Raid on Balamb Garden

Raid on Balamb Garden
Date of Scene:	10 November 2012
Location:	Balamb Garden
Synopsis:	Enraged by his defeat at the Dias Plains, Captain Baigan has vowed to destroy the meddling mercenary force SeeD, and is bringing to bear the might of the Red Wings in an all-out assault on Balamb Garden. To supplement his kingdom's forces further with expendable Heartless, he has, in the name of his King, formed an alliance of convenience with the sinister vizier Jafar, for it has been discovered that Balamb now shelters the Princess Jasmine, object of the Shadow Lord's ambition and desire. SeeD's strength shall now truly be put to the test. Will those fools who dare defy the almighty will of Baron prove another Mysidia and be routed? What shall become of the brave Princess? The Water Crystal silently sheds its light... a single mote upon it depicting the Princess's location.
Thanks to:	To Jasmine for running the Heartless, Jafar for superb villainy, Xanatos for an historic air battle, Jean for a grand duel, and everyone for making this a truly epic scene!
Cast of Characters:	Celes Chere, Jean Faraven, Jasmine, Pixi, David Xanatos, Quistis Trepe, Lenna Tycoon, Avira, Baigan, Beatrix, Squall Leonhart, Kaydin, Jafar, Rinoa Heartilly, Aerith, Morrighan Alazne

---

Baigan has posed:
"Aaaaah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! The /fools/!"

Cornelius Baigan, ranking military commander of Baigan's formidable forces, laughs astride his pompously garbed chocobo steed, his spiteful mirth doing nothing to ease the otherwise humorless cast of his dour features. Unblinking eyes gaze on at the otherworldly architecture of Balamb Garden arising in the distance, and his chortling is almost drowned out by the roar of the small fleet of airships overhead. The mighty Red Wings took them over the seas of this new world and deployed him and his Dark Knight and Dragoon retinue, a vanguard of common guardsmen before them, before taking back to the skies to prepare for a devastating air-to-surface bombardment.

"How sad," Baigan continues exultantly talking to himself, "that these so-called SeeDs shall never grow into more than saplings! Oh, that was a good one. Aaaah ha ha ha!" The shrillness of his voice shows him to be, if anyone had needed further proof, a far cry from the man he was mere months ago. While amongst his men he remains stoic and serious, when endowed with authority over vast armies and confident in the righteousness of his cause he becomes maddened with power, his monstrous heart overtaking him. But who would have ever let Baigan lead such a force before, when Cecil and Kain remained and the King had not yet changed? And how could he have imagined doing so, he who swore only to protect his nation from outside threats? "The very /existence/ of these mongrel mercenaries is a threat to Baron!" he shouts out to his troops, as though in response to his own nascent consciousness. "We will use any means necessary to subdue them once and for all, and punish them for their unjustifiable intervention into our affairs on the Dias Plains!"

By 'any means necessary', he is of course referring not merely to the air forces above and the land forces below, but to the contingent that advances ahead even of the guardsmen, who still seem intimidated by its presence: a swarm of Heartless, larger than that which marched before.

"Show those fools what it means to defy the almighty will of Baron!"

For these dark creatures are not controlled merely from afar.

Aerith has posed:
She would have enjoyed the scenery if she had more time to do so, but this was an emergency. It wasn't going to be a pretty bit of news, but they had to deliver it. Aerith's face sported a solemn expression as she approached the main entrance of Balamb Garden, intent on at least getting them ready to mobilize. She looked behind her right shoulder, at Pixi. "I'd call it a stroke of luck that we got here first... but I doubt that luck will hold out. We need to get anyone who can't defend themselves out of here."

Jafar has posed:
In Agrabah, the great, tower-like doors of the palace had lurched, then shed a dusting of sand as they parting with a ponderous grind. In lockstep, the humanoid Heartless tromped, each dressed in billowy pants, an open vest, and pointed shoes, each carrying a large glittering scimitar at their belt. Their formation advanced through the courtyard, to the gates, and passed into the city, where the citizens drew their drapes tight and peered at their passage fearfully. The new Sultan's army was on the move, and though they breathed a sigh of relief when the soulless legion passed out of the city entirely, the mobilization was still grim news indeed. It was common knowledge, after all, that Sultan Jafar sought their princess.

Today, weeks later, Jafar has arrived at Baron. He is borne on a grand palaquin, black with red trim, by ten burly Heartless. As they set it down on the highest ground nearby to grant Jafar a good view of Balamb, he strokes his twisted sprig of a beard in admiration. "I appreciate the architecture of this land. Perhaps I shall have to appropriate it in my renovation of the palace." Jafar lets his eyes wander toward his new allies, spying Baigan. Removing a handfull of sand from his a pouch on his belt, the vizier blasts it with a puff of air from his bulging cheeks, turning it to a glimmering red cloud that floats through the air, passing over marching Baron troops and reaching their leader. The cloud of red motes forms, with startling abruptness, into a sort of floating likeness of Jafar's own thin face and puffy turban. "You seem to be in good spirits, General Baigan," the sand says, following Jafar's real face's motion. "I trust your mirth will not distract you from our bargain. The Princess belongs to me, and her corpse is /not/ an acceptable substitute. My powers and legions are at your disposal for only one purpose, Baigan. Forget this at your peril."

The exotically dressed Heartless of Jafar's army are lining up, and their swords ring out, lifted as one glinting mass of steel.

Beatrix has posed:
Beatrix has hitched a ride in one of the Red Wings airships, along with her Alexandrian troops... She never was one to trust thsoe dark creatures to do the work for her. Standing near the front of the airship, she observes the battlefield with her arms crossed. With the alliance of Alexandria and Baron, she had little choice but to come and help, although she is not quite pleased about the event either. Attacking rather than defending is not part of her usual duies, so she came mostly as a rearguard... Yet, she might be pressed to go on the frontline at some point as well.

Impassively, she watches the hoardes of heartless rolling through the plains toward the Garden. She can admire the beauty of the archtecture, if Baigan isn't able to appreciate it. Maybe one day she can take a tour of it. If it doesn't get destroyed of course. Well, time to focus on the present for now.

Morrighan Alazne has posed:
Seriously, this was a bad idea.

This was totally a bad idea. Attacking Balamb Garden head on? It sounded foolhardy! Even if Baigan managed to rally up the forces and strike a a couple deals, this was still bad news!

...Yet, here she was, standing amongst the ranks of the soldiers as their illustrious captain laughed on like a maniac. Seemed like business as usual on that front. "Yes, subdue them. Absolutely wonderful." The dark elf mumbled to herself, arms crossed as she kept her eyes straight ahead, listening to the words of Sir Snake Arms-I mean, Baigan.

"...I hope these people are not expecting me to throw my life away now.." Continuing to mumble quietly to herself, the healer could only begin to imagine the chaos that would soon nurst forth once contact was made.

If their fleet wasn't shot out of the sky and come crashing onto them at any rate.

That was seeming like a very distinct possibility.

Perhaps.

She entertained the thought of mentioning this sort of turnout to Baigan.

....Nah.

Pixi has posed:
"Right, Aerith." Pixi says to Aerith. She was moving into Balamb Garden as her ear turned out towards the plains. "We'd better get a move on, Aerith. I don't think Baron is too far off from here." She looks around quietly, trying to gauge the readiness of the people in the garden. "Hopefully these people will be able to fend them off......"

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Rinoa arrives with Aerith, Pixi and Tifa moments before the army does. They had sent word in advance of the Baron army attacking which hopefully arrived in time enough for garden to prepare. Still, Rinoa hoped they might be able to slow the army down at least..

She's with the others, at the gates of Balamb Garden, glancing over her shoulder as she sees the armies and heartless start to creep over the field. Drawing a deep breath, she looks away. "Surely there's a way to stop this..Why does everyone always have to fight?" Still, she scans the fields, searching for Kaydin. Perhaps at least she can convince him to fight with them..

Squall Leonhart has posed:
SEVERAL WEEKS AGO

"Home... Balamb..."

Squall Leonhart can be seen stumbling onto the front courtyard of Balamb Garden; he barely, barely makes it past the parking ticket stalls, and ignoring the gawking stares of passing students and civilians alike as he collapses to his knees, leather outfit a combination of sopping wet, blanched wet through the path he'd somewhat bizarrely cut through the desert, not to mention the ridiculous collection of creatures that are now no more than sparklingly precious cards stuffed into his back pockets.

A ponytailed female student watches him nervously as he puts his face down to kiss the ground, coughs once or twice, and then collapses with a weak murmur of, "I want to sleep for a week..."

A pause. "I hope I don't dream I'm a moron again..."

NOW

Dr. Kadowaki furrows her thick, perpetually unamused brow as she holds onto the SeeD's shoulder. "I realise we're in a bit of a spot, but do you have to do this--"

Squall frowns in turn, as he finishes the last straps of the GF contraption along his shoulder. He tests the reception for a moment, a spark of errant paramagic erupting into life as the Str-Junction starts to seep through his battered, stretched, and exhausted human muscles and gives him just a little bit more oomph to get going. "... I'll be alright," he reassures the doctor. "This is an emergency, after all."

He rises to his feet, and silently swears as the pain of ten thousand Garden U-Boats crash down onto his knees; he's a sorry sight as he stumbles on out of the infirmary, mostly relying on the Vitality-J enhancements powering his legs to actually be standing rather than collapsing.

. o O ( Need more... don't whimper, Squall, just -- get to the fight... yeah... )

Jean Faraven has posed:
After the Dias Plains, Jean had expected it would come down to a confrontation with Baron on SeeD's own turf. Yet he hadn't anticipated it would be so soon, or that they would manage such a comprehensive first. Only a fortunate series of coincidences and selective incompetence had resulted in Garden being forewarned and forearmed.

The capture of Kaydin had been the first hint of things going south when Jasmine brought the incident to his attention, her premonition of oncoming Heartless far more ominous. The Hound had seen enough of how the creatures behaved around her to trust that mystical intuition for what it was: A good luck charm on the battlefield.

Preparations had gone underway instantly. All underclassmen unfit for fighting and remaining refugees were herded towards classroom and secured while SeeD and Cadets of sufficient rank began administering to defenses. An a moogle mail missive from an unknown benefactor carried worse news: Baron was supporting the Heartless incursion with ground and air troops, the Red Wings themselves mobilizing to take the fight to the enemy.

It wasn't a good scenario considering their non-existent air defenses. But the Garden had been a military bunker of the ancient centra civilization before it had been a school. They had to have confidence that stood for something.

And confidence was surely what the forces of Balamb projected as they arrayed outside the military school's perimeter to meet the oncoming surge of forces. Several dozen APCs had been placed strategically and hastily converted to war wagons with improvised cowcawtches and wheel spikes courtesy of the arts and craft club, flanked on either side by a team of SeeD. Magic specialists manned the the walls armed with the most long-range spells available in a very makeshift defense against Baron's air power that was deemed better than nothing.

Jean Faraven himself stood at the front of the vanguard, perched atop the lead APC, monoscope in hand. "Those aren't the usual Heartless..." He murmured, picking out the unique creatures in the service of Jafar out from the typical swarming morass, "And that man with Baigan..." He hadn't seen him before, but something Jasmine had told him was suddenly at the forefront of his mind.

"Be prepared, everyone. They're going to hit us hard." Jean snapped the scope shut and took Anubis in hand, "We'll just have to hit harder."

Celes Chere has posed:
Airships are tools of war, and Celes knows what that means. Even before the army of Heartless get into range, she has been making ready, assisting students with barricading the building, working a few protective magics over herself and others, stepping courteously out of the way to let the youngest students and non-combatants pass on their way to sheltered areas. Since the Garden is basically a military camp, it is not unprepared for all-out attack--and she is impressed by its readiness.

Of course, that does still leave the attack itself to deal with, and Celes arrays herself among the Garden's defenders, sword at the ready. The air begins to chill around herself as she musters the magic within her body, feeling it tug at her bones. "I think we are adequately prepared," she murmurs to Jean, turning her attention fully to the enemy at the gates.

She produces a pair of opera glasses from a bag hanging at her side, passing them over the airships ground forces. Her gaze slides over Jafar, then back again, and narrow slightly in thought. She puts the glasses away, and picks up her blade from where she had leaned it.

Avira has posed:
"Now seems like a bad time, I guess?" Avira pipes up, peering around Jean's APC. "I could come back later." Or never, maybe, since the whole SeeD thing looks like it's not going to work out in her favor. She'd been thwarted by the greatest enemy of all. AGE. It sounds like she's mostly joking about this since, given the advancing army of both Heartless and airships, she's not going anywhere for a while.

The visitor had followed Jean ever since the shit hit the fan, not unlike a lost puppy. Well, an armed lost puppy completely lacking in the puppylike enthusiasm that puppies are known for. Avira had grown a shade colder lately though there is not likely to be anyone here that'll recognize such a shift.

On the other hand, this unfortunate turn of events could yet prove to be a boon. A chance to convince them to maybe make an exception for her age and let her take a class or two.

Jasmine has posed:
Jasmine, fugitive Princess of Agrabah, has had a very busy afternoon.

After sensing the approach of the Heartless army and assuming, correctly, that it was mobilizing to seize her -- a fairly safe guess since that's been a continuous problem of hers since the fall of her world into shadow -- she notified the heads of Garden immediately, then went about making her own preparations.

On her way down to the armory, she detected the Darkness in the infiltrator Kaydin, going by 'David' at the time. They fought; after erupting with inner holy power that she hadn't known she possessed, the princess won, healed the dark knight's unconscious ass, waited for SeeD to arrive and arrest him, then continued on her way.

Quistis Trepe promised her the run of SeeD's resources for the day she was going to have to leave, after all. Today she intended to collect.

Getting locked in a safe room by Jean Faraven has slowed her departure a little, but only just. Pacing around the room like a caged tigress, she waits, listens, and looks for a way out. A video screen keeps her appraised of the goings-on, cycling through various cameras.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith made her way through the halls, aiding in what she figured was the only thing she could aid in. She really should have thought ahead when she'd come here... backed against a mountain range, no safe shelters, no real exit routes. She wasn't much of a tactician, but she knew a bad spot when she saw one, and this was a bad spot. Still, she would help with the squaring-away of the noncombatants as quickly as possible. As far as she'd heard, there was an army outside, which meant they came a tad late for the warning. Someone else had beaten them to it. Not like she minded.

Quistis Trepe has posed:

A WHILE AGO

Quistis Trepe steps into the sickbed room of Squall Leonhart, stands in the doorway for about five minutes, then leaves, not knowing why she came.

A LITTLE WHILE BEFORE NOW

"If we don't have air defenses... we'll just have to obtain them from the enemy," Quistis said, light gleaming on the glasses.

"W-well fine, YOU can do that, Instructor!" said what's his name, that guy nobody likes. (Nida will show you all one of these days.)

NOW

Quistis is standing on a simple wooden platform, with a similar platform adjacent to her holding Nida, who is looking like he's about to die. Several others are placed nearby, with Float Stones in complex and pulley-rigged crusher mechanisms surrounding them. Just in case other people would like to come commit suicide in an inventive way. Quistis holds the pull rope loosely, glancing towards the others.

"Jean," she says to the Hound, "I'd appreciate it if you could try and keep them occupied during the launch phase." After this, and a few deep breaths, she adjusts her prescription flight goggles for the sixteenth time.

She watches the airships come. Like red thunder. Breath in, she thinks. Breathe out. Let the cooling force of the Guardian Force keep you calm. Cold as ice. Cold... as...

"NOW!!" Pull, crunch, WHOMM, hop, FWING

Nida's trajectory sends him off towards a grisly fate. Quistis flies and topples through the air, spreading her arms slightly at the last moment as a parasailing chute pops out at the last moment, letting her vector her final approach. Even so, she ends up skidding across the majority of the topdeck of that airship, finally slapping against the steering cabin before she pulls loose the parasail clasp and lets it whip out into the slipstream.

Looking out at the momentarily startled crewmen, she says, straightening up, "This will be simple, won't it, Nida?"

Her head turns to the left. "... Nida?"

Pixi has posed:
Despite being inside of a building, the dull roar of the explosion near the infirmary still reaches Pixi's ears, and she stop Aerith in her tracks. "That.....didn't sound good." She says as she nudges Quistis away from the direction of the infirmary.....quite forcefully. Pixi may not be able to sense magic, but the sound of an explosion, and the smell of brimstone is enough to give her pause.

Lenna Tycoon has posed:
Lenna, the slightly-less fugitive princess of Tycoon, has been having a weird time of it. She's been, for the most part, exploring; specifically, she's been sort of panickedly running from world to world, locale to locale trying to figure out what is even occurring. Her cover story, of course, is that she's looking for her father -- and for a long time, that was true... though the truth, as always, is more complicated.

Her search for allies and -- well, much of anything, in restoring her multiply-shattered world, has led her to Balamb now. She blends in well enough, in a smart business jacket and matching skirt, picked up in Manhattan; she noticed she got some weird looks in her previous style.

She's ended up in Balamb at just the right time to help with the attack, though. She stands atop an armoured personnel carrier not currently in use, parked outside one of the entrances to the Garden; her plan, of course, is to make sure that nothing gets in that shouldn't before this nebulous 'launch phase.' Simple enough.

Squall Leonhart has posed:
. o O ( What-- )

Squall's physical devices fail for a moment at the sudden spike of magic erupting in the area, the Odine-brand device alerting him internally to the presence of a sudden surge of magic; he's managed to very weakly roll to his side, and spends about two seconds flat on his front before he pushes himself up to his knees, with a face full of soot, and coughing from the sudden intake of smoke in the area.

. o O ( Hyne almighty, they're already in here too... alright, behind me is-- )

He peers back to the thoroughly blocked passage to the Infirmary. Okay... that's one /less/ worry if he's the only one here to engage, at the very least. He puts his hand to the hilt of the Revolver, and slowly draws it from its sheath... and almost betrays his element of surprise with a groan as he feels the weight of the decidedly two-handed contraption pulling his arms /down/.

. o O ( Oh, /SUCK IT UP/, Leonhart! )

A moment later, a rising curtain of synthetic energy's spiraled around the SeeD's leathered boots. The sequencer embedded within his forearms work at full capacity, processor reciting the terms for the SeeD's choice of spell as he starts a sneaky surprise attack at the start of the round.

Paramagic coalesces into existence, and a quartet of blizzard crystals home in from above, at the same time several errant motes of magic... do not much, as the GF Junction device shortcircuits from overexertion. "Crap--"

Beatrix has posed:
The General's single eye moves to intercept the trajectory of the SeeD instructor's flight. Well, it is rather impressive, she can admit that much. She shakes her head though, and turns around, flipping her hair behind her as she looks over to her troops "We have a rat onboard. You all keep to the plan, I shall handle it."

The Alexandrian girls, all dressed in battle booats, iron helmet and LEOTARDS ( for whatever reasoning there might be behind that choice of battle clothings) nod to the general, as they prepare to land down in the plains. Their task is handling the rear guard, but they are to offer support from the ground.

The General moves quietly toward where the parachute disapeared to, finding the blonde instructor, alone there. "It would seem your companion was not able to control his flight. I am afraid he is not on board."

Cut to Nida hanging for dear life on one of the side cannons, with one leotard-dressed soldier trying to poke at him with a sword, but not reaching far enough to touch him either.

"So I am afraid you will have to dance with me today." She draws her sword, Save-The Queen, tracign an arc of light around her as she brings it in front of her, two hands on the grip, pointing the tip of the sword toward Quistis.

Jafar has posed:
Jafar rises from his palaquin, throwing aside his dark cape. No Sultan's outfit today; he is at war, and for the first time in his life, he has the raw power to /make/ war, both in his armies and in his own mystic reserves. He has been waiting for this moment for a long time. Glancing about, his sallow eyes find a great boulder, and he walks to it, giving it a tap with his staff. "Oh, Balamb," he says, in a sing-song tone. "I have a gift for you."

Reversing his grip on his staff, so the cobra head is at the bottom, he takes a loping spin of a step, facing the boulder and drawing his staff back like a golf club. Cackling quietly to himself, he twists his shoulders and hips and swings, a long drive close to the grass, striking nothing but air. At the antapex of his swing, where it would have connected with a ball, a great ripping crack sounds, and the boulder tears free of the earth in a spray of dirt and grass, spinning lazily as it sails up, high into the air. Its upward momentum begins to fade, and then with increasing speed, it plummets down, until it collides like a meteor against one of the outer walls of Balamb.

The Heartless seem to see this as a sign, and immediately begin pouring down the hill, as Jafar lifts his staff back upright again, shares a wicked glance with Iago, and dusts some specks of dirt off his wide, pointed black shoulderpads.

Baigan has posed:
Baigan, credit to him, regains his composure at Jafar's mystical manifestation, the Vanguard of Baron offering a sweeping bow upon his chocobo to the foreign monarch and sorcerous vizier. "Of course, Your Highness," the red-cloaked commander replies with gravity. While a proud soldier of Baron, he is a courtier and advisor foremost, and always diplomatic when dealing with allied powers. "I would not dare to fail you. Rest assured, the armies of Baron are as disciplined as they are mighty. Your wayward Princess will come to no harm, and will be returned to you, as is rightful and just. With the devastation our united forces will inflict, she shall surely see the error of her ways."

When the vision of his sinister ally vanishes, Baigan straightens in his saddle and smirks, looking on at the forces arrayed before them. "What can these imbelices do against the power of the Red Wings? This battle is only a formality. This 'Jean Faraven' will cower before me by the day's end." The mutterings of the white-clad dark elf by his side cause Baigan to glance over -- and his smirk widens. "Indeed, the might of Baron is wondrous!" he replies, taking her completely seriously. "Never fear, my lady. Now that you have succeeded the tragically absent Rosa Farrell as leader of our White Mages, I shall protect you faithfully, as is a soldier's duty. You may rely upon me," he adds, in what he imagines to be a rather dashing fashion, but which of course comes off as profoundly overwrought.

Abruptly, Baigan's unblinking eyes widen, and his still-human tongue flicks out to taste the air. Immediately, he turns toward the formation of APCs that are rushing forth to meet Baron's forces. "...Faraven!" he hisses, his hands begin to tremble. Slowly, he removes his gloves. "Morrighan," he says to his companion, "together, we shall strike down this man that so plagues Baron! Hyah!"

And as the armies clash upon the field, and the airships begin their onslaught -- though their formation seems to be becoming oddly jumbled as the lead ship begins to wobble from its course, as though the crew is in confusion -- para-magic meeting bombs in the air, Baigan spurs his steed on, charging toward the lead APC.

"Damn you, SssssssssseeD--!"

He leaps from his mount, and as he does his body transforms in midair, elongating and-- yeah, he turns into a snake-man, we all know about it by this point. "I SSSHALL CRUSSSH YOU, FARAVEN!" he screams, as he lands upon the ground directly in front of the vehicle, looking as though he's gearing up to flip it over with his huge body and, uh, literally crush everyone.

"Get him, Boss!" one of Baigan's snake arms exclaims, its flapping jaw revealing the glint of a gold tooth as it joyfully tastes the open air with its forked tongue.

"Godspeed, Captain," the other snake arm adds, its monocle adjusted with a slight tilt of its serpentine head. "Allow us to assist you with some magical enhancements." And the snakes' eyes begin to gleam, as enchantments issue forth, preparing Baigan to meet the onrushing APC.

David Xanatos has posed:
The Baron Airships were moving in, and from the Bridge of another Airship the Persephone, a man stands and watches view screens. A man on the bridge nods once and then raises his wrist up to his face to speak to the wrist communicator he has there. All ships. Attack.

With that, five airships, propelled by an jet systems and armored for combat like a battleship. The craft ascend, and light shimmers around them as the come into sight, their armored skins becoming visible as they de-cloak. The ships adopt a wedge formation and the weapons begin to swing into position. Then the man nods and brings a helmet to his head. Steel Clan. Launch. Order. Attack. With these words Steel clad Gargoyles launch from the airships and begin to dive on the Baron forces and the Heartless ground forces.

Xanatos nods once inside his Power Armor. Captain. Engage and destroy those Baron Airships. Do not pursue. Simply engage and defend the SeeD installations. He then moves toward an airlock and opens it, leaping outm he spreads the wings of the Power Suit and dives in on the enemy forces. <

Kaydin has posed:
Kaydin was indeed arrested and locked in the brig. Unfortunatly what wasnt known by the SeeD was that the Dark knight could use the same abilities as the heartless in regards to teleportation. Course navigating the corridors of darkness was indeed a feat unto itself since he didnt want to leave the world, just that room. Thankfully he managed to pull it off, appearing just on the back end of the main barricade. He looks about and grabs a nearby sword for his own use, groaning at the fact that once more, he will have to use a normal sword to fight with. He then notices Rinoa going before approaching.

"You need to get out of here before things become worse." He says to Rinoa, his hair darker then last time she saw him.

Quistis Trepe has posed:

Quistis frowns for a moment as she sees a woman coming towards her in archaic garb. She immediately begins worrying.

She has gathered that in most of the other frames of existence, women did /not/ have a primary monopoly on magical power, after all. As such, they did /not/ get to dictate matters from a position of horrifying supernatural power an unsettling amount of the time. Logically, any woman warrior from these frames will have had to deal with three times the scorn and difficulty of her male comrades.

The strategic analysis stopped short of 'kill the women first,' but it seems, Quistis thinks, like she may have to.

She tilts her head downwards, one hand raising upwards, the other drifting near her hip. "I suppose you have me at a disadvantage, madam," she says.

Then the whip is gripped and suddenly lashed forwards, the six-yard leather moving with perfectly timed grace and aiming to wrap around Beatrix's sword arms and then, with a crack of her wrist and upper body, pull the general downwards.

"I hope you won't be offended if I try to fix that situation!"

Also she has forgotten she ever saw Nida today.

Jasmine has posed:
Simple enough indeed, Lenna.

At Jafar's command, thousands of Heartless -- mostly speedy little soldier-like guys in turbans, armed with scimitars, with a few enormous, beach-ball-shaped fellows armed only with their mass (which is more than enough) and a fair share of those caster ones that are basically miniature Vivi's -- are rushing the gate. And all the other gates, but this is the one we're interested in. Take a moment to imagine the others: brave SeeDs and a few outstanding students armed with everything from sword-chucks to molotov cocktails to machine gun emplacements, blowing up Heartless before they even reach Garden proper. Guardian Force elemental attacks are everywhere. Those few who make it to the gates, or the newfound hole in the wall made by Gigantic Jafar-Propelled Meteor Weapon, have the magic sucked straight out of them, converted to various Dark spells that are promptly wielded against their buddies. What remains are turned into cards.

Cards?

Cards. It'll be a big trading night for the Triple Triad circuit after all this, if there is an after.

How long the guardians of the gates can hold out may be the determining question of that. A few forces may pour in through other entrances, but... in the end, whoever controls the gates controls the fortress.

Their bodies are primarily Darkness; in numbers like these, the whole world seems threatened, passing motes of light sucked into the army's void by simple proximity. Somewhere in the back, a massive lieutenant sort of Heartless blows a massive, spiral horn to encourage his allies, sounding like a goddamn Uruk-Hai.

It's the multiverse, after all. Anything's possible.

WAVE 1!!

READY???

FIIIIIIIGHT!!

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Rinoa starts to follow Aerith and Pixi down the halls of the garden, helping to evacuate the junior classment into the safe zones..When she hears a sudden earth shaking explosion, sending shrapnel flying and knocking her off her feet.

"Woah, what was that?" Her heart beats more rapidly as she climbs shakily to her feet. When the smoke clears, she sees the familiar form of Kaydin approaching. But is he here as enemy or friend? "Kaydin..?" she gasps, backing away. Do they really have to fight, this time? No! Maybe she can still convince him to join them.

"I cant! I wont leave all these people to get slaughtered!" She takes a step towards Kaydin, perhaps having too much faith in him. "Kaydin..Help us defend the Garden! It's not too late to redeem yourself!"

Nearby, Angelo barks frantically at Kaydin, growling angrily as she hovers protectively near her mistress..

Aerith has posed:
Aerith turned toward the voice that spoke to Rinoa, only to find... "Ah, so here you are." She gave him a smile, though. "I figured this would have happened. Loyalty to your nation and all that. Thanks for giving us the heads up, though, much appreciated." She turned away from Rinoa. "He's going to fight you. Get ready. I'll keep on squaring the students away." Aerith looked over her right shoulder. "You got this?"

Pixi has posed:
Pixi slows her pace beside Aerith and looks towards Kaydin as he appears. She blinks once before smiling to Rinoa. "I don't think you're going to be able to help someone who's fallen so far to darkness, Rinoa." She says before looking to Aerith, then back to Rinoa. "Yeah....You got this, Rinoa?"

Kaydin has posed:
"You just dont get it. If I help you, then I will be betraying my nation, my home. I will be breaking my oath and when will it stop? No. I am afraid in the end I simply will have to put my personal feelings aside and perform my duty as a dark knight of Baron." Kaydin says as he looks to Aerith and when she spoke, he just sorta gasped. She understood! He would actually looked somewhat happy. He then turns his gaze to Rinoa. "She is right. Either I fight you, or give up everything I have ever known and valued." He says as he readies himself.

Morrighan Alazne has posed:
Leader of the white mages was not exactly a title she could bring herself to be proud of. Especially considering that it was little more than second pickings. But alas, titles meant nothing in her line of work. All she had to do was assist her allies and all would be well.

Maybe. ...No of course they wouldn't. Who was she kidding?

"Of course, Captain." Replying evenly, Morrighan gave Baigan a rather dark smile. "Consider Faraven to have already been defeated~" And with that, they were off. Dashing through the field to meet the enemy.

Keeping a safe distance behind Baigan, the dark elf followed along with the rest of the troops, watching as the clash began. "And so it starts..." She muttered faintly, crimson eyes sweeping about casually to observe the fighting. The reason why she kept her distance soon became apparent.

Baigan had transformed in midair, crashing down to the ground in front of that APC to meet it head on. "Oh joy..." And with a deep sigh, the healer slowed down to a stop, preparing magics to assist her currently transformed captain in his efforts...

Squall Leonhart has posed:
. o O ( ... Hyne be damned, is his brain made out of /fire/? )

And then-- instead of the inevitable column of fire that his tactical mind is already more contemplating, Squall instead finds a startlingly ... soothing, and no doubt very passionately enflaming golden light sweltering around his exhausted, battered form. The strength of flame, the vitality of heat rises into him in a manner that he finds very nurturing, and delicately so, Rubicante's Honor has touched--

. o O ( KEEP YOUR PANTS ON, LEONHART! )

"... a man of honor," Squall mutters, as he steps onward with more firmness and confidence in his step. "Your kind's the last place I expected to find someone with guts."

He pauses a moment and mutters, . o O ( ... what the hell is he anyway? 'Heartless'? GF? ... I don't even know anymore. )

He's going to need -- speed, vantage, mobility; there's no other choice here, and it's one of his favorite tactics anyhow. With another surge of light erupting from around his feet, the intricate, electronic mandalas crawling onto the corners of the cracked walkway he's on, the SeeD raises his hand upwards to announce:

"Come to me -- Quetzalcoatl!"

Perhaps having spared the Eastern European controversy of having to pull a fake gun to his head, Squall's alter-ego from another life emerges from the sea of his soul... or more accurately, the digitized Odine-computers around his body as the Aztec Thunderbird rises out of nowhere to swoop him up into the air, on a bed of sheer emerald-green avian body of /lightning/.

Squall's magic has once more coalesced to a fine point, moreso than before due to the healing's effect of clearing the dregs out of his mind; this time, he's able to more coherently synthesize the paramagic, launching in a strafing run at the Elemental Fiend of Fire as he first forcefully conjures anchors fire-red motes of lifesap around him... which would, in turn, explode into sheer-white scathing light.

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Rinoa glances sideling at Aerith and Pixi. "He did help us..So maybe there's still hope for him, right?" She'd like to think so at least, but she cant risk letting the others get hurt! "Aerith, Pixi, I'll try and talk to him. Maybe we dont have to fight. Please protect the kids!"

Still, she's shaking pretty bad. Rinoa..Doesn't like fighting on her own. Dammit, she doesn't like fighting at all, if she can help it! But right now, those kids need Pixi and Aerith's help more. "I.." She swallows.." I'll do my best!"

Yeah, she's not completely alone. Surely they'll help her if things get bad! She glances back at Kaydin, deep sable eyes pleading now. "Kaydin, who cares about honor? Baron has allied with the heartless who are trying to destroy everything! They dont have any honor left, so please, let's not fight! There will only be more bloodshed!"

Angelo however, doesnt trust Kaydin and she snarls and whines, backing up so that she's between Rinoa and Kaydin. This time she thoroughly howls, shining with magical light as she showers her mistress in protective magics.

Beatrix has posed:
Beatrix is stalwart, she doesn't easily yield. The whip comes in lashing toward her, and her sword intercepts it easily. She moves her sword to the side, pulling on the whip, an attempt to pull it out of Quistis' grip. She's pretty strong too, as Quistis will soon find, even if she's not a physically imposing women in appearance. That said, she managed to silence the first attack at least.

"You can even the odds in any way you like, but you will find no mercy on the battlefield." She twists the sword, freeing up the whip entirely as she dashes in, sword along her side, moving in for her counter attack. Not much tricks here, simple attack to open up hostilities.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded and started to walk away. "Pixi, we're going to finish securing the underclassmen. Then we're going to stick around and fight any Heartless that enter the building. If any one of them breaks through, those kids are in trouble. We good?"

Jean Faraven has posed:
"We'll do what we can down here." Jean managed to get a few lines out to Quistis before all hell broke loose, head inclined to the side, "If possible i'd like to have those airships captured instead of destroyed. See if you can't deliver a miracle or two up there."

Jafar's primitive but effective sieged tactice slammed through their above them just on tail-end of Jean's direct, slamming into the Garden's outer wall with sufficienct force to /stay/ there, snugly wedged into the unknown material the facility was made of.

"I knew there was something about that man..." Jean growled and focused his eye on Jafar, slamming down on the top of the APC with heel of his boot, "That's all the signal we need. Celes, Avira, hang tight!"

It wasn't something Jeans spoke lightly; The APC surged forth like a bucking bronco with several others that formed an initial battlefield charge towards the oncoming enemies. Heartless, soldiers and other flavors of minion were flung skywards by the steel skirts installed on the front end and flanks of the APCs while Jean kept a careful eye on the woman who'd incessantly followed him around since arrival. "It may be too late to be a SeeD, Avira.." The Hound began, "But we're always looking for instructors. Show me what you can do!"

And show him quick, because suddenly a snake-man was all up in the vehicle's proverbial (And literal) grill.

"Baigan!" The veteran agent snarled, backing up towards the APC's rear just as the Baronian Champion's forceful entry /flipped it right the hell over at full speed/, launching the two and half ton of menacing steel through the air in it's sudden and finaly deployment as artillery. If the cadet's driving it had any moxy they'd do their best to land on Jafar or something.

Quick reactions had kept Jean from going with it, dropping from the air with the corruscating forces and junctioned energy swirling around him, channeling some spell of power and force that brought Anubis's edge down like a sledghammer in Baigan, shattering the earth on which they stood and throwing up soil dramatically as the camera suddenly freeze-framed and did a full 360 degree shot around them before the action continued.

Pixi has posed:
Pixi nods to Aerith. "I figured that was the plan, Aerith." However, she looks back to Kaydin and points at him. "If Rinoa dies, Kaydin......you're next." She says flatly to Kaydin. She definitely meant it.

Celes Chere has posed:
Celes watches Jafar's spell breaks open the gates, Celes simply nods to herself thoughtfully. Heartless begin pouring into the breach, and the able defenders of the school begin to fight them. Cards, powers, guardian forces all erupt in the fury of battle. In truth, Celes can feel her blood rising with the excitement of battle, despite her current ambivalence about the nature of war. She hasn't been in a good fight in a while, and this time at least she doesn't need to question her side.

She erupts into the fray, cutting a path through several Heartless with a series of swift, singing strokes. She has a goal in mind beyond 'strike down the enemy', and that goal is the enemy's sorcerer. After all, they only have so many gates.

Her advance takes her towards the tall, thin man. A battlefield magician is a valuable thing to have, and she wants to reduce the enemy's assets. She skirts around some packs of the enemy, already engaged, and moves tactically through the crowd of her foes.

When she gets close, she doesn't bother with a greeting, or exchange of honors or anything else. The fight is already on, and so she simply goes to the attack without a word, eyes rising to meet Jafar's as her blade lashes out.

Kaydin has posed:
"If I abandon my honor I will become no more different then them. Even if it is something I want to do." He says as he watches her. "Either you attack first or I will be forced to, Rinoa." He says as the blade begins to blacken as he forces the darkness into it.

Jasmine has posed:
Lenna slices, dices, and makes julienne fries with a side of whipped Heartless, beaten like an egg. She is a constantly moving, living wall of death, and the little guys explode into tiny multicolored balls as she slays them.

The smoke, however, doesn't seem to faze them even a bit; they aren't looking with their eyes, they're feeling for their opposites. Hearts, that is. And so, in waiting for her moment, Lenna gives them one. What follows is a mob of terrible scimitar-ing, with a side of one of those enormous Heartless rolling towards her at top speed, scattering littler ones like bowling pins and threatening to crush her if she isn't careful.

Pixi and Aerith can hear their fearful howls from not far away, and may wish to come out to this particular undermanned gate to help.

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Rinoa shakes her head, still hesitant to fight if she can help it. "But your honor makes no sense! You're sooo...Messed up!" In fact, it's making her kinda angry, and that anger gives her a little more bravery as she adjusts her blaster edge, pointing it at Kaydin but not shooting. Is it really hopeless? Why does it always have to come down to fighting and bloodshed?

"It we fight, and I kill you, or...Or.." She shivers. She doesn't want to think about if he kills her. She's not a soldier, not a SeeD. Just an overambitious freedom fighter who suddenly found herself thrust in the middle of a senseless war!

"I..Dont know. I dont want to hurt you, but.." But Angelo has no such reservations! She snarls, suddenly leaping at Kaydin, and Rinoa, trying to protect her dog, instinctively surrounds her in protective magics.

"Angelo!"

Avira has posed:
"Roger!" Avira slots her weapon away so she can grab onto the APC with both hands. It doesn't take long before Avira realizes just exactly what Jean was doing-RUNNING EVERYTHING THE HECK OVER! Unbeknownst to Faraven this fills Avira with manic glee. Such an act was expressly illegal where she was really from. There was seldom a person that had handled a vehicle that hadn't fantasized about mowing down all obstacles in the way with reckless abandon. So excited by the sheer joy of sanctioned vehicular heartless/manslaughter that she nearly misses Jean's words.

"Instructors?" She balks. What on earth would she instruct?

Avira will worry about this later. The sudden appearance of Baigan tells her well in advance that this vehicle is going to come to a painful stop-no, not even that. The momentum is going to send the APC flipping in the air. As it begins its aerial rotation, Avira hurls herself from the back of the vehicle. She hits the ground rolling, twisting herself up onto her feet.

The joy is gone. Returned is the primal focus she had honed for days prior. Her hands snap out, the left drawn back behind her, right pointing with two fingers at the dark elf assisting the Baron commander. Ice magic flares along the length of her arm, solidifying into arrows.

Baigan has posed:
Courtesy of Xanatos Enterprises, what could have been a dangerous predicament for Balamb Garden in the form of an aerial bombardment is halted almost as soon as it begins by the sudden uncloaking (!?) of an adversarial air force, throwing the attackers into disarray. The Red Wings are a formidable force, however, despite their comparatively primitive technology, and the airships recover themselves surprisingly quickly, switching from bombs to cannons and beginning evasive maneuvers. Without their legendary commander Cecil and with the lead ship still oddly preoccupied with something happening on deck, the Red Wings are not at their best, but the clash in the skies nevertheless promises to be a worthy one, which shall give David Xanatos a run for his money.

Then again, he does have a /lot/ of money.

With Morrighan's timely enchantment enhancing Baigan's already monstrous strength, it is with an epic and sibilant roar that Baigan flips the frickin' APC carrying Jean and Avira upside-down. Freeze frame as Jean descends from the sky, a dog of war imputing the judgment of the heavens, and Baigan's snake arms lash up, three maws widened in vicious rage. Then continue the action, as the impact hammers into Baigan's scaly body just as Sir Scraggletooth seizes upon the Hound and briefly suspends him in the air, attempting to sink its fangs into the veteran.

"Aaaah ha ha ha ha!" the monstrous Captain cackles. "Well, Faraven, sssshall I kill you /now/, or ssshall I allow you to watch all that is precioussss to you be consigned to the flamesss firssst!?"

And that jaw clenches, seeking to constrict and crush the swordsman's body, even as Baigan's glare and other arm snap over to look in Avira's direction, from whence those ice arrows came. "Pesssky woman!" he screams. "Harasss not my faithful mage! I ssshall desstroy you next!!"

Kaydin has posed:
Kaydin tries to evade the dog but the dog manages to tackle him and he groans. The sword glows with black energy as he sends a blast of darkness to throw the dog off of him and stands up. He sends another blast of dark energy for the dog now a glance given to rinoa to see if she will attack.

Jafar has posed:
Jafar watches his Heartless assail the walls--and Lenna, though to him she is just a small dot with oddly colored hair--with a wicked glee. "Ah, yes. This is what I was born for. Power. Domination. Perhaps other kingdoms should know of my might."

"Jafar, um..." a hoarse voice interrupts from his shoulder.

"Can't you see I am attempting to savor a moment, Iago?"

Jafar sees the flash of Celes's blade almost too late, stumbling back as the peaked shoulder of his robe is rent clean off, along with a gash on his shoulder. Jafar is not a man used to pain, and he shrieks in dismay, stumbling back and drawing his staff up protectively. "You! I take it you are the champion of this doomed little patch of civilization. And you wish to make my acquaintence? You should know I have a habit of keeping people at arm's length." Jafar thrusts the cobra staff toward Celes, a blast of pure force--in the form of his trademark red glimmering sand--rocketing toward Celes to drive her away, to gain some distance.

"And my personality can be somewhat... prickly!" Sweeping his hand dramatically, Jafar summons a tight ring of swords to shoot down around Celes. They are intended to box her in, but he's not exactly careful about avoiding her flesh, either.

Lenna Tycoon has posed:
Lenna has a rough time closing with the Heartless -- or perhaps, more accurately, she has a rough time doing so while not getting hurt. She waits a little too long, and pays for it; she gets rolled at and then rolled over, sent flying by a mass of raw darkness. Fortunately, she has a plan for dealing with this situation.

That plan is to throw things and never stop throwing them. Sometimes you gotta keep it simple.

Continuing her conservative yet high-speed assault, Lenna hops back and begins throwing darts and shuriken at the waves of Heartless; after a few throws, she stops, graduating to larger knives, wreathed in a lance-sized 'blade' of air. When /this/ proves to be insufficient, she graduates in turn to full-sized swords, thrown end-over-end at the Heartless in an attempt to disarm and cleave through them.

Where is she /keeping/ these?

Morrighan Alazne has posed:
"Hmm?"

Seeing a volley of ice arrows careening her way, Morrighan raised an arm, forming a barrier of light to defend against the sudden assault. "...Now just what sort of hopeless coward attacks a healer!?" Demanding angrily, Morrighan's eyes fell upon Avira's rather short visage. "...Oh. Well now..."

Unable to keep herself from smirking in amusement at the sight of the hunter, she brought a hand to her mouth, giggling openly. "Oh how cute! Look at this child! Flinging magic about openly on a battlefield!" Her eyes narrowed after that statement. "...You should have stayed home."

And with that, Morrighan continued to stay behind, electing not to attack Avira and instead focused solely on support.

Quistis Trepe has posed:

Striving against Beatrix, Quistis feels her arms tense, tighten, her entire body stiffening as she contends against the woman's strength - and it's not enough. The handle of the whip slides between her hands, slick black length wrapped in leather and not enough to do more than leave a rash on Quistis's hand when it's pulled out.

Pained for a moment, she staggers back a pace, back against the wall. Is this the end?!

Her eyes widen.

And then a streak of light lance out from them, aiming towards Beatrix's ankles and feet as Quistis pushes herself back up. "I'm terribly sorry, ma'am, but I wasn't expecting -" She then presses two fingers to her chin, "To find any."

At THAT point she pulls back her upper lip and sprays a sudden squirt of hissing greenish-yellow fluid from /somewhere/ towards Beatrix, advancing afterwards as she takes in a breath and lets it out with effort, folding her arms over her chest. "You see, this is an unprovoked attack. We're not going to defend ourselves with one arm tied behind our back. This ship, and all of its sister vessels, are going to fall!"

She leans back slightly.

Then she starts shooting missiles. Everywhere. Mostly around Beatrix. Their origin is unclear, although Nida screams in terror, "She's doing the missile thing!! We're all going to die!!!"

Aerith has posed:
Aerith shivered at the powerful roar, her right hand tightening on her staff. "Okay... okay fine." The materia on her weapon lit up like a switchboard, and she tapped her staff twice. One particular materia lit up, and she pointed her left hand toward the monster. "I can roar back!" She opened fire, spheres of lightning on a collision course with the Heartless.

Squall Leonhart has posed:
Yeah, fire -- Squall was fully expecting that --

. o O ( Hyne, it's getting hot quick-- wait...! )

He realises just a little too late that this is Rubicante's slightly more subtle way of attacking him, and clings a little tighter against the GF as he strafes in the air and dips in closer as his personal belongings start to catch fire. On the /flip/ side, leather is particularly good at dampening fire, when fire spontaneously combusts like you're dealing with Mitochondrial Eve.

On the bad side, fur is absolutely horrible at mitigating fire.

"Kghh--!" Squall grunts as his neck is just about thoroughly engulfed in flame, and his faithful GF reacts pretty much on demand to ride low and...

...pretty much drag Squall "Fur is Murder" Leonhart face-first through the pools of Balamb Garden to put him out. That'll show /you/.

Surfacing on the other side, now once more soaked and possibly having smacked his face into a crop of debris or two on the way, Squall is muttering darkly and angrily as he holds the length of his arm a little tighter around the thick of Quetzalcoatl's neck for support and balance. "That's it."

He stares down towards his clothing for a moment to where the fur lining of the jacket's just completely singed into ash and dust. The result is that he's got... well, a fur-less leather jacket.

This isn't really that big a deal, but let it be said that no one ever said Squall Leonhart was not secretly kind of /vain/.

"Don't play around with me -- I've got to fight with the others!"

Numbers and readouts flash along the HUD on his arm, arcs of lightning and power filling in a hell of a mighty surge as the Odine GF-Junction Device revs into overdrive; synthesized Firaga spells are thrown to the proverbial fuel, the armbands and metal harnesses underneath his clothes filling the young scarred SeeD with power as he finally, /finally/ holds his gunblade aloft.

"Go, Quetzalcoatl...! Chase him down!"

The speedy and adroit GF pulls left, right, and finally dips on down as it attempts a lock in on the Fiend's position. He's finally stood upright along the bird's back to time his leap, and -- suddenly blasts on through with a surge of energy, almost appearing in triplicates as the Speed-J verniers hurl him forward to a point where he's nearly got trailing afterimages behind him.

As he squares in on the Fiend of Fire, Squall swings the Revolver down with all of his might, relying on the massive recoil of the two-handed weapon to alight himself on a bed of discharging explosions as he throws sweeping strike after strike at his burning opponent.

David Xanatos has posed:
The Air-Battleships split formation. One heading right for the center of the Baron Fleet, two breaking right, and two breaking left. The Central ship fires a swarm of missiles as energy cannons roar from the turrets. The flanking ships move in such a manner that they each give full broadsides to the Baron forces. Energy crackles an sizzles through the air toward the targets. The very air shimmering with the heat of the passing energy beams. The enemy cannons that fire find the Battleships that belong to Zanatos to be heavily armored, but damage is done. One of the ships on the left flank's third turret explodes as multiple cannon rounds impact the armored frame. But the other three turrets on the ship continue to fire.

The Steel Clan combat units split into two forces. One force dives down on the Heartless that assault the SeeD forces. Lending micro missiles and particle beam fire from on high. While the other force dives and swoops down and around the Baron's airships. Adding their firepower to the withering barrage of the battleships.

From on high, Xanatos hovers watching the entire battlefield. He sends this situational awareness to the SeeD forces, in an attempt to organize and give them the Air support they ahd requested not so long ago.

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
After Angelo attacks Kaydin, Rinoa realizes there is no going back. But even if she doesn't want to fight, she could never abandon Angelo to this fate. Kaydin no longer holds back now, striking back at both Rinoa and Angelo with his dark sword, and she gasps, stumbling backwards as his blade barely skims her arm, drawing a trickle of blood.

"Why do you swear allegiance to a kingdom that has no honor? What's the purpose in that? You say you dont agree with their policies, so do something about it! Change them, convince them that this is wrong. But right now, you're just their sad little pawn, dont you see?"

Even now, she tries to reason with him, hoping to slow him down, exhaust him enough to get him to listen to her words perhaps. This time she summons a magical wind to blast at Kaydin, accompanied by blades of golden energy. Her blaster edge is aimed and shot at him through the wind magic.

Avira has posed:
"...damn it." Avira hadn't hoped to get noticed by Baigan so quickly, hoping the Hound could have kept him occupied well enough for her to get in and eliminate the mage supporting him. Now she's forced to keep an eye on him too for she doesn't know just how much range this man has with those snake arms of his.

It does not go unnoticed that her recently-innovated magic doesn't land a viable hit on the elf. To make matters worse, she dare calls her a coward! A coward! Bah! Taking out the healer was a completely viable strategy! "Child?!"

Avira's right eye twitches. First she suffers the indignity of being too old to enroll. "You -cow-, I am an adult!" Avira snarls back, barely heard over the din of the surrounding fight. Reaching behind her, she tears the serrated "blade" known as the Spine free once more. All too soon, she's closed the distance between her and Morrighan, lashing out with a wide upward swipe of the weapon.

At the apex of the swing, she manages to invert her grip upon the hilt in an instant, following with a powerful downward stab. The final blow comes not from the Spine, but from the side of Avira's fist as she spins around suddenly to clothesline the elf.

Celes Chere has posed:
Celes holds up her sword against her palm to parry as Jafar attacks in turn, accepting the blast of force with a murmured counterspell of her own; it is not effective, and she is pushed backwards, to one knee. The ring of swords forms around her, and she reacts with surprising speed, unsurprised by swords forming out of the air--she parries most of them, taking a few slashes as she immediately steps clear of the impediment with a skilled fencer's twist. She pauses then, and seems to be trying how best to respond to the sorcerer's quipping.

She extends a hand, and fires back at him with a simple ice spell, a spray of forst radiating outwards from her. Barely has she finished the incantation, feeling the pleasant rush of magic swelling through her, when her swordhand comes up and flows into a hard straight thrust at Jafar and his parrot.

"You talk too much," is what she finally settles on.

Beatrix has posed:
Beatrix stands her ground under the onslaught of attacks that rains upon her. Missles, poison, you name it. Quite the impressive fireworks as well. The impacts of all of the attacks lift up lots of smoke and heat around the general, hiding her from sight. Yet, her voice comes out from the mass "Then I shall be there to stop you. The kingdom of Baron judged that your existence was a nuisance to peace." The sound of footsteps as she emerges from the smoke, and brings the sword to her side, launching herself forward. Her booted foot slides along the ground, skidding across the surface as she slides over Quistis' side, the sword sliding along the ground, tracing a circle around her in the stride. As she stops behind Quistis, she taps her sword on the ground, flaring up magical energies through the traced circle "Fight with all your might, then."

Kaydin has posed:
Kaydin gets hit by the wind only to be blasted back and he shakes his head. He looks to the woman before he focuses on running at her, slashing at her with his sword to send a black blast before he throws the sword at her hard in an attempt to fight back. "Baron wasnt always like this. I swore my oath back when it was a good nation and I seek to restore it back." He says as he would

Pixi has posed:
Out of reflex, Pixi leapt into the air to avoid the roar. She looks behind her and snorts. "Some Roar, huh?" She says to Aerith as she lands and turns around, listening for more heartless.

Quistis Trepe has posed:

"Oh, so you're a knight of Baron, then?" Quistis says, before the sudden eruption of force sends her flying upwards, into the gunwales up front, landing with a smash and laying there for a moment. She pushes herself upright - gauging the distance to the enemy, she breathes deeply, lights flaring around her as she gathers whatever /strange powers/ she has. "I guess there's a certain definition of 'peace' for which what you say is true, yes," Quistis says, her voice seeming to jerk and speed up partway through.

Jasmine has posed:

MEANWHILE

IN THE SAFE ROOM

Jasmine blanches when she sees Jafar's twisty-moustached visage on the screen. Fighting one of her favorite people here, too, but she fears less for Celes' safety than for the fates of the few thousand Heartless being wasted on the walls of Garden. Those clothes are unmistakable: these are some of her citizens, transformed and ensorceled to live miserable lives in the Grand Vizier's service. And now they, and the SeeDs who have been so kind, are dying because of her.

BACK ON THE WALLS

They're dying in droves, in fact, popping into balls of mana and health with appalling speed. But, now and again, a few are trickling past the defensive line, and close up, they stop being so funny. More than one Cadet dissolves, one limb at a time, into a void summoned beneath them... then emerges, transformed, as yet another one of the horde. This is a severe problem for morale, though the more experienced SeeDs are valiantly rallying their troops. Their fight continues...

BACK TO THE GATE

Lenna, apparently, casts Blade Barrier with great effect; she chews through dozens and dozens of Heartless, many falling flat on their faces to shatter into bits right at her feet, staining the hem of her skirts with Heartless. Aerith's lightning is somewhat less effective; they seem able to sense it coming and sidestep at the last moment. Still, with the sheer quantity of them down there, it's impossible to miss entirely, and a few are toasted into nothingness.

That big rolling one just keeps on going, up the ramp to where Pixi and the last Cetra await. He has picked up a bunch of Lenna's knives along the way, but honestly they don't seem to slow him down; they just make him, well, sharper. With no loss of momentum, he plows towards them like a deadly comet.

Meanwhile, another group masses up near the gate and charges en masse, hoping to overwhelm the lady of Tycoon with sheer numbers. Blackness ripples beneath her, trying to suck her away and leave not a trace of her Heart behind...

Jean Faraven has posed:
The arrival of Xanatos's mystery fleet was as unexpected as it was welcome. "What, reinforcements?!" Jean frowned in disbelief, but they were in no position to be choosy. "...Acknowledged." He answered over the general line, "We appreciate your assistance, whoever you are." Trusting the unknown...it was something Jean would have to get used to in this new world.

And if Quistis was somehow responsible for that, he'd make her the new Squall.

But back to the here and now, Jean's bold gambit was met with a powerful answer from Baigan, knocking him back up into the air and holding him there with the now-familiar pain in his shoulder where one of those snake-arms took hold, poising again seeping into him. "Hm, you've gotten stronger than before..." Jean spoke through gritted teeth as abs clenched and his feet shot out to keep the other arm at bay, intuiting the source of Baigan's new power when he called out to Avira. A pocket mage, hm? The Hound may actually be at a disadvantage here...

But it didn't change his job in the slightest. "You'd better hope you kill me..." Teeth shone in a wolf's predatory smile, "I think i'm starting to build an immunity to your poison." The jaws clamp shut just then, exploding the SeeD's world into one of blood and pain that he instinctively transferred into a burst of junction strength, whipping the flat edge of Anubis around the smack into the side of Baigan's snake-head as, breaking free of the jaws and hugging the ground with all the might of gravity. He felt burning in his lungs, the pain of cracked ribs and the onset of hazy vision...a terrible way to start their fight, but at least Jean knew right where his enemy was.

He'll wait just long enough to feign a weakened, pitiable opponent, anticipating Baigan's penchant for gloating cruelty and aiming to interrupt him in the middle of whatever speech he was about to sound off with sudden rush of forward momentum, leaping foward and shoulder checking the looming beastman with the junctioned power of a linebacker that was also a Behemoth, and /then/ he swung his sword.

Purple energed arced off Anubis's tip as one of the 'special order' bullets clicked into place, erupting in a crescent slash of dividing energy that cut through the battlefield like a scythe across so much wheat.

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Rinoa shakes her head. "If you REALLY wanna help Baron, then put down your sword, and try using words and evidence to convince them that the heartless are only out for themselves in the end!"

She backs up, jumping into the air to attempt to avoid his attack, but his sword manages to skim her legs, bruising her boot protected ankles slightly. "Ugh!" She flinches, twisting to try and avoid a direct attack. "You are so stubborn!"

She extends an arm, unleashing a series of thunderbolts at Kaydin.

Pixi has posed:
Leaping into the air, Pixi avoids a serious beating by the large heartless. However, seeing that Aerith was hit, she goes RIGHT after the large heartless. Anything to get it's attention off of Aerith!

Beatrix has posed:
Beatrix shakes her head at the question, looking over to the woman as she takes a step back. She doesn't persue right away, total annihilation is not part of her rulebook, even if bringing swift defeat is. "I am a General of Alexandria, I am merely offering assistance to an allied nation." She doesn't seem like she has any sort of personal contempt against the isntructor or even the people of the Garden though. She simply carries out orders from her queen.

Although it wasn't directly from the Queen either, she has no reason to doubt either. "General Beatrix is the name." she moves in for another attack, weapon glowing as she bring it down on Quistis. She already hit many of the instructor's offensive ability, so she strikes at her defense this time.

Jafar has posed:
Jafar is just warming up a good cackle when Celes knocks away the final sword blocking her off from him and charges again, landing another blow that cuts him off with a snarl. It's the same arm, this time damaging the sleeve. It's not a deep cut, but there /are/ no deep cuts on Jafar's bony frame; it was a worthy strike. Fortunately, he is no longer so easy to kill as he was as Vizier, and his raw power does a lot for his dubious courage. He is not afraid of this woman.

"Insolent," he notes. "Do you know who I am, girl? I am Jafar, Sultan of Agrabah, greatest of the Shadow Lords." He only says this when no other Shadow Lord is around to hear. "And I have more arcane power in my toenail clippings than you do in your entire /body./" With that last word, he throws his arms back, his body radiating a bleak red glow, then sweeps them forward, wreathed now in churning, furious flame.

"I will allow you a moment to burn with envy." Iago is sent squawking into the heat-rippled air, and the stream of fire just keeps coming, long after most spells would have stopped, as though it were poured from hell's fountain.

Morrighan Alazne has posed:
Eyes widening a little as Avira drew that strange looking sword and closed the distance, Morrighan was forced to defend. She was nothing to speak of in the realm of physical combat, so dodging was far and away out of the question.

Producing another barrier to try and mitigate /some/ of the damage. Sidestepping to avoid the initial uppercut, she was not quite fast enough to avoid the rest of the assault, finding the hunter's blade stabbing downwards and into the barrier. It held for a moment...and then shattered, grazing past the dark elf's side.

"Ugh! You mongrel! These clothes are expensive! How dare you just-"

Whoops. That moment of indignation would cost her as Avira's arm came colliding with her neck, sending her tumbling to the ground. "Ghhk-!" Gasping for air and holding her bruised throat, the healer glared up at Avira from where she lay for a moment before rolling back to put some distance between her and her opponent.

"I knew I should have stayed at the castle...!" Grumbling to herself, Morrighan got back up to her feet, flexing her hands as holy energy began to gather. "It looks like I have little choice but to defend myself against the likes of a barbarian like you~" Taunting Avira, she spoke further. "Tell me, is being that unladylike an innate ability~?"

And without waiting for an answer, she struck, lashing out with an array of holy magics, taking the shape of numerous holy swords floating behind the dark elf before launching forward to strike at Avira head on.

Kaydin has posed:
Kaydin gets thrown back by the thunder bolts and he pants some more. He runs for his sword, grabbing it and leaps after the woman, swinging his sword down onto of her in an attempt to overpower her defenses before sending in a quick strike to drive her back.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith's eyes widen as the attacks from an entire army hit her head on. The only thing keeping her on her feet was that she'd put her arms just in front of her before it all smashed into her. Didn't stop it from hurting, and she gritted her teeth as she tapped her staff a few times. Definitely not good... time to cure!

Quistis Trepe has posed:

QUistis looks a good deal brighter once she straightens up. I should have done that earlier, she thinks, even as Beatrix closes ground. "Alexandria! Really. I suppose your nation is not a threat to peace. Which, I guess, is defined here as...?"

She reaches deep within the well of her soul, then. Weaponless, the only powers she has are the strength of the Guardian Force... as well as her wits. When the sword comes down towards her, perilously, her hands blur in the air.

To slap it and catch it. "Well," she says, breath misting with cold, "That's useless."

Her lips pull back in a smile as she looks at Beatrix. "I like your outfit, but it seems a little impractical for the battlefield. Or are you making a show of your power? I'll show you what I mean -" She then curls her tongue for a moment, and a torrent of water bursts out towards Beatrix, even as Quistis (with evident relief) lets go of her impromptu sword grasp.

After this, Quistis sweeps her arm up, sending a sudden spiky iced burst of cold towards both of Beatrix's bare forearms. Adjusting her goggles after this, she says, "Showing skin on the battlefield... I wonder if you can get hot enough to burst through that. You can give up any time, you know; it's not you I'm after here."

Nida says, "It's the,"

Quistis barks, "Nida!"

Lenna Tycoon has posed:
Lenna takes to the skies for a moment as the charge and the blackness both threaten to overtake her; it's only a moment, though, as she briefly touches the gate itself and then launches herself back down at full speed. She rolls her neck slightly to one side, then the other upon landing, brushing a stray hair out of her face. The pause only lasts a moment, though, and the Princess of Tycoon quickly redoubles her efforts.

She begins to dash through the heartless, whip and knife both drawn, grabbing and whipping Heartless into other Heartless, carving through them with almost casual indifference. "You /won't/ get through!" she announces, firmly.

Crouching low, she grasps her whip tightly, then whirls her body around at full speed, threatening to practically cut the Heartless around her cleanly in two with the weapon.

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Rinoa gets no verbal response from Kaydin, only more sword slashes, that slice into her, causing her to crash into the nearby wall. "Ugh!" she flinches, wiping blood from her mouth as she staggers to try and regain her balance. Her wind magic keeps her aloft still, trying to gain some ground from Kaydin.

"It's hopeless, isn't it? No matter what I say, you just dont listen..So I guess I'll just have to knock you out so you cant hurt anymore people!" Angelo whines, running to her side. It's time to finish this!

The duo begin to glow with holy energy, Angelo magically growing to three times his size and Rinoa leaps onto his back, surrounding them both in a magical shield and wind as they rush at Kaydin from a hundred angles, finishing with a blinding blast of holy energy.

Beatrix has posed:
Quistis' magic is pretty strong, the attacks do bring some wear and tear to the general's clothes, but otherwise doesn't seem that much worse for wear. She gets lifted up in the air by the aquatic breath, flipping on herself once airborne and landing on top of the commandering room of the airship, looking down upon Quistis below as she flips her hair back, a mechanical gesture she does often it seems. "Weapons and armors are not what shapes the soldier. The weapons and armors should be shaped for the soldier." She answers quietly. Honestly its the first time anyone makes mention of how unconfortable her clothes might be. She never really was bothered with them, she wears them for style more than for protection, yet the leather dress offers some amount of protection. Just not against these kinds of magic attacks.

"The person under the armors need to be stronger than the armor itself." She jumps down back on level with the blond instructor, moving in to attack again, the beauty of the sword making arcs of light in the path of her strikes.

Baigan has posed:
The assistance that Garden is receiving is formidable indeed. The Red Wings are outdoing themselves despite their technological and leadership disadvantage, the bulks of their mighty frames proving to be shockingly agile thanks to Cid Pollendina's magisterial engineering abilities. But with the lead ship still seemingly paralyzed by a melee on board, Baron's air force is beginning to fall back to regroup, meeting that Xanatos has protected Balamb from any further bombardments for now. If the Wings are given time to pull themselves together, though, the battle in the skies won't be over just yet.

The battle on the ground, moreover--

"Aaaah ha ha ha ha ha!"

--is just beginning.

"Cower before me, you /worm/!" Baigan howls up at Jean, suspended in the air by Sir Scraggletooth's crushing grip. "I sssshall humiliate you before all thossse you cherisssh!"

"I don't know if a worm is that different from a snake, Boss!" the currently unoccupied Snakesuation quips. "Maybe you should call him a mouse, or a rat, or a--"

*BOOM*

Baigan doesn't even blink as his off-hand snake arm explodes, showering chunks of snake meat everywhere. Oh, right, he can't blink. "Asss I was sssaying before I wass ssso /rudely/ interrupted-- Hmm!?" His adversary, despite his predicament, is grinning dangerously. Moreover, that pesky woman is pursuing his dark elf ally! And here Lord Golbez had entrusted Baigan with her fate!

PREVIOUSLY

"A white mage? To accompany me?" Baigan looks at the dark-armored figure blankly, as though he couldn't in a million years imagine why that would ever be necessary. Then at last he understands, and bows sweepingly, humbled. "But of course, my lord! I shall prove my devotion by protecting her with my life!"

Golbez stares at Baigan for a long time before sighing heavily, turning around, and playing the organ until Baigan scurries out with his hands over his ears.

NOW

"Tsssk!" Baigan snarls. "Then I mussst dispense with you sswiftly, Faraven-- gahhh!" He soon finds himself shocked and awed as Jean manages to brutally /tear/ himself free from Sir Scraggletooth's grip, and his eyes narrow into slits as the veteran SeeD retaliates with a fierce bodyslam, driving the huge monster back with its raw force, before slashing out with his supercharged blade--

"Aaaah ha ha ha haaaa!"

Which Baigan /slams/ aside viciously with the side of his scaly snake arm, Scraggletooth emitted a strangled cough as its monocle pops off from the impact. Baigan ignores this, because he is too busy being triumphant. "Weak, Faraven!" he roars. "You are /too weak/! What's the matter!?" He slashes out with Scraggletooth mockingly as his other snake arm begins to slowly regenerate. "What happened to your /strength/!? Pathetic!! Aaaah ha ha ha ha!"

Squall Leonhart has posed:
"Wait, what are you--"

The sudden, stylish and glitzy whip of Rubicante's glam movement comes at such a critical time that Squall never really gets to land his finishing blow (hur hur); not only does the sudden magical cloak's movement whap him aside, it precariously puts the mercenary in a position affectionately known in military tactics as the Full Frontal.

There's a /moment/ as Squall just pauses, and stares.

. o O ( Great Hyne, those /abs/... does he do pilates or something-- SQUALLLLLLLLLLLLL )

The heat-wave explodes straight into the SeeD's entire body just as he berates himself for being distracted, critical readings on the GF Device's readouts cause numbers to just escalate upwards, and upwards, and upwards -- before the sensors explode from the sheer force of the attack.

The column of fire hits with such force that Squall doesn't so much have a ready defense against it, and his grip on his gunblade falters; his body burns, protected only from certain death as his GF-shield takes the brunt of the mortal blow for him and disappears into errant motes of magic, returning to the Feymarsh; the accompanying falling debris is sufficient to both half-bury him under rocks and effectively disarm him as the silver-and-black weapon goes whipping away.

It lands blade-first on the ground, like it's in an opening FMV.

When the SeeD rises again, it's with a firmly flush face as he stammers, "Y-you-- pervert..." there's a momentary huff as he glances away, shaking his head to very quickly assess the battle as it stands; he's been disarmed, and -- Quetzalcoatl is gone.

That's okay, because... he's got a /Card/ up his sleeve.

The SeeD chases forward again, unarmed -- and he reaches to both of his sides as he finally draws one of his secret and most unpredictable methods of combat... to just fling a full hand of cards in a spiraling arc, each of them gold-backed and depicting illustrations of monsters... but these are just playing cards, surely, not to be concerned with?

"Card Modification!"

Or not. The Odine GF-Device erupts in energy once more as Squall works the dormant motes of magic in the air around the cards... and what were once Bomb, Mesmerize, GIM-47N and all sorts of lame-ass cards no one in a Constructed tournament would ever be /caught/ playing are now suddenly freshly-ignited bomb spirits, razor-sharp unicorn blades, shotgun ammunition... and all other kinds of random projectiles all converging to one point.

Jasmine has posed:
BACK IN THE SAFE ROOM

It's empty.

ON THE WALLS

The fighting is getting fierce; Heartless may explode, then vanish, when slain, but living ladders of ceramic pots, animated by spindley, shadowy spider legs, are climbing up Garden's fortress walls... and in turn other Heartless are running up on /them/. SeeD fight frantically to shatter pots and thus these bizarre modes of entry. They're much too busy to notice the tiny figure, cowled in brown, buzzing away on a T-Board she may or may not have stolen from Zell Dincht's seemingly limitless supply.

Only a single, red-robed member of the Balamb Faculty does. "T-Boards are not allowed on Garden premises!" he bellows, but his voice is lost in the din of battle.

AT THE GATE

Pixi's mighty strike /bisects/ the huge Heartless. It clatters into two pieces, which, rather horribly, bubble and engorge themselves until they are each one of the smaller, scimitared ones. These rush the viera with great prejudice, their blades making the very air scream.

Aerith's healing attracts attention as well; a tiny blue-clad Heartless with a pointy yellow hat that covers all of its face but the eyes, narrows said eyes at the young woman. Flame erupts all around her, great gouts of it.

Down below, Lenna Tycoon kills another pack of Heartless; there are so many bits of them littering the ground, now, that it's starting to become difficult terrain. That impending threat of a ground-void seems to have passed, at least; now it's more like fighting in a ball pit.

She has played You Shall Not Pass card, and done so with appalling effectiveness.

Unfortunately, the next wave includes the balr^H^H^H^H biggest, strongest, toughest of the lot. The one armed with the horn, which he brings crashing down on her. It shatters into a million pieces, whatever it strikes, but will she?

Kaydin has posed:
"I cant be talked out of my task Rinoa. I am sorry." Kaydin says as he rushes in towards her as glows darker before her attack hits him and throws him hard against the wall, the sword breaking against the magic as he makes a slight crater in the wall and falls to the ground to his knees. He pants heavily as he tries to get up, almost succeeding before his knees buckle and he falls to the ground, beginning to bleed now.

Celes Chere has posed:
Celes prefers ice to fire; it seems to match her nature more closely, flows more freely from her hands. Still, she can use fire, and call it friend. She is not a fiend of ice, that her body is composed of it. No, she's just normal-vulnerable to fire. Which is to say that that is a lot of fire and it scorches away her defenses, washing over her form and licking hungrily at her body and hair. Celes gives a cry of pain at the flaming assault, driven to her knees by its fury. Still, she lives.

She extinguishes a few strands of her hair with a small spray of mist from a fingertip and rises back to her feet. "What is a Shadow Lord?" She asks, affecting a sneer. It's not hard. There's still some general-ish arrogance left in her, somewhere. In truth, she has some idea but would rather hear it from Jafar himself. As well, she recognizes his name--Jasmine's enemy.

Her hand and blade move in tandem as she spins, dancing out a protective diagram for herself. Then she darts closer, feinting her blade at Jafar's face as she throws out a compact enchantment towards his body, a glittering bird that flies on wings of silence.

Then she just whirls around and swings her sword with all her might using both hands, aiming for Jafar's skinny neck--though really any part of him will do.

Avira has posed:
A smile creeps up Avira's face as she charges. Clearly the mage expected she was fighting another mage (and a child mage at that!) and instead receives a facefull of PHYSICAL ATTACKS. Though Avira quickly learns even she has some sort of defense against that in the form of her barriers that fly up. Clearly they must've been optimized for fending off magical attacks for she finds her downward blow crushing it.

If insults could do damage, Avira would be clearly wounded! "Mongrel?" Avira's smile widens, the very hint of a wild look in her eyes as she rounds on Morrighan. Now with the elf on the ground, Avira can TOWER over her opponent. Avira won't remain still either, chasing after the downed elf, jabbing the point of the Spine into the ground right where the woman was lying before she rolled away.

"Barbarian?" She says it as if she's not sure if it's supposed to be an insult or not. The follow-up, though, is ringed with indignity "UNLADYLIKE?!" for that was quite a sore spot for the huntress. "I don't know, does being a whiney, frail, weakling come naturally or do you have to practice?!"

This would not be the first onslaught of magic that Avira has faced and it shows. All the sudden, she shows an impressive display of speed and acrobatics, leaping up and over a launched set of holy swords. She swings herself downward shortly afterwards, ducking beneath another set. Rolling sideways, another shears by her, grazing the side of her face and opening up a long cut on her right cheek.

Avira hisses. She didn't want more scars. Her free hand lifts to cover the cut. "FARAVEN!" she calls out, letting her eyes quickly dart over to check on him.

No, he wasn't well at all. "HANG IN THERE!" Squinting her eyes shut, a blue glow surrounds the hand that was held against her face. A second lady she removes it and the wound there is closing. The still-glowing hand is cast in Jean's direction.

Quistis Trepe has posed:

"If you're so confident in your perspective on fighting," Quistis says, putting a hand on her hip, "Why don't you throw away your sword?"

Then she comes forwards. The sword is gorgeous. So gorgeous that Quistis immediately commits suicide by leaping into it and getting bisected - but no; she may be bisection curious, but not in this manner. The forward leap, which is likely the absolute last thing that Beatrix would expect anyone to do, is meant to bear her over Beatrix, putting one foot briefly on the general's shoulder as she leaps past.

Which is when she gets a glimpse of... other airships?

She blinks once, then scoffs as she declares to Beatrix, "I see we're evening up the match." She keeps her back turned away from Beatrix for a moment, a deliberate provocation (look at all that SALMON! in WINTER!) as she folds her arms around herself, loosely. "Just how much do you know about SeeD, General?"

After this she twists on one heel and starts to throw spells with brief and sharp blows of blue-white sorcerous cold.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith gritted her teeth as an onslaught of fire magic rained down on her. This was getting to be irritating, seriously. She had to put out the fires before anything else, but on top of that she was spending less time actually doing something and more time healing herself!

Right... time to give as good as she got then.

Aerith drew in the energy around her, all it took was a bit of focus... and then let fly, opening fire on any heartless within twenty feet of her. Her last roar wasn't so big... this one would be.

Pixi has posed:
Pixi really does have lady luck on her side, as she leaps out of the heartless' way, and appears above them. She extends her spear, and twirls in a couple of times before whipping it infront of her. This action makes many many vines to extend from the spear, and try to entangle the large heartless, as well as beat the absolute snot out of it in a whipping frenzy.....

David Xanatos has posed:
"For the first time, a battle plan survived contact wiht the enemy." Xanatos says evenly. He shrugs an armored shoulder. "Well. Let's not look a gift warhorse in the mouth." He raises his left fore-arm and begins to tap in commands even as he speaks. < He looks again to the abttlefield and narrows his eyes. < He transmits to both his forces as well as the SeeD command so they know what's coming.

True to the words of their master, the Airships break to their individual tasks. The two flanking ships of the Left and the one on the right drive forward to press the Red Wings and try to drive them back. Energy Cannons firing to disable the enemy vessels. After all, a disabled enemy ship in the sky will soon be a destroyed enemy ship. These attacks are supported by Steel Clan airial combatants who duck and weave between the Red Wing ships, firing at exposed crewmebers, or attacking fins, or engines.

The Hades drops low and begins to just indiscrimantely opening fire on the Heartless assaulting the Garden. Close rnage energy weapons lighting up the battlefield as their beams slash out to cut into the darkness and bring their own kind of light to the fiends. Meanwhile the Persephone climbs and begins to find the larger ground Heartless and then plays the part of a really big, much more accurate, much higher tech AC-130. The weaponry firing in rapid succession to the forces below. The impacts slamming the gorund and causing clouds of dust and debris to fling hundreds of feet in the air and shaking the ground wiht a roaring thunder.

Suddenly Xanatos calls out over the battlefield, using external speakers to be heard over the din of the battle, "Forces of Baron and Servents of RUIN! Leave and be spared! Stay and I will unleash the full power of this fully operational battlestation!" He cuts the external speakers and siles beneath hsi helmet. "I've /always/ wanted to say that."

Beatrix has posed:
Beatrix brings her sword in front of herself, a shimmering magic shield around, not enough to deflect the attack but barely mitigating it, as the spikes of cold cut at her clothes and skin here and there. But she's seen worse.

"A school, perhaps more of a university, training in various fields. Literature, maths, geography, biology, but also martial knowledge, strategy, weapon using, healing arts and more. They finance themselves through mercenary work, which is what Baron is not pleased with." She speaks calmly, even in the midst of the fight. She steps to the side, leaning down to pick up the discarded whip from earlier, and throws it at Quistis, just allowing her to rearm herself. Even disarmed, she's been holding her ground after all, and Beatrix can admire that. Many would have given up well before this point.

Then she takes her position again "I do not fight without my sword, it is my pride, representing everything I have strived for. Save The Queen exists to follow her queen's orders and protect her interests. And if her interest lies with your defeat, then it shall be done." She raies her sword, thunder crashing down upon the raised blade. Gripping the handle with both hands, she sends the energy flying at Quistis, a crackling arc of thunder energy.

Morrighan Alazne has posed:
"Come now, little girl." Morrighan shot back, emphasizing the 'little girl' part before continuing. "Strength is not all about muscles and blunt force." She raised a hand to point to the side of her head at that. "Strength also comes from the mind." Smirking in a mocking manner, the healer brought that same hand to the side of her face as she began laughing haughtily. "Not that I would expect a child like YOU to know anything about that! Ohohohoho~"

And then her spell fired off...To little effect.

"Hmph...Impressive."

Watching Avira weave her way through her array of spells /almost/ perfectly, Morrighan could not help but frown. Not being one for excessive combat, getting good hits in was all the dark elf cared about.

"A shame. I would love to get this over with quickly..." Smiling at those words, she looked over ar her opponent. "Say, why don't you do me a favor and just drop dead, hmm~?"

And then came Xanato's speech. It was hard NOT to spot that fleet coming in from above. It would seem that Balamb Garden had found it's air support after all.

How troublesome.

Well, the air certainly wasn't her territory and she certainly had no intention of retreating as long as Baigan hadn't. So she chose to focus on where she was now. Which right now would fending off this leprechaun. Oh joy.

Welcoming the apparent break in combat as Avira chose to support her ally, that Jean Faraven, Morrighan decided to do the same.

Lenna Tycoon has posed:
Nope. No shattering here. Lenna hops back and hurls a wave of shuriken at the incoming horn shards, harmlessly knocking them out of the air and into each other; she moves like the wind, even picking up some of the bits left behind by the Heartless.

The act of picking up the bits, though, gives her an idea -- namely, it reminds her that she can do things like pick bits up /off of living Heartless/. As if to create a proof of this particular concept, she starts pulling armour and weapons off of the small fry, hurling them at the Heartless with the horn.

If nothing else, she certainly knows how to move in a skirt.

Jafar has posed:
Jafar grins. "You will know what a Shadow Lord is soon enough, but since you insi-*"

The silencing bird weaves its magic around Jafar, and stifles his words temporarily. Angrily, he gesticulates, but is forced to beat a retreat as a sword seeks his neck. Fortunately, there isn't much neck to seek, and though Celes's sword comes away with more blood, mostly it strikes his collar.

"*--little wretch," Jafar croaks, as his voice comes back to him. "You seek to contend with my mystical powers?" He directs a spray of telekinetic sand at her with his staff, like a firehose against a rioter.

"Don't try to fight /us/, kid," Iago advises from... above? Suddenly he splats into Celes's face in a puff of red feathers. "You ain't got the beak for it!" He leans back and tries to chomp down on Celes's nose with a sharp clack.

Meanwhile, Jafar is looking balefully up at the sky. "What foolishness is this?" As Iago tries to keep Celes busy with his chomping beak, Jafar gathers more sand from his pouch and expels air through it with his thin lips, sending it up to the ships.

A floating likeness of Jafar's skinny, bearded face and puffy turban flattens against the bridge window of the Hades, squished up like it were Jafar himself pressed against the glass, his nose flattened across his cheek and one of his eyeballs comically large. That eye looks around, seeking the captain of this vessel.

Jean Faraven has posed:
Garden was breaking. SeeD were dying. Cadets too. His students falling to darkness, losing their identity....becoming the enemy. The image a of girl Jean felt he used to know again rose in his mind, simultaneously familiar and distant. A star pupil...an ideal soldier.."I'll do my best, Captain Faraven!"

"Cadet...Cross.." Jean whispered, and then reality exploded in his face.

Baigan's strength seemed unreal. It must be the poison seeping into his muscles or some other spell on him, but the Hound's body would not obey. Strength would not come, and his blade was humiliatingly turned aside by what seemed like casual effort on the Baronian's part. Why...why did that man, this /thing/ seem so familiar? Why did it seem like they had done all this before, and would do it again?!

'You are /too weak/! What's the matter!?'

"Damn it..." Jean glowered. Now wasn't the time to question, it was the time to act. An invigorating energy suddenly overtook him, counteracting the illness in his blood to some extent. He felt his breath returning, his cuts knitting. There wasn't any time to thank Avira, but he would do so.

"It seems you're getting a little bit of outside help." There was a glint in his eye, and Jean gripped Anubis in both hands, blade pointed in at the ground, "If that's the case, i'll enlist some of my own."

SITUATION ROOM, BALAMB GARDEN

Xanatos's orders were heard and roger'd by the controllers in the nerver center of Garden's battlefield planning room. Operatives and interns huddled over screens the patched in camera feeds from all feasible locations, coordinating the battle above as we as below. One intrepid cadet noticed the growing spike of feedback from the Master Odine GF device the coordinated the GF system, boggling at the readings, "I've never seen them this high before. This is..."

"It's Jean." A warm touch settled on the girl's shoulder, and she looked up at Cid Kramer's kindly but worried face, "He's calling 'that'. The only Guardian Force one summons within, not without..."

OUTSIDE GARDEN

Jean's every muscle tensed. His head reared back, his body held in tense rictus. Lips peeled back involuntarily, and he felt his canines lengthen, slight. His one gray gunmetal eye began to turn yellow.

Somewhere far away, the iron-rusted gates of Hades rattled and burst open, unleashing a belch of sulfur and brimstone from which three sets of glaring eyes looked out from the darkness. As one they rose, fire-breathing snouts snarling at the darkness above.

"I am Cerberus." It roared, "I am incarnate.

An aura of explosive, concussive force burst from Jean's person as the summoning completed, blowing lesser foes of their feet and obscuring the Hound in a cloud of debris and fog. When it settled, he seemed refreshed and confident, outlined by the pealing waves of some dark force. Also, his clothed has inexplicably changed. They looked way cooler now.

"..If you don't mind evening the odds, that is."

Squall Leonhart has posed:
Whatever other cards Squall was intending on using, that plan is literally up in flames now as Rubicante fills the air with fire once more; Squall's only quite shocked that he hasn't lost all his hair to burning, though someone's probably going to comment that his eyebrows have been burnt off, or something.

The explosion's thrust him back onto the bottom of a broken hallway pillar, and he's starting to get groggy again as the Novocaine or whatever passes for Final Fantasy Morphine start to wear thin.

"...nngn--" Squall sits up gently, bleeding from the head from where he's been hurled back; he's able to sink in an ice spell on the way back, out of some kind of incredibly reflexive motion rather than actual sound, conscious tactics. "No sword... no magic -- no GF..." he mutters as he assesses his options. He can hear all the annoying pinging sounds of his GF Device warning him that his Junction's about to wear off.

"One more... one more go," he utters, rising up weakly to his knees.

Squall Leonhart isn't superhumanly strong, nor even the strongest SeeD agent around on his own merit - he isn't incredibly quick, nor does he possess great waves of magic above and beyond what every user of Paramagic is granted. He bleeds when cut, he burns when set aflame...

...but by gum if he's going to just curl and give up, even when he's completely out of ammunition, both proverbially and literally.

One last routine, loaded, primed, ready -- the GF Device gleams and echoes a spell to his very fingertips, his eyes almost glowering as he pulls his absolute favorite trick both in and out of missions. Some rumor him to almost be obsessive and a maniac to this art... but, surely, such rumors are baseless and should be ignored.

"Cardity Squeeze!"

Squall Leonhart's arms are aloft in front of him as a sudden sphere of transmutative magical energy's erupted around the Fiend. To /lesser/ monsters, this would be around the time where they feel their limbs and very essence start to be broken down into a terrifyingly two-dimensional form on cardboard, as the sphere shrinks. But Rubicante is no mere, unnamed encounter that Squall can card... though he can /hope/.

I mean, what's he going to cuddle up at night with? /Quistis'/ card? Please.

He allows himself just a little boast as he manuevers the magic to the last of his vestigial strength. "You are defeated...!"

He squeezes his fist, to snap the sphere shut.

Quistis Trepe has posed:

Quistis snatches the whip - putting it back on her hip. She stares down Beatrix. She seems smug about something, somehow.

"You don't really understand SeeD," Quistis says. "If you people did understand what SeeD is, you would be saying apologies for everything you'd done. We wouldn't care, because that battle in the plains was just business - you can conquer whatever lands you want, and officially, we take no interest in those sorts of things. But in that case, it was a contract. And you may have the honor of your queen..."

The sword smashes downwards. Beatrix can feel the surging shock of her blow go somewhere, into SOMETHING, something unseen, but other than a little groan, Quistis seems to not be affected directly. Adjusting her glasses, Quistis concludes her thought.

"But us working stiffs have to follow our contracts. COME FORTH!" she declares, crossing her arms. Green spheres rise around her ankles, circling around her, and Quistis Trepe vanishes from the field of battle...

To be replaced, in a hiss of shivering cold, with a pillar of ice. A great bursting cleave is already to be seen in the ice block, and the figure within it - female, with blue and violet and yellow highlights - opens its eyes and gazes with an intellect vast, cool, and unsympathetic upon Beatrix.

Shiva bursts from her icy residence then, raising up one hand. The winds in the air whip around as the air itself is drawn to the intense point source of cold, white frost and moisture gathering as Shiva rolls her neck in the sheer pleasure of freedom, stepping forward one pace -

FUN FACT: Shiva is approximately two-thirds of the way back on the Red Wings' airship and facing forwards.

- before flinging that gathered essence of sheerest sorcerous ice forwards. The sphere hits the deck, ruptures, and bursts, water impossibly compressed flashing instantly to skin-torturing ice as jagged shards burst up and over the entire forward portion of the airship, the weight quite likely to make it tilt visibly even as the ice itself continues to flow, aiming to encyst and squeeze and demolish the foe of Garden.

Nida, feeling the cannon start freezing over, lets go.

"MASTER XANATOS SAVE ME" he squeals.

Celes Chere has posed:
Celes was not expecting the parrot to attack her. The sand she saw coming and tried to dive out of the way with limited success, but that at least only gets in everywhere. The bird is actually on the attack, trying to bite her--and he gets in a good chomp, opening a line of blood over her nose with that sharp beak. "Ugh!" She voices, her expression actually giving way to some annoyance now. She raises a hand and calls an ice crystal out of the air, forming around the darting birdform; hopefully that will hold Iago for a minute, if she can seal him in.

Jafar meanwhile seems a bit distracted, and to be fair, Celes was a bit distracted herself. But seeing her opening, her sword lashed out again, carrying her magic with it. Several slashes followed, leaving silver lines in the air that cut like knives and lingered for a few seconds. She has to be careful of them herself. She follows it up by holding her sword out before herself, pointed straight upwards, and simply seems to wait--a vortex forms within the blade, or perhaps around it; it's metaphysical, and it wants Jafar's energy, which he is so generous in dispensing to her.

Avira has posed:
"If I am a child, you must be absolutely -ancient-." Avira squints a little, "Based on your ears, I assume you're an elf of some kind. Thousands of years old, right? I'm surprised a cow like you hasn't been put out to pasture for good." Avira pauses, hearing a familiar voice, and looks skywards. "...Xanatos? Here?" she says, shocked and pretty impressed with his firepower.

"-oh, I'm sorry, were you SAYING SOMETHING?" Avira says sweetly, looking back to the elf, "I couldn't hear you over these impressive reinforcements of ours!"

Break time was over. Well, not technically over. Avira has every intention of breaking -something- as she stalks over to Morrighan for round two of assaulting a not-so-helpless white mage. At least she was keeping her occupied and not supporting Baigan! Which is what really matters because Jean is busy turning into a hellhound.

When Avira lunges, her swipe with the Spine is actually a feint, the true attack coming in a kick aimed at the elf's hip. Avira doesn't push off as hard, letting the momentum carry her backwards, switching her weapon from one hand to the other. Though she puts her back to the elf, she is far from giving her a break since she seems quite capable of stabbing the spine at Morrighan behind her, using that same inverted grip as before.

As an ultimate insult, when she turns back to finally face Morrighan, Avira HURLS herself upon the elf in a full body tackle to the ground. "Let's be unladylike -together-!"

Beatrix has posed:
The combination of ice attacks have their effect on the general. She's literally frozen solid into an icy coffin, quite the ice beauty there, in the most literal sense at least. A good part of the airship got frozen with it, frosting over the windows of the piloting room behind her.

And yet, the ice cracks after a few moments, releasing its prisoner, that slumps down to her knees. She's visibly beaten down, the combination of magic taking their toll on the general, which is drawing out at the last of her life energy.

She takes a deep breath as she stands up again, steadying herself back up amist the surrounding frozen area. "Perhaps I do not understand everything. If the fates allow it, perhaps you would like to give me a tour." She raises her sword up again, drawing the energies from the surrounding air, charging it with even more thunderous power than before.

"If you survive, that is."

And then the sword is drawn down, releasing all of the stored energy. Its not a magical arc this time. Its an all-encompassing storm of thunder, striking from every direction at Quistis. And not small bolts either, they are are likely to damage the airship itself, but Beatrix is paying it no concern right now.

Jasmine has posed:
ON THE WALLS

Things are getting really dire, though the battle coordinators' announcement of the summoning of Cerberus brings cheers and ever-fiercer fighting. Still, there are just so /many/ Heartless, and soldiers of Baron, to boot. Can they defeat them all?

Well, they'll die trying. Garden is their home.

AT THE GATE

Pixi easily evades the two scimitar-Heartless coming for her, rushing the larger one down below, and thus abandoning Aerith to handle both of them and the fiery one besides. The trio of Heartless work in chilling concert, the fireballer, well, balling fire, providing a scatter of covering shots while the other two close in to slice her to bits.

The huge Heartless casually sidesteps Pixi's spear, but is not so lucky when faced with the armor and weapons of its foes. It starts to disappear beneath the sheer quantity of Lenna's stolen attacks; enraged, it summons an immense blast of dark energy, large enough to strike both women.

OUT IN THE FIELD

The Heartless armies, bombarded from above by Xanatos' airships, splatter into darkness... only to be replaced by more. What's worse, so many of them are making it at least onto the walls of Garden that they're impossible to shoot without tremendous potential collateral damage... a difficult choice, especially considering what valuable resources are presumably inside the fortress itself.

And the T-board rider flies on, skirting the edge of the battlefield, as far and as fast as she can. She just needs a few seconds more distance, and she'll be in the mountains.

High up, where she can be seen.

Lenna Tycoon has posed:
Lenna makes what mmmmmight be a mistake. Rather than brace herself against the incoming burst of dark power, she books it; doing a high-speed dodge roll forward, she narrowly escapes the enormous blast. It's enough to shake her -- though only shake her, because for the /most/ part, she's intact.

She hops back, throwing another set of shuriken; it's mostly to set herself up for further offense, though. She needs something to move in behind -- which is exactly what she does, once again stealing a weapon from a nearby Heartless. This time, though, she follows up by using both her whip /and/ her newfound, stolen weapon, attempting to tie up and cleave the heavyweight.

Morrighan Alazne has posed:
"Augh!"

No, Morrighan was not having a very good time of it right now. Forced to fight against this monkey. And to think that all she had come here to do was provide support for Baigan. Well this certainly wasn't going as planned, that was for sure.

Taking the kick to her hip without any time to set up a defense, and then bowled right into, going sprawling to the ground on her back, Avira straddling on top, it seemed like this day couldn't get any worse. "Y-You! Get off of me right this instant, you unwashed commoner!" Physical strength wasn't exactly her forte, so pushing and shoving wasn't a viable option...which meant that the solution lie in the realm of magic.

Magic energy flaring up around her in an aura, even as Avira held her down to the ground, another array of holy swords could be seen forming above the two of them, pointing downwards towards herself and the hunter. It seemed like the dark elf had absolutely no worry about her own magic harming her, which meant that Avira was the only one in danger here.

"Now remove yourself from me, you filthy ape!"

and the the swords burst forth, raining down on the shorter girl.

Squall Leonhart has posed:
Squall blinks, bewilderedly, as the Command actually /works/.

And with great trepidation, walks up to pick it up gently. Is this it? Is this the muscle-bound, smexy six-pack Mythical Rare he's always been searching for?

Watch, as Rubicante trolls and leaves him with a Queen Eblan card, or something.

Pixi has posed:
Pixi is having a wonderful day when it comes to the ease of evading attacks. As the blasts of energy come her way, she flashes out of existence, appearing behind the larger Heartless a moment later. She then attempts to bury the spear in the back of the Heartless, follow it with a claw in the back, and finishing with her heel in the heartless' face. Yeah....she's getting mean.

Jafar has posed:
Iago gets caught in an icecube about his somewhat tubby little midsection, including one of his wings. Flapping the other one faster and faster doesn't really seem to help, and he plops onto the ground uselessly.

Jafar himself is distracted from controlling his disembodied head by Celes's attack, and reacts instinctively, throwing up a powerful barrier of hard, red telekinetic energy that crackles when it encounters the deadly little slice-lines in the air. Unfortunately, Celes's mana-draining attack is effective against it, but though the barrier costs him, it prevents him from another gash entirely.

Jafar's lip curls back, his upper and lower rows of teeth sawing in and out of alignment in his wrath. "Let me teach you what a Shadow Lord is, girl. A Shadow Lord is the most powerful being in his world. He commands the obeisance of everyone he meets." Jafar swings his staff down hard, a burst of red sand pounding down on Celes like a mallet.

"He unites his world into the form it was always meant to exist in. One great empire, drawn to his might. He shows by his very existence the inferiority of the mewling, coddled girl fated to oppose him." Jafar swings again, another hammer-blow to try and drive Celes to her knees.

"And most of all, a Shadow Lord is better, in every way, than YOU! Now KNEEL!" The ground rocks with the force of this last impact, far harder than the others, as Jafar's mystic sands slam it, creating a perfect circle of dirt pounded down a good six inches, with a radius of about fifty feet around Celes. Jafar's eyes blaze, and Celes can see the man inside. He wants her to acknowledge his victory even more than he wants the victory itself.

Baigan has posed:
High above, the Red Wings struggle to regroup as Xanatos's aerial squadron splits its forces, the majority advancing to continue the assault. Several of Baron's airships are seriously damaged and one is barely afloat, and the enemy's offensive capacity appears to have been reduced to half, if even that. But whatever conflict has been keeping the lead airship out of the battle seems to have been resolved at last, because it regains control of itself and moves forward to assist its fellows, engaging the Athena, Aries and Zeus with all cannon ablaze. Those Red Wings which can still fight gather around it and begin to fire back, and the battle is joined once more, again something resembling an even match. But there is nothing they can do to prevent the Hades from laying waste to the battlefield below, much to the chagrin of Baron's regular troops.

At least there are plenty of Heartless to take the heat.

"Aaaaah ha ha ha ha!"

Meanwhile, Baigan seems to be having the time of his life, chortling mockingly. Even his vow to protect Morrighan from Avira seems to have been briefly forgotten in the heat of his overwhelming sadistic rage. Alas, not even the shreds of his honor which remain seem immune to the curse which has overtaken his body. The passage through the dark portals and the subsequent autonomy of his snake arms seem to have condemned the once-noble Vanguard of Baron to utter madness, all the more so in his monstrous form. "Pathetic, Faraven! It sssickenss me to look upon you! Let me put you out of your misssery and--"

Well, crap.

"...gehh..."

Now Jean looks all /cool/.

"Damn you... Faraven...!"

Baigan, his second arm fully regenerated, rears back, raising both snake arms in the air, roaring down at his nemesis. "There isss nothing you can do! It is too late, for Garden, and for you!! Now die, knowing only my triumph--!"

And with all his might, Baigan launches both Sir Scraggletooth and the Snakesuation at Jean, aiming to seize him in both maws, heft him up into the air, sink two sets of mighty fangs into his flesh and bones--

"AAAAAAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA!"

--whereupon both of his snake arms explode, the twin explosions uniting as one into a veritable inferno to light up the battlefield and, potentially, Jean himself.

Aerith has posed:
It wasn't getting any better, but at the same time they seemed to be pushing them back... then she looked up and saw the Heartless actually climbing the garden. Aerith gritted her teeth and turned her focus to the almost unending army before her. If they managed to survive this, she'd have to check on the kids. And so she prepared yet another spell, making her best attempt at bolstering herself against any further madness.

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Rinoa lands from her attack, both she and Angelo clearly winded but alive! Unfortunatly, Kaydin seems to be in pretty bad shape. "Phew, I'm still alive? Kaydin.." She frowns, kneeling to his side, checking his pulse. He's alive, phew! But she cant leave him there!

then she gets a BRILLIANT idea! Pulling out her shoe laces, (her very LOng shoe laces), Rinoa busies herself with tying Kaydin up, before stuffing him in a (random) cupboard! That should hold him at least temporarily!

With that done, she rushes onward, to help out others in need..

Celes Chere has posed:
The outpouring of sand is fierce, and it quickly buries Celes up to her ankles even as she uses her sword to form a barrier to try and deflect it, holding the blade against the torrent to split it into two parts around herself. Poor Iago coughs and spits out the leavings of his master's rage. The sand sears over Celes, but isn't done yet.

The final concussive slam is enough to force her to one knee, as she forms a barrier around her sword to try and defend herself. It cracks; her sword, held above, is slammed back against her as her knee hits the ground; she can feel the tendons screaming as she pushes herself unsteadily back to her feet.

"I see," she answers simply, bloodied but unbowed. Her gaze now is frank assessment. Jafar is dangerous. Probably too dangerous for her to combat alone, here; especially now that reinforcements have arrived, and perhaps the tide may turn on its own. She steps backwards, slowly, and limps away from Jafar. Her sword is held at ready; her magic as well, but not to attack--to defend, to counter. She traces a geometric figure in the air and calls up a silvery shield to fall upon herself like a mantle before it fades from view. A thin trail of blood travels from the edge of her mouth, but she doesn't look away from the sorcerer as she retreats.

David Xanatos has posed:
The Hades Bridge crew just sort of stare back at the large sandy Jafar face staring in at them with the one large eye andthepressed to the glass Nose. The RIO waves at Jafar with a shocked and fearful expression on his face.

As the Red Wing's loead Airship moves in, the Three ships engaging and pressing the attack are bombarded by cannon shells and the enemy's own brand of explosive rounds. The Aries' conning tower takes a direct hit and the ship begins to list slightly before it rights itself. The Three ships continue to fire back however. The Athena moves to flank the enemy group and lets loose a withering barrage of missile fire, even as enemy rounds impact the sides of her hull. Explosions ripple along the ship's hull, but she's still air borne and still letting loose. The Zues fires with everything it has. Turrets all tracking one ship until it leaves the angle of fire, or is destroyed, and then moving to another. Zues moves in close and even uses their close in weaponry to lay waste to the enemy ships around them.

The Battleship Persephone had moved high to provide long range airiel bombardment. When the Red Wings regrouped, Xanatos smiles and says calmly into his Radio: < He see's Nida falling and dips below his vantage point, boosters flaring to catch the man and then deposits him rather roughly to the wall of Garden. "Try to help keep those things off this Wall!" Then he boosts back to get an eye on the battlefield.

To put action to words the Persephone's main Hangar opens and Ten Cruise missiles fall until their booster's ignite, and the large, high yield warheads rip through the distance toward the Baron's Flagship. The missiles fan out so they will strike in a rippling pattern, one after the other. Staggered so that the explosion of one won't ignite the others.

The Steel Clan squadrons assisting the Athena, Aries, and Zues continue their own dance amongst the Red Wings. Some of them landing on the fins to rip at the them with steel talons, or plant explosives before leaping away to continue their mayhem elsewhere. Still, some of them take hits, and some of them explode in metalic shards.

The Steel Clan performing the gorund attack are directed by Xanatos to land on the walls and repel the Heartless from there. Their weaponry blazing and loud amidst the din of the battle. The Hades, keeps firing amongst the hordes of Heartless and Baronial troops, trying to drive them back. Multi-Warheads are launched into the back ranks of the oncoming enemy and the Hades angles so that those three remaining main turrets can add their might to the forces rushing at Garden.

Avira has posed:
"Bahahaha!"

Morrighan's indignity makes this all worth it! Avira doesn't even seem to care about all the horrible insults being hurled her way. Some of them were true, nonetheless. She was a commoner and she'd spent a distressing amount of time being unwashed this week. She'd vehemently disagree on the point of being an ape but, "Oh did I hit a sore spot?" Avira teases, leaning in close with her horrible commoner self. "Or is the priss upset over her clothes getting all dirty?!" Her free hand reaches out and pushes against Morrighan's forehead, shoving the elf's head down further into the dirt. Avira felt no desire whatsoever to try to prove this woman's presumptions about her wrong.

Though this time she is not able to evade the magic. The holy swords descend upon her, burying into her back. Avira makes an unhappy noise and pushes herself off of the elf. Cringing, she steps backwards to do a spot check of Jean again...only to see him disappear into an inferno. Avira's teeth grit and she steels herself, "...you better not be /dead/, Faraven." She's not sure she can take on two of these guys, especially if one has huge snake arms. Looking back to Morrighan, she smirks. Her free hand lifs and she waggles her fingers at the mage.

"Is that all the magic you've got? Pretty /weak/." she taunts.

Rinoa Heartilly has posed:
Phew, this garden is huge! Rinoa never did get that tour she had hoped for, but now's probably not the best time! As she runs through the hallways, searching for her friends, and anyone else in trouble, she eventually stumbles out of the emergency exit, and onto the field..

Nearly stumbling right into Jean and Baigan as they duke it out. "Wha...What is that?" She stares up at the giant snake man thing, shuddering. "Ew...Gross!" but that guy looks to be in trouble! She whistles Angelo to her side, waving a spell of protection over Jean. "Hey, are you okay?"

Quistis Trepe has posed:

Well... poop. Beatrix's assault rolls down onto Quistis like thunder when she returns after Shiva does her exit, and Shiva is probably cackling as Quistis goes flying off the edge of the ship, the area where she was standing a smouldering crater of teak.

Nida, still falling, screams even louder.

Morrighan Alazne has posed:
"You worthless little--" Growling in contempt, Morrighan was more than pleased to see her spell actually strike this time. Wasting no time on Avira's insults, Morrighan immediately looked over to Baigan to check on him. Seems he was doing quite well.

"Oh dear, it looks as if your leader is in a bit of a touch spot, hmm~?" As the elf spoke, she spread her arms out, preparing another round of spells. If they were supporting Jean, then she would support Baigan. If they lost because she failed to do her job, then she would never live it down after all.

"Captain, take those fools out!"

Yelling over to him, she let the protective spells go off.

Jean Faraven has posed:
Jean doesn't move as the twin snakes approach him. He doesn't move as they take hold, straddled him, and begin to quiver with final, explosive force. Then, and only then, do the Hound of Balamb choose to act.

He smiles.

Baigan would inexplicable feel his prey vanish from his grasp the second before his snake-arms explode, and Jean is nowhere to be scene in the aftermath.

Or is he?

He's there where he's not, and here when he's there. Shadowy after-images of the SeeD seem to punctuate his every rapid movement, harrying Baigan's flanks with nipping cuts of his blade, Rinoa's enchanments miraculously able to find him despite all the rapid movement.

His cool clothes are tattered and ruined of course, thereby becoming even /cooler/. "Thanks for the help.." Jean is suddenly /right by/ Rinoa, still growling and possessed of the essence of Cerberus, the presence of a giant triple-headed hellhound somehow over them, "But I suggest getting back. This will cause some collateral damage."

And then Jean is suddenly back in Baigan's face with little to no regard for himself, aiming to knock the snake-mand into the air with a super-powered kick as the area explodes with bombardement from Xanatos's craft. The Hound explodes as well, not into bite-sized chunks but into a flurry of precision, accelerated swordsmanship punctuated by the staccato beat of an explosive trigger pull between every heartbeat.

Anubis swings back for final blow, tip crackling and forming dense ball of stored gravity magic at it's end. Aided by the ridiculous magic reserves of Cerberus, it swells and grows in three successive surges of para-magic power that bordered on the real thing until it looked like something that belong in an episode of Dragon Ball Z.

"GRAVITON..." Jean vocalized the command-line, which was a necessary thing for these high-powered spells, really.

"CANOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!"

He flung the collected sphere of dark gravitic force with all it's ponderous might down at Baigan, sucking heartless and other unfortunate fiends into it's crushing core, continuing on shredding, destructive path over the battlefield, away from the Garden.

Jasmine has posed:
ON THE WALLS

It's chaos. The pot-centipede-Heartless have grown such long chains that they're now able to catapult troops, living or not, directly /over/ the walls. There, they're faced with the mostly untouched second line of SeeD defense, mostly armed with guns.

The roar of firearms discharging pollutes the air, but it isn't louder than the screams of the wounded first rank of soldiers, who are now beset on two sides. Dozens of Heartless fall for every SeeD. But every SeeD is a precious resources, while each Heartless is merely ... well, a victim of terrible atrocities, put out of their misery. It's pretty bad news in every way. Xanatos' Steel Clan arrives to shatter the ladders again, but the gates are starting to crumble under the sustained assault, and all the high-yield ordinance going around isn't helping that one bit.

AT THE GATE

With their powers combined, Lenna and Pixi are Captain 'turning the Heartless into Darkness sashimi'. Between her whip and the stolen scimitar, the Princess Tycoon jointly binds and hamstrings the creature; then the viera's spear, claws, and heel strike the killing blow.

There's a moment of silence as he falls and shatters. Then the yard is filled with the third wave, and the air is filled with swords.

Aerith, meanwhile, must contend with the continued attention of her three persistent suitors. There were fire and scimitars; with a squealed enchantment, there are now FIERY SCIMITARS! Huzzah!

IN THE FIELD

War is hell. We'll leave it at that.

ON A MOUNTAIN

Jasmine has not had a lot of opportunities to practice T-Boarding while at Garden, for reasons illuminated by one of the Faculty on her way out. Her crash landing is thus rather epic in scope; the hoverboard explodes against a rock, while she rolls out of the way at the last second.

Afterwards, looking down on the battle while far to its east, her hand flies to her mouth to cover its horrified expression as she chokes back tears and a gag reflex. She's seen plenty of Heartless squads, by now, but a battle of this scale? No. She has no experience with airships, and seeing their incredible capacity for destruction leaves her faint with fear. The scope of the carnage, even if most of it is rapidly vanishing Darkness -- leaving so much behind that she can barely feel anything /but/ the Darkness pressing in on her -- makes her sway on her feet. But in the end, she perserveres, ignoring the pounding, fluttering heartbeat in her throat and the fire behind her eyes. In fact, she takes strength from the latter.

Taking a few deep breaths, the 'mewling, coddled girl' does the bravest thing she's ever done.

Casting off her veil to reveal her identity, she brings her hands in front of her, clasps them together, and concentrates fiercely. The power of Light erupts from her in waves, sending a giant pillar of holy radiance into the night sky. It drowns out the light of the moon with its intensity, and its message is desperately clear.

You want me so badly, Jafar, that you'd slaughter all these people?
Come after me, then, and leave them /alone/.

Then she turns on her heel and runs, very literally, for her life. As fast and as far away as she can, fleeing from Garden, its refugees, and its soldiers and friends, fighting so valiantly.

Now, at last, she can return the kindness they've shown her, by easing their load somewhat.

Aerith has posed:
Well, that was effective. Highly so. And now she would attempt to return the favor as she drew in energy again, took in a deep breath, and cried out as she unleashed another magical torrent. If they'd just leave her alone, she'd be able to help!

Pixi has posed:
The Third wave actually hits Pixi this time. However, the cut on her arm makes her growl. She lands in front of one of the heartless, and tries to it into the air. She'll then flash off the ground, and in front of the airborne heartles to give it another swift kick in the face, to spin it around, then she'll grab it to sup0lex itinto the ground. Hopefully the attack will cause enough of a shockwave to hit the rest of the heartless....

Avira has posed:
"Ahaha...actually, he's not exactly my leader. It's a funny thing, really, I just came by as a visitor. So basically you fighting me right now is completely your bad luck." A low hiss escapes her as the magic fades, leaving instead large wounds where the swords once were. Those gradually begin to close, thanks to her earlier healing magic, but not fast enough for Avira's tastes.

Another spot check-oh, whoah, Avira quickly extracts herself from any sort of area of effect of that wicked-looking blast Jean is about to fire. Maybe if she's lucky, Morrighan will get caught up in it!! Avira even sheathes her weapon so she can quickly move out of the way for this.

Morrighan will find herself alone. Too alone. Perhaps she should rush to her lord's side. Perhaps she should retreat.

Perhaps she should turn around faster before she gets punched in the back of the neck. Avira is there, though she doesn't have her weapon actively in her hands...she does have a pair of fists. Somewhere along the line, she did manage to learn how to properly throw a punch or two.

Against expectations, though, there is no smile on Avira's face as she does this. In fact, she seems awfully grim and focused.

David Xanatos has posed:
The Airships continue their dance of death, and as Xanatos climbs to get his situational awareness back he spots Baron's commanding officer. At least he THINKS it's the Baronial commanding officer. It, certainly not a he, it appears to be in command and is laughing maniacly alot. Clearly evil. Clearly in command.

Noting that no Steel Clan can be diverted for a bombing run, and the SeeD forces too close for a Danger Close aierial assault form the Hades Xanatos nods. "Time to be a hero." Then he dives, gaining speed he raises his arms and lets loose first a massive withering barrage of laser fire, and then as he pulls out of the dive, and he's close to Baigan he fires a rocket.

Right. In. Baigan's. Face.

He lands and skips on the groun, planting on hand to the ground, steel talons digging to stabalize himself and he stays that way crouched as he says, "This is where you fall down."

Morrighan Alazne has posed:
So focused on supporing Baigan, Morrighan indeed does not see Avira's attack coming. In fact, she had stopped paying attention to shorter girl entirely in order to focus on her magic. Thus it comes as a complete surprise as she feels a fist connect with the back of her neck.

"...--!?"

Not even having the time to form a coherent cry of pain, she just ends up on the ground, her entire body tingling as the feeling of electricity spreads out from her neck, going throughout the rest of her body. "Y-You....!"

Still not quite out though, Morrighan pushed against the ground weakly, staggering back to her feet to face Avira. "H-How dare you!?" Yelling with righteous anger, the dark elf spread her arms out again as a familiar holy aura of magic began to envelop her again.

"DIE!"

And with that, the ground below the huntress began to crack apart and streams of raging holy light literally began to surge upwards into the sky, threatening to engulf Avira whole.

"DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE DIE!"

Oh dear, it looks as if she had lost it now.

Jafar has posed:
As Celes is slammed to one knee, caught between hammer and anvil, Jafar locks eyes with her, as if willing her to submit. When she rises, he snarls audibly, and raises his staff. "Don't you walk away from me. /Cower./ Plead for mercy and I will grant you your wretched life."

When he doesn't get his way, Jafar charges his cobra staff again. "Fine. I will send your corpse into your worthless Garden. HEARTLESS! Over the walls, into the breaches! Tear apart every brick and every body until the princess is mine!" He prepares to unleash flame upon the retreating enemy general.

Then he is forced to shield his eyes, a great tower of light splitting the sky. For an instant, Jafar is struck with a nameless terror, recoiling from its purity. But then his shielding fingers part, and fall away, his thin lips curl. "Jasmine," he intones in his deepest basso, clenching his hand into a skinny fist. Celes forgotten, he tosses his cape as he strides back to his palaquin, face twisted in a fiendish smile. The Heartless grasp its handles, but without looking, Jafar strikes down the one nearest to him with a wrenching blast of crimson sand that crushes its body like a beetle's ruptured shell. The rest scatter, and Jafar spreads his arms, lifting the palaquin into the air with a layer of shifting sands beneath it. Emptying his sand pouch fully, he sends a swirling cloud of it above Balamb, where it howls as it forms itself into a giant-sized imitation of Jafar's ghastly visage. "Come, my Legions, our prey has slipped the noose," the great Jafar head announces. The Agrabah Heartless immediately abandon the assault en masse, leaving the Baron troops dangerously exposed, their flank completely open, as centipedes and marching warriors begin to make for the distant pillar of light. "I leave the rest to you, General Baigan. For with the assistance of my armies, how may the Red Wings prove their legendary prowess? As for the rest of you... you will be seeing me soon, along with your precious prin-cess." Jafar laughs, a rich, deep, and utterly smug tone, his giant face dissolving into the breeze as the ground thrums with the marching of his Heartless.

Lenna Tycoon has posed:
It's hard /not/ to notice the immense pillar that emanates from Jasmine; it's reassuring to Lenna, even if it's a little -- much, perhaps. It does, however, leave her much more motivated to aggress, giving the retreating princess a better chance of actually retreating; she doesn't want to yield even an inch of ground to the waves upon waves of Heartless, even if it means bearing the brunt of their charge, her new outfit receiving some distinctly non-artful tears.

That isn't going to stop her, though. Indeed, quite the opposite -- it seems to give her all the more desire to fight on, putting away her current weaponry and drawing a pair of heavy swords. Stepping forward, she hurls one blade, then the other, into the mass, letting them whirl clean through. Of course, she follows right along after them... but it's not her that attacks. Instead, she casually pops open a small gourd held at her belt.

A whirling mass of ectoplasm flies out of the gourd, flitting around the wave of Heartless, dazzling and burning before finally flying back into the gourd. It's something Lenna likes to save for special occasions.

Celes Chere has posed:
Celes grimaces as Jasmine's apparition challenged Jafar. Couldn't she just stay hidden?! She fights down the pain lancing through her body, suppressing it through years of practice, through years of acclimation. Pain is a part of being a magitek knight.

As Jafar flies off, she raises a hand, calling to her weakening arcane energies--but no, no, she needs to regroup first. She takes a few deep breaths, then invokes a different spell--Warp--back into the Garden proper. She will need to recover before she can pursue, and she'll need speed if she's going to match Jafar's pace. Her form shimmers out of existence on the battlefield and deposits her in the Infirmary--where she'll look at the scorched hallway and wonder just what the hell else was going on.

Pixi has posed:
Holding onto her shoulder as she lands from her leap, Pixi shakes her head. Taking a deep breath, and a look around, she begins her search for Aerith, whom she was separated from. She wouldn't forgive herself if Aerith died when she promised to keep an eye on her.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith glances toward the light, shielding her eyes at it. Whoever that was... well, they were what they were here for, and now they were going after them. A shiver ran through her as she considered the possibility that said sacrifice might end up being a final one. She looked out over the battlefield again... and found that there were far less Heartless than before. Good, they were finishing. She sighed and set herself back toward the Garden, hoping to recover before she left for Tifa's Seventh Heaven. She had a lot to think about... "Let's go, Pixi."

Baigan has posed:
"Aaaaaah haa haa haa haaa!"

Baigan ignores the desperate air battle proceeding above as the sophisticated assault by Xanatos's warships at last begins to outdo the best that the Red Wings have to offer. It was a magnificent clash, worthy to be remembered, but while sheer skill and dogged tenacity on the part of the disciplined Baron forces may have shockingly managed to match the superior technology fighting for SeeD, it was likely David Xanatos's ability as a commander and tactician that made the difference. With Baigan once again embroiled in the melee and no heroic air commander remaining in Baron with Cecil's absence, even though General Beatrix was able to repel Quistis's daring assault, it appears that Baron's air force will be compelled to fall back.

None of this means anything to Baigan right now. Faraven is in his clutches, and will surely die. Both his snake arms are torn asunder, the Vanguard of Baron sacrificing everything in an effort to annihilate Jean completely. And indeed, there is no way that his SeeD nemesis could have endured such a brutal assault.

No one could survive all that dust.

"...N..."

Or could he?

"No!!"

Baigan can only cry out in anguish and dismay as Jean blurs back into existence. Without his snake arms, the snakely fiend is defenseless, and scales are torn from his body with every strike, even as some /other/ pesky woman starts imbuing Jean with yet greater might. At last the vicious combination ceases, and Baigan slumps to one knee, glaring fiercely. "Damn you... Faraven... I ssshall...!" But the world will never know what Baigan shall.

Because Jean kicks him in the goddamn face.

"Aaaahhh!"

Baigan is hurled into the air, where he dazedly encounters some strange-- what is this, a man in a flying suit? "Who in His Majesty's name are--" but the world will never know who David Xanatos is.

Because Xanatos rockets him in the goddamn face.

"Aaaaahhhghghhh!"

Baigan is immediately hurled back /down/ to the ground. Disoriented and overwhelmed, he desperately reaches out with a leg (because he has no arms) in a yearning effort to touch the dirt, thereby blissfully ending the air combo and resetting the damage multiplier. He gets within a couple inches before Jean gunblades him about eighty times and then--

"What... is...!?"

Well.

"Noooooooooooooooooooo!"

A beam of devastating gravitational force tears into what remains of Baigan's monstrous form and sends him /hurtling/ across the battlefield, obliterating Heartless with his sheer speed and mass, knocking over even those Dark Knights and Dragoons still fiercely fighting, flying back and far out of range of the melee, at last hitting the ground and churning up a nigh-on fortification's worth of dirt and mud before he at last settles to a stop.

"...I... I'm... alright..."

Armless and mangled, Baigan blearily realizes that he is not, in fact, dead, and twitching, slowly rises to a seated position. "The battle," he gasps, "is not... yet lossst... we will regroup... and..." A pillar of light blazing in the distance cuts him off. Slack-jawed, he can only watch and listen as Jasmine's voice echoes across the battlefield, and then stares up at Jafar's giant mocking face. "What? N... no!" he screams uselessly up at that ghostly visage. "I cannot... I cannot lossse again! Not like this! No! Nooo! Noooooooooo!"

Baigan tries to shake his fists at the heavens, but then remembers he doesn't have any.

Sad Baigan.

Avira has posed:
How curious, the Heartless are retreating. Avira seems only vaguely aware of this and the words that Jafar bades to his temporary allies today. Ultimately, her focus is entirely on pounding the elf's face in. "Are you that surprised?" Avira sneers, "Are you surprised you're being attacked in a battle?" Her voice is harsh and cold, very unlike the girl that was taunting and namecalling moments earlier. Clearly, she is unimpressed by the righteous anger.

Though when it comes to that magic, she's far more impressed by that. Avira glances downward for a second before the ground spits and searing light shines forth, rising upwards and taking the woman with it. She lets out a bloodcurdling scream before the light obscures her entirely.

When the light fades, Avira lies in the cracked crater, smoking and face down. For a long moment she is still and Morrighan may as well start crowing her victory at this point. Until Avira twitches.

This is the only warning. The next second, she leaps upwards, the spine drawn in one smooth, well-practiced motion. With a fierce step forward, she lunges-

...but stops abruptly, holding the pointy tip of the Spine mere centimeters from Morrighan's throat. "Your master is conceding defeat." Her brown eyes stare at the elf's coldly, "Go with him or face much more than just /my/ wrath."

Morrighan Alazne has posed:
Panting and generally catching her breath, Morrighan had no energy left to try and dodge Avira's next attack. She closed her eyes, ready to just let it hit her. ...But it never came. "....?" A quick glance around revealed that Baigan was....not anywhere close by. "......" Not even sparing the words to speak, the dark elf turned away, ignoring Avira's threat.

"....This is far from over."

Leaving those parting words, Morrighan stalked her way back up the battlefield, tending to the wounded amoungst Baron's ranks.

This was another loss, wasn't it?

"I should have stayed at the castle."

Quistis Trepe has posed:

"Instructor Trepe!"

Quistis sees only dim-litten darkness, tinged with red. "Buh<" she says (including the <, yes).

Jean Faraven has posed:
Jean touches back down on a field of devastation, his final attack having carved a trench in the earth that went on for quire a while. Cerberus's presence leaves him, and the Hound of Balamb can finally think in normal people time again. Phew.

The was reason you didn't summon GF on Garden grounds.

Xanatos's presence is not overlooked-there will be a time and place for thanks and discussions to come about what all this means, but Jean's eye is driven to the pillar of light as surely as everyone else. Realization dawns on him swiftly as Jafar lays bare his attentions.

Of course, it made sense.

The man she'd been running from...the source of Baron's sudden control over Heartless. They hadn't attacked just to neutralized SeeD, they'd wanted /her/.

And now she was gone. Jean understood her reasons precisely.

But even so, he could not accept them.

"This battle is over." Jean clenched a fist and spoke over the radio, "Prioritize the wounded and start evaluating our losses. I want to know just how hard these bastards hit us." He was expecting a bad report. Really bad. SeeD had weathered much, but nothing like this. Garden's fortificatin, once such a strength, now seemed a weakness. The enemy new precisely where to find with.

And their once ace in the whole had just carted off.

"Jasmine..." Jean's eye remaind in the horizon where the spire of light had subsided, more questions than answer floating in his head, but at least one blazed quietly and foremostly, "...Princess Jasmine."

Princess...of what?

END OF CHAPTER ONE

NOW THE REAL STORY BEGINS