Do I still have a Job? (Kanes or invite)[NR]

Man, if i'm fired this would so suck....

The whole crew up and disappeared 5 years ago. He didn't know what was up with Cala, but he was sure she'd broken up with him, and whatever they had going was done. It bothered him for years. But eventually, just like his parents, he'd gotten over her. Maybe he was better off not being some hero with the sexy girl at his side.

While he was still able to come and go through Darkman Tower like he wanted, it wasn't fun to stay in that big building all by himself. He'd gone home, back to the suburbs, back to granny and grand dad. Alec Kane held to his word at least, and they didn't have to worry about paying bills anymore. He'd even filled up their bank accounts, and they would often take trips around the country in an RV.

Some weird shit started happening lately. The sky in the distance was dark. With closer investigation due to his personal space station in orbit, it looked like a whole country just...appeared overnight. He or Stretch couldn't make sense of it, Stretch was just as baffled as he was. A day ago it looked like something that was on fire flew out of that dark place, and headed directly toward Edge City...Maybe a day later, this same fire thing flew out of Darkman Tower, grabbed some little girl, and went back to the Tower.

Were they back? Did he still have a job? Matt thought it about time he went and got some questions answered! So suited up, he flew across the city to the huge tower in the distance, quickly speeding to the roof and landing near the big yellow “H” on the heliport in a crouch. He stood up straight and made his way inside, down some flights of stairs and down the long hallway to Alec's office.

The Vigilante knocked on the door to the office while opening the door and beginning to step inside. ”Yo!...Friendly neighborhood Vigilante here...Well, not exactly friendly, but y'know what I mean, right?...”

Jr was sitting in the big leather recliner behind the desk. There hadn't really been anything going on besides going to grab up Aella before she got hit by a car or something, and the usual crime. Jr didn't know if any of the old Company members still planned on playing their parts, or if he'd have to do a whole reboot. Niala was still on board so far, but Aella said she planned on being between here and Makkura. Who knew what was up with all the rest of these characters on this list though....

But then the cameras picked up on something moving in this direction at a high rate of speed. Jr himself couldn't sense who it was. Could that have been...? After the eventual knock on the door and what was said as the costumed individual walked into the office, his suspicions were confirmed. So that Vigilante guy was still around then, which explained why Jr couldn't sense him.

”Aha. I remember you,” Jr said, sitting up straight in the leather recliner. ”You're that superhero guy who beat up that dude Flynn and that dragon guy. You got into that epic brawl with that crazy man Xan too. I don't think me and you ever met before, did we meet?... Nah, I don't think so. You can probably tell just by looking at me, but i'm Alec Kane Jr, I run The Company now. It's awesome to see you're still around. You probably have all kindsa questions about the last 5 years; i'll answer them for you.”

Yeah, this guy was bad ass. He was human but he managed to best two beings of a superior race, not to mention give a good fight against Xan, who used to be this wicked assassin. Jr had heard he had genius level intellect and was really good at building things. He would have to promote this dude to one of his top people if he planned on sticking around....

In the office, Vigilante was expecting to see Alec, sitting there with his mountain of pot like he usually did, but instead there was his son, Jr Kane. He said he was in charge of The Company now, and that he remembered V from when he got into it with those 2 super freaks at Murder INC Headquarters, and Xan the crime boss over in the Red Light District.

Vigilante caused his mask to move back and away from his face. As to his statement that he'd probably have a bunch of questions he said: ”Yeah...Questions. Well I guess the first one would have to be to ask if I still have a job here? You all kinda just...vanished off the face of the planet. I couldn't find any of you anywhere...The second, what the hell is with that shady looking place over to the east? A whole country just...appearing overnight? I know you all had to have something to do with that. The third, where's your father? Did something bad happen to him, and that's why you're in charge now?”

Was Alec dead or something? That wouldn't be good at all. V scratched a hand though his hair as he began to look worried.

The Vigilante first asked if he still had a job. ”Yeah, of course, if you still want it. I was actually thinking about promoting you, seeing as a lot of the old crew are MIA for now.”

The second question just made Jr grin some while looking toward the dark patch on the horizon; the country of villains that he used to be the Kuraikage, or "Boss" of. ”That... that place is called Makkuragakure, “The Land of Shadows...” I suppose I should explain. 5 years ago, my dad met another version of himself named Spook. He came here from another dimension where ninjas live in villages. You might have seen him before; he wears this mask over his face and has glowing green eyes. Dad got bored after all that stuff that happened and went to his world. Me and my sisters Destiny and Demi followed after him. In that world, we became bad guys. My dad went around bombing villages and killing people, but everything he did had a good reason behind it. He took over Makkura and fixed it up, made a criminal empire called The Dark.

“It was all for nothing pretty much, because a lot of the weaklings in that world are all talk and no action. The one guy who got brave enough to stand up to us got his leg cut off by dad, then all of his bones broken by a good friend of mine named Kinzoku. There was this other dude with this stupid smile on his face, but dad cut off his head. The leaders of those villages over there must be retarded or mentally challenged or something, cause they had some real powerful people coming up in their villages that they just ignored, so a lot of them came to stay with us. Dad got tired of all the weaklings and cowards in that world so he decided to come home. The people in Makkura loved us, and dad didn't want to leave them behind, so he teleported the whole country back here... Dad can give you more details if you want to hear more.”

The third question made Jr shake his head no. ”No, dad isn't dead. Like I said, the people of Makkura started to really like us, and it grew on him too, so he's living there now with Avery, his girlfriend, and their kid, my little sister Artemis. He sent me back here to run Edge and The Company. Dad should be around over there somewhere...” Jr began to go through the cameras of the Company Satellites that were pointed toward Makkura, but he could see his father anywhere. ”...That's strange... can't find dad. I see Avery, and Art, and everybody else... Where's dad though?”

Niala had been taking a nice long nap in her room when a prickle on the back of her neck woke her up. It always happened like that, when something was going on or about to happen: like some sort of internal alarm or alert system. She sat herself up on the couch in her suite she had passed out at, and after rubbing at her eyes stood to her feet. She stretched skyward and then threw her hair up in a ponytail.

Figuring she shouldn't waste anymore time in figuring out what was going on she left her suite, locking the door behind her, and headed to the eleveator. Once up on the proper floor she walked down the hallway and into Junior's office. She closed the door behind her and noticed Vigilante in the room. She waved and then walked over to her desk while listening to the rest of what Junior was saying: he couldn't find his father anywhere.

Frowning slightly she glanced out of the window; still feeling that prickle on the back of her neck. "I'll find him...", she said softly before reaching up and clasping the pendant that hung from around her neck: Alec had handed it to her which left traces of him on the pendant that she could psychically follow. It took a minute for it to work; but soon enough she was tracing one psychic link after another. She pinpointed the strongest link and her frown deepened as she followed it away from Makkura and towards Pacific City. "Hmm... that's strange. All the trails I follow point towards Pacific City but I can't get closer than that... its' like there's something pushing me away when I get close."

Another promotion! Sucks that he had to wait 5 years for it, but cool!

The story was told. Alec went to another dimension with ninjas. Indeed, he had heard of the guy with the glowing green eyes named Spook, but didn't know that he was another dimension's version of Alec? ..Wierd. Alec went to that dimension and became a bad guy? Killing and bombing, the take over of a village, people having their legs chopped off and their boned broken, uncaring leaders in villages and powerful people allying themselves with Alec and his “Dark” crew he made.

Then it all got boring because no one would fight back apparently, and the Kanes came home, but not empty handed. Alec teleported a whole country with him? A strange, puzzled look was on his face, but V guessed anything was possible when it came to these Kanes. V felt relief to hear that Alec wasn't dead, and even surprise to know that he had another kid! It had to be that, and the fact that the place had to have grown on him that he chose to remain there. He'd have to take a visit to this place and visit the old Boss.

...Or maybe not. Alec was nowhere to be found. Niala, who was his right hand when he was Boss, came into the office next, V waving back to her, and said that Alec was in Pacific City.

“I heard real bad things about that place, what would he be doing out there?” he asked. V thought of looking for Alec himself by way of the SOL space station, but he wouldn't know where to begin. Jr and Niala would probably find him faster than he would anyway.

Pacific City. Rival of Edge. There were constantly trying to prove that they were better. Jr remembered how the heads of the place and his father constantly butted heads before they all went to the ninja world of weaklings.

V said something about hearing bad things about the place, and realized that he'd been out of the loop for 5 years. Jr started typing on the desk computer before him, and it wasn't long before the whole story was hovering before his face.

In trying to prove that they could be on par with Edge City, there was an accident that released a deadly virus which turned most of the population into what looked like zombies. Many people wondered what Edge was going to do in response, but there had been no answer since the Kane family had been gone the last 5 years. A shit load of messages were on the phones. The mailboxes were over flowing.

Company satellites zoomed in on the zombie city, and confirmed the rumors. The city was over-run with the living dead. Here and there, a survivor could be found, and there were even outposts and areas where crowds of survivors where held up, but they were all massively outnumbered; there were more dead than living.

”Man... this doesn't look good at all...” Jr said, going through screens. He tapped into the PC camera network and began to go through those that still remained functioning. ”Dad used to tell those morons out there to chill out before they did something they'd regret. It looks like they didn't get the message...”

Jr then suddenly came across a camera in a skyscraper that showed his father defending himself against several undead. ”What the hell??” Jr exclaimed, watching as his father sliced effortlessly through the heads of the several in the room with him. He actually looked to be enjoying himself. “Uggh, this is just like dad... According to these readings here, Pacific City has some sort of suppression field around it, sort of like our Dead Zone, the friggin copy cats... I guess dad wouldn't be able to use all of his abilities over there, otherwise he would have just nuked the place and put them all out of their miseries... That also means he's trapped over there. I have to go get him before he ends up sucking brains...”

A worried look crossed Niala's face as she saw what Junior saw. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as she often did when feeling the beginning of stress, worry, or irritation. She didn't like it when people started to play god; even with the whole world at her fingertips if she wanted it to be, Niala never once abused her power, never once wanted to. Sure, she would magic herself up some frozen hot chocolates more often than not, or use her abilities to find someone like when she had gone looking for Alec just now, but she never played God because she knew it didn't end well. Someone always got hurt...

At Junior's words however she looked up and then out of the window, out towards Makkura. Niala had gathered some information, and done some visiting, since they had all been home; and that included having a long talk with Destiny and meeting the pet zombie she had. If anyone was going to know how to help in this situation, or at least make things easier for anyone attempting to go over there after Alec, then it likely would be her. "If you're going to go over there maybe you should go see your sister first; she seems to be the expert on zombies given that pet of hers... "

She turned her gaze back to Junior. "I'm going to guess that that supression shield does more than just supress peoples powers. If it's as strong as I think it is, since it can block me out when most people cannot, then I'm going to assume everyone's natural immunities aren't worth anything. It might be a good idea to go ask Destiny and see if she has a cure... or is at least working on one. Might be worth taking over there with you, or at least giving her the heads up to start on one if she hasn't already..."

Niala knew that she would be useless going into a situation like that; she wasn't physically strong and was rather small. She wasn't skilled in using a sword, or even a gun for that matter because she relied so heavily on her abilities; in a place like Edge with the pendant she had she was golden... but in a place like Pacific? She'd only get in the way and she knew it. "I can't go over there and help; I'd only get in the way. I have no idea how to use a gun or a sword effectively... I'm better off staying here and keeping an eye on things." She then looked towards the Vigilante, wondering if he was going to end up going over there too. Niala had no problem staying behind and running Edge while everyone was gone, she had done it for five years after all when everyone had first disappeared.

Alec was trapped over there. He looked like he was having fun, but even a hard ass like him who could blow up whole countries and teleport them through dimensions had to get scared out of their mind, right? Add on that the place had a barrier around it that didn't allow him to use all of those god-like powers.

Big V didn't have any powers. What he had was all based on technology. That mean he would be fine were he to go, correct? This suppression field wouldn't have any effect on his nanoids. He had to do something.

V caused his mask to come back on. ”No...let me go. I'll go get Mr Kane back.” He made fists, anxious to get back into action after being gone so long. ”If you go over there you're gonna be in the same boat as your pops. The only thing of mine that won't work over there is my ability to cancel out other people's powers. Otherwise i'll be fine! Don't worry! I can go grab him and be back in time for Granny's meatloaf!”

There wasn't anything else to talk about. He'd already left one of his link-ups for Alec to attach to his computer, meaning they could get in touch with him through his suit. Turning and walking out of the office before either of them could protest, V made his way back up to the roof. He blasted off and began to speed in the direction of Pacific City; the beginning of his rescue mission.

[-Thread Exit-]

He was right. If he remember what his father told him, Vigilante had those robot things in his blood that made him super human. The suppression field in PC would have no effect on them, or his special suit, seeing as they were created from man made technology. Vigilante was the perfect person for the job. All that would be affected was his weird ability to shut off other people's powers, but it wasn't like he needed that over there with zombies. If Jr went, there would be no telling what kind of an effect that field would have on Hi No Seishin.

Before he could say anything though, Vigilante was out of the room. Cameras caught him blasting off moments later. Jr wasn't worried, he knew his father would be able to take care of himself, but he would keep watching him on the cameras for as long as he could.

”From ninjas to zombies...” he said, relaxing into the recliner again. ”A shame when you're more worried about mindless zombies than some coward shit talking ninjas who's supposedly been trained since diapers to kill and fight...”

Niala blinked several times after watching the Vigilante take off before anyone could protest. She knew that out of everyone in the Company that he was likely the best candidate for the job. All of his stuff was man made, technology, so the supression field wouldn't or at least shouldn't affect him. He'd be able to do everything over there that he could do here, which meant he wouldn't have to worry about something not working.

So, she simply turned her focus onto Junior with a nod. "Well, the zombies have bigger balls then the people in that other world then. Hell... only people I found over there who had any balls at all were the dudes who kidnapped me that your dad saved me from, but they died quickly enough." She could still remember that day vividly, but it no longer bothered her to talk about like it once did. Things like that couldn't and wouldn't happen here; she had people who cared about her here, and who watched her back.