World Tree MUSH

San Fransisco. The City by the Bay, Tourist Trap-

And where a young woman was in the process of getting mugged. She screamed as a man with a gun grabbed the purse out of her hands. Except that wasn't why she was screaming since up until then it was a nice quiet 'i'm handing you my purse so you don't shoot me' situation.

The scream was because of the nine foot tall creature that stood behind the robber. For his part the man turned, and even managed to turn his gun towards Venom before first gun, then would-be robber were disposed of.

THen the as Venom held the urse out to the woman it gently patted her head and smiled befoe bouning away.%rLater Edward Brock, one now homeless reporter, was out for a jog. "Vee, I gotta say that was impressive. Working on people skills, that's... Good." He wore an earpiece, making it look like he was on the phone rather than talking toa voice only he couldhear as he jogged through parkland.

<You did say we needed to work on improving public perception of us.>

Eddie stopped at a bench to readjust his tshirt. Sweatpants, old workout shirt, beat up running shoes. Height of fashion he was not, but Eddie wasn't the only jogger enjoying the good weather. As he looked about he noticed several hastily thrown together stalls proclaiming difering things ranging from currency exchange, information fliers, a few food trucks were parked nearby. All this lead to him looking about in curiosity, "Huh wonder what's going on..."

Why is Ace in this particular version of San Francisco? Who knows. Why is she, specifically, here? Because there's a food truck, of course. Light brown hair reflects the light a little as she waits not-quite-patiently in line for the vendor, who is selling some kind of Korean street food. She has a backpack slung over one shoulder, not covering much of the large "A" emblazoned on the back of her jacket.

    Well, another world, another place to gather Share Energy... potentially.

    Uni steps out of the Vine exit, and immediately gets jumped by some of the hawkers, red eyes going wide as she steps back from them in surprise. "No, thank you. I ate before I came." she explains hastily, then ducks and scampers past, to more quiet areas of this impromptu welcome wagon. "You came to a heavily populated Blossom, Uni, you should expect this kind of thing." she barates herself, shaking her head and making her little side-tails bounce a bit.

    She's wearing her normal little black dress, an emblem on her chest looking like a CD player cover with the word: Lastation written across it. "At least you didn't draw a gun on them. Getting better."

     Diantha didn't come here on purpose, simply for the fact that she was still wandering new vines and didn't even know where 'here' was until she got there. Unfortunately for her, an anomaly in the vine ends up dumping her the next block over, in the middle of a busy street. She screams and leaps out of the way of an oncoming car, which then crashes into a street post, and after those noises, there is some yelling and the rapid clicking of small hooves on concrete/asphalt as Diantha runs away. 

     She only stops when she nearly barrels into the cluster of food trucks and nearly falls over trying to stop before she collides into them. Her tail twitches nervously as she looks around frantically for a moment, her heart still racing. She tries to calm down, at least she wasn't hurt and no one died. "Another city... Why are there so many of them, half the worlds I go to I get dumped into an eyesore of stone and glass."

Eddie wandered through the crowd of hawkers and grifters smiling, seeming at ease wit hthe crowd, "Hey George how's it going? Ein, c'mon man give the lady some air she's clearly just got off the boat no need to mug her."

Trueth be told Eddie didn't really know these people in specific, but he knew their names and over the course of the Life Foundation investigation he did he realized treating them like People instead of human shaped vermin went a long way to getting thigns done.

Come to think of it he looked not much diffrent from most of the stall owners save perhaps for the fact he was slightly better groomed.

Then his head turned, almost as if a pupeteer had wrenched it in a specific direction. Eyes narrowed and his feet moved until he saw Diantha swearing and cursing every cement and steel covered inch of every city she's ever landed in, "Uh..." Eddie offered her a hand. "Are you alright miss?"

<Obviously she is not you moron. She has the look of a prey animal caught in the open.>

    Uni takes a breath, then winces as Diantha comes rushing and cursing up a storm. The CPU Candidate approaches not long after Eddie, quirking a brow at the dryad. "Huh... she looks like one of the Guardian Beasts back home..." she muses to herself, drawing a bit closer and offering a reassuring smile. "It's kind of a side effect of a lot of works having a large population... price of progress, some might say." she offers, though her tone might come off a bit more haughty than neccessary.

Slam. That's the deer creature running into the food truck. "Hold my spot," Ace says to the guy next to her and without waiting to see if he actually does, she heads towards the deer. "Cities can be annoying," she agrees. The man's already offered her a hand up, so Ace kind of shifts from one foot to the other, trying to work out if she's actually needed.

     Diantha hadn't quite fallen and didn't need any help getting up, and her racing heart was starting to slow down finally as she caught her breath. She looks from Ace to Uni, and finally Eddie. 

     "I'm fine, and by now I understand that some worlds are very populated. I guess my question was really rhetorical. I just don't like cities, they make me feel very uncomfortable." She doesn't go into the other ways they affect her, not wanting to sound weak in front of strangers, but that should be enough to explain how she feels anyway. 

     "Anyway, I'm just a little shaken because the vine dropped me in the road and I nearly got hit by one of those metal mounts with wheels."

As this gathering happened men were approaching the diffrent stalls. Men in suits with the look of not expecting to be disobeyed. Sharper eared people might hear them say thigns like 'code violations' and 'permits' but the tone used in each convrosation was less a governement flunkee and more a strong-arming enforcer, which seemed to have the desired effect because peoplestarted drifting away from their stalls, grabbing their repective cash boxes, bags, or wherever else the money they made had been stowed.

"Uh yea welcome to San Fransisco. I'm Eddie Brock," Eddie's voice was soft as he introduced himself not just to Diantha but also to Uni and Ace. "Unfortunately the goons in suits seem to not like people being here."

<The one by the woman handling out pamplets spoke of violence if these people did not leave.>

Which caused Eddie to frown, "Also for the record I'm sorry this is your first exposure to our world but apparently-"

"Mister Brock," A middle aged man in a suit and sunglasses stood very blatantly aiming a very large pistol at the group. "I would like to ask you and your new friends to... ah... accompany us." THere was a very firm tone to his voice, "Health and saftey. Never know what will come through the anomoly and I am, /SO/ sorry that you likely have a terminal case of plague." The man even smirked as he took aim.

<Bad Guy?>

Eddie sighed as he stepped forward, attempting to place himself between Gun Suit Guy and the rest of the group. "Hey now buddy, no need for this to get ugly. You do not want this to get any worse than it already is, trut me."

<He brought friends.> Venom helpfully informed Eddie as five more gun wielding suits stepped out from clearing the crowd to confront the group of multiversal strays one Edward Brock happened to be standing beside.

    Uni frowns a bit at Diantha, but then there's someone aiming a gun at her and the others. She doesn't hesitate, and in the time it takes to blink, she's lifting her own weapon, a bullpup rifle into a practiced CQB stance. "Six targets. Small arms, .45caliber or 9mm. Professed desire for capture." she muses to herself, as if going over a checklist.

    She then lifts her voice, and speaks. "Gentlemen. I am Uni, the CPU Candidate of Lastation. You have no jurisdiction to detain me and any attempt at force will be met in kind." she then flips the safety on her weapon off. "And my gun is bigger than yours."

Ace sighs. "Brilliant," she grumbles. She pulls a knife out from her backpack, but doesn't do anything with it yet. Too many civilians around for Nitro-Nine right now, and guns aren't her thing. Deep breath. "Also, I already got checked for plague, so how about we all move on?"

     "I'm Diantha, a dryad from Kalimdor on the planet of Azeroth." Diantha offers in introduction, but before she can say much more the suits show up. She blinks as she sees the gun, and then additional men as Eddie goes for the first one. Normally she would try to talk this out, but everyone else was just jumping into fighting, so clearly we were beyond trying to be diplomatic about this, she didn't really want to go with them anyway, nor think about what they might do to her if she did. Knowing that her magic would be weak here, she goes for brute force instead. 

     In a matter of a few seconds, her body is enveloped in a white mist as it quickly changes, growing larger and more muscled while her torso becomes a thick neck and her head grows larger two along with her ears. A large rack of antlers also quickly grow from her head like tree branches. 

     The next moment a very large white elk stag is barreling toward two of the remaining suits. One of them manages to shoot his gun, but his aim is shaky and it only grazes her flank, the other tries to run, but not fast enough as Diantha tramples both of them, and kicks their guns away as they are dropped. She rears up on her hind legs and kicks the air at them menacingly, but ultimately shows them mercy, allowing the now unarmed men to run away.

Uni's sudden and fairly immediate counting down of the immediate targets in the area and their weaponry causes the lead gun suit to frown, "Perhaps, but you are trespassing on land my employer owns." If there was any fear in the man he didn't show it. 

Instead one of the other flunkies spoke into their headset. Something about asset diversion. And then anythign else was drownd out if not outright stopepd by SUDDEN ANGRY ELK!

The grunts started to back and sharp ears might hear one of the goons signaling, 'Clear.' Nevermind two of them were on the ground, barrled over by the summoned creature. THeir companions certanly didn't seem to care. Brock would try grabbing Ace and Uni, black tar-like goo lashing out to grab both before leaping.

<TOO LOUD!> 

Regardless on if he could grab either Eddie's legs, encased in the same black material, wouldve prepelled him further than any non olympic athlete had right to jump. Any of the tendrils would let go of whtever they have, wrapping around Eddie protectivly as he rolled into a low crouch as the groundd by the food truck started to give way, revealing at first the tip of a large industrial looking gun, perhaps a welder, perhaps something else, but it looked more 'tool' than 'weapon'. However it was very large and as more ground would give way anyone looking at it would see this device was attached to a large bulky heavily armored bipedal robot.

Eddie's eyes would go wide even as his body moved, jerking and twisting to his feet as if pulled by marionette strings. Then falling over as the device attached to the machine's arm wirred to life. It wouldn't cause any lasting pain to anyone else other than perhaps being annoyingly loud, but Eddie Brock would be stuck twistng on the ground.

<MAKE IT STOP!>

"God... Jesus.." Eddie would continue arching, twitching on the ground. "Someone make it stop!"

Ace doesn't actually dodge the tentacles. The monster seems to be on her side, something which happens remarkably often. "Thanks!" she yells. Okay, THAT she can...and the guy goes down. Loud sound. Sonic weakness. Which means, well, THAT is a large enough target. The knife disappears and is replaced by a cyindrical object, which she throws at the robot. Specifically, at that "tool". Kaboom! Of course, who knows how well armored the robot is...

    Uni snorts. "Another corporate drone then. Just like the Seven Sages. You want to go, I'll make sure to give your boss your final words." she says, then on reflex, leaps away from the black goopey tendrils and comes into a crouch from her deflection roll.

     A wince marrs her face as that loud noise strikes up, and the CPU shifts focus from the suit, to the robot, flicking the selector switch again and unloading a controlled burst into it. Each round sparks with electricity, and on impact 'explodes' in a pulse of controled Lightning elemental damage. "Diantha, grab Eddie and get him clear of the area. Keep an eye out for more of those robots. She then stands and moves into a covered position sighting down on any of the suits that might still be hanging around. "They called for reinforcements we can't stay here for long."

     Diantha's eyes grow wide as she watches those tendrils come from Eddie, wondering what kind of demon was possessing him. But before she could think much on that, the robot appears. She had seen something akin to the robot on her own world, they were just usually piloted by a goblin in her case, and thus liable to explode randomly. The fact that this one was drilling through the ground with some sort of energy weapon made her very wary of it. She was starting to back away when she heard Uni calling for her to grab Eddie. 

     She looked from Uni to Eddie for a moment, then shook her head and ran toward the boy, hoping this strange 'demon' wouldn't kill her as she tried to get the boy away. She would carefully attempt to hook her antlers under Eddie and then toss him on her back with a quick thrust of her head, finally waiting for him to grab onto her somehow assuming he landed on her back at all, before taking off running as fast as she could go. She would only stop when they were a few blocks away.

A few things happen: First, the sonic mining tool goes boom and stops with the loud noises. Then before Eddie can even react the Second thing happens. Lightning strikes the giant robot mole man. While it's debatable on if anyone cares, the cockpit is insulated, so the pilot isn't dead. UNFORTUNATELY for said lilot, the giant robot is now a giant door stop and starts to tip over since none of the complicated widgets keeping it balanced are working. Its left hand reaches, scraping at the ground above and widens the hole as it falls, revealing after about a couple meters or so, there's a cavernous opening beneath the park.

Eddie felt himself being grabbed by Diantha, "owe... hey." His head shook, "Thanks. Freaking..." He winced as he got to his feet, "Sonic drilling, owe." He twisted in Diantha's grip, "We've gotta go." He'd take a deep breath, "C'mon..." He got to his feet when Diantha finally stopped. He wobbled as he found his balance. "Vee those flashbangs didn't hurt like this. WE were next to a freaking Rocket that exploded. What gives?"

<Can't say, maybe the fact it was a WEAPONIZED SONIC DEATH GUN AIMED AT US might have had something to do with it!>

Eddie would nod as Venom screamed in his head, "Right... yea I don't think they were Drake's goons. Think they just had dumb luck on.." His head shook as black veins snaked across hsibody, then receeded. Then he sat down, hard. "Great... Big giant stompy robots and I'm acting like i just got knocked off the tilt a world."

Ace narrows her eyes, then she turns towards the few remaining rubberneckers. "You guys may want to RUN!" The entire park looks like it might collapse, so it's rather important to get the people clear of that area. The scrambling robot isn't...exactly...helping.

    "It's gonna come down! Move!" calls Uni, firing at a couple of the Suits if they're hanging around, not aiming to kill or really hit them, just get their heads down and stop any return fire. "I think there's more of those robots down there too." she says to Ace, moving up to help cover the other girl. "Got any more bombs? If so, toss a couple down the hole, then we've gotta move." she says.

     After she stopped and Eddie didn't so much get off but fall/stumble off her back, Diantha looked at him with as much of a concerned expression as could be made with the face of an elk. She quickly began shifting back, the previous changes happening backwards this time so a few moments later she is back to being a dryad. Now able to speak, she looks at Eddie, but still fearful of the symbiote which she thought was a demon, she keeps her distance. 

     "Are you alright? Is the demon trying to take control of you? I'll try to stop it, but my magic might not be strong enough here..." Honestly, she wasn't sure she could really help remove a demon from a person even with her magic at full strength, but she was going to try her best. Mixing her curing and healing magic together, a bright green aura of power flows from her open left hand and the staff held in her right hand."

"Long story." Eddie's pace steadied. "Vee how're you doing, any better?"

<ANGRY!>

"Yea.. yea OK, least i'm not feeling like I got flung around a tilt-a-world." Eddie stopped as he realized Diantha was talking to him, "Big guy's actually woring with me, but the diggers those robots have do a real number on him, and since we're a package deal...." Eddie trailed off and closed his eyes.

HE grew in size, black veins covering his body before he bulked up, growing taller, more muscular. Black being with white veins staring back at Diantha, "We are not a demon. WE are Venom." It then paused before adding, perhaps the closest thing to gratitude this creature can muster. "We are also grteful for your help. If at all possible we would like you to come back, make sure those machiens don't hurt anyone. They are innocence in the wrong place by greedy men who do not care for the value of lives."

Venom then turned and bounded back towards the park. <Hey buddy what if they start with the loud annoying mining gear again?>

Venom would not answer until they got back to the grasses of the park proper. "We will just have to improvise."

Bystandards were slow to scatter, but only a handful were left as the pair of diggrs literally used their immobilized cohort to try climbing out of the hole they were in. The suits would continue backing away, forming a loose ring around Ace and Uni. Then thin black tendrils snaking out to grab two of them, yanking them out of formation as Venom hefted a boulder as big as he was tall. "Last Warning. You stop, or Rocks Fall. Everyone Dies."

The lead MiB goon looked at hte crowd before aiming his pistol at Ace. "They die, she dies."

"I have a couple more, yes." Then she rolls her eyes at the pistol. "Oh, we're at this point, are we?" She doesn't reach for the nitro-nine, at this point. It would only trigger a shot she is not one hundred percent sure she can dodge. There's something in her stance, though, that is very, very ready to move.

     Diantha blinks as Eddie says the strange being that she thought was a demon was with him, and then it talked to her, introducing itself as Venom. "I must have hit my head when I landed from the vine..." She says with a sigh and a shake of her head. Still, she nods as Eddie tells her to help, but figuring that some of those suits were still around, she doesn't follow right behind Eddie. Because of this, it seems the suit that is threatening to shoot Ace if Eddie drops the boulder doesn't notice her just yet. 

     So she hangs back a bit and her staff glows bright yellow before suddenly a bright yellow beam shoots toward's the hand the man was using to hold the gun. It was far weaker than what she'd be able to manage normally, but should still burn quite painfully and likely cause the man to drop the gun. At that point, Diantha quickly closes the distance between them and knocks the gun out of reach with the butt end of her staff. 

     "I don't think so. No more shooting today." She says, still feeling the sting of the slice on her flank from when she was grazed by the earlier goon's shot.

    Uni doesn't even hesitate when that pistol is brought up at Ace. She lines up, and fires at the lead MiB goon, center mass, with those electric burst shots. Then, she doesn't skip a beat, and switches to something far more horrifying. Explosive shots that light fires on impact. Another burst of fire, then a sweep to any others lurking around. "Plenty more. You want me to drop you all or are you going to cut your losses now?"

Venom thucked the boulder to one side as Tendrils snaked out to crush each suit's sonic drill before retracting. It bared its teeth at the suits. "You heard the lady. Go to your boss, tell them to leave this place and its people alone!"

It then turned to the electrocuted goon and grunted, "Cops will be here shortly. We will deal with any potential fallout If you stay they will question you, possibly detain you."

Then Venom shrivled andshrank as the black substance receeded leaving Eddie standing there. He looked from Ace, to Uni, then smiled at Diantha. "Uh yea... I'd like to say we're a friendly place with nice people but.." He poked the MiB suit with his foot, "Got plenty of bad eggsstinkin up the place."

The two digger suits were to obusy dragging the third away to be a problem. Which left the problem of the fairly non-trivial hole and even more worrysome hollowed out patch beneath the park. "Wonder what they wanted to scare folk off for? Never would've realized anything was happening if they hadn't tried strongarming.."

    Uni, once the situation seems to be resolved, lets her gun vanish away into a burst of pixels, then lifts her chin haughtily and flicks her hair out with a flick. "Hmmph. Such idiots. Can't even do a stealth mission right."

    She turns to Eddie, Ace and Diantha. "Well, that wasn't what I expected when I came here... I just hope those people don't fall on hard times because of this." She straightens, and offers out a hand. "I'm Uni, and I'm the younger sister of Noire, the Console Patron Unit of Lastation." she seems friendly enough at least.

     Diantha nods to Eddie about the crappy welcome wagon and offers Ace and Uni a smile. "Well, I'll say I'm still pretty confused as to what is going on and what those men in black wanted, but I'm glad I ran into you three. I'm not sure I want to think too hard about what might have happened if I had to deal with those guys on my own. In any case, nice to meet you Uni, wish it was under better circumstances."

"To study aliens, probably," Ace mused. "By which they included anyone not from here, as this does seem to be Earth and I am from Earth. Originally. Kind of."

Eddie Brock knelt down to look in the hole the machines were in and frowned. THen he smiled, "I'm Eddie Brock, the big guy's Venom." He reached towards the hole and a thin black tendril shot out of his hand. Then when it receeded Eddie's head shook. "They basically dug from a primary tunnle to surface here. Looks like it's about thee, maybe four meters tall, five wide. Reinforced to boot." 

He looked from Ace, to Uni, to Diantha. "Anyone want to go down therewith me?"

<Eddie. They're probably disinterested.>

Then he took a breath and straightened himself, "I'm not really doing anything right now. Appointment with immigration's in a few hours. I swear this place is pretty nice on most days."

He shrugged, "I mean your'e welcome to tag along, otherwise I'm gonna go get a shower, let Anne know what's up, but I'm up for playing tour guide."

    "Going in right now would be foolish, they would be on alert after this altercation. We could instead leave, prepare and return, sneaking past any cordone line if need be later." suggests Uni in a tone like she's done, or at least planned this kind of thing before.

     Diantha stares at Eddie wide eyed as if she thinks he's crazy to have suggested what he just said. "Go down underground, where the crazy robot drillers came from? I'm not sure how I feel about that... On one hand, if we can prevent this from happening somewhere else, it seems like a good idea, but the idea of going down there is making my insides churn for some reason. I guess the last time I went underground was when I slept in the barrow dens back in Moonglade, but that I was assured was safe, this seems like it could cave in at any moment..."

Ace nods. "I think I'll skip it this time." She regathers her backpack. "Besides, where did that food truck go?" She tosses Venom a grin and sets off in search of Korean street food.