World Tree MUSH

    This is Alan van Allen's first assignment that his master isn't along to supervise. The young man is in his transformed state, looking to be in his early 20's instead of the mid-teens he normally is. He tugs on the toga-like garment he's wearing for the umpteenth time as it snags on brickwork that is probably over a century old. "Ugh, couldn't Mephy have given me something more practical for clothing?"
    The under city of San Francisco was created by a combination of debris fill and ruins from various earthquakes over the years. The place is very maze-like and dark. Alan's got a run-of-the-mill flashlight, and anyone else who needs illumination was given one as well. "Kira said we should look for signs of big hairy things. They're called grendels and they might eat people. Guess we'd better look out for corpses too." The footing is treacherous, eliciting grumbles from the sandal-clad Alan as he picks his way through the mess.

"Oh lovely, I'm likely a walking meal for them too." Benedicta figures that being an anthromorphic rabbit makes her an a particular enticing target. "Mephy has a strange sense of humor. I figure Miss Shadows and Darkness would come down here herself though, she would blend right in.

 She holds a flashlight herself as they look for grendels. "I've ran into them before, it would be nice to know where exactly they're coming from. "Maybe someday I'll be able to actually talk to them."

    Serrah does not need a flashlight. Serrah can see in the dark. Nevertheless, she absent-mindedly took one anyway. She's wearing a black T-shirt with a pattern of a tuxedo jacket on the front and her usual rainbow-colored skort. She also seems to have no trouble with the unsteady footing, simply defying gravity here and there. "Count yourself lucky you've got a job you like," she quips in response to Alan. Then her tone becomes a bit gentler. "Seriously though, are you sure you're holding up okay, kid?"

    She shrugs in response to Benedicta. "This isn't my first Grendel rodeo, either," she says dryly. "Still. The first ones I met were actually pretty friendly. They still tried to 'be human', or as much as they could."

    She considers this a moment, then shrugs. "Gonna scout ahead a little," she says. She then transforms into a liquid shadow, which quickly vanishes in the dimness, unless someone shines a flashlight in her direction.

    Luke was happy to offer a hand, even if he... was not too thrilled to be underground, it makes him think more of a sewer than a cave. For the sake of lighting, he is actually using one of his pokemon!. Oddly, rather than using one of his main pokemon, he decided to let Meowsey give him a hand, the small cat glowing brightly like a lantern, the light specifically coming from the coin on it's forehead!. It's a cat lamp!. 

    For safety, he allows said kitten lamp to rest on his head, while allowing Agni to come along, the fire bear needed some time outside... well, relatively outside. The boy nods at hte warning, "Don't worry, if anything tries to come and eat me they might get a surprise." he says softly, "Still, caution is always good." he begins, before blinking when Serrah makes a rather nifty display of moving around in shadows. "Neat!" he exclaims.

    Serrah finds a sort of tunnel dug out and sloped downward, the excavated material spread out so it isn't in one large pile. There's a particular smell here, musky and strong. She can spot bits of fur stuck to the sides of the tunnel, meaning it is used frequently.
    Alan wrinkles his nose as they move further down. "Anyone else smell that?" The winged mage could easily just gravity-magic his way through the mess, but he's fairly new to his powers and does not think of doing this. The smell is musky, a bit eye-watering. Those who look can see markings clawed into the more flat spots of the underway. Trail markings maybe?

    Serrah confirms the location of the tunnel, then timestop-skips back to the group. It looks like a shadow suddenly appeared in the flashlights instantaneously, then coalesces to form Serrah. "I sure smell it," she says, gesturing in the direction she went. "Found what's clearly a grendel tunnel. Pretty obvious it's seen a lot of traffic lately, too."

    She taps her chin thoughtfully. "We should probably get ready for anything."

    The advantage of having a pokemon handle the light is that it tends to notice things more easily than a trainer, and can aim the light to point at stuff!. The disadvantage is that, depending on the pokemon, that would be anything from, other pokemon, to shiny stones, or random noises!. In this case, the kitten seems to look randomly at every noise and sparkly surface, meowing for attention, and making a face at the smell, reaching to bat at Luke's face in protest for bringing it to a smelly tunnel. "Yes, yes, you will live, come on." he mumbles.

    Serrah's apparition act causes the kitten to hiss, jump from luke's head and fall down, hissing at the vampire gal cutely for a moment, before it gets up, and tries to act like it jump down on purpose, hwile the fire bear sticks closer to Luke. At least Agni helps Luke climb down without much trouble, "We smell it, yes." he says, even as he makes sure the cat is fine. "So we are following that tunnel?"

Benedicta cringes a bit as she takes in the smell, "Same here, it doesn't smell too pleasant. At least on the plus side, I don't think we'll run into Sybil down here." She knows her rival would refuse to go crawling around in the sewer. "Figures she would get us to do her dirty work for her." At least if they get close to the grendels her horn should start glowing as a warning.

    The smell gets eye-wateringly bad, and there's sounds of running water further down until eventually it looks like the group has entered some kind of underground pipe that has survived the years. There are werewolf-like beasts, the grendel, moving around here, deep barks and gutteral growls forming a sort of language. There are a lot of grendels, the things shrouded in that weird night-colored mist. There's the sounds of people kept in cages, awaiting some horrible fate.
    A few grendel notice the lights of the group, and bark some warnings. The nightmarish creatures start scattering, attempting to disappear into side tunnels and other routes.

    Serrah shrugs. "Got half a mind to deck Sybil in the face next time I see her," she mutters, reaching over to give Meowsey scritches. "I'm starting to ... uh ..." She frowns at Benedicta's head. "Benedicta? I think your horn is ..."

    And, yep, it's grendels. Serrah springs into action.

    First, she transforms into a black cat with a red streak across its forehead, like the red streak she has in her hair.

    Next, she stops time and leaps onto the shoulder of a grendel that looks like it was headed in the direction of the human sounds. Time resumes immediately before she makes contact; it looks to everyone else like the cat was next to the group one proverbial frame of action, and about to land on the grendel's shoulder the next. "This way!" she calls out.

"Ugh, this stench!" Benedicta's horn begins to glow yellow as they get closer and she sees the cages, "Who the hell is behind all of this!" She unsheathes her claws as she awaits an answer. "I know it's the Cabal, but it better not be that wormy Doctor!" She doesn't want to hurt the grendels, she knows they aren't at fault for this but they might not have a choice in the matter.

 She's a bit surprised as Serrah transforms, not knowing she could do that. She's like a beast maho in a way herself. She runs towards the cat trying not to be seen by the grendels. That might be a bit of problem given the light she's giving off though.

    Luke might not have super sense of smell, but he is certainly not enjoying it!, grumbling and shaking his head a bit, while trying quite hard to appease the very distressed kitten on his shoulder, especially as they get closer to the Grendels, even when they start to get away. The fire bear growls loudly, clearly displeased by the location, and stands as close to Luke as it can. Thankfully, Benedicta catches teh attention of the cat, so it is easy to distract it, while Luke nods, "Right." he whispers, with the cat 'turning off' and being safely returned to it's pokeball, just in case.

    The grendels don't seem to be trying to take the caged humans with them. They seem to be focused on escaping rather than confronting the investigation group.
    The grendel that cat-Serrah latches onto growls angerily and attempts to dislodge the pint-sized problem.
    Alan uuuhs and finally realizes he should turn his flashlight off. The tunnel is pitch black except for any light coming from the investigators. The muted sounds of grendel escaping can be heard.
    "Yeah, you have to wonder who's making them..." Alan says to Benedicta, watching and listening cautiously with his blade in his hand. He cocks his head, realizing he can sense things moving in the dark by sensing the ripples in local gravity. It's a new technique to him though, so he only gets a vague sort of sense. "... guess it's mission accomplished?" He says nervously.

    Serrah lets out a feline yowl, and falls off the grendel. "D'oh!" She changes back to her human(oid) form. "Well, that stunk," she says irreverently. "... where'd I put the flashlight. Oh." She produces it again, and fiddles with it. "... Did this thing break? ... Shit, sorry."

    Luke is not great at seeing in the dark, but thankfully, his big bear pokemon seems better at it and he manages to follow Alan, moving as quietly as he can, which might end with Luke stumbling around a bit, "How do you even move around here." he mumbles, either to the pokemon, or Alan, or whoever can hear. The pair pause and look around at the noises from Serrah, "Are you ok?" asks the boy.

Benedicta's turned her light off but her horn won't stop glowing, being an al'miraj is a pain sometimes. At least they have a way of seeing where they're going. "We should get everyone out of here before they regroup!" She tries to use her claws to cut through one of the cages but they're not really designed to go through metal. Hopefully she's not going to have to bite her way through, then again Alan might have more luck with his sword.

    As the quartet set about freeing the caged people, the grendel have cleared out successfully. But there's a scratching metallic sound coming from the end of the large pipeline, getting closer. Imagine the sound of a massive spider clattering in the dark; that is what it sounds like. In the dim light of Benedicta's horn, the horror appears to be a scantily clad woman from the waist up, modesty protected by black metal shards forming an armored chestpiece. From the nose up is covered by a eyeless mask made of the same metal shards, behind which flows long black hair. Below the waist seems to be a sort of arachnid body, used to move about and possibly fight. In the woman's hands is a bow made of the same black iron as her armor and spider-parts.
    "Don't take what isn't yours." She chides before drawing the bow and firing a weird metal arrow at Serrah, the thing sounding like ghostly screams as it flies through the air.

    Serrah shakes her head. "I'm fine, I'm just --" And then there's a scratching sound, and she jumps in surprise, startled into stopping time. "Wait, what the --"

    And as a result of that surprise, she's still in the cooldown of her time-stop. She tries to leap out of the way, but the arrow manages to hit her arm anyway. There seems to be a breeze, and the heart-shaped mark on her forehead pulses with darkness.

    "Ow! What the fuck!" Her other hand goes to the sports bag at her hip, and she starts chucking baseballs at high speeds. She suddenly seems unsteady, however ...

Benedicta cringes again as the noise of screaming fills her ears, "Crap, what was that?!" She then notices the spider-woman and pauses, was she another one of the doctor's experiments. As she comes to her senses, she sees that Serrah got stabbed by an arrow. "Oh great, I hope she's not going to berserk or something..." She rushes the unknown woman and tries to kick the bow out of her hands before she gets a chance to fire it again.

Luke Gray is relieved that it seems all the Grendel were leaving, "Want Agni to help you break that cage?, or maybe...." whatever he was about to say is halted as the skittering lady appears and attacks Serrah within instant, his pokemon snarling at teh spider lady, suddenly glowing orange as it seems to 'ignite' itself in a threatening display, before charging ahead, apparently sharing the same idea as Benedicta, stop the arrow lady. It IS a very bright target, also loud.. Luke meanwhile turns to Serrah, "Hey, are you ok?" he mumbles, getting closer.

    The arrow was a carrier; where it impacted, it has transformed into a black iron disc that has impressed itself into Serrah's undead flesh. The clash of magic has turned the thing a dull glowing red as the magic it carries tries to override and dissipate the magical curse that Serrah labors under. It feels a lot like being repeatedly bashed in the head with a stone elephant.
    Alan checks on Serrah as well, turning on his flashlight to get a good look at the suffering vampire. "Doesn't look good... we should get her out of here."
    The metal mage hisses as the baseballs smash into her at full force. She wasn't expecting that, clearly. Then she turns her attention to Benedicta and the fire bear. The spider part disengages, leaving the mage floating in air with black iron reflowing like oil to form better armor around her body. The darkmetal arachnid thing surges forward to meed Agni and Benedicta while the mage attempts to flee. 
    "Better see to your friend. Unless you like grendels." She sneers.

    Serrah stumbles onto her backside, then tries to get back to her feet, hefting a baseball. "Get back here you ..." She tosses it, very weakly, and then she falls onto her side. She clutches at the disk, hissing. "... Jesus. This is ... augh."

    She manages a weak smirk. "... no," she says. "But ... for once, this goddamn curse is actually working out better for me." The heart-shape pulses with darkness again, and she winces. "Curses ... do not like ... c ... c-competition."

"Tell me about it..." Benedicta looks at the Cabal seal on her arm as she sees that. "So she's the one who's been creating the grendels?" The rabbit-girl is going to have to back down for now and makes her way over to Serrah to help her. Hopefully the woman wouldn't shoot arrows at the rest of them. "I have an idea but it might be a long-shot...especially considering who it involves..." She doesn't like the idea of going to her of all people for help but they might not have a choice.

    Luke seems extremely concerned, especially after hearing the word 'curse', and reaches to try to help Serrah back, "Alan?, we need to... get her to a doctor or... whoever might be able to... do something?" he asks, sounding a bit panicked now, "I have no clue what to do..." he mumbles loudly. 

    Agni seems surprised Benedicta suddenly turned around when the spider thing charges at them, but doesn't really hesitate much, growling loudly to catch Luke's attention. "Agni, destroy that thing quickly, we have to get out, Explosion!". Seems the bear was already planning on somethign similar, the large beast glowing brighter as it approaches the metallic monster and meets it head on, roaring again and reaching to grab onto it, as the glow seems to reach critical mass, a bright white before it seems to detonate in a powerful, but surprisingly small explosion, certainly loud.

    As the spider-thing was meant as a diversion, the pokemon's attack causes it to impressively shatter into a whole lot of oily metal shards. The diversion works though, and the metal mage flies down one of the many side tunnels. This leaves the quartet with some freed people and an ailing Serrah to deal with.
    "Y-yeah, let's get her up to the surface!" Alan says, offering to carry Serrah since weight matters little to him. "... or I could float you out?" He offers.
    Either way, it's a tiring trek up to the basement they starte in, rushed as they are to get out. On the other hand, without the need to keep an eye out for signs of grendels, it goes faster...

    Serrah shakes her head at Benedicta. "Kid, my life is already unpleasant, this is just ... just ... a bonus. I can handle a little extra, uh, unpleasantless. Unpleasantness." She paws at the disc for a moment, and winces at the Explosion. "Not so loud!" she says, slightly hoarsely.

    She nods to Alan, pulls herself up -- she feels entirely weightless -- and then settles down against him. "Okay. This is. This. Is. Attempt number two that blew up in our faces. Probably. Sort of. Ugh. At least I'm got a good day's sleep this time and I'm not getting sunned on."

>> SUMMARY[Serrah Delany] >> Now mostly incoherent.

Of course, Luke does his best to help everyone back out, his pokemon also help carry or climb or just move faster if needed, Luke is certainly worried enough to hurry. "I hope they can help."

A yellow car is waiting above for the group parked right by the entrance to the sewer, good thing Benedicta's cellphone was able to get reception. "Um, Serrah you know how you said you deck Sybil in the face the next time you saw her? You might want to hold off on that. The Hornet Queen herself is waiting for them along with Shield-Maiden. "This better be good rabbit, because Shel isn't removing the seal no matter how much you beg."

 "Well, since you're a big shot in the Cabal now Sybil, I'm pretty sure you already know about the grendels right? Now imagine what would happen if you crossed one of those with a vampire?" Benedicta pointed at Serrah.

 "You want us to help her?! After what happened at the lab?" Sybil couldn't help but to scowl as she heard that.

"Clock's ticking, she might lose control any moment now and I don't think she's too picky about who she eats..."

 "Fine, Shel go help the vampire. You owe us for this, rabbit." Shield-Maiden nods as she's ordered and begins to prepare a warding spell to try and prevent Serrah from being transformed.

    Alan grits his teeth, but says nothing since it means the black obol /might/ get removed. He puts Serrah down near the entirely armored Shield Maiden and waits, looking deeply unhappy.
    As long as Shield Maiden has been around, she has a deft hand when it comes to undoing magic. Serrah's curse isn't something she can touch, since it is some strange foreign magic. But the black obol's virus-like spell, fueled by the condensed soul magic that makes up the substance of the black iron coin, that is something she knows. It takes three tense minutes for Shield Maiden to 'snip' the unseen magical tendrils that had proverbally sunk into Serrah. The thing glows white hot when she's done, and suddenly shoots up into the sky like a reverse meteor, burning up as it does so.

    Serrah smiles at Luke. "I'll be fine," she says, not entirely sure she feels it. But then she hesitates as Benedicta makes that pronouncement. "Oh you have got to be kidding me." She actually laughs out loud.

    She smirks faintly at the byplay between Benedicta and Sybil. "I'm already kind of hungry, for the record," she says. "Been slowly losing my essence of humanity even without this thing," she adds, slapping the disc. She flashes a very fake-looking smile, but with very real fangs. "Ahhh ..." She does, however, settle down once Shield-Maiden sets to work.

    And then suddenly it's white-hot. "OW!" She recoils as it flights up into the air. She shakes her arm a bit; it's hanging uselessly at her side. "Well, damn," she says. "Oh well, it'll get better quick, it's not like it's broken or anything." She smiles faintly up at Shield-Maiden and Sybil. "But seriously, though, thanks," she says. "For real."

"I can understand the feeling." Shield-Maiden can be heard saying softly, "You don't want to lose that." There's a lot more to the short knight girl than meets the eye.

"That's certainly ironic considering..." Benedicta is about to comment on the situations but Sybil stops her,

 "Can it rabbit. I'll call you when I need that favor. Let's go Shel." The pair make their way back into the car and drive off as quickly as they arrived.