World Tree MUSH

    <Alert, Alert. All shipping and travellers in sector 89-A-21538. Antimatter Legion presence confirmed. Avoid this sector. Repeat...>

    That's the message bouncing across all channels of the Interastral Peace Corporation networks, and many nearby Worlds connected by Vines. The source, is a large rail-spike shaped station in orbit of a rather uninteresting looking planet. The stark white of the hull is marred by scorch marks, its shield flares brilliantly as humanoid monsters attack it from outside, while the few views within show more monsters fighting with internal security. A Vine leads into the central elevator trunk, a winding spiral of platforms, side rooms and stairwells surrounding a Main Shaft elevator system that goes from the reactor at the wide end of the spike, to the Main Control Hub in the Tip.

    Those arriving by the Vine would find a trio of oddities moving carefully along the corridor, sneaking up on a group of blade-armed humanoids in what looks like futuristic armour, who seem to be beseiging a control room of some description.

    Syd arrives from the vine almost by accident, having been wandering a bit from Home. He looks around, a bit confused and scratching a bit at his stubble. He too would look out of place in his gold-chased turquoise armor over a utilitarian jumpsuit. 
    "What th-!" Syd's confusion abates slightly as he determines that there's danger present and hefts a massive hammer in his hands. He's not *quite* sure of the angle of attack, as he sees a trio of people sneaking up on others who're besieging what appears to be a control room.
    So he follows suit and tries to approach quietly as well. But it's not really his forte...

    'Avoid this sector'... Stay away. Do not come.
    NATURALLY THAT MEANS REBECCA *HAS* TO CHECK THIS SHIT OUT.
    Okay so one minute here she was, totally chilling, just absolutely chillaxing like a baller in her crib, playing some super futuristic shootmans game on her super futuristic game system that she totally has when she picked up on the transmission.
    Gearing up (stuffing a duffel bag absolutely full of guns), she headed out her Night City apartment and headed for the vines.
    So she emerges from the Vine... Spies three peeps trying to sneak up on some robo gonks and raises a hand...
    "YO, SUP? I WAS TOLD TO STAY AWAY SO I THOUGHT WHY THE FUCK NOT AND NOW HERE I AM!"
    Then there's Syd with his baller hammer.
    "OH MAN SYD MY MAIN MAN HOW'S THE HAMMER HANGING?" ... "GET IT? BECAUSE YOU'VE GOT A BIGASS HAMMER! HAHAHAHAHA~."

    Because she's a creep, Marceline has followed Rebecca here! Maybe that's not why it's creepy. It might be because she's well. Uh. Maybe sorta. Y'know. Been around Rebecca all day. Watching video game shootmans with the minature shootmans. Eluding detection. Stowing away in the first handy container that Rebecca grabbed.

    Her penance? Riding shotgun with a bag full of shotguns. Also having them dumped on her head. She claws the zipper open, already at a slight disadvantage since she has zero idea what's going on and, now visible, she peeks her bat-face out and squints.

    "Yo, this looks a lot like your game."

    Like it's just totally okay and normal that she's just hanging out in other people's stuff.

    Three things happen in quick succession: Rebecca shouts, alerting everyone on the deck, if not the whole station to the Solo's appearance. The pink-haired girl with the bow looks over, blinking owlishly before she asides non-too-subtly to the young man beside her. "Hey, Dan Heng... do they look like Antimatter Legion to you?"

    Dan Heng, for his part manages to show exasperation with his companion without any overdramatic expression. "No, March. They're clearly not." he then raises his voice a bit. "If you're here to help, these things are tougher than they look. Be careful."

    The second thing, is that the beseiging monstermen all turn and start advancing on the groups. Dozens of the blade-armed guys, a couple with cannon-like weapons, and a few floating orbs that don't seem like they should be alive but are still shooting lasers at the gathered allies. There's also a taller humanoid creature that's legitimately floating off the ground.

    The third thing that happens is the final member of the odd trio darts out of cover, brandishing a metallic baton of some kind. She clashes with one of the blade-armed monsters and... actually knocks it flat on its ass. "You've outstayed your welcome!" she bellows.

    Syd looks *horrified* at Rebecca's loud entrance and greeting. BUT he's given no choice but abandon stealth, as Dan Heng calls out a warning and the blade armed baddies rush forward.
    He ducks under a blow aimed at his head, small gusts of wind throwing him and his assailant's weapon just off enough to graze the breastplate's shoulder with a shower of sparks. He brings the torso-sized white-stone hammer head up towards the enemy's gut, a faint trail of glowing sunlight following as the weapon's magic looks to surge past the armor and crack the entity inside.
    "Nice to see you too, Rebecca!"

    So like, if Rebecca isn't supposed to shout, how is she supposed to find out who's cool and who isn't around new places?
    "What's an Antimatter Legion? Syd, bro, you know what an Antimatter Legion is? This sounds like some weird fairy fair-folk shit." She does manage to ask as the Antimatter Legion guys all turn and start advancing. ... This... This seems like a really good time to pull a gun.
    And it's as she tugs the zipper of her gun duffel bag open that she...
    Gets a handful of Marceline's bat-snout.
    "... You're not a shotgun?" She says, absolutely bewildered, tugging Marcy free of her bag. "Oh, you were just hitching a ride, huh, Marcy. Well that's cool, we cool yo." She says pulling an ACTUAL shotgun from her bag this time.
    Just as Stelle baseball bats a mofo.
    "OH MAN look at that shit she was just all 'NO MERCY! TAKE NO PRISONERS!!!' and bashed that gonk's face in!"
    Rebecca finds this absolutely incredible as she starts unloading at the approaching guys, shotgun booming again and again as she racks it and yanks on the trigger.
    Subtle is not her jam at all.

>> SUMMARY[Rebecca] >> Totally cool with Marcy in my stuff. Also shotgun.

    Still trying to get that zipper from inside, Marceline is completely caught off guard by a hand around her face! "Mmmp-phlltht! Yeah, not a shotgun! Not a battleaxe! Just a hitch hiker over here!" She assumes a more humanoid form, albeit still with big raggedy wings and big, fuzzy clawed hands. She scoops a weapon from Becca's bag and turns it over to kind of get a good look at it. "Yuh, let's knock over some of these goons and find out what's up!" She points and pulls the trigger, helping turn Becca's bullet storm into more of a bullet hell. No respect for ammo count or proper technique - not when she can brute force it with her shapeshifting physique!

    "Hey so. I dunno if this stuff is antimatter. I know this chick-" BOOM BOOM. "-She messes with stuff like that. I think it's like. A bomb or something?"

    "Anyway, these guys haven't exploded and-" She turns and calls over to the trio of people who WERE trying to sneak before Becca showed up louder than a paladin in full plate.

    "You guys want that flying dude alive? Or should I just y'know. Eat em or something?" Syd gets a nod finally and she stares at the hammer for a few beats. Getting idea? Maybe.

    Battle is joined! Dan Heng and March provide additional targets for the Antimatter Legion to engage. The young man using his spear and agility to annoy and harrass, while March takes potshots at the floating one... before it does something. His 'shouts' in a hissing, raspy and dry way, pointing at Syd as it does so... this seems to make every other remaining Legionnaire turn to assault the man in armour.

    Luckily the hammer strike does crush the creature, though it seems it isn't armour, more like a carapace... and these things don't bleed, they just leak some kind of weird light that scatters before they just burn up then implode when they finally die.

    March helpfully sidles over to the other ranged fighters, her chipper tone not marred by the battle happening around her. "They're adherants of the Aeon Nanook the Destruction. They're called the Antimatter Legion because they want to annihilate all of creation, it's a whole thing. I can go into it more when we're not fighting for our lives~."

    Shotgun blasts ring out, knocking more of those blade-armed monsters around, a few going down in that weird implosion.

    The cannon armed ones level their weapons and fire a volley of energy shells in response. These would hurt like a bitch, causing clothing or nearby terrain to detonate in secondary explosions.

    Dan replies to Marceline, "These things are neither truly alive nor dead. The best way to deal with them is to destroy them."

    Syd shouts "So more 'anti-matter' than 'antimatter' then?" He makes sure to separate the words for emphasis. "Omnicidal maniacs? Yeah, that sounds familiar..."
    Then they're upon him. Syd gets no chance to attack through the onslaught of blades and shots, devoting all his efforts to dodging, weaving, and avoidance. The wind-based magic of his breastplate helps him avoid serious blows, but he's coming out the other side with burns, nicks, ugly bruises, long nasty cuts.
    As he avoids and block blows, the subdued purples, blues, and scarlets of the sunset emanate from him in a glow. Then Syd erupts in all the splendorous colors of the sun at twilight, a blazing beacon of light. "Come and get me then!" And Syd tries to bully his way through the throng and lead them on a merry chase so that his ranged allies can pick the enemy off. He hopes, anyway.

    "Oh..." Oh they implode when they die.
    "Well that's kind of cool, I guess?" Rebecca muses as a few more implode a moment later thanks to her shotgun, before she stows it. Because she sees how the flying one got all the others to turn their attention on Syd.
    "Aw crap."
    Well on the one hand it means she's free to attack. On the other though if she doesn't do something to help Syd, he might end up in a pinch.
    Maybe.
    Solars are kinda baller, though, maybe he's got this--
    Reaching into the duffel bag, Becca pulls out a gun in two parts- one is the main body, the other is a long-ass barrel, which she quickly screws into place before loading the thing with a massive magazine of huge bullets.
    It's a .50 caliber anti-material, anti-tank, precision rifle. The kind made with bullets that pierce tank armor and kill the crew inside or punch into the engines, make them explode and... Also kill the crew inside.
    How she got her hands on this?
    Night City Black Market, yo.
    Aiming down the scope she lines up to shoot the flying guy, finger squeezing on the trigger.
    The resultant KRAK-BOOM that sounds off is loud enough to wake the dead. And the recoil of the gun would NORMALLY flip a full sized adult onto their ass but.
    Rebecca's Gorilla Arms take that recoil and eat it completely, the gun barely jerks in her grasp.
    "EAT IT YOU FLYING FUCK!"

    "Not alive? Ah, sick. Just fodder? Awesome!" Not that Marceline was likely to catch much of a conscience crushing these things if they were alive! Vampires are sort of alive/not-alive too and well. She's the lone survivor of that debacle.

    So, with Rebecca setting up to do some damage she diverts her attention from the 'boss' to the swarm trying to gang up on Syd. Since they're being tunneling so hard she flies close, pumping shot into their backs and their heads until the crowd thins enough for Syd to break out or- Well. They change focus!

    "Hey, you good in there man? Sorry about bailing on that tour you were going through with peeps. Really, just had something come up is all!" Click. Click. "Hey, what do- Ah, right." She flips the empty shotty around and lunges in, trying to dent in the back of one of the beastie's heads with the butt.

    Then Becca's rifle sounds off and she hisses, "Jeez!"

    And thus, the compounding of Taunt on top of Mark was first achieved. Syd is leading the remaining melee fighters on a merry chase around the platforms, though there's not really much room to maneuver in the confined corridors. Luckily for the Exalt he's really tough, and the melee fighters are having as much trouble maneuvering as everyone else... plus they're partially trampling one another.

    Rebecca takes the shot. The round strikes true and the floating 'Commander' lets out a horrific shreik as it implodes, a singularity opening inside its chest and sucking it inside as it struggles and screams. Luckily this only lasts for a second or so before the singularity collapses in on itself and the sound stops.

    Dan Heng impales one of the straggling blade monsters, March giggles as she seems to pull an arrow made of strange crystaline material from the leg brace on her right thigh. "Check out /THIS/ awesome move~." she chirps, leaping up, and pulling the arrow back before releasing it. The arrow flies true, then shatters into little... rabbit dolls? These explode on impact with the ground, and remaining enemies, freezing some of them in place... literally as ice flashforms across their bodies.

    Stelle, for her own part is trying to do much like Marceline, and clear the swarmers off of Syd, with aid from the others and March's crowd control.

    After a few more tense moments of pitched melee, the last one goes down, and the deck falls silent save for the sounds of breathing and then a young male voice coming over the local tannoy.

    "Are you from the Astral Express? I thought we were expecting you back soon, didn't think it'd been during this... I'm unlocking the door, we need to get down to the Main Control Hub and link up with Head Researcher Asta to figure out how to fix this situation."

    She takes the shot-- she hits! And the flying guy implodes, screaming like a little girl.
    "WOO!" Rebecca crows, throwing both arms in the air as she hoists that huge-ass gun overhead in victory.
    And then there are little rabbit plushies.
    "Oh huh neat trick.
    That's when Becca pulls out a pistol and starts taking potshots at more guys to lessen the load of the rest of the crew.
    "What's an Astral Express?" She does ask.
    "You mean killing all those guys didn't fix the sitch? Killing a bunch of guys usually fixes *anything*." She huffs.

    Wow, Rebecca's rifle was loud enough that it caused Syd to pause for a moment before he regains his wits enough to dive off and hang from the side of the catwalk/platform and let Marceline, Dan Heng, and March deal with the remaining assailants. March 7th's arrow trick reminds him of some tricks he's seen others back on Autochthonia pull. Or perhaps a smaller scale version of his own war spell.
    He pulls himself up and starts brushing himself off, not even bleeding thanks to his supernatural nature. He isn't even glowing anymore now, for whatever reason. "I'm good now, thanks to you and the others!" He says to Marceline. "Oh, you don't need to apologize. Things come up, like overloaded reactors or Titan attacks. Whatever was going on, it was clearly important to you, Marceline. That's all that matters."
    Syd wanders over to stand along with the Astral Express trio. He opens his mouth as if to answer the young man from the intercom, then thinks better of it. "Syd Fortis." He introduces himself, straightening his breastplate a bit.

    It's pretty straightforward work. Shift, strafe, strike. "These dudes are about as dumb as the vampires I croaked back home, too." She drops the shotty and eventually resorts to claws. Either slashing or grabbing some hapless grunt up to pull it apart limb by limb until it discorporates.

    "Hey, is my hair okay? I think one of those dingalings almost got me." She's probably fine, though she nevertheless pulls her hair over her shoulder to give it a look-see.

    "Hmh, yeh, maybe a bit. I just have stuff sometimes." Stuff like lurking invisible in someone's apartment coz she's literally got nothing else to do. Or to wait out daylight hours like a proper night creature.

    "Astral express. Like, that wonky ride to the afterlife when you die? Huh. I've ridden along with death a few times and it's never been with peeps like you guys." Beat. "No offense, just." She gestures vaguely. "You still got skin."

    Stelle sighs, twirling her bat before letting it go, the weapon discorporating in a flare of orange motes. She looks over at Dan Heng and March, then at the new people, the grey-haired young woman sidling silently over toward the two more known quantities.

    March beams brightly, striking an almost Idol-like pose as she too dismisses her bow into some kind of hammerspace or something, it's all very magic seeming. She's about to speak when Dan interrupts. "We need to be moving... we can discuss things more when we're safe."

    Stelle nods slightly, and is the first to move toward the door. It opens once she's in close proximity, and within can be seen the source of the voice. A tan-skinned young man with a scar across his face and pale hair. he's clearly wounded, a deep gash in one leg and a stab wound through one hand. They're both poorly tended, the bandaging barely held in place.

    "I'm Arlan, chief of station security... I had to retreat in here when they overwhelmed me. I hope that group got somewhere to hide." he seems crestfallen in his failure of duty.

    "Nah fam." Rebecca replies to Marceline. "Everyone knows when you die you head to the Rainbow Road." She says perfectly knowingly as the doors open and everyone meets Arlan.
    "Sup! I'm Rebecca by the way." She introduces herself to Stelle, Dan, and March while the doors open and...
    Well the director of security doesn't look so hot.
    "Oh hold up a sec." She says fussing in her BAG OF GUNS and pulls something out that looks like a... Well it can be held in one fist, has a trigger, and she jabs it to Arlan's arm and squeezes the trigger mechanism.
    The airhypo goes off with a hiss, dumping a payload of painkillers, endorphins, chemicals, and stimulants right into the man that will see to his wounds.
    It's like handind over a simple healing potion but with more of a surprise and a sting to it.

    Syd marvels at the way Stelle and March put their weapons 'away', musing that it'd be a handy thing to do with his own hammer. 
    He facepalms when Rebecca shoots Arlan with medicine. "I... guess I shouldn't be surprised? 'When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail'."
    He ahems and regains his bearings. "So how do we get down to the Main Control Hub?" He doesn't plan to leave Arlan here, mostly because Syd assumes that more Antimatter Legion would just turn up and eventually break into this place.

    Marceline stops and loooooks at Rebecca. Like, really looks. "Hmmm. Maybe I'll show ya sometime. Though I think there's a rainbow somewhere in there. Or a road... Iuno. It gets weird there. Anyway!"

    "Marceline the Vampire Queen." Head incline. "Sup?" She de-warps her body to her base human form, leaving her arms totally normal. Just. Grey like the rest of her. She could cover up with the long sleeve shirt she has tied around her waist but eh.

    "So you need someone somewhere? There more goons in your uh. What is this, a ship or somethin? I can get there. Just." She spreads her arms and shrugs. Like she'd know where to go. Guess that means we go as a group!

    Arlan looks shocked when he's got a 'gun' pointed at his arm. He even grunts as the hypo shoots its payload into his bloodstream but when the pain starts to ebb and the bleeding actually slows visibly, he gets what just happened. "... Huh, thanks." he says, struggling to stand as he points toward another entry, this one leading into the corridor system on this deck. "We need to reactivate the Master Hub Access. it's automatically disabled in cases like this so invaders can't just cut off the head, so to speak... problem is, there's at least a platoon strength between us and the elevator control terminal, and once we turn it back on, we have to go straight away because it'll auto-lock again once we go down." He's explaining as he heads over to a panel, tapping on a few of the holographic buttons. The red light above the inner door turns green. "I'll just slow you down, I'll stay here until you get the elevator running again."

    Stelle actually speaks up. "You're not staying here, it doesn't matter how long it takes us. We're safer together." The quiet woman moves to scoop under Arlan's wounded leg side, taking the weight. "Come on."

    Dan Heng and March share a look. "Oh, right. I'm March 7th! And mister stoic over here is Dan Heng. We're from the Astral Express... it's not a ship of the dead though, it's a warp-train that travels along the Star Rail created by Akivili the Trailblaze." Dan nods. "We have an archive aboard the train... once this is over, you can come aboard and review what we have... though it isn't much."

    Arlan is trying to protest, but finds it's rather pointless. He guides the group down the corridors. A few squads of Antimatter Legionnaires block their way, not much of a bother for the group to fight off.

    That is, until they reach the elevator terminal, and the express lift down to the Master Control Hub. Standing guard is a truly massive creature, it looks like someone made a centaur out of angular plates of exotic metal. "Trampler." states Arlan gravely.

    "See? Bright an good as new." Becca says when Arlan gives her a shocked look, she proceeds to give him a light punch to the shoulder.
    "Yo! Yo yo yo!" She officially greets March 7tth and Dan while following the group.
    So they get to the elevator... And there's a big nasty centaurrobot thing standing in the way.
    "So like. Do we shoot it?"
    Rebecca is a simple creature at heart.

    Syd peers at the centaur-ish beast that Arlan has dubbed a 'trampler' that sits between the rescue party and the elevator.
    "The easiest solution is to break the bridge out from under it..." He pauses for a second. "... but then we'd just have to deal with it later?" There's that everything looks like a nail thing that Syd tends towards in hurried moments. He glances at Rebecca. "Yeah, let's just pound it into dust." He surges forward, absurd hammer in hand, and attempts percussive maintenance to the Trampler.

    "Shoot it, make it's insides it's outsides. Er, outsides it's insides since they go all squish when they croak? Ooop, my man's on it. Go, dude! Bust it up!" Marceline laughs, raising up into the air and zipping off in the direction of the so-called Trampler.

    With Syd going all head-on, Marcy moves to flank, swiping with an arm that grows hairy and, er, simply larger. Claws and everything! "Suck it, robot toot! Hey, let's give the other peeps a lane to shoot down!"

    Stelle sets Arlan down behind the group, safe from getting caught in the melee. "Stay here, I'll come back for you once we're done." she says firmly. March 7th and Dan Heng support Syd's assault. The archer firing an arrow of that weird crystal while the spearman leapt in to follow up the hammer strike with a stab into the things flank.

    Stelle herself comes around to slam her bat into the opposite side, trying to crush the thing between the two blows.

    The Trampler staggers from the hits, its armoured carapace-like outer layer showing cracks and leaking a weird sparkly substance. It rears back, pointing at Rebecca before drawing a bow from some kind of hammerspace, and drawing back a nasty looking, antimatter arrow... it looses the arrow, and if it hits, Rebecca might find herself disoriented from a flashbang-like effect.

    The Trampler then rears up again and slams its forelegs into the ground, sending a quake through the deckplates to knock around the melee fighters.

    Hah hah. It's a good thing Rebecca brought a high power anti-material, anti-armor, rifle to this outing. Seriously you can find those things like candy on the Night City black market. Nevertheless, Syd goes right for the thing and Marceline moves in to flank with him. Rebecca takes to a knee and takes aim. Before the thing pulls out some kind of magic techno bow.
    "Oh. Oh shit." The solo says as she takes a tumble aside to avoid the impact. The flash and flare of light earn a snarl of discomfort as her cybernetic eyes soak in the bright light and QUICKLY dim to avoid damaging themselves and or her optic nerves.
    It takes a second, but her optics restart quickly as she picks herself up off her ass and squints down the sight of her rifle.
    She's aiming center of mass, and squeezes the trigger, resulting in a loud KRAK-BOOM of a stupidly high caliber shot going off.

    The trampler's shockwave sends the Exalted sprawling, his hammer sent improbably skittering across deckplates far enough that Syd can't reach it easily or quickly. He shakes his head to clear his senses as he picks himself up, noting he can't get his weapon quickly. He sees the Trampler bring out the bow and go after Rebecca, and jumps towards the thing, aiming to grab and lock up one of its arms. "Nope! You'll put your eye out!" Noting that Rebecca is getting out the big gun, he will try to keep it from moving *too* much so the solo can get a better shot. Or enable Marceline to take the thing's head off with a twist of her claws. Syd is fine playing support to more combat-capable allies.

    So yeah, the thing's tough! Marceline frowns, her claws throwing sparks as she rakes them through plating but does more or less superficial damage to the armor. The fact that it's ignoring her, though! Insulting! "Hey! You bogus freak, if you're not gonna look at me...!"

    The bow is secondary as she commits to another lunge; the rearing and stomping are loud and annoying but she's flying! The shockwave might buffet her slightly but she can push through! She's on the thing once she assumes it's somewhat off balance, sweeping claws across what would be the obliques before grabbing for one of the horns cresting it's head. Then, as she shapeshifts further she yanks and tries to pull the thing off balance!

    KRAK-BOOM. The rifle discharges, the slug flies the few dozen feet to its target... and compresses against the armoured hide of the Trampler. The super heavy slug dents in the plate, cracks spiderwebbing out from the impact point... but it doesn't penetrate.

    Syd's disrupting it from drawing another arrow, but even with the damage, it lifts one of those thick legs up and swats at the Exalt to knock him away.

    Marceline's assaults are starting to get annoying, though she's in a position that it can't get at her easily. The grasping of its crest makes it rear up again, going all the way over to just slam itself onto the deck, attempting to crush the vampire beneath its bulk before rolling back to its feet.

    This does give the Trailblazers an opening.

    Dan Heng holds his spear out. "This Sanctuary, is but a vision!" He leaps, and fires down into the Trampler like a bullet. "BREAK!"

    That causes something to happen to the beast, it staggers and seems disoriented, little 'licks' of green energy tracing around its form.

    Then Stelle comes in as a follow-up. "Rules, are made to be BROKEN!" she says with a cold rage and a glare that could melt steel. She flourishes her bat as it glows with a bright blue-white light. She then charges in and twirls around to do a full round-house slam of that bat into the cracked plate where Becca's bullet weakened it. "You're OUT!"

    The cracks spread, the plate shatters and a microsingularity sucks the Trampler into itself... though it also just seems to evaporate before it can be completely consumed.

>> GAME >> Stelle spends an Edge for: Using Stelle's ultimate

    Whoops! Marceline should have shifted faster! Her own 'gorilla arms' and her slowly increasing bulk still get yanked along by the rearing monstrocity and then she's slammed onto the ground with a ton of machine-like beasty atop her! It makes an awful crunch, like someone twisting a fistfull of celery and snapping a bunch of dry tinder. Weirdly, there's no blood. Just a grunt from her, as well.

    Stelle's epic swat handles the thing and she's soon peeling herself back off the floor, more miffed about the split seams of her jeans than the fact that it crushed most of her torso almost flat. "You're lucky I can't keep killing you after you're dead! Jackass!" She accompanies her complaint with a middle finger at, well. Empty space.

    Barrel smoking, Rebecca lowers her rifle and rubs at her eyes as Stelle goes in for the kill.
    "Yeah! YEAH! FUCK 'EM UP!" She crows as that baseball bat finishes the job and reduces the trampler to a hypercondensed singularity of pain.
    "WOO!" She cheers, hoisting her rifle overhead. "Who's next?! Anybody left? We'll fuck them up, too!"

    Syd is knocked free, but is too stunned by the suddeness to help Marceline. By the time he's able to get his bearings and stand again, the Trampler has been obliterated. He lets a long breath out, then goes to collect his hammer and help Arlan to the elevator. With a grin, because he's happy about how well everybody's working together as a team to beat the Anti-Matter Legion. 
    "So is there anything we need to do to get the elevator to work, Arlan?"

    Arlan leans against the wall, nodding in appreciation to Syd. "Just get me over to the control panel. I'll override the lockout and we can go see Head Researcher Asta. Hopefully we'll be able to form a plan to fight back."

    Stelle and the Astral Express group form up, brandishing their weapons in case there's more Void Rangers coming up behind the group.

    Arlan taps on the control panel, placing his control card against the holographic reader and inputs his credentials. The panel chimes and the elevator settles into place before the doors open. "Lets go."

    Rebecca takes up position to keep an eye out for any more hostiles while Arlan works, strapping her anti-material rifle to her back and pulling out a pair of heavy assault rifles from her duffel bag, one in each hand akimbo as if they weighed as light as pistols.
    "C'mon man hurry it up before more of those things show up." She urges while Arlan futzes with the panel and the elevator opens.
    She shoots a thumbs up to Syd and Marcy.

    Syd nods as he helps Arlan into the elevator, watched over by Stelle, March, and Dan. "We'd have to wreck the elevator to keep them from getting to control, wouldn't we?"

    "So who's the dingaling in charge of all these things? Like, someone we can just steal off and dunk on to stop this bad biz? Or you gotta button down there you can push to pump the brakes?" Marceline is out of her element here. At least, anything further than busting heads. Her experience with space is pretty limited considering the relatively high chance of completely unfiltered direct sunlight.

    "We won't, once we get off at the bottom the elevator system will lock down again. It's a safety feature for circumstances just like this. Evacuation of all staff to safe zones, microbunkers around the station and such, and everyone who can make it, to the Main Control Hub. it's designed to detach if the station reactor is compromised, like a giant lifeboat." remarks Arlan as he limps into the lift car.

Marcy's question earns a look from the locals. "This is a small force, they don't have a Lord Ravager with them from the camera feeds we've been able to see... but Asta'll have more info... we're lucky a Lord Ravager isn't here, or we'd all be dead already."

    As everyone piles into the admittedly large lift car, the doors seal and it descends rapidly. It takes a couple of minutes to get there, but it opens out onto a large concourse, and directly in front is a red-haired young woman staring up at a large array of holographic monitors. Each one has a different image, some internal to the station, some external, showing the floating figures of more Void Rangers outside... and something huge appearing out of a large portal.

    "What's a Lord Ravager?" Rebecca asks casually while the elevator heads down. Once it's done though ad the party disembarks... She pauses.
    "Who's this?" She asks pointing at the redhead. "Besides. If we wrecked the elevator how would we get back out?" She does note to Syd before frowning.
    "What's that?" She's referring to the thingy coming out of the portal on the screen.

    Syd appreciates a well laid-out control hub. Seriously, he's had to design the things for larger ships. Even though he is far better at creating small fighter craft. He notices the enormous portal and tenses.
    "... a jotun?" he says in quiet surprise. He shakes his head. Not here. The Titans don't even know the microcosm of Home exists. They could not know the World Tree exists. Syd shuddered at the soul-chilling thought of the Empyreal Chaos escaping into the multiverse and subjugating countless new worlds and peoples with his ruthless majesty.
    Syd nods towards Rebecca. "I'm with her. What're we looking at?"

    "Hah! Joke's on you. I'm already dead!" Marceline's just applying a little levity in her own kind of unsettling way. She's not gloating, honest! Though suffocating isn't going to be a problem here, at least!

    The digs are def way too clinical for her liking and she tests every spot of light with a wave of her hand before passing by after the elevator ride. "Huh. The portal thing making everyone else think about all the crazy doomsday prophecies they've heard?" She rests an elbow on Rebecca's head, figuring that at least she won't be too worried about whatever it is.

    Arlan limps over. "Head Researcher Asta, I have another group, last ones I'm afraid. They're from the Astral Express." he says, leaning against one of the bulkheads. he's still hurt, even with the air hypo. He does tense up too at the portal. "A Doomsday Beast?" he asks incredulously.

    Asta turns, looking at the odd group now on her control platform. "The Express? Oh, shoot yeah we were expecting them weren't we?" she places a hand over her chest. "I'm Asta, Head Researcher on Herta Station... I'm afraid you've come at a pretty bad time." She gestures at the screens. "We're looking at having to evacuate whoever's left, but now a Doomsday Beast is being summoned into local space... it'll make short work of the station, and the planet and everything else in the local system."

    "I mean. It's pretty obvious this is a bad time." Rebecca points out that she knows the obvious. "Your station is full of killer murder death robots from The Future." She replies to Asta.
    "Doomsday Beast? That sounds bad."
    It probably is bad.
    "Maybe we should delta while the time's looking good."

    Syd rubs his chin, contemplating.
    "Nah, I think we can take it. We just need an energy reactor to detonate inside it."

    "Dang. Well. There's probably a way back somewheres." Marceline gestures vaguely up. "The little joints between realities that we can jump through to other worlds. S'how Rebecca and I got here. I assume Hammer Time, too. If we can hook peeps up on one they can step off to- Well. Anywhere else is better than the end of that thing's fist..."

    Marcy turns to loooook at Syd. "Nah, nevermind. Eyyyyy, Hammer Time! Nice! Let's frag that big dook!"

    Asta blinks. "The only reactor is the one powering the station... but we can't disconnect it without completely shutting down the whole station... and then we wouldn't be able to bring the reactor to where we need it."

    Stelle frowns a bit, but says nothing, merely placing her hand over her chest briefly. March and Dan look at each other, then a voice crackles over radio. "Ah, hello~ Miss Asta I may have an option, if you can get the youngsters up to the launch deck we might be able to lure the Beast to us and take it out before it can do fatal damage to the station or the planet."

    The two Trailblazers blinks. "Miss Himeko?" asks March.
    "Yes dear~ I'll be joining you for this one."

    "Yeah but like then we'd have to FIND that new way back." Rebecca points out to Marceline. "Instead of take back the way back we came from, get it?"
    But then, an option appears. Get the beast up to the launch deck and take it out there.
    That sounds preem.
    Rebecca is already searching through her duffel bag to see what else she brought along.
    "I think I brought enough dakka." She considers. "Fuck it, I'm in. Let's nuke it with a reactor!" That probably isn't the plan. But boy did Syd's plan sound cool.

    Syd frowns. "What powers your smaller craft then? *Batteries*?" He sighs.
    Syd shrugs. "That sounds like a plan. Lure it to us, reduce it to motonic ash, save the station." Really all Syd needed was a source of energy and a means to direct said energy at the Doomsday Beast. He facepalms at Rebecca's enthusiasm. "A bomb. A bomb is all I really need, okay?"
    He shakes his head and says to Stelle. "Welp, let's get this show on the road then."

    Marceline makes a face at Rebecca. "Yeah, I got you. Those things wind up all over the place. There's one a couple minutes walk on the road that goes over my house. A-aaaactually." Think. Beat. "You need a bomb? There's like. A million of em back home. They're all mad old like I am, though." She shrugs, completely clueless how age impacts nuclear weapons. Only that less of them sitting in place on her world is never a bad thing. 

    She side-eyes Rebecca again, "What? What. You look like you're about to say something crazy."

    Asta listens... then glances to Arlan with a look that says 'These people are crazy'. Arlan's return glance is 'Got a better plan?', which in turn earns a shrug from the woman. "I'll override the elevator to take you up to the Supply Zone... Once you're up there, you won't be able to come back down until either the Beast is dead, or the station's destroyed... which makes coming back down here kind of pointless now I think about it." she muses, then shakes her head. "A-Anyway, good luck Trailblazers."

    Stelle and the other two nod. "We'll take care of it~." chirps March, giving a wink and idol-like pose.

    Syd says he needs a bomb.
    Marcy side-eyes Becca and well...
    Rebecca is GLEEFULLY digging through her duffel bag.
    That's when she walks right up to Syd...
    And plops a HUGE explosive charge right in his arms.
    "Semtex! It's a little old, but how's THAT for a bomb?" She asks, handing over the detonator with it, grinning like a cat.
    Yes. Rebecca is a little crazy. This is a given.

>> GAME >> Rebecca spends an Edge for: Giving Syd one hell of a bomb to use for later in the scene.

    Syd is not familiar with what semtex is, but he accepts the bomb. He'll figure it out or die at the hands of a Doomday Beast. He gets on the elevator, quietly examining the explosive to determine how to set it off. "Well, it *should* work. The Anti-Matter Legion seem to be very squishy on the inside, so if we can knock a hole in the beast's carapace, we can shove this inside and detonate it."
    He sighs. "If that doesn't work, I'll break out the sorcery and probably severely damage everything for a hundred yards in front of me. Don't be in front of me if it gets to that point and make sure you're wearing sturdy boots."

    Marceline watches, then frowns in dismay as Rebecca finds the stuff she'd been chilling on while riding in the duffel bag! "Heyyyy, that stuff was comfy. Dang. Wait, that was a bomb?" She snorts, laughs, then tucks her legs under herself as she hovers.

    "So, back up top. Then we gonna figure out how to get that... Inside... Yo, dude, you're a wizard?" Beat. Well. At least destructive powers are more useful than turning rubes into twigs or cats or something. She makes her way back to the elevator and turns. "I'll put in a good word for you all if everyone dies!"

    Heading back up the elevator, Stelle, March and Dan seem pensive.

    The ride is mercifully short, and a red haired woman in a white dress is waiting for them. She hefts a large case and gives a wink. "I've gotten Pom Pom to start powering the Warp engine to lure the Legion in. High energy systems are like sugar to ants to them." she comments, turning and gesturing toward the docking platform... that looks like a train station, in space. The frame of the Astral Express is on the nearside platform, an open topped affair.

    Then, a howling roar echos through the station, as a large dragon-like monster swoops around the station, making the entire structure rattle with the sheer force its giving off.

    March frowns as Himeko says. "The Doomsday Beast... it's really here!" March then nocks one of her Six Phased Ice arrows and shouts a challenge. "Get down here!!"

    It seems to oblige as it wings over, and slams into the dock platform with enough force to dent the metal, howling as it deploys its Antimatter Engine, and its large claws flex.

    It opens with a raking strike across the assembled party with its right hand, then aims to slam its left down atop Himeko, who dodges aside at the last moment.

    So here's Rebecca riding an elevator on her way up to fight off something called a Doomsday Beast.
    Most people would not be very enthused about this.
    She's tapping her foot expectantly, waiting for the elevator to reach the top. And when it does...
    "GUH. CRIPES, IF I HAD TO WAIT ANY LONGER I MIGHT HAVE KILLED MYSELF." She says exasperated as she unslings her assault rifles.
    As the Doomsday Beast comes down she plants her boots and takes aim...
    "HEY LOOK OVER HERE! RIGHT AT ME!" She shouts, starting to unload on it.

    Syd is swept off his feet by a swipe of the great claw, rolling with the blow as he lands, aided as he is by his magic armor. He scurries over to March 7th and holds up the semtex bomb. 
    "Hey, can you shoot this if I put it on one of your arrows?" Before March can even answer, he's reconfiguring the detonator with only his bare hands. Pieces are taken off and rewelded back together in new arrangements. He mutters to himself about sensors and kinds of 'essence', changing the bomb into something it wasn't. Something more compact and aerodynamic. Arrow-like, even. Even the deck plating isn't safe from Syd's magic hands as he tears a portion off and fashions it into a casing.

    Not nearly as impatient as her crazy little friend, Marceline takes the second elevator ride in stride. Planet killing thing, huh? Weird. If a teenage boy and his dog can tackle something intent on destroying all life how hard can it really be?!

    It doesn't take long before they're clear of the elevator that the thing appears and rakes their position with one of those claws. Most people may move, defend or take the stance of leaning into offense but she decides to directly engage with the offending appendage. The rubber soles of her boots squeal against the deck plating as she grabs at the massive claw. Already changing,, her form shifts and swells. Don't look too close; the muscles building themselves under her skin eventually can't be contained by it anymore. There's tearing, there's 'almost' blood and her voice, now somewhat distorted by the sudden change in her size, booms, "Why aren't you RED?!" She twists and pulls, trying to bully the limb and possibly wrest it away from the Beast's control. "Rrrrrgh!" Talons curl and push into the deck plates, gripping as she tries to employ all of the abominable muscle she can manage. Here's hoping someone has a solve for the OTHER limb!

    Becca's taunt doesn't seem to affect the Beast... until the Antimatter Engine pulses, and a 'cage' of golden metal appears around the Solo, aiming to crush her within it. The 'cage' is the containment cube around the antimatter core itself.

     Marceline tackles the raking claw, skidding back from the momentum. It almost wrests itself free, until Marcy's form changes enough to overpower it. The claw is disabled for now.

    March blinks at Syd. "Huh? Oh, sure, but it doesn't look much like... an..." she trails off as Syd does his Exalt Reality-hax. "... huh. You're not one of the Masked Jesters are you?" she asks, as she takes the completed Bomb Arrow.

    Meanwhile, Dan, Himeko and Stelle are engaging the other claw and attempting to disrupt the Engine. Cracks begin appearing on the carapace.

    Shooting until her guns run dry, Rebecca doesn't bother reloading. Not when a cage of metal forms around her. In an instant she drops her guns and grabs the cage by the bars.
    "GRRRRRRGGGGHHH!" Venting steam and hissing, her augmented arms pour every ounce of strength they have into tearing apart the cage around her until she's broken free.
    "NICE TRY DOOMBUTT." She snaps, tugging a pair of shotguns out and dual wielding those next, pouring shell after shell after shell into the beast in hopes of cracking open its armor somewhere for Syd and March 7th to launch the bomb into.

    Syd explains quickly to March. "Shoot the core with it!" He points to the Anti-Matter Reactor. "... and please don't miss." 
    Syd then takes a defensive stance, attempting to keep the Doomsday Beast from striking March. If all goes according to plan, the bomb will detonate when it encounters the high energy environment of the Beast's core.

    Okay, so the arm is stopped. Marceline wins at arm wrestling! So now what?! She considers her options as all of her muscles strain and stand out against her dark hide like bands of steel. Well, there's the other hand! She changes directions, twisting and hauling the arm around, "Heads up! High five!"

    She's bringing that hand around in a ponderous but mighty swing, trying to clap the hand of the thing down on it's counterpart. She's gotta do something with it since she can't hold forms like this forever without burning through her energy reserves. Then, well. She'll need some serious redness one way or another. "RAAAAAAAAAH!"

    March nods, "I can do that... but before I do. Hold still while I give you a present~." she 'finger guns' at Syd, and a glowing pale white film of energy forms around him. She then nocks the arrow and takes aim.

    Becca wrenches the cage apart, which causes some more damage to the Engine's casing. The shotgun shots plink off the though outer shell off the rest of the beast, but the impacts do manage to knock it around from the kinetic impacts.

    Marcy makes the Beast hit itself, both of the hands seeming to break, pieces falling out of them as they fall limp.

    March's arrow flies and slams into the starfield orb within the Engine. The bomb detonates, shattering the Engine and making the Beast howl as it topples over.

    Himeko, Dan and Stelle strike at the crystal orb atop the beast's head, making it recoil.

    It seems to die then, hanging limply off the side of the station platform.

    When the Doomsday Beast seems to die...
    Becca crows.
    "WOO! Hell yeah!" She says, twirling one shotgun over her head in a victory pose as the beast floats all limp and defeated.
    "Da na na nanana nananaaaaa!" She even makes a little victory fanfare noise while jumping up and down.

    Syd is more cautiously optimistic, having seen first-hand what tricks such esoteric beasts can pull. "Let's be sure..."
    He walks over to where the thing hangs from the edge of the station, knuckles white on the grip of his hammer. Motes of black start swirling around him, weaving through the sudden corona of sunset that now blazes from the Exalt, a half-filled circle of radiant sunlight burning on his forehead as he recites the words and shapes reality. The motes grow into butterfly forms as he speaks in words that are more tied to the underpinnings of reality than an actual language.

    Marceline relaxes, returning to her more humanoid form, her back bent and shoulders sagging a little. She sweeps her hair from her face with an arm and exhales a sigh, "Whuff. That it? If we have to do this again I dunno if I'm gonna be able to keep it together. She scoops up one of Rebecca's shotgun shell hulls and bites it, quickly draining the little bit of red from the thing before she flicks it away with a hollow plunk.

    "Egh, gross. I'm not even gonna say what I think that tastes like."

    The Beast spasms, a beam of antimatter energy lancing out of the crystal orb. It sweeps across the platform, then directs itself toward March as the archer trips from the sudden shift of the platform.

    Himeko calls out. "March!"

    Stelle tenses, then moves without thinking, interposing herself between the Beast and March. She holds her arms forward as a bubble shield forms, deflecting the beam as golden filaments start to erupt from her chest.

    <End this story, in your own way.>
    <They see you.>
    <I have to go now.>

    Stelle's arms move from their outstretched position, to grasping at her chest, as more of those filaments start to erupt. She cries out in pain, lifting up off the deck as a pulse of destructive energy fires out and erases the Doomsday Beast.

    Before anything worse happens, a man with a cane leaps into view, breaching the bubble around Stelle and knocking her head back, sending her back to the floor where March catches her.

    "I-Is she...?" begins March. 
    "She's fine now, I sealed the Stellaron." replies the man, adjusting his glasses, then looks around at the others. "Well done, all of you."

    Syd ends the shaping of the spell abruptly as the anti-matter beam blazes its way across the deck, the obsidian butterflies evaporating into golden motes that linger then wink out like fireflies.
    When it's over, he pulls himself back up from where he was thrown. "I... could use a drink."

    Oh. Oh it's not dead.
    "OH SHIT!" Rebecca blurts as antimatter beam fires for March, and Stelle lunges into the path.
    "Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit!" Rebecca says, a mantra of profanity as she resumes shooting the Doomsdy beast with everything she has while something happens with Stelle- something she doesn't understand- something that is stopped by...
    Some guy with a cane.
    "... Who the hell are you?" ... "And what's a Stellaron?"

    Antimatter beam? Well. Maybe Marcy could take a little bit of that but it'd probably be too much of an ask of her endurance. That's all she needs to do. Go berserk and start biting people after all this other heinous biz.

    So, she's just a witness to near-annihilation until some dude shows up. "Yo, what. No really. What?"

    "Anybody got some erasers? Maybe a handy vending machine full of edible red junk?" She's totally going to smash it open and not pay.

    "Welt Yang." is the mans response to the others. "We should talk somewhere else." he adds, before turning and walking toward the train.

    Himeko sighs softly, walking over to where March is cradling an unconscious Stelle. "We should get her to the station infirmary... it seems the Legion is leaving. Whatever just happened seems to have driven them off. Without the Doomsday Beast, and no Lord Ravager, they'd just waste resources."

    Himeko gently pats March on the shoulder, as the young archer looks on the verge of a panic attack.

    "R-Right..." She looks down at Stelle, then back up to Himeko and finally over to Dan and the others. "Someone help me carry her... the station'll start unlocking now the danger's passed... I hope...."