A new Continent? [Company members][NR]

His birthday had passed. He didn't like telling anyone about it. Jr didn't like parties, didn't like cakes, didn't like the happy birthday song. Fuck that, was what he'd always said. The only people that really knew was his grand father, who wandered all the time, and his father, and he was currently out in the middle of Sunset Island somewhere. Not even his sisters or niece knew about it.

Jr had gone through a change. He was tired of looking like a soft little pretty boy, so he'd undergone a transformation. Mostly because of his ability to manipulate time, he slapped on some more muscle. He grew his white hair out some, shaving the sides and slicking out the top, letting several bangs hang down into his face. He put on an expensive suit, loose fitting enough so that he could run and fight in it if he had to. He put on a little more height. Finally, he put more of a grim expression on his face so that he'd look older. He didn't know how everyone was going to take his sudden change and frankly he didn't care.

Adjusting his tie he walked into the office and took his seat behind the desk in the big leather chair that once belonged to his grandfather, then his father, and now him. Pulling up several screens and typing on the keyboard, Jr started looking through cameras as he usually did. Crime. Traffic jams. Prostitutes. Zombies in the factory district. It was another day at work in The Company as usual...

Niala stepped off of the elevator quietly and made her way down the hall. She was wearing today a short sleeved purple turtle neck sweater dress that went almost to her knees, black leggings, and black boots, with her company pendant hanging around her neck and resting over top of her dress. Her hair was up in a ponytail with her long bangs hanging down. She pushed one of her bangs out of her face and tucked it behind her ear just as she walked into the office and paused.

There was someone behind Junior's desk, only it did not look like Junior...

She opened her mouth, ready to tell whoever it was off, when all of a sudden her physic abilities kicked in and she realized that who she was actually looking at was Junior: the same Junior who she had sat next to for quite some time now, day after day. He just looked.. older. She closed her mouth and smiled. She walked across the office and behind her desk where she sat in her comfortable chair. She glanced back over at Junior, taking in his appearance a bit better now with a smile. "I like that look on you.", she commented as her cheeks turned a light pink color, before pressing a button on her keyboard and causing the several screens in front of her to come to life.

She pulled up her email, going through several messages she had got while away from her desk while another monitor flipped, as always, through various news feeds around Edge City and throughout the world.

Niala walked in, and at first it seemed like she didn't recognize him. In fact, it looked like she was close to going off. His hair was still white, his eyes were still red, and while he'd caused his wings to vanish for the time being, the halo was still above his head. No one would be able to infiltrate these offices if they didn't have a pendant, or the blood of a Kane running through their veins. It should have been obvious who he was, and he was kind of insulted.

He didn't really show any reaction to the compliment; he only looked more grim. He continued to type and go through the many cameras around the city and on satellites pointing all around the world. One camera made his eyes widen, and he had to backspace and go back to it.

There was an area of the world that was always blocked, because of a radioactive sandstorm. His grandfather made note of it back in the days, and his father mentioned it on more than one occasion. The radioactivity in the sand storm made looking inside with cameras impossible, and it didn't really seem important enough to risk sending someone out there that could withstand hazards such as that. So, the matter was put on the back burner for years.

Today, the sandstorm was gone. Jr was looking at an undiscovered landmass. There looked to be a large gate surrounding the whole country, and it looked to be made up of mostly hot desert. He couldn't get a good look at things because there was still radioactivity around, but from what he could see, most had to wear a strange kind of suit to travel through the desert. He could see people digging through ruined cities. He could see fighting. Some went hand-to-hand, but most used guns. Supernatural powers and the like didn't look to exist over there.

But another camera revealed people fighting a large creature that looked to have metal skin. A tailed beast?... He couldn't really get a location of where the fight was going on, but an idea started to form in his head. He remembered back in the other world, how Kinzoku had wanted to catch a tailed beast to increase his power. If that thing really was a tailed beast, maybe he could head over there and try to catch it, and at the same time gather intel on this new place.

He opened the top drawer on the desk and pulled out his old wireless comm. "Kinzoku, you there?" Jr asked, his voice deeper than it was before.

"Alec Jr? That you? Sounding different nowadays," was the answer, the line crackling with some static.

"Yeah. Listen... You think you could come out to Edge? I have a task that you'd be perfect for... You and Emiko too. Could you come out to the tower to hear the specifics? I'll have my butler let you in."

"A task? Well sure, but I have to wait until someone returns to the village so that we don't leave it unguarded. It's to my understanding that Kurai broke off from the expedition that your father was on due to a new arrival from the other world, her family arrived not long ago. She and Kurai should be along any time now; as soon as they return i'll hurry there. I'll inform Emiko as well..."

"Awesome. See you then..." The line went silent, and he put the comm back into the drawer.

Junior didn't respond to her compliment, in fact it only made him look more grim and she wondered why, though she didn't voice this out loud. Instead, she simply focused all of her attention on the screens in front of her. That was, until a glance over showed her that the place that was normally nothing but a raging sandstorm now looked to be some kind of desert - the sandstorm had subsided. There were people fighting, other people seemed to be looking for stuff, and then there was a group fighting a giant monster.

Before Niala could comment Junior pulled something out of his desk drawer and spoke into it; asking for someone named Kinzoku, before asking for him and someone else named Emiko to come to the tower. The names sounded familiar; mostly from the stories she had heard told around the tower every so often by Demi or Dez. She wondered if Junior was going to send them over there; and why them of all people - she didn't know a whole lot about the other world since she had spent just enough time over there to be kidnapped, tortured, and then become a missing-nin and desert her village.

"I wonder why the sandstorm subsided after all of this time...", she mused out loud, brows drawn together as she contemplated this. She let her mind wander to the possibilities while she waited quietly for Kinzoku and Emiko to show up: she wasn't going to ask Junior beforehand what he had planned simply because she didn't want him to have to explain himself twice.

He was sure Emiko had already heard everything on the party line. With the return of Kinzoku and and the daughter of the group who'd come in not too long ago, Kinzoku set off. It was his first time venturing into this new world, but he knew exactly where to go already. A task, hmm. It sounded interesting, and excited him to know he'd been requested for something personally.

What wasn't a village, but called a city was before him, once he'd come out of the darkness, riding atop one of his metal platforms. He saw things he never dreamed possible, and never thought there'd be a place as big as this. The city seemed to go on forever into the horizon; a jungle of buildings, steel and concrete.

Before he got too absorbed in the surroundings, he headed towards the big building in the center of it all that went up into the clouds, a sight in itself to behold. So this was the home of Alec, Jr and Destiny, those strange beings that came to his world and caused so much havoc. Would the just really let him into that place? He found out soon enough after landing in front of the gate entrance.

A suited man showed him the way in, and to an elevator. It reminded him of the one in Dark Tower, but this one was much faster, seeing as it had him on the 1,000th floor in under a minute. He stepped out of it into a long hallway; at the end there was an office with glass doors.

A young man stepped into the office. He wore a red top with yellow stripes; the collar large enough to conceal most of his face, black fingerless gloves, black ankle length loose fitting pants and black open toed sandals. Kinzoku had piercing yellow eyes, black frizzy hair and a chocolate tanned complexion. Upon his back was a large black gourd that could be seen glowing, as if it was on fire; the air moving and shimmering around it.

He stopped before the desk with no expression on his face. He brought with him the chill of Makkurakagure, and the smell of blood; the blood of the countless fools who'd made the mistake of standing against him. There was Jr, and there was a female he'd never seen before. After looking toward her with those yellow hues a second, he looked back to Jr.

"Jr," Kinzoku said, blinking, sliding his hands into his pants pockets. "Looking... different from the last time I saw you. Appreciate you inviting me here, this is an amazing place... How can I be of service?"

Emiko had undergone a lot of changes since first arriving in Makkuragakure back in the ninja world; and even more changes since they had arrived in this world. She no longer had dark circles under her eyes from the lack of sleep or sleeping with one eye open, and she no longer kept her deep red colored hair cut in that short and choppy look - instead it was long, going several inches down past her shoulders with several clips holding back her bangs and keeping them out of her gray colored eyes. Even her outfit had underground some changes; a gray mesh t-shirt with a black sleeveless zip-up vest over top that had the Dark symbol on the left breast, a pair of black capris that went slightly past her knees, her old Yokuchigakure headband hanging around her waist with a line through the symbol, and a purple cloth wrapped around her waist and chest that looked like a scarf but also helped to hold the goard made out of sand which held the symbols for Life and Death on it to her back, and of course her open toed shinobi sandals.

However, despite all of these changes, one thing hadn't: Emiko kept her wireless communicator in her ear all hours of the day and night, having even gone so far as to perfect the art of sleeping with it in. So, she had heard on the party line that Junior Kane needed not only Kinzoku to come to Edge City for a task, but her as well.

Not wasting any time Emiko had taken off after Kinzoku as soon as Kurai had returned with a blond and purpled haired female who she figured was the daughter of the family that had arrived before them. Once out of the village Emiko continued speeding onward, preferring to take the land route rather than the platform route that Kinzoku had. Once she reached the edge of Makkuragakure she kept going, chakra coating her feet and keeping her from falling into the water as she ran across its surface and into Edge. Through Edge she moved, heading straight for the giant tower that seemed to reach into the Heavens. She would arrive very shortly after Kinzoku, shown in by the same butler that had shown in him. Once to the elevator she took it up to the thousandth floor and stepped off. Glancing around with gray eyes she made it to Junior's office and walked inside.

She could instantly see that Junior appeared older than the last time she had seen him, and nearby at another desk sat a female who was busy watching something. Her gray colored gaze flickered back to Junior as a tint of yellow took over it - a sign that Shukaku was likewise listening and watching, though the beast remained peaceful. "What's up?", she asked simply as she folded her arms across her chest and stood nearby to Kinzoku.

Jr stood from the desk, the light whiff of cologne rising with him, standing at least a foot taller that he was just a day before. He straightened the jacket of his Armani suit and adjusted his tie whole stepping around the desk. As stated before, it was a loose fitting suit, but tight enough to show off the muscle definition he'd packed on.

"Kinzoku," he said, shaking his hand and half hugging him, patting his shoulder with his left hand. "Good to see you again, old friend. There's been some... troubles around town recently, I trust you two got here with no problems?..." Jr could still remember spending many nights conversating with him while they both kept watch over the village the 5 years they spent in the other world.

Red eyes turn to look towards Emiko, whom he didn't really get the chance to know, feeling something... not quite right about her. Yellow eyes... not quite like Kinzoku's, telling him that she wasn't the only one present here. His father had told him about the infamous Shukaku. "Emiko," Jr said, after having let go of Kinzoku's hand and stepping away some. "I can see Mr bloodthirsty is awake and attending our little reunion, I can trust he's not going to make a scene in my grandfather's building, right?..."

Jr stepped back around behind the desk and sat in the leather chair again. "I called you both here because I have a job opportunity for you." He typed on his digital keyboard a second and brought up a large holographic screen. On the screen was a map of all of the countries: New Vegas, which is now Ground Zero, Edge, Sunset Island, Makkurakagure, Konohagakure, Shinkai Shigai - now Velo City, Pacific City, and Neutral City. Situated in the center of it all was a large radioactive sandstorm. "For the longest time there's been a sandstorm right here. Nothing goes in, nothing comes out. It's never really been a threat, and no one's wanted to risk sending anyone out there, so we sort of just ignored it."

Jr fast forwarded the video. "A couple of days ago, this happened." The sandstorm stopped to reveal a tremendous land mass, composed of desert. The video showed the ruins of civilization long past; the descendants of survivors living in small towns and communities. Some of these survivors dug ancient technology from within these ruins. Some of these survivors regularly fought with bandits, scum and mutants. Some of these survivors were fighting with a giant metal creature that highly resembled a tailed beast reminiscent of Shukaku.

"I need someone to go over there and check this place out. We know squat about this place. I'd send some of my people, but like I said, we've been having some... troubles. A couple of my members nearly got killed, and I need all hands on deck in case these... troubles resurface. From the looks of things, you need one of those special suits to survive over there, and since the two of you lived in Yokuchi all those years, I figure you two would be able to go without one. Gotta be boring hanging around Makkura all the time with no action, right? As a bonus, I remember you saying you wanted to catch a tailed beast, and it looks like there's one over there."

Jr slid two Company android Cellphones across the desk. "All I need you to do is walk around. Take a few pictures with those phones. They're real simple to use, I included instructions on how to use them when you turn them on. Gather up some intel for me. Catch that beast if you want, then report back here to me. A simple job... Though I can't guarantee that it won't be dangerous. I don't know how they're gonna take to outsiders over there, so you'll need to be on guard..."

Jr leaned back, crossing a leg and leaning his elbows on the rests of the leather seat, touching the tips of his fingers together. "So... does this sound like something you'd be interested in?"

Niala looked up when Kinzoku entered first and smiled politely, and then watched as Emiko entered not all that long afterward. She leaned back in her chair comfortably, picked up the frozen hot chocolate she had sitting on her desk, and took a sip through the straw that stuck into the rather large clear cup. She watched as she sipped as Junior got up and gave Kinzoku a greeting and then turned to Emiko and asked about someone he called 'Mr bloodthirsty': Niala could only assume that either Emiko had a split personality, or like others who had gone to the other other world she had some sort of beast sealed inside of her.

She remained quiet and simply listened closely as Junior showed them the area that used to be covered and hidden by a large sandstorm, but that now was shown to be filled with people and communities. From what Junior said Niala could gather that the two visitors were used to extremely hot temperatures that would allow them to be able to function over there without risk of death, or needing a special suit. Junior wanted them to go explore over there, and take some pictures with the two Company cellphones he slid across his desk.

Niala had nothing to really add to this discussion so she focused her attention back on the monitors in front of her and went back to flipping through the images, while she waited to see if Kinzoku and Emiko would indeed go over there - and perhaps even face the beast that Junior had shown them.

Jr was indeed different from the days he was Kuraikage of Makkura. Now he was the "Boss" of Edge City. He stood up, and Kinzoku could see that he was taller than he was, and it looked like he'd been training his body and muscles. Kinzoku shook his hand when he came close, also patting his back in a half hug.

"Good to see you as well. I got here with no problems at all..." was his response. Troubles... he wondered what those were. When Jr said "Mr Bloodthirsty" he could only assume that he was referring to the Shukaku sealed inside of Emiko. Surely she wouldn't go wild in this place. Kunzoku didn't want to see the outcome of that; it surely wouldn't be good...

When Jr went and sat again, he said that he had a job opportunity for them, and brought up what Kinzoku thought had to be a magic screen, but was described as "Technology." There was a map of all of the lands in this world, including Makkura. In the middle of them all was a place surrounded by a dangerous sandstorm poisoned with something known as radiation. This sandstorm disappeared recently, revealing yet another land. A desert.

This interested Kinzoku greatly. He grew tired of the desert, but now he found himself missing it. It was his opportunity to return to one; a new one. Jr said because of his "troubles" that he needed all of his people, and that since the people there needed special suits to survive the scorching heat, with the fact that he and Emiko had been born and raised in a desert, they'd be perfect for the job of recon and intel.

To top it off, there was a tailed beast over there, with some kind of metal for skin. The inhabitants over there looked to be trying to fight it with their primitive weaponry, but didn't seem to be having any luck. It put a grin on his face as he watched. It had been one of his dreams the past 5 years to be joined with a tailed beast, the same as Kurai, Emiko and Jr. This looked to finally be his chance to join those group of elite.

Jr said he couldn't guarantee that it would be a safe job, further exciting him. The glowing gourd on his back began to grow brighter, wiggling and moving with the chance to finally be able to add more blood to the already massive collection. He found himself wanting to head there immediately.

"I'm in," he said with no hesitation, picking up the cell phone and sliding it into his pocket. He'd learn how to use it on the way there. "No problem. This is just what i've been waiting for, so thank you for asking me."

Surely Emiko would be in too. That look in her eye said Shukaku had to be bored with all the peace and quiet. Someone was almost guaranteed to attack them over there. This was their chance to shake the rust out, and Kinzoku would be insane to pass up an opportunity like this.

Emiko listened to Junior's question and shook her head no in response. “Nah, Shukaku knows better. Besides, he likes you guys, and he's not nearly as bloodthirsty as he once was. Seems that since I've... calmed... down a bit he has too. Besides, he knows if he screws up he won't get anymore hugs from Artemis; and she turns him into a loyal harmless puppy when she's around.”, she responded before becoming quiet once more so she could listen to Junior explain what was going on.

'I wouldn't go far as to say harmless... if anything threatened that little girl I'd rip it into a million pieces and use them as a puzzle.', came Shukaku's soft voice and Emiko blinked at the mental image Shukaku seemed more than happy to provide. She shook her head, focusing her mind on Junior and the images he was showing them.

She saw all of the lands of the world, including this desert area that had been covered for a very long time in a sandstorm. Emiko hadn't thought personally of going back to the desert – but then again, that had been the desert back in the other world. A place where, considering she was a missing nin, would have led to nothing but trouble going back to. Though... the idea of going back there and destroying the entire village had entered her mind on more than one occasion.

A grin spread across Emiko's face in anticipation of going over there, especially seeing the tailed beast. She picked up the other cellphone and nodded. “I'm in, too. Wouldn't pass something like this up.” This was likely going to be a nice little adventure to get involved in, and she looked forward to a small break from Makkura since she hadn't left the village in quite a few years.

Jr nodded his head with a half grin. "I figured you'd be up for something like this," he said. "If you need anything before you go, let me know. When you get back, if there's anything you might need then too, just ask and it's yours." He reached behind him and opened the window to his right side. "I remember you have those platforms that you use to fly on, you can use this to get out quickly. We all sorta use it..."

With that project underway, he could focus his attention back here, to Edge, and this alien wandering around. Was Vigilante going to square off against him again? Was Ka'lara? Was that guy who got thrashed by him on Sunset? Or would he have to descend into the streets to face this kid himself?

He didn't know. Many cameras were in front of him in the meantime. He couldn't have some rowdy alien wandering around beating on people. He'd either have to join up, leave, or worse case scenario, die. Jr didn't really want to kill him. He didn't even know if he could; he'd never seen this kid face to face. The best option would be to get the kid to join. If that happened, he'd have to keep space between he, Vigilante and Ka'lara. otherwise there would be infighting...

Niala glanced over to Emiko as she heard the female speak: her words only concreted that she did indeed have some sort of beast inside of her. However, it wasn't just her that had some sort of comment to make on it – a soft male voice filled the area and spoke, claiming that it wasn't harmless, but that it would indeed turn anyone who attempted to harm Artemis into a human puzzle. Always nice to have a beast like that on your side, or so she figured.

Both of them had agreed to go over to this desert and give it a look and Niala couldn't help but wonder what sort of other things they would find over there – and what would happen to that beast when they found it. Would Kinzoku seal it inside of himself? Or would they just destroy it somehow? Time would certainly tell.

She smiled at the pair of them as Junior opened the window for them to exit through it. “Good luck you two.”, she said encouragingly.

Kinzoku walked towards the window. "This should be interesting," he said, the metal sand traveling through the air like a black smoke to solidify into a platform that he stepped up onto. "After we're done out here, we'll report back to you, Jr."

The platform carried him out of the window into the sky. He sat, and pulled out the cellphone again. After quickly memorizing how to use it, he found that it came with a map that moved as he did. He followed it in the direction of the new land mass, sure the Emiko was close behind.

[Exit]

Emiko gave a wave goodbye to Junior and Niala before she stepped out the window; a platform of sand forming underneath of her feet. When both of her feet were on it she sped off after Kinzoku with the wind blowing the tails of the purple sash behind her as she moved. She took the time to look over the Company cellphone that Junior had given her, taking the time to figure out how it worked and functions such as the camera.


When she was sure she had things down she tucked the cellphone safely into the purple sash where it crossed her waist and then folded her arms across her chest. She looked ahead with still yellow tinted eyes to the land that was growing closer before them. What would this desert hold for her and Kinzoku? What sort of battles and adventures waited before them?


They would soon find out....


[Exit Thread]