Letting out an impressed whistle as Ignis let loose her combo, seeming to deal an impressive amount of damage to the heartless. After the combo was let loose, the dragon seemed to be on its last legs, and Stratos looked over to Ignis. "It might not be as showy as yours, but I got a follow up just as good." Spinning his key rifle, the began to crackle with energy as flame seemed to form in an orb shape at the end of his weapon. With all the energy starting to course through his body and through his weapon towards this singular point, the orb started to glow brighter as it began to expand, until the color of flame was replaced by a brilliant white light. With a press of the trigger, the sun shot forward towards the heartless, colliding with the creature and exploding into a massive sphere of white flame. Stratos used Trip Around the Sun.
Let's get to shootin'. Stratos used Combo again.
As Ignis seemed ready to go full out offensive against the Storm Rider, Stratos nodded saying, "I'm almost ready myself to get this thing over." Pointing his rifle at the heartless, the boy felt as though his strongest attack was just about prepared. It would just take a bit more work to get there. Stratos used Combo on the Storm Rider.
Stratos was a bit confused at why Ignis suddenly wanted new clothing saying, "I mean, I'm not sure how those relate, but I'm pretty frugal, so you can look to Steel for that." Stratos looked over to Luna, saying, "here, you look like you can use this." Stratos used Cura on Luna.
Stratos was a bit surrpised at the raw amount of elementals that were currently being maintained, but he looked between Steel and Ignis saying, "come on. It's not patronizing. It's uh, discussing. You know, reminding us about all the merits of a keyblade and - yeah, I guess that does sound pretty patronizing. My bad." With that, Stratos pointed his keyblade back at Storm Rider and fired off a few more shots from his key rifle. Stratos used Combo against Storm Rider.
"Meanwhile, this thing is even more convenient." Stratos gestured towards his key rifle, "don't even need to go through the trouble of throwing it." Stratos used Combo on Storm Rider.
After all the attacks had slammed against their flying target, Stratos looked back to Steel who had answered his question. The boy had a bit of a perplexed look on his face, not really sure he understood what it was that Steel had said, but shook it off all the same. "Well uh, glad to hear you're still fine." Yeah, that'll do. Aiming his rifle at the swooping dragon, the weapon began to glow a red color as a fireball formed at the end of it. Once it was fully formed, Stratos launched the orb of flame at the dragon. Stratos used Firaga.
Stratos wasn't quite sure what to make of the bird man's motives in trying to get equality for birds. He was pretty unsure about how things worked in this world, but Stratos figured that the bird was being both a bit unreasonable and extreme in his methods. As the group tried to talk him down though he shot Steel with a dart, leaving the boy briefly stunned, only for his focus to be brought back towards their opponent. Seeing a dragon like heartless erupt out from a plume of darkness, Stratos said, "well, I'd say that was unexpected but...Well, looks like we got our mission in front of us, team." Twirling his keyblade rifle around, after Steel had struck out at the giant heartless he said, "you feeling alright after that?" After that, Stratos channeled the light energy into his weapon, firing the magic into the ground. After a small pulse of light flowed through the ground, four pillars of light erupted upward, spinning around the boy. After a second or so, the pillars of light moved outward, colliding with the dragon heartless and exploding in a burst of light. Stratos used Faith.
As the group had managed to defeat the large army of penguin ninjas, the person Stratos supposed was the leader came out. The boy wasn't quite sure what to make of the man, Fairbeak, though it seemed that he was trying to make some kind of a revolution of birds happen. A real birdemic, if one would. Stratos kept his keyblade at the ready, thinking that they were about to come to blows with the man. He didn't really know what to expect from the bird, though he was certain that there was bound to be some kind of darker force at work here, and thus didn't go off guard. However, as the man seemed to spasm a bit, Stratos's stance loosened as he just seemed entirely confused about what had just happened. Seeing a fox and someone who looked very similar to Luna appear, holding something that he imagined was what caused the spasm of Fairbeak. With pretty much the whole gang war thing solved and the two missing officers found, Stratos dismissed his keyblade and said, "huh. Well, uh, thanks for the assist guys. Good to see that you're all good now." Looking around, a bit confused he said, "so is that the test?"
As the group had finally made their way out of their home base, Aeira had followed Finlay as he had directed them towards the base he had spotted out. The building itself was nothing impressive, in fact it was so unimpressive and normal that that made it all the more suspicious, being in the realm of darkness and all. While she was curious about this, her attention was forced towards the two others that were standing around there. She recognized the girl, though was able to figure that the man was bad news as well. As Finlay asked who wanted to go first, Kar-kiara then went on to pass it on to someone else. Vallus then gestured for someone else. Aeira sighed, seemingly annoyed by this, and wordlessly walked away from the group, heading towards the villain duo. Punching her fists together, her gauntlets appearing over them, Aeira shouted, "hey! I'm here to beat you up."
With the penguins no longer around him, instead preoccupied by the others, Stratos had a quick moment of respite to himself. This moment was spent less recouping himself and more watching everyone else continue their fighting. Ignis seemed to be holding her own, merely using pure brute force to knock the penguins around. Kel as well seemed to be having a grand old time, comboing his sword magic skills against the penguin. Both of them had also seemed to be in the expression of speed, wielding two keyblades at once. Stratos wondered how it worked briefly, and felt like he was on the precipice of getting to that point too, but merely shrugged the notion off and went back to fighting. Taking in a deep breath yet again, the boy began to focus inward as he looked for the ideal place to strike. His eyes scanned the battlefield, seeing that his friends were more than capable of holding their own, he noticed there was a ninja that was going after the companion that Kel, Luna and Steel had brought along. With cherry blossoms fluttering in the wind, time started to crawl to a stand still, and Stratos blinked. In that instant, he appeared on the opposite side of the penguin, having traveled a considerable distance to get there. The slash in the air had appeared, as it always had with Zantetsuken, but rather than over the penguin, it had appeared that the aim was slightly off. The slash appeared over the penguin ninja's sword, snapping it in two and causing a large explosion of force to know the penguin out of the air. Letting out a deep sigh, the boy turned to face the ninja, who had been recovering from the attack. While it no longer had a sword, it didn't seem to want to stop any time soon. Dashing around, the penguin had picked up two swords off the ground, belonging to some of his fallen comrades, before he charged at Stratos again. Bringing his keyblade up, the boy blocked the first set of slashes with ease, and then counter with a slash of his own. The penguin brought the blades in a cross up to the keyblade, defending against the attack. When the blades were locked, though, Stratos merely smirked at his opponent. With a fireball forming at the tip of his blade, Stratos slid the blade down the penguin's guard, the tip of the keyblade now facing the two swords. Letting loose the ball of flame, it exploded point blank against the swords, snapping them and causing the penguin to fall flat on its back. Letting out a short sigh of relief, he was interrupted as another penguin dove from behind him. With another snap of his fingers Stratos said, "stop. Again." Looking at his stopped foe, the boy took in yet another deep breath, as swirl of red, blue and yellow overtook him. His hoodie becoming more of a cloak that billowed in the wind, gold on the outside with a red lining on the inside. His pants had changed to be more loose fitting and turned blue. His keyblade had changed shape, becoming more like a rifle with a blade along the barrel. Joining in one the fashion show, Stratos had changed his appearance as all of his other comrades had during this fight. Pointing his rifle at the motionless, in mid-air, penguin he simply said, "bang." A large chunk of ice formed inside the rifle, firing at the penguin and striking it dead in the chest. When time resumed for the poor creature, it was sent hurtling through the air, and knocked into a more injured of its associates. OOC Total Words: 616 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 240 Blessed Thief: 120 Penguins: 10/30 One Penguin: 1/15 Beuce EXP: 90 Ignis EXP: 240 Kel EXP: 60 Stratos EXP: 240 Luna EXP: 18 Steel EXP: 20
As the swing had ended, Stratos realized that two more of the penguin ninjas were attacking him. With both coming in at high speeds from either sides, Stratos merely waited to see what they would do from here. As the two penguins leaped at him, with amazing synchronization, the boy merely jumped back. Both of them had approached from his side, and so when he had jumped back, the two merely ended up meeting each other's blades, locking briefly. Taking advantage of this, Stratos's backwards momentum was cut short as his body propelled itself forward in a sliding dash. The two penguins had recovered, bringing both of their blades up, crossing them in a guard, to defend against the attack. While they had managed to avoid the brunt of the force behind the attack, they were still pushed back, skidding across the ground. Twirling his blade around Stratos locked eyes with his masked bird foes before pointing his blade at them, trying to goad them into attacking him. The two birds broke off into a dash like they had before. Though, this time, rather than trying to circle around him, the merely both dove straight at him. He knew it would be difficult to avoid their attack entirely, so he decided to take on a new strategy. Spinning his keyblade, Stratos threw it at one of the penguins, causing the bird to slow down and defend against the attack, bringing his dash to a halt. Not waiting for the blade to make a return trip, Stratos called his keyblade back to his hand and imbued it with fire. Letting loose a fire strike, the boy brought down his blade towards the bird that was still dashing, who responded by slashing at Stratos's own sword. While the two attacks had clashed, the force behind Stratos's had been greater, and the penguin's blade had been knocked out of its hand. The flame across Stratos's blade extinguished as he went to switch things up, covering it in a sort of frost. With one strike to its side, followed by another uppercut, Stratos launched the penguin into the air. Jumping after it, Stratos finished his vorpal blitz by bringing down his keyblade onto the mask of the penguin. The frost imbued slashed shattered the face protector, and knocked the penguin straight to the ground. With the attack having finished, the boy didn't have much time to react as something else happened. The penguin he had stopped earlier dove at him with a slash. Noticing this as he was landing, the boy tired to dodge back, but only managed to stumble over his feat as he attempted it. Losing his balance, he fell backwards, part of his hoodie getting cut in the process. The penguin loomed over him, seemingly ready to deliver a coupe de grace, when Stratos just said, "stop." With a snap of his fingers, the penguin did just that. Unmoving, the penguin just stood there, as if completely frozen. Letting out a sigh, the boy said, "huh, so that's what that feels like. No wonder he does it so much." Getting back to his feet, Stratos called his keyblade to hand, before letting loose a flurry of blow against the creature. One after the other, in a string of seven hits, Stratos let loose a splatter combo against his target. When the penguin seemed to begin to move again, the keyblade wielder smirked as he said, "you're already done." The penguin's eyes went wide for an instant before it started to convulse around, as if being pummeled by an invisible force. At the end of it all, the assassin was knocked away, and flew straight towards the one injured penguin that just couldn't seem to catch a break. OOC Total Words: 626 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 180 Blessed Thief: 90 Penguins: 20/30 One of the penguins at 3/15 BP One Penguin: 5/15 Beuce EXP: 60 Ignis EXP: 60
Stratos twirled his keyblade around as he began to get ready to continue the fight against the penguin assassin ninja things. However, before he could get to fighting, a large thud could be heard resounding throughout the area. Looking to the source, he saw that Beuce had a rather...unusual weapon in tow. Aesthetically it wasn't that much different from his regular keyblade; just with less color and a different blade shape. Functionally, the weapon seemed to be far different in that it didn't actually function. The boy watched the man swing around the unwieldy double bladed greatsword, or rather watch it swing him around, and wasn't quite sure what to make of the style of fighting. There was also something a bit odd to it. Stratos recognized the form he was looking at, but only through the raw strength it exuded. Outside of that, it had seemed to be an almost entirely different looking form. While Stratos realized that this appearance change was something that had happened with him as well, as noted with the form of his that expressed raw magic, it made him curious. These things were an expression of an aspect of the user's heart in either a pure or specific form. To have its appearance change meant there had to be a fundamental change in the person. Likewise, if there was such a fundamental change, then what the heart had access to to express could have changed as well. While the boy was lost in thought about how these things worked and the potential behind it, he suddenly felt something off. Bringing up his blade, with swift speed the boy turned around and raised his blade upward to guard. A sudden force could be felt striking against it, as the boy managed to catch in time that a ninja penguin had tried to get the jump on him. While the two were momentarily locked with blades, the penguin eventually fell and jumped back. Staring down his new opponent, Stratos thought he'd try something new. He didn't much have a blade to throw himself around with, but the idea of fighting by flinging one's body around seemed to interest him. Not waiting for the penguin to make the first move, Stratos dashed at his opponent. While the penguin seemed ready to strike at him, Stratos jumped. The penguin slashed. However, while the ninja had predicted the boy's fall with his slash, Stratos hadn't seemed to fall at all. Instead, he was rising above the penguin with no sign of stopping. The penguin was briefly baffled by this, only for this thought to be cut short. With a second cast of Gravira, Stratos's body began to fall, going at a much faster rate then normal gravity would permit. With the force from his fall backing him up, the boy brought his keyblade down in one heavy slash, crashing into the penguin's blade. The blade gave way under the weight, snapping, and the keyblade moved unhindered to striking the penguin proper. Knocking him out, Stratos stood back up, seeing another penguin charging at him. Getting himself ready, the boy seemed to take the stance a batter would when anticipating a pitch. Briefly letting go with one hand, Stratos flicked his wrist, causing the penguin to be under the affects of gravira as it dashed at him. Confused, the penguin started to helplessly rise into the air, before Stratos cast the spell again, swinging his blade as he did. The penguin ended up falling, fast, into the boy's swing. With what sounded like a thud as the two hit, Stratos had struck the penguin away, knocking it into another penguin. OOC Total Words: 610 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 120 Blessed Thief: 60 Penguins: 24/30 One of the penguins at 6/15 BP Beuce EXP: 60
As Stratos listened to what Luna had to say, he was surprised that this Mr. Big person they were looking for was actually supposedly on the more friendly side of people. All the same, as Luna asked her question, her new acquaintance seemed to chime in the answer. Looking at Luna and shrugging Stratos said, "that's about what we got. We found out that we can probably find out more about the disappearance case from the guy who works here, Mr. Big. Apparently he's also involved in a sort of gang war, with what I'm not sure. But it's probably nothing but trouble. So I suppose our next plan of action is just to figure out what the guy knows." With that out of the way, though, it didn't seem that things were going to be quite that easy. As they were about to get to speaking with Mr. Big, an ominous, slightly warbled, voice rang out from...somewhere. The boy was on guard as the voice began speaking, it not taking a genius to figure out that something very wrong was about to go down. This was only further punctuated by the lack of people that populated the streets of Tundratown. When the voice had finished talking, it seemed to punctuate with a Ninja...Penguins? "What's a penguin?" The boy wondered aloud, only to be answered by the sudden appearance of a squadron of black and white birds all wielding blades at the ready. Being certianly not a friendly crew, Stratos drew his own keyblade to his hand getting ready to fight them. He looked at the weapon in his hand and then back to the anthropomorphic birds wielding blades. "This is...well yeah, probably the most ridiculous thing I've seen." Sighing, the boy twirled his blade, ready to strike back at their assailants. With both hands gripping his keyblade, he merely stood his ground waiting for the birds to make the first move. With three of the penguin ninjas leaping after Stratos, the boy took in a deep breath before point his keyblade at them. The familiar sight of cherry blossoms filled the air, and the world seemed to slow down around the boy as his focus concentrated. In a single instant, the boy had vanished, and the penguins had seemed suspended in mid-air. A large cut appeared over one of them, knocking the blade out of his hand and sending the penguin flying across the streets. While Stratos had appeared on the other side of the penguin, he stumbled, tripped and rolled across the ground. After smashing against a wall and stopping, the boy let out a groan saying, "this'll take some getting used to." Having never fought in this body, or with a tail, before Stratos's movements weren't exactly as fluid or precise as normal. All the same, while he seemed to have knocked out one penguin, and slightly knocked away another the third one still seemed raring to come back at him and fight. With its blade at the ready, it dove towards Stratos, striking with a quick thrust towards his chest. Raising his blade up, Stratos managed to block the blade in its tracks, causing the penguin to recoil and then jump back a bit. While it twirled its blade, readying itself for the next attack, Stratos figured there was a much easier way to go about this then a sword duel. When the penguin started to speed around him, trying to run in a circle, the boy focused once again. When the penguin dove at him, the boy merely pointed his blade in the direction of the penguin, letting loose a ball of fire. The flame exploded in the bird's face, forcing it away from Stratos. Looking at the assailant, they didn't seem ready or willing to get back up to continue the fight, so Stratos considered that a win for him. Twirling his blade around, he looked to see that there was still work to be done here, and work was about to get done. OOC Total Words: 670 EXP: 60 Total EXP: 60 Blessed Thief: 30 Penguins: 28/30 One of the penguins at 12/15 BP
With the information in tow and no real arguments to be had, the trio of sort of cops made their way out of the penitentiary and off to the place known as Tundratown. While they had no idea what the place they were going to actually was, through some asking and sheer luck the group had managed to not only find the town, but also the office where this "Mr. Big" was. When they got there, though, Stratos was surprised to see another group of people. "Oh, hey there guys." The boy gave a wave to Kel, Luna and Steel, seeing that they were here too. "So uh, are you guys here to see Mr. Big too? And uh, made some new friends?" He referenced the people that had likely lead the group to Mr. Big's office as well.
Aeira could only look unamused at the sight of Kiara and Finlay nearly coming to blows. The girl couldn't quite understand why it seemed most of the people here wanted to fight each other than their actual enemy, but she didn't say anything regarding that. Instead, she was merely fine to start following Finlay out as it seemed the group was gearing to go fight Nequa and her underlings. Before she could make her way out, though, Mellus asked a question about their ability to stealth. Aeira merely nodded at the answer that Kiara said and added, "well it's simple. The best way to deal with him, is to just charge straight at the enemy." The girl's voice and expression did not change at all when she said this, making it difficult to tell if she was joking or not. With that done, the girl left the base, ready to see start the fight.
Stratos listened intently as the lion said his piece on the turf war. The unknown faction was definitely suspicious, more so than a regular gang would be. Stratos looked to the others, with an inquisitive expression on his face, wondering if this was more a heartless problem than an actual world one. However, when Lionheart had ended his testimony, Stratos said, "thanks for the advice. We'll speak to the uh, higher ups," Stratos had no idea who those were, "about lessening your sentence." Looking back to the others he said, "well, another target to interrogate?" Seeing if they were ready to go to their next lead.
Aeira stood around, listening to the conversation that transpired between Lea and Finlay, not really paying much mind to the first part but more so when it came to what Finlay had scouted out. The girl was, first and foremost, surprised that he had managed to pull off a reconnaissance mission and get out, especially with four supposedly powerful people around. Though, they might not have been as powerful as she had originally believed, if all that was needed to take down the last person was the efforts of mostly only Koa. All the same, the girl was alert and seemed ready to move as she walked over to the two saying, "I agree, we should go." As this was also the clear fastest way to finally beat their opponents, Aeira found it to also be better than merely waiting around and waiting for another chance.
Stratos wasn't aware that there was a missing person's case to begin with, so he had supposed that this interogation was already going far better than he could've hope for. However, the feeling lasted for about 5 seconds, before the sheep had denied any and all knowledge about the case they were supposedly following. Before anything else could happen, though, a lion in a cell next to them spoke up, telling them about an upcoming turf war. Stratos wasn't really sure about how any of that was relevant, but the sheep certainly thought it to be, or at least damning to whatever she was trying to hide from them, and Ignis was already on the questions. Stratos nodded, looking to the lion and saying, "yeah, we don't even really know who these two factions are or why they might be fighting, so anything you could tell us would be appreciated. And who knows, you could probably even get a reduced sentence for helping out an investigation." Stratos had absolutely no idea if that was how this worked, but it seemed to be something the lion was gunning for, so he figured he might as well try.
As the door had exploded inward, Aeira stood up from the corner she had been both brooding and relaxing in. While the girl seemed alert, her half shadowed expression didn't seem to reveal anything beyond its usual neutrality. She seemed to study the man named Finlay, watching as he seemed to drive Lea to his wit's end. As the latter left the scene, Aeira seemed to be fine with their sudden new acquaintance, in the sense that she no longer felt that there was an imminent battle. She was more or less ambivalent about him as a person. As such, the girl walked over to him, hands still in her pocket. She looked at him, said, "hello Finlay, I am Aeira. I punch things. I don't really care about my title and so I have chosen to forget it at this moment." Humorlessly, the girl nodded as she said, "I agree with Kar-Kiara. Besides, we were just infiltrated here anyway, and Finlay seems about as covert as something that is very not stealthy."
