Looming Shadows

*Artexi escapes the ice chunks but is still blown down the hall, crashing into Nero, who appears to be frozen solid. Surprisingly fast, Hellmasker whirls his chainsaw around to block the attacks aimed at it & goes in for another attack at Taiyo's throat.*

Th"Don't hurt him!"

*To punctuate her statement, Thiera uses Collision Magnet to grab Hinode's Keyblade & throw it at Hellmasker's back instead. Abruptly, the darkness around Xigbar expands & surrounds the area, but quickly retracts. Suddenly, they're in a large cage like that of the Lift Stop, floating apparently over midair. Binah leaves her armor behind to guard Thiera as she charges at Avici, who electrifies his feet & skates across the floor, firing arrows at the energy suspending the cage. Each time it's struck, the cage shakes. Euryale attempts to push herself up with the Keyblade, wincing with the effort.*

E"Are you--trying to drop us from the sky? That's crazy, you'll die too."

Malkuth<As if! While you kids go splat, I'll be taking anyone with a fancy black coat far away.>
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*When Saix blocks, Lilith double jumps & lobs a plant at his face. He reaches up to block it with his free hand, only to be shocked when the vines grow rapidly & grip him tight, a Venus flytrap forming on the end. This soon becomes a non-issue as Axel destroys it with a well-aimed fireball, before smirking & spinning his other Keyblade, releasing a wall of flames aimed at Monu. Safian learns what a bastard Xaldin is when his spears & wind deflect all of the attacks. He whirls around as Azuma goes by him & reaches upward, 3 of his lances following his movements as he swipes at Azuma's backside. With his other hand, he sends a lance rocketing towards Safian as 2 continue circling him.*

Zexion<Your end is near!>

*As Azuma breaks through the shield, Zexion creates 2 clones to attack Azuma from either side as he himself disappears inside of his Lexicon, which begins fluttering away. Vexen swings his Keyblade upward, releasing a gale in an attempt to flash-freeze him. Luxord simply disappears behind a wall of giant cards, vanishing as the cards scatter themselves in random directions. Lexeaus gives a great roar, flexing his muscles as a magenta aura surrounds him. He then goes in for another power-up.*

*Monu stabs his keyblade into the ground and erects a diamond shield around himself while climbing to his feet. Safian shadow travels around Xaldin and sends a few shots of darkness at his back, thought it's likely in vain*
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*Artexi stumbles to her feet and looks down at Nero, fear crossing her face. She shakes his frozen shoulder*

<Nero! Can you here me!?>

Taiyo pivots and spins around the Hellmasker, using Frost Surge to pummel and push the Hellmasker away, Hitomi using Gravity Well on it.

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Azuma rolls to avoid the wind and creates his own clones to attack the one's Zexion made.

Azuma: "Follow that book!"

Considering the fact that the darkness had only temporarily expanded and was now soon retracting, Kyohaku didn't question the move that Thiera had made at all. Soon, though, he was looking around and trying to figure out just where they were. Fortunately he was able to at least recover his Keyblade in the process before they seemed to be floating and ready to drop.

While he was originally going to ask if they could float away on their gliders, Hinode didn't exactly see a way out of the cage just yet.

*Nero's eyes move a bit & he makes a strained groaning noise. After being thrown away, Hellmasker rises to its feet, sporting a few gashes & with its limbs twisted at odd angles. It twists its limbs back into place to go on another attack, but Euryale scoops up rocks & blasts them at it, knocking it back down. Xigbar spins his Keyblades & teleports outside of the cage, assisting Avici in trying to destroy the track that the cage is suspended on. Binah's armor responds by holding its hand upward, creating a barrier to protect it. With its other hand, it raises a wall behind Avici. The real Binah puts on a burst of speed & slams him into it when he tries to block. He responds by releasing his corrosive darkness all around him.*
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*Presumably, the clones vanish as their attacks are spent. Vexen shrieks a little & runs away, but the water forms surround Azuma & grab him. Lexeaus also achieves his gold power up & starts walking forward. A few of the shots hit Xaldin, but they're greatly slowed down by the wind. He responds by surrounding her with whirling lances, all pointed at her as he holds his Keyblade & a 2nd lance for defense.*

L"We're kind of busy right now!"

*Lilith ducks to the side as Saix swings upward & stabs at his flank. Axel leaps forward in a flaming wheel, throwing a flaming Keyblade at Monu's shield while using his other to slash Lilith's left arm, forcing her to dismiss the armor over it as it starts to melt.*

Luxord<Let the games begin.>

*As his cards swarm over the area, occasionally they catch glimpses of their backs. One depicts Luxord, the others depict either stop spells or explosions.*

*Safian attempts to use Dark Splicer to teleport around Xaldin and claw him, hopefully avoiding the spear. Monu moves out from behind the shield as fast as he can while remaining on his feet. He then casts Hawk's Dive on himself to increase his speed before slashing at Axel*
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<I can't unfreeze you right now. Just hold on!>

*With that, Artexi takes one last look at Nero before running back to the battle. Once she arrives, Artexi sends a blast of acid at Euryale*

While Euryale was performing what was essentially a missile assault with rocks, Hinode joined in the fun, if you had wanted to call it that, by sending up a few of his Pulsar blasts in the same way that she had been using the stones. Naturally he also cast an act of Star Formation, just in case things got a little heated - or dark considering that corrosive darkness as the case might have been. Either way, he had hoped that it was going to help with the tight spot that they were in.

OOC: Okay, apparently Lancelot deleted his account. Not sure what that's about, but I guess if he doesn't make a new one, I'm going to have to write out Hinode. Not that it matters until Harley posts again.

Hitomi casts Stop Flow on the Hellmasker while Taiyo shoots a Fireball from each Keyblade, one at Artexi while the other is shot to intercept the acid.

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Azuma casts Dark on a water thing to his left to free that arm.

*As Hellmasker's body is damn near vaporized by all of this shit, darkness begins collecting around it. Once it gets hit by Stop Flow, it's in the interesting state of being frozen mid-transformation, a dome of shadows halfway formed around it. Binah jumps back, using Collison Magnet to pull Avici away. When Thiera hesitates, the armor grabs her hand & fires a beam of light from the Keyblade, piercing Avici through the chest. Avici falls to the ground, his extremities becoming pixelated as they fall apart into red cubes.*

Avici<I was the future. Now there is only darkness. And the worlds will have you to thank for it.>

Xigbar<Whoops.>

*He teleports in, shooting the fireball away from Artexi.*

Xigbar<We'd best skeedaddle, Kiddos.>

*After grabbing her & Nero, he teleports away. Roatha takes 1 look at this scene after pulling himself up & disappears into a Dark Corridor.*

E"Hooray, we won!"

*After raising her hands in the air, Euryale promptly falls back over.*
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*The others start swinging Azuma around as Vexen shoots a gust of wind to flash-freeze them. Zexion rematerializes behind Leaeus, who charges towards Azuma like a bull, swinging his enormous Keyblade downward. Zexion, meanwhile, gathers pages around him for something or other. Axel sort of blocks Monu as he scrabbles forward, summoning his Keyblade back into his hand after it detonates the remainder of his shield. Before he can counter, Lilith swings around, throwing Bower of Doom over him & Saix. The thorny vines stop just short of Monu.*

L"Thanks, I'd never have been able to hit them without help. Now we should--"

*No sooner does she say that than a bunch of giant cards come shooting towards them from all sides. Meanwhile, Safian continues to discover what a bastard Xaldin is, as she feels herself getting scratched up by his wind shield as she struggles to land hits on him. Fortunately, she is going too fast for Xaldin to counter with his lances, so instead he summons them to spin around him.*
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*Xigbar, Artexi, Nero, & Roatha reappear beside mining machinery in the Great Maw. The latter 2 are still frozen & limping, respectively.*

R"Well, that was a spectacular disaster. And where's the asshole in the mask?"

Xigbar<Don't know. We'll have to look for him later. If we find a Moogle to patch you kids up, we can regroup with the rest of the Organization.>

R"To do what, get our asses kicked again? Avici could control the entire castle & travel through time, & he STILL lost."

*Monu uses Aero Shield to create a shield around himself and Lilith to protect against the cards. Safian presses her attack, flames covering her body as she jumps on Xaldin. She does her best to avoid as many spears as possible*
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Artexi:<You're always the first one to give up, aren't you?>
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*Eve heads back to her lab*

For a moment, Hinode raised a hand to help avert him from what appeared to be all that darkness or perhaps the force of the other individuals who were teleporting away into the Dark Corridor. Even for him, all of this happening at once was certainly overwhelming.

Regardless, he thought it was sort of over for the time being, until of course Euryale fell over. Hinode was, soon enough, on the ground as he tried to help her get back up again. It seemed that he had grown a little closer with the other members of his team after all, and figured that she could have used a hand like this when she was down.

"Everything alright there?"

Taiyo rushes to Euryale and begins healing her.

=================================

Azuma casts Darkga on Lexaus.

R"You seemed pretty hesitant to attack the Queen Keyblade Bitch from where I was standing."

Xigbar<Kids, if you don't stop fighting, I will turn this car around & we won't be going to Disney Town. Look, we don't have a ton of time, so just get movin' before I have to tell the Boss Man & he gets mad & gives you kids a spanking.>
==============================
E"I'm fine, just a bit dazed...thanks, Taiy."

*Binah promptly overshadows Taiyo by raising her Keyblade & releasing a healing light that bathes everyone in the area, though it does not fix their armor.*

Binah<We are not finished yet. Avici may have been disposed of, but we still need to assist the rest of the Order in routing the Organization, then seize the castle's computer.>

*Thiera just continues to stare, transfixed in horror, at the spot where the last remnants of Avici have flickered away.*
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*The tendrils go through Lexeaus & strike Zexion, who is knocked down with big bloody gashes on him as the pages scatter. He quickly erects a shield of darkness, which collapses to show that he has vanished. Lexeaus shows no sign that he even notices he was attacked, striking Azuma heavily & also kicking up rock spikes, essentially shattering Azuma's armor. The frozen water forms are shattered, at which point they begin to melt & regrow around Azuma. Off in the distance, he can barely make out ice gleaming around Vexen.*

L"I've got this, you go help Azuma!"

*The shield blows away most of the cards. Lilith spots Luxord's card & flips it, causing all of the cards to vanish. She then stabs the stunned Luxord in the chest, releasing roots into him as she twists the Keyblade. As he doubles over, the plants around Saix & Axel grow thicker & thornier.*

Xaldin<Where's the fun in this?>

*Xaldin grits his teeth as he's being mauled. When he's pressed to the ground, he raises his hand & creates a tornado to blow Safian away. Holding his bloody neck & shoulder with 1 hand, he waves the other, causing the lances to whirl around him in a ball of spiky death as he floats back into the air.*

~2~
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*The lab is empty, though some of the tools have been pilfered. Nothing important, mainly since there are Sorcerers standing--err, floating--guard around the box.*

Considering that he wasn't able to do anything to heal a biological person, Hinode was rather grateful that Taiyo had been able to rush in to start healing Euryale.

For that matter, he was rather glad to feel the influence of Binah's healing ray, especially considering that the could get hurt in ways in this world that he wouldn't have been able to back home.

"Thiera? Hey, Thiera? You okay?" Once he was confident in his ability to do so, he started to go over to her, thankful to Binah for the renewed energy that he had received.

*Artexi opens her mouth to respond, then shuts it and crosses her arms. She stares at the ground away from Roatha*
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*Monu nods at Lilith, then charges Lexeaus and slashes at his back with Eagle's Claw. Safian escapes from the tornado as quickly as she can, then sends a stream of fire at Xaldin*
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*Eve looks around the lab, eyes widening. She looks at the nobodies*

<Did you see who did this?>

Taiyo: "You're welcome."

Either out of curiosity or something else, Hitomi stares at Vincent who is presumably still stopped mid-transformation.

Taiyo: "Umm, what do we do about him?"

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Azuma picks himself up, feeling as bad as Lexaes looks, the water clones not making him feel any better.

Azuma creates shadow clones to attack the water forms while he approaches Lexaes.

Binah<I will take care of Thiera and Vincent. My Lingering Will can take the rest of you to the battle.>

*She puts her hands on Thiera's shoulder, but Thiera wriggles out of her grasp, avoiding eye contact. Binah frowns.*

E"Yeah, I guess the others can't really afford to wait while we stand around debating ethics."

*So the animated set of armor draws a circle in midair, which becomes a portal through space back to the basement of the castle, beyond which they glimpse flashes from a battle.*
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Sorcerer<Mushroom Heartless.>
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R"Whatever. Just pick that up & follow me."

*He indicates the partially-thawed Nero.*

Xigbar<So you kids can find your own way back to the basement, I take it?>

R"Yeah, yeah."
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*Neither Lexeaus nor Xaldin even flinch. Sensing trouble, Lilith double jumps & hurls a cure spell at Azuma. Trouble comes in the form of Lexeaus stabbing the ground, throwing up enormous rock spikes all around him. Luxord takes this moment to surround himself with cards again as Xaldin shoots towards Safian, wind & spears whirling around him. Ice clones of Azuma emerge from the darkness, slashing at Monu from behind while Vexen hangs back, cowering behind a shield that he conjured. The water forms, of course, are destroyed. Presumably the clones vanish with them.*

~1~

Naturally Hinode wasn't completely sure what the source of the animosity between Thiera and Binah was, but he ended up adhering more to Euryale's statement than anyone else's.

"Yeah, I'm ready to go no matter what." He turned toward the portal that had opened up in the process, indeed having looked as stalwart as ever. Maybe at this point he had genuinely matured quite a bit.

*Eve groans and sits down near the box*

<Dr. Mushroom?>

*She turns slightly red and smoothes out a crease in her lab coat*

<I mean, was it wearing a lab coat?>
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*Artexi looks down at Nero, groaning. She then throws one of his arms over her shoulder, and starts to follow Roatha. Unfornately, some of Nero is likely dragging on the ground*
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*Safian uses Dark Spilce to get behind Xaldin, then jumps on him again, clawing with flaming claws. Monu leaps away then summons a tornado around the Azuma clones*

Taiyo and Hitomi follow the suit of armor.

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Azuma raises his Keyblade to block and counters with Dark Impulse, the lot of good that'll do as most trucks are smaller than Lexaeus.

*When the rest of the Order emerges, the Lingering Will is in the perfect position to cast a stop spell on Vexen, Demyx, & Lexeaus. Across the battlefield, they see another portal open momentarily.*

E"Look out!"

*Euryale's warning comes just before Xigbar teleports to Lilith, Azuma, & Monu each in turn, firing 2 blasts at each of them, with the goal of shooting them right in the head. Safian once again runs right into a wall of spears & razor wind, & falls to the ground as a bloody heap. Xaldin whirls around, fixing to stab her with a trio of spears as he sends the others stabbing at the new arrivals. The ice clones shatter & Lilith takes the opportunity to slide forward, casting a healing spell on Safian.*
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<Affirmative.>
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*Ira leads them to an Organization Moogle just kind of floating in the corner. It nods, sprinkling some kind of powder from its pom-pom that heals them & unfreezes Nero.*

<Kupo!>

*Ira does not even wait for the others to be fully healed before he Gliders up & flies back towards the castle.*

Considering that he was already fairly close to Euryale, Hinode had some time to avoid getting into any trouble from the new portal. He'd gotten used to handling warnings from the rest of the members of his team at this point.

"Alright, I'll follow your lead with this one, I think I'm getting a better idea of what's going on at this point!"

He grasped his Keyblade in a decent grip as a just in case maneuver.

*Artexi sets Nero on the ground, then kneels on the ground beside him*

<Hey, how do you feel?>
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*Eve groans and shakes her head*

<Well, if you see it again, attempt to capture it, please.>
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*Monu slides and ducks to dodge the incoming shots at his head, then responds by sending an air blade at Xigbar. Safian rises and slides away from the spears, then sends several shadow clones to crash into Xaldin*

Azuma spins around to block/defelct the bolts. Both Taiyo and Hitomi casts Thunder on Lexaeus.