World Tree MUSH

    Emily has put out the word that she needs people to drop by the halcyon remnant. They've got a Eudaemon who was "forcibly shut down" after going berserk, and they don't know what she'll be like when it comes time to turn her back on.

    It's near the end of autumn in the halcyon remnant, and the scenery is lightly dusted with snow. Said scenery, as the name implies, is mostly ruins of a bygone era, overgrown and completely reclaimed by nature. This particular bit of scenery is a medium-sized plaza. In the exact center is a raised plinth which once seemed to have a massive statue, but all that remains is a pair of granite sandaled feet. The whole has been bisected with a large sword, and the left half is slightly askew; part of two halves of a plaque remain, bearing the text: "May Humank  /  ind be everlasting"

    A small truck is parked behind it. In front of it, a folding table has been set up with a large tub of what appears to be silvery glitter, with a metal cylinder sticking out of it: the nanomachines and CPU core of the Erebus-model Eudaemon, AA23. The CPU core is being poked and prodded at by Helios-model CAL3, who is currently in the form of a silver-skinned and golden-haired young man in a green fur-lined business suit; nearby stands Cid Harley, a burley man with a salt and pepper beard, waiting for people to arrive. Emily herself is nowhere to be seen.

    Emily is asking for help?, then Luke will make his way there to assist as much as he can!. He hasn't seen Emily in a bit, so that was also a bonus!. Given to cold weather, this time Luke is wandering around with Agni, his fiery bear starter, just to stay warm, he is not used to snow. The pair... wait, no, Pangshi is also there, hovering near Agni's head as well. "Ok, Pangshi, please, don't wander off, or touch any shiny buttons, or try to grab anything, no matter how nice it looks, ok?" the boy tells the ghost vampire panda as they approach the truck and the statue remains. 
     Luke looks around to see who is around, and waves to the silver skinned... person, while Agni politely sits down. The small ghost panda moves closer to admire the silver glitter, and making a motion for it. "Pangshi..." calls the trainer, while the pokemon protests. "No, that person knows what he... or she is doing, you don't, no playing with anything here, unless we are told it is safe."

    A familiar sight appears on the horizon, the black-haired Goddess striding confidently through the worn ruins. She has Bravette on her shoulder, newly repaired and sipping a jellycan while kicking her legs idly. The goddess herself is wearing her adventurer/desert outfit today, though she gives the ex-statue a curious look-over as she gets closer. "Humankind, huh?" she muses, before approaching Cid and Cal. "That who I think it is?" she asks the Eudaemon once she gets close enough and sees the CPU core and the vat of nanomachines. "She must've taken a beating for it to take this long for repairs."

    Given the chaos that had broken out during his last visit to the halcyon remnant, and the resulting report he had to file to the Military on his return, Edward felt it pertinent to return when the invitation was extended. And so, he returns to the same Vine he took to the world the last time, stepping out and finding himself... not where he expected. It was clearly the same world, at least, but it was a different location. Or at least he thought it was. 

    He takes in the scenery, pulling his cloak a little more tightly around himself as he approaches the remains of the statue. He peers up at it, his bang swaying in the wind as he studies the ruined plinth. The plaque in particular draws his eyes, those golden orbs narrowing and his head shaking slightly. "Nothing is everlasting, except maybe science. Humans are frail," he mutters, before he makes his way over to the truck and table where Cal and Cid are standing. As others arrive around him, he merely pulls his cloak around himself some more, trying to keep out the cold as his eyes scan the table and narrow even further. 

    "So... what's going on here?" he asks cautiously, voice calm and clincal.

    Considering 2B's self destruction was part of the catalyst for that 'forcible shutdown' it makes sense the YoRHa android would be here. Though there's something... Different about both her and 9S since the last time anyone had seen them.
    For one, 2B's entire aesthetic has changed since reconstruction back at the Bunker; her normally silver hair now midnight black, and her standard issue YoRHa black dress and blindfold visor are now a pristine white dress; and her normally ghostly pale skin is now a dark and dusky shade of tan.
    9S is still in all black, but there's a more ostentatious appearance to his manner of dress, with a fabric flower in his collar, detached sleeves, and thicker boots.
    "So why, exactly are we restarting a rampaging Eudaemon?" 2B asks matter of factly, katana hovering behind her back.
    "Whoah? A Eudaemon? Rampaging?" 9S asks pretty ... Shocked. "Like. We're talking a Eudaemon like Emily right? So what exactly happened?"
    ... Wasn't he... There for that?

    Dante arrives via motorcycle, taking off his goggles once he arrives. Grabbing Rebellion from the mount on the bike's side, Dante makes his way towards the statue and remains. "I must've missed a lot." He muses, eyeing the container as well the repair equipment. Frowning, Dante folds his arms and watches others arrive. "Hey, Uni. Kid." His eyes turn to Edward, then down. "...Half-Pint. We met before?" 2B's new colors and 9S's outfit draw curiosity from Dante, but he doesn't quite ask.

    Cal frowns at Luke's pokemon. "Uh, can you ... not?" he says. "I ... don't want her nanomachines to get ... messed-with." He looks up at Uni. "Oh! Uh, not really, she's basically, uh, I've done everything I could.I'm, I'm just ... doing last-minute fiddling." He pauses, looks over at Edward,and simply says, "They weren't." Seems he could hear that muttered comment.

    Cid steps forward, nodding in greeting to Uni, Edward, 2B, and 9S. "Basically ... oh, right." He turns to Dante and Luke. "The short version is that Eudaemons can go ... mm ... murder-happy."

    "It's called the Glitch," says Cal, putting away his tools and stepping back from the tub. "Erebus-model AA23 here attacked us, and you guys are here in case she's, um, still a Glitch when we reactivate her. I know it's happened to MLE0 before -- a Eudaemon disguised himself as a Master called Castor Pollux, he got MLE0 so hard she couldn't even fight his control over her -- but when we killed him, she just ..." He shrugs uncomfortably.

    A staticky portal opens up and turns pitch black from the inside out, and out comes Emily Nyx in the form of a woman in a black trench coat and a black hat which casts her face into unnatural shadow. "The most recent time I unambiguously Glitched was on Pandemonium, Salome's world," she says.

    Cal does a double-take. "W-wait, what?" he says, a mixture of nervousness and concern in his voice. "Are, are you okay?"

    Emily shrugs. "An ally fell in battle," she says flatly. "Elizabeth Bathory startled me out of it, though."

    Cal furrows his brow. "... Elizabeth Bathory?" He is clearly not imagining a draconic idol singer. But he gives 2B a bit of a dirty look at her question.

    Cid frowns. "We don't want any Eudaemons to die," he explains. "If AA23 can be brought back to her senses, we need to try. There's no way to make more Eudaemons -- their people's population is only going down, if they're ... if they're as not-everlasting as humanity in this world."

    Emily nods, though she's mostly looking distractedly at 9S. "We can't be backed up or replaced the way you can," she says carefully.

    The boy is quick to grab Pangshi, "See?" he asks the panda, who huffs and steps back for now, before turning to wave to Dante, smiling, "Dante!, glad to see you again." he begins cheerfully, before waving to 2b, and the other young man joining them, if he had to guess Edward's age, he'd say maybe young teen, but thankfully, he doesn't actually say that, plus... he really can't judge much about ages. He simply moves to the alchemist to greet him, "Luke Gray, great to meet you!." 
    Any further introduction and talk is interrupted as Cal explains about the 'Glitch', his attention turning back to Cas, while listening about the 'Glitch' and how Emily suffered of it at least once, shuddering a bit... murder rampage Emily, that is kind of scary. Of course, the weird floating panda pokemon doesn't seem pay attention to Cas, simply moving closer to Edward, being a new person, and tries to get a closer look at him.

    Uni summons a pair of machine pistols, and nods at the explanation. If she notices or cares about 2B's or 9S's changes, she doesn't voice them here. There'll be time enough for that later. "Bravette, go topside. Give us a birdseye view on this. Just in case." The shinki salutes, summons her armour and launches straight up until she's nothing but a tiny speck in the sky. "I can't say I understand that... CPUs are generated by the faith of their followers... or the followers of their older sister." she trails off awkwardly at that, turning to look at Emily as she appears. "You okay...?"

    As Cid and Cal explain the situation, Edward nods, arms crossed under his cloak. For many, he might seem a bit relaxed, but to those who know how he fights, it's clear he's ready to throw down at a moment's notice. He offers a small nod, then shrugs. "I respect the preservation of life," he says, "but if she goes rampant again, I'm not going to hold back." He has ample material to work his skills, and this time he has a bit more knowledge about what they're up against. 

    He then glances up at the floating panda thing, eyes widening a bit. "Is... is that a spirit?" he asks, "That's not possible though, right? What are you?" Edward shifts a bit away from the Pokemon, looking toward the trainer, Luke. "Edward Elric. What's this thing?" he asks, voice curt and to the point. He even pulls out a small black book and a pen, something some around him may recognize as something he brought out on his last visit. It's short-lived, however, as Dante speaks up, and immediately a vein jumps in Edward's forehead. 

    "Who're you callin' Half-Pint you snowy haired old bastard?! I'm still growing you know!" His pupils dilates and his hair seems to stand on end at this, before his attention turns toward 2B and 9S, his demeanor switching gears almost immediately. He makes his way over after hearing 9S' question, shaking his head. "Something wrong with you? You remember what happened here last time, right? And you," he turns to 2B, "You're different. The hell's going on here?" 

    He waits for an answer, but eventually turns back toward Cal, Cid, and Emily. "I hope you guys know what you're doing," he says, "Whatever strange sort of alchemy you've got running here, I don't much like it."

    Cal can give 2B all the dirty looks he likes. If she even registers it, she certainly doesn't show it; her face worn like a mask of stone.
    It's 9S who's rubbing at the back of his neck. "I feel like I'm really missing out on details here." He says, frowning. "So she glitched out and went murderhappy?"
    2B interjects before the Scanner can hurt himself by thinking too hard.
    "So there's a chance to return her to her pre-Glitched state?"
    If 9S is blinking in confusion, it's hard to tell behind that blindfold he wears, one hand rubbing at the back of his neck.
    "I'm sorry, have we met?" He asks Edward in reply. "--Oh right, this is a human thing isn't it! Hold on, hold on." He says before trying his damnedest to rope the state alchemist into a long and complex series of fistbumps then and there.
    "Whoah hey, cool, your arm's cybernetically augmented!" He says, before 2B cuts him clean off.
    "Nothing is different at all. I have no idea what you're talking about."
    No. No she will not address the issue of he palette swap in the least.

    Dante grabs his sword and nods as he listens. It's all techie stuff to him, but he knows the basic stuff. Sort of. "Dante." he introduces himself to Ed curtly, when Luke does the same. One supposes that applies to both Cal and Cid, too.

    Ed's little tirade is pretty much treated like a hilarious joke to Dante, as he just grins and lets the little guy ramble. "Whatever you say, blondie." He says, before carrying on. "Let's get rollin' then. No time like the present." He says, watching Bravette take off.

    "Cid Harley," says Cid in response to the introductions. "And this is Helios-model CAL3, or Cal for short."

    "Yeah," says Cal.

    Emily chortles. "You're sounding like Temulin there, Uni," she says. "Stuff works differently in different worlds of the World Tree." She waves off her concerns. "I'll be fine. Probably," she adds under her breath. She opens a small staticky portal, and reaches through to pat Pangshi's head.

    She grimaces at Edward's warning about going all out. "You'd probably need to regardless," she says. "But, uh ... fine. And yes, 2B, it's perfectly possible. I talked myself down, after Castor Pollux." Her gaze lingers on 9S. "Nines, did you mess up backing yourself up or something ...?" Her voice trails off.

    Given the exist of a YoRHa type E for "Executioner", who come after other YoRHa androids for crimes such as "knowing too much" according to the type E they ran into last year? Given that 9S is a Scanner-type, who is built to be curious? Ohhhhh boy. YoRHa's definitely the bad guys, even if 2B and 9S are clearly good guys. And the Machine Lifeforms are clearly worse.

    But ...

    ... there's no way Emily is going to risk 2B and 9S's lives by delving too deep into the matter. Not at this stage of the game.

    She simply shrugs. "Releasing Capacitor Seal 3," she says. The familiar silver, gold, and pearlescent auras appear; the silver one shatters, and the other two fade. A large falchion sword appears in her left hand. "Cal? Cid?"

    Cid responds by hurrying away from the table. Cal nods, and turns back to the CPU core. He holds up his hand, palm outward, and a holographic screen appears; he presses a button labeled with the universal on/off symbol for computers, and the nanomachines swirl around the CPU core, float upward, and then coalesce to form what appears to be a painted marble statue of a black-haired woman in a black dress, her face completely blank. For a few seconds, her eyes glow with red rings, and a rotating cylindrical marquee bearing the text "DANGER - GLITCH" appears above her head. But then the light vanishes, replaced by a blue holographic sign in front of her face which says, "Reboot failed - please connect to a maintenance system or reboot again."

    "Aw, crud," says Cal. He looks at Cid and calls out, "A software error!"

    "Well, phooey," Cid calls back to the group. "You'd need to be a way better hacker than we've got in order to fix that!" He stays where he is, however.

    "Did... did the advanced nanomachine colony just bluescreen?" asks Uni incredulously, after bracing for the Glitch to take effect. She does give Emily a /look/ briefly. The 'I know that' look, then sighs, dismissing her weapons. "If Nepgear were here she might be able to help... I'm good with guns, no robots."

    Luke smiles to Edward, "It's Pangshi, he is a ghost pokemon." he says, "I am not quite sure if it is a ghost... ghost, but ghost types seem similar to how... ghosts and spirits are described. After a bit longer he adds "And about spirits being real, not sure really sure myself..." he mumbles. He pets the 'spooky' vampire panda and holds him close, "Don't worry, he and Agni..." pointing to the large, about polar bear sized... 'ursine', orange, cream and black, it seems to be melting any snow around it. He falls silent when the alchemist begins arguing with Dante, taking a small step back. "Wait, what happened last time?" he asks, glancing back to 2B and 9S. 

    Once Cid introduces himself... and Cal, the boy turns his attention to the 'main situation'. Reaching for his pokeball belt, and motioning Agni to get closer, just in case. If the ghost pokemon finds anything weird about the disembodied hand petting him, it doesn't show it, leaning into the friendly touch with a happy 'shi' vocalization. 

    The display of the other Eudaemon being 'activated' gets his full attention, tensing up, before tilting his head, "Wait... what happened?" taking a step closer to try to read the 'sign'

    Edward merely shrugs at Emily, then turns his focus back to the YoRHA androids, clearly shocked that 9S doesn't remember him. After all, the Scanner had geeked out over his arm the last time they met. His eyes narrow again, but he decides now isn't the time. But there was something rotten in the state of YoRHA, and the fact that 2B seems eager to cover it up immediately makes the alchemist skeptical of her. He gives them both a long, long look, then shrugs. "It's called automail," he says to 9S, "Machinery. Not really an expert on it, but my mechanic could talk your ear off if you let her." 

    He shrugs again, then turns his focus back on the task at hand, reviving the Glitch Eudaemon. Edward claps his hands together, then draws the blue sparks of electricity that manifest into his left hand and draws them over his metal right, the steel shifting into a blade that grows out over his hand from the wrist. 

    He's ready to shank a thing that needs shanking, or work other alchemical science if needed. 

    At Luke's explanation, Edward offers a nod. "Strange worlds out here, huh?" he asks, shrugging, "I'd be interested to learn more, when there's not a potentially bad situation coming up." He nods, then turns his attention to the table as Cid and Cal prepare to reactivate the Eudaemon... 

    Only to see it fail, and he relaxes almost imperceptibly. "Huh."

    "I see." That's all 2B says about Glitched Eudaemon units and the ability to un-Glitch them. Nothing more. Nothing less.
    "Iiiii have no clue what happened last time?" 9S replies to Luke. "I mean. I wasn't here for that."
    2B remains ominously silent.
    So once 9S has roped Ed into the fistbump of the century, the pair's attention turn as...
    Blue screen of death happens.
    "Oh man. Good thing I'm here 9S says, putting on a big grin. "I'm like THE best hacker YoRHa has to offer."
    2B frowns faintly. But still says nothing.
    So 9S approaches, POD at his side, a holographic display appearing from the pod's antennae as 9S' fingers begin flying over a hologram keyboard floating in front of him as he starts to initiate a data link with the deactivated Eudaemon to try and troubleshoot the problem very directly.
    Completely clueless about anything that has to do with Type E androids or YoRHa sending them out to kill him and 2B. You know. Just clueless hacker things.

    Dante has NO idea what to do, "Uhhhh, well..." He scratches his head, and fidgets as he stows his greatsword. "Well, I'm useless here. I barely know how to operate a phone." He admits, watching 9S step up and take over. All this hacking stuff is total gibberish to him, and he's not afraid to show it.

    Luke nods to Edward, "Happy to invite you over and show you around." he says, smiling a bit, a bit relaxed once the inmediate danger seems over, "I really don't know anything about machines... I know some people at Sylph co that work with computers and high tech stuff but... guess those things might be like toys to you." he chuckles, "I can barely use my pokedex and phone.". He pets Pangshi a bit more and gets next to Agni... actually, a bit behind it, just to be safe.

    Emily smirks faintly at Uni. "Oh, right, the Blue Screen of Death has been around as long as computers have," she says. "Or, almost as long. Whichever."

    As 9S approaches the Erebus-model, Emily starts to relax. Well ... the situation with 9S is still mildly hair-raising, but he's back, and he hasn't been completely mind-wiped, so that can wait. "You don't even know half the strangeness," she says as she approaches Edward and Luke. "Of course, I spent two thirds of a millennium in this dump of a world." She gestures expansively. "So my standards are probably skewed. The stuff I've heard about Uni's world ... well, it's not the strangest, but, uh ..." She smiles faintly at Uni and Dante. "Nines can probably handle it, actually."

    "I sure hope so," mutters Cal. "There ... aren't any working maintenance systems anymore."

    9S sees a screen that says, EldrOS: -EREBUS-, before he arrives in hacking space. It's different from the sort of thing he might find in YoRHa or in a Machine Lifeform -- the virtual space is all in shades of blue, with a glassy translucent appearance. Nearby, there's a firewall of orange cubes, with the "DANGER - GLITCH" text scrolling endlessly over it.

    Beyond it, there's a couple dozen or so figures resembling white holographic ghosts, flickering with scanlines; they're mostly just white silhouettes that look fuzzy and dark at the edges, with indistinct faces and no eyes. One by one, they turn to face at 9S. One of them starts gliding towards him, passing through the firewall as if it wasn't there, one hand raised threateningly.

    Others vanish in the exact same manner as if they were fellow hackers who'd just disconnected.

    Outside, four of the ghostly figures materialize, surrounding 9S.

    "Wraiths!?" exclaims Emily. "Here!? ... Cal!"

    Cal takes a step back. "I didn't see them when I was fixing her!" he protests. "W-wait, they can cause the Glitch!?"

    The wraiths react to the shouting, and turn out towards the group. As if forgetting 9S, they start lurching towards the people gathered, arms raised to make slashing motions at anyone they get near, and more start materializing as well! (And dematerializing from hacking-space.)

    Emily holds her sword at the ready. "Okay, the good news: there's nothing special to attacking Wraiths, as long as you're attacking them on purpose," she says. "The bad news ... y'know what, the bad news can wait. Nines, can you hear me? How many are in there?"

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> Wraiths appear and attack.

    Edward watches as Nines approaches the Eudaemon on the table, not really understanding what he's doing but trying to look like he's following anyway. He's more interested in the alchemy involved than the technicals, but it seems that isn't the focus today. He's not upset by this, his mind finding occupation with figuring out what's going on with the Scanner unit and his now-dusky partner. Nothing feels right about it, nothing at all, but he doesn't have the information he needs to puzzle it out. Instead, he merely watches the group around him, studying them as though he might glean some new insight into the situation at hand. 

    It's machines. Winry would love this. 

    Well, at least until the Wraiths show up around 9S, and then Edward is in motion before he seems to even comprehend the opposition. He silently notes Emily's warning, though he doesn't seem to have time to ask about the bad news. Instead, his eyes are locked. Whatever was up with Nines, the Fullmetal Alchemist felt compelled to defend him. As though it were personal. "Are these things alive?" he asks, but immediately throws a punch with his wristblade at the nearest one, sliding to a halt to further channel his momentum into the strike.

    "He better, when I try to fix things I tend to break 'em." Dante says dryly.

    Of course, Dante's mind is occupied by the sudden arrival of Wraiths. He grabs Rebellion again, and jumps to action. Rushing towards the four before they can hurt Nines, Dante stabs at one of them in a rush of movement, propelling himself with a glyph in red to kick off of. "HYAAAH!" To Ed, Dante shrugs a shoulder as he engages one of the wraiths in close-combat. "No idea, not really somethin' I care about!"

    Uni shrugs a bit at Emily's assertion on her world. Gamindustri is a bit of a special child in places. There's no time to go into details as there's suddenly computercode ghosts attacking everyone. She resummons her machine pistols and takes a half-second to listen. "Attack them with purpose, got it." she remarks, doing a back somersault and firing her guns at the Wraith approaching her, lashing out with multi-coloured bolts of condensed energy, cycling through elemental modes to find which might be most effective.

    "Sky Eye, tacnet. Now."

    9S' fingers fly over his keyboard, lips pursing thoughtfully as he reaches the OS screen. "Huh... I've hit a firewall. Hold on. I can crack it if I... Wait what are those?" He says squinting through his visor at the ghostly figures.
    "Uh. ... They're looking at me. Is this bad? I think this is bad."
    They approach.
    "Uh! ... Uhhhh! Oh-- OH CRAP!"
    In an instant 2B is off like a gunshot, katana in hand, a flurry of strikes and quick blows lashing out at the first 'wraith' she comes into contact with while 9S ducks down, hands clutched over his head. "C-couple dozen, but they started to vanish!"

    Agni and Luke take a step back as the ghostly figures appear, but Emily's reasurance about how to handle them, quickly makes the group jump into action. "I hope they aren't!, i think they are some weird machine related thing." he says, even as Agni rears on on it's hindlegs and glares at the approaching 'wraith', "Let's try this, Slash!". 

    The pokemon growls as it receives the order, the claws on its forepaws glowing and growing longer, before it lumbers towards the flickering figure and attempts to swat at it those very sharp looking, oddly glowing claws (and the heavy paws they are connected to of course).

    "The consensus is 'no'!" Emily answers Edward and Luke, as Cal hurries over to Cid. "We honestly don't know anything in detail, though." She gladly accepts Bravette's tactical update. She can't do a whole lot, since she isn't a military model, but it helps with her ability to choose where to go after she slashes the nearest Wraith to bits.

    The Wraiths seem somewhat more durable than flesh, but individually, they're much easier to deal with than, say, the Erebus-model. The sword-slashes from Dante and 2B, Edward's automail-stab, Uni's gunfire, the Agni's claws -- all cause the Wraiths to stagger and stumble, but that seems to be more due to a loss of integrity than pain. Nevertheless, after taking enough damage, they collapse and disintegrate into white pixels.

    "That's cuz they're coming out here!" Emily answers 9S. "Just, uh, handle 'em like firewalls! Or, or viruses, whatever!" She smirks faintly as she catches sight of 2B's swordplay. Now, if she learned something she shouldn't, they'd have to send a whole bunch of Executioners to get her, because she's damn good at fighting ...

    ... at fighting other androids, as she demonstrated i.e. when AA23 first attacked them ...

    ... oh.

    Ohhhhhhhh. Oh shit.

    Emily's expression hardens, and all cheer vanishes. Well, there's literally no way she can confront 2 ... E ... about this right now. Even without the Wraiths, 9S is right there. She concentrates on slashing through the attacking Wraiths.

    Only a couple of the Wraiths seem to be going after 9S in hacking-space. As Emily said, more and more of them are dematerializing, exiting back to the real world.

    Uni grunts as she lands, then ducks under a groping swipe from a Wraith. "It's not hard to knock them down, it's getting them to /stay/ down that's a trick!" she gripes, cartwheeling away and bringing her pistols to bear on the Wraith again, going for center mass since it seems to be a HP thing rather than a critical location thing. "Don't try anything fancy, they just need to take enough damage to go down."

    Bravette offers connections to anyone else who can receive the info, provicing a top-down 'minimap' with blips highlighting friendlies in green, allied non-combatants in blue and enemies in red. Each new Wraith that materializes is marked after a second, the Shinki focussing on data processing instead of combat.

    Dante keeps dueling with the Wraiths, deftly dancing around the one he's squared up with. "C'mon, make me work for this! You're boring me here, dude!" He laughs, moving to take the wraith's arm off before he swipes Rebellion at its neck. The next few wraiths are hit by a wide swing of the greatsword, trying to spit them both in half in one strike.

    No? Perfect. As he rolls away from the one he punched, he ducks and readies himself for another strike. Ed falls back to his martial arts training, augmenting it with his wristblade as he springs back into the fray. "Good. Don't need to worry about getting rid of them, then!" he says, lashing out with his left leg in a straight kick toward another Wraith. He follows it up with a palm strike, then a slash upward with his right arm to hopefully finish it off, taking care to step around Nines. As 2B enters the fray, he watches her carefully, still not feeling confident in having her around the Scanner. But she strikes the Wraith true, and for now he focuses back on the fight. 

    "You stay focused there, pal," he calls to Nines, "We'll take care of the small fry."

    It's hectic and chaotic, but 2B is... Stone cold calm. Even as 9S panics and flails, trying to scramble away while more Wraiths materialize. The Battle unit is a flurry of death, blade dancing in her hand as she hacks one Wraith into pixels and moves on to the next; most notably lashing out at any that get too close to her assigned Scanner unit while he rallies and resumes muddling through AA23's systems to try and get her operational again while under fire.
    2B IS awfully good at killing things, isn't she? Then again, confronting her about anything while around Nines probably isn't the best of ideas.

    Uni's plan of targeting the same spot and Dante's plan of bisecting them is only mostly successful: it's good at getting them to stop stay down, but more overall damage seems to be needed to finish them off. That said, doing so is relatively easy, and Edward's "cause as much overall damage as possible" seems to be highly effective.

    Emily growls. "Releasing Capacitor Seal 2!" she says, surrounded by the gold and pearlescent auras, as the gold one shatters and the pearlescent one fades. She conjures up a second sword and slashes through the Wraiths immediately around her, before firing five golden bolts at ones that are further away.

    ... but more of them are starting to drift towards Emily, now, and a couple of others are breaking off from the group to head towards Cal and Cid. "Oh for crying out loud!" Emily exclaims.

    Only three of the Wraiths seem to be going after 9S within hacking-space, and the ones in the real world are more-or-less ignoring him. For that matter, as more and more of them leave to attack the others, he would find it easier and easier to hack through -- and his hacking seems to be causing the ones remaining to stumble and twitch. It seems that they were the root cause of AA23's trouble, from beginning to end.

    Uni switches up, dropping the machine pistols and summoning a shotgun, the weapons 'tagging out' as the pistols fall and the shotty drops into her hands. She unloads point blank into a Wraith, then turns to pump clusters of energy pellets into the ones approaching Emily. She dashes and fires, the drumming of the buckshot pumping. She dashes around like a woman possessed, leaping over swipes, and sliding under slashes, weaving in between her allies and adding her firepower to their own efforts.

>> SUMMARY[Uni] >> Click click boom boom.

    Dante brings his sword down on one of the Wraiths, burying Rebellion into the ground before he suddenly boots another Wraith into the air. He leaps after the wraith, drawing his pistols and opening fire at point blank. He seems to juggle the wraith with bullets, leaving a shower of spent casings that don't seem to end.

    By the time he hits the ground, that Wraith's going to have a lot of holes in it.

    9S rallies. Fending off the Wraiths in hackerspace with quick keystrokes he codes up... A shoot-em-up minigame. Which he starts playing with deadly efficiency, his little hacker unit unleashing a fusillade of little energy bolts into the digital wraiths.
    "What are these things anyway?!" He demands while 2B mercilessly hacks into another wraith in the more traditional sense.
    You know. With her sword.
    It's totally hacking, too. Hacking and slashing.

    Edward keeps up his assault, following the wraiths as necessary to keep up. He keeps the positions of his allies in his peripheral vision as he moves, lashing out with his automail limbs to try and keep up the pressure. "I kind of hate these things. I can't really get a feel for how hard I'm hitting them...!" But it seems like he's being effective, and so he keeps it up. As the wraiths seem to fall, Edward frowns a bit. If this was a response to the hacking, what was going to happen when it was done?

    The Wraiths' numbers are getting thinner and thinner; there's only a little more than half a dozen left in the real world, and 9S manages to take own the first two Wraiths in hacking space with ease.

    Emily rises up off the ground, blasting at the Wraiths from above; they respond by rising up off the ground towards her. "They're some kind of weird post-apocalyptic magical disaster effect!" she answers 9S. "Groups of them seem to form a hive mind, and they -- argh!" One of them grabs her leg and she starts to sink down, but it flickers, and she quickly frees herself. "... and if you can figure out how to break 'em apart, sometimes entire groups just die all at once!"

    She around the battlefield and at Bravette's tactical readout, then does a double-take. "Oh, great!" She opens a staticky portal and slips through, and lands in front of Cid and Cal, placing herself between them and the Wraiths that broke off from the group to go after them.

    The ones that had previously been going after Emily do an about-face and start heading ... well, back towards Emily, blithely ignoring the rest of the group on the way.

    Dante drops onto the wraith with his knee, squishing its head. Hopefully. He opens fire at a few more of them, rushing the small crowd and blazing away with Ebony and Ivory. "Last blaze of glory, think we're close to finishin' this!" He calls out, leaping into a dropkick at one of the wraiths while opening fire on the others.

    Uni continues unloading buckshot into the wraiths when one of her allies staggers one enough. She then spots the ones going after Cid and Cal, and those chasing after Emily.

    A snap decision has the CPU Candidate interposing herself between Emily and those ones targetting her specifically, unloading shots until they shatter into pixels. Her face contorts into a snarl as she racks the pump and squeezes the trigger, cycling a little faster each time.

>> SUMMARY[Uni] >> Overwatch with a shotgun and Close Combat Specialist

    Edward shifts his weight onto his left leg, then propels himself at the nearest wraith, dropping hard with his wristblade and attempting to sink it in as deep as it will go. He then kneels on his right knee and kicks out with his left to try and eliminate another. He takes a moment to compose himself, then draws himself back to his feet, clapping his hands and putting away the wrist blade once he's sure there are no more threats. "THis world is insane, I hope you know that," he mutters, crossing his arms and drawing to his full height.

    And while those Wraiths so blatantly ignore her... 2B does not ignore them.
    "POD!"
    "Affirmative." The floating AI construct and weapons platform obeys as soon as she calls out to it, hard light emitters unleashing a hailstorm of laser bolts and bullets at the ... Whatever they ares while 9S focuses his own fire on the last one in AA23's mindspace.
    "Thiiiiiis should be the last one!" He says. "I think. I hope?"

    Emily raises her eyebrows as Uni interposes herself in front of her. "Well, okay," she says dryly, conjuring up five golden bolts and firing them at the Wraiths behind the ones Uni is attacking. And between that, Edward, Dante, and 2B ... that's all the ones in the real world.

    And instant 9S destroys the Wraith in hacking-space ... the firewall disappears. So does the glitching out. The bluescreen also fades away, replaced by a black sign that says "Performing system repairs ..." with a progress bar that starts to fill up.

    Cid sighs with a relief. "Well!" he says. "That was a thing."

    Cal grimaces. "Yeah, you can say that again."

    Emily snorts at Edward's comment. "Yeah, really," she says. "Uh ... so ..." She starts walking back towards AA23, still standing in the tub on the table. "Here's the deal with the Wraiths. About four hundred years ago, a bunch of nanomachines tried to eat part of the northwestern regions of North America. 'Gray goo', it's called -- they just ate everything in their path, turning it into more of themselves." She shrugs. "And then they accidentally set off the Yellowstone Supervolcano, and that stopped the swarm dead in its tracks even though it didn't actually destroy most of them. But Wraiths started regularly swarming out from that region. It was a regular problem for us to deal with, but we haven't seen any of them in a couple hundred years." She shrugs. "The bad news is, we don't even know what their disappearance meant, nor why they're back, nor what caused them to form in the first place." She shrugs. "They're not that hard to handle, if they don't outnumber you more than like five against one, but still."

    At that moment, in a ripple of nanomachines, the Erebus-model shifts her appearance into ... well, the same appearance she had, except no longer a statue, and her eyes are more obviously robotic. "First activation successful," she announces. Then she blinks, and looks around in confusion. "This ... is not an Erebus factory. What in the world ..." Her gaze alights on the destroyed plinth. "... happened here?" she says flatly. "Hang on, that wasn't even my first ..." She frowns. "... There is an error in the spell binding my previous memories to my software."

    Uni lets out a roar as the last Wraith in the real world falls, before dropping her shotgun and letting out a heaved sigh. She glances back at Emily and listens to the explanation, approaching the tub and the floating AA23 too. She watches the activation, then frowns a little. "You had a bit of a virus infestation... Wraiths." she glances at Emily. "They might have had something to do with it."

    Edward looks around, smiling softly as the Eudaemon seems more passive than last time. He steps forward, then stops for a moment. Memory problems were something that was going around a lot lately, and it seems almost cruel in a way. Were they even the same person without their memories? Fullmetal keeps his smile in place, but otherwise stays quiet for the moment, letting Emily and the others take the lead with the revived AA23 and studying the situation carefully. 

    There was a lot of philosophy to be had here, and he wasn't sure he wanted to deal with it right now.

    Dante stows his guns and dusts his hands. "First time I ever killed digital devils. That's gotta be one for the record book." He grins. The devil hunter can't help but raise an eyebrow as AA23 boots up. "You had a pest control problem, we dealt with it." He says all too casually. "Job's done, guess we're just hangin' from here on out."

    AA23 furrows her brow. "Wraiths?" she says. Her eyes go unfocused for a moment, before focusing back on Uni. "What do you mean by 'wraiths'? Besides the dictionary definition. A 'pest' problem?"

    Cal frowns. "Wait, you mean you've lost all your memories!?" he says. "... Well, uh. I guess that's ... better than still having the Glitch, but ..."

    "... worse than what happened to 9S," Emily mutters. "Yeah, you Glitched out, Double-A."

    AA23 snorts. "'Double-A', hmm?" She hesitates, and her eyes go unfocused again. "... I can't connect to the global internet -- oh, there's the built-in system definitions ..." Her voice trails off, before she looks sharply at Cal and Emily. "Wait. You're saying that happened to me!?" She frowns. "... Androids who aren't Eudaemons, humans who don't have a Master Cybernetic ... and with the fact that I just woke up in what I can only describe as ruins, this doesn't paint a particularly pleasant picture of the state of the world."

    Emily smacks her forehead. "Oh, jeez," she says. "I am not up to the task of dealing with a Eudaemon who literally knows nothing about the state of the halcyon remnant, let alone the World Tree. Reapplying Capacitor Seals 3 and 2." The pearlescent aura reappears, and the gold and silver ones reconstruct themselves, before all three fade again; her swords dematerialize.

    Cid sighs, and walks over to the group since AA23 doesn't seem to be a danger anymore. "Okay," he says. "Ah ... AA23, it looks like we've got some explaining to do ..."