World Tree MUSH

    The world is known as the halcyon remnant, and it was ruined long enough ago that it barely qualifies as 'ruins' anymore. At first glance, it's almost all just plants and animals and the odd magical entity, thriving among particularly regularly-shaped cliff faces. It's only barely saved from being a dead world by the existence of its remaining Eudaemon inhabitants and the surviving technology, mostly underground. A couple of exploratory parties have poked their heads inside this Blossom and set up ephemeral tent camps here and there.

    However, near a couple of reasonably stable Vines, there's a more permanent-looking settlement consisting of actual trailers and smaller makeshift houses; originally, this was an exploratory party which first arrived in this world two years ago. Emily Nyx has quietly put the word out that there was "an event" that was going to happen here, but she wasn't entirely sure what it actually was.

    The event in question seems to be centered on a pair of raised platforms about ten feet wide, each connected to a large metal tank; one shows the general wear and tear of all surviving technology in the halcyon remnant, but the other almost seems new; a burly man with a salt-and-pepper beard and a silver-skinned Eudaemon in a green suit have opened a panel on the newer one, and are fiddling with the insides. A small crowd of other members of the survey team are watching them work. Emily is floating off to one side in the form of a lavender-skinned demoness in a midnight-blue business suit, and her usual glowing purple eyes and four arms.

    Oh ... and a few Vines have suddenly redirected here, too. Odd, that.

    Uni arrives, minus her Shinki. Bravette still needs some repair work after her recent scuffle with Leene. The Goddess Candidate heads through the outpost and toward where everyone else seems to be gathering. "Cid! Good to see you again." she calls out to the burly man, though she gives the silver skinned Eudaemon a quizzical glance. "What's *he* doing here?" she asks as she approaches, looking over at Emily, before folding her arms over her chest.

    Uni is clad in her 'standard' black Lastation dress, with a white flower tucked into the lee of her right ear.

    'An event' huh.
    That's not a lot to go on, but if Emily sent word, then 2B, 9S, and their PODs are bound to show up.
    It's not the first time the Androids have been to a deserted, ruined, world; their own being like a much younger version of halcyon remnant; except still 'young' enough to have ruins. And people. Technically those people are living on the moon, but they're still people. This discounts the Machine Lifeforms entirely, but that's a sidenote right now as the two androids arrive through a nearby vine, clad in their standard YoRHa blacks, with a white flower tucked into 2B's hair.
    "Sooooooooooo..." 9S ventures after a beat. "What do you think Emily could have called us here for?"
    "No clue." 2B says matter of factly. "But we're probably going to find out soon enough." She asides as the two approach the small gathering to see just what's up.

     Celesta was just doing her now-usual offduty exploration, more of a personal curiosity than anything related to her job. Half the fun, of course, is picking a random Vine and seeing where you end up, which as it turns out would be the halcyon remnant today. As she steps onto the event grounds, she notes the gathering of people by the platforms and casually walks over to say, "Heya. What's going on here, some kind of advertisement for cleaning products?"

    When word of an event comes from an off-worlder through the new branches of the Amestrin Military set up to monitor such things, it's no question that their representative would be making a beeline. Add to it the fact that Edward had already encountered the one placing the call, and it's in short order that the blonde arrives, golden eyes scanning the immediate surroundings with an appraising gaze. He seems a bit taken aback by the state of things, a few pop-up encampments not dissimilar to the ones he's seen from Ishvalan refugees from the Eastern Rebellion, with only one looking to hold any sort of permanence. 

    He steps out of a Vine, red cloak and clothes fully repaired from his previous encounter with Cornello, watching a small group of what he can only guess are fellow foreigners amassing. He scans again, trying to spot Emily, but he's not immediately aware of the form she's decided to take today. He soon allows his attention to wander to the massing assembly, before quietly making his way to them. Stranger in a Strange Land, he figures, might be better guarded in a pack not unlike himself.

One of those vines just happened to be the one that Holly was on. The witch is a bit confused as she arrives on the world with almost no people. There weren't even any ghosts unless you counted Servis and Lavaux who arrived with her. The technology was much beyond her grasp as she tries to piece together her surroundings. She then sees Emily and a few other unfamilar people, "This place is awfully quiet for a party...cleaning products?" She looks at her broom, "This is for flying, not cleaning."

    The man looks up at Uni. "Ah! Miss Uni! Good to see you, too!" He glances at the Eudaemon. "Oh, Cal's been helping out."

    The Eudaemon, addressed as 'Cal', coughs. "We, uh, settled our differences," he says awkwardly. "I felt bad about before, and, uh, yeah." He peers back down at the panel. "Oh! We still need to move the power converter back into place ..." He reaches in, and in a swirl of what appears to be silvery glitter, his hand transforms into something more robotic-looking, and several different types of tools start to reach out.

    "Hey Uni," says Emily, waving to all and sundry; her form may be wildly different aside from the eyes, but her voice is the same. "Hey 2B, hey Nines, hey Fullmetal, hey Winn." She hasn't met Celesta before. "I'm still not sure what's going on myself. But these guys are Cid Harley, and Helios-model CAL3." Beat. "Or maybe he's 'Cal Helios' now?"

    Cal pauses in his work. "Nononononono," he sayss. "Just ... Cal. I guess. It's weird enough to me that you're 'Emily' now, MLE0." He looks questioningly at Cid.

    Cid moves back. "Guess the group's big enough there's no sense in delaying the suspense any longer," he says, and Cal gets back to work. "We're just trying to see if we can't build a brand-new nano-alchemy station. Make a brand new instance of a fully-functioning piece of technology of this world, for the first time in six hundred sixty-eight years."

    Uni listens to Cid, then shrugs and loses some of the tension. "If he's helping, that's fine." she replies, looking across the group. She recognizes 2B and 9S, giving them a wave in greeting, but everyone else she doesn't really know.

    As Cid then expands on what they're doing, she nods. "Sounds like a big enough event to be interesting, but why would you need more outsiders for this? Expecting things to go wrong?"

     Celesta glances back at Holly as the witch approaches, trying to suppress a giggle. "Really playing to type, huh?" she teases, then smiles and waves when Emily does her greetings. "Celesta Jones, NYPD. Celesta or Jones are fine though. Funny thing, some of my co-workers still don't know I /have/ a first name."

Oddly, she doesn't seem too perturbed by Emily's strange appearance or the nanomachine magic going on, though with how much she's been exploring the World Tree for fun, it may not be surprising. "So now that we've all been acquainted, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume this place is post-apocalyptic? Like right out of the movies?" she asks, peering at the machine Cid and Cal are working on. "Judging by the name, I'm also going to assume a nano-alchemy station would be very useful."

    Ah there's Emily. Sometimes it can be really hard telling just who she is with all the different appearances she takes, but hearing that familiar voice makes everything easy as Emily introduces Cid and ... Cal.
    "Uni." 2B says as the most matter of fcact greetin anyone can be given.
    "Yo, Uni!" 9S is more genial, as usual, as the two listen to the planned intent.
    "Nano... Alchemy..." 9S muses. "Hey aren't you made out of nanomachines, Emily?" He ventures. "... So what's the whole 'alchemy' part about?"

    Edward seems to be distant, listening carefully to everything but seeming almost vacant in expression as he does. His State title gets a bit of a stirring from him, glancing upward at who must be Emily and offering a small wave. He uses his other hand to brush a lock of hair out of his face, then glances around at his 'fellows' as they are similarly addressed. He can't immediately assign names to who is being pointed out, but he figures it doesn't particularly matter at this point. Instead, what immediately draws his attention is the follow-up speech from Cid. He immediately moves toward Cid and Cal, eyes wide. 

    "You said nano-alchemy?" he says, "What the hell is nano-alchemy?!" He seems almost crazed, hand reaching into his cloak and pulling out a pen and a little black journal that appears to be worn and loaded with extraneous notes. He cracks the book open to the next blank page, then leaves his pen hovering above the page. His eyes are laser-focused on the pair of them and the machine. Even as 9S questions Emily about her nanomachine structure, Ed's focus doesn't waver. It... it might almost be a bit scary.

    Emily actually looks intrigued at Cid's explanation. "Hmmm! Now I understand," she says. "You're looking to rock the boat, aren't you, Harley? Trying to restore some small part of this world? It certainly explains why you wanted me to bring you a real Lunar Tear from YoRHa's world." She grins at Uni. "You can call it projecting if you like, but my money's on him just wanting to show off. It's what I'd do."

    Cal rolls his eyes. "'What you'd do' is kind of out there, MLE0," he says flatly.

    Cid chuckles. "Well ... maybe," he says. "I wasn't quite expecting this kind of crowd, though, Nyx."

    Emily shrugs. "I only directly invited most of these people," she says irreverently.

    Cid looks somewhat thrown off by Edward's sudden focus, but he nods towards him and 9S. "I'm glad you asked!" he says. "I think Cal or Nyx might be able to explain it better, though."

    "You are correct, Nines," says Emily, smiling her trademark amused and faintly smug smile. "Nanotechnology is at the heart of this world's ... technology. And magic is the blood which is pumped through said heart." Somewhat stretching the metaphor there. "Put 'em together, and you get nano-alchemy. Provided that you have raw materials of the correct chemical elements, you can create anything except an organic living creature." (Edward might find that rule familiar.) "And even then, you can make a steak and salad dish which someone has scanned."

    ... Those who have scanners pointed skyward might detect a Eudaemon approaching the group at high speeds, moving somewhat erratically.

    Uni doesn't have Bravette to act as her sensor pack, so doesn't notice the approaching Eudaemon. Instead she listens to the explanation and flicks her hair. "Huh, pretty interesting. Sounds like the Crafting Stations back home to some extent, though they use Share Energy and some basic materials... the principle sounds the same." she does notice Edward's hyperfocus, quirking a brow. She recognizes that mindset from Nepgear. Some kind of info gathering response or something.

    "Huuuuuuh..." 9S sounds genuinely intrigued. "So tech and magic go hand in hand here. That's pretty neat." He muses, rubbing at his chin thoughtfully, before he looks to Ed.
    "Whoah-- whoah 2B! That human has actual cybernetic modifactions!" He says, gesturing excitedly at the sight of the Alchemist's automail hand.
    "It's impolite to stare, 9S." 2B says matter of factly. Before the PODs pipe up.
    "Warning: Inbound signature detected at high speed, flight pattern erratic."
    "Huh?" 9S says glancing up.
    2B frowns, weight subtly shifting on her feet as she keeps her katana close.

"You can just call me Holly, calling me Winn makes you show like your one of my professsors. Nanotechnology is the one with the really tiny machines right? Not sure how they work with magic though, magic can be kind of unpredictable. I'm pretty sure you can create a person with just magic, it's just really difficult." She's doing her best to try and keep up with all the conversations that are going on. She doesn't notice the incoming Eudaemon, "Alchemy? I haven't a chance to study that much. I would like to, but I have a lot to focus on already. Summoning, potion-making, flight..."

     "Magitech huh? That's cool." Celesta remarks, giving Edward a slightly worried look as he nerds out. "Well, sucks that you can't make living creatures I guess. It could have some valuable medical applications if you could, say, create new limbs for people. Then again, I guess that doesn't rule out cybernetic replacements. It could make a killing in the prosthetics market..."

She takes notice of that warning though, and glances upward as well. Erratic flight pattern, high speed, inbound? That doesn't sound good. "Aww crap, I should've smuggled something bigger out of the armory today."

    Edward immediately set the pen into action, though it slows at the mention of 'magic'. He writes it down nonetheless, but shakes his head a bit, looking sad for the briefest of moments before closing the book and slipping it back into his cloak. He does seem to perk up at the idea of Equivalent Exchange, but there's the fact that there's magic involved. However, the fact that there are limits seems to cause the spark to return to his eyes. Maybe this could be useful to him on his mission after all. He'd have to learn more, but first... 

    As he seems to return to reality, he shakes his sleeve down a bit to hide his automail as 9S points it out, before shaking his head rolling it back up. Guess that cat was going to end up out of the bag eventually anyway. "It's called automail," he offers, before rolling his sleeve back down, "Basically a high-end prosthetic." He offers a shrug toward 2B, indicating he's not all that torn up about it, before his attention turns to the others in the group. Holly's mention of creating humans with magic causes him to wrinkle his nose, shaking his head again. "Of course. Magic can do whatever you need it to, doesn't it?" he says, his voice sounding coarse. He ran into the problem of differentiating alchemy from magic even in Amestris, so it's a little bit of a sore spot for him. Celesta's comment nearly causes him to pop a vein, but he takes a deep breath. "Creating life through alchemy exacts a toll that would make it nearly pointless to try. Especially since this seems to operate on equivalent exchange. Limbs might be easy, but life?" 

    Life is a completely different animal. 

    When the warning comes in from the PODs, Edward moves his eyes skyward, heaving a sigh. "Really? Tell me that's just a friend of yours, Emily?"

    "I wouldn't know about similarities to other worlds," Emily answers Uni. "The one Cal threw at us was the first intact one I'd seen in ages."

    Cal grumbles, finishes rummaging around inside the device, and slams the panel back into place.

    Emily gives Holly a look. "It definitely operates under very different principles from the magic you're familiar with," she says. "Well ... mostly." She shrugs. "I actually don't know, I haven't examined the actual workings of magic in much detail. Heh, yeah, Elric, 'equivalent exchange' sounds like a good term for the rules. All I know is it worked just fine in this world, until it suddenly didn't."

    Cal shudders. "You can say that again."

    Emily smirks at Celesta. "Yeah, cybernetic limbs were definitely one of the uses it was put to by our creators, the Masters," she says. "May they rip in fucking pieces," she adds sharply.

    She frowns at the Pods when they make that announcement, then looks back at Celesta. "... I think we're good," she answers both Celesta and Edward. "And settle down, 2B. Flying is easy for us -- 'erratically' usually means some kind of major malfunction. Someone must've picked a fight with a huge security-bot."

    "I'll get a cot ready," says Cid, getting up to head towards one of the trailers.

    Emily nods, peering in the direction indicated. And then she frowns. "... Oh hell."

    On cue, a figure descends from the sky -- a red-haired woman in a black business dress, her skin an artificial shade of pink, with rosy circular markings on the backs of her hands.

    Her eyes are glowing red circles, and there's a cylindrical holographic banner rotating above her head like a halo, with the words 'DANGER - GLITCH'. She's smiling, but the rest of her face is contorted into absolute fury. "Cid Harley," she growls. "Trying to put the rulership of the Masters back into place? You've gone too far!"

    Emily starts moving between the newcomer and Cid. "Or the Glitch," she says. "The Glitch is, uh, is a major malfunction."

    "Shut up," says the other Eudaemon, and she conjures up a bolt of blue light -- similar to what Emily throws around all the time -- and it starts flying towards Cid, slowly at first but quickly picking up speed!

    Uni looks up at the warning, and when the new Eudaemon comes into sight and is called a Glitch, the CPU Candidate is quick to action. A long rifle forms in her hands, summoned from Inventory, and she drops to a knelt position to steady her aim. Sighting down the scope, she aims first at the Eudaemon herself, before switching to the bolt of energy.

    She fires, a red-yellow bolt lancing out to intercept the blue one, looking to deflect or neutralize it.

     "Speaking of, didn't prettyboy over there say you had some cybernetic enhancements?" Celesta asks Ed, taking Emily's reassurance at face value. "Because, see, I know a guy back home, he's real good with that stuff, can make some really cool modifications..."

And then the Eudaemon shows up and is very clearly hostile. "Huh. Well, I think that just shot your reassurance in the foot, Em." she says, opening up her jacket to pull out a pistol as soon as the thing fires- though, it looks like Uni's got handling the projectile covered. So Celesta, instead, focuses on firing at the Eudaemon herself, with regulation electric stun bullets. "That's one hell of a glitch!"

"You mean every action must have an equal reaction?" That's what Holly would called it, "And this world worked the same way at one point?" She looks at the other woman and then back at Emily, "How is she a glitch, she kind of looks like you? Is she an evil doppleganger or something? She does her best to piece together what's going on. "Maybe she just needs to be rebooted?" She does her best to put her limited technical knowledge to use.

    "Oh huh automail." 9S says as Ed explains his prosthesis, looking genuienly interested. Before things get hectic.
    Call it instinct. Call it Battler's intuition. But being told to settle down doesn't quite put 2B at ease.
    And then. Then comes this so called Glitch.
    "... Friend of yours, Emily?" 2B says, stone-faced and stoic as Uni moves to intercept the shot for Cid, the android shoves 9S to the back of the group.
    "Stay back and try to get as many people out of here as possible before she attacks again."
    "R-right." The Scanner says as he starts trying to usher people away from the direct line of what is clearly about to be a combat situation, while 2B draws her katana.
    "I don't think it's going to be that easy, Holly." the Battle unit says to the witch.

    Ed nods toward Emily. "That's what we call it, anyway. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost," he says, before turning his eyes skyward and not really seeming to assume any sort of posture otherwise. He offers a small nod, seeming to relax as it just seems like a wounded being. He's not a medical specialist in any regard, let alone to Eudaemons, so when the locals make preparations, he doesn't make a move to help. He's out of his depth. 

    At least until Emily swears, and what appears to be an enemy makes its appearance from the clouds. He immediately tenses up, but then seems momentarily distracted, shaking his head. "Sorry, lady," he says to Celesta, "There's only one person I let work on my automail. For my own safety and that of others." He could only imagine Winry's reaction to any sort of modifications to her work, and that seems almost scarier than any sort of Glitch. 

    As said Glitch opens fire on Cal, Ed immediately sets to work, though seemingly not as immediately as everyone else. While the rest ready weapons or fire on the Glitch, Ed claps his hands together, sparks arcing around his hands before his left hand seems to 'contain' the reaction and glides it over his right arm. The glove on that hand immediately shreds and falls away as well as a portion of his black sleeve, the steel of the automail shifting a bit as his left hand glides downward. When he retracts his human hand, his automail arm now carries a short blade on the wrist, his hand balled into a fist behind it as he steps into a combat stance. 

    "How bad should we expect this to get, Emily? And can you give me a rundown of the materials immediately nearby?"

    Cal immediately throws himself in the path of the bolt.

    It gets successfully deflected by Uni, and Cal stands there looking nonplussed, before he grabs the shocked Cid's arm and hurriedly drags him away after 9S as the rest of the civilians beat feet.

    "Releasing Capacitor Seal 3," says Emily. She's surrounded by three distinct auras, one silver, one gold, and one pearlescent; the silver one shatters, and the other two fade, as a large black sword materializes in her lower left hand. "Can you not see the glowing lights and holograms, Professor Winn!?" says Emily, who apparently misinterpreted Holly's comments about being called just 'Winn'. "No, 2B -- she's an Erebus model, but I don't know her. But wait, yeah, actually, a reboot might might work. I've Glitched before --"

    The Glitched Eudaemon jerks back at the shots from Celesta, circular white scars briefly appearing where she's struck. "Humans," she growls. "Humans, humans, huhuhuhumans!" Her voice stutters like glitched audio. In the familiar swirl of silvery nanomachines, her arms transform into sword-blades, and she starts hectically charging into the group, slashing wildly at Uni, Celesta, and Holly.

    She darts towards 2B. "And you!" she snarls, trying to stab the Battle-unit with both blades. "Just giving into your purpose like some kind of mi-i-i-i-indless machine --" Another audio-stutter.

    Emily glances at Edward. "Hard to say," she says. "The Glitch makes you unpredictable, in a focused-on-a-single-goal sort of way. And, uh, mostly plant matter, rocks, and some of Harley's tech you might not wanna mess with." With that, she charges at the other Eudaemon, gliding above the ground, sword pointed forward.

    The Erebus-model whirls around and tries to stab back at her. At the last minute, both of them dodge ... in the same direction.

    Each of them ends up impaling the other in a burst of damaged silver nanomachines. Emily gasps, staggering.

    The Erebus-model stares down at her with a cold smirk, showing no sign of pain. "A-a-a-a-nd what are you dododododoing, MLE0?" she practically spits.

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> Cal and Cid and the civilians flee. The Glitched Eudaemon goes after Uni, Celesta, Holly, and 2B in that order, before she and Emily stab each other. Emily's the only one who looks hurt.

    Uni is crouched for stability. She can't dodge in time, and sacrifices her gun to parry the blade slashing at her. The weapon cracks, and shatters into voxels, but it allows the CPU to shift stance and leap backwards, doing a back somersault and landing in a half-crouch as she summons a bullpup rifle this time. "I liked that gun." she grumbles, shifting to stand and begins to circle the glitched Erebus-model as she clashes with Emily.

    She doesn't fire this time, instead waiting for the clash to break. "I have a stock of Share Energy... if you think it'd help I could transform." she announces, talking to Emily, and revealing she has a 'super mode' to the others that don't know her.

     "I mean, fair enough, but if you want something like a retractable sword arm or gun fingers-" Celesta starts to respond to Edward, but then he just transforms his arm into a sword anyway. For a moment she's stunned, her trigger finger stopping as all she can say is, "...Huh, okay, guess you got it covered."

But speaking of swords, that crazy Glitch is now swinging one at her, and she only /just/ manages to turn aside at the last possible moment to avoid getting cut in twain. "Whoa! Watch it with that thing, I really like this jacket!" she quips, ducking under another swing and rolling away to get some distance before she pops up into a kneeling position, taking aim again. "So... reboot, huh? How do we manage that?"

But then the two nanomachine ladies stab each other, and Emily staggers! Without any further ado, Celesta starts pulling the trigger again, emptying the whole magazine into the Erebus model. "Shit! We've got wounded already!"

    Okay so maybe a reboot might work. Emily is the real expert here right now, but 2B is more concerned with 'how to handle a rampaging Eudaemon' in the only way she knows. While 9S works to keep people from panicking and get them away, the Battle unit does what she does best.
    Fight.
    Quickly interposing herself between the more range oriented combatants and the glitched unit, 2B's katana flashes in her hands. Sparks kick up as her blade meets those bladed arms, the sharp clang of metal on metal resounding as she parries, slashes, cuts, and swipes in a practiced flurry that would be deadly to lesser combatants.
    "What would you know about my purpose? My duty." She hisses, heels clicking as she resumes her fighting stance.
    ... Ignoring the dark red stains beginning to spread on her black dress, before the Erebus unit and Emily clash.
    "--Emily!" She calls out. "Shit...!" She snaps, rushing, uncharacteristically recklessly, in to try and buy Emily some breathing room after that stab.

"Ouch!" Holly's slashed by the Glitched Euademon getting several cuts on her side. The blades being partly magical in nature are enough to pierce her normally durable flesh. "Nope, I'm not a Professor, I'm still a student!" Her attention turns towards Celesta having the same though as her. "Maybe if we hit her with enough electricity? She's a machine after all!" The witch tries to help with her limited knowledge on the subject before having an idea and pointing her candy-shaped staff at the glitch woman.

 "Halloween night, going to light you up tonight!" Orange sparks fly everywhere before a string of Christmas lights begin to spin around her opponent. Tht wasn't quite what she had in-mind but it might work.

    As the Glitch comes down and people begin running away, Ed turns his attention to her completely, seeing if there's anything he can glean from her attacks as she surges into combat with the others. He readies his arm blade as she attacks the rest of the group, watching her movements and listening to her words. She seems to hate humans, that much is clear, but as he remains in the clear of her attacks, he wonders if she's actually processing her attacks. She speaks to 2B as well, calling her a mindless machine. 2B is a machine? But her and her companion look human. That... that would be a question for later. However, what he does notice is that she seems to be at least somewhat cognizant of her targets. Also that he seems to have been spared her wrath. That brings about a pondering, but he has less time to think than he would like. 

    His 'comrades' are under attack, and since he has been spared he could just retreat. But there's intellectual curiosity abound right now. "Oi, Glitch!" he bellows, right after she stabs Emily. That brings a grimace to his face for the barest of moments, before he claps his hands again, cycling that alchemical energy between his arms and imparting it to his hands, which slam into the ground with a flash. There's a rumbling of the ground beneath him, before spikes of minerals rupture the surface and launch themselves at the Glitch in a steady stream. "Missed someone, didn't you?"

    Emily handles her injury by lifting her feet up in a way which clearly defies gravity, and kicks herself off the Erebus-model's sword. "D-damage her ... more than I'm damaged," she gasps, as her sword dematerializes into nanomachines, which flow back to her body and reform. "Don't worry about me ... Greater Eudaemons like me ... just hurt more ... ergh ..." She shakes her head, rearranging her nanomachines so that her damage is hidden under the surface. "I do not think it would be a good idea to release my other two Capacitor Seals ..." She looks at Uni, and shrugs at the suggestion, leaving it up to her.

    The Erebus-model whirls back back to face 2B, parrying her assault with her arm-blades. "You serve humans --erve humans --erve humans --" Her audio starts to repeat altogether at the assault from Celesta, somewhat distracting her, and she takes a few slashes from 2B. When the Christmas lights from Holly wrap around her, however, she furrows her brow for a brief instant, and then ... gets hit by a bunch of the spikes from from Edward.

    The Glitched Eudaemon's entire form dematerializes into nanomachines, letting the Christmas lights fall to the ground, and then reforms the way she was before. However, her body and clothes are now covered in random silvery scars from the damaged nanomachines. "You-u-u-u-u pipsqueak!" she shouts at Edward, firing three bolts of light towards him. "Failed wiwiwiwiwitch!" she snarls, shooting at Holly. "Enforcer ofofofof injustice!" she shouts, shooting at Celesta. "Relapsed sererererervant!" she shouts, firing at Emily.

    "Excuse me!?" Emily snaps back, trying to deflect the shots with her sword rather than dodging; one of them grazes her upper right arm, and she flinches back, dematerializing it and sinking down to one knee.

    ... This time, Uni is the one whom the Erebus-model seems to forget about.

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> The Erebus-model clashes with 2B, gets momentarily caught by Holly and Edward, then tries to verbally hit everyone where they live whilst shooting at them, except for Uni.

    Uni nods, and since she's been ignored, she dismisses her weapon, and closes her eyes. A gathering of energy, similar to Magic, should anyone with a sense for it be checking her out, surrounds the young woman. She lifts off the ground as a symbol drops into an outstretched hand. Uni's voice resonates as she speaks a single imperative: "ACCESS."

    Light explodes from her, forming a pillar into the sky that lasts for just a second. As it fades, the black-haired girl is replaced with a white-haired one in a tight body suit. Pieces of technology cling to her body, on her back, hips, feet... looking like a techno-angel as her 'wings' flare with white light. "Processor Unit; Set complete." She summons her weapon, and in the same motion, brings the gigantic railcannon to bear. "Time to decommission you." Black Sister's voice is deeper, more imperious in tone, as she speaks. "EX Multi Blaster. Mode Empress!" The railcannon gathers energy between its accelerator prongs, before lashing out with a torrent of golden energy at the Erebus-model.

>> GAME >> Uni spends an Edge for: Transform to Black Sister

     Celesta shrugs and nods to Holly. "Well, it's having some kind of effect, right? Maybe we can make her overload, or crash, or... somethiiiiiing!" This last word is turned into a panicky squeal as she's suddenly being shot at by the Erebus, taking off into a mad dash to get out of the way of those bolts of light- though one manages to singe her jacket as it passes a little too close for comfort.

"Hey! This jacket cost an entire month's salary!" she protests, replacing the magazine in her pistol. More shots are fired, trying to keep up the assault so the Glitch can be overwhelmed with a neverending barrage... otherwise, this could turn ugly!

And then she happens to glance over in Uni's direction, and mutters, "Need to get me one of /those/..."

    Steel ringing on steel as her katana is deflected again and again, 2B's expression shifts into the faintest of scowls.
    "That's right, I serve humans. It's what I was made to do and I... Take pride in it." She says falteringly.
    "At least I don't sound like a broken record." Grunted as she staggers back, dress darkening further. Her attacks are getting sluggish. Her damage output is decreasing the more her damage recieved grows.
    "Can't let it keep up like this." The android mutters under her breath.
    She's going to need some serious repair time with 9S after this, but that doesn't stop her.
    "Pod!" She calls for backup, her faithful AI controlled little floating follower zips in, hard light emitters shifting into gatling gun formation to unleash a small storm of laser bolts.

"That's not nice! How does she know about us? Can she read minds or something?" Then again the glitch might have been able to figure out from Holly's spell.

 "Maybe you should try some percussive maintence?" Lavaux suggests to the witch.

 "Yeah, she seems to be stuttering now!" She slams her staff into the glitch woman's head repeatedly trying to manually reset her. "Sorry, about this but I'm not good with machines!"

    Edward claps again as he finally earns a bit of attention, slamming the ground again and pulling up a small wall between himself and the Glitch. When the light slams into it, he sighs in relief until he's knocked spinning as one of the beams clips his right shoulder. As the material of his clothing is singed away, and the wall crumbles to dust, it's clear to see the extent of his augmentation, his entire shoulder bearing the steel of the automail and his chest showing pale scars further in. He steps forward, his face a mask of rage as her comment registers. "Who are you callin' shorter than an amoeba you wackjob nanowench?!" he roars, rushing in as he claps his hands together, gathering the alchemical energy into his left hand. 
    He slides to a halt, swinging his sword arm toward Glitch before shifting his weight and attempting to shift and slam his hand into the ground underneath her. There's a surge of power beneath them both, before Ed is lifted up by a spire, dragging his blade upward with him as he attempts to bisect the Glitch and break her down once again!

    The Glitched Eudaemon was just turning back to shout something unflattering at 2B when Holly starts hitting her. She lets out a yelp, and attempts to physically lift up Holly and toss her away, launching herself forward to avoid Celesta and the Pod's assault to try to run 2B through with one sword-arm. Edward catches her, however, and she gets hit by his alchemically-driven slash -- though less than it could have, however, because she then splits herself in half voluntarily to avoid taking too much damage.

    That's about when Uni transforms.

    The Erebus-model promptly whirls around, fixing the goddess-candidate with the most baleful glare, and throws herself out of the way. She's not fast enough to avoid it completely, however; when the dust settles, her entire left half looks like melted silver, and her expression is even more furious than it had been before.

    Before her mouth contorts into a smile. "Whawhawhat if ... I-I-I killed ... eveveveryone here!?" she says. She rises up off the ground, fires a few blasts towards 2B, and starts gliding unsteadily towards where 9S and the other civilians went.

    "No!" exclaims Emily, firing a single golden bolt which goes wild. She rises off the ground and tries to glide after her, and promptly collapses facedown. "D-damn it ... can't go into emergency mode yet ..."

    The Erebus-model lets out a glitchy cackle, firing bolts back the way she came at 2B, Uni, Edward, Celesta, Uni again, Holly ... "I-I-I'll start with ... the android ... a-a-a-and the Eudaemons ... so the huhuhumans ... will get to wawawawawatch ... bebebebefore they all die die DIE DIE DIE!!!" That seems to be deliberately saying the same thing over and over again, not entirely an audio glitch.

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> The Erebus-model defends, gets hit by Uni's Multi-Blaster, and decides to just go after the civilians whilst shooting back at everyone except Emily, who has collapsed.

    Uni, or Black Sister, floats a foot or two off the ground. She turns to follow the floating Erebus-model, and as those bolts come lancing at her, she holds up a hand. A screen of interlocked hexagonal panels appears; catching the bolts and cracking under the impacts. She tanks the shots, red cracks appearing on her defending arm as it takes the bleed-through. "Not if I kill you first." she says, darkly.

    She darts forward, aiming to get in front of the Eudaemon. "I'll give this my heart and soul. Special Arms! DOLCE VIDA!" A seal appears in the air, which she fires into. It pulses as the shots land, before spitting a torrential downpour of blue-white energy in the path of the Erebus-model. This 'tags' her with another seal that follows beneath her path.Once she's in a clearer area, Uni snaps her fingers and causes the seal to explode. It's not a very /powerful/ attack, but it's meant to disrupt formations and stagger a target for others to get an advantage.

     Celesta takes note of 2B's words. "Android?" she asks, somewhat curtly given the circumstances, as she finds herself once again having to avoid more of those light bolts. What /are/ those anyway? Not that it matters, really...

Unfortunately, she's out of spare mags for her pistol, so she has to do like everyone else and engage in close combat! Taking a deep breath and heaving an equally deep sigh, she takes off in a sprint after the Erebus, displaying some truly Olympian running speed as she produces some kind of cylindrical metal object from under her jacket. "This isn't strictly legal, and I was saving it for something else entirely, but..."

Right after Uni's impressive light show explodes and presumably knocks the Glitched Eudaemon off balance, Celesta takes advantage of the opening to leap onto the nanomachine lady and jam that cylinder- now sporting a very drillbit-like spike on the end- right into the back of her neck. Turns out, this one is also designed to pump electricity into the target, and it's a /lot/ more than the bullets from before.

"Anti-cybernetic spike! Handy against cyborgs, androids, and rogue AI~"

Holly's tossed but she doesn't go far but she's still getting up when she's hit by the bolts. "Wow, she really doesn't like us...I wonder what made her glitch out like that. She hops onto her broom and flies into the air heading straight at the glitch before grabbing hold of her. Once she manages to grapple the other woman she lets go and tosses her into the ground below. She's been hanging out with Lavaux for too long.

    As Edward flies into the air from the momentum of the spire launch, he rotates himself in the air to right his descent. However, when the makes her threat and begins to fly off toward the retreating group, Edward grimaces, clapping his hands as he hits the ground, kneeling to absorb the impact of the ground and launching himself forward with a manic look in his eyes. "Oh no you don't, Psychobot!" he growls, running forward and placing his hand on the remains of his earlier-launched spikes and picking one up. It shifts in his grip, elongating a bit and sharpening at the tip as he transfers the javelin into his right hand. He slides to a halt, then transfers his momentum into the throw, hurling the stone lance with all of his might. 

    "You stay away from them!"

    2B is not having the best of times here. Try as she might to parry that blade it punches clean through her, earning a grunt of pain and a spray of frighteningly red fluid from the android's body, liquid crimson equally dripping from the corners of her lips and through clenched teeth, causing the Battle unit to drop to a knee, clutching her wounds, seemingly out of the fight as her katana clatters to the ground.
    Every diagnostic system she has is running and coming back with greivous injury and damage reports. It's not looking good as... ... As the glitched Eudaemon threatens...
    "--The civilians... 9S!" She shouts, incredulous.
    "POD! Open up a channel to pod 153!"
    "Acknowledged. Opening channel now."
    "Huh? 2B? What's up, I almost have the civilians to safety, what's going on?"
    "... No time to explain. Upload my memories to the Bunker right now."
    "Wh- but 2B, what for it's..."
    "Just DO it." She snaps, clutching her wounds tightly as the upload begins.
    She reaches for her katana, fingers scrabbling around the hilt, unable to grasp it properly.
    ... 2B gives up on Virtuous Contract for now, just using every ounce of strength she has to stand up, lips curled into a grimace of pain and resignation. 9S can retrieve her blade for her, later.
    She watches. She watches the downpour of energy brought down by Black Sister. She watches as Celesta funnels potent amounts of electricity into the Erebus unit. The Battle unit sees everything in a paines shade of red as she lurches forward as Holly grapples with the Eudaemon and Edward transmutes himself a spear from the earth itself and hurls it.
    2B... Manages to get up on her feet. And as she does, she lunges, leaping with every last ounce of power in her legs, launching herself through the air. She catches her quarry. Arms latching around the glitched Eudaemon, she clings tight and refuses to let go.

    "WARNING:" Pod 042 announces loud and clarion. "YoRHa Unit No. 2, Type B has activated her self destruct sequence. Please get to minimum safe distance in T minus..."

    "5..."

        "4."

            "3."

                "2..."


        /!\ WARNING /!\ WARNING /!\ WARNING /!\

           /!\ SELF DESTRUCT ACTIVATED /!\

        /!\ WARNING /!\ WARNING /!\ WARNING /!\

    In her last second, the YoRHa android spits her defiance...

    "Glory to Mankind, bitch."

    "... 1"

    The resultant explosion is loud enough to shatter the skies and make the ground quake. And all that remains of 2B when it's over is a slightly charred Lunar Tear that flutters to the cratered ground.

>> GAME >> 2B spends an Edge for: Memory Upload To The Bunker Prior To Detonation

    Emily stares at 2B's blood, eyes going wide.

    The Erebus-model staggers under Black Sister's assault, briefly sinking to one knee. She gets up just in time for Celesta to stab her with the anti-cybernetic spike, and she lets out a screech as it effects her. This gives Holly the opportunity to grab her, and Edward's javelin the chance to pierce her leg.

    "2B, what are you doing," says Emily, pushing herself up onto her hands and knees.

    But as soon as the Glitched Eudaemon is off the ground, she twists around and tries to kick Holly off her broom. "Bububububut not ma-a-a-a-a-agic!" she snarls back at Celesta, wriggling away from the witch. She then resumes her flight, albeit slightly slower -- seems she didn't shrug off any of the above as well as she hoped.

    "2B!" says Emily hoarsely. "What the hell are you doing!?"

    She can't really do anything to get to a minimum safe distance. Of course, she was staying on the ground where she is, and so was already far enough away to begin with.

    The Erebus-model struggles under 2B's grip, fear mingling with the fury in her Glitched state. She grabs 2B and tries to throw her, just like she did with Holly, but with her left side damaged, she can't get a good grip on her. The last thing she says is, "Glglglglory to wha--"

    Detonation.

    When the explosion clears, there's nothing left of the Erebus-model but a splatter of nanomachines which cover a large area away from the impact site, and a battered metal cylinder about the size of a human heart.

    Emily stares up at Pod 042. "You ... you managed to upload her, right?" she says frantically. "You ... she ... isn't gone, right? This ... didn't happen to someone I actually cared about ... right!?" There are tears in her eyes -- eyes which briefly turn into red rings, and a 'DANGER - GLITCH' marquee appears above her head. But they are gone the next instant.

    Black Sister watches. Green power-symbol eyes going wide as 2B goes for the suicide option. There's really nothing she can do, but turn and launch herself skyward from a platform she creates beneath her feet, wings tucking in as she darts up in altitude, hopefully leaving the blast radius before...

    Detonation.

    Uni feels the shockwave, it clips her and sends her wheeling in the air briefly, before she rights herself and comes around. She spots Emily sporting the same Glitch as the Erebus-model for that brief moment, the CPU Candidate skirting the detonation zone and approaching. "Emily... you good?"

Holly spirals as struggles to hold onto her broom. That ends up working against the glitch though as she ends up fair away from the exploding 2B as a result. Sure, she's hurt but crashing into the ground itself isn't going to do much to harm her. Her broom handle is going to need to be fixed before she goes flying again though.

     Celesta jumps off of the Erebus as the electricity starts to course through it, but it seems the spike wasn't quite as effective as she'd hoped. Still did something, but the Eudaemon is still up, and still a threat. "Well shit, I'm out of-" she starts to say, only for 2B to come running in to do her self destruct thing, and Celesta...

Well, she books it. Pod 042's announcement made it pretty obvious what's going on, so the off-duty cop starts sprinting in the /opposite/ direction now, putting as much distance as she can between her and the incoming explosion in the five seconds she has... and when it goes off, the shockwave knocks her off her feet, forcing her to tuck and roll before finally coming to a halt.

"Ack, got dirt in my mouth..." she grumbles, spitting and shaking her head. When she looks up though, the scant remains and Emily's heart-rending reaction cause her to fall into stunned silence.

    Edward pants, straightening up only to be blasted back by 2B's final gambit. He slides against the ground, staring up in horror. He didn't know 2B, obviously, but that woman had just blown herself up to save a group of people. And that... that's not something Edward ever wants to see. And he is incredibly drained by the sight of it, without getting an opportunity to even stop it. He slumps forward a bit, placing a hand to his head before shaking it, ahoge swaying lightly from the gesture. He glances over at Emily, just in time to see the warning appear around her head as well. His combat instincts immediately kick back in, and he rushes to Emily's side with his blade at the ready. 

    By the time he gets there, though, she's back to normal, though he keeps his blade up. "Calm down," he says, eyes cast down to the ground, "We don't need another fight. Not right now."

    It's about now that 9S comes sprinting back, with POD 153, stopping just short of the crater and clutching his knees, bending over to catch his breath.
    "Wh- what the heck happened? Where's 2B?"
    POD 042 hovers silently in the air for a long moment as Emily demands answers. The floating AI construct lingers there for a moment, antennae popping up as though testing the air itself.
    "Be at calm, Nyx-model Eudaemon MLE0, unit 'EMILY'." It says in its cool and detached male voice.
    "Though bandwith in this region is not perfect, YoRHa unit No. 9, Type S, successfully managed to upload 100 percent of YoRHa Unit No. 2, Type B's memories and personality to the Bunker. A new body is likely being manufactured for unit 2B as we speak."
    "W-wait." 9S says, breathless and shocked. "She really-- Ah man... Well... At least I got her memories uploaded so um." He rubs at the back of his neck. "Well, she should be fine. But really, that was nuts, I didn't think she'd resort to that."

It takes a bit for Holly to rejoin the others, she has to walk back to the crater after all. "So any idea what made the Glitch go berserk like that? She crashes her head a bit as she makes looks at everyone else to see if they're okay. "I've made some explosions before, but nothing like that. Maybe it's a good thing I don't have that powerful of magic...I'm still curious how she knew about me though? I've never been here before."

    Emily exhales with relief. "Okay," she says. "Okay. Good. Yeah. Tell her ... I said hi ... and ... and Pod, just call me Emily." She looks up at Uni. "Just need to ... to sleep it off ..." Her gaze shifts to Edward, her eyes looking more and more unfocused. "... hah, yeah, no, Elric, no more fighting. Now you just get to see what happens to a Eudaemon who survives long enough to shut down. Pe ... peace out, Nines ..." She gives 9S a double-thumbs up, and then collapses, curls up into a fetal position, and in a swirl of nanomachines, she transforms into a bulky orange metal box with padding and backpack-straps on one side, and the text 'EUDAEMON EMERGENCY SELF-REPAIR - ORANGE BOX' on the other.

    Cid and Cal follow after 9S. "Dear gods," says Cid. He looks at Cal. "Cal, the Erebus-model. Is she ...?"

    Cal steps across the Erebus-model's nanomachines with the expression of a human who was stepping walking across a puddle of blood, and gingerly picks up the cylinder. "Erebus-model AA23 ... Her CPU core is damaged," he says after a moment of examination. "I mean, uh, obviously. But her self-repair won't work -- we'd have to repair her ourselves."

    "Can we?" says Cid. He pauses. "... More importantly ... do we want to?"

    Cal can't quite meet anyone's gaze. "... She'd probably be embarrassed about Glitching when she woke up," he says. "Assuming she can be repaired."

    Cid sighs, and glances over at the nano-alchemy stations. "Guess we'll have to try and find a functioning nano-reclamation unit, just so we don't have ... this ... here."

    Cal looks to Holly. "We don't know," he says. "Sometimes Eudaemons just ... Glitched out, and hated the Masters. The Masters always destroyed the ones it happened to. Maybe she just saw too much of the Masters in Cid, and ..." He shakes his head, and looks at Emily's Orange Box. "... It's happened to MLE0 before," he says uncomfortably. "Once. When ... one of us pretended to be a Master. He got her so badly ... she couldn't even resist, until we broke his control. She talked herself down from it after everyone killed him, though."

    Uni's transformation reverts, the black-haired goddess landing lightly, before just flopping down on her butt, looking exhausted. When Emily goes into repair-mode she winces before looking over at Cal and Cid, brow furrowing.

    "If I could contact Nepgear, she'd probably be able to help... but I don't even know if she's /here/." she remarks. "This isn't my element, I can organize workflow, and run a nation... but I can't fix robots or whatever." she seems genuinely upset she can't /help/ in this situation.

    "W-Will Emily be okay?"

     Celesta gets up to her feet and approaches the site of the detonation, peering at the damaged CPU unit. "We've got some guys in my world who are pretty good with that kind of stuff. Not that I'm suggesting /I/ take it, but I mean... if you need some help." she offers, shrugging a bit helplessly.

    Edward blinks as Emily turns... into a box. 

    This world is weird. 

    He claps his hands together, sliding his left back over his right as he shifts the automail back to normal, turning to look at the rest of them for a moment. He walks over, shaking his head and pushing his hair out of his face. "Hopefully you can fix her up properly," he indicates to Cal and Cid, before slumping his shoulders. "Still nothing for my mission... damnit all..." He kicks lightly at the ground, before moving to pick up 2B's sword. "Oi, you," he says, indicating 9S and handing him the sword, "She's coming back, right? She's probably gonna want this, right?"

    "Uh." 9S looks particularly nonplussed for a good moment, jaw falling slack. "I'll... Tell her you said hey..." He near stammers as Emily gives him the thumbs up. And then passes out into her Orange Box repair mode.
    "... It's not the first time she's done it." He mumbles, scratching his head. "In... ... In theory she should be fine?" He ventures before Ed calls for his attention. And returns Virtuous Contract. "Ah... Thanks. I'll make sure 2B gets this back, yeah."

"Well, like I said before I don't know much about machines but maybe I can help you find that nano-fixing thing. I mean if I were in a coma, I would want people to help me!" Holly doesn't sound too upset about the glitch trying to kill her.

 "Holly, you're too forgiving sometimes..." Servis sounds concerned for the witch's safety. "Besides, you should get some medical attention yourself first."

 "I'm pretty sure she didn't mean to glitch out like that after all. Besides, I want to know how she knows about me," she can't help but to be curious about that.

    Cal nods, and picks up Emily's orange-box. "Yeah, MLE0 will be fine," he says, handing the damaged CPU core to Cid. "If she's in good enough shape to go into emergency-mode, her self-repair is probably enough. We should just get her inside, out of the, uh ... hypothetical elements."

    "That's a relief, I suppose," says Cid. He looks over at the two nano-alchemy stations. "I wonder if we'll have to inaugurate the new station with repair-parts, instead of a ... replicated, dead Lunar Tear ..."