World Tree MUSH

    Stelle growls softly, and summons the Flaming Lance, spiking its tip into the ground and erecting a shield, as the puppetted Cloud Knights charge in, aiming their glaives to slash at the group.

    March fires off a small volley of arrows, aiming to disable limbs with the icy projectiles.

    Welt, meanwhile, doesn't do anything, merely tapping his cane on the deck with a sour look in his eyes.

    Tingyun, true to her word, scampers off to hide behind some crates, taking herself out of the fight right at the start.

    The Cloud Knights glaives, if they connect, are sharp enough, and heavy enough to rend through armour, leaving their target open to follow-up attacks.

    Kafka, meanwhile, darts through the melee, and attempts to slash at Talia with her purple-bladed Katana. The blade sings with an electrical current, and if it connects, that current jumps through the impact site, and seems to linger and continue to zap for a few seconds.

    Talia, lightsaber in hand, meets Kafka without a word wasted. It's time for VIOLENCE, it seems! The Jedi Knight squares off with Kafka, their weapons clashing and parrying one another with elegance and precision in the requisite trade of choreographed strikes. Talia's mildly surprised that Kafka's sword can block her attacks, but she'll marvel later at it.

    Oh we're doing this? This is how it's gonna go?
    Do you know what Clara does?
    She scoots to the back row.
    Clara is not a fighter you see, and that's why she gets behind everyone who can.
    It's when the mind controlled Cloud Knights swing in that Svarog uncloaks.
    Standing there.
    All ten feet tall and menacing.
    Anyone that gets too close will receive the forehead flick of doom and unconsciousness.

    Seeing that Kafka is going after the other 'sword' wielder, Bi De hmns. He flicks his wattle and then clucks to Talia, "Please call me if you desire assistance!" By default he will presume that Talia wants a nice, clean, one-on-one fight!

    So, he too begins to dart about, opting to use his buffeting wings to slam into opponents rather than the more deadly talons. Until he can figure out how they are mind-controlled, and who is being controlled, he'll need to be careful! "I do wish someone were here who knew how to disrupt Qi control..."

    This is difficult for Jess. As usual, she has... a gun. Nonlethally shooting is hard! "Um... sorry!" At least it's a 'normal' firearm, one from offworld, so not using originium. It still packs a punch, so she aims for non-lethal parts or disarming. Quick snap shots, and if she can, well...

    Being mind-controlled, she's not sure if they'll pay attention to 'suppression fire' but she aims to find out!

    No pun intended.

    Stelle's shield helps to mitigate incoming damage.
    March continues to take potshots when a glaive is deflected by that shield barrier. Welt moves to assist Bi De, using his cane like a bludgeon, knocking some of the Cloud Knights on the helmet as follow-ups to the roosters body blows, ensuring a target goes down and stays down. A flicker of pink threads snap as each CLoud Knight falls unconscious, or is inflicted with enough pain to be rendered combat ineffective.

    Kafka smiles that infuriating smile at Talia, pushing away from a blade-lock long enough to perform a half-twirl, lifting her free hand up to show... grenade pins twirling around her fingers. "Mind your feet~." she coos, as the soft metallic clinking of the ordnance scatter amongst the allied group.

    These grenades detonate in a cloud of purple smoke, and a dome of electric charge that surges around legs and lingers for a few moments.

    Kafka flexes her fingers, the pins disappearing, to be replaced with pink threads that seem to appear out of nowhere, clenched in her curled fingers like she plucked them into being. She stares at Jessica, and more threads appear around her. "Listen to me~." the words echoing through the air, and subtling altering Jessica's perceptions... now there's a bunch of Reunion fighters around her, where the various friendlies were just standing, and they all turn toward the cat as if to attack her.

    Svarog's bulk lets him easily tank and flick the last few standing Cloud Knights, leaving Kafka alone, aside from her new little puppet.

    Talia would appreciate that offer, Bi De, but this one's HERS. She notices the grenades and reaches down to blast them away with the Force, far enough away to get them out of distance with the electric shocks. Once she notices what Kafka says, her eyes go wide. "Wait, Jessica no!" She knows a mind trick when she sees it.

    That's not good. Jessica blinks, and everyone sees her tail lift and frazzle in agitation. Quick darting looks around, and then she spins on her heel and squeals! It's a loud, worried one, because she's NOT IN POSITION from her perspective.

    "AHHH!" Shots ring out, and they're shots intended to kill! The only good thing is she's caught off-guard enough that her aim isn't all that great right now.

    Something about this says Kafka is going to be very infuriating.
    Especially when she does some bad mind juju to poor Jessica. Clara squeaks and ducks when Jess whirls around and starts shooting.
    That's bad.
    "Mister Svarog!" Clara calls out, pulling her protector's attention from forehead flicking cloud guys.
    Clara points to Jessica and he nods.
    Svarog proceeds to try and scruff Jess by the back of her collar and life her up bodily.
    Everyone knows scruffing de-activates a cat.
But on top of that, Clara reaches into her supplies and pulls out a candy bar, which she shoves in Jessica's face.
    "You're not you when you're hangry, Jessica!"

    Jessica shooting at her allies isn't good. Bi De knows she's been holding back, but if she thinks they're a threat the catgirl could, in fact, be dangerous! "Restrain her!" He calls out, thwapping the last Cloud Knight near him and giving a bob of his head in thanks for the help.

    He darts in, heading straight for Kafka, his talons shining with silver light. He isn't attempting to savage her... he's making a gamble, 'slashing' her way close enough that it looks like he's trying to kill her, but instead trying to disrupt those pink threads with his own life energy. He can't seem to sense them until the moment control is lost, though, so it's kind of guesswork... or if his qi will even work like that.

    Stelle adjusts her shield architecture to deflect some of those bullets from Jessica, but takes one to the shoulder regardless, spinning her around from the impact, but not actually piercing. March fires an arrow at Kafka, then goes to check on Stelle, while Welt moves into a position. He stamps his cane on the deck, and Kafka's movements suddenly slow down.

    Kafka moves to draw her pistols, sheathing her sword when Bi De comes barreling in, knocking her off balance from attempting to avoid the apparently deadly strike. Talons find and cut through those threads, weakening the effect on Jessica by a good amount... the hallucinations flickering like badly maintained holograms, between the Reunion soldiers, and her friends.

    Talia's force push negates the grenades effects, leaving the Stellaron Hunter on the back foot. "Hehe... Good times, never last~." she croons, recovering from her stagger and bringing her weapons up.

    Talia was about to intercede to stop Jessica from attacking her comrades, buuuuuut it seems that Clara has that covered! How nice of her. Once Kafka's on the backfoot, Talia rushes her and takes advantage of Bi De's attack to lunge at Kafka, dropkicking the Stellaron hunter in the face!

    "You would be wise to surrender." Talia says, leveling her lightsaber at Kafka's neck after getting back on her feet.

    The flickering makes Jessica pause in confusion... hesitating on the trigger after she slaps in a new magazine. "Huh?" This delay is critical. It means she not only doesn't even TRY to shoot Clara, which saves her from the wrath of Big Robo-Daddy, but it also has her mouth open when the candy bar SHOVES into it!

    Blink blink. Chew. The candy bar inhales rapidly as Jessica shakes her head. Reunion wouldn't know her snax! She swallows, "Ah, sorry!"

    She opens fire again, this time carefully. Picking her shots to only take them when it looks like there's an opening at Kafka. "You could have hurt them!"

    Okay Jess is back to normal. Clara heaves a sigh. It's a good thing that Jess doesn't try to shoot Clara though.
    Svarog is right there.
    [Prowler Noise]
    But what happens next well.
    Svarog just holds Jessica up and points her at Kafka.
    So she can shoot Kafka.

    Well that seemed to mostly work. Bi De spins back arouond, dancing back and letting Talia come in to take advantage of his opening. The rooster switches to defense now, lifting a wing and flaring up the qi shield he uses, the Aigis making a scintillating brightness.

    He thus is mostly relying on Talia to strike... but only until he can edge around to the flank, opposite the attacks from Jessica and Svarog. When he sees an opening, he dashes in for a powerful slash a the thigh!

    Stelle remains on the floor, sat down and rubbing her shoulder from where the bullet hit... she pokes her finger into the hole in her jacket, and frowns, pulling the flattened slug of lead out of the fabric and looking forlornly at March.

    Kafka twirls back onto her feet after taking the dropkick, coming back up at about the same time Talia does. She smirks, holding her guns up above her head, letting them dangle from her fingers by the trigger guards. "... Finally." she says, then snaps the guns back into her grip... and fires the entire magazines of both, straight up into the air, letting the recoil judder her aim.

    Talia would sense the approach first, and might even be able to see the speed a new-comer is moving at.

    A small pink-haired girl dances through the cloud of bullets, turning them aside with quick flicks of her fingers, as if they were standing completely still and she were fine-tuning some kind of diorama. "Rudimentary... your every move has been foreseen. By the Omniscia." time apparently reinstigates and the bullets rain back down, striking the deck in such a way that noone is even close to taking a hit, and the bullets lodge into the metal and stonework without deflecting again.

    The pinkette lands without a sound, gracefully uncurling to her full height(Which isn't much), and introducing herself... as Kafka drops her empty guns and keeps her hands raised.

    "Fu Xuan. Divination Commission. I'll be taking the criminal from here."

    Talia looks more than a little confused until she realizes just who Kafka was aiming at. THe small pink haired girl is too fast for the naked eye, Talia's Force senses can pick out vague outlines and flickers here and there, but even she can't get a good look for long. And then suddenly, Fu Xuan makes her arrival.

    Talia turns off her saber and nods firmly, "She's all yours."

    EEP!

    Jessica is a little startled at being lifted, but it does give her a higher vantage! That's good! She steadies her aim and snaps off several shots, before the new arrival makes it... more complicated.

    Thudding back to the floor, presumably, the catgirl stares at Fu Xuan. "Umn... is that a good idea?" She pauses, and then demonstrates that she isn't... entirely without a spine. "Well I guess you'll pay us the bounty for capturing her, since you couldn't do it yourself."

    Much like Talia, Bi De backs off, breathing more heavily now. He flicks his comb back and clucks, "Very well. So long as she is properly detained." He doesn't actually know the rules here, it's a different society, so he doesn't want to cause a fuss-

    The chicken turns to stare at Jessica for making that remark. Wow.

    Nah Jess, here's no thudding. Svarog puts the cat down gently.
    But then Fu Xuan shows up.
    "... Who...?" Clara looks baffled by this turn of events. But then...
    "J-Jessica! Even if that's true you don't just say something like that!' The girl squeaks.
    

    Kafka is bound, has a gag inplaced, and is then taken away by a group of Cloud Knights, under Fu Xuan's guidance.

    The Master Diviner then turns to the group, and gives a tight little smile... she's not used to doing this. "Greetings, crew of the Astral Express, and others." she says, giving a slight bow. "This is our first encounter... though given that I have encountered you in foresight, perhaps I should say the second. I am Fu Xuan, master diviner of the Divination Commission and one of the Six Charioteers." She straightens, and seems to relax just a little. "Far-flung friends ought to be receieved with fine wine, but alas, the heavens, earth and body are not aligned for such an occasion. You'll allow for a postponment of the usual formalities, I trust? We should begin with the matter at hand." she continues, nodding to Jessica without seeming to take offense.

    "... run that by me one more time? I think my Synesthesia Beacon had an electronic anyurism." says Stelle non-chalantly.

    Fu Xuan clears her throat. "If the method of my speech is offensive to you, you need but say."

    Welt steps forward, as Kafka is held out of earshot. "We received an assignment from General Jing Yuan to arrest the Stellaron Hunter. Thank you, diviner, for coming to our aid, but we must escort the fugitive to the general." he says, adjusting his glasses.

    "Inessential." proclaims the tiny diviner. "I hold a proclamation from the general here, if you care to see." she holds an actual bound scroll up, unfurling it to read aloud: "Upon detaining the Stellaron Hunter, to whit, henceforth and etcetera, questioning, interrogation, and extraction of vital information and all further arrangements is to be taken, forthwhith and immediately by the Divination Commission."

    "Understood, however, the General promised that all intel would be shared with us. We have a right to know anything that Kafka divulges." replies Welt evenly.

    "...Oh?" Fu Xuan sighs. "That guy... can I not go one day without him throwing me under the--..."

    "Her rant is cut off, as Welt interjects. "We won't make things anymore complicated than they need to be. We just want to listen in on the questioning."

    "Very well. Urgency demands fluidity. You shall accompany us to the Divination Commission at Exalting Sanctum. Worry not, while I am here she cannot escape, but we cannot question her here, only the Commission has the equipment and methods to make her talk and bring the truth to light."

    The TinyDiviner leads the way to a StarSkiff port, and the docked Skiff. Once everyone loads up, it departs for the Exalting Sanctum.