Vox nodded. So much for the easy way out. He thought for a moment, then was hit with an idea. "He's wearing a Mass Negation Device. It's the only way he can move quickly without destroying everything around him. It takes about 1.5 seconds to power on or off, so there's going to be gaps in his attacks. When he's in movement mode he's near weightless, so if you get a good hit then you'll send him pretty far before he can recover. And his reflexes aren't as quick as mine, so he moves in patterns. Get ahead of the ricochet and slam him as far as you can." He hoped that would work. Nobody had ever been able to catch Marko like that, but then again Aka was pretty powerful. She might actually be able to pull this off. It would buy them enough time to get inside. "Once we're in, we can lock it down. That should buy us a few more minutes before he gets through."

Aka stared at him, the only thing, he was saying a whole lot of stuff she didn't understand, but the figured she had gotten what was important, i.e. hit him when he was weightless. "1.5 seconds plenty of time." She swallowed and gritted her teeth as she picked him up again and busted though the wall body flickering ahead before setting him down before heading to the street, she didn't want to risk mistiming it, watching the rapidly closing man.

Six tails flickered as she studied his movement patterns, Window, Ground, Side wall... Seh watched a moment intently before lashing out, he was faster than he though as she suddenly was in front of her, the second and a half ticked by before she folded in and felt herself go though several walls before coming to a stop.

The red head grinned despite the blood running from her mouth as she saw the titan closing in, got you. her tail came up suddenly hitting him, sending him flying as she pushed herself to standing and body flickered again over to Vox. "That wasn't so...bad." She grinned, her mouth bleeding as the bruise began to form. She skidded to a stop setting him down in front of the building as she looked out for the weightless man.

Vox winced when he saw the impact. This kid was much stronger than he thought, to be able to survive a direct hit from Marko like that. When she arrived at the building, it was his turn to help her. He lent her an arm, helping her inside. Vox spoke in his own language, seemingly to nobody. Lights flickered on, and heavy metal shutters came down over the doors and windows. A synthetic-sounding voice answered him, and he looked relieved. "That should give us some time. Those are titanium, even he's gonna need at least ten minutes to break those down." The old man leaned on his cane, taking a minute to catch his breath. The first impact rang out against the shutters, but they barely budged. "We should go. Do you know where in the building it might be?"

"Up, It was coming from the upper part of the building..." Aka sighed relaxing a moment before stiffing, "Up, It was coming from the upper part of the building..." Aka sighed relaxing a moment before stiffing, she knew how and when to hit the guy now, but he still scared her a bit. The lobby area was huge, the ceiling went up three floors and echoed with their footsteps. The fancy marble floors almost made her feel guilty about leaving her bloody foot prints, almost she was really to tired to care any more. The second bang range out."What is this place?" She asked following after him, letting her cloak fall way the burning was start to get to be too much.

"This was an Order operations center. For the Assassin's Guild, to be precise. My department." He made his way to the elevator and pressed the button. To his amazement, it was still running. This place was all but untouched. He led her in, and pressed the button for the 23rd floor. "I think I know where this leads." he said, sitting down on the floor to rest while the elevator started to move. "Level 23, research and development."

The elevator came to a halt, and Vox stood up just as the door opened. He walked out, motioning for Aka to follow. They stood before a massive metal door with the lion's head emblem on it. Vox punched in a code and the door hissed open. Before them was a massive laboratory, filled with all sorts of equipment like nothing she'd ever seen before. "Is this what you saw?"

Aka just looked around frowning as she stared at the lab, there were things that looked like computers and giant tubes that looked like they could fit a human. It was too wild, "I'm not sure...All I could really trace was the red tengrels that came from this tower and spread out all over. This could be the place."

She walked over watching all the numbers the computer screen, turned away looking at Vox curious, "What is all this? I know you said this is where Head Quarters, but what is this?" Gestures to the room they are in. It slightly terrifying to see.

"Research and development. These are for mech-augs," He gestured towards a window at one end of the room, with a surgical suite on the other side. Banks of computers and worktables with metal limbs were arranged nearby. "Those are for chem-augs," He pointed to the array of human-sized tubes, empty now except for the breathing masks hanging from the top. "And gen-augs are this way."

He led her through another set of massive metal doors. Inside this room were several sealed metal chambers, many of them with dents on the side. "They did some experiments on us here. These were to keep us contained in case we lost control." He ran his hand over a dented one. "I dinged the door once, got it stuck. Had to wait for them to cut me out."

Aka stared touching the metal as she listened to him, that was scary to think about. "It kind of like when I tried to master my bijuu while we fought we were in a room, if I lost then the bijuu would trapped until it died and was reborn or another jinchuriki was found. It kind of interesting how similar we are." She closed her eyes feeling inside she could feel the rage and anger in there, along with the power.

"It's in there, the red stuff it so full of anger, so powerful." She turned back to Vox nervous, it was so destructive and corrosive in the memory. "I should tell you that it seemed to break things when you used it, so are you sure..."

Vox nodded, throwing the cane aside. It rattled across the floor, skidding into a work table. He was old, but he would face this like a soldier. The old man straightened up, forcing himself to stand tall. "I'll be fine." He strode forward, stumbling for a moment before catching himself. This old form was starting to betray him, but he could power through it. He punched the button next to the door, and it hissed open.

Inside the chamber was a barely-contained tornado of reddish smoke. Vox shielded his face as it started to kick up debris around them. "Well, it always was a force of nature." he muttered to himself, chuckling as he approached the whirlwind. It was a hell of a struggle, making this old body walk into the storm, but he forced himself to do it. He stepped into the tornado and the door slammed behind him.

Now the hard part began.

Aka stared nervously at as he entered the room. She could feel all the chaos and anger in there. Out of habit she glanced back, to make sure the titan was there, so far the doors were keeping him away, but how much longer did they have? She wanted to help him, but like her battle this was his own fight.

Minutes went by and the crashing got closer, before abruptly stopping.There was a full minute of silence before the elevator doors opened. Marko stood there, seeming to float a fraction of an inch above the floor. He pulled his legs up, tucking them in and turning slowly in the air. Bracing himself against the back of the elevator, he pushed off with all of his strength and shot at the chamber like he was fired out of a cannon, clearing both doorways in the blink of an eye.

The problem with aerial attacks is that it's hard to evade incoming attacks in mid-jump. Marko's device was already humming to life, but it wasn't enough to dodge the foot-thick steel door that tore free of the wall and slammed into him. Marko was slammed through the wall as the old man stepped out, pupils shrinking to their normal size. The tornado was gone, absorbed into him. "That gives us maybe fifteen seconds. How do we get out?"

Aka's hands were already flying through the signs seeing that they had what they had come for, "Release!"


The small red head gasped stumbling back as everything rush at her as she returned back to her body and she realized how utterly drained she felt. "That...was terrifying." She was laughing slightly as she sat down in the chair. She was feeling very in coherent. "I trust we were successful?"

"Yeah, I don't like my head very much." Vox tried to catch his breath, feeling around for the rage. He could still feel it inside him, but it was different now. It wasn't bottled up, waiting to explode at any moment. Instead it was a part of him now. Spread out through his mind, diffused and under control. It was a huge weight off his chest. "We got it, kiddo." he said with a smile.

Vox stretched out, getting used to being himself again. "Not gonna complain about not aging anymore, let me tell you." He stood up, cracking his neck a bit. "Being my age was a pain and a half."

[Jutsu lost: Blind Fury]

"And carrying you around while being attack by your mental guards isn't a picnic ether." She sighed, and yawned. "I'm glad you got it, because I'm not going to go back in there...ever." Aka stood up and stumbled, before catching herself again. "Do you mind if I stay in the village tonight, promise to be out of your hair before the mission's office opens." The sky outside was dark, she could see the stars or the moons but her body told her it was close to midnight.

"I can understand that, I'd rather stay out of it too." She stumbled and in a blur he was at her side to catch her. The kid had been through a lot, and she looked it too. She seemed to be handling herself alright, but she was clearly worn out. "You look like death warmed over, kiddo. There's guest rooms upstairs, you can take some time there and head out whenever you're ready. I'll put out a general order not to give you any trouble." Looking at his watch, he was surprised that it was around midnight. They'd been lost in mindspace longer than he'd thought. Office hours were long since over now. He stopped at his desk to quickly write out and sign the order, stamped it as urgent, and shoved it into the outgoing slot before leading Aka to one of the guest rooms. "You should get some rest, kid. You need anything, someone can bring it for you. I'll be back in the office at nine tomorrow morning if you need to talk about anything else."

"I feel like it and thanks." She watched as he wrote the note before following him; taking note of the path so she could leave later. 

The guest rooms were nice enough looking, there was a single bed, dresser and nightstand. There was also an attached wash room; better than some hotels she had stayed at before, not that Aka cared so long as there was a bed. Aka nodded mutely and thanked him before going inside and passing out on the bed.


The small red head yawned stretching before rolling out of bed. What time is it?


"It is 10:30 and you have been asleep for over a day child. Peace, no one has taken anything or touched you."

I wasn't worried. She thought, still checking her bag.

"Sure you weren't." The tortoise chuckled her host finished checking and strained herself out before pulling her pack and sword on. Aka runs her hand though her hair before heading out the door.

She turned around suddenly running into a black cloak, before landing on her butt as she fell back. She swallowed staring up at the white porcelain mask. "I u-m..." Don't kill me! She suddenly found herself feeling very small, she could feel the anger radiating from him.

Vox was in his office when there was a knock at the door. "Come in." A secretary stuck his head through the door, looking around in confusion. "Did Hawk leave already?" Vox raised an eyebrow. "He wasn't here." Vox thought for a moment. Hawk didn't have any reason to be coming here today, unless...

The Kage jumped up, realizing the danger. "Put out an alert. Hawk is to be detained if found. I'll be checking upstairs personally, hold my calls until then." The man nodded and the Kage rushed upstairs. Arriving at the room, he saw the door was open. He drew his knife, approaching as quietly as he could. Looking inside, he saw Hawk standing over Aka, who seemed to be frightened of him. Was she still weakened from the other day. He stepped up behind the ANBU, hooking an arm around his throat and pressing the knife against the base of his skull. "You're relieved of duty, Hawk. Now are you going to retire or will I have to retire you?"

Aka scrambled to her feet, it wasn't that she was injured just her brain went on such down flashing back a bit. "Thanks," stares at the ANBU.

I'm alright, just a little shaken up is all. She could feel the Bijuu's worry. It won't happen again. Aka watched as other ANBU came and took Hawk away. She scratched her head, looking up at him. "Sorry for causing such a commotion, and thank you for your hospitality." Aka bows deeply a moment. "I guess I better get going. I've caused you enough trouble it seems." 

Vox applied pressure to the ANBU's neck. The man struggled, while the Gen-Aug looked past him to check on Aka. "You okay kiddo?" After a few seconds, the ANBU went limp. Vox let go and stepped back, letting him fall back onto the floor. He knelt down, pulling off the hawk mask. The man under it was in his thirties, out cold but still breathing. Vox dragged his knife across the forehead protector, cutting easily through the metal and leaving a mark across the Kemuri symbol. "Someone is out of a job." The kage stood, sheathing the knife.

A few guards arrived, and Vox started barking orders. "This man has attacked someone under my protection. AGAIN. Lock him up, and schedule a court martial." The shinobi nodded, cuffing the unconscious man and carrying him away. Vox turned back to Aka. "Sorry about that. You sure you're good to travel? You still seem a little under the weather."

She sighed and shook her head, "I'll be fine, thanks. Hey..." Aka stared at the floor a moment before shrugging. "Would you mind, if its not too much trouble, if I dropped in again, despite everything it has been one of the better places since my...status...has gotten out." She looked looked out at the gray smoke filled sky again. "You can say no, I understand that Jinchuurki tend to attract trouble." Please say yes. She though hopeful.

She looked up and him and offered her hand to him, "Thank you again Keukage-san."

Vox gave her a smile. "It's no problem, kiddo. You did what eighty years of shrinks and meds couldn't, and you did it in one afternoon. Very least I can do is give you a safe harbor." The kage gave her a pat on the back. He was relieved that the kid was okay, it had gotten pretty tense with Hawk there. "Stop by any time you want. And don't be so damn formal. You've seen the inside of my brain, I'd like to think we can call each other friends now. 'Sides, I hate titles. Names are much better." He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring look. "Need anything for your trip?"

Aka's face lit up, "Thank you, I pretty sure I got everything. I better get going now." She turned to leave but paused a moment, before turning around again and closing the distance and hugging him. "Thank you, for everything. It means a lot to have some to depend on." She let go and stepped back, "If there is ever anything I can help you will just let me know and thanks again." The small red head bowed before jumping on to the windowsill. She gave one last salute before jumping off, skipping across the roof tops.

[exit]

Vox gave the redhead one last wave as she hopped out the window. That had been one hell of an interesting visit. Productive for sure, but the repercussions would last a bit. He'd had to discipline several ANBU, and have one arrested and declared an outlaw. The Keukage let out a sigh, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. He was going to need a few cartons for a day like this. Still, it had been more than worth it in the end. He'd gotten the rage under wraps, that was what mattered. The beast that had been haunting him all his life was gone, and he was free.

[End of thread]