World Tree MUSH

    A call goes out to allies of the Assassin Brotherhood. One of the secured artifacts, the Spear taken from the Seeker some months ago, has been stolen from under the noses of its escorts. A young thief girl was seen leaving the area in a hurry, chased by Borgia-aligned soldiers, though her trail goes cold just outside of the city of Rome.

    Another cell in Venice has spotted a girl fitting her description, and she bolted as soon as she spotted one of its members approaching her. She is now on the run through the city, chased not only by Aquila and Piera, but by a contingent of Templar agents as well.

    Aquila gives updates as the duo chase the girl, giving interception points for those arriving to the chase.

    Piera calls out periodically to the girl. "Stop! I just want to talk to you!" which earns either an expletive, or something thrown to slow her down... or draws fire from the Templars who are near enough to do so, crossbow bolts and bullets sailing inches from both the thief and the assassin.

    Emily ... sent an acknowledgement to Aquila that she was going to come, but she hasn't made herself known yet. Unusual.

    ... Oh, but there's an elderly hunchbacked nun approaching the excitement, walking with a cane. She's dressed more-or-less like a particular painting of St. Angela Merici, in simple black robes and with a white headdress which looks more like a hood or a head-wrapping than a more modern wimple. It also casts shadows over her face which are much too deep, considering it's the middle of the day. A smile is visible, and not much else.

    An amused and faintly smug smile.

    The Mandalorian, Din Djarin, never liked the Templars. At one point he had taken jobs from them, sure, but once he had learned their intent to kidnap a boat full of younglings all deals were off.
    Ever since then, like a man spurred on by sheer scorn alone, he has hated the Templars almost as much as he hates The Empire.
    Almost.
    But in this case, almost is just enough to see him deviating from course when he received the call from the Brotherhood. Leaving The Child in the care of one Juno Eclipse, he set a course for the Razor Crest to drop him off just outside Venice and proceeded into the city, the radio in his helmet picking up chatter and homing in on Aquila's signal.
    Finding himself a discreet alley, he rocket-packs his way onto the venice rooftops and begins leaping from roof to roof to cut a clearer path across the city, aided by bursts of flight from his jetpack as he rushes across town...
    He finds his mark.
    Unslinging his preferred weapon, the Amban phase-pulse rifle from off his shoulder he takes to a knee at the edge of a rooftop and lines down he scope, putting a templar in his sights.
    With a soft crack and a flare of golden light, in an instant there's a flash, and all that's left of the crossbowman is a small pile of ash and the distinct tangy scent of ozone.
    "Anyone else?" He calls down idly while snapping open the breech of the rifle and slotting in another cartridge.

    Emily earns a few looks from the guards as they move in the wake of the chase... both the locals and the Templars, but she's just 'normal' enough that noone really scrutinizes before moving on... she can do whatever she wants until she reveals herself.

    Din's phase bolt strikes that crossbowman, a soft yelp the only sound he can make before he's vaporized into a pile of ash. His partner turns and looses a crossbow bolt in the direction of the Man in the Beskar Mask, joined by another man in a fancy hat joining to pop off a few shots from his pistol.

    Meanwhile, the Thief leaps across a large gap... and just misses the handhold. She tumbles down to ground-level, breaking through a few awnings, and landing in someone's produce stall. A plaintive wail comes from the owner as he comes back from the bank. "m-My cabbages..."

    When there's slightly less scrutiny on her, the nun suddenly zooms forward at the speed of a car, gliding several inches above the ground. She tosses aside her cane and robes, revealing a much younger woman in a black T-shirt with a Lunar Tear emblem and jeans -- silver hair in a pixie cut, and glowing purple eyes -- and starts darting this way and that as she makes her way towards the sound of that produce stall.

    She's not that precise, however, and she almost collides with the next building over. "Whoa!" She spends the next few seconds trying to rebalance herself.

    Slotting another cartridge into the breech of his phase-pulse rifle, The Mandelorian doesn't budge as crossbows shift their aim to line up squarely on him. Bolts whizz through the air, sailing in a deadly arc that... Spang harmlessly off te beskar.
    The man tilts his head almost quizzically at the Templar agents. As though to silently, mockingly, ask... 'Really?'
    The Thief goes for a spill, he catches that from the corner of his T-shaped visor and casually stands himself up, not even bothering to fire another bolt at the Templars.
    No, in his wake, he simply leaves an explosive charge to roll behind him, the spheroid shaped explosive tumbling towards the men on a short timer. By the time it rolls over to them...
    Well, the explosion should handle the rest.
    Dropping from the roof with a burst from the jetpack to slow his fall, he lands with a clink-clink of spurs and armor.
    And casually tosses the stall owner a coin.
    Ah, there's Emily. Nearly slamming into a building.
    "You alright, there?"

    Piera lands in a tumble from the roof, as the Thief starts dragging herself out of the destroyed stall.

    The Templars get blown up, the trio on the roof getting flung away from the explosion. They're not going to be an issue, though the locals might be as they start to surround the area.

    Emily's near-miss with the nearby building gets a few people gasping at the strange looking creature, while the stall owner gets doinked on the head by the coin, and drops to his knees... too stunned to react.

    The thief frowns a bit, looking between Din, Emily, and Piera. "Why are you chasing me!? I've done nothing wrong!" she asserts, throwing herself free of the stall, and landing in a half-heap as her leg gives out on her.

    Emily glances over her shoulder and grimaces at the explosion. Something ... seems to be bugging her.

    But as a more immediate concern, they've got the thief right there. As the thief starts to fall, a signet ring appears on Emily's hand, and in a sphere a dozen feet wide centered on the ring, the world inverts colors, glitches, and then ... stays inverted, time stopping except for Emily as she charges forward to catch her in mid-fall. It glitches back out again and time resumes.

    "... Well, that was weird, but it worked, so whatever," mutters Emily, trying to help the girl upright. "Uh, anyway! I don't know about 'did anything wrong', but apparently someone matching your description snagged something that shouldn't have been snagged."

    The discarded robe and cane disintegrate into what appears to be silvery glitter, which flies over to Emily and reforms into a replica of the Spear. "Something that looked like this. Familiar? 's a pretty dangerous artifact, I got stabbed by it."

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> Stopping time to catch the thief from falling. It is more glitchy than usual.

    Templars: handled.
    Thief: Prettymuch apprehended.
    Slinging the pase-pulse rifle onto his back, Mando watches as Weird Time Shit happens and Emily catches the would be thief from that fall.
    "I do believe my associate said she 'just wanted to talk'." He points out matter of factly.

    Piera grimaces as she feels the time-stop hit her. She gives Emily a /look/ but says nothing as the Eudaemon catches the thief girl and shows what they're after.

    Din earns a frown from the Thief, but she then looks at the replica spear. "Never seen it before... my sister said she was gonna make a big score over in Roma, not heard from her for a few days though."

    Piera seems to perk up. "You're one of the Giacomo Twins?!" she asks incredulously, arms folding over her chest as Aquila pings an alert. >"We should move, the local guards are getting into position to surround us."<

    Emily gives Piera a completely innocent expression in response to that look, but makes no comment. At the twin-reveal, she dematerializes the replica Spear and facepalms. "Oh, wonderful."

    When Aquila sends that message, she projects a hologram with the text "Sound Only" and plays it aloud. "Not for long," she says, standing up. "C'mon, amicidi --" (A portmanteau of 'amici'/'friends', and 'omicidi'/'murderers'.) "-- let's blow this popsicle stand." She concentrates for a second, and opens up a staticky portal, leading to a dark alleyway where she'd changed into her nun-disguise.

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> ... Homiecide.

    "Oh."
    Well that makes sense. Someone spotted in Rome and then spotted in Venice matching the same description.
    And they're twins.
    That makes sense.
    It's also very awkward.
    "Right. We should go."
    He's not going to look a gift portal in the mouth right now.

    The thief looks rather perplexed, but a run-in with the guards is certainly something she's not about, so doesn't fight getting taken through the portal. Piera follows after and nods a little. "The twins are about as infamous as La Volpe."

    The thief girl finally introduces herself. "Evelina Giacomo... I'm worried about my sister, now I'm pretty certain why I've not heard from her... I want to help you find her, if she's still alive... I know she's still alive, I can feel it."

    Aquila lands on Piera's shoulder, dismissing her equipment, save for her visor and the jetpack.

    "If you're Evelina... that means our target is Amalia... we should head to Roma, perhaps La Volpe can help us find out what happened to her." That's Piera again, looking to Emily, then Din.

    "I don't know who La Volpe is," Emily proclaims. "Or the twins. I ... also can't look 'em up because I haven't had internet access in like, twenty minutes. Definitely an hour. Days and days, even." She chortles. "... Man, I didn't have it for two thirds of a millennium, and now after just three years I can't do without it."

    She shrugs theatrically. "Well, uh, anyway," she says, "either way, I don't mind heading for Roma. Evelina, you need someone to look at your leg?" she adds, somewhat brusquely. "Or, uh, are you gonna come with?" She glances at The Mandalorian for confirmation.

    This isn't the thief they are looking for.
    With that confirmed and with concern for the other sister now on the rise, that really means the group is probably going to have to find Amalia and fast.
    "I'm in." Mando decides pretty easily.
    "If she can't walk on her own I'll shoulder her."
    He'll give Evelina a chance to confirm or deny before moving to hoist her if she needs it.

    Evelina grunts a bit. "I just need some medicine and I'll be fine." she says dismissively, going to put weight on her leg, and buckling immediately, right over into Din's side. "Grk..."

    Piera nods a little, "I know we have the abilities to travel from her to Roma in only a few moments, but preparation would be prudent. I will travel to Roma first, contact La Volpe and get things in motion... if I canentrust Evelina to you, " she looks to Din specifically, "I will have Aquila contact you both once things are in place and ready. If I know the Giacomo sisters, Amalia stashed the Spear somewhere, and the Templars are trying to find the location. If she is still alive, that means they haven't found it yet."

    For an instant, Emily looks relieved that the Mandalorian is dealing with Evelina, but then she's all smug-and-amused business as usual.

    She nods to Piera. "Sounds good," she says. "In the meantime ..." She twirls the ring in her fingers for a moment, then it disappears again. "... it might be time for you 'n' me to have a chat, soon, if things slow down enough."

    Yeah nope, she's not going to be walking on that leg anytime soon. Mando hoises Evelina's arm over his shoulder.
    "Keep me posted." He says to the Assassin and her shinki. "I'll be there."