Double

World of Light

The Under

Dreams of Night

Word Count: 873
Level 5 Ganondorf: 49/60
Exp: 4
NEW EXP Balance--- 53/60

Well this was all just peachy. First the Radiance looked in danger of getting swallowed by shadows, then she managed to escape and was trying to fly away! How the bloody hell was Ganondorf supposed to give chase? He could summon the phantom horse but that could only go for so long and then what? Plummet to his death? It was all so vexing. But when the strange locomotive appeared, it at least gave the Seekers some kind of workable solution. And so despite being in the middle of a deadly battle, the warlord piled onto the train with everyone else.

It sped along through tracks that seemed to appear out of thin air only to vanish again once the train passed over it. One had to wonder if the pilot could make those tracks appear in any direction or if the train was stuck on a fixed track. But now wasn’t the time to be questioning the logistics of their transportation. Unfortunately there was little Ganondorf could do while they were still a distance away. He re-summoned his Moblin archers and they all took shots at the fleeing Radiance, but the constant movement of her and the train made their accuracy pretty abysmal.

It wasn’t until after the Troop had done their assault, when Sectonia summoned a large crystal, that Ganondorf realized that maybe he could do something. So he launched forward into a run where he then vaulted up to the crystal like a makeshift platform and proceeded to launch off of it courtesy of a bullet jump. As quick as he could manage, Ganondorf summoned the Phantom Steed before he could start plummeting back down and rode it forward in a charge toward the Radiance.

The Guardian in question shot back with lasers that Ganondorf was able to avoid by veering toward the side. But when it became clear that he wouldn’t be able to cleanly dodge the next volley of shots, he instead launched himself out of the saddle while simultaneously kicking the horse off to the side so they both would go off in opposite directions to avoid the volley of lances coming their way. Then Ganondorf used a midair jump to correct himself and once again launch toward the Radiance.

He came crashing into her with a Flame Choke. Despite there being no ground to land on, he could still give her a facefull of exploding dark flame regardless. But with her being in her Absolute state, well, frankly they were practically burning each other just being in close contact like this. So Ganondorf knew he had to finish what he was doing, and quickly. The quickest thing he could think to do was to power up a Warlock Punch. Normally this was a very telegraphed attack that could be easy to avoid if an enemy was quick and reflexive enough.

Which is probably why it was a good thing that Ganondorf was still benefiting from the boosts courtesy of the green mages’ spell. The speed boost from it let him charge up the punch in half the time it normally took him. And the attack boost would make it hit extra hard. Ganondorf released his grip on the Radiance and pushed himself off of her slightly so that he could then deliver his haymaker Warlock Punch in all its explosive glory. ”INCREASETH THY SPEED!” He shouted down to the train driver at the top of his lungs.

Magikrab wasn’t sure of what the warlord was planning at first, but increased the train’s throttle anyway. It didn’t take him long to realize that the train was now on a collision course with the Radiance and rammed into her full speed. As for Ganondorf himself, he managed to catch himself onto the saddle of his phantom horse and used it to ride back in the direction of the train. But the horse’s time limit ran out moments later, forcing him to vault from it with a bullet jump to cover the rest of the distance back to the train.

”AIM THY COURSE DOWNWARD!” Ganondorf yelled toward the front of the train, needing to practically scream in order for even his booming voice to carry forward, ”LET THE DARK ABYSS TAKE HER!” He added, clarifying his plan. The Radiance had been doing all those to escape from the darkness that tried to devour her after all. And now that she’d been caught by the ramming train? Why not let the darkness have the meal that was trying to escape from its jowls? As for the warlord himself? He drew his twin Greatswords and began to vault across the top of the train cars toward the locomotive engine where the Absolute Radiance was currently pinned.

”Ready thyselves!” Ganondorf shouted to other Seekers, ”It ends now!” At this point he didn’t care that getting near the Radiance harmed him. Just knowing that he could have the same effect on her made this more than worth it. Once he reached the train’s engine he would be more than happy to deliver a furious string of darkness-powered sword swings at this blasted Guardian.

World of Light

Midgar

Deep Ground ~ The Source

Word Count: 720
Level 7 Roxas: 67/70
Exp: 4
NEW EXP Balance--- 71/70

Roxas sure was glad the poison clouds were finally gone. But with one problem going away, it ushered in new problems to take its place. Namely the rings that started appearing all over the place and detonating. The Nobody could keep himself out of them somewhat, but doing that meant less concentration on dealing with everyone’s real target - Tycoon. But if he could last a bit longer, his MP would be recharged and at least he’d have that to fall back on.

For the time being, he had to stay pretty defensive and evasive. Not only from the rings, but from occasional swipes that came from Tycoon’s big arms. His StepSword dash and the mental calculations that were made easier by the spirit within him were greatly appreciated. Roxas had no idea how he would have been able to keep up this kind of tempo without getting swatted or caught by a ring otherwise.

When Tycoon brought its arm down to slam on the ground, Roxas dive-rolled out of the way to narrowly avoid being squashed. He saw this as an opportunity and jumped up on the hand as it began to rise back up. Then he just ran along the arm for a couple steps and used the StepSword to dash at the Guardian’s face with a quick slice courtesy of the energy blade that ignited from his hand. The Keybearer was able to follow that up with a short flurry of Keyblade strikes at Tycoon’s face before noticing the other arm coming around for a swipe. So he dashed downward and out of its way, which also put Roxas back on the ground where he aimed up with his right gauntlet and fired off a charged shot from his RockGun at Tycoon’s head area.

This was all thanks to a bit of good fortune on his part, and Roxas knew it wasn’t likely he would find another opening like that again without using MP to create one. With that in mind, the Nobody simply went back on the defensive yet again. Although this time he wasn’t quite able to make a clean getaway from one of the rings, the resulting blast managed to barely catch him and sent Roxas momentarily sprawling.

”Gah, ow!” Roxas yelped, ”That’s what I get for pushing my luck I guess.” he muttered, pushing himself to his feet and refusing to let himself be slowed down by the hit. In fact there was already a frozen laser getting ready to shoot at him any moment now. Roxas went to roll out of its trajectory when suddenly the arena shook. Not that would hurt him, but it did throw him off his balance and sent him stumbling… just in time for the laser to unfreeze and clip him against his left side. Roxas recovered, but now he was starting to get frustrated.

So it was a good thing, then, that his MP had finally recharged. And so the Keybearer began to float in place and channel his Light. ”Alright, let’s see how you like getting laser’d!” As with his previous fight against Ninten and Lucas, Roxas began to call down columns of Light to strike the Arena around him. Their pattern was mostly random but he was able to keep it largely localized on Tycoon. Not that that would be particularly hard thanks to the Guardian’s large size making it an easy target. Tycoon did fight back though, attempting to swat Roxas with one of his arms or shoot him with one of his unfrozen laser shots. Between that and Roxas interrupting his channeling in brief moments to reposition himself to avoid incoming attacks, it almost looked like he was having some kind of laser light duel against the Guardian. And then Roxas intensified his assault, ”Give me strength!” and channeled his light more strongly. This made his light columns become bigger, stronger, and to begin striking faster.

Naturally this wasn’t going to last forever. Roxas’ Magic Hour Limit Break would run its course and be over soon enough. But hopefully he was able to deal some big damage with this and maybe give some others an opening they could capitalize on in the process.

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

@Achronum
First note: That would be my mistake and I can easily correct that detail.

Second note: He has plenty of motivation to take the risk in helping the rebellion, it's in his biography. Parents taken away when he was small child, and he hasn't been able to discern the truth behind that event yet. In all fairness I could have made that last detail a little clearer so that's probably my bad.

Third note: Yes, although in all honesty a face-reveal wouldn't exactly be earth-shattering. I'm not really not intending that to be some big mystery. Sune really is just some guy who put on a mask and took to thievery and information brokering.

Edit: I have changed the last paragraph of the biography. It now reads as follows:

He's heard of the Rebellion through his network, naturally. But he hasn't joined them, not officially anyway. In his own words, he's "waiting to see how serious they are" before he decides whether to commit to doing business with them or not. No sense in backing a horse if it can't even finish the first lap of a race, after all.

That should clear up the first note you gave me.

Avatar: The White Jade Gambit

Man in a Fox Mask

SUNE

_{"Keep the heroics to yourself. I'm just here to do business."}

_NAME

Sune

_AGE

24

_BIRTHPLACE

Presumably Ba Sing Se, but you'll find that Sune is not exactly forthcoming about his personal life.

_ELEMENT

None

_{APPEARANCE DETAILS}

He's almost always wearing his trademark white fox mask. Between that and his habit of keeping his hood drawn up, it's very rare for anyone to see his face.

_PERSONALITY

Sune can be very difficult to pin down. The mask he wears prevents anyone from seeing his facial expressions at any given time. When he speaks it's typically in an even tone, though one that also contains just enough playfulness that you can never tell if he's being genuine or not. It's all part of the effort to maintain the persona of the mysterious masked man that he puts out.

Underneath the mask is someone who sees the threat that the Earth Kingdom poses, and detests it for the most part like the rebels themselves do. But Sune often refrains from commenting on the matter, insisting that interactions with him be strictly kept professional and nothing more. This gives him the air of someone who prefers to have business associates rather than friends. Though to be honest, who can really tell? After all, Sune himself is basically just a walking enigma of a man.

_BIOGRAPHY

Sune actually was born in Ba Sing Se, that much is true. To a middle class merchant family of little real importance. Although if you were to ask him, Sune would simply tell you that his identity and parents don't matter. At some point in his childhood, both his parents were arrested by the Dai Li. Something about contraband allegations, the truth of which he's never actually confirmed one way or another. The real point is that they were taken from him, and he was shipped off to an orphanage in the aftermath. The orphanage was... not great, to say the least. Understaffed and underfunded, the place always seemed like it was under threat of shutting down if it couldn't make some kind of payment and meet some kind of city code.

And that was about when Sune started stealing. Food, purse-snatching, whatever he thought could be used to keep his home in the orphanage afloat. Not that he was a some great child thief or anything. On the contrary, Sune was caught several times. But as he was only a child at the time the most he could be given was a slap on the wrist and extra chores to do as punishment. So when thievery proved unsuccessful, Sune took to spying instead. This was something he actually was good at. After all, what important-looking officials discussing clandestine dealings would pay mind to some random urchin playing or scrounging around nearby? At first he tried taking incriminating information he learned to the authorities, thinking he'd get some kind of reward for it. Instead he was just turned away, nobody seeming to be willing to take him or his information seriously.

This was all because he was still just a kid, an orphaned urchin at that. But he wasn't a kid forever. As he became a teenager and those years eventually gave way to his young adulthood, Sune took to another form of business: blackmail. If the information he managed to learn about people wouldn't be taken seriously by police or the like? Then he'd simply sell it back to the people he learned it from under threat of exposing them. To accomplish this, he took to wearing mask and hood and gradually adopted the persona he has come to be known for now. But blackmail wasn't enough for him. So eventually Sune ended up becoming a full-blown information broker.

Now this proved to be quite lucrative. After all, there were people on both sides of the law that could make use of the kind of information that only someone like him could obtain. The orphanage he grew up at, and even many of the orphans who lived there when he did, all in their own ways became part of Sune's network. Those kids grew up like he did, went out and made lives for themselves in various places and professions. Those combined with the homeless population proved to be a rather fruitful way for Sune to keep his eyes and ears open all over the city.

He's heard of the Rebellion through his network, naturally. But he hasn't joined them, not officially anyway. In his own words, he's "waiting to see how serious they are" before he decides whether to commit to doing business with them or not. No sense in backing a horse if it can't even finish the first lap of a race, after all.

_TRIVIA

Sune is obviously not a bender. And he's also not a particularly skilled warrior either. But he's a sneaky bastard and very good at infiltration and information gathering. Not to mention a seemingly endless supply of acquaintances and contacts in various places and fields. Also, Sune isn't even his real name. It's just a moniker taken from "kitsune", hence the fox mask he wears.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Perils of the Night

I updated my IC post to include a reaction to Aile being there.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Perils of the Night

Is Aile at the gate? I was under the impression that she was somewhere inside the cemetery, otherwise Toby would have had a bad reaction to seeing her.

World of Light

The Under

Dreams of Light

Word Count: 882
Level 5 Ganondorf: 45/60
Exp: +4
NEW EXP Balance--- 49/60

As the Radiance continued to rain hell on the Seekers, Ganondorf had taken a moment to get his bearings and try to analyze the Guardian’s attacks for a moment. She teleported a lot, and almost all of her attacks were big, sweeping area attacks designed to keep her from being swarmed by crowds. Ganondorf was willing to bet that this meant she was less effective against a foe that forced her into a one-on-one at close range. And then came Nadia’s voice.

“Wow, this thing really has it out for you.”

Ganondorf grimaced, but nodded in agreement. ”I can assure thee that the feeling is mutual.” he offered back in response. Seconds later, Therion springboarded off of him and Nadia soon followed after him to team-up against the Guardian. After their attack came the Koopa Troop’s turn once again to try their hand at facing the Guardian. In the midst of this she unleashed a volley of light lances, and a handful of those even came in the warlord’s direction. He sidestepped one and tried to deflect the rest with this trident but one of them managed to slice past his lower mid section.

”You damnedable creature!” he hissed in pain. The wound itself wasn’t serious, but the light element behind it still burned a being such as himself. And this was also when Ganondorf looked down and realized he had been wielding his trident as if he were still right-handed! ”Bah, I knew this would take some getting used to! Curses!” and so he quickly moved the trident so that it would be held predominantly by his left hand. He didn’t expect this to have much of a profound effect, but at least it was a start.

That was when the Radiance teleported away from her fight with the Koopa Troop. After which she unleashed another volley of lances. But this time Bowser was the one with the answer as he summoned a wall of skeletal minions to form up and at least stop the first couple lines of fire. As for the warlord, he didn’t waste the opportunity to defensively duck behind the wall of minions. In those precious moments he re-summoned his Moblin archers whom he immediately commanded to ready a volley and fire only after the skeletons fell.

When they did, the Moblins let their arrows fly. Between that and the Moblins’ bodies themselves, Ganondorf was able to block a small portion of the next volley of lances. It wasn’t as wide of a coverage but it did give the Seekers behind him some kind of safe zone they could cling to. And once the volley ended, Ganondorf charged. He used bullet jump to sprint forward and launch himself up at the Radiance, intending to directly engage her once again.

”Die, knave!” he barked as he managed to catch the Radiance with a sweep of his trident. He managed a short flurry of attacks before she lashed back at him with lasers to send him back to the floor of the platform. But the warlord refused to be pushed back so easily. He had by some miracle managed to land on his feet and into a crouched position, ”Thou wilt not best me so easily!” and once again launched himself up at the Guardian.

This time he grappled onto the Radiance, using his trident to get some leverage around her head and neck area. And then he exploded. Well, not literally. He unleashed an explosive area of effect blast of his own. A power he had very recently obtained courtesy of Artorias - Abyssal Resurgence. Not only was this an explosion of dark energy, however effective that would be against the Radiance. But it also gave Ganondorf a nice little temporary damage buff that he was keen to capitalize on. He pushed himself off of the Guardian and then threw his spear at the Radiance and even managed to call a lightning blast onto it like a lightning rod just before she teleported away.

Only after that did Ganondorf crash back onto the platform. He staggered to his feet, still kicking but clearly not in great shape. He could only use Abyssal Resurgence because he had taken significant damage by this point. He was one of the only Seekers that was outside of Jr’s medico spell range earlier. That was probably why he had been taken into range of using Abyssal Resurgence. He could also enter his true form if he wanted to, but decided against it.

Ganon would be too slow and sluggish to take on a teleporting enemy like this. In fact doing that would just make the warlord that much easier for the Guardian to shred his health to pieces with her area-based attacks. And so with heavy breaths, the warlord pulled out a splash healing potion - one of only two he had left - and crushed it against himself. It wasn’t a large amount of healing, but it was something. Ganondorf summoned the trident back to his left hand, then decided to position himself a little closer to Jr in the hopes of catching a healing spell later on.

World of Light

Midgar

Deep Ground ~ The Source

Word Count: 550
Level 7 Roxas: 63/70
Exp: +4
NEW EXP Balance--- 67/70

With Sam having gone, that was one less thing for the Seekers to have to worry about for this fight. But the fight itself was far from over. It wasn’t hard to see that Mephisto in his transformed state was the cause of all the white gas that was plaguing the Seekers in this fight, so Roxas decided he needed to focus on taking him out before all the white clouds of gas proved to be a problem.

He tried shooting a charged shot from his RockGun at the avian monster, but it didn’t seem to do much damage from what Roxas could see. And on top of that, the big bird also teleported away only to reappear elsewhere. Great. That meant anyone wanting to get rid of Mephisto was going to have to continually chase him down. Well, Roxas couldn’t fly around like some other Seekers, he was still capable of being mobile in his own way. So he used the dash of his StepSword and Flow Motion to try and keep up with and chase Mephisto wherever he teleported. He tried not to engage with the other enemies or get in any of the Seekers’ way while doing this.

When he got close he zoomed in on the Singer and nailed him with a Cross Slash. This naturally resulted in the avian teleporting away, forcing Roxas to begin the process over again. Roxas repeated this pattern a couple of more times, at one point narrowly dodging out of the way of a clash between Midna and C. But with the Singer continually teleporting around, and its gas slowly taking its toll on Roxas and everyone else, this was not looking to be a particularly good time for him.

”Hah… this is getting… really tiring…” Roxas gasped in between coughs. He began to wonder how much damage the gas had done by now and if he should pause and heal himself with Curaga. But if he did that, he’d lose all the rest of the MP and then what? It would be a lot harder to keep up with chasing down the Singer without any MP to use. And on top of that the Gas would just slowly undo the healing anyway, so what was even the point?

”No…” Roxas coughed, ”Can’t… let up… now…” and so he resumed the chase. He weaved his way past a chaotic confrontation between Karen and several of the Seekers. He could have stopped and joined any of these other fights, but if he did then the Singer’s gas would continue to slowly kill off the Seekers if it wasn’t stopped. After managing a StepSword slash and even following it with a Cross Slash, the Singer teleported away from the Nobody yet again.

”Come on…” Roxas gasped, ”Keep… fighting…” he staggered slightly. By now the gas was really hurting. But he couldn't just drain the rest of his MP on Curaga either. He wasn't sure he'd be able to keep attacking the Singer if he did that. And then what? Half a minute of struggling without MP while the gas slowly undid the Curaga's healing? No, there had to be another way around this.

Yu-Gi-Oh!: Perils of the Night

Tobias Westen

Toby was almost tempted to just leave after he was eliminated. He didn’t, though, not wanting to be rude to the game store owner or to the other players. But watching Aile win again and again, eventually even taking the final match? That made him burn and seethe even more than he already had been. He still thought back to that aggravating turn, where he drew Felgrand Dragon from his deck. It was the worst possible thing that could have happened. Felgrand Dragon could only be special summoned from the graveyard, and even then only after it was sent there from the field. Ideally it was supposed to be equipped to one of his Felgrand warriors directly from the deck so that it could be sent to the graveyard via their effect and summoned from it later. But drawing it to hand like that? With no Paladin or Guardian to equip it to right away? Of all the absolute rotten luck. Aile won because she had a bunch of powerful cards she bought. But she also won largely because of Toby's abysmal luck of the draw.

Bah! Who was he kidding? Everyone in this tournament was able to summon a bunch of powerhouse cards from their extra deck. And here Toby was with his barely-functioning structure deck that had no extra deck monsters of its own to use. He had to face it, there was no way in hell he was winning this thing. Not really. But finally, it all ended and Toby could get out of there without looking too much like a sore loser. But before he did, one of the judges slipped him something on his way out. It was some kinda envelope, with its only note being to not open until he was alone. Seemed weird, but Toby took it anyway, once again not wanting to be rude and do or say something that would get him banned from the shop.

Toby eventually did open the thing once he was back home and sulking in his bedroom. Cemetery? Midnight? Alone? This had “suspicious” written all over it. In fact Toby was pretty sure he’d seen a horror movie once that started out kinda like this. Any sane person would toss the invitation and forget about it. And for a while he did just that. Toby actually crumpled the note up and tossed it in his trash bin before he went to bed and fell asleep.

Toby ended up cutting school the next day. He had no desire to risk running into Aile and dealing with her, especially after having lost to her for the second time in a row. Instead he spent almost the entire day at the Old Domino Batting Cage. Toby had a habit of spending a lot of his free time here, especially when he wanted to vent his frustrations into hitting homers or if he just wanted to think. Not only that, this was the only way he could even play baseball anymore after being cut from the team at school.

If Tobias was being completely and totally honest with himself, then between baseball and duel monsters? He loved baseball just a little bit more. He played this sport for far longer than he ever played any card games. Whether it was little league when he was a kid, or with the Tigers on the high school team. He had more fond memories of playing ball than playing cards. But these days, the cards were the only thing he could actually competitively play. Or what passed for competitive play, given his lousy excuse for a deck.

Later that evening, after Toby made it back home and heard an earful from his mom about skipping school, he found himself sulking in his bedroom once again. The cards of his dueling deck were spread out on his desk, him having spent a bit of time looking over them and trying to figure out which ones he should eventually replace. Unfortunately, his knowledge of this game was still pretty lacking, and so in the end he frustratingly decided to leave the deck alone for the time being. And that was when he remembered the weird invitation he was given yesterday.

”Tch, geez…” he muttered to himself, ”I must be out of my freaking mind.” With no more time left to think this over, Toby hastily dug the crumpled up invitation out of the trash bin and stuffed it into his jacket pocket. Then he gathered his deck and snuck out into the chilly night. From there, it was a matter of making his way to Old Domino Cemetery. The note said there would be further instructions at the gate, so that’s where Toby stopped and waited.

Until he saw her, that is.

"Oh come ON!" Toby groaned with frustration, "SHE'S here too? As if I don't have to deal with the pampered princess enough at school during the day..." he added, his voice trailing off into incoherent grumbling.

World of Light

Midgar

Deep Ground ~ The Source

Word Count: 890
Level 7 Roxas: 59/70
Exp: +4
NEW EXP Balance--- 63/70

At first, Roxas was just as dumbfounded as everyone else. Why the sudden outburst? Why was Nox acting like he had already lost before the fight could even start? But the more Roxas pondered about it, the more he began to remember something from his own past that was, at least, tangentially related. And that was when it hit him. Time travel? Had a future incarnation of Nox jumped back in time into the body of his past self? That was the only thing that would make his sudden change in attitude make sense.

It also followed the rules of time travel, at least the way Roxas understood it back in his world. The rule was that someone could only go back to a point in time that their past self existed in, and that they would essentially enter and take control of their past self. And this seemed to fit that bill. Maybe. Roxas couldn’t be absolutely certain without just coming out and asking, and it looked like he wasn’t going to be getting an opportunity to do that as the tensions rose and C suddenly escalated things by changing Mephisto into another form and deciding to join the fight himself.

But Nox’s actions weren’t the only thing that got the Nobody’s attention. He noticed that Sam, too, looked just as perplexed as everyone else. In fact for a moment he even looked downright dispirited. And that was when Roxas knew what he should do. He had to at least try.

”Things aren’t going the way you planned, Sam?” Roxas asked him, approaching slowly and not drawing any weapons just yet. The man offered a slow shrug before he spoke back.

“You think?” Even Sam apparently couldn’t maintain his typical carefree attitude in circumstances like these. He’d deployed some sort of face mask from his armor to shield his nose and mouth from Mephisto’s clouds, and his eyes were narrowed against the stinging haze.

”Why were you even doing this, anyway?” Roxas asked, ”You know as well as we do what’s really behind all this. So why suddenly throw your lot in with these guys?” The Nobody coughed as the looming clouds began to envelop them. He shielded his mouth with his sleeve and his helmet’s green visor deployed as well to shield his eyes.

“When someone offers you a chance for a nice, clean do-over?” Sam responded, “Well, it’s kind of hard to say no.”

”There’s still another way out of this.” Roxas offered alongside another cough.

“Oh? Do tell,” the samurai replied, his tone quite humorless as he gave the boy and his allies a dubious glance.

”Help us eliminate the Guardian. When it’s gone, everyone in Midgar will remember the things they forgot… just like you did. I can’t promise it’ll be perfect, but maybe that’ll give you the do-over that you’re looking for?” he coughed again while awaiting the response.

“Hmm…” Though one hand continued to rest on the hilt of his sheathed katana, Sam rubbed his chin with the other, and did seem to be considering it.

”How about this then?” Roxas offered instead, ”Let’s see who can land the first hit. If I do? You join our side. If I can’t? You can do whatever else you want. No tricks, no gimmicks. Just you, me…” Roxas paused in order to summon Oblivion and proceeded to hold it both hands much like Sam would with his katana, ”...and our blades.”

After a moment, the suggestion elicited a snicker. “Everywhere I go, it’s the same. Everyone wants a piece of me. I fight and I fight, for this cause or that, and the moment I run into someone stronger, I’m under new management again. I’m tired of being a blade, passed along and wielded by other men.” He shook his head. “I thought this would be my chance to start all over. But in the end, it was too good to be true.” Sam tilted his head back slightly, staring down the bridge of his nose at Roxas. “So you know what? I’m done. No more recruiting. No more causes. It’s time I started fighting for myself.”

Roxas could only smile at this. ”Then I guess that’s that.” He turned away from Sam, knowing he needed to go join the others in the fight, ”But you know… I’m not really looking for a blade.” he said with another cough, ”Just looking for friends really. I guess I was hoping I could count you as one.” he couldn’t really wait around for a response this time, and dashed off to go join the fight.

“Hah.” On some level, Sam expected Roxas or his allies to try and recruit him by force. The idea that the Seekers might just let him go hadn’t even crossed his mind. It made for a welcome change of pace, but the Brazilian wasn’t going to give them too much credit. After making sure that nobody would rush him the moment his back was turned, Sam turned to go. “Friends, huh?”

Mephisto’s smog and Tycoon’s spells hurried him on his way, and after another moment, Jetstream Sam was gone. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but for once he’d be the one to decide.