As the rain fell, Ryteb began to laugh. This was no natural rain, but instead a conjuration by a mage. Obviously Retsam had been expecting his arrival, and probably had magical sensors all over the town. Not to mention that he had apparently taught others the ways of magic, a heinous act for one not recognised as a Master, but then again so was destroying your homeworld.

The youth exited the allyway to find a street filled with Heartless and Nazis, though something was off about the dark beings. They were the typical Soldier heartless you got when a townsperson becomes a Heartless, but at the same time there was a militaristic discipline to them that was quite unlike the conventional Heartless. Around their necks were magical collars, which seemed to be linked to a floating orb. It looked to be a modified version of a communication orb, housed in some abominable technological contraption. Did the bastard have no respect for magic anymore? Upon his exit onto the street, a group of these strange Heartless began to move to attack the youth. Well, Fire magic was as good as sealed by this downpour, so perhaps a different technique was in order. Let's see, Lightning was probably a bad idea, and Air was mostly a utility element. That left either water or earth. Hmm... let's be educational.

Ryteb took a breath, and started to speak. "Right, so there are 5 core elements in magic, each of whom is strong against one but weak against another. Simple stuff, but what's interesting is what happens when you apply a technique from one element to another. Aero functions by vibrating the air to form a powerful gust of wind, but what if you applied this to the ground? Behold, Quake!"

As he said this, he preformed a series of gestures similar to the casting of Aero, but at the point of release, he slammed his hand into the ground, causing the ground in front of him to wildly shake and erupt, instantly killing some of the Heartless, and gravely injuring the rest.

"And for my next trick, I'll make good use of this weather. Shall we turn this light shower into a deluge? Watera!"

This time he gestured, and the water that was around them began to pool into a tidal wave that washed over the Heartless, wiping out the stragglers. That was one group down, and an entire city to get through, as well as Retsam. He turned his head around, and addressed the others.

"Did anyone remember the packed lunches? I told them this would take a while..." As he said this, he summoned his keyblade, and readied himself for another Quake. Quake was one of his most stamina draining spells, but with this storm preventing him from utilizing the Thunder and Fire lines, it was his only powerful offensive spell. Not good.

@ShadowVentus @SMS

"Ah... tanks? Someone's getting serious." as he spoke, Seth noted a certain level of hesitance from his opposition. The men on motorcycles did not yet open fire, and strangely enough the possessed tanks didn't either. Either they were frightened of the Nobody, or somebody warned them about him. He had to admit that was probably the smart thing to do, advising these people to be cautious and to let their opponent make the first move. Seth wouldn't have that, though. He'd make sure they were the ones who attacked first, even if he had to force it out of them.

With that in mind, Seth made a sudden move, literally punching the ground he was standing on. All forces opened fire, naturally, but the machine gun rounds and even the Darkness-infused cannon shots from tanks only hit sand. Striking the ground made a literal dome of sand appear around the Nobody. Naturally, the the sand was compacted tightly to add to its toughness, and even if parts of the dome were broke it quickly repaired itself as if regenerating. Within the dome, Seth grinned to himself, "Well that's a start. Time for step two." even as he spoke he made four sculptures of himself out of sand within the dome, and let his own Darkness take hold of them to give them movement and - for lack of a better word - life. For his next trick, Seth let the sand dome fall when the gunfire stopped. They were either out of ammo, or they were checking to see if the Nobody was dead yet. Either way, it was still an opening. The men and the three Heartless saw what looked like five moving sculptures of sand grinning at them. They correctly guessed that one of them had to be the real Seth merely covered by sand as a disguise. But the real question was: which one was he? Even the Heartless couldn't be certain. After all, Seth's Darkness was spread to all five figures, so they couldn't use that method to track him. While they could also normally track someone through their Heart... Seth was a Nobody and therefore had no Heart that could be tracked. For all intents and purposes, the Nobody was pretty much invisible.

Of course, Seth was now exerting himself more than before. He normally could rely on his black coat to conceal his presence and power from potential enemies. Unfortunately, that coat was now being worn by Drake, so Seth was essentially on the proverbial radar, and anyone on this Earth or maybe even the neighboring ones could now feel his presence. Whelp, I'm on the grid right now anyway... may as well just run with it. If subtlety wasn't an option, then Seth would have to do this the not-so-subtle way. All five figures moved at once, darting in separate directions. The Soviets revved their engines and gave chase while the three tanks struggled to keep the agile figures within their line of fire. The trouble with tanks is that while they can be a godsend in certain situations, against foes who could move like Seth... their weapons were near useless.

Two motorcycle troops gassed their engines and sped toward one of the sand figures from opposite directions, and both opened fire with their mounted machine gun. The bullets flew, hitting the figure and... passing right through it? It was one of the fakes, and by the time the two riders realized their mistake it was too late. Their shots went through the sandy golem and they may as well have just shot each other. Both their bikes lost control and crashed right into each other. They appeared to sandwich the golem but it simply blew apart into sand and then reformed itself nearby elsewhere, none the worse for ware. Another of the figures found themselves caught between two of the Heartless-possessed tanks. Both opened fire, but the figure sidestepped, leaving a Corridor of Darkness in his place. This had to be the real Seth, but the motorcycle troops were too distracted by the other golems to notice. Both shots were fired at a downward angle, so it was trouble for the tanks when the Corridor's destination appeared just above the first opening, giving the two shots a downward angle from above and hitting the tanks square in the upper body. This basically disabled the cannons and forced the Heartless within to abandon ship and look for something else to possess. They didn't get far before both were pelted by seemingly endless energy bolts until they were vaporized. If Seth was dropping subtlety for this fight, that would include his usual policy of saving his Snipers for emergencies, and this the lesser Nobodies appeared in droves to take potshots all over the battlefield.

As for Seth himself, he jumped up on one of the disabled tanks and tore off one of his gloves. He balled his newly bare hand into a fist and punched the cannon barrel, it snapping right off like breaking a toothpick. He slid the glove back on and then grasped one end of the cannon barrel with his hands. From there, he proceeded to pole vault into the center of motorcycle troops, making sure to kick up a miniature sandstorm to obstruct everyone's vision. Still grasping the barrel from the tank, Seth spun his body around, actually wielding the thing like a giant bo staff and proceeding to knock riders off their bikes as if swinging for a home run. He noticed the last few of them driving his way and held the cannon by its center and tossed it at them so it would become a big metal clothesline for them to crash into. That left just one tank. It fired, but Seth was faster on the draw, "Stopra!" he cast spell, targeting the projectile more than the tank itself, and it indeed stopped in mid-trajectory. Seth was fast, closing the distance before the tank could ready another shot. He jumped on top, and then used the Fist of Destruction to literally blow a hole into the hatch that he could use to enter. Once inside, Seth cut loose, punching and wrecking as much as he could until he found where the Heartless was hiding and forcibly yanking it out and throwing it up out of the hatch, "Haste!" Seth called without missing a beat, chasing down the Heartless at double-time thanks to the spell. It tried to run, the Possessor making for one of the crashed motorcycles. Seth was hot on its heels, running along the length of the cannon and using it to give him the necessary height to launch an aerial strike at the floating Heartless. And strike he did, Seth had more momentum than usual thanks to the Haste spell and letting the gravity of his jump do the rest. He practically punched right through the Heartless, it having what looked like a gaping hole in its gaseous body before it burst into dark particles to signify its defeat.

As for the Nobody, Seth hit the ground with a tumble and rolled back to his feet with a slide, "He turned around to look at his handiwork, both the golems and the Snipers vanishing as they were dismissed, "How's that for 'anti-tank'?" Seth asked himself with a grin, chuckling as he stuffed his hands back into his pockets. Of course, he did all that while lacking his coat. Anyone and everyone that could potentially sense him on this world and possibly even those neighboring it, no doubt did now. Seth could only hope that wouldn't come back to bite him later.

This was the first time Mai had been teleported somewhere without the use of a Corridor. And it felt so surreal for her. Her senses were thrown off the moment she appeared in their destination. It took her several seconds to get her bearings, nearly tripping over her feet in the process. After making sure she wouldn't throw up after everything, she took a good look at her surroundings. "So uh... where are we again? Germany was it?" A question to no one in particular. They were currently in an alleyway, and the smell wasn't too inviting.

Clogging her nose with her fingers, she responds to Ryteb's comment about breaking Retsam's toys. "What kinds of toys are we expecting?" She secretly had hoped the toys in question weren't living humans or the like.

Before she got her answer, the atmosphere suddenly darkened, and rain soon followed. The rain itself wasn't too heavy, but her vision had started becoming obscured. Without an umbrella or anything to shield her, she had gotten drenched. "Ah come on! I just got this cleaned!" Drenched clothing was often heavy, a kimono blouse like hers especially. The girl was quick to take it off, revealing her plain white sleeveless blouse that allowed freer movement for her arms, and wasn't as heavy when soaked. She tied the sleeves of her kimono around her waist, not wanting to lose it.

She followed their magician companion when he rushed out of the alleyway to meet the Heartless. Like Ryteb, she had also noted that these Heartless were orderly. A trait that she had associated with Dusk Nobodies than this type of Heartless. In the now heavy rain, Mai relied on the Heartless' glowing eyes to locate and track them. The boy had suddenly started saying science-y things and opened fire on the Heartless with his magic. "Hey, shouldn't we assess the situation first or something before we do something dangerous?"

Although the group of Heartless in their immediate vicinity were taken out, there was no way the other groups weren't alerted by the sudden wave of magic erupting in the middle of the city. Mai materialized her Keyblade in her hand as she prepared herself for the inevitable battle that was to come. "I'll make you lunch when we get back. Focus on the present for now."

In the distance, she could see a group of Heartless heading their way. "So, I assume we're just going to beat these guys until your buddy shows up right?" Fighting in the rain didn't sound exciting for her. Her senses were going to be impaired in the midst of it, so she will likely sustain some injuries in this situation.

@Ryteb Pymeroce@Letter Bee@SMS

"You should stick to the sidelines. Retsam will make even quicker work of you if you exhaust yourself on these pitiful Heartless..." Taka states to Ryteb, already forming a negative opinion of the mage. He had allowed Mai and Ryteb to go ahead of him, taking the opportunity to open a Corridor and switch from his black coat to an outfit more fitting for the world they were in. They would see him now garbed in an olive green military jacket, brown cargo pants, black gloves, and black combat boots. Cheese's charm is still on his right wrist and his face is still concealed by a hood. "In fact, at this rate, you may as well let me take care of Retsam..." The Nobody remarks, caring less about his petty revenge. He then turns to face Mai, getting a read on her emotions just by looking her in the eyes. "If you need a coat, I'm willing to lend you my black one. It will not only keep you dry, but will also keep you off the radar..." He offers. As he waits for her response, he materializes his blade as well, switching back in forth towards his usual backhanded method, to the normal fronthanded way everyone is used to seeing.

“Hold the phone.” Cheese stopped abruptly. “Didn’t you say that the Heartless were down this way?” She asked Judah.

Mac halted a little bit ahead of her with his attention mostly focussed on his phone. He tapped the screen almost in time to the droplets of rain rolling off his umbrella.

“I’m sure we’ll be fine.” He sent off the little message, just a status update to those on The Ruler of the Sea. “After all we’ve held our own against worse…well we survived at least.”

“Not with your leg like that.” Cheese grumbled and moved towards him “At least let me heal it so you’re not as useless as you were last time.”

“I said I’m fine!” Mac snapped. His injured leg had been roughly bandaged with what remained of that trouser leg. “I can take care myself y’know, don’t need you around constantly saving my arse.”

Cheese simply scoffed. Hopefully they weren't too far from Lucy's.

Team Mai, Taka, Ryteb

Yep, Ryteb would need food to keep up his rampage, although strangely, the Heartless swarm was focusing on Mai, trying to get past Ryteb and Taka in order to 'kill' her. Squad after squad of Heartless, as well as Restam's 'pupils', paid only the smallest attention to Ryteb and Taka, dying in droves in order to get at the Japanese girl, hurling bolts of shadow, ice, and even armor-piercing bullets at their target.

It was highly likely Mai would be hit, and when that happened, the group's hopes would be in danger. If Mai did get hit, or at least put in danger, a portal would then open up above the group, revealing a handsome, arrogant-looking man in robes like Ryteb's, only with a golden trim all along their edge.

It was Restam.

((Ryteb can control Restam after this if he wants; all I ask is that Restam put more priority on attacking Mai than messing with everyone else))

Team Drake and Seth

"Obviously you can guess," Lavinia said in the large chamber that did serve as the Kremlin's throne room. "Of course she told us about your powers. Now, why don't you be a good boy and just die already?" Bittings then appeared on the blade of her scythe; she was a Keyblader as well!

"Now, Irrigation...with Vodka!" Lavinia then conjured up a fire pressure hose that sprayed potent liqour at Drake, which the enemy Nobody then lit with a match, turning it into a crude flamethrower, setting fire to large sections of the room. To keep the chamber from collapsing, however, Lavinia also conjured up several dripping wet giant apple trees on the room's far corners to hold the ceiling up.

Seth, meanwhile, would find the Soviet soldiers and vehicles retreating...only to find a Darkside* rising up in front of him, summoning small Shadows to surround Seth, before punching down at him!

((SuperTinyKing, requesting that you send one of your NPCs to battle Seth))

*khwiki.com/Darkside

Team v2, Mac, and Cheese

Lucille 'Lucy' Bolt's mechanics shop had just closed for the day, and Lucy, a young blonde woman in mechanics' clothes, whose hair was tied in a bun, would then wave to Judah, saying:

"Hey, Issac! Who are your new friends and - shouldn't you heal the one with the gaping leg wounds?!"

"He's not willing to be healed," was Judah's curt answer. "But, glad to see you too. These are...emissaries from the Moogles, they have something to talk about with us."

"Oh," Lucy looked surprised at that. "Well, let me just clean up, and I'll prepare some tea -"

"Won't be necessary," Judah was curt, "this will just take a little while." He would then turn towards the others:

"So, what does The Empire want with me, or rather, me and Lucy?"

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

"Nah, I can't move too well in those things," doing a shooing motion with her free hand as she expressed her unwillingness on wearing a robe. While she hasn't worn one, she wasn't a fan of it just based on looking. It appeared to be stuffy and difficult to move in, despite how Taka made it seem during their little duel a week back. "I'm alright with what I have, thanks."

It would appear that the rain had really dulled her senses. As the girl barely dodged an attack from a Heartless behind her by jumping to the right. "Where'd that come fro-" Before she could finish the thought, she found herself avoiding a barrage of attacks from a few Heartless that were within her reach.

Jumping back to give herself some space, she almost slipped from the wet ground. Quick to recover, she was swift at dispatching the Heartless that were rushing towards her with a few swings from her Keyblade.

As soon as the few she had defeated disappeared, several more replaced them. The several, replaced by many. The many, by even more. "Is there no end to them?", she thought as she blocked a heavy swing from one of the larger Heartless. Their numbers and aggressiveness were more than she was used to fighting, and as such, she had already been sustaining damage and injuries here and there. Although the injuries themselves were mostly minor, they do start piling up. The magic-based ones especially. Her movements began slugging down a little, losing their sharpness and quickness.

Her thoughts briefly wandered towards her companions. "Oh crap, where's Taka and Ryteb?" Mai had gotten distracted by the sudden swarm of Heartless converging on her, that she wasn't able to keep track of her allies. In between strikes and dodges, she tried to locate them. But the pouring rain had been hampering her vision a lot, and it was difficult to see more than several feet away from her.

In the midst of her battle with the Heartless, she had failed to notice the new player that had entered the scene above them.

You know, Taka's comment didn't really bother Ryteb, but the fact that the enemies were just ignoring him and Taka really pissed him off. To cap it all off, the king bastard himself had appeared. He garbed himself in the robe of a master, making his appearance even more infuriating. The darkness swirled around his feet, allowing him to float above everyone else.

"Ah, the Emperor's Lackeys..." he spoke, with that arrogant tone that always pissed off Ryteb, "And the Seeker as well... Lavina is going to freak out when she learns about this." He let out a chuckle, but there was little humour to the laugh. It put the listeners in mind of a cat who has just cornered a particularly juicy mouse. Raising his hand, the bastard made a gesture. Heartless were sucked towards him, and melted down into darkness. The darkness coalesced into a dark spear, which he sent flying towards Mai.

If Ryteb was pissed before, he was positively livid now. How dare Retsam ignore him, how dare he act like a master, and how fucking dare he attack someone other than him. Using Stonra, he used the rubble caused by his quakes, and other mages' attacks, to form a shield to block the spear. Well, fine then. If Retsam was ignoring him, then he'll just have to make him notice him. He took a deep breath and began to chant.

"These are the paths of Destruction. The Water extinguishes Fire, Fire consumes the Air, the Air erodes the Earth, the Earth nullifies Lightning, Lightning destroys the Water." As he chanted, energy began to crackle around him, blasting back any Heartless that got too close, "These are the paths of Creation. From the burning of Flames comes the ash of Earth, from the mountains of Earth comes the rivers of Water, from the boiling of Water comes the clouds of Air, from the storms of Air comes the ferocity of Lightning, from the striking of Lightning comes the beginnings of Fire. I call forth the Lightning to break the power of Water and create the strength of Fire."

As he finished the chant, energy that had been forming around him condensed into an orb. As soon as it had formed, it shot off towards the centre of the rainstorm before exploding in a brilliant flash of light. When the light returned to normal, the rainstorm had evaporated, both clearing everyone's line of sight and allowing Ryteb to use his offensive techniques again. At the same time, it had also taken a bunch of energy out of him. His stomach began to growl in hunger.

"Food. Now. Baka." Ryteb growled at Taka, clutching his stomach and dropping down to his knees. Overhead, Retsam began to laugh again, though this time there was a sick joy to it.

"Well, well, well... I didn't notice that the golden goose was accompanied by a fox pup. I guess it must be hunting season. Gentlemen, if you would." He gestured, and his army redoubled their assault, now slightly focusing on the hunger stricken Ryteb, but Mai was still their main target. "Food..." Ryteb groaned as the Heartless were beating the crap out of him.

@SMS @ShadowVentus

Seems like this one’s in a hurry, or is easily angered, I wonder? Drake thought before he noticed her Scythe had changed into a Keyblade. He sighed, “Great, another one using a massive key. Seriously? Do you people just stick that into people and unlock their deaths or something?” that was a terrible joke. Drake suddenly jumped to the side and began to dodge the flames as she spared the molten hot liquor around the chamber. The ceiling started to fall from the increased temperature, but Lavinia summoned trees of all things to keep it from crushing them. After he found his footing and checked to make sure he wasn’t on fire. He came up with a plan. Her attitude and the way she held herself made him assume she might anger easily. So he decided to test that theory.

“Well, this is the first time a woman offered me a drink. Usually I’m the one offering the drink,” Drake said as he stuck his sword into the ground. He took out the rust red slender cylinder from his coat pocket. The tip opened and small rust red pill dropped out. Drake quickly took the pill and swallowed it. He placed the cylinder back into his pocket and picked up his sword and added, “Of course I’d only offer the pretty ones a drink. Maybe a few more shots will make you more attractive.” Drake spun his sword and let it rest on his right shoulder as a sly smile formed on his face. He needed to not only test his theory, but stall for time for the pill to take effect.

The pill was called Eagle Eye. The nanobots in the pill were specialized in enhancing a person’s sight and processing speed. It wouldn’t grant him super vision, but allow him to see and process at a much faster speed for a short while. 90 seconds to be exact. He readied himself for her next attack and knew he would have to eventually shot her the full extent of his powers.

@Ryteb Pymeroce@SMS@Letter Bee

Sparing no time for precautions, Taka simply created an easy fix to their dilemma by opening up two Corridors. The first one appears on Ryteb, moving him out of harm's way and into what appears to be a bazaar, lined with vendors selling all sorts of wares and consumables. Of course, there was sure to be a soul there kind enough to aid a collapsed man such as himself.

As for the walking target that is Mai, that's where the second Corridor comes in. It opens right in front of her, sending out a volley of swords created out of darkness towards the incoming Heartless, piercing through them in droves.

"Retsam, do you not remember me? Not that I don't appreciate your help, but this is my mission...please let me follow through with it." Taka calls to him, quickly reacting to a Large Body heading towards him, leaping above it, dealing a clean blow to its head, it dissipating behind him as he lands. Seeing this person in particular made him remember something he was told about Mai before he originally met her. However, the sentence he recalled was fragmented, certain words censored by static as they echoed in his mind. "*bzzt* the Seeker...and *bzzt*...that is your mission..."

“Great, another one using a massive key. Seriously? Do you people just stick that into people and unlock their deaths or something?”

The sound of Drake's voice in his ear made Seth do a double take before he remembered the earpiece things they were both wearing. Oh right... forgot about these things. Since they could still communicate Seth decided to shoot Drake an answer to his question, "Well, I mean... you're not entirely wrong." the Nobody said with a bit of a shrug that no one would see since he was alone. At least, he was alone up until a moment later.

Another Heartless appeared, a big fella too. He had to be a good five or six times bigger than an average human adult. It had bulky, muscular arms and a gaping hole in its torso in the shape of a Heart, "Heheh..." Seth chuckled to himself, having only just now realized the symbolism of a Heart-shaped hole, "I get it... because you're Heartless and - you know what? I doubt a beast like you is going to appreciate the joke anyway." it certainly didn't, as the Heartless proceeded to summon a squad of Shadows that tried to encircle the Nobody. This elicited a sigh of disappointment, "Really? We're going with this song and dance?" Seth said then proceeded to shrug and give his Heartless opponent a wide, unsettling grin complete with his right eye lighting up with a bright blue glow.

The Shadows lunged for an attack, but soon found themselves riddled with arrow-shaped energy shots. Seth's Snipers, still hanging around despite their previous target's retreat, cleared away the wave of Shadows so that their commander could focus squarely on the Darkside who, by the way, went about throwing its fist at the Nobody in a giant punch. Seth's response was to... seemingly stand there and take it head on, which he did. The massive fist stopped just short of Seth's body, the Nobody having caught the punch with his hands using his own considerable strength. The Darkside was still slightly stronger, proven by the fact that the impact of the punch still pushed the Nobody back a few feet. But Seth, still the smarter of the two, used this setup to his advantage. With its arm now pointed squarely down at him, Seth now had a direct path leading right up to the Darkside's face.

Seth was quick to act, his earlier Haste spell having not quite run out yet. He hopped up and dashed along the Darkside's arm before making a leap for the head. Once there he unleashed a flurry of swift punches, then followed that up by spinning his body around in order to slam his knee and shin on the side of the Heartless' head, effectively delivering a devastating spin just before the law of gravity forced Seth to land back on the ground.

“He’s being a git.” Cheese added from a respectable distance away from the metal tools and items littering the shop.

“I said I’m fine.” Mac swayed.

There was then a very ugly moment when Mac stood unnaturally still, and then he fell. Cheese swore loudly over the noise of several tools and parts being dragged down to the ground with Mac. Mac simply groaned from the floor with a few mumbles about how he was fine, though a cup of tea would be appreciated.

“V2 could you explain it to them.” Cheese sighed as she lazily walked over to Mac. “I have an idiot to deal with. Sorry about the mess by the way.”

v2 nodded, and spoke specifically to Lucy. "Please sit down."

He waited until she did so, then continued. "I imagine you have wondered at some point who the most important person in the world is. The answer is you. Please do not mistake this for gravitas or flattery. I do not engage in either. What I have just stated is objective fact, to the best of my understanding. Everything that I am about to say is."

Then he began to speak at length, bluntly and with no personal embellishment. Just the facts. The Empire, the Princesses, the Seekers, the Heartless, the Worlds, all that he understood about the nature and severity of the situation she now found herself in. He went into detail about the parts of the battle he had witnessed in France, specifically noting about he power displayed by the Seekers and their ability to appear from nowhere. He told her about the special accommodations the Empire had made for Adelle, her family, and for him personally so that he could be here. He told he about the briefing and of what even now was going on in Germany and Russia. If he did not say it, it was not something that he knew. There was no point in holding anything back when asking someone to take on so important a task.

Team Mai, Taka, Ryteb

Ryteb would find himself in the bazaar, where he would find himself able to buy some food and water in a nearby store with Tocsax's magically-warded Munny. Should he accept change, however, he would, after he ate, find a Corridor of Darkness opening up and throwing him into a dungeon filled with Anti-magic wards. If he didn't accept change for his purchase, he would find the Gummi Ship's teleporter locking on to his coordinates and teleporting him back to Restam...

Team Drake and Seth

"Me, not attractive?" Lavinia said, "stop lying to me and to yourself; I'm probably the prettiest sight you're going to see till your death." She then conjured up another hose, this time filled with just water, and used it to extinguish the raging flames, causing a cloud of steam to fill the air, although it remained to be seen whether Drake's pill's effects could see through that.

Once the steam faded, Lavinia would then be accompanied by two sets of animals; four sheepdogs and two raging bulls, which she would then order to charge at Drake!

((Supertinyking will give Seth his activity.))

Team v2, Mac, and Cheese

Lucy can only stare in disbelief as v2 gave his explanation. She would then ask Judah:

"Is it true, what they're saying?"

"Yes," spoke the albino Keyblader, "either that or they're really good at faking sincerity. But right now, I'll presume they're telling the truth."

"Well," Lucy said, "better pack up the shop, then! Guess we have a Gummi Ship to go to."

Judah blinked.

"Well, let's make the necessary arrangements for shutting down the shop and saying goodbyes, then. Good thing that both of us have little in the way of relations to bind us to this world, and thus less goodbyes."

"One question, though," Judah continued.

"What's the pay?"

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

Mai continued to hold her ground, but with the sheer number of Heartless that were attacking her, she was being pushed back. "There is no end to them," as she cuts down another wave that was swarming her.

She was given a bit of breathing room when a Corridor opened in front of her and took care of the Heartless that were on the opposite side of it. Quickly, she attended to the ones that were behind her and cleared them when they tried to jump on her with one hard swing of her Keyblade.

After a moment, the rain seemed to stop. "Did Ryteb do something about it?" As the rain cleared out, her vision and hearing had begun to improve, however little they could given her situation.

Mai was panting hard. Sweat and blood trickling down her face and body. "How many has it been? A hundred, I think?" She was struggling to keep herself standing and hold her Keyblade. Her injuries and fatigue was getting to her. "What is it with me today? I usually don't get tired this easily even with the injuries." The girl remembers hitting the bed early last night, and eating a good breakfast before they were summoned for this mission. Is something else draining her energy?

"Where's Taka and Ryteb at?" She was hoping her companions were alright. Ever since the Heartless began swarming her, she wasn't able to keep track of where they were.

As she was catching her breath, she heard a number of weapons being loaded and cocked to her front and sides. "When did they-...?" Her head turned towards the group of soldiers had been able to line themselves up a ways from her and eyed them. "Crap, I let my guard down." Their weapons were drawn and pointing towards her. She knew she was screwed if she tried to move. Their bullets would fly at her faster than she could anticipate them firing their weapons.

"How am I gonna get out of this?"

As the soldiers readied their weapons, the electrified air began to buzz in front of Mai. It began to form into a humanoid shape, and then with an explosion of light, Ryteb appeared. He no longer had that pained look of hunger, instead replaced with his usual air of mischief. Rubbing his head, he looked around to see the soldiers preparing again to fire at him and Mai. Chuckling, he said;

"See, a melee fighter would be useless here. I mean, there's about a hundred of you, and you all have gonnes. But unfortunately for you guys... Fira."

Ordinarily, this spell wouldn't be that powerful, but Ryteb held the keyblade Prometheus, and the electrified environment naturally boosted fire magic. Fire roared through the street around Ryteb and Mai, incinerating anything that dared to enter their path. When the flames died down, the young mage turned to his companion, and gave a broad grin.

"...I'm a sorcerer!" he said, chuckling slightly. Being able to properly use fire magic again felt so good. It was like eating your favourite foods, the moment you experience it you remember why it was so very delicious.

---

Retsam tapped his head in thought. After a few seconds, he lowered his hand and began to make a gesture. Around Taka, the Heartless began to combine into two large massive orbs of darkness. The orbs began to crack, and exploded into two Guard Armors, ready to destroy Taka.

"Honestly, you just seem to be a nuisance... so I'll let these guys handle you..."

Drake looked around to find were Seth was and then remembered he had sent the communication bug towards him. He shook his head and said, “All kidding aside, when you get a chance. You might want to find Stalin since I got my hands full. Don’t need him to get away.” Drake then turned his attention back to Lavinia.

“Sorry to say, but you’re not that attractive to me. I’m the least likely person to lie on this team since I really don’t have the same motivation as the others,” Drake said before he continued, “Unlike the others, I’m just here because I was hired to be here. I’m not interested in saving the world just the money that comes with it. I’m just doing a job.” Drake’s smile subsided when she summoned animals to her side after dousing the fire.

“I’ve got to say, you using a Scythe and now summoning animals. You’re really brining back some memories I’d rather not remember,” Drake said just before the animals charged at him. The pills he took started to take affect and he began to dodge the animal’s attacks. He wasn’t about to bring his sword down on any of them since he didn’t trust them to just disappear. He’d been down that road before: slice the head off a dog, just to have the body grow and new head and the head grow a new body. He didn’t want to chance doubling the animals he’d have to face.

As he dodged another attack from a bull he started taunting, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were flirting with me since you’re not actually fighting at full power. I’d be flattered, but then I’d also say you’d need to be a bit prettier to actually attempt that.” Drake’s smile reformed on his face as he thought, I need to end this now.

He skidded back as he dodged another attack and quickly sheathed his sword before he grabbed his revolvers from their holsters. He pointed them at Lavinia as small sparks of lightning started to spark around him. In a flash he disappeared as a crackle of thunder echoed in the air. Drake had used his Lightning to course through his body and move as fast as lightning. It was his specialty he called Lightning Rush.

Another crackle of thunder echoed and Drake appeared above Lavinia and pulled the trigger in hope the two bullets would find purchase. He had aimed both revolvers at Lavinia’s shoulders. He needed to disarm here before he could actually finish the job.

@Double @Letter Bee

"....Tick tock, goes the clock, but ching, ding, goes the grenade...Hissss, shing...goes the sword...and then boom, goes the horde.." A emotionless voice chimes, like that of a computer's. Rising from a blue point on the ground, a strange man dressed as a gentleman, with a trench coat, and a top hat. His face is hidden by an opera mask, one half, frowning, one half, smiling. He looks to the Darkside, and raises a hand, a ball of blue light appearing, before he vanishes, appearing right above the Darkside, firing his attack straight down. Should it land, it'd reduce the DarkSide..to nothing.

“So that's a yes then? For payment it depends on what you want.” Cheese shrugged, though with some air of awe. “The Empire seems to be capable of almost anything.”

Her hands were glowing a soft green over Macs leg with the worst of the tears in the skin having knitted themselves closed. Mac begrudgingly leant against a set of drawers as Cheese worked.

“From the looks of it all of us get at least some Munny.” Mac then elaborated with a deep sigh. “Not entirely certain how much that is in pounds but they can offer other stuff as well.”

For a moment, the two shared a look that spoke of conversations they had had in private. After seeing everything that the Empire could do, sometimes even without any effort at times, the pair had started to wonder if there might just be hope for their ‘situation’.

“Get a home, and three square meals a day for your troubles too.” Cheese then took a moment, with her work complete, to look around. “The ship is less draftee than this place. Do the windows rattle for you in the winter here as well?” She smiled but not fondly.

“We live here too.” Mac explained and gestured to the room around them. “In our world anyway. It’s a night club actually.”

@Letter Bee@Gentlemanvaultboy

“All kidding aside, when you get a chance. You might want to find Stalin since I got my hands full. Don’t need him to get away.”

Seth shook his head, his grin remaining unchanged, "Ah... you too?" he replied, indicating that he, too, had run into complications. At first he thought it was just the Darkside, which would have been tedious but at least relatively painless to deal with. But no, it couldn't be that simple, could it? There always had to be a monkey wrench, apparently. This particular one took the form of a masked gentleman in a trench coat.

"....Tick tock, goes the clock, but ching, ding, goes the grenade...Hissss, shing...goes the sword...and then boom, goes the horde.."

Surprisingly enough, the guy actually took out the Darkside for Seth, when the Nobody thought for sure they would be teaming up against him, "Is... is he speaking in nursery rhymes?" he cocked an eyebrow, this man was strange even by Seth's definition of the word. Regardless, Seth gave the interloper his usual chuckle, on top of never letting his wide, unsettling grin falter, "Well if boom goes the horde, then yawn yawn, I'm getting bored. See? I can do it too." the guy's creepy style of rhyme didn't sound half as scary when the Nobody just openly mocked it like that. Of course, for all Seth knew he was just pissing the stranger off.

"Whaddya say we just skip to the part where I give you a bad time. I'm on a tight schedule here." Without him even needing to move or make any indication, Seth's Snipers began opening fire on the newcomer. This was usually pretty darn effective against most folks, since they typically let themselves be too focused on Seth himself to notice the actions of his Lesser Nobodies. Although the Nobody had a sneaking suspicion that this strange fellow in a top hat wasn't quite like most people.

@supertinyking@Letter Bee