The Brightest Light; Hidden by Darkness [OPEN]

[Lightning]

Surrounded by not only beautiful light flowers that gave the palce a softer touch. but also heartless. Something Lightning newly discovered after going into different worlds trying to fulfill her focus. In a battle position, the heartless waiting in position, surrounded Lightning on all sides a circle at that. They were getting anxious, wanting to get there hands on her heart. With that, they ran into battle. Lightning, quick as her name, swung and sliced over and over again, maknig the heartless turn to dust. There were so many, but she didn't give up. Thanks to be a Gaurdian Corsp, she had great stamina and fatigue which helped in battle, espically when it came to large heartless or any monster attack like these.

But over time, they all vanished and she was alone, all alone. Surrounded by flowers that gave a soft calming glow in the terror and darkness that they belonged to. Wanting to walk more, she possibly couldn't. No matter how much she covinced herself, her body in reply just sat on the flowers and admiring there beauty. Grabbing one in the palm of her hand, she didn't dare talk any of there stem, how could she? Fragile things with such beauty, they reminded her of poor Serah, in a crystal beautiful and fragile."I'll save you Serah." She whispered looknig up at the treee branchs that tangled together.

[Xarido]

Several shots rang out from within the forest as Xarido dashed through the trees. Under his left arm was a small bundle of cloth, wrapped around something, presumably for protection, but the contents of the bundle were entirely indiscernible. Xarido fired off several shots over his shoulder at the flood of heartless chasing him, though the damage to the group was barely noticeable if there was any.

Xarido eventually lunged and skidded into the clearing where Lightning sat. He tucked his gun away then created a wall of ice that the heartless smashed against like a cartoon where one of the characters smashed flattened against a closed window. Xarido sat down and huffed as he unwrapped the cloth bundle, inside of which was a delicate looking blue crystal. "This better be damn worth it for whatever the hell Hild has in mind for it." Xarido grumbled to himself. He wrapped the crystal back up and brushed himself off.

As the Heartless broke down his wall of ice, Xarido took advantage of the bottle neck effect created by the trees and sent a large mass of ice crystals to shred the heartless to hell. Xarido sat back down to rest, and surprisingly it took him a few moments to notice Lightning was there. "Come here often?" the white haired youth asked in a completely disinterested tone, his sulfur colored eyes scanning Lightning's delicate features.

[Lightning]

Listening, a gun shot was heard and it didnt' seem far. Quickyl standing up, she took her sword, and again went into battle position. A man with white hair that reflected the flwoers glow came into view, with heartless chasing after him. But he wasn't helpless, with ice he made a wall that crushed the flowers beneath it. The heartless, were like sheep continously crashing into the ice. But finally they grew brains and destroyed it. The man was pulling out a cloth sack that contained a blue crystal. It shimmered in the small haze of the flowers below. Quickyl ice crystals shot from no where and killed the heartless, and finally he spoke. " Come here often?" Answere or not? Well she needed someone to help her. "No, new here." She said in a cold tone, liker herusual self.

Her attention was diverted, the heartless kept coming. Running, she caught up to them shoting and slicing like before. But again slowly they depleted, but Lightning was getting tired, she couldn't figt much longer, but she couldn't quite either.

[Xarido]

"Crap . . ." Xarido muttered as the heartless kept coming. He quickly got past lightning. "Chill out." Xarido said. "No point in looking cool if you get yourself killed." Xarido began firing off at the heartless, while simultaneously slashing away with a crude blade made of ice. "That's it, I'm tired of this." Xarido said. He mustered up all the ability he could, and turned the remaining heartless into ice sculptures where they stood. The heartless turned into dust within their frigid cages moments later, and the ice shattered. This took a remarkable bit out of Xarido to use that much ice at once.

"D-dammit." Xarido slumped down against a tree, just glad that that fight was over. "Name's Xarido, so who are you?" Xarido once again cast his gaze over lightning. She seemed older than him by 5 or 6 years. Xarido stood up again. "Is that a gunblade? I've seen one before, though it looked much different from that once." Xarido said, only able to identify the weapon by the fact that it was a both a sword and a gun, but it looked much different from previous models he had scene, most were both a gun and a sword at the same time, but this one seemed to transform.

[Lightning]

Whoever this guy was, he was strong. Yes she was fast, but he, he could destroy so many in one attack. There before her were ice sculpturs of the heartless. Standing up straight, she should no emotion. "Name's Xarido, so who are you?" She gave a cold glimpse at him, as he leaned on the tree catching his breathe almost, 'So he can destroy so many but it only weakens him.' She thought. "Is that a gunblade? I've seen one before, though it looked much different from that once." He seemed to admire her gunblade. She just looked at it, the flat side up, the gleam from the flowers making it look like some powerful weapon. She just put it back in it's pouch. "The name's Lightning." She said still looking straight ahead, looking to see if any more heartless were on there way. "Where did you come from?" She asked her hand on her hip, looking at the boy. He was younger than she was, but she couldn't believe how much stronger he was to her. But she clearly could with stand more, and in due time she would be able to pull of major attacks like that, one day.

[Xarido]

Xarido smirked. "Lightning . . . you looked like a flashy fighter, but this confirms it." Xarido quipped, standing up. His countenance soon returned to a grim scowl or sorts. "Great question. Truth is, I don't remember where I'm from. I know spent some of my childhood in wonderland, but I don't know where I was from before that." Xarido said, stretching a little. "I don't remember any of my family except for my twin sister, and I don't know where the hell she ended up . . . I wonder what she's like . . ." Xarido's voice gained a somewhat wistful tone when he mentioned his curiosity about his sister, but soon returned to normal. "So where are you from then?" Xarido asked, pushing his hands into his pockets. Xarido looked over Lightning again, but he didn't make it obvious that he was checking her out, mostly small and covert scans. Xarido sighed a little. "So, what are you doing around here?" Xarido asked. "I work for an arms maker, I get the supplies, the more unique supplies, that she needs to make weapons. Mostly it just pays for a place to sleep at night." Xarido wasn't really complaining though, working for Hild came with a "pleasant" view. Plus, he at least had somewhere to stay.

[Lightning]

He told his story that probably some poeple would take sympathy for, bur she really couldn't care less, she just wanted to know if he could be of use. Clearly from his history, he got around to places she didn't hear of like wonderland. "So, what are you doing around here?" He said before ontinuing his story, but it was more interesting, ' He is of use.' "I'm from Bodhum." She said, not really wanting to go into her past. "I am new here." She finished, hoping he would drop the subject and not ask any questions. But now she ws unsure of what to ask. He was useful and his magic proved that, but how to get the subject started. Lightning was not the greatest at talking to people, socializing was not her thing. So instead she looked at the flowers once more, thinking in her head, while staring at the mysterious glow. "Atleast the heartless stopped...." She mumbled in a whisper.

[Cpl Lance]

Lance walked through this field of flowers for what seemed like days trying to contact any ODST's. "To anyone who followed my course, this is ODST Lance Corporal. I'm sending this message to all ODSTs out there. these are my coordinates. Follow them to me and we'll rendezvous and try to get back to headquarters." Lance said. Not soon after he sent that message he heard gunshots coming from the other side of the field.Lance quickly rushed to that area thinking it might be some of his allies. But before he could get there the heartless ambushed him.

"what the hell?!" Lance said as he quickly shot off rounds at the heartless. Each one disappeared with each hit but more showed up in their places. Lance ran shooting any heartless that got in his way. He was almost to his destination until one with a shield popped in front of him and knocked him to the ground. Thinking quickly, Lance took out his rifle and shot at its helmet to knock it back. As it stumbled back Lance got to his feet and tried to shoot it again. But it quickly recovered and charged at him. Lance dodged and took the shot but the bullet ricocheted off its armor. Knowing he couldn't take this thing head on he fell back and kept running

[Xarido]

Xarido paced around the clearing, mostly just taking a break before he had to head back to the hollow bastion. Hild wouldn't be too happy with his procrastination probably, but he wasn't to happy with the way she treated him. It wasn't abusive per se, but Hild and Xarido tended not to get along.

Xarido walked over to Lightning with a slow, leisurely gait. "You don't get out much, do you?" Xarido asked, referring to how social Lightning seemed to be. "You're obviously a fountain of conversation after all . . . Bodhum, never heard of it." Xarido didn't even know what world he was originally from though, so for all he knew, that's where he could be from. Xarido followed Lightning's gaze down to the flowers. He was disinterested, simply because he tended not to recognize beauty after what he had been through in his life.

Xarido shifted uncomfortably. He wasn't the paradigm of social interactions himself, but Lightning's lack of interaction was just plain unnerving. There was no other word for it that he could think of. "New here then? Tch, must suck being the new kids on the block." Xarido said.

[Lightning]

"You don't get out much, do you? You're obviously a fountain of conversation after all . . . Bodhum, never heard of it." It seemed this boy tried getting something out of her, but she just wasn't interested. "New here then? Tch, must suck being the new kids on the block." He said, and he was sort of wrong. " I will only stay until I get what is needed." She said firmly "But..." She started thinking, eventually she would need to talk if she wanted help from him. "Yes I am new." She said looknig at the boy, which she should start calling Xarido. "But it would be nice to know where I am going, but I only know Coccon and no other world." This was true, after being wisked away to a new world, she knew there were other worlds out there and they could help with her focus and freeing Serah. She did not know how though. And since of the heartless she was now in almost two stories, saving Serah and killing heartless. If there were worlds out there, which Lightning thought there were, than they would probably have heartless as well.

Her attention was quckly diverted, gun shots were heard, and that ment heartless. "Come on, we need to help." She said to Xarido before running in the direction of the gun shot, it wasn't far from them, and she was glad someone else was there. He was in armour, but not Gaurdian Corps. Taking her sword out one again, the battle continued.

[Cpl Lance]

Lance tried to head for high ground so he could get enough distance to use his sniper rifle effectively. He got far away enough to use it and started firing off rounds at the heartless. But something had shown up on his visor that caught his eye, It was a green arrow that showed an ally was coming behind him. He looked and saw a woman coming up from the rear. She didn't look like she was ODST, she didn't even look like she was Marine corps. But if she was an ally Lance wasn't going to get picky. "If you are all the marines left, I could use some help. You'd better be good with that blade lady!" Lance yelled as he turned back to firing on the heartless. It seemed like the numbers began to diminish, but there were still quite a lot. But Lance had a lot of ammo, so he could keep this up all day.

[Xarido]

"Never heard of cocoon either." Xarido said before following after Lightning towards the sound of the gunfire. He formed a spear of ice in his left hand and drew his gun with his right. Once he saw the source of the gunfire and the large crowd of heartless, he immediately threw the spear, running several through. "Damn, they have a lot of the little f*ckers around here, don't they?" Xarido asked, starting to shoot at the heartless. He was actually rather effectively dealing with the crowd by actually aiming before he fired.

Xarido noticed that the guy that they had joined up with was wearing odd armor. "What are you supposed to be anyways?" the boy asked. "And for the record we're not marines." Xarido summoned yet another crude blade of ice and starting dispatching heartless that way on top of the gun fire. "Damn, Hild'll be pissed if I don't get back soon . . ." Xarido said before yelling. "Fight faster, I don't have all day here!" It had taken a lot out of him to do the mass freezing that he had before, he definitely wouldn't be able to do it again this soon.

[Lightning]

Words where said, but she ignored them. What was the point of talking when it is meerily a distraction? That's what Lightning thought. She didn't say anything, but only concentrated on her attacks, and what the heartless were doing. Of course she paid attention to the other two warriors that were now tied into this battle. Battle? More like war. It was if it would last forever, heartless after heartless attacking every world known to man, and they won't stop. But Lightning knew there were people there, like the two fighting would help stop the war. She was one of them, and therefore she couldn't stop. No matter what, she need to keep fightning, that may be her focus. "My... focus?" She whispered to herself, remebering she too, could be an enemy to humans. Gripping her heart, that haunted symbol was now attached to her, like a tattoo that could never go away.

Her mind back in battle, that was the only thing she could do, fight. Sighing, she again tied combos, and magic together. Finally a break was made, a time for rest, the calm before the storm. "Good job." She said to the others, even though it was more of a mumble. Her body was aching in pain, more of a fire, pwerful but burning. Putting the sword in the hilt, she leaned on a tree, and looked around the battle field. The flowers that glowed, were crushed and gave little light. The trees wer edark silohoutes (?) outlined by the softest glow.

[Cpl Lance]

The last of the heartless faded away as Lance put away his rifle. After what he saw he knew those two couldn't be ODST, no trooper he knew could shoot ice out of their hands. He doubted the covenant could even do that. "What were those things super?" he asked as he regrouped with the other two. "scanning..." a voice from his helmet said, "My sensors indicate that they are not covenant soldiers" the voice said. "I know that super, I need to know what they are." "I have no information on that species at this time, I will need a DNA sample for further analysis."Lance couldn't wait for another one of those things to show up. He needed to know what he was dealing with as soon as possible. "Maybe they know" he thought to himself, "thanks for the help back there, judging by your uniforms I suppose you're not ODST. You already said you weren't with the marine corps,"

[Isaac Clarke]

Isaac approached the dark world hesitantly it seemed less friendly but something had cut his attention on the ground a radio frequency, Something about ODST's , coordinates were stated too, Isaac stepped out of his ship and approached the coordinates. This could be something important because whoever had sent that message was in possesion of technology similar to isaac's but something in the air caught his attention it seemed to be heartless they were converging around Isaac fast but he already had his plasma cutter at hand and shot it it instantly vaporized there were no more after that as if this one had been a straggler of some other large band.

Isaac approached the coordinates even faster sort of rushing. He reached a clearing with the person he assumed to be the original messenger he was the only one clad in any sort of armor and looked similar to isaac he had a visor and seemed to be sniping with a gun which was a first in the strange places he had been. He let the helmet retract and showed his face and silently approached the three people he saw each one more different than the last. They seemed to have fought a couple of heartless as Isaac's visor had told him. "Are you the one who sent the coordinates?"