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{Kuro Oni, James : Caribbean Sea : The Black Pearl}

"I was hoping you'd say that..." He replied.

The Nightmare Dreadnought merely smirked as he heard Noelle's response. It had been what he had been hoping for really, and he was going to enjoy using his new power on her of all people. Her or Dawn... either or would royally piss off his pathetic original. In a "Dash" He closed the distance between himself and Noelle, his hands, that looked more like claws with the dark energy that emanated from them quickly came in to latch around her neck, if she wasn't able to dodge quick enough the Vicious Vice could potentially knock her out, cripple her, disable her, or just cause massive pain.

"Get it!? You all are nothing!" He yelled.

James immediately tensed as Kuro Oni responded to Noelle and before he could hope to do anything, the replica was upon her, his hands coming in to crush around her neck. His fists tightening even more in rage.

"No! Let her go!" He yelled, angrily at his replica.

He had never seen Kuro Oni attack in that fashion before, he had expected him to shoot Noelle with the gun again while she was completely defenseless. Though it wasn't entirely out of character for Kuro to use his own hands... The corsair's eyes narrowed intently at the almost claw like darkness that surrounded his hands.

'Has Kuro Oni learned something new...?'

[Carribean Sea ~ The Black Pearl]

Whaaaat have I done now. I'm glad I can't hear Titan right now . .

Noelle made an attempt at springing on the diagonal, but Kuro Oni was much faster than she was and, as she quickly found out, a great deal stronger. No ammount of blocking could stop him from closing his hand around her throat. The amount of pressure immediately made her feel weak. The blonde hardly even tried to inhale, knowing there would be no way to. Her hands flew to Kuro's wrist, wrapping around it out of reaction to the pain spreading down to her shoulders. She tried her hardest to keep calm. Always keep calm, was what Titan told her, you make better decisions. It was beginning to become exceedingly difficult due to the lack of air, however. It didn't help that not being able to breathe was one of her greatest fears. She now realized exactly why there was a good reason for that.

CrapcrapcrapcrpawhatdoIdoFLOATING RIB KICK.

As quickly as the thought came, Noelle chambered her right leg and struck out as fast as she could at Kuro's "floating rib" in his right side. Hopefully it was enough to get him to let go of her neck, and ideally it was enough to break his rib. The consequences of it she would think about when she got there, at the moment she was beginning to get tunnel vision.

{Kuro Oni, James : Caribbean Sea : The Black Pearl}

Kuro sneered malevolently at Noelle as her hands instinctively wrapped around his wrist, it would be so easy right now for him to choke slam her down to the deck and he knew it. However, his attention turned to Dawn just as the piece of debris came at him. He let go with one of his hands and simply knocked the piece of wood out of the way. His attention turning to Noelle just in time to see the kick coming up to hit his rib cage, the hand that had just blocked the board latched onto her ankle at the last second, his fingers wrapping tightly around it, squeezing as tight as he could.

"Nice try! But not good enough!" He said with a cackle "Now stay down!"

He let go of her neck, but didn't release her ankle as he then did a trick that James would often do to his brother whenever he caught his foot. He raised it higher, high enough that Noelle would lose her balance and fall to the deck.

His attention then turned to Dawn, his blood red eyes narrowing coldly at her as he made his way towards her.

"You've got some nerve!" He declared, stopping a short distance in front of her, as if thinking for a moment what to do with her.

"Leave them alone!" James yelled, moving to stand between Kuro Oni and Dawn. "I'm the one you hate, leave them out of this!"

James shook slightly, but he held his ground. He knew Kuro Oni all too well, his reasoning for his actions, it was to get on the corsair's nerves. He wasn't going to let his replica hurt his friends anymore. If it meant sparing them pain, even if they didn't go quietly, he would.

Sayrike::The Black Pearl

"Well, I didn't know what you were trying to get at, you didn't explain it correctly, and I wasn't saying to shout 'abandon ship,' we're arguing for the same point here..." Sayrike began exasperatedly in a low voice. But then Anthony went off to stop Jacob, and Spear-guy decided to speak up, and her attention was diverted.

Sayrike couldn't help but inwardly roll her eyes. Did villains really speak like this? Golly gee, she had hoped that the physical manifestation might add a bit of realism to their speech...but still, some things worked out better if placed in a fantasy setting, like magic. Yeah, she was definitely missing that right about now.

And please, like she was going to get on her knees and beg to be let go. Sure, it'd be nice if they'd uncharacteristically said, "Yeah, okay, they didn't want you anyway," but she knew that was a long shot, just one step more likely than their magic suddenly coming back or a deus ex machina. Her words were merely an attempt to get a fuller picture of the situation they were in, since she obviously hadn't gotten the whole story about everything. Every word spoken by the opponent was another insight to their nature, their plans. From the little bit that Spear-guy said, Sayrike gathered (though she could still be wrong, it was too early to tell) that whoever was running the show wasn't interested in any person from Earth in particular; he/she/they wanted something that was common to all the Earthlings. (Huh, that's strange to be using 'Earthling' on myself.) If this was a fight due to some past history, Sayrike would have considered staying out of this whole mess, because then it wouldn't have been her place to fight another's battles for them...but as it stood at this moment, she was a part of this. What the heck did I get myself into? Ah, well...better than spending my days hiding in the forest, I guess. See, there was always a silver lining.

"Entertainment, huh? But I thought you weren't supposed to feel any emotions..." It was a partial jab at them, and also a partial musing. Even while playing the games, that always seemed to be a flaw to her---clearly the Nobodies had desire. It could be desire to fill the void where their heart was, or to fill in the memories of certain 'emotions.' But the fact remained that they felt this desire and worked to fulfill it of their own initiative. If one truly did not have emotion or a heart, then one would just laze around and do absolutely nothing, because there would be no reason to do anything. But that was beside the point at the moment. "Still, there's still an issue that you're taking orders from someone else, which I find intriguing. I mean, this isn't a tactic to try and upset you, because you obviously you're not one to let your emotions get in your way, but...what exactly are you getting out of this that you'd submit yourself to someone else? Fun? There is more challenging prey than us out there..."

But by that point, The Flying Dutchman had arrived. And, true to their label, the boarders were Replicas--capital "R" and everything. First off was Kyle, then James. But, though their appearances were similar, they were not true doppelgangers. Neither Kyle nor James had that haughty look, the sneer, the disregard for human life. Their very presences were different. There was no way she could mistake these Replicas for the originals.

Sayrike watched as several of the Earthlings made attempts at defiance. Jeez, did they not realize it wasn't going to get them anywhere?! Letting emotions go unchecked like this was only going to hurt them more, and no one had any healing magic! Sayrike was one of the few not to sustain any injuries; she hoped to keep it this way, because at this rate the rest of them were going to get themselves seriously hurt or knocked out, and it'd be up to Sayrike and a handful of others who had kept their cool in order to carry the burden of the upcoming trial. She wanted to yell at them to stay calm, but again, it would do no good. Tch. Better just to watch out for herself at this point and make sure she didn't trip up.

Mmm, the idea of 'Replicas' was interesting. The replication seemed to be only surface-deep. However, she couldn't help but ask rhetorically as she walked and followed behind Sora, "But, if we're nothing, what does that make the Replicas, who are then therefore copies of nothings? And what if they didn't have magic powers either? Would they be on the same level as us?" She honestly should have kept it inside her head, but she momentarily forgot that this wasn't some class where she could ponder these things aloud.

[Dawn : The Caribbean Sea : The Black Pearl]

Dawn felt her breath catch in her throat as Kuro Oni came in her direction. Though James acted as a wall, to protect her from his wrath, it did little to ease any fears that Kuro would actually attack her or James.

"He better just keep his filthy hands to himself," Dawn said from behind James, "If he touches anyone else, James included, I'll throw a 2x4 at his head."

[Anthony ~.~ Caribbean Sea ~.~ The Black Pearl]

Before they knew it, The Flying Dutchman had pulled up beside The Black Pearl and its crew began to board their ship. The first person to board the ship was Kyle, followed by James--at least those are who they looked like. A confused expression came across Anthony's face as one brow furrowed and the other rose. Jacob verbalized the boy's thoughts as the unconscious man from earlier, Louis (whom he still hadn't made proper acquaintances with), explained what exactly these doppelgangers were.

"Replicas?" the warrior-knight thought to himself. "But they don't seem like exact copies... James' Replica has white hair and red eyes, and these two seem much more powerful than their original. Oh boy, this can't be good..."

As James' Replica dashed forward and grabbed Noelle by the throat, Anthony felt his heart sink and his muscles begin to tense. He began to feel something similar to what Joe and Jacob felt that caused them to lash out and attack. It was as if reason was slowly shrinking away.It was a familiar feeling he hated to feel. Anger. His toes curled and his fists clenched as his jaw tightened and his eyes glared at the Replica that choked the girl. All he wanted to do was charge the white haired man, but it took every ounce of his will power to resist.

Once the Replica had knocked Noelle down and set his eyes on Dawn, Anthony rushed over to the blonde girl and knelt at her side, then asked, "Are you alright?" He place a hand underneath her back and took her hand with the other, then gently, making sure not to cause any further damage, helped her sit up. "As much as you want to punch their faces in, I think we have no other choice but to oblige to their commands." He looked up at the Replica once more, now being blocked by the original from reaching Dawn, then back down to Noelle. "Do you need help moving?" he asked her, then chuckled a bit as he remembered their first encounter back on The Challenger when the girl had been knocked down by a stray cannonball and how embarrassed he had ended up feeling for asking her if she were alright. "Not saying you wouldn't be able to do it on your own if you wanted. You are much tougher than you look."

[[Louis : Black Pearl -> Flying Dutchman]]

The Ivalician Arcanist((Totally stealing this! Thanks Kyle!)) knelt down as if to tie his shoe before heading out. Ignoring the annoying jabs from the lancers, Louis inconspicuously slipped something into the bottom of his pant leg as he spun around and swatted their weapons away only to have them needlessly reset by his face. Louis shrugged and hoisted his rifle back into a comfortable position as he turned away, looking past the replicas and at the shark man that stood menacingly across the plank. Louis didn't hesitate to stroll past everyone else and move swiftly to catch up with Sayrike.

"Don't worry." He said reassuringly over her shoulder, "We'll get through this somehow."

[Cory .:. Angel Grove .:. Outskirts]

"Can I be faster than that hunk of scrap? I can be faster than the Replicas, so don't you worry about me!" The Indomitable Will suddenly flared up as Cory dashed at the Heartless, his speed picking up with each step as he Resolved his legs. He fired off a few Engine Forces at the Heartless, stunning it enough for him to throw the Revblade at it. The sword wedged itself in the ground beneath one of the wheels as the ronin jumped into the air, spinning like a buzzsaw as he Resolved his right foot. The rogue came down on the handle of the weapon, causing it to lift up the Infernal Engine slightly.

Now! The Will began to burn even brighter around Cory, covering his entire body as he grabbed the underside of the wheel. Even in fights against the Replicas, Cory had not strained himself this much since he awoke in the Underworld. He gritted his teeth as he lifted upwards at the Heartless, slowly titling it more and more. Time to dig deeper.

Light suddenly engulfed the ronin before fading away as quickly as it had appeared, revealing the color scheme of Cory's clothing to have changed from blue, black, and white to a number of different shades of blue. "Summon Drive: Cerulean Samurai!" The Indomitable Will seemed to explode around Cory as he not only lifted the Engine more easily, but threw it into the air.

The samurai grinned, kicking the Revblade up and catching it before summoning copy of it. "Twin Cylinders: Engine Storm!" Cory's arms seemed to blur as both Revblades roared loudly, a myriad of crescent-shaped shockwaves flying into the air at the Infernal Engine, the force of the attack enough to keep it slightly afloat. "Cloud! You're up!"