Agrabah

[Bloodedge]

[Apollymi]

When Kairos exited the portal created by Master Invi, she soon enough found that she was standing in soft sands outside of a large wall and huge gate. She looked up at the enormity of it and sighed. Beyond that there were grains of sand brushing against her exposed skin and into her hair. She'd never been to this world before in particular but she could think only one thing. "Ugh, I can only imagine how much sand I am going to find in strange places for weeks after this." she said mostly to herself. Still, she wasn't bothered by the temperature or the weather though she saw a bit of darkness which had to be an impending sandstorm on the far horizon and she turned to look at the whole of the landscape.

[Bloodedge]

"That's kinda gross," said Yuri, who was the second person to enter the world of Agrabah. He apparently found the words of Kairos somewhat perturbing. Invi, the final member and leader of the Anguis Union, emerged a bit later than the other two, yet just in time to catch Yuri's statement. "Huh? What's gross?" he asked, much to Yuri's amusement. The boy would respond before Kairos got a chance, if she even intended to; and, he seemed quite elated to do so. "Oh, nothing! It's just a certain 'ice cream' flavor that you want nothing to do with!" he said. Though the boy was obviously not speaking of ice cream at all, the Master Invi was just absorbed enough into his own thoughts to completely miss the subtext. "Oh... well, alright then. So, see anything strange?"

[Apollymi]

"You took it that way... got nothing to do with me." Kairos mentioned. Oddly enough the girl probably didn't intend for her statements to ever be taken in the way that the young man did, but she didn't really find that surprising given who he was. She was able to move past this though, considering his choice of conversation topic. It seemed that Master Invi wanted to question what they were talking about which Kairos had no interest in discussing with anyone at all. But it seemed that Yuri himself had something to say, which was a figurative way of him explaining what Kairos was thinking about the horrors of sand. "Oh? 'ice cream' huh? Your mind goes to strange places." the girl muttered out of earshot of their Master, quickly moving right along to answering Invi's question. "Uh... well... there is a sandstorm that way. And there is no one out here, which seems kind of weird but... dunno. I figure everyone is in there." she said pointing towards the gate as if confused about its existence.

[Bloodedge]

"Bleh! You know what you said, and you knew how I was gonna take it!" the boy replied prior to his tongue protruding from his mouth. Moving right along, Invi found himself looking toward the encroaching sandstorm. This was the desert, so such a thing was to be expected at some point, but there did indeed seem to be something strange about this one. This was not Invi's first visit to Agrabah, and the previous sandstorms he'd seen were a bit less... ominous than this one. "Hmm. That is weird for a sandstorm. The people tend to be in the city around here, though... except for a few. But, this mission is for you guys. I'll just be here to make sure nothing too bad happens, and to keep track of your progress."

[Apollymi]

"I don't know how anyone is going to take anything~" she chimed seeming not to care at all about the boy's tongue being stuck out at her, and in general turn did the same as she crossed her arms over her chest. Moving right along, it seemed that Master Invi agreed that this place was a bit strange and that the sandstorm on the horizon didn't seem like the sort of thing they'd want to deal with immediately. "Well, considering what we are here to do, we probably need to go inside... darkness is created by people, we won't find Lux without looking in. Plus... I am fairly certain we want nothing to do with that." she said pointing at the ominous sandstorm on the horizon, and with that in mind the girl walked forward and pushed the large gate open which would open to a market place filled with people doing the business of their day. "Ah."

[Bloodedge]

"I bet we all know how you're gonna take something!" was Yuri's retort, as he added the gesture of pulling down his bottom right eyelid with his middle finger. "Pehhh!" This all seemed strange to Invi, who stood and watched these two teens have at something which he didn't know if he should call an argument. Either way, Kairos was soon on track for where the team should be going. As such, Yuri would follow into the city while Invi lagged behind the other two just a bit. "I definitely don't wanna be anywhere near that thing. I don't really like sand anyway."

Meanwhile, not far from the entrance of the city, there was a small group of swindlers, totaling three. All were men of middle age, with one male in particular brandishing a rug to the others. "Check it out! I got it off some brat who was trying to sell it for his mom. This is why ya' don't let your kids take care of business for ya'!"

[Apollymi]

"I am not gonna take anything, now who's being gross!?" the girl said as she mimicked his activities. Of course, from the outside perspective this would probably seem something like a disagreement, but it wasn't the case. Such actions and slightly terse words were how this particular pair of teens chose to speak to each other on a regular basis and was a sign of their friendship. As they walked through the city the girl looked about at the bustle of life here. As she did this she responded to the young man beside her, seeming to take Master Invi's lack of involvement as his way of letting them do what they wanted for a time. Perhaps this man intended to watch and see what they did in order to test their fitness. "Yeah, I am also not particularly fond of sand. It'll be cool... we probably won't need to go out there." she said absently something seemed to catch her attention and being the sort of person she was she turned to follow the shifting down a covered alley which led into another open space. The girl couldn't help but find this place to be a bit strange. As the lack of light in this covered area seemed to be almost living for some reason. "I hope you're ready." the girl mentioned as she summoned her Keyblade to her hand and the shifting shadows seemed to move and coalesce on the floor only to turn into small glowing dark creatures with glowing golden eyes. "That is what I thought." the girl said as the Keyblade summoned fully to her hand, in the form of a curved key made of flames with a chakram attached as the handle. This wasn't the normal form of her Keyblade but it was something likely to only be known or noticed by the boy at her side, and a single side ways glance and a finger from her unoccupied hand to her lips would hint that she'd tell him about it later. The whole of that motion, as discrete as their earlier fist bump meant to exclude Master Invi for whatever reason.

[Bloodedge]

The farther they traveled, the closer they got to a swarm of darkness sitting in wait. Anything was better than going back outside into the sandstorm, though Yuri could only hope they would be done here before the storm reached the city they were in. In the moment, the important thing to address was the darkness they were faced with. Yuri prepared himself to fight, but before he summoned his Keyblade, his eyes were drawn to the one called upon by Kairos. His gaze stuck for a moment, and immediately prior to the question he intended to ask in this moment of surprise, he saw the shushing gesture of the girl. 'Right,' he thought as his own Keyblade came to his hand. His appeared with a purple glow, and took the form of a blade with three magenta teardrop shapes as its teeth, which matched the two at its guard. "Let's go!" he said when the weapon reached his hand. Yuri's fighting stance was one which began with his right foot stepping back, and his Keyblade held in his right hand in front of his left bicep, which faced the enemy darkness. "Looks like a lot. Got a strategy?"

[Apollymi]

Kairos eyed the coming darkness and seemed to not be at all worried about it. In fact, she was more concerned with the abilities of her new Keyblade. It was acknowledged by Yuri that discretion in this moment was necessary. Even so, the girl only ever had one plan of attack when it came to anything. Her Keyblade erupted in flames and she immediately threw it. "No plan, I'm just gonna do this... and you can tag them for the rest." she said hinting at plan in which she intended to deliver a great deal of damage to the darkness spawning around them, allowing Yuri to make most of the death blows to any who didn't fall from the flaming strikes. As her flaming Keyblade struck though she was a bit stunned. There was one such shadowy creature who was ignited in flame and then proceeded to burn until it was nothing more. She opened her right hand after calling her Keyblade back to her and making it flame again. 'Oh, this is nice... so much fire.' she thought while struggling to keep her face neutral, but her eyes would sparkle with the knowledge that things were burning so much better than before. After all, she was passing this Keyblade off as if it was the normal form of her own, and that in and of itself was rather hard to do when she was stunned by how much it powered up her fire related ability. As such she decided to continue testing this out, by dashing forward and circling herself and Yuri, doing so would clear a bit of space around them and place them back to back. "Alright, we got some room now... you wanna take the left and I'll take the right?" she asked while flames continued to clear out the lower ranks of the darkness which surrounded them.

[Bloodedge]

Yuri's eyes were immediately brought back to Kairos when her Keyblade was set aflame. His eyes widened as he saw this, as he immediately knew there was a much greater intensity to these flames than the norm. This allowed Kairos to put in quite a bit of effort toward clearing the area, and she soon ended up at his back with an offer to take half while he took the other half. "Sounds good!" he announced as he leaped into the fray of the left half. Interestingly, Yuri bypassed many of these dark entities to reach the proper middle of the group. It seemed, though, that the creatures as a whole were more focused on Kairos than himself. While this was strange, he moved onward and raised his Keyblade to the sky. "Thundara!" he called out. A bolt of lightning shot from the tip of his Keyblade, branching out to strike all the monsters around him. Yuri's magical strength was not great enough to destroy them immediately, but when this finished, the spell occurred a second time via the special property of his Keyblade named Guilty Crown. Many of the creatures around him were finished off by this maneuver, but the rest would soon follow. "Zero Gravira!" he said with his Keyblade still raised. Another double-cast ensued, forcing the monsters to levitate without control for a long period of time. During this time period, Yuri darted around the area, striking them down individually with what melee ability he had to offer.

[Apollymi]

It was agreed upon by the pair that they would each take half of the remaining darkness for themselves. Kairos was still getting familiar with the new form of her Keyblade, but taking an extreme amount of care not to use any skills which would show a definitive leaning towards anything other than her fire based magic. As this was the case, the young woman's still flaming Keyblade was soon used along with her speed to perform a flaming dash which led her directly into the ranks of her part of this darkness. While here she performing a flaming cartwheel which only helped to continue igniting her enemies. She would note while this happened that unlike any time before, these creatures continued to burn well after they would have normally stopped. She didn't have to continue attacking them as anything touched by her flames seemed to simply continue burning regardless of what she did. "Firaga." she said while her Keyblade was up in the air, this would create a ball of flames which she'd launch at her enemies, adding the power of Keyblade to it, she seemed to easily decimate her enemies. Only this wasn't all, it seemed that this fireball erupted into multiple pillars of flame which seemed to burn with even greater intensity than she was used to, a veritable Firestorm. 'This is amazing.' the girl's eyes sparkled as she finished off her half of the enemies. she then turned to check Yuri's progress and she was very impressed. Though she knew of the abilities of his Keyblade she couldn't say she wouldn't like having such an ability.

[Bloodedge]

The dark beings around Yuri were cleared out as well by the end of his assault, but by the time he turned to look toward Kairos, she had already finished her efforts with a mass of flames surrounding her. He was quite amazed by this, and interestingly enough, so was the observing Invi. 'She couldn't possibly be that strong. What kind of Keyblade is that?' he wondered. Meanwhile, Yuri was just distracted enough to be overtaken by another swarm of darkness which formed around him in the wake of his Zero Gravira spell. This was a spell which grew stronger with darkness, and as such, it drew on a bit of the darkness in Yuri's heart when utilized. This garnered the attention of he creatures, who swarmed the boy immediately and engulfed his form before he could react. "Huagh!" the boy cried out as his left hand protruded from the surrounding darkness. He could feel it consuming him, bringing out the darkness in his heart in an effort to take control of him.

'And it begins. Maybe I should have left it alone. It happened even earlier this time.'

[Apollymi]

The flames around Kairos rendered asunder all of the darkness which surrounded her, but as she turned to see how Yuri handled his set she found that he was soon being engulfed by darkness. She couldn't possibly know the reason for this, but immediately went to save the other boy. Still, it was no easy task, so she reached out for the boy, flames firing from the tip of her Keyblade aiming to burn away those which held him. "Yuri!" the girl seemed to be a bit upset, but not nearly enough to lose her focus in this moment. She then remembered her earlier conversation with Master Luxu. "Fight it." she stated. After all, the girl knew she could only do so much, she could eliminate all of the shadows in this area, but if the boy didn't fight against the darkness of his heart, she'd never be able to properly free him.

[Bloodedge]

During Kairos' approach, another form of the darkness would manifest in the area. There were three figures, much like the originals, yet taller and sleeker with elongated antennae and much swifter, more measured movements. These three grabbed onto Yuri's darkened body while four others leaped at Kairos from the rear. The trio around Yuri dragged the boy's body into the shadows, leaving with him to unknown locations. In the meantime, one might have wondered where Invi was during this exchange, and why he was not offering assistance. He had already been dragged into a separate fight, in which he fended off a horde of sphere-like creatures with his Keyblade. He brought an end to them all, but sadly, not in time to keep the creatures from claiming Yuri.

'Never mind. We're back to normal.'