Wanda
*Ikazuchi watched as Dado went through his notes and explained his plan. It was a good strategy, and was a hell of a lot better than just running headlong into battle.* 

"I would like to minimize who is on 'team bait' as Dado has put it. It is very likely that we will get held up by Inaxuma almost immediately, so I'd want to have as few people with darkness in the area as possible. However, I will go with what the majority decides."

*Its not like it would really matter, if Inaxuma gets buffed for a few seconds by another person having darkness, they would just have to fight even harder to hold him off. With Xion fighting Ina too, Ika felt like they could actually defeat him.*

"No one is expecting you to kill. At the end of the day, your own morals should guide your blade, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. These villains have already ended too many lives to receive my mercy. And as I've already said, if its your life or Suke's, pick your own. She's my friend, so if anyone should risk their life to get her back its me, so nobody else has to risk saving her. If you get to her before I can, we *Need* Dark Kingdom Key from her to seal the door, so do as you see fit."

*He said in response to Furo's first comment.*

*Ikazuchi would take to the back of the room while the rest swarmed Mod with training questions. He had some things he needed to do on his own in the little time they had to prepare. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. He closed his eyes and let his mind drift for a bit. Mod may have cleared everyone's exhaustion but it still didn't shake this overbearing tiredness he felt.*
Robert
"Maximizing Team Bait will make it seem as though we're trying to storm through the front door and lower other defenses. I'm sorry, Ika, but you and Xion are probably gonna have to hold Inaxuma off while Eve and I escape. That could force Maleficent to try and occupy us with Suke, Sunset, or herself. I think it's our best move."
Wanda
"Fair enough, I trust your judgment, Dado."

*Ikazuchi said with a smile and a nod, still with his eyes closed.*
Robert
*"Someone has to," Dado's inner monologue retorts. All this planning, and he's still half-convinced it'll be a repeat of Agrabah. Between determination and a poker face, a brief look of worry flashes on his face.*
Brandon
"Hmmm, since you know these individuals better than I, do you expect them to send their entire force to crush team one at the gate, or will some be in reserve?"

As the others turned their attention to Mod, Furo sw it fit to keep his attention on the overall plan. He had some projects he had in reserve so extra training was not going to benefit him.

"I am erring on the side of caution by thinking at least one person would be overseeing the hostages. Either the leader or the most trusted individual. I wouldn't think a possessed ally of your would fit either role, nor would I think someone who has switched sides would be that trustworthy. If this other half of yours is competent and committed, what's the likelihood he would be waiting for you at the door rather than hoping you make your way to him alone?"

He put a hand to his chin as he tried to think about the situation from different perspectives.

"I still think team one should have all of you, don't get me wrong. I trust your other half is as much a danger as you believe, but if we only focus on his potential presence, we may ignore the chance that team one gets swarmed by heartless rather than the big four."
Robert
"Heartless can't capture Ika." *He frowns.* "He's the last Princess of Heart. Her goal's gonna be capturing him, so she has to send one of her generals after him. That goes right back to your point about which of them is most competent and least likely to betray her."

"I think a more likely outcome could be her throwing as many Heartless as she can at us to weaken us, then sending Inaxuma, and sending at least one other Big Four after me and Eve. Or maybe sending Inaxuma first, then waves of Heartless when Eve and I get out of there. Thanks for bringing that possibility up; I hadn't properly considered it."
Wanda
"You're entirely right. My presumption on Inaxuma's positioning only comes from my own familiarity with how he operates and his skillset. It is *Very* Likely he is the one guarding the princesses, seeing as he's been the one kidnapping them. But Dado also brings up a good point. They need me, and he's the one who has defeated me before. If anyone would be sent to stop me in my tracks, it would be him. However, it won't be certain until we reach the gates. If Inaxuma shows himself, we can assume the latter, and if he doesn't perhaps we assume the former?"
Robert
"Another divergent point on the flowchart. If we get swarmed with Heartless, I'll run support and keep us from taking too much damage." *A swarm of loose barrier hexagons materialize around the young man, forming into several shapes.* "She can't wear us down if we use good MMO strats." *He grins, finally confident about at least one part of this plan.*
Brandon
Furo just stared at Dado as he debated asking what this 'MMO' was. It sounded like battle documentation, but not quite. Since the mechanic could make sense of the overall point, it would probably be better to just leave it rather than derail the conversation.

"I will stress that team one's main goal is to stall. If you all do not think you can make a significant push, then at least keeping their attention for team two to get into the heart of the place. I have no faith that we clear the place without trouble. When team two ends up making noise, that hopefully relieves the pressure from your group. Then the paradigm shifts. We'll throw them into disarray as they try to track us down on the inside."
Robert
*Dado nods.* "Either way, it'll spread her forces thin and introduce more points of failure for her. While we're all here, I'm gonna make two group chats for us: an obvious one for Team Bait, and a less conspicuous one for all of us."

"Uhh, Furo, I don't have your contact." *He holds out his Gummiphone with an "Add contact" Screen.* "Can you please add yourself?"
Brandon
Furo looked at the proffered phone, hesitant. He ultimately keyed in his number after a long pause. The merit of keeping in contact at least for the operation winning him over.

It was a temporary arrangement after all.

Though, he kept silent as he thought more about it. The kidnapped friend of their's was in a recent group chat as well. He did not want to consider it, but there was a chance that the enemy had her phone still. Maybe Icidro and Brad were already in their crosshairs making most of this moot?

No, there was still value in the plan. He would simply have to keep it in mind for later. 

"I don't quite understand why group chats are necessary. If one of us went down and had our phones confiscated, wouldn't they have access to a data trail of our communications?"

Furo was an avid caller to begin with. He was only a part of one group chat currently, and it was for quick dissemination of information and any updates he wanted to push to everyone's phones. 

Maybe his ship was not the only thing that needed an anti-theft self-destruct function...
Robert
"That's why we have two different group chats. Team Bait's is called 'Mission Hollow Bastion' and is where we'll do basic coordination on our side. 'Ping Pong Game' is a ping system for everyone to let each other know we're okay. If our enemy got ahold of any of our phones, they would pay more attention to Team Bait, and likely not pay Ping Pong a second thought. At most, they'd check it, see it's exactly what I said it is at the start, and ignore it."

"Back in my world, I used Ping Pong as a way for me and my friends to safely check up on each other without our parents knowing. It's a solid system."
Brandon
Furo took out his phone and looked at the chat. He considered it for a moment and simply voiced the first thing to come to mind.

"Hmm, I see. If I happen to fail to respond in a timely manner, I would rather you focus on the objectives than rush to aid me. I will try to keep up otherwise."
Robert
*Dado winces.* "Yeah, umm... I dunno how to phrase this without it sounding mean, but this is more of an 'inventory' type of tool. It tells us who's unavailable at a given moment, not why. It's for managing our options on the fly. So nobody worry about trying to rush over to help anyone who isn't responding or anything."
Brandon
Furo's eyes lit up at that. The response he received was waaaaay better than what he assumed it was the chat was for. 

"Oh, that's good. After the whole teleporting concern you threw out, I figured it was more for that."
Robert
*Dado sighs, relieved at seeing Furo less annoyed than he's seen him so far.* "No. If Maleficent pulls someone aside, we know they're in trouble, and we know we could be next. If someone doesn't pong, all we know is that they're indisposed. They could be having a picnic for all we know."