World Refugees Final Mix

Song was just as surprised as the others, and had to laugh at sight of the Stopped Heartless wizzing away. She imagined how confused the poor things must be (trust Song to sympathize with Heartless).

"Oookay. You two seem to have dealt with that well enough. Moving on?"

From:

ariakitsune.livejournal.com

"Uh... yeah." Aria started walking to the next car. The coal shifted a little under her feet.

Seph chuckled and began to follow but, noticed something other than Aria was making the coal shift. He rushed to pull her back and a Driller Mole (http://kingdomhearts.wikia.com/wiki/Driller_Mole) popped up where she had been. He couldn't attack it at the moment for fear that he would set the whole car on fire with his current weapon...

From:

Roxas had more or less expected there to be something else. Driller Moles hiding in the coal was not too far fetched. Still, the fact that they were burrowing around in coal when one of their party was stuck with a fire based weapon was not helpful.

"You're kidding me, right?" he snapped as he dispatched one Mole and went for another, "This car's open. Where's your sword?"

From:

Song let the others worry about the fire issue. She and Roxas could handle several of these Heartless while Seph figured out what to do. Driller Moles weren't tough as lnog as you caught them aboveground.

She took out her share by staying away from the coal until one emerged, darting in to give it a few good jabs and whacks, and then falling back. It was a very familiar system to her, practiced even when she was a child playing with wooden swords. Mabry had titled it Falcon Style because it apparently resembled the way a falcon might fight another bird, swooping in for a strike and then flying away again to prepare for another.
It always pleased Song how much those games had done to prepare her for life as a Refugee. She was born for this kind of adventure.

And maybe it was about time to use her other talents. They were close enough to the engine. Waiting until the last moment was all well and good, but Song preferred to get a head start.

"Soooo," she called over the racket of battle and the moving train, just in case. "Doomtrain! If it really is you... I hope you appreciate what we're doing here! No offense..." she slashed another Mole. "Returning the favor would be great!" So it was a bit blunt for her, but she figured that if this really was the Guardian Force, he/it/whatever would be the sort to appreciate directness over eloquence, and anyway, long speeches were difficult in a fight and not really worth the breath when you didn't even know if you were being heard.

From:

Seph shoved the staff into Aria's hands and retrieved his sword from her bag of holding. Of course he still had to be careful not to hit his allies. He made short work of a Driller Mole that popped up in front of him. At least there weren't too many so it shouldn't take long to take care of them.

Aria just stayed out of the way and considered tactics for if they had to fight the train itself.

From:

There weren't that many Driller Moles, thankfully. But now what? There was only one reason the Heartless were interested in the train. And where else could the Heart of a train be but its engine?

The engine...

"Ah, crap," Roxas grumbled, finishing off the last Driller Mole, "Song, never mind the speech! Get to the engine! If this is a summon, it has a Heart and that's why the Heartless have boarded it." He didn't wait for anyone to respond, instead simply zipping off to the engine.

From:

Well, obviously. But he should have known that when it came it speeches and such, Song just couldn't help herself.

"Well, you're the one here with the magic key!" she pointed out, following more slowly. He'd do this his way, she'd do it hers.

From:

Seph followed Roxas without a word. There was no telling how long the train has had Heartless swarming it. It was entirely possible people were getting sick because of the Train's efforts to get rid of it's unwanted passengers... If it was a summon anyway. That they may still have to fight the train even if they got rid of all the Heartless was forefront in his thoughts.

"Dammit." Aria still had the fire staff and Seph already reached the engine. He was likely to have a bit of trouble finding room to swing his sword.

From:

"Not funny, So-- uh... uh-oh." Being the first one in, Roxas got a good enough look at what was in there. More fire using Heartless, firstly, but the biggest problem by far was the Heat Saber that seemed to be in charge of the whole mess. At the moment, it was pounding on the trains controls, as if that would give access to its Heart. The furnace was probably a better option, but if the Heartless were looking in the wrong place, let them.

Stop them...

"Huh?" Roxas was certainly hoping he wasn't the only one who had heard that. Still, there was no time to worry about it. The Heat Saber had spotted him.

Come to think of it, he hadn't fought this sort of Heartless since before he'd left the Organization. Oh well, he knew it's weakness and was considerably more skilled than he had been then. If he could draw it out of the tight space in the engine room, so much the better, but he really didn't want to be fighting a fire user on the coal car. There was an answer for that, though. Rather than exit out the back door and back onto the coal car, he went out the side and hopped up on top of the engine. The Heartless followed him.

From:

She shot a flat look after Roxas. Agile she might be, but Song was not keen on fighting on top of a moving train. She hadn't quite fooled herself into thinking that she was an action hero.
She'd deal with the Heartless inside.
She started off with a Blizzard this time, being careful not to damage any important part of the engine car with it. Her spells were weak, relatively, but the ice spell's effect would be increased against fire-oriented Heartless. She targeted the Heartless that appeared to be searching hardest for the heart, focusing more on defending the train than on simply destroying any Heartless that challenged her.

From:

Seph followed Roxas and the Heartless to the roof. He wasn't familiar with this kind of Heartless but, he didn't think it would be hard to figure out. He watched to make sure he wouldn't get in Roxas' way and jabbed at an opening in it's defense while it was focused on the Keybearer.

Aria stayed to fight the rest of the heartless in the engine car along with Song.

From:

Roxas hadn't been expecting company here, but maybe it was for the better. The last time he'd fought one of these, there'd been two other people with him and it had still be a challenge and a half. Then again, there had also been other Heartless interfering. Odd now that he thought of it, but while he knew Axel had been one of his companions for that battle, he couldn't recall who else had been there.

It was foolish to let the thought come in the first place. The Heat Saber took the first opening it saw, thrusting straight in and scoring a hit to his side as he hastily dodged to one side, trying not to go too far. Falling off the train did not sound like fun. The distraction had cost him. It wasn't a severe wound, but it would slow him a little bit.

A split second later, the Heartless took a hit from elsewhere, reminding Roxas that Seph had followed him. Given a new target, the Heartless turned and launched a spinning attack at Seph.

From:

Song was fairly winded after the moving battle through the train, though she was rather good at hiding it. Standing with her back to the controls suited her just fine. No need to go to the Heartless when they would come to her.

Apparently she still had enough breath to tease Aria, however.

"So... Has it been a romantic train rescue?"

From:

Seph dodged back as far as he could while still being on the train but, ended up having to block anyway. The force of the blow almost knocked him off the train but, he managed to keep his feet. He went to counter and the Heartless dodged back towards Roxas...

Aria hadn't put the fire staff away before entering the car and now she really didn't have time to. Since they were dealing with mostly fire Heartless she dropped it off to one side.

"If any of this is Romantic, I'm a mongoose." She didn't care that it could probably be arranged for her to be a mongoose for a while...

From:

The Heartless had its back to Roxas, so it really couldn't defend from a back attack as it dodged away from Seph. It could, however, turn around rather quickly for a savage retaliation. Roxas parried one swing, dodged the other and leaped backward just out of reach of a double thrust. There wasn't much further he could go before backing into the smokestack, but a full on offensive rarely worked with the Heat Saber or related Heartless.

Fighting defensively, did work, though. Roxas waited for the Heat Saber to attack again and blocked this time, bracing for the impact and pushing back at the opponent's blades met his. It worked. The heat saber was thrown off balance, but as much as he wanted to finished it off with Blizzard, he risked hitting his ally on the other side of the enemy...

From:

Compared to the previous car, this wasn't much. Roxas and Seph had the real problem. Song widdled away at the remaining Heartless, using her small ice spells only as defense against fire magic.

"But I thought that fighting side-by-side with someone is one of the best ways to strengthen a bond~"
The subject was just too good to drop.

From:

Seph took the chance to attack but, he didn't quite finish it off before it regained its balance and countered. He dodged back again and watched warily. It could sometimes be hard to tell when Heartless were on their last legs...

Aria grumbled something under her breath. She concentrayed on some of the Heartless for a minute before responding properly.
"I suppose but, that doesn't make it romantic."

From:

One of the things that made the Heat Saber and related Heartless easier to deal with was that they seemed to have difficulty when faced with two or more opponents. Each time one opponent got its attention, it sort of forgot about the others. This one was no different, as now it was watching Seph... or so it seemed.

Roxas moved in with the intent to get in a good back attack and hopefully end the fight, but the Heartless had other ideas. This one was a tad brighter than most and it turned unexpectedly, parrying Roxas's attack and forcing him into dodging too far to one side, with the most likely result: he lost his footing and fell. On the plus, he'd spent the better part of the battle knowing full well that he could take a fall and had sense enough to tuck and roll. The tumble was enough to take him out of the fight, but not permanently.

In taking the risk it did to try to take out the Keybearer, the Heartless left itself open for what would likely be the fatal blow...

From:

In short order, the Heartless inside the engine car were gone. Song wiped sweat off her forehead, winced as it stung cut on her hand, and then turned to tap a sharpened fingernail on the metal control panel with a satisfying clink clink clink.

"Oh, Sir Doomtrain... Art thou still alive in there?"

From:

Seph didn't hesitate to go for the opening. His strike did indeed finish it off. He looked to where Roxas had fallen off but, the train already left him behind. From what he could see the key bearer was fine so, he went to reenter the engine without worry.

Since the Heartless were taken care of Aria retrieved her discarded weapon and waited for the train's answer to Song's question...

From:

Roxas was now quite certain that coming along for this was a bad idea. Then again, the badly sprained ankle, couple of torn muscles, bruised ribs, and cuts and bruises might have had something to do with this conclusion. Either way, he wasn't getting up right away.

As to the train, it certainly wasn't talking to Roxas anymore, if only because he'd disembarked unexpectedly. However, now that it wasn't in serious danger, it had a little more time for conversation, "I am here. However, I doubt that you have cleared the Heartless out of my cars out of sheer charity."

From:

Oh good, it was finally talking. Needless to say, Song was much more comfortable setting aside her glaive and opening her mouth. Hopefully this would go as smoothly as the fighting had.

"To be precise, your rampage was causing a lot of trouble in this town and we are sort of its protectors by default, at least when the Heartless are involved. We weren't certain it was you, my lord, but as you have confirmed it, I would like to formally request your aid in future battles. If you find us worthy, that is." She wasn't sure about Doomtrain, but she remembered quite well the tests of similar entities in Final Fantasy VIII. They always seemed to determine worthiness by strength, so hopefully Doomtrain would accept his rescue as the test, if he required one, and not bother challenging them himself. Attacking a train with a bladed staff just didn't seem all that productive, to say the least...

From:

Seph reentered while Song was talking. Seeing that she was taking care of communicating with the train he went over to Aria and quietly informed her that they defeated the Heat Saber and that Roxas had fallen off the train but, was probably fine.

"Probably?" Aria was not amused.

From:

Roxas was fine in that he would live and was not really severely injured. And now that he felt like taking a look around, he realized that the train had actually taken them a ways out of town. Grumbling, he stood up, but it was painfully obvious that he wasn't going to be walking anywhere. Even if he cast a Curaga to heal himself up, he needed some rest. He stayed where he was, testing his injured leg and pondering whether or not it was worth it to use up his last bit of mana to heal himself.

"Protectors?" the train echoed, "I think you need to work on that a bit. Whoever, as we both find issue with the Heartless and you have helped me, your request is not unreasonable."

From: