World Refugees Final Mix

"We would want to shut down the engine and engage the brakes..." Roxas mused, "Getting aboard the train might be the hard part, although... it's a train. It could have some kind of passengers..." He trailed off, considering the possibility that Heartless might be involved somehow. That could explain the thing's behavior, in as far as a train can have its own behavior.

He would have some more time to think on it as they hiked the rest of the way to the abandoned station. Their train had arrived at the last open station. As they stepped off the train, Roxas looked around. This last station wasn't in a much better state of repair than he was expecting to see the abandoned station in.

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"If it's a monster impersonating a train, it might not have an interior at all, or at least not an engine chamber." Song began walking along one of the tracks that continued on from the last stop. She was more confident about their location now. She recognized this area from a long time ago, when she - or at least a part of herself - had visited Twilight Town for the very first time.

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"We have no way of knowing until we see it for ourselves." Seph kept an eye out for threats as they walked. They may be looking for a train but, there were other things that could show up.

Aria didn't have anything to add. The abandoned station shouldn't be too far and she hoped their target would either be there or show up soon if it wasn't.

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"From what I've heard, it seems to be a haunted train," Roxas replied, more looking out for possible threats as Seph was than paying attention to the conversation, "But, maybe it's like Notre Dame was. It has it's own Heart. Since it's a train, the problem could very well be that Heartless have boarded it."

Speaking of Heartless, he did sense that they were close. The power of his Keyblades hummed in his hands, wanting to be called on. After a moment, he did call on them. The threat was close enough to need to be ready.

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"What fun."

Song glanced at the flash of keyblades appearing and idly spun her glaive in her hands, playing with its balance. Granted, she didn't think an ordinary weapon would be much use against a train. She'd more likely have to draw on her newly learned magic. It would be an interesting test.

A few steps more and she stopped, holding still for a moment and then prudently stepping off of the tracks. They were vibrating.
"I think it's coming to greet us..."

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"Lucky us," Aria muttered sarcastically. "At least it's not gonna keep us waiting." She hadn't been walking on the tracks but, she moved a bit farther away. They were already within sight of the abandoned station but, the train was likely to show up before they reached it.

Seph stepped off the tracks and considered the likelihood of getting on the train if it didn't stop. He could probably manage it but, Roxas was the only other person there that might be able to.

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Provided the train wasn't running full steam, Roxas could definitely get onto it if it didn't stop. He was still considering the likelihood of having to fight immediately upon boarding though and finally getting a glimpse of the train said enough. There seemed to be far more smoke coming from the smokestack than there ought to be, but a closer look showed billowing darkness coming out with the smoke and steam. As the train drew nearer still, it became apparent that there were indeed Heartless on board.

"This would be too easy if we could jump on right by the engine," the Keybearer grumped as he watched the train approach. Then he realized that the train was already moving fairly slowly and the swarming Heartless were mostly up by the engine. No, they didn't want to jump on right by the engine. They wanted to get on further back. Fighting their way up from the back would actually be easier than trying to board while fighting off the Heartless at the front. Since there were only four cars besides the engine and the coal car, it wouldn't be that far to go. Getting on by the caboose might be the safest bet. The damned thing was moving slow enough. Grumbling under his breath, Roxas broke into a run, fully aware that as slow as it was going, it was still going too fast to catch up if it passed and they had no way of knowing if it was going stop at the abandoned station.

It took a leap boosted with Aero to get him onto the deck at the back end, but he was made it, even if taking the risk of using Aero in a way he never had before got him face planted on the deck. He was up quickly, ready for any Heartless or to help his friends board, whichever came first.

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Song had taken off at a full sprint the moment Roxas started to move, predicting his plan. She'd never been much for distance running, losing her breath too quickly to last, but in short sprints she was fast. She caught a rail on the caboose as it passed, tossing her weapon onboard immediately so that she could use both hands to swing herself up, landing with a foot on the pole of the glaive to stop it from sliding back over the edge.
It was a lucky move, successful mostly because she hadn't stopped to think about it, but she couldn't help feeling rather awesome. Now if only she was as strong as she was athletic...

She waited again for Roxas to make the first move onward. Better not to be in between the Keybearer and the Heartless.

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Aria and Seph followed suit but, Seph frowned for a moment once they were on board. His sword wasn't really good for small spaces.

He brought this up to Aria, hoping she had a spare shorter sword, and after a small discussion somehow ended up using her tiki torch fire staff. Which he wouldn't have given in to if her sword hadn't been infused with Light element. He didn't really like to talk about it but, being too close to Light made him uncomfortable. Another reason he didn't like being in Disney Castle too long.

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The caboose was empty. Cautiously, Roxas started toward the front, Keyblades in hand. He had not noticed the tiki torch yet, nor who wielded it at the moment as he had more pressing things on his mind, like getting to the front of the train and getting it stopped. If he was right, clearing it of Heartless might solve the issue. Hopefully.

They could worry about that when the time came. First, they had to get to the front. They had four other cars to fight past and Roxas was dreading the possibility of fire using Heartless hanging around the coal car.

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Luckily for Song's peace of mind, that thought hadn't occurred to her yet. In the midst of action was possibly the only time she wasn't planning for every possible circumstance. It was good for making snap decisions, not so much for avoiding a headfirst charge into trouble.
But then, that was the other reason she let someone more durable go first.

Despite that, she was almost running over his heels as they passed through the vacant caboose. So few cars seemed like a deceptively short distance. The fight hadn't even started and she was impatient for victory.
"Heeerrrre Heartless, Heartless, Heartless..."

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Seph and Aria were a bit behind because of the weapon issue. They hung back though. Seph in case of hidden Heartless that may try to attack the others from behind once they passed and because he wasn't enthusiastic about using a tiki torch weapon.

Aria was just giving the others room to fight. There wasn't exactly room for all of them to move freely if they were all bunched together.

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Roxas wasn't particularly enthused about the tight quarters either. It wasn't something his fighting style took into account and that complicated things. All the same, he stayed on point. However, the caboose was empty and the next car contained only a few weak Heartless.

The next car, however had probably the worst thing they could encounter in such a tight space: a Large Body and a Barrier Master.

"Shit!" was all Roxas could say before diving to one side to avoid the Large Body's charge...

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As if she wouldn't already have trouble using her weapon of choice in these closed quarters... it just had to be a Large Body.
She scooted aside, taking her cue from Roxas, and took full advantage of the moment when its back was turned to her. Song didn't have the strength to defeat a Large Body easily, but one thing she was good at was staying behind an enemy. She jabbed at the thing's broad back a few times, side-stepping again as it turned and hoping that someone would hurry up and kill it before it cornered her.

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The Barrier Master's spell protecting the Large Body was the main problem. No one could do any damage to it until the Barrier Master was defeated and the close quarters made it difficult to get past the larger Heartless.

Since Roxas was closest to the Barrier Master Seph was left with the task of distracting the Large Body. This mostly involved hitting the barrier around it and trying not to get squished when it charged.

Aria decided she'd only be in the way and cast a Cure Bubble on Seph before ducking back into the previous car.

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Roxas was already zeroing in on the Barrier Master as Seph began trying to distract the Large Body. If they were lucky, this Barrier Master wasn't at a high level and he'd be able to break its spell quickly.

'If' was the keyword. The Large Body's initial charge had knocked a number of seats over and pulled down a couple of overhead compartments, making maneuvering harder still. The Barrier Master was taking care to make sure its opponent had to come around or over the rubble to get at it. It took a couple of failed tries before Roxas gave a frustrated growl and threw both Keyblades at it, knocking it off balance but not quite dislodging its hold of its book. He didn't give it the chance to recover its balance as he recalled his Keyblades and leaped over a couple of smashed seats to deliver a quick one-two strike that knocked it out the window, leaving its book sitting on the floor of the car.

If this commotion didn't attract more Heartless, Roxas didn't know what would...

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Since Seph had taken over Song's task of keeping the Large Body busy, she got to watch the Barrier Master's dramatic exit.
It made her grin.
She hopped over the clutter and found herself a nice corner at the front of the traincar, giving the boys room to play.

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Seph might have said something if he wasn't busy. He was currently pretty much making the Large Body bounce off the walls. He would stand on one side poking the thing with the tiki torch staff and just barely get out of the way as it crashed into the wall trying to squish him.

Since they already cleared the previous car of Heartless Aria didn't have much to do besides watch from the door.

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Roxas wasn't sure getting the Large Body bouncing around like that was a good idea, but as the Barrier Master's exit seemed to have taken its spell with it, now was as good a time as any to put an end to the bouncing. As the Heartless tended to slide around on its belly, that left its vulnerable back open to an attack from above. Rather than attempt to deflect it when it came around again, Roxas jumped up and over the careening creature and brought both Keyblades down hard on its back, stunning it. Then standing atop the stunned Heartless, he thrust both blades into it, finally vanquishing it... and forgetting that Heartless vanished when defeated, he found himself unceremoniously dumped onto the floor.

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Song snickered and moved ahead to the next car, letting out an oddly calm "eep" to alert the others when she found herself assaulted by a horde of NeoShadows, with a few others mixed in. They filled ever corner of the car, and writhed up the walls. It was actually scarier when they didn't have room to jump all over the place. She liked it when they jumped. She liked to bat them out of the air when they jumped... These ones had nothing to do but crowd in close, creating a wall of grasping claws, which was not only downright creepy, it also put Song at a disadvantage.
She pushed them briefly away from her with an Aero spell and called over her shoulder, "exterminators, we have a swarm here!"

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Seph rushed the Heartless. He wasn't used to a staff but, he adjusted without much trouble. His rush brought him to the center of the car and the Heartless quickly surrounded him. He wasn't really expecting the flames that sprung from the staff as he swung it at the swarm. He didn't let it distract him as he attacked any Heartless within reach.

When Aria poked her head into the car she wondered how he was preventing his hair from catching fire.

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The fracas in the next car was both surprising and not. Surprising in that Roxas had never known Neoshadows to crowd into small places like that. Not surprising in that it seemed to be a theme for this train to have a clusterfuck situation in its cars, though this wasn't counting the caboose and the car in front of it.

"Damn," was all Roxas said as he joined the fray. While the Neoshadows weren't jumping, they could still sink in the ground and attack from there... as he was so blatantly reminded of as one of the Heartless sunk it's claws into his leg. With a curse and snarl, he took the offending Neoshadow's head off its shoulders as it pulled itself out of the shadows by its grip in his leg and followed through the momentum to to bisect another Neoshadow moving in from behind him. Ignoring the wound, he cast Aeroga and followed up with a Blizzara against any Heartless in his line of sight that remained standing.

There was going to be hell to pay it there were fire wielding Heartless around the engine and coal car.

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Song adapted quickly enough, shifting her grip closer to the blade of her weapon so that she could use it almost like a sword... with a long pole for a hilt. It was useful for warding off Heartless behind her while she slashed at those in front.
At first she focused more on moving forward than on destroying every Heartless in reach, putting more space between herself and her allies so that all of them could work more effectively. So far the Heartless hadn't given her anything more than a collection of light scratches, but that would change very quickly if she couldn't maneuver enough to protect herself.

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Seph worked his way to the front of the car. The Heartless were starting to thin out but, there were still plenty to fight. When he reached the front he managed to get a short look at the next car. The coal car and it was also crawling with Heartless. He didn't see what kind before he brought his attention back to the fight at hand.

Aria was still in the back of the car. She had cast a Lightning Bubble on herself but, all she had to deal with were stragglers since the others had most of their attention already.

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