Pulp Fiction

[nexus]

Nexus looked down to Ria and gave her hand a little squeeze, with a bit of a smile he started walking toward Sai. "Thud" a loud sound sounded off behind the group but within the barrier.

With a look over his shoulder Nexus noticed that his dragon finally decided to "drop" in. Nexus looked up at Airinose and then down to Ria "Watch over them Airinose" He said with a smirk. Airinose came closer to the two girls standing between them she folded her one wing around Daphne while at the same time her tail wrapped around Ria, at the moment she looked like a mother dragon protecting her young.

Nexus walked up to Sai's side "Not just two Sai" he said as he stared at Attra. Within the silence after his statement if you listened you could here the hissing and crackling of two long blades of ice forming from Nexus's forearms , and parts of him begin to dawn armor of ice.

[Twilight Path]

Attra was left alone with only Nivea-- Orestes had fled to darkness knows where, and she was confronted by a group of nobodies, a nobody dragon hunter, that stupid soldier she would consider a nobody, and that damn scientist that has escaped her hold one too many times. The heartless was angry, and she would show it with a distasteful expression; her lips twitched until they formed a crooked smile, her nose scrunched up as if smelling something foul, and her red eyes shrank to the size of pin pricks.

"Tch-- I don't need him." She spoke out, cackling psychotically. She meant Orestes of course, that coward leaving her with all this dirt, "I DON'T NEED ANYONE!"

"Attra, we don't stand a chance...!"

"SHUT UP!" she talked to her side, "You... you have done nothing but hold me back, just like those DARN parents of yours...!"

"My parents-- thats why we have to stay calm, so we can find the--"

"NO, NIVEA, you CAN'T find them!" lashed out the heartless girl, swinging her scythe violently without any pattern, " You will NEVER find them as long as IIiIIIi LIiiive~!" she nearly hissed, licking at her lips and looking to her opponents one by one, "NONE of you shall find them! ALL of you will FAIL FAIL FAIL!!"

"Do... do you know where they are...!? Have you known all this time...??"

"Tch.h-kh..Haha...HAHAHAHAHHAHA OF COURSE I KNOW, you STUPID girl!! HAHAHA!" she continued to cackle, her body crackling on certain spots, releasing a dark aura, "IIIiIII KILLllLLED ThEeeEEEMMm!!"

"you...!" -- Nivea has grown weak, and silent from the shock.

" JUST LIKE I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU!!!" she shouted to the heavens, and with haste on her side, and new found darkness speed, she dashed forward and started the battle without warning, slicing and dicing at the lesser nobodies with an uncontrolled hand! The scythe swung violently around as she got rid of the weaker ones first, before going after the big fish.

[Sai]

Sai glanced to the side when Nexus appeared next to him, stating that he would assist. To be honest, while this was certainly a welcomed gesture, Sai was swiftly beginning to doubt that he would need it. Ducking to the side, he avoided a wild swing from the crazed Attra. She had apparently snapped entirely now, and was caught in a state of total madness.

Rolling back onto his feet, Sai prepared for his next move. "Nexus... Freeze her in place before she does damage to the shield..." Sai muttered as though he were giving driving directions to the local zoo rather than conducting strategy for a life-or-death struggle against a crazed heartless. With his wand, Sai was attempting to raise the general heat around the tip, bringing the air to the point of ignition.

***Sai has learned FIREBALL***

He held onto the fireball, waiting for Nexus to make the move. All the while, the blazing point of red light was growing more and more intense...

[nexus]

Nexus watched as Sai dodged off to the side, and his eyes went wide as he merely sidestepped to get out of the way of the scythe and stared at her.

"Nexus... Freeze her in place before she does damage to the shield..." Sai muttered

Nexus glanced at Sai and grinned before her lunged foreward, slamming both fists into the ground at Atrra's feet. "Flash freeze!" he yelled as both of his blades sunk into the ground, crackling and snapping could be heard as The ground around Attra began to freeze over and ice started to grow up her legs. When Nexus thought she had enough covering her he himself would roll away and refain his stance.

[Sai]

When one is not emotional, ones focus becomes clearer. Without the distractions of fear, doubt, or worry one could hone their senses more accurately. So, when Nexus succeeded at putting the freeze on Attra's legs, Sai didn't hesitate even the second or two it would require for her to notice she was trapped.

Pointing his wand at her back, Sai stood and let loose the fireball he had accumulated. The blazing ball of heat streaked through the air like a bat out of hell, screaming in a high-pitched voice like the sound of an incoming mortar round. The resulting backlash of the blast would throw Sai's arm back, almost dislocating his shoulder a second time in less than a day. In the time it would take him to lift his hand and grip his bruised joint, the impact would already have been made. Not even he had time to witness the strike.

If it landed home, it had enough power to enter the body, where it would burn with the white-hot intensity of a steel forge before combusting in on itself in a violent and dramatic display of explosive power. The sound and light of the blast would be breathtaking... possibly gut-wrenching combined with the gore of an only partly heartless body. Of course... Sai had no way of knowing the girl was still SOMEWHAT human.

The only consolation here... was that with Attra's ending came Nivea's journey to see her family once more. Whether or not it landed... was yet to be seen in this fraction-of-a-second space of time permitted to us through the written word...

[Twilight Path]

She could hear them, which was depressing when it came to scheming against her. She'd chuckle, lowering her guard on purpose until Nexus was close enough, "Oh no..~" she grinned widely, "What am I to -- DUSK BOLT!" as soon as Nexus would begin to roll away, she pointed her arm to his direction and released a massive bolt of darkness that would stun him long enough for her to deal with the oncoming fireball.

The heartless woman twirled her scythe in place before holding it as a bat. Her eyes would narrow, keeping her eyes on the prize... Daphne.

" FOUR!" She would cackle, and swing the weapon in hold swiftly, having the blade strike dead center on the oncoming blaze, and sending it a new direction... Daphne! It was obvious this girl was going to play dirty, and clear that she had a few tricks up her sleeve that had not been seen before.

-------------------------------

"Watch out!" Ria was fast on her feet, being next to Daphne, she turned and tackled the scientist down. The fire attack merely scorching her shoulder a little, along with Daphne's arm. She casted a protect and a cure at the same time, healing the both of them, along with casting a physical-barrier around them. "I.. I think when she killed the lesser nobodies, the shield wore off-- ow.. we must be careful!"

"M-Miss Daphne, lets get out of here and let Mr. Sai and Nexus handle it!" she tried to warn Daphne, holding her by the arm, and up to run.

-----------------------------------------

"Mere Luck!" Attra warned, her whole body becoming embedded by a layer of darkness that shattered the ice that held her down. She twirled her scythe about before striking an offensive pose, ready for round two...

"Mere luck won't last against me!"

[Sai]

Sai watched the heartless' movements. Apparently, this one had a much shorter reaction time than he expected. Shame. This would get dragged on yet further. He saw the fireball deflected, and truthfully expected it to glance off the shield that was created earlier, only to find it flying clean through the circle he had thought would make its perimeter.

Luckily, Ria pulled Daphne out of the line of fire, suffering very minor injury, if any at all. His face not moving from its stoic expression, he took note of this fact and adjusted his strategy accordingly. Yelling out his plan was obviously a falacy. Time for a new tactic.

Signalling over to Nexus, Sai used a series of hand signals which were internationally accepted for field operations to instruct him of the plan while Attra was busy twirling her scythe. Basically, it consisted almost entirely of having Airnose get the already tired and injured women out of the battlefield, thus reducing their part as a liability. They, if Nexus was still able, would continue the assault on Attra.

Now adjusting his gaze to the heartless already in a position to either attack or defend, Sai started calculating a new angle of attack. Fortunately for him, just such an angle would present itself nicely when Attra attempted to use the darkness to cloak herself. False move.

Sai opened a corridor in front of himself, no bigger than a fist. Into this hole, he pointed his wand, the tip travelling through subspace to press firmly against Attra's midsection underneith her layer of shade, just above the navel.

"Lightning two..." Sai muttered passively, the blast of light and electric power nearly numbing his arm as it coursed into the wormhole between armor and portal. He didn't know exactly how she'd escape, but even a slim margin of error is a margin of error.

[The Alexandrian Army]

Chased down, trampled, tackled and scorched, all within a consecutive couple of terrible moments, and the Head of Science and Research development was beginning to think they would never see the end of their kidnapper at this point. However, she saw Sai's quick response to this--albeit momentarily--and smiled as Ria ordered her to run and let the two men take care of the psychotic Heartless.

"Are you sure you can manage?" she asked to the men--mostly Nexus, knowing full well in her Heart Sai would not lose--and fumbled around on her belt to find something useful, but finding nothing.

"We need to get out of here, all of us!"

[nexus]

Nexus was launched a bit backwards and fell on his stomach being just hit with a "dusk bolt". Raising himself up on his hands , he lifted his head enough to look over to Ria and Daphne. His eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth as he saw the slight puff of smoke rise from Ria's shoulder. He dug his hands into the ground as Ria moved afterward and cast a couple of helpful spells on herself and Daphne. Slowly he turned back toward Attra letting out a bit of a snarl like sound as he did. he slid forward positioning himself in a crouching position, extending his arms out wide the crackling sounds of ice forming could be heard as his armor repaired itself and more.

The blades on each of his forearms broke and fell away as they were replaced by a different set of blades the pointed out backwards from his forearms , out past his elbows. His hands now were covered in ice and continued to grow until it looked like he had claws instead of fingers. His eyes changed as well, becoming horizontal again but this time taking on a hue of light blue. The tips of his hair froze as well looking as tho it was frosted.

Slowly he leaned forward and with a "Growl" he launched himself toward Attra with a feral speed. When Nexus was close he dropped low, putting his left arm in front of him and skidded the last few feet needed before he swung forward with a slashing uppercut from his right clawed hand and followed by the blade on his forearm, in one big slashing motion. Even if he hit or not Nexus would continue attacking, slashing out wildly, but still deadly.

Airinose on the other hand noticed Sai's hand gestures, and not knowing exactly what he said she got the general idea. Slowly and gently she bent forward and picked up Daphne with her mouth and placed her on her back in Nexus's saddle, she then reached out with her claw and pulled Ria onto her as well. Looking back to see that they were settled she extended her wings wide and with two full flaps, she sprung into the air with the two solders on her back.

Instead of flying away she merely got up high enough to be out of danger before she began to circle the battle below. She looked down upon Nexus and watched as he began his assault and a grin crossed her lips thinking he had finally fingered that it was time to get serious, but the smile quickly faded when she realized that he wasn't becoming serious .......he was getting angry... "Not again you idiot" She thought out loud

[Twilight Path]

Attra kept her eyes on Sai, since he was after her prize as well. She twirled the scythe about in a defensive gesture, using the dark aura's around her as shields, until suddenly a shock quickly came from it. Thankfully, the twirling of her Scythe diminished most of the power of Bolt 2, produced by the silver wizard, but she still received damage!

She grunted a little, and moved her Scythe about in a defensive pattern again when she saw Nexus attack.

"TCH, YOU THINK YOU SCARE ME!?" She would shout out to the growling Dragon Hunter, rushing forward to counter slice at his attacks! "DUSK BOLT!" she would call out repeatedly, sending off lightning strikes toward Nexus, Sai, and the Dragon when she saw it getting ready to take the girls.

"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING!?" she demanded, slamming her scythe onto the ground, before dashing toward the creature, ready to rip that large head right off, "GRAAAAH!! SHADE SLASH!!" she called out, her scythe moving at the speed of darkness. She slashed it upward, but being that she moved too quick, she miscalculated, and struck Arianose upon the shoulder, instead of the neck. A close call, but the cut also was imbued with a bit of darkness. Perhaps a trace.

[Sai]

These tactics were getting nowhere. As long as the woman had time to react, she would forever dodge everything Sai had to throw at her. And now with Nexus in a rage, Sai couldn't rely on him to be mentally stable enough to follow instructions, so a coordinated attack pattern was now out the window. Make matters worse, Attra was now threatening the escape of the two soldiers.

No time for anything fancy. No time to deligate a solution. Sai had to make a move now or risk losing too much for too many people. Since he had already decided that his own life was expendible, the instant choice of action was obvious. Sai took off running after Attra the second she began her run for Airnose, charging his wand with another fireball spell as he did.

When she stopped to make her attack, Sai would throw himself onto her back, holding onto her in a way that would keep her from reaching him and kept him from doing much more than hold on for dear life. Even with her scythe, she'd be hard-pressed to hit him, as it would require a certain range of motion in the arms which Sai was not allowing her with his "full-nelson" hold.

"I cannot allow you to do that..." Sai muttered, as calmly as if he had been shaking the girl's hand. Behind her head, Attra would hear the sounds of the wand swiftly approaching overload. "I have a fireball spell charging in my wand right now. I cannot aim it to discharge the spell, so it will continue building until it reaches critical mass..." he explained calmly.

"...and then it will explode violently."

[nexus]

Nexus still had a bit of restraint, he watch as Sai jumped onto Attra and stopped his assault. Now he merely circled the two, waiting for an opening. Still having his icy claws drawn and ready to strike.

Airinose on the other hand had felt the cut on her shoulder and still circled above the rest, but the cut was taking it's toll, for every circle around she made, she began going lower and lower , not able to keep her altitude with two riders.

[Twilight Path]

Attra made such an uproar when the Nobody grabbed her in a full nelson, that she was growing rather tired from it. She tossed and fussed and kicked up and down, and tried to hit his knees, ankles and even poke him on his cheek with the tip of her scythe, unable to do any more damage at all! A simple poke, "HEY! LEt GO, you NOBODY! LET GO!!" she would growl, jumping in place and slamm ing the top of her head against his face once, "I MEAN IT!"

"I can play this game too, hot shot!!" She would shout a few profanities, before calming down, and collecting herself before she made her hands into fists, and shouted, "DARK BOLT!!" sending a massive jolt to course through BOTH Sai and Attra's veins, wanting to numb him enough to break free... but of course, she would be numb as well for a little bit. The cost for escape, now would it succeed?


~~~~~~~~

Ria saw the horrible cut that Arianose had obtained from the enemy's scythe, and proceeded to cure her twice. One to close up the wound and another to fully heal it. That was it though, she wouldn't be able to use magic for a while now... she rested herself tiredly against Daphne as they continued to fly circles above the others... also getting dizzy.

[Sai]

This little game of bucking bronco was a nuisance. She could kick and scream all she wanted, Sai had a hold on her. Even when she slammed her head backward, he wouldn't let go. Pain coursed through his face and he could feel a hot wetness across his features, caught by the scarf and lending a coppery taste into his mouth. His nose was apparently broken. Collateral damage at best.

Then, the woman did something rather unpleasant. Electricity began to course through the two of them, powered by darkness. Luckily, Sai had no heart to threaten with the dark, and she was already a heartless, so neither would suffer additional damage. However, electricity is a nasty thing to play with, and would cause the both of them to tense up painfully, muscles contracting violently as the charge ran its course through their entire bodies. He would suffer a little more, as he had an actual body which contained a certain amount of water that was now being vaporized where as she had a phantom form born of darkness.

When the attack stopped, Sai would feel his knees giving out under him. His grip slackened and he fell somewhat, gripping her clothes as tightly as he could manage. But even this would not save them.

"Times... up..." Sai muttered, the glowing wand in his hand reaching crticial mass. Even if she were to run now, there was no way she'd escape the shockwave. If she Corridored, she'd take him and his wand with her and subsequently the blast itself...

A horrible, powerful explosion erupted from the point zero that was Sai's weatherwand. A rush of sound and fire would overtake them both, ripping away at them, doing immeasurable amounts of damage. It would last a few seconds, tearing and ripping and rending them from limb to limb before finally the sphere of destructive fire would collapse in on itself and produce a massive shockwave that would shatter glass in a radius of over five blocks.

When it was over, Sai would fall backward, bleeding and unable to move. His clothes were tattered and smoking, his eyes dulled and barely able to focus. He couldn't move... could barely think. He was in so many universes of pain he couldn't begin to articulate the kind of hurt he was experiencing. Thank God his coat was for the most part flame retardant (even if he wasn't), preserving the notes he kept on him. His breathing was heavy and strained, like a man dying from his lungs collapsing. The force of the blast itself had broken one or two of his bones. His hat laid far off on one side of the battlefield, and his hair was still slightly on fire (just a single flame, nothing horrific).

But this all doesn't matter... if Attra survived. Turning his head, despite the uncontrolled amount of agony it was causing him, Sai looked to see if she was still there...

[Twilight Path]

"u-ugh..kuhk..." came a gargled sound within the smoke, and as it cleared it would reveal a standing Heartless, bloodied with clothes torn, but covering the most private of places at least. Her legs would quiver, seeming to be a burden to be standing up so diligently after that fierce, and uncalled for attack. She held herself up using her scythe for support, and she would look to the others with rage filled eyes, but it was clear she couldn't do anything...yet.

"I...hate all of...you!" she would rasp, coughing out and spitting pitch black blood, "Y-you the most...you...nobody..." she would glare at he, who did this to her; the silver dressed mage laying before her with a broken body, "...especially...you!" she would screech and attempt to hold the scythe up to counter attack the man, but she could barely lift it up, as if something other than the pain was preventing her, "U-ughrk... N-nivea...what are you...!?"

"No more..." sounded a different voice from the same being, everyone able to hear her at this point, "I won't have you hurt anyone...anymore...!"

"Idiot...let...go...!" would command the dark one, fighting with herself weakly for the possession of the scythe.

"My parents... my parents were taken by you...everyone I loved...was taken by you! ... no more!" the voice retaliated.

"N-Nivea! You stupid girl...!"

Her eyes would slowly dart to the standing Nexus, her eyes of pleading and... almost lamented innocence, "Please..." Nivea would call out, "...stop this...pain..."

"NIVEA!" The heartless growled, being wrapped by a dark mist, trying to control the scythe, but it remained jammed against the ground, with her hands glued to it almost, " I-- won't have you....control me...!!"

"I can't...hold it...much longer! The suffering...must stop... please!"