World Tree MUSH

    It's a bright and sunny day in a newly Blossomed world! Today we find ourselves in Tokyo's Azabu Juban district, and school has just gotten out for the day. Which means...
    Juban's shopping centers are PACKED with excited teens; and for god reason. One of the local jewelry stores is having an insane blowout sale. The shop is utterly packed with women looking for their next great purchase, and a saleswoman, the apparent owner of the shop is riling them up with cutthroat-slashed prices.
    "Siiiiiiiigh..."
    And standing outside this very store happens to be two girls, young teens in middle school uniforms.
    "Oh man, Naru look at them in there, they're buying everything. And I just blew all my allowance too."
    "Well, Usagi, just ask your dad for some money, I'm sure that'll work out."
    Usagi, a blonde with her hair done up in two buns and long twin tails, makes a face.
    "Yeah right, as if. Have you seen my test scores lately? He'll take one look at it and say no!"
    "That sucks." Naru, a girl with shorter auburn hair says, patting Usagi on the shoulder. "Anyway, I better get inside before mom riles up the customers too much. I have studying to do~." She says, darting into the store.
    "Wh-" Naru don't just leave me out here by myself!" Usagi blurts, proceeding to sulk mightily.
    Pulling a sheet of paper from her backpack, she grimaces at the contents of the page. It's mostly red ink, and a big fat score of 30.
    "Ooooh! Stupid tests, why do I even have to take you anyway!" She says, crumpling the test up and hurling it over her shoulder.

    As a matter of fact, yes... Josuke IS purposely at a jewelry store. He wears earrings after all, and he has to get that bling somewhere! Though there's a big bunch of shoppers inside, so he's not quite ready to go in yet. Wow, that's a lot of people in there too. And they're going nuts for some reason...

    As it turns out, Josuke's not here by chance, no. The Speedwagon Foundation's agents found this newly-blossomed world, and sent Josuke to go check it out. He's half-Japanese at least, so he's not too much of a standout in a Japanese city. And he's wearing an actual school uniform, though the dark blue uniform is of that 'honor punk' style. Between that and his hair, it just SCREAMS 'delinquent'.

    But then, suddenly...

    WHAP!

    A crumpled up ball of paper hits him square in the face, right in his nose. "Ow! What the...?!" He rubs his nose, and then looks down at the paper. Josuke crouches to pick it up, uncrumples it, and looks it over. Then he winces. "...Wow, geez."

    Giving the paper a closer look, he nods. "Oh... I see now." Looking to the crowd, he asks the nearest person, "Excuse me, do you know someone named 'Usagi'? They dropped this." He doesn't show what's ON the paper, just shows the paper's existence.

    One could be forgiven for mistaking Octavia de Tenebrae for a highschooler. She is, after all, at the proper age for it! But most highschoolers in Juban do not wear elegant, classy summer dresses! At least, not on school days. And with her jet black hair done in drill curls, a butler following in her wake, and the air of absolute, iron-clad confidence about her, she seems more like if she goes to any school at all, it's both private and expensive.

    So of course, she's headed straight towards the jewelry store. Her butler's already carrying quite a collection of bags, not to mention what looks like a fair-sized camping backpack loaded with more purchases. Somehow, he's not teetering over, and in fact doesn't look terribly bothered by the weight he's carrying. Which is probably good, because she's looking to make another purchase. She breezes right past Josuke and Usagi, right past the girls doing the window-shopping, and declares a confident, "Show me to your most expensive pieces. I wish to bring my younger sister a souvenir of this world."

    Whap? Ow? Usagi? What tomfoolery is this. Both Octavia and Brandt turn to glance at Josuke together, Octavia blinking owlishly. Meh! It's not her concern, clearly.

    Lex Brando is wandering along from point A to point B, dragging a sports-pack on wheels bearing an emblem of a mountain and the text "Monadnock AG". At the moment, her cybernetic left arm and leg are flesh-tone, to make them less obvious at a distance, but it's pretty obvious that they're made out of plastic if you're closer than, say, the opposite side of the street.

    "How are you doing with the analysis?" she asks into her wrist, as if she was remotely talking over a smartwatch or something, because this doesn't seem like a world which would particularly appreciate her carrying around a sword almost as big as she is in public.

    "I'll either be done tomorrow, or next week," says an electronic girl's voice from her arm. "I do think you might be ... what's the saying? 'Making a mountain out of a molehill'?"

    "Nah," says Lex. "Oh, hey, there's, what was her name. Octavia. And Jo--"

    Whap.

    "... suke," she finishes weakly.

    "... Good grief," says Shard.

Holly's a bit older than a teenager but she certainly doesn't dress that way. She's been trying to find another haunted mall to visit but hasn't had much luck. Well technically the current shopping center is now haunted with the two ghosts following behind her, but most people wouldn't likely be able to see them. The witch is holding a pumpkin ice cream at the moment, it's summer after all. Her attention turns towards Lex as her arm suddenly talks, "I think your arm is possessed..."

  Most of the excited teens here probably aren't expecting to see a dolphin floating through their favourite shopping destination. It stands to reason, then, that Ecco is... attracting a lot of staring bystanders. He seems to be pretty cool about it, although the ones that reach out and try to touch him are disappointed by impressive evasive agility. Much like the kids out of school, here, he's just kind of perusing what's on display.

  Except he's also doing it with sonar. The rapid clicking, sometimes so high-pitched it's barely on the edge of hearing, is nonetheless audible.

  Also... floating. Dolphin.

  He's clearly not a wild animal. There's an intelligence in his eyes. And, um, he can talk. Which is also attracting a bunch of attention. He's also wearing some kind of silvery, thin harness that looks way more high-tech than anything else in this world, so he's prrrrobably not from around here...

  ...because, you know. Floating. Dolphin.

  And then a piece of paper flies, smacking an acquaintance of his. Right on the face, in fact.

  "Nice shot-t." The voice that issues behind and to the side of Usagi is sort of high-pitched and skips over certain consonants, but it's certainly understandable. He's not so close as to be breathing down her neck, but he's close enough to twist and peer at the unintended victim, boat-shaped pupil fixing on Josuke. "Nice to see you again. ...You okay?"

    WHAP.
    Oh crap.
    Usagi certainly didn't mean to actually hit anyone with her test, and when she hears someone actually looking for her as a result, the blonde stiiiiiiiiffly turns to see who it is.
    ... That is a delinquent.
    That is a full on gang-looking, class A stylin' young bancho of a youth.
    A bead of sweat slowly glides its way down Usagi's brow as she slowwwwwwwly turns back around and pretends to not hear a damn thing. There's no 'Usagi Tsukino' here! Nope, no Usagi at all.
    Shes just going to pretend she's somewhere nice and hope the scary looking guy asking around for her will just throw the test away and stop asking about it. So when Octavia actually turns to look at her, she holds up a finger to her lips in a 'please shhhhh' motion.
    Only to jolt from Ecco's comment.
    "Shot!? What shot, what are you talk--dolphin..." She trails off.
    That is a dolphin.
    An honest-to-God bottlenose dolphin is floating there. Talking at her.
    The twin-tailed blonde stares bug-eyed for a long beat as her 30%-scoring brain processes this. And when it finally clicks that she's being talked at by a dolphin, Usagi squeal.
    "Eeeeeeeeeeee! SO CUTE!"
    A talking dolphin can't be so bad, after all there was that cat from ealier in the day... BUT MOVING ON
    The store is INSANE, women are fighting each other for this deal or that, actively battling one another for jewelry in a bling-bling battle royale, and when Octavia comes in with her butler, the store clerk, a lady who looks like an older version of Naru (probably because she's Naru's mom) waves Octavia down.
    "Oh! An offworlder, how nice to meet you! Yes, yes, of course, have a look at this..." She says producing a ring box and opening it.
    "This piece would usually sell for 500,000 yen. But your you I'll go as low as 30,000!"
    This incites the crowds to near bloodthirst.
    But what might be odd, are the people leaving the shop... One woman holds her head. Another sighs heavily. Another woman has to brace herself against the nearby wall as they begin to teeter and slowly collapse to the ground.

    Octavia gets a look, of course -- having a butler carrying your bags and looking like textbook ojou walking down the street does tend to attract attention, after all! Though just then Josuke notices Lex as she approaches, and offers a broad grin in her direction. "Oh, hi!" he greets cheerily, his voice a happy-sounding chirp. "From uh..." Pause, thoughtful pout. "Oh, that's right! The broken moving city?" Referring to the situation with Lappland's world, where he almost got accused of stealing loot, and they blew up several glowing orange spiders that weren't lava but may as well have been thanks to originium being so infectious to people touching it.

    Josuke... just miiiiiight be able to see those ghosts that Holly is carrying with her. Hard to say. His Stand is in a similar situation, and just about anyone that isn't completely normal can see it. Heck, even completely normal people, if they're astute enough, can perceive it, even if they can't actually see it. Assuming Josuke can see the ghosts, he gives a slightly freaked-out noise, and raises an arm in front of himself (not the one he's holding Usagi's test in). It's not a scream, just a short 'agh!'. Ghost kinda freak him out a little!

    Oh, but hey! There's the dolphin! "Hey there!" Another friendly greeting from the guy with the delinquent looks. More than that, he doesn't seem surprised by a floating dolphin. "Yeah, I'm okay," he replies to Ecco. "If it had been a rock I'd have been mad, but it was just a piece of paper."

    ...Well, the delinquent does seem like a pretty friendly guy. All that 'tough' language one usually associates with the Japanese delinquent isn't there in his speech when he talks to the people (and the dolphin) he seems to know from somewhere else. Maybe it's really okay, and he's not all that bad?

    Though suddenly the people leaving the shop start... collapsing?! Test forgotten, the paper shoved into his pocket, Josuke runs over to the nearest collapsed person. "Hey! Are you okay? What's wrong?" he asks, clearly quite concerned. Of course the Stand comes out, and he tries to heal this person.

    Octavia's eyes meet Usagi's.

    One eyebrow arches waaaay up.

    Her expression seems to say, 'this is entirely not my business'.

    She's about to turn back to the jewelry when the meatball-head squeals something about a dolphin. That draws the young woman's eyes right back around to... to... "...Brandt, am I seeing a floating dolphin?" The butler sounds faintly perplexed. "I do believe so, my lady."

    Quietly, she shakes her head. "I-I believe we aren't seeing anything at all." "Of course."

    Let's pay attention to the jewelry! And the clerk. The box is opened, and Octavia leans in to scrutinize the ring carefully. But when she hears the price, she stands back up, looking almost offended. "More than ninety percent discounted? Whatever do you take me for? No sane jeweler discounts an expensive ring so deeply. I shan't be taken in by gilded lead and shaped glass. Brandt." She doesn't even bother to look further at the ring, simply turning around to breeze on out with her butler in tow - at which point the collapsing girl and the boy with the strainge hai- STAND come to her attention. She pauses a moment with a frown, and then turns to move swiftly that way, drawing out an ornate, expensive looking wand with a sharp tip as she does. "What's going on here? You haven't attacked this young woman with that phantom, have you?" She doesn't sound hostile to Josuke; just cautious.

    "No, I'm a sword, but thanks for asking," Shard answers Holly. Her voice might sound familiar to Holly. A lot like the sword and spirit that Vanguard was throwing around in San Francisco, but distinctly different. And also she has emotions.

    Lex smiles to Holly. "Shard, we probably shouldn't ... uh ..." She furrows her brow at the sight of Ecco. "That's a dolphin."

    "Yes," says Shard.

    Josuke is having a friendly conversation with the dolphin. Well, okay, that settles that, at least in Lex's mind. "Oh, yep!" she says, nodding to him. "With the capital-C Catastrophe, and all that."

    "Hello again, Mr. Higashikata," says Lightshard 18 from her arm. "We've decided that my nickname is now 'Shard', by the way."

    Lex immediately frowns as the woman collapses, and she hurries over. Unlike Josuke, she doesn't have anything she can actually do in this kind of situation, but she's rushing over anyway, dragging along the wheeled bag, concern over her face. She glances up at Octavia when she speaks. "Oh, uh, no, he can use it to heal and stuff," she says, before looking back at Josuke. "... Right?" Beat. "Or ... wait, is Crazy Diamond more, a 'he', kind of thing?"

"A floating dolphin, I don't think he's a wizard...how he's doing that?" Holly seems to be more confused by that then she can understand Ecco. "Oh, I don't see any swords though...is it one of those concealable arm blades?" She makes a cutting gesture with her hand that's not holding the ice cream.

 "30,000 of something still sounds like a lot." The witch isn't really familar with any currency besides euros and dollars though. The wand that Octavia's holding instantly gets her attention. "Hey, it's not nice to excuse ghosts of attacking people out of nowhere..." She's quick to defend the Stand-wielder.

  The dolphin turns with a flick of his flukes, pulling himself up into high posture and dropping his jaw open at the sudden squeal from the schoolgirl. It's not the happy expression it looks like; it's a reaction of alarm as he shies away, flicking his fins to scoot backwards.

  "Whoa! H-hey! T-t-take it easy. I think you dropped something; Josuke here... uh... 'found' it for you." He swishes his tail, though he does it in a way that doesn't propel him forward into anybody.

  Ecco's head, meanwhile, turns to face Octavia. He tilts his head in a way that might be unsettlingly human, and then she might feel the rapid, high-pitched clicking of his sonar. She's being studied.

  Then his jaws fall open in a big dolphin grin.

  "Hi!"

  It's entirely possible he might be messing with Octavia just based on how she reacted to seeing him.

  Lex gets another dolphin not-grin. Yep. He claps his jaw, and the sound's forcefully loud at point-blank range. It's his gesture of approval, like a human grin, or a symbol of affirmation and agreement. "That'ssss a dolphin. It has a name, too. His name's Ecco. Nice to meet-t you!"

  Somehow he manages to exude smug to Josuke. "Fortunately, it didn't look like it hit t-too hard," Ecco agrees, cheerfully, to the delinquent of questionable delinquency. "How've you...?" The dolphin was going to say 'how've you been,' but the question just sort of slides out of existence as he whirls, staring blankly at the slumping people. "Hey, what's up with them?"

  He'll just click at a few and examine them with sonar, as discreetly as he can. What he finds has him tilting his head in that unsettlingly human gesture, jaw falling open a little in what seems like smiling confusion. No, he's not actually smiling, that's just how his jaw's put together. In reality...

  "I'm st-t-tumped," he asides to Josuke. "It'ssss like all their blood's being sucked away or ssssomething. The pressure's not right-t." If he's surprised by the sudden appearance of Josuke's Stand, he doesn't show it. Maybe he's just going blank and that's his brain's way of dealing with the weirdness. A brain can only handle so much weirdness. A flick of his tail sends him along to keep up with Josuke. In fact he's ignoring Usagi's adorable adoration because Things Are Happening.

  PLEASE DON'T BE ZOMBIES, Ecco thinks furiously. PLEASE DON'T BE ZOMBIES.

  And then Usagi is shrieking, and Ecco is reeling away, flailing and warbling in distress. That hurts! That hurts a lot! "Hey, Josuke! What-t are we gonna do?"

    That... That is an awfully friendly delinquent. ... Maybe he isn't so bad.
    Though Usagi still doesn't want to own up to her miserably low grade.
    That and she's just enthralled by Ecco, hearts in her eyes, hands up by her cheeks, flat out staring at Ecco. She almost doesn't notice people beginning to collapse around her, until Josuke rushes to the aid of a fallen woman. "W-weh?!"
    The woman is... Utterly exhausted. It's as though her very life energy was being sapped out of her. And though Crazy Diamond can heal her and begins doing so, it's as though she's still being sapped by something as Josuke works.
    So why are the earrings she's wearing starting to glow...?
    All Usagi sees is a big pink Crazy Diamond-shaped ghost.
    "WAH! GHOST!"
    Meanwhile, back in the shop, the woman is all smiles, up until Octavia smashes her sale in the face and turns her back on her.
    Her smile drops instantly. In fact, it turns into a monstrous scowl.
    "Well... If you won't buy it... I'll just harvest your energy for our Great Ruler, myself!"
    That... Sounds awfully ominous as the woman's skin turns dark and leathery, face contorting into a monstrous visage as her hands morph into claws.
    It's this sight that causes the fighting women in the shop to scream and panic! Before they wobble on their feet, looking woozy. And proceed to collapse to the ground, every one of them.
    "M-Mom what's going on?"
    That. That is Naru Osaka, returning to the shop from the door in the back, looking horrified.
    And it's THAT sight that makes Usagi Tsukino go completely blue in the face.
    "M-m-m-MONSTERRRR!" She shrieks at the top of her lungs.
    And proceeds to get the hell out of dodge, running at full sprint around the corner to the nearby conveniently placed alleyway.

    Always the delinquent is the one who gets blamed first! Josuke pauses, looking up at Octavia. "What?" He blinks, as if he has no idea what she just said. Then he looks between her and the wand she's just drawn, and it it seems to register. In response, he shakes his head. "No, she just collapsed to the ground. And look!" He tilts his head up, to indicate the other shoppers that left, ALSO collapsed. "I'm trying to heal her. I just haven't gotten to the others to try. I don't know what's wrong with them, they just started collapsing after leaving the store."

    Should he be allowed to continue to heal the woman, the 'phantom' -- a pink figure wearing crystalline blue armor that has a heart motif -- glows with an orange-gold aura, and places a hand close to her chest (in a respectful place, mind you). The aura will attempt to encompass the collapsed woman, trying to heal her.

    He's still aware, though, and answers Lex's question about his Stand. "Crazy Diamond is part of me, and I'm a guy, so..." Vague statement, but most of his attention is on trying to heal the collapsed woman. Josuke doesn't want a lapse in concentration to screw this up.

    Holly seems to becoming to his defense, and he offers to her kindly, "Thanks. It's okay though, I know what it looks like. I'm trying to help, though." She probably also heard the thing he said about his Stand being part of him, so that's a little more information for Holly if she can pick it up!

    Ecco's question will have to be answered later. But he does nod to the mention of being drained away. "I don't think it's their blood... but something else..." As for what they're gonna do? "I'm gonna try and help them. I think it has something to do with the jewlery." He'd seen it glowing. "Can you try separating them from it? Be careful, don't get drained yourself, okay?"

    It's actually not until Usagi screams about a monster that Josuke looks up and notices said monster... and the young girl with the short hair that's far too close to it! "...Dammit..." Can he get to her in time to keep the monster from hurting her too? He's gonna try!

    Crazy Diamond moves to grip Josuke by the back of the jacket, and then FLINGS him into the store, with a loud, "DOURRRA!". This might take out a window -- or maybe the door itself -- but right now he doesn't care. He's aiming to land between the girl and the monster, to try and block the monster's path! He's not aware that it wasn't long ago that this 'monster' was Naru's mother...

    Octavia turns her gaze to Lex when she answers. "You... I recall you from the sea monster incident. Lex Brando, wasn't it?" She looks between Lex, Josuke and Crazy Diamond briefly, then nods. "I'll accept your judgment, then." However, her words towards Holly are a bit more guarded. "I saw him standing over a collapsed woman with a mysterious phantom. It's only natural to confirm someone's intentions in that situation."

    Wait, 'harvest energy'? 'Great Ruler'? And those glowing earrings- oh dear. Everyone's collapsing. And that woman's turned into a monster.

    It's not difficult to figure out what just happened. "I'm not certain what kind of creature you are, but if you think that you've found easy prey, I'm afraid you're in for a very rude awakening." She draws her wand up almost like a rapier, flicking it in a quick series of gestures that draws a sequence of runes in the air with streamers of gold-white light. With one last sweep, the runes 'detonate', exploding into a wave of holy energy that washes over the collapsed women.

    It's a simple, low-end cursebreaking spell, attempting to break whatever hold the monster woman has on the victims. "I shall give you but one chance. Submit yourself to my custody. Refuse and there can be no mercy."

"Wow, she's pretty good at scaring people maybe I can learn a thing or two from her!" Holly doesn't seem to be too bothered by the woman transforming into a monster. She does feel a bit light-headed though.

 "Be careful Holly, if she drains magic as well she might decide to have you for dessert," Servis warns the witch as he floats next to her.

 "For a succubus, she certainly got shafted in the looks department." If Lavaux had hands he would be giving the thumbs down gesture right now. "Maybe you should beat the ugly out of her. Cause I don't think magic is going to do much here." Holly gives the woman a chance to surrender to Octavia first though.

  "If it'sss something else, I don't-t know what it is and can't-t-t hear it-t," Ecco offers. He swings his head from one stricken bystander to another, clicking rapidly, enough so that even Josuke could hear it. He sounds a little like a Geiger counter that just stuck its head into a nuclear reactor. "It's like everything'sss just... fading."

  Can he separate them from the jewelry? Ecco's jaw drops, swivelling out sideways in thoughtful gesture, putting sharp conical teeth on display. "Uhh. I can t-try, but if they don't-t give it up, I can't-t take it off them without breaking it. And I might hurt-t them, that close, if they fight-t me. What a mess. Yeah, don't worry about me. I'm faster than they are." He pulls himself upright and gives his tail a mighty slash in the same motion, like the teenager he is flexing to show off how awesome he is.

  And then he spears forward with blurring agility, towards the next person near him that looks like they're struggling. "Ma'am. Ma'am, can you t-take that necklace off, please? I think you might-t be in danger wearing it-t-t."

  He might be a hothead young bull, but at least he's polite.


  He does turn and stare as Josuke is shirt-grabbed by Crazy Diamond and flung into the storefront. His jaw falls open.

  "Wow...!"

    "No," Shard answers Holly, "I'm dematerialized by magic."

    "Long story," says Lex. She smiles. "Well, uh, pleased to meet you, Ecco!" She nods to Octavia. "Yeah, and you're Octavia, right?" Not one for formality, there, or being deferential towards nobility. "It's cool, it's cool, I'd be startled, too, and stuff. And yeah, I've just had ... several things happen since then." She seems to have a bit more energy than she did at the time, but there's still a sense of tiredness.

    But then she frowns, narrowing her eyes at the collapse and the sudden appearance of the monster. "What in the world ..." She holds out her robotic left arm.

    In a burst of mint-green pixels and what appears to be Elvish computer code, a high-tech curved sword. It's five feet long, and it has a white blade with a glowing green edge, and a couple more running lights than number 17. It does look a lot like the one Vanguard was using, just without the orange glow of the curse.

    She nods approvingly at Octavia's magic-show. Hopefully that will help. But she's interrupted by Josuke's antics.

    "I want to do that sometime with you," says Shard.

    "Maybe if you ever have arms," says Lex. "Or, wait, maybe you could catapult me, kind of thing ..." She transfers the sword to her good hand and holds it at the ready -- somehow, she's able to hold it easily despite the size. Like Holly, she's waiting to see the monster's response to Octavia.

    A confused and struggling-to-not-pass-out woman manages to get her necklace off in time thanks to the talking dolphin's plea, and then Josuke launches himself into the store. That window can be fixed later, what's more important is the monster!
    "Wait thats my mom!" Naru blurts to her apparent defender. But she's quickly proven wrong when the monster scowls.
    "Your mother is sleeping in the basement! And when I'm done killing you, I'm going to kill her too!"
    So it's not Naru Osaka's mother. That's good to know, even if the threat is pretty horrifying.
    And then Octavia moves into action.
    Somewhere, in the Dark Kingdom, one of the Four Heavenly Kings curses under his breath as his connection to the women is severed and the drain on their energy is cut off.

    Meanwhile, in the alley...
    "Usagi! You ran away?" A black cat chides the blonde who is rubbing at the back of her neck.
    "W-well I mean, there was a monster, what did you expect me to do?"
    "Transform into Sailor Moon and fight it!"
    "O-oh that. Do I have to?"
    "YES!"
    "W-weh...! Alright um how did it go again...?"

    "Moon Prism Power... Make UP!"

    BACK AT THE STORE!

    "Surreneder...?" The Youma says, before cackling. "As if I'd ever do that! Rise, my servants! Fight, claim their energy, and kill them in the name of the Great Ruler!" She declares.
    And the passed out women get up. All of them. Rising simultaneously, eyes exhausted and glassy as they raise their arms and start a menacing approach. That's her response to Octavia, as the enthralled women move in to attack.
    There is a beat of pause though.
    "I am NOT a succubus! How DARE you!"
    "No, how dare you!" A new voice cuts through the chaos, as a young lady in a sailor suit emerges on the scene. "How dare you use a woman's desire to look glamorous against her for your evil ways!" Sailor Moon declares. "I'm Sailor Moon, and in the name of the moon... I'll punish you!"
    Ah, the local hero of justice has arrived.
    "Uh..."
    Too bad she breaks out into a panic as several of the women dogpile her. "WAH!"

    Almost immediately, Octavia takes a step back, and with quick strokes she calls forth a holy barrier, barring the enthralled womens' approach. "Tch. If we must do this the difficult way..." The stance she adopts is closer to a duelist's ready than a mage's, and she brings the wand up in something close to a salute-

    ...

    "...'Sailor Moon'..." Octavia mumbles, incredulously. "What in the name of the Iron Fortress..."

    All Octavia can do is stare for several seconds. There's no way she's peeling all those ladies off this strange girl in stranger clothes.

    But this is no time to space out! No sir. Quickly, the ebon-haired holy mage whirls back around. Her wand whips to and fro, drawing more runes, but while she draws, she calls out, "If you think a horde of half-awake thralls is enough to bring down Octavia Alicette de Tenebrae, then your mind is as unsuited to the field of battle-"

    Whip-FWOOM! The runes unleash a spear made of holy light, hurtling straight towards the youma.

    "-as your face is to the field of love!"

    Josuke is likely gonna wreck something in the store even if he misses. Right now he doesn't care though -- it's true, he can just fix it later. But he can't fix if someone dies! So he stands up to his full height as he lands, presenting the full breadth of his upper body as a barrier between Naru and the monster. He's half-English, though, and his dad's a pretty big dude, so he's definitely inherited that.

    Naru protests that the monster is her mother, and Josuke nods. "Right -- don't kill her, just knock her out." And then the monster claims NOT to be Naru's mother. "...Well, that solves that, doesn't it?" His Stand reappears (Naru likely can't see it), and he prepares to attack...

    But then... hey! That's a local hero? Josuke doesn't want to step on any toes, but he also doesn't want to leave Naru unprotected. Particularly not when there are zombies everywhere! So he asks Naru instead, "Hey. Where's the basement? I'll get you there." It's probably safer than being up here, and if her mother is there, she can probably help her.

"Well, thanks lady for clearing up your not that girl's mom. No need to hold back on her, Holly. She doesn't have any regret for what she did." Lavaux is glad the youma cleared things so Holly doesn't have to feel guilty at all. The witch uses her strength to try and pry the women off of Usagi in order to keep everyone safe and keep them from attacking. After all it's not their fault that the youma brainwashed them.

  Ecco's attention is also stolen by Lex in the midst of his efforts to relieve bystanders of their jewelry. His head swings around to her as she suddenly radiates mint-green pixels. His eyes go round again, boat-shaped pupils wide in surprise. She might hear the rapid, Geiger-counter clicking of his sonar. It might tickle. "...Wow...! This place is so weird...! Ifni, I love it!"

  There's an enthusiastic clap of his jaws at that, before he realise that the sound might scare some of them, flukes drooping a little. "Oh--oops. Ssssorry! No, no, it's okay! I'm not gonna hurt-t you."

  He claps his jaws again, more quietly, once he sees the woman take her necklace off. Good, good! Ecco raises his voice to address the crowd. "That'ssss right! Take 'em off, all of you, if you can! Get that junk-k away from you! Throw it-t!"

  He'd help the others, but he's busy, making sure people take that stuff off. That style is so last year, anyway!

  The dolphin does watch Octavia from the corner of a broad eye, though. Whatever she's doing, that is so cool.

  His attention swings back to the crowd of people.

  --IFNI, PLEASE DON'T BE ACTUAL REAL-ASS ZOMBIES--

  HEY, BIM! GUESS WHAT? They're all real-ass zombies! The unconscious start getting up, and the look in their eyes suggests there's nobody home. Oh, look at that, they are totally not conscious and they're moving towards him of their own accord with totally blank not-home possibly dead eyes.

  OH IFNI NOT AGAIN

  Ecco would do something, like react to the entrance of Sailor Moon, but he's busy Having A Moment here.

    Lex sighs theatrically when the monster refuses surrender. "Well, that's that, I guess," she says. She flourishes her sword, accidentally smashes a display case, and sighs. "Whoops. Uh ..."

    The arrival of Sailor Moon gives her pause. "... huh," she says, raising her eyebrows. And she promptly narrows her as she immediately gets swamped. "Okay, jeez."

    "Want to skip the spell analysis?" says Shard.

    "Nah." Okay, Holly's taking care of Sailor Moon, Josuke's going to handle the real mom, Octavia's going on the offensive, and Ecco ... oh dear. Lex frowns.

    The glowing green edge of Lightshard 18's blade dims and turns black as Lex starts smacking the possessed women coming after her specifically, not wanting to hurt them -- "Josuke can heal them" isn't enough of an excuse in her mind! -- as she forces her way towards the youma. "Okay, y'know what," she says. "I dunno who this 'great ruler' thing is supposed to be about, but I am pretty sure it is time to lay the smackdown on waugh!" She trips, lets out a squawk which is even more scratchy and androgynous than her usual fare, and ... also starts getting dogpiled.

    Needless to say, Naru Osaka did not expect to be defended by the world's friendliest delinquent, this day.
    "W-whuh? Huh o-OH! This way-- it's this way!" She says, turning back through the door from whence she came, thankfully away from the scary monster and enthralled women, and into the apartment attached to the shop. Down a flight of stairs into the basement, and just as the monster-woman said, Mayumi Osaka is resting unconscious.
    There's a hiss and a curse of pain as Octavia's holy spear impales the youma's shoulder, making her lurch backwards with a howl.
    "Kill them all!" She snarls as Lex starts to batter a path for herself towards the monster woman only to get piled on.
    It is in all the chaos that Holly, helpful, friendly, Holly starts putting that superhuman strength of hers to peel the women off Sailor Moon, who is flailing and struggling all the while.
    "Oh god it wasn't supposed to be like this, I'm bleeding." The hero of justice squeals at the fact that she has... Scraped her knee.
    Sniff...
    Sniff sniff...
    Is she going to... It looks like Sailor Moon is struggling to not cry, for a moment.
    It is a struggle she fails.
    "WAAAAAAAHAAAHAHAAAAAAAA! I WANNA GO HOME, -NOW-!"
    It's like a sonic boom just tore through the room as she does, though, her voice carrying far, shrill, and hard, actually shattering the store windows as the jewels in her hair glow.
    It's... Well it makes the enthralled women keel over, clutching their ears and puts them all out of the fight at least.

    Josuke uses himself as a barrier again, keeping the youma away from Naru. "Stay in there until things calm down, okay?" he requests. With a reassuring smile, he says firmly, "I'll be down there as soon as I can to help your mother, I promise." It's only once he's sure that Naru's heading down into the basement and safely away from the monster that he turns to look at the creature that took the form of this woman briefly.

    "So that's what you were doing... stealing their energy!" he declares. "And then trying to use innocent people as shields... yeah, that's a real dick move -- sounds just like something a monster would do! So I guess, to free them... we gotta take you out!" His Stand appears again, in a flash of a sparkly purple aura. And Josuke leaps forward, bringing both himself and his Stand into range...

    ...And the flurry begins.

    Crazy Diamond unleashes a fast and furious flurry of punches at the youma, the Stand declaring its intent with an insistent, "DORARARARARARRARARARARA!" Despite the viciousness of the punch-flurry, he's not trying to bash this thing to hell. He's trying to pin it in place so someone with powers that can hurt this thing can deal with it.

    He also has Crazy Diamond's 'undo' button pressed -- shown as the Stand's fists are surrounded by an orange-gold aura. Is the energy going to the youma? Hopefully this will mean that energy will start going back to the people that have been drained, and will either wake them up or stop them from attacking the others.

>> SUMMARY[Josuke Higashikata] >> Josuke gets serious -- leitmotif! https://youtu.be/lWe1nmWeMug

    Octavia's face is grim and confident, watching the youma's reaction to her spell. The spear dissipates seconds after it hits home, but that's fine, as Octavia is already prepping another spell. "Do you really think just yelling harder at them is going to somehow prod your ensorcelled minions to victory? What a foolish-"

    The room shudders under a sonic attack of truly horrid proportions. Octavia herself is startled enough to stumble on the spot, hands jolting up to cover her ears, and her concentration is broken enough that her barrier shatters as well. "Ghk-! What manner of-?!" Is that costumed girl really crying hard enough to break glass? That might be the most awful noise she's ever heard. But it provided an opening. If she can just focus through the ringing to get another spell off.

    "Gh... if I only had Hauteclere..." Octavia mutters quietly. But wishing won't make it real. She'll have to just use her wand. And not cause too much damage to the shop. But if she can't use a blast, and she's unarmed, how...

    Oh.

    Maybe she's not quite unarmed.

    "Brandt. If you're watching, do close your eyes. I'm about to be rather unladylike," Octavia calls out.

    From outside, a man's voice responds in a dry tone, "Of course my lady. I am mysteriously blind for the next several seconds. Quite the strange coincidence."

    Quickly, Octavia draws out another spell, but before flicking her wand to activate it, she shifts the wand to her left hand. The spell flares into a corona of light - and she shoves her hand into that light, causing all that holy magic to settle in, enveloping her fist and wrist in a white-gold nebula of sacred radiance.

    With Josuke's barrage of punches as cover, she drops low and lunges into a run, straight past Josuke and around to the side. And while he's going full tilt, she springs up from her low posture, using her entire body to lend force to her arm - she has only one single punch, but it's a full-body haymaker backed by a not-insignificant amount of holy-elemental energy. "HAAAAA!"

>> SUMMARY[Octavia de Tenebrae] >> I Cast Fist

Holly's able to brace herself against the crying, but her ghostly companions aren't so lucky and are blown through the wall and out of the store. She smiles a bit though and doesn't seem to be bothered by the screaming as she makes her way to the youma. "Sorry, but you should have surrendered when you had the chance!" She draws her lollipop shaped staff and smacks the monster upside the head with it. Brute force seemed to be rather effective here since that's the route she's going to go with.

  Ecco fortunately manages to shake himself out of his moment of trauma, just in time for some of the menacing throng to approach a few paces. He picks up his pace, whirling to nudge and coax another person into removing the gaudy jewelry, it's unhealthy. Yes, please, and thank you!

  Lex starts smacking shoppers away with the flat of her blade, and he stares in fleeting awe.

  And then she gets dogpiled.

  He stares a little blankly before there is suddenly WHAT

  WHAT IS THIS

  And Usagi is screaming so loud it is causing him considerable physical pain. Ecco thrashes in place, and his flukes might accidentally smack a few people in his reflexive, alarming discomfort. He is squealing a pain-sound at such a high frequency it almost can't be heard.

  That sonic scream sure puts him out of the fight, too!

  Ecco doesn't get the opportunity to stare at Crazy Diamond and Octavia being cool, or Holly walloping the monster with her lollipop staff of smiting. He's too busy thrashing in pain. Owww!

    If Lex had not already been prone, she would have been bowled over by that scream from Sailor Moon. With her hands suddenly free, she claps her hands over her ears and grimaces. "... well, that's a handy emergency-limit-break thing," she says flatly.

    "Definitely better to have than not have," Shard agrees, lying on the ground next to her.

    Lex jumps back to her feet, wobbles slightly, and holds out her hand as the sword flies up to it. Josuke's keeping the youma in place; Octavia's taking the front; Holly's taking the side; so Lex goes for the other side, slashing with a few careful and precise cuts, before she jumps back in order to preemptively avoid retribution.

    And promptly trips over a prone woman. She manages to stay upright this time, though. "Whoa!"

>> GAME >> Usagi Tsukino spends an Edge for: Moon Tiara Boomerang!

    With the shoppers now sufficiently dropped, this leaves the youma without any minions.
    "I don't need them!" She declares in a show of bravado as the gathered heroes advance on her.
    It does not end well for the monster-woman that much is for certain.
    With Naru safely squirreled away in the basement and the shoppers down, they can unleash everything they have with little fear for hurting any innocents.
    It all starts with a flurry of punches; a devastating series of blows that batter and pummel and beat the everloving tar out of the monstrous jeweler, before an equally monstrous holy-haymaker joins the fray, making the ghastly ghoulish woman's head jerk from the impact before she's beaten over the head by lollipop staff. Poor Ecco just doesn't have any luck today, but even Lex' slashes get in on the youma's side, but when she trips up-- it's Sailor Moon who catches her and keeps her from falling.
    Thankfully the crying- and the sonic waves with it- have stopped as she wipes her eyes and a black cat leaps in through a broken window.
    "Now, Sailor Moon! Throw your tiara and yell 'Moon Tiara Boomerang'!" Luna instructs.
    "... I actually have to yell that when I do it?"
    "YES."
    "E-eep okay, geeze!"
    Bossy cat is bossy, but as the hero of justice plucks the tiara from her forehead it begins to glow in her hand, taking on a disk-like form in her grasp.
    "Moooooon... Tiaraaaaa... Boomerang!" She declares and hurls the glowing discuss. It sails through the air, trailing contrails of moonlight in its wake as it impacts the flailing youma in the midsection and cuts clean through her.
    "NOOOOOOO!" She shrieks, collapsing... And turns into dust where she lays.
    It's about now that the shoppers begin to stir, no longer being drained and with their energy returned to them by Crazy Diamond, they start to wake up slowly, groggy and confused.
    "Uwah..." Sailor Moon huffs as her tiara returns to her grasp and goes right back in place on her forehead.
    "That was scary... I never want to do anything like that again, I quit."
    "What do you mean you quit, you can't quit!" Luna balks.

    Octavia is very careful to take a good few steps back - she is not a bareknuckle brawler, and in fact her fist is smarting pretty bad right now. But that was the only way to deliver a solid holy blast without trashing half the shop. So, shaking her right fist out, she pauses a moment to wait and see whether the monster survives the onslaught...

    And for the second time in the past half-hour, gets to hear something ridiculous. "...'Moon Tiara Boomerang'...?"

    She stares at Sailor Moon. She glances at the ashes of the youma. She looks back at Sailor Moon.

    Hesitantly, as if not sure whether to believe she's actually talking to a cat, she speaks up towards Luna, "Might it be time to consider another mage for your master? She seems..." Pause. Be diplomatic, Octavia. "...Ill-equipped for battle, and unwilling besides."

    Josuke hops back as the tiara-boomerang is thrown -- he doesn't want to get in the radius of that, just in case it explodes. He's accustomed to Stand abilities and their eccentricities, so he's maybe a little more cautious than he needs to be here. But the breathes a sigh of relief when the youma collapses. Hs slumps a bit, just for a moment, and then stands straight. He gives a big grin to the room at large, and then a rather cheesy thumbs-up. "<Great> job, everybody!" he offers encouragingly.

    Though as 'Sailor Moon' notes she's quitting? He's going to try to be a little more help than bossy talking cat who just denies Usagi's request. Mind you that is freaking amazing, but he's concerned about the hero of justice here! He raises a hand to rub at the back of his neck, and calls out uncertainly, "Hey... hey, uh... <Sailor Moon>?"

    Yeah, he's gonna mangle that just a little; he's not good at English either.

    "I think I know how you feel," he offers quietly. "My grandfather protected my town, but he was killed... by one of the people he arrested a long time ago. These people, they've got abilities that put them out of reach of the law. So since I have those abilities too... I have to protect it. I can't quit. Because there are people using their abilities to hurt other people in my town, and I can't let 'em get away with it."

    ...Yeah, he's not a bad guy at all, is he?

    Lex blinks in surprise when Sailor Moon catches her, and she smiles, giving her a thumbs-up as the talking cat manages to get her to use her finisher.

    She sighs softly, and sets Lightshard 18 onto her back, where it sticks in place without any apparent means of support. She peers at the dust which was a monster a moment ago, then turns back to Sailor Moon. "Hey," she says, offering her own measure of support, "you didn't do that bad. And that tiara thing was so cool! I mean it was a completely awesome thing, and all that!" ... She's gushing at a middle-schooler.

    "You're the transforming kind of hero, yes?" says Lightshard 18. "-- Wait, never mind, I should stop asking along those lines."

    Lex gives her sword a funny look over her shoulder, then shrugs. "Anyway, like." She shakes her head. "Nice to meet you anyway, Sailor Moon. I'm Lex Brando. This is Octavia, Josuke ... Ecco ... and ..." She looks at Holly. "Sorry, I didn't get your name? ... or ... names?"

  Ecco's still thrashing just a little bit as the horrible screeching tapers off, but it goes on for a few seconds more because his brain is still ringing like the great thundering bells of a cathedral. He eventually shakes it off, figuratively and literally, just in time to turn and look as a black cat leaps in from a broken window, talks, and Sailor Moon questions those words.

  He stares flatly at the talking cat.

  There is absolutely no hypocrisy in Ecco doing this at all. None whatsoever. Nope nope. People are stampeding, though, so he can't really be distracted from them. With a dismayed squawk, he zips forward and up in a steep upward curve that takes him away from the stampeding crowds, looking down and sweeping the crowd with sonar to find Josuke.

  He finds him! And glides down until he's pacing beside Josuke, looking eagerly at this 'Sailor Moon.' The dolphin blinks at Josuke's revelation. Bummer. "Sorry about-t your grandfather." There's a long moment of silence, and the Ecco cocks his head a little, a possibly unsettlingly un-dolphin gesture. "You know, you're not t-trouble like you look. You're really a pretty nice guy, aren't-t ya?"

  Oh hey he's being introduced to Sailor Moon by Lex. Ecco looks slightly bemused by this, looking at Sailor Moon kinda flatly.

"I'm Holly! And they're Servis and Lavaux!" The witch points at the ghosts as she introduces them. "Is the cat your familar?" She looks at Luna curiously. She seems more curious than anything. "And you can't quit! If there's one monster there's bound to be more right? And she mentioned she was working for someone." She has no idea who this Grand Ruler person is. "Maybe I should learn to throw my hat at people, I bet that would hurt right?"

    So that's over, and everyone can be glad for it. But Sailor Moon and her cat are still bickering about whether or not the guardian of love and justice can just quit like that.
    Fun fact: She can't.
    "Sh-she's just very new at this, she'll grow into it!" Luna flusters at Octavia's assessment.
    The very same assessment that has Sailor Moon pouting massively.
    It's Josuke who calls out for her attention though, and Sailor Moon jolts slightly before stiffly turning to him.
    He hasn't figured her out, has he?
    He's not going to bring up her test again is he?
    Oh God, oh God, oh God...
    She's sweating for a moment, before Josuke actually speaks and is... Actually pretty re-affirming.
    "H-huh..."
    It actually gives her a moment to think. He's not such a bad guy after all. Kind of super helpful and friendly really. "W-well... I mean, I just started all this..."
    "I am not her familiar." Luna says with a huff, "Sailor Moon is destined to become the guardian of this world and protect it from the great enemy." She explains. "She's just very new to this!"
    It's Lightshard 18 that makes both Sailor Moon and the cat jump.
    "Ahahahahaha transforming? What makes you say that? That's silly! That's totally silly!" Sailor Moon says, flailing under the dolphin's inscrutible stare.

    Lex gives his name for an introduction, and he offers a pleasant wave and a smile. "Good to meet you!" he greets cheerfully. Then something occurs to him. Sonic crying. Dolphin. "Oh no, Ecco!" And he dashes over to check on their fine finned friend! Fortunately Ecco finds him instead! As he catches sight of the dolphin, Josuke sighs, "Whew, what a relief..."

    Though he sobers a bit as Ecco mentions his grandfather. "...Thanks." And then he looks sheepish at the observation of him not being trouble. "Oh, I'm trouble, all right," he replies, with a nervous chuckle. "Just, usually it's me getting myself in trouble!"

    Holly's words of throwing her hat get a thoughtful pout from Josuke, and he rubs his chin a bit. "Hmm... I think I remember hearing about a guy in my world who could do that. But that was in the late 1800s," he notes.

    Sailor Moon seems to understand his words, though, so there's that. And then some mention of 'transforming' comes up. "Hey, she's gotta protect her identity, right? So these things don't go after her family," he points out. He offers a smile to Sailor Moon though. "It's okay if you're new. Everyone who's doing this kinda thing was new at one time. Before you can be good at something, you have to be bad at it for a while. So don't worry!" Encouraging smile!

    "OH! That's right!" he remembers suddenly. "I need to check on that girl and her mother!" He didn't catch her name. "Be right back everybody!" he notes, heading back to the staircase to check on Naru and her mother.

    Lex laughs weakly. "Yeah, uh, Shard ..."

    "Sorry," says Shard. "I wasn't going to inquire more deeply than that. I was merely making a mental comparison to something from our world." Beat. "Speaking of which, Lex, my analysis just completed, and I give it the green light. The mint-green light."

    Lex furrows her brow. "That would've been useful five minutes ago," she says flatly. She looks towards Josuke; she really isn't sure what to say about his grandfather -- "Oh right!" Josuke remembers a mom to help out! Lex hurries after him!

    ... again, even though there isn't anything she can actually do.