World Tree MUSH

    "UGh, fuck... Drank too much."
    Rebecca comes staggering out of the Afterlife looking a little more green than usual, one oversized mechanical hand holding her head, the other bracing against a nearby wall to hold herself up as she stumbles out of the bar. All that tequila, vodka, and one too many Silverhand Specials must have gotten to her. But she's up now and it's gotta be like super late into the night.
    Not the best time to be wandering the streets as she turns down an alley.
    It takes a severe force of will to not empty her guts into a nearby dumpster.
    That would just be undignified.
    But it's the sound of a pretty big ruckus further down the alley that gets her attention.
    "The fuck's going on this late at night?" She mutters, curiosity getting the better of her as she starts heading in the direction of...
    In the direction of a pretty big fight, all things considered. Maelstrom guys tend to roll in packs and the nearly cyberpsycho'd chrome junkies don't like it when they are denied their prey. So a certain someone stepping in to rescue a certain out of town Exotic only serves to rile them up more.
    The sound of gunfire rings through the alley as several of the leather clad aug'd out cyborgs wildly unload their weapons, cackling, hollering, hooting, and whooping.

 Things never got to stay simple or be celebrated for long, did they? 

 When they'd defeated Horde Prime it seemed like everything would be perfect...then their World had been thrown into the madness of...well, all the other worlds and she'd been flung to who knows where. For far too long she'd wandered, trying to figure out where the heck she was and what was going on when she'd finally come across Night City and whispers of a certain feline that had spurred her to search through the neon madness that somehow reminded her of the Fright Zone but...better? 

 Wasn't that a depressing thought when she reflected on where she'd grown up? 

 Still, finally, she'd found success, she'd found Catra and she'd come to her rescue. Everything was -right- again, at least in a little tiny but incredibly important way. She'd found a safehouse in some abandoned apartment and was giving the 'Exotic' time to recover...but it seems one of the goons she'd thrown halfway across the block had taken things perfectly and now? Well, now she was hiding behind a dumpster as a rounds kicked up dust, sparks and chunks of concrete around her. A sudden -whumpf- of a 'Powered' weapon punching right through her cover and narrowly missing the blonde brings an audible 'Yipe!' from Adora who'd been doing her best to keep them away from the hideaway where Catra rested before she exhales a breath. 

 "Heck with this," she mutters, habitually censoring herself after all that time around the princesses before energy crackles and the Sword of power manifests in her hand. 

 "FOR THE HONOR OF GREYSKULL!" 

 Blinding light filled the alleyway, magic surged through her veins as potent as any chrome the city might offer and where Adora had been hiding now She-Ra stood tall, brandishing her weapon.

    "Look, you gonks." Claire calls out as she shoots one of her explosive bullets at one of the cyborgs, "You borgs have one chance to make yourself scarce before I flatline all of you." She threatens, the foreigner with no apparent cyberware sounds perfectly confident as she stands out in the open.

    Half a block away, trudges another off-world Exotic. The sound of random gunfire isn't new to Night City, but this soon after a friend of hers set off, and the direction it's coming from...

    Scavenger checks her 'sidearm' blades, Scalpel and the other un-named sword that act as her backup weapons, before turning and running toward the sound of violence. "Don't be Catra... don't be Catra..." she chants to herself, ears pinned down as she skids to a stop just outside the alley as a barrage of bullets come raking out. "SHI---..." She ducks beside the opening, and peeks around the corner.

    She doesn't have to wait long to see that no, it isn't 'currently' Catra, but someone else in trouble. The transformation earns a quirk of a brow but the Zalak breaks cover and charges. "Just flatline'em! They're shortcirc'd!" she bellows back at Claire, drawing her blades and slicing through the arm of the Powered weapon user, to take that dangerous piece out of the fight.

    Marceline stepped out a bit ago to find a snack. Maybe two. What better snack than to stalk a bunch of Maelstrom dinguses? Their gear is all SO RED. So, when the gangers all leave their rides to talk about for prey, the Vampire Queen emerges from the shadows like a blot of dark ink and pounces upon the hood of some hapless red car.

    Heedless of the jeers and ominous click of weapons from beyond, she sets upon her quarry with great relish, stealing red from almost the entire car before shots start to ring out.

    Okay? "Dang, lotta yelling. Lotta shooting. Maybe I should do something." Her gaze sweeps the spread of vehicles; cars, bikes and such and with a soft laugh, she unclips the strap of her bass and simply lets the magical blade sink into the hood of her first target before she moves along, not so subtly destroying or disabling vehicles while she waits for the inevitable rabbit to bolt from the fight. Escape will be denied!

    "For the honor of whatnow?" One of the Maelstrom goons crows.
    "Look at her bringing a sword to a gunfight!" Another howls.
    "Gyeheheheh I wonder how she'll look with more chrome?" A third sneers as-
    The sudden flare of blinding light makes the gangers cover their eyes as it sears their cybernetic optics, many curse and snarl, still firing blindly as they try to recover when...
    "Ah fuck." Rebecca sighs. Adora is clearly an offworlder because there's no night city tech that can turn a girl into a princess of power that's for sure. Thusly the diminutive solo draws a pair of pistols from her jacket, having let her heavier ordinance behind for the time being.
    A slingshot twangs ominously, and one of the cyberpsycho'd out gangsters goes down from the explosive shot that pelts him dead center of mass.
    "They're Maelstrom, don't talk, just zero them!" She shouts to the farmer, seconding Scavenger as she opens fire, a barrage of bullets laying down some covering fire to take the heat off She-Ra as Scavenger arrives and hacks off the power weapon wielder's arm.
    The guy doesn't even flinch as his augmented muscles leak some kind of fluid that most certainly isn't blood.
    While Marcy messes up a Maelstrom guy's car bad. She even made it so very un-red. They won't be getting away after that.

    Scavenger follows through with a shoulder barge to knock the disarmed thug off his feet, get some space before he pulls some Mantis Blade or something out his ass. She twists and brings both blades around in a horizontal double slash to take him out of the fight permanently. She takes a couple of bullets to her hazard suit, staggering her to duck behind the remains of a dumpster. "GAH! Fu--" she stays down, the splash of red that appeared on the wall behind her, looking a bit grittier than normal showing those did a bit more damage than just a flesh wound.

 Backup was...not something that Adora had really expected in Night City. She didn't know anyone, she was completely out of place and she didn't have any Chrome herself which made her stand out all the more. Of course, becoming a nearly 8 foot tall glowing woman in white and gold brandishing a sword probably didn't help that either. One thing was for sure, she wasn't going to complain about the help even if she was suddenly a lot more survivable. 

 One of the lesser rounds impact, pinging off her shoulder in the madness of the other girls opening fire and yelling about Zeroing, harmlessly shattering against her empowered flesh before she surged forwards, the sword of power practically singing as she sliced clean through the weapon -and- cyberlimb of one ganger who'd been unloading on the hideout where Catra and Melog were stashed.

    "Just because I expect them to be eager to die doesn't mean it wouldn't be nice if they had some survival instincts and saved me some bombs!" Claire yells as she continues shooting bullets at the chromed out murderous idiots. "So are these guys addicted to ripperdoc visits?"

    Catra is tough. Tough enough to go toe-to-toe with She-Ra, provided she doesn't get /hit/ at least. That's the important bit. Getting struck. Her chest is still bruised and goddess she aches. But she'd woken up. Had some time to process Adora's continued existence. And even grab a shower. All not long after being whisked away to safety after her post-Afterlife encounter.

    Potential safety. The sounds of gunfire and fighting are enough to drag her out of bed, groggy, achking, and grumpy. If there's anything that's a driver of adrenaline, though, it's the possibility of losing something important that you'd just gotten back. Among other things. Adora. Rebecca. Claire. Marcy. /Scavenger/. 

    "GET ZEROED YOU SCREWHEADED FUCKS!" the ball of fur and fury bursts into the fray, coming down hard on the one who put the bullets in Scavenger, her sharp toe claws gleaming before getting them wet with blood and other cybernetic fluid. Her feet, because her hands are busy clutching that revolver, sighting down to unload a round or two into the next nearest one. "Stay away from them!" she practically screams. "Stay away...!" 

    '...from my friends.' She's biting back tears again, and failing to do so.

    From further beyond the fight, metallic banging and the shriek of tortured metal and popping glass can be heard. Something's going on, something that might even catch the attention of a few of the more flighty Maelstrom peeps.

    If that's not enough, a balled up car tumbling into the far mouth of the alley might be a clue to all that something serious is goin down.

    Alas, unfortunately, cyberpsychosis tends to have a dampening effect on self preservation instincts.
    "YEP, PRETTYMUCH." Rebecca yells to Claire over gunfire as more Maelstrom go down from the farmer's explosive shots.
    But then Scavenger goes down.
    "Fuck!" She snaps, not bothering to reload and simply hurling her emptied handguns into the fray before baseball sliding over to Scavenger's body.
    "Don't you think about eating it-" She snaps, tugging an airhypo from her jacket and gearing up to ram it into Scavenger's chest.
    While that's going on it would seem that Catra has joined the fracas, landing on one of the cyberpsychos and unloading her revolver into others while She-Ra hacks down the guy that shot at her in clearly and entirely justified self defense.
    By the time this all happens, the Maelstrom guys decide to cut and run, retreating to their vehicles. ... To find the, very un-red and wrecked and-- one of them is actually crushed under the flung wreckage of the crumpled up car as it rolls down the alley and tumbles over the last of the cyberpsychos rolling them up like a chrome katamari.
    Meanwhile Rebecca is about to jab Scavenger with that injector.

    Scavenger is down, but far from out. "Death can have me when it earns me." she snarls through gritted teeth... as she digs one of the bullets out of her shoulder with her field knife.

    Did she even use any anasthetic? The look on her face screams 'Oh god this is the worst pain imaginable' so likely not.

    Rebecca gets a sharp glare from the Zalak, as the slug pings free of the wound... followed by the second. "Do it." she says after the bullets are out.

>> SUMMARY[Scavenger] >> You're going to have to try... a bit harder than that!

    What appear to be tentacles snatch out at the crumpled car, snagging steel and crushed flesh before dragging it all back out of sight in a trail of sparks and gore and flickering lights.

    A few blinks and flickers later and Marceline is hovering there, hands on hips, "Dang. You only made it this far before we started trying to smoke a buncha steelsucker freaks? Do I have anything in my teeth?"

    What.

 Well, one of their unknown allies was hurt! Adora would offer healing...but she was currently dealing with a more immediate problem since she was currently in the thick of the firefight, one of the heavier weapons that was intended to punch through metal catching her in the back and sending the Princess of power staggering with a little grunt. That would definately bruise, at least for a little bit... 

 Becca had the hypo on hand which was good, because Adora turns to lift her weapon and a glowing beem of enegy shoots from the weapon to slam sizzling into the chest of the gunman. Wheeling around to deal with the next the angry cry of furred fury exploding out of the hideout announcing Catra was feeling at least a little better brings a little exclaimation of concern...but the Maelstromer was clearly worse off as the Feline draws a firearm and zeros him swiftly. Ouch. 

 With the tumbling of the crumpled vehicle and the falling numbers, the fight was likely to be over pretty soon!

    Catra seems to have gone full blood rage. At least for a moment. At least until the sound of shearing metal and a lack of hooting Maelstrom gangsters fills the pounding in her ears with silence and her own pulse. She looks down at the gangoon beneath her, his face having already been pretty mangled by Maelstrom implants. She swipes at his neck, severing whatever's left there in meat and tubing before just... falling over.

    She hits the ground, chest burning with pain, tears flowing from her eyes. The catgirl isn't in her 'usual' attire, she's in shorts and a borrowed shirt at this point, the shirt soaked in blood. The way it's pulled and loose shows that there's a massive bruise in the middle of her chest and by the way she curls up seems to indicate that the adrenaline has worn off and she's in a world of pain.

    "Ow..." she whimpers, tail and toes curling. "...is.. are.. are.. alright..?" she somehow manages, looking for the others.

    Well, that's two injured people. Claire knows exactly what to do about that. "Be right back." She runs off, and a moment later, she returns with stacks of food. Fresh produce turned into salad, dressing made with dino mayo, and including boiled eggs. She puts a lot of into two bowls, shoved towards Catra and Scavenger. "Eat." There's more bowls and more of the salad for those who want some, in fact. Claire puts some in a bowl of her own and begins to eat.

    'Do it' Scavenger says.
    "Rebecca winces at the sight of the Zalak's self surgery, but doesn't hesitate.
    "This won't be fun." She warns before jabbing the hypo into Scavenger's solarplexus and hitting the button on it, the injector hissing as it dumps a cocktail of painkillers, drugs, stimulants, and steroids to into the operator to get her back on her feet.
    With that handled, the solo tosses the emptied hypo aside where it clatters to the ground and holds a big metal hand out to help Scavenger up while Adora wraps things up.
    "She'll live yeah." Replied to Catra. "Goddamn though she pulled the bullets out, herself. That takes grit." Becca whistles.
    But with that handled, Rebecca does help herself to some salad.
    Can she really be blamed if there's actual fresh produce on offer and not SCOP or kibble?
    "So yeah. Welcome to Night City. Who're you?" She asks She-Ra point blank before answering Marcy: "You know how it is with these guys, they're all over the city, it's kill or be killed." Pause. "You've got red on you."

     At first it seems intimidating. 
     With all the ruckus that just happened, it seems like back up has arrived. A car slows and turns down the alley. It's a black car, but it looks very... professional. The windshield is slightly tinted, but it's very easy to tell that there's ... 
     ... There's no driver. The Car is moving on its own. 
     The headlights dim as it slows to a stop, and the back driver side window slides down. "Miss Twintail, we've arrived at the site of the disturbance." 
 
     True enough, a familiar fox exotic fixer slips out of the car, sitting on the opening for the car window, leaning forwards to rest her arms on the roof of the cab car and tap her finger tips on it. There's a little smirk there, ears perked up as she flicks that tail along the car door. "Oy, choombattas, keep it down. TT's trying to enjoy the night." She taps the car's roof again a little. "Anyone needa ripperdoc to fix them up? This is your only freebee."

    Scavenger gets flooded with Night City's cocktail of 'medicine'. She winces as the concotion initially enters, then grabs the big mecha-mitt, pulling herself up and cradling her arm. "Pulled worse things out of worse places in the field before... bit of lead is a holiday by comparison." she grumbles... She does take the offered bowl of food, and begins quietly munching on it. Slowly at first but eventually just buries her face into the greens and scarfs it down like she's not eaten in days.

    Marceline looks down, stretching the bottom of her jersey down and out to get a look. "Really? Dang, what- Where?" She wipes her mouth on her arm and grimaces at what comes off. "Right, thanks."

    She re-slings her axe bass and snorts as she floats over, checking out the carnage. "Yo, you guys get jumped out here by these dinguses? Sorry, I didn't mess with them until they were already way outta their rides." Really, she hadn't intended to do anything to any of them except maybe give one or two of them heart attacks. Guess she might have to re evaluate her level of hostility to some of the gangs around this town. Frown.

 Sudden food pushed towards them. Fresh food! She-Ra actually blinks. Where the heck did that come from? The most she'd managed were instameals, ration bars and kibble that honestly wasn't that bad compared to the rations they'd grown up on in the Fright Zone. Still, she lifts a hand, absently scratching just next to her ponytail beneath the tiara as she looked down at the others, -down- at Rebecca. "I'm Adora, and-" she begins only to realise there was clear recognition between Catra and the others. She was the only outsider. Huh. 

 "I mean, or 'She-Ra' if you like." 

 Still in her empowered form, she blinks at the arrival of the 'Fox exotic', not at all unnerved by the fox features so much at the arrival and greeting. 

 "Catra," she begins, turning back towards the feline at first begining to ask if she was okay before biting her lip and giving a nervous chuckle. "Is uh...is this normal?"

    "In.. a sec.." Catra groans, staring at the salad bowl she's been given practically out of nowhere. She's struggling to sit up but manages to do so, pressing her hand to her chest. Then slowly, she rises, bowl in hand, and stumbles towards the cab. "...yeah I feel like I got hit by a truck, can the doc do anything about that?" she shows the massive bruise from what amounts to a dum-dum round striking her in the sternum.

    Then she turns, slumps against the side of the Delamain, likely to the cab's dismay, and starts to crunch on the salad by sticking her face in the bowl. At Adora's question, she looks around, looks at the revolver still in her other hand, and the utter destruction wrought on the alley around them. To say nothing of the bodies. "...yeah."

    "Name's Claire Getaway. I'm a farmer." The farmer introduces herself, munching salad. "This is all produce from my farm. I hope you like it. Please, Adora."

    And there's Twintail rolling up in a Delamain.
    "Oh huh, yo TT." She says before nudging Scavenger. "You should probably take her up on that." She says amid munching on an actual goddamn leaf.
    A LEAF. A seriously real, actual leaf!
    Munch munch.
    But then she looks from Adora to Catra and back.
    "I think I'll just excuuuuuse myself now. I'll catch you all laterrrr."
    Rebecca will make her escape into TT's cab.

 
     "Yep. Doc can do a lot of things. Probably has some MaxDocs on hand, but might be best to do it 'the old fashioned way' till we make sure our chems are safe for ya, Catra." 
Twintail sees the new arrival of Adora/She-Ra, just giving a nod in her direction. 

    "Welcome to the big city, Bennie." 
    That is not Adora's name. 

    Delamain doesn't seem to mind someone leaning against it. It's quiet. Maybe it's just like that. Though what does perk Twintail's interest lightly is the salad everyone is eating on. "... That real greens? Biotechnica is going to be pissed." She snickers a little bit to herself, tapping the hood of the cab before she slinks back down and into her seat. The door on closest to Catra opens up, as if inviting her to take a seat, and the same goes as as Rebecca comes close. 
     "Delamain, put in a detour for me, Viktor's clinic." 
     "As you wish, Miss Twintail." The cab responds in kind, while she sits back and waits, her window still fully down to talk to anyone addressing her. "Same goes to you, Scavenger, you wanna get those plugs checked out?"

 A litle swell of light and the towering height of She-Ra is replaced with the more 'normal' Adora in her white and red, the young woman exhaling a breath and nodding her thanks to Claire. Yeah, she'll take a bite if only for the promise of -real- food. "I didn't think there -were- any farms out here. This is great!" 

 As for the option of doctors and of going elsewhere there's a questioning glance towards Catra. "Do we...?" she questions lightly before shrugging. She didn't exactly have more of a plan than the rescue.

    Actual people food is of little interest to Marceline, so she doesn't really pay any mind to Claire's work. Everyone else seems to like it fine, which is cool, but food is about as far from her mind as you can get.

    "So if everyone's good, Imma get going. Not sure when the sun's due up but I ain't got long back home until I'm stranded somewhere." She floats past, eyes on Adora and she's not making any effort to hide. "Good night peeps and good morning to you, sunshine." She smirks, lifts a hand as if to wave and waggles her fingers instead.

    Briefly, she perches on the Delamain cab, looks in through the windshield. "Ghost ridin?"

    "Wouldn't know if there are. I'm not from around here. Just a visitor." Claire finishes her bowl, and offers the remaining salad to Twintail, along with a business card. "Free sample. Contact me if you want more." Thus spoke the leaf dealer.

    "Look if it's on the house and stops my chest from feeling like it's going to crack open, I'm in..." Catra grunts and flops down in the offered seat, laying her gun across her lap and noshing on more of her salad. She beckons to Adora, now that she's no longer an amazon, "...c'mom..." she says, expression softening. "Let's go. Let's get everyone patched up, and ..." she sighs. "...I need more rest." The snark seems to have drained from her for now, just replaced by exhaustion and pain.

    "..then we're coming back here for my clothes and a shower."

 
     "No, ma'am. I am Delamain Cab, part of Delamain Service. With Delamain, you leave your problems at the door." 
     "It's an automated AI, Marceline. Smart, too." Twintail chims in as she holds her hands out to take that salad, and the card, but she offers the card back. "Still got yours from Afterlife, Chika. I ain't lost it yet." Monch~
     The cab's filling up fast, though. At least there's room... somewhat. Twintail's in her seat, Catra takes one, Rebecca has another, Adora obviously is going to come along, and one last seat is left if Scavenger takes it up. 
 
     "Still, Maelstrom coming this far south into Tyger Claw territory, just to harass bennies... Was it really just them goin' psycho or are they making some moves. Hmn..."

    "Ohhh, gotcha. I know one of those. Real cutie, too." Marceline pats the top of the car. "I'm sure you're a great dude! Take care of these peeps! You uh, treat yourself sometime! Or whatever you're about." Another couple of firmer pats and she might even move to shut some doors after everyone's climbed into the self driving ride and then, she skips off the ground and disappears beyond the street level glare of light. Probably off to lurk in her lair or whatever a creep like her gets up to.

 
     Scav in or not, the cab doors do close on their own, and the fox exotic lays back in her seat, her eyes glowing blow for a brief moment. 
     "Vik. Got a special case here, bullet to the sternum, heavy bruising. Got another too, pluged with a few new vent holes." ... "See ya soon." 
     Her eyes fade back to normal, and TT hits the back of the driver's seat gently with her hand. "Hit it, Delamain." 
 
     With its passengers secure, the car starts backing out back into the street, and makes its drive into the deeper parts of Watson. "Vik's good about keeping tabs if you ain't got eddies, but you probably got 'nuff from me with that gig from before to pay this easy. An get used to it -- it's a daily occurance." 
 
     'NICOLA! Taste the Love~! <3' is heard as an advertisement speaker blares its product in the background.