Chocobo Field Winter Wonderland

Chocobo Field Winter Wonderland
Date of Scene:	11 December 2013
Location:	Chocobo Fields
Synopsis:	The chocobos have fled the field as winter came. However, it was not the reason for the creatures fleeing the area...
Cast of Characters:	Aerith, Sanel, Myla Mason, Kyra Hyral, Louis LeBlue

---

Sanel has posed:
It's a Winter Wonderland! Snow flying everywhere!

Throughout the southern continent, while it was cold and snow surrounded the place, it was never to the point where snowflakes continued to fall. In this case, however, the flurry continues to sprinkle down. It's not a heavy gust of wind with a harsh storm, but is instead a light fall of snow that gives a more Winter Wonderland type look to it.

It is strangely devoid of chocobos. As the rumors said, something scared them off. In fact, something scared off the predatory monsters. Some hunters thought that this was a horrible monster that lurked in and have tried their luck to seek fame and gold.

...However, one hunter is leaving in a puff with a snowball hanging on his forehead.

On top of a tree is the source of the commotion. Standing on a branch is a young boy who doesn't look any older than fourteen. He lies on his back, kicking his legs in the air as he giggles.

"Sanel enjoyed playing with Floppy Hat Man!"

...However, everything that Sanel sees.

... He too, sees...

Aerith has posed:
Aerith found herself glad she'd brought gloves along with this whole outfit.

The denim jacket though wasn't nearly enough for this cold, and she shivered just a bit. "Definitely didn't call for snow today." She reached a hand out to catch a snowflake. "But it sure is pretty. Still, it would be great if someone stopped messing with the weather. Otherwise the chocobos will be stuck inside with no room to run."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Occasionally, a mark is posted. While on the surface it seems like some kind of innocent investigation, generally peeling back the layers of the job revealed something much, much more sinister. So while it was 'investigate the odd snow!' up front, beneath it, who know what lurked?

Actually, Kyra Hyral had an inkling of what might be causing winter weather and scaring away animals from the chocobo plains. It is a certain little boy she met. His name starts with S and it ends with anel.

"He should be around here somewhere." she tells her (strangely robotic!) companion. "...so are you sure you don't have any hidden lasers or rocket launchers on you? Or a vehicle mode?"

Louis LeBlue has posed:
He too sees. And what he sees... he doesn't like.

The young man needs to be retrieved. And while Louis LeBlue may not enjoy being given orders by /that man/, that doesn't mean that he shouldn't heed 'his' words.

Striding across the great wintery planes of the Chocobo fields, Louis LeBlue and a small group of templars approach the singular tree Sanel finds himself in. Louis himself doesn't generally entertain the notion of using the Ma Belle technology for the sake of coordinating things. But he'll allow his subordinates to pass on directions through this particular means of communication.

Seated upon a group of yellow chocobos - with Louis on a proud and massive looking black one - the templars certainly seem like a rugged bunch. A little ways off of the tree, Louis halts his Chocobo.

"He should be around here somewhere! FAN OUT!" He orders the group.

Heeding his word, the Templars spread out immediately, passing by the tree and ignoring the other adventurers present. They are 'not important'.

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason has been hard to find lately somthing has happened and Kyra would find herself joined by Myla, yet? She's not normal he slin is silver and if you take a look her hair is made out of cabling. It looks like she's a robot of some sort.

"Actually I do have a few weapons, but no launchers of a vechile mode. I'd considered upgrades but if this is fixed who knows what that would do to me."

She smiles a bit before she follows along.

"I'm not picking up anything ... yet."

Sanel has posed:
After a few moments of giggling, the boy slowly kicks off from the branch, floating in mid-air with both arms spread wide. "Wheee!" He cheerfully cries out.

For the individuals exploring through the snowy weather, the presence is eeriely peaceful. Granted, that may be because of the threats fleeing.

They all ran away. Sanel was very sad.

Many of the traveling adventurers are likely to see a boy on his back, floating in the air while swinging his arms up. He's making a little 'snow angel' in mid-air. As an angel forms, the boy does a backwards 'swim' to the next space.

Twisting his body around, Sanel turns to see a band of travelers.

A ball starts to roll up along his hands.

"More people to play with Sanel!" Witnessing a familiar face, Sanel beams happily from mid-air, "Mog Ky~! Sanel is happy to see Mog Ky with Silver Girl!"

The boy beams, "Sanel has a game!!!" With the snowball in his hand, the boy spins around and around, and around...

"Sanel play a game! Sanel play---!"

And Sanel releases the snowball mid-spin, which goes flying. He rolls around oddly and halts with a dizzied look. "Hehehehee--"

The snowball is flying through the air and through the distance...

Towards the face of a Shrine Knight on top of a massive black chocobo.

Sanel's eyes start to widen and his expression grows pale as he sees the sight of templars from the air.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith blinked for a moment as the boy, apparently named Sanel, tries to make snow angel in mid-air. Oddly enough, he succeeds. She tries to talk to him, only for him to talk first, and apparently he recognizes a few people. She falls silent and observes for the time being, finding that maybe this wasn't so bad.

Then he throws a snowball at a very armored, very angry-looking man. Aerith couldn't help but giggle just before she turned toward the two he'd spoken to earlier. "Friend of yours?"

Louis LeBlue has posed:
Splat goes the snowball, right to Louis' face. And if Sanel was Jack Frost, perhaps Louis would now suddenly have gotten off of his chocobo and started playing with the rest of the people. Throwing around snowballs and all that.

But Sanel isn't Jack Frost.

Sanel is, in Louis' eyes, a nuisance.

The man has this 'I am not amused' look on his face as the snow slooowly droops down from his forehead, over his nose, and finally bounces down onto his lap. Grumpy cat could take notes from this guy. He slowly brings one hand to his lips, touches his two fingers to his teeth, and then lets fly a SHRILL whistle.

The Templars which had moved away halt and turn immediately.

There, they find Louis slowly bringing out his Halberd and releasing himself from the black Chocobo's sadle. The black thing has a metal harness for goodness sake! Even a helmet! A /chocobo helmet/.

It looks metal.

"Enough games, Sanel. Come down immediately, I'm taking you back!"

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Oooh, maybe if we upgrade you in this mode and you turn back, you will become a cyborg. That or you upgrades become fleshy enhancements. We should /definitely/ try this!" Kyra beams with a maniacle gleam in her eyes. It doesn't fade though, "He should be around here somewhere if he is behind this. He'll definitely ping on a magical scale."

Shuddering, Kyra draws her coat closer to her. Because of the snow, she's got pants on today instead of her usual skirt.

In short order, the two from Alexander Academy come across exactly who they are looking for. "Sanel! Hah, I was right, there you are." Kyra remains friendly, knowing how the boy reacts around her and can be rather receptive when it came to bad vibes. "What are you doing out here? Are you looking for chocobo to play with?"

Then Sanel makes that /face/. "...Sanel...?" slowly she turns. Templars are approaching, lead by a guy on a very menacing-looking black chocobo. "Excuse me."

She turns to face them, a hand on her hip. "Taking him back to /what/?"

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason says "Wait are you serious about this? Oh gods, you are!"

There's no more time to talk she can see the gleem there. tghere's no stoppng this. She follows along keeping alert as she goes but she seems a bit shocked at Sanel she's not really run into him before. Now there are Templars, okay this could be a problem. She does not make a hostile move but she does power her weapons internally just incase.

Sanel has posed:
Frown.

Sanel looks over towards the man at the ground with the snowball running down his face. And then there is also that stick.

Sadface.

"Bad Stick Man."

Sanel droops, not looking too pleased to see this guy. Even worse, the templars have turned towards him. Sanel tenses and he slowly hovers backward to edge away from the vicinity of the gathered templars. He is quivering at the sight of the man.

"Sanel... Sanel doesn't know what Bad Stick Man is talking about! Sanel does not know about where Bad Stick Man is taking Sanel back to!" His sight shoots at the Templars, "Bad Men stay away!" He shrills in his panic, the arm shaking with fright.

Louis LeBlue has posed:
"His home." The large knight answers Kyra with a tone that implies that 'home' is:

a) Not really his home.
b) A bad place.
c) Filled with abusive parents.
d) All of the above.

Having dismounted succesfully from his Chocobo, the man stabs the butt of his halberd into the ground. "Enough joking around Sanel. You're coming with me!" The man slowly paces towards Sanel, and makes a grabbing motion in an attempt to take the youngster by his upper arm.

The Templars quickly begin to move on Sanel as well. They know very well of his abnormal strength, and prepare their shields in case the child resists.

"Surely, if you know Sanel, then you must all be aware that he's not quite... right. I am taking him home, so he can be helped with his mental 'condition'." Louis expresses to the one who had just spoken Sanel's name with recognition to their voice's tone.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith frowned. Okay, this is not looking good. Still, she doesn't say anything just yet, trying to determine who she needs to smash across the head. She didn't know either of them, but she knew that when a bunch of guys gang up on a single individual, they are either massive bullies, or know exactly what their target is capable of.

Aerith learns the latter very quickly, but does not like the feel of this man. At all.

She calls forth her staff, and yet does not utilize it just yet. "And I am going to assume that this home you are taking him back to... is not really home."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Of course I'm serious, Myla! We have to try it out!"

OOOH A MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST. Kyra is /very good/ at test taking. Especially if it is a SCIENCE test!

But here she doesn't need to make this assessment because Sanel flat out tells her that he doesn't want to go with this mysterious and probably evil guy with a black chocobo in black armor and a chocobo helmet. Seriously, who can afford a chocobo /helmet/ these days?

"I know enough about Sanel." she says firmly, quickly interposing herself between Sanel and Louis, blocking his grab. "I know enough about him that if he seems afraid of something, there's definitely a good reason for it. Leave him alone." One of her hands reaches into her coat, grasping one of the weapons hidden within.

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason can see where things are getting strange Sanel doesn't seem to have a full deck and the Templar being here are quite a concern to her. She's going to trust Kyra on this as she sizes up the Templars scanning them. Primitives all of them, but they likely had magic which could even things up a good deal. Also she wonders where that line of thinking even came from. She's going to have to deal with Echo sooner or later it seems.

"That's enough for me then, I suggest you stand down. It would be unhealthy to do otherwise."

Sanel has posed:
While Sanel manages to lower towards the ground level, he is doing so to get towards Kyra. Yeah. Kyra. That's someone that he knows. She would be the perfect person to hide behind, especially away from the man.

Unfortunately, Sanel does not make it far. The man paces himself towards the boy to grab the child by the upper arm.

Stranger Danger!

Bad guy! Bad guy! Even worse is the fact that the templars are moving towards him. This raises the level of anxiety because the last time he dealt with a large crowd of people surrounding him, they had halbards and swords drawn his way.

This is essentially the same thing.

Thankfully, Kyra imposes herself between the two. Sanel is looking directly at Louis.

"Sanel does not know Bad Stick Man other than interrupting game with BunBun! Sanel was playing with BunBun and Bad Stick Man got in the way! ...Sanel does not know where this home is! ...."

The boy tenses.

"But Sanel is not going there!"

Louis LeBlue has posed:
"It is not my duty to analyze his home. I am merely here to return him to it." Louis answers the girls. "And might I remind you that he's the one who just scared away this area's wildlife - the Chocobos. I believe they have an even /better/ idea of when to be afraid of something, and when not to be.

The man slowly draws the Halberd from the ground. And then Myla says something that... makes him grin. There's a few Templars who chuckle amongst one-another.

"Excuse me?" Louis tilts his head towards Myla. "Did you just... /threaten/ me? You clearly know neither who you are dealing with here, nor the basics of math. You are /clearly/ outnumbered.

The man snaps a finger, and the Templars pull out their blades from their scabbards immediately. The man then turns his attention towards Sanel. He narrows his eyes. "Enough playing around Sanel! You /will/ heed me!"

Louis walks straight towards Kyra, and tries to reach past her. He seeks to do her no harm lest she gets in his way. "You do not want to stand in my way right now. This child is dangerous."

Aerith has posed:
Okay, that was enough.

Aerith made her way over and joined the others. They were not in the mood for diplomacy, and this boy was scared and very able to freeze this place over if he wanted to. "Look," she said as she stopped just behind Kyra and her metal friend, "I just got here, and I can already tell you all are not the... friendly types. I don't know why you want him or what he did wrong, but I'm sure it doesn't warrant all this force." She planted one end of her staff into the cold ground. "We'll make him stop the winter. But if he doesn't want to go..." Aerith grimaced. "...he's not going."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"I think you should listen to what Myla's saying." Kyra says gravely. "I think it would be a good idea to leave Sanel alone." Of course she's aware that they are outnumbered! Kyra doesn't care! Technically, they had a full party meaning that dealing with superior numbers is completely feasible!

As Louis starts to reach, Kyra suddenly reacts, pulling free a needlegun of some kind with a cartridge already loaded. Her free hand grasps Louis rather harshly while the other seeks to jam the point of the needle into his forearm. With a pull of the trigger, the contents are dispensed-rather painfully since the weapon was originally meant for ballistic injection at a distance.

"Unfortunately for you, we're all dangerous." she says grimly, pushing him away as the agent contained therein does its work.

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason smirks for a moment as she throes her cape off it's clear he's not human, close looking but it looks like her body's made out of metal rather than not and there's clear joins.

"Threat? No I make promises."

Her arm rises up and it morphs from a hand into a weapon of some sort as she looks at at him.

"Your choice, don't way we didn't warn you."

She then opens fire with her arm weapons. They start firing bolts of magic both fire and elements as she breaks into a run.

"Engaging combat mode."

Sanel has posed:
Louis takes a stab at Sanel's interaction with the chocobos. With wide-eyes, they swell up with comical tears.

"But Sanel wanted to play with the birdies! Sanel wanted to be their friends!"

And then the templars point their blades. All of the blades are drawn and the men are ready to fight.

In an instant...

Sanel nearly stumbles against Kyra's arm, his hand clutching over towards his heart. A grimace is stirred as he takes a sharp breath.

Then, Sanel turns to face Louis as he takes a stelight up</span>.

A hand outstretches towards Louis, but this time, the frost around the hand dances along the wrist and forms into an arrow. It becomes thicker to form a lance.

In an instant, everything feels whole.

"I'm not going back!"

That lance forms into a blast to expel against Louis to send him at a distance.

Louis LeBlue has posed:
"I do not believe it is the 'law' to be friendly, now is it?" Louis asks Aerith. "No scamper. I don't want to be having to put a young girl down onto the floor." He then looks towards Sanel. "He's /going/."

Kyra's suddenly move of pulling the needlegun suddenly has the side of the staff slamming into her hand. This man's reaction speed... it's fast! He glares down at her. "Last warning." He reminds her.

But his warning is quickly waylaid when Myla joins her partner in crime by firing at him. The man moves his hand up, protecting his face. The bolts of magic clatter against his heavy armor - but it's obvious enough that the magic is leaving behind a residual effect! His armor is tough, but not particularly well warded against magic.

And then Sanel decides to try and go into the thick of it as well, lunging that icicle arrow at him. The lance is sent straight for Louis' shoulder - but a Templar suddenly appears at his side, protecting him with his shield. The entire Templar corps moves into formation around him.

"Enough foolishness... EREDIAS!" Louis suddenly shouts at Sanel. "HEEL!"

Aerith has posed:
Aerith gritted her teeth as he rebuffed her statement. So he thought he was the law around here... such arrogance. This world wasn't even his.

In fact, that armor reminded her of someone else's... someone she knew, and was even friendly with. Someone who people like these men had led into a trap.

Her eyes narrowed, but she said nothing else. No, words would not suffice for men like these. So as the attack began, she readied her weapon... only to blink at the name he'd given Sanel.

Eredias?

She glanced over at the boy as he attempted an attack. His aura was far different now than it was before. She'd sensed something, sure, but not like this. Aerith turned her attention back to the battle, her face resolute as she went after one of the other templars. No, she would let them handle the big guy. Aerith made it her primary goal to keep his friends out of the fight.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"I think our choice is clear!" Kyra says cheerfully as the arm is torn from her hand and the dart instead imbeds itself in the ground at their feet. To Kyra's credit, she doesn't drop her weapon-which is good. Frankly, she was going to be needing them.

She steps back at that, unwilling to be put in the way of Sanel's ice. This attack gives her time to set up for further dealing with this guy.

She seems undeterred by the formation of templars behind Louis. Even worse, she seems...encouraged by this. Because from beneath her coat comes more of her magical little toys. Magical little toys like....

EXPLOSIVES.

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason says "You already had it."

She does not find she's under assault yet but when Louis shouts a command? She get concerned just what is going on. Why did he do that? She does not think about this too much as she morphs her arms once more. She morphs her arm again and it turns into a blade she dashes in after Kyra starts tossing the bomb moving into rapidly strike at Louis with the blade.

"That all? Going to keep that smug look on your face like that?"

She flips back hopefully before he can stage a counter attack but given how skilled the Templar likely is it's very likely he'll be able to strike before the robot girl can make her escape.

Sanel has posed:
When the templar flanks in to shield the blow for the Shrine Knight, Sanel quickly steps back to distance himself, lest he wants to be in the grabbing distance of the polearm wielder. In that effort, something else came.

'Eredias..'

Sanel falls completely silent, that aura fades and that feeling of wholeness slips away. However, that phrase stabs out at him.

"Ngghh!"

Sanel finds himself clutching his heart once more. At the same time, he hunches over and recoils away from Kyra. He takes several steps away, his focus now falling onto his hands. The youthful hands that just stretches out.

"...Sanel sees red... lots of red. It won't stop. Thick red water keeps running. No... not water. It won't stop running...!"

The expression is filled with horror with a heavy streak of traumatization. The boy drops to his knees, the boy becomes paralyzed with fear.

Louis LeBlue has posed:
Aerith's attempts at knocking a Templar aside is met with a shield being bashed her way from one of those in formation. These are trained soldiers! And not the lame NPC kind either. These NPC Templars... THEY HAVE NAMES ABOVE THEIR HEADS!

Kyra has far more luck 'thinning' the ranks. While Louis manages to get away with a pole-vaulting motion, the Templars behind him put up their shields. They aren't that used to modern weaponry like /explosives/. So when the little things sputter and rattle above them in the air, it sends the whole bunch rolling back like a bunch of roley-poleys.

Louis quickly brings up his Halberd when Myla comes in, blocking the blade with the sharp end of the pole. The two are left testing one-another's strength for a moment, before the man pushes her aside. But not before she manages to get a quick swipe at his cheek.

The man then glances towards Sanel. "HEED MY COMMAND!" Louis calls out at Sanel. What a /pitiful/ boy. It almost makes Louis feel sorry for him. Almost. If it wasn't for the giant headaches he'd caused him in the past! "HEEL!" He demands once again. Like someone calling at a dog.

Awaiting a reaction, Louis finally /turns on his opponents/. So far, he's not attempted to strike at them with any intent to harm. That now has changed. "You have foresworn my warnings. Now you will understand why nobody stands before Louis LeBlue!" The man slowly raises his Halberd... and then suddenly rushes in towards Aerith with his other hand stretched back. The movement is quick, almost inhumanly so, as he aims to strike straight for her stomach and bend her in half.

Not waiting even for a fraction of a second, he pushes off shortly there-after and strikes with the blunt of his staff at Kyra's midrif in an attempt to knock her into Myla, and then grabs a blade from a nearby templar -- dragging it straight from their scabbard, and throws it at Myla's morphed arm.

"What kind of demon magic is that!?"

Aerith has posed:
Spirits, he was fast!

Before she could react, he was on top of her, and she found herself knocked a few feet back. The only thing really saving her was her plowing her staff into the ground, forcing herself to a halt. Aerith glared at him as he barked at the boy, telling him to heel as if he were some kind of animal.

Okay, fine. That was the last straw.

Aerith reached into her jacket, downed a potion, and whirled her staff to take another stance before charging into the ranks of the templars again. All she had to do was get them out of the way.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Don't you dare talk to him that way!" Kyra calls back, "Sanel is not some /beast/!" she would have noticed by now, clearly, given how often the boy is over at their house. While she did peg him as some kind of magical being, a beast that could just be commanded was not it.

She would say something else but the air is suddenly knocked out of her. She doesn't fall onto Myla so much as she just drops to the ground. A groan escapes her as blood starts to leak out of the corner of her mouth.

"I got this." she mutters, picking herself back up, groping around but not finding her gun. She must've dropped it somewhere. Struggling, she picks herself back up and clamps her hands together. Between her palms, darkness begins to squirm and crawl. Pain channeled into the spell makes it grow further until she has an enormous seething mass of darkness between her hands.

Relentlessly, it is unleashed upon Louis himself.

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason says "It's more magitech than anything."

She's noe attemping to make anotehr strikle but the blade seems to score home at this poitn it teats into her arm leaving a strange effect there's sparks and leaking fluid that is anything but blood. It seems to be acting as such but it's clearly not red it's black and slick others things leak from the wound which is yellow in colour.

"Damn... it."

Damage warnings go up on her internal hudd as she starts the knight own and she tries to engage some recovery systems but now what's happenign to Sanel, this has just got bad, this is getting nearly as bad as how things went down with the Horned King in China.

Sanel has posed:
Unfortunately, Sanel was so deep into his trauma that he was unable to notice the turn of events. The explosions, the fight itself against the templars. His friend and everyone was fighting...

...for him.

That is when Louis strikes down his friend. The others that fought for him...? Sanel was unhappy. However, seeing Kyra struck down by the man? ... Both eyes widen in shock.

Someone hurt Kyra. His Mog Ky. His Big Sis. His bride's sister.


> MURDER.EXE

Sanel closes his eyes, everything around him becomes calm.

Suddenly, the temperature around the area is no longer that Winter Wonderland. It is becoming colder, even to the point of reaching below zero. The ground around becomes encased with ice and the wind becomes fierce.

Everything around Sanel... becomes chilly.

Louis LeBlue has posed:
Aerith continues to be met by a wall of Templars! Only this time, she makes a lot more head-way. The first hits of her staff do little against their shields. But because of the damage that had been done by the explosives earlier, the Templars end up getting whacked over the head by the staff-wielding girl. Whack! It bounces on one of their helms. WHACK! One of them goes down surprisingly!

It's kind of pitiful. Maybe the player gave that one a default name.

Kyra follows this up by trying to lock screaming pain and darkness into Louis. The man pulls the shield off of the fallen Templar and braces for impact, letting the wave of darkness clash against the shield while running onto Kyra's position and attempts to slam the shield into her head in an attempt to make her 'stop casting magic'.

"Foul magic, 'tis!" He declares. "Stop using magic and fight like a /REAL/ warrior!" Louis demands.

The man notices the temperature drop, and turns towards Sanel. "Finally ready to heed my commands? If you stall any longer, I will need to continue hurting these people! Stop doing this and just come with me! Come on, Sanel!" At least he's using his proper name.

Louis isn't Heartless.

He then turns upon the group and raises his halberd for a moment. "BEHOLD!" He declares, before jumping into the air. The Templars suddenly all scramble the /hell/ out of there. The man rises into the air, and at the pinacle of his jump, be brings the halberd down... and just lets himself drop.

With quaking power, the man hits the ground - the Halberd sends literal cracks through the earth. The ground splits here and there, trying to swallow up our heroes. Is that not magic!? Or is that truly just brute strength!?

NO HUMAN IS THAT STRONG!!

The man then speeds straight out towards the girls, trying to grab Aerith by the leg and throw her around like a ragdoll, before throwing the Halberd itself - which he'd plucked from the ground again - straight for Kyra's midrif! It seems Myla gets off a little more lucky... for now.

"It matters not what your magic is! It will fall before my blade! Now bow at my feet, or be destroyed!"

Aerith has posed:
Somehow, Aerith expects it this time.

She waits for him to come down. Almost counts the seconds until just before impact. Then, she jumps. It's all she does, but it counts for far more than just sitting there. The thunderous explosion of the earth does little to faze her, and it did the job of getting his guards out of the way.

He moved to grab her, and got met with a boot to his face while she was in mid air, just before she used him as a launching pad. Up, over, and right behind him.

"How about no."

Aerith turned and made to ram the back quarter of her staff into the side of his head, then followed up with a wide sweep of her weapon. The intent? To knock him toward the others like some kind of baseball.

Sanel has posed:
The Calm Before the Storm.

As the boy remains ominous glow</span> of the eye beneath his blue hair.

And the man rises to the air...

And brings forth the storm. As the earth rumbles beneath the feet of the mortals, the rippling ground tears apart to devour the heroes. However, as the rumbling earth quickly envelops towards Kyra...

Sanel has blinked out of existence and re-appears in front of Kyra, sweeping his hand forth to project a wall of ice to appear in front of him. That ice rises and manifest beneath his feet to form a stalwart wall.

Fragments of the shards creates a bit of a scratch on Sanel's face. However, just as the wound was there, it closes itself.

Just as Louis brings the halberd out to strike at Kyra's midrift, Sanel flicks ahand out.

---A wire is revealed.

The hand whips around, the wire trailing out along his arm. The simple thin string moves past Kyra's head, only to lash out towards the wall of ice that stopped the earth as well as the rest of the ravaged earth.

Like a hot knife through butter, the ice and the risen earth is cleaved apart, breaking into smaller shards. The boy then whips that arm up to have the wire coil towards Louis's halbard to prevent Kyra from being on the receiving end of the weapon.

Instead, Sanel bullets his way towards Louis; his form blinking out of existence and re-appearing in front of the man at a very close range. A roundhouse kick snaps out towards Louis's stomach, a trail of ice following through along with the kick, then Sanel leans forward to send a hand lashing out towards the Shrine Knights arm. The movements of his hands are a blurr; filled with precision and intent. They strike out towards the nerve of his elbow, then the boy whips his hand out to thrust his wire coiled arm towards Louis to yank him into the air.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Not enough, huh." Kyra will have to intensify the darkness...though a part of her was still afraid. Helena had warned her that it was easy to lose control of the darkness at her command. Easy to go overboard. But right now it didn't feel like she could go overboard enough. "You idiot, magic is my power! I'm Kyra Hyral! I am the greatest mage of Alexander Academy and the most brilliant scienist!" she evades the shield just barely and slips sideways. Given what time she has, she focuses, tapping upon her wild but vast magical energy within her. In start contrast to seconds ago, bright white growing before her.

She only has seconds. Seconds before the earth threatens to swallow her up. Seconds before a halbred is hurled into her gut. But before this can happen...

Ice surrounds her to break the incoming earth. Sanel appears in a form she has never witnessed before and, in seeing it now was actually quite frightening coming from the usually sweet boy. "S....sanel..!" she gasps, momentarily stunned.

Then she immediately refocuses and sends her holy energy skyward. A moment or so passes before it descends in an enormous blast from above.

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason is so badly hurt, damaged whatever you wish to call it? She's hurting very badly and she can feel it. It's not in the way she can feel pain like before and somethign else is happening too from all the damage.

"I'm not...dead yet. Templar..."

A warning appears across her display as it engages something she's not even sure what it is, sudeenly wires snake out of her body flying fgor ouis intent to latch on to his body and start leeching life force from him to super charge her own recovery. Mayla's not even thinking about this and it will be a moment before she understands just what she did, for now she just doesn't want to die.

Louis LeBlue has posed:
@emit "Oooof!" That was Louis when Aerith met his face with her /boot/. Women's boots too! To get jumped on afterwards only annoys him further. Of course, by the time she's down again, he's already gone again -- on his way to his targets.

Or rather... TARGET.

Sanel! He's gotten in the way of his strike! /That Man/ had told him that he could control him if he used /that word/. "Why you little!...." Louis hisses.

Sanel whips his Halberd out of the way, and Sanel goes straight for him. But this is where Sanel is clearly underestimating him... that is, if the little squirt is even 'thinking' at this point in time anymore. Louis throws his hand straight forward and grabs Sanel by the face right in the middle of one of his attempts to disappear.

Sanel tries to pull one of his wires around Louis, but the man immediately throws the boy away before he has a chance. This gives Kyra her chance! "Even the greatest mage is nothing before MY BLADE!" Louis boasts, grabbing for his own side and slowly pulling out his Katana blade.

Things are serious when Louis actually grabs for his actual sword. The magic shines with a strange reflective quality. The man takes a single step back, goes through his knees... and then, just as Kyra's spell comes down, the man jumps back and slices through the air simultaneously.

The blade touches the very edge of her spell, but also sends an enormous shockwave of wind her way. This is followed by a rapid second swing, horizontal, that cuts out forwards. The tree that Sanel just sat on is literally split from its trunk! Louis then turns his attention back to Sanel and dashes for him, and tries to impale him straight through the belly!

That should get the little /monster/ to shut up!

However, before he can get there, Myla uses her own wires to try and grapple him! The man cuts at the things with his sword, trying to get them to get out of the way. But all he manages is to tangle himself further. Soon enough, Myla has him standing still and hissing under his breath. He's clearly in pain, his body convulsing, but yet he refuses to actually 'scream'. He just keeps... moving. It's creepy to watch him start to get going again. Still bound by Myla's magic, walking one step at a time, still trying to do that one thing:

To stab Sanel so that they can all go home.

Aerith has posed:
"You're not getting away!" Aerith just chased after him, whirling her staff in a figure eight to build up momentum as she did so. Fast he may be, but that last attack had him slowed. Good enough for her!

Her weapon began to glow as she approached him, a pale green color. It was the sure sign of her weapon's ability to take in energy, especially spirit energy. She hoped it was enough before she finally rammed into him, one blow after another, before finally leaping into the air and ramming the front section of her staff down atop his head.

The resulting crack would split the air and make a few ears ring.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Oof!"

Kyra falls backwards a second time, her head exploding with pain and rage. It was pretty incredible-in this particular moment, she finds herself hating this person more than she ever has in her life. "I'll make you <GOOSEHONK> eat that sword." she growls, pulling something /else/ out of her coat. It's another gun. It's a regular gun-not magical at all. Her aim isn't very magical either apparently.

"Rrrgh. Hang in there, Sanel. Run if you gotta." she mutters, pausing to grasp a few vials of remedy out of her coat to drink.

Sanel has posed:
Underestimate? That involves thinking.

There is no thought. There is only motion. That motion is to kill.

That is the Rule of Nature: kill or be killed. Kill for Him. However, it is not Him that he is fighting for. Is it really for the person that he is protecting? Or is it the instinct that has kicked in? That condition of the Killing Machine returns in motion.

The boy is caught by the face by Louis, the massive hand throws the boy away and then the boy slams against the tree. There is a sickening crunch as the boy macks against the tree.

Not just that, but Louis dashes towards the tree to impale the boy.

...There it is.

Everyone is treated to the sight of the boy getting impaled by the halberd, blood splattering from the impaling.

...Except, the wound that he has received is slowly mending itself. In turn...

Louis will find a hand impaling deep within his heart, especially as the boy's hand has reached through the other side of Louis.

The hand is drawn back, manifesting a glow of energy to swirl along the inside.

"Cease to exist."

Ahhhh... that is enough.

Something... something has snapped the boy's attention before his body hunches over and becomes limp. It's as if the boy had shut down.

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason is durable but not unstopable, while her strange attack was quite the useful thing. It does help repair some of the damage to her it's not enough as she's recovering the feeder lines she's trying to get moving. thsi is not to be, she's impaled on Louis's blade her eyes normally glowing gold start to flare out.

"Unable to contiune combat, shutting Down."

She collapses to the ground sparking and leaking various robot things, she's now at the mercy of Kyra. Gods help her.

Louis LeBlue has posed:
His blade carves through the bullet fired by Kyra, slicing it in half and sending the pieces outwards into the skies. "You will do none of the sort!" He declares, and then plunges his blade into Sanel... and then...

There's this...

What is this?

There's this... sudden immense pain through his chest. Louis blinks and... slowly looks down. There where his heart is, the boy has stabbed through. He stumbles, blinking, trying to catch a breath. He grips the boy's hand and pulls him out of his chest cavity. He can see his bones tearing at Sanel's flesh.

"Foolish... boy." Louis coughs. "Nobody opposes..." Cough... gasp. "LeBlue." The man blinks a few times, his sight getting woozy. His heart. That's where his heart is! He's dying! Surely he's dying. Then... why isn't he losing his consciousness? There is an incredible pain going through his body right now, and he's clearly weakened. But...

He's not dead! Why isn't he dead!? Louis gasps and reaches for the wound. Unlike Sanel, it's not closing. Just to be sure, Louis keeps the blade stick inside of Sanel, and then lifts the boy.

"You would kill these friends of yours, and you'd forever hate yourself. It is my duty to take you 'home'." He declares. The Templars quickly rush to Louis' side, trying to help him. A twosome of them immediately begin to cast white magic on them -- any and all MP is getting used for this purpose. But none of them can believe it when Louis just... starts walking.

He starts walking towards his Chocobo, one step at a time, holding Sanel.

"Hold back the children." He commands, managing to let his voice boom - though it's lost quite a bit of its luster. Aerith starts slamming her staff on top of his head, but the man just... keeps moving. He cringes, and she almost causes his knees to buckle... but he continues walking.

There is surely only one word for this moment. Insanity.

He throws Sanel onto the black Chocobo's saddle, and then mounts the thing himself. He looks out onto the heroes. "Take care of your brethern!" He demands. "And do not follow me. This child goes beyond your understanding." Bringing a hand to his chest, and the other touching the reins of the Chocobo, the man then turns around and rides off into the distance.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith gaped as he stabbed straight through the boy.

That was not possible. It just wasn't.

She growled as he made his way toward his chocobo. This was, indeed, insanity. But it wasn't his strength and unholy stamina that she had a distaste for. "You monster," she muttered as he escaped. He called himself a knight templar... and did such acts to a young boy who was obviously tortured. She wouldn't be surprised if they were the ones who did it, but her mind reeled her in at that point. No such need for assumptions.

However, one thing was true... they were definitely not to be trusted. "You monster!"

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Myla! ...Sanel?!" In short order, two people simply shut down on Kyra at once. Of immediate attention is Myla, her fellow classmate. Second follows Sanel, who suddenly becomes super aggressive and speaks in a manner she's never heard him spoken before. It doesn't sound like the playful Sanel that Kyra knew-or thought she knew?-so well. Murderous Sanel is new and in a way, it was almost as if he took the hate within Kyra and transformed it into a brutally, violent action that even Kyra herself feels a bit of catharsis over.

Surely Louis should be dead from that.

How he still moves and talks with Sanel slumped in front of them is beyond her. A growl escapes her and Kyra starts forward, gun still in her hand, now held with both as she points it ahead. "DROP HIM!" she commands. "I SAID DROP HIM!"

Enraged, she immediately shoots one of the Templars casting white magic on Louis in the kneecap.

Louis LeBlue has posed:
The Templars have some trouble fleeing along with Louis. A couple of them are staying back in order to guard the man. In doing some, some of them end up shot in the kneecap. One of them even explains, "Noooo! I wanted to be an adventurer like you one day! Now someone shot me in the knee!"

Aerith has posed:
Aerith huffed and glanced back at Kyra. "Okay, I have questions and you have answers." She turned and made her way over. The energy from fighting was wearing down, replacing itself with concern. "First question... who was that? And second... why is he so important to those tyrants?"

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Correction." Kyra holsters her gun in a under-the-arm holster hidden beneath her coat. "I have no answers. I don't know the answer to either of those questions, unfortunately." Looking over to the fallen Myla, she's quick to gather up any parts that may have become separated. Myla as a whole is placed under a float spell because Kyra is not strong enough to lift a robot.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith folded her arms in front of her. "Well, I'm quite willing to help you out. Just..." She frowned at Myla. "...take care of her. She tried to help me out once in the Chinese Countryside. Keep me posted, okay?"

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Don't worry, I'll take /great/ care of her." Kyra beams in spite of everything, "I have excellent bedside manner. If anything turns up...I'll let you know. This is going to need some investigation."

Aerith has posed:
The flower girl smiled. "Don't think we've really met, by the way... I'm Aerith. Aerith Gainsborough. For better or worse, snow or not, we're in my neck of the woods."

Myla Mason has posed:
Myla Mason is floating along with no problem. She's not awake or she's be freaking out at the idea of a heacy upgrade package from Kyra. There is no saving her now!