Sci-Fi Set

(One other person only.)

"Okay, I feel weird. And why is everything bigger?" Kara asked as she walked out of the Save Point. She knew she was outside, standing in front of an automatic door but, she wasn't the size of a person. The engineer looked down and saw that her hands looked more plastic than flesh. "What in the?!" She walked inside, searching for something to let her check her reflection. Finding a small, plastic mirror used for little girls in playing dress up, having been left on the floor, Kara looked at her reflection.

"I'm a toy? Is this the Toy Story world?!!" She yelled out, surprised. The engineer knew that there were worlds that could change a person's appearance. But she hadn't expected that she'd be changed into a toy of all things. "Wait, does that make me a doll or an action figure?" She wondered and tested it out. Kara activated her helmet and it put on, the same way it would on a toy. She then retracted it the same way. "Yeah... Definitely an action figure. I never was one for Barbie Dolls."

With a sigh, the engineer looked at her surroundings and saw that it was a toy store. "When was the last time I saw an actual toy store this size? Back home, most of them would've closed down due to other brands taking over"

(This thread takes place after "Interval 1: Awakening" in Mysterious Tower.)

Another toy was nearby when Kara Newton had arrived, but had not made himself immediately visible. He looked as though he wore dark armor covered in painted on green runic sigils, with a mask akin to a rabbit in a similar style on his face. Otherwise, his white hair was clearly visible, albeit seemingly just as plastic as the rest.

Said toy had been there for some time, perhaps a few minutes, and had become accustomed to where he was and what he was, though not without his own amount of shock. Time at that tower and the women he had spoken with had shown him he needed to keep moving, and this strange world was as good as any other, considering it would be possible for him to maybe blend in with others.

Naito's light blue eyes widened behind his mask as the newcomer arrived, more for her voice than anything else. As she looked around, speaking to herself, he approached, nervously speaking up to show who he was behind the mask. "... Hello."

Kara turned around as she heard a familiar voice, one saying hello to her. "Naito?" Turning around, she saw another toy, looking like someone wearing an intimidating, sci-fi like armor, with a rabbit mask on top. The engineer had already kept her helmet retracted, showing her face and looking at Naito, tilting her head. "An action figure as well? And why a rabbit? Nevermind, I'm just glad that you're okay. Even though you got better since Agrabah, I was still a bit worried."

She walked towards him, stopping just a few feet. "We're in one of those huge toy stores and we've both been turned into toys. I'm just recapping here. You can take off the mask though, it's just me. Unless... Can you take off that mask?" Kara asked. The whole being turned into toy thing and how it works was starting to confuse her a bit.

Naito let her come closer, not really making much in the way of moves one way or the other to approach on his own. Instead, when she asked, he reached behind his head. There was a strap there, rather tough, that could be unlatched to remove the mask if need be. At her request, he unlatched it, and pulled forward on the plastic piece itself, and hooking it to a bit on his backside. The Moon Tribesman blinked a few times as his face showed, its near-perpetual frown still on. It was not about her, but just the way he was, something she may have recognized from being on his ship.

He did answer her earlier question in his commonly brief fashion. "From... home." The idea of home seemed a bit tense for him. As for how he knew that, he didn't say in a full sentence, instead motioning to the painted sigils. "The markings." At that, he looked over at hers, seeing the strange symbols on it. "Yours?" He knew it was probably a good idea for him to look into what those symbols meant, especially if he were to identify any way they may be a danger or aid.

"Home?" Kara repeated in a question. She noticed that Naito seemed to tense up at the mention of home. The engineer was about to ask of his home when he made note of some marking on her. Blinking, she looked at herself and froze. On her own plastic body were very familiar markings, ones she would never forget. "M-m-marker symbols?!" Kara thought, focused on the symbols.

Her thoughts soon returned to what happened before on Naito's ship. The hallucinations, the Necromorphs, the voices that assaulted her. The whole episode was shocking to her, and that was without counting how Naito reacted. The engineer hadn't heard what he said when she surprised him but he sounded upset. Kara quickly shook her head out of it before she could hear those words.

Make us whole...

"Those words..." Kara thought then spoke out. "You know what, they're not that important. How about we look around? We may be the size of toys but maybe the appearance could help inspire something for our respective works. Who knows? But first we need to find a way to the upper floors." She crossed her arms and looked around. Her gaze fell on the giant machine that popped out toys in capsules. "Let's try climbing through there. We lift up the slot then walk up those..." Looking up, she could see the rails where the capsules rolled. "Rails."

Naito knew that it was probably important, given the green-skinned engineer's apparent distress, but did not press the issue. He knew better than to bother with that, at least until it concerned him specifically. If he had a way to keep attention off of him, he could use it.

When she mentioned the machine, he looked at it, realizing... something wasn’t right. The Moon Tribesman walked toward it, evidently made to release capsules of some sort. In his mind, he adjusted for size according to people, looking to the automatic doors, then to the machine, then back again. He looked at the slot for removing items. Then back to the doors. Then to the shelves. Then down at his own body. Then to Kara.

The slot for removing capsules was flush with the ground, rather than even slightly raised. Who was this structure even for? Did they intend for the existence of mobile toys to create an entryway?

The psychic young man shook his head, realizing that rationalizing the existence of those oddities was an exercise in futility. Instead, he approached, and looked at the rails, then down at his own feet, lifting one foot to check the sole. It wasn’t perfect, but it did seem that if he pushed consistently against the rail, he could force himself up the entire thing rather easily with minimal telekinetic pressure. He wasn’t so sure of how Kara could do so, however. She was energetic, but perhaps not particularly athletic, and her magic did not seem suited for traversal in this way.

As his own way of asking in his taciturn process, he motioned to the rail beyond the doorway, and looked to the young woman. "How?"

Kara blinked and looked up at the rail. She looked confused at what Naito meant at how then quickly realized what he meant. "He's right. My boots aren't made for grinding rails, much less upwards." The engineer frowned, crossing her arms as she thought for a moment. "Well... Looks like I'll have to do a live test after all. I was hoping to test this out later." She followed Naito towards the rail, not giving an explanation to what she meant.

It was after they got there that she spoke again. "I have thrusters in my suit. They're usually for when in places with no gravity, but I modified them a bit." The engineer explained, checking to see where the rail went. She shook her head, seeing it went to the top floor and moved to another one, this one leading to the second floor. With a nod, Kara motioned Naito to follow. Once he was close by, she knelt down before jumping and activating the thrusters, using them to dash up the rail. This method got her there faster than grinding upwards, ore more realistically, climbing up the rails. But the engineer had to use the thrusters three times before finally reaching the second floor.

Once there, she knelt down and checked the thrusters. "They overheated more than I thought. And I need to balance the fuel consumption better. Still, not a bad first try for them." Getting up, Kara looked back, waiting for Naito to catch up to her before deciding where to go next.

Naito followed after her, jumping up on the red rail. The blue one went up higher, to the floor above the one they were going to, but he did not know where any of this went in any case. The Moon Tribesman focused on the railing, and used his own Yin-based powers, his stoicism reinforced as he pressed telekinetically against the railing, "pushing" and "pulling" his way up the rail at a similar pace to Kara. He saw the boot thrusters relatively quickly overheat, and decided it could be something he could try working on, though she did seem to be more directly tied into that type of gear as opposed to his magitechnological ways and programming work.

Once they both landed on that upper floor, a midway to the top, he looked up, then down, and around at what was nearby. He could see a store for action figures, and another area that appeared to be a place for people of nor-... larger size to get soft drinks and rest.

He was unsure of where they should go, having no preferences himself, and so looked to her. While he was, as usual, somewhat on edge, he seemed a little less so with her around.

(Up to you where they go, and if something attacks before they get there.)

Kara watched as Naito landed on the floor from the railing. "Now that we're here, I think we should go to the store. At this size, we could see those figures more clearly. And since a lot of them are based on either science fiction or actual fantasy, it could give us some inspiration for blueprints. If not, well, we can just look around. And if there are Heartless, and I'm definitely sure there are here which we haven't ran into yet, it could be good practice for self-defense. I hope they don't bother us though."

She moved ahead and stopped as she noticed a giant, red robot with an arm cannon on the right and a three fingered claw on the left arm on top of a stand. "Is that a toy robot? It's bigger than us, like an actual piloting mech should be. I've never been into mechs but that one looks interesting." As the engineer faced Naito, she didn't see a Heartless suddenly appear, which looked like a sci-fi toy solider, with ray gun and goggles climb into the robot now facing her back, and it started to move. But suddenly stopped, one of the toys' joints getting stuck, prompting Kara to face back in confusion. "What's wrong, Nai? I don't see anything."

As she faced him, the robot moved again, the stuck join brute forced into moving but stopped, due to the broken piece causing it to lock up as the engineer turned around to face it. It was just that Toy Trooper's luck that it rode in a broken Gigas toy. "Still, I'm getting a weird feeling here. Like something's watching us, you know? It could definitely be Heartless."

The Moon Tribesman nodded in agreement with her idea of using what they could find around the store for ideas on blueprints. Of course, to him these things were neither fantasy (implying they would not exist in a "real world") nor fiction (implying they did not exist at all), though the latter was more of a case of not existing yet. Still, he didn't see any real point in arguing that, as she seemed to be new to the idea of magic and technology merging, even as she was curious about his many schematics.

Naito noticed the robot, cocking his head to the side in confusion and curiosity. He did listen to her, but the size of that... it was similar to some kind of merger between a war machine and a suit of armor, being tall enough that, even slightly hunched over as it was, they only just reached its knees. He had only been partially listening to the latter half of what the woman had been telling him, focused on the being as he was. He did snap to attention again as he heard his name, looking in her direction once more, and holding up one finger as if to ask her to wait.

Exceedingly tense, the white-haired man could barely feel as his magic shifted, almost on its own, to its Yang state, with him drawing his kusarigama at the same time on instinct, reflexively twisting it in his hand until it was fully unsheathed from its compressed state.

There was that mechanical suit, still twitching a bit, but not a significant amount for any who did not openly look for anything wrong. However, Naito could see it, including something in the cockpit, behind the glass...

Without asking for permission, the Moon Tribesman channeled a soft white light into the blade, then threw the weapon, keeping a hold of it by snatching its chain mid-flight. The curved blade lodged itself into the robot's right hip, and ice began to form around where the blade hit, cold working its way through the nuts and bolts of the being. Naito yanked, hoping to tear off its leg due to the shoddy construction, thereby also stopping the ice's progression the instant it was removed from the joint. Unfortunately, all he ended up doing was causing it to stumble slightly, but that was enough when combined with the stiffening joint.

After all, the fact that the robot worked to right itself mid-stumble was more than enough, especially as he heard the "sucking" sound of Heartless emerging near them, hidden behind one of the shelves for the time being. Even so, the man had no time to speak, instead grabbing his weapon in one hand as he fired a beam of silver energy from his free hand, aiming straight for the cockpit of that mechanical being. Unfortunately, this motion, combined with his surprise, left him wide open for the charge in his direction. Yes, the mechanical suit was somewhat damaged, but it was still very strong, as he realized when a booster fired from behind it allowed it to close the distance and slam into him, shoulder first, sending him flying back to the ground, near to but not quite over the edge of the landing.

Naito grunted, his aggression mounting alongside the pain in his chest, and got back to his feet, prepared to fight the best he could against this adversary. It may not have been sapient, but perhaps the driver, who he had barely caught a glimpse of in the charge, could be manipulated.

If only he could find a way to do so...

(There are also four Toy Soldiers around a corner. You can have them appear if you want. Depends on if you want Kara to help with the Gigas: Power Class or deal with them instead.)

Kara kept her mouth shut as Naito shushed her then went to attack the robot toy. She was wondering why he'd attack the robot when it suddenly righted itself up, cluing her in on why he had reacted like that earlier. So the engineer couldn't react fast enough when it shoulder charged at the snowy haired, blue eyed man, almost sending him to the edge of the floor. "Nai!"

Looking back at the Gigas, she watched it raise its arm cannon and reacted, casting a spell. "Try getting your sights on us!" Kara's spell brought about a windstorm of trash that had been on the floor of the store, colliding with the robot, which while not doing any damage, did block all vision on both her and Naito. That didn't stop the Gigas from firing at its front indiscriminately. The engineer ducked under one of the shots, feeling it graze her plastic back and causing her to wince.

Taking out her Plasma Cutter, she aimed at where Naito had thrown his weapon, the spell not affecting her since she was the caster. Kara pulled the trigger and the Gigas moved to the side, only getting a half cut from the shot.

The Moon Tribesman gritted his teeth, trying to keep focused on his opponent, though he had to put up an arm to keep the wind from stinging his eyes. He couldn’t see it, not with the wind picking up, but he was willing and ready to fight, to move forward.

Ducking low, he sprinted ahead, barely dodging an incoming blast, and focused his energy into his blade. Letting it glow once more as he sliced at not the position he had been aiming toward, but the cockpit itself, or rather where he assumed it was.

Unfortunately, he was a bit off to the side, and while he did score the surface, he did not freeze it to shatter as he had hoped.

Wait, was that-- There!

Whatever he had heard had warned him of something approaching despite it not making a sound. The newcomer, a creature closer to his own height, was nearby, coming around a corner. It looked like it was wearing a dark blue outfit along with opaque goggles, and let off a firearm shot at Kara.

Before it could shoot again, the man was right in front of it, swiftly slamming the icy kusarigama into its chest. It fired again, hitting him in the knee, causing him pain, but he was not paying attention, so focused on his actions that he paid it no mind, needing to excise his frustration. As he slapped the gun hand away, he kneed it in the chest, then forced it to the ground, yanking the blade back out. By the time he had stood up again, his teeth seemed to be more similar to fangs, if only just, though only the other three rounding the same corner noticed, as a heart floated into the sky.

He couldn’t deal with them all through sheer aggression alone. He had to...

Naito took a deep breath, then another, forcing himself to think inward, rather than out... and his magic began to shift, transmitting to his Yin side. He had an idea of how to deal with this.

(Three Toy Troopers left, along with the Gigas. Naito has a means to get rid of the group if he can get a clear view of the cockpit.)

Kara frowned, not having expected reinforcements so quickly. Especially since she got hit on the left arm by a shot from one of the Toy Troopers who then got attacked by Naito. Before she could recover to help him, the Gigas shoulder charged right through her spell, hitting her straight on and sending the engineer flying away straight at the wall. She gasped at the moment of impact and fell down to the floor. Catching her breath, she lifted her left arm and activated the Kinesis module, grabbing a whole, empty soda can and launching it at the Gigas, which was now on the other side of the windstorm.

The can hit the toy robot, not having any effect at all on it. The same couldn't be said of a second Toy Trooper who also got through the storm as the can landed on it, taking it out. Kara got up and was forced to dodge a shot from the Gigas' arm cannon. Raising her Plasma Cutter and setting it on horizontal, she fired a shot as the toy robot tried to make a punch at Naito. It got hit on the left shoulder, receiving significant damage but it was still standing strong. The shot did distract the Gigas, setting its sight on Kara and ignoring the rabbit armored man.

(Two Toy Troopers and the Gigas left.)

Naito was borderline stoic as his powers shifted, moving from the arcane to the psionic. As the robot threw Kara aside, he did not even react, either not noticing or caring only about what he was doing. Once the can fell on the dark creature and destroyed it, he was ready, his firearm rising to his left hand.

Without a word, he raised it, keeping it in the formation of a pistol, and pulled the trigger, having charged it with dark, psychic energy that Kara may not have been able to see. The blast, acting akin to pure, raw dark energy, went straight through the cockpit of the robot, shattering the plastic to a certain degree and sending it stumbling backward, the damage already dealt to it being rather significant. It was about to strike once more...

... but Naito raised his other hand, aiming a single finger at the head he could now see, and concentrated hard.

As the two could watch, as did the other Toy Troopers, the robot began to act erratically, the being in the driver's seat apparently afraid or otherwise incapable of figuring out what to do. If Kara looked, she could likely see its head moving from side to side, looking from them, to the other troopers, to them, and back again... and deciding on the target.

Before the other troopers could act, the red mech was charging at them, slamming a shoulder into one before bashing it repeatedly, over and over again, on the ground, as if intent on killing its comrade. Just before it could finish, the one not under attack fired a bolt from its crossbow, one that struck the already injured shoulder, sending the arm off of its hinge and useless. The strike just convinced it that it was correct, and with one last stomp on the more injured trooper, it charged at the last one, a shoulder bash slamming it directly into the wall before it was slammed again, and again, and again. A bolt went off again, this time at point-blank... and two hearts floated up into the air, joining the other one that had risen, the red mech falling to its knees, damaged and inert.

The threat was gone...

... but Naito was standing stock still, staring at the carnage he had wrought. Only... it did not seem as though he was truly seeing anything at all, merely staring into space, watching the remains of the mech.

(They're all gone. This isn't a usual thing, but it seemed best for effect.)

Kara readied to fire another shot from her Plasma Cutter when she saw the Gigas acting strange. It kept looking between her and Naito, and the other Heartless, as if it couldn't tell who was friend or foe. She wondered if this was something Naito did when the toy robot made it's decision and attacked the other Toy Troopers, getting one of it's arms shot off the hinges by one of the latter. The engineer watched the bloodless massacre as it ended up with a mutual kill between the Heartless, leaving the one armed Gigas pilotless and already damaged.

She watched Naito to see what he was doing, and saw him simply staring at the scene, quietly and unmoving. Kara wanted to go and check on him but felt she had to be careful. She did not want to surprise the snowy haired man again after what happened back on his ship. The engineer cautiously moved closer to him, ending up in front of him and blocking the view of the carnage he started, yet she moved no closer to him. She didn't want to startle him so she waited, standing in front of him. Kara hoped that the distance plus the fact that she was in full view of him would be enough to calm him down, as long as she made no sudden movement.

Naito just... stood there for about a minute, facing the wreckage. It was difficult to say he was actually seeing anything, as instead he seemed to just be... staring.

As the wind stopped, the assorted materials fell to the ground. Hearing them more than seeing the woman before him, he blinked, twitching ever so slightly, and shook his head, looking away. The entire event was... a bit embarrassing to him, really. He wanted to be "strong," but he knew that was a lost cause.

"No," he muttered to something unseen. "Not now." However, he finally seemed to acknowledge Kara in that moment. "... Sorry," he acknowledged, not saying anything more about what had happened as he put his sidearm away. He was not one to lead, but he also was likely not to say anything unless prompted, if she even wanted to broach the subject at all.

(Even if she does, he'll go around it. Up to you if she's that curious or will just move on.)

Kara was starting to get worried, not seeing a reaction from Naito since he did something to the Heartless. As she was about to move, she heard the sound of trash falling down and looked back. "Oh, I forgot to undo the spell..." The engineer commented, seeing the mess she had inadvertedly made. It was a good thing she hadn't seen actual people walking around this place, otherwise there would be an extremely upset janitor grumbling about who the hell made a mess after he cleaned up the whole place.

Kara looked back and finally saw Naito move and look away from her. She noticed that he hadn't reacted to her presence yet but then looked at her again, placing away his firearm and apologizing. "It's fine. You saved us. How about we keep going? With our guard up now that we know these Heartless can affect the toys in this store." The engineer said, deciding not to pry about what happened. She still hadn't forgotten the reaction from Naito when she had entered his study in search of him.

Leading the way, Kara entered the only store on the floor, which seemed to be packed with action figures inside. The giant dinosaur toys especially got her attention and she looked closely at one to see if it had a cockpit like the Gigas earlier. "Nope, no cockpit. No chance of those Heartless piloting these big ass dinos." The engineer declared, looking back at Naito.

The white-haired young man was quiet as he walked, following Kara. He did not comment on anything in particular, just noticing the large, red dinosaur creature. For the time being, it, and another of its type nearby, did not seem dangerous, and by the looks of their engineering, would not be capable of extremely detailed movement either way, so he did not pay them much mind. He just had to concentrate on keeping himself together, on avoiding too much damage that could give away how he was.

Instead, he roamed the aisles of this Action Figure section, silent as he entered the "Bugs and Beasts" section. He saw various items named for different games, but did not care much about them, seeing as they were locked up in various containers.

Naito eventually saw a group of action figures set up on top of a stack of boxes for others of their type. One was for a fire demon known as "Ifrit," another was a man in armor astride a horse going by the name "Odin," and a third was a strange-looking draconic being called "Bahamut." There were also other copies of the same toys boxed up underneath, as well as, from what he could see by looking to the left, ones for a humanoid automaton called "Alexander," a sea serpent known as "Leviathan," and what appeared to be an aged wizard with a large mustache who went by the name "Ramuh."

This was the only overt display he could see as potentially dangerous aside from the draconic toy in back. Looking at the name for the overall product line being sold, this "Dissidia Final Fantasy NT" seemed to be something to watch out for.

Kara watched Naito pass by the Supreme Smashers that were besides the door to the store and shrugged. She simply followed the snowy haired man into the store, also taking a look around at the action figures. Some were interesting, others where cheesy but many of them good, not like the one in smaller stores that tended to sell cheap, cringeworthy ones. The engineer looked up and stopped, surprised at what she was seeing on the back shelves.

She looked back down to see Naito was also looking at it and looked back up. "They have Dissidia merch in this world?!" Kara finally blurted out, looking at the figures. "And they're the summons from the series. Bahamut, Leviathan, Ramuh, Odin and Ifrit. Those five are very iconic for the Final Fantasy series. Does this mean this world has Square Enix? Is there Kingdom Hearts in this world too?! But this world feels real. Am I fiction for some loser typing from behind a screen about an escapist adventure? ...nah, that last one can't be true." She then stopped, realizing her rambling got Naito's attention and felt embarrassed about it.

"Uh, nevermind what I said. Ignore everything that was a question." The engineer turned around to quickly leave to check another part of the store, to hide her own embarrassment further when she froze. The reason being both sides of the floor were now blocked by the Supreme Smasher toys from earlier. They were also moving, exuding some darkness from their heads. "We're surrounded!" She yelled as she got shot on the left shoulder, wincing and looking up to see three Toy Troopers sniping down at her and Naito.

Naito didn't even pretend he could understand the things he was talking about, and honestly, he didn't really care one way or the other. He had some names of things, at least. He wasn't really a people person, though he had to admit that her rambling was... kind of fun in a way. Well... as much as he could find things fun, or charming, or whatever the case was. Of course, he didn't bother mentioning that she was still treating it all like a game, and even though he was well aware of his situation after talking with the wizard in the tower, he didn't particularly like the concept.

In any case, the Moon Tribesman turned as she mentioned what was behind them, and tensed up. He was still in his Yin formation, and though he was not going to use his techniques as before, he still was in no mood to fight again. That said, he was well aware that the universe couldn't care less as to what he wanted on the best of days, and so he drew his ranged weapon once more, and aimed it at one of the Toy Troopers, hitting it in the head. As it fell back and disappeared into a puff of dark smoke and a rising heart, he aimed again, taking a shot at another that hit it in the arm, throwing its crossbow off-target, and staggering it. He reached forward with his free hand, and tendrils invisible to Kara came out from him, dark energy from each one, and wrapped around the third one's leg, yanking it toward him in such a way that it fell backward, hitting its head on the platform, before falling down to a level with the two young adults.

One of the main snipers taken care of, and the other two momentarily stunned, he was unprepared as one of the two dinosaur-like creatures came toward him, dashing forward with a hard claw swipe that caused him to fall back, careening backward as he was hit and falling on his side, wincing as he tried to get up. He could see the beast turning toward Kara, something attached to its back as it began to spew fire from its mouth, along with the other one. Before either of them could hit her, he let out as strong a push as he could manage, causing one of the enormous toys to crash into the other, throwing them both off balance and keeping them both away from her for a split second.

Fire... He needed ice. And that meant turning back toward--

Another crossbow bolt came at him, hitting him in the same shoulder he had just been harmed, causing him to grunt in pain as he aimed one more time up at the Toy Trooper still on the higher surface and fired once more, this time using only a very small amount of power through the weapon to hit it right in the abdomen. Luckily, it was enough, cutting through armor and causing it to dissipate right where it was, leaving only one of its brethren behind.

The young man was angry. He wasn't going to take this, not as the last of them came at him. With his anger, he could not keep calm, could not maintain his connection to Yin. As such, his posture, his entire demeanor changed, the dark, psionic power of his gun fading, replaced by a brighter, mystical light. Instead, he glared at the third and apparently final of the Toy Troopers, his expression seeming borderline feral, teeth sharpening as he growled. The Toy Trooper remaining seemed to pause for a brief moment, but took ai--

The kusarigama blade took it right in the chest, thrown hard and pinning it to the nearest surface, not dead, but not going anywhere either as ice formed around the impact point, keeping it in place.

Turning, the furious Naito raised his firearm, and fired once more, this time not with psionic power, but with his lighter form of magic, taking the closest of the "Supreme Smasher" toys in the side of the jaw as it was turning back to him, the shot causing some freezing damage as it came charging in his direction, the Moon Tribesman only just starting to stand up again, the crossbow bolt still in his already wounded shoulder as he aimed with his opposite hand, which had become increasingly "clawed" in a way, though perhaps not easily noticed from Kara's distance.

She was the only person he could tolerate right now, and he was not going to let them take that away from him.

(As for the count: Two Supreme Smashers left, and one Toy Trooper, who is pinned to a wall or stand by Naito's kusarigama.)

Kara watched as Naito essentially shut down the Toy Troopers that had been sniping at the two. She got worried as one of the Supreme Smashers attacked him and fired her Plasma Cutter at the toy dino, leaving a cut on the left claw. Unfortunately, the action made the engineer a target as both Heartless toys aimed at her and began spewing fire at her. She started moving but felt it would be too late to dodge, when one of the dinos suddenly crashed into the other, stopping the flames.

Seeing Naito get shot and take out a second Toy Trooper made her aim her Plasma Cutter up and fire at the one that was left, easily taking it out thanks to the rabbit armored guy. Kara then turned to watch Naito fire some ice at one of the Supreme Smasher and fired her own weapon at the one in her sight, letting the snowy haired man attack the other one.

(Two Supreme Smashers left.)

Suffice to say, Naito was not in a good mood.

He had been shot, beaten around, and fallen into a stupor he knew all too well in front of someone he was trying to trust. His Yang powers were amping up, making him a bit more aggressive than he technically had to be, and he still had to contend with this beast that came dashing in his direction. If Kara could deal with the other one, he could with this one.

His grip tightened on the gun as he yanked the chain on his kusarigama with the hand that had been holding his wound, causing it to come back to his hand. Immediately after, he fired once more, this time holding down the trigger. Instead of a single blast, out came a concentrated beam of light, slowing the thing down as ice particles began to form around its torso. Closer and closer it came... and it managed to get out a swipe at him, moving its whole body in its apparently typically robotic way of moving, not unlike a puppet on invisible strings.

Unlike in his Yin formation, Naito was a bit too aggressive to really deal with evasive action at that moment, and so he snapped the kama blade out, just barely parrying the blow and knocking it aside. If this thing was controlled by something on its back as he seemed to have seen with the other... perhaps it could be influenced.

There was a commotion from his back, in the form of a swirl of dark smoke toward his left side, and a flash of bright light toward his right, and his wings stretched themselves out. They were a bit "mechanical" as with most of the other things here, but their nature, one rotted and the other gleaming, remained true. As he did so, the dinosaur paused, as if taken aback. Of course, given its mouth barely moved, if at all, he could not tell if it had any expression, but he assumed whatever was controlling it was taken aback some what with a sudden onslaught of fear from his invisible "aura," giving a few crucial seconds. Taking that up, he put away his handgun, instead lunging at it, wings spread out to glide, and snarled as he dug the kusarigama's blade deep into its plastic "flesh," yanking out and stabbing again and again, working his way up. By the time he was at its neck, the claws were beginning to move again, but he could see that darkness on its back once more. Charging more of his yang-based magic into the weapon, he stabbed down on it, hard, before being thrown back, just barely holding on to the chain, by a mighty roar from the toy being used as a puppet or host.

However, that seemed to be enough, as he yanked down with the chain, the last roar having apparently been all it had in it anymore, the toy itself either non-sentient or unwilling to harm him. Regardless of the threat it meant to him, he did not care, allowing it to topple forward, just barely missing his feet. Leaning down, he yanked out the blade and stabbed once more into its neck, before it disappeared into smoke like all of the rest, albeit without releasing a heart in the same way as the others.

His wings were still out, and he was hurt, but he had won, as far as he could tell, going back to holding his injury quietly.

(You can wrap up the fight. Last Supreme Smasher.)

Kara turned to face the other Supreme Smasher, now that there were two of them and both were weakened. She recognized the Heartless she was facing as the one she had shot earlier, seeing the cut on the left arm. The engineer saw the giant, dinosaur toy start charging at her, but this time she was ready. She thrust her left arm forward, launching a blue ball of energy that hit the Heartless and the toy suddenly slowed down extremely.

Kara took the chance to move to the left, getting out of the way of the Supreme Smasher, setting the Plasma Cutter into horizontal position then fired at the left leg three times. The time dilation from the Stasis module she had hit the dinosaur toy with ran it's course and resumed its original speed. But the Heartless tripped this time, the left leg having been severed due to the earlier shots. The engineer repositioned her Plasma Cutter into vertical position and fired at the injured left claw, severing it after two more shots. She reloaded her weapon as the Supreme Smasher made its right arm move counterclockwise to make itself move to face her.

By the time the Heartless did, it received to the face a full clip from Kara's Scalpel and it was split open. The toy dinosaur collapsed and disappeared into smoke as the engineer reloaded her Plasma Cutter again and placed it away. She began walking towards Naito to see if he was fine, but unlike the fights before, she was shaking this time. Now that the coast was clear, Kara's mind was catching up on what happened and her body began sweating with fear. She had almost been close to get burned by both Heartless and was only saved because of Naito.

The engineer tried taking another step but ended up collapsing to one knee due to her shaking. The sudden contact with the floor was enough to snap her back a bit into reality, but she couldn't stop thinking about the fire.

Naito noticed the engineer fall to her knees. He was admittedly not the best at figuring out how to deal with people, and did not like being around them as a matter of personal preference unless it was good to stay away from other ones. However, he also knew a panic when he saw one. From the brief impression he had had of her life from when their hands had touched, as well as her chlorophyll-rich skin, he had an idea that the fire-breathing beasts were likely the reason. Was she broken like him, as he had thought when she had burst into his study? Or was she broken in other ways, ones he couldn't ever help?

Doing his best to keep from overreacting, he approached her slowly. What he was to do was not purely to help her, but also for his own sake, a way of absolving himself of guilt in some small way for something else. Not that she would know, of course.

Taking her forearm, not her wrist or palm, and using his organic hand rather than his metallic one, he pulled her to her feet. Before she could argue, he just spoke quietly. "Dangerous." It was dangerous to be here. It was dangerous to panic in the middle of such a place.

Without another word, he led her onward, looking around the area some more.

=====

Some time later, the two were on the third, apparently top floor. There was an area for small children's toys called "Babies and Toys," another simply called "Video Games," and another that seemed to be an area to play called the "Kid Korral."

Naito did not have any preferences of where to go. However, he knew his companion may have some ideas, at least to get her mind off of things.

Kara managed to reach the third floor with Naito's help. The movement and focus on moving up helped take her mind off of the flames from the earlier battle. Looking around the third floor, the engineer crossed her arms as she considered their choices. She glanced at Babies and Toys then crossed it off her list immediately. Her gaze went to the Kid Korral and narrowed her eyes at it. After a moment or two of thinking it, she shook her head. Kara was not eager to get buried in a ball pit as a toy.

"We're going to Video Games." She finally replied to Naito and walked ahead. The engineer had no idea what would be in there besides, well, video games, or how useful it'll be for both Naito and her. But it was the only part of the toy store she felt comfortable going on this floor, especially after what happened on the second floor with the Supreme Smashers and the Gigas. Kara believed that in there, only Heartless around their size would attack them.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she found herself already standing in front of the Video Games area and looked at the cardboard stand inside of the store, showing a pretty boy with a left red eye and right blue eye, sitting down in a pose, holding a sword and a crossbow. Immediately, the engineer blurted out the thought that suddenly came to mind. "Tetsuya Nomura exists in this world?!!"