Like Clockwork [Tag: Sol Badguy]

It was, as it tended to be, rather dark in Traverse Town. The stars shone brightly over the streets, and made the walls of District 3 shine. Pushing open the wooden doors, Ragna approached from District 1. Ragna himself was used to the night, preferring to travel from city to city in the night to avoid having to deal with any potential problems that could occur within daylight hours. There was also the added bonus that it was much more difficult to spot him in the dark, and even in the case of that happening, made it easier to get out of situations like those. Unnecessary conflict was something that he liked to avoid, after all.

Ragna kept walking, stopping in the middle of the district. The former criminal looked around, and then up at the sky. So, each of those stars was a world, right? He'd heard as much from gossip he'd gained by eavesdropping as he walked by a group. "Wonder if one of them is my world?" He knew at this point that he wasn't in his original world, having learned it earlier. Still, it begged the question... why and how had he even been brought here? It didn't make any sense. All he had been doing was going after Mu-12 and Terumi. If he had been transported here... what if they were still at large? No, it couldn't be a what if... they had to still be at large. Who else was up there stopping them? It had just been Ragna.

"Shit..." A sense of urgency struck him. That son of a bitch Terumi was still doing everything he wanted, with Ragna now out of the picture... the mere thought of Terumi getting his way was enough to start working the guy up. Folding his arms, he tried to clear his head, though the sense of urgency remained. Still...

Who knew what that moment of negative thoughts could summon? Ragna remained where he was for now, staring up at the sky.

Though Sol had little need for sleep, the fact that he couldn't get an easy shuteye that he so-well-deserved clouded the crimson-clad hunter's face with a vexed expression. While it was mostly his own fault for not being able to do so, the thoughts of trying to go back to his own world only left the bounty hunter bewildered, asking himself if he could truly find his way home from this strange land amongst the sea of stars that filled the night sky. As obvious as it was, his clothes, the way he carried himself, everything about Sol Badguy was completely out of place. People he passed by often stared at him with most curious eyes, even going as far as asking where he was from. In a true Badguy fashion, however, he kept things vague and spoke when it was absolutely necessary.

In order to avoid the eyes of others and to collect whatever information that he could about the place, Sol constantly put himself on the move from one district to another. What he noticed from Third District, however, was the sheer emptiness on the streets unlike the liveliness that he had seen on the previous two that he had been on. The vacant buildings stood side by side, almost as if to block any form of exit, forming some sort of a massive wall of prison to keep something in.

With a shake of his head, Sol made his way onwards towards whatever destination that awaited him next in middle if the witching hour, but Sol's eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of another stranger who was just as out of place as he was. The man was clad in red, had saggy black pants and curiously - dyed his hair white. The man's skin was quite pale as well, like one of those types who stayed indoors quite a lot like that certain freak that carried around a large, living key for a weapon, but judging by that peculiar sword that he carried behind his hips, he could only imagine that this one was a traveler, perhaps lost just as he was from the looks of his face.

Perhaps he could get something out of him.

With that in mind, Sol started approaching the white-haired outsider, but his steps were suddenly put to a halt by an ominous premonition that gathered inside his gut. After living over a century, the bounty hunter always learned to trust his instincts, and he looked around to see if there were anyone else. Instead of the usual company that he were expecting, there were little black shadows skittering in the alleyways like bunch of cockroaches, their skin darker than any night sky and their beaming yellow orbs stalking them like how predators would do to their prey. There were three? No four? Sol couldn't tell, but there were numerous amounts probably hunting them down. These things felt like servants when he had previously fought against Valentine, and without a single word uttered from Sol's part, the strange outsider would soon take notice of this as well.



"An' I thought this'd be a nice lil' stroll 'round town," Sol clicked his tongue irritably, "Che - what a drag."

Ragna glanced to the side as Sol entered. It was difficult to miss, in a district that wasn't at all crowded like this one. The ex-criminal probably shouldn't be in a wide-open space like this, judging by what typically happened in places such as these. It almost screamed that something like a fight was going to take place, though Ragna wasn't really so genre savvy to assume that all wide spaces would lead to something like that. Still, it was certainly odd that in a "town" like this, there was an area as openly empty as the districts outside of the area housing the Moogle Shop. Of course, the reason why would become clear as day in a second.

Unbeknownst to the ex-criminal, the first thing Ragna took in about this guy was the same as the corresponding thoughts about him - how utterly out of place he looked in comparison to the rest of the inhabitants. Ragna was all prepared to just let him walk on by, not going to bother talking, but it was apparent through the motions and steps of this man that he was heading for Ragna himself. His guard up just in case, the red-garbed anti-hero opened his mouth to say something, likely something dismissive to keep whoever the hell this was away from him. However, he was immediately cut short by a feeling of unease as the shadows around the two of them started dancing. The other guy said something that Ragna would expect himself to say, which seemed befitting of the stranger, considering his appearance.

"You're tellin' me. The hell do these little bastards want?" This was the second time Ragna had encountered them. The first time, he had taken swings but they had dodged his attacks, so he'd gotten out of the situation as he had seen them amassing. If this wasn't his world, they probably weren't creatures made from anything Terumi could do after all. It didn't stop his feeling of worry regarding the suited antagonist being potentially left to his actions, but that wasn't the primary issue here right now. Glancing back towards the man, he took note that the stranger had a sword of his own, as blocky and unfit for sword-ing as it looked. Hopefully, he knew how to use that thing.

"Tch, what a pain in the ass..." A few shadows in front of him started running his way, but he didn't plan to let them get far. Pulling his sword from his back, he brought it up and then crashing down, seithr following and almost biting at the shadows he managed to land the hit on. Some were successfully shattered, but others in that area dodged by sinking into the ground, popping up and jumping at him. Ragna immediately pulled up his arm for a barrier ars, the attacks knocking him back all the same. "They can phase into the floor? You gotta be kidding me..." A temporary problem here, requiring patience. Ragna wasn't too patient a person, so this didn't make him the happiest of fighters. Regardless, seeing the ones that had popped up, he continued his assault.

"Hell's Fang!"

---

(Hope you don't mind, I stole some of your code because it looks pretty neat!)

Before the white-haired man could notice, Sol duly noted the critters' unnatural ability to phase into the floor. Though certainly bizarre, it wasn't the most outlandish thing that the bounty hunter laid his eyes upon. It made them annoyingly harder to hit for sure, but where they would come from was predictable enough for any seasoned warrior to be able to counterattack. The first few seemed to have their eyes set upon the younger man behind him who already started to brandish his enormous sword in a downward swing, spraying what seemed to be an unfamiliar form of magic to him. Whatever the boy's abilities were, questions would have to come later. What was important was that they swing their blades and ward away the common threat in front of them. With that in mind, the bounty hunter tightened his grip around the hilt of the Fuuenken, causing the ancient weapon to roar with life.

A group of creatures soon dared to target the crimson-clad hunter. Another thing he had noticed was that their attacks were uncoordinated, mindless, and single-minded to a fault. They seemed to have little concept for teamwork. It was as if they all were competing for something, but for what? Sol narrowed his eyes at this as he lightly side-stepped out of the way of their feeble attacks with ease. His footwork was practiced, each breath wasted not a single beat. Their sharp claws only swung at an empty air as the bounty hunter looked for a suitable opening to attack them all at once, and once that opening was provided for him, the bounty hunter took a single casual swing of his weapon downwards onto the ground. It was like swatting a fly for him, except they were large, and crawled all over the ground like bunch of overgrown cockroaches.

Instantly, the moment his blade made contact, the heartless that were unfortunate enough to either be the path, or somehow be within the vicinity of his weapon was crushed and consumed by the hellpyre that shattered and shook the concrete beneath them in a belligerent force.

However, for each one that he had ended, two more seemed to take its place much to his irritation. They 'things' seemed to like to come at a swarm, types that'd overwhelm their prey in sheer numbers. The longer they waited here, the more they risked their life. Sol had to find his way out, fast. Dragging on the battle longer than it needed to was dangerous as is. The two men would stand little chance if they continued to multiply.  

Not that Sol gave any damn what happened to the boy, of course, but for the time being it was probably best if the two worked their way out to make this all the more easier until they figured something out.

"Ey, brat," Sol called out, "Outta th' way."

Whether the man backed off or not, Sol would bring his weapon backwards, and in a single, powerful motion, the bounty hunter rammed the blade against the ground, its infernal magic being fed to the smoking weapon that was already heated from the inferno that was caused earlier. Once again, the earth quivered like a mother giving birth, and from her belly, he summoned hades onto the earth in a form of massive flames rupturing the ground. Anyone - or anything in its path was charred, consumed, broke into pieces and smashed by the tremendous force of the infernal magic. It was as if this crimson figure was hell itself made manifest on two legs. 



"GUNFLAME!"

Despite having slammed his seithr-imbued sword down and in doing so having crushed the dark shadows, the attack barely seemed to put a dent in their ranks. Even his Hell's Fang punch and the follow-up shattered a few, but it was as if it didn't even matter. These things were like animals and yet like insects in the way that they moved, trying to swarm their opponents. It was probably a good thing that he had run away in the beginning when he had, he was more prepared for them now than he had been following his beatdown by Terumi.

Ragna wasted no time in chaining hits where he could with these shadows, swinging his sword up into the air and knocking a few up, only to leap up and use Belial Edge to slam them back into the ground with force enough to crack stone, his irritation driving his blows. They were defeated in a puff of smoke as well, but as was the case before, more popped up. Did it ever end? It had to end sometime, so he was going to keep cutting through them. He hadn't received an answer at all, either... what were these things? They made him think of the animalistic creatures of seithr that would attack you if you weren't careful back in his world, except usually you could fend off a few of those and it'd be over. These were just like insects, they were relentless.

The other guy was pulling his weight, in a surprisingly positive turn of events. Ragna caught his slam bringing up the pyre, and wondered what the hell it was that he was using. None of his prior opponents had really had ars that were similar to anything like that. Hm, judging by this place, this guy could be in the exact situation as him and could be from an entirely different place altogether. That was probably the case, actually. If not, someone like this would've either shown up sooner, or would've at least immediately recognised the SS-class criminal. Ragna certainly wasn't going to reveal his identity as such, anyway.

Having seen what this guy had done before, Ragna saw his motions before he even heard the call and leapt to the side, hearing what Sol said on the way. "Who're you calling a brat?" The guy remembered Rachel's berating for how easy he was to rouse to anger, and shook his head. "Tch, whatever, let's just get this over and done with..." The sooner these things were gone, the better. Ragna bore witness as Sol wrecked havoc on the opposition, calling forth flames that could be mistaken as devastating hellfire from the rupturing ground in pyres of heated destruction, something that no Heartless caught in the blast of was able to survive. Formidable indeed, looked like this guy really could handle himself.

It was a relief to not have to be saving someone else's ass. Ragna hated the responsibility, even if he did accept it during times where it probably wasn't at all necessary.

Watching him after his Gunflame attack, Ragna stepped back into the middle. "More of 'em? The hell do these things want?" Having spotted more Shadows and a few Darkballs, he decided to get rid of as many Shadows as he could, as well as any low-flying Darkballs. "DEAD SPIKE!" Swinging his sword in an arc, a seithr-built huge toothed maw of the Black Beast sailed towards the Heartless, crashing into them and disintegrating any unlucky enough to be close enough to it in miniature puffs of darkness that further cracked the already weak pavement, a couple of Darkballs being slain as well. His sword being placed immediately back on his back, Ragna looked back at the stranger behind him. "Looks like they're thinning out a little." There were less Heartless, if only a tiny little bit less, but the feeling of unease still hung over Ragna.

He would bet plenty of Platinum Dollars that there was still plenty more of these bastards to come...

The explosions managed to take the Heartless off balance and make enough of a path for the two fighters to get through. Not thinking twice, Sol took the path he made and flanked the shadowy creatures from the side, taking his weapon in wide, destructive arc that shattered the concrete ground just from the sheer force of his swing alone. It was unrefined, uncontrolled, and wild - but all of it was executed on purpose and precision, surgically made to thin the ranks of the abominations in wide strides to keep themselves from multiplying as much as he could.

However, just when he had thought that he had done numbers on them, queer-looking beings seemed to be warped into existence by series of portals of abysmal blackness that appeared without a warning. Was this how they spawned? If so, then there was something capable of summoning them out there... like a Master Ghost, and if that was the case, then that 'something' or 'someone' made it to summon them. The Gear narrowed his eyes at the realization. Now he knew that these mysteriously hostile invaders weren't natural of sorts that just belonged here like him.

"Well, that's new," Sol muttered, "Wonder what else these things got up their sleeves...?"

While the white-haired one panicked, Sol blocked and braced against their incoming attack, trying to get a read on his newly-appeared foes. The width of his blade did sufficient enough job to be used as a shield, and he watched as the shorter creatures rallied themselves amongst the floating, balloon-like beings. These things had ranks too. Interesting, but seemed pretty typical for their simple-minded behavior to follow the stronger ones into battle. As one of the Darkballs came down upon him, Sol jumped backwards, only to be followed by another one relentlessly in attempts to crush him. At that moment, the crimson-clad hunter leapt into the air, swinging his blade as all-consuming inferno angrily exploded out from the blade. The attack took at least two more foes before the Gear came slamming downwards upon a group of heartless with a flaming kick like that of a meteor crashing down upon the earth.

The result was an unprejudiced destruction upon the surroundings several meters wide with Sol standing in the midst of the carnage as flames seemed to wreath and dance around him like silk cloth. Like the crimson-clad stranger had said, their efforts managed to thin their numbers greatly turned the tide to their favor, but the Gear had a feeling that this kind of ruckus would only attract more of these things like moths to a flame, literally.

Well, he wasn't just going to stand around here to wait and find out what would happen next.

Without a single word, Sol took off. He'd do this with - or without Ragna. He put strength into his legs, and shot himself up just enough to be on top of one of the buildings to get a better view of the area. Upon deciding his destination, the bounty hunter would start sprinting, jumping on a roof to another in inhuman finesse for a man of his build. Whether the younger one kept up or not, it was something that the bounty hunter wouldn't care much for.

His attack successful, the ex-criminal just noticed the few that remained continuing to relentlessly attack. The defences he had up were enough, his regular ars barrier was more than enough. Attacks of this caliber would barely even scratch it - it took full Ars Armagus levels to break it with any relative speed, and these were just leaping around and thrashing about rather weakly. It wasn't that difficult to beat them, they were just so numerous that if they didn't keep the number down, they would be overwhelmed and swarmed from all sides while they couldn't block. Ragna didn't want to use the Grimoire, so if these were going to keep coming, he would have to come up with something.

Judging by their nature, Ragna couldn't see much to the Heartless. They were just a ton of enemies that acted like mindless seithr beasts without the seithr and instead being made out of some weird dark thing that just seemed to literally be... darkness. Just an endless horde mode of little assholes to beat into the ground. It would be great, but Ragna really wasn't interested in fighting if he didn't have a reason to. As a result, he just wanted to get this over and done with. Still, he did think about it. From the Darkballs emerging, it was fathomable that there were probably other types if more had just come out of the woodwork. Also fathomable was the lack of desire Ragna had to see any of them.

Ragna defended himself against what he saw coming, witnessing Sol clash down on these things and seriously thin their numbers even further. At this point there were only a few left, and Ragna could only watch them continue to shamble around in their shadowed forms, slowly making their way to the two to try and attack. This was their big chance. Ragna wanted nothing more to do with these damn things, and with his back to Sol for a second, he looked around for the ways that led out. There were a couple, but the moment he looked up, he saw the Bounty Hunter getting the hell out of dodge on the rooftops.

"Tch, you've gotta be kidding me!" He'd had the same idea, but a fraction of a second sooner. Ragna immediately noted the way he had been heading, anyway. If that guy had been coming to fight, he would have started one anyway. The fact that he wasn't... Ragna had questions. He had always had questions. That guy, as much as Ragna didn't want to care enough to follow him, potentially had answers. With a grunt, Ragna ran in the direction Sol had headed - the difference being that he was on the ground to begin with. He leapt into the air and kicked the wooden doors open, using no time at all to flee through them, the dark creatures following to the best of their ability.

"More of them? Get outta my way already!" Ragna commented the moment he reached the next district, seeing that there were Heartless already waiting for him. He used this moment to steal Sol's plan, leaping on top of a Heartless and using it to springboard high-up to the rooftops. It wasn't too big a leap, considering the height of the rooftops considering where he was, as well as how he was... well, not your average guy. Not superhuman in the way that Sol was, but he was certainly capable of jumping high like that.

Upon landing on the rooftop, he spotted Sol almost immediately; though Sol had a commanding lead on him up here, the fact that there weren't many places to really hide when you were atop rooftops really helped Ragna keep track. Glancing to the ground below, the Heartless were still hopping around, almost as if they had been waiting for him. "Just what the hell are these things?" Wondering this out loud, he continued following Sol, heading across the rooftops in a hurry. Hopping from roof to roof wasn't an issue for Ragna, either; the only issue was knowing that if they stopped too soon, they would still likely get swarmed.

For the sake of information, he followed the man he could see in the not-so-far distance.

Though the creatures certainly did their best to keep up, a lot of them seemed to be fixated on the younger male behind him. Sol wasn't exactly sure why, but it helped to keep much of the annoyances out of the way for the time being while he planned out the route for their escape. As he jumped from one roof to another, he stopped briefly short near some sort of an airfield which seemed to house strange-looking ships made out of materials completely alien to the bounty hunter. The male made a brief note of it before starting off again in a sprint, only to see these shadowy creatures quickly gaining on them in surprising speeds. With the way they were going, it almost seemed as if... they wanted to herd them both. They could've easily attacked them any time, especially with those floating balloon things that seemed to be chasing them as well.

"Just what the hell are these things?!"

"D'ya ever quit yer screamin?!" Sol barked, "Shut yer mouth an' run!"

To be honest, that was the same question that Sol had in his head for a while. Like that boy said, what the hell were those things anyway? They were completely relentless - if not, nearly suicidal in their seemingly desperate attacks. Despite all the assaults that the two men threw at them, they refused to back off at any time. While these things weren't a threat individually, their numbers and the inability to feel any sort of innate self-preservation made them quite formidable, even in the bounty hunter's books. Much to his surprise, however, the numbers of the shadowy beings that were following them seemed to thin down little by little, but still significant enough to be enough of a threat should they stop and eventually, the two would notice that they stopped following them altogether.

The bounty hunter narrowed his eyes as he came to a sudden halt, kicking up massive amounts of dust from where he stood. It was strange, they could've kept giving them a chase if they wanted to. Why back down now? For creatures that attacked mindlessly, their sudden change of behavior made Sol raise one of his eyebrows, but for the time being, he took the time to reorganize his thoughts and the information that he had gathered by fighting them. Asking any questions to the white-haired stranger certainly wouldn't bring him any answers; in fact, he seemed just as bewildered.

"So, I'm assumin' yer one of them 'lost' ones too, right?" Sol slotted his thumb in his pocket, "Well, it's probably useless t'ask, but y'got any ideas 'bout this place we ended up in?"

Following behind Sol on the houses, Ragna could see the shadowy creatures continuing to follow him. It was kind-of ridiculous. There were types of those shadows they hadn't even encountered in that square chasing after them, but they didn't endlessly continue to chase. After a while, they stopped and gave up the chase, where others continued. The more the two of them ran, the less seemed to follow them, however. That was the only real benefit to the entire "flee" tactic - they stopped following after a while. Of course, it had its own problems and no doubt they'd have to stop and fight eventually, but Ragna would worry about that bridge when he reached it. If that wasn't right now, he wasn't going to concern himself with it at all.

"Screaming? What, you think I'm that worried about these things? They've come after me before, I want to know what the hell their deal is!" Ragna responded, not intimidated by the Bounty Hunter's tone even a bit. These things had showed up right after his whole fiasco with Mu-12... still, Ragna did accept that he was about as likely to get answers from these shadows as he was to get Sol to wear a pink frilly dress. That being said, he kept running and hopping from rooftop to rooftop with relative ease, noticing the moment Sol stopped running and following his gaze. Whatever that place was, Ragna didn't stop to think why he had looked over there. Being a little behind Sol, by the time the ex-criminal got to the place Sol had stopped, the Gear had set off again in the same direction.

It had taken a while of running, but it seemed like they had outrun the quick little bastards. Ragna slowed to a halt next to Sol, taking a moment to catch his breath. Those creatures had been many in size, type and power, but had all charged after the two of them with sheer reckless abandon, not showing regard or concern for brethren slain even though it was done in relative ease. Such a mindless race of creatures... it was a wonder how such creatures managed to survive at all, if they were anything even close to a normal species.

Ragna looked up when the Bounty Hunter asked a couple of questions, which didn't take long at all. "You ain't wrong. It's really kind of a pain in the ass, especially when you don't understand shit about the place you're in or how things work around here." He folded his arms, thinking for a second. "Saw some girl after I arrived." Ragna began, looking around at the town below. It really was rather large, at this size it was tough to call it a town and not a city... "Apparently, people end up here because they've "lost the world they call home". People with strong hearts shine through, or some feely crap like that." Light was supposed to go a long way and thus shine even after each star was snuffed out, hence why he had been wondering if any of the stars were his world, even though it was supposed to be gone. "Heard around town that each light in the sky is another world here, or some shit like that. Whatever, I got a couple things to ask you." Ragna let one of his arms drop, and the other rested loosely on his hip.

"You heard of Ars Magus? The Novus Orbis Librarium?" The power Sol had used and the way Sol was dressed reminded Ragna of his own world. Not as much as he would have liked, but it was a lot more similar than anything he had seen so far, that was for sure. Asking trivia related to his world was the best way to detect whether this guy was from there or not. He doubted it as Sol hadn't recognised him on sight, but it didn't hurt to try. "If not, you heard any idea about anything else? Saw you eyeing up some airfield or something on the way." Ragna didn't know MUCH, but he did know that if there were other things around, he wanted to know about it. The guy was unsure of what Sol knew, but Sol could have heard some things he hadn't from locals or from passing conversations, for all he was aware of.

In terms of relative information, Ragna wasn't going to be winning any pop quizzes anytime soon. However, he could scrape together what he could and fill gaps where he had the chance to.

Sol couldn't agree more about what this young man had said. Being oblivious as to what kind of world that they were stuck in only left both of them thirsting for answers as to what had happened to them, but unlike the bounty hunter, the stranger seemed to have a better grasp of the situation more than he did. It was rather laughable as well. Something about losing their world, and having a strong 'heart' to escape from that said apocalypse that had wrecked havoc on their planet. This, instead of providing the Gears with answers that he had desired, only left the male with more questions as to what had happened back at the events in the Backyard. Surely, he kept Valentine from opening the Cube, and ended up not making it back home because the 'gate' back to his dimension closed off. It was only later when 'That Man' had appeared to aid him once again.

Could it be his doing?

No, it wasn't that simple. That never was 'His' method of doing things, Sol knew this, but it wasn't long after when his chain of thought was broken when annoyingly the boy in front of him decided to suddenly change the subject. It was only fair, but the bounty hunter knew he wouldn't be of much help.

"Can't promise ya with answers that y'want kid, but shoot."

"You heard of Ars Magus? The Novus Orbis Librarium?"

The bounty hunter raised one of his eyebrows. Ars Magus? Novus Orbis Librarium? Those terms were completely unfamiliar to him, but he could only assume those were things that existed only in the white-haired boy's world, so all the answer Sol could provide was no more than a brief silence. "I ain't sure what these things are, but yer probably tryin' t'figure out if I'm from yer world, right? Well, if there's anythin' we got in common, it's our language." Sol shrugged, "We're worlds apart, kid. That much, I'm sure 'bout."

It wasn't long after when he mentioned Sol eyeing something like an airfield. The boy was sharp, already he had figured out the bounty hunter's intentions of probably stealing one of them and getting out of here. At least, that was part of his plan anyway, but he couldn't exactly go anywhere if he didn't know what his next destination was. For all he knew, traveling to one star to another would take hundreds of years. Human's ability to travel the stars never really advanced after the Crusades had started during Justice's revolt against humanity. Some tried to take themselves off to other stars to save themselves, but the poor souls never made it far enough to see the light of the next day. Not that the bounty hunter ever pitied them in any way.

"Who knows? Planes - or any vehicles for that matter are useless if y'don't know where yer goin' with it." Sol shrugged, "Probably best if we get a map, or somethin' along those lines...."

Almost at the click of a finger, Sol had Ragna's intentions with his first questions easily figured out. It was definitely interesting that they shared one language despite being from totally separate worlds, even moreso since apparently it was also the language used in Traverse Town as well, the world that was supposed to house those who had lost their own worlds. Language was mysterious, in that case... still, it would be very, very interesting should they ever learn of each other's individual worlds - after all, a good few people here were likely from their own versions of "Earth", which was definitely strange.

Worlds apart, eh... "Figures. Guess this language is some sort of universal constant and this is some nexus of worlds, huh..." It definitely looked... well, not like one would expect if it was a nexus of that kind, anyway. You could expect a lot of things, but Ragna wouldn't have expected it to look anything like this. To be fair, he came from a world long past this style of housing, anyway... seeing houses like this at all was rather surprising to him. They looked incredibly old-fashioned...

Sol brought up the idea of getting a map, and talked about planes. He was right, but even then, Ragna was kind-of at a loss in terms of airfare. He didn't know how to fly a plane or how to be a pilot, and if it took training, he didn't have much willpower to become one. He'd much rather just walk to wherever he was going to go, or hitch rides if he absolutely had to. Dealing with people long enough in order to hitch rides wasn't something he was actively a fan of the idea of, so he would prefer to walk to places if he could.

Thinking back, he realised what the benefits were of having similar styles of cities. It meant that you rarely needed a map, and especially with his goal, he knew he didn't ever need one back then since it was just "Get to NOL base at top of mountain. Take elevator to Cauldron. Wreck shop. Leave city behind and go for the next one." which was really rather simplistic in terms of destinations. Now, in this world - he didn't have even an inkling of an idea for the first place he could start.

"If you're going for a map, that airfield probably has one." Ragna suggested, hopping down from the building. "Speaking of which, I'm gonna head there right now." He wasn't sure if Sol was going to either, but he subtly let on that he hadn't thought of getting a map either way. He'd head there, anyway.

Unless they were interrupted or Sol had any better ideas, that was.

Nexus of worlds.... Sol somehow doubted that was the case. He still yet had questions about this mysterious 'world' that he had ended up in, and just what happened to his own. The only way to be sure was to somehow make his way back - that is if he could. After a brief moment of thought, the boy spoke up about going to the airfield and mentioned that they probably had a map of their own. He was right, the only real way they'd make any progress was if they kept on moving, and so, the bounty hunter jumped down right after him, moving towards that Airfield that he had spotted earlier in brisk steps.

This time, despite the path they took, Sol found that none of these shadowy beings followed either of them. There was not a single trace of their existence. Did they lose interest? Even if they weren't around, the Gear put himself at a guarded state, ready to swing his weapon should they even remotely enter his field of vision. They weren't exactly a problem. To him, they were no more than minor annoyances in the way of his destination, and it made it all the more easier for the two men to get to the airfield. Though fenced, it didn't stop the bounty hunter from simply kicking the gate down and casually taking a stroll through its wide field as if it were his own home. 

Despite their ancient-looking construction, this world was indeed, as he had thought not without technology and necessities to help guide their odd-looking crafts. He was unfamiliar with the things they used, but with a few tinkering on his part, Sol figured that he'd get a hang of their mechanics soon enough. While at it, he took the time to touch one of the service aircrafts that were stationed here. It looked like a giant model toy for a child rather than a proper aircraft, and the materials that it seemed to be made out of... was rubber? The bounty hunter shook his head. There was no way that this thing could possibly fly, but every aircraft he laid his eyes upon seemed to be made from same materials seemingly nowhere near strong enough to withstand the harsh atmospheric travels.

Sol remembered buying Sin something like this when he was still yet a small boy, fresh off of the castle. That little dumbass cried and whined why the old man wasn't buying him any toys for him to play with, but the kid quickly outgrew those years and started asking for food instead. This bastard had a massive appetite for his size, and it forced the bounty hunter to cut the amount of money he made to keep this kid fed. 

"Feh, wonder how this lil' bastard's keepin' 'imself fed...." He muttered and turned his attention towards the white-haired one behind him, "You, Christmas-boy. Y'found anythin' useful?" 

 

Looked like they didn't currently have any better ideas, as they headed there without any detours or anything of the sort. Ragna didn't usually travel anywhere with anyone, but so long as they were in the same predicament, it made sense to head in the same directions in order to fulfil collective end goals for the main characters.

As they made their way towards the airfield, Ragna kept his eye out for any of the shadowy figures. He didn't know whether they had left them alone or whether they were following in stealth, but he kept his eye out anyway. A couple of times, he could have sworn he had seen something - perhaps all it was were regular shadows, his mind tricking him into thinking they were moving as minds did in the dark. After the third time, he figured he was probably just seeing things. It was definitely worth remembering how annoyingly persistent the things were, though.



Arriving at the airfield, Ragna watched Sol walk in front of him and kick down the gate, and could only gaze in disbelief at the act. Sure, they may have caused a ruckus in town, but did this guy know how to keep a low profile, even slightly? "Are you looking to draw attention to us or something? It would've been easier to jump over, y'know." The last thing he wanted was to become a wanted criminal here, as well. He'd do it if it were absolutely necessary, but it didn't seem necessary, so he was going to try and avoid it.

Begrudgingly following Sol into the airfield, Ragna headed for the first hangar he could find (no point in trying to be discreet anymore, the ex-criminal was past caring now), glancing over the area and looking for anything that would give him a hand. The place didn't seem deserted, there was movement here and there, but he still took a look around regardless. If they had drawn attention, they would get it soon anyway. Hunting around the area and going up some stairs, he poked his head through a currently unoccupied hangar. There was some sort of white mouse doll being held in place by a strange force, so Ragna just kind-of... let himself in. "Doesn't look like there's anything, huh..."

"AAAAH! WHO'RE YOU, KUPO?!" The doll turned its head, looking at him and jumping out of its seat in shock.

"Woah- ARGH!" Ragna jumped too, not expecting it to move at all and in his haste, tripped backwards and fell over. "Beastkin?!" He locked eyes with the Moogle, giving a confused look.

"Beastkin? I'm a Moogle, kupo! What're you doing out here at the airfield?" The Moogle asked, curious as to why this guy had ended up on its doorstep. The Moogle looked over at Ragna and surveyed him, top to bottom. He looked sketchy, sure... a big, baggy coat, big baggy trousers, a huge sword slung across his back... he looked like a troublemaker, that was for sure. "Are you trying to steal from the airfield, kupo?" The Moogle's verbal tic not emitted, it gave Ragna a suspicion-riddled look.

"What, you think I'm some thief? I'm just looking for a couple of maps. Figured an airfield would have maps, since they usually do." Ragna replied, geting himself up and folding his arms. "Why me? Why is it always me that ends up in these situations?" Butt-monkey Ragna sighed, waiting for the Moogle to say anything in return.

"You were going to steal something like a map, kupo? They're 10 munny if you come in the entrance, on a rack. A map of Traverse Town, kupo!" The Moogle fumbled around in a drawer. "That'll be 20 munny."

"You just call the currency here "money"? Hey, why the hell do I have to pay for that guy's map, too?" Ragna objected, looking annoyed as he pulled out two hundred Platinum Dollars, those being the cheapest bills he had on him at the moment. "I've only got this currency. Sorry." He offered it over, oblivious to exchange rates.

"I guess it'll have to do if you don't have anything, kupo..." It was easy to tell how new in town Ragna was. The Moogle hesitantly traded the maps for the P$, giving in only because Ragna had handed it two hundred, which seemed like quite a large amount.

"Great, thanks. Now, if you don't mind me, I'm getting the hell outta here." He was done talking to that Moogle. The ex-terrorist opened and closed the door, heading down the steps, having heard Sol call for him some time ago. All Ragna could think was that he had better damn well be out there now that Ragna had spent money on maps.

"Hey, loud and brash! Be grateful, I paid money for these." Ragna approached Sol, handing him a Traverse Town map.

Sol waited, but after some time, he assumed the boy went about his own way out of here. The bounty hunter only shrugged at the idea and continued to tinker with the curious machines around here. A hanger like this must've had some sort of useful information, but despite his efforts to get whatever information that he could, the frustrated bounty hunter only drew blanks with strange language that he lacked knowledge of. Pressing random buttons certainly wouldn't get him anywhere, but as he approached a strange-looking orb that glowed blue in front of him, his eyes narrowed. The sphere was filled with tiny dots, with small descriptions of what they were. He couldn't read them, but as he reached his hand forward, once small round, thing expanded into what looked like an enormous three-dimensional map of many stars.

Many years ago, when he was still yet a scientist, he remembered reading about stars resembling that of Earth's ecosystems with habitable atmosphere for humans somewhere out in there in the infinite blackness known as 'space', but to think that there were this many simply took the Gear's breath away for a minute.

No, this was not the time to be swayed by his own curiosity. What was more important was that he found his way back - or found out just what happened to his world, to see if it truly was 'lost'. However, amongst the tiny specs of light that were the 'stars' in the night sky, the task of trying to find it seemed like trying to find a needle within the bale of hay. Perhaps there was a way to bring this with him, but trying to recklessly rip it out of its systems would most likely only break it. He certainly wasn't savvy enough with this world's technology to try and extract its information, so for the time being, the bounty hunter forced himself to give up until he had a better idea as to what to do with this... thing in front of him.

"Hey, loud-and-brash!" A familiar voice called out to him from behind, "Be grateful, I paid money for these."

The Gear turned his attention towards the man behind him, and in his hand, the white-haired one held two pieces of folded parchment that clearly labeled 'Traverse Town' at its front page. They really weren't exactly what he was looking for, but it certainly helped nonetheless.

"Sure," Sol gave a halfhearted reply and took the map right out of the boy's hand, "Well, I found somethin' that's gonna give both of us a headache, take a look 'round ya. These are stars, all of 'em are habitable planets. Now try an' guess where we're supposed t'be."

Ragna walked forward, handing Sol his map and expectedly getting a totally half-assed response. The things you had to do to get anyone to be grateful these days...

More importantly, Sol pointed at something he was looking at. It was showing him some form of 3D... image? Wasn't Ars Magus, though Ars would be capable of something like this. Regardless, every single blip was a star, and each star a habitable planet. Wait... Ragna had to take a moment, his surprise kicking in. "...You're tellin' me that we're on one of those little dots?" Guess it showed how insignificant one world was in the general scheme of things, he supposed... but the idea of ever making it back anywhere near a place where his world could have been was instantly shattered, right alongside Ragna's hopes and dreams.

Another thing to note was where Sol had found it - this thing was on one of these weird constructs that were all over the place. This could only mean one thing - these weren't airplanes. They were spaceships... or, items intended for use through space, at the very least. They looked so unfit and unsafe for anything like that... Ragna couldn't imagine travelling inside one. He was going to have to try eventually though, as he didn't want to be sat here in Traverse Town forever. This place was nice and all, but not his intended holiday location.

Still... the idea of going through all of those places to find anything related to his world was not only daunting, but it made him think. His world hadn't been a nice place. At all, in fact. He didn't want to leave the people behind, though... but it had to be better than sitting here, the idea of going to explore some of these planets. If what Kairi had told him had been true, it was already possible that there were already people here from his world. After all, there was no possible way that it'd be easy to tell that Ragna was from the same world as someone like his brother, Jin. Jin and Noel maybe, they had the same Librarium uniforms, but not Ragna and either of them.

Ragna was interrupted from his thoughts by his arm reacting to something. It shook a little, and then stopped. He immediately started paying attention to his surroundings, looking around. He didn't know what kind of guy the man with him was, but he knew that he was a good fighter. Or, appeared to be. The... well, whatever the hell that flame stuff was, it was effective. "You feel that?" Maybe, maybe not. The Grimoire was reacting to something, at least. "Something big, huh..."

Something big was coming, and they were gonna find out soon. They were on an airstrip so there was plenty of room for manoeuvrability, thankfully... "Guess they really don't give up."

May be an idea to prepare yourself.