Daily Rounds (Dee, Open)

[Faust]

The masked figure in red and blue had become very good at keeping himself unnoticed among the populace. Not that he had any real reason to hide; after all, he considered himself more of a boon to the people than anything deserving of scorn. He just felt, for whatever reason, that he was meant to keep a secret vigil over the town.

For he was Captain Heartbreaker, the masked defender of justice and slayer of Heartless the world over. Sticking mostly to the rooftops, he hopped and glided, his specially designed super-suit giving him abilities that mild-mannered Roy Onell would never have access to, like the incredible displays of agility only those wistfully looking up would ever witness.

He ground to a halt on top of a particularly high building and looked out over the blinking lights and familiar bustle of Traverse Town's first district. Tonight was a particularly quiet night; so far, our hero had run into nothing that needed intervention by Honor and Justice. But a hero must never relax their guard, he coached himself. It is always during the lulls that the unexpected can happen. The strange, the wierd, the-dare he say it?- slightly dangerous.

[Beaver Dude]

Need it-

Need what?

===========

Life, unexpectedly, was getting no easier. After the meeting with the 'Shuffle Alliance' Prythian, Dee had been confident that if magic existed there would be a way he could tap into it. Black Mages were quite literally built to channel the essence of magicka after all. But while there had been a small breakthrough-

(his gloves could glow. Faintly. And turn pretty colors)

his other experiments had turned out to be rather bland failures. His hat would explode when he meant it to toss out fireballs and his attempts at flight-

(...)

his attempts at flight did not bear mentioning. To anyone. Ever. He had thought there might be just the faintest of chances that that he was tapping into the fire aspect of the elemental weave but the scorch marks really wasn't substantiated proof. For all he knew walls in this world exploded ever so slightly if enough force was applied.

And, he admitted to himself, he was hungry enough to hallucinate.

So it wasn't entirely unexpected when an animated suit of armor chasing an equally animated cupboard roared right by him. Dee nodded to himself: he really was hallucinating.

[Animated suit of armor's an Armored Knight Heartless. The animated cupboard's of the same vein as the other animated things in the Beauty and the Beast's Castle. Only from a different world.]

[Faust]

And that, he decided, was certainly all three combined. A Heartless chasing a piece of furniture about while some kid in a hat watched them? Strange, wierd, and potentially dangerous! He snickered; time to work your magic, CH! He stood up straight and put his hands on his hips.

"Haaaa ha ha ha ha!" He laughed, in a booming voice somewhere between hero and gym teacher. "HA!" Jumping off of the roof, he landed on a sloped roof section, vaulted off, bounced off an awning and landed on the street, a little worn but otherwise looking completely heroic.

"Halt, rogues!" He made a fighting pose, the red gloves beginning to glow faintly with the unrestrained power of justice (actually, it was a device in the gloves preparing to fire off his signature technique, but that's besides the point.). "I, Captain Heartbreaker, have arrived to bring justice to the little guy!" He posed, believing for all the world that he was the coolest looking thing Traverse Town had ever seen. "I shall give you one chance to surrender, before you are introduced to my two best friends, Honor and Justice!"

He was ready for whatever came his way. Even he knew that the Heartless didn't know the meaning of the word surrender. If any of the wierd things in front of him decided to make a move (and he was getting pretty wary about the dazed looking kid in the hat), he still had access to his devices, not to mentioned his trusty Heart Attack.

[Beaver Dude]

"Sacrébleu!" The cupboard said, alien tongue wrapping itself in odd consonants and syllables. "Cet comportement est très désa-AAAAAAH- MON DIEU, T'ES COMPLÈTEMENT FOU OU QUOI?"

The extended 'ah' was due to the animated suit of armor's sudden decision to make a small crater of the ground where the animated cup and plateholder had just been standing. After that, the piece of wooden furniture became very quiet and focused its energies on avoiding the powerful attacks. It was, unfortunately for it, getting slower.

It was about at that moment that a... human appeared. A very odd human. Dee took one look at it and decided that he had gone off the bend completely and muttered to himself as he walked in tight, vicious circles. There was always the chance that he had walked into an illusion, remote as it was.

"Halt, rogues!" The figment of his imagination called out. Dee noticed, despite himself, that neither animated objects had decided to follow his orders. He restrained, only with great discipline, the entertaining thought of whacking his head repeatedly on a nearby surface. Just in case he was hallucinating and not, say, dreaming while in a chemically stimulated coma. Which he was, honestly, suspecting was the case.

[Faust]

Right, the wardrobe was speaking gibberish, the Heartless was fighting it, and the small child was walking around in circles like he was in some kind of daze. Cue the long, confused "Uuuuhhhh...." from our intrepid hero.

Fortunately, it didn't take him long to shake it off and return to his Keeper of the Peace persona. "Fine then, you have recieved your warning. Prepare to face the wrath of..." He charged foward, "Captain Heartbreaker, defender of justice!"

Bulling past the strange piece of furniture, he put himself between it and the Heartless, "Heart Attack!" and raised a glowing fist. With a hearty gym teacher-slash-heroic laugh, he swung, the mechaisms in his gloves ready to unleash a shimmering force to knock the hapless foe backwards.

[Beaver Dude]

While not precisely 'hapless' the armored heartless was knocked backwards. It shook its head, looking slightly dazed. The animated cabinet took the opportunity to open its 'mouth' (or, more conventionally, its doors) and took a few potshots with plates and assorted pieces of silverware. In a surprising display of logic, the plates broke apart harmlessly and the silverware left only scratches across the silver-shine finish of the demon-thing.

However, the one errant plate that bounced into Dee was enough to startle the midget mage out of his reverie. Blood seeped out of a shallow cut and his eyes had grown comically alarmed.

"Wha- buh?" Dee said intelligently.

"Désolé!" The cupboard said, displaying a surprisingly large vocabulary in Class 1 Gibberish. He didn't sound apologetic at all- it may have been a threat, a confirmation of a carefully calculated trajectory or everything at once. The Black Mage, fortunately, didn't seem to know how to react.

The Heartless, however, did and went to attack our intrepid hero.

[Faust]

Captain Heartbreaker was renowned for his ability to dodge quickly (Or he would, if he had ever managed to actually do anything.) Even so, between the crazy gibberish speaking furniture and the Heartless waving weapons around, he had more than enough distractions to use as an excuse when he got a swipe across the chest. Fortunately, his armor deflected most of the damage. But for a warrior that was as yet unaccustomed to pain, this may as well have been his death blow.

Leaping backwards with a mighty bellow, he clutched his chest with a dramatic sounding grimace. "Lucky rogue, but let's see how you like... nggh... this!" Taking another step forward, he lashed out with his foot, aiming for the chest plate of the Heartless.

[Beaver Dude]

The Heartless... fell apart.

Or so it appeared at first. As the armor clanked and clung and battered itself upon the ground, tiny shadows floated out of the seams and various apertures. Like a doll being put back together, the shadowy tendrils reassembled the enemy armor as if it hadn't just fallen to pieces at all. The Black Mage had apparently become interested and was walking towards the armor, blood dribbling down a stitched blue shirt while the living furniture screamed yet more gibberish-

(~C'EST IMPOSSIBLE~)

The Heartless armor on the other hand also advanced but seemed noticeably slower. The vigorous movements it had used to attack the cupboard and our intrepid hero had diminished substantially. The only question now was whether it was a trick...

[Faust]

"Ha!" Captain Heartbreaker hopped back, out of the opponent's reach, then did a cool (or at least cool looking, in his own mind) backflip like move, landing low to the ground with a winning "confident hero" smile. "So, the power of justice is too much for you, eh? Well, then get a load of this!"

Putting his hands to the ground, he pushed off, activating his special Dodge Roll mechanism to perform a neat acrobatic flip in the air, appearing over his opponent and coming down with glowing fist. "Heart Attack!"