Kingdom Hearts - Blades of Three Realms

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro frowned a bit, hearing the talk about Kefka, and looked to the side, more towards the tower-like place that had the odd mask on it as he narrowed his eyes a bit, it felt like an entirely weird and odd world, that was for sure. of course, just as he looked back to the others, his sixth sense started going off, almost as if someone was stalking them that wasn't Roveth or one of his Shadow Realm monsters, but he showed no sign of noticing it and all.

Axel just sweatdropped a bit while looking around lightly "i don't see or sense anyone else around at the moment..." he said, clearly keeping an eye out for Kefka as well, though he was keeping an eye on Shiro as well at the moment since letting him out of everyone's sights was not a good idea if Kefka -was- hiding in the shadows.

Roveth had frowned a bit lightly hearing that "great... they leave me alone, yet as usual, go after the entirely innocent good guy in my light half." he just sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose with his eyes closing, definitely a new record for Shiro's magnetism, and it just doesn't stop? fun...

Maka and soul looked a bit surprised, thinking about it "oh man, we need to tell Shinigami-sama that it's a false alarm!" of course, Maka seemed to be looking for a window or a reflective mirror or something right quick nearby to use. Soul however frowned a bit "tch... well, if there is more meisters coming i know two sets of people who might... and unfortunately, one of them while we're good friends... he's a bit over the top and arrogant." he said, rubbing the back of his neck a bit, leaving Shiro and Roveth to sweatdrop, the former thinking of course, something rude about another arrogant over the top a*****e he knows... (Cue Gilgamesh sneezing.)  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Wait, did she just say Shinigami-sama?" Roxas understood the meaning from an academic standpoint, but he was fairly certain in this context it was meant literally.

"That's what it sounded like," Xion had to agree that was what she'd heard too.

"Just what kind of place is this?" Roxas wondered to no one in particular.

"What's the matter, Roxas, don't think you can handle a little weirdness?" Riku smirked at him a bit mildly.

"I can handle it just fine," Roxas scowled at him. "I'm just not exactly sure what we've gotten ourselves into by coming here."

"It seems alright to me," Crystal pointed out. "I mean, we've already been here a few minutes and we haven't seen any Heartless. This place might be a bit strange, but it's probably safe, relatively speaking." She was sensing a bit of oddness here and there, but nothing overtly malicious at the moment.  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Maka had finally found a nearby window and begun her little trick to contact the death room "let's see... the number for Death's Room is..." she began writing it out, mumbling it out loud "42-42-564..." as she wrote it out on the glass, the glass beginning to ripple with energy, before it lit up and formed into a screen, showing a cartoony sky like room witha cloaked being and a very.. cartoony mask "hello hello, Shinigami-sama? it's Maka here, we just checked out that possible Kishin reading and unfortunately it was not an evil soul at all, just someone whose soul is... very odd." the cartoony wraith just bounced around a bit and then brought out a blocky foam-like hand to rub it's mask as if rubbing it's chin "really now...? well, if you're still with them, please bring them to DWMA or Dr. Stein's lab so we can analyze the signature and make sure we don't make mistakes again." Maka nodded, turning just as the screen popped out and the glow faded from the glass before a certain someone could butt in thankfully.

Shiro of course just sweat-dropped a bit at Roxas, looking over to him "it's actually not that hard, given there is Hades, the god of the dead at Olympus Colosseum and a,, this world might have it's own death god." he said, rubbing his chin, up until at least he heard an obnoxious laugh before he turned around, seeing a spiky blue haired individual wielding a Kusari-gama that seemed to be bladed on both ends "HA HA HA HA HA! looks like soul failed in his attempt at the Kishin, so now it's my turn, the man who will become the one who surpasses even the gods! Black Star!" of course, with that, he'd jump down off the roof, and begin attacking Shiro who clearly had a deadpan on his face while fending for himself -again- from someone.

Axel had of course blinked a bit, and looked at the blue haired kid sweatdropping a bit seeing him fight Shiro now, shaking his head "oh -great-... another weirdo pops up and he acts more arrogant than you Roveth." he said snarkily, looking to Roveth with amusement as he got a dirty look from said dark-half.

Roveth just groaned, and facepalmed once more, after giving Axel a dirty look indeed from his comments "even so, i think i'm gonna--" of course, around that time, apparently Black Star somehow managed to out-speed Shiro and got behind him, whirling to bring his elbow aiming right for Shiro's back "Killing Blow! Black Star Big Wave!" he called out, before a massive attack of Soul Wavelength had hit right into shiro, causing him to go wide-eyed, so much so that when the dome appeared, it actually exploded out, causing dust, and yet, not too long later a sword would come flying right out of the dust cloud and hitting the ground next to Roveth, and when the cloud cleared, all could be seen was a very confused Black Star, given there was no Kishin Egg to be devoured for Tsubaki, much less the remains of the guy he just hit. Roveth of course just blinked, and looked around a bit for Shiro "wait, where'd Shiro go?" of course, he hadn't thought to inspect the sword that just nearly took his arm off...  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"Well, we've finally come full circle. Shiro is now an actual, literal sword," Crystal commented while pointing to said sword briefly before rounding on the individual who had somehow put Shiro into this peculiar state of being. Crystal knew Black Star's type all too well. Impulsive, loud, and bad at listening to what anyone else has to say. Trying to reason with someone like that was only going to fall on deaf ears. So, instead of talking it out like she had with Maka and Soul, Crystal went on the offensive and she did it while moving fast. "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Crystal launched at the guy in a series of rapid-fire punches aimed strategically at vital points, striking multiple times in specific areas faster than the eye could follow so that to most the number of punches would appear far fewer than the actual number. There would most likely be a delayed reaction, but in all probability Black Star would collapse not long after being struck without any clue as to what had hit him.

"Crystal, how many times did you punch him anyway?" Roxas had to ask because he honestly couldn't keep count.

"I don't usually keep count, but probably at least fifty... maybe a hundred," Crystal answered with a vague shrug. She wasn't even tired from the exertion so clearly she wasn't even going all out when she did all that just now. "I dunno, it's hard to keep track. But, this guy looks like he's got a hard head so I had to be sure he'd go down from one attack or we'd be stuck here all day."

"That's one way to get things over with quickly," Riku didn't sound surprised in the slightest after watching Crystal go to town on Black Star after what he just did to Shiro.

"Now then, about Shiro..." Crystal glanced to the sword that had been displaced earlier. "And here I thought things couldn't get too much weirder for him."

"Did he really just transform into an actual sword?" Xion had to admit she didn't see any sign of Shiro elsewhere.

"By all accounts, that's exactly what happened," Crystal confirmed with another shrug. "Not really sure how, but apparently that's a thing he can do now."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

of course, with Black Star KO'ed, the kusarigama would transform back into what looked to be a young woman almost of riku's size/age with a fairly well developed body, moving to pick up Black Star "Black-Star!?" of course, she was surprised someone could attack so fast in melee combat like that, but once everyone seemed to focus on the sword, she would too, blinking "wait... a Demon weapon...?" she'd mutter, while Maka walked over, shaking her head a bit no no, apparently that guy you two attacked wasn't a Kishin at all, or a demon weapon... but what in the world..?" apparently she was confused too, before tilting her head "maybe he's like Soul? a true weapon, it just didn't manifest until now?"

of course an eye design would open on the sword hilt looking around, before downwards at itself, and then the freakout would occur in Shiro's voice "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!?!?!" cue said sword hopping around yelling obscenities and 'How the hell do i change back!?!?!' and it kinda left soul who was nearby just watching this laughing his head off seeing how freaked out the Shiro-turned-sword was acting, of course, this also led to Maka glaring at Soul a moment before bringing out a book from nowhere "Maka... CHOP!" and cue cartoony background with angry faces coming out to hide the violent slamming of book, bind first, into Soul's head, leaving him face first on the ground with smoke forming a skull over his indented head.

Axel just sweatdropped at the freaking out sword, while shaking his head "and here i thought Shiro's day couldn't get any wierder..." he would say, with Roveth seeming to nod exasperatedly a moment while looking to his light half "will you Calm down aibou! your freaking out isn't going to help things you know!" of course, this got a sword face to face with him "NEITHER IS ANYONE ELSE AT THE MOMENT, DAMMIT!" of course Roveth sighed, pushing Shiro-sword away groaning "ugh... this just isn't our day..."  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"I'm guessing that whatever this guy did," Crystal suggested while gesturing toward Black Star, "it triggered some kind of involuntary reaction from Shiro's Reality Marble." She of course looked to the sword hopping around in a panic. "Shiro, odds are if you can transform yourself into a sword, then you should be able to change yourself back. Maybe start by trying to focus on remembering the details of your human form. That, at least, might help."

"Who knew you could be so logical about a situation you've never experienced with Shiro before?" Riku smirked a bit mildly.

"It's easy when I have a basic understanding of how his abilities work and how the environment might be interacting with his oddly adaptive potential," Crystal responded with a shrug. "Clearly, he's tapped into something and we're going to need to help him to reverse it before we become sitting ducks for Kefka."

"That's a good point," Roxas agreed. "We might want to go someplace a bit less out in the open until Shiro manages to snap himself back to normal."

"And we might want to find the guy Crystal knocked out some medical attention," added Xion.

Crystal shook out her fists a bit while wincing slightly. "I doubt I did any permanent damage. That guy has a really hard head and thick skin to match."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Roveth shrugged a bit looking to Crystal "after about 147 hits on the guy, i really hope you knocked a few brain-cells loose so he can actually think with them." he said with a deadpan while looking to the currently silent sword, apparently Shiro had heard crystal, and was working on that. in either case he looked over to Roxas and nodded a bit lightly "you're probably right, we should get inside or something, at least away from this open area we landed in..." he said, frowning lightly.

Axel of course shrugged a bit as she at least moved and picked up Black Star, planning to follow everyone since they all seemed to be heading to the same place anyway, the school. "hmm.. still.. it -is- unusually quiet... hopefully it can stay like that, well... hopping around swords notwithstanding." he said with a smirk as the aforementioned sword gained an anger-vein, but still continued to focus.

Shiro thankfully, after a few more seconds, would start glowing with bluish-white light, and eventually returned to his normal self, though he did shake his fist at Axel "i aughta smack you one for that!" he'd say, getting chuckles from Roveth and Axel both, before he looked at his fist, and grinned, cheering about being back to normal, though spying the unconscious one he did look at him deadpan -almost- wishing to introduce him to a certain hammer in his reality marble at the moment, before looking to Maka and Soul, the latter of whom had gotten up by now with the book-indent in his head regardless. "i honestly have no idea how that attack of his actually did that to me, given while my Reality Marble makes me distorted.. it -should- be pretty stable... unless something about this place draws out my origin..." he then began muttering, apparently while Roveth was the technological genius, Shiro tended to be the one who could usually figure out most odd occurences to himself, but then a small spike of darkness would pick up, making him freeze mid thought, before frowning ".... uh.. guys? i think there might be heartless in the area... could be wrong but i just felt something dark..."

Maka just sweatdropped at Shiro's trying to reason out what had happened she'd look to Soul, who was looking sufficiently grouchy over the fact he was Maka Chopped again "ne.. Soul... do you think they're not telling us something?" she asked him in a whisper, causing him to stop his grouching and look at Maka, then glance to the others, before whispering back "maybe, but it doesn't seem like much our business, given they're hunting for some homicidal clown or something." of course, when Shiro picked up on the spike of darkness, Soul would at least go back to Scythe mode just in case these' heartless' were Kishin or something, they had no idea what they were getting into.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

Shiro wasn't wrong about there suddenly being Heartless in the area. Even if the others hadn't already sensed them coming at roughly the same time they would have soon seen the slippery bastards rising up from inky black clouds of darkness in the surrounding streets with the oddly snake-like Heartless wiggled around unpredictably and shot off at odd angles in almost arrow-like trajectories.

"I haven't seen Heartless like these before," Riku mentioned first before tearing into them with his Way to the Dawn and all. Well, he tried to at least, but the way they moved was making it difficult to get a read on them so aiming was a bit tricky.

"Me neither," Crystal added as she materialized Light's Shadow to have a got at them herself. "Must be a new variety unique to this world." As difficult as these Heartless were to hit because of their movements it quickly became apparent that when they did manage to hit them these Heartless were sturdy enough that they didn't immediately fade away after being struck. And in the back of Crystal's mind she could swear there was something fundamentally wrong about these particular Heartless like they weren't normal, but they also weren't like the usual emblem Heartless she had encountered either.

Roxas was having slightly better luck with his dual wielding style, probably because striking with both Oathkeeper and Oblivion made him more likely to actually land a hit on these oddly moving Heartless, although the way they moved also reminded him a bit of fighting off Dusks. "These guys are pretty strange as far as Heartless go," Roxas pointed out as they all struggled to determine the most effective method of fighting these particular Heartless.

Surprisingly, it was Xion wielding the Sweetstack who drew first blood on these bizarre Heartless. The properties of that specific Keyblade seemed to bypass the defenses of the snake-like Heartless, but of course this outcome only raised more questions than it answered. Mainly, because, when Xion drew first blood, these Heartless seemed to actually bleed. And the blood that spattered onto the surrounding roadway, before being absorbed into other Heartless, appeared to be black in color.

"There's something seriously wrong about these Heartless," Xion had dealt with her share of Heartless in the past and she was fairly certain that regular Heartless didn't bleed. Never mind the factor of it being black blood.

"No kidding," Riku had to agree. "There's something seriously not right about this."

"Well, we're still going to have to beat them," Roxas realized. "I mean, if these Heartless are strong enough to give us trouble, then they're probably going to be even worse for the locals."

"We do know one thing," Crystal pointed out. "It's a little ridiculous to look at, but that Keyblade we all got from those key chains they were giving away at the ice cream shop seems to pack a real punch." Crystal had gone ahead and materialized her own Sweetstack into her offhand to see for herself if it made any significant improvement to her damage output. The fact that the Heartless being struck by it were exploding left and right seemed like a pretty good indication that it was apparently working. "These things are amazing!"  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Shiro of course, when the heartless showed up, immediately summoned Revival and Ancient once more, and this time didn't reinforce his body just in case channeling Prana while being hit by that ninja kid's moves were what did that, and begun swinging both keyblades at the heartless as well, it wasn't long after that he was both getting frustrated at the slithery movements of the snakes when he had glanced to Xion, spying her using the Sweet-stack keyblade he smiled a little, but then looked confused at the fact of the heartless actually bleeding this time made him sweat-drop, even more-so when he saw the blood being black in color "... why in the world is the blood black..?" he muttered, before flicking out his other hand, summoning Ancient, only this time he tossed Revival into the air, and proceeded to switch key-chains on Ancient, to his own Sweet-stack keychain, and once catching the falling keyblade, would start working towards bashing around the heartless once more, this time actually causing damage by using a feint with Revival, only to swing around Sweet-stack to counter and go around the snake-like heartlesses defenses. of course, once they were starting to move sneakier like, he finally got pissed off, and let off a frustrated growl, before heat started swelling up through his body, as once again the Ifrit Magicite resonated within him and shot into the -barrier- to merge with Shiro, causing him to immediately gain fire red and orange hair that seemed to be literally glowing, flame motif clothes similar to what he was wearing now, rings of flames forming along his ankles and wrists once more, before he unleashed a light tinted fireball or three at the heartless "damnit.. JUST GO DOWN!"

Roveth actually would do something similar, only instead of Tenebrex being used, it was lockdown being replaced with sweetstack, and though he was insanely curious about this black blood, dealing as much damage as possible, while also moving to at least keep Tsubaki and Black Star safe from the heartless.

Axel seemed to be working towards just using Sweetstack straight up, but he did fight with Maka and Soul, who seemed to be having trouble fighting the wily heartless as it was "calm down miss, let us handle these pests." he said with a bit of a smile, while Roveth and Shiro both eyerolled in the background as they fought.

Maka had been whipping Soul around in Scythe from to try and attack the creatures, but given their wily movements and the fact even if Soul could hit them, the scythe blade would definitely not do much in particular as she stepped back, only batting the heartless when she could towards Axel or the others, unable to do much at this point even though she was weirded out... where did those key-looking swords come from anyway!?!? ~wait.. black blood? hold on! maybe whoever that witch was that sent that demon swordsman has to be behind these changed heartless thingies!~ she thought quickly, looking surprisingly serious watching the black blood splattering everywhere, also looking very careful just in case.


meanwhile, out of the shadows (and a Corridor of Darkness) a certain blonde haired 'killer clown' would appear near where Medusa was most likely watching the fight with the heartless. of course, seeing the black blood he'd raise an eyebrow a bit "Mwee hee Hee Hee...? that is an interesting change you made to those heartless.not just related to your snake theme going on but also that interesting blood..." he said, grinning his slasher smile "in fact... allow me to introduce myself.. my name is Kefka Palazzo, and i have a small... experiment i'm working on... ooh!" of course he was distracted with the interesting form Shiro took "yesss.... it seems he has acclimated to the first stage... so, how would you like to help me with my experiment on the boy with your interesting black blood.. hmmmm?"  

[[XIII] Roxas]

"It sounds interesting," Medusa was indeed surveying the action from an obscured position a safe distance away to avoid being detected. "Yes, he seems like a prime candidate for my black blood experiments. Kefka, was it? You can call me Medusa." So saying, she then withdrew a syringe from her sleeve to hold out in offering. "For the best results it would be best not to let any go to waste," she recommended with a slightly sadistic smile.


Shiro wasn't the only one getting serious. Crystal's own Drive Form was in the process of activating as Light's Shadow resonated with another of the summons residing within Crystal. In her mind Crystal heard a strong, familiar voice. "Take up my blade and none shall stand in your way," the voice belonged to Odin. Crystal nodded in understanding as the clear quartz portion of Light's Shadow went jet black speckled with spots of light giving the impression a starry night sky.

"Drive Form: Dark Matter Formation! Zantetsuken Blade!" Crystal called out as the transformation of Light's Shadow was completed and she rushed into the Heartless slicing them down with even greater ferocity than before. Each Heartless struck by either Light's Shadow or Sweetstack was instantly annihilated by the sudden drastic increase in Crystal's critical damage output. This was helped along tremendously by the fact that she was quick on her feet and the longer she fought these bizarre snake-like Heartless the more precise her strikes would become.

"That's a neat trick," Riku commented with regards to Shiro's full body transformation upon activating his Drive Form with Ifrit. Crystal's was a bit more subtle as it only physically changed the appearance of Light's Shadow, but the resulting damage was difficult to deny. "Roxas, did you know your girlfriend is secretly a powerhouse?" Riku couldn't help himself, although truth be told seeing Shiro and Crystal in action like this was almost making him feel a little inadequate even though he was holding his own just fine.

"It's not exactly a secret," Roxas quipped back. He had to admit that his usual approach with Oathkeeper and Oblivion wasn't very impressive at the moment. They had excellent synergy against most normal varieties of Heartless, but the extra defense these new ones were packing was making it hard for him to do enough damage to them to finish them off quickly. So, he switched to his own Sweetstack, which seemed to be the impromptu weapon of choice for this battle, and Total Eclipse+ for an extra boost in strength to really tear into the snake-like Heartless like he meant it.

"I think we might have another problem," Xion pointed out as the more of the strange Heartless were defeated the more those that remained absorbed the residual black blood that had been spattered causing them to grow in size and also become more spastic and unpredictable in their movements. "The survivors are getting stronger for every one we defeat."

"This is going to be a long day," Crystal muttered as she kept right on slicing and dicing her way through the Heartless. She didn't know what this black blood thing was about, but she was pretty sure she wasn't going to like it. "Bring it on! I was in a bad mood anyway!" she growled out as a battle cry as she rushed another Heartless and swiftly bisected it with Light's Shadow.

"She's a real charmer that one," Riku raised an eyebrow at the blatant animosity Crystal was demonstrating toward the Heartless. Being reminded of Kefka must have seriously agitated the more typically docile warrior.

"Be glad she isn't venting her frustration out on you," Roxas retorted while beating down a few more of the snake-like Heartless himself. "You'd probably lose."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Kefka eyed the syringe and grinned a bit holding up his finger "one moment while i work to procure the experiment then, though if you have some way of making the blonde female keyblader knock herself out it'll make my job easier and i can get a bit of revenge on my experiment's guardian shadow brat. Mwee Hee Hee Hee!!" he said, readying a small crystal in hand which was glowing a bright blue in color, fully planning to use the chaos a nd destruction to hide that crystal on Roveth's person and blow him hopefully to smithereens. of course one look at the battle he'd notice something and smirk a bit, seems this worlds denziens just love attacking without much information.


Shiro of course continued to launch explosive fireballs and slash through what remaining smaller heartless there was before skidding around on a trail of fire to face the largest one with a frown. "that one... is going to be a bit harder to punch through methinks." he said while glancing to the pale face of Tsubaki who had watched the much larger Heartless form and all.


Roveth continued swinging and finishing off his few heartless left when the big one showed up as maka slumped to her knees in fright and all. "oh goodie, this just gets better and better..." he said sarcastically while bringing out and setting a few defensive traps to protect Maka and Soul as he readied more cards just in case, sweetstack in hand while having to summon away his other keyblade to utilize the cards.


Axel of course stuck close to Xion and helped her as best he could while cheering on Shiro and the explosions. hey, gotta let his inner pyro out sometime! either way he was keeping a general eye on Roxas too just in case and had his free hand in his pocket where his morpher was just in case he needed the extra firepower and all.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

With more planning time, Medusa might have come up with some way to combat the girl Kefka had pointed out, but doing so right now would only blow her cover. Besides that, she was going to need more information about these strange key-shaped weapons this unusual group was swinging around. They certainly weren't students of the academy. Medusa was certain of that much, meaning the Keyblade wielders were probably outsiders like that peculiar dog-man who had appeared before her with the Heartless she had taken for her experiments. It would certainly explain why their weapons appeared to be the only ones to actually be effecting the Heartless, although even they seemed to be struggling with the larger ones.


"I'm not done yet!" Crystal called out holding Light's Shadow toward the much larger Heartless. Activating her Limit Break while in Drive Form naturally caused it to become upgraded into a much more powerful Final Limit, although using it would very definitely deplete the rest of Crystal's Drive Gauge. "Kaleidoscope Cannon!" Crystal declared as light flowed through the blade and began shooting out a barrage of bursting prismatic shots onto the Heartless. She actually managed to eliminate a good number of the remaining Heartless before the gauge depleted and Light's Shadow reverted back to normal.

"Thanks Axel," Xion would have liked to say that she didn't need help and that she could handle herself just fine, but the truth was that she was pretty out of practice and it was her first time fighting with the Keyblade since her restoration in Radiant Garden and fighting with her own strength was very different from the strength she had once stolen away from Roxas. She was nowhere near as powerful as that anymore and that was something to be very thankful for. It was also hard to compare to what Shiro and Crystal were both capable of, although right now she was a little more worried about the latter because she definitely hadn't seen Crystal fight so aggressively before now and it seemed dangerous for her to be carrying on that way. "She's being too reckless," Xion mentioned to Axel. It looked like Roxas was trying to stick close to her, but Crystal wasn't making it easy the way she kept throwing herself at the Heartless. Xion and Axel still had their hands full with fighting off their own share of the Heartless too.

Of course, Roxas wasn't the only one watching Crystal like a hawk. Riku hadn't even bothered to yell at her today about trying not to overdo it so he wasn't surprised that she was going overboard. And it was way too late now to try to stop her at this point. Sooner or later she was either going to push herself too far or she was going to get sloppy. Once that happened someone was going to have to get her out of there. "Talk about getting seriously carried away," Riku shook his head as he struck down a few more Heartless with his Way to the Dawn. "Roxas, you better not take your eyes off her!"

"Like I need you to tell me that!" Roxas retorted. Seriously, this wasn't like before in Radiant Garden or any of the other times they had met when he hadn't known how to approach Crystal because they didn't really know each other. His own Sweetstack and Total Eclipse+ became enveloped in light as he activated his own Limit Break, Event Horizon, to cut down the Heartless in his path with even greater strength than before while moving quickly to try to close the gap between his position and where Crystal was still going all out against another of the larger Heartless.

"Guess that's one thing less for me to worry about," Riku gave a slight smirk as Roxas took off in defiance. It was satisfying to know that he had been right in thinking those two would make a good match for each other, although it was still surprising how quickly they had managed to hit it off. "Not bad."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Kefka had noticed this, and shrugged, smirking a bit "mwee hee hee hee! it's alright, i think i have an idea to deal with them then." he said, idly continuing to watch, and seeing the perfect time to appear, he would at least teleport out of sight and get into place when he could at least watch the fireworks before he showed himself and all, suppressing his darkness to a very minute level once more and all.


Shiro meanwhile just sighed, seeing the larger heartless taken out all too quickly so instead of continuing to fight he would cancel out his Drive mode, returning to normal as he brought up his hands to look at them a bit, wondering where he kept getting that surge of power from, and partly wondering if it was from that b*****d Clown until he brought his head around to look at the others, only to hear from behind ". . . . . Death Cannon!" causing him to turn right around towards two large spiraling blasts of energy coming right for him, and we can insert the comical Kaboom! here. of course, at this time an odd black and white haired kid would show up holding a pair of guns wierdly (i always consider the upside down holding of his guns being inherely -stupid-.) glaring at the skull-like smoke cloud and all, before the smoke was blown away by the wind, revealing an anger-vein throbbing Shiro, and... oddly enough a grinning mad clown? wait, how did one become two!?! oh, wait, the Clown probably showed up in the dust via teleporting. sneaky sneaky, either way he had his arm around Shiro smirking "my my my... getting ambushed three times in a row, seems to me that some people never learn... mwee hee hee hee hee!" of course, Shiro snapped his head to look at Kefka, and yelp out before ducking away from the arm around him and skidding back to hide behind Roveth "what the... WHEN THE HELL DID YOU SHOW UP!?!?!" cue scared as hell Shiro.

Roveth had been busy watching over Crystal until he heard -that- Voice, and as soon as he saw Shiro scramble to get away while Kefka casually turned to the group with his slasher smile and all he'd bring up Lockdown to point menacingly at Kefka "so you finally decided to show yourself, ya damn clown reject." of course, this got Kefka laughing while he glanced to Tsubaki and motioned for her to get to hiding, just as Maka got up and had already headed off to go find the one who attacked Shiro AKA the black haired kid to berate him on attacking an innocent person and all, but Roveth's main focus was on protecting Shiro, and possibly dishing out another beating to Kefka if he could manage it.

Axel of course had nodded to Xion with a smile "no problem Xion, gotta stick together in times like these." he said, while unleashing his own Limit Break Explosion, using slashes of keyblades, and his appearing chakrams to finish off the heartless they were facing, though when he heard Shiro's shout he'd snap his head around almost fast enough to give Whiplash and looked right at the smirking clown, before shuddering "oh... kay. i can now see why everyone who'se met the guy is nervous around him... he looks like a serial killer dressed as a gay clown." of course, Kefka scoffed at that and gave Axel a dirty look.  

[[XIII] Roxas]

With the Heartless threat more or less neutralized by the time Kefka had made his appearance, Crystal would have immediately thrown down Sweetstack and Light's Shadow causing both blades to vanish before she reached over and tapped the screen of her digital storage device masquerading as a wristwatch causing the Dragon Blade katana and a fiery broadsword, the Phoenix Blade, both to materialize from within with the latter being swung around to become strapped to her back while the former was held firmly in hand.

"Kefka, you stay the bloody hell away from Shiro!" Crystal pointed the silvery blade of the serpentine blue dragon-hilted katana at the aforementioned crazed clown. Blue colored electricity crackled along the blade forming into a draconic aura. "Blade of the Midnight Dragon!" Crystal declared as she raised the blade toward the sky and a massive blast in the shape of a serpentine blue dragon ascended from the blade to begin spewing electrified energy bursts at Kefka while also aiming to dive-bomb the evil clown whereupon it would explode on contact. Crystal then drew the fiery broadsword from her back and striking it into the ground at her feet. "Nova Strike!" she called out as a column of fire then shot out from the ground directly beneath Kefka. Keeping one hand on the hilt of the Phoenix Blade to sustain the firepower, Crystal used the other to make rapid swings with the Dragon Blade sending out unseen bladed wind projectiles to add into the mix attempting to put even more pressure on the crazed clown. "Windblade Strike!"

Roxas was finishing off the few remaining Heartless in the immediate area to keep them away from Crystal, being surprised and more than a little alarmed when she suddenly abandoned the use of her Keyblades in favor of slightly more conventional looking swords. Not that he didn't know what she was thinking because Kefka's sudden appearance in such close proximity to Shiro would have been hard to miss. Even if he might have stood the best chance, Roxas seriously doubted anyone could really call Crystal off now that she was going all out against Kefka. He and Riku hadn't arrived until after Kefka had beaten Cloud and Leon in Radiant Garden, but they'd seen the resultant damage. There was a very good chance that Crystal's plan, as impressive as it looked from where Roxas was standing, might backfire and all Roxas could really hope to accomplish at this point would be to bail her out if it did.

Riku was on the move too, heading for Shiro and Roveth to give them a bit of extra support against Kefka. Kefka had already confirmed one of Riku's own suspicions about the evil clown having the ability to teleport and that in itself was going to make him very problematic to deal with. Of course, even Riku had to admit he was both surprised and a little impressed by the sudden and highly unexpected display of firepower from the rather flashy technique that Crystal was employing against Kefka although he seriously doubted even all that was going to do much. Still, if the rest of them were lucky, that whole over-the-top display might at least provide a decent diversion.

"No question, that guy is definitely after Shiro," Xion could tell that much from the way Kefka had suddenly appeared and the way he had singled Shiro out specifically when he had made his entrance. It was no wonder that both Crystal and Roveth were so upset, although Xion was becoming increasingly surprised by the amount of firepower Crystal seemed to be packing today considering her usual fighting style was so much more calm and casual, using only as much power as was necessary for the battle, but right now she was going into full blown overkill territory. It was more disconcerting, of course, because Crystal wasn't sharing her strategy with anyone, assuming she even had a strategy right now. "We could really use a plan about now..."  

[Kuukyo_Fushichou]

Kefka of course just snorted a bit, seeing Crystal's assault coming for him, granted, he'd at least try to block most of the damage via the dragon she fired, but when it became he was enveloped in smoke from that and the attacks he would call up a couple of barriers, even within the flames, and smacked the wind blade projectiles to the sides, and once she was 'done' with the attacks, the smoke would clear, showing a not so giggly clown, given his clothes -were- slightly singed it seemed from the assault "now that was just a bit rude! i haven't even said Hello and you go and attack me.. well for that, you can take a nap!" with that, he'd unleash an orb of green-black energy which flung at Crystal.. and unleashed into the most destructive spell known probably in Crystal's lore: Ultima, meaning it'd form the massive green dome of doom of destructive magics pretty much trying to vaporize Crystal in one shot (it won't, but it'd definitely do a good deal of damage.)

Roveth of course narrowed his eyes, though he hadn't attacked Kefka yet himself, he was on the verge to to get Crystal out of there, but it seemed a -bit- too late when that Ultima went off, causing Shiro and Roveth to go wide-eyed, before Roveth's eyes inverted, and went blood red and slitted, and Shiro started slipping into his cold killer mode "grr... how... dare you... you won't... get away... with this!!!" he roared out, before bringing up three cards, glowing black in color as if he was about to re-activate -that- again, causing the clown to immediately notice the threat, and teleported amongst Riku, Roveth and Shiro, nabbing Shiro by the back of his shirt collar "sorry, Mwee Hee Hee Hee... wasn't planning to stay very long anyway." he said, and sure enough, the clown would teleport away once more, cackling all the while, but it seemed he left something right underneath Roveth when he heard a hissing sound, and a sharp crack, he'd look down, just as he was enveloped in a pillar of blue magical energy: Hypernova. cue Roveth's pained and anguished scream.

Axel of course went wide-eyed at how fast Kefka could be especially when he got teleporting around, even he couldn't catch up to him and he was probably one of the faster of the ones still out of it! "s**t!" he'd call out, and tried to nab at the reappearing Kefka and Shiro, before the clown tsk'ed, and brought up his hand "Talk to the Barrier! Mwee Hee Hee Hee!" and sure enough, Axel would get swatted away like a fly by a forming black barrier as he chopped Shiro's neck, knocking him out "and to that, i bid you all.. a quick Adieu~!" he'd then teleport away fully, his signature no longer in the area, only thing still there technically is his echoing cackle.