World Tree MUSH

It was a sunny Easter afternoon in Millbrae Meadows Park. The Millbrae Easter Egg Hunt was well underway with children of all ages searching for plastic easter eggs. There was also a booth set-up for the kids to take a picture with the Easter Bunny, in this case Benedicta. A couple of the younger children had been afraid of her, but it was going smoothly for the most part.

At least until Benedicta's horn started glowing yellow detecting magic in the area and people glared at her. "It was an old Halloween costume, the horn glows in the dark so people can see it at night...I must have set it off, excuse me a moment..." She looked embarrassed as she made her way to the restrooms before taking a detour. It didn't take her long to find the magical source as she saw a familiar figure in the parking lot.

It was a perfect double of her human form. The copy was recording with a cell phone in one hand and holding half a carton of eggs in the other. The other half had already been scrambled across the vehicles in the parking lot. Benedicta was left speechless before her fake spoke up.

"You showed up sooner than I expected, cover's blown I guess. Guess I'll upload it early." The double of Benedicta hit a few buttons on her phone as she was tackled onto the grass.

"Sybil, what the hell is wrong with you? How can you do something so awful, especially on Easter!" Benedicta leapt at her counterpart and pummeled her rival.

"A little help, my liege?" Sybil spoke in her own voice as she struggled to defend herself.

"What are you talking about you're... augh!" Benedicta was cut off as she felt a massive blast of magic hit her from behind. It was difficult to see being nearly colorless. She was thrown off Sybil and onto the grass herself. Sybil herself suddenly faded for a moment before she was back in her transformed state as Hornet Queen.

It took Benedicta a moment before she came to her senses and opened her eyes. She didn't have much feeling in her body and her fur had been partly burnt. Sybil was standing over her along with a young girl clad in knight armor wielding a sword and shield.

"I wasn't expecting that to happen. It was just suppose to remove her transformation. Maybe I should have held back..." The girl looked surprised at the harm her spell had caused Benedicta.

"Well, she's not exactly transformed, I kind of split her soul and part of her is in me. Why am I explaining this now? We need to get her out of her out of here before anyone sees us!" Sybil paused before remembering they needed to leave.

     It's Easter! Eggs and candy and stuff! And besides, Damian wants to check up on Benedicta to see how she's doing since their last meeting. It was... well, way too long ago! So with that in mind, he's just lazily floating around, checking behind and under everything he can to find those eggs, while simultaneously keeping an eye out for the horned bunny girl... aha!

Spotting Benedicta, the demon prince flies after her to say hi until he notices she's making that detour towards the parking lot. And there... two of them! This is getting out of hand! Hiding behind one of the cars, he peeks out over the hood to watch what happens, taking note of the eggs that have been splattered over the other vehicles. "Ooh, her twin sister is good. Or doppelganger. Alternate universe double? This warrants further investigation..."

But then, things turn ugly! Damian lets out a gasp of surprise as his bunny friend... acquaintance... friendquaintance is blasted! Flying up over the car, he barks at the ne'erdowells (wait that's totally him too, but this is different!), "Hey! Pranks are fun, but you're going too far! Lay off!"

Emily has taken the form of a Feol Viera, a form she briefly used in her first few weeks in the World Tree: porcelain-skinned and golden-haired, slightly shorter ears than i.e. Fran's, and ... five and a half feet tall and wearing white robes which completely cover her from the neck down. And her usual glowing purple eyes, of course.

Uncharacteristically, she's looking ... worried. She's wandering around the edges of the park, pensively munching on store-bought Easter candy as she continues to ponder what Diana told her at the party in the Sanctum. It's ... a lot of food for thought, and Emily isn't particularly good at self-reflection.

She catches sight of Benedicta running off, and pauses, watching her go. Hmm, smells like trouble. She starts sauntering after her, not fast enough to catch up with her at first, still idly nomming jelly beans and trying to make herself look disinterested and even losing sight of her for a moment ...

And then she detects magic flying, and she starts gliding over the ground. "Releasing capacitor seal 3," she mutters. Three distinct auras appear, one gold, one silver, and one pearlescent; the silver one shatters, and the other two fade. Silently, she zips over to the parking lot, and stops behind a car, watching the unfolding events through the windows.

... Of course, getting there was flashy, and might attract attention. But then, Sybil's attention is probably caught by Damian now.

    The Argent family is out enjoying the Easter Festivities, with the understanding that they were here to support Aurelia's friend Benedicta. Since it wasn't often that Aurelia had friends doing this kind of thing. After accidentally sending a few children running off screaming with an awkward comment from one of the simulacra pretending to be Aurelia's parents, Aurelia is left to her own devices. The simulacra decided they didn't want to ruin other peoples' holiday and went home.
    That's when Aurelia spots Sybil and her erstwhile ally trying to kidnap Benedicta. She doesn't transform, since she's in public, but she does scoop up her cat and runs towards the source of the trouble!

Easter, to be thankful for something? She does think more about the religious connotations of the day than the Easter Bunny. That's just a thing for the kids to have fun with. She wasn't about to mess with that right? Anyway, Benne was hard at work and Anne is just chilling out, her family was elsewhere, she was going to meet up with them later for a meal. She was on her way but then she sensed a whole lot of magic at the part. She sighed and would choose to duck in to investigate while looking like she'd crawled out of a late 80s movie. At least she wasn't wearing crazy Neon. Look she lived through the 90s she knows just how bad the neo fad is even with all her other fashion hangup. Now she's trying to seek out the source of the magical signature

"More rabbits? One was bad enough, the two of us aren't going to be enough. Shel, cover me!" Sybil notices Emily approach and blinks once again. Where there was one of the Hornet Queen there were now several copies of her. Two of them run over to Benedicta picking the defenseless rabbit girl and making their way for one of the cars. 

Meanwhile, most of the others circle around Emily swing their hive-shaped staves at her. Sybil isn't exactly the best fighter but all she to do is keep them distracted long enough to stop them from reaching Benedicta.

"Foul demon, back to the depths of Hell with you...Shel?" The knight places her oversided shield in front of her and creates a magical ward to try and keep Damian from getting any closer. Her threat is disturbed by what Sybil's decided to call her.

"Well, Shield-Maiden is a mouthful and you never told me your real name." Sybil's voice echoes from copy to copy as she tries to keep the group from figuring out which one is really her.

The pair ignore Aurelia and Anne for now, Sybil was quite drunk the last time she saw them and Shield-Maiden hasn't met them before.

Emily's amused and faintly smug smile returns as she starts dodging and weaving, sometimes blocking the attacks with her hands under the robes. A sort of ... staticky effect appears at her feet. "Hmm. Which one is the real one, I wonder?" she says, with sarcastic cheerfulness. She rises up off the ground, looking towards the car that seems to be the kidnapper-Sybils' destination, gauging the distance from her current position. "Which ones do I attack first?" The static spreads until it's just slightly larger than her robes. "Hmm ... I know!" In one smooth motion, she tosses aside her robe, revealing that she's wearing a white jumpsuit underneath. And also, she has four arms, each one wearing silvery boxing gloves. "I'll go after the ones that're fleeing!" She drops into the static, now revealed to be a portal of some sort, and vanishes.

She comes out the other end inside the car the Sybils carrying Benedicta were running towards. She throws the door open, shooting the approaching Sybils a grin which is considerably more smug. "Hurry!" she says, her voice full of sarcastic over-acting. "Put her down, and I'll take things from here!"

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> Teleporting shenanigans.

     Damian is about to chase off after the Sybil copies who are carrying Benedicta away, but Shel's words sting a bit of a sore spot for him. "Oh, oh we're just gonna start doing that bit, huh?" he snarls at her, a third eye opening in his forehead with a burning red cross-shaped pupil. His body expands in size, limbs growing several times their normal length while sharp talons emerge from the tips of his fingers and his maw opens up far wider than it has any right to, filled with way too many teeth.

For a moment he hesitates, trying to fight back his anger, but it's just... knights, man. With their haughty attitudes and holier-than-thou doctrines, he just can't /not/ lunge at the Shield-Maiden and try to tear through her magical ward with tooth and nail, black tentacles emerging from his back to try to lash around it at her.

Anne Read magic sense is zeroing in the source of magic she looks to See Bene then she looks to see Sybil. Her eyes narrow, she starts walking towards them for a moment. She sees the copies there's a muttered phrase and there's a burst of water around Anne, she transforms with all the flashiness that one would expect from a Maho and she's now got a sword in hand. She looks at the copies and just rushes them intending to get them off Benne. Nothing's said just yet she's not in a very good mood at all from the look on her face.

    "HEY YOU!" Aurelia calls, trying to catch up. Zero's lept down and keeps pace with his human. "What the heck do you think you're doing?!" She'll run full-tilt at one of the Sybils to tackle one.

"I've fought many of your kind." Despite her soft voice and youthful appearance, Shield-Maiden gives the impression she has a fair amount of experience. Shel's swings her sword at Damian trying to use to bash away at him. She's not much of an offensive fighter but her defense is nearly unstoppable. He manages to get the tentacles around her but she just creates a new barrier to push them off.

 The Sybils are punched by Emily and vanish dropping Benedicta, they weren't the real one. A new Sybil appears with the larger group to replace the ones defeated by Emily but is quickly cut down by Anne.

"Okay, new plan Shel. Use your magic to make me stronger!" The knight's attention turns from Damian leaving her open, but armored honeycomb shaped barriers appear on the remaining copies of Sybil. Two of them rush towards Emily and punch at her trying to keep her from reaching Benedicta. Two more assist Shield-Maiden and use their new makeshift shields to protect her. Another two try to use their staves to club Anne, and the remaining one is being rushed by Aurelia. She takes a defense stance to try and avoid from being tackled.

Okay, still got clones rushing her. Emily maintains her smile which combines all the best qualities of smug, amused, and cheerful.

In a swirl of what appears to be silvery glitter, Emily's boxing gloves transform into a pair of silver quarterstaffs, one held by her upper pair of arms and the other held by the lower pair, which she uses to fight back against the Sybils. It's slightly awkward keeping the two staffs from colliding with each other, but she's just barely managing to hold her ground. While this is going on, she conjures up a single bolt of golden light, which launches towards the Sybil to her left. Just to see what those shields are like.

     "Yeah, and I've dealt with a lot of YOUR kind too!" Damian retorts as he keeps hacking away at her defenses while some of those tentacles move to wrap around her sword and keep it from swinging. "You're hypocritical, self-righteous, and you smell terrible!"

Unfortunately for him, now Sybil's clones are joining in on the fight, and the demon prince's red eyes glow hotter with rage as he stops for a moment to consider. Well... property's already been damaged, right? He'll just give this doppelganger her eggs back, and the cars with them! Lifting the egg-splattered cares one after the other with his arms and tentacles alike, Damian starts trying to slam them onto the Sybil clones- and Shel by extension- without much heed for the fact he's causing much more damage than they have so far.

>> SUMMARY[Damian] >> Damian SMASH

Anne Read is quick to pounce the Sybils she doesn't speeching at the moment thankfully is able to reduce the amount of clones running around. Now they turn about to try and club Anne she'll attempt to parry andotherwise fight back, heck she'll throw in a few kicks here and there.

    Aurelia's eyes widen as cars go flying around. She subtly uses her magic to ensure the cars do not hit anyone trying to fight the Sybils or the Shield-Maiden, keeping her own head low just in case she missed something.
    The silver furred cat, Aurelia's rarely seen familiar, sniffs the air with his nose, then goes for the Sybil that smells different from the others. A leap through the air reveals the cat's true form as a lion with metal plates embedded in him. The fine metal tubes that make up the mane add a hissing undercurrent to a loud snarl.

While Sybil's makeshift armor is strong, it's not enough to shield from repeated car crushings and two more clones are dispatched. While Damian is fighting though, Shield-Maiden manages to close in on Benedicta she has her hands full and her sword promptly vanishes. She manages to grab Benedicta but given their size difference she struggles to hold both her and her shield.

 She loses her focus for a moment, and the armor on the left Sybil vanishes leaving her exposed to Emily's bolt. She blinks a bit before fading out of existence. The real Sybil is the one that Aurelia was already fighting so the cat doesn't have go far. "Bad kitty!" She tries to echo her voice but it's pretty clear which one is the real one at this point. She sacrifices one of the copies fighting Anne to deal with Zero. Seeing that Shield-Maiden has Benedicta, Sybil and her two free copies dash towards the pair.

Emily doesn't even register Damian's property damage. Where she comes from, there's very little property remaining to damage, and what's left is already damaged. The sudden lion is the thing that causes a brief distraction, and she snickers. "Good kitty!" she counters. "Okay, everybody, this way!"

... She doesn't have any particular reason to think that her allies will necessarily obey her. She's just trying it out.

She rises skyward and swoops down towards Shield-Maiden and Benedicta. There's a swirl of silvery glitter as her staffs change into metal gloves, and then her fists detach, one rocketing towards each of the Sybils plus Shield-Maiden and leaving a trail of fire!

... a trail of holographic fire!

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> "It's time for an all-out attack!"

     The sound of crunching metal and shattering glass fills the air as Damian smashes the everloving daylights out of those poor clones, and Damian can't help but let out a maniacal laugh at the carnage he's causing. As he spots Shield-Maiden running off to grab Benedicta though, he's so tunnel-visioned that he grabs another car and spins in mid-air to build up momentum before hurling it like an oversized throwing hammer at the knight.

And her hostage, by extension. The maddening rage Damian feels suddenly dissipates as he realizes what he's done, and he takes off after his own projectile to try to stop it before it crushes the very friend he was trying to save in the first place. "Oh, /shit/!"

>> SUMMARY[Damian] >> Throwing another car at Shield-Maiden... and Benedicta. Trying to stop it, but whoops.

    Aurelia is kept on the defensive as she does her best to bend the car out of shape to protect Benedicta from getting hit. Magic takes a lot of concentration for the young magical girl. She has little time to notice Zero getting circled by angry Sybil drones.
    Zero is a half-ton of magical beast and durable to boot. He takes swipes with paws the size of a human head at the false Sybils in retaliation for their attacks, getting his own scratches and wounds in the process. He'll definitely take the inevitable pause caused by Emily's wide assault to threaten Sybil with his massive claws. "Give up or I'll break you like a twig." The deep raspy voice intones.

Shield-Maiden sees the car being launched at her and lifts her shield to block it losing her grip on Benedicta. This also allows her to block Emily's rocket fist but the others aren't so lucky as she loses focus. The two clones vanish as the fists hit and Sybil gets punched for her trouble as well. It's not enough to hurt her but her Hornet Queen outfit disappears leaving in her civilian form. To make things even worse, that was her car that Damian hurled at Shel. There's nothing left to do but run at this point.

"We've failed my queen, we must retreat. Don't even think about attacking her." Shield-Maiden stands over Benedicta to make sure that none of them take a shot at Sybil.

     The car is blocked, but Damian doesn't care now. He's snapped out of his violent revelry and is now back in his normal, scrawny jackal boy form as he ignores Sybil and Shield-Maiden, instad focusing on pulling Benedicta away from her would-be captors. "Oh shit oh shit oh shit I am so sorry please forgive me I didn't mean to throw a car at you I was trying to murder the other girl..." he babbles in rapid fire, tail and ears drooping the whole while.

Emily furrows her brow at Damian. Oh, well, at least he recognized that he was screwing up, and Aurelia was able to stop it.

She just shoots a cheeky grin at Shield-Maiden, oblivious to any concerns Sybil might have about the car. Still, though, she makes no move to attack the de-powered mahou. "What was that thing I saw on TV in Dante's world that the guy said?" she says, starting to conjure up another staticky portal next to herself -- with the other end beneath Benedicta's prone form. It's taking a couple of seconds, though, so she's calling attention to herself to give Damian time to get there. "Oh right, now I remember." She clears her throat. "'We don't negotiate with hostage-takers!'"

And with that, the portal opens, giving Damian an easy way out to pull Benedicta away!

>> GAME >> Aurelia Argent spends an Edge for: Pissed-Off Metal Mage Power

    The moment Sybil is back into civilian clothes, Aurelia's face turns into a mask of rage as she recognizes the woman. "_You_'re not going *anywhere*." And reaches out with her magic to stop Sybil dead in her tracks by halting all metal in and on the young woman's body. She probably does not quite understand how dangerous it is, as Sybil's red blood cells stop moving too. "You already ruined her life! How much is enough for you?!"
    Realizing what his master is doing, Zero turns. "Aurelia, no!"

Anne Read has been dealing with another of the clones right now finally done with it and now turns her attention back to the main fight. "I'm too old this." 

 She mutter she can't get a good shot in at Sybil so she'll take it out on Shield Maiden whom she turns a full power seawater blast at. 

 "HYDRO CANNON!". 

 Only then does she hear Zero panic? Wait what's going on? She has no idea about what could happen to Sybil.

Sybil's metal hair clip and buttons are ripped from her clothes leaving several holes. "First, you wrecked my car and now you've ruined my clothes. Do you know much those cost?" She's got bigger problems though as Aurelia begins to make her blood clot on the inside and struggles to breathe.

Meanwhile, Damian and Emily manage to pull Benedicta to safely, "Ugh, what did that little brat do to me..." It's not quite clear if she's referring to Sybil or Shield-Maiden.

Meanwhile Shield-Maiden tries to block the seawater blast but it's too much even for her. She does manage to redirect some of it at Aurelia before she's pushed away though.

Emily chortles at Anne's 'too old' comment, but pauses as she watches the ... effect Aurelia is having on Sybil. Three whole seconds go by before she realizes that she's thinking, 'well, it's not like she's a Master' ...

And then she strides forward towards Aurelia. "Hey ... hey!" she says, stern worry in her voice. "Kid, watch it! I don't know what you're doing, but you're killing her!"

     Damian couldn't care less about Sybil and Shield-Maiden at this point, instead patting Benedicta's cheeks to try and get her to come to... and it works! Though probably nothing to do with his efforts, really. "Oh, good! You're awake! Um... well, they kinda blasted you with some magic stuff, and I might've thrown a car at the big dumb knight while she was carrying you, but it didn't hit you guys so that shouldn't be a problem! Right?" he tries to explain, then checks her over for injuries. "But uh... you're okay, right? Nothing hurts or feels broken?"

    Aurelia doesn't hear Emily's warning or Zero's admonishment. She's ready to do serious harm to Sybil. "Why should I care?" She answers Sybil's profoundly selfish question.
    Zero dashes over, transforming into his housecat form, and bites Aurelia's ankle. The pain breaks her concentration and Sybil is freed from the suffocating predicament as Aurelia cries out in pain.

"I'm kind of sore, but I think they did something to my magic..." Benedicta looks at the burnt marks on her. One of them is shaped like the Obsidian's Cabal emblem for those who would know it. "That's not a good sign." Her attention is turns towards Sybil though as she struggles to breathe for a moment before she gasps for air. "Crap, I hope she didn't just have a stroke or something!" She clearly dislikes the other magical girl but she wouldn't wish that upon her. She tries to stand to help her rival but struggles.

Emily stares at Aurelia, and waits until Sybil hits the ground before saying, "I dunno. That just seems like the kind of thing I should be worried about now." A pause. Yeah, her usual cheerful mask has vanished. "Yeah I don't even know what I'm saying now."

She turns to Benedicta, giving her a quick once-over. "... Can those burn-marks get healed easily?" she says. "Or is it cursed or something?" Good at medical and first-aid knowledge, she ain't.

     Damian gives Benedicta some comforting pats on the shoulder as he takes a look at the burn mark. "Huh. Yeah that isn't a normal mark, is it? Maybe it's one of those seal magic signs like in the game, you know, that one about the-" he starts to ramble, but his attention is drawn to Sybil. "Huh? Oh yeah, what's the deal with her and you anyway? Are you guys related?" As he asks this, he also helps Benedicta to stand up and get steady on her feet.

    Aurelia stares at the prone form of Sybil, shocked she was ready to let the woman die. Zero sits, as cats are wont to do, near his master, tail flicking. He reaches up with a paw to bat at Aurelia's pant leg, to draw attention to the gathering of people around Benedicta. It takes a few tries before Aurelia glances down at the house cat and then follows his meaning, wandering over to Benedicta in a daze. The bite on her leg has already healed.

Anne Read is now watching what's happening to Sybil and she looks to Emily for a moment then would comment but id distracted. She doesn't say a thing To Aurelia. 

 "She's a example of what you never want to become when you have any sort of power." 

 She'll look to Bene for a moment and will make sure Bene is okay.

"No, she's been starting shit ever since elementary school. We're both magic girls, she stole my transformation mirror in order to blackmail me and managed to split my being. Part of its in her still and she can use her magic to disguise herself into my human form." Benedicta gives Damian the short version of the story. She lets Damian help her up. "That other girl, I've never seen before who is she?"

 "None of your damn business, rabbit. We might have not have beat you, but you're still the Cabal's test subject now. Au Revoir!" Sybil knew it was time to leave before they tried anything else.

    Aurelia flips Sybil the finger. "Shut up before I sic my cat on you!"
    Zero yawns, showing off his kitty fangs, then licks his lips.

Emily listens to Benedicta's story. "Hmmm. Yeah, that does sound like some kind of curse."

She considers Sybil's trash-talk, rematerializes her hands (the fists she launched dematerialize, as does her discarded robe), and holds a hand out to Sybil. "Nah," she says flatly, before a rope launches out from her hand to try to catch her and slam her onto the ground, holding her in place. She looks between Aurelia and Benedicta. "So, uh, do you guys take prisoners, usually? Or are we gonna have to try some kind of shenanigans?"

     Damian nods as Benedicta explains, his tail wagging as it seems like she's mostly alright for now. "Okay, yeah, that makes perfect sense. Magic is kinda dumb when you get down to it." he remarks, then snaps his fingers to summon a wasp nest... right over Sybil's head. "Yeah yeah, shut it already and scram."

Then Emily does her rope trick and he just blinks and shrugs. "Eh, that works too."

Anne Read will take a moment and start to chant a bit she's doing something she's likely going to regret later, but she's going to not only attempt to heal Bene? But even heal Sybil a bit. Not entirely though she doesn't wnat Sybil waking up and going into /another/ fight with everyone here. 

 "Enough with the nest get rid of thamt she's already lost her car. Anything more is over kill, do you understand? Or do all of you want ot be as nasty as she is?"

Sybil's roped in placed by Emily, "And what are you planning on doing? Ripping her soul out of me? That could hurt her as well and I can't undo what Shield-Maiden did. I have illusion magic not whatever she has."

 "I don't think taking her back to Beacon is a good idea especially if the Cabal is watching her. Yeah, if her parents find out she wrecked her car, I'm sure that'll be bad enough. She might not see the light of day for a few years." Benedicta nods in agreement with Anne.

Emily looks between Sybil and Anne. "I'm just keeping her down so she doesn't get away," she says uncertainly. "... Uh ... damn it, I'm overestimating her durability, aren't I?" She sighs theatrically, dematerializing the rope. "Okay, sure. Buzz off, kid." She manages to put her amused and faintly smug smile back into place. "Preferably figuratively."

Damian sighs and grumblesa little, but he snaps his fingers again and the wasps disappear in a puff of smoke. "Ffffffine. I've done enough harm for one day, I'm sure. We can blame the cars on her and that knight girl, right?" he asks, steepling his fingers together with a broad grin.

"Sounds good to me, her family's rich they can pay for what insurance doesn't cover. Maybe you should leave town for a while, like you've always suggested to me. Oh and tell your new friend she better not try anything either if she doesn't want to go through this again. She's still young I wouldn't want her to end up like you." Benedicta suggests to Sybil as she walks away sulking.

Emily actually looks confused for a second at Damian's comment; again, the halcyon remnant doesn't do concerns about property damage, and her recent pensiveness is confusing what she's learned since going through her first Vine. Then she blinks, and nods, grinning. "I like the way you think!" she says cheerfully.

Anne Read looks to Damian and nods at this. "The car was colleral damage from the fight." That's all Anna has to say once shes' done with her healing. "I'm more worried about things that can't be replaced." She ntoes she doesn't seem happy, this has been a heck of a downer of a day.