World Tree MUSH

    The evening is normal in the shopping district. The buildings are a mix of smaller mall-like multi-store indoor spaces and pedestrian-friendly walkways lined with stores. The architecture consists of red brick walls combined with touches of forest-green wooden trim and dark iron accents. There's a quiet note among the shops of preparing for the holiday shopping season by clearing out inventory, as shown by the plethora of sale signs. People are milling from shop to shop, some with beverages in hand and most with shopping bags.
    Murmurs begin and shoppers pause in their tracks as an entire column of toy-sized wind-up army men makes towards the clock tower plastered with electronic billboards in the center of the shopping area. They seem to be whistling the Colonel Bogey March in a tinny tone.

    Claire is looking around the stores looking for interesting fruits. She has just come out of one store when the army men come out, and she peers, asking someone nearby. "I'm afraid I'm not local, is that normal around here?" She casually puts her hands inside her pockets, grabbing the slingshot and one of the explosive bullets therein, but tries to not make it show.

 
 War is a horribly, awful, terrible thing that no matter the circumstances is never justified. Short of simply the base need of defending one's own survival. 
 
 But man.. is this song catchy! And those are some -adorable- toy soldiers! 
 
 Commander Shadowsun had lived the horrors of warfare, but she had never seen it in a theatrical, almost festival, manner such as this. The Tau had been walking around shopping for things in just her army jumps suit and she stopped to watch the little column of toy soldiers marching about. "Huh.." The tall, almost fish like person, frowned and stood there mesmerized by their marching, seeing them walk by. 

Benedicta's still trying to track down her human doppleganger, but she hasn't been had much success with finding her. There's a yellow glow from underneath the al-miraj's hoodie as she tries to keep a low profile with her hands stuck in her pockets. She quickly finds the reason for that as small toy soldiers go march by. There were still toys on the lose from the last year it seems. Of course the unit of soliders in armor were a bigger concern for her, what were they doing here?

    Shopping district!, the young pokemon trainer was simply searching for bargains, mementos to take home, to his friends... and taking a couple of his pokemon for a walk!. Since he was trying to avoid a panic, he decided to go for his smaller pokemon, it's unlikely anything was going to come up after all! So far he had a large cup of juice and a bag of snacks, which he was sharing with the two creatures he had besides him. 
    To an untrained eye... and well... anyone... they were just 2 cats, a larger, black colored one, and a creamy one with what looks like a coin stuck to its forehead. The trio were chewing on some pastries when the conmotion starts. Luke simply moves for a better look, while the smaller of the two cats, a creamy kitten like thing called Meowsey, takes as a cue to 'investigate' the nearby stand, perhaps paw and swipe some loose coins for its hoard. The larger, black furred one called Berurun instead moves to check the musical machines, bell tipped tail swining in time with the marching song, even reaching to casually bat at one of the army toys, while Luke reaches to try to stop it.

    There's confusion from the crowd too, as more people stop and stare at the toy soldiers in classic 19th century red British uniforms, complete with polished and oiled boots as well as toy-sized rifles. The soldiers surround the clock tower, where the leader (judging from his uniform markings) takes something that rather resembles a USB stick out and mashes a button on it.
    There's a brief squeal of feedback from the speakers that were, mere moments ago, pumping out EZ Listening Tunes and the electronic billboards on the tower flicker for a moment. To be replaced with a balding man with dark Victorian-era goggles, a smartly trimmed goatee and mustache, and an immaculately white lab coat.
    With a deep and melodious voice, the man speaks. "Greetings to the citzens and visitors of Berkeley! You have already met my marvelous mechanical minions. I am Doctor Aether. You may be wondering if this is a marketing ploy by our omnipresent oligarchy, but I assure you it is not. I have chosen this collection of corporate consumerism for immediate immolation and do not wish any of you harm. Would you kindly vacate the premises within ten minutes? After that, I cannot guarantee your safety. Good day to you!" The message is replaced with a countdown timer.

    "Well I get the feeling we should do something about this." Claire says out loud to no-one in particular, and pulls out the slingshot and bullet she readied, aiming for a good collection of the toy soldiers as she approaches, "Tell your boss that plans have changed, and that if he doesn't abort I cannot guarantee his safety."

 
 Shadowsun crossed her arms and watched the proceedings with curiosity. Despite the light hearted aspect of it all, something about it was really bugging her. Maybe it was the war veteran in her than she couldn't help but go into potential combat mode just by the sight of guns, even if they were supposed to be toy ones. 
 
 When the parade stopped and the man on the big screen started talking- Shadowsun really did almost immediately ignore it all as a marketing ploy. In fact, she was about to start walking off and resume shopping when she heard that key word. 'Immolation'. 
 
 "Wait what??" The Tau turned around to see the countdown timer. A terrorist attack! "Run!! Everyone run!!" She started waving at the shoppers and other civilians to clear the area. 
 
 "Activate combat mode! XV25 Stealthsuit: online!" She flicked something in her wrist pad and her humongous Tau battle suit teleported to her person making her even taller than her already imposing 6.5 feet. 

"Oh great, some nutcase is going to burn this place down." Benedicta freezes up as she tries to figure how they're going to safely get everyone out in 10 minutes. "We don't even know if he's here or not..." Her attention turns towards Claire. "Focus on getting everyone out of here without anyone getting hurt! We can deal with Dr.Nutjob later!" She doesn't know how he plans to burn this place down, maybe the toys were rigged to explode. She certainly doesn't plan on sticking around to find out.

    Luke managed to catch the pokemon from batting at the marching toys, and perhaps it was a good thing?. He just watches at the announcement, tilting his head, "Immolation? are you going to destroy this marketplace?". He looks at the machine soldiers, wondering if they were explosive, or electronic or mechanical. He seems to go against common sense and gets closer, recalling his pokemon and reaching for his pokeballs. Shadowsun screaming 'Terrorist' and 'Run' only makes him move faster!. 
    He stares at the battle suit for a few moments, he wishes he had something as cool!. He approaches the suited Tau, "What should we do?, are they explosive? or are they going to attack?". Even as he speaks, having recalled the two cats, instead he releases a different pokemon... a large bipedal (7 foot tall) pink, white, and black creature, Bewear!. He hears Benedicta's suggestion, and begins to try to round up anyone gawking at the congregated machines to help them away. "I'm sure there will be images of this later, just go away until we are sure this is safe!" he insists.

 
 "There's no way to tell right now!" Shadowsun replied to Luke as she overheard him addressing her. She went to try and scan the toy soldiers and while her battle suit's scanners detected very real weapons, there was no way to tell with certainty if they themselves where the explosives or if the explosives are hidden somewhere else. 
 
 "Just get the civilians out and don't nobody fire on them unless they attack first!" Shadowsun was quick to assume the role of leader, but she really didn't know if anyone was going to listen to her. In her mind, if the toys were the bomb then shooting them would just trigger the bombs and get civilians killed. The sure way for now was getting people out of the apparent line of fire. 
 
 Shadowsun engaged her suit's thrusters and she began carrying those civilians that didn't seem fast enough on their own, the elderly, parents with their children and such. 

    The crowd gawps at the billboard, not really sure if this is real or some kind of weird viral marketing ploy. Most let themselves get herded by Shadowsun, Benedicta, and Luke's pokemon. Eventually the masses decided that it was real enough and (to their credit) walk quickly back to their cars or away from the area.
    A formation of the toy soldiers, at Claire's attack, unslings their rifles and opens fire as their comrades-in-arms are turned into dangerous shrapnel from the explosive sling bullet.

A pair of feathery wings burst out of Benedicta's back in case she needs to carry someone out of here as well. She can't fly as fast as a jetpack but it's better than nothing. She was going to be sore in the morning though, she's known more for her speed than physical strength at all. "Shit!" She didn't need sharpnel to deal with on top of this. "Stop attacking them!"

    "These are people's futures he's threatening, please continue to escort the people out for their safety, their futures aren't worth much without their lives, but I'm not about to let some self-important figure destroy all this for what are no doubt nefarious ends." Claire yells at the others, taking some hits from the toy soldiers that sting solidly while she gets out a bomb about the size of a yoga ball, uses it for cover while she carefully rolls it forward, then lights the fuse and runs. "I got to give the doctor credit though, this is a place of corporate greed and I don't mind if this tower goes down."

    Luke has no jetpack unfortunately, just has a very, very strong and very fast pokemon just lifting people and rushing them away a few blocks, clearing the area nearby, as much as he wants to help, Shadowsun is right and the Civilians have to be out before handling the robots, being sure they won't accidentally blow up the tower or a block in their fight might also help.

    The soldiers are further exploded by Claire's attacks, reduced to shrapnel and scrap. It's not that the soldiers are explosive so much as being utterly shredded by Claire's explosives. A wave of them fix bayonets and scream "DEATH TO THE PLUTOCRATS!" in tinny voices as they rush forward. Further back, closer to the tower, the soldiers are seen withdrawing into the structure and taking up positions to take pot-shots at any other aggressors.
    The crowd, thanks to the efforts of Shadowsun, Luke, Benedicta and the assistance of security guards, have gotten the crowds away from the shopping area. Shop employees are quietly escaping out the rear doors of said shops. No sign of emergency responders yet, but it has only been roughly a minute.

 
 "Blast it all! I said hold your fire!!" Like that'd help. Shadowsun was fully aware that she wasn't dealing with her hardened and disciplined Fire Caste warriors. A lot of these people were at best vigilantes, she was not surprised they started shooting on the toy soldiers immediately. 
 
 Fortunately, the toy soldiers did not seem to have explosives on them, and the shrapnel was not a problem to dodge to the swift Tau Commander. Once she got as many civilians out of the combat zone as she could, Shadowsun returned to engagement, her twin fusion cannons charging up. 
 
 There was a *Ping Ping* noise coming from her scanners as her HUD finished detailing information on the toy soldiers. 
 
 "They're drones!! The soldiers are drones!" She yelled at the others, lacking communicators she was just going to have shout. "Find who's controlling them! Take them down!" 
 
 For now, she'd begin firing on the first line of soldiers from the air trying to pin them down where they were bunkering up. 
 
 "If anyone has EMP capabilities that will also work against them!" 

    Claire begins placing bombs around the tower. "I suspect if we just blow up this gaudy thing, the rest of the plan will fall through." She states out loud, not bothering to listen if anyone agrees wit her choices. "So I would recommend against entering this tower until we can re-assess the structural integrity of what's left after I'm done." She makes sure to carefully arrange the lengths of the fuses for maximum impact of explosives, and steps back. "Lighting fuse in three, two, one, now." She does.

Benedicta doesn't have any kind of EMP, it's not like she can copy an electric eel. "That means they can't be far from here right?" She knows drones have limited range after all. "The detonation could still be remote. Look, I prefer the outdoors myself but I rather avoid desruction if possible. Wait...you're going to blow it up yourself? That could make the explosion even bigger!" It might take down more than just the towers after all.

    Luke is not close enough to the tower to see what is going on, instead he just barely hears what Shadowsun says and tries to scream back in return, "I'll search around!". The mention of EMP does catch his attention, "I think I have something that might work for that, not sure how much a range it has... haven't tried using it outside of practice!" he tells the alien soldier. He is carried over by his Bewear until they get next to Benedicta. "I think Dynamo can do one, might be enough to hit the tower and the robots inside!" he warns, even as he returns the Bewear and switches for a different pokemon. 
    The fluffy looking 'bear' dissapears, only to be replaced by a large, round looking 'tiger', any doubts of elemental alignment might be quickly discarded at the sight of the lighting bolt on its fur, and the fact it is emitting sparks around as Luke pets it. "Should I try to blast the tower?" he asks Shadowsun, deciding that she likely is in charge of the situation. Even as he waits, his pokemon seems to be charging up, stating building around it.

    The soldiers are shooting at Claire's hands, fingers, and fuses as she tries to set up the bombs. It's really just a delaying tactic, but it really seems that's all the toys can do at this moment. They take casualties from Shadowsun's aerial strafing but don't seem to be dividing their fire to deal with the battlesuit, apparently recognizing the more immediate danger of Claire and her explosives.
    What few security guards were around are hustling directly away from the tower after seeing what Claire is up to and the white-hot blasts of Shadowsun's fusion blasters.

 
 "Nooooo!! Don't blow up the tower! We don't know if there's explosives inside!!!" Was Shadowsun's immediate answer to Luke as he asked if they should attack the tower directly. Him asking got her to realize that Claire was already -well on her way- to prep some bombs to blow the whole thing of smithereens and cursing under her breath, and realizing she wasn't going to be able to stop her, she stopped firing and hastily started scanned the tower for possible explosives. 
 
 Her HUD came with negative results and she extended a hand. "The tower has no explosives! It's clear to be attacked directly!" She said, still pretending that she was in control of this situation, but she would BS it to the every end. 
 
 "Luke! Open fire with the EMP!" She gave Luke the all clear to attack. Again, as if people actually needed her permission, but she'd continued pretending there was some semblance of team tactics here. She had worked with Orks before, she could do this! 

    The fuses are lit, Claire steps back and focuses on making sure none of the toy soldiers manage to interfere before they explode. Shadowun's suggestions get a thumbs up. "Should've been fine even if there were any inside. I'm a farmer, I know what I'm doing.

"So there are no explosives...then how was he planning on bringing it down?" Benedicta can't help but to be a bit confused now. Still, she's not sure how to get the toy soliders out without storming the tower directly. "You basically just did his job for him!" She can't help but to glare at Claire as she says that. "It's not an old barn you're bringing down, people are going to lose their jobs because of this!" She can't help but to be annoyed about the whole situation.

    Luke wanted to go there but saw Claire getting pretty much set up to blow up the tower and... he didn't want to explode, or hurt his pokemon either. Still, he decides to take a chance, perhaps Claire heard the conversation about the potential solution?. He is ready to send his pokemon to attempt to take care of it... when Claire clearly just decides to go ahead with the explosion. "I think it might be too late for that plan." he manages, signalling Dynamo to stop before it reaches critical charge, and the nervous feline moves to stand between the boy and the tower, as if ready to protect Luke from a potential explosion blast.

    "He wasn't telling people to leave the tower, he was telling people to leave the area. He was going to destroy much more than this tower, but it's clear the tower is key to his plans." Claire bites back to Benedicta, "And if anyone loses their job for this, it's the fault of the greedy, self-centered assholes who built this edifice to exploitation. I will personally compensate the people who lose their jobs if it comes down to that, but it won't."

    The bombs go off, exploding in such a way that the tower mostly collapses on itself. Most of the debris comes down in a pile in the little round area the thing used to stand in. The clock face is launched upwards, barely missing Shadowsun, then hits the ground with a spray of brickwork, and rolls around in a circle like a loose coin before flopping down and settling. There's no sign of movement from the toy soldiers in the rubble.

 
 "I'm not entirely certain that tracks.." Shadowsun rubbed her forehead when Claire assured her she had the necessary credentials to blow up a tower that could potentially be full of explosives and not cause even more structural damage. 
 
 "The EMP was for the toy soldiers. We don't know if the remote was inside the tower!!" Said the Tau to Luke as he decided not to fire anything and just let Claire do her thing. Shadowsun wanted to bury her face in her hands-- but it was a good thing she didn't because the clock face almost smashed her out of the air. 
 
 "GAAAAAH!!" She dove to the side narrowly avoiding getting hit. What a disaster of a mission.. but.. all the civilians were safe and they lucked out because apparently the remote was inside the tower after all and the killer toy soldiers stopped moving. 
 
 "I guess it worked out after all.." She sighed and slumped her shoulders whilst hovering. 

Benedicta's not going to start a fight with Claire but she still doesn't agree with her methods. "Well, at least everyone got out okay." She tries to think of the positive. "Still, we're going to have track down the Doctor before something like this can happen again." It looks like she has her hands busy. "Still there has to be reason he did this besides captialism. I mean why pick this exact spot?"

    Luke had to get close to the tower, and he did not want to get involved in an explosion, not his fault!. He is just glad apparently no one got hurt in either case, and just assists in inspecting the rubble for any leftover machines or things to take care off at least.