[IC] Star-Crossed Adventures [Altered Tundra and Diversity]

[Diversity]

The sound was what she could only compare to a train or a hurricane. It made the walls of the underground shake as she ran through the corridors and tried to reach the surface before a possible collapse occurred. Her boots hit the icy ground hard as she ran towards the opening of the light. All of her friends, where were they? There were only a few of them, a few fairies and robots who were exiled down here where Saga chose to live.

As she came above ground and finally could breathe without fear of being crushed, her crystalline dark grey eyes like quicksilver looked to the sky. Darkness loomed high like a heavenly plague, a massive beast with no center whose yellow eyes pierced the world itself. Its tangled mess of head were like black mambas writhing in the sky. His long sharpened fingers reached down and he would swipe at the earth, ripping it asunder. Darkness of shadows swirled and moved, and smaller mimicries of his yellow orbs appeared.

Saga glanced around, stunned. What was this?

"EVE!" She called out to the little white robot, wondering where she'd gone too. Was she okay?

Saga's eyes searched long and far as her dark azure hair whipped like a tidal wave around her lithe, strong form. She clenched her fists as Heartless began to spring about, bouncing and bobbing but always growing closer. Saga clenched her teeth together and made her jaw flex as her cerulean brows knit angrily. She drew from her belt two matching black and blue karambit knives. Their curved blades stuck out from the outsides of her hands and were ready to rip into the darkness. As one jumped at her, she dodged quickly to the side and swiped at it, cutting through it easily. It was defeated- she was sure of this.

Saga turned on her heel and turned to face it, her long coat billowing in black and silver behind her as she locked her gaze upon the little monster. It had landed and turned to face her, antennae twitching as the slash in its form simply rejuvenated in darkness. Could it not be defeated? Saga felt, for the first time in a very long time, stunned. They were now surrounding her, having grown so numerous so fast that she felt overwhelmed. She clicked her fists together at the handles of her karambit knives and frost began to swirl in the air around her right hand. She jutted her hand out towards a cluster of the Heartless and when her hand opened, revealing the handle of the knife and her thumb hooked through its base, a blast of frozen torture shot forward. Ice formed on the ground below the spell's direction and several of the Heartless began to stiffen up as frost wrapped over them like black ice.

"Heh." Saga felt like she'd found her one-up over the little monsters, until she saw a massive shadow spill over the ground. She looked overhead and fear sank in her heart. She clutched her karambit knives close, but what good would it do? The massive monster was looming over her, and when she tried to turn to run, her feet were stuck. From the sky, her eyes fell now to the floor. Darkness was tangled up her ankles and legs, creeping higher to her waist and swirling around her hips. It consumed her skirt and belt and was tugging at her jacket. She began to struggle but the ground seemed to sink, pulling her into the puddle.

"What... What's going on?!" She looked around. When she searched upwards once more, her quicksilver eyes met the opposing golden orbs of the monster, and she fell into the ichor of the darkness below. The world went black...

---

Where are you taking me? ...
... Well, don't just sit there and ignore me. Answer me!

---

The strangest dream had come and gone and she could barely remember it. But her eyes fluttered and she leaned up. Saga was laid against a light-post in a back alley of a strange warm-colored town. It felt warmer in temperature too. Humble yellow lights poured down and amongst the autumn coloring of this strange new world, were often star-shaped designs and windows. Plenty of little shops and inns were up ahead and she would find herself too sore to just jump up and start searching.

Warily she slipped her legs out and leaned onto her knees. Her fingers revealed at the end of her fingerless gloves clutched the lamp post and she pulled herself up. Her fingers then went to her hood and drew it up before she readied to hook her karambit knives to her belt. But instead she found something else in her hands. Had it been there before? It was a... very big key? She blinked and stared at it. It was getting weirder and weirder, as the key suddenly disappeared and in her chain was a small crown keychain that she attached to her bracelet.

"Well then..." Saga said uncomfortably, peeking around. "I wonder if EVE is here..."

[AlteredTundra]

It must have been nearing supper time for the citizens of Rabanastre, as hinted by the way the sun was positioned in the sky. The smells in the air, aside from the dirty air and rancid body odor, there were hints of steak and veggies being cooked all over the city. For a one Caleb, his stomach was starting to react to such smells. It had been a good few hours since he had anything to eat. It was at least seven hours and after walking around all day, doing his usual fights with some of his best friends and rivals, Caleb worked up an appetite.

As he continued to walk around the city, Caleb found himself at the South Gate, to which he went through. It was only then that he was just a few couple of yards away from the Giza Plains. At the first glance that he took with his auburn orbs, Caleb spotted nothing out of the ordinary. Sure he saw dark clouds, but he just assumed it was one of those days where the rain season was coming around. However, as Caleb would look a bit longer, he noticed that the dark clouds that he noticed from before were darker than the usual dark clouds that would gather above the plains. These were pure black, whereas the usual ones were more a dark grey-ish color.

Before Caleb even got the chance to warn anyone or say anything about it, the black clouds not only were above Rabanastre, but from the ground, he saw shadows rise. Now, this wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, but these shadows soon took a physical form. They were small and they had insect-like antennas and even more to the bug similarities, their yellow eyes. They looked at Caleb with the emptiest of expressions. He wasn’t sure what to do, but as they grew in numbers, the screams of the people nearby set them off in a frenzy of attacking anyone who made a sound.

When the little black bug-like things started attacking people, they would move within the shadows and their claws dug deep into nearly everyone who couldn’t get away. Even the Archadian Soldiers who were nearby and those who were willing to fight off these creatures were being put to death, one-by one. Caleb wasn’t sure what he should do. His mind was split, but in a most of hastful actions, he didn’t think. He sprang into action and using his fists alone, he went at the Heartless. One-by-one he punched out, causing each one of them fade into shadow particles. Caleb was getting into it as seen by the slight sparks of fire around his crimson-red gauntlets. Each hit he would give the shadows would ignite his fighting spirit, which in turn created a small stream of fire flowing around his gauntlets, so much so that it scared off the black bug-like creatures.

“That’s right! You better run!” Caleb shouted out as he saw the black shadows starting to retreat.

Smiling as he thought he won, Caleb would then see that, from the ground, a big shadow was gathering. He stood in a fighting stance ready for whatever was going to come. However, as he would soon realize, the shadow wasn’t like any of the others. This one actually was many stories tall. Caleb officially was toast. Which was ironic since he’s the one that wields fire.

Not thinking(he does that a lot), Caleb rushed forward to the tall, black shadow, fists up and logic completely vacant. Halfway through the distance between him and the tall shadow, Caleb found his movements have been stopped. Looking down to see what happened, he saw that darkness was starting to eat him up from the feet and upward. He tried and tried to get himself out from there, but like quicksand, it was the more he wiggled the more he seemed to sink. By the time one minute of him wiggling passed, Caleb found himself halfway into the darkness and he eventually became enveloped completely, gone into the darkness and away from his home.

---

“Wha-what?!
SMASH

The sounds of Caleb’s head and his entire body crashing into steel trashcans could be heard off in the distance as he indeed fell head-first from the sky. Caleb didn’t know what happened. He shook his head, but as he did that, he felt a sharp pain from his forehead. Whether it was the fall or whatever happened between the current moment and him being sunk into the darkness, Caleb knew that he just had a major headache at the current moment. He would struggle slightly to get out of the mess that were the trashcans and the trash that were in them. Eventually after a half of a minute, he got out only to see that he definitely wasn’t home. He didn’t know where he was. He saw odd lights and what seemed like shops of some kind. There were inns and a bunch of other buildings that he had no memory of.

“Damn, I wish I could remember.” Caleb said as he scratched his head and he yawned, arms above him and fingers stretching. That’s when he noticed a chain hitting his face. “What the fuck?!” He looked up and if it wasn’t in his hands, Caleb wouldn’t have believed it. “What this giant key doing in my hand?” Before Caleb could answer himself, large key was gone and that same chain would be engraved on his right gauntlet. “That was weird. I could have sworn that the key looked like..no, it couldn’t be.” Caleb thought about it, but the thought soon left his mind and he looked around and he just would start walking to at least get some kind of indication on where he was.

[Diversity]

Saga took to any direction- whichever she felt at the time would become the most productive. She was rounding shops and meandering aimlessly about- and what infuriated her more than anything was just knowing how absolutely directionless she was right now in this foreign land. The azure femme managed her way past some tumbled over trash-cans, wondering if maybe EVE was here. As she did so, she heard a quiet rustling behind her. She turned fast and braced herself for some enemy, but saw none. However suddenly a thin needle shot into her back, implanting itself only a half inch. It still hurt however as she stiffened up and clenched her jaw.

She wasn't the only one struck however. The little mischievous cactaur had shot one of its needles into Caleb's back too before burrowing into a flower pot on some poor citizen's windowsill.

Saga whipped around as she plucked the needle out and threw it on the ground. She of course now was able to see Caleb up ahead- paying more attention than before. She balled a fist and her fingertips started to coat in frost as the air around her tightly clenched hand began to steam with a sudden freezing chill. She raised her hand then and opened it, firing out a blast of torrential cold that would frost and possibly ice anything in its path, aimed to strike Caleb.

"Assassin!" She snapped once the frost started melting from her fingers as she reached for one of her karambit knives, however something else formed in her hand. That strange key was there- she supposed it'd make a good blunt weapon. "You just tried to kill me! Just face me like a man!" Saga instigated, balling up her fist and gathering more of the antagonizing chill of her only offensive spell while bracing herself for a fight.

[AlteredTundra]

With a mix of his own confusion of both what happened to him in Rabanastre and arriving in this strange new world, Caleb still would go on to see where exactly he was. On the same moment that he had decided to do that, he found himself walking only to feel a sharp pain in his lower back. Reaching along his back, Caleb felt around only to land his fingers on a thin needle. He grasped it and pulled it out only to release a slight grunt from the pain of pulling it out.

“What the hell?” Caleb said as he looked at the needle. There was nothing special about it other than the fact that it was a needle with a tip of red, obviously from the blood of Caleb’s body. Caleb let the needle fall from his hand and drop the ground, it in itself making a slight sound upon contact with the concrete floor.

Just as Caleb looked behind him hoping to find who — or what — shot him with a needle, he saw a rather attractive female with long blue hair. He didn’t pay no mind to her at first, but then he examined her body(more of habit than anything else). What he saw was some kind of ice magic forming on her tightened fist. Caleb raised an eyebrow. He didn’t know what she was up to, but as the following seconds would reveal, she threw all of that concentrated ice magic at Caleb in the form of an icy wind-like blast. Alarmed by this just in time, Caleb dodge-rolled to the right, and he was barely able to dodge the ice that came at him.

Once he gathered himself, he heard the blue-haired chick shout out something about Caleb being an assassin and facing her like a man. Also something about trying to kill her. To his knowledge, Caleb hadn’t even done anything to this woman, which was why he just looked at her as if she was crazy. She obviously was or else she wouldn’t attack him like she just did.

“I think you have me confused for someone else. I am not the guy that--” Just as Caleb was talking, he noticed the blue-haired woman had donned what looked to be like an over-sized key. Why does that look familiar? Caleb couldn’t place it, but he could have sworn that the giant key that she had looked a little familiar. “I guess you’re not going to listen to reason, are you?” Caleb just shook his head and he would raise his fists up and as he did, the key from before showed up in his left hand. “This again? Oh well, it’s better than my fists I suppose.” Caleb said as he just stood ready for whatever the female in front of him had to throw at him.

[Diversity]

When he said she had him confused for someone else, she took a good (albeit quick) look around. The alley seemed empty save but for those two. Of course she had never seen a cactuar before and didn't even suspect the mischievous plant-creature. She squeezed the handle of her keyblade which appeared much more basic than his. Her eyes locked on him, piercing quicksilver as she clicked her tongue.

"Talking your way out of it huh? There's no one else here but you." Saga twisted her keyblade up and took a stance, and by the way her legs were spread and knees bent, the keyblade faced out, she looked as if she was taking up a mixture of aikido and fencing all in the same stroke. Her style of combat was very unique, based on speed and lethal maneuvering more than being strong or aggressive. However her naturally aggressive persona tended to make her a bit contradicting at times.

"Where'd you get that, anyway? Who are you?" She suddenly rushed forward, three broad steps closer. But she didn't come into arm's length of him. She stopped just in time that her body stopped but her momentum went into the blow as her keyblade struck straight forward in a would-be piercing blow. She didn't quite know how it would work considering that the keyblade wasn't sharp on its end. It wasn't sharp at all! His looked like it may've been sharp however, and she felt a bit underhanded as far as the weapon went. But she didn't let it make her falter. If he blocked or dodged she would've returned to stance and begun cycling around him like a vulture, silvery eyes never leaving his.

[AlteredTundra]

Caleb stood ready with his keyblade held in front of him and his stance steady. It was a good stance and just as the woman in front of him asked him something in an angry tone, Caleb thought about it and he came to the conclusion that she was referring to the giant key in his hand. He instantly looked at it and then back to her. “I just got it!” Caleb said as he then looked to the girl once more and by this point, she was coming in hot with a piercing-like motion.

Caleb swerved to the left, back facing a window. He had no idea what got into this girl, but he wasn’t going to let her attack him without at least getting some facts about it all first. “Now, just hold up a moment.” By the time he had spoke, Caleb grab’s the woman’s wrist of her free hand and he would make sure she would feel the tightness of his grip. “Listen, I don’t know who you are or what you think that I might have done, but whatever it is, I didn’t do it.” Caleb was going to make sure each and every word he spoke got to her ears and into her brain. “As for this…giant key-thing, I have no flipping clue.”

[Diversity]

When he dodged and grabbed her free hand she felt her instinctual desire to defend herself kick in double time. She pushed herself close to him, as if she'd tripped and fallen towards his body. But in her fist she was gathering more of the frosty ice. Caleb would feel it only seconds before it happened into existence, as a cool chill near his navel. If he didn't let go of her she would've dropped the keyblade and released the Blizzard spell against his stomach from point blank range.

When the keyblade was released it disappeared from existence. Instead it reformed as a keychain crown hung upon her bracelet. And as the ice magic gathered, the keychain would rapidly fog up and frost would creep in crystalline designs over the small metal shape. Whether he dodged or not, she would speak after the spell burst into reality.

"So if you didn't do it..." She would say through clenched teeth. Finally her jaw relaxed a bit, and she took a deep breath trying to find a place of levelheadedness. "Then who did?"

[AlteredTundra]

It was all in a brief moment, but Caleb felt the full force of the coldness of her punch into his gut, which caused him to go a few feet back. As he staggered backwards, Caleb gripped his stomach area with on hand and as a result, his grip on the blue-hair maiden’s hand. Given that Caleb’s hand that was not gripping his stomach was the one that gripped his keyblade, it would disappear and the emblem would appear upon one of his glove-like gauntlets.

Caleb looked to the girl in front of him and tried to gather himself. He didn’t know what got into her in the first place, but perhaps what he told her made her at least rethink trying to kill Caleb. It was obvious based on the words she spoke that Caleb’s words indeed got to her and now she was asking him — or not — who did it. Caleb would just assume she was asking him and not just thinking aloud.

“Hell if I know, but I’m just going to assume that you got shot with a needle as well. Unless you’re some homicidal maniac that likes attacking people for no reason.” Caleb said rubbing his abdomens as it still had a stinging sensation from the female’s punch.