First Blood Shed

*Safian disappears into the shadows, reappearing behind Ursala. She then leaps at her back, body covered in shadows. Safian does her best to avoid her tentacles*
---
*Monu casts Hawk's Dive on himself, then speeds away from the Phantom, still holding on to Lilith*

Monu:<I think it would be yellow if a lightning attack could damage it. White could be...wind? Maybe something "neutral?">
---
Artexi:<This is what happens when you hang around with assholes! No one has any fucking healing magic!>

*She trains her glider on Ira and starts firing on him with her glider and uses Sparkga on him as well*

*The Sapphire Elegies recoil from having their attacks blocked, then just sort of float in the air, swaying as if stunned. The Diamond Shards rip into the Crimson Jazzes, but they seem unconcerned with the relatively minor damage, continuing to move around them & spread their mines. Mickey rolls to get away from the mines around him just before they explode, but is forced to stop as the Jet Balloon sends more Missile Divers his way. He turns, summoning more columns of light in an effort to defend himself from them, but his ears & tail droop & he starts breathing heavily.*
----------------------------------------------------------
*As they're speeding away, Lilith throws the Oathkeeper, cutting into the shield which seems to vanish.*

L"Finally! Oh, come on, it's not dead yet?! What's it doing now!?"

*The Phantom, as it happens, reaches up to its hood & starts convulsing slightly, as if something is struggling to get out of it. Soon enough, a wisp of purple flame emerges from its hood, flying after them with impressive speed. Something catches Lilith's eye & she looks up to see the number over her head change from a 7 to a 6, as the clock slowly begins to move again.*

L"Oh, come on!"
=====================================
*Ursula yowls as her tentacles are cut up, & then she is knocked over & blinded. She tries to crawl away, flailing her tentacles wildly, only to wind up being mauled by a lion. Meanwhile Thiera groans & sits up, noting the frozen Prince & rubbing her jaw. She resummons the Divine Rose at Ursula, using Ivybind to tie up her tentacles, at which point Euryale desummons the Ends of Earth & runs over. The boat rocks again & they hear yelling & the sounds of footsteps thundering onto the ship. Seemingly out of nowhere, a trio of crossbow-armed pirates can be seen swinging towards the window from ropes, shooting at the Order.*
===================================
*Ira is protected by the attacks by the enormous white explosion situated around his person. Nero pulls Roatha away from a dark column heading towards them & begins opening a Dark Corridor. Behind him, the wall of fire continues to get worse, & some of the trees struck by the dark pillars begin to tilt.*

N"I need to get Roatha out of here, I'll be back as soon as I can!"

*Meanwhile, Ira firewheels away from the lava he created, sending more fireballs out to create more lava under Vega. The clone hides behind a tree, sticking out its Keyblades to shoot fireballs at Artexi. Of course, every shot that misses strikes a tree trunk or branch, causing more fire to rain down.*

Fortunately it looked like his attack to delay her and blind her had indeed worked, but nevertheless, Kyohaku didn't waste any time. While he wasn't sure if his assistance was going to be needed elsewhere, he grasped his keyblade and waited to either be called to help with some other part of the ship, or alternatively help in case Ursula was able to somehow weasel her way out of this one as well. He wouldn't have put that past her in any way at all.

Through the window, Taiyo casts Thundaga at the incoming pirates.

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

Azuma swings the Fenrir at the dazed Sapphire Elegies while Hitomi casts Dying Moon at the Crimson Jazzes.

From their they fly downward away from the mines and towards the island.

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

Vega switches back and moves to avoid the forming lava. Rushing Ira, he sends a Demon Fist at him.

*Monu turns around and casts Stop on the clock tower, leaving Lilith to deal with the flame. If he is too far away, Monu flies as close as he needs to be, avoiding the Phantom*
---
Safian:<We have to stop them from sinking the ship!>

*She jumps off of Ursala, then disappears into the shadows. Safian then exits and moves off in the direction of the pirates. When she finds a good group of them, she waits for an opportune moment before leaping out of the shadows, claws flaming. Since I'm not sure if Safian ever summoned her armor, she does so now*
---
*Artexi heads up above the trees, doing her best to avoid the fireballs. She attempts to trade one of her keyblades for Demyx. If Nero gives it to her, she starts to try and put out the fire*

Uriel<You'll pay for this soon, you little pests!>

*The pirates that Taiyo attacked appear completely unaffected by the lightning, but fortunately it causes the ropes to burn. They snap, plunging the attackers in the sea, but not before Taiyo & Kyohaku each get an arrow in their respective shoulders--Euryale had rolled away, but now quickly rushes to Taiyo's side.*

E"I'm sorry, I should've been ready to block those! I hope this doesn't hurt too much...."

*She grabs Taiyo's shoulder as gently as she can & quickly rips the arrow out. Meanwhile, Thiera sees that the prince is starting to come out of his frozen state & uses Ivybind to tie him to the wall. Hearing footsteps & people shouting for Prince Eric, she quickly slams the door & locks it with the Divine Rose.*

Th"We don't have much time! Kyohaku, you & I will exit the window on our Gliders to help Safian with the pirates! Euryale & Taiyo need to take Ursula to see if the sea creatures can restrain her!"

E"But she might have allies in the sea!"

Th"True, but it would take too long to bring her back to the Land of Departure!"
-----------------------------------------------------
*Safian passes people fleeing below deck, before arriving to see it swarming with pirates. After she jumps on some guy & mauls him, Barbossa takes notice. Figuring that his pistol won't have enough power, he chucks some bombs at her, the other pirates around her retreating. For just a second, the clouds break, & in the moonlight Barbossa appears skeletal & rotted, but he returns to normal when darkness settles in. Safian does notice, however, that her claws didn't seem to do lasting damage on the guy she was attacking until the moon passed over.*
==================================
*By the time Monu is close enough to Stop the clock, Lilith's time is at 4. Seeing that the flame attack swerved to intercept him, Lilith threw the Oathkeeper, deflecting it off to parts unknown & coming to rejoin him. Meanwhile, the Phantom twirled again, revealing a heart now with a yellow shield, & once again dove to attack Monu.*
-------------------------------------------------------
Mickey<Look out!>

*Once stunned, the Sapphire Elegies prove fairly easy to dispatch, however the mines around him explode before he can fly down, burning him pretty badly & sending him tumbling. To make matters worse, he sees the injured Phantomtail from before diving at him with its talons outstretched. Mickey tries to destroy it with Strike Raid, but accidentally hits its head, causing it to teleport slightly further but still with the same attack momentum. By this point, Hitomi has destroyed 2/4 Crimson Jazzes. The Jet Balloon apparently decides to Divide & Conquer, making a beeline for Hitomi as Mickey rolls away from more Missile Divers.*
===================================
*Nero & Roatha disappear into the Dark Corridor, but not before the Leviathan appears in Artexi's hand. Assuming she is using the geyser move he used earlier, she's barely making a dent. She'll need something more powerful. She can see Daisy in the town streets, unable to find a way past the fires to help. Ira is not quite fast enough to evade & so staggers, but stabs the Ultima Weapon into the ground, allowing him to swing around & use a dark Faith with the Omega Weapon. Still hiding behind the tree, the clone unleashes a Thundara ray in an attempt to cut his escape off from behind, releasing a pair of dark Pearls from its other weapon.*

*Safian leaps back, away from the bombs, growling. She then tries to use Cat's Eye to paralysis any of the pirates that look into her eyes*
---
*Monu casts Thunder on the heart before diving away from the Phantom*

Monu:<Just hold on...a little bit longer...>
---
*Artexi flies down to Daisy, trying her best to avoid falling objects/trees. She uses water spouts to put out any fires necessary to get to her*

Artexi:<Here, Demyx's keyblade will let you use some water attacks to put out the fire. Can you try and stop it from spreading. I have to get back and help Vega!>

*Artexi tries to trade Demyx's keyblade for Daisy's*

Taiyo winces and yelps. Although due to using Azuma's skillset, being injured isn't entirely not beneficial.

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

Hitomi casts Curaja on Mickey and multi-casts Fira on the Jet Balloon. Azuma attacks the Phantomtail with Force Arrow.

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

Vega moves to get between the pillars much like against Mickey. From there, he gliders up and open fires on Ira.

While he didn't completely understand why she had elected to help Taiyo but not him, Kyohaku figured that at this point it was probably wrong to feel jealous. Instead, he merely placed his own hand there to tug out the arrow, swallowing deeply as he actually figured that he could bleed in this state, which was new and relatively uncomfortable for him. Nevertheless, he was soon wordlessly transforming his glider in order to follow along with Thiera's order.

E"I'm sorry! But I don't have any healing abilities...."

*She rubs Taiyo's shoulder, as if that'll somehow help. Meanwhile, Kyohaku & Thiera fly out into the night. The Black Pearl has attached grappling hooks onto the ship, & used a boarding ramp to invade, leaving only a skeleton crew on the pirate ship itself. They can see Safian staring down the pirates, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything. Also, some explosions happen in front of her, & once they clear, the pirates kind of circle around her, Barbossa opening fire.*

Th"I can help Safian. If you attack their ship, it just might convince them to retreat. Of course, then they might also start shooting at us. But they will have difficulty following us if we can fix the barge and destroy their sails."

*She points helpfully at the cannons & mast, respectively.*
===============================
Mickey<Thanks, friend! I wish I could be more help, but I can't fly like you. So I'll just have to do--this!>

*He jumps onto the Jet Balloon's back & starts hacking into it. Similarly, Azuma gets a nasty gash on his side from the Phantomtail, causing his own attack to sink pretty deep into the monster. This does little to stop its momentum as it barrels through them. Seeing that he looks like he's going to keel over at any moment, Mickey casts a healing spell on Azuma.*
--------------------------------------------------
*The Phantom flies back several dozen feet in a few seconds, twirling to change to the white shield, but not before it claws Monu good. Lilith casts Cure on him, while staring at the clock in concentration.*

L"...I suppose we'll have to hit it 12 times. Or 9 more."
================================
*Ira is shot several times, tumbling backwards, which he does not seem to take kindly to.*

R"Rrrgh--I'll burn you to ash, you mute piece of shit!"

*He lashes out with Fire Funnel & Thunder, as the dark pearls creep closer to Vega from behind, dripping a line of poison as they go.*
---------------------------------------------
*Daisy looks at the Keyblade in her hand, then starts spraying water over the fire like a hose.*

<Good luck.>
=============================
*Meanwhile, in the Realm of Darkness, Nero is running around in apparent circles, trying to drag Roatha around. He starts to slump, his breathing getting heavier.*

N"Can't go back to the Castle...Binah's gone...Senthose'll expect me in Twilight Town...where else is there?"

*He looks at the shadows starting to envelope his feet.*

N"Guess I've been hanging out in darkness too long...gotta try & think positive sometimes...I know just where to go!"

*And a doorway of light opens in front of him as he arrives in the castle library at Radiant Garden. Slumping Roatha into a chair, he hastily scrawls a note.*

We exorcised Roatha, but we need someone to keep him safe while we're away. Please help.

Thank you,

Thiera.

*After leaving it on the desk, he starts banging on the wall with the Darker Than Dark & screaming for a guard. When he hears footsteps approach, he ducks behind a book case. Once he sees Vincent enter, he leaves via Dark Corridor.*

*Monu jerks away from the Phantom, then hurls Hitomi's keyblade at it*

Monu:<I think we've figured out how to beat it though! Come on, let's end this.>
---
Artexi:<Thanks. Stay safe!>

*She turns back around and flies back towards Vega and Ira. When she arrives, Artexi fires on the pearls and also uses Sparkga on them*
---
*Safian disappears into one of the pirate's shadows, reappearing behind the group, but remains in the shadows so that it is hard to see her. Safian then silently starts to charge Elephant Graveyard*

Taiyo: "It's okay."

Although she does wince at Euryale touching her owie.

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

The two right themselves, Azuma casting another Force Arrow on the Phantomtail while Hitomi casts Thundara on the Crimson Jazzes forever.

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

Vega flies up to avoid the attacks then begins to descend, firing at Ira, possibly intent on crashing the glider into him. Or something else if the pearls are still following.

At this point Kyohaku wasn't going to worry about the fact that he was bleeding, and instead he was going to just suck up the fact that he was in pain and swallow it. He flew out into the night with Thiera, noticing all of the visual details that she had. Nodding at he artillery pieces that she pointed out as well as the masts and ropes, Kyohaku was soon taking aim, using his pulsar technique as soon as he was within a decent distance in order to perform a frontal assault on that location. He might have been a stranger to naval combat, but he was no longer a stranger to doing battle in the air like this.

*Since the Crimson Jazzes are down & Mickey destroys the Jet Balloon because it has much less HP than I thought, let's say that those arrows manage to not strike the head before the Phantomtail is destroyed. Mickey winds up falling into the water & having to swim to shore.*
-------------------------------------------
*Proving very nimble, the Phantom leaps aside. It then starts flying in a loose arc, about 4 or 5 blocks in front of them.*

L"...It's trying to draw us away from the tower."
============================
*At this point, the fire has built to such a point that Artexi was unable to get through without getting some burning branches stuck on her Glider. The Pearls are deflected to the ground, where they leave puddles of poison. Ira blocks as many of Vega's shots as he can. If Vega gets close enough, he jumps up & uses Thunderwheel. If not, he starts shooting fireballs at them. Meanwhile, the clone uses buzzsaw raid to drop the tree it's hiding behind on Artexi, then rolls behind another.*
==============================
*Euryale hoists Ursula onto her shoulder & begins climbing out of the window.*

E"I can get her into the ocean. Follow me when you're ready."
-----------------------------------------------
Barbossa<Remember that we've got a job to do here, boys. Hurry below deck.>

Pirates<Aye aye, Cap'n!>

*And so they start for the door, but Thiera--having healed Hinode with a cure spell--cuts them off with the shield from her Glider, taking off for the sky before they can attack her again. A pirate stumbles up to Barbossa, holding his arm.*

<Somethin's wrong, Captain--it won't heal!>

Barbossa<How can that be? They were never able to wound us before.>

*Meanwhile, they look over to Hinode blasting up their sail. With a wave of his hand, Barbossa summons a quintet of Air Pirates around him, who descend upon him with a flurry of punches, kicks, & grappling attacks.*

Taiyo follows after Euryale.

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

They fly by to grab Mickey who hopefully doesn't drag them down with him.

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

Vega jumps off the glider, letting it smash into Ira, not letting himself get close.

After that cure spell, it looked as though Kyohaku were certainly on the top of his game all over again. Once he was without any pain as a result, he was far more nimble with the aforementioned glider even one they all noticed that he was blasting up their sail for the time being. Nevertheless, he was soon instead fighting off a barrage of Air Pirates who were assaulting him, finding that he had to use his pulsar attacks once again to get rid of them.

*Safian sends the large skeletal elephant barreling at the pirates*
---
Monu:<You stay by the tower then. I'll go try and do some damage!>

*Monu casts Blue Moon on himself before flying at the Phantom, slashing at its heart*
---
*Artexi summons her armor if she was not already wearing it, then dives away from the falling tree. She then dismisses her glider and resummons her other keyblade. Artexi then uses a dark corridor to move behind the tree the clone is behind, then uses Spark Raid and Sparkga on him*

*They are tossed about, but soon stand up & dust themselves off as if nothing happened, leaving Barbossa to snicker.*

Barbossa<Heh heh...case in point.>

*The Pulsar attacks aren't quite quick enough to eliminate the Air Pirates, which knock Kyohaku from his glider. Fortunately, Thiera catches him as he falls, using blizzard (albeit much smaller than usual) to discourage them from following.*

Th"That won't hold them off for long. Fortunately, I have a plan."

*Her plan is to plow right into the sail, which proves effective, as they easily tear through it. Unfortunately, a couple of the Air Pirates have circled around & now punch at them, having gotten them in a pincer attack.*
-------------------------------------------------
*Euryale transforms as she falls, & once she hits the water, she calls out.*

E"Is anyone there?!"

Flounder<Over here! Did you get Ariel?>

E"Our friends are on that, but we have--!"

*She starts to follow the faint sound of the fish, but wouldn't you know it, Ursula releases a cloud of ink, then they hear the sounds of ivy snapping, followed by something large swimming into the ocean depths.*
================================
Mickey<Thanks, Pals! I'm Mickey! What's your name?!>

*This asshole is way too chipper.*
---------------------------------------------------
L"Wait, that's exactly what it--!"

*Monu's got a lot of sky to cover before he can slash it. Knowing this, the Phantom soars up & over his head, turning on a dime & diving at his back with a slash of its own.*
=================================
*The Glider is obliterated by Thunderwheel, but contains significant mass that it throws Ira to the ground, next to the tree that smashes down. He sees the clone dissolve into shadows, but his expression is unreadable under the mask. As the area begins to darken, he points a Keyblade up & fires lightning to clear the smoke away from the moon. Meanwhile, out of the shadows around him rise a hoard of Neoshadows. Meanwhile, the tree has started a chain reaction that is knocking down other trees, & of course flinging fire to more parts of the forest.*

N"What'd--what'd I miss?"

*Nero stumbles out of the forest behind Artexi, holding his chest & using the Darker Than Dark to support his weight. His breathing is labored & he appears to be sweating.*

While Kyohaku was of course disappointed in himself, he didn't allow that to show just yet and did what he could in order to hold down his aggressive emotions. If Thiera had a plan, then he didn't at all want to screw it up because he got overly angry, even if he did have a tendency to do that. Fortunately it had looked like the blizzard technique was going to protect them for the time being. "Where are we headed?" Provided he had been in a position to do so, he would have gotten right back on his glider. That was when he realized that they were ripping right through the sail.

Figuring that his earlier attack wasn't strong enough, he started to charge up energy for his Supernova attack, though he was unsure if it would still work on his glider.

Taiyo gathers water with the Stormfall, hoping to accumulate the ink in the process, so they can see what's coming.

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

The two say their respective names.

Azuma: "What brings you to Neverland?"

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

Vega rights himself, using Eagle Fall to quicken his descent and slams down a Shattering Demon Fist.

*Monu whirls around to parry the slash, then retaliates with his own*

Monu:<Then what do you suggest?!>
---
Artexi:<Not much. Come on, we need to help Vega!>

*She runs forward, using Sparkra and Blood of the Devil on the Neoshadows surrounding Ira*
---
*Safian snarls, diving into the shadows. She reappears in front of the pirates and uses Fire Raid on them*

Hurry Thiera...

*Ursula is nowhere to be found & the pirates that fell into the water are fucking shooting at them. They seem to be drowning, but making little effort to go to the surface. Euryale moves in front of Taiyo, holding her Keyblade up to deflect the arrows back into them, which doesn't even seem to faze them.*

E"Ursula must've dove! I don't know what's up with these guys--what gives, I thought your species couldn't breathe under water?"
-----------------------------------------------
*Now the Air Pirates that attacked them are destroyed, the other 3 are off somewhere else, & the goddam sail is on fire.*

Th"That should suffice they seem to be slowing down. Now we ought to--"

*She is cut off as a cannonball rams into the Glider, shattering its wings & causing it to spin out of control. She jumps off before they can be hit by another. As her Glider explodes behind her, she stabs it into the side of the wedding barge to slow their fall, grunting at the Hell this is wreaking on her shoulder.*

Th"Well, at least since they won't fire until they know that Ursula is safely off of the ship."

*They are now being shot at with muskets from the pirates up on the deck. When the moonlight shines on them, they suddenly appear to be skeletons.*

Th"Unless they have smaller firearms, that is...what are--do they suddenly resemble skeletons to you?"
-----------------------------------------------------
*Meanwhile, once the shield from Thiera's Glider disappears, the pirates start heading below deck. In another break in the clouds, the moonlight shows them all as skeletal monstrosities with too little flesh stretched across their bones.*
=================================
N"Yeah, sure--I'll be right there--once I catch my breath...."

*The Neoshadows are knocked down by Vega's attack--Ira rolling to get back to his feet--& several are destroyed by Artexi.*

Ira<That's enough of this, if I can't burn you one by one, then I'll just crush you all!>

*He hurls a pair of Explosion Raids to some unstable looking trees, suddenly bringing the whole burning section of the Hinterlands down on them. The Heartless swarm over him, shielding him with their bodies, as he begins to sink into the darkness.*
=================================
*Mickey's ears droop. Staring at the ground, he digs up a vaguely shooting star shaped Gummi Block from a pocket of his coat.*

Mickey<The Star Shard brought me here. Seems to take me where there's trouble. But...last time I wasn't much help. I got thrown for a loop, & next thing I knew, I woke up here, with that Heartless comin' at me. Guess I couldn't stop that either...>
------------------------------------------------
L"We need to keep it near the clock tower, so we can effectively counter its Doom spell!"

*The Heartless recoils from being slashed, doing its twirl. This time, its shield is green &, once again, it claws at Monu.*

L"That one's new. I bet it's flower, which is right up my--damn it!"

*She points her Keyblade at it, realizing that she's holding the Oathkeeper.*

OOC: Oh snap, I mixed it up!

Taiyo: "I don't think they're human."

She mozies around Euryale to blast the pirates with the accumulated water.

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

Azuma: "Hey there, calm down. What happened to make that bauble bring you hear?"

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

As resigning to his fate is quitter logic and he's not a quitter, Vega borrows Nero's Keyblade, unaware of its owner's situation. Darker than Dark, but not Blacker Than Black in hand, Vega casts Zero Gravity to keep shit from falling on his head and moves to not be in that predicament, charging Ragnarok.

Having done whatever he could to make this fall less of a hell for her, which probably wasn't all that much, he soon grimaced and completely realized the gravity of what it was that she had said after that. "Yeah, those things look like skeletons to me too!" That probably meant a lot considering whom it had come from, but even Kyohaku could have made out that general shape, and he most certainly hadn't liked the look of it at all. "The shot that they're firing doesn't seem to have a very high velocity; it won't harm us if we're smart about everything." He was right, considering the unusual way that muskets had to be fired.

*Safian shadow travels in front of the pirates, then attacks the walls and ceiling of the passage with her keyblade in order to cause a cave in*
---
*If she is unable to get away in time, Artexi summons her glider to shield her, then quickly opens a dark corridor under Nero, sending him over to Daisy*
---
*Monu parries again, moving back towards Lilith while facing the Phantom*

Monu:<You should switch back with Thiera!>