World Refugees Final Mix

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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'Why did I agree to come along on this?' Roxas wondered as he battled his way through the crowd. He was wounded already and had been aggravated before they'd even found the train. He'd know this was going to be insane before even agreeing...

Of course, it was probably for the better that he'd come along. He would never have known Hayner had fallen ill because of this thing and he kind of doubted that one strong fighter and two idiots could stop it. Then again, he wasn't so sure two strong fighters and two idiots could stop it either.

Speaking of the others, since they seemed able to handle things for the moment, Roxas worked his way to the front of the car to take a look at the next one. It was the coal car, or whatever the hell the proper name for it was, and there were quite a few Heartless swarming over it. They almost seemed to be buzzing around it like flies around a turd, actually. While there seemed to be few of them, there was a distinct problem: they were all fire wielding Heartless such as Red Nocturnes and Scarlet Tangoes.

"You've got to be kidding me..."

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Song had taken up a quiet and mildly vulgar running commentary as she picked off Neo Shadows. "Stupid... bloody... bastard children of Darkness... Eat you own hearts out, you - Ow! - vile, putrescent little fuckers... I'll show you Darkness, you - argh! Aagh, bloody hell... If that scars... I'll kill you twice!"
If anyone were to ask, she'd say yes, the cursing did help.

Slowly but surely, though, the horde was thinning. When possible, she joined Seph and Roxas near the front of the car, almost walking backwards to keep the Heartless at bay.

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Seph wondered how so many Heartless fit in such small spaces. It seemed unlikely that they would all even fit on the train. If he thought about it he'd probably figure that any Heartless near the tracks were jumping onto the train as it passed. During a lull in battle he glanced into the next car again. With the fire Heartless there it would be difficult to get through it without the whole thing going up in flames.

"Hmm." They probably didn't have too much time to think. If people got sick just from seeing it then being on it pretty much guaranteed it. "Icing the whole thing over would make footing treacherous..." He knew that Song could cast Water but, he wasn't sure she could dampen the whole car.

Aria zapped a group of Heartless and joined them at the front of the car. The car was mostly cleared by this point. "Or I could use Stop." Of course Roxas should know it too but, she had never seen him use it...

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Roxas thought it over a moment. Yes, Stop was probably the best option. It'd give them the time take out the Heartless before they started flinging Fire magic around. Now, he knew the spell, but it wasn't exactly his favorite spell to cast. Still, he could cast it competently and between them, he and Aria might be able to put a halt on most of the Heartless.

This needed planning.

"I'm open to suggestions," Roxas grumbled, "Casting Stop will work, but we can't just run out there like idiots."

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"Are there any options besides running out there like idiots?" Song asked after finishing off a particularly persistent Heartless. "A good Stop will keep anything from jumping on us instantly. I can't think of any better precautions."

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Seph looked into the next car. "Running out there is necessary but, that doesn't mean we have to be idiots." He watched the Heartless for a few moments. "It isn't a large area. Getting all of them shouldn't be too difficult." He moved away from the door to let the ones that knew the spell in question go first.

Aria stepped up to get a look at the car. "Hmm. Maybe if we aimed the spell at different sections of the car..." She looked questioningly at Roxas.

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"Hmm, yeah that might be the best bet," Roxas said thoughtfully, "But first, we're all scratched the hell up and I don't think any of us wants coal dust getting into any wounds." This had the potential to be a very dirty fight and if this thing was actually causing illnesses, leaving open wounds untended for too long was a bad ideas, as was taking the risk of getting anything into those wounds... like coal dust. He could and did cast a Cura covering the the small area around them to heal them all up and still have enough mana to cast at least one good Stopra if not maybe take out the Red Nocturnes with a Blizzard or two.

With that done, he took a quick count of how many Heartless were out there and what types exactly. They were mostly the fire using spell casters as had been his first impression, though he wouldn't have been surprised if there were a few Driller Moles hiding out in the coal.

"This ought to be fun. If we miss any with the spell, get them first. Aria, on three, okay?"

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Song relaxed just slightly when the healing spell passed over them. She tended to ignore shallow cuts and scratches during battle, but became very aware of their absence when they were healed suddenly. It was almost distracting.

While Roxas and Aria prepared to cast, she centered on the car's front exit, ready to move as soon as the spell too effect.

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Aria began the spell during the count. When she entered the next car and cast the spell she was not prepared when the train left the Heartless affected behind and she ended up staring dumbly for a few seconds. Hopefully they managed to get all of them...

If he wasn't still using the fire staff and they hadn't been fire Heartless Seph might have taken a swipe at them as they went by...

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Roxas finished his spell and was about to follow with a Blizzard, but the sight of the now stopped Heartless being left behind as the train kept moving was just absurd enough to make him pause and stare for just a moment. After a moment, he shook his head and he may or may not have been snickering as he advanced onto the coal car to see if there were any other Heartless lurking around.

"That was a super dork moment."

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