A/N: After a passing glance at a certain Charmed episode that I didn't actually sit down and watch all the way, I was hit with a wonderful idea to put the Leblanc Syndicate through yet another mishap adventure.
Enjoy and please, REVIEW, I'm rather excited about this one. ^_^
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Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, See No Evil
Chapter One: The Leblanc Syndicate (For Once) Sadly Triumphs.
"Ah!" A certain blonde-haired and sexy sphere hunter gave out a sharp cry of disgust before screwing her small eyes shut and rasping with a loud squeal, "I hate the damp!"
"Huh?" Her two underlings, a tall blue coated gunner and a purple and maroon clad warrior, both lifted their heads in unison in response to their boss's distress. A distress that they were quite familiar with, in fact, being that it was something that occurred every time they entered a cave or, such as in this case, a forgotten ruin.
"What are you two staring at?" Leblanc put her hands on her hips, bringing them down from where they had earlier shot up beside her head after she stepped in the gooey puddle. Yevon knows what it was, and that was the main contributor to her repulsion. Well, that and the fact that she always hated damp areas to begin with.
Readjusting her weight, her eyes shifting from one faithful follower to the other, she finally crossed her arms in the silence from the two and gave an abrupt order, "Then stop wasting time and move it!"
The men quickly turned to her command and started to walk deeper into the slimy and broken hallway leading, down into the depths of another piece of the long destroyed city, Zanarkand.
Leblanc's high heels clicked with harsh breaks in the otherwise quiet of the ruin before she resumed her place in front and between her two employees. Once in her rightful position, she continued to lead the way down into the shadows.
It came to mind that the trio may have been disturbing what was silent for over hundreds of years. The leader and the gunner noted this in their heads, and the warrior too for that matter, only in not so many words. Besides the dripping of water from the cracked ceiling, nothing seemed to be active in this place, save themselves, and it was wise to suppose that it probably had been that way for decades now.
Occasionally as they walked though, something did seem to stir beside themselves in the hallways. But, when either of the two men looked in that direction, nothing was there and the other had never sensed it as the other had. It was always too far, always just out of earshot, but glimpses and whispers of it seemed to catch one or the others attention.
Ormi shook himself after another time that happened, his voice not as loud as was usual of him and surprisingly flat and low in his throat, "Jeez, this place gives me the creeps."
Logos continued to look down where Ormi had claimed to hear something shift, seeing nothing. He sighed heavily through his nose, tiring of this dingy trip already, before something wicked flashed through his sharp mind. He turned and frowned toward the thick-boned warrior, "Ormi," He slurred, "Now, don't tell me you actually believe in what they say about places like this…"
"Huh?" Ormi's head popped up, his thick brows lifting, "Whut do they say?"
Logos tilted his head, thoroughly enjoying himself, as he peeked out of the corner of his sharp squinted eyes to his stouter companion, "Oh, so you haven't heard?"
A bit of Ormi's temper started to smolder, "Would youse just tell me, huh?"
Leblanc rolled her eyes, totally reading what the gunner was doing. She choose to be silent, knowing this little immature trick would be over soon enough. But nonetheless, she wished for a moment that she had two actual grown men at her side instead of overgrown teenagers.
Logos's voice was deep and much like a storyteller with a haunted tale spinning from his lips as he gradually hunched his shoulders more forward, creeping towards the warrior, "A dark and malicious evil slinks through the mucus of destroyed cities, feeding off of unwary and stupid travelers or treasure hunters, and sucking out their very souls. They say no weapon can harm it, nor any magic, and no shield can guard you, because it's not of our world. Nothing can stop it from coming and completely obliterating all that enters its domain."
He paused for dramatic effect, trying to recall more 'details', as was gestured by his thoughtful hand to his chin, though in reality he was just pulling the story from the air, "Some people say all that remains of those eaten are the blood oozing on the walls or their last moment's scream echoing through the stone for all eternity."
The Syndicate giant gulped and Logos straightened himself with a victorious smirk and a bland voice that said, "Or so I've heard at least."
Ormi's eyes looked both ways to the shiny coating on either bluish-black wall before hurrying to catch up with his swiftly leaving teammates. His head was low as he checked for signs of any creature that could do as described for a long time as they continued to journey farther down the broken stairs and ancient corridors.
"Y-youse guys sure youse didn't just hear that?" Ormi weakly stuttered after he swore he heard a shuffling down the hallway behind them. Too close for comfort.
Leblanc let out a light groan before moving her flashlight across two doors in the hall, the forward direction blocked by fallen-in stone. She sighed and pulled out a piece of paper with coordinates on it before skimming over the information even as the warrior trembled.
Logos scratched his face, a palm holding down his mouth and hiding an evil grin.
Ormi peered down into the darkness, muscles spring-loaded to defend himself in however way he could, though it would be a useless gesture if what people said was true.
Logos observed his cohort's unease and suddenly flinched and promptly yelped, "Good Yevon, what was that?"
"WHA-? Where? What?" Ormi's head madly flew around in all directions, his fists raising up in front of his body.
Logos stared, horrified, down the hallway before slowly relaxing his tense shoulders, "Hrm, perhaps it was nothing-" He said cautiously and a nasty gleam in slanted eyes.
Ormi slowly let out a puff of air and lowered his hands, "Huu-, Buddy don' work me up, alright? I already tol' youse this place is giving me's dah creeps."
Leblanc roughly sighed and let her eyes drift over the coordinates again, trying her best to ignore her two underling's shenanigans. Ormi backed up a shaking step when a drop of water echoed loud and eerily through the halls. His hands nervously twitching, his ears detected a sound behind that sounded a lot like- "Snrk!"
Turning around on his heel to see what kind of beast would make such a sound, Ormi looked up just in time to see Logos's shoulders shaking with repressed snickering, slender blue-gloved hands holding his stomach and covering his mouth. The warrior's brows lowered into his eyes, and his mouth pushed up into a pursed frown, "Hey!"
Logos snorted before letting out a long breath to release the pent up air in his gut, a slight tear under his right eye from holding in the laughter. "You're such an idiot."
"I's didn't buy that I hope youse know!" Ormi blared to the blue back that he had to squint through the dimness to see.
The gunner gave a glance over his shoulder, a small curve to the corner of his lips, "Ormi, you not only bought it, but you paid more than what it was worth!"
"Oh, would you two shut up!" Leblanc barked, tired of listening already, before pointing her flashlight down the right turn out of three options, "Now follow me."
"Right Boss," Both replied as dutifully as always, though Ormi grumbled a bit and Logos sounded just a tad bit cheerier, at least for his grumpy self.
The wetness of the Zanarkand ruin slowly ebbed and soon a cool draft passed by the three, swishing their clothes against their bodies wherever it could. Logos slowly brought a loose sleeved arm from his face from the sudden onslaught of chill before hopping right behind his female leader and plodding partner, who didn't seem to care about the change in temperature and continued on.
It seemed like they were down there forever already, and nothing visually changed from where they had begun. A shared thought started to worm its way into all the Syndicate's minds before their footsteps suddenly turned from dusty scuffles to echoing clomps that startled them.
Leblanc pulled the flashlight up to revolve around the dry cavernous room that they had entered, the ancient and time-coated details revealed in its glow.
Ormi drew out a long whistle before placing sizable hands on his wide hips, staring up at the room he could see from the beam of Leblanc's flashlight. The gunner squinted and circled slowly to take in every aspect of his surroundings before muttering, "Impressive."
"Let's keep moving," Leblanc was just as amazed by the once-possible Zanarkand ballroom they had chanced upon as the two men were, but was far more quicker to get her mind back on track. Nooj being a factor in that.
Keeping to what she said, Leblanc ventured further into the room and skimmed the pretty ruined walls for another way to continue forward. The light glided over ghostly pictures of the past, ripped and ruined curtains and hangings, broken tables and pottery, before reaching the well carved frame of a door.
"Ah," Leblanc began to say before her light stopped on a pale face that glowered at her through hard red eyes in the center of the blackened and shadowed doorway.
A scream ripped through her lips before her feet leapt back, slamming her body into the two men's chests behind her, who also let out their own cries of fear.
It took only a second, but by that time the damage was already done. Leblanc's eyes narrowed before sliding the light's point to the other two that was with the new found person, "What are you Dullwings doing here?" She demanded.
"Same as you I should think," Paine, the one whose gloomy face first came out of hiding, tilted her tight black clad hips to the side.
"Did we scare you?" Yuna asked with hesitant humor and with a slight apologetic tone.
"Scared?" Leblanc's bold voice echoed before she leaned her head back hard, "Ha! Why would I be scared of you three?"
"I don't know…" Rikku waved her butt and giggled, "You guys looked pretty scared to me."
"Surprised is the word you're looking for little girl," Logos crossed his arms irritably before kicking his foot out to the side to angle his body from them as he glared.
Paine shook her head, "Whatever."
"No! Not 'whatever'!" Leblanc gripped the flashlight hard in her hand before pulling out her fan in her other hand and gripping it harder, "You brats better just get out of our way! These sphere waves belong to the Leblanc Syndicate!"
"Oh," Yuna folded her hands behind her back and lightly swayed, her tone soft and innocent, "You can keep the sphere waves."
"Yeah!" Rikku pawed the air with her hands and leaned forward, her feet nearly running in place, "But the spheres are gonna be ours!"
With that, the three teenagers turned out of the stream of light and bolted through the door and into deep darkness. Leblanc let out a growl of aggravation before turning to the pair behind her, shrieking, "What are you just standing around for? After them before they get the sphere first again!"
"Yes Boss!" The two jumped into action and they began the pursuit of annoying Gullwings that had been stealing their prizes especially so in the last several weeks. The last four were nabbed right out of their hands as a matter of fact. But this prize was just too sweet to lose this time.
The computer at home nearly fried from the sheer sudden power of the wave that was coming from the far corner of Zanarkand, deep below in its core. It was so big that it probably wasn't just one sphere either. And a sphere from Zanarkand always was worth a good amount of gil, for any buyer.
Multiple, rare, expensive, and high in demand spheres in one simple grab? Of course the Leblanc Syndicate wouldn't waste time in getting after it!
However, it should figure that the Gullwings wouldn't either.
The Syndicate was right behind the girls in short time, jumping over fallen stone and broken pillars, just as the Gullwings in front of them did moments before. Logos reached out with his long arms and grasped the warrior girl's shoulder, slowing her down, and received a quick and mercilessly crack in the nose from the hilt of her blade as a result.
His fingers loosened and he pinched his nose before lurching back into the chase as his Boss and Ormi zoomed past him. Leblanc's face fiercely determined, and the warrior's arms pumping high.
Down farther into the dark hallway, three more bodies crouched in the sealed mouth of a great door, a menacing face decorating its front and warning all to stay away by its demonic presence. The tallest of the forms turned to look down the hallways with, at first, mild interest to what seemed like a few meaningless time loosened rocks jumbling and falling to the ground, before he heard the accompanying voices and racket that proved otherwise.
"What the hell?" A deep mature voice slipped from the man's mouth before he peered at his two cohorts with a lifted light blond brow, "You are hearing this, aren't you?"
"It seems we are not the only ones that have detected the sphere waves, Dardel." The skinny man crouched in front of the lock slowly stood, carefully unbending his knees, before dislodging his lock pick and standing up, "So much for a simple mission. Ah well, let's see what kind of jokes think they can take a sphere from us this time…"
"Wait, be nice, Reo" Dardel smiled cruelly, "We don't want to be discouraging to our competitors, do we?"
"Oh, of course not," A voice, smooth as silk and sultry, flicked out of the darkness and a woman, slender, lithe, and graceful, revealed herself, "But, you know, I think it's a good thing they showed up. Don't you?"
"Hmm," Dardel turned his head, narrowing his blackish eyes, as he mused over the woman's words. Finding it a bit curious, he shook his head and flicked a blonde ponytail over his shoulder to trail down his back, "I don't quite understand what you mean, Arlayla."
"I don't remember your memory being this bad, Dardel," The woman tilted her head and her plump mouth opened up in a teasing smile, "And you know my research is unmatched by any. You do remember what I found, don't you?"
"You said there was a high possibility that the curse associated with the spheres was just a myth." Dardel pointed out, "In fact, I clearly remember you saying from those beautiful lips of yours that it was more likely than not, just that, a myth; a story to further protect the spheres. You even suggested we not even trouble ourselves over it."
"Ah," Arlayla clicked her tongue, "But, in the case that it is, let the others get the brunt force of the curse and we'll just take the prize and go."
She fingered a bead that hung down from a string on her fitted top, a dipping neck line revealing her ample cleavage, and crossed her legs under her skirt, a line split up either side of her thighs nearly to her hip bones. She smiled her ruby lips before brushing a bit of her full wild hair to the side, as Dardel nodded his agreement to her not-so-friendly proposal.
The two men gathered their gear and hid them well behind a pile of rubble as the voices earlier heard, got louder. Arlayla slowly lowered herself behind the men, also hidden amongst the gear, and waited just as they did. Finally, bodies could be seen to match the commotion they had overheard.
"Hey!" Rikku jumped onto Logos's back as they finally pushed ahead of them, "You can't run ahead of us!"
"Let go!" Logos jumped high before taking his shoulder and jerking it to the side to topple the Al Bhed from his back.
"Come on!" Leblanc bit off in his direction before grabbing Yuna's braid and pulling back on it with all the strength in her arm, shouting, "Oh, no you don't!"
Yuna opened her mouth both in pain and surprise before falling back to the floor as Leblanc zipped past her.
"That wasn't fair!" Rikku whined and stopped to pick up her cousin as the gunner darted off to the side of them, following his boss's heels. Paine came to assist as well and lend a hand to Yuna to hoist her off the ground.
Ormi wheezed loud before pumping his arms even faster to bound after his friends that was disappearing down the hall.
Leblanc took a peek over her shoulders before shouting back to the girls behind them, "All's fair in sphere hunting, Amateurs!"
"Boss!" Logos held his hand out to her back, just out of reach, "Look out!"
Leblanc gasped and turned to see what he was so concerned about, her face meeting with sudden, bruising, pain. She bounced back, landing in the gunner's arms as he opened them up to catch her, before she pushed up out of them and was back on her feet again in anger, "What was that?"
"Erm, Boss, it's appears to be a…door," Logos's perfect vision examined every inch of the heavy metal that Leblanc had ran into full speed, and miraculously, recovered from so quickly.
"Hh, hh, hh," Ormi finally stopped behind them, his breath sharp rasps for desperate air, "He-he-here."
"Well," Leblanc rubbed her nose before patting her forehead, then snapped her fingers, "Open it up boys!"
Ormi gulped once before stepping forward and putting his palms flat on the outside of the door, no knob showing an easier way. He pushed, and like an old barricade door, it was shoved out of the way, and the already picked lock dropped to the floor with a loud clunk.
To the sound, Logos peered down at the lock before picking it up, turning it in his gloved hand, and pinching his eyes at the non-rusted parts, as he expected it to have for it to drop without further tampering. Leblanc pushed into the room before turning around at Logos and tersely screamed, "Quit dawdling!"
"Erm, yes Boss!" Logos's neck snapped up and the lock fell from his hand as he stood to join them. The Gullwings made it to the door frame in that instant as Leblanc walked straight up to the middle of the room, an interesting sphere stand shimmering in silvery light that was produced from the floor.
The stand was a smooth white glowing carving of three monkeys, each holding a sphere in one way or another. The top carved monkey covered its mouth and held its other hand above its head, cupping a bright white sphere. Its hand-like feet was somewhat wrapped around the second monkey's head, standing on it, and that monkey was covering both its ears with its hands and held a second sphere still between its hand-like feet. The third monkey was leaning forward, the second monkey sitting on its back, and this monkey covered its eyes with long fingers. A curved tail arched up into the air before coiling around another white sphere.
Leblanc's lips curved as she grasped the top sphere, three in total, glowing in a bright white light she had never seen or even heard of before against the pearly stand. The effect of the spheres were rather heavenly, and would certainly fetch a huge price for the rare look of them alone, much less the treasures inside of them.
Leblanc plucked it off and turned with it in her hands, surprised no fiend or guardian beast of some sort popped out of nowhere to defend the stand. But, then again, the maze like path coming in was a great defense as it was. Leblanc smiled, the monkey's hand that held the sphere before bare behind her as she turned away.
Ormi clutched the second sphere and forced it out from between the tightly placed feet and beamed at the shiny treasure. Logos took his time to ease out the third sphere from the tricky coil, but managed with no possible damage to the sphere.
They looked up near in unison and with matching gloating auras as Yuna's inched her way in, shoulders dropping, with Rikku openly pouting behind her, and Paine standing in the doorway, seemingly stoic, but it was still easy to see that she was none too pleased.
"Ha!" Leblanc threw the white glowing sphere up into the air and caught it with her other hand, "Finally the Dullwings get what they deserve! A defeat."
She gave the sphere a light kiss before a slow clapping interrupted her triumphant moment.
"Well done," Dardel smiled through thin lips, his hands slowly coming to a stop on clapping as he continued to speak and Reo and Arlayla unveiled themselves from the curtain of darkness behind their leader.
Leblanc jutted her hip out to the side and furrowed her brows, her feet still planted in front of the dais with the sphere stand. Ormi and Logos flinched before stiffening at the mysterious newcomer ruining their long awaited victory over the three teenagers, sad as that was to admit. The three new arrivals met the challenging eyes with threatening faces of their own, and stopped just short of behind the Gullwings, who were looking rather confused at the unexpected presence of them as the Leblanc Syndicate were.
"And who are you?" Leblanc flicked her chin at those that had walked in after the clapping finally ceased.
"Oh, excuse me," Dardel gave a light bow of his head. The Gullwings, in the meantime, backed into the room to get a safe distance away from the group, unable to tell if they were friend or foe.
The two other groups took note of the fancy seemingly untouched clothes (even when they must have walked through the dingy labyrinth same as them) and the shiny boots each wore. More importantly, was a emblem on the leader's arm, the woman's skirt and on a front pouch of the shorter lanky man with them. An orange circle seemingly glowing within a white circle against the black of their outfits grabbed their attention as the leader, surely since he was front and center talking, introduced them.
"This is my sphere hunting group," Dardel smiled, icily, and he held his hands out to his sides, " The Chasers. Perhaps you have heard of us?"
The sphere hunters continued to stare, the Syndicate quiet as they stood by the sphere stand, before the Gullwings shrugged and shook their heads negatively.
Dardel lost his grin and his eyes darkened, "No matter," He said low and almost menacingly, "We don't care much to know who you are either. Though we've heard of your pathetic groups a few times when you do something worth talking about. Now," He extended his hand out, long sleek fitting sleeves rustling against his light arms as he moved. "The spheres if you will."
Ormi made a unbelieving, loud, and very rude, snort before Leblanc switched the sides where her weight was balanced, her arms crossing, before snapping, "And why would we, love? We got it first so, it's ours. Now get lost before we make you. "
"How very unprofessional," Arlayla nearly scolded, "I would think that a group such as yours would at the very least stop relying on intimidation and extortion after a while."
Leblanc's temper flared at the gall of the woman saying her group was 'unprofessional.' Leblanc narrowed her eyes, "What do you know? Either way it won't get you these spheres."
"Well," Dardel's eyes gained a glimmer of something unpleasant before he brought his hands to his sides and flicked towards the stand, his teammates stiffening and plastering smirks on their lips, "Perhaps for now you hold the spheres. But, as you so accurately put it earlier, 'All's fair in sphere hunting'."
Reo drew out dual-daggers and charged, zigzagging right through the Gullwings, and Arlalya whipped out a spear and soared through the air towards the pedestal. The Syndicate barely had time to react, and they pulled out their weapons while juggling the spheres in their hands just in the nick of time to meet the challenge.
"Wait! Don't fight." Yuna yelled and the warning fell to deaf ears as the Chasers forced the Leblanc Syndicate to separate, backing them off and away from the stand.
Leblanc side-jumped away from the snobby woman that dared to insult her group before Arlayla took to the chase with eyes gleaming on the sphere in Leblanc's gloved hand. Reo jumped over the stairs with ease before targeting the slowest looking member of the Syndicate and deciding to quickly hack him up for mincemeat. Logos, who's back was forced away from Ormi's by the thievish Chaser, got one revolver out before a shiny rapier slashed across the gun's side, where a half second earlier was where his chest hovered in the air. Dardel sneered at him and dove right into a thrust for his neck.
"I don't think they heard you…" Rikku hopelessly informed her cousin, before muttering part to herself, "Meanies…"
"They mean business," Paine observed before crossing her arms tightly to her chest, "Should we interfere?"
Yuna straightened her back and took the face the other two girls knew well. A face that meant business as well as held unbeatable determination. Yuna nodded once before pulling out her guns, the two girls gladly following suit.
The Gullwings leaped eagerly for the fight before a force crashed into them from behind, stealing their breath and knocking them off their feet to skid face-first against stone.
Leblanc slashed the air and caught the woman's swinging spear, before frowning towards Arlayla's smug face. The woman pushed, with more strength than Leblanc expected, and off balanced Leblanc into taking a few stumbling steps backwards. There was a light chuckle from the Chaser before Arlayla spun her staff and leapt forward, Leblanc baring her teeth and raising up her fan to meet her.
"Wah!" Ormi ducked underneath the slashing spear end, Leblanc's head raising at his sudden appearance, before he hopped back to avoid more slicing knives ready to reduce him to meaty slivers. Reo barely took notice or care to his teammate before jumping over her head and planting a foot into the warrior's face.
Leblanc had to scramble to lift her fan up in time to catch the quickly executed jab for her chest, before Arlayla slid her hands on the shaft of her weapon to draw closer to the blade of her spear and to the blonde leader. A thin hand came out from behind her back and she reached for the sphere Leblanc held.
"No you don't!" Leblanc yanked it back as a zipping line of light flew over her head and pinged off of the stone walls, momentarily stopping the woman who continued to stretch for the prize and hold her weapon back.
Leblanc heard another bullet fire and zoom past before there was a crack and a familiar voice snarling an insult before another crack cut him off.
Arlayla swung her weapon out and brought it back, letting it slip through her fingers to gather more length as the force of motion took it towards Leblanc's shoulders. The Syndicate leader ducked and grasped the sphere tighter in her hand as she made a swift retreat toward the pedestal again.
Arlayla was bumped by a backward-jogging Ormi, who was still trying to avoid a few slashes to the body. She cursed at him and switched her targets to hit him flat across the back of the shoulders with the shaft of her spear and kicked behind his knees to knock him down. Agile as a cat, she leaped out of way of his tumbling to the ground with a mean grin as Reo closed in.
Leblanc took the time the moment Arlayla was distracted to check over her shoulder and find where the gunner had got himself into trouble, since no bullets had been fired after the two she had heard earlier.
She scanned her line of vision and swiftly landed on the easily distinguishable gunner, and began to turn around as soon as she found him. The Chaser's leader had him by the front of his shirt, his revolver's currently no where to be seen, and was getting his face bloodied by a fancy hilt of Dardel's rapier. His teeth were red colored as he gritted them and his thin blue gloved hands punched into Dardel's stomach between cracks to his face.
Leblanc began to chant before a long whine met her ears and stopped her short.
"Boss!" Ormi clutched a dagger sticking out of his beefy arm as he sat on his backside on the ground, his shield held out in front of him but not in a place to reposition quickly. Reo pulled his arm far back, another shiny red-dripping knife held in his fist as his feet danced around the protected area of the shield.
She changed directions and caught a sharp pain to her lower back from the stick of a spear and heard a whipping sound signaling another blow her way. Leblanc spun and caught the spear head shooting to run her through in the curve of her fan, arm shaking momentarily from the shock of the sudden halt.
Arlayla's pouty lips pulled up into a mocking pucker, "Wuzzah matter?" She nearly baby-talked, undermining Leblanc further, "Can't trust your men to handle themselves?"
"Shut up!" Leblanc bit before throwing the spear aside with her weapon and slashed the air, catching the air blades and tossing them into the Chaser, who flew off her feet with the force of them. She whirled around on her heels and called, "Boys!"
"Err!…" Rikku squirmed under the weight on her back, her Al Bhed features smoldering with emotion,"Get off!"
"I don't think I will," A young man, judging by the sound of his voice, jeered as he sat on the balls of his feet, planted on the thief's lower back. Rikku's two friends were sadly no better off as she while they struggled under the weight of a Chaser underling, two other Chasers waiting beside in case that their comrades should topple.
Paine growled under her breath, mostly to her friends, "It's going to be hurt time, soon, very soon."
Rikku struggled further before nearly squeaking, "That'd be great!"
Yuna let out a few muffled sounds before looking up to the pedestal to see Leblanc pull her fan over her head to chant. The Gullwings froze, as did the Chasers, as bolts of lightning dashed around the room to land repeatedly on the target.
Logos found his opportunity and swung his sharp elbow across the leader's face as Dardel motionlessly watched Arlayla take the brunt end of a spell. He let out a sharp hiss and the gunner picked up the sphere into his long fingers from the ground and dashed back towards his Boss, only slowing once to grab his dropped single revolver from the ground to shove it back in place on his belt with the other one.
Reo took a spell to the head as well and Ormi limped back up to his faithful spot behind his boss and next to his best friend as Leblanc held a victorious face to all in the room.
"Don't mess with the Leblanc Syndicate!" She announced triumphantly and spared a glance to the pair behind her to see the shiny white spheres still in their hands before running towards the door, sure the two would follow her.
"Damnit!" Dardel cussed and angrily called to the henchmen holding and standing around the Gullwings with an aggravated swish of his finger, "Don't let them leave this room!"
The ones holding the Gullwings down seemed somewhat confused for a moment, gauging whether if it would be productive to let the girls up (who would probably help those escaping) or keep them held down. Without hesitation though, the others standing idly by swept into action and bee-lined to the door to block them inside.
Ormi put his shield out in front of his body and picked up his bumbling pace to hurtle himself through those fast enough to get ahead of them and let his other two group mate's follow him straight out.
Leblanc stopped for a sheer second to slap her ass mockingly to those that stared at her retreating back before leaping out with the boys.
"Get-!" Dardel started to shout out before a blinding light, one that forced surprised cries from both the Gullwings, who started to get up after the ones holding them took their chances to release them, and from the Chasers as it attacked their eyes.
AH HA HA HA HA HA!
A deep voice rang through the air and the entire ruin trembled and shook as the unseen owner of the laughter continued his apparent satisfaction.
The Gullwings stood up before Paine turned to the others, "We have to get out of here. The place is going to come down!"
Yuna and Rikku, coming to much of the same fearful conclusion, followed her as she ran to the door. The Chasers getting the same message and dashed towards it as well, rocks and other wreckage falling from the ceiling in huge tumbling pieces as they made their escape.
The light still shone as brightly as before and the teams ran through it with no difficulty, though seeing through it was impossible.
The Chasers continued down the hall before the three main members skidded to a stop.
"Dardel!" Arlayla called ahead and turned before she could finish saying, "The spheres!"
"Grab them and leave the others to the curse," Dardel spied the three spheres on the ground, as Arlayla already had, and jerked his head at Reo towards them. Wisps of power and light flowed up from the orbs to the high hallway ceiling where it wrapped around the Syndicate struggling in its unearthly grasp.
His two cohorts sprinted and snatched the treasures up, hesitating only for a few moments for possible punishment for doing so, before jerking them away and fleeing down the hallway after their leader.
The wisps connecting the three bodies above to the spheres snapped abruptly and the bodies held their place in the air for a moment longer, the broken tails of the wisps sweeping up through space towards them.
The tails met the Syndicate and coiled around the rest of their bodies, covering them in a ghostly glow that started to grow in intensity the more they tried to free themselves from it.
Yuna almost ran past them before circling back around when she realized the Syndicate was still there, in the crumbling ruin. She yelled, "We've got to help them!" to Rikku and Paine before another blinding flash filled the dark hallway up to the brim. Paine snapped her hand out and pulled Yuna a few steps back, pointing up to where the Syndicate once was moments before and showing her the now empty space.
"Where'd-" Yuna began before the black clad warrior cut her off-
"We don't have time. We have to get out, Yuna." Her voice was forceful and was appropriate, considering the danger of falling stone and closed walkways that was rumbling all around them. Yuna allowed herself one more peek, no familiar competitors coming into sight when she did, before she followed her teammate with the excellent point, out of the ruins.