_Essex_

"<Guy in a mecha.>" Toshio answered Allen's question. Letting the others go on ahead, Toshio waited for Laserblade.

"This place is pretty messed up." he muttered. "Least we got the locals scared of us - or at least scared of you and the mage. But I don't like all the attention we're getting."

"I can vouch for the guy." Toshio said with a parting slug at the dead creature's chassis. "He's on the Akihabara defense force. We helped each other out with some demons."

Stepping back towards Allen, he glanced back at Laserblade.

"He's a good guy. Mattaku gaijin da... but he's a good guy."

"Awh, [censored]."

Toshio sprang into action, his wings snapping closed to propel him forward. Garnering momentum, he clasped his fists together and did a midair somersault to gain momentum, bringing down both fists on the "car"'s hood, sparking violently.

Over his shoulder, he snarled at Laserblade, "It's me, Toshio! I got bit by that freakin' demon!"

Coldfire, the (( )) is force of habit. :P

Halo, about Rosie -

Her clothes were kinda bound in with an extra enchantment, otherwise she'd be all nekkid every time she transformed. Oo Not that -she'd- have any problem with that, but it's hard to stay undercover when you're running through the street in your birthday suit.

Second, if she shaves her legs in human form, the hair grows out again in dog form - but it retracts to where it was before she transformed when she goes back. :P

And her nose is a little colder than most humans, but most of the human olfactory sensory organs are inside the nose, instead of the skin itself being an organ on dogs, so she just has really sensitive ones. She can naturally smell much better in dog form, but she's still nothing to sneeze at (haw!) in dog form.

And I'm not giving out her measurements. D:

Toshio looked over to the mage, wide-eyed.

"You can do that?" he murmured. "Hell. I'll get you as close to 'em as you like."

His fists began to crackle with electricity, though there was nobody around to fight.

Toshio glanced down.

"The soul is of...uh...this girl I used to like." He scratched his head.

"See, I was in the Tsoo back in Paragon City for a while. In this squad with this crazy [censored] Far Fire on command, a stupid Ancestor Spirit, some know-it-all Sorcerer, a spineless Yellow Ink Man, and these two who were brother and sister. I felt sorry for the last two - they had no idea what they were gettin' into.

Anyway, there was this girl who worked at a bar - Natsuki. I...I really liked her. And Akabane-Taichou found out. One mission, I refused to do what they asked - massacre a store full of women and children."

Pausing for a moment, Toshio shook his head.

"...To punish me, they kidnapped Natsuki and turned her to stone. Her soul was locked inside the statue. They used it against me, used it to make me do all sorts of missions for them. They taunted me, gave me the codename of Pygmalion...but I wore it like a badge. Until one day, I just couldn't take it any more. I went in and tried to steal it back, but that [censored] Dawei caught me and shattered the statue into dust. Luckily I managed to grab this glowing marble - I later found out it was her soul - and beat it the hell out of there. Needless to say that was the end of me and the Tsoo...."

Looking up at Allen, Toshio nodded, a firm frown on his face. "I've been trying to sculpt her a new body. But those demons stole the soul out of my apartment. So...I need to get it back. Before it's too late."

((I can't speak for the others - but in my case, it's because I'm a wh0re. D: ))

Eh, might as well do one of these for Rosalind. I don't think anyone knows her story yet. XP

Rosalind
**********

OOC: Me, my best friend, and my fiance have wacked out senses of taste. She's into horror, he's into weird cultural spiritual stuff, and I'm into action and comedy. Enter the three of us as the Dread Trio, Pherelith the zombie, Emry the magnolia tree spirit, and Rosalind the were-human border collie. Intended as a dark comedy entitled 'Spirit City', it's something the three of us are working on. 'Pherelith' actually did an animation (voice acted by the three of us) and won the gold at a college animation festival with it a few years ago. The three of us constantly joke about scripts, strips, and storyboards, regarding Spirit City as a combination of Ghostbusters and Reno 911. XP But now...The Dread Trio.

IC: The year was 1847.

The Malebranche family, European immigrants, had already set down roots on the west coast of North America. Their grandfather had gone ahead and staked a claim in the Oregon territory, and so the man, woman, and young boy started off onto the legendary Oregon Trail.

The boy was lonely, having left his friends in Europe, so his parents bought him a six-week old border collie puppy in Missouri before the trip was underway. Having just read Romeo and Juliet at boarding school, the boy fondly named his new puppy Rosalind, as she liked to stay awake and yap at the bright frontier moon, much to the chagrin of his parents.

Along the way, disaster struck. The Malebranche family was beseiged by bandits in Wyoming late at night. The thundering hooves of horses and the gunshots and laughter of the bandits were the small boy's reality as he clung to the puppy, trembling inside the covered wagon. The looters shot the boy's parents, killing them, and then moved to loot the wagon. Surprised by the boy's presence, they threw him out of the wagon along with Rosalind, dumping them on the hard ground of the prarie.

A full moon loomed high in the sky.

The bandits taunted the boy, shooting his limbs mercilessly as he cried to whatever gods may be listening to save him. The now 3-month-old puppy, they threw to the trail to be trampled by their horses.

Rosalind's body was nearly crushed by the hooves of the bandit's horses, but the dog could see through the haze of pain that the bandits were growing tired of playing with her boy. Weeping, the child was on his hands and knees over the corpses of his parents.

Summing every ounce of strength into herself, the puppy limped over and latched her sharp, puppy teeth into the leg of the gunman. With a loud yell, he kicked her into the boy's chest, hard, and fired a bullet right through her and into the boy's shoulder.

Her yelp sounded through the empty night - but there were supernatural forces at work. Rosalind's blood mixed with the blood of the young boy under the light of the full moon.

Then, a transformation began to occur.

Rosalind felt herself slowly growing, her fur retracting, leaving funny pink skin. Suddenly, a little child stood between the boy and the bandits. And she had sharp teeth, her eyes glowing red.

A bloodbath ensued. Frantically, the bandits peppered the transformed puppy with bullets, but to no avail. Her fangs shredded through their bones like nothing and she berserked the entire group into their graves. Finally, when all others were dead, she turned to the boy...and promptly swooned unconscious.

When she regained her consciousness, she discovered she was a dog again - being quietly stroked by her boy. Both of them were covered with blood, but relatively uninjured - the boy had apparently not been shot anywhere lethal and had bandaged his own wounds. With some wonder, Rosalind discovered she was sentient, as well.

The next few months on the trail were some of Rosie's fondest memories. The boy, who seemed to have gained a strange otherworldly quality from the incident, taught Rosie to speak and together they figured out how to control her transformations. The two of them went on the trail together, two children making an adult's journey.

Finally, they reached their goal - the mansion that their grandfather had built in what was to become the city of San Ciudad. A single magnolia tree had been planted in the expansive back gardens - and Rosalind and the boy were home.

Over the years, Rosie matured only to the level of a three-year-old dog: and a 21-year-old human girl. The boy grew old, languished, and died. Overcome with grief, the border collie dutifully remained near his casket throughout the course of the funeral until she noticed a crying child in the corner. This was the boy's youngest son.

As time went on, the secret of the were-human was passed down from youngest son to youngest son. She travelled with them throughout the years - spending most of her time as a herd dog in the Southwest, as one of the youngest sons had discovered an oil field in Oklahoma. Spending most of the late 1800s and early 1900s in the Old West made Rosie something of a southern girl, and she was as wild as they came. When trouble came up, the were-human would defend her current charge to the best of her abilities.

The trouble would occur when she herself was injured. When enough of her blood fell, she would begin to channel the rage of that very first night and go utterly berserk. Many innocent people fell to the dog's jaws because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. The only one who could ever calm her down was ...her charge. The youngest son would always have the strange ability to bring her to her senses.

In the late 1900s, her current charge was ailing, and went home to the original Oregon homestead. San Ciudad was now a bustling city, and his youngest son had moved back and now headed a strange organization. None were sure what the organization truly did. But when her master died, Rosalind once again lay below the casket...when a strange pair of figures approached her.

One was tall and wearing a jacket of blood-red, snow-white hair falling in his eyes and upon his shoulders. The other was emaciated and gaunt, a black leather jacket lashed tightly around her form and a crooked grin upon her face.

These two were Emry Farwood and Pherelith Malebranche - the spirit of that first magnolia tree and the undead manifestation of the Malebranche family's older daughter. Pherelith had been murdered by her fiance on the day before their wedding, but her eccentric spiritualist uncle bound her soul within a moonstone ring - granting the girl eternal unlife.

The two of them were employed by the next in line to inherit Rosalind. It seemed that, ever since that first incident, the youngest sons of the Malebranche family had been particularly sensitive to spiritual activity. The latest had formed an otherworldly task force to maintain the delicate balance between the spiritual world and the human world.

Emry Farwood. Pherelith Malebranche. Rosalind.

These three were the Dread Trio.

Enforcers of the spirit world, the three of them have spent the past years policing the various ghosts, spirits, totems, and otherworldly phenomena so common in the huge city of San Ciudad. They are the law, and they play judge, jury, and executioner to any who would disturb the thin line between the worlds.

((Whew! >.&gt)

Toshio shrugged.

"I don't know anything." he said. "All I know is, I see demons, I bust some demon heads. And as for the cost of a soul..."

He shrugged.

"I'll worry about the price once I find the one I'm talkin' about."

Glancing over his shoulder at the blazing food stand, he just shrugged and turned back to the task at hand.

"First of all..." Toshio asked, turning to Allen, "Who's Tommy and Zanny? Second..."

He glanced around with a critical eye at everything around him.

"...if I were looking for a specific soul... Would there be a way to find it here?"

"...."

Toshio looked around, his eyes lazily suspicious.

"You ain't kidding when you say it brings all kinds." he mentioned to Allen with a stretch. "I've seen some crazy things...but nothing like this." With that, he waited for the others before looking to Allen to lead the way forward.

Toshio needed another drink after seeing that.

Shrugging and taking a swig, the man sauntered onto the train.

Toshio quirked an eyebrow at the sight. Quickly moving into a defensive position, he began clearing an area of demons.

"Warukune-, zo." he commented to the mage. ((Sub: Not bad.))

Fists suddenly crackling with electricity, the drunken master got to work. Starting with a powerful blow to a nearby Shrieker's head, he swung around to clothesline two more who had moved in to attack. Headbutting another, he grinned, channeling electricity into his every blow.

The stack of stunned and/or deceased demons began to grow.

Well, let's see now...Backstories are where my drama wh0ring gets really out of hand, because there's nobody to tell me I'm ridiculous.

Essex
*********
OOC: Essex started off as a character in a MegaMan based BESM campaign a friend of mine was running. I played her, and my friends played her brothers; Genki, Ginstar, and Burner. The campaign lasted one session, and then the schedule didn't work for any of us anymore. All the characters got ported over to CoH, though, because we liked them so much. The GM (who had wanted to play a Reploid himself even though he enjoyed his role as Dr. West) created a fifth sibling, Seawing, on CoH to party with us. This isn't about them, though. It's about the Ess. XP

BIC: Dr. Daniel West, a young, up-and-coming roboticist studying under the best minds of his time, had everything going for him. A wife, a little daughter, and work that he loved. He had just finished his first Replicated Homosapien Android, an assault android by the name of Burner, when disaster struck.

Dr. Gretchen Fleischman, a colleague of his, was jealous. Dr. West's peacekeeping plans had garnered acclaim from their superiors, and she secretly desired a deeper relationship with him than the coworker status they both shared. Deranged by her jealousy, Fleischman worked out a scheme - Wipe out West's family via a convenient 'accident' and move in to comfort the scientist in his grief.

The plan went off without a hitch, it seemed. Fleischman's Nova, a massive Reploid built for destruction, smashed into the West family's small apartment while Daniel was at work. His wife was killed nearly instantly, and his six-year-old daughter, Selene, was kidnapped and dragged away. Grief-stricken and panicked, Dr. West sent every android at his disposal to retrieve his daughter, but it was too late. It was merely to bait him, as Selene's crushed body was all that remained when the would-be rescuers got there. Spurred on by their creator's grief, Burner and the squad of drones made quick work of the Nova and exposed Fleischman's plan. She, however, escaped with the destructive bot's AI. Later, she would create a sleeker model - an assassin bot christened 'Zealstorm.'

The threat was gone, but Dr. West was alone. In his grief, he shut himself off from the outside world and absorbed himself entirely in his work. Reploids were created with strands of artificially created DNA that structured their physical development. Why couldn't he do the same thing with organic DNA?

Working late into the night, he finally did it. He finally created an android with Selene's DNA. The robotic form was nearly identical to her - but never again would he place his daughter in danger. He outfitted the android with healing functions and minor defenses that focused on incapacitating enemies instead of destroying them. Included in this was a sort of electronic energy drain beam. He designated this android S6, after Selene, whose life was so drastically terminated at the age of six.

S6's development mostly took place in West's labs. A 'lab rat,' she was charged with the task of remote navigation. As such, she became an expert at radio and sonic technology, and her natural knack for learning made her curious about many things around the laboratory. She soon learned nearly everything there was to know about simple robotics, computer programming and AI development, mechanical engineering, and transmissions.

Throughout all this, however, S6 had no contact with the outside world. Shy and hesitant around newcomers, she was most comfortable around West and her android brothers, and mostly hid when confronted with strangers. She was allowed to go on one mission with three of her siblings, but was quickly relegated back to remote navigation when the sheepish androids brought her back with a bowling-ball sized energy blast straight through her chassis.

When the Rikti invasion happened, however, West packed up his laboratory and moved it to Paragon City. S6 remained lab-bound during the actual invasion, but in the aftermath felt the desire to help the many people who had been left destitute by the disaster. The android was fascinated by the bravery of the humans, creatures so much more fragile than herself but able to endure so much. And thus, S6, "Essex," finally ventured out of the labs to do what she could to alleviate the suffering of the humans she owed her existance to and admired so. (But never venturing too far from home or for too long. XP)

"Wherever it is, I'm goin'." Toshio answered Sae's question with a shrug, although it wasn't directed at him. "If it's better than here, great. If it's worse then here, then we'd have to clean it up anyways. So let's get moving."

With that, he sauntered into the portal.

The man figured if there were any demons on the other side, he'd get a head start on them so the rest weren't ambushed. Seeing all the demons made Toshio's fists twitch with anticipation...and with this high mage in the group, there might be some hope after all.

Toshio shook Allen's hand with a grin, and nodded to the rest offhandishly.

"...If you're wondering about my appearance, I can promise you I was a human until about twenty minutes ago. Jus' got bit by a demon."

Letting his flask swing by his side, he grinned a little. "Used to play the Tsoo game, but...circumstances being what they were, I'm what they like to call a 'drunken master.' The sauce keeps me goin', if you know what I mean."

Glancing up at the Circle of Thorns mage that suddenly appeared, they saw the demonic man start.

Natsuki's soul...Maybe this guy could....

Toshio looked to the others, raising a single eyebrow.

"...Yo." he said, waving with two fingers. Noting Allen, and overhearing Chihaya calling him "Wan-chan" like a puppy, he couldn't help but snicker.

The man infused with demonic energies blinked around at the others.

"...So...Who is everyone?" he said, scratching his horned head. "Like she said, I'm Toshio."

Toshio just looked at Chiyaha, a nonplussed look on his face.

"<...People like you are what keep me drunk. Thanks, toots.>" he said, taking another swig of his flask. "Anyhow..." he continued in English, "I'm a bit harder to take down than all that - least I'd hope so. Anyhow. What was your name, kid?"

Flapping the large wings unsurely, Toshio glanced back at them, and took another swig with a sigh. This was going to take some getting used to.

"...Naru hodo..." Toshio muttered in mild surprise as he examined himself. The demon's presence was gone, and his skin had lost its dark pallor. However, he still had short fangs...and the leathery wings still pulsed with the demon's power. The horns were gone...mostly. Sharp points still poked through his tousled hair, though they weren't as long as they had been.

"<Beh...>" he said with a frown, examining his still slightly dark-skinned hands. "<Providing I DO manage to bring her back, she ain't never going to recognize me.>" Glancing up to the girl, he nevertheless gave her a lopsided grin. "<Thanks, though. Rather not go around killin' folks who don't deserve it, after all.>"

((Oh, thanks, Devious, I completely missed that. XD; ))

"EH?" Toshio turned his head, noticing the younger girl for the first time. Shaking his head briefly, he thought for a minute on how he should lay off the Asahi for long enough to answer his countrymans' questions.

"<Yeah.>" he responded in Japanese. "<Guess I am, huh?>"

(Oo I guess we're in charge of our own fight.)

Toshio dusted his hands off and surveyed the carnage with an air of satisfaction. Quite a few demons had fallen at the hands of himself and the strange metal creature. Glancing over at XANV, the drunken master noted its demonic look...but it was like him, in that it fought against the demons. His days in the Tsoo had taught him that allies came from the strangest places, so he just shrugged and went with it as the demons took a moment to regroup.

"So..." he said, stepping up to XANV as he faced where the demons were gathering their strength and took a fighting stance. "Ya didn't happen to see a bunch of demons squalling over a li'l glowing marble, did you? ...Thought I'd throw it out there, anyhow."

With that, he readied himself for the next wave, his muscles pulsing with the anticipation of another volley of blows.

Toshio grinned, goading on the worm demon. "Eigo ka... All right, I can deal with English."

Taunting the beast so it lunged at him again and again, he drew it to strike at him, his wings extended to the side to block its view. At the last minute, he snapped his wings closed and dropped, letting the huge chunk of concrete impact with the worm's face.

The drunken master didn't waste any time, pummelling the soft midsection with violently sparking fists.

((From one of my first posts. When the demons smashed the woman-shaped statue in his apartment and stole the glowing marble from inside it. It's his girlfriend's soul. D:

EDIT: Oh, I thought Sae and the other kid were talking about Toshio, not Soviet's character. 9_9 DUH.))

"Eh?" Toshio glanced up at XANV. "<Oh. Sorry. Didn't notice you there>."

Turning his eyes back to the worm, he shrugged. "<Don't really need assistance, but wouldn't say no to it either. Let's teach this thing to eat dirt like its brothers.>"

With that, the now-demonic man flapped his wings once, hard, drawing back a fist to plunge an electricity-charged blow right into the worm's body.

Toshio had stepped away from the mechas for the moment, rubbing a hand through his hair. What a mess this was. Bitten by a demon. Strange, dark power bubbling inside him. He could swear his eyes even -felt- the crimson glow that emanated from them.

Priestesses gasped at his approach, but a sharp word calmed them down - or at least got them to stop attacking.

He didn't even notice as he nearly brushed through the group of fighters from the other station. Toshio had to get that soul back. It was the 'how' that was complicated.

"Kuso. Konna de muzukashii wa mendokusei na..."

...:~Chapter One - To See The World~:...

...:~Seven Years Previous~:...

Gelrei quickly put a hand on his stomach as it protested the lack of food with an angry, petulant growl. The elf muttered to himself, tossing his short blonde hair out of his mismatched eyes. One gold and one violet, it was an odd sight to be sure. "Damn woman." he growled in sync with his hunger. At the thought of Starnaya, he glanced down at his wedding band, his eyes softening with a sigh.

Yeah, she was annoying. Yeah, she couldn't cook worth a copper. But she was his wife, and, he begrudgingly admitted to himself, he loved her.

But not enough to stay at camp when it's her cooking night. he thought to himself. Now then, money, money...

Gelrei was broke. This was unusual. The elf was a rather apt thief, but he had come to something of a dry spell. Recently, he had even been caught, and captured. Starnaya had been placed in the chain gang with him for practicing necromancy. That had been where it all started, after all. The chain gang was where he had met the others.

Neocount, the marginally insane priest of Athena. Funf, the legitimately insane psionic gnome. Davron, the ninja who couldn't have been older than fifteen. Finally, Xenos, the violent and apathetic dark elf, of whom little was known - but Davron seemed dead set to keep an eye on him. There were a couple others, but the handful of them had formed a small group, along with a mysterious elven woman who had only introduced herself as Arela. The others were making camp just outside the city of Anbergh. After all, who knew if there was still a reward on all of their heads? But it was Starnaya's night to cook, and he would be damned if he had to choke down more of the necromancer's herbal concoctions.

But to eat in the city, one needed money. And he couldn't risk stealing again so soon. His hand fell across the rope hanging at his side, and Gelrei stopped. He had an idea.

---

"Come see the amazing tightrope walker!" the elf called out. The rope was strung between two buildings, and he acrobatically cartwheeled across the swinging fibers. If Gelrei was one thing, he was a kleptomaniac. But if he were two things, he was nimble and a kleptomaniac. His bag open and empty on the ground, passers-by glanced up at him, tossing coppers in to show their varying degrees of approval. Greedily, the elf leaned over to see how many he had already collected, when suddenly...

...his balance thrown off....
....his footing began to waver....

Gelrei had barely enough time to let out an uttered cry of surprise until his world abruptly became black.

---

"Gosh, he's waking up...You okay, mister?"

Gelrei groaned. His head throbbed. What had happened again? Oh yes...he had fallen from the tightrope. The elf's eyes squeezed closed a little tighter as he uneasily draped an arm over his eyes. "Money...where's my money?" he moaned.

"Money?" the voice asked. "I didn't see any money. Just an empty bag."

Gelrei's eyes shot open and he lashed a hand forward. "You stole it, didn't you? The money -I- earned: MY money!"

His wrist was suddenly gripped by a force that far surpassed any strength he had in his body. The hand around his wrist was small, but grabbed him agonizingly tightly. Gelrei followed the hand to an arm...to a shoulder...and to a face.

He was in a small apartment, one room with a nightstand and a bed and a small stove. He was lying on the bed, and sitting at the bedside was a girl. She smiled dopily as she held his wrist, bright red hair tied in stubby pigtails jutting out from the nape of her neck. He could barely see over her shoulder the shape of a massive, yet simple sword hanging on the wall.

"Gosh, that's a funny way to thank me for helping you out." she giggled good-naturedly. "I think you need some more lay-down time." With that, the girl shoved him back down to the bed, gently, but firmly. "Stay there while I get you some soup."

Suddenly the situation wasn't so bad. Gelrei leaned back on the girl's bed, eyes wide. So he was up some money...then down his health...then down his money...then up his health...and now he was in a bed, being waited on by a cute girl and given free food.

Overall a beneficial situation.

"So..." the elf hesitantly tried to initiate conversation. "I guess I fell, huh?"

"Yep!" the girl responded cheerfully. "Right on your head! You should be more careful about dancin' on ropes. You scrawny types ain't very durable, ya know."

Gelrei lamely noted that she seemed far, far too dumb to have even thought of stealing his money.

"Right." he said aloud. "I'll be more careful about that in the future."

"Good!" the girl said with a grin. Turning, she sat back on the bed near his knees with a small, wooden bowl of a nice smelling soup. Setting it on his lap, she smiled. "It's Mama's recipe! You should like it, it'll fatten you up and help you grow muscle!"

"Uh...right." Gelrei said skeptically. The soup was more like a stew; hearty and meaty with large chunks of potato. It did smell good, though, so the elf dug in.

"So what's your name?" the girl asked as she began cleaning up the cooking mess, her back to the bed. Waiting a few moments, she received no response. "What's your name?" she repeated, turning around.

The bed was empty. The bowl of soup had been devoured. The curtains flapped on the open window and the elf's bag was gone.

"....Ne?" was all the girl could say, head cocked to the side in mild confusion.

---

"Where have you been!?" Starnaya angrily questioned her husband as he slunk into camp. "It's nearly three hours after dusk! You missed dinner and everything! I was worried about you! You left me here alone!"

"...Do us a favor and shut up." came the cold voice of Davron from above. The ninja had found a branch to lay on, hidden from view. "Some of us need to sleep."

A whoosh of wind announced the presence of Funf, swooping past Gelrei on the back of his little songbird. Funf wasn't a normal gnome; he was only four inches tall (six with the hat). But then again, there was very little that was normal about Funf. "Welcome back, my friend. You smell like town."

"Yeah, I went to scope out the town." Gelrei said unsurely. "Sorry I didn't get back till late. It's big, you know."

"You didn't steal anything, did you?" Davron asked, lazily opening one eye to glare down at the elf. The human had very little patience for the antics of his compatriots.

"Uh...No, no." Gelrei hastily assured the others. "I was just thinking we need some...protection."

-----------------------------------------------------

[NEXT TIME:]

...:~Chapter Two - On The Road~:...