2020-05-02: Scavengers

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<Pose Tracker> Heal Berry has posed.

    It's midday, and the sun beats down on the parched ground of Damzena. The tracks of the Royal Damzena Line trail across the desert, a vital lifeline between the northern settlements and Meria's more temperate regions. A steam locomotive trundles down the tracks, pulling eight cars behind it. Smoke pours from the engine's stack, trailing back across the roofs of the cars behind it. A total of three passenger cars hold travelers headed to Meria--they aren't as cramped as some other lines, and ridership is a bit lighter than usual. Behind those are five cargo cars, laden with shipments bound for the coast. At least one of those shipments is valuable--and, accordingly, its owner has hired additional protection.

    Fulbright and Sons Mineral and Salvage paid competitive wages to any Drifter who provided solid references and was willing to sit on a train for three hours. The job is fairly straightforward--stand guard over the shipment, and protect it from thieves. This far from the capital, bandits and other desperate souls have a degree of leeway they might not have elsewhere. Train robberies, while rare, are not unheard-of.

    Even then, it doesn't go down like it should.

    The air within the cars flickers, and darkens. The passengers' confusion and weariness gives way to panic as the spell completes--spacetime rips itself open in a kaleidoscopic shower of particles. Humanoid shapes appear from within the rifts, wearing the armor of Odessa regulars. The rearmost rift disgorges the unit commander, a tall, lean woman in a long cloak patterned with blue and white. Polynya's mask is still broken off just below the nose, and her salvaged Hyadean armor has long since been repaired. A Crest glows in the bracer at her right wrist, and ice arcs through the air, tearing through the rear door. It surges down, coating the coupling linking the passenger car with the cargo car behind it.

    Screams erupt through the train as the passengers panic. Some fumble for ARMs, while others hold out their valuables in hopes the thieves will spare their lives. At Polynya's right, one of the guards draws a blade and surges forwards, only to be met with a palm-strike square in the chest. The Odessa officer grabs his shoulder with her other hand, and wrenches it in a direction it was never meant to bend.

    "Anyone else?" she says, calmly, as the man howls in pain.

DC: Heal Berry switches forms to Crest Sorceress Polynya!

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Odessa's ability to send troops just about anywhere at a moment's notice remains only one of several reasons why they are such a formidable fighting force. The element of surprise is all but guaranteed, and even then, the tactical brilliance of their best commanders are not content to simply rest on their laurels. For there is another component to this ambush - it is nested within a far more obvious target making themselves known within a margin of time decided by an exact number of seconds.
     A certain Hyadean, strongly resembling a horned squirrel, makes use of his blistering land speed on all fours as he rushes parallel to the train. Mother intended for his genetic line to make excellent battlefield couriers, and her fell hand did not err there. Some guards have already taken pot shots at him from within the train, but none hit the mark as he takes off and LEAPS right onto the side of one of the moving cars.
     He scrambles up what available footing there is (passenger car windows) to get himself up on top of one of the cars, being all sorts of a clear, visible nuisance. One that will have already drawn some of the guards away from the real objective.
     A decoy, but a persistent and dangerous one! 

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"Oh my....Oh myyyy! What is going on here?" A lady in an old-timey western purple dress with a black frilly shawl and black gloves cries out. She has a black umbrella in her hands, holding it above her head despite being indoors. She is also wearing a bonnet.

She fans her glove into the air and says, "Oh no!! We're under attack! Heeeelp! Heeeeelp! Bone thieves in the train car! Oh my oh my! This is too much excitement! I do declare I feel a fainting spell coming on!"

The lady promptly tumbles over, still clutching that umbrella tightly.

"Oh my weak heart...!" She cries. "Are there any noble heroes who can save us from the rabble? Oh Johnny...! If only I listened to you about the dangers of train travel! Boo hoo hoo! Boo hoo hooooo!"

Honestly she's seen better days. She looks terribly pale even....! WHO COULD THIS BE??

"And to think I carried all my valuables on my person. I'll be ruined! Ruined...!"

She throws a kerchief into the air and it wafts gently into the air. 

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

Claude C. Kenny is up for pretty much any job that involves not a lot of work with a fairly small chance of mortal danger. (To be honest, that pretty much describes his military occupation to a T.) Claude's assignment, barring trouble, was to spend the trip sitting in one of the lead passenger cars, dressed in his combat gear and looking very obviously like he's there for some trouble. A deterrent, as they described it. And clearly it worked, because a whole lot of nothing happened, allowing him to get a good hour's worth of reading in.

The fact that he is both reading a book, and doing so on purpose, may have been the most unsettling part of the trip for anyone who knows him.

But then the air flickers with a telltale ripple of highly advanced magic and Claude - whose second sojourn bathing in the light of Althena's Blessing has given him slightly more magical affinity than most cheeses one could name - stands up, eyes wide, looking toward the rear of the train with alarm on his face. "Uh, everyone stay in this car and stay calm," Claude says, taking a moment to tuck his book away and secure his weapons belt. His voice is surprisingly authoritative - anyone who knows the military will recognize the tone of an order from one trained to give it. "I'll head backward. If things get hairy, we'll cut the cargo compartments and let you all go free." That was the plan, as far as he can recall it, anyway. He starts to move toward the rear door.

...then stops and looks out the window at the flowing desert landscape. He feels the k-THUK-thuk shiver of the rails run up into his legs. He looks toward the door, then out the window. Then up at the roof of the car.

...

"Uh, there could be an ambush inside some of the rear cars," Claude explains. "So, uh... hold on to your kerchiefs," he announces as he turns and kicks a nearby window; the thick, heavy glass pops out of its frame and tumbles out into the desert; wind from the outside pours into the traincar, and the passengers begin covering their faces and heads. The big blonde slides along the table underneath the window (in the process utterly demolishing a cribbage game to the quiet delight of Mrs. E. Babbage, who was in danger of being skunked) and then slides his upper body outside of the car. Grabbing the upper rail firmly, he grunts and heaves himself up and around and onto the roof of the train car. He immediately slides forward a foot until he lowers his body to stay within the train's slipstream, and grins through the frantic whipping of his fine princessy hair about his face. He turns his head to scan the desert countryside, feeling each section of the track rumble up from the train like an iron heartbeat. Claude takes a deep breath, lets the smile spread across his face, and begins running across the roof of a train to stop an honest-to-God train heist.

Sometimes life is great. 

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    Gwen has solid references.
    Gwen has definitely not been involved in any possibly shady goings-on recently.
    Gwen has not, and will not admit to, being seen leaving a burning tavern in Seilje City, bloody and propping up an equally bloody Leon Albus as she limped away.
    Gwen is not just waiting for some report to get out as some agency decides that she and Leon are the possible culprits.

    Gwen is not getting money while she still can.

    However, Gwen *is* getting out of the passenger washroom, the door opening with a discreet click as she awkwardly adjusts a button on her sleeve.

    She looks up, just as the masked Polynya handles the poor guard. The courier's expression changes to remorse, with just a hint of anger.

    "Aw man, not you..." Gwen rubs her face. "That guy was coverin' for me like a proper gentleman!"

    So yes, the redhead just launches into a punch, as proper ladies and gentlemen do in memory of people who cover for breaks. 

GS: Formation! Gwen Whitlock has attacked Heal Berry with Special Delivery!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    In all honesty, Tidus was a little shaky on the references for this job--up until Marivel showed up with all of *her* amazing references and giving him the thumbs up. Of course, she then went on to 'disappear' and some other person in a sweet disguise took her spot, but mum's the word as far as Tidus is concerned. You don't just rat out a friend, especially one who just did you a good turn.
    
    He's thus hanging out not too far from where Not Marivel is sitting, ostensibly there to watch over the crew and cargo but also to, well, hang out with a friend while nothing is happening. When something *does* happen, Tidus is hard-pressed not to laugh at Marivel's theatrics.
    
    It helps that Polynya--not that he knows her name or anything--promptly breaks the arm of some other poor guy who's just trying to do his job.
    
    "*I'll* keep you safe, ma'am!" he declares, a little bombastically in his own opinion, as he strides forward to place himself between the 'bonnet lady' and Polynya + Polynya's crew. One's headed to the top of the train, but heck, this lady's right in front of him, and she just performed a sudden violence.. He draws his blade, glistening as the light hits its solid-liquid form.
    
    'Anyone else?' she says, indifferent to the fear and suffering she's caused.
    
    "You know it, lady! Here I come!!" he shouts, just before sprinting straight for her, blade slashing down once she's in range of his attack. 

GS: Tidus has attacked Heal Berry with Swift Step!
GS: Tidus has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Tidus has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Ida Everstead-Rey has a bodyguard. This is something well known indeed. But this is not the reason that a certain emerald-haired Metal Demon is here, no sir and/or ma'am! Zed is getting paid to be here...!

But even that is immaterial. He would have been here anyway, bounty or not.

There's something on this train that he must keep from falling into the wrong hands.

And so--!!!

"Did someone call for a NOBLE HERO!?" A voice bellows as someone heavy kicks their way straight into the main car... And right into a poor, unsuspecting Odessa agent. He was just minding his business, and then someone straight up flying-kicks him across the train car. Glass shards rain down on the plush carpet, and standing there where there was once an armed soldier...

Is a certain Metal Demon, holding a lacy handkerchief out for the lady who lost it. "There you go, ma'am! Now, if you'll excuse me--"

In an instant, Zed tears his blade free of its sheath. Doom Bringer ignites, burning with a halo of starlight and sunfire. He darts forward, cutting once, twice, thrice in a wheeling series of revolving slashes!!

"Trying to get your hands on more artifacts, are you?" Zed says to the Odessan raiders, "I think you've picked the wrong train to rob!" 

GS: Zed has attacked Heal Berry with Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor!
GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zed assumes the Avenger stance!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Formation! Gwen Whitlock has attacked Heal Berry with Special Delivery!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya is not a Drifter with solid references. Kaguya is a young woman who is able to turn many of her skills into money beyond combat, despite the fact that the bulk of her actual assets are back on Lunar. She then prefers to trade this money for goods and perhaps for services.

What does that have to do with the current moment? At the current moment after all, she sits on a train, breathing mask down around her collarbone thanks to the inside air of the train car as opposed to the outside heat. She doesn't look like the posters of a certain blonde train robber because her hair is a lot longer than that girl's, and also, she is wearing glasses. See? Totally different. Nevermind that the glasses are just glass.

She happens to be reading a newspaper when everything goes to hell. It's up over her face until she lowers it, frowning as she looks to the rifts of the armor, the tall woman in the long cloak, the soldiers. Passengers panic--

"Oh, for me?" Kaguya says as someone near her holds out a gold necklace in hopes of forestalling the soldiers, folding up her newspaper. The small Veruni scowls, and then looks suddenly to the window as she sees something hit it, feels it go for the roof. "Oh, no you don't," Kaguya answers, and remembers, long ago:

-=-=-

KAGUYA hits the roof of the train, knocks Leon Albus off of it, and performs a theft.

-=-=-

"You little shit I have a meeting here!" She looks to the sorceress--to the people leaping at her. SHe thinks about the roof. She sees... Zed. And--

"I don't feel like dealing with an old lady," Kaguya says sourly, and jumps for the back of the train, stepping out through the busted-open door and leaping up for the roof. As she does, she's pulling something from her back before--

Boots slam into the roof with the impact of a very light person with very sturdy boots. "What are you up to out here?" Kaguya asks. 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

It wasn't usually Clarine's way to involve herself in matters like this. There was little benefit in it for her - she didn't exactly have any references or intent on picking up a normal human job, and even if she did, she was functionally invisible to the average individual and was thus unlikely to to score any interviews.

But, on the bright side, this does mean that she can just... slip onboard without worry. And so, she finds a car to nestle herself down in, and waits. She's good at waiting.

While she was expecting something to happen, she did not expect an Odessa attack. She's familiar with their recent actions, though she hadn't been there personally to witness them. It turns out to be a good thing she was here today.

She steps out, takes a moment to assess the situation, and then holds a hand out. A flurry of light projectiles launch forth, looking to incapacitate the front line of Odessa soldiers.

"...Go no further. Do not bother these people again." Clarine warns.

Maybe it was a good thing she was here today - a situation like this could go poorly very quickly. 

GS: Heal Berry guards a hit from Tidus's Swift Step for 69 hit points!
GS: Heal Berry guards a hit from Zed's Saint Arts - Starstrider's Valor for 84 hit points!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
GS: Heal Berry critically Guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's Special Delivery for 25 hit points!
GS: Heal Berry's Force Guard activates!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

'Being with the Black Wolves' tends to be about as solid a reference as one needs for a job like this. Xantia, however, is not usually one who takes these kinds of guard jobs. She prefers the ones with a bigger guarantee of getting into a fight, and no risk of having to just sit there for three hours with little to do. Still, she wanted to head to the coast anyway and just so happened to see the (literal or otherwise) Help Wanted sign, so she jumped at that chance. Getting a free ride plus money out of doing everything that she would normally do anyway is a nice bonus!

And so, when bandits DO show up, there is at least one person on the train who is very happy about this. Someone who looks just like any other passenger. Which is to say, she is sitting in a passenger seat. She is wearing an unusual set of armor which might cause one to suspect that she's ready for a fight at a moment's notice.

As people are panicking all around her when rifts are opening, Xantia looks up calmly and smiles. She rises from her seat, and cracks her knuckles.

And then she watches a wave of light preempt her charge into a large group of soldiers, prompting her to just kind of skid to a halt and stand around awkwardly. She looks over to the seats when she hears that quiet but determined warning, giving Clarine a cheerful wave. "Hi Clarine! I didn't know you were here! Leave some for me, okay?"

Saying hi is important, the whole guard business can wait a few seconds. 

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    The last time Avril had been on a train...

    But that was a time ago, on a different continent, under different circumstances.

    It had also been a far more planned enterprise. To tell the truth, Avril had not even planned to be aboard this train, having been to the station for far more neutral reasons than the one it had ended up becoming.

    But she had seen the train engine and realized in a heartbeat that she needed to be aboard it. There was no time to lose.
    Certainly no time to alert others.

    She had been lucky -- there had still been tickets in coach available.

    And so she had climbed aboard, uncertain to what the Ley (so she has come to believe) was guiding her towards, and so she had ridden along towards Meria, the trip thus far unremarkable in the slightest.

    Another person might have doubted their intuition. Avril is not that person. She might doubt some aspects of the contents of her heart, but never the directions in which she is impelled. She sits placidly in coach, her gaze out at the baked lands of the Damzen Desert...

    Until it happens.

    All around her people scream. Some hide. Some go for various weapons. Avril simply stands and quietly, calmly, makes her way towards the end of the car, moving past passengers as if she were a fish in a stream.
    (The Odessa soldiers enter the car right after she passes through the far door. It really is impressive timing!)

    She hears footsteps on top of the car, after all.

    The wind rips at her long silver hair as she ascends up the ladder outside the car. She pulls herself over the top and stands, glancing first at the scenery whipping past and then --

    At Kaguya. Who has alighted on the roof of the next car over.

    "Kaguya. Are you the one behind this?" she asks Kaguya. Absolute Zero's hilt is already in her hand, though it is still without blade or beam.

    It wouldn't be the first train robbery in which Kaguya was involved.

<Pose Tracker> Heal Berry has posed.

    The guard next to Polynya mumbles something that could be gratitude, and collapses onto the floor of the train car. The sorceress' heels click on the floor as she slides into a fighting stance, raising clenched fists. Gwen steps towards her, and Polynya's gauntleted right hand snaps open, snakes forward, and grips the courier's arm. She's not entirely prepared for the force behind it, and has to push hard just to redirect it--rather than strike dead-on, Gwen's punch arcs high, past Polynya's shoulder.

    Tidus charges in next, presenting the woman with a problem: she's in tight quarters, and her spear is a liability here. Polynya grits her teeth, staring the young man down. She whips a Crest Graph from her bracer, holding it between two fingers--silvery-blue light glimmers on the etchings, and it flits free from her grasp, floating up to trace circles around her head. The air in front of her grows icy cold, and water vapor crystallizes around both her arms, forming buckler-sized slabs. Polynya raises both improvised ice-shields to meet Tidus's blade; the weapon strikes home with a CRUNCH of shattering ice.

    Polynya steps back, the remains of her sorcerous shield crumbling off her arms. "Well done," she says. "And here I thought this would be disappointing.".

    Zed crashes through the window a moment later. Polynya is already whirling in his direction, raising an open hand to try and grip his sword-arm and redirect the initial blow. It only half works--Polynya does grab him, but she can't quite stop that blade. It arcs forward, cutting into the armor at her collarbone and raising the faintest trace of crimson.

    "And you would be...?" Polynya asks, of her collected attackers. It's an open question, an invitation to introduce themselves. "Let me take this somewhere more appropriate." And with that, Polynya turns on a heel and leaps out the open rear door. Her bootheels touch down on the roof of the cargo car--she balances effortlessly, as though a twelve-foot leap were completely natural. The Crest Graph glows, and she raises her hand, waiting for her attackers to follow.

    And then, a hail of icy shards rain down at them. At least she seems to be avoiding the civilians?

GS: Heal Berry has attacked Zed with Hi-Freeze!
GS: Heal Berry has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Hi-Freeze!
GS: Heal Berry has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Xantia with Hi-Freeze!
GS: Heal Berry has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Zed takes a glancing hit from Heal Berry's Hi-Freeze for 72 hit points!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Tidus with Hi-Freeze!
GS: Heal Berry has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Seraph Clarine with Hi-Freeze!
GS: Heal Berry has gained 3 Combo!
GS: Xantia guards a hit from Heal Berry's Hi-Freeze for 87 hit points!
GS: Seraph Clarine guards a hit from Heal Berry's Hi-Freeze for 75 hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock critically Guards a hit from Heal Berry's Hi-Freeze for 29 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    It's dangerous, but going up high is the fastest way through a crowded, chaos-filled train. A hired guard, a stoic woman of unnatural composure, and a completely unsuspicious lady of small stature all come together by fate. This should be the moment where everything comes to a halt and then they all get a window into seeing how they all get here. (It's one and a half Chapters too late for that, though.)
     All roads lead through a tall Hyadean whose grin is every bit as genuine as Claude's smile as he catches the man from very, very, very far away from here approaching.
     "Hyahaha--! This is great..." The words are almost lost to the loud sounds of a train going as fast as it is, his balance unchallenged. The more stoic addition asks if another is behind this.
     "Kaguya?" Ratatoskr asks. "...Oh... you almost had me going... there's a famous warrior on Lunar by the name of Kaguya Alathfar..." He grins a bit wider, as the 'Kaguya' that Avril addresses asks him what he's up to.
     "...I didn't ask!" Ratatoskr says, proudly, arms crossed and then held outward with raised arms and one leg slightly raised, in that familiar combat stance of his. "Does it matter? Does it matter!" His face gets a bit more of a silvery flush from the rush of it, energy crackling ominously about the horn from his forehead. Do they really have time for this? Maybe they should punch him off the train.
     (He probably wouldn't mind, all told.) 

GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Ratatoskr with Budding Yggdrasil!
GS: Ratatoskr assumes the Avenger stance!
GS: Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Ratatoskr's Budding Yggdrasil for 0 hit points!
GS: Amplify! applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Ratatoskr with Boiling Quicksilver!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Ratatoskr's Boiling Quicksilver for 0 hit points!
GS: Burst! applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action.
GS: Tidus guards a hit from Heal Berry's Hi-Freeze for 83 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Who would Zed be? Who... Would ZED be!?

"You've seen me before!" Zed says, incredulity strong in his face. "You know! At the Everstead-Rey exhibition!? Ah well, doesn't matter! LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF!" There is ice. Shards of razor-sharp glassified water pour down in a hail. Zed dances through the deadly downpour, though his skills are not such that he can evade every raindrop. Several shards slice silvery slits in the swordsman's skin, revealing his nature, if not his identity. But Zed's dance... is strange. He seems to be posing as he dodges.

Because he is.

Because this is part of his introduction.

"I am the Hyadean called Zed! He who aspires to be the greatest swordsman among the Metal Demon clan! The Ultimate Macho Man, the Grim Reaper's Penpal, the Ultimate..." Zed darts forward, clearing his path with a swift sword strike, "Dark...!" Paradoxically golden light builds around his body in a blazing aura. He leaps, throwing an uppercut into the empty air...! "Hero...!"

Zed lands on the cargo car. His golden aura... fires up into the sky and disappears.

"And you," he adds, pointing his sword at Polynya like that embarassing TOTAL MISS didn't just happen. "Are a thief."

...Something twinkles overhead.

And a deafening column of light suddenly blasts down from above as Zed's unleashed power completes its sharp parabola through the clouds and comes crashing back to earth right on Polynya's head. 

GS: Zed has attacked Heal Berry with Inner Secret - Heaven's Howl!
GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zed has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

"Oh!! Blood! How frightening!" The--yeah okay it's Marivel playing around. She rolls up into a kneeling position, looking up towards Polynya, as if in prayer. And then she frowns, looking up towards the roof where Kaguya leapt towards. She's kind of surprised it worked even so, but well--it's not... INACCURATE...to call Marivel old...but she was kind of going for startled housewife rather than actual old lady. Is her HUMAN impersonation off??? No,no, she's pretty sure this is how the humans act.

Her eyes focus on that trace of crimson on Polynya's collarbone.

But then she leaps away towards the cargo car so Marivel stands up here, dusts herelf of, and becomes mist...

...that leaks up out of the windows and slowly pulls up aroud Polynya before the mist takes coherent form. The guise is gone. It's now just Marivel, still holding that umbrella--but lashing out and trying to draw just a bit of that crimson away from Polynya's armor and towards herself, aiming to drain enough blood from Polynya--

--to learn an enemy skill!

"Are you simply another that idolizes strength and power? At least a death merchant appreciates the coin."

Her gaze slants towards Tidus and she gives him a small smile. 

GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Heal Berry with Skill Drain!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

Claude C. Kenny moves along the length of the train with deliberate, controlled speed; after a few car lengths, he's mostly adjusted for the up-and-down motions of the uneven tracks, and is making steady progress. In a way, this is a lot like the balance exercises his mother put him through while he was a teenager, only instead of a train it was rolling logs and instead of a desert scenery flashing beneath him, it was every hungry cat within a five-block radius. Also, upon further reflection, he had a bandana with sardines around his head.

...

"Okay, maybe it wasn't much like that at all," he mutters to himself; he has little time for self-reflection anyway because he can see other people climbing up onto the roof of the train. And one of them is... "Oh no," groans Claude as he spots Kaguya. Of all the people who could be responsible for this train heist, it had to be the young woman he got in a drag-out brawl with in Glaivend Basin in Lunar... and then subsequently forgot, although IN HIS DEFENCE he was in disguise as Cless Al'Vane at the time, and so it stands to reason he wouldn't remember her. Thankfully, the last time she tried to murder him (for not remembering the first time she tried to murder him, oddly), he was plain ol' Claude again, so this issue no longer applies.

"HEY!" Claude shouts over the roar of the wind as he approaches the roof upon which Kaguya is now perched. The blonde swordsman leaves his blade in its sheath for the moment; while his Federation Zero-G training gives him something of an advantage in unusual combat situations, the train is much more like a One-G-Plus-Another-Half-G-On-The-Butt situation, and he's much more comfortable fighting without the edged weapon for the moment. "Of all the trains in all the deserts, you had to come and rob mine? Are you asking to get your butt kicked?" he taunts. "Well hold on to your ass, ass-holder, 'cause...uh..."

...

"...I'm going to kick it?"

...

"...so you should have a grip on it?"

...

"Claude scratches his head. "Okay, that one sort of got away from me there. Oh hey!" he shouts, looking over Kaguya at Ratatoskr. "Are you here to help me stop this evil train robber? Thanks!"

He offers a thumbs-up and a triangle grin. 

GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Kaguya with Sick Burns!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    Ice *crunches* against Tidus's water-blade, and Polynya unleashes a blizzard in turn. While Tidus is normally the speedy type, these closed quarters make it hard to evade; all he can do is raise his sword in front of himself and brace himself against the chunks of ice that batter his body. He relaxes out of his guard position upon getting complimented. "You think that was good? You ain't seen nothin' yet!" he jeers.
    
    Not that she's necessarily talking to him, considering that there's a *bunch* of other people on her right now. She poses a question to the lot of them, and Tidus gives her an 'are you for real?' kind of stare. "Hey, how about you say who *you* are, and why the heck you're doing all this, before you go asking anyone else's name?" he points out tetchily. (This is immediately undercut by Zed immediately introducing himself in the showiest way possible. THANKS, ZED.) Instead of answering in turn, Polynya dashes out of the car and up twelve feet. "Wha--get back here, you!!"
    
    Without another thought, Tidus dashes after the Odessa soldier, climbing up a convenient train car ladder to get to the roof, then hopping onto it. Marivel appears in a literal cloud of smoke a moment later to drain Polynya of her blood; Tidus shoots her a grin and a thumb's-up of greeting. It doesn't occur to him that this probably looks like him being gung-ho in favor of vampirism.
    
    "This weirdo's a lot faster than she looks. We'll have to slow her down!" he says, just before dashing in once again to close the distance with Polynya. This time, though, there's an added something to his sword slash--something that might make Polynya's moves somewhat more sluggish for a short while if it's successful. 

GS: Tidus has attacked Heal Berry with Delay Attack!
GS: Tidus has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Tidus has completed his action.
GS: Kaguya completely evades a hit from Claude C. Kenny's Sick Burns!
GS: Kaguya's Force Evade activates!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    One punch in, and the Odessa agent is already proving she's more than Gwen's match. This could be a little hairy, it seems. One courier, against more than one Odessa agent? Not odds that Gwen would care to try, but--!

    Oh thank goodness, there's that guy there, the Spira guy. The one with the romance with the summoner, or what Gwen is trying to promote in her head as a proper romance, at the time. He's here, on Filgaia!

    ..... oh no, that means that forbidden romance...!!!

    Gwen sees a window crash in over one shoulder, and, there, like a proper Dark Hero, stands Zed. "Oh Zed! Hey! Glad t'see your face here."

    She definitely won't be doing this alone, as she sees even more familiar faces come towards them. But, with these tight quarters...!?
    
    But FIRST, introductions. Gwen raises two fingers to the top side of her forehead and flicks them towards Polynya in greeting. "Gwen Whitlock, super courier. We didn't meet all proper-like last time. Was too busy with the, uh." Proxy puppet for the demon king. "... your friend?"

    The Odessa agent retreats, and Gwen seems honestly a little grateful, a shocked look on her face before she mutters, "-Ah, sure? Sure! Yes." Mentally, Gwen grants the woman some points, for moving the fight to someplace where civilians wouldn't be involved.

    She then retracts those points when she realizes she'll have to find a way to get up on that cab rooftop without falling off. Like a..... yes. The ladder that blitzball guy is using.

    And Zed just lets loose with the best introduction ever. "WHOAH, Zed, that was awesome!" Gwen would clap, but her hands are sort of occupied, with the whole ladder deal. That, and keeping herself from being shot off the dang ladder from Polynya's icy counterattack.

    But, seeing as Polynya is occupied, Gwen keeps herself half on the ladder, using her teeth to loosen the buckle over her right hand.

    ".... Really wish I had loaded before doin' this, but a laser'll do, right..?" Yes, a laser, which Gwen shall attempt to do, propping her right arm on the slightly surface of the roof. Just need to get the aiming right.
    
    .... Surely an easy enough task on a speeding train, right? 

GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Heal Berry with Crackshot!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"What? What do you mean 'almost'?" Kaguya scowls at Ratatoskr. "That's me!" She is, and someone recognizes her in fact! Claude says something, and Kaguya at first doesn't notice it because she's focused on Rataoskr. But Avril questions her, and then... the swordsman. "What--"

"WHAT," Kaguya answers, "It's you!" She scowls, "What, like your presence would make me hold back from something I saw that I wanted? Ha! You don't get up early enough to even try to oppose me, Kaguy--"

"Wait," she says, realizing she's getting carried away right around the time she processes 'ass-holder.' "..."

"You--"

"...."

Kaguya stares for long moments. She has no immediate response. "Yeah I feel like you should take a do-over," she suggests, "I'll wait." Pause. "Wait, shit--"

"NO, I'm not ROBBING THE TRAIN (this time), because as it turns out hiring the goons for this job was a whole lot of trouble? It turned out to be cheaper to just buy the shipment outright."

Pause. "Which means you're trying to rob ME, you little jerk!" Kaguya rounds on Ratatoskr. "You are!! Ugh!"

Kaguya throws a bunch of coins at Claude. "Go buy yourself a better set of lines!"

"Heheheh, that one was pretty good, huh? Anyway YOU!" she sys to Ratatoskr. "What are you here for!? "It better not be my copper shipment!""

She seems entirely on board with letting Ratatoskr charge up because, "Come on! Hit me! I'll show you who's a famous warrior on Lunar!" 

GS: Kaguya has attacked Claude C. Kenny with A Gift For YOUR FACE!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

There's another familiar face here! Clarine turns to look in Xantia's direction, offering her a smile.

"Ah... my apologies, I did not realise you were here, either. Still, I think you may yet get your fill of battles by day's end, I think." She replies.

With that, she turns back to the members of Odessa present here. While she hasn't met Polynya personally, she has a least received a briefing. She knows that she's someone to watch out for, and likely the one leading this particular operation.

Ice rains down upon her, and with a flourish several mirrors appear in the air around her. While they manage to intercept of it, the rest manages to get through. Even her immaterial form can experience the icy chill.

As Polynya takes the battle to the roof of the cargo car Clarine starts to pursues her. She glides upward, drawing a prism from within her sleeves and dropping it below her as she moves. It forms a shimmering rainbow platform that will help in the ascent, for those less inclined toward drastic leaps.

She comes to a stop just above the cargo car, not quite touching it. She watches Polynya carefully.

"...I am the Seraph of Light, Clarine. I respect that you spared the passengers, but I still must stop you here." Clarine replies, as to the question of her identity. She doesn't outright say she's a member of ARMS... but, those familiar enough with them probably already know.

Clarine glances in Marivel's direction. She doesn't comment on what she says, though. Instead, Clarine concentrates for a moment. Shortly after, a wave of strengthening red light emanates from her position, settling over Xantia and Marivel to enhance their power. 

GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Marivel Armitage with Acuteness!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Xantia with Acuteness!
GS: Seraph Clarine has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
GS: Xantia takes a solid hit from Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Xantia gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Hyper! applied to Xantia!
GS: Marivel Armitage takes a solid hit from Seraph Clarine's Acuteness for 0 hit points!
GS: Hyper! applied to Marivel Armitage!

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia nods eagerly to Clarine's assertion. "I sure hope so! And it's great that you're here, I've wanted to see how you fight! Maybe it'll help me figure out how to do Light!"

Unfortunately, she is standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, and looks up just in time to be pelted by ice shards. She covers her head and cringes a bit, not really able to protect herself in much of a meaningful way. Ice. Why'd it have to be ice? She may not be particularly vulnerable to it, but she still doesn't like being cold very much.

Of course, she's not about to let that stop her. When Polynya switches positions to the top of the cargo car, she follows readily, leaping up there with ease. She eyes her opponent-to-be over for a moment.

"So! You must be the leader, right?" Xantia may not understand the big picture a lot, but spotting the strongest one of a group and assuming that they're the leader doesn't require much understanding. She's pieced together the things most important to her, the things to watch out for. Magic. Spear. The basic gist of what she's up against. Also, the fact that they're on the roof of a train car. That presents risks, but also opportunities.

While she's assessing things, she is enveloped by red light. Xantia looks at her hands in curiosity for a moment, pondering the nature of this particular light, but not for too long - she knows the feeling of a magic enhancement when she experiences one, she needs to take advantage of that. She directs a quick smile to Clarine, then she's off.

Xantia approaches things in the most Xantia way possible, which is to say that she charges right on it for a frontal assault. Even so, she's more tactical about than it might seem. She doesn't know her opponent, and she's banking on her opponent not knowing her, either. She launches into a series of punches while purposely holding back her strength, hoping to catch Polynya off guard when she puts her usual amount of force behind an uppercut. Even if the blow itself doesn't connect, the violent displacement of air that follows could still pose a danger.

Only after that does she provide any kind of introduction.

"I'm Xantia! ...Just Xantia."

At times like this, she regrets having decided to abandon the path of the hero. Zed's introduction was so much cooler. Even so, she raises a fist threateningly. "You're not stealing anything while I'm here!" 

GS: Xantia has attacked Heal Berry with Massive Shockwave!
GS: Xantia has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.
GS: Claude C. Kenny takes a solid hit from Kaguya's A Gift For YOUR FACE for 0 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    Avril parses, in a manner of speaking, that Kaguya isn't the only one atop the roof of the train.

    It is admittedly hard to miss the presence of a large squirrely (literally) Metal Demon. Her gaze then passes from Ratatoskr and back to Kaguya. "Are you and he--"

    And then there were four.

    "Oh," she says to Claude. "Are you not--"

    There is, for a moment, a particularly weighty silence from Avril's corner of the room.

    "...Would holding onto one's posterior provide desirable defense, then?" the very befuddled lost queen of the Veruni asks of Kaguya and Claude. "It seems as if it may be inadequate."

    ...

    Fortunately, Rebecca is not here to hear this.

    Fortunately before this comedy of errors can proceed much further, Kaguya explains just what she is doing here. "Then, who is the one robbing the..."

    Avril trails off as Kaguya names the actual culprit--

    Or, as Ratatoskr himself indicates, someone who is just happy to be here and helping whoever is doing this.

    "--Be on your guard, he is coming!" Avril says, drawing out the Sea Medium to call upon Lucadia's blessings. This may be rather less to Kaguya's delight, all told.

    "Heed my call," she invokes; fleetingly, around Claude and Kaguya, there is the impression of a great wave rising as their shield. One blink and it's gone -- a hint of sea breeze is all that remains of the spell's working. 

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Tidal Wall!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Kaguya with Tidal Wall!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Claude C. Kenny takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Tidal Wall for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Claude C. Kenny gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shield! applied to Claude C. Kenny!
GS: Kaguya takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Tidal Wall for 0 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Shield! applied to Kaguya!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

From the ladder, Gwen helpfully shouts to Xantia, "There's nothing wrong with having just one name!" 

GS: CRITICAL! Heal Berry critically Guards a hit from Zed's Inner Secret - Heaven's Howl for 39 hit points!
GS: Heal Berry's Force Guard activates!
GS: Heal Berry takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Skill Drain for 40 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Heal Berry gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
GS: Marivel Armitage drains Heal Berry! Marivel Armitage gains 20 temporary hit points!
GS: Heal Berry guards a hit from Tidus's Delay Attack for 46 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Heal Berry gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Heal Berry's Force Guard activates!
GS: Heal Berry takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Crackshot for 102 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Heal Berry gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cripple! applied to Heal Berry!
GS: Heal Berry guards a hit from Xantia's Massive Shockwave for 55 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Heal Berry gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Disrupt! applied to Heal Berry!

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Ratatoskr is incapable of proper blinking. There is the dimming of those solid yellow eyes in sort of a flickery sequence, so maybe that's a lie. That's a very good eye flutter analogue. "Help you stop the evil train robber? Help you stop the evil train robber!" Ratatoskr asks and exclaims in sequence, incredulously, as the segmented Living Metal plates that make up his tail flare out in equal parts irritation and confusion. If he feels like punching them all, and of course he does, that's technically not untrue. (Logic!)
     Kaguya pushes the point about who's actually robbing who, and Ratatoskr's mind latches onto the much easier track to follow. "...If I said 'yes' would we get to fight?" He hopes he'll say yes! But then again that's up to him to say yes! "Hyahaha--! Sure! I can see it...! The balance, the strength..."
     Beat. She introduces herself by proxy as being that warrior on Lunar. "What? No you're not. The name's the same... the hair color's the same... the voice is the same... you look about as strong," which is high praise for how sickly she appears on average, "...but I'm pretty sure she's shorter than that..."
     oh no
     Avril brings forth a wash of the power of Lucadia as she speaks with certainty that he's coming, and she's right, he doesn't hesitate further into rushing forward. He's not very good at holding butts, as he does not come at Claude with an open hand, so this cannot be tested. He is coming at him with a striking, kicking foot whose impact is bolstered further by the discharge of shotgun-like compressed air, whirling forth to try and do the same to the other recipient of the Lucadia-granted barrier and then pushing forth with a shoulder tackle towards Avril. 

GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Packs A Kick!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Kaguya with Packs A Kick!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Claude C. Kenny critically Guards a hit from Ratatoskr's Packs A Kick for 20 hit points!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Ratatoskr Used Tackle!!
GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action.
GS: Avril Vent Fleur takes a glancing hit from Ratatoskr's Ratatoskr Used Tackle! for 59 hit points!
GS: Kaguya guards a hit from Ratatoskr's Packs A Kick for 50 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

Claude C. Kenny blinks owlishly at Kaguya. He's... not quite sure how to deal with the revelation that she's actually the victim in this heist. Could it be a ploy to get him to---

The coins bounce off his face, and a muscle twitches along Claude's jawline. A faint flicker of blue light dances in between his fingers as he closes a fist, preparing to close the distance - but then Avril calls upon the blessings of the Sea Guardian, Lucadia, enshrouding him and Kaguya with a wall of protective water. It is this, more than anything else, that finally convinces Claude of Kaguya's story; she might be lying to him, but you kind of have to trust the semidivine immortal being that blessed your wedding to the incarnation of their power and saviour of the world. Even if he's not actually married to her, really, given they did so under pretenses. Even if Lucadia actually showed up, that doesn't mean they're married. Technically. Probably.

Maybe a little bit.

...

"Oh thank God," Claude mutters to himself as Ratatoskr rushes to the attack; the young man from Earth keeps his body hunched low and spreads his feet as wide as he can manage, reorienting himself so that the Hyadean is attacking directly into the line of his torso. Claude brings both arms up in a block and braces, the impact slamming into a heavy guard. The salty tang of seawater sprays into the air as Lucadia's blessing absorbs some of the force of the strike; Claude rocks back in his stance to take care of the latter.

Most importantly: he doesn't fall of the train. He was a bit worried about that bit.

"Got to keep it simple," Claude mutters to himself as he darts after the withdrawing Ratatoskr, already bouncing back toward Avril. "Excuse me," Claude offers politely from behind Kaguya as he takes a short jump (since she's not much of a hurdle) and rolls his body over her; his left hand drops down in an attempt to lightly brace itself upon her shoulder as he completes the move.

Except she's a bit shorter than he thought, so his hand just sort of envelops her head instead. Oops.

Claude touches down on the steel roof of the train once more and almost immediately drops into a roll; rather than kill his momentum, however, he moves into it, accelerating forward. His face a mask of concentration, Claude twists his body around as he comes back up, turning a full 540 degrees before his right foot comes whipping around, heel lashing out in a windmill for the back of Ratatoskr's head. 

GS: Claude C. Kenny spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Ratatoskr with Helmet Break!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.
GS: Ratatoskr takes a glancing hit from Claude C. Kenny's Helmet Break for 49 hit points!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!

<Pose Tracker> Heal Berry has posed.

    "I do," Polynya says. "But give the others a chance, hm?" Nevertheless, she seems to indulge Zed's heroic impulse--she tracks the aura for a moment, but otherwise, her attention remains on him. She glances at those silvery lines, and her lips quirk in a grim little frown. "Audacious claims," she says. As Zed rushes her, she leaps back, boots slipping a little before finding purchase. She makes it look almost like a stylistic choice. "You--"

    Polynya feels the attack coming a split-second before she sees it--the flare of Zed's battle-aura as it descends like a falling meteor. She whips the Hyadean spear from her back, and thrusts it into the air above her--the Crest Graph flares again, and a field of ice forms around the tip. The shield meets Zed's attack with a thunderous CRACK. The ice shatters. Polynya is sent reeling, tumbling back across the cargo car. Zed's attack carries through the space she once stood, punching through the roof of the car like tinfoil. The Crest Graph plummets out of the air, and its owner barely manages to snatch it up before it falls off the train.

    Polynya digs gauntleted fingers into the roof, the metal visibly deforming beneath her grip. She hauls herself to her feet, and bares teeth as Tidus charges. She sweeps her spear forward, one-handed; the Zanarkandian swordsman's strike glances off the haft, but the block isn't complete. Tidus's sword clips the front of her breastplate, punching into the Hyadean metal. Gwen's own shot slams home a moment later, punching into Polynya's shoulder. A faint trickle of red seeps from the wound, and she grits her teeth until she can feel her jaw start to ache. He did something, she realizes. There was more than just raw power behind Tidus's blow. That woman shot at her, but doesn't have an ARM.

    Xantia charges her. Her assault is relentless--each punch forces the Odessan sorceress back, until she's literally at the edge of the train car. Her spear weaves back and forth, intercepting Xantia's blows, but she's still losing ground. And then, Marivel. The Crimson Noble's fangs bite into Polynya's flesh. For a brief instant, Marivel can see pale sea-green eyes beneath the mask. Then something goes wrong. A backwash of eldritch power flows from the wound, threatening to knock Marivel away.

    Polynya whips another Crest from her bracer. It ignites with a brilliant blue-green; ice rips across the battlefield, causing the metal roof of the train--heated by the fierce noonday sun--to buckle. As if that weren't enough, it washes over the battlefield, threatening to roll right over Zed, Tidus, and Gwen in a sea of icicles. Polynya finally sees Clarine a moment later, and does not seem to process her as anything other than a sorcerer who managed to remain hidden. There's something strange about her, though, and she does not like it. Ice crackles between her fingers, and then flies for the Seraph.

    "As for you," Polynya grates out. She sweeps her spear around, and drives the point towards Xantia. The weapon's blade shifts in her grip, as if seeking her foe's blood.

GS: Heal Berry has attacked Zed with Roaring Avalanche!
GS: Heal Berry has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Heal Berry assumes the Avenger stance!
GS: Heal Berry has completed her action.
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Tidus with Roaring Avalanche!
GS: Heal Berry has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Roaring Avalanche!
GS: Heal Berry has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Marivel Armitage with Roaring Avalanche!
GS: Heal Berry has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Heal Berry spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Xantia with Heart Piercer!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Seraph Clarine with Hi-Freeze!
GS: Heal Berry has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Marivel Armitage takes a glancing hit from Heal Berry's Roaring Avalanche for 81 hit points!
GS: Marivel Armitage's Force Evade activates!
GS: Seraph Clarine critically Guards a hit from Heal Berry's Hi-Freeze for 24 hit points!
GS: Xantia takes a glancing hit from Heal Berry's Heart Piercer for 67 hit points!
GS: Cripple! applied to Xantia!
GS: Hyper! applied to Heal Berry!

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Uuugh," Kaguya complains as she feels the spell take effect and shield further wounds. It doesn't hurt or anything. It's just that she knows where it comes from. And that would be the worst. It would! If not for... something else that happens, instead.

"Right, the same, the sam--gh--"

Kaguya is wearing tall boots. That much is true. But she scowls harder. "She is NOT shorter than that you horned menace! You--"

She gets kicked straight on, the power of which ought to knock anyone her size well away and off the train, but 'merely' shoves her back a couple of yards where she stops to catch her balance.

"...Thanks, Avril," she grudgingly allows, since the shield cushioned the impact well. Claude says 'Excuse me' and Kaguya starts to go, "Yeah, yeah--BLURF!!"

Kaguya is not quite fast enough on the draw to bite Claude's hand but she really thinks about it. "You are not excused!" she shouts back at him instead, and pulls something from a pocket--a little sphere with strange segmented lines on it. She flips a switch, and hurls it-

It goes for Ratatoskr and explodes into a cloud of green smoke, which quickly becomes a set of rapidly-growing vines with wicked spikes like razors on them to try to entangle the Metal Demon.

...The vines only go for Ratatoskr, but Kaguya makes absolutely no attempt to avoid the acrid smoke going for Claude while she's at it and he's performing complicated acrobatics. It's fine. 

GS: Kaguya spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Kaguya has attacked Ratatoskr with Bladevine Orb!
GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Heal Berry's Roaring Avalanche for 102 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Gwen Whitlock gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Zed guards a hit from Heal Berry's Roaring Avalanche for 88 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
GS: CRITICAL! Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Kaguya's Bladevine Orb for 60 hit points!
GS: Entangle and Poison! applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: Tidus completely evades a hit from Heal Berry's Roaring Avalanche!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Tidus gains 1 additional Combo!

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    Gwen indicates that she's, if not quite met Polynya before, then at least encountered her in passing. "Wait, you *know* this lady?" Tidus says, even though that much is clearly not true based on what she just said. Listen: words words words.
    
    Xantia meanwhile introduces herself as 'just Xantia,' and Gwen reassures her that single-name names are totally legit. "Yeah, what she said!" Tidus 'Tidus' Tidus exclaims, jabbing a finger Gwen's way. This turns into a quick glance and thumbs-up Clarine's way for casting her support magic on Marivel. He may have seen her among the members of ARMS before, but right now in the chaos of battle, it's just simple gratitude for help to a friend.
    
    And chaotic it is. This train roof is rapidly having a real, real bad day, what with all the light auras and ice capades piercing through it. Those ice capades also nearly shoot through *him* and throw him off the train; only thrusting his sword down into the weakening steal of the train car roof and performing some slick acrobatics with it as an anchor does he manage to stay on board. That being said, it's all he can do to stay on the train at all. He whips his head around to Marivel, who just got hit (?) by some weird power blast (???), and calls, "You okay?! Be careful!" She can fly (or a reasonable facsimile thereof), so she's probably okay, but... still.
    
    The Odessa woman still hasn't introduced herself yet, either. Well, fine! The others can say their names if they want, but Tidus isn't *that* friendly! Twisting his blade up and out of the iron, he keeps his body low to the ground. This also helps to reduce his air resistance, which combined with the rivets on the roof means he comes in *extra* fast on Polynya for his next attack. 

GS: Tidus spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Tidus has attacked Heal Berry with Quick Hit!
GS: Tidus has launched an attack Link!
GS: Tidus has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel blinks, her head tilting a bit before she throws herself backwards--moments before the eldricht power pulsing from Polynya sends her flying even further, sending her crashing to the ground. She spits the blood out and raises a hand to her head. Generally speaking, Crimson Nobles are quite willing to feast on monsters as much as they are humans and there are some strange constructs that they can draw a bit of spirit from.

"That power..." She says, raising her head eventually. "There's another entity's power within her!" She pushes herself up to her feet. "Don't kill her! Something's not right!"

This reaction more or less stalls her from giving Tidus a thumbsup but rest assured--she's glad she's got friends here.

Marivel seems weakened--at last until Clarine provides her own aid to the vampire and that seems to steady her. "Thank you, Clarine."

Tidus does check on her though and she says to Tidus. "It's alright. But there is foreign spiritual essence. Why, this might not even be her final form."

She straightens and says, "Polynya. Whatever is with you right now, it is not healthy. Surrender and wee can try removing it."

She then promptly glances towards Tidus and gives him one nod before she gestures forward with one hand, summoning a SPIRITUAL FASCIMILE OF A BLITZBALL and she adds, "Tidus! I am adding a blitzball to the field!"

TIME TO CAPITALIZE ON HIS TRUE POWER. Regardless, Marivel leaps into the air and then SPIKES the ball towards Polynya. 

GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Heal Berry with Shut up And Jam Ball!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "It appears he does not recognize you," Avril remarks, towards Kaguya. "Or perhaps, does not wish to? I am uncertain which it may be."

    But Ratatoskr is inbound, and they had best be ready for him when he arrives. Avril watches his charge, her body tensed in anticipation of what may come.

    She sidesteps him as he comes in, but is a moment too slow to neatly evade the tackle; he clips her with his shoulder and she staggers. This is a dangerous thing to do atop the rooftop of a moving train!

    But her footing at least is sure, settling and readjusting gracefully to match the shake and sway of the train car, even at this speed. Avril backsteps away from Ratatoskr after, brandishing the hilt of Absolute Zero--

    Brandishing the sword Absolute Zero, as the blade itself manifests in a short burst of light. This she jabs towards Ratatoskr, point first, as if this were the floor of a training hall and he were her opponent for this match.

    "Oh--" she utters, as Claude handily vaults right over Kaguya, as if she were a hurdle. That did look like it might have hurt (though perhaps the only thing damaged is Kaguya's pride?).

    Shaking her head, she follows in Claude's wake, lashing out for the Metal demon with the edge of her blade in a motion that seems deceptively straightforward. Is this truly what all that it appears to be?

    (It is, because that is the trick of this particular swordstrike.) 

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Ratatoskr with Innocent Saber!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Heal Berry critically Guards a hit from Tidus's Quick Hit for 18 hit points!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
GS: Heal Berry takes a glancing hit from Marivel Armitage's Shut up And Jam Ball for 60 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Heal Berry gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Jam! applied to Heal Berry!
GS: Ratatoskr takes a glancing hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Innocent Saber for 73 hit points!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

"Then I hope I do not disappoint." Clarine replies to Xantia.

But soon, the battle on the roof of the cargo car begins.

She returns Xantia's smile with a smile of her own, but her attention soon returns to Polynya - and the strange power that emerges when Marivel goes after her.

"Th-that power..." Clarine murmurs, She doesn't know what it is, but there's something about it that feels horribly wrong to her. She doesn't like it. It makes her feel ill, in a way she's not used to - it's wholly different from the sensation of Malevolence, but still unpleasant.

"You can feel it too...?" Clarine asks, glancing in Marivel's direction. But that's not the only thing they have to worry about. The roof of the car starts to buckle. It doesn't directly affect Clarine, since she just hovers over it, but she does recognize the problem this can present.

"Everyone, be mindful of the roof...!" Clarine warns. Soon after, a flurry of ice comes for her. Clarine is ready for it this time - her mirrors move to intercept, the icy projectiles shattering upon them. Some still manage to slip through, eliciting a wince a pain. She makes a quick downward motion in her right hand in retaliation, and a surge of power follows. At her gesture, a ray of searing light drops down from the sky directly toward Polynya. 

GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Heal Berry with Limited Ray!
GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.
GS: Heal Berry takes a solid hit from Seraph Clarine's Limited Ray for 124 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Heal Berry gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Quick and Shield! applied to Seraph Clarine!

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

Yes, heap more praise upon Zed. "Hmhmhm, yes indeed! My introductions are always the best. But don't think that it's a matter of talent! Working hard on one's introduction is an important part of walking the path of the Dark Hero!" Praise him more!

The sound of ice shattering snaps Zed out of his brief reverie. "Hm?" Polynya rolls away, intact, from his attack. "Not bad. Though... That spear does not belong to you. I will have you return all that you have stolen, thief!"

Unfortunately, a Hyadean spear is not all that Polynya has stolen.

A familiar power boils out from the warrior-crest sorceress. "That..." An avalanche of ice sluices out into him. Zed growls, waves of sea-green frost crash into him, chilling him to the bone even as it threatens to sweep him away. He digs his blade into the crumpling cargo container, desperately holding on for dear life, even as he fixes a suddenly all-too-serious glare upon his opponent. "That's not power anyone should have. Where did it run to!? The Primarch of Water - Rahab!? Has it sunk its tentacles into your mind as well!?"

"That power-- it corrupts, controls you from the inside. I've seen it with my own eyes. But..." Zed... wrenches his sword, turning it ninety degrees so that Doom Bringer's hilt faces the sorceress and her eldritch magic. "The Guardians won't care if I cut through corrupted ley. Puppet of Rahab, this Blade of Hyades will sever your borrowed power at its root! Seal..."

                                -=RELEASE=-

A disk like a camera's lens winks open, staring wide-eyed from Doom Bringer's hilt. Something flares within the crystal lens, unleashing a torrent of anathemic light, a power that Gwen would recognize as... familiar. It's the same kind of energy that the entity they faced in the Barrow wielded. Zed roars and draws his blade from its moorings. He slashes upward in the same motion, his weapon surrounded by a surging field of alien light. Zed cuts through the ice, slicing through the magic that animates the spell--

And roars as he follows through with another strike, swinging downward as if delivering a hammer blow. The power gathered around his blade floods out across the twisted, temperature-shocked metal and toward the sorceress beyond...!

What is this power Zed has acquired? Why is it sealed away? IS it even sealed away? Is Zed just being dramatic as usual and decided to act like he's got some TERRIBLE DARK POWER sealed up in his sword!?!?!

The truth... may be stranger than fiction... 

GS: Zed spends 1 Combo on Poison!
GS: Zed has attacked Heal Berry with Unsealed Blade - Demon Breaker!
GS: Zed has gained 2 Combo!
GS: Zed has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Ratatoskr damn near hurls himself off the train in the follow-through where he tries to tackle Avril, slamming a clawed hand down for grip just as he's shy of hurling himself off a moving train. His tail lowers for balance, and that gives an exciting angle in which for Claude to bring heel to hind of head, to bring him to heel. The motion flows a little too well, there's not enough resistance to the impact to suggest a willing defensive... because Ratatoskr works with it, plants the other hand down and whirls to swing his legs back up and come back onto the roof a shorter ways away.
     ...Where a sphere explodes and covers him in sharp, prickly green-and-silver vin-- wait, no, the vines are green, the silver is just trickles of quicksilver. They embed within the roof and take root, entertaining and horrifying passengers that happen to be directly underneath where this is taking place.
     "You're too taaaafff," Kaguya is not too 'tough,' one of the vines just got in his mouth. It doesn't get much further because he has sharp teeth, but that is its own downside because he has to taste severed spiky rapid-growing vine and that is never good for anyone. He's locked down thoroughly, but he sure as hell puts up a fight trying to wriggle free. The vines start to have some give.
     The horn atop his head flares to life with gathered energy, of the strange technology integrated within the bodies of those remaining Hyadeans themselves as it fires off concentrated bursts in the directions of Claude and Kaguya as he wiggles and wriggles.
     It's a fine opening for Avril to come in with Absolute Zero, which catches his eye because that's a cool sword. (It is way more (...less?) than cool but that's neither here nor there.) He does cleverly manipulate her honest and apparent angle to try and cut free some of the binds as it rakes across his abdomen and thigh, freeing himself up enough that he can turn his backside and flare out the liquid metal patagium that forms between his limbs.
     "I don't even know how long I'm supposed to be here for!" He says all the while as he leaps backwards to try ramming into Avril again, having to throw his all into it so that he can keep forward momentum and stay on the train. "I can go as long as you'd like...!" 

GS: Ratatoskr has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Ratatoskr spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Yggdrasil Burst!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Kaguya with Yggdrasil Burst!
GS: Ratatoskr has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr used Mystic on Ratatoskr! Status effect durations increased by 2! Temporary HP duration increased by 2!
GS: Ratatoskr has activated a Force Action!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Reverse Ambush!
GS: Ratatoskr takes 21 damage from Poison!
GS: Amplify and Burst expired!
GS: Ratatoskr has completed his action.
GS: Claude C. Kenny takes a solid hit from Ratatoskr's Yggdrasil Burst for 151 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Claude C. Kenny gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur guards a hit from Ratatoskr's Reverse Ambush for 69 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Cover! applied to Ratatoskr!
GS: Kaguya critically Guards a hit from Ratatoskr's Yggdrasil Burst for 25 hit points!
GS: Kaguya's Force Guard activates!

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia recognizes the legitness of single names, but her reaction to these claims is still a bit pouty. "But Zed has a single name too and he makes it sound so much better!" Yes, this is important.

Even so, Xantia is confident in her abilities where it comes to close combat, keeping the pressure on to hopefully keep the magic at bay that way. That was the plan. Unfortunately it doesn't quite work out that way. Polynya is able to bring another ice spell to bear before Xantia can think 'crest sorcery'. At least she did see where the threat came from. A bracer, what a coincidence. Marivel's cautioning causes her to raise an eyebrow. "Another entity?" That also sounds familiar.

Her brief mental distraction is all Polynya needs for an opening to bring her spear into play. Xantia instinctually dodges, but just a little too late, and a little too awkwardly - though she leaps aside, the way she moves puts her right leg directly into the weapon's path.

With a pained yelp, she quickly puts distance between herself and her opponent, briefly dropping to one knee. That's not good. A wound there is liable to slow her down. Can't that happening in the middle of a fight.

Even so, she raises herself back up. Putting weight on the wounded leg doesn't feel great, but it's bearable. Better not stay in range of that spear for very long in the future, though. With that in mind, her attack this time is quick, darting in long enough for only a single precision palm strike to the abdomen.

It's not as simple as it looks. The external strike is not the issue, it's what it can do internally that's the problem. Xantia knows how to target the most common pathways through which a person's internal energies flow. Even if she doesn't understand the nature of this corruption Zed claims is going on, well, if you want to weaken someone and keep them from doing Bad Things in general, that's usually a good place to start.

In spite of everything, she still manages to sound confident when she says, "Sounds like you're more dangerous than I thought. Now I'll have to stop holding back." 

GS: Xantia has attacked Heal Berry with Essence-Rending Palm Strike!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

For all of his rampant worship of the ancient god Spinzaku, Claude 'Cless' Kenny (everyone else is sharing their middle names, no reason to feel left out) is keeping at least one hand pressed down firmly upon the top of the train this entire time. The makers of this thing saw fit to build a nice sturdy who-likes-walking-through-miles-of-godsbedamned-desert-anyway means of rapid transport, and he sees no reason to spurn their expertise by spinning his dumb ass of of it. He pulls himself down into a crouch as the kick clips, Ratatoskr, readying a follow-up---

"Wait, you have a LIGHTSABER?" Claude sputters as Absolute Zero reveals itself; his face immediately splits into a broad grin that dissolves almost immediately. It's advanced but not a lightsaber, it's... something else. He opens his mouth to ask a question, which is a dumb thing to do in a fight to begin with, but it's even dumber when Kaguya is throwing bombs in his direction. Bombs that explode into acrid smoke.

Acrid smoke that flows into wide-open mouths of big dumb sword/fist dudes.

Claude starts coughing and choking, staggering backwards as he tries to eject the foul gasses from his lungs. Tears pour from his eyes as he dashes his forearm across them... and then Claude screams in pain as brilliant energy bursts rip out from Ratatoskr's horn, tearing into the young man and sending him sliding forward the length of the train car. He slides to a stop, still coughing, at Kaguya's feet.

At her stompy boot feet. 

GS: Heal Berry takes a solid hit from Zed's Unsealed Blade - Demon Breaker for 165 hit points!
GS: Poison! applied to Heal Berry!
GS: Zed drains Heal Berry! Zed gains 50 temporary hit points!
GS: Heal Berry takes a solid hit from Xantia's Essence-Rending Palm Strike for 85 hit points!
GS: Cripple! applied to Heal Berry!

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    At Tidus's question, Gwen tilts her head towards him, her position on the ladder making her look like a very genial head. "Yeah, she tried to steal a bunch of stuff from a friend's exhibit. She had help too."

    Then, out of the corner of her eye, Gwen sees the way Marivel was almost knocked back. What... was that? Marivel mentions a force, and Zed mentions a name. "... Rahab? Eh? Wait, is this that thing that was in that cavern, near Wayside? Or somethin'?"

    What likely matters more is that they should try to take Polynya down *without* pushing her to that point.

    Also, she's really interested in stabbing Xantia with that spear.

    "Xantia, look out!" Gwen shoves up that final distance onto the roof, which now has decided to buckle under the weight of Polynya's wave of ice. Gwen grits her teeth and launches through it, frost clinging to the frozen sweat on her curls, her hand stuffed down her best. Drawing out the contents, she flings it towards the hopefully distracted Polynya.

    It's a small drawstring pouch, flimsy enough so that, if it hits, the contents will fly out in a puff of rust red.

    __The legendary Auntie Frea's Fire Chili Spice.__ (Gwen's title, not Frea's)

    It's better spent on things such as what Gwen thinks is 'mildly spicy' food due to her childhood exposure to Frea's notion of cooking, but eldritch powers could hardly compare to its might, if it lands. 

GS: Gwen Whitlock has activated a Force Action!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Heal Berry with Auntie Frea's Fire Chili Spice Special!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "A Lightsaber?" Avril echoes, caught off-guard by Claude's shout. She glances down at Absolute Zero, then back over at Claude, then over at Kaguya as if to inquire if she knows what he might be talking about. "This is my sword, Absolute Zero. Perhaps it is merely similar to this Lightsaber?" ...The capitalization is audible, somehow.

    Unfortunately: this is the sort of interlude into which Ratatoskr intrudes.
    Fortunately, she is apparently no novice at the blade: the flat of her sword meets him in a parry as she turns at the last moment. The impact knocks her back a few paces nonetheless and she's forced to withdraw across the rocking of the train car's roof lest she see herself bowled over.

    "You do not... know that?" she says to the Metal Demon, taking a gasp for breath midway. "For whom are you doing this, then? Are you aware?"

    An answer may not be immediately forthcoming, particularly when Claude has a decided coughing fit and, courtesy of a strike from Ratatoskr, is send sliding back. "...!"

    There is no incantation of a spell. Avril simply wills the magic into being.

    The air around her drops significantly; this is followed by the initial glaze of frost and then the driving spread of jagged ice that zips across the train car's roof, as if it were a glacier put through fast-forward.

    But unlike a glacier, this drift of ice seeks not to crush Ratatoskr under its might (it's far too small for that) but to freeze his feet fast where he stands.

    Or, at the very least, to make sudden movements that much more difficult, should the incantation successfully reach him and adhere to his legs.

    "You will stay where you are, and you will tell us what you know," she informs Ratatoskr, stonily. 

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Ratatoskr with Surge Glaciaire!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.
GS: Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Surge Glaciaire for 120 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Entangle! applied to Ratatoskr!

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"Which is pretty rude, don't you think?" Kaguya answers Avril. "I mean, I'm kind of a big deal."

Ratatoskr's powerful blast of strange energy slams Kaguya's way, and the power of irritation at cracks about her height shields her as surely as does the Guardian's power just now. ...Or maybe it's just that she was expecting more trouble from Claude this time and so she was on extra guard. But rather than trouble--no, she gets something else. She gets Claude in pain, sliding towards her, coughing. At her stompy boot feet.

"Heh heh heh..." Pause. "Lightsaber? Never heard of it. Sounds like a loser weapon for losers, though." She then moves forward, "Oops," and moves to step on Claude totally in passing, all less than a hundred pounds of her at once. To the stomach!!! Surely this will finally end all troubles.

 As she does, Kaguya finally pulls her actual weapon, an ARM that could easily be recognized by those who can see it as made of various plastics instead of wood like a lot of guns--the white-and-black TK-38K, and she levers it shotgun action after loading a glowing cartridge into it. "Taff! TAFF!!" Kaguya shouts at him, and then fires a great bolt of green energy for Ratatoskr as he leaps around, somewehat more careful to avoid Avril than she was Claude. Then, "If you want to just get beaten up too that's also fine," Kaguya says. 

GS: Kaguya spends 1 Combo on Gatling, loading 1 into Gatling!
GS: Kaguya has attacked Ratatoskr with Riot Break!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Heal Berry has posed.

    Having bought herself a little breathing room, Polynya steadies herself. She slams the butt of her spear into the roof, and the end flows out into a long, barbed spike. Thus stabilized, the sorceress reaches up to adjust her mask. "Didn't like the taste?" Polynya's voice is soft, but intense. "I like living with it even less." She catches movement out of the corner of her eye--Tidus, who wasn't as immobilized as she thought. The Odessan soldier scowls, yanks her spear out of the car's roof, and throws up her guard. Tidus's blade slams into the haft, and the impact travels down through her body, into the roof beneath her. Metal groans, ominously. While he might not have gotten through, Tidus has held Polynya in place."I doubt that you could--"

    Like the ace Blitzball player he is, Tidus has held his opponent in place so his teammate, Marivel, can score. The ball slams into Polynya's face, and ricochets off. The impact sends her reeling back.

    And then Clarine calls down the thunder--or the light, as it were. One second, Polynya is there, and the next, she's nothing more than a silhouette in the middle of a GIANT ENERGY BEAM. The roof gives way beneath the blast, buckling inwards with a horrible groan. When the glow fades, Polynya lies atop a jumble of scattered boxes. Several of them have been split open, revealing the telltale gleam of...

    Well. It's not Dragonbone, whatever it is, because dragons don't have girders in them. It's definitely Hyadean, and definitely structural metal, but apparently someone was playing fast and loose with 'Dragon Fossil'. It's not uncommon, in fact.

    "Ngh," Polynya grates out. She leaps to her feet, glancing about the punched-open cargo car. "'Fossils', hm? Is anything th--"

    Zed and Xantia leap in after her. Xantia's hand finds a key meridian in Polynya's chest, and applies pressure. "Ghhk--" she grates out, her voice suddenly accusatory. "Who--who taught you that--!" Zed launches into his own conclusions a moment later. More cracks form in what's left of Polynya's veneer of businesslike violence. "I know," she says. Zed surges down. Doom Bringer slams into her shoulder, and blood sprays into the air. The might of an unsealed Hyadean weapon comes to bear against the eldritch power within his foe...

    Polynya's blood coagulates. It pauses in mid-air, and oozes back into her in a way that human blood really shouldn't. Her eyes glow from the eye-holes of her mask. The air around her begins to ripple and shudder. "I don't know where it ran to, only that it ran. And that only after that Wolf mentioned it." She draws herself up. "Puppet?" Polynya says. She bares teeth in an expression that is definitely not a smile. "Yes," she says. "We are all puppets. As long as there are things in this world with the power to pull our strings, we will be nothing less."

    "But, puppet or not, I will kill it. I will kill it, for what it did to my men--what it did to me." She raises both hands, Crest Graphs plucking themselves free from their mounts on her bracers and forming a great, blasphemous eye, the all-seeing Brand of the Primarch of Muse. A sound like a colossal heartbeat echoes through the car. Tendrils of gelid power rise from Polynya's body, grabbing for Marivel and Clarine--as if seeking out warm bodies on which to inflict their hideous curse.

    "Freeze, Polynya says. The world grows impossibly cold around her. Moisture freezes out of the air. Those nearby may well end up encased in a thin layer of ice, frozen to the spot. The walls, remaining ceiling, and scattered cargo grow a garden of frost-flowers, which would be pretty if looking at them didn't hurt the eyes.

    Polynya brings her hands together in a single clap. "Shatter."

    An airburst detonates. Applying severe force to a frozen object, as anyone knows, is an excellent way to break it. As if that weren't enough, crystals of ice go flying like shrapnel.

    The silver lining is that the train car is still in one piece afterwards.

GS: Heal Berry takes 26 damage from Poison!
GS: Heal Berry has completed her action.
GS: Heal Berry has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Heal Berry guards a hit from Gwen Whitlock's Auntie Frea's Fire Chili Spice Special for 0 hit points!
GS: Hex and Mute! applied to Heal Berry!
GS: Heal Berry's Force Guard activates!
GS: Infect!! All debuffs' duration extended by 2 rounds!!
GS: Heal Berry spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Zed with Absolute Muse - The Depths of Winter!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Absolute Muse - The Depths of Winter!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Xantia with Absolute Muse - The Depths of Winter!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Tidus with Absolute Muse - The Depths of Winter!
GS: Heal Berry has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Heal Berry has launched an attack Link!
GS: Heal Berry spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Zed with Absolute Wing - The Shattering Storm!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Gwen Whitlock with Absolute Wing - The Shattering Storm!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Xantia with Absolute Wing - The Shattering Storm!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Tidus with Absolute Wing - The Shattering Storm!
GS: Heal Berry has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Marivel Armitage with Touch of The Pale!
GS: Heal Berry has attacked Seraph Clarine with Touch of The Pale!
GS: Tidus takes a glancing hit from Heal Berry's Absolute Muse - The Depths of Winter for 81 hit points!
GS: Tidus completely evades a hit from Heal Berry's Absolute Wing - The Shattering Storm!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Seraph Clarine guards a hit from Heal Berry's Touch of The Pale for 0 hit points!
GS: Break, Cripple, Jam, Mute, Slow, and Weaken! applied to Seraph Clarine!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
GS: Pierce!! Heal Berry's attack breaks through 50 temporary hit points! 0 remain!
GS: Zed takes a glancing hit from Heal Berry's Absolute Muse - The Depths of Winter for 80 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Zed critically Guards a hit from Heal Berry's Absolute Wing - The Shattering Storm for 37 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Zed gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Heal Berry takes 31 damage from Poison!
GS: Heal Berry has completed her action.
GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Heal Berry's Absolute Muse - The Depths of Winter for 99 hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock guards a hit from Heal Berry's Absolute Wing - The Shattering Storm for 114 hit points!
GS: Gwen Whitlock's Force Guard activates!
GS: Reaction bonus! FP up!
GS: Seraph Clarine used Defend! She takes Heal Berry's attack on Xantia on herself!
GS: Seraph Clarine takes a solid hit from Heal Berry's Absolute Muse - The Depths of Winter for 142 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Seraph Clarine gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Seraph Clarine used Defend! She takes Heal Berry's attack on Xantia on herself!
GS: Seraph Clarine takes a solid hit from Heal Berry's Absolute Wing - The Shattering Storm for 167 hit points!
GS: Seraph Clarine enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Marivel Armitage completely evades a hit from Heal Berry's Touch of The Pale!
GS: Marivel Armitage's Force Evade activates!
GS: Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Kaguya's Riot Break for 227 hit points!

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

Claude C. Kenny gets stepped on. It probably feels entirely satisfying for Kaguya. Unfortunately, his reaction is somewhat muted - he grunts a bit and then resumes coughing. This is both because he's already hacking his lungs out and because Kaguya's not that heavy. In addition, Claude - though not at Brad Evans levels of XYBER HUGE - still has the kind of body you get when you spend most of your university years working out instead of studying. His six pack comes with two extra cans for free.

Eventually, however, he rises to one knee, still coughing and blinking away tears. Gritting his teeth and fighting past the pain, Claude draws in a deep breath and lets it out, slowly. Then he raises his hands together in front of his six-plus-two-pack and closes his eyes.

A word, now, about what Claude did last winter.

During his second trip to Magical Cow Patty Planet, Only This Time It's An Ocean, Claude spent most of his time bodyguarding Cecilia, who was... not that interested in getting involved with the goings-on of yet another moon world that responds to the unfaithful by looking for torches. Which was good, in a way! It made her easy to guard. This also left Claude with a lot of time to kill.

Killing time - an odd concept.

In Claude's case, ime which he mostly spent working on his blacksmithing, because using muscle and fire to make metal is pretty fun. But there are only so many hours in the day one can blacksmith, and Cecilia liked to spend her evenings reading, which Claude was not wont to do. Which left him with oodles of time, and little to fill it.

But there was this big ol' ocean right there. All deep and eternal and stuff.

This was nearly the first opportunity he'd had for quiet contemplation of any kind since he joined the Academy - and Claude used it to watch the slow and steady breathing of the tides. On the fifth day, as he was scratching an itch on his left buttock, he drew in a deep breath of sea air and pushed it out with the warm heat of his body. Life drawn in, life pushed out. Not life, exactly. Energy. Flowing energy.

Qi.

As days turned to weeks, Claude returned to lessons more than a decade old, only with the benefit of three years of experience in life-or-death situations. And he found certain things his mother struggled to teach him suddenly seemed to click. How qi was a dynamic force; how holding in place was against its nature. How it should be guided, not forced. How it was both part of, separate from, and one with the life in which it existed. How controlling it was the first lessons of a student, and learning how not to control it was the lifetime journey of a master.

The weeks turned into months, and the months into almost half a year.

Which is why, kneeling upon the train, Claude C. Kenny takes about five seconds to draw into his hands a brilliant ball of light that, only a year earlier, would have taken him a minute to achieve. And rather than flatten him with exhaustion, the only sensation is a kind of calm relief. Like taking a long pee after spending the last half of a movie holding it in.

Claude is much better at qigong than he is at similes.

"Miss Lightsaber!" Claude calls out, then reluctantly adds: "Also Kaguya, I guess!" He rises up, and the ball of light he's holding suddenly swells to twice its size, swirling with blue and yellow light. "You may want to hit the deck."

...

"Kaguya may just need to take off her lifts!" he adds as he throws the scintillating ball of power toward Ratatoskr; by the time it reaches him it's about six feet across and three feet above the roof of the train. 

GS: Formation! Claude C. Kenny has attacked Ratatoskr with Sekiha Scorn Scorn Tenkyoken!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    Tidus blinks at Gwen's response, that this lady--whoever she was--was trying to steal a bunch of stuff before too, last time from an exhibit. "What, like, a museum exhibit?" he wonders, baffled. "What's that got to do with a train?" He's even more baffled when Zed names the power that the Odessan is wielding--or rather, whose. "Primarch who in the what now??"
    
    But it does underscore what Marivel says, that this woman is borrowing power from somewhere else. Tidus doesn't know anything about that (the closest thing he knows is summoning, and this looks... absolutely nothing like that), but she *is* throwing around some freaky strong power. He snorts at her final-form joke. So, don't kill her, then? "Sure, if she doesn't kill us first!" he jokes back. It might not be a joke for much longer.
    
    Xantia then points out that Zed also has a single name and he says it so much cooler. "Uhhhhhhh," Tidus counters poignantly, blank-faced for an instant. He shakes his head. "Th-then... just say your name cool too? What's stopping you?"
    
    He brightens when Marivel summons a SPIRIT BALL (copyright pending) and aims it at--Polynya, was it? "Now that's what I'm talking about!" he cheers, right before the ball smacks Polynya right in the face. He leaps back to catch it with his free hand, disengaging Polynya at the same time. Before he can do a follow-up attack, though, the Odessan soldier starts going on about the power that she's borrowing maybe being something she doesn't like after all? Because it killed her men or something?? "Wait, you're borrowing the power of something you're trying to kill? What kind of sense does that make?" Tidus utters. "That's like saying, 'Hey, you, can you help me kill you?'"
    
    She bids him freeze.
    
    The world grows cold. Colder than his first night in Spira, colder than the frozen surface of Lake Macalania, perhaps even colder than Shiva's Diamond Dust. Tidus hasn't ever been on the receiving end of it; he wouldn't know. But he *does* know what it looks like, so when Polynya attempts the freeze-shatter maneuver, he recognizes it and is ready for it. Teeth chattering, full-body shivering, so utterly frigid he can't feel his own limbs and moves only with the ingrained muscle memory of an athlete-slash-Guardian, he dashes and dodges and rolls and jumps, slashed every so often by the hail of ice shrapnel, but managing to avoid taking any truly severe damage.
    
    It leaves him exhausted, though, and while he still has fight in him, it's hard to say just how much more he's got. You can't ever let your rival see they've got you worn out, though--once they know they've got you on the ropes, you're done.
    
    Tidus, instead, hurls the spirit ball up, then LEAPS up after it, twirling in midair to knock it at Polynya with a mighty kick. He lands a heartbeat later, quite unlike the fell heartbeat from a moment ago, and *launches* himself at her right after it. If she manages to knock the ball away, it'll at least serve as distraction when Tidus comes at her with a series of flips and then a single, powerful downward SLICE. 

GS: Tidus spends 1 Combo on Link!
GS: Tidus has attacked Heal Berry with Quick Hit!
GS: Tidus has launched an attack Link!
GS: Sneak! The true nature of Claude C. Kenny's attack becomes clear!
GS: Ratatoskr guards a hit from Claude C. Kenny's Freestyle Combat Arts for 101 hit points!
GS: Tidus enters CONDITION GREEN!!
GS: Tidus has attacked Heal Berry with Spiral Cut!
GS: Tidus has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Tidus has completed his action.

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel hears some accusations. Rahab? The Primarch of Water? She considers it further. "Yes..." She mulls quietly. "But...that's not it--" There's the cryptic Marivel we all know and love.

She does not rise again for some time. "Yes, I suppose." She thinks aloud. "But could it be that simple..? That seems a bit of a reach but she was in the area for it."

She stands herself up after. Her eyes slant towards towards the 'dragon fossils' and frowns, before looking back to Polynya. She watches the blood oozing back into Polynya's body.

"You know what?" Marivel asks rhetorically aas a tendril grabs for her--

---only for her to grab the tendril itself and squeeze tightly with a hand, crushing it between her fingers. "This kind of corruption, the corruption of water itself. That's rather troublesome." Clarine asks if she can 'feel it' too and Marivel says, "It's really more a matter of taste and smell--"

She then approaches Polynya.

"I am a Crimson Noble." She says as she approaches, shadowy tendrils extending from her to latch around Polynya's legs. A crooked boogiepop smile flickering on her face. "It is the purpose of my people to eliminate threats to this world."

She extends a hand. "Polynya, I am running low on reasons to continue battling with you--as enjoyable as they are. The corruption of the great houses is of some interest to ARMS and I personally would like to eliminate this 'Rahab'. So. Is there really a reason for us to have to fight like this, mm?" 

DC: Marivel Armitage switches forms to Crimson Noble Marivel!
GS: Marivel Armitage has attacked Heal Berry with Boogiepop Phantoms!
GS: Marivel Armitage has completed her action.



<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    Ratatoskr touches back down from his backwards shielded hop, skidding across the roof of the car aside from scratch marks his claws leave behind in his attempt to hold his grip. The patagium recedes, and his chin is just dribbling in Poisonous Veruni Botany Crime juice and nobody should be smiling when the silvery tint of their skin is now a tinge greener for it.
     Hyadean regeneration is great for catching most wounds. It is less great for poison of that strength - arguably worse than most 'natural' organics as pertains Filgaia - and he's hacking and coughing up a storm a moment later.
     This does not stop him from participating in Claude's outburst.
     "Lightsaber?!" Ratatoskr asks. "...Is that a light weapon? Is that a light weapaaack." Cough, cough. He spits again. "...It doesn't look like a Heavysaber..." He's missing the point, and also missing Claude in the confusion.
     Avril has pointed questions, calmly spoken. He's taken by surprise by how the ice just comes out of nowhere and pelts him. He was similarly taken off-guard by Gebler soldiers of similar capability - recognizing 'sorcery' as its unique and intangible (to him) art of war and fighting it is fun! But the way it roots him to the spot seems so... natural. He can't put a finger on it, and there's no reason to because his feet are already in it (... in ice, who needs to touch ice with every extremity in their body? Come on!!!). He has to touch an arm down against the roof to stay balanced.
     "...It's not really a secret who I fight under, is it...?" Ratatoskr doesn't follow this up with an exclamation as he's rooted there. He's not sure how he feels about that. HE feels compelled to correct this, which he will be soundly chided for in the future. "Odessa wants me to go somewhere, I go there! And it's great..." The coughing is less great. Everything else is great though. "Because usually I get to see what Oddessa's doing too... I'm living in the best era of Filgaia's warfare..." And this is why he probably doesn't know what they're doing right now, by design!
     Kaguya puts an end to that line of questioning by shooting him. It's all right, though, someone asked questions first so now it's okay to shoot him a lot. Or even just once, with a huge bolt of green energy that courses through him, vaporizes the ice rooting him there, and leaving the part of the roof he was standing on smoldering hot. His crimson-hued armor - the color of human blood - smolders further in ways that... yes, they hurt. The eyes of Filgaia already see plenty. This can be glanced over for expediency and taste.
     He's just hanging on as Claude's qi gathers into a luminous blue and yellow that somehow does not make the green of Kaguya's bomb smoke, and his head turns towards the young man. There is a veritable deer in headlights look, if the deer were also of the mind to grab some popcorn while doing so. There is a cursory attempt to bring his forearm in front of him in something approaching meaningful defense.
     Mechanically it does blunt the wash of qi, but it does nothing to keep him on the current car roof as he is sent tumbling across the next one behind him. There's a trail of green-tinted quicksilver where it escapes from his mouth, because he still totes took it in the chin. (The chin is one of the wimpiest parts of the body, because the moment you threaten it with physical harm, it tries to bribe you to go away through its liquidated wealth - this is true of all species.)
     "...Just like that..." He rasps. He's too far off from them to be heard. He staggers up, jogs against the roof, trips to a kneel, gets up, jogs again... falls down to all fours and leaps forward with a burst of compressed air behind him from his legs to try and fight the wind shear to get right back up into their faces and - somewhat indiscriminately - swing his limbs. Elbows, knees, fists, feet. (...But not his claws? It's weird, but true.) To Claude, there bears a very strong resemblance to Muay Thai that is probably coincidental. If only just so.
     Another sputtering of poison-ravaged coughs and gags thankfully prevents him from spitting out more insipid FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT YES enthusiasm, which is a plus. 

GS: Ratatoskr has activated a Boss Action!
GS: Ratatoskr has activated a Force Action!
GS: Ratatoskr spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Claude C. Kenny with Ceaseless Conflict!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Avril Vent Fleur with Ceaseless Conflict!
GS: Ratatoskr has attacked Kaguya with Ceaseless Conflict!
GS: CRITICAL! Claude C. Kenny guards a hit from Ratatoskr's Ceaseless Conflict for 104 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Claude C. Kenny gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Kaguya takes a solid hit from Ratatoskr's Ceaseless Conflict for 151 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Kaguya gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: CRITICAL! Avril Vent Fleur completely evades a hit from Ratatoskr's Ceaseless Conflict!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Avril Vent Fleur gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur's Force Evade activates!

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

A victim. This woman is a victim of that monster's cruel power. Her wounds wind back, blood flowing in reverse into arteries and veins that should have been severed. Zed's teeth click together into a fierce grimace, struggling to force his blade through to the eldritch energy holding the woman together. "You... Do you honestly think that you can destroy that monster with its own power!? In case you didn't notice, that thing is an abomination of ley energy-- the only thing you'd accomplish is feeding it! Spreading its essence around like this-- will only make it stronger!"

Zed doesn't know that for sure, but it sounds right in his head. If Rahab is a monster that is one with its own power, then the proliferation of that power will only make the monster stronger. It makes sense. It makes sense.

But all the sense in the world doesn't help him.

Temperature plummets. Zed is abruptly all too able to see his own breath crystallize into diamond dust mere inches from his face. A wave of frigid power washes out from his foe, Zed's yell is frozen in his throat as petals of ice close all around him.

...But.

An instant before Polynya can finish her incantation, there's a sound like a sudden displacement of air. Six swings cleave the glacial prison apart in an instant. The Metal Demon emerges, rime still clinging to his skin. "That's... Is that why you've been gathering Hyadean weapons? Our essence... Can cleave the ley more easily than almost anything else. But-- even if that's the case...!"

Zed surges forward, leaping from delicate frost flower to delicate frost flower. The twisted beauty disintegrates in his wake as he leapfrogs forward. He slashes once. "I can't allow you to continue defiling my people's legacy!" He cuts twice...! "We will defeat Rahab-- but we don't need your stolen power to do it!" A third slice...!

And a fourth to finish the pattern, engraving the burning glyph in empty air...!!

                                   -=Z=-

"Your thirst for vengeance..." Zed says, as his mark explodes with power. "I can understand it. I really can. But I still can't let you keep doing what you're doing. Stop this, and let's figure something out."

GS: Zed has activated a Force Action!
GS: Zed spends 5 Combo on Headshot and Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Zed has attacked Ida Everstead-Rey with Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova!
GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Zed has canceled their attack on Ida Everstead-Rey.
GS: Zed has attacked Heal Berry with Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova!
GS: Zed has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Zed has completed his action.
GS: Heal Berry takes a solid hit from Tidus's Quick Hit for 89 hit points!
GS: Heal Berry takes a solid hit from Tidus's Spiral Cut for 147 hit points!
GS: Cripple! applied to Heal Berry!
GS: Heal Berry guards a hit from Marivel Armitage's Boogiepop Phantoms for 28 hit points!
GS: Disease and Poison! applied to Heal Berry!
GS: Heal Berry's Force Guard activates!
GS: CRITICAL! Heal Berry takes a solid hit from Zed's Split Ladle - Sakura Supernova for 298 hit points!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has activated a Force Action!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has activated a Force Action!

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

The roof gives way from the force of her spell. Clarine hadn't counted on being the one to do it, but... well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Clarine drifts down into the car safely and easily, pursuing Polynya.

"Rahab...?" Clarine repeats, as Zed mentions the name. She... knows nothing about this. But having a name to put to this unpleasant sensation was convenient, at least. ...And then, she watches as Polynya takes a wound that should leave a normal human unable to fight...

...But, it doesn't. Clarine watches in horror, sees that glow, and the tendrils of power that reach out for her. She isn't a body, but she's certainly warm - it's as if they're trying to drain her power away to nothing.

...But... more importantly than that, her attention turns toward Xantia. She was wounded in the fight above. Would she be able to defend herself against Polynya's sorcery in time...? She knows Xantia is durable, knows she is capable of taking care of herself, but that horrible power...

"Xantia, escape!" Clarine shouts a warning - actually shouts, despite her usual quiet nature. She moves almost without thinking, accelerating into position in front of Xantia.

The mirrors won't help here. She spreads her arms, protecting Xantia with a warm sensation... but leaving herself vulnerable.

Suddenly, it's as if her world is made of ice. Everything is frozen, and then it shatters, engulfing her in icy shrapnel.

When it all clears, Clarine is there, barely standing, her arms still held out. Light leaks from her form. She took all of it head-on, able to defend herself - it's like she's barely holding herself together at this point.

"I-I... I have to..." She murmurs to herself... and then, she disperses, into many motes of light. 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia hadn't been paying close attention to the state of the car's roof. It's a complete surprise when it suddenly goes down, and Polynya with it. "Nice, Clarine!" she yells out, before moving in to capitalize on this development.

She manages to get her strike in as planned, but to the question asked of her, she can only shrug. Who taught her any of the things she can do? She'd like to know that herself.

This is when Problems occur. Xantia may have heard of Rahab before, but she has no idea what any of that really means. She's only starting to realize it when she sees Polynya's blood do things that blood shouldn't be doing.

Clarine yells out a warning. And so she tries to back off, as fast as she can. Momentarily forgetting her wounded leg, which she promptly sinks through. Although she's quick to get back to her feet, this is a fatal loss of time. She can't make it to cover now, and won't possibly be able to avoid a frozen fate. She has no choice but to stand her ground and try to shield herself as best she can. She crosses her arms in front of her, grits her teeth--

When Clarine suddenly intervenes. Xantia's eyes go wide. 'No,' she mouths, stretching out an arm, but that's all the time she has to act. She is as incapable of stopping the Seraph from doing this as she is of avoiding what was coming for her in the first place.

The warmth of her friend's light may have saved her from being frozen, yet she can't move in the aftermath, eyes still wide in disbelief as she stares at the heavily injured Clarine. Why? Why did this happen? How could she have let it? But... she's still okay, isn't she? She has to be. She just has to.

Dashing her hopes, Clarine's body dissolves, and Xantia drops to her knees. "No... this... this can't be. Clarine. Don't go. You can't go. Stay with me."

Xantia's shell-shocked expression makes way for one of anger and desperation. Her hands tighten into fists as she throws back her head and screams, "STAY WITH MEEE!!"

In response, raw Ether bursts from her body, manifesting in a torrent of red energy. It swirls around her, faster and faster, obscuring her from view entirely. The maelstrom is not of a level of intensity where it could draw in any people, but it does draw in the dispersing motes of light, gathering them together. As it does, its red color is rapidly replaced by more and more white, shining with ever greater brightness. 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

For Clarine, the act of dispersion is an instinctive thing - like a state between consciousness and unconsciousness, individual motes acting in the interests of preserving the whole. The motes of light begin to drift off... but then, Xantia screams. The raw, red torrent swirls around her. Some of the motes try to escape it, but still others seem to drift instinctively deeper into it, as if seeking safety. In the end, all of them are drawn into the maelstrom.

And then, Clarine opens her eyes. ...But, they're not her eyes.

'Xantia...?' Her voice rings out within, incredulously. 'What... what was that...?'

'Clarine!' That's unmistakably Xantia's voice sounding out in response, though she says it without moving her lips. 'What a relief, I thought you were gone forever! I... I don't know what I did just now, but, don't worry, we'll figure something out!

'I am... alright, now. I thank you for your concern. I am... uncertain how, but somehow, you drew me in...' There is a moment of quiet before Clarine continues. 'This feels... different. ...Unlike last time. This light... is this your light...?'

'Huh? I...' Xantia comes up empty on the response to that question, instead replying, 'It does feel different. You're... closer than last time.' She opens and closes her hands. 'I think... I think I understand now. Clarine. Before anything else... Follow along with me, okay? Let's end this fight, together.'

Closer than last time... '...Yes, I feel it too.' She agrees. Last time, when she possessed Xantia with the hopes of teaching her, it felt like there was a greater distinction between the two of them. But now...

'...Yes - together.' 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

As the whirlwind of energy dies down, Xantia slowly comes back into view. It quickly becomes clear that something's.... changed. For one thing, she's no longer on her knees. In fact, she is no longer making contact with the surface at all. Rather, her feet are hovering a few inches above it. Light continues to surround her, lingering about her body in swirls, emanating from within. And perhaps most striking of all: her hair has turned a stark white, ending in red highlights at the tips.

Though this being some sort of fused state is a sensible conclusion to reach, anyone who's ever seen Armatus will know that this is not that. This is something else entirely. Something created out of a very particular set of circumstances.

But what exactly happened is for later worry. For the moment, they have a battle to finish, and Xantia has never felt more ready for it. When she speaks, her own voice as well as Clarine's sound out simultaneously.

""You have done enough harm.""

Indeed, there is still a battle to worry about. In a way, that's a good thing. It would be all to easy to lose herself to this newfound sense of power, but having something to focus on helps.

A hand extends. A Seraphic glyph appears beneath their feet as an arte is invoked, but there's no incantation. Instead, there is simply light. Above them, a sword of prismatic crystal, shimmering in every color of the rainbow and filled with a sense of light appears. For those familiar with Clarine's spells, this is quite clearly one of her Prism Swords... but, rather than descending toward Polynya, it falls, coming to a stop in front of Xantia - as if beckoning to be used.

No words pass between the two of them - but right now, they don't need to. They both know what has to be done.

Xantia - in so far as she still is a singular entity - regards the blade that appeared a moment, then nods. She extends her right hand, grasping the Prism Sword by the hilt. And at the same time, she extends her left hand, an eruption of pure light bursting forth from it, quickly reshaping itself into a second blade. One similar in shape to Clarine's, but without substance - a sword made entirely out of light.

Both weapons in hand, Xantia wordlessly and soundlessly glides through the air as she charges Polynya with alarming speed. One blade strikes high, the other low - one swing each, containing all of Xantia's physical prowess combined with the full force of Clarine's power of Light. She flips backward in the air afterwards, finally landing on her feet. The swords remains in her hands, as she falls into a defensive stance, ready to strike once more should the following warning go unheeded:

""Surrender, or leave. Now."" 

GS: Xantia spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Xantia has attacked Heal Berry with Radiant Blade!
GS: Xantia enters a Counter stance!
GS: Hyper expired!
GS: Xantia has completed her action.
GS: Seraph Clarine spends 2 Combo on Headshot!
GS: Seraph Clarine has attacked Heal Berry with Prism Sword!
GS: Seraph Clarine has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "Yeah, you got it," Gwen says, to Tidus. "... As for what it has t'do here, well, better ask her. ... Same thing the Primarch Rhubarb or whatsit." She waves a hand. "Somethin' real bad, if Zed and Marivel're actin' like that."

    That's what Gwen said, before things got serious, that is.

    The small powder pouch was launched into the air, the drawstring trailing behind it in an artful arc, sailing harmlessly down towards the Odessa agent. Gwen's aim was good, but it was a few seconds too late. The roof has collapsed, and Polynya with it, down onto the boxes below. Gwen grips the roof where she falls with her right arm, in order to keep herself from accidentally falling in from her misangled leap.

    -freeze-

    Frost flowers under the roof, adhering Gwen's right arm to it where her grip is, right at the edge. Tangled in pain, Gwen spots a small item, right there, almost about to fall over.

    The pouch is still there, a little slipping out as Gwen grips its precious contents with her left hand.

    -shatter-

    The world explodes in diamond shards. The Mockingbird shakes in empathy, reminding the owner of her own trials in Lake Macalania, when Zed had to break her free of the ice building over her body. But she's not at the heart of it, like they are.

    Gwen aims, then throws the bag at Polynya. Can't call the forces of magic if they can't speak, after all!!

    "Strain 657Fx550H!!!" If Frea was there, she would likely correct Gwen, as 657F was a weak strain, the plant good for nothing besides lending pollen and then becoming compost at the end of its natural cycle. No, it was 657bF that was the proper strain, due to its- ANYWAY

    It's around that moment that Clarine disperses, the motes of light reflecting off Gwen's horrified gaze.

    "Damn it!" Wrenching her right arm's grip finally free, she extends it and aims, hastily urging herself to charge, as Xantia reacts.

    ... what's happening to Xantia? Another side of Gwen briefly debates aiming towards that swirl.

    Xantia attacked them once. What if she's going out of control?

    A shot rings out, from Gwen's hand, but past the whitening swirl of Ether, towards Polynya.

    As the swirl resolves, the courier finds her faith rewarded, seeing a transformed- "... Xantia?" The courier stops, slumping against the roof. 

GS: Gwen Whitlock has attacked Heal Berry with Corona Discharge!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Gwen Whitlock has completed her action.
GS: Heal Berry takes a solid hit from Xantia's Radiant Blade for 160 hit points!
GS: Heal Berry takes a solid hit from Seraph Clarine's Prism Sword for 191 hit points!
GS: Quick and Shield! applied to Seraph Clarine!
GS: Heal Berry takes a solid hit from Gwen Whitlock's Corona Discharge for 192 hit points!
GS: Heal Berry has Fallen! She is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Avril Vent Fleur has posed.

    "Hmm," Avril muses. "I suppose he simply does not realize it yet," she replies to Kaguya, even going so far as to shake her head.

    "Odessa? Then, you are with Odessa?" Avril asks, a few important facts ratcheting into place. First of all, that at least one Metal Demon has aligned themselves with Odessa, which opens the doors to others having done so. And secondly, if he's up here, and he alone that means--

    Avril may be a strange young woman, comparatively, but she is far from stupid.

    Her eyes widen. "...Then Odessa's forces are on the train," she says, glancing at the others. At least she can be certain that neither of them are on Odessa's side, but that means that below...
    But there is nothing any of the three of them can do so long as Ratatoskr is here. They risk leaving themselves open to his attacks, or him following them below, into an unknown and highly likely to be chaotic situation.

    And there is one more thing of which she is certain. "Kaguya," she starts, largely because she doesn't know Claude's name, and thus settles for, as she glances at him, "sir, I believe there is little more he can tell--"

    Kaguya punctuates that statement by, yes, shooting Ratatoskr.

    Which is when Claude advises that the both of them should hit the deck.

    Avril casts one more look his way -- or to be precise, at the power glowing in his hands.

    She drops low without question, Absolute Zero's blade vanishing in a flash of light, and flattens out across the rooftop, her head down. With one hand she reaches for whatever handhold she can find.

    That power from that young man just now was...

    She rises as soon as it is safe, which turns out to be a good plan of action.
    Ratatoskr lays in.

    Like the willow in a rainstorm, she sways out of the way of one jabbing elbow, narrowly sidesteps a sweeping foot, and slips through the hail of knees and fists. She moves quickly, as if on some level, she were already aware of where the blows might fall, though close they come, again and again.

    Her finger slips over the trigger of Absolute Zero's empty hilt. She pulls it back.

    And continues the dance, only this time, light intrudes, as a lash.

    Again and again. 

GS: Avril Vent Fleur has attacked Ratatoskr with Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur enters a Counter stance!
GS: Avril Vent Fleur has completed her action.

<Pose Tracker> Claude C. Kenny has posed.

Claude C. Kenny's shoulders rise and fall steadily as he desperately sucks in air; improved qigong skills or no, a blast like that on the tail end of a coughing fit is no laughing matter. He has time for three or four steadying breaths before Ratatoskr rips in toward him, using fist and foot and fury to batter away at the young man from Earth. Whether it's the Hyadean's second wind or his dying gasp is ultimately irrelevant from a tactical point of view - and so Claude does what he's been trained to do in either situation, which is hold out until he sees an opening for a counter. So he dodges what blows he's able to, blocks the strikes he can, and the rest he just takes, and keeps moving.

He acquires more bruises, as well as a thin cut under his left eye where he didn't quite slip a punch. Claude waits, and hurts. He's good at both.

Avril's attack gives Claude the opening he needs; as she lays into his Hyadean opponent with her beam whip (So cool! Much unsafe!), he takes a single step back and folds chi again, this time one-handed. His left arm remains up in a guard, his right tucked behind him, blue energy gathering as Claude draws it from his dantian, drinking deep of his reserves.

The energy coalesces, but oddly - rather than harden into a shell as Claude had done in the past, he keeps it flowing tightly around in circles. Soft and dynamic, rather than hard and static. More natural, and far more powerful. As it flows over Claude's hand, the qi takes on the appearance of shifting scales, fierce eyes, a maw filled with teeth. Draconic features arise from cerulean shadow, bursting into light that shines out from behind Claude.

"Dra---" Claude starts to say, then stops and blinks. He didn't get a good look at her before, being concerned with getting punched a lot with Ratatoskr. But the sight of Avril Vent Fleur dancing with wind and light and pain is... well...

Claude shakes his head, a faint red stain on his cheeks. He draws in a breath, steps forward, and ducks low, then surges upward. His right hand comes up and around in a screaming uppercut, propelled by every muscle in his body. Rather than strike at the chin, he aims for Ratatoskr's centre of mass - and if he connects, the chi gathered explodes into being, the dragon's jaws clamping around the Hyadean warrior and carrying him upward... into the air, off the train.

"HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWL!" Claude screams, because you can't not scream an attack that includes 'howl' in the name. That's the law of martial arts.

Martial law. 

GS: Claude C. Kenny spends 3 Combo on Gatling, loading 3 into Gatling!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has attacked Ratatoskr with Dragon's Howl!
GS: Claude C. Kenny has completed his action.
GS: Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Avril Vent Fleur's Absolute Zero - Plasma Arc for 188 hit points!
GS: Reaction switch bonus! Ratatoskr gains 1 additional Combo!
GS: Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Claude C. Kenny's Dragon's Howl for 197 hit points!
GS: Mighty! applied to Claude C. Kenny!
GS: Ratatoskr has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya is super-satisified by getting to step on Claude. It does not entirely occur to her that she's light and he's all built because it's totally the principle of the thing, and also, because...

"Eh?" Kaguya starts at the warning. Kaguya does in fact get down, hitting the deck before the helpful note about her height is mentioned which means she gets a chance to reply to it instead of being hit by the blast:

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh," the small Veruni pronounces.

"Odessa. And you thought I was involved!" Kaguya sighs, seemingly offended. But not that offended. "...The best era of Filgaian warfare though, huh...?"

Kaguya doesn't seem to like that much. As she rises agin, though, there he's rasping, leaping forward--Kaguya doesn't have the reach to drive him away immediately, forced back by swings of powerful Metal Demon limbs right up in her face and otherwise. A strike, and another strike, and another strike--they're solid on the small Veruni until Avril interrupts, and that intrusion gives her an extra moment.

"Tch," Kaguya starts, but as she moves to regroup, Claude gets Ratatoskr well out of melee range after all. She looks past Avril's movements, past Claude's explosive chi, and there is a swell of magic from her, too. It is something verdant but alien, the scent of a flowers that have never bloomed on this planet filling the air.

The vines follow the dragon as they burst into being--one after another, wending about themselves in greens and browns and strange colors until a set of them swirls around the Hyadean warrior at the mouth of the dragon--

And lance inward with wicked thorns, red energy surging back towards Kaguya herself.

"...Hmph," she says, and will not admit anything about dragons being cool. She crosses her arms instead. 

GS: Kaguya has activated a Force Action!
GS: Kaguya has attacked Ratatoskr with Bloom Thorn!
GS: Kaguya has gained 1 Combo!
GS: Kaguya has completed her action.
GS: Ratatoskr takes a solid hit from Kaguya's Bloom Thorn for 220 hit points!
GS: Kaguya drains Ratatoskr! Kaguya gains 50 temporary hit points!
GS: Ratatoskr has Fallen! He is no longer able to fight!

<Pose Tracker> Heal Berry has posed.

    In the second before 'shatter', something arcs down into the cargo car from above. Polynya is so focused on her spell that she barely sees it until it's exploded in her face. A faint 'paff', and Auntie Frea's Special Spice Mix invades her eyes, mouth, and nose with all the subtlety and grace of a rampaging dragon. Her eyes ignite. She sucks in a breath, and it feels like she's breathing fire. Polynya would take a moment to marvel at the novelty, but Frea's secret weapon has robbed her of even that. She lets out a startled cry. One of the Crest Graphs floating above her ignites, and ice-cold water surges out of nowhere, washing against her face. It dulls the terrible burning, but only barely.

    It gives her just enough time to see Tidus not being cut to ribbons by her sorcery. "Hah," she says, tears streaming down her face. "H--how did you--" The ball puts a quick end to whatever she was going to say next. It ricochets off her chest, and sends her skidding across the sodden floor. Tidus arcs in afterwards, slashing open her chest. Hyadean armor parts, and another spray of eldritch blood freezes in mid-air, and rewinds back into Polynya's body.

    The blood. Every drop of blood in her is tainted with that eldritch, sense-warping power.

    Marivel's phantoms seize her a moment later, rooting her in place. "It branded me," Polynya chokes out. If nothing else, the pain is something she can focus on, now that the Primarch's power has run riot within her. Faces flit before her eyes, barely visible through the haze of tears. She can only guess at which ones are real, and which are hallucinatory. "It used me. It lingers in my dreams." Marivel extends a hand. Polynya barely seems to see it. She erupts in a coughing fit.

    Zed rushes forwards, and Polynya barely stops coughing long enough to look at him, and listen to what he says.

    'Our essence... can cleave the ley more easily than almost anything else.'

    Polynya's composure is gone. She laughs, and in her voice there is nothing but pain and the caustic hollowness of loss. The full might of Doom Bringer slams into her for a second time, an impact she feels in every fiber of her being. Her lips crack open, only for the blood to flow back in slow motion. "I," she chokes out. She barely seems to notice it, nor does she notice Gwen's shot striking her high in the chest, rocking her in Marivel's tendrils' grip. Could she fight back? Would she fight back?

    Through the haze of tears, Polynya sees one of the silhouettes break apart. A hallucination, then--except that howl, but what if that's another hallucination, too? "Did--" Polynya's voice is soft, and toneless. "Did someone die?" The merger takes less than a minute, but when it's complete, Polynya sees something that drags her perception out of the mire of the Primarch's power. For a second, she looks lost. Defeated. It's a sharp, jarring contrast to Xantia's entirely justified anger.

    The blades fall. When it's over, Polynya collapses atop a pile of splintered crates, a puppet with the strings cut. She says nothing. Her body is a ragged mess, seemingly held together by eldritch power. She turns her head, and opens her eyes. On the side of the crate next to her is the insignia of the Everstead-Rey ARMs and Munitions Company, the recipient of this shipment. She sees the White Lotus on the very bottom of Ida's family crest.

    Polynya bares teeth. "So it was true," she whispers. "They--"

    Polynya does not have a sense of self-preservation, per se, but she does not wish to die this day. Her form seems to blur at the edges, as if she were a melting ice sculpture--and then, a pool of water flowing downhill. In the space of heartbeats, she's gone.

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia - or whatever this combined entity should be called - stares dispassionately at Polynya the entire time. Only after their opponent has completely melted away does the combat stance finally relax, and both swords disperse into motes of light. The battle is over, and everyone is safe. That's all that matters right now.

Reflection upon what exactly happened here can wait, as far as Xantia is concerned. As soon as the threat has passed, a faint smile comes to Xantia's lips, but they don't otherwise move as she internally speaks to Clarine.

'Okay. Now that it's safe... I can make up for what happened. I can help you put your body back together. Remember that time in Besaid? Do that again. Use my Ether, just, you know... more. Don't worry, I'll be fine. ...Probably. I'll say something if it's not fine. I just... want you to be okay again. Please?' 

<Pose Tracker> Ratatoskr has posed.

    It's a terrifying thought, if one follows Avril's assertions. They have at least one former Metal Demon in Odessa's ranks - who knows what they have access to as a result of having one of its few surviving soldiers getting themselves involved in Vinsfeld's ambitions? There's a certain reverence and joy that Ratatoskr seems to take in all of this even though he is suffering from a poison made worse by his own physiology and on top of having the-- no, the latter part is jumping the gun a bit, that part's coming up soon.
     Ratatoskr will keep swinging and fighting unless removed - a truth of any of Mother's former soldiers, until Absolute Zero's lashing strikes cut and scald. The make of his armor towards the end allows it to wrap around his forearm in a losing (for him) constriction rather than an amputation. Visually, it appears a stalemate between them. Ratatoskr's grinning.
     Kaguya and Claude work in tandem through the same opening provided, even as the latter struggles with taking those battering blows. Claude's qi, formed into the shape of a howling dragon, is a tantalizing sight and arguably almost as deadly a thing to suffer as the jaws of the manifested dragon carry him up, up, up...
     Kaguya's conjured vines seem to race this dragon in their attempt to ensnare him in tandem. The forces compete, but in a way mutually beneficial. The squirrel-like Hyadean feels like he's being torn two separate ways. The Dragon Howl wants to carry him upward, and there's the wind shear of being on a moving train car roof hammering him. The vines anchor him, stab into him with barbs, and converts the alien lifeblood into palatable red energy.
     Absolute Zero is freed of the forearm at some point in this, and if Avril continues to lash out, she can sever off both of them and allow the forward momentum of the train to see Ratatoskr flying right off.
     They might not have time to look back and see if he's okay or dead (he's a mass of crimson, greened silver, and squirrel tail, could go either way). But he's off the train, that's what matters. The three of them are free to go make sure Kaguya's copper shipment is all right, which may or may not have been Odessa's aims. (Spoilers: no, not the copper)
     ...From where Ratatoskr lies crumpled by the dusty desert track-side, he still has that grin.
     "...That was cool," he says as his body continues to try and fight out the venom as it tries to knit itself back without the pressure.
     That part of the day is won, at the very least. 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

Clarine doesn't respond right away. But, it's clear that she hears Xantia, at least. It feels like a slight tugging at first as energy is drawn away, and then motes of light start to glimmer off of Xantia's body before forming one cohesive hole, that floats off a short distance.

And then, in a flash, Clarine reappears from that light. She looks... wholly unharmed. Clarine herself seems surprised by this too - she looks at hands, and down at herself.

"Do not be alarmed... I am well now, thanks to you." Clarine comments. "I... Normally I have to spend a whole week in recuperation after incurring that much harm..."

And then, for the first time, she looks around herself, at the current situation.

"...Is it over?" She asks. 

<Pose Tracker> Marivel Armitage has posed.

Marivel lowers her hand.

"..."

And thetn her head. She thinks of Brad begging her, BEGGING her, that big powerful guy speaking to her like that.

Her eyes slant towards the insignia of the White Lotus.

"Luisa," She murmurs. "You'll be happy to know your descendents are as much trouble as you were."

She lowers her hand, looking to Tidus. "Thanks for the help. I'll be sure your future references are given glowing remarks. I am glad Yuna is in your hands. And... I am glad to be able to work with friends such as you."

She smiles. It's a genuine smile.

And then she makes her way over ot the boxes. She looks to Clairne as she reappears. She smiles at her oto before she crouches down and examines the white lotused crate. 

<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.

Xantia's appearance returns to normal as the motes of light drift away from her. She, too, looks no worse for wear - even her leg wound seems to have healed in the process of what occured. She smiles at Clarine when the Seraph reforms beside her. The impulse to hug is strong, but she does feel a little drained after that.

"Good to see you again. See? Told you it would be fine."

No sooner has Xantia said that, or she feels her chest seize up. She wheezes out, "...Or not..." and then falls forward, out like a light. Whoops. 

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "They what? Hey!" Gwen slides down, landing with a noisy 'bomm' as her boots land against the thankfully still solid floor.

    It's also by that time that Polynya has disappeared.

    "... She's..." Gwen leans tiredly against the warped wall of the cab, staring at the splintered crates. "... I dunno, I don't get the feeling that she's like the other Odessa agents." Her lips sport a wry curve as she adds, "Though, I 'spose no Odessa agent is like the other Odessa agents. But yeah. You guys saw how her personality changed, right? Just how much are we seeing her strings, and how much are we seeing her?"

    Gwen's lazy accent seems to have fallen by the wayside as she falls into a squatting position, then sits, placing her hands on her knees. But, as the color returns to Gwen's face, her speech seems to do the same. "Xantia, you handlin' things okay? I'm not sure just what you did, but it seems like you know what you're doin'. Though... what was that? It didn't seem like Armatization." She nods, as Clarine reforms, a relieved smile on her face. "Wasn't sure how Seraphs worked, but I was real scared you died, right then. Wouldn't be great to have a helpful Seraph such as yourself."

    Now, tilting her head towards Marivel, the courier frowns. "... What do you make of that lady's reaction towards the crates' logo? You think there's somethin' we're not seein', in all of thi-"

    And there falls Xantia. "..... Man, I thought I was the only one who did that." 

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

And just like that, with an unsettling rippling of flesh in a manner not dissimilar to too-viscous water, she's gone.

The way that woman reacted at the end, that chilling laugh-- she knew already, didn't she? About how Metal Demons and ley-monsters mix like oil and water.

But she's gone now. And with her, any opportunity to learn more about what, exactly, her deal is.

Well. Maybe next time.

"Rahab's active again," Zed murmurs thoughtfully, "What is it after, I wonder...?"

Beat.

Zed... Stares over at Clarine and Xantia. His scarf twitches curiously. "Uh. Sorry! I think I missed something! Are... Are you guys okay? There was... Something going on there, for a minute--"

                                   *THUD*

"Ooooooh," Zed winces at Xantia's half-dead body. "That doesn't look good. Hey Gwen, humans pass out because they run out of food, right? There's still some stuff in the meal cart, I think! We should be able to find some cake to stuff into her face." 

<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.

"I mean, food--" Zed adds, "Or blood. One of the two. But she doesn't look like she's bled nearly enough for her to be out of blood. So it's gotta be a food problem." 

<Pose Tracker> Tidus has posed.

    There is one thing that Tidus understands once Polynya escapes, and that's that he doesn't understand a single thing that just happened. Girls exploded into light! Light got reformed back into girls! There's some kind of water monster running around, maybe! And someone named Luisa, what's up with that??
    
    Tidus flops down into a cross-legged sit now that there's no enemy to keep up a tough front for.
    
    "Good question," he remarks to Gwen, of her speculation on Polynya. "When you guys figure it out, fill me in, all right? I haven't heard of... mmmost of the stuff you guys were talking about."
    
    Marivel thanks him then. Tidus gives her a lopsided but warm grin. "Anytime. What're friends for?" He laughs when she promises his future references will all be glowing too. "Hopefully I won't have to take too many jobs away from Yuna anyway. She's got the other Guardians with her, but... still." He rubs the back of his head as he puts his sword away, abashed but pleased, and returns her smile. "Same here. I feel way better with friends like you around, too."
    
    But it's investigation time, and also patch-together-the-folks-who-weren't-as-dodgy-as-he-was time. Tidus is pretty pooped, and other people seem to have the taking-care-of-other-people thing handled, or at least don't seem to be too worried about it, so he bites down his 'hey, is she (*gestures at Xantia*) okay?' and tags along after Marivel while he catches his breath and takes some time to listen to what the others say. 

<Pose Tracker> Seraph Clarine has posed.

"I appreciate the concern..." Clarine replies, offering Gwen a polite smile. She catches Marivel's eye, as well, and gives her a slightly more apologetic smile, just in case she concerned her. She looks toward Zed, then. "It is...complicated. But-"

She looks toward Xantia for confirmation, but then... Xantia collapses!!

"A-ah!" Clarine yelps. She'll probably worry over Xantia for the rest of the trip, or until she wakes up - whichever comes first. 

<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.

    "So what's Rubar-er, Rahab, again? I can't remember if you heard my question earlier or not." Gwen scratches her head, turning from Zed to squint at the now sitting blitzball player. "And, uh, Tidus, right? Don't worry 'bout it. Bein' a Drifter is all 'bout rollin' with the punches n' learning what the heck everything is later. Besides, it was like that for alla us on Spira."

    Wait, Yuna. _Yuna_. The ship is still going! "... So Yuna's here too?! Whoah! Though, uh, is she able to, uh." Gwen mimics a stiff recreation of Yuna's summon with one arm. "... Summon, right. Can she summon things, on Filgaia?"

    If if they're here, what's happening, back on Spira?

    Zed has his own questions and Gwen grins. "Weeellll, she's kind of a special case like I am. So probably rest, then food. Preferably food with a lotta fat. Or sugar. Or both. Like, steak, or oh! Chocolate cake? Or pudding. Or sausage? Or-" sorry zed, Gwen will be busy thinking about possible things she wants to eat now, judging by how her stomach is growling

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