World Tree MUSH

Miwa never thought she would have to fight one of her friends to stop them from killing someone, but that's pretty much what just happened. Now she had carried Ash back to her world as he continued to slumber, and to her grotto on an island off the beach where she just days earlier had fought Team Skull with him and Bewul. She laid Ash down on an inflatable mattress and looked at him for a moment, wondering what to do now. She decided if Ash woke up, she wanted to have some friends here just in case his job was still active, or was angry enough with her for stopping him to attack her. So she briefly left her grotto and found a pair of Wingull who were friends of hers. She tied a strand of her hair to each of their feet, and sent them off to find Mouse and Bewul, hoping they would understand and come to find her. Then she swam back through the underwater cave to her grotto, checking on Ash.

     Bewul is not quite the best swimmer in any shape, but he does remember visiting Miwa's world, and enough of the general location that he does not need a lot of help from local pokemon, even if getting to the proper spot might be tricky!. He is going to be wet, and out of breath by the time he arrives there!. 
      The big fox surfaces from the pond inside the grotto, coughing for air and pulling himself into the underwater cavern, reverting to his gabumon shape and flopping onto his back. "I need to practice my swimming more." he mumbles softly, glancing towards the Primarina, "What happened...." his sentence stopping midway as he spots Ash on the mattress.

The entire time Ash was being carried Ordis had a radio channel open, disconnecting and reconnecting as Ash's ship mad e its own way between worlds. "Miss Miwa. Ordis realizes this was for the best, but how long will Operator Ash remain like this?" The Cephelon's voice wasn't touched by worry so much as dripped. "Also It may be prudent to go fetch assistance as the operator will be disoriented and unaware of how much time has passed so will be obligated to attempt to complete his contract until updated."

For Ash's part his warframe took slow deep breaths, mirroring his physical form's restve state. He had activly called friends in because he took a contract he ended up disliking. He's had arguments with others on why he doens't just back outor pass these contracts on to others, but for Ash a contract isa contract and if someone is going to weasle to try making him do something he does not like, he will weasle right back to make sure his honor is still satisfied and that his employer does not get what they want.

Hence why he was dead-to-the-worlds asleep.

It wouldn't have taken Mouse long enough to figure out why the bird was summoning her--even if she hadn't seen the strand of hair that had been tied to their leg. Pokemon were intelligent enough she could scan the Wingull's brain to find out exactly who and what wanted her--and why.

Mirage Mouse soon arrived in about 20 minutes time on what looked like a small speedboat, driving it to the edge of the grotto before using her TK to float up and over the edge of the water till finally her white boots found land, soft as it was.

"Miwa--are you alright?" Mouse asked, finally stepping over to the primarina as she got closer, looking to the comatose Ash and Bewul standing there.

"Hello you," she says to the latter.

Miwa would have answered Ordis during their initial trip to her grotto, though the mention of him wanting to complete his contract when he wakes up confirms her fears, causing a nervous expression to form on her face. "Well, the effects of my lullaby are far from permanent. He will probably be waking up soon, unless he is so exhausted from everything else that his body decides to just sleep through the night." 

 When Bewul and Mirage arrived, she smiled as she turned to greet them both. "I'm glad you're both here. Earlier I received a message from Ordis about Ash. Apparently he accepted a contract to kill someone but ended up deciding that the person didn't deserve to die. Seems Ash wouldn't outright reject the job due to his sense of honor, but Ordis asked me and another man named Noriaki to try and stop him. Fortunately neither of us were hurt, and his target was able to escape. I sang him a powerful lullaby to put him to sleep, but he will probably be waking up soon, and I'm afraid he might still think he's on his job when he does, Ordis even confirmed this fear just a moment ago. I was afraid he might be violent, so I didn't want to be alone when he woke up."

Bewul does not seem to be doing that hot, he is really still wet and laying down on the ground, glancing towards Mirage when she gets there, "Hi." he says softly, sitting up, "Glad to see you again." he offers politely, before listening to Miwa's explanation of the situation, tilting his head. "I see..." he muses, "Met a few digimon that feel similarly about honor." he muses. "Let's hope he won't cause... problems... I am not sure I would do much against him, he is scary." he says softly.

"So you're worried he'll still be berserk? Hmm..." Mirage stepped closer, the athletic sneaker-style boots crunching through the sand and soft earth as she approached the warframe.

"If you think he's violent I can try to contain him, or try to keep him from being violent when he wakes up," Mouse raised her hand and in seconds, what looked like a transparent dome sprang up around Mouse, Ash and anyone close enough. It was fairly small, only about 20 or so feet wide--lacking doors but had small holes up at the top for air to pass through. It looked like some kind of child's bug habitat that you'd buy at the drug store, almost.

"Now lets see what's got you so worked up--how about a little fire, scarecrow?" she grinned, putting her hands down on the sides of Ash's head.

She'd be attempting to dive directly into his mind.

What Mirage would see is a mix between dream, memory and possibly... Other. 

Flash to Ash sitting across a table reading over a formal legal document. THen his own voice whispering as the scene looped. 'Could've sworn I double checked the fine print.. how'd I miss details on who the target was?"

Flash.

Ash now outside of his warframe looking over intel reports on the target's location, window of opprotunity, and comparing against what Ordis found on the local internet and publicly avalible news archives pointing at the target being someone that truely was trying to do the right thing by wanting to position his company to act as guide and guard not just for incoming 'visitors' from other worlds, but also to help spearhead explorationthrough these 'portals.'

Flash.

Ordis's voice over the ship's speaker pointing out the contract only specified Ash not alert the target and then encouraging ash to scout the target location personally for awhile. Ash's voice laughing as the mmory paused. 'Ordis... you may not be the beast of bones anymore, but you're a hell of a teacher.'

THen with the memory still frozen Ash blinked and looked around, well.. the mental self image ofhim did. "Who's there?" He sounded confused more than angry, almost as if he wasn't sure if someone else was in the proverbial house with him.

Miwa nodded to Bewul and Mirage, backing up so that Mirage could work her magic. "Yeah, I mean, I didn't want him to hurt anyone else, but I don't want to fight him either, particularly by myself. I agree with Bewul, he's scary when he's got himself set on a target in combat. But I hadn't thought about trying to use your psyionic ability to try and calm him. That sounds like our best option. I can't keep him asleep forever."

Bewul glances curiously at the bubble, resisting the impulse to poke it with a paw, and coughs again, he will need a while to dry his furcoat, dangit. He tilts his head and glances at Mirage, "Wait... she can do that?" she asks, ears splaying a bit, that sounds a bit spooky.

To Mirage, it seemed like a fairly normal human mind--though from a fairly advanced society. It wouldn't take Mirage long to open him up and lay him out. But first, there was the objective to calm him down--and Mouse thought she knew a fairly good way to do that. But first, just so Bewul and Miwa didn't feel left out--they'd hear Mouse's voice calling to them, asking them to come with her and help her straighten Ash out.

"C'mon in guys,t he water's fine!"

All this without speaking, of course.

For Ash, what seemed like a large nightclub would form around him--dark, neon lights--himself seated just before what seemed like a... large stage, or catwalk? And just who was strutting down it?

Mirage Mouse.

Industrial techno music began to play as the mentalist began to captivate and assuage the poor Ash's poor so-called 'mind'~

"What're you doing? Don't you want to see my friends? Why are you trying to hurt us?"

the crowd around Ash would be filled with familiar faces, good omens--things that he'd find comfort with.

Ash took the change in scenery in stride in spite o the fact he typically only ever had control of his dreams for a moment or three before said dream collapsed and he woke up. He listened to the music as he watched Mirage walk down the runway, arching an eyerow at the mousey woman.

At the question he tilted his head this way then that, "My services were contracted out for a target that,a s it turned out, I didn't want to die. I only found that out after agreeing to the contract," He paused and snorted. "Yes i know, rule one... but Ordis found a bit of a loophole."

For a moment As's body was surrounded by an almost transparent aura that looked much like his warframe as he vaulted onto the catwalk. When the aura dissipated he looked Mirage over before turning to look the crowd of happy thingsover. "So Miwa and some... I dunno I almost want to say he was a Tenno but," Mirage would see an outline of Kakyoin's stand in all it's alien esque green glory flicker as if made by a hologram. "Never seen a frame like that, but I've heard stories of some tenno figuring out how to do weird things like remoting their frames around while they're out of the transferrence chair. Anyway I'm getting besides the point. How long've I been out? It's kinda important since I need to know if I'm still on the clock or not."

Miwa follows Mirage out on the stage, looking around at the gathered crowd inside Ash's mind an wondering if that was natural, or Mirage's doing. She decided it wasn't really important as she turned to Ash. "This Ordis person tasked me and another with stopping you. I've seen you fight, you could have killed one of us if things went bad there!" She scolds angrily, though quickly realizes venting at Ash isn't going to help calm him down. "Thankfully no one got hurt, and as for time, it's been maybe forty minutes to an hour since I lulled you to sleep and left that office building, and by then your target had already escaped. It wasn't hard getting away fortunately as he left the intercom on, so my lullaby reached everyone in the area."

Bewul is a bit unnerved by the idea of messing with someone's head, but Miwa did not seem to mind so... he slowly gets up and tries to keep up with the Primarina, standing as close to the pokemon as he dared, and just listening to what was going on. He splays his ears a bit and glances back at Ash, "On the clock?" he asks, but is interrupted by Miwa's comment on teh 'result' of the mission, "What is going to happen now?... I mean if your target got away?"

"You should stay in your seat, and enjoy the show--right Miwa?" Mirage rocked on her boots back and forth to the music, the neon lights playing over both her and glinting off of Miwa's scales beautifully. She was already lightly dancing along with her Primarina friend on stage.

"Trust me, girl--if this doesn't distract a guy his age, nothing will," she whispers in an aside to Miwa, her long mouse tail lashing out as she turned to face sideways from Ash as he approached them.

What Mirage was mainly trying to do was to beguile and distract Ash enough so that he'd be the furthest thing /from/ angry, and more receptive to their questions. So far it seemed to be working, small wonder why.

As Mirage turned her long tail would slip up and under Ash's chin and cheek, trailing across it.

"You don't want to hurt little old us, do you, us gals? We're your friends~" her voice would reach out to Ash's psyche, trying to instill this idea in him.

Even with the fact they are trying to keep Ash distracted plainly announced, and mirage also outright explaining why she was doing what she was doing Ash couldn't help but be facinated by the display, reaching to touch the end of Mirag'es tail as it waved near his chin. "I never wanted to hurt any of you in the first place," He smiled softly at the psychic before turning to look over to Miwa. "I mean none of you any ill will, but a contract isa contract... y'know?" Ash's voice was soft, apologetic, and with a flick of his fingers a digital clock showed behind the bar counting time down. "About an hour you say?" Ash turned his attention back to Mirage before smiling. "Technically still on the clock, but I have t oget out of my own head before i can do anything, right?" He reached over to try touching one of mirag'es ears, then stopped short and lookd over to Bewul.

"Hey, just where am I anyway? Because if i'm still laying face down in that lobby there's going to be some fairly awquard questions going on... not to mention a sweep and clear team was supposed to hit just after i rolled in," His voice grew increasingly concerned, "And unlike me they give precicely no care on keeping bystandards alive so you guys really should get moving..."

Miwa is still angry but restrains herself from growling at Ash. "A contract to kill an innocent man who is working to help relations between worlds among the world tree is not a contract worth carrying out. What good is honor toward a person who is working to sew unrest among worlds? Anyway yes, I agree with Mirage, you should sit back and relax." 

 "Your target is gone, probably hiding away in some even more secured location now, and you're asleep in my island grotto off the coast of Ula'ula Island. I appreciate the sentiment that you don't wish me any harm or ill will, but I don't like fighting with my friends, especially when this all could have easily been avoided. What would have happened if you chose not to carry out this contract?" Miwa asks, reaching over to pet Bewul, trying to keep her anger from boiling over.

Bewul is scared, a bit from Ash, a bit from Mirage... he has no reference or even knew mental things were possible, the only thing she told him before was something about lifting things!. So when Miwa reaches for him, he leans closer, trying to hide his nervousness, his tail twitching softly. "Was the contract to... do a reasonable attempt to... get your target?" he asks, "CAn't you claim things are too complicated?" he tries softly, "That you would not pull it off?" he says softly.

Ash turned to Miwa and took a breath, his eyes closing as he tried to keep his center. "I didn't KNOW the specifics until after the fact. Before that point what information I had been given pointed at my target simply trying to take advantage of new worlds opening up to muscle out competition." nother breath as Ash fought to keep his voice calm, miwa had every right to be angry after all. "Look. You're right to be upset. Usually I have a specific person I take jobs from and until I got seperated from home i kept to strictly millitary targets. THis mixing of millitary with civilian..." He sat, legs dangling off the edge of the walkway.

"My payment would have been a list of contacts in that world, more in depth information to file away for later, and a modist fee. Money means little to me, it was the information I was after since I have a whole lot of Everything to catch up on."

He looked from Miwa to Mirage, "Even if the contract had been in good faith you saw how i was dealing with the support staff. Non-lethal takedowns, melee to prevent collateral, and if i really wanted to go in hot I could've spent all morning planting explosives to make sure the target had no chance of escape."

yet she was right wasn't she? He let himself get suckered in with bad information. Then Bewul asked questions that were quite relevant. "THe contract had a fairly narrow tiem window... Well Has for the time being, but the window is closing. Secondary research showed past that point the man's company would be given government sactions to act in inter-world affairs as official represenetives. Personal theory is they wanted to specifically use off-world assets to stir unrest. The window closes, mission's a failure and i'm off the hook for it."

And yet that timer hadn't hit zero yet. Ash had shown a willingness to attack even friends while under contract and Mirage was within arm'sreach.

"I am sorry you got drug into this." Again a ghostly aura surrounded him, making it look like he was surrounded or possibly within his warframe as his hand snaked out to try grabbing Mirage by the neck.

the clock wasn't at zero yet, but it was close.

Poor Bewul. Mirage Mouse has somewhat bewitched and pulled the poor digimon into this mindscape inside of Ash--where she's erected this... place. A place designed to put Ash into a sense of security, or enable Miwa and .co to try and get through to him through his murderous rage. As Bewul sits terrified, Mirage raises a brow, creating a few platters of large cartoon-ey meat haunches for the poor thing as they assemble around the stage.

"I'm not sure I exactly know who you were trying to kill--but if you put hands on this one you'll have to deal with me, okay sweety?" Mirage kept her expression sweet, seductive even--stepping toward to run a white-furred finger and long nail up along Ash's chin, before stepping backwards along with Miwa, what looked like a brass pole rising up from behind her for her to lean on. She bows her knee and puts a booted foot against it as she reclines back against it.

It was then when Ash decided to reach out and grab Mirage by the neck. Her hands immediately went up and clasped at Ash's hand, the mouse woman's eyes widening as she began to struggle with him.

Right now Mirage would be forcibly putting all her energies into trying to force Ash's mind into submission!

Miwa shakes her head, getting a little frustrated now. "I understand wanting information, there is a lot I don't know about other worlds that would likely be very valuable to have just given to me rather than having to learn the hard way. But if you don't actually want to carry out the mission, why are you still so worried about the time limit?" Miwa asked with a bit of an exasperated tone. When Ash moved to grab Mirage by the neck, she quickly moved toward him and aimed a firm slap of her right flipper aside his head. "Ash stop! This is over, all of this is inside your own head, while your physical body sleeps in my home. I don't want to fight anymore."

Bewul is simply completely new to the world of mind invasion, if Mirage can do this so easily, what's to say she can't reach into his brain and make him think he is a bird, or mess up with him in other ways?, are there others able to do this much?. He can see why the Sovereigns back at home are concerned about other worlds. He glances around for the offered meat haunches, and carefulyl reaches for one, even as Ash explains a potential 'way out' for this whole situation. He gets up, and takes a few steps closer, before noticing the sudden attempt at attacking Mirage. He tries to reach around for Ash, to try to pull him away from Mirage, not really thinking much.

Ash's hand didn't squeeze in attempt to cut off Mirage's air. However his hand, or rather the warfram'es hand that was now part of his, had what he felt was a fiarly secure grip. "None of you seem to understand," Ash's voice sounded sad not because they didn't understand just how deeply ingrained into his being that his word given was a bond that he couldno more violate than him turning air into gold, or expect Baro to not be a condescending jerk to everyone around him. He was sad because he lacked the ability to make hisfriends comprehend this was the only thing he had in a way that wouldn't suddenly turn this into some pity party. "Please...."

"Just let me go." This wasn't the Mighty Mythical Tenno. This wasn't themaster of gun and blade making a demand. This was Ash, a young man, still a boy by all rights, in a world too big for him to lift clinging to the one thing he's had any faith in.

Ash is apparently of the opinion that the way to a woman's heart is by strangling her! What a romantic~ Unfortunately for Mirage Mouse, she's currently the one being strangled, Bart Simpson-style!

"Ack--Stop--Ash!" she was at first taken by surprise, though she soon angled the force of her mental prowess towards the boy outside of his warframe. Soon, her skin would seem to slip through Ash's fingers, as if she was made of gauze, or vapor--reforming back as she pulls away from him, her back against the dancing pole behind her.

"I do like a man with an aggressive approach," Mirage grinned, her large bucked teeth visible as the mindscape began to shift--one of the chairs from the lounge floating up and pushing against Ash's legs--a large high-chair style tray snapping up and around in front of him, trying to lock him into the chair.

"You've got time to have a seat, right Miwa?" she turned her head and grinned at the Primarina, winking at her as the lights in the club and the music began to intensify, more illusionary girls beginning to surround Ash in the chair--the kinds of gals he'd like, probably--from what Mouse could pick out of his memories--serving drinks or just generally being pleasant!

Miwa backs off a bit but shakes her head. "No, I guess we don't understand. Why can't you just drop it? What is it that you even intend to accomplish if we do let you go? The time may not quite be up, but your target already got away. I don't see how you could possibly find them and finish this job before it's too late for it to even matter as you've explained." She asks, then moves closer to Ash after Mirage puts him into his new seat, reaching out to rest her flipper gently against his shoulder. "We're your friends, and we don't want you doing anything you'll regret later."

Bewul pulls back, deciding maybe he should let Mirage handle things, at least on the physical side, instead settling back to his position right next to Miwa, "I think Miwa has a point... I can understand the desire to not stop your... mission while there is a chance to do it, but, are you sure you still have a chance to finish it before the time is over?"

Ash ignored the girls, tried pushing it all out of his mind. The noise was making it hard for him to think... which might or might not have been the point. THis was his mind, so why was this woman able to manipulate things better than he could?"

As Mirage tried probing his mind for pleasant faces she would see ghosts of... Something. A ship. His family. Fires, screaming insanity. All of these in barely remembered flashes. Ash's eyes shut at the intrusion and the mental landscape would shudder. Maybe for a half moment it would flicker to... elsewhere. Some place broken, cramped, smoke filled. And then it was back to the pleasant peppy nightclub with Ash in the middle of a migrain.

"To give up before the agreement allows is the first bend." Ash's voice was soft, but his body didn't speak it. After all this was a sort of mindscape Mirage had made right? The laws of physics were more suggestion than actual laws. "THen maybe I take anothrer step, and then another. Then another... and where does it end? At what point do you draw a line and go past this point no more when everything is flexible? Do you just pick and choose what oaths to keep?"

A bitter laugh. "Some friend I'm turning out to be for you lot huh?" More bitter laughter. "Just keep that clock running down guys... Not like i can get out ifI can't make mouse lady over there let me go."

"Oh whoops--I think we've had some change in personnel..." Mirage Mouse's lips drew back in a grin and she began to laugh hysterically. The bikini-clad women surrounding Ash were suddenly had their faces burned off, blackened skulls looking back at him through black hollow eyesockets.

"Ahah... ahahaha~" it was unclear at first why Mouse was laughing, though it could have been a reaction to the stress that she was being put under, trying to keep Ash in this dream while his own mind revolted--and she'd managed to uncover these rather... grisly figments from his mind. These were things he'd seen before, people burned--but reflected back against the illusion that Mouse had tried to create for him. Maybe this seemed just a little ironic and funny to Mouse--there was that too! She had done this before, it seemed--and didn't seem to find it as horrifying as the others.

"Give up little boy, you can't win!" Mirage slammed her fists down on the tray of the chair, in a forceful way.

"Or you're never getting out of here, or them--" the now blackened and burned bodies of the women were now clutching at Ash's shoulders with smoking, skeletal fingers.

"Ash, it's ok to have a sense of honor toward a job that you've accepted, but your own moral code should supersede the need to carryout a task that you know is wrong. If you do horrible jobs out of a sense of honor to the job itself and lose who you are in the process, then what good is that?" Miwa questions Ash, then backs away further, reflexively pulling Bewul close to her as she watches in horror as the illusion of Mirage's club breaks down when some of Ash's more grisly memories begin to corrupt the scene Mirage had created. "Oh... oh wow..." She utters in a disturbed tone, knowing that was certainly something Ash would not have let them see if it wasn't for the circumstances and Mirage digging around his mind.

Bewul is only being shown to be correct on being freaked out, letting out a whimper as the 'area' twists and change into less than pleasant things, glancing around for a moment before looking away, "M-mirage... can you... let me out of this... thing?" he asks softly, "I don't think I want to see more.". He understands WHY she is doing this, to a point, but wonders if this might be a bit too much... certainly enough for him."

00:00

Ash looked from the timer to Mirage and nodded. "If you're able. Let go." He tried to look over to Miwa then to Bewul. "Ride's over. I'm off the clock." He glancedaround at all these half remembered nightmares staring him in the face. "I'm OK now... It's... it's over. Alright?"

Miwa breathed a small sigh of relief as Ash said it was over, but agreed with Bewul. "Ok Mirage, lets get out of Ash's head then, I think we've all seen enough of his inner demons, and I'd rather not witness more. She says as she closes her eyes, trying to center her mind and go back to her own self.

"Huh? oh sure hon--" Mirage made a twitch of her whiskers and Bewul would disappear from the mindscape link--instead waking up next to the rest of them in the grotto, snapping back to real life--the mouse lady and Ash still encased in the dome in case Ash came out of the coma swinging. Everyone would seem to be in some sort of trance along with him.

Amd as the clock struck zero, so would everyone else.

"Phew... that was rough, he had some debris in there, I'd offer for a second cleaning, but..." Mirage dissolved the dome around herself and Ash as well, stepping back from Ash as she came around to Miwa's side.

"Sorry you had to see that--his mind got a bit... ugly with me," she reached up and braced the side of her temple, feeling like she had a bit of a headache coming on. It had been a while since she had intruded into someone's mind and met resistance.

"Not a match for the likes of Mirage Mouse, however~" she exhaled against her hand and buffed her nails against the front of her black jumpsuit.

Ash slowly sat up, both hands reaching for his head as the glowspots on his warframe's head completley darch. "If that's you being gentle?"Within the transferrence pod Ash tipped forward, a gesture mirrored by his warframe. "You guys alright?" Ash asked in spite of the fact he was practically curled tight enough to put his head between his knees.

Serves him right for not doing his homework.