World Tree MUSH

    "Aite, so the plan's pretty simple." Rebecca says laying down a map of Night City.
    "Arasaka's moving something big and it's coming in tonight. I'll be dropped off at the docks here in northern Watson, at the Arasaka Waterfront. We'll be all up in their home turf so security is gonna be tight, but we managed to pull in a few favors with a netrunner friend to lessen that security a bit." The diminutive solo explains. "When we get the word to go, we'll have a fifteen minute window where security will be distracted, and that's when we klep the goods. Sound preem? Nova. Our resident fixer, TT is on the case, she's on hold for more info about the stuff, but we know it's something SUPER BIG."
    That's the plan.
    It's dusk by the time the boat with the shipment comes in, pulling into the harbor and going dark. The docks are patrolled by Arasaka bots and corpo military police, and Rebecca is huddled behind a large crate with several other solos that came along for the job.
    Quote, Curly, Beck, and Call, will move in with her onto the boat when the signal to move comes and the distraction is up and running.

    Dante didn't need much convincing to join along on this. Munching some pizza from a last-minute pre-mission snack, folded up like a New Yorker of course, Dante hops onto the boat with Becca and the other solos. Hard to tell how long they're gonna last, considering Julio got pasted the last job he joined Becca on.

    "So show of hands, who's new to this?" He asks the four solos. "'cause if you are, get ready to take notes." Nomf nomf. Whatever this stuff is, it's barely pizza. More like cardboard with tomato sauce.

    While this particular job is getting a little close to Hyouka Kiyama's limits for 'shady business', she ended up deciding to take it. It'll at least be giving a black eye to what is, by all accounts, an awful corporation. And so, she's there as well, in her usual 'frumpy workout clothes that look entirely out of place on a Night City merc of any stripe'. "So, whatever it is we're here for. Metaphorically big, or literally? I'm wondering how we're going to get it out of here, and where we're going to take it, if it's the latter."

    Scavenger nods at the plan. She's got a large black wrap around whatever's on her back. It's vaguely sword-shaped but she's not deigned to reveal it just yet. "Are you sure your friend is trustworthy? This could go sideways very fast if they fuck us over." she voices... but goes along with it regardless. She'll just have to drag them all out of the fire if it deep sixes on them. She ducks behind a vehicle, waiting for the signal to move.

    Another evening, another night of crime. What's not to like? She can be a rabblerousing almost-villain and the only people that are bothered probably won't survive the night! It's honestly a little weird, and Marceline meanders toward the group while contemplating how to translate her train of thought into something catchy. Still, she makes an appearance - literally - amidst the group, pulling her fangs out of a bone white apple. Maybe someone that can sniff out demons and the undead would sense her coming but she's pretty hard to scope otherwise!

    "Whassup, peep peeps? Who're the newbs? Also, alla you, don't be dingalings and run ahead. You will explode. Swear to Glob; seen it myself. Almost lost my dome piece and ate a whole room full of people we were supposed to be savin. F'real. Just be chill. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast or whatever."

    She pitches the apple back over her shoulder.

 
     A Thorton Colby in a 'Little Mule' wasteland modification is parked in a subtle but legal place, a prime example of wasteland modifications that's a 2 seater with a pickup truck bed in place of a trunk. Lots of sitting room! The right forged documents and tags to label it as a corpo's vehicle are in place, so no one should mess with it. 
    Why's that important? It's Twintail's method of transportation, a usual 'decoy' car for the bigger jobs. Like this. But where is TT? 
    She's up high somewhere, her old instincts as a grifter coming into place to stick to the shadows and get somewhere up high to keep an eye on things. She's climbed up a communication tower plastered with 'ARASAKA' lining it from up to down, hooking an arm on the thing to keep a grip as the other sticks close to her fox ear, eyes glowing briefly as she sticks to her holocall and talks among the solos. 
     "I got Legion working on it. His apprentice is in charge of the distraction." 
     "Legion's working past the 3rd security wall of ICE, we almost know what we got. Distraction is coming in..." 
 
     "Three... Two... One..." 
 
     "Mark. Distraction is go, keep an eye out chooms."

    Three... Two... One...
    Distraction is go.
    "Yeah, totally trustworthy. I'm not worried about it." Becca replies to Scavenger as lights all over the docks go out. Then strobe and flicker in places. Then a power station fries. Everything is dark. The solos, all pros this time instantly activate their low light eye augmentations and start to move, eyes gleaming like cat's eyes in the darkness.
    "We're good, pal." Beck says casually to Dante as the security forces start to spread out and search, the team able to move between passes of the Arasaka men as they go.
    "Metaphorically big. I think." Rebecca says to Hyouka, but that's a bridge we can cross when we get to it." She says on the topic of its actual size.
    "We got this, we got this~." Call replies to Marcy who gets a funny look as she tosses a white apple over her shoulder. Aren't apples supposed to be red? Regardless, the solo squad with Becca leading them make their way through a maze of crates and shipping containers before they finally stop at one.
    "Think this is it."
    "Yeah it's gotta be."
    "Let's crack it open then."
    "Aite, I got this, Rebecca says, laying her hands on the container's handles.

    Scavenger moves with the others. her own eyes limmed faintly yellow in the dark, though she is distinctly Ganic, unchromed in any way. She moves up, then hangs back to check on the patrols as they move to investigate the blown power router, her hand hovering over her wrapped heavy blade, but not drawing it just yet. "Hurry up, we don't have all night."

    Dante finishes his buck-a-slice, knowing he's gonna regret this later tonight. "Alright, let's do it." Pizza's pizza, even if this stuff tastes like cardboard with tomato sauce. When theyr'e done with this he's gonna introduce the entire crew to some actual fine dining, comparatively speaking anyways.

    Navigating the crates isn't too hard, as they reach their target Dante grabs Rebellion and kicks the door open with his foot nonchalantly. "Open sesame, choom!"

    Out go the lights in... well, a surprisingly flashy sort of way. But that's their distraction, and the crew moves quickly. Hyouka follows along behind, though as they reach the crate and Dante steps up, the magical cyborg turns to look around the area with a faint frown. "...If I was moving something this important and the lights suddenly went out, I'd be sending all my guards over towards it as fast as they could run."

    Marceline offers a shrug back at Call. "Just didn't wanna leave it unsaid, dude." She's not really the sort to lecture but she really, really could do without that urge cropping up all for reals like it did.

    Then it's light's out and go time all at the same. "Word." A little shapeshifting body hackery later and she can see just fine. No telltale glow or anything but disregard the second set of eyelids.

    The navigation to the crate is easy enough and she shoves her hands in the pockets of her hoodie while looking on. "So, big enough for a crate and s- Oop. Here we go."

    Hyouka makes a good point and she turns to peer backwards, then rises to look past the top of the crate that Dante's laying into. "Or maybe they'll drop on us like a swarm of exploding bees."

 
     Twintail watches from afar as the lights go dark, and she too adjusts her eyes to start seeing in low-light. Her ears flicker and twitch at the sounds of the sea and the docks being walked on, eyes keeping a sharp look out. But the solos know what they're doing, moving through. "They don't know you're walking right past them. Keep it up. Keep it preem and drinks are on me at the Afterlife." 
 
     There's time to pass as the group mazes through the crates and shipping containers, until they reach the right one. 
     "Got it, container found. Guards aren't near y-" 
 
     She pauses, and her eyes look aside. "Legion, just broke past the 3rd wall of ICE. What's the manifest?..." 
 
          Uneasyness. 
 
     "Legion just got made. They know he's in there. Legion, info, then bail!" 
     It's a conversation only Twintail can hear at the moment, but once she gets the news, her eyes widen. Out of her subconsciousness, her adrenaline implant kicks in, and her skin forms goosebumps as her natural adrenaline kicks into overdrive. 
     "Fuck, FUCK, Becca! We need to Delta, NOW!" 
 
 
               "That crate isn't shipped goods! THAT'S--"

    Becca had the shipping container handles in her hands when Dante steps up and boots the thing open with a metal-creaking groan and slam the container is laid wide open and... It's dark inside. And empty? No, it's just too dark to see the rear of the container even with low-light vision augs.
    And then a pair of red gleaming optics activate in the darkness.
    "Bold... But stupid."
    It's the only warning anyone gets before Beck, Call, Quote, and Curly go down in a hail of gunfire so oppressive that it turns them into little better than red mulch.
    "JESUS FUCK GET DOWN!" Rebecca blurts, grabbing Dante and yanking him back from the mouth of the container. Already she's scrambling to get to cover.
    Clearly the contents of the container can guard themselves. That seems to be the case as a cyborg- an honest to god full body conversion cyborg comes stomping slowly out of the shipping container, red optics gleaming as he lowers his arm, still smoking from the hail of fire he just unloaded into the solos.
    The mere sight of him gives Rebecca a beat of hesitant pause, blood running cold in her veins.
    "... A... Adam Smasher." She barely manages to squeeze out in a whisper as he approaches. Slow. Calculated. Inexorable.
    The heavy machinegun in his hand raises once more, a pod pops up on his shoulder and primes several missiles. And he starts to unload.
    "I'll slaughter each and every one of you. You're all the same meat to me."

    Dante is about to rush in when he sees those red eyes.

    "Oh."

    He's grabbed by Rebecca, impressed by her strength for such a small package, and suddenly everything goes loud. The four solos get absolutely splattered like Julio before, and the metallic menace turns his weapons on them. "Okay time to delta!" He grabs Rebecca before absolutely booking it, using the crates for cover when Smasher begins to brrrrrrt. This guy may look like a Bionicle fan character but Dante's sure not laughing for once.

    It's in moments like this that Hyouka Kiyama's enhanced reflexes and senses really shine. She's able to stumble ass backwards out of the way of that very first hail of gunfire only because she does so the instant those optics light up, and even then only because she's stumbling ass backwards at inhuman speed.

    She's already got a tremendously bad feeling about this; by the time the faux elf comes back up to her feet, she's already deployed both FISTEAU units, crackling with lightning mana. But the bad feeling gets even worse when Rebecca speaks a name that she'd told Hyouka once before. Night City's own horror story.

    Both her arms begin to crackle more energetically. Magical energy floods her gauntlets. DARGN speaks up in a cautious, "Hyouka, I cannot recommend-" And she runs into the hail of gunfire.

    It's probably the first time most of the people here have seen gunfire 'hurt' Hyouka instead of glancing off or lightly damaging her skin. She still takes a hail of bullets that would mulch someone more organic, but there's a fair few bullet holes by the time she reaches Smasher. Which is impressive in and of itself, given that she's charging in at freeway speeds. She at least manages to avoid the micromissiles, but just getting in that close costs her a fair bit.

    But she at least intends to swing one massive gauntlet, and discharge as powerful a burst of mana into the Roboogeyman as she can.

    Gunfire sounds behind her.

    Scavenger turns to look over her shoulder at the mountain of metal stomping out of the container.

    She earflicks at Rebecca's breathless-from-fear announcement. She turns, stands and unwraps her sword. It glimmers in the muzzle flashes. She dives behind another container to evade the missiles, then darts out to slash across one of those legs to hopefully slow him down as the others delta.

    She angles her own approach so she doesn't take out Hyouka, and lets the Dragonborg take the brunt of that machine gun fire as she makes her run.

    But, she's only 'human', and despite her increased strength, she's at knife-fight range with a conscious cyberpsycho. This will not end well for the Zalak.

    Oh. From her position above the crate, Marceline turns and looks down, legs tucked together and bent at the knee. The next thing she sees is the hail of gunfire and the red. All the insides of Becca's new hire squad as they burst and become outsides. Over the gunfire, the stomping and the gloating of Mr. Psycho Smash or whatever, it'd be easy to miss the strained sound she makes. Maybe even the growl. Adam may miss the looming figure towering over and slightly behind, though maybe he has sensors for that. Everyone else?

    They'll be treated to Marceline shapeshifting, growing, developing a fangy snout, claws, lots of hair and boney plates. When she puts her weight on the container it immediately buckles, the pavement where her other foot lands cracks and even as Hyouka and Scavenger brave death, bullets and missiles, she brings a person-sized fist down on Night City's scariest story.

    Marceline doesn't fear the boogeyman anymore. She claimed that title for herself!

    She just may be ever so slightly psycho herself. Battle is joined with an ear-splitting roar!

>> GAME >> Marceline spends an Edge for: Marcy gon' big, gon' mad, gon' do harm. Edge-E Shapeshifting hype!

 
     "Make your way back to the car, I'll get us out. Gonna get the engine runnin!" 
 
     Twintail drops from that comms tower and lands ontop of a building with a THUD and a roll, her twintail hair and fox tail flowing behind her as she umps down to street level and does the same move, a hand to her ear as it flicks upright. 
 
     "Legion's fuckin' flatlined, Pearl's gonna do what she can to keep 'Saka from raising the alarm!" 
     Though there is some desperation in her voice, there's another overwhelming sense there. A sense of self-control and some composure. There's absolutly no doubt that Twintail is afraid, but she's hiding it and doing it well. 
     Throwing open the driver's door of that Thorton Colby, she starts the engine and brings it to life with a loud roar, throwing the thing in reverse and backing it up to get a little closer to that pier. That prized Desert Eagle comes out as she leans out the driverside door, and gets ready to cover anyone on their way in, ears pinned back on her head and hairs stiff. 
 
     The ears stiffen even more and her eyes narrow at the sound of a roar that... clearly wasn't her engine. Or a human, for that matter, cyberpsycho or no. But with so many crates and the maze in the way, she can't see what.

    Dante picks Rebecca up. On the one hand, the devil hunter is probably faster than she is, but on the other hand. Rebecca watches in horror over Dante's shoulder.
    "D-Dante slow the fuck down I can't get a shot- I'll hit Hyouka and Scavenger!"
    Not... That she expects to do anything against Arasaka's bogeyman, himself here with her pea shooters but... But...
    Hyouka and Scavenger come rushing at the mountainous metal man, and he simply does not stop unloading that machinegun until Hyouka is practically in his face. But as she charges. As she rushes. He looks at her.
    And he knows.

    "Heh. You're packing an awful lot of chrome for someone your size, girl. You're just like me. Aren't you? A full conversion."

    And it's in that instant, when Hyouka thinks she's about to make impact with her fist- the split second that Scavenger's mighty blade is about to make contact with Smasher's leg...
    He's suddenly so very, very, fast.
    In a the literal blink of an eye is all it takes for him to shift and reposition himself, suddenly BEHIND Hyouka.
    "Maybe... Just maybe you'll make this interesting for me." Smasher considers before destroying his heavy machine gun. By using it as a club and swinging it as hard as a freight train against Hyouka's back, intending to launch her, catch Scavenger- and pummel them into the back of the shipping container with enough force to smash them clean through the steel.
    "Holy shit holy shit holy shit holy shit... He has a Sandevistan!?" Becca croaks in a mantra of horror, a litany of terror fleeing from her lips as she grips Dante's shoulders. Legion got fried, Twintail's ride is their way out now.
    It's as Smasher starts trudging toward Hyouka and Scavenger that Marceline roars.
    "... Heh."
    That massive fist comes down and slams down into the mountainous machine of a man that metal creaks and groans. And a massive hole is blown into the deck of the ship, dropping Smasher through the plating into the decks below with a series of resounding clangs in the darkness.
    "Fuck fuck fuck- Marcy! Grab Hyouka and Scavenger and bail!" Becca shouts from a distance. Because wow Dante can sure run fast.

    In that brief moment, as the cyborg with a faux dragon's heart is swinging a massive fist packed to bursting with the energy of magic itself, the massive wall of chrome and cruelty speaks words that surprise Hyouka with their insight. He just... knows. It's not something that she's particularly ashamed of. It's not something that kills her morale. But it comes as a surprise.

    Almost as much as the fact that he can just move that fast.

    It is the first time that anyone at all ever hears true alarm in DARGN's voce - and that includes Hyouka. "Hyouka-!"

    And then she is smashed, hard. Straight through a shipping container.

    It is, once again, a testament to Hyouka Kiyama's reflexes, the way she moves. Only one of the two people getting clubbed by Adam Smasher is actually going through the container itself - perhaps it's instinct, perhaps it's just quick thinking, but during their brief flight, she's able to reach out and pull Scavenger over such that the Zalak is protected from the worst of the impact by the cyborg's tattered body.

    Inside the container, Hyouka is almost immediately moving again, but it's unusually sluggish for her. Her right arm is in shambles, FISTEAU unit half-broken, there's noticeable cracking and warping in the plating on her back, and numerous bullet holes throughout her body. "Ghh..." It's a grunt of effort. "DARGN, is something wrong with my control linkages? Left leg feels a little shaky." The AI speaks up in a businesslike tone. "Confirmed. Damaged connection, there and several other places. You need to get out of here."

    So naturally, she's already looking around to check on Scavenger first.

    Scavenger's blade passes through air. She takes another step, turns and suddenly in the next instant, has Hyouka slamming into her. She shifts, bellowing as she charges her Arts to their limit.

    She grunts, grabbed before she can act, and brought around to be cushioned from the impact... at least mostly. "He won't stay down long..." she coughs up a gob of blood, spitting it out into a gritty blob on the wrecked container floor. "Gotta move... what a monster..." She scoops under Hyouka's left side, and supports the cyborg as they evacuate the container. The Vanguard has her sword sheathed again, using all her strength to support her ally.

    Dante stops just to see Smasher seemingly blink out of existence, then back in. Shit, can he teleport?

    Wait, no. That's something he used to do. Something like that Quicksilver charm he had in Temin-Ni-Gru. The guy's just faster than he looks, still terrifying considering how Smasher is juggling all three of 'em. At least until Marceline manages to slow Smasher down. "Doubt that's gonna last long." He mutters, deciding now's a good time to absolutely delta. He runs up the side of a contianer, parkouring himself with Rebecca in his arms towards what he thinks is the car.

    Nearly blind rage pays off- She almost misses Smasher's weird burst of speed but she catches on at the last second. She's fought things faster than her before and she's still here. Something something tenacity, grit and being too dumb to admit she's out of her league.

    She's too slow to stop Smasher from belting her peeps and so savagely her lips curl and show off sword-length fangs. She can't stop that blow but she can stop anything further! So she really puts her back into it, buckling the very deck of the ship with the impact of her huge fist. Then, it's claws out and she simply tears open the container, peeling it open like a tissue box so she can look upon her- "I wanna stay behind and croak that dingus but..."

    She returns to normal, her eyes looking full of burst blood vessels and chin wet with savage drool. "Rrrgh, you two gotta- Come on!" She could carry Scavenger without any trouble but Hyouka... She can only guess that girl's gonna be a little tougher. "Grab onto me, I'll do my best!"

    She moves to grab ahold of Hyouka and Scavenger together with something like a desperate hug. Batlike wings emerge from her back and push against the floor, claws scraping at steel as she leaps. Flight powers with wings to assist? It's a bit of an effort but as long as nobody struggles she'll be able to wing it in the direction Dante's fleeing.

    No friendly banter or giddy laughter; other people's lives are currently her priority.

 
     Twintail still waits at the car, but jeez she can hear it. Infact, they may have gotten lost in that maze of crates and in the panic. 
 
     "Pearl, get ready to overload the lighting if you can. I know Legion is gone, but I got people here that could really use your help. Do it if ya can, chombatta." 
     Little peptalk aside, Twintail raises up her Desert Eagle. 
     "Becca, gunshots are me, let's delta!" And she fires a few shots, knowing full well it'll probable reveal the location to -everyone-, but time's a matter here.

    It's sheer pure good fortune Marcy has enough stopping power in her blows to put Smasher through the deck. He'll have to actually navigate a way up through the ship to reach the team and that buys everyone precious moments to get the hell out of dodge.
    "The gunfire! Go toward the gunfire!" Becca calls to Dante and the others as she hears the telltale report of that Desert Eagle. "That's our ride!"
    The dock's corporate guards are starting to re-appear now and Becca drops a few men with a burst from an SMG over Dante's shoulder. The guards are opening fire, but between Rebecca, Twintail, and Dante likely firing back to buy time, the party makes it to the ride in time to shove themselves in and bail.
    "Oh shit I can't believe we made it out of that. Adam-Fucking-Smasher, cripes." She's not even mad. Twintail couldn't have known that was going to go south so there's no point in taking it out on the fixer.
    "At least we made it out. Fuck."
    She'll have to pour out drinks for Quote, Curly, Beck and Call, though.

    Big loud gunfire gets Dante's attention. "Deagle. .50 AE. That'd be an antique here, right?" Regardless of gun trivia, Dante rushes towards the the sound of gunfire before he makes himself to the car. Dante practically shoves Rebecca in and slams the door shut when the rest of the girls arrive. "Floor it!" He barks to the driver, before he slumps in his seat.

    "Fuckin' hell...and I thought demons weren't a thing around here." He mutters. "Guess this city has its own apex predator."

    Scavenger does struggle when Marceline grabs her. "Take Hyouka. I can still move." she says to the Vampire Queen. She looks at the cyborg, furrows her brow and says nothing as she takes to the maze and heads toward the gunshots from that heavy pistol.

    She arrives not long after the others, and slumps into the truck bed.

    No time to scramble and fight with someone who doesn't want a ride. Marceline makes a face, "Aight but offer's still open!" She can handle this load a little better, at least. "Hup! C'mon then and hey, at least you're still cute. Lesgo."

    Wingbeats and some gunshots later, she deposits Hyouka in the vehicle and then takes up a perch standing up and facing backwards. "Soon as our Rat's back we're good!" It feels like she could be doing more but she's not sure what so she's going to defer to the plan of getting the frank outie.

 
     The Driver? That's Twintail. And she's got the seat all the way pushed up and backrest tilted all the way forwards for her to even see over the dash with the driving she's about to do. 
 
     Once she hears that everyone's inside, the gas pedal is pressed down as the pickup car's engine roars to life and peels rubber onto the road, zooming past onlookers and running past a few red lights before she cuts an alley... Then slows down as she starts driving normal, eyes fixed ahead and hands on the wheel. "..." The adrennaline high is still there, and it's pumping hard, her ears pinned back tight as her tail flicks at the center console, hairs standing on edge. "... Adam -fucking- Smasher..." She rolls her shoulders, shaking her head some as if to get a grip, then raises up and hits the steering wheel some with her right palm in some frustration. "... Ripperdoc, first thing... Then I gotta clean up this mess."