NationStates Jolt Archive

Uzumaki Residence, Issus

It was nighttime at the Uzumaki residence and the rain fell in sheets, covering the steps of a cloaked figure as she walked up to the large, comfortable might-as-well-be-a-mansion house, frightened out of her wits as to her foolish plan. What if it failed? What if the Lady turns her away? No...she wouldn't. The Lady would never allow this to stand. Even if it was her own father...

But if she did, the Master will kill her. Or have his boss do it for him. And that that will be the end of her.

The woman, a ranking servant of the Hyuuga Clan, shuddered and went up to the door. She knocked loudly. For a long moment, no one answered. Sadly, the woman turned away, until the door opened to reveal a silver droid.

"Oh! Miss Fukari! What are you doing at this hour?" The droid asked.

"Oh, Shiruba. I'm sorry to disturb you! I-Is the Lady home?" Fukari asked.

"Yes, she is home. Shall I wake her for you?" Shiruba asked.

Fukari hesitated, then answered. "Yes. Tell her it's urgent."

"All right. Do come in out of this weather! I will have the kitchen droids prepare tea for you." The droid fussily said.

"Thank you." Fukari said as she entered the grand hall of the mansion and was led by a mouse droid to an authentic fireplace being roasted and took off her cloak before setting down in one of the sofas.

She waited, contemplating what she was going to say to the Lady, hoping against hope that she would be believed.

"Fukari-san?" Hinata Hyuuga, heir to the Hyuuga Clan and wife of Uzumaki Naruto, spoke softly, wearing a silk robe over her PJs. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh...Hinata-sama!" Fukari said sadly. "There's so much that I must tell you...and I could trust no one else! It-it concerns Hiashi-dono!"

"Father...?" Hinata gasped slightly and sat down. "Is he all right?"

"He is well...but he may well not be..." Fukari was frightened, peering into the shadows as if the Patriarch would jump out and throttle her. "My Lady...he has fallen to the Dark Side!"

Hinata gasped in horror. "Fukari...it cannot be! He is loyal to Konoha and to Coredia! He has given his life for Coredia!"

"I know...but hear me out!" Fukari sobbed. "Hiashi-dono has done great evil! I swear on the Kami that this is true!"

Hinata took a deep breath. She was horrified that her father has gone so far and it would take some time for it to sink in. "Tell me everything."

Unfortunately, they were interrupted by a blond-haired guy in kitsune slippers and a nightcap/gown combo. He yawned loudly as the serving droids came back with tea and cocoa. "*Yawn* Hinata-chan? What's going on?"

"Naruto-kun, please sit down." Hinata replied softly as she and Fukari took the tea. "This concerns Father...and Coredia."

"I guess." Naruto scowled at the mention of Hiashi as he drank the cocoa, but humoring his wife, he sat down. "All right, what is this about?"

Fukari took a deep breath and began. "Naruto-sama...Hinata-sama...Hiashi-dono has fallen to the Dark Side. He...he...was behind Caprica...and the corruption in the high ranks...and...he murdered Chiro in cold blood!"

"Chiro...your husband?" Hinata gasped. Chiro was a faithful servant to the Hyuuga Clan for many years! Why would Father kill him?

"Wait...what are you saying about him and Caprica?" Naruto's eyes widened.

"I should start from the beginning. For some time, he...has become corrupted...by a man named Bunta. No one knows where he came from or who he is, but he has become Hiashi-dono's master. He has given Hiashi-dono tasks...tasks that would turn public opinion away from Masaki and allow him to take him down. Many have been corrupted by Hiashi-dono with these tasks...and then came Caprica. The Ambassador was Hiashi-dono's 'suicide bomber' for the task. If anything happened with the Embassy, he was to detonate the bomb and destroy Caprica City with it...my lady...I know this is hard to take in, but it's true. All of it. He plans more atrocities, but I don't know what they will be. And Chiro...when Chiro objected to one of the evil deeds, he was murdered by the Bunta, burned to death by his evil powers."

The horror of what her father has done began to sink in. The teacup slipped from her grasp and fell, crashing to the floor. "No...how can this be...oh, Naruto...what are we going to do? Father's fallen so far..."

Naruto's eyes began to glint red in anger as he put a comforting arm around his crying wife. "Daniel needs to know, Hinata-chan. We can bring him down together. But you have to be strong, like that time you fought Neji. Nawaki and Namikaze need their mother."

"Yes...yes...I know...still...this is Father. I fear what would happen if he refuses to surrender. He has enough power to cause another civil war..." Hinata cried.

"We will not let that happen." Naruto gritted his teeth. "Daniel's not stupid. He won't do anything without proof."

"But what proof is there? All we have is the word of a servant...forgive me, Fukari."

"Don't apologize...my lady." Fukari said sadly. "There is evidence, but it's somewhere within the Hyuuga Compound. I don't know how we're going to do this."

"We have your memories. I could extract your memories of Hiashi's dealings and use that as evidence...after that, we'll need physical evidence to get the Kokkai to indict him for treason and murder." Naruto mused, his tactical mind running for once. "In any case, Daniel needs to know. Are you up for telling him what you told us?"

"Y-yes." Fukari nodded.

"Good." Naruto then looked down at himself. "Um. Let's get dressed first, Hinata-chan!"

"Yes..." Hinata shakily got up and Naruto pretty much pulled her upstairs into the master bedroom. Soon, Naruto was in his orange and black outfit and Hinata in a formfitting hooded jacket and pants. Both wore cloaks for this rainy night and Fukari was given a fresh one. And soon, they sped into the night for the Masaki Residence...

OOC:
For those not in the know:

-chan: Is a term of endearment for a woman or a young child. Fairly informal.
-kun: Is a term of endearment for lovers and close friends. Informal.
-san: Generic term for a man/woman. Equivalent to Miss, Mr., Mrs.
-sama: Respectful term for higher ranking persons. Equivalent to Lord or Lady.
-dono: Extremely respectful term, equivalent to High Lord or Lady. -Sama and -dono can be interchangable, but -dono signifies deep respect.

Masaki Residence, Issus

Ah, what a fine, fitful sleep I'm having. Nightmares of my previous battles danced in my head. And someone banged on the front door. Wait a minute. Front door? I woke up to hear banging and yelling from my front door.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Daniel-teme, if you don't open that door, I'll blast it down!" Naruto yelled from the front.

I scowled and opened the window, only to get rain slapped in my face. "Naruto-baka! If you bring that door down, I'll fry you!"

"Well, then wake up! I've got a matter of national security to talk about!" Naruto yelled, as I noticed Hinata and another woman standing on the porch.

That got my attention. I unlocked the door and turned off the security system with the Force. "All right! Door's open!"

As I threw on a pair of jeans and a shirt and absently nodded to the ANBU guards hovering over my bedroom doors, the threesome entered the front door. The Masaki Residence was smaller than the Mansion on Konoha, but it was still on the upper class side of things in regards to the many sleeping pictures of family and friends and the fine furniture, some of which were taken from the Jurai Palace.

I walked down the stairs to them, noticing that the third person seemed especially nervous and that Hinata looked like she was crying her eyes out. And I felt anger in Naruto. Much anger. Enough that he was beginning to grow those claws again. Geez, what a way to wake up at 0300 in the morning!

"I suppose you aren't here for small talk." I sighed. "What happened?"

"Daniel-sama...it's Father..." Hinata sniffed, dabbing her milk-white eyes with a fancy hanky. "We believe he has fallen..."

"Uh...what?" I asked dumbly. I must be more tired than I thought. I swear I heard...

Naruto scowled and folded his arms. "Wake up, baka! Hiashi's the one behind the corruption in the nation! What's more, Fukari-san here says that he was behind the Caprica bombing!"

That hit me like a sack of potatoes. Stunned, I could only answer. "Fukari-san, is this true?"

"Y-yes, my Lord. He also killed my husband Chiro for speaking out against him." Fukari nodded. "Well, the one he calls Bunta, did it, but either way, he was responsible."

I sat down on one of the sofas, taking in the ramifications. Hiashi was second to me in power and authority, as the Hyuugas are one of the Founding Clans of the nation. Even I didn't know how far Hiashi's reach went, but I know full well that it would be considerable. It would require a full vote of the Kokkai to remove him, and I wasn't sure who was with him and who was truly loyal to Coredia. Well, actually, I felt the usual suspects would side with me, but who knew how many of the smaller Clans has he intimidated or blackmailed into submission, if this report of him being on the Dark Side is true? I rubbed my forehead in thought. It does mesh with the information I have gained from the Dornalians about him meeting with the Irish Mob, but that wouldn't be enough to take him out if he can feign ignorance of his contact. I would need concrete proof of his association with Caprica's bombing, a clear-cut case of treason. And even then, if we didn't nab him in time...I shuddered at the thought of a civil war within the already fractured nation.

A chill ran down my spine as I contemplated it further. The corruption, Caprica, and now inroads into the powerful Dornalian underworld. Especially Caprica. It was all designed to slowly erode faith in the Masaki Clan, and the Bailey Kipper incident, the Cylons, Godular's proclamation during the Third Battle of Jurai, and even the screaming editorials about the Council's proclamation about supporting the Colonials even while my wife was under the Sword of Damocles of the Trial of the Century didn't help matters either. It would only take a few more incidents or another major one -engineered by Hiashi, no doubt- and I would no longer have enough support to retain the Throne and will have no choice but to give it to the one person I now know would be detrimental to Coredia's health.

So...this is Hiashi's plan. Take me down and swoop in as the new Emperor, promising to restore Coredian honor and integrity, when in reality, he'll rule with an iron fist and I'll have nothing to stop him with. I thought darkly. And in the end, making it all the easier for Nightshade or this Bunta to guide the Empire in by the back door...great. And all it takes is for me to be in the dark about everything until it's too late. Only the word of a servant of the Hyuuga Clan keeps me afloat. Well...perhaps it may be enough...just barely.

"You know I need concrete evidence of his treason to get the Kokkai to move against him." I said, mostly for Hinata and Naruto's benefit. "Is there such a possibility?"

"There may be documents within the Hyuuga vaults." Hinata said and I could feel that she was frightened about the idea of going against her father. "We would need to search the Compound, but I don't know who would be trustworthy enough to execute such a search."

"Mmm...we would need to have an outsider. Not even the ANBU can do it, because of the laws granting the Founding Clans general immunity against anything other than a Royal Order." I sighed.

"What about that Keith guy?" Naruto asked. "He did beat you in that duel a while back..."

"Allaire? And that was a fluke!" I replied, scowling. But otherwise... "He's a good choice. He won't have the emotional attachment a Coredian would have to the Clans, and he's just powerful and unknown enough to challenge Hiashi if he decides to resist the search. He defeated Kipper, after all. He'll also need your help, Hinata, to unseal any vault."

Hinata, who was being comforted by Naruto, shakily nodded, visibly fighting her loyalty to family with her loyalty to country. "I'll help him."

I nodded. "Naruto, you should do two things: help me figure out who's most likely to side with us when the time comes and use a Memory Extraction Jutsu on Fukari to ensure that we have her memories of Hiashi's evil as evidence." I ordered. "Latter first."

Naruto nodded. "Right. Got an empty holocron or something?"

"In the basement, to your left." I replied. "Door labeled Exotic Items."

"All right." Naruto nodded. "Come on, Fukari-chan. I'll need your help."

"Okay." Fukari seemed to get braver now that I was on her side and went down with Hinata.

As for me, I moved to my personal Communications Station and began banging out an URGENT message to Colonel Keith Allaire.

URGENT: COME TO ISSUS ASAFP (As Soon As F'ing Possible). SPEED IS OF ESSENCE. HRM DANIEL MASAKI.

I rarely used that signature of mine because I was normally informal in my communiques. It's usually my name, full stop. His Royal Majesty meant that I was not messing around this time, as if the cursing wasn't enough. After all, this was an issue of national (and international) security. I sent it and hoped he would receive it soon...

OOC: Your cue, EWT!

"Oh, it's good." In the fifty minutes between calling him and arrival, I laid out the documents I gained from New Dornalia, the holocron of the servant's memories, and a Royal Order to search the premises of the Hyuuga Compound, using the ND documents as the excuse.

As Keith moved to the table, he would notice a blond-haired man in a black and orange jumpsuit, a woman in formal kimono with milky-white eyes, but not blind. And me. There was no sign of the servant, for she was sleeping in one of the guest rooms by Hinata's insistence. I introduced the husband and wife. "Naruto and Hinata Uzumaki."

I began by sliding a Top Secret folder of Hiashi Hyuuga's powers and attributes to Keith. "Hiashi Hyuuga. Patriarch of the Hyuuga Clan, second only to the Royal Family in Coredian society and one of the eight Founding Clans of the nation. Member of the Hokage's Council. On the board of directors of many charities and foundations, as well as senior shareholder of many famous businesses. And Fallen. I have just learned today that Hiashi Hyuuga was behind the Caprica embassy bombing. I have also learned that he was behind at least one murder, most likely more, here in this nation, as well as much of the corruption that now chokes the life out of my people. He also has ties to the Dornalian underworld. While that's bad enough, it gets worse."

"Because of Hiashi's status, I cannot expose him without concrete evidence of his treasonous activities. I can't even go through normal channels to bring him down. If I bring him before the Kokkai, the Clan Council, with what little you see here, he'll be able to slide past it all and use it as an excuse to erode my authority and perhaps even take me out. And guess who will gain the throne when I'm knocked off?" I asked rhetorically and continued. "To successfully bring him down on all fronts, I will need said evidence. Because you are the only independent -and clean- Jedi we can find at short notice due to the nature of this mission, you are tasked to go into the Hyuuga Compound and search the premises for any and all possible evidence of his activities, under the pretense of searching for a hidden traitor that has met with the Dornalian Irish Mob. But you will not be alone."

I waved a hand to Hinata. "Hinata is his daughter and has risked her life to bring this information to me. She will aid you in the search, for she knows the ins and outs of the Compound. You will also be given a Royal Order to search the premises, which bypasses the normal channels of getting a warrant from the courts. Hiashi may protest, but even he cannot refuse a Royal Order."

"Daniel, if Hiashi's as Fallen as we think, he might resist with force." Naruto pointed out. "Keith doesn't have the knowledge to fight Hiashi off."

"That's a good point." I nodded. "Hinata, I know the Clan's Bloodline is top secret, but..."

"I understand." Hinata sighed, a little braver now that she knows what's at stake if she doesn't help. Still, she was clearly uncomfortable about turning against her father. "Keith-san. Do you accept this mission? It will mean that I must teach you everything I know about my Clan's powers to face my father should things come to it."

Hinata was taken aback by Keith's blazing eyes and harsh words. "I...I see...Come with me."

She lead Keith to the basement, where there was a small dojo-style room for training. Naruto and I followed to watch the proceedings and to make sure Hinata doesn't faint when Keith pushes himself to the limit. After all, she's a soft-hearted woman and isn't used to Woodian Training from Hell methods.

"Keith-san..." Hinata began. "Before we begin, what do you know of chakra?"

"Very well...Keith." Hinata said, deliberately chopping off the honorific. "Chakra, to put it simply, is one type of an inner supernatural energy source, as opposed to external sources like the Force. It is physical and mental energy molded together to create various effects. Those who use chakra are known as Shinobi. It is this source that we utilize to unleash my clan's power, the Byakugan, for which we Hyuugas are famous."

"The Byakugan is a Bloodline Limit, a genetic ability that no other clan would possess. It grants us nearly 360° telescopic ability and a penetrating sight that allows us to see inside the body, making us extremely dangerous in battle. I say nearly because there is a blind spot at the back of the neck. It also allows us to see all 361 pressure points around the body and strike them to disable a person's chakra system. While you don't utilize chakra and thus wouldn't be as disarmed as a Shinobi would be, hitting the pressure points would still be able to disable even you."

"Several techniques are built around the Byakugan's abilities, most of them close-contact. We utilize a martial arts style known as the Jyuuken, or 'Gentle Fist'. It is called that because even the slightest touch can injure the insides when we utilize it. Since one can't train the inner organs, it is highly damaging for even a skilled opponent. With that in mind, we've created the technique known as the Sixty Four Palms of the Hand, essentially striking sixty four of these pressure points. It is this technique, as well as the normal Jyuuken striking methods that I will use on you, so that you will be able to withstand my father's. Bear in mind that my father will not be as merciful as I."

Hinata formed a seal and closed her eyes, whispering, "Byakugan!"

Suddenly, Hinata's eyes opened and gained faint, dark, circular lines around the pupils and the veins around the eyes bulged with pressure as blood pumped into them. Hinata could now see inside of Keith's body and a good way around her except for a tiny arc at the very back of her neck, since she can't see out of her own visual nerve ending. Every organ was available to her for review. She could even see that since he was never trained in the use of Chakra, all of the pores which would normally be opened were closed. Still, like she warned, each pore was a pressure point.

She got into a stance whereby one leg was forward and one was back, and one arm was stretched forward, palm facing Keith and one arm was pulled back. She was ready.

"Prepare yourself! I will strike with normal blows first!" She ordered and struck his stomach with a blow that seemed soft, but actually felt harder than a strong punch because she disrupted the energy flow of the stomach muscles. She struck not at the skin, but through it as if it wasn't even there!

It seems he's stronger than most. Hinata thought, analyzing his insides. I will have to strike other places for him to get a feel for the attacks. And then I will utilize the 'trump card'.

She then began striking other places on his body, stopping momentarily to check the damage level on his insides.

"You crawl before you walk, Keith." Hinata said, like a teacher to her students. "Now...you noticed that each strike disrupted your flow of energy, yes? And you had to heal every blow, lest you get internal injuries."

"Now, I'm going to teach you how to control your chakra flow, since you'll need to understand just what is occurring. It's different from utilizing the Force, derived from the terminology. You call upon the Force. You mold chakra. Molding chakra means you extract the energy from your body and your spirit and you mix them together to form one energy source, from which you can use what we call jutsus."

"In other words, you combine energy produced from experience and the energy produced in your cells into one form of energy here." Hinata pointed in the center of the chest. "As opposed to the Force. That's utilized equally everywhere."

"First, shut down your connection to the Force. You'll need to do that to understand how chakra feels." Hinata explained. She formed the Ram seal (http://www.narutocentral.com/images/content/seals_ram.gif). "Form this seal with your hands. Then try to take the two energies I mentioned and concentrate it, mold it into one. You'll start to feel energy drawn to your chest when you do."

OOC: It is entirely possible to use chakra without seals, but it is definitely a good idea for neophyte Shinobi to learn that most basic of seals, the Ram seal. After all, the vast majority of jutsus require a string of seals. Think of a seal as an incantation.

As I sensed the chakra well up inside Keith, I had a distinct feeling of discomfort at giving him yet another weapon, a feeling . Even so, I answered to Keith's satisfaction. "It's possible to use the Force and chakra at the same time, although I would say that it's harder than just using one or the other and only a few really know how to use both to equal effect. I will teach you how so you can at least survive Hiashi."

Hinata saw to her satisfaction that Keith's chakra system was working, although it will take some time to train him to use it well. Time they don't have at this moment. Still...she could see that his chakra is building up, not unlike how one builds up for a Katon (Fire) technique. It seemed like a natural thing for him, seeing as he's a Fire Knight.

"Now, imagine that chakra as a stream of fire and expel it from your mouth in a breath." Hinata said and moved quickly out of the path of the fire. "Chakra needs to be released or dispelled or else it would act like a pressure cooker."

"Well, you needed to know how to at least do *something* with chakra, so you understand how it flows." I replied with a smile at the mention of the 'short one' and focused on the fire now happily eating away at the dojo, dispelling it. "I believe he's ready for the big guns."

Hinata nodded. "Prepare yourself. I will unleash the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms attack."

Hinata stood in front of Keith again and an illusion (http://images.wikia.com/naruto/images/3/35/Th_Hakke_Rokuju_Yonsho_28Eight_Trigram.jpg) suddenly formed, giving Keith the impression that he and Hinata were alone, standing on a yin-yang symbol, surrounded by green lines and strange rune-like characters. The illusion quickly disappeared. She spoke in an ominous tone as she moved into a crouching stance with one arm higher than the other and spread out. "You are now within my divination..."

"2!" She struck twice with the tips of her fingers, closing two chakra pores.

"4!"

"8!" With each set of hand and foot blows, she struck faster and faster.

"16!"

"32!"

"64!" And finally, she struck him near the chest with both of her hands, shoving him backwards.

Sixty four of Keith's chakra pores were closed. Not only did they disrupt the flow of energy around the body, but it also restricted his ability to use what little chakra he had. In addition, they were all struck on pressure points, reducing his ability to move as well as granting him immense pain.

Naruto was quite impressed. "Reminds me of that time..."

I chuckled. "Yeah. You got up what, about the same time after Neji hit you the first time?"

"Heh. Yeah. But he didn't scream, even after that." Naruto chuckled. "That takes guts."

Hinata was surprised as well, then smiled. "You remind me of my Naruto-kun. That brings back memories...but that will come later. Are you well enough to continue?"

Hinata thought about it. "This is considered one of the most devastating close-combat attacks you'll encounter among Shinobi and if you didn't have the Force as your ally, potentially fatal. As such, I would say that there's no real defense against it, except to keep your distance at all times. You can continually alter the flow of chakra, but that would only reduce the effectiveness, not eliminate it, since we Hyuuga can see that flow and react accordingly."

"Very well." Hinata attacked again, this time saying nothing as she struck Keith another 64 times. She watched Keith's chakra flow to see how he was doing under her onslaught...

"You're getting better." Hinata encouraged Keith, seeing the randomization of the flows working well. She breathed in and out and struck again. This time, she sought to work against the randomization, striking where Keith would switch flows, something she knew her father would do...

I whistled quietly as I watched the training. Keith was sure getting a lot better at fighting off the 64 Palms...which frightened me a bit. How much more powerful can this guy get?

To my chagrin, Naruto sensed my discomfort and chuckled. I gave him a glare, only for it to fail as he continued to laugh.

"128?" Hinata asked, clearly uncomfortable with that. After that, her chakra reserves will need replenishing, having done three devastating attacks already. She took another deep breath and nodded. "Very well."

She struck once more, adding another 64 blows to Keith's body...

Chastisized by Keith's words and feeling like a schoolboy again, I only looked down at my feet. "Yeah...I know..."

"Aw, don't worry. I would have backed you up no matter what." Naruto slapped my back, grinning. "Better a clumsy but well-meaning guy with good friends than an evil bastard for an Emperor."

"Thanks...I think." Was that a compliment or an insult? Knowing the #1 Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja of Konohagekure, probably both...

Hinata thanked Keith for the ration bar. She ate it quickly, feeling the restoration of energy in her body. Then her hands glowed a slight green color. "I would like to check your vital organs for damage before we continue. I'm a healer, after all."

Hinata expertly moved her hands up and down Keith's body, using her Byakugan combined with her healing powers to locate and fix any injuries. Soon enough, he was cured of any potential issues.

"Do you wish to do any more or do you feel you're ready to handle my father's attacks?" Hinata asked.

"Very well. When he is occupied with you, I will seek out the evidence." Hinata nodded. "But rest now. We will execute our plan at the crack of dawn."

I nodded. "The guest rooms on the ground floor are unoccupied, if you need it."

T-minus 2 hours till mission begins

We awoke, determined that it would be this day that ended the reign of terror Hiashi inflicted upon the galaxy. After a quick breakfast, Naruto embraced Hinata and told her to be careful as she and Keith prepared to move out.

"Naruto and I will be preparing the political fight for the Kokkai from here." I told them. "Perhaps the Godulan agents on Tantis may have discovered something by now. If Hiashi's Fallen, it won't be a stretch to believe he's made contact with Nightshade or other Imperial members. They may help us there."

And Hinata joins the ever-growing number of Coredians who dislike the rapid acceleration of Woodian-made ships as she was pressed back into her seat. At least she had the noble grace to not complain about it, like a certain 'Short One' would...

=====

Shortly after Keith and Hinata left, Naruto and I moved into the Communications Center of my residence and then began making contact with the Godulans...

After the fall of Tantis and the acquisition of the unspoiled military databases, the Godulans that took to rooting through the vast spread of information swiftly realized that the Tenetians had two major issues: 1) They liked shiny things entirely too much, as their covert development files showed with remarkable gusto. 2) Their dirty secret supply was so bloody gargantuan and poorly catalogued that rooting through the skeletons in their closet was like digging through a mass grave occupying similar dimensions to a medium-sized planet.

When one sought to gather specific bits of information, the latter issue proved particularly frustrating. Even with the prodigious processing power of the Godulan Legion set to the task of appropriating the information for their own ends, only a third of the information had been fully appropriated. Such wasn't to say that the effort was not worthwhile, however. Indeed, the Avatars had sufficient information on their hands even now to give them a significant tactical edge against any Tenetian force. Tactical protocols, ship schematics, weapons yields, and most importantly... programming linguistics.

Granted, Kal'Shazzar's sacrifice had given them sufficient information in THAT regard to enable the Godulans to prance willy-nilly through the Tenetian communications network without even being noticed by the Tenetians themselves. To this day, an unfortunate Tenetian colonel truthfully professed his innocence for causing the five hour span of every mention of 'Lady Nightshade' in the Tenetian newsfeeds being converted to 'The Bitch Queen'... from within the confines of his sensory-deprivation cell.

Of course, there were bits of information that the Godulans found oddly troubling as well. Bits and pieces of it came in at first. 'Contact Made With' and 'Transaction Completed' and all sorts of documentation with some sort of Coredian aristocrat. The little bugger wasn't named though. The dossier must have been constructed some time after the initiation of whatever relationship took place between the Tenetians and 'That Rat Bastard'. Of particularly troubling importance was the transfer of a rather disconcerting number of Coredian singularity bombs.

The Correlators went bonkers over that. The Tenetians had singularity bombs of their own, but apparently these were sufficiently different that one could make connections from the detonation of a Coredian Singularity device and its Tenetian counterpart. Correlation suggested that the singularity bombs were not for destruction per se, but more for defamation purposes. Correlation also suggested that perhaps this treasonous element might have been responsible for certain 'compromising situations'.

So it was that when Daniel Masaki initiated a covert communication with the Godulans (strangely enough funneled through the Godulan consulate on White Diamond), the Godulans finally had a name to tack into their search protocols.

A nice little picture of the Hyuuga patriarch with a shit eating grin, a nice little listing of the supposed charges, and lets just throw Hiashi's name in there on the offchance his dossier got put in.

24 hits.

Dossier was number 2.

Complete with comprehensive listing of activities.

694 hits.

Processing. Processing. Processing.

Analysis completed.

Son.

Of.

A.

Bitch.

So it was that approximately fifteen minutes after the Coredian Emperor-Turned-Ex-Emperor-Turned-Emperor-Again-God-Dammit-Make-Up-Yo-Damn-Mind sent his tentative inquiry, he recieved a response along the lines of "KILL HIM. KILL HIM WITH FIRE. MAKE HIM DEAD. END HIM. HE DREW THE CARD THAT READS 'GO DIRECTLY TO HELL, DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS'. TACK HIS NAME ON THE 'THIS FUCKER IS DEAD' WALL. DIVEST HIM OF HIS VITALITY. REVOKE HIS LIVING LICENSE. DID WE MENTION KILL HIM WITH FIRE?"

Along with a small sampling of information tying him to the whole 'Make Caprica City Go Kablooie' plot, and a 'Better yet, can WE kill him?' query with a strangely disturbing bambi-eyed smiley face.

Naruto rolled around on the floor howling with laughter at the Godulans' communique while even I had a fit of the giggles. Even our cooled relations didn't stop them from sending hilarious messages!

After the laughter died down, a super-deformed avatar of myself was sent back to give the Godulans the return message.

'Sorry. Someone else has already taken that number. However...*evil grin*...I will like all related information to Hiashi Hyuuga's treason in my hands ASAP. I will break him before the Kokkai whether he lives or dies."

*cue image of Hiashi being lynched by the Clans.*

In response came a single picture showing the Hyuuga Patriarch practically making out with Lady Nightshade and a message reading "They were gonna blackmail him in the event he had second thoughts. No honor among douchebags, hmm? Still, even on secured channels this might not be the safest method to transfer data. The rest will have to come by courier. You'll get the information when it comes."

"Hahahaha! Almost enough to take him out alone!" Naruto laughed at the picture.

My avatar chuckled and replied: "We await your courier, then."

Hinata agreed to the instructions. "After we land, the Compound is a private lot about twenty minutes north from the spaceport. As the speeder flies, of course."

The Hyuuga Compound was heavily armed and armored, as all compounds are wont to be. There were hidden laser cannons on every corner and Branch Member servants patrolling the grounds (but no droids, strangely). And some of them had the Byakugan activated, ensuring that there was no way anyone would come in without being detected.

Luckily, Keith had the Royal Order and with that, was allowed inside.

"Yes sir." The servant nodded and led him inside to meet Hiashi (http://www.narutoimagens.com/naruto/imagens/naruto807285067.jpg) himself.

Even more than the Masakis, the Hyuuga Clan embodied opulence, as noted by the expensive furniture and house furnishings, meticulously maintained not by droids, but by the Branch Members of the Hyuuga Clan in virtual slavery. The Compound was definitely the embodiment of everything a Woodian hated about aristocracy.

"Sir...an emissary from the Emperor comes." The servant announced as Hiashi drank his morning tea, sitting in his favorite comfortable chair.

"Ah...Mr. Allaire." Hiashi welcomed Keith with a false warm smile. "What brings you here?"

He noticed the gold-trimmed paper in Keith's hand and his smile slowly went away. That Order...no, it can't be! Masaki couldn't have found out so quickly! This ruins everything!

Fortunately for Hiashi, he didn't let his thoughts or feelings show before this commoner interloper. Perhaps he could get rid of him...

"But of course, Mr. Allaire." Hiashi smoothly replied, taking the Royal Order and reading it. Indeed, Masaki has become more like his father than he'd like to admit...and that wasn't good for Hiashi's health. It was time to execute the Plan...

But first, this commoner who dares to sully the fine carpets of the Hyuuga's household would have to be removed. Permanently...

First...

"Leave us." Hiashi said to his servants quietly. They fled quickly, sensing his growing fury.

Secondly...

Suddenly, a large amount of Dark Side energy was released from Hiashi as the Byakugan activated at the same time. Then Keith was shoved by a powerful telekinetic blow. As he struck first, Hiashi found it strange that Keith's chakra flow was randomizing itself. But no matter. Masaki will have a present on his desk very soon. A message that he would no doubt understand...

The Bunta stood up from his meditation chambers right when Hiashi threw the Dark Side Energy at Keith. ::And so it begins:: He slowly paced over to retrieve his cane (http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a172/Huntaer/lightweapons/VormansStaff-1.jpg) and wobbled over to the battle which was just initiated.

He peered down from the steps and saw Allaire facing Hiashi. "I see you have found us, it is about time. I was wondering when the Jedi would send someone, and who. Tell me Colonel, how much do the Jedi know of our operations? I seriously doubt they are ready for what lies ahead for them..."

Hiashi was severed at the positions the lightsabers cut...only for the body parts to disappear into smoke and be revealed as three pieces of perfectly cut logs. Kawarimi! Then Keith found himself poked in the back by Hiashi's more-deadly-than-Hinata's 64 Palm Strikes, intending to end it quickly once and for all...

The bunta glanced over at Keith and noted that he didn't respond to his comment. No matter, it still serves as a distraction for the young Jedi. "Good Hiashi, good! Keith, I would've thought you could react better than that! And surely you know that you don't have to shout out your powers like the pathetic Coredian Jedi..."

Hiashi was surprised and angered when he saw that Keith survived something that should have killed him outright, even managed to teleport to the other room! He seethed with quiet fury, the kind only an aristocrat could create. Whoever taught him how to manipulate chakra in this manner was going to die...

He immediately teleported, his own lightsaber flashing to sever Keith's head while he recovered...

At the Foyer, the duel began to heat up as Hiashi appeared before Keith. He put away his lightsaber and made a few quick seals with his hands. A faint spherical light surrounded the arena before it disappeared. Now when Keith tries to teleport, he would find that he can no longer do so. Of course, that included Hiashi, but no matter. Hiashi would gladly kill this commoner with his bare hands if necessary.

Hiashi's lightsaber sprang to life again. "I see you have gained knowledge of chakra, boy. Tell me. Who gave you this knowledge? Masaki?"

Meanwhile, Hinata entered the compound from one of the hidden entrances, only to find several frightened servants huddling in a closet.

"Oh! Hinata-sama!" One of the servants cried in fear. "Hiashi-sama...he's gone mad! He struck a bearer of the Royal Order!"

Hinata had believed her father still had good in him...if misguided, and that the Royal Order would make him see sense or at least stop his madness. Up to now. Her heart broke as she finally saw the truth. Her father has fallen to the Dark Side...

"Thank you, Gurela-san." Hinata said softly. Now, for the sake of the country, she knew what must be done. "Get as many servants as you can out of here! Go!"

"But...we aren't allowed..." Another servant cried.

"It is my orders you must follow now. No..." She spoke. She made a seal and poked the foreheads of the servants. The seals vanished. "You are free. The jutsu to break the Cursed Seal is Dragon, Horse, Tiger, Ram, Bird, Tiger. Tell all the servants to leave, and free them as well. Now, go!"

"Yes, Hinata-sama! Thank you!" The servants cried and ran away.

This wasn't the way I expected to free the Branch House...but perhaps its for the best. Hinata sighed. Now to find that evidence...

She headed down to the family vaults and began opening them to find evidence. It took her a good while, but she managed to find something. And it horrified her. Manifests and orders, potential locations for targets, and even security codes, all pertaining to the singularity bombs. Plus a host of laundered money deposits. Everything that Daniel needed to bring Hiashi down. She found a folder to put the information in, and then soon headed back out.

After Daniel, she needed to find her cousin Neji, the Senator from Konoha and free him...

=====

Little did Hinata know that while Hiashi ducked the burning fireball, he sensed her inside the house and used his Byakugan to see what she was up to. To his fury, she was snooping around the family vaults! No! So it was her after all!

"You whelp! You son of a bitch!" Hiashi snarled to Keith, stalking out of the window like a ravenous lion. "Everything I have done, I have done for my daughter, the Heiress to the Clan! And now even she betrays me!"

In his maddened state, he realized something. "Ah...so you and Masaki have collaborated to kill me and have turned my own flesh and blood against me! I presume you have blackmailed her into giving up the secrets of my bloodline as well! No matter, after I deal with you, she will be...disciplined!"

He said it with such venom that there was no doubt in Keith's mind what he would do to her...

Were it anyone else, Keith's assault would have done horrendous damage, perhaps even death. But in the midst of the explosions, the smoke and dust began to swirl, introducing Keith to the 'absolute defense' of the Hyuuga Clan, the Eight Trigrams Heavenly Spin technique. aka Kaiten. Few realize that chakra can be used telekinetically, although not as effectively as the Force because of the energy requirements, but the Hyuuga Clan's fine-tuned control of the inner energy source has allowed them to produce a an 'impenetrable' shield of chakra that reduced the explosions to firecrackers.

Hiashi's fury allowed the chakra shield to expand as he spun, acting like a chakra-powered tornado that would sweep Keith off his feet. Then while Keith was in the air, Hiashi (would toss) several Dark Side-backed kunai to impale him, putting his powers behind the throwing knives to decrease the ability of the young Knight to deflect it TK'ly...

The Bunta cackled as Keith used his Geokinetic move, "yes, most excellent choice Colonel. Hiashi, shame on you. Surely you're not going to allow a former slave of Darth Ebolus to beat you?"

Hiashi was utterly pissed by Keith's ability to stand up against every single one of his attacks. But unfortunately for the Fallen Hyuuga head, there was was a volcano erupting beneath his feet, Keith's explosions still occuring outside his shield and to top it all, his promise of killing Keith is falling apart before his very eyes.

So what did he do? He decided to flee, despite Bunta's evil "encouragement", if one could consider it thus. He dispelled the anti-teleport ward with a "cancel" jutsu and then disappeared before his chakra was used up...

The Bunta nodded at Hiashi's retreat, "guess it's time for my exit too." With that, he pushed a button on his belt and teleported away from the battle to meet up with Hiashi. As he teleports, he turned his head and looked at Keith, "we will see each other again Colonel... Let me leave a word of advice for you: Nothing is what it seems. What you uncover here is merely... The tip of the ice burg."

Internal Security Bureau Boston Field Office, Boston, Massachusetts, Earth SSR

The raid on the McSweeney house had brought a commendation from Los Angeles itself, for apparently Special Agent Johnson's fieldwork had revealed vital data which pointed to a conspiracy of some sort. The specifics were hush-hush, and Director Lew only bothered to give him a medal for "Honorable Conduct" and a free lifetime $50 reloadable gift card to MegaMart, S-Mart's local competitor, plus cowboy boots.

Fitting, since the Director was a bit of a nutcake. Johnson shrugged. He had work to do. It was his nature to accept medals, not in his nature to lord over others with them. His dad had raised him austerely, and he was determined to do his job without fuss.

Thus, he was following up on another Irish Mob case related to the McSweeney Gang, this time about union racketeering involving a pension fund and good ol' fashioned crystal meth. Some people never learned.

As he worked, he got a phone call. "Special Agent Johnson, Internal Security Bureau Anti-Smuggling Unit. What can I do you for?"

"Special Agent Johnson?" I asked as we waited for the Godulan courier. "Emperor Masaki here. I need your help concerning a certain mutual interest of ours. Would you mind taking the fastest ship to Issus..."

My pager warbled and shook rapidly on my belt. I used my other hand to grab it. Oh...shit. It's happening!

"Scratch Issus. Get to Bastion ASAP. I'll call you there." My voice was in Command Mode. Where's that Courier when I need it?

"It's begun..." Naruto looked worried.

"Yeah..." And to make it worse, we didn't know whether Keith succeeded or not. "Well, hopefully the courier will know where to go."

We quickly began heading out of my house...

*cue Godulan Courier*

=====

Hinata's mental voice was etched with a mixture of fear and determination. I-I see. Meet me at the Hotel Ootori, in the commercial district of Ravelin. That's where I'll be.

=====

Hiashi's message soon reached out to every Head of every major Clan in Coredia, declaring an emergency meeting of the Kokkai and the location and time of said meeting, but giving no more specifics. After looting a safehouse for cleaner kimono, he began figuring out what to say at the meeting. Something about Masaki going down the Dark Path, sending an assassin to try and take out a famous son of Coredia. Complete with enough honey to make his known supporters lap it all up and breed discord against Masaki's supporters. He sent another message, invoking Section 8 of the Kokkai laws. It declared a closed meeting, preventing anyone but Head Clans from interfering. Even if it won't deter Keith and the (to-him) blackmailed daughter, the ANBU will. And even if he did manage to fight off the ANBU, there was still a certain Captain that he trusted enough to slow him down enough to pull a Palpatine...

"Special Agent Johnson?" I asked as we waited for the Godulan courier. "Emperor Masaki here. I need your help concerning a certain mutual interest of ours. Would you mind taking the fastest ship to Issus..."

My pager warbled and shook rapidly on my belt. I used my other hand to grab it. Oh...shit. It's happening!

"Scratch Issus. Get to Bastion ASAP. I'll call you there." My voice was in Command Mode. Where's that Courier when I need it?

"It's begun..." Naruto looked worried.

"Yeah..." And to make it worse, we didn't know whether Keith succeeded or not. "Well, hopefully the courier will know where to go."

We quickly began heading out of my house...

*cue Godulan Courier*

"Mutual Interest." The words rang in Johnson's ears with an alarming intensity that spoke volumes. It was obviously something to do with his revealing of the conspiracy, obviously. And, it was obviously something that no less an eminent figure like Daniel Masaki, a man who was worshipped by some as the "Hero of the Revolution" in New Dornalia and scorned by some others in New Dornalia as a manipulative devil, needed to pay attention to. And if it was that....it was something big.

Johnson immediately thanked the Lord he had his nanotech augmentations, and then proceeded to requisition a fast shuttle--a Toyota STC-5000, not a Government Issue Gagarin II--to get to Bastion, as well as a number of good weapons, the data he had acquired, and a few biocell packs. M6 Shotgun. Portable Lascannon. A standard issue SMG. ISB-modified Walther PPK. And lots of exotic ammo. This would get ugly, and ISB always preached the classic Dornalian ideal of "never go unarmed." It would be silly to Johnson, but he was used to guns, and this seemed serious enough to warrant such an arsenal.

Thus, he went there quickly......

"Over here." Hinata waved to Keith. Soon, they entered a private room. "I have the other bits of information. Once Daniel gets here, he'll let us know where the meeting will take place. It'll probably be a closed-door meeting and even I don't know where those take place."

Eventually, news of a Kokkai meeting began to filter into the news media and it was enough for a Breaking News story. "Kokkai meeting to be held! Location currently unknown!"

Godulans did not put much stock into pomp and circumstance when it came to completion of FTL transit. If one manning a radar station had blinked, he would have missed the arrival and thought that the exceptionally tiny vessel had already existed there for several days. Of course, when that little vessel sent a message to the planet requesting permission to land in order to deliver critical documents to 'The Coredian Emperor Person Of The Week' folks took a bit more notice. Luckily, they had been informed of the impending arrival, though not exactly what it was carrying, and gave it permission to come planetside.

All of this had not taken more than thirty seconds, and such was fortunate, because the ship was coming in anyway. One would have pondered that the Godulans were seemingly afraid of stopping out in the middle of a place where people could target them from the ground for some reason.

As it approached the planet, it began to change form and compact into itself, shifting from the small form of a Godulan Slaymaster fighter into a more humanoid form just as it entered the atmosphere. Such was somewhat hidden by the shielding that was erected to deflect the atmospheric friction, but when such faded and the creature had successfully braked to a 'reasonable' velocity, the shielding vanished and revealed its form in all of its screaming glory.

To think that Godulan M'lekk'torr agents did this even before they went Kythonic. Those bastages got to have all the fun first. But now Naberius was allowed to understand the awe inspiring exhultation of a full orbital dive. And his glee was evident in what he was screaming on the way down:

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA *kaff!* ew, bug AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!

This scream was of course terminated as his fall seemingly stopped instantaneously approximately two-tenths of an inch from Katrina's flower patch, ten feet away from Daniel Masaki as he left his house en route to the Kokkai. The Avatar studied the flowers for a moment, levitated to feet to his left, then stood up with the grace of a panther. He held up a small datapad for Daniel.

"Ding Dong, Ped-Ex package for 'Tazer-boy', courtesy of Prefect Maximillian Foster."

"Hello, Naberius." I deadpanned as the flowers fainted from being so close to death. Naruto laughed instead. "Thank you so much for giving me the goods...and 'Tazer Boy'?"

My deadpanning ended as I cracked a grin. "Never a dull moment with Godulans. By the way, I'm heading to Bastion myself. I'd like you to come along. It might be interesting."

"That is why they sent me," Naberius replied with something resembling a bow, hovering an inch above the ground had not altered his ability to move in the least. His adult form bore little similarity to the adolescent form utilized during his training, but the voice and inflection were impossible to misplace. "I am Godulan insurance in the event that things do get interesting."

"Very well. Let's go." I nodded. As we arrived at my private hangar and warmed up one of the shuttles, I got another beep and then pulled up my datapad. Keith was still alive, and what's more... "Oh, FUCK!"

Before Naruto could answer what's happening, I shoved the datapad in his hands. He too, cursed and handed it to Naberius as we got in the shuttle. I directed the autopilot to take off and head for Bastion. With the hands-off approach I was now able to open the package the Godulans gave me. What else can I stab Hiashi with...?

=====

Meanwhile, Keith headed back to the compound with Hinata in order to grab some more goodies. After a few moments of searching he was dismayed to find out that the security camera tapes were already wiped clean, presumably by a remote signal of some kind. Disappointing, but there was still more than enough evidence on hand to take care of Hiashi. Especially when he headed down to the vaults again to find more juicy information. They included:

Chain-of-custody forms signed by Tsunade, but hidden in lofty language that didn't actually tell what was taken into custody. It helped that there was particularly sloppy handwriting, meaning that the Hokage was in one of her 'sign this, sign that, sign this' moods at the time.

More bank deposits to various parties, including a couple of senators and Clan heads. Clearly, they were bribes of some kind or other. And one particularly juicy tidbit that will soon have Daniel in a tizzy:

There was a document detailing a bunch of private police organizations owned by Hiashi's supporters. It seems that, burning through his lofty language, the private police organizations have come under the orders of Hiashi himself and may be used at any time...

Naberius took hold of the Coredian datapad detailing Keith's situation and intentions. His face remained stoic and unperturbed, he held up the datapad to Daniel and said: "Does this thing play Tetris?"

Then he saw Daniel's current actions and cocked an eyebrow. "Why are you trying to open my datapad like a box? It is a very sophisticated piece of equipment with a very sophisticated and plainly-labeled 'on' button. See? Its right there." He reached over and poked a big red button labeled 'ON' and the miniature database came to life, detailing every single Tenetian Record regarding Hiashi's treachery, complete with summaries, implication analyses, correlation charts, and an overall summary that boiled down to, as one analyst put it: "This mofaka's gonna HANG."

"No. But there's some other games on it." I said. Wait, it was a datapad, not a package? Oh, silly me! Speaking of that, Hiashi's definitely going to hang. Oh, yes, he will. Between these documents that my sister so lovingly gave me and everything Keith found, he's definitely going to be lynched by the mob.

What's worse is that he wasn't alone. In the datapad were the names of all the people who have been corrupted by Hiashi and his Bunta ally: seventeen senators, twenty prominent business & industry leaders, seven scientists working for Vector, and the biggest immediate threats: three Jedi Masters, six Knights, nine Padawans, several ANBU squads and their Captain Galen, 1 General Bel Iblis, 1 Admiral Basque, several lower-ranking officers and several minor but important Clan heads, three of them known to have private security armies. All of them are in Hiashi's pocket.

Betrayal. Using the highest echelons of the government and the military as its pawns, the Dark Side has taken root inside the very walls of our nation. Now it will seek to crumble us all unless I preempted it quickly enough.

=====

As the Clan heads (and many heirs) started arriving, the Elite-class Star Destroyer Megalodon V lumbered into orbit over the planet Bastion, carrying Admiral Basque and Jedi Master Harry Blayden.

"Well, this is your stop, my friend." Admiral Basque said. "I wonder what is the nature of this emergency."

"Perhaps I will tell you when we're done." Master Blayden said as he made eye contact with the rest of the bridge's crew. Then he began walking out of the bridge, brushing past the Admiral as he did so.

As Harry headed down to the Kokkai, the Admiral opened the secret letter that the Jedi Master has given him. Everything has been prepared for you. When the time comes, do your part and you will be rewarded. If things go badly for us, you know where to go.

"Indeed I do, Master Jedi." Basque crushed the paper in his hands and threw it into the nearest wastepaper basket before clasping his hands behind the small of his back. "Indeed I do."

=====

Hiashi was pleased to note that he has received acknowledgements from all of the favors he has called in this morning. The stage was now set for the confrontation with the Emperor himself. The pawns were in place. Now was the time to act.

The location of the Kokkai was a little-used former Imperial palace in one of the few remaining patches of isolated green on the planet, surrounded by a thick forest that will soon prove its worth. Here, Hiashi, having completed all his preparations, now awaited the 450 members of the Kokkai, the Clan Council that's essentially the upper house of the Coredian legislative government, the Senate being the lower house. This was the true power behind the throne of the Masakis, the one that even the Emperor must persuade to get anything done in this country. More and more frequently they have convened after a lull of twenty years in response to the Senate's inability to get matters of domestic and international affairs done quickly. It was they, not the Senate, who have decided to take on a skeptical wait-and-see approach to Lord Atrox's offers of an alliance. It was they who (barely) managed to avoid a declaration of war against the Cylons and allowed the peace treaty to pass, even though it's still not been ratified by the Senate. And today, it was they who will decide the fate of the nation and the path it will choose.

And if all else fails, Hiashi will bring them to their knees and declare himself Emperor.

The first to arrive was Senator Neji Hyuuga, Head of the Branch House, hurrying to the Kokkai on his uncle's summons. "Hello, Uncle."

"Hello, Nephew." Hiashi put on a disappointed face. "There is much I must tell you, and little time to tell it all. You see...Hinata has betrayed us."

"Betrayed?" Neji carefully showed his shock. He didn't want to believe it, but it sounds like he must. "How, Uncle?"

"She's in league with elements within the Kokkai...to assassinate me!" Hiashi purred, his silky tongue lying to Neji's face. "Please...for the sake of this nation, help me...and you will be freed of the curse."

Now, Neji was truly shocked. His heart was torn for his uncle and his cousin. Alas the carrot proved too much to overcome. He nodded. "Yes...I will help you, Uncle."

"Very good." Hiashi nodded. "Stand by my side when the Kokkai convenes. Watch for insidious elements."

"Yes, Uncle."

Now, to deal with the matter that was the geokinetic and thermokinetic Knight Allaire...Hiashi knew he was good at range with his powers and he suspected that he was equally good at close combat, especially with that strange technique that was used to block his Sixty-Four Palms. Not to mention that that explosion and shrapnel technique was quite deadly. Hiashi began to brood on the matter. He would have to catch the Jedi by surprise, somehow. Looking at the resources at hand, Hiashi began to smile evilly. He had an idea...

=====

After landing on a pad reserved for me, Naruto, Naberius and I had to pass by the honor guard that was hastily formed for me as I headed into the limo. I instructed Keith and Hinata to make for best speed to the Kokkai's meeting place, complete with map instructions to the former Imperial palace. The same set of instructions was sent to Sgt. Johnson.

Time passed and city soon gave way to countryside. Scratch my earlier assessment about Bastion, it had more green patches than I knew. But I disgress. We soon arrived at the palace, where already, the media shouted and snapped pictures. I noticed that the Suou and Hitachiin heirs seemed more comfortable, even flamboyant under the spotlight than I and chuckled at the Fujioka girl's disapproval of her friends. Otherwise, I could only sigh as I entered the gaggle of social elites.

There were quite a few more than just the 450 Clan Heads. They even brought their heirs for the emergency meeting, as if teaching them what it means to be in the Kokkai. There was Ootori's three sons and Shiki's two children. There's that Evin heir, who looked distinctly uncomfortable at his mother's argument with a rival businesswoman. And then there's...yep. In the flesh.

"Hey, Dad. What's going on?" Travis Masaki asked, followed by Nawaki, Naruto's older son. "All I got was an emergency call to report to the Kokkai immediately. Not one of my friends around here seem to know anything except that Hyuuga's called it."

"You'll know what's up soon enough." I said. If only you knew, kid.

"By the way, do you sense it?" Nawaki asked, a bit confused.

"Sense what?" I reached out and...hold on... "An anti-teleport field?"

Naruto frowned at that. "And a pretty strong one. It's covering the whole palace."

"Geez...he doesn't waste any time, does he?" I muttered back to him. "Stay on alert kids. I sense something's amiss here."

Now, where are those three? We only have a few minutes before it begins...

After landing on a pad reserved for me, Naruto, Naberius and I had to pass by the honor guard that was hastily formed for me as I headed into the limo. I instructed Keith and Hinata to make for best speed to the Kokkai's meeting place, complete with map instructions to the former Imperial palace. The same set of instructions was sent to Sgt. Johnson.


Special Agent Johnson landed quickly, renting a car and stowing most of his considerable arsenal in the truck and the recesses of the auto according to good ISB concealment doctrine. Parking as close to the former Palace as possible, he then opened up his coat. The suspenders he wore under his suit contained his Walther PPK, and three extra magazines. Hopefully, knowing the power of the gun, he'd only have to use the magazine already loaded.

Closing up his suit coat, he donned his trademark ISB sunglasses--purchased at the Company Commissary for USD$75 and a good prescription--and checked the status of his augmentations. Speed Enhancements? Check. IFF sensors? Check. Microfibral Muscle Augs? Check. Cloaking Augs? Check. Aggressive Defense System? Check. Vision enhancement? Check. Regeneration over a period of time? Check. His aug suite was good, and at full charge. He stowed some Bioelectric cells in his pocket, and then used his Dornalian Government ID to get through, moving into the old Imperial palace to meet up with Danny. With a salute, he said, emphasizing his title, "Good day, your Highness. Special Agent Johnson, Internal Security." His IFF sensors detected a field of sorts around...nothing good, perhaps.

The Bunta dematerialized inside a secret location within the Kokkai, which was previously agreed upon by him and Hiashi. He looked at his watch, sat down, and went into his meditative position. He was to wait for Hiashi to deliver a special package, one which would provide the necessary distraction for the Jedi. Of course, not that it would work, according to the Bunta's visions. He foresees a smoldering city... And a duel between the Geokinetic and Thermokinetic Knight Allaire. In the end, only one will remain standing...

"Thank you, Agent Johnson." I nodded. "We're about to start, so if you'll take a seat...I'll call you in when it's time."

My datapad warbled again, this time, it was two new messages from Keith. One, the finalized list of charges he intends to bring forth against Hiashi. The other...made my own blood run colder than ice.

I knew it! Hiashi intends to lay seige to the place! I thought darkly. I looked around, then spotted a general. "Minoru, has Admiral Pellaeon arrived yet?"

"No, Daniel. I think he'll be late." General Haninozuka shook his head. "You look pretty ill..."

"I'll be fine." I said quickly. Good. If the Admiral's late, that means I can fire off a quick message to him.

LCTN CMPRMSD. EXPT ACTN. *sends sensor readings*

and two words to Keith:

ALRT MKRYK.

Might as well have overwhelming support, especially if Hiashi manages to pull a Star Destroyer or something out of his ass.

Now it was time to go into the chambers, fanfare playing.

"All rise for the Emperor!" Someone announced as I entered with Naruto and noticed that three of the High Council were already standing at their respective seats. The kids found spots near the front and slid in. I noticed that some of the more perceptive Jedi and Shinobi members were also feeling a sense of foreboding. Good. They've sensed something amiss, just as I have.

I took my seat at the head of the chambers and then everyone else sat down. "This emergency meeting of the Kokkai has now come into session. Hiashi Hyuuga, I see it is you who have called this meeting to order. What is the meaning of this?"

Hiashi stood up. He didn't miss the lack of any of his proper titles and neither did the court. Nevertheless, he began weaving his oily words. "Your Highness...esteemed members of this court. I have come to you with grave news. This morning, while I was preparing my morning breakfast, I was attacked. Attacked by a most foul assassin! And one skilled in the Dark Side of the Force!"

He began weaving a tale of a grand battle with this 'dark sider'. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. The theatrics are impressive and it made his known supporters gasped at the appropriate moments.

"I barely escaped with my life! Even now, I fear the darksider walks amongst us!" Hiashi roared. "I sense you are skeptical, my friends, but I have proof! And this is the proof!"

A surprisingly well-spliced video was displayed for us to see. It showed the 'assassin' attacking Hiashi seemingly without warning. At the end of it, dialogue seemed to show who the assassin was.

"What brings you here?" Hiashi asked.

"By order of the Emperor, I come...to kill you." The assassin said emotionlessly, with the distinct voice of a certain Woodian Jedi.

The assassin blew fire at Hiashi and then seemed to flee out of a broken window.

The room continued to be silent and I could sense a few flickers of anger and disbelief staring at me. Hiashi was pretty good, I can tell you that.

"I didn't want to believe it. How could the Emperor, who I have been loyal to him and his family for many decades, wish to kill me?!" Hiashi howled dramatically. "What could I have done to make him wish my death? And how could he have hoodwinked a Woodian of all people to do so? Unless...unless...he shook hands with the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Atrox to cement an unholy alliance? You remember that? You remember how the Council has given the Sith a doorway into our nation! You remember how the Emperor pleaded for Atrox to be given a chance! Well, your plans have been exposed, my Lord! You plot to kill me and perhaps the rest of the Kokkai as well? I have no other choice...but to initiate a vote of no-confidence before this Kokkai to remove a very grave threat to our country!"

"Hear! Hear!" Someone shouted.

"Let's get rid of him!" Another Hiashi supporter yelled.

"No! Let the Emperor defend himself!" 'Granny' Katara shouted. "Our laws dictate that the accused must be able to defend himself!"

"My lady Katara...the evidence is before you. What can be more insidious than one of our own going against the very laws you presume to uphold! Perhaps the law should be changed!" Hiashi smoothly suggested.

"Hiashi, perhaps we can discuss that later, but for now, the law is clear. The Emperor should be allowed to defend his actions." Lord Ootori replied. "After all, this is indeed a very serious accusation. Emperor Daniel, will you please explain your actions against Hiashi Hyuuga?"

I stood up, shaking my head. He didn't know it, but Hiashi just shot himself in the foot. "Honorable members of this Council, I regret to inform you that I indeed sent a Woodian Jedi to the Hyuuga Compound very early in the morning!"

"You see! Even he admits it!" Hiashi roared.

"BUT!" I shouted the crowd down. "BUT! You know full well that I cannot do this without a good reason. Therefore, I wish to inform you that a few days ago, a member of the Internal Security Bureau of New Dornalia has given me some incriminating documents informing me that someone within the Hyuuga Clan has turned traitor and made contact with the Irish Mob!"

"Masaki, you should have informed me first." Hiashi smoothly replied. He gave me a look. Is that all you can find against me? You're dead, boy.

Oh, this is just the beginning, old man. I gave him back a look. I went down to the holoprojector and put forth the documents confiscated from Sweeny's hideout. "Perhaps I should have, Hiashi. I shall beg forgiveness, then. As you can see, these are bank statements and Holo ISP locations corresponding to a location within the Hyuuga Compound. And I also have a witness to inform you further of these charges. Will ISB Special Agent Johnson please enter the chambers!"

=====

Taylor and Jacob Masaki heard the summons and motioned for Agent Johnson. Taylor grinned. What Daniel told them through the datapads were ugly to say the least. "You're up. Go get 'em."

They entered the chambers with the Agent...and somewhere near the palace, Keith Allaire was watching it all on his own datapad...

He quietly sent the sensor reading to Daniel's datapad, along with the words, "TRNSMT: RAISE PSHLD," to the Emperor's position. He hoped that Daniel would be able to do it without being noticed, as he waited for the summons...
A quiet flickering occurred on my datapad. As Hiashi continued to slander me, I discreetly touched it. Hmm...the Megalodon? It isn't supposed to be here. Is Admiral Basque going to pull something? Better not take chances.

I discreetly tapped the line to the nearest planetary shield generator station, ordering it to raise it if the planetary surface is fired on and to use rapid-raising methods. The guy in charge of the station won't be happy about draining the civil grid to raise the shield near-instantaneously, not to mention having to keep the initial power in capacitors, but orders were orders. And hell, I'm sure the Woodians wouldn't mind me taking another leaf out of their Book of Efficiency...

"BUT!" I shouted the crowd down. "BUT! You know full well that I cannot do this without a good reason. Therefore, I wish to inform you that a few days ago, a member of the Internal Security Bureau of New Dornalia has given me some incriminating documents informing me that someone within the Hyuuga Clan has turned traitor and made contact with the Irish Mob!"

"Masaki, you should have informed me first." Hiashi smoothly replied. He gave me a look. Is that all you can find against me? You're dead, boy.

Oh, this is just the beginning, old man. I gave him back a look. I went down to the holoprojector and put forth the documents confiscated from Sweeny's hideout. "Perhaps I should have, Hiashi. I shall beg forgiveness, then. As you can see, these are bank statements and Holo ISP locations corresponding to a location within the Hyuuga Compound. And I also have a witness to inform you further of these charges. Will ISB Special Agent Johnson please enter the chambers!"

=====

Taylor and Jacob Masaki heard the summons and motioned for Agent Johnson. Taylor grinned. What Daniel told them through the datapads were ugly to say the least. "You're up. Go get 'em."

They entered the chambers with the Agent...and somewhere near the palace, Keith Allaire was watching it all on his own datapad...

Agent Johnson wasn't used to large crowds. He could do debriefings, and deal with bigwigs. But when it came to briefing a large crowd of bigwigs, especially an agitated one on razor's edge, with the fate of Coredia in the balance......well, this was a whole another league.

Stepping up to the podium, or whereever he was supposed to speak, he coughed and then said in his Texas drawl, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am Special Agent Johnson, New Dornalian Internal Security Bureau Anti-Smuggling Unit. I am here to brief you on the information I collected and which is now being presented to you."

Pointing to the documents on the holoprojector, Johnson spoke.

"Now, esteemed members of this Kokkai, I'd like to provide a little background related to these documents before I begin."

He then put a slide into the holoprojector of a scruffy mug shot. The man looked like Denis Leary, and he mug shot was evidently taken by the Boston PD.

"This is John McSweeney. A little background on him, before I continue. I'll keep it brief. Mr. McSweeney is a known troublemaker around the city of Boston. He is wanted on charges of trafficking illegal drugs, mainly crack cocaine, crystal meth from Japan and produced locally, and also making money by extortion, numbers rackets, and smuggling of arms tax-free. He runs a gang based in the South Boston area, one of several Irish Mob gangs and one of the biggest in Boston. He's also a furry, but that's besides the point."

Coughing, he then put the original documents back, and said, "These documents were recovered in a raid on his domicile. We in the Anti-Smuggling Unit, New Dornalia's premier force to combat organized crime, had acted on a tip from the Coredians that he was asking someone to bribe Vector Industries. Said would-be briber was later found dead. In addition to this, the Emperor oversimplified slightly. The Triads, specifically the United Bamboo Gang, have also thrown in their lot, dealing through McSweeney's gang in some sort of partnership."

Johnson then got to the point.

"They are particularly revealing. As the Emperor has stated, these are bank statements to secret bank accounts in the Cayman Islands, Switzerland and the planet of Hajarra, a known banking destination for gangsters where bankers tend to be tightlipped. These bank statements show accounts of deposits, wire transfers and withdrawals corresponding to a suspicious pattern of activity, presumably involving transfers of funds to be used by the gangs later on in whatever schemes their partners thought of.

There are also e-mails from rotating IPs that were traced to a secure server in Coredia itself--as the Emperor has revealed, this is no doubt the Hyuuga Compound--that was used as a go-between between McSweeney and some unknown contact. Mr. Hyuuga was not only part of a conspiracy of treason involving the New Dornalian underworld, but may have been involved with someone else. He only called the other individual Mr. B, but I think this is enough to say Mr. Hyuuga did not have Coredia's best interests at heart."
He seemed to struggle over the name for a bit, not out of hatred, but out of sheer foreignness.

At this time, the Phoenix decided to show up, about ten minutes late. Admiral Pellaeon immediately noted that something was amiss, more than the sensor readings he gained from Daniel. "Is that the Megalodon?"

"Yes, sir. Logs indicated that it just arrived to drop off a few Kokkai members." His XO said.

"I see. Hail the ship." Admiral Pellaeon ordered. As soon as he got the call. "Basque. You really shouldn't be here. Is something the problem?"

"No problem, Gilad." Admiral Basque replied. "I am simply in the system to watch the Kokkai from here. The High Council has requested that I be here."

"Ah, very well." Because of Daniel's warning, Admiral Pellaeon didn't trust Admiral Basque's words. And the Megalodon looked a mite too close for an ordinary orbit. Still, he would have to play along until something happens.

=====

As the crowd murmered about Hiashi's dealings, a hologram entered the Kokkai, revealing a seated Admiral Pellaeon. "My apologies, my friends. I've had to deal with other matters before coming here. What is happening?"

"Well, Admiral, Hiashi seems to think that I've decided to assassinate him. I'm simply trying to defend myself." I replied.

"Oh? I see." A poker face was displayed on the aged face of the Admiral. "Well, this should be interesting for these old bones. Carry on."

"Yes, carry on. How do you answer this charge of being associated with the Irish Mob and other Dornalian gangs, Hiashi?" I asked.

"Thank you, Admiral, Emperor Masaki." Hiashi bowed. He turned to the Agent. "Agent Johnson, I must thank you for bringing this matter to my attention. I understand why you think that I may be implicated, but I swear before this Council that I had nothing to do with such matters. I assure you, my friends that I will immediately get to the bottom of this matter. It is a stain on my honor and I shall take full responsibility for this. But you, Masaki. Even after your evil has been exposed, you still continue to besmirch my honor! You still seek to spit in the face of law and order! Is there anyone in this court that does not now believe that Masaki has gone drunk with the power he wields against us! I demand a vote of no confidence immediately!"

"I second the motion!" Lord Fuuma suddenly exclaimed.

"I third it!" Senator Gatou grinned maliciously.

More murmuring occurred as Hiashi's supporters, including a few surprise Clan heads that I hadn't expected to turn against Coredia, agreed to execute a vote of no confidence against me. I noticed the youngsters looking angry, including young Travis. Several families were arguing amongst themselves. Damn, it looks like this could turn into a generational battle.

Hiashi appeared to be revelling in this imminent victory. He knows there was no way I could refuse a vote of no confidence and not look like a power-hungry Emperor. It was time to pull out the Big Honking Space Guns, as Admiral Easton liked to say. "Ladies and gentlemen of the Kokkai. Before I agree to this Vote, I would like to clear up one small matter."

"What is it, Masaki? We don't have all day!" Hiashi snapped, suddenly not smiling anymore. You wouldn't dare...

"There is the matter of one Chiro Hyuuga. A distant cousin of yours, I believe." I smiled. Oh, yes I will. It is done. You're going down, old man.

"What of him? He has gone on vacation with my permission." Hiashi replied. If that is the case...then you will fall with me!

"A vacation...six feet under?" I accused.

"You dare to insinuate that I would murder my own cousin?" Hiashi growled.

"I dare." I rose to my feet, eyes blazing with determination. "I dare accuse you of killing Chiro Hyuuga! This matter has been brought to my attention by your own daughter, Hinata Uzumaki-Hyuuga!"

"So...you turned her against me..." Hiashi glowered dangerously. The chamber doors suddenly opened, revealing Hinata. Her Byakugan was blazing. Even Naruto couldn't believe that his wife was this furious.

"You have done that to yourself, Father." She glared back. The Kokkai was at the edge of their seats, watching this surprising turn of events with anticipation. "Furthermore, I declare the entire Branch House of the Hyuuga Clan to be freed, now and henceforth, starting with Neji!"

The crowd, including Neji, gasped. All of the Kokkai have been waiting for this day! It was the last holdout of a bygone era, and now it would be destroyed.

"You cannot do that! You have no right!" Hiashi roared.

"As Heiress of the Clan, I do declare thus that I have the right!" Hinata shot back. "Slavery is a crime! For that reason, I declare myself Matriarch of the Hyuuga Clan and immediately order that all Branch Members to be free of the Cursed Seal!"

"Then you are no longer my heir! I disown you here and now!" Hiashi roared. "Get out of my sight, you traitorous wretch!"

Lord Tohno stood up. "Hiashi, that's going too far! She's your own daughter, for Kami's sake!"

"She's no daughter of mine...She is dead to me!" Hiashi growled furiously, stabbing Hinata with his words. Her defiance quickly crumbled as she sobbed at her father's hateful words. Naruto suddenly moved to hold her up and embrace her, then glared angrily at Hiashi, his eyes beginning to turn from blue to red.

Neji got up to help her, but a sharp glance from Hiashi stopped him. "Uncle..."

"Don't you betray me as well, or you will die. Remember that." Hiashi seethed.

"Hiashi! That is enough!" Tsunade ordered.

General Haninozuka stood up as well. "Emperor Masaki, Lord Hyuuga, what in the name of the Force is going on?"

I answered quietly. "Does the name Halson mean anything to you? What about the Caprica Incident?"

"You can't be serious!" Hiashi tried to laugh it off. "You dare accuse me of something you committed?"

"Caprica Incident?" Old Katara Ikari stood up. "Daniel, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that I accuse Hiashi Hyuuga of murdering countless innocents when he detonated a singularity bomb at the Coredian Embassy on Caprica City!" I spoke quietly, but my words stunned the crowd as if I shouted at the top of my lungs. "I accuse Hiashi Hyuuga of high treason and sedition, of plotting to bring down the very nation he has sworn to uphold! I will give him his one chance to confess here and now!"

"I confess nothing! Where is your proof, then, boy?" Hiashi sneered. Now the Jedi members of the Kokkai could sense darkness leaking out of him and frowned angrily. Even the kids' hands were twitching for their lightsabers.

"It's over, Hiashi. It's over." I smirked. "Colonel Keith Allaire, Jedi Knight, I order you before the Kokkai to bring forth the evidence to all his crimes!"

"No..." Hiashi growled quietly.

Hiashi fumed with anger and hatred at Keith's laundry list of charges. "You can't possibly expect the Kokkai to believe something like this coming from a commoner..."

One of the heirs, a boy named Tamaki Suou, ran his fingers through his hair like a male model as he stood up, then placed his wrist on his forehead dramatically, as if he was Hamlet making his famous soliloquiy. "My dear Council! A battle rages before us! A man with commoner standing has risen and challenged the Evil Noble! Slaying him with words of Justice, he is returning goodness and peace to the fair land of Coredia! What words can describe this battle of titans?"

"We should not listen anymore to this evil snake's words! Let the Foul One choke on his own words!" Young Suou declared, pointing straight at the Hyuuga head with an accusing finger. Elder Suou just shook his head at his son's melodrama.

Chuckles came from those who knew the lad was a drama queen, although Hiashi's glare quickly made them shut up. Another Clan member, the cloaked Patriarch of the secretive Taishou clan stood up. "Although a little melodramatic, the Suou boy is correct. Hiashi Hyuuga has been the most respected man in the nation for many decades. To see him Fall like this...it's a disgrace to our nation!"

Taylor looked a little smug, pleased at seeing the guy everyone knows was stuck-up, snobbish, slavedriving old money taken down a few pegs. Jacob however merely gave the Patriarch a glare of disapproval, as did many Clan members and heads.

"Ootori...you were a favored friend of mine. Tell them it is not true..." Hiashi said to his old friend.

But the stern eyes of the Ootori head and a furious glint in his glasses told Hiashi that he too wasn't pleased. "You dare call me friend when you have betrayed everything this country stands for? I turn my back on you...Hiashi. You are no friend of mine."

A you-are-dead glare was swiftly given to Ootori, but Hiashi moved on to pleading with his old allies. Akimichi, Inuzaka, even the old Aburame clan has turned their back on him. Sakura, representing Uchiha for her on-a-mission husband, was obviously furious. The other Pillars of Coredia would have nothing to do with Hiashi now. Slowly, it dawned on Hiashi that there were fewer supporters in this Kokkai than he realized, once the charges have sunk in. Still, he shared a few glances with those who still supported him. Soon...very soon...

"The evidence is clear enough! Let us get rid of this villain!" Someone yelled.

"Patience, my friends!" I called, trying to calm the crowd down. "He will get his just desserts very soon. But I sense that Colonel Allaire has more to deliver to this Kokkai. Colonel?"

As all this occurred, Special Agent Johnson smiled. He was always someone who liked seeing justice being done in the most honest sense of the word. His upbringing under a strict Baptist childhood, a time spent in the Texas Rangers and now his ISB job all fit rather neatly into this world view. Now, s he saw Keith Allaire issue a damning series of allegations in addition to his own, Special Agent Johnson couldn't help but be riveted by it all. Yes, it was taking a long time, but something about it made him listen.

It was good as well. Hiashi seemed ready to shrug off his mob connections, something his comrades in the Anti-Smuggling Unit and his own experience recognized as a usual ploy by influential people who got mixed up with mob types. Now he couldn't escape.

The uproar, however, was a bit concerning. Thus, Johnson found he was glad he was augmented and had his PPK...

A wave of shock and anger and even revulsion at Hiashi's audacity rolled through the Kokkai. Four trillion credits in bribes! And they were powerful and trusted leaders of the government!

"Now we know what happened to that 13 trillion credit black hole we've been trying to fill up." Taylor mused.

"Yeah..." But I wasn't really listening. It was bad enough that the Senators and Judges were in Hiashi's pocket, but what personally shocked me was that Sandler was involved. Sandler of all people! I stood up angrily. "Chancellor Jonathan Robert Sandler...how could you? You were my father's roommate! You graduated with him at the University of Coruscant with high honors! You knew he hated corruption with a passion. You even worked with all those anti-corruption bills with him! Not only did you betray everything you have stood for...you also betrayed his trust!"

If I was so inclined to give him a Death Glare, he would be writhing in pain on the floor by now. I instead settled for an angry and hurt glare.

The 65 year old Chancellor stood up quietly. "Lord Masaki...please forgive me...and please offer Andrew my forgiveness as well. I will explain. I was blackmailed, forced into accepting bribery from Hiashi. You remember the time my granddaughter Reida Samson was kidnapped by a gang of pirates?"

Travis' memory began churning as the name rang a bell. "You mean...that girl with the Shukumei no Tama was your granddaughter?" (Destiny Jewel)

"Y-yes, young one, although her mother, my daughter, never thought much of me." The Chancellor nodded. "At the time, Hiashi contacted me, told me to essentially vote for that distasteful Jorgen Act bill that was being debated at the time. When I did so, he 'compensated' me for the trouble, but my granddaughter was lost to me nevertheless. He would then threaten me with the loss of my other grandchildren if I didn't comply with his 'suggestions', even going so far as to threaten to use his powers on them when he knew that my family had no strength against such power! Please, please forgive me, Lord Masaki!"

My anger began to fade away as the full story came out. Then I sighed heavily. "I forgive you, Jonathan. But I will expect you to resign effective immediately and turn yourself in later. I will ensure that your family is protected in the meantime."

"Yes, yes...of course." He bowed gratefully then looked fearfully at the seething Hiashi, who was making a mental note to make good on his dark promises once this was over.

"You can now add blackmail on top of those other charges, Keith." I said to the Colonel. I began to allow him to go on, but sensing that the Kokkai was in a lynching mood, I shook my head. "But I sense that the Kokkai is ready to take out the trash. Can you hold off the rest of the charges for later? For the record, ladies and gentlemen, they do include 844 counts of money laundering, racketeering, 3 counts of obstruction of justice and 3 counts of destruction of evidence. Not to mention violating the Royal Order when I sent Keith to search the Hyuuga Compound, which carries a double charge of contempt for the Royal Throne and treason, and sedition."

"Thank you." I said to the Colonel. I turned to the Kokkai. "I am now going to call for a vote to Impeach Hiashi Hyuuga!"

Hiashi merely smiled thinly. "So...it's come down to this, then."

"So it has." I replied with disappointment. "If you had devoted your energy towards more productive assets..."

"Save your breath, Masaki." Hiashi sneered. "As for the rest of you, I give you a warning. Impeach me at your peril!"

To Hiashi's fury, I became sarcastic. "Oh, right. And now it comes the classic way of trying to make us heel! Another charge of sedition! Voting is open...NOW!"

"Don't push it, Masaki!" Hiashi warned.

"Don't push me, you son of a bitch or you'll regret it!" I counter-warned sternly.

"I second the motion to impeach this bastard!" Naruto yelled.

"I third it!" Sakura Uchiha yelled just as loudly.

"You're going down! Fourthed!" Kiba Inuzuka grinned.

"Fifthed!" Minoru Haninozuka roared.

"Sixthed!" Admiral Pellaeon smiled thinly.

"Seventh." Hiroshi Morinozuka, Minoru's close cousin and best friend replied softly.

"As my last act as the head of the Sandler Clan and for the sake of the nation...eighth." Ex-Chancellor Sandler said quietly.

"Ninth!" Tsunade Senju growled.

"Tenth!" Konohamaru Sarutobi yelled.

All the way up and down the aisles, the Kokkai voted to impeach Hiashi and strip him of his authority, as well as to confirm Hinata as the new Matriarch of the Hyuuga Clan. Only a few remained silent, the few who I sadly knew would fight with him once Hiashi starts up the shit that's obviously approaching. Fuuma, Gatou, Andross, Iblis, and Amur. I sighed. Fuuma, Andross and Amur were powerful Jedi/Shinobi in their own right. We would probably have to take them down personally. Iblis was another saddening factor. He was the General of the Fifth Marine Corps, which did concern me. Gatou wasn't surprising. After all, he was always somehow able to squeeze past the corruption charges. Well, not this time!

And finally ("Take him down!" Cried the head of the small Yagumi clan.) it was done. I pointed directly at the ex-Patriarch. "It is finished, Hiashi! You are under arrest!"

Hiashi merely smiled coldly. "Not yet, it isn't. Neji...kill him!"

But Neji just stood there. Throughout the Kokkai, he was tormented by Hiashi and what he had done in his name. And he was also tormented by the fact that his own Uncle was a Fallen One. But now...seeing just what Hiashi has done, it incensed him, and even if he should risk his life for this one act of defiance, it shall be done. He looked into his uncle's eyes. "No, Uncle. I will not betray my Emperor."

"And so...now even my nephew betrays me." Hiashi growled, making the seal to destroy him. "You'll be the first to die today!"

"Aaah!" Neji suddenly screamed, clutching his head in excruciating pain despite the cries of the Kokkai.

"Neji!" Hinata yelled. She sped for him and suddenly touched him on the forehead after making the necessary seals. Ninpo: Cursed Seal Release!

Several dozen lightsabers and not a few blasters were ignited/leveled at Hiashi. My own pointed at him. "Hiashi...I am offering you this last chance to surrender. You can't take all of us at once!"

Hiashi sneered at me, pressing a hidden button in his sleeve. "No, indeed I cannot...but they will! ANBU, to me!"

Two things happened at once. First, the fallen ANBU, lead by one Captain Galen, suddenly surrounded him using the quick-step Shunpo move which to ordinary eyes would seem like teleport, but it's not. Three squads, I could tell. When I sensed them, I could tell that some of them have been replaced. More murders...

Then the three aforementioned Fallen Jedi also ignited their lightsabers and jumped to Hiashi's side.

"Now it is you who must surrender!" Hiashi ordered. "If you do not, I will lay waste to this Kokkai! It will certainly be a tragedy! Imagine, a bomb ripping through the place, killing everyone!"

"You've gone so far down the Dark Path that you have forgotten one thing. Where the leaves dance, the fire burn. The shadow of fire will flash over this country, and the leaves will grow once again." I shook my head at his surprisingly feeble attempts to cow us. "Guess who said that!"

Hiashi snorted. "Why, the dead fool Sarutobi."

"Exactly. Even if you kill us today, Coredia will never let you rule over them. Besides, I knew you have a division of troops ready to kill us all in the nearby forest. I knew you had a Star Destroyer in orbit ready to finish what's left of us." I smirked. "And so, I have made preparations to counter every one of your moves. You have lost before you began spouting your lies, Hiashi."

"We'll see about that!" Hiashi growled. "Squad 1, kill all the heirs! Squad Two, defend me! Captain, you and Squad Three keep Masaki and the others busy!"

And then...all hell broke loose.

Squad 1 immediately began attacking Travis and company, but they were met by a wall of clones beating lightsabers at them. Naruto! His clones retaliated hard, giving enough time for the kids to scramble to more defensible positions.

"Travis! Get all the non-Jedi members and the little ones out of danger!" I ordered in between dueling my former bodyguards. "Call in...Minoru! What's the closest base to here?"

"Antiem!" Minoru replied quickly, dodging a slash from Amur. "They have the 37th Battalion!"

37th of the Fourth Corps...Directly under Minoru. "Good enough! Go!"

"Right! Everyone who's not a Jedi, Shinobi or don't have blasters...GET OUT!" Travis yelled, using the Force to amplify his speech. "Guys, cover them!"

As those who didn't have any martial skill of note fearfully followed Travis' orders and streamed out, the kids began to put up a stiffer defense, helped by an extremely scary Tsunade and Sakura, who were using their incredible strength to turn darksiders into clubs to smash at other darksiders.

Meanwhile, Hiashi tried to slink away from the main chambers in the chaos. He needed to get the special packages to his boss, fast!

=====

"The order comes." General Valin Bel Iblis said as he cut off his hologram. "Now it is time to wipe them out. All of them."

"Prepare the artillery." He ordered his troops. "Cut off all escape routes to the palace!"

Artillery pieces began to rise up and target the Palace as the mixture of heavily armed traitor private police and fierce Dornalian gangsters, as well as Sith-influenced (for only Sith powers could dull their minds to accept commands without question) soldiers of his own began to advance and surround the Palace. They aim to cut off all possible escape routes, including the air as speeders and a couple of gunships rose to patrol the area.

"Now we wait for the signal..." He said quietly.

=====

"Red Alert!" Admiral Basque snapped. "Helm, lock down the bridge, immediately! Prepare to target the Kokkai!"

"Yes, sir." The XO replied. There was a dull look in his eyes, as if he's being controlled by some puppet.

Then Chief popped in, having consulted with his counterpart on the Phoenix. "I'm sorry, Admiral. I'm afraid I cannot allow you to go any further."

Admiral Basque only grinned darkly. "Oh, but you can. 'The logic is undeniable.'"

"Ack! Wh-what's going on?" The Chief began panicking as it appeared a black mass was covering him. "Admiral! What did you do?"

"Oh, just a little trojan horse to ensure you don't interfere with me." The Admiral grinned. "How are you doing now?"

Try as he might, the Chief couldn't struggle against the surprisingly powerful virus. The Chief then transformed into an evil version of himself, pale skinned and hair slicked back. The virus then erased itself so that no one else could use it. Chief now spoke in a Hal-9000 kind of voice. "I am fine, Admiral. What are your orders?"

"Let's see...Bombard that bridge. We'll cut off any escape by ground. Then we'll--what?!" Admiral Basque grinned, but stopped as the ship suddenly shook. The Phoenix was bearing down on it! "Pellaeon..."

"Admiral Basque." Spoke a dangerously calm Admiral Pellaeon over the intercom. "I'm quite disappointed that you would dare sink so low. All crew of the Megalodon, the Admiral is relieved of duty effective immediately and is under arrest! Power down all systems manually!"

"I think not, Gilad...Chief, reroute all life support to the bridge and vent the ship." Admiral Basque ordered. "Then retaliate on the Phoenix!"

"As you wish." Chief replied monotonely. As the crew began working to follow the true Admiral's orders, all the hatches on the ship began to open, spacing those caught by the winds and axphyrating those who were in the interior of the ship. Then the turbolasers automatically tracked the Phoenix and began opening fire, causing the shields to flare.

"Basque..." Admiral Pellaeon tightened the grip on his cane in anger. "I will bring you down myself for this treachery!"

"You can try, old friend. But you won't win." Basque declared and then cut off the comms.

"Admiral. The planetary shield is going up." The dull-eyed sensor operator reported.

"So quickly?" Admiral Basque asked. Indeed, he saw that the shield was going up already. "Damn! I would have liked to bombard this idiotic planet! Well, no matter. I'll just have to use the Shattermissiles and tachyon torpedoes..."

And so began a devastating spacebattle between two of the most powerful ships in the Coredian arsenal...

Colonel Allaire watched in silence as Hiashi confirmed his Dark Side Spiral. Fortunately he had come prepared, and quickly shoved a ration bar down his throat as the various Clans seconded the charges. As long as Keith used his abilities to force his body to devote a small amount of attention to digestive issues, his chakra would remain somewhat stable for a while, rather than suffer the slow, gradual depletion of the random chakra manipulation. Which would be sure to piss Hyuuga Hiashi off...

As soon as Hiashi activated, or rather attempted to activate, the Cursed Seal against Neji, Keith sprang into action, using Force Speed to replicate most of the benefits of teleport. Both red and green lightsabers blazing, combined with liberal doses of Force Push to assist the effectiveness of Keith's strikes for intended purpose, to knock any traitor ANBU out of his path for a couple of seconds, he went straight after Hiashi. The ANBU were of little concern to him; Hiashi was. That Hiashi wanted to escape only made Keith's task, luring Hiashi outside of the Kokkai, and clearing a path for the civilians, easier, surprisingly enough...
Hiashi moved quickly over the opulent marble floors. He was heading towards one of the secret compartments he knew would contain the Bunta in a side wing of the Palace itself...but Keith followed too closely to easily get to him. He would have to slow him down...

Rage filled Hiashi's frame as he turned around and hurled torrents of Dark Side lightning at Keith before igniting his lightsaber and slipping into Makashi. The Efficient form would do well for his purposes here...

Still fueled by his rage, Hiashi erected a shield that deflected the marble debris, then he focused on the air, transforming it into invisible daggers that were sent towards Keith. He followed up by ripping out parts of the wall and hurling them at him. With each action, he moved closer to the Bunta's lair...

Special Agent Johnson got ready for action as he heard the Clans concur with the charges as well. The old lawman knew when something bad was going to happen, and when Hiashi siced the turncoat ANBU upon the assembly and things went bad, as that Allaire guy decided to go after Hiashi, he decided to get down and whip out his PPK. With a click and a hum, the PPK's rounds activated; far from being ordinary .380 ACP shots, they'd now become something different entirely.

Armed to the teeth, he decided to act fast. Upon Hiashi's command for Squad One to go after the youths--why for the life of him Coredians always put youths in danger was beyond his ken, but he shrugged; different strokes for different folks--he leveled the pistol at the miscreants, who were already being battered by Tsunade and Sakura. Only muttering upon the sight of the women, "Reminds me of my ex-wife and my mother-in-law," he shook his head, sighed, and pulled the trigger. It wasn't the first time he had to use the PPK on a bunch of thugs who were heavily armed, and every time he did so, he wondered why people couldn't just sit down and talk these things out like they did in his hometown. Guess not everybody was as paitent as Mr. Rainey and Mrs. Jackson. Especially with offscreen rumblings and the occasional dislodging of debris, presumably from that Allaire fellow and his chase.

Aiming for the middle-rear of the pack so as to minimize the effects upon the Good Guys, the resulting .380 ACP shot proved more than meets the eye. Doctor Edelmira Tennenbaum Orrozco, New Dornalia's premier mad scientist extraordinare, had fulfilled a requirement for a specialist round to be used by the Internal Security Bureau. Looking like a standard bullet, it was actually a metal shell concealing an assembly comprised of elerium and other materials that, upon arming and impact, would explode with the force a large explosive significantly greater than the size of the .380 shot would allow. To the Coredians and Keith, if he was still there, it would resemble a flash of blue light and a sharp crack of thunder, as the explosion would rock the ranks of corrupt individuals eager to commit wholesale murder. The explosion wasn't overly large, but it would certainly be big enough to "rip a new one" in the enemy ranks if Johnson's shot worked.

Just to make sure though, he rushed into the ranks. Activating his Cloak Augmentation, he then proceeded to rush into the enemy ranks and begin delivering roundhouse kicks and sucker punches where needed.

OOC: http://www.ps2fantasy.com/games/deus_ex/guides/deusex.html

Aggressive Defense System is here.

---------

Outside, the head of the Dornalian contingent and his cohorts manuevered their men into place. Strangely enough, they were rather disciplined for gang members.

Mainly because this group of gangsters was led by elements of the Elven Freigauneren. Legendary gunmen from the Workers State, these individuals always did move with a militaristic precision that resulted in high demand and popularity for their services. And though Hermann Dunst, commander of the Freischutzen with him, did not look military--he was dressed like a good number of the rest of Hiashi's Army--did not look like the type, he certainly acted militaristically and with great care. And it was such that his men deployed with the best weaponry possible, ready to get at any escapees.

Dunst winced. Women and children no doubt would be in there, no fact any Freigauneren enjoyed facing. Indeed, it was against Freigauneren policy to shoot children. And indeed, were it not for the fact John McSweeney paid him a significant sum of money to match whatever his patron would have given and promised that his own Irishmen would do anything especially egregious--if it came to that--Dunst would have turned down the Irishman and abandoned his bloody patron to his fate. As it was, he was here, and would fight as honorably as circumstances permitted. Emphasis on "As circumstances permitted."

Thus, it was with this in mind he waited. Staring down the scope of an A280/Type 2 Blaster Rifle, modified with aftermarket accessories such as Accurizing Crystals and other goodies, he waited. Adjusting the windage out of habit and breathing slowly, he waited. And getting into the "zone" of a combat, he waited.

As did his men. It remained to see if Hiashi's fellow thugs--and McSweeney's rough killers, as it were--would behave as calmly.

The Bunta saw Hiashi running towards him, followed closely behind by Keith. The Bunta slowly got up and lowered his head, glaring at Keith. He used his cane to pull him up from his sitting position, and wobbled upwards. His hand slowly stroked the skull n the top of his cane, thinking quickly as to what he'd do next as the two battled. He knew that if he were to get Hiashi as far away from Keith as he could so that they can continue their battle, distracted from him detonating the bombs...

The Bunta lifted up his cane and shoved it towards the ground, expanding the bottom part so that it was now the length of the average staff. Then, he pressed a button, and a loud "hiss" came out as a black blade appeared from the end of the handle where he would lean upon when he was using it as a cane. It was now a full fledged Lightsaber War Scythe.

The Bunta stood up as Hiashi moved closer too him, but was still distracted by the ever persistent Colonel. The Bunta growled, and moved his hands forward with his War Scythe still in his hand. He moved them sideways and a gust of wind erupted from underneath. He then pulled his hands backwards and the wall in front of him fell down with a loud "BANG," revealing Keith and Hiashi's battle. He called upon the gust of wind again and pushed it towards the unsuspecting Jedi Knight...


OOC: Since y'all were off line when I finished this, I don't know if any of this is appropriate. CW suggested that the Bunta helped Hiashi fight off Keith for a wee bit so that he might distract Keith enough and get the bombs. So if anything needs to be edited, just give me a shout if you want it changed.

OOC: Could I have a momentary pause in the action for a bit so me and CW can talk and incorporate Naberius into the present hilarity?

Hiashi scowled as the tons of rock was flipped up and over at him. Fully immersed in the Dark Side, he gave the slab a heave, shoving it away with the Force. Then he focused his powers on Keith, willing him into a Force-induced stasis field, hopefully to slow the Knight down as Hiashi followed up with his lightsaber. Little did he know about Keith's willpower, among certain other things...

Amazing how swiftly he cracked under the pressure, is it not?

Well, that is Dark-siders for you. No concept of patience or grace under pressure. Still, it is a bloody shame that we did not have a chance to have our own shot at presenting damning evidence against Hiashi.

On the bright side, I get to show these mortals what a Godulan trained in their own arts can do. I wonder if they will regret the decision to allow my training.

Naberius stood quietly, watching the chaos erupt around him with a wan smile of serene contemplation. An ANBU agent, failing to recognize him from the childlike form he had taken during his 'education' rushed up to him, likely seeking the glory of destroying a Godulan Avatar. It was unfortunate that when the agent's knife struck the Avatar's chest, that every single one of the bones in the Agent's arm shattered in what seemed to him like one momentary swipe of activity. The pain was horrendous, so much so that he could not even gather the breath to scream in shock and agony. His own breath caught in his throat, preventing the warning howl to the other agents, and Naberius turned to 'look' upon his opponent with that same infuriatingly unchanged smile.

Probably

With a thrust of his hands, he sent the broken Agent into another that was engaged in combat with one of the other representatives. Both continued on the path designated by Naberius' throw, stopping only when told to do so in no uncertain terms by the far wall. Heeding the wall's reasoned argument by collapsing to the ground in a jumble of broken bones and shattered dreams, the ruckus caused by the removal of two of their agents seemed to get some of the other ANBU interested in the Avatar's termination.

Naberius was already moving to the northwest side of the room. His legs moved sinuously, a parody of human movement as he levitated a mere inch from the floor. An ANBU leapt in front of him, making signs for what appeared to be a form of earthquake strike jutsu at first, but swiftly turned into a sprawling spread-eagle howl of surprise as a shadow clone of Naberius materialized directly behind and above him, angled just so that the clone's landing worked as a giant body-stomp of the offending ANBU agent, driving him into the ground and along several feet of pristine carpet. The agent attempted to raise his seriously rug-burned face to curse at Naberius, but the clone leapt and planted the heels of his feet into the back of each of the agent's hands, and the agent's attempted curse instantly turned into a shriek of pain as both of his hands were rendered useless in an instant.

Similar situations befell other ANBU agents that attempted to cross his path, looked like they might cross his path, or were anywhere within a square kilometer of his path. An Avatar-Clone would materialize next to one ANBU, already sweeping his leg around for a roundhouse kick to the back of the neck, while another would materialize in front of an airborne ANBU perfectly situated to spear the unfortunate agent into a far wall so hard it cracked the reinforced stone walls. Each time, the clone would vanish almost instantly afterwards, reappearing elsewhere to wreak havoc on another ANBU. These clones appeared one, two, three, or many at a time, all coordinating their attacks to exact maximum damage against each ANBU that found him or herself targeted by the unpredictable onslaught.

And Naberius simply continued to the northwest corner...

OOC: I *think* I had permission to RP a few casualties for CW, but I might have misinterpreted something.

Everyone was quite surprised at Naberius' sudden display of Kage Bunshin expertise, rivaling that of Naruto. Of course, none more so than Naruto himself.

"Hey! No one outdoes the Clone Master and gets away with it!" Naruto yelled loudly and brashly, pointing dramatically at him. Just as an ANBU tried to skewer him while he was ranting, two Naruto clones appeared and kicked his face together. His comrade tried to avenge the insult by attacking and poofing away the clones, but four more appeared and skewered him in the chest altogether.

Then, of course, came the Uzumaki Naruto Barrage, kicking and punching two ANBU up into the air, then heel-licking them down with enough force to match the rumblings of Keith's earthquake-inducing attacks in the side wing. Speaking of that, I wonder how much pain is Hiashi is in now. Marble had to be pretty nasty on someone like him!

I was in the midst of my most severe duel, against Lord Fuuma himself. An excellent combination of Makashi and Soresu kept him from killing me as I used footwork and efficient parries to talk him down. "Fuuma...you were given amnesty after Orochimaru was killed...why betray us now?"

Fuuma looked bitter. "Because Hiashi promised what Orochimaru could not: to restore my clan to its former glory."

"You think killing me would help with that? He's a Darksider. He'll use you and discard you as soon as you're no longer useful. Come back to us..." I almost pleaded.

"It is too late for me, Masaki...I, Yachuri Fuuma, am the last of the Clan." He replied angrily. "I have nothing left to lose! It will be your blood or mine today!"

"So be it." I sighed heavily. Then, Fuuma saw my eyes grow from merciful to harsh and felt fear in his heart. Suddenly, I switched styles to my devastating Juyo and began to press him back. Staccato, seemingly random and yet powerful strikes that were somehow connected forced him on the defensive. Try as he might, he couldn't break through my weaving blade and he backed into a corner. A warning bell then rang in my head and I was forced to shift my blade to counter a furious onslaught by Andross, relieving Fuuma from being killed.

"I will take this one." Andross replied to Fuuma between saber locks. "Get rid of the others."

Fuuma nodded, then as I was pushed back by another series of strikes, he moved away to find easier prey than me, taking care of James and Walter, two of the ANBU who were still on my side, and proceeded to dispatch them as easily as I have schooled him. So intent was he on killing them that he didn't notice anything else...

=====

"Who the hell is that guy?" A fallen ANBU growled, referring to Naberius.

"Probably Godulan. I've heard they had techniques far beyond that of our own." Another replied.

"Hmph. We'll have to take him out together."

Squad 3, having been nearly halved by Naberius, proceeded to attack him as one, slashing at any clones that appeared with their lightsabers. Captain Galen himself noticed that the Godulan was heading towards a power conduit. Perhaps to do something nasty with him. Well, if his squad couldn't deal with him, he'll just have to show the Godulan what it means to fight a Captain!

Just as Fuuma raised his blade to strike down the two ANBU, he sensed a warning, but too late. A lightsaber burned through his chest and into his heart and the last thing he he saw before he shuffled off the mortal coil was an apparation of a young boy as he faded away...

The flash of light caught the eyes of the Masaki Twins, who decided to comment.

"John's first combat kill? I'm so proud!" Taylor cried happy tears as he watched the corpse fall onto the ground. "That's one for the record books: youngest Masaki to get a combat kill!"

Jacob was more formal and shuffled over to the corpse in between dueling the increasingly fewer enemies. He bowed quickly and muttered a prayer, before speaking. "Thus falls Yachuri Fuuma, last of a proud, if dying clan."

Taylor snorted. "You'd think he devote his energies to knocking up some pretty lady instead of trying to off us."

"Aye. Such is the pathway to the Dark Side." Jacob said.

=====

As Hiashi attempted to slow Keith, the latter suddenly experienced the feeling of being watched swell in his mind, thanks to the Iron Litany Services provided him by the Godulans. Unfortunately for Hiashi, the spell worked quite well against life-draining-and-crippling effects such as Stasis.

Hiashi's lightsaber met with a saber lock, behind which Keith projected his superior raw physical strength, before finally breaking it in one swift motion that would have sent both of them back at least three steps.

Unfortunately, if Hiashi tried to amplify his stasis attack more, he would only find Keith's Iron Litany strengthen in response, to the point where Keith might start subconsciously mouthing the words I remain, I persist, I survive, I exist...
Meanwhile, as the battle inside the chambers raged, so did the battle in the side wing. And Hiashi was even more pissed with the fact that Stasis absolutely did not work at all. He further got the feeling that someone was watching him. He ended the attack and instead lashed out with harsh Makashi strikes of his lightsaber, each one fast and deadly enough to keep Keith on his toes. A mistake will be fatal...

=====

Johnson's Noisy Cricket also entered the fray, and ended up putting a huge hole into the back of one of the ANBU from Squad One. Another decided to play foul and blew a flamethrower-like stream of fire at the man, then followed up with his kunai, slashing at vital spots.

Tsunade and Sakura noted the flash and crack of thunder, amused at the strength of his Noisy Cricket. It seems a bit like when Naruto used his Hirashin no Jutsu, or perhaps their own boneshattering strength.

Johnson's Noisy Cricket also entered the fray, and ended up putting a huge hole into the back of one of the ANBU from Squad One. Another decided to play foul and blew a flamethrower-like stream of fire at the man, then followed up with his kunai, slashing at vital spots.

Tsunade and Sakura noted the flash and crack of thunder, amused at the strength of his Noisy Cricket. It seems a bit like when Naruto used his Hirashin no Jutsu, or perhaps their own boneshattering strength.

Johnson ducked and rolled to avoid the flames, but the Kunai slashes did some damage even as he got low. Johnson then turned on his Regeneration and Cloak Augs, and would promptly disappear from the visuals of both the bad guys and verily amused good guys. He then dashed up to the offending individual and tackled him, kneeing him in the groin before slamming at his jaw with a jab with the heel of his hand.

"Hiashi's taking too long." General Harley Bel Iblis, a descendant of one of the founding members of the Rebel Alliance, grumbled. He checked his watch and sighed. "It's time. Begin the bombardment! First wave, advance immediately!"

The artillery batteries then began to strike the palace, blasting large holes in the walls and ceiling, followed closely by the advancing wave of private police, army guys and gangsters, including a few Coredian Yakuza members.

"What the..." The General's XO and commander of the first wave, Colonel Richard Woolsey heard a strange sound as he advanced and looked up to see three screaming shapes retaliate. When they landed, they caused small explosions that nevertheless wiped out a small part of his army. Moments later, the sounds of fighting and lightsabers could be heard. "What the hell is going on?"

"Someone's coming out!" Someone yelled.

"What? Kill him!" The Coloniel roared.

As crazy as it seems, two black-haired Jedi, one taller than the other charged into the fray, battling a ton of blaster bolts with what the Coloniel recognized as the Jedi's Form V, Djem So. They seemed to be running for the sounds of fighting.

"So, the Jedi are retaliating." The General mused as he watched the first wave fight off the Jedi from his perch. "No matter. We can drown them in numbers if we must."

"Perhaps, my friend, I could deal with them?" A cloaked figure asked. "I sense one of them is familiar to me. The Masaki boy."

"The Heir? Very well...Kabuto. Kill them if you must. But try to capture the boy, will you? Nightshade wants him alive." The General said.

"Of course, my General." The grey-haired retainer of Nightshade smirked and disappeared using shunpo. Why Lady Nightshade sent *this* fellow to help him, he would never know. Sith always gave him the creeps, even if they're allied to him...

=====

Two Minutes Earlier

Travis and the Padawan Pack managed to reach the side exit and take a peek outside. It looked clear to him, but he sensed something odd.

"Looks clear--ack!" Blaster bolts suddenly shot their way into the door, forcing the kids back inside and into cover as they reflected the bolts away. "Ok, not clear! How're we going to deal with those guys?"

"Try calling the base from here!" A brown-haired short kid named Chika suggested.

"Duh..." Travis smacked himself, then tried comming Fort Antiem, only to get static. "No good! They're jamming the signal! Who's the best Force Caller?"

"I am!" A girl-who's-frequently-mistaken-for-a-boy named Haruhi raised her hand.

"If there's any Jedi there, let them know of our situation." Travis said.

"Right!" Haruhi closed her eyes and began concentrating for a moment. "I think I got one...ok...ack! Someone cut me off!"

"Did you get enough warning out?" The flamboyant boy from before, Tamaki Suou asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I think so, but I'm not sure."

"We'll have to hold out, then." Travis sighed, then he heard a faint Boom! and a strange whistling.

"Oh no! Incoming artillery!" An even shorter kid named Hunny, who happened to be Chika's elder brother despite his short stature, yelled in a high-pitched voice. The kids and their charges ducked and covered their heads with their arms, some of them putting up Force Shields.

BADA-BOOM! An explosion suddenly erupted, shaking the entire building heavily. Pieces of ceiling fell on a few screaming patrons, but most were deflected away by the Force shields.

"Now how are we going to deal with that?" Travis grumbled. "Any ideas?"

"Not really. It's like a couple dozen meters of flat ground between us and those army guys. We'd have to make them come to us or something." Tamaki said.

"Um...don't look now, but I think they've begun attacking." One of a pair of redheaded twins took a peek out of the door and noticed that indeed, Hiashi's Army have begun the first wave of attacks, now that they've seen the kids.

"How foolish." An older boy named Kyouya, third son of Lord Ootori, pushed up his glasses as he spoke. "They're just asking to be slaughtered since we hold the defense advantage."

"Still, looks like a hell of a lot. Where the hell did Hiashi get those guys?" The second half of the pair of twins asked.

"Fight now, ask later. Hunny-senpai, Chika, Mori-senpai, and I will attack them first when they get close, since we're the fastest here." Travis said. "The rest of you defend our charges (now whimpering and crying and praying) from stray blasters."

A strange glint appeared in the twins' eyes. Kaoru, or was it Hikaru, grinned. "Actually, we have another idea."

Travis didn't like what the twins were thinking. Everyone knew that after Naruto and himself, they have a strong reputation as pranksters. "What is it? And where the hell did you get those bazookas?"

Hikaru, or perhaps Kaoru, grinned wider as they now sported heavy bazookas from seemingly nowhere. "You're out of the loop, Travis-kun. We're Vector's junior agents. We're able to pull weapons out of nowhere when we need them so long as they from the Vector Armory."

"Now...let's play the 'Haninozuka and Masaki Missile Game'!" The twins chorused.

"Uh...nani?" Travis asked incredulously, slipping into Coredian. (Nani = What)

"Just watch." The twins suddenly grabbed Hunny and Chika.

"Hey! Leggo!" Hunny yelled.

"Idiots! Unhand me this instant!" Chika growled.

Then they stuffed them feet first into the bazookas and with a countdown to zero, launched them outside at an angle, breaking through a glass window in the process. "Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!"

"Mitsukuni." Mori (aka Takashi Morinozuka, Mitsukuni "Hunny" Haninozuka's cousin) cried out softly. He rushed out, battling the blaster bolts with masterful use of Djem So, followed by his younger brother Satoshi.

Then they grinned menacingly at Travis, who backed up like a mouse caught in a trap. "Come on, Travis-kun! We're just giving your idea some oomph!"

"Uh, no way! Ack!" Unfortunately, Kaoru (or perhaps Hikaru) grabbed Travis and stuffed him in Hikaru's (or perhaps Kaoru's) bazooka kicking and screaming. The Twin then kneeled and shot Travis straight at the advancing army of doom.

"Yaaaaaaaaah!" Travis cried out.

"Tell me, brother. What happens when the three shortest kids in the Padawan Pack are tossed at enemies at sufficient velocity?" Kaoru asked, smirking.

"Why, Kaoru-kun, I do believe that they would create an explosion similar to that of an asteroid bombardment." Hikaru grinned.

On cue, three explosions rumbled across the scene. One sported a bunny-shaped cloud of smoke (Hunny), the other a bird shape (Chika) and the third, a dragon shape (Travis).

"You always were the smarter one." Kaoru suddenly caressed his brother's cheeks and out of nowhere, cherry blossoms floated around. "I am but an idiot savant compared to you!"

"Kaoru..." Hikaru gasped and blushed.

And so did most of the girls and women in the group. They screamed in excitement, their minds taken off from the war for a moment. "Kyaaaaaa! Brotherly love!"

Suddenly, a paper fan of doom attacked them, slamming them into floor. Haruhi sighed as she sheathed her paper fan and unsheathed her lightsaber. "This is no time for your 'brotherly love' games, guys! Kyouya, Tamaki, and everyone else, once the three distract the others, we take 'em!"

"Haruhi-chan! Oh, my precious 'daughter' is growing up!" Tamaki cried sissy tears.

"Yep. Still obnoxious as ever." Haruhi replied matter-of-factly. Instantly, Tamaki went into a corner in woe and curled up in the fetal position. "Forget him, he'll recover! Let's go!"

"Yes, ma'am!" Everyone except Kyouya chorused and saluted.

Kyouya merely smirked quietly and wrote something on the datapad clipboard he always carries before pocketing it and igniting his own lightsaber, giving it a Makashi flourish.

=====

As John killed random artillery shells with the Force and the Padawan Pack followed suit with their own defensive arrangements, Travis and his two friends were thrown smack dab in the middle of the first wave of Hiashi's army, their landings causing small explosions with the aforementioned shapes floating in the air.

"Oww...stupid Hitachiin Twins. Mental note: prank them back big-time." Travis grumbled, rubbing his head and climbing out of the kid-shaped hole he made in the ground. Suddenly, he hear several *clicks* as blasters leveled at his head. "Uh...point that somewhere else..."

"It's the Masaki boy." One of the "soldiers" smirked. "Let's capture him and use him as a hostage."

"Good idea. We can win this battle right quick with him!" Another said. Suddenly, he gagged in pain as a yellow lightsaber burned into the back of his chest and fell facefirst. Another one was cut off at the knees, before being decapitated.

"Messing with my friends is a no-no!" Hunny-senpai yelled, taking his lightsaber out of the guy's back.

"I don't like him, but don't mess with my brother, either." Chika scowled sharply at the random minions of Hiashi's Army.

They both moved into the opening Ataru stance. This stance happened to be a balanced two-handed guard. One holds the lightsaber vertically with both palms, either on the right or left side of the body. In Hunny's instance, it's his right side. For Chika, it was the left.

Travis grinned as he moved into a classic Shii-cho stance with a center guard. "You'd better run. They're the Haninozuka brothers. They know Yoda-fu."

Stupidly, the soldiers didn't realize how dangerous that was. "Kill them!"

Instantly, Hunny and Chika jumped up, slashing at the chests and heads of the enemies, before rolling away, then made spinning motions like living cusinarts, whirling and slashing like...well, Master Yoda himself.

Travis was more classic in his attacks. He knew a bit of Ataru himself, but not to the extent the Haninozuka clan did, so he stuck with the wild and crazy swings of Shii-cho, which was also effective at dealing with the many enemies in Hiashi's army. Whereever the three boys' lightsabers slashed and swirled, limbs, torsos and even heads were cut down. Not to mention that any random blaster bolts that did attack them were deflected into other enemies, burning holes in their bodies.

It only became worse when Mori-senpai's strength and speed was added to the fray as he single-mindedly went to protect Hunny. Satoshi was the same way with Yasuchika, although he was more likely to hit Chika with a shinai than deal with the enemies if he badmouthed Hunny. With five deadly Jedi apprentices in the fray, it looked as if the first wave would be decimated. Even so there were enough enemies in the first wave to go around the five Jedi and head for the double doors of the side entrance, which now became a death zone as gunners Hikaru, Kaoru, Nick Kingfisher, Jeff Andonuts and others traded laser (and missile) fire with the enemies before retreating into the hallways to lure the enemies inside for the others to take care of them.

Although Kyouya's Makashi wasn't the best in dealing with a number of enemies, it was still good enough to use efficient slashes that cut limbs or blasters, then flick the wrist and bury the blade into the chest. He was aided by the Soresu users, like Shinji, as well as those skilled in Djem So and Niman.

The Force and other powers were liberally employed as well, as every sort of elemental, ninjutsu or telekinetic technique was thrown into the enemies' faces, causing general mayhem among the enemy ranks.

Even so, there were casualties, mainly due to stray blaster bolts as the Jedi tried to push back the enemy army. Indeed, it would be touch and go for a while...

=====

GNN BREAKING NEWS: WAR AT THE KOKKAI!

"This is breaking news with your host, Terry Williams! About ten minutes ago, we've received word that the entire Kokkai has come under assault by some kind of army. No one knows of yet as to the status of the Kokkai, but it appears to us that the army is linked to a space battle between the Phoenix, flagship of Grand Admiral Pellaeon and the Megalodon, Admiral Basque's flagship. The media doesn't know anything as of yet, but...what...wait..." Terry tapped an ear. A few seconds of listening, Terry looked slightly more ashen than normal. "Ladies and gentlemen, we've just received a statement from Admiral Pellaeon. It seems that Patriarch Hiashi Hyuuga has staged a coup attempt against the Emperor, triggering a civil war in the Kokkai. The army appears to be Hiashi's attempt to drive the Kokkai to its knees. Only time will tell who will win..."

It only became worse when Mori-senpai's strength and speed was added to the fray as he single-mindedly went to protect Hunny. Satoshi was the same way with Yasuchika, although he was more likely to hit Chika with a shinai than deal with the enemies if he badmouthed Hunny. With five deadly Jedi apprentices in the fray, it looked as if the first wave would be decimated. Even so there were enough enemies in the first wave to go around the five Jedi and head for the double doors of the side entrance, which now became a death zone as gunners Hikaru, Kaoru, Nick Kingfisher, Jeff Andonuts and others traded laser (and missile) fire with the enemies before retreating into the hallways to lure the enemies inside for the others to take care of them.

Although Kyouya's Makashi wasn't the best in dealing with a number of enemies, it was still good enough to use efficient slashes that cut limbs or blasters, then flick the wrist and bury the blade into the chest. He was aided by the Soresu users, like Shinji, as well as those skilled in Djem So and Niman.

The Force and other powers were liberally employed as well, as every sort of elemental, ninjutsu or telekinetic technique was thrown into the enemies' faces, causing general mayhem among the enemy ranks.

Even so, there were casualties, mainly due to stray blaster bolts as the Jedi tried to push back the enemy army. Indeed, it would be touch and go for a while..."

Johnson weathered the artillery blast with his own brand of protection. Shutting off Regeneration, he then promptly flipped on the Aggressive Defense Aug and began weaving and bobbing, as the nanotech cloud around him that emerged began to protect him from most small and medium sized fragments, the bigger ones taking simple gymnastics.

As this occurred, Johnson followed the Masaki boy and his group of kids outside, quietly listening to their battle plan. He nodded; it was sound, for the situation they were in.

As this occurred, he then noticed them perform some very unique antics. He first raised an eyebrow; he'd seen a lot in his days on the Anti-Smuggling Unit, but the Twins were a lot. Half "wierded out" and half laughing at their dramatics, he began snickering to himself nervously and trying to hide his laughter as the group of people in front of him did some rather humorous and embarassing antics.

He then, as Kyouya lit up his saber and the fighting started, he noticed with alarm a large number of Irish gangsters. Sighing, he then decloaked. Before any of the Irish could notice, he raised his Tennenbaum Device-modded PPK, saying, "You boys just don't learn." Then, as they tried to attack, he opened fire, letting loose with an explosion that threw the Irish back, slamming into their comrades and rendering one of them into particulate matter. He then began ducking into cover, popping in and out and opening fire with his wonder pistol at the enemy amidst the din of battle, occasionally decking anyone who got too close with spare, simple jabs to the vitals.

-------------------------

Hermann sighed as the Irish units under his command were called in to assault only to be ripped apart by the opposition. It was expected that the enemy would possess significant capabilities for self-defense, especially with the high proportion of Jedi. Unsurprisingly, there were persons moving about with speed whom he thought to be children. That made the bombardment all the more gruesome to him. Why put the kids in harm's way? A Coredian quirk yes to use child soldiers, but no reason to commit murder.

He steadied his trigger finger, and radioed his men with, "Brothers. Take aim, attack the opposition. Do not shoot the children and violate the Code. Any man who does so will be shot."

Replies of "Acknowledged" rang out, and sniper shots, ballistic, rail and energy flew towards their opponents with deadly precision. Elven Freigauneren being themselves, they shot with precision and tried to track the Jedi and good guys who weren't kids....or in Hunny's case, looked like a kid.

The Irish Mobsters had no such prohibitions, however. They were getting paid to do "Heavy Work" and heavy work was what they would do, no matter what age group the enemy was. And as they were being torn up by withering fire and the close in combat of the Jedi, they proceeded to duck into what cover existed and begin returning fire with guns and their own rough streetfighting moves. Some even began throwing their own unearthly energies, throwing fireballs, iceballs, and lightning in sick parodies of the Force--these were men with the infamous Plasmids, and they were taking care to move quite rapidly, their squad leaders shouting at them to "Get those Jedi bastahds!" and other such things with their energies.

Five really brave/stupid individuals charged at Mori-sempai, shouting, "Fucking bahstahd!" as they sprayed him with fire from Cadian Pattern Lasguns and Chinese Type 56 AKMs.

However, the explosions of the Tennenbaum Device soon alerted some of the Irish, and Hermann picked up on it too. He then cursed his rotten luck. Internal Security had come to play too. Gritting his teeth and prepping an extra magazine of explosive rounds, he wanted to make sure that the man would be dead when it was all over.

Squad 3 saw what happened to the others, what had befallen those who thought that just because his movements seemed slow that one did not have the luxury of dickering about in an attempt to disrupt the Avatar. They had to move quickly if they wanted to actually get any attack off against him without being so brutally punished. They did not wish to share the fate of the man with his arm turned into string cheese, or the one beneath him, who was now bleeding from the nose and twitching spasmodically. The only one of his previous challengers who was still conscious presently sat on the ground behind him, clutching his shattered hands together in attempt to brace them.

They knew the plan in this kind of situation during exercises from the ESUS / GFFA war from the not-so-distant past. Never attack an Avatar with direct current. Fire and Cold are nearly worthless against their inhuman hide. Instead, they would use what was all around them even now:

Lots and lots of rock.

They'd practiced this, and such was proven eminently necessary now. Can't take time to think. Set up, execute, and run. No room for cognitive ponderance.

Naberius stopped momentarily as the three ANBU of squad 3 fell into a triangle formation around him, ripped off a series of seals, and brought their fists to the ground with disproportionate strength. Ripples of seismic force tore through the ground towards the Avatar, and the entire room shuddered under the force of the technique. The three shockwaves converged and erupted forth beneath Naberius' feet, a great surge of earthen spikes lashing out to destroy the ANBU's troublesome foe.

But Naberius had not proven defenseless to their attack. He had not stopped because he was surprised or confused about their actions. Indeed, he recognized the technique after seeing only two of their seals and the formation around him. He had stopped because after recognizing the technique, he took into account the hardness of the floor itself and raised the molecular strength of his body by an amount sufficient to deflect a rocky assault. He had stopped because he had turned himself into a statue of iron hardness.

The spikes crumbled beneath his feet, pushing him up a couple feet from the ground before his weight broke through the spikes and returned him to somewhat level ground. He severed his levitation field, allowing the full magnitude of his weight to sound out upon his landing. The room shuddered once again as Naberius' feet contacted the ground and pushed two inches further still, bringing up chunks of marble and formerly pristine carpet around him like some microcosm parody of an impact crater.

He looked at the ANBU just before him with his smile unchanged and took a single step forward. In that one step, he crossed the twenty feet of distance between him and his immediate nemesis with a slight buffeting of wind that had little effect other than to distract the agent for one simple moment as Naberius brought an iron-hard fist around in a quick-snap punch to the man's chin, far too swiftly for the ANBU to bring out his lightsaber, but giving the other two a moment necessary to bring their own out.

Electricity, fire, and cold might not kill a Godulan, but plasma could do it...

As the fighting spilled out into the woods that surrounded the Kokkai palace, it was at this time that the 37th Battalion of the 4th Marine Corps decided to show up, first engaging the enemy gunships with fighters and then sending their own gunships to screw up the artillery batteries with liberal applications of beamlasers. Even though Travis hasn't exactly called them in due to the jamming, the breaking news story was enough for Colonel Mattenhorn to order his troops into the fray to protect the Emperor and his Court, slamming into the rearguard with Zoids and infantry with all the vengeance an army could possess. Between the Jedi smashing the waves of Hiashi's forces from the front and the 37th destroying everything from behind, it was only a matter of time before the General himself was dealt with.

Still, Colonel Mattenhorn was astonished at the size of the army that was arrayed against the Kokkai and was later quoted as saying, "I'd say look at the size of that army, but that's too cliche. So I'm going to go with 'More lambs to the slaughter!' Charge 'em, boys!"

Hermann sighed as the Irish units under his command were called in to assault only to be ripped apart by the opposition. It was expected that the enemy would possess significant capabilities for self-defense, especially with the high proportion of Jedi. Unsurprisingly, there were persons moving about with speed whom he thought to be children. That made the bombardment all the more gruesome to him.

He steadied his trigger finger, and radioed his men with, "Brothers. Take aim, attack the opposition. Do not shoot the children and violate the Code. Any man who does so will be shot."

Replies of "Acknowledged" rang out, and sniper shots, ballistic, rail and energy flew towards their opponents with deadly precision. Elven Freigauneren being themselves, they shot with precision and tried to track the Jedi and good guys who weren't kids....or in Hunny's case, looked like a kid.
Speaking of Hunny, the short and cute fellow swept the ranks of the enemy with his blazing speed and whirling yellow lightsaber and was beginning to come up against the Elven Freigauneren. It didn't take long for the Short One to note that they were strangely adverse to shooting at the younger members of the Jedi Order, despite the fact that they were at times more dangerous than the elders.

An aversion he wholeheartedly intended to take full advantage of. Dashing towards the Elven Freigauneren at what appears to be afterimage-inducing speed, he began the procedure for Summoning. "Bun-Bun! Decimate, now!"

In a poof of smoke, a jackrabbit appeared, but not just any jackrabbit. Almost as soon as he appeared, Bun-Bun saluted Hunny and immediately lept at the nearest Freigauneren, tearing out his throat with a 'snick-snick' sound before jumping swiftly to the next one and slashed with his razor-sharp claws at that fellow with a buzz-saw sound.

Elven Freigauneren, meet Bun-Bun, the Vorpal Jackrabbit!

Hunny himself jumped into the middle of the fray, using the sparkles that always appear around him as shuriken as he stomped on heads, used TK to toss 'em around like rag dolls and caused much limb-severing and head chopping in the process. Together, Hunny and Bun-Bun gave the gang their first lesson for the day:

Beware the Cute Ones!

The Irish Mobsters had no such prohibitions, however. They were getting paid to do "Heavy Work" and heavy work was what they would do, no matter what age group the enemy was. And as they were being torn up by withering fire and the close in combat of the Jedi, they proceeded to duck into what cover existed and begin returning fire with guns and their own rough streetfighting moves. Some even began throwing their own unearthly energies, throwing fireballs, iceballs, and lightning in sick parodies of the Force--these were men with the infamous Plasmids, and they were taking care to move quite rapidly, their squad leaders shouting at them to "Get those Jedi bastahds!" and other such things with their energies.
The Irish Mob, scourge of New Dornalia, did manage to get in some casualties with their raging moves, but in turn, they became the targets of what may be the most dangerous members of the Order.

Weaving in and out of enemy fire and cover, the Jedi Gunners began retaliating big-time. The Hitachiin Twins started off the show by firing lots of Sticky Slime Grenades from their bazookas, splurging the enemy with plenty of sticky slime to trap them, then that was followed up by judicious use of plasma grenades and heavy laserfire by Nick and Jeff. Whoever was left alive was given the Fireball and Iceball treatment by Meiji Hinadori and Kagome Outerbridge both, along with a few tons of rock dropped on their heads by Meiji for good measure. Even the indestructible Ellis was in the battle. Even if he's a 'mere' flying housecat, he has the claws and teeth to put the hurt on the Irish.

And it's not as if Chika-chan didn't launch his own personal air force at the Irish mobsters as a squadron of nin-raptors flew at them, slashing at them with their talons and razor-sharp shuriken feathers. A couple even divebombed them at breakneck speed, raking the eyes and necks.

The luck of the Irish would not be with the Mob today...

Five really brave/stupid individuals charged at Mori-sempai, shouting, "Fucking bahstahd!" as they sprayed him with fire from Cadian Pattern Lasguns and Chinese Type 56 AKMs.
Mori was a stoic one, batting away laser and projectile fire with almost graceful ease despite his height. One of the lasers was redirected into the chest of one of the stupid idiots, then Mori went on the offensive, his blue lightsaber a slashing blur as it caught each mobster, cutting or stabbing at various vital organs.

And let's not forget the rest of the Padawan Pack, who dealt with the enemies with innumerable techniques and powers, from Tamaki's flamboyant attacks to Kyouya's efficent use of TK to destroy the remaining artillery shells, not to mention his Makashi made short work of what passed for Dark Jedi in Hiashi's army. Haruhi was a practical-minded girl, using TK and her Niman in various inventive ways, like Force Pulling enemies and impaling them on her blade. Even little John was in the thick of things, snap-impaling random minions in the vitals, each one never knowing what hit them as the small boy remained cloaked the whole time. As John Watsen continued to rack up his own kill count, he started to approach the central zone, where General Bel Iblis was almost ready to tear his hair out over being trapped between a rock and a hard place.

Each one of these young men and women are the next generation of Jedi Knights, the pillar on which young Travis Masaki will one day stand. Woe betides those who seek harm against Coredia with these future Knights on the ball!

Speaking of which, Travis himself was in the middle of the battle when a warning bell rang in his head and he ducked and rolled, bringing his blade up to block a green one. "Kabuto..."

"Travis-kun." Kabuto replied, smirking. "Time to die."

"Not yet." Travis replied and attacked. "Hi-ya!"

Their lightsabers clashed for a while, and then Kabuto smirked and began retreating up a tree.

"Oy! Come back here!" Travis yelled. "I'm not done with you yet!"

"Then please, try and kill me, if you can!" Kabuto smirked as he jumped from branch to branch, avoiding Travis' attacks. "Brat!"

Travis, being the stubborn, knuckleheaded kid he is, followed suit, away from the battle, despite the shouts of his friends ("Travis, wait!" "You need backup!"). The two continued to clash in the trees, and at some point, just as Travis thought he had Kabuto, the older man used teleportation to get out of the way. "Dammit!"

Vaguely registering that the teleportation meant that they've passed out of range of the anti-teleport field, Travis saw Kabuto on another tree and teleported to him, striking and finding another parry to his credit. Now, it became a battle of teleportation skills in addition to the lightsabers. Soon, Travis began registering a change in scenery. The city started to loom in the distance. Little did he know that Kabuto was about to lure him into an overly elaborate trap of doom...

OOC: This post made with the trilateral cooperation of EWT, CW, and Huntaer.

As Hiashi’s rage fueled heavy, angry strikes on the verge of desperate ones, Keith backed up, backed up, all the while sending debris into Hiashi’s back as he tore up the floor behind him in little mini-explosions. The debris was a problem for Hiashi, as it was coming from straight behind, in his Byakugan’s blind spot…and he was getting a severe case of tunnel vision in the Force as his anger so narrowly focused. Of course, Keith took advantage of this, and the wall rapidly encroaching behind him suddenly crumbled as Keith willed it away to lure Hiashi outside.

The Bunta, meanwhile, looked upon the events with some level of…disappointment in Hiashi. He would have to move himself to receive the presents, it looked like. Keith might be able to keep Hiashi away from a certain position, but he could not trap the Bunta, and the Bunta knew this. Therefore, slowly, with his “cane,” the Bunta quietly walked over to the hallway in which the two were currently doing.

Hiashi sensed the Bunta, and with one hand, quickly extracted a scroll from his pocket and threw it to him, maintaining most of his concentration on “Keith must Die. Keith must Die. Keith must Die.”

The Bunta quietly caught the scroll and unsealed it, revealing two of the very singularity bombs that Keith had accused Hiashi in trafficking in. Keith scowled as he saw them in the corner of his vision, and allowed himself to focus on them for just the split-second required to identify them. Then the Bunta, without saying a word or betraying any emotion, vanished in a puff of greasy smoke with the bombs…

Speaking of Hunny, the short and cute fellow swept the ranks of the enemy with his blazing speed and whirling yellow lightsaber and was beginning to come up against the Elven Freigauneren. It didn't take long for the Short One to note that they were strangely adverse to shooting at the younger members of the Jedi Order, despite the fact that they were at times more dangerous than the elders.

An aversion he wholeheartedly intended to take full advantage of. Dashing towards the Elven Freigauneren at what appears to be afterimage-inducing speed, he began the procedure for Summoning. "Bun-Bun! Decimate, now!"

In a poof of smoke, a jackrabbit appeared, but not just any jackrabbit. Almost as soon as he appeared, Bun-Bun saluted Hunny and immediately lept at the nearest Freigauneren, tearing out his throat with a 'snick-snick' sound before jumping swiftly to the next one and slashed with his razor-sharp claws at that fellow with a buzz-saw sound.

Elven Freigauneren, meet Bun-Bun, the Vorpal Jackrabbit!

Hunny himself jumped into the middle of the fray, using the sparkles that always appear around him as shuriken as he stomped on heads, used TK to toss 'em around like rag dolls and caused much limb-severing and head chopping in the process. Together, Hunny and Bun-Bun gave the gang their first lesson for the day:

Beware the Cute Ones!

The Freigauneren not tossed about like salad bits and beaten to a bloody pulp began falling back in disciplined order, trying to block and use as minimum force as possible to keep Hunny away from them. Sure enough, some were hit by Tennenbaum Device blasts, which made their discipline oddly remarkable. The combined effect of Mitsukuni's attacks and violent force, with Bun Bun's unexpectedly hateful assaults throroughly confused the Freigauneren and cause no small concern. The Code said not to hurt children, but when a Child was summoning violent rabbits and using kung fu to tear you apart, what was the solution to be?

Hermann cursed the Coredians and McSweeney both. The Coredians for using such low tricks, McSweeney for putting him in a no-win situation. He radioed his comrades, taking cover behind a tree, "Fall back, regroup! Use tranquilizers and gas grenades on the child! Kill the Rabbit! Plasmid users deploy Ice and Wind Plasmids! Keep cohesion, do not break ranks!" He then searched his tactical vest and pulled out a tear gas grenade, throwing it with the others at Hunny admist a cloud of fire at Bun Bun and a wave of freezing cold and tornadoes at Hunny too....

The Irish Mob, scourge of New Dornalia, did manage to get in some casualties with their raging moves, but in turn, they became the targets of what may be the most dangerous members of the Order.

Weaving in and out of enemy fire and cover, the Jedi Gunners began retaliating big-time. The Hitachiin Twins started off the show by firing lots of Sticky Slime Grenades from their bazookas, splurging the enemy with plenty of sticky slime to trap them, then that was followed up by judicious use of plasma grenades and heavy laserfire by Nick and Jeff. Whoever was left alive was given the Fireball and Iceball treatment by Meiji Hinadori and Kagome Outerbridge both, along with a few tons of rock dropped on their heads by Meiji for good measure. Even the indestructible Ellis was in the battle. Even if he's a 'mere' flying housecat, he has the claws and teeth to put the hurt on the Irish.

And it's not as if Chika-chan didn't launch his own personal air force at the Irish mobsters as a squadron of nin-raptors flew at them, slashing at them with their talons and razor-sharp shuriken feathers. A couple even divebombed them at breakneck speed, raking the eyes and necks.

The luck of the Irish would not be with the Mob today...

The ferocious Coredian counterattack was being joined by Johnson's Tennenbaum Device, as he reloaded the pistol and fired into their ranks again and again to drive home the precariousness of the situation. The Irish Mobsters were not used to this many psychic attacks; McSweeney's thugs often dealt with Plasmid powers and heavily armed Italian streetfighters with shotguns and assault rifles as the most exotic ability set they had to fight. Now, they were being confronted with wonders of technology and the Force, which ripped into their ranks and stalled their attack.

Mori was a stoic one, batting away laser and projectile fire with almost graceful ease despite his height. One of the lasers was redirected into the chest of one of the stupid idiots, then Mori went on the offensive, his blue lightsaber a slashing blur as it caught each mobster, cutting or stabbing at various vital organs.

The men were cut down like ribbons, and their guns clattered harmlessly to Earth. Johnson picked up one of the Cadian Lasguns and shouldered it via the strap, reloading it with a fresh magazine before he opened fire on a few of the non-Dornalian enemies of the present assembly of Good Guys. To aid in this, he recharged himself with a BioElectric Cell and then went into Cloak Mode, going hidden and opening up with lasgun bursts as he darted from spot to spot.

Now, if he could only get to his car....

The Freigauneren not tossed about like salad bits and beaten to a bloody pulp began falling back in disciplined order, trying to block and use as minimum force as possible to keep Hunny away from them. Sure enough, some were hit by Tennenbaum Device blasts, which made their discipline oddly remarkable. The combined effect of Mitsukuni's attacks and violent force, with Bun Bun's unexpectedly hateful assaults throroughly confused the Freigauneren and cause no small concern. The Code said not to hurt children, but when a Child was summoning violent rabbits and using kung fu to tear you apart, what was the solution to be?

Hermann cursed the Coredians and McSweeney both. The Coredians for using such low tricks, McSweeney for putting him in a no-win situation. He radioed his comrades, taking cover behind a tree, "Fall back, regroup! Use tranquilizers and gas grenades on the child! Kill the Rabbit! Plasmid users deploy Ice and Wind Plasmids! Keep cohesion, do not break ranks!" He then searched his tactical vest and pulled out a tear gas grenade, throwing it with the others at Hunny admist a cloud of fire at Bun Bun and a wave of freezing cold and tornadoes at Hunny too....
Bun-Bun, having been expertly trained under heavy combat conditions by Hunny himself, found dodging the enemy fire mildly difficult at best as he continued to attack them like the crazy madrabbit he was. He also dodged crazily, sometimes swerving such that enemies who shot at him would end up shooting each other. By now, his brownish white fur was matted with blood, but until Hunny disengaged, he would continue the attacks until all enemies dropped or he did.

Hunny, who finally managed to get himself slowed down by the combination of wind, ice and tear gas, still had another card to play. Holding his breath against the gas, he retracted his lightsaber, then pulled out a telescoping staff. Dodging or deflecting tranquilizers, he focused air around the staff and slammed it down onto the ground, creating a mighty windstorm that was nothing like the blizzard the Plasmid users utilized. The windstorm not only cleared the area of tear gas, but it also carved a path straight towards Hermann...

The ferocious Coredian counterattack was being joined by Johnson's Tennenbaum Device, as he reloaded the pistol and fired into their ranks again and again to drive home the precariousness of the situation. The Irish Mobsters were not used to this many psychic attacks; McSweeney's thugs often dealt with Plasmid powers and heavily armed Italian streetfighters with shotguns and assault rifles as the most exotic ability set they had to fight. Now, they were being confronted with wonders of technology and the Force, which ripped into their ranks and stalled their attack.
"Push onwards! The enemy is faltering!" Tamaki cried out as he TKed several enemies back.

"We're already pushing, my Lord!" The Twins replied in unison, having retracted their bazookas and pulled out high-powered blaster pistols to shoot with. "They will be finished in a few minutes, we wager!"

"Very good! Very good!" Tamaki replied. "Let us end this battle! Finish them!"

And so, on Tamaki's urging, the Jedi forces surged forward...

The men were cut down like ribbons, and their guns clattered harmlessly to Earth. Johnson picked up one of the Cadian Lasguns and shouldered it via the strap, reloading it with a fresh magazine before he opened fire on a few of the non-Dornalian enemies of the present assembly of Good Guys. To aid in this, he recharged himself with a BioElectric Cell and then went into Cloak Mode, going hidden and opening up with lasgun bursts as he darted from spot to spot.

Now, if he could only get to his car....
Unfortunately for Johnson, the first targets of the artillery batteries happened to be the vehicles the Kokkai came in. It would not be far off to say that it may have been destroyed...

"Push onwards! The enemy is faltering!" Tamaki cried out as he TKed several enemies back.

"We're already pushing, my Lord!" The Twins replied in unison, having retracted their bazookas and pulled out high-powered blaster pistols to shoot with. "They will be finished in a few minutes, we wager!"

"Very good! Very good!" Tamaki replied. "Let us end this battle! Finish them!"

And so, on Tamaki's urging, the Jedi forces surged forward...

As this occured, Johnson decloaked and joined them in the overall sweep, hitting both Traitors and Irish Gangsters with full force as he turned on his Aggressive Defense System to block enemy missiles. Lasgun in hand, he calmly moved forward, shooting the foe as the momentum of battle swept him forward. When the lasgun ran out, he dumped it and pulled out his Tennenbaum Device, opening fire and blowing holes in the ranks.

At this, the Irish began falling back and collapsing in a near rout towards friendly troops, opening fire as they did so. It remained to be seen what would be made of their Coredian friends, but the Irish were clearly on the defensive now, at best.

Bun-Bun, having been expertly trained under heavy combat conditions by Hunny himself, found dodging the enemy fire mildly difficult at best as he continued to attack them like the crazy madrabbit he was. He also dodged crazily, sometimes swerving such that enemies who shot at him would end up shooting each other. By now, his brownish white fur was matted with blood, but until Hunny disengaged, he would continue the attacks until all enemies dropped or he did.

Hunny, who finally managed to get himself slowed down by the combination of wind, ice and tear gas, still had another card to play. Holding his breath against the gas, he retracted his lightsaber, then pulled out a telescoping staff. Dodging or deflecting tranquilizers, he focused air around the staff and slammed it down onto the ground, creating a mighty windstorm that was nothing like the blizzard the Plasmid users utilized. The windstorm not only cleared the area of tear gas, but it also carved a path straight towards Hermann...

Hermann noticed Hunny's act and raised his A280 in uncharacteristic panic. As his men were slaughtering each other occasionally and getting slaughtered by Bun Bun, cries of "FALL BACK!" and "WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS!?" thundered in German over the radio. Hermann stood stoic, pondering a course of action as he saw the Irishmen falling back, savaged by the foe. Hermann had to make a decision, and do it now.

He then merely replied to his men with a simple, "Fall back, regroup around me" before dropping the radio. Hermann then charged the weapon and held it low. As the survivors began marshaling around him, he motioned for them to do the same, as they held their rifles low too as a result. With this along with a white handkerchief he waved, he approached Hunny and spoke loudly to him calmly, staring at him directly as he said, "The Bund der Freischutzen does not make it a policy to kill minors in cold blood, young one. We are disciplined, regimented gentlemen, not animals like the McSweeneys or the turncoats now surrendering to us. Perhaps there can be some reasoning under a flag of parlay, as one gentleman to another. Eh, young man?" As he spoke of the flag of parlay, he pointed to the hanky.

=====

GNN BREAKING NEWS: WAR AT THE KOKKAI!

"This is breaking news with your host, Terry Williams! About ten minutes ago, we've received word that the entire Kokkai has come under assault by some kind of army. No one knows of yet as to the status of the Kokkai, but it appears to us that the army is linked to a space battle between the Phoenix, flagship of Grand Admiral Pellaeon and the Megalodon, Admiral Basque's flagship. The media doesn't know anything as of yet, but...what...wait..." Terry tapped an ear. A few seconds of listening, Terry looked slightly more ashen than normal. "Ladies and gentlemen, we've just received a statement from Admiral Pellaeon. It seems that Patriarch Hiashi Hyuuga has staged a coup attempt against the Emperor, triggering a civil war in the Kokkai. The army appears to be Hiashi's attempt to drive the Kokkai to its knees. Only time will tell who will win..."

New Sith Order
Darth Sunshine’s Infiltrator

Smoke rose in the air, from eight torches which were aligned in a perfect circle. The black soot rose towards the sky, as the light cast itself on the black Greek pillars in the room. In the center of the room, was a red circle, with gold trimming.

In the center of that, a seventeen year old woman, sat on the floor, her hands resting gently on her knees as she held her eyes closed. Her left hand gently ran over a panel, the surface covered in water, as the panel changed colors beneath her palm.

Lady Sunshine’s eyes slowly fluttered, moving rapidly, almost as if she were deep in REM sleep. Her thoughts slowly filled and merged with the database of the New Sith.

“Hello Lady Sunshine.” the Ship Overmind responded. The Ship could sense something was wrong with her. Normally the happy and cheerful Sunshine would have had a long talk with the ship, but now, something was wrong. She seemed anxious, scared, as she responded to it, “We need to leave for Issus immediately.”

“Of course my lady, but might I suggest we go in stealth.” the overmind responded.

The Lady of the Sith sat still on the floor, in mediation, although her mind was far from peaceful. “I am not concerned about that, you have seen the news broadcast.”

“Yes Lady, I have but how does that concern us?” the ship asked.

“It concerns my mother and sister. We need to get there as quickly as possible. Take me to the Jedi Apartment complex as fast as you can.”

“By your command My Lady.” the ship overmind responded, in it’s warm and peaceful tone that it usually took with her. It knew that she was in a panic, and that over all she was not as blunt or as rude as this.

The ship slowly lifted off the hanger bay door, and began to dart towards space. Inside the ship however, there was no motion, no sound, almost as if the ship had never left. As Sunshine directed the coordinates into the ship, the ship gently chimed.

“Lady Sunshine.”

“Yes?” she asked

“I beg your pardon ma’am, but I have been reviewing your recent inquires of the database and have found several filed that might be of interest to you.” it told her.

“Fine, I have a few minutes bring up the files.”

The files (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sith_assassin) slowly came to her mind as she absorbed the related files. Astonished her mind replied, “My God, do you know what you just found.”

“Yes ma’am. I am aware of your desires in this field of interest. The computer has within it the full course of training and techniques in this field. Would you like for me to relay the information to you now?” the ship Overmind asked.

“Yes of course.” Sunshine responded with all haste.

Ten Minutes Later over Issus.

A wormhole opened up in a bright flash, as a Sith Infiltrator flew out of it. The ship began towards the small Coredian Capitol at full speed.

“Lady Sunshine.” the ship opened up. “We have arrived.”

“Good, prepare to land outside the Jedi Complex.”

“By your command my lady. I have taken the liberty to construct for you the armor from the files that you have just reviewed.”

Lady Sunshine stood up before the Avatar. “You know that I like to make my own armor. After all you can only truly count on that which you create.” she said sounding even more agitated.

“I am aware my lady, and I apologize, but considering you are in fear of a warzone, and we have only recently discovered the file, I took the liberty to keep you out of harms way.”

She lowered her head, “I understand, and I thank you. Forgive me for being a bitch, I am just in a hurry.”

“It is alright my lady, I know that you are under stress.”

As the ship streaked towards the planet at maximum speed, Lady Sunshine got up, and walked to the cargo hold. She put on the Armor, and began to load herself down with everything she thought she would need for the upcoming war zone she believed she was about to enter, on Issus...

As Keith jumped outside through the collapsed wall and threw more marble debris into Hiashi's back to 'persuade' him to follow, he figured it might be a good idea to fire off a telepathic warning to Daniel.

Hiashi transferred two of the trafficked singularity bombs to this mysterious Dark-Sider that you've heard rumors about. Daniel would distinctly note that Keith had used a contraction, simply because it never occurred. Probably a sign of being a little...preoccupied, but wasn't everyone at the moment?
At about this time, I finished off Andross with a massive dose of lightning that slammed him into the nearest wall, frying him enough that his bones lit up like a Christmas tree. Needless to say, he was a pile of charred ashes when I was done with him.

I noticed that the Kokkai has mostly emptied as the fighting spread outside, leaving corpses of several Jedi, Good ANBU and Bad ANBU. I also noted that Naberius seemed to be handling himself well, with the Captain and his men being dealt with. Heh. Looks like everything's finished. Now all that's left is to head outside...

Then I heard the telepathic call from Keith. My reply was short and to the point as I quickly realized that the Darksider would be using one or both of them very soon. Shit! I'm on it!

"Naruto!" I called as he too finished his last enemy. "Let's go!"

"What's up?" He asked as we both began heading out of the palace at high speeds.

"That Darksider we know about? He's got the bombs."

"Shit. What are we waiting for?" Naruto cursed. "Let's kick his ass!"

The two of us shunpo-ed out of the warzone, not even stopping to kill random minions and reached out into the Force to track the mysterious Darksider. We had to get him quickly before he detonates the bomb somewhere!

Meanwhile, the Hokage, Sakura, King Sarinon, Master Blayden and all of the other Masters of the Kokkai began moving outside into the battlezone, adding their mastery of devastating techniques to an already devastated-by-kids battlefield. And to top it all, the Hokage herself decided to show the world why she's the Godaime Hokage, the Fifth.

She revealed this when she engaged a Dark Jedi and blocked his lightsaber with her bare hands! That's right, folks. There's a reason the Hokage rarely used a lightsaber, even if she does have one hidden in her desk. It's because she doesn't need one. She has such fine control over chakra that not only does it create her horrendous supernatural strength and incredible medical powers, she can produce a fine layer of chakra over her hands and arms to block them, surprising the hapless Dark Jedi before he died horribly when she punched his face in. The chakra is normally used to be able to cut the body, even without breaking the skin, utilizing a technique known as Chakra Scalpel, but the Hokage has refined it to the point where she can block blaster bolts and lightsabers with nothing but her body, making her a very deadly enemy on the field, even without her superstrength...

Meanwhile, Keith continued his Soresu Derivative, to allow optimum, or near-optimum, concentration on that which was below him. In this case, an asphalt road. Perfect. With a bit of work, asphalt could become a potent weapon. Hiashi might have noticed that Keith didn't seem 'there' mentally...but he was concentrating. Just conserving the bulk of his ability for something else, putting up the minimum defense to not get killed or injured.

Meanwhile, the asphalt slowly buckled under heat and pressure. Keith was using geokinetic alchemy to 'crack' the loooooooooong hydrocarbon molecules that made up asphalt---asphalt was, after all, one of the heaviest by molecular weight petroleum products around! Slowly, heavy black ooze (crude oil--dangerous weapon in the hands of a Fire Knight!) started to form on the disintegrating roadway...

After a couple more minutes of Hiashi Rage versus Soresu, along with some occasional chunks of broken-up asphalt thrown into Hiashi's back for good measure, Keith finally struck again in earnest, raising and consolidating the assorted pools of heavy crude, gathering them to slither under Hiashi and just throwing blobs of the gooey stuff at him, and igniting it...
Meanwhile, Hiashi, still in the Rage, managed to slow down long enough to notice Keith was planning yet more action against him. Action that involved asphalt-turned-crude oil and him. Ignoring the bleeding and severe on his back from the numerous blows received from Keith's geokinetic assaults, he lept off the gooey stuff just as it ignited, a fire and messy black smoke boiling upwards from the ignition. Hiashi landed on another part of the road and then jumped again up to a nearby tree. There, he shifted focus to a combination of healing and shielding, even though he was getting exhausted...

Still, as he downed a soldier pill that revitalized his energy, he had two choices now, continue the fight or try to flee...

=====

Young John Masaki Watsen quietly made his way directly into the traitorous army formation under cloak, seemingly randomly impaling enemy soldiers at will. But as he snuck his way deeper into the formation, careful not to collide with anyone for fear of revealing his presence, the lightsaber-sticking stopped. The boy became deathly quiet, the occasional flash of his green lightsaber no longer revealing his presence to the army, or even to the Masakis. For the first time since the civil war, the boy knew Fear, but like everything else, he kept his emotions well-hidden. He had not forgotten the feeling, and he wondered why in the hell he had so stupidly entered the enemy formation. He, an eight-year-old youngling, may as well have charged headlong into combat against Palpatine himself. The boy stopped near an artillery cannon, where he could spend a few seconds without being molested, without having to worry about colliding with anyone.

He stopped, wondering where to go from here. However, a series of stars on someone's uniform, off in the distance, or at least relative to the density of targets, caught his eye. Suddenly, the boy knew what had led him to infiltrate the treacherous army.

The boy quickly tracked the man bearing the stars on his insignia, dodging assorted soldiers along the way. Whereupon a flash of green appeared at the appropriate moment, directed against that target which the Force had led him to...
The boy found himself in the General's command tent, where two Dark Jedi bearing tattoos that were clearly from Nightshade's Sith Army stood on alert for any intruders. Unfortunately, they weren't expecting someone who could cloak as well as young Watsen...

"The first wave is broken? Well, then retreat and regroup with the second wave!" General Bel Iblis screamed at his XO, even though he knew that he was getting hammered on all fronts by the army and the Jedi. "We'll fight to the end, because--gaack!"

Suddenly a lightsaber stabbed through his back, then disappeared just as quickly. He dropped to the ground with a cauterized hole in the chest, dead.

Instantly, the Dark Jedi reacted upon seeing the lightsaber flash. Since they recognized that there was someone who cloaked extremely well, they drew upon the Force and encased the immediate area of the flash in a Force wall, attempting to block John from escaping...

OOC: EWT, talk to me before going ahead and posting. I have an idea involving using John as a hostage.

As this occured, Johnson decloaked and joined them in the overall sweep, hitting both Traitors and Irish Gangsters with full force as he turned on his Aggressive Defense System to block enemy missiles. Lasgun in hand, he calmly moved forward, shooting the foe as the momentum of battle swept him forward. When the lasgun ran out, he dumped it and pulled out his Tennenbaum Device, opening fire and blowing holes in the ranks.

At this, the Irish began falling back and collapsing in a near rout towards friendly troops, opening fire as they did so. It remained to be seen what would be made of their Coredian friends, but the Irish were clearly on the defensive now, at best.
And it only became worse when the Masters poured out of the palace to deliver the bad news to Colonel Woolsey and all other enemy forces: their forces were doomed. If the kids and medium-level Jedi were dangerous, the Masters, several of whom were on the High Council and even the kids' parents, were death personified.

King Sarinon has transformed into his Battle Dragon mode as soon as he went outside and took flight, raining fire down upon enemy formations. Master Elendil never wasted a single movement or attack, blinding enemies with flashes of light and paralyzing them such that their bodies locked up and fell to the ground. General Haninozuka, if anything, was even worse than his sons in the Yoda-fu department. He didn't just speedblitz the enemy, he was here...then there, slashing so fast that the enemy never had a chance to react and left nothing but glowing yellow afterimages. Master Blayden used his powers of hypnosis and Domination to make enemies turn on each other, while Lord Taishou used an energy whip to slay enemies with a crack.

Sakura Haruno-Uchiha used an Irish mobster as a club, screaming warcries as she did so. Even Katara Ikari (Shinji's grandmother) and Yuzuru Suou (Tamaki's father) were devastating opponents, despite their advanced ages. Katara not only knew her grandson's Shielding techniques to deflect blaster fire that would be missed by her Soresu, she was also a master of turning shields into bowling balls, striking down some enemies who were oddly lined up like pins. Suou, however, was much like his son in the flamboyance department, using graceful attacks that was more like dancing than lightsaber combat and liberal amounts of telekinesis.

Soon enough, the enemy was pushed back. Even what amounted to the second wave was defeated by the combined Jedi/Army assault. Now all that remained was the final push to overrun the General's camp itself...

Hermann noticed Hunny's act and raised his A280 in uncharacteristic panic. As his men were slaughtering each other occasionally and getting slaughtered by Bun Bun, cries of "FALL BACK!" and "WHAT ARE YOUR ORDERS!?" thundered in German over the radio. Hermann stood stoic, pondering a course of action as he saw the Irishmen falling back, savaged by the foe. Hermann had to make a decision, and do it now.

He then merely replied to his men with a simple, "Fall back, regroup around me" before dropping the radio. Hermann then charged the weapon and held it low. As the survivors began marshaling around him, he motioned for them to do the same, as they held their rifles low too as a result. With this along with a white handkerchief he waved, he approached Hunny and spoke loudly to him calmly, staring at him directly as he said, "The Bund der Freischutzen does not make it a policy to kill minors in cold blood, young one. We are disciplined, regimented gentlemen, not animals like the McSweeneys or the turncoats now surrendering to us. Perhaps there can be some reasoning under a flag of parlay, as one gentleman to another. Eh, young man?" As he spoke of the flag of parlay, he pointed to the hanky.
"Very well. Bun-Bun, back down!" Hunny ordered. Bun-bun, who looked a little upset at being denied more kills, nevertheless backed down upon his master's order and returned to his side. Hunny then turned on his Serious Mode, staring down Hermann even with a height disadvantage. Even his normally high-pitched voice was lowered several octaves. "I will accept nothing less than unconditional surrender from you and your group. You will be treated in accordance to international law as prisoners of war, to be released into Dornalian custody at a later date. Accept, and you will be spared. Disobey, and...well, you've seen what Bun-Bun and I can do. I can and will wipe you out to the last man. Do you accept these terms?"

The spikes crumbled beneath his feet, pushing him up a couple feet from the ground before his weight broke through the spikes and returned him to somewhat level ground. He severed his levitation field, allowing the full magnitude of his weight to sound out upon his landing. The room shuddered once again as Naberius' feet contacted the ground and pushed two inches further still, bringing up chunks of marble and formerly pristine carpet around him like some microcosm parody of an impact crater.

He looked at the ANBU just before him with his smile unchanged and took a single step forward. In that one step, he crossed the twenty feet of distance between him and his immediate nemesis with a slight buffeting of wind that had little effect other than to distract the agent for one simple moment as Naberius brought an iron-hard fist around in a quick-snap punch to the man's chin, far too swiftly for the ANBU to bring out his lightsaber, but giving the other two a moment necessary to bring their own out.

Electricity, fire, and cold might not kill a Godulan, but plasma could do it...
Captain Galen noted with feigned disinterest the deaths of his comrades. With three ANBU left, including himself, he knew that there may be nothing stopping this Godulan. So, he motioned for his two underlings to attack Naberius swiftly with their lightsabers, watching to see what happens next...

And it only became worse when the Masters poured out of the palace to deliver the bad news to Colonel Woolsey and all other enemy forces: their forces were doomed. If the kids and medium-level Jedi were dangerous, the Masters, several of whom were on the High Council and even the kids' parents, were death personified.

King Sarinon has transformed into his Battle Dragon mode as soon as he went outside and took flight, raining fire down upon enemy formations. Master Elendil never wasted a single movement or attack, blinding enemies with flashes of light and paralyzing them such that their bodies locked up and fell to the ground. General Haninozuka, if anything, was even worse than his sons in the Yoda-fu department. He didn't just speedblitz the enemy, he was here...then there, slashing so fast that the enemy never had a chance to react and left nothing but glowing yellow afterimages. Master Blayden used his powers of hypnosis and Domination to make enemies turn on each other, while Lord Taishou used an energy whip to slay enemies with a crack.

Sakura Haruno-Uchiha used an Irish mobster as a club, screaming warcries as she did so. Even Katara Ikari (Shinji's grandmother) and Yuzuru Suou (Tamaki's father) were devastating opponents, despite their advanced ages. Katara not only knew her grandson's Shielding techniques to deflect blaster fire that would be missed by her Soresu, she was also a master of turning shields into bowling balls, striking down some enemies who were oddly lined up like pins. Suou, however, was much like his son in the flamboyance department, using graceful attacks that was more like dancing than lightsaber combat and liberal amounts of telekinesis.

Soon enough, the enemy was pushed back. Even what amounted to the second wave was defeated by the combined Jedi/Army assault. Now all that remained was the final push to overrun the General's camp itself...

By now, the Irish were finished, and reports that the Elves were surrendering stirred some anger in the surviving Bostonians. Most of them simply broke rank, running for their lives. Street fighting and cold-blooded murder was one thing. But being cut down by angry Jedi was something else, and as emphazied before this was a shock.

The more sensible Irish Mobsters surrendered, and were greeted by a smiling Special Agent Johnson, who inadvetedly deputized several Coredian loyalists when he leveled his pistol at a gaggle of the Irish and said, "In the name of the Workers and Peasants of the Workers State of New Dornalia, I put you under arrest. Seems like you boys should have stuck with nationalst agitation and whiskey." He then added somewhat spuriously, "Before you say anything, I happen to be Irish on my mother's side, so shut it." Using tape cuffs, he began to read them their rights as he used his Strength augs to throw them into place like bales of hay, motioning for Coredians to help clean them up.


"Very well. Bun-Bun, back down!" Hunny ordered. Bun-bun, who looked a little upset at being denied more kills, nevertheless backed down upon his master's order and returned to his side. Hunny then turned on his Serious Mode, staring down Hermann even with a height disadvantage. Even his normally high-pitched voice was lowered several octaves. "I will accept nothing less than unconditional surrender from you and your group. You will be treated in accordance to international law as prisoners of war, to be released into Dornalian custody at a later date. Accept, and you will be spared. Disobey, and...well, you've seen what Bun-Bun and I can do. I can and will wipe you out to the last man. Do you accept these terms?"

Hermann then knelt to Hunny's stature and leaned on his blaster rifle as he thought for a moment. The others of his unit tensed up, and for a moment there was tension. He then bowed his head and offered Hunny his rifle, saying, "Your rifle is mine, Herr Junggenger." The others did so, kneeling down and symbolically offering their rifles in surrender. The group then stood up and shouldered their arms as Hermann stood up and handed his gun buttfirst to Hunny.

He then spoke frankly.

"You have bested us in combat. And you have our word we will not harm your men again. However, we have one request. It is the custom of the Bund der Freischutzen per the Code to offer our services to one who has proven more worthy of them. You are but a youth...but you did show extensive combat skills. And we have that clause against not killing children.

We therefore request that we should be allowed to take up arms and use our training to help you achieve victory."

The ANBU agent flew off his feet and twirled in the air, his jaw hanging limply as he finally landed and writhed around on the ground for a moment. Though Naberius did not show any visible sign of doing so, he paid some attention to the aerial dynamics of the agent's flight towards his present position. He also noted the approach of the other two ANBU and decided to let them screw themselves over. Thus far, he had only incapacitated his foes. Bringing the lightsabers into the equation stepped it up to the next level. People were gonna get cut.

One ANBU rushed forward and stabbed Naberius in the shoulder, the blade sliding easily through the Godulan's crystalline body and emerging on the other side with a bit of green mist and a strange crackling noise. The Avatar brought his other hand to smack the other ANBU in the wrist as he brought his own lightsaber down, but the strike was... imperfect. The ANBU stepped back, cursing to himself and shaking his hands to get feeling back into them after the jarring impact, while Naberius studied his fingerless hand. He began to feed energy into the lightsaber embedded into his chest, reinforcing the blade itself and locking it into place within his shoulder as he twisted his torso around and yanked the blade free of its wielder's hands. He reached back and took the lightsaber handle into his undamaged hand, studying it for a moment before crushing it in his grasp while holding his damaged hand out. As the ANBU watched, his fingers regrew, but the Avatar seemed to present something of a milestone.

His expression had changed.

Gone was the serene smile previously displayed on his face. What dominated now was a something of a mix between grim determination and a barely contained fury. The remains of his fingers that had been cut off in his defensive strike sizzled and burned away, leaving scorch-marks on the cracked marble.

The other ANBU had finally recovered from his somewhat dazing hit dealt by the Avatar, and he moved to bring his lightsaber across the Godulan again. Naberius responded by reaching out with his newly regenerated hand and stopping the blade with some sort of force field over his arm. He deflected on strike, parried a thrust, and easily sent the ANBU flying when he tried to land a major blow against the Godulan. The other ANBU picked up another lightsaber dropped by his colleague with the broken hands, and rushed in. Another field-block greeted him, but it was clear for the moment that the ANBU had finally found some method to even the score at least somewhat.

The two ninja danced around Naberius, and he retorted with a dance of his own, bringing his arms about in a myriad of maneuvers meant to counteract the slashes and thrusts of each lightsaber in a great whirling display of power.

The ANBU captain could see amidst the frenzy of activity that the Avatar's expression had changed again. It now displayed a kind of predatory... glee.

Unfortunately for Hiashi, the asphalt around Keith grew ever hotter. It crumbled under pressure ever more easily. Keith's thermal depolymerization gradually grew faster and more efficient as more and more of the asphalt warmed to the temperature and pressure conditions essential to catalyzing the process.

"You are not getting away that easily." Keith raised a giant crude oil slick from the deteriorating road, and splattered the entire tree, including Hiashi, in ithe somewhat thick black goo. Since Hiashi was moving into the forest, and Keith had raised a significant-sized oil slick, some of the black flammable stuff splattered on adjacent trees as well. Slightly environmentally destructive, yes, but he would have to take part in a reforestation project later. For now, he had a Fallen One on his hands.

Then Keith, with nary a thought, set the whole tree on fire, a fire that quickly spread to the adjacent splattered-with-oil trees as well, generating a nasty, suffocating plume of thick, black, oily smoke...
Unfortunately, Hiashi Hyuuga's luck has run out. The oil fire was intense enough to start burning his flesh. Hiashi let out a powerful Force Scream as he was consumed by the flames, directing the Force-enhanced sonic blast at Keith in hopes of taking him down with him. And at that moment, everyone in the area who was even remotely Force-sensitive could hear/feel the Scream. The closest ones nearest the dueling pair felt as if they were hammered in their heads and even the farther ones winced at the psychic attack.

John quickly sensed the Force Wall, and stopped cold before he could collide into it, which would reveal an exact location to the Sith, whom he hadn't counted on. He quickly moved away from the General's corpse, too, so that the lightsaber flashes the Sith had to go off of for location data became out of date. Though he was presently hiding a bit of fear from them, he knew it'd be quite difficult for the Sith to detect him, so he would have to play cat-and-mouse until a distraction came up to cause the Sith to take down the Force Wall...
One of the Sith maintained the Force Wall while the other, utilizing one of the tricks taught by Nightshade, executed a deep-seated Force scan for the cloaked target. If successful, the other Sith will begin attacking...

By now, the Irish were finished, and reports that the Elves were surrendering stirred some anger in the surviving Bostonians. Most of them simply broke rank, running for their lives. Street fighting and cold-blooded murder was one thing. But being cut down by angry Jedi was something else, and as emphazied before this was a shock.

The more sensible Irish Mobsters surrendered, and were greeted by a smiling Special Agent Johnson, who inadvetedly deputized several Coredian loyalists when he leveled his pistol at a gaggle of the Irish and said, "In the name of the Workers and Peasants of the Workers State of New Dornalia, I put you under arrest. Seems like you boys should have stuck with nationalst agitation and whiskey." He then added somewhat spuriously, "Before you say anything, I happen to be Irish on my mother's side, so shut it." Using tape cuffs, he began to read them their rights as he used his Strength augs to throw them into place like bales of hay, motioning for Coredians to help clean them up.
The Inuzuka Clan's wolves and dogs and Chika-chan's raptors were sent out to hunt down the mobsters who broke and ran, while several Jedi, including the younger ones, came up to the surrendering enemies. Fortunately for Johnson, Jedi *were* law enforcement officers -after a fashion- and always carried several 'cuffs in their utility belts. They were soon followed by landing gunships carrying heavily armed soldiers and cops who, even as the battle was almost, but not quite over, began to process the surrendered ones.

Hermann then knelt to Hunny's stature and leaned on his blaster rifle as he thought for a moment. The others of his unit tensed up, and for a moment there was tension. He then bowed his head and offered Hunny his rifle, saying, "Your rifle is mine, Herr Junggenger." The others did so, kneeling down and symbolically offering their rifles in surrender. The group then stood up and shouldered their arms as Hermann stood up and handed his gun buttfirst to Hunny.

He then spoke frankly.

"You have bested us in combat. And you have our word we will not harm your men again. However, we have one request. It is the custom of the Bund der Freischutzen per the Code to offer our services to one who has proven more worthy of them. You are but a youth...but you did show extensive combat skills. And we have that clause against not killing children.

We therefore request that we should be allowed to take up arms and use our training to help you achieve victory."
"Hmm." Hunny replied, taking the gun to accept the surrender, still playing the Stern One. He could sense no deception in the man, er, elf. He and Bun-Bun shared a look, then Bun-Bun shrugged as if to let Hunny make the decision. "Very well. Swear that you will join us in defeating evil instead of serving it from this day forward. True honor comes from defending the weak and innocent against those who would prey on them. The road will be hard, but they say the rewards will be greater than those who serve only money."

The Inuzuka Clan's wolves and dogs and Chika-chan's raptors were sent out to hunt down the mobsters who broke and ran, while several Jedi, including the younger ones, came up to the surrendering enemies. Fortunately for Johnson, Jedi *were* law enforcement officers -after a fashion- and always carried several 'cuffs in their utility belts. They were soon followed by landing gunships carrying heavily armed soldiers and cops who, even as the battle was almost, but not quite over, began to process the surrendered ones.

The Irish definetly resisted every inch of the surrender process, their street instincts proving to surface as they refused to provide information and actively disparaged their jailers as "pigs," "Karate Kids," and even as "damn crazy Japs," Coredians being the closest thing to actual Japanese they had seen. This came with plenty of spit.

Johnson, in the meanwhile, saw Hunny in the distance accepting the surrender of the Elves, and walked to that spot...

"Hmm." Hunny replied, taking the gun to accept the surrender, still playing the Stern One. He could sense no deception in the man, er, elf. He and Bun-Bun shared a look, then Bun-Bun shrugged as if to let Hunny make the decision. "Very well. Swear that you will join us in defeating evil instead of serving it from this day forward. True honor comes from defending the weak and innocent against those who would prey on them. The road will be hard, but they say the rewards will be greater than those who serve only money."

Hermann was now in a vise. The offer was originally made to try and protect his people, so they could perhaps fight another day. And, it was true that they could easily swear and then do so to Hunny's face. But Hunny didn't seem like the fellow you could lie to.

So, Hermann genuinely, and with recognition the situation had changed dramatically, declared, "We will use our assasination training for the purposes of good. If it will allow me and my brothers to live, and to continue the tradition of the Code to future generations, so be it. Our powers were meant to be used to decide destinies with a minimum of blood. Perhaps this is merely another way."

Johnson happened upon the scene, and crossed his arms. With a sarcastic smirk, he said, "I see you boys decided to be more cooperative."

"Agent Johnson. My old adversary." With that, Hermann met Johnson's sarcasm with a pointed grin. Motioning to Hunny, he said, "You are lucky our young Opponent here has sworn me to an oath of do-gooding, in exchange for sparing us. In other words, we're part of the good guys now."

Johnson then turned to Hunny, and looked at him with a mixture of shock and deep skepticism; it was obvious Hermann and Johnson had dueled often, and each of them didn't really trust the other. With that in mind, a simple, "Is this true?" emerged.

Unfortunately, the physical effects of Force Scream, Keith found quite difficult to isolate himself from, especially as not even from Ebolus had he endured one before. He stumbled back, driven by the Dark Energy, using his stamina to find a still-hard patch of asphalt to land in such that he wouldn't get flammable shit all over his uniform. Still, his ears...

His eardrums vibrated, very nearly shattering, as if enduring a prolonged Nazgûl shriek from a low altitude flyover. The ringing in his head wasn't going to be going away anytime soon; this sensation remained quite a bit more severe than that of being around live artillery without earplugs. Force Absorption helped, but still, it was a good thing that Hiashi was far, far closer to death than he.

Mentally, he tried clearing the disorientation from his head. Calling on the Force to substitute in for his roiling eardrum fluids insofar as sense of balance was concerned, at least for a few seconds, he staggered back up, and narrowing his vision (which had been somewhat less affected), he saw that Hiashi's tree was still burning, as well as those around it.

He intensified the flame to be rid of him before he could summon enough energy to do that again. The ringing in his ears...he suspected he might need to get a healer for that after the duel...
The Force Scream initially grew louder as Hiashi uses his last remaining reserves to hold out, but at last, the fires consumed him and he died in a sufficiently horrible fashion, burned alive to the bones as Keith's fires consumed him. And at long last, his spirit was extinguished and with it, the anti-teleport wards keeping the Kokkai from escaping easily.

John, even though trapped within a confined area, remained (nervously) on the move, knowing it'd be easier for the two scary Sith that towered over him to find him if he remained still. Even through Hiashi's Force Scream did he so move about, careful not to bump into anything, but covering his ears nonetheless. Fortunately, the Sith couldn't see that little action.

Still, for all of his stealth, John was still afraid. Quite afraid, in fact. He sensed the two Sith, very eager to kill him--were they actually Knights? John gulped as he looked at their dress and saw that indeed, they were. He had to keep really, really quiet...

Unfortunately, he was afraid enough that a tiny whiff of that fear got out. An eight-year old still had much to learn about control, after all. Still, John knew that something slipped out, and that whiff of fear muffled and dispersed itself throughout the tent as John moved clear away from its origin. If the Sith thought they knew where John was, the actual attack would come up with air.

Of course, that little slip-up also confirmed to the Sith that they had John trapped. Little did John know that they would soon get another chance to exercise their power...
"He's in here. I can feel it. Faint...and young." One of the Sith Knights, Kavar, said.

"So the rumors of powerful Jedi youths are true. They are proving to be worthy opponents." The other, Jafar smirked.

Just then, two soldiers came inside the tent. "Sir, the Irish and Elves have been routed--General?!"

Suddenly, Jafar pounced on the first soldier, while the other used a Force Stasis on the other, while maintaining the Force Wall.

"Reveal yourself, Jedi, or else these men will die!" Jafar bellowed, grasping the hapless soldier's head with his hands. Clearly, he was playing on the Jedi sense of self-sacrifice. "Unless you intend to follow us into darkness by sacrificing them for the sake of yourself?"

The Irish definetly resisted every inch of the surrender process, their street instincts proving to surface as they refused to provide information and actively disparaged their jailers as "pigs," "Karate Kids," and even as "damn crazy Japs," Coredians being the closest thing to actual Japanese they had seen. This came with plenty of spit.

Johnson, in the meanwhile, saw Hunny in the distance accepting the surrender of the Elves, and walked to that spot...

Hermann was now in a vise. The offer was originally made to try and protect his people, so they could perhaps fight another day. And, it was true that they could easily swear and then do so to Hunny's face. But Hunny didn't seem like the fellow you could lie to.

So, Hermann genuinely, and with recognition the situation had changed dramatically, declared, "We will use our assasination training for the purposes of good. If it will allow me and my brothers to live, and to continue the tradition of the Code to future generations, so be it. Our powers were meant to be used to decide destinies with a minimum of blood. Perhaps this is merely another way."

Johnson happened upon the scene, and crossed his arms. With a sarcastic smirk, he said, "I see you boys decided to be more cooperative."

"Agent Johnson. My old adversary." With that, Hermann met Johnson's sarcasm with a pointed grin. Motioning to Hunny, he said, "You are lucky our young Opponent here has sworn me to an oath of do-gooding, in exchange for sparing us. In other words, we're part of the good guys now."

Johnson then turned to Hunny, and looked at him with a mixture of shock and deep skepticism; it was obvious Hermann and Johnson had dueled often, and each of them didn't really trust the other. With that in mind, a simple, "Is this true?" emerged.
As Johnson emerged, Hunny returned to his cute visage when he answered. "Yep. They're honorable enough to hold their oath. I could sense it. Hey Takashi!"

"I see you've done well, Mitsukuni." Though his stoic nature didn't show it, as he stepped forth to see what happened to Hunny, Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka was relieved to see that Hunny was alive. And bore a hint of amusement at the result.

"Yep!" Hunny grinned as Bun-Bun executed a victory dance. Then he sensed it and looked in the direction of Hiashi and Keith. "He's dead..."

Every single Jedi in the area could sense the death of Hiashi Hyuuga. Many were relieved at the death of a Fallen One and many were also bemused at the fact that it was Keith Allaire, Accuser of the Fallen that has executed him. Still, there were a few Loyalists who felt otherwise, although they hid their true emotions well, even as the army and Jedi moved ever-closer to dealing with the enemy base camp once and for all.

His expression had changed.

Gone was the serene smile previously displayed on his face. What dominated now was a something of a mix between grim determination and a barely contained fury. The remains of his fingers that had been cut off in his defensive strike sizzled and burned away, leaving scorch-marks on the cracked marble.

The other ANBU had finally recovered from his somewhat dazing hit dealt by the Avatar, and he moved to bring his lightsaber across the Godulan again. Naberius responded by reaching out with his newly regenerated hand and stopping the blade with some sort of force field over his arm. He deflected on strike, parried a thrust, and easily sent the ANBU flying when he tried to land a major blow against the Godulan. The other ANBU picked up another lightsaber dropped by his colleague with the broken hands, and rushed in. Another field-block greeted him, but it was clear for the moment that the ANBU had finally found some method to even the score at least somewhat.

The two ninja danced around Naberius, and he retorted with a dance of his own, bringing his arms about in a myriad of maneuvers meant to counteract the slashes and thrusts of each lightsaber in a great whirling display of power.

The ANBU captain could see amidst the frenzy of activity that the Avatar's expression had changed again. It now displayed a kind of predatory... glee.
The two ANBU noted with interest that though the Godulan regenerated, he was starting to get pissed. Perhaps there was hope in killing this one, even as he created some kind of forcefield around his arms to protect himself. Moving in together, the ANBU attacked with a series of feints and strikes and one of them tried using Trakata on Naberius as he attacked, shutting off the blade as it hit the forcefield and shutting it on again to strike at the torso quick-like...

The problem with attempting to use 'styles' against a Godulan is that they tended towards a somewhat primal philosophy that championed no specific approach to any one situation. As they preferred to look at it: "This is a fight, not a dance." After all, one did not often see a lion do a fancy pirouette in order to bring down a gazelle. When it came to combat, the things that mattered most were speed and reaction time. In a fight where any one strike could be lethal, the one who gets the first strike has the advantage.

And so it was that when one of the ANBU attempted to initiate a feint with a rather clever use of his lightsaber's off button, Naberius saw an opening of sorts, not that he really needed to, but losing more bits and pieces of himself was damned inconvenient for his purposes. Here he saw a man effectively draw away his weapon in order to strike at his torso, here he saw a man who had withdrawn his weapon from consideration for a critical moment, giving him a proper corridor to utilize his superior body mass.

Marble shards sprayed in the other ANBU agent's face as Naberius burst forward to slam the 'tricksey' ANBU with a crushing shield-rush, shutting off his other shield for just a moment and doubling the size of the arm-field facing the targeted agent. To the watching captain, it would have seemed like the avatar had kicked sand in the eyes of one ANBU while ramming into the other like a charging bull.

The Bunta knew where he had to go. Sure he could go back to the center of the Kokkai and launch one of the bomb's there and destroy the Coredian government once and for all like a proper blunt Sith. But no, his idea is much more sinister than that. The Bunta likes a slow death, destroying the government from the inside out. With the media coverage of the explosion, Daniel and crew would be eaten alive. Of course, he could always declare total martial law, but that would only cause more citizens to go under the civil war which Hiashi had just briefly initiated. It would appear that Daniel's credibility as effectively ruling Coredia would be harmed greatly. Yes, that seemed to be a much more worse fate than having it destroyed utterly. One's a temporary hurt, governments can be rebuilt. The other was everlasting even after death.

So the Bunta teleported (OOC:technology of course, as Force and Charka wards were set up, plus the wards weren't suppose to be down when he got the bombs) to Downtown Ravelin, the heart of Baiston. There, the Bunta set up one of the bombs and repackaged the other, and teleported it to another location out of site. Luckily for him, the Coredians aren't intelligent enough as to have teleport trackers yet. Then he called to Daniel and Naruto. ::Find me...::

Keith weathered the last few agonizing seconds, standing in the face of Hiashi's parting Scream, but just barely. Relieved when the Fallen One finally died, Keith spent a couple of seconds clearing his head, though it worked only to restore some semblance of balance, not to clear the incessant ringing from his ears. He would still need his eardrums checked by the medics for sure.

Of course, he did not mind a little bit of self-sacrifice to deal with the next most prescient threat. The artillery that the other Jedi appeared all but unable to engage thus far. The artillery that still bombarded the Kokkai, the Jedi thus far focusing enough attention on stopping the shells before they landed to kill their victims. The Force-point defense that the other Jedi were using was working well enough to defend those non-Jedi members of the Kokkai unable to defend themselves as they evacuated, but it also diverted a significant portion of the Jedi's resources away from offensive attacks, leaving the Jedi unable to engage their source.

Keith, however, had other ideas. As a geokinetic, he had more...direct means of dealing with aforesaid artillery. He turned his attention to the ground underneath the largest cannons, and projected a huge spike of Force energy into the ground beneath them to detonate it...
It was said that a Jedi who could master the art of geokinetics, known to some as Earthbending, could wipe out an entire army with a few well-placed earthquakes or fast-paced mountain building.

So it is with Keith Allaire. His Force projection made it look like a huge landmine had exploded under the artillery batteries. Pieces flew into the air by the force of the blast, and some of them even 'jumped' with the blast. Needless to say, they were now out of commission.

Meanwhile...

While John didn't particularly want to die at the moment, there was little he found worth living for as a Royal, for he was thoroughly disenchanted with being "better" than everyone else by now, despite the fact that he had done precisely nothing to deserve it, the last couple of hours perhaps notwithstanding. Therefore, in light of his disturbingly ambivalent view concerning his own life, he found the choice disturbingly easy to make.

As he walked behind Jafar, he sensed Hiashi's death through the Force as a cessation of the constant dull screaming he felt in his head, which would've succumbed to a migraine soon had it not stopped. Well, that was a relief, but it certainly added an interesting wrinkle to things...

He also noted that he could teleport now, at least within the boundaries of the Force Wall. That might come in handy...

"Killing the messenger, are we?" John decloaked straight behind Jafar, about a foot behind him, lightsaber pointed at his back but unignited. "Let him go."

Then the ground shook and a loud, rumbling explosion drowned John's voice out, quite easily. John sensed a huge explosion forward of the tent, at least big enough to bring down an AT-AT, and, he estimated from how the ground trembled, to send large chunks thereof more than fifty meters in the air...
"A child killed the General?" Jafar asked, incredulous that not only was he sensing a small boy, but that the small boy was a foot behind him, with the lightsaber aiming at his back. "Smart boy..."

Many people know that the four most common elements in the human body are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen, but few know that these same elements are also present in many chemical explosives. Knowing he was dead the moment the boy ignited the blade, he focused his energies into the transmutation array that were stitched into his hands, transforming the man's body into a bomb made of RDX (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDX). Knowing that the Jedi brat would kill him now, Jafar ignited the man, seeking to kill all three people in a blast of Sith glory and for the glory of his master, Colonel Zolf. J. Kimblee, the Crimson Alchemist.

Should Jafar fail somehow, Kavar will challenge the boy...

It did not take long for John to sense that the Sith before him had no intention of complying. Therefore, his finger twitched. At the same instant that the first molecules of RDX started to appear in the unfortunate victim's body, a flash of green from John's pre-positioned lightsaber appeared, the tip of which was aimed for Jafar's heart.

However, John also knew that he had lost his advantage of surprise and position due to his intervention to save this soldier's life. Knowing the other Sith would be too much for him to handle alone, John blasted his Force link with his adopted father, one Taylor Masaki, with all the force he could muster, spilling over a single word into Taylor's twinlink with Jacob as well...

HELP!
Taylor and Jacob suddenly looked up at the cry. Taylor grimaced. "John."

"Let's go." Jacob nodded.

Sensing out John's location, they teleported, but not before wondering why he was in the enemy's camp in the first place. They popped just outside of the tent, sensing the boy, a Sith and a soldier inside the tent and a Force Wall as well.

"John, I'm coming!" Taylor yelled and snapped his fingers, sending an explosion to attack the Force Wall, incidently burning the tent's material to the ground, but that wasn't important.

"We've got company!" Jacob replied, deflecting blaster bolts from soldiers who heard the commotion and was now targetting the Jedi.

"Call for reinforcements to take out this base!" Taylor replied.

"Right!" Jacob sent out a Force call for reinforcements to attack the base. Needless to say, more pops of teleportaton occurred as Knights and Masters began hitting the base hard and gunships swiftly followed, destroying anything and anyone of interest.

Meanwhile, the explosions tore at the Sith's Force Wall, forcing him to decide whether to keep up the Wall or try something else and attack the Jedi. He decided to drop it and immediately produced a much smaller one to trap little John in. The soldier he tossed away without a second's notice.

Unfortunately for him, Taylor suddenly attacked the Sith Knight with a vengeance, forcing him to stop concentrating on John and concentrate on fighting Taylor's whirling red blade. Djem So was like that...

Meanwhile, Keith decided that one good explosion deserved another, and selected another assortment of the enemy army's standoff weapons to meet many many tons of ground shrapnel...
As with the first artillery batteries, the second batch of batteries were destroyed by the mega-landmines of doom, along with all their crews and nearby personnel, who scrambled helplessly for cover that would not be found against the rain of stone...

As Keith did his earthbending, the Force Wall came down as the Sith Knight was forced to concentrate on defending against Taylor Masaki's onslaught. It was too bad he didn't get to bloody his hands with the blood of the child. Perhaps one day...one day, he will kill the child.

"It's too bad. I could have used the boy." The Sith Knight hissed, his lightsaber clashing against Taylor's own.

"Ya think?" Taylor asked. Remembering the two corpses he glanced at, he decided to ask about them. "He was the one who killed the General?"

"Yess...which is why I wanted him. Ah well...until next time!" The Sith ducked a blow and then teleported far away.

"Dammit!" Taylor growled. "He got away!"

"We'll find him again." Jacob sighed.

=====

The Bunta knew where he had to go. Sure he could go back to the center of the Kokkai and launch one of the bomb's there and destroy the Coredian government once and for all like a proper blunt Sith. But no, his idea is much more sinister than that. The Bunta likes a slow death, destroying the government from the inside out. With the media coverage of the explosion, Daniel and crew would be eaten alive. Of course, he could always declare total martial law, but that would only cause more citizens to go under the civil war which Hiashi had just briefly initiated. It would appear that Daniel's credibility as effectively ruling Coredia would be harmed greatly. Yes, that seemed to be a much more worse fate than having it destroyed utterly. One's a temporary hurt, governments can be rebuilt. The other was everlasting even after death.

So the Bunta teleported (OOC:technology of course, as Force and Charka wards were set up, plus the wards weren't suppose to be down when he got the bombs) to Downtown Ravelin, the heart of Baiston. There, the Bunta set up one of the bombs and repackaged the other, and teleported it to another location out of site. Luckily for him, the Coredians aren't intelligent enough as to have teleport trackers yet. Then he called to Daniel and Naruto. ::Find me...::

"You heard that?" I asked Naruto as we jumped from tree to tree.

"Yeah. I sense a trap." Naruto frowned. "He's in the city."

"Then we'll just have to be careful. We can't let this guy get away." I replied, a little angrily.

"You read my mind."

We felt Hiashi's death and the fall of the teleport wards. Relieved, we reached out to sense Bunta, and teleported closer to the Bunta.

Meanwhile, Travis and Kabuto were still fighting in the middle of the city, jumping from roof to roof and clashing. Kabuto noted that he was marginally more skilled than the last time they met, but he still wasn't taxed. Nevertheless, he figured it wouldn't be too long before the boy can match him. Maybe a couple of years more of training...Kabuto smirked as he thought about the plan. Or perhaps not. If this plan succeeds, I'll win that bet with the Count. Still, one cannot count out that Masaki Luck. I wonder if this boy's luck will hold out today...

As Johnson emerged, Hunny returned to his cute visage when he answered. "Yep. They're honorable enough to hold their oath. I could sense it. Hey Takashi!"

"I see you've done well, Mitsukuni." Though his stoic nature didn't show it, as he stepped forth to see what happened to Hunny, Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka was relieved to see that Hunny was alive. And bore a hint of amusement at the result.

"Yep!" Hunny grinned as Bun-Bun executed a victory dance. Then he sensed it and looked in the direction of Hiashi and Keith. "He's dead..."

Every single Jedi in the area could sense the death of Hiashi Hyuuga. Many were relieved at the death of a Fallen One and many were also bemused at the fact that it was Keith Allaire, Accuser of the Fallen that has executed him. Still, there were a few Loyalists who felt otherwise, although they hid their true emotions well, even as the army and Jedi moved ever-closer to dealing with the enemy base camp once and for all.

Johnson was rather skeptical about all this. Yes, Jedi could tell when a man was lying, especially if they happened to be a little kid--and Lord knew little kids could see when an adult was fibbing. So the "human polygraph" test was fine for now. But, he did recall a number of times when Hermann had similarly impressed LAPD, London Metropolitan Police, Martian State Police, Luxembourgian Planetary Police Space Auxiliary and other such units, only to create results that involved Johnson bringing in a team of Forensics experts to gawk at how one person could escape and kill someone in such a manner. Especially that one time at LA County Jail. Chinatown was torn up looking for him.

With a sigh, Johnson could only go, as the kids were dancing, "Alright, Hermann. You're free to go, if the Jedi approves. However, I'm watching you. And, I want you to do something for me. First thing."

Hermann raised an eyebrow. "I see repentance is not enough for the Sheriff. Tell me then, what is it you require so I may show I am willing to suspend my contract with the foe and choose future contracts with my heart and not my wallet?"

Johnson frowned, and said simply, "Pick up a gun and shoot some of those enemy troops."

"As you wish." Motioning, he was tossed what looked like a monstrous version of the Type 56 AKMs used by the Irishmen before. The legendary Kroot Kalashnikov. With a wave of his hand, he shouted orders to his men to pick up their arms and begin assaulting the enemy base. Johnson then reloaded his Tennenbaum-PPK and moved with them to join Taylor in their assault, the Elves taking up positions to snipe at the enemy with rather keen vision.

The problem with attempting to use 'styles' against a Godulan is that they tended towards a somewhat primal philosophy that championed no specific approach to any one situation. As they preferred to look at it: "This is a fight, not a dance." After all, one did not often see a lion do a fancy pirouette in order to bring down a gazelle. When it came to combat, the things that mattered most were speed and reaction time. In a fight where any one strike could be lethal, the one who gets the first strike has the advantage.

And so it was that when one of the ANBU attempted to initiate a feint with a rather clever use of his lightsaber's off button, Naberius saw an opening of sorts, not that he really needed to, but losing more bits and pieces of himself was damned inconvenient for his purposes. Here he saw a man effectively draw away his weapon in order to strike at his torso, here he saw a man who had withdrawn his weapon from consideration for a critical moment, giving him a proper corridor to utilize his superior body mass.

Marble shards sprayed in the other ANBU agent's face as Naberius burst forward to slam the 'tricksey' ANBU with a crushing shield-rush, shutting off his other shield for just a moment and doubling the size of the arm-field facing the targeted agent. To the watching captain, it would have seemed like the avatar had kicked sand in the eyes of one ANBU while ramming into the other like a charging bull.
Captain Galen watched emotionlessly as his ANBU began to lose. One ANBU roared as shards sprayed into his eyes, and tried to rub them out. The other gasped in pain as the Avatar rammed him after trying and failing at Trakata and was thrown back. To Galen, the Avatar was proving to be as dangerous a foe as any, and perhaps it was time to take his leave and take what information on Naberius he had back to people who would appreciate it...like Lady Nightshade.

With that, he made a seal for a lightning technique and attacked the power conduit, blowing it up nice and loudly. Obviously, if Naberius was fighting for it, he should be denied it. After that, he noticed that one of the other Fallen ANBU that was attacked by Naberius was getting up. Weakened, but still ready to fight.

"Cover me." Galen ordered the last ANBU and began to make his exit. The guy compiled and ignited his lightsaber, then reached out and punted Naberius hard with a telekinetic blow.

"Hey," Keith looked at Jacob, as both Sith and the boy fled, in nearly opposite directions. He pointed at the soldier whose body had been partially alchemized into RDX, for being a Fire Knight, he could sense explosives at this kind of point-blank range. "Either help him, or get a medic to pump the RDX out of his system. He is still alive, but reversing the Sith's alchemy without igniting him is beyond my ability." He gave Jacob a look that rather strongly suggested that he had the wherewithal to order a Royal around. "Well? Pick one of the two options already."

Then Keith's eyes fell upon the Sith Knight's body, which had crumpled to the ground behind the RDX victim. "Damn. Looks like John killed this one before he could kill the soldier." But Keith knew that it wouldn't be long before this little tent fell under attack, and quickly moved on to covering Jacob.
Jacob took a good look at the helpless soldier, both physically and through the Force. He shook his head. "No good. The chemicals are too deep to use alchemy safely. We'll have to get a medic to pump it out."

He called in a medic team to take the guy away. They braved heavy fire to bring a stretcher and put the moaning soldier on the stretcher and took him to safety, after a short discussion with the Jedi Alchemist. Meanwhile, Jacob checked the Sith Knight. Keith mentioned John killed him. Well, that kid would get a commendation...after he gets the riot act by Taylor for running off on his own, of course. Anyway, Jacob noted that the Sith Knight had a strange tattoo on his palms. Tattoos that belonged to the Crimson Alchemist. After the diagnosis, he went to Keith to help him do battle with the dwindling soldiers. "That was an apprentice of Zolf Kimblee, the Crimson Alchemist. Making bombs out of people is a depraved speciality of his. The transmutation arrays (http://www.animeindepth.com/images/1/circle/KimbleeCircle.jpg) on his hands are his trademark."

Unfortunately, fire and ice would reveal too much information to the enemy army about from where the attacks were coming. Therefore, he resumed blowing up the ground beneath the biggest threats, for the only direction the enemy would notice would be up, for instead of the attack appearing to come from the Knight directly, the attack relied on the Force projecting the attack from straight below.

Meanwhile, one cloaked John noticed the Sith had fled in a hurry. Therefore, he, too, figuring he might already be in enough trouble, teleported off the battlefield as well, to the edge of the forest where there was no one to notice him...

"As you wish." Motioning, he was tossed what looked like a monstrous version of the Type 56 AKMs used by the Irishmen before. The legendary Kroot Kalashnikov. With a wave of his hand, he shouted orders to his men to pick up their arms and begin assaulting the enemy base. Johnson then reloaded his Tennenbaum-PPK and moved with them to join Taylor in their assault, the Elves taking up positions to snipe at the enemy with rather keen vision.

Between the combined assault of Keith Allaire and the Twins, the Jedi Knights, the 37th Battalion of the 4th Marine Corps and the betrayal by the Elven group, -not to mention the loss of Hiashi Hyuuga- the army either surrendered or broke and ran to fight again another day. The battle on the ground was essentially over, except for the mopping up. With mops.

The battle in space was another story, however.

For over an hour, the two behemoths have dueled, trading broadside after broadside and trying to maneuver to deliver the killing blows of the Yamato Cannons to each other. It was like seeing a slower-paced version of a dogfight, a dogfight with hundreds of weapons, powerful shields and two dangerous Admirals at the helm.

Despite Admiral Basque's best tactics, the Megalodon was looking the worse for wear than the Phoenix, despite both ships trailing atmosphere. Grand Admiral Pellaeon, despite his age, was still as sharp as a whip, moving several steps ahead of his former student in the violent game of naval chess, forcing the other Admiral to counter defensively. Still, Basque managed to hold his own, using Evil Chief to keep the shields at a high rate of regeneration while the weapons continued their work, searching for weakness in the Phoenix that he could exploit...

Naberius took the telekinetic thrust in full, the force of the blast sufficient to send him out of the room entirely. In a display of sheer mental discipline however, a pair of Naberius clones materialized directly behind the ANBU, one low to the ground in a charge meant to take the legs right out from under the ANBU, while the other snapped a lightning-quick chop onto the back of the agent's neck. A third one materialized directly in front of the weakened ANBU, charging forward for a clothesline from hell.

STRATEGIC BREACH!

What?

That observer, the ANBU captain. He is trying to escape. We think he noticed that the lightsaber chop through your fingers actually did damage.

Shit.

Contain the breach. Termination Protocols are cleared as active. One more body will not make a difference today.

Naberius replayed the memory of where Galen was going when he was forcibly ejected from the room. Pulling up a general schematic of the building from his earlier passage through the outer corridors, he determined the ANBU's method of exit and began to project more clones. Ignoring the waning combat around him, he rose up with inhuman grace and vanished. Utilizing the information provided by his clones as they initiated hostilities with the captain, he summoned more clones and materialized amongst them, careful to mimic in intricate detail the tell-tales of another shadow clone materializing as he rushed forward of his own volition, in concert with a veritable army of his own clones...

"You heard that?" I asked Naruto as we jumped from tree to tree.

"Yeah. I sense a trap." Naruto frowned. "He's in the city."

"Then we'll just have to be careful. We can't let this guy get away." I replied, a little angrily.

"You read my mind."

We felt Hiashi's death and the fall of the teleport wards. Relieved, we reached out to sense Bunta, and teleported closer to the Bunta.

The Bunta stood in the middle of the street, lifting random hover cars and throwing them out from the middle of the street as civilians ran for cover from their cars. While normally he wouldn't care too much about civilian casualties, he did in this case. He wanted there to be as many witnesses as possible to see that the Coredian Government has allowed a Kirtir to infiltrate this deep into the city, and the government for that matter.

The Bunta took one of the two bombs out of the package, and placed it inside one of the hovercars he just threw, and hid it underneath the seat ready to be activated whenever he wished. The other he left in the scroll, to be delivered to another location. He then took an emergency teleporter device (he has several) from his belt and beamed the final scroll to another location. He then sat down onto the pavement, and waited for Naruto and Daniel to arrive.

The Bunta stood in the middle of the street, lifting random hover cars and throwing them out from the middle of the street as civilians ran for cover from their cars. While normally he wouldn't care too much about civilian casualties, he did in this case. He wanted there to be as many witnesses as possible to see that the Coredian Government has allowed a Kirtir to infiltrate this deep into the city, and the government for that matter.

The Bunta took one of the two bombs out of the package, and placed it inside one of the hovercars he just threw, and hid it underneath the seat ready to be activated whenever he wished. The other he left in the scroll, to be delivered to another location. He then took an emergency teleporter device (he has several) from his belt and beamed the final scroll to another location. He then sat down onto the pavement, and waited for Naruto and Daniel to arrive.
Two poofs of smoke appeared on either side of the pavement as two of the most powerful humans in the nation appeared on either side of the Bunta.

"So, you're the Bunta." I said, my electric blue lightsaber ablaze. "It would be prudent to say you're under arrest."

"Yeah. So unless you want to get creamed by the two of us, you should come quietly." Naruto replied.

OOC: Godular, MSN me asap.

Two poofs of smoke appeared on either side of the pavement as two of the most powerful humans in the nation appeared on either side of the Bunta.

"So, you're the Bunta." I said, my electric blue lightsaber ablaze. "It would be prudent to say you're under arrest."

"Yeah. So unless you want to get creamed by the two of us, you should come quietly." Naruto replied.

The old man got up from his meditation position and lifted himself up with his cane appearing to wince as he got up. "Don't let the looks of an old man deceive you my young Masaki. I may appear to be a fragile old man..." He got up from his meditation position and activated his Light Scythe. Then, he positioned his hands in the meditative/prayer position and disappeared with a puff.

"Damn..." I groused as we looked around and searched for the Bunta. "Is he getting away?"

"Can't tell." Naruto replied.

As the two wondered around, a loud dark cackle could be heard as a gust of wind rolled by them. The cackle soon died to a distant noise as the wind passed behind them, then they heard a new voice. A female voice, "Daniel my son..." The voice would be eerily familiar to the Lightning Emperor someone he lost a long time ago. "Daniel, you must leave! Travis is in trouble! Flee this place my boy! Save my grandson!"

The voice startled me. "M-mom? No...it can't be..."

"It's a trick, Daniel." Naruto replied, scowling. "That old guy's doing something."

I hesitated. He was right. It was genjutsu. It had to be. But I haven't heard her voice in so long...I forced myself to ignore her voice.

The image of his mother continued to float towards him. "You must not ignore me little Danny! You can't! Don't you feel it? Travis is in danger!" Then, the Bunta sent an image of Travis being overwhelmed by Sith and Kirtir Masters, and thrashed about by some ugly brute then being captured and chained away by Darth Aelikes. "You must not let them take him again! If this man takes him, there will be no way to rescue them other than a full frontal assault upon their home planet!" She fell to the ground in a begging position at Daniel's feet, "please... Save him for god's sake! If you fail me again, I'll never forgive you! You won't be welcomed among us when you die! You shall be rejected by all of us! There will be no place for your soul except for the darkness of oblivion!"

It was a pretty good illusion, I had to admit. Probably right up there with Nightshade's. It tore at my heart to hear Mom's voice again and I almost believed it...

"Daniel, if Travis really was getting captured, we'd know it!" Naruto shot back. "Search your feelings!"

Naruto had a point. When I reached out, I sensed Travis fighting Kabuto somewhere in the city, not a horde of Kirtir. I turned to the illusion of my mother. "Don't play tricks on me, old man! Come out and fight!"

The image of his mother cackled, sounding almost like Nightshade herself. Her hands reached up to grab Daniel, then they erupted in flames. The Image screamed and cackled madly as it fell to the ground and squirmed. Eventually, it stopped screaming and laid motionless on the ground. It's skin slowly peeled away as a sudden sharp gust of wind blew, revealing each rotting layer of flesh eventually ending with the bones which crumbled to dust in the wind.

The loud ghostly cackle of the Bunta could be heard again, followed by the sound of a hundred echoing footsteps circling around Daniel and Naruto. Eventually, a glob of black smoke emerged in front of Naruto and the Black saber blade of the Bunta's Light Scythe emerged. It took a swipe towards the Jedi's chest...

The image of his mother cackled, sounding almost like Nightshade herself. Her hands reached up to grab Daniel, then they erupted in flames. The Image screamed and cackled madly as it fell to the ground and squirmed. Eventually, it stopped screaming and laid motionless on the ground. It's skin slowly peeled away as a sudden sharp gust of wind blew, revealing each rotting layer of flesh eventually ending with the bones which crumbled to dust in the wind.

The loud ghostly cackle of the Bunta could be heard again, followed by the sound of a hundred echoing footsteps circling around Daniel and Naruto. Eventually, a glob of black smoke emerged in front of Naruto and the Black saber blade of the Bunta's Light Scythe emerged. It took a swipe towards the Jedi's chest...
Naruto got swiped, but it made him burst open in a roar of slicing wind directed at the Bunta, a variant of Kawarimi. The next thing the Bunta knew, clones appeared from all sides, slashing at him with lightsabers.

Meanwhile, I warily prepared for anything the Bunta would throw at me, recovering from that sudden shock at my mother being used as a ploy by Bunta. In response, I began preparing my considerable arsenal of powers to counteract him...

Naberius took the telekinetic thrust in full, the force of the blast sufficient to send him out of the room entirely. In a display of sheer mental discipline however, a pair of Naberius clones materialized directly behind the ANBU, one low to the ground in a charge meant to take the legs right out from under the ANBU, while the other snapped a lightning-quick chop onto the back of the agent's neck. A third one materialized directly in front of the weakened ANBU, charging forward for a clothesline from hell.

STRATEGIC BREACH!

What?

That observer, the ANBU captain. He is trying to escape. We think he noticed that the lightsaber chop through your fingers actually did damage.

Shit.

Contain the breach. Termination Protocols are cleared as active. One more body will not make a difference today.

Naberius replayed the memory of where Galen was going when he was forcibly ejected from the room. Pulling up a general schematic of the building from his earlier passage through the outer corridors, he determined the ANBU's method of exit and began to project more clones. Ignoring the waning combat around him, he rose up with inhuman grace and vanished. Utilizing the information provided by his clones as they initiated hostilities with the captain, he summoned more clones and materialized amongst them, careful to mimic in intricate detail the tell-tales of another shadow clone materializing as he rushed forward of his own volition, in concert with a veritable army of his own clones...
As Galen rushed forward, he noted a hell of a lot of clones following that would make a lesser man flee in terror. But ANBU were not emotional beings. They were terror personified. Galen made a single seal and the next thing the clones knew, everything from pictures to chairs to kitchen sinks began attacking them, throwing themselves at the clones at sufficient velocity to kill normal men twice over. Followed by the walls and floors coming alive, creating tons of hands that punched other clones.

This was the power of an ANBU Captain, but it was only the beginning...

Naruto got swiped, but it made him burst open in a roar of slicing wind directed at the Bunta, a variant of Kawarimi. The next thing the Bunta knew, clones appeared from all sides, slashing at him with lightsabers.

Meanwhile, I warily prepared for anything the Bunta would throw at me, recovering from that sudden shock at my mother being used as a ploy by Bunta. In response, I began preparing my considerable arsenal of powers to counteract him...

The Bunta saw the wind being thrown at him, and positioned his Scythe to block it. Then, he saw the many copies of Naruto popping into the air. Not wanting to waste much time in finding the real one, the Bunta returned Naruto's wind attack with another gust of wind, aimed at slicing every single clone of the Jedi as well as the Jedi himself. He then swung his blade at Daniel's shoulders...

"Uh! Ah!" Naruto's clones disappeared, having been struck by the slicing winds and forced Naruto to bend the wind aside. Meanwhile, I blocked the lightscythe, blue smashing against black and moved to counterattack, slicing towards his legs.

The Bunta flipped backwards as Daniel's blade sliced towards his feet and landed on the ground. He then disappeared with a puff of smoke, reappearing in front of the real Naruto, slicing at his legs.

While it appeared that he ignored Daniel, it would not be so. The Bunta has read up on his family's deaths... And the death of his father was well recorded by Coruscant's security camera's in the Imperial Palace. The Bunta reached out to Daniel's perspective, and placed the very room where Daniel is about to experience his father's death by Palpatine's hands... Again...

Naberius' shadow clones were little match for the onslaught as literally everything seemed to turn against them. They had been sent into an unknown situation, and paid for it with their fleeting and half-constructed lives. Puffs of acrid smoke accompanied each grisly pseudo-murder as in one case a picture was hurled through a clone's neck with sufficient force to function as an impromptu- if blunt -guillotine, while another clone met its end by having its limbs torn free by stone claws. If the clones actually left bodies behind, it would have been a veritable charnel house of blood and flesh, but fortunately for the rating agencies of the universe, all that remained of the carnage was a swiftly fading layer of smoke, thereby earning it a mere PG, rather than an R or NC-17.

Through the midst of it all, Naberius stalked his foe, his movements suggesting that his movements were little more than a walk but his actual speed being faster than any human could possibly run. He was levitating once again, his expression a mask of sadistic glee as he somehow managed to be missed by flying objects despite his notably straight trajectory. He launched clones like semi-corporeal missiles at his quarry, spawning them in the midst of generating their own seals (an unfortunate side effect of their nature being that they didn't have access to his own prodigious mental discipline).

With the completion of their own seals mid-flight, each clone-dart transformed into monstrous iron parodies of themselves, studded with spikes and blades as they crashed their way through grasping granite and flying furniture, trailing razor studded chains behind them like horrific streamers. They landed only a short distance behind Galen, grinning maliciously as they rushed forward, whipping their chains forward in an attempt to catch hold of their fleeing foe and pull him back into arm's reach such that they would properly complete their objective.

"I am not even a chuunin, my friend!" Naberius' voice called out amidst the chaos. "Look at the things I can do. Look at the things I have done to your underlings, how I so effortlessly defeated them. Look at yourself, my friend! You flee from me! You flee to report your trivial tidbits to your bitch-queen. You flee to escape my wrath, that I cannot allow you to deliver even those contrivances of information to your debased mistress! Why do these things? What has your mistress done that so inspires you to these heights of loyalty?"

The Bunta flipped backwards as Daniel's blade sliced towards his feet and landed on the ground. He then disappeared with a puff of smoke, reappearing in front of the real Naruto, slicing at his legs.
Naruto jumped over the slash, and then brought his lightsaber down on the Bunta's.

While it appeared that he ignored Daniel, it would not be so. The Bunta has read up on his family's deaths... And the death of his father was well recorded by Coruscant's security camera's in the Imperial Palace. The Bunta reached out to Daniel's perspective, and placed the very room where Daniel is about to experience his father's death by Palpatine's hands... Again...
Suddenly, the visions from my many nightmares appeared. The loss of the Force...Palpatine cackling as the infinite hordes of stormtroopers rained blasters down upon my dad again and again and me screaming in terror.

"NO!" I yelled, spraying deadly lightning from my fingers at the Bunta.

Naberius' shadow clones were little match for the onslaught as literally everything seemed to turn against them. They had been sent into an unknown situation, and paid for it with their fleeting and half-constructed lives. Puffs of acrid smoke accompanied each grisly pseudo-murder as in one case a picture was hurled through a clone's neck with sufficient force to function as an impromptu- if blunt -guillotine, while another clone met its end by having its limbs torn free by stone claws. If the clones actually left bodies behind, it would have been a veritable charnel house of blood and flesh, but fortunately for the rating agencies of the universe, all that remained of the carnage was a swiftly fading layer of smoke, thereby earning it a mere PG, rather than an R or NC-17.

Through the midst of it all, Naberius stalked his foe, his movements suggesting that his movements were little more than a walk but his actual speed being faster than any human could possibly run. He was levitating once again, his expression a mask of sadistic glee as he somehow managed to be missed by flying objects despite his notably straight trajectory. He launched clones like semi-corporeal missiles at his quarry, spawning them in the midst of generating their own seals (an unfortunate side effect of their nature being that they didn't have access to his own prodigious mental discipline).

With the completion of their own seals mid-flight, each clone-dart transformed into monstrous iron parodies of themselves, studded with spikes and blades as they crashed their way through grasping granite and flying furniture, trailing razor studded chains behind them like horrific streamers. They landed only a short distance behind Galen, grinning maliciously as they rushed forward, whipping their chains forward in an attempt to catch hold of their fleeing foe and pull him back into arm's reach such that they would properly complete their objective.

"I am not even a chuunin, my friend!" Naberius' voice called out amidst the chaos. "Look at the things I can do. Look at the things I have done to your underlings, how I so effortlessly defeated them. Look at yourself, my friend! You flee from me! You flee to report your trivial tidbits to your bitch-queen. You flee to escape my wrath, that I cannot allow you to deliver even those contrivances of information to your debased mistress! Why do these things? What has your mistress done that so inspires you to these heights of loyalty?"
Galen spoke nothing to Naberius' taunts as he retaliated against the iron spikes, spewing steel-melting fire at them and using TK to prevent any molten metal shards from reaching too close to him. If that didn't work, well, there was *that* card that he was going to play...

Naberius smiled inwardly at Galen's distinct lack of a response. Finally, somebody among the Coredians who didn't go around yowling out empty promises and threats. If he were in the Godulan Military, he might actually have gotten somewhere. Instead of replying to Naberius' inflammatory comments, he focused his efforts in terminating the augmented shadow clones that the Avatar sent flying to intercept the ANBU captain.

Even so, metal took time to melt, and many of the clones managed to whirl their chains around to slash at the captain before his telekinetic pulse obliterated them in clouds of superheated smoke and slag as the captain's fiery onslaught annihilated the surrounding structure, sending it hurtling towards the grinning avatar in a shockwave of flame and molten shrapnel. Time slowed for the avatar, and he took some time to study the oncoming pyroclastic deluge, weighed his options, and selected a maneuver that would sufficiently counter Galen's efforts.

Naberius' hands snapped into position in front of him, fingers spread as if working to contain some unseen orb of energy directly in front of his chest. A flash of brilliance accompanied a massive power surge in the Avatar as he summoned forth a bolt of green energy, and with a surprisingly audible grunt of exertion, sent it forth into the fire. The bolt ripped through the fire, the concussion shockwave of its own passage sufficient to knock the flames away before they even neared the Godulan, and roared with thunderous strength as Naberius reached a hand out towards the bolt of destructive energy. As it closed in on Galen, the Avatar clenched his fist, and the weapon obeyed his silent order, exploding with a massive gong as the air shattered in response to the massive telekinetic pulse. The force of the blast was sufficient to collapse the surrounding walls of the corridor, and perchance a goodly portion of the floor above...

With the Dornalian gangsters rounded up, Johnson breathed a sigh of relief...though not for long. Usually with cases like this, there would be a lot of aftermath to clean up after....and right as rain, there was. Even with the task of processing the prisoners, sounds of combat could be heard still from the meeting hall, and even more pronounced sounds of combat from the city proper made themselves known. He then marched up to Hermann and said curtly, "I want two of your men to scout out the meeting house, and the rest including you to follow me to the city. We're going to do some detective work."

Hermann nodded and said, "As you wish, detective. I am in no position to argue." He then motioned to two of his men and said, "Freischutze Guido, Freischutze Klaus. Go to the meetinghall, report any findings there to me. Use stealth procedures. Keep the Code."

The two nodded and immediately darted off to the Kokkai hall, darting from rubble bit to other such object, with a pair of very anachronistic G3 battle rifles in hand, the pair flitted closer and closer until they reached the entrance, whereupon they kept out of sight and switched to keen eyesight and scanners in order to search for lifesigns.

As this occurred, Johnson immediately struck out towards the city proper....only to find he didn't like what he saw.

Naruto jumped over the slash, and then brought his lightsaber down on the Bunta's.

The Bunta swung his blade to meet Naruto's, catching the Jedi's blade at the hook where his blade meet his staff. He stared into Naruto's eyes and cackled madly. He then twirled his blade 360 degrees and used his rage and hate to pull his Light Scythe backwards, aiming to pull Naruto's saber along with it and out of the Jedi's hands...



Suddenly, the visions from my many nightmares appeared. The loss of the Force...Palpatine cackling as the infinite hordes of stormtroopers rained blasters down upon my dad again and again and me screaming in terror.

"NO!" I yelled, spraying deadly lightning from my fingers at the Bunta.

The Bunta grinned as the Lightning struck towards him. While still using his other hand to control his weapon (which is why he used his rage and hate to pull the blade behind him), he lifted his other hand to acquire the Masaki's lightning attack. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVhkIBW9_PE)

"Good to see that the Jedi have increased their range of powers instead of those pathetic defensive maneuvers. However, my dear Emperor, the Dark Side is much more effective when it comes to the Lightning attack!" He then used the absorbed lightning and redirected it in two directions: One at Naruto, and the other back at Daniel.

OOC: 1:06 for absorption and redirection technique

The Bunta swung his blade to meet Naruto's, catching the Jedi's blade at the hook where his blade meet his staff. He stared into Naruto's eyes and cackled madly. He then twirled his blade 360 degrees and used his rage and hate to pull his Light Scythe backwards, aiming to pull Naruto's saber along with it and out of the Jedi's hands...
Naruto noted that the Bunta had his blade locked with the scythe, so instead of trying to retract it, he did the only thing he could:

He snapped the blade off and then on, a fraction of a second, but enough to break the lock and keep his lightsaber in his hands. Then he flicked the blade downwards, reaching for the Bunta's knee.

The Bunta grinned as the Lightning struck towards him. While still using his other hand to control his weapon (which is why he used his rage and hate to pull the blade behind him), he lifted his other hand to acquire the Masaki's lightning attack. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVhkIBW9_PE)

"Good to see that the Jedi have increased their range of powers instead of those pathetic defensive maneuvers. However, my dear Emperor, the Dark Side is much more effective when it comes to the Lightning attack!" He then used the absorbed lightning and redirected it in two directions: One at Naruto, and the other back at Daniel.

OOC: 1:06 for absorption and redirection technique
I spoke little as I focused on the lightning that was redirected at me and Naruto. The lightning curled around and smacked into my palm. Then as I focused on it, the lightning curled around my hand, strengthening, doubling, as I added power from my own deep reserves. Then it was shot once more at the Bunta, a spear of deadly blue-white energy aimed at his heart, packed with enough force to blow up a truck...

Naruto noted that the Bunta had his blade locked with the scythe, so instead of trying to retract it, he did the only thing he could:

He snapped the blade off and then on, a fraction of a second, but enough to break the lock and keep his lightsaber in his hands. Then he flicked the blade downwards, reaching for the Bunta's knee.

Easily seeing Naruto's move, the Bunta jumped up into the air to avoid the strike at the knee, and shoved his feet forward towards Naruto's face...


I spoke little as I focused on the lightning that was redirected at me and Naruto. The lightning curled around and smacked into my palm. Then as I focused on it, the lightning curled around my hand, strengthening, doubling, as I added power from my own deep reserves. Then it was shot once more at the Bunta, a spear of deadly blue-white energy aimed at his heart, packed with enough force to blow up a truck...

Whether or not the Bunta's feet hit Naruto doesn't matter, what mattered next was that he lands in time to be able to start absorbing the lightning from Daniel. He lands on both feet, ignoring Naruto for now and began to absorb the massive attack. While he probably could have absorbed it all, it wasn't something he wanted to mess with. Instead, the old man had a new idea. Using the energy he was absorbing, he used it to expand the light he was producing as he continued to absorb the lightning. Eventually, the light was so bright it engulfed his surroundings. Finally, after the Bunta was satisfied he has expended the proper amount of energy, there was a loud lightning crack. When the light dissipated, all which remained of the Bunta was a few body parts and his cloak slowly floating towards the ground surrounded by black and red smoke. And there was a great void in the force.

Easily seeing Naruto's move, the Bunta jumped up into the air to avoid the strike at the knee, and shoved his feet forward towards Naruto's face...



Whether or not the Bunta's feet hit Naruto doesn't matter, what mattered next was that he lands in time to be able to start absorbing the lightning from Daniel. He lands on both feet, ignoring Naruto for now and began to absorb the massive attack. While he probably could have absorbed it all, it wasn't something he wanted to mess with. Instead, the old man had a new idea. Using the energy he was absorbing, he used it to expand the light he was producing as he continued to absorb the lightning. Eventually, the light was so bright it engulfed his surroundings. Finally, after the Bunta was satisfied he has expended the proper amount of energy, there was a loud lightning crack. When the light dissipated, all which remained of the Bunta was a few body parts and his cloak slowly floating towards the ground surrounded by black and red smoke.
Naruto was knocked back by the blow of the kick, not expecting it, but he recovered and noted Daniel hitting the Bunta, exploding him. Good!

Meanwhile, the lightning smashed into the Bunta, killing him instantly and leaving nothing but a few body parts and some smoke. Was he dead? I hoped so, but I had to check. After all, Sith Lords have come back time and time again. I searched for any sign of the Bunta, with my eyes and with the Force...

The void in the force was still there. At least, until another image popped into view. If it was done correctly to Daniel, Naruto had just changed into one of the most infamous Dark Side characters in history. A man wearing a suit, heavy breathing, a deep voice, and a black iron mask...

Naberius smiled inwardly at Galen's distinct lack of a response. Finally, somebody among the Coredians who didn't go around yowling out empty promises and threats. If he were in the Godulan Military, he might actually have gotten somewhere. Instead of replying to Naberius' inflammatory comments, he focused his efforts in terminating the augmented shadow clones that the Avatar sent flying to intercept the ANBU captain.

Even so, metal took time to melt, and many of the clones managed to whirl their chains around to slash at the captain before his telekinetic pulse obliterated them in clouds of superheated smoke and slag as the captain's fiery onslaught annihilated the surrounding structure, sending it hurtling towards the grinning avatar in a shockwave of flame and molten shrapnel. Time slowed for the avatar, and he took some time to study the oncoming pyroclastic deluge, weighed his options, and selected a maneuver that would sufficiently counter Galen's efforts.

Naberius' hands snapped into position in front of him, fingers spread as if working to contain some unseen orb of energy directly in front of his chest. A flash of brilliance accompanied a massive power surge in the Avatar as he summoned forth a bolt of green energy, and with a surprisingly audible grunt of exertion, sent it forth into the fire. The bolt ripped through the fire, the concussion shockwave of its own passage sufficient to knock the flames away before they even neared the Godulan, and roared with thunderous strength as Naberius reached a hand out towards the bolt of destructive energy. As it closed in on Galen, the Avatar clenched his fist, and the weapon obeyed his silent order, exploding with a massive gong as the air shattered in response to the massive telekinetic pulse. The force of the blast was sufficient to collapse the surrounding walls of the corridor, and perchance a goodly portion of the floor above...
The bolt caught Galen offguard, smashing him through several walls and out into the open, sliding him several meters on the grass. When next he got up, he had one helluva grassburn on his back and ass, and his breathing was ragged as the bolt has broken several ribs, but he was still alive. Fire burned in his heart and in his eyes, consuming what's left of whatever soul he possessed. In the back of his mind, he acknowledged that perhaps the Godulan could defeat him. Of course, he's never going let himself, a ranking member of the Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai (Assassination Tactics Special Military Force) go down so easily!

With that, he spun his hands into the seals for Kuchiyose (Boar, Dog, Monkey, Bird, Ram) and then slammed them down onto the ground. "Kuchiyose: Mazoku!"

What appeared was like few had ever seen. It looked like a giant eyeball with several tentacles sprouting from its dark red body. It was one of a species of Mazoku, or demons, that can be summoned by ninjas and summoners, known as an Evil Eye. It's glare had various deadly powers attached to it, and its tentacles looked like they would easily snap steel. Well, demons are like that.

Now the battle between Galen and Naberius has been taken up yet another notch!

OOC: CW, you still need to reply to Bunta...

OOC: finished my post, Godular!

OOC: finished my post, Godular!

OOC: And what about Huntaer/Bunta?

The void in the force was still there. At least, until another image popped into view. If it was done correctly to Daniel, Naruto had just changed into one of the most infamous Dark Side characters in history. A man wearing a suit, heavy breathing, a deep voice, and a black iron mask...

Naberius raised an eyebrow at the arrival of Galen's supernatural 'ally', the first sign of perturbation revealed since the moment his finger was momentarily cut off. Obviously, the ANBU captain was aware that Naberius was not some simple little know-nothing Genin in more than just physical power.

Looks like he's pulling out all the stops.

Nah. That thing would be a lot bigger if he was nearing the end of his tether. This is just to distract us while he gets away.

Then we must drive home the fact that he will not get away. But that is a fearsome beast he has brought forth.

Its a big eyeball. Shine a pen-laser at it and shimmy past. What's the difficulty here?

Ah yes... when sight is a factor, so too is blindness. Let us not leave anything to chance, however. Bring out Fanaxiss.

On it.

For the first time in the entire battle, Naberius paused just long enough to make several one-handed gestures, though he remained fully silent as a great billowing cloud of glittery dust swelled forth and coalesced into the form of a great green crystalline scorpion. It gave its ocular foe one hard glare and snarled with arachnid fury.

"Stop looking at me, ye bloody golf ball!"

Naberius was not finished in his maneuver, however. Even as he brought forth his crystalline ally, another facet of his mind focused on bringing forth several shadow clones, spaced well behind the giant scorpion, and already forming seals for a particular jutsu that was deemed 'prudent given the circumstances.' The Avatar stepped around the scorpion as each clone fired off intense beams of green light, not at the eyeball, not at the building surrounding the eyeball, but directly at the scorpion. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, though Fanaxiss' body began to shine with an inner brilliance of increasing strength just before things went 'interesting'.

It was likely a fortunate concern that only a small amount of attention was being paid to the building by the military force outside, as a result of being in the present state of disarming. So it was that only a few people had cause to scream in surprise as the entire building transformed into a giant pillar of searing luminescence for but an instant, as though some sort of deific being had decided to take a snapshot of the fiasco, but did not deem it necessary to turn off the flash of his world-destroying camera. Some troops blundered about for a moment as their eyesight returned, while others looked around wondering where the explosion was. As quickly as the brilliance began, it subsided, revealing the building none the worse for wear, save for one or two blown-out-windows.

Inside, the flash was of unsurpassed intensity, and even Naberius had to momentarily switch his senses to neuroscanning in order to avoid having his own perceptions damaged by the apocalyptic burst of light. As the flash began to subside, he was already lunging to the right side of the corridor, working to squeeze past and continue after his nemesis. For good measure, he brought forth another shadow clone with the express purpose of flopping onto the eyeball and covering its pupil for one critical moment as the primary Naberius surged past.

Sometimes it paid to have a minor summon that could amplify lesser abilities...

The void in the force was still there. At least, until another image popped into view. If it was done correctly to Daniel, Naruto had just changed into one of the most infamous Dark Side characters in history. A man wearing a suit, heavy breathing, a deep voice, and a black iron mask...
"Vader..." I hissed, my lightsaber blade crackling with electricity. How the heck did he come without me noticing?

"Masaki." He spoke in his booming voice.

We said nothing more as we dueled.

=====

Naruto eyed the newcomer with the Sharingan eyes, the palm of his hand swirling with chakra and wind energy. "Uchiha Itachi."

"Hn." The fallen Uchiha barely replied.

As with the Jedi, the two shinobi exchanged no more words as they fought...

=====

After a while of dueling Vader, I got in an opening and sprayed electricity all over him...

=====

"Auugh!" Naruto yelled as lightning struck from Itachi's fingers. Though he writhed in pain, he had to presence of mind to think. Lightning? Itachi doesn't--!

He interposed his lightsaber between the lightning and himself, momentarily ending the pain. With that, he began to swirl chakra and wind in his other hand. "I don't know who the hell you are, but you're going down! Rasengan!"

Then the illusion ended, and Naruto, to his horror, couldn't stop himself from hitting me...

=====

It wasn't strange that Vader held his lightsaber in front of him to block my lightning. What was strange was the fact that a ball of energy was forming in the palm of his other hand and he charged with it. Wait, that's Naruto's signature!

Even as my revelation came forth, I was barely able to put up shields to block the Rasengan, but to no avail. It was as if someone set a drill on my stomach and began churning. Only the shields were keeping the 'drill' from tearing my insides out, but it still hurt like mad! Immediately after that, a hurricane wrapped around my body and I was thrown backwards into the nearest building -fortunately abandoned- with enough force to crack the duracrete. And my ribs as well...

The Bunta cackled madly as the two fought each other, and at their shock of realizing who it was they were actually fighting. "BRAVO!" Once the spell had been lifted by the two, he used the force to trigger the arming mechanism of the Singularity Bomb. A very loud count down clock echoed through the street, "now, we shall continue our path of chaos... Once more!" The Bunta jumped up, and remained in mid air, signaling Naruto and Daniel to "come get some."

OOC: Ladies and gentlemen, it is to my regret to inform you that I would like to end this RP. I have not been able to work up the creativity to finish it and I would like to move on to other projects. So, in essence, here is the following ending to the story, however lame:

The singularity bomb was thrown at and heavily damaged the Megalodon. Fearing defeat, Admiral Basque decided to retreat moments before the Woodian Fleet arrived.

The Evil Eye has been defeated by Naberius' scorpion. Whether Captain Galen has escaped or not shall remain ambiguous at this time.

Kabuto escapes young Travis, who subsequently gets the riot act by his father and sensei for not waiting for backup.

The short-lived insurrection is crushed. The Kokkai arrest the surviving ringleaders, their fate to be determined at a later date. Daniel promises more investigations to be provided with a stirring speech, prompting the media to proclaim, 'It's about time Masaki got a backbone!'

The Hyuuga documents have been seized and the investigators pour over them, preparing to use them to exonerate the Coredians in the Caprica Incident...

OOC: http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=567132