Restoration

Restoration
Date of Scene:	16 March 2013
Location:	Phantasia Mountain, Manhattan
Synopsis:	It has finally come - the final battle to resurrect Manhattan!
Thanks to:	Oblivion and Riku for GMing and making this entire tinyplot work!
Cast of Characters:	Reize Seatlan, Lily, Deidra, Skoll Ulfang, Will Sherman, Riku, Mercade Alexander, Tifa Lockhart, Zia, Avira, Maira, Vespa, Lenn, Sora, Brooklyn, Macbeth, Luso Clemens, Skyline, Emi Dennou, Percival, Evja, Oblivion
Tinyplot:	Manhattan Restoration

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Riku has posed:
It is time.

A time for change.

Although Traverse Town has a timeless quality to it, the nature of the town changes almost constantly. Those who had no home, no world found comfort and support there. Those shattered were slowly made whole again. Those desperate found in their neighbors and in themselves another reason to keep fighting.

Those of you who know the way know also that you bear on your shoulders the hopes of all those who struggled to make a life for themselves as well as all those lost to darkness. The scroll and the shards have brought you here. A piece of paper and a handful of rocks whose magic can only be restored by a keyblade. The fate of so much and the hopes of so many lay in such small things... and there is a danger here, in the markings of the scroll.. only a whisper of threat as you stand here, where there was once connections. A threat that this journey you undertake will not be a safe one. It will be a hard journey. A last terrible step on a long pilgrimage.

To those who traveled far from your own homes and struggled to help those from Manhattan reclaim the shards. Even to those who have not heard any but the whispers.. there is the rumors. The rumors that linger on the hopes and the lingering echoes. Something is going on here. There is an energy in the air that courses from news of invasion to kidnapping to fell deeds and fell plots and the best of intentions. The energy is that of a gathering storm about to break and you all find yourselves here, on this verdant Mountain hillside in the midst of the land of Crossroads.

A faint wind ruffles the grassland and the smell of something fresh with just the vague hint of decay.

Spring is coming. Something new is about to begin...

And It's About Damn Time.

Avira has posed:
This time there was preparation. The mistakes of the past would not be repeated.

Word of the true restoration location was kept very close hold out of fear that the Shadow Lords would once again mount an assault. The true location? Far from any sort of civilization that would suffer from a Heartless horde.

Plenty of false rumors were started for the location. False rumors and false leads. Brave souls had volunteered to hold charms on them, created by Isaac Hanlon, that gave off an "impression" of Avira, created to further throw the forces of Darkness off the trail.

Avira, in her human form, awaits with the scroll. Once midnight hit, the way should be revealed in the light of the moon, according to Mama Odie. Provided this was now the correct saturday.

Perhaps predictably, Avira is armed and surrounded-VALKYRI has definitely been politely requested to be here. Word was spread to the Shard Seekers via Zia. The Twilight Detective Agency...was a given. Nevertheless, Avira looks a little nervous.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa had been there since the begining. From when Manhattan got shut down, to helping people finding new homes, opening an inn in her bar even, to the tournament, to the shards gathering, fighting multiple heartless, and even losing in Traverse despite a solid defense. It all came down to THIS.

She had time to heal since then, no more bandages, but she's watching with rapt attention still, how its going to unfold. She's sure it won't go without a hitch. The Shadow Lords made that clear in Traverse. It won't be a walk in the park (as much she wishes it would be Central Park in this case.) She has her arms crossed, standing guard... She looks toward where the portal to Manhattan used to be...

She walks behind behind Avira, patting her shoulder. She has no ill-feelings toward those that beat them in the tournament after all, it was all for the same goal. "Its almost time huh? Finally."

Vespa has posed:
"Well that a bit ominous doesn't it Al?", Vepsa looking at her humongously sized axe at then up at the moutian says looking up at the moutian. She was here, they all were here with one common goal restore Manhattan. She has only visted there once before it all whent to heck. She didn't like Manhattan very much too many buildings, it was dirty and smelly everyone was always in a rush. But she really like the park. She wanted to see that park again.

She stand near to Avira. "Take a deep breath in and out Avira. It's all going to be fine.." That what she hoping for anyway.

Percival has posed:
Tonight was the night. Percival had spent the last day or so with Avira, guarding her, making certain that she wasn't ambushed while she was in hiding. He needn't have worried, no heartless had appeared to harry them, no Shadow Lords. The world was still. Surely they had not forgotten about her. And so he travelled with her all the way to the set meeting point. "We're with you to the end, Lady Avira. Knock 'em dead."

He grinned like a fool, as he ranged closer to Zia, swatting her lightly with his tail. Already he'd hooked a shield upon one arm, while he'd drawn a darkened steel blade, covered with runes with his left hand. "Ready to save the bloody world?"

Sora has posed:
Sora's not even a part of Manhatten, but things happen, you get chosen by the Forces of Light and Good to wield a Keyblade, due to a certain Heart being alongside yours, then you get another, and it just generally leads to the fact that Sora is once again feet-first and hip-deep in world shard shenanigans.

It figures, right, though?

Sora has, and as he told Mercade, he will always be willing to help out the group. While in the end, his ultimate goal is to save Kairi and his world, if he happens to save some if not dozens of other planets and the people that live in them, well... Sora isn't going to start complain.

After all, getting out and exploring was th epenultimate goal the Destiny Islands Trio had.

The Keyblade is out, and he's waiting nearby the TDA-VALKYRI-Shard Seekers group.

Zia has posed:
There is a sort of infectious energy that comes along with the spread of hope. She'd seen humans who had long been displaced coming out of the woodworks at the rumors. While Zia may not have always been fond of the humans from her world, it is for their sake, and for all of those in Manhattan that brings her to this place. She'd been there when the world fell, so she would be here to see it reborn.

She stands, her hand around the pendant at her throat, standing nearby Avira and Percival, a small nervous smile on her features. "Och, Aye lad. A fine bunch of super heroes we are. All ye need is a cape." Humor is a great way to handle a situation, but it helps defuse some of her nerves. Seeing the young gargoyle wielding her father's sword again, though, is a comfort.

Deidra has posed:
It was time they had to prepare, no night could last forever as no night could as well. All things come to an end prehaps even death too. Still she waits she knows there will be a push by the darkness to hang on to the city forever. She wasn't about to let that happen she was ready, prepared as he could best be. She would stand tonight. She'd see the city restored even if it ment her end. She was armed, today she'd got her hands on a pump action shotgun of all things which was across her back. He iTome was in hand as she remains with the TDA-VALKRI-Shard Seekers alliance. There are others there, those who'd not really known them well but had come to help anyway. Deidra was ready to make a stand, she looks over at Zia and Percy for a moment.

"Ready as I'll ever be. Maybe a nice bit cloth S prehaps to to with it?"

Reize Seatlan has posed:
It is time for a change. It is also time to bring Manhattan back. This is the reason that the Shard Seekers are here. They are here to support their friends. Amongst the group who are traveling their way through the verdant Mountain hillside is a young boy, leading the group of friends beside him.

For the most part, Reize had gotten lost from the original destination of helping the others. It brought him and a mysterious girl on a travel. However, something leads Reize back along the way. Now, Reize is ready to help others.

"Oooooooiiiiiii!!" The boy waves a hand towards the group, looking ever so cheerful. Reize Seatlan, late to the party.

However, Reize has company.

Maira has posed:
This was it, wasn't it? No more false starts. No more waiting.

As Maira has already been to the Underworld and back, this can't be insurmountable...right?

Still bandaged from recent injuries, Maira stands beside Avira, watching the grasses blowing in the wind, looking hypnotized. Even though she'd slept, she'd never felt so tired in her life. She's pushed her body to the brink and beyond. Its almost over. They are together. They can prevail.

A coolness rests to Maira's left, Uist once more at her side.

The young mage takes a deep breath and looks to Avira, so glad to see her back to herself. She has no words she hasn't already said, so Maira simply holds out her hand to her best friend and offers her smile.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
It is a dedication to the fallen.

Mercade stands amongst the crowd, his frame and hat the most defining features among the others. The Detective looks among those present and smiles. So many hearts gathered here. So many people who have worked. Who have bled, who have suffered for the sake of a world that was lost.

But as Tifa told him once, nothing we truly love can be gone forever.

Mercade waits, silently, as the magic is prepared. He has done all he can... It's so close, but he can feel that the final trials await. The Darkness will not relinquish what it has taken so easily. The tension can be seen in his eyes and stance, the way he looks around.

All he can do is his best.

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso was of course not going to miss this for the world! The restoration of Manhattan? Of course he was going to be there! Walking alongside Reize, Lenn, Lily, and Evja, the boy plodded along with his arms crossed. He had a confident smile on his face as the weight of the various swords strapped behind his waist served to remind him of the gravity of the situation today.

"Reize, Lenn, Lily, Evja? Let's get up there and get this done! We'll show the people of Manhattan that not all is lost! We'll bring their world back from the brink of darkness and everything will be fine!" That said, Luso clenched a fist and then pointed over to the others as he walked along. "No more games, we'll show those Shadow Lords our power!"

Well, at least someone was psyched about this.

Will Sherman has posed:
Many travels had brought them all here, many hard roads and dark paths on this journey had brought them to this singular point. What stood before them was the last stretch, but the hardest on the path so far. They had faced the trials of the various shards.

Fought with all their might against Baron to reclaim the earth shard. Fought each other with their conviction to regain wind. Out witted the strange creatures for the fire shard. Journeyed to far away lands for the water shard...

The spirit shard had been the most terrible experiences for most. Friendships were cracked, and then reforged into stronger bonds. The shard recovered, and Avira saved from hell itself. Will had to sit back, injured servery by the strange lady that was tied to his own fate, but controlled by the fate of another.

However, that was not the hardest trial Will was forced to face during all of this. His trial was that of self discovery...and forgiving himself. To accept what is and was not, and take his fate into his hands instead of allowing the wind to simply guide him.

The Hobo eyes sharpen as he comes over the final hill with his friends. This time the TDA united will do what they couldn't do apart. Avira was before him, and he smiled at her.

"Never look back, Avira. Only look forward," he says simply. "We can't turn back time, but we...we can still fix what we have done, and seek forgiveness." he says, more about himself, than she.

He takes a breath, he focuses. Never look back, only look towards the future.

He ribs Mercade in the side, "Come on, I'd expect a bit more monologue," Will smiles at his friend, trying to lighten the mood. "We'll see our home free from the darkness, and just in time to get <GOOSEHONK> faced drunk tomorrow!"

Pause. "Wait Evja? WHERE?!" Will immediately drops into a fighting stance, energy crackling around him in a instant, hands burning red with power as he looks for the Judge Bunny.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Finally, the dream of so many would come true. Avira, Zia, the entire gang of the Twilight Detective Agency. There is no way Skoll could not be here today. Skoll stands close to the bottom of this enormous mountain, having come here for the sakes of seeing that dream through. He was there during the fall of the world, he'd seen those last moments, and knows where the Shadow Lords had come during their attack.

As for Zia's comment herself. "Well, I don't have a cape... but..." He holds out a rather beautiful pale blue scarf to her. "Could wear this if you want." He's wearing a red scarf himself. "I don't know what might be waiting on us on the other side. So I figured, if we end up in the sewers... you can use it to cover your nose." Skoll really hates those sewer dungeons. They're such a pain in the rear.

The youth then glances over the Percival, nodding at him and taking his place besides him and Zia, and then quickly peeks towards Avira. Mercade is here too. Good. In a ways, that makes the werewolf a bit happier. He feels he can trust the man to treat Avira well. And so, he sets his gaze towards the mountain itself, waiting for... something.

Evja has posed:
Indeed, and one of said company was a tall figure wrapped in a full white cloak, veil over face and hood drawn. It wasn't their normal cloak, but really, anyone vaguely familiar with the concept of a Viera could pick this one out, especially with the habitual attire considered. Evja used the butt-end of a spear to walk with at the moment while also having a fairly noticeable limp.

That happens after picking a fight with a Shadow Lord and getting your fuzzy backside handed to you.

Luso's infectious attitude gets a smile from Evja though it remains hidden mostly due to the veil. She does say, however, with a bit of a laugh, "Indeed... that is the goal." For what it's worth the Viera didn't look in the best of shape and didn't really seem to be looking to present a threat so much as was tagging along with that certain group.

Brooklyn has posed:
The build up to this moment had been a long time coming. It had seemed like a lifetime ago that Brooklyn had been fighting against the darkness at the Heart of Manhattan. That he had watched his world fall. He had been trying to get to this moment, but he could never have done it alone.

And yet, as Brooklyn looks at the gathered group, he frowns slightly. Who was going to betray them tonight, he wondered. The gargoyle remained in a crouched position, away from the group for now, save maybe for Skyline, if she has come with him. He knows he can trust her. Behind his sunglasses, Brooklyn's eyes narrow at the several who are gathered with a history of backstabbing.

Lenn has posed:
Lenn follows along behind Reize. She's been training hard lately- a little more tone on the lithe elf's figure betrays this. She's got extra-large bags of jewels on her belt, and her trusty staff in her hands, she's expecting things to be complicated.

Percival has posed:
Percival would laugh heartily. "Hardly! Can you imagine one of us wearing a bloody cloak? God blind us, we'd be ridiculous. And can you imagine if a helicopter tried to cut us off? It'd be the end of us." He'd clap Zia on the back with his shield hand, grinning. He would however give Evja a dark look. He wasn't fooling anyone, especially with that spear. "Get the <GOOSEHONK> out of here. What, do you think we're going to wait for you to betray us again so you can finish Mercade off?"

Riku has posed:
The light of the moon..

With another rustle of wind is the attendant dappling of the landscape as clouds are covering the silvery orb above for a few more moments. A thrum of magical energy begins to tingle through the scroll, the paper jittering and dancing underneath her fingers.

And there are other shapes as well, standing on a not too distant hilltop, their forms shrouded by a volumnous coat of black leather with the hood pulled over their face to obscure their identity. They look over the people that have gathered here, arms crossed and silent. They pause when they see Sora amongst the group, and then continue to scan the crowd. They look at Reize and their shoulders shake with quiet laughter, but they continue to simply watch. They play the Mysterious Hooded Figure card, which is part of the Jaded Teenager Deck.

As the clouds pass and the unadulterated light of the moon falls on the fragile parchment it glows blue. The shards themselves. Of the Earth. Of Fire. Of Water. Of Wind.. Of.. some other element because magic doesn't have the decency to keep to the classical elements.

The stones begin to glow, faintly at first but then with an.. ominous and sickly cadence. Shadows can be seen moving in a sickly patina as they, and Avira herself start to glow that same brilliant but at the same time tainted aura of light. This would be your cue, Keyblade Wielder. Open the pathway.. if you dare.

Skyline has posed:
It was true, Skyline wasn't very far from Brooklyn's position, but she'd been around for a little while. She had been checking, double checking, and rechecking her weapons since arriving in preparation for tonight's affair. Hopefully tonight would go better then last week. Hopefully they could get their home to return. Hopefully hope actually meant something in this place. For a little while, she wasn't sure. Seeing all these people gathered to try and restore a world? ... It gives her hope. That is enough.

With everything ready, sheathed, or holstered, the steel-skinned gargoyle walks up behind Brooklyn, just to pat him on the shoulder. "We'll do it this time. And if 'it' happens again they'll have the ire of everyone else to deal with this time."

Emi Dennou has posed:
It really is 'about damn time'.

Emi and *diceroll* Umi have come along to lend a hand this time. Thouhg ideally, there shouldn't be much trouble, right? After all, they've gotten all the shards, freed the princess, what's the worst that could happen??

Of course, now it's go time. And ideally, this will be the end of it. They notice Evja's presence, but apparently this situation has already been handled. Instead, she stretches out her arms and looks towards Umi for several moments, who is standing nearby.

"That's right... we have to make the most of it. You don't save the world every day! The Network explains patiently."

Emi looks towards the keyblades, stiffening on her guard. Will there be another interruption?? And it seems like there might be.

"...Those people...with the coats." She looks on over to them. "...Are they with the Shadowlords...? Or are they friends?"

Lily has posed:
Standing apart from Lenn, also behind Reize, is Lily. The little mage girl's done her best to mend her outfit, likely helped along by Shiki - or anyone else good with a needle - though it's more and more looking like it needs outright replacement. No longer pristine white, it's been torn, scorched, bloodied, muddied, and stained in countless ways and is looking worse for it.

But Lily herself is unmarred, and her spirit is certainly not sullied despite this. "Can a world really be restored like we thought...?" Somewhere wtihin, she can almost FEEL that this is so! But bringing words to those feelings hasn't happened until now.

She's made her own prparations for the opportunity. A thin aura of magic continues building about her as she commands the energies about her, drawing in all ambient power that flows near. The gem on her forehead shines brilliantly, and occasionally crackles with raw torrents of mana, but she casts nos pells.

Avira has posed:
"It is time."

Maira will feel Avira's hand squeezing hers. She could feel the palpable excitement of those here since they are so close to their goal. With a smile, she looks to Maira, then unfurls the scroll with her other hand.

She pauses to look at Will, her smile turning sad for a few seconds. As for Evja being here, in spite of everything, Avira seems calm. Focused. They would not be held back this time.

Avira had placed the recovered shards in a circle on the ground in front of her and now they glow. It takes her a second to realize that she had shared their glow. Maira had been right.

"..we've got spirit, yes we do... o/~" she sings playfully.
"...we've got spirit...o/~"

She looks pointedly at Sora. "There's your cue! o/`"

Zia has posed:
Zia offers out a smirk to Deidra for going right along with the joke. "Aye, lass. He'll just need the tights 'n then Ah'm sure our young squire would make a fine superhero." She'll take the pat on the back from Percival, offering him a quick, playful flash of her tongue in a childish fashion. She, more often than not, treats him like she would her own brother.

Skoll's offer of the scarf surprises her though, and she blinks for a moment, cocking her head at him and raising a brow. It's not the first time that she's received a gift of that nature, but he does have a good point. Function! At least he's not attaching a bunch of emotional connection to it... right? "Aye, tha would certainly be useful. Thank ye, lad." With that, Scarf goes around her neck.

She's just tucking that in when someone mentions... Evja. Eyenarrow. The gargoyle makes an instinctive motion closer to Mercade. "Ye've got a lot of balls showin up here." She hisses in an almost demonic fashion. "Betrayer." Her tail lashes, and she only peripherally notices those dark, hooded shapes.

The magic, that's something else entirely. It flicks at the corner of her mind and does finally draw her attention. This felt like it was important to witness. She could always smack down hasenfeffer later. Avira's little cheer gains a look from the gargoyle, and the tension breaks. Apparently, princess and cheerleader...

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa would sing with Avira, but its a song she doesn't know about. But she's sharing the feeling at least. We need that portal to be opened. She's rather impatient, even if she knows that disaster might strike at any moment.

"The first step is opening it. If anything tries to interfere with it, we'll deal with it. We can't change the order of things right now." She states it mostly matter of factly, looking over to Mercade "We're there, all we can do is watch and make sure it happens in the right conditions now."

Percival has posed:
The russet-skinned Gargoyle would grin at Skoll. "I don't suppose you have another, for my nose?"

At Zia's comment, he'd nudge her with his arm. "Right, right. Perhaps I'll need to buy you a flowery dress once this is done. If I'm to be a bloody comic hero then you're going to be a princess on the way to ball."

Percival still had no idea how a giant key could actually be wielded effectively in battle. Oh sure, he'd watched Sora use it to great effect before against Hades, but he figured that the symbolism of it was more important than its utility in a fight. He just didn't know what.

The figures in the distance would give him pause, as Emi pointed them out. He didn't know what to make of them. Were they friends, foes, or just witnesses? Either way, he'd seen enough movies to know that hooded figures in black cloaks standing upon a hill in the distance was an ill omen!

And then Avira would sing, and he'd laugh lightheartedly. "Knew you had it in you Lady Avira. Though that wasn't quite the song I expected!"

Reize Seatlan has posed:
The atmosphere quickly becomes tense as Will is steppig into his fighting stance. Honestly, Reize did not expect the hostility. Then, he glances at his Ma Belle. His eyes fall shut, then he offers Evja a faint smile. Then, that smile is extnded to Zia, who is already at his throat.

"Knight's Vow #18: It's better to be deceived than to deceive." He shuts his eyes, "...If anything happens, I will take full responsibility." He is working on assuaging Zia's temper.

Let's remember people: Reize is the best judge of character ever.

However, when he looks ahead, he sees the mysterious figures within the coat of black leather. As they laughter, Reize sweatdrops, then he looks back at Luso. "We can do this!" He brightens. But as they continue.. Shards appear.

It is then that the stones begin to glow. As hadows are moving about, Reize sucks in a breath and he looks over towards Sora.

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso's good cheer seemed to dampen lightly from radio contact, but still, he shook his head and brought back his smile. "Evja, how are you feeling right now? Is that magic acting up?" He asked, furrowing his brows in worry. They were no longer in Jagd Verda, so the magic controlling her had free reign...But even then, Luso had a trump card. Courtesy of one Ezel Berbier, but he would not use it if he could help it. If Evja could help it.

That said, the boy looked off ahead, spotting the hooded mysterious figures and then he frowned. "Heh, looks like the main bad guy's made his appearance. What I wonder this is about now..." He mumbled aloud, watching as the shards and Avira began to take on a certain glow.

Luso would not fail like he did in Manhattan this time. A hand came up to the handle of the Kwigon Blade, ready to go into action when the time was right. A glance is thrown Zia's way and the boy waved a free hand reassuringly. "Whoa, hey! Come on! No time for that now! Let's just focus on the Restoration! That's why we're all here, right? You can worry about betrayal and backstabbing later."

Vespa has posed:
"Right here we go..", Vepsa says seeing the moon come out, the stones starting to glow, the Avira starts glwoing herself. "Whoa. Avira your glowing..", she didn't notice the msyerious hooded figure, she too busy being awe/ surpised by Avira sudden shinyness. She smiles just a bit at Avira impomtru singing, then it dissapears seeing Avira and Maira hoding hands, a little jelaous of how close they are. Oh well. She just waits to see what will happend next.

Brooklyn has posed:
As Skyline comes up to his side, Brooklyn turns his head to look up at her, and actually cracks a smile, "I feel bad for them if they get on the wrong side of you." He says, as he stands up to his full height, his left hand coming up to the side of his head, as he quietly talks into the earpeice. He turns and looks at Will, making sure to make eye contact, before he eventually gives him a nod. If what he says is true, then we shall see how the night goes.

"Come on, Skyline. Let's get ready to do this. We all have our parts to play, after all."

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi looks towards Reize and points out to him, purely because of the logical inconsistency, "That implies that we are being the deceivers." She raises an index finger. "While it may be better to be deceived than to be a deceiver, it is best to neither be deceiver nor deceived."

She's mostly just speaking up because of her intellectual disagreement of the interpretation of that vow.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
The time is coming. The magic begins. The Shards begin to resonate, and Mercade looks at them, squinting as his mind suddenly equates the flashing shapes to a game of Simon.

But the words draw him out of his reverie. He looks over to Will and smiles. "I'm saving the monologues for after we win." He replies... And then pauses, his gaze being drawn inexorably to the black hooded figures. Something glints in his eyes as he watches them for a moment... But he turns away, the disturbence causing him to have to attend to something. "You're right, Tifa. Let's get this done. I haven't had a good New York pizza in forever."

He turns, walking to Skoll and clapping him on the shoulder. Any axes he might have had with Skoll had been buried a while ago. He's shown his quality. As Zia falls in beside him, Mercade simply walks straight up to Evja.

"Evja. Judge of Ivalice." Mercade says, quietly. "If you're here to try to kill me, do it now. Don't wait until we're in the middle of saving Manhattan. I can't afford to lose my home to this."

Skyline has posed:
A nod is given back to Brooklyn as he stands. A curious glance is given Will, but with Skyline's low amount of experience with everyone present, the only one she can really trust is the other gargoyle she had met since her arrival. "Mmhmm. Bullets for some and stabbings for others," she muses. Not for anyone present (unless they are a dang dirty traitor) but for any heartless or otherwise they may run into once they get back to Manhattan. "Lead on, fearless leader," she quips with a smirk.

Deidra has posed:
Deidra is impressed by Reize's taking responsiblity, as is Luso. She may not trust Evja but she does trust the former two people still. Reize's has got some respect for stepping up like that and she goes back to focusing on preparing for the task at hand. She's ready and she looks over to Mercade. "Oh my god, I havne't either." She checks the shotgun again and it's loaded. She looks to comrades and friend alike.

"Lead on MacDuff."

Lenn has posed:
Lenn grips her staff a little tighter, as the shadows close in. "Let's just do this, and save everyone's home." She steps up as Reize takes a leadership role, and blushes at him. She smiles to him, before turning her gaze back to the shadows. If they can get Manhattan back... then maybe Elfheim can come back.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will calms down...

Reize earns some big points tonight, but he doesn't immediately blast Evja. He points at his eyes, points back at Evja, and points at his eyes again. He turns, looking at Brooklyn with a nod, and then glances at Zia and then Perci. Alright...they were in this together..

And then Avira makes a song, and Will breaks into a smile. Alright, well...so much for TRYING TO BE ALL GRIM HERE! THANKS AVIRA!

He waits for the moment, the moment where this would spit them into the fallen Manhattan...he seen it before, with Riku. It was hell...maybe it was made worse by the thought that everyone he knew and loved were gone...

But they weren't. They were beside him now...oh and Evja.

Will doesn't drop the heightened mode, focusing that magic through him, not knowing if he could summon it again if he let it drop, and they'd need every inch they could get tonight.

His attention was drawn by the men in the coat...who is that guy? His eyes squinted..

Maira has posed:
Maira's smile grows as the moon appears. It is a beautiful sight. Even more beautiful however, is those lights glowing in harmony with the one inside Avira. A song on the lips of her friend. "Heh..." she says, giving Avira's hand a squeeze.

"What happens now?" she whispers.

Percival has posed:
The Gargoyle's anger would be deflated by Reize making a vow. He would speak to him calmly. "We gave him a chance and he tried to shove a spear through Mercade's heart. I trust you Sir, but I hope you know what you're doing."

Percival would step up to stand beside Mercade. "Boss. I may be knew to Emi's detective philosophy, but I'm pretty sure a detective wouldn't allow you to get impaled on on a pike. Can't let you offer yourself to him like that, for your own good."

Evja has posed:
So they were all indeed here. Evja didn't cringe or cower so much as simply look away from those who were glaring death her way. All in all she couldn't blame them for it no matter how much she might want to. When Reize promises to take responsibility Evja looks towards him before saying a simple "Thank you." then Luso asks the pertinent question.

"Unless Mercade throws himself at me again screaming to kill him... I should be fin..."

AND THEN HE DOES IT.

-.- "I... came to help." came a soft remark, hand on the spear shivering a little. Though those around the Viera may hear her chanting a soft 'please do not do this please do not do this.' So instead... Evja tries to ignore Mercade and instead focus on Avira, pretending like he isn't there, trying to keep from this situation getting worse. And what was everyone looking at anyways? Looking towards the figure, Evja asks softly, "Reize... Luso, let us go. I do not like the feeling of unease I am getting at the moment, and it is not from the hostility towards me."

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll looks Perci up and down, and then shakes his head. "Sorry, I didn't bring an extra... but..." He then undoes his own red scarf, slowly unwinding it from his neck, and then offers it to Percival. "Please, take it, as a gift." The youth then freezes when Mercade gets close - surprising him with the hand to his shoulder. He turns around just slightly to see the youth, and... smiles.

The youth nods at him, and reaches out to Mercade's shoulder as well. "Keep her safe, Mercade. I trust you." He tells him, before glancing over to the hooded person coming to 'meet' them. The whole Evja mess - he is ignoring for now. "Who's he?" He asks, whispering this to Zia. It doesn't look like skoll recognizes the hooded youth. Mostly because...

Well...

They're hooded.

Sora has posed:
There's a saying old, says that love is blind...

Sora looks up at the shape(s) up on the hilltop. His blue eyes narrow. There is... something strangely familiar about those coat. He can't place it now. When he has a moment, he will be able to figure it out. For now, however...

The Keyblade Wielder looks at Will and Mercade, murmuring something softly towards the TDA folks with a slightly worried glance. However, Avira cheerfully just breaks out into a slight song, which thaw's out Sora's worried part of his brain - briefly.

But restoration is never easy.

"Okay, Avira. Let's do this."

Sora moves around to face the Princess of Manhatten, the Keyblade in his grip, at which point he (mostly) expertly twirls it, pointing it directly at Avira. A thin beam of light erupts from the tip of the Kingdom Key.

Still we're often told, 'Seek and ye shall find...'

Sora holds his breath.

Riku has posed:
A great beam of light shoots from the stones. A pillar of twisted radiance reaches up to claw at the sky to carve pieces out of reality itself.

The light broadens out and becomes a shimmering auroral curtain that falls over the terrain to swallow all who gather here. There is a brief and wrenching moment of displacement and a rushing of wind that falls away to an unnatural stillness.

The air itself dies. The scene that lays stretched before you all is a graveyard. It is an epitaph in which the words 'Here Lies Manhattan' has been engraved for all the ages of the world to witness. There is no life here. There is no light here. And it is cold... it is so cold.

The looming spectres of Manhattan skyscrapers poke from the dark terrain like jumbled thorns. A single streetlamp stretching overhead gives fickle and trembling illumination, casting a sickly blue light which is the only immediate form of light. The cold bluish light picks out the shattered streets and the broken cars. Nobody lives there.

There is no sound. There is a dark and creeping sea of fog that shrouds all but the patch of light that illuminates the group taken through the veil to the other side. There is barely any sight.. but there is movement. Every windowless building jagged with broken glass. Every car wrapped around a shattered tree. Every storefront jumps and writhes in the corners of sight with the spectral echoes of movement. Yet.. whenever you look straight at anything. There is nothing but this perfect, gravelike stillness.

A small ball of light forms as the scroll comes apart in Avira's hands. It is big enough to be seen by all, a magical orb of bluish-light brilliance that causes streelamps to light and for a relatively wide pathway of blue light to slowly illuminated the broken ground underneath their feet. Riku pulls the hood away from his face. He hasn't done or said anything to anyone, but now he searches out those he knows. He looks to Mercade, then to Will and Avira. He nods slowly to them. In particular he raises an eyebrow at Will in a 4th wall breaking 'You need your eyes checked' aside to the camera. He seems genuinely spooked by this place and so does not say anything else. "..Well then." he chuckles very, very strainedly. "At least there isn't a boat this time."

The will-o-wisp bobs up and down slowly in the air, as if bowing to Avira and then very slowly begins to move away from the group. It does not leave them behind, but it takes all the light with it as it moves.. so it would be best to stay within the circle of shimmering light it provides.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart thought the world would be saved as soon as the portal opened... but she realizes that its the first time they save a world from the darkness. Maybe that's how things are. It makes sense in a way... The world is engulfed in darkness, they only managed to open a door to it for now. "... So uhm, that's not the manhattan I remember, so I'm guessing that there's something we need to do to save it... Think there's a big bad evil, or uhm..." She tries to think at what Merlin said, but nothing comes to mind right now, about anything relating to this.

"So what's the plan now..." She's pretty sure all of the hopeful people will be a tad depressed by this.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
First, Reize FROWNS BIG at Emi's comments. "It just means that it is better to just be betrayed at times than to do that to someone else! --Sure, both are not good, but..." He sighs.

As the eyes fall on him, the leader of the Shard Seekers is at the point where he has to take responsibility for someone else. He is willing to do that. He has to. He is a 'Knight'. He is an adventurer. To Percival, Reize offers him a smile.

"I hope so, too."

And then, Reize notices Evja's hand shivering as Mercade comes close. Reize immediately steps in between Mercade and Evja. At her request for a different location, Reize is pulling his ally away from Mercade, moving hem to a different section. "Let's go."

And then, they are brought to the sight of the grave. This grave gives Reize a shudder. With the creeping sea of fog about, the boy idly rests a hand along his boomerang while another moves to his pouch for something.

And then, Reize looks over towards the figure who removes his hood.

His eyes widen, "Riku!" The boy's face is filled with glee, waving at his direction, but he cannot help but have his attetion pulled to the will-o-wisp that forms around Avira.

"Shard Seekers, let's move." The light is leading them.

Will Sherman has posed:
Riku reveals himself.

Will sighs...scratching the back of his head. "So it was you, huh?" he shakes his head. "You pick your moments.." he says, his hands glowing red, the eyes sharper. Will's voice is modulating, and those who heard the voice can ALMOST hear Loki's.

Will's however, very much in control. He walks, following the light. Will closes his eyes for a brief moment...this place...this place like this. It was just like before...the dead streets, the dark and twisted reflection that Manhattan once was.

This alone was enough to almost make him drop to his knees. Seeing it once before still didn't harden him to it. He steps forward though, straight ahead. "No turning back now...don't fall behind guys, just keep going forward." he says, whispering more to himself than the others.

Everyone was counting on them...on him. His eyes focused again, straining against his fear and sorrow. He was partially responsible for this, but he was going to fix it. There were no other options.

"Follow the light, Tifa. Don't get trapped out there...the heartless will swarm you...they still might. I...I got trapped here after Manhattan fell. I still don't know how Riku and I survived."

Brooklyn has posed:
Skyline, you had probably best grab Brooklyn before he punches Riku in the throat. His intent seems relativly obvious, as his fists clench, eyes locked on one of the ones responsible for Manhattan's initial destruction. The devestation around them, he knows he should keep his focus on the main mission at hand, but every once in a while somebody just needs to get punched in the throat. He starts to move, to push his way through the group. People will have time to stop him, if they want.

Luso Clemens has posed:
"Whoa..."

Luso stared upwards at the sight of the looming skyscrapers and and the single streetlamp which offered a flickering illumination within the darkness of the sight. This was...creepy, to the say the least. He could almost see forms writhing and pulsing in the corner of his vision, but when he looked, everything was fine.

Not wanting to stick around and see what happened if one failed to stay within the light, Luso moved forward, following after the others. Riku revealing himself brought on a surprised round of blinking from the boy. He'd seen him before! ...Right, that time with the Mirrors! And also when they were Fighting the Judge of Nocturne. Why was he here anyway? ...He'd assume it was to help with the restoration. Suspicious as it might be of course.

No time for that now though! Stay in the light!

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart nods to Will, simply walking within the light. "Alright, thanks for the tip." She wouldn't want to get trapped in there, in this dark world after all. She hugs her sides, rubbing her upper arms. The cold is rather unnatural here.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa brings her hand up to her face to diffuse the light coming from the stones, she feels light headed for a second then finds herself somewhere else. She looking around feeling a chill go down her back.

"This is a bit creepy..", she says the whole area feels off to her. She gets into a battle stance as Riku appears, a bit surpised as he bows to Avira. She assumes he's on their side.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade nods to Skoll. "I will. Thank you."

Mercade turns away from the conflagaration of power, the transportation from here to... There.

Thoughts of Evja fall away. Mercade turns to focus on the situation ahead of them. He steps forward, a deep ache growing in his chest as he sees the... twisted and destroyed landscape that Manhattan has become. Darkness. Nothing survived. It's too much to hope that anyone could survive six months in the Dark.

His hands clench. "Let's put an end to this. Let's bring Light to the Darkness."

He gives Riku a wave, and he begins moving forward, determinedly following the light as he sticks near Avira. He's got his gun out, the pearl-handled stage revolver. A reminder... And a gift, from an enigmatic woman.

Lily has posed:
What a show! First of the twisted remains of Manhattan, and now... through whatever means, this ball of light. "It's kind of warm," Lily murmurs to herself before she dives after Reize... and will grab Lenn's hand to drag her along to if she doesn't move fast!

Zia has posed:
Narrowed eyes flash at Percival. "If ye try te get me inte a dress, yer goin te be in fer a world of pain young blood. Trust me on tha one. Besides, Ah'm a Sco'ish lass. It's the men who wear the dresses in m'country." Zia isn't above making fun of her own people, a hint of humor on her lips.

She does look back to regard Reize, and while the boy didn't have the best judgement of character, she does allow him to make his claim on the Viera. For better or worse, as a Shard Seeker, she owed her allegiance to the boy who would be leader, and so she steps back, nodding slightly. Her urge to protect is no less strong there, but she will set it aside.

There is a glance towards Mercade, Will, Avira, the other members of the Detective Agency, and then she relinquishes his protection to them. If they were willing to go forward, so be it. She's already tried to put aside her distrust of so many things: humans, Will, Riku, and now Evja is just one more on the long road. She shifts her wings, pulls her tail closer to her. Her eyes look to the hooded one, and she shrugs then. "Dinnae know." She'll leave it at that.

And then... it's Riku. Speak of the devil. Tail-twitch. "Oh fer the love of ..." She mutters some sort of oath under her breath, then shakes her head. Patience...

Luckily, the sight of her world... their world through the shifting of the magic is enough to take her breath and any complaint that might have come up on her lips. The shadowy nature reminds her of a graveyard, and a shiver runs through her. She glances towards the other gargoyles, and the humans she knows who used to live there, her ears tucked backwards. "This is very, very wrong."

Yet, she'll follow along with the others, although now and again she looks sideways suddenly, jolting from something that catches her peripheral vision.

Avira has posed:
Avira CANNOT HELP IT! The music, it just happens! (Sorry Riku.)

Part of her had wondered if it would hurt when the shard came out of her. A tiny part of her wondered if it might actually kill her. Fortunately, neither happen. It actually felt rather...cleansing. As if a great weight had just been lifted from her shoulders once Sora unlocks the world from the shards they had gathered.

They get their Manhattan back...but it isn't in the form Avira had hoped. The sky is still dark and the streets are desolate. There's no...life here. There's no light, safe for the glowing orb that the scroll given to them turns into. She stares at the light for a long time, "Riku..." she says, not looking up at him. There's a smile on her face. "Welllll...looks like we follow."

Will mentions Heartless still in here and Avira draws the weapon she's brought with her today, which is a...spear?

Kamon still had the Spine it seems. She'll make do with what we've got. "...I bet I know where it's going to take us too. Right back to where Manhattan's heart was...that or a new place where we're going to rekindle it."

Emi Dennou has posed:
"Hm, so this is your home." Umi says. "...Looks like a fixer upper." She drums her finger across her cheek. "But that's what we're here to do! ... ... right? ... ... What exactly DO we do now? Ahhh Please teach me Omi-Nee!!"

But Omi-Nee didn't come along. Someone has to stay at the home fort.

Umi rubs her head as if she's got a headache. Emi nods her agreement to Reize since she possibly misunderstands his statement as agreeing with what she said. Yeah it's pretty confusing, maybe.

Hefting up her rifle, Emi glances over to Lily, smiling at her before making her way to stick close to--Avira!? Yes.

Skyline has posed:
Yup. Skyline recognizes that look right away and quickly latches onto Brooklyn's wrist and tugs, hard. In a harsh but hushed tone, Would you look around for a moment?!" she barks quietly, motioning at the ruin of Manhattan. "This is NOT the time, do you understand? There's a lot of people here that want to help us. Do -not- set them against you because you're thinking to hard about revenge first. Lets save the people of -this- city first and deal with who caused it -later-," she scowls, glaring daggers at the red gargoyle. "Am I making myself clear?" If looks could kill right now...

Skyline has posed:
That said Skyline would then tug Brooklyn along toward the wisp. No point in getting heartless-swarmed.

Lenn has posed:
Lenn falls in behind Reize. "We're going to do this... We're going to prove to these Heartless that they can't just win all the time. We'll retake our worlds... We're the Shard Seekers... this is what we're meant to do, isn't it?" She looks to Reize, stepping up to his side... maybe taking his hand, if it's free.

Evja has posed:
The shivering hand on the spear stills after a moment, after being pulled away and Evja lets out a breath that had been sucked in and held. And eventually the spear went back to serving the purpose of a walking aid, limp visible again as the Viera moved along with Reize to follow after the light. Her attention was on Riku though. She'd met him the other day...

And here he is, seemingly known by several. That, and he is involved anyways, as she had imagined.

Who is this boy? The question begs an answer even more now.

Percival has posed:
When Skoll offers him his own bandana, Percival shakes his head with a gracious smile. "I appreciate it, Ser, but I believe your nose needs it more than my own."

Manhatten.

It was so different from the last time he saw it. And yet at the same time, it so much like it. Before he wouldn't have been welcomed to walk its streets without being persecuted by humanity. Now that he could do so unhindered, he found the very idea of it profane. It felt like he was desecrating a monument to the departed.

He would have much preferred the persecution to the silence.

Swallowing, he began to speak the words of the a prayer, whispering it to himself. "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetuae luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen."

He would range close to Zia and Skoll, sword out and at the ready. It might have made him feel foolish given that there were no threats that he could currently see, but he just couldn't shake a feeling of foreboding.

Sora has posed:

"R-riku?!"

Sora remembers where he's seen that look before, and a bewildered look clouds his blue eyes. The teenager stares at his friend, at his partner, for a few long, utterly confused seconds, his mouth open and closing a few different times.

Oh, they're going to have /such/ a discussion/ here in a few days.

However, he just - hurries to walk with Avira, subtly gesturing to Mercade to get his butt up here to walk with Avira.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
The world 'opens' before their very eyes, and the scenery itself shifts. And Skoll immediately feels himself on guard. The dead landscape, the lack of... life. There may be a flicker here and there, but that's all there is. The youth moves forwards along with Zia, remaining towards the back of the group, and follows into the path of the wisp. Light would be their salvation, would it not? But could he, someone artificially tainted by darkness, stand in the light? Skoll likes to believe that yes, he can.

The youth puts the red scarf back on, wrapping it tightly around the collar in hopes that this will shield it from the light, and lets his chains lower into his hands in case he needs it. "I remember where that place is. Where its heart is. It'll be a long trek through such a..."

A wasteland? He dare not say it. This place is a home to so many of these people!

"... defiled place." He wonders where Xanatos is in all of this. The robots that protected this city? Were they unoperable because of the fall of that world? He steps further, and touches Zia's shoulder for just one moment. "Remember, he was once our friend too. And my sister... Hati... she too was a Shadow Lord." She'd been there too. He'd smelled her. But she'd not participated in 'that battle'.

Avira has posed:
"Wait wait wait." Avira whirls around to stare at Skoll.

"/Hati/ was a Shadow Lord?"

Emi Dennou has posed:
"...Hati was a Shadow Lord?" Emi asks as well. "That's unlikely..."

She spins on a foot and points a finger at Skoll. "A Shadow Lord would never wear adorable bone print boxers!"

Deidra has posed:
Deidra stars with an mixture of wonder and horrros as the corpse of Manhattan appears before them she can see it is grave to a fragment of a once even larger world. She stares onwards, it's like a corpse thaty has been picked clearn by vermin. She sees no one is there, she can only see the remains trapped in a final moment of an unatural death she clenches her hand a little bit and then Riku arrives, this is a suprise, the TDA come is collectivley shocked to see him but here he is. Who knows what he's here for she's on edge now but he's making no actions against them and she then comes the revlation that Hati was a shadow lord as well. There's nothing she can do but she can wait, and watch this.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart looks at Emi "... I doubt that's a hit or miss to be a Shadow Lord. When you can destroy worlds at will, I highly doubt they care about what they are wearing."

Vespa has posed:
Vespa says, "I wear a maid outfit and I'm one of the good guys."

Oblivion has posed:

A roar breaks through the graveyard silence. One that was part reptilian and part mechanical. The sound of jet engines firing could be heard in the distance. Those jet engines sounded like a good ways out, yet they sound like they were moving ever closer.

Then the sound of something landing down, somewhere, before the jet engines quieted down.

Yet no where in the sky line could the unknown owner of the sounds be. No where could it be seen and then the silence once more returned.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi says, "Hm... actually you might be right there, Tifa. The Network will make latter inquiries."

"Are you suggesting...maids should be super evil?? Or are you just bringing that up for no relevant reason????" Umi asks.

"...Is that a...vehicle?" Emi asks. "...Could there be survivors? It seems unlikely--"

Riku has posed:
Riku follows along with the group, staying on the edges. He walks the very perimeter line that the will o wisp light has touched and looks out into the sea of darkness beyond. He nods and gives a wan smile to those who have given him greetings or thought but the look on his face is already very strained.

He rubs one temple, gritting his teeth as if being in such a place was uncomfortable to him for more than one reason. "Hey Reize." he says very tiredly with a look over at the Great Desert Adventurer. He looks over at Will, and there is another flicker of fear for a moment. He then forces himself to smile and nod in Will's direction. "We survived that one. We'll do it again."

This is before Brooklyn tries to swarm over him like a gargoyle shaped swarm of bees. Riku leaps backwards, disappearing almost entirely as he backs away from the circle of light. He reappears several moments later as if pulling himself away from thick sludge. He has a wild look on his face as if breaking from the surface of dark water.

"Yeah." he coughs, shaking his head. "..staying in the light I would.." he coughs again, shuddering. "..Recommend." he puts up his hands to fend off Brooklyn and just keeps himself separate from the angry gargoyle. He would allow them to take his head off later.

Riku rubs the back of his neck, looking at Sora with a 'Believe me, it's a LONG STORY' look that is almost chagrined. He then shrugs his shoulders.

The will o wisp leads through a dark canyon of an intersection. Looming buildings tower overhead and cars lay in wrecked piles in the streets. A long stretch of broken road leads deeper into the city proper.. and there is a feeling of eyes. Of yellow flickers of hunger.., from every window now.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa says, "Maids evil? Never. Don't you know? Everyone loves maids.", she hopes so anyway."

Brooklyn has posed:
Brooklyn will save his anger, and bottle it up until later. Once Skyline keeps him back, well, he eventually takes a few deep breaths and stays back. She is right, after all. He has to stay focused on what is important right now. Vengeance can wait. He falls back towards the opposite side of the ring of light, letting Riku keep up at the front. Staying seperated from him will ensure no accidents.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
"Yeah," Reize answers Lenn. As her hand takes his, he is gripping against her own. And at this case, likely Lily's as well. His eyes glance towards the group, especially looking his way towards Luso and Avira.

A glance is given towards Vespa, and then he squints. "...Didn't you taze a customer?"

Nevertheless, Reize listens to the group and he brightens, "Let's just think happy thoughts to keep the light going, right?"

"o/~ The light is here to guide us... safely through the darkness."

"o/` I am not scared of the darkness, because my light's here for me."

Will Sherman has posed:
Will sighs, "Now is not to time Brooklyn." he says, pointing to the WALL OF EYES around them. And then the roaring noise...

"If it's all the same to you guys, I don't wana be out here when that thing comes around. God...I really don't. I mean, seriously, it could be a jet engine fused with a Behemoth fused with a Tank." he shudders.

"Air Behetank is really frightening." Will says again, pushing forward. There was no back, only forward..they had to restore Manhattan, they had to restore their home..

The air was just as thick as before, the eyes cause him to shiver...it was just like before. He didn't wana be here but he had to be here. "Umi stay close to me alright?" he says to her.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart heard the noise, but she wouldn't believe it either. "I think its highly suspicious at least, unless its heartless." She won't deny the possibility that there's a kind of jet propelled heartless at this point, but that sounded pretty big even for a heartless.

She looks over to the buildings, the glowing eyes are rather unsettling. "... I'm really not feeling easy here... Even inside the light its like something can jump right at you."

She also feels like bapping Reize upside the head for singing, but she rather keep her energies to more important things right now ~_~. There are constant whispering over her radio too, it helps keep her mind off things, but she makes sure he doesn't get outside of the light bubble.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa looks at Reize and hmps. "He was harrasing me! He deserved it. That, that pervert!", she grips her axe a bit tigther remebering that jerk.

Skyline has posed:
Skyline heaves a sigh as if to say 'ugh boys,' for a moment then resumes the 'leasurely stroll' to go along with the wisp of light. Seeing Riku's reaction to falling out of the light actually gets her to wince. Her gaze, finding Riku's, would be apologetic for what the other gargoyle caused but at least Brooklyn seemed to be behaving for the moment. Good. She was -hoping- she may get to meet some of the others but, well, with that mecha-saurian roar, jet engines, and the thought of heartless on all sides? It has her a bit on edge. Not knowing anyone else doesn't help matters much either. "I really need to get out more.." she muses to no one in particular.

Lily has posed:
"No need for that!" Lily chimes as she grabs Reize's other free hand and walks along after giving Reize and Lenn both a nod. "I'm happy whenever I'm with everyone." But it's quite obviousthat this place has her a little spooked, if the wary eyes she turns to gaze out at the remains of Manhattan are any indication...

Maira has posed:
Maira remains by Avira's side, close but not crowding her, her eyes roaming as they arrive in the graveyard of Manhattan. The woman frowns. This was a place she had happy memories. Hopefully she would have happy memories here again. Hopefully. they all would.

The Heartless are very troubling though. Every time she looks away she feels like they will surround and consume her. Maira swallows hard, a couple sparks igniting from her fingernails. Would the fire help them again? Or would it only draw them closer?

Maira follows the light with the rest, smiling lightly when some people start to sing. She doesn't know the words, but she picks up the tune and hums along.

"I didn't get down to the heart of Manhattan last time..." she comments. She doesn't know what to expect.

Avira has posed:
Sora brings up a good point. Now wasn't the time to be flailing about people being secret Shadow Lords. Maybe, in retrospect, she should have realized it but after learning about what Hati went through, she figured her attitude came from her abusive past...not from being a party to the Shadow Lords. Heck, it still might not be. "...it kind of makes sense though.." she continues walking, "...Katyna and Hati were close friends. Katyna turned out to be a Shadow Lord too..." Though apparently her perspective shifted after spending so much time with VALKYRI.

She's shook out of her thoughts by that ominous sounding roar out in the darkness. That, plus seeing how Riku needs to struggle to wrench himself from the darkness outside the light, makes a chill travel down the scarred woman's spine.

"Maybe it's Mecha Godzilla." Avira whispers quietly.

Zia has posed:
It's an odd feeling to be surrounded by people who have proven to be enemies in the past. So much trust goes into those she has claimed as friends, so Zia depends on them rather than her own brief experiences. Maybe there is something more going on there than she understands, but it doesn't mean that she lets her guard down, not for an instant.

The strange mechanical sound has her turning in place, moving along with the others but clearly looking around. If she weren't bound to stay in the light, especially after seeing Riku struggle with the shadows, she would have flown up to get a better look. Being stuck on the ground is an even more trying thing.

Her studdering movements have her moving a bit back in the 'pack', and soon enough she's walking closer to Skyline and Brooklyn. "It's a little daunting nae te be able te use our wings like this." She comments, at least trying to be social to the other two gargoyles. "Ye two alright?" She asks, then looks away again, spying the shadows and lisetning for the sound of whatever it was that clearly now calls Manhattan home.

Will Sherman has posed:
"It could be Heartless J�rmungandr." Will says, with a shudder, "I mean...actually I hope it's not."

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso kept quiet as he walked along with the group. He could see the flickering yellow eyes in the various windows around them. It only served as a reminder to what he saw when Manhattan actually fell. Heartless everywhere. It wasn't a good memory. Having to flee the falling world as those beings of darkness flooded the once vibrant streets.

The sound of a jet engine did not inspire confidence either and the boy's hands went back to the handle of his weapons, this time Excalibur. He did not plan to draw it. Rather, he just kept hold of it, letting the light comfort him as he moved along.

Maira has posed:
Maira looks to Avira, shaking her head a little. "I...I still don't know what to make of Katyna. I guess we'll talk about it later. I'm afraid what will happen when Angantyr finds out," she replies, frowning.

Vespa has posed:
"We have to think happy thought now??", Vepsa says. "Really?", she findit all a bit silly but with everyone else singing the mood seems to infict her as well. "Please don't sing Al.. Great now you all got Al singing!"

"No point dewlling on what creatures it may or may not be. I'll just cut it in half, then quarters, then eights..."

Evja has posed:
The tension in the air, not just from without but within, seems to bother the Viera quite a bit. Not physically by any means so much as it just doesn't feel right. This place was supposed to be their outlet of hope, someplace where everyone could gather and restore the world. Why does it feel like they are walking into some kind of massive trap?

"We should be careful." Evja states the obvious. "I can only imagine those who wish to seal off the worlds, unable to get Avira, would instead come here and simply wait until we tried to restore it." Though with Avira here... did he truly manage to distract Seith well enough last night? To keep him away from her? "Keep your hearts strong, a strong heart shall push through, or so I am told. Of light, or Darkness. Do not waver."

Percival has posed:
Hearing the roaring of the jets in the distance, Percival would begin to look for options. Going outside of the light wasn't an option, that cut out the idea of gliding and trying to lead it away. Going back wasn't an option. They had to press forward.

When the other Gargoyle lunges at Riku, he'd move over towards Skyline and Brooklyn with Zia. "Don't believe we've been acquainted. Not the time for idle pleasantries though. Just good to see more of our kind on the side of the angels."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade is already there, Sora. Just because your boots are size 250 doesn't mean everyone else is slow! "This is incredibly wrong." Mercade replies to Zia. "But if this is what we've got to do... Well, I'm glad you're here. We're going to probably need it before this is done."

Umi causes Mercade to look up at the crumbling buildings. "It wasn't like this, Umi." He says. His voice grows heavy with reminiscence as he speaks. "The streets were alive. Light shown from every building, and people lived, worked, and played at all hours. There was a heart here, a vitality that just never stopped, never let you down."

"Don't worry about it, Skoll. We'll get there. Together. And we'll make this happen. We just have to keep strong. The best weapon we have here is our heart and will to succeed."

The sound of... /something/ moving causes him to tilt his head. What could it be? Mercade frowns, but with a lack of anything better to work with, he simply pushes ahead, continuing to follow the light. Avira causes Mercade to flinch. "That would be pretty unpleasant." Mercade replies. "Hopefully... We'll get there without meeting whatever made that noise."

Will Sherman has posed:
"We already took care of that, Bunny Judge." Will, says, "You don't worry about how..." Will says. Isaac really was a genius.

Sora has posed:
Sora continues sticking with Avira. She's probably a significant person here, and Sora is pretty much sore that if something attacks, it might try to nom Avira.

HE likes Avira, he doesn't want her to get nommed.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Damn these people and their sensitive ears, here he'd thought to whisper this to Zia. The youth tilts his head away for a moment, and then shakes his head. He doesn't want to say more - that was Hati's tale to tell after all - not his! "Forget I said that." He mutters, before looking to Emi and... well... he can't help but smile a little. "Why do you know what my sister wears when it comes to boxers anyhow?" Yep yep, nothing to see here.

But Avira continues, and all Skoll can do is nod at that time. No way back. "But she's come to try and pull away from that as well - has she not? She was there to free you that day." The day that Avira had been dragged from the underworld. Sure, she'd also been the one to put her there... but...

Things are complicated. Things are always complicated.

"She's a good person." Skoll ends up deciding on, "Hati, that is." He hasn't a clue about Ember really. He just knows that she's a dear friend of his sister's - and that she tried to protect Hati when she became sick. He just continues along, remaining close to Zia. And when Riku learns the hard way not to go outside of the wisp of light's... well... light... - he winces a little.

Yet, their walk seems pretty uneventful so far...

To Mercade the youth nods again. "We will. I'm sure of it."

And so Skoll says something one should NEVER say...

"Pretty easy so far."

Skyline has posed:
Skyline gives a nod toward Zia once she approaches, "Pleasure to meet you, I can't say I've met many since arriving. Quite literally, the day I arrived was the day Manhattan fell. I just.. washed up on shore. I didn't take it all that well," she muses. A nod is given Percival as well, "Hello there, and yes, I am not about to side with anything that's taken my home from me."

Reize Seatlan has posed:
And then... Avira actually drops a bombshell.

Katyna was a Shadow Lord.

"...Wait, what?" Reize glance falls over towards Avira at that last part. However, he shakes his head. "...Nevermind." The sound of a roar and engines shifting around makes the boy tense up. Then, Reize shuts his eyes, hearing Evja's comment.

'Do not let your light waver'.

That was the words of the Mysterious Voice. Instantly, he holds onto his pendant.

Deidra has posed:
Deidra ust freezes up as she hears sounds from the corpse city, their fight isn't over. She knows they are going to have to confront whatever it is there waiting for them. She takes a deep breath and gets ready. Also then comes Brooklyn and Riku's thing, she keeps out of it at this point she needs to focus on the city hopefully. She's got friends here, she's not alone.

"Well nothing ever worth doing is easy."

Lenn has posed:
Lenn grips at Reize's hand... For all she's trying to put on a brave face... she's scared. Afraid they'd fail, afraid they'd be seperated... but she WILL fight to keep either from happening.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will snaps his eyes to Skoll.

Will's hands grab a newspaper. "I keep this on hand just in case of Tom. Don't EVER say that again, or I'll hit you with it." WIll smacks the rolled up newspaper into his hand.

Percival has posed:
Percival mutters something as Will threatens Skoll with a newspaper. "That goes for the Q word as well. Do not say the Q word under any circumstances, ever."

Sora has posed:
Sora peers at Percival, then at Will, then at Skoll, before he asks: "What, quiet?"

Will Sherman has posed:
Will immediately waps Sora with a newspaper.

"BAD! BAD KEYBLADE WEILDER!"

Emi Dennou has posed:
"The NEtwork thought they had informed you." Emi says to Skoll. "Imi saw Hati strip before Reize and pounce him. He was mounted for some time after a bit of playing around."

She wonders in her head if maybe she could have used better word choice there.

Riku has posed:
Riku looks back at Brooklyn, and for a moment regret crosses his face, but he can't focus on regrets right now. He peers at Reize through one eye shut against the massive headache he was getting from being here and shakes his head.

He wanders over towards Reize and... thinks better of it. In such mixed company he shouldn't make any threathening moves, even if he does want to whack Reize upside the head for starting to sing.

"Air.. Behetank?" Riku groans and says to Will. "Don't give it any ideas." although he isn't quite sure what he means by 'it', but the entire realm feels achingly alive to his senses. It's just not the sort of life you want to be around. The static of the heartless all around them make it almost difficult to hear and pick up on the surrounding conversations.

He waves away Skylines apology, shakes his head and shrugging. He deserved it. It was just not the time for him to get all the thrashings he deserved all at once. "Katyna.." he says this with a small amount of scorn, but also something like embarrassment and he grinds a hand into his forehead, shaking it from side to side.

The endless city rolls on and rolls on. They have reached the first obstacle. A bridge reaches out across a great span of dark waters, connecting two parts of the city which seems to have been folded and refolded upon itself until the landscape has become familiar, but very alien as well.

There are only sparce pieces of cover and you must surmount a number of piled cars at several bends in the bridge in order to reach the far side. The light shimmers and continues to light lamps and other light sources while behind them, everything falls to darkness.

The gloom is almost impenetrable except for a slowly fading blue trail that cuts through the darkness to create the echo of the road behind them.

Ahead, at the far edge of the bridge, a large pile of debris that has been piled up that is tangled with wires and cluttered with detritus.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa says, "I guess I better say It's a trap!! They always say that in those books at some point.."

Will Sherman has posed:
Will immediately waps Vespa too! "BAD!" he scolds! "BAD!" He makes a :| face.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa owws at the waps "Hey! Well best to get it out of the way.... Geez someone people have no sense of humor..

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso suddenly glanced at Emi and then at Skoll, and then at Reize. "Dude, you did what?" He asked, staring at Reize judgingly.

The debris up ahead then caught his attention ad he turned to observe that for now...

Skyline has posed:
So it was going to be a bridge now, hmm? Honestly things just kept getting stranger and stranger. While the other gargoyles were near by, Skyline offered agrement to Zia. Not being able to use her wings was a bit odd, but then again, "I learned to fight on the ground, to tell the truth. I love to fly but I don't like to fight and fly at the same time," she admits a little sheepishly before turning her attention back tot he bridge. Hum. Time to cross a bridge eh? That's not too bad, in fact, "Just a bridge? ... It could be worse."

Percival has posed:
Percival would scratch the back of his neck as Skyline offered her perspective on fighting. "In the future perhaps, I can teach you how to fight while gliding."

The Gargoyle mutters as they come up to the bridge. "I've got a bad f..." And then he notices Will using Hobo-Fu with a newspaper on everyone, and lapses into silence. Before Will can even turn on him, he's starting to walk a bit faster.

Zia has posed:
All this talk about Shadow Lords only has Zia a little bit confused. She'd never met Skoll's sister, or really had much to do with Katyna other than seeing Skoll kick her rear and then later to witness her going into hell to save Avira. It's all quite confusing, but figuring there were others here who had acted as betrayers at various times and were now here to help... well, there isn't much time to place judgements.

She just stares at people saying all the things they shouldn't be saying. Instead, she looks at Skyline. "Well, nice te meet ye, anyways. The good squire here is Sir Percival the brave." Ask a gargoyle not used to using names to give introductions, you get an exaggerated one, "Ah'm Zia, from Sco'land originally. 'N dinnae let this one tell ye anythin about me bein a princess. He teases me mercilessly 'n is goin te get his just deserts for it, someday."

As they continue forward, Zia stops near one of the cars on the bridge, reaching in to flick at a little hula dancer. "Hrm." It's unnerving for it to be so quiet, but she's not going to make any commentary on that sort of thing.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll gives Will this odd look. THE NEWSPAPER!

A WEAPON OF MASS PUNISHING!

His tail moves between his legs and the wolf grows a little, "What'd I say?" One has to keep in mind, he's not from Manhattan. He's never watched those movies, never played those games. And then Emi speaks up about the boxer issue... and Skoll kind of just casually keeps wandering and ends up behind Reize... and slaps him over the head! "You know what that was for..." Before wandering back to Zia and the rest.

As for the things in the way... well... he's always been good at getting around obstacles and climbing! Getting into trees was a favorite thing to do. But cars?

Deidra has posed:
Deidra looks at Vespa with an look ofg horror for a moment as images of fish alien yelling that phrase in her head. She knwos she didn't mean something by it but damn that's set her off then the news paper is threatend to be used. That's even more stunning to her. However she looks about at the darkness there's something she sees the bridge and looks at the wreckage ahead her wings spreads out she's intent to get into the air and take a better look at things though they may need to split up now?

Reize Seatlan has posed:
"Quiet's a good word!" Reize chimes in with Sora.

And then Emi makes a response of the time that Hati.

...
...

Reize immediately sweat bullets. God, that day. His eyes slowly shift towards Skoll with a sheepish smile.

And then Luso accuses him, "Oooi! It was a fight that we had! She was transforming! Nothing more!" He sweatdrops, giving Lenn and Lily a sheepish smile.

As they roll along the endless city, the boy looks over towards the bridge that reaches through the dark waters. However, there are lots of piled cars at the bends on the bridge. However, the fding blue trail creates the echo. With that, Reize sucks in a breath. Stay with the light.

*WHACK!*

"OW!" The antenna hair looks crumpled up, as if someone beat the hell out of it and Reize.

Percival has posed:
While he's walking ahead, he calls back to them. "Pleasure to make your acquaintances. And no, no Zia. I'd have to be barmy to call myself that. Just Percival, esquire. Not been knighted. And she is a Princess. We all call her her royal highness, don't let her tell you otherwise. Isn't that right Skoll?"

Will Sherman has posed:
Will looks over the bridge...

'Could be worse'. Will makes a face, and SMACKS Skyline with the newspaper. "Seriously people! Don't /say/ these things! It will get worse if you tempt fate! I mean, /I am sort of a luck god/. Well, minor...ish...look, details aside, stop tempting my mothers!" he throws his hands up!

Putting the newspaper away, Will frowns...lots of derbies and a dangerous bridge. Will does what Will does best, using Pakour, he starts running at the large pieces of derbies, aiming to try and kick up the side of one and aiming for a hand hold, aiming to lift himself over it, staying within the light.

He pulls himself up, and offers a hand up to the next person behind him. Will is dex based, not a strength based character. So he can't pull up anyone too heavy!

Sora has posed:
"How many mothers do you have?"

Sora asks this of will, even as he watches the luck-god-boy-teenager-thingy-ma-jig start climbing over things. Sora's dextrous enough himself, and has the strength to help if needed.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
And then, Reize begins to brave the obstacle course, already moving to jump from vehicle to vehicle.

However, Reize does stick behind to pretty much help Lily and Lenn up there should they need it.

Skyline has posed:
Suddenly newspaper'd! Skyline yelps, "What was that for? Its true! The bridge could be busted or on FIRE or UNDER WATER and then it would be worse! Yeish!"

Avira has posed:
"Yes." Avira murmurs to Maira, "Let's talk about that later. We...have a lot to discuss." It's hard to read how she feels about this since she seems kind of distracted. She's trying to focus on the whole 'getting through the dead city' thing first.

She nods along with Skoll...until he says THOSE WORDS. "Skoll!!" she gasps, "Don't tempt fate like that!"

Speaking of fate, Will would notice that Avira's strings seem to be going crazy. There's one to at least every person here now.

There's a barricade up ahead, one they'll have to cut through or climb, which is no problem whatsoever for the numerous gargoyles in group.

"Percival, you better not be talking about me. I don't want to be called that!"

Will Sherman has posed:
"Okay this gets complicated...I am and was fathered by Loki, Oberon is also in my heritage because of...him screwing up the ritual on purpose...and Three sisters, Wyrd sisters? I think...so..." Will shrugs.

Evja has posed:
One benefit of having Faerie Shoes on is you can teleport short distances. Which is what Evja does to make her way over any obstacles that come up. It's simply taking another step for the Viera, despite bracing herself every now and then with her spear. "I hope so. That one Shadow Lord caught me trying to find Avira at the Crossroads last night and though I managed to distract him a bit, I can only imagine he has yet to find her as she is here. Hopefully he is still looking."
That might explain why Evja looks like her ass handed her way.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa light mood changes to serious as they come across the bring and the piled up debree blocking there path. She could proably cut some of it away with her axe if need be. She wait to see what everyone else has planned.

Percival has posed:
Percival would call over to Avira as she speaks. "Heavens no, Lady Avira. I promised never to say that to you didn't I? I'm speaking to the /other/ Princess."

Noticing Maira, he'd walk over to her, bending down onto one knee. "Lady Maira, put your arms around my neck." Assuming she did so, he'd climb over the next obstacle willy nilly with her on his back. Gargoyles are expert climbers like that. Sort of like how Tiggers are expert bouncers.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
"Will. Stop punishing people who don't know about terrible narrative tropes and pay attention." Mercade says as he moves along the road. The bridge itself looks stable... enough? He hopes. Unfortunately, the light situation prevents him from independantly scouting ahead. He moves foward, using his natural agility to climb over the barriers of debris instead of going around them. He wants to get the drop on something if it's hiding behind these.

Zia brings up something interesting. "Scotland, you say? Didn't we meet another guy from Scotland a bit ago?" He glances to Will. "Said his name was Macbeth, right?" He looks back. "Maybe you two should meet sometime?"

Avira has posed:
"Oh, okay then." Avira sighs in relief at Percival.

"...ahhh, so my rumors worked." Avira grins a little, "Don't worry, Evja, I had some more spread before we came here...plus a little trick or two from my wizard friend Isaac." A smirk forms upon her face and she wags a finger in front of her, "The Shadow Lords will be chasing false leads and rumors right now. Hopefully the shards being unlocked didn't attract them though."

She falls silent, "I'm sorry to hear you ran afoul of one yesterday, though."

Brooklyn has posed:
"Macbeth?!" Brooklyn calls out as he overhears Zia's conversation, "Watch it with that guy. He's crazy, and violent. And he hates gargoyles for some reason that I still haven't figured out."

Maira has posed:
Maira nods to Avira. Of course. They have to focus on what they are doing.

Upon reaches the bridge full of obstacles Maira frowns, worried. Piles of cars? Sure, Reize can just jump them. Maira isn't so great at that. She could maybe try to fling herself over them with magic? Landings could be tricky though...

Luckily, the oh-so-gallant Percival approaches and offers to help her. Maira smiles warmly and climbs on, holding tightly. "Thanks Percival...I'm not a lady though, you can just call me Maira..."

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart doesn't know the whole story of why Evja is in suh poor shape, but there's a time and place to ask for everything. Right now, there's strength in numbers either way, as long as everyone works together of course. This place is really giving her a bad feeling and she wishes she could get back home instead... but Manhattan is more important, and not to mention how many people were homeless because of this. She can handle it.

At least she knows hwo terrible worlds are when they are lost.

Lily has posed:
Lily WILL need some help! She's never been too good at climbing around in complication directions, though magic's done well to overcome her innate lack of physical ability... coordination? Not so much.

Reize will be lucky if she doesn't fall on him at some point.

"This place is really spooky... is this... what the Heartless leave behind? ... did I come from a world that looks like this now...?"

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll kind of just... stares at Percival, motiong a single hand towards Avira to once again points out that he has no idea what she's talking about. "Princess?" He asks him, and just kind of shakes his head. "I know no princesses. At least, I don't think I do?" The youth blinks profusely. Wait, is he refering to Zia being some Princess of Heart? He's pretty sure that's been disproven.

Right?

Evja has posed:
"It is fine." Evja mumbles softly. "I did not have to combat them, though I took it to be an opportunity to try and distract them from searching for you. I... understimated just how powerful the Darkness is though." Looking towards Reize, Evja then adds, "Thankfully he found me, else I would not be here."

Riku has posed:
A gathering storm comes from the distant waters(?) over which the bridge is spanned. Riku looks at Will and shakes hie had. "You know, getting your head on straight didn't do your ego any favors, Will." he grins at the Dex-based character and does the same, manuevering up the rubble with somewhat partial parkour success. He then attempts to help the people who still need to be helped up the mountain of cars, debris and rubble.

Riku looks off into the distance as the storm approaches and starts looking around, eyes shining with a flash of yellow as he looks farther ahead and behind for good places to hide. " Guys.." his voice takes on a note of concern, then becomes much sharper.

"Something's coming!" he cries out to the others, not heeding whether they listen to him or not. He helps people and then slides right back down the hill of debris, putting several large trucks between himself and the left side of the bridge.

A soft rumbling noise punctuates the oppressive silence, a roaring wall of darkness in the wake of.. something indefinite but huge. It was heading straight towards the bridge, and as they were mostly only half way across.. there was very little chance of avoiding it completely until shelter was taken.

There are multiple piles of wreckage. It's only a matter of.. will any of them hold?

Macbeth has posed:
Almost as if some preternatural force has reached out through the ether between universes, Macbeth walks up behind Mercade just as the man says his name. "'Ello again, lad," Macbeth joins Mercade in the same spot on the bridge. Clad in his black greatcoat, he follows Mercade as the younger man moves off.

Oblivion has posed:

The sound of jet engines are what is perhaps what breaks the silence that this thing is moving right over head. Then that roar once more of the reptilian mixed with mechanical. It flies over ahead, from the looks of its body, its a massive crocodile, probably nearly 20 feet long, and with mechanical jet like wings with four thruster engines that allow it to fly over. One claw is mechanical, both back legs, and half of its tail. It has what looks like half of its face also mechanical, with the rest of it being heartless black.

Those gold eyes peer down at those it passes over, before it rotates around. Passing by everyone for a quick fly by.

=================================[ WARNING ]==================================
! CrocoGoon !

=================================[ WARNING ]==================================

Once the CrocoGoon flies overhead, there is a streamer of magic that flies off its claws and wings. Soon a loud rumbling could be heard, before suddenly a dark tidal wave rushes right toward everyone. The very one that everyone should be rushing into cover to avoid.

Those who are not so lucky, get swept right up, these victims the CrocoGoon comes in to take complete advantage of. Its giant maws open and as it flies by, like in video game fashion, goes to snap its massive jaws toward all of them as it flies by.

These victims are:
Avira, Zia, Mercade, Maira, Brooklyn, Deidra, Vespa, Skoll, Luso, Lenn, and Riku

Emi Dennou has posed:
The Dennous get about hiding as they advance and the like. For whatever reason, they don't choose the path Mercade has chosen, cringing faintly as they see where he ends up going. Well, maybe they're overthinking this. It's hard to tell where they're going to end up striking, but maybe the others will be alright.

The Network kind of cheats though, sticking some of their cover along with them through magnetism, so it's really like a bunch of junk is moving around on its own with tiny Dennou feet.

Avira has posed:
IT IS MECHA GODZILLA!

Avira will sort out this MacBeth business later since Percival seems to be freaking out about him just a little. More importantly, she hears the /thing/ coming and makes a run for it, sliding beneath a pile of upended cars and wires. She thinks she's small enough that the debris will hold and she will be an impossible target to hit. Avira is /wrong/. The wave of darkness slams into the pile and knocks it over, sweeping her along with it. Avira shrieks, reaching out a hand, trying to grasp onto someone or something to prevent herself from being flung over the bridge.

She sees something crashing through the wreckage and far too late realizes it is the Heartless itself. Scrambling, she kicks a piece of wreckage into its jaws so they don't clap down on her completely before she wiggles away and tumbles back down onto the ruined bridge.

Avira looks startled but quickly pulls herself up to her feet and readies her borrowed spear.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will stares down from his large pile of derbies. "Macbeth? Yeah, he gave me a silver dollar once. That's a large amount of money for the time...he also said something about a Woman named Demona? Well, a Gargoyle woman. Know her? he seems to have a thing for her, a murder violently thing."

Will looks back at the dark cloud coming, and looks back at Riku. "...What can I say? Maybe I have to be a bit more self respecting?" He grins towards the Teen, "Maybe it's something I picked up from a certain SOMEONE." He grins back at him, even in the face of incoming danger...

Will hits the ground, his right hand creating a barrier around him and anyone near him (so they can use this as a reason to avoid damage). The darkness washes over him...and he manages to avoid taking it to the face...

"Well, I guess it found us.."

Vespa has posed:
Vespa hms looking up spotting the flying monster crocodile. "Incoming!", she says as then the thing flies low and swallows her up! She uses her axe as a prop to keep herself from being swallowed whole!

Zia has posed:
Percival is getting shot eye-daggers at the moment, and while she doesn't have a newspaper to deal with people, she does poke him in the shoulder with one finger. Ever had someone charge themselves up on a carpet and touch you? Yeah, it's like that. She static-prods the young gargoyle at her side.
5rWhen Skoll gets in on the act, Zia just face-palms. "Dinnae ye dare get in on this, too. He does it to torture me, tha one." With a glance at the other two gargoyles, the white one just shakes her head, "Other than the one from the stories, Ah'm nae familiar wi' the name. Then again, Ah'm nae really the sort te go talkin te humans much, not until lately, anyways."

Then Riku shouts.

Zia freezes in place, looking forward.

Reaction time has never been her strongest suit, but she dives behind the nearest set of cars, but alas, her tail ends up getting swiped as the giant... robo-crock comes by. She barely contains a sound, biting down and pulling her tail back towards herself. "Why can it nae be somethin small. Heartless pygmi rabbits or robotic minipigs...?"

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso could hear the roar of the engine and the wave of darkness coming in. "Holy cra-"

FWOOSH

There was no time to take proper cover, the darkness came in and he was swept up and and into the claws of the beast. "Gah!" He cried, crossing his arms over to defend himself and mitigate some of the damage. Tumbling back down to the ground, he landed on his back and coughed, twitching comically.

"...Not. As. Planned."

Skyline has posed:
There was a response that Skyline was going to give to everything but as she climbs the wreckage and realizes something was on the way? "HIT THE DECK!" she calls out, trying to warn as many others as she can before she dives away from where Riku's trying to hide for her own spot. When the Crocogoon goes RUSHING by she manages to avoid the worst of hit, heaving a sigh, then, "What in the world was that?!"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart's eyes go wide as she sees the giant mecha-crocodile of doom, or whatever that thing is. She moves to safety behind a pile... which almost crumbles as soon as she touches it. She quickly scuttles over to the next pile, which she HOPES is more sturdy, as the giant thing VROOMS overhead, nearly clipping the entire place with it.

Fortunatly for her, it holds on to the onslaught, and she's left safe. But some of her companions did get clipped. "I don't knwo what it was,b ut its comming back, stay on your guard!"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Looks like climbing OVER the piles of debris was a bad plan.

Mercade gasps as he hears something HUGE moving. And then he frowns... And he watches SOMETHING huge begin moving towards them. Mercade yells. "OH GOD! THAT'S HUGE." Mercade yells, diving out of the way just before it smashes into him. "How are we going to fight that?" MErcade says, looking up from the ground. He grimaces, and rushes forward, firing a few quick shots at the thing as he rushes down the bridge. "WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE MECHA GODZILLA! AVIRAAAAA, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO BE RIGHT?"

Sora has posed:
Sora knows something bad when he sees it coming.

The Keyblade Wielder promptly ducks behind a near piece of debris, findig it created something of a snail-like shape, Sora burrowing into it for a few long moments as the darkness washes over the lands.

Afterwards, he reappears, his blue eyes wide. "Oh, lord."

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
A massive thing is coming! Skoll hears the metalic-like sound and quickly dives behind one of the massive cars in the way - something Manhattanites call an SUV. But the massive thing just sheers by, bringing its mouth open and mauls the thing, tearing it as if it were nothing. "Tssk... safe driving my ass." Skoll mutters as he's forced into the air for a moment, his body smashed into. He quickly throws a chain into the beast's open maw, hoping to damage it with the metalic content and the corrosive magic he imbued into it, before he ends up falling down onto the ground. But instead of 'rolling with it', there's a bad sound that comes from his foot, and Skoll breathes in painfully.

"Damn that thing." He mutters, looking around to the others, "Everybody alright!?" He calls out, worried about the others that had been nearby.

Percival has posed:
Once atop the rubble, he'd let Maira slide off his back, and allowed her to start to walk away.

Jet Engines again. What in the? And then he's looking straight at Crocodile Dundee, the jet edition. Action Figure available for a limited time only at stores near you. Weird things flashed through his mind when doom was imminent.

And Maira was right in the path of its jaws. He'd start running on two legs, but as he did so, he sheathed his sword. He was on all fours moments after, charging at her. Hurty burninating from her was certainly also imminent, but that was better than seeing her get hurt.

Pouncing forward, he'd grab her with his arms, before rolling under cover. He felt the hot breath of Crocodile Dundee the Jet Edition on his neck as he rolled under a slab of concrete that was jutting into the air. Several deep breaths later, he'd finally dare to ask the question. "You alright?"

Lenn has posed:
Lenn winces. "It tagged me, but I'm still fine. I don't think it got us too badly..." She frowns as the monster comes back around, gripping her staff rather than Reize's hand now. "Get ready, here it comes...

Reize Seatlan has posed:
First, it is the warning that Riku gives them. They are to hide or take some form of cover. Then there is the presence of the muliple eyes out and abou. As the sound of the jet engines roar to life, Reize's eyes widen and he starts to tug at both Lily and Lenn to get them to come out. "Gah!" Reize's eyes widen, already falling into the hiding spot.

...But there is something that is not good.

Reize was separated from his 1st fiancee.

"NO!"

As it takes a swipe out at her, Reize actually springs out of his hiding place now. In fact, he leaps OFF of it and right towards the creature's mouth.

LEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYY!!!! JEEEEEEEENNNNNKIIIIINNNNNNNSSSSS!!!!

Hiding be damned. Reize is springing over towards the beast's maw to smack his boomerng into its face, and then toss something from his bag of tricks into its eyes. Likely some powder.

"Get away from my fiancee, you ugly beast!"

Brooklyn has posed:
The attack, as expected as it is, still comes out of nowhere for Brooklyn. He tries to dodge out of the way, but winds up getting slammed by the darkness, thrown to the ground by it, before he rolls out to one side. "Well, time to go to work." He mutters, as he pushes himself back up to his feet.

"You know what they say. The only easy day was yesterday." He drops down to get into a position to launch himself after the beast as it makes a return pass, which he's sure it will.

Deidra has posed:
Deidra is like a squaddy picking the wrong thing to hide behind the pile of concreet just can't take the blast from the alien horror. She can only stare up at the reature for a moment as it appears. just what the heck is this thing? It comes down and just chomps right though her cover catching her for a moment as she's caught she manges to fire off a spell but it does nothing to the thing.

She's not happy as she's caught she manges to break free and falls down to the street she's hurt, but she's alive, and she's trying to get to her feet now.

Evja has posed:
Thankfully, that giant Crocodile didn't go after the Judge! She'd ducked away and managed to choose the right group to go with, and thankfully it paid off.

Maira has posed:
Maira would thank him, then start to be on her way once more only to be almost immediately interrupted by a giant flying crocodile monster. Maira blinks, looking upward. It really always is some giant being of doom, isn't it?

Her eyes widen as it swoops down toward her, jaws snapping--then she's been tackled (oh hey, this is familiar...) by Percival and rolled into cover, clinging to him because there is nothing else she can do. Besides keep her magic in check so she /doesn't/ accidentally burn him again. That's important.

Unsurprisngly, Maira sounds pretty shocked as she answers, "Yes, I'm alright...thank you..." she says, wide-eyed. Perci is clearly taking this redemption thing very seriously and has evidently decided she was a good one to be heroic around.

SIGH he's right. She gets into so much trouble.

Doesn't stop Uist from glaring jealously though. Grrr.

Riku has posed:
Riku puts his hands over his ears, the roar of jet engines reverberating in his skull like a gong. He presses his body against the truck as a wave of darkness slams against the bridge. He crouches down, making himself as small of a target as possible when the truck begins to squeal with a sound of metallic straining.

" Uh. No.. Nono.." The truck is pushed literally towards the twisted other edge of the bridge. He dives out of the way of the screaming truck only to find himself in the CRUNCH path of the Crocogoon.

He cries out in pain as it starts to crunch down on his leg before he flickers out of existance, reappearing above it and bringing a black sword down at a joint in it's patchwork face, smashing at the jaw as he drops back down to the bridge and staggers back to his feet.

The little orb of light still remains, reappearing from deep underneath a pile of debris but it's illumination has gotten noticably fainter. The bluish white glow that created the road through this lost city of darkness is only visible now underneath their feet, pulsing faintly as if struggling to keep the darkness from touching them.

The road behind them...? Not so fortunate.

There is no longer a thread of light weaving back though the city towards the point in which they entered. In fact, the bridge behind them that they have already walked as been torn away by the force of the wave of darkness.. a darkness that has seeped so far into the bridge that cracks are quickly spreading as if the concrete and steel had been turned to brittle ice.

The light suddenly shoots ahead, around the debris pile and out the other side! It shoots into the deeper city and the skeleton of a construction site as the bridge continues to accelerate in falling apart behind them.

Relocation may be a very good option.

Skyline has posed:
After the insano-huge mechadilezilla goes rushing by, Skyline lunges to the top of the rubble pile, leaps off, and takes off at a run for the next area. Why? She wants NOTHING to do with that huge heartless. "TIME TO MOVE!" she calls out, transmitting as well, before trying like crazy to catch up both with the light and escape the seemingly breaking bridge. At this point she even has a dagger and a gun out. She is not getting caught off guard again..

Will Sherman has posed:
Will grunts...

"Come on guys! We have to keep moving!" he shouts at the others, and helps more people over the derbies. Will breaks into a run, trying to keep up with the light. They'd been too relaxed...

"Yes! Mecha Godzilla. CHEESE IT! The last thing I wana do is fight it in it's realm, that's like dinosaurs!" Will shouts at Mercade, and continues to just run!

"You okay Riku?"

Macbeth has posed:
Pulling up the rear of the cadre surrounding Mercade and the Twilight Detective Agency, Macbeth is actually taken slightly aback by the monstrocity rising up. But unlike many, he doesn't draw a weapon and begin to open fire. He instead crouches down near the rear and reaches for an item attached to the many pouches along his belt. Pulling out a viewfinder, Macbeth brings it up to his right eye and begins to study the mecha-beast for some sign of weakness or chink in the armor.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart has managed to escape unharmed at least, but she lifts an eyebrow at Reize. Leeroy Jenkins? What is that kid saying now?

Nevermind that. She rushes over to check on the people with them. "Let's move before it comes back!" She doesn't want to stick around to see if her pile of garbage will withstand another flyby like that. She helps those she can to get up and move, but staying within the light's range as much as possible. The space is big enough, but still need to keep a move on.

She looks over to Mercade "I heard a saying about 'if it bleeds it can die', do you think you hurt it?"

Emi Dennou has posed:
At some point, Emi has quick changed into the Dennousaur outfit. As a Dennousaur, she waddles up to Macbeth, bringing the cover and Umi along with her.

"What's that?, The Network inquires." Emi says, pointing towards the viewfinder. "The light is getting weaker--we're not sure what happens in the darkness, but apparently it is not good."

"These ones will stay close."

Avira has posed:
Avira's all ready to attack it if it comes back. "Is everyone okay?!" she calls out, knowing by the sound of screaming that there were other unlucky people like her that picked the wrong debris to hide in. Avira sort of expects that, like all those other Heartless she ran into this week, that this one had homed in on her in particular.

The oddities of the orb are noted and start to worry her instantly. This light...it wasn't connected to her, was it? Is that why it was clearly struggling right now?

The bridge starts to crumble and Avira doesn't bother positioning herself for the heartless anymore. She chases after the light, vaulting over debris with the ease of someone who practices a crapton of free running. "C'mon Mercade! C'mon Skoll!"

Reize Seatlan has posed:
"Lenn! Run! Hide! I will cover you!" Reize calls out towards her.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade didn't even notice Macbeth showing up, so intent has he been on the whole 'not dying' thing. The Detective looks over at the man. "Glad you could make it." He says, happy to have the assistance present. He, too, would want Manhattan restored... After all, it'd be a step towards bringing back Scotland if they could too. Mercade looks over the path, thinking about it for a moment... And then he sees the crackling, crumbling area behind them. "OH HELL!" Mercade yells. "THE BRIDGE IS FALLING! MOVE!" He scrambles forward, threading his way through the debris as he tries to keep ahead of the breaking terrain. He knows that falling here would be much, much worse than a mere drop into the River. "NO ONE GETS LEFT BEHIND! MOVE!" Tifa asks if they can hurt it. "Well... We're going to find out!" Mercade says back to the barmaid.

Brooklyn has posed:
Getting the hell out of dodge does seem like a good idea. Especially since their light source seems to be intent on flickering out and dying. Brooklyn moves after Skyline, since she seems to have the right idea. Plus, well, fighting on a broken bridge against a giant metal monster doesn't sound like his idea of a fun night.

Lily has posed:
After seeing this HORRIFYING thing come charging out of nowhere and ravage half of her friends - oand allies - LIly looks back out the door she abrubtly charged through with her body trembling in terror. Still.. seeing everyone all roughed u motivates her quite spectacularly.

"Lenn! Lenn, hold on!" Whooosh. Out of cover she goes, to grab Lenn and drag her straight for the dcover she'd found. "Reize, you too! Stay away fromt aht thing!"

Zia has posed:
The bridge is crumbling, everyone is moving, her tail hurts, and for a moment, Zia is frozen trying to make sense of it. Then, with a single breath, she's up. The gargoyle leaps over the car, racing on all fours as she follows the others, her feet scrambling now and again over bits of stone that fall away beneath her. Her wings are out, ready to catch her, but knowing full well that falling into that darkness would /not/ be a good idea.

Needless to say, there is probably a colorful string of Scottish oaths coming from her mouth, but she keeps them mostly to an undertone. For a mage, it's impossible to really get into a position to fight when something is chasing you. Spellcasting doesn't work so well on the run.

Luso Clemens has posed:
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks guys. No worries here." Luso grumbled as the group moved on before kicking and lurching back up to his feet, brushing himself off. Oh well, no time to worry about that now!

Luso immediately broke out into a run, bringing up the rear as the foundations began to give way. No way was he going to stick around there now! "Alright, let's move!" Watching the others move on ahead, Luso frowned, looking about for that monster.

Oh he'd have his payback!

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Time to move indeed. When the light moves out from underneath the debris, that's a weight off of Skoll's shoulders. But they have to press on regardless! They had to make it, even if they had to fight the very darkness itself. It just scared Skoll a little... so much darkness so close. Nervously, he's touching at his scarf - underneath which lies that collar. His breathing has slowed a little, as he's trying to keep himself calm. But it's very artificial; and noticibly so.

The cracks forming in the bridge haste him on, right along with Avira's voice calling for him. "Right behind you!" He calls back, and moves to Zia's side, making a little headmotion. "Come on." Indeed - as Mercade said. Nobody left behind. And Skoll even takes a few extra moments to look behind him to ensure that indeed - nobody would be left behind, before running forwards, his chains at the ready...

If he had to grab someone, his chains would do that job quite well.

Percival has posed:
Percival would look sidelong at the man identified as Macbeth. He was staring daggers at him for a time, before tearing his gaze away, back to Maira, and helping her back to her feet.

No ancient blood debt was worth risking Manhatten. Besides, Judge Bunbun was still higher on his list than Macbeth could ever be. "Let's keep moving. Lady Mai-"

And then he was looking at Dennousaur, and he was rendered literally, speechless.

Right, don't stop moving. The power of adorable would only stun him for so long.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa got really lucky that time not getting bitten by that flying crock thing. But the bring was now crumbling.. "not good!", she starts running!! "Really not good! I'm running as fast as I can Al!", she runs as fast as she can the bridge falling to pieces behind her..

Deidra has posed:
Deidra has recovereda t this point ans she gets back to her feet, she make a move to catch up with the others as she prepares for the beast's return. She keeps pushing it hard a she can. Thankfully given she's a Gargyole she's far tougher than most humans of her size would be. She's back on the move. "Let's move it!"

Evja has posed:
It takes the Viera a moment, but she does push herself to a stand and flash away a bit to start getting off the Bridge. Too many confusing things and let's face it... the only thing that matters is getting off the collapsing bridge. So without thinking too much about it, Evja vanished once more from sight before appearing next to Maira and placing hand onto hers, flashing the both of them in quick motions forward. He couldn't keep it up for too long, but these short stints...
Not /that/ hard. Though that mechanical crocodile was a bit worrisome. Was that even a /heartless/? What was it? It was so... strange.

"Let us prepare to strike at it! Let us try to save the guide, though!" And thus Evja attempted such, ramming a spear into one of the hunks of trash that he thought was blocking the will-o-wisp and trying to leverage it up in passing before pulling his spear away. If he couldn't, he couldn't, but he was trying.

Maira has posed:
Maira was still trying to regain her bearings when, suddenly, the bridge is collapsing!? Everyone is running....Oh no oh no Maira's bad at running! Of course, she does it anyway. Nothing like almost certain doom to get your feet moving and your adrenaline pumping!

Still, she's pretty slow. She doesn't have a great movement speed okay!?

Once again, someone swoops in to save her butt. This time its Evja though! Maira doesn't even have time to react before her hand is grabbed and she is dragged, flashing forward in what seemed to be short range teleport.

When they come to a stop again Maira almost falls over from vertigo. "I shouldn't have come," she says to herself. She's been absolutely noting but trouble so far!

Maira nods to Evja, "thank you," she says, then lights up her hands and prepares some fireballs.

Riku has posed:
Riku pulls up alongside Will for a moment, eyes yellow all the way across as he drinks a potion. There is blood staining his calf already drying from the healing magic and a curl of dark wind around him powers the teenager to keep jumping, moving and generally running to catch up.

He helps anybody who is starting to fall behind if he is allowed to and if he could. He WRENCHES Sora forwards. "Come along, dummy." he mutters because looking back with those blank eyes at the encroaching darkness makes him shudder and look quickly back at where they are going. "I'm fine! Just.. hit my foot on a snag." he snorts with a dire chuckle and follows the light across the street and inbetween the canyons of two more abandoned buildings to an intersection where the skeleton of a Construction site looms.

The construction site is all black. Every metal girder. Every bolt. Every plank of wood and rivet simply black against black, a shadow of a building with piles of rubble built up along the base. It is a veritable maze of high and low places. There is significant flat ground around the site and the will o wisp leads them, it's circle of illuminate getting stronger as flickering motes of light sparkle up from the road, and from each and every one of the people it is protecting. There is a flash. A crackle of ozone and a pulse of magic that lights up the entire construction maze for a moment, driving away the gloom.

A maze of scaffolding and passages leads up to where the will o wisp stops, half way up the tangled construction. You end up on a giant metal plate that balances on several large supports, the black metal tile of glossy and shimmering black that neverthless glows from within at the touch of the light. A great chasm has been rent in the earth a little distance away, an open and waiting maw that blocks their path and plunges into the city underground.

Oblivion has posed:

The CrocoGoon is not far behind everyone, yet thanks to the heroes attempts to swat the massive beast, they knocked it into the ground, so into the darkness it goes. Chomping its teeth before the darkness covers it over completely as it attempts to snap at them from cracks and alleys between buildings.

Only its mechanical roar though is the last thing to be heard from it as it goes out of sight.

Then soon those jet engines whine to life, as it goes flying to the very construction site where all the heroes are running too. As they make their way to follow the trail of light. The CrocoGoon is not far behind, zipping around, trying to bite its way through the safety of the metal tangles and lines.

Its short stubby legs with its sharp massive claws, scratch across the construction site surfaces, attempting to find away to break in, yet with no available access at first. It is only when they get high enough and the light surges out does the CrocoGoon try to get level with the heroes. Those hungry, beastly gold eyes staring them down, before it opens it maw and lets out a mighty roar in defiance to the light.

Lenn has posed:
Lenn is pulled along by Lily. "Thanks, Lily, this is getting two close... On the run, she quickly pulls out a crystal. While she IS in position to attack, she needs to gather herself for attacking, and this is hard to do on the run... Instead, defensive powers are the order of the day on the two people here closest to her.

Zia has posed:
The movement of the escape plasters Zia's hair back along her forehead as she runs, moving more like a beast than a person. Without the use of her wings, this is the fastest way she can scramble over the ground, trying to keep pace with the others. She nods once as Skoll comes up beside her, but breathing heavily, the white gargoyle really isn't able to speak. Focus, move forward, don't get too distracted.

After all this time, she's just starting to learn how to handle herself in these fight/flight situations, and when they finally reach the construction site, she skids to a halt, easily leaning back into a bestial crouch. Her talons don't have much purchase on the metal surface, so the effort to stop leaves a few little scratches in the metal.

Trying to catch her breath, the gargoyle does take a step forward, watching the beast try to claw it's way towards them. "Back off ye great bloody beast." Electricity crackles from her fingertips, and with a flap of her wings, she gathers that energy. Like a miniature storm, it tries to sweeup at the creature, throwing it upwards, and then using the force of pure lightning to lash it back down towards the ground.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
As Reize is performing his suicidal combat maneuver(read: JUMP INTO DANGER), Reize is mostly trying to buy Lily and Lenn sometime. Thankfully, the Shard Seekers' Noble Wolf is here to save the day! With his powerful chains, Reize and a few of his friends that have been lagging are caught.

No one left behind.

 !!!

Reize yelps as he is tugged by the chans and back to a running distance from he creature. Even worse, the bridge behind them is being torn away by the darkness. While the breezing light continues ahead... Well..

Reize is booking it. "Not good, not good, not good!"

And just to distract it....

Reize throws his boomerang out towards the creature's face. Attached to the boomerang is a rope that has a vial of black ink that will hopefully blind it.

Meanwhile, the flat ground provides some comfort, but the fact that the entire construction site being black is ill-settling. Nevertheless, Reize joins besides Lenn and Lily, "Oi, you two!" He keeps a hold of both of them. The flash of the ozone and magic driving away the gloom offers hope.

And at the metal plates, Reize springs ahead onto it.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade continues to run, opening his senses to the world around them. MEcha Godzilla can't possibly attack silently. If he can predict the movements, if he can see it coming, then maybe...

Unfortunately, the construction site keeps him from managing to get a good line on the thing. He works his ways through the mazelike scaffolding, trying to get to a place where he can manage to get a bead on the thing... But he slips, catching onto a black-steel chain and falling to the ground in a clatter onto the metal plate. "Ow..." He says, facefirst on the thing. He peels himself up as he tries to figure out what comes next.

Luso Clemens has posed:
"Tch..." Coming up onto the mental platform, Luso could see the heartless attampting to get at them. But he wasn't in the prime position to attack, so he just remained back and closed his eyes. "No problem, I'll get my chance eventually." As he spoke, an orange aura began to surround the boy, increased his power as he focused.

Alright, you guys know the deal! Hit em hard and make it hurt! Take advantage of this chance!" In the meanwhile, Luso reached out, resting a hand onto the handle of the Kwigon Blade, waiting to see just how this would turn out...

Percival has posed:
With Maira having been saved by the Gargoyle's archnemesis, Evja, Percival had been on all fours trying to catch up. Eventually he's alongside Zia, and once they're out of the danger from the collapsing the bridge he gives her a friendly tail slap for the shock to the shoulder from earlier.

And then the Croco-goon is down. He'd charge forward at the monstrosity, and began to climb up the bricks of the alley wall into a higher position Unsheathing his blade from its scabbard, bright light would flash along its edge.

The light startled the Gargoyle so much that he almost fell right smack into the Crocodile's jaws. Jumping onto the back of its neck, he'd aim to stick the glowing edge right between its scales. Another stab would be forthcoming soon after. And then perhaps the Gargoyle was tempting fate, but he tried to poke the dratted thing right in the eye with his sword. And then he'd jump off it and run like hell.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa pants catching her breath.. "huuff huff..", she curses quietly, all that running wore her out a bit. She too far way to get a hit in on the crocobeast.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll is too busy worrying about others to notice the gigantic thing coming closer, and possibly having dragged some people into the light by the use of his chains.

Either way, the youth ends up staying deep within the light, at its center, surrounded by others. This momentary reprieve allows him to reel in his chains and tighten his boots in order to do away with the pain in his foot from the fall earlier.

Skyline has posed:
It would seem that while Skyline was rushing to get to the construction yard, she didn't realize that the Heartless behind them was going to be open to getting attacked! By the time she finally skids to a halt over there and realizes she could have taken a shot its simply too late. Instead she ducks behind one of the steel girders and starts to collect herself. Soon, soon they'd have to deal with the massive heartless. For now? Time to get ready.

Deidra has posed:
Deidra just keeps mocing at this point he sdoens' have a good moment to make a good shot at the best so she just keeps running. She is trying to get a feel for the CrocoGoon. There's got to be a way to deal with it, it's got to have some sort of weakness they can make use of against this horror. It's got no right o exist in this world or even in the corpse of one.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will continues to run...run and run and run...

AND THEN SUDDENLY MECHA GODZILLA! Will jumps, trying to correct himself as the ground shakes, and the monster heartless gets trapped up in the wires and construction site all around them.

"Ha! Alright, I gotcha Riku." he says, and flips back, running up the side of a metal thing, and running along the top...

He drops down on the Croc's face...INITIATE QUICK TIME EVENT!

TRIANGLE! SUCCESS!

Will snaps out of the way of the thing's jaws, and lands on it's head, aiming to drive both of his fists into the thing's head as he leaps off, before spinning...

"FATE BEAM!" this is followed by a very LARGE beam of energy!

Avira has posed:
With a frown, Avira passes on some words to Maria over the VALKYRI linkpearl. Useless? It was actually quite heartbreaking to hear the talented mage call herself useless and contemplate sitting out of the restoration. Avira wanted the help of her best friend.

She chases the light with ease, ignoring how her body starts to grow tired with all the running and climbing. They were so close to their goal now and she wouldn't stop moving until they had succeded! There is progress now, she can tell, as the light grows brighter, "There! We might be able to get into the Labyrinth there!"

The Crocogoon has been following but thanks to the twisted environs of the construction site, it hasn't been able to get at them. She hears it still following, waiting for that moment. When they reach the big platform, Avira sees it. A faint grow escapes her.

BGM CHANGE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWSB3qL5qs8

She takes the spear from her back and grasps it in both of her hands. She could throw it or she could try jumping...but she has experience with neither. Instead, she falls back on what she knows and starts to channel massive amounts of ice magic through the spear. It builds and swirls around the weapon, making the temperature in the immediate area drop.

"Get OUT OF OUR WAAAAAAY!" she shouts at the Heartless, her eyes flashing as she unloads an almost laser-like blast of ice magic upwards upon the Crocogoon.

Maira has posed:
While she is ready to throw some fire, it seems she's not in a good position to do so. No clear line of sight! Oh well, it might be prudent to help protect the people who kept saving her butt so they can continue to do so if needed.

"Uist," she says, then points to Evja and Percival. She doesn't know they are enemies! Awkward.

Uist takes off, pulling on Maira's magic to grant some magical protection on Perci and Evja as told.

Sora has posed:
Sora grins at Riku, taking the proffered hand."Thanks!" He cries out, before using the extra grip to send himself forward. Sora doesn't even stop to think, the Keyblade settling into his two handed grip as he deftly takes to the air, bouncing towards a area of debris.

He runs right past Will as well, ascending the debris to launch himself into the air at the highest moment, before he just comes down on the Crocogoon -

The blade whips around him in a series of switftly arching strikes, before he attempts to knock it down in a simple, fast movement, landing on his feet next to it.

Evja has posed:
What's that? As Evja finally gets to the site with Maira, the Viera lets her go then suddenly...

HIT TRIANGLE

JAB

Looking around leads the Viera to seeing a giant piece of construction equipment that seems to be holding up a load of t-beams. Hopping here and there through the site and up the building quickly, Evja finally leapt onto the crane rig that held the beams and slammed his spear into the thick metal rope that held it taut.
Nothing.

"Damn, this thing... I need to find what holds it up!" And that is when the Viera's keen eyes follow the cord to the spool which is what he attacks at next. This time, the spool's guard that keeps it from unwravelling suddenly fails as struck and the large load of beams begins to careen down towards the mecha crocodile!
Though he was trying to pack a punch, Evja certainly was trying to tangle the thing up as well before calling out towards Tifa, "TIFA! SEE IF YOU CAN GRAB THAT AND THROW IT!" Hell, she threw a Hydra... why not try and get her to throw this bigass beastie? She still had enough time to grab that thick braided metal with all luck and hopefully MechaCroc got tangled or decided to take a bite out of them.

Lily has posed:
"Run, run more!" Lily advises Lenn. Apparently she's not done yet. As the group's forced to run through a gauntlet of twisted terrain on the way to their destination, she gets a very good view of the creature that's been terrorizing them.

Not that she's one to advise running. Not when she tends to do so with all the grace of a boulder including crashing into things...

Streams of wind curl and gust about her as that filmy aura of power she's been maintaining finally takes shape. The girl lets out an unseemly playful giggle... and then lifts straight off the ground - albeit a bit unsteadily. The air about her ripples and temperatures soar... then honest flames join the elemental maelstrom surrounding her.

She raises both hands behind her head, and there the flames gather, joined by curling arcs of electricity!

"Just... need to wait... THERE!"

Timing her shot, she fires a roiling ball of scorching, sizzling electro-flames from about twenty feet up, though she starts drifting off to the left at a very sharp list immediately afterwards. "Wh-whoah, straight, straight! Go straight---"

WHUNK. Right into a light post.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart was running toward the end of the bridge, but the monster announcing itself so loudly makes her put on the breaks, skidding along the floor just a bit until her boots get some traction back. Armed with only punches and kicks though, it won't get very far, she doesn't want to get close to it and certainly not get out of the light's radius either.

Instead, she opts for some range attack, turning around and heading straight for one of the leftover piles that survived the first flyby of the CrocoGoon, and punches straight at it, releasing ki at it to competlly destroy it. But the main goal of it was to send the debris straight at the monster, pelting it with every piece of the pile, hopefully lots of pointy pieces, some of them might end up in its eyes. At least, she hopes so.

After the show of exploding garbage, she turns back around and keeps running for safety. She's not waiting for it to get free anyhow. She looks back to Evja, shouting back "There's no way I'm getting near that thing right now! I'm going to be a barmaid entree if it gets free!"

Riku has posed:
Riku cracks his knuckles and loooks up at the construction yard. He looks speculatively around at the situation before snarling his hand around a black chain while chopping down with the crystalline dark blade at the chain where it was tied down to a counterweight.

"Heh." he says as he watches Will mash Triangle. "That's a new one." The teenager snaps upwards as the chain shoots upwards and Riku is jerked along for the ride. He kicks his legs out, plummeting downwards while great crytalline shards follow in his wake, crashing down and around the Crocogoon and splattering into sticky and Engine clogging splatters of fluid as he drops into a crouch.

He swings off part of the scaffolding below and then runs quickly up the fading light path back to the relatively safety of the light, tendrils of mist clinging to him and burning off as he re enters the light.

Emi Dennou has posed:
CHANCE!

"Macbeth," Emi says, seriously, which is strange enough because of her costume. "We have an opportunity. WE do not have to defeat this Heartless, simply chase it off--therefore we will hit it hard, quickly--hopefully that will allow us the chance to get to the World Heart--or at least allow us to pin it down, The Network explains their aims."

She turns her attention to the Croczilla, cricks her neck to the left, and then with Umi--they drop their cover and fire twin beams of electric energy from their hands towards the monster, pouring a fair degree of power behind it for what amounts to an 'opening move'. Perhaps Macbeth can take advantage of it. They'll be interested to see what he does, in any event--he seemed to be scanning it.

Brooklyn has posed:
Brooklyn keeps running, running past Skyline. He pauses as he realizes he's gone past her, and turns around. That's when he spots his opening. Grabbing ahold of a peice of debris from next to him, he calls out, "Skyline, duck!" He calls out, as he shifts his weight, and launches the debris like a spear towards the Heartless. It's not like this is the first time he's thrown a spear, but the last time it wasn't made out of rebar.

Macbeth has posed:
"A looking glass," Macbeth remarks back to Emi as she inquires about what he's holding. He'd comment further normally but considering he's looking at a giant mecha-Godzilla, one can understand how he'd be a bit distracted. Because of this, Macbeth has no idea that there are those in this group glaring.

Collapsing the viewfinder, he offers it to Emi to exam as he pulls out the gun from under his left arm. He takes a few seconds to modify some of the settings on the weapon before raising it up and using the gunsight to take aim at the joints of the mecha-beast with the laser blasts. "Hmm, well with a tad bit of luck then, lass..."

Oblivion has posed:

The Electricity blasts into the CrocoGoon, slamming it back away from the bars as it screeches in pain thanks to Zia's attack. Then As Reize moves in, the attack slams against the heavy metal underbelly of the beast, but Reize might be-careful of that jet stream!

Percival attempted fate and fate was kind. The Gargoyles claws dig in, and though the CrocoGoon attempts to splash water back at the gargoyle, the winged warrior was far to quick!

Then Will ha[]</span> right on the money. His fist slams down onto the CrocoGoon's head as he attem9999</span> (we jest), that sends the CrocoGoon back a bit.

Then Avira's attack slams into it, taking advantage of its staggered status with her strong ice attack!

Thanks to team work of Sora and Evja, though perhaps not realizing it. The two of them take a hunk of damage out of the CrocoGoon in one form or another, though they get splashed with water globs in return for their heroic actions!

The Emi freezes the CrocoGoon in place with a massive electrical bolt of energy, while Brooklyn then uses that chance to slam material into it, which damages the wing for a moment causing it to crash down.

Everyone else gives it there all. From all there different attacks combined. Each one massive in their own way and with the bravery of there hearts, with the strength of there light.

However this comes with a price. The massive CrocoGoon comes crashing down hard onto the construction area, his body slamming hard enough it dislodges the plate and the massive metal plate starts to slide down hill right into the maw of the massive ground tunnel!

Hold onto your buddies, folks! Its gonna be a bumpy ride!

Luso Clemens has posed:
Watching the others get their attacks in was pretty entertaining, but it came with a price. The heartless crashed into the sit, causing the platform to go clising down into the tunnel. Immediately, Luso knelt down in order to steady himself and prepare for the ride.

"Who was the genius who said that this was pretty easy!? Remind me to suplex them when we get out of thiiiiiiiis!" He yelled as they went sliding right down into the super happy fun tunnel of joy. Certainly nothing bad was going to happen here!

...Who was he kidding, or course it was going to get worse! Pandora's box was already opened! Now it was time to see just what else was in store for them.

Percival has posed:
The russet-skinned Gargoyle hadn't seen Uist, but he'd noticed Maira pointing at him. His ears drooped back. Was more burnination incoming? Instead he felt the strength of enchantment upon him. Jumping off the Croco-goon's neck and rolls forwards, feeling the Croco-Goon's gout of water literally bounce off whatever protected him as he fled. Poking it in the eye had upset after all. He peered at the sword again. Just cold mundane steel, definitely no glowing strangeness about it. Rolling back his shoulders, he grinned, and saluted her with the sword. "Appreciated Lady Maira. Once this is done with I'll be seeing Phil to get you a bonafide /hero/ certificate. I'll need to have it framed." No, there was no hint of a joke in his voice, that was genuine admiration.

Oh no. No no no. Massive giant metal plate slide hurtling right beneath them. Percival did the only thing he could think to do. He shouted.

"KHANNNNNNNNN!"

And then he was grabbing Maira to try and keep her safe, holding one arm around her, while he dug his talons deeply into the metal plate hurtling downhill.

Zia has posed:
Well, that could have gone better. Even one of her more powerful sets of attacks seems to do relatively little against the raging beast, but the others are fighting too! Zia takes a defensive step backwards. She might not be as physically strong as some of the others, but the whole urge to protect is pretty instinctive when it comes to her race.

There is a quick glance spared for the others, but she doesn't have time to really check how they're doing. Even if she could, it's not as if healing is among her skills.

Then, crashing.

In slow motion. Zia looks up. Eyes go wide. Ears tuck down.

And then they're sliding. Her claws scrabble to try to catch hold, digging big holes in the metal plate before she finally grabs onto the next closest thing available to keep herself from sliding off into the unknown.

Sorry Skoll.

The wolf's leg gets latched on to.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa says, "Here it comes..", Vespa says as it smashes into the grounds and there chain reaction of falling plates.

"Oh not good!", she does her best to keep herself steady using her axe as make shift rudder trying to keep herself from going down the, okay it a slide, too fast."

Reize Seatlan has posed:
"GAH!" Reize yelps as the jet stream catches him, giving a burning strike. He winces, staggering back with a glare.

Once they do tear the defenses of the monster down...

It's crash strikes the construction area. The plate i now dislodge and it immediately slides down into the maw of the tunnel.

..Wait, wait?

"EVERYBODY HOLD ON!!!!!"

As they slide down...

Reize is cheering, "THIS IS KIND OF AWESOME!!!"

Skyline has posed:
WOO! The gatorgoon is getting the stuffing kicked out of him! Sure, Skyline ducked to let Brooklyn get his shot in, but she's allowed to be happy that its falling. . . down . . . right on top of them . . . "Not good! NOT GOODNOTGOODNOTGOOD!" And then it comes crashing down, opening up the great gaping hole that everyone seems to be falling down, Skyline included! Weapons are holstered and the steel-skinned gargoyle tries her best to get her claws into the passage way but its just not helping. "ITS WORSE ITS WORSE I'M SORRY WILL I'M SO SORRY I WON'T SAY IT AGAIN!"

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Since when does Avira use spears? No, no matter. Skoll is actually too busy looking and being amazed at the people around him blasting away at the beast. In a ways, it's amazing how far some people have come. Avira, once nothing but a college student here in Manhattan. Zia, a skittish Gargoyle. Will, a hobo who apparently has found some real power. And Mercade, who has found THE POWER OF LOVE!

Obviously, there's far more than that going on right now. But all in all, it's quite amazing. But of course, then the thing has to go and fall in such a way that the massive plate they stand on is... well... going to go down! Skoll's reaction is a lot faster this time however! Like from a quick-event in God or War or something, he grabs for his pockets and then whips his hand out, lashing gigantic chains forwards and clamping them down at the end of the plate, and then throws one of the chains to Mercade.

"MERCADE! Hang on and help steer us with this!" He calls out, before looking forwards and... well... holds on and pulls on that chain as the dive into the giant depths of that tunnel. It seems Vespa had the right idea as well in trying to steer them. The youth then looks back as his leg suddenly grows a bit heavier. Seems he has a Gargoyle suddenly hanging on. "Keep holding on Zia. We'll get through this in one piece!"

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart doesn't like this one bit.

When the giant plate tilts over, and sends everyone down, she's terribly worried. Falling into the darkness here is the worse case scenario, and she wanted to avoid it by staying as far as possible from the monster. Now its turning against her. She doesn't think this is a joyride at all, plunging straight into the underground like that. She tries to control her descend, standing up and using her boots to skid along the extreme slope now, but not finding any catch. She still uses the slight bit of friction to control her fall, and avoid obstacles along the way, before plunging down into darkness along with the others.

Some of the others can fly, like those Gargoyles, but there wouldn't be enough wings for everyone either.

Avira has posed:
Already Avira is missing her true weapon. She'd gotten so used to the Spine that channeling magic through an alien weapon was signifcantly harder. Though she tries, her power output doesn't match what it would normally be in a fight. It doesn't matter all that much, though, because teamwork will tear this monster to shreds. It was huge, but they had a small army of amazing fighters here.

Avira -cannot wait- for Tifa to suplex that thing. She knows it'll happen.

Once it hits the construction area, she imagines that this is about to happen! Except she feels the platform they're on lurch, then start to slide down into the huge cavern into the New York underground. 'Everybody hold on!'

She sees a chain go out to Mercade. Avira, in turn, rushes over to cling to the detective.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will grins..

SNAP.

"Oh." he says, looking at the sliding plate.

"WHY DOES THIS STUFF ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME!" he screams running down the plate at full force, coming to the end of it and rolling, trying to SLOWLY break the momentum...and not smack straight into a wall.

"Doooooon't stop..." he pauses...

"Thinking about tomorrow!"

Lily has posed:
"Wah--" Just as Lily lands... the ground starts moving. It starts moving in bad, bad directions. She does the first sensible thing. She clings to Reize by grabbing his arm! "No no no it's not fun! It's dark in there--"

CLING. BREATHE.

Lily squints her eyes shut, trying not to panic TOO MUCH!

Brooklyn has posed:
As dumb of an idea as this probably is, Brooklyn quickly scales his way to the front of the plate, digs in his hands and feet, and then flares his wings to try to slow down the plate as best he can. This idea is probably not the best one he's ever had. Maybe if he had his whole clan here this could work.

Lenn has posed:
Lenn laughs at Reize's exuberance, her long blonde hair streaming behind her as she tries to keep her balance on the plate, grabbing onto his other arm, happily. "Actually, It kind of is, isn't it?"

Maira has posed:
Maira gives Perci a thumbs up at his expression of gratitude, then blushes and looks vaguely frustrated at his insistence about a hero certificate! He may be serious, but she most certainly thinks he is teasing.

Then the metal plate starts to slide, and Maira screams, "AGAIN!?" as she clings to Percival for dear life.

Yes, something like this happened fairly recently when she decided it was a grand idea to cling to Artyom as he surfed down a giant hole.

"Aaaah---WEEEEEEEE!"

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi takes a moment to check out the viewfinder. She looks at it for a few moments with her free hand, despite her body crackling with electricity, she doesn't damage it--it's very measured, controlled flow--as if the electricity is an extension of her own body.

She puts it on experimentally and then--

The plate dislodges, The Network is well suited for surfing on giant slabs of metal, Pressing their hands and feet on it, almost as one unit, the two Dennous magnetically affix themselves to the plate.

One dangles an arm out in case Macbeth needs something to hold onto. It might be more metal if he just surfed it normally though.

Sora has posed:
Sora whoos!

"This is fun!"

... look, what did you expect? Sora thinks this is awesome!

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade is trying to keep mobile. But how much mobility can you have when the thing you're fighting is as big as the bloody platform you're on? The massive beast is stunned for a moment, and Mercade levels his guns. "ALL RIGHT! NOW'S OUR CHANCE FOR AN ALL-OUT ATT..."

INTERRUPTED

Mercade yells as suddenly the platform heaves, and Mercade is almost launched clear off the plate. He tumbles through the air, about to plummet into the darkness...

And suddenly a chain comes out, slamming into his hand from Skoll. Mercade gasps, and suddenly pulls himself back up. "I OWE YOU ONE, SKOLL!" He yells to the werewolf, as he gets his footing back and pulls on the chain, trying to keep the plate moving in a way that won't crush them all.

Avira clings to him. Suddenly, this situation is now 1000 percent more awesome. "Hold on, Avira! This is going to be a bumpy ride!"

Deidra has posed:
Deidra is still preprign ig she can get a little more time however she might be able to do something and then comes something that seems good. Then turns out to be bad, very bad. She turns about from the fallen thing and runs like hell heck she's going to take flight at this point/ He wings spread wid eand she's never been so happy that she can fly right about now! "GO GO GO!"

Evja has posed:
One good thing about being a Dragoon means you typically don't have to worry about jumping and falling like others do. Evja's glad to be a dragoon in training. Especially since, when everyone else is pretty much stuck on the plate, the Viera leaps and crashes back down into the plate to impale it with a spear.
Handle!

"Everyone, hold on if you can!"

Macbeth has posed:
The gun in Macbeth's hand gets dropped as the old man's reflexes kick in. He reaches out for the hand Emi offers, though perhaps more in an effort to help her as he's unawares of what the girl can do. The other hand reaches out for anything else he can grab. When he finds nothing to grab, he merely uses his hand as a third point of balance to lower his center of gravity. The gun goes sliding down part of the plate.

Riku has posed:
The end of the tunnel is a banging, crashing, SPINNING affair as the giant metal plate grinds hardcore through the happy fun tunnel of doom. It soars off banks of shrapnel. It crashes down over stop signs and rivers of broken glass and debris. It plows through wires and dirt and concrete. Twisted metal screams as it passes through and the tunnel at some points gets MUCH too close to their heads. It spins again almost all the way around before crashing hard against the ground in the middle of a urban jungle of ruptured pipes, wires and a tangle of machinery. IN this alternate reality.. It does NOT SLOW DOWN.

The protective light of the will o wisp has followed them all the way down here, and there is a tinny but almost distinct 'wheeee' like crystal chimes.

It's glow flares up faintly and then begins to sharply dim. The wavering light bobs lower and lower towards the plate, starting to struggle and with it the trail of light beneath their feet and around them protecting them from the oppressive gloom of ther 'BadPlace' zone all around them.

Riku shakes his head, confused and dizzy but also laughing because yeah... that was pretty fun. "Yeah. I guess so." he admits, rubbing his head. The tunnel is long and winding and seems to stretch on forever (Or Loop around itself. Someone is using the repeating textures again!)

Oblivion has posed:

While everyone was having happy fun times. It was time for that sudden time where everything goes into 2d platform mode and the very top of the cave gets some gold eyes that start in the void, before suddenly here comes the boss..

AGAIN!%r Yeah. Its one of those Bosses.

This time the boss was keeping pace as those jet wings allowed it to fly ahead and then sometimes behind the plate moving. It was having to do a little side to side to avoid a few broken beams, wires, and whatever else was down here. However at that point the CrocoGoon turns side ways and starts to summon down watery balls of doom, that explode with giant splashes!

Hit the X button people! Hit it when it pops up on the screen or face the price!

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll gives Mercade a thumbs up and keeps holding on for dear life, assiting in the guiding of the plate. But when the giant boss finally comes to chase them, he knows he can't go changing directions. He might put more people at risk than he might help. And as such, he ends up holding onto the plate-attached-chain with only one hand, while with the other he reaches into his pocket and brings out a fivesome of chains which he ends up throwing into the air.

Once there, they light with red lightning, straightening the chains like arrows and popping some of the water-balls as they come their way, making those specific ones do nothing but splash them harmlessly.

Of course this means Skoll ends up drenched by one of the splashes... and ends up looking like a wet dog. Hair all flat, clothing wet, tail hanging down along with his ears. Not moments later, Skoll starts shaking his body, flanging water every-which way... when suddenly....

POOOOF!

His hair is sticking every which way.

Skoll gains: Doggy Afro.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa keeps on sliding. Uh-oh incoming watery blobs of doom! She pulls her axe up from the ground and swings it defltecting the watery blob that was coming her way. She stick her axe back into the ground doing her best to slow down her contuiong side... She hopes she can get close enought attack the monstercroc.

Percival has posed:
Percival shut his eyes during the entirety of the ride. Maira could swear that he was mouthing a prayer over and over. In reality it was more like. /Oh God Oh God Oh God./ Not quite a prayer.

When he felt the momentum slow, he'd open a single eye, peering forward into the labyrinthine tunnel below Manhatten.

He dared to look behind him, only to see Croco-goon jetting after them. Giant orbs of high pressure water would be released in their general direction. Taking a deep breath, he would literally just shove Maira out of the way moments before a giant orb of watery doom would strike him. It knocked him off his fool arse, blasting him backwards a step before he would catch ahold of the metal plate with his talons. And as he was recovering, another watery orb would hit him dead on in the face, and then he was flying backwards

Oooo. Right smack into a wall. That had to hurt. He'd crawl right away, hacking and coughing up water before finally taking cover in the labyrinthine tunnels below Manhatten.

Skyline has posed:
Finally the plate reaches the bottom of the chasm. So ends the insane and wild ride. When the bottom is reached the gargoyle goes soaring off the plate, actually managing to avoid the Croco-Goon's assault once more. The maze of the under-city is strange, to say the least, but just now she wanted to make sure she was away from where the Croc good get at her. A dive for cover into a side tunnel and then she sets herself at the corner, waiting for her opportunity, "Just give me a chance, monster..."

Will Sherman has posed:
Will is looking pret-

CRITICAL PARTIAL MISS!

"MY SPLEEN!" he cries out, messing up his QUICK TIME EVENT and getting the dreaded CRITICAL PARTIAL MISS! He does, however, turn around and punch the thing in the nose, before moving to run like hell away with the others.

"SERIOUSLY! FIND THE <GOOSEHONK>ING WORLD HEART YOU STUPID BALL OF LIGHT!"

Sora has posed:
Oh shit, reaction time!

Sora desX</span>!

He sees the ball coming, and at the last second, he pivots and vaults himself off of the plate as everything just goes to utter hell around them. He manages to avoid getting hit, deflecting attacks if he needs too, but right now Sora just looks very, very pissed off.

"Language, WILL!"

Will Sherman has posed:
"WHO ARE YOU MY MOM!" Will shouts back at Sora, in pain and frustraition!

Luso Clemens has posed:
Seeing that persistent some of a gun barreling down the tunnel behind them, Luso could only roll his eyes, but he couldn't help but grin as well. "Heh, looks like our friend still wants to play!" He still wasn't in a prime position to launch an attack due to the debris, wires, and other environmental hazards in the way, so he laid low.

"Not yet...not yet...patience...inner peace..." The boy mumbled to himself, smoothly weaving through a volley of water blasts in the meanwhile. "Gotta wait for the right moment and then...heh heh heh." The thought of finally finding the perfect chance of striking that freak full force drew a chuckle from Luso as they went spiraling downwards and crash landing into the tunnels.

He didn't wait for the metal plate to land, Luso was already in the air long before it did, tucking into a forward flip before landing to the ground and skidding into a crouch. "....Heh! Let's keep this up! We'll show that bucket of bolts soon enough!"

Sora has posed:
Sora whips his head around to look at Will, then he promptly threatens: "I'LL TELL CELINA!"

Brooklyn has posed:
Oh crap. Doom balls! Brooklyn releases his grip on the plate and the wind catches his wings. He quickly folds them back up and dodges two of the watery death balls, latching onto the plate again and scrambling out of the way of a third one. Mash X!

Maira has posed:
Alright Percival. You are hired. Congratulations! You have officially proved yourself dumb/brave enough for Maira protecting duties.

Seriously.

Maira gasps as she's tosses aside, only to watch as Percival is smacked with one glob of ouchy-water then another, right into a wall. Maira scurries over toward him once he's back on his feet and grabs him by the arm, the quick contact facilitating the immediate casting of a few cure spells. "W-well, good thing I've got you here, but goodness! Don't get yourself killed Percival! I can take a few hits!" she complains. Well, she probably can anyway!

Maira looks around then to see if anyone else needs help, but really, Perci had been looking the most injured. Cause gallantry hurts. :P

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart has a bit of luck on her side. Even while sliding toward the darkness like that, she can see the flying balls of water coming her way. Its a good thing she was sliding on her feet. It gives her enough catch to jump and dodge the aquatic attack more easily. She skids along the giant plate, toward the bottom of the pit they are falling through.

Its like a game of DDR. Press X at the right moment to dodge. Easy.

Avira has posed:
This is awesome!

Avira 'whees!' along with their will-o-whisp guide. The fun only lasts for a little while before the CrocoGoon shows up and starts chomping at people again. This time, Avira is fortunate enough to not meet the jaws of Heartless this go around. Mercade is entirely to blame for this, though she breaks away from him shortly as a water bomb splashes down right where the pair had been standing.

Avira rolls out of dodge and gets out the spear once more, awkwardly holding the weapon. "Hang in there, Will! We're underground, it can't be that much farther!" If they could just outrun this stupid Heartless! ...or get somewhere where that big Heartless couldn't follow. The inner tunnels of the labyrinth would do nicely.

Lenn has posed:
Lenn sees the water droplets incoming, and quickly reaches in her bag as one's headed straight for Reize... She sees Lily, charging up for the same thing, the two look over at each other, a silent nod, then back up, as twin fireballs explode JUST over the three of them quickly blasting the huge waterball into steam, the three of them standing their ground. "Whew. That could have hurt..."

Zia has posed:
There's a few of those moments where Zia looks up, only to see something coming at her head. Yipe! It is by some small miracle that she manages to use small bits and pieces of her magic to keep herself and Skoll from being chopped to bits, but that doesn't mean that the impact of landing hard doesn't knock the air out of her. "Ye know, Ah'm startin te wonder why humans enjoy things like this..." Especially with people seeming to be having fun.

She scrambles to her feet, gasping for breath, only to look up and see the robo-croc still chasing after them. Scramble, scraping chalkboard sound, and then she's dodging, jumping off of pieces of broken pipe and concrete, trying to get away. She's probably gets to 'safety' just in time to see Skoll puff up, and this time, it does manage to drag a quick laugh from her before she claps a hand over her mouth. Not the time for it!

"Come on, Percival!" She calls, seeing him reeling from the attack. At the very least, some other people have healing magic, which she can be thankful for. Curse being a black magic user alone.

Evja has posed:
Suffice it to say, certain rabbits weren't good at dealing with 'magical' attacks, and this type of attack certainly counted for him. Evja simply clung to the pole and literally just tanked through the attack, but not before turning and flinging that crystally sword towards the beast to try and chop into the defenses thereof.
"If it can follow this far, surely it must be able to follow all the way there! We have to take it down!"

Reize Seatlan has posed:
It is a nice moment of going along the platform. Given that Reize is riding the hell out of it, he is atop it just riding along the path. His hand leads forward as he flies off.

Until he sees that the creature is there.

Crap.

As the jet wings allow it to move after them, Reize calls out, "It's gaining on us!!!" Watery balls of doom explode nearby him.

Hit the X button!

TOO LATE!

Here comes DEATH! .... Until the efforts of both Lenn and Lily strike the explosive droplets, fizzling them into nothing.

He glances towards his two members, "Thanks, you two!" The leader looks relieved.

Percival has posed:
Percival smiles in gratitude to Maira as she pours healing magic into him, before coughing up a whole mess of water from his lungs. He gave Zia and Deidra a thumbs up when he was out of harm's way. "I'm alright! I'm al-" BLARGH! More water. "Oh bloody hell." Yes, gallantry really did hurt.

Lily has posed:
After unleashing a fireball the likes of which she's not often had to manage before, Lily wobbles on her fet and wipes her brow. "It's not over with yet. That creature..." She's all but panting from the exertion, but she takes up a position next to Lenn again.

"I don't know where it came from but we need to get rid of it before we can help Manhattan!"

Riku has posed:
It's raining Goo!

Riku knows about the power of Celina from long past. So he yells. "Yeah Will? We'll I'll--" and he gets cut off by Sora saying the thing before him. He laughs and then has to duck down, pressing himself flat against the plate to dodge one of the gooey spheres.

The plate finally comes to a spinning crashing halt in the beginning of a giant cavern of black stone that has been ripped asunder in several places.

Riku vaults off the plate and almost falls over from all the rattling, roaring and shaking. He stumbles a few steps and looks around. He grips the top of one arm with his hand, looking down a long dark corridor that extends outwards into the distance. There is a faint flicker of light at the farthest corner. Another series of motes drifts from the assembled group down that corridor to the end. At the end of that corridor is a shattered room that may or may not be still familiar. The remnants of an ancient vault that once sealed the keyhole of Manhattan from being abused by any of the races living on that Earth.

Riku stares straight into that corridor and.. doesn't move. Even as the light, which flares at Will in a sort of sniffy 'HMPH' starts to move towards that corridor. He stays stationary. Riku stares at that corridor.. and simply does not advance. He can't make his feet move.

Oblivion has posed:

The CrocoGoon continues to follow the group for a bit longer, before it suddenly pulls off. Just as the path starts to lead to where the group most likely will make there stop soon enough. It seems to slip right back into the shadows whence it came. Only its roar echoes through the corridor.

Was that it for the big boss or was it only getting ready for its final attack approach? One may never know...

Mercade Alexander has posed:
JUST WHEN YOU THINK YOU ARE SAFE.

CROCOGOON.

COMING TO A THEATER NEAR YOU, THIS FALL. YOU'RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER PLATE.

Mercade tries to keep the plate stable, but this necessitates certain sacrifices. Like getting out of the way. "AVIRA! LOOK OUT!" Mercade calls, moments before he's crushed by EVIL HEARTLESS WATER. He is thrown to the plate surface, groaning in pain. That stuff hurts! He tries to get back to his feet, soaked through as he tries to keep things on track. "We have to get closer..." He says, wondering how long it is until they hit the bottom.

Deidra has posed:
Deidra is very glad to be airborn at this pint that's all that really saves her as the beastie comes after them. This thing is just getting on her nerves. She also realises someone else likes Star Trek around here. She's more of a Star Wars girl herself but hey that movie was goo still it's time to fly like heck.

"PERCY YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO DIE!"

She keeps moving and just avoids the incoming attack another spell is launched but to no great effect and thus she keeps fleeing.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will looks at Sora, "First. I'm hundreds of years your senior. Second, you wouldn't dare." Will says, because the UNIVERSE WOULD EXPLODE!

The light HMPHS at him, and Will looks indigent back. However...they come to the fated corridor. And Will looks back to Riku.

Will puts a hand on his shoulder, "You can't stop here, it's crock country. Come on Riku, Nobody gets left behind." he says, trying to shake the boy from his daydream.

Avira has posed:
Avira hits the ground running. Running where? Running to wherever wasn't being bombed by polluted water. Running to wherever wasn't crashing into the walls or the rock bottom, following Riku's lead as he jumps.

Now they're in familiar territory. Avira knew this place, once subconsciously as she visited here before only to have the memories forcefully forgotten. The second time she witnessed the World Heart being consumed. "...this was it..." she murmurs softly, looking to Sora. "Though how to bring back the light. Hm..." The gears in her head turn as she heads forward, only to stop as she sees Riku not seem to go any farther. Will confronts him and Avira looks concerned.

"Do you see something, Riku?"

Luso Clemens has posed:
"Feh, it ran away again..." Luso huffed in disappointment before shrugging his shoulders. With that, he lurched back up to his feet and moved off to follow the wisp of light. They were almost done. He could feel it in his bones! ...Or maybe not! But he'd like to think they were almost done!

Because seriously, this was getting silly! "I've never actually been down here before." He mumbled as he moved, crossing his arms behind his head in a cavalier manner. "I heard that there was an epic battle though..."

Riku's hesitation goes noticed by Luso, and he paused, nodding to both him and Will. "Will's right! This isn't the place to stop. We've gotta keep moving!" It didn't immediately dawn on him that something might be in there either.

Vespa has posed:
pose hops off the plate as it slowly comes to a stop. "Never want to do that. Ever. Again.", she look around. "Why are we stopping?", she sighs. "I Guess this is where me we make our stand? Sounds good to me!"

Evja has posed:
"Actually, I have come to trust the youth more and more in recent times." Evja says after finally standing after the plate crashes and managing to hear the remarks, seeing Riku pause. "If... he is not moving forward, I do not think we should either. Something must not be right for him to show this hesitance. In fighting and speech he seems brave."
Thus Evja walks up to Riku and says, "So... what is the matter?"

Brooklyn has posed:
"Come on guys, you know how this works.." Brooklyn says, as he steps off of the plate, "We can't engage it until we reach.." He pauses as he comes up next to Riku, looking down the coridor at that Riku is staring at. Brooklyn remembers it too. He should. He was the last of the defenders to make their stand in that room. The fact that he's standing next to Riku doesn't even phase him at this point, too focused on what's before him.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
The plate soon comes to a halt at the beginning of the black cavern. Reize yelps as he is launched right off of the plate and he rolls along the ground. "OoofOoofOoofOoofOoof---!" WHAM! Reize lands right into a wall of the cavern.

"Ataatatattaa...!" He holds his head, his antenna hair looking crumbled. But soon, he stands up and he grimaces, "Everyone alright?" After looking at the assembled group, Reize looks over towards that flicker of light. "..Oh!"

And so, Reize walks after the roup, now looking straight into the corridor. "...Whoa..." His eyes widen, gazing at the corridor.

Skyline has posed:
A grunt is given when the Crocoheartless just vanishes. A sigh slips from Skyline before she wanders out from her little hiding spot to rejoin the rest of the group. "Well I hope one of you knows where we are. I sure don't," she muses, glimpsing down the hall where the light seems to have set itself. Another long look around to see if everyone had managed to arrive in one piece and then she'd wander on over toward Brooklyn, about to say something when she sees a look. She glances down the hall again, then back at him, "Is this where it all happened?"

Sora has posed:
Sora looks at Will. "Percival already did it." Plus there'd be eels if Sora tried.

"Hey, Riku."

He offers one hand out to his best friend. He then nods at Avira. "I think we gotta stop that big Heartless. The one that's trying to eat everyone first. I think if we do that, the way will truly be exposed.

"Come on. We can't stop now. None of us can."

Then Sora tries to tug Riku down the way with him. Tables, turned.

Zia has posed:
Everything seems so different at first, but then there are signs that she recognises. This place. The white gargoyle hesitates, touching the wall of the tunnel, staring perhaps for just a moment beside Riku before she steps forward. It's hard not to feel at least a little responsible for the fall that day, even if there was little she could have done. Yet, part of moving on is forgiving yourself, and facing what comes next.

The girl glances back, her tail tucking at the sight, or lack there of, of the crock. Not good. It was certainly still out there somewhere, and they had definitely not seen the last of it, she's sure of that. There is a glance at Riku, a squint of her eyes, and then she nods. There were others here getting second chances, why not him, too? She had gotten along with him up until that night... "Come on, Riku."

That said, Zia turns and continues forward, wings caping as they step into the chamber where they had fought against the Shadow Lords. She can still see the scorchmarks from her battle with Negaduck. This is where she stops, drawing her arms in against herself as if warding off a chill. So many mixed up memories of that night.

Brooklyn has posed:
"This is where it happened, Skyline." Comes Brooklyn's reply, still not wanting to move yet.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi grabs ahold of Macbeth and---keeps a solid grip on him. Unfortunately all her other limbs are busy and so she gets clobbered by water splotches in the face--she can't press x... IF SHE HAS NO VIABLE HANDS TO PUSH BUTTONS WITH. They're all pretty busy.

But she keeps her grip. She blinks about and notices the boss is gone. "Is everyone okay? The Network is now all wet, troublingly."

Will Sherman has posed:
Will immediately punches Percival.

"Seriously! What is wrong with you?"

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Skoll sticks out his tongue at Zia. But he's glad that at least someone is /smiling/ during this whole deal! Less frowning, more smiling. They're going to restore Manhattan. He doesn't know how - but he's fairly sure that the keyblade wielder who opened this world for them to come to - had something to do with that. The youth finally lets go of that giant chain and then follows the rest as he's been doing this whole time, letting Zia deal with Riku.

"You know." Skoll suddenly halts, looking around. "This place could do with a bit more /light/, don't you guys think so too? More light, less slavering monsters. And maybe a throw-pillow or two." The youth unbuckles the chain that runs around his waist and draws it out from his belt, splitting it up into two chains. Dual-wielding chains. It's kind of the thing Skoll does.

Of course, internally, he is feeling something far different than happiness. He's putting on a bit of a happy face here - because all that this place brings him... are memories of failure. How he'd failed not just Avira, Zia, Mercade and the others... but everyone else in Manhattan.

Percival has posed:
Percival would grimace. "Oh I bloody did not. I plead the fifth amendment. She said so." Percival would allow a shiver to run through his wings in order to shake off some of the water. He hadn't been here before. Something about the end of the tunnel held him transfixed just like Riku for a moment.

And then he'd lightly slap Will upside the head with the tip of his tail.

Turning, he'd stick out his tongue at him, before he'd start to full on run forward, towards Zia. "Ziiiiaaaaa! Will is going to rend my fate asunder!"

If he was going to be a tattle tale he might as well be an unrepentent one.

Skyline has posed:
At the antics of one of the other gargoyles, namely Percival, Skyline just facepalms. Loudly. "Oh for the love of..."

Vespa has posed:
Vespa smiles and just shakes her head. She will keep a eye out for any trouble while everyone else loses there minds.

Lily has posed:
Lily's sent FLYING once the plate comes to a halt. She's never been in this kind of crash, how was she to know what was going to happen? "AAAAHHH-hhhhhiiggghk--!" WHUNK. Right on her back. The girl goes skidding, and her robes tear some. AGAIN.

Owwwwwww.

With pain lancing through her body she lets out a short-lived and squelched scream. Why squelched? Because the impact knocked all the air from her body, she's got little to yell WITH.

But, groaning, she gets up, rubbing her bakc, sides, and head the whole while. ""I'm alright. I think. I hope!" Lily says after nervously checking herself over. THe creature's pulled away though, she notices, and this gets her staring back up the tunnel with a grouchyface.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will just looks Aghast at Perci. He looks at Zia, "Didn't you tell him?!" He exclaims. He looks at Perci... "God what is wrong with you?"

Reize Seatlan has posed:
You know... In this moment, Reize actually laughs. Despite of their failure. It is moments like this that at least alleviates the tense atmosphere.

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso just stands by Reize and watches the shenanigans play out. "...look at them go. Totally ruining the ambience here!" But despite that, he was laughing too. Nevermind killer robot crocs!

Zia has posed:
Zia blinks, looking at Will first. "Didnae tell who wha?" At least that snaps her from her moment of hazy memory, making the white gargoyle turn, and then look at Percival. "Ye better nae be draggin me inte somethin ye started, lad. Yer supposed te be my protector, nae the other way around." She folds her arms, looking the part of the disapproving older sister while swatting the other gargoyle's tail lightly.

"Just try te leave 'im in one piece, aye?" She raises a brow at Will.

Percival tries to use the Zia defense. It is ineffective.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart phews as she lands at the bottom of the slide. Managed to avoid the big bad crocodile at least. For now. But she's sure its hiding somewhere and waiting for another chance. She shakes her head "Reminds me of when we were hunting for that gumbo recipe... I'm not sure which one was bigger now." She hops over to others, and just blinks as Reize is laughing. "What's going on? Did I miss something?" She takes a good look around the 'vault' and ruins, whislting "What is this place anyway? Doesn't look like Manhattan anymore." She tilts her head a bit.

Percival has posed:
Percival's face would suddenly become rather grim as Will acted aghast.

"You know what Will? I know I'm not in your secret club. And if you had bloody well included me in your little club secrets before now, maybe I'd have known. But you didn't. And if you're going to start foolishness in the MIDDLE OF THE <GOOSEHONK>ING HEART OF MANHATTEN, then you should expect foolishness in return. I apologize that you have a bloody double standard which allows you to screw with me in tense moments, but doesn't allow me to return fire. So <GOOSEHONK> you."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
The plate crashes to the floor, and Mercade goes flying, skidding on the floor as he hits it roughly. "UGH!" He yells, as he tumbles to a halt.

He looks up, picking himself up off the floor, and he looks to the rest of those who have come here. "Everyone... Did everyone survive that?" He asks.

And then he looks forward, to the room beyond. "What..." Mercade says, blinking ."Is this supposed to be where..." He pauses. "This is it."

He frowns at the situation before them. "All right, everyone. This is where it fell. This is where we're going to bring it back. The world... everyone... Everything depends on us. Guys, let's pull ourselves together and get this done." He clenches a hand. "EVERYONE! Be strong! Let's go, FOR MANHATTAN!"

But Mercade can totally agree on the throw pillows, Skoll. This place needs some work.

Lenn has posed:
Lenn is tossed when the plate comes to a halt, going head over heels, falling top-end down on the ground. "Owwww...." She slowly starts picking herself up. "All right, you guys, Fix world first. Kill each other on your free time?"

Riku has posed:
Riku murmurs. "Yeah.... they are not going to be down here.." although exactly what he means by whom is down here he doesn't explain. He looks at that dark corridor. He closes his eyes and balances himself. He moves through the dark corridor one step at a time. (He is very cooly ignoring that he is being tugged by Sora. It's in the handbook) Just one step at a time. When they reach the other side. There is a small circle with a single spark of light hanging in the air. It illuminates a keyhole just barely. The light that has guided them here falters and abruptly, between one blink and the next, dies away.

The change is palpable.

The oppressive atmosphere which has been kept at bay all this time by the light slams down on them like an actual weight. Riku goes down before it, slamming hands into the ground.

"They're coming.." he murmurs, eyes wide with sudden horror. "SORA!" he all but bellows. He points to the spark of light. "Whatever it is you have to do to get that going, /DO It/. We've got every heartless in the city coming down on our heads now." he turns his head to the side, glowering at Will as in 'what the hell is wrong with you' but he turn returns his attention to the corridor. "Whatever it is, SHUT UP." he mutters at the room in general. Percival in particular maybe. There are many, many eyes that surge down the corridor after them and Riku reaches out a hand.. and they slow.. and the tide of darkness begins to grind closer and the corridor full of eyes trembles to a halt as the teenager forces them not to come closer by sheer willpower. "and.. hurry.. UP." RIku grits through his teeth with a hissing indrawn breath.

There is also the matter of that other giant heartless, which may already be in the room. The call is COMING from inside the HOUSE!

BEWARE!

Oblivion has posed:

The darkness has come and with it the heartless. What else also comes crashing right down from high above leading the way for the heartless to get in. That son-of-a-piper CrocoGoon! It looks like its final round time, as the CrocoGoon lets out a mighty roar which almost shakes the very foundation.

______________________________________________________________________________
/______________________________________________________________________________|
| MISSION OBJECTIVE |
| Protect Sora And Avira At All Cost |
|==============================================================================|

The Heartless flood into the room by the numbers, trying to give the mighty CrocoGoon time to charge up for something that looked extremely nasty, as his body was starting to glow with swirls of magic around him.

The heartless charged in however with Riku's will power, they seem to be staggered back slightly. They attempt to move in, they get moved back. The CrocoGoon stares down Riku as he continues to power up energy, before he lets out a mighty roar to shake the foundation again.

Suddenly different breed of Heartless come racing down from the corridors and form the hole from above. These look like smaller versions of the CrocoGoon and they are just as fiesty. They charge in and try to make there way right for Avira and right for Sora.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart can feel the change. She's not attuned like Aerith, but its hard to miss. The light flickering off, and the oppression force of the darkness. "Oh boy, this is going to be rough. Open this place up before we're overtaken! We won't hold this up for long!" And with that, she charges at it.

This is why she wanted to stand back against the crocodile, she didn't want the heartless to be attracted too soon. But now that's where we are. Standing firm, or be swallowed "You like to gamble Mercade, this is double or nothing, with our lives on the line, and Manhattan as the prize."

Charing at the first row of heartless, she charges up her glowing fist, discharging all of her ki energy to disperse the group as much as possible. Then she moves back, making sure she shields Sora and Avira behind her, so that none of the heartless pass through her.

Lenn has posed:
Lenn winces, as the smaller goons start to swarm... "This isn't going to work unless we ALL work together! So nobody FALLS!" Crystals come out, and, their energies released, start to heal and protect Will, next, as he seems to be in the worst shape of all.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
As Riku slams onto the ground from the light, Reize yelps, "Riku?!" He cals out towards his friend, then he turns his head behind them. Those many eyes are surging down the corridor gets Reize's attetion.

"...Alright..."

The Heartless and the CrocoGoon are ready to go! "Ready! Shard Seekers, in position!" He looks over towards Luso, now steppng into his martial-arts stance, "Luso! Ready to do this?!" He then calls out towards Tifa, "Let's do some foot work on these guys!"
And then, Reize quickly starts taking a guard position near Sora and Avira, particular Sora's way.

"Oooi! Sora! We have you covered! We'll buy you the time needed!" As the smaller heartless are bunching on the path, Reize shifts his stance to start slamming his foot against the smaller Mini-CrocoBrute. He will use his foot to leverage himself up into the air.

"Whooooooo!!!" As the boy springs off into the air, he swings his body forward to swing his right foot downward at the other Mini-CrocoBrute. "HAA!" Sliding to the ground, he swings his boomerang at its head.

Zia has posed:
See Zia. See Zia take a step away from Percival.

Really, there are moments when she's quite glad that the Shard Seekers are not quite so prolific on their radio use. If nothing else, it means there aren't strange arguments like this that make people seem as if they are reacting to things no one else can see. Reaching out, she smacks Percival. "Shut yer bloody mouth lad and worry about /them/."

Point. Heartless. Who would have thought, crocodiles in the sewers.

Taking a few steps back, closer to Avira, Zia manages to keep out of the way of the initial swarm of Heartless. She isn't a front line fighter, and never has been. "Time te run some interference." Then, Zia's up. The last time she was here, she'd been dazed by LEXUS' magic, but this time, she's able to move, using her wings in the short space to give herself a good vantage point.

She starts by picking off some of the smaller Heartless, raining down lightning that isn't just aimed at knocking them back, but forming a barrier between them and the other heroes.

Vespa has posed:
"oh That's not good.", Vepsa says overhearing what Riku says. There about to get swarmed. "I guess playtime is over..", she grins.

"Bring it on!", she swings her axe at the incoming heartless, she get a bit nipped by one of them.

She grins manically. "Hundreds of you one of me. I'd call that fair odds!", she chages into the fray.

Luso Clemens has posed:
And then BLAM that damned croc came barreling back in with heartless goons in tow! The invasion caught Luso off guard and he was bowled right over, falling flat on his back at the assault. "Gah! Heads up! ...Well, too late for that! Oh well, I'm saying it anyway!" He rolled back up to his feet then and drew Flametongue and the Kwigon Blade immediatey.

"Time to kick some heartless butt! Let's do this!" That said, Luso gripped the Kwigon Blade in reverse, ice magic frosting it over before he stabbed it into the ground. The action caused several pillars of ice to burst upwards under the the heartless crowd before shattering into an array of slashing crystals, aiming to take out a good number of them.

He then burst forward into a run, entering straight into the fray and whirling about with Flametongue, the blade shimmering with raging flames and becoming a veritable typhoon of flame that threatened to take any heartless foolish enough to try and pass by. "And now, for the coup de grace!" Luso announced spiritedly, vaulting straight into the air and flipping forward several times. As he did, both swords began to crackle with lightning energy.

With that, he crashed into the ground, bringing the blades down full force and causing lightning to strike and spread out, shocking another group of foes.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will's eyes snap to Riku... and then the lights go out.

Crap. Maybe he shouldn't have been mean to it...

Riku snaps at them, and he nods. "Right." he says, and Will's eyes noticeably sharpen. Here...here of all places. This was it...and then the flood happens. Will strikes, taking down Heartless as they swarm, but for everyone one he takes down, two takes their place.

There are too many for Will to overcome, and he is driven back. Pain running down his body, feeling the connection between Loki and himself start to waiver...

And then they dive for Avira...

"NO!" he says, running ahead. He breaks fate, turning luck over his knee and dives forward, narrowly getting ahead of the heartless, and throwing his hands forward, aiming to drive his fist into two...before the rest fall on him like a pack of dogs.

There is a burst of magic...his hands tearing up and through the various heartless, before he roars. Pure magical power overflows from Will's body as he flips to his feet. His eyes flashing with an intense power as his voice Echos...still the mixture of Will and Loki, now more serious and determined.

He can feel his body failing, his injuries critical...perhaps he wasn't all the way healed to begin with, but he steps forward. One foot in front of the other. His hands grab at the strings of fate, before...

A single blue string arches out, aiming to not just smack into heartless, but dives down the tunnel towards the Crock. His eyes grow, magic power channeling furiously around him as he aims to trap them in the blue String's power...which aims to SEAL them all in place.

And then his right hand glows, the dark red energy channeling through it as he punches forward a large beam of red energy punching forward, before he does it a SECOND time. A massive beam following through...and then he jumps upwards, spinning, and kicking downwards.

Then a FINAL large beam of energy fires down, this time, as it hits, the ground itself flares up, aiming to burn and tear at their twisted and broken fates.

And then he lands, crushing his hand, and trying to detonate the various lines he just caught.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Light fades into nothing but the atmospheric lighting. Because, you know, battles like these have atmospheric lighting. Luckily, this being Disney, there's no Lens Flares to worry about. Instead, there' angry angry beasts that apparently need to be kept away from a squishy boy and... well... Avira. Had she still been a Mutate, this would have been a little easier. The youth brings his both hands forwards as a few of the alligators come forwards and he grabs one by the jaws as it tries to snap at him.

However, a second and a third clamp and bite down on his legs. "Let go, you mangy beasts!" Skoll yells out. Even though, he's pretty sure, scaley monsters usually don't have mange. But that's besides the point. What /is/ the point however, is that he pushes the earlier CrocoGoon away and then punches his hand down on the other twos' heads, forcing them to let go, before supercharging both of his chains.

"Let's do this then." The youth whips both of the chains around, and then lashes them forwards and up in an attempt to pick up a whole mess of the beasts and thrown them against the ceiling, before the chains expand and spawn further chains like a tree, attempting to grapple them again and thrown them down to the ground and zap them with dark electricity!

Skyline has posed:
WARNING - WARNING - WARNING - WARNING - WARNING - WARNING - WARNING - WARNING

Behold the Crocogoon in all its glorious boss-fighty glory! Yeah okay enough of that. There was also a metric FKton of heartless charging up the hall. The goon itself, a million of its babies, and then all the other heartless as well. "Oh isn't that cute," she quips, drawing out both her pistols. It was time to make some noise! Given an open shot the gargoyle starts to unload into anything that didn't come from Traverse Town and otherwise! She's lucky enough to avoid being assaulted by taking a long leap back, but right now she knows they need to keep Sora and Avira safe. What does that mean? It means unleashing hell and killing the thing before the heartless even have a chance to touch a hair on their heads! "You are NOT STOPPING US TONIGHT! OR ANY OTHER NIGHT! EVER! AGAIN!"

Evja has posed:
Evja stands there in shock after she wandered down the hall far enough and Riku suddenly announced that it was all coming apart. Who was this boy? What was he doing? Did he... just...
...

Seith's conversation comes to mind. Controlling the Darkness. Is this what power one gains when they use the darkness itself? The ability to control the Heartless? But, it was power that Seith described, the power to do what one wanted.

"Very well Riku, I shall stand with you and keep you safe from the remaining heartless that come in from the ceiling! For if you fall, it matters little what we succeed, we all fall!" Standing tall and turning his back towards Riku - off goes the cloak as it flutters towards the ground nearby, revealing fully the Judge had no armor on save the greaves they wore. But that didn't seem to stop him. Evja pulled out two spears and stood there with both spinning in his hands, light glowing faintly from his body as he prepared to stave off the assault as best he could and keep the boy who was holding back the darkness safe.

But Riku was used to this, right? Being protected by Judges? "Fight! Destroy them all! They cannot hurt the Keyblade Wielder if they are dead!"

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi surely must empathize with Percival here, but she doesn't have tim to worry about it. The Croczilal is still around, as are---of course--plenty of Heartless. But she's still recovering from her earlier unleashing of POWAH. Can she really properly fight just now? She thinks, maybe, she better actually take a moment to recover, plan for a bigger assault later.

"Riku... they seem to be harder to control... But perhaps if we defeat this big one... you can send them away."

She fans out her hands and unleashes another electric wave for the large monster. She slides towards Mercade now, ducking and weaving around the heartless--others get clobbered away by her thanks to Umi jumping in to lend a hand, allowing her an easy path back.

"If we just have to win this fight...then it shouldn't be too hard. I want to see the real Manhattan."

Avira has posed:
'Go' Riku says. After a few moments, Avira realizes why he's straining. He's trying to use his abilities to hold back the Heartless.

With a few more steps, they're 'there'. That place where the Heart had remained, but is now completely empty. The remnants of the keyhole that protected it can faintly be seen before the light that had been guiding them disappears, leaving them in the opressive darkness. Time seems to stop.

But now what?! Her stomach begins to sink. What to do? Where does the light come from? Then a thought hits her.

She goes to stand before the keyhole and spreads her arms out in front of her. "Sora, that keyblade unlocks anything, right? Use it on me-use it on my heart. Hurry!"

Brooklyn has posed:
There are a lot of Heartless around. Brooklyn finds himself as one of the only ones standing around in this group without a weapon. He finds this particular situation to be unfair to him. Punting the first heartless that comes up to him with one big talon, Brooklyn slams his fist into a wall nearby, grabs a hold of something inside, and a moment later rips his hand out, holding a large, metal pipe in his hand.

It's not exactly as fancy as a Keyblade or as deadly as a sword, but in the hands onf a rather pissed off gargoyle, a lead pipe is no joke. Clenching his hand around the pipe, he swings it in an arc in front of him to test the weight, before readying himself to begin to wade through the sea of heartless in front of them.

Deidra has posed:
Deidra says "I got to agree even if it means I'm stoned most of the time...." Then persy goes off. "Right now isn't the time for this! We are being chased by the largest heartless I have ever seen and we have a city to restore!"

She's still flying kereping with the pack and she looks about as the bheartless now floord the heartless seem to be well? Staggere for a second, and now even other mini ones like some sort of goon swarm comming for Avira She's just ripped into but it's to no avail for her at the moment. She's still up and that's when the winds come, they pick up as she pulls upon her self, and she's chanting in latin.

Then comes a blizzard of razord edge shards of ice trying to thin the heartless' ranks!

Percival has posed:
He certainly didn't feel angry at the smack. More chagrined than anything. Of course the Crocogoons would choose to attack right now.

He was too far away from Avira and Sora to protect them from the first strike. Thankfully Will was there to do it for him.

That looked like it had to hurt. But at least he gave as good as he got. Even the Gargoyle winced when the Hobo nearly crumpled fending off what was meant for Avira.

Instead he'd smack his way through the Crocogoons, placing himself in position right beside Avira and Sora.

Grimacing, he'd speak to Will in the aftermath of the attack. "Will, <Goosehonk>it. I didn't mean a word of it. Now get behind me."

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Let the carnage begin.

The lights go out, and Mercade staggers. Something terrible is coming. He can feel it. Riku's emphasis brings Mercade back, through, and he quickly produces his shotgun. He nods, and runs after Sora and Avira, turning after a point that looks like he can use it to defend.

"Hold out, Riku. You can do this." Mercade says, offering his suppoer how he can as he launches his way through the incoming horde, beginning to unleash a torrential wave of gunfire. He tries to keep his back to his allies, covering each other as he focuses fire on anyone going for Sora and Avira. "YOU'RE NOT GETTING PAST US!" Mercade yells, defiant, at the Darkness, as he unleashes his gunpower. He nods to Emi as she passes. "This one's for all the marbles." He says, tipping his hat slightly. "But this time... we're going to win it."

Sora has posed:
One moment, Avira, Sora is taking a CrocoGoon.

About a minute later, Sora rolls to his feet again, holding the Keyblade in his two handed grip. That bloody /hurt/. This is why everyone else best be ready to tank, because otherwise, Avira and Sora are so, so very screwed.

"Remember, Avira. Think happy thoughts."

He doesn't say anything more, but he gently holds the Keyblade out, right towards Avira. In that shining, feeble light, Sora narrows his eyes - and concentrates.

Channel, begun.

Riku has posed:
Just let go.

Riku has never tried to control this much for even a moment, let alone enough time for the group to fight off the giant heartless and it's band of personal thugs that he can't seem to get a grip on.

There are so many...

So very many...

Riku closes his eyes, taking in a deep breath and reaching deeper into himself. He was there because he was trying to undo a mistake.

He was trying to take back what could never be taken back.

Always the same tired refrain.

He would have to live with himself. Riku slowly opens his eyes again, glaring down the heartless as more of them pour down the corridor. The entire city has been awakened of their presence and the fierce light that shines in them and they were always so hungry for even a spark. This was a grand banquet and all they had to do to eat so well was to get through the insignificant little rock in the sea of darkness.

Riku's hand shakes and he grimaces a hissing breath as the yellow eyes creep closer and closer to the edges of the corridor and the rents in the vault but only Crocogoon and his minions have the floor so far.

Sounds fade and he knows that there is fighting going on all around him but it begins to just.. fade towards silence and the ringing in his ears. He doesn't have the strength to respond to Evja although his mouth starts to frame words. He thinks he nods.. but he doesn't know. He doesn't even notice himself slowly fold onto his knees from the exertion. Just hold on. Riku nods very slowly to himself. "..just.. hold on.."

Lily has posed:
"Where this creature came from I don't know, but it's Heartless... it's our enemy!" Lily declares even as the place is floded with lesser Heartless. She could feel them coming, their hated presence didn't take her totally by surprise.

So when they start charging in to work their terrors, she holds a hand out before her- and lets out a raw burst of pure shining cerulean mana. Not to attack, but instead to propel herself backwards in a sudden display of competence and ingenuity. She goes skidding across the ground, clear away from her attackers, and shows a childish grin of triumphant up at them.

"Reize, Lenn! It looks like another big fight...!"

It does, it really does. And her elemental field's crackling up to full power again. Wisps of wind and arcing electricity, vaporous swirls of water, plumes of flame, and twirling streams of dust all weave about her, spreading a deep elemental presence outwards.

Lenn and Reize in particular will feel it most as that power harmonizes with them...

Oblivion has posed:

The Goon-Squad is all over the place, Zia's lightning attacks take down a few of them, though a mini summoned water wave goes right for her. Several heartless also leap in the way of Tifa's attack, which she blows through like a freight train. They go blasting into dark mist!

The Heartless Goons continue to protect the far larger one, getting in the way of the heroes as they also try to get to Sora and Avira. The smaller heartless however are being held back by Riku still. Yet, Luso, Reize, and Vespa, strike them around, knocking down to the ground, even as they try to get back up, they go right back down.

Will cuts the lines of fate and heartless and goons alike go exploding into the air like New Year's fire work show over the Hudson River. They go sailing, exploding, and landing into one another. Then Skoll comes in and rips some of the Heartless new ones, while others zip by him in attempt to once more get around the Hero wall. These are quickly taken down by Skyline however.

Yet the heartless just keep pouring in from above, more and more of those little Croco-Goons. It was like trying to deal with the Koopa clan or something.

The little guys move in the way to protect the large one again. Emi's electrical attacks get caught in their speedy aerial current, before they zip one right behind the other sending a cyclone of air right at her. However that ground soon gets the icy smack down from Deidra as the very cold spell sends them all crashing into the ground.

However more soar in and zip right by Mercade in a speedy rush, where his shots almost nail each one of them, yet they apparently were moving to quick, so set on trying to get past, until the last remnants of the ice spell blast into them, knocking them back.

Suddenly the main cheese of the Goons suddenly snaps his gold eyes open before The CrocoGoon rises off the ground and then thrusts its stubby arms forward. There was suddenly then a massive dark bubble that tried to float over them all. Before it broke apart and then went to crash down. Those it impacted it would try to hold in place, thankfully these bubbles of water could be knocked away as well; encase people needed to shield allies.

Yet what was more problematic was the rumbling from behind the CrocoGoon, as suddenly a mighty darkness tidalwave came rushing in. It was coming and it wanted Avira and Sora! They must be stopped!

Skyline has posed:
ALERT - SKYLINE HAS FAILED TO PRESS X.

After unloading all that firepower on all those heartless, it doesn't help because she's accosted by both heartless and then the massive wave of dark energy that's rushing down the tunnel. Oh no. No no no. That won't do! With the beastie (Currently) on the ground, Skyline decides its time to let her guns have a break and let her daggers do the talking. A step forward is taken and then she's a blur of whirling metal and steel skin, trying to slice, dice, and tear apart anything that even DARES to get close. And if she can hamstring the big fella while she's at it? Even better!

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Another big fight is correct. As the youn man turns to look over Will, Reize's eyes widen and he winces at the brunt of the damage that Will takes. "Will!" Reize calls out. While Lenn moves to take her medic position and heal the badly wounded Will, Reize yells to Lily as she takes position to harmonize the elements to enhance himself and Lenn. Reize can feel the plumes of flames and the gale of the wind surround them. "Thanks! ---Lily!" He looks back at Will, "Focus on healing Will with your magic!"

THen, Reize is shifting his stance.

The dark bubbles rise up and start floating their way. Even worse, the mighty tidal wave came in. Reize attempts to avoid the bubbles by leaping back, but one of them appeared behind him.

*KABOOM!*

"Gah!" Reize rolls along the ground, covered in soot and wounds from the impact. But ten, the tidal wave of the Heartless come in.

"Guh!" Then, Reize quickly sprints over towards Sora.

/_\ Defend Sora

Reize slides infront of the minigoons, then he springs off of the ground. He spins around with a twisting kick, "Sparrondo!" Soon, another foot swipes out for another whipping foot. He brings both of his boomerangs in front of him to swipe them down, then he launches outward to start giving the Heartless around yet another double spinning kick. "Sparrondo!" and then, the boy springs off of his feet and comes down with a diving kick.

"Skyraider!"

Avira has posed:
The keyblade is used upon her. Before when it had been the spirit shard being removed, it hadn't hurt. This is different. This does hurt and right away, a trickle of doubt enters her mind. What if this wasn't the way?

The light held inside the Princess of Heart explodes outward all around her, wreathing her and leaving her in the center of a glowing ball of energy. After a few seconds of this, she becomes slack and remains floating in the center. The light pulses brightly, then writhes and flickers, small streams and tendrils spreading out from the surface. Seeking. They move like the electrostatic charges from a van de graaff generator.

The first one to make contact strikes Sora with a small jolt as it connects to his chest. He will feel a pull, as if something is being demanded from him and he gets the sense that there's plenty to offer, fueled by his happy thoughts.

Mercade is struck next, the light calling upon him to surrender some of his own so his world may live again. There are no words to this request, just a faint feeling that it is the Thing to Do.

Will and Loki also feel it, a tendril connecting to him. There is no judgement placed upon him from the light for his role in Manhattan's destruction. There is just the request. How much would he give so that Manhattan will rise again?

Brooklyn, protector of Manhattan, would feel it too as a sole tendril touches his chest. It has been a hard fight for him, fraught with betrayal and heartache. But tonight, there was no backstabbing. His light, of which there is plenty, would be used to rekindle this city.

Zia feels it too. Though it was no Scottland, Manhattan remained the sole piece of her home remaining. The light knew that she fought for it the first time-and now she is given the chance to finish that fight. Though Percival may want to tell the light that he has nothing to offer, it will insist that he is wrong. For these few moments it actually feels like the conversation he had with Avira yesterday-in fact, he might even get a flashback of it where the Princess of Heart tried to reassure him that he wasn't a wretch.

Deidra, Skyline, and Emi follow, Deidra and Skyline actual former residents. Emi, who had grown so close to those that lived there after seeking out the TDA for help. Bring it your light. Bring it your happy thoughts.

The light moves to take from all here, moving on to the likes of Maira and Vespa next, two of the original founding members of VALKYRI. They had fought alongside Avira, supported the quest to restore Manhattan every step of the way. Now they had one more final thing to give: light for the restoration.

Skoll is immediately recognized by the growing and evolving world heart, not just because he was there to defend it much as Zia had the first time, but because of his connection to Avira. It is that reason it asks in the first place for while Avira is aware of the darkness that has clouded the werewolf in the past, she knows that the darkness does not own Skoll. She knows he has light inside him that can be lent to this task.

Tifa is no stranger to Manhattan. It was on the verge of becoming a second home to the barmaid before tragedy struck. Her connections are called upon and surely her light-filled heart would have something to give.

The Shard Seekers. There was no question, no doubt, that their intentions to restore worlds were true. The light reaches out to Reize, Lenn, and Lily.

Evja, though his methods were muddled and his way was lost due to the manipulations of Hades, has struggled to redeem himself. Even in the face of hostility and repeated failed choices, he still pushes on. Despite his sins, he too is called upon to lend his light to the budding World Heart.

And finally, even Riku, who had sought to snuff out Manhattan in the first place to seal the Voice of Evil that was Loki is not left alone by the reaching light. Though at first, the World Heart in progress is decidedly unsure. Would there be anything for the boy to offer? It searches anyway. It gives the offer.

The light searches and spreads even further, millions of tiny tendrils shooting out past everyone into the distance. They reach across the world barriers, a clarion call to all the refugees of Manhattan. A sincere plea for the lights of their Hearts to band together to recreate what was once theirs. To some people, somewhere, this seems nostalgic. Something about the lights in the heart of children...?

The new World Heart of Manhattan is nearly complete. Soon it will be on Sora to seal it away...but will Avira have to remain inside it?

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso could only hiss in disappointment as his attacks barely hit the mark. This wasn't a good day. All he's managed to do was stay back and get hit! It was time to turn the tables! "Okay, that's it! Time to turn things up a notch!" He growled, sheathing the Kwigon Blade and Flametonue before drawing Luabreaker alone.

He then raised the blade to the air and it began to glow with a radiant glow. "Special move! Here I go! Holy Blade!" And then he swung downwards, sending out a wave of light to hurtling through the ranks of heartless and crash into the main boss. But he wasn't done just yet!

Rearing back with the sword held low, the blade then burst into a cloud of darkness as wisps of corrupting energy covered the blade. "Have a taste of your own medicine! Darkness devours! Haaaaaaah!" Luso then swung the blade upwards into an uppercut motion, sending out an additional wave of darkness to go crashing through the ranks of the heartless again, targeting the boss once more!

Emi Dennou has posed:
"Will!!" Umi shouts, in horror, as a tidal wave is summoned. She charges for her friend and then leaps into the air, sending both legs for Will's side. "You can't swim! And you hate water!!"

She drops down in a crouch after connecting with Will, fanning her hands forward to send an electronic wave forward towards the heartless--

--but it doesn't dispel the tidal wave.

"Umi!" Emi shouts from her position, performing a HIGH JUMP through the aid of electromagnetic propellant, avoiding the water entirely. "You can't swim either, The Network reminds!"

Umi's eyes bug out faintly before the water slams into her, sending her crashing along the street roughly and unkindly. She's been through worse, of course, but she doesn't get up immediately all the same because it still hurt like hell.

Emi however draws out a small coin into her hand, using Macbeth's SCOUTER to analyze the Croc Monster's weakness as best as she can. "This is nothing... We've faced greater than this before! The Network...shall protect this world for those that protected her!"

And with a flick of the coin, it spins into the air, rippling around before she flings her finger forward.

And propels it at super sonic speeds towards the monster, ploughing through waves of Heartless explosively as it threatens to punch through the target. Despite the coin being small, the wave of destruction is quite large from the pure speed and electric waves pouring off the object.

Lenn has posed:
Lenn 's staff sweeps out, popping the bubble as she starts all but dancing with that staff... the energies still within from her spell that she casted on Will, now are swept along, to the two that absolutely must be protected for this to work: Sora and Avira would find that energy gathering around them to form a protective shield.

Evja has posed:
When the waves of heartless came, Evja roared towards them defiantly before beginning to quite literally dance around Riku to protect him from /anything/. Even if it meant throwing himself in the way, which Evja wound up doing several times to the stupid Crocodile heartless that came towards him. By the time the small heartless were done, however, the waves of darkness came and Evja mumbled something softly towards Riku.

"Stand strong."

That came as Evja spun with one lance and tossed the cloak he had been wearing over Riku's back lightly, protecting him in some fashion. "No harm shall come to you, Riku!" And the waves of darkness came. The Viera's lances spun and struck out in an attempt to deflect it away, though it was largely useless, eventually forcing him to take a knee with both spears crossed in front of him as he literally cut a swath through the darkness. Acting as a blade wasn't a good thing for his health, but true to his word, combined with his cloak, not a drop of the darkness touched Riku behind him.

When the last of the darkness came Evja let out a defiant roar before shouting, "HURRY!" towards those who were... well, hurrying. His entire body began to glow even more heavily in that golden color only to begin flashing back and forth throughout the area, slamming into and through heartless, bouncing, jumping, slashing and smashing and stabbing and generally tearing into any heartless he came across. But if that wasn't enough, Evja jumped right to the center of the room and lanced straight up, giant golden spear shooting straight up into where the crocoheartless were pouring out from to lodge itself in there and hopefully seal the hole, and if his aim and luck were good enough, shoot the holy-laden spear straight through every last heartless in the entire entrance before sealing it off or crumbling it somewhere along the way.
Then back down towards the giant heartless below with a series of sPATH OF THE LANCE!</span>"

Then straight back to Riku he leapt while the spears he had impaled in various places, except the one he shot straight up, vanish and he grabs two with his hands, waiting to see just how effective he was at clearing the trash out of the room.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Even as she gets covered in the tidal wave and bubbles, the barmaid is charging in. While she didn't step in for Sora and Avira, all of the bodies still made enough dampening of the waves to protect them. With that in mind, she moved in.

With this ammount of heartless, as mini-crocobrutes, she gets an idea. Its crazy though, but... They are in a crazy situation. There's no need to think, only let herself guided by instinct to survive.

Rushing through the horde of alligators, she pummels and kicks, leaving a trail open, like a tear through a black cloth as she cuts right through the ranks. Her aim? The giant one back there. Apparently going through a series of accurate reaction triggers, she jumps on the nose of the giant CrocoGoon, and runs straight up its back, along its tail, jumping down on the other side. She's in the middle of the darkness right now, but she's going through with her plan.

From the other people's angle, it would appear the CrocZilla rises up in the air, even higher... but tilted backward? No, the barmaid is LIFTING it backward, holding it by the tail like that...

And then WHAM! The crocodile is used as a giant blundgeonning tool to tear through the wall of mini-alligators. The motion repeats several times even, WHAMMING it into the ground, hopefully with all of the pain in the world for it.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa ugh and the dark goops crashes over her it was challening to move in it.

"Dammit.. I won't let you Avira! or anyone else!

Cue music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLRYp0CeYcY

A black aura appears as she grips it with both hands. "DIE.", then she bring it down to the ground as the shockwave in front of her cuts anything in it's way.

Zia has posed:
Lightning. Wind. Zia is so focused on the task of keeping the Heartless back that she doesn't notice that the single large bubble ahd broken into others. The one coming her way strikes her in the back, trapping her within so that she's forced to hold her breath for a moment as it drags her to the ground. The gargoyle struggles for a moment, scrambling against the bubble until her claws pierce it and she's able to breathe again.

That, of course, leaves her right in the path of the tidal wave. Thrown back against one of the pipes, Zia is drenched and hurt, her teeth showing a hiss of pain. She shakes the water from her wings, using her own weather-based abilities to launch herself higher. No time to waste or worry about injuries, that would come later.

There is a moment where she hovers there, catching her breath, eyes closed as the Heart of the world touches her own for that brief moment. That is enough. Reason to fight.

For now, a strange sort of aura forms around her as she chants in Latin. It's one part defending herself, one part using her own force of spirit back against the enemy. Like she has done before, these merge together, with one swirling around the other as she sends a bolt of lightning right at the crock.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Mercade is back in the Zone. He can do no less, considering what's at stake. The massive horde of Heartless swarm around him, and he can't quite get a bead on them... But he doesn't need to. He just needs to keep Avira and Sora safe. "WE CAN HOLD!" Mercade yells. "WE CAN- oh god!"

That's when he sees the massive water bubble. He throws himself to the side, letting it crash down, and he looks upon the massive incoming tidal wave. He frowns. "So that's how it's going to be, is it?" He says, before he reaches out, and pounces upon one of the nearby crocodile Heartless, grappling it. "SAY UNCLE!" Mercade yells, channeling Umi Power. "SAY UNCLE!" He demands, as he launches it into the Darkness wave... and leaps in with it?

"WHOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Mercade can be heard, yelling as he is propelled to the top of the wave, bodyboarding on the HEartless crocodile as he uses it as a platform... And then he pauses for a moment. A quiet, simple question that asks something of him. Something asking what he'd give up for the sake of Manhattan.

Mercade, still wrestling with the surving crocodile, blinks. Warm times in a ramshackle office. Laughter. Fighting over the last slice of pizze. Meeting new friends, watching old ones leave. A hand, hanging a top hat on the top peg.

Everyone, around a table, eating a Thanksgiving dinner.

People deserved that. Not just him, but everyone. He was always willing to put it all on the line to bring it back. The shame of his absence... It was always a stain on him, that he has worked to redeem these long months.

It will end now. Mercade looks up, even as he suplexes the crocodile into the ground at the end of the tidal wave, and stands, nodding to Avira. Take what you need. He'll give whatever it takes.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will lands...and looks up...

He had given all he could, but the wave was coming. However, Umi reminds him what he's here for. She jump kicks him out of the way of the water, causing him to roll across the ground...saved by Umi...again...

"UMI! NO!" he shouts...and she is washed away. He fights down tears...but the tendril touches him. What would he give to save Manhattan? What would they both give to save their world?

Loki is stunned by the question...what would he give to ...save? Will is there, fighting, Loki is struck by the question. The two have a synchronization unlike before. They run forward, it isn't just Will, but it is both Loki and Will as one...

"ANYTHING!" he shouts, and runs right at the Crock, right behind Umi's shot! "EVERYTHING!" he punches, his body broken, but he still pushed it forward, the power surging through Will trying to punch through the Crock's body...and he flips back.

"FATE BEAM!" he screams, firing yet another shot.

Percival has posed:
And then he was fighting for his life, right in front of Avira, hacking and slashing like mad. Crocogoons flowed forth freely, and before long he was beset on all sides. Before long his eyes were glowing eerily white. Waving his sword around, it skewered one of the Crocogoons, and wouldn't pull free. Dropping the sword, with Crocogoon attached, he'd smash its squirming head with his foot.

His shield was more a bludgeon than an actual defense now, while his left hand was used more to rake, puncture, and slash the heartless who came near.

One of the heartless latched onto his feet, and nearly bit a taloned toe clean off. That Crocogoon was soon booted clean across the room, squealing.

Bloodied by the endless tide of Heartless, it seemed only fitting that an actual tide of darkness would come sweeping down upon them.

The Gargoyle would crouch around Avira, spreading his wings to shield her from all sides, without blocking Sora's aim at her heart. Darkness would wash over his back, scathing him terribly.

And then he'd feel it. The light held within Avira struck him. At once he felt a peace that he'd never known, not even during the Wind Ceremony. His rational mind might have tried to plead with it, to insist that he isn't deserving, his heart tells him otherwise. Tears came unbidden to his eyes.

And then he totally elbow chucked another Crocogoon away from her without even looking at it.

Lily has posed:
Lily panics. She sees the onrushing tide of darknessm and puts up her defenses. The elemental field she's been so often seen using tightens, congeals, and thickens about her like a guardian angel's wings. Sadly, none of the elements are quite able to deal with the darkness. Much of it's worn away and she's slammed to the ground by the raw force. Hard.

Hard enough that she cries out!

But not hard enough that it keeps her down. Though bruised and covered in rapidly evaporating dark glop, she stands again.

A pure light finds her then, and she feels its warmth. ONe glance over to Avira later... LIly makes up her mind.

Power flows out from her again to Lenn and Reize. The power of life, pure and immense!

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart feels the touch of the light as she's fighting among the darkness, bludgeonning the crocodiles with the bigger one. Yes, Manhattan was special. It wasn't her home, but it was a good city, filled with people that could use a drink and a smile, like she wanted to offer. There was alot of strong hearts there. And she wanted to spread her kindness to many more. There was lots of people she knew there, and the pain when the city was lost, all of those souls screaming at once, swallowed by darkness. Its something she'll never forget, and never wants to repeat, and that's why she is here, in the middle of the darkness, with the little light her heart as to offer, but with all of the strength and energy her body can produce.

Deidra has posed:
Deidra is suprisingly faast in the air she has adaptd pretty well to this whole flying thing. Well controlled glyding but it's close enough, she twist and turn liek some sort of combat jet and comes up hoving ove the swarm she hovers up high chanting again in latin the chant's a lot longer, something is indeed building here. A power is coming she contiunes to chant even ass Mercade moves in she thinks about how many people were lost in the final hours of the city. The destruction athe loss, all caused by a few greedy people but that's not her focus. No she thinks about everyone, they can to the best revenge of all to the forces of destructiona and ruin.

It was the holidays it was almost Chirstm they may have a very bizzaro Chirstmas in Match but she casts there's so many people there. The last bastion of a world that had been destroyed. They would pull it back, they would bring it back and then live, they would live well.

She channels a huge blast of magical power down from the heavys a massive pillar of light like an orbital strike comes down upon the huge horrible creature and the swarm she moves the beam across the ranks of the darkness.

"YOU HAVE NO PLACE HERE NO POWER! BE GONE CREATURES WE WILL RECLAIM THIS WORLD!"

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
The black goop comes, and Skoll finds himself under assault by too many of the small ones to really move. He does try his best - honestly - he tries to fend them off. But just when it matters, just when he wishes to swing away, another gets in the way, blocking his path. He raises his arms and ducks as the good finally splashes over him, pushing him down to the ground, the dark force within touching him, hurting him...

He looks behind him just as Avira thinks of him, and that light touches him. Indeed, there is light within him. Much light in fact. Though his heart may be clouded by that artificial darkness, the werewolf holds so much within him. Honor, love, friendship, a guardian's spirit. Skoll, in many ways, has incredibly strong feelings within. And seeing as he's not fallen by the encroaching darkness even now... a strong heart.

Light rises to answer Avira's call, and with that, light spreads out onto the chains he wields. The collar around his neck sparks, parts of the metal dulling, sizzling, being slowly damaged - but not destroyed - by the overabundance of light. And then, Skoll uses this power. This moment where light is called from deep within his heart. He guides all of it into his chains, before he throws them towards the ground... stabbing them into the surface like spears...

And what follows are massive chain-spears rising up from the ground, lit in a beautiful light, ready to impale and tear the enemy assunder - and more importantly, catch those electrical currents and redistribute that power into the very /insides/ of the beast and create a set of tesla-coils that spread out to zap all heartless around.

Triple Tech :: Zia, Emi, Skoll :: HOLY TESLA COILS

Brooklyn has posed:
The pipe...It feels good in Brooklyn's hand. Almost familiar. He swings it around once or twice more, and then looks up. The wall of water, or at least from what it looks like, comes towards him. He hauls the pipe up, and brings it down in a slice arc in front of him, cutting the water ball in half. His hand gripping tightly on the pipe, Brooklyn lets out a battlecry which is practically capable of rattling the walls. He points the pipe directly at the massive Heartless, eyes glowing white as he prepares his strike. He can feel his heart, the tendril that Avira is using to help reconstruct the world. He knows they'll win here, as there is no other option.

The gargoyle plants his rear foot, and then rushes forwards, gathering up speed and momentum as he drops the pipe down to the ground, sending up sparks as he drags it along behind him. Eventually, his feet leave the ground, and he sails through the air, the pipe in his hands turned into a deadly weapon, as he brings it up around over his head, intent on striking downwards onto the massive Heartless' head.

He's putting everything he has into this strike, his intent being to destroy the monster with the blow, and save his world in the same moment. With Sora and Avira working hard to restore Manhattan, defeating these Heartless will be the only way to make sure they stay safe. It is vital for him to win this fight. Millions of people are counting on him.

Sora has posed:
Sora does not live in Manhatten. He does not come from that world. Yet the people that come from it, the people that lived in it, they have helped him, they have shaped him, and he remembers so much of everything. He shares his memories, as the light grows around them.

Everything from watching Will and the TDA argue, most of it hilarious, to about twenty minutes ago when Will whacked him over the head with a rolled up newspaper. From Mercade and his talk about who Sora was, what he was doing, and why he was doing it...

Sora fuels the rebuild of the world with a soft sigh, watching her float there in the center. He continues holding the connection, as the thin beam of light gets stronger, brighter, as everyone pours in their feelings, their hopes, their goals, their selves into the rebuild.

The World Heart of Manhatten shimmers. With the shards, with Avira, and with everyone's happy thoughts, it has been rebuilt. The Keyhole flares, calling out to Sora to close it. However, Sora shakes his head. He's not leaving Avira down here, to get stuck. It wouldn't be the right thing to do. She is the heart and soul and spirit of Manhatten -

Locking her away is like dooming the world to fall, all over again.

So instead, Sora turns, and he pulls Avira towards the back, away from the World Heart, where she will be safe. Sora doesn't take his eyes off of her either. She's here, there's the Keyhole - and here is the Kingdom Key, shining. Sora points it at the Keyhole, and magical light gathers around the tip, before the beam of light connects with it, sparkles getting shot over the room as they coennect with a larger keyhole on the ground in front of them.

There is a flash of light, and then the Keyholes fade away.

Manhatten has been saved, the Princess of Heart has been revealed, and the World has been Locked, hopefully saved forever from the Darkness...

Oblivion has posed:

The blades from Skyline dig into the skin deeply of the CrocoGoon. He lets out a mighty roar, before attempting to fly out of reach of the Gargoyle. Then Reize's own attack strikes in deep, though the large Heartless tries to regain air as it is strikes down, to only be brought down hard into the ground by Luso's own powerful attack, which not only slams it back down, but cracks the very ground under it!

Emi's coin attack slams hard into the downed CrocoGoon. Keeping it from rising up. It actually hits with enough force that it rips one of the wings right off! The massive metal wing goes flying back before crashing into the ground and becoming black mist that rises into the air.

Evja's lance then comes down and strikes hard into the creatures. Impaling it straight into the ground where it can't run. Soon the rest of the flood of attacks come in, with it having no where to go. Each brave warrior dishing out the damage. Each of them striking down, ripping out, or tearing off in some way or another. Then when the poor creature thought it could get worse. Just when it may think about trying to rerise.

Tifa freakin' Supplexes the thing like the woman she be! Which the might creature lands down hard and then is just finally torn in half by the very threads of fate, swords, and whatever else came for it.

The creature soon explodes in dark light, before it explodes out into dark mist. The very light thought that suddenly covers the room chases off the heartless. The Good-Squad who try to remain, are shred apart by the light and soon, very soon, the room has no heartless in it at all...

Skyline has posed:
Skyline hadn't gotten much time to get aquainted with the Island. She had arrived after her own home had fallen to the swarms of the Heartless. For her, Manhattan was her last bastion of hope. It was her last home. It was the only place she thought she had a place in. When she had lost it, she had spiraled out into a rather severe depressive episode. Sure, she went to help the people move on to the next world. Sure she went on to try and fight against Hades, and sure she had come here, but coming here was different. It was hope that brought her here. It was a real hope that they could bring the world back. All those other times, she had simply worn a mask to hide how she really felt. Tonight, she didn't need to do that.

When the world heart reaches out to touch everyone, she feels it in to her bones, to her very core. Did she want the city to come back? Did she want her home restored? Did she want a place to show people that they could hope their worlds could return? Yes. There was a light inside of her that was as bright as many others. True, she wanted her home, all of the Gargoyles did, but for her first experiences in the larger universe, she wanted this because it would be a seed of hope for those that thought they did not have anything to look forward too. A world could be -restored-. A world could be -SAVED-.

The restoral of Manhattan would mean that even in defeat, hoSHINE!</span>

Reize Seatlan has posed:
That light reaches to Reize's heart alright. In fact, as the light reaches for his energy...

His pendant responds.

That is when the light glows.

This is the role of the Child of Light. As the pendant begins to call forth, it responds through the wishes of people that have been granted.

Leida's wish for a friend, Priel's wish for a place to go home to, and various other wishes. Those single, strong wishes are infused with the pendant, answering the desire to have the world restored.

It is then that the pendant's light becomes as brilliant as the star itself.

Riku has posed:
Riku slowly let his head lower as the heartless were so close down that they were inches from his outstretched fingers. A soldier twitched, the armor brushing his outstretched hand with a painful shock of hunger and cold.

His heart seized and then seized again, opening his mouth to scream but nothing coming out.

He watches Evja move back and forth with the detached expression of a mannikin. Nothing but the chittering hungry static could be heard of the battle around him. It reminded him how very hungry he was, and how, again and again, he had denied himself.

It had been stupid to do so. It had only made him tired and weak. If he took down the closest one. If he reached into one of the shapeless smears that names and memories and faces have become. If he took only one, then surely he would be strong enough to hold off the rest.

Why was he doing that again? They only wanted to eat.. and they had been so patient, and denied for so long. Riku very slowly stands up, his body jerking like a marionette as he turns around to face the room. His back is to the corridor and he stares with blank yellow eyes at the heroes assembled therein.

Riku's heart seized a final time as the light swept through the room. He is left standing there, perplexed and empty, a hollowed out shell that stares from person to person will mute incomprehension. His hand is extended towards them and it lowers slowly to his side.

And slowly.. the world starts to change. The auroral curtain returns, drawing a curtain of light over them all, over this scene, and returning them to the hillside of Phantasia mountain.

The difference? ...The long ago locked portal of Manhattan has returned, and the world beyond? ... One of light, and hope, and new beginnings.

And of the party, Riku is missing, and if he came back at all, there is no sign.

Avira has posed:
Once pulled out of the World Heart, Avira immediately becomes dead weight in Sora's arms. Her pulse, should anyone check, is weak and her skin is a little on the pale side.

Yet somehow there's a faint smile on her face.

Sora has posed:
Sora is supportive of the nice Princess in his arms, even as he looks around, tired. "We did it..."

At least, Sora is pretty damn /sure/ they did it.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart is worn out, but standing. That was quite an ordeal. She rushes over to check on Avira, seeing her faint. She doesn't know where Riku is gone to, but Avira is still there. "Let's get her to a place to rest. Everyone deserves it." She looks over to the restored city. "Welcome to Manhattan."

Luso Clemens has posed:
Seeing his attack literally crush the earth, Luso lowered his blade, letting it slacken in his grasp and touch the ground at an angle. "...We did it. Finally!" He grinned then, sheathing the sword tiredly. "And that marks the end of another grand andventure!"

It's right at that moment that the grimoire strapped to his side began to take on a golden glow. "Huh? Oh it's time!" The boy released the tome from it's bonds , holding it in both hands as it flipped open, pages turning to the next empty ones. Right there, words began to inscribe themselves onto the pages, telling of a grand adventure that started with the fall of Manhattan...

"...Looks like this is the end of this story." Luso quipped, skimming the words quickly before flipping the grimoire shut and strapping it back to his waist. "Good work everyone! We did it!"

Evja has posed:
Somehow... everyone had been teleported in that flash of light. And when Evja's eyes opened, they were outside... the world supposedly saved. Yet, as Evja looked around for a head count, there was one he didn't see. Yet he couldn't stand, the Darkness had taken it's toll on the Viera. Being beaten half to death yesterday by Seith's darkness, combined with today's assaults and taking hits for Riku...
Well, Evja was using a spear simply to keep 'upright'. "Riku... where is... Riku?"

Zia has posed:
The feeling of being swept out from that dark place is strange, but Zia lets out a breath as she looks towards the portal to her world. The pain of the fight is forgotten as she stands there. With one hand, she tentitively reaches for her pendant, closing her eyes in a silent wish. When she looks, the blue crystal once more has that faint glow, and a smile spreads over her features.

There aren't any words from her, not of celebration or of surprise. She just stands there, holding the crystal, eyes glassy. A few months is a very long journey, and sometimes, it's just the beginning.

Emi Dennou has posed:
Emi looks around. Where did Riku go? He must have done that mysterious character thing and vanished! "Thank you, Riku, for the help." She murmurs to herself, jogging over to Umi to help her up, letting her lean on her shoulder. There is a flash of light they--

--are suddenly outside, near Manhattan's portal. They breathe out slowly.

She stares at the portal.
She looks towards Mercade.
She looks towards the portal. She looks towards the gargoyle contingent.
She looks towards Sora.

"...Last one in..." She closes her eyes. "...Is a rotten egg?"

What? Rest first? Nonsense. The important thing is to make sure Manhattan is Manhattan right? RIght. They stagger on over.

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Beaming happlily, Reize looks at everything that they've worked for.. a success.

As the boy holds onto his pendant, Reize gives a brighten smile and then he looks at Luso's grimoire glow. "Huh?" He looks at the book, "Oh! That's right! It fills the pages once you accomplish something!"

In a way...

Reize's pendant begins glowing. There are lots of balls of light transferring into the star.

> The pendant's power has become full of light.
> Reize Seatlan gains Synthesis Item: ??? (Have Synthesis shop examine it later.)

Brooklyn has posed:
It worked. Brooklyn is...Honestly a bit surprised. It worked. He comes down from his strike, and...Well, doesn't release the pipe just yet. He looks around, unsure of what to do, until he spots the portal. He heads towards it, looking at everyone. "I just want to say, before we go through...Thank you. To everybody."

Skyline has posed:
And then, because of what's on the other side of that portal, the 'leader' gargoyle is suddenly SHOVED through and back to the city, "Don't you start getting all emotional on me right now! Time to make sure everything is good! Go! Through! Now! get get get!" shove shove shove. This isn't to say Skyline isn't thankful, the ear to ear grin and wave back over her shoulder at everyone screams 'THANK YOU' at anyone that catches sight of it.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart looks over to Brooklyn, and smiles, moving to put her hands on his warmly "We're all happy. I know you felt down at the tournament, I could feel it. but what matters is the end result now, isn't it? You got your home back. I'm going to check on where I was going to open the bar. If you want a place to sleep, you can always go there. Deidra knows the place." She smirks, having Gargoyles on the rooftop is not uncommon after all.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
For a terrible moment, it looked like they were going to be swarmed under.

And then the Heart awakens. Hope, love, and life burn bright once more. Mercade feels himself sent Elsewhere, everything going off in a wave of brilliance as he finds himself outside the entrance once more. He stands, slowly, wobbling on his feet, looking through that glowing curtain. "It's over. It's all over." He smiles, and looks to the sleeping Avira.

Carefully, he gathers her up, picking her up in his arms...

And then carries her through the portal himself.

Whether he kisses her awake later is something to be speculated on at another time.

Lenn has posed:
Lenn smiles, and waves to Brooklyn. "No, thank YOU for letting us help... it gives me hope for MY home." She reaches out to grab her walking lightshow of a fiancee.

Skoll Ulfang has posed:
Finally. They did it. Manhattan is restored.

Skoll kneels down onto the ground with one leg, sparks running over his collar from the abuse, but eventually it all goes away as the scenery changes. There's grass beneath his feet again now. No overabundance of light. None of that. However, it is as Skyline was thinking. They have hope now. And what's more, Skoll now has gained something else. The belief and trust that there's indeed light within him.

He touches his collar. "If I get rid of this... can that power forever be mine?" He asks at a whisper, before looking Zia's way. The youth slowly rises to his feet, stepping up to her, and then takes her hand. Just a single hand. And he whispers to her;

"You did it Zia. We all did it. Manhattan is back."

Deidra has posed:
Deidra comes down in for a landing and she looks weak she lands on the ground and she's just outside the portal. She slumps she's a bit hurty and has had a lot taken out of her. "Sowe got our home back. To everyone who helped, thank you I can't put into word how much.This means to us." She's grinning not caring about the fangs showing they got home back and she looks over to Len. "Don't worry we'll find your home someday as well."

Sora has posed:
Sora helps pass Avira off to Mercade. While he doesn't mind, she's /his/ Princess.

"NOW KISS HER ALREADY!"

Emi Dennou has posed:
"Sora since when have you become so lewd?" Emi asks as she heads for the portal. "Is this Imi's fault?"

Lily has posed:
And yet as Reize's pendant shines, Lily's own forehead gem seems to be doing its own rendition of that lightshow, pulsing and shining in sync-- though not as bright.


Though she's been exhausted by the fight, this fills Lily with a brilliant and likely infectious case of the giggles!

Deidra has posed:
Deidra says "come on Mercade! KISS THE GIRL!" Deidra is grining now and not caring abotu any punnishment she may face for it.

Luso Clemens has posed:
Luso nodded towards Reize, shielding his eyes a bit at the glowing pendant. "Yeah, you know how it goes already." He shook his head at Sora's shenanigans as he headed for the portal. "Dude, do something about that lightshow though!"

Reize Seatlan has posed:
Glancing towards the shenanigans, Reize sweatdrops before turning towards Luso, "Oiii! I cannot control the pendant!" Then, the boy watches it shudder a couple of times, before it stops glowing. He pauses, "...It's never done /that/ before."

Percival has posed:
The Gargoyle would limp over towards Zia, sitting down beside where she was standing. He didn't seem sullen, just bewildered.

He certainly didn't seem to be joining in any sort of celebration though, nor interrupting her and Skoll's quiet moment.

Brooklyn has posed:
It's hard for Brooklyn to not get emotional as Skyline starts to push him towards the portal. He has, after all, lost three homes at this point. But now he is finally going to get one of them back. Eventually Skyline pushes him through the portal and he vanishes through it.

Deidra has posed:
Deidra turns aout andf follows Skyling and Brooklyn into the portal. She smiles a little bit, two very imporant people she knew and loved? They would be back they would be well and that means more than she can even put into words.