World Tree MUSH

It's midnight in the middle of nightmare city. Anyone that has good sense enough about themselves ought to be indoors at this time of night--in the corporate run apartment buildings, smaller and ramshackley privately owned affairs, or even in a bar--because well, it's goddamned dangerous to be outside at night around here. Official patrols only ran through certain sectors--and outside of them the gangs ruled the streets.

Currently, Mirage Mouse lounged inside an old apartment she used as a hideout, in what looked like a brown polymer-clad luxury recliner--at one point, anyway, now it was missing a few pieces of material, stuffing exposed and trying to ease it's way out from inside. She was leaned back and counting that evening's take, tail lilting about as it hung down the side of it. It's probably not apparent why to Mirage or any of her friends /why/ she keeps coming back to this cyberpunk-esque hell-hole. There /was/ the harsh socio-economic divides, a lot of poor people and folks involved in illegal dealings--allowed her to move a lot more easily than it might have some place more sparsely populated. Though the true reason is really only known to Mouse--the truth is, she happens to like the stuff from around here--it reminded her a bit of home, in a soulless, corporate way she found amusing. That and well, Eden city didn't exactly have a ton to steal. At least not a lot she was interested in. Was it more the element of crime and tyranny here that attracted her? Did the chaotic element unconsciously beg her to control it, or bring it to heel somehow?

These were thoughts that briefly skirted across her mind as the suddenly, the entire west wall of the apartment building exploded inward, gas and smoke canisters fired inside as men could be heard outside, shouting.

Several amored transports, magnetically-driven hover cars had descended from on high and surrounded the vicinity of the building, men in what looked like high-tech riot gear and heavy weaponry--grenade launchers, assault rifles, shock batons--all armed to the teeth were rappeling down from cables along side their entrances, assembling outside.

This was what the corporate masters referred to as a 'criminal raid'.

On rare occasions, Kiyohime dressed up in casual clothes and just... wandered. This was one of the ways she picked up on threats to her own World, after all. That is, when she had a lead to go on, she could. Just poking around, like she was here, was rarely very successful. She was a stalker, not a true investigator. Her role was more often to be pointed at a threat, and then burninate it like Nottingham at the beginning of every Robin Hood movie.

The horned but petite woman was across the street right now, watching the apartment wall be blown in. "What a violent way to solve problems," she says in her typical double standard of a manner. It has her attention, though.

Miwa wasn't exactly sure what to expect when Mirage invited her to visit. Even though Mirage had warned her it was not a nice place, she was not entirely prepared for what she saw when she arrived in nightmare city. This was certainly a far cry from the sunny paradise of Alola, or really anywhere she'd visited in her own world, and she nervously looked toward every sound and shadowy movement as she made her way down the street toward Mirage's place, expecting any moment some shadowy figure to pop out from an alley and do... things she didn't really want to think about. 

 She was getting pretty close to the address Mouse had given, or she was at least pretty sure she was, navigating strange cities of this scale was not really something she'd had to do on her own before. Suddenly, up ahead she heard an explosion along with the movement of heavy vehicles and lots of heavy footsteps up ahead. Her eyes widened in shocked fear, as she wondered... 'Oh no! Was that Mirage's place?' Swallowing her fear as best she could, she aimed an ice beam at the sidewalk, creating herself a path toward the building that just lost a wall. She didn't immediately attack the men or the vehicles, but if they reacted aggressively to her approach, she was ready to defend herself.

"That was a 50-inch, plasma, wide-screen TV," Mouse uttered as the din of shouting voices barking orders at her began to fill the room. Indeed, the wall that the men had come through had just been a foot and a half away from the deluxe entertainment center, that had been up against and hung on the wall. Only real corporate CEO greed money bought that kind of stuff, or drug money. Or, in Mirage Mouse's case, you were a particularly successful criminal. In this case, a thief. Mouse had surrounded herself with wealth, even though this was a rather ratty apartment complex, likely in dire need of repairs and with several health violations. But it had been where she chose to hide out.

Men were shouting orders at her to get on her knees, hands ontop of her head, aiming weapons at Mouse, to which she responded...

"I'm not your mother last night!" and hurled the poor old (former) luxury recliner at the whole group of them--sending about three barreling back out into the street. Of course none of them saw her actually pick it up and throw it--it just moved by itself. Mechanical rigging?

There is more thunderous crashes as windows began to blow out and a large shockwave begins to ripple through the air--causing men still rappeling down to fall from the cables suspended under the armored personnel carriers.

"I didn't think the fuzz would actually track me down this fast!" Mirage Mouse is floating up out of the debris and cloud of smoke, her feet flat as if she's standing on solid ground--yet she's hovering in mid-air!

Miwa was close enough to hear the shouting in moments as she quickly slid down the sidewalk which she covered with ice, and moments after that she spotted Mouse hovering in the air above the pile of rubble that had once been her apartment. She didn't say a word, not wanting to distract Mouse, though in hindsight she supposed Mouse could just hear her thoughts and speak back to them anyway. She moved to nestle herself in behind a pile of debris, and again used Ice Beam, coating it with super chilled water which freezes on contact, forming it into a makeshift shield. She then began to sing and form several orbs of water over her head. She didn't fire them yet, but instead just sang a gentle looping melody to keep them floating there, ready to sling her exploding water balloon grenades at the corporate troops at any moment.

Well, Kiyohime doesn't know ANY of those involved, but the law and the like isn't a concern of hers. Watching the entire incident is more of a learning experience for her... but she might need to step in soon. She doesn't have an obvious ranged weapon, so the small woman just dashes over to one side, leaps up atop a fire escape, and leans in to get a better view of what's happening.

Perhaps she should just asky. "My my, what happens to be going on here?" Yes, in the middle of a raid.

The ice-sliding Primarina is at first a bit unnoticed as she slides up to where the corporate security police are trying to recover from the initial Mirage-induced (apparently) force shockwave that just shook the entire neighborhood. Miwa herself might have found herself a bit unsteady as she came to a stop as well--though the shockwave didn't seem to be aimed at her.

As she rose up into the air she seemed shocked to glance over and see Miwa of all people there--having rolled up to find her in the midst of a raid by corporate private security! This was... awkward.

The singing seems to confuse the men further, as it interfers with them getting orders from their superior and gives Mirage Mouse a few more uninterrupted seconds to try and trash them to make good her escape!

"Sorry for the noise, just having a little misunderstanding with the authorities--if you want to help I can give you a cut of the take!" Mirage Mouse would send out her thoughts to Kiyohime, having noticed her climbing the fire escape, somehow.

Currently Mirage is reaching out with some heavy telekinetic might and attempting to pull the armored cars from the sky--right down on the men trying to fire their weapons at her!

The shockwave did indeed blow Miwa off balance a bit as she bailed from her ice slide, making her exit from the slicked sidewalk less than graceful to put it nicely. But she was determined to help her friend and it didn't slow her down much. The men may have been distracted long enough for Mirage to try and escape, but they were armed, and Miwa knew they would try to follow if given the chance. 

 So bombs away, as it were, as her exploding water balloons are launched by a suddenly rising pitch in her song, and she follows it up with a hydro pump for good measure, particularly blasting any men that managed to avoid her preceding attack. One that's done she surrounds herself with water, then forms a bubble within the column of water, and uses her modified Aqua Jet attack to launch her bubble, with her inside, into the air, heading in the direction she saw Mouse go. Once airborne she begins to sing to keep the bubble in the air, letting the momentum from the Aqua Jet carry her along like a wind-blown hot air balloon.

Don't mind Kiyohime, she's just a bystander! Really! A bystander who... considers carefully, then shakes her head. "No, no interest in money..." She leaps up to balance atop the railing, eying the various police forces and the pokemon that is joining the battle. A gesture summons an ancient naginata polearm into her hand, materialized from nothing.

"But if you're willing to owe me a favor in my own troubles, that I believe I can use, with someone of your talents," she suggests. The horned lady's clothing shimmers, taking on an ornate kimono of sorts, and a casual fling of her arm hurls the spearlike weapon toward one of the armored cars to... pin it in place by piercing the side and tangling with the axle, once it's down. "Do we have a deal?"

The water orbs burst--the sudden jets of cascading water many of the men off their feet--their shock batons rendered worthless and hazards at best as the firing is disrupted. The shots that flew already are deadly accurate--with Mirage Mouse attempting to telekinetically slow or redirect them, one grazing her cheek with another stray catching the side of her visor and shattering part of it with a angry snarl from her.

The men still firing even as the jets of water from Miwa's water sphere explosion streak in are then caught by her hydro pump--literally swept off their feet as if they were caught by a giant firehose!

Mouse is still roughly in the same spot in the air as Miwa bounds toward her--issuing a bellowing cry as she brought one of the armored cars sailing down into the pavement--the men scattering like toy soldiers.

"Sweet, yes, yes we do--keep the mermaid safe--and lets deal with them!" it appears no do-gooders has rose to the occasion for now, so it's up to Mouse and Kiyohime to deal with these corporate thugs!

The naginata sails through the air and pierces the second armored car's axle, causing it to lose power as one of it's electrical conduits are severed--the hover car slowly floating down from the sky and crashing to the pavement below like a punctured balloon--metal shrieking and glass shattering in a burst of fragments!

Miwa watches as another woman joins the fight, on their side apparently, for a price. She listens as Mirage talks to her, making a point to ask the woman to help assure her safety. She was happy to stay out of harms way as much as possible, but she was not going to just leave Mirage and Kiyohime to deal with the corporate thugs without providing some backup. An image of the moon appears above her and an orb of pink energy forms in her open mouth as she prepares another attack. Moments later that sphere of pink energy is let loose, flying towards one of the other intact armored cars, aiming for the axle after seeing how effective Kiyohime's attack was.

Just as soon as the first is thrown, a second polearm is in Kiyohime's hand. She isn't staying still though... surely they will return fire now. "Protect the mermaid, hmm? I suppose that's what I should be doing." So carefree at the moment, but she moves swiftly. Unnaturally swiftly, especially with those loose and flowing robes.

Despite this, Kiyohime isn't out to kill anyone unless they give her cause. Not through any morals... just through the pragmatism that killing cops tends to cause problems. Even so a number of shimmering polearms appear around her, flung at high speed to embed in walls and thunk into the brickwork solidly. Might want to keep your heads down, boys.

Mirage Mouse is favoring one side of her face with a hand as she sweeps her arm out and sends an array of energy bolts down onto the street below--not especially for aiming for the men in particular but she's angry and hurt now, the bolts impacting with the street and blowing up chunks of it.

The third armored car is hit by the pink energy ball that Miwa fires--not actually disabling it but causing it to drift off to one side and crash into a row of buildings nearby. They were really tearing up the street and neighborhood here.

"Dynasty warrior lady is helping--she's good--" Mirage Mouse swoops down from where she had been hovering in the air as debris flew--scattering in all directions.

The spears rain down, the remaining men still able to fight are trying to stay in cover or run to it as they 'THUNK' into the brickwork and ground around them, the private military force doesn't seem to be in great shape, at the moment.

"As fun as this is, I think it's time to bail--my hideout is a loss and I am going to take my girl here and scoot--you're welcome to come with," Mouse again projects her thoughts to Kiyohime, hearing her as if she's over a loudspeaker, but quite silent to everyone else.

Miwa heard Mouse saying it was time to retreat, and was more than happy to leave before any of the men decided to start shooting at her, either popping her bubble and sending her crashing to the ground, or worse, hitting her directly. The volume of her singing picked up, though it was still muffled to to any listeners outside her bubble, as she used her vocal aquakinesis to fly her bubble away from the scene, though she dropped low and stayed there to try and avoid being followed, figuring Mouse would be close behind. 

 She would also focus her mind, attempting to speak to her through her thoughts, hoping Mirage was listening to her thoughts enough to hear at a distance. "Where should we go? Want to hide out at my place? My little cave is pretty low key."

She can't hear Miwa's thoughts, but what Mirage does catches Kiyohime just fine. A few more spears lance through the air while the first several dissolve into mana... they aren't meant to linger a lot. She's just keeping their heads down. "This suits me fine," she says agreeably.

    Leaping up, the woman follows after the two nonhumans in a hurry before she can get riddled with bullets or something. She is not exactly bulletproof. "Where to? Please, call me Kiyohime." Her name is unlikely to mean anything to nonhumans, so why not?

"I'm Mirage Mouse, and this is my fabulously diva-liscious friend--Miwa," Mirage projects to Kiyohime as they travel--she'd likely be able to assist Kiyohime with movement if she needed it--Mirage could pull both Kiyo and Miwa with her if she needed to.

"I guess Ash got held up somewhere, he was supposed to meet us--I basically got my own gang going at this point, and I gotta be a bit more careful where I keep my hideouts..." she projected this to the both of them, not just the kimono-wearing spear-throwing warrior.

"Yeah, they both will not and cannot follow us there, and there won't be any heat--lets do it," she responded to Miwa, leaving the poor crushed building and the now struggling to get help security force behind.

Mirage Mouse vaguely wonders how they found her, or who spearheaded the movement for it--no pun intended, Kiyohime--but she intends to find out at some point.