Looming Shadows

*The Heartless spins, aiming a kick at Taiyo. Thiera stands up.*

T"He's using my abilities! My weakness is that it takes a few seconds before I can cast another spell! Oh, & almost all of my spells are defensive!"

E"Sounds good, but how do we stop him from using his own powers?"

*She slams her Keyblade into the ground, sending a trail of rock spikes at the Heartless.*
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*Artexi quickly falls back to her knees from the pain in her leg that now has a bullet wound & possibly a broken bone. The knight draws a knife & cuts up her vines, which probably couldn't have retrieved Nero from him anyway.*

???<Would that I had but sword, mace, or shield, & I could be of more assistance to you.>

Elisa<Are you kidding? Just keep doing what you're doing.>

*Suddenly, red lightning strikes the tree that Roatha was secured to. As it burns, he stumbles out of the smoke, throwing the Omega Weapon at Elisa. When the Explosion Raid hits, they're both tossed into a nearby river & swept off to parts unknown.*

R"Two birds, one sto--"

*Lilith stabs the ground & a bunch of tree branches pop up around him, bashing into him & knocking him to & fro. Goliath rubs his head & reaches out, squinting weakly.*

Goliath<...Elisa...Angela....>

*Things have a tendency to keep getting worse, as Mortal's Keyblade Glider shows up & starts breathing fire all over the forest.*
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*Larxene then generates her Keyblade, cloaked in darkness, & stabs it deep into Xyukuse's chest. He feels as if he's being electrocuted from wires straight to the heart.*

Marluxia<It will take the seeds some time to spread.>

*The Archmage makes a fist.*

Archmage<What is time to the wielder of the Phoenix Gate?>

Taiyo ducks and rolls forward. At the debris sue begins pulling at the rocks.

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Azuma points the Keyblade at the asshole Glider and fires Blizzara's at it.

*Artexi summons her glider, swearing under her breath and stumbling*

<Nero, come on!>

*She uses Spark Raid on the knight with her other keyblade. Eve fires void beams at Safian, who blocks with her leaves then sends some fireballs Eve's direction, which Eve moves to avoid. Monu uses Wind Raid on Roatha*

Instead of trying to use any of the abilities that he was finding that he was now privy too, Hinode instead stood in a solid classical fighting pose, "I have one idea - we can use things that, if copied, couldn't be a problem as they have a logical counteroffensive. Good ol' pugilism, eh?" He smirked after having drawn his hand across his nose in turn.

*Goliath & Roatha try to stagger to their feet, only for the former to be nailed with a large seed, which releases a cloud of dust that causes him to nod off & fall over.*

L"Just stay down!"

*Despite his complaints about the knife, he manages to use it to deflect Artexi's attack back at her.*

???<I'm afraid that he is not going anywhere, Miss.>

N"That--that's what you think!"

*Gritting his teeth, Nero uses a Dark Corridor to teleport them up in the sky, where he activates his armor, dragging the twine across it until it breaks. He summons his Glider, at which point the mystery man grabs on.  Mortal's Glider vanishes into a Dark Corridor as quickly as it showed up.*
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*The Archmage holds out a hand & fire surrounds it, making his fingers resemble talons & his arm appear to be feathered. Suddenly, the flaming bird arm thing rockets towards Xyukuse.*
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T"You misunderstand, it isn't that it copies attacks, but rather that--"

*While she's explaining, the Heartless backflips to avoid Euryale's attack, grabbing Taiyo's shoulders with its feet & pushes it face-first into the rock. If that doesn't hurt enough--& also if it does--it digs its claws into her. Euryale raises her Keyblade behind her head.*

E"Get off of her!"

*Thiera stops midstream when she sees what Euryale is doing & holds a hand out to her.*

T"Wait, he'll just Reflect your attack!"

E"Well, we can't just do nothing!"

Azuma fires a volley of fireballs at Eve.

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Taiyo still tries to pull debris away as difficult as that would be with such little area to move in.

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Xyukuse: "Hope your plan works, you hack. If it doesn't I'll tear you open when I get out!"

In part because he blamed himself for distracting Taiyo by making her explain, Hinode ignored the fact that this was probably a death sentence for himself and ran face-first swinging fists and feet into the back of the organism that was attacking the aforementioned female. He was going to get it off her one way or another, and he figured that it couldn't copy - or do whatever it did - if there were two things taking care of it.

*Seeing that the day is pretty much lost, Eve disappears in a dark corridor to return to the others. Safian lands and dismisses her glider, while Artexi summons her other keyblade before opening her own dark corridor up to where Nero is, where she then slashes at the knight's back*

*He falls off, into the trees, & they know not what happens to him.*
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*As it turns out, the tree limbs broke his fall, & he harmlessly falls to the ground. Goliath stumbles forward, holding his head & reaching out blindly.*

Goliath<...Angela...Elisa....>

L"Someone should go with Goliath to look for them. The rest of us should take on the Archmage."

Elisa<Even if the Organization gets away?>

L"Stopping the Archmage is more important."
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*Euryale's Keyblade vanishes as she grabs Hinode under the arms.*

E"Hold it. We just need someone to shoot him 'til he uses Reflect, then someone else can attack while it's down."

<I have an alternate suggestion.>

*The Heartless begins to generate a mass of compressed darkness at its feet.*

Artexi:<Let's go!>

*She opens a dark corridor*

"Are you sure that's going to work?" Hinode immediately responded, though, and popped off the other as soon as Euryale took his arms. He had a feeling he wasn't going to much like this so-called 'alternative suggestion' however.

Taiyo begins panicking as she pulls at the debris while those other louts don't do much to rescue either of them.

E"Not if he blasts Taiyo first!"

*Her gaze darts over to Thiera.*

E"Can't you steal the Keyblade back from him or something?!"

T"I can't, he's too strong!"

E"Try harder!"

*As promised, the Heartless fires an enormous blast of darkness out of its feet directly into Taiyo. It's tough to see with the black smoke curling off of her, but she's probably not okay. The Heartless looks down at its tentacles in surprise as the Oathkeeper vanishes & reappears in Euryale's hands. She points it at the Heartless, teeth gritted & shaking with raise, before redirecting it at Taiyo, conjuring a ring of flowers around her. She then lets go of Hinode.*

E"...Show it no mercy."

*The Ends of the Earth appears in Thiera's hand, which she holds with some difficulty. Stumbling slightly, she stabs the ground, causing rock spikes to shoot towards the Heartless. Each spike is angled at 45 degrees so it can strike the monster from the side, avoiding Taiyo. The smoke clears, revealing that Taiyo is barely conscious, due in large part to the pollen damming up her wounds, but surely in a lot of pain--her back & shoulders have been lacerated & burned, & one shoulder dislocated from the force of the blast.*
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N"Go WHERE? Wait--never mind that, I have to go back for Roatha!"
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*As it happens, the plan fails as Lilith comes through on her glider, blasting at the Archmage, who was forced to raise a barrier around himself. For his part, darkness swirls around Xyukuse as he falls towards the light of his heart. The knight rushes in, tackling Larxene before being electrocuted & thrown into the reflective pool, at which point Marluxia materializes his Keyblade & swings it down in an attempt to decapitate him.*

OOC: At this point, you should design a Station.
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*Monu had been asked to stay behind with Goliath, who had taken a moment to glare at Roatha before leaping from tree to tree, staring earnestly at the river.*

<Elisa! Angela! Please, answer me! ...There!>

*He glides down to a bunch of logs stuck among rocks. As he begins to pull the unconscious women out of the water, the dam begins to loosen.*

Azuma fires a bunch of Wisdom Shots at Marluxia.

*Monu summons his glider and follows Goliath, looking for Angela*
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*Eve summons her keyblade and blasts Lilith with Void Beams, while Safian appears behind Larxene and jumps on her, covered in flames*
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Artexi:<We can't help him! Maybe it's best he's with the Order right now!>

Having finally moved back once he was fully released, he took those instructions only all too well - at least to the best of his ability.

Lifting Photon Debugger up again he gritted his teeth from behind his armored mask and started to release chains of lightening that he trusted would strike the monster as well, all the while avoiding Taiyo as Thiera did.

*She's right there with Elisa, so I'm not sure what he's doing. As the dam falls apart, Goliath tosses the 2 females to the bank, which will probably bruise them later, but at least they're not in Goliath's position, being swept towards a nearby waterfall.*
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*Marluxia is knocked back, but rolls to his feet & slashes, sending blades of pink energy towards Azuma. Lilith is struck by thorn beams out of nowhere & drops to the ground, turning her damaged Glider back into her Keyblade. She glows pink & slashes, causing a spike of wood to shoot out of the ground at Eve's back. Larxene falls to her knees & tries to shake Safian off, surrounding herself with electricity.*

Archmage<Enough of this foolishness!>

*He raises his hands, causing a Dark Corridor to open in the sky. Mortal's Glider emerges from this, flanked by half a dozen Invisible Heartless. Blobs of darkness also fall to the ground, creating more portals, out of which Shadows emerge. Meanwhile, the knight stops seizing up, dashes towards the Archmage, & grabs his arms.*

Archmage<Let go of me, you filthy fool! Who do you think you are?!>

???<Arthur, King of all the Britons.>

*He takes advantage of the Archmage's shock, sweeping his legs out from under him & pinning him to the ground.*
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N"That's nonsense!"

*So he flies back down.*
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*Hideki falls towards a stained glass platform depicting The Castle That Never Was and the castle of Radiant Garden, a large fissure-like crack seperating the two, the entirety of the platform is outlined by a serpentine dragon reminescent of the Oroborus with fire and darkness creeping up the platform starting from the bottom and moving upwards. When he touches the ground, out of the corner of his eye, he spies a second shadow emerging from his own as Larxene slashes at the back of his head.*
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*Despite being stripped of Thiera's abilities, the Heartless's own power is still quite formidable, so it slashes through the rock pillars before they can hit it, then dodges Hinode's attack. Thiera spins, tossing Euryale's Keyblade into it, causing it to fly into the stage in a huge fireball, the stage collapsing on top of it. Thiera runs towards the pile of debris.*

E"Where are you going? It's probably not dead yet!"

T"Vengeance is a luxury that we do not have time for. We need to rescue Hitomi, escape the building, & figure out what that Heartless wants to distract us from before it gets back up."

*Once she gets to the rock pile, she starts sweeping the Keyblade, causing the larger rocks to fly away from the pile. Euryale reluctantly walks over towards them, stopping to look down at Taiyo.*

E"Are you sure you'll be okay? I have more healing spells."

While Hinode realized only all too well that his initial attack had been dodged, he did take the time to turn around once the fireball had apparently dispatched the aforementioned Heartless.

"Did you want me to remain here and fight this thing like I said before, or do you want me to come with too?"

Regardless of how they responded he moved to help Taiyo if she needed any more assistance, and it certainly looked as though he were going to end up coming with them anyway.

*Artexi curses under her breath and follows*
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*Eve uses Fission to destroy the wood and attack Lilith. Safian jumps off but summons several glowing clones to slam into Larxene*
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*Monu darts after Goliath and attempts to grab him*

Azuma rolls to dodge the attacks and fires a volley of Blizzara's at Marluxia.

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Taiyo: "Y...yeah."

She tries to smile at Euryale, probably looking really stupid.

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Xyukuse ducks down and spins, attempting to trip up Larxene.

Xyukuse: "Are you so eager to die, you're going to come into my head space to do it?"

*He grabs the gargoyle just before he would go over the waterfall.*

Goliath<Thank you--but we must make sure Elisa & Angela are okay!>
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*Lilith rolls out of the way, firing seeds at Eve. Marluxia spins the Keyblade, releasing a tornado of petals that deflect the blizzaras back at Azuma. Larxene falls forward again, sinking into a Dark Corridor. Mortal blasts Arthur, allowing the Archmage to blast him away with lightning. The Invisibles drop below the Glider & spin, throwing tracking shots of darkness everywhere. The Shadows, of course, each scramble towards the nearest member of the Order.*
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*Nero & Artexi descend through the trees to find Roatha rising groggily to his feet. Nero lands, dismissing the Glider.*

N"You're okay!"

R"Oh, shut up, loser. Shit should be hittin' the fan by now."
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*Euryale apparently chooses to interpret this as she needs to be hit with another cure spell. To be fair, all of this healing reduces her injuries to minor burns.*

T"Of course not, that thing is far too dangerous to leave anyone behind to fight it."

*Just as she uncovers Hitomi, darkness begins consuming the floor, sweeping towards them from the direction of the damaged set.*
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*She transfers the momentum into a flip, blasting lightning downwards at him.*

Larxene<You don't even know what's going on here, do you, idiot?!>

Azuma hauls ass to get out of the path of bits of ice that are slowly coming this way as well as to not be overwhelmed by Shadows or blasted by Invisibles.

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Taiyo & Hitomi: "Thank you."

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Xyukuse rolls and calls up the Chaos Ripper when he's on his feet.

Xyukuse: "I'm going to carve you up for being far too close for comfort."

Reluctantly, and admittedly wordlessly, Hinode finally came to the conclusion that Thiera was right and ran up to immediately catch up with the others.

*Eve moves to avoid the seeds, then casts Slow on Lilith. Safian roars in fury at her target escaping, then fires several orbs of darkness at the Archmage*
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*Monu starts flying back as fast as possible*

<No problem! We are here to help.>
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*Artexi lands but does not dismount*

<Then we better go help the others.>

*The ice strikes where he was previously, freezing it. Without warning, Lilith darts at Eve in a rapid slide, with her blade outstretched. Safian knocks the Archmage back & the Eye of Odin falls off of his head.*

Archmage<NO! NOOOOO!>

*He scrabbles to try to reach it, but is unable to before fire & light emerge from his mouth, nose, eyes, & pores. He burns, then explodes in a pillar of flame & light, which knocks Mortal & the Heartless back into the Dark Corridor & sears away the darkness.*

Marluxia<Should you survive, give my regards to Senthose Rasheverek!>

*He sweeps his hand, producing a flurry of petals. When they clear away, he's gone.*
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*Roatha has already set off back towards where the Archmage is. Nero runs after him.*

N"H--hey, wait up!"
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*Goliath bends down to hold them in his arms & lightly shake them, because ancient winged dinosaur-men don't know CPR. Fortunately, the women don't need it, & groggily open their eyes.*

Goliath<You're safe! Both of you!>

Elisa<Yeah...what happened?>

Angela<Is--is the island safe?>
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T"No time for gratitude, let's just get out of here before that shadow reaches us!"

*She generates her glider & flies towards the giant hole that's now in the roof. Euryale quickly stoops to throw Taiyo over her shoulders in a fireman carry, then follows suit, looking behind her at Hinode.*

E"You're okay, right? You remember how to use the glider?"

*Out of the darkness, tendrils rise to reach after them.*
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*Larxene also rolls, turning to face him. She slipped 4 knives out of the sleeves of her free hand & tossed them in Xyukuse's general direction in a fan formation.*

Larxene<We'll just see about that!>

*With her Keyblade, she blasts lightning, which is transmitted to & between all of the knives, resulting in a huge horizontal arch of lightning headed at him.*