World Tree MUSH

The coastal community of one of the many worlds making up the great metaphysical tree was no stranger to the occasional tantrums the sea would throw their way. So when dark clouds were swelling over the horizon the inhabitants went about their routine to prepare for the eventual tropical storm.

What they had no way of preparing for was for a grand galleon to sail out of the darkness, not on the water, but on the very clouds themselves. Dark plumes of steam engine exhaust mingled with the cloudbank; metallic sails gleaming even though there was the rumble of some other means of propulsion within the depths of the clouds. The sight of the ironclad bow breaking through the stormfront in the sky was enough of a bewildering sight for the thunder to come, abiet from cannons aboard the ship rather than the storm. The settlement's watchtower shattered as windows were blown out of it, and panic overtook the inhabitants in response as they fled for cover. Though someone had the clarity of thought to put out a call for help.

Now much like it's namesake the Polar Vortex loomed over the settlement. Pirates of various species, common only in being anthropomorphic animals, descended on tethers and smaller zeppline-held boats to engage the disoriented city defenses and begin their pillaging of goods and gold and whatever other value they may find.

>> SUMMARY[Renya Rimehart] >> Are you bad enough dudes to save some nameless town from ruthless pirates?

Anna is walking along with Spiral perched on her shoulder. "... but the fact that pokemon trainers can see Distortions just because of their emotional bonds means there's all *kinds* of implications for who else can see them," Spiral is saying. "But ... okay, wow, we kind of got off-topic there --"

"Uh, Spiral?" says Anna, looking nervously skyward just as the ship appears. "We've, uh, we've got company ..." Her voice is faintly androgynous.

Spiral does a double-take. "Ohhh phooey," she says as the attack begins. "We'd better get outta here!"

Anna grabs her sapphire necklace, teeth gritted. "I ..." And then she exhales, and drops her hand, looking defeated. "... okay, right," she says quietly, her voice slightly lower-pitched than before. She doesn't start running yet, though.

>> SUMMARY[Anna Freeman] >> No we are not.

    Money can be hard to come by, and that's why Aranea frequently takes work on the side that is neither the empire's nor the Harvesters'. Sometimes it's just a paying job helping some sorry folks keep their place safe. It's not terribly exciting most of the time, but every rare once in a while "take this sack of coins and keep us safe" turns into "suddenly, something exciting". Which is never unwelcome, unless it disrupts off-time.

    This town hadn't warranted much of a deployment though. Aranea'd overseen it herself, which meant the rest of her unit wasn't present. No air support, no dropships. She didn't mind it that much.

    The watchtower crumbles under her feet as cannons open fire. In a flash of red light, the dragoon is suddenly armed with both a spear and a horned helmet, the black and red magitek weapon letting off an idle hum and trailing red particles from the lit areas.

    She leaps off the tower before she falls alongside it, swirling that spear upward and letting it carry her further up with the sudden thrust of red lightning. From up there she has a good view of the pirates' deployment, and picks her target fairly quickly.

    She rockets down, angled to cut some of the ziplines as she streaks, but more importantly to make a thunderous spear-first crashlanding amidst a cluster of the seadogs. Some of them literal seadogs, apparently.

    Best to aim for the source, letting them scatter too much'll make it impossible to keep track.

>> SUMMARY[Aranea Highwind] >> > Jump, ziplines and cluster of pirates.

  Occasionally, the princess would patrol her snowy home in search of the creatures that hunt her, dispatching them where she found them; in such instances, she would often take a Vine to return home from afield. Occasionally, those Vines dumped her in completely inappropriate places -- or maybe appropriate, depending on who you ask. Today is one of those times.

  Princess Zelda does not look like a princess. She's of slightly above-average height, dressed in a commoner's riding clothes, and carries a dirt-common bow with a quiver that looks like it belongs to or was stolen from royalty. Her hair is brown with hints of blonde, drawn back into a plain braid, and her eyes are summer blue -- currently wide as they look over the harbour from the hillsides above. She looks ordinary and human except for her slightly elongated and sharply pointed ears. She has a hooded cloak on, black and faded and touched up here and there with embroidery of silvery thread, but the hood is swept back to reveal her face.

  The princess sits astride a big beast of a horse; a black stallion that looks better suited to pulling carriages than being ridden. Ride she does, though, and once she's processed the situation, Princess Zelda does what would be expected of Hyrulean royalty.

  With her horse's hooves striking sparks from the cobblestones, Zelda crouches low over its neck, both hands firm over the reins. No sooner has she reached the village than she helps fleeing villagers to get to their homes, assisting in any way she can the stragglers who are too slow to get there first.

  Her eyes are on the skies, though, where pirates are already descending on ziplines to the village below. Her expression hardens a little more, and she unslings her bow from her shoulder. Raising it, she draws an arrow back to her ear, holds it for precisely two seconds, and releases once she's gotten a bead on an approaching zipline-riding pirate. Hopefully it's enough to knock them into the water.

  Once her shot is away, Zelda stands in the stirrups, gauging the distance and glaring at the approaching pirates.

  A small voice in the back of her head reminds her that this is stupid and reckless and everybody she knows is going to yell at her for it, and she /knows this/, but a more insistent voice in the back of her head -- the voice of the Triforce of Wisdom -- goads her on; relentlessly goads her on to help these people. She is a leader, and that is what leaders of men do. They keep them safe, they guide them, they serve as examples.

  Sometimes she really hates the Triforce, because the more she eyes that ship, the more she feels something cold coiling in her gut. Yet ther goes a streak of red light -- the form of Aranea Highwind, whose incredible mobility has definitely grabbed the princess' attention. Zelda raises her bow again, drawing an arrow back to her pointed ear once more; instead of picking a random focus, she stands in her stirrups and attempts to offer Aranea some meaningful cover fire.

>> SUMMARY[Zelda] >> Zelda rushes down to the village and takes potshots at zipline-riding pirates. This is a very stupid idea and she knows it. Also she spots Aranea and offers cover fire.

    Vines tend to drop people in weird places. Yahiko wasn't dumped into the middle of the action... he's been here a couple days. Well 'here' being the outskirts of town, staying at a place where he's just doing chores in return for room and board until he can find a good time to move on, and maybe get closer to a Tokyo that isn't made of metal and full of weird monsters. This place is odd but friendly enough... he could get used to this.

    Then a giant ship appears attacking the town, and people are calling for help. Yahiko is on the move quickly, but as a little farther away than some of the others, he's just arriving as the whole fight is starting, seeing leaping to her attack, and Zelda's arrows... those are some familiar sights.

    "I guess it's one of those Destiny things," he mutters. Or the Tree with a sense of humor. The boy darts toward the battle, hand on his shinai, ready to face whatever reinforcements come.

The townsguard does their best to recover, muster their ranks and make a defensive stance. But pirates from the sky was not something they had expected and they're scrambling with their proverbial pants down. Still they manage to run interception well enough for skirmishs to break out up and down the streets, filling the air with the clatter of rapiers and cutlasses while others use the fights as cover.

The most immeadiate thing one may note if not distracted by the conflicts is the people that flee for shelter in residences are left be. The pirates focus on smashing their way into stores and other businesses, places that would have valuables or supplies over commonry. Anna for the moment is left to be, mistaking for some child left astray by fleeing parents and of little interest.

An arrow severs several tethers, sending pirates tumbling to the cobblestones below. It's an uncomfortable and ungraceful landing, but they're hustling back to their feet and drawing their weapons. Another group is backing some guards corner into an alley, only to be spent sprawling as an armored woman slams down amongst them.

"Avast, some big ones be showin' up now." A figure appears at the edge of the ship's deck, ominous winds from the stormclouds flapping the tails of her coat and the scarf wrapped around her neck. One paw reachs up to adjust her tricorn hat between the vulpine ears. "Hold her steady, helm! Time to show these landlubbers who they're really messin' with." The white fox grabs one of the remaining ziplines and heaves herself over the railing. But rather than the street she swings aside to reach a rooftop, landing with a sprinting stride to the opposite end and grabbing a gutter pipe as she drops over. Jackboots hit the pavment below, and as she stands she pulls what appears to be an oversized firearm of some kind, turns, and fires at a cluster of guards. Save instead of bullets they're literally blown away by a blast of cold. "Do yeselves a favor and just stay down."

In lieu of anything else to react to, Anna makes her decision.

She grabs the protesting Spiral and holds her down onto her shoulder, then starts running -- her legs glowing pale blue as she runs much faster than a horse. She starts helping villagers reach their homes, much the way Zelda had before, and she's able to flit from location to location a bit more briskly than the rider.

It's not long before she crosses paths with the now-stationary princess herself. "Oh, hi," she says. "Need assistance from someone who can run fast?"

"... and not much else," Spiral interjects flatly, clearly annoyed at how Anna is handling her. Anna responds by pointedly letting go of her.

    There seems to be a larger than average number of anthropomorphic vulpines in this town. Having been on patrol in his Arwing, the leader of team Star Fox got word of a town sending out a distress call due to...Sky pirates? Well they can't be that different from space pirates, right?

Having piloted his ship nearby, he sets it into auto-landing mode and then leaps from the cockpit. As he falls, he angles himself towards one of those balloon equipped longboats, and at the last second, engages his Fire Fox system and launches himself towards it. Grabbing onto the edge, he hauls himself up onto the boat, and roundhouse kicks one of the occupants in the muzzle.

    Comandeering the ship, he sets it in a downward arc, sailing it towards the ground where the majority of the pirates are. He pulls up at the last second, scraping the bottom of the boat as he leaps off, leaving it without a pilot to wind up who knows where. A quick roll to soften the landing and he raises up, drawing his laser pistol and looking around at the chaos, "Well someone certainly knows how to make an entrance."

>> SUMMARY[Fox McCloud] >> Fox leaps from his ship and heroically enters the fray, taking out a couple of pirates along the way.

    Now that Yahiko is nearby, he's seeing plenty of problems. And... he's here with a wooden sword. The metal one is still sheathed. Fortunately, there's some focus right away, as a familiar figure is waving toward him. "Huh, I guess it really is fate." The boy turns and dashes toward Zelda and Anna, sidestepping to end up diverting himself toward some of the pirates. He decides to just give Zelda a nod, letting her know he's on his way...

    As soon as he dives in to help these guards that are being harried, displaying his swordsmanship in some quick darting swipes toward the pirates meant as much to sting and warn them to stay at bay than to disable them. It IS a wooden sword, it isn't meant to disable. "Be right there!"

    Cold instead of bullets. If Aranea wasn't used to picking fights with Glaives, she'd have been in serious trouble. It helps, too, that she has cover fire. Those arrows don't go unnoticed, and there's no time to give Zelda anything but a thankful nod, as the dragoon shields herself from the sudden cold shots with her arm and spear.

    The shielding around her does a good job keeping her from freezing, but her arm and spear are covered in a layer of frost that makes moving them a bit of an issue right then and there.

    Since Zelda is trying to rally the guards, and there's others with her, Aranea can at least focus on the fight. Arm and weapon still frosted over, she leaps up, landing on the roof across from her vulpine attacker in one bound.

    "Given the orders you're shouting, I take it you're in charge? I can tell your men are avoiding the civilians. That's pretty noble, for pirates. What's your creed?"

    No attack...?

    No, it wouldn't do to try until the ice melts. The spear underneath the frost starts glowing brighter, but Aranea's stalling with words. Then again, call her curious to know who she's dealing with, too.

    "Aranea Highwind. Mercenary as far as today's concerned."
    She doesn't forget to incite an introduction.

>> SUMMARY[Aranea Highwind] >> Engaging Renya(?) with words.

  For Zelda, the din fades away into an almost soothing repetition of raising her bow, drawing the fletching back to her ear, taking aim for two seconds, and releasing. She repeats it again and again with the easy grace of a veteran archer, mouth set into a hard line of effort, which is why she doesn't immediately notice Anna Freeman's approach.

  The horse lets her know instead, stamping and making a low threat-noise, backing his ears and showing his teeth. Zelda places a soothing hand on the horse's neck between arrows.

  "Don't come too close, girl. Do what you feel necessary." Zelda fires arrows between statements with eerie calm. "Civilians are our first priority." Another buzzing /thwhang/ of the released bowstring. "I will muster the town guard. I cannot allow the livelihood of these people to simply be destroyed."

  Zelda raises her bow high and fires another arrow toward a pirate in Aranea's general vicinity. Something skitters across her field of view, though, and she offers a nod when she recognises Yahiko's face amidst the chaos. Likewise, Aranea's nod is met with a hard-eyed nod from the Hylian. Met and acknowledged.

  She stands in her stirrups, then, raising her bow high. "/GUARDS!/" For such a relatively small person, Zelda can have a very piercing voice. And a somehow comforting voice of authority, if they're looking for some kind of leadership. Unfortunately it might attract piratical attention too but whatever. She's already spurring her enormous horse towards the highest concentration of pirates, where they're busily looting the market district and its shops. "/GUARDS, TO ME!/ Let us drive this rabble back, but we /must stand together!/"

>> SUMMARY[Zelda] >> Firing lots of arrows at lots of pirates. Acknowledging Yahiko Myojin. Acknowledging Aranea Highwind. Mustering the town guard with Hyrulean Royal Authority(tm).

>> SUMMARY[Renya Rimehart] >> Pirates still doing pirate things!.. It's just getting harder to do them without good guys interrupting.

The Arwing speeding overhead gets almost the same reaction out of some of the pirates as the Polar Vortex got out of the locals. "Avast! What manner of craft be that?" Only for another to reach over and smack him on the head. "Stop gawking and get back to plunder--" And that's when their own blimp-skiff gets an unexpected boarder, and Fox's blindside kick sends the two reeling to the back of the boat. It's not hard to commandeer the craft and send it recklessing aland after that.

A burly goat bleets out a laugh as Yahiko approachs with his wooden sword. "Baaarrarrarr! Lookit the shrimp, thinkin' he can be a real cosair." "But he's got a sword." "We've got REAL swords, barnacle brain!" The goat takes a stomp forward and swings his own cutlass, only for it to miss as Yahiko darts past and smacks his wooden weapon against the pirate's shin. "Gaa-aaa-aa! Get that anklebiter!" They start to give chase, only to get broadsided by Zelda's archery skills and, while arrows aren't necessarily an unusual thing, something about this lady and her precision is enough to draw some ire in her direction. As well as a couple of drawn flintlocks and return shots fire. However Zelda is likewise mustering the local guard with her regality and its quickly turning into a stand-off. Anna helping stragglers get out harm's way helps too, it's one less thing for the guards to have to focus on.

Ears swivel at hearing the landing near her, and by the time Aranea speaks she's already turned towards her. The arctic fox smirks a little as her tail sways off to the side and she grabs her tricorne with free hand to sweep down into an exaggerated bow. "That be I. Captain Renya Rimehart, scourge of the Verdigris seas, at ye diservice." She rises and returns the hat to her head, only to step back into her own stance. "We be here for takin' supplies, not lives. So, do you wanna just parley lassie?" Renya raises her weapon, only for a mechanical click to emit from it as a cutlass extends from within to reveal the gunblade's true form. "Or do ye wanna dance?"

Not far from where Fox is taking scope of the situation, in what had been the city smithery several pirates rush out carrying metal and tools, lead by a pair of almost identical raccoons other than one being a lady and the other wielding some manner of axe-ended rifle. The space merc is more or less ignored as they're making a line for one of the other not-broken aether boats.

Anna blinks in mild surprise at Zelda's relatively noble tone, but doesn't comment on it; she's no stranger to presenting oneself in ways that might seem unexpected. "Right!" she says, and then she's off again ...

... leaving Spiral behind. "Whoops," says the small catlike creature, looking up at the princess apprehensively. The whizz of bullets prompts her to hurriedly float to the nearest building, where she watches the goings-on from a distance.

Anna zips around the town, doing her best to help villagers get from place to place. At one point, she physically brings a pair of small children in a fireman's carry from point A to point B, one at a time, before helping their parents get to the same spot in a much more conventional manner.

After checking that they're fine, she heads back, rounds a few corners, and finds herself on a collision course with the raccoons at the smithery over by Fox. Anna lets out an almost boyish yelp of alarm, and just barely swerves to avoid hitting them at thirty miles per hour. She does look for a few seconds like she's about to trip and fall over, but she keeps going and somehow manages to get her steadiness back as she slows down to a stop, the glow vanishing from her legs. She winces and lets out a brief high-pitched whimper as she looks back at the raccoons.

    "Sorry, it wouldn't be professional of this girl to turn on the folks paying her to keep you from doing... well, this. Doesn't mean we can't trade numbers and see about more work later on, huh?"

    That went both ways. The empire might have use for more people who could fight the Glaives head-on. But right this moment, it was time for dancing.

    Aranea's magitek spear suddenly bursts out with lightning, shattering the ice around both it and her arm. The lightning is a minor concern at best, not reaching quite all the way to Renya, but the dragoon isn't much slower than it is in trying to close that gap and cross blades, rocketing towards the pirate using her spear. That's when the lightning is more likely to be an issue, since it trails after the weapon and might conduct through a weaponlock.

>> SUMMARY[Aranea Highwind] >> If you have a lightning rocket spear, you use it.

>> SUMMARY[Anna Freeman] >> Anna helps out the villagers, then nearly collides with two of the attackers.

  Although she musters the guardsmen to her, the Hylian does not stop her assault of the looting pirates. She still takes the time to draw, aim, and release as she steers her horse. The Hylian is not a novice horseman, either, controlling her horse purely through posture and the pressure of her knees at its sides -- she's too busy picking off pirates to use the reins.

  Her mouth twists into a hard, bitter smile as she twists out of the way of blackpowder shot, but not quickly enough; one grazes her, ripping a hole in her hood and raking an angry, bloody weal along her neck. Another rips a hole through her hooded robe at the shoulder.

  One gloved hand points toward the square as Zelda stands up in her stirrups again, aware that this presents herself as a target, but also aware that these townsfolk and their beleaguered guard need a quick shot of morale. Maybe she can inspire them; she has some knowledge of tactics, after all. Zelda raises her bow high in clear signal; light glances off the dull metallic caps on the end of each of the bow's limbs.

  "Archers, to me! Swordsmen, form up ranks!" The bow whips once before lowering to ready another arrow. "Shields up! Eyes forward!" She raises her aim a little, this time to draw and fire at the goat menacing Yahiko. Two more shots are followed, aimed less precisely, meant to scatter the goat's companions away from Yahiko. "/Stand and fight/ -- we must be united, and coordinate our actions!"

>> SUMMARY[Zelda] >> Zelda picks off pirates with precision. She also gets grazed by gunfire. And steps up to try and lead the town guard to fight back, because inspiration and morale are important to Come On Guys We've Totally Got This.

    The strikes got Yahiko some breathing room and the attention of the pirates! That's a good start. Well, good for the town, not so good for him. "Whoops," the boy mumbles, backing away quickly as he gets attention on him. It turns into a full on retreat, because parrying a cutlass with a shinai is not a good idea.

    The call to stand and fight is heard though. Against a group like this, Yahiko uses the distraction Zelda gave him to dash that way... and to unwrap his REAL sword. Reverse-blade or not, it can do some real damage. His whole point is to get into a place to coordinate though, turning to shield Zelda as best he can. "Where did the girl go?" He's lost sight of Anna for the moment, and that worries him. "Looks like the leader is occupied, though."

>> SUMMARY[Yahiko Myojin] >> Moving to be Zelda's defense

With the ship sailing back off into the sky, Fox moves to the nearest pirate, one who's harassing an old shopkeeper. The two of them seem to be playing tug of war with the old man's money. Fox pistol whips the pirate in the back of the head, and then zips over to catch the woman before she falls from the sudden lack of someone pulling her, "Get back inside. I'll handle these guys."

He's not even getting paid for this, he's just doing it because it's the right thing to do. It's about now when he spots the twin raccoons heading for one of the boats. He runs after them, taking aim not at them, but at the balloon above the long boat, firing a shot from his laser pistol to try to take out the lift. Boats don't fly very well without that, he would assume. He just hopes it's not an explosive lighter than air gas, or this could get messy.

The response gets a brief raise of a brow. Followed by a low chuckle. "Business 'fore pleasure, as they say then." The armored woman sparks up and lunges at her. It is perhaps of little surprise that Renya kips to the side, turning to intercept the polearm with her gunblade and turn it aside. Sparks fly as one weapon grinds against the other, but whatever manner gives Frostbite it's frigid effect appears to help hold the lightning at bay. The dance part is almost more than just a pretty phrase with the way Renya moves, twirling at the last moment to pull the weapons apart before Aranea herself crashes into her. "But I'm always open to new... business oppritunities, shall we say?" The gunblade shimmers as it's elemental attunement flares. Despite the distance put between them by her dodge and deflect maneuvers she makes an sweeping slash with it that sends a cutting arc of cold wind slicing towards Araena. She's an arctic fox by appearances, maybe not that shocking that she's got some manner of ice and cold theme going on here.

The townsguard may be little more than armed commoners, but something in Zelda's voice and manner compels them with a greater sense of duty. They rally to her and, assisted by her precision shots, start to push the would-be raiders back out of the central market.

The group trying to chase down Yahiko are only lead right back into trouble and now redoubling defense. Some of the pirates start to realize it's going belly up fast, grab whatever random trinketry they can, and retreat to grab lines to scale back onto the airship still looming above.

A high speed collision with a strange girl is nearly avoided, earning a few stares in Anna's stumbling direction. "Like a bloody drunken cheetah!", the raccoon girl growls.
"Forget 'er Maven," the male interjects as he jabs her side with his elbow. "Get the materials--" Bellowing cut short as all the pirates stop to look up as the balloon bursts a hole with a loud pop. "--Oh shite." He turns and fires his weapon at Fox in return. "I'll make ya drink from the bilge tank fer that, lubber!" Smoke and embers belch from the muzzle as, despite it's archaic appearances the rifle's shot packs quite a kick!

>> SUMMARY[Renya Rimehart] >> The tides, so to speak, seem to be turning.

Spiral's ears perk up at Zelda's commands, and she hops in place a bit on her perch; *she's* clearly inspired. "Anna ran off to help, uh, everywhere else!" she calls over to Yahiko. Her eyes briefly flicker with a pearlescent light as she uses her ability to gauge the swordsman's magical/combat potential; zero magic, but still with realized potential, of course. She checks Zelda next ... and catches sight of a far more vast power connected to the princess. "Wait, what?" she mutters softly, ears flicking backward as her tail starts twitching nervously. "What the heck is THAT!?"

Anna jumps, startled as the raccoon begins firing at Fox. "Yeah, 'oh shite' is right," she mutters. "Oh god ..." She takes a deep breath, and then ... starts running straight at the raccoon, not at full speed -- not enough that a collision would *kill* someone, at the very least -- then does a running leap, kicking him in the face! She trips over, does a forward somersault in midair, just barely lands on her feet in an even more unstable position than the near-miss, and she screams the entire way as she runs down the street, hands held out to her sides as she tries to stabilize herself and slow down at the same time. She manages to come to a stop and immediately falls flat on her face.

>> SUMMARY[Anna Freeman] >> Spiral sees something ... big inside Zelda. Anna gives someone the world's clumsiest high-speed dropkick.

    "Sometimes the business IS the pleasure, captain!" Much as Aranea likes to have time off and relax, she'd never be able to deny the thrill of a fight is itself a good reward. She prefers money, for a number of reasons, but if she wasn't in that kind of position she could see herself working for challenges and fights instead.

    Not today, though.

    Lightning doesn't conduct through the weapon - seems to be magitek too, but it doesn't give off that... hum. It's similar, but also not. Different power source, maybe? When Renya backs off following their brief exchange, Aranea keeps an eye on the blade, and the blue glimmer of those slashes are enough to warn her not to repeat her early mistake.

    Aranea jumps back, high enough to pass over the arcs, though they still clip her boots. Frost creeps up the armor, which means she can't land on her feet. She'd probably slip. Her spear's thrusters keep her airborne, so she goes for that instead.

    "Seems your name's incredibly apt. Interesting weapon you've got there, can't say I've seen one like that before!"

    The spear hums and shines, Aranea shooting towards the vixen, but not to pierce. She spins at the last second, hoping to avoid another sweep of that sword to deliver a powerful kick with both feet instead, doubling as a means to get the ice off her boots through the application of brute force. She's aiming for the abdomen, not to crush bones but to cut breath.

>> SUMMARY[Aranea Highwind] >> Words, inconveniences, and rocket dropkicks.

  "Master Myojin!" The enthusiasm of Zelda's greeting is not forced; having Yahiko there is enough to make the odds less bleak. "Thank Hylia, you're a sight for sore eyes. Will you help me to hold this line?"

  She twists at his question, surveying the village-wide brawl, but she can't see Anna even mounted on her horse. Zelda shakes her head mutely to Yahiko. "Toward the southeast, but I do not know how far. I cannot leave these men. They will be cut down without any leadership."

  Raising her bow, the Hylian takes aim, putting arrows into the limbs of troublesome pirates. Where she has to, she puts arrows between the eyes. It's clear to a veteran warrior that she does not shoot to kill unless left with no choice. Dead men tell no tales, and if the ship can be driven off, questioning survivors might be useful.

  As the battle shifts and the pirates find themselves less numerous in the market square, Zelda can't help a flicker of satisfaction. Leading from the front might be dangerous, but there's no denying the effect it has on morale and the inspiration it provides to the troops. She raises her bow again between shots, letting the cap on the end of the limb catch the light, like light glancing off a sword. "Archers! To me!" There is a whisper of power about her, one that Spiral picks up on easily; of a presence far greater than this seemingly fragile-looking woman -- the stirring of a tremendous energy beneath the surface, restless now in the heat and raucous din of battle. "Swordsmen! Do not falter! Stay your course, men, and you shall prevail...!"

>> SUMMARY[Zelda] >> Zelda thanks Yahiko Myojin, fails to find Anna Freeman, and attempts to maintain order with Team Guardsmen. Also, firing arrows on pirates wherever possible. And, being ~inspiring~.

Despite the size of the weapon, and the fact that it looks ancient, the amount of kick it provides is nothing short of impressive. Fox barely manages to turn his reflector on in time. It doesn't even reflect the shot, as Fox himself gets sent flying backwards from the force of it. He crashes in a heap, rolling over a couple of times, "Ughh. Damn."

Picking himself back up, he takes a second to re-aquire his targets, and then moves back towards the raccoons, "Lucky shot!" He yells out at the male of the pair, "Lets see how you handle up close and personal!" Engaging the Fire Fox system again, he launches himself forward, aiming to tackle the male of the pair, and deliver several up close strikes. Punches, elbow strikes, and knees, however many he can get in up close.

    "Thanks," Yahiko says to Zelda, curt and quick when under pressure. He used to be more of a chatterbox, but right now he's all business. His blade out at last, he braces before the pirates come after him... he's an UNCANNILY good swordsman, but against multiple opponents he hasn't come out unscathed, and is going to need to be careful...

    Except that his opponents decide he's not worth the effort and decide to high tail it out of there. Which makes sense. "Right, pirates don't really want a lot of resistance, do they. Come on, maybe we can harry them back faster!" He rushes forward... barely restraining himself from running off ahead of the other guards. HE has priorities. "Zelda, are you all right? Anyone I should be looking for? Can we do anything to help the other one?" He can hear the balloons popping, but the chaos of battle is hard to follow. If someone doesn't stop him he's going to be running up a fallen timber recklessly in the next few seconds.

Even with the deflector to protect him Fox recoils from the hit and that gets a smirk out of the 'coon. "That'll teach ya to be so sma--" only to get a boot to the head, as clumsy as it was, that knocks him back against the busted air-skiff with an oof as Anna goes sprawling off from the recoil. "--sunnova seabiscuit!"
The merc is back on his feet and charges to follow up, but Maven steps in to cover the other as she slings what looks like an old furnace door off her back. Which is exactly what it is, flames splaying across its surface as Fox's melee blows slam into it without burning through. Though there's several grunts from behind the metal plate as Maven has to dig in her heels to deal with the vibrations. "Get yer head back on Magnum!"
"On it, sis," the male 'coon grouses as he gets up, then ducks at the hammering against the shield. "Move!" As Maven pulls her shield away Magnum grabs her around the waist, and instead of attacking swings up with his weapon to grab the edge of a building with the boarding axe mounted on the end of the muzzle and hoist them both onto a rooftop. "Cap'n is gonna have her sails in a knot."
"Mission's a scupper bro," Maven agrees. They do look alike other than gender, maybe they're twins or something. They both glance in the direction of the other rooftop. "But booty ain't the only reason we're here..."

Renya laughs in response to Araena. "Mayhaps we have a few things in common lass." Despite all the armor that lady has quite the bounce to her. "Do ye fly, or just jump good?" Quick on her feet as she is Renya sidesteps where she expects the lance to come plunging down, and it's actually Araena pulling out of the dive instead that catchs her off-guard. She can't shift fast enough to get her gunblade into a defensive position and the boots slam into the vixen's midsection. Renya tumbles backwards and off the edge of the roof....

Only for a grappling line to shoot back into view, grabbing another higher roof edge and pulling the fox back into view, attatched to the device strapped to her arm under the sleeve of her jacket. "Been fun lass, but me point's been made." She sheaths the gunblade, and as she's zipped onto the opposite rooftop Renya pulls a doubloon style coin from her pocket and flicks it towards the Dragoon. Followed by a quick faux salute before relaunching her line up to the airship and hoisting herself away. "HEAVE HO MATES! TIME TO WEIGHT ANCHOR AN' SHOVE OFF!"

Not literally, the Polar Vortex didn't really need to drop an anchor here, but there are some heavier (and harder to shoot down) chains hanging similarly below the ship for pirates (including the raccoon twins) to grab onto and get back deckside as they follow their Captain's withdrawl. Between that and the defensive standoff Zelda rallied the guards into they are not sticking around to end up in hempen harnesses.

    Aranea catches the coin, inspecting it - and it doesn't take more than a few seconds to decide she wants to keep that somewhere she won't lose it. She certainly can't say she's seen a business card quite this classy before.

    Seems she doesn't have time to answer whether or not she can fly. The answer's no though, but when you have the combination of skills she does, coupled with magitek armor and her spear, she can blur the line between jumping and flying somewhat.

    Her contract certainly didn't call for pursuing Renya. The dragoon's confident, but not so much that she'd expect to come out on top leaping after her. Odds are she's got more crew up there than came down and they're all armed.

    Not to mention her arm and legs hurt from that near-encounter with frostbite. Armor and shielding are nice, but they don't stop everything. She's content enough to watch her go! Besides, it's not like Renya's men killed innocents. All's fair in war, as long as the rules of warfare are observed.

    Aranea hops off the roof, intending to regroup with the city guard and help them clean up, if necessary.

Anna hurriedly staggers back to her feet; she's gotten a bit dusty. "... Did that guy just seriously say 'sunnova seabiscuit'?" she mutters to herself. She gets ready to charge back into the fray, knowing that she'll probably end up either flat on her face or flat on her back again -- or worse, once the pirates start fighting back against her -- but she hesitates and hangs back as Fox charges in. Yeah, okay, he looks like someone who has a MUCH better handle on a melee.

She looks around as the pirates start making a general retreat, and she can't help but smile. "All right!"

Back by Zelda's standoff, Spiral just raises both forepaws into the air and lets out a cheer. She doesn't remotely understand the princess's power, but whatever it is, she gets the feeling that it's helped a great deal in handling the defense of the town, and she's just happy it was successful.

Of course where there's one, there's the other. Why are twins always like that? Fox's blows are rather ineffective against the shield, and he backs off a few steps to re-orient himself and figure out the best plan of attack.

Of course he doesn't need to, seems the pirates are baling out. With them on the run...He could pursue but he is certain one solid hit from any of the guns on that ship would take his arwing down. And from how boisterous that captain was...He knows there'll be other chances to stop them.

  The Hylian shifts her bow, fitting another arrow to the string, but the motion is much slower than it had been earlier. Adrenaline and purpose have kept her in the fight until now, but now that the pirates are beginning to rout, her strength is seeping away. The pain of those grazed blackpowder shots is also becoming a little more insistent.

  "I'll be fine," Zelda mumbles, in response to Yahiko's concern. She shakes her head in a way that isn't entirely convincing. "Worry about the wounded."

  She's wounded, too, but she seems uninterested in having any attention paid to her until the natives are dealt with. Her blood, where it wells in wounds or seeps down her arm, is faintly luminant. Is that normal? That's probably not normal. It's also like a floodlight in the dark to the supernaturally sensitive, practically screaming 'hi hello I am some manner of divinity.'

  Zelda ignores the mild discomfort of drying blood or the stinging burn of the near misses. Instead, she straightens in the saddle to address the guardsmen, pitching her voice above the din. "Well-fought, men! Today, you have defended your homes and your families with distinction! You have safeguarded your livelihood against those who would merely seize what they want! I am proud to have fought at your side!"

  It isn't until they start dispersing that she lets out a breath, sagging in the saddle and wincing a little. "Thank Hylia," she breathes exhaustedly, with feeling. "I didn't know if I was going to make it out of that one. I'm alright," she adds, to Yahiko's earlier concerns. She eyes him, as though unsure whether or not he's going to tear off in some random direction. Goodness, he's energetic. "Just a little dizzy. I'll be fine. Are you hurt, Master Myojin?"

>> SUMMARY[Zelda] >> Zelda assures Yahiko she's fine. (No, but she's had worse.) Congratulating the men and then sagging once they stop paying attention to her, and seeing if Yahiko is indeed fine and grabbing his attention before he goes and does Something Reckless.

    Yes, Yahiko is energetic despite the shallow wounds and scrapes from the fighting. He avoided a major injury this time, but he could probably stand to have someone hold him down and take a look. Fortunately, the pirates are retreating, so he doesn't do some wild rooftop battle threeway between dragoon, swordsman, and pirate. Which would be awesome but not needed.

    "Huh?" He halts, and pants softly as he tries to catch his breath. "Oh... ah... I think so. I don't feel faint so I'm protably not dying." That is a good metric. "Um... nice to see you again? Let's get everyone together and catch up." He also needs to properly meet Anna... but obviously after resting a little.

  Zelda eyes the swordsman, raking Yahiko with a skeptical look when he says he's probably fine. Yes, that sounds like the trustworthy prognosis of a trained physician.

  "At least allow me to look you over, later," she protests. "Perhaps you've not yet had reason to see it, but I /am/ trained as a healer above all else. I just happen to know my way around a bow and a quiver."

  With a tap of her heels Zelda urges her horse forward at a slow plod. "Nice to see you again," she agrees, with an undertone of amusement. "Perhaps someday we'll meet again under better circumstances. For now, I thank the goddesses that the casualties were not worse."

  "Lead; gather your allies, and I will follow." Zelda gestures ahead of them, a flick of one hand that seems almost dismissive. Her fleeting smile is tired. "I am too tired to play the part of the leader any more, anyway. Truthfully, I should not have in the first place, but... what was I to do? Let these people to be robbed, or even slaughtered?" She shrugs, wincing. "What's done is done, I suppose."

Spiral stares at Zelda's faintly-glowing blood. The implication of *that* isn't lost on her. "... wow," she mutters softly.

Anna smiles and gives Fox a double thumbs-up, before she zips off back to where she started, legs glowing with her super-speed. It takes only a moment for her to get back to Zelda. "We did it!" she calls out, jogging over at a much more reasonable human speed, but she stops when she gets closer. "Oh, yikes, you're hurt!" she says in hushed tones.

Spiral stops boggling at Zelda and floats over to the group. "You're looking kind of dusty, Anna," she says somewhat tiredly. "Please tell me you didn't try to dropkick something using super-speed again."

Anna looks affronted. "Hey, it helped!" She smiles weakly at Zelda and Yahiko. "So, uh ... hi, I'm Anna, and this is Spiral."

  The Hylian glances down at her own bleeding shoulder when attention's drawn to it, but her regard is dismissive at best. So is the shake of her head. Pay no mind to the faintly glowing blood. "This? It is nothing."

  "I am honoured." Zelda inclines her head to both Anna and Spiral. Her fleeting half-smile is amused. She was reckless like that, once. Some might argue she still is. "My name is Sheik. Unfortunately, I haven't the time to wait, here, but perhaps our paths will cross again."

  She stands straighter in the stirrups, looking over to Yahiko. "Master Myojin. I would like to speak with you, but later, in private. Once we have tended our respective wounds and rested." To Anna, she inclines her head again, eyes closing briefly. "As to you, you did well. Thank you."

  "Goddesses watch over you." With that, over her shoulder, the Hylian chucks the reins and turns her horse in a broad circle, urging him into a ground-eating trot towards the nearest Vine.

  This time, it'll hopefully take her where she /actually/ intends to go.