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[Matthew :-: Atlantis :-: City Limits]

Matt was still composing himself after the high velocity top-spin, the contents of his stomach apparently planning to have a vacation in the near future. He was disappointed that Kyle and Joe were so quick to leave them, but Noelle apparently had her own way of fixing the matter. He looked at the slingshot and let out a whimper. "Yes'm," he acquiesced, and sat down on the sled. While he knew that they had to get moving as soon as possible, he secretly wished that the sled would be more of relaxing jaunt.

[ Ajora ; Kida ; King : Atlantis : Throne Room ]

By the time the roar reached the throne room, Ajora's presence was radiant, emitting Light as though his entire body burned with it. Even the blood dripping from his wings was absent now, leaving them a clean, almost iridescent white.

Due to the seal's magic-cancelling effects, though the sound made it through, the potential damage they could have caused did not.

"This is why I can't have nice things," he muttered, standing up from his meditative position and walking toward the Heart's location again. He hesitantly hovered into the open air near it--and the Heart remained blue, giving him a small grin.

"Alright, then, let's try this," he said as he slowly flew closer to the Heart, reaching out with his free hand, leaving the palm open. His arm inched closer and closer, remembering all-too-well what had happened to Rourke in the movie. Still, as he was within bare centimeters, nothing happened--and finally, with a protective aura cast by the Trident enveloping his hand, his fingers graced the power source. He inhaled sharply through his nose as he felt the immense power now literally at his fingertips.

This is it, then. If this works...

Ajora's smile was pure excitement. He hadn't expected to even get this far. Activating the draining abilities of the Nethicite, he had to stop himself from hyperventilating as he felt his body charge with power.

But then his hand slowly began to crystallize.

With an angry shout, he pulled his hand back and hovered away. He tried to pull the crystallizing magic into his palm, but that didn't work. He even tried to use the Trident to get it off, to no avail. With a grumble, he aimed his palm at the Heart and released the absorbed energy--and with it, the crystallization disappeared.

I told you, it's ancient magic. This won't work.

.:Then use the princess.:.

He glanced toward her, and the King immediately pulled her closer to him, knowing what the gaze meant.

That won't work, either. The Heart will turn on me, using her as its host, to protect itself and the city.

.:Then try the crown.:.

Ajora paused, eyes narrowing off to the side in thought.

The crown? That's a stretch. If the power of the Nethicite, amplified by the Trident, couldn't control the Heart...


Ajora unconsciously stretched his neck slightly before glancing toward the Princess.

... though, I suppose it couldn't hurt to try.

[Anthony/Lucian ~.~ Black Pearl]

"I'll show you who's a foo--" It was then did Lucian feel the chill of the ice running up his arms. He dismissed his gauntlets, hoping severing the connection between the icy dome around Dawn and himself would stop the spread of the ice, but it was too late. Try as he might to rip away any of the ice, the ice kept creeping up the Replica's arm.

The Blizzaga erupted. His feet began to crystallize, then spread further up his legs. It was then when his mind cleared and defeat finally sunk in.

The Fallen Knight glanced at Kuja as his demonic form quickly shifted back to its original. He smirked. He fought to raise his arm one last time, the ice around his shoulder chipping away and replenishing until his arm was fully extended out and frozen in place. He held his hand out in a shape of a gun until the ice ran back down his arm and froze his hand over.

"Ban--" The ice finally reached Lucian's head. He was completely encased in ice.

Anthony walked over to his frozen doppelganger. He walked around him, eying Lucian up and down, then waved his hand in front of the frozen gaze that was still locked onto Kuja. "Wow...," he finally said. "I'm glad you're on our side, Kuja."

The young man crouched beside the frozen Replica. "And now," he said, lifting the icicle over his head, "to get rid of the trash." He wound his arms back, then shot them forward, tossing the Fallen Knight overboard and into the maelstrom.

After the deed was done, the Knight turned back around, dusting off his hands, and marching back to the others victorious.

[ Kyle : Atlantis : City Limits ]

Three...

Suddenly, Kyle received a mental image, projected by someone there--only one person in the location would have had a charm. Kyla was, it seemed, safe. There was the Avatar of Chaos, so dangerously close to Kyla, and a short distance away was Alice, Cu's host. Nearby against the door was an odd-looking archer, and some men in suits were talking to Helga. Tseng was easily noticeable, meaning the other unidentified man was a Turk as well--but who had Zodiark? Him, or the archer?

The archer looks fiendish, so probably her--

As soon as the image faded, though, Kyle noticed a blur of motion up ahead--likely Kyla taking advantage of the terror he'd caused. At that point, he felt Zodiark's presence grow more distant, while Chaos and Cu remained stationary--he'd find out Zodiark's host soon enough, it seemed.

Still need to save the Heart. Four...

"I'm going to tear down that seal while they're distracted!" he said over the charms to those in Atlantis. "Kyla, be careful!"

Kyle was a fiery beacon of brilliant golden-white Light now. His approach could be seen from all directions now--the intensity of his charged mana made him stand out like a miniature sun speeding toward the King's Hall. And still, with every leap, he seemed to shine brighter--

He was within range now. One more Vault and he'd be right in their faces--

Five!

Suddenly, the dragoon changed his direction. His last leap went vertical--he soared above the group, his radiant aura calling all attention to him, whether he liked it or not.

Upon reaching the peak of his jump, he brought his arms slightly out to his sides, palms up, and his aura completely vanished. Instead, he was surrounded by five Starlights, each sparking with energy. He curled his hands into fists--the Starlights immediately condensed into single points of blinding Light, Neutron Stars. And as he began to fall, he threw his arms forward, launching them with bullet-like velocity toward the seal.

They sped forward, each barely a fraction of a second after the other, and collided with the center of the seal with an odd, ethereal thud. There was no explosion at first, but anyone watching would notice the energies conflicting; crimson Darkness fighting off golden Light, twisting, spiraling, unraveling--

As Kyle landed almost a dozen meters in front of the group on one knee, the coalescing magics erupted with a powerful, thunderous explosion that would easily throw anyone too close to the seal off their feet. Kyle watched carefully for a few seconds, just waiting for the dust to settle--and saw that the seal was still intact, though slightly cracked around the center.

With a snarl and a flash of Light, Kyle summoned his swallow-spear, his arms glowing gold as Divine Intervention took over, before vaulting straight past the group in another blur of motion toward the seal. With a resounding shout, he swung his spear down on the seal's central fracture--and was held aloft in midair as Light and Darkness once more began to conflict. White and black sparks of energy began to erupt from the point of impact and Kyle's body began to tremor with the growing potential energy...

With another (lesser) eruption of energy, Kyle was thrown to the ground, skipping and rolling off the stones (and, without realizing, puddles of blood) until he stopped on his back, hitting his skull with a powerful thud on the ground. Too dazed to move, he looked up to the seal to measure the damage.

The seal was slightly more fractured now, but still held strong. If one watched closely enough, the very edges of the cracks were beginning to shrink.

{Auron : The Black Pearl : Deck}

"A combined attack, wait for my word," Auron replied to Riku's question.

Auron remained focused on Lucian as he focused his attention on the dancer, using his chains to bind her inside of the dome of ice that Kuja had placed her in. He watched, biding his time as the ice dome began to expand, beginning to encase the replica. The Genome's Blizzaga at Lucian's back advanced the process and before long it was finished, Lucian was completely frozen in the ice. His original finished off Lucian by tossing him overboard into the raging maelstrom.

"That's done, we'll take care of the rest. Riku now!" Auron stated as he and Riku stood back to back and unleashed a spiral of built up energy.

Auron and Riku then seemed to fly around the deck of the ship as Auron unleashed a series of spinning attacks followed by plunging his sword into the deck causing eruptions of flame to strike any monsters that got in his path. Riku would then take the opening to leap into the air and plunge his keyblade into an enemy. The two of them repeated this onslaught a few times.

"Let's finish this!" Auron yelled as he and Riku brought their energy to bear as his and Riku's blades met at their hilts and began to spin rapidly. As the unsent samurai and Riku split the speed of his katana and Riku's keyblade increased and they created a powerful tornado that spiraled furiously around deck, destroying the remaining enemies on deck.

When the Spiral subsided Auron walked over to his blade where it had landed on the deck and brought it up onto his right shoulder before looking over at the group.

"Hmph, that's how it's done," he stated with a satisfied smirk.

[Joe: Atlantis: Hell if he knows at this point]

All he knew was that something was flying at him, and his legs went from running to propelling him into the air and out of the way of...Mathy? The hell?

Of course, while still in the air, something else was coming, and he barely caught Noelle's message before getting that vine wrapped around his waist. He didn't even get a chance to be offended before he was tugged into the sled, crouching low and cursing. Talk about being jarred into motion.

Cursing even more at Kyle's little message, he paid very close attention to what Noelle was saying. Thrown? Oh, yeah, he could do a lot with being thrown.

"Do it."

[Artemis ~ Atlantis ~ Outside Throne Room]

There was little time for Artemis to recover between the stun, Birn Strike, and Kyle's attacks on the seal. The archer was tossed forward quite a distance, landing on her front with a pained grunt. She kicked herself up as quickly as she could manage and assessed the situation. The words of her creator echoed in her shared conscious. "Stop them."

With a lift of air, the contortionist sprung back, a glass arrow already strung and pulled back. Within mere seconds of landing, Artemis took aim. Kyle seemed to have taken care of himself with a bump to the head, but Kyla was still active and launching an attack of her own. The pictomancer's right shoulder lined up in Artemis' sights--stop the weapon arm and stop the weapon. Without further hesitation, the Unversed loosed the arrow, stringing another within a matter of seconds and aiming for Kyla's right bicep.

[ Kyla: Atlantis: outside throne room]

Artimis was good.

!!!

Yup-yup, the enemy was up and making their move. That bow wasn't just for show. She had prepared for some retaliation, so instead of flinching beyond the initial impact it gave, Kyla just kept on trucking.
Nobody said this would be easy.

Having expected this at least, she had to choose carefully what happened next. Doing a combination of a Lotus shield And the flight of blades would stretch her magic out too much to provide room for the heavy hitting on the door-
but she needed to defend herself from long range.

So some practical pictomancy was in order. If that archer was going to keep shooting her, Kyla was not going to make it easy for her, and Kyle needed defending till he got his wits about him again.

With her shoulder screaming in protest Kyla scratched the very basic shapes required and let them erect a 3 panel barricade out of the stone surface beneath their feet. Boxing herself and Kyle in facing the sealed door she hoped that would buy them some more precious time till their allies arrived.
Once the wall was up Kyla focused another shot towards the door.

' Common you guys.... common...
Kyle wasn't getting up very quickly- did he hurt his head that bad?

" Kyle! You ok?! Talk to me. We still have two in front- a little back up please?"