Aerith fidgeted with the ends of her hair as she waited inside the cell. She shook her head at the fact that a perfectly peaceful day had spiraled so quickly out of control. The Organization had returned for revenge, a number of people- the BAD people, by the way- had somehow made their way out of her original Planet, and to top it all off, her killer had come back with a rabid thirst for blood. Her blood. One simply could not look at this situation positively. Silently, she wondered if Yuffie really would be coerced into working for the wrong side. Thieves were a little eccentric in their loyalty, but Aerith shook away the thought. Yuffie's steadfast, she thought, trying to keep optimistic. She would never work for Cloud's nemesis no matter how much they offer as a reward. She squared her sore shoulders, determined to keep that positive outlook. (Irony much? :p ) ~~~~~~~ "Eep!" squeaked Kairi as the largest and probably the most ugliest thing she had ever seen in her entire life appeared to her view. It was probably even uglier than all the Heartless that Sora had ever faced. It was even uglier than Riku (no lol jk). Even more strange, the... thingamajig could talk. "And you are?!" it demanded. "I-I'm a completely random bystander with no say in anything whatsoever," she quavered in response. "I'll... just be going. Bye!" She hurriedly unlocked another world door and ran through. If one peered within, one probably would've seen misty white lights and swirling green vats of flame. "And the name's Kairi!"
(ooc://Why is it the protagonists in PINK and with practically NO WEAPON always end up getting picked on? It's kinda hard to play fair with villains that've got no morals.) Still running, Kairi distinctly heard the arrival of a dangerous English gambler, the betraying screech of her own backstabbing Nobody, and several more wet, squelching sounds that boded ill for any resident of Hollow Bastion that happened to pass by at that exact second. Not to mention the pound of bootsteps and the wingbeats of one giant black wing. There was nothing more for it. She turned around and chucked the Keyblade, using the same flick of her wrist that had so often made sea urchins, pointy thalassa shells, and other bits of seashell fly at Sora and Riku in her childhood. This time it flew straight and true, but it didn't hit Sephiroth. Instead, it hit Luxord- straight between the eyes. "And that's for 'card'-ing me in KH2!" she shouted before summoning her Keyblade back. But Sephiroth was still charging. Swiftly, desperately, she went through the motions of unlocking a door between worlds, invoking the last remnants of dark corridor power within her from Naminé... and vanished. She appeared in the halls of the Castle That Never Was. Whoops. (ooc://I will play Aerith when I actually know where she is...)
Kairi came around to see her Nobody poking her with a pencil and a simply MASSIVE pile of dead people. She swallowed convulsively, shook her head to chase away the paopu fruits, and picked up her Keyblade. "Where'd Aerith go-?" Kairi asked tremulously, her eyes scanning the pile. "She's not... dead, is she?" But no brown braid trailed from the collective pyre, no pink ribbon or fabric lay on the cobblestones... Aerith wasn't among the many victims. I think she got away, thought the girl, forcefully optimistic. Still fighting the urge to vomit, Kairi followed Naminé's advice and ran.
For the first time in her rather short-lived Nobody life, Naminé didn't cower and meekly run off to obey Saïx's instructions. Perhaps she was getting brave... or perhaps she was just plain stupid... but she stood her ground. "Fat chance, Berserk Boy!" she jeered. "I'm going to give you more than just that pretty little X on your face for all those times you dragged me and my Other around!" She stopped for a moment, confused temporarily. She couldn't harm Roxas, and try as she might, Saïx was in Roxas's body and she would be hurting him... Nothing a good Curaga can't cure. And that was that.
(ooc://Is it just me, or is this thread crawling along at a snail's pace? :o ) Naminé had taken five steps before she realized that 1) she had no idea where her own body was; 2) if Larxene had switched with her, she had better be careful; and 3) oh, whatever, why did she need her sketchbook to get her revenge if she already had kunai? She had seen for herself what Larxene was capable of- she still sometimes got cricks in her neck whenever she thought of the blow that had been dealt to her in Castle Oblivion. Time to exercise my art skills... at decorating faces! Her first target: Saïx.
Kairi arrived on the scene, blinking at the tall man holding Aerith by her hair. She had absolutely no idea who this person was, but it was really simply to decide to which side he belonged: long sword, menacing personality, dark clothing, wings of pure shadow. Feeling awkward but determined, she prepared to draw her Keyblade. What to do, what to do? Then she recalled one of Sora's old moves: Strike Raid. "HAH!" She chucked the weapon, but in her lack of experience, it merely made a circle through the air... coming straight back to her. "Ooof!" It hit her in the head and she fell to the ground, paopu fruits whirling about her head. Still stuck in Sephiroth's grasp, Aerith ridiculously moaned in agitation. There went her last hope.
Aerith's mind raced screamingly fast as she mentally weighed the wisdom of all possible reactions and tried to solve the problem. Everything up to her waist had gone entirely numb, but that didn't impede her brainpower- every Cetra, after all, was strong in will and mind. Not in the right universe = No Lifestream. Aerith jammed her teeth together hard, fighting to get a grip. Don't panic. She wasn't any completely helpless Kairi... she could fight, couldn't she? She sent magic slamming into the ice binding her in place. Instantly, it flew apart in millions of tiny shards. A couple lodged themselves in Sephiroth and the others. "Forget it, Sephiroth!" she said, bolting past him. "This is one instance where I wouldn't appreciate a sense of déjá vu!"
Aerith skidded to a halt, just barely managing to avoid crashing into Naminé. "Wha- Naminé?" she gasped, desperately looking backwards at Sephiroth. He was charging toward her with his short little ballerina steps (something Cloud had once called them, though she had never dared to say that to Sephiroth's face), long sword drawn. But she had a moment's time. "What- Naminé-? Who- why... Kairi-" She looked swiftly from Naminé to the general direction that Kairi had run off to. "Naminé, I have no idea what you're doing, and this really isn't the time... I have to run." Quite literally, actually. She shoved firmly past the shorter girl and hurried on, wishing more than ever that she had retained her quarterstaff. ~~~~~~~ Kairi had just purchased some sea salt ice-cream from a local vendor when her senses undeniably quivered. It was as if someone had grabbed the front of her dress and jerked it in a certain direction: back the way she had come. "What's going on?" she murmured aloud, wondering at the sensation. She had never felt it before... except once, when a certain mysterious blonde-haired girl had appeared in her dungeon at TWTNW.
Aerith had just stood up and brushed off her dress when the usually reasonably peaceful Borough suddenly suffered the arrival of a less welcome visitor. Darkness and air warped together at the very center, and then exploded in a storm of dark feathers that seemed to absorb the light rather than reflect it in a glossy sheen. Then the person materialized completely. "Oh..." Aerith said, backing away. For perfectly lucid reasons, she and the latest arrival had never exactly been the greatest of friends. The next spoken word was a fearful whisper that fell from her lips to drop like a cold, hard rock. "Sephiroth...?" She didn't stop to ask herself why Sephiroth had returned to the Radiant Garden... without Cloud. With a flurry of skirts, she had run off to fetch someone who could help.
"Kairi, I really don't think that is a good idea-" began Aerith. The two were in the Radiant Garden, during one of Sora's many visits to the by now-familiar world. This time he had brought Kairi along, and Aerith had wasted no time in teaching the younger girl the finer details of the Cure spell. After all, she had had almost nothing to do except watch Cid pound away at the computer ever since her return. "I'm pretty sure that I'm the one with the Keyblade, Aeri- OUCH!" "And I've told you before, Cure doesn't involve anything that includes almost braining yourself with your staff- or key-shaped sword, in this case!!" Aerith's seemingly endless patience was starting to wear thin. She had hoped that after Kairi had received her Keyblade back in the World That Never Was, Sora would've taught his friend the basics of Keyblade-wielding. But Sora had been so busy discussing what had opened the door to light with Riku that he had left Kairi in a state of perpetual newbiness. Kairi's response was to brush the hair out of her eyes and sigh. "Okay, okay; I'm sorry. Can I go find the others now?" Aerith shook her head as Kairi ran off, clumsily dismissing her Keyblade. I hope she gets better with it...
(Can I join as Kairi and Aerith? I think we need some protagonists :o )
Naminé blinked, frantically trying to assess the situation. "Well, if you're not Roxas..." She finally noticed the savage manner with which he plied his Keyblades. "Oh dear. Sa...ïx...?" Uh-oh. But wait... she was no longer small, weak, and weaponless. She had two handfuls of kunai, a wicked element... and who knows, maybe even her memory and heart powers had been transferred as well... But if she had been switched, where was her body? She was in Larxene's... hopefully that meant Larxene hadn't switched with her. Right? RIGHT? she asked herself. All the same, she really needed those pencils and that sketchbook if she were to enact her reveng- err, solve the problem at hand. Right. Leaving Saïx(Roxas) to terminate Heartless, she ran off.
By this time, Naminé was truly lost and frightened. Never had she thought that she would end up back here... why was she here, anyway? She replayed the scene in her mind. Having seen the throne room destroyed with a fine scattering of silver dust... having bent close to examine it... and then... POOF! She had woken up with about an extra two feet of height, eight deadly kunai, lightning powers instead of her own talent with heart and memory, and a REALLY bad hair day. Not to mention a heavy trench coat that seemed to drag her down after the normal white dress. She was Larxene. What's going on? All the same, she knew her way around a little. She had, after all, been here before her assignment to Castle Oblivion. Harder to bear were her increased powers as a lightning elemental. Already she had busted the circuits on the first floor and accidentally overloaded the electrical power to the entire Castle. Whoops. And every time she raised her hand to sweep one of Larxene's STUPID antennae out of her eyes, she almost stabbed her eyes with kunai that magically appeared- an easy way to get a Xigbar-ish eyepatch. Finally, she heard someone- almost like Keyblades clacking. "Roxas?" she cried out in relief, rounding the bend in the corridor...
(For all those who are confused, Vexen's going to be leaving... soon. That's when I'll play Naminé... hehehehe.) Vexen felt something prodding at his head- a very small end of a pointed Organization boot. His mind soared back to consciousness. Dust bleached his coat and bleached his hair to a Xemmy-like whiteness... AND he was on the floor. Just about completely level with the ground, after being so close to the explosion himself. His dignity? It was even lower. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-" Vexen shrieked, finishing the word he had attempted to utter before the machine had cracked. "YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE PERFECT- PERFECT I TELL YOU! NOOOOOOOOO-" He crumpled up in a little heap, where he sobbed for a few minutes. When he leapt up, he addressed the Roxas-body (eh... Roxas NO-body, whatever) in front of him. Somehow, he knew that everything had gone wrong. AND he was positive that this was not Roxas. "THIS IS IT! I'M NOT GOING TO DEAL WITH THIS ANYMORE! TWTNW HAS NOTHING MORE FOR ME, EVER! I'M LEAVING!" He vanished.
(OKAY, PEOPLES! I GET THE POINT- THE RE-SWITCH IS ON!) Vexen didn't know what to do except hug his machine tightly as the tiny blonde girl poked and prodded him with what must've been thousands of little graphite points. As if he weren't already bruised enough from the LAST beating he got! Then Saïx roughly de-Larxed Number Four, causing him to fumble with the machine. It flew out of his hands, into the air... "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-" Vexen leapt what must've been an astonishing six feet in the air. Not high enough! He tumbled to the ground... and just managed to have his hands out in the approximate place where it would land... "Phew," he breathed. The machine fell, hit the perfectly white tiled floor an inch from his fingers with a 'clink,' and EXPLODED.
ooc://I put dibs on Naminé already, since Vexen's leaving very soon... currently, I'd expect she's wandering around in the Castle somewhere... like the Proof of Existence, jacking Organization refight data... bic://Vexen EEPed as Larxene(Naminé) seemed to descend out of thin air right above Saïx(Zexion). Reminder to self: never let Nobody females learn about dark corridors ever again. "I think she likes you," he said sarcastically as Larxene began chewing on the former Number Seven like a puppy with a favorite chewtoy. He grabbed Larxene by the back of her white dress. "You. Get out of here while I use the machine."
o.0 I think I liked him better when he was under the bed, Vexen thought as he watched Demyx skipping off with Number Eight. It was still unnerving to hear Number Nine's breathy, lighthearted tone within the Superior's low, deep voice. Vexen's "normal" mental image of Xemnas was getting weirder and weirder by the minute, messed up by Demyx's constant humming, dancing, and hopping. ANYWAY, Vexen tightened his hold on the machine. "Okay, are we all here?" he asked the other members. "And please tell me that two certain females aren't in this crowd... I just managed to complete the cure and I don't want my 'old man' liver ripped out as soon as I happen to regain it."
"What's going on here, Number Eight?" asked Vexen as he came down the stairs. He had managed to (temporarily) escape Larxene's wrath and ultimate stabbityness. "I seem to have heard the audible noise of numerous skeletal fractures all occuring at the same time..." He paused suddenly, fumbled with his machine, and nearly dropped it as he saw who was the victim of those numerous skeletal fractures. He glared at Axel(Xigbar)- he had never been particularly happy with the Flurry of Dancing Flames ever since the little 'incident' at Castle Oblivion. "Needless for me to articulate, the Superior is NOT going to be happy with you when this little machine I have here happens to turn you all back. And somehow I doubt Number Nine will be, either..."
ooc://You just got KH2? A little behind, aren't you? And yet you already know the plot... Vexen raced away from Larxene, feeling sick to his stomach at the thought of possible disembowlment by a girl half his height. He grabbed Saïx. "If all of us gather in the room without the ladies I'll be able to reswitch us!" he panted. "It worked before... I perfected it even more now, so..." He was panting. Old as he was, it was a little harder to run- hence his shield. He pushed Saïx ahead, feeling thankful that he didn't have his claymore any longer. "Go gather the other people and tell them the plan!" He ran off in another direction.
ooc://What do you expect from a band of thirteen powerful, dangerous Nobodies wielding (mostly) very sharp weapons? Geez... Vexen just barely managed to avoid Larxene(Naminé)'s thrown pencils and dashed out from under the table. He raced towards Saïx(Zexion) and the other male Nobodies. Slipping on some of Xigbar's spilled ketchup, he skidded on the floor and just barely saved himself from a fall by grabbing around Saïx's neck. "Whoops. Sorry, Zex- OMKH it's Saïx... um... can't stick around to chat, Number Seven, I have a machine and my own hide to save!" He ran off, still avoiding Larxene's swipes.
