World Tree MUSH

    It's another bright sunny day in Tokyo's Azabu Juban district, and it looks like school is finally getting out for the day! This means a lot of hungry middle schoolers are escaping classes with a craving.
    It's a good thing a new fast food place just opened up, seemingly overnight! Four Kings Burgers wasn't there the night before, but this morning it was open and ready for business, with an incredible grand opening deal; but a burger and drink and you get a second burger free!
    So naturally, the place's popularity skyrocketed almost instantly and it's paaaaaacked to the brim with people.
    USAGI TSUKINO is standing outside the burger joint looking crestfallen. Her wallet is empty and judging from the growl of her stomach, someone wants a burger.

    "Ne ne, Naru, lend me some money for a burger~?" She asks of her best friend, Naru Osaka, who is standing right next to her.
    "Hm? Sorry Usagi, but I need to do some shopping now that school's up and can't spare anything."
    "Whaaaaat you're shopping without me?!"
    "For groceries and stuff you doofus! And I need to get home early, too. Sorry Usagi. Next time'll be my treat." The young redhead says as she breaks off and starts heading home. "I'm supposed to have dinner with my mom tonight anyway so I shouldn't spoil my appetite. See you Usagi~."
    This leaves the twintailed blonde by herself, huffy and looking put out.
    "Awwwwh... Maybe if I look sad enough in the window someone inside will buy me a burger..."

    <"Tokyo, huh?">

A black motorcycle carrying an armorsuited... man? Yeah we'll go with man, sped through the streets. It wove in and out of what little traffic there were at certain points, the police motorcycle recognized for what it was, earning little attention. The rider on the other hand, may well do so when people look: asides from a human hand, everything save for a 3 inch slit for his mouth and cheek is visible, the deployed visor covering his face.

    <<"That's right Alex. This World is said to get some... unusual occurrences, and if there's anything the government likes, it's--">>
    <"More info on unusual things so we can know more, yeah, yeah."> 
    <<"Apparently, in places similar to our own world, Tokyo seems to attract a lot of... strangeness.">>
    <"... magnet for trouble, huh. Well, it does give us a chance to test out the effects of communication with those Vines and what not.">
    <<"Indeed. We'll keep monitoring from here and let you know if we pick up anything as well. Good luck out there.">>

Revving up the engine slightly, he banked towards a turn, though keeping in mind how traffic worked here as he did. Least the software his systems ran helped Murphy not make any of the common muscle memory mistakes a normal body would.

    There is good news, there is more good news, and there is bad news!

    The good news is, Octavia Alicette de Tenebrae's role in taking down a monster in the middle of Tokyo has not caused any diplomatic headaches... largely because as far as the authorities are concerned, there was no monster attack! It was clearly just some altercation. Clearly.

    The other good news is, thanks to being a diplomat involved in such an awful attack on foreign soil, the young Schildan ambassador has been able to press for special permission to bring Hauteclere with her, by combining the clear and evident risk to her own life with a strong followup of 'cultural requirement for Schildan nobles to be properly armed with a mageblade at all times'. So she's properly armed!

    The bad news is, Brandt isn't here with her. He had some coordinating to do between Schild and the Tokyo metropolitan government, menial but necessary things, so Octavia insisted she would be fine venturing out on her own.

    "So you're telling me that you eat these... with your fingers?"

    She may not in fact be fine.

    Octavia's keeping her shopping light today, but she's decided to stop for food at a takeaway place selling kara-age. It looks and smells delicious, but the young noblewoman has come to a screeching halt over the prospect of finger foods.

    "No... no utensils?" "Well I guess you could use chopsticks, missy, but you don't look like you got much practice with those. 'fraid I don't have any plastic forks neither." "Aah, that's... w-well, I suppose if that is how things are done here..."

    There's a delinquent with a pompadour walking the streets! ...Not too weird, is it? Though maybe a little bit so, since this teen is a lot bigger than the average high schooler. Of course that's because this particular delinquent is one Josuke Higashikata! He's still on his search for the mysterious 'Usagi Tsukino' so he can return her test to her. He does have school himself, so between that and Speedwagon Foundation business, he hasn't been able to contribute a lot of time to the search.

    Today, though, he went straight here from school, and now he's wandering the Azabu Juban district of this iteration of Tokyo. And he's also pretty interested by this 'Four Kings' burger place. "Oh, hey," he notes, as he pauses at the place's window to read the promotion. "This is a really good deal." Tilts his head up, thinks. Turns his head to look at his companion. "Ever had a burger before?" he inquires.

    Of course he's within earshot of Usagi as he's saying this...

The delinquent with the pompadour is weird, or at least the company he keeps is weird. There's a dolphin floating through the air beside him, occasionally flicking his flukes to keep up. Ecco rolls on his axis, showing his belly to the other as he tilts his head, eyeing Josuke through one boat-shaped pupil.

"Sssso, how common do you think those things are in this place?" Ecco pulls himself to a halt, looking over to the burger joint. One of those human things, right? "Nope. I tried one once, just to fit in. Made me pretty sick. If they have some kind of fish sandwich, I guess I can order that-t without a bun or ssssomething."

He glances over, tilting his head a little. It's a creepily humanish gesture. "Huh. What-t do you think her problem is?" He flicks his snout in Usagi's direction.

    Lex is making her way from point A to point B again. Once again, her prosthetic limbs are flesh-tone.

    "... but participating in the war against the beings of Twilight is probably far outside the bounds of your job," says an electronic girl's voice from her arm; Lightshard 18 is once again pretending to be communicating remotely, because a sword almost as big as its wielder often offends. "I'm not objecting, I might add; it just seems to be the sort of thing Miss Hawthorne will complain about."

    "Ehh." Lex shrugs. "We're both, like, emotionally invested now, kind of thing. I'll, I'll do it 'in my own time.'"

    She pauses as she nears Four Kings Burgers, and catches sight of Josuke, and Ecco. "Oh, hey," she says as she makes her way over. "Gonna ... stop for burgers, and stuff?" She smiles. "Room for one more?"

    Her gaze falls on Usagi for a moment.

    "Oh, we're in Sailor Moon's world, aren't we," says Shard. "That girl was here last time, wasn't she? Unless she's an alternate counterpart."

    That test... That test will be coming back to haunt Usagi, won't it? Well it certainly will if Josuke returns it, but for the moment, the twin-tailed blonde is staring forlornly in the window.
    A student inside lifts a burger to their mouth.
    "Ahhhhhh..." Usagi whines.
    The student notices her and lowers the burger, and her mouth closes.
    They bring the burger to their lips and--
    "Ahhhhh...!"
    ... They lower the burger, staring, and she closes her mouth.
    This repeats once more before the poor student is too weirded out to eat now.
    However, Josuke might hear the telltell rumble of a poor girl's stomach, before a sniffling Usagi actually looks up.
    "O-oh. Oh! It's you, hi!" She recognizes him, clealy, and is clearly less intimidated than she was before. Especially with Ecco, right there. There are hearts in her eyes, she can't help it that dolphins are so cute.
    And then she notices poor, poor, Octavia, practically floating over toward the other girl, leering at her kara-age.
    "Heyyyy I remember you, from the jewelry store, too! Chopsticks are pretty easy, I could teach you!" For a price, Octavia... For a price.
    And then there's Lex. The mere mention of Sailor Moon makes a bead of sweat roll down Usagi's brow.
    Meanwhile, inside the burger joint, it's looking like it's super full, people who finish up their burgers get back on line for seconds though, instead of leaving. Some are even on their third portions now. But it looks like the lines are going fast at least with three people working the registers.

Pragmatically speaking, Alex has driven by the Four Kings Burger place, as part of his patrol. So far, though, he hasn't seen a reason to stop there yet, though in one of his passes he makes note of the crowds. Possible danger due to fire code violation. The rapid analysis of his systems keeps it in mind and tags it for possible issues related to aforementioned crowds. 

Big ones like that are usually asking for trouble.

    ('Don't scritch the belly, don't scritch the belly...)

    Josuke's not much concerned with not looking tough, honestly. He'd cuddle a kitten in public, that's no big deal. It's more that it's rude to just reach over and scritch another person's belly, particularly in public! And despite being a dolphin, Ecco is very much his own person! So it's more for rules of public propriety. That and he doesn't want people to think Ecco's his pet. As for what the problem of the forlorn-looking girl at the window is? "Hmm... probably hungry and doesn't have any cash."

    Lex's voice draws Josuke's attention, and he turns. "Well, Ecco can't eat them, so I'll look for something else for him," he notes, rubbing at the back of his head a little. "If they don't have anything he can eat, I might just get something and eat it later." It would be rude to eat in front of Ecco if the dolphin couldn't participate! "But I don't mind the company!" As for this being Sailor Moon's world? Josuke nods. "Yeah, seems so," he confirms.

    Usagi recognizes him then, and greets him, and so he offers in return, "Hi there!" Yes, that is a happy chirp of a greeting, from a punk. And of course the first thing he asks? "Was your friend okay after what happened? What about her mom?" He does seem genuinely concerned. If he notices the sweatdrop, he doesn't mention it. No sense embarrassing the poor girl more than necessary.

    Blink blink blink. "The jewelry store? Ah, I see, you were there." The ebon-haired noblegirl reaches up and flips one black drill aside haughtily, taking on a rather smug sort of smirk. "I suppose that I do strike a rather memorable chord. Octavia Alicette de Tenebrae, at your service. You may call me Octavia." There is a brief moment of thoughtful regard towards Usagi (and her obvious hunger), and then she adds, "If you are willing to teach, I would certainly be grateful. Shop owner, one item from your menu for her, whatever she wants."

    While the takeaway clerk is collecting Usagi's order, Octavia turns to look past Josuke and Ecco at the burger place, briefly meeting their eyes in the process. "My, but that restaurant certainly is busy. Higashikata, wasn't it? What is it they're serving there? Some form of meat on a bun?"

    Don't stare at the floating sapient dolphin. Don't stare at the floating sapient dolphin.

The dolphin flutes a sigh, recoiling briefly and slashing his flukes diagonally; the equvialent of a person throwing their hands into the air in exasperation. What is it with non-adult humans and calling his kind cute? He doesn't argue the sentiment, though, mostly because there's probably no point.

Before Josuke can be tempted to scritch the belly any more, the dolphin rights himself, clapping his jaw in assent to Josuke's guess; it's loud, but not alarmingly so. "P-probably."

"Nah. Get-t yourself something if you want. I can go hunt-t later. I'm actually not that hungry." A flick of his tail, and Ecco pulls himself into high posture, tilting his head again as though in puzzlement. "Huh. Weird. Anybody else notice how crowded that place is? Is that-t normal? Man, I wouldn't-t want to wait that long in line for something..."

Octavia's trying not to stare at the floating dolphin. The floating dolphin grins right back at her.

    Lex nods to Josuke. "'S cool, 's cool," she says. "Oh, hey, Octavia!" She's still acting so ... casually towards the noblewoman. Or maybe that's just how Lex acts towards everyone, nobility and royalty included, (or at least, nobles and royals who don't have a stare that can cut through steel).

    She peers at the crowd. "Dunno," she answers Ecco. "Kind of odd ..." She's gotten used to the idea of a floating cyber-dolphin fairly easily.

    "I would assume it's just because it just opened," says Shard's voice from her arm. "Also, it has free wifi. -- Oh, and there's also quite a few startlingly-positive reviews from earlier today. Interesting."

    Lex raises her eyebrows. "Sounds cool!" She chuckles. "Well, uh, guess we've got a bit of a wait here, Josuke ..."

    OH MAN FREE FOOD.
    Usagi has hearts in her eyes as she practically starts drooling. "One order of kara-age please!" Oh but she hasn't forgotten her promise so quickly as she plucks up a set of chopsticks. "Fiiiirst, you break these in half." She explains, then you hold them like this..." Said as she displays the proper method of holding chopsticks for Octavia to pick up on.
    She might be laser focused on food though because she's already stuffing her mouth with a piece of chicken as soon as it's ready for her.
    "Oh huh. Naru?" She replies to Josuke. "Yeah, they were a little shaken up, but they were fine. Who would have thought a riot would break down over such crazy jewelry sales."
    A riot. Right. That's what happened, and Usagi is going to stick with it. That's probably what the news said happened, here, anyway. But while she's here making new offworld friends, she may be polite.
    "I'm Usagi, by the way. Usagi Tsukino! You're all from offworld right?" She says, with her mouth full.
    That burger place's food must be really good though... People are getting up for even more, despite how sick some of them are starting to look, wobbling on their feet, some collapsing on line, others not even paying attention and stepping over them for thier next helping, burgers getting slapped onto trays as fast as they're ordered and people shamble back to their tables where more start to drop.
    ... Does this look familiar?

    Josuke looks up as his last name is spoken. Octavia asks her question and he nods. "Yeah, they're called hamburgers," he offers. And then he adds helpfully, "No ham involved, most likely. It's beef, ground up and shaped into a patty." He doesn't blink at having to explain a hamburger, because he understands that some of the current crowd aren't from this world, or any Earth-like world.

    Though he has to snicker a little bit at Ecco's reaction to being called 'cute' by Usagi. "Probably better not introduce you to Jotaro, then," he decides, sounding amused. "He's a marine biologist, but he absolutely loves dolphins." Lex's words of the obvious wait that's ahead though, that gets a sigh. "Yeah, seems like it. Well, I'll give it a shot anyway, see if I can get something. Just to try the place out, you know?"

    Usagi mentions Naru and her mother being all right, though, and he sighs in relief. "Good. I'm glad they were both all right." But he pauses at the mention of a 'riot'. Blinks. Maybe it's like in the animes, and normal people can't see what's really going on? Either way, he just nods to that, making no effort to correct her. "Y-yeah," he offers. And then a name is given! He blinks a bit. "'Usagi Tsukino'? That's right, I have something of yours!"

    ...And then people start dropping! "Aw geez, not again!" he mutters. Looking to Usagi, he notes, "Hey uh. You might want to hide somewhere, I think there's gonna be another, uh, 'riot'..." And just like that he's trying to drag people out of the place, and working on them with Crazy Diamond. He knows now it's not going to fix them completely, but it should stabilize them so the problem can be dealt with.

    "Ah, Miss Brando, good afternoon~," Octavia greets. She seems to ave adapted quickly enough to Lex's casual approach. Less quick is the rate at which she's adapting to the chopsticks, although she does seem to get the concept quickly enough. "I see, so... this one like a writing quill, and... no, that's not- mrrrmrmr..." Well, she's... she's trying.

    Such is Octavia's focus on her chopsticks now, though, that she doesn't notice the strangeness within the burger joint. Her response to Josuke is only half paying attention. "I see, interesting. Perhaps I shall try a hamburger for a meal before I leave the city next. Or locate a recipe for one of my chefs to learn. If- ghh." She's still trying to get the hang of the chopsticks.

    Wait, what? 'Another riot'?

    Josuke's words finally sink in. Oh dear. Octavia's head snaps up, and her eyes dart between her kara-age, her chopsticks, and the burger joint. It takes about half a second before she decides to just jam the chopsticks down into the kara-age container, and set them over on the takeaway place's counter. "Please hold onto these for me. I shall return for them as soon as the situation is dealt with.

    She's there shortly after Josuke goes to work, and she does so as well, in a different way - by drawing Hauteclere and starting to write out a spell in the air. It's a familiar set of glowing runes, the holy cursebreaking spell... but with her sword in hand, the wave of curse-eroding energy that radiates outward is a fair bit stronger. It's still a quick-cast spell, without the oomph she could get by focusing on it or concentrating it to a single person, but the difference from her wand is noticeable.

The others seem to dismiss how crowded the restaurant is, but Ecco still looks vaguely concerned by that as he glances back to the building. The others have his attention soon enough, especially as Usagi introduces herself. He ignores the part where her mouth's full.

"I'm Ecco." No middle name, no surname. Just... Ecco. He issues a thin squealing sound that seems like the equivalent to laughter. "I'm pretty sure if I were from here I wouldn't have this many people staring at me." To Octavia, he claps his jaws. Seems to be a generally affirmative gesture. "I'm from Earth, too; the history of mine looked a lot like thissss. Just-t... not this one. Nice to meet-t you."

His entire body twitches when the first of the people hit the floor. He twitches again as the second one does; the sound is like a gunshot to his finely-tuned hearing.

"...Aw, ssssardines, not again!" It's not a wail, but Ecco sounds pretty disappointed, because this is probably gonna devolve into chaos a few seconds from now.

Hautclere is eyed, though, because Ecco loves weird freaky supernatural wuju stuff, because his Earth has lots of tech and no magic!

"Cooooool," he says, entranced.

    <<"Alex, take a look at this.">>

It's pretty easy to look as the words from Norton come over his feed, and in the peripherary spun up a social media post from the nearby network. It was a picture of inside Four Kings, and it was of a gaggle of young girls who took a picture of not just themselves but the crazy offworlders (Hi Ecco!) but at the same time? They seemed completely oblivious to the people who were on the ground from an overabundance of meat.

    <"... a dolphin, and... has nobody noticed?">
    <<"The people on the ground? That was weird enough but not long after the systems scraped the picture, it was as if it never existed in the first place. Most of this is reconstitued from metadata, and trying to scrape anything else there...">> 

Just saying it was enough to make Alex turn his system's attention directly there instead of just passively. Discovering a certain lack of outgoing data was extremely odd, and felt like something was trying to either be covered up or restricted. <"Can't dwell on why. Think that's going to be trouble no matter how you look at it. On my way."> A quick shift of his armored feet on the pedals and he was making a sharp turn, using one of those same legs to pivot even faster and doubling back. 

Nor did it seem to take him too long--a gut instinct told him not to go in flashing sirens, but go in he would. The rumble of the motorcycle's engine heralded his coming for sure, but once he killed the engine, it was the odd hydraulic-sounding 'whrr' sounds that accompanied his greater movements that really told anyone within earshot he was present. 

"The hell is going on here?" he mutters to himself, his visor briefly lifting up and folding back behind him. Even as he advanced to enter, heavy footfalls announcing it, he was already scanning--crosschecking with local databased, but also taking health analyses of those on the ground. It said something about sick from overeating, but more data--more time scanning, was required.

But his sensors also pick up on the conversation between Usagi, Octavia and Josuke--his visor immediately folding back into place as he takes more judicious scans of everyone--natives and offworlders alike, his systems not quite yet able to make out what might be happening towards those who *are* being helped by the youngster's Stand.

He too, is trying not to stare too hard at the floating dolphin himself, since focusing on that while it feels like something's about to happen is... not good, no.

    Ah. A cover-story. Lex isn't about to try to persuade Usagi as to what really happened. "I'm Lex Brando, and my talking sword ... who isn't here right now ... is Lightshard 18, or Shard for short," she says.

    "Charmed," says Shard through her arm.

    Lex nods to Josuke and Octavia. "Oh, yeah, they're named after Hamburg, Germany, I think," she says. "... I think."

    "They are," says Shard. "Free wifi, remember."

    Lex shakes her head. "Yeah, why don't you keep instantly looking stuff up online, Shard --"

    She pauses as people start to drop. "And while you're at it, Shard, could you, I mean, scan for that thing that was at the jewelry store, kind of thing?"

    "I'm ... not certain that's within my capabilities, no," Shard says carefully. "But I'm fairly certain that Mr. Higashikata and Lady de Tenebrae will draw its attention soon enough."

    Lex nods, and stands up straighter, her robotic left hand held slightly away from her side. She raises her eyebrows as Octavia activates her cursebreaking spell. "... Huh. Shard, I ..."

    "Yes, I feel it," says the voice from her arm. "I'm fairly certain that if our curse hadn't had most of its capabilities burned away by Miss Sheik, it would be quite ... mmm ... perturbed by this. -- Oh, here comes another cyborg."

    "Huh?" Lex blinks, glancing over at Alex. She gives him an uncertain wave with her robotic hand.

    "It's nice to meet you, Ecco! I'm pretty sure the dolphins here don't talk like you do--" The blonde says before her attention shifts.
    "Huh you have something of mine?" Usagi asks, completely baffled as she has completely put that terrible test out of her mind from last time. But then the girl grimaces. Another riot? Of course that means something else entirely, for real. It looks like Octavia's choptick lessons will have to come to an early end as she watches Josuke and Octavia run right into the burger joint just down the road.
    It's comfortable and inviting. And it won't tell you lies. Except that bacon cheese burger and those dayum good fries are proving to be a little more lethal than expected as the patrons who have gorged themselves are once again showing signs of their lifeforce being drained away.
    Though once again Crazy Diamond mitigates the drain, Octavia now has Hauteclere, and that curse breaking spell severs the ties of the energy drain victims to... To...
    "Oh. Look who it is." Says one of the clerks behind the register.
    "It's the offworlders from last time." Says another.
    "We were ready for this though." Says the third as they leap the counter, hands contorting into wicked claws and blades as their faces and bodies turn far more monstrous.
    "We'll put a stop to your heroics today! Wendy! Sanders! Kill them!" 
    "Right, Ronalda!" The other two say in unison.
    Huh it's probably a good thing Usagi jetted, this is going to be a real 'riot' in a second.

    "'Ready for this'...?" Octavia echoes.

    ...

    "OOOOO-HOHOHOHO~!"

    With her left foot back, her right shoulder forward, Octavia brings her left hand up to her mouth, throws back her head, and laughs. It is not a modest laugh. "My goodness, what a poor joke. If you've based your response on my performance last time, you truly are fools of the highest order. At my last meeting with your ilk, the wand I carried was but a trifle! A simple little holdout in deference to this world's laws. This time, you face the full might of House Tenebrae, and the light of the holy blade Hauteclere!"

    The sword in question whips across in a rapid-fire series of runes; a spell that in the previous encounter led to a powerful holy punch. This time, the sacred energies settle into Hauteclere's blade, and the rapier takes on a soft gold-white cast. Without hesitating, Octavia lunges into melee with Wendy - and her holy weapon dances with impressive skill and precision, darting forward in several rapid stabs.

Alex's systems likes labels, you see. Threat. Non-Threat. Medical Attention Required. You know, different things like that. The continual scan and monitoring of others and picking up on some strangeness his sensors can't quantify however, is another matter. People are getting measureably better, but as to why, he can only make a deduction it's owed to other offworlders here.

His head rotates, a slight nod given in regards to Lex and ... Shard? That Lex called it? While he doesn't yet have full identifying information his scanners are cataloguing it, denoting the voice origin as 'Potential AI?' and the like. All under the heading [LEX BRANDO] given their volunteering of said information to others.

"Not the first time is it for you folks, is it?" he asks of Octavia, Josuke, Lex and even to a lesser degree the flying sentient dolphin. Who, along with the others, is getting the full documentation. "Get people as clear as you can." he says even as the clerks begin to talk ever so threateningly. His side arm is first to deploy--the proximity of people is enough to not draw free his battle rifle, but is enough to draw the pistol out. 

It's barely a second passed from the words 'kill them!' leave the mouth of one of the... extremely strange (to him!) clerks that he simply aims, and pulls the trigger multiple times as he takes aim at Sanders. A sidearm that delivers charged cartridges designed to ramp up to--in this current state, 50,000 volts of electricity. He has a suspicion that he'll need to do more, but his intention is, quite simply to put them down. If he needs to use more than that? Might need to use more than just the sidearm.

        [THREAT]        [THREAT]        [THREAT]

    Josuke is on high alert, so the whirring sound that Alex's cybernetic parts make as he approaches draws the teen's attention. He pauses in his work and turns to regard the source of the sound. And NOW he looks like a typical Japanese delinquent from those movies -- the kid can go from 'complete dork' to 'I'm going to feed you your teeth' in nothing flat. "Who are you?" he asks, sounding suspicious.

    It's worth mentioning that Josuke is not to the point that he's going to automatically accuse Alex, though. No, the last time this happened it was a legit monster, and while he does look pretty dang intimidating, Alex does not look like the actual supernatural Scary Monster that did this.

    And soon enough, the monsters who did do this show themselves! The clerks start to talk amongst themselves in Just That Way that reveals them as the perpatrators. And then they too become monsters! "Might have figured you guys wouldn't give up," he replies, standing up. It's reasonable to assume these are working for the same 'Leader' that the other one mentioned.

    While he's putting up a front of being tough here, he is actually hoping that occurrence of Sailor Moon wasn't a one-off thing. Her abilities seemed tailor-made to fight these things, and he's not sure how much good 'just punch the problem until it stops being a problem' is actually gonna be with these sorts of monsters...

    The cyborg starts to give orders, and... nostalgia happens. There's a moment where he hesitates, and there's a faraway sort of look there... And then he blinks, pulling himself back to the present. "Right," he notes in response to Alex's order, and continues carrying people out. Mind you, he uses his Stand, because Crazy Diamond can carry more people than he can alone -- he can carry one person over a shoulder and his Stand can carry one under each arm!

    It's also worth noting that, even if Alex can't see his Stand (since Josuke is never sure who can and who can't, he always assumes offworlders can), there's some crazy weird EM energy coming off that kid...

"I doubt they would. I could probably talk to them, but it would be weird. I don't-t know how much I'd be able to undersssstand." Ecco swings his head sidelong, eyeing Usagi. Worriedly, he edges away from the group with a kick of his flukes, scanning the collapsing crowd with the rapid clicking of his sonar.

He pulls himself up higher to 'see' them better. "It'ssss the same. They're just fading away," he mutters, swiveling his head this way and that for a better cross-section.

"Oh, looks like they know us this time around," he says, with false cheer. "Unfortunately I don't think I have a way to reverse what-t they've already eaten, this time..." And then Octavia de Tenebrae is making a weird noise. Laugh. Thing. Ecco eyes the young lady sidelong.

Ecco, however, doesn' t have any fancy battle cries. He just coils himself tight and then spears toward the closer of the two co-conspirators, leaping past Josuke and his moment of nostalgia; attempting to simply bash 'Ronalda' to the ground.

    Lex raises her eyebrows at Alex. ... Huh. Well, this is a thing. "Nope," she answers him carefully. "I'm not that good at carrying people, though, these cybernetics are a drain --"

    At that point, the clerks make themselves known. Lex grins at Octavia's reaction, and shakes her head. "She's got a point, y'know," she tells the clerks. "Shard, what're odds that word of this'll get to anyone from our Blossom?"

    "Doubtful," says Shard. "The previous incident didn't even spread through this Blossom."

    "Booyeah." Lex holds her hand out, and in a swirl of pixels and what appear to be Elvish computer code, a five-foot-long curved high-tech sword with a gleaming white blade and a glowing mint-green edge appears in her hand. "And this time, I can do a bit more than I could before, and stuff! Á virya!" ("Transform!")

    A much larger swirl of pixels and Elvish computer code surrounds her, and when it clears, she has longer black hair, and she's wearing a cyberpunk sort of dress with glowing mint-green highlights and the number "17" in various places, and a black and white mask that hides her eyes. "Shinewander Sky!" she announces, and she charges forward right towards Ronalda with a slash -- not with a whole lot of force, but relying mostly on the sharpness of the blade.

    Lightshard 18 then starts sending Alex tactical data: tactical data with the header "Lightshard 18 disguised as Lightshard 17." Guess that's where 'Shard' comes from ...

    There's a moment. A brief moment where the trio halt to glance at one another as Octavia... Laughs. She full on ojou laughing at them. Their pause is brief before they're spurred into action by anger and outcry.
    Wendy snarls, brandishing a spatula as she struggles to parry the holy-charged blade, recoiling every time the weapon meets her improvised implement of pain. The fact of the matter is that for all of this youma's inhuman strength and speed, Octavia just so completely outclasses her.
    Sanders is tazed. Body jerking and jolting from the Alex's shot, skeleton briefly visible as she smolders, but takes the tazer rounds... standing. These monsters are hardy that's to say the least as she brandishes a kitchen knife.
    "Have it your way!" Shouted as she lunges for the metallic cop with intent to try and find a chink in all that armor.
    She won't.
    That leaves Ronalda... Wielding a basket from the deep fryer, charging after Josuke as he tries to rescue people from the building. Right up until--
    There's a grunt- a sound of pain and the sound of a foot impacting a face and...

    "How dare you try to use innocent people's appetites against them!?"

    That... That is a familiar voice as Sailor Moon stands over a crumpled youma, hands on her hips. "KFC? More like JFC; in the name of the moon... I'll punish you!"
    Pause.
    "Did I really just drop one???"
    This question is answered by said youma getting back up and in her face.
    "EEEEEEEEE!"
    That girl... That girl has a way to go.
    At least Ecco swings in, just time to save her, bodily slamming into the monstrous woman and launching her into a wall with a grunt of pain. She really doesn't have it easy, crying out in shock and pain as a new hero of justice, SHINEWANDER SKY, appears and slashes her, the wound terrible enough to reduce the wounded youma to dust and ash.
    "H-hey..." Sailor Moon's thunder. It has been stolen.
    But that leaves Wendy and Sanders to contend with.

In the midst of this fracas, Alex *can* answer at the very least, his inhumanly fluid movements accompanied by the very audible whrr and *thnk* whenever he shifts position--the way he turns his body before turning his head--all of it makes one think he is nearly 100% robotic, and not just the parts that are flesh visible, such as his right hand or the face beneath the dome visor.

"Alex Murphy, Detroit Police." he answers curtly, politely. Even as he answers, the sensors are picking up that odd electromagnetic generation--and coupled with his earlier scans he can make a quick deduction. Or rather, his system can help him with that figuring out much faster than he normally would've. "You're part of what's helping them, aren't you? Thank you." He gestures once with his chin towards the... curious individual of brazen laughter, Octavia. "You and her both?"

Still, he wouldn't blame him for thinking he's a monster, given his height, and the full 'tank'-like cybernetic body he has. But the steel-hued plating and black joints in between them does paint a lighter shade of things. His laser-etched badge on his chest. Still, while his systems can't quite make out visually, nor his eyes, there's enough he's picking up on that something else is there.

He can bother with the additional infrared and similar modes later, if he really needed to. As long as what Josuke was doing wasn't a threat. Person of Interest? Most certainly, as was the case with most if not all offworlders.

And then there's what Lex is doing. 

<<Secondary Datafeed Detected. Connect? Y/N>> 
>Y<

Mind, such a connection is only done after a cursory check--it's unknown what kind of equivalents that Lex Brando's people have akin to a quantum computer inside his brain but it's the kind of thing that works fast to process the data and reframe it into the necessary data to synchronize what he's about to do with regards to the remaining targets as 'Threats Remaining' goes from 03 to 02. Hmm. But that's not all--it's the data header that catches his attention. 'Disguise, huh? Well, I get it.'

<"Norton, mark some of this data restricted until it's analyzed later."> Not that they make a habit of uploading the data to any kind of public network but at the same time a network is a network, private or otherwise. Speaking of said networking, Lightshade 17? 18? Whichever and however one identifies, he can dwell on that later and ask directly. 

"Was going to offer you a chance to surrender, but I doubt that. Have it your way, creep." he mutters as Sanders hurtles towards him, the cyborg abruptly twisting out of the way, then thrusting a metallic hand out to catch the Youma by the throat to try and slam them groundwardly. He doesn't follow the movement--not fully, because he's not going to put himself in a line of fire as he levels the TSR-66 at it. Fifty thousand not enough? 

How about two hundred thousand? There's an audible pulse noise as the bars on side of the barrel abruptly light up, scaling from about midrange to fully coloring it and he squeezes the trigger--not once, but twice, and even a third time, sending three of those cartridges as close to each other as they can be to literally fry the youma with a terrifying amount of electrical charge. Excessive? Maybe. Maybe not. Deal with the problem first -then- take stock of these... flashy displays. So much data to be fully analyzed, that's for sure.

    As she duels, the young noblewoman catches Alex's question, and without looking away from her opponent, she calls over her shoulder. "Me? I'm just a foreign ambassador lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Unfortunate for these monsters, though." Parry, parry, thrust, thrust. Good bladework flows easily from Octavia despite the distraction, years of training keeping her movements smooth and natural. "You fight as if you've always gotten by on brute strength," she observes of Wendy, dancing back in a quick series of parries intended to draw the youma forward into overcommitting.

    She's just drawing Hauteclere up for a counterattack to take advantage, when... transforming mage girls? Two of them now?

    Octavia de Tenebrae just flat stares.

    Wait no don't gawk! You're fighting a monster! Octavia whips herself back around, and almost on reflex, brings her left hand up to the flat of Hauteclere's blade. Her fingers brush along a series of runes engraved there, which light up with holy energy; a quick whip of her sword, and in half a heartbeat she's projected a barrier between herself and Wendy.

    "Shall I shackle you with the weight of justice? OHOHOHO~!" The weapon flits back and forth, inscribing a series of runes that erupt into glowing chains. The chains whirl and curl, the spell intended to tie Wendy down and hold her in place for the others to finish off. It's not a particularly long-lasting spell, but it will quite suffice for the purpose of finishing blows.

    Both Josuke and his Stand have double armfuls of hostage! So when Ronalda leaps for him, there's really nothing he can do but... present his back to the youma! A dangerous move, but he can't get his Stand between himself and the youma either, because it's carrying people too. So there's nothing he can do but just use his own body as a barrier! Which he does, tensing in preparation for whatever hit the youma was to deliver...

    Fortunately, the thud that happens is not from anything hitting him! And he looks up, seeing Sailor Moon. "Good, I was hoping you'd come back!" Yes, he is genuinely happy to see her! She is, after all, this world's hero. There's a tense moment where Sailor Moon seems to be in trouble too, though that's dealt with by a combo of Ecco and Shinewander Sky swooping in! So Josuke can deal with the people now. Shouldn't take him long, at three people at a time.

    So once he's gotten as many people as he can safely get outside, he heads back in to help deal with the problem. Wendy catches his eye first, and he faces her with a MENACING countenance. "So I guess you want one fresh-never-frozen ass-kicking, huh?!"

    ...WELP. Looks like the undercurrent of dorkiness is always there!

    And without any more time to think about how horrible that joke really was (not to worry, he will sufficiently berate himself for it later) his Stand reappears -- oh hey, Alex, there's that EM again -- and unleashes a barrage of super-speed punches at Wendy! The Stand emits a rising, droning, "DORARARARARARARARARA!" as the fists fly thick as a swarm of locusts! Even better with Octavia's chains, now Wendy can't get away from the punch rush!

>> SUMMARY[Josuke Higashikata] >> (https://i.imgur.com/rJbRyLt.gif) - M E N A C I N G - (Also bad jokes, ew.)

Seven or eight hundred pounds of muscle are perfect for using as a living battering ram. That youma never stood a chance. The dolphin pulls himself up short with a wrench of his torso, head twisted slightly to eye the situation from high posture, like one in the water might poke its head above the waves to cast a weather eye to the surface.

Once he's knocked the youma down, he uses his momentum to carry himself back to Josuke, apparently intent on keeping the delinquent safe as he makes a go of restoring life force to the stricken. The healer can't heal if they're pulling aggro, right?!

A slash of his tail takes him into the building along with Josuke, but he's silent, apparently feeling no real need for tough talk. It's not like they're going to listen, anyway.

And with that, Ecco rushes in to charge at Wendy, lending his support to the assault efforts.

    Shinewander Sky is actually surprised that she managed to take one of the youma down in one hit. "... Huh." Her voice sounds electronically distorted now -- kind of like Shard's, but slightly different from that, too.

    It's hard to see with the mask, but it looks like she's raising her eyebrows as she turns to Alex. "Kind of out of your jurisdiction, huh?" she says dryly; she seems more amused than anything else, though there's still something guarded about her attitude. Sometimes her ... relationship with authority manifests in the form of talking casually to royalty; other times, it means holding 

    She pauses, turning to Sailor Moon, worry and embarrassment clearly visible even with as much of her face hidden as it is. "Hey, uh, sorry about this, kind of thing ..." She shakes her head, and lowers her sword for just a moment. "Hey. Don't worry about this, right?" She manages a smile, and puts her hand awkwardly on the younger magical girl's shoulder. "You're not alone. You don't have to be afraid, right? So we can work together on, on the saving-the-world thing!" Beat. "Or, like, worlds plural, kind of thing."

    And with that, she turns to Alex and Sanders. With a single swing of her sword, she sends out a mint-green slash of light towards the youma!

    It realy doesn't go well for the youma.
    Wendy is on the back foot, forced to the defensive by Octavia's superior swordsmanship, but when she's bound by chains, the youma begins to actively panic as it leaves her open to swift and decisive punishment from the others.
    Josuke swings in, his Stand's splendid strength put on display as Crazy Diamond starts to pummel the tar out of the monster woman, only to be joined by the full weight of a bull dolphin crashing into her with bone breaking force.
    And that leaves Sanders... Sanders has it equally rough as Alex plants a neatly placed burst of THREE taser catridges into her at max power.
    Her skeleton flashes visibly as she jerks and begins to literally fry, all topped off with Shinewander's slash of light impacting her body...
    Both youma crumple to the ground and turn to ash as...
    "Mooooooon... Tiaraaaaaa... Boo--... ... O-oh. They're dead already..."
    Poor Sailor Moon was a little slow on the draw this time as she places her tiara back on her forehead and rubs the back of her neck awkwardly.

    And so it goes. Octavia takes a step back and flourishes Hauteclere, then returns the weapon to its scabbard. And then, she turns right around to look at Sailor Moon.

    "That makes twice now that you've arrived to the scene of a monster attack. Just who might you be?" Her tone is, perhaps, a bit critical.

"Special dispensation. Agreements with worlds interested in security." Alex offers with a mild chuckle, his systems sensing a little... tension? No, maybe not tension, but there's the sense that tells him to treat Lex--or rather, Shinewinder--a little bit more carefully all the same, as he watches her work. "People responsible for me want to collect a lot of information, plus I can show what we're made of." he remarks. Even while his system documents and scans and collects the aforementioned data as the corpse crumples to ash.

Still, with what Octavia says? He just... grunts once. The kind of grunt that says, 'sure, yes I believe you, and I am absolutely one hundred percent a normal officer of the law'. Speaking of interesting coincidences and the like, he turns his attention critically to 'Sailor Moon' as it were. "That a matter of fact, huh?" If there's connections to be made by his system, he's not going to volunteer them anytime soon. Purely tactical analysis, yep.

Never you mind said system also analyzing everything he's seen so far--some of it simply doesn't have a point of reference beyond 'possible telekinesis' and 'forms of magic'. 

"Kind of interested to know what those are. Didn't pull up much on freaky monsters. Just... riots?" he wonders aloud, echoing the earlier remarks on such things. 

    The youma collapse into ash, and Josuke breathes a sigh of relief. Though he's not ready to relax just yet! He looks in Alex's direction -- he said he was a cop, right? First thing he needs to do it make sure the offworlder cop knows what's going on. Usagi calling what happened at the jewelry store a 'riot' makes him think that kind of explanation is going to be applied to... well, basically everyone.

    And so he offers to Alex, "Officer? Last time this happened, the thing was disguising itself as the owner of the place it was happening at. They had her tied up in the basement. She was okay, though. I'm not sure if they did the same thing with the employees here, but the m.o. seems to check out so far -- using something people want to take their energy -- so it shouldn't be dismissed as a possibility."

    He pauses at Octavia's questioning of Sailor Moon, and looks in that direction. "I uh, think she's the local hero," he offers, but he doesn't actually make to introduce her -- that's Sailor Moon's place to do or not to do.

    Lightshard 18 settles on Shinewander Sky's back without any apparent means of support, and she peers at Alex, and answers his explanation with a somewhat curt nod. She nods to Octavia and Josuke as well. "Yeah, 'local hero' sounds about right," she says, only a whiff of uncertainty in her voice.

    "The 'riot' explanation appears to be what local civilians believe in general," says her sword -- and yep, it's clearly the voice of Shard, unlike Sky's electronically-distorted voice which merely sort of sounds like Shard. "I'm not certain as to precisely how the information was disguised. Perhaps the magic of this world has a way of hiding, and we couldn't reveal the truth if we tried. Truly remarkable."

    Oh dear. Oh dear all the attention is on Sailor Moon now isn't it?
    "Me?" She near squeaks to Octavia's pressing question, pointing a finger at herself as she tries to rally. "UH."
    Awkward.
    "I'm Sailor Moon?" She ventures hesitantly as though that would explain everything. You know, the whole hero of love and justice spiel and all. As for what those monsters were.
    "Uhhhhh. Well, my cat, Luna says they're called youma, and they're sent by some big nasty enemy, but we don't really know why yet, just that they keep collecting people's energy and need to be stopped." Oh she's still rubbing at the back of her neck. Then again, listening to herself, that sounds stupid. Her cat said all that? Sigh.
    "IIIIIIIII should probably goooo nowwww... Bye!"
    Oh hey there she goes right out the door.

Alex listens to the explanation--his head swivelling slowly from one side to the other, briefly at the ashen remains of the youma dispatched, then to Josuke, then to Octavia, Shinewander, 'Sailor Moon'. Even the dolphin is given due consideration as his audible whrrs and body that pivots as he grunts softly. Can't be good, no. Still, with the threat dealt with, at least for the moment he docks the sidearm into sheath his right leg provided, another series of hydraulic noises as it folds back into place. And even doing so, his domed visor pulls back, revealing his face once more.

"I get the feeling this is something that if people knew about they'd go into a panic." That's what he infers from his systems making a few crosschecks and suggestions. "Only figured out something was wrong here because of some... junk data off someone trying to post their good time over here." He does detect--and make note of--what he previously picked up from Shinewander--Lex's--seeming disposition. Little nuances in the way people are talking, not just the transformed person there but more. 'Dislikes authority'. 'Flashy'. 'Actual Dolphin'. You know, plenty of labels. 

And speaking of people he just... stares. Stares as the young girl departs through the door. "... think we should just make sure people here will get some medical attention and look out for the next time this is going to happen, huh?"

    "Certainly," Octavia agrees. Ensuring that the victims are properly tended to is high on her list; she might even help with costs, if any of them are desperately low on money. Might bear checking into in a few days. "And if any of you from other worlds might need transportation home, I gladly offer my airship, the Rilarn's Chariot. I guarantee that it shall be a luxurious return voyage~."

    "Hey, wait!" Josuke tries, when Sailor Moon makes for the door. Though he doesn't chase after her, even though she's out of earshot before he can even finish his statement. He pouts slightly. But he does offer, mainly for Alex, since he didn't see it the first time, "She's not kidding. Her cat talks." He sounds like he's serious, too. And his eyes are clear, free of madness, so he's not 'just as crazy as she is'.

    He also nods to Alex's suggestion. "Sounds good. It'll probably be put down to a bout of food poisoning... that maybe the place had so many customers that they weren't fully cooking their burgers or something," he agrees. And then, "I'm gonna go see if there are employees tied up in the back of the place. Someone might wanna check the bathrooms. Be right back, everybody!"

    And with that he vault-slides over the counter -- because he had to do that instead of just walking around it; it's way cooler, and he's always wanted to do that! -- to go check in the back of the store.

    Shinewander Sky deflates slightly at Sailor Moon's hurried exit. In a swirl of pixels and Elvish computer code, she's back to her civilian form, and Lightshard 18 has dematerialized altogether. "I'm ..." Suddenly, Lex looks exhausted. "Y'know what, 'Tavia, I just might have to take you guys up on that offer. I wasn't expecting to fight on an empty stomach, kind of thing, and being transformed into a Shinewander is, like, somehow even more draining than these magical prosthetics."

    "'Somehow'," says Shard, once again from her arm.

    Lex gestures vaguely. "Y'know what, I'm gonna check the bathroom like Josuke said. Just don't ask me to carry anyone, heh ..."