Double

Hearts Astray in Worlds of Darkness (Kingdom Hearts -esque)

My character was approved via PMs, hence I why I put straight in the Char Tab. Just in case anyone was wondering.

Hearts Astray in Worlds of Darkness (Kingdom Hearts -esque)

The Cynic With No Name

Name: Samuel

Original World: His is a harsh and rugged world of deserts and canyons. Dangerous wildlife and - on occasion - even more dangerous people. A world of men and horses. Of guns and bullets. And of outlaws and lawmen. The harsh environments tend to either toughen people up into strong-willed survivors, or eat them alive if they aren't. And yet for all its harshness and seeming lawlessness, underneath it all is a strong sense honor and self-determination. Law has its place, but more often than not, people in this world are more than capable of fighting their own battles.

Apparent Age: 25-28

Description: A rugged individual with calloused skin from years of living in a harsh frontier world. Even his clothes appear well-worn and tarnished from exposure to the elements. The man has dark matted hair on his head and rugged stubble on his face. One can always tell when Samuel is approaching by the telltale metallic chinks of the tarnished brass spurs on his boots. Well, that and the smell of cigarette and cigar smoke. He's never seen without his leather wide-brimmed hat on, and in fact he rarely if ever takes it off. The other two objects that he is never without are his Colt Single Action Army that he wears around his waist and the six-string guitar he either carries in hand or has strapped on his back. These are the last remaining personal effects from his previous life, and he is very protective of them.

Personality: "Strong silent type" doesn't even begin to describe Samuel. Socializing and making conversation is something he hardly ever partakes in. Even when participating in meetings with the other Cynics, the man seems to spend the majority of the time either cleaning and polishing his gun or silently playing the occasional somber chord on his guitar. If he speaks at all it's usually brief and to the point, and never without purpose. Among the Organization there is a saying that if Samuel speaks, it's usually a good idea to pay attention to what he has to say.

Important Memories: Samuel's most important memories appear to be tied to his gun and guitar. Namely that he was given the guitar by a special lady sometime in his youth, and as for the gun? Well, anyone who watches him closely when he cleans it might notice that the weapon appears to possess only a single bullet in the chamber. Why this is the case is something Samuel himself isn't aware of, but he feels deep down that it's important regardless. For this reason he never uses the Single Action Army, instead wielding a pair of gun-weapons that he summons through the power of Darkness instead.

Backstory: He was pretty quick to fall in with the Organization after he was reborn. His own unique way of fighting his battles has made him remarkably good at hunting down and assassinating targets. He's not much for leadership but he certainly has a talent for being the man who is willing to get his hands dirty if need be.

------

Battle Profile

Attack: 4

Defense: 3

Magic: 2

Tech: 1

Command: 2

Light: 1

Darkness: 5

--

Special Weapon: Shadow Magnums
These are a pair of stylized revolver-like weapons that fire shadow bullets. The bullets can pass in and out of any shadows as if they were portals. They will bounce and ricochet off inanimate objects, their trajectories seemingly never ending until they hit something that is not inanimate - preferably the target they are aiming for. These weapons do not need to be reloaded, but come with another form of limitation. Each weapon can only have up to six bullets active at a time. If all twelve shots are fired then no more shots can be fired until the active bullets hit their target or are dispelled by other means.

Special Abilities: Samuel's primary bread-and-butter ability is called Lock On. He'll quickly use it at the start of any given fight to lock onto a chosen target that his shadow bullets will pursue in their trajectory once fired from the Shadow Magnums. His second ability is called Dead-Eye, and with it he narrows his focus onto the target he has locked onto and for a very brief 3 second window he can shoot at them as if they are moving in slow motion. Unlike normal shots these cannot pass through shadows or continue their pursuit of the target in the event that they miss. And finally his third ability is called Sound Of Thunder. With it he can fire up to two powerful shots - one from each Shadow Magnum - that explode on impact and deal much heavier damage. It also overheats the Magnums and renders them unable to fire shots again until they've cooled down after 15 seconds.

Dark Corridor: Opens a portal to another location the user is familiar with. It takes some time to manifest - enough that this technique is ineffective in battle. Mortals cannot pass through a dark corridor more than once a day without falling ill.

Disney & Dragons 5e

12 for Intimidation.

Disney & Dragons 5e

Shang just dashes 50ft to put himself in a position that blocks retreat and then... "politely" asks everyone to put their weapons away or to take the fight outside.

Shang is able to dash over tables (which I interpreted as difficult terrain) because he has the Mobile feat, which allows him to ignore difficult terrain when using the Dash action.

Disney & Dragons 5e

Action: Dash | Bonus Action: None

"My thanks." said Shang with a bow when his meal was brought to him. He was not expecting some of the meat in question to be in the form of a bug of all things. Of course he knew complaining would be rude to this kingdom's culture, so he kept his opinions to himself. Besides, for all he knew the bug was more delicious than it looked. The only way to know for sure was to try eating it. But he decided to save that for a bit later and instead start with the steak. That was something he was little more familiar with. Granted, he wasn't used to steak being served as a slab of this size, being more accustomed to it being served in smaller chunks within soup or noodles. But either way, it smelled tasty enough so complaints there.

The first thing he did was enjoy a drink of the tea he was given. Certainly not brewed the same way it was back home in Wuhou, and the specific leaves used for it gave it an unfamiliar flavor. But it was pleasant nonetheless, and the former captain exhaled a breath of satisfaction after his first sip. But before he could really begin his meal in earnest, some commotion began to disrupt the diner.

One of the ladies at a nearby table suddenly broke into a song that sounded like it was intended to insult a pair of men who had just entered moments earlier. Why anyone would do that was beyond him, but Shang was at least quick to notice the weapons the strangers brandished. Sure, being insulted was never pleasant but brandishing weapons definitely seemed like an overreaction. The second thing Shang noticed was the other strangers nearby who were quick to come to the singer's defense. First the child with her strange bow weapon, then the light-haired woman with her dart. The burly man at least seemed hesitant to start a fight in a public place.

And then one of the men tried to attack the man with their weapon.

Shang shook his head. This wasn't going to end peacefully, was it? He sighed, lamenting that his meal was likely to get cold by the time he was afforded a chance to actually eat it. But if people were going to attack with weapons, then he couldn't ignore it. And in a flash, Shang was on the move. He sprang up from his seat and dashed along the tables to the opposite end of the fighting, a good fifty feet by his estimation. Remarkably, Shang was able to seemingly skip along the tabletops with no difficulty whatsoever. Then when his feet was back on the floor properly he turned himself around and faced the men who had drawn their weapons.

"I'm only going to say this once," he said, widening his legs into a martial arts stance, "Put. Your weapons. Away. Take this outside if you have to, but anyone who wants to keep fighting inside of this establishment... will answer to me."

World of Light

The Forge of Curation

Location: Midgar Sector 06, the City of Glass
Roxas’ @Double, Sakura’s @Zoey Boey
Word Count: 5184 (+6)

As Sam explained his philosophy, Sakura crossed her arms and pouted, looking away. She couldn’t quite articulate why, but his words rang hollow to her. That sounded like evil bad guy talk to her. If they got a chance to fight, perhaps that would enlighten things.

Raz spoke about their plan, and Sakura gulped. It was hardly a dramatic betrayal, she just stood there looking at the ‘indignant’ Sam like a doofus while Raz, the youngest of the three Seekers, made the play. They just had to hope this Vandelay guy would help them! The worst part is, he didn’t even concretely agree to teaming up. He just looked ready to throw down.

”Wh-what do we do?!” Sakura asked in a hushed stage whisper, getting into her stance.

”Jig’s up.” Roxas replied to her in a flat tone, ”That means it’s time we do what we really came here to do.” The hooded Nobody walked forward and circled around a bit until he found himself standing in a third position that allowed him to stare down both Sam and Kale. Sandalphon wanted them to stop this attack, but also to gauge Sam’s loyalties.

”You said it yourself, Sam!” Roxas called out, summoning Oblivion and pointing its tip in the cyborg’s direction, ”If you believe in something, you’d better be ready to win to prove it, right? So that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.” but before he could look too much like he was siding with Kale, Roxas suddenly summoned Oathkeeper in his other hand and pivoted to point it in the CEO’s direction, ”I’ll prove it by stopping you BOTH! And then you’ll understand exactly why we came here!”

His resolute declaration left Kale momently speechless, an expression of bewildered surprise on his face that said did he really just say that? but Sam grinned. “Good. I like that!” A mask of his own folded out to cover his nose and mouth, readying the swordsman for a showdown. “Then show me!”

The whole arena suddenly jerked and began to rise with the help of giant mechanical arms arranged around its perimeter, revealing that the floor of the Signal Tower was in truth another elevator. After steadying himself, Kale scoffed. “Such bravado.” He slashed his beam saber along the ground beside him, once to each side and then a horizontal line in front of him. Where the laser touched the metal, it left a miniature wall of fire. “Spare me!” When he flourished his blade the walls flared up and rolled across the ground, growing wider as they traveled. Sam bided his time until the fiery wave just about reached him, then somersaulted over it and sprinted toward Kale.

Sakura hopped over the fire wall, bringing her knees in. ”Alright, Roxas-kun, sounds like a plan!” She said. It was what they came here to do. She watched Sam sprint and followed after. Not at an incredibly fast pace- seemed she wanted to be able to get into melee range, but not interrupt Sam’s attack. Maybe she was trying to gauge Kale and Sam’s strength some more.

Roxas, on the other hand, took a more direct approach. He sprinted forward without any hesitation, jumping the firewall like an olympic runner clearing a hurdle. For Kale he decided to fight fire with fire and lobbed a Firaga in the CEO’s direction. Then in the meantime he twisted around and lunged at Sam, attacking with both his Keyblades in a parallel diagonal slash.

Quickly registering the incoming attack, Sam moved with speed and precision. He stepped back just far enough to reach the perfect distance, then met the double chop with a diagonal slash of his own, albeit upward instead of downward. Swung with one hand at maximum range and the perfect angle, the his longer Muramasa swordblade slid cleanly between the parallel keyblades, and as they fell short Sam landed an upward slice along the boy’s chest. Though shallow, the cut was both somewhat painful and very startling. With just one move, this man demonstrated to Roxas that he possessed an immense amount of skill and combat acumen. While Roxas processed the bodily shock, Sam carried his counterclockwise momentum into a turning thrust kick to knock the boy away with a slam from his metallic heel.

”Oh!” Sakura shouted in alarm as she watched Roxas’ attack get countered. She had wanted to gauge Sam’s strength, and she had, but she was hoping it wouldn’t be on one of her friends!

”Ugh…” the winded Roxas pushed himself to his feet. He wasn’t deterred, though. If he could face threats like Xemnas and Xehanort, then the Keybearer could deal with a single cyborg swordsman. His eyes narrowed into a focused glare underneath his hood that he locked onto Sam. He just needed to think his attacks through and avoid direct strikes. With that in mind Roxas proceeded to throw both of his Keyblades. They flew through the air in opposite arcs that made them appear to miss Sam by wide margins, only to circle back around and threaten to hit him from behind. Roxas suspected Sam was more than able to deflect the Keyblades flying at him, but he’d have to turn his back to do so. And that’s when Roxas shot forward as a streak of light that homed in on the cyborg. Sam was about to learn the hard way that Roxas could instantly recall his weapons back to his hands, because the Nobody did just that in order to unload a powerful Cross Slash.

Sam narrowed his eyes as the weapons flew past him, briefly glancing to either side. Clearly the keyblades would be returning like boomerangs, physics-defying as that might be, but he knew he’d been a fool to take his eyes off the young man masterminding this maneuver. For a brief moment the two shared a stand-off as the spinning blades circled around. Then Sam turned, but as he did he lifted his sword above his head, the blade pointed downward behind him as if poised for a huge overhead chop. That would allow him to slash away the keyblades, but they never arrived. Instead Roxas struck him from behind the next moment, both weapons striking Sam’s own high-frequency blade. The strength of his two-handed grip meant his backward block held firm, and on contact with the keyblades they began to vibrate violently, a high-pitched ringing in the air. Sam grinned and whirled around with a diagonal chop. Hands almost numb from the jarring vibrations, Roxas had just less than a second to react.

Roxas did about the only thing he could do, jumped straight back and just barely managed to avoid getting sliced once again. At the same moment he hurriedly thrust his Keyblades forward and fired off a Dual Shot. Twin orbs shot forward; one light and one dark. At this close range either they would hit Sam successfully, or he’d manage to bat them with the blade of his sword which would of course cause them to explode. Luckily, both projectiles hit him and exploded anyway, giving Sam his first taste of damage. Roxas then released his grip on the Keyblades and both weapons vanished in a flash. He shook his gloved hands in an attempt to get rid of the numbness that had occurred from the earlier contact with the High-Frequency blade. What kind of a sword does that sort of thing anyway? That was a new one on him. But a split moment later and he called the Keyblades to his hand again.

Think, Roxas, think! Clashing blades with him won’t work, so you’ll just have to keep your distance. Roxas proceeded to run a circle around Sam. He was careful not to venture within reach of that Muramasa blade and instead shot a trio of Firaga spells at the cyborg. He knew he’d run out of magic sooner or later but this was the only idea he could think of at the moment.

When Roxas abandoned the swordfight and began to circle around him, Sam reacted with an amused smile and shouldered his blade. That came back to bite him when an unexpected fireball shot his way, and Sam only got his arm up in time to mitigate the damage somewhat. He then moved off the center line to avoid the rest; if Roxas had shot at the ground, the blast might have forced more movement, but shots at Sam directly could be sidestepped without issue. The cyborg did not intend to wait around and find out if his opponent could run out of magic. Instead he sheathed his katana, reaching for his scabbard’s special trigger with a knowing grin at Roxas. Whether or not the boy had seen this technique before made no difference. The question was what he could do about it.

Roxas had in fact seen a similar attack in the past. The Samurai type Nobodies he used to summon and control utilized a similar technique. But at this moment Roxas only had one thing he could really do. He crouched down and firmly pushed the tips of the Keyblades into the floor in front of him, with their blades crossed for extra reinforcement. Hopefully this would blunt most of the incoming blow.

The next second Sam burst forward, his scabbard’s mechanism firing to propel the blade like a bullet from a rifle. A vast crimson arc carved through the air as if bleeding through reality itself, and the high-frequency blade collided with the keyblade wielder’s guard. Had the unbreakable blades been embedded like flag poles they might not have moved, but in their current position the unbreakable weapons led to a singular comparison: the physical strength of Roxas versus that block relied on one singular statistic: the physical strength of Roxas. Instantly the keyblades slammed into his own chest, vibrating at a fever pitch, and Roxas parted ways with his keyblades as he soared through the air. He slammed into the side of the elevator shaft and fell back onto the platform, his keyblades clattered down a few feet in each direction. The disarmament itself didn’t matter since he could recall them, but the bigger issue was holding them; his arms trembled, rendered nerveless by the communicated force of the blow.

After coming to a stop, Sam paused for a brief moment. There was nothing stopping him from doing the same technique again, but for whatever reason, he did not. Instead he relaxed his stance. “Those are some weapons, kid,” he remarked, glancing at his sword for any nicks in the edge. “My blade is designed to cut through steel like a hot knife through butter. They’d serve you well…” He cracked an infuriating grin. “If you knew how to fight.”

While that all happened, Kale stood his ground and took his beam sword in both hands and blocked, the laser blade held in the fireball’s path. On contact the spell split neatly in half and washed to either side, quickly dissipating. Kale brushed an ember off his shoulder, watched Roxas trade blows with Sam, then looked over at Sakura and Raz. “You Scarlet Guardians should mind your own business.” With that, he reached inside his coat and pulled a handful of small black devices. When he tossed them into the air they flashed yellow, then began to float around him, two on each side. Kale raked his sword against the elevator’s floor again to create another flame wave, and as it surged forth to interfere with the fight his drones blinked a bright blue. Flash, flash, fla-flash. Then they fired in that pattern, blasting bright blue lasers across the battlefield.

Sakura hopped over the flame wave and was got in the shoulder by a bright blue blast as a result. It didn’t hurt that much, but she was surprised to feel herself spin backwards to the floor. She was up in a split second and managed to knock aside the next blast. Raising her arms she blocked the follow up strikes, sliding back a bit with blue defensive sparks. Chip damage and leftover damage was starting to build up, and she felt her shoulder start to get pretty sore. The little invisible hairs on her arms were probably burnt off, though if they were ever there after a lifetime of blocking fireballs, she wasn’t sure.

”Th-this isn’t sanctioned by them!” Sakura admitted, hoping to avoid blowback on her military pals.

Kale raised an eyebrow. “Then I guess they won’t miss you.”

”Oh,” Sakura said with a wince.

After a brief pause and it seemed like no more lasers were coming, Sakura charged up a heavy hitting fireball. She fired it at the floating black boxes. If she wanted to fight, she couldn’t have those quick blasts interrupting her. Kale dashed to the left to give her projectile a wide berth, his options following him with about a half-second delay. That cybernetic body of his was no joke–he could really move. And Kale quickly proved it by leaping toward her to come down with a two-handed slash, followed immediately by an upward one on landing.

Sakura noted that the drones would follow Kale and not just float in place. But now it was time to make Ryu proud. Years of training had led to this moment. As Kale jumped over her fireball, Sakura prepared to anti-air. She dropped into a crouch and shot her fist upward, keeping her body safe from damage while her opponent's weight and speed did the work of impaling himself on her fist.

“Hngh!” The street fighter’s uppercut cut Kale’s plunge attack short and sent him flying backwards. On impact with the ground he quick-rose backward with a handspring and dusted off his color, looking irate. His drones blinked again, fla-fla-flash, flash, then fired.

Sakura tilted her head to the side, looking at the drones as they blinked. ”Wait, is that-?” Sakura shifted her side to side, leaning away from each beam, dogd-dogd-dodge, dodge.

”That seems like a pretty obvious design flaw.” Sakura said wryly. She galloped forward, her stride long and fast despite her relatively short stature. If she got close enough, she was going to start kicking! Mostly annoyingly painful calf kicks and the occasional strong kick at his torso.

Hearing his tech criticized got Kale annoyed very fast. “Why don’t you just cool it?” he told her. He curled his lip and called upon his first Striker, Frost. When the bulky, techno-organic, white-cloaked Warframe arrived, it cast Snow Globe, deep-freezing the water vapor in the air to create a protective sphere around Kale. While Sakura closed the distance fast, it came to a hard stop against the shield, which cracked when struck to denote its remaining strength but otherwise resisted attack completely–while Kale could attack through it just fine. He did so by using Radial Javelin, calling forth a ring of spears around him that fired outward the moment he drove his weapon into the ground.

Sakura kicked against the globe and was immediately not looking forward to dealing with it. He had called upon a Striker to summon it. Within the globe, Sakura saw him prepare an attack by striking the ground, which only meant a few things. Either something was going to come up from beneath her feet, or something was going to come out of him in a radius. In either case, the best choice would be to jump backwards! And she did, backflipping high in the air and landing back on the ground a short distance away as the spears went underneath her.

”Ohh...hmph.” As her mind span trying to come up with strategies, Sakura decided to steal an idea from her opponent. She reached to her belt and got out Overdrive Ostrich’s spirit.

”Hey! Uh. Wanna team up? I mean, unless you can tell me with a straight face that you’ve never ever wanted to punch this guy in the face at least once.” She said, and hoped the Ostrich’s spirit responded to her. She also kept an eye out for any more flashes.

Talking wasn’t a free action, and Kale meant to make Sakura pay for it. He couched his laser sword, then swung, and as it blazed in a wide arc the blade extended to cover a huge swath of the battlefield. It struck the girl full-force, but when she picked herself off, she found her efforts rewarded. Overdrive Ostrich had been successfully spiritbound.

”Oof…” Sakura complained, getting back to one knee.”Shoulda done that earlier…at least it worked!”” She said, feeling the knowledge of the Striker within her. Hopefully, she could use Overdrive to help bust down that shield.

For Sakura

New Striker spiritbound:
Overdrive Ostrich
A tall, large-bodied reploid with a short cooldown time. His moves are Sprint (which sends him charging in a direction headfirst), Step (which sends him hopping in a direction repeatedly), Sonic Slicer (like Sonic Boom, but can be shot at an angle and while jumping), and High Jump (he leaps into the air and drops down on a chosen spot). He has some resistance to slashing and poison damage

When he realized what happened, Kale let out a laugh. “If you choose all your friends that poorly, this is going to be even easier than I thought.” He held out his hand, and his other Striker manifested, a cyclopean bionic alchemist of teal and yellow-green with writhing cables coiled about his limbs. “Allow me to show you what a real Assist looks like.” Lavos thrust out its arms and lashed out with its ‘cables’ in a long-range serpentine strike. Its Ophidian Bite promised to deliver a dose of venom, and when the ability concluded, that same toxicity imbued Kale himself.

Sakura squinted at Kale, like she wasn’t sure how impressed she was supposed to be by his ability to let someone else do the work. That was part of the reason she had waited so long to get a Striker herself, but at this point she was more warrior than fighter so she was going to have to take whatever advantage she could get. But Kale didn’t know everything about the Ostrich- he was poison resistant, and the snakey guy with venom tendrils looked poisoney to Sakura.

”Go for it, Ostrich-san!” She shouted, summoning the buff bird bot to action, pointing at it to Sprint ahead at full speed. Sakura followed afterward, hoping he wouldn’t get dissuaded or knocked out of the way by the tendrils. The street fighter braced for a bit of pain herself as she followed in the Ostrich's wake. If she got close enough, she would follow up his Sprint with an EX-Hadosho, a supercharged punch that hit five times. Like taking a fireball and grabbing hold of it with her fist instead.

The Ophidian Bite struck Overdrive Ostrich point-blank, but just as Sakura hoped, it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. Her new Striker managed to power through the toxic double lash with his poison resistance and super armor to ram into Kale’s Snow Globe, and though cracks spread across its translucent icy surface, the Reploid broke first. He reeled back and faded away, but without missing a beat Sakura laid into the barrier with her multi-hit ki strike. To Kale it looked like she was drilling into his shield like a bank robber into a vault, and he didn’t plan on letting her crack it so easily. By the time she got rolling his options had already spooled up fla-flash, fla-flash, but this time he layered his offense by extending his laser sword in a disjointed thrust before they could fire. It interrupted her attack, not striking deep but dishing out some toxicity she didn’t resist. The real kicker was that it led straight into the first pair of drone shots, which in turn kept her in hitstun long enough for him to come down with two quick top-to-bottom diagonal slashes. Then the second pair of drone shots hit home, and Kale finished the combo with bottom-to-top diagonal slashes. Vwom, pew-pew, voom voom, pew-pew, voom voom!

”Ooh, aaha- ugh- oof, aah-ah, agh- bwah!” Sakura’s arms were at her side and her legs straight down as the last two slashes sent her up and away, before she landed on the ground with a thud. She lay there grimacing for a second before she pulled herself to her feet, clutching her midsection with one hand. Dismay was plain on her face as she realized she hadn’t even managed to break through the snow globe despite taking all that punishment for the attempt. She had little to no focus to spare on Jetstream Sam.

Gritting her teeth, she steeled herself and back dashed, and charged up a powerful fireball. She would batter at his snowglobe from a distance to finish the job- it had to be close. ”Hadoooken!” Sakura yelled extra loudly. She took a solid second to charge it up and unleash it, the blazing ball as big as her torso. And any projectiles coming her way would hopefully get blown away. She followed it up with a smaller but much faster and more explosive EX-Hadoken. ”Straight through!” She shouted.

When Sakura started charging, Kale did too. He held his beam sword straight up, and it flared skyward like a lightning bolt. Then, as the super-big Hadoken blazed its way to shatter his Snow Globe into shaved ice, he plunged his saber into the ground. A circular field of electricity formed around him, and the ground around Sakura began to spark as well. Just after she launched her EX-Hadoken, the first of four lightning bolts dropped down on her position, each about a half-second apart. The last of the four bolts coincided with her fireball bursting against Kale, and he staggered for a brief moment before spending another to fix his mussed hair.

The first lightning bolt struck her in the shoulder. Sakura gasped and stepped out of the way of the next lightning bolt, and the third and the fourth, looking up into the sky as she did. Sakura clenched her fists, feeling the potential to activate one of her V-Triggers in her fists. At the very least, she had shattered his snow globe. If Sakura had to gauge her physical state, going by her heavy breathing and general aches, she was probably at about thirty percent after all the fights she had been in.

Things aren’t looking good for me over here, Raz. Sakura thought to her psychic companion. He’s definitely winning.

But Sakura would always try her best, so she began running towards Kale. ”No more snow globe, Kale!” She shouted. She would look to jump, dip, and dive over any warding attacks. Once she was in range, her plan was to spin forward with a powerful, long ranged EX-Tatsu and activate V-Trigger afterwards.

“You know, it’s funny you say that,” Kale told her, taking a few extended swipes at Sakura as she approached. He was tempted to put up another Snow Globe right that instant just to flex on and demoralize her, but did he really want to spend any more Energy on Warframe abilities right now? The elevator hadn’t even reached the top floor yet, and everyone knew that the rooftop was where the most dramatic, high-octane parts of the battle should take place. With all that in store, it’d be almost disappointing if he thrashed this girl here. Then again, it wasn’t much farther to the top…

As Sakura hopped over his last slash and reached him, he put one hand behind his back and blocked with the other by rotating it at high speed, twirling his beam saber so fast it created a bright blue circle. The street fighter’s EX hurricane kick would have left her woefully unsafe on block if not for her cancel into V-Trigger. Though he would’ve liked nothing better than a punish Kale waited when he saw this, biding his time with a bored expression to see what Sakura would do.

”You’re gonna get it, now!” Sakura exclaimed, activating Haru Arashi with a raising of her hand, her fists becoming enveloped in blue flame. Her fireballs were now much stronger, which made them usable up close as pressure tools that left her with advantage even when blocked up close. Sakura dropped into a crouch and shot her foot out into Kale’s knee, hopefully under his spinning blade, and followed up with a ”Hadoken!”

If it hit, it would knock him over, and if he blocked it, she was still attacking! Either way she would try to get close and snatch his wrist and executed a classic over-the-shoulder throw to slam him into the ground.

Kale’s patience paid off as he saw Sakura go low. His reacted in time to drop to one knee and block low, the bottom of his saber spin scraping the ground. The fireball that reached him the next moment burst against the whirling blade, and though Sakura reached him time to grab, she found the CEO more combat-ready than she might have assumed. As she maneuvered him over her shoulder he twisted his limbs and joints with inhuman speed and flexibility to tech the grab, landing beside her. His options blinked again, fla-fla-fla-flash. Afforded only the briefest glimpse at his smirk, the street fighter then took a knee to the ribs strong enough to dislodge her grip, and after Kale jumped back to separate himself his options opened fire. On the fourth shot he leaped Sakura’s way with another two-handed overhead slash.

Sakura groaned into clenched teeth, clutching her ribs and stepping backwards. She brought her hands up and dropped to one knee to defend against the drone blasts. She hadn’t had enough focus to catch the pattern of the drone flashes, so all she could do was defend against all of them. They chipped against her arms. He came in for an attack but she wasn’t sure what kind, so the overhead slash dug into her shoulder. The street fighter cried out, ”Aah!”, and the force of the blow drove her onto one hand to keep herself from falling face first.

Sakura’s hands were still glowing with power, but she was unable to use any of it. Desperate, she tried to put her hands up to fend off any more attacks coming her way. Unfortunately, Kale followed up his overhead slash with a rising backswing, and Sakura could only block it so much. Sakura bared her teeth and took her licks, the blade slicing through her chest with a spray of blood. The street fighter flew into the air and off the elevator to land on a solid surface. Groaning, she propped herself up on an elbow and watched the arena leave her behind. In front of her, the elevator rose up from the shaft and came to a stop at the [url=i.imgur.com/kfjt2Cw.pngSignal Tower rooftop[/url]. Octagonal in shape, it seemed to be ringed by eight strange diamond-shaped devices, their red lights particularly vivid against the dark, cloudy sky made oily and colorful by the Extinction Belt. Along with Kale came Sam and Roxas, a fight which hadn’t been going much better for the Seekers than Sakura’s. The Wind of Destruction paused for a moment to look around, giving Roxas a much-needed breather.

“Impressive!” he remarked, clearly enjoying the stage set up for a climactic showdown. “I like it.”

“Figured we ought to take this outside,” Kale told him nonchalantly.

The cyborg turned to face him completely. “Still dealing with the little miss? I thought you’d be done by now…”

“I could say the same for you, amigo,” Kale sneered. He leveled his beam sword at Sam. “Why don’t we just cut to the chase?”

Sam put his hand on his blade. “Now you’re speaking my language!”

The two shot toward another, one a blur of blue and the other of red. Sam’s Rapid Fire and Kale’s Slash Dash met with a tremendous clash, and they slid past each other. Then they whirled around to begin the real fight.

Sakura clutched her bleeding wound and tried to push herself onto all fours, but failed, collapsing back onto just one elbow. She glanced over at Roxas who had joined her. ”D-damn it…I lost.” Sakura mourned. ”He was too strong…”

”Yeah… My fight didn’t go super well either.” Roxas agreed. His hands were still slightly shaky from that last blow from Sam’s sword, ”That guy’s sword… You can’t even so much as touch it without it leaving you numb and messed up.”

”My guy put down a magic snowglobe! I couldn’t get past it for half the fight.” Sakura coughed and shook her head. Yet something welled up within Sakura, because she seemed determined to get back up and keep fighting, though her hands and knees kept slipping out from under her, she made a bit more progress each time.

”Heal!” Came Roxas’s voice. He’d finally recalled his Keyblades and used the last bit of his magic to cast a Curaga spell on himself, Sakura, and Raz if he was nearby, ”C’mon,” he told them as he got back to his feet, ”Time for round two. Let’s end this.”

With that, Roxas ran toward the fight. He’d be at a severe disadvantage this time. No magic meant he’d have to clash with Sam’s sword again, at least until he was rejuvenated. But he couldn’t just stand by. He said he was going to do this, and Roxas wasn’t going to back down now.

”Th-thanks, Roxas-kun.” Sakura said, feeling her wounds seal up and some of her strength find her. That and her ability to literally have a second round worth of fighting in her meant she was feeling decent. Though her V-trigger had ended and she had no EX-meter.

”W-wait!” Sakura shouted after Roxas as he ran off. ”You can’t just say ‘let’s end this’ like we didn’t just get our butts kicked! We have to strategize or something!” Sakura sprinted forward.

Kingdom Hearts Adjacent Interest Check

<Snipped quote by Double>

Givin' me Dark Tower Roland vibes ngl.

@Havoccultist

I haven't read the Dark Tower, so I'll have to take your word for it.

Kingdom Hearts Adjacent Interest Check

It's weird. I have personality and backstory lined up but it's the powers and abilities part that has me stumped. In essence he'll be a gunfighter, and the only idea I have is that he can shoot bullets into and out of shadows as if they were portals. Imagine Revolver Ocelot's trick shots but cranked up even further.

Kingdom Hearts Adjacent Interest Check

<Snipped quote by Double>

The worlds will mostly be custom creations, or based on anime/final fantasy worlds. There may be a little bit of Disney stuff but it will be way less prevalent. If you have any requests though I’ll think it over.

@Olive Fontaine

Got it. I dig the idea of being from a Western world so I might run with that in some form.

Kingdom Hearts Adjacent Interest Check

Also interested. Are we talking about Disney worlds or just made-up worlds in general?