World Tree MUSH

    TEN MINUTES PRIOR:

    THUMP. That's the sound of a bundle of something landing on Catra. "Suit up. We're deploying in ten minutes. We couldn't get a weapon made, but the rest of the gear is yours." That's Scavenger as she continues walking to get her own gear. "I'll fill in the details when we're on the ground. Meet at the deployment ramp."

    NOW:

    Scavenger descends the ramp to ground level, mounting up on a half-tracked personnel carrier to head to the AO. "SOP on this one. Secure the zone, funnel the critters into the killzone and wipe them out." she shouts as the vehicle trundles off. "These communities are mobile, but take time to pack up and leave an area. Until they can safely evacuate they need to deal with the mutated wildlife. That's where people like us come in."

    She's not speaking to the Rhodes Island regulars, she's pontificating for the new people that aren't local. "Three things to keep in mind. Black shiny rocks are bad. The critters blood is bad, don't let any get in your mouth or open wounds. The critters can and will attack and hurt you, they're heavily infected with Originium which makes them monstrously strong and tough. Treat them like a threat and you'll get out of this alive."

    The half-track spends about twenty minutes in transit, before depositing the group at the outskirts of a small village. It's clearly made of prefabricated modular housing, meant for quick assembly and disassembly for transit. Some bits are already loaded onto large flat-back trucks that look like someone took a battle tank chassis and strapped a giant cargo bed on top instead of a turret.

    The local leader approaches. "Glad you could make it Rhodes Island... we spotted a big group of Slugs coming this way and some mutated wolves but something was off about them. They had some kind of tech on their backs. Our scouts didn't stick around to find out any more for fear of being cut off. I'll get my people into the transport until you've dealt with the critters, so don't worry about friendlies in your area."

    The man scampers off, and Scavenger just makes a gesture that gets the RI Regulars into motion, making makeshift barricades from rocks and local materials to funnel the oncoming monsters through a much more narrow and defensible channel.

    There is a... A non-local amid the group. Princess Anna Primrose of Rosalia likes to keep a bit of a low profile where she can, so she quietly signed up for the job of monster culling under just her first name and kept very quiet when pressed upon her skills and abilities, simply presenting her woodcutter's axe and chainsaw as 'credentials'.
    So the slip of a teen girl emerges with Scavenger and Catra, axe in hand and even helps to set up barricades where necessary, until she overhears Scavenger's primer on the creatures and their blood.
    "Mn..." Oh it's a good thing she brough a mask then to keep blood out of her face and mouth.
    Anna lowers her mask slowly, trying to not look conspicuous as she does.
    It is a hockey mask.

    Luke was hopefully at least able to get a rebreather, just in case, even considered if his pokemon should get something of the sort, but it might cause trouble for... some of them. Otherwise, he seems quite undergeared, simply wearing his usual shirt, pants and backpack, and of course, Sylph Co. baseball cap. He is mostly interested in getting some information on how to engage the creatures, or what was the plan, hearing the warnings was good, and made a mental note to warn his pokemon once they get to the area. Was electricity effective?, fire?. At least hearing about the area being free of 'friendlies' was a relief for sure, no chance of friendly fire.

     TEN MINUTES PRIOR:

    THUMP! "OOF! Hey! What gives!" Catra snarks as the bag is 'caught' by her midriff. Her ears splay flat against her head, grumpy expression on her face. "And what's all this stuff?" she looks through the gear and gives the string a too-long look before stowing it. "Stuff. Stuff. Pouches. Pouches. Pouches. Sweet, a knife! Man, you people like pouches..." she fishes through everything and then shrugs. "Hey uh, thanks," she rubs her middle and her ears lift, "Let's hope we won't need all the sawbones stuff in here."

    NOW:

    Catra's wrapped up in everything. She's skipped on the armored clothing, save for a jacket, given that she's better off mobile than sticking and fighting. She's got the mask hanging around her neck, and belt with bunches of pouches hangs on to her. Still basically barefoot. The knife joins her whip and her Horde-issue stun baton though the latter has definitely seen better days. "In your MOUTH? Gross!" she grimaces as she listens to the briefing, her tongue hanging out. Melog sits obediently next to her, and pokes its tongue out in an adorable blep. An adorablep if you will, to mimic its imprinted 'owner'. "Hey, don't. I don't wanna know what that stuff can do to you, either," she grumbles.

    When they all pile out and the engineers get to work on the cover, she moves to join Scavenger. Her head tilts far to one side and she's scratching the side of it, "Hey. Uh. Wolf-things? And tech junk? Sounds kinda gnarly. That usually happen? Like they get infected and chew on someone's air conditioner and it gets absorbed? Or... you thinking it's some baddies?" She lowers her arm and straightens up, "And no touching weird rocks, yeah. You want Melog to help with the barricades? They can make it look like there's more walls, or..." she sweeps her gaze over the APC. "...hide the civvies."

    Anna's look doesn't draw all that much attention. Rhodes Island isn't in the habit of turning away useful Operator candidates, and there are a couple of very young people with Oripathy giving them near Catastrophy-level power that they want to apply to help instead of harm... like Ifrit. The hockey mask earns a quirk of the brow from one of the troopers, who offers a small cloth mask to go underneath it to catch any spatter that gets through the holes. "Oripathy is no joke, better safe than sorry." he says, not condescendingly.

    Luke's offered a rebreather and a set of over-clothes with ceramic insert plates, designed to deflect claw and blade strikes, or absorb a low-caliber bullet, arrow or crossbow bolt. His pokemon are difficult to equip the same though due to the non-humanoid body-types or sheer size and dimensions. Another trooper offers advice: "Your pets do Artes, or something similar, right? Get them to focus on the second-line, soften them up for our melee guys to cut down, anything with an area of effect makes sure you don't do danger-close unless we're being over-run. Sucks to get caught in a big Artes-blast from your buddies." she says, adjusting her helmet and flicking fox-like ears.

    Catra's questions to Scavenger get the Zalak to speak a bit more loudly than just talking to her, though clearly she's speaking specifically to Catra, but wants her answer heard by those nearby. "We've seen this kind of thing before. Reunion likes to capture and enslave mutated animals, mainly dogs and wolves with remote control equipment. They often use them as fast strike troops to soften up defenses before commiting their main troops... we might be getting some of them coming through."

    Her voice lowers after that, before yellow eyes turn to Melog and Catra, "If it can keep the civilians safe, do that. The barricades will work whether the creatures know they're barricades or not. Their target is us, not the town."

    The cloth mask is gratefully accepted and that goes on under the hockey mask. "Thanks." Anna murmurs softly.
    "It happens." She does aside to Catra. "Blood in your mouth, I mean. Especially if you're a close combat fighter." The blonde says, tone quiet and mellow. "It's kind of nasty at first, but after a while you kind of forget about it." The only reason she's caring about it RIGHT NOW is because this is some kind of magical cancer rock blood.
    Though the mention of Reunion's tactics makes the girl's eyes fall half-lidded. It looks like she doesn't like the sound of that.
    "If any of these Reunion forces show up... We're clear to take them down, right?"
    Just curious there. For academic purposes.

    Is not very comfortable with heavy gear, so he doesn't seem too eager to get much things on himself, but as they ask about his pokemon, he considers options and for now, releases three of them, Dynamo, Agni, and Bewear, making sure to offer information on each of them, and a general outline of what they do. Dynamo being good at the longer range offensive, electric attacks and energy beams, Agni doing mid range things involving fire, and close range in a pinch, and Bewear being a meelee beast, literally. Luke saw the pokemon lifting and throwing a medium car once, pretty much... stay away from it when the close fighting begins, or at least, make sure it knows you are there.
    The boy winces at the talk of exploitation of the already mutated animals, "That is awful..." he hopes no one back at his world hears of this... Originium, he is sure Team Rainbow Rocket might try to experiment with it for sure. Anna makes a good point about the 'main forces'. "So we are playing defense until the civilians are able to retreat? or we are trying to clear the entire... group coming to us?" he asks.

    The felinoid woman slumps her shoulders at Anna, "Yeah, it does, I know. Would rather the taste of my own in my mouth. I'm just. Gonna mask up. Got enough problems..." she grumbles. Then her focus turns primarily back to Scavenger. 

    "Gross," Catra folds her arms across her chest, jerking her head towards the front line. "Reunion sounds a lot worse than the Horde ever was. And... we did some pretty raw stuff..." her ears fold flat against her head for a moment, and she shakes it. "Yeah, just tell me how else I can help," she reaches out for Melog who is still sitting next to her... with its tongue poking out. "C'mon, go join the others. I don't want you to get all funky from the doom crystals." The blep is then applied to Catra's cheek and she acks and sputters, "Yeah, yeah, I'll be fine!" she grumbles, blushing and looking away. Melog's form shimmers and vanishes, and then after a moment, the transport's suspension compresses slightly and soon it, too, vanishes from sight.

    "Don't look at me like that," she states with a huff to Scavenger, even if the Zalak hadn't said anything or even glanced her way. "Anyway, look, I do my best work on the move. So..." she draws the survival knife and unlatches the whip from her belt. "I can work on the edges or jump and stragglers, yeah?"

    "Reunion troopers are free game. Try not to kill them, but noone will shed any tears if they die." replies the trooper that offered Anna the mask. Try to take out the big guys first. That usually makes the smaller ones balk and turn tail." he offers as advice.

    Luke's Pokemon gear a whistle out of the trooper near him, pushing her helmet brim up a little at the huge creatures. "Right... we'll give the big guy some space... just make sure he knows not to bite any of the critters. Wouldn't want him getting Oripathy... the others can sit on the barricades with my sniper team. We'll use marker arrows to target their attacks if they can take that level of coordination." She pulls an arrow from the quiver at her back, it's got a glowing casing just below the bullet-like tip. "These things glow super bright on impact, just aim for them." she adds, showing the arrow to Dynamo and Agni, before cracking it like a glowstick. It does indeed glow super bright, like a 40w lightbulb.

    Melog earns a nod from the Zalak. Then Catra get a look. "Second line, skirmish in and intercept anyone that tries to get around the front. I'll be further ahead, ambushing them as they pass through the streets." she says, shouldering her blade as one of the lookouts fires a blue flare skyward. "They are coming. All troops, mount up. You know what you're doing. Do your jobs and don't get in my way." She then darts off through the streets to meet the enemies ahead of the defense line. Archers mount up atop buildings and some of the barricades and a few troops with riot shields and heavy batons step into the wide main street to take up defensive positions and make a living wall.

    "We don't always get to choose who's blood gets in our mouth." Anna mutters a little glumly, tightening the cloth mask a bit before she unslings her axe. "Right. Try not to kill them." She can't make promises there, to the trooper, but.
    Scavenger says to not get in her way and rushes off to the front lines... She's not alone when she does. Anna is keeping pace just behind her.
    Angry princesses tend to be fast on their feet.

    Perhaps to the surprise of the trooper, the pokemon turn to face him, with Dynamo and Agni nodding once as he mentions the markers, shifting to inspect the glowing arrow curiously. Dynamo out of reflex seems to spark a tiny bit, just enough to glow itself along the round ears and the dark bands on its tail. Luke looks at the glowing arrow and then back at the pokemon, "I believe they can handle it quite well... as for Bewear, don't worry, he is not a biter, so there is little risk of that happening, but we appreciate the warning nonetheless."

    Catra hops from one foot, then the other, nodding as she scans the line. "Right!" She's not usually good at following orders. She'd rather be the one giving them. But she's come a long way in learning what 'responsibility' is, and these Reunion guys and the crystal-infested critters... well, she'd rather her new friends not get hurt. Even though she'd just drawn her weapons, she stows them again and doesn't so much scoot in to join the line as dig her claws into the side of a building and scamper up to the roof. 

    "Won't be staying long," she states off-hand to the ranged forces she's sharing the surface with, and instead focuses on the view beyond. "Annnnd off they go..." she states, tail flicking slowly behind her. It gives her a moment to let her gaze wander, settling her eyes on Luke's Pokemon, "Oh man, if Melog could shoot lightning..." she laughs. Her laugh dies down and she smiles, feeling the nudge at her mind, "Yeah yeah, I like you just as you are. Just keep that transport safe."

    The scout comes hauling back to the barricades, leaping over the gaps between buildings as a few arrows rain down in their wake, the tips clattering noisily against the metal rooftops. "We have Reunion troops mixed in with the critters! They brough a ranged contingent!" Skidding to a stop behind an outcrop of metal as more arrows come in at an angle, before a bubble shield raises as one of the Casters finishes chanting, and slams their staff against the rooftop to provide shelter.

    Scavenger glances back at Anna, makes a gesture for the Princess to hang left, before breaking right at a fork in the road. The pair are the first to engage the enemy. Little beetle-slug creatures with large growths of black crystals on their backs come pouring into the streets. Some are larger than others, and correspondingly tougher and more aggressive.

    Scavenger takes a few out then backs off, reengaging at a different spot to thin out the horde.

    The first wave comes through to the main street, drawn to the body-heat of the troops arrayed in defensive positions.. or by their Originium-powered gear, it's hard to tell. They break against the shield wall like water on rock. Batons cracking carapaces and spraying gritty blood from open wounds. The bodys quickly burning from within on death.

    Scavenger goes right. So Anna goes left as directed, axe in her grasp. And in a mere moment later she's upon the beetle-slug things, axe swinging. ... Hard. A lot harder than a girl her size looks like she would be able to swing an axe, as she digs her blade into slug after slug, clearing a swathe on the left without quite breaking a sweat yet.
    She's angry, sure.
    But she's not raging, right now.

    Luke decides to join Agni and Dynamo near the snipers, both to be safer, and to have a better vantage point of the situation. He might have asked for some kind of ear piece to put on Bewear's adorable fluffy ear, to relay orders from a distance, but for the most part, the large creature was more than capable to figure what to do as the monsters charge the barriers. If allowed, the pokemon is one of the first in trying to hold back the charge, using its prodigious strength to punch, and throw the crystal covered creatures back like they weighted nothing, seemingly taking the warning about the creature's blood being 'dangerous' quite seriously. 
    The other two pokemon meanwhile wait eagerly for the targets to be painted, Dynamo already building up its energy, standing somewhat to the side as electricity begins to arc from its fur, making it glow brighter by the moment, not blindingly so, but... clearly signaling that trying to pet or brush his fur might be a rather bad idea right now.

    The rain of arrows coming down makes Catra blink, watching the dome of energy forming around the rooftop. "Huh..." she purses her lips and frowns, rolling onto her belly. She hooks her fingers in the edge of the roof and peers off of it, watching the beetles slam into the shield line, her tail waving above and behind her. "Right, hup!" she pulls her knees under herself and pushes off, still gripping the roof edge. A solid hand-spring and she's airborn, landing on the next roof surprisingly gracefully. "C'mon c'mon where..." she sprints in the general direction the scout had come from, seeking out the source of the arrows, clearly intent on disrupting the ranged line so the front can have some breathing room. Besides, with Anna being Anna, Scavenger hitting and running and Luke's 'mon being big, heavy hitters, a barrage of arrows is a bigger threat than the wave hitting the shields, right?

    Bewear's prodigeous strength allows it to blunt the weakened first wave quite effectively, dividing the wall of Originium Slugs so they hit the wall in disarrayed splinters instead of a solid impact. The archers on the walls fire arrows down, most of them regular shafts, but a couple of very large slugs get their own Markers assigned to them. The arrows strike, stick and start to glow for the big hitters; The Casters, Dynamo and Agni, to hit the targets with everything they have. These slugs are easily the size of a utility van and are pushing some of the smaller walls down with sheer mass.

    Anna's run through the slugs is a messy affair. These things seem to be designed to spread as much infected blood around as possible, that axe is going to be thoroughly coated by the end of this. She will also be the first to encounter one of the 'remote control attack dogs'. It's an indeterminate breed, but has a harness on with a pretty obvious 'This Thing Is Being Remote Controlled' antenna sprouting from a metallic box. It's movements are fluid enough, but there's no life in the eyes.

    Catra's rooftop run earns her a few arrows sent her way... which just leads her directly to the ranged contingent. These guys are wearing some kind of ghille suit but the terrain is unsuitable for such camouflage and leaves them pretty obvious in the open... and there's no melee troops nearby to intercept the high speed Etherian catwoman.

    Anna is... A little used to blood getting all over her. She has no complaints, she just hopes she didn't take a scrape somewhere and ended up getting any in there. But that's a problem for Future Anna.
    Right Now Anna is pressed with a more pertinent concern; the vacant eyed remote-controlled hound coming right for her.
    "Ah..."
    Somewhere between dealing with the armored slugs and encountering the dog, Anna ditches her axe.
    The result has the princess grappling the beast when it comes at her, one hand on its snout to keep it from biting, her other arm locking tightly around its neck to start strangling the life out of it.
    It can't be remote controlled if it can't breathe for so long that it passes out and or gets its neck snapped.

    The electric pokemon doesn't need anything else, as soon as the arrows land and begin to glow, it lets loose a loud roar, releasing the building energy as a smaller, blueish bolt of electricity, followed by several larger bolts launch from its round frame towards the sky, the blue bolt arcing in the air, and landing squarely on the glowing mark, before the other bolts twist and follow its lead, spreading over the casters around it. Agni has a bit of trouble being as precise, but at least has a good idea fo where to aim, letting out a bellowing growl of its own, inahlling deep, and tehn launching its own projectle, a large fireball that seems to unfurl into a 5 ended figure, and exploding it hits the target. Bewear simply continues doing what it does best, smashing and throwing the increasingly larger bugs away as they approach, staying behind to make sure to take care of anything that slips past those charging forward.

    "Oh come on, that it?" Catra's ears pin back as she leans forward, nimbly dodging the scattered shots coming her way. She grins, eyes narrowing, "Been itching for a fight with you jerks!" The cat really has. It's not just the kids, but the injured group where she first met Rhodes Island. And now leading an assault on civilians. Catra doesn't even need to get within arm's length, either. She's pulling the whip off of her belt as she closes in, bringing the knife up to deflect an arrow before skipping to the side, careful not to slip off of the roof. Then with a swing of her arm, she lashes out with the whip to snatch one of the weapons from the Reunion sniper.

    Luckily for Anna, as she closes to grapple, the remote operator isn't exactly running a lag-free rig. It goes to bite the second after its jaw is clamped shut, and starts to struggle only after its already been ensnared. Getting into that position requires pushing the antenna aside, which causes glitches in its movements as they too slow down as it loses consciousness. A quick motion leads to a sickening snapping pop and the hound falls limp, its remote system self destructing as the beast dies. There's little time to celebrate, or mourn, as more follow up, running rapidly now they have a target.

    Dynamo's Thunder slams straight down on the giant Slug, cracking its Originium shell and charring the wounds so no blood can spray out. The power of the electricity causing the thing to cook from the inside out and turning to a crisp husk within moments. Agni's Fire Blast strikes home, and takes out the other giant slug and a good swath of smaller ones with the power of the fiery blast. "Don't let up, the Hounds'll be here soon, unless the kid and Scavenger can hold 'em off." calls one of the snipers as they nock another arrow.

    Catra's assault disarms one of the snipers, the bow being yanked out of their hands by the whip-lash. The others bring up bows and a couple of crossbows to fire their bolts and arrows at the Etherian. "Reunion fights for the Infected. You know nothing about our pain!" one hisses, the large, scaley tail slamming the ground as he reloads the crossbow, pulling the string back BY HAND and slapping a new bolt into the groove before bringing it back up to aim.

    Oh. ... Oh there are more of them.
    Anna is just about done with the first dog before the pack descends upon her.
    Hurling the corpse of the defeated hound into the midst of its packmates Anna doesn't bother going for her axe. Instead, she unslings something else from her back, shrouded and bundled in cloth.
    Yanking the pullcord it revs to live.

    Vrrr... chk chk chk... Vrrr! Chk chk... VRRRRRRRR!

    The chainsaw shreds the cloth wrapping it in an instant and she descends upon the pack now, hacking into them, eyes bloodshot as she taps into her fury and starts to rip and tear.

    Dynamo seems to be ramping up, rather than slowing down, already charging a different attack as it looks for another of the large creatures, rather than a bolt of lighting, it now picks a far more... direct strike, looking at the largest marked target and jumping high in the air, energy building in it's muzzle before opening it wide and releasing a wide, blue energy beam towards the target!. Dynamo lacks other fancy maneouvers, and instead slips a bit closer, before unleashing somethign a bit simpler, but still effective, fire flaring up from its large flame to a large burning aura, before 'slashing' the air with both claws and releasing it in a large wave of flames. The bear seems to slump after releasing the blast and slowly begins to retreat. 
    Finally, not wanting to be undone, and trying to get rid of the still approaching creatures, seems the Bewear is getting frustrated at the tide, and noticing no one else seemed in the area next to him, lets out a loud snarl, smashing its 'arms' on the ground, sending a large shockwave forward, causing the ground to tremble and crack, making it far harder for the creatures to move forward, and most getting either trapped or hurt by the broken ground around it.

    "Nah," Catra doesn't catch the bow, she instead lets it clatter to the ground past her. "I don't know your pain," she shrugs her shoulders, putting more focus into dodging right now than attacking. "And I don't care." The agile Etherian dances closer, bolts narrowly missing her. "What I do know--" she darts forward with the knife, jamming it into the bolt and the crossbow itself, so that the string will snap on the blade if the tailed-one pulls the trigger. "--is there's always a better way to do something!"

    Her whip is useless this close, and she drops it to snag her stun baton. Her words are certainly ironic, though, considering the things she's done. "Harassing and infecting innocent people isn't going to get anyone sympathetic to your cause, so get out of here and take your beasts with you!" her words are puncutated by a sudden jolt of electricity, the old Horde weapon being jammed into the archer's middle and activated. Green-hued electricity lights up the sniper's perch as she brings the weapon's full charge to bear. 

    She's counting on the archers not wanting to take her on with the bows in such close proximity to the others, but they can see the claws on her fingertips as her other, now-free hand, swipes at a crossbow and cleaves the end off of it.

    Anna's chainsaw rips and tears, until it is done... This doesn't take too terribly long considering these animals are pretty mundane, as far as magic rock-cancer suffering creatures go. One backs off, and turns tail to run away.

    Luke's Pokemon shatter the remaining Slugs, Burn Up burning away a good swath of them, Hyperbeam scoring away more in a line, while Bewear's Earthquake finishes off the rest, the main street now a torn-up mess of crushed corpses, blood spatter and upheaval of the dirt-pack and a few knocked aside walls.

    Catra's advance does cause most of the snipers to turn tail and run away. Screams of "They're not paying me for this!" and "I didn't sign up to die!" The gater-tailed sniper throws his crossbow aside, and brings his hands up in a boxing posture. "We don't infect people! We fight for the rights of the Infe--HURK!" And is promptly introduced to the business end of a Horde Stun Baton. Electricity arcs across scales, and even causes the mask over the sniper's face to crack and burst in places, revealing parts of his face before the charge cuts and the man falls over, unconscious. The rest are moving fast, followed by more hounds as Reunion flees from this failed venture.

    Scavenger follows after the fleeing hounds, her rebreather in place, and her body, suit and blade covered in various hues of blood. "Vanguard to Bulwark. Reunion in full retreat. Secure the area and prepare to help the civvies finish packing." she says into a microphone built into her mask.