World Tree MUSH

    Weiss appeared with a ship and one person, but no sign of her world. That was upsetting to her, but that didn't deter her from searching. The reason it was hard to find was that it Blossomed after her arrival! It had only appeared days ago, not weeks, and had made a splash when doing so because something was going on. Something kind of big, because there had already been some contact. Some friendly, some not so friendly, but with the world preoccupied with its own problems, things were still in confusion.

    Weiss knew where she had to go though! She'd tried to grab any allies she could in her rush there, but even without there had been some hubbub because a school was suddenly under attack... and by some pretty serious forces.

    Arriving on scene shows something more like a war zone than a school! While it looks like local authorities had been called in to apprehend the small force attacking, said small force had some reinforcements from offworld! What should have been a quick surrender had become a pitched battle, with the school as the prize. Soldiers fight alongside lightly-armored ragtag forces of people with animal features, against what look like a smaller number of animal-featured people and some kind of mercenary force of... elves? Yeah they look like elves.

    And further in, the academy itself has flashing lights and loud noises like explosions inside. Some kind of battle is going on INSIDE the school. And it all started only a few minutes ago.

    Dante didn't need much convincing when Weiss, that kid from the train fight, had dropped by and asked him for backup. Grabbing his coat, his guns, his sword, the Legendary Devil Hunter had been off to join the fight. "Here I thought schools were supposed to be *safe.* Oh who am I kidding? That's never the case with me either." He quips nonchalantly, before he takes off toward the academy once he's through the blossom.

    Entering the atrium, the Devil Hunter gets to work. "HEY, SCHOOL'S CLOSED!" Dante bellows as he leaps forth toward the throng of attackers, his boots aimed right towards someone's face, guns in hand.

>> GAME >> Uni spends an Edge for: Transforming to Black Sister

    Well, Uni was there when Weiss arrived, even helped shoot down some of those weird wasp monsters too... so when she hears about some school being attacked, and hearing a few key words being dropped that she likely picked up from Weiss, the CPU is enroute by the fastest means available to her.

    "ACCESS!"

    The black haired teen-looking girl presses a power symbol into her chest, becoming engulfed in a pillar of white light surrounded by fragments of code. Once this dissipates, a white haired girl in a form-fitting bodysuit, armoured with various bits of tech, floats in her place. Black Sister then proceeds to launch towards the location of the school, trailing a black wake of energy behind her as the wing-like structures on her back unfold and gain a black energy panel between the various plates.

    During flight, the girl summons her rifle, a massive thing about the same size as she is, crackling with energy along the split barrel as it charges capacitors ready for battle. "Anyone on the defense side, Incoming at vector 219 aerial. I'm friendly, give me some targets to shoot at." she radios, using her free hand to cover her ear as she speaks.

    Shin had been pretty easy to recruit to Weiss's side, all told. Kiyohime checked over Weiss and gave the seal of approval to help her out personally, so Shin had decided Weiss must be generally acceptable people. 

    That said, when she had specifically asked him for help today, his answer had been: 'Sure, but you will owe me a favor later, and you may not like it!' 

    That said, when it came to the matter of actually arriving, Shin was content to show up of his own devices and on his own timetable. This meant he was here mostly on time, albeit wandering in with a half-eaten popsicle in his mouth, "Damn. Lotta people shooting at eachother at this school." He takes his cell phone out of his pocket, "Hey Google. Am I at a high school in the United States right now?" 

    The phone beeps a few times, "No. You are currently located in a land known as Mistral." He lets out a 'huh' noise, "Oh well. Hashtag Getting Political." 

    "Oh well. Start 'Fight' playlist." He notes as he grabs a set of earbuds and puts them into his ears and cranks the volume up. 

    With whatever music is currently on the device blaring into his ears, he somewhat haphazardly wanders towards the fighting.

Emily has taken her preferred form lately, that of a lavender-skinned demon with glowing purple eyes, four arms, and hair that seems so black it looks like a graphical glitch. She's also wearing a black and red version of Weiss's dress.

She floats out of a staticky portal, spots Dante, and grins as she simply follows right after him. "Where I'm from, I haven't seen a school that wasn't fifty percent overgrown plant-life by volume!" she says, in the same voice she's always had. "Releasing capacitor seals 3 and 2!" She's surrounded by three auras, one golden, one silver, and one pearlescent. The first two shatter and the third one simply fades away.

And then she waves her hand, and glowing golden bolts of light materialize and start raining down on the attackers.

Uni also receives a response from Emily. "Roger that! What file format should I use to send you the data?"

    A new world? That sounds like ad~ven~ture~! And Hyouka's got enough saved up right this moment that she can at least afford to take a day or two's trip out to see what's what! Maybe someone there will have some sort of task they're willing to pay her for. If nothing else, she gets to see a whole new world, right?

    Oh hey a war just broke out at that school over there. Siiiiiiigh.

    "DARGN. Are there any comms here you can tap into? Figure out what's going on?" To passersby, it might look at first like the elf-esque woman is talking to no one as she runs down the street. However, a cool voice seemingly replies from nowhere, "I shall see what I can do. There is no local GPS compatible with your systems, however, so I cannot navigate."

    Grumble. No, of course not, that would be convenient. "Right, right... then, up we go-!" With a high vault, Hyouka goes from street-level to rooftop. Hardly a shocking turn of events on Remnant, but it still brings the cyborg a private thrill to do! Her goal is to reach the walls or gate of Haven, and then vault over or otherwise leap in to figure out what's going on.

    Meanwhile, DARGN sends out a simple call across several frequencies. "My name is DARGN. Is there anyone listening who can explain the hostilities that have just broken out?"

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> Hyouka: Sigh, I /guess/ I can go rooftop jumping to get there. DARGN: 'Hey, is there someone on the radio who can tell us what's going on?'

The only school that Demi was familar with was the academy in Piata and Haven was much larger than that. This was much worse than a few students fighting or a sandworm on the loose. At least most of those present appear to be organic so she's able to provide medical assistance if necessary. Of course Uni's rifle instantly gets her attention, she wants a gun that large but Wren tend to keep most of the heavy weapons to himself.

The small android was limited to her Impacter and her built-in weapons as far as fighting goes, she wonders if the school has any defenses set up that she can take advantage of.

    Five minutes ago:

    "HEY. GET BACK HERE AND FOLLOW ORDERS!"
    "Hmmmm?"
    "You heard me! I said--"
    ~Click~.
    The mercenary in command of the elven attackers suddenly finds themselves staring down the barrel of an ornate old revolver, the hammer drawn back.
    "Nuh uh, I don't do what you tell me, I do what I want. Now go be a good little boy and play soldier with someone else. I have actual business to handle. You leave the little details to me and go have your own fun, 'kay~?"

    Now:

    The *click*~chink~ *click*~chink~ *click*~chink~ of heels and spurs resounds through the school atrium as a figure in red emerges from the entrance opposite Dante, hand on hip in a casual sauntering swagger as Salome Highscribe steps out and flashes a fanged smile.
    "Well, well, well! Slick, fancy gunning into you here. Gonna start making a girl think she has a good looking stalker."
    Mismatched blue-red eyes dart from face to face as the witch casually tugs the lapel of her duster coat aside and off her hip to reveal the gleam of her gunbelts.
    "Thing is... I got paid a pretty peso to make sure this goes off without a hitch, so you and your little friends really ought to mosey along though, see, I'm not going to pull my punches like I did on the train."

    Weiss is trying to explain to the chaos, "Those... I think the faunus are helping us? My friends must be inside the building!" She's trying to dodge through to reach the building, which puts her near Dante and Emily. She's also brought some summons with her, several ghostly wasps that are flitting forward toward the building to try to deal with the soldiers and rebels and mercenaries all fighting inside. One of the elven mercs is getting Dante threatening her, and shouts out, "Reinforcements!" She turns to shoot some kind of magic wand at him, but the faunus she was fighting tackles her first.

    The remaining forces are aware of Dante and Emily and Weiss now though, and several thin beams blast out, much like magic lasers. They aren't aimed very well because the whole place is chaotic, and further in the flashes of some larger battle between more powerful fighters can be seen. Some large guy actually just got tossed through a wall... but he levers himself up and just stomps right back into the fray as if nothing happened.

    A crackle of static announces someone is answering the people asking questions. A very youthful voice, actually. "The uniformed ones fighting the large group of faunus are the ones we need to watch out for. Keep on the lookout for a man with red hair and a mask, he's the leader of this attack. Ah, I have to go!" Just in time, as it looks like some of those magic bolts are lancing toward Uni and Hyouka as well.

    A different, older voice hops on the line, "Just... hold them off until we can deal with things in here. We can't let them get to the inside."

    With Salome taking personal interest in things, it's going to get a lot more difficult isn't it? It does look like there are some kinds of turrets and emplacements around though... they're offline for some reason. They do provide cover for now though.

    "Oh hey, babe." Dante says chipperly as he sees Salome. "You runnin' this? Gotta pick some classier targets than a fancy school. I barely even know what this is about." He remarks, nonchalantly stomping the elfin merc. Twirling Ebony and Ivory, he evades energy blasts while he directly engages Salome, pistols blazing with an endless stream of .45 Auto enhanced with Devil energy.

    "WHOO, I was hopin' you'd say that. LET'S DANCE!" He calls out, opening fire on Salome as he closes the distance, leaping at Salome with a kick to the face as he lets out another "Woo!"

    "Man..." Shin looks around as he walks across the grounds, taking in the general gist of the battlefield as he seems to take stock. He sighs a bit and then keeps walking, "Lottsa guns and shooting. Not my jam, really..." He vaguely trails off to himself. Still, he DID promise Weiss he would show up and help her friends. 

    Lazily, he grabs one of the White Fang members by the collar and seems to drag him behind the martial artist like a sack of potatoes as he marches towards what looks like... a bench. With the squirming, probably struggling, member of the terrorist organization, Shin kind of lazily tosses him across the ground. 

    "You." He points at the guy he just tossed, "I can't hear you. So I am going to assume you say yes unless you shake your head no. I am also going to assume anything you actually say to me is 'I am a big dumb jackass, please kick my ass so hard it comes out my nose'." Shin gives him a thumbs up. 

    "Here's your chance to avoid Asskickapalooza, Broseph. You go find me the baddest guys you got on the field. I mean, your A-Listers. I wanna fight those people." Shin explains in a half-shout, since he's still wearing headphones, "I am gonna wait. I'll sit here and finish my popsicle while you go find some people. If you don't get someone out here that can at least entertain me, I'm going to stop suppressing my power and just walk through your battle lines to see what's going on inside." 

    Shin shoots the terrorist a pair of fingerguns, "Okay, Broseidon. Get movin'. Pew pew." He fires the fingerguns harmlessly before sitting down on the bench and taking out his phone. 

>Contacts 

    WeissCream Sundae 

Text to WeissCream Sundae: Just got here. Waiting on opponent. Lots of backup on your side. Might go evil for the day if no one shows up. Feels dramatic.

Demi certainly doesn't want to get hit by the magical bolts, considering she has zero resistance to magic and is weak to electricity. Still she can't simply just stand by while the chaos goes on. She really needs a better weapon if she's going to fight against organic opponents on a regular basis. It might be best if she keeps a low profile and do recon for now as she tries to familiarize herself with the school, maybe it would be a good idea to see if she can download a floorplan somewhere.

    "We are outsiders to this situation," DARGN replies to the younger voice. "For all we know, we should be supporting the masked-"

    Hyouka is just skidding to a stop at the edge of the academy's grounds, when a bolt of magic comes hurtling straight at her. "Whoa-!" Her leap to one side is panicked and flailing, but it does manage to get her out of the way. "I-I haven't even started fighting yet! What's with you people, just taking potshots at me out of nowhere?!" Utter indignance.

    "Correction," DARGN declares over the radio. "It appears as if we are supporting school personnel. I would like to request compensation, but at this juncture, I-"

    Full steam ahead, Hyouka launches herself into a dead run straight towards the nearest... well, it could be a White Fang member, or it could be an elf, but either way she plans to ram into the nearest hostile in a superhuman tackle. "Don't just go shooting at anyone you see, idiot. That's about as rude as it gets!"

    "-believe that my user would be lending her aid regardless."

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> mutter mutter take potshots at ME will you

>> SUMMARY[Shin Tokuyama] >> Shin boredly drags a White Fang member off and tells him to go gather a team of people for Shin to fight. Sits down on a bench and texts Weiss.

Emily lazily dodges a few bolts of energy as she transmits a message: "Thanks for bringing us up to speed! I'm not originally a military model, I can only give the most rudimentary IFF data." Her voice sounds faintly amused. "Oh, this is Nyx-model MLE0-dash-X413J2N9F6I2, ay kay ay Emily Nyx."

And then she laughs aloud as Salome shows up. "Oh, hey there!" she says. "Long time no see!" She grins as Dante just jumps right in. "I'll let you two have fun, then!" she adds cheerfully. "Hmm, hmm ..." She lowers herself so that she's closer to the ground, and fires a bolt right past Salome at an elf she can see through a nearby doorway, before she jumps through a staticky portal into a crowd of White Fang and elves, and starts punching them with all four arms extended.

    "Right, got it!" radios Uni back, then yelps as those magic beams come shooting out at her. She takes a hit, a bubble of blue hexagons flickering in response, scattering the energy but showing large cracks and a few missing segments after a few strikes. She drops a bit of altitude, does a half loop and opens fire back at the source of the incoming fire. Her rifle spews out a roiling glob of plasma-like energy, like a railgun.

    Once she's suppressed some of the incoming fire, the CPU Candidate then makes a beeline for the hole in the wall that the large guy got blasted through, moving to both block that entrance, and open fire on those inside if she can get a clear shot.

>> SUMMARY[Uni] >> Pew Pew @ Mages shooting her. Going to where that guy got exploded out, blocking the hole and pew pewing inside if she can get a clear shot on someone who looks deserving.

    No sooner than Dante opens fire, Salome's hands are at her hips. She doesn't bother dodging though. No, instead, as quick as lightning, she draws a silver Schofield revolver. Sparks go off in the air as the witch squeezes the trigger and fans the hammer, shooting down bullet for bullet before dropping the gun and drawing another, repeating the process as she matches Ebony and Ivory shot for shot.
    Then Dante is in her face. Salome twitches aside, lips tugging into an amused grin as his boot whips past her ear.
    "Me? Running this little show? No, that's not my usual style, I'm just hired help today~."
    But then her ear twitches. Mismatched eyes flick away from the hunter to the source. Though Emily looks different from the last time they had met on the train, that *voice* is what pulls the elf's attention.
    Swerving aside, she aims to plant her knee in Dante's gut. It's more of a distraction tactic, considering the gap in physical prowess between the two, but a sashay of one hip kicks an ornate Colt Single Action Army into her hand as she aims a snap shot not at Emily...
    But at her portal with a dispell bullet.
    "Oh no, you're not going anywhere, we can make this here a dance for three..."
    Oh yes. She remembers you, too, Emily.

>> SUMMARY[Salome] >> Tanking Dante and Emily for the White Fang now. They better pay extra for this!

    "Whatever you say, hot stuff." Dante grins widely, ferally even. Oh boy does he get a kick out of going up close and personal.

    He throws Emily the subtlest of winks before he and Salome engage in some serious Gun-Kata. Evading the knee, Dante tanks the kick to his chest as he bats away the revolver with one hand, Ivory in the other hand immediately aiming toward Salome's face with deftness. It's less a gunfight and more two martial artists going at it. "You're good, but you got stones juggling me and Em."

    Diving to one side, Dante leaves Salome wide open for Emily to strike next.

    The man that Shin drags off is quick to open his mouth, shut it without saying anything, and then just nods quickly to Shin before scampering off, calling for help from his fellows. Shin is also in luck though! Weiss uses a rapier, and it looks like most people, even those who use guns, know how to fight hand to hand. It's just a few seconds before three people show up, one girl and two guys, the girl carrying two sharp knives and taking a low stance, while the other two have some kind of segmented staves, moving to try to surround him! The girl is fast, too, when she finally dives in to make a quick series of stabs.

    Demi is keeping out of the way. Maybe it's a good idea, because she finds a floor plan and gets an idea of why the turrets are offline. If she can keep out of trouble, maybe she can renew the power.

    Hyouka tackles an elf! That's a good idea, because with Hyouka and Shin now diverting resources, the battle's already confusing situation is getting moreso, but to the detriment of the attackers! The elf goes down, and one of his companions turns and tries to do a blast of a different sort, some kind of invisible impact to hurl Hyouka away if he can, so that the elves in this area can regroup.

    Emily bashes through a few of the fighters to confront Salome, and between her and Dante's flying kick, they decide that it's a good idea to just... clear away to let the big guys fight! This leads them all to be clustered up and diving aside, scattering friend and foe alike when Uni streaks through and lands to fire potshots at... the big screaming guy attacking a little boy with a cane, and the other fighters in there. It looks like several of the younger ones are fighting a group of older fighters, and the only unengaged one is an older lion-like fellow who is making a break for the door, with a shabby-looking guy with a sword yelling that he's a coward.

    Weiss is going in as well, but stops just inside, letting her wasps help the people outside. "I'm going to try to get back to my friends! Uni can you cover for me?"

    Uni fires a few shots at the back of the fleeing lion-man, scorching the wall with the shots, but largely making sure he doesn't regain any courage to come back at an inopportune time. She's still floating in the air, a foot or so off the ground, even as she keeps firing that massive railcannon.

    When Weiss comes running up, she glances over. "Don't worry, I'll snipe 'em!" she offers with a smug grin. "Get in there, I'll try and pin the big guy down." she says, flicking a switch on her weapon, the green glow within the rails shifting to a dark amber-orange before she opens fire on the large screaming man. The bolts are distinctly flame-like, and leave small fires on even non-flammable materials for a few moments on impact. Like napalm. "Hey, Ugly! The crystals are totally not doing it for your image!"

>> SUMMARY[Uni] >> AND STAY OUT! @ Lionman. 'I've got your back princess' @Weiss. 'Oi you with the face, eat fire bullets! @Screaming crystal man.

Emily comes to a screeching halt as her portal gets dispelled. Literally, she plays a sound of screeching tires as she stops. She turns around, a wide grin on her face. "Well now!" she says, putting one pair of hands on her hips and shrugging with the other. "All righty, if you want a threesome, I can oblige!"

She swoops down and lands on her feet (her opponent can't fly, after all!), and swings a pair of right-hooks at Salome's head, following it up with a pair of golden bolts. Not going for anything too fancy just yet, though she is sensible enough to set the bolts to dispel themselves if Salome dodges and they end up headed towards Dante.

Demi goes to work on getting the turrets back online, wondering if someone hacked the power grid. While she's familar with advanced technology, it takes a bit for her to decipher Mistral's language into something that she can understand. Hopefully, she doesn't need to manually bring back each turret back online since that would be rather inconvenient. She checks from time to time to make sure no one ambushes while she does repairs. She would have to ask Uni more about her rifle later when she has a chance.

    A flick of the wrist and Ivory is swatted out of Salome's face in the same motion of catching another gun that springs into her grasp, the bullet going off loud in her ear. But it's the first revolver that she thrusts for Dante's solar plexus. Indeed, it's like watching a choreographed dance between masters as she twirls aside in the same instant Dante leaps aside, her gun going off to hit empty air as the elf sucks on her teeth.
    "Trust me, I've got the grit enough for both of you, slick."
    But in comes Emily and the witch is immediately on her toes. Arching herself back to let the twin punches sail mere millimeters from her face before she finises the motion into a backflip, tossing her revolvers into the air as she lands on her palms and--...
    Catches both guns on the high heels of her boots.
    A sudden jerk of her legs has them both taking aim, the revolvers twirling on stiletto heels before they start going off in a hail of bullets at the demon hunter and eldritch abomination.

    Okay, Hyouka, you've got him, good time to knock him ou-

    *WHUD*

    The cyborg takes a force blast right to the side, completely blindsided and totally off her guard, and the result is sending her skip-rolling across the ground until she skids to the stop at the base of a lamp. There's a groan of mixed pain and irritation as she stands up again. 'Ugh, this fighting thing is such a /hassle/... why can't they just surrender now that so many of us are here?' But no, it looks like this situation will actually take some work to solve.

    "Fine, fine..." She shifts her arms out to either side and declares, "Fisto, ON!"

    The elven-looking woman's forearms shift and split apart, panels sliding aside to allow bigger, beefier components to unfold from within. With a glow of magic, the plates and machinery of a very bulky set of fist weapons deploy from pocketspace within her own arms - like watching a huge, beefy set of high-tech gauntlets blossom into shape.

    Fully assembled, Hyouka clenches her massive fists, each of which crackles with lightning. Then, she charges again, this time hauling back her right arm so that she can deliver a massive punch to the elf who blasted her.

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> Knocked ass over teakettle. Deciding to retaliate with engrish-powered oversize thunderpunch.

    Shin doesn't have to wait too long. This is good, since he's a naturally impatient person. He looks over the three that arrives and says, "Oh good. Okay." Since Weiss is clearly too busy to answer her texts mid-battle, Shin calmly places the phone in his pocket so it can resume its function as a music device. 

    Instead of going into his jacket pocket, it goes into the pocket of his pants. This is because Shin is letting himself be surrounded while he peels off the leisure suit jacket and takes off his sunglasses, "Good evening. My name is Shin Tokuyama. Please entertain me with an excellent fight today." He says in a polite tone as he folds up the suit jacket and sets it on his bench. 

    And then, of course, he does the dramatic matter. He grips the front of his shirt with one hand and tugs it forward with a smooth motion. The entire shirt tears off from his upper body and arms in a clean manner, revealing a completely ripped upper body and, more importantly, a tattoo on his back. 

    Covering most of his back, Shin Tokuyama has a sujibori (too lazy to look it up: The inked outline of a tattoo, not colored in) of a chinese dragon curling up his back and resting between his shoulders, "This un-colored Zhulóng upon my back. Please give it meaning through our battle." 

    His entire demeanor has shifted and he feels like an almost different person now that he's fighting people that can give him a challenge. Surrounding the martial artist, there's an almost oppressive aura of violence as he lifts his hands up into a defense position and cocks a leg up. It's a classic muay thai stance while his opponent jumps in on him. 

    It seems the female is the bravest of the three. As she comes in at him with her knives, Shin calmly shifts his body weight, dashing in towards her in return. He pivots and moves, keeping her from actually stabbing in. However, the stabs do manage to draw light grazes across his upper body from the shallow misses. 

    Finally, during one of her last stabs, Shin strikes. As her hand comes in to stab at him, his knee comes up under her hand. It might seem like he's trying to break her guard to knee her in the chin. However, at the same time, his elbow comes down on the other side of her hand in a pincer with the hard surface of his knee. It all happens to fast and so kinetic that the girl stands a real risk of breaking every bone in her hand from having it crushed between his knee, her knife handle, and his elbow.

>> GAME >> Shin Tokuyama spends an Edge for: Martial Artists (And Yakuza) always get stronger when they take off their shirt and show you their tattoos. Shin took off his shirt to reveal his tattoo, and therefore has gotten stronger. Also he's fighting serious.

    Dante pulls a deft and graceful tumble as he leaps up to his feet- Pistols in hand, as he lets off two more shots. He ducks as Salome returns fire using her heels, and he makes a twisting leap to evade them. "Yeeow! I was hopin' so." He opens fire again, feeling bullets punch across his body as they narrowly miss hitting him. Heels firing bullets. That's a new one. Definitely reminds Dante of some ancient murals he saw once...

    Questions for later, Emily and him have work to do if they're gonna repel this invasion.

    "Thanks!" Weiss calls to Uni. No need to be all tsun here, she is genuinely grateful that Hazel has a momentary distraction, ducking behind a pillar as shots pepper him and keep him from assaulting the young boy he's fighting. This lets the man with the sword switch opponents and go after him, though this seems to upset the boy with the cane the large man was fighting.

    Demi is able to find where the problem is. She can probably get one turret back online with little trouble, as it does look like some kind of sabotage. That's likely why they aren't helping out right now. It could be worse, they could have the wrong targeting system! Someone has noticed her though, and one of the elves is heading her way! Does she want to deal with him, or get the turret online?

    IN THE MEANTIME the elf who was fighting Hyouka staggers to their feet, and has just a second to turn around and shout, "Don't inter-!" Never finishing the sentence, because this time it isn't Hyouka who is blown back, and instead both elves are sent flying with a crackle of lightning and blasting particles that brings some attention to the new girl on the battlefield, shifting the tide of this area toward her right away as a new threat is identified!

    The woman gets an impact all right, with a shocked look as the impact... is nulled? No, there's just resistance! Shin has seen this before, Weiss has a damage-absorbing aura around her, and this girl has the same thing. "AUGH!" Oh, it isn't perfect apparently, but no broken bones this time, just intense pain and a dropped knife. Good to know.

    The other seven guys are on him immediately, with staves whipping about to strike toward the martial artist! Wait seven? There are only two, but it looks like one of them is making phantom images of some kind. This could be trickier than he thought, but at least it is what he asked for: interesting!

    "Think that'll save you?!" Uni calls out, floating into the hall a bit. "CLEAR!" she bellows, then flicks another switch on the cannon, starting the rails spinning around the central axis. "EX MULTI BLASTER. MODE EMPRESS! Lets see if you can withstand my weapon when I release its limiter!" The amber-orange glow lightens, going from bronze to gold to sunlight yellow to blazing white as charge builds up.

    Before firing, she actually lands, planting her feet and spreading her stance to absorb what's likely to be a LOT of recoil.

    The barrel sparks, crackling with energy, then erupts in a blazing gold-white beam at Hazel, trying to shoot him THROUGH the pillar.

    This attack does leave her open to a counter.

>> SUMMARY[Uni] >> EX Multi Blaster. Mode Empress! Uni's firin' her lazor!

Emily just bursts out laughing as Salome fires the guns with her heels. In fact, she's laughing so hard, she takes a couple of hits, the bullets impacting against her shoulder and stomach with bursts of silvery glitter.

But she's quickly back on her feet. "Ahahaha. No regrets!" she exclaims. In a swirl of silvery glitter, a pair of baseball bats appear, one in each of her lower hands, with a glowing purple circuit-board pattern; the one on the left bears the text "HOME", and the one on the right says "RUN." She charges in, gliding above the ground and briefly sidestepping Dante's shots, before she twirls around, swinging HOME and then RUN at Salome in quick succession, once again following up each one with golden bolts.

Demi's starting to believe that this was an inside job, who else would have been able to take out the entire grid? It would take sometime to get each turret back online. At least they weren't able to turn the turrets against Haven. Seeing one of the elves approach, she's a bit curious about what exactly they are. The closest species she's run across is a numan, but the person is coming up as unknown in her databanks.

 She better take of the intruder first and her chest opens as she fires a pair of green energy beams at the elf. They wouldn't cause any lasting harm, but they would keep them from moving for the time being. She rather avoid killing if possible and it would be useful to question them later.

    Throwing a haymaker like that leaves Hyouka offbalance - she sort of skid-hops to a stop, flailing her now-oversized arms to regain her fooding. "...There, you see? That's why you shouldn't make an enemy of someone when you don't have to." The cyborg attempts to cross her arms, only to realize how futile it is with the FISTEAU units on, and instead settles for going akimbo. "Hopefully you two will reflect on your ac-"

    Oh. Oh, all the other elves are looking right at her. "...oh dear."

    Crapcrapcrapcrap! It's one great big panicked stumble-run to get out of the way of the retaliatory magic. However, in doing so, she inadvertently circles the whole fracas, which actually puts her in a good position. "Hyouka," DARGN chimes in. "You should dive into the crowd from here. It will confuse their aim." The elven-looking woman blinks. "Oh? -oh!"

    Her run becomes a skidding turn, and then she hurls herself towards the center of the battle, trying to find an elf she can punch with one oversized lightning-fist.

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> Oh god they're all looking at me. Um... um... MOSH PIT!

    One last kick of both legs and Sally's revolves go flying upwards as she flips back onto her feet, catching the twin schofields as easy as breathing. But then she's on the defensive; with both guns empty she can't shoot down Dante's bullets this time and is forced to twirl-- a pair of new holes appearing in her duster before Emily comes swinging in.
    "Aw damn."
    The distinct sounds of an elf being battered by baseball bats can be heard as the witch is launched backwards from the blows, twisting in the air and getting scorched by the bolts of golden light to follow. But Sally lands on her feet with the grace of a cat and an arch of her back that sends a dozen or so cartridges tumbling up into the air from her bustier as she snaps open the break action on her revolvers; the bullets landing in spinning cylinders before she snaps them closed again.
    "Right. Now I'm actually getting a little testy. So let's play hardball then." Admitted as she swishes a hip, a third revolver jumping out of the holster as she begins juggling the trio of guns; pulling the trigger on the newest gun in the mix that... Does not fire off a bullet.
    It launches a fireball.
    An honest to god fireball.

>> SUMMARY[Salome] >> Casting Time: 1 action, range 150 feet, each creature in a 20 foot radius must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 10d6 fire damage.

    Shin didn't expect the aura. It's something specifically unique to this world, which means he hadn't been accounting for it in the fight plan. Still, he managed to succeed in taking away one of her knives, which he crisply kicks to the side as he keeps bearings on his opponents, focusing in. 

    His heterochromatic gaze shifts between the now-seven opponents he is going up against. He shakes out his arms and resumes a stance. He moves to guard from an incoming attack, only to have it be an illusion and a different one hit him in the solar plexus, skidding him back a bit on the ground and causing him to exhale. 

    "Fwah. Good hit, man." Shin says with a grin on his face. He adjusts his shoulders and then takes a slow breath. And then slams his foot down on the ground. His hands shift towards his chest, "Let's try something new for you." 

    Shin hops up and down on his feet, dashing in towards the illusions. Rather than try to defend, he's moving and weaving like a boxer, trying to avoid the hits or have them glance off him. Of course, the actual purpose above this is that any time a hit actually feels SOLID when it whizzes by or slightly hits him, Shin reacts. 

    For every grazing hit or near-miss that feels like it was a real person, Shin throws a jab, or a hook, or a corkscrew blow meant to bypass a guard and crush his opponent with a powerful blow.

    If Hazel had been a lesser man, that would have been the end of him. Uni gets to hear a scream of rage - not pain? - as apparently something connects, but Hazel's semblance keeps him from feeling any pain from the hit. He swats aside the boy's attempt at a counter, and then there's some chaos as a young man with blonde hair is frantically reuniting with Weiss in the sense of trying to help her join the fight against a young man and dark-skinned woman with green hair... but it's getting complicated now, and in the chaos, the CPU Candidate might not be ready for the pillar that is collapsing to have a large chunk hurled AT her!

    The upside of this is that the fight is turning in the inside now, and it looks like things are really getting under control there... but it also looks like the lion guy is getting away.

    Demi elects not to bring the turrets online, which extends the fight but... keeps her from getting injured, because the elf crumples to the ground and skids, without sounding an alarm to draw too many more toward her.

    The alarm might not help in the chaos of battle anyway! Chaos like the Hyouka person that jumps in and pounds elf face! A few zaps with their wands and one of the White Fang attackers jump toward her, but it's getting pretty wild and hard to target in there, so the numbers are working against them!

    Shin is doing well against overwhelming odds. It's a hard fight, but after he adjusts for the aura, he can get an idea of where the blows are landing or going to land. The image guy finally loses focus, slamming against a wall! And then the girl comes back, trying to knife from behind.

    In all this chaos, there is a good thing. It looks like the defenders are now solidly winning... probably.

    Uni spent a lot of energy on that blast... and the rage roar is a sign she should probably start thinking about dodging... but then a chunk of pillar comes hurtling at her. Her Guard flares to life, absorbing some of the rubbles impact, but it still doesn't stop it all. The Guard shatters, hexagonal light screens scattering before the stone slams into the CPU directly, sending her flying out of the side of the building and probably through some groups of fighting people before managing to right herself and redirect the debris missile into a pack of White Fang holdouts.

    "Okay I guess you /can/ withstand Mode Empress..." she muses to herself, floating up into the air and looking pretty worse for wear. Her body suit is torn, and one of her 'wings' is bent at an awkward angle, though it doesn't seem to affect her ability to fly all that much.

    <"Okay, I don't have enough Share Energy left to maintain my HDD form /and/ do another one of those... you guys want help with the less indestructible targets, or should I see where that lion guy went to?"> she asks over radio.

    Shin is less focused on the politics or the dramatics of the fight, so much as he seems glad to have some opponents he can focus on that aren't weird giant monsters for once. He felt like he was starting to get rusty after dealing with environmental hazards and monsters for too long, after all. 

    When he manages to slam the image-creating fighter against the wall with a good punch, Shin dashes in towards him and throws a few body-blows to the mid-section using his boxing prowess before Knife Girl is coming back in for another go at him. He doesn't mind the fact that she wants to attack him again! He does object to one thing, though: 

    When she stabs in at him from behind, he spins out of the way and wags a finger at her, "Please stab me in the front or the side. I don't want my Zhulóng to get damaged by a coward's wound. A wound on my back, I mean. It might look like I was trying to run away from a fight and got it damaged it. Please and thanks." 

    Deeply, some part of him wishes he could go blow-for-blow with Hazel. But other people are handling that fun experience, much as he thinks it would be a rush to brawl with a guy that could take a beating that well. 

    Releasing the girl a moment later, he steps back and makes some finger guns at her, "You wanna tap out?" He asks, relaxing a bit and then 'pew-pew'ing the fingerguns at her, "Battle's pretty much a loss. You can surrender if you want. Or you can run away, get stronger, and find me again sometime. I dunno your name, so I'm gonna call you like... Jen-knife-er. Edge-lizabeth. Maybe Nezumi. We'll figure it out."

    Hyouka's swings are the wild strikes of someone fighting purely on their physical abilities - but to her credit, her physical abilities are quite something. A missed blow will crater the ground near her, and a direct hit will deliver crushing force bolstered by elemental lightning mana. That alone is enough to make her a dangerous combatant... though getting jolted by spells here and there definitely knocks her off her feet again, more than once. "Gh-! Okay, if you really want my attention that badl-"

    Her colossal fist swings around straight towards the incoming White Fang assailant. Hyouka looks just as surprised to see the faunus there as the faunus probably looks to see her swinging around; it's pure accident that she happens to turn around and start an attack at just the right time.

    A happy accident, granted, but still an accident.

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> Smashing up anything in reach, getting zapped more than once, turning around to... accidentally punch a White Fang goon? Sure, okay.

Demi goes back to trying to get the turrets online without attracting more attention. If she goes those operational again it should further encourage the invaders to retreat. She then would be able to attend those who need medical attention. It was a thankless job but she was programmed to be a caregiver above all else. She's not sure how common AI are on this world so it might be best not to attract too much attention to herself.

    Uh oh. A fireball.

    "All I needed to hear, babe!" Dante says, stowing his guns. Wait what? Given how he is, there IS a reason he hasn't broken out the sword right now. Drawing the longsword, Dante leaps back and assumes a stance more typical from that of a baseball player up to bat. "YOU CAN HAVE THIS BACK!" He bellows, as he swings Rebellion out to bat the fireball away, possibly even right back at Salome.

    Boy, the academy's repair bill is gonna be insane.

Emily thinks fast. Yeah this looks like it's going to cause an explosion even with Dante deflecting it. She leaps backward, and the two baseball bats transform into a large shield metal shield, which Emily then hunkers down behind.

"... Hang on," she says, "how much effort do we need to expend to keep the collateral damage down? I'm not used to that being an actual issue."

    "ATTENTION WHITE FANG! YOUR ALLIES ARE IN DISARRAY AND WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED. PLEASE. SURRENDER." The voice has the heartfelt sound of someone who has already asked once, but this time it is going to get through. Why?

    Hyouka has managed to send a lot of the elven mercs into disarray already, and the one White Fang who jumped her is now tumbling on the ground. Shin has kept a three on one with some of their best fighters, and now the girl is having second thoughts, first eying the dagger, then listening to both Shin's words and the announcement. And to make things worse for them, a turret powers up and lifts its barrel, starting to scan the battlefield for targets.

    Outside, the battle is won then, and Uni withdraws into seeing that relative safety. It's starting to calm there.

    Inside, there's an order to withdraw given as well. Hazel is coming down from his Dust-charged rampage, and has to be supported as he starts to stagger out. The young man that was helping shouts, "Come on! We have to go now or they'll catch us!"

    It's not every day someone baseball bats a fireball spell back at you with their sword.
    "You know. I can't even be mad at that."
    But this presents Salome with a new issue as her upcast fireball comes hurtling back at her, and presents her with very few options.
    She spins the cylinder on her revolver and thumbs back the hammer. This will either end well for her or suddenly it won't be her problem anymore. Salome pulls the trigger.
    With a loud *~CLICK~*... Nothing happens. The fireball keeps coming at her. ... So why is she smiling?
    "Hah... Haha! HAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
    It's a full on maddened witch cackle as the searing heat of that blaze comes closer... Closer... Cl-
    Out of the sky, an even bigger sphere of space rock slams dead into the fireball, fizzling out and continuing on course for Dante, Emily, and her shield.
    But Salome doesn't even bother sticking behind to see the results as soon as she hears that announcement. "Huh looks like that happened. Oh well at least I got paid." She says, bringing fingers to her lips to belt out a sharp whistle.
    "PIERCE! We're leaving!"
    And on cue a black cat mounted at the head of a flying broomstick zips out in front of her. The witch swings herself to sit side-saddle on the broom and starts zooming off at top speed.
    "Bye, slick~!"

>> GAME >> Salome spends an Edge for: I cast METEOR. Also: BYE.

    Shin keeps firing his finger guns at the Faunus Girl, "Cha say, Nezumi? You could be a terrorist. You could also be a pretty awesome fighter if you put your back into it and actually made something of yourself." He actually couldn't even hear if she was replying to him, what with the music and all. He can barely hear the huge announcement coming out over loudspeakers. 

    "Listen, Jen-knife-er." Shin, at this point, has basically decided the fight is over. He's pretty sure he wins. As he turns his back to the rat girl to grab his jacket off the bench, three of the scales on the tattoo on his back flicker and turn a ruby red color as if inked in. He throws the jacket on over it and grins. 

    "So as I was saying. I'm shit at most life advice. But don't make a bad decision now that fucks your life over. You could be more than some shit low-level criminal with skills like yours. Become a pro fighter or something. Apply yourself." 

    And then he gives her a thumbs up, "And dig me up for a rematch."

    "Got eyes on that group trying to leave." radios Uni, taking aim from her airborne vantage at the fleeing group. She sees these people in the same light as the ASIC members and other such groups from her own world... and thus doesn't hesitate to open fire with her railcannon again, showering Hazel and the rest with plasma-like slugs.

    Uni thumbs the selector and shifts to a different mode. "Full Mag, rapid fire." flashes up on the large orb, and when Uni pulls the trigger again, the fire rate has increased several orders of magnitude, but individual damage of her shots reduces significantly... suppressive fire perhaps, trying to slow them down so the law can arrest them. "Stop right there criminal scum!"

    "Later, smokin'!" Dante sends the fireball flying, and watches Salome make a tactical withdrawl. It was probably for the best, too. This fight was going all kinds of crazy, and it seems like the attackers have opted to escape justice to fight another day. "Well, that sure was fun." He remarks, dusting off Rebellion before stowing it on his back. "We done here, or do you think we still gotta dust up some of the help?"

    And there they go.

    "Hmph! Serves you ri-" Dangit, these gauntlets are /terrible/ for armcrossing. Grumble. "Fisto, end!" In a total inversion of the previous sequence, her gauntlets begin to collapse, piece by piece, into a space within her arms, until the exterior plating slides back into place and she's normally-armed again.

    Then she smugly crosses her arms. "Servers you right."

    "Hyouka, shall I begin scheduling banter practice for you over the next week?"

    "M-my banter is /fine/, DARGN, thank you very much." Huff.

Emily dispels the shield, and stretches (even though her body is a colony of nanomachines and stretching doesn't actually do anything). "Nah, I think we're good," she says to Dante. "Sounds like everything's basically done. Reapplying capacitor seals 2 and 3." The pearlescent aura reappears, and the gold and silver ones reconstruct themselves.

She smiles. She kind of wants to track down Salome for another fight. Just throw down in some empty world, no holds barred and nothing hanging on victory or defeat ...

    The girl, who still hasn't given her name, holds her hands up for Shin after dropping her knife. "I already give up," she says grudgingly. The other two have discarded their weapons as well.

    Things begin to calm, and a bedraggled group of teens and one adult come out. Weiss is there too, and though she blushes, she mumbles, "Thanks everyone..."