It's a Trap! (Izzy, Invite)

Yang blinked and held her further back, looking into her eyes. She fished a small flash light out of her pocket, one from her lab that she'd just thrown in her pocket as she worked. She shined it in her eyes and they looked relatively normal. "Really, nothing at all?" The fact that her eyes were reacting normally was a relief. There was no real damage to her brain, and her eyes themselves were undamaged. "Are you sure you can't? Maybe you were hit with some kind of...metahuman dampening chemical of some kind." She was rambling to herself very softly.

She shook her head. "I suppose for now that's a good thing, just in case something else happens. I'd prefer not to see a giant skeleton monster again today." She chuckled softly and hugged her closely again.

Kuro looked between the two of them as they conversed. When he mentioned that Suzuki had shown signs of being brainwashed, she rejected it adamantly, saying that she wasn't so easily manipulated, but then seemed to realize herself that something was off about it, not even seeming to believe herself as far as that went. Then her eyes deactivated. Yang seemed almost relieved about it, since she had fought a skeleton monster from before then from Suzuki.

He looked over to Yang. "Be that as it may, we should return her to the tower immediately for monitoring. I do not mean to question her capabilities, but I was brainwashed before. I became a killing machine; a whisper in the dark throughout multiple countries that was a fable as far as anyone was concerned. With the advances in science now, they could activate it from a remote signal or just a key word."

"I am not suggesting we detain her. But we should at least keep her at the tower for now." Kuro paused. "That is merely my suggestion. You are the leader, Yang-san."

Yang seemed more relieved than concerned about Suzuki's sudden loss of power. Internally, Suzuki was completely panicking. She did her best to hide it from her features, but it wasn't a very good effort. Her life would be ruined without her powers. She tried again and again to activate them, but her eyes just started to look bloodshot and red instead of activating.

To make matters worse, Kuro seemed to think that Suzuki was a criminal. He wouldn't say it outright, but he implied it heavily. The thought of being powerless and locked up was not at all pleasant. Should she... run?

"I'm not gonna snap..." She said quietly, trying to defend herself, but if they payed attention they would see that her tired eyes were scanning for escape routes.

She held Suzuki firmly, but not enough to hurt her at all. "Suzuki, look at me." She said, exhaling slowly. "You're fine, okay? I'm gonna get you home, we're gonna make sure you're okay, and then I'm gonna fix your eyes. Just like I always do. Okay?" She could tell how worried Suzu actually was, and looked over her shoulder at the building she had destroyed during the display. As far as she was concerned, she clearly had no control over her actions at the time. At best she was a tool for the attack.

"And...if you ask me all you did over there was save the city some tax dollars." She said, giving her a light smile and trying to help her to her feet. "C'mon, we're going home."

Kuro looked to Suzuki as she said that she wasn't going to snap in an effort to make herself appear fine. He nodded. "You are right. You won't. You are very resilient. And if you were brainwashed to the extent I was, then you wouldn't notice."

He looked to Yang. "It wasn't my intention to cast doubt on Suzuki. I am merely saying in the tower it would be exceedingly difficult to activate anything remotely, or for anyone to use a keyword they might have programmed into her head." He extended a cable. "I will watch over you from above as you take her to the tower to make sure no one is following."

Suzuki nodded numbly, trying still to get her eyes to just work. What had he done to her? Her hands balled to fists as she stood, not trying to escape Yang's grasp. She rubbed her eyes again, trying to make them work. No luck. "Let's just get back."

Her knees were weak, and her palms sweaty, but she was mentally steeling herself. Something she figured she needed practice at. Once upon a time she'd never let emotions like fear or panic sink into her psyche, but since she'd come to jump she'd... softened. Something she wasn't ready to admit out loud. So, with shakey knees she'd follow Yang, trusting Kuro to get their back.

Yang didn't have much trouble carrying Suzuki back to the civilized parts of Jump. From there she was able to get a nice taxi all the way back to the tower and that was that. The ride back was nice and quiet, she held Suzuki close the entire ride. "Everything is going to be fine..." She kept whispering until they finally arrived and got out. By that point Suzu was able to move on her own power but Yang helped her regardless. "Do you wanna get some rest until tomorrow? I could get started on the problem without you, or we could run some tests now."

They would get back to the tower before Kuro, which should have been a little odd, considering they had simply taken a taxi there. Kuro was fairly fast to return to the tower on missions even when the full team was heading back, but for that moment, and even an hour after that, Kuro hadn't returned. He had told them he would have their backs, so he should have been right behind them, right?

Kuro dodged a pencil at supersonic speeds, rolling into a crouched position. A man with the ability to turn anything into a deadly projectile. He dodged another miscellanious object, a baseball, and threw his knife at the man, though he dodged with precision. Kuro decided to press the offensive, charging him. He managed to parry his attacks and impale him, but he managed to miss any vital areas.

"You honestly believe that we're going to let you and her go?"

Kuro opened his communications, patching in to Yang's line. Blood leaked from the bottom of his mask. "Yang-san. I have a suspect. He attacked me while I was following you. Permission to interrogate?" It stopped receiving from his end.

"...you actually think you're one of them. Did you forget your mission?" Kuro looked at him silently. "Zenchō. Zenchō. Zenchō." Kuro continued to regard him silently. "Now, come get me down from here."

Kuro paused, before walking forward slowly...and driving the blade deeper into the rock behind him. "I broke from my programming a long time ago."

The man gritted his teeth. "I can see that."

Kuro pulled out another knife. "Where is the Syndicate?"

The man managed a grin. "Priority Alpha. Authorized. 0364582. Vermillion Phoenix."

Kuro froze, and surely enough, a surge of pain through his head. He managed to turn the comms on again as he shouted in pain. It was obviously very severe, Kuro had a very high pain tolerance. The man managed to pull the blade out, and dropped it, looking down at him. "Well? Come on, then. Get up." Kuro slowly got up, stumbling, holding his head. What...was this? "I just used the other signal we programmed in there. Factory settings reboot. Now we'll have to educate you again."

He stepped forward to tug Kuro along with him. Kuro turned off the communications, looking at him as he suddenly grabbed his neck. "No...you just woke me up." Kuro threw him down behind him, and picked up his broken HF-blade, impaling him through the chest with it. Kuro's very voice seemed to change. "And I'm very irritable."

He watched the man die, but then blinked, as suddenly he exploded, blasting Kuro back and sending him skidding across the floor, unconscious. He was bleeding from various wounds of shrapnel and some burns. Moderate injuries but he wouldn't die from them. His communicator was definitely busted, though. As for what remained of the man, there was only black, scorched blood.

Suzuki had nearly forgotten about Kuro, too worried about her eyes to be able to give too much thought to her teammate... but after they got to the tower, and Yang asked if she wanted to rest or have a check up on her eyes Suzuki remembered the polite assassin that should be following them. Her eyes scanned around the area surrounding the tower, trying to spot the masked man. "...we should wait for Kuro."

Seconds leaked into minutes, and the more time crawled on the more worried Suzuki grew. If he was in trouble, it would be her fault. Her weakness brought him into this... and to make it worse, she had no powers to defend him either. However, when the sun started to rise on their long night, Suzuki felt something powerful embrace her. Speaking to her was the God, Amaterasu.

"I will not lose another. Open your eyes, Suzuki Uchiha!"

For a moment, seconds felt like minutes to the ninja. She heard Kuro's pained scream over from Yang's communicator and when she looked to the blonde bombshell, her eyes were as red as ever, the pupils spinning quickly. "He needs help. I'll go ahead, I'm faster. Meet me there, I'm not sure how much of my powers I even have right now."

Before Yang could argue, Suzuki would take off and retrace their path home. She'd follow instincts and her basic deduction of the course to trace where the fight had happened, her eyes feeling like they were back to top form. Her Gods were powering her, and they were angry. Suzuki landed in front of the unconscious Kuro hard, sword drawn and eyes calculating... but it looked like the fight was over. A smear of blood in the distance, destruction everywhere. A suicide attack.

"Kuro, are you awake?" She asked, doubting she'd get a reply. She did her best to slow his bleeding, but with her communicator in the warehouse still and his destroyed, she could only hope Yang was coming with backup. Or at least neosporin.

Yang nodded when Suzuki mentioned waiting for Kuro. She had honestly expected him to be inside, so when he wasn't she sat down with her. It seemed to go on forever when a communication line came through on her gauntlets. Kuro, evidently, and then it suddenly cut out as Yang was about to respond. She started furiously trying to get the communication line back up, yelling at the technology and trying to get any kind of message out to him. That's when one of her screams was matched by Kuro's. It was...bizarre to hear. In all of her time with the kid, Yang had never once heard him scream like that, and Suzuki seemed to instantly respond to it.

Yang turned to see her start taking off, chasing after her. "Suzu get back here! I don't need you passing out in the middle of a street or something!" She growled to herself and used the grapple lines in her gauntlets to keep up. It had been ages since she used them, and she wasn't quite as fast at them as she used to be. Shame she'd been forced to leave her bike at the warehouse, eh? She managed to swing through the city and keep up with Suzu...well enough to the point that they found Kuro.

She landed next to them, the lines withdrawing into her weapon. She knelt next to her teammate, checking his injuries. Thankfully nothing that would keep him down for more than a few days. Knowing Kuro though it would be more like a few hours, and that was if he refused to let her bandage him up. "C'mon buddy, wake up. We're getting you home too." She looked up and noticed where Suzuki was staring, noting the darkened blood. "Oh man...that's gonna be another loose end to track, isn't it?" There seemed to be a lot of those popping up tonight.

He stirred. It felt like he was sleeping in a chair, but his eyes felt unusually heavy, so he kept them closed. He would need the rest for missions later. After all, he had been almost entirely unable to sleep lately. That was when he heard them.

"I think he stirs. Interesting that such a human could find himself in a predicament like this."

Who was that? He opened his eyes, but the light was bright around him. It took forever to adjust.

"I find myself agreeing with you, sister."

As his eyes adjusted, he saw three figures. One was sitting at the end of the table, and he somehow knew that he was the one who had neglected to speak as of yet. He was a warrior clad in armor, with a few weapons strapped to him. Kuro recognized all of them. A kusarigama at his left hip, a katana at his right, and a bow slung over his back. He was wearing old-fashioned samurai armor that had seen a lot of fights, which was evident from the amount of wear and tear on the armor itself and the numerous marks where weapons had hit it previously. He stood tall and proud, with his arms crossed, but had yet to speak.

The two others were sitting together, familiarly. The first he saw was the woman. She had long, beautiful black hair, flowing as smooth as a calm river, all the way down to her hips. She had a warm smile, and seemed to radiate warmth, and a kind of glow. She had bright golden eyes, and a beautiful red kimono on. The back of her hair was done up with a golden headdress, depicting the sun. "Perhaps he is wondering who and what we are, Tsu-kun."

Her brother sitting next to her seemed similar. He had shorter black hair, though of the same beautiful quality, which only extended to his chin. He seemed considerably calm, almost devoid of emotion. A cooler nature about him. He seemed to have a slight glow as well, though not the same kind as the woman next to him. "Perhaps he should be more concerned with who and what he is, Ama-tan," he responded.

He looked around slightly, finding out he was indeed in a chair. A wheelchair. He didn't seem particularly surprised. He looked at both of them. "...where am I? What do you want with me?"

The woman continued smiling. "You're right, brother. You are the one addressed as Kuro, correct? We are here for your roommate."

Kuro hadn't even noticed the warrior behind him. He grabbed the chair Kuro was sitting in, slowly turning it to face a mirror. Kuro looked upon himself, his eyes widening. He wasn't wearing that...the person in the mirror looked different. They had the same face, but it was completely evident. Their two personalities and their atmospheres were so different they could pass as a different person in a small room of people.

"So this is what it's like to travel through time."

Luckily Yang wasn't far behind. The tank was surprisingly nimble as well. Suzuki again found herself admiring the girls abilities. For another time, she reminded herself and focused up. Yang commented about more loose ends. "I'm not so sure. I think this one is pretty closed. My guess..."

Suzuki scanned the scene again, seeing the destruction and blood. "Kuro caught the man, had him beat, when he used a suicide move in desperation. I'd be surprised if Kuro's attacker was still alive."

Suzuki sighed, standing at the edge of the building and scanning with her eyes to search for any clues of a hasty escape. "We need to get Kyro to the tower. Before his injuries get worse. Should I do a perimeter check to make sure there's no more enemies?"

It was as if the Uchiha girl had forgotten about all she'd been through tonight. She was ready for more action, despite the fact that her body should be exhausted. Much less her chakara.

Yang shook her head. "No, I want you to get Kuro back to the tower. Just like you said before, you're faster than me." She said as she put up her hood. "I'm going to do a quick sweep and open a case file on what's happened tonight. Make sure you both get back okay and get to the infirmary. Have Darla bandage up Kuro and then I want you to head to my lab. I wanna know what happened with your powers tonight."

She stepped to the side and pressed a few buttons on her gauntlets, using her cowl to check for forensic evidence of some form of escape. To be honest, she didn't find much. She found some bits of muscle tissue that were intact...ew...but that was about it. Regardless, the marked it as evidence in the case file. From there she took the data she had on Kuro's wounds.

Based on the trajectory of the shrapnel in his body...which was bone...first of all EW...but from there she was able to deduce the general size of his attacker. Albeit, he wasn't a small dude. From there she was able to determine the size of the explosive that was used to kill himself, based on the distance these remnants of muscle flew. To be honest? Very little of it made sense, but she put it all on record. Did he have some kind of bomb implanted in his chest to be detonated remotely? Or it could be linked to his heartbeat, so that if he slowed it he would detonate. She didn't put anything by these people after tonight.

"Suzuki, I'm done with my investigation for now. Are you and Kuro safely back at the tower?" She almost felt bad leaving it so open, but she had all the data she could get from this. A DNA sample, a general idea of the explosive used, that was all she could do from here. "Make sure Darla is careful removing that shrapnel. It's human bone, we need to make sure all of that comes out safely and that there aren't any infections."

Kuro tried to get out of the chair, but he couldn't move. It were as if his body was numb. He looked at the reflection in the mirror.

"Who are you...?"

The reflection of him smiled wryly. The goddess spoke up. "I am sorry, Kuro Kumosawa. But you've locked him away for far too long. It is not your fault, but it is time you knew the truth."

Kuro continued trying to get his body to respond. The warrior soon walked forward, and pulled the mirror away. Kuro's reflection would stay consistent until it became reality; no more mirror to be seen. The other him stood, stretching, as if having been confined to the chair for a decade.

"I did not lock him away."

"We have a true opportunity to examine a philosophical question. You attain a blade made by a master smith, and carry it into battle. You swing it and kill many of your foes, but during the last part of the skirmish, you break the blade on a helmet."

The other him was tucking his hands into his pockets, looking down at Kuro. He continued to let the gods speak.

"You bring it back to the smith and have him repair the blade. In a few days, it is as good as new. You carry it back into battle."

The reflection walked over to Kuro, looking him up and down, slightly adjusting his armguards.

"However, just as last time, you happen to swing too hard and break the handle. You bring it back to the smith and ask him to repair it again. But when he is done..."

He walked behind Kuro, being so kind as to turn him to face the gods again, before walking off a little, staring at the wall nonchalantly. The goddess smiled. "Is it the same blade as before?"

Oblivious to Kuro's inner struggles, Suzuki followed her captains orders. She sighed a bit again as she made her way to Kuro, realizing that they were low on time. She heaved the man over her shoulder with an exasperated breath. This was gonna be a long way back. She started the trek with no complaints. Her only worry being if they were attacked and she had no communicator. That would be worrisome.

"Hang in there Kuro... I'll get you back." She promised out loud, jumping from building to building as if she wasn't carrying a man who weighed more than her on her back. She made a not to spend more time in the weight room after this.

When she arrived at the tower, she couldn't hide the wobble in her knees as the door opened. She carried the man to the medical bay as swiftly as she could, laying him on the bed. "Darla, you need to help him. The shrapnel is bone, make sure you... get it all."

Then, as if it all hit her at once, Suzuki found herself falling into the chair next to the bed. Her legs wouldn't let her get up on her own, so she settled for watching Darla take care of Kuro, hoping for the best.