World Tree MUSH

It might be happenstance that brings people here, or it might be an actual polite request from Kiyohime, via letter or email or telephone or what have you. The request was simple and stated that Rome needed help, further noting it was a large and important city in the world.

Yes, Rome needs help.

The city of Rome, unlike many cities that were attacked, has remained partially free. It's awkward because the more modern areas are what is now abandoned, leading to a number of ramshackle dwellings attached to older areas, and even the Colosseum being used sometimes for other purposes than tourism. Tourism is no longer a large industry, and it's easy to tell, for anyone with any sort of rougher experience, that the city is largely a refugee camp now. The Vatican remains untouched, and the markers clearly delineate where the danger areas are.

Which is where Kiyohime wants to go. The girl is waiting at the predetermined place, which is past some of the encampments of refugees. People who are none too happy to see anyone from offworld. There's a small group of soldiers - UN-aligned - also here, explaining things. "So it looks like there's some sort of spatial warping going on, at least that's what the scientists are saying. They're worried it's a new ability of the worms or... something else. There's a worm headed right toward it, as far as we can tell." He's holding a map, which he hands to either Kiyohime or anyone who seems ready to take charge.

Kiyohime bows to those who are wandering in or showing up. "Excuse us, we were just discussing the current problem. It looks like time may be of the essence. Oh dear. Some new threat is located in the depths of the city currently closed off by giant metallic worms. Very difficult to investigate."

    "Snek-retary! Good to see you again!" Shin walks straight up to Kiyohime and clasps her shoulders firmly and cheerily, "How's it goin? Did you bring me a boxed lunch?" He asks immediately afterwards, releasing her shoulders and looking around. 

    "So this is Rome, huh? Catholic church really kinda only covered their own asses on this one. You woulda thought they'd ward the entire city to protect their altar boy supplies." He shrugs a bit and then reaches into his pocket with his phone. He puts an arm around Kiyohime and lifts up the phone, "Rome selfie! Smile!" He takes a photo of himself and Kiyohime before putting the phone away. 

    Shin actually has gifts for the refugees. All those MREs he was stealing from the US Army Earlier? He sighs and then drops down his backpack, producing about a dozen of them and handing about one-apiece to hungry families, "Here. They're freeze-dried, so add hot water. Eat a meal." It takes him all of a few seconds to hand out all couple-dozen stolen US Rations to people and he's back to being poor and hungry again. 

    He will not apply himself towards any objectives this round, since he is feeding refugees.

    Tourism may not be much of an industry in Rome any longer, but there ARE tourists. Like, objectively speaking, there's at least three right now.

    A young woman wearing a quite frankly insultingly-pink dress, as well as a rather eye-catching CROWN of all things, is currently stood several paces away from the meeting spot, facing the other way and holding a map up in front of her face. She's flanked by two short... people with rather odd-looking hats. Well, one assumes they're hats anyway - they resemble the colourful, eye-catching caps of rather savagely poisonous mushrooms.

    She isn't here by invitation. Kiyohime likely has no idea who she even is.

    "This looks nothing like the map," Peach complains to her companions. "And the tourist board didn't say anything about so many unfortunates living on the streets!"

    "Did we make a wrong turn somewhere?" one of her companions suggests in a rather high-pitched voice.

     Ahhh...heck. 

     The blue-haired Esper stirs. His eyes are swirling. The ground is swirling back, and in the opposite direction. It takes him a moment to sit up properly, to actually...*sit up*. He slumps backwards against the ground and runs his fingers through his long hair, tying it back into a ponytail as he secures his bandana. There's a distant, female voice. As his vision clears in the alleyway - and he can identify this as an *alleyway*, though one full of buildings much, much taller than he's ever seen, because alleyways are always the same and always identifiable by the smell - he starts focusing in on it. 

     "Nnn...Alys," he mutters, "Where-" 

     No, that's...that's not Alys's voice. Alys doesn't talk about spatial anomalies or scientists or worms. /Worms/. That's an ominous word he already doesn't like. The Parman feels around for his scepter for a moment, a makeshift rod from a crappy store. He leverages himself to his feet and shakes his head to clear his eyes. 

     Then, as if he'd always been hear and always meant to be here, he emerges from the alleyway, with a big smirk on his very pretty face. He's maybe six feet tall, with a cloak around reasonably broad shoulders. 

     "My name is Rune Walsh. I've got some business further in the city. I'll be adding myself to your party until it's complete." 

     "Don't worry," he adds, his smirk turning to a wry grin, "I'll make sure to more than make myself useful for the duration."

    New use for Yumi Tachibana discovered: 'e-mail intermediary for people who cannot into technology'.

    Rydia and others might not have any real access to such modern conveniences, but they've got Yumi to handle it for them. Even that small boon is something she can be happy with, since otherwise they'd have much more trouble hearing about things.

    Now, finding out they're headed to Rome? That makes things both stranger and more intimidating. Even Yumi's never been to Rome (or has she? a question to ponder...). Thankfully, she at least looks like she could be from somewhere else in the world. Then again, anyone coming with her is probably going to spoil that impression.

    "So, wait... Spacetime warping /and/ worms? This world doesn't do things by halves, does it..."

    Rome is... A place Rydia of Mist has never been to before. But here she is now, in Yumi's tow. The young, green-haired, girl is seated on the back of her favored chocobo, the yellow feathered steed keeping to an easygoing pace to match Yumi and not outrun her the whole way along.
    "Sooooo... Kiyohime needed help with something again?" She asks some distance away, before the pair actually arrive and Kiyohime herself can answer that question.
    "Hi. We're here now. Why are worms a problem exactly?"
    Rydia of Mist. Asking all the important questions.

The soldiers are eying Rune dubiously, and a few are moving over to Peach. "Ma'am," they say in English, "I think you're offworld. That is, you might be in the wrong Rome. We're preparing a military operation here, and you should get to safety." Maybe this place isn't safe, because the various refugees are actually giving Peach dirty looks.

Kiyohime smiles pleasantly during the picture but is trying to be all business. Except that she silently and without surprise for the request, hands Shin a wrapped boxlike object that contains a bento box. Yes, she made him lunch. "Hello again," she says to those who know her, then turns and considers Rune carefully.

Another soldier nearby waves to Shin, Yumi, and Rydia. "Hey!" Oh, his uniform is cleaner now, but it's one of the soldiers from Seattle. "I can explain. Rome is full of building-consuming worms that chew through anything in their path. Concentrated firepower around the area has kept them away, and the Vatican has deployed some uh... holy relics I guess, to help contain them? But they're stretched pretty thin around the world too, so yeah. Rome's better off than most cities though. It looks like one of the big ones is headed toward the objective, too, so they want some people to handle it. Willing to even work with offworlders."

The soldier who was speaking to Kiyohime is eying Rune suspiciously. "What, just like that? You'll get crushed for sure. Even if you're a magician or something." He doesn't have much respect for magic, it seems. "Anyway, here's a map of the area and where we think it is. We can send a team with you if they won't slow you down, but McGinness has worked with some of you and says you'll get the job done. I don't want to waste any men if I don't have to, no offense."

Meanwhile Shin is encountering a different problem: the refugees are sort of just skittering away and yammering in Italian. Until one of them steps forward and speaks in heavily-accented English, which lets her speak well enough with Shin's Japanese to get the idea across. THAT calms people down considerably! It helps when one of the other soldiers breaks out one of his UN Rations and gets to showing them how to prepare it, with further explanations in Italian. To Shin, "Thanks, we don't know when the next relief shipment will be, or if it will be edible. This should help a little."

     Rune stands up to Kiyohime's scrutiny with a wry smile. He's a handsome man, that's for sure, and what's also for sure is that he knows it. He puts two fingers under his chin and watches her, scrutinizing her right back. There's the sense that he's sizing her up more than he is checking her out, but he's also a teenage boy. Can't be more than eighteen. Probably isn't even. 

     The soldier breaks his train of thought, whatever it was. He takes the map and glances at it. He doesn't comment on the man's tone. "It'd be pretty stupid of me to turn down your aid, wouldn't it? I'd rather a team to cover me while I work." 

     His fingers run along the map thoughtfully. Now, if he was Alys, where would he be? 

     If he was Alys, he'd be in the most *conceivable* trouble. 

     Therefore, he has to find the most trouble conceivable. The most trouble conceivable would probably be that worm. 

     This is a great idea that cannot possibly go poorly. Rune Walsh is a genius. 

     He looks up and runs his fingers through his hair. Then, he turns around and starts heading off. He's just kind of *assuming* the soldiers will keep up with him. 

     Yeah, he's that kind of guy.

    Oh! Oh, Yumi knows that man. She beckons Rydia to follow. "Ah, hello! It's good to see you doing alright." His explanation of the worms draws her attention out over the city, arms crossing and brow furrowing in thought. "...So we've got two problems in one, huh..." She turns to look in the direction of Rune and the soldier speaking to him; the thought of putting other soldiers at risk bothers her, so she knows what she /hopes/ the answer is. But ultimately it's not her call to make. And it looks like they're bringing along soldiers.

    Speaking to the man with them again, Yumi asks, "Is there anything else you can tell me about the worms? Anything they're particularly not fond of, any routes that might have less of them along? And for that matter, are there any Church operatives we'll be able to get in touch with out there?"

    Shin is not helping Shin's own case, because when they're yelling at him in Spanish, he switches to English. But it's English with like... a borderline slightly racist Italian English, "I bring-a you-a delicious food-a. Mamma mia!" He thrusts the rations at someone. 

    Luckily, things get sorted out fast and then just kinda sighs and switches back to Japanese, "Oh thank fuck. I was worried I was gonna run into some serious language barriers." And after that, he switches to chowing down on the boxed lunch that Kiyohime handed him a moment ago, "Thanks, Kiyo! You're the best~." He compliments as he shovels food into the bottomless pit that comprises his stomach. 

    "I'm gonna head off with this protagonist-lookin' dudebro. We'll probably find some awesome trouble and mayhem that way." He was not listening to the guard, so he's just opting to wander off with Rune Walsh and see what trouble they can get into looking for the disturbance.

>> SUMMARY[Shin Tokuyama] >> Following after Rune Walsh and eating.

    Peach lowers the map to peer over it at the soldiers approaching her. "Hmm? Well yes I am offworld, I come from- wrong Rome?" She lowers the map more, until she's just holding it loosely with her arms at her sides. "Are you telling me that more than one world has a city named 'Rome'? Oh gosh that would explain a lot..." She takes a relieved breath.

    "A military operation? Did I wander into a war zone? That would explain the refugees..." She looks over towards the refugee camps - eyes picking out Shin handing out ration packs. Hm. "...Toadsly, please make a note to remind me to discuss potential humanitarian aid options with the Prime Minister when we return home."

    "Okay Princess," one of her short companions responds, pulling out a pad of paper.

    Peach then glances over in the direction the soldiers came from - and spots a chocobo. "Oh my gosh is that little girl riding a giant bird that is ADORABLE." And she's making her way in that direction now. Oh dear.

    "Princess!" one of her companions calls after her, to no effect.

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> Getting info that should make the trip smoother

>> SUMMARY[Rune Walsh] >> 'Alys is probably in trouble. Time to go find trouble.' Rune Walsh is a smart guy who does dumb things.

>> SUMMARY[Peach] >> Yes officer I know I'm in a different world- oh my gosh a chocobo!

    Hey, it's... That guy. Rydia vaguely recognizes that guy. He was one of the soldiers that Kiyohime was originally ordered to kill. "Oh." And then she gets her explanation about the worms. There is a brief moment where she looks over to the group of refugees as Shin passes out MREs, and the girl purses her lips into a frown.
    How many of thes people won't have homes to go back to at the end of the day? She wonders to herself.
    It is just another example of how bad things continue to happen to good people all the time.
    Rydia tightens her hold on her chocobo's reins.
    And then Peach.
    "Kweh?"
    The chocobo chirrups as the princess heads right towards them.
    "Uh. What, you've never seen a chocobo before?"
    It does not occur to Rydia that people are simply more used to horses. OR maybe... Have not seen giant riding birds.

>> SUMMARY[Rydia] >> Ruminating. Also probably about to be assailed by Peach.

Rune and Shin are already moving, and Kiyohime is... puttering along after. "I will make certain that the eastern flank is safe," she states, hurriedly leaping up atop a building to head that way. She pauses and flashes another smile. "Good luck!"

Yumi gets a little more info for that question, and the soldier nods as he makes a few pointed directions. "We've done a little scouting out, and you should probably stick to the plaster and wood buildings and newer roads, instead of the cobblestone or the tourist traps. The worms eat stone, so you can probably move faster by sticking to areas that they aren't interested in. If you swing around and avoid the bridge there, it'll be easier. The bridge is intact and looks intact, but it's blockaded. If you take the skywalk you'll actually be safer and it should take you directly over."

Good advice, to aid in getting htere quickly!

The group that is heading in, Rune and Shin, do get two soldiers with them, covering the flanks. They move pretty professionally, unlike the group that Shin saw first time on this world. The city is eerily quiet, not even animals around, and lots of collapsed rubble is over the street. Some taller buildings are still around though, and...

The rumbling crash in the distance reveals what they meant by 'worms' though. It's huge, easily forty feet in diameter, and moving faster than it should. Despite the comment of eating buildings, it is winding its way around most, at least what can be glimpsed of the massive metallic thing. It's headed sort of where the map indicates the trouble is though.

    "Hello! What's a chocobo? ... Oh wait no that's obviously the bird that you're riding. No, I've never seen a chocobo before!" Peach speaks at a mile a minute, smiling brightly at Rydia - and just naturally following along when everyone starts to move because... well, she's not really thinking about WHY she's doing it. Maybe she's just that much of a sheep!

    "Where I come from we usually ride dinosaurs! Which to my knowledge are related to birds so I suppose this shouldn't be TOO much of a surprise..."

    "I'm Peach, by the way. What's your name?" Peach asks Rydia in a sing-song sort of voice.

    The rumbling crash makes her jump with surprise, and she quickly snaps her head in the direction it came from. "...Oh. It's not a warzone, it's a MONSTER attack..." she muses to herself.

    Peach fangirling all over Rydia's chocobo is absolutely /adorable/. But sadly they've got to get moving as best they can. So Yumi turns, and starts jogging, with a quick beckon to Rydia, and then- "Hey, Shin! Ah, and you, the person with him! The soldiers gave us some directions!" She's moving quickly to catch up to Shin and Rune, so she can lead them (assuming they choose to follow) in a direction that should make the trip easier. As the group gets rolling, however, her steps start to slow a bit, and an odd expression finds its way onto her face. Somewhere between 'confused' and 'distracted', though it's minor just yet.

>> SUMMARY[Peach] >> Peach just totally ditched her previous companions to go wandering off with people headed towards danger. This will likely become a theme.

     Rune glances over his shoulder at Shin. "Oh, good. You seem like you're the meaty type." He steps to the side and gestures for Shin to go ahead. Kiyohime, too, if she wants to go in front of him. Rune apparently has no problem hiding behind a woman. Or between the soldiers. 

     The rumbling crash gets Rune's attention. He stops smirking for a moment to stare at the massive metallic thing. For a brief instant, he panics, and the flicker of it passes across his face like a bolt of lightning - fast, but easily noticeable. 

     "Darn." 

     Rune shoulders his cane with a nervous expression. "We're going that way, I think. Unpleasantly, I suspect that's the direction I'm heading." 

     He glances at Yumi as she gets his attention, watching her run up. Well, he's sure not going first, that's for damn certain.

>> SUMMARY[Rune Walsh] >> Rune is perfectly fine with hiding behind people. He's a JRPG Wizard from the 90s. Alys - uh, BUSINESS - is probably in the direction of the worm.

    "Sure am, bro! Name's Shin Tokuyama, wandering martial arts sage. Or a fledgling one." Shin thinks for a few moments, "Think about it like a gacha. There's two versions of me. This one is the three-star or four-star SR or R version. Some day, I might become the five-star Limited SSR version." Shin punches his fists together. "Good to meetcha." 

    He steps ahead of Rune and gets ready to sprint ahead of everyone when... Yumi is calling to them, "Yo! Yumers! The Yumination! Yumitastic! What up, girl, you got directions?" He waits for her a few moments to catch up, "Here. Let's swap text numbers so we can use GPS in case you get lost." Shin holds out his cell phone towards her, "And add me on any mobile games you play. My team in Heroes/Villains Clash is pretty levelled. My code is 338,657,997." 

    "Ah shit." Shin says as he spots the giant monster, "That thing looks like a wandering raid boss. We better get moving, we don't really have the tanks, deeps, and heals to take on something that massive right now." Yumi especially. She looks really underlevelled. Like a one-star. 

    Shin turns around and jogs past Rune, content to take point, "Alright. Let's move fast!" He calls to the people with him, waving forward as he sprints along.

>> SUMMARY[Shin Tokuyama] >> Shin introduces himself to Rune Walsh. Talks to Yumi. Swaps contact details. Talks about the raid bosses in the zone, and gets to moving again.

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> Yumi is giving the group directions she got, but also starting to look a little... off.

    Peach is... Excitable. Actually for a brief moment, Rydia looks as though she has no clue how to handle the princess and her rapid bombardment of words. Though asking 'what is a chocobo' makes the big yellow bird PUFF RIGHT UP, feathers ruffling somewhere between insulted and showing off.
    "Um." Rydia rallies though. "Do you... Want to pet him?"
    It's the best she's got, for a moment, before dismounting. Peach will get a moment with the avian mount before Rydia holds a finger up. "Stay. Come when I call you."
    "Kweh~." It chirps back before hunkering down obediently, as the girl opts to continue, and follow the group on foot rather than risk her favored chocobo.
    "Rydia of Mist." That's her introduction to the princess, before scooting to keep up with the others. She pauses, briefly, when she can feel the tremors in the earth. And hears the distant sound of destruction.
    "... What was that?"
     That couldn't have been the worm. Worms are small and slimy and good for fishing bait. Right?
    Right?
        Wrong.
    She keeps up with the group well enough without her bird though. "Shin who's the new guy?"

Oh dear. Well, Kiyohime is not going to be close by to help, because that's simpler. Unfortunately this also means no dragon against giant raid boss! That's not good. And the worm is coming closer way more quickly than is comfortable. And a lot more loudly as the approach nears! The rumbling is also making some buildings shake, which is... causing some problems.

Mainly, the rumbling is causing a few buildings to shake and collapse. Which wouldn't be an issue, but as the group is approaching the disturbance, a new complication appears. A loud scream! It sounds like a civilian or two is trapped in one of the half-collapsed buildings nearby, which is in danger of coming down completely. It also sounds like the noise is coming from a higher floor, so whomever is up there is going to be tricky to save.

Meanwhile the air is feeling... /wrong/ right now. The group is getting close to the disturbance. In fact it's close enough that even Peach might be able to feel something wrong, despite trailing behind right now. It just feels like the already narrow European streets are getting unreasonably narrow, and the entire area is feeling claustrophobic. This is near where the map is, and that skywalk is apparently close by, but the entrance might be hidden in this jumble.

    Blues is pretty disoriented, too. He's lost in a strange city, a recent arrival, and there are monstrous worms around. He's not sure about the situation, or how humans will be treating him. Is this another incident of the future messing with things? That's... inconvenient. In the end, it's left him little option but to wait and see. And, of course, explore a little to try to calibrate his teleporter, if it will even work.

    Seeing a group of people heading through the area with purpose... mostly... and the worm nearby means he's interested, but it's the scream that gets his attention. That's surely going to be crippling or possibly fatal. Which means that the explorers looking for the disturbance will get a little help with the distraction, as the helmeted man in a long yellow scarf leaps down from a nearby shaky perch and rushes to the building that's collapsing, immediately bracing himself against a support. "I hope one of you over there is up for getting those people out, I don't think I can do both at once!"

    He's in such a poor mood he didn't even do his normal whistling.

    Shin gets Yumi's number - but also an apologetic look. "Sorry, I'm not really a mobage kind of girl, I guess. But I'll definitely look you up if I ever start."

    The closer they get, the more off-put Yumi looks. Even before that claustrophobic feeling starts to set in. Rydia is probably in the best position to see the furrow of her brow, the look on her face faintly unwell and very confused. Perhaps just a bit worried besides. She still seems to be perfectly capable of walking straight, but her level of distraction is growing more and more by the step. And more and more, her eyes are darting in one particular direction - it's definitely the way they're going, but more specific. She lifts a hand, she's about to say something-

    -a scream rings out.

    The orange-haired girl looks once at the collapsing rubble, and the robot now holding it up, then looks once more in the direction she'd been staring. Then she turns and starts running without a second thought, beelining for the building... or rather, the people who are going to need to get pulled out of there.

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> Whatever's happening with Yumi is getting more intense. But it is less important than SAVE THE PEOPLE.

     Rune gives Shin the most classic smile any Wizard has ever given any Fighter ever: 'are you possibly some kind of moron? well, alright, that's why you're going first.' He couches it pretty well, though, and he just says, "Of course," as if he understands what the hell Shin is talking about. He almost assuredly doesn't. It's almost confirmably the case that he does not know a damn thing. But that's OK. Rune is a guy who is bound and determined to LOOK like he knows everything, come hell or high water. 

     And then everything explodes. 

     Blues teleports in, and Rune immediately sees an opportunity. He swings his cane around in a circle, his eyes flashing. He holds up his hand in front of his face, two fingers upwards, the rest balled into a fist. The air whirls around him. His cape flutters. 

     "HEWN!" 

     An enormous burst of wind comes shooting out of the cane. It's like a whirling tornado, shooting straight for the falling debris. 

     "HEWN!" Rune shouts again, and another burst of wind comes whirling out to help Blues brace. The tornado may just be pushing the other way, but it's more pushing than they had a second ago. 

     And Rune *always* fails physical objectives, so this is the best you get.

    The chocobo is given many pettings before Peach follows after the rest of the group, of course. Oh my gosh it's so cute!

    Crash. Rumble.

    Screams.

    Who knew you could run so fast in heels?

    Heedless of any personal danger, Peach simply sprints towards the source of the screams. Blues is given a swift glance, the look of someone used to danger deciding whether or not something is a threat, before the princess starts to make her way upwards.

    She doesn't climb, per se. Instead, she simply leaps upwards eight feet, kicks off the wall of the colapsing building towards the wall opposite, running vertically upwards a few paces before leaping back, hovering in the air despite gravity's protestations, then diving clear through an upper window.

    "His name is Rune Walsh! He's a guy!" Shin says to Rydia with a thumbs up, "That reminds me. I need to talk to you later, Rydia." And then Shin frowns at Yumi, "How can you not be into Mobage? Are you a PC or console girl instead?" He asks her in an almost jealous tone, imagining the kind of life that could allow someone four walls, electricity, a TV, and a console gaming platform. 

    But then... a building is collapsing. Shin is strong. And Shin is talented. But he can only do so much about an ENTIRE building. But he plans to do as much of it as he can, "Kiyohime! The building! And catch my jacket in a sufficiently cool fashion!" His jacket? 

    Shin reaches up and pulls off the suit coat he was wearing, tossing it into the air assuming Kiyohime will catch it like he said. And then he dashes in towards the collapsing building! 

    As he moves forward, he shifts the ki distribution in his body, channeling it into his upper body and his calves. About six feet away from the building, he pivots hard enough to cause a small breeze and then says, "TETSUZANKOU!" As he slams his ki-empowered shoulder into the building with all the force he can muster. 

    He can't STOP the building from collapsing, but maybe with what Rune is doing, he can help it fall in a way that is a bit safer. Shift the direction slightly.

    There is a momentary look of concern upon Rydia's face.
    These buildings are so large. It's not the first time she's been to a more modern world, but the gargantuan scale of a modern city is still so very new to her. And when something is powerful enough to make a building over one or two stories tremble- let alone collapse- she has to pause.
    Being fairly certain she has not accidentally summoned Titan, it's the scream that makes her jump. Everything happens so fast as a figure in white and red leaps into action and she sees that bright yellow scarf blitz by. "-Who?"
    No time to question it, there's only time to act. Though something about Rune gets a funny look from the girl, motions to the building as Yumi and Peach rush it.
    "Whyt, go with them!"
    The thin mists that seem to always surround the girl swirls once before detaching, floating into the building through a cracked wall. Peach and Yumi will be joined by the dragon hatchling inside, to guide people out while the others hold the support up.

The two soldiers that went with the group are also helping, calling out where they think the structural weaknesses are, while the other one is searching for the entrance to the skywalk. Mostly, it's the others who are now on the move, and Yumi and Peach will find their way into the creaky building with little problem. The dragon hatchling that flits inside will find a good place to exit, but there turn out to be several inside. A woman,t he one who screamed, is there with her child of about seven. The man, apparently the one in the family who was injured, is clutching a broken leg very weakly. The woman looks up and immediately thrusts the young girl into Yumi and Peach's direction, so at the very least they'll save her and the child, but the creaking building is not going to be here for long. "We were trying to get back to the safe zone, when..." Well, she doesn't need to say more, does she?

Fortunately, the wind buffetting the building is sufficient to stabilize it a little, and the creaky falling is arrested by Blues holding it up. Shin then manages to make it shudder and sway instead of fall by slamming into it, and the trio have managed to make it unsteadily wobble instead of crash down.

But with the worm still headed this way, it's not going to last long. As for Shin's jacket, it doesn't come back down. So. Something happened there.

    After seeing Peach do something that crazily acrobatic, Yumi is fairly certain the princess can help the man out of the building if she needs to. "Here, I'll take the child," she calls, reaching arms out to gather the kid up and follow Whyt's lead. "We've got soldiers who can get you back to the safe zone. Follow me, we'll get all of you out of here!" She'll get the kid to the nearest soldier as best she can, trusting the mother to be close behind - and someone else to help the father out of there.

    Peach is by the injured man's side in a flash. She speaks to him softly - in surprisingly fluent Italian, even. "I can't heal you, but I can help with the pain for a while," she says, while reaching out to caress the man's cheek. Her hand is surrounded by pretty twinkly lights, as a barely-visible wave of energy flows down him - mostly converging on that injured leg.

    The pain fades to a dull throb. And he's suddenly incredibly clean! Huh. "Come on, stand up," she continues to say in soft Italian while hooking his arm over her shoulder and standing up - actually basically carrying his entire weight by herself as she leads him towards the exit.

     Rune lowers his cane. He shoots a sidelong glance at Whyt, and tracks it back to Rydia. Huh. He'd thought she was just a child tagging along on a strange bird. But that was certainly... 

     Well, no time to dwell on it now. "The worm's getting closer," Rune says pointlessly as people go running past him, "And we've got more than enough to hold it. You should take them back." He gestures to the soldiers to dismiss them and send them off with the bystanders they just rescued. 

     Once they're safely gone, he glances at Rydia. "Do you think you can keep going for a few minutes? We'll be right behind you." 

     "You two!" Rune snaps his fingers at Blues and Shin, "I don't know your name, and the other one, ah, Shin, right? Great. On the count of three, cut loose with your attacks. Trust me." 

     Rune presses his fingers against his cane. There's another wave. "HEWN!" 

     The hurricane-force winds go shooting out, wrapping around Shin's fists, and whirling around Blues' arm-cannon. Rune exhales. "There. Hit it with everything you've got. Don't hold anything back. The wind will push it further than you alone could."

>> SUMMARY[Rune Walsh] >> Rune tells Rydia to "go on, hurry up, small child" and then waves his Cane to buff Blues and Shin with WIND DAMAGE.

    "You guys take care of rescuing the people and finding the disturbance." Shin says dramatically, rubbing his shoulder as he turns away from the building, "We're running out of time. I'm going to go hold off the worms." 

    Shin calmly takes off his sunglasses and tosses them upwards. He then takes off his tie and his dress shirt as he tosses those up as well. His faith in Kiyohime's fashion-interception abilities is great. He calmly flexes his upper body and then gives a thumbs up to everyone, "I'll cover you guys." 

    "I've wanted to try out a new technique I've been working on anyway. So this is a good chance." He says as he walks out of sight in the direction of the worms. 

    Once he's OUT of sight, he hops up and down repeatedly and says to himself, "Oh man! That was so cool! And the girls were watching. Hell yeah, Shin." He fistpumps the air briefly and then takes off into a sprint, shifting back into serious mode. 

    As he sprints in the direction the worm is heading, he eventually comes out to a halt in the middle of the street in front of it. He takes a moment to shut his eyes and exhales, taking a martial arts stance and flexing his upper body. 

    Empty your mind. 

    Derive your technique. 

    Create your pinnacle. 

    He can feel the power of Rune Walsh's spell surrounding his fist. A martial artist never fights alone, and this proves that. 

    He opens his eyes, "I've found it. Geiha Genkou-Ryu. Ultimate Technique - Shin Tokuyama." 

    He exhales and then jumps at the worm coming in. His hands glow red with ki as he throws a lightning flurry of punches onto the carapace of the worm, "The fists that rends the heavens! The soul that cries to the earth! The body that houses them both! This is the pinnacle of my moves." Each blow is thrown with killing intent. Each punch is every piece of his soul trying to kill this monster. Each landed hit flashes with a red explosion from the ki and the force of his blows. 

    "And to finish! A BLOW THAT STAGGERS GOD!" 

    Shin backflips off the carapace of the monster and coils his fists back. He finishes the move with four thunder-crack blows to the outer surface of the monster. Each blow shouting, "TEK!-KEN!-SEI!-SAI!" 

    When the last move connects, there's an explosion of ki and power like a bomb going off.

>> GAME >> Shin Tokuyama spends an Edge for: Iron Fist Holy Judgment

>> SUMMARY[Shin Tokuyama] >> Shin totally tries to be a cool guy and go off alone (less effective when more people have the same idea). Talks to himself for a bit. Focuses to figure out a final move. Creates an Ultimate technique. Punches the SHIT out of a worm.

    Holding up a building isn't his idea of fun, but Blues needs to see if those people can get out in time! And then... the others DO pull through, even if he shows startlement at how quickly they're coming to the aid of the family. Blues then doubly startles at the wind power rushing around him, making him ease up on what he's holding. "Eh? Right! Thanks!"

    Leaping up and finding a good vantage, Blues holds out his arm... the transformation into a cannon smooth and without fanfare. A few blasts of bluish energy spatter out, slamming into the worm headed their way. It's all impressive and everything until Shin decides to PUNCH the everliving daylights out of it, leading to the helmeted man to just pause and stares. "Wow that was... so cool."

    Yumi and Peach have the people inside the building tended to. Though Peach will find herself with a small white dragon made of Mist to help her get the injured man out, Rydia's attention is elsewhere.
    "That wasn't magic." She says directly to Rune. She calls things as she sees them, but she does not clarify what she meant, when things get a little hectic. That worm is getting awfully close.
    Except Shin sees to that.
    There's a moment of staring after him, wondering just what the wandering fist-sage could want to to talk to her about, as he goes to face his destiny. And the giant building eating worm.
    "Yumi, are you alright? You seemed a little out of it back there." She does ask the other girl, once she's out of the building, but she's asked to trek ahead.
    "What? I don't even know where to go-" She replies to Rune before deciding to not make a big deal of it. Her hand rises and she brings her fingers to her lips, letting out a sharp whistle.
    "Chocobo!"
    "Kweh!"
    Almost faster than actually possible, the bird seems to appear, rounding the corner of a nearby alley and squatting low so Rydia can climb into the saddle. A click of her teeth and she sets the bird off to take her scouting ahead, at a faster speed than she could have managed on foot.

Well this is quite a show. The soldiers are helping, professionally grabbing the child and offering some soothing words before handing them off to the other soldier, and helping the woman down. With Peach and Yumi helping them, the man groans and braces his leg, managing to crawl out and get caught to ease out of the building before it starts to collapse downward again, the roof caving in. Just in time, too!

Blues gets a boost of wind 'magic' swirling around him along with Shin, giving him a nice little elemental boost to the energy blasts shooting off toward the worm and slicing through the metallic scaly hide of the... obviously nonterrestrial beast. It roars in anger, rearing up and shaking its front end-

Then Shin's fists pummed down onto it. The metallic plates armoring its body warp and shatter, and the misalignment just makes the barrage from Blues all that much worse. The intense ki-powered impact causes waves of concussive force to crumble the chewed-upon and weakened buildings around the worm, and it twists about, retreating with a wriggle at an angle that will take it in a much wider arc toward the objective.

With Yumi and Peach having handled the civilians, and the worm's arrival delayed by Rune, Blues, and Shin, the little summoner is left alone to hurry across the skywalk and... end up where? It's a CRAMPED series of rooms, smaller than they should be. The ceilings are only about five feet high? And it looks like they should be bigger. At the center is a cluster of beetlelike entities, bright purple and about the size of a softball-

No wait. A small twisting warp has the rooms shrink another inch or two, and at the same time the pulsing sphere in the middle emits another burst of purple light, causing more of the now soccer ball-sized beetles to appear. It's like it is literally eating the space between objects to create more.

    Peach managed to completely miss Shin's heroics. Which is a shame, because she would have found that really impressive! Oh, well.

    As the family is taken care of, Peach, streeeetches her arms above her head, not even seeming to care as the building collapses right behind her. She offers Whyt a pat on the head - assuming the dragon doesn't go chasing after Rydia immediately. "...I feel like I'm forgetting something, but I can't quite place it... What exactly are we doing anyway?"

>> SUMMARY[Peach] >> Peach didn't get the mission briefing.

    "Huh-?" Rydia's voice tugs Yumi's attention back to what had been bothering her - and the young summoner can /see/ the confusion and unease seep back in. "Y-yeah... yeah. I'm fine." But she's only saying the words. The look she gives Rydia says 'I am very much not fine, but we have more important things to worry about'. "We can talk about it later."

    The summoner goes off to scout, but Yumi goes running right after her. And her steps... they're surprisingly sure. As if she knows right where she's going. Or at least, which /direction/. Every step she takes results in a deepening frown. And by the time she comes to a stop beside Rydia, staring down at the strange, beetle-summoning orb of space-warping something-or-other. "...that's it. I mean, I don't need to say it when we're looking right at it, but... that's what's twisting space." More softly, she adds, "I can /feel/ it." A brief side-glance at Rydia. But then, "I'm not sure how, but we have to get rid of it. Stop it."

>> SUMMARY[Yumi Tachibana] >> Somehow, Yumi is Miss Exposition?

     Rune draws in a breath. That wasn't much expenditure. He watches Shin tear forward with an impressive Skill, and the other one...well, it was some sort of technological weapon. A cannon or something. The worm isn't dead, but it's retreating, which probably means it can be herded away from the disturbance while the... 

     ...the... 

     ...the extremely small child handles it. 

     Rune's fingers go to his face. He rubs his brow in the exact same way that wizards throughout all of history have been rubbing their brows: with a supreme irritation at a minor detail they've just overlooked. 

     And then he goes /booking/ it after the small child, his cloak flowing behind him, arms pumping, narrowly avoiding tripping over his cane, cursing his own nature quietly under his breath. He /really/ just wanted to find Alys, darnit.

>> SUMMARY[Rune Walsh] >> That moment in every wizard's life when he's outsmarted himself, now tone-appropriate for a 90s Jrpg.

    The attack was successful. However, the attack also took a great deal out of Shin. 

    Backflipping off the carapace of the monster to get away from it as the buildings start to collapse on it and it retreats at an alternate angle, Shin lands in the streets. It's not a clean landing, though. His feet skid along the asphault and he slams a hand down to drag himself to a stop before coming down to one-knee in a crouch. 

    His knuckles are bloody from the impacts of the blows, but that's nothing new for a martial artist. He feels a genuine pride that penetrates past the outer image of an aloof goof that he tries to put on. He wishes his Sifu had seen him create his finishing technique. Shin smiles a bit, even if it's an exhausted smile as he falters backwards into a seated position. 

    "Fwuh. I am bottomed-out on ki. I can't even walk right now. I need a minute." Shin declares tiredly, rubbing his face with the back of his hands to try to focus himself in. He'll be able to walk in a few minutes, but he suspects he may be done fighting for the day after using a technique that high-tier.

    The worm may not be dead, but it looks like it's hurt badly enough to decide another place is good to be right now. That's good enough for now. The scarf-wearing helmeted man lowers the cannon, letting it change back to an arm now... and then he realizes they're missing one. "Just a little longer, and we'll get you home," he reassures the civilians.

    Rune is already headed that way, and Yumi. Shin's pretty tired. Blues debates what to do, to hang out more or go help the others, but he has no idea what's going on, so decides to linger here and protect the civilians. "It's fine, I'll stay around long enough to be sure they are safe."

>> SUMMARY[Rydia] >> What do I do with this? I'll just put it on ice until someone more knowledgeable comes along.

    Finding what Rydia found isn't too hard. She left her chocobo parked outside. Going in on her own might have been dangerous. It's a good thing Yumi was hot on her heels, though it seems the girl didn't even need the visual cue of the big yellow bird to know where to go... But without small she is, a few cramped rooms are easy for her to explore.
    Yumi will find Rydia staring raptly at the beetles, distracted only when the room seems to shrink around them.
    "What am *I* supposed to do with this?" She asides to the other girl, when Yumi outright confirms the creatures to be what they are looking for.
    She thinks for a few seconds, before she does the first thing that comes to mind.
    "Blizzard!"
    It's a simple proclamation, but as the Summoner extends her hands, a wave of cold flows out from her fingers, cold enough to leave a coating of frost on the ground and walls in front of her and rapidly cool the air around the beetles to sub-zero temperatures.

>> SUMMARY[Rydia] >> What do I do with this? I'll just put it on ice until someone more knowledgeable comes along.

After all that work, the final problem is a little anticlimactic, isn't it? The efforts have given the group a breather to see that the whole trouble is a bunch of magical space-eating beetles, and now there's just the question of what to do with them. Which...

Actually turns out pretty simple. This early on, the threat was pretty vulnerable to anything, and freezing it, while not destroying the orb, just causes the beetles to stop moving and the orb to stop pulsing, allowing it to be safely picked up and tossed somewhere to destroy.

Meanwhile, outside, "Thank you, thank you!" The woman is saying. And right at that point, Shin's jacket is handed over as Kiyohime smoothly glides up beside him. "I believe you dropped this. We should get moving, if the others have neutralized the threat."

    Peach smiles at the woman - a warm, genuine smile she probably hasn't seen in quite some time. "Noblesse oblige," she says. As if that explains everything. "I hope your husband recovers. If you need help with medical costs..." she trails off, while holding out a business card.

    It's bright pink. And has a rather long title printed on it.

    She also just wordlessly hands a copy of her business card to Shin, Kiyohime, and anyone else within reach really. This was exciting!

    It identifies her as 'Princess Peach of House Toadstool, Princess-Regent of the Mushroom Kingdom'. Huh.

    "Ugh. You're right." Shin takes back his jacket from Kiyohime. But he doesn't wear it. Since he's currently shirtless and wants to be a cool guy, he hooks the jacket with one finger and drapes it over one shoulder in a coolguy pose as he stands up again. He dusts his pants off a bit. 

    And then he gets handed a business card with a long title on it. He takes the card and looks at it over the brim of the sunglasses, revealing his heterochromia as he inspects the business card for a few moments and then just looks up at Peach. 

    "You're a professional Go-Kart racer and a former Olympic Competitor?" He asks.

    Hmm. Blues looks at the card, his helmet still on, and then the armored man just nods. "Call me... Proto Man." He looks at Shin and the bloodied fists. "That was pretty impressive, but you'd better get them looked at." He turns around and waves behind him.

    "I have some things to figure out. I'll be around," is all he says. Not one to stay and chitchat, is he? He starts to head toward the safer part of the city, whistling a catchy but distinctive tune.