World Tree MUSH

    Middle Industrial World, combustion engines are beginning to take hold and replace horse-drawn vehicles in construction and manufacturing jobs. Firearms are prevelant and generally carrying an exposed weapon is left to delinquents, jobber gangs and police forces.

    This is a world ripe for 'taming' by the Templar and their Order, the agent they've sent here is known only as 'The Runner'. The Assassins know them as a coward, but an elusive one, something about them allows them to move faster than an arrow, outrunning even the fastest and most agile of Assassins sent to end them if discovered.

    The Runner has been localized to a government building in the middle of the capital city of the most advanced nation on the world, surrounded by local security, police and military forces, as well as an entourage of Templar guardsmen. The trick will be getting to The Runner without being detected and causing them to flee.

    It is here that Piera is settled, perched atop a building and observing the movements of guards, mapping out patrol route in her head and attempting to divine the best approach to enter and hit the target... getting out will have to be dealt with on the fly.

    Messages were sent out, and somehow manage to reach those arriving with intention to help the Assassin, despite being written on ordinary paper, and apparently being hand-delivered while the recipient wasn't looking, the ruffle of a cape in the breeze the only indication someone was even there to begin with. They provide the time, date and location, using very specific Vine coordinates to bring them out close to the area.. but not within initial line of sight of the building.

    Dante wasn't sure how a bird carrying messages got to his place, but clearly his name preceded him. He took the day to go scout the place out, posing as a traveling bard with a guitar case for his weapons. Stealth wasn't his forte by any means, but the terms of the job were clear; Do NOT cause trouble publicly.

    He strums on Nevan softly while waiting for others to come, the message mentioned there would be allies on this job. Hopefully it'd be people he knew and trusted.

    "Oh no..." Jessica whines, as she arrives at the specified coordinates. Why is she whining? Because she sees that Dante is here! And from her previous experience, that means that there will be lots of shooting, and violence, and possibly zombies. She hates zombies. Why are zombies so prevalent in the World Tree? It's like every place she goes, there are zombies!

    Sigh. At least Dante is not unfriendly to her, so she meekly waves and looks around, trying to spot her quarry or figure out... well, at least the best positions from which to move out. She's not the Doctor, but she does know an incling of tactics.

    A note made its way into the Assassins' hands: "Gonna do shenanigans to try to get close to 'im. Don't shoot Little Boy Blue. - Emily Nyx."

    A different note, meanwhile, has made its way to the Runner's hands: "You are sought by Order's shapeshifting enemy known as Emily Nyx, who has fought alongside the Brotherhood. Beware the petals of the Lunar Tear. - Eudaemon MLE0, a creation and servant of humankind." 'MLE0' has thereby made negotiations with the Templars ...

    ... and now a high-strung-looking auburn-haired young man with robotic eyes is making his way through the city, dressed in a light blue business suit and carrying a briefcase. He happens to pass by the disguised Dante and Jessica, glances at them, and winks -- his eye briefly flickers with purple light -- before he makes a beeline for the government building. "Ah, hello," he says -- he has a slightly androgynous and clearly robotic-sounding voice -- slightly autotuned, perhaps. "I am MLE0, I had information on your enemy ...?"

    ... Yeah, it sounds slightly like Emily affecting a deep voice, if you're already really familiar with her ...?

    From above Dante and Jessica, a sound of fluttering fabric, and the distant shriek of a hawk. A nearby haycart rustles as if something just fell into it, before out hops a young woman in a white cloak. "Maestro sent you, I take it?" she asks Dante and Jessica gruffly. "I've mapped out the patrol patterns of the locals, but I can't find a way to get inside." She looks over at the building, inching a bit more into the shadows just before a patrol group of four police officers round a corner. They march along the wall, turn the near corner and proceed down to about half-way, when they turn back around and retrace their steps.

    When Emily passes the group, Piera just nods a bit before turning back to the others, when the Eudaemon approaches the door guards, they draw their pistols, while one, clearly a Templar, pulls an analogue tannoy from its cradle and speaks into it. "Boss, that guy you told us about is here. Should we send him up?" The thing crackles as the other end if picked up and the little speaker issues a tinny response. "Y-Yes, send him up, with an escort."

    "I got a letter alright." Dante says, producing the note. He nods to 'MLE0', completely fooled. This sounds nothing like Emily, why would he be convinced it's her?

    As he watches the local guardsmen, Dante keeps strumming, using the brim of his hat to hide his gaze. "Lemme give 'em a song." Dante grins, as he starts playing louder and more obnoxiously.

    Well, this thing is happening, huh? Jessica meeps! "U-um... I guess so?" She doesn't seem like she has the right kind of experience for this, at first. But, she does pull out a handgun... a sleek but large pistol, much more advanced than this world's tech but obviously not so advanced that its function is unclear. Unlike Dante, the catgirl is quick to seek higher ground, looking about. "I'm not good at just sneaking in, but I think if I follow nearby, I can provide cover and maybe cut them off if they try to flee?"

    'MLE0' smiles nervously. "I am quite glad to be in this situation," he says, following his escort in. "Thank you for bringing me in here -- and I am quite certain I need not say a word about discretion. Emily Nyx is quite literally capable of making me disappear -- of annihilating me!"

    (... by simply dropping the disguise.)

    He makes a quick cost-benefit analysis on whether to call attention to Dante's playing and whether it would be more odd not to remark on it, and settles for nervously moving a bit closer to the guards without looking back, clutching the briefcase to his chest.

    Piera looks at Dante. "At least wait until we have gotten some distance before you bring them to us." she says, before leaping up onto the side of a building and clambering up with spiderlike agility... It seems that Jessica is able to ascend quickly as well, the assassin settling in near the catgirl. "If your weapon is loud, you would likely be more of a hinderance if you began firing... at least until they are alerted." she mentions, then points to a good overlook. "Move to that position... I have determined that if The Runner does escape he will attempt to flee that way. Beware, he is preternaturally fast... we believe he has a Piece of Eden, or at least some minor artifact on his person."

    MLE0 is escorted by two Templar guards, a local policeman and a local military soldier. The different between the latter being the colour of their uniform, and the possession of a long-rifle instead of simply a pistol. The playing by Dante does draw attention from the patrol guards. The nearest four breaking their route to approach, batons drawn and hands on their firearms. "Busking in this location is prohibited." says the leader of the group, a sergeant by the insignia on his shoulder. "Move along citizen."

    <C'mon now, I can't at least give you gentlemen a bit of entertainment?> Dante answers in fluent Italian. <Consider it free of charge.> He strums along some notes to a Queen song, before he begins to sing. Somehow, he doesn't need someone to sing with, or even a full band as phantom performers begin to form out of the ether!

    "MM! It is pretty loud, don't worry! Just because I'm not good at sneaking around doesn't mean I don't know when to hold my fire!" Jessica nods her head firmly, then pouts, "I'm rusty on my Crossbow training or I'd just use one of those." Oh well. She hops away nearby, nodding to Piera.

    "I'll wait for a signal." She's nearvous about screwing it up, but her ears are perked and alert.

    MLE0 continues following the guards, shifting his grip on the briefcase. "Oh good, he's stopped," he murmurs, evidently oblivious to the phantom performers. "That playing before was a sound a demon might make!"

    ... Emily is starting to enjoy telling lies of omission like this. They're almost like puns at this point.

    MLE0's escort brings him up to the top floor, a large open room with a small contingent of guards, and the titular Runner meeting with some of the local leaders. Fat men in tailored suits smoking scigars and drinking brandy. The lead Templar guard announces the Eudaemon's arrival. The Runner turns and stands, fidgeting with a ring on his finger. He's a squirrely man, lanky and thin. he clearly doesn't fit into the dress suit he's wearing, "A-Ah... w-welcome to you Mister MLE0... you had some information for us?" he says, stammering before gesturing to the other five or so powerful local men.

    Piera, meanwhile, makes a whistling sound that affects a bird of prey's shriek. She then nods to Jessica. "That is the signal if the target manages to escape. Be ready with your shot then." As Jessica moves off to gain her perch, the Assassin looks back to the patrols... more and more guards are breaking from their positions, opening some paths into the building for the Assassin. Dante is getting quite an audience, some of the guards even starting to chat amongst themselves about how some off-worlders are really good at entertainment, and how the leaders should start hiring offworld groups to hold shows at the local theatre.

    With those feline ears, Jessica is unlikely to miss a bird call like that! Besides, Rhodes Island and BlackSteel probably have some similar calls, given the somewhat unreliable technology of her own world. "Got it!" Some of her shaky confidence is restored before she leaps over to another rooftop, lightly hurrying to put some space between herself and the others. She's sure that Piera is knowledgeable enough to know that she should drive the Runner that way to cut him off.

    At the sight of the group of rich men, MLE0 almost imperceptibly relaxes. "Ah, scigars," he says, peering at them. "More's the pity I am not affected by such substances."

    He clears his throat as the lanky man addresses him. "Ah, yes!" he says. Oh, this is good. This is very good.

    ... The great thing about being a shapeshifter is, you can have eyes in all the wrong places -- most of them hidden under the deceptively-thin suit. So Emily gets to take a good view of the man in his entirety while looking him directly in the eye.

    Well! That's not a standard-issue Templar ring. Some kind of ... technology. Not sure what else it is; Nyx-models aren't built for deep scanning like that.

    MLE0 nods. "Ah ... 'Emily Nyx' ... well, I shall preface this by reiterating that I am a Eudaemon," he says. "Though I appear to be human apart from my eyes ..." He rolls up his sleeve, and a compartment opens up, revealing that beneath his skin, there are mechanical components which Emily made up on the spot when she transformed. "I am a machine, created with both magic and technology. I was built to serve the Masters of my world, the Ruins of Home." (... Ugh, that name was lame, she should have spent more time thinking about it.) "Thus, one might see it as natural that I seek to preserve order and important human lives."

    He closes his arm, then holds the briefcase open, in the manner of a waiter taking the cover off a dish; it contains half a dozen or so papers and photographs. It's all accurate, actually. "And Emily Nyx is not human," he says. "The consensus among my people is that whatever she is, she is something greater than a lowly Eudaemon. She possesses the capabilities of flight; shapeshifting, including production of tools and such things as swords; and projected-energy weapons." (... which all Eudaemons can do.)

    Now it's time to disrupt the plans at forming an alliance.

    "I believe the birth of her enmity for the Templar Order stems from what she saw as an unprovoked attack on her life," MLE0 says innocently, "for what she saw as the crime of simply entering their world. An Assassin went after the leader of the Templar guards escorting her, and the guards ... went after her, and two others who were with her at the time."

    She can't resist smiling faintly.

    The singing and playing continues, as Dante distracts the guards, and the rest of the civvies. He's the life of the party, grinning like a maniac as he starts up another song. "TOniiiight, I'm going to have myself, a real good time, I feel aliiiiiiive /o~" Oh god, here comes. Where's the piano even coming from?

    https://youtu.be/HgzGwKwLmgM

    The Runner ums, and fidgets a little more, though the other men look rather impressed at the machine. "Very lifelike!" "Oh yes, I almost thought it was alive!" "Indeed, very impressive." come the chorus from the fatcats. The Runner himself then looks at the information, approaching closer to reach into the briefcase. Reaching with his left hand, and putting his right behind him in an unconscious protective maneuver to keep the ring away from an unknown. "Ah, yes... Assassins." his voice becomes a bit more cold at that word, almost like it were to leave a bitter taste just being spoken. "You remember, gentlemen, those ruffians I told you about?"

    Dante's drawn quite the crowd, only the soldiers and the Templars haven't moved, though the soldiers are casting a withering eye on the Son of Sparda... the Templars are stoic. The policemen are having a ball. "Oh yes, don't stop him now Sergeant, this is the most fun I've had all month!" calls one, these guys seem to be just ordinary people, completely oblivious to the dealings going on upstairs.

    Jessica's position gives her a view into the meeting room, she can see MLE0 and the legs of The Runner, but getting a shot from there would be very difficult.

    Piera leaps from rooftop to rooftop, and scales down the wall where there's no-longer any guards patrolling. Sneaking into a side door and making her way through service corridors, used by waiting staff and cleaners so they don't 'clog up the rich peoples sections'.

    At the very least, this will be difficult for the local guards and Templars to respond with the crowd. He keeps up the jams, gleefully moving on to the next song as he starts to play https://youtu.be/kijpcUv-b8M the next song. He even gets doppelgangers summoned for the singing part!

    Once he starts hearing panic from inside and cries of 'oh god they killed him' he'll cut the concert short.

    Jessica takes a seat... and not just sitting down simply. Despite her inexperience and the fact that she's using a pistol, not a rifle, she scoots close and finds a shadow to slide up against, pinning herself against a decorative shelf and keeping an eye on the window. Hmm... she COULD take the shot but it would be to wound, not to kill. That'd be a last resort if he doesn't move.

    Jessica can't exactly signal that she's in position and she knwos she doesn't make the best impression on people for being reliable, so... she'll just have to hope they trust she's gotten into position.

    MLE0 lets the Runner take the briefcase, should he desire. "I will raise no objections if you wish to bring this to your superiors in the Templars," he says. (It's all myriad details on Emily and her powers -- none of which says anything useful about her nature, or anything about weaknesses.) One of the papers shows a profile of a Lunar Tear. "Ah, yes -- those glowing flowers. They came from another world. She seems to have an affinity for them, and has begin engaging in a habit of conjuring the likeness of their petals." He holds his hand out palm upward, a hatch opens in his palm to reveal a lens, and a static hologram of Lunar Tear petals appears above it, flickering with scanlines. "Anyway ..."

    He looks each of the fatcats in return. "I should like to reassure you that you are all safe from Emily Nyx, gentlemen," he adds. "All things being equal, she appears to have a ..." (Oh, oh, how did Piera put it?) "... simplistic worldview, which ..." (Wait, no, it was simple worldview.) "... tries to divide the world simply between 'good guys' and 'bad guys'. She has judged the Templars to be 'the bad guys', and that you are innocent bystanders who might well be deceived by the Templars into doing their dirty work. Or even, perhaps, becoming their puppets, or pawns."

    His deferential nervous attitude is starting to fade now, and he's smiling an amused and faintly smug smile.

    "I will also say that she isn't actually working directly with the Assassins in this case," he says, speaking directly to the Runner again. "She announced her presence to them, since she considers them to be the lesser of two evils in the event that they aren't bad guys, but ... well." He shrugs, still projecting the hologram of the petals. "Let's just say that the Assassins are already dedicated to ending your life. Whereas Emily Nyx is undecided on the matter."

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> Trying to drive a wedge between the Runner and the fatcats, starting to drop the facade

    There's uncomfortable murmuring coming from the locals now. The guards are starting to listen more closely to MLE0's words, a few hands lifting to rest on sword pommels or firearms. The Runner himself looks across the information in the briefcase, then hurls it aside. "Useless drivel!" he then freezes on looking back up at the Eudaemon's face. Everyone else has been rather slow on the pickup, but this guy has a very healthy self preservation instinct. He turns and starts to flee, "GUARDS, KILL HIM!"

    And before he even finishes turning, he's vanished! Well, no, he's just 'skipped' a good few seconds of distance, heading out of a side door and leaving it swinging open in his wake.

    MLE0 grins as the Runner meets her gaze.

    And then he skips.

    "Oh god damn it he has time-powers!" he says, his voice smoothly shifting into ... her usual voice. "Why don't I get time powers!?" She giggles. "Releasing capacitor seal three!"

    Three distinct auras appear: one gold, one silver, and one pearlescent. The first one shatters, and the second one fades ...

    ... and, ignoring the guards, she glides after the man as she's surrounded by a swirl of what appears to be silvery glitter, transforming into a lavender-skinned demoness with six eyes in two vertical rows and Vantablack hair, wearing a black T-shirt that says "BOY" except with the female-symbol for the O, cutoff jeans, and combat boots. A sign erupts from her side and goes flying out the window towards Dante: "PLAY 'CARAMELLDANSEN'" It almost immediately dissolves into nanomachines, which float back up into the window.

    Emily sends Lunar Tear flowers drifting through the hallways. "My offer was sincere, you know!" she calls after the Runner. "Or, wait, I didn't get the chance to make it. Uh, I'm not gonna kill you! If you wanna desert from the Templars, I could make arrangements!"

    ... Wait, 2B isn't there to hear that. Eh, whatever, she is sincere.

    Dante sees the sign, and all hell breaks loose as he notices a brief break in the space-time continiuim. <Apologies, folks. But I need to cut this show short!> He bows to the crowd, before suddenly the devil hunter streaks through the crowd, expertly weaving and maneuvering while letting the civilians distract the guards.

    Moving at top speed, Dante deftly jumps upwards to rooftop level before he tries to chase after the escaping Templar. "She's serious! I think!" He chimes in.

    Well, everything is going to pot, huh? Jessica's ears lay flat as she whines softly. "Oh no." She'd actually hoped she wouldn't have to shoot anyone this time around, but... oh well, such is life. Despite her whining about it and her tail flicking in agitation, she squints to try to track where the target vanished to... 

    And yes, as soon as she's able to find, her pistol lowers, crossing her arm under her wrist to steady her aim. She doesn't have a sniper rifle, so it might seem like she's poorly suited for this, but there's none of her uncertainty in how she's tracking to find a clear shot.

    Clear shot, for her, also includes shooting through thin obstacles, though.

    Piera hears the cry for guards, and she shifts her path from going up, to going back down, moving to intercept the Templar and drive him toward Jessica. Once she's near a window, she lets loose her hawk shriek whistle, signalling to the catgirl to get ready. The young assassin is probably the slowest of the current group, a position she's not entirely used to.

    The Runner keeps running, whatever is letting him do those 'skips' has a refactoring period between, leaving him to just scamper away. He's pretty fast even normally, but nothing close to a Devil Hunter or a Eudaemon. "G-Get away from me!" he stammers.

    He 'skips' into the open in front of Jessica... she could go for the kill shot, or a disabling one, given that Dante and Emily are very close behind him.

    The guards, and police are all tangled up by the gathered civilians, the locals completely unwilling to turn to violence to break up the crowd, and the Templars seemingly paralyzed without orders from their leader. The ones in the upstairs do start filtering down, chasing after Emily or moving to try and intercept Dante.

    Emily grins as she closes in on the Runner, putting two and two together about how he's time-stopping. "Look," she says, "just gimme the ring, and we'll call it Even Steven! I want that little ability you've got on display." Sonia, Chrollo, and now this guy -- every time she meets someone who can stop time, the idea of being able to do it herself delights Emily more and more, for reasons she can't even fully articulate. There's all kinds of ways she could be completely dramatic with that kind of power! She materializes a second pair of arms and waves to Dante, even as she lunges forward to grab the man's right hand, trying to go for the ring. "Gimme!"

    Dante could stop time for a short period, but he got rid of the artifact. Having that thing around just didn't sit right to him, and having it stick around was a good way to have it fall into someone's hands who was less honorable about the whole thing.

    "Yo Em!" He greets cheerfully, even as they chase the time-stopping runner, he reaches out with Ebony in hand, trying to get out some warning shots to slow the guy down.

    And there. The target is in view. The signal gets her ear perked, and Jessica waits just a moment... juuuust a little bit more. "Aww..." Sigh. Yes, a heavy sigh. He looks so scared and panicked! Surely he could be swayed!

    The POW of an originium-powered slug blasting out of her pistol is heard though. Her internal whining doesn't stop the scaredy-cat from taking the shot, and aiming at the 'safest' place to aim... the man's torso. No maiming shot attempt here, she's at a pretty long range for her pistol and trick shots would be risky.

    BLAM.

    THND.

    The RUnner drops, clutching at his chest as the bullet from Jessica's pistol slams into him as he returns from a skip. He drops like a sack of potatoes and groans as he pathetically tries to continue crawling away.

    Whatever power the ring had, the impact him hitting the ground when his hand shot out to brace his fall caused it to dissipate. The ring, when Emily gets it, is inert, a lump of golden metal with strange engravings, and nothing more.

    The Templars, the Civilians and the Locals all turn at the sound of the gunshot, the civvies fleeing in panic with screams echoing from everyone. The police draw weapons, the soldiers bring up their rifles and the Templar guards draw swords and pistols... only to have the soldiers and police turn on /them/. One of the fatcats from upstairs pushes open a window and calls. "Arrest all these, 'Templars'. I have just received word that they were making deals with our enemies as well. Backstabbing blaggarts!" he huffles, then closes the window again, leaving the guards and police to start rounding up the Templars, and the Runner to bleed on the ground.

    Piera turns up a few seconds later, looking from Dante to Emily, up to Jessica, and finally down to The Runner. She kneels beside him and with a soft reverence, speaks as her hands rests on his shoulder. "Requiescat en pace, may you find your courage in your next life." She seems to go into a half-trance for a few moments, then moves to close the man's eyes as he finally expires, his last breath puffing a little cloud of steam as the temperature dips, and a light dusting of snow begins to fall.

    "Hey DantWAUGH!" Emily jumps back, startled by the gunshot! "Warn me next time!" she shouts nonsensically out the window to Jessica. She sighs theatrically and shakes her head, then bends over to pick up the ring, her expression changing to one of utter delight!

    And then her face falls as she realizes it's broken.

    "Aw, c'mon!" she says. "Oh well, screw that noise." She closes her hand around it, and then ...

    ... it vanishes, as if it was never there (hidden among her interior nanomachines).

    At the cry from the fatcat, she chortles and leans out the window. "TOLD YA!" she calls back to him.

    She leans back against the wall and exhales, suddenly looking exhausted. She gestures, and a staticky portal opens up in front of her, leading to Jessica in case she wants to rejoin the group. "Can you at least tell us more about why this guy in particular deserved to die?" she asks Piera flatly.

    Dante finds no luck, but Jessica hits the target square in the chest. He approaches the scene of Piera giving what looks like last rites, not bothering to interrupt. He does however give notice to the horde of police. "We'd better disappear while we got a chance, ladies." He advises calmly, keeping a hold on his pistol all the same.

    Jessica isn't used to doing hits like this... preferring more stand up battles. She's sharp enough to know she shouldn't linger though, and she's already on the move. She doesn't want people figuring out where she was! But she'll be moving to meet up with the other three.

    She didn't mind taking the shot, but that doesn't mean she looks happy about it. Her tail is limp and her ears flat. "I really don't like politics."

    "You were in the room with him. Attempting to forge some kind of deal with the locals for obstensibly beneficial arrangements." Piera says, standing and watching the Eudaemon. "Shackles and bindings, meant to bend the world to the Templar's will. A slow, methodical process to be sure." she then nods to Dante. "We should continue this conversation elsewhere. Preferably without harming the locals."

    She looks out the window. "Stay your blade from the flesh of the innocent." A recitation, something she doesn't truly believe, at least not yet.

    Stowing his pistol, Dante ushers the girls along. "C'mon, let's move. I don't wanna get in a fight with the fuzz any more than I have to."

    Emily nods, closes the portal, and pauses, opening another one that leads to an alleyway. "This way, folks!" she says.

    ... She plans on having Cid Harley at least look over the ring. She forgets what kind of tech his world has, and the halcyon remnant's is best described as "a literal non-functioning mess", but still. A girl can dream!