World Tree MUSH

It's after midnight and people have gone home for the day. With the reports of mysterious shadow animal attacks at night, people have stopped hanging around the mall after dark. There are still a few cars parked at the Safeway across the street, it seems like the night shift won't get out of stocking that easily.

 Benedicta's doing her best to keep a low profile, a hoodie can only hide so much after all. The al-miraj girl lets out a yawn as she waits in front of the Pet Food Express, she figures animals would be attracted to the store after all. She's been drinking SoBe orange carrot since caffeine makes her jittery as she waits for the others to arrive.

    Unabashedly walking in the open, Scavenger approaches the Al-Miraj. She's wearing the outfit that Catra helped her pick out, a dress-coat, spats and a few other things reinforced with inset armour plates in vital areas. She's also carrying her cleaver across her back in a black fabric wrapping.

    "Scavenger. Saw your job posting." she says bruskly, turning yellow eyes across the area, as if looking for something.

     With the scent of brimstone and a sudden gust of heat, Damian appears next to the other two. He's in human form this time, wearing ripped jeans and a black hoodie with some unidentifiable band logo on the front. "Heard we were hanging at the mall, so I dressed the part." he says with a wink and a grin, his teeth still jackal sharp.

He also happens to be carrying two bottles of water, but upon seeing Benedicta already has her own drink, he offers one to Scavenger instead. "Nice to meetcha, my name's Damian, son of Satan, yadda yadda. I promise I didn't spike the drinks... this time."

    Aurelia is struggling to stay awake, joining her friend on this stake-out. She too is wearing a hoodie, the better to keep the subtle chill of the bay region's night off her slight frame. She perks up a bit when Scavenger arrives, waving and smiling tiredly. "Hey. I'm-" She remembers she's been trying to use her code name... or superhero name? Whatever name she has from the Beacon Society at any rate. "- Metallia Gold." 
    She nods to Damian politely, waving a hand to get the brimstone smell away from herself.

    You know who loves caffeine?
    A certain solo edgerunner named Rebecca.
    Rebecca emerges from the Safeway with a plastic baggie full of snacks and several (more than necessary) cans of MONSTER, RED BULL, and BANG energy drinks. The Bang is Rainbow Unicorn flavor.
    "Yo yo yo yo yo yo!" She greets, making her way over as loud and conspicuous as possible for an offworlder as she pops the tab on a can of Bang and slugs it down.
    She promptly crushes the can in her oversized mechanical hands and makes a perfect three-point shot into the nearest trash bin.
    "SUP chooms, I heard from a fixer in Night City that there were some preem hauntings so I thought 'sweet shit count me in!' and here I am, ready to fight ghosts, ghouls, and gribblies!"
    Slung on her shoulder is a duffel bag absolutely FULL of guns. As far as she knows guns work on fairies, so hey, why can't they work on things that go bump in the night?

    Dante tends to work best at night, where monsters skulk about nabbing kids from their beds and chewing on their bones. So he's charged up with an Irish coffee to-go full of Jack Daniels as he surreptitiously shows up when Rebecca speaks. "Heya l'il choom." He ruffles Rebecca's hair with a chuckle.

    "A l'il birdie told me about the gig. Think you could use some extra fire support and muscle." He says with a grin, chugging his abomination of a coffee cocktail before chucking it over his shoulder, the cup bouncing from place to place until landing in the trash bin. "Damien, 'rel, Benny, Scav. Nice to see you all. Can't say I've ever fought faeries 'fore. This oughta be fun."

"Yeah, we met when that little girl was causing trouble." Benedicta hadn't much of a chance to actually talk with the mouse woman them. Her attention then turns towards Damian, "We're not here to shop, besides the mall's closed. Don't need a bunch of people freaking out. It's times like these I wish I still had my human form though." She would certainly make it easier to keep a low profile.

 Hearing the yelling Benedicta's lop ears lift, at least as much as they could. The bag of guns makes her frown a bit, "We're investigating animal attacks not taking part in a gang war! Then again if the grendels are somehow back, we might need the firepower..." Speaking of which it seems like Dante's joined them as well. "No shortage of fire support, but I'm not sure how we're doing in terms of muscle."

 Suddenly, a loud barking pierces the night along with several other animal noises. A shadowy golden retriever runs around the corner towards the group wagging his tail. Benedicta's horn glows a bright yellow as he appraches. The dog doesn't seem to be hostile and Benedicta instantly recognizes him. "Sunny?" She sounds more surprised then anything.

    "Shame. Was hopin' we could grab us some chow and check out the special on crock pots." Dante quips. "Ah well." He yoinks a gun outta Rebecca's bag, it looks like some kinda SMG Apple would make if they built firearms and profited off of warfare.

    "Ugh." Dante grimaces at the bizarre shaped gun in his hand, before finding the tactical flashlight attached to it. Yes, he's using an Arasaka submachine gun as a flashlight.

    His eyes are drawn toward the barking, and he sees a dog rushing up. "...uhhh. Childhood pet of yours?" Dante asks.

    Scavenger looks at the offered bottle, up at Damian, back at the bottle, then turns her back, looking around the perimeter and reaching for her weapon when the barking starts, drawing the heavy blade when the 'shadow animal' rounds the corner... but then hesitates when the local recognizes it. "Friend of yours?" she asks, keeping her blade resting over her shoulder.

    Any issues with 'muscle' should be aleviated with how the Zalak is handling that giant blade. One handed without much issue from the clear amount of weight.

     Damian wraps an arm around Benedicta's shoulders, his other hand giving her a spirited noogie. "Aww, don't be like that, Benny baby. We haven't hung out in a while, and we've got this mall all to ourselves... well, us and these guys. Just a bunch of troublemakers! It's like Dawn of the Dead, except without zombies to harsh the vibes!"

Dante's arrival gets a nod and a wink from the boy as well, and he immediately darts over to snatch up one of those pieces Rebecca's carrying in her bag. It's a big large for his slender frame, all black and tactical... perfect for the setting, really. The water bottles, both his and the one Scavenger declined, just float along behind him as if held up by strings from an unseen puppeteer.

And then there's a dog. "Oh hey, what's up, little guy? You don't look scary at all!" he coos as he approaches the golden retriever, bending down to pet the pup.

    "... special crock pots?" Aurelia sounds confused at Dante's comment. She glances at all the guns coming out before pulling a flashlight from the hoodie's pocket, the light clicking on. Just act natural, Aurelia thinks to herself, people will assume this is some ghost-hunting club from one of the state universities.
    She peers at the shadowy dog. "Huh... reminds me of a church grim." She crouches down a bit, joining Damian in attempting to pet the spectral dog.

    Up come Becca's hands.
    "Well excuuuuuse me, I thought we were here to fight gribblies, I came here to fight gribblies. I'm sorry, I though this was America, where my second amendment rights say 'you can use a gun to fight gribblies'." She says whilst Dante ruffles her. Then she jerks a big thumb right at Dante. "My boy Dante here fights gribblies with guns all the time where he's from." She says pettishly with a huff as she folds her arms across her chest.
    Dante grabs a gun. Becca's cool with that.
    Damian grabs a gun.
    "WHOAH SHIT HEY!" She blurts, because she didn't get to ask him before when he first appeared: Are YOU a ghost, ghoul, and or gribbly?!" But no, he introduced himself as the son of Satan, so this makes her pause.
    Rebecca leans over to Dante and Scavenger.
    "... Do bullets work on satans?"
    But in the midst of this the bark makes her shut up.
    To her credit, Rebecca doesn't draw a gun of her own (just yet) when the golden retriever appears.
    "... That's... A dog..." She says, dumbfounded. She doesn't need a flashlight as her eyes shine, glimmering as her low light vision kicks on and she can see the pupper clear as day.
    "... I've... Never seen a real dog up close before..." She admits, suddenly very somber.
    Animals sort of just... Don't exist in Night City except the occasional stray cat and they are rare.

Benedicta nods at Dante, "He's passed away years ago, I know he's not the real Sunny but still..." She can't help it and pets the magical simulacrum of her deceased dog. He's clearly happy about all the attention he's getting from the group.

"It's good to see you again, boy. It sounds like it's more than just you. Wait, who would know about Sunny...Sybil if you're trying to screw with my life again, I'm going to come over there and kick your ass..." She pauses a bit upon hearing Rebecca.

"Animals don't exist where you from? How is that possible? Are they banned or extinct..." She's clearly not happy about that.

A pair of red eyes can be seen in the distance and a monotone voice that sounds a bit like Benedicta's can be faintly heard, "I agree...a world where animals don't exist? That simply can't do. It seems like someone got away from me. Sunny, come here boy." He turns towards the shadows and lets out a growl making it clearly he's not going back towards the person speaking.

    "And that, sounds like trouble." states Scavenger as she turns on the glowing red eyes. "Whoever you are, you're not intimidating anyone with that cliché shtick. Come out into the light and face us properly, or leave and don't bother us again." Rebecca would probably be surprised by the verbose statement from the normally taciturn Zalak. Her challenge is accompanied by unslinging that cleaver and brandishing it toward the voice. "Come show me the face of the fool who dares to face me."

     After giving the good boy some pettings and a small treat summoned with a snap of his fingers, Damian smiles at Benedicta and says, "See? It's all working out, Benny. You got to see an old friend again." A thought crosses his mind, and he tries to stifle a chuckle. "Heh- ahem. I'd offer to take you to see him later, but y'know, all dogs go to Heaven and all..."

Rebecca's question prompts him to give her a cheeky grin over his shoulder. "I'm not gonna say one way or the other, shorty. D can tell you though, we can't resist a rock-off challenge." And then there's that vaguely unnerving voice and those red eyes...

"Yeah, somehow I don't think that's gonna fly, sister. Come out where we can see you before I /make/ some light." he challenges the voice, miming the act of flicking a lighter as a ball of flame appears at the tip of his thumb.

    "Oh." Dante frowns for a moment as he listens.

    Rebecca gets a shrug. "You wanna find out? Go ahead." He says, sounding completely serious. At least until he sees the red eyes. Dante levels the SMG at those eyes as he slowly reaches for Rebellion, "Come on out and make it slow, or we'll light you up." He says, flicking the safety off of the subgun.

    "Nah, animals exist. They're just banned. 'No animals allowed within 22 miles of Night City'." Rebecca answers Benedicta. "It's an old-ass law meant to stop the spread of zoological diseases in the city, I mean I'm not kidding, birds are shoot-on-sight." She says. "So no one keeps pets or anything anymore."
    There's a sad almost tired tone in the solo's voice for a beat, before her attention shifts to the new voice. And the red eyes.
    "I don't think the pupper wants to go with you, choom..." She points out.
    Pause.
    "Who are you calling short?" She asides to Damian.

    Aurelia whips the flashlight toward the voice. "Who're you and who're you trying to spook with the act? I mean... I know a girl who can talk to ghosts." She's joining the others in taking a threatening posture towards the voice.

"And where is a being made out of shadows supposed to live, mousy? I thought you might understand not being human yourself? Besides don't mice live in the shadows? Oh, great you brought your boyfriend, why is a good Catholic girl like you hanging out with him again anyway? Aurelia? I'm hurt you don't know who I am?" The figure steps out of the darkness, but it seems like she's rather shadow-like herself.

She's pale white and largely covered in black fur almost like a coat and a dress. She has rabbit ears like Benedicta's but they stand upright instead of drooping down. "It's been a while...let me reintroduce myself...I'm Scura." Many pairs of red eyes can be see in the darkness behind her now. "I was waiting for Sybil to show up, so leave. Or you can see what a world with animals is like." She turns towards Rebecca as she says that."

    Scavenger doesn't react to being mislabeled, she keeps the point of her blade at the new bunnygirl, eyes locked on though she's fully aware of the many more eyes in the darkness. "You don't scare us, girl. Take your friends and run along home, before I show you what a world of pain is like." She flourishes her blade and brings it into a ready stance, finally taking a two-handed grip on it.

    FSHK-POP.
    That is the sound of Rebecca reaching into her baggie (the plastic one full of snacks, not the duffel bag of heavy ordinance) and pulling out a can of BRAWNDO THE THIRST MUTILATOR. Tilting her head back, she casually chugs the noxious beverage concoction of chemicals, taurine, vitamins, and most importantly the electrolytes that plants crave.
    Once she has drank her fill, she once again crushes the can in her hand and three-point shoots it into the nearby trashbin.
    "Whoo... I don't know about you guys, but I'm a little hopped up." She says, lips tugging into a sharp grin.
    "I donno... I might like that, Scura. Do I get to pet 'em?"
    Pause.
    "Who's Sybil, anyway?"

Dante scoffs. "You better bow out, lil bunny." He says with a smirk as he draws Rebellion and flourishes with it, his borrowed submachine gun pointed at the rabbit girl. "We sure as hell didn't come all this way for a pettin' zoo."

     Damian looks like he's about to respond to the "boyfriend" comment, but scratches his chin with the hand not currently on fire as the gun he stole from Rebecca floats back toward her. "Am I? I don't really know what our relationship is. Hey Benny, are we a thing? Is that official?"

This is soon followed by a retort back at Rebecca herself. "You, Strawberry! Which is your nickname now because you're a /shortcake/!" Though with the banter aside, he looks back toward Scura as she steps out of the shadows to reveal... well, she kind of /is/ shadows, isn't she? "Oh so you're one of /that/ jerk's friends? Figures. I'm gettin' real tempted to light you up."

    Aurelia opens her mouth, closes it. "... You're the doll? Or were...?" She squints her eyes. "I think you're gonna have to explain a little, Scura is it?" 
    There's a crack like thunder as Aurelia armors up, revealing why she hadn't before. All that gold-like metal that reflects every bit of light even in the darkness is not subtle in the least.

"No...why...why did you do this? Please stop before you kill someone..." Benedicta's on the verge of tears at this point. She's not really in a position to answer your question Damian.

Scura does a mocking laugh at him, at least to the best of her ability..."One of her friends? Please, I hate her more than even Benedicta does. Bet you didn't know your girlfriend has a dark side. Yes, that's correct Aurelia, I was the doll?

 Oh don't worry, I intend to put on a show, but I have better things to then deal with you right now." She steps back into the shadows while now then just more the animals she summoned are visisble. There are lions, tigers, and bears oh yes, along with many other types such as snakes, reptiles, and birds. Basically, Scura brought the zoo to deal with Sybil and the group is now the opening act as they attack. You might not want to pet them Rebecca.

     Damian drops his tough guy act as he sees Benedicta's reaction, his form shifting back to its natural jackaline shape as he gives her a gentle hug and pat on the back. "Hey, Benny, everything's gonna be fine, okay?" he tries to reassure her, but that army of animals doesn't seem to be in the mood to wait. "I think there's something here I missed, but we can talk about all that stuff later if you want. Gotta take these guys out before they cause any harm, yeah?"

The tacticool gun he looted from Rebecca yoinks itself right back to his furry little fingers then, as he aims it at the horde of critters. It's some kind of assault rifle, maybe? Either way, he holds down the trigger and starts spraying lead, not even bothering to use any of the multiple scopes it has. Who needs accuracy with that many targets?

    Dante pops his neck. Taking a moment to give Benedicta a look, "We're gonna make this right." He says softly. And then he gets to work. Dante blazes away at lions, tigers, and bears (oh my) with the submachine gun, letting the gun empty it's mag of seeker-rounds until he chucks it at a swooping bird! After that, Dante rushes into the melee with Rebellion, grinning like a lunatic as his sword embeds itself into one of the unlucky spectral creatures.

    Strawberry?
    Seriously?
    Shortcake?
    "The fuck kind of gonkbrain nickname is that? That's mad whack yo."
    MORE IMPORTANTLY though... The animals are attacking.
    And there's a lot of them.
    NOW Rebecca shifts her stance, very POINTEDLY shoving herself defensively in front of Benedicta for the moment as she reaches into her baggie again.
    ... The snack bag not the gun bag. What is she doing?
    She's pulling out a can of POWERTHIRST. It's Rawberry flavor. "HEY fuckers! GET READY TO BE UNCOMFORTABLY ENERGETIC." She snarls as she shakes the can vigorously and pulls out a packet of poprocks.
    FSHK-pop...!
    Popping open the *violently* shaken energy drink she pours the pop rocks into the soda and hurls the can into the midst of the shadowy attacking animals.
    The resultant BANG that sounds off from the can shortly after is more like a small grenade than a volatile soft drink as the metal can is absolutely shredded, sending shards of aluminum shrapnel into the midst of the critters.
    "Yo, /Romeo/!" She does call out to Damian. "I'll cover Benedicta, just lemme know when that gun runs dry."

>> GAME >> Rebecca spends an Edge for: IT'S LIGHTNING IN A CAN. MADE FROM REAL LIGHTNING.

    Scavenger laughs dryly. "Coward." is all she remarks as Scura retreats and sends her shadow beasts out. She holds her stance as others lob high velocity slugs into the oncoming horde. She can't exactly close distance when her allies don't have any trigger discipline.

    All guns need to be reloaded eventually, so she waits for a lull in the outgoing fire to make her move.

    During this, she's taking breaths, measured and even as her grip on her cleaver shifts subtly. In...
    Out...
    In...
    Out...
    In-- Burst. She charges rapidly forwards and performs a roundhouse slash in the middle of the horde of shadow animals, releasing a wave of Arts energy from the edge of her blade as angry red power crackles along her arms and legs.

>> GAME >> Scavenger spends an Edge for: Azai Slash: Damage Alpha-enhanced.

    Aurelia senses she is likely better off supporting the group. To this end, she pulls in just about every loose scrap of metal that isn't a bullet in towards the fight. Discarded soda cans, metal trash bins, manhole covers... and melds them together into a makeshift barrier in front of the gunners, about waist-high so their aim isn't impeded too much. Little weird organic touches etch themselves into the metal as the barrier's side facing the shadow menagerie sprouts spikes. She isn't going to say much since maintaining this much magic takes a lot of concentration for her.

The shadowy animals are no match for the group especially without Scura to direct them. She's still new at this and takes a great deal of effort just for to keep them summoned. They're slashed, shot, and exploded into a shadowy goo before vanishing from sight. Sunny simply disappears into thin air as Scura flees from the area. Benedicta's doing best to try and hold it together, just trying to figure out what happened.

     Damian does eventually run out of bullets as the menagerie are surprisingly swiftly dealt with, seemingly with little need for Aurelia's protective wall. "So much for extended mags." he quips, tossing the rifle back over his shoulder in Rebecca's general direction as he ignores her outburst. The offer to cover Benedicta does get a small "thanks" though.

"Well, that was easier than usual. She's pretty new to this, isn't she?" he asks, floating one of those water bottles back over and offering it to his bunny friend again. Girlfriend? They'll figure that out later. "I can change it to wine if you want. Hippie beard isn't the only one who can pull that old parlor trick, and you kinda look like you need a drink anyway."

    Dante swipes his blade clean of spectral...stuff. Best not to think about that. Stowing it onto his back, he looks almost disappointed as the fight's over. "Huh. Guess she dipped." He looks toward Benedicta, "You okay there, Benny? Still with us?"

    The expended gun tossed her way is caught one-haned and stuffed into the duffel bag. Rebecca will reload that later. For now though she draws a simple but very garishly pink-painted pistol and keeps an eye out in case anything tries to get past Aurelia's waist-high cover.
    That's a neat trick.
    But that seems to be the end of the frackas.
    Slowly she puts her gun away. Warily.
    But then she turns back to Benedicta.
    "Hey, choomba..." She says, tone surprisingly gentle. "That was pretty dicey. But it's over now. You chill?"

    Aurelia offers a hug to her friend. "Sorry things have gotten... stranger for you, Bene." Privately she wonders if it's time to call in favors and obols to reconcile the pieces of Benedicta's soul with each other.
    She turns towards the others. "Uh, anyone hungry? There's a 24-hour diner nearby and I'm paying?" Oh she might regret that later, but for now, it's probably time to wind down from the adrenaline rush.

    Scavenger keeps on guard. Flicking her blade to rid it of the spectral goop it collected. Her eyes scan the shadows, trying to spot where the other rabbitgirl ran off to. Once she's satisfied the threat is over, she slings her blade over her shoulder and lets it settle into its carry harness before turning to the others. "If this... 'Sybil' she was after is a major threat, she is sorely underprepared to challenge them." is all the Zalak states, before turning to leave, if noone stops her.

"Thanks everyone, sorry you've managed to get dragged into my mess again somehow. I'm just trying to figure out who gave her a black obol and why...I don't think I should drink anything, I don't want to throw up in the morning." Benedicta declines Damian's offer but hugs Aurelia back. "Sybil, well let's just say things are complicated between us. I don't think you want to spend all listening to me trying to explain. Hopefully the owner of the diner is open-minded."

    Dante laughs and pats Benedicta's shoulder. "It's fine, kiddo. I know how it gets. C'mon, let's go get that dinner. I'm fuckin' starvin'.

     Damian shrugs and banishes the bottles to wherever he originally got them, instead giving Benedicta a small headpat. "Alrighty, then. We'll get you something more wholesome at... wherever Aur's leading us." he says, sticking close to her the rest of the night.

    FHSK-pop!
    Oh no.
    Oh no, she's opened up another can.
    "After drinking this garbage, I think I have all night." Becca says as she downs a can of something called 'Bonk! Atomic Punch'.