It's a show, so don't cry your eyes away~ [OPEN]

[tidesnpc]

Characters: The crew of the Winding Way
Content: A surprise attack by disguised puppets sets the ship into turmoil!
Time: Mid to late afternoon
Setting: Throughout the Winding Way
Warnings: Violence, please let us know if the severity goes above PG-13
Notes: The groups and their locations are here, go ahead and post with your group name in the

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[natureswhispers]

Like the others Aeris had been caught quite unawares while in her room, and she hadn't been quite so fortunate enough to escape unscathed. A cut to the shoulder from a knife--nothing too deep, and she had been able to heal it so she appeared fine except for a small blood stain on her dress. If it hadn't been for the warning signal the plants in her room had given her, she might have not faired so well.

Still, being attacked by someone she had considered a friend, and even more so, having to attack them back with her staff had hurt infinitely more than that cut. She hurried out, wondering what on earth was going on as she heard gunshots from other places.

Aeris had been running to try and get to the deck when she saw someone dressed as a maid sneak into the navigation room. Intuition screamed out at her, and she changed direction to hurry in there.

She had to lean against the threshold of the door for a moment to catch her breath, but it stilled when she saw the sleeping form of Sora, and someone looming before him, knife ready.

Aeris didn't waste a second and rushed the person as they raised their knife, swinging her staff as hard as she could and catching them on the side of the head.

"Sora!" she yelled out loudly, hoping to wake him up. His attacker stumbled and crumbled to her feet, but they weren't down just yet.

[d_luffymonkey]

"Wha---of course not!" the powder monkey shouted indignantly, waving his arms in protest. Why would he even want to do that anyway? Ness was part of the crew after all as well! He was just as important as everyone else on the ship was and he had always believed that the crew would never go against one another... until Terrence. Until this. The beliefs he had held so strongly were being disapproved again and again. Weren't the crew supposed to be like your family? So why would they...?

His thoughts were paused from there though as the puppets started to gather around them. Luffy chewed on his bottom lip nervously as he glanced at the various weapons that the puppets held - from knifes to guns to other assorted objects. He couldn't hurt them... not when they all were people from his crew. Something or someone was just controlling them, that was it!

With that thought in mind, the shounen retard readied his arm again as he called out to the doctor. "Ness! We need to get out of here! I gotta find Sora before they--" He was interrupted when one of the puppets moved to swipe a knife towards Luffy, and the teenager backed out of the way just in time, not retaliating just yet. "--grab onto me! We can get there quicker this way."

[eighthmelody]

"You want me to wh-" Ness didn't have time to finish that sentence before a crew mate swung a plank of wood at him. Ness managed to dodge it. They were surrounded; there was no time for doubt.

A bit afraid, he grabbed onto Luffy, wondering what the other boy had in mind.

[destined_skies]

Fortunately, the solid smack of Aeris's staff connecting with the maid's skull was loud enough to rouse Sora from his sleep. Raising his head, he blinked blearily at the wall, murmuring a sleepy 'huh?'. The sound of his name, though, made him sit up in alarm, and the navigator spun around in his chair so fast that he actually fell out it and landed on his butt on the floor.

"Wha?!"

Sora half-way expected to see Roxas standing in the doorway, frowning over having caught him asleep on the job. But instead, he blinked at the fallen crew-member with an openly confused expression. . . until he saw the knife laying beneath her hand.

Scrambling to his feet, the brunette bumped against the desk as she attempted to rise again, knocking over a stack of books and charts onto the floor as he got as far away from her as he could.

"What's going on?!"

Skipping Aeris, hope you don't mind Eme. o/

[d_luffymonkey]

While Ness was still debating on his options, Luffy did what he can to defend himself and the medic as the puppets swarmed around them - it was fortunate he was made of rubber, since most attacks just bounced off him. Though it still didn't prevent any sort of stabbing wounds, as the powder monkey winced sightly when the blade of a broken pipe scratched his arm hard.

Luckily, the medic had made up his mind and grabbed onto the powder monkey. Chewing on his bottom lip, Luffy prepared himself as he drew his arm back, eyes squeezed tightly shut. I'm sorry for hurting you all but I need to protect Ness and get to Sora.

"Gomu Gomu no Rocket!" the shounen hero yelled as he lashed out his right arm, parting the crowd before them with a speeding punch the force of rockets before the hand reached and grabbed onto its destination: the mast of the ship.

Luffy looked at Ness, an expression of determination on his face. "Hold on tight, Ness!" He exclaimed before he pushed himself forward with his feet and retracted his arm, flying past the crowd as he did so.

s'ok, sorry Ive been so slow orz

[natureswhispers]

A huge sense of relief washed over Aeris as she watched Sora wake up. A part of her still hadn't been entirely sure she had made it on time--that perhaps he wasn't sleeping and that something much worse had happened. The Cetra wasted no time in hurrying over to the fallen boy to stand between him and their other crew mate.

"I don't know, Sora." Her tone was calm, and did not betray any of the uncertainty and nervousness that she was feeling, "I think something may be controlling some of our crew mates." She hoped that was the case, she wouldn't like to think this was a betrayal of sorts.

Aeris didn't like to fight, and she wasn't the best at it; however, she wasn't horrible either. She'd grown up in Kropmork and it had taught her a couple things, but most importantly it taught her that in this world, being a complete and utter pacifist tended to cause more harm than good. So when the maid got up and charge at them once more, stumbling, no doubt due to the blow to the head, Aeris slid her hands down, crouched and a bit and shoved the pole end of her staff right to her stomach.

[eighthmelody]

Ness held on tight as he and Luffy flew past the crowd of angry crew. He almost fell off at one point during their flight, but he managed to hold on and not fall off. It was a long way down and Ness had no intention of falling.

"Where are we going?" He asked. "We can't hide, they'd find us. And I don't really want to hurt them."

Hurting people. Ness hadn't worried about doing something like that since Candy Mountain and the mere thought of Candy Mountain made him feel sick. He had hesitated back during Lunasa too...with the monsters. But he quickly pushed the thought out of his head.

Now wasn't the time for feeling sorry for himself.

[destined_skies]

"Controlling. . what should we--?"

But now was not the time to start contemplating motive or how this was happening. Sora simply followed his first, natural reaction and grabbed a heavy compass (for measuring distance, not direction) off the wall, brandishing it like some sort of strange club.

Though actually, Aeris seemed to be doing alright on her own. The navigator was impressed by the way she'd kept their attacker at bay, so far. "Hey, lady! We don't want to hurt you, so cut it out!"

'Winded', the maid stumbled back several paces but seemed to recover with unusual swiftness. Raising the knife above her head, she threw it with enough force to send it hurtling through the air. The weapon twanged into the wall's wooden slat just inches away from Sora's face.

A NEW CHALLENGER APPEARS

[but_inevitable]

This was unexpected.

Ocelot had just been minding his own business not far from Aeris and Sora when the other members of the crew started attacking each other. It was somewhat unnerving, considering how well-adjusted the Winding Way had always seemed to be, but before Ocelot could really react beyond dodging a few attacks, something flew over his head. He looked up incredulously.

"...what the hell? Luffy?"

O SHIT ITS OCCIE PUPPET?!

[d_luffymonkey]

Luffy landed right beside the mast, teeth still gritted in rage as he glanced around the deck. The puppets were all around them - left, right, as well as centre. What Ness had said was true; they couldn't hide - they'd eventually be found - and he certainly couldn't bring himself to hurt them either. The only choice left was to incapacitate them, or at least render them useless for a while so that they could flee to the navigation room.

Fortunately, Luffy just had an idea what to do.

"Get behind me, Ness!" the shounen hero yelled as this time he reared up his right leg, face set in a look of determination and strength as he stretched it around and swung it in a wide arc towards the army of puppets. "Gomu Gomu no Muchi!

The puppets made no noise as the stretched limb came in contact with them, the force of the kick sending them all sprawling onto the ground. Luffy swallowed hard as he retracted back his leg after the attack, looking almost relieved when the puppets began to move again before turning back to Ness. "C'mon, let's get out of here while they're still gettin' up!" That said, he started to run towards the inner deck.

As they headed there though, they passed by Ocelot. Luffy did a double take, clearly surprised as he called out to the Radio ops. "Ocelot! Are you okay there??"

[natureswhispers]

Aeris hoped that perhaps Sora's word would reach her, but when she threw the knife at Sora it went without saying that his words had met deaf ears.

"Sora. Stick behind me. We'l move slowly towards the door. I think I can keep her at bay but we need to find others who aren't being effected before it's too late." It put a knot in her stomach to think that some of the people she had come to care for very much. Atop thise Tifa ranked highest. Aeris knew the other woman would be fine--Tifa would fair so much better than herself in this situation.

What about others though? The younger of the crew like Rhyme? Aeris purse her lips. Best she could hope for was they had found someone else.

[eighthmelody]

Ness did as Luffy said, staying behind the rubber boy and avoiding getting kicked in the head by Luffy's roundhouse kick. All the while, he couldn't help but wonder: why were the crew attacking them? Why were they so eerily silent? And how could they juts get right back up after taking a brutal attack like that?

He ran after Luffy, trying to piece everything together in his head, but failing. It just didn't make any sense to him. The only thing he could figure that it must be some kind of magic. There just wasn't any other explanation.

"Mr. Shalashaska!" Ness called to Ocelot. "Are you hurt?"

[destined_skies]

"Okay."

One thing struck Sora as being completely wrong--that the girl hadn't uttered a single word since this had started. Not even a whimper or grunt, even when the blows she'd received should have hurt pretty badly. Her expression, too, never strayed from the fixed, creepy little smile.

Something's not right here. When I look into her face, it's like looking at. .

As they neared their escape, Sora grabbed his wooden sword from where it was leaning next to the door, and gripped it in his free hand. He wasn't sure how much good it would be against people with real weapons, but it couldn't hurt to take it with them.

Backing out of the doorway slowly, Sora waited until Aeris was clear from the room before he ran around her. The navigator quickly shut the door, dropping the compass to the floor as he fished a key out of his pocket and locked the room with a solid turn and click.

"Whew," he breathed after a second, "that was a close one."

The girl's face appeared in the door's small viewing window.

Startled, Sora jerked back from the doorknob with a stifled noise. What was she doing? Still watching them?

He got his answer when the face disappeared, only to be proceeded by the loud 'bang' of something heavy hitting the door that made the whole thing shudder slightly in it's frame. She was throwing herself against it!

[but_inevitable]

"Yes, I'm fine," said Ocelot, sounding vaguely offended. "I'm pretty good at taking care of myself, you know. And it's Nikolai."

Of course, now wasn't the time to get bogged down in terminology. Ocelot ran alongside Ness and Luffy, occasionally elbowing some of the puppets out of the way.

[d_luffymonkey]

Likewise, Luffy was also trying his best to shove off the puppets in their way - at least most of them had been taken out by his previous attack. The trio hurried towards the inner deck once their time for talking was over, far too caught up in trying to get away from their surprise attacks to really make their usual conversation.

Once inside the inner deck, the shounen hero glanced around, not quite sure where the navigation room was. "Where's the navigation room?" he exclaimed aloud, though more to himself rather than anyone else.

[natureswhispers]

Aeris too let out a sigh of relief when Sora swiftly locked the door. That had gone well. They were both fine and they hadn't had to resort to drastic measures which was the best she could have hoped for.

The moment of calm lasted for only a second, and Aeris could hardly believe it when the other girl began to try and bulldoze down the door. What had happened to her that she was so determined too...too hurt them? She couldn't fanthom there being any other motive behind her actions; wouldn't she have just given up at this point? Not only that but doing what she was doing would probably only cause her more harm than.

If she continued to ram herself against the door like that, she could do some serious damage to herself.

Aeris bite her lip before shaking her head.

"I doubt she'll be able to get through, but it will be better not to stick around and find out." Right now Sora was her top priority, he was free of whatever had befallen the rest of their crewmates, and so they had to forge on.

A sound at the end of the hall caught her attention and she looked down. More people, all with knives in their hands as well. One look at their expression told them all they needed to know.

"Shoot. Let's go!" Aeris said, taking Sora's hand without any other warning and running towards the inner deck where she faintly heard the sound of Luffy's voice...he must be okay too, she realized, and quickened her steps.