Since Avery no longer had to worry about being Kuraikage she found that she had a lot more free time on her hands. Everyone else seemed to have a hobby or something to keep them busy; Jr. was off at the Kage Summit, Destiny was in her lab doing god knows what to god knows who, and so on and so fourth. Avery didn't want to be a pest, or be trapped inside, so she had gone up to the roof with her giant iron folding fan in the hopes of amusing herself.

She stood at the very edge of Dark Tower, staring out at the night sky as the cold chill was brought with the wind. Despite Avery's outfit - a black tank top with black shorts - she wasn't cold: ever since she had discovered her ice release abilities the cold failed to bother her more and more. Her blond hair, which was in a ponytail, drifted behind her in the wind and she closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying it. She inhaled the familiar smells of home, the fresh air, and then bent her knees ever so slightly, launching herself up into the air with her fan in hand. Right before she began to descend she opened the fan as she opened her eyes, and landed on top of it, riding the current air gust of wind as she circled the tower.

There was something freeing about gliding around like she was; and she couldn't erase the grin plastered onto her face.

Things were looking calm a moment ago, but heat seemed to be rising. The Summit in Niwa was a gathering of powerhouses, signified by the many bright glowing dots on the global radar. One of them was Jr. He had to be the one that seemed to be growing larger. Was someone doing something to piss him off? It was too easy to recognize when Jr was in a mood.

Alec walked out of his bedroom onto the upper balcony, looking in the direction of Niwa. It was too far away to see from here, but Alec looked anyway. Would he have to go out there himself? No... not yet. Kinzoku, Hanako and Hi No Seishin were with him. Alec was confident that none of them would let anything bad happen. Still, he wondered what was going on at that exact moment to be making Jr's temper rise.

While leaning on the rail of the upper balcony he saw Avery go gliding by on her fan from above, having launched herself from the roof. Alec had almost forgotten that she knew how to ride that fan, something like his daughter here, Aisling. Spook told him many stories of the village that no longer existed called Konoha, when it was known as the strongest of all of these villages; about how she and he would dive from the window, her gliding, and him doing his Parkour thing.

”Hey, it hurt when you fell out of heaven?”

The air felt wonderful as it rushed around her and the glider fan she was sitting on. It felt almost as good as flying without help; but that was something she just hadn't been able to pull off yet. Still, the glider fan was enough for now, and did the trick for the most part.

Just as she was about to do another circle around the building and then head back to the roof Alec's voice reached her ears, and his words caused her to smile. She hadn't even noticed him come outside - too caught up with the whole flying thing she was doing - but now she turned her head in his direction, noticing that he was on the balcony fairly quickly. She felt the familiar grin that she always seemed to have on her face when around him slip back into place, and headed the fan in his direction.

She hovered, manipulating air infused chakra to keep herself from falling, right in front of Alec. "You know, it might've hurt a little bit... I did land right on my ass.", she responded jokingly.

Alec was grinning as well... but looking at Avery's beautiful face, and knowing something was going down out in Niwa made the smile melt from his face. It didn't take a lot to piss off Jr, but he had a bad feeling about things. Something could possibly happen to drag others in. Alec himself didn't at all mind a fight, or a war, but people getting dragged in that didn't belong there... that would be bad.

”...Something's up out in Niwa. Jr's dot on the radar inside... it keeps getting bigger. That just means someone is pissing him off. I imagine those he-mens out there don't have too many good things to say about me, and I wouldn't blame them. But taking it out on Jr, probably because he looks just like me, that's not gonna be good for that nasty temper of his...”

Alec began to feel as if he would have to show up out there himself, even if it started a war. It would have to be Hi No Seishin to keep him in a somewhat reasonable mood so that he didn't burn the place down...

Avery noticed the grin slip off of Alec's face and figured that something was up. It didn't surprise her that he was worried about his son - that's what good parents did, they worried about the safety of their children, even if their children were as powerful as likely could be.

Avery manipulated her air infused chakra to push the glider so that she was hovering near the edge of the balcony. She jumped off the glider when close enough, grabbing hold of the thing as she did so and closing it in one move. She landed lightly, despite the heavy weight of the fan in her hand, and sheathed the fan on her back. She then walked over to Alec, stepping close with a slight frown.

"I know that things can upset Jr. quickly, and I don't doubt that someone is likely going to hold everything that happened in the past, the things that you did, against him and Makurra in general. But, I'm positive that Jr. can handle himself; he has the phoenix inside of him, Kinzoku and Hanako with him. I also trust that Jr., despite his temper, knows that causing any sort of brash action at that meeting would cause people like Aella to become involved - and I'm sure he'd leave before allowing that to happen. There might be war to come later - but I'm sure it'll come at a time where everyone has had time to prepare, has had time to get those who're innocent to everything out of harms way."

She looked out towards the direction of Niwa, wondering exactly what was going on out there. "But, Jr.'s your son, and if you still feel the need to go out there to make sure that everyone's okay, I won't blame you... but I'm coming with you, because sitting here alone will only cause me to start to worry more, too."

”Hunh... i'm not really worried about Jr... he's stronger than I am after all...”

That was a lie. It didn't matter how strong Jr became, that was his first born son, and he'd sent him into a hornet's nest. He'd pretty much forced him to put on that hat and take responsibility for Makkura in the face of many other powerhouses. Alec couldn't help but to feel like somewhat of a coward, sending his son to answer for crimes he himself committed; to do what he himself should have been doing, since everyone looked to him as the true leader. Was he worried about Jr? Of course he was.

His forearms resting on the balcony ledge, he rested his chin on the back of his hands. He'd probably be on pins and needles until the 3 – no, 4 of them were back within the boundaries of the Land of Shadows safely. Perhaps even the Symbiote was worried as well, for it moved abnormally upon Alec's frame, imitating large waves in a body of water, or a gust of wind was blowing.

”I'll keep an eye on the globe radar. If the shit hits the fan out there then I guess i'll have no choice but to go get re-aquainted with the rest of those supermens... But you, I don't want you to become involved in any of this shit if you don't have to. If Jr gets in trouble I have to ask you to leave it to me.”

Once into the village, Jr took off skywards. He blazed through the skies above Makkura, resembling an orange comet while “blowing off steam” so to speak. He couldn't seem to get the whole thing off of his mind. The nerve of the man, saying that the Kanes weren't anything special. To say they only existed because these other so-called super people didn't act. It just made him see red.

He'd zoomed around the tower several times, leaving behind long orange trails that hung there in the air a while before disappearing. It was about the 5th or so time around the tall building that he noticed his father and Avery standing on the balcony outside of his father's bedroom. This was a good a time as any to go inform him of everything that had happened.

He landed on the balcony nearby his father still pissed. Yet he was able to calm himself upon remembering how weak Avery was to fire. The glow and the heat that surrounded him disappeared, but the frown upon his face did not.

Avery had been about to open her mouth to argue with Alec about wanting her to stay here when the thought crossed her mind that it was likely so he didn't have to worry about her; he was already worried about his son, and he likely didn't want anyone else that he cared for in danger. So, she closed her mouth and nodded, deciding not to argue. "Alright, I'll stay here.", she said before looking away from Alec and out towards Niwa.

Something quickly caught her attention however; something that looked like fire circling the village several times over again. As it came towards the balcony she backed up, making room for what she could now see was Junior to land - and also because she didn't want to be near that amount of heat - her passive shield was one she couldn't cancel out after all, not completely, and she'd light up like a torch near instantly. However, he contained himself minus the frown on his face.

She didn't have to ask to know something happened, but she was still curious regardless. "What happened?", was what she settled on asking in a soft voice as arms folded loosely across her chest. She leaned against the nearby wall for comfort, and waited for Jr. to explain - she was sure that whatever it was had to be pretty bad for him to look as pissed off as he did.

Alec didn't want to argue with Avery, and it looked like she was about to protest until she realized that Alec didn't want her in the line of fire if she didn't have to be. With her agreeing to stay out of the way for the moment, that was one less person her had to worry about getting hurt.

But then he noticed 3 bodies entering The Land of Shadows, one of them he instantly recognized as his son, the other two being Kinzoku and Hanako. So his worry was for nothing. Jr blasted around the area just like he did back home when he was pissed off. Something happened. This much became evident when jr landed with a pissed off look.

”Things didn't go so well, I take it. Tell us everything son, start from the beginning...”

...And start from the beginning he did, immediately. Jr told the whole story. He told of how the meeting started off on a relatively calm note. Amara stared at him for longer than normal, and his niece Aella didn't really seem to care. Hiroyuki had a few things to say, as did Strafe, about trust issues. All of that was expected.

But what Jr told in detail was his verbal battle with the dog man, Kenta, Hiroyuki's father and possibly Aella's other grandfather. He told his father and Avery every single word: about how Kenta said the Kanes were basically a joke and nothing special. How Makkura only existed because Hanagakure fell apart, and Raijin the lightning god didn't come after them after his father kidnapped Amara because of the dog man's “leash.”  How the dog man didn't care how strong they were, and that a single child re-established a whole village in half the time it took all of them to fix Makkura.

Jr told them how Kenta told him not to consider any accommodations or praise for fixing up a dump, talked of 200 years of history, and that the man was supposedly battle hardened through many years of war. How Kenta said Makkura had 2 strikes against it, and the 3rd meant the self-proclaimed 'Golden General' coming here to, although he didn't want to, 'raze the village.'

”I tried to play nice with those people,” Jr said, the rage look still upon his face. ”I made our point as politely as possible. Makkura will play nice and co-exist for peace's sake, but we won't roll over for someone to fuck us, and if it comes to war we are capable. Then that dog man snaps off at me like that and just shoves everything back in my face? Disrespects the Kane name? I say fuck em all! We're villains, let's be villains! They wanna wage war? Let's do it then.”

Avery frowned as she listened closely: all of the shit that had been thrown in Jr.'s face... she was surprised he hadn't just burned the place to the ground. She didn't think that even her pacifist nature would have allowed for her to walk away from that - not without at least attacking this Kenta person. 

Brows furrowed as she thought about the situation as a whole: she didn't blame Jr. from wanting to go over there and fuck the whole place up, to prove that Makurra was stronger than everyone was giving it credit as. That Makurra had gone through a lot more shit than what people knew. But... was war really the best option? 

"I'd like to offer up an opinion on that - you don't have to accept it, because it's just that, an opinion. But, you have a lot of family living in Niwa right now, a lot of younger family. Like Aella. Before we all go running over there to burn the place to the ground... maybe we need to step back and think about how that's going to affect her, her family. We all know horror in some form in our lives.. do we really want to start fucking with hers? All because some dog man was having his man-period? Now, if they come here wanting war? Sure, show them what we've got and make them regret it. But, I just don't think we should go looking for trouble - sometimes the best thing to do is prove you're the bigger person. If nothing else, at least hold out until you're sure Aella is out of the village... if Aisling catches word of this, I'm sure she'll move her at once."

Alec took it all in. The disrespect, the talking down at Jr by this “Dog Man” Kenta, the threats. Alec's relatively calm expression was replaced with anger, but not as much as Jr, who'd actually been there and had to endure this shit from these tough guys. He had his blind fury stick in front of him, gripping it tightly. Alec continued to feel bad for sending his son to endure the verbal lashing he had. He couldn't forgive himself for doing such a thing, and someone was going to die behind it. No one fucked with his family and disrespected his name, and continued walking the Earth.

However Avery's words cut through the fog of anger that began to cloud his mind and transform him into the psychopath he once was. He had family in that village, a technical daughter and grand daughter. He couldn't fly in guns blazing like he wanted to because they could get caught up in the tornado of rage created whenever he went on a mission of revenge... No, he had to play it differently.

”...So it's like that, huh... The Niwa people are still mad at me, and take it out on my son, who comes and tries to smooth it all out and make it right... There's no alliance, no peace, no co-existence... Makkura is still the home of criminals and scum... I guess you know what this means, then. The Dark is back, in full effect.”

Alec's wireless communicator had been on the whole time, and everything he, Avery and Jr had been saying was heard by all former Dark Ops. When Alec said that The Dark was official again, cheers and howls could be heard from all around the village, meaning this news was well taken.

”Our first order of business as a re-established criminal empire will be to send a message to the rest of these villages that Makkuragakure is serious and not to be taken lightly. Someone is going to be made an example of. Some of these villages we have allies and family in though, like Aisling, Aella, Emiko, Holeman and Mitsukai. It has to be somewhere we don't have ties.”

Jr knew his father was pissed, and even Avery, who was calm, cool and the voice of reason most of the time, was all for blowing some shit up, as long as Aisling and Aella weren't in the line of fire, which surprised Jr and amped him up even more. His father said Makkura was an ally to no one and there would be no co-existing or playing nice, and that The Dark was back, producing a bunch of cheers from all over the village.

Grinning, he listened to his father say that they should make an example of someone instead or running in and setting off a nuke. ”I have an idea then, something else I forgot to mention,” Jr said. ”I left in a rage before I set that big tree on fire, but Kinzoku hung back a while to listen to what was said after i'd started down the hall. Said something like, after me and the dog man Kenta got into it, this snow man Hiro-something spoke up right after, offering up medical help to us. I guess he never met Dez. It seemed kinda fishy that he'd say something like that right after me and the dog man came to blows, like, he intended on profiting on Niwa and Makkura going at it; while family is fighting and killing each other, he's on the sidelines getting paid behind it all. Even little Aella caught on cause she was pretty mad. Called the snow man disgusting and whatnot... I don't remember any of our people or anyone we know living up in the snow...”

it was irritating to hear this, but Jr was glad and thanked Kinzoku for telling him this. The guy was proving himself to be a loyal family member, as was Hanako for going with him and staying by his side in that mess, and Jr wouldn't forget it.

Hiromasa Jenshin. Alec met the man once, back when they first rebuilt Makkura. Back when Avery was Kage, when they'd broken away from Hana and began to establish themselves as their own country. He and Strafe showed up here for a peace conference, and an uneasy alliance began. Alec didn't know if this alliance still existed, and he didn't care. The man seemed sort of a joker, but that didn't matter. The moment he put Aella in a bad mood and caused her to speak her mind on it was the moment he'd sealed his and his village's fate.

”...Then i'll have to apologize to Mitsukai when I see her next... She and the kid Holeman were responsible for re-introducing that village to the world after being sealed away for... forever. Now, it's scheduled to be erased...”

Yes. Plans were already formulating for the Land of the Glaciers. Perhaps there would be an interesting KKG to be absorbed in it all as well, a chance to test the newfound Chimera Technique. No one knew what he was capable of yet besides Destiny, and that was exactly how he wanted it for now. Alec didn't plan on sending Jr into any other situations such as that Summit without coming with him personally next time.

”...I'm sorry, Junior... I pretty much forced you into putting that hat on, and into going to Niwa to clean up a mess that I made. It won't happen again, not without me going with you myself next time, unless you don't want to be the Kuraikage anymore. In which case i'll understand... However I do have a trip up into the snow planned very soon that i'm sure you'll be interested in...”

A wicked grin spread across his face. His father was talking about wiping out an entire village. Jr had seen his father destroy entire cities in the past, so he knew it wasn't beneath him. He also grinned because it seemed that Avery was beginning to let her anger get the best of her, when normally she was so calm and girly. He chuckled some when she broke away some of the wall, and said the snow man should be publicly executed.

”Ha haa, even Avery's pissed off, that's cool!...” he said, but then the grin disappeared sort of as Jr cleared his throat. ”I mean, no, no it's not... You don't wanna become a raging psycho like we are, I mean, we need that cool head around to talk some sense into us, cool us down. Leave all that anger and stuff to us...”

Then his father apologized, something highly unlike him. It made Jr look surprised. He said he'd forced Jr into becoming Kage and having to go to that summit, when he should have gone himself. There was a little truth there, but as he thought about it, he really didn't mind, especially now that The Dark was official once agan, and that Makkura was in a “fuck the world” status.

”...Hey, it's alright dad,” Jr said, patting his father on his left arm. ”Just think about if you'd have gone. That whole village would be on fire and bloodied up by now, don't you think? I don't mind being the Kage... A trip up to the Land of Glaciers, huh? Alright, I still have my wireless comm, just let me know when you're ready to leave, yeah?”

With this said, Jr walked into the tower. He wanted to freshen up and get ready for a trip up into the cold...

/Exit/

Avery thought over what Mitsukai's reaction might be to finding out that Korigakure was destroyed - more so that Jr. and Alec had been the ones to do it. She was sure that Mitsukai would understand after it all being explained to her. Avery wasn't going to try and stop them of course, Korigakure was the best target to make an example out of - especially because there was no one directly connected to them that would be in the line of fire, or suffer the loss of a loved one.

She chuckled at Jr.'s comment and nodded. "Alright, I'll try and behave myself - and be the voice of reason. No promises though - not when it comes to people messing with little kids. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine." 

She listened to Alec apologize to Jr. and Jr. say that he didn't mind being Kuraikage; and how the village likely would've been destroyed had it been Alec there instead of him. She couldn't help thinking along the same path - though, she knew Alec would've done something to secure his family first, before blowing his stack. She watched Jr. leave and then looked back to Alec, smiling.

So it was decided. A message would be sent by blowing a village off the map, and blatantly letting everyone know it was Makkura; more importantly, The Dark that did it. Alec popped his knuckles while thinking about it. He'd pretty much tried everyone else, except for the snow, out of respect for Mitsukai and Holeman. If she came investigating, after a thorough explanation, Alec was sure she'd understand.

He gave the smiling Avery a hug, kissing her on the cheek. While massaging the curves of her sides he thought more alone time with her would be more appropriate, but first there was business to attend to. Before leaving to let the world know that The Dark was back he'd have to brief Kinzoku and the Ops. With he and Jr gone, this left Makkura without 2 of it's prime fighters. Security would have to be extra tight just in case the dog man Kenta was serious about coming out here to try and 'raze' the place like Jr said. He was confident in Avery, Dez, Kinzoku and Hanako to defend the place should it be attacked while he wasn't here.

”Me and Jr have work to do... You, Dez, Kinzoku and Hanako can hold the place down until we get back I trust. Keep your eyes open because I have no idea whether those tree people out there are for real or not. Better safe than sorry. We shouldn't be gone more than a day...”

After another smooch and feeling on her several more moments, Alec jumped off of the balcony...

/Exit/