Not-with-a-whimper

(OOC: Guys, I really am sorry to say this, but due to college and just the fact that it seems like this story has no clear direction that it's headed in, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to drop out and bid you all a fond farewell. It's been a blast, truly, it has, and thank you all for being such wonderful individuals to go on this journey with. I regret that real life is getting in the way of me seeing this through, but that's just what happens. If anyone would like to take control of any of my characters, they can feel free. If nothing else, then keeping Corey Burton, aka Chernabog, in the story would be great.)

Okay, I swear that I will do my best to come back tomorrow. Or today if you count the fact that it's after 12 here. Anyway, soon. I'll try to get Always back on too. I know that new characters just recently came in, but I feel like we should try to start bringing this thing to a close and that some people might aught to die to lend it significance.

(OOC: Bu-bu-but... James left via a dark portal after summoning the meteors in the first place! I'm terribly confused. Should I just run with this new post or what?)

(OOC: Wow I'm behind. I'll be able to post far more often now that I regularly have internet. Now to catch up.) Corey used his powerful wings to fly backwards through the air a few feet, sweeping past the meteor and Mariah's kick both, leaving the meteor heading for her, and then simply watched as the two meteors flew toward the duo. Troy held Keilani close, trying to make sure she didn't fall away, and whispered into her ear over the sound of the wind rushing around them. "We're going somewhere far away from this demon. Something that I've noticed is that the more material between you and another inhabitor, the harder it is for them to sense you. Because of that, I'm planning on taking you to my parent's safehouse. It's like a resort within a mountain on a tropical island. I just need to make sure you're safe. Not just for me, though. Since Namine is your inhabitor, you could potentially manipulate the memories of everyone ever tied to Sora, and let's face it, who isn't tied to Sora? You may just be able to change James back and help save some of the others. Do you understand? I know it's a lot to ask, but I have faith in you, Keilani." Zalia woke up to Barbossa's voice ringing loud in her head. "Wake up, lass! The mark is near, I can feel it. Aye, if we pull this heist, we'll be set for life." Though she was upset at being woken up so harshly, she had to smile at that last thought. She got dressed and ready, left the hotel, and walked out to the sidewalk.

(OOC: Damion, I think you may have misunderstood me earlier. Corey wasn't trying to kick, he was dodging James' kick.) Corey grabbed the massive dark meteor in mid air, and though it scalded his hands, it was far better than being hit. He then threw the meteor at Joy who was approaching through the air. Corey wasn't worried about his hands. Even his shoulder injury was already beginning to heal. He could not allow James to get the better of him, however, so he built up air within his chest and released it as an inferno from his mouth, attempting to scorch Sephiroth's host.

Corey had been prepared for this. Heck, he'd expected it. Paying the attack little mind, he simply had the ghosts act as undead shields for James' original slashes, then he used his wings to give him a boost high above James just as the host landed on the other side of him to kick. James was definitely an adversary to keep an eye on, that was for sure, but he still wasn't a major threat. At least, that is, not yet.

I believe you're probably right about that, but perhaps the physical keychains aren't always given as they are in Oathkeeper's case? What if, through an understanding and connection with a world or its inhabitants, you gain the ability to transform the keyblade into a form taken from those memories? In that case, the keychains would simply be the emblem signifying that change.

(OOC: The physics of what you just said Joy did don't make sense, as Mariah was coming from the direction opposite Joy, and Corey was blocking your forward kick with a large wing which you would have had to have gotten around before blocking the attack heading for Mariah. Ah well, I'll run with it.) Corey whipped around and met the meteors in midair with blasts of fire from his pitch black hands, though Joy's Buster Sword did manage to cut in on his shoulder. Chernabog released a swift backhanded swipe, generating a massively disproportionate gust of wind with which to attempt to knock Joy back a few feet.

Troy was torn for a moment, but he realized that he wouldn't be able to talk Mariah out of it and he really needed to keep Keilani safe, so he flew out the hole that he had created and kept going, far from the destruction behind them. Corey had honestly expected Joy to be more of a challenge, but upon seeing Mariah enter the fight he remembered that Joy had always fought better when she was on the line. Therefore, to get Joy to fight his hardest, Corey would need to go after her. He used one of his large, demonic wings to block Joy's kick, and attempted to grab the arm Mariah was attempting to punch him with. Chernabog breathed a strong stream of flames at Mariah, and used his one available hand to summon ghosts for James to contend with. Sure they weren't much, but they would buy him some time, and that was all he needed.

Corey grabbed Joy's blade and attempted to use his momentum against him and throw him into James. With this being a free for all, Corey knew that he would have to stay on his toes. Therefore, he relinquished control of all but the wings and legs to Chernabog, ensuring that he could keep all focus on the defensive side of the battle while Chernabog reveled in destruction.

Troy heard the sounds from out front and rushed inside to grab Keilani and make sure she was safe. "Keilani, Mariah, we've got to get out of here. This place isn't safe for either of you. Don't worry, I'll come back to help Joy as soon as I can," he stated before casting Firaga at the roof and blowing a portion of it out. He transformed the X-blade into it's flying form and leaped onto it, going to grab both Keilani and Mariah, whether they wanted to go or not. "Sorry girls, but this is the only way to make sure you're safe." Corey smirked as his arms turned pitch black. He turned his back on Joy and began to walk towards James at a leisurely pace. "You're perceptive. Yes, I plan to face you in combat and kill you if possible. Both of you, actually. You see, it isn't that I dislike you. On the contrary, I'd like to thank you both. You were some of the originals, the group that first were inhabited, and the two of you unwittingly saved me from the bore of ordinary life. That I'd have the opportunity to face you is priceless. However, I do not plan on falling to anyone's blade today." When he was directly between the two of them, enormous black wings ripped out from his shoulder blades and he held his arms out wide, summoning flames to burst from the ground around his feet in a scorching inferno, reaching out to both of his foes.

There was suddenly a knock on the door of Joy's old home, a man with red hair and a cigarette in his mouth standing there casually, his hands in his pockets. There had been a hint of blood on his hands before, but he was able to clean it off rather easily, though the same couldn't be said about the mess Ethan's body had left in the cemetery. That had been a bit messy, he would admit, but now that he understood the full extent of his power he would be sure to keep it under control in the future.

Just so everyone knows, Corey Burton isn't going to be running from any fights. I miss the good ole days in Final Fantasy Incarcerated when James would show up and all of the heroes would freak out. I feel like that hasn't been happening lately, and that the heroes have had a heavy advantage for quite a while. My hope is that Chernabog will change that. Even though he is a villain, he obviously won't discriminate between good guys and bad guys. He'll just kill basically whoever.

(OOC: This isn't a huge deal, FFxChainlessSoulxKH, but Scott and Felix are about four blocks from where Alex fell asleep. I'm sure that if you edited that last post you could fix everything quite easily. If not then the rest of us can just sort of go with Alex being there.) Troy wandered around the property as the rest of them went inside. An empty home where parents were supposed to be? He guessed that he was a bit more used to that than the others were. His parents had almost never been home, always off on work doing something or another. Even still, he didn't feel quite right about walking in on such a personal place, especially since he didn't know Joy that well. Zalia stayed in a nice, fancy hotel for the night with the money she'd taken from that rich guy earlier, and smiled as she went to sleep. She'd been keeping track of a rather unusual figure lately, someone Barbosa had said would be important, and tomorrow she planned on putting her plans into action. Yep, it would be a good day. Corey Burton wasn't your average 20-something year old, even before he became inhabited. The bright red hair and heavy smoking habit set him apart, sure, but it was his mind that really got him places. Brilliant, even as a child, Corey could solve any problem, stumping even the brightest of scholars. He was the life of every party. All of the girls wanted to date him and all of the guys wanted to be him. He despised them all. Weak, pathetic little puppets, mere playthings, easily conforming to his whims as long as he did the right things at the right times and with the right people. Free will? That was just a funny joke. He was like a puppet master, pulling everyone's strings. Over time, though, like a child growing tired of his old play things, Corey began to bore of life and other people in general. That was when the news started broadcasting stories of these select few individuals who had been granted god-like powers and whose actions seemed to defy the natural logic of how people work. The normal human was weak, but they were strong. By breaking the rules of this world and going beyond the norm, they had exceeded Corey's expectations and brought him out of his boredom. Unfortunately, he knew that on the level he was at at the time, he would be unable to compete with these "super-humans" and therefore began studying everything he could about them, their abilities, their origins, and everything that had to do with the onset of their power. He worked diligently, harder than he ever had before, until he'd found it. The key to accessing the second wave of inhabitors. Sure, the inhabitors themselves had some say as to who they decided to inhabit, but he knew exactly what to do to get the one he wanted, and to get that inhabitor to select him as well. A mass murderer was all over the news in his hometown, but was never caught. Corey Burton was a normal human no longer. Now, he was Chernabog. Ethan had left James to continue his training without him. To be honest, Ethan's heart just wasn't in it any more. Now that James was furious enough, it was time to just sit back and watch things unfold, Hades style. So, without much ado, Ethan headed out to the local liquor store and grabbed a few beers before heading to the cemetery. Being the Lord of the Dead and all, the place felt right at home. This time, though, something felt off. Ethan looked over to the side and noticed another man on the hillside cemetery. The darkness of night cloaked a lot of his appearance, but the light of the moon illuminated his face. While Ethan had been drinking with his back turned to the tombstones, sitting in the slight shadow cast by the one at his back, the other man sat directly facing the moon, sitting on the head of the tombstone a few down. Ethan was a little surprised to see the smoking man, as normally he would have been able to detect the entrance of another soul onto the property. He decided to just blame it on the booze. "You're remarkably bad at this, you know," said the smoking man, his black and red apparel now visible to Ethan's adjusted eyes. Despite speaking to Ethan, the figure's eyes never left the form of the moon. "Oh yeah?" Ethan asked, smirking. "And what would it be that I'm so bad at, exactly?" "Caring," came the response, the figure taking his eyes off of the moon and resting them upon Ethan, revealing red eyes surrounded by darkness. "You see, the last group of inhabitors and their hosts had that one very important trait in common. They cared. For one thing or another, it didn't matter. Your apathy makes you a weak host." Suddenly, a great power was unleashed, and Ethan's eyes opened wide in horror. That the man had been a host to an inhabitor this powerful and Ethan hadn't noticed it was insane. As the figure's hands on up to his elbows became clawed and black as the surrounding night, a matching pair of demonic wings stretched out from behind him, blotting out what there was of the faint light from the moon. Ethan scrambled to his feet and summoned his scythe, calling upon more of Hades' power than ever before. "Cerberus!" he called out, and a hellish gate opened up the earth behind him, allowing the great three headed beast to emerge and land before him, facing the figure head on. Cerberus launched balls of flame towards the smoking man, and they all closed in at a rapid pace, meeting in the middle and leaving a massive explosion where the man had been. When the smoke finally subsided, the form of two large black wings could be seen, separating to reveal an unharmed man. Cerbrus leaped forward and it's left head lunged in to bite the demonic figure. His right arm grabbed it with no effort, and his left arm did the same with Cerberus's opposing outer head. The middle head reared back, flames building within it's mouth, and at the position he was in now, the smoking man could no longer protect himself with his wings. Ethan, still recovering from the summoning of Cerberus, smirked with satisfaction. The figure spat out his cigarette and emitted an intense gout of flame, incinerating the dog's flesh before using his hold on the other heads to toss the mutt aside. He summoned a series of ghost to plague the beast before the figure stepped forward towards Ethan. A cloud of ash began to build around Ethan as he prepared his escape, but it was swiftly dispersed by a gust of wind generated by a simple backhanded swipe from the imposing figure. Ethan backed away involuntarily and on reflex, every fiber of his being screaming for him to run, but there was no where to go, and he had no energy left to try. He stopped backing up only when his back hit a monument. "Bravo, you made me have to actually spit out my cigarette for that one," the approaching man taunted hauntingly. "W-what the hell... are you?" Ethan managed to sputter out, fear evident in his voice. "I used to be Corey Burton. Not anymore. Now I am Chernabog. Now I am the Black God."

Still sad, though. Sorry to hear that, Azure, and I hope that everything gets better or, in the case that things aren't wrong and you've just got a lot to deal with, I hope that you're able to get through all of this alright. Okay, so this is going to be the very last character that I make, and I'll be getting rid of a character to make room for him. You'll see. Also, before anyone starts claiming that there's a problem with this inhabitor, please remember that he was in Kingdom Hearts 1. Name: Corey Burton Appearance: Inhabitor: Chernabog Weapons: His arms can transform into his inhabitor's claws and he can grow wings. He can breathe fire and create pillars of flame around himself. He can fling away foes with a burst of wind generated from a backhand swipe. He can throw homing blasts of fire from his hands and summon ghosts. What more does he need? Personality: Rage, hate, and destruction. An abyss of demonic power and intent. Age: 26 Height/Weight: 6'6"

Let's be honest here. It's not even fair on Sora's side, because we've played as Sora so much at this point that Riku is a nice change of pace.

Agreed.

If it's legit then that's awesome. If it changes the bible "story" of it all then that's not so neat, but I guess that if they did a disclaimer that it was an alternate story version then that would be okay.

Very nice! Great job.

"Hey, sounds good to me," stated Troy, ready to be doing something, anything productive. "So are we going to be staying with your family, Joy, or are we going to have to find a place and get jobs? I've been homeschooled by my nanny for quite a while, but my parents have sent me tons of money, like they think that the money alone will make up for their absence. I figure that it would help out in this situation."

Hades summoned a number of heartless to fight the both of them and then summoned his scythe to fight James. "The heartless on their own aren't a threat, but when focused entirely on a fight with another individual, they become bothersome. This is to increase our vigilance and awareness, along with experience gained from simply fighting one another. You ready?" Ethan asked. Without bothering for an answer, Ethan launched himself forward, brandishing his scythe with the blade facing out, aiming to impale James unless he was blocked or evaded.

"Hey, sounds good to me, brudda," replied Tyler, leaning back to yawn and place his arm around Tudi. He wasn't terribly sure about his status with her, but he couldn't help but try to get close to her. She was something special, for better or worse.