World Tree MUSH

    Tokyo. They've. Come to Tokyo. And not just any Tokyo, either.
    Needless to say, the local residents are baffled; men, women, and children surely, but also the one foot tall helper robots this world is known for producing. Shinkis. And they are just as bewildered as their human masters, for good reason.
    The Machine Lifeforms are known for being about as smart as bricks, but another think they are known for is imitating human life. And this world is no exception, considering how many of the smaller Machines have decked themselves out in pieces of scrap, painted in various vibrant colors, to form armor and crude weapons. These shinki-imitating machines are harmlessly battling one another while the LARGER Machine Lifeforms have painted more human 'clothes' onto their plating and oversee the battles, buzzing to themselves and each other.
    "What the hell?!" A baffled Eukrante says as she floats by the spectacle.
    "Our fights aren't like this, they're cooler!" A huffy Arnval mutters as she watches from a roof.
    "This is a cat-astrophe!" A Maochao flails.
    "Uh." A scarred, homeless, Altines watches from the cardboard box that makes up her temporary home as she rubs at her scarred eye. "W... What?" Alty is just as confused as everyone else here.

    While her venture to the world of Pro Heroes was a bit more unusual, this particular Tokyo is one that Hyouka Kiyama has taken to visiting more regularly. Not too often, but there's someone here she likes to keep an eye on. So when she rounds a corner in one of her usual haunts only to find an offworld threat she's now quite familiar with...

    "What the hell, again?!" "Hyouka, are you secretly a Machine infiltrator?" "Please, DARGN, I'm not that dumb." "...Hyouka, are you secretly a Machine infiltrator?" "OI."

    But bickering with her onboard AI isn't getting Hyouka anywhere. She breaks into a fast jog, then says, "Look, nevermind that, DARGN. Dial Alty, tell her we're here. Give her directions to meet up with us."

    The call goes out. "Altines unit, this is DARGN. Hyouka is in the city. We have encountered a horde of idiotic but potentially dangerous machine lifeforms from offworld. Hyouka will meet up with you at the intersection of-" And so directions are given.

In an alleyway near Hyouka, a staticky portal opens up, and Emily floats out head out. She's in the form of a four-armed woman with white hair and glowing purple eyes, dressed in in a midnight-blue business dress. "Oh. Uh ..." She shakes her head, and in a swirl of what appears to be silvery glitter, she's suddenly wearing black Kaipo dress, a cowboy hat, and a cape with a Lunar Tear emblem on the back.

She glides out of the alley. "Welp! Here we go again!" she announces. "Time for another ... uh ..." She looks around. "You know what, I honestly can't think of something dumb to add to my outfit from this world. Hi, Hyouka!"

    After two incidents, Weiss is trying to keep tabs on these. She lost them, found them, lost them again. It's frustrating! She'd lost the trail again and was about to give up and head back to trying to find a way to Atlas, when... as luck or fate would have it, the Vine she took disgorged her right into where she was looking.

    "Are... are they imitating tournaments or something this time?" Weiss asks. She's actually dressed a little differently this time, with a wide hat and a coat covering her fancy dre- er, combat skirt.

    Some are curious, some want to just get rid of them, but two in particular want to just destroy them all. And... can't, at least not easily. Trundling up through the street after the line of machines, Scar is rumbling, and Nort knows why.

    "Yeah, we can't just start firing disintegraters into the crowd," Nort agrees. "Ugh. So many robots. My detector is going haywire."

    Scar, the giant wolverine, speaks, "Aren't these similar to that frightened one we saw on the ship?"

    Nort hmns, "They look like similar tech, yes."

    Needless to say, things are already pretty out of hand. There's a mass of spectators watching the fights, and there are tons of people around! At least the Machines seem more focused on thier own dealings than trying to harm anyone. But it's not long before people start getting a little too curious.
    A particularly daring Howling and Maochao pair flit over to a Machine that's decked out in cat ears and cat themed armor.
    "Nyaaa! What the hell! It's mocking meow!"
    "Yeah right, I bet it's bark is worse than it's bite." The pair bicker for a moment before it notices them.
    They are sent SCAMPERING away fast when it tries to attack! And then other shinki get too close-- and then the Machines try to attack them, starting some pretty nasty chaos.
    "They're imitating shinki fights." Alty replies to Weiss, after emerging from her alley to meet up with Hyouka and DARGN, rubbing at her eyes. "This is a mess, where did they even come from?" Pause. "Mr. Nort, Mr. Scar, please don't shoot disintegrators at other shinki. ... Though I really don't care what you do about the uh..." The Machines. She has no idea what to make of them as she rubs her eye and waves down Emily and Hyouka.
    "We should probably stop them or at least keep the other shinki from approa--" Too late, a swarm of armed shinki are already falling upon the Machines like an angry beehive. "--ch."

    "Ah!" At this point, Emily, Weiss, Nort and Scar are all welcome, familiar sights. Alty prompts a different reaction - silent but visible relief. "Oh good, you're not involved in-"

    Oh. Oh dear. Those Shinki are going to turn this into a big problem.

    "Oh crap, we've got to stop this quickly-" Practically panicking, the cyborg looks around the street, hoping for inspiration. Pretending to be a superhero won't work here. There's no way she can just carry them off. It's... wait.

    There's a glance at Emily, then at Weiss, then Alty, then Nort and Scar. "Look, I think I have a plan. I just- I need someone to keep those Shinki from aggrivating the machines, and someone to make sure none of the Machines wander off!"

    "Shinki fights?!" Weiss doesn't really know what those are, but she can put two and two together. She figures out that the little battling robot things are probably these Shinki... and Uni had one, so she is slowly getting the idea. It helps that she has recognized literally everyone EXCEPT Alty now, and has a general idea of what to do. "Ugh."

    Hyouka says she has a plan huh? "Fiiiine. I'll see what I can do about the shinki." It takes her a little thought though! Most of her Summons are way too large to really work well with them, even the wasps, so that leaves...

    Sigh. Whipping Myrtenaster out, she begins summoning white Barrier glyphs, trying to keep the shinki from swooping in close to the Machine Lifeforms. Shimmering white flares up repeatedly. "I sure don't have any ideas, this time."

Emily regards this impending nonsense for a moment. "Huh." Then she grins at Hyouka. "Well, as long as we end up sending them back to YoRHa's world, I'm good. Let's see ... uhh ..."

She watches Weiss get to work for a moment, then slips through a staticky portal to an area beyond Weiss's range. She conjures up holograms of 'DO NOT ENTER' signs, and Shinki error icons. "All right, guys, enough of that!" she calls out, in a voice that sounds boosted like a megaphone. "Don't antagonize the highly dangerous killer robots who happen to be doing nothing particularly dangerous at the moment!"

    Alty. That explains that. At least the robot is polite. It's pretty clear that Scar still thinks about just eating her sometimes, but right now both mount and rider have other things on their mind. Nort nods to Alty, "Not to worry, I don't want to cause harm to innocent humans." No mention of shinki but for now... for now the little robots are safe from his hatred.

    Hyouka has a plan. "Fine, that's something," says the grumpy zoologist. He's still wearing his helmet and armor. He looks at Emily and Weiss getting to work, and then slides off Scar. "We'll corral the machines. The two of us should be able to handle that. We're good at coordinating." Scar bounds off toward one side while Nort heads for the other, trying to 'gently' nudge any wandering Machines back to the main group.

    Scar growls even louder.

    Alty is pretty polite! But even still, Scar is pretty intimidating. Regardless of how the wolverine would make Alty sweat bullets if she could sweat at all, there is an issue at hand to take care of. First off, keeping the angry swarm of shinki at bay is one thing, and several plink off of Weiss' barriers with squeaks and grunts of irritation, confusion, and dismay as they are kept at bay from the machines they want to collectively pummel.
    Then Emily furthers this, earning many a confused look as they land, and dismiss their armor.
    "I didn't wanna scuff my armor anyway." A Strarf mutters.
    "I- I have better things to do today than this." A huffy Eukrante decides after being denied.
    "Ah! Master is--" "--Calling us!" A matched ACH and YDA squeak.
    This leaves Nort and Scar free to start nudging machines around. The smaller ones are easily herded, blinking confusedly as their fights are halted, the larger ones seem to get a bit disgruntled and linger close to specific smaller Machines... Like how a human master would protect their cherished shinki.
    "If you have a plan, now is really the time to do it." Alty mutters to Hyouka.

    While the shinki are being shuffled off, Hyouka gives Alty a nod, and starts up into a jog, looking this way and that. "DARGN, which way's the harbor?" "To your right, down that street." "Right. Okay. So I just need... Um... agh, I can't believe I'm even thinking about... I need somewhere tall. What can I use-" "What about that garbage can?" "...I-" "There is certainly no joke. None whatsoever. I am not implying anything." "..."

    Dang it. It will work. Hyouka hates that it will work, but it will work. So she takes a hop up onto the garbage can, balancing surprisingly well (despite the ominous creaking from the sudden heavy weight), and turns to face the machine crowd from her new, high perch.

    "FUHAHAHAHAHAAAA! YOU'VE GOT SOME GUTS, LITTLE NEWCOMERS."

    The instant she has the machines' attention, Hyouka holds up her arms, and begins deploying the FISTEAU. Panels on her arms slide aside, shift, larger sections deploy from pocketspace within, fold into place - and suddenly she's got massive fists on either arm, glowing aqua blue. "BUT YOU FORGOT TO PAY TRIBUTE TO BIG SIS AQUAFIST. I'M THE NEW GIGA-SHINKI MODEL, AND I RUN THIS CITY."

    She is not blushing. You're imagining it. Hyouka is totally not beet red right up to her fake elven eartips.

    "BEFORE ANY SHINKI IS ALLOWED TO FIGHT IN THIS TOWN, THEY GOTTA FIGHT ME FIRST!" the cyborg declares, pointing one oversized thumb at herself and (badly) faking a cocky grin. "SO COME AND GET IT, IF YOU CAN CATCH ME!"

    Weiss is trying to keep the peace. Hyouka has a plan! That's a good thing, but even if it's just getting them down to the harbor, an idea that... that...

    "THIS is your big plan?" Weiss says, baffled by the very idea of it. "To challenge them to a fight as a giga shinki? How does that even work? Can they even understand you?"

    She blurts that out without thinking, then blushes herself because berating Hyouka that way... maybe not the best idea during a bluff!

Emily just howls with laughter at Hyouka's speech. She nearly doubles over, laughing for several moments.

Once that's done, though, she straightens up. "That's right, you --" She emits a loud censor-beep. "--ers! This is an all-new world of Machinings, and you'd better play by the rules," she says, "all the way back to the Blossom you came from." She starts gesturing and pointing with all four arms, directing the Machines Hyouka-ward.

She notices Weiss's sudden change of expression after that outburst. A staticky portal opens up next to Weiss's head, and Emily's voice whispers, "Nah, don't worry about it, this'll totally work. The Machine Lifeforms are really dumb." Beat. "Or. Well. Mostly." Weiss was there for Simone, after all. "But you get the idea."

    Nort and Scar both look at Hyouka in bafflement, but... Nort shrugs. These things are pretty dumb(as Emily JUST said) so it's worth a shot. If he were a little less of a stick in the mud, Nort and Scar had a few other ways they could contribute... but right now Scar just shuffles to the side.

    Nort gives Hyouka a thumbs up signal to let her know he's still going to do his job. That is, apply a little pressure to the back part to try to 'herd' the group, with Scar's bulk aand his height. That's when he gets an idea.

    "Maybe this will help me pick one."

    Heads. Turn.
    Machine Lifeforms, both big and small all swivel to stare at Hyouka as she makes her proclamation. The myriad Machines look to Hyouka. Look to each other. Then back to Hyouka.
    "U-um!" Even Alty looks flabbergasted by this sudden plan. "That might not be such a good-"
    There's a buzzing from the Machines as they majority of them start to shuffle towards Hyouka on her trash can.
    But far worse are the mutterings of the onlooking shinki.
    "Giga model?"
    "No way, shinki don't get made that big, do they?"
    "Could be some kind of offworld manufacturer?"
    "Aquafist? Really?"
    "Hey she can't just declare herself boss here!"
    "GET HER!"
    That swarm of angry shinki? ... Are now bearing down on the 'Giga model'.
    Alty buries her face in her hands.
    The stragglers are still easy to herd, it just takes some nudging and pushing, but Hyouka's really stirred up the hornet's nest.

    As soon as all the Mashinki turn around and start to amble towards her, Hyouka turns and hops off the trash can, and starts to work her way down the street. She doesn't get very many paces before she turns around, though, planning to make sure they're still following her. "Haha, that's right! Come get me if you-"

    Oh.

    "...oh crap."

    That worked a little too well. And now a swarm of very real shinki are taking her seriously.

    The cyborg stumbles back two steps, flailing, and just barely avoids the first lunge at her. From there, it becomes a precarious, wobbling, frantic dance of 'trying to avoid the actual shinki' and 'trying to lead the machines off' at the same time. "Whoa- hey, no- stop- I'm not- wah- cut it out- yargh, no, I'm trying to-"

    DARGN is curiously silent.

Emily pauses, and regards the swarm of shinki chasing after Hyouka. "Oh," she says, "right."

She sighs theatrically, and floats over to position herself between the machines and the Hyouka-and-pursuing-shinki unit. "All righty folks, right this way!" she says, materializing a Machine Lifeform torso onto herself with a painted-on generic shinki-looking design that doesn't especially resemble any specific type. "This way, Machinings! C'mon, c'mon!" She projects holographic signs and arrows, leading them in the direction of the docks.

    Dealing with the shinki is an option, but hurting them isn't what Weiss thinks is wanted. They're the natives and... what is that expression on her face? It's weird. It's like a girl gushing about an 'adorable' puppy while staring at the swarm of shinki.

    "W-wait that isn't what was supposed to happen!" Weiss snaps out of it and, with the shinki having a new target, has to help out Hyouka. Fortunately she's seen Hyouka before so she hopes that her help will be understood. A different color of glyph appears under Hyouka, giving her a boost in speed that will hopefully help her avoid and dodge the incoming shinki to help her lead the rest to the harbor.

    The others are trying the gentle approach. Nort and Scar, however, are used to a much more disciplined, 'tough love' sort of dealing. It makes hard for them at first, trying to herd machines and listening to all the problems. Nort shakes his head, seeing the machines go after Hyouka, and writes off this world as lost to the the machines forever.

    He still has to help though. It's Scar who actually acts, though. He roars, "IS THAT HOW YOU FIGHT?!" Stomping forward(and incidentally putting pressure on the Machine Lifeforms), the huge wolverine sweeps his eyes over the shinki swarming Hyouka. "ARE YOU GONNA JUST BUM RUSH HER AND MUG HER LIKE A BUNCH OF THUGS? LOOKS LIKE WE WERE RIGHT ABOUT YOU LITTLE ROBOTS, YOU'RE ALL PSYCHOPATHS! YOU CALL YOURSELVES FIGHTERS? WHERE'S YOUR HONOR AND RULES?"

    It's... Well it's certainly still chaos.
    But at least the Machines are moving. Between being motivated to fight the 'giga shinki', and Emily's signs, they're moving alright. It's not long, in fact, before the docks are visible, along with the ratty old barge the Machine Lifeforms apparently came in on. And thankfully, Hyouka can get there faster, with the help of Weiss' glyphs.
    It's Scar's tremendous roar that makes gives the swarm of shinki pause.
    "Wh-"
    "But she said--"
    "I mean... We kind of have battle rules?"
    Cowed, disgraced, and a little ashamed, the swarm of actual Shinki peter off, land and hem and haw after that.
    While the Machine Lifeforms keep following.

Emily slightly bristles at Nort's shout, but she doesn't really react visibly, and continues focusing on the Machines as she leads them to the boat, still beckoning and signing to them. "C'mon, move move move move!"

She pauses, and waves her lower-left hand to Weiss, Hyouka, Alty, Nort, and Scar. "I'm gonna go with 'em, guys!" she says. "Gonna make sure they get back where they belong for really reals this time!"

... Which totally isn't so she can see the look on 2B and 9S's faces when they get there, nuh-uh.

    Weiss gives her some movement speed! And it works, really really well. In fact, a little too well. Hyouka is mid-dodge when it hits, and what was supposed to be a backwards step and a whirl of the arms turns into a turboflail, a backward leap and an unceremonious flop. "WHOA-!" Thud. "DARGN, what was that? ...DARGN?" Abruptly, the AI's voice cuts back in. "Ah, my apologies, I temporarily muted- snrk. Muted my voice synthesppf. Synthesizer. Weiss increased your movement speed. I will compensate."

    Once she gets back up, Hyouka is red-faced once again, but she at least seems able to move with the superspeed now! It keeps her out of danger until Scar manages to shame the shinki into leaving her alone. After brushing herself off briefly, the cyborg gives the wolverine the biggest of thumbs-up.

    Then she returns to leading the machine lifeforms towards the harbor, which is probably kind of a slow process - but hey, she's a cyborg, she's got unlimited stamina. Her gameplan is to walk right up to the edge of the water by the machines' boat, declare, "Ha ha ha, you'll never catch me, I'm swimming out to sea!" and then jump right into the ocean. She doesn't have to come back up for air, after all. She can just... hide there. Until they sail off. Right?

    Wince. That shout from Scar really was something, and Weiss feels a little sorry for the shinki. "Was that really necessary?" She complains to Scar before hurrying after, using her glyphs to 'skate' after and catch up to the group.

    Speaking of glyphs, they're pretty useful tonight! As she sees Hyouka's plan, she'll give a little extra help. This time, by using her glyphs as little stepping stones, summoning them up to help bridge any gaps so the machines can go onto the boat rather than flail into the water.

    Looks like his job is done. Without any shots fired! Nort and Scar just follow, and Nort simply gives Weiss a shrug at her chastizing question. Nonchalantly, Nort replies, "What? They're just robots, it's not like they have real feelings. They're just programmed to look like it."

    ... ouch.

Emily stops, and gives Nort an incredulous stare.

... Yeah, she's not even gonna touch that one. She turns back to guiding the Machines.

    The plan is... A resounding success. The shinki are shamed into calling off their attack, and no sooner does Hyouka leap off the pier, the Machine Lifeforms take one look at their dingy old barge...
    And they pile on.
    All it takes is one good push from anyone to shove it from the moorings, and the Machine Lifeforms are back out to sea, once again to be someone else's problem.
    "H-hey..." Alty cringes at Nort though, for obvious reasons.

    Hyouka's down there for... rather a while, actually. When she finally comes up, it's one of those big, beefy, blue-lined gauntlets that grasps the edge of the harbor, and then hauls her up out of the ocean. Soaking wet, she opts to just plop herself on the water's edge there, struggling to squeeze water out of her clothes as best she can.

    The process goes a lot faster once she remembers to deactivate the FISTEAU and use her normal hands.

    She also seems to have missed what Nort said entirely! Awkward.