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Staren     The Line! You all can read the room desc, but the area Staren's brought you to is a glassy waste with no yet-known POIs (the more to hopefully find something that hasn't been salvaged already.) The Concord has provided its elites with suitable high-speed transport for exploring the region in support of "factional projects" (Read: finding Ozhira interesting prey to hunt and finding the largest vehicle that Hiromi can throw); those who can't drive or pilot can find passenger seats in (or standing on) vehicles controlled by those who can.

    Staren's giving the "Mark IV" a test flight -- painted red with some tasteful white stripes and Concord-orange trim, it's mostly in a form similar to an F-14 Tomcat with arms and legs with VTOL capabilities, but while putting it through its paces she also briefly folds up the arms and legs to go supersonic or transforms to a fully humanoid mode to run around.

    Sooner or later, some high-speed fauna are spotted, herds of something like wild boars the size of bears with wheels instead of feet, and deer with crystalline antlers and hooves capable of bounding at over 100MPH, being pursued by rocket tigers.

    Yeah you heard me, rocket tigers. They've got rockets for rear legs.

    The search for a giant vehicle takes somewhat longer. There are all manner of small craft, motorcycle-to-house sized, that one passes by every several seconds when moving at high speed, but all are crashed wrecks or already salvaged of all useful parts.

    In the end the most notable feature is... a forest? Up ahead, the glass wastes abruptly stop, as if the worldgen algorithm hiccupped, and a centuries-old forest is just *there*, occupying a region kilometers wide.

    There are a number of trees on the perimeter that have been knocked over with burned-out wrecks wrapped around them.

    But poking up over the trees in the distance is, at last, an example of what you're searching for: An Avian temple-ship, a pyramid of gleaming golden metal and stone artfully and purposefully inset with glowing red crystals--well, they're not glowing now but they feel like they *should*--big enough for dozens of devoted worshippers of Kluex to live and work inside.

    The upper portion of the ship rises above the treeline, visible for miles to sharp eyes.

    There are more small wrecks in the forest. Some of them (all rugged ground vehicles with room for a number of passengers) look like they've been here a decade or more, and been rusted or stripped to worthlessness, while others, with the similar variety of what you saw on the way here, have crashed or landed but only been stripped of the things easiest to take.

    Up close, broken trees and scraped-bare earth beside the temple-ship suggest an awkward landing in uncleared terrain. And the bodies of a dozen or so fallen Avian warriors -- bipedal birdfolk with colorful plumage and armor with modern material and mesoamerican-styled armor with feathered-and-sometimes-beaked helmets, armed with bows, guns, spears, and staves -- suggest an armed conflict. Finally, not-hidden-in-the-least tracks of dozens of humanoids leading off into the woods in a direction perpendicular to the Line stand out to all but the worst of trackers.
Sarracenia      Having heard the description of the mission, Princess Sarracenia was all too happy to join in. The Dyna was quickly deployed with Sarracenia herself at the helm and the surprisingly speedy wooden aircraft is cruising along...well, nowhere near supersonic. It's wooden and has propellers!

     Sarra seems to be having plenty of fun flying it though, and hopefully her friends aren't too nervous about the multitude of missiles, bombs, Bullet Bills, and Bob-ombs that are in the weapons hold. And Sarra has been doing plenty of small but somewhat unsafe maneuvers such as aileron rolls and barrel rolls followed by child-like giggles from her.

     When they pass or are passed by the unusual fauna she can't help but laugh and point them out to her passengers. "Are you serious? A rocket tiger? Haha! Alexis! Can you catch one for me sometime?" she says as they cruise along.

     Her attitude changes when they reach the crash. She can't help but frown lightly at the sight of dead warriors. "Look down there." she says, circling the area so that the others can see out the windoes. When Staren speaks up on the radio she radios back, "We found something. Looks like a crashed pyramid with a few bird people around it. They...likely won't be getting up, I think." Then, she pilots the Dyna in the direction of those tracks. "Looks like their attackers went this way."
Sleek Shimmer     Between the airship Staren has, and the fancy-fun Mark IV, she has somehow managed to secure a place in the copilot's seat behind Staren in the Mark IV and is having an absolute BLAST.

    "Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuush! Sky ruuuuuuuuuuuush!" She cheers, grinning like a maniac! Having far too much fun and seemingly too tough to suffer from the G-forces of the whole thing..

    But, she's not slacking off. She's looking out the windows certainly enough, having a look at some of the crazier things on display down there. But not only is she looking, but she's reaching out with her senses to try and locate anything of vast, dense metal and stone. Something that might be what Staren's looking for out here...
Tomoe Tomoe made no complaint about the lift she'd got from Sarra. It seemed to be workable and it was faster than she could fly. She saw the rocket Tigers and just stared for only half-second. Why only half a second given her world is digitizing this sort of thing is not too much of a shock to her. Still, they are pretty neat when she gets a better look at them. To Shimmer Tomoe would just seem strange. While she smells of the world some things are missing, but she doesn't smell right, something is very off about her? Is the towering purpled haired woman. She seems friendly though from the looks of her at least.

"Haven't been out this way in a long time. Also when was the last time we were able to get out like this? It's been far too long."

She looks over to Shimmer for a moment and grins.

"I do not think we have met before."

She will look out at the crash.

"Looks like we should be on our guards and likely see about getting them buried later. We should also check to see if anyone's still breathing as if they are? I'm pretty sure Staren can keep them that way."
Alexis To be fair, Alexis probably has a Pokemon or two that would be fast enough to keep up. But that would also tire them out, and by the looks of the wildlife they're catching glimpses of, she might need everyone in proper fighting shape.

Besides, that would mean she would miss out on the chance to ride along with the friends she doesn't get to see as often as she use to. Other than Sarracenia, with how often she loafs around the castle when she's feels like being that friend that bums around your place just because she can.

The antics flying don't bother her too much. Or she's just making a point of leaning back in her seat and not looking bothered. Nevermind the payload, in a ship made of wood and blocks.

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Sarra," she replies. "These creatures seem to be highly specialized to this environment, taking them out of it might do more harm than good." Pause. "Now if we have to fight one of them..." That could be a challenge.
Staren     The pyramid ship is pointed out while Staren is on her way back from testing going supersonic. The Star Hawk MkIV zooms in from the distance accompanied by a sonic boom, slowing down as it deploys its arms and legs and approaches the pyramid ship. <"Hmm. Sensors aren't picking up any engine or powerplant signatures...">

    As they examine the crash(?) site, Staren switches to humanoid mode and lands, the Star Hawk kneeling to let Shimmer out. Staren has switched back to her old style of piloting suit for this mission -- a black body stocking of tough material and a high-tech military-style helmet with air tank, then an overlayer jumpsuit of leathery-looking, flexible material with straps for a parachute and hard plates on the chest, back, shoulders, upper legs, and knees, and long gloves and boots. For visibility over fashion, it's colored high-vis white and safety orange. Shimmer has been provided a similar suit.

    Tomoe checks for anyone breathing. Most of the avians are dead, but... a heavyset warrior with all-white plumage, a cape, and a red armored skirt is still breathing.

    Staren is, as expected, ready with nanobandages to stabilize him. "Doing more would require proper facilities..."

    "Thank Kluex... the others...?"

    He is soon filled in on being the lone survivor, identifies himself as Tlony, and asked for what happened, explains sadly: "Truly this must be a trial... we saw the forest and landed to gather supplies. Fruits and game we don't usually see on the Line... A bounty from Kluex! But THEY attacked us... Walking corpses stronger than anything I've ever seen, commanded by vile mages... They said our souls would be theirs..."

    Tlony sits up abruptly. "The others!" He turns to look at the ship and tries to stand, but winces.

    Searching the pyramid finds it deserted. The amount of tracks leading away does suggest the surviving population of the ship has been taken captive.

    Tlony can be set in a bed to rest and promised to be come back for, or brought aboard an airship or something if that's seen as a better idea. Following the tracks leads to a ravine with a stream running through it and the occasional cave entrance in the sides. The sides are steep, but there is a path down here and back up the other side.

    And at either side of that path, at the bottom of the ravine and even standing knee-deep in the stream are five zombies. They've gotta be zombies, right? They look like recently-dead corpses, mostly human but one or two have pointed ears or scales and a tail or are otherwise of clearly nonhuman species; clad in a variety of clothes that look worn and torn from their necromancer not bothering to replace them. Some are even in light suits of advanced-material armor.

    Sleek Shimmer's sense of smell confirms that many undead, and a mix of species -- many Avian, some human, some other -- came this way. Before even approaching, the shifter's sharp ears pick out the sound of talking from one of the caves, though it's hard to pick out specifics from a distance. There's an energetic young male voice, and an annoyed adult female voice.
.
Sleek Shimmer     Somehow, within the space of a few seconds after the Star Hawk's cockpit opens, Shimmer jumps out, leaving the flight suit she was just wearing behind and is back in her normal attire. HOW she can quick-change like that... well... who knows.

    After initial investigations turn up evidence of the UNDEAD though, Shimmer makes a disgusted face. "Hungry dead, gnawing on living, spreads rot like plague... but, controlled by mages?"

    Even if this is all the info she had, even if she hadn't agreed to help Staren search... the idea of necromancers being awful instantly sours her mood. It turns dark and intense with her staring fiercely along the tracks.

    Of course tracking them is not hard. Besides the physical tracks, her nose is sharp and anyone who travels with zombies is hard to miss.

    But more than the smell... "Mages hiding in caves..." Shifting down to fox form, she begins descending the ravine with incredibly light steps, attempting to end up hunkered just above the cave entrance so she can hear what they're saying more clearly!
Tomoe Tomoe will call out. "I got a live one Staren!" She'll assist Staren where she can but mostly keeps out of her way. She looks down to them as Staren gets them stabilized she shakes her head.

"I'm afraid they were dead by the time we got here. Undead? Look we'll get into it, we should get you to our ship."

Once That is handled she'll go to check out the ship and soon finds the crew is gone.

"Looks like they have been taken if we're dealing with undead I can guess why they want live ones. We'll need to be fast."

It does not take long for her to be one of the first if not the first person here to run into the undead and she'll draw Caliburn and a holy flame springs to life about the blade. She then dives right into the ranks of the undead.
Alexis "Looks like Staren found something besides the wildlife." Alexis is out of her seat in a jiffy, heading for the Dyna's exit. She's not going to wait for Sarracenia to land the craft? No, probably not. Seeing as she came prepared for all sorts of potential situations, and while making an abrupt skydiving jump wasn't specifically one of them, it is one she can adapt to. She leaps out, but a momentary pokeball tap later and a large beetle with long angular pinchers and electrified wings grabs onto her back and the Vikavolt essentially serves as a glider to get her down towards the ground to follow the tracks towards the ravine. Looks like Shimmer is already stalking after something.

"Ugh. Zombies. And they're out in the water too." Alexis gets a lift down before finally being released by her pokemon. "But we can cover that too." Cue the dramatic trainer point. "Polarity, Signal Beam!" "Viiika-ka-ka!" The chittering cry is echoed by the crackle of energy as a shimmering beam is fired from between his mandibles like a cannon at the zombies. Because Alexis doesn't want to risk fighting off electricity when other people are going to wade into the water to fight.
Sarracenia      Sarra lets whoever wants to exit the vehicle do so before she goes off down the trail. She flies over but doesn't see much from the air, then heads back toward the pyramid when she hears that there is someone alive she heads back to the pyramid. She lands the Dyna and motions for Tlony to be brought aboard. "Bring him in here. I can give him some green mushrooms while we continue the search." she says, helping him aboard if needed.

     She isn't much help in the searching or tracking departments, but she takes the Dyna back to the sky both to provide air support and to keep Tlony safe. With the others as a guide she comes to a hover above the zombies.

     "Heads up!" she radios to the others as she takes up a spot above and unleashes a few missiles on the zombies below!
Staren SLEEK SHIMMER:

    There are two figures inside the cave. Sitting on the floor, using a backpack as an impromptu chairback, is a tall human woman in her 20s with short blonde hair. Her outfit is primarily a black robe and flowy cape, but incorporates a few pieces of light armor with runes inscribed on it and a few tiny gems embedded in it.

    And kneeling at her side is... a teenage male avian with blue plumage and white countershading; He's wearing a plain robe and a circlet that once had feathers in it but they've been torn.

    "Are you feeling any better?"

    "No."

    "...How about now?"

    "No."

    "...is there anything I can do to help? Your god needs you at the ritual... Maybe I can--" He reaches for her ankle.

    "No! Just let me rest." She rolls her eyes. "Your enthusiastic recognition of our superior god is appreciated, but if you keep making a nuisance of yourself maybe we'll feed your soul to Nxla too instead of training you."

EVERYONE ELSE:
    Combat begins! The zombies are easily surprised, and powerful attacks take a few of them down (Staren warps in a laser cannon for her mech to shoot with) -- But the remaining two, only caught in the edge of Sarracenia's blasts, not only do they seem to be regenerating from moderate damage, Tlony's talk of their unusual strength bears out as they turn on Tomoe and SMASH. Despite looking like simple zombies, they're SUPER-strong -- Not on par with the strongest of elites, perhaps, but this is what you'd expect from a particularly *strong* example of a strong pokemon or other monster, or a combat cyborg further souped up for extra strength. They punch and they punch HARD.

SLEEK SHIMMER:
    "What the hell?!" The mage tries to stand, and reluctantly lets the Avian help her up before she starts hobbling towards the entrance, favoring one leg.
Tomoe Tomoe gets punched several times leaving jagged red wireframes in their wake. She notices these undead are not just cannon fodder ones. "humm whoever animated these did so with some care." She'll hack and slash away and here comes the magic, fire and light spells mixed in with her own sword attacks, she'll also use her size against the Zombies where she can. She seems pretty intent to cut her way through these things.
Alexis If there is one thing worse than zombies, it's zombies that can heal somehow.

And now they're trying to gang up on Tomoe. Well we're not about to let that happen.

Fortunately it only takes Alexis a moment before she's got an idea. "Polarity," she makes a gesture of lacing her fingers together, "use Spark!" The buzzbomber beetle buzzes loud as it dives towards one of the zombies, electrifing his mandibles as he attempts to chomp down on one, and push it away from Tomoe so she doesn't get entirely overwhelmed by their unusual strength. The beetle-mon may not look extremely strong but he's got thrust and momentum on his side to give Tomoe less problems to deal with.
Sleek Shimmer     The situation is too confusing. Shimmer can piece together the generalities though in no time. Ande from that, she knows what she must do. These two morons are the only ones with a clue of what's happening here, they have to stay alive long enough to explain everything.

    So she lowers herself down to the very edge of the cave entrance and shifts back to her human-like form. Here, she spreads her hands then brings them together, palms facing each other and cupping a space before her navel...

    And then, wispy fog will stream from both the avian and his would-be teacher as Shimmer attempts to drain the vitality and power straight out of them. This requires proximity. It would be even better if she'd gotten much, much closer, but with them both seemingly tired or weakened in some way... she's hoping she'll be able to drop them both harmlessly and leave them too weak to intervene or escape!
Staren SLEEK SHIMMER:
    "Who're you?!" The mage looks at Shimmer and starts to gesture and incant, but it seems Shimmer has correctly guessed she's far from prime fighting state, and she collapses before she can finish casting. The young avian looks alarmed as well. "Who're YOU?! You're making a big mistake, Nxla is mighty, if you fight them they'll take your soul..." He's just fine, so he doesn't go down quite as quickly, but he ALSO doesn't know how to fight and doesn't try it, eventually passing out next to the mage if Shimmer keeps draining him.
Sarracenia      Sarracenia is supremely upset as her missiles -do not- obliterate the zombies. "What?!" she exclaims, audible over a speaker on the outside of the aircraft. There's a loud clunk as she switches weapon types and a nozzle extends from the nose of the Dyna. "Well, everyone knows what clears out undead. Fire~" she says, getting a bit of a singing note on the word fire.

     And a stream of fireballs starts firing out, bursting into small fiery explosions against their targets. "Hahahahaha! Everyone keep clear! Or put on a lot of sunscreen!"
Staren EVERYONE:
    There are not enough zombies left to stand against the combined might of the elites. One's pulled away from Tomoe before it and its companion are burned to char by electricity, magic, lasers, and fireballs. Clearly, the elites' might is far beyond what the avian warriors could muster... but this also seems to be a small fraction of a larger force.

    Staren sighs at the punning going on on the radio, her machine standing at the top of the ravine and looking down. <"You okay, Tomoe?? You said you found people, Shimmer?">
Tomoe <I am fine don't worry about it. We need to press on, we can fight the hordes all day but if we don't get what's behind this? It won't end and it may be too late for the surviving Avians.>>

With that Tomoe will down a potion and push on ahead. She then calls back.

"You have far too much fun with that sometimes Princess!"

At least the sun wasn't angry at the party.
Alexis Once he's gotten the zombie away from Tomoe and given it a good shock Polarity QUICKLY gets out of the way of the fire that's about to be unleashed, buzzing back to Alexis' side. "I get the feeling we were lucky there weren't more of them. Hey Staren!" She jabs a thumb over her shoulder towards where the zombies had been flambed by Sarracenia's fiery blitz. "These aren't normal for here, right? Sure, they were better than standard zombies, but still, I don't know, feels like they belong in a place that was the whole holy freak that's fast deal going on."
Staren     Staren shrugs. "There's more of the Line that I *haven't* seen before than I could ever see, but... The way the terrain abruptly changed does make it seem like this place just sort of Unified at the edge of the line or something, yeah."
Sleek Shimmer     "What use is giving names to the dead? Choose next words carefully. Friends are violent and pushy. And much stronger than you." She'll stop short of them actually passing out, but she's not going to leave them any energy to cast spells or move around with real strength. Even standing will be hard.

    She sends a message of pure intent back to Staren. <Found birdman and mage girl. We ask if they know whats happening!>
Staren     Staren sends down a drone before flying over the ravine to follow Tomoe. The ground on this side is a bit harder, so tracks aren't quite as easy to follow, but one can eventually find broken branches and the like as signs of passage.

    When the PLOT KEYWORD is mentioned over the radio, though, Staren stops to focus on the drone.

IN THE RAVINE:
    "Hmh. My friends are stronger. ...Wait, where are my xombies?? How'd you get past them??" The mage starts to look concerned, but quickly rallies, refusing to give in. Although, it's clear that she's trying to bluster against a threat that seems quite capable of killing HER, regardless of whatever else happens. "Ha! I am Alicia Marquand, servant of the great and terrible Nxla! You may have me, but you'll never stop the rest of the cabal! The other Harvesters are already on the way to the church with like dozens of those d-bees from the flying pyramid, and before the day is over, Nxla will have forty more souls!" She goes for an appropriately evil and ominous cackle, but it's kind of ruined by the nervousness on her face regarding her own fate.

    Staren's drone has just come into view of the cave. For the sake of narrative convenience, it projects a hologram of Staren, who stares, wide-eyed, at the mage. "What are YOU doing HERE?!"

    Alicia gives her a confused look. "Do I know you, kid?"

    "Not you SPECIFICALLY, servants of Nxla! Wait, 'kid'?" She shakes her head, "No time."

    Staren turns to the others and explains, "Nxla is some kind of dark god sealed away in another dimension. Everything they've said is true, they're harvesting the souls of innocent people -- well, innocence doesn't really matter -- to empower Nxla."

    "The soulless bodies become Xombies, those super-strong undead." And then her face falls and she slumps a bit. Alicia, who has been staring open-mouthed at her faction's secrets being exposited like this, chuckles as she realizes what's coming. Staren says somberly, "You couldn't have known... we couldn't have known they were..." She takes a breath, stands straight, and explains, briefly meeting the others' gazes and then looking away. "If they're destroyed, the soul is lost to Nxla, but if they can be restrained somehow, there's a ritual -- I've got a recording and instructions -- that can pull the soul *back* from Nxla and return it to the body. You can see why the harvesters are happy to use them as cannon fodder... Well, maybe they're a bit tough to be called that..."

    Alicia is back to staring in open-mouthed shock and disbelief at the claim that someone already knows all this. But she doesn't look like she doesn't think what's said is true, at any rate. Staren shakes her head. "It couldn't be helped. So many kinds of undead in the Multiverse, we couldn't have known. We'll have to try to save the rest of them."

    "I encountered the harvesters while I was stuck in the past last year." Staren rubs the back of her head. "Honestly, establishing contact between the Concord and Nxla's enemies so we can put a stop to all this has been on my to-do list since I got back, but I've had a lot of things on my mind, you know?" She looks at Alicia. "I didn't think they'd be making moves this far away from the Magic Zone...
Sleek Shimmer     Soul-devouring dark god? Shimmer's expression darkens tremendously as the situation is explained. With every word that she hears, her fingers curl more and more into tight fists. "You HAPPY about this?!" She rushes forward, hoisting Alicia up by her neck, fingers tightening a bit but not outright choking. "Sick mages. Sick in heart, soul."

    Her eyes blaze with heated fury...

    "If Staren knows so much, give us reason to spare your life! Or die here!"
Tomoe Tomoe looks at the mage for a moment as she narrows her eyes. "Dark Gods, the name is Tomoe The Iron Lily." She narrows her eyes but she doe snot attack yet as she's eyeing the mage. She grimaces at this revelation about the fate of the undead they took out. There's not much she can do for the zombies they took out, but for the rest? Well, something can be done.

"I see."

Maybe Staren has an idea but it's also clear there's simmering anger.

<So what's the plan?>
Staren     <"Plan? You were right that we need to keep moving. We need to catch them before the ritual can happen and Nxla gets 40 more souls hostage... and 40 more Xombie servants.">

    Staren turns towards the mage struggling in Shimmer's grip. "Did you say Marquad?" Staren looks thoughtful, and states, in the same sort of tone one might say they met someone at the supermarket the other day, "I executed your brother."

    She looks shocked, then confused. "What?! Alec's not dead..."

    "In the other timeline." Staren clarifies. Alicia just looks increasingly confused and alarmed as Staren mutters, "Didn't know I was making you an only child, but I can't exactly feel sorry for you..."

    "Wait, wait!" The mage urges. "I can lead you to where the ritual will happen! Just... let me go afterwards!"
Sarracenia      Sarracenia is still in her VTOL overhead, so she isn't in the cave and instead is listening over the comms. Which means she is on standby to transport the others once they are ready. So, she won't be stopping Sleek if she decides to do something. <"So, if we need to get moving let's get moving! I'm ready to go!">
Alexis "Well," Alexis snorts softly, letting one hand rest at her side. "Sounds like we've got undead to find and make redead." Followed by a slow shake of her head. "If I had a coin for every time something could be traced back so some sealed evil lord..."
Staren     The avian boy looks on, shocked. "But... Nxla is strong and mighty! Don't you want to go join them in the afterlife?" Alicia rolls her eyes. "Kid, I want to be on the ruling side HERE, why do you think we sacrifice others' souls to Nxla? You birds didn't sacrifice yourselves to Kluex, did you?" She sees the expression on his face. "...Oh my god you DO. Ahaha... what a racket... I dunno what this 'Kluex''s deal is, but you get more souls this way..."

    The avian boy is literally crestfallen. Some birds have crests! "I... I faltered in my faith... this was a test from Kluex, and I failed!" He breaks down crying.

    Um.

    He'll probably keep.

    ANYWAY. Alicia the Harvester is cooperative, as confirmed by Shimmer following the scent trail. She points the right way, and after hurrying onward for awhile, as the early evening sun begins to dip below the trees, the group comes in sight of vehicles much like those seen abandoned in the forest; a half-dozen all-terrain transports and a couple dozen more xombies on foot making their way through the forest. They're maybe half a minute away from reaching some overgrown building that just rises above the treeline -- it's hard to tell what it is through all the growth, but it's about the right size and shape for SOME kind of large gathering.

    Shimmer's senses confirm that the scent of nearly 40 living avians, and a few humans and other species, is coming from the transports.
Sleek Shimmer     "Hrmph." Since Alicia does have something useful to offer, Shimmer drops her in a contemptful heap. "Then lead. Try anything, will bite your head off and leave body to rot where nobody can find!"

    She really, -really- does not like this particular mage for some reason...

    And onwards the group goes, eventually reaching the site. Shimmer's true to her word and will let Alicia be. "The birdmen still live... I think. Smell many fresh things, too fresh to be dead... probably.... but how much time before sacrifice? Should move fast!"
Alexis There's probably some accuracy in this area being a random unification on the fringe of what could be considered The Line due to the shift in environment. But they examine that more closely later, after the immeadiate issues at hand.

As they find the movement of prisoners and discuss how to not just nuke the Xombies so they can be healed or cured or whatever it is Staren is discussing that goes over her head Alexis just huffs softly. "Yeah, I think I've got something for this," evem as she's reaching for more of her pokeballs. This time releasing a reddish-brown semi-bipedal wolf with a thick white mane and a large crocadlian with dark eye markings resembling a bandit's mask. She makes a few digging gestures as she explains to the two of them, and then steps back as the large lizard literally dives into the ground.

Krookodile are able to burrow rapidly almost like 'swimming' in the ground, so it isn't hard for Undermine to live up to his name by tunneling up underneath some of the Xombies close enough to the surface that it collapses out from beneath their feet and sink into the ground like a pit of loose downward dragging sand.

Midnight Lycanroc on the other hand just slams her broad forepaws into the ground, causing several large rocks to burst out of the surface to pen in more of the zombies without actually crushing them, just coral them away to be retrieved and healed later on.
Sleek Shimmer     As the situation's finally understood, Shimmer takes a flying leap into the battlefield then lands in a full girly dash, arms pumping and legs hammering the ground hard enough to kick up a dust cloud.

    Rocket tigers aren't the only things that can move damned fast around here.

    Halfway through the charge, emerald energies swirl up around her body and she becomes a blurr, rushing past the xombies and seeking out living mages to greet with a ferocious onslaught of knife-hand chops, round-house kicks, flip-throws and lots of spinning flip kicks.

    It's a very strange fighting style. A bit too showy, but still painful on the receiving end if you don't know how to counter those moves!
Tomoe Tomoe is very glad to be working with a team she has a lot of experience with, she watches as Alexis makes the holes, she's going to flare her wings out at that. Then takes off at fair speed she'll try to kite the Xombies on her way into the pits made by Alexi and he allies. She's making for the transport though intending to strike at the wheels given the speed they are moving at. She also will be using parkour to get about this as she goes. The Giant lady is mobile shockingly so. She'll be hoping to one-stop the transport and two lure the mages out.

Then there's Sleek Shimmer that fox has some serious skills.
Sarracenia      Sarracenia waits for the others to do their things, then she pops out from behind the treeline and fires a few missiles, aiming at the tires of the armored transports. If they can disable the transports that would make it much more difficult to bring the prisoners to the sacrifice area, right? "Hahaha! How will you sacrifice anyone to your terrible god now, huh?!" she exclaims over the speaker.
Staren     The party leaps into action. Alicia, released when Shimmer moves in, stumbles off into the woods to hide; if her fellows survive she can rejoin them later and say meddling adventurers knocked her out and left her for dead, if they don't... well. She can try to make her way back to Soulharvest or find a quiet life to live.

    Pokemon turn the Earth into an obstacle for Xombies. Nearly half of them are half-buried in the ground or trapped in rock. They immediately begin working to break free, and with their strength they won't be held for long-- but the fight may be over before that matters.

    Shimmer hits a couple of the transports in a weak point: The driver. Or, that's the plan? But it turns out the transports are surprisingly durable and it takes repeated attacks just to break a window and throw the driver out. The captives in that car start to come out of their daze, muttering "Where are we?" and growing alarmed!

    The shocked-looking harvester (mage) who was thrown from his vehicle glares at Shimmer and turns invisible, like a cheating cheater.

    She can smell and hear him taking cover behind the tree he was thrown into and healing his wounds with magic, though.

    Tomoe finds that the wheels/tires are far tougher than those of her world, but well within her chopping capability. The driver leans out the window and casts some kind of curse that saps at her strength somewhat, reasoning that someone with a sword swords less good if they can't swing as hard. A few xombies come around from the other side of the transport to try for a beatdown where the last group failed.

    Sarracenia stops more transports; the thick wood requires her to fly nearly overhead to get a good shot. The drivers lean out the window and start chucking fireballs up at her, JUST LIKE SHE DOES, except they go in straight lines and don't bounce. The nerve!

    Staren is awkwardly trying to get laser shots through the trees and reposition. One lone, unharmed transport drives on ahead, a few xombies forming a line behind it as the mage opens the doors and starts unloading people, a couple more coming out of side doors in the building to help pull them inside.
Sleek Shimmer     After throwing the driver clear from his seat, Shimmer calls out towards the dazed captives, "Deep breaths and calm." She insists. "Held by dark god's servants. Not far from golden pyramid. We rescuing. Whoever can fight, grab weapons, guard rest!"

    And of course, the Mage goes invisible. Shimmer's never experienced that particular trick before, but she's so used to paying attention to her ears and nose that when she hears him moving to escape and take cover she peers his way in an almost quizzical fashion. She can't understand how he'd overlook something so basic as noises.

    She leaps straight over towards the tree, approaching within about five meters...

    "Ohhhhhh? Evil sorcerer has clever coward trick. Might work on human... but not me. Show something better for next trick or I finish this now!"
Tomoe Tomoe has been making some progress, however, she sees the mages in the one that got away. She'll flare her wings out gain knowing she's being chased. She'll bet on the Xombie's can't fly. So that's what she's going to take a shot at. She sees the mages that are unloading she's fast though and she's flying for them. She will come down on the mages who are pulling people inside, if she has to restain from using her blade direly she will. She has a shield and she's happy to slam the mourning wall into the mages. She's not holding back on the mages she is going to take them down.
Staren SHIMMER:
    The captives won't be much help. "Buh... wha? Everyone who could fight got killed! Where are we?! Kluex protect us..."

    The mage is briefly shocked that Shimmer is trying this -- but obviously, if she *really* knew where he was, she would just attack instead of talking, right? He casts another spell, draws a longsword (which suddenly becomes charged with magic) and charges her to unleash a flurry of swings with unexpected skill! The invisibility breaks when he attacks, at least!
Alexis It's just as Alexis expected, they start trapping the Xombies and stalling the transports, and the Mages would expose themselves trying to handle the situation. Of course, she's standing there as well, but who's going to suspect the pink haired girl when there's angry fairy girls, kung-fu foxgirls and triggerhappy princesses in wooden airships to worry about. But this was one of those times that Alexis is glad that she's outshown by the phenominal nature of her friends, leaving her to focus on keeping the Xombies down so they can be restored. The ground rumbles a bit as Undermine swim-burrows back to her and rises to the surface. To add to this there is still the Vikavolt, So Alexis has three pokemon to put on the task. "We need to keep them pinned in and down until the Mages controlling them are dealt with. But try not to completely destroy them so they can be healed. Got it?" The general idea is to keep them in the pits or the rock pens, without actually rekilling them.

Howlback lives up to her name in a manner, as her big bad wolf style huffing and puffing and howling kicks up big gales of sand to blow Xombies backwards back into the traps.
Undermind does similar, but instead its hurking up globs of mud and spitting them at Xombies to blind them while knocking them over.
And anything that manages to slip past that, well, being a Bug type naturally Polarity has access to String Shot, allowing the Vikavot to lasso any stragglers that do get out of the stone and dirt pits and tie them back down.
Staren TOMOE:
    Oh. SHE CAN FLY. The xombies that were charging her look up gormlessly. The mage starts chucking fireballs, trying to shoot her out of the air! Then the xombies start pushing the transport to help make up for the damaged wheel.
Sarracenia      Unfortunately, wooden airships don't stand up very well to attacks. Especially fire attacks. So, when the Dyna is hit one of the engine pods catches on fire! Sarracenia has to set down nearby, leaving the poor birdman they picked up earlier on his lonesome while she hops out and pulls out her hammer. "Stop right there!" she calls out to the mages and others trying to get people inside. She pulls out a hammer bros power-up and in a puff of smoke she is in a sleek black body suit with a black helmet and a black shell on her back. Then, she starts throwing hammers roughly the size of a typical tool hammer, but with her aim she tries to snipe the mages and other followers of Nxla.
Staren ALEXIS/SARRACENIA/ALL:
    That's all the xombies stopped by the combined work of the pokemon! Some of the mages chucking fireballs look on in astonishment. "What the hell are those things?!"

    Sarracenia is shot down. "Ha!" Staren's mech comes into view, but swiftly shares her fate, as Staren tries to fight like she usually would and forgets she's in an unarmored test unit, gets fireballed, and immediately has to have it retreat due to damage...

    ...except it can fly on its own, allowing Staren to leap out and throw a foam grenade at one of the transports, splatting the windows and sealing that transport so the mage can't fight.

    She oofs as she hits the ground, though, and gets a couple of fireballs lobbed at her for her trouble.

    ...Which is fire drawn away from Sarracenia as a fireball vs hammer match starts. Harvesters get beaned with hammers, and the fireballs let up for a few seconds as injured mages struggle to reinforce their protective enchantments.
Staren ALEXIS/TOMOE:
    One of the harvesters passing captives along into the building casts a spell to look into the minds of the strange monsters... "She's controlling them!" She points at Alexis, and doesn't need to explain to her comrades that the battle could turn if the Xombies arne't surpressed. The two comrades with her draw their... laser pistols? And take aim... only for pokemon to take down the xombies guarding them and Tomoe to swoop down and SLAM one of them to the ground. The other takes a few potshots at Alexis, then they and the one pointing at Alexis book it and shut the door, leaving a couple of dazed captives outside.
Alexis A few potshots are taken, and the remaining mages get another sight to see as the wolf-like creature turns around and shoulder-checks Alexis to knock her out of the way of the shots. The two go tumbling off to the side. But seriously, who gives a wizard a gun besides? That's cheating!

After a wheeze to catch her breath, Alexis pulls herself back to her feet, and gives the Midnight Lycanroc a head-ruffle through her thick mane. "Thanks girl." Then dusts herself off. "We'll keep the Xombies wrangled up, you girls go punch some jerk mages in the faces!"
Tomoe With Alexis handling the Xombies outside Tomoe will make sure the one she slammed is down. Once that's done shes' going to charge in after the others shouting the loudes battle cry she can. The tanky lady is enraged and heading in.
Staren TOMOE:
    The shield-checked mage is left open to a follow-up blade attack that leaves them in no condition to fight for the moment. The door is unguarded...

    ...and locked, but easily bashed down. It's just a door. Inside, it's now apparent what this building is: A church, but on a huge scale, where a priest in the old American Empire might have given a sermon to an audience of thousands, televised to even more, and asked all to send in their donations. It hasn't seen such use in centuries... now, where the preacher once stood, two harvesters stand, with five dazed avians before them, sweating as they focus on maintaining the ritual...

    The ritual which, by the way, is maintaining a breach between dimensions limned in an electric-blue glow, with EERIE TENTACLES OF DARKNESS REACHING THROUGH to begin draining the captives of their souls. And on the other side of that breach are more tentacles, and the horrifying eldritch monstrosity they're attached to, which has more eyes than anything has any right to. Are they ACTUALLY staring into Tomoe's soul, or does it just feel that way?
Sarracenia      Sarracenia realizes there's a break in the incoming fireballs, so as Tomoe makes her way inside Sarracenia pulls out her DK Hammer and makes a flying downward attack to try and take out the few mages remaining outside. "Take them out, Knight Tomoe!" she calls out, giving some encouragement to her lady in waiting.

     Once she has attacked she tries to head inside as well. "We won't let you turn any more birds into those Xombies! You may as well give up!"
Tomoe Tomoe sees what they are doing, they are in an old MEGA Church it looks like. Okay, she's even more pissed now. Oh God in heaven there are tentacles too, TENTACLES given she's lived in Japan for so long. Well, lets just say she's not happy about that. She looks almost like some kind of avenging angel as the people who once worshiped here might have done. She sees what' going on, she sees the thing, that thing would require a raid team. The mages doing the ritual, however...

She'll fly in with her blazing sword even as something seems to be staring into her soul. Tomoe has seen many things mortals should not have a word about being born, a dead world coming back to life, the very abyss and is still here.

She'll fall upon the first of the mages to cut them down where they stand and will attempt to do the same to the other. BGM Filmor - Act Raiser
Staren SARRACENIA:
    A mage gets DK hammered while leaning out a window to try some sort of attack spell. That can't be good for their bones. She rushes inside to see: What Tomoe just saw. Yeah.

    OUTSIDE GROUP:Staren gets to her knees during the brief reprieve provided. "No more mister nice-- I mean-- ah fuck it." A laser sniper rifle warps into her hands and fries another mage.

    The last one fighting the group turns invisible (and tries to grab the one Tomoe took down outside the door to drag off.)
Staren INSIDE GROUP:
    The mages look at Tomoe to see what she'll do. They can still win this! Maybe the heroes will be scared off or driven mad by THE HORROR THAT IS NXLA.

    ...Oh, Tomoe's mad alright. The servants of Nxla scream and run as soon as she charges; if she doesn't cut them down, after a few seconds of fleeing they'll turn invisible and: keep fleeing.

    The moment they leave their places, the captives snap out of it and start screaming in horror at what's in front of them, but the rift also begins to shrink, and Nxla's tentacles pop off the victims and begin to withdraw into the breach.
Sleek Shimmer     Pulling out a sword is not at all novel to Shimmer. She can smell the blade being drawn by the oils used to polish it and frowns. "THAT is your best trick?" She simply drips with contempt and reaches up to smack the sword during its descent, deflecting it off to the side and lunging in and--

    And just TACKLES him hard into the tree with enough force to crack bones. If he's unlucky, that may well end his life.
Staren     SHIMMER:
    It's a MAGIC sword! That's a LITTLE impressive, right?

    Shimmer tackles him into a tree, and there's a cracking sound, and he passes out from the pain.

    ...It seems he's lucky, today.
Sarracenia      Sarracenia isn't used to seeing things like this, and so when she gets inside she's frozen in fear for a few moments herself. "What in the world is that?!" she exclaims after a moment before just...throwing a half dozen bob-ombs at it even though it is already pulling back. It is surely no surprise that Sarra's fight or flight is stuck in fight position.
Staren     Bombs are thrown at Nxla. The rift closes before we find out what happens when they explode.

AFTERMATH
    The avians are returned to their temple ship. The power core, which was moved to the church to assist with the ritual, is returned to them and they can take flight after burying their dead.

    The boy who lost his faith is still listlessly hanging around the ravine. He can be talked into being taken to a Grounded settlement, or lumped in with:

    A few of the captives aren't avians! They've been held by Nxla's servants since before a leyline storm swapped this area of the Line and RIFTS Earth. (The ritual can be attempted only once every fifteen days, and only works on up to 40 people at a time, so they were left over after the last time.) Their homes are scattered around the Magic Zone. Staren suggests taking them to The Tomorrow Legion, who will surely care for them until a chance to escort them home comes up. The same goes for:

    The soulless xombies! 24 of them were saved, and Concord mages, with notes from Staren, are able to reverse the ritual, drawing their souls away from Nxla and back into their bodies! Lucky for them!

    You also have: A couple of captive Harvesters! They can probably spill some useful beans about Soulharvest or something.

    You also also have: Six lightly-damaged armored transports, if you can just get a repair crew and some drivers out here to get them where you can sell them. Also: Two dead harvesters, with what Staren identifies as magitech swords "helps you fight better, cuts as well as energy swords and shit like that" and less impressive light magitech armor ("It's still light armor even with the magic, just, it weighs as much as light clothing and has some minor enchantments to resist temperature, bugs, that kinda thing") and laser pistols, which Staren derides ("Who buys LASERS from Northern Gun? Wilk's is the best. Well, and some pre-rifts stuff...") All in all it can be sold for a decent chunk of change though!