku-sensei... so Deadpool followed you to this young man?"

 

[Endless Warrior Sora]

-Thunderfall-

The screams could be heard all the way in the shack where Cid lived. He had a small house that was formerly used to house the Hollow Bastion Restoration Commitee. Now with the former heroes retired or moved on to pursue other endeavors, the remaining souls in the home were just Lightning and Cid. Lightning raised her head from it's downward position as the sat on the edge of her bed her arms in her lap and her hands clasped with each other. She couldn't take the sounds of the screaming. Lightning stood, and fastened her sheath to her belt loops on her cargo pants. Moving to a nearby table she grabbed her gunblade, the Blazefire Saber, promplty switched it to gun mode and sheathed it. Without hesitation she moved to the door, opening it as the light from the outside world glowed on her petite figure.

"You sure about this?" a raspy voice croaked from within the house. The fifty-five year old Cid Highwind sat at a chair at the table where Lightning had retrieved her blade, his trademark toothpick protruding from his mouth. He hadn't changed much, despite the fact that he now uses a mechanical right leg to walk after losing it during the time of Xehanort's war. The pink haired teenager hadn't turned to the elder, but hadn't left either.

"You know the answer, Cid." The girl responded. The response obviously wasn't favorable to her mentor, who exhaled in worry and frustration. The deep breath was filled with the same amount of tension that flooded the room, much like the light from the open door.

"Fine. Just...be careful. Come back in one piece, ya hear?" Cid knew there was no stopping her. Lightning knew he wouldn't stop her. It was time for her to prove those two years of training weren't for nothing. She smiled at Cid's concern before running out the door. He was a nice man, taking her in when she had no where else to go, and training her to use the gunblade. He had certainly toughened her up. Midgar was a bit away, another section of Radiant Garden that was discovered while Sora was travelling the worlds.

Upon arrival in Midgar, Lightning could see the sounds she heard at Cid's house physicalized. A meeting of the Anti-Keyblade organization known as Hikari was having a rally here, and as much as she hated Keyblades, Lightning wasn't the biggest fan of Hikari either. A Keyblade lied near the podium, puncturing the ground and surrounded by a pillar of light. And from that very pillar, Heartless began flooding. Lightning was no stranger to this phenomena. The Heartless had began attacking people as the crowd scrambled in panic, pushing each other trying to get to safety. That accursed Keyblade was the cause of all this! Lightning's jaw clenched as she spotted a boy fending off the Heartless. However, he was caught off guard and a Heartless aimed to deliver the finishing blow. Not on her watch.

Unsheathing the Blazefire Saber, Lightning ran forward, pushing through the crowd and pulled the trigger on the gunblade, keeping her focu on her target. Three quick bullets flew from the barrel and into the lionlike Heartless sending to the side of the boy in pain, missing it's attempted strike. When she got close enough she leaped through the air, twisting and casting two orbs of Ruin at the Heartless. It seems her training with Merlin had paid off as well. Landing, she flung her arm about as the Blazefire Saber switched to it's blade form and with a spin she slashed horizontally at the Heartless causing it to fade into mist. She was secretly pleased with her victory, feeling like she grew stronger. Rising, she looked to the boy who had been on the ground.

"Get up!," She spat. "Get out of here, before you get hurt."

She didn't know how that boy ended up on the ground, but she couldn't afford a life on her hands. He seemed to have wielded weapons, but nonetheless she didn't want him getting hurt if he had already been blindsided once. No, she would deal with these guys herself. These Heartless were powerful and were growing in number by the minute. She would have to eliminate them before they hurt anyone.

 

[Mistearea]

Jeiss wanted to answer the man that came to help him, he really did. The problem with that though is that he was in too much pain to speak coherently. But luckily another man showed up at a good moment and cast a spell that seemed to be just like his own healing magic, but a bit stronger. Thanks to that the burns on his body heal by a great degree and even gives him plenty of energy to put him back into combat ready form. So when he feels the magic is spent he pushes himself to his feet and dusts off the sand from his body. He coughs lightly as he accidentally inhales ash into his still sensitive lungs, but that quickly passes. Once that's done he looks at the two squarely and bows at the waist.

"T'anks for dat."

He suddenly realizes that his accent is in full-swing and says, "Sorry. I meant 'Thanks for that'. I meant to say something earlier, but the pain was too much. Anyways, the name's Jeiss, and could you tell me how far I am from Manhattan? ...Or am I in a different time again? If that's the case, are you members of The Lost Race? I've heard of them from my friend Brooklyn, but he didn't tell me much. Say, do either of you have any food? I've gone through several battles lately and haven't been able to eat properly. My sister always tells me that I eat too much anyways, but I'm still growing and magic takes a lot of energy to use! Even more so for a human! Too bad I wasn't born as a Child of Oberon. Then I could look as much like a human as I want without having to eat so much to support my magic. But then again, I'm not too big on the power of shapeshifting. Not something that simple rations of bread, cheese and water can help to maintain. That's why my healing spell didn't do as much as it would normally do. I..."

That's when he realizes that he's rambling. He quickly jumps back and bows once more, only this time he falls to a single knee and lowers his head to the point that it rests on his forearm which is resting on his right knee. He quickly apologizes for going on like he did and says that he's simply trying to figure out where he is and if he can find a way back home. He then realizes that since the two can use magic, they are also quite likely to be armed as well. Because of that thought he reaches into the pouch on his leg and pulls out the piece of polished metal. With a push of a button the metal unfolds to form his claymore that he sticks into the ground before him to where he can see his reflection in the surface.

"If you wish to take me prisoner, just know that I won't fight back since I don't know if I can call you a friend or foe. If you wish to do this, I offer my sword for safe-keeping."

 

[Story Keeper]

~- Everything's About to Change? -~

Kari watched the boy disappear, giving chase to another member of the anti-keyblade group. Scowling softly, she turned around to scan the crowd, searching for a familiar face. Spotting Cloud, she took a step back into the shadows, trying to hide from the blond; knowing that nothing good would come of an encounter with him. Watching as he clutched his heart, she frowned slightly as his eyes darted around, searching for something that no one else could see. It's probably Sephiroth, that man's known for doing odd things, she thought, continuing to watch as Cloud brushed it off and returned to scanning the crowd, slightly more pale than he should be. Watching as her leader stepped up to the microphone, she glanced around and barely nodded her head, signaling to the others that it was time to begin the rally.

“My people, we are gathered here today...”

A keyblade dropped down cutting the speech short, the woman flexed her fingers, contemplating calling her own weapon at the sight of it. Only for the desire to be eclipsed by a feeling of dread, looking around once more, Kari tried to figure out how to get her leader's attention to tip him off. Turns out it wasn't necessary, for soon the Heartless had descended upon them, leaping away as one took a swipe at her; Kari scowled at the lion-like creature and fought back her desire to call her keyblade. "Where the keyblade appears, trouble follows..." She muttered under her breath, cartwheeling away from the creature.

Jumping back to her feet as she called her pistols to her, Kari trained her sights on the lion-like Heartless and pulled both triggers. Spinning out of the away as another lunged at her, she dismissed one pistol and gathered a hand full of needles, flicking her wrist at the creature, she rolled away and smirked as she saw them make contact, the different poisons mixing together to slow it down. Dodging again, she rolled her shoulders, feeling the familiar itch to use her true strength. "Ifrit, use Hellfire!" She shouted, watching as the creature of fire came to life and set to work razing her enemies with its power.

Hearing a noise behind her, she spun around to see the boy from before falling under attack by a Heartless. Raising her pistols, she aimed and almost fired when a teenager jumped in, rescuing the boy. Hearing a noise to her right, Kari danced out of the way of a Neo Shadow that had been attempting a sneak attack. "Shiva, Diamond Dust." She whispered, leaping away to give the ice nymph more room to work her chilling magic. Feeling something hit her in between her shoulder blades, Kari stumbled forward and fell to her knees, struggling to catch her breath from the surprise attack. Glancing over her shoulder to see what had hit her, Kari felt her heart leap in terror as a heartless got ready to pounce on her; and to make it worse her weapons had been thrown out of her reach when she'd fallen, so she didn't have a means to defend herself under her current circumstances.

~- Ready and Prepared to Fight -~ ((OOC: Lunar has given me permission to borrow Crowley))

Sensing the tension that clung to everyone, Ven slowly started to draw it into himself. Only for his concentration to get broken as Crowley's agitation didn't seem to be going down, it was further enforced when the keyblade master snapped, "And just what are you trying to do, kid?" Glowering at the keyblade master, Ven struggled not to retort that Crowley was only older than him by a year; heck, that technically if anyone was a "kid" it was him and not Ven! Shaking his head, Ven turned his attention to his family, determined not to let the snarky (if a jerkass) brunette bother him. Remaining quiet, Ven listened as everyone exchanged words, smirking ever so slightly as the true "kid" in the group started scolding Crowley.

Looking at Aqua and Vesper, he saw the calmer expressions in their eyes and nodded in reluctance to what they were saying. He couldn't strangle Crowley, no matter how bad he wanted to. Eyes snapping toward Sora, he stared at the girl that was now in the hero's lap. Staring at the girl, he remained silent as Crowley shouted, tactlessly, “Who the hell are you?”

Scowling at the outburst, Ven nearly rebuked Crowley for it when the girl started pleading for Sora to follow her to Midgar. A skeptical look coming to his eyes, he glanced at Aries to see the other blond shared his skepticism, turning his attention to Aqua and Vesper, it wasn't a surprise to see the doubt that flickered through theirs. Focusing back on Sora as he said, “Aqua. Take command. Get everyone to Midgar as fast as possible.”

“You CANNOT be serious...”

Rolling his eyes at Crowley's snappy comment, Ven almost reprimanded him (again) when Sora snapped at him in response. Remaining quiet for several minutes, Ven poked and prodded the girl's emotions to try and learn if she was lying. Relaxing slightly when he detected nothing but urgency and fear, he answered calmly, "I don't think she's a liar, if anything she seems afraid and honest." Watching as the duo stepped through the portal, Ven tried to ignore Crowley's outburst, even if he could understand it.

Glancing at Aqua again, he asked, "May I follow after them? If it is a lie, which I don't think it is, Sora might need some help while everyone else is getting ready." He wasn't surprised at her hesitation, and for a moment he thought he wouldn't be allowed to go, but after several moments, Aqua nodded and waved Ven through the portal. "Just..."

Waving the natural response off, he said, "I know, take someone else as backup for the backup!" Looking at some of the ones that just should up, he motioned for them to follow before he sprinted through the portal...

And immediately landed in trouble.

Rolling out of the way of a Heartless, he summoned Lost Memory and took a swing at the wolflike creature. Springing back to his feet, Ven's eyes scanned the crowd, horrified at the chaos that had erupted around them. Dodging another Heartless, he snapped his wrist out and watched as a group of the dark creatures were engulfed in his tornado spell. This is not going to help our case very much, instead it may just help the bad guys! he groaned inwardly, jumping away from another Heartless, Ven landed a few feet from it and looked around; groaning mentally as he saw that he'd gotten surrounded by the creatures.

"Just my luck," he mumbled under his breath, before leaping at the first one and getting ready for a fight.

~- This War We're Fighting -~

"Cura!"

"Grr just as I just relaxing... Oh... so that's why you used Cura... oh Hey Riku-sensei... so Deadpool followed you to this young man?"

Riku remained quiet at the comments, glancing at the stranger, the healing spell had definitely reversed enough of the damage that he should be okay. Riku wasn't sure if it healed everything, but it was definitely good enough. Nodding his head, he said calmly, "Yeah, he did follow me Renn. He also told me about you swimming from the main island here, nice job." Glancing back at the stranger, Riku felt his mind start drifting away from the matter at hand.

You have to focus, Riku.

Flinching mentally, Riku brushed the words away, he knew he had to focus! Focusing back on the stranger as he bowed and said, "T'anks for dat." It was a few seconds later that the man corrected himself and started talking, which turned into a mild rant. Smirking during his questions, Riku cocked his head to the side in curiosity, amusement shining in his eyes as a smile spread across his face; only for it to disappear as the stranger jumped back, bowed again (he may as well have been kneeling) and called his weapon.

Staring at the person cautiously, Riku remained silent as he offered, "If you wish to take me prisoner, just know that I won't fight back since I don't know if I can call you a friend or foe. If you wish to do this, I offer my sword for safe-keeping."

Raising his hands in a peaceful manner, he said, "Whoa, whoa, easy there! We're not going to hurt you, and I'm sorry to inform you, but you're not in the past and you're probably far away from your home. Actually, judging by your scent, please don't ask about that, you're on an entirely different world from where you started from. This is the Destiny Islands, and I'm Riku, that's Renn." Nodding to the other man, he looked back at the other person and continued peacefully, "It's nice to meet you Jeiss."

Riku, look I know it's important what you're doing, but we've got a tiny problem over here...

And that is...?

Midgar's under attack by Heartless and Ven and Sora have run off ahead with a strange girl.

Growling softly, Riku shook his head and looked at the two. "I'm sorry, I wish we had the chance for casual conversation, but we need to get moving. Can you walk? If so, that's great, if not one of us could help you. If you have any questions, you can ask them along the way and we'll try to answer them as best as we can."

~- Don't Know Who You Think I Am -~

Racing through the streets, dodging and attacking heartless as she made her way toward the center of the chaos. Eyes blazing in cold fury, Rinoa fell to her knees, avoiding the Heartless that took a flying leap at her head. Unsheathing her gunblade, she growled and slashed at the underbelly as it soared overhead before she leapt back to her feet. Without a second thought, she snapped her hand out and watched the high level ice spell slam into her opponent's chest; freezing them and shattering into a million pieces.

Growling at the creatures, Rinoa channeled her magic and sent a pulse of magic through the ground; causing it to shiver in protest. Watching blankly as the ground tore open and devoured her opponents, she shrugged before whipping back in the direction she'd been heading and taking off running once more. Weaving between the crowd of people fleeing the rally, Rinoa found herself searching for one person in particular. Not spotting him, she frowned and stopped in the center of the press of bodies, ignoring the shoves and fearful cries from all around her.

What to do, what to do? she mused quickly, before slapping herself upside the head and tapping into her deeper magic reserves. Feeling the white wings unfurl from her back, Rinoa jumped into the sky and flew toward the center of the rally, reaching it in no time. Looking down at a group of Heartless, she easily spotted Squall and Yuffie, the two backed up against a wall. Anger flaring in her chest, she pointed her hands downward and shouted, "Look out!" Watching as the two looked up, she saw their eyes widen before they did a "leap frog" over their adversaries, getting out of the way just in time for the barrage of meteorites to bombard the dark creatures.

Dropping down to the ground, Rinoa dusted herself off before tightening her grip on her gunblade and racing off to find someone else who needed help. Catching the briefest glimpse of a friend, Rinoa dove toward the ground and covered her head as a hail of gunfire went sailing past her head. Snarling softly, she scrambled back to her feet and glared at Vincent as he came running up to her. "You should be lucky there's bigger fish to fry, 'cause if not you'd totally be landing on your ass!" She snapped, before racing off to fight off more Heartless, not even bothering to wait around to hear his apology or his warning about "save it for later, they should focus on the Heartless."

After all, she did have bigger fish to fry, especially since they were stupid enough to interrupt her date! Finding Squall, she slipped up behind him and turned so her back was to his. Hearing a soft chuckle from the brunette, Rinoa smiled softly as he said, "So, you take the ones in front of you and to the right, and I'll take the ones in front of me and to the left?"

"Sure, and you owe me a date after this!"

Hearing a chuckle from her boyfriend, she leapt at them and started hacking at the creatures as he answered, "Sure, the one who destroys the most decides on the location!" There was no way she was going to let Squall win, there was a certain area she had in mind, and Rinoa was going to make him take her there, even if it was the last thing she did.

 

[Shinra]

-A new guest-

"Is that so? Nice to meet you Jeiss but we can't waste time on Idle banter at this moment... we have to get going..." Renn said as he turned towards his elder. His mind soon drifted back to his home back in radiant garden as well as Midgar. He knew both sides of the world quite well because he was born and raised there and because Cloud and some of the others had moved back to their original homes.

Xehanort's defeat had restored the world and Renn was happy when it was over but he had lost his parents. Then two individuals tapped him on the shoulder. It was Aerith and Zexion. Then he remembered one girl he looked at staring at him from behind. Kari. In fact the statement Deadpool made was wrong. He mistook Kari's name for that of Sora-sama's beloved, Kairi.

She was a fine young woman and helped him learn thunder magic. back in the days he didn't shift between Personas he could practice without worry. As he grew up he grew strong with the help of Leon and the others. Aerith had given him resolve to never give in, Zexion and Vexen taught him to fight with a calm and logical demeanor while Leon had taught him to how to pressure an opponent in battle.

Eventually his resolve to keep going was what paved his way to the keyblade he now owns. and he was taken under Aqua's wing and that had given him even more resolve but from that resolve also came despair and a light form of insanity which gave rise to his other personas Cloud and Deadpool. He knew he could trust Deadpool but Cloud, not so much because he couldn't control the raging anger and despair that gripped him and as a result of that raw emotion, Cloud had a powerful darkness under his command. His mind wandered to that day... he left everyone hurt, and he's had dreams of it happening again. Only this time it was at Midgar. He had this dream for about a year honing his skill to control his emotions with Riku's help so he could prevent it from happening.

 

[Kingdomkeylight]

"Azure~, Azure~ where did you go Ara~," a voice whined out in the mass chaos of the crowd as a lone figure started pushing people out of the way while looking for this supposed person. Nearing a opening as she called out for her lost companion a woman about in her thirties appeared out of the mist of a fried telephone burning down one of numerous houses. With a pouty look she kept surveying around in her pretty normal civilian look... that was until she saw a surrounded blonde and with enlightened grin yelled out to him as he attacked a heartless. She raised a curious eyebrow as she finally realized that she was currently in a war zone with the heartless easily over taking the current area. If Azure was fighting the heartless.... she guessed the plan was nearing its beginning. With a shrug of her shoulder she took action.
.
"WAIT FOR ME AZURE," Enami's voice sang as she performed a long jump right over the majority of the heartless as she was consumed by a unnatural dark blue aura before landing right behind Ventus with a very large antitank rifle slamming down onto a sneaking neo shadow obliterating it into the black liquid it was formed from. With a light giggle one would expect from a school girl Enami swung the rifle to the left with only one arm holding on to it obliterating two leaping lion heartless. With the swing of her other hand both hands locked intoa perfect gunner position.
.
"Tri Wave Shot," a large clicking noise vibrated off the barrel as three intense laser wave like shots sliced all the Heartless behind Ventus in a blink of a eye. Turning around she rested the gun barrel on Ventus's shoulder.
.
"Metal harpoon shot," Enami chimed as the barrel released low growl. With a pull of the trigger a small harpoon round head shot another lion heartless, and then with a small tilt of aim Enami started to unleash more rounds eliminating the remaining heartless. When Enami was appeased that she had handled the current situation so much that once she reverted back to her simple clothing and her gun was gone she turned around and shoved Ventus between her chest in a loving hug swinging her shoulders around threatening to snap Ventus's neck. The poor Keyblader would quickly discover just because her form was gone.... her insane strength was definitely still their.
.
"Ara~ praise me Azure.... I did good right.... wait," Enami tilted her head as she realized the person in her grasp.... had spikey hair with a small pout she let Ventus out of her death trap allowing the poor man to finally breath. It was then she recognized the keyblade in Ventus's hand. She frowned a bit at the sight of that.
.
"Your not Azure........ AZURE IMMA LOST WHERE DID YOU GO," Enami said walking away from the keyblader. "We cant set plans into motion if I don't know where you are."
/............................................................
.
Right as Rinoa would probable finish off her opponent a wounded, and unconscious Squall would go flying past her landing about a few feet past her as the soft sound of foot steps approached the girl. Behind Rinoa was a young man about maybe twenty five with short blonde hair that waved effortlessness among the winds of chaos his eyes however were hidden behind the rim of his hat as he halted his movement in front of the Valkyrie with a set of cards dancing back and forth between his hands.
.
"Sheesh you ask one question about a keyblade master and everyone goes hostile," the man soothingly sighed as he halted the deck of cards in hi left hand before placing them unto a black card holder on his left side. though his eyes couldn't be seen it was clear he was looking at Rinoa.
.
"He is all right of course it was self defense of course.... all I asked was where I could find the doomed master Aqua."

 

[Hazen Gregory]

Reforge was remembering the Culdesac and how as a child he and his brother Garforge had ended up taking completely separate paths. Light was just a notion and it had always been that way. Over the many years in which Reforge had battled against the darkness, he came to realize that most people only knew what had been told to them. Their experiences didn't show that in fact, the force of light was just a nexus for power and that it could be used by the forces of evil in the same way that one controlling the darkness could be good. Everything was always in the eyes of the beholder, which was why Reforge had returned to this realm in the first place.

Having returned to the realm of light only a short time before. Reforge was well aware of the connections to the realm he had once governed being amiss. If it were not for the powerful seal Reforge created nearly 50 years previously, the specific world itself known as City of Light probably would have already collapsed.

"This is much more boring than I thought it'd be, all these idiots are stuck on an agenda that is ridiculous, I might as well get into the commotion. Reactions are ALWAYS key to what will bring about those whom will either help shape the future or destroy it." Reforge chuckled to himself, the crowd had gotten three times smaller since he'd arrived in its midst and not a single soul had spoken to him or even really noticed he was there. "Figures. As times get better, those of us from the past are forgotten." It could have been blissful ignorance or simply the matter of nobody caring about Reforge in general. There were heartless spawning out of tears in the fabric of the world which had caused quite a bit of panic. Reforge just laughed, projecting a fiery orb from his hand at a group of neo shadows that were running around the stage, leaping into the distance.

As usual for Reforge, his eyes were closed but he saw the entire scene nonetheless. Physical sight could be so hampering on the mind when there was so much more to be witnessed all around. Among the crowd of people either battling against what would likely be only the beginning of another threat to the worlds, there were already plenty of things Reforge could screw around with for fun. He started by keeping a low profile as he had been doing previously, only instead of doing nothing, his right hand began to slowly move in a circular motion. From within Reforge's being his void of magic began to be utilized, producing frozen rocks above the stage. In actuality they were comets, just of a size much smaller than the average individual might think they ought to be...

These began to cluster, some of the miniature comets grew larger while others merely started to fall and crash into the stage.

 

[Endless Warrior Sora]

-Heroes Old and New-

Just as quickly as she appeared onto the scene, Lightning noticed the ripple effect left in the boy's wake of the response to Heartless. Dodging the paw of a Heartless by rolling under it, she converted her blade to gun during her roll before straightening back up and firing three more bullets into the Leo Heartless. It was almost impossible not to notice the influx of faces.

The heroes of legend. They had all appeared on the stage-turned-battlefield to quell the Heartless appearance that followed the appearance of the accursed Keyblade. Lightning found it odd, with THIS many heroes, shouldn't the Heartless be eliminated already? If not, at least their ranks thinned? Something was wrong, either they were weaker or the Heartless were stronger. However,it was difficult for her to refrain from getting starstruck. Some of her idols were on the battlefield, fighting alongside her. Cid had told her many stories about these brave warriors, and the pink haired girl smirked at the thought of being able to assist.

She noticed someone with red hair being attacked from behind, throwing her off balance and sending her weapons soaring from her hands.

"Do I have to save everyone today?" The teenager muttered as she jumped through the air to get a clearer view of the red haired woman she intended to rescue. She was met midair by a group of Heartless, who most likely saw the sudden movement and saw to put an end to it. She calculated four Heartless; a staple to her training: a duo of both a Leo and a Neoshadow respectively. Sending a quick Ruin spell to the closest Leo, it exploded on contact with the Heartless, knocking off its momentum and sending it tumbling back to the ground. Her gunblade was still in gun form and she fired two shots, one to throw off a Neoshadow and the last Leo. Her purpose was only to keep them out the air, not to destroy them. However, the last Neoshadow had gotten to close. It's arm grew larger, something unusual to Neoshadows, and slammed into Lightning's chest. It was planning to slam her into the ground and it looked as if it was going to succeed. Rapidly falling to the ground, Lightning aimed her gun at the heartless attacking the red haired woman and fired four bullets at the Heartless, striking true and hopefully giving the woman enough time to pick up her weapons and defend herself.

She had to reach for the Grav-Con. She could create a field of gravity to avoid the damage of hitting the ground. However, the speed and pressure at which she was being brought to the ground was too great and a surge of pain washed over her body as the NeoShadow sent her crashing into the ground. She allowed a grunt to escape her chest as the NeoShadow followed it's extended arm and closed in for another attack. Reaching to her side, she bumped her wrist against her shirt, where the Grav-Con Unit resided underneath. The gravity field allowed her to lift herself off the ground, before she pushed off the ground and flew toward the NeoShadow. It was going to pay for that. By her count she had four bullets left. Shifting her Paradigm to Commando, a red sigil surrounded her before being reflected in her eyes. She unleashed her remaining bullets at the NeoShadow as she closed in, before shifting her gunblade to sword and finishing it off with a diagonal slash as the Heartless dissipated into black dust.

As Lightning hovered over the battlefield she could easily see the chaos that ensued after the Keyblades appearace. And were those....meteors? No...they were something else...frozen. Comets more likely. Pushing against the air, she felt herself descending as the Grav-Con unit was deactivating. She rushed to the comets, her mind raced. How would she stop THAT? Shifting Paradigms to Ravager, she still had a 15 seconds left.

"I hope this will be enough." She uttered as she casted a boosted Thundaga spell against the frozen rocks.

 

[sephiroth2]

--------------------------------------------

The lion Heartless continued to rampage further throughout the city of Midgar, spreading out more than at first due to the fleeing crowds, which only succeeded in riling up the creatures worse than what they were. While many of the dark beasts attacked innocent people and caused further panic, a few of the creatures seemed to hesitate from time to time, shaking their heads and bodies before doing something the majority of the Heartless weren’t doing.

Grabbing those they had cornered with their large mouths, the creatures immediately would then retreat and allowed the others who were acting strangely as well, to do the same thing with more of the terrified people. Disappearing into the darkness between the large buildings of the city, the Heartless never returned with those they carried in their maws, yet the strange change in their behaviour seemed to have no trouble spreading through many more of the Heartless themselves.

A faint layer of mist covered one of the back alleys of Midgar and while it kept any sign of the ground hidden, the sound of heels clicking was enough to tell anyone that the concrete floor was still there. The tall, crowned figure still made her way through the small pathways between the buildings, even as the guttering growls of the Heartless grew louder and eventually became noticeable with their glowing eyes in the shadows.

Rushing past her, the lion Heartless held the now unconscious bodies in their mouths, clearly making every attempt not to cause any further harm to them as they passed the strange woman in the tight corners of the alley. Following where the creatures had just came from, the woman kept to the darkest shadow cast by the buildings around her, holding the immense staff as she watched what appeared to be one of the largest group of fighting in the city, perhaps only seconded to what was happening a few streets over.

Though there were many of the strong Heartless prowling and attacking, most were soon dealt with due to the efforts of a young woman and man, one with exceptional strength while the other held a large key shaped weapon in a backwards stance.

"Your not Azure........ AZURE IMMA LOST WHERE DID YOU GO," Enami said walking away from the keyblader. "We cant set plans into motion if I don't know where you are."

Tilting her head slightly, the masked woman watched Enami walk away from the recently saved Ven, the sight of a small black portal signalling the still waiting arrival of others who were to come with Ven. Watching a little longer in silence, the figure raised the large staff once more just as mist began to pour out of the large circle at its peak. From within the center of the large district, a crackling ripping noise was the first sound of something happening, before quite a large tear began to pull itself open, more of the same mist pouring out from the opening wound just as a much larger form of the lion Heartless charged out from it.

Easily equal to three of the creatures on top of one another, the monstrous beast roared so loud it seemed to attract the attention of all other Heartless that had spread throughout the city. Its large eyes staring down towards Enami, Ven and those unlucky enough to be in the area still, the creature rustled its mane of dark tendrils before once again barrelling towards everyone with its large claws ripping up the ground as it charged.

 

[Hazen Gregory]

There were so many worlds but they always seemed to be so small to Reforge, he was able to recognize most beings immediately from the signature of essence they gave off. Right away Reforge was aware that Lightning was present, he actually thought he'd sensed her before she had gotten this close, now he was sure of it.

Lightning's reasoning for attacking Reforge's comets via a thunder type spell was questionable, he'd obviously used such an attack to damage the surrounding area causing it to collapse and crush the neo shadows but if she wanted to do it by herself he was more than fine with the choice she was making. "Always was a spitfire when she was in Valhalla, apparently that hasn't changed a bit since she managed to get out of there." When the Thundaga spell hit the sectional cluster of comets, Reforge released his control of them, letting the hand he'd been using to manipulate the miniature comets fall back at his side.

A neo shadow was crushed by the now falling comets and burst of lightning which fell all at once, "Ouch, that sucks almost as much as I used to at...never mind." Reforge walked closer to Lightning, admiring her beauty as he always had. Her vivacious form was enough to make most men falter and even women were aware of her grace and poise. "So Lightning," his voice trailed and reached her ears even though he was several hundred feet away, "How have you been doing??" Reforge spoke to her as if there wasn't an abnormally large heartless running in his direction. "Do you even remember me?? I suppose I look a lot different than when we were in Valhalla but believe it or not, its me...Reforge."

The single heartless that had been left in the area reached Reforge a second after he'd finished speaking, slashing and connecting with several hits. "Really?? Is that all you got?? I've had ants in Valhalla come after me that were much more of a threat." Seeing as how the heartless was barely sentient, it said nothing and just slashed at Reforge in a frenzy. Inside of the vicious assault he was receiving and taking no visible damage from, a pink glow had enveloped Reforge's form.

"Stupid heartless. So unlike me."

A swift punch to the heartless' mid section sent it bouncing away across the ground, only for Reforge to stretch over to the beings recovering body where Reforge's fist grew more than twice its original size, forming both spikes and a wrecking ball, which Reforge smashed into the heartless, causing it to fade away into black smoke. "I'm about to go show off, here take my blessing before I go. Catch ya later!!!" Reforge blew Lightning an exaggerated kiss and vanished. It wouldn't take more than a few seconds for Lightning to feel the change within her body. She'd feel stronger, wiser, more refreshed and able to produce her abilities with greater focus, force and freedom. Her hair would start to spike up and have a more hardened appearance as it changed to a golden blonde color. The last thing Lightning would notice would be the surge of her aura and the pink static lightning that danced around it.

~~~~~

"What a creature." Reforge spoke of the lion heartless that ran toward a group of experienced combatants of varied abilities. That much was apparent from Reforge's read of who he was before. Nothing about them seemed too special. It was possible they were holding back or the event randomly taking place had decreased the morale in the group. "My that thing looks mad as hell I wonder if it is horny too?? Maybe it needs some loving..."

Whatever type of heartless it was, Ref didn't care. He shot downward from the sky and landed directly in the rush path of the roaring beast, eyes closed and with a smirk upon his face. Both of Reforge's hands lit up as blue vapor streamed out of them, creating a mist of icy material all around the heartless. Inside of this mist were countless comets, the mist was made from the combined gassy tails of all the comets themselves. Each comet mass spun rapidly as they swirled around the heartless lion which roared and swatted at the mist as it was hit again and again. Reforge just stood there in front of it laughing. "Oh that hurts doesn't it?? Maybe this type of thing wouldn't happen to you if you played nice." With both hands stretched out to the left and right, Reforge pulled the icy mist and rocky material inside it upward, once again causing the lion to roar and swat at the mist with its claw. It managed to dive through the mist as it gained altitude and knocked Reforge to the side...

Such an action seemed a bit terrible, Reforge was thrown aside nearly 40 feet from the claw attack and yet he landed gracefully on his feet, a slight sheen on rock and ice where the claw had struck. "Well guys, what are you doing?? Get that thing!!! I'm not going to do it all by myself. Have some freaking respect..."

 

[KingdomKey]

~ Ready... Set... GO!!!~

Cam green eyes blinked in comprehension, realizing he wasn't about to have his face mauled off by the lion heartless or his heart stolen away. Taken aback by the girl with pink hair, who just saved his life with amazing fighting skills; felt his mouth drop down a little from her immediate remark. He quickly stood up, brushing himself off and scowled. "Seriously? What kind of guy do you take me for?" He thought to himself, watching her run off to save someone else from getting hurt and destroying more heartless single handedly along the way. "You didn't even tell me your name!" Cam shouted, leaning forward while cupping his mouth with both hands.

Glancing around, he noticed more fighters around taking on the heartless. "Why aren't any of them doing anything about the Keyblade itself?" He muttered, casting a longing look to go after the pink haired girl who was busy fending off heartless. "It'd stop the on slaughter of heartless, if someone got rid of it!" With a shake of his head, he took off for the platform one step at a time, keeping his pistols trained in front of himself and began firing at the heartless scampering along and directly in his way.

It only became more severe the closer he got to the Keylade. The intensity of light pouring out of it, pulsed, blinding his eye sight briefly and sent a shock wave of power out, knocking Cam aside to the ground again and felt a heavy weight on his shoulders. "Damn it. Any closer and I'll be toasted." Without much thought, he took aim at it, pulling back the trigger with his forefinger on his arrow gun and watched the bullets get deflected.

"I don't want to go into my drive form...it's too soon for that." Cam thought strategy wise. Keeping his green eyes locked onto the Keyblade, he pushed onward only to jump in alarm, feeling something grab hold of him by the torso, long black fingers wrapping around him and squeezing the life out of him.

"Oh crap, not good!" Cam whined out, seeing the Darkside Heartless had hold of him, it's glowing yellow eyes staring at him and knew, now was not the time to hold back.

Letting his arrow gun fall from his grip, he felt his body become lighter as it vanished from the Darkside's grip. His feet barely touching the ground as he let a stream of bullets out from both guns, watching the Darkside be pushed back, it's long arm extending, black hand slamming on the ground as if to crush him and summon a circular purple void on the ground, minature heartless coming out of it.

"I need help in getting to that Keyblade."

A cocky grin lit up his face at the thought of the pink haired girl, wanting to prove he wasn't so helpless and she wasn't the only one who could get out of a pinch.
----

Trisha yelped in alarm, the moment she stepped out of the dark corridor and saw Neoshadow frolicking her way. She took off in a sprint, hoping to give them the slip as she stumbled through her surroundings and knocked into something sturdy. Looking up, she was greeted by the sight of a man with blonde hair, shuffling a deck of cards and speaking to himself.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to knock into you! There were heartless chasing after me." Trisha said quickly, twirling a piece of loose blonde hair nervously.

"What's going on?" She added, gazing around in confusion.

---

Kaze stood on the balcony of a roof, several feet away, watching a naked man leap down and attack; a lion like heartless. It was unlike any conversation he ever heard of, coming from the man speaking about the magnificence of the beast itself and then complaining, from being thrown aside and luckily missing the extended claws trying to attack him.

Earlier, he watched the man interact with the girl known as Lightning. He didn't really meddle in affairs that had to do with Cam, but, felt his interest spike when he spoke to the girl. The man spoke as if he knew her and he honestly was, curious about the man's appearance, background story and anything else, in general. What with the exaggerated kiss he blew her and knew, there was a chance he could make good use of an alley like him.

Causally, he leapt over to assist the man. Gracefully flipping midair, catching his hands on the edge of a windowsill, letting himself free fall, knees tucked into his chest, hands over his head to cushion the thud of the ground from breaking his bones.

"You need some help?" He asked, sliding a hand through his dark brown hair, dark eyes appraising the man and somewhat curious, which side he was fighting for. Not that it mattered.

All he wanted was to destroy things, keep away from the innocence and purity of his little brother Cam and let everything fall to chaos. He wasn't a good guy anymore and would have nothing to do with him. should they ever cross paths...it'll be to the death. Reasoning means nothing anymore. Summoning his Nocturnal Keyblade in his left hand, he didn't wait for an answer. Instead, he dashed forward, swinging his blade forward, watching the hook sink into the lion like heartless, creating a deep gash into its neck and leapt back.

"C'mon, kitten, let's see what you got."

Kaze twirled his Keyblade in-between his fingers, creating circular discs to line up around him in a vivid shade of red, protecting his body from further attacks. The lion like heartless, let out a roar, bounding forward and leapt at him, claws being blown off by the discs being activated.

"If you try to attack me, I wouldn't advise it." Kaze warned, in case the man didn't want to be helped at all and view him as an enemy.

"What was with that kiss you blew Lightning? Are you a pair of lovers?" He asked further, keeping his eyes locked onto the lion like heartless.

 

[sephiroth2]

------------------------------------------------

The darkness cast by the surrounding buildings seemed to pool and deepen in one particular place, keeping the extremely tall and masked woman out of sight to all that were around. To her however, the light allowed her to see everything that was happening. From the new arrivals that took on the massive Lion Heartless she summoned, to the exploding discs the newest fighter created to counter the Heartless’ rampaging claws. The most interesting of the group though was the strange naked being. The one who took on the dark beast like it was not the serious threat that it was to everyone else. Even after getting powerfully swiped away with the large claws, he still jokingly spoke to the others about it.

A sudden ripple of power in the air was the only sign needed for the arrival of a large Darkside in the nearby district. It’s towering form standing tall for a few moments before it lurched forward at something in its sight and allowing it to disappear behind the buildings as cover. With her sight firmly on Reforge, the woman’s grip on the staff tightened while the rest of her body and posture remained as still as a statue. With more mist pouring out the top of her weapon, a very faint layer now covered the entire area, though with all the fighting and movement it was still barely noticeable to the others. Raising the staff, the woman gave the softest of touches as she brought the ball end of the pole back down against the ground.

At that same time, the Lion Heartless continued to roar as it leapt from side to side, swinging its only known weapon, its claws, at anything and everything that was around it, carving up more of the district in its wake. With some of its body grazed and burned from the collision of tiny comets and exploding discs and especially the deep gash along its neck, the Heartless suddenly jumped high into the air, pouncing one of the tall buildings and digging in with its large claws deeply. Its large yellow eyes glared back down at those below as it unleashed a massive roar, causing the glass around it to shatter and unknown to those below, also make it look like the cause of what was to happen next.

Rising up from their piles close to the building and Heartless, chunks of the hard ground at first started to float up slowly, until quickly shooting towards the clinging dark creature. This continued for a couple more minutes, in that time, a rather makeshift but still strong layer of what could be considered armour now covered the Heartless. Dropping back towards the fighters, the pieces of rock and metal rippled along its dark body, revealing some sort of force was connecting this newly made shell to the creature itself.

Barring its still large teeth, the now further protected Heartless growled deeply before charging towards Reforge and anyone that was unlucky enough to be close by. While the mysterious force of attraction kept the armour just floating above the skin of the creature, it seemed to have no such problem pulling in straggling pieces from its path as it charged, collecting and connecting into long flails that attached along the sides of its plated face, accompanying the large tentacles that made up its mane.

 

[Story Keeper]

~- But I'm Not Leaving -~

Rinoa nearly finished off the last of her group of Heartless, only to pull up short at the startled noise from Squall. Watching him go flying past her, she didn't look as she snapped her wrist out toward the Heartless, hitting it square in the chest with a Holy spell, sending it soaring even as she ran over to check on the brunette. Crouching down next to him, she reached out and touched his wrist, searching for a pulse. Finding a faint sign that he was okay, Rinoa sighed in relief that he was okay if incapacitated for the time being.

"Sheesh, you ask one question about a keyblade master and everyone goes hostile."

Calmly getting back to her feet, Rinoa turned to face the man that had spoken. Remaining silent, she didn't say anything as he continued talking to her. Despite his eyes being hidden, Rinoa couldn't shake the feeling he was looking at her. Clenching her hand around the handle of her gunblade, the woman glared at him as she retorted, "Well, when you ask such personal questions in the middle of a fight; how else is someone supposed to react!" Shifting her stance into one that'd grant her a faster reaction time, she demanded, "And what do you mean by the "doomed" Master Aqua?"

Sure, why she didn't know the keyblade master as well as some; Rinoa liked her. Aqua was a great sparring partner in terms of magical abilities, so of course she wasn't about to give a complete stranger such information! Sensing a heartless behind her, Rinoa ducked and slashed it as it went flying overhead; causing it to split and fall to the ground. Standing back up at her full height, the woman sent some of her magic to her unconscious boyfriend; having it form a shield to protect him. Looking her opponent up and down, Rinoa felt the strong desire to take to the air and cast every powerful spell she knew at the person; but instead of doing so, she kept herself earthbound and waited for him to make the next move.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to knock into you! There were heartless chasing after me."

Rinoa jolted and looked around for the speaker, she stared at the newcomer that ran into the blonde across from her. Eying the girl cautiously, Rinoa easily noticed the truth in the girl's words, nodding her head, Rinoa listened in silence as she asked about what was going on. "Hello there, unfortunately we're currently under attack by the heartless; but beyond that this world is pretty peaceful. And it's okay, you don't have to apologize, how can we help you?" Even as she asked the girl the question, Rinoa kept a close eye on the one that had originally confronted her.

~- Blocked Out All the Sunlight -~

Ven ducked and slashed at the group of heartless, yet every time he took one down; three more showed up in its place. Clenching his teeth, Ven nearly lunged at another one when a girl got in the way, making quick work of the creatures. Stunned into silence, Ven didn't have enough time to react as the woman spun around and pulled him into a hug. Squirming, Ven felt the swell of panic as he didn't have enough room to breath without breathing in her scent; which he definitely didn't like the idea of. Can'tbreathecan'tbreathecan'tbreathe! he shouted mentally, Wayward Wind disappearing from his grip so he had a better chance of pushing her away.

"Ara~ praise me Azure.... I did good right.... wait," the girl said, letting him go as she seemed to realize her mistake.

Taking a step back, Ven took in a gulp of air as he looked at her. "Yeah, you did a good job," he mumbled under his breath; only for the woman to talk over him as she turned and walked away, looking for Azure and saying something about a plans? Shaking his head, he almost gave chase until he felt the surge of darkness behind him. Whipping around, he recalled his keyblade and called over his shoulder, "Hey, I think you better get back here; I'm sure your friend can take care of himself for the time being. I'm also pretty sure he'll be thrilled when he learns of your actions by defeating this Heartless."

How'd he know it was a heartless? Lucky guess, besides it didn't waste any time coming through the portal and attacking them. Getting ready for the assault, he tensed his muscles and called his magic to him; only for someone else to get involved in the fight. "Well guys, what are you doing?? Get that thing!!! I'm not going to do it all by myself. Have some freaking respect..."

Ven felt a frown come to his face as his eyes grew steely, sure while he appreciated the newcomers help; the jab was irritating. He didn't say anything in response, instead he watched the man; noting his unique appearance even as another keyblader joined the fray. Shrugging his shoulder, Ven quickly hopped backward even as it leapt at the building; tracking it to see what it'd do next. Don't let your fear control, you do that people will use you. Besides, I can't help but feel Aqua's going to be needing the help...will you look after her for me?

Nodding his head again in quiet agreement; Ven noticed the way that it tore pieces of earth off and drew it to itself. "Careful, there's more to this one than there appears," he warned, not caring if he was stating the obvious. Waiting it until it started charging again, Ven channeled his magic into the ground; watching as it sent tremors through the ground; granted not at the strength of Terra or Vesper; but it was enough to possibly knock the heartless off balance. Refusing to give it a chance to recover, Ven tugged at the arcane vein of wind and sent a blast of it toward the heartless. Glancing nervously at the others, Ven felt the familiar hum of darkness coursing under his skin even as he strung together another set of magic to hit the lion-like heartless off balance.

Backing up to put more distance between him and the boss, Ven's eyes darted upward; noting the large comet that hung in the air. Really? You've got to be joking, may as well as add that to the growing list of "problems that needs to get fixed, and fast." I don't think this is going to help Aqua's paranoia moments, he thought sarcastically, before shooting off a ball of blazing dark energy at the lion-like heartless.

~- Caught in the Undertow? -~

Riku didn't say anything as Renn chatted with Jeiss, instead he kept walking along the beach. Sensing Comet's agitation, he nearly tapped into the other silver haired boy's mind to scold him; until he sensed what was going on. Stopping in his tracks, Riku clenched his fists and spun around to face Renn, a guarded look settling into his eyes as he ordered softly, "Help Jeiss up, we need to get moving now. Matter of fact, we don't really even have time to walk there." Despite the quietness of his words, Riku knew that they carried over to Renn; it was the same quiet authority that was common of him and Lily.

What do you think you're doing?

Clenching his fists tighter, Riku distantly felt his nails bite into the skin of his palms. It didn't bother him, nor the fact that there'd later be little, angry welts where it had happened. Absentmindedly Riku summoned a portal beneath their feet. Sinking into it, Riku didn't panic as the darkness swallowed him, instead he coaxed it into speeding up the process and spitting them out in the control room for where the others were waiting. Picking himself up off of the floor, he looked around to see that Ven and Lily were absent alongside Sora. Scowling briefly, he didn't look at Vesper or any of the others; not wanting to see any of the looks they were bound to have on their faces.

Riku didn't look at Tora as her eyes landed on him, searching for what was bothering him. Shrugging in answer, Riku glanced over his shoulder, unsure if Jeiss or Renn had followed; or if they'd gotten out of the way in time. Hearing the soft slap of sneakers, Riku looked in front of him to find Tora standing in front of him, a understanding look in her marine eyes. You doing okay? Tora asked with her eyes, searching for the slightest hint of distress from her alpha; not that Riku was going to reveal such a thing despite wanting to do so.

Smiling slightly, Riku nodded his head in answer and wasn't surprised by the disbelieving look that flashed in Tora's eyes. Looking away from her again, Riku couldn't help but smile as the young mage once again backed up his opinion of her. Tora was aware of a lot more of the stuff happening in the world than what her lack of voice would suggest, heck, maybe she knew more than any of them did. Hearing the sound of someone clearing their throat, Riku looked up at Comet, seeing the quirked eyebrow that was from his curiosity; Riku glared at his brother until the curiosity faded away.

"Come on, let's stop standing around and get moving," he grumbled angrily, ignoring the looks that his attitude was probably getting him; Riku moved toward the portal. Looking over his shoulder for a moment, he said coolly, "Well? Let's get going!" Before he bolted through the portal, calling the shadows to him to cloak him from anything that'd jump out and attack him. Stepping through the portal, he cocked his head to the side and watched the chaos for a few moments.

"Really Ven? I thought you were stronger than that!" He taunted halfheartedly, raising his hand and firing off a Dark Firaga. Stepping out of the way of the portal, Riku quickly gathered some light into his body before sending a sphere into the air so it could rain down pieces of light down on the heartless; meanwhile Riku quickly backpedaled toward the shadows to avoid the counterattack he knew was bound to be coming after that technique.

~- Run and Hide Your Crazy -~

Kari covered her head at the sound of gunfire, looking up at the sky, she smiled at the sight of Lightning. Even if he didn't show it, Cid was proud of the girl and very protective of her. Hearing a noise behind her, she scrambled and grabbed a hold of her pistols, twisting around she nearly pulled the trigger when her eyes landed on Cloud. Anger and gratitude flashing in her eyes, she raised her weapon and pulled the trigger, hitting the heartless in the shoulder; preventing it from hurting Cloud. Nodding her head, she smirked softly at the amused look in the blue eyes staring into her green. "Going a little crazy, Ice Queen?" Cloud teased, smiling softly as Kari responded by banishing her weapons.

"Tell me Cloud, what do you think?" Kari asked, whipping around she felt the magic roiling just beneath the surface; holding her hand out she snapped, "Bahamut, Megaflare! Ramuh, Judgement Bolt!" It didn't take long for her summoned allies to lay waste to her opponents; sensing the magic overhead, she glanced up to notice the giant comet heading in their direction. "Well now," she mumbled, too hyped up on adrenaline to feel the drawbacks that she knew she'd feel later. Hearing a faint noise behind her, she twisted out of the way and pulled some needles out of her pocket; flicking her wrist Kari smirked as it stroke true, hitting the heartless and effecting it pretty well.

"Get down!"

The shout barely left her companion's mouth, before Kari was dancing out of the way to give Cloud enough room to use Blade Beam on the Neoshadow. Looking over her shoulder, she smirked and nodded in thanks; before she ran back into the fray, Cloud hot on her heels to watch her back. "Ifrit!" She called, sending the creature of fire out ahead of her; watching as it started burning all the heartless it could to ashes. A thought coming to her mind, Kari glanced at Cloud as he pulled up alongside her. "Hehe, Cloud?"

"Yeah?"

"How about a race? The one who destroys the most Heartless wins," she said calmly, dodging another one and kicking it in the stomach. She knew when she won, the competitive smile that flitted across Cloud's face was confirmation enough. "You're on, an I'm probably going to win."

"In your dreams," she retorted, before breaking away from Cloud and running off to find a group of heartless to get a greater lead on the blonde warrior.

 

[Shinra]

-Right into the action-

Renn turned to Jeiss... "I would've liked to explain more so you fully comprehend the situation but there's not enough time." He jumped into the portal after Riku although it was Risky, using dark corridors wasn't beyond Renn or Deadpool's capabilities but it was the hardest thing to manage Cloud under. He pushed himself through the other end through force of will and saw that they were fighting off heartless. Renn summoned Undying resolve and saw Riku-sensei beside him. He had four commands at his disposal for rapid deployment, Cura, Zero Gravira, Trick raid, and Fire surge. Trick raid was his trigger command to switch to Deadpool if he wanted a break from the action... He dashed for the nearest group of heartless and called out: "Float!" and six heartless were sent into the air, incapacitated. He soon jumped to meet them in midair and charged forward, cloaked in a ring of fire and incinerated them. When back on solid ground he pushed up the bridge of his glasses back up to normal height and charged right back into the fray.

 

[Hazen Gregory]

For the time being Reforge wasn't concerned with anything that Kaze said to him. Introductions weren't needed for the complete heartless keymage to know the lad's name, he was able to ascertain that simple information with a single glance even with his eyes closed as they had been since he'd arrived on the particular scene. Something else was going on that made Reforge question what was happening here in Midgar. Darkness was present but so was light, it was as if the balance between the two was being tampered with and it was causing both separate forces to go out of control.

A familiar signature that Reforge knew from a long time ago was also nearby, it was odd that he was unable to pinpoint exactly who it was. "What the hell is going on??" Some being was overlying the signature, almost like it was a giant parasite or something of the sort. Regardless of that situation in the immediate vicinity the Lion Heartless was still present and being continuously manipulated by the same force that Reforge recognized from the past. The broken pavement and street had been used to cover the lion in an armor made to give it extra protection.

"A darkside eh??" Ref sighed, expecting what came next. The lion heartless was still rampaging but Reforge didn't actually have to keep fighting, there were other combatants and they actually started to assist, using various different types of magic to damage the creature and break off pieces of its armor. For a few minutes, Reforge just levitated and did nothing to help them, he could tell that there wasn't any notion of team work between the group, just random displays of magic and power. It was a ridiculous waste of talent that even in the turmoil present, made the Keymage Master laugh uncontrollably. Once more he was basically ignored by the entire group other than Kaze whom had spoken to him before. "I'll leave this to you young ones, obviously you think that attacking in a frenzy is how to get it done, so I'll go handle this situation with the darkside," before leaving the scene a sickly pale blue glow matching the runes marking Reforge's body lit up brighter than previously, "One last thing...."

A network of small comets generated themselves around Reforge, spinning faster and faster until their tails became one extremely long glow of icy blue mist. "High above the skies we see the blue light of dawn breaking through the darkness, come forth and vanquish my foes using the divine power of your icy wrath...." The comet tail around Reforge streaked up into the sky and vanished, causing the larger comet already above to grow even larger than it was. "COMET!!!" Reforge yelled this out, with a motion of his right arm which also lit up with runic markings along the metallic covering upon it. Each one of Reforge's horns spewed out light that could have been potentially blinding to the group surrounding him but each particle of light redirected into the falling comet which it sped up, crashing into the Boss Lion Heartless. The beast was smashed into the ground in a blast of freezing earth like matter that sent chunks of ice and smaller shards of magic that had literally been frozen into buildings and other structures.

"Pfft, too easy!!!" The armor around the lion had been destroyed, frozen and broken apart via the force from the impact of the comet and the intense magics that had surrounded the comet itself. "Now, to go and see what all this commotion is really about. I knew that there was a reason I came here today," Reforge floated off down the street and vanished from sight around a corner from the group, leaving them to face the now severely injured heartless that was roaring and had chunks of rock and ice piercing its body. It was ready to be finished off...

~~~~~

Darksides were a larger more dangerous form of heartless that rather than being strong, spawned a type of pure darkness that was able to wash over a large area and cause heartless to continually spawn over an even wider area. In his many years as a being that was both a heartless individual and one that still functioned as a manifestation of celestial influence that was sentient, Reforge was well aware of everything that a darkside stood for. As he began to walk down the road, body covered in a bright pink glow, heartless were still spawning from the streets and attacking him. Most of them were smaller versions of the lion heartless he'd recently broken. Reforge didn't stop to fight them off, just knock them away with his monster strength.

"Stupid heartless!!! You'd think that because I'm a heartless these guys wouldn't want to eat me." Sadly they were so pathetic and brainless that no notion of anything was really within them, they were unaware that rather than have a heart, Reforge was based upon raw essence and his own sentience. He grew tired of the lion heartless that kept trying to rip and tear at his flesh and began to snatch them up with one hand, ripping them apart and eating the darkness that spilled from their bodies.

Finally he came upon the darkside, it towered over him several hundred feet. He sighed, opening his eyes to stare up at the black monstrosity, the same pink light that had been surrounding Reforge's entire body was now spilling from both of his eyes which rapidly spread up the legs of the darkside. The creature made a loud bellowing noise when Ref's hand pierced into its foot. At that point a white spot formed on the darkside's foot and began spreading upward to turn the entire foot white.

Reforge stuck his other hand into the foot, causing both pink and white light to explode from the darkside in a tornado of magical force that surrounded the entire darkside. Bright light was streaming all over the city, it was a blinding light so pure that some heartless were killed right away. As the light died down, a new heartless creature was revealed....

THE LIGHTSIDE

Reforge grinned widely, shaking his head back and forth at the accomplishment he'd made. It wasn't too often that Ref employed his power to manipulate many different types of creatures such as the jumbo heartless that was now a Lightside, rather than its polar opposite the Darkside. Because Ref had been the one to engineer the heartless from a previous form, the same color of pink that had surrounded Reforge's body shined from the eyes of the light based heartless.

"My, I outdid myself this time. The last one I made was a lot smaller." From the get go the darkside had been rather large, larger than that specific type of heartless normally was and yet once becoming a lightside the heartless' size had increased by at least thirty percent. It looked basically the same other than the change in size but the heart shaped hole in the beast had another mass within it, something that was Reforge's doing. As he'd been mostly creating comets with his magical abilities since the attack had started Ref felt no reason to stray from that path and had formed comet made from a deep pink space rock and stuffed it into the heart space the lightside had.

A comet tail of icy mist and light particles was interconnected with the lightside, giving it the ability to not only fire streams of exploding ice particles from its chest, but using both hands the creature was able to now cast comet just as Reforge had been doing. "Yep, here they come."

As intended, Reforge watched from atop the lightside's shoulder as it started to walk through the city, crashing into a few buildings and causing damage but not too much. Reforge had been able to increase the sentient nature of the creature when he transformed it, making it so that the creature was aware of the heartless attacking it. Such beings of apparent darkness were drawn to the light that spilled from the edges of the light heartless. "Hmm, maybe I went too far??" Rampaging heartless were still all over the city, some managing to tear the hearts from their victims as what they normally did but others... the others were racing toward the location of the lightside which was tearing through them with apparent boredom.

For a second or two Reforge was amazed that the Lightside wasn't spawning light heartless into the city until he remembered that part of the heartless' powers had been sealed by him, so that he caused less problems rather than create more. Both of his eyes had since closed again but something rather strange happened. A jagged mouth ripped itself into existence on the Lightside's face...

"I AM CORBINEK, WHO IS IT THAT HAS DISTURBED THIS REALM?? IT IS SHE WHO HOLDS THE STAFF!!! SHOW YOURSELF AT ONCE!!!"

Ref snickered, "Oh damn...I guess this one is a lot more sentient than I thought he was."

 

[sephiroth2]

-----------------------------------------------------

The Dark Firaga launched by Riku seemed to have the strangest affect on the large Lion Heartless as it continued its thundering charge. While such a strong force of darkness would wound many and in some cases even destroy weaker Heartless, the pulsating orb of flames collided with the Lion’s head, bursting and covering its face for a few seconds in the black and purple flames, before it faded away. In that entire act, the Heartless continued to charge, as if nothing had just happened to it, which with there being no signs of even scorch marks on the creature’s face, would be quite easy to prove.

While Riku’s dark spell had no affect against the Heartless, his gathering of light soon raining down like shards, causing the Lion to swerve as best as it could, though still getting caught by some of the more stray portions of the attack. Roaring in pain from the intense light, the Heartless took a moment to look around for the one that attacked it, before it was forced to once again move away from some of the discs of light that were still present in the area.

Though Riku was no doubt used to the blanket of darkness, especially cast by buildings, it seemed he was still not aware of the impressively tall masked figure that stood right behind him, unmoving and inanimate as even the buildings that were around him. This corpse like state was what allowed the figure to remain unnoticed, even with Riku standing directly in front of her.

It was why he wasn’t able to hear the soft clicks of her feet as she closed the small gap right up behind him. Perhaps the only sign of something wrong was about to happen, was possibly by the way the hairs on Riku’s neck stood on end as the figures long, grayish skinned hand reached passed his neck and about to grip his shoulder.

That was, until the figure once again froze, her masked face looking back to the battle that was continuing and by the new turn of events that just happened. With more of everyone’s attacks acting like a domino effect (one spell causing the Lion to dodge, only to get caught in another’s strike, which then gave a chance for others to continue the chain), it seemed the largest of attacks was just ready, as the strange figure of Reforge raised himself higher into the air, before bringing down the large comet directly onto the Lion Heartless. The cracking of stone, the howling of pain from the creature, everything seemed extra loud until the force of the attack finally calmed and faded away, revealing the extent of damage caused.

The ground zero of the impact was that of the Lion Heartless itself. While the ground around it cracked and dug deeply forming a crater, it was the creature that took the brunt of the attack itself. Its armour had all been obliterated from the immense force and power of Reforge’s comet, leaving behind chunks of the same rock and ice that had once been made up for it, all across the Heartless’ back. Even long after Reforge left, the dark beast remained unmoving, until its large eyes once more opened at the sound of the creation of the Lightside.

As the now much larger Lightside rose above the buildings of Midgar, its huge form easily capable of toppling some as it moved around, the tall figure from behind Riku, as well as the uneasy feeling he would have once had, all disappeared in that instance. Glaring up to the walking tower of light close by, the Lion Heartless slowly stomped out of its crater, growling warningly towards everyone present before it unleashed one of its loudest and angriest roars in the direction of the Lightside.

From atop some of the buildings at the back of the area, groups of the much smaller cat-like Heartless appeared, forming a pack very quickly as they all gave their strongest roar together. With its tendril mane flaring wildly, the Lion Heartless roared once more as it charged straight for one of the buildings, quickly leaping and soon climbing straight up its face before disappeared over the rooftops, the small versions of its type soon following straight afterwards, leaving the district the scarred battle zone it now was.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With the Lightside continuing its search through the streets, the much weaker Heartless burning away once even close to the creature, its sight, as well as that of Reforge’s, would have instinctively came onto the tall figure that was now positioned on one of the taller buildings in the area, matching that of the Lightside’s shoulder, putting her at height with Reforge himself. The age marked emerald mask slowly turned with the woman’s head, watching Reforge and its Lightside stride by as some kind of image flashed through her mind. That of another Lightside, planting its large fist into its slowly crouching dark counterpart, the Darkside’s attention on some sort of woman wielding a large ringed staff, the only other being present to stand against such a ferocious beast.

A bright purple glow emitted behind the mask, escaping through the eye slits present, all while the figure raised her large ringed staff. Bringing the ball end of it down, with enough force to crack the roof of the building she was standing on, the solid ring at its peak blazed into life, not only billowing out large amounts of mist like before, but now had one extra thing, a large eye peering out from wherever the mist came from.

Locking its sight directly onto the Lightside, an ear piercing screech exploded out from the staff with no warning, the tall masked figure unaffected by it, but most likely that would not be the case for many throughout the city. As the shrieking continued, the Lightside’s form seemed to ripple, its form appearing to revert back to its Darkside body every few seconds, however in the end, it seemed to stay as a Lightside even as the screeching never let up. Whether this was part of what the figure wanted or just a side effect, it didn’t matter now, as below the great creature of light’s feet, one of the strange tears in reality opened once more and from its darkness large tentacles, like that of an octopus, slithered out before coiling and fastening the Lightside to its spot.

Though the Lightside’s intense heat noticeably began to burn the tentacles around its legs, a somewhat parallel effect was taking place on the Lightside itself. From where the tendrils remained coiled, a black stain slowly began to grow, spreading out from underneath and around the tentacles like some sort of virus. It was at this point everything finally came together. Roaring as they leapt from the buildings behind the masked figure, who still remained standing looking directly at Reforge and the flailing Lightside, the small cat-like Heartless’ bounded once again off the roof, latching their multitude of claws all along the Lightside’s body.

As the heated light caused the creatures to hiss and roar in pain, unlike their weaker brethren, they remained alive and were now using their deeply dug claws to further gash along the Lightside all over. It was the Lion Heartless that was last to arrive, but by no means was it too weak to fight. Roaring louder than any other of its kind there, the creature leapt up from behind the Lightside, past Reforge, before sliding down the Lightside’s body with its larger claws forming a long gash in its wake.

While it was clear the Lightside could handle many weaker spawns of darkness, the sheer numbers and now weight brought on by the growing gathering of Heartless on its body was enough to show one thing, it was only a matter of time before the large creature fell. And the masked figure stood just as she always was, ready to watch it happen.

 

[KingdomKey]

~Foe or Friend?~

"Hello there, unfortunately we're currently under attack by the heartless; but beyond that this world is pretty peaceful. And it's okay, you don't have to apologize, how can we help you?"

Trisha looked between the man standing before her and the woman standing across from him; eyes locking on her briefly before narrowing at the man she stood behind. "Looks like I interrupted something?" She thought, cringing inside from embarrassment and took a few steps back. It honestly surprised her to see such a fierce and beautiful woman take on an actual heartless single handled with no sweat, letting it sail over her and destroy it with her gunblade with ease. Unconsciously, she gripped her right arm, rubbing it nervously with her right hand, shifting her stance before realizing what she was doing and clenched both her hands tightly into fists. "Pull it together, girl, you haven't done anything wrong."

"Looks like, you're the one who needs help. " Trisha smiled, placing a hand on her hip, pulling her shoulders back in confidence and placing her other hand casually on the man's shoulder. "A shame, I can't see his eyes. I bet he's cute looking." She thought briefly, taking a good at him, the extravagant pink tie he's wearing before returning her undivided attention to the woman.

"I was taken by surprise when a few heartless came bounding straight for me earlier. I didn't know this world was under attack. I couldn't have arrived at a better time, it seems." She said nonchalantly, slightly disappointed at the war zone she stumbled upon.

Trisha took in her surrounds more throughly, noticing the man lying on the ground in some sort of protective spell shielding him from danger. The fierce woman standing protectively over him, spoke volumes; indicating that he was her partner. A scowl made its way across her face, when she heard the screams in the background, the huge comet above them all crashing somewhere nearby, making the ground beneath her feet tremble in after shock and smoke rising from the chaos around them.

"Don't you think, you should be worrying more about the citizens safety? Instead of attacking this guy?" She asked, lifting her hand away from her hip to point down at the unconscious man on the ground by her feet.

"Your partner looks worse for wear. A place like isn't good for him, you know," Trisha added further, leaning up on the tip of her toes, kissing the man on the cheek. "I think I'll lend you a hand."

"Uh oh, things just got a lot worse." She thought, seeing the huge Lightside heartless trampling along the streets with a naked man on its shoulder. "What kind of weirdo runs around with nothing on? Isnt that a bit strange or illegal?" Letting go of the man's shoulder, she stepped away, summoning her dual blades in both hands with each step she took and cocked one over her shoulder."Maybe, I'll finally prove my worth around here. Why else would there be a strange corridor leading me here? Unless, one these two have something to do with it? Ah, well. I'm gonna have some fun, meet a keyblade wielder and kick butt!"

"Now, would be a good time to start," Trisha said, racing forward past the two of them, leaping over the unconsicous man, hurrying down the street, feet pounding against the pavement and taking a swipe at one of the weaker looking heartless; knocking it into a trash can, making the lid topple over it as it vanquish into nothing.

"Proper introductions will have to wait! I'm Trisha by the way!" She called out, disappearing down the street.

Heading into the direction of buildings crumbling to pieces, Trisha allowed her blades to scrape along the ground behind her as she made her way to the sound of shrieking coming from a few blocks away. "Could of fooled me; this being a peaceful city. How on earth did they let the heartless get that bad?" She thought to herself, seeing men and woman about to lose their hearts.

Immediately, she broke both her dual blades with ease, the magic lifting the metal pieces around in midair, pointing directly at a row of Neo Shadow Heartless and striking into the ground near each one with a thud; the metal pieces burned brightly, connectioning with a visible blue beam to the naked eye that lit off electric shots and created a cage, growing smaller by the minute. The Neo Shadow growing violent at being contained, making her grin in satisfcation, with a flick of her left wrist, the cage clashed together and vaporized them instantly.

~Twice in size and Harder to fight~

Cam watched in relief when an ally took on the Darkside, hitting its feet and causing large amounts of magic to consume it with a bright light; making him cover his green eyes briefly with his hand from the piercing light white. Slowly his vision cleared up and saw, it was twice as huge and his mouth dropped open. "You've got to be kidding me! What did you do?!" He exclaimed, watching the former Darkside turn into a Lightside, some strange disfiguration along its face open up.

"You're suppose to stop it! Not...not whatever this is!" He facepalmed, dragging a hand over his face and gripping his arrow gun tightly in his left hand.

The Lightside looked like it was under this mysterious naked man's control, because, there weren't anymore heartless spawning out of it. Hesitating on what his priority should be, take out the rest of the heartless roaming the city or aid in fighting the Lightside; he shook his head in irritation from being indecisive. "Man oh man, why did things get more crazy around here?" He mumbled to himself, noticing a bunch of weakling heartless climb onto the Lightside, halting its movements slightly; followed by a boy looking about his age, hover with magic and fall alongside the naked man, keyblade in hand and threatening him.

"Damn it," Cam scowled, not liking where this was going. "Nobody knows what they're doing around here!"

With swift movements, he put both his arrow guns together, watching them charge up, kicking up the air around him, ruffling his clothes and blocking an oncoming attacks from heartless; pointing the huge arrow gun straight at the Lightside with both hands and a ball of fire form, growing huge and creating large amounts of heat. "This should take out the lesser heartless trying to attack it."

Cam pulled the trigger with his forefinger, the fire ball go flying straight for the Lightside, setting the lesser kitten heartless on fire, detaching a few of them from the Lightside and be engulfed by flames. A few hearts fly in midair and disappear out of existence. "I hope that guy can handle himself up there." He said aloud, worn down a little by the pervious fights he had with the Lion heartless roaming about and being squeezed tightly to death like a doll from the Darkside.

~Pretend Hero~

Kaze quieted down when he didn't get an answer out of Reforge; respecting the man with immense power and watched him take on the Lion heartless. Despite a few others arriving on the scene, the force of the comet above their heads crashing down atop of the Boss Lion heartless was quite a feat, causing him to fall a step back from the powerful blow, twisting Nocturnal in his left hand for a firmer grip on it and the wreckage caused by such a blow.

Any of the armor that had been attached to Lion heartless was gone, the crater beneath it huge; making Kaze glance at Reforge. "Someone with immense power...might be stronger than myself. I will obtain that power...by brute force if I have to." He thought to himself, glancing briefly at the Lion heartless, lay there pitifully.

"Now, to go and see what all this commotion is really about. I knew that there was a reason I came here today,"

"Already leaving? Just when things were getting more entertaining," Kaze spoke quietly, watching the naked man go, "I'll finish this before you can-?!" The roar of the Lion heartless cut him off, causing his hair to stand on end, a shiver wracking his body in alarm as it looked completely healed from just minutes ago. "Something is dabbling in this. I can smell it." He thought, sniffing the air, casting glances at Riku and noting it wasn't coming from him.

Watching the Lion heartless bound up the wall with quick haste, leaping across roofs, Kaze quickly followed after it. Having used the emergency ladder like stairs, he hurried along the roof tops, taking great strides before leaping across them and positioning himself in one spot; instead of assisting in battle, he waited. "I'll consume their power when they weaken each other from taking care of the Lightside...or perhaps, I'll take out that keyblade wielder first."

An immense heat drew his attention away from the huge Lightside and the two opponents on top, below was his brother, several yards away, unsteady on his feet and grinning foolishly at the amount of power he displayed; the large fireball making a huge impact. Kaze merely shook his head, flare of annoyance at the sight of him appearing and kept his eyes trained on the battle waging before him. Awaiting an opening to strike.

 

[Shinra]

-Despair-

As Renn drove further and further into the throes of hopelessness and the heartless just kept multiplying He suddenly was almost stepped upon by a giant light based foot that contrasted the concrete tones of the streets and skyscrapers. He fell back on his butt and looked right up at the titan of light, he saw it resembled a darkside, but it had pink eyes and a golden white toned color of skin. And on the shoulder of the giant Lightside as he decided to call it, was an unknown figure. But upon the titan were the kitten heartless scattered among it's celestial form. He had recharged one spell and he was nearing what he called the verge, it was a term that Deadpool and Renn came up with when they felt that they were about to cross into using their individual command styles. "Drift!" And with the casting of Zero Gravira Renn was clad in a violet aura and he did a small twirl as his feet rose off the ground by about three inches. "Spellblade! Heaven Riser!" He now had the means to reach the top of the Lightside without a problem. Using the tiny kitten heartless as focus points he could use his attacks to reach higher and higher on the mass of the giant heartless. Slaughtering three of the small Lion heartless on his way up, He reached the opposite shoulder of the lightside without many problems as the heartless were too occupied with clawing the way up the Lightside. He soon saw the biggest of these heartless and he saw he could use it to reach the other shoulder. He was also about to unleash his resolving finisher. He jumped off the shoulder and triggered it, Undying resolve swept under his feet and he charged into the heartless like a hoverboard rider knocking it off the Lightside then it appeared in his grip again as he did a rising spin attack and Renn used the height to land on the other shoulder of the Lightside. "Just who are you and why are you terrorizing this world with this... thing?" He referred to the Lightside as he pointed his keyblade at Reforge.

 

[Lunarmaster54]

~Step into a fight~

They stepped out of the portal and into chaos.

The girl hadn’t been lying after all, the monsters were everywhere. The innocents of the crowd were running around and trying to get away and only having a little bit of success. Some of them did indeed get away but most of them the lions got to. The lion heartless got them and created even more heartless which added to the overall problem because those heartless made even more of them.

It was a cycle of sorts and it needed to end right now.

Kingdom Key appeared in Sora’s hand in its usual flash of glory and he merely gave it a disdainful glance before jumping forward to cut down a shadow and land a few hits on the nearest lion. The lion didn’t like that and it tried to slash at him with its claws and Sora jumped back out of the way, eyes narrowed. The lion had no emblem. Yet he’d never ever seen a heartless like this one before. In fact he was pretty sure he’d seen them all at one point or another, yet this lion proved that theory wrong. The man and beast traded blows for a minute before Sora smacked it into a nearby wall. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the gang from Destiny Islands beginning to show up one at a time. Sora dashed through the crowd and stopped another lion from digging its claws into a woman, giving this one a solid kick to the face to send it away. He looked back at her but she was too busy glaring at his key and then at him to give him any sort of thank you. She huffed and walked away.

“Stop standing around and help us!”

Crowley had arrived it seemed, taking out heartless right and left. Sora shook his head and looked around for the girl who had lead them all here but couldn’t see her anywhere with all of the fighting going on. He mumbled a curse and had just jumped back into the fray when black helicopters arrived in the sky, three of them. They came closer to the chaos and men began to jump out of them. Men carrying large swords and dressed in sleeveless turtle-neck sweaters and baggy pants, with leather accents to hold their armor in place.

Sora narrowed his eyes. Now what?

~Take back what’s mine~

The blood, darkness and death was getting to Harmony as she looked around for the source of the problem. Her keyblade. Her keyblade was currently acting as the thing that connected this universe and the one she had just come from. She had to get her hands on it or the lion heartless would just keep coming.

Or worse. Liberty would come.

Harmony shoved that thought out of her mind as she keep going, using magic spells to keep the enemies away from her and hoping her magic would hold out for just a little bit longer. If Liberty came here then everyone would die. Harmony already had a lot of death on her hands and she didn’t want to be responsible for a crazy witch to arrive and spark a war or something. Precious minutes slipped past before the girl finally saw it, stuck in the ground and pulsing with nearly blinding light, with lion heartless still coming out of it every now and then. Harmony swore and tried to get closer only to be knocked down by a pulse of energy. Figures. She held her hand out to it, willing it to her and throwing everything she had into her call.

“I SUMMON FORTH THE KEY OF DESTINY!”

It was a summon call they everyone who had one had been taught, yet stopped using after they learned how to control it and nonverbally summon it in a flash of light. Only a newbie would use this call but it was still a way to get your keyblade to you. But it looked as though hers was being stubborn. Merely wiggling a little. She growled, reaching out a little farther. This had to stop..

Finally it shot out of the ground and into her hand and the moment her hand wrapped around it pain shot through her body. Harmony screamed, feeling as though her nerves were on fire. She dropped to her knees as the key tried to tug its way out of her rapidly weakening grip but she doubled it, knowing what would happen if she let go and the connection was not broken. Her vision began to blur as darkness began to fill her line of vision. She could feel herself growing weaker and weaker by the second as she hugged the key to her chest and collapsed onto her knees, tears steaming down her cheeks at the pain.

Until finally it all stopped. The pain subsided and the key stopped trying to pull away from her. The connection was broken and no more heartless would be coming that weren’t already there. She smiled a little before strong hands grabbed her by the arms and yanked her up. There were men everywhere now dressed in the same turtle-neck sweater and carrying oversized swords. She found herself carried up on a platform and tossed in front of a figure in a hood, a hood that was lowered to reveal a dark skinned man with a large afro. He smiled at her good-naturedly as she fidgeted and her eyes darted around for a way off the platform and away from him. However that quickly stopped when a gun was pointed at her forehead.

“I’d be still if I were you” he commented “Your key interrupted my speech and so my trigger finger is a little itchy. Once my friends in the sweaters get the situation down there settled I have a new one to make”

She gulped and nodded, looking out at the people below her. The men with the swords were helping Sora and the rest fight off the remaining heartless (was that a lightside?) and get the wounded off to safer places to be healed.

“Who are they?” she asked quietly.

The man lowered his gun. “That’s SOILDER. A special part of Midgar’s military force. My group, Hikari, was given temporary control over them for the day in case any funny business happened. Although they should have been here a long time ago..” he shook his head and grumbled before brightening again “I’m Sazh, the leader of Hikari. and you my young friend, are my new scapegoat”

 

[Hazen Gregory]

Having named itself Corbinek, the Lightside had further given itself an identity, marking its own being and becoming fully sentient, among other heartless. Corbinek had rapidly evolved from a monstrosity of heartless matter and the essence of light to a self sustaining Titan of Heaven. In hastening the growth of the heartless' manifestation of a conscience Reforge realized that he'd done something much more extensive than originally planned. It had only been his intention to draw out the one responsible for the feline heartless invasion.

"You think a bunch of pussy cats can bring this thing down??" Reforge had to chuckle at this new man that had managed to scale the side of Corbinek and reach the same perch as the keymage. "And just who are you??" Reforge pressed the tips of his pointer finger and middle finger up against the left side of his head behind the larger horn...a smug expression forming shorly after. "Hmm?? Renn is it?? As you can see, my friend here is being jumped by these kitty heartless, hold on a sec kayy??"

Reforge's eyes opened the wheel lines in them pulsing with light and spinning rapidly. Corbinek then started to heat up, the white hot glow of the heartless' body was tremendous and yet both Reforge and Renn stood fine. Corbinek's burning aura was not meant to harm complete beings. The heat intensified, enough to the point that the lesser heartless were incinerated, their bodies not strong enough to withstand the intense heat and light essence beaming around them. Their left over particles were accumulated by Corbinek and used to bond together the torn farbic of light caused by the attacking creatures. More so the radiating power of light had halted the flow of previously advancing darkness upon the Lightside, the tentacles had been completely burnt away by the essence of light.

Reforge walked to the right of where Renn was standing in his way to move reach Corbinek's neck. Having a keyblade pointed at him was the least of his worries at that point, the masked figure across the way could watch as Reforge knealt down and began muttering, causing varying glyph marks to appear on the healing 'flesh' of the heartless titan. Like Corbinek's eyes, pink illuminated from each glyph and then each died out before it faded away completely, leaving no mark or even evidence of having been there "OH HOLY STARS...BRING JUDGMENT FROM THE SKY...LET HEAVEN'S WRATH DROP A BOLT DOWN FROM THE BLUE...ERADICATE OUR FOES WITH THE GRACE OF PURE BLUE..."

"HOLY BOLT!!!"

"BLIZZIJA"

Solider had showed up in the midst of Corbinek being attacked but the two combined magics of the tier four spells sent forth a great thunderclap of sound, the skies spraying down light magic that ranged in size from smaller pellets to moderately sized comets surrounded by frozen essence. Reforge and Corbinek's arms both moved and directed the magical spell around to destroy the cat heartless that had been attacking, "Whew that was a bit much." Ref snickered, having used up a nice bit of magic when casting Blizzija. Solider arriving could be both good, or bad...rather their actions could go in either direction. not that Reforge actually cared what they did. He'd blow anybody that did the wrong thing around him to a place they had no idea existed.

"Okay, you were asking me my name?? Asking me why I'm ruining the city with Corbinek here??" Reforge sat on the heated spot closest to the center of Corbinek's shoulder, "My name is Reforge. If you remember correctly, a darkside was originally moving around the city knocking into buildings and summoning heartless. I changed it to a Lightside and then the heartless began attacking US." Ref pointed over to the masked figured standing on the hill overlooking the edge of the metropolis. "I'd say you might wanna question them," Renn was a bit closer than most people would get to a guy with horns that was both naked and had glowing tattoos everywhere, "So...maybe you want to gauge your situation before I summon my keyblade and incinerate you..."