World Tree MUSH

    Welcome to Tokyo. That is to say, get ready to say goodbye to Tokyo in a little bit. The Multi Moveable Systems corporation has recently put out a call, looking to hire offworld protection for a shinki shipment that is to go offworld to their many other stores on the more technologically advanced worlds of the Tree. Or at least the ones that can support people having anf buying shinki, anyway.
    After a check of stock, supplies, and a loading of crates onto one plane, the erstwhile shipment defenders are told to board a secondary decoy plane, that will be flying out first in hopes of luring out the shinki thieves that have been daringly hijacking shipments of late.
    Alty is here.
    Why is Alty here?
    The fact of the matter is, sometimes homeless shinki need to go places; and, completely unaware that the plane is about to be used as a decoy for an upcoming shipment, she has hidden herself among the crates and cases inside the cargo plane. Needless to say she looks very surprised when other people start boarding, and scurries into a crack in one of the myriad crates but...
    "Huh... It's empty?"
    Baffled as she may sound, this is about when people should be boarding the plane and getting ready for takeoff, as directed by one of the MMS employees and the little Arnval MK.II wearing a flight attendant uniform seated perched on his shoulder.
    "You'll be our distraction!" The Arnval says. "And with any luck you'll catch those terrible shinki thieves and hold them until the authorities can take things over from there!"

    As it so happens, there is at least one source of offworld protection that is readily hireable! And has probably made an effort to put herself in a database of such things. Hyouka Kiyama, adventurer for hire. Having an actual inkling of what the job is likely to entail for once, the cyborg has come with her lightning element equipped, though for the moment her hands are in normal mode. She's blissfully unaware of Alty's presence; instead she's talking with the Arnval as they board, carrying a light suitcase with just-in-case stuff. "Well, I'll certainly do my best. I even have a built-in taser tonight~. Do we have any info on what the thieves are like? What kind of gear they're carrying, what tactics they use...?"

    It's one of those nights where she actually sounds kind of animated; but then, she's always a bit excited before a job that promises to have some action.

Like always, Diana's hidden behind a combination of armour, goggles and clothes. She doesn't expect to encounter more than one vampire tonight, just a paycheck. "So this is definitely a catch them alive scenario, then?" She asks the Arnval calmly, taking a seat. "Or is it fine if I shoot to kill. If not, I can work with that, but it's inconvenient." She glances to her companion for this journey, "How about you?"

    Bravette and Uni have answered the call. They've worked with MMS before, this is just another job, really. "Got it, you can count on us." says the black-haired young goddess. She settles down in the hold, and summons a rifle to start field stripping it while the plane reaches altitude and starts its trip. Bravette, meanwhile, walks amongst the cases, and hears another voice come from one of the supposedly empty cargo crates. "Who goes? Show yourself!" she barks, summoning her twin SMGs as she peers into the crack and activates her helmet lamp.

Serrah looks back to Diana with a pained expression. The chief reason a vampire is hanging around a vampire slayer to begin with is because there's strength in numbers, if Vincent catches up to her, and Serrah's sire is clearly one of the worse kind of vampire. "I have a vested interest in not killing anyone who isn't already dead or undead unless it is absolutely necessary," she says, "due to the measurable effect it has on my dwindling essence of humanity." She shrugs. "But I have gotten pretty good at not killing people with my goddamn baseballs." She pats the sports bag at her hip. "It's just, y'know, a matter of speed and aim. And ... yeah."

    Upon hearing that there were people planned to steal a shipment of something, and that there are offworlders being hired for guarding it, Josuke's of course going to volunteer for that. The promise of getting paid doesn't hurt either! He'd even offer to help load up if he'd been around when it was going on, for no extra charge!

    And after hearing exactly what he could do -- he might have had to explain himself to a potential hirer, since he's a funny-looking guy, and a teen besides -- it seems that the medic has... a medic! There's a fully-armored Bright Feather following Josuke around, floating at his side. Josuke seems to be confused by his temporary helper for some reason, as once he's settled he kind of gives her an odd look as she settles on his shoulder for the flight.

    Now, when she mentions shooting to kill, Josuke looks at Diana with something between horror and incredulity. It's almost funny how both he and his medic companion pull about the same face. "Kill? Just for thieves? No way!" Josuke replies. "They have families too, and people that care about them." Yeah, Josuke has a thing about killing people anyway. It's the sound of idealism, that's all.

    Though then he pauses when Bravette seems to have found something, and looks back there. "What's up?" he asks, standing up again to go and see what the problem is.

    Dante is currently reading a magazine of some kind, seated and pretty much unaware of any sneaky Shinki in the cargo. As he reads through the Shinki catalog, he sounds fairly nonchalant about the idea of killing. He's a Devil Hunter after all. "Sometimes, you just gotta. But usually in my case, it's people who sold their humanity for power, or demons." He shrugs a shoulder, thumbing a page casually.

    He might not look it, but Dante's senses are sharp enough that he can keep an eye out without making a show of trying to stand guard. Naturally, he keeps glancing at Bravette every so often.

    "Mmmmmmmm..." The Arnval doesn't seem too keen on the idea of killing the thieves, one tiny finger scratching at her cheek as she forces a smile. "W-well. I mean. We'd prefer they be brought to proper justice. But we're not going to ask you to risk your lives unnecessarily, if they present too big a threat?" She says, before pursing her lips to think before answering Hyouka. Holding up one hand, a small series of hologram scenes pop up, displaying silhouette of bird-like figures on clouds, the silhouette of a man with two shadows, the shadowy shape of a girl in a frilly dress. "We only managed to get these security footage photos. It looks like they ride the birds, latch onto the planes, break in and fly off with the crates." She explains as everyone gets settled in. "Takeoff is in a moment, so please try to get comfortable. If everything goes well, you might not even have to fight any criminals or anything!" The Arnval chirrups as the plane's loading bay begins to close and the engines start.
    Meanwhile over by the crate, there's a yelp echoing from inside.
    "Bravette?! Seriously?! Do you have to point those things at me every time we meet up?!" Alty squeaks as the intimidating Zelnogrard has her at gunpoint. Again. She's looking like a wet kitten in the light of that helmet lamp, and heaves a huge sigh. "I was trying to fly out of the city..."
    Speaking of flying, the engines rumble, and soon enough the cargo plane is lifting off, and soars through the nearest vine in the sky.
    It is a boring flight for the span of a few hours.
    Before keen eyes might spot several large bird-like silhouettes among the clouds, surrounding the plane.

    "Alty? We keep meeting like this." remarks Bravette as she dismisses her weapons. "It seems fate has a role for us both to play." she says this entirely deadpan, before backing out of the way, then jumping up on top of the crate to watch Uni working.

    The young goddess remarks, looking up from her project to the Arnval's screens. "Huh... one of those looks vaguely familiar." she muses to herself, before shaking it off. As the plane ascends from takeoff, and levels into flight, she finishes up her project, then takes to peering out one of the windows along the hold.

    "Contact... looks like the intel was spot on." she says as she spots the shadows moving around outside. "Prepare for combat."

    "That's why I equipped lightning," Hyouka explains, both to Diana and Serrah. "I've never killed anyone, and I don't want to if I can help it. This way I can give them a little jolt." A pause. "...I don't think we've met, have we? I'm Hyouka, Kiyama Hyouka. It's nice to meet you both." Dante and Josuke, meanwhile, she does know - and they get much more cheery smiles. The info from Arnval is looked over with great interest, and the cyborg brings a hand up to stroke her chin thoughtfully. "So we could be dealing with offworlders just like us, then..."

    Before she can consider much else, she hears something or other back near a crate. Quickly, the cyborg goes jogging over to check on things, and quite probably discovers Alty and the Bravette...

    And hours later, Hyouka is very nearly dozing when the birds start surrounding the plane. "Muh-? Oh, is- are they here?" Instantly, she's more awake, and on her feet.

    %R    Dante gives a wave to the cyborg casually when he spots her. "Hey Hyouka." He greets with a grin, settling in for the ride ahead of them. Kicking back, he just reads and reads until he's out of stuff to read in his magazines. "Dammit. There goes any hope of making this go by faster." He mutters under his breath, before dozing off lazily. The half-demon sleeps like a rock until noises suddenly jolt him awake.

    Peering out at the windows, he frowns. "Crap. Shoulda brought a jetpack." He remarks.

"Yeah, that's fair. You don't want to become any more of a bloodthirsty monster than you already are." Diana answers Serrah calmly, she shrugs to Josuke. "They aren't so much thieves as pirates, I've checked, the traditional remedy in most worlds for that is execution. So I don't see the problem?" Calm, collected. "Dante." She greets her fellow hunter, then an introduction for Hyouko and Uni. "Call me D. I'm a hunter."

With incredible patience she spends almost the entire boring flight with her strange rifle aimed through an open window. the moment the silhouettes appear she offers a simple, "Target sighted." And then there's a hum as the electromagnets charge up, before her projectile is fired, aiming straight for the wings of one of those silhouette.

    Josuke pouts a little at Dante's words -- he's not really displeased at Dante, to note; pouting is just how he communicates. He's more displeased at the people who would make killing them necessary to end the threat they pose.

    ...People like Angelo...

    "Well... yeah," he notes, though reluctantly. He still wouldn't do it, but that's him. More to the point, though? "These guys are just thieves, though. It's not anything nearly that bad here. I dunno that killing would be the ONLY way to deal with these guys..."

    He does however stop to wave to Hyouka with his usual friendly grin when she greets him with a wave. He nods to the observation of offworlders. "Probably, yeah. Sounds a bit to weird for this sort of world."

    Well, as the flight's starting, Josuke has to head back to his seat. But, looking at the Bright Feather that's been temporarily assigned to him, he asks, "Can you keep an eye out back there for the other Shinki?" He means Bravette; he doesn't know her by name. Or model, actually, since he's not from this world and hasn't grown up with tiny helper robots!

    The Bright Feather nods. "Of course!" As Josuke goes to his seat, the Bright Feather goes to see what Bravette found. And when she sees it? Her eyes widen. "...Is... is that...?" Pause. "AAAAAH! The Angel of Death is on this plane!" And she goes zipping back to Josuke.

    "...Angel of... what?" Josuke is confused. Though he reassures the Bright Feather, "Hey, don't worry. Everything will be okay. Besides, it doesn't look like she means anybody harm." He'll try to keep her calm until the action starts. Though the Bright Feather will be peeking over the seat at Alty, with wide eyes.

    Josuke has brought a Game Boy, actually, and he's keeping himself occupied with that. He's... not very good at whatever he's playing. Though he pauses when he hears the reactions to shapes outside the window. "...What? Are they here?" he asks.

Serrah sort of inches a bit closer to Dante, shooting Josuke an apologetic look; she's inclined to take Dante's "sometimes you have to, if they've lost all humanity" and Josuke's "no way" over Diana's "can I? can I can I can I?" any day of the week. She regards Hyouka for a moment. "I ... could swear I've seen you before," she says. "I think it was ... at the raid where we rescued that, uh, that Altines, wow ..."

After the time-skip, Serrah seems to have disappeared! Of course, she's kept her allies abreast of her abilities, and a few of those here have directly seen the vampires of her world use it. That corner over there, in a relatively dark part of the hold? It's darker than it should be. In fact ... yes, it's as dark as if a vampire named Serrah Delany had transformed into shadow and was lurking over there. Exactly like that.

    "... Hi Hyouka." That. That is an Alty that looks pretty embarrassed to have been caught, as she was. And then.
    Then that poor Bright Feather practically screams in her face.
    "A-ah!" Up comes one hand, and Alty looks like she struggles for a moment to say something to the fleeing shinki, before she gives up and heaves a dejected sigh. Par for the course for her.
    But there will be time for all that later. It looks like the thieves are here, as the 'birds' break out of the clouds.
    They're pterodactyls. Huge ones. Huge enough to carry several people each as the plane shudders when one latches on, sharp talons ripping through the metal and opening the roof of the plane! There is an audible screech of pain as Diana's shot pierces the wings of one of the birds and sends it spiralling down out of the sky.
    And the figures riding the giant dinosaurs drop down into the plane.
    "Someone's gonna PAY for downing my 'dactyl!" Says a bearded man in leathers, with a smaller dinosaur curled around his shoulders.
    The light tap-tap of a small figure in heels lands next to him, as a MAGICAL GIRL and her two shinki drop in next. "Are you kidding me? You said this would be easy like the last time!" She snaps.
    "Relax." Comes a third voice, as a man in a finely tailored suit lands next. "My Stand, [SHOCK THE MONKEY] will give an electrifying performance like no other."
    The pop-FSHHH of a pokeball sounds off as a young man lands next, flanked by a Gastly and Mismagius. "Oh, are we doing this?"
    With a WHUD, a heavily armored cyborg, more machine than man drops in, landing on tank treads. "YOU SAID ALL I HAD TO DO WAS LIFT CRATES."
    The last figure to land inside the plane is a man in dark leather jacket, with a huge sword on his back, and he says absolutely nothing for a moment. They all look to him.
    "Kill them all." He says, tone ice cold.

    "You've got to be kidding me... this is discount Seven Sages!" cries Uni, summoning her weapon as Bravette levels her Gattling, thunking her anchors into the top of the crate she's perched on. "You're all under arrest for piracy, affray, aggrivated assault with intent to cause harm, and murder in the first degree. LAy down your weapons, disarm offensive modules and recall your combat pets immediately." states the little Shinki with a stoic conviction.

    Josuke doesn't recognize most of these abilities. But there's one he does recognize. The man in the suit. He doesn't know the guy personally. But that word. And he has a predictable response. "...What? A Stand user? Here? That's just <<great>>." It's said sarcastically, with 'great' in English, the rest in Japanese.

    The Bright Feather gets over her fear as the people enter -- the 'Angel of Death' isn't the threat now. These guys are. She zips over to Josuke's side. "Be careful!" she notes.

    Josuke nods. "Right!" He looks around a moment. Well, they're supposed to hold them, right? So the best way to do that would be to make sure they can't get away, right? As if the clear recognition of the term 'Stand' wasn't enough for the man in the suit to put two and two together, Josuke manifests Crazy Diamond. But it's not just for threat potential.

    No, he's actually going to send his Stand up to the ceiling of the plane. Hopefully it's not more than six and a half feet above their heads. If it is, he may have to have Crazy D toss him up there. Either way, his aim is to have Crazy D DORARARARARARA the roof of the plane. Not to destroy it -- since it's already pretty well destroyed thanks to those flying dinosaurs -- but to repair it, closing it behind the arriving thieves.

    One by one, the thieves drop in, and Hyouka takes a step or two back, adopting... well, it can't really be called a brawler's stance. More like 'what someone with only a little fight experience would make of a brawler's stance'. It's full of openings. But it slowly sags entirely, because one after another, the people dropping in are... are...

    Hyouka turns to look at her own group. Dante, Alty, Serrah, D, Josuke, Uni. Then she turns to look back at the group of thieves. Blink blink.

    "...are you 'evil us'?"

    Oh. Oh it's lethal force time. Hyouka's eyes dart to both the trainer and the magical girl with a faint grimace, but there's someone here she's much more clearly suited to fighting. Her eyes sweep over to him, and her lips tug into a grin. "Fisto, ON!" Arms shift, split apart, deploy more mass, lock together, and her signature gauntlets are there, aglow with lines of purple and crackling faintly. "Well, big guy. Want to find out who's stronger~?"

    She doesn't wait for an answer. She hurls herself at him, fist-first.

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> 'Oh my god it's a mirror match. FALCON PAWNCH.'

    Dante jumps to his feet as the bad guys suddenly board the plane on pterodactyls. Drawing Rebellion, he squares up and eyes the competition, pointing toward the swordsman. "Vergil? That you?" He asks half-jokingly, before he grips his sword and rushes. Whoever this guy is, he's going to really regret leading these people on a heist. Hopefully it isn't Vergil, otherwise they're gonna have -words-. With swords. Also guns.

Diana looks at the man in leathers. "Look, mate." She offers calmly, putting aside the rifle and taking off her gloves. Two relatively small hands, the left of which has carefully arranged scars to resemble some kind of fae peeking out from a flower. The right has similar scarring in the shape of a dove and a crow forming a circle together. Both of those swiftly vanish beneath fur as the small hands grow and deform, until they are vicious looking claws. She lowers the cloth that covers her face to reveal a mouth full of very sharp teeth. "I'm being asked not to kill you if I don't have to, so count your blessings." And then she rushes forwards, clearly knowing how to use those claws and fangs.

>> GAME >> Diana Bp62412 spends an Edge for: Forms of the Night

That deeper shadow stays where it is for a moment! Vampires are ambush predators, after all. But Serrah is still watching. She's specifically watching the magical girl, that is; her world doesn't have them, but it does have magical girl anime, and she's pretty sure that this is either going to be annoying or ... differently-annoying. Yeah she'd better try to deal with this as fast as possible.

All of a sudden, that strange shadow in the darker part of the hold vanishes, as if a nonexistent light had flipped on. At the same instant, the magical girl gains an extra shadow, pointed right behind her ...

... and then the extra shadow rises up behind her to form Serrah. "Nothin' personal, kid," she says, aiming a karate chop at the back of the girl's head to try to go for a clean instant KO!

>> SUMMARY[Serrah Delany] >> *teleports behind you with a katana* -- wait no

    There's a beat. Just a moment of silent pause as the thief squad is told to lay down their weapons, depower, and surrender.
    "Nah, don't feel like it."
    "Nope."
    "Sorry!"
    "Nuh uh."
    "I'll pass."
    "No."
    Then it all breaks loose.
    Hyouka lunges for the cyborg, and his faceplate lights up, a look of sadistic glee forming on metallic features as he reels and arm back and meets her fist to fist. There's a loud crash of steel on steel. And Hyouka wins, sending him lurching backwards with a grunt and a battered arm for his trouble, but that doesn't stop him from growling and trying again for a haymaker with his other arm!
    Crazy Diamond is summoned! And no sooner than Josuke calls forth his stand to repair the plane that the roof begins to close once again. But the Stand user is on the move as well, the silhouette of a metallic figure apparates behind him and generates a current... Which it unleashes at the youth in the form of a lightning bolt!
    "Go, girls, you know what to do!" The magical girl says, sending her shinki forth; a Zilvern and an Olvern. And for a moment it looks like Bravette is going to be forced to fight two on one, when ALTY of all people lunge-tackles the Zilvern out of the air.
    There's a squeak, and a dull-thump as the mahou shoujo is summarily karate chopped into submission, but that still leaves the dinosaur trainer and the pokemon kid, who let their animals loose at Serrah and Dante!
    "Ramiel." The man in the leather coat gives his name. "I don't know who Vergil is." Before he draws his blade. He's immediately put on the defensive by D's claws, but he's a skilled fighter, that blade singing in his hands as he parries and deflects on the back foot.

    Hyouka doesn't come out of it entirely unscathed - she's shaking that beefy fist out a little as she backs up a step. "My, my. Looks like your hardware's a little outdated. DARGN?" "Roger."

    She flexes colossal black fingers, then curls them into a fist again, the lines of purple light along her gauntlets starting to glow brighter - and crackle faintly. This time, when he comes swinging in, she banks on superior reaction times, responding to the move far sooner than a human would normally be able to; there's a sudden shift to her right, then she drops, and lunges forward with a wild punch of her own, driving it forward like a piston to slam right into his center of mass. A piston suffused with lightning-aspected mana.

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> YES! PAWNCH!

    Bravette spins up her Gattling, fully prepared to take two on one odds with a stoic scowl. Alty's intercept of the Zilvern does make the odds better, but Olivern is still a close-ranged fighter, and Bravette has few CQC options. Gattling opens up, spitting DUP slugs at the onrushing Olivern in an effort to fend off the initial charge, and force the other shinki to pick a different tack, give the Zelnogrard some time to swap weapons and unlock her anchors.

    Uni, for her part, hangs back, and provides cover fire for the others, sniping thrown weapons, and counterfiring projectiles with her rifle, using the crates for cover, while also trying to blast the thieves directly when one of her allies provides an opening.

    Josuke's in the process of fixing the roof and doesn't see the lightning bolt in time. "Look out!" the Bright Feather tries to warn. She fires her needle-gun at the man -- she may not actually be able to see the Stand, who knows? -- but that little needle is not going to stop that lightning bolt.

    "Augh!" Josuke yelps, knocked back by the bolt of lightning. Though the Stand is still out... and still in 'fix' mode. He's returned energy that he's been attacked with before, and so his Stand does exactly that, 'returning' the electricity at the Stand that fired it, in a return-feedback bolt. It might not actually HURT the Stand, seeing as how it's a electric Stand anyway, but it'll stop shocking Josuke, so that's a plus.

    "Well, shit." Dante answers, before Diana stops him from engaging the swordsman himself. Instead, he's focused more on the pokemon as they attack him. He's no stranger to weird opponents, but these ghosts have him on the defensive as he tries to parry and evade their attacks nimbly. The fight is going to be a huge risk for the plane in no time at all, as Dante draws one of his guns and opens fire on the Gastly, trying to drive it away.

Serrah sighs at the prone magical girl before her. "That shouldn't have worked," she says flatly. "She must be the post-Urobuchi-shitshow kind of magical girl." (Presumably, her world's counterpart of Gen Urobuchi hasn't been making exactly the same shows he did on a certain other Earth.) "Anyway, STOP the WORLD!"

Due to her ability, Serrah doesn't need to take the time to line up her shots.

Suddenly, Serrah's in a noticeably different position a few more feet to the left, and there's baseballs flying: two of them towards the two dinosaurs in front of her, one towards the dino-handler, and one towards the Pokemon trainer. ... She's never thought to ask Luke what happens if you KO a trainer while their pokemon are still out. Oh well, she might be about to find out!

D is fast, that blade finds it hard to make purchase, and between the armour and her endurance, it doesn't manage to cut as deeply as it could when it does. She ducks when Serrah's baseball is flying past her to her opponent, and tries to take advantage of the moment to grap the fellow with her claws and sink her fangs deep into his sword arm.

    It's. Not going well for the crooks. The tanky cyborg is just too slow to contend with Hyouka as she jukes so suddenly and slams him dead center. The blow is powerful enough to send him reeling back on his treads, and with a hiss of steam and a sigh, the cyborg powers down, unconcious.
    Being a close combat type, the Olvern... Doesn't reach Bravette, getting shot down by the Zelnogrard's gatling gun. The Zilvern doesn't seem to be faring too well against Alty either.
    "Um? Hello? Are you okay?" The Altines asks. Because the other Shinki is too busy staring at her scar, shivering, and looking like she's staring death in the face. Moving on.
    The man in the suit may have a lightning based stand, but HE personally doesn't seem to take getting shocked too well, as the feedback bolt is returned his way, punting him through an empty crate, while Dante fends off the ghostly pokemon and a baseball beans the trainer. The pokemon halt, peering at their master and break off from the fight to linger by the downed kid's side, while the dinosaurs are pelted out of the air and their handler crumples as well.
    Ramiel sighs as D's teeth find purchase in his sword arm and he sort of. Seems to give up, when the majority of his cronies are downed, his sword drops.
    "Fine."

    Dante...is kind of gives up as the pokemon trainer is taken out by one of Serrah's baseballs. The cronies defend their master, and Dante stows his weapons as the fight seems to die down. "Nice shot, kid." He says, giving a thumbs up to Serrah before he levels one of his pistols at the crooks.

    "You are either -very- stupid, or some seriously ballsy people, 'cause you just picked the wrong plane to hijack." He taunts with a cocky grin, motioning for everyone to get their hands in the air. Assuming they can, some of these people have been KO'd in all the excitement.

    Once the crooks give up, there's got to be some way to keep them captive. Josuke has an idea for that. Most of these crates are empty, right? Breaking them and then fixing them around hands and feet -- and in the cyborg's case, maybe his head -- should fix that! Should no one stop him, he'll get to work doing this.

    Then, once he's done, either way, he'll head over to talk to Alty. He's curious about the Bright Feather's reaction to her. Even if she doesn't want to talk about it, she looks like she could use a friend. Or maybe a hug.

    Bravette unlatches her anchors. "I, guess she wasn't used to fighting ranged Shinki." muses the Zelnogrard, as she watches the Olvern just drop out of the air with bullet holes riddled through her body and flight unit. Bravette drops off the crate to go check her CMS isn't damaged, then glances over at Alty. "Shut her down and remove her CMS for transport."

    Uni, meanwhile, stows her own weapon and sighs a little bit. "I guess they weren't expecting this much security... this was kind of messy and unplanned on their part." she mentions, stepping around to come up beside Dante.

D's fangs and claws don't fade quite yet, though she does spit out of the opening through which the thieves came. "I need something to drink and get that guy's taste out of my mouth." She declares, looking towards the others, then to Dante specifically. "They're just unlucky. This had clearly worked for them before."

Serrah dusts her hands off. "Well, that worked out better than I expected," she says to no one in particular. She shoots Dante a lopsided smile as she goes to pick up her baseballs. "Yeah, like Uni said. Offworld help, if you aren't expecting it and, and don't get the job done faster than the offworld help can get there, is kind of ..." She stops and stares at what Crazy Diamond is doing for a moment. "... uh ... broken."

    "So...who brought the cuffs?" Dante asks after a moment. He really should probably start bringing some kind of bonds with him, if this keeps happening to him.