Sci-Fi Set

Naito followed her in, keeping an eye on her. He didn't want his companion and apparent coworker to have a mental breakdown again. He knew about fire being a problem in her history, and her physiology likely made that even worse. He disliked talking about his own problems, so it wasn't his place to ask about hers.

As such, he said nothing more as she led him to the video game section. He had never seen these types of games, the ones played on these screens. Some forms of hologram? He knew of them, having heard from others on his journey so far, but had never seen them himself.

Judging from the image on the poster and her response, it seemed she knew more about certain game makers. That style there... it seemed at once magical and highly advanced in terms of technology. What else could she have known?

While he was rather reserved, Naito was still curious. As such, he turned to his green-skinned friend. "Who?" he asked. Whether he meant who this "Tetsuya Nomura" was, or who the person in the image was... that was unclear. However, given her surprise, he at least had an idea that perhaps Nomura-san was the maker of the "game" he resided within now. Perhaps she was thinking on the paradox, or at least recursive nature of it all?

Kara froze, having just realized that her outburst was heard clearly by Naito, and that she hadn't done so mentally. Now she had to explain to him about him and she didn't know how much he knew about the Convergence. The engineer looked back at the cardboard stand, thinking of how to explain, when she saw that the door to the store was halfway closing. "Shit!" She yelled and moved, but it was too late as the doors finished closing.

At the same time, a Supreme Smasher lumbered into view and roared. "Crap! We're boxed in!" Kara commented as a Gigas also walked into view, one of the red models. It the shoulder charged at the two as she pulled Naito aside with her, avoiding the giant robot which crashed into one of the stands. The impact made the cockpit suddenly open, sending the Toy Trooper that was inside tumbling out of the Gigas. Before the small Heartless could recover, Kara fired her Plasma Cutter at it, bisecting it in half.

Now there was only the issue of the giant dinosaur toy Heartless. The engineer recalled how fighting two of them on foot was hard but then her gaze went to the open cockpit of the Gigas. From what she saw, this one had a bigger cockpit than the other one she saw, making her wonder if it was a special edition toy. Shaking her head as the Supreme Smasher started moving faster towards the two, Kara made her choice. "Nai! Into the robot!" She yelled, running towards the cockpit of the red Gigas.

Naito was ready to hear what Kara had to say. Unfortunately, and perhaps even on cue (though not by fault of hers), the creatures had managed to close the doors behind them. Yes, she could explain later, and yes, he could theoretically open the door with psionics, but he did not think they had the time, especially if he had not trained enough to do so quickly.

Feeling rather aggressive, he allowed the Yang side of his magic to take over, and reached out a hand as he stood up from Kara yanking him aside, blasting a beam of freezing lunar energy at the reptilian toy, knowing it was liable to breathe fire. However, he did hear the engineer woman's words, and so he quickly climbed up, entering the machine and sitting in its cockpit.

While he was intelligent, he did not necessarily know how to operate such a vehicle. Perhaps those two joysticks could... Yes! They controlled the legs, let it move, as he stood it up.

There was still room in it, at least in front, for her to be there as well, but... did she intend to sit on him to control the weaponry, such as there was any? In any case, he did not press the device to close the cockpit, knowing she would likely want to get inside.

Kara watched as Naito got on first then climbed into the cockpit after him. She was annoyed there was only one seat but considering the situation, she didn't say anything. Instead, the engineer sat on his lap, grabbing the other controls he wasn't using. "Close it!" She yelled out as she saw the Supreme Smasher recover from the freezing beam Naito fired at it.

Kara grabbed the controls for the arms, making the Gigas lift up its right arm, which had the blaster and fired it. The shots hit the Heartless possessed dinosaur toy head on as the engineer moved a bit to the side so that Naito could see ahead better and moved the robot toy. "You'll need to move this thing. I'll attack with the weaponry so we can take out that plastic dino."

(For clarity, I am controlling the Gigas with permission from Shining.)

Naito did his best to keep his focus as he followed Kara's instructions. Her sitting on his lap was... unusual, but he was not about to comment, especially when she had practically asked to do so by having him use this.

While he did not know everything, he was decent enough of in terms of knowledge concerning technology to help out with basic movement and... a thruster?

Thankfully, the dinosaur was, as with the prior one, not at all fast, let alone agile. As such, using the boost enabled him to slide them to the side, followed by a punch to its side. Immediately after, he fired a stream of shots from the blaster, then backed away, hopefully out of range if the fire.

This was not going to be easy, but it was still possible.

Kara sat on Naito's lap, moving the arms and firing while he piloted the Gigas. She watched as the Supreme Smasher got hit by the toy robot's movement, being faster than it. Yet the engineer saw no signs of the dinosaur toy stopping anytime soon, despite the fact they were doing a lot more damage to it. Still, she kept following the snow haired man's instructions, which were short and to the point.

"Can you see fine, Nai?" Kara asked, hoping she wasn't blocking the view from sitting on his lap. She tried moving a bit either way so he could get a better view of the enemy ahead and the video game store. The engineer kept her grip on the controls for the arms and weapons for the next attack.

"Yes," was all Naito said as he kept his focus. Yes, having an attractive woman sitting on his lap was potentially distracting for some, but he was working his hardest to make sure they could stay ahead.

The dinosaur toy dashed forward, its rigidity not doing anything to prevent it from going quite a distance. As it did, Naito used the thrusters and moved to the left, but was unprepared as a trail of lightning bolts struck down from above, several of them hitting him and his companion, as well as causing the mechanical vehicle to be momentarily paralyzed.

"Down!" he shouted, pressing Kara down into the seat as the foe's fire breath barely missed them, singeing the edges of the cockpit before he let her up again, having felt the heat.

This device was not doing so well, so they would need to work hard to finish off the possessed combatant.

Kara yelped as Naito pulled her down to the seat. She then turned pale as the Supreme Smasher's fire breath singed the cockpit and shivered in fear. Even though the inside wasn't in flames, she still felt the heat from outside. The engineer panted, but gripped the controls hard in an effort to calm herself. Still, she could tell the Gigas was going to reach its limit soon and looked outside.

"Nai, it's back is open to us. We need to attack with full power." Kara explained as the toy robot they were in started to move and took the chance to smack the Heartless possessed dinosaur toy down. She glanced back at Naito. "Let's finish this thing off and get out of here." The engineer added as she had the Gigas punch the toy dinosaur's back several times then fired shots from the blaster arm. She then finished it by having the toy robot shoulder check the Supreme Smasher.

The possessed dinosaur toy then vanished into black mists as the Gigas reached its limit and collapsed onto its knees, the cockpit suddenly opening. Breathing heavily from the adrenaline from the battle, Kara simply looked back at Naito and nodded. "We should get out of here."

Naito exited the cockpit, bringing Kara out with him. His expression was still, his mouth a thin line. He saw the exit, the toys scattered around, and how the entryway was no longer blocked. They were alone once more, but for the remains of the battle itself.

And yet, he knew not what to even do. He was lost here, a stranger, hoping he could find some measure of peace, but knowing he could not. Where to go? Stay with his engineer ally? Go off again? What now?

All of this was distilled into a single word question. "Where?"

Kara got out first, having been sitting on Naito's lap during the whole thing, Stretching her arms and back, she saw that the barrier the Heartless had erected to keep the door locked was gone, but the door was still closed. The engineer simply sighed and used her kinesis module to pull the door open. Looking back at Naito, she answered. "Let's get out of here. This world, I mean. I feel like someplace more peaceful. Maybe that also sells ice cream."

Kara walked back towards Naito and took his hand, leading him out of the video game store. "I dunno if you heard about it. But ice cream's a kind of dessert, a cold one. Comes in different flavors. You'd like it." She continued, leading him to the nearest Save Point. The engineer was thankful that no other Heartless made a move to ambush them at this moment. She believed that going to somewhere more peaceful would be better for Naito, since he got quieter than usual as their exploration got on further.

Naito nodded, following her. He had not heard of ice cream, but it did sound decent enough. The treat sounded like a nice food, one that might get his kind off of things.

"Okay," he said, just following her.

Kara looked at Naito as she lead him to the child play area. She stopped for a moment to see if she could spot a Save Point, looking at the area that had the letters spelling out Kid Korral on top. Finding it where she could see it, the engineer lead Naito right towards it and managed to warp the two to her ship. Looking at him, she could tell they changed back to their original form, no longer in toy form. "This kind of transformation will take some getting used to."

Kara set Naito down on a chair. "I know a place where we can get it. After a stressful adventure like that, I think we deserve this." She went and activated the autopilot, setting it to the coordinates leading to Disney Castle. Returning to the snowy haired young man, the engineer told him the coordinates she set. "Just in case you prefer going on your ship. If so we can meet up there."

Naito followed as they continued onward. He was doing a bit better, but her own reactions to fire had not been much better. However, he did not particularly care, so long as it did not affect him too much. That said, her having him sit was… a bit annoying, but not enough for him to argue over it. The actual transformation, on the other hand, he did not care much about, given it did not have too much of an effect on his capabilities.

If she had means to calm down, he was willing to listen. To that end, he nodded, before looking over at the airlock connecting his ship to hers.

"Will work," he said softly, before departing without another word edgewise, taking the coordinates suggested as he flew the ship on its way. In the meantime, he could focus on some schematics, perhaps get his mind off of his meltdown.

Or however well he could handle things, in any case.

(And he's done here.)