World Tree MUSH

    A Thanksgiving Day parade is usually filled with marching bands, colorful floats, and giant balloons of beloved cartoon animals. This one isn't different. The city of San Jose has the main boulevard closed, filled with people from all over the San Francisco bay area on the sidewalks as the paraders march by. There's news coverage even, with cameramen moving through the crowds. Overall it's a big to-do!
    The crowd roars as a balloon shaped like a worm in a white and blue suit comes by.

What with one thing and another, for someone living in Brighton, Massachusetts in Anna's world, it's actually easier to take a vine to another world's iteration of San Jose. Anna's father Carl is working, so she's here with her mother Louise and her fourteen-year-old sister Lisa. Spiral's here, too; they told Anna's family that she's "from another world."

"Gotta hand it you you, Anna," says Louise. "I definitely wouldn't have figured this out on my own."

Lisa sighs theatrically. "Okay, sis, you've actually done something cool this time!"

Anna smiles. "Thanks!" she says. She almost looks starry-eyed as she takes in the sights of the parade.

    Celebration!, parade!, seemed a good event to witness, and thus, Luke managed to meander his way into this place, just in time to see the ongoing parade. He seems quite impresed so far, even if the fact that he is being flanked by mostly red and black Grizzly bear of sorts might draw some eyes towards him. It is a bit sad, since it's clear the bear is enjoying the balloons too!. The pair slowly walk down the street, just to try to get a better view.

Holly's not really sure what's up with the parade. She's heard of Thanksgiving before but being Belgian she doesn't celebrate it. A Halloween parade would be much better. Maybe there's a giant Pumpkin Float or something at least for her to climb on? Servis and Lavaux are present as well of course, but most people can't see them.

    The floats and balloons parade by for a few minutes, with varying levels of response from the crowd.
    The newscasters comment on some of them. 
    "And now a first! A parade balloon inspired by an outworld animal!" 
    "Oh boy if you don't know this one, you've been living under a rock." 
    It's a cartoonish looking squirrel, mostly white, but with pale turquoise markings and yellow round patches on its cheeks. It looks adorable and the most of the very young children on the sidewalks are waving around plush animals that resemble the thing (https://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/f/f4/417Pachirisu.png/1200px-417Pachirisu.png).
    The eagle-eyed can spot something that's been flung into the air at the balloon, a glint of gold catching the light trailing a faint purple light. And then there's somebody dressed in reddish-gold armor diving off a building trying to catch it before...
    The oversized gold coin hits the pachirisu balloon and explodes in a flash of light that envelopes the cute animal balloon. The thundercrack that accompanies it stuns the crowd as the balloon begins to transform.

Anna perks up at the sight of the balloon. "Oh, yeah, I recognize that one! That's a pokemon!" she says. "I ... forget the name, though."

"Pachirisu," says Spiral. She smiles. "It's always interesting to see the proverbial cross-pollination of ideas between worlds."

"Oh, really?" says Louise. "I think it's --"

Lisa points at the coin. "What the heck is tha--" She's cut off by the thunderclap.

Spiral's eyes flicker with pearlescent light as it begins to transform. "Uh-oh."

Anna glances at Spiral, then bolts towards the balloon at superhuman speeds, her legs glowing with pale blue light.

"ANNA, NO!" shouts her mother.

"ANNA YES!" she calls back.

    Luke is certainly able to recognize the creature!, he takes a few pictures of the balloon, such an adorable thing, smiling and pointing at it, while the big pokemon next to him makes a shrug, as if not impressed. The pair otherwise get closer, a bit curious to it!.

    Then something happens, an explosion of some sort!, the two rushing to hceck that the person underneath don't get harmed, unsure what is going on.

Of course Holly's bound to get some strange looks herself, a witch in the middle of a Thanksgiving parade. "Is she here for the Pagan Float?" 

 "Is there a PAgan Float?" Two bystanders comment on Holly's outfit as she walks by. She does sense magic other than her own but she's still looking for a float that interests her as a giant white cat with a pink bow and overalls goes by. It would be much better if it was a black cat. Maybe she could change it black? She points her staff at and starts chanting.

    Holly does get looks, mostly because of the out-of-season style. Though in a region as diverse as the San Francisco Bay region, Holly mostly gets questions about where she got the clothes instead of ridicule or gawping. The person in the Hello Kitty costume is trying to figure out why it turned black when mayhem ensues with the pachirisu balloon. The young man in the costume rapidly pulls off what he can, revealing that all of his clothes and shoes have also turned pitch black due to Holly's magic, and is scrambling for safety with the rest of the crowd. It's a massive mess with people pushing and shoving each other to escape the now quite distinctly demonic (and somehow still cute) pachirisu balloon touching down on the asphalt. 
    With a menacing roar that hurts the ears, the thing crackles with an amethyst aura inside and out as it begins stomping and kicking anything in its way. In a voice so deep in the bass range that it's nearly inaudible, it bellows "RUN, COWARDS. MARDOK IS FREE."
    The gold clad figure, unable to stop her descent, lands on the balloon demon and bounces hard off the thing, landing near Holly with a sickening crunch.

Anna skids to a stop as the monster lets out its roar, and growls. She gathers her power into herself, and her entire body is momentarily surrounded by a blue glow; when it clears, she's dressed in a blue magical girl costume with green and white trim, including slacks under the dress, and there's a whole bunch of heart-emblems.

And then she sees the armored figure collapse, and immediately boosts over at even faster speeds. "Hey!" she exclaims. "Are you all right!?" She has a somewhat androgynous voice, especially when she's raising it and frantic.

She looks back towards the massive monster and glares at it with an 'I'll deal with you in a minute' expression.

>> SUMMARY[Anna Freeman] >> Anna transforms and rolls ... over there, actually!

    Luke's attention seems to fixate on the giant pachirisu thing, that has to be something evil, and the only thing he can do is try to take care of it, at least buy some time for the bystanders to actually get away, while they deal with the creature!. "Mardok!" he calls outloud at the 'monster', while he and the fire bear approah the gigantic thing. He notices SOMEONE falling, but also sees a familiar face at least moving to try to help that person, so... the monster takes priority.

>> GAME >> Aurelia Argent spends an Edge for: Regen Boost

Holly finally notices the chaos as someone nearly crushes her and there seems to be a giant squirrel meancing people. "Hey, watch where you're flying!" Considering Holly can barely fly her broom without crashing that seems a bit hypocritical. "A giant squirrel, you really expect to be afraid of that?" Everyone knows it's bunnies you should fear as rodents go.

 She looks away from the chaos and finally finds what she's looking for. It's a Giant Pumpkin Float, Holly Winn! "That elf witch with the hat said I needed to be more scary!" She points her staff at the giant pumpkin float and her bnody suddenly makes a loud snapping sound as orangle sparkles fly everywhere. "Bippity Boppity Boo, I infuse life into you!" The sparkles fly into the giant pumpkin.

>> GAME >> Holly Winn spends an Edge for: Uh oh, her magic just broke...

    The monster turns to face Luke, scowling and looming over the pokemon trainer. "FOOLISH MORTAL. FEEL MARDOK'S WRATH." The deeply basso voice rumbles, setting off car alarms and making the windows rattle. It brings one giant foot down towards Luke and his pokemon, still wreathed in that weird amethyst light.
    Anna would note that the reddish-gold is barely armor; it covers important things but would be considered on the skimpy side. The armor looks like it grew out of the young woman's skin in disturbingly organic forms. It didn't do much for the damage caused by the fall though, and limbs are definitely broken. As Anna looks on though, the bones and limbs put themselves back together and the damage is healed. As she picks herself up, she comments to Holly. "I wasn't flying." She looks at the other Magical Girl and says "I've been better. But uh, we should probably stop that balloon, yeah?"
    The pumpkin float, which has been abandoned because a demon pachirisu baloon threatening the general vicinity, rips apart the car that was carrying it, assembling itself into some kind of bizarre golem assembled out of repurposed mechanical bits and with a giant decorative pumpkin for a head and various bits of other decoration filling out its skinny metal limbs. With a ghostly "BWOOHAHAHAHAHA~!" it launches itself at the biggest thing it sees to prove it's the scariest thing around.

    Luke might regret missing the display of the spooky float turned into another monster, but his attention is trying ton contain the 'evil' pachirisu creature. The bear pokemon roars in challenge as the beast threatens the trainer, answering to the threat by pushing Luke out of the way, before facing the thing coming down at it straight on!.

    The pokemon roars again, bursting into flames as a jet of flames comes out of it's maw, aimed at the large 'balloon!'

Anna winces as she takes stock of the injuries. But then she exhales with relief as the girl quickly recovers. "Okay, good!" she says ...

... right before the pumpkin-monster starts rampaging as well. "... oh. Great," she says flatly. "Uh ... okay. Right. Let's see how we can ... divvy this up ..." She gathers Heart Power into her hands, and fires off a large blue blast at the pumpkin monster! "ACK!" She staggers back slightly, however; seems there's a bit of recoil involved in that attack.

Or maybe she's just really inexperienced at handling it. One of the two.

"All right Jacky! Crush that squirrel into nuts and prove Halloween is the best holiday!" Holly's rather surprised that worked as the pumpkin bot comes to life. Luke might not miss the monster, if it'll listen to her that is. She managed to bring it to life but that doesn't mean it has to listen to her.

 Her turns to Anna, "No, don't destroy it!" She runs to the magical girl and tries to tackle her. This might hurt a bit if she makes contact.

    Whatever transformative magic was used to allow Mardok to possess the balloon did not transmute the material itself. The polyurethane is highly flammable, and thus the jet of flame from the bear pokemon lights Mardok on fire, eliciting bellows of utter rage from the demon as its makeshift vessel melts into dripping flames. The giant pumpkin float bot slams into the rapidly deflating flaming mess, catching its own flammable elements on fire. The pumpkin golem now looks far more horrific, like something out of a nightmare as becomes wreathed in flames. It cackles with that eerie voice. "THE GREAT PUMPKIN WINS! MWAHAHAHAHAHA~!"
    The golden magical girl errrs... "I guess there's a different probl-" She has just enough time to see Holly go for Anna.

Anna lets out a squawk as she gets tackled! For a brief instant, a forcefield seems to glow around her, brightest around the costume! "Oh, whoops!" she says, looking over at the pumpkin. "Sorry!"

She pauses, watching the pumpkin. "... Okay, did we win, or what?" she says flatly.

    Luke begins to cheer as the pachirisu begins to be... well, destroyed by his pokemon!. Only to see another, far more solid looking thing charging to begin pumelling at his target. Kill stealer! cheating!. Still, Luke's focus is less 'that thing is stealing my victory' and more 'dear arceus a golem on fire!' He looks around rapidly to see where that thing came from, while Agni seems confused on what is going on, and if the... monster is actually on their side or not.

"Mwhahaha!" Holly laughs with the pumpkin bot and dances as she climbs off of Anna. "Wait, until my parents see this. I'll have finally prove to them, I'm a great wit...what's that smell? It's awful." She's perceptive to notice the odor but not to notice what's about to happen.

    The metal within the golem is heated, including the former gas tank of the truck/vehicle the float was attached to. In the throes of victory, the 'Great Pumpkin' is rent asunder by an explosion within its torso. Without a core to hold it up, it slowly topples to the ground into a hunk of burning decorations and twisted metal. 
    The golden-clad girl ers. "I guess I'll take help from wherever I can?" She says to Anna and Holly with a shrug. She jogs over to make sure Luke is okay, recognizeable to the pokemon trainer from the giant growing shrimp incident a bit back. "Are you alright? Any burns? How about your bear friend?"

Anna exhales with relief, getting back to her feet. "Wow," she says. "Well, I was pretty useless there! Nice job, Luke!"

She smiles at the girl in gold. "I'm Anna, by the way!" she says. "You?"

Luke Gray waits for a moment, a bit kind of... nervous of the pumpkin, before it finally explodes!. Thankfully, he was shielded by the fire bear once again, Luke might notbe a dumb kid, but has not very good survival instincts sometimes!. He coughs and shakes his head, "That was... thank you Agni." he mumbles, hugging the big, still 'burning' bear, who seems to glare at the debris.

    The praise from Anna gets a chuckle, "Oh no... that was enterily Agni here, please give him the praise." he says softly, smiling gently. "I am fine, but I think he might have been bruised by some of the scraps of the explosion... but if he is actually burned... color me surprised." he says softly. The bear seems to finally 'cool down' and begins shaking a bit, indeed, some spots seem bruised and even cuts, but no actual burn marks on his fur. The bear inspects Aurelia curiously, being the first time they met, while Luke smiles, "How is the shrimp doing?"

"Jacky!" Holly screams as the pumpkin robot explodes. She runs over the flaming wreckage but the heat from melting steel prvents from getting too close. She watches helplessly float burns. "Okay, he had unfinished business...so he'll just become a ghost right? Like you guys?" She looks at Servis and Lavaux pleadingly.

"Holly, he was an artifical construct who was self-aware for less than 30 minutes. I doubt he had time to develop a soul." Servis tries to explain to the witch.

 "No! He was real...he could talk and everything! I was going to prove to my parents..." Holly breaks down in tears at this point.

 "You suck at explaining things Servis. Holly, I'm sure he would want you to go on and terrorize everyone without him." Lavaux tries to cheer her up.

    Well, Holly could probably get a copy of the bazillion video clips that went up on the local internet if she was from a world similar to this one... 
    "Ah, I'm Metallia. Nice to meet you, Anna." She smiles at Luke. "We got her turned back to normalish size."

Anna smiles and nods. "Nice to meet you, too!"

"ANNA!" her mother's voice shouts from behind.

Anna's eyes widen. "... uh-oh." It looks like she and Spiral are about to have some explaining to do ...