First Blood Shed

*Safian walks over to Euryale and Thiera, then attempts to help boost her up with her body. Having thumbs would be useful in this situation*
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*Artexi looks over at Roatha, then back to Daisy*

Artexi:<Roatha? Before he was turned into a dick, he was Nero's best friend. That's why.>
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*Monu jumps back away from the net, then casts Hawk's Dive on himself to increase his speed*

E"As I said, she collapsed from exhaustion after the battle. She probably has the right idea, too."

*After wandering out of the castle & finding an inn, the keeper agrees to let them stay despite his suspicions. Safian presumably hides in the shadows outside of the building, or something. If they're wise, they take this time to sleep. Eventually, Euryale awakens & sits up, noticing Thiera sitting in a nearby bed, reading a book.*

Th"Oh good, you're awake. Hopefully that means we're ready to leave. I want to be certain there is no suspicious activity in the local worlds before we venture off into the deeper cosmos."
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*Having missed Azuma, the ship turns again, still firing at both of them. Hitomi can hear her Glider cracking under the ghosts' attacks.*
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*Cloud staggers, covered in blood, then something very strange happens--when Onion Ninja tries to throw his shurikens at him, they just bounce off, some hitting Onion Ninja himself. Surrounded by a crackling blue aura, Cloud takes flight, dashing to Onion Ninja & slashing. O.N. has enough presence of mind to roll out of the way, but Cloud sweeps up behind him & slashes again & again, before stabbing downwards.*

<Well...I tried my best....>

*After he passes out, Cloud heads for Celes, who followed up her attack on Lightning with an assault of ice spikes. She turns, blocking his strike, & flees from his 6th attack. Lightning rises steadily to her feet, holding her side & shooting after her. Marluxia stabs his scythe into the ground, generating vines to bind Cloud, who cuts his way out after 2 slices, for a total of 8 strikes.*
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*Larxene dimly notices this, & teleports behind Monu, using a Dark Corridor to duplicate herself into a full 6 Larxenes, which immediately fan out, trying to surround him.*
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Daisy<What on earth does that mean?>

N"Forget it. It's none of your business."

Daisy<Excuse me? I'm pretty sure he made it my business when he tried to set me on fire!>

N"Well, you're wrong."

Vexen<Actually, I am quite intrigued myself. Senthose implied that the boy is not is not in his right mind, but would speak no further on the subject. Obviously, I can tell that he has an unusual darkness signature.>

Lexeaus<Explain yourself. You've been keeping secrets from the Organization. I do not like it.>

*Nero finds the assembled Organization members staring at him--the rest of the audience moved away from them a while ago--& glares at Artexi. Oddly, for once, Ira has his mouth shut. He catches Nero's gaze & shakes his head.*

Hitomi pulls up to distance herself from the ghosts while Azuma moves to avoid the ship, pressing forward.

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Vega: "Bygone memories is a poor reason to associate with someone who clearly has no problems stabbing you in the back."

Once it had seemed safe to do so, Kyohaku put himself into sleep mode. It was easy to go into this state for him, and he didn't seem to have the problems sleeping that some organic creatures did, even when he was living here as opposed to in his own world. He was going to take some time getting used to the fact that he wasn't glowing again, however. Eventually, once he realized that there was at least some commotion, he allowed himself to wake back up again and started to head over.

Like going into sleep mode, coming out of it wasn't too difficult. He figured that if he really got another chance to rest, then he was going to totally set himself to hibernate or even shut down.

*Monu takes the opportunity of them trying to surround him to create a tornado around himself to send them all flying*
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*Artexi crosses her arms and glares back*

Artexi:<We, and by we I mean Nero, made a stupid mistake a while back. You know, playing around with dangerous magic. That was the result.>

*She gestures at Roatha*

Artexi:<What I think is more interesting is that that asshole Xyukuse is just as bad as Roatha, but doesn't have a good excuse or anything.>
---
*Safian sleeps in the shadows outside*

E"Atlantica. We have to go to Atlantica."

Th"Are you sure? I heard you were--"

E"My banishment doesn't matter, I know the kingdom like my tail fin, and we know that both those pirates and Ursula are still active. King Triton may be powerful, but we've already proven that the Keyblades can defeat the Trident. Now that we've finally removed the threat in Radiant Garden, we have to go protect my home."

Th"You mean your former home, correct?"

E"That's what I said!"
===========================
N"Nobody asked you, Gaskmask!"

Z<I see. So, what you're saying is, in addition to betraying the Organization once already by attacking our leader, Nero has also put us all in danger by abusing the magics that we are supposed to be monitoring? And you have been covering up for him as his accomplice?>

L<I will be watching you much more closely from now on.>

R"And to make sure you don't blab any more of my secrets, I think I might try burning your throat or bashing in your teeth while you're asleep!"

N"Now, y'see why I didn't want to tell anyone?"
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*They are indeed blown away, & all but 1 of the Larxenes disappear into sparks. Catching herself, Larxene flips & hurls a Lightning Raid at him, Marluxia rushing at him from the other side, swinging his weapon in a pink-energized arc that also takes out Lightning, but not before her bullets cause Celes to stumble while fleeing Cloud, & fall victim to his 10th & 11th strikes. The 2 sword wielders then begin clashing.*
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*As the ghosts are clinging to her, this doesn't really work. By this point, the wings are visibly breaking around the edges, & the ship begins firing explosive shells, which create shockwaves near the pair.*

Azuma ducks and weaves to avoid the attacks, slashing the ghosts that Hitomi attempts to shake off.

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Vega: "You should consider yourself lucky to be alive after such acts."

"You mean I get to view your homeland, even if it's not really your homeland any more...well, I certainly wouldn't mind giving it a shot. What did you think of where I came from Euryale?" Frankly a place with a ton of water didn't sound like it would be very much fun for Kyohaku, who always felt that water and electrons weren't the best of friends, but then again he figured that his body would adapt to her world as well. It seemed to do that with everyone pretty much everywhere. He wondered to, though, how Safian was going to handle it.

Finally smiling, he tilted his head toward her. "You helped to protect my home, by the way, so I figure that it's high time that I returned the favor."

*Artexi looks at Vega*

Artexi:<It was a long time ago. I'll be first to admit we made mistake, but I think you guys are making too big a deal out of this.>

*Artexi crosses her arms*

Artexi:<I was just trying to explain why we haven't gang stabbed him yet. Can we talk about something else?>
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*Monu leaps backward away from the charging Organization members and attacks, waving his keyblade to send rocks flying at them*
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*Safian comes in if she was not already inside*

Safian:<I wanna see Atlantica too! I didn't get to see what was underwater last time.>

*Her tail swishes excitedly*

Safian:<And we have to save Euryale's home.>

*Backwards would be to Marluxia, but generously interpreting that as him leaping to the side, Larxene is far enough away that she can fairly easily dodge & throws her 2nd Keyblade. Both create beams of lightning that track Monu's otions. Marluxia is too slow to block adequately, but waves a hand, sending thorny vines in his general direction. Meanwhile, Cloud stops glowing in time for him & Celes to attack simultaneously, knocking each other out.*
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R"You got that right! The big guy here threw him off of the castle roof!"

*He gestures towards Lexeaus, who nods. Ira then narrows his eyes.*

R"Lucky for him, he got help from a little mousey in the Order. Nothing suspicious about that."

Daisy<...I thought you could be trusted, but I was wrong.>

R"Well, Darky does live to disappoint people! You know he hasn't been to see his parents in months?"
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*They get rid of the ghosts, but it's hard to do that & evade at the same time, Hitomi's glider has taken serious damage, & looks like a single solid strike will cause it to break apart.*
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*Euryale smiles.*

E"Thanks, everyone. I'm really sorry to have to drag you all into this again."

*She holds her arms out as if expecting a group hug.*

Azuma moves his glider close to Hitomi's so she can disengage and board his and he continues towards Neverland because fuck ghost ships.

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Taiyo would be all over that like white on privilege, but she's having a sleepy sleep because Grid things are exhausting.

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Vega: "Treason isn't taken lightly."

Artexi:<Can we please stop accusing people of shit? I invited Daisy up here so that we could get to know each other, not so this could turn into a shit fest.>

*She composes herself, then turns and similes at Daisy*

Artexi:<So, Daisy, where are you from?>
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*Monu uses his enhanced speed to zip around Marluxia, sending diamond shards at his back. He keeps careful watch of the two keyblades*
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*Safian rubs up against Euryale*

Regardless of what anyone else did, Kyohaku actually went straight for the group hug. It had indicated that quite a bit would have changed with his personality since the first time that he had met them all. Taiyo, it would have seemed, was still quite asleep. Nevertheless, he seemed more than happy to have Safian there with them as well. "We'll knock 'em dead this time." He then blinked, "Will I have to adjust a bit? I'm not exactly made for water, that's for sure." Kyohaku was still a bit confused as to how that was going to work.

Th"I can cast the transformation spell on you, that should not be a problem. But you should know what happened in our previous visit."

E"Monsters in Atlantica, castle fortune-teller & octopus-woman Ursula said we could get rid of them with King Triton's giant magic fork, Ursula evil, stole trident, we beat her up, she was banished, so were we. Also, Lilith killed evil pirates, but they're apparently immune to being killed."

Th"Well--essentially, yes. As it turns out, Ursula and the pirates, led by Hector Barbossa, are in league with villains from other worlds. If the pirates are truly immortal, it is just as well, we can imprison them and Ursula so that they cannot contact other worlds. Assuming they are still there, of course. Unfortunately, we do not have many allies in that world. As Euryale said, King Triton banished us all, so we should make it a point to avoid the Atlantican authorities. Barbossa overthrew his previous Captain, Jack Sparrow, so he has a vested interest in helping to remove him from power, but he is still a pirate, and thus not to be trusted."
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*Of course the ghost ship turns, moving its broad side in front of them, & continues firing.*
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*Ignoring the attacks, Marluxia sinks his Keyblade into the ground, creating 3 enormous pools of darkness that cover most of the arena, emitting thorned vines. Larxene disengages her attack, summoning her Keyblades back to herself & rushes in.*

Phil<It's 2-on-1, and though knight guy is on the defensive, he doesn't seem to be doing enough damage to put the other team down. Looks like lighting lady & flower man want to make it so he can't dodge.>
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R"Prob'ly shouldn't've blabbed all of your suspicious secrets to us, then."

Daisy<I am not so sure I want to tell you.>

N"Didn't Phil already mention that she was from Halloween Town?"

*Daisy hisses at him & he backs up, looking creeped out.*

Azuma climbs to avoid the cannon fire and fly over the deck, Hitomi firing Wisdom Shots down at the deck guns.

"Well, to be honest my original biggest fear was water. Me and water of course aren't exactly the best of friends as you might easily imagine." With an eventual sigh, Kyohaku listened to everything that Thiera and Euryale were telling him. That all sounded like something that came out of a history book that would have been stored as a text file and shoved somewhere on a hard drive, but he trusted them and therefore Kyohaku had no doubt that he was hearing the truth.

"Well I appreciate the rundown and get that it's dangerous, but I guess that after freeing up my homeland like that I kind of feel that we could accomplish anything that we tried to." To his credit, that previous mission was considered impossible to him before.

*Artexi glares at Roatha and snaps at him*

Artexi:<That's the last favor I do for you. Next time, I won't go out of my way to explain your jackassery.>

*She turns back to Daisy, looking upset*

Artexi:<I...I just want to be friends. I didn't mean anything by it.  I'm from Agrabah. It's in a desert, so lots of sun. I don't think you would like it very much.>
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*Monu charges Marluxia, sending a blade of wind at his back and swinging his keyblade when he gets near enough. Monu keeps watch on Larxene in the corner of his eye*
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*Safian growls at the mention of the pirates*

<I hate those stupid pirates. Maybe we can find a way to make them killable again.>

*She looks up at Kyoukaku*

<I don't really like the sound of swimming ether, but a world underwater sounds cool...>

*They are fairly successful in this endeavor, managing to destroy a few more guns. The world looms in sight--though still a few minutes away, it is unguarded, save for the giant ghost ship, which turns & pursues them, firing with its remaining guns, most on the other side of the ship.*
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E"Well, Avici was a lot tougher than most of our opponents. Barbossa might not be dead, but I guess he had to pretend to be to get away last time. And Ursula is a pushover without the Trident or some other trick. We should be fine."

Th"The corollary to that statement being that there are several foes that we have thus far proven incapable of defeating, including Ursula and Barbossa when reinforced by what I suspect is not even the complete might of Maleficent's forces, to say nothing of Senthose's Heartless. You should not underestimate them. In the meantime, rouse Taiyo so that we may be on our way, time is of the essence."

E"Aw, but she's sleeping so soundly, do I have to?"

Th"I repeat: Time is of the essence."

E"Fine, fine...Taiyo? Cuttlefish? I'm sorry, but it's time to wake up now. We're going to Atlantica."

*She gently shakes Taiyo's shoulder in an attempt to rouse her.*
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*Marluxia counters with his own slash & pink tornado. Larxene again copies herself &, making sure to stay far back as they can, the clones fan out & fire lightning beams from their Keyblades at him.*

Phil<Looks like Team Demeter has Apollo's last guy surrounded!>
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N"He's obviously trying to rile you up, why do you let him?"

Daisy<Was that a threat?>

R"Ha! Don't flatter yourself, Girlie, it's only on Senthose's orders I don't hack you to pieces. Who could blame me, after everything you've revealed?"

Vexen<This puerile bickering is obviously a thinly-veiled attempt at eliciting sympathy for your respective sides! I've no concern for any of you children, so if you're going to keep prattling on, do it somewhere else!>

Taiyo groans and rolls over. It takes a few more nudges before she finally rolls over on to her stomach and sits up, stretching as they've seen from Safian although much less expected.

Taiyo: "Good morning? Afternoon?"

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Hitomi fires on the ship, Azuma's moving to avoid the shots make for some difficult aiming.

*Artexi rolls her eyes at Roatha, then looks back at Daisy*

Artexi:<What? Daisy, I'm trying to be your friend. To make up for how I acted during the match.>

*She looks out at the match*

Artexi:<I was just trying to tell you about my home. Anyway, looks like we'll have to face Team Demeter soon. We should come up with a plan to beat them. And, win or lose, a plan to drag them back to Senthose.>
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*Monu parries the blow, then leaps over the lightning blasts and using Skyclimber to remain in the air*
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*Safian blinks at Taiyo, looking very confused*

Safian:<Uh....?>

"Avici also threatened my homeland, so I guess that from my point of view things ended up looking much worse than they were. When your friends are threatened, I guess you get that way." Kyohaku had sincerely hoped that everyone could have been restored from backups that perished in the fighting. "Cuttlefish? What's a...Cuttlefish?"

For the time being, he actually looked every bit as confused as Safian did. Well, at least he wasn't mumbling on now about how he didn't glow or anything like that. That would have been more embarrassing than anything.

E"Yeah, you too."

Th"It is the evening, actually."

*Euryale looks at Hinode.*

E"I'll show you when we get there."

*So assuming they get their asses around, they are now in deep space.*

E"So how'd we pay for those rooms, anyway?"

Th"Oh, I told them to put it on Cid's tab. He does sort of owe us."

E"Couldn't have sprung for some breakfast? I'm starving...but oh well, I guess we can eat when we get there. It'll be nice to have Atlantican food again."

Th"Wouldn't that just be fish?"

*Euryale turns towards her, but as they are wearing armor, her expression is unreadable.*

Th"Well--wouldn't it?"

*Answers are not forthcoming, because Euryale is distracted by landing on the beach under the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. On 1 side, they see the expansive water, the moon just beginning to emerge over the horizon reflecting off of its surface as it seethes in & out, spraying white foam over the sand. On the other side, the ground slopes upwards, eventually giving way to a port town of wooden construction, surrounded by fortified stone walls.*

E"What did you say this human settlement was named again?"

Th"It is called 'Port Royal.' Is Atlantica far from here?"

E"Yeah. We'll have to travel northeast for several hours. It's basically in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, situated along the Atlantic Ridge."
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*They do destroy a few more cannons. Some Heartless ships that look like submarines emerge from Dark Corridors in front of them & move to intercept, but appear to be the last line of defense before they can breach the world, at least until the ship can call for more reinforcements.*
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*The Larxene clones adjust their aim accordingly, while Marluxia spins his weapon over his head, scattering petals all throughout the battlefield.*

Marluxia<There is no escape! Sink into the darkness!>

*With a wave of the weapon, the petals all come streaking towards Monu in a blur, one after the other.*

Phil<Whoa! Looks like Team Demeter has been holding back!>
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*Nero watches, frowning.*

R"You can't. They're better traitors than you ever were."

Hitomi fires at the Heartless ships to clear a path for the glider to go through and into the world.

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As great as it would be to mermaid up again, Taiyo doesn't grab hold of Euryale and run off into the cold and indifferent ocean with her because someone decided to draw attention to Port Royal which means there may be reason to go there.

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Instead of correcting Artexi on her mistaken belief that they're in the taking prisoner business, Vega just watches. He doesn't watch those clods or the match, but instead he watches Xyukuse creeping about waiting for that Order clod to be disposed of before making another attempt on Not!Marluxia's life.

Artexi:<At least I don't randomly attack Organization members.>

*She points down at Xyukuse and laughs*

<Hey look guys, Xyukuse's about to do something stupid again.>
===
*Monu uses Aero Shield in a last ditch effort to defend himself*
---
*Safian sniffs at the air to see if she can smell anything interesting*

Well, it seemed like Euryale was going to keep some secrets from him, or perhaps it was more like there were things that she would have found difficult to explain to him. In either case, it wasn't exactly what he had wanted to hear. At least he still wasn't used to this whole eating thing, so he wasn't entirely sure if he was hungry or not. "Is this where I have to become something that actually doesn't hate water?"

To be honest, all of this water around was quite a bother for him. Salt water was especially corrosive to computer components, so Kyohaku had an intense distaste for it that was essentially programmed into him. Considering that he actually was a computer program, it was highly likely that any programming in this case referred very genuinely to computer programming code actually.