World Tree MUSH

Miwa would find a device on her beach. Job boards across the worlds would find requests from the same source as this device. The initial message would be 'Stop my Operator from killing someone.'

The message, be it to Miwa personally or to parties that actually take the job, would be a video message from an enttiy that looks like a glowing cube with cracks running through its surfaces. "Ordis will be brief. My Operator has agreed to a bounty that on further review after the contract was agreed upon involves murdering a person that he feels does not deserve to die. As my Operator is honor bound to attempt to fulfil this contract he is obligated to go through this assassination attempt regardless of his personal feelings, which is where you come in. The actual contract is for a very narrow window of time and only for a single attempt on this person's life as well as neutrelizing location defenses for secondary teams to secure the overal location. Your job is to prevent ash from assassination the VIP and for the sake of prefrence escourt them away from the location. If you take this job you must be absolutely aware that Ash will not treat you as a friend. He will not show you kindness or mercy. You must go in acting as if he is going to attept to carve his way through you to get to the target, because he will. Please do not hold this against him."

THe message would then include photos of the target ViP, details about who they are, their patterns, the job date, and more or less any other relevant information that could be reasonably gathered.. Reward: A single favor to call in at any time for any reason.

For Miwa the favor may be enough, but for others details of said favor would include the fact Ash is a trained mercenary willing to do assassinations, kidnappings, information capture, infiltration, sabotage, and a long list of other tasks ranging from mundane to exotic.

THe place this was supposed to happen looked like a small square office building five stories high in the middle of some american midwest town. The parkinglot and surroundings gave a wide area where none could realisticly hide with lights on full time. The report details noted the buildinggoes another five stories underground leading ot a series of access tunnels for personnel to drive in and out without attracting public attention; THe aboveground portion mainly serving as cover so people would not question what went on. Belowground however? It was a privately owned outfit, supposedly a millitary contractor, but one that seemed to have not forgotten its morals. The kill contract was posted to get rid of theri CEO and destroy local assets in the face of their being given a more permenent working relationship with the local nation-state.

Miwa fortunately finds the device with the message before anyone else does, and watches the message. Once it's over, her face would likely have grown more pale if it wasn't already snow white to start with. She had seen Ash fight first hand, and the idea of trying to stop him from killing someone was a bit terrifying. She swallowed hard and brought the device back to her grotto. 

 Later, when it was now the day of the planned assassination, Miwa made her way toward the target location, having already traveled there once before, at least most of the way, to make sure she didn't get lost when it really counted. 

 Eventually she made it to the area of the office building, riding on the wind in a giant water bubble, using her voice-powered aquakinesis to keep the bubble on course for where she wanted to go. Hopefully no one would try to shoot her out of the sky, as she hadn't really considered the area having defenses that would view her approach as a threat. For now, she just floats up in the air, wondering whether to land on the roof or try ground level, and what the heck she planned to do after that. She realizes she has no idea how she's going to get into this place and find the target Ash is supposed to try and assassinate.

Well, this is not Noriaki Kakyoin's typical line of work. In fact, he's more or less a typical high school student... so this is an incredibly dangerous thing that he's doing. Especially since this 'Ash' guy is assumedly a trained killer, and Kakyoin is... not. But despite his proud and rather hoity-toity seeming nature, he really isn't that bad a guy. And he really does want to help this person out. Even if it's just getting said person out of dodge.

There is, however, a problem with this. No cover means no grapple points. And that means he and Hierophant Green will be out in the open during the approach. Which could spell death for him if even one stray bullet happened to get past his defenses. He could try to stay out of the open area and just grapple onto the roof from there; his Stand's tendrils could reach that far.

It's Miwa's water-bubble that draws his attention, and he pauses at that. There's a burst of a green aura and a strange green artificial-looking being, appears. It has a human upper body, but its whole lower half seems to unravel into a single long tendril. The being rises up to Miwa's level so Kakyoin can speak with her. Through his Stand, of course. "I could try to use my Hierophant Green to grapple us onto the roof. That would leave the ground floor unprotected, though," he points out. "That said, I have my doubts that either of us would be able to just walk in..."

One Dave Mae was the target for the assassination and he had been in talks with differing represenetives of this organization, that company, andthese persons over the 'world bridge' situation. That is to say the fact this world was now connected to the 'world tree' many other worlds wereconnected to and that these portals could not be sectioned off as they would move whenever an attempt was made.

The office looked fairly nondescript as Miwa flew over. No obvious millitary presence, but anyone trained in security would recognize the men with suits 'loitering' about stood a little too straight, walked too purposful, and more to the point even though people would leave and enter regularly it would become apparent a series of the same faces would show up again and again.

Underground had people looking at video feed of Miwa invading their airspace. A flurry of barked questions, just as many voices demanding to fire as demanding more intel as a second intruder showed and apparently was conversing with hte one tht flew in on the bubble.

Miwa's flipper mounted watch would go off, a text from Ordis directing her to go to the third level belowground room 303. Ash is deploying. cannot give further assistance. If you cannot engadge head on Don't. preserve your own life.'

Ash would be dropping from his orbiter on the opposing side of the street behind one of the only structures nearenough to hide his lander for the second that it was partially de-cloaked to drop him off. He was displeased with this situation and had ordered Ordis to do what he could to mitigate, as he specifically had made sure Ordis was not included in the contract clauses in case he got roped into what amounted to this exact situation... an outsider invading and killing a peace-minded faction head to a world newly introduced to the idea of multipul worlds. It would make for wonderful chaos along with work for the now unencumbered rivals that had done the hiring... wouldn't it?

He waited, teling himself he was scouting unforseen variables when he saw Miwa float in. The green jacketed youth was a wholly unfamilair entity.. Inwardly he grunted, hoping Miwa wouldn't choke under pressure. the distance was far. He needed to wait for the newcommers to clear out. the gards he knew the timings for but this? He needed them to go away beforeh e could advance.... the underground tunnles were strict no-go. Too well monitored, too well defended for him to casually sneak up on, just as his contractor had suspected. So it was an open dash through open ground with no cover.

Miwa doesn't notice Ash yet, as she is focused on the strange being that appears attached to the human male she can see down at the street level by a long green tendril. "Well, I could float up there, and try to cover the top while you go for the ground level. But you're right, I didn't really think ahead here and I don't think they're going to let us walk in either. They might even just lock us up if we even try to mention that their CEO or whatever is going to have someone try to assassinate him. What the heck should we do?" She asks with an exasperated tone, before looking around and finally spotting Ash in the distance. "Oh no, he's already here!"

Noriaki can't see Ash, and neither can his Stand. But Kakyoin knows it won't be too long before Ash arrives. "I have an idea..." he notes quietly, narrowing his eyes. So saying, he sends his Stand around the parking lot. While it looks like the being is just slithering around, its tendril-like lower body is leaving behind 'threads' on the ground.

The guards may or may not be able to see the Stand, but it's incredibly likely that Hierophant Green won't go totally unnoticed, even by those who can't see it. Electromagnetic sensors go off when the Stand gets near them. If there are motion detectors in the parking lot, THEY will go off if Hierophant Green crosses the line. Not to mention that if the green being gets close enough to any of the guards, they're going to feel REALLY CREEPED OUT!

Suddenly Miwa announces Ash has arrived, and Kakyoin turns to look in that direction. "What--?!" Of course... he sees nothing. But the network of threads he's left upon the ground might fix that. They've been left there like the strands of a spider's web, and he should be able to tell if anything touches them. Hopefully he'll have to cross them...

Kakyoin's sensor net, ntentional or otherwise, acted as alarm for the lower levels. Invaders. Cameras shift trying to figure out what's going on, what's tripping every sensor they have on the ground floor. Unlike many worlds they have no magi, no spiritualists. They only have mundane equipment so at best they might catch a hazey glimps of... SOMETHING.

"Sir?" A man looked as the company CEO walked into the monitoring room.

David was a hands on sort of man familiar with his company and its doings. "So are these offworlders?"

"Afermitive." An underling gave him a worried glance. "Sir shouldn't we... evacuate?"

"Hmmm..." David chintapped and had an underling show the layout of every sensor tripped and frowned. "All on the same reletive plane. These two have to know we would have noticed them and they aren't coming in hot. Have them escorted to level one. Leave a com channel open."

A large man in a charcoal black suit exited the building and looked first from Kakyoin hten to Miwa and motioned for them to follow him.

Ash frowned inside the transferrence chair and threw down a smoke bomb before starting his run. Cameras might have seen him or the initial cloudof smoke, but therewas no way the locals would have seen him once the cloak had fully established. There were no obsticles until he got to the building other than distance. Could the defenders try locking everything down before he got there?

Miwa watches Kakyoin and his Stand work, though to her it just seems to be causing chaos among the guards. She glances up at Ash again, before turning back to Kakyoin. "What was all that you just did?" She asks in curiosity, though that might have to wait as soon she spots a large man heading their way from out of the building. When he asks them to follow, she gives Kakyoin a questioning glance, then decides to co-operate at last for now, and lands her bubble, only to shuffle on after the man, now walking on her flippers.

Kakyoin notices that someone's exited the building and looks quickly in that direction. "Lock the door. There's someone coming to try to assassinate Mr. David," he said quickly. Though at the motion to follow, he stops to consider. Would a locked door stop this person? Probably not. So he starts that way...

Only for the smoke bomb to go off. "What the--?!" He still can't see anything -- sadly his eyes are still completely human despite him clearly (to some, anyway) having supernatural powers. Miwa's question gets a smirk. "Watch." Assuming Ash is running -- i.e., on the ground -- the sensory webs he has placed on the ground of the parking lot will alert Kakyoin to Ash's presence. "There!"

He Stand places its hands close together, and a green liquid begins to pour from its hands, towards each other. He hands draw apart, the liquid stream forming a 'bridge' between each palm, and then Kakyoin extends a hand at the place his webs alerted him to movement at.

"EMERALD SPLASH!"

At his cry, a multitude of pointed, faceted projectiles -- which look like emeralds, weirdly -- fire out at the area like a shotgun blast!

Ash hadn't noticed the sensor web. Given the fact to non-stand user stands were at best smokey indistinct apperitions in the best conditions this could be forgiven. Not rolling out of the way when the man yelled? Not so much. Ash had time to register Kakyoin's yell, causing him to look, and instead of rolling he froze and stared at the stand. "is.... is that a-" Too late, he took an emerald shotgun blast to the everything, killing his momentum, sending him groundward, and for the moment he made the assumption somehoe he wasn't the only Tenno on the block. He was both grateful as this would give the target a better chance at escape, and annoyance because the professional honor bound bits of him despised losing a contract.

The large suited fellow grabbed both Miwa and Kakyoin as soon as he saw Ash appear.... ad then get knocked to the ground and pull them in. More suited personnel flanked them as they were rushed deeper into the building. "Hostile spotted at ground floor entryway." THe man breathe into his earpiece. "Escorting unknowns to Level One now." He then looked to the pair of newcommers. "Bulletproof glass. Unless he's got a sniper rifle-"

Ash tapped the glass doors of the entryway with the tip of his sniper rifle...

Inside the building just as they were getting within sight of the elevator Kakyoin and Miwa would hear defining gunfire. At first each round followed almost immediately by the impact and spiderwebbing of glass designed to withstand high caliber rounds. Unfortunately for the designers the y assumed any shooter or team of shooters would only be able to fire a dozen rounds. The glass failed after twenty shots.

Ash stepped through just as a pair of suited men raised pistols at his head. "Knock. Knock."

Miwa watches as Kakyoin attacks Ash with his stand for a moment, and is about to help with an attack of her own when the suits grab her and carry her into the building. When the deafeningly loud gunfire starts, she winces in pain and presses her front flippers against the sides of her head. "Oww, that's really loud!" She complains, though her words are probably drowned out by the rounds slamming into the reinforced glass, which still eventually crumbles under the barrage of bullets. She looks toward the man who had touted the bulletproof glass. "Got any other ideas to stop him?" She asks as she motions toward Kakyoin. "We can try to stop him if you let us."

Kakyoin grunts in surprise as he's pulled into the building, and the Stand disappears. He's actually a bit heavier than he looks, the wiry young fellow, but he does follow along. As they get inside the building, he's gonna go ahead and call it as the guy in the suit brags about the bulletproof glass, "...That glass won't stop him." And... it appears he's correct.

Fortunately twenty shots from a sniper rifle is plenty of time for Kakyoin to get an idea. Miwa's question gets a nod. "Temporarily. It might be enough." Furthermore, the spiderwebbing of the glass might just hide his machinations from view.

His Stand leaps from his body again, seeming to rise from his shape like a ghost; this time its body is in a humanoid form, with legs. Kakyoin sends his Stand forward, just behind the spiderwebbing glass. He sweeps his left hand out before him, and the Stand creates more glowing green threads between its hands, leaving them to hang in the air in a large, web-shaped mass. They sparkle briefly, then seem to disappear from sight.

And not a moment too soon, either... since that's when the glass fails. Kakyoin quickly dismisses his Stand before it gets hit by the sniper rifle. And he waits...

Ash nods to the two suited men and threw his sniper rifle at one, drew his sword to stirke the other man in the gut with its pommel both going down before they realized their target had moved. The men escorting Kakyoin and Miwa aiming pistols down the final hallway to the elevator.

Ash's sword moves as others shoot at him, deflecting a majorityof the incomming fire, and what few shots land trigger his warframe's shield, signaled by the occasional momentary flash at the point of impact. His walk is slow as he is unsure of what traps may have been activated. Looking at the elevator leading down he knew that there were no stairs connecting the upper and lower halves of the structure. It was only through that elevator that he would reach his target.

...Who at that moment was staring at the conflict above. "Hm. Nonlethal force used," He noted as more of his men went down both through well timed strikes, and bullet deflections striking limbs. "Curious.

Then Ash stopped at the hallway Kakyoin had set his barriers at. He didn't know such a barrier existed, but the chokepoint practically screamed 'put traps here.'

So he gave a small bow and vanished i na cloud of smoke.

Then he reappeared behind the burly fellow acting as their primary escort, trying to do the same single strike knockdown he had on the men at the door.

"No you don't!" The man closed the distance, grunting in pain at the pommle strike against his gut before headbutting Ash, using his own bulk to pivolt Ash between himself, his fire team (who had taken the opprotunity to open fire,) Miwa and Kakyoin. Just as importantly he was keeping himself etween Ash and the way down.

"Signal evac!" He hissed. "Lock the elevator and evac now."

Ash was continuing to get closer and closer to them, probably because the elevator was the main way down to where his target was. Miwa didn't like the idea of fighting against Ash, but she didn't want him killing an innocent man either. She also knew that Kakyoin had done something in hopes of temporarily stopping ash, but she wanted to back him up with her own attack. So she took a deep breath and stood tall, balancing on her tail as she began to super-chill the water stored within her as she prepared an ice beam attack which she hoped would at least slow Ash down but also wouldn't cause him permanent harm. "Ash, I'm sorry, but you must stop what you are doing!" She warns before aiming and firing, a stream of water flowing from her mouth in a solid stream, infused with ice elemental energy, it will freeze on contact, and it's going straight for Ash.

Kakyoin says a very rude word in Japanese (though to his credit, not aimed AT Ash) when the being teleports around it. But the missed trap is not completely useless as it is now. When Ash begins attaching the escort, Hierophant Green unravels its arm into a tendril and reaches towards the barrier that had been placed there.

Suddenly Kakyoin is zipping through the air as if he'd flown (which might be what the suited escorts see, actually). Downside, pulling on it breaks the web-trap. But it's a handy quick reposition measure! Plus side of this? Unless Ash is careful, this move will place Kakyoin nearly DIRECTLY BEHIND him!

And as Miwa fires her water/ice beam, Kakyoin gives another, "EMERALD SPLASH!" This time he keeps a tighter, more confined area, trying to cause focused damage to a smaller area rather than spread a small amount of damage over a larger area.

Ash headbutted the man holding him and was starting t oreach for the elevator button when impossibly cold water hit his back. Within the transferrence pod Ash cursed as his warframe's temp warning indecator helpfully showed the outer layers of its armor icing up, slowing its movements and leaving it out in the open as more fist sized chunks of emerald pelted it.

And sending it into the elevator's doors, smacking the button. 

In spite of everything Ash gave a laugh at the absurdity.

David cued up the building's intercom system, "Pardon the intrusion but if you could hold him for the next while? I've gotten a copy of the job posting warning about this assassin on my screens. I do appreciate your assistance and will repay your kindness, assuming he doesn't have something nasty waiting for my car."

Ash's chuckle turned into outright laughter. His emotions were conflicted. Glad for failing, annoyance at being blindsided, more aggrivation at knowing how his clan mates would laugh at him for LETTING himself get double temaed like this. 

David's exit was in progress. The clock was winding down on that contract. Could they hold Ash just that little bit longer?

Now that Ash was at least partially immobilized for the moment, Miwa felt she could safely try something special to end this assassination attempt without anyone getting hurt any more than they already are. She pushes off with her tail, leaping into the elevator after Ash, and before the door even begins to close, she starts to sing a soothing lullaby. 

 There is something in the melody that washes over those who hear it, relaxing them to the point where sleep is so inviting that it is nearly irresistible. Normally she would worry about putting everyone else around her asleep other than the one she's trying to stop, but in this case, she felt it was more than worth the risk.

Hold him a bit longer? Not knowing if he was being heard or not, Kakyoin replies quietly, "I'll do my best." They just needed to keep this going a little bit longer, he was fairly certain. So Noriaki... does something admittedly rather stupid. He re-summons his Stand, then sends it at Ash as if to attack.

But it's not a conventional attack, there's no punching and Hierophant Green's lower body is unraveled into a tendril. If it can get near Ash, tendrils will explode from where it's unraveled, and it will try to wrap Ash up in them tightly. Kakyoin himself isn't really that strong, and his Stand isn't a power-type. But so many tendrils, trying to remove leverage, might still be tough to break from.

So why is this stupid? Because if Ash can manage to attack the Stand, it will hurt Kakyoin. Of course, Kakyoin isn't going to announce that, because one never announces one's weaknesses to an opponent.

Which might hold him fast while Miwa does her lullaby! Except... well, it's affecting Kakyoin, and he blinks heavily, blearily. Fortunately his link with his Stand only works ONE way -- do unto the Stand and also do unto the user. But do unto the user, and only do unto the user! And the Stand has no such impulses as a need for sleep. So while Kakyoin looks like he's about to fall asleep on his feet, the Stand will be able to continue trying to restrain Ash.

Ash blinked in the trasnferrence pod. Was... was that singing? He yawned in spite of himself and then slumped forward causing his warframe to smack face first into the elevator and make a small eeeeeeee noise as it slid down untill collapsing into a lump of uselessness on the ground.

Ordis's voice chrrmed to life enthusiastically. "Masterfully done miss Miwa!" THe cephelon gave a small laugh. "Countering a warfram'es raw speed and power with enviromental effects was an inspired choice. I really am glad to see you got my message. Thank you."

David by this point was busy riding away from the building at a rather alarmingly fast clip.

The teams that had been sent in to secure the building in Ash's wake arrived early and had begun their breach. Funny thing was David had left the PA system on and... well... Anyone driving by wouldn't know what to make of all the men with guns and black vans slumped over asleep in an open parking lot to a random seeming building in the middle of nowhere.

Miwa stopped singing finally breathed a sigh of relief as Ash was clearly asleep now, unable to resist the power of her voice. She shook her head a bit as she looked around at the mess their little scuffle in this random office building had caused. Finally she walked over to Kakyoin and grabbed him between her flippers, shaking a little to try and wake him up so she could properly thank him. "We did good, seems whoever he wanted but didn't want to kill... is fine. Boy this was confusing. I'm Miwa by the way." She would offer if he did come too.

"Wha--?!" Kakyoin is a little startled at being picked up and shaken! Most people do tend to get startled when they're picked up and shaken, though. However, he shakes his head, clearing the cobwebs from it as he remembers what's going on. He dismisses his Stand in the meantime.

He gives a half-smile at Miwa's words about things being confusing. "I'm sure it's not the first time he's been saved by himself." He bows politely. Very Japanese. "Noriaki Kakyoin. It's good to meet you, though it's a pity it wasn't under more pleasant circumstances."

And yeah... he's gonna stare a bit. Without trying to LOOK like he's staring. Because how often does one see a mer-seal in real life?

As Ash slept Ordis's voice again chimed in. "Pehaps Ordis is being a tad rude, but I am hearing local law enforcement activity. If the pair of yo uould be kind enough to carry Operator Ash out of there so he is not detained for questioning that would go over quite well." Ordis neglected to mention how many other people were asleep, but they would find out after getting outside wouldn't they?

Hint: It' s a lot. As in enoug to fill the parking lot.

Miwa smiles at the sentiment of wishing they had met on better circumstances. "Well, perhaps we should fix that for the next time we meet." She says with a wink, then at hearing Ordis, she turns her attention back toward Ash. "Well, I guess we should all get out of here before we're swamped with people that don't know what really happened here." She says before forming a large bubble around Ash and using her aquakinesis to float Ash along while they make their way to the exit. Upon seeing the parking lot, she blinks in surprise. "Um, did my song somehow get broadcast to the whole compound?"

"That sounds lovely, Miss Miwa," Kakyoin agrees with an easy smile, to her words of finding more pleasant circumstances to meet under next time. Though the interruption of Ordis's voice gives him the idea that he has other things to concentrate on! He's about to offer to carry Ash when Miwa forms a bubble out of water to carry the unconscious... well, he isn't really sure what Ash is, there wasn't time to explain that. So he just follows. He looks around at the sleeping people, and raises an eyebrow. "...Maybe he left the intercom on when he left," Kakyoin suggests. "If so, your song might have been broadcasted out to the local area."