Tower of Ombra

Tower of Ombra
Date of Scene:	21 July 2013
Location:	Neverland
Synopsis:	The Missing persons TP finale. Welcome to Bleak Horizon. We're all happy here.
Thanks to:	Everyone who participated. Excellent times were had.
Cast of Characters:	Rapunzel, Will Sherman, Riku, Peter Pan, Kyra Hyral, Serah Farron, Alma Hyral, Argider, Gerad Iron Fogair
Tinyplot:	Missing Persons

---

Riku has posed:
Bleak Horizon.

A name and a feeling for the place hidden away by a gloom ridden fog in the chain of Roving Islands. The pirates know of it and steer clear for any treasure to be found on the island of Bleak Horizon is guarded by spectral creatures and the remains of Lord Ombra's victims. There are reports of black eyed children inhabiting ruined villages at the coast but few have returned even with that much information. The fog is as good a disorienting maze as anmy labyrinth and many who move ashore find their way turned around to the sharp, grim coastline once again.

The indians and the mermaids know of it and do not speak, for to speak of the isle and the grim tower that pierces the heavens is a sure recipe for calamity and illfortune. There are ways to get there, by land or by sea or air.

It's just a matter of /wanting/ to.

The fog is thick and the sky almost permanently overcast. The coastline is a thick line of dirty sand pockmarked by withered grey wood and plastic detritus. A half buried jack-in-the-box tilts sideways in the sand, half buried and spring corroded. Beyond the coast is a dark forest and the ruins of several buildings of the same wood and stone. They are patchwork, things lashed together by an inexpert hand with only the tools available and very frail.

The woods are choked by a bluish grey fog, the pines no more than silohuettes in an everpresent gloom. Finally crownint the dark words is a stone spire that slashes into the sky, an obsidian thorn of crystal and metal.

Riku bends down to examine the beach. He frowns at the broken toy, not touching it. There are signs of multiple sets of tracks leading into the ruined village. "Oh, this is going to be fun." he exclaims very, very softly in an annoyed voice.

Will Sherman has posed:
"Yeah." Will says, right behind Riku. He didn't like the water...but he swallowed his fear to come across here and look at the gloomy beach. How weird this place looks...his eyes are a bit different, but even so...

Nothing...this place is hollow. He doesn't need special eyes to see that. A shiver goes down his spine, even a godling can be afraid.

"Lets get those kids back, before anything bad happens to them." he says, giving his friend a nod. "I mean, Unless you think you've finally found a place to read your dark poetry." he chides Riku.

"I'll even snap a few times." Grinning, Face the darkness with humor and light...maybe they might even win.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Bleak Horizon. BGM change: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFEJlAU0B3c

She'd passed by Neverland once before on a ferry, which was remarkably bereft of pirate attacks. She remembered thinking that she wanted to visit the land of eternal innocence one day... ....but not like this. This tower, shrouded in oppressive gloom was the antithesis of anything she wanted to see here. Like a dirty little secret that was swept to the corner, waiting to be rooted out... She gave the woods an abstracted look before her gaze trailed upwards to the tip of the hazy spire. She actually took off her glasses for a moment to see if they required cleaning... ...they didn't.

She was wearing her typical White Mage Robes, nothing more than that, a pair of leather boots peaking out from below her the hem of her robes.

She gives Will a bemused look, the gloom on her expression shattering as she offers a grin, "Very funny. What is Lord Dark and Scary going to do with you, if you keep on killing the mood he's trying to set?" Beat pause, "...also his poetry isn't /that/ bad. A dark corner of a coffee shop would better serve. Maybe wearing a beret..."

She looks at Riku out of the corner of her eyes, allowing the smile to carry over his way as she steps forward, her feet crunching on the damp sand.

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
GERAD HAS NEVER LOOKED more like a complete stud. He's traded in his desert rags for a much cooler bandana and eyepatch, his trademark clean-shaven face is now covered liberally in *gristly beardgrist*, and he's wearing a raggedy justacorps (A PIRATE COAT!) in the colors of dismal crimson and gunmetal gray. As before, his spear and crossbow hang from back and hip. Completely differently from before, he's on a boat (with T-Pain).

While kings may not pay taxes, they -are- taxes. So he doesn't get away from the changes.

---

"Yarr," grunts Gerad for about the seventieth time since he's been here. He's been *practicing*. For what it's worth, he looks good, all Captain Morgan'd on the prow of a landing boat. Some nameless pirates get all grumbly-rumbly behind him, something along the lines of 'That's annoying!', but Gerad isn't listening to them. He pulls out a spyglass from within his justacorps, and examines the distant shoreline before him.

Seconds later, the landing boat *thumps* into the shoreline. Gerad collapses his spyglass and sets it into his coat.

"Yarr, me hearties! Land ho! Or something." He hops off of the boat and lands squarely on the beach, barely within sight of Alma/Riku/Will way down thataway. Immediately, he's frowning. This place looks really crappy!

"Alright. Need to find out why everybody's been pointing towards this place. What's going on here?" He sees Alma and some friends over there - eh, too far to walk over just yet. He needs to see what's going on.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron is all about children! She wants the best for them, shem ight even teach them one day too! Although maybe the Neverland kids won't like it, but she might like to try. Oh well. Either way, kids disapearing is not a good thing.

She follows the others, mostly Alma, who she seems to feel closer to than many others, because of their magic affinity, and soft personalities related to healing powers too. Although hers are a bit different, and she's not a stuttering shy girl like Alma, she still is fond of the girl right now, they already shared a few adventures.

She looks at the tower int he distance "So we know they are over there?" She wonders where the information came form... it might be a trap after all. In fact, she better think of it as a trap, might be safer for everyone, not letting their guards down. "I don't like this place really..." She sighs, her pink hair bouncing as she moves through the vegetation along the others members of the expedition.

Argider has posed:
Argider's crew was skeptical of their captain's plan. They were officially no longer military officers after the fall of Roz. Besides, it should be the Archades Fleet who should be hunting for the lost children and not them. The sky-pirate himself would have none of this. In his mind, the matter was relatively simple. They go in, take enough treasure to make it worth their while, rescue the children, and become big darn, rich heroes.

Unforunately, there was a little more to this then a mundance combined hostage rescue/smash and grab. This was evident as soon as they hit land. Neverland was not quite what any had expected. They had heard stories of the wild transformations that people may undergo. Argider's crew remained -mostly- the same due to their already eccentric clothing choices. However, a good portion of the crew now found themselves to be impromptu baby sitters for pirate children. And then the situation went from bad to chocobo plop bad when Argider learned of the nature of the kidnappers and the remote location where even -pirates- were loathe to travel. Argider was no mere simple pirate though. He was a sky-pirate and this made things totally different.

The intrepid Captain finds himself seperated from his crew at large. This fog was and woods were really putting a hamper on their search party. Argider emerges from the brush with cutlass in hand and an eyepatch over his left eye. Funny, he didn't remember putting any of those on. Eh, maybe he was just a tad hungover. He soon finds quite the variety of fellow explorers in the clearing. Argider flips his eyepatch up to reveal a perfectly normal eye underneath. Nope, he doesn't recognize a single soul here. He does not sense any real hostility from this group whom seem to be relatively familiar with each other. "Howdy," greets the tall man as he casually tips hit cutlass against his shoulder and strides forward. "Guessin' y'all are here for the treasure..." Argider coughs into his non-sword holding fist. "....treasured kidnapped children?"

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Kyra says dryly, hoising her messenger bag farther up upon her shoulder. Something about this place dug up memories of nostalgia and long days spent with her family.

Kyra Hyral disliked that quite a bit. Forcing down the bile of the recalled sheltered childhood-which, frankly, was but a handfull of years ago, she steps past Riku and Alma, pausing to survey the group. Her eyes fall upon ~studly pirate~ Gerad. Of those here...

...he seemed like the best candidate as a meat shield at the moment. Alma had dibs on Riku, Serah was a healer, and Will was both dodgy and frail. Shame she couldn't coax Kamon into comi-

Argider shows up. ".../hmmmmmmm./" Kyra hums thoughtfully.

Rapunzel has posed:
A dark and mysterious forest on a mist-wrapped island in an unfamiliar land. As entertaining as this little adventure sounded in theory to someone who's only recently started to see the world, the reality of it is a great deal more dreary and frightening than Rapunzel had anticipated.

The young woman, apparently unaffected by the strange laws of this land, leans forward at the prow of the small rowboat, peering into the gloom with a wide-eyed look of awe and concern that is mirrored in the googly eyes of her lizard companion. Pascal scampers from his usual perch on her shoulder to roost in her thick hair, his skin shifting to match the golden hue until only a pair of eyes are distinguishable.

Much like the pirates who row their little vessel to shore, Rapunzel gives the rugged thief a sidelong glance every time he attempts to play up his part. She's almost glad when they make landfall and quickly dismounts. Her bare toes wiggle in the cool sand as she stretches back and forth to work the cramps of ocean travel out.

It isn't until she's finished gathering her hair out of the boat, which took up a fair amount of space all on its own, and turns to join that others that she spots the ominous detrius littering the beach. Rapunzel draws up short, clutching her frying pan to her chest protectively.

"What is this place...?"

Peter Pan has posed:
Peter Pan had been in a far too serious frame of mind, well for him anyway. Over this whole children kidnapping thing it had taken a good deal of time tracking Lord Ombra down. Peter had been trying to one make sure he was not going after any new children, and two? Seeing if he'd been hiding somewhere else. This is not the truth it seems he's been in Neverland all along. The last place Peter would have looked, seriously even Hook would hide something major elsewhere given his new found mobility since the world had broken. Lord Ombera had figured out Peter's behaviour pretty well, or had just lucked out. It would be hard to know given how much of an unknown he really was to the worlds at large.

Peter however had managed to get his head screwed on right thanks to Tinkerbell and a stop by at the TDA. Where he'd also basically looted the heck out of their fridge and driven Mercade to go drink later. Why? The idea of there being another Will out there was that much of a shock. Peter had been flying towards the island it was not a place he liked he's made the lost boys stay home, told them to guard the lair. In truth he didn't wish to risk his friends becoming food for what he was hunting. Too many children as it is has been taken, one was too many as far as Peter was concerned. He comes in for a rather lazy landing on the beach right beside Riku and Will.

"Lostboy here help with the children right. I see you brought friends."

Alma gets a look from Peter stares at Alma for a moment. He has no idea what a beret is and seems to be pretty confused. Then comes a pirate he's about to say something to Riku but there is a pirate here, and Pan's already turning to face him.

"I told the pirates they could help by keeping out of this!"

Peter looks annoyed now shifting gears mentally at a rather high speed and now there's another pirate here as well. This just keeps getting crazy but the pirates almost seem to want to help or don't seem to be spoiling for a fight. He does not like it but he will likely need their help the more he thinks about it. Riku gets a strange look from peter. "So who are you lady, I haven't seen you before. Your all with Lost boy right?"

Then comes a girl with a hair Kraken on her head. So much hair it might just try to eat the very children they are trying to save.

Tink just meanwhile flits about Peter and is face palming right now over his comment's to Riku. Some days Peter really did drive her insane.

"Well if your here to help even the /pirates/ we need to go rescue the children and should not waste more time."

Things are so bad Peter is thinking about the concept of time, that's how real things are right now.

Riku has posed:
Riku looks at Will, then he looks at Alma. There is absolutely no change of expression on his face as he raises both hands and begins to artfully snap along to the silent beat of the darkness bongos, like some extremely avante-garde coffee shop goer.

After a couple of ironic snappings, he smiles thinly and lets his hands fall to his sides. He looks around at the surroundings. "Come on. The faster we find them.. the less time we have to be here." Riku shudders at the brush of something, a tendril of darkness that sweeps invisibly across the beach like an errant wind.

A boat bumps into the shore completely with pirate(?) and spyglass and a stout 'Yarr, me hearties' "Yes?" Riku responds to Sarah with a shrug of one shoulder. "The information I gathered just took awhile to sort out." What info and why? Sore Wa Himitsu Desu.

"Yes." he says /very/ flatly to Argider. "Aren't they precious." with a very dry note on 'precious'. He nods his head in greeting and then continues to make his way up the grey beach towards the ruined buildings.

Then Peter speaks up.

There is a very slow anime moment as Riku turns towards Peter and regards him levelly. He then rolls his eyes up almost to the overcast with a long-suffering snort, putting a clamp down on his temper. "I think.." he says very levelly. "In the interests of /living/ .. we should work together, no matter where we come from."

The next section of territory after the coastline was the abandoned buildings. The ramshackle little town built on the edge between the forest and the coast. There are more abandoned and discarded toys here, some of them peeking from the half-created shelters or laying by firepits in the blackened soil. The fog is even more thick here, cutting down visibility to only a dozen feet or so in any direction. It swirls actively around feet and overhead, blocking the view of the forest and the tower periodically only for the winds to change and the destination to be made clear again. There is no main avenue through the buildings, which the forest has already overgrown with sickly foliage and spongy black moss. The air is full of the smell of fungus and mold and forgotten things.

At the far end of the village is a ramshackle bridge over a small lake made of found pieces of driftwood. Small platforms leading from the near side to the far side at the edge of the forest. The waters are dark and completely opaque.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Wow, a lot of people actually came to the call to rescue the childr.. err treasured children. She might have sighed, but Will's cheer had infected her just a little bit, enough that she was still in a relatively good mood. Riku's ironic snapping almost makes her snort with laughter as she covers her mouth up with her hands and composes herself.

When Serah asks the question, she nods, "It pretty much screams dark and evil sanctuary of lost dreams, innocence, and emo music, so I'm guessing this is the place." Her smile cracks just a little, "I'm not really fond of it either, but we'll be alright..."

And then Gerad shows up, practicing his masquerade as a pirate and Alma's bemused look returns to her, as she calls out to him. "Is it talk like a pirate day? I didn't get the memo. But come ashore. I'll explain on the way. And hey Rapunzel." She waves to her cheerfully, looking at Peter, "These are different sorts of pirates, don't mind their appearances. They're here to help."

Argider gets an abstracted look for a moment. Her smile seems, slightly forced, but it eventually does come... "Good evening Sir, good to see you again. And that's right.." For some reason her gaze just lingers on him, for a while longer.

Giving Kyra a sidelong glance she observes her for a while, before grinning, she /knows/ that look, she adjusts her glasses, before leaning over and whispering to her in an almost conspiratorial manner, "So many choices... I say you just pick a pirate and go from there."

Following along through the abandoned buildings on the coastline, she looks at the toys, little examples of innocence lost as they appear, then fade away in the thick fog... that almost dampens her mood again immediately, as she trails along in silence behind Riku and the others as they navigate the village. The smell of mold and noxious fungus causing her to cough every now and then, and cover her mouth as it exacerbated her asthma.

The bridge of driftwood gives her intense pause, as she examines it, giving it a skeptical look... due to factors that would put her in less danger than others should it not be all that sturdy, she volunteers, "I'll go first.. just to check the stability.." Which she does with one tentative and careful step after the other. If there's any handrails of rope or wood, she keeps a death grip upon them with each step...

Will Sherman has posed:
Will grins at Riku's ironic snappings.

Then others start coming, He doesn't know the first two pirates...he shrugs, "Well...the more the merrier...and if they think they can hurt kids I'll break their butts." Will is kinda over confident... but he turns towards Rapunzel, "Oh hey!" he says, remembering her, "Remember me? From Manhattan? Will Sherman? King of the Hobos?" he pauses, "Huh...of all the weird places to meet again." he says, but... "Well, frying pan is had. We shouldn't have any problems now." He says, and turns towards...

The pan! "Hey!" he says, and then pauses...he laughs at the Pan's confusion over Riku. "No no, this is Riku, Peter. Riiiiku. He's a guy." he says, "A little pretty for a guy, I know, but he's a guy." he shrugs. He slaps the Pan a high-five. "Anyway, lets get movin' on..." he says, looking towards Alma and Kyra... He does not talk about their last meeting with the Dennous. That will never be mentioned again. Nor what came of it..

One bad thing at a time. The area turns into moldy ruins...broken toys everyhere. "...So sad." he says, "...A place once full of life...now drained of it." he shudders, and then the bridge up ahead... Will of course reflexively makes fate help them get across.

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
Gerad sees some kid in the distance, flipping out about something or other. His focus seems mostly on the silver-haired, androgynous woman leading the group - Gerad gives the kid a thumbs up, and looks back to Rapunzel beside him.

"Eh? Y'know, I have no idea. It's kinda dreary, but, that's where all the folks from Agrabah kept pointing us towards, right?" Gerad shrugs. He doesn't understand Arabic, or whatever they speak over there. And everybody talks so fast!

"Just keep your fryin' pan ready, and we'll be fine, I'm sure." Gerad walks off after the group, falling in behind Alma and giving her a quizzical look when she mentions Talk Like A Pirate Day. "What? Every day's talk like a pirate day."

"Yarr," he says to Peter, by way of greeting.

And then his attention is back to Rapunzel, because he feels responsible for her.

"Don't touch anything. Everybody's actin' like this is somethin' special - it's not, but it seems like it's suckin' the life out of them. Avoid the water and the... plant stuff?" Gerad pauses when the group comes to the bridge, and crosses his arms while Alma volunteers to cross first.

"Easy there, Lightfoot. Think that water's gonna be worse than anything we've seen yet." He's frowning.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Well, I've basically got my choices narrowed down to two." Kyra mentions casually to Alma. "But you know, as a white mage, I need to take certain precautions." Though really, she'd feel best if Kamon was here since she'd rather not have to sidle up to strangers if she didn't have to. "I think I know who now though."

As the mold comes into view, Kyra zips her hoodie up all the way and tugs on the drawstrings, which brings the bottom of the hood up a little more, over her mouth and nose. It's a little uncomfortable, but it beats breathing in copious amounts of mold spores.

As they walk along, Kyra moves over to walk next to Argider. "Excuse me. But I couldn't help but notice that you seemed a bit out of place amongst our little group. Maybe you're missing a crewmate or two? For the duration of this expedition, I'd like to propose that we...work together."

Her green eyes peer out at Argider from beneath her hoodie. "You look to me like a very...physically capable young man. I, on the other hand, have /extensive/ training in the medical and magical arts. So I am in a prime position to provide you some very lucrative support. What do you say? Partners?"

Rapunzel has posed:
Rapunzel glances around at the various assembled pirates and youths, recognizing a few faces in the crowd. One face in particular, belonging to a dirt-stained young man, seems to recognize her as well. She gives a bright smile despite the opressive atmosphere and waves back at Will.

"Hello there! It's been a while!"

There's no way you can forget someone like Will. That smell is pretty unmistakable. At the joking mention of her frying pan, she smirks and spins it around by the hole at the end of the handle on one finger.

"Nat-ur-ally. I can handle anything that comes our w--!" Her sudden boast is cut off mid-word as a mis-timed spin causes the hard iron skillet to clonk into the side of her head. Rapunzel winces and rubs her face. "Gotta learn to stop doing that..."

Moving ahead with the crowd, the long-haired teen lingers near the back of the group, constantly casting her gaze over her shoulder back towards the shore, growing more and more worried as the wide beach fades into grey obscurity in the fog. Only the bright gold of her hair, trailing along behind her like a lifeline, makes it possible to see what direction they've come from.

"Okay, heh heh... that's a little creepy. Just... don't touch anything and you'll be fine..."

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron nods to Alma, smiling "Well there's strength in numbers, so as long as we're not in this alone, we'll be fine, right?"

She's been with a few of the others too. Will is always so loud and odd... but he seems to be on their side at least, so she's okay with it. Kyra always seems to be with Alma, maybe they are good friends...? She doens't know about everyone much yet it seems. Peter Pan she saw before too, hard to miss a green-dressed flyign boy after all.

She moves between the buildings, looking through open doors and windows, mostly curious "Not a soul here... what happened, are those the people we're living more normally living here?" She wonders, looking around for any signs of recent life.

Argider has posed:
"Pirates?! Where?" Argider smirkingly remarks before turning to see Pirate Prime. The Airship captain places a hand sheepishly on the back of his neck. "Nevermind, I think I found'em." The brown-haired man remarks as he tosses the cutlass and useless eyepatch away. He then tips an imaginary hat towards the group at large. "Young ladies and gentlemen, a pleasure to meet you." His eyes then focus on Alma. Oh wait, there is someone he recognizes. It just has been awhile since she fainted right before his eyes. "Young miss, it seems we meet again. Can't say this is the best of places to catch up though with all those precious children to save." He says with a slight knowing nod being afforded to Riku. The other 'pirate' gets a raised brow. "Quite the welcome we got here. Looks like you woke yerself up from the same party I went to," casually remarks the captain as he gestures towards his discarded cutlass and eyepatch. "Anywho, I can't speak for him, but me and mine are here to help."

When Kyral saddles up persay next to him, he glances over at the teenager in the hoodie. "Seems that way. But I reckon they can manage on their own until we meet up back at the ship." A demure smile is leveled towards the teen when she offers a helping hand. "Young miss, you got yerself a deal there. Always helps to have someone watching your back and even more so if they know how to sew a person back up together with some magic." He extends a half-gloved hand towards the hooded one. "Deal. The name's Captain Argider by the way."

Argider would then take a look at the creepy surrounding and let out a low whistle before resting a hand near his hostled sidearm. "Looks like we jus' might me on the right track." That's right. Just follow the creepy trail of broken toys further into the creepy village that is surrounded by creepy fog. Whatever could go wrong?

Peter Pan has posed:
Peter Panhas this thing, the mental filter most people have? He does not have one, there's no real malice in the boy though. He just he says what he thinks. This can get him into so much trouble however. Thankfully one Riku's quickly able to smash through Peter's confusion, which leaves Pan with a baffled look on his face for a moment. he then makes a bit of an Oh look on his face and all seems to be okay with him now. He's actually walking, flying would just paint a big sign going hey Pan is here. Which could end up making things so much worse so he sticks to the ground.

The village doesn't make Peter feel any better seeing all the toys here and there? Makes him unsettled about this place, this place was wrong. Something like this should not exist in Neverland, it had no place here. Will also doubly enforces Riku is a guy. Very pretty but seriously a guy, Pan just thankfully is distracted by everything to think about it too hard for who knows what might be lurking about for them.

He takes a concerned look at Alma for a moment as she goes to check the bridge it should hold right? She's being careful so she should be okay. Kyra had a good idea about the spores Peter takes off his new hat and puts it over his mouth for all the good it might do him.

"You should be careful some of you are young enough he may want to take you as well."

The Pirates might actually be a huge boon it would be unlikely that adults could be fed upon by Lord Ombra. Serah gets a look from Peter and he answers her question quickly though his voice is a bit muffled due to the hat.

"I can't remember to be honest no one's really liked to come out this way. Even Hook's men avoid this place, not even they like it. Hook actually hates Lord Ombra too."

Rapunzel?s hair may be a fairly big boon given it's effect may keep them from getting lost, right? Or maybe it will eat some of the bad guys. Gerad gets another look from Pan but he's seeming rapidly less hostile when he remember not even the Pirates like it here. Also Argider seems to be pretty polite all things considered. He's also given his word to work with them right? That should be enough? He gave his word in this situation it should be enough.

Tinker bell meanwhile lifts off of Pan's shoulder and flies a bit ahead of the group using her own light to aid the party in moving ahead, she's also keeping an eye out for trouble that might be laying in wait for them.

Riku has posed:
Riku snorts with laughter at the comments being made but shakes his head. "Be careful Alma." he murmurs as he keeps a hand on the sword belted to his side while constantly scanning the empty seeming village. He gives Argider an annoyed look and another to Will, but then his shoulders hunch.

Dark shapes can vaguely be sensed in the forest to anyone with the senses to spy them. They are almost completely dark presences, only a faint glimmer of light at their core remains which makes them difficult to track in the otherwise pervading gloom.

"This place isn't empty." he murmurs, turning towards the water is a swathe of darkness cutting through the terrain like a sword, a withering presence that leaves the shores barren, stinking of rotten things with the occasional floating piece of detritus.

Riku pointedly ignores Kyra and her. well, meat shop assessments of who she was going to work with. Well. Pointedly after looking at Kyra, then at Argider with both eyebrows raised way up for a moment before looking back at Alma.

It's a rickety and slow passage. The islands dip low into the water which sloshes over them frequently but they stay firm and the connectors do as well, although one creaks ominously at the end when she steps onto the other bank.

Looking into windows and through open doors, there are stuffed animals. Blankets. The detritus of recent living. On one wall there is a crayon drawing. There is a group of vague humanoid shapes, perhaps people. They stand on the beach which is drawn in bright shades of yellow, with a blue ocean and a green forest. The eyes of each of these children have been crossed out in black.

On the forest side of the lake there is a rustling and a snapping of branches. The bridge, although sound, will not take everyone on it at the same time. Some who are not able to fly are going to wait for others to cross or risk the wholesale collapse of the rickety construction.

Alma Hyral has posed:
She replies to Argider in a mild tone, "Perhaps we'll.. catch up under better circumstances... once the children are out of danger."

To Serah she just grins, trying to give her a confident look, "We'll be better than fine... don't worry."

Alma suddenly gets a flash of chibi-Kyra at her wedding as she listens to her talk to Argider with an almost surreal proposition. In her vision the other individual who may or may not be either Kamon or Helena(In less dodgy form, maybe with some emo looking Odynar Iron spiked armor) is just labelled Odynar_Tank_001, with the rest of them blurred out with a question mark. The celebrant states, /I now declare you tank and healer. You may now kiss her mana bar./ It takes /everything/ she has not to burst out giggling.

As they cross, she doesn't look back at Riku, she just states in a low voice, "Hey, I'm the soul of caution, Solo."

She crosses the bridge with light-footed steps. She didn't weigh all that much and when you could literally... alter your gravity, you didn't worry too much about falling. Even so, she holds on with a death grip which belies her rational mind telling her that nothing will go wrong.. as the bridge sways a little back and forth.

As soon as she gets to the other side.. she looks like she's clearing the forest.. she looks left, then right, then up... scanning the branches. Almost like it was some sort of precise ritual for her. Waiting for the others to cross... she tries not to think of the ominous pictures she saw in the houses before the crossing, that wouldn't happen.. it just wouldn't.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will pauses...

"JUST MAKE OUT ALREADY! We got work to do!" he shouts towards Kyra before moving on ahead. Geeze really, why do people gota be so dodgy about this <GOOSEHONK>!

Will dances across the bridge, hitting the other side and looks around, and starts walking forward. He waits for the others...but starts looking ahead, trying to find something...anything on the other side, but the fog and the...well, forest.

Will sighs..this is seriously a problem. Frowning, he looks around again, and then back towards Riku, "I think...we are going to wana hurry up soon...I have a feeling." he frowns.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"Perfect!" Kyra beams, reaching over to meet Argider's hand with her own free one-as the other clings to the strap of the messenger bag slung over her shoulder. "I guarentee you will not lose consciousness under my care! Well, unless you /want/ to but I strongly recommend against it in this situation! Anyway...the name is Kyra Hyral."

Her handshake is pretty firm for someone who allegedly hides behind Odynar tanks all day. Her face turns bright red and she whirls on Will. "This is a /professional/ arrangement!" she snaps at him, "How /dare/ you suggest it is anything else!"

In spite of that exchange, Kyra's mood is gradually dragged down by their ominous surroundings. She does quietly confide to Argider why she has her hood drawn up, explaining that over time, inhaling black mold spores can cause some respiratory distress. Especially for those with allergies.

Seeing the construction of that bridge makes Kyra certainly wait-and encourage others to wait as one person crosses at a time. "Right, I'll go next." she murmurs, swiftly moving after Will once he's no longer occupying the bridge.

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
Gerad is probably the heaviest person here. It means a few things - he's likely got the best chance against anything untoward, and it also means he's going to be a major problem when it comes to bridges and their fickle desires. By the time he and Rapunzel come to The Crossing, the dark-haired man is rubbing at his beard-gristle for approximately the sixtieth time.

"Yarr," he mumbles, thoughtfully. Bridge could use some reinforcing. Buttressing beneath, some more solid footsteps, maybe -- hm. He turns around as though it were a statement, and sets his spear down in front of him, leans on the thing, and keeps an eye on Freako Village.

"YARR," he says, a little louder! Until he gets attention. Yes. "I'll be goin' last, me hearties! All the armor and musket-lead means that bridge is goin' ta hate me, yarr!" It also means that he can keep an already unfortunate situation - the rustling branches over on the other side - from turning into a situation where there's a terrible PINCER ATTACK.

Gerad smiles to Rapunzel. "Be careful on the bridge, alright? I'll catch up. Don't let your hair get wet in that water."

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron nods to Peter's answer "Well that's not reassuring... that must mean there are some very bad things there, right?" At least Alma is confident about it, so she smiles to her. She took note of what was inside the houses too... That's not nice looking either, there was kids here, obviously. Well, this is Neverland.

She hops a bit over the bridge, careful of her stepping around it. "Can't they make bridges actually not a circus act for once?" She wonders outloud too, shaking her head, carefully weighting down on every plank of wood...

Rapunzel has posed:
When they arrive at the bridge Rapunzel bumps into the outer post, constantly looking back as she is. One startled yelp and frying pan to an inanimate object later, the girl winces sheepishly and lets out a nervous laugh.

"Uh... right... careful."

With some hesistation, she begins to reel in her hair. Even if she wanted to use it as a guide back towards their landing point, her hair isn't /that/ long. By this point it's probably long since ceased to be useful as a string in the labyrinth of fog.

With her bundle of golden locks in hand, Rapunzel starts to make her way across the bridge. Her lack of footwear makes the slimy old wooden planks difficult to navigate, especially since she can't steady herself on the ropes with both hands occupied. Once or twice she has a close call, a bare foot slipping into the edge of the water when she stumbles, but ultimately she manages to escape the shoddy bridge and arrive safely at the other side.

The girl drops her hair into a pile and collapses against it, exhaling deeply as if she'd been holding her breath the entire time.

"Ugh, I think I got slime between my toes."

Argider has posed:
Argider keeps his smile as the business agreement is concluded between healer and super trustworthy pirate. "A pleasure, Miss Kyra." He affirms easily before chuckling. "Sage advice. I'm a little on the heavy-side compared to the rest of you. Wouldn't dare dream of making myself a burden to such lovely company." And this is just about when Argider gets yelled at by Will. The airship captain turns with a smirk as he watches the intrepid hobo king advance onwards. "Quite the colorful company you got here miss. I think I'll feel right at home. " The older man remarks nonchalantly before turning towards Alma with a nod. "You got the truth of the matter there. No time to idly flap gums here."

And speaking of flapping gums, Argider blinks at Kyra's assessment on the black mold spores and covers his mouth with his hand after giving a thankful nod towards the healer. "Case in point," quips the captain as he follows after Kyra onto the bridge. Ladies first of course. Despite being an sky-pirate, Argider doesn't fancy that he should look down anytime soon due to the wonderful state of construction that is the bridge they are now trusting their lives to. Just one step over the other and this will all be over soon enough.

Peter Pan has posed:
Peter Pan gets this utterly confused look at Will's shouting at Kyra? Make out already? He just doesn't get it and it's best he doesn't not he' be going on about mushy stuff forever. Peter knows there's something he should recall about here but can't place it. Memory was never his strong point and he knows that. IF it's really important he will remember if later right? Still the picture picture? That chills pan for a second, and all the signs of children having been here don't help much. He doesn't walk across the ground he's hovering a bit above it flying slow and low.

Riku is right this place isn't empty there are people here, but they are not right where the party is. Tink doesn't seem happy about this place at all from sounds she's making she seems slightly jittery about this place.

"We should be ... careful. I can't recall what he might have waiting for us here and he might try to steal all out shadows."

Peter did remember that much given how fresh in his mind it was. He also lost a really good hat to that.

"Moogle Girl we have the kids to find you and Lost Boy can argue later!"

Pan just looks at Gerad, his pirate speech was a bit odd to Pan. Given Hooks crew tended to not quite talk like that.

"That's not the worst thing that could happen here."

Rapunzel does have Pan a bit more on the alert and he has totally forgot to fully introduce himself. He now remembers he has not, so he goes to fix that.

"Oh...ya I'm Peter Pan."

While he may seem to not be fully paying attention he actually is and just trying to not think too hard on the implications of this place. Bad things have happened on this island

Riku has posed:
Riku snorts, muttering. "Right." to Alma's commentary. He stays on the banks continuing to sweep the surroundings which persist in being deathly silent and calm while others make their crossing across the lake, the bridges made of lashed together logs staying afloat on the stinking surface of the waters just enough to cross. Riku stares at the lashed together rafts for a moment too long before continuing to look around.

He's jolted out of it by Will, with a small startled laugh and a guilty look before he realizes Will is looking in a different direction. Will dances across without problem although the wood creaks ominously.

Looking into the fog? There is nothing but more fog, and very rarely a hint of forest terrain. The ancient black pines are relatively close set with shrubs and rocky terrain poking out and making it a less than straight forwards journey. "Yeah." Riku nods at Will on the other side, making a gesture of impatience. "Come on people. Quickly."

He stays for awhile. "The Yar needs more practice." he says to Gerad flatly before starting to cross. He's about halfway across the bridge when a pale hand with ragged fingernails grabs his ankles and wrench him off the bridge with almost lightning speed. He has time for the beginnings of a yell before he goes over and disappears with a splash into the dark water. At the same time, there is a sound of a horn from deeper within the forest.

Alma, Will and anyone on the forest side of the lake is assaulted by ragged figures in dirtied clothes, their faces hooded. At a look at their dirtied and pale faces, their eyes are completely black. An older boy and girl make a grab for Alma, pulling in one direction trying to disappear into the fog. They are accompanied by the heartless, swirly eyed ghosts lunging from the fog. These converge on Will and Rapunzel as other children, two shorter boys and an older one try to grab Rapunzel by her hair and pull her into the fog.

On the bridge more pairs of hands emerge and try to either pull Kyra, Serah and Argider into the drink or shove the lashed together logs hard enough to disrupt their balance.

A number of heartless flow out of dark portals that appear near the houses, soldiers clattering and clanking as they lunge for Gerad the pirate. Several nets are flung from the branches of the forest trees towards Peter Pan.

Alma Hyral has posed:
On the banks of the forest, Alma makes a sweeping motion with her hand, clearing to the left.. just as she seems a flicker of movement in the hazy cloud of fog. A radiant Sigil appears in the air and expands, a yellow light within the dark, just outside of her palm. Her fingers play against the surface of it...

Dark figures emerge from the fog in a pincer attack straight at her. All it would have taken is just a small movement of her fingers....

And she hesitates.. as the visions of a green-haired girl, with a hole through her chest and spine play in her mind. She was thankful for that hesitation as they came closer. These weren't monsters, or heartless.. they were children. Even if they were older. The sigil flickers and dies away immediately... she wasn't going to use deadly magic against children. She just wasn't.

She turns and tries to fall back towards the bridge quickly. But not quickly enough. She's grabbed by the grubby hands of two older children and gets dragged towards the darkened fog, kicking and flailing as she fights a losing battle. She was weak physically, and very light. The outcome really isn't in question. She just repeatedly yells out, "LET GO OF ME!"

On the way, she tries to grab ahold of /anything/ she might see in sight. Anything that can be used at least as a temporary weapon to free her and as a last resort, even tries to lash out with her mouth to bite at the limbs gripping her... but as she disappears into the Mist, it seems less likely that she's going to be able to free herself.

Serah Farron has posed:
There isn't much time to react. One moment she's carefulyl walking over the bridge... the next moment, there's a 'splash' where she used to be, as hands suddenly shot out of the water, grabbed her ankles, and pulled her in, not even giving her much of a chance to yelp for help! But she made enough noise, she hopefully will alarm someone of her disapearance.

Under water, she tries to hold on to what breath she has left before she was dunked in, her eyes growing wide at the 'undead' child that apparently is the culprit for her situation. She would let out a noise, but she has the reflex of keeping it in, for what precious air she still has at least. Athletic as she is, she tries to kick at the girl to get freed up. She tries to get back to the surface!

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
"Yarr!" comes Gerad's enthusiastic reply to Riku when the young woman passes him by. He frowns once she leaves. He's going to need to understand why kids these days are so *into* androgyny. The king/thief/pirate/technically hobo stamps his spear into the ground, leans, and waits, to watch the houses with weary eyes...

The village explodes.

"YARRRRRRRRR!" Gerad's to his guard in an instant, frowning *mightily* at the Heartless as they pour from houses to overwhelm him! In fact, he's so on his guard, and rolled so well, that he looks like a *complete* badass in this instant. Like, spear vault-into-dropkick awesome. Two Heartless are knocked back by the assault, a third is punctured by a heartless (haw!) thrust, and a fourth is shot in the face by a hidden flintlock.

Gerad frowns at the flintlock, but doesn't have time to conjecture. More Heartless are coming.

"EVERYBODY GET GOING FASTER! WE'VE GOT COMPANY BEHIND US!" Gerad is unaware of the company -in front- of us. And on the bridge with us. He's not going to step onto the bridge just yet, though; he's the heaviest one here, and if the bridge falls, it's all over.

Also, he's being overwhelmed.

"MAGIC!" Gerad raises his hands, like an illusionist! A hemisphere of chemical flames sparks into life around the bridge's town-side landing, tightly controlled, and keeping Gerad safe-ish. For now.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will is looks back towards the bridge, just in time to see Riku go off of it!

Will looks white as a sheet for a moment, before heartless come out for them. The hobo can handle THIS threat...

He swings a fist, aiming to smash one...but he tries to avoid them, aiming to move close to the edge! "RIKU!" he shouts out for him, and then....

He jumps off, aiming to land into the water. He aims to fight the current and his own fear, aiming to try and grab ahold of Riku and try to swim them both towards one end of the shore or the other...

Rapunzel has posed:
There is only a few moments for Rapunzel to rest before the world turns into a chaotic storm of activity. She sits bolt upright when the first cry of distress rises from their group, holding her frying pan out defensively infront of her as she whirls around to find the source of the noise.

"W-what was that?!"

She gets her answer. A solid tug on the back of her head pulls the young girl backwards and she shrieks as she falls over and lands with several pairs of black eyes staring down at her. There is a horrible moment as Rapunzel freezes up in terror, unsure of what to do.

But then her instincts take over and she lashes out, smacking the hands away from her hair with a resounding series of clangs. Scrambling to her feet, she yanks her hair to the side and lashes it upwards around one of the thick branches of the nearby trees. A running start gives her plenty of velocity and Rapunzel swings Tarzan-style into the fog after Alma.

"Hang on, I'm coming!"

Peter Pan has posed:
A wise ninja once said pay attention to your surroundings, it is very solid advice, this is sadly something Peter Pan often forgets and it gets him into so much trouble. It hasn't so far thankfully, and Riku gets a laugh out of Pan.

"His Avast needs some work too."

A little bit of humour can be a great sanity saver and Pan will always be Pan after all.

Then comes something, something that has no place in Neverland. Children who do not seem right. Pan pauses for a moment he stares for half a second but he's already trying to move. They have found some of the children but they don't seem happy to see people coming to save them? This is so not a good thing, at all.

"Look out!"

Is his warning too late it's hard to tell, Pan's doesn't want to hurt the kids so he's not going for his knife. He is trying to get ready to make a move to get them to keep their heads down. This does not go as planned, this does not go as planned. Alma and Serah are in dire straight he's going to help Pink Lady and Uptight girl but well? The minions of the dark have prepared for Pan well. They had to know he would come and bring help in all likely hood. So they have nets and Pan's brought down hard as he's just blind sided by them and he's on the ground he lets out a shout and is now trying to get to his knife to get him self lose.

"HEY NO FAIR! We're here to save all of you!"

Kyra Hyral has posed:
As Kyra crosses, she sees a flicker of something out of the corner of her eye. Looking downward, she sees movement and immediately bolts across the bridge, leaving it shaking-but holding-in her wake. The white mage makes it to the other side untouched, but breathing hard and shaking a little. "There's something in the water-" she starts to warn, only to see Serah dragged under by the ankles. "Whoah! Argider, the pink-haired girl fell in!" Wait, she knew her name. Serah! Not sure if Argider did though.

Tossing her messenger bag aside, she starts to wade into the water but stops after a few feet, getting the feeling that this was a pretty /bad/ idea. She paces for a few seconds before leveling her hands at Serah, summoning up some of her more basic utility magic that's typically reserved for carrying things. Hey, with a low STR score, she has to figure out how to cheat somehow!

"FLOAT!"

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
Gerad shouts, from the middle of a *buttload* of Heartless and clanging metal and grunting, "THIS WATER WAS BAD! I SAID THE WATER WAS BAD, DIDN'T I?!"

Argider has posed:
Many things happen at once as the rescue effort quickly goes all pear-shaped. Ghosts appear, Heartless attack, and poorly maintained bridges fall victim to gravity plus time. "Alright young ladies and gentlemen, there's no need to pan..." Ghostly grabby hands suddenly decide to make Argider's life a little more difficult. The sky-pirate is successfully grabbed, but he quickly spins his left pistol out of its holster and blasts away at the hand in a flash of light from the high-tech looking weapon. Phew. That was a little too close. "...panic." He finishes weakly. Argider then realizes that he recently met business partner could be in mortal danger. Pistol in hand, he turns to leap to the res...She has already made it to the other side?!

Looks like Argider might be getting a little long in the tooth.

Argider watches helplessly as the 'pink haired' one gets grabbed. Kyra seems to have a plan, so it seems that he will be following her lead in on this. Without any magic to call on, the captain takes a note from Rapunzel and prepares a loose rope for Alma to maybe grab onto should she successully float UP thanks to Kyra. The one end of the ropes is tied into a loose lasso for Alma to hook herself into and Argider prepares himself to do something quite stupid in the name of trying to save a girl he only met a couple times before. Whelp, that is the price of trying to be a big darn hero afterall.

Riku has posed:
The kidnappers look withered, some of them twisted or without limbs. All of them are pale, their eyes black and their expression angry and embittered. There is sorrow there, but it is paved over by hatred and fear.

The older boy with Alma is black haired with a scar down the side of his face, one eye missing. They don't seem to be immune to pain as you bite into the arm of one of them and they flinch noticeably before dropping Alma with a surprised yelp, allowing them to temporarily scramble away from her pursuers.

Meanwhile the heartless are being flawlessly fended off by Gerad and his magic(?), sparks and flame in their tightly controlled way causing the creatures to go up in plumes of dark vapor or at least keep them at bay, an ever growing amount of heartless pressing up against the flame barrier or simply staring at Gerad. A field of hungry yellow eyes on the other side of the barrier just sitting... and waiting.

Serah manages to kick away and free herself, the water draining strength rapidly and getting steadily colder in the process. However, Kyra's float spell makes it easier and the bank is close by but the distance seems warped and distorted.

The water as it hits Will is almost arctic cold and it steadily gets colder. It is almost literally infused with a withering darkness that attempts to drain strength at the very touch. It's also completely dark, the waters murky and opaque. It's his luck that gets him close enough to see Riku pound a fist and then a foot into a stocky boy about his age, breaking free just long enough to thump backwards into Will and flail, thrashing around to face the new opponent when Will grabs him and when recognition comes back, try to help get them back to shore. It ends up being the forest shore and Riku gasps and chokes on the deathly cold water, spluttering and shaking as he collapses on the shore.

The children grabbing after Rapunzel fade back into the forest. In fact, all of the children who have made failed attempts at an ambush fade back into the ever-present fog. "OWEN!" someone screams from the forest as Argider fires into the water. A dark smear of blood rises up onto the stained surface of the lake. "Save us?" a girl sneers in contempt from the treeline before she too disappears into the murk. "..You're a bit late for that. Even if you cared."

Riku turns over and splutters out some water. He rubs his eyes, taking in a few steadying breaths and then keeping his eyes closed, looking like he had the worst of all headaches. He gripped his head as he lay on his knees on the shore. "Will?" he coughed, rubbing hard at his head and his eyes. "..You okay?" he snorts. "Man. That was a dumb thing." Although him or will directed is unclear. There are still a LOT of heartless on the town side of the lake, the heartless on the forest side evaporating like the children into the fog. Now might be a good time to cross. Quickly.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron coughs a bit as she reaches the surface of the water, sputtering, but Kyra's float spell makes it easier to get back to land at least. She doesn' tknow what's going on or who those was though "There was people under the water, like zombies!" She drags herself out of the water as best as she can, its a good thing her clothes are not too terrible at soaking water.

She looks at the others, as she tries to find a way back toward the bridge to rejoin "Is everyone alright?" She watches at the kid that disapears into the woods "Maybe that's why the pirates don't even want to get close to this place..."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Serah will keep floating a few inches off the ground from Kyra's magic. It isn't exactly like flying though walking still propells Serah foward. Earth-based attacks and traps won't really work on her right now, though! "...apparently." she says warily, eying the spot in the water where a small cloud of blood drifts where Argider had fired. "Maybe they are zombies." Kyra says grimly, "Maybe those children that were taken..."

She makes a face, as if she didn't like to entertain that particular thought. Unfortunately, given the words of the children she begins to suspect this is exactly what happened.

Her leather boots make silly-sounding squelching noises when she walks now. Despite that, Kyra ignores it. "Let's go, we have to keep moving, like Gerad said before he got swarmed."

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma saw the hollow black pits of their eyes. Those expressions. It scared the ever-living /Chaos/ out of her. But in her fear-stricken mind, she saw the eyes as yellow, an empty yellow. This /freaked her out/ enough that she actually screamed, and her yells became terrified sobs.

And because of that fear, she panicked and bit down on one of the hands grasping her. Her teeth digging into the flesh. The older boy flinches and falls back. This allows her to lurch forward out of their grip, as she lands hard. For a moment she just lays there, completely stunned, before in her panic, she finds her way back up, running towards Rapunzel as she Tarzans her way. Her hands were trembling, she was out of breath, and she was still sobbing.

It takes her a while to compose herself in Rapunzel's presence, as she brushes away at her eyes with her sleeve repeatedly, "T-That was.. e-embarrassing..."

After she catches her breath, she straightens, and makes her way back to the bridge, having not seen what happened, it doesn't register that one of the children got killed or at the very least maimed terribly.

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
Gerad looks over his shoulder, furtive, concerned. The Heartless are *not* going to stay where they are for very long; on the bright side, the bridge seems empty! He can take his heavy self across its weak-looking planks with all due haste!

So he does.

Upon reaching the other side, the tallish pirate slumps over, heaving, mildly out of breath - he turns to face the bridge, and the Heartless beyond, in the village. With a snarl, the man removes a *handsaw* from beneath his pirate's coat, drops to a knee, and sets to sawing through the bridge's supports! Then he pauses.

Looks up. Are the Heartless even going to chase? Maybe they aren't. Maybe he's being stupid.

Gerad opts to swap his handsaw for an elaborate-looking crossbow with a giant ammunition box strapped to its underside, instead. This, he aims down the bridge, to the swarming Heartless beyond.

"Keep goin', kiddos~! I'll get the rear." Unseen, Gerad winks - mostly to himself. He kills himself with these jokes.

Anyway, the Heartless will have to face down a long, unwieldy bridge and *billions of Autocrossbow quarrels* if they try to chase.

Rapunzel has posed:
Rapunzel swings through the fog, squinting to see in the thick cloying atmosphere. She almost plows right into the small white mage. Digging her feet into the ground, the golden haired girl manages to stop just in time and wraps Alma up in a protective hug, peering over her into the mist to make sure she isn't being followed.

A gentle pat is given to the girl's head as she recovers her composure but Rapunzel quickly turns the two of them back towards the bridge. Lingering out here where no one can find them could end up getting them seperated or lost in this place.

Frying pan in hand, she hurries along behind Alma, once more casting worried glances all around them. A quick snap of her wrist brings her hair down from the branches above and the incredible length drops into the mist, trailing out beyond visibility.

"Is everyone alright?"

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
Gerad looks to Rapunzel and Alma as they pass his crossbow-totin' self. Winks.

"Ladies~"

Argider has posed:
Argider's pistol noisily vents itself and opens slightly to release a puff of steam as the weapon goes forth with recharging itself. The weapon itself is kept in hand as he too notices the blood trail of where he shot the thing. Eh, it looks like it wasn't a kill shot. Or maybe it was. It really was hard to tell with zombies, demons, ghosts, heartless, and the other miscellaneous malevolent forces that inhabit the connected world. The sky-pirate decides not to dwell on such matters and merely carries on. With an easy twirl of his hand, he reholsters his weapon and rejoins the others. They seem to be doing as alright as the situation demands and the other pirate has equipped himself with a chainsaw and a auto-crossbow. It's always nice to have some toys at your disposal when you cover the rear.

"And here I thought our plan was going to go on without a hitch." Argider deadpans with an open-armed gesture. "Guess we already have seen what passes for hospitality in these parts. I think we should keep going before they decide to make us permanent guests."

Will Sherman has posed:
Will is still mortal...

The air escapes his lungs when he hits the artic cold water, but the secondary effects fail to effect the Hobo, His fate was something not easily effected, and right now he was putting EVERYTHING he had into saving his friend...into making sure his fate remained his own. He draggs the younger boy, only thinking of trying to save them both and with some effort they both get on shore. Will coughs and sputters for a moment, shivering...it was stupid, he knows...

But he just grins at Riku. "Yeah." he says raspily...the children...he...they...

They'd free them. He swore...

He shivers again, trying to warm himself, and stands, "Yeah...lets not stand around here, lets try to make it back to the others.." he shudders again. "I hate..the water.." he mutters.

Peter Pan has posed:
It's a real horror show, this place just keeps proving it should not be a part of Neverland. It turly has no place here everything was twisted and wrong here. Pan is meanwhile trying to get lose from the net with knife. There are heartless here? This makes it even worse, but it shouldn't be unexpected given the nature of what they are hunting. The one behind this place has a lot to answer for. Even as Pan is struggling he sees one of the pirates raise and gun and fire there's a look of horror on Pan's face as he tries to get lose even harder he manages to cut him self free.

"I do care, that's why I'm here!"

he knows it's not the kid really talking given the state of mind they have to be in. the Pirates known as Argider has an very angry looking Pan at him.

"We are here to save the children, not kill them!"

Why do adults always seem to do this, Pan's now not in a good mood and on edge. He prays that the child is alive he knows they can be saved but they are now being thrown against them which makes him even angrier about everything.

He looks to make sure everyone is all right Serah calls a head count and he does reply to her.

"I'm all right."

Pan is now going to check on Alma along with Rapunzel for a moment. Pan is thinking the children how they looked and behaved? It may be jarring something lose in his head finally. Something that could be of importance seeing Alma is all right save for his pride he also see there's a whole lot of Heartless as Gerad so helpfully is pointing out.

"We have to go faster we are wasting time, they can be saved if they are brought away from Lord Ombra. I remember now the more he feeds they start to become a bit like him..."

Pan knows there's more he has to remember but he can't place it so he presses on and ties to keep focus getting too angry would put more of the children at risk. He's preparing to move onwards the longer they stay the more likely they will bogged down.

"All these children have been warped by Lord Ombra, hurt them if you have to but don't kill them. They are ... under my projection here I owe it to them to save them all."

It was hard for Pan to say even that but the children have to be protected, but they need to get to Lord Ombra...to save them.

Riku has posed:
They chase.

The heartless ALWAYS chase.

And billions of autocrossbow quarrels is almost not enough. They trod on the long and unwieldy bridge with complete abandon, the bridge collapsing underneath them as they clamber towards Gerad with single minded intensity.

The individual lashed together logs pull apart as the heartless scramble NOT to be in the water, evaporating into it like dark clouds of vapor and rolling away until there is nothing but silence again. There is still the forest to traverse, in which the fog is thick enough that only two or three feet can be seen in any direction. Gnarled tree roots, rocky terraces and thornscrub make this treacherous territory to move through.

Riku slowly pushes himself to his feet looking around. "yeah. I know." he says to Will quietly. "..Thanks." he smiles faintly and when he sees Rapunzel and Alma, his shoulders minutely relax. He looks half out of it and stares abstractedly into the forest as if looking through the fog.

"Come on." he says with a wet cough, looking around at the others. "They went this way." he staggers a moment, then moves into the forest.

He looks at Peter for a long, long time. He then nods. "..if they can be saved." he says very softly. Fog. Fog and more Fog. But Riku seems to know his way, or to know /A/ way and makes progress through the dark forest.

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
Gerad has been shooting and shooting and -shooting-, ultimately to no real avail against the snarling, shrieking mob rushing him. Real terror begins to dawn over his gristly features, but then at that veeeery last moment, the bridge collapses, and Heartless tumble into the water beneath. One of them was six inches away from grabbing his face!

*KRAK-THOOM* is the sound of the bridge collapsing. Gerad stares out into the inky abyss. The timing is perfect.

"...-Yarrr-." He turns, shoulders his crossbow, and jogs to catch up with the others. Specifically the girls. Specifically Rapunzel.

----

And Alma. "Hey, you two are okay. Told you to stay out of the water. Was it cold?" He looks up to keep an eye on the increasingly distant Riku and the increasingly thick fog. Eventually the fog is *so* thick that Gerad is reaching into his coat and withdrawing his trusty--

Shutter lantern? Where did the steampunky flashlight go? Distraught, Gerad turns the lantern on and directs a beam of light forward, then to the sides. To be as freaked out as possible, you know, all that.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
"It's all we can do at this point, Argider." Kyra says, sticking close to the pirate. Her eyes search the surrounding mist and trees for any sign of life (or unlife), fearing these black-eyed children might come out of nowhere to drag people away again. "I know one thing is certain though.."

She looks over her shoulder at the village Gerad fought his way out of, "...we definitely can't go back that way. It's all or nothing at this point!"

Kyra scoops up her messenger bag as she passes it, slipping it over a shoulder again. Progress is slow in her clunky boots upon this difficult terrain. She even stumbles over roots a few times, quick to pick herself up with no small amount of embarassment (or even helped up by one of the others). Somewhere along the line, Kyra draws a gun of her own from somewhere beneath her hoodie and keeps it at the ready.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron is floating. She's not sure what to make of that, but it looks like she can still walk around, oddly enough. But not touching the ground. So very weird. But at least it lets her cross over without touching the water, heading toward the forest after Riku "What do you think they want? What can we do for them?" She wonders, as the float spell gradually loses in power until she touches the ground.

At least everyone is okay, but with the heartless nearby... noone is safe yet. "I don't want to stick around those heartless either..." She's had bad encounters with them before after all. Nothing pleasant.

Alma Hyral has posed:
After hugging Rapunzel and releasing her. Alma takes some time to just make sure she's one hundred percent mentally, recounting what occurred in her mind. "Children with dark eyes..." She murmurs to herself. Not yellow. Not yellow. That was important. She scans the waters, and sees that both Riku and Will are alright. Then up across the bridge and sees that Kyra is alright. A knot of tension releases within her.

She gave Gerad an annoyed look as he walks on by and /Ladies~/ at her, pushing back up her glasses. She then rubs a hand across the edge of her forehead, "I was never /in/ the water, so I wouldn't know... thank you for your concern."

Once they're all across and moving, she follows after Riku through the hazy shroud of fog... just trusting that he knows the way.

Rapunzel has posed:
Quite visibly shaken herself, Rapunzel sticks near the others once they break clear of the fog. The sight of the heartless swarm causes her to clench her hands around the handle of the frying pan almost painfully tight, preparing to defend the others despite her fear. But a stroke of luck saves them of the necessity for a battle here. She almost passes out from relief.

Gerad's strangely upbeat cat-call causes her to stare at the man with a concerned expression for a moment but she ultimately just turns and follows after, trailing along behind the rest of the group.

"I can barely see anything in this... How do we know where we're going?"

Argider has posed:
Argider looks rather annoyed at Peter Pan when he comes up and lectures him at using his weapon to free himself from the clutches of those dread children. This was a world where he has seen people survive airship barrages, meteors casted upon them, and getting skewered by what should be fatal blows. There was no proof that a blast from his pistol did anything at all. "Sometimes you can't save everyone and sometimes you can lose worse for even trying to do so." Whether or not the sky-pirate had heard Riku, he doesn't give any hint that he did besides a slight look in the teen's direction. And Argider himself had seemed rather nonplussed by everything so far, but an unhealthy infusion of cynicism is present in the former military officer's voice now. He then openly shrugs his shoulders and turns to the others present.

Kyra's voice draws the pirate captain out of his sullen mood. "Eh? Oh. You got that right, miss. Only can look forward from now on out, that much is for sure." His anger fading, Argider slowly goes back to his old ways as his smile returns and he does offer a helping hand to Kyra when she stumbles. The visage of the bitter old war vet seems to have disappeared just as quickly as the ghost children did.

Will Sherman has posed:
"No problem." Will says, "It's what friends do." He says, shivering again.

Will moves with Riku, the children are disturbing, but it's hard to be afraid when you are litterally trying not to loose your teeth with chattering. "Lets...lets just try and find this jerk.." He mutters...

Riku has posed:
Shutter lantern at the ready? Check.

Gloomy and ominous forest filled with an unearthly silence? Double check.

Massive tower ahead?

Yep. Welcome to the Tower of Ombra, I hope you enjoy your stay. Riku doesn't answer any questions or even look at any of the party. He seems almost sleepwalking as he moves over the forest terrain, often tripping as he trudges through in his sodden clothes. He occasionally grumbles something under his breath, the words inaudible as he peers through the gloom myopically as if trying to track invisible forms in the cloying fog.

The obsidian tower looms up abruptly through the fog after what seems like a /long/ trip. Several hours of walking at least where it seems to be the same landmarks repeated again and again. The tower doors are open but at this point Riku just looks up and up at the tower, then turns to face the group.

His face is slightly haggard, posture exhausted as if the aura, this atmosphere of gloom was weighing heavily on him. "I don't know about you.. but I don't feel like just walking in the convieniently open front door. Any ideas?" he looks up at the tower, peering into the upper reaches.

Branches snap and the wind blows through the nearby trees, swirling the everpresent fog.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Conveniently open front door is convenient. But it is also likely a trap.

Her eyes scan the length of the tower upwards, all the way to the top, where she spies the few openings up there..

Alma gives Riku a speculative look at that point "Well.. I can get people up to the top one at a time, maybe one or two more if I do.. something else but how much you want to bet that we have a cranky dark and scary final boss up there, who won't be pleased that we tried to skip ahead? So unless we could all go at once... it wouldn't be wise."

She looks to the others, "Anyone got other ideas? Pan, could you carry one?"

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
Gerad is less than thrilled at Alma continuing to be Miss Snitty Pants with him. In the middle of a haunted zombie-kid forest! He makes a snide little face while he continues walking along behind the rest of the group. He's about to say something -scathingly- flirty to Rapunzel, but everybody stops walking all of a sudden!

Right, the tower. Find a means of ingress.

Gerad is an engineer, technically. This is -his bag-.

"Welp - I've got no idea!" The pirate scratches at his head, and looks upwards, evaluating the tower and its everything. "The windows are *way* too high up for me to get a rope up there. Don't think the crossbow's gonna stick to the wall too well, and I left my grapnel in my other pirate outfit."

He walks towards the open door, past Riku, and scratches at his newly-there beard, which he has determined he loves. "Hmmm. Don't see anything fidgety about the doors. I mean, I agree with you, lady--" Gerad tilts his head towards Riku.

"But how else do you plan on getting in? Dynamite?"

Gerad shines his lantern into the yawning portal in front of him. In the name of science, he picks up a stick and kind of chucks it through the door.

Peter Pan has posed:
Peter Pan says "They will be."

Peter says it with a certainty that he truly believes it like that fact the sun will come up. The honesty and faith of a child whose not been broken by life. It's what Pan is but he doesn't rib on Riku. Peter knows what the world does to everyone else over time. Riku has come to help, he cares that's enough for Pan.

he moves onwards with the group seeing that Gerad is fined and ha taken down a good deal of Heartless from the looks of it. He's also looking funny at the girls. Peter wonders if this place is already effecting him badly? Pan has no idea what actually going on nope. He speaks to Kyra for a movement also seeming to have stuck with a nickname for her, too.

"Your right Moogle Girl. We got to go and it's always all or nothing."

Serah is floating and Pan looks over to her for a moment.

"They have to be gotten away from him. I think Tink can help a little but but a lot of it will be time with him no longer feeding on them. We will have to destroy Lord Ombra."

he's not people he's a monster, he's the thing under the bed, the horror, everything about the real world that Pan doesn't like taking to monstrous level. Life tends to eat ones hope and joy but this thing? Devours it rapidly and horribly twists the victims of said power.

"...How could he get in here? Neverland should have repelled him..."

Pan shakes his head again no more thought are coming to him. Pan looks right at Argider for a moment.

"This is why I don't like adults. They always think you can't. The moment you think you can't fly you can never do it again."

He's pressing on now an look up to see the Tower ahead. It has been quite a while from the feel of thing then again? Time and Peter have not been on speaking terms for a long time after all. However As Riku asks does anyone have ideas? Pan totally does he's not sure if will work for everyone but it might work on a few of them!

"Tinker Bell can make people fly with fairy dust all you need to do ... is think in happy little thought any happy little thought at all."

Peter does bounce back pretty fast from the looks of his demeanour as Tink gives him a look like are you sure Pan? She sighs a moment later and is soon flying over all the party raining fairy dust on them. It remains to be seen as Pan said you need to latch on to one happy little thought. Given the state of things could be a problem but hey it could work! Pan himself is already lifting off, he might be able to carry someone small like say Will if it comes to it.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will blinks...

He's been covered in WORSE things before...

Happy thoughts...happy thoughts...

Umi's smile.

Will suddenly is soaring right towards the top of the tower!

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" he says, yes, he is litterally LEROY JENKING in.

Alma Hyral has posed:
AWKWARD POSE INTERRUPT GO!

At Gerad's comment, Alma's eyes narrow. She looks between Gerad, to Peter Pan, and back to Gerad. Her mind literally sproings a few gears. More than a few. MORE than a few... given what happens subsequently.

She walks over to Riku, and without a word, assuming she lets him, puts a hand around the back of his neck, draws him in close, and presses her lips against his. After a few moments she moves away from his, just murmuring to him, "For good luck..."

And then as she looks back to the group, glowering at both Gerad and Peter as she pushes back her glasses on her face, "Now does anyone /else/ want to make any implications about my boyfriend's masculinity?"

And then glaring at Pan she just states, "Now let's make everyone fly and kick a spectre's <GOOSEHONK> to kingdom come."

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Kyra will take Moogle Girl as a nickname. She friggin' loves moogles! She's been called much, much worse too and she'd rather not think about that too much. "It could be the Heartless, Pan. Maybe his control over them gives him a way to somehow exist and corrupt Neverland?" Nothing was sacred when it came to the Heartless.

Speaking of flying, though, when they arrive at that very tall tower, Kyra stares up at it, daunted. "It'd be nice if we could skip all that stair-climbing." Kyra can feel her knees hurting just at the thought of it. What other choice do they have, though? She glances to Argider, as if he could somehow produce his airship from his pocket and solve this.

Instead, she is sprinkled with fairy dust and instructed to think happy thoughts. Kyra blinks slowly and tries to look for the fairy dust residue on her but cannot find anything. A few moments pass as Kyra's mind seems to be elsewhere...

...and after those moments, she lifts into the air, "Oh! How fun! This blows Float out of the water! Come on, Argider!"

Rapunzel has posed:
By the time they reach the tower, Rapunzel has adjusted to the dark and dreary atmosphere fairly well. It's still creepy and unpleasant and there's always the possibility that things might jump out at them again but she's not the sort to worry constantly about what /might/ happen. She has her trusty frying pan, after all.

The girl strides along fairly confidently near the front of the group so she gets a good look as they break through the mist at the base of the tower. Her head tilts back as she looks up and up.

"Wow. And I thought my tower was tall."

Suddenly, Rapunzel looks contemplative as the quandry of getting inside without using the front door comes up. A finger taps slightly on her cheek for several seconds but eventually she just shakes her head.

"Well, if we can find a ledge or a window, I could climb up and let you all climb in on my hair but..."

PIXIE DUST.

Rapunzel wrinkles her nose in surprise as the golden mist rains down around her. Her face scrunches up in a familiar way and she lets out a girlish sneeze before she can stop herself.

"Fly...? Are you sure...?"

Rapunzel looks skeptical for a moment but then people start taking off around her, much to her amazement. "I-it really works?!" Almost unable to contain her excitement, the girl closes her eyes and concentrates for several seconds. Happy thought, happy thought. Oh!

There is a brief moment where nothing happens and then the young girl lifts into the air, moving slowly upwards at first. She opens her eyes, face filling with delight as she realizes her feet are no longer on the ground.

"Look, Pascal! We're flying! Haha! Flynn will never believe this!"

Argider has posed:
Argider looks at the dark tower before him and frowns slightly. The structural integrity of such a structure was unknown to him. But his airship did have a rather mean assortment of cannons onboard that use the same technology that Argider's pistols use. The main cannons just might be able to knock this tower down. These thoughts are intrerrupted when Pan gives his rebuttal. The kid's naiive, but Argider chooses not to get into a philosophical debate with a flying man during the middle of a supernatural hostage rescue. The pirate then looks around at the rest of his comrades. If they would object to him using violence before, then they really would on such a large scale. That is if he can even CONTACT his airship with all this darn magical interference in the air.

He notices the look from Kyra and nods. "I wish she was here too. My airship would have helped speed things along. It aslo might have just been the thing to transport all of us back out." The captain supposes aloud as he gets sprinkled with fairy dust and instructed to 'think happy thoughts'. Pan's words come back to him. Once an adult thinks he can't fly, he never will again. Argider grumbles something to himself and tries to do so despite what logic might dictate to him. At first, it looks like he was about to get somewhere, but the pirate remains earthbound. Roz falling to Darkness was still too fresh of a wound in the man's mind. "Well shucks. Looks like I'm going to have to climb the hard way. Careful Miss Kyra, I'll be up there soon enough." Unknown dangers lurk within, but maybe unknown treasures as well. For the upteenth time this day, Argider does something stupid can runs into the tower with his pistol in hand.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron was floating... and now is flying? She's always fill of happy thoughts, mostly called hope in her case, so she doesn't take very long to take flight "... Well this is interesting... kinda fun too." She smiles, and tries to direct herself up the tower along with the others "Beats climbing at least." She reaches a hand toward Alma as well, if only to stabilize flight for the two of them. "How do you control this exactly? Just by thought or by push?" She waddles a bit in the air, as if she was trying to swim.

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
"Ahhhhhh..." Gerad looks at the pixie dust falling around him, bemused. It's not really doing much for the guy, but that's fair - he's not Robin Williams. At the sight of all the children floating into the air, the spearman's expression hardens; he needs to catch up! But how!

"Alright, pal," Gerad turns to look to Argider - who is sprinting past him. What?!

Gerad runs in after Argider, sweet coat fluttering behind him! "What are you doing?! It's dangerous to go alone!" Gerad shines his lantern ahead of him, futilely!

Riku has posed:
Riku says dryly. "Would you rather walk in the front door and get trapped in Lord Crankyspooks Multiple Chambers of Horror and Discomfort /before/ the final boss? Because I'm --- I don't believe this guy." Riku watches Gerad approach the front door of the spooky doom tower, pick up a stick and lob it into the interior.

The stick clatters across the stone floor of the empty foyer, sliding across the tiles to come to rest at the broad stone stairs where all at once.... nothing happens. A whole lot of nothing. Riku looks up at Peter pan and snorts faintly. "A happy thought huh?" he looks around, his expression abstracted. "..little enough in supply, I think." he looks over at Will. "Hey Will." he smirks wearily. "Can I borrow your surplus?"

Riku glowers at the fairy dust, sneezing quite loudly from the touch of the glittering powder. And-- then the aftereffects of said pose interrupt catch up and awkward project pose interrupt is a go.

There is a moment (just a moment) in which Riku does not let Alma go as she starts to disengage, then he chuckles and jerks a thumb at Will. "I thought that's why he was here for." he tsks, then looks at Will disappearing into the distance.

He still remains anchored to the ground. He looks down at the ground and then at Alma. He reaches out for her hand. "Come on." he says softly. "I think that's /exactly/ what we should do."

There is a very tenative few moments, but then he starts to rise off the ground. He laughs in a very small, sharp surprised noise.. like he can't really believe it himself as he and they make their way up the tower.

Will Sherman. Leroy Jenkins Im"Welcome to my home, meddler. I do hope you've--"</span> A snort. Sniff from inside the volumnous cowl. Yessssss... You've brought the Pan with you.

Meanwhile, Gerad and Argrider are heading towards the front doors. This cannot possibly mean bad things for them. The doors, when they enter the tower, shut behind them automatically with a thunderous boom.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will lands.

He looks up...ahead of the group as he sees it. The darkness infesting these children springs from the Umbra...the fact that he sees this, he sees the dark eyed children.

There is a shift. Umbra will feel it. Red power seems to radiate from the hands of the Hobo, and his eyes change. They are sharp, sharper than anyone might have seen before. The red energy on his hands explodes like a bondfire around each one, as he starts walking slowly towards Umbra.

"Release those chilren."

He says, and then... "I said..."

Will dives forward, aiming to drive BOTH hands into the shadow, the burning hands aiming to break right into the strings of fate themselves, Will can't shatter them...no the magic is too strong for him with just a single force of his RELEASE THOSE CHILDREN</span>

Hopefully, this will open Umbra up for the others.

Argider has posed:
Argider barely takes a single step into the tower before the doors slam shut behind him and seals itself. Fantastic. He turns around and looks for a way to open the doors back up. Nope. Nothing. He knew he should or just bombarded this blasted tower into oblivion. No treasure, no nothing and now he was stuck in here with his fellow pirate. The brown-haired captain sniffs the air audibly. Hmmm. That's an odd smell. "Arrrrrgh!" shouts Argider as a burst of flame catches him quite by surprise. The force of blow is enough knock the man on the ground and singe him quite completely. But the flames are not done with and Argider scurries towards the stairs upwards in all haste. "Run, run for your blasted life!" He offers Gerad in ways of advice.

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
*CRACK*

"Ah, shi-" Gerad's rating-breaking is obscured by the sound of fluid flowing across the tower's stony floor. Immediately, he flips his lantern around to see what it is! Queue the dynamic zoom-in on his face and those wide, horrified eyes. His nostrils flare, and he's immediately running for higher ground.

Something *flammable* is streaking across the ground. Gerad's already expecting the sparks, so he's not too worried about those when they start raining down from the ceiling. Luckily, the man's quick-thinking and derring-do save him from being lit aflame; he makes it to the staircase with barely any time to spare, practically tumbling to a halt on the steps!

GERAD HAS LOST: SHUTTER LANTERN

"We have to go up! This place is gonna be an oven if we stick around!" Gerad makes his way up the staircase, and withdraws a small canteen from his coat. He dumps it over Argider's head. It is kind of like spitting on a bonfire. Anyway, once Argider's next to him and they're *both* on the next floor, Gerad kicks the trapdoor shut behind them with a declarative BOOM.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Without another word, a yellow Corona around her blazes into life, banishing some of the gloom around her with it's soft luminescence. She didn't need to think happy thoughts to fly.. even if she was sort of grinning like the cheshire cat right now.

Riku remains earthbound, at first, but she takes his hand. Serah takes hold of her other, and she just nods to her with a grin "Just leave it to me on the control part, Serah" And then looking at Riku, "...here we go then."

And then the girl just tells the laws of physics to shut up and sit down, as gravity doesn't seem to have any effect on herself any longer any longer. With a hold upon both Riku and Serah she directs them all upwards, streaking upward rapidly with a large trail of light behind her. They reach the top of the tower almost alarmingly in the rapidity of the pace... since Riku and Serah are flying under their own power, he lets them go the moment they arrive to feel the pulse of darkness. And to her horror.. she sees the children all in a circle. She feels the pulse of darkness... and she watches. And she watches... and her expression twists into a mask of anger in almost an instant.

There's such a thing as righteous anger that burns it's way right through any sort of serenity that she could dredge up, and something in her just snaps, like a crack, or a pane of glass. There's a flicker over her image, almost like static from a television distorting her image, drawing a line against her midsection.

And then she's behind him, appearing in a flurry of light and static. A fist flies out, but doesn't make contact with him. Instead when her fist flies out... there's a burst of scathing luminescence. Before the blow even strikes, there's another flicker of static and she's on the opposite side of him, another fist flies, and there's another burst of radiant power his way. Another flicker of static, and she's floating at his elevation in the air, exploiting her weightlessness to turn into what would appear to be a round house kick, her leg trailing a wave of effulgent burning light which carries right towards his cowl. Another flicker of static.. and she wasn't even in his view anymore if he didn't strike back during that time. Reappearing some distance away with a cold expression on her face. She doesn't say anything, her expression is entirely flat in it's affect. But the way she stares at him.. its clear she just wants to do nothing but annihilate this shadowy being.

Rapunzel has posed:
Rapunzel is the last to arrive at the top of the creepy obsidian tower. She watches the ground grow steadily more distant as she drifts upwards, still not quite able to believe that she's actually flying.

The girl's mirth fades in an instant once she sails through the open window and faces the horrible sight that awaits at the apex of the massive spire. Pascal shrinks into her hair as her eyes widen, a hand going to her mouth.

The moment of surprise doesn't last long. The attacks on the dark shrouded figure spurs her into action but rather than lend her strength to the assault, Rapunzel zips down to the floor and starts to untie the bound children.

"Don't worry! We'll get you out of here!"

Riku has posed:
Meanwhile. Back at the Ranch!

Another room about the same dimensions as before. Heat rises up from below through a column in the center of the circular room.

At the top of this column/pedestal is a brilliant ruby, a fabulous treasure to be certain. A faceted gem of sparkle and radiance that almost shimmers in the heat haze rising from vents in the column.

The stairway continues on the other side of the room, which is very uneven. It's a maze of broken toys, bits of glass and sharp rock and all sorts of uneven terrain that would make crossing this room slow but possible.

Then the gem starts to rotate, several brilliant moonlight beams slowly spanning towards Gerad and Argrider and rotating across the circular chamber.

Kyra Hyral has posed:
A few moments pass in which Kyra tests the parameters of this flight thing. How fast, how high, how well the handling goes. There might even be a few moments of prancing up the side of the tower like a gazelle. The cheer fades a little when she realizes that Argider cannot come with her this way. Maybe it is as Pan says-he didn't believe that he could fly like this. She considers for a few moments possible solutions-maybe she can cast float on him and drag him upwards?

It's too late, though, as her partner opts to go through the ominous open door instead. "...good luck." she whispers to the pirate, tapping his shoulder before he goes. A faint pulse of white magic-a blessing-settles over him that would hopefully bring him luck. (Turns out, maybe not?)

Up, up and away, she flies after the others, following Will once he discovers the openings in the top of the tower. Sailing in to the window, a moment or two is spent processing the scene. The Archadian Child. Ombra right there. Anger floods the "Moogle Girl's" mind and abruptly she comes crashing to the floor. "How could you!"

Once she has at least struggled to her knees, she opens fire on Ombra, her particular equipped weapon being one that fires darts filled with something poisonous and unpleasant.

Peter Pan has posed:
Peter Pan sees that everyone but the two pirates are able to find a happy thought. Part of him wonders what his companions have thought about, yet? He won't pry that's their special happy thought telling it might ruin it for them. He's not one to who would intentionally wreck their happy moment. Still he has to ponder for a second longer, what's going through Riku's head. It is a mysterious that may leave Riku with Random Pan visits.

"See I knew you could do it..."

The Pirates were pirates sure but the more Pan thought about it they were pirates trying to help save the kids or at least bring an end to the one behind it. He's still grumpy with Argider but? The anger ha cooled due tot eh hike and well there's been a heck of a distraction Pan will likely forget it about it soon enough.

"I have come for the children. You have no place in Neverland! You came when the worlds stated to fall and have no place here! I am the King of Neverland and I say you are done!"

Pan is being perhaps cocky or is he just being deadly serious as he crows loudly at the source of all this evil. Then Will does something he does not see coming he doesn't hear the words no he feels it he sees it. There's something about Will that's as angry as Ombra as Peter is. He's already pulling out his blade and is getting ready to fight. He's far from along with Rapunzel, Alma, Will, Riku, Serah and Kyra at his back. Also two Pirates who are totally on their way right?!

"Let them go, leave Neverland and never feed upon another child again. This is your only chance."

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
What the...?! Gerad looks quizzically at his flaming companion, then even more quizzically at the malevolent ruby in the middle of this malevolent room. What is even going on in this tower? The toolsman starts creeping his way across the room and its BEVY OF MUNDANE TRAPS. Luckily, his boots keep most of the detritus from injuring his feet. Unluckily

-nobody in the entire world could have predicted that the gem would start shooting lasers-.

"Hey! Guy! Hurry up and get over here!" Gerad is creeping even more quickly than before, now, inching past glass and broken bears, and leering at the crystal with its lasers. One's almost near him!

He frowns, pulls out that flintlock pistol, and *shoots* the gem. That will fix it. He can't deal with the lasers, not right now, not with the glass here and a guy on fire.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron nods to Alma, glad for the guidance from someone that is used to flying at least. She can barely float on her own for now, but at least she's not crashing to the ground. She waddles a bit, and then when at the top, she attempts to land down, surveying the area. The children are there... and that voice. Hasn't she heard that before? Like last time she was with Pan? She can't remember for sure, but it seems like it knows Peter at least.

And if Alma is ready to attack that figure, she's all too glad to help. She has some attacking magic as well, a salvo of holy magic shaped like arrows, that are sent toward it. She supposes there's no need for conversation here. If Alma goes for the 'strike first talk later' approach, who is she to go against it!

Riku has posed:
Lord Ombra seems completely unaffected by the redshift, gripping their human shield a little bit tighter as Will Sherman leaps forwards, driving those flaming hands into the cloaked shadow.

There is an unearthly SCREAM from somewhere outside of the cloak that is joined by the screams of the black eyed children who simultaniously scream in pain and collapse, one after another. They whimper in pain, leaning against the wall, some of the older ones holding the younger and staring with their malevolent bitter anger now leavened with dread.

It does open Ombra up for assault by another and in fact all interested parties. Alma's righteous anger comes next. A flurry of light and static and scathing luminescene sears through the room. And is effortlessly blocked by a careless hand. A pulse of darkness and light antipode as Lord Ombra pushes back at the light user. The black eyed children flinch away from it, covering their faces and crying out in fear as the strikes come again and again and again.

The righteous fury eventually wins out, the luminescene of that round house kick sending the cloak flying backwards.. right into a waiting Riku. "You.." he says quietly. "..made a grave.. /error/ in hunting in Archades." the sword slashes the cloak nearly in half in a single fluid motion. There is another unearthly scream as the pieces of fabric flutter to the ground and dissolve into vapor. He starts to lower the blade when a hand reaches out from and grabs him by the back of his neck. "And.. you ..boy. Made a grave error as well."

Riku struggles as it starts to lift him into the air in front of Kyra's shots. He manages to twist out of the way, the poison unloading it's payload into the cloaked figure which returns to full visibility, the cloak massive ragged from the bottom to the middle like a heap of rags come to life.

Riku neatly pivots, taking a step forwards to bring the sword down when the cloak reaches out and envelops him. There is a step, or two, a heartbeat, and then he is gone. Swallowed up without time even to scream with another pulse of darkness that makes the children, both black eyed or otherwise, shudder and begin to sob.

One of them clings to Rapunzel reflexively, sobbing with hysterical furor, asking her to keep the boogeyman away in a tear choked whisper. A salvo of holy arrows pierce Lord Ombra, sending the cloak staggering backwards. He raises a clawed hand and the air pressure abruptly drops right before spears of darkness crystallize out of the air, spiraling around the cloak before launching themselves at the party, each one shattering into another disorienting burst of doubt and despair no matter what they hit.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will is not sure rather to grin or shout for Riku...

He'll go with anger. Richous fury...

"Let..." He says running towards cloaked jerkface, and tries to slip under him. Aiming to come from BEHIND him and drig those hands RIGHT into the back of the man again...

"HIM!" he booms, the grould shaking a bit as he tries to force his vision of reality on the Eldrich horror.

"GO!" he commands, aiming to drive the red strings of fate into the dark strings, he is trying to choke them out, trying to seperate them...he needs time, but it will be not pleasent for those involved...he winces at the cries...he has to do this...if they can stop the monster, then they can go home...

He just pushes forward, because...

Nobody hurts children while Will Sherman can do anything about it.

Riku has posed:
Meanwhile, in strongbad's cave of awesome-ness.

The ruby shatters. It was, after all, only cheap colored glass that explodes when hit. The lasers immediately die away leaving the room only a difficult trial to cross safely.

The stairs are littered with these toys as well making the passage difficult. Towards the top where the next trap door is within easy reach there is a thin wire and a pressure plate besides that, both of them probably to do something unpleasant with the staircase.

very unpleasant.

The next level is a barracks of some sort. There are unoccupied beds here and the detritus of people living here. It's all unoccupied down whil the sounds of combat drift up from the ceiling and the stairway leading upwards.

Rapunzel has posed:
Rapunzel clutches the child to her as the bonds come loose, rubbing the little boy's head to try and calm him down. However, she doesn't have time to be comforting at the moment. Her gaze drifts up towards the other children still bound around the room, biting at her lip as the forces of light and darkness clash.

"It's okay, it's okay. Sssh." She turns her attention back to the young boy, cupping his face in her hands to turn it towards her own. "Listen. I need to get the others free. If you think you can help with that, go start untying them. Be quick, alright!"

She doesn't wait to get his answer, hopping swiftly to her feet and running to the next bound child. It's times like this a knife would be useful. Darn blunt weapon focus.

The second child's bindings come free just as the darkness takes shape into crystal spears. Rapunzel gasps and reacts reflexively, bringing her frying pan up to smash aside the deadly projectile and, amazingly, she succeeds. The magical construct shatters into a dozen fragments, each vaporizing with hisses of dark mist in the air. Not about to risk a repeat performance, she ushers the newly freed girl towards the others with instructions to get them loose.

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
Gerad clomps across the rest of the room, empowered by boots. He's frowning - basically constantly by this point - as he moves up the staircase, and observes the pressure plate and tripwire up the stairs sort of in the same way a father observes some adorable project his child's made.

Some machinery later, Gerad's kicking open the door to the third floor of the tower! Yes! He can even hear the fighting up top. Of course, right now, there's some subterfuge and examination to tend to...

Gerad is frozen. What, exactly, is wrong with this room??! Are the beds alive? Is there a dog in here? Gerad hates dogs. He takes his *sweet time* getting through the room, until, of course, he hears shrieking and a frying pan going *BONK* from the upstairs. VALIANT CONCERN shines in Gerad's eyes, and with a shout, he's sprinting for the staircase!

Maybe he's an idiot!

Kyra Hyral has posed:
Kyra will not be disoriented. Not when her anger is so galvanized by what she's seeing here. It is furthered along by Riku's stand and subsequent disappearance into the cloaked bulk of the monster. Gritting her teeth, the sole weapon she seems to have on her is spun away and slipped into a holster at her waist.

Her hands spread out, fingers splayed. "Will. Serah. Pan. Alma!" she calls out, "Riku! If you can hear me too...get back! I'm going to unleash something /big/."

Alma can feel it. Oh boy can she feel it. The wild energies within Kyra stir and rise dangerously. To Will, her threads become a strange kaledescope of colors, the threads of fate around her flickering with all sorts of urge and emotion. Light and dark. Kyra's right hand lifts, pointing out in front of her at Ombra, pointing, then drawn downwards in a straight line. That line in glowing gold is repeated on the floor beneath Ombra.

That same finger lifts again, this time tracing a horizontal line through the air that perpendicullarly intersects the first. This becomes apparent when this second line appears on the floor as well. "For you, defiler, I call down the highest form of judgement, wrought from creation that sought its own destruction. Feel its curse. Feel its desire to return to nothingness."

As she speaks, wild golden lines etch themselves outwards from the simple ones drawn upon the ground, centering Ombra in its chaotic pattern. Alma can firmly admit that she has never, ever seen her sister cast this before. She'd be hard-pressed to discover rthe spell's origin but one thing is certain. It is definitely not white magic.

"GRAND CROSS!" Golden energy explodes upwards, continuing in its own blinding blaze for several seconds before dying down to a dull glow that remains, smoking, on the tower floor.

Afterwards, Kyra's eyes roll back and she falls to the ground. Alma would recognize this as a textbook case of mage fatigue.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron rogers that. If Kyra is going to just blow the entire place up, she certainly doesn't want to stay close to be part of the fireworks! She uses her newly acquired flight skill to move out of the way, floating away from the tower.

She woahs at the release of magic. Well, that was rather impressive after all. But Kyra slumping down... that doesn't look like a very good thing. "Are you alright Kyra?" She swoops in, trying to help Kyra up, at least sitting, if she's still concious at least. She might need help to lift her up if not, she doesn't know how good this flight really is.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Static. Riku struggles against Lord Ombra. Static. Riku gets picked up by Lord Ombra, and vanishes into his cloak in the midst of the struggle.. /Ker-CHACK/ goes something in Alma's head.

Riku was gone, and she had no idea what happened to him. At best, he was lost in whatever darkness Lord Ombra dredged up. At worst.. he was..

...No...

A spear of darkness thunks against the radiance surrounding her. Then another. There's a sizzle as they strikes her aura, and they grow smaller, diminished and dying away before they ever strike her robed form.

She screams, but it isn't due to the pain but anguish of a different sort, I AM GOING TO END YOU...IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE!

And that's the last coherent words she states

Kyra unleashes the full fury of her magic, in a grand display of magic which explodes outward from Lord Ombra of the likes that she'd never seen before, there's a flicker of light and motion. Will grabs at his fate lines... Sigils appear everywhere around Lord Ombra. Forming into a great serpent of translucent blue light. Which coils around him suddenly. Serpentarius forms. And it's angry. It coils around the bottom half of Lord Ombra, then exploits that to surge out of the tower, carrying Lord Ombra with the animated hard light construct.

Will only had solidified it for a moment, by grabbing and strangling it's fate lines, so after a time Lord Ombra slips out of it...

Which is when he might note the distortions appearing in the air. Little prismatic tears within the darkness, where light floods through, as if being brought by an unseen source, and focused through a prism.

Another flicker of light and static, and she's in front of Lord Ombra, floating suspended outside of the tower. Lord Ombra begins to hear something which is muted at first...

BGM change: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha2zFwvIomw

And then that indistinct sound came suddenly to the forefront of Lord Ombra's mind.. the notes were at first separate, enunciated things.. such that the melody didn't even sound connected.

But suddenly they were part of a refrain that made perfect sense to Lord Ombra. It had a serene sublimity to it. And then there was a voice singing lyrics that just didnt make any sense, and perfect sense at the same time. It was as if he simply didnt have the senses to perceive what the lyrics actually meant, as the voice shifted from alto, to tenor, to soprano and baritone. From man to woman, old to young, to something utterly alien... and yet he felt it was always the same voice.

It brought with it a feeling of tranquility and focus that seemed to spiral through the shadow's mind, bringing connections where none existed before. His psyche expanded to grasp the myriad of contradictory truths of existence in the universe. And yet even as it began to perceive them.. grasp them, they'd slip away, and something else would instantly replace it to fill that vacuum.. repeating. These things were not meant for any mortal mind to know. Most immortals as well..

It was a song of light and order. A song of universal truth. A song of creation... A song of how anything and everything was interconnected.. Whether it came from her goddess or not.. who knew? Alma certainly didn't.

Lord Ombra and Alma faded away, from the outside, it looks like there's a dark void that's roughly cube shaped at about a hundred feet by a hundred feet.

On the inside, it's dimensions appear infinite to the spectre. Alma looks like an entirely different person, the sigils which make up her magic entirely encompass her eyes now, dwarfing out the sclera, the irises, and the pupils. She just stares at Lord Ombra. And then she opens her mouth and begins to sing herself. There is some slight dissonance, as her voice is quite different from the one she heard. And then there's a slight glimmer of light behind Alma..

It looks like it is coming upon a distant horizon.. from an impossible distance away. And then suddenly it isn't just a small glimmer anymore. It's a large wave of effulgent light which dwarfs the entirety of the space they're in. For but a brief instant.. darkness in this area ceases to exist, save for that which Lord Ombra brought with him. It scathes and scours as it washes over the shadow with annihilating brilliance.

But it's over in an instant. When Lord Ombra's vision clears, he appeared to be in space. And yet not, at the same time.. there was still oxygen here if he needed to breath, not a vacuum. There was still heat here, such that the absence wouldn't have frozen over and slain a mortal being.

Space however, was hardly empty. It was like looking through a high-powered telescope. There was darkness, certainly but there was also light everywhere, nebulas danced in the dark as multicolored plumes of light and cosmic space dust. And there were stars, stars everywhere, thousands of them, of many different colors and sizes. All scaled down perhaps, but Lord Ombra could make out the details of each... Everything in this duplicate representation of the universe was moving, rotations upon rotations, revolutions upon revolutions. It was dizzying to watch..

But he wouldn't have time to... As suddenly every single one of them started to move... ...towards him.

She didn't bother with any sort of fancy light show. She didn't animate constellations and strike at him. She just sent hundreds of thousands of pinpricks of luminescence at him. Each one surging and streaming through him and his form before retaking their place suspended in the heavens.

From the outside.. it only took about ten seconds. Ten seconds to create a representation of infinity and eternity and have it rebel against the foul shadow. But all the observers on the outside saw was light playing against the surface of an otherwise darkened object.

Cracks started playing across the surface of it.. a moment later, it shatters, like sugarglass whose pieces then dissolve in turn...

She looks much diminished from the effort, her aura flickering, and dying away as she wavers, then swoons.... ...with nothing holding her there any longer she starts to fall, before she comes into consciousness once more. Her aura comes back into existence a moment later, as she moves back inside the tower with agonizing languor.

Peter Pan has posed:
Peter Pan knows he's not human, he's not sure what lord Ombra is other than the darkness come to life. He sees Will going in, and the rest of the group starts up their assault upon the slayer of hopes and dreams. Pan is angry but he manages to keep focus his righteous anger only fuels him. He's not moved yet he gave the horror a chance. The chance that has been ignored so Pan launches himself at the darkness. This is so not going to end well as something strange happens. Pan is going to try to caught the one of the arrows come and Peter isn't quick enough not this time one catch him in the shoulder and he's sent spinning form the impact, He's hurt but alive as he is trying to get back up. Peter attempts to focus though the pain, how the heck did someone hit him. Even Hook could only do it once and a while it's not supposed to work like this. It's really how he sees things, but thankfully while he's dealing with the terrible arrow wound Rapunzel's already on the kids. Then again Pan knows he makes a very good distraction given how much the big bad is confused on him.

However Tink's not been idle he's been getting something now if this was more open it would be easier but someone might notice there is a crocodile outside hovering at the window thanks to Tink's work it's yes, that crock. It seems she's dragooned it to help and what is it doing? Why the old Hook hunter bunch a water being held in it's mouth! Tink and the crock wait for a moment once Lord Ombra is in clear view he sticks his snout in and just starts spraying water like a fire hose at him!

As for the Crock's happy thought? What do you think it was?

Peter Pan has posed:
Peter Pan knows he's not human, he's not sure what lord Ombra is other than the darkness come to life. He sees Will going in, and the rest of the group starts up their assault upon the slayer of hopes and dreams. Pan is angry but he manages to keep focus his righteous anger only fuels him. He's not moved yet he gave the horror a chance. The chance that has been ignored so Pan launches himself at the darkness. This is so not going to end well as something strange happens. Pan is going to try to caught the one of the arrows come and Peter isn't quick enough not this time one catch him in the shoulder and he's sent spinning form the impact.

He's hurt but alive as he is trying to get back up. Peter attempts to focus though the pain, how the heck did someone hit him. Even Hook could only do it once and a while it's not supposed to work like this. It's really how he sees things, but thankfully while he's dealing with the terrible arrow wound Rapunzel's already on the kids. Then again Pan knows he makes a very good distraction given how much the big bad is confused on him.

However Tink's not been idle he's been getting something now if this was more open it would be easier but someone might notice there is a crocodile outside hovering at the window thanks to Tink's work it's yes, that crock. It seems she's dragooned it to help and what is it doing? Why the old Hook hunter bunch a water being held in it's mouth! Tink and the crock wait for a moment once Lord Ombra is in clear view he sticks his snout in and just starts spraying water like a fire hose at him!

As for the Crock's happy thought? What do you think it was?

"HA! Didn't see that coming did you?!

Riku has posed:
Righteous fury, go!

Cloaked jerkface takes a pummeling, Will digging right into the back of the cloak, reality shuddering as pulse after pulse of dark energy pounds through the chamber. The dark strings wither and screech as the red strings assault them and another wail of fear and torment rises up from the black eyed children, who in their madness, several unsheathe knives. They look at the Arcadian captives. A girl whispers in terrible pain. "Stop. STOP" she screams. She looks at the others who are suffering and when those cries go unanswered, she narrows her eyes at the other children. The ones helping Rapunzel untie the others with unsteady trembling fingers. Rapunzel herself. "...this is all YOUR fault." eyes bleeding from both corners she screams and lunges at the children with knife raised. Another reaches out a hand to grab her back, wrenching her away from the torqued adventurers. They hold back her struggling hatred.

And it is a good thing she does, for charging across the room towards the children would have put her in the middle of the Grand Cross. (tm) The giant glowing gold lines etch into the floor and then flare with Ombra trapped in the midst of the pattern. A blinding FLARE of energy consuming the cloak and unleashing a scream that shakes the very foundations of the tower.

In the aftermath of this, Peter Pan very thoughtfully puts out the burning fire with a crocodile fire hose. Then the cloaked figure and Alma disappear into the space time anomaly that is the limit break cube and the entire universe screams towards the darkness at top speed. There is a SCREAM of denial. "NO." screams the voice. Then a longer wail as the cloak shreds apart. The light completely scours it away. Fate and magic and holy universal light destroy it utterly.

The children under it's fell influence call out and then collapse into unconsciousness wholesale in a heap.

Meanwhile. ...we are sorry Gerad, but there was just one more trap in this mundane and otherwise ordinary room. Underneath a blanket near the stairs was a primed sleep crystal. Any touch is liable to set it off.

Gerad Iron Fogair has posed:
IN THE ROOM ABOVE:

Muffled shouting and increasingly loud clomping can be heard from the room below. There is, finally, a penultimate shout, a dramatic *THOK* against the trapdoor leading downwards, and then the sound of metal striking a staircase

a crossbow going off, firing no less than sixteen quarrels into the ceiling/floor

a loud *SZZ-POP* and a burst of light visible *through* the trapdoor

a *WHIRR*, followed by a completely *unspeakable odor*

and more crossbow bolts.

Snoring.

Will Sherman has posed:
Will breathes heavily...

He looks around...black eyed Children are....still corrupted, but it's lessened. He frowns...he isn't sure if he can touch that...maybe Alma and Kyra can work on that? He doesn't know...

Or maybe it'll just go away...

He looks around again...

Riku.. Will frowns. The power fades from his hands and he sinks against the wall. "<GOOSEHONK> it.." he says, rubbing his eyes.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma is kind of laying down near the edge of the top floor of the tower right now facing outwards towards the spot where Lord Ombra last existed. Her rational mind was sort of shut off during all of the Limitbreak Cube (tm).

Now that it had rebooted... ..she was in all out horror mode.

She just lays there in a plaintive pile, sobbing. Not just because he hadn't reemerged....

...but because she'd lost control, and what she did during that time, may be the reason he hadn't reemerged. She doesn't move from that spot.

Serah Farron has posed:
Serah Farron helps by dragging Kyra away, but moves her over to Alma, bringing the two together to make sure Alma is alright too "You both used too much magic didn't you? You better rest up..." She looks around, setting Kyra down next to Alma.

She looks at Alma, and pats the girl consolingly as she sees her sobbing. She doesn't really know what to say though, but offers a simple "Are you okay? Everyone is alright..."

Rapunzel has posed:
Rapunzel goes about her task with great haste, pulling the rough knots free as fast as she can without harming the already frightened captives. It's not as fast as she'd like. Pascal hops down and scampers over to another child, pulling at the rope with his tail without much success.

A blinding burst of light fills the room suddenly, forcing her to shield her eyes and leaving spots in her vision when the flare of holy energy fades away. When she can see again, Rapunzel immediately notices the lack of the cloaked figure and sighs softly, but she doesn't sit idle. The rest of the kidnapees are set free in short order with each new child freed going to help their fellows until all of them are huddled in a big mass of sobbing frightened bodies.

Rapunzel kneels down and, unable to wrap her arms around all of them, uses her hair instead, pulling them into one big group hug. "It's alright now. The bad man is gone."

She hopes that's true. Her gaze drifts over to the corrupted children and for a moment she considers trying to sing for them. Perhaps her magic could fix their condition. But there's no guarantee of that and revealing her power inside of a tower of evil where there might be Heartless lurking seems like a foolish idea.

"We should leave this place as soon as possible."

Will Sherman has posed:
"Except for the missing boy." Will says, "Riku." Will says, no he can't be sad now...they have to get these kids out, and right now they need someone strong. "Rapunzel's right. Lets go. We need to get these kids out of here...and back with their familes." he says.

And then he has to talk with Gabranth...

And then find Riku.

Alma Hyral has posed:
Alma's eyes are glassy, looking in an unfocused manner on the last spot she saw Lord Ombra...

She just continues to sob... not answering Serah, whose words don't seem to reach her. Fortunately... Will answers for her.

She doesn't seem to want to get up from that spot.

Peter Pan has posed:
Peter Pan can only watch at what happens to Lord Ombra, Alma, and everyone else just bring forth the fires of justice upon the creature of shadow. he rises to his feet and watches the cloak figure now just having been wiped from existence more of less. He's gone the nightmare of Neverland is over for now. The Darkness is out there still but a victory has been won, a force of darkness has be struck down.

Pan looks back to the crock and grins for a second

"Owe ya one! Tink get out friend back to the water."

If Hook ever hears about the Crock being able to fly. He would never sleep again, as funny as that would be it's perhaps for the best the big old crock goes on its way for the day. The clock goes tick tock but grows distance as the heroes surprise help is heading on their way back to the water.

He looks to see the faces of everyone who has helped the children here Peter is grinning widely as he first lets out a heck of a rooster crow of victory then actually says something.

"Thank you on behalf of all of Neverland thank you."

he'd say he'd never forget but well even Pan knows his mind suffers memory leaks. With that there's many kids to help and work to do. So of Peter goes.