Final Fantasy: The Great Awakening (Full)

[ShadowOfIce]

Oh now this... this was ******** rich! For starters, they had that little twerpp practically cornered, and she was already cracking her knuckle anxiously as they gave that loud, slightly disgusting popping sound from every one of her fingers, before clenching her two fists tight, stretching the leather in her gloves. Second, with the whole gang here now, the kid was cornered, and with someone like Wulfgar blocking his path, the kid had no hope of trying to fight his way out unless he had an Ace up his sleeve. And third, the only chance of an exit he and this wierd looking woman had was the window, and the second he even tried going for it, she'd break his legs or pick up the table and chuck it his way. Yea, she may have been a fist fighter, but did she forget to mention she loves to use her ridiculious strength to throw things at people too? Fun times...

For a brief moment, she scanned her surroundings. Wulfgar and 'Ramual' were taking an initiative, as the barbarian was threatening the boy, and the wanted gunman was already pointing his gun at the woman. There was Kaoru, Sieg, and alison who all made it there with her as they arrived, and the slightly late arrival of Azel and Tomoko. ...Why did those last too not surprise her? [******** useless idiots...'

Instinctively, Seraphim did remain close to Alison. The girl was her sister, even if not by blood, and she didn't want to see her get hurt again if the twerp tried anything, she she was ready to take whatever he had to throw at them. But she was glad to have her only other friend, Kaoru by her side. The rest of these people... well sure, they were kind of reliable, and she was traveling with them, but the way she saw it, once the gem was returned, she was going to split, and just continue living her mundane life in Cryth with Alison. ...Even if she was starting to get the hang of his traveling thing. Forgetting that though, she shook those distracting thoughts from her head, before Seraphim focused once more on the people in front of her.

Her patience thing, Seraphim decided to step forth, being the third voice among her group as she stepped between Wulfgar and 'Ramual', pounding her two fists together as she gave that sadistic, dark grin of hers, tilting her head a little to the side as she bared her teeth with that kind of smile she gave Azel back when she nearly burned him alive. Only now, she cast it towards Richard and the strange teal haired woman, slowly getting closer to them. "I'll give you an option. If you don't hand it over, I'll break every bone in your body, heal it, break again, and just repeat until pain no longer has a meaning to that thick head of yours. If you do... we can settle for just shattering all of your teeth and fingers so you never lie and steal again."

Oh yea, she was going to love this~

~Seraphim Harmonia

[NPC - Richard Brown]

These people... they were all freaks!! That large, imposing man with the massive sword on his back just frightened Richard to the core. And seeing none other than the infamous Ramual among their group, he knew this wasn't good. Not to mention that white haired girl was scaring the Hell out of him, and he had this feeling that the quiet ones like the black haired girl and green haired traveler probably had that feeling about them that they were stronger than they looked. It was like finding a wizard. Sure, they looked old and wore simple robes, but appearances were always decieving! And before you know it, you had a fireball in your face! That's it, wasn't it!? They were all just trying to look weak, when really, they were probably more than able to level this whole inn if they wanted to!

No... no-no-no, he couldn't think that! He had his client at his side, and he knew she must have had a trick up her sleeve and was some sort of mage herself, right? She had to have a plan that was genius and- ....did she just blatently try to hide it behind the back of her belt?

Yea... they were doomed.

[Haro Starwind]

(let's get this s**t going again... even if i have to drag you guys into it.)

Azel seemed a bit useless at the moment but that was all about to change. The others seemed a bit locked in their exchange in words, except maybe Seraphim. Ramual and Wulfgar still seemed silent in their resolve, but Azel knew how to settle this. Like the captain he was! Pushing through the group he took a spot up front he made the same sort of fist popping as Seraphim did. Glancing over at her for a second he fixed his eyes back on the kid who Azel knew for certain had the gem in his hands. "Well.."

Rolling the food he had in his mouth he swallowed instantly and spit the remaining stick from his mouth onto the ground. His hand reached down to his side and grasped the hilt of his scimitar and he held it up straight for Richard. The gems of the blade gleamed in a sharp focus from the fluorescent lighting in the building and gave Azel a bit of a powerful and commanding look. Azel turned his eyes to the woman and gave a bit of a charming smile as only he knew how. "Sorry babe, but you're the only thing keepin' me stuck to sasquatch and contacts. (clever names for Wulfgar & Atrozeon, obviously...) And if you won't hand over the gem..." He said shrugging a bit in a cocky fashion, "Then it looks like I'll have to get rough.~" He said, of course making seem perverted in someway... saddly it was involuntary.

~Azel Zephyr

[Na-Ki]

Dance until the end, my friend, and find joy in every living thing.

Wulfgar had briefly looked over his shoulder at all three of the late arrivals, giving them a quick nod and nothing further. For then he had already looked ahead of himself again, as both Seraphim and Azel spoke what they thought obviously needed to be said. The Barbarian had ignored the little nicknames Azel had given him and Ramual. There would be a time for that when this was over with, and the Eye of Ifirit was back where it belonged.

What else was there that anyone could say now? Everything had already came to a standstill inside the small room, with Richard and whatever that woman's name was were already quite outnumbered. An obvious fact that Atrozeon had raised a short while ago. Thus, the Barbarian hadn't said a word at all. Instead leaning against the door he had broken himself with his arms crossed. With a hardened and focused stare, he had changed his attention from the two stuck in the room and outside every so often. The chance that these two could have some accomplices just came to him.

"Stay on guard."

Oh, what words of wisdom to those were. But they were true nonetheless, even without Wulfgar having to explain himself. He shouldn't have to either, unless the people he grouped up and was around at the moment were just stupid as all hell. And there it was, the standstill continued with everyone just standing around. Still watching the inside of the room and just outside the door, Wulfgar had been in his fair share of fights to realize that all this standing around. It wasn't really about to last for very much longer at this rate.

Optimism is not a choice, it's a belief.

[fractalJester]

Atrozeon kept his cold eyes upon the woman as she reacted and the others spoke. They doled out threats and taunts, and in Wulfgar's case, a warning to the rest of them. Atrozeon's reaction?

Atrozeon swiftly lowered his arm a good 45 degrees in angle and, without hesitation or warning, fired a shot into one of the woman's kneecaps. Hopefully, the shot would hinder any chance of escape she may have had.

"Take off the strap now," Atrozeon commanded, raising his revolver back up to her head and keeping it steady, regardless of her reaction to the shot. He was short, sweet, and to the point.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

HP: 8
MP: 12
Action: Atrozeon shoots ???'s kneecap
Total: (Agility/2) + Roll 1 = 4

[Hiwa Kaoru]

~Kaoru Hiwa

Accusations flew, and eventually the woman shown her hand to be empty. But anyone could assume she’d hidden it. After all, they knew that Richard had stolen it, and meeting this strange woman could only mean one thing: she was the person who hired the thief. Of course, he didn’t have to point that out as the others were surely not that thickheaded not to connect the obvious dots.

Still, they were making a scene now. The saving grace was that this wasn’t outside in a town square or something. The other two could have run, or worse: used the crowd to cry foul at them. Here they had them cornered and weren’t at a disadvantage at all. The only thing to worry about was the curious woman. She didn’t look like a fighter, and more definitely she would know something about magicks. Brown held too random rods, but he hadn’t had those before. A gift from his mistress, then?

Either way, Seraphim stood a bit further forward and used her charming personality to coerce the teal-haired woman and Richard. And by charming, it obviously meant the most unveiled, violent threat one could think up. She certainly wasn’t as subtle as anyone else. Then, something turned the situation down a less than optimal path.

BANG!

The smell of gunpowder and the sound of a gunshot roared to his side. Instinctively, he turned first to the only one with a gun: Atrozen. He’d just shot the woman, in the knee! Certainly a bold demand coming out after, in concert with Seraphim’s threat it’d be clear some members of their part weren’t willing to wait a lifetime to get the Gem back. But, that wasn’t right. . . he though, but said nothing. Harming people wasn’t exactly a motif he was fond of. Though, they needed to get the jewel back or else Cryth would be in trouble; ‘the lives of the many, and the few’, as it were.

“Right then, just hand the Eye over and I’ll heal you up and we can all go our separate ways,” he offered.

It was the unintentionally done ‘good cop, bad cop’ deal. But, really, there was no need for them to have to maim or kill the two—more than was already done. They could all just live happy lives and not harm each other, right? Yeah right: these are humes, he sighed. They don’t know how to do no harm.

[King Keiayo]

Seig Darkscar

Seig's attention seemed to be fading a bit form the situation. Probably unlike the others, his future didn't reside on this so called jewel. So why should he have bothered to help or care about the conflict? His attention faded a bit, his arm on his scythe had fallen a bit and his attention went away from the predicament and faded on to the entering Tomoko. It seemed she was ok, and for some reason that gave Seig a bit of relief though he wasn't sure why. As words were exchanged Seig continued to fall off in the back and lend his strength when it was needed.

His attention went back to the conflict as a shot was fired. His eyes instantly shot to Atrozeon who laid a bullet into the woman's leg. After Azel's words of encouragement and the forwardness of Atrozeon's strike... perhaps it was time to get dirty? Seig did like the idea of a rumble... he was growing bored. Taking the moment to enter the room, he did so and drew his scythe and held it infront of him in a subtle battle pose. He was wordless but his intimidation lied in his fierce stance and the crude blade of his scythe guarded the door somewhat. If they tried to escape it would be easy to hook them back in. The point of the thing was... the two were out of luck, it was time to shut up and fight if they hoped to get their precious jewel back. These days of waiting were starting to drill into his conscious.

[Chachamaru v2]

[NPC - ???]

Much to probably everyone's surprise, as Atrozeon shot the woman, she didn't react at all. In fact, she didn't even seem to notice it at first, looking more confused than anything. Then they would have noticed that the bullet had passed through her leg remarkably cleanly. In fact, there wasn't even any blood at all, not even around the whole in her pants where the bullet had passed through. Looking towards the group for a moment, she slowly looked down, and as realization sunk in as to what had happened, she fell to one knee, clutching her other knee. However, her voice made it clear that she wasn't in any actual pain. "Ow! You shot me! My knee! What did you do that for? Oooowie!" The thing was... It didn't come across like she was even being sarcastic. It was like she was trying to act like she was genuinely in pain, but doing a truly horrible job of it.

[ShadowOfIce]

[Richard Brown]

Geeze! Did he just shoot her!?
'Oh-god-oh-god-oh-god'
Panic setting in like a wildfire, Richard Brown looked at his partner for this crime with shock, worried a little about her, but more importantly, worried about himself. The two of them were trapped, and now had to worry about just over half a dozen people who had it out for them! This was a bad idea, an awful idea, how could he think this could possibly go right?? Stupid-stupid-stupid!!!

Poor Richard was running through every possibility in his head, and no matter how he thought about it, none of it ended well for him. The young teen felt like this was going to end in the worst way possible for him, no matter what he tried. However, when the boy saw the way his partner reacted, he was more baffled than anything. He knew this older girl with the teal hair was strange, heck, the whole reason he decided to work for her was not just the stupidly immense pay she was giving, but because she had powers in the field of magic he still couldn't quite fathom. Maybe it was the mystery of it all, or maybe just how someone so... niave could be so strong, but either way, he was interested in working for her. And now, as 'Ramual' decided to pull the trigger and shoot her, his initial panic slipped away to disbeleif when the bullet didn't seem to actually damage her, next to an actual smile.

...Why worry? He had a powerful mage at his side?

A dark, confident grin came to the boy, when suddenly, he drew the wooden sword from off his back. Then, without hesitating, he dashed for the person who seemed like the biggest threat. Who, in this case, was 'Ramual.' Not just for who he was, but because of the gun. The kid was more skilled with a blade than he looked, but against a gun, he knew it was like asking the impossible. "Come on! Let's take them out!" He shouted towards the woman before moving in, knowing this courage of his only came because of the fact that he had a mage at his side to help. So, he attacked the white-haired gunman first, leaping up and crashing the thick, wooden sword down on Ramual with all his might.

[Attack-Wooden sword: Agility(Finesse) 6 x 1.5 (two handed) = 9 + 1d4 roll (1) = 10
Atrozeon's armor = 5. 10 - 5 = 5.]
[Atrozeon takes 5 damage!]

[Chachamaru v2]

[NPC - ???]

Suddenly, everything seemed to have turned a whole lot worse in the woman's eyes - or at least the one eye on her face that was actually visible. She'd been shot through the leg (although it did seem like it had taken a while for that to register in her head, and even then it wasn't really clear whether or not it actually injured her or if she was just pretending that it was), and on top of that it seemed like the group that had burst into their room had no intention of leaving. Of course, this wasn't exactly helped by the boy attacking one of them with his wooden sword. Quite what he'd hoped to accomplish through that, she wasn't honestly certain, but it looked like it hurt, at least.

At this point, it seemed painfully obvious that she couldn't exactly just try to talk her way out of this anymore, and as much as she'd have liked to keep her hands as clean as possible, it seemed fighting in some way, shape or form in this situation was inevitable. Still, that didn't mean that she had to be the one doing the fighting, of course. Reaching into the front of her top, her fingers slipping between her cleavage, she pulled out what appeared to be two, small, gelatinous orbs, no bigger than maybe a small gemstone. However, what she did next clearly indicated them as anything but harmless.

Throwing the orbs onto the ground, they immediately swelled and changed shape, growing to gelatinous creatures about the size of a large dog. One orange with what appeared to be a scar (As impossible as that is for a creature with no skin) and a spiky-looking top to its 'head', the other had a smooth head and was an off-white colour, with a strangely shaped mouth that almost looked like it had a huge moustache on its upper lip. Both of the creatures looked around with a sense of bewilderment, like they didn't have a clue just what was going on, until the woman spoke to them, pointing at the group.

"B-Biggs! Wedge! S-stall these people while I get away! I have to get this gem back to Mister C as quickly as possible!" With that order, the two slimelike creatures wobbled in response, which appeared to be them attempting to nod as best they could, before turning their attention to the group, the orange one, which seemed to be 'Biggs', hissing in a manner more befitting a cat than it did a squishy orange monster. Tomoko would have known immediatley upon seeing them that the creatures were, in fact, Flans - elemental creatures that famously heal from one given element at the expense of having a terrible weakness to the other.

Turning to leave, the woman would completely fail to notice the fact that as she turned, the gem slipped right out of the back of her belt. It was clear that this woman was very likely probably not exactly a great criminal mastermind. Showing no difficulty walking, despite the fact that she'd been shot through the knee, she approached the window and pushed it open and, in one swift motion, dived head-first out of the window. If a normal person tried that, they'd probably have smashed their skull on the road below.

... Yet there was no sickening crunch. No thud. In fact, if one had very good hearing [Specifically anyone with Mind stat of 7 or higher], they would have heard what sounded like a slap, almost a splat sound where there should have been the sound of a woman's bones breaking upon impact with the road. In any case, now wasn't the time for thinking - the creatures were ready to fight, and so was Richard!

Showdown with the thieves!
(Final Fantasy XI - Battle Theme 2)

Combat Begins!
Alison Owen, Seraphim Harmonia, Kaoru Hiwa, Atrozeon Hyloras, Azel Zephyr, Seig Darkscar, Tomoko Okasawa and Wulfgar Ogden
versus
Richard Brown, "Biggs" and "Wedge"

[Altral]

Tomoko stood in the back of the group, eyes wandering between the boy and the woman...neither of which posing that great of a threat. Her eyes focused more on the boy than the woman though. He was the one that took Jinx. Such a sad thing too, he looked so small and innocent. Scared too. In her head, she started to make up excuses for the boy as to why he would be associated with such a woman and why he would be stealing things. For all she knew, he needed the money for his sick mother who was lying in bed, dying from an ailment that was possibly incurable. Yes, that had to be it...Though, she did question the intelligence of the woman now that she was trying to hide the stone from them all quite obviously.

Everyone seemed determined to get this stone back. Threats, perverted threats, good cop bad cop tactics...shooting in the kneecap...Their gunslinging companion shooting off his gun had taken Tomoko by surprised and she stiffened at the sound of it, eye widening. Immediately she didn't know which one he shot, the boy or the woman. Hiwa offering to heal the woman hinted that she was the one shot, but just looking at her you would never guess it. The young boy reacted more than her, hell, she barely seemed to noticed that she had been shot. This was just more confusing to Tomoko than anything. The pain must've sunk in eventuall...because she did sound like she was in pain...at least she assumed that she was in pain with her actions. It sounded like she may have been pretending, but Tomoko wasn't so sure. If she was injured, they should take the stone and then tend to her wounds.

Taking advantage of the confusion, couragously the boy attacked Ramual. The story she had elaborated in her head about his sick dying mother came to an end and she readied a card at her side. The woman left but not without leaving two creatures in her wake. Flans.

Raising the card in front of her, she held it for a moment until the card seemed to glow a faint light blue. Tossing the card forward, she directed it towards the orangish blob. Upon striking it, it burst into an ice attack.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


HP: 10/10
MP: 14/10
Action: Tomoko casts Blizzard on Biggs
Total: Int/8 + Roll 2 = 10

[Na-Ki]

Dance until the end, my friend, and find joy in every living thing.

The moment the whole scene had turned hostile, with the hasty arrival of two goo like creatures. Wulfgar had already drawn the greatsword, holding the hilt tightly in the grip of his right hand. In hearing the voice of whoever the hell this woman was and what she had to say. A bold stint of laughter had arisen from the Barbarian's mouth, how could he avoid the humor in this current situation? Richard's partner in crime had pretty much left him outnumbered, as she opened and leaped out from the only window in the room. Leaving Richard with only the two pieces of goo that she left behind.

And yet, this kid was still dead set on fighting when the odds were against him.

"Hell. Isn't it obvious kid, your partner in crime left you behind to take the fall. And you still hold your ground." Wulfgar spoke to Richard after he had attacked Ramual, which hardly fazed him being that he wasn't the one that had been hit. The Barbarian had to commend Richard's resolve however, even if it was among what could be classified as a very stupid decision to make. Wulfgar had moved to prop the flat of the blade on his shoulder all while he spoke. No further words came from him after that. If a fight was what this kid wanted, then a fight it would be. The others among their group already seemed to subconsciously agree on that detail right now.

As the caster of the crew unleashed a magic based attacked on one of the gooey monsters. He had further decided that the time for words was long gone, and Richard's hostile actions only warranted the same to be returned in full. The hilt of the sword in both hands now, Wulfgar had let a few seconds tick on by for Tomoko to attack and for said attack to work its magic on her target. Not long after he began to make his move, taking advantage of the possible chance that Biggs would be vulnerable moreso than normal.

Closing the gap quickly enough, Wulfgar had raised and swung the greatsword almost horizontally. Aiming to cleave Biggs in half through his strength alone. That's what he was given to use and he intended to use it to the best of his ability. Magic was hardly a forte of his after all. With his attack complete, Wulfgar quickly widened the space between him and their opponents. Only an idiot would leave him or herself standing in such close proximity to an attacker of any size or shape.

Optimism is not a choice, it's a belief.

------



HP: 14 / 14
MP: 8 / 8
Action: Wulfgar attacks Biggs.
Result: Strength 8 + 6 (dice roll) = 14