A Researcher's Finale I

A Researcher's Finale I
Date of Scene:	15 June 2013
Location:	Goug City
Synopsis:	Several heroes step up to stand against the Black Beast and defend Goug from it's rampage. A fierce battle is undertaken and revelations are made. In the end however, certain individuals lack the will to do all that is necessary.
Cast of Characters:	Tifa Lockhart, Rhiannon Zellen, Kim Possible, Montag, Evja, Artemis Eurus, Alberic Lux

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Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
Goug - City Streets: Destroyed Block A - 10:45 AM

The Black Beast's rampage has roused all of Goug from their idle slumber and now the entire city is in turmoil. Shinra helicopters patrol the skies, launching missles at the beast and down below, several companies of moogles armed with the latest MoogleTron 5000s take the battle directly to the beast, firing an endless array of bullets, magic, and bombs.

The Black Beast lets out an angry roar and it's innumerable number of heads lash out, one crushing a Shinra helicopter in it's crushing jaws. Another sweeping several MoogleTron 5000s away. A chorus of 'KUPOOOO's all that is left in their wake. The battle is an uphill one and it seems like whatever damage they inflict is quickly healed. How are they supposed to topple this massive monstrosity!?

Over on a distant rooftop, a certain scientist stood, watching the epic battle with a faint smile on her face. The wind tousled her braided hair and caused her white lab coat to billow out behind her. But she cared little for that. There was an experiment ongoing now. As she stood, a laptop could be seen being held up in one of her arms casually as her eyes occasionally reference data from the beasts wild rampage.

Several streams of relevant data were displayed on screen and the most prominent of them was a single gauge with a heart icon to the side. The number seemed to be gradually climbing and the gauge slowly increasing towards the end as another heart was devoured.

"Just a little longer. Devour more hearts and soon, it will be time for the next step." Her voice spoke softly as if encouraging the beast's rage.

Well, of course she was. Several more Shinra Helicopters came flying in after, reinforcing the company already there and ground soldiers were dispatched to support the Moogle forces in the battle at street level. Broken streets, caved in buildings, fires all around, the sound of bullets flying every which way, and innocent citizens desperately trying to evacuate, left the Blast Beast devour them...

It was utter chaos was what it was.

All necessary turnouts for the sake of the experiment in this scientist's eyes.

Montag has posed:
Montag has been deployed along with his men he's barkced orders to try to get people out of there he damn well knows he's not feeidn his men to that and getting the compmany's customer base out at this point. He was not a happy man unaware of Rhiannon has now hit about .8 hojos at this point he's got his grappleing system ready as he calls out orders over the comm system at this point. He's also standing on top of a building for the moment he checks hsi grapples and the back brave for a moment then he lets out a woop as he deploys the grapples flanking each hip the grapples launch and Montag's in the air now swinging across the street towards it.

Also several Shinra armored units are joining the fight the tanks are having a hard time to bring their weapons to bear but also at this point HELI Gunners are being deployed to back up the combat choppers and death sweeper drones enter the street.

Montag's rifle is already opening firing as he remains air born as the gapples keep going.

"COME ON YOU WUTAI SPAWN! I'm sending you back to hell! Beta team hurry up it's heading your way GET THOSE PEOPLE OUT OF THERE!"

Montag is not sitting still as he keeps launching his grapple and basically is falling with style all over the place. Another high powered shot is fired as he attempts to shoot one of the heads.

"Damn it where are the Guard Scorps?!"

BGM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyc6UA2oAgE Attack on Titan

Alberic Lux has posed:
"The 'Black Beast'... rather uncreative, for a creature of that magnitude."

There's a man standing on the same rooftop as the woman in the labcoat. He wasn't there a moment ago; there was no sound to indicate his approach. He steps up to the edge next to her, standing on her right, his hands in the pockets of his green, threadbare coat as he leans forward. He peers at the monster with his one inquisitive eye. There's a slight smile on his face.

"In my experience," he continues, speaking to her as if to an old friend, "a good name is what sets one biomechanical monstrosity apart from another. Why, you may as well call it 'Giant Snake Monster' and be done with it at this rate. Have you considered something more... evocative? Perhaps a noun-verb or noun-adjective combination. Heartrender, Soultaker, that sort of thing. Though I suppose times may have changed..." He trails off.

The man straightens, leaning a little to the left. He peers at her laptop, scanning the screen with his one eye. "Mm. Curious. This is your creation, then? Or did you simply..." His eye slides to her face. His gaze is remarkably chilling for a man with only half of one. "...dig it up?"

Artemis Eurus has posed:
A colossal black beast is rampaging through Goug. Unsurprisingly, word on this travels quite quickly through the various radio networks, ma belles and linkpearls.

Likely also unsurprising, upon hearing about this, Artemis Eurus now of the Zodiac Braves has come to assist with a small company of allies. A terrifying monster, killing and eating people's hearts? How could this not draw the attention of the warrior? "Move out to protect civilians, help with an escape out of the city. Stay tuned to your linkpearls. I am going to engage the beast directly," she informs the other heretics, then unsheathes her sword and runs into the city, teleporting several times to charge herself forward and eventually land on a rooftop nearby the raging beast, raising her sword toward it.

If ever there was a time to be fully armored in blue and gold, her mask matching, a cape flying, it was now.

Without a word she slices toward it with her katana, sending a wave of cutting force forward to get the monster's attention while the heretics defend the non-combatants and try to help get them out of the area.

Kim Possible has posed:
Meanwhile, Kim Possible is making her way into the area as well. Except her entrance isn't exactly as noticeable as one might think. Instead of just running into the area, she's swiftly moving from one hiding spot to the next,occasionally stopping to survey the general area. Namely in a way that keeps her out of the sight of that big awful beast. "Wade, have you got any info on this?" Kim asks as she rushes from one hiding spot to another. "I mean, this is waaaay beyond uncool! It's worse than having to do extra homework on the weekend!"

"Not really, Kim, sorry," Wade replies, sounding very sympathetic.

"Thanks anyway, Wade. And don't worry about me, I can do anything!" Kim shuts off her wrist communicator, then fires a grappling hook, shooting herself up onto a nearby roof before assuming a combat stance. She stares at the beast with narrowed eyes, and then a smirk forms on her face as she continues to stare at it.

"You picked the wrong girl to mess with," Kim says as she cracks her knuckles. "You're going back to the darkness where you belong!"

Evja has posed:
"You have a bad habit of attracting trouble."

It was a mumble at most, though if it was to himself or directed at the barmaid the Viera had come to see remains to actually be noted. And it never does get noted. Evja didn't even have his armor on at the moment either, not having had a chance or reason to have it on. Then that damnable Black Beast appeared and brought about the chaos outside.

Perhaps it was simply fate at work, having come to Goug to invite Tifa to Macalania for Chocobo things. Fate that no matter where he went, there was always trouble.

"Oh well. Time to get to work. Hopefully that Shinra Scientist is alright." Rhiannon /was/ the only real person he knew in Goug anyways besides Tifa. And as far as he was aware, Rhiannon was perfectly sweet and nice, if not a bit interested in blood. Which was creepy, hardly actually a bad thing.

Walking through the streets towards the general direction of the body, Evja sidestepped approaching fleeing people, letting them on their way. When they were finally close enough he took to hopping upwards onto the roof tops before leaping into the air a grand total of three times to try and get a proper look - and possibly look like a tasty treat - at the Black Beast. Was there even ANY possible spots to attack other than just picking a head and wailing on it? Anything that looked remotely central? Weak spots? No big red x's on it or cores or anything?

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Unlike Artemis, Tifa is always lightly armored, which isn't really served her that well in the past either, but she's pretty sturdy, fortunately for her. Imagine if not, close ranged fighting like she is... At least magical healing doesn't leave too scars it seems, because she'd probably be riddled with them all over by now. Thank god for fantasy worlds, where a night's sleep cures almost everything short of death.

Evja had caught her as she was getting out of the bar, moving to get her chocobo out of the stable. A lovely red-feathered chocobo that has proven to be docile and smart too. Looks like Tifa takes good care of her. She hadn't put on her linkpearls or Ma Belle... so she's actually in the dark about the Black Beast, pun unintended if not 'of circcumstance' here. Its actually about now that she understands soemthing's going on, with the screams and officers pushing people to safety. "Great, here goes the holiday."

Well, not that she's really angry about it either, its annoying, but people's safety always been her prime directive. Fighting for others is what she does best, and its easier when its not a humanoid figure she can relate too... Monsters and heartless she doesn't need any holding back. "How is that my fault? I'm not the one summoning monsters here. Let's talk about it later, looks like we got something... well, bigger and blacker to take care of right now." She shakes her head, and jumps over the railing, going full sprint along the street toward the center of the commotion in town. There's going to be some rightly deserved punches given before it gets anywhere near her bar. She takes the time to buff herself up before she gets in range of the monster.

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
"You have a valid point." The Wutai native spoke calmly, eyeing her laptop screen. Alberic's appearance didn't cause her to start or anything. She was far too engrossed in the experiment to be surprised now. But a small smile graced her features as she used her other hand to type into the keyboard of the laptop at a quick pace.

"I actually have not given it a name." She admitted lightly, her eyes raising to observe the battle in the distance. " 'Black Beast' is actually the name that /they/ have been calling it. Intriguing really. But I do suppose it cuts to the heart of the matter. Ehehe, heart." Giggling to herself, Rhia shook her head and observed the heart gauge on screen. It was climbing just a bit higher...

"As for your other inquiries; yes, I did create this creature. A mixture of darkness and tainted blood amplified to extreme levels and this is the result." The scientist noted, freely giving away the details. After all, the cogs were already in motion. All that remained was for the next step to be taken at the right moment.

It should be noted that she never gave the man beside her a look. Her eyes were solely on the beast in the distance and her laptop's data.

MEANWHILE

The heroes were hard at work on our wonderful heart eating monstrosity. A scream filled the air as another innocent was snapped up into one of the beast's jaws, never to speak again. Montag's zipping about the rooftops catches the attention of one of the heads and that one lashes outward towards him, jaws opened to devour in a single instant. It wanted his heart.

Artemis' cutting wave does it's job, distractng several of the heads from snapping up another bunch of civilians long enough for them to run away to safety. They look at Artemis, eyes and jaws glowing with an unnaturally red aura. And then they struck, several heads converging on her at once as they aimed to crush her body.

Evja's aerial vantage point would reveal to him that the beast's 'body' was solid black in color with a faint red aura about it. Along each of the heads, red veins could be seen, creating a network that seemed to pulse occasionally and they all traveled to the central point between all the heads. But it was a small space.

...Was there something there?

Evja has posed:
Well now, that was a possible weak point, but there was no certainty in it. He could try and attack it now, but chances were, that giant beast would simply go after him the moment he got anywhere near. He needed some kind of distraction... or perhaps even an assistant. His eyes ventured around as he hovered there in the air for a moment with the aid of his Faerie Shoes before he started to fall once again and then he spotted it.

Shinra Helicopter.

But those things were firing at the beast. If he got anywhere near it, chances were they'd probably go after him too. Damn. Perhaps if he found someone on the ground instead and got them to relay a message if possible. And if he simply threw weapons at it, the beast, as large as it was, might simply eat them. And then what. WheeeeeeeeeeeeewWHUMP, Evja lands on top of a nearby roof rather gracefully just in time to see the creature attacking Montag. Wait, he was familiar somehow... oh, right, the one with the gun that she'd seen a while back during the mission with the Behemoth. "Watch out!" he called, putting on the false female voice that he always used when out and about, especially since he was still disguised as ever. Cloak, veil, etc. Not that a giant head attempting to eat him wasn't obvious. Crouching, Evja vanished and leapt straight towards the side of the head, towards the eye, and attempted to jam a long spear straight into it to try and distract it. Or better yet wound it.

Artemis Eurus has posed:
Now, the many headed beast thing...is this a hydra in truth? Or does it simply have multiple heads? Only one way to find out, currently.

As the heads turn toward her and try to converge and take her out with superior size, Artemis dances to the side, moving with nimble, swift efficiency into a downward strike with her katana, attempting to delivery a brutal chop at the head to see if she can manage to take the thing clean off--and if two will grow back in its place.

The samurai charges forward, leaping upward to pounce upon the other nearby head, slamming her katana downward, trying to skewer the thing's skull. In comparison to the beast Artemis is small, but her arm is strong and chi enhanced to boot.

She's a nice distraction.

Kim Possible has posed:
The beast may look freaky to some, but for Kim, it's just a simple case of something totally uncool. "Eww, that this is disgusting," Kim says while making a face that emphasises her point. "I'm gonna have to teach it what I do to uncool things like that!" She looks around, and then jumps to another rooftop, attemping to get a little closer. After a moment, Kim spots a nearby helicopter and gets an idea.

"Looks like I'm gonna be hitching a ride with you guys!" Kim says as she fires her grappling hook at the rail of a helicopter, using it to swing towards the beast and deliver a swift kick. After that, Kim attempts to follow it up with another kick, albeit with a more custom touch to it, and then finish it up with a swift punch.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart isn't going to let it eat another... she's too late for that one though, seeing the citizen ripped to shreds makes her a bit queasy too, blah. She's going to make sure there's no more of those right away.

With the boost of speed and power, you can hear the 'stompstompstomp' noise of her boots on the concrete, moving at high speed too, almost like you could hear a train chugging through a tunnel, comming at you full tilt. And that's pretty much what happens here, except she's not a train, only human. But hits hard nonetheless!

When she gets in range of the beast, its met with a boot square between the eyes, a jump kick to get its attention. Better her than any other random, fleeing in panic citizen at least. Another kick, and she uses the impact to flip backward, landing just a few steps back. And as she touches ground, her arms crossed in front of her face, as she goes for a charge attack, body slamming it backwards. She's rather light compared to the beast, so it might not do much more than ring bells in its head.

Alberic Lux has posed:
Alberic isn't terribly surprised -- he gets the same way when he's really into an experiment. Sometimes he doesn't even notice the world coming apart around him. He briefly considers taking advantage of her total focus, but decides against it. There's something much more interesting he could be doing.

"Darkness again," he sighs. "I thought as much. I suppose I should not be surprised -- it has become something of a catalyst for all manner of slap-dash creations." Lux taps his jaw with one finger, thinking. "Mmm... Damocles," he says, tone changing as if addressing someone entirely different, "release batch twelve onto street level. They should do well in this environment." There's a chime, as if tapping a crystal container.

The sword-like object on Lux's back lifts off of its own volition. It floats silently to the edge of the rooftop, hanging in mid-air. It seems to glow from within, the colors and outline standing out sharply against the growing ruin below. The air in the rubble-strewn street ripples and tears, sliced neatly as if with a knife. It falls open, a gap in space leading to a mist-shrouded place with no distinct objects in sight. A sort of fog quickly rolls out of it, giving the street a dreamlike quality.

"Allow me to add another variable to your experiment," Lux asides, the soul of generousity.

A dozen creatures yellow</span> eyes, and a large, ragged hole straight through their chests.

The portal snaps closed. The creatures scan the area around them with motions like hounds on the hunt. They let out an undulating cry as one, possessing a strange, breathless quality to it. Then, they run off, scattering down the streets, each of them hunting... something.

Two of them charge straight at the Black Beast. Rubble seems to stick to them as they go, eyes</span> stay the same.

The two strange Heartless charge the Black Beast, leaping at it and pounding on the creature with powerful arms and no sense of self-preservation. Their undulating cry has turned into a deep, rumbling roar, rattling the few intact windows nearby in their frames, clearly audible amongst the carnage. The rest of the Heartless are somewhere in the city... but where?

Montag has posed:
Montag is unaware of the meeting of the inhuman, he's too busy making like Spider Man, amd trying to not die while he kills this horror. Which he's certain Wutai is behind. He uis kinda off the mark on this but either way the beast is more of a problem right now. Figuring out who did it and dealing witht hem is something to worry about later.

Montag is zipping about and maning to avoid any major counter attack for the moment however. Montag heads the warning and shifts his mmentu firing off the off grapple and going again as he's trying to line up another shot and he's just keeping in the air he watches the unknown Dragoon make a move. He gets an idea and is trying to bring himself about to follow her up.

"Damn need to come around for another shot."

he'd not had enough time to ID Evja as he'd been going too fast but her warning was welcome.

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
The Black Beast make no effort to dodge any strikes. All were taken and all seemed to do not quite as much damage as they hoped or did nothing at all. The head attacking Montag were stopped short by Evja, a spear getting jammed into it's eye. Despite the gruesome attack, all the Viera's efforts seemed to do was anger that head all the more. The damaged eye, which was leaking an inky black substance seemed to be drawing Evja's weapon inwards. It was going to be absorbed if not reclaimed soon.

But the beast would not wait. Opening it's maw wide, it fired out a ray of destructive red light at the pair, aiming to incinerate. And then their hearts would belong to the creature at last.

Artemis's strikes were well aimed and masterful in their form, yet...the beast simply growled. The strikes bounced off the creature and it's temporary pause came to an end. It was time to feast. One of the heads burst forward past the others, maw open wide in order to devour the Samurai.

In the streets below, the beast's multiple tails tore through the ground, bearing into Shinra tanks and MoogleTron 5000s with no mercy. Their valiant efforts would not be forgotten as their hearts were snapped up in an instant. A wayward head aimed to strike a fleeing moogle when suddenly, Tifa came flying in, feet first. The powerful blow sent the head hurtling back into the air, the momentum keeping it from it's prey. It roared in anger and then turned it's sights onto the barmaid, a tail came from around a building on the side, whipping outwards with high speed to bat the member of AVALANCHE away.

Kim's daring attack is all for naught as the Black Beast seems unhurt whatsoever. Put some more heart into it, girl! The beast wastes no time following up driving forward, jaws wide open in order to crush Kim and the helicopter in a single blow.

MEANWHILE

Rhia smiled as she watched the numbers stream by on screen. The heart meter was reading 85 percent complete. "Just a few more minutes now..." She mused aloud, not really speaking to anyone, but rather, voicing her thoughts. The comment about adding an additional variable to the experiment did not pause Rhia any and she nodded absentmindedly, seeing some rather intriguing machinations out of the corner of her eye.

"Do feel free. Additional variables at this stage of the experiment will be quite interesting and they will not halt the main objective any." A nod then as she watched those strange grey creatures drop down to street level to assault the beast. "Intriguing indeed. Were I not in the middle of an experiment already, I would have wanted to study those entities myself."

Artemis Eurus has posed:
Artemis growls low in her throat as the beast's tough hide seems to deflect her attacks. She's wiggled off the head before she can plunge her sword deep enough to make any difference. Falling now, she 'blinks' back upward to another nearby rooftop, watching the beast rage at the others trying to fight it. Shinra eh? They have bloody helicopters full of missiles. Of course, danger of destroying even more of the city...

Artemis sighs. Nothing for it. She regathers herself, reaching for a waterskin at her waist, opening it up and bringing it to her lips, her throat moving as she gulps down the contents.

Oh yes ladies and gentleman.

BATTLE TEA.

Evja has posed:
"Hey, you use a gun, right! If you can aim well, come with me! I think I might have found a weak point on it, but I want someone who can hit it from a distance to try it first and find out before I go in for a killing blow!"

Evja shouted her quick message towards Montag before slipping in close and realizing that, oh crap, suddenly that thing had firepower! It could shoot something at them instead of just snapping. Then suddenly that weapon Evja was holding onto was sinking in. "No!" he couldn't let it sink in. Which is why as it began to charge, Evja leapt straight up from the roof after landing before grabbing onto it and spinning around it like a gymnast, only to place his feet against the side of the beasts head and rip it out as hard as he could before leaping away from the blasting mouth to keep out of range. Damn. Well, whatever, he'd made it obvious. "Get up high! From above you can see where the pulsing lines meet. Try hitting it there and if it responds, I'll go in after!"

But this wasn't before the Viera took a moment to back off and try to concentrate a bit, to rest, recooperate, and try to give the sniper a chance to find out if that point was indeed a weak spot.

In the meantime Evja began to leap from rooftop to rooftop away and around, attempting to cover as much distance as possible while watching it, and trying to keep an eye on the distant Montag, to see when(if) he attacked and the response that came from the beast.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart is surprised by the speed of that beast, despite the size its not quite as sluggish as she expected, and the map snaps on her, cutting at her skin, but nothing too serious that she can't keep fighting. She got the beast's attention, that's what she wanted. The citizens can feel more safely now. she looks up at Evja, its not something she can do from down here, but she can keep its attention down at least, keeping the possibly more squishy backside for the others that are more airborne than she is. She jumps to the side, aiming to punch right into its eyes. Every beast has eyes, and quite possibly squishy too, so she's going to try to get more of its attention by enraging it even further "I'll keep its attention as much as I can, keep striking it!"

She doesn't know where that monster came from or what its even doing here, but its not a good thing that it attacks people either way, so she can try to get answers later, when its dealt with.

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim finds that her evasive skills are a little rusty, as the strange being strikes her hard. And it leaves her feeling kind of strange as well. "Owww, what just happened?!" Kim mutters to herself as the strange sensation burns through her body. Slowly it dawns upon her that she's apparently been poisoned. This definitely does not sit well with Kim though, who finds herself quite angry now as she takes out what looks like a small lipstick case.

"Time for the kiss of death," Kim says with a sarcastic tone as she presses a button, and a laser bolt is fired from the lipstick case at the beast.

Montag has posed:
Montag calsl out. "I can!"

Montag follows the Dragomn at least he thinsk the bynny woman is a dragoon even as he. Given the thing is feeding on hearts the shinra military is pulling back they send in drones in the place of life troops at this pioint. He's following up Evja at this point. "Copy that."

Montag is swinging up again and gets some good air time he loads a breach round and then fires the shot that will explode a few sections after pentrating the target if it can even get through.

Alberic Lux has posed:
"Perhaps another time," Alberic says. "I would not want to strain your focus."

In the streets, the odd Heartless attack! They don't do much good. Crushing force doesn't seem to be the way to go, here, but they aren't smart enough to do something different. One of them gets caught in the heat beam, the rubble its made of fusing together into a solid lump. It drops to the street, the Heartless slithering out of it and looking around again for a new thing to inhabit.

One of the downed choppers starts moving. It makes a sound like metal groaning, and then rolls over, crunching in on itself. The propellers shatter, torn in half and changing position. It lifts itself up off the ground, hovering despite the smaller propellers being obviously insufficient to move it, and the tail bends beneath it like a massive stinger. Those eyes glow from the shattered cockpit. Another one?!

The chopper-monster flies right at the Black Beast. Its tail rotor spins up and makes a sound like a table saw. It flies back and forth past the monster, doing its level best to slice it to pieces with the possessed ShinRa vehicle... or whats left of it. On the ground, the second stone creature keeps trying to crush it, slowly scaling the Black Beast with its powerful hands.

"Adequate," Lux murmurs to himself. "Damocles." The weapon(?) floats back to him, replacing itself on his back. He folds his hands in front of him and watches the battle unfold.

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
With a plan of attack forming above, Several of the heads had their attention drawn to Tifa down below. With Artemis no longer an object of interest, those heads left her. Tifa's combo of punches seemed to at least put a bit of a dent into the beast. But not quite as much as it could have. Either way, the main objective was fulfilled; distracting the beast for those above.

The same could not be said for Kim's own attempt. The fired laser bears down onto one of the heads...and simply deflects as if bouncing off of a mirror surface. You need more heart than that, girl! But nevertheless the job was done.

Alberic's strange creatures sure were making quite a spectacle, taking on all manner of forms and distracting a number of heads from their mission of devouring hearts. It was slowing progress, but not halting it. Still, what an intriguing display of ability.

The opportunity was ripe for Montag to take the shot, however. And he did so with supreme accuracy. The explosive round speeds downwards past the heads and into the small opening between the heads. A few moments later...BOOM. An explosion can be heard. The Black Beast actually visibly faltered for a considerable moment after that shot!

MEANWHILE

"Hmn, so they discovered the location of the Core. About time. I was wondering whether my calculations of their cognitive abilities were inaccurate." Rhia mused as she observed the data on screen. The heart meter was a bit higher now and she smiled all the same. It didn't matter whether or not they defeated the creature. Her objective was elsewhere...and it was almost fulfilled. Almost.

BACK TO GROUND ZERO

The creature of darkness recovered by now and let out an otherworldly howl. The point that had exploded was now gaping open and an inky black and red substance was leaking out...Some manner of blood? Regardless, the wound was gradually beginning to close...

Of course it was not going to take this sitting down. several of the heads all rose up into the air, granting the ground forces a bit of a reprieve. ...But something was wrong. The head's eyes began to glow harshly and energy could be seen building up in their jaws. ...Now would probably be a good time to haul ass! Once the build up seemed to be finished, all of the heads opened their mouths, firing a jet stream of reddish energy outwards in multiple directions and at multiple targets. At helicopters, at those fighting on the rooftops, and at those on ground level, holding down the fort.

Rhia meanwhile watched as all of this happened, nodding slowly. "My, quite a powerful creature...it will indeed make a wonderful Keyblade of Darkness..." Once again thinking out loud, her eyes went back to the laptop screen, watching as the heart gauge rose a bit higher...

Artemis Eurus has posed:
Focused to a keen edge, Artemis hesitates no further to re-enter the battle, waiting until the beast is below her to jump from the roof and land down upon the body. Having observed the glowing red veins and their place of convergence, Artemis is aiming for it, falling from the sky with a ferocious battle cry like a Valkyrie charging onto the field, glowing with power like a falling star.

Unfortunately, she leaps right through the beam of energy burped forth by the black beast, which is a rather unpleasant surprise.

Despite taking heavy damage her aim in unwavering. She lands, attempts to plunge her blade into the beast to strike right at the core of it, plunging the blade hilt-deep if she can.

Then, she twists the blade viciously, hoping this does the trick.

Evja has posed:
Thankfully for the Judge, he was fast on his feet. Which is why when he saw it beginning to charge up another attack, he got the hell OUT OF THE WAY.

Unfortunately for him, it wasn't far enough out of the way and the attack blew up the roof of the building he tried to hop to and sent him flying off and landing in a heap with a pained cough, smoking, tufts of hair on the tip of his ears looking to be smoking too. "Oooowww.... damn. That thing certainly isn't playing around, but I suppose if I was a big nasty thing like that I wouldn't be either! But it seems that attack worked, so time to try and finish this here and now!"

Pushing himself to a stand, Evja leapt onto a rooftop again and began to speed around the giant beast as much as he could before leaping straight at it - trying to dodge through the network of necks and body parts to get behind at least one head so he could leap straight up into the air. The area around him began to grow dark as the light pooled towards him, charging into him, almost as if he was using the very light itself to form an attack. A giant spear began to form in one hand before he slammed downwards with the weapon, leapt back up and showered the beast with copies of the spear from high above. The copies of the spears were 'solid' for a time before he clenched his hand and they exploded en masse in an attempt to distract the creature. Really, he was trying to buy himself time...

Time to descend once again, as he did when he began to fall, with a single spear held in both hands to plunge the glowing-with-light weapon as deep as he could into the core.

Montag has posed:
Montag is back at ground Zero and then some he sees some troops fleeing while drones are mindlessly moving in agains the creature. He wonder where this thing has come rom he's not seen anything from it. Montag pulls and catches on a radio tower and he rises up into the sky as it's strkes agianst him just barely mis he pulsl again coming about again as he loads another breach round into his rifle. He times his shot aiming for the weak point.

At the apex of the his jump more or less he twists and has a shot lined up he loses his helmet an is going to have to free fire this shot he looks down scorp. "Dad always said the socpe removed all lies before it."

he fires a single shot, will it be enough?

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart was knocked away been bad. The 'flick' for a monster that size is equivalent of a freight truck hitting at a 100 mph, and that's not a good thing either. That 'flick' literally sends the barmaid flying, crashing into the wall of a nearby house... and with the poor state it was with the beast's rampage before, it literally crashes down, burying the girl under countless debris, pieces of wood and metal piling all over her. Oh, that can't be good at all.

It takes several seconds for everything to finish moving, and pile up over her... and everything is still for a second, as if making sure of it first. And then a large piece of the trash is pushed up, pivoting along the ground, and sent tilting backward instead, leaving the barmaid with a leg outstretched, that she used to push the large peice of the roof off herself. She looks alright at least! Wounded, bleeding even, but still standing, that's a small victory in itself, right? She grumbles a bit after dark monsters too. Noone would really be joyous after sucha show.

Alberic Lux has posed:
The chopper-monster and brick-beast keep pounding on the Black Beast. They seem to be drawn to it, pulled in by something about it and trying to rip it to pieces to get to the creamy center. Its wounds seem to keep healing, but it doesn't look like they've noticed; they just keep on going.

The streets fill with red. The second brick-beast is instantly annihilated, pulverized to powder. The creature inside of it hisses like it sprung a leak, shriveling up and folding in on itself, disappearing into thin air. The chopper is low when the breath flies outward, near the street level -- a street which suddenly pulls itself up, a thing that looks like a solid wall of stone with eyes and legs springing up and interposing itself between the blast and the chopper. The reddish energy pounds into it, but doesn't breach the barrier; it merely scorches it, and sends it rocking, off-balance.

The chopper is joined. Machine-men made of pipes, pistons, gearworks and shards of metal suddenly leap into action. They burst out of buildings, more than a half-dozen of them diving at it from windows and crushed structures. They tick and whirr, long claws springing out of their hands. They cling and climb, running at a frantic pace towards the center of the creature, yellow-eyed monsters ignoring the assorted heroes for the purpose of cutting the heart out of this thing in front of them.

On the roof, Alberic quirks a brow. He looks sidelong at Rhiannon, watching her and the screen of her laptop carefully. "A Keyblade of Darkness," he comments aloud. "Is that what this is about? You really must look into more subtle methods of constructing weaponry, my dear. Who knows who might seek to take such a thing away from you?" He's smiling again, a broad thing, lips parted slightly to show teeth. The expression is a little off. The good humor doesn't reach his eye.

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
And all at once, the heroes make a comeback. Montag took an additional shot and it struck true, preventing the Black Beast from regenerating. And then Evja and Artemis came swooping in almost at the same time, their weapons bearing into the creature's core and massively damaging it. The beast's many heads let out an angry roar, flailing about in the air. Several of the heads turned their attention inwards, multiple sets of eyes locked onto the Judge and the Valkyrie.

And then they lashed out to strike the both of them, in a last attempt to devour their hearts. But the relentless pounding from Alberic's creatures are the last straw and the heads falter, all of them tumbling over and crashing into the streets. The beast was defeated finally.

Or at the very least neutralized for now.

MEANWHILE

"Oh my, they did it." The scientist commented lightly, eyeing the combat zone in the distance and looking none too concerned for the fact that her baby totally just got taken down. Alberic's comment finally make her look at the man that's been keeping her company all the while. "Oh please. I have absolutely no intention of wielding such a weapon myself." She casually corrected, waving her free hand dismissively and smiling in amusement all the same.

"Rather, I am simply doing this for the sake of knowledge. Surely you must understand." That said, Rhia turned her eyes back to the computer screen. "Ah, and it's done. Now for the second step..." She spoke calmly, reaching forward with her free hand. A magic glyph formed in front of her outstretched palm, arcs of black lightning crackling from it...

BACK TO GROUND ZERO

The fallen beast was now completely silent, as were all that had risked their lives to fight it. ...And then all at once, people began to cheer! Sure, Goug took severe damage in the proces, but they saved the city and took down the Black Beast! Several excited Shinra soldiers and Moogles began to radio out their success on MaBelles and Linkpearles.

...But then something happened.

The entirety of the Black Beast began to take on a reddish glow again as lightning started to crackle all along it's form. Over on the rooftop, Rhia began to slowly curl her fingers inwards, gradually forming a fist. Her face and hands, the only visible parts of skin on her, took on a white glow as magic markings appeared, having faded into sight.

They glowed intensely and as if following her hand's movement, the beast's body began to constrict...shrink...gradually shrinking more and more. But that was not all. It was clearly made dangerous as red lighting raced through the streets and along the surface of nearby buildings, frying anyone unfortunate enough to be in the way! The fallen creature was shrinking...but for what?

Evja has posed:
Whew. Sigh of relief. Evja landed on the ground nearby after leaping away to try and distance himself from the fallen beast. Well, if that thing was sucking his weapon inside of it earlier, there's no telling what might happen to the physical consistency of it now. He'd dealt with flans before and knew very well what some type of creatures could do with their bodies. Then things began to happen. It began to shrink. Sparks of lightning began to form and go elsewhere. Just as it was about to pass beneath him, Evja leapt into the air and went as high as he could in the hopes that it would be gone by the time he landed... but what was happening.
He watched quietly the creature as it began to shrink, waiting to see.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart has half a mind to bury herself back into the debris... she has a bad feeling about it "I don't think this is good at all, I'd suggest to put as much distance as we can!" And with that, she's running off... limping a bit with the beating she took, but she's not standing around to see what happens with the beast shrinks anymore than this... Better safe than sorry. If the others (Evja) want to stick around, its their business.

She gave her suggestion, up to them to listen to her or not really.

Montag has posed:
Montag comes in for a landing as then the thing start going up like a lighting storm? Montag swears violently. he then launchs his grapples aggin and starts to flee the blast but what the heck is happning to it, seriously what the heck is going on here?!

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim has finally noticed Tifa, and she rushes over to help her buddy up, giving her a shoulder to remain steady on. "We did great there, Tifa," Kim says with a smile and a thumbs up. "But that thing was beyond uncool."

Alberic Lux has posed:
The Heartless don't stop. Even as the lightning starts to race through the streets and the monster begins shrinking, they keep hacking and slashing and ripping and tearing. They are incredibly mono-focused on rendering this thing into a pile of ripped-up goo. Anyone watching it shrink will get a delightful view of what look like odd Heartless wailing on the Black Beast as it shrinks in size. One of them gets in the path of the lightning, exploding into its component pieces and launching burning shrapnel all across the city block.

Lux tsks quietly. "Damocles, add a notation to the following: combat units designated 'Empties,' development batch twelve. Adaptability is acceptable, but control methods require additional research. I suspect light-aspected energy levels were too high during creation." He rubs his chin, narrating to the weapon on his back. "That, or Dr. Abramson tipped a vial of Bacchus's Wine into the vat," he adds flatly. "Again." There's that crystalline chime again.

He looks back to Rhiannon. "Of course. Then you have a suitable wielder in mind? I would very much like to speak to them for my own research, if they would consent to be interviewed. The impact of an artifact composed primarily of darkness on the wielder is... very much relevent." He's still smiling. And, of course, watching her do magic. He knows a fair bit about that.

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
The lightning raced through the streets and eventually began to calm down as the beast's body shrunk down and down and down...eventually it was reduced to a simple black mass, about the size of a man. It then began to shrink even further. Details were forming now. A key chain, a black handle vaguely shaped like the end of a key, and finally, a long ornate blade resembling a key as well. It was a keyblade. A keyblade of darkness.

"Perfect. It's perfect. And now..." Rhia raised her clenched fist, the dark keyblade levitating into the air. It was done. So there COULD be a Keyblade of Darkness to counter a Keyblade of Light. The scientist smiled wider at the sight of her creation. A powerful weapon of darkness formed from the hearts of many.

...But something went wrong.

A sound could be heard, like the sound of a heartbeat that echoed all around. It continued to echo outwards throughout the city, many soldiers, moogles, and other citizens watching the floating keyblade curiously. "...Hold on a moment. Something is not right..." She mumbled, frowning as her eyes remained locked onto the dark weapon.

It was perfect in every way, yet something was wrong anyhow. The keyblade began to distort, it's form melting into something else. "Oh dear. I had better put a stop to the tempering process then." Sighing to herself, Rhia's eyes flashed a bright blue, a contrast to her usual violet and following that, the echoing heartbeat stopped. What remained of the 'keyblade' now was a vaguely sword shaped mass of darkness, occasionally pulsing as lines of red energy ran across it's form.

The weapon then fell from the sky and embedded itself blade first into the ground. ...That was it. That was the weapon so many lives were sacrificed to created. And it was unable to keep the form of a keyblade after all... "Oh well, I suppose it was a partial success." She glanced at Alberic then, his self monologue on the nature of his own creatures only partly heard through her own musings.

"I am afraid that I do not have a particular wielder in mind just yet. Though I did promise a man by the name of Garland that I would let him know how it all went." She shrugged at that and looked outwards at the black, corrupted sword of darkness. "Hmn. Well in any case, I suppose I should collect it now." That said, the scientist simply hopped off the roof, using magic to slow her descend as she gradually lowered herself down to street level. She smoothly went right into walking the moment she landed, approaching ground zero...

Evja has posed:
"..."

Evja watched, stared, mouth open as he was entranced with the object. Was that... a keyblade? He had seen one before. Sora's. And the false one that he had tried to have the Weaponsmith from Duagerreo make. When he, too, simply thought that a key-shaped weapon wielded by someone with good intentions was enough. As if on cue Evja pulls out from beneath the cloak his own 'false' keyblade. It certainly looked more key-shaped, though there was no light or darkness to it. It had no 'power' as a proper keyblade might.

Simply an imitation.

Looking between it, and the seemingly real one, the heartbeat confused the Viera as he fell towards the ground, preparing to land. Throbbing, growing weaker, then the keyblade seemed to fail and return to something more swordlike.

"...what... could that possibly be. Is this how Keyblades are made? If so, why does it feel so..." he asks, walking towards it as well once he lands with a thud, ignorant of Rhiannon doing the same nearby, almost as if he was going to try and pick it up himself.

"...dark..."

Montag has posed:
Montag comes in for a landing at this pint unaware of who just made the monster and let it lose int eh first place. He's wipes hsi brow and mutters. "Damn it lost my helmet." he bugs another shinra grunt for his to make use of hsi comm to call into command, oi this was quite the mess.

Alberic Lux has posed:
The Heartless -- Empties -- are left without a target. They look around for a moment, shuffling aimlessly. The mounds of trash they've inhabited fall away, abandoned. The remaining creatures melt into the ground, vanishing amidst the thin mist that permeates this section of the city from no clear source. Lux doesn't seem to care that they're going to run loose, if that's really whats happening.

He follows Rhiannon off the roof in his own manner. She drifts to the ground, and he's down there behind her when she starts off. He seems intrigued by the prospect of this weapon made of Darkness. "Garland," he murmurs. A name to remember, then. Something about it seems...

"I doubt it is a 'true' Keyblade," Lux says, loudly enough for Evja to hear him. "However, I would quite like to see what an unstable construct composed primarily of Darkness and a conglomeration of individuals' life forces would do to someone who touched it. So, please." He nods a little at the weapon. It isn't even his; he's mostly just curious to see if Evja will be destroyed if that blade gets touched before it's fully stable.

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
"Considering that the creation of the keyblade's form was a failure, I theorize that the resulting weapon is simply one of overwhelming darkness. Rather disappointing, I must say. But for a moment, it /was/ a keyblade..." Rubbing her chin as she walked, she engaged in scientific conjecture with Alberic behind her. It's a wonder he hasn't cut her down yet really. "The process was rough, but I do believe that it was a step in the right direction. I will need to make adjustments. I suppose the method of collection was a bit crude." Yes Rhia, creating a monstrous beast to eat hearts is kinda not cool!

And it seemed that Rhia was in no rush to claim her 'property' either. She just slowed down to a stop, watching as Evja reached out and grasped the handle of the corrupted sword and smiling all the while. "I am interested as well. Let's see what happens." Using the Viera as a literal test subject right there, her eyes, which had gone back to violet at this point, watched everything with clear interest.

As Evja's hand grasped the weapon, all at once, he could feel a massive rush of energy. It was exhilarating...powerful...amazing. But that was not all. Voices began to congregate in his mind, yelling and screaming all manner of cries and pleas.

"I don't want to die!"

"Help me!"

"Mommy! Daddy!"

"And to think I was going to propose tomorrow..."

"I just wish I could have had one more drink..."

"It's not fair!"

"Why me? What did I ever do!"

"Someone help me! Please!"

...It was enough to drive a man insane. Were these the voices of the victims? The surface of the sword also began to pulse faster as lines of red raced across it's form in tune with the voices yelling.

Evja has posed:
Darkness.

Pure Darkness.

Evja had felt that kind of rush before. Had it consume him. Wrap him fully from the tips of his ears to his toes. The darkness of Hades when he was first ordered, via contract, to try and end Mercades life. The Darkness that had hit him so suddenly courtesy of Seith's fight with him. The cold feeling ran through him like a shiver and he couldn't quite let go as suddenly as he wanted to.

Unfortunately that meant his mind was now filled with the screams of terror, the regrets, the fear, the begging - the last words and thoughts and feelings of those who had just lost their hearts, or worse, to this beast. To this... weapon. Evja didn't show any signs of hearing Alberic or Rhiannon even as he stood there before the Judge slumped to his knees, features rather lost in his own confusion, own sorrow at hearing such personal, private things that no one should ever know. It brought about recollection of his own recent bout with desperation, of hopelessness with the contract still looming over him. The despair that came from thinking that when he finally found a way to tell Hades 'No', that it may be the last thing he does.

Fear.

Bunny was a thing of light, or rather, attempted to be as best he could. With the fake keyblade in his right and the weapon of darkness in his left he simply knelt where he was, lost in the thoughts that were flooding him. Shivering slightly, unable to quite let go of it because the thought was pushed out of his mind by all the others flooding it. Of course that meant Rhiannon could easily just take the weapon from him, or leave him holding it while he was there and feeling the despair of all those lost.

Alberic Lux has posed:
Lux hasn't brutally murdered Rhiannon because he sees a certain potential in her. If she can't be turned, then she'll be executed.

Alberic has a pretty straightforward method of thinking, really.

Evja reaches out and touches the blade. Alberic tilts his head slightly. He watches his reaction; he can practically smell the fear and see the gradual slip of a stable mind into something much more broken from the merest contact. He frowns slightly, watching for another span of seconds. Then, he clicks his tongue, murmuring, "I /do/ have a duty..."

Alberic Lux walks past Rhiannon. He lifts his right hand, intoning, "Damocles." The weapon on his back jumps up and into his grip, thrumming with power. It forms a cruciform guard above his hand, the square tip forming into a sharp point and the blunt edges suddenly sharpening to razor-fine. He steps up next to Evja, taking Damocles in both hands and touching the point to the Viera's chest. He inhales slowly, wrinkling his nose as if he smelled something rank.

"Cleanse yourself through suffering," Lux says, voice full of pity, "you poor, foolish creature."

The area around Lux suddenly lights up, bright as noon despite it being better than an hour off. Rays of pure sunlight shine from the edge of the weapon he calls Damocles, and the patch over his eye alights from the same. The l'Cie channels holy might into his chosen instrument, gathering it up to combat the source of immense darkness within arm's reach -- and then pours it all into Evja, all at once.

It hurts. It hurts like Light should never hurt. It hurts, but it scours men clean, purging the cloying darkness from their bodies, and, Lux thinks, from their hearts. He doesn't want to kill Evja; that would defeat the purpose. He simply wants to break the hold the Darkness has over him, from barest contact with that accursed sword.

It doesn't mean he has to be /gentle/ about it.

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
"Oh my" Rhia, mumbled, bringing a hand to her cheek as she watched Alberic pretty much 'purge' Evja. But the effect of the corrupted weapon before then was all she needed to see. It was not a keyblade of darkness, but such overwhelming dark power...It could have a use. Perhaps a some point. Either way, she wasted no further time, stepping forward and at Evja's side.

She produced a cloth from her lab coat and used that to take hold of the sword by the handle and remove it from the Judge's grasp. It would be troublesome to have him going berserk on them or something. "Well now. I suppose I should place this sword in quarantine until further notice." All that said, the scientist seemed to have zero worry for Evja or anyone else who had risked their lives. Nor the people whose hearts become part of this dreadful weapon.

Having secured the sword though, Rhia took several steps back, letting Alberic and Evja finish up their little 'purging' session. My, that /was/ interesting to watch though. Meanwhile Shinra solders approached her, asking if she was okay and how she escaped all this chaos and where she was the whole time, engaging in idle chat, she waved off several soldiers, assuring them that she was fine and unharmed.

...Probably best not to say she caused all of this. Even she knew when to keep her mouth shut. Some looked rather uncomfortable with the fact that she was holding thst sword...all those lives in her grasp, but she hardly seemed worried about it at all.

Fixing all of this was going to take some time.

Evja has posed:
It wasn't until the pain actually became readily apparent that Evja even showed any signs of responding. Then it was a rather pained sound that... really didn't quite match the apparent form that was shown. It wasn't a soft cry of pain, or even a feminine scream. It was actually deeper. Not by far, but it was obvious at this point that it hurt like hell.

Evja wasn't even in the right frame of mind to even think about the logic of 'Better try and sound like a female.

It did break the hold he had on the weapon of darkness, though, and when he finally began to come around and take account of what was going on, he saw a familiar face. And a non-familiar one.

"...what just happened? You are Rhiannon, yes?" Apparently he hadn't even realized what had just taken place so much as he was just confused. And breathing heavily in the least.

Alberic Lux has posed:
Lux stops right about when Evja starts to appear in control of his faculties. He idly marks the scream as incogruous to the Viera's appearance, but doesn't say anything. Alberic lowers Damocles and tosses it lightly in his hand, releasing his hold on the weapon. It shifts back to its apparently harmless shape as a weapon without an edge or a point and drifts back to where it hangs over his shoulder. Evja will probably ache for a while, but there's a certain pleasant warmth that comes from not being filled with vile darkness anymore.

"You did something ill-advised," Alberic says lightly, "which I encouraged as a part of an experiment. She," he says, nodding at the retreating Rhiannon, "created that monster you fought as a step to create the weapon you touched, which she now holds. Isn't that fascinating?"

Lux turns on a heel and starts off in a random direction. He hums a little as he goes, apparently done with whatever he was doing here. He offers no further explaination.

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
And thus the cover is blown. At least to Evja. Rhia had waved off the Shinra soldiers buzzing incessantly about her a couple seconds earlier. "Hm?" Rhia smiled all the same. Evja's change of voice tone was not touched on at all. Probably due to other factors that shall not be touched on at the moment. "Oh hello there. Your name is...." She forgot. "Well! You seem to be doing well!"

Nevermind the fact that countless voices of despair and darkness flooded his mind just earlier. That's simply a minor detail. She watched as Alberic simply walked off in some random direction, seeing no need to offer any parting words, she let him go on him way. She had a feeling they'd meet again anyhow. SCIENCE and all.

"Well! I do believe I am finished here myself." And so Rhia turned tail and made to walk off without any sort of explanation either. Funny how that worked out.

Evja has posed:
"..."

That man just outright said she made the monster that he fought... to create the weapon. Could that possibly be true? That nice woman? Evja staaaaaared towards him as he walked away, then looked towards her, expression almost blank enough to be mistaken for not having registered what was said. But then she turns to leave. "Stop." he said softly, voice back to how it normally was, the soft, fake-female tone he often used. "Accompany me elsewhere or I shall make a spectacle here to have my questions answered." It was a simple remark. Request. No, it was a statement rather than a request, of simple fact. He would make a spectacle if his accompanying elsewhere with her didn't happen. Slowly the Viera goes to stand. He was still a tiny bit wobbly but a spear that is quickly produced makes a good prop for him to lean against for a moment to get his bearings. "We need to speak. Now."

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
Well, there went the idea of being able to simply walk away and let clean up crews handle everything. Rhia stopped short as Evja stated that he...she would make a spectacle if not accomodated. Oh well. What's the worse that could happen? "Very well. Follow me then. I hardly believe that the city streets are a good place to talk."

Especially considering that moogle cleanup crews and other services were coming out to assess all the damage and now it was becoming a huge mess. Well, one could suppose that it was the storm come after the calm. That said though, she simply began to walk, gesturing for Evja to follow along. No words were exchanged as they headed through the ruined streets and past caved in buildings.

Eventually Shinra HQ could be seen up ahead. Suppose that was her choice of destination. The building had it's side partially destroyed, but it seemed like that was no going to be a problem.

Evja has posed:
Evja follows along quietly once she agrees, but not before replacing the fake keyblade of his own beneath the cloak he had on and wrapping the cloak further around himself. The coldness from touching that weapon was still haunting him. With nothing to say and keeping to his word, Evja simply watched the woman carefully along the way. Watched to make sure she didn't try to do anything like lose him in the process, or make him out to be an assailant to get the ShinSec to deal with him while she absconded.

All in all though he didn't want to believe her responsible. The last and first time they met she seemed so nice. Was that man simply lying? She didn't deny it, or go after him, so surely she must have /some/ knowledge of it. ...and if she did, she knows how to create a keyblade. Even if she failed.

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
Waving off some greetings and words of relief that she wasn't eaten, Rhia entered into the lobby of Shinra HQ, and then continued on past the reception area and to the staircase that would lead either to the upper floors or down into the basement levels. She chose to go down to the basement levels. Untouched by the black beast by the simple virtue of being below ground level, the basement floors looked just fine in fact. Walking through a hallway, she opened up the door to what seemed to be a lounge or waiting room or some such.

"This should do." Rhia commented lightly, stepping further in. The room was furnished with a pair of couches off to the side, some game consoles and a TV, as well as magazines and such. Looks like either the Turks or the soldiers spent their time goofing off here. ...Probably both. Either way, Rhia sat down on a nearby couch, crossing one leg over the other. She then set the black sword onto the couch beside her, leaving it for now.

"So, you needed to speak with me, yes?" She asked, looking over at the Viera curiously.

Evja has posed:
"So you did truly do this." he asked rather simply. There was no glancing around, no taking in the surroundings, or any such. He simply got right to the point. "That beast... all those people whose lives were taken... consumed... YOU DID THIS?!" he roared angrily, the false tone to his vanishing instantly as the anger bubbled up. He was shaking, physically, looking like he might simply do something quite rash.

Maybe it was simply the pure willpower he had not to do the 'wrong thing' that kept him from simply attacking the woman. Would that be the wrong thing? He wanted to. He wanted to end her here and now. And if she /had/ done it, the world would be better off for it.

But...

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
So it was that after all. That man had done quite a tiresome thing. Ah well, time to deal with it. Not like she was expecting there to be no backlash. But less was better than more, no? "Hm, you must be referring to what that man had said earlier." Rhia spoke simply, keeping calm and collected in the face of Evja's anger.

"Why yes. I did. That beast was simply a part of the answer to a question." Raising a finger slightly, she explained herself quite openly, smiling slightly as she did so. "And the weapon you see beside me is the other part of the answer to that question." That said, she lowered her hands back into her lap before continuing on.

"What was that question? Simple really. It was to see if it were possible to create a Keyblade of Darkness." All the while, her violet eyes remained on the Judge before her, as if expecting him to give in to his impulses and do 'the wrong thing'. It would be amusing either way.

Hah.

"After all, the Keyblade exists as a weapon of pure light, wielded by those whose hearts are devoid of darkness...But light cannot exist without darkness. Ergo, a counter must exist; a Keyblade of Darkness." Explaining that much, Rhia brought a hand to her cheek, brows furrowing and she broke eye contact to look at the malformed sword beside her.

"My methods were sound, but as you can see...the final product does not live up to expectations. I suppose I must refine the process for the next experiment."

The NEXT experiment?

Evja has posed:
The Judges mouth opened to speak, but nothing came out. Nothing made sense. How could anyone be so callous? So devoid of any care for life? Did she think herself doing something for a greater good? Did she even /care/ about good? Was this for her own benefit? Was she trying to gain a keyblade too? How did she even know to begin with how to do something like this?

So many questions.

"A Keyblade is a weapon made to fight against the Heartless. To lock and unlock the hearts of things. So to must a Keyblade of Darkness be. If you are creating monsters, and hurting others like this, you surely cannot care about fighting against the Heartless." And then Evja just fell silent, looking lost for words. Lost for what to say. "Why... why could you possibly want to make a keyblade if not to protect others? What could possibly be gained from hurting so many for such a thing?"

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
"Oh, I have no interest in wielding a Keyblade." Rhia said, having to correct someone on that fact for like, the millionth time since sharing her plans with someone. Did she really seem like the kind of person to go swinging about a giant key? The thought caused her to chuckle, which may have been a little insensitive in the face of the current issue.

But anyway!

"I know well what a Keyblade is and what it does. Both are simply two sides of the same coin." A shrug then as her eyes left the corrupted sword by her side and went bak to Evja. "As I said, I have little want for such a weapon. I am a scientist after all. My job is to theorize, experiment, discover. Protecting others and unlocking worlds? Someone else can do that."

And she said so with a simple wave of her hand. She did not seem to be particularly evil or anything, she was just...telling the truth. Cutting to the heart of the matter entirely. "Now, if I do succeed in the creation of a keyblade, then I hardly would care for who wields it after. All that matters to me is that it is created."

All that said, she uncrossed and then crossed her legs the other way, resting an elbow on her knee and her chin in her open palm. "I suppose I will have to hold off for now and compile the data. ...Yes that would be the prudent thing to do." And so she straightened up, producing her laptop in which she immediately began typing away, regardless of Evja's presence.

"Was there anything else you wanted to ask?" Her voiced spoke to Evja, eyes locked onto the computer screen and not looking his way.

Evja has posed:
Evja stood completely still and closed his eyes as he tried to compose himself. He had to do something. To stop her. To keep this madwoman from destroying the lives of more and more people. But a Keyblade, if taken, could be used to save millions... billions of people. Worlds full of peoples. If the Keyblade Wielder fell... the only one he knew of, then who would be left?

There had to be a Keyblade Wielder.

And he didn't know what would happen to Sora's if something happened to him. If... his heart fell to darkness. "This world... these worlds... all of them... must be protected, the people within, must be protected." then he whispered softly while feeling rather sick to his stomach, "...at any cost..."

As much as he hated to admit it, if such a power could be used to protect others, could be used to restore the worlds and possibly one day destroy the heartless... it was worth it, right? "The weapons you create... the Keyblade... if you do not care who has them, then I will be simple with this." One of the Viera's spears came to his hand and he spun it swiftly before leveling the tip towards Rhiannon. "You will surrender them, all, to me. Or I will destroy you here and your madness will be done. As much as it pains me to think this way... if a second keyblade can indeed be made, then we stand twice a chance at saving everyone, and all the worlds, from the Heartless. If that costs lives..." he stops short of saying it was worth it.

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
Rhia's eyes remained on the computer screen, her fingers tapping away on the keyboard at expert speed as she documented her findings contained within the deep recesses of her mind. All the while, she listened to Evja's demands without a change in expression. "I suppose it would be convenient if the worlds were saved and such. And a keyblade is necessary to that end. Nevertheless..."

She hit the enter key on her keyboard, saving her progress before her gaze lifted to the spear tip pointed directly at her. "I am afraid that I cannot hand this weapon over to you just yet. Or any weapon that I create. I still need to document my findings, and study it's form, as well as hold tests regarding it's usage. All relevant information for the next experiment."

She smiled pleasantly despite the threat of death staring her in the face and remained where she sat, closing her laptop smoothly. "But if that does not sit well with you, then please. Do go ahead and kill me."

A pause.

"If you believe yourself capable of the task."

Evja has posed:
The spear that was leveled at her throat was steady for the entire time until she actually challenged him to do it. He started to lean forward, but the spear began to shake a little. His arm began to wobble. Just a bit. It was as if he was having trouble actually getting up the nerve to do it. "Why..." he mumbled softly, almost angrily, at himself. Why couldn't he bring himself to do it. Why couldn't he protect so many others by simply killing this horrible woman.

"Why does this decision have to fall upon me." He still mumbled, but surely she could hear him. He had to do something. He had to stop her somehow. He had to do SOMETHING. Someone had to put an end to this madness. It had to be him. If he didn't do it now, more would die.

But just the thought of killing someone was making him too weak to actually follow through with it. It's what was making it so hard to deal with Hades contract. If it wasn't for the Law magic forcing him to do it... ... the Law magics. But they could do nothing here. He could do nothing. He had no jurisdiction. He was underneath Shinra, surrounded by their military. All she had to do was claim he was attacking her. Hurting her. And they'd come for him.

And then there was the matter of the keyblade. This weapon, the to-be keyblade, had cost so many something so precious.

"I..."

"I..."

He can't do it. The spear shakes until it finally falls away from her throat and down towards her lap.

Rhiannon Zellen has posed:
Rhia watched as Evja had his internal struggle, her eyes not faltering any even as the spear's tip came closer to her throat. Really, he was so close. Why hadn't he done it yet? And then the weapon fell away from her throat, lowering towards her lap.

"I figured."

Almost sounding bored now. Rhia tucked her laptop away before carefully taking up the sword laying beside her again, taking care not to make direct skin to surface contact. Though considering who she was, an incessant amount of screaming voices in her head would probably just be a minor annoyance at best! Still, no need to feel that sensation.

"I believe our business here has concluded. You can show yourself out, yes?" Not waiting for an answer, Rhia stood, carrying the blade as she passed the Viera and headed for the door leading to the hallway. "Now, if you have something interesting to share another time, I am all ears. But for now, it's back to work for me. Farewell." And with that, she disappeared out into the hallway, the sounds of her shoes tapping on the marble floors gradually waning...

Evja has posed:
And in the background, Rhiannon might hear something mechanical being destroyed in what was likely the break room. Likely some kind of vending machine. Destroyed but what was likely an extremely angry Viera having the internal conflict regarding killing.