~- 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.