Starfall: The Broken Land

Starfall: The Broken Land
Date of Scene:	19 July 2013
Location:	The Lanes Between - Gummispace
Synopsis:	The intrepid heroes use their newfound conveyance to travel between the worlds and stop a great Heartless from destroying a world they have never seen before.
Cast of Characters:	Will Sherman, Mercade Alexander, Tifa Lockhart, Sarafina Carenze, Avira, Deelel, Vespa, Cirra Constantine, Aerith, Kim Possible, Shadow
Tinyplot:	Starfall

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Mercade Alexander has posed:
A call has been made.

A call for heroes. Two children, one small and shy with a great protector-knight, and the other, an intrepid yound adventurer, have both spread the word. Their world, called New Ivalice, has been beset upon by a great evil. The Heartless have come, consuming and destroying.

There are two problems. First, the way back to New Ivalice is blocked to normal means of travel. Portals have come to an end in a shifting labyrinth full of Heartless, that some force has seen fit to block the way forward. The Keyblade Wielder, Sora, forced open a path, only to reveal the other problem.

The problem is that the world is under attack by a massive Heartless, the likes of which has never been seen before. It's also in space.

Thus our intrepid heroes have sought answers. Answers to their problem have come in the form of Gummi Blocks, also known as Star Fragments, which can be combined to allow travel through this 'Gummispace', and provide weapons with which to battle their enemies in this strange realm. Those who are not inclined towards engineering find assistance in the form of two small chipmunks, Chip and Dale, who have offered their help, a choice from a set of basic blueprints, and a small number of Gummi Blocks in order to craft these basic ships.

You have launched from the Montressor Spaceport, taking the first steps into the shining darkness. The tiny, model-like craft grow when exposed to Gummispace, becoming larger craft that you can enter. The ships generate their own power, allowing them to travel through the blackness, into space, allowing one to looks back out into the void and see Traverse Town dwindling into a small dot amidst the seemingly infinite void.

The path to New Ivalice has been laid out for you. The way was opened before by the Keybearer, connecting the world. As you approach through space, you see the gleaming, shifting labyrinthine barrier around the world, that which blocked the way through, seen from the outside.. A barrier of Light itself.

You also see the massive, gaping hole in the barrier, rent through it as if God's window itself was shattered by some cosmic baseball. There are glimpses of Heartless sailing through the void, needing no ships to traverse this Darkness... And your systems indicate something much larger and more terrible within.

Avira has posed:
Today will surely mark the day that Avira took ONE STEP CLOSER to becoming an AWESOME SKY PIRATE. Being able to actually pilot a flying craft is certainly a prerequisite for that career path, is it not?

The strange star pieces that later became known as gummi blocks had certainly intrigued her quite a bit! Definitely no sort of engineer, her attempts to construct a ship out of the blueprints that Sarafina gave her months ago for a normal airship had not done so well. Only through the assistance of a pair of chipmunk geniuses had she made any headway, eventually abandoning her original blueprints when she learned she simply did not have enough gummi blocks to build it. Seeking out even more blocks was put on the to-do list for later since this particular effort was a bit /time sensitive/ on the part of protecting New Ivalice from utter destruction.

"I'm glad this isn't much harder than driving a car." Avira remarks, mostly to herself as she navigates the opened pathway in her small craft. For now, she has nicknamed her ship the Lugh. She stalls a little bit, waiting for backup to catch up.

Vespa has posed:
"Of course I know what I'm doing Al!", Vespa says talking to herself it seems. Again. "Not helping Al!", she sighs to herself. She was able to get help from Chips and DAle to help build her ship she just went for the basic model. Once she figures out what she doing she will cutomise it a bit more.

"This is a bit like that moive. I guess I need a codename and the ship needs a name too.", she will think about that stuff later, right now there Heartless to blow up!

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Honestly, she isn't sure what she's doing.

But in the 'gummi garage', Tifa went over the required tests, training, and building process to make her own gummi ship.

She's still not sure its a good idea to fly something made out of candy, but if it works...

Anyway, there she is, piloting her own little 'jet plane' through the void.... slowly. Yeah, she's not pushing it too much yet, just getting used to things "If this things breaks into pieces, I'm hoping you guys will be there to pick me up." She says over radio to the other ships that are around her.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra Cosntantine, Judge of Archades was sent to see this STAR SAGE.

What she got was a pair of hyperactive, argumentative chipmunks. On that day, Cirra Constantine knew true dissapointment. At least they knew about the star fragments as advertised so the trip wasn't a complete waste. Cirra took back that information, along with the dire portents for this 'New Ivalice' and presented her findings to Dr. Cidoflus Bunansa who promptly put the information to use, applying it to a design allready within Archade's extensive knowledge base.

And then put Cirra "My favourite test subject" Constantine in charge of it.

The GPA-GB47 Gummi Test Fighter flies out of Montressor Spaceport, the gummi laden ship doesn't look much like the prototype stolen by Balthier, mostly because it's made of delicious looking blocks, but the swing wing design gives it speedy and manuverable features.

Silently Cirra wonders how her life lead her to piloting something like this.

Will Sherman has posed:
"Talking Chipmunks." Will says sitting next to Cirra.

As if answering some unknown question as he looks over at her. He also is eating something...

It is sea salt ice cream which he hands one off to Cirra.

At least he's sharing, right?

Somewhere else, in Traverse town. "Ack, that hobo stole me icecream again! When I get me hands on him.."

Will sits back, not touching anything eating the ice cream and basicly looking as happy as a clam.

He is also looking for a specific string.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel has heard the call for help as had many others, she'd spent time collecting blocks building a ship that greatly resembled the sealed larger light jets of her home grid. It had taken time and a good deal of work but she'd managed to get it operational. She was pleased and it was time to put it to the test with many others who had also heeded the call for help.

New Ivalice was a place that had come under attack by the Heartless and had yet to fall totally. There was still time, a chance to keep a world from being consumed by the night. It was hard to keep Deelel away from that. Chip and Dale had given them their briefing for lack of a better term on what they had to do. The small model like ships growing up to full size was surprising but not a unknown concept to Deelel given the nature of smaller light craft of her world but still it was something new all the same. It hadn't taken long for her to get into the controls and take off with the rest of the forces launching from the space port. What she sees is something mind blowing there was a crack for lack of a better term a huge jagged rip in reality? The barrier between worlds? She didn't quite know however it was time too put their money where their mouth was.

"Layers upon layers of reality, it just keeps getting larger the more one looks..."

Deelel shakes her head a little and keeps in formation with the rest of the fleet more or less. She picks up a few radio calls from Tifa and she seems a bit amused and replies

"How about we see that doesn't happen in the first place keep alert we have no idea how many there are of them."

Shadow has posed:
Another call for heroes-- though it ends up being returned by a ninja. Not a hero. The dog is more of a hero, according to some scales. Shadow is here nonetheless-- quietly going through the garage initially to configure himself for a journey into the great beyond. This should be interesting. His trusty copilot? R2Dog2, Interceptor.

And the two are off-- piloting a ship in blacks and greys. His initial impression can be summed up with a, "..."

Sarafina Carenze has posed:
Sarafina has cobbled down an abomination together. It's got a lot of greens primarily, and chainsaw arms. And it's just, honestly, rather horrid looking. But it's functional. It's just one of many of the Carenze experiments in trying to make a weapon of mass--or in this case delicious--destruction.

"Well," She is, naturally, in her own ship. "Testing, testing, one two three. Chainsaw Arms--"

Yes this one has chainsaws taped to its arms. It is a work in progress.

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim's not even old enough to drive, but she's got her own gummi ship already! This is so totally cool for her. But this isn't time for showing off, there's a sitch to be handled.

"I'll pick you up, Tifa, don't worry," Kim says as she picks up Tifa's signal. "There's room for an extra passenger on here!"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Space is a wonderful and terrible place. Sights and wonders to behold. Things both beautiful and horrible reside between the worlds.

And you have found some of the latter. As you travel through the breach in the Barrier of Light, you see another small world, rotating within the void. Large pieces of it appear to have been swallowed up by the Darkness, leaving thin roads between locations in a ragged, weblike pattern.

But the more important thing is the massive, angular creature which dwarfs the world, a flared triangular design with a pulbous protrusion at the rear. The massive glowing golden eyes of the Heartless peer out from that location, and huge spherical 'hands' wave through space, grasping and clutching endlessly as bursts of white light force it back in what seems to be an endless stalemate.

The bulbous head area has a large paisley ribbon bow on it.

In the meantime, massive hordes of Heartless fly through Gummispace, roaring as they pass and swarm... In formation.

And then they see you. They Heartless come, firing pellets of energy towards your ships! GET READY!

<================================> - <X3 - <=================================>

- A FORCE OF DARKNESS HAS ARRIVED -

- GREATER HEARTLESS -
- GUMMISPACE VANGUARD -

- PREPARE FOR BATTLE -

<================================> - <X3 - <=================================>

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra looks at the sea salt icecream Will is holding out to her, then at the controls, then back at the ice cream "How do you expect me to-" she frowns, narrowing her eyes at Will. "Stop looking for that." and grabs the ice cream bar, sticking it in her mouth and holding it there so she can hold the controls with both hands.

Just as the largest heartless ever discovered comes into view. "Mhhp!" She says around the icecream bar and pulls the Gummifighters controls to the side, spiralling around a series of attacks and one perticularly suicidal heartless fighter.

Pressing her thumbs donw on the controls, Cirra returns fire into the Ko-dan... The heartless armada with little blasts of wind magic.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will blinks...

"Oh god, that heartless again!" he calls out as Cirra handles the situation. Will grins...but will also cheats.

Will raises a hand up and pokes the controls of the Gummi ship...

Then a secondary control pannel opens, specifically over the weapon systems of the Gummi ship.

"Oh hey! Look at this!" he says, and grins at Cirra.

Also, the Ship gets luckier.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa holds on as her gummi ship, get knocked around from the heartless attacks. "This ship is alot tougher than it looks. Okay now what? Fire buttion Fire buttion... At there is is! Take thissssssssss!!!!!!", she shouts hitting the fire buttion repeately trying to shoot down the Space Heartless.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart's ship gets rattled by the first wave of heartless fire. She acks, trying to figure out the controls of that thing. She got the feeling she picked the sloewest fighter too "Well let's see what this thing can do if it can't evade!" It must have some firepower behind it, she hopes

She blinks as she looks at all of the flashing lights "... I sure hope none of these are an auto-desctruction button, because I'm about to do somethig really stupid here..."

She mutters that in the radio... and then pushes buttons! x_X

Avira has posed:
Meanwhile, a VERY IMPORTANT conversation is taking place. A very important conversation to decide the callsign that Avira will be using while piloting! The eventual winner?

"Dusk Wolf, going in!!" Avira cheerfully announces as she flies herself right into the breach with little hesitation. The sight of the giant heartless isn't a surprise to her as she was present when they mistakenly unlocked the doorway to it in the first place. Even then, with these new ships to use, they seem so uselessly tiny.

Avira's rocked out of her thoughts as energy pellets start peppering the Lugh. "Tch! Maid One, cover me, I'm taking these monsters for a ride!" Avira flies RIGHT at one of the formations, firing the single set of guns this rudimentary gummi ship was equipped with directly in front of her to clear the way. She's mostly just distracted.

Shadow has posed:
The ninja seems to be quiet on the comm chatter. What did you expect? Interceptor barks-- right until an incoming blast hits the ship. Shadow's offensive ship attempts to blast back by a double-salvo. Unfortunately its a near miss as the enemies bank out of the way.

Shadow intercepts (ba dum cha) some heartless in the crowd. Generally speaking the dark ship picks two friendlies (in this case Tifa and Deelel) to stay nearby as he starts to cut a path.

Kim Possible has posed:
"Whoa, that thing is TOTALLY not cool!" Kim exclaims as the Heartless makes its appearance. She scowls at it and realizes that she's going to need to figure out how to utilize her gummiship's powers and fast! Thinking quickly, Kim presses a button on the panel and a targetting indicator pops up. Kim thinks even quicker and ends up shooting out a blast of fire at the Heartless.

"Right, no big!" Kim says as she finds that her counter attack worked for the better. She pulls back a little and checks the weapons systems briefly before getting a better idea of what she should be doing. "OK, so let's try this," Kim says as she presses another button. The targetting indicator changes colors briefly, and Kim levels it at the Heartless. "Try this on for size!" Kim says as she pulls the trigger, shooting out ice-type pellets this time.

Aerith has posed:
Right, shooting things. It always seemed to come down to this, didn't it? Only this time it was in space, with a ship made of gummi blocks. Well, whatever worked! Still, it was her first time in a ship, and she wasn't very good at it. In fact, she just now found out how to shoot things, and honestly that's all she knows at the moment besides how to move.

Flowergirl narrows her eyes and takes a look at the heartless fleet before her. "Okay, my turn."

Deelel has posed:
Deelel sees there's a whole lot of heartless maybe she should have hauled Beck or TRON along to be gunners. There's no time to worry about that now even as she opens fire upon the heartless horde she's unable to evade. Her ship takes a hit but the damage isn't terminal it's bad but it's not terminal. She has thankfully made sure to put a repair system in on this design because? Someone has to keep allies from getting ripped apart, right?

The twin barrelled turret opens fire sending a light spray into the swarm of unending heartless there isn't much she can do here for the moment but she's darn well going to start thinning the ranks.

"Watch your targets and heads up. I have a repair system on board if anyone is in need of repairs contact me!"

She keeps at the controls and is going to have to watch her self in this fight. It is unlike anything thing she's ever really been a part of before. She only hoped they would all survive this battle.

Sarafina Carenze has posed:
Sarafina cackles like a madwoman, swooping in between various heartless attacks before slamming right on through one of the Heartless with the left arm-chainsaw. "Just 'cause you're in space, doesn't mean you're a pilot! Ha ha ha! Too easy!" She presses a button and the chainsaw VRRRPS into life, exploding the Heartless around the blades.

Then she pushes a RED button, the Tonberry glowing a dark but bright red ominously!

"Don't mind me, DEel. I'll be just fine!"

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Salvos of return fire explode through the incoming Heartless swarms. The Gummiships fire blasts of spreading light and fire through Gummispace, tearing into the formations. It's like watching some kind of war. In the stars.

The problem, however, has never been killing a singular Heartless. It's killing the thousand others.

The Heartless begin to attack in earnest. The combined fire of the heroes creates openings in the attack patterns of the Heartless, exposing the massive enemy ship.

The ship, sensing a threat, turns its terrible eyes upon the incoming agile small fighters, and begins pulling back. Salvos of deadly beams arc back through the air towards the Gummiships, crashing towards them with destructive potential. The ships should hold against the attack... For now. Who knows what will happen once it gets better oriented, however?

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
There is a bit of rejoicing in the ship as she managed to hit the right button, clearing off a chunk of the heartless in front of her "Yes! I'm not completly useless!" Not that she doesn't have confidence, but this contraption is nothing like she's ever seen before. too bad you can't just attach rockets to a chocobo or something, would make it simpler, maybe?

Okay, maybe not.

Anything, its followed by a 'ACK' over the radio as she quickly reaches back to the controls, the heartless returning fire in (un)kind. The sudden grip on the flightstick literally makes her spiral out of control, out of the targetting of the heartless, which look rather confused. Tifa might be an amazingly skilled pilot after all!

Cue Tifa latching on the flightstick as she tries to get it back under control "HOW DO YOU GET THIS DEVIL SPAWNED THING TO STOP SPINNING!?"

Nevermind that idea!

It takes a few seconds, but the gummiship wobbles back under control, and she zooms back toward the group of heartless, this time she knows where the lasers are at least "Alright, starting to work better now!"

Shadow has posed:
Looks like the ninja can't catch a break in space. No matter-- Shadow continues to lay down the pew pew quietly from his black ship. Even though the technology is foreign-- its hard to say how the man is adjusting. He doesnt talk! Lasers and other such annoyed heartless don't have much trouble laying down the pain on his vessel. His ship banks-- attempting to cut through another set of ships that evade out of the way at last moment. Interceptor barks-- sonic warfare against the heartless that got away. Then the main weapon strikes-- causing the ship to buckle.

The black ship that Shadow pilots advances. It turns to shoot at more of the horde-- lining up a heavier shot against the mamma ship.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra mutters around the sea salt ice cream in her mouth as Will activates the turret controls, she has no way to precive 'luck' so all she can see it as is the gummifighter getting more responsive. Which is good because Cirra suddenly has to fly very defensively to avoid the incoming heartless barrage!

Cirra quickly grabs the ice cream out of her mouth. "focus on the fighters!" she shouts to Will. She bites the ice cream stick again and flies the ship through two V formations of heartless as she flicks a switch.

A group of smaller gummis detatch from the underside of the gummifighter. Nothing but smaller engine blocks... that seek DARKNESS!

Or maybe just anything nearby that moves.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith though does not necessarily fire back. No, she gets out of the way as fast as possible, yanking up on the stick as the beams of death arc toward her and the others. After that though, she heads toward what she reads as Tifa's ship (she learned how to do that first thing) and gets in contact with her. "Sorry I'm late." Cue support options here.

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim utilizes the Thunder powers on her ship to fight back the enemy, but something still hits her ship. It feels weird, but she doesn't pay much heed to it. Instead, Kim simply levels her ship at the Heartless and says, "I'm going to be showing you that the bigger they are, the harder they fall... especially totally bogus Heartless like you!" Kim switches to the standard guns on her ship (if you can call them that) and fires off a shot, before switching to Blizzard again.

Avira has posed:
It's always the multitasking that really makes it a problem, doesn't it? Avira quickly starts suffering from information overload and starts to panic as the rudimentary radar present in the cockpit lights up to show multiple squads on her tail. In fact, it seems like she's suddenly attracting quite a bit of undue attention for some reason.

"<GOOSEHONK>!" Avira exclaims as one of the large lasers from the ship grazes hers and still manages to do massive amounts of damage to the frame. Panicking, Avira starts slamming her hands on buttons.

Fire sprays wildly everywhere, not exactly aimed at anything in particular. Of course, this isn't exactly a problem when the enemy is everywhere. Vespa might have to watch out though!

Vespa has posed:
"oof!", Vespa says as she is shot up again getting rattled around in the cockpit "Doesn' this thing have shields?!?! All Space ships have shields right??", Vespa's been watching too many moives again... "Oh I just press a few more buttions!", which she does.

Will Sherman has posed:
"Uh right!" Will says and starts looking at the controls...

Earlier... "So...how do I fire weapons?"
Chip looks up at Will and starts talking...

Five minutes later Will is sleeping with Dale taking a nap on his hat. Chip looks mildly annoyed at the two of them and walks off, throwing his hands in the air.

Will pushes a button, and suddenly a pair of shields activate.

"...Oh right, the shields are there."

Sarafina Carenze has posed:
Sarafina continues to swipe through Heartless, tearing through smaller swarms rather than the large ones for the moment, winning small victories rather than aiming to make big ones. She seems to be holding for something rather than trying to win a major victory off the bat. Maybe she's trying ot make sure she is using this properly. Unfortunately, her strategy leaves her open to getting slammed hard by some Heartless in the process.

She grins faintly and then pulls back on a control stick, the abomination pulling back just enough for it to launch two quick plasma bursts--each practically larger than the ship itself--which plows through what is hopefully 'tons' of heartless rather than 'nones' of heartless.

It looks to be rather powerful!?

Deelel has posed:
The fleet is taking heavy fire, there's just so many of the heartless as they come after them, but the ship? That's a surprise to he she's caught in the terrible return attack her ship is damaged pretty badly and she sees she's not the only one. She's got a feeling she's going to be more use to the fleet supporting it than fighting directly. She's noticed Shadow has taken a pretty bad hit and she deploys the repair system she fires a cuboid shell at his ship along with engaging a Curaga-G hopefully it will keep them both going.

The damaged blocks should start to knit up but there's something wrong, something the heartless hit them with seems to be slowing the process down. There's no time to worry as she she notices Avira start o come in and attack, which gets her thinking she's going to have to figure out who to keep together in one piece when all is said and done. She doesn't want anyone not to make it back but some people are going to need more help than others. That's the big question she has a display showing off the stats of the other ships hopefully that will help her as the fight just gets crazy now.

<How can there be so many of these things!?>

Mercade Alexander has posed:
It's no Death Blossom, but Tifa's desperate attack blasts another group of HEartless out of Gummispace, making them detonate into green balls and Munny.

Why the heck do Heartless turn in to Munny when you blow them up, anyway? It is a mystery.

Shadow attacks as well, his copilot barking. In space, they can hear your dog. There is an explosion as Shadow begins peppering the surface of the Heartless with powerful blasts from his Gummiship. It actually seems like it's... hurting the thing!

There is no escape from Macross Missiles. Next up, Cirra will introduce you to an Itano Circus. But for now, the seeking Gummi swarms smash into the fighter formations, blasting through them in clouds of loot (The presence of Will Sherman, Hobo King, increases Munny and item drops!) and awesome, opening a path for others to make their attack runs on the Gummi 'capital ship'. Or eldritch horror. You decide!

A moment later, Avira fires, powerful and destructive beams of coherent Light shearing through the swarms of fighters. Avira promptly finds her local area clear... Of fighters, at least! Watch your six!

Vespa's button-pushing gets results, though perhaps she should have spent more tutorial time with Chip and Dale. Everyone loves chipmunks, right? Either way, it gets the job done, more Heartless exploding around her.

The aggregate power of combined fire is catastrophic. Explosions rain down across the Heartless ship, causing it to yaw in space with explosive force. A low, terrible rumble begins to grow as something... changes.

The ship, either using some kind of defensive systems or some fell force, begins consuming nearby Heartless, absorbing it into itself to repair damage done to it. The good news is it's dramatically reducing the number of incoming attacks.

The bad news is that the ship itself begins firing. Huge, converging banks of dark lasers begin to streak through the air, bracketing the incoming fighters as they dive in towards the ship and creating overlapping fields of fire. It's trying to draw them in. A moment later, the squadrons of remaining Heartless come in from behind, striking with hit and run attacks with a feral, tactical wave of assaults. They are relentless. It seems that this beast is beginning to take you seriously.

In the meantime, a massive crack opens down the length of the Heartless, and a gaping maw begins to yawn open, a burning core of darkness becoming visible as incredible amounts of power begin to gather...

Mercade Alexander has posed:
The icy bursts from the Blizzard Gummis continue to lend support to the team as well, as Kim flies like some kind of dynamic superspy. It's pretty awesome, buy the DVD extended cut now!

Aerith has posed:
Flowergirl makes an attempt to jink out of the way, only to find that she's suddenly out maneuvered! She feels impacts from directly behind her, fortunately none the worse for wear. Yet. It does leave a few dings on her ship, and she grits her teeth. "This is a rental guys, come on!" She gets on the radio with Tifa. "You okay?"

She then takes note of the fact that Kim is hit as well. Okay, this is not the best position to be in. "Time for a new strategy." She turns on her repair systems, linking into Kim and Tifa's ships as she does so. "So glad I figured this out quick..."

Shadow has posed:
It is a good think Deelel is keeping an eye on Shadow's ship. He doesn't seem to be. The bad news bear of a ship begins a-chargin' the laser as Shadow is heading towards it. Interceptor barks. Bark bark bark. As in 'No, dont do it. Noooo!'. Its Independance day-- sort of. The black ship gets hit dead on by more lasers than the dog can count. The ninja grimaces-- the only thing that has come over the comm from him so far.

But wait-- all that valiant charge and. Pew. A single laser goes out. It misses. Shadow likely needs to take drivers ed for this thing.

Pew. Shadow's black ship lets out a sad little laser shot to the larger ship.

Vespa has posed:
Vespa gets hit. Again. "I should have picked a faster model.. What? That button there is for shields Al? You sure? Okay. And this one as well? Allright. I hope your right Al!", at least someone read the manual..

Will Sherman has posed:
Will shakes as the ship gets hit!

He looks at Cirra and grins, "Good thing I put the shield up, huh! It's like I am some sort of GENIUS co-pilot!" Will nods once. "I also totally bought you ice crea," Okay he stole it, but that's not the point.

"Now's not the time for gratuity though! That comes later! You can tell me how awesome I am on New Ivalice." he says and looks at the buttons experimentally.

"...Huh. I think I should push this button."

Suddenly, a barrage of MISSILES fly from the botton of the ship, spinning like drills RIGHT TO THE CORE of the LASOR CHARGING super heartless. This is backed up by a barrage of lasers from the underside of the turret, each one aiming to strike the shield, followed by striking the shield again. And the O2 room.

Okay kidding, he just shoots the core again, this isn't a rogue-like.

Avira has posed:
It's super effective! Or rather, it's pretty hard to dodge lasers being shot literally everywhere. The Heartless in her nearby area simply vaporize and, with this success, Avira seems to be encouraged.

Grinning, she punches the accelerators and rockets far ahead of the Heartless forces gathering behind her, easily outrunning them in her strange little ship. "WOOO!!! Maid One! I'm going in!" she calls out, rolling to the side as a laser from the large ship tears through the space around her. As she nears the ship, she sees it start to split...

...and spies the core within.

"That. That has to be its weakpoint! Or at least an energy source! Either way, I declare it to be /eminently shootable/!!"

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim attempts to avoid the incoming attack but fails. She is relieved when the healing effects from Aerith come over her, but she's really starting to lose it now. She brings back the Blizzard mode, and then decides to up the ante a little. "It's time to cool you off once and for all!" This time, when Kim fires, she fires off huge blasts of ice!

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra looks irritated at Will as the ship starts playing /that/ music. She points empathically at the sign over the comsystem 'Driver chooses the station'.

Then the crisscrossing lasers smash into the gummifighter and the heartless swoop in from behind, firing until the shields fall and the gummifighter takes some heavy damage. "MRRR!" Cirra grunts between her teeth. She presses the throttle forward and folds the gummi-sthal's wings back to fruther increase the speeds to breakneck levels. She flips up a couple of switch covers...

The gummifighter's forward cannons glow a bright blue colour and unleash a torrent of...

DRILLING LASER ENERGY.

Sarafina Carenze has posed:
The Heartless begin attacking her, but Sarafina is an EXPERIENCED pilot. She barely manages it, but she manages to swoop between and underneath waves, flitting about with no clear logical path--but it is an inescapably notable in that it manages to avoid taking serious damage despite being what is ostensibly a plane built to crash into things. And it's been doing that rather effectively so far.

But now a small light turns on. It's a green light. It's a good light.

It tells her that the EXCALIBUR-G is ready to fire. She has no idea what the Excalibur-G is. She traded a lot of gummis to get this on her ship. She tentatively makes sure she's not pointing towards any comrades of hers before pressing the button.

An impressive swath of green light rips forward horizontally across from her gummi ship, ripping throuhg Heartless in its attempt to tear through the big one--not stop it, but do some damage at the very least!

"Okay, that was neat." Sarafina says, pressing a hand briefly against her lips in shame at using such a colloquial word. Manhattan must be getting to her!

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
She might have talents, or just alot of luck... or good reflexes, she does have those! But the next salva wizzes right over her ship, that has a slight drop to avoid it, narrowly, but undamaged. She'll take it, she doesn't want to be spacedust after all. Aerith's repair also help stabilize the ship some more, as she zooms and buzzes around the swarms of heartless.

"I dunno how many there are, but they keep comming... and what's that in the back?" She notices the crack that seems to be forming... and possibly charging up "... I don't like the looks of this. Anyone has an idea?" She's quite open to ideas that won't destroy their ships after all! She turns the ship around, coming on to Aerith's side "Let's try to close that up before it does anything nasty, what do you think?" She aims her lasers toward the forming crack, hopefully disrupting it.

Deelel has posed:
They were taking heavy fire and the Heartless were getting their act together. The horrors had not likely been expecting an attack but they were responding fairly fast. Most of the display of the fleets status on Deelel's display systems were showing damage on her allies ship. She's about to start healing when she notices something. An alarm is going off and she sees what the issue it it's coming from the main ship.

<Keep going it's getting ready for more fire the huge ship is functional and there's more forces coming this way. Wait something else is coming. Alert, alert the ship is charging some sort of primary weapon!>

She was going to heal her allies but the damage output of such a weapon might destroy everyone here and have their entire actions be for nothing. She won't allow that to happen. Her machine speed up heading for the huge ship several canons come on line, and she flips the panel up and slams her hand down on a red button.

The display reports Primary Guns charge! Firing!

The blasts from the weapons is not a pulse shot but a constant stream of fire from them, as she tries to rake it across the apparent vulnerable points on the ships hull. The question in the back of her mind? Will it be enough?

Mercade Alexander has posed:
Teamwork is the weaponized form of friendship. Aerith gives people an alley-oop, the power of the Gummis reinforcing each other to keep their flagging ships from breaking apart under the withering onslaught. Shadow strikes with a single laser, causing it to plink off of the armor and putting another dent in the gathering power of the massive core of the Heartless Vanguard. It prepares to obliterate everyone in a single flash of terrible light, the energy gathering even as VALKYRI Squadron attempts defensive maneuvers. Kim fires powerful blasts of ice into the central ship, frosting it over for critical moments until...

THEY SHOOT THE CORE. Will sends missiles blasting off into the ship, sending rocking explosions over the frame and breaking away critical armor points while Cirra mans the main lasers, firing DRILLING CYCLONIC BEAMS into the system. More explosions grow, a horrible groaning noise growning through Gummispace as it takes critical damage. Tifa adds her own lasers to the mix, blasting into the ship and causing it to rattle dangerously. It's clearly getting onto its last legs. HOW MUCH LONGER CAN IT HOLD ON?

And then the radiant green power of EXCALIBUR-G flares through the night, hammering directly into the core. Gummispace shakes as a lour, horrible CRACK is heard, and Deelel comes in, blasting her primary weapons and crashing straight over the core with intense firepower. Is it enough?

It is enough. With a horrible scream, the massive ship begins to explode, the energy turning in on itself as it loses cohesion and the explosion rips the Vanguard apart dramatically, Gummispace being strewn with sparkling lights in the aftermath.

The remaining HEartless, bereft of their 'mothership', quickly scatter. Many of them head down towards the world blow, the gleaming lane that guided you here pointing you towards a large, familiar-looking plains area below.

There is also a flashing purple arrow pointing at the plains, visible from even this distance. What the hell.

MISSION COMPLETE
BATTLE MASTERY CONDITION ACHIEVED

Will Sherman has posed:
Will looks over at Cirra.

He holds up a hand, expecting a hi-five.

"We totally got the battle mastery for this mission too!" he says, just a bundle of smiles.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith sighs and slumps in her seat. "Okay... maybe that wasn't so bad after all. I could get used to this."

Vespa has posed:
"I powered up my shields for nothing.. oh well, At last I knwo where they are now.", Vepsa says.

Sarafina Carenze has posed:
"Is that an arrow?" Sarafina asks. "...Mm...still, that one was rather powerful. May have to use this ship again sometime. But I still sense some kinks, hmm hmm..."

The horrible gummiship makes a noise not unlike a 'skreee'.

Tifa Lockhart has posed:
Tifa Lockhart phews as the heartless pull back and disapear. "... can't wait to get out of his candy ship." She shakes her head. She doesn't know what Will is talking about either, and doesn't see him expecting a high-five either. Because, ya know, different ships.

"I'll need moer training to use these things..."

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra looks up at Will's outtretched hand.

She puts the ice cream stick in it. "Hold this so I can land properly."

The heck is a battlemastery?

Kim Possible has posed:
Kim pulls back and follows the others. "This was totally cool, but I'm gonna need to work at this more! It's not like driving a car, that's for sure!" And Kim does have a good point too!

Will Sherman has posed:
> You Left Will Sherman Hanging.

He takes the stick and deflates a bit.

 :<

Avira has posed:
Avira makes the Lugh peel out before it explodes all over her all too happily. In fact, she's pretty happy the giant ship has been taken care of so handily.

"Awesome!" Avira grins, "Alright Maid One, let's take this home! Dusk Wolf out!"

She sees the remaining Heartless scatter, some heading down for the Giza Plains (that's what they were, right?) and grins, "Not on my watch!" The weirdness of the arrow doesn't even bother her.

Shadow has posed:
Shadow pulls back with the remains of his ship-- Interceptor barking all the way. The ninja has ninja things to say such as, "..." about the mastery and the arrow.

Deelel has posed:
Deelel is bracing for the worst as she pulls her rather insane stunt, but sometimes fortune favours the bold. Today it favours Deelel her shots are just that lat little bit needed to bring down the huge mother ship of the heartless fleet. She pulls away as it goes up, there's more heartless to deal with but the heartless are still a issue. They are just weakened, still? The way to the world is now clear to the heroes. It may not be too late to save this land from being consumed.

"A Battle Mastery? What in the name of my user is that?"

Deelel has to back Avira's statement she turns to follow after the forces of the heartless.

<Agreed Dusk Wolf, Maid One? Anyone else I'm going after them.>

Away Deelel goes for the new world that is before them. The battle is over, but the war is far from it.

Mercade Alexander has posed:
You land... Upon the Giza Plains.

They look startlingly familiar to those who know the area. However, there are significant differences. Pools of Darkness spread outwards, consuming areas like some kind of black watery nothingness. Heartless stalk the land, attacking those they find, though your area is safe enough for now.

It looks like the Gummiships can naturally land in this area. After you disembark, you can shrink them for safekeeping and transport. Like a toy! A delicious toy that lets you fly in space.

However, the source of the massive purple arrow is apaprent as it points to a floating parchment. It is addressed in a flowing script as follows:

"You have been cordially invited to my shop in Cadoan in order to discuss the future of New Ivalice. You may have met my associate, Marche. His heart is in the right place, but please do not be dismayed at his actions. Believe me, as you can see from the surroundings, we are in rather dire straits."

"I have a plan to help save the world. It may sound extreme, but the alchemy is correct, I assure you!"

"P.S.: If you happen to be a Judge, or otherwise aligned with the Royal Family, please forget you read this and do not send a small army to capture me. It would be very inconvenient."

- Ezel Berbier, Alchemist

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra brings the gummifighter down and lands it next to where that huge purple arrow is pointing. Who's she to argue with a clear landing approach? She takes her sea salt icecream back from Will and opens the canopy for them to both climb out. She then puts the shrinking gummi ship in the pocket of her psuedo-leather pilot suit. That garment is probably cosnidered a crime in some part of New Ivalice.

Cirra looks around at the plains curiously. "This looks like the Giza Plains. In fact, what I could see of the land while coming in all looked very similar to Ivalice. So it isn't just a name."

She examines the parchment with a raised eyebrow and licks the ice cream.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will is totally okay with the pilot suit. Luckily he is married, and also she is taken.

Wink.

"Yeah...it does." He muses.. "This isn't uncommon. There are many worlds similar to mine too. Earth seems to have many different reflections...so does Ivalice." he shrugs. "Though...I don't think we should stay in one spot. The plains are probably even more dangerous with the heartless infestation..." he pauses, looking around...

"...it's not quite as bad as Manhattan...but it's getting there."

Vespa has posed:
"well I see someone is really really prepeared..", Vespa says seeing the note.

"Gee. Alchemy. What could possibly go wrong?", she doesn't sound she has much faith in this, but she will go along with it anyway. A plan is better than no plan.

Avira has posed:
"Seems legit." Avira chimes in, gnawing on a lolipop. "And wait, have the Heartless in Manhattan be getting worse, Will?"

Deelel has posed:
Deelel looks about in a bit confusions at this as she does see it is the Giza Plains.

"This is quite strange, I just stopped trying to think too hard on somethings. Still it seems there could be some sort of connection Cirra."

She stretches a little bit as eh gets her bearings at the strange place. the parchment also gets looks at by her as well.

"I have to agree, I have some means of transport if we need it."

Shadow has posed:
Shadow is present-- but keeping commentary to himself. His ship became nice and small-- easy to be transported. A good use of the throw command would be to toss it at someone and let it expand. 9999 damage. When a moment allows-- he takes the time to go read the scroll. Strange days. Strange days indeed, Deelel.

Cirra Constantine has posed:
Cirra will straight up murder you Will Sherman, if you even speak a word of it. "Lets no use anything that will draw local attention." she likcs the ice cream again. "If this is anything like my Ivalice then Cadoan should be in or near the desert."

Will Sherman has posed:
Will Sherman does not oogle a lady and tell.

...He also doesn't have the gumption to take a picture with his phone. Will Sherman is many things, and can bend the lines of fate. But fate can only bend so much. And Cirra is a <GOOSEHONK>ing machine.

"Well, that sounds like a good idea...I punch people and you sword them...so nothing too odd here I think." he pauses, "Maybe I should call Mercade..."