The mage looked to the food stand in disgust and sent it bursting into flames.
"Keep your mind on the task at hand." He uttered.
((I'd certainly hope not. 
If he did, the story would go very boring very fast.))
"Tommy Oblivion," Allen answered Toshio, "he's an existentialist. Someone we should watch out for, especially here. And Zanny's my name for Zanael, the head honcho behind the attack on Earth. Sounds better than 6K, in my opinion."
Allen sighed as he saw the stand burst into flames, but said nothing. It was better that people feared them here, "And as for finding souls, yes there are many ways - though most of them will cost you your own, or worse."
He looked about the street again, "Damn, I'd really hoped he'd send someone after us who we could squeeze for information. And I doubt he'd be so obvious as to have a temple or something on the Street of the Gods. We'll have to start form square one here. What does everyone here know about Zanny? All I know is that he's at least six thousand years old..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"Y'know, he identified himself as 'Zan'...I think that's a little easier to refer to him as," Ryuji said, "I know if I was a transdimensional being of untold power I wouldn't want people calling me 'Zanny'..."
Meanwhile, Chihaya clubbed the mage over the head with her staff (OOC: Comedic, this whole RP has roots in anime/manga...) and said angrily, "YOU OWE ME POCKY!"
"I'd do it mage...the girl loves pocky," Sae said, snickering a little.
The mage snorted in mild frustration.
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.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"That's the idea." Allen chuckled at Ryuji's statement, "And it's a test as well. But more on that later. So it looks like the first thing we need is info. Sadly, I don't know anyone off-hand who'd be able to help us with this. But I think I know where to find some."
Allen stepped closer to the road, and the traffic immediately stayed a little further away from the curb. He spied into the distance and found what he was looking for - a large sedan chair that could hold them all floating along in the middle of the flow of cars and other things.
He waved it to them, and it quickly got closer, stopping right in front of them. On the side, the logo read: FIRMA POLTERGEIST: HIN UND RETOUR, SCHELL UND BILLIG.
Allen smiled. They had changed their slogan again - there and back, fast and cheap. Well, if that's what drew customers these days...
He bade them to enter the posessed wheelless carriage, then closed the door behind them, and could see they had upgraded to armored glass. Apparenly, the Poltergeists had made some improvements since the last time he was here.
"The Mortician's." Allen requested, and the sedan chair began moving, weaving back into the flow of traffic with the ease that only a ghost could muster.
"So," he turned to Toshio, "Tell us more about this soul you're looking for. And especially why. That's a very important piece of the puzzle..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
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."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
The mage puffed some mist.
"You just need to unbind the soul. That's all."
And so he tried, fires flaring up around him until it seemed like a small volcano was about to erupt.
Suddenly all of the volcanoes cracked and turned to ice.
"[censored]." The mage cursed uncharacteristically. "They're magically resistant. I'll have to be far closer to do it."
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.
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
OOC: I just realized I utterly forgot about this thread. Could I get a quick recap? And maybe an idea of how to get my mecha pilot to where you guys are?
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
((Well, Plague wrote that Toky Bay will soon be attacked, so you could be there, OR you could ahve come with us to the Side, which is a junction point betwen worlds. I;ve described it in detail in my last 5 posts or so, but basically it's always night there and everything humans have every imagined runs around there doing whatever. It's a dark and evil place where things are never as they seem and death isn't the worst thig lurkingg around every corner.
If you'd liek, just say you've been with us all along. If your Emcha stows away in a small pack via the always-ready patented shriking technology , feel free to carry it around. If not, everything in the Side is built much larger then usual since demons and creatues of all sorts use it, so no problem there. 
))
"So the demons have the gir's soul..." Allen mumbled, "Now what would they want it for...? I wonder..."
"Oh, sorry." he apologized, "Sank into my thoughts. Ah, I see we're here."
They stopped in the middle of what looked like downtown London. As they exited the haunted conveyance, Allen paid in full and even left a tip. You didn't stiff the Poltergeists - at least not if you wanted the stuff around you to remain inate.
"Don't think too much about the transition." Allen commented, "Yeah, we're actually in London now - or at least int eh part of the Side that resides in London. The Side is spread all over your planet. It's just that very few people ever notice. The oriental parts are mostly uptown. But where we need to go is downtown, right here in one of the darkest parts of the Side..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
(OOC: Basically as DeviousMe said. In addition to Tokyo Bay being attacked, which is going to happen while everyone else is in Side, Akihabara is toast. My recomendation would be for you to stay behind and help people move towards Shinjuku. By the way, the purpose of the attack on Tokyo Bay is to incite a response from the other nations of the world. In otherwords, Zan's trying to outdo the Rikti. He even has the advantage of numbers over the Rikti. BTW I really wanted to see some Rikti characters ;_
ZERO turned to Toshio, "Perhaps if you'd prefer...the Shinto mikos like Chihaya are quite adept at putting souls into bodies."
"Yep, sure am! And if I have the right ingredients, I can even build a working body! Heck, if I wanted to, I could get a lot of those materials around here....except..."
"Lemme guess: Phoenix feathers?" Sae said, as though she knew.
"Yep, suckers are tough to find. Luckily, thanks to Chiyoko, I know an incantation to summon Suzaku the bird goddess, but I still need some goofy scroll..." Chihaya said.
(OOC: Guess the easter egg 
)
OOC: No way am I doing something with only myself for company. Enter the strangely sized London transit system.
BIC: "Now this is why I sometimes didn't want to join the superhero business," remarked Jay to himself as he looked at the subway car he was in.
Everything looked normal, if a little empty, for your standard London subway, except there was one problem. He was still in Laserblade.
After getting seperated from Toshio during the second demon attack and learning that the man went off with a bunch of other people to a subway, Jay decided to follow along, especially since Akihabara looked like it was doomed. The rest of the pilots had already begun evactuation procedures of the civilians and there was nothing for him to do. And if there was one thing Jay hated being it was being the fifth wheel.
Thus, he went to the same subway track that the group had been seen entering and followed them in. The train that might have been there was already gone, but Jay easily tracked it with his sensors. Then, about ten minutes in, he had found a train sitting on the tracks. But of course this one was lareg enough for Laserblade to climb in the back and ride along as it went where ever. Which was what he did.
"But damn this is going to be worth it," Jay said as Laserblade exited the train and walked up a flight of stairs that were also mecha sized to find himself on a normal-ish London street facing a group of people further down the street.
Kicking up the magnification on his screen, Jay identified a number of people from the SDF, some sort of demon thing, and a were-wolf.
"Gotta love this job," Jay said as he checked his read-outs.
Laserblade had taken only minor damage during the fight, something his relatively unadvanced nanobots could easily fix. He also hadn't used many missiles during the earlier fight, so his ammo situation was good.
"Might as well figure out who they are," Jay said and then turned on the mega-phone. "<Identify yourselves!>"
OOC: Yes I know that isn't all right, but it's the closest way I'm going to get some action. 
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
((Don't sweat it ))
What the...? Who the heck is this guy?! And why is he shouting through a megaphone? Oh damn, a tourist! Is he crazy?!!!
Indeed, the megaphone drew the ire of something that looked like a car, parked on the side of the road in search of its next meal. And it wasn't picky.
"Stop shouting and get away from there!" Allen yelled, unholstering a rifle and brining it to bear, "Get away from there!"
If Laserblade could see the car now, he would observe that it came right for him, viciously snapping a mouth of fanged teeth where the engine block should have been...!
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"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!"
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Ryuji held a hand up. The attacking 'car' suddenly found itself encased in a block of ice. Just in case, he had a large ice spike prepared.
"Sugoi Ryu-chan!" Chihaya said excitedly.
The Mage lazily drew figures in the sky...
And the inside of the car erupted into flames.
The entire group looked on as the car-thingamajig was somehow frozen AND on fire at the exact same time.
What a way to die...
With a satisfied now, Allen saw that the attacker's demise had discouraged the road traffic from moving ever closer to Laserblade - at least for now.
"Tourists." he spat quietly, then walked up to the mech, "No more megaphones, alright? Now pardon me if I come across with suspicion towards you here, but screaming out loud at people to 'identify themselves' is generally a deathwish here. I'd be a lot more comfortable if I knew who you are first..."
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"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."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
"Bakagaijin..." Chihaya said, mostly to herself.
"Wait," Jay said after he dialed the volume down a bit. "What are you guys talking about? I'm not getting anything on my sensors..."
Jay trailed off as he saw a little red light blinking intently off on a corner of his control panel.
"Well this just opened up a load of possibilities," Jay said to himself as he reached over and flicked the switch underneath the light. Now, a fundemental flaw with Laserblade's construction was that Jay had built it in such a way that it ignored impossibilities. Of course, he had made sure exceptions existed for known magical groups like the Circle of Thorns and their brand of magic but other things like cars with mouths in a street full of otherworldly stuff caused the sensors to throw fits and not show them up on screen.
The switch that Jay just flipped removed several safeguards on the existing system. Now he should be able to see what was really out there but a side effect would be seeing some things that weren't there. The tricky part was figuring out which was which. Which is why Jay was both extremely surprised and surprisingly calm to suddenly find himself looking at a Toshio with bat wings with a background of improbable things and creatures.
"Is that a giant snake made of legos?" Jay asked as he pointed Laserblade's finger at the offending thing. "And sorry if I did something wrong, but I wasn't able to see any of...whatever the hell this all is until a second ago."
Statesman said let there be heroes, and there were heroes.
Lord Recluse said let there be villains, and there were villains.
NCsoft said let there be nothing, and there was nothing.
Allen turned and threw a glance in the direction of Laserblade's finger.
"Yes, I'd say so. Colorful thing. Probably one of Baron Frankenstein's creations. He builds all sorts of stuff. Nice to see something of his not trailing blood all over for once."
He turned back to the mech, "Well, at least I'm fairly sure you won't try to waste us then. You can call me Al. And who are we actually speaking to here? Or are you an AI?"
During the coversation, Allen never let his guard down. For all they knew Zan's assassins could be lurking around any corner now...
"If I had Force powers, vacuum or not my cape/clothes/hair would always be blowing in the Dramatic Wind." - Tenzhi
Characters
"<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."
Japancakes.
Art - Theme 005 - Seeking Solace
Zanael watched from his private chamber. He didn't need spies!
His kind were omni-dimensional, and he could easily track his new play things wherever they went, and they'd never even know it.
Worst of all, since he KNEW they were gone, he knew he could push forward his attack. While he knew the Eyes of the One herself protected the Shinjuku area, her influence didn't extend to other parts of the metropolis.
That day, Tokyo Bay would suffer the greatest assault in its history.
"OOOOO POCKY! SOUL POCKY!" Chihaya said, staring at a particular food stand.
(OOC: Don't expect our main villain to just sit around and twiddle his thumbs...)