World Tree MUSH

    The Badlands of Night City. Stretches of cacti, scrub grass, sand, and decay. It's broad daylight, the sun-baked highway stretches off into the distance and on it, a shitty two-door hatchback thumping towards a derelict ruin of a gas station. "Okay, Adora, we're almost there," Catra says from the driver's seat, wearing a pair of custom sunglasses that manage to stay on her head despite the way her ears are... arranged. In the back bench is a Melog, asleep, and further in the actual trunk, there's a big old crate filling up the entire space.

    "Because... you can't just... go waving that sword around. We need to get you acquainted with, I dunno, other... stuff. Yeah?" she glances over, "...and maybe finally get you out of that old Horde uniform."

 It was like the wastes only...more junk, more people moving about...and about equal chance of sudden raiding parties! Resting in the passenger seat of the crappy transportation there was a little mock-pout from Adora at the mention of her uniform. "Hey! It's suprisingly durable!" she protests before nodding and peering out the window. 

 "I mean, from what I heard the city even has weapons that can hurt She-Ra...I guess that's what happens when people are half-robot..."

    "At least get a few more outfits!" Catra snarks. "Seriously, you have to wash that thing literally every day." She focuses on making her turn, cutting off a pickup truck and reaching her hand out the window to give a clawed middle finger when she's honked at. Then she scrunches up her nose as the car trundles up to the covered section that once sheltered the gas pumps. "...you -do- wash it... right?"

    In the back seat, Melog growl-yawns as the car bouncing over dirt road awakens it and those glowing eyes just blink.

"It's easy to clean! And you saw what the princess' wear! Not a lot of practical options in Brightmoon!" Adora protests, well aware that She-Ra changed outfit more than she did. 

 Grinning a little at the minor feline road rage, she reaches back to give Melog a little fond scritch.

    Melog goes mraaawg and nuzzles into Adora's hand. In the meantime, Catra sighs and cuts the engine. "Right, we're going shopping. And we're finding more work. I'm trying to buy a motorcycle. Watch me head up a biker gang or something," she hops out of the car and nods.

    "But let's at least get you sorted out with guns." The cat's got a kanabo hanging from her hip, as well as that big revolver. Her spurs don't go jingle-jangle, though. Because she's not wearing shoes. It's a wonder she gets around Night City without stepping on a hypodermic needle or broken glass or something.

    "Grab the box out of the back? I'm going to go find stuff for you to shoot. Because the box is stupid heavy," she jerks a thumb towards the hatch before wandering into the remnants of the convenience store to find cans and stuff to set up on what was once a shop counter.

 Was it cheating to transform just to carry a heavy box? Well, if Adora thought so she was keeping it to herself! 

 A flare of light and Adora was much taller, lifting the crate with ease and a grin on her features as she turns. "So you seem to have taken to the city pretty well...It is kinda like the fright zone...with more color and better food!"

    "WAY better food," shouts Catra from the interior of the shop. "Just put the box down by the hood of the car," she sharply jestures over her shoulder as she's grabbing rusty cans and broken hunks of metal shelf and even some signs. She's diligently setting up a little 'shooting gallery' on the counter.

    "And way more color. And... better air quality! How is that even possible? We were living in a worse dump than THIS!" she grouses. Melog, in the meantime, has figured out the car controls and just rolls down the windows. And turns on the radio. It's smart. 

    That crate? It's heavy. Stupidly heavy. But Adora's stupidly strong.

"I know!" Adora calls back before setting the box down on the car, the weight enough to rock the crappy suspension. "And Rebecca introduced me to pancakes..." she trails off, stretching her arms over her head and then grinning at Melog. Smart thing! 

 "So where did you get all this stuff?"

    "Oh pancakes are amazing," Catra calls out, finally returning to the car. "No no, just, put the crate on the ground..." she rubs her forehead, sighing. "And uhm. Well. The people who used to own them, they no longer own them, you know?" she shrugs, looking away and then heading back behind the car again.

    "Cuz. They're not alive anymore. Skags and gangoons like those guys who attacked us both," she sighs. "Look, Night City is dangerous, Adora. So having some backup is a good..." grunt. "..idea." Catra's fairly strong herself but dragging an HMG and a massive sniper rifle out of the back of the car takes a lot more effort than she's used to. "...fucking... come grab one of these?!" she gives up on the Mk31 she salvaged from the 'truck job' and opts to carry the SPT-32 in both arms.

 Crate moved and the car giving a little squeek of relief as its suspension no longer has to balance out the crate. Setting down the box the blonde amazonian figure in white with the tiara that almost certainly looked out of place for Night City outside of some fantasy braindances makes her way around and comes to grasp one of the offered weapons and lift it one-handed before slinging it over her shoulder.

 Oh. Looting the dead. It might be a little more disturbing if it wasn't for the whole 'militaristic child soldier' upbringing. 

 "So...do people carry these around in the city? Seems kinda bulky..."

    "Adora... didn't you *see* those guys that came to kill me? You? Us?" she huffs, laying the giant rifle in the sand. It's got dried blood on it. Probably isn't hers. "They carved up their faces to look like that! They're like..." she brings her hands to her face, "...I don't even know. Who would want to DO that? It's gross and freaky. At least the people I hang out with here have glowing eyes or cool lines or fists that can do what you do..." she flexes.

    "...so lugging a big gun isn't ... weird... I mean. There's smaller ones in the box..." she gives it a nudge with her foot and it opens. Inside is a smattering of handguns, rifles, shotguns, SMG's, and ammunition for all of them. With a bigass Carnage shotgun on top of it all.

 "Well yeah but..." she trails off, nodding lightly before shaking her head and turning around to set down her weapon down next to the heavy cannon that Catra set down. Still, she folds her hands behind her backside and tilts her head to the side before looking out at the wreck of the fuel station. "Okay so...they're like the energy blasters the horde use, right? Do I just pick one and give it a try or...?"

    Catra shrugs, then shakes her head, "I mean. Yes? But no? Like... hold on.." she leans down to grab the Carnage and grunts. "Like ... they all use ... " she grabs an ammo can and pops it open. Inside are the massive shells the thing uses. "There's no energy weapons... it's all solid." She racks the pump and slots one of the shells in before pulling back the pump.

    "Stand behind me, okay?" she asks, looking up at her still-transformed girlfriend. Then she holds up the gun in both hands, aiming towards the burned-out shopfront. Her ears fold flat and she pulls the trigger.

    **KABLAM!**

    The recoil would easily send her right back into Adora's arms with a heavy -whump- as the spread of pellets shreds a flimsy metal shelf.

 Well, that was certainly more potent than a laser beam! The burst of the shotgun is loud, very loud and the soft 'umpf' as she finds herself bracing the feline being kicked back and looking at a shelf being blown to shreds. It was like setting a bomb off in that direction. "Whoa..." she muses, before tilting her head to the side before the 'Princess of Power' powers down, shifting down into the form of Adora. Better to get used to the smaller stuff as herself, huh? 

 "The blasters never kicked back like that, yikes..."

    "WOO!" Catra shouts, her ears still ringing from the blast. She manages to rack the shell out, ejecting the cylinder of brass that's as thick of her forearm, smoking. She regains her footing, though, and puts the shotgun down, smiling sheepishly up at Adora. "...so uh... yeah. Thanks," she gives a lopsided smile.

    "Anyway... here. Try this out. First one I ever used when I got here. The small fighty girl. Rebecca. Gave it to some poor guy who exploded. So..."

    She shrugs and pulls out the double-barreled tech shotgun for Adora. Much more managable but it's definitely got a lot more... gubbins on it. "It'll charge up!" she says, excited. "Oh and... you load it like this..." she opens the break action on it.

 "Guy who exploded?!" Adora repeats, taking the offered weapon and watching Catra walk her through loading it before lifting the weapon to peer down the sights. "Not because of this thing, right?" A beat, she turns her head to look at Catra directly, frowning. "Right?" 

 Of course, once there's reassurance given she makes to take aim at whatever the feline points out for her, then squeezes the trigger. 

 The mechanics might be the same, but the squeek that comes from her throat and the kick back made it very clear it was different to the blaster!

    "No! No, he 'found' a tripwire..." she makes air quotes. "...poor kid.." she shrugs. "...Kyle had better situational awareness than this kid did.." she grumbles. Then she watches, waits, and sees how Adora handles the double-barrel Tech shotgun. 

    "Yeah they call 'em shotguns," she shrugs. "...something in the ammunition. They fire a bunch of tiny pellets called 'shot'... and the gauges get bigger the lower the number is, but other guns get bigger the higher the number is..." she rubs the side of her head. "I don't get it... here.. try this.."

    She pulls out a TKI-20 Shingen SMG. "I don't think we can use these though," she turns it over and over. "They call these 'smart' guns but you need all that techno-stuff in your brain to make it work right. Like, you can shoot it but good luck hitting anything? I'm not about to get chipped, as they call it."

 Well...it wasn't going to work with Adora any better when the weapon was passed to her, a little frown as she lifts it. First one's tech and smart weapons don't seem to interact. Lifting it and holding the tigger for a moment, the weapon goes wild, kicking up dust and sparks as a pronouned 'WHO-OH-OOOA"! from Adora. 

 She doesn't flag Catra or anything, but that was quite the shock she wasn't ready for at first before she gets it back on target. 

 "Can you imagine how Entrapta would take to all this stuff?"

    "I dunno how our Tech Princess would take to how stupidly loud and crowded this place is.." Catra watches as Adora's hold on the trigger just makes the bullets go hog wild. The store front is already pretty shot up and burned out but not a single of the actually placed targets gets hit! 

    "I mean, she'd probably fall in love with those Arasaka mechs and ride one around like a horse..." she grins. "Who knows what she'd try to make with everything though... I'm kind of scared to think about it!" she laughs. "...I mean she almost destroyed the Fright Zone..." the cat sighs, rubbing her arm some.

    "...here, try this one..." she changes the subject and leans down and pulls a different SMG out of the box. The UMP-looking M221 Saratoga. "...hold and it sprays, so don't hold...?" she shrugs. "I guess it comes down to do you want something for close-up or something from further away? If... you even want any of this stuff at all. I've just been selling it."

 A little 'Pfft' of Adora blowing a shaken loose lock of blonde hair from hyer eyes and setting the depleated weapon aside and giving a little laugh at the mention of riding a mech like a Horse only to blink. "Oh...Swifty is here by the way, he just...don't really like the city that much so he mostly sweeps into the gardens when people aren't looking." 

 He's probably been the source of a biotechnica breakin or two as well, but Adora was ignorent of that one. 

 A trained soldier at heart, a quick burst of fire, then another...it seems she's picking it up well enough. Still, that last comment makes her blink. "Wait...you're selling this stuff?"

    Catra leans against the side of the car, idly rubbing Melog's head as the more primal cat-thing leans out of the window. "Well, yeah! What else am I going to do with it? I told you, I'm trying to save up for a /bike/!" she huffs, fishing her phone out of her pocket and swiping through stuff until she comes across /the/ bike. That sweet, sweet, CT-3X. 

    "...besides... I only have two arms and I can't use the big ones..." she pulls the revolver out of her belt holster with her free hand and offers it up. "This is more my speed anyway. There's another one in the box if you want to try this one out?" she asks with a fangy grin. It's an Overture.

 "Makes sense," Adora nods, biting her bottom lip. "I mean...you've been here a bit longer than I have and...well, money for food...is something needed" she muses sheepishly before looking the more simplistic firearm...that also happened to be as big of as her forearm was shown off. Okay, she'd have to try the thing out! Turning to lean over the box and searching through, she draws out the weapo and then opens the cylinder, searching to try and fish out the rounds to try and load it. It might take her a moment. 

 Still, she looks back over her shoulder. 

 "Y'know...we've never had to make money before coming here..."

    "No no, use the speed loaders..." she makes a vague, lazy gesture at the packs of rounds already attached to weird-looking plug things. "Loading those one at a time in the middle of a firefight is stupid..." she rolls her eyes. Then she frowns, looking away, and nods slowly. "...I mean... I've been a lot of places, and, a lot of places expect some kind of... compensation for food. And. Everything. But.." she shrugs.

    "Yeah. Here everything revolves around money. Money. Sex. And violence." She sighs and leans back, putting her hands up behind her head and staring at the sky. "I.. dunno. I ... like it here? I mean. All we had was the Fright Zone growing up. So it... feels like home. Just. Without people like Shadow Weaver and Hordak holding shit over our heads or pitting us against each other. But I guess the corpos are worse? Or maybe I like it here because it's so dirty and grungy and I can sate this deeply-seated bloodlust I have.." she grins toothily.

    "I don't know. Still not getting chipped though."

 "Oh...handy!" Adora mention, but she clicks the weapon into place and lifts it, holding the weapon two-handed and carefully taking aim before the resounding -boom- of its fire kicks out and blasts the target away. "Yikes..." she muses before lowering the weapon to her side before looking back to Catra, drawing close enough for an innocent peck on her check before leaning against the car. "I get it...really. I love my friends, I love the beauty of Brightmoon, the other kingdoms...but this is what we grew up with." A little drift of her other hand to Catra's own and she grins. "This is where you are...and that's enough for me." 

 Still smiling, she lifts the handcannon to examine it before smirking a little. 

 "So...I think I want to try this again with -one- little change..." 

 The weapon set aside and those five words bringing a flare of light, there was now a much stronger hand interlaced with Catra's own as she retrieved the gun.

    "Yeah that's... why I didn't stay and wait for you to come back..." Catra says quietly, cheeks tinting a little both from embarrassment at the kiss and a strangely sincere hint of shame. "...they're -your- friends. And. Brightmoon was never going to be my home... The Fright Zone. The Badlands. People like me don't -get- nice things."

    She sighs, squeezing the hand that's taken hers. "...no idea how I got you... A place like Night City. A place like Rhodes Island and everything wrong with -that- world. That's where I belong, and I can't hide it and live in fucking... glitter-ville with Boy Scout and Queen Fairy Dust." Her hand tightens around Adora's and she almost misses the transformation. Almost.

    Adora turning into She-Ra always makes something buzz up her spine, and her emotional state shifts as the bigger, stronger hand is holding her own. "...might try a bigger gun if you're going to do that.." she says quietly, shifting the subject. She can't hide her blush now. Something about She-Ra always does something to her. And Melog just has a smug-ass grin as it peers up at her with glowing eyes, hints of red bleeding out from her moment of self-loathing, changing to something more blue and mellow. It somehow just makes her blush even more fiercely, "Don't you say anything!" she growls.

 "You know Beau and Glimmer welcomed you, you'd have been welcome there. You saved the Queen's life twice over..." she trails off, letting the other woman talk as she gives the squeeze and then lets the hand go as she lifts the overture one-handed now and takes aim, offering Catra a wink over her shoulder before she fires again. With strength that can literally support tons, the recoil is negligable and she fires off the remaining rounds rapidly with a satisfied grin on the 'Princess of power's face. 

 "Still better with a sword, but that's not bad, huh?" 

 Back to Catra whom she now towered above there was a lazy little drape of her arm as she looks to the collection of heavier gear on the ground. "So that's why you brought those two?"

    "Did they? I practically helped kill Glimmer's -MOM- and I led the charge on Brightmoon how many times?!" Catra rubs her face with both hands. "Uggggggh... and I have no idea why Bow would want anything to do with me. Maybe it's my cute sneezes or something..." she grouses and nimbly hops up to sit on the roof of the car, legs dangling over the window adjacent Melog.

    Then she looks to the HMG and sniper cannon that Adora gestures to, nodding slowly. "Huh? Oh. Yeah. Figured those were more... Princess-sized. That stupid shotgun, too. Rebecca can use that thing like it's nothing, too, and she's tiny. Augments or whatever. She's chipped. Everyone in this city is. Guess that's one thing to make me feel isolated."

 "You also kinda...saved a planet." Adora points out, pausing a little as she puts the weapon down before leaning down to scoop up the HMG cannon and try to balance it properly. "And saved me..." 

 A little pause, the cannon is slung across her shoulder before she leans down and gently presses her forehead to the felines. "And besides, we were always different, even in the Fright Zone...but we were never alone. Not as long as we've got each other. And I'm not going anywhere.."

    Catra grumbles a little about the planet saving business, "...yeah after getting chipped by Horde Prime..." But her expression softens at the saving Adora part. "I..mean how.. could I not..? I said it then, I'll say it now. I've always loved you. Even if..." she says even quieter, "..I'm really good at pushing you away when I want you closer than ever. It's just how I am.. and.."

    She looks up, meeting Adora's eyes with her own mismatched pair. "...you're a... big dumb idiot that... loves a really, really shitty person..." she sighs, but gives a lopsided smile. "...but thank you for believing in me. Even if... even if at times I thought the worst of you.." she closes her eyes and Melog starts to growl. Then it nips at her heel.

    "Ow! Hey!" she snarks, "...what I'm trying to say. Is I'm sorry. And I love you."

 The sight of She-Ra sweeping Catra up into that one-armed embrace and planting a kiss on Catra's lips while balancing a heavy cannon probably looked like something off a movie poster or one of the Braindances or flats around Night City...but that didn't make it any less sweet as she did so. A few more moments of the gentle expression of all that love and fondness before she draws back for breath, forehead pressed to Catra's own with a little giggle and her arm giving the other woman a squeeze. 

 "I love you too Catra..." 

 They were back together, they could express their feelings properly, they were safe...everything was wonderful, perfect...even in the madness of Night City. With a grin, Adora opened her eyes and gestured with a jerk of her head to the targets. 

 "Now...wanna see me blow something up with a really big gun?"