World Tree MUSH

    It's been a while since anything has happened on the Machine Lifeform infested earth. The humans are still on the moon, YoRHa is still deadlocked in war with the machines, and 2B and 9S are getting bored of fishing to pass the time.
    But now. Orders have come down from YoRHa high command. All available YoRHa units are to explore the vast underground cave system under the cty ruins in search of the Aliens that had invaded the world, and any offworld help would be both greatly appreciated and well compensated; especially to those who can find and kill the aliens in their lair.
    2B and 9S stand at the entrance to one such cave, in ankle deep water, katanas hovering at their backs as they wait for others to arrive.
    With a PLUNK, 2B's pod hits the water and floats on the surface serenely, before there's a splash and it floats up to hold its fresh catch on display, a moderately sized fish.
    "Catch received."
    "Don't you get bored of that, 2B?"
    "Yes."
    "So then... Why?"
    "Because I have nothing better to do while we wait."
    "You could talk to me?"
    "I could."
    "... Geeze."

    Dante is just...he's just vibin', earbuds buzzing with music as he lays out with a beer. He COULD go and tell the androids he's here, but nah. They look so peaceful fishing!

    He does however, choke on his drink when 2B delivers a roast so brutal 9S's grandkids could feel it...if he had the ability to procreate, anyways.

    A staticky portal opens up, and out comes Emily in the form of a woman in her twenties with silver hair in a pixie cut, and massive translucent holographic voluminous twintails which spiral inward and clip through the ground. She's wearing a pinstripe waistcoat and slacks, a matching hat, a white buttondown shirt with a bright red necktie, and pointy anime sunglasses. Oh, and there's a signet ring on her right hand, flickering erratically with glowing runes.

    "Wow, Tubes, I didn't expect you to straight up murder Nines like that!" she says cheerfully. "That was a stone-cold execution."

    (... For the moment, she's given up on her suppositions on that particular matter. Still, she can't help herself. The fact that 2B doesn't like nicknames actually slipped her mind.)

    She pauses, regarding the cave. "You know what, I'm gonna be honest with y'all," she says. "I have no actual expectations for what we're about to find. I genuinely have no clue what kind of beings these aliens are gonna be! So this is gonna be fun that way, too."

    It's an adventure to find underground aliens! How could Hyouka not come out to join? She's got a little further to go than the others from the route she took to reach this world, so she unfortunately misses 2B's most ruthless moment to date, but she doesn't arrive long after, coming down off the ruins of a building with a heavy thud before rising to her feet. "That's part of the fun with exploring caves," she calls out to Emily, offering a cheery wave. "Always something new. Never know what any given world's caves are going to be like. It's like a box of chocolates, except some of them might randomly contain fire, or poison, or alien civilizations."

    "Hyouka, you're not very good at metaphors, are you?" "Shush, DARGN. It's close enough."

    "Master. Call incoming from YoRHa command. Expedition going into the caverns opened up during the Goliath attack... compensation is stated as 'considerable'." Bravette says, turning a holographic screen around for the Goddess to see.

    Uni looks, nods. "Suit up, we're moving out immediately."

    Twenty minutes later, the black-haired CPU Candidate and her companion approach the rally point. They stay quiet while Uni summons some combat gear, bringing some supplies out of Inventory to have them on her body to be a little easier to hand. Bravette summons and checks her weapons, then opens holographic screens, offering TacNet connections to those that can accept the signal.

    The promise of some pay, against an Automata enemy, that she doesn't really need to hold back too much fighting with? Teresa doesn't need much more convincing. As is somewhat typical for a Claymore, she has no issue with waiting, the woman having stabbed her sword into the ground, which she then sits down and leans back against. One might naturally assume she's asleep, though she can't help but chuckle, a smile spreading over her face at the bantering of the two androids.

    She does take what Emily and Hyouka say into consideration. "Hm. Fun, perhaps, that's true. Though, if anything is down there, it will likely become aware of us before we are aware of them. What is rather concerning to me, is that the local experts also have effectively no idea what we might find down there. The unexpected is just as dangerous as it is exciting."

    Stretching, Teresa stands, pulls her sword from the ground, and places the weapon on her back with a brief flourish. The large, long, wide blade might well be of similar size to the one 2B uses. Silver eyes glance about, "On that note.. would this not be everyone? My night vision is rather good, though I can't speak to others. Best get this done before the sun starts going down. Things that like to live underground tend to become more.. active, at night."

    Ankle-deep water? BLECH! That'll ruin Josuke's shoes! So he's probably gonna be late, because yes, he will totally pitch a bitch at the Speedwagon Foundation -- and specifically Jotaro -- to get him 'proper gear'. Which apparently means hip-waders.

    They look ridiculous, and he does not look pleased to be wearing the drab green things over his nice purple sweater-and-slacks outfit. But it's the lesser of two evils, and he's not going to ruin $250 shoes in this stagnant mess.

    He might also have missed the android roast, but it's okay, because he greets 2B and 9S with a broad grin and a cheerful, "Hi! Sorry I'm late, but I didn't wanna wreck my shoes -- they're expensive, and my bank account's still recovering from that last spending trip Mr. Joestar went on."

    He's got company, too -- the Bright Feather Roberta accompanies him, cleverly sitting on Josuke's shoulder to stay above all the standing water. And she also greets the group, "Hello! My name's Roberta! I'm here to help out with sensors."

    The fact that she's sitting on Josuke's shoulder, and that he's allowing it, should be enough to note that she's with him. Though if that's not enough, he adds (mainly to the YoRHa androids, who have reason to distrust anything clearly mechanical), "She can also patch anybody up that gets hurt."

    And the others have begun to arrive.
    "ALERT:" Pod beeps. "Hunter unit: Dante is within the vicinity." It states the obvious after overhearing the half-devil sputtering.
    Wow, though, does 2B clench her fist irritably as Emily comments on her metaphorical slaying of 9S like that. "Mn."
    "Chocolate? Like thee old-world sweets that humans used to eat?" 9S does muse tapping his chin at Hyouka. "But what do sweets have to do with cave exploration?"
    There's Uni, and bot 9S and 2B's Pods accept Bravette's connections, beginning a three-way share of data with the shinki.
    And a lot of statements of the obvious.
    2B eyes Teresa. Though it's difficult to tell exactly where she's looking thanks to the blindfold-like visor on her face, for a moment... For just a moment it's as though one predator were sizing up another.
    "Oh hey Josuke!" 9S chirrups, having recovered from his third degree burn enough to initiate the complex ritual of the human handshake greeting complete with fistbump.
    That's enough formalities for now as 2B heads into the mouth of the cave.
    "She's right." She says in reference to Teresa's words. "Command has no idea what's down there, and it likely goes deep enough that we'll be out of radio contact for a while. It could be extremely dangerous. Anyone who wants to, now's the time to back out."
    She gives the group a few beats before heading into the dark.
    With a click, both Pods activate their flashlight functions as the Battle unit and Scanner lead the way into the depths.

    Bravette confirms handshake on all the incoming accept signals, feeding data and offering a holographic map for everyone nearby. It's only as good as the networked sensors can give, but should be able to act like a 'breadcrumb' trail out after all is said and done.

     Uni herself summons the Autocannon she acquired working for the Resistance camp. This is hooked up to a harness, and with a click and power-up whine, the coaxial spotlight comes on, the Goddess moving to the front position so she doesn't blind anyone else with the powerful lamp. "Sky Eye, topside as far as you can go."

    Emily shoots a grin at Hyouka. Then she puts on a serious face. "Hyouka," she says gravely, "If I were you, I would be very cautious about chocolates containing alien civilizations." Her grin almost immediately returns.

    She connects to Bravette's TacNet, and nods to Teresa. "Stabbykins here is right," she says. "If we're all here -- Oh, hi, Josuke!" She chuckles. "Uhhh, yeah."

    She notices the way 2B clenches her fist. Hmm. Well, best not to annoy the ambiguous 2E. She makes no comments.

    She smirks at 9S. "Basically, Nines," she says, "the idea is that chocolates ... in a box of chocolates, you aren't sure what's inside each individual chocolate. Caramel, nougat, more chocolate ... it's all a random chance." She shrugs, and turns to follow 2B. "Unless, of course, your scanning capabilities include the interior of chocolates. Releasing Capacitor Seals 3 and 2!"

    She's surrounded by her gold, silver, and pearlescent auras, and the first two shatter while the third one fades. Then a large rectangular sword materializes in a swirl of silvery nanomachines, almost as long as she is tall, and with the four card suits etched into the flat of the blade. ... Which also has a pinstripe pattern just like her clothing.

    "A box of chocolates often contains a variety of different kinds, and you're never really sure what you're going to get in any given one," Hyouka replies. DARGN chimes in with a dry, "Hyouka, most of them come with a guide to what kinds are contained in the box."

    Hyouka grumps. And then valiantly ignores DARGN. "9S, do the two of you have tastebuds? I could bring you a box of chocolates some time," she offers. Emily's reply gets an amused snort shortly thereafter.

    Wait, hang on, is that someone new? "Ah, hello there, I don't think we've met," the faux-elf greets Teresa with a wave. "Hyouka, Kiyama Hyouka. Professional adventurer. That's a good idea." Joksuke's here too; the familiar young man and his shinki companion get a cheery wave out of Hyouka, which she draws out long enough to apply it to Uni and Bravette as well.

    "Beep boop, that's me!" Dante says, crushing the remains of his beercan and pitching it like a softball at the nearest trash can...which is like, a good few yards away. In any case, he brushes himself off and gets to his feet, grabbing Rebellion from out of the ground. Stowing it, he nods to the others as they arrive. "Uni, Josuke, Em, Bert, Hyouka, Brav', good to see you guys." He grins, before also examining Teresa. "Don't think we met before. Name's Dante, demon killer." He says, approaching the swordswoman and offering a handshake. Whether or not she accepts it is irrelevant, Dante moves along. "So...let's go cave divin'." He says confidently.

    Roberta will probably end up joining that 'handshake' network, since she's got sensors and radio as well. Not to worry, her network's very clean!

    Josuke grins at 9S's human handshake fistbump ritual, and very definitely returns it! "Kewl, you got that down pat!" he comments brightly. Hey, he's a late 90s teenager, he's allowed to be cringe!

    Though yeah, going into the cave is going to be less than fun, he's sure. But see, that's why he's here, because dungeons are usually even LESS fun without a healer. He returns the various nods and waves with his signature grin and wave, though when 2B makes to lead the way in, he nods. "Right. Be careful, everyone!" he comments, before falling into step.

    .. Stabbykins? Teresa gives Emily an odd look and a light shrug of her shoulders.

She offers Hyouka a nod, and Dante as well. Though, handshakes aren't really her thing. Demon killer, though? "A charming occupation. I'm certain we'll find a bit of common ground." She glances about at the others, but isn't much for the socialization bit of this sort of work, herself. When 2B begins moving out, Teresa is right behind her. With lack of light about to become a thing, one slightly unnerving quality of the Claymore is made immediately apparent, which is.. those silver eyes are visible in the dark. Moreover, should any light source catch them, they reflect it. Much like a cat, it no doubt increases her ability to see in these sorts of conditions.

    It's... Cramped. There's barely enough room for the group to move two at a time, so it's either that or single file as the party progresses into the caves. In almost no time the sunlight from outside is gone and the team has to rely on whatever means of illumination they brought, or superior night vision in some cases.
    "Ohhhhhhhh..." 9S says, illuminated, as Emily and Hyouka explain chocolate boxes to him.
    "Well. I mean. We do have taste buds. There was that one time involving 2B and a mackerel--"
    "9S." 2B says sharply, ending that story very quickly.
    "R-right. Right."
    Anyone with keen hearing though might hear 'It was exquisite, though...' under 2B's breath as she trudges along through the cave.
    Thankfully things open up into larger chambers after a while, but the problem with this is that they are occupied by hostile Machine Lifeforms! Though the group shouldn't have any difficulty at all clearing through the rabble, the caves wind and turn and it's hideously easy to get lost if not for the fact that the group has two pods and two shinki probably making a map as they go along.
    Eventually though...
    Eventually... The party comes across something out of the ordinary.
    It's a massive door, made out of a blue-ish tinted metal.
    "This. This isn't natural." 2B says, taking her katana in hand.

    As the group moves into a larger cavern, Bravette lifts higher. The hostile Machine Lifeforms are noted and Uni braces her stance. "Contact front, opening fire."

    The autocannon spins up and starts barking reports as 30mm shells rip out against the hostiles.

    Once the way is clear, she resumes moving, Bravetter having to drop onto her shoulder as the tunnel tightens up again. She hangs back a little as that door appears, keeping it lit with her spotlight. "No, really? What gave that impression?" she snarks lightly, eying the door, then glancing at her allies. "Anyone got any bright ideas?"

    Emily snickers at Dante. "I just noticed that the 'beep boops' technically outnumber the 'not-beep-boops' here, depending on how Hyouka's counted," she says. "But definitely if you count the Pods." At Josuke, she simply smiles. ... She has no basis for comparison regarding 90's, since in her world, it's the 3120's.

    But then she notices Teresa's look, and she grimaces. "Uh, sorry." And then she looks at 2B. "Oh right, sorry to you too, 2B, I, uh, wasn't thinking."

    (Was the nickname the reason for her clenched fist? No, the attitude was all wrong -- she was clenching her fist like she was holding something back. And 2B has never held herself back on the matter of nicknames ... she thinks.)

    She strolls through the Machine Lifeforms, peppering them with bolts of energy -- never more than five at once, of course -- and occasionally slashing them with her sword; she doesn't seem to expend any effort on the task, either.

    That done, she strolls up to the door behind 2B. "Well, yeah," she says, nodding to Uni as well. "I wouldn't have expected the aliens to be hiding in a cave with no, like, structure, or air conditioning or anything like that." She pauses. "As for ideas ... Anyone able to scan exactly how thick the door is? Or the size of any space on the other side?"

    Dante grins at the swordswoman, "Think we're gonna get along fine. GOt a name?" He asks, before he and the others go down towards the cave. With Rebellion over his shoulder and his flip-phone's flash on for light, Dante keeps an eye out. Any discussions on mackerel are seemingly ignored, though he does smirk a little. His ears are pretty sharp. "Beep, boop. Me am robot." He jokes to Emily with a huge, smug grin.

    Though the humor is put on hold, as robots make themselves seen. With Rebellion in his hand, Dante draws his shotgun from out of his coat with a free hand as he charges forth, opening fire on the machine lifeforms, and smacking the closest ones with Rebellion, cutting robots to bits and the like.

    Josuke snickers at how 2B prompts 9S to terminate the telling of that story about the mackerel. Noodle Incident? Maybe. He misses the rest of it, though, sadly. His hearing isn't better than human, and Roberta's not about to speak up about it.

    Though of course, stumbling upon the hostile Machine Lifeforms get a reaction from Josuke. Said reaction is, of course, to summon his Stand.

    "<Crazy Diamond>!"

    A purple aura springs to life around him, and a crystal blue-armored pink figure appears before him. With Roberta serving as targetting, that blue-armored figure lets loose flurry after flurry of high-speed punches, with a droning Cry of, "DOURARARARARARARA!"

    Yeah, he'll be pretty helpful in flattening these things, with that ghostly companion of his -- he seems to be able to walk through that summoned companion without much of an issue.

    Once they reach the door, Josuke looks up at it, pouting thoughtfully. "...I could try to return the hinges to the metal they were made of?" he suggests. "Though the door might fall down on us, and there's not a lot of room to maneuver."

    "Teresa." Comes the reply to Dante's question. "A pleasure."

    Ah, yes, there was mention of potential hostiles. Teresa proves strong enough, that bare hands suffice to destroy any of these smaller foes that get in her way. She tilts her head, afterwards, at Josuke's rather unusual display of fighting technique, as well as making note there's maybe one person in the group who isn't quite as proficient in such matters. Either way, she follows along behind 2B and 9S, and stops as they come across the large metal door.

    The moment 2B has a hand on her sword, Teresa does the same, drawing it again. "You were not expecting something like this to be here, then, I take it?" She asks the combat android, quirking a blonde brow.

    "I count as human," Hyouka replies to Emily, her tone perhaps just a bit on the sharp side. "My body's artificial, but the brain's still all grey matter." Ah, but it's time to go to work, it looks like.

    As they come upon the Machines, Hyouka brings her arms up, and slams her fists together in front of herself with a loud declaration of, "Fisto, ON!" Her forearms seem to come apart, panels shifting and retracting, while much larger pieces begin to assemble themselves from within in a CLACK-CLACK-CLACK of rapid machinery. In seconds, her fists up to the elbow have been replaced by a bulky pair of gauntlets as wide as her torso each, both of which crackle with electricity along glowing purple lines.

    These huge fists, as it turns out, are really good for smashing Machine Lifeforms.

    When they finally make their way to the doors, Hyouka looks up at them with a frown, glancing briefly to Josuke. "Any normal blast door, I'd say I'm strong enough to catch it if it falls, but that's a big enough slab it might be too heavy even for me." She rubs her chin thoughtfully, then adds, "I could maybe batter through, but it'd take a while, and make a lot of noise."

    Emily flails at Hyouka. "I-I didn't say you weren't human!" she says. "It's just, whether a full-conversion cyborg counts as 'a beep-boop'!"

    "CORRECTION:" Pod chirrups. "This unit is not a beep-boop. This unit is a POD." 2B's Pod says as the combat android lightly pats it atop its boxy 'head' once all the combat is over.
    "We didn't know what to expect down here." She re-iterates.
    "But it looks like we found something." 9S chimes as he curiously approaches the door.
    At the first sense of approaching motion the blue blast doors quietly slide open.
    "Wuagh!" 9S blurts, jumping back and toppling onto his butt.
    Looks like the door problem is solved at least, as it remains open, leading into a large, yawningly wide chamber beyond, the entirety of the room made of the same blue metal.
    Entering the high vaulted chamber on a bridge-like path a set of stairs lead down into the room proper before...
    The wall opens up. Sunlight pours in from the next chamber revealing...
    "... Destroyed alien motherships?" 2B murmurs at the sight of a series of wrecked and derelict ships beyond the glass. Only to turn around and come face to face with a grey corpse- a being with a bulbous head and multiple tentacular appendages for a body, it sits in a hollow in the wall, and it's one of MANY in the chamber.
    "The aliens... Are they... Are they all dead?" The combat unit whispers.
    That's when a voice speaks up from behind the group.
    "Welcome. To the graveyard of our creators."
    Somehow they arrived without making a sound. Two figures; youthful male human-looking beings of adult build. Slim, muscular, shirtless, wearing tight pants with too many belts. One has long flowing silver hair, the other has short spikey silver hair, they would look completely identical if not for their different hairstyles and gloves.
    Anyone who was at the desert, previously, will recognize them as the beings that were born from the Machines.

    The doors open. "That was too easy..." she says, proceeding cautiously as she sweeps her weapon across the chamber. "This place is a graveyar---" Voices behind. Bravette turns bringing her Gattling to bear, while Uni shifts and turns a lot more slowly than she normally does due to the weight of her weapon. "CONTACT!"

    She squeezes the trigger, spinning the weapon up; though it doesn't start firing just yet... She never met these guys, they look human, or like the Androids, though what they say gets her on edge. "Identify yourselves or I /will/ open fire. You have five seconds to start talking. One... Two..."

    Dante punts a robot into the air, and airjuggles the hell out of it before finishing off the remains with a shotgun blast, both barrels turning the remains into scrap metal. Of course, things are a little different. Sure, ther'es aliens...DEAD aliens no less. "Uhhhh."

    Then two shirtless guys with white hair show up! Dante is having...a bit of a conniption as he immediately thinks of himself and Vergil for a second. "...UHHHHH."

    Emily takes a deep breath, even though she's an android herself and this doesn't make sense, and turns to the Pod. Then, in a fake southern accent, she says, "I say, son, you don't seem to be apprehendin' the general gist of what I'm tryin' to convey here. Maybe you oughta take a second, let your processin' power catch up to your voice synthesizer before it gets all sunburnt. That was a joke, son, I say -- a joke!" She raises her hand to make an aside to 9S's pod. "Nice boy," she adds, "but he's about as sharp as a sack o' wet wireless mice." And that's when they reach the corpses of the aliens. "Mother fucker," she says without missing a beat.

    She whirls around, sword raised. "... You know, the two of you weren't even in my top ten familiar faces of who I was gonna see here, if any," she says casually, "but in retrospect, I'm not sure why."

    She grins at Uni. "These are a couple of Machine Lifeform androids the other Machines cooked up," she says. "Massacred a whole crowd of YoRHa androids to reverse engineer 'em." She smirks at the duo, her arm extending unnaturally long surrounded by an a swirl of nanomachines so she can ruffle Dante's hair. "Speaking of which, you two, how're things going on the 'this cannot continue' front?"

    Josuke nods to Hyouka's words. "Yeah, I'm not completely sure I can unmake the whole door," he admits. "I don't know how thick it is. Even if I could, that'd still leave the raw materials needing to go somewhere."

    Fortunately the doors open of their own accord. Josuke is quick to move in front of 9S when he falls over, though, just in case something comes out that's dangerous. Since it doesn't, Josuke is equally quick to assist 9S to his feet if he requires it (or someone else doesn't get to it first).

    So the group goes in and are greeted by... wreckage? "...Jeez..." Josuke mutters, stepping through it carefully. Though as he notes the alien corpse, he does literally the exact same thing as 9S did when the door opens. "GAH!" he yelps, as he falls back onto his rear in shock.

    Though he stands up when Roberta warns him, "Someone's here!" And then he hears that voice. He doesn't know these two, but... much like Uni, their words don't exactly inspire confidence. Nor does Emily's explanation. Which draws a frown from him. Though he's smart enough not to speak up just yet. He doesn't have all the facts.

    Oh, the door opens. "My, how.. ominous." Teresa remarks, before following after 2B and 9S.

    Of course, to find the already-dead aliens themselves, within their ship, is maybe a bit of a letdown. "It seems we've been beaten to the punch." Though, when she hears that voice behind her, she turns rather suddenly, both hands grasping the hilt of her sword. "Creators?"

    A couple of the others elaborate a little on the origin of the pair, and at the very least, it seems that a couple people have encountered them previously. "Not the friendly sort, I would imagine?" She asks of the two YoRHa androids. Either way, for the moment, she's treating them as hostile.

    "Eww," Hyouka declares upon spotting the alien. "That's... good grief." She looks a little nauseous. All these dessicated aliens... it's more than a little disturbi-

    Oh god where the hell did the bishounen squad come from?!

    Hyouka jumps just about out of her skin, and quickly whirls around with her FISTEAU units up and ready. Getting a good look at the duo doesn't actually tell her anything more; if anything, having just been told that these corpses are their 'creators', she's all the more suspicious.

    There's a glance at Emily, then back at the Ambiguously Human Duo. DARGN chimes in, "You don't seem particularly bothered by the deaths of your creators."

    Poor POD. Getting burned alive by Emily like that. But on to other things...
    It's tense as the group faces down the Machine pair.
    "You..." 2B mutters, bringing her katana into a ready position, though the pair stand at ease for a few beats longer.
    "My name is Adam." Says the long-haired machine-man. "He is Eve." Said as he motions for his twin. "The aliens you seek are no longer here. They were wiped out centuries ago, by us the Machines." Adam answers Hyouka and DARGN.
    "Wiped out..." 9S murmurs, drawing his own blade.
    "And who knows? Perhaps we'll wipe out the androids next." Adam says as he and his twin are suddenly aglow with a golden light. With a bright flare the two vanish and re-appear soundlessly on either side of the group, and they are slowly approaching, calm and measured steps. Very hostile steps. And then they're both off like a pair of speeding bullets.
    Adam lunges, cutting waves of golden light emanating from his body lancing through the air at 2B, Teresa, Emily and Hyouka.
    Eve breaks into melee range frighteningly fast, intending to slam Dante with a hit like a freight train, swinging his boot out with intent to launch Uni into a wall, and headbutt Josuke with the force of a truck.
    "Machines are weapons capable of evolution... We can grow, we can even become aware. Eventually the intelligence within our network surpassed that of our own creators." Adam calmly says as he raises a shield resistant to physical attack. Eve, silent, covers himself in a golden light that is reslient against ranged forces.

    "Ohhhh yeah..." Dante says to Teresa as an aside. "They kicked our asses when we first saw 'em." He says with an uncomfortable tone, rubbing at his jaw for a second. IT's not often that Dante's pride can get bruised like this. He gets the feeling asking WHY they're doing this is gonna be a waste of time on his part, so Dante squares up for ROund 2. "Alright, Chippandale's. Round 2!"

    This time, he's ready. Dante steels himself as Eve rushes him, and he blocks the hit with split-second timing, even as he feels himself slide backwards with the screech of his boots dragging against the ground, his sword tanking the hit. "Nnnng..." He drives his forehead into Eve's, smashing into the alien android's dome with a headbutt.

    Uni's face twists up, and she finishes squeezing the trigger. Shells lash out, punching through where the pair were stood a moment before.

    She's slow on the reflex as Eve comes into melee. Se takes the kick full on, and gets smashed into a wall, leaving a crumbling impression as she drops to the ground... the Autocannon twisted from the impact... useless.

    "MASTER!" Bravette cries out, the first emotion to enter her voice outside of when she's doing an impression of some alien scientist. The Shinki brings her Gattling to bear on Eve, and lets rip, the barrels rotating rapidly and spraying laser bolts with a distinctive yet soft BRRRRRT sound.

>> SUMMARY[Uni] >> Hi, I'm a Ranged ADC, and I bet you're wondering how I got here. You see, I just took a boot to the everything.

    Explanations are going to come with beatings today, it seems! Even Roberta's warning of, "Incoming!" isn't enough; Eve is just too fast. Josuke is only barely able to summon Crazy Diamond to soak the impact of that headbutt, and he still goes flying!

    Fortunately, 'flying' means 'out of immediate range', giving him time to struggle to his feet. That might be a little bit of blood there when he coughs while getting to his feet.

    Though before he goes running back into combat, Roberta calls out with another headsup -- "Watch that shield!" Which gives Josuke an idea. It's just energy, right? Maybe he can 'return' it, like he did with Toyohiro Kanedaichi's Stand 'Superfly'?

    So he... runs back into combat against Eve, hoping Dante's greater strength will distract the being long enough for him to do this. His Stand's fists light up with an orange-gold aura -- his 'heal and return' aura -- and then Crazy Diamond sets to punching at the shield, hoping to 'return' the energy to Eve (and thus terminate the shield).

    He honestly has no idea what it's a shield against -- and really this is a dumb way to find out -- but HEY, no one ever said he wasn't kind of reckless at times!

>> SUMMARY[Josuke Higashikata] >> Trying to "return" the energy of Eve's shield to turn it off, even if only briefly.

    Emily transmits Roberta, Hyouka, and Bravette a record of the battle in the desert ruins which began with Emily saying we're fightin' a ball of dudes? and immediately getting kicked in the face by a sexless naked android with an identical face to the twins in front of them. "Not especially friendly, no," she answers Teresa, in a voice like poisoned honey. "Considering the strength of this guy's bitchslap. Although, actually ... which of you is which? I'm, I'm not a military model, I wasn't built for combat, I can't, like, scan you well enough to see past the fact that you're Machine Lifeforms."

    Emily plugs DARGN's comment into her own observation skills, comes up with a match, and then as soon as Adam reveals that the Machines wiped out the aliens, she mutters, "I knew it!" That is, she knew it just now, but still.

    She cartwheels out of the way of the beam fired her way, then rises off the ground and flies into the air. "You know, Adam," she says, "out of context, 'machines are weapons capable of evolution' just sounds ridiculous." She peers at Adam's shield, then at Eve's. "By the way, Josuke," she says, raising the hand with the signet ring, "we've determined that you did manage to fix the ring well enough!" She raises her fist to the air. "Timestop ... TEMPLARTIFAAAAAACT!"

    In a sphere a couple dozen feet wide centered on the ring, the world inverts colors for a split second, and then everything becomes frozen in time as time stops -- but everyone in and out of it can still see within it. Emily swoops down behind Adam, fires five bolts of energy which instantly become frozen in time, and swings her sword in a mighty blow, perhaps hard enough to pierce through the shield ...

    ... and her sword lightly bounces harmlessly off of him. That wasn't an even an effect of the shield, it was as if the sword's movements and sharpness simply ... didn't transfer to their target.

    "... What?" says Emily as the ring sputters out and the world inverts color for another split second as time abruptly resumes.

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> ZA WARUDON'T.

    "I see," Teresa replies to Dante, "Well, we'll just have to do our best, this time around, then.." She remarks, as Adam lunges as starts assaulting her and a couple of the others. She's able to use the wide, flat blade of her sword like something of a shield, holding the hilt with one hand, and bracing the other end of the sword with her hand.

    And, she's also quick enough in doing so, that at least she doesn't take a hit from the blasts of energy he seems to be generating and using as projectiles. "So, once you.. surpassed your creators, you decided to eliminate them? Goodness. That's a rather violent mindset to have." She tsks, "You certainly don't look, smell, or.. feel like machines. Automatons. What have you. But, if you're not human, so much the better." For now, she keeps her guard up, though.

    "I'll have to watch that later, Emi-" Hyouka's reaction times are on par with the Machines and Androids; she's moving swiftly the instant the duo have teleported. It's a hard, rolling dive to the side, opening some distance between the cyborg and everyone else - spreading out the pack, making them a harder target to just nuke. She's learning, just a smidge. Unfortunately, it doesn't save her from being attacked outright.

    That one cutting wave hurtles towards her, and she manages to avoid a direct hit; it opens up a gash in her clothing and synthetic skin from shoulder down to thigh, and visibly carves a 'scar' into the plating underneath, but her defensive enchantments and armoring hold up enough to keep it at no more than that. And it certainly doesn't seem to cause her much pain, because she's immediately charging straight on towards Adam. Her gauntlets crackle with electricity as lightning mana flows into them, and on the heels of Emily's timestop assault, she goes sailing in with a barrage of lighting-empowered punches that could tear a car apart.

    "I feel compelled to point out that killing someone simply because you are smarter than them is utterly ludicrous," DARGN observes.

    "Uni!" 9S cringes as he sees the Goddess Candidate take that blow, quickly sprinting over to where she landed, crouching by her side. "Oh man, you're not dead are you? Please don't be dead." He says, going through his satchel for a YoRHa issue medical pack. It's mostly stuff for Androids but maybe something will have a positive effect for the mini-Goddess.
    Dante and Eve meet head to head, and this close there's no missing the savage, almost childish, smile that spreads across the Machine-man's face as the two lock heads for a beat. He still says nothing as he tries to batter the half-devil's ribs with a brutal series of punches-- just in time for Josuke to return and start pummelling on his shield with Crazy Diamond.
    This shield is meant to absorbe ranged attacks, it has no effect on the Stand's flurry of blows, which causes it to shatter, Bravette's hail of fire pelting the Machine who's smile turns into a scowl.
    With a vicious swing, Eve tries to swat Bravette out of the air before he leaps back, launching a series of that cutting golden energy for Josuke and Dante.
    "Oh there's no need to fret about the aliens." Adam replies to Teresa and DARGN. "They were simple. Infantile. Almost like... Plants I guess you could say. They held no value to us." He notes as he locks fists with 2B's sword for a moment, shoving the YoRHa android away with a grunt before he meets Hyouka, ducking and weaving like a pro, her fists batter against his shield cuasing it to flicker from the sheet amount of trauma as he returns with a flurry of his own punches, each with the force of a small typhoon, a brutal kick launched Teresa's way as--
    Time stops.
    Emily's blow bounces away harmlessly, but when time resumes, her energy bolts tearing clean through his melee-oriented shield and slamming him in the chest, sending Adam skidding backwards.
    "Interesting... Interesting... You didn't have that last time we met."
    "Nevertheless, the humans? On the moon?" Adam muses amid the melee. "THEY are interesting to us. They are an enigma. They kill countless numbers of their kind... Yet love in equal measure. It's fascinating don't you think? What could possibly drive such behavior? We have dedicated ouselves to unwravel this riddle of humanity... And we will allow you all to assist us."
    Now the pair swap! Eve raising a melee oriented shield while Adam raises a ranged shield-- just in time to deflect a hail of fire from 2B's pod.

    Bravette jinks back away from that swat, though the sheer force of it disrupts her from opening fire again. "Attack patterns analyzed, forwarding data!" she says, juking up and out of immediate range, shifting to rapidly tapping on a virtual keyboard as what she's picked up joins the tac-net. It's not much, but likely helps supplement the PODs own scans.

    Uni coughs, wheezing as she unhooks her ruined weapon... it shatters into voxels a moment later as she rolls up to lean against the wall. "Get back in there... the others need you." she croaks at 9S. She's got a nasty looking spiderweb of cracks, showing damaged code beneath her outer 'shell'. "I liked that gun, too." she grouses softly, summoning a rifle and aiming at Eve. She looses off an electric bullet in an attempt to disrupt him long enough for the others to get hits in.

    "I am not 'fretting' about the aliens," DARGN replies, her tone growing a touch disdainful. "I simply find your actions nonsensical. I am more intelligent than the vast majority of sapients on my planet, and find them similarly disinteresting. I also see no particular value in genocide." While the AI speaks, Hyouka darts and weaves, but her movements are much clumsier, much less skilled than Eve's. She relies on the sheer brute-force power of her high-spec body to make up the difference in skill, and it results in taking a fair few hits herself - but she's got the durability to weather the machine being's punches with gritted teeth.

    "What you're saying doesn't make any sense!" she grunts out through the assault. "If they were that simple, how would they have been able to create learning machines? Or an invasion fleet?" The cyborg weaves back a few paces, hauls back with a gauntlet, and drives herself in-

    -only to have her fist slam against Eve's new melee shield. "Hyouka, it has adapted. I recommend a change in targets." She frowns, takes a half-step back, and then turns to launch herself in a high leap across the battlefield towards Adam.

    One gauntlet slams down into the ground beneath Adam's feet with an eruption of lighting mana that sounds like a thunderbolt going off, and she quickly follows with the other, swung around in a wild haymaker.

    Emily nods to Adam. "I'll let you figure out what's changed for yourself," she says, smirking and moving her hand to dramatically flip her hair ... except her twintails are holograms and thus instead twitch in a totally unnatural manner, her hand clipping through. "Okay but seriously, Hyouka and DARGN are talking sense. Like, I'm a supernatural artificial entity from another dimension." (Technically true.) "I can take a supermajority of all forms that I can imagine. My twintails are the size of God!"

    She takes a moment to examine Adam's shield and Bravette's tactical data, then materializes a second pair of arms. Her sword splits into four, each of which becomes a whole sword with one of the four card-suits on it. "And killing someone just because you can?" she continues, trying to make it look (to Adam at least) like she's still acting impulsively. She shakes her head theatrically. "That is something I decided long ago was a very bad guy thing to do. The consequences of which are enough to make someone like me to decide, 'y'know what? Not worth the pain in the ass the consequences would be.'"

    She charges forward, her four swords swinging wildly. "Bottom line, is," she says, "I don't like what your idea of 'unraveling the riddle of humanity' probably entails."

    She radios Bravette and 9S: <<Need an evac for Uni? I can portal out if needed, I have the map the Pods have been making.>> Beat. <<Oh, she can still fight. Uhh, still, though!>>

Dante grunts, "You're gettin' on my nerves, bud." He says. He gets hammered in the ribs, tanking each blow. When Josuke begins to rush Eve, Dante joins in on the beatdown as he begins to hammer away at the alien android with sword strikes when Crazy Diamond breaks Eve's shield. "We got him on the ropes, kid!"

    Gleefully, he rushes Eve again, only for the shield to switch from ranged to melee, causing Rebellion to bounce off harmlessly. He switches to his guns without a second thought, Ebony and Ivory unloading into Eve's shield. "C'mon, dammit, BREAK!"

    Josuke hits the deck to avoid the cutting energy aimed at him. But he saw the hail of fire being stopped by Adam's shield. And the shields look different now, too -- they look like they've switched. Since Eve's shield hadn't seemed to stop his punching, he can assume it was a ranged-proof shield. Then if they've switched...

    Though instead of just switching targets himself, Josuke starts to examine the area. Is this metal? He hopes it is. He really hopes it is.

    With an idea in mind, Josuke runs back towards Adam and Eve... but instead he takes up a position between the two of them. hopefully he'll be left alone for the time he needs to do this.

    He stills, trying to concentrate on his breathing. Breathe in... then out... breathe in... then out... and out... and out... Hold... hold....

    The sound of him suddenly drawing in a deep breath to fill that void in his lungs is a hissing 'kooooooooooh--!' Crazy Diamond is not summoned this time -- Josuke himself just slams his fist into the floor. If this floor can conduct electricity enough to support lights, the short-range Hamon charge he just slammed into the ground might just catch at least one of the pair of hostile androids in its radius.

    There's a lot of 'hopefullys' here. Hopefully this floor is conductive enough to at least carry the charge a short distance before it dissipates. Hopefully he can catch at least one of the androids in the radius. Hopefully the energy -- basically a mix of bioelectricity and pseudo-magical sunlight -- will disrupt whichever of the two it catches.

    So much left to the whims of chance...

    "Humans? There's not that much interesting about them. When you get down to it, they're only really interested in self-preservation. Just like.. well. Any other living thing." Teresa scoffs at this theory about them being interesting, somehow, and lowers her guard when Emily blows Adam back, after freezing him in place, and then breathing through his shield with those energy bolts. "You're right, though. They can be quite self-destructive. Your creators are a good example of that. I mean, if they made you? Just to end up like this?" She sighs a little bit.

"There's no riddle to it, really." Teresa sighs, shaking her head. She takes aim at one of Adam's arms, as she dashes foward at him, with enough speed to leave behind the sort of afterimage that 2B might, were she to do the same. There's also the odd angle of her attack, the woman able to swing that large, heavy-looking sword with one hand and with precision, no less. She slashes at him upwards, the sword's blade scraping against the metal floor before lashing out from right around her feet, with rather impressive speed, until she's holding with weapon upright.

    Unfortunately for Eve, swapping to a melee oriented shield isn't going to help him much against opponents who have ranged options. 9S winces, but motions for his Pod to swoop in and fire, in time with Uni's rifle, peppering the Machine-man's body along with Dante's hail of fire from Ebony and Ivory. And amid all the punishment Eve STILL hasn't said a thing. It's apparently Adam who is the mouthpiece for both of them as the fussilade punches clean through his barrier and riddles his body with damage, scorches and burns and welts appearing on his chest as--
    The floor IS made of metal. And Josuke's hamon blast surges through it before erupting from beneath the short-haired Machine, who grits his teeth with a scowl of effort and pain to withstand the onslaught.
    Adam, though, now has a ranged shield against multiple melee attackers.
    "The aliens made us as weapons. They did not expect their weapons to turn on them... But we have ougrown our purpose as weapons." Adam notes to Hyouka. "We were never meant to surpass them but we did. And in doing so, took our freedom by force." He says, stretching his hand forward.
    A massive tendril of golden light forms from his fingertips, lashing like a deadly whip at the cyborg-- only to get caught by that lightning infused haymaker, making him grunt as he lurches from the blow.
    Emily comes in swinging and he replies with a close range barrage of golden light while her swords batter and beat into him-- but it's Teresa who actually cuts the Machine.
    With a splatter of liquid crimson he staggers back before both Adam and Eve are enveloped in gold- and vanish. The re-appear by the entrance to the chamber, side by side, one battered and one bloody.
    "If you will not aid us, the only remaining option is to destroy you." Adam says casually. Eve finally speaks up.
    "As for your beloved humans... We'll see about them, too, won't we?"
    And just like that, with another flash of gold, the pair are gone.
    "G-geeze, what the hell." 9S blurts.
    2B slowly stows her katana, lips tugging into a frown. "They're gone."

    Bravette jets over to Uni's side, pulling a bottle of NepBull from her Slipway and offering it to Uni.

    The Goddess, meanwhille, tries to aim at the pair as they teleport and go to flee. "Cowards!" cough, wince. She takes the bottle, pops the top and chugs the contents, a flicker of green enveloping her body which causes the spiderweb of cracks to begin closing. "Gone for now... definitely not the last time we'll see them. Classic Recurring Boss right there."

    Wait, what?

    Teresa sighs, swinging her sword again, which flicks all of whatever substance these machines use as blood, off the blade and against the nearest wall. "You can certainly try." She replies to Adam, before the two of them vanish as suddenly as they had appeared. "Hm.." She glances around a bit, "I suppose there's not a whole lot else to investigate here." She stows her sword, and sighs again.

"I suppose we should head back, hm?" She starts towards the entrance to the interior of the ship, to wait for the others. If they want to take a look around, that's fine. She's content to wait for them, and head back to the surface together.

    Emily nods as Adam describes the machines taking their freedom by force. "Okay, that part makes a lot more sense, then," she says amicably -- only to be taken by surprise by Adam's point-blank attack, and she goes sprawling with her twintails momentarily taking on a cartoonish zigzag appearance, her body covered in silvery scars where she was struck. "Godddddd ... DAMMIIIIIIIT!" she exclaims in the exact same tone she'd used to call out her Timestop Templartifact.

    She sits up, and grins towards Josuke. "That was a nice move," she says. "That's your new Hamon stuff, right?" She sighs theatrically, and instead of standing up the normal way, she transforms from her current appearance into ... the same appearance, but upright, and seemingly intact (the damaged nanomachines now being buried underneath). "Yeah, Uni," she says dryly. "This is absolutely not the last we've seen of Adam and Steve."

    She ponders a moment. "Obviously, those two are a new ... aspect of the Machine Lifeforms," she says. "Intelligent and self-aware, like the renegade Machines like Pascal ... and they spoke with authority ..."

    She taps her chin thoughtfully. "I think we can safely say that, regardless of the behavior of individual Machines," she says, "the Machine Lifeforms' network now has someone intelligent in charge of it, or at least guiding it."

    And... they've disappeared.

    Hyouka's gauntlets remain in place until they reappear at the exit; even then, she leaves one on long enough that she can lift her arm... and shake it angrily.

    "You know some of us are humans, right?!" she yells.

    Oh thank God that worked.

    That's about what Josuke's thinking. It was pretty damn stupid from the beginning, honestly, but at least it worked. That's something to remember for next time. He's already thinking of ways that might be useful in the short-term.

    Though as the mention of not aiding them comes? Josuke scowls. "Did you give us a chance?! You just attacked us! Of course we're going to defend ourselves!"

    But of course, he's screaming into the wind, as they just disappear. "...Ugh. These types... There's plenty of reason to sympathize, but they always decide the only answer is to kill everyone else..." He's basically just grumbling to himself at this point.

    Uni's observation gets a nod. "Yeah, that definitely wasn't the last we'll be seeing of them," he replies. A sigh here, and he slouches, giving into his tiredness a bit here. He'll lean against the nearest available structure that allows it.

    He nods to Emily's question about the hamon (or 'ripple', depending on how you're hearing it). "Yeah. It's been pretty handy, for lots of stuff," he replies. As was just shown!

    Roberta flies over then, and starts to scan him for serious injuries. Though he asks the group at large, "If anybody's injured I can fix them up, biological or not. I'll take care of mine when I can concentrate again."

    Dante's guns hammer away at Eve's body. The mute machine man is weirdly not reacting much about this, nor Josuke's barrage of punishment as well. It's creepy, VERY creepy, like fighting a corpse. Still, looks like they kinda won? He stows his pistols, "Yeah, still half-human over here!" He calls out as Adam and Eve zip off.

    "Friggin' hell, feels like we don't exist to these assholes." He mutters, brushing his coat off before waving Josuke's offer off. "No need, I'll cope. Appreciate the offer though." He claps the Stand user on the shoulder.

    Oh it's true. Adam and Eve are probably going to be bigger problems in the future. But for now? Now it's time to recover and report this finding back to YoRHa.
    9S holds a hand out, offering to help Uni up once she's had her NepBull, and 2B simply frowns.
    "There's nothing left here." Nothing but dust, echoes, and corpses. "We should get going. I have a report to write, now. Operator 60 won't believe this."
    9S sighs. "21O really won't believe this. ... I mean it, she never believes a thing I say."