World Tree MUSH

    It's the late afternoon, and Lex is hiking up a hill in her homeworld with Lightshard 18 hovering next to her. She has a lot to think about, and there's precious few places she feels conjuring up a talking sword as big as she is, so she's taken to retreating deep into the lesser-traveled paths in the woods, conversing in hushed tones. The phone signal is kind of crap, especially with the obsolete replacement phone she hurriedly bought after the incident where she was cursed, but that's a net positive as far as Lex is concerned, and she ended up just switching it off.

    "... but the Dawnfall doesn't need to know that Lightshard 17 is dead," Shard is saying. "Oh ... I've just detected some Vines opening up southwest of here."

    "Really?" says Lex. "Huh." She sets off at a brisk pace.

    The Vines are indeed redirecting suddenly (just like they did when Lex was cursed). The new destination is an old paved crossroad in a wooded area; a street sign sticking up from a traffic island declares the two roads to be Peg Shop Road and Jordan Road. There's a few houses in the general vicinity, and a large open field to the southwest.

    There are regular booms off in the distance to the east. Every so often, a car drives by heading west or south or in any case away from the sound, with varying degrees of "well in excess of the speed limit."

    It's by complete coincidence that Hyouka comes stumbling out of the Vine onto an unfamiliar crossroad. She'd just been traveling home! It was a boring offworld job, really, glorified guard duty, and nothing even happened. Sure, it was easy money, but she didn't quit her office job and get a tricked out cyborg body for easy jobs! The operative phrase here seems like 'be careful what you wish for', though.

    "Hyouka, there are explosions happening in the distance," intones her body's onboard AI assistant. Hyouka arches an eyebrow. "You know you're using my ears to hear that, right?"

    "And there are vehicles fleeing." "Yes, I can see that. You can see that because I can see that."

    "Didn't you want something more exciting?"

    Sigh.

    "I suppose I did ask for this, yes. Might as well go take a look. DARGN, see if there's any local cell networks or internet or something you can link up with."

    And off she goes, breaking into a jog that most humans would consider a sprint. Straight down whichever road leads more directly towards the sounds of battle.

    Luke is, like most of the time when he is not actively doing tournament or contest stuff, simply exploring the world tree, it is always quite neat to wander to new places, see fancy versions of the world, meet new friends and learn new stuff!. Of course, the boy didn't quite expect the vine to drop him in the intersection of Peg and Jordan, but he never minded wooded spots, and less habitated areas. The boy appears, holding a curious handheld of some sort, and flanked by a rather small cream furred kitty that seems to have a coin stuck on it's forehead, "Ok Konya, remember the deal, I let you stay around, and even get you some new things for your collection, but you have to promise me not to try to steal them..." he is interrupted by one of the loud booming noises, and a car racing just next to him, causing him and the kitten to jump aside!. 
    The boy looks for any local, to gather his bearings a bit, even if he does realize that something must be going on, and once again grumbles at not having a transport pokemon, he has to put the work on one eventually!. He begins to head in the same direction Hyouka is, while reaching down to his belt, just in case.

Lucianne had gone wandering a bit. She finds it hard to stay in one place for too long, and while interesting, Hyrule is one place. More or less. She comes out the vine and hears the explosions and the rapidly departing vehicles and sighs to herself, before taking off her eyepatch and getting into a solid sprint in the source of the disruption.

    The direction of the sounds would start up on Peg Shop Road, but would quickly take everyone off the road and through the trees. The sound of crunching trees become audible, as well as a laser sound immediately preceding each explosion.

    With Lightshard 18 on her back, Lex catches up with Luke and Lucianne first. "... Wait, yeah, I think we know why -- Oh hey, Lucianne! ... and ... Luke, right?" Since Luke last saw her ... she now has a prosthetic left arm and leg, made out of white and mint-green plastic. And there's a high-tech five-foot-long sword on her back, curved and with a gleaming white blade with a black edge, and with a bunch of mint-green running lights. There's also an air of tiredness about her that wasn't there before.

    "Hello," says the sword in an electronic girl's voice. "Lex, you might want to turn your phone back on, now that we have better signal."

    "Huh?" says Lex. "Did you get something, Shard?" She turns on her phone. A moment later, it lets out an emergency beeping sound and makes an announcement in a text-to-speech voice. Hyouka and DARGN, too, would quickly receive the same emergency alert, which started half an hour ago: "An Atlantean Sentinel has activated in Roxbury, New Hampshire. It is traveling west towards Keene, New Hampshire. The threat level is Yellow. If you are anywhere near its path, please proceed calmly to the nearest emergency shelter." The GPS opens up, displaying the location of the Sentinel to the east, a red cone displaying its probable path, and a black line indicating where it's come from so far. Hyouka receives the same coordinates.

    Lex smacks her forehead, and adjusts her course accordingly. "Freaking welp!"

    "I'm not getting any kind of wide-area network," DARGN reports as Hyouka runs, "But I am picking up a repeating emergency broadcast." After listening to it, Hyouka's steps pick up a bit. "A wandering disaster... robot, or being, or something, that sounds like exactly the kind of thing I'm best suited to dealing with!" The AI remarks dryly, "I feel compelled to remind you that there will likely be no payment for this." As she changes her course, the faux elf remarks simply, "Well, my conscience would be in the red if I didn't at least take a look."

    Her new course will probably take her into view of Lex, Lucianne and Luke fairly quickly!

    Luke is not particularly fast, he is just a young teen without super abilities, grumbling about renting something, when he hears a familiar voice calling his name!. He pauses, while the cat, that was now relocated on his shoulder, seems devoted to track the direction the explosions come from, meowling at its trainer insistently as the boy stops, cat must be curious. "Lex!" the boy says, turnign to face the familiar person and pausing as he spots the rather clear.... changes, "You look quite different... are you alright?" he asks, tilting his head, and offering a friendly smile. 
    Of course, any polite conversation is halted as hte sword brings attention to the news, which Luke gets closer to hear as well, "Is this like that weird machine thing we fought that time in those ruins?... an ancient robot or something of that sort?". He is holding his belt tight, "Can I help?" he offers after another moment, his attention now on the disaster at hand, there is always time to catch up later. "Cool sword." he adds.

"Hey Lex." Lucianne calls out, "Good day to do the right thing right?" She yells cheerfully, following along. She's got stamina and a decent running speed, but she's not an olympic athlete, so she has to work at it; glancing to Luke as she runs, "Hey." She greets, "I'm Lucianne Helia, what's your name?" She smiles, which only serves to accentuate the fact that she has an orb of fire where her left eye should be.

    "Thank you," Shard answers Luke dryly. "I'm Lightshard 18. You can call me Shard."

    Lex grimaces. "No, not okay, but I'm doing well enough," she says. "Long story short, this cool sword cost me an arm and a leg."

    "You'll stop making that joke eventually," says Shard.

    Lex chortles at Lucianne's greeting. "Yeah, really," she says. "Lucianne, this is Luke. He, uh, helped with one of the Atlantean Grid ruins. Oh! And yeah, it'll probably be a lot like that other time." She peers forward as she catches sight of Hyouka. "Who's that?"

    "... A cyborg," says Shard. She sends a handshake greeting which DARGN will likely pick up, announcing the presence of friendlies.

    That's about when they reach where the Sentinel is.

    Crawling at a brisk walking pace, it's divided into eight segments which look like upside-down brown earthenware urns a dozen feet wide, each with four spindly legs and four eyes. Around the rim of each "urn" is a curlicue floral patterns which the Atlanteans seemed to favor everywhere, glowing an unpleasant shade of orange. (A familiar shade of orange to Lucianne, who's seen the active curse in Lex herself, and to Luke, who's been inside a corrupted Atlantean Grid facility.) There are two more eyes in the front, and a pair of earthenware-looking cannons. Which, at regular intervals, flicker yellow with a loud brap sound, followed by launching out a high-speed laser that kicks up an explosion. Supernatural senses might detect the curse inside it: it's hostile to life and nature itself.

    There's a long trail of destruction behind it.

    Some ways ahead of it is a pale-skinned blonde elf in light armor with shoulder- and knee-pads, trying to drag herself out of its path with the help of a broken sword. There's blood trickling down her forehead, and rage in her eyes. "God ... damn it," she mutters. She gives Hyouka a particularly furious look for some reason.

    "Ilmaredh?" says Lex, rushing to her side. She was at the incident Luke was there for, too, but she didn't participate. "Wait why the hell did you try to come after a threat-Yellow thing by yourself!?"

    Ilmaredh tries to focus on Lex, incredulity in her eyes, but she's clearly about to pass out. "Overconfidence," she mutters, and then her eyes flutter closed, and she goes still.

    "Local connection established," DARGN declares almost immediately. "Friendlies, Hyouka." Her built-in HUD guides the cyborg's eyes to the rest of the group, and she angles her path towards them. "Yo~. I'm Hyouka. Can anyone tell me what..."

    Her question dies on her lips; it's just been answered. "...I'm guessing that's it." She's so busy staring at the Sentinel that she misses the outraged look shot her way. "This thing's huge..." There's a pause, and then she glances towards Lex, Luke and Lucianne. "It's not going to cause problems if I hit this thing with ice magic, is it?" Regardless of whatever answer she gets, the cyborg is already bringing up her arms; with a loud voice, she declares, "Fisto, ON!" and her arms come apart.

    A glowing bluish infinity within, parts unfolding, panels swinging out into place. It's like a fast-motion clip of much bigger, sleeker techno-gauntlets assembling themselves around the arms that contained them only a second before. It doesn't take more than a heartbeat to finish, either. And fully assembled, she slams her massive fists together, while numerous lines along either gauntlet light up in a brightly glowing cyan.

    Thus armed, the cyborg takes a high leap in the air, aiming to come down fist-first in what she hopes is a suitably stylish manner on the Sentinel's back.

    The boy smiles to Lucianne, "Nice to meet you, I'm Luke Gray, this is Konya, one of my pokemon." he offers, he does seem curious about the burning eye, even the small kitten seems to spot it, looking at it curiously. The awkward joke about the sword gets a barely contained chuckle, but also a nod, "That... I'll just say I am glad you are well... it's nice to meet you, Shard."he adds, if he sees anything odd about a talking sword, he gives no signs of it. 
    The polite introductions are once again cut short, this time by the sight of the behemoth approaching, which causes Luke to take a step back, before reaching for two pokeballs, "Dynamo!, Bewear!." he calls out, beams of ray emerging from orbs on his hands, a rather cute looking very round 'tiger' appearing with a loud roar, followed by a tall (over 7 feet!) bipedal creature, black and pink, and looking extremely fluffy, almost looks like a theme park mascot!. It makes a sharp growly noise. "Dynamo, stay close to keep me safe..." the round tiger growling and starting to charge up, electricity sparking out of it's fur. 
    "Bewear, try to grab that thing's attention, Superpower!" The black and pink pokemon nods, quickly moving to one of the nearby trees, grabbing it one paw, a white aura surrounding it's body as it effortlessly picks it up, glances at the mechanical monstrosity, and tosses it with a surprising ammount of strength, like a very awkward lance or spear, aiming at the front segment.

"A pleasure, Luke Gray and Konya." Of the people present here, Lucianne is the least suited to fighting this thing. Doesn't mean she can't do anything to help though, and she starts by hurrying towards Ilmaredh, checking pulse quickly, and then picking the elf up; gently moving the wounded elf to the side, before picking up the broken sword. It ain't much, but it's something. With the damaged weapon, she turns towards the thing.

    "Nope, ice isn't a problem!" answers Lex. She focuses on helping Lucianne move Ilmaredh. "... Ilmaredh Vineway, you are the luckiest elf in, like, the entire world, and stuff." She looks up at Lucianne. "Getting her butt kicked by an Atlantean weapon, but not in a way that she has any fatal injuries or anything? That's amazing. It's not completely unheard-of, and stuff, but, like, it's amazing."

    "I'm so proud of you for saying 'the hell' a moment ago, by the way, Lex," says Lightshard 18.

    Lex blows a raspberry. "Oh, shush." And then she winks at Lucianne, before she calls out to Luke and Hyouka, "Hey, uh, I'm gonna let you guys handle this for now! I don't wanna be here without armor, and all that!" She then makes a beeline for the trees.

    Hyouka's punch is enough to leave a dent. A single punch just leaves a small dent, to be sure, but it's a dent nonetheless. The Sentinel lets out an angry synthesized buzz, and responds by rolling over onto its back in an attempt to crush her; its legs are long enough that it can still support itself. This exposes the bottoms of the urns, which are smooth and flat with the legs sticking out of them.

    When Bewear hits it with the tree, it shakes in annoyance. The sheer strength of the pokemon was enough to shatter the thrown tree against it and leave another dent. It stops in its slow advance, turns the front segment to face Bewear with the cannons aimed particularly carefully, and then goes perfectly still for the full second it takes to activate and fire the lasers directly at the pokemon that attacked it!

    Oh, a dent! That's a promising sign. All she has to do is hit it harder nex- "WHOA!"

    Hyouka is very nearly crushed, and she only avoids that fate by pitching herself off and going for a tumble instead. Her body is armored by both mundane and magical means, sure, but she's not going to chance that. But chucking herself off like that means it takes a second or two before she can stop herself moving and come up to her feet again. However, she's got the go-ahead for ice. That's all she needed to hear.

    The aqua lines on each gauntlet begin glowing brighter; a noticeable cold begins to roll off her oversized fists. This time, she stays on the ground while charging back in; all the better to keep her footing so she can start swinging massive haymakers. And every time a punch connects, there's a sudden discharge of ice mana, lending each blow an extra kick that also probably leaves behind a patch of ice.

    Luke is trying to focus on the 'battle', with Dynamo standing besides him, itching to get in the fight!, "Dynamo, wait!" he commands, not wanting to risk the electric pokemon for now, better to be careful. 
    It seems the mechanical monster is fixated on Bewear, that's nice, that was the goal, "Bewear, get closer to it, Endure!". The pink and black beast charges forward, making sure to stand away from Luke, Lex and the others, before it stops, standing still and making a 'come over' motion with one paw, letting out a loud growl, a bright blue aura glowing around it... is it planning to actually get shot on purpose?

>> GAME >> Luke Gray spends an Edge for: Bewear uses Endure!

Lucianne doesn't dress like a warrior, she doesn't hold that broken sword like she knows what she's doing with it, beyond pointy bit goes in the enemy. Still, she goes for it, holding it with both hands as she runs towards the Atlantean machine and just shoves the damaged weapon downwards like she's trying to ram a tentpole into the ground with an awful hurry.

    The Sentinel lets out another buzz, blasting Bewear in the face with its laser. BOOM. But this gives Hyouka the distraction she needs to start pummeling. And her punches are clearly doing noticeable damage. The machine starts twisting around, trying to position itself so that it can properly aim at her without accidentally blowing itself up, and tries to kick at her with its legs in the meantime. Or possibly stab her.

    At the stab from Lucianne, it seems more startled than anything else, and starts to twist back around, kicking at her, and firing a laser in the process which ... isn't particularly aimed at anyone currently present. It blows up some trees diagonally from its path.

    From behind a standing tree near Lucianne, under the cover of the explosion, a voice calls out, "Á virya!" ("Transform!")

    There's a swirl of mint-green pixels and Elvish computer code, and a figure twirls through the air as she comes out from behind the tree. She has long black hair, and wears a white, black, and mint-green dress with an angular design and the number 17 on several places. Her eyes are covered by a mask, and she's carrying a sword which looks a lot like Lightshard 18 ... but with extra metal bits on the sides, including a heart-shape near the hilt. Oh, and the blade is glowing mint-green like the lights, instead of being black.

    "Shinewander Sky!" she calls out, and her voice is somewhat distorted electronically. She charges forward with speed that matches Hyouka and then some, and slashes at the side of the Sentinel with careful and precise cuts.

    And promptly gets knocked back with a successful kick from the Sentinel. "Augh!"

>> SUMMARY[Shinewander Sky] >> Shinewander Sky is here! -- Ow!

    The good news is, Hyouka's skin is tough enough that a quick kick from those legs isn't going to be enough to slice it open. There's a tear in the abdomen section of her shirt, sure, but she's fine.

    The bad news is, 'running speed' isn't the only way Hyouka and Shinewander resemble each other right now.

    Hyouka goes flying at the impact of the leg, sailing straight back until she hits a tree with a very heavy WHUD. Wood splinters, and she drops immediately to the ground - only to pop right back up and start charging in. This time, the ice mana starts building up on her right gauntlet even before she swings; by the time she's in punching range, a thin veneer of frost has formed over the surface of her massive techno-fist. It's not hard to see what that thing's doing, and the cyborg is going to at least try and take out a cannon before it can start shooting her. Hopefully, a powerful burst of ice magic accompanied by a metal-crushing punch will pull that off. "ORYAA!"

    Luke is starting to look a bit... concerned when things start getting complicated, his attention turning to Lex and her magical change, or at least, turning to the curious new figure charging at the mechanical monster, only to be swatted out after it gets close. "Bewear?" he calls. 
    The pokemon takes the blast straight, moving both arms to cover its face, and as the smoke from the blast clears, the pokemon seems to be standing, even if it looks like a strong breeze might knock it out, the fur singed in places, dirty, and seems a bit unsteady. "Bewear!, just one more attack!, Reversal!". The unsteady pokemon pauses as the command hits his ears, and the pokemon suddenly roars, a bright orange aura blasting around it, engulfing the worn out pokemon, before it gathers in its left 'paw' and it charges ahead one more time, now that the monster is distracted, it might not be as impressive as a massive techno fist, but to anyone able to sense such things, there is a terrifying amount of energy gathered in that 'fist' and it charges to smash it straight on the front of the creature at high speed.

Lucianne gets kicked backwards, hard; crashing into a wall in a manner that looks like it ought to break her spine. She however, just falls to the ground and pushes herself back up; still wielding that borrowed, broken blade; just in time to see the Shinewander get kicked. "Be careful with those kicks." She calls out, "They hurt." That said, she tries once more to drive the weapon into this thing.

    Hyouka is clearly doing a lot of damage by now; its aft segments start to go still, anything further back than the particularly damaged ones. She also successfully breaks off one the cannon she was aiming for, and when Bewear crashes into the front, it stumbles back, letting out a more distressed buzz.

    Shinewander Sky quickly gets back to her feet. "You don't say," she says dryly to Lucianne. "... I'd ask how you survived that, but I'll worry about that later." Even under the distortion, her tone and manner of speech sound an awful lot like Shard.

    She regards the injured Sentinel. "It should logically have backup connections," she calls out, "but it looks like they aren't working! The head should be our target! Put everything you've --"

    With its remaining good cannon, the Sentinel fires a laser at her.

    She leaps twenty feet into the air, and the laser blows up a small clump of trees behind her. "WHOA!" She quickly shakes her head, pauses as if something just occurred to her, and then, falling through the air at a slower pace than you might expect, she swings the sword, launching out several slashes of mint-green light towards the Sentinel's front section. Where they hit the already-damaged parts, they tear out small chunks that expose strange machinery inside.

    Bewear lands a punch hard enough to make the thing stumble back, and Luke rushes forward, holding his pokeball on his hand, "Bewear, return!". The pokemon tries to protest, but is reabsorbed in it's pokeball, before the trainer and zap tiger both rush to helpt he wounded Ilmaredh, while the electric tiger keeps watch. He also needs a moment to figure his best chance to help at range.

    SMASH! Off goes a cannon. Hyouka pumps one huge fist triumphantly... and finally notices Shinewander Sky.

    "...A magical girl?!"

    Hyouka is... enthused?

    "That's so cool!" Just like that, the cyborg's motivation is redoubled, and she hurtles into the fray again. And helpfully, the mystery magical girl has just opened up some prime weak points! Admittedly, Hyouka really only has one tool with which to take advantage of those, but at the very least it's an effective one; driving huge fists with more force than a jackhammer into exposed machinery and releasing bursts of ice magic tends to have a very destructive result!

"It's a very good question." Lucianne answers the Skywander and shrugs, "I don't know, though." It looks like the others have got this thing handled by now, and so backs off. "I'll be feeling that once I calm down, though. That hurt." She takes a glance towards the others, "So is this a regular occurrence around here?"

    "A Shinewander," Sky corrects Hyouka as she lands feet-first on Sentinel's head, sword held aloft as if she was trying to avoid causing damage. "I suppose that 'magical girl' might count as a broader category." She says this as if she isn't familiar with the term.

    She quickly jumps off as Hyouka starts pummeling, watches for half a second, then gives another couple of swings, sending more sword-beams into the exposed damaged parts of the Sentinel. With Hyouka's next punch, the machine seizes up, lets out a loud buzz as several explosions go off inside it, then collapses and goes still, the orange glow fading.

    Shinewander Sky nods approvingly, and puts the sword on her back, where it sticks in place without any apparent means of support. "I'm afraid I can say very little for certain," she answers Lucianne. "However, the emergency broadcast I received would logically suggest that it's common enough that the people here have ready-made emergency shelters."

    Ilmaredh clears her throat; she's evidently been awake for some of this, and she's staring at Shinewander Sky in disbelief and confusion. "It is," she croaks out weakly.

    And down it goes! Hyouka backs up a pace or so, fists cocked and ready, but the Sentinel is no more, so she relaxes at last. One quick WHAM as she slams her fists together, dislodging all the excess frost from their surface, and then the elf-esque cyborg is disengaging the FISTEAU system entirely. It's the same in reverse, the components folding in and collapsing and finally sliding into a glowing blue space inside her regular arms; she flexes her regular fingers once or twice, then goes to head over in Sky and Ilmaredh's direction.

    "Being a magical girl's something to be proud of! I kinda wanted to be one when I was little. Well, my hero was only sort of magical, but she transformed and everything, so it was close enough." Shrug. "Anyway, what was that thing? I ended up here by accident."

"Shh, don't speak. You need your rest." Lucianne wanders over to Ilmaredh, sounding like the pain of that impact has finally caught up to her. "I carried you out to safety, but I don't know anything about healing people so you'll need a barber and a priest. Don't move." She glances to Hyouka, "Based on the other magical girl I know, I'd agree with your assessment that this 'Shinewander' is a magical girl, or at the very least an acceptable off brand substitute for one." She nods to Sky, "Makes sense."

    Ilmaredh nods along with Lucianne until that last part, at which point she says, "A what." Almost immediately, her eyes close again as she fades out.

    "I'll see if I can contact emergency services through the airwaves," says Shinewander Sky. She hmms at Hyouka's assessment of magical girls. "I'll have to look it up when I can spare a few moments," she says. She chortles at the 'off-brand substitute' comment. "Well, if you insist." She peers at the fallen machine. "This ... is an Atlantean Sentinel," she says. "A guardian, created to defend the elves of Atlantis, now subverted by the curse and computer virus which brought this world to ruin two thousand five hundred ninety-seven years ago. I'm aware of that much."

    She pauses. "... I think someone military is coming ... wait, no, they've stopped where they are. I guess they've just become aware that four people on foot just took it out by themselves." The sounds of helicopters become audible at the edge of hearing, but true to her word, they aren't getting any closer than that. "Emergency services it is. And I think it might be a good idea for you to join her, and all that," she adds to Lucianne. (... A turn of phrase similar to what Lex might say.)