Clear the Skies

Clear the Skies
Date of Scene:	22 February 2013
Location:	Fluorgis - Airship Port
Synopsis:	As Heartless rage through the streets and Fluorgis teeters on collapse, its council makes a fateful decision, and employs the city's last ditch plan to protect the Fire Crystal from the darkness. In the midst of the melee, from the bowels of the earth bursts the Fire-Powered Ship, retrofitted as a mighty airship with the combined technology of Fluorgis and Karnak, which plunges bravely into the shadowy skies above with the Crystal within. Yet deep in the dark miasma, fearsome foes lurk with designs of their own. Can those trusted few allowed into Fluorgis's inner sanctum repulse these last invaders and preserve the city's livelihood?
Thanks to:	Ivo Galvan and Scarmiglione
Cast of Characters:	Ivo Galvan, Reize Seatlan, Faruja Senra, Tifa Lockhart, Avira, Deelel, Maira, Scarmiglione, Luso Clemens, Emi Dennou
Tinyplot:	Shadows Over Fluorgis

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Ivo Galvan has posed:
The situation has grown dire.

The shadows above the city of Fluorgis have condensed and begun to rain down like a black hail, and volunteer defenders are engaged in a desperate melee in the streets, yet all that seems far from here, deep in the bowels of Fluorgis City Hall. It's a mystery why the council would pull some of its most faithful defenders from the streets just in the middle of the decisive battle, but these trusted few were called here as the demonic sphere in the sky seemed to reach its peak, and led into this house of governance and then into a restricted area beneath it. Where outside a panic has begun, here in these dark passages there is a terrible stillness, that of an overwhelming tension. When at last the adventurers emerge, a vast underground chamber dyed with a crimson radiance, lined with metal piping and pumping steam which brings sweat to everyone's brow, reveals what has been hidden here.

The Fire Crystal.

Suspended on a giant oval platform in the midst of a great chasm in the center of the chamber, it has begun to flicker like a strobe, making the bizarre surroundings all the more eerie. Engineers are rushing everywhere, monitoring the problems, and despite how large the area is and how distracted the newcomers must be by finding this technological marvel at the heart of the desert city, the old man shouting at his assistant on the platform -- a platform itself decked out with a lot of complex tubes and machinery -- is easily overheard.

"This is what the reserve power is /for/," the old man snaps at the cringing younger engineer. "The city will last for an hour. What matters is that we keep the Crystal safe! If we can get it out of the vicinity, the Heartless will disperse!"

"But..." The young man holds his ground against his senior's formidable mien. "But Cid, what if the reserve power isn't enough? What if the city falls? We can't abandon--"

"You idiot!" Cid Previa roars. "Desperate times call for desperate measures! What do you think we were developing this for!? Don't you get it? If we leave the city, the Heartless are going to follow /us/-- oops." That last comment comes when the old engineer espies the group of adventurers who have arrived. "No, fine, fine, it's going to be fine," he says gruffly, in what is more or less the opposite of a soothing tone. "You're the ones the city sent, right? This is a... special mission. Come on, get on, get on!" There's a single narrow bridge leading from the sides of the chasm in the middle of the chamber to the great oval platform upon which he's standing. Before he's even finished speaking, he's rushed to the front of it, practically dragging his assistant with him. "There's no more time to waste!"

The adventurers will have to decide quickly what they're going to do, because it's only a few moments before the Fire Crystal begins to glow with an overwhelming light, and a roaring sound drowns all else out as the platform begins to lift -- and with a crumbling of earth the ceiling above begins to part, revealing the shadow-shrouded skies above. Descending tendrils of darkness and Crystal light meet and clash, as the platform lifts yet further, threatening to lift out of reach. And at last, the sloping sides of the "platform" reveal that this is no platform hidden in the depths of Fluorgis, containing the power of the Crystal.

"Behold!"

It is a ship.

"Our contingency plan!"

A Fire-Powered Ship.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart didn't know what to expect, bit a fire-powered ship? She's not sure she understands. Maybe because that concept isn't that weird in her world, a ship that would move without the power of the crystal. There's coal for that, at limit mako even if she doesn't like that idea much.

Either way, she's showing a few signs of battle weariness, mostly from the heartless hunting that was giong on in the street. Otherwise, she's seen worse.

"Let them come. If the heartless are going to come after us, we'll just hit them as they run to us. As long as we stay ahead, it'll take them more effort chasing us, than us to defend the ship and hit them as soon as their noggins are in range." She punches the palm of her hand pointedly, nodding. Keeping up the spirit is the most important part of any fight.

Avira has posed:
Far be it from Avira to be misinformed, but she thought the situation in Fluorigis was IMPROVING! Once she received word of just how bad it was, she actually cut her post-fight rest short and struggled her way over. Maira probably had to chase her down at that but in spite of how worn out she looked from the triple beating from Faruja, Deelel and Brooklyn yesterday (man that gargoyle hurts!), she still pulls herself out here.

Just in case, she's hauled a whole bagload of potions with her in preparation. Potions and painkillers. Sure, it could mean she has to spend even MORE time recovering a little later-but this was too important.

Especially since it became clear what the real target of this madness was to be. Avira had suspected this had been the case at several points once she realized that a Princess of Heart wasn't really residing here.

The tired-looking Avira walks in on Cid Previa during mid-argue and immediately frowns at this. "Yes." she announces. "I am Avira of VALKYRI. This is Maira." she says, introducing her perky companion as she continues walking along after the stressed engineers.

The ground rumbles and the ceiling opens, Avira peering skywards. "Wait."

The huntress is overcome with childlike glee, her tiredness immediately disappearing. A faint silvery shimmer remains around her. "Is this an airship?!"

Reize Seatlan has posed:
It's perplexing, to be honest. The darkness had been sweeping over the city and Reize was preparing to mobilize the Shard Seekers to head out. However, the mayor contacted him and a few others to enter the City Hall.

When they start to emerge, Reize is staring as he finds himself within the underground chamber. Everything is bright red, he is starting to sweat profusely, and then the source of it is revealed.

The Fire Crystal.

"Whoooooaaaaa.."

tAs the old man greets them, Reize offers a nod. "Thanks." After a moment, "A special mission?" His eyes turns towards the Fire Crystal, but then he looks back towards the bridge "Okay!" He begins running across the bridge, seeking to get to the other side.

Annnnd the platform reveals to be getting into the air; the wind is becoming fierce and the platform lifts while the crystal glows. "Whhhhhhhoooooooaaaaaaaaa!" Reize is amazed. "This is amazing! An airship powered by the Fire Crystal!"

Deelel has posed:
Things were not looking good t all in Fluorgis, the city had come under assault time and time again. Heartless and prehaps worse had hit th city and it just keeps coming. She's not sure what the source of all the darkness is but the stuff has proven it is just going to keep coming. She'd run the information she could but it kept coming up blank. She was missing prt of the inforamtyion but so long as things kept coming? She would be there. She's a bit behind Tifa and was not expecting something so powerful.

"I was not expecing something like that Tifa."

The Fire Crystakl however explaisn a lot of what might be going on. A airship powered by such a thing woudl indeed be powerfl she'd suspect it might overpower SARKs personal command carrier when she thought about it.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi also thought, at first, that the situation was improving but well Imi quickly disavowed that notion by pointing out that the black clouds were only getting worse. Emi has dragged Imi along in case a shovel is needed but otherwise they are the only two Networkers around--Ironically Emi had been the one called rather than the one spying on the Shard Seekers but that's neither here nor there.

She is quiet, at first. She knows about the Crystal but once it's revealed--well--she's surprised. She wasn't expecting to see it.

Despite herself, and despite its 'low power'--she is awed by the object. Even subdued, the light in that Crystal seems limitless, all encompassing, like part of something greater, something cosmological even.

But perhaps she's reading into it. She shakes her head quickly. "Impressive..." She murmurs to herself.

She pulls Imi along, nodding faintly as she moves forward. The word about moving the crystal out of the city?

Emi doesn't even blink at that. She's not surprised because she knew this was in the plan already. She's just surprised that the plan turned out to be neccessary.

"How likely is the Crystal to not explode and kill us all once we start this up? The Network inquires." Imi asks.

Emi adds, "...The power is fluctuating...if it goes out..." They are a bit more hesitant to get on the Flying Deathtrap but will do so, ultimately.

Faruja Senra has posed:
To say Faruja is unhappy at being called away from the battle raging in the streets, with many of his fellows in Church and Shard Seekers giving their blood for the city, would be an understatement. Combined with the fact that just recently an ancient Glabadosian Temple had been lost due to the cowardice of a few Templar and a bit too much magic used in its defense? His tail is a whipping blurr behind him as he makes his way down to the underground chamber. Somehow, the heat of the Fire Crystal seems perfect for his mood, as he's been ranting to his companions the entire time.

"...to think that a Templar! A frakking /TEMPLAR/ would be drawn from a battlegrounds while a bunch of bloody Heretics and Abominations stalk the streets! Mayhap these so-called council-members are touched within the hea.." Faruja's eye falls upon the Fire Crystal. He goes silent (mercifully) ending his rant about Heretics, abominations, and other things. Yup, someone's in a foul mood today.

But the grandeur of the crystal is soon turned to confusion. "...An airship? While the tactical advantage of such a thing is undeniably great...mean you to say, Ser, that this ship shall somehow aid us in purging the city of its shadow? 'Tis difficult to pin ones hopes upon a single vessel, unless it holds secrets we are unaware of?" The others, of course, get bows and various forced smiles of differing degrees of warmth. Avira in particular gets a Healer's Look, and an apologetic one at that. They had slammed her pretty hard! As the ship seems to start to take off, he'll offer a hand to help a certain Fire Lady aboard, should she need it.

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso was no stranger to the happenings in Fluorgis. Though with news of Baigan's capture, he had hoped that the dark days were past.

Apparently not!

Among few of the small group of adventurers called in, away from the battle in the streets, he could only wonder why they were being brought down here of all places. After all, isn't this where the Fire Crystal was--....

...Being held?

There it was. In all of it's glory. He had seen it before, Clan Gully being a recognized Clan and thus, being one of the few given access. The sight didn't elicit much of an excited reaction from the boy who simply crossed his arms with an air of childish impatience.

Eyes on the old man, Luso nodded, crossing his arms as well. "So what are we going to do down here anyway?" He asked, unable to contain his curiosity for much longer. And soon, his question was rewarded with a very extravagant answer. Staring upwards as the airship was revealed, he could only blink a couple times.

Again, he was not entirely awed, having ridden airships before. But there was something a bit more pertinent about this one. It was powered by the fire crystal? Emi posed a very real question that he'd /love to know the answer to, but in the end...

"Heh! Well, no matter what, we've only got one shot at this, right? So let's just get on and do what we've got to do!" Grinning confidently at that, Luso rubbed the underside of his nose with an index finger his other hand resting on his grimoire.

"It's not like we've got a whole lot of time to waste anyway, so let's just do this thing!"

Maira has posed:
Indeed, Maira had had to run to catch up with Avira, but there was no way she was going without her. Maira sort of knew that Flourigis was not doing well if only by the depth the dark circles so often beneath Ivo's eyes as of late.

When the young mage arrives in the city and they draw close to where the fire crystal is held, Maira begins to feel it; a smoldering in her heart, her skin growing hot to the touch. The leash she keeps on her fire magic becoming much harder to hold. For the time being, she manages it, though the concentration she has to maintain lends a certain severity to her expression that is otherwise never present.

Maira follows close to Avira, but not too close, not trusting her control completely. What is this? Why is this happening? She doesn't wan't to alarm anyone, but....

The words of the engineers and the others just sort of float over her head as she catches sight of the fire crystal, the tight reign she held her her magic beginning to loosen, becoming more than she can control. "Space please," is all she is able to say before she ignites, flame leaping from her skin to sizzle like a fluid armor around her.

Faruja should probably not take that hand.

"S-sorry..." she says finally, clearly embarrassed. "Makes sense now...I must be reacting to the fire crystal," she explains sheepishly, turning her attention to the ones who assumably build this airship. On any other day, she'd be bouncing with excitement to get to ride an airship, but this is clearly serious business. "I'll help however I can!"

Faruja Senra has posed:
As soon as Maira bursts into flames, the Templar leaps back away from her. It may just be accompanied by an embarrassingly girlish yelp. No, he's not taking that hand. "...At least Ser Galvan is not here to make unfortunate comments."

Ivo Galvan has posed:
"Ah, home sweet home," is all Ivo murmurs to himself as he regards the chamber about them. So there is where the Shard Seeker swordsman has spent his days sealed, joining this milling engineers in doing whatever possible to preserve the faltering power of the Crystal. He is unusually subdued, fallen behind the others and unobtrusive, though the persistent dark circles under his eyes might have something to do with why that's the case, but he smiles slightly at the high spirits of his allies. His eyes nevertheless remain grim as he follows Reize and the others onto the Fire-Powered Ship, silent throughout the chatter, one hand on Hauteclare's hilt, the other within his cloak. He knew about all this, and never said anything?

"Not just any airship!" Cid shouts over the roar of the turbines in response to Avira's excited cry. "This here is the Fire-Powered Ship, upgraded with modern flight technology! With the power of the Fire Crystal, we're going to break free of the darkness that shrouds this city!" There, above the parting ceiling, the shadows, now pouring forth swarms of Heartless, still remain thick. "They may have cut off most air travel with those shadows of theirs, but the light of the Crystal will shine through and lead the way!"

"Or so we've hypothesized," his younger assistant adds. "Ow! Sir, don't kick me!"

"The Crystal probably won't explode!" Cid exclaims as he pounds away at the spartan display before him. "And the back-up power onboard will probably support the ship if we lose power in the darkness!" Maybe someone should kick /him/. "What matters is that this is our best chance to protect the Crystal, and with it the livelihood and hopes of this city." Suddenly, the gruff old engineer sounds quite a bit more serious. "But if we don't have anyone to protect it on board, there's no chance at all!"

The Fire-Powered Ship at last breaks free of its tethers.

"So we're risking it all!"

And, all at once, is shot like an arrow into the sky, the gathered power of the Fire Crystal channeled now into a single object. The lights below in the city all at once dim, as Fluorgis shifts into its reserve power from the Crystal's previous overflow, and the adventurers will have to try not to get flung off the deck as the makeshift airship, itself still something of a mass of machinery undisguised by typical decorations, radiating an overwhelming crimson light, rises like a firework into the endless night, pushing away at the darkness.

Crouched and digging his heels into the wood beneath in an effort to avoid being thrown into the railing which is all that separates the deck from the open sky, Ivo, wincing, draws a familiar stone from his cloak: the fossilized feather retrieved from the desert long ago. He'd been experimenting on it as best he could within the confines of the laboratory here, but to little avail. Yet--

"The reaction's increasing," he says, eyes narrowed, at the trembling stone in his hand. "Ever since the darkness started to condense..." The fossil is quivering off its own accord, and Ivo seems lost in his own little world gazing at it, even as the airship rises into the sky. He's rarely so withdrawn in public. "What does this mean...?" Ivo, wake up, you're missing an opportunity to make unfortunate comments.

Soon the adventurers will find themselves engulfed in the malaise above, and all will grow dark as shadows fall all around, only the light of the Crystal resisting the choking blackness. All sense of direction would be lost, were it not for that crimson light, which seems to point the way. Yet that light begins to flicker again in proximity to this dense shadow. This battlefield is defined by darkness and despair, conducive to the powers of evil.

What will emerge from the night?

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart nods to Deelel "The power of the crystals are very impressive..." SHe wants to ask how it works, but they probably don't know either, it seems too magical to make much sense. At least its not powered by life energies, she's okay with that. Well... she hopes its not. Hard to say.

She grabs on the railing of the ship when it starts to shake everyone up like that "Ugh! I hope that's not the standard flight comfort of this thing!" The shadow around them is getting kinda opressive too.. ".. I think that's our cue."

Avira has posed:
"Can I fly it?!" Avira asks Cid IMMEDIATELY. Poor Ivo, he goes completely unnoticed for the next few seconds as she's completely overcome with the excitement of AIRSHIP!

The excitement is quick to die for a few reasons though. One being that Maira has burst into flames, something she hasn't seen the mage do in quite a while thanks to her considerably improved control over her magic. It's fortunate that she had those fireproof clothes now as any normal garments would be ashes now. "Maira?" she says, sounding concerned as she puts herself between the fire crystal and her fellow VALKYRI. In doing so, she seems to wind up with a big red splotch of light painted on her back, shined from the crystal.

Secondly...that's a lot of Heartless. Avira's stomach twists at the sight.

"...well don't worry! We are a lean, mean, Heartless-fighting force!" Avira announces, clearly remaining enthusiastic despite the odds. "...once we get this to a safe place, though, can I drive the airship? Pretty please?" Already, Avira has the Spine out. The small buckler shield strapped to her back is also removed and slid over her left forearm.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi looks towards Ivo and his feather. Ahh, the proof that Ivo's magic device TOTALLY DIDN'T WORK. But she does not say that because Ivo is a comrade. A perverted comrade, yes, but a comrade all the same. She does however listen to Ivo's words and the trembling item.

"Phoenixes are, symbolically, creatures that die then are born anew in flame." Emi says. "Perhaps that has deeper meaning than anticipated."

She slinks a bit closer to Avira and Maira, looking more than a little nervous. Scootch scootch, closer, she does this when she thinks they aren't looking.

Faruja Senra has posed:
Oh, HI IVO. Totally didn't see you there. Vaguely, Faruja is somewhat glad Ivo was too lost in his own thoughts to notice the rat's words. Overall, the Burmecian is at least looking calmer, as business is at hand. Not to mention a logical explaination as to why they're here! "Look sharp, Ser Galvan! Thy graceful soul and valiant blade shall be needed this day!"

"Well then. Seems 'tis a most worthy endeavor after all. Sers, Dames? Shall we?"

Thankfully the rat's used to air travel, given his world. Digging in with clawed toes, somewhat like Ivo, he too falls to assist defending a certain fire-elemental Lady amongst the party as well as the crystal.

A nod to Avira. "Let us defend our less hardy companions, hmm, Lady Avira?" His spear's out, glowing amidst the darkness. Snort. "...Wyverns are far more comfortable to ride than airships."

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Frown. Reize cannot help but turn over to pat his devout templar on the back.

Cid talks, Reize listens. However, he cannot help but ask, "I wonder where does the Fire Crystal draw from to be able to support a ship like this." He considers. "...The world?" Well, that would make sense, considering the cause and effect if the crystal weakens.

Nevertheless, Reize glances at Ivo, "Oi, Ivo, you alright?" He gives a bit of concern towards his older friend. However, they all gather and the ship finally lifts off. Reize is hanging onto the deck to avoid falling off. "Whoaaaa!"

However, Ivo speaks and the fossil is quivering. "Eh?!"

As they arrive into the air, the malaise spreadsaround them, giving a choking sensation. "Buh?!" He looks around the darkness, both boomerangs taken from his side. "I don't like the looks of this."

The boy sucks in a breath, "I wonder how can we drive away the malaise..."

Luso Clemens has posed:
A glance back reveals Ivo to the current leader of Clan Gully. He can see how utterly wiped out he is, and thus doesn't try to rouse him with energetic greetings. A shake of the head and Luso is on deck, listening to Cid's rather dubious sounding explanations. But oh well! It couldn't be helped!

Luso didn't complain much more, or at all once everything was up and ready. And then bam! They were taking off into the sky! "Whoa! Holy crud, this thing's fast!" he exclaimed, holding onto something so that he didn't go toppling off the deck. That would have sucked!

And into the darkness they go. It is nearly pitch back, the only light remaining coming from the crystal, but even that was flickering in the presence of this ominous darkness. "...We need to do something, fast." The boy mumbled, looking off into the depths of the darkness, his expression hardening as he awaited what was to come. In the meantime, a hand came back, resting on the handle of Flametongue, ready to be drawn at any moment.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks over at Faruja for a moment he's quite the ahem strict templar but really as sh thought about it. His ahderhance to his faiths law was very basic like really much like many security programs were about her job. "It's a powerful tool but could the power source be part of why we are under assault in the first place?" She'd have to find out how long it been here, but that was a task for another time.

Maira has joined up with Avira and she notices the two members of VALKYRI have been here then Maira well bursts into fire.

"What's the term Faruja? Maira is hot stuff."

Was that an attempt at humor, yes it was bad but she's only learning about it. While romance does exist for her kind it's not fueled by procreation like it is for organic life so she often misses things.

Cid certainly is passonate about his work and she's not going to hold that against him, he's got a plan and well they best follow it up. CId thinks the crystal won't explode and she kinda looks nervously about for a moment but there's no time to waste. Cid has brought up just how deep in it they all re and they need to deiver.

"This is quite the feat of engineering Cid."

Ivo is here as well, good she'd wondered where he'd been as of late. She figures he'd been working on this project she understand now why he's been missing. Well she could be wrong but she assumes he's been busy helping Cid on this project in one way or another.

"Prehaps burn it away, Reize?"

"I perfer to have a ride that does not have a mind of it's own Faruja. That's just me though."

Maira has posed:
Maira teeters when the airship lurches into the air, loosing her balance but only falling on her behind, rather than overboard. She gets back to her feet, wishing she had some kind of tether that wouldn't burn up if she tried to tie it around herself. Silk rope anyone? No? Ivo? Not even you?

Maira would so also want to drive the airship if they made it through this mess. Certainly, that's not much to ask for putting their lives on the line, is it?

Maira looks to her companions, flashing them a smile that she hopes appears confident and reassuring despite her fear. "Well, here we go again, plunging ourselves forward into the darkness...We won't fail. We wont," she says, growing more confident as she speaks.

Moving over toward Ivo, Maira has a smile ready. She hopes that once this is over, her can get some real rest and be back to himself again, that tired look worries her. "Ivo..." she begins, then trails off. Not much else to say. She's here. She'd put a hand on his shoulder, but uh...yeah.

When Reize asks what could drive away the malaise, Maira smiles. "Light, of course! We have to know we can do this!"

Scarmiglione has posed:
Even as the darkness is pushed back by the gleaming light of the crystal, a small part of it that doesn't move with the rest of the cloud breaks off. Moving independantly, a cloud within a cloud, it exudes menace. It fast approaches the Fire-Powered Ship, moving directly into the airship's path, seeming to grow larger as the ship comes closer...

And then the ship hits it and it vanishes, dispersing as though it never existed. There's a brief moment of serenity. Turbulence seems to fade, the crystal's light seems to push out, gaining the advantage in its battle. That lasts about as long as it takes a withered, clawed hand to punch its way through the deck. The wood around it blackens and begins to rot, before a second claw bursts through the weakened flooring.

From the hole crawls something brown. It almost oozes up onto the deck, claws scratching and twitching as it slowly raises itself up, hissing and wheezing.

Two burning yellow eyes snap open, seeming to glow even brighter in the crystal's firey light. Gazing upon the crystal and its defenders with unmistakeable hatred, Scarmiglione steps forward, hand outstretched. "Give me the crystal or perish, mortals."

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Grinning towards Maira, Reize has a smile. "Yeah, you're right!" He brings his arms into the sky, "Let's do this!"

And then.. A small part of the darkness, a cloud, is menacing. It fast approaches the ship. Reize doesn't take his eyes off of the cloud that rushes ahead. But then, it disperses.

"...Eh?!" He frowns, "That was odd."

But then, a clawed hand punches through the deck, now rotting. "...."

His eyes widen as he sees Scarmiglione reveal himself, "You!" The boy snaps, now recalling the creature. His pendant is starting to glimmer. He shuts his eyes, then he takes a deep breath. The boy steps one foot forward.

"We re not handing over the crystal to you, you jerk!" He then takes an aggressive stance. "I have NOT forgotten about our last encounters! It's time for payback!"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart hasn't met the fiend of poison (or earth, either way) before, but already she's not feeling very well with it on board. She moves away, just a step to get her bearings, sliding into her fighting position, and putting herself up as a shield between that new monster and the more 'squishy' teammates. She's always mindful about strength in numbers after all.

"You know about this Reize? Ugh, this is giving me the creeps, worse than all those heartless ever did." She nods to Reize's words though "You're not getting through us."

Avira has posed:
"Of course, Ser Faruja." Avira says brightly. "You know I'm always up to the task." She does kind of want to tell Maira to stick closer to her, but with her aura flaming up like that, Avira's slightly worried that she too would get caught up in the fire. Unlike Maira, Avira's still pretty flammable. Though she may know ice magic, it doesn't really give her fire resistance.

She turns away from Faruja to spy Maira falling ont her rear. A concerned look registers on her face, "Hey, careful now." she offers, moving to help the mage up. She only gets to pay somewhat attention to the effects of the crystal before her focus is stolen by some/thing/ emerging from the deck. That rot...

Her thoughts immediately drift to that Lich creature summoned at the Lifa tree by Morrighan. Whatever this putrid thing was that just crawled its way out of the deck...well, Avira's not actually sure if they're one and the same. They sound different, from what little she heard of the Lich speak.

Right away, she slides into a combat stance, planting herself before the gleaming light of the fire crystal. This no doubt adds some pretty impressive backlighting to her pose. "No." she says firmly.

"We will not."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks over at Maira for a moment "That's the spirit Maira."

She's about to say more then something happens, something comes out of a hole which shouldm't be there she starea for a moment at the thing before them. She looks at the Fiend of Earth over she makes a face.

"I see only junk data that needs to be over written."

"I don't like it either Tifa."

She is already gong for the disc off her back and it hums to life she's ready if he's come alone he's got to be hugely powerful.

Faruja Senra has posed:
Twitch. Someone /had/ to say it. Sigh. Well, Maira /is/ a good looking human. "No doubt the Fire Crystal shines in envy beside her, dear Lady Deel!"

Nor does the rat have any rope today, sadly! Turbulence strikes the ship, and he's forced to try to hold on with spear-tip dug into the ship's wood. When it vanishes, the ratling snarls as Scarmiglione emerges from the floor.

Faruja's about to answer towards Emi's statements on wyverns versus airships, but the rat is now faced with a yellow-eyed demon. The results are perhaps predictable.

"VILE DAEMON! NEVER SHALL THY FETID CLAWS BEFOUL THE CRYSTAL SO LONG AS WE LIVE!" Enjoy the Zealot-level volume tonight, ladies and gentlemen.

One hand glows, and the rat begins chucking glowing javelins at Scarm.

Maira has posed:
Maira nods to Reize, united in purpose and optimism!

Only faltering a little as Scarm bursts out from the ship, the wood rotting from his very touch. EW! EW EW! Also, AAAAAAH!

Reize apparently knows this creature and she is inclined to follow his lead of defiance--not that she wouldn't have been defiant anyway. She is getting really tired of being pushed around by powerful people and creatures who think they can just do whatever they like, whenever they like, and everyone else should just do it.

Well no way.

Uist stands beside Maira, not worried about the flames that cloak her. "Lets light this thing up," Uist says, to which Maira smiles and nods, the fire that surrounds her growing brighter as she actually embraces her magic and begins to channel it toward a purpose. "No! You can't have it!" she shouts, then raises an arm so that it is parallel to the deck, sweeping a circle of fire around herself, Avira and Faruja. The fire burns green, and by now, they both ought to know that it is there to protect them.

Luso Clemens has posed:
For a moment, it looked like the darkness was giving way. That maybe they had managed to pierce through the darkness! ...And then here came Scarmiglione bursting through the deck of the airship, rotting the wood black. "Whoa! What the heck!?" Luso cried, immediately drawing Flametongue in response to the appearance of the threat.

"Hand over the crystal? ...Hah! Not likely, you skeletal creep!" He responded, grinning confidently as he then reached back and drew a second sword; Luabreaker. "I think it's time for you to go back to hanging in the corner of my science classroom!" And with that said, Luso's body began to take on an orange aura as power began to build up. The glow then spread to Reize and he gave his friend a nod.

"Reize! Let's take this creep out!"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart being a protector, decides to start things up with a bit of magic then, keeping her stance for now, as the others are taking the forefront. Two applications of Haste and Charge Up, bolstering her teammates's attacks helpfully. She'll get her turn to butt in soon enough.

Ivo Galvan has posed:
Ivo seems too distracted to notice being ignored, or notice Avira's passion for flight, something of which he was entirely unaware. Under normal circumstances, he'd find this whole situation quite thrilling. As it is, the fossil in his hand, /which proves nothing about the quality of the Shard Seeking device/, seems to occupy his attention until Faruja speaks up encouragingly, and blinking, the dark-haired knight-errant looks up and then straightens, offering a reassuring smile, seeming to rouse himself. "Ser Senra... you're right, of course. I mustn't allow this malaise to dull my wits." His smile broadens as he shamelessly blames the shadows for his own state. Well, they're indirectly responsible, maybe. He turns that grin on Reize and gives the younger boy a confident salute, looking a little more like his usual self. "All good here, chief. Let's see this mission through."

And make sure it's not the last...

"Ah..." Maira looks concerned. Belatedly, he considers that maybe he missed some good opportunities for some teasing while he was distracted. Yes, if he's not teasing her, of course she'd be worried about him, Ivo logically concludes. But her warm smile, sizzling hot though she might be, banishes most notions of frivolity at this crucial juncture. "If we need light, maybe Maira's the answer," he notes, shifting his grin between Reize and Maira. "She's glowing like a beacon. But I was already inspired whenever I looked at her--"

And then the Fiend of Earth.

"Oh, it's that homeless fellow."

Ivo recognizes him solely from the stench. It was a while ago since Reize's pendant was stolen by this guy, and since then, Ivo has learned a bit more about the background behind this dangerous character. As the wood rots and splinters beneath them, Ivo, stepping toward the flickering light of the Fire Crystal, adopts a thoughtful gaze.

"Aren't your powers based on earth?" he ponders aloud, having inferred this from their last encounter, the story of Reize's previous confrontation, and what little intelligence he was able to gather. "Aren't we... in the sky, in an airship imbued with the power of fire? Should you... really be here?"

Ivo sounds almost concerned.

But he's smiling slightly as his friends gear up for battle, having positioned himself to protect the Crystal as best he can against the darkness, if only because that's been his duty for so long. "Can't we just hug it out?" he suggests, even as he draws Hauteclare, disengaging its blade and preparing to attack from afar. "No? And here I--"

A sudden terrible groan interrupts him.

Dark spirits, drawn from the surroundings, pour into the rotting deck beneath them, and horrible pulped forms burst forth, bizarre shambling monsters formed of tortured souls dragged from the darkness and forced into what matter is available: the corrupted wood. These earthy abominations, wailing against their own ugly prisons, rise up around Scarmiglione and surround Ivo, even as the proximity of the Fire Crystal makes them singe and sizzle.

"On second thought," Ivo weakly appends, "let's not."

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi blinks and squints as something flies forth and--crashes into the ship? she braced herself so she wouldn't be flown off the ship but it seems there wasn't something much akin to that. She is relieved for about haflf a second before the WOOD starts rotting.

Suddenly maybe doing this on an airship the best of plans. Maybe if it was like in a box? Plastic bag?

No, there are a lot of uncertain variables so she's just going to have to distill this issue to its base components.

ScootchtowardsAvira. "One of Baigan's...minions?" Of course Baron wouldn't give up that easily.

"Ivo--he is literally rotting the wood. He could take out the whole ship while we are in the air--The Network suspects that he can handle such a plummet better than we can."

It's true you know, Scarmiglione is the best at falling to his death. She doesn't seem terribly affected by the smell, it's slightly better than having to smell Will Sherman. Scarmiglione probably takes better care of his body and washes more.

She draws the most powerful weapon of all: Gun. And she fires gun. And Imi tries to hit Scarmiglione upside the head with a shovel, electricity rippling around the two.

Scarmiglione has posed:
"It's not a yes or--" Scarmiglione starts to snap, before biting his words back abruptly. "I was not inviting conversation. This is not an argument." He takes a step forward, darkness swirling in from the cloud toward him in a black spiral, suffusing his small, crippled body. He almost seems to glow unlight, the world itself becoming faint in the space around him.

"I am doing both, and it's going to be a painful, excruciating process where you're forced to watch as everything and everyone is swallowed."

His gaze turns to Ivo. "Yours will be the worst for reminding me, once again, that every miserable moment I spend on this flying deathtrap is a torment made all the worse by the presence of you." He listens to Emi's /vile insults/, his anger almost palpable. "FOOLS."

"I am already out of patience." Scarmiglione raises his claws upward, power coalescing in them, a sickly mass of black and green and the very essence of tainted life. He doesn't move even as attacks begin flying toward him, holding fast to his position. Javelins, bullets, and shovel (the inDIGnity!) slam into him, causing him to stumble briefly but remain standing. And then he releases the energy held in hand.

"Suffer."

A wave blasts outward, covering the deck in rotting, vile poisons, just as the zombies and dark spirits and even a couple of Heartless burst out of the deck, immediately going on the offense.

Faruja Senra has posed:
A small sigh of relief exits the rat's muzzle. /That/ is the Ivo he knows. Then, he's surrounded by Heartless. Frown.

"Be /away/ from Ser Galvan, daemonspawn! Back! BACK!"

Just as he's about to thrust his weapon at the Heartless, Scarm unleashes a blast of rotting poison. Coughing and gagging as his veins turn a vile green, the Burmecian quickly switches his plan, incanting even as Tifa's magic settles upon him and Maira's fire protects them.

"Hold fast, brave warriors! These abominations and unquiet spirits shan't defeat those whom have the will and strength to perservere! Esuna!"

His curative magics will settle upon some of his companions, strengthening and hopefully curing them of some of their hobo-Fiend related ills.

Maira has posed:
Ivo's words are almost always over the top, and she had come to at least attempt not to take them seriously, but after that evening on beach...well, it was a little more difficult to do so. She blushes, though such would be difficult to see since she's mostly a burning female form amidst the darkness, not quite as bright as the fire crystal. At least not yet.

"Be safe Ivo," she says, gesturing toward him then looking toward Uist.

Uist gives her a rather insufferable look. "Are you serious? Do I have to?" he asks her, to which Maira frowns as her answer.

"Fine. Damn it," she says, then moves forward and touches Ivo briefly on his shoulder, the ghostly coolness of Uist's energy rushing over him before the ghost moves on to grace someone else with his blessing--Tifa; because damn it he wants to touch a pretty girl now. /On the shoulder/. But still.

The mouthy fiend conjures a blast of poison that covers the deck and Maira isn't quite in range to have to worry about it before it disperses, but several others will be. Maira is put at ease however, by knowing Faruja is there. When he casts his spell she smiles warmly toward him. "Oh Faruja, having you here always bolsters my courage," she informs him. Always nice not to be the only one with healing magics!

Luso Clemens has posed:
"I don't think so!" Luso grinned, putting his ninja's speed to good use. The moment the wave of energy began to spread out, he was already in the air, completely avoiding the attack as he then began to sail downwards, Luabreaker held up and then swung down. The impact caused a pillar of ice to arise from the deck of the ship, and then shatter violently.

"Not done yet!" The boy exclaimed, hefting the heavier sword aside as he lashed out with a flurry of quick flaming strikes from Flametongue, ending in a powerful uppercut. "And now the finish!" Turning his body, Luso then made a quick jump, twisting his body in mid air with both swords held back before striking downwards again. The resulting slash caused a bolt of lighting to pierce through the darkness, attempting to strike the undead fiend.

The appearance of the heartless and Ivo's current predicament did not go unnoticed, but with this many people, they were going to have to split up the fight. And his eyes were squarely on Scarmiglione! "You're not getting your boney hands on the crystal, so why don't you just give up and get out of here, huh?"

Yeah, like Scarmiglione would just drop everything and go because someone told him to!

Reize Seatlan has posed:
This is not good...

That rotting wood end up becoming creatures of darkness that arises from the ground. As the earthly abominations aise from their prison and suround Ivo, Reize's eyes widen, "No!" He shift his stance, and then he takes off with a sprint towards Scarmiglione. When the demon releases his force of energy, Reize charges into the fray of the attack, caught by the deathly malaise, "Gaaaggghhhh----" But he wills himself together. "SPARRONDO!"

Why? Well, he manages to dive in towards Scarmiglione, closing the distance with a mid-air roundhouse kick before the other leg whips back to snap backwards towards the Fiend of Earth. Then, with the distance closed, Reize is stepping forward to launch his right foot out to kick him against the head, and then he springs off of the ground with his boomerang rising and then falling. "TALON BLADE!"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel will leaves the horror of the Fiend of Earth to others, she doesn't quite get it but there's sure are heartless about which need to be kept off her allies backs. She makes note of Emi's comment prehaps the thing attacking htem is one of Baron's monster horde but for now? So many little heartless to deal with, the basic takes her disc and she leaps into the tick of the cratures and gets to work the disc flares up and away she goes.

Avira has posed:
"Seems that way, Emi." Avira swallows, putting on her resolute face. "Since I heard he has had a hand in this. I am surprised he has sway over someone this powerful, but..." This creature's smell was familiar. Perhaps he had been present at previous battles against Baron forces without Avira's notice? It could happen as Baron's battles tended to engender massive amounts of chaos.

Avira tries to call upon her magic, to channel ice through her sword as she normally would. Except...nothing happens. Frowning, she tries again, only to find seizing and shaping the mist in that fashion right now was incredibly taxing. In short order she realizes...the fire crystal here was likely making it impossible. Her magic would be no help to her today.

The thought of getting in close to Scarm sickens the scarred huntress. Nonetheless, that is her only real option here and would be that way even if she did have better access to her ice magic right now. Slipping forward, Avira smashes her way through a rotting soul that spawns around the Fiend of Earth, and lunges at Scarm head-on, leading with the point of the Spine.

She stabs the weapon through fiercely and repeatedly. The rapid blows are light, perhaps too light to really do much damage.

Emi Dennou has posed:
On second thought maybe Baigan is this guy's minion? No that can't be right--Baigan has SIR Snaggletooth after all. Before she can come to grips with her understanding of this fellow, he is unleashing a wave of vile ick! Emi is caught flat footed, but Imi--being a good sacrificial pawn--steps in the way and gets clobbered in the chest like Alys. She goes down--but keeps a firm grip of her shovel, her strength returning to he thanks to Faruja's magic, but she's on her back at the moment all the same.

"Thank you, Faruja, The Network will attempt to counterattack presently."

She then presses her hands to the ground, little arcs of voltage rippling across the deck of the airship, spiraling forth towards Scarmiglione. "...Though The Network cannot fault Scarmiglione for determining (probably accurately) that this is a flying deathttrap."

"Wheeze!!" Imi pants sickly.

Emi ignores her. "Just because someone seems silly does not mean they are not also dangerous." She asides to Avira, maybe she's overthinking this.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart is glad for Maira's blessing, even if ghostly. She can now fight with even less of a worry! She is a pretty girl to touch,e ven for a ghost. Too bad it still has no chance with the barmaid though.

She turns to the heartless that just appeared... great, more undeads, which is odd to think when they are heartless, but anyway, she's not letting anyone swarm the others while they are busy with a bigger fish to fry.

Okay, Scarm doesn't look like a fish, but the smell is there.

She rushes in, ducking the first heartless monster, sending a crushing elbow straight into its back. And before it can reel, she grabs it by the arms, and with a wild spind sends it flying into the incomming mob of dark spirits. She always seems to enjoy her games of heartless bowling.

Scarmiglione has posed:
Gritting his teeth somewhere inside the recesses of his hood, Scarmiglione attempts to stay calm in the face of such overwhelming heroism. All of them, so sassy and optimistic and friendly with each other and giving and it just...

"It just..." Once more the fiend just stands there, barely defending himself as Luso, Reize, and Avira rush in to triple team him. For Avira's trouble, she gets a zombie that rises up in the path of her blade, absorbing the strikes in its unfeeling body. Luso and Reize, however... "It just makes me..." They pretty much just beat the crap out of him as an electric sneak attack from /somewhere/ sizzles and fries him (if you thought he smelled bad before). Reeling and a little bit on fire from the relentless attacks, Scarmiglione remains upright through some unholy, hidden strength.

"...want to silence you forever." Raising his bony hands to the sky, he then brings them sweeping downward to the deck. Once more, darkness swells, this time exploding in a deadly, point-blank orb of evil, enveloping the fiend and everything near him both.

"I don't even want to hear your screams, anymore."

Ivo Galvan has posed:
That's right. Ivo's back! And surrounded by some sort of, like, wood zombies. Emi's serious words elicit a nod from the Shard Seeker strategist even as, backed almost against the Crystal -- having broken into a sweat from his proximity to its intense heat -- he faces down several of these new foes. "You're right," he agrees, his tone serious, but somehow his eyes remaining lively despite their mortal peril. "We'll have to split our forces between kicking him off our vessel and banishing these spirits he's gathered before they tear the ship apart!" He frowns momentarily as the Fire Crystal flickers again behind him, the Fire-Powered Ship spasming in the air as it briefly short-circuits before reassuming its flight plan. Still, that moment of turbulence portends nothing good. "We definitely," he murmurs, "have to drive the darkness away."

Hauteclare flickers around, hewing into the foes that surrounds him, just as a cooling aura falls over Ivo, refreshing him just as the heat from the Crystal behind him begins to become unbearable. This ghostly sensation-- Ivo's spiritual sense is notoriously poor, but even he is beginning to find this presence familiar. "Uist?" he asks rhetorically, before his lips split into a grin. "So you approve of me at last? Just in time. You see," he explains to the empty air, "the longer I stay close to the Crystal, the more I can train myself to withstand powerful heat. Then Maira and I can... continue our lesson."

Wait, is that why he's standing over there?

Wait, is that why he was working with the Crystal all along!?

Ivo plays a deep game, but he can't be everywhere at once. Even as he faces down the three shambling creatures approaching him, keeping at bay with the range of his floating blade, four more tear themselves from the deck, attacking the party from the rear. Deelel's disk splinters the head -- well, it sort of resembles a head -- of one, and Tifa's splinters the other, hurling it to disperse some tortured souls and send it smashing against the airship's railing. But the rest drag themselves toward the two women, and two of the newly risen woodbies stagger toward Faruja and Maira, converging on the brave knight in an attempt to knock him aside and get at the glowing girl.

Faruja Senra has posed:
"Even as the light of my blade guides thee Maira, shine thy own flame upon the road we walk! Together, our will is unbreakable!" Faruja replies to Maira, the rat's words cut short as Scarm seems to want to shut them all up and wood-zombies are making for Maira. A swift nod to Emi, his face one of righteous indignation that may as well scream 'kill the smelly Hobotic'.

The zombies batter at him, unholy wooden claws ripping into flesh and armor. It's impossible not to cry out. Unfortunately for them, they're dealing with a Templar. Pain only makes them more dangerous.

"AWAY daemons! Touch naught the innocent!" Faruja sweeps his glowing spear about, intent on either decapitating or generally giving himself and Maira some fighting room. That done, he'll thrust his blade, crescents of energy falling into the wooden abominations!

Avira has posed:
As if to spite her, the zombie sent to intercept Avira seems twice as tough as the previous one she cut down the first time. Even multiple stabs, which had been meant for the powerful fiend, do not drop it and she is forced to back away. Considering the option of cutting down its legs is cut short as Scarmiglione unleashes another terrifying blast of darkness.

The area around her blackens as the foul magic spreads out around her, though at the same time something on her person seems to glow brightly against it. There is a necklace around her, upon it a crystal pendant that does softly glow with a white light. It's nothing like Reize's and upon closer inspection does not seem to be the source of resistance. No, that light appears to be coming from within Avira herself.

The woman doesn't even notice this. She instead keeps moving forward. "Is that so." she says smoothly, slipping to flank the fiend, then eventually get behind him. Once in position, she quite viciously tries to run him through with a firm thrust of her odd-looking weapon.

"Then we'll dispatch you quickly." she says fiercely.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Wood zombies... really? Oh well, that just makes them more fun to break. Like those karate exhibits, breaking a bunch of them in a single thing. Let's see hwo many Tifa can break with a single punch, shall we?

Okay, not really. The counter attack did hurt a bit, so she has other things to worry about for the immediate time. She moves next to Deelel and Ivo, making a wall against the woodbies (groan), and ready to strike any that tries to force through.

The first one comes it to drill at her. The barmaid disapears, ducking with a motion that makes her roll on herself, creating an extra momentum as she drives an uppercut straight up, sending the undead flying backward.

As the zombie is airborn, she quickly leaps at it, grabbing it by the ankle and using it to bludgeon the other ones nearby in a wide circle. Using heartless as a weapon against heartless, that should go well.

Luso Clemens has posed:
In a supreme show of agility, Luso vaults over the fiend, grin still adorning his face as he landed on the other side. "Heh! Silence me? Gonna have to try harder than that!" And there went more heroic quips as Luso sheathed both Flametongue and Luabreaker. His hands then went for the Ogun Blade and the Kwigon Blade, drawing them both and crossing the blades over.

His swords began to take on a radiant glow, very clearly signifying that holy energies were at work. A closer look would reveal that Excalibur's sheathe; Avalon, was glowing quite brightly in response. "Get ready!" Was Luso using the holy sword to draw power from? Whatever the case may be, he didn't waste anymore time and dove straight for Scarmiglione, lashing out with a holy, dualbladed strike. "A stream of light to cut through the darkness! Holy Blade!"

The resulting slash created a burst of light that almost looked like an array of white feathers that quickly scattered and dissipated into the darkness, their presence not strong enough to quell the dark miasma. Seeing Reize taking quite a hit though, Luso frowned and wasted no time calling out to him.

"Hey Reize! Get it together, man!"

And meanwhile. Just WHAT was that glow coming from Avira? He'd ask, but not really was not the time for that!

At all.

Deelel has posed:
Heartless all sort of them and prehaps worse things are lurking on the ship s she makes note of where Ivo is mis to keep him out of the rebound of her disk strikes she contiunes. She doens't fair too well at avoiding harm as the Heartless just lay into her pretty hard and she's clealry sent reeling. Prehaps she's not recoveref from her brawl with Mercade and the rest of his team? That could be it but she's still in the fight her disk manaes to get the head of one of the things and that spurrs the basic on to more attacks.

She launches her disk again this time just trying to chain combo the things about, attempting to keep them totally off balance and set them up for her allies.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi is serious. You can tell because she's totally frowning. Imi is still recovering--and being really noisy about it too. She remembers now that Navya was going to take the mysterious orb to Avira. She wonders if she has done that yet.

But now is not to talk about Ivo's illicit recordings. Safe from SCarmagony for the moment, Emi doesn't change tactics--instead she continues unleashing waves of electricity along the airship to continue frying Scarmiglione.

"Ugh..." Imi says. "Emi."

"Yes?"

"Stop."

"What?"

"The smell ughghh..." Imi rolls over onto her stomach and politely crawls over to the airship hole that Scarm put in there, and vomits into it.

Maira has posed:
Oh, if Ivo could only hear the profanity that flies from Uist's mouth at Ivo's comments! Uist has some degree of self-control, which is the only reason Ivo isn't being throttled right now--The rotting fiend the wood-zombie heartless are of a greater concern. But oh, he'll get you later Ivo. In your sleep.

Maira's eyes are on the battle, watching her friends with a close eye, on the look out for anyone that needs help. Avira has charged in bravely as she always does, small, fierce and full of stabby-goodness. Faruja, with his righteous conviction, Tifa, punching things Maira wouldn't even want to touch if she could avoid it, Emi with a gun and Imi with a ...shovel? Reize casting and tossing his weapon, Lusso with a myriad of blades, Deelel fighting off Heartless...and Ivo...Ivo has like....a sword or something, doesn't he?

Everyone is fighting. If this ship continues to rot...

Maira hears something about pushing back the darkness, then lets out a surprised "meep!" as the fire crystal sputters for a moment. That is /not/ good! Could she maybe help it somehow? Perhaps it would be worth a try...

Maira begins to move carefully closer to the crystal, wary as Heartless seem to have set their sites upon her and are trying to get through those who would protect her.

Well, she's not helpless. She's got some fire to throw as well. Maira takes a steadying breath and gestures, shouting, the words don't seem to matter with her magic. The fire simply lashes out like a whip and flashes toward a group of Heartless with a tongue of fire.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
The earlier assist of Faruja and the invigoration through Luso has been tremendiously helpful. The young adventrer is ready to fight, able to deal with this menace. When Scarmiglione starts to absorb the strikes, Reize cannot help but grin towards Luso's way.

And yet...

Scarmiglione gets up and draws upon that unholy strength. The darknss swells, exploding into the orb that envelops around him.

"Gaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!"

Too bad, he hear Reize's screams.

However, he hears Luso encouraging him. His eyes does turn towards Avira, who manages to draw away the darkness with his necklace. "...Huh...?" He blinks, gazing with amazement. "Woow..." He staggers to his feet, then he sucks in a breath. "Here we go..." The boy channels forth his magic, calling out towards his friends.

"Everyone! Let's do this!"

His eyes drift towards the fiend. Glaring at Scarmiglione, Reize already rushes forward in a burst of speed. He springs back, already reaching into his bag of tricks to pull out a few things.

He starts running towards Scarmiglione, then he slides beside him while tossing a few orbs infront of him. The orbs will release a flash in front fo Scarmiglione.

"HA!"

Scarmiglione has posed:
Unfortunately, in the face of so much selfless heroism, Scarmiglione doesn't notice these little bits of shining light that may or may not be popping up in other people. Also because suddenly it is CHAOS IN HIS FACE, like even more than before. As he continues to slowly fry to death courtesy of Emi, Avira sneaks around behind him and proceeds to shiv. Just as a zombie rises up and shivs /her/. Luso gets a solid sword-whack in, and also Reize...Scarmiglione doesn't know what Reize is doing because all of a sudden he is BLIND and he is just getting SO FRUSTRATED.

He hisses, clutching at his head, staggering to the side. He can't deal with this. Why does he have to deal with this? He shouldn't have to deal with this! All he wants is a simple little crystal.

"Out of my way, all of you would-be heroes. Begone!" Stumbling toward the object he requires, Scarmiglione leaves it to his many minions, woodbies and zombies and heartbies and zomblesses and whatever, to swarm and overwhelm the defenders, because he personally just cannot be bothered anymore.

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso is like the wind. First he is there. And then he is gone. Again and again, Luso weaves and dodges his way through the swarm of heartless and undead. He is on fire. Maybe literally too because hey, Fire Crystal! "You're not gonna touch me with just me that! I came up here ready to give it my all! Have you?" Whoops! More nauseatingly heroic quips from the main character!

Grinning confidently, the boy sheathed the Ogun Blade and the Kwigon Blade, his hand then going for the handle of the big gun; Excalibur. It was time pull out all the stops. And in that same vein of thought, Luso has an idea! "Hey Reize! I've got an idea!" He called out to his friend, pointing to his collarbone area with his free hand. "Use your pendant and throw a fireball at Excalibur!"

And with that said, the boy drew out the Sword of Promised Victory, raising it to the sky. The holy sword immediately began to radiate a holy light, even pushing back the surrounding darkness considerably...if only temporarily for now.

"Come on!"

Avira has posed:
Suddenly while Avira is busy stabbing Scarmiglion in the back, SHE IS STABBED IN THE BACK HERSELF! By a zombie, no less, and she's quickly starting to realize that being this thick in the melee is hazardous to her health. Unfortunately, given the forces that Scarmiglion brings to bare against them, there is not much room to evade. So when Avira finds herself suddenly swamed by a large number of the Fiend's Heartless, she must resort to rapidly parrying and defending herself against the swiping claws and blades that come for her.

Fortunately for her, she seems capable of moving fast enough to do this, though it quickly becomes clear after a few seconds she's exerting a good amount of energy to do so. Sweat breaks out upon her forehead and her breath grows short. If she was going to say anything else to Scarm, she doesn't anymore, currently not capable of talking and fighting at the same time.

Managing to jam the buckler shield down over her forearm just a little more, Avira seizes her weapon with both hands and spins around with a circular swing.

The action seems to clear the area around her of Heartless, though more quickly rush in to take their place, so Avira keeps repeating the motion until she actually gets dizzy of spinning.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Imi doesn't have enough points in stench resistance. Perhaps she has been smelling clean people too often. Either way, she continues to groan and feel sick. She looks up and sees zombies swarming at her. One enterprising zombie hefts her up into the air, walks over to the side of the ship and throws Imi off it.

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarnnnnnnnuggghh..." Imi says as she plummets. Emi is slammed in the back and she rushes over to the side of the ship, stumbling from her new wound. She turns and peers over the edge--and then jumps off the ship as well.

Now in free fall, she reaches out for Imi with one hand--a magnetic link pulling her sister up rapidly towards her hand. Catching Imi, she flings her sister into the air above her--using magnetic repellent to send her spinning up into the sky above the airship. Imi then in turn, lashes out with one of her arms, for the falling Emi, snagging HER with magnetic force and flinging her higher up into the air as well moments before she crashes face first into the airship, blood splattering underneath her.

But Emi remains in the air, drawing out a small munny coin into her hand. She swings her hand forward then suddenly with a hefty burst of electromagnetic force, propels the coin with supersonic force for Scarm's body, no doubt hoping to just send him flying off the airship himself! Of course, there's enough force in the unleashed 'coin' that the ship itself shakes from the accelerative force, but it is probably even worse to be the target.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
As the zombies rise up and take charge, the woodbies start charging and srming the group. Reize is now shutting his eyes, taking a deep breath before he does the one thing that is possible to do.

/_\:Blindside

As each of the zombies attempt to charge at Reize, the boy is shifting his stance before he springs back. Due to the quickness of his form, it looks as if he is teleporting behind the monsters. Each attack is met with the same response. Blindside. Blinking in and out with his guard up.

Then, he rejoins the field besides Luso. His eyes turn towards Scarmiglione.

"...You're the fiend that corrupted this land. You're also responsible for corrupting my pendant." His eyes turn serious towards Scarmiglione, "Now, I will let you taste what you attempted to taint."

Through the boy's will, Reize is able to pull himself up. It is that will that he is driving himself to get onto his feet and continue the fight. As Reize can feel the essence of power resonate within him, the boy's eyes lift up towards the sky. He sucks in a breath, then he springs back to a distance.

It is then that the pendant glimmers with a brilliant light, shining across the airship. It's light becomes as bright enough to break through the darkness, for just moment, to reveal a shining star.

Extending his right arm across his left, he snaps his finger. From the spark, the flow of magic resonates in his hand. From that glow, the magic glitters and manifests itself in the shape of a small tarot card. As the magical aura resonates around him, his aura becomes as bright as a star. As he brings his hand up, Reize flicks his right hand into the sky.

"You got it, Luso!"

The boy draws his hand into the sky, the tarot spirals out of his hand. As the tarot rises in the sky, it spins around before shattering into fragments. From above him, there are flames arising from the place where the tarot shattered. Three balls of flames soon converge together. However, they all swoop towards Luso's way, as if drawn by something.

Initiate...

/_\ Dual Limit: Flame of the Rift

"In the darkness, the star shines the brightest!"

Ivo Galvan has posed:
The undead-possessed wood picked the wrong adversary in Faruja. The Burmecian's glowing spear causes the cursed spirits within their foes to rebel against their rotting prisons, forms imploding and bursting against the energy the templar wields, and the two harassing him and Maira are dispatched at once. Yet the wood zombies, or whatever they are, are not so fragile as all that, as motley a construction as they might appear. When Tifa's uppercut lashes out, one creature curls in on itself, the wood splintering but not breaking against her fist and resisting her attempt to knock it into the air, precluding her from using it as a bludgeon -- this time. But with its guard already raised in one direction, Deelel's rebounding disc is able to neatly decapitate it, and the foe crumbles into dust and wood shavings. It is soon replaced by another, which is promptly struck in the back by Maira's fire and goes up like a torch, dissipating into nothing as the summoned spirit dwindles away into the surrounding darkness. The creatures are clearly weak against flame, but even given that, the mage's magic seems extraordinarily potent -- perhaps for obvious reasons.

Ivo, blissfully unaware of Uist's seething rage, is pleased to be joined by Tifa and Deelel, flashing them both brief smiles even as Hauteclare's blade, appearing to float freely but tethered by invisible gravity magic to the pulsing orb of energy which has manifested at the empty hilt in his hands, shears the arm off one approaching woodbie. "What's this?" he says, sounding good-humored now despite -- or maybe because of -- their dire straits. "I get to fight alongside all the good-looking women? This battle isn't so bad." Ivo, you forgot someone. "Ah, except for the Legion-chans, of course." No, not--

"Speaking of good-looking women-- better stay close, Maira," he says as the fire mage approaches the crystal, eyes narrowing as Scarmiglione summons a veritable horde to his will, the deck beneath them tearing asunder by the constant summoning of these bizarre minions. "You can get closer than that," he assures her, offering Maira his Best Smile (TM). "I can handle you." A bold claim. No, really, it is.

He's already sweating again, just from her getting this close.

"But this is starting to look a little--"

The Fire Crystal flickers out.

All at once, there is a rush of vertigo as the ship is carried by its own inertia, and long terrifying seconds pass as the darkness closes in, smothering, oppressive, thickened by Scarmiglione's dark magic. When at last the Crystal flickers back to life, its light is dim and weak, and the airship continues through the endless night in fits and starts, the turbines wheezing below.

"--bad," Ivo finally finishes, realizing he has held his breath during the darkness. "Damn!" The woodbies close in all around the Crystal, seemingly embolded by its vulnerable state, and surge toward the four standing near it. Ivo slashes out at them as best he can, but Tifa and Deelel will have to fend for themselves, and even Maira, having moved toward the Crystal and away from Faruja's protection, is now open to attack as wooden claws lash out.

Grimacing as one blow glances off his buckler, Ivo is driven back and grunts as he is pushed against the Crystal, flinching back from its residual heat. Still, it seems to be cooling, which is all the more worrying. As he stumbles, however, the fossil is jostled from his cloak and nearly falls out, forcing him to catch it with his off-hand. "What...?" The stone is cracking, and light is beginning to shine forth. "What... is...?"

Avira's necklace. Reize's pendant. And the Phoenix Stone in Ivo's hand...

"What are we supposed to do..."

There are many lights in the darkness here.

"...Maira!"

At last, Ivo seems to have a flash of insight, and blue eyes gleaming with serious intent, he turns toward the fire mage by his side, thrusting the fossil out at her.

"Pour your power into this!"

It's a wild gamble, based on guesswork and intuition, but the fossilized pinion is beginning to radiate an incredible energy of its own, cracking away at the stone of eons which encases it. If only that power can be spurred on in time--

"Can you do it!?"

Faruja Senra has posed:
Faruja, as Scarm's minions swarm over, is quite literally being eaten by some sort of crowd of unholy-wood-zombie things. There's just too blasted many of them! At least he's managed to keep them off of Maira, and away from any of his tastier rat-portions. Trying not to go down under the weight of wooden zombie, the Templar bites and claws and generally uses some of his not-inconsiderable strength to throw off the forces that are trying to nom him. Nomming is his job, blast it!

He doesn't even get to cry out for Emi as she falls, as the light of the crystal dims. Oppressive darkness reigns before it sputters back. Frak.

Seperated from Maira, and the oppressive heat of herself as well as the crystal's fire stressing his own burn wounds as it is, he sets about healing his companions!

Luso Clemens has posed:
The flame reaches Excalibur, washing over the holy sword and strengthening it even further. "Heh! ...With this, we'll never lose!" Luso called out, gripping the handle of the holy sword with both hands and raising it first to the sky as light and flame swirled about, creating a veritable vortex of power.

"And it's this shining star..." Leaping into the air, the boy reared back with Excalibur, an intense look on his face as he then swung the holy weapon downwards, expelling a massive shockwave of flame and light, aiming to utterly wash Scarmiglione away in it's might.

"It's this shining star that will pave the way for the future! This is it! Flame....Of The Rift!"

This was the final assault. The last gambit to save Fluorgis and the Fire Crystal. This was their decisive strike! r
...But would it be enough?

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
It would look like Ivo and the others got a plan. Well, she doesn't have any sort of fire attack to use, but she does have EXPLOSIVE FISTS, but its not something she can use right now either way. She can only stay the offensive and give them time to do whatever they want to do right now.

The last attack combination finds only air as she jumps up and finds catch on one of the masts, and then bounces right off it, zooming toward the group of zombie to splinter a few more of them out for good. She's a bit alarmed at the shaking airship, but there are alot of immediate things to think about outside of a crash landing. Like staying alive until they touch down as well, mind you.

Deelel has posed:
The Wood things, whatever they are? The concept of undeath is somewhat hard for her to understand. Either 1 or 0, living or dead. That's like being a 2, 2s shouldn't work in a binary system. She's still locked in close combat with them. Maira's powers are proving to be very powerfull in dealing with them but as others join in the assault upon the creatures they counter attack and they hit the Basic hard. She lets out a cry even as the Fire Crystal fades, she knows her friends are alive but she's not sure how hard into this but she's not been forgotton. For whatever reson white magic works on her kind, her wounds are sealed before anyone might take heed of her true nature. She's on her feed and as Ivo gets Maira to go and set up to do somerthing about the fire crystal. She's got faith in Maira and Ivo should keep her safe, she'll do what she can to buy them time to finish this.

The Baic rushes into the tick of things again using her disk as a close combat weapon to bring down as mangy of the creatures as she can.

Scarmiglione has posed:
Unfortunately, as it turns out, unsupervised zombies made out of wood are absolutely /terrible/ at stopping heroes. Scarmiglione doesn't get very far toward the crystal at all before the fireworks come out. The combined lights of their hearts, all of them, pulsing together in perfect harmony...

The fiend wonders, ever so briefly, why only /one/ person appears to be nauseated.

Letting out an involuntary hiss, as much at the HEROIC SPIRIT as the light washing over him, Scarmiglione raises a hand protectively in front of his face. It helps about as much as you expect it would.

First, a coin makes a hole in him. He doesn't really notice, not because it isn't a grievous wound, but because he's distracted and it's in and out in a moment. By the time the pain arrive, he's already dealing with Luso's gigantic glowing firesword, or at least the aftermath. The aftermath mostly involves a sizzling, inert heap of stinky brown robe, now blackened around the edges. But still Scarmiglione's voice emerges, barely a whisper, drowned out by the surrounding din.

"Not worth it. ...not even my crystal anyway."

And in a moment where nobody's looking directly at his downed form, it vanishes, leaving only lingering threads of twisting darkness in its wake.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Imi is probably too unconcious to be nauseated at the moment but Emi splats down next to her shortly after. It's rather painful, though her landing is a mildly more graceful in the sense that she hits feet firstb efore tumbling over. She must have underestimated the power of inertia. Either way, they lie there for the moment, groaning. Faruja's healing helps but they're still not eager to get up right now, not when the ground is so much more comfortable.

Maira has posed:
Maira is not so sure Ivo's eyebrows with agree with his statement! They've just grown back after last time! That said, Maira has no choice but to get closer to him as the Heartless Scarm summons begin to crowd and make a rush for the crystal--which then goes out, snuffed like a candle, leaving only Maira and the two amulets and Luso's sword burning in the darkness. As the ship begins to plummet Maira screams and grabs onto Ivo so she doesn't fall, doing her best to repress her magic and not burn him horribly, but it is either grab on quite likely be knocked from the airship.

Then she is attacked by the swam of Heartless, the mad flailing and clamoring of the beasts wounds her, though those protecting her certain manage to soak up some of the damage.

All is chaos. Maira hears Luso yelling something about a shining stare and a flame, but she cannot process it as Ivo is also yelling at her, holding out the fossil toward her and asking her if she could do it. Do what? Her mind tries to cut through the fog of pain and panic. They need something. They need her to do something or they are all going to die!

Maira's eyes widen, the fire that still surrounds her growing brighter, concentrated in a point within her chest. Maira reaches for the fossil then takes a few steps back from Ivo.

"I will try!" she tells him, then simply lets her magic loose. The fire grows white hot as she lights up like a falling star, clutching the fossil to her chest as she tries to pour her energy into it, praying to any gods that may be listening that this will save her friends.

Ivo Galvan has posed:
Ivo is grinning, one eye squinted shut with suppressed pain, as his cloak begins to smolder from Maira clinging to him as the airship plunges sharply with every flicker of the weakening Fire Crystal. If he's going to die, this is a suitably spectacular way to go. But he doesn't intend to die just yet. They bear the hopes of a whole city with them. All of them, all of his friends, have to live on, whatever it takes. Even Avira.

As Scarmiglione is consumed by the combined powers of his adversaries, his minions falter, and Tifa and Deelel's attacks tear through them like kindling, as though remaining begin to slowly crumble of their own accord. Still, the damage to the ship has been done. Large holes in the deck reveal the piping beneath, and through that is the open sky, clogged toward it is with darkness. This airship seems more of a leaky tub than a viable vehicle at this point, and the whole frame is shaking violently. Even with the departure of the Fiend, the tendrils of the darkness around them sneak in, due to the depleted power of the Fire Crystal bearing the ship up. And that power depletes still more as Maira, wide-eyed, summons the resolution to take the fossil from Ivo's hand and step back, eliciting a firm smile from the knight-errant. Despite their peril, his gaze is warm, and despite his weariness, he seems possessed of an unshakable confidence.

It's nonsense, of course. He has no idea what's going to happen.

But just as Maira channels all of her surging magic into the fossil, the Fire Crystal goes out again, and this time, there is the forbidding sound of systems powering down.

"Uh oh," Cid Previa can distinctly be heard saying from the front of the ship.

In the darkness, there remaining only a few points of illumination. Avira's accessory. Reize's pendant, still glowing from his team attack with Luso. The veins of blue light running through Deelel. The glint of these lgihts reflected on the arms and armor of their fellow fighters. And Maira, glowing like a beacon, and the shining stone in her hands, as its power at last blasts through the rock--

The Phoenix Stone. A pinion from an ancient phoenix entombed by volcanic pressure for centuries, charged with sealed fire magic, only able to be released in the presence of an equivalent power. A flame brighter than any other, symbolizing rebirth from the ashes of defeat, which attracts other strong lights to it.

The sky lights up with a blinding radiance, blinding all.

And the sound of whirring turbines is heard again.

When the glare begins to fade, what is first visible is the Fire Crystal, gleaming as though it alone existed in all the worlds, shining not with a searing heat but a gentle, soothing warmth.

And what is neat visible is the clear blue sky, as the shadows flee in all directions, revealing around them a torn apart but still flying airship, and beneath them a damaged but still standing city.

"See?" Cid calls over the wind. "Nothing to it."

"I distinctly heard you say 'uh oh'!" his assistant, peeking out from the barrel in which he was cowering, retorts in a shaking voice.

And last, tinkling with a silvery sound, is a glowing crystal, where the Phoenix Stone had been: a multi-hued fragment, flickering with images of streets and windows, of an unknown city. A World Shard.

"Aha!"

Ivo is pointing at the object in Maira's hands, blue eyes widening and eyebrows (more or less intact) lifting, and glancing around significantly at his fellow survivors.

"You see? It worked! The device was working all along!"

Really? /Really?/ Is that what matters right now?

"Just as anticipated."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart phews as she handles the last few zombies, before they scurry away. She looks around at the damage of the ship.

:/

Well, as long as there's a motor, it can be repaired, right?

Maira has posed:
When all is done, Maira continues to burn, looking bewildered at the world shard she now holds in her hands. Tears shine in her eyes as she looks down at the crystal, a smile of pure joy and relief shine. "A world shard....it's a world shard!" she says. Ivo confirms, and she leans against him, exhausted from her wounds and the power she'd poured into the rock. "W-we did it..." she says, looking around to find everyone in one piece, though many are injured. Nothing life threatening, right? Faruja is there, healing those who need it.

"Heh....heh...." she says, then simply sits down on the deck of the ship, her legs no longer able to hold her, clutching the world shard tightly, the fire of her magic finally dispersing to leave her skin, as always, untouched by its flame.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
The combined efforts did their job on turning Scarmiglione away. It was also impressive just combining his forces with Luso for that particular maneuver. In fact, the boy gives Luso a thumbs up, then he springs over to highfive his friend. "WE DID IT!" He laughs.

...No time to celeberate.

"BUH?!" The darkness is taking over and the ship is about to become a sink that may crash soon.

Until it happens.

There is something magnificently beautiful about seeing the Phoenix manifest itself. As the stone resonates and it blasts from the stone, Reize's eyes widen and he sees that power emanate. "Whoa..."

And then, Reize looks ahead, seeing what glows in her hand, Reize looks ahead towards the World Shard. He takes a couple of steps, revealing the street lights and the modernized city.

 !!!!!

...

His expression falters slightly, but he smiles as he reaches to his side to pull out his deck of tarots. He starts thumbing through them, holding the tarot up to reveal the streets and the similarities. "...This is Shibuya." Reize stares at it, looking at the shard. His eyes fall shut, recalling Shiki's expression when he showed her the card.

...If Avira and Emi were to look closer, the next card in his hand would be very familiar: It was that strange city that they explored where the ghouls took over and ADAM existed.

Luso Clemens has posed:
Landing back onto the deck, Luso hunched over, panting heavily as the radiant sword remained held at his side. That combination attack used up nearly all of his magical energy. But by the gods, they did it! That's all that mattered now. The fact that the ship was falling out of the sky didn't even register with him, he was too busy staring at where Scarmiglione used to be.

"Alright...We did it...WE DID IT!" Luso cried, grinning and looking over to Reize, just in time to catch the high five, meeting it with his off hand, causing a resounding clap. "You were awesome, man!"

At that moment though, it become painfully apparent that they were falling out of the sky now when he stumbled forward on the deck slightly. "W-Whoa! What the heck is--" Luso didn't get to finish as he had looked off towards the Fire Crystal, and in turn, Maira. It was then that he saw the world shard in her hands, the airship righting itself then. "...Is that what we've been looking for all this time?"

Stepping forward, Luso eyed the shard, tilting his head slightly. At that exact moment though, the ornate grimoire at his side began to glow. "Oh! It's glowing! Did I fill out some more pages?" Unhooking the tome from it's holster, the boy took hold of the book and opened it, pages flapping till they got to the next empty page.

With the grimoire glowing with a golden aura, words began to inscribe themselves upon the pages, writing out yet another grand tale in his saga so far. "...Awesome. Another story finished, another set of pages filled." The glow ceased then and Luso closed the grimoire, nodding decisively.

"All in a day's work!"

Avira has posed:
The Fiend is gone but...but the darkness persists. As Avira continues to struggle against the remaining Heartless and zombies, she quickly grows tired, the exertion from yesterday's fight in the coliseum catching up with her.

She looks over, spotting the fire shard. The ship lurches. Avira's stomach twists again.

Maira to the rescue! Avira's not entirely sure what she just did, all she can tell is that Maira just channeled a spectacular amount of magic into that stone, and like a glowing ember, it suddenly sprang back up into a full-fledged fire. The sky clears. "Wait...so it was a World Shard after all?"

The light about Avira seems to have diminished, save for the faint glow of her necklace. That necklace, sure, it has a minor source of light in it gifted by Mickey that Avira had combined with Skoll's gift weeks ago. Something still seemed off though. Whatever the issue, Avira does not notice.

"Well I guess the device does work?" Avira says grudgingly, slipping her weapon back into its sheath and walking over to approach Maira, pulling her friend into a hug.

Maira has posed:
Maira gratefully returns the embrace, exhausted and relieved beyond measure that everyone was going to be alright.

"/Now/ you really need to rest and let me see to your wounds Avira! I won't let you leave HQ tomorrow unless you cooperate!"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is hurt she'll live the darkness is banished and then another suprise, part of a lost world. That's something to celebrate about, once she's better off she'll totally celebrate but right now she's memorizing the image of everyone here as she's got a plan, but that's going to have to wait for a little bit. She's just kidna going to flop to the deck and sit there. Yes not standing right no seems like a grand idea.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
After a few moments, Reize lips the tarot togeher. As those tarots are joine once more into a deck, he slips them into a pouch. He actually smiles, then he glances towards everyone. "Let's go home, everyone."

They could all use the rest.