World Tree MUSH

    The meeting is taking place in an abandoned private school, somewhere near San Jose. The place is pretty nice for being abandoned, though the dust is omnipresent and growing thick after five months. There are about twenty members of the Obsidian Cabal who have turned up for the meeting. Most of them don't look like they're combatants, in fairness. They look like the result of bad magical experiments or wishes gone wrong. They're misfits, people who, even if they weren't transformed, would not fit into society. Which is the reason they're here. Metallia Noctis has shown no interested in currying the loyalty of the 'dregs' as she might say, and the new Metallia Luna has yet to express an interest in taking them under her protection. They want a new leader for protection and a new direction.
    And so they've agreed to meet with Sybil.

"Thank you for coming here this evening. I haven't met most of you before, but I know several are familar with Shield-Maiden and Dr.Mendel." Sybil in her Hornet Qeen guise is standing in front of a podium in was once a gym in front of the gathered members of the Cabal. "Due to the unfortunate death of Metallia Luna the San Francisco branch of the Obsidian Cabal finds itself leaderless. Given my wealth and talent, I've decided to take up leadership. I trust there's no objections to this?"

 There's much dicussion among the crowd before a hand raises up belonging to a woman with six of them. "You? You barely have any experience in the Cabal, there are several others present who've been members longer. Besides, I'm already in charge of the Oakland branch. I could always use more spiderlings after all." The woman has a fanged smile as her many eyes peer at the others who are present.

    The crowd's restless since there's a lot of uncertainty.
    The three Hermetic inquisitors peer into the gym through windows high above the interior floor. 
    "I count... twenty-three. Includes Shield-Maiden, Doctor Worm, and that Sybil woman." She glances back to Serrah and Jun. "This could get really ugly, are you sure you two are good to go?"

Jun's been keeping quiet up there. Stealth isn't really something he's good at -- about the best he can do is summon fog and hide others. He is currently in his transformed state, because he figures this is going to be a big fight. Particularly with twenty-three targets down there that will probably all attack them at once.

He nods to the question. "Yeah," he says quietly. "Hey, what if we tried to convince one of those two girls -- the ones that are kind of vying for leadership I mean -- that the other one told off on her and tipped us off they'd be there?" he suggests.

    Serrah frowns as she peers through the window. She doesn't respond for several moments, then takes a step back. "I'm probably an atrocious judge of character, since my empathy's shot to hell," she says carefully, "but ..." Another pause. "... is it me, or are some of the people who aren't vying for attention just misfits, who threw in the Cabal because no one else would have them?"

    She isn't sure how happy she is working with so-called "inquisitors", either, but she's keeping that to herself.

    She shrugs. "Well, I mean. I'm not about to throw in with the Cabal myself," she adds. "I can handle myself." She smirks. "Just make sure, if anyone starts bleeding ..." And her expression immediately sours. "... ehhh, actually, y'know what, forget it."

    The Inquisitor in charge ahhhhs... "Well, we're actually looking to round up Sybil, Doctor Worm, Shield-Maiden, the spider woman who said she was in charge of Oakland..." And he describes four other Cabal leaders.

Benedicta Cornell says, "That might not even be the real Sybil. I wouldn't be surprised if we're looking at one of her doubles. Then again she's likely not far from here if that's the case. She wouldn't leave herself defenseless alone. Sybil doing that would certainly be likely if she had the chance. But the problem with that is we would have to side with one of them for that to work. Besides Sybil might just go straight for me." The rabbit girl maho continues to watch Sybil and the spider woman argue. The other cabal members gather around the pair and looks like they're starting to choose sides. "Maybe we should just let them fight it out and grab whoever we can.""

Jun nods to Serrah's words. "Yeah. I mean... I'm not in any shape to help them, either. I'm kinda homeles myself at the moment," he explains. Though as the other four leaders are described, he looks into the window again, seeing if he can pick out any of those people.

Benedicta's words draw Jun's attention back, and he nods. "...Yeah, that's true. You guys don't get along well, do you?" That's... a mild understatement, yes... but it's not exactly wrong.

    Serrah nods to the inquisitor. "Right, got it," she says. She shrugs. "Well ... if we're only after a few people, I don't see any objections to just running in baseballs blazing."

    She considers this a moment. "If you're worried about Sybil just going after you, I can help protect you, if you want." She just thinks that this is a logical thing to say in this sort of situation, even though Benedicta has demonstrated that she can handle herself before. Serrah's empathy is really not working that great, and it's causing her to overcompensate.

    She shrugs. "Either way, I'm ready when you guys are," she says finally.

    Among the collection of Cabal members is Uncle Slug, still grotesque as ever as he emerges from one of the bathrooms in the gym dragging a wriggling body-bag. He challenges Sybil. "If you aim to lead members of the Cabal, show us you can make a black obol." With a mighty grunt, he heaves the body-bag up and sets it down near the podium, in front of the Hornet Queen.
    Silence settles on the auditorium, only murmurs coming from the crowd. It seems most of those present were not aware that black obols required... a sacrifice. A distinct unease runs through the crowd. The cell leaders know though, and are looking at Sybil expectantly.
    "Oh... they're about to sacrifice somebody." The junior inquisitor points.
    "Move in, secure the victim first and make sure they're asleep." says the head Inquisitor.

    An expression of fury crosses Serrah's face as soon as she sees the body-bag. Something like this "sacrifice" happened to her once. "Yep," she snarls, almost before the Inquisitor finishes speaking, and she throws a baseball through the window at a hundred miles per hour, aimed directly at Uncle Slug.

    If anyone inside has time-manipulation powers, they'll see a ripple of light emanate inward from that window, and the world will become drab, tinted purple, and completely frozen -- except for the dead-looking girl in a black T-shirt and a rainbow skort with a single red streak through her hair, flying through the broken window at the speed of a car, fist raised.

    If not, they'll see her just suddenly appear in midair in front of Uncle Slug, as abruptly as a video skipping ahead, and swing her fist at him in a punch that would hit like a truck. She will do this whether or not he was knocked out by the baseball.

>> SUMMARY[Serrah Delany] >> Serrah is about to get Megalovania on this guy's ass.

"Uncle Slug...I see you escaped. I can create black obols, but there's no need to do so. I've made that mistake before and I don't intend to do it again." Shield-Maiden of all people suddenly speaks and the crowd gasps at that including Sybil. Except for Uncle Slug who gets punched by Serrah. The knight's attention then turns towards her, "I'm glad to see you're feeling better but I would suggest you leave. Unless you intend on joining the Cabal."

 The spider woman takes advantage of her nearly 360 degree vision to look at Serrah and than upwards at the others. "She's not alone!" Several spiders are tossed upwards at the group around the window with the intent of attacking them.

Jun winces a little at the dragging out of the wiggling body bag. That's... not good, no. He's not sure if he's going to be able to get over there in time, even if they go now. However, he nods as the head inquisitor speaks--

And then Serrah's coming out swinging. "...Well," he comments, before pausing to try and summon up a fog that will hide the rest of the group. He uses his flight to get through the broken window without cutting himself.

And then suddenly SPIDERS! Jun starts trying to take them out with well-placed shots of water. He's not trying to impale them, no, but to briefly envelop them in his particular brand of water control. Which is STEAM! So not only will get be drowned, but they'll be BOILED!

Given he's more support than a front line fighter, he'll try to use the confusion to make his way over to the body bag. He has no sleep magic of his own, and he doesn't want to risk hitting the person too hard and hurting them. He doesn't know what he's going to do yet... but first he has to get to the person, so...

    Uncle Slug's flesh is squishy and resilient, and Serrah's punch rolls him over with a sticky squelching sound. Make no mistake, the mage isn't a pushover, he was caught unawares though. Defensively, a cloud of now thoroughly angry hornets boils out of the man's volumnous cloak and towards Serrah. Regaining his feet, he summons his great scythe to his hand with the characteristic whip-crack of such things. "It is easy to escape from ought when one was never caught." He retorts to Shield-Maiden. 
    The body-bag is wriggling as Jun reaches it. In the chaos of fleeing cabal members and the cell leaders ready to battle, it was ultimately simple for the weather The inquisitors actually hold back and circle around to try and catch any escaping leadership.

    Serrah gives Jun and the victim a lightning-fast glance, and then her lips curl into a snarl, baring her fangs at Uncle Slug as she leaps back to avoid the hornets; the rest of her, it seems, is also lightning-fast. "What does a slug's blood taste like?" she growls, in a voice which ... almost doesn't sound like Serrah. "I've never tried."

    In a swirl of darkness, she forms a big black cape on her back, and she corkscrews through the air, trying to use the cape to swat at all the hornets. This isn't entirely effective; nor, however, would it be completely ineffective, if successful. It is also something of a fashion disaster, given the rest of her relatively punkish outfit.

    After a couple more seconds of that, though, Stop the World's cooldown expires. One timestop later, Serrah is half a dozen feet further away, and now there's a dozen baseballs flying towards Uncle Slug at a hundred miles per hour.

Benedicta leaps down and joins the fight as well, her rival being her main target of course. With one swift kick Sybil seemingly vanishes from sight. "I knew it." Her horn begins to glow yellow as she exits the gym to find the real Hornet Queen. Shield-Maiden pulls away from the chaos as well and is close behind her.

 Meanwhile, a certain spider woman has as look of disgust on her face as her spiders are boiled alive, "You'll regret that, boy." She webzips towards the body bag with the intend of beating Jun to it.

Good, no one seems to have noticed him yet. Jun still doesn't know what he's going to do, but for now he crouches down and says quietly to the person in the bodybag, trying not to be heard over the din, "Stay still, okay? I'm gonna get you out of this."

('....Somehow. I hope,') he adds mentally.

For now, though, he's going to try to pull the bodybag behind one of the inquisitors -- they're outside the main line of battle, right? Well, for the most part. Besides, Jun can snipe from the back row.

Oh holy crap Miss Muffet's dark reflection is coming at him. He pulls his sword, the blade activating with a soft hum. Also it's worth noting that's a holy blade, and radiates that pretty strongly. And as he zips torward the bodybag as well, he takes a swing, hoping to catch the Mirrorverse Miss Muffet in the blade's arc.

The spider woman isn't expecting Jun to pull a sword on her and backs off, she's still grazed by the blade. She holds up several of her arms to try and block her eyes from the light as she backs away. Luckily for her she's not too far from a window and it's a quick webzip before she's outside. She would have to get her revenge another time when she has the rest of her crew present.

 Meanwhile, Benedicta finds herself trapped between a magic barrier and a wall as Shield-Maiden walks by. The knight is slower than the al'miraj girl but the obstruction should give her time to beat her to Sybil now.

    Uncle Slug grins at Serrah. It's not at all a pleasant smile. "Like snips and snails, puppy dog tails." Being a beast magus like Benedicta, the man has a few tricks up his sleeve. As the baseballs begin to hit, he grows a thick beetle-like carapace to weather Serrah's barrage. He's not doing much else
    Most of the rank and file members of the Cabal have fled the gym. Even some of the leaders have fled in the chaos. There's two besides Baroness Spider and the Hornet Queen. One seems to wield light-based magic, attempting to dazzle and cook Benedicta. Another seems to bend time, stuttering and moving as though affected by a strobe light as he advances on Serrah. 
    "Hey you, how about you and me do a temporal tango?" Pieces of the guy don't seem quite in phase with the rest of him, leading to a weird sort of dusting effect as he strobes.

    Serrah glares Uncle Slug's carapace for a few seconds, and a few feline growls escape her throat. Then she charges forward and unleashes a full-on punch-flurry on him. Multiple hit-like-a-truck punches would land on him per second, trying to overwhelm the shield he's created with sheer volume of hits, and simultaneously unleashing an equally-rapidfire cry of, "POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW POW --"

    She comes to a sudden stop when the flickering man appears. "Oh for fuck's sake, not you again!" she says, suddenly sounding exhausted, and equally-suddenly sounding like herself again. She makes no move to strike back against him just yet; she just stands there sizing him up for a moment.

>> SUMMARY[Serrah Delany] >> "Stardust Crusaders" playing in the background, suddenly interrupted with a record scratch

Well, at least the light damages Shel's barrier as well but Benedicta has limited room to dodge as she tries to avoid getting fried. There's a yellow glow and the rabbit-girl is suddenly covered in quills as she runs against the magical wall trying to pierce it. Shield-Maiden is out of sight at this point, so much for catching up to her and Sybil.

Whew. That didn't go too badly, thankfully. Now Jun can guard the bodybag a bit more effectively. He might have come here to try to capture some of these Cabal leaders, but this poor bastich in the bodybag probably has no idea what's going on and didn't want to be here. Everybody else at least kinda knows what they're into, and are here by choice.

There is a LOT of stuff going on out there, though, and he can't just leave Benedicta and Serrah to handle it all. Particularly since the inquisitors aren't moving to help, the lazy bums.

There. The one going after Benedicta. Light magic. Water can change the refraction of light. So Jun throws a group of small globes of water out, trying to intercept the light and bend it away from Benedicta so she has more breathing room.

    The time mage frowns. "I think you're mistaking me for somebody else." He thinks for a moment as Serrah sizes him up. "Or maybe it was a temporal clone of me. Sometimes that happens when time magic goes bad." He's leaving vanishing sand all over the place.
    Uncle Slug sizes up the situation and decides to vamoose after the pummeling he's recieved, unfurling giant insect wings and buzzing off through the broken window provided earlier by Serrah. "Ah that's all for today, time enough again to play."
    The light mage pops a blinding flare of light, flooding the gym. Under this cover, he attempts to break away as well, seeing the situation as a lost cause. The time mage has apparently 'ceased to be now' with the flare of light, seeing how even the notoriously tough Uncle Slug was not fond of taking hits from the rainbow skort-clad woman.

    Serrah furrows her brow at the time-mage. "Oh," she says flatly. "Well ... whatever --"

    There's a blinding flash of light! Serrah lets out a yelp, stops time, and throws baseballs at the source! She reappears outside of the broken window, peering back in with an exasperated expression. "... oh," she says softly. "Light as in 'bright', not as in, uh ..." She shakes her head uncertainly. "... 'creatures of darkness return to dust' or however that goes."

"Dammit!" Benedicta's managed to break through the barrier but the light mage escaped as well. She goes to rejoin the others, maybe they had more luck in capturing their targets. They've had to brought down at least one member of the Cabal right?

Jun yelps as the light floods the gym, his water globes losing cohesion and splattering on the ground. His hands go up to cover his eyes, the sword blade fading from view with a small 'power-down' noise. And he crouches, to make certain he has a hand on the bodybag. He is not making any effort to go after the fleeing leaders. Firstly because he's more concerned with this hostage, and second because HE CAN'T BLOODY WELL SEE.

Once his eyes start cooperating again, he looks up. "Is everyone all right?" he inquires. Pause. "Reasonably so, I mean. I can he... lp if someone's injured." He's being careful, because the person in the bodybag can probably still hear them.

    Serrah regards Jun. She's suddenly looking like she's ... not feeling that great about her vicious outburst before. Nevertheless, she manages a wry, "You can't help me, but I'm fine."

Jun nods to Serrah, giving a bit of a sheepish look. "Okay... I need to help this... person get out of here." He's still not sure whether it's a man or a woman. And then, looking almost nervously at the inquisitors, Jun picks up the person and goes flying out it. Hopefully they're not going to follow him.

Should he make it to the city, he'll locate a dark alley, set the bodybag down, and then gather an obscuring cloud of mist around him. Then he unzips the bodybag... then FLEES from the scene as fast as he can! Because he doesn't want this person to see him. Too many questions, and he doesn't want the inquisitors to decide they need to 'sanitize' the hostage...