World Tree MUSH

    Although the street lights keep the city lit, there's a certain eerie look when the fog rolls in (as it frequently does). The older orange sodium lights clash with the actnic white of the modern LED lights. Despite that, the street has plenty of eateries open until midnight or later, serving upscale local cuisine such as a panoply of Asian. Then too, are the bakeries that are getting ready to close up for the night in order to prepare fresh goods for the following morning. Pedestrians mill about getting take-out and discounted baked goods, no real sign of anything untoward happening.
    Then it happens. An unearthly fusion of wolf howl and banshee wail. A half-formed spectral thing bounds after a blonde girl on its four feet, baleful yellow eyes fixated on her.

    It's not usual for Usagi Tsukino to be out and about this late. But another failed test meant that a very angry Ikuko Tsukino kicked her out of the house again to think about her failures. It didn't help that her little brother made fun of her through the door as she tried to kick her way back in. 
    "Stupid tests... Stupid mom... Stupid Shingo."
    So that didn't work, which means she has a few hours to kill before her father lets her back in. Time to wander!
    Hopping through a vine from Juban to San Francisco, seemed like a good idea at the time! Blowing the last of her allowance on good food? Great
    Cookies? Awesome.
    Horrible wolf-banshee-wails?
    Not so good.
    "Huh whah?" That's when she realizes whatever this thing is? Is after HER.
    "Weh? Ah... Uh... WAHHHHHHHH!"
    A very panicked Usagi drops her cookies and makes a run for it.

  Go investigate the Beacon Society, they'd said. Do whatever they need help with, they'd said. Why did she always wind up with these kinds of jobs? There's no enlightenment on that front, so Tohsaka Rin is leaning against one of those actinic lampposts, back straight, eyes hooded as she surveys the avenue with feline disinterest.

  She's wearing a nice blouse and slacks, and over that, her favourite red wool overcoat. Her hair's down, still a little damp from the shower; the chill is enough to warrant the coat. There's enough magical ordinance to blow up several armoured tanks in one pocket; stuck through her belt, under the coat, is her Azoth dagger.

  So, there's an obviously Japanese girl (well, except for the blue eyes) leaning against a lamppost, flicking boredly through local headlines on her phone. The light of the screen lights up her face in blue; a cigarette dangles from her lower lip, mostly forgotten. Her eyes narrow as she passes by headlines not quite enticing enough to actually warrant clicking--

  It's a typical scene as with any other city. Rin is just about to give up when her senses are abruptly jangled by... what even is that?

  The cell phone is abruptly dumped into a pocket, and no sooner than that is Rin striding through San Francisco's streets, the hem of her coat whipping along behind her determined stride. Her path takes her... right past Usagi, in fact.

  Rin's stride slows. Her eyes slide sideways to regard the beleaguered student.

  It's just as Usagi starts to run that Rin reaches out, clamping iron fingers around the back of the girl's collar.

  "Don't run."

  Rin's voice is cold; not unsympathetic, but focused on trying to triangulate where those horrible wailings are coming from. (No, not Usagi's.) The raven-haired magus is not frightened prey, but a predator herself on the hunt.

  "Predators are always drawn to movement. You want to get us both killed?" Poor Usagi, she's obviously terrified. Rin sighs, relenting just a fraction of an inch. She releases Usagi's collar. "Stick with me. I might be able to keep us both alive, okay? And don't run, no matter what you do. What's your name?"

    Jun generally avoids this area of the street at night unless he's got money -- which isn't often, and when it is, it's not much. The smell of the food is enough to make him salivate.

    Though it's not the smell of the food that draws him to this place today -- it's the shriek from out of nowhere, that unearthly howl. He flies down out of the sky towards the source of the wailing howl, already in transformed state, 'holy' sword of light already drawn.

    He's aiming for a strike from the sky, though it's more for distraction's sake -- he's hoping that if something hurts it more than the girl it's chasing, that it'll break off the chase and come after someone that might be better able to defend themself.

    Serrah was going to try to get in touch with the Beacon Society about current events, in particular Doctor Worm, but she actually managed to get the day wrong because she's just that bad at managing her time (and has nothing to do with the fact that she hasn't been home for two days, nuh-uh), so she decided to just skip it and grab a meal.

    She steps out of a restaurant, adjusts the baseball bag at her hip, and stretches; she's wearing a black shirt with cutoff sleeves that says "offworlder" in Japanese, her rainbow-colored skort. She's looking a bit tired, like she's been staying up late (like her disastrous sleep schedule just happens to be 'halfway decent' right now), but nothing too unmanageable. She smirks humorlessly at the moody mists; man, this is the kind of darkness a vampire might like to lurk in, if this was her world.

    And then she hears that ghastly wolf-howl, and frowns. She tenses up as if she's about to leap into the air, and then --

    (From her own perspective, there's a ripple of light, the world turns drab and tinted purple, and everyone except her is frozen. She flies up into the air, soaring over the rooftops in the direction of the screams.)

    -- she's suddenly gone, vanishing abruptly.

    It's just a bit too far from her current location to timestop the whole way, so time resumes partway through the transition. Hmm ... she can sense Jun as that vaguely unpleasant-and-possibly-dangerous in her vampire senses, but she knows him, so she's not worried. And so, as she passes into view over a nearby rooftop, she happens to be looking directly at him.

    Fortunately, she doesn't have to look very far to see that he's right next to ... two Japanese girls she doesn't recognize ... and that monster, okay! She starts to descend, reaching into her bag to grab a baseball ...

     The hound-thing stops for a moment and turns its head toward Serrah as time stops for everybody else, sniffing the air curiously. Time resumes and the hound is now bounding for Serrah, and it bays once more as it leaps for the baseball wielding dhampir. Jun's strike cracks the sidewalk where the thing was just a heartbeat ago. The maho can see it yards away.
    Other howls answer it.
    Predictably, the pedestrians and witnesses who possess no will to confront the things start scattering and screaming. There's some weird *boom* sounds out near the edge of the panicked wave, cutting off alarmed shouts.

    "Gweh!"
    That is the sound of Usagi trying to run as Rin gets fingers into her collar. The girl goes forward by a step before she's choking herself on her own shirt for a beat as she flails and struggles.
    "Oh god you don't wanna eat me I'm just skin and bones- I'll have so many regrets if I die here and now, I never even got to kiss any cute boys- I'll haunt you from beyond the grave if you kill meeeee!" Usagi squeals-- before she realizes it's not a monster that has her by the collar, but a person-- a person speaking her own language. Another young lady in fact. ... A young lady who now has to deal with a snivveling blonde.
    "D-don't run, what do you mean don't run, it's gonna eaaaaat meeeee!" She whines looking seriously ready to cry.
    This is when Jun HEROICALLY descends from the sky and Serrah just kind of appears.
    And now that thing is going after Serrah.
    The relief on Usagi's face is immense.
    Then there are more howls.
    The poor girl just goes blue in the face with fright.

  Even as the hound-like creature bears down on her, Rin stays... well, outwardly calm, anyway, even if she's shrieking on the inside about how stupid of an idea this is, and how much she's going to kick down Lord El-Melloi II's office and demand hazard pay. (...No, maybe not. Thinking about doing it makes her feel better, though.)

  Also that offworlder over there just, uh, appeared! Like appeared. Out of nowhere. That bears investigating. Later. Much later. When she's not indirectly in the crosshairs of malevolent magical monsters. Or holding Usagi in place by the back of Usagi's collar.

  The more Usagi flails, the more Rin frowns, until the magus can take it no more. "Oh my God will you shut up?" The words are given with an emphatic shake of Usagi's collar before Rin lets her go, now that the beast is busy bounding after Serrah. Whoever that was, hopefully they can take care of themselves.

  Rin lets go of Usagi's collar, frowning and snorting smoke. She looks rapidly between Usagi, and the direction the hound disappeared in.

  "Ugh!" It's with an expression of profound disgust that Rin whirls and springs after the hound, and by extension, Serrah. "Hey!" Rin shouts after them. "Hey, you! Vanishing girl!" Until she's given a better name, that's gonna be Serrah's moniker. "And you! The flying one from Obviously Not Here! We have to lead this thing away from the city or put it down, fast!"

  Rin is sprinting. Fast. Faster than a human her approximate age, build, and height should be able to. There are green, circuit-like patterns glowing on her leg: Magecraft. It's a bit like magic, but to those who can sense magic, it feels a bit... off.

    "Damn...!" Jun curses, as the hound evades his strike from the sky. He doesn't go after the beast again immediately though. Instead he lands near Rin and Usagi -- though Rin sprints away before he can say much -- and asks Usagi (since she might still be there for a moment at least), "Are you all right?"

    Though since Rin is uh, probably calling him to come and join the fight, he can't stay for much of an answer. Looking to Usagi, he notes, "Get somewhere safe, quickly. We'll try to lead this thing away."

    And then he's off, heading towards the group. Rin's words get an answer; when he gets within earshot, he calls out, "If we're putting it down, we're gonna have to distract it! If it's aware of an attack aimed at it, it'll disappear like it did just a second ago!"

    Serrah was out of view when it changed course, and so she's caught by surprise by the fact that she has a monster-hound leaping at her in the middle of Stop the World's cooldown. "Waugh --!?"

    She throws herself sideways out of the path of the monster, nearly trips over the edge of the rooftop, and sort of cartwheels wildly through the air before making a three-point superhero landing which somehow manages to look deft after all that. She then hurls a baseball at the monster -- not quite at the speeds of a Major League pitcher, but hopefully enough to hurt it ...?

    She blinks at Rin's appellation, and gives her a weak glare. "My name is Serrah Delany," she says flatly, taking off and flying after her. "Coun-- wait, no." She shakes her head.

    But then her head jerks towards Jun. "... Wait wait wait," she says, slowing down slightly and turning to face him, now flying backwards above Rin. "Are you telling me this thing was moving in my stopped time!?"

    Poor Rin. Will she ever get that hazard pay? She'll certainly need it haveing to deal with horrorterrors from beyond space and time. And now snivveling teen brats. 
    "Buh- buht..." Usagi tries to say only to be stifled by a good firm shake of her collar and a loud SHUT UP!
    "Uwehhhh..." Wow that seriously cowed the girl, NOW she looks ready to bust out into tears once Rin lets her go, to to after the beast.
    "N-noooo." She answers Jun. ... But really she'll be fine, and she doesn't need to be told twice to get somewhere safe as she starts scooting. But with everyone gone...
    That's when a black cat darts out of the nearby alley.
    "Usagi! I finally found you!" Luna says.
    "Oh no-- not this time. I'm going straight home!"
    "It's your job as a hero to help them, not run away!"
    "I uh. I have a test I need to study for, yeah!"
    "That's a lie, you don't study and fail all your tests."
    "G-geh... You don't have to be so mean..." She snipes at her cat- who steps aside and points a paw into the alley very pointedly.
    Sigh.
    "F-fiiiiine!"

    "Moon Prism Power MAKE UP!"

    It's a good thing she's in an alley and no one is looking, because some bright pink lights and one eye-searing transformation sequence later, SAILOR MOON steps out of the alley.
    "Right! They went that way, so I'll take a shortcut and go THIS way!"
    Oh look at her trying to go the other way. It's cute. Except for the fact that Luna attaches to her face and starts clawing her eyes out.
    "OW OW OW OW OW OW OH GOD OH MY GOD OKAY OKAY OKAY!" She shrieks, turning around and to start stumbling after Rin, Jun, Serrah, and the hounds.

    The baseball hits the hound, causing its strange melted form to flinch before the baseball ricochets off at a strange angle, nearly the same direction it came from. It makes a strange keening sound as it pounces after Serrah.
    Other hounds emerge, six more in all, coming out of the outside corners of the buildings as though teleporting, eyes glowing as they sense better prey in the form of Serrah. That there are other outworlders present seems to be simply a further enticement to them. One of them is probably the direction that Usagi attempted to turn before her familiar chided her.

  "Yep! Serrah! Got it! ...Details later!" Rin positively skids around the corner to the hound's new location, cracking the knuckles of both hands and noting Jun's arrival from the corner of a blue eye. Oh, so the thing vanishes when attacked! Awesome.

  Rin, meanwhile, half-turns so she can keep both the monstrous beast and Serrah both in her field of vision. The former is a threat; the latter is a she-doesn't-know-yet, and Rin is the kind of person to keep her bases covered.

  No, there won't be any hazard pay. A fact Rin bitterly regrets because now there are more of the devil-dogs hanging around.

  She doesn't hear or spot the transformed Usagi just yet. That is... probably for the best.

    Oh there's a hound that way? Well it's a good thing Sailor Moon went the other way.
    "IT'S BEHIND ME?!" She shrieks and...
    She starts running.
    Sailor Moon needs a weapon. And she grabs the first thing that comes to hand as she stops by a newspaper stand.
    She grabs a newspaper.
    Rolls it up.
    And WHAPS the offending Hound of Tindalos on the nose with it. "BAD DOG!"
    "..."
    That was probably a bad idea.
    So she gets to running again.

    Serrah asks her question, and Jun looks in her direction. "No idea," he replies. "I just know I tried dive-bombing it, and it just wasn't there when I reached it. I don't know if it did what you do, or it it just teleported."

    Suddenly the beasts are coming out of the woodwork! "Oh geez..." he mutters. Louder, he notes, "Well at least they're coming after us and not people who can't defend themselves!"

    Serrah nods. "Works for me!" she answers Rin's 'details later' comment. She glares at the hounds as they start to approach, catching the ricocheting baseball. "... Okay, yeah, I got nothin'," she says. "And my gut tells me punchin' these things barehanded is not gonna be real healthy. Either of you have any ideas on how to actually fight these things?"

    She keeps an eye out for Usagi. Poor girl needed a break; Serrah hopes she got out safely.

    The newspaper admonishes the hound, though the roll seems to have gone funny and all brittle in Usagi's hand before she takes off. It takes off after the magical girl, though with less enthusiasm than its pack mate had initially, puzzled at the similarity to the native maho.
    From out of an unexpected angle there's the characteristic burst of smoke as a hound leaps at Rin, the head splitting back into its torso to reveal a maw of writhing tongues coated in a blue slime, which envelops Rin briefly. It's like the purest blast of ice, something that just snatches the breath away and replaces wakefulness with intense fatigue and sleepiness.
    And just like that, it seems the hounds vanish into the little tesseracts from which they emerged, sated for the evening.

    Annnnd Usagi's weapon evaporates in her hands.
    "Nope."
    Nope nope nope, she's done.
    Even as the hounds vanish?
    She's still running.
    "--Sailor Moon what are you doing get back here right this instant!" Luna demands.
    "NO WAY, I'M GOING HO-O-O-O-OME!"
    Look at her go.

  Smoke erupts and billows around Rin, and Rin does the natural thing, which is to try and leap away from the shadowy form so close at hand. She fires into the smoke, charged shots of pure malicious intent -- Gandr, the Finnish hex, a corporeal bullet of malice. It probably isn't enough to kill the hounds, and it may not even hurt them that much, but maybe it can surprise them into backing off.

  Things go from horrifying to kind of disgusting pretty quickly. Either her shots miss or her curses have no real effect on the beast. Rin scrabbles backwards as one of the hounds leaps through the veil, and then it becomes a horror movie set, all splitting heads and maws and writhing tongues and SWEET JESUS THAT'S COLD.

  ...Rin doesn't really remember hitting the ground, but she does. Good night, good night.

    Serrah whirls around as that hound attacks, grabbing baseballs out of her bag. She knows her throw-a-dozen-baseballs-at-once trick won't work, but --

    Oh no.

    "Wha -- oh fuck!" Serrah rushes over to catch Rin as she falls, horrified. She looks up at Jun, the one person here who is best equipped to heal people ... and tell if someone is alive or not. "Jun! Is she ...?"

    Suddenly the hounds are melting away, and Jun sighs. "...I'm not sure whether to be relieved or frustrated," he mutters. He'll land as near to the rest of the group as possible.

    And then Rin falls. Fortunately Serrah's on-hand to catch her! Either way, Jun lets the blade of his sword disappear, and hangs the hilt on his side, then runs over to see to her.

    After a moment of checking, he nods. "She's still alive. Just asleep. Whatever magic those things have, it's enough to knock somebody out cold, it looks like." That in mind, he'll try to heal her a little -- just restore a little of her lost vitality. Might not wake her up, but with any luck it'll make her feel a little less like she got hit by a magical 18-wheeler when she DOES wake up.

    Serrah sighs with relief. "Damn it," she mutters under her breath.

    She pauses. And then, for reasons even she isn't entirely sure about, she says, "Don't tell her I reacted like this."