Catalysis [Sora, Kairi, Axel]

[Fate]

I Do My Job Happily
When You're Evil by Voltaire.

It was about time Kadaj got away from Radiant Garden. The world was boring him now and he wanted to get out there and do what he was supposed to be doing; wreaking havoc. He hadn't done much damage to worlds since that dragon one and he didn't even destroy it! The Heartless couldn't find the core of the world on their own or it was too strong or something. He sort of forgot how that all happened now; obviously, it didn't concern him anymore. Maleficent just wanted him to concentrate on spreading darkness and getting rid of those Organization members, the latter of which he hadn't been able to do in Radiant Garden.

He got to this world and parked his Gummi Ship somewhere, deciding to take a look around. At first glance, he didn't like it. There were flowers and a bright white castle in the distance that looked just so perfect. That was just gross and he couldn't have any of that. The people here were probably rather happy too, which would just add to the disgusting factor. Though, he didn't see any people right near him in the forest area. They were probably all in the castle doing something or other.

Well, it was time to do his job. He grinned and raised his hand, summoning some Heartless. Or several; probably more than that. By the time he started walking in the direction of that castle, there were plenty of Heartless around. The way he figured it, this world would be easy to take down so long as no one showed up like last time. Wait, never mind that. Let them come. He could handle whatever was thrown his way with ease; he was Kadaj after all, not just any agent of darkness.

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[Castle]

The gummi ship sent Sora and Kairi down onto a wide road that led up to the front gates of a large, bright castle. The afternoon sun shone on the white walls and towers and made the structure glow. The land around it was green with grass, trees and flowers, and there were settlements nearby. Overall, it looked like a very pleasant kingdom.

"I've never been to this world before," Sora commented after he looked around, "It sure looks peaceful enough."

A few days ago, those words would have drifted away into open air. However, now that he had someone traveling with him again, a very important someone, the observations were for her to hear. He turned toward her, as if to make sure she was still there, but unless the gummi ship had a malfunction, there was no reason she wouldn't be.

They hadn't run into any Heartless as of yet, and part of him wondered what would happen if they did. Would Kairi be able to fight as well as she did a while back? What if the Heartless that attacked them were stronger? He knew she was more capable than she was years ago, but that didn't stop the worry from nagging at the back of his mind.

And speak of the devil, a group of Shadows rose out of the ground around them not long after he mentioned how peaceful things were.

"Looks like I spoke too soon!" Sora said, summoning the Keyblade and going into a battle stance in the same motion. He glanced at Kairi to see how she would react to the appearance of their long-time enemies.

[Aerith]

Fledgling Fighter

Kairi was as unfamiliar with this world as Sora was. It was tranquil. Serene. She inhaled the fresh air, surprised at its crispness. A plethora of trees and flowers surrounded them. She could hear water running somewhere.

But the greatest sight of all was the bright white castle in front of them, illuminated by the rays of the setting sun. It was something straight out of a fairy tale, like the stories her grandmother used to tell her. A pang of sadness squeezed her heart. She missed her grandmother dearly. She missed Radiant Garden and the way things used to be before the darkness came.

"Yeah, it is peaceful." She had Sora now, though. If she had never been whisked away from her home, she would never have met him. Sometimes, good could still come out of tragedy.

Suddenly, they found themselves encircled by Shadow Heartless. Sora immediately summoned his Keyblade, ready for a fight, and he was now looking at Kairi expectantly. A determined look crossed her face, and she also called forth her Keyblade. The feel of it in her hand was empowering. She felt like she could do anything, especially knowing that Sora was by her side.

She looked at Sora. "Come on! Don't just stand there!" Moving toward the nearest Shadow, Kairi slashed at it. A year had gone by since she had first wielded Destiny's Embrace, but the memory of how to use it had not abandoned her. Her current target vanished in a puff of black mist with two strikes to its head. Confidence surged within her, and she gave another Heartless the same treatment.

[Fate]

Interference

The Heartless were scattering about now, large in number. While they went in no particular direction, Kadaj was making his way toward the large castle. He found himself standing at the edge of the courtyard, the Heartless coming in and causing havoc. Screams were in the background as people tried to get away from the creatures, acting almost as if they had not seen them before. He would've thought that the things had spread out to every world in the galaxy and people would be pretty familiar with them by now. Apparently, that wasn't the case in all worlds.

Just as he was starting to make headway toward the castle, he thought he saw a Gummi Ship fly overhead. He watched as a ship did indeed fly overhead, which made him grimace. Well, that wasn't good. Visitors meant people that would see the problem and probably know what Heartless are. That meant that his plan that he came up with on the fly would be interfered with. Kadaj had learned his lesson about people who interfered with his plans and was not going to make the same mistake. He didn't want to have Maleficent come and be unhelpful again when he was fighting three on one. He would just take out the visitors before they could make it too far.

"Tch, just what I wanted," Kadaj said to himself, sounding slightly jovial. He walked faster into the courtyard area, fortunately not having too far to go. Who would dare try to interfere with his plans this time? It better not be Mickey again. He didn't feel like fighting that over-sized rat this time around. Sure, he was the only one that posed a challenge to the silver-haired remnant right now, but he didn't want that when he was trying to destroy a world. It better not be those other people that were in that dragon world either. That would just be annoying.

Well, when he arrived at the path just before the castle, he could see just who showed up to ruin his plans. There were two Keyblade masters and they were both hacking away at Heartless. Great. Just great. This was just what Kadaj asked for. Though, would they be as good as Mickey at fighting? He wasn't so sure yet, but he wasn't going to wait to find out either.

"Well look at what turned up," he said cheerfully, walking a little closer to them. He wasn't much taller than either of them, but things like that never really mattered to Kadaj. "Came to spoil my fun did you? I don't think I can have any of that." Slowly, he took out the sword on his back and held it in a reverse grip. He stared at both of them, beckoning them to a fight.

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[Castle]

Kairi sprang into action almost immediately. Sora couldn't help but stare, impressed and a bit fascinated by her fighting ability. There was room for improvement, of course, but all things considered, she looked really good in action. Really good...

He was almost too distracted to notice the Heartless jumping at him. Almost, but he noticed the movement just in time and quickly took them out. From then on, it was him and Kairi fighting baddies together, and even though he knew that the presence of the Heartless here was a bad thing, it still felt good somehow. Though, that didn't mean he wasn't checking on her over his shoulder every two seconds to make sure she was still holding her own.

Suddenly, an unfamiliar voice directed his attention up the path. There stood a man clad in black, and the mere sight of him sent Sora's bad-guy-senses tingling. Not to mention the words the guy just said were sort of a dead giveaway.

He did a quick reality check. This person had a sword, and he looked pretty capable with it. This was no common enemy, and it would be bad if he attacked Kairi. Very bad. Sora dashed to a point between her and the newcomer and held the Keyblade in a ready position. He fixed the guy with a challenging glare. Or rather, a glare that accepted the already established challenge.

"If you want to have any more 'fun', you'll have to go through me first," he threatened.

[Aerith]

New Challenges

Kairi now understood more fully the rush that Sora and Riku must get when battling Heartless. Her Keyblade, a flowery yet deadly presence, flashed in her hands as she batted away the Shadows. She could sense Sora behind her doing the same. In no time at all, they had managed to clear the area of Heartless.

"That wasn't so bad," she said with a grin. Granted, those had only been Shadow Heartless, the weakest of the Heartless as she understood it, but the fact that she had done some successful fighting was enough to build her confidence.

Too bad the peace didn't last too long. A black-clad stranger--not with the Organization, seeing as he wasn't wearing the cloak--appeared in their path to the castle. There was no question as to the man's alliance. He struck her as one of those types that killed and destroyed easily. And enjoyed it, too.

Sora immediately put himself between her and this new man, which was sweet on the one hand but a bit irritating on the other. She had a Keyblade. She could defend herself if she needed to.

"I'll fight, too!" The look on her face was determined, but there was a definite hint of uncertainty beneath the thin veneer of confidence.

[Axel]

The Silent Observer... For Now

A Corridor of Darkness opened next to a large mansion. Axel exited and dismissed the shadowy portal. The sun was setting here, giving it an almost Twilight Town feel despite the all the trees and the fairy-tale setting. The very top spires of a white castle, illuminated in the dying sun's glow, could be seen in the distance. The whole place was unfamiliar, which warranted some exploration.

Everything was quiet, except for the occasional bird finishing up its song before nesting down for the night. He imagined the forest here was teeming with animals of the cute variety. All in all, it wasn't a world to his tastes, but there was always the chance he could find out some valuable information. Perhaps Marluxia was here. He'd probably like this place, knowing him.

The Flame had barely made it a few paces away from his initial entrance into the world, when he noticed there were a larger number of Heartless around than he had been used to seeing over the past few weeks. A few seconds later, he found the reason for the creatures' appearance.

Sora. And Kairi.

Well, Zexion had said he had reunited the two. Unwilling to be seen unless absolutely necessary, Axel went into the cover of the trees. Sora was staring down some silver-haired guy who was not Organization-affiliated but who clearly wanted a fight. And Kairi was doing her best to look the part of a Keyblade wielder.

For now, the Flame would watch and wait.

[Fate]

Hope You're Not a Sore Loser

Aww, how sweet-- one Keyblade Master went in front of the other one to defend her. Her Keyblade was all flowery too, making Kadaj grimace again. What was with these people and flowers? They were gross and weren't meant to be fought with; why would anyone want to fight with flowers anyway? Well, either way, it didn't look like he would be fighting the girl with the flowery Keyblade and would have to fight the one in front of her first. He had a sort of similar Keyblade to Mickey, though it was just an iron color instead of the gold the mouse's was. Kadaj had no idea who he was up against, not even knowing that he was facing the infamous Sora. Maleficent wasn't one to share details about what these people looked like and, personally, he didn't care for names at the moment.

"Well all right then," Kadaj said, raising his right hand again. It glowed green for a second before some more Heartless showed up, slightly stronger ones than just the simple Shadows. There were a few Soldiers and a couple of Large Bodies this time around, which would be just for the girl with the gross flowery Keyblade. He would deal with this other one at the same time and, if he got the chance, get rid of them both. Then this world wouldn't have anyone left to save it.

After the Heartless were summoned completely, Kadaj rushed at the brown haired Keyblade Master, prepared to deal about three blows and block two coming at him. That Keyblade didn't look like that light of a weapon like the Souba was, which was light and easy to move around quickly. This Keyblade Master would have to move fast if he wanted to keep up with this silver-haired remnant. As far as Kadaj knew, this fight was going to be over soon and he could just move on to the castle in a few minutes.

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[Castle]

Despite his coming between them, Kairi was determined to fight anyway. He should've known that, but that didn't make him any more comfortable with the situation.

"Kairi..." he began, but was missing the words to continue. This was no time to start an argument about why she should or should not help him fight this guy.

In fact, there was no time at all. The newcomer raised a hand, and with a familiar flash of power, summoned more Heartless. These were much bigger than the Shadows from before. However, before anything could be done about them, Sora found his new enemy rushing toward him. There was no avoiding it; Kairi would have to deal with the Heartless by herself, and he would have to have faith in her.

Sora dashed forward to meet the first strike, catching it with the Keyblade in preparation to parry so he could retaliate.

[Aerith]

On My Own

She could tell Sora was about to try to dissuade her from fighting, but the sudden appearance of Heartless cut that protest short. These were bigger than the Shadows from before and looked much more dangerous. Sora moved to engage the silver-haired man, leaving her alone to the deal with all the Heartless.

The smaller ones were her initial targets. A few quick swings of the Keyblade dispatched one of the Soldiers, but she left herself open to the others. Claws raked across the back of her left knee, and she yelped, spun, and slashed in retaliation. It was all a bit sloppy, but she blamed her lack of finesse on her inexperience.

More Soldiers rattled her way. The back of her knee stung, but she did her best to shrug it off. In the back of her mind, she was worrying about the two fat Heartless present. But they were keeping their distance for now, bellies rising and falling as they swayed on their feet.

Okay... tougher than I thought...

She kept spending too much time focused on one Soldier at a time, which resulted on the others being able to get in hits. Small hits, to be sure, but they still hurt. How did Sora and Riku and Mickey make this look so easy? Well, she wasn't going to call for his help. Besides, he was busy with that man.

[Fate]

Paint It Black

Well, the kid wasn't too bad it seemed. He met his first attack and was ready to go again. His friend was having fun with the Heartless he gave her to fight, though having a bit of difficulty. He'd worry about her later when all of the Heartless were gone though, not now. He needed to focus on this fighter right in front of him that had one of those fancy Keyblade things. What were so great about them anyway? He couldn't remember if Maleficent explained anything about the mysterious weapons; if she did, he probably wasn't listening at the time, as usual.

Kadaj went in to try and get two blows on this kid, one coming from the top left and the other the bottom right as the silver-haired remnant changed positions quickly. He wasn't about to waste time thinking about what the Keyblade Kid was going to do either; he never particularly fought with strategy like Yazoo did, instead going on what felt right and going with the flow of battle. This 'strategy' of sorts worked out fine for him anyway; he hadn't lost a fight because of it, except for that whole thing with Mickey in Dragon world. That wasn't too bad of a loss though; that was just Kadaj getting out of there because what he couldn't do what he wanted to that world. Yeah, that was it.

He backed away from his opponent for another second, holding his sword in the same offensive position. The sword turned black, smoke coming off of both of the blades. He grinned maliciously and laughed, now jumping in the air to bring this sword down on the kid and see what he made of it. This was an ability he had been working on recently, deciding to use the darkness to its full potential. He didn't like using anything outside of his swords either since that would just disrupt the flow of the fight. The Souba was an extension of himself; he might as well make it dark.

[Battle Report:
Kadaj used Shadow Blade
Ability will last for the post following this one]

[/size]

[Castle]

Before he could retaliate, the swordsman came at him with two more blows. Both were fast. Sora managed to block them and jumped back to avoid getting caught up in rapid strikes. However, the other guy backed away as well, and darkness washed over his blade. Sora planted his feet and got ready for whatever was going to happen next.

This opponent was a speedy one, that was for sure. Hopefully, Sora's reflexes were still as good as they were a year before. This was the first real fight of his new journey, and he had to make it turn out in his favor. Well, he had to make any fight turn out in his favor, but this particular one was a test, a test to see if he still had his winning skills.

The enemy leapt. It looked to be a more powerful move, the weapon completely covered in dark energy. Locking blades might be a bad idea. With this spur of the moment thought, Sora chose to do a dodge-roll at a forward diagonal so he would hopefully end up behind his opponent.

Maybe he should fight speed with speed. After springing to his feet at the end of the dodge, he charged in close to throw a series of five rapid strikes.


--
Battle Report:
Sora used [Slapshot]
Cooldown: 3 posts
Uses left: 1

[Aerith]

Not to be Underestimated

Despite her sloppiness, Kairi managed to finish off the remaining Soldier Heartless. Now there were those two Large Bodies to deal with. As if realizing that all the small fry were gone, the fat Heartless lumbered forward, arms swinging threateningly at their sides. Having no experience with these, Kairi did the first thing that instinct told her to do.

She ran right up to one and slashed at its belly with her Keyblade.

To her surprise and dismay, Destiny's Embrace rebounded hard off the Large Body, not even leaving a scratch. The creature retaliated with a fist to her shoulder, and she tumbled backwards a few paces. What was she supposed to do now?

She glanced in Sora's direction but quickly pushed down the urge to call for help. The silver-haired man's sword was now covered in darkness, and Sora looked like he was trying to concentrate on keeping that thing away from him.

Something tickled the back of her mind, some inkling that she knew a way to get out of this. And then it hit her.

Rushing forward, she purposefully placed herself between the two Large Bodies. She concentrated, putting a hand to her necklace for reassurance. She was a Princess of Heart, after all. Magic surged in her veins.

Light spiraled around her, ending in an orb several feet above her head. When the bright whiteness turned into many different hues, it exploded into a trio of beams that circled her. The Large Bodies had no chance and exploded into shadow just as Kairi's attack vanished.

No more Heartless sprang up to distract her. She turned her attention to Sora, wondering if she should stay back or get involved and risk getting in his way.

[Summary:
Kairi used Prismatic Blitz.
Posts until next use: 5
Uses remaining: 1]

[Fate]

Awareness of Surroundings

Oh, so his opponent was going to try and get behind him and dodge his attack? Well, Kadaj could prepare for that. He whipped around as soon as he landed and put his sword into a defensive position. His opponent was ready to attack just as he turned around, dealing five rather fast blows, faster than how he had been previously attacking. Kadaj managed to block three of them with ease and attempted to parry the fourth. For the fifth, he dodged and avoided the attack.

His eyes went to the other fighter now, noticing that the Heartless were gone. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. It meant she no longer was distracted by them and she could leap into the fight at any moment. Though, he felt he could handle both of them if the need arose. He wasn't going to summon more Heartless for her to defeat since that would be pointless; she could only be distracted for so long. He could attack her to try and get at the other fighter mentally, though encouraging rage might not be a good idea. Attacking her would just be too easy and it would just make her want to get into the fight even more.

Thinking quickly, he went back to his relentless attacking. They were sort of near the forest at the moment, which, if he got this kid to get in the forest, that created a few different angles to attack from. Kadaj, as well as his brothers, were very adept at using their surroundings against their opponents. There were plenty of trees to rebound off of, increasing his speed and attacking from different angles.

He made his attacks as forceful as he could with the darkness aiding him, attempting to make the Keyblade Master have to back into the forest. He attacked three times in quick succession, once from the right and twice from the left. He then went from an above angle to come down on the kid, using the couple of inches he had over him to his advantage. He would get a hit on him sooner or later; he couldn't keep dodging or blocking forever.

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[Castle]

The guy avoided all five attacks, blocking the first three and parrying the fourth. Sora kept the Keyblade under control when it was parried, but the move still caused the last strike to come a bit slow, and before it could make contact, it's target was already out of the way. This guy was as tough as he looked.

He couldn't see what was happening with Kairi, but he didn't have time to look. He could only hope that she had the Heartless situation under control. She hadn't cried out yet, and maybe that was a good thing. He would never forgive himself if she was hurt when he could have protected her. Unfortunately, the immediate situation called for him to protect himself.

More quick strikes were thrown his way, made more forceful by the dark energy that cloaked the sword. He was driven a few steps backward by the first three, and he blocked two of them completely but was scratched on the arm by the last when he tried to parry. He winced, the cut stinging more sharply than a normal injury of the same level.

Another attack came from above, and he raised the Keyblade to block it, using one hand to support the far end of the shaft. He planted his stance for reinforcement, the impact of the attack shuddering down his arms. He noticed blood from the fresh cut, but paid little attention to it.