DeviousMe

Allen sat down on a random piece of rubble and sighed deeply. Now that Tommy had gotten out, it wouldn't be long before someone came after him - whether to join or kill him was of no consequence. Either way, it would be bad for Tokyo and anywhere else he showed his face.

"Alright, I'd better tell you everything about him then." Allen started, "Tommy Oblivion's name is actually that. He's no different from before, at least as far as I can tell. Now, he's human...sort of, anyway. He's just got a big ego. This is because, although he's human, he's not exactly from your world."

He looked up to the stars for a moment, then continued, "Geez, where do I start? I can't even start at the beginning...ah, I know. The term spirit world should tell you something. Also known as the Midnight Zone, the Hidden World, yadda yadda. We just call it the Side. It's a junction point of just about everything that has to do with your world, and it's one hell of a scary place. Anyway, Tommy's one of the natives."

He paused for a moment, thinking back, "Caused his share of trouble, and on a visit of mine, he decided he had beef with me. In the end, the Rulers - they call themselves that, even they don't really rule anything. They just enforce laws in the Side in as much as anyone can, or dares to, for that matter - well, they decided he wasn't allowed out anymore. Pinned a restraining order on him - well, to his soul, actully, I won't go into the details. Nasty stuff."

Allen stood up again, "Point is, they've got a really tough enforcer who has all sorts of Powers and Beings at his beckon and call. Big-time authority. So if Mr. High and Mightly got Tommy out from under their noses, I've got no doubt he's got agents running up and down and through the Side."

Allen sighed again, and it mixed with a growl, "Which, of course, is bad. No, it's worse than bad. This isn't just about the Earth, it's about all adjacent worlds too. And I'm not gonna let that happen..."

Allen couldn't help but join in the laugh as a trooper brought him a medkit and handed him a vial with a silvery substance in it.

"Thanks." he said to Chihaya, opened the vial and watched as the silver liquid took on a life of its own, spalshing out of its container and onto Allen's hand, quickly vanishing into his body. Seconds later, he already felt better.

"Don;t worry about me, I've got a good friend who makes all sorts of concoctions." he continued, "It's just really annoying that every sword slinger I come across always tries to kill me with the stab-in-the-heart thing. I should probably mention this is funny because I don't have a heart. But I suppose most things do, so yeah, go figure."

He surveyed the scene agaian, the area now almost clear of demons. This was a victory, at least. A small one, but a victory nonetheless.

"Though I do wonder how Tommy got here." Allen kept mumbling, "Last I checked he had a restraining order on him. Hmmm...I think I'll have to do some investigation on this..."

As ZERO said her little spiel, Oblivion already disappeared off the ground again, leaving in his place a Greater Hound, which yelped terrifyingly as the Master Cage sucked it up.

"Might want to listen to Fang next time." Oblivion smiled, mending the tattered Gucci suit several meters to the side, "Otherwise..."

A massive detonation suddenly shattered the night behind him, the plasma grenade Allen had thrown exploding on remote command and throwing Tommy for a loop - literally.

He picked himself up rather quickly though, and as Allen fired a sniper round at him, he seemed prepared. In reality, however, he was very uncertain - was this another attack that relied on him to work his probabilities or was it really just a normal energy sniper round?

Oblivion decided to take that chance, telling the round it was in the wrong place at the wrong time, causing it to shift out of sync with normal space-time...

As well as causing the quintdim bolt that followed it to shift INTO sync, throwing another wave of pain at him with a suddenly appearing dark-purple blast.

"Damn you." Oblivion spat out a mouthful of dirt, lying on the ground ocne more, "I'll get you yet. Att...?"

As he looked about, he noticed the area had seen less and less demons. He was just about the only attacker left right now - and then he felt something call to him.

"Fine." he sneered, standing up once more, but not as straight as before, "I'm afraid I have to go for now. But I'll be back. Count on it!"

And without so much as a puff of smoke, he simply vasnihed from where he stood, as if cut out of a movie.

Sighing heavily, Allen returned his weapon to the holster on his back, then slowly pulled out the sword Tommy had left jutting through him.

"I hate it when that happens." he growled as he dropped the silver sword, then turned to Sae, ZERO, and the others, "Well, guess our secret's out then. Don't worry, I'm not a werewolf or anything. Speaking of...MEDIC!"

((Pretty much, but Plague wrote you a questioner)

[ QUOTE ]
Chihaya approached Toshio. Now that most of the weaker demons were dead, she didn't have to concentrate on the shield.
"You're infected, aren't you?" she asked in English.

[/ QUOTE ]

((I know. That's why I said replica, not same thing ))

Shinade's sword simply crashed into the blade of energy that Oblivion now wielded, spiting ZERO's accusations.

"Because you're just too slow." he replied to his attacker, still wearing the cocky smile, blocking every strike Shinade performed.

"And it doesn't look like your sword is very solid." he continued, shattering the blade with his own and slashing after Shinade's legs. Luckly, he was just quick enough to avoid the energy blade, which carved a thick trench out of the ground, leaping back out of Oblivion's reach.

((I do assume Shinade can materialize his sword over and over again. If not, I'll edit this.))

"They say opposites attact." Oblivion chuckled as the threw his blade at ZERO, which made contact with the energetical part of her own blade, destroying both in a flash of light.

His follow-up had to be cancelled, though, as a swarm of missiles roared at him from Allen's launcher.

"How sad." Oblivion commented, "All duds and out of fuel."

And the missiles simply went smacking into the ground, deprived of armed status and propellant.

But this was only a distraction, and it became quickly apparent to Oblivion when Allen leaped at him from behind a ruin, his left arm a razor-sharp blade with an iridescent edge.

"You should know that can't hurt me." Oblivion smiled, and Allen's suit systems immediately screamed redline as the dampening field struggled to repel Tommy's awful Will by sheer force.

To Oblivion's shock, it succeeded, and if he hadn't conjured another blade of his own, he would have lost right then and there.

"That's not your machine." Oblivion grunted, stemming off Allen's attack, "It cannot do this. It seems there is more to you than I thought, Fang. But I'm still more powerful than you."

With a loud crash and discharge of energies, Oblivion sent Allen flying, crashing right into a ruined building with awe-inspiring force.

Allen felt as if his head was suddenly a bell at Notre Dame, so bad was the ringing. He noticed his visor had cracked, and several of the suit's systems were offline. In addition, he could taste a small amount of blood in his mouth.

"You may be." he spat, "But that doesn't mean you're going to win here."

His suit now practically useless, Allen reached to the helmet and removed it, revealing a wolf's head covered in short gray fur. With much hissing and clacking, the suit folded into an armband around his left wrist, and Allen stood up again, now wearing a simple black uniform. The tail emerging from the seat of his pants only reinforced the image of an overly thin werewolf.

"Why don't we turn this up a notch?" Allen growled, taking in hand one of the two weapons he carried on his back - a deep-gray rifle that seemed far too large and heavy for him to lift. It clicked, then opened up on full auro with an energy gattling gun.

Oblivion only sighed, "You cannot hit me with that, you should know that by now."

The bolts of red energy went bouncing off in all directions instead of hitting him, cratering the ground even more than it alread was - and Tommy came right through the barrage, straight for Allen, and in one smooth motion ran him through with his blade in the center of the chest, going after his heart.

Needless to say, he was very surprised when Allen now smiled, planting a forceful uppercut right in Tommy's jaw, knocking him back several meters.

Oblivion was perplexed to no end. He had speared this guy right through the heart! He could even see the blade still in his chest! What the heck was going on here?!

"Tommy, you've always been far too narrow-minded." Allen forced back the pain and kept smiling, aiming the rifle once more. It discharged audibly, but the quintadim bolt it fired could not be seen in our universe.

"You did not hit me." Oblivion only said - and this time it backfired. A purely 5-dimensional weapon couldn't affect something that was not quintadim in nature itself. It would have never hit him to begin with.

But as Tommy twisted around the existing probabilities to find one where he didn't get hit, he acieved completely the opposite because this had already been the case.

In a thick cloud of dark-purplish energy, the quntadim bolt made the transition to the normal universe and slammed right into Oblivion, sending a terrible spasm through his body and leaving him writhing in pain on the ground.

"What are you waiting for?!" Allen yelled to the others, though it was difficult, making a throwing motion with his free hand, "Somebody shoot already...!"

"ARGH!"

Oblivion grunted in pain as ZERO struck, skewering him though his back. However, Oblivion's reaction was fast enough to not let the blade penetrate all the way.

"I am not here." he gasped, and instantly popped roughly ten yards to the side. The back of the gray suit took on a reddish tone.

What the hell was that? I'm not supposed to be vulnerable anymore! Ah, my head...dang it, I'm being careless again. I have to focus...

"You never hit me." he said sternly to ZERO, but his smile was gone now. However, as the blood disappered from his clothing, and he straightened up again, the smile on his eyeless face returned.

"That's a nice toy." he smiled some more, "I do believe I've got one too."

A replica of ZERO's blade formed in front of him, and he gripped the hilt securely, as if he had always wielded it...

Distracted by Allen, Oblivion didn't notice the attacker until it was almost too late. Still, he had a LOT of tricks up his sleeves.

"Your bullets are slow." he smirked as he leaped back a few yards and out of the line of fire.

"And so are you. Then again, I suppose running in wet cement is ill advised."

And Shinade's charge slowed visible as the formerly fast feet started sinking sluggishly into a large patch of freshly poured cement that the ground had just turned into...

"She thinks I'm mortal." Oblivion chuckled, "How cute is this? I think I'll take your little friend out first then. Of course, I'm already there."

And he was, coming down on Sae and ZERO with a long, silver blade without warningHe seemed to pop right out of thin air, shifting his location like in a badly cut movie.

But Allen had been prepared the blade only went into the arm cannon of his powersuit, sliding off ineffectively as Allen knocked Oblivion back, follwing up with a cutter beam.

"You never hit me." Oblivion smiled, and the beam seemed to break into a tangent right in front of him, careening away and slicing into a nearby building.

"I'm gonna need some help on this one." Allen snarled, already assuming another defensive position while trying to figure out how to fight someone who used existentialism as a weapon...

Sae's attack virtually decimated almost half the demons Allen could see. Some of the stronger ones survived, and were now even angrier than before, but their numbers had certainly gone down.

This gave Allen the opportunity to punch his way through to ZERO - sometimes literally.

"Sorry if this seems condescending to you." he told her as he finally got through the now very diminished cordon of demons around her, "But I don't leave anyone behind."

They were now gaining the upper hand, and finally the ned of the long, drawn-out battle seemed to come to a close as demons fell left and right.

Then things grew silent around Allen and ZERO - and he knew it shouldn't be so.

Footsteps echied throuhg the night, neither light nor heavy, and on the way back to the Crawler, Allen and ZERO were approached by a figure clad in a slick, all-gray Gucci suit, and a matching Duster.

"Not bad," the figure said in a stern, yet not unfriendly voice as it clapped its black-gloved hands together slowly, "Not bad at all. Then again, I suppose I should expect this of you..."

"Tommy Oblivion." Allen almost spat the name, "Why am I not surprised? How'd you get out of your rat hole this time?"

"With a little help of my new master. Sure, there was a bit of dealing, but nothing I wouldn't agree to to get back at you for what you did to me, General Fang!"

"You did it all to yourself. No fault of mine. Now get out of here before I think of something amusing to do to you."

The figure just laughed, "Mister Fang, I know you're all bluff and bad reputation. Only reason you got me last time was because I gut careless."

His fists clecnhed at his sides now, as he looked up. The had a youthful face, but there were no eyes where they should be - just plain, black emptiness, "And I'll be sure to not make that mistake again."

Oh, great. Nothing like having an old enemy join an even older enemy to kick the tar out of you. This just isn't my day.

"Careful." Allen said to ZERO and the others near them as he changed his suit's right arm into a cannon again, "This guy's existential..."

"Translating from Japanese." XANV mumbled, turning to the enemy, "Yes, let's make them eat dirt."

The metallic 'dagger demon' plowed its sharp fingers into the concrete and ripped up a huge chunk of it, wasting no time to fling the massive patch of ground at the nearest attacker...

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

Allen grolwed as he struck down another something and stepped in the remains of something else that he'd rather not look at. The dead were already more numerous than the living in this area, and there was no sign of that stopping anytime soon.

Still, something unnerved him - he hadn't seen any sort of leader at all. Either this wasn't a coordinated attack and there was no leader, or the guy had some serious defenses that hid him...

At a lash from a large wrom deomon's tail, XANV's form went flying into a building close to Toshio, who didn't even seem to notice the 'demon' of dull black metal.

[ QUOTE ]
"Kuso. Konna de muzukashii wa mendokusei na..."

[/ QUOTE ]
"Entry not found." XANV returned in his cold, mechanical voice, "Do you require assistance?"

((Alright, I'll just have them continue mopping up stuff on the surface until something happens or they run into someone. *coughcoughEssexKhel* ))

"Team Bravo to Team Alpha. Sector two is clear, proceeding to next target zone."

"Roger that, Bravo." Allen replied through his mic, "Charlie's coming along a little slower, but should be moving on soon as well. We'll take care of the center."

Allen and the crew of the Lead Crwaler, along with the vehicle and XANV, now moved on foot, looking in the central regions of Akihabara for any signs of ongoing resistance...

"Coming up on target, Sir." the driver of the lead Crawler reported to Allen, "District is under attack from all sides. No idea where anyone is, life signs are all over the place."

Allen nodded. That meant they'd have to break through the cordon in order to even find where the humans had dug in.

"Incoming bandit." the driver said calmly as a giant dug its clawed feet into the road some ditance from them, along with a horde of lesser demons, intent on stopping the zig-zagged convoy formation.

"We're going with Rho." Allen ordered, "All Crawler units, broad formation."

The zig-zag pattern changed into a single line, the five speeding Crawlers lining the street from right to left, XANV skimming over the ground just behind them.

Small bits of debris in front of the formation started vanishing mysteriously now, instead of simply being un over. In the dark night, the green gas they left was as good as invisible.

"Run 'em down."

And they did. As the wall of desintegration fields made contact with the charging demon horde, roars of pain and screams of agony began filling the air as the horrid creatures vaporized on contact, filling the night with a dreadful wail.

The giant's legs were literally taken out from right under it, and with an uneartly bellow of pain, it fell. It didn't even have time to hit the ground before XANV thrust upward and skewered the large creature, smashing it back to the ground with a huge, bloody hole in its torso.

"Split up and take it to 'em."

Two Crawlers sheared from the formation on each side, one pair going left, the other right, continuing their destructive work. They didn't slow down even once, just ramming through demons and blasting what managed to dive out of the way.

Allen's Crawler and XANV, however, continued straight on into the heart of Akihabara, hoping desperately someone would still be alive. From the difficulties the siege seemed to be having, it seemed someone was putting up stiff resistance. Then again, the sheer numbers were just astonishing...

Plague, I've got a suggestion for you: I've noticed that recently you sometimes have your characters do something and then refer to something different immediately afterward.

In my opinion, this creates a sense of incompleteness, like the character is only performing half the action he or she should be.

Again, it's just a suggestion, so don't take my word as law or anything.

"Let's." Allen snapped his fingers and the crews and robots got back in the Crawlers. The vehicle covered in undead parts reverted to normal, whother by the infunce of the disappeared mage or its own systems was not apparent, but its crew re-entered along with the crew of the completely transformer Crawler that they now simply referred to as Walker.

"XANV, can you keep up with us?" Allen spoke into the radio as he strpped down in the navigator's seat.

"Positive." came the reply, "Absorption of flight ability is most useful. I'll be able to keep up with no issues."

"Wilco." Allen returned and the engines roared again, the cadre of Crawlers and the low-flying Walker crshing through street debris in the retaken Ginza sector. It would be a while before toy could rebuild, but at least the area had been secured.

And with still no lights going - they had no need for any - the Crawlers roared off toward the besieged district at more than 280 km/h...

Allen chuckled, smiling, "Well, who are we to deny such a courteous invitation?"

Seeing he wouldn't be getting any info from the severed demon, he aimed his arm cannon and fired a scattershot into the half-body. The green energy crystallized in the impact craters and started eating away at mind, body, and soul until there was nothing left.

His friend Ace had once said that the gun was powered by the nastiest element in the known universe - and it really seemed to be.

"XANV," he then turned to the Walker, "Anything out of your guy?"

"Negative. Any ideas?"

"Indeed." Allen walked into the lead Crawler and rummaged about, returning with a crystalline orb the size of a fist. He threw it to the Walker, "Catch."

XANV's present form obliged, ctahcing the orb in one hand. There was a short flash of light and an unearthly scream of terror, then he handed the orb back to Allen.

"I think you can make better use of this that I." he handed the spirit trap to Sae, "One demon's spirit, stipped and powerless. Might yeild some answers to the right people."

He didn't wait for a response before consulting the intelligence network his troops had set up all over Japan by now. It was true - Akihabara was under siege, and heavily so.

"We'd better get over there pronto. Anyone have someting quick and simple we can use to secure this area from any further incursion?"

ERROR.
PARA-ENERGETIC CORRUPTION DETECTED.
PURGE INEFFECTIVE - NOT ENCOMPASSING SOFTWARE.
PROCEDURE 5 IS CALLED FOR.
EVACUATE VEHICLE.
LOCK 1 RELEASED...

The driver swore as he unbuckled, rushing to the hatch as he ordered the three others still in the Crawler to do the same, "SENECA's going Fiver! Everybody OUT! NOW!!!"

LOCK 2 RELEASED...

The troopers stormed from the vehicle and right into the battle, not paying the posesed Crawler any more mind. It could handle itself.

FINAL LOCK RELEASED.
XANV SEQUENCE INITIATED...

Jets of thick, black smoke shot from the Crawler, surrounding it in a thin fabric of shadowy gases as it transformed into a shape resembling the former dagger demon. Most of it disappeared again right away, leaving a few circling clouds around the newly formed feet.

And as the wings sprouted from the former Crawler's back, the transformation had been completed. The new creature turned its eyeless head at Allen and his crew, then lurched upward with a mighty leap and swatted one of the fleeing demons right out of the air with a powerful overhead strike.

The demon crashed into the ground with the force of a small meteorite, flinging dirt anc concrete everywhere, and the Crawler slammed right down on top of it, tearing its legs right off from the force of its impact, severing them with its entire lower half.

"So then," Allen walked into the small crater the impact had created, staying just out of reach of the upper half of the demon. He nodded to the changed Crawler that pinned the the severed demon, "Nice work. Now, what are we gonna call you?"

Not awaiting an answer, as he knew XANV wouldn't give one, he turned his attention back to the demon, "I'm gonna say you owe us some answers, buddy. Who're ya working for and why Terra...?"

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

The spirit of the dagger demon fount itself floating in nothing - just pure white light all around, stretching infinetely in every direction. When it had tried to posess the Crawler, it had indeed succeded - but not in the way it wanted.

"So, you're a Terran demon, hm?" an omnipresent voice echoed, "I have to say, I am disappointed."

"Oh, who am I?" the voice laughed, guessing the next question, "Nobody special. XANV is my official designation. It's an acronym. But then again, that won't matter to you now. I think I'm going to keep you here, alive, for as long as you're...useful to me. Or the others. They'll probably have a few questions for you, and if I were you, I'd come up with some good and honest answers. Otherwise you might find that death is the least of your worries..."

((So what happened to Soviet's magus and his flying zombie-bombs?))

Or so it appeared. The projection vanished the instant the real Crawler burst from it.

"You'll have to do better than that." the driver smiled, lurching the Crawler forward and gunning right for the dagger demon. The internal dampening field had worked perfectly, and for a second the crew had even played with the thought of afflicting the demon with his own spell.

They had decided differntly, though, projecting the effect so the demon thought his attack had succeeded. They now hoped he was surprised enough to remain stunned for the half second the 'shovel' needed to close the distance and desintegrate him...

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

"Never start a magic fight with something that likes magic." Allen grinned, signaling a few troopers, and they threw more concussion grenades, keeping the demons from noticing them in the night by lighting it up with plasma beams and green scattershots...

((Wow, that's a lot of OOC ))

The dagger demon found its shield alight with searing plasma as it attempted to stab its blades into the vehicle, knocking the posessed human to the ground. Not an instant later, the Crawler covering it - as each unit had another to cover it in the vaguely circular formation - shattered the demon's shield with its kinetic disruptor.

But it didn't stop there. In fact, the covering vehicle was moving, and doing so FAST, the engines roaring as it rushed to apparently run down the enemy. OF course, this was only a distraction - the real threat was the desintegration field the Crawler pushed in front of it like a giant bulldozer shovel.

Naturally invisible and almost undetectable except by its effects, the field affected ALL matter in its field of influence, and would turn the dagger demon into nothing more than a cloud of unbound molecules. Only energy could protect from such a field, and the kinetic disrupter was ready to fire again at a moment's notice...

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

"C'mon already." Allen laughed at the demon he had just been fighting with. Feeling its flesh constantly being eaten away at by the green beams had made it seek cover, "If you want to take over this world, you'll have to prove yourselves first."

He hoped to play on the demons' arogance enough with this statement to lure them into making rash decisions. An enemy who didn't think things through often made a mistake...

To be hinest, I love fighting Malta. IMO, they are one of the most challenging enemy groups in the game while not being overused, like a certain magic-using villain group I am thinking of.

As for people who hate sappers, here's what you do: find a bubbler. Deflection field protects from endurance drain, simple as that. And yes, the empathy kind of defender is not the only kind

There is. Dominator has the primary ice control and secondary fire blast.

Allen growled, the energy blast forcing him to leap back some. Even still, the suit took some damage - and now he was essentially down to four Crawlers, the mage doing his thing with one and the other having been disabled by the attack.

Damn it, what do I have to do to pass for human around here? I'm the right size, I'm wearing a freaking suit of powered armor, I'm masking my aura, people can't read my mind...

Allen shook his head with a sigh. Some things were just so darn underappreciated.

With a barked order, a mass of photon grenades from the bots the Crawlers had let loose exploded in between the approaching demons, the sheer number and force overwhelming any protection they might have had and stunning them.

"Split 'em up!" Allen shouted to the others, firing again...

"Cause then I'd have to take this damn suit off." Allen retorted, not sure what she meant. He and his troopers had been shooting this entire time, "And that would take time we don't have."

He looked at his watch, "Three...two...one..."

A dozen concussive detonations shattered the ground and air alike all around the demons. The grenades had gone off behind their shields, just as they had planned.

The demons might not have been seriously damaged, but the force of the shockwaves tossed them about.

"We've got it, Sir!" a navigator yelled, "Randomizers are adjusted and fully adapable."

Allen nodded, satisfied. The Crawlers were in one way giant boxes of sensors. They could analyze just about anything. And with a direct link to the troopers, they could adjust their weapons accordingly in instants.

They might not have been able to adjust their missiles or plasma cannons - they had no modulation to speak of as they were material weapons - but the cutter beams from Allen and his troopers now passed through the shields as if they weren't even there. Adaptation and counter-adaptation - and Allen's resources were a whole lot faster than the demons' in that respect...

The four troopers that had been working to overturn their vehicle once again leaped back at the sight of it growing undead parts. They were surproised, but only a for a second. If the Crawler's controlling system had been infected by something from the enemy, something entirely different would have happened, meaning that the source of this had to be the mage.

Allen gave order to Crawlers four through six to fire kinetic disruptors. These beams couldn't touch matter, but played havoc with any sort of energy they were adjusted to be used against. The shields of the posessed humans shattered apart like glass under a sledgehammer.

Then the plasma beams roared again as the tropers threw concussion grenades. Allen smiled. He hoped the posessed priestess would try to sing again. If she did, she would quickly find a frequency in the air inaudible to most creatures that would throw her own power right back at her. Sure, it gave Allen and his troopers an annoying headache, but it would be worth it...

Allen only grinned devilishly in his helmet. With six Crawlers at his disposal, these guys were no match for their firepower.

Plasma streaked right and left, cutting huge swaths into the demon army. What didn't vaporize or burn, missiles blasted apart, and if those didn't get it, anything that Allen's troops hit with their green energy cannons turned into a bubbling puddle in seconds. The "acidic energy", as the SDF trrops would come to name it, was indeed a frightening weapon...

((Paging 3 powerful demons to Ginza if you please. One for each of our main chracters ))