Meanwhile, one of the first guards killed by the ghouls opened his eyes and raised on his feet, now controled by The All Seeying and All Knowing Eye.

Medh throws another blast of fire at her chosen target, hoping to sear his corrupt flesh from his bones, while she starts to fly across the room.

This time, the fireball is enough to seriously injure the ghoul, and flew away from the bunker. Mr. Johnson, escorted by the remaining of his bodyguards and the three shadowrunners, managed to get out as well.

Outside, while the spirits were rematerializing outside the magicall aspected area, Mr. Johnson didn't waste a second. He ordered his men to scatter around the building and asked:

"Tricky, is the ward still active?"

His voice was desperate. The elf nodded and Johnson was obviously relieved. He turned towards the spirits and added:

"We'll take care of the ghouls. You must go into the metaplanes and find the lost soul. You have less than three hours remaining."

Tu Shu Guan heads into the astral gateway.

Mr Twinkle, feeling that certain ghouls would be in need of a good kicking as soon as he got healed up heads to the gateway. It seemed like the next thing to do.

Adsinistrati follows suit, unconcearned with whether or not the Johnson can handle the ghouls. On her way to the gateway, however, she gives them plenty of room.

Medh follows, disappointed about leaving a fight, but hoping to encounter something far more "fun".

Travel into the metaplanes is natural for the spirits, and none of the psychological drawbacks affecting the metahumans is a danger for the pure mana entities. Therefore, after only a split second of concentration, they managed to enter one of the closest metaplane available. The landscape closely ressembles the material plane, with mana constructs formed like buildings and several spirits of man walking around the magical city. The link is still apparent, but dilluded a lot by the ambiant magical energy. It appears the other side of the link is within this particular metaplane.

Tu Shu Guan walks up to the nearest, friendliest-looking spirit and asks him, "Greetings. May I inquire which plane of existence this is?"

The bureaucratic spirit approached a black-furred labrador dog and asked him the question.

The dog took a time to assense the spirits and answered: "You are in the metaplane of city spirits, also known as Babel. What are you doing around here if you do not even know where you are?"

"We have been tasked with locating a woman forcibly removed from her body. Have you seen anyone kidnapped, captured, or otherwise made to be here when they don't wish to be?"

The dog sat and scratched his head, trying to remember if he saw anything like this, but shook his head from left to right.

"No, I witnessed nothing like it. Is there a trail somewhere for you to follow?"

Mr Twinkle looks carefully left and right for the trail to which the spirit referred.

"Do you know the scents of the people of this town? Any foreign ones, besides ours? If so, what would it take for you to track them?"

"It's quite simple, I need a material link or sympathetic link. A material link is usually better, but it's harder to find on a metaplane.''

"Can we take a material link from the mundane world across the planes?"

Tu Shu Guan scratched the dog's head while the latter was thinking.
"You may show me the material link instead, but what will i gain from helping you?"

Adsinistrati floated silently to the side. She was willing to let Tu Shu Guan handle negotiations with the dog-spirit, for now. Instead, she focused her attention on their surroundings, keeping her eyes open for trouble and attempting to relocate the link.

"Do you need meat? I could bring you some across the rift. If you need human companionship, I would be willing to provide it after my mission is through."

The dog smiled, or at least seemed to smile.

''Do not let the appearance fool you. I may look like a dog, but I'm far from one.''

"Forgive me, I am new to this plane of existence.

"What would you require as a favor in return?"

The dog stood up on his four feet and began to walk, probably expecting the other spirits to follow him.

''Apologies accepted, at least you did make a polite suggestion, as opposed to the damn metahumans who bind us to their will. I could help you if you bring me a special exotic reagent in exchange. One i need for one of my experiment.''

Meanwhile, Adnisistrati manage to follow the astral link for a while, but the ambiant mana level is so dense it fades into its surrouding after a while.

"I am sorry, but we are... rushed. The woman we are seeking may die in less than three hours."

"Let's say I help you right now, but you swear by your spirit formulaes you'll give me what i want afterwards, and we'll have a deal."

"Of course."

"First what do you want? I'm not being oath bound blind."

"A woman from the material plane has been taken out of her body. She has less than three hours to live, and we have been paid to find her.

"What shall I call you?"

Adsinistrati just smiled. She was more than happy to let Tu Shu Guan agree to whatever service the dog-spirit requested, but had no intention of agreeing to anything of the sort, herself. If the dog-spirit was happy with Tu Shu Guan's answer, everyone would get what they wanted, and if it wasn't, then te price it was asking was far too steep.

''Call me Ibis. The exotic reagent I'm looking for is the remnant of a great city very important in history. I'm looking for a well-preserved brick from the first wall of Bysantium before they were destroyed by the Persian. I heard some of them still exist in the material world. I get the link, you get this brick for me.''

"Very well."

<<@*&#(&>> watched. He was good at it.

The dog sat on his rear legs and looked more carefully at the other spirits. "First of all, i need a starting trail. Has any of you found such a trail. It would help me a lot."

How would I knowz if I sawed onez?

Rumbles Mr Twinkle

Adsinistrati pointed in the direction of the trail she had followed before losing it. "I beleive it leads that way, but then it sort of fades away."

The dog smelled around the area pointed by Adsinistrati after thanking her and managed to follow the invisible trail for 3 astral building blocks before losing it again. He turned towards the spirits and said.

"Past this point, the trail diverge into 3 different directions. I'm sure one of them is the true one, but the other two are dangerous traps. I know, I even use this tactics a lot myself. The first trail goes into the underground, the second right into the 200 story high scyscraper to the left and the final one goes into the suburbs, a place inhabited by the darkest types of city spirits. Your call.''

"I would suggest we go into the den of darkness, as it would appear to be the most dangerous choice." She smiled, "... besides, dark spirits and I have many things in common - perhaps, if that is the wrong direction, I can convince them to let us know that early on."

Tu Shu Guan said, "Might I suggest that we use a material link first, if it is possible to take it across the gateway?"

The dog shook his head. ''If time is really important right now, finding a material link would be more an hindrance than anything. The material link itself would be quite easy to find, but the greater spirit with the ability to create an astral gateway would be much harder to find. If you follow my advice, searching these areas are probably a lot less time-consuming.''

In an uncharacteristic fit of bravery or foolhardiness, he could not tell which, and taking into account Medh and Mr. Twinkle's love of battle, Tu Shu Guan said, "Very well. We should go to the suburbs; our enemy would expect us to shy from there, and shadow spirits would be my first guess when looking for a stolen soul."

Adsinistrati smiled at the comment, and floated lazily behind.

<<@*&#(&>> rolled himself as he floated behind the Mandarin. Whatever else, he knew they needed to stick together.

"Could be fun." says Medh as she strode along behind the rest.

"Very well, said the dog. Follow me, but be aware I dislike fights, and if things go wrong, you will have to handle it. "

The strange team advanced into the darkest spots of the spiritual town. Garbage bins and containers, disfigured metahumans of all kind and critters were starring at the group as they went deeper into the alleys. All of a sudden, in the middle of an abandonned town square, Ibis stopped, sat and turned towards the visiting spirits.

"The trail end in this area."

'...And noes sole.' Says Mr Twinkle musically cracking his knuckles as only crytsals can.. 'Do we do fight now?'

His gaze searches the shadows looking for the assumed agressor.

"We surely do not want to fight if iwe can avoid it, answered Ibis. But we might want to talk with the spirits around here to see if they have answers to our questions."

Around the visiting spirits, many spirits of different forms and shapes were staring at them, assessing their power, but none seemed openly aggressive towards them.

"Or," Adsinistrati began in a obviously sarcastic tone, "we could just leave, since what we wanted clearly isn't here. You said two of the trails would be dead ends... this one has dead-ended... let's go." She had little interest in another combat - especially one where she didn't have a tactical or astral advantage, and certain had little interest in negotiating with her fellow shadow spirits. She was fairly certain they would leave her alone, at least, but couldn't say as much for the other spirits with her - of course, in the blink of an eye, any of them could be jsut about anywhere on this plane that they wanted, so she didn't see any sense in sticking around to hear them out.

"How can you tell so quickly that the soul isn't here?" Tu Shu Guan looks puzzled.

"Like he said, 'the trail ends here'... and it doesn't end at a soul.... If two out of the three directions are dead-ends, this sure seems to be one."

As the spirits talked, the shadow spirits around them were getting more and more agitated. At the climax of their agitation, a large garbage bin approached them, but a small, child-like voice said:

"Noise! Let me handle this.''

The shadow spirit stopped and a small girl-looking entity came forward.

"State your business here before i unleash my servants.''

'Wellz, it iz possibles we 'ave no bizness ere.'
Intoned Mr Twinkle flatly. 'But if we hadz bizzness, it would zeem we would wantz to talkz to youze. Would youze likez to talkz buiznezz?'