As he had started following the knight, Stratos looked over to see that Steel had been accompanying him as well, to which he just waved to him and said, "hey there. Nice to see that no problems happened in your transit here." After that, the boy looked forward, watchign what was transpiring with his white haired friend. Letting out a combination of both a sigh and a chuckle, Stratos brought his face to his palm as he said, "you know we can still see you right?" After that, the trio had continued to move forward and follow after the knight Phoebus down a large, winding staircase before they were met with a rather unpleasant looking fellow who went by Frollo, made only more so by the group happening to find him in a dungeon of all places. As the two began to converse, Stratos followed behind as there seemed to be some kind of issue in this world of "Paris." As he looked outside to see who these "gypsies" were, Stratos was briefly equally as curious and baffled as the knight when it came to what the problem actually was. While Stratos could not immediately see anything wrong with these gypsies, Frollo seemed to insist that they were a plague upon the world. As Stratos turned to look at the man, his expression became more serious as he saw darkness flicker off the man while he went on a demonstration through killing ants. Stratos was a bit concerned as to what it meant as he said, "what the-?" However, before the boy could finish the darkness had disappeared off his person. Phoebus seemed to not take note of it all, leading Stratos to think that this was just one of the perks of being in the UG. Looking to the rest of the party, knowing what he did about heartless, the boy simply said, "well that's dangerous. Both for him and everyone else."
After having bested the broken keyblade wielder, they seemed to still have some manner of confidence in themselves to complete whatever it was that they were attempting to do. As they had left the area, memories started to flood through Marley's head again, as they were reminded that they didn't know at least one of these people before but the whole of them. After shaking their head a bit, the meaning of the name "LIGHT" was made apparent to them as well, which the keyblade wielder couldn't help but chuckle a bit at. However, as these thoughts had all passed through their head, it seemed that they weren't the only one who had remembered these things. In fact, everyone else had seemed to know just who the rest of the group were and that they had been doing things for at least a year prior to this. Well, that felt all well and good. As they were starting to recollect themselves from the fight, at Alder's question of who "Aevum" was, Marley tried to search their head to see if they had any kind of recollection as to what that name meant. However, no matter how hard they thought on it, nothing was coming up so they could only help but shrug. Once everyone had settled though, they had decided that now was indeed the time to get a move on get going from this area. Marley couldn't help but agree, as they didn't really want to spend much time in this desolate looking place, and so looked along the two available routes to them. One looked clearly more safe and to some form of civilization. However, the other... "Whoa," they exclaimed looking at the dark mist and heard the whispering noises coming from the dirt path. "Man, that place looks pretty spooky." While they seemed like they were about to say something beyond that, they heard Kara speak up about going down the paved path. A disappointed expression crossing their face, Marley said, "ah come on. That place is way cooler," they pointed towards the darkness. It definitely looked like there was something neat down that road. Or some kind of radiation poisoning. One of the two. However, they shrugged, still disappointed saying, "but if we want to go the more boring route, then I guess so."
Being in the Underground was a bit of an interesting experience for Stratos. He had tried to hide in the background before, but it was something else entirely to be the background. With no one really paying him any mind, simply because they couldn't, Stratos had just stood back and watched as the girls he had been here with did all the talking. A bit curious as to where the other Underground members were, Stratos wasn't entirely sure if they were invisible to him as well, and so he was able to shrug it off for now. Eventually, the conversation between the three females and this somewhat out of place knight looking fellow. However, as the knight had eventually been called away and the girls were directed towards the place known as "Notre Dame," Stratos thought about something for a moment. Other people couldn't see him, and he was kind of curious as to what this guy was going to talk to this "Frollo" about. They didn't really know who either the monster or the man was, so finding out more info was always good. Looking to Aislinn, Stratos said, "I'm going to go check out that Phoebus guy and see what's up with him. Never know, might find out more. Good luck with Notre Dame." With that, the boy waved and started walking after the captain.
Combination attack for Marley, let's go.
Grinning as the barrage of attacks went through successfully, Marley saw that the heartless were starting to glitch out again and were practically no longer even there. Because of this, the rest of the group was able to close the distance and get ready to strike the broken keyblade wielder. However, as things seemed to started to look they were nearing their conclusion for the group, they took a sharp turn southward. As the group was knocked back by a large pulse of darkness, Marley felt their consciousness fade once again, as they slammed against the ground. However, this was short lived (or short dead?) as they felt a cure spell wash over them once again. Shaking their head to get their senses back, Marley looked at Ria with a fury in their eyes. Marley then felt a familiar saying going through their head, something to the like of, 'knock me out once, shame on you. Knock me out twice, and I'll get pound your face into oblivion.' Well, something like that. As they got up, ready to attack the broken keyblade wielder, Marley then felt a flash of memories go through their head, looking somewhat confused before saying, "again?" However, this time, as they focused on the memory, they realized something. It was of them doing some kind of attack. A really awesome one at that. And so, nodding to themselves, Marley looked back to Ria saying, "I'll show you a trick of my own as thanks for that." With that, Marley pointed their keyblade towards the hooded figure, a light starting to shine from the keyblade as Marley ACTIVATED GUIDING LIGHT. It was only after they started this that they remembered that this wasn't actually something they did by themselves. So, they just kind of hoped everyone else would pitch in as well, otherwise that would be really awkward.
Impre- I mean uh, favorite beverage?
After she accepted his handshake, she seemed try to reaffirm what she was trying to say earlier. He understood what she was trying to say, but Stratos didn't quite agree with it. The only thing that mattered in his life right now was the people in the SOS group; becoming a master, fighting heartless, saving worlds all alongside them. As such, passing up the test had never been an option from the beginning. As Yue opened the portals up to the worlds they were going to travel through, Stratos looked at his keyblade to see the mission engraved into it. It seemed like a pretty simple mission but given the test at hand, he doubted it'd hardly be as straight forward. Regardless, as his partner had started to go on her way through the portal Stratos nodded saying, "good luck to you too." With that, Stratos walked through the portal and went on his way to the UG.
Equipment For Brawl/Bodyguard Missions Equipping Blessed Thief For Musical Missions Equipping Counterpoint For Boss Missions Equipping Oathkeeper (3 years) Equipping the Moogle Badge Accessory Skill Commands Fira Cure Splattercombo Stopga Vorpal Blitz New Total HP: 50 (+6) MP: 5(+3) Strength: 20 (+5) Speed: 20 Defense: 10 Magic: 30 (+5) Resistance : 11 AP: 50 (+3)
As the duo had gone to strike the broken keyblade wielder, they were expecting some kind of resistance from them. After all, they seemed to be pretty confident in their strength, having declared themselves to be far stronger than the group at present, and being able to summon and control this many heartless was likely no small feat. Besides, they also had a keyblade of their own, so that must've been they were some kind of combat ready. However, both Marley and Alder's strikes seem to go completely unhindered. It looked as though the cloaked figure had seemed like they were trying to defend themselves, but with how easily the attacks hit, they might as well not have been to begin with. After getting the strike in, Marley then saw that the person was going in for a counter attack of their own. Still expecting something big, after all they might've been strong just not all that fast, Marley put their keyblade up to defend against the attack, bracing themselves as the hit struck and...."huh?" The attack had hit them, giving off a slight sting but compared to the heartless that had been attacking them prior, it felt like minnow to a shark. The cloaked figure looked like they had tried their best in the attack, yet, there was just not really anything substantial there. Realizing that there was no follow up to the attack, Marley's prior frustrations seemed to turn into some manner of joy, as a grin started stretch across their face. "Well if that's all then-" before they could finish their statement something ran through their head. Instictively looking back, Marley looked to the blonde girl, then to the one being carried through the swarm, wondering just what that was. No. Now was not the time to be lost in thoughts. Instead, it was the time to pummel this heartless summoner. Blood boiling, adrenaline pumping and a burning sensation to defeat the opponent before them, Marley's gripped their keyblade tighter, going back on the offensive and saying, "my turn!" Bringing their keyblade down in an arc, Marley let down one slash. Following this up they brought the blade in an arc following the same path back upward, only to then finish this chain of attacks by holding their keyblade like a bat and striking in a horizontal swing, slightly pivoting on their foot as the attack finished. Words: 400 BP Spent: 20 Damage Dealt to Ria: 20
Rushing through the swarm of heartless, Marley and the Alder person seemed to be making some good headway on the fast track to getting to this Ria person. However, as they kept pressing forward, the heartless swarm around the broken keyblade wielder seemed to take on a far more aggressive and offensive stance towards them. All of them starting to rush towards them, with not a single one of them seeming to vanish into thin air as they normally would, Marley knew they couldn't dodge this large scale of an attack. Summoning their keyblade back to their hand, the wielder tried to defend against it, but no matter where the blade was, there was simply a shadow in every area it wasn't. Having the claws raking across their body, Marley stumbled a bit finding it hard to stand until finally they couldn't take any more. Falling face down to the ground, Marley couldn't manage to stand up as their consciousness started to wane. Their hearing was starting to fail them as the world around them started to go black, barely picking up at all anything the people around them were saying until Marley couldn't move any longer. However, this moment of being helpless was quite transient, about only a few seconds at most, as an oddly refreshing wave of energy pulsed over them. As they felt their senses start to return to them, Marley's hand momentarily twitched as they attempted to get a feeling of the area around them. While they heard Alder's plan for what to do against Ria, they didn't quite hear it all that much. As they started to pick themselves Marley brought their keyblade and swiped it into the air, mimicking what Alder had just done and sending a small wave of healing to mend both the wounds of Alder and themselves. Gritting their teeth, their body starting to feel much more up to the task of fighting, Marley yelled out, "I'll mess your covered up face right good you heartless summoning uh," Marley struggled trying to think of a way to end the insult, but failed to finish the thought before just saying, "ah forget it." With that, they simply started to rush forward, circling around Alder so as not to actually hit him. Gripping their keyblade tighter, Marley leaped at Ria from the side, aiming to get a solid strike with their keyblade at the cloaked figure. Words: 403 BP Spent: 20 Healed Alder and Marley for five Attack Ria for 10
After he had asked his question, and the rest of the people getting over their shell shocked by the appearance of the city and sky, Yue had started to explain just where it was they were. Apparently this Shibuya district was somewhere in some world between realms that acted as a gateway to other worlds. She had also described what the purpose behind them locking the keyholes in worlds so far had been, but also how it only contributed to an almost revolving door problem due to their being dark mirrored version of the worlds and their keyblades. However, before she could finish giving her explanation on the matter, she was interrupted by a new, pretty suspicious looking person. While the two seemed to have some long back and forth, delving further into what it was that Yue did here before she became a keyblade master, Stratos was somewhat lost by the whole thing. But at the end of the day, they were explained what it was they were going to be doing, and with that, given a pin. As Stratos caught the pin, he examined the rather unsettling looking thing before pocketing it. With that done, and the group partitioned into different pairs, Stratos looked to Yue saying, "don't worry, we won't let you down in these games." Looking to who he had been paired with, Stratos recognized it was the oldest of the newcomers. He was pretty neutral about her, all things considered, and she had helped them out quite a bit in the last fight. And despite her worry over the "children" Stratos likely falling into that category himself and wanting to help rig the game in their favor, it didn't seem like she was a bad person or anything. So, Stratos simply walked over to the girl and gave out his hand to shake hers. "It'll be a pleasure to work with you for this mission," he started with. "I know we didn't really get to introduce ourselves to each other back in the castle, but I'm Stratos. And, if it's alright by you, I'd like to take the position of going in the underground. I might not look like much but." He looked straight at the woman, a confident smile on his face before saying, "I'll show you you don't have to worry too much about us."
Equipping all my abilities, Hunter's Mist, and Trip Around the Sun (equals 50 AP exactly)
Watching the chunk of ice fly through the swarm of heartless, they soon vanished and with it, any sort of protection that the broken keyblade wielder had. Grinning triumphantly as the blizzard spell had struck Ria, let out an "ah yeah!" While the broken keyblade wielder didn't actually seem all that phased by it, the effects of the attack and the implications behind it were clear enough. When the heartless that had vanished reappeared, it seemed as though the swarm around them was far less in number, a large chunk of them being missing. As such, it lead Marley to the conclusion that Ria was quite clearly the weak point in this swarm, and so all they had to do was keep pummeling them! It was a simple enough solution, though, Marley was unsure of how open they would be in the coming attacks, and they weren't exactly able to just infinitely spam their spell over and over again. As such, Marley figured that the most direct way to get to the broken keyblade wielder was the simplest way. To just cut open a large swath through the rest of the creatures of darkness and barrel their way through. Gripping their keyblade tighter, Marley braced themselves, grin still on their face as they ran into the heartless swarm. Not being the first one into the swarm that was charging at RIa, Marely took note of the rather angered looking Alder as he had managed to cleave his way through four of the shadows in his path. Not one to be outdone, Marely ran at one of the shadows as it seemed to leap towards them, claws ready to dig into them. With a swift horizontal swing, Marley had managed to intercept the heartless's body with their blade, before completing the swing and sending the small creature towards another of its kind. As the two shadows had collided, the already injured one exploded upon impact, with the other stumbling back only to then be vanquished as a thrown keyblade smashed into it. Recalling the keyblade back to their side, Marley then quickly rushed forward, striking with an upswing towards one of the grounded heartless, knocking it clear into the air. Tossing their keyblade after the creature, Marley then looked to see another one leaping towards them. With a grin on their face, Marley's hands tightened into knuckles as they thought of trying to mimic what the silver haired kid had done. Standing their ground, Marley punched at the heartless, their fist colliding with the creature with solid impact before sending it hurtling into the rest of the swarm and disappearing upon crashing into something else. Looking at their hand, Marley said, "man that is a fun way of dealing with them." Words: 460 BP Spent: 20 Heartless Killed: 4 Heartless Remaining: 142
With everyone having said their goodbyes to Karina, and her giving an all too Karina farewell of her own, Stratos gave one last glance to her before she vanished alongside Lea. With all that done, they were all ready to get going and leave the grounds to take on this Mark of Mastery. Before they could leave, however, Dreamer had taught them a new spell to help fight in the coming battles. After receiving the aid of the white cloaked man, he left them to the guidance of Yue, who had resolved to take them to their next location. Bringing out a strange card, she tossed it to the ground before the group had been transported to a new location. Looking around, this world had been different from all the others he had been to so far. The buildings had stretched tall into the air, ones that were reminscent of the ruined structures of Rennshalt. However, the buildings weren't just great in size, they seemed to have odd fixtures to them, projecting images here and there. Despite being known as the underground and being within the realm of darkness, the sky seemed a bright, cloudless blue, making Stratos wondering just what exactly it was that this place was. Despite feeling somewhat out of place, Stratos looked to Yue saying, "so, now that we're here, what's the next part of this 'Reaper's Game'?"
After slaying some of the heartless, Marley wasn't making the most headway through the swarm to get to the keyblade wielder behind it. While they weren't alone in this endeavor, it seemed that trying to just carve out the whole of the heartless army at this point in time would be fairly difficult. Ah well, it wouldn't have been fun if there wasn't any challenge, and so they continued to psyche themselves up as they continued to move forward. However, before they could cut through more heartless, something weird happened. The heartless had completely vanished from their sight, leaving just the keyblade wielders standing with nothing to stop them. Raising an eyebrow at this, Marley was then completely caught off guard as the heartless had suddenly reappeared, all amassed and ready to strike at the keyblade wielders. Marley couldn't help give a startled expression as they leaped at them, causing Marley to flinch and thus mess up on their reactions. Trying to back step away from the heartless, they had managed to avoid getting swallowed by the swarm, though their claws had still scraped across their cheek and leg, causing fresh cuts to form across the afflicted area. While they started to feel the burn even more than they had been, and they weren't the most stable on their feet after having been struck by it, Marley's smile hadn't faded. The rush of combat was still flowing through them, as they looked towards the wielder of the broken keyblade, an idea seemed to be forming in their head. What had happened once might have been a fluke. What happened twice, however, was bound to happen again. Marley looked to see the rest of the keyblade wielders, some preoccupied with dealing with a swarm of shadows around the man named Cerdic, whistling at the sight saying, "hey at least you got a circle of fans now." Chuckling a bit at their own joke, Marley then looked to the silver haired boy before saying, "simple, you just gotta kill 'em all. Well, I suppose he could also learn to run, that'd probably help in a few moments." Not giving any more context to that, Marley then turned their attention away from the man being swarmed back to the keyblade wielder. Doing their best to get a clean shot at the keyblade wielder. Collecting magic at the tip of their keyblade, Marley looked towards Ria, waiting a bit, expecting the same vanishing act to happen again, before firing a magical chunk of ice from their keyblade at them. Words: 425 BP Spent: 20 Heartless Killed: ? Heartless Remaining: 212?
After having dispatched their own four heartless, Marley continued to keep on their toes, watching out for any sort of counterattack from the shadows. The little ankle biters kept running at them, which caused Marley to simply back step a bit and dodge out of the way from their claws slashing out at them. As they continued to move backward, they started to notice that everyone was getting to cutting through the heartless as well. Marley couldn't help but be in a bit of awe as they saw that everyone else in the party seemed to know some manner of magic, calling lightning, shooting ice and fire, one even stopping things. Boy were these people neat. Seeing the silver hair boy take their advice and go straight into punching the creature, Marley couldn't help but give a thumbs up and say, "hey, see you're getting the hang of it kiddo." After that, they then turned to see that the wave of heartless was starting to get more clustered in their approach, and started swarming at them all at once. Marley got themselves ready to dodge, only to then see that wave seemed to twitch or something, they weren't entirely sure. What they were sure of, however, was the heartless falling down onto them. Not quite expecting that from them, and even if they had it was still a bizarre enough attack, Marley was unable to dodge out of the way of all of them as the heartless had raked their claws against them as they hit them. While they felt a burning sensation run across them, Marely seemed to not mind it at all, simply having a fire burn in their eyes as the smile continued to stay on their face. Looking up, they noticed that a lot of the other people were starting to charge in a different direction then them. Not being one to be left out in the group, Marley simply passed by the blonde haired girl patting her on the back on the way saying, "hey nothing ventured right?" As they passed charged forward towards where the older man had charged to, Marley simply brought their keyblade down in a downward arc, destroying a heartless that had been leaping at them. With two more seeming to take a leap at them, as Marley got their posture back, they swung with a horizontal slash, destroying them before they could even get close. Hearing the one man, Cerdic, act all haughty, Marley briefly glanced over to see that he had completely missed his attack and tossed his keyblade aside in the most unceremonious of fashion. With absolutely no finesse, Marley simply chucked their keyblade at the heartless he had missed, destroying it on impact before calling it back to their hand. "All in the wrist." Word: 475 BP spent: 20 Heartless killed: 4 Heartless remaining: 240
As the group seemed to inform those who were new as to what was going on here, in as concise a manner as they could, they all started to get ready to move on. Dreamer assisted them in their lack of knowledge by handing over a book to them, one Stratos was positive he'd want to look over later, but paid no mind to it just this moment. As each and every one of them started psyching themselves up for the coming battle ahead, Karina had walked over giving Kaida her cloak back, and wordlessly going her own way. Stratos said nothing nor did he gesture to her as she left. If this was the path she was going to take, then he'd let her go down it herself, not needing to make sure she didn't self destruct along the way as it would only stop her from going further. Looking to everyone else he said, "yeah, let's show No Heart he won't have just two masters to worry about anymore." With that, he followed everyone to begin his Mark of Mastery Exam.
As the heartless started to encroach upon their position, Marley's grip on their keyblade tightened. While Marley was about to rush forward, they heard the silver haired boy shout something about remembering their name. They had forgotten? Man that must have sucked. But hey they remembered now, so that sucked less. Their grip laxing on the blade, the keyblade wielder gave a thumbs with a smile on their face Marley said, "hey good work kid." As the other man told him that he needed to also remember how to fight, Marley stated, "yeah, otherwise you'll get eaten. And getting eaten sucks. So try not to get eaten k, kid? Instead," twirling their keyblade around Marley noticed one shadow starting to get closer and tighetened the grip around their blade once more. Gripping it with both hands they ran over to it, and with a large upward arc, swung their keyblade striking the creature or darkness head on. As the blade impacted with it, the darkness seemed to bend around the blade, as it was being pushed upward until finally it was cleaved in twain. As the heartless was split in two, the darkness dissolved and the heartless was slain. "Do something like that," they said back to the silver haired boy. Twirling their keyblade about, the smile grew across Marley's face. Despite the decidedly awful situation they had found themselves in, and there still being a near uncountable swarm of heartless in front of them, Marley couldn't help but feel a sort of rush as the blood started really pumping through them. As a few more started to move towards them, Marley watched as another shadow tried to claw at their ankles, only for the keyblade wielder to back step and then stab downward with their keyblade. As they did, the heartless exploded quite like the first one had. Looking towards a few others, the keyblade wielder brought their keyblade down in one decisive slash, cleaving another in two, and then looking to see another near them prepping to leap. As it did, Marley quickly swiped their keyblade upward, knocking the shadow up as well, only to slash back downward as the shadow got within striking distance. As the blade connected, it spiked the heartless to the ground, causing it to burst on impact. Twirling their keyblade with a bit of a, "woo hoo," Marley turned to see the rest of the horde, their smile not at all leaving their face. "So who else wants to join in on the fun?" Words: 421 BP Spent: 20 Heartless left: 296
As Marley had made it outside alongside everyone else, they, as well as everyone else, were greeted with a figure before them. For whatever reason they were in a strange black garb, one that concealed the entirety of their body and face. Next they seemed to be pretty knowledgeable on the situation at hand, and seemed to know them pretty well already. Marley wasn't sure what to make of someone like this, and given that they seemed to be pressing Alder, who may or may not have had something to do with the machine known as the extractor exploding, they were starting to wonder if they were friend or foe here. It was a bit unnerving how familiar a tone this "Ria" spoke to them with, even more so how they seemed to know what they were doing prior to being in that cave. Nevertheless, the group continued to press question after question to this Ria, and while they seemed to wish to know whether or not the extractor extracted or exploded something, Marley didn't really say anything on the matter because they figured everyone else knew, they just weren't saying anything on it. Finally, though, the tensions caused by this being were a bit too much for everyone else to handle. With Alder attacking them, they seemed ready to retaliate, which made Marley a bit curious once seeing the weapon they were wielding. Looking back to their own keyblade, there was something off about it. But, that didn't stop Marley from taking a more aggressive stance as well, with a grin stretching across their face. They weren't sure if this person was an enemy or not in general, but at least at this moment, it was pretty clear. With the large swarm of creatures of darkness swarming behind them, Marley nodded at the blonde girl's suggestion saying, "Numero Uno's got it right. So you two," they looked over to Cerdic and Alder, "better stop the cat fighting and get ready to start the ass kicking." With that, though their blood was starting to boil with a need to hit stuff, the keyblade wielder kept themselves back for just a bit longer, waiting to see what these creatures would do.
Stratos listened as Yue had gone on to explain what it was they were doing. Whatever this Reaper Game was was something that was incredibly dangerous, and probably something that people never partook in willingly. With only two percent of the people actually completing it, the odds were pretty stacked against them. But, the odds were never in there favor, and he didn't really expect them just to start. Besides, given what Yue had said, this was a necessary next step in their journey if they were going to stop, well, everyone. Hellfire Club. Nequa. Aux. Vanitas. No Heart. All of them. Resting his keyblade on his shoulder he said, "yeah, you can count me in as well." There was no way he'd pass up on this chance, not after everything he had to endure and go through to get here. Light-heartedly he said, "besides, if only two percent pass, then that just means 14 out 700 do as well. And with all the people in the universe, I think that's a statistic we can meet." Looking to the new guy who seemed to be in complete confusion as to what was going on, he followed up on Xara's response to him. "Yeah, don't sell yourself short. You handled yourself pretty well against the witch, not sure we could've done it without you." With that, he briefly glanced over to Karina, wondering how she was taking this whole thing.
