The Backs of Turtles

[Eden]

Rumor stood on the edge of the pier rocking back and forth gently as he stared out at the water. He liked this time of year and loved it even more when he had the chance to be in Tokyo. It had started to gently snow a while ago and Rumor enjoyed watching the small white flecks fall from the sky and disappear into the water. Susan stood a few steps back from Rumor her hands held up in front of her moving back and forth as he did being prepared to either catch or drag him back from the dark waters. Even further back from the two stood Tsukiyo and Castellanus and while Caster was bundled up as much as possible Tsukiyo was silently snickering at the other threes antics. He found it funny that the group was preparing to head into the heat of battle but still were all able to enjoy the little things.

"Hey Rumor what are we even doing out here?" Tsukiyo asked finally watching Rumor tip forward dangerously before turning sharply and straightening back up with his hands clasped behind his back.

"Well we are waiting for Jouten to arrive along with our mode of transportation for this particular endeavor before we set off." he answered smiling at the small group charmingly. Susan simply sighed deciding that worrying over Rumor was a lost cause and began to go about checking through the supplies of weaponry and paper they had brought with them.

"What time is he supposed to meet us then" Tsukiyo asked having worn out things to do ten minutes ago and not feeling up to idly twiddling his thumbs and acting patiently.

Rumor frowned his eyebrows knitting together in confusion almost. "Oh well I don't really know what time he is coming I don't think that I told him a specific time the last time I spoke with him" he admitted his face splitting into a grin as Caster sighed loudly and Tsukiyo covered his face with his palm shaking his head. "I'm sure he won't be to much longer so don't worry"

[joutenkira]

Jouten rushed through the streets, making sure not to be seen. Taking a quick look at his watch he knew he was late. He had about another mile or so until he made it to where Rumor said to meet him. Everything would have gone according to plan, if he hadn't been running for his life. He rushed down an alleyway only to be surrounded on both sides by what appeared to be weird dogs.

" Damn it I don't have time for this!" Jouten shouted as one of the dogs leaped at him. Jouten quickly round house kicked it into the wall of a building then turned to face the other creatures. Dogs were not the only creatures that had tried to kill him, in fact many different creatures had tried over the last 3 days. He wasn't sure why he was being attacked, but he figured there was now a price on his head.

"I'm surprised you have had enough stamina to outrun my Chimeras for the last 72 hours. I'm getting fed up with this you know. I want to claim the bounty on your head, it is now worth a lot in the underworld" a voice said from above Jouten.

Jouten looked up and saw a man with long black hair, wearing a Chinese battle outfit. Jouten knew that man's face very well ; " Kain so its you. Why the hell are you chasing after me with damn chimeras? You should know I won't go down that easily" he shouted up at Kain.

Kain jumped down right in front of Jouten and waved his hand, making the chimeras scatter away. He turned shaking his head ; " Our patience is running thin, and you continue to be a pain in our side. I set a bounty on your head and have had the entire underground syndicates of the world looking for you. After your little stunt in Paris it didn't take to long to track you down and I have had our chimeras following you ever since" he explained with a cold smile.

Jouten spit on the ground and glared at Kain ; " I have battled you and your lackeys plenty of times. I will beat you here and leave Salvation down another member" he said with a grin.

Kain started laughing loudly ; " If only you were not out numbered" he responded.

" What!?" Jouten said spinning around to see Gengi with his Techno-scythe behind him. Jouten sensed another presence and looked up to see another member of Salvation, Zane the master of metal standing on top of the building looking down on him.

Jouten quickly knew that all 3 of these men were to powerful too fight alone and made a dash straight past Gengi with his speed burst. As the alleyway was almost out of view suddenly Jouten's right arm moved on its own and stopped him full force, sending him flying backwards hitting the ground.

" Tsk tsk. I thought you would have learned from the times you have seen us fight that Zane here is pretty efficient in his abilities" Gengi said with a smirk as Zane and Kain walked up behind him.

Jouten quickly realized his mistake and looked at his right arm, knowing the watch on his arm was made out of metal ; " Shit not good." he said throwing off the watch as he managed to pull himself up. Kain was immediately in front of Jouten and went to stab his with his left hand. Jouten pushed Kain's hand out of the way and went to punch him but felt his knees buckle underneath him.

Kain laughed ; " confused? I know we have fought before, but that was before I mastered a fighting style I had been learning for years. Its something I learned through my master Ryoku Kengen and its the greatest martial arts on the planet. Using nature's energy I am even able to extend my range past my own physical presence. This and my Dragon Eater are why I am so trusted by Nitas" he explained.

Jouten tried to move but coughed up blood. He hadn't been expecting Kain to have become even stronger since the last time they fought, though Jouten knew even with all the martial arts he had mastered, he was completely outclassed by Kain. Jouten stood up and smirked ; " I won't give up until my last breath" he told the 3 standing before him.

Kain shook his head and prepared to finish Jouten off, as suddenly a flicker of light exploded around the area. Jouten opened his eyes and saw that standing before was the man he had come to know as Aaron.

" Long time no see Jouten. I know we have alot to talk about but I think I'm going to converse with my old friends here. I already told Zack about your meeting with Rumor, so hurry and get out of here" he said as he elbowed Jouten in the gut and sent him flying back through about 4 buildings.

Jouten stood and realized he was now at least half a mile away from where Aaron and Salvation was. Looking around for some clue to how he survived, he looked behind him and saw Zack standing there ; " I managed to pinpoint your location and put a barrier around you. I guess Aaron saw his chance to get you out of there" he said.

Jouten nodded and let out a sigh of relief ; " Well looks like you saved me again. We should go back and help Aaron" he said standing up.

" No Aaron can take care of himself. You have to go meet Rumor now. Don't worry, we got this" Zack said with a reassuring smirk, though it didn't seem as bright as usual.

Though he was still worried about the two of them, he knew he had a mission that was somewhere else ; " Good luck. Stay away" he said rushing past Zack. They locked eyes for a moment before Jouten ran past him, and in Zack's eyes Jouten saw sadness and rage. He was tempted to turn around but knew Zack would stop him no matter what he said, so he continued towards the direction of the pier, where he sensed Rumor was.



*******

Jouten eventually made it to the pier to see Rumor, Susan, Tsukiyo, and Castellanus waiting.

" Hey everyone, sorry I'm late" he said while breathing very hard.

[Eden]

"I think your just on time" Rumor said turning around again looking back over the water his hand lifted pointing off at the surface of the water where it has started to bubble up as something began poking from the ocean. Slowly a large tower emerged from the water before more buildings began to surface with see through tubes connecting them all to one another. As the last building emerged from the water so did a giant green head that peeked from the water before moving to rest on the pier just next to where Rumor was standing. The small boy simply smiled patting the giant creatures head whispering something to it that the others couldn't make out. "Sorry to be so flashy but this was the only thing I could think of" he apologized sticking his tongue out at the small group. The turtle followed Rumors lead sticking out its larger tounge as well.

Susan sighed taking one of the containers of paper she had throwing it at the side of the closest buildings door making it connect before it expanded outward creating a paper staircase beside the large creatures head giving them a way to get inside. Tsukiyo excited to see inside of the building ran up the staircase followed more slowly by Susan and Castellanus who carried in all of the supplies.

Rumor smiled watching the three disappear into the building before turning to Jouten. "Thank you for coming with us" he said simply giving the other boy a small smile. "I didn't want you to be involved but I think it will have a good outcome" Rumor finished before mounting the stairs and proceeding into the building happily.

[joutenkira]

Jouten nodded, though he was unsure what Rumor meant by a happy outcome. He quickly followed everyone into the building with no idea what events were in store for him.

[Eden]

As soon as the last person had entered into the building the paper staircase thinned itself out before sliding upwards to the door and forming back into its small canister right inside of the doorway as the large water tight seal of the door fell into place. The Turtle lifted its head up turning slowly before it began its decent into the ocean taking the large city that it held on its back with it.

Rumor had led the small group of people to his office in the city which happened to be situated at the very top of the tallest building. They entered the room via a spiral staircase and once inside you could see in almost every direction. All of the walls were made of glass and the roof was as well giving the best vantage point anyone could ask for. Rumor had taken the usual desk and bookcases out and instead only had one table with five chairs set around it. He took the largest seat in the form of an overstuffed red leather chair and motioned for the others to be seated as well. Etched into the tables surface was what seemed to be the map of a large church with almost every single detail etched into it from the position of the candles all the way down to the finest detail on the altar.

"So this is where all of the fighting is going to take place" he said placing his finger at the front door and tracing the large main room along with a slightly smaller room that was connected to it right across. "We are going to have to fight two enemies here" he continued pointing to the first of the two. "And another one in this room" Rumor finished moving his finger to point at the second. "This is advantageous to us cause the transition from the two rooms doesn't need to be immediate and we can take some time before we have to fight again."

Susan nodded her head looking closely at the two rooms. "Do you know the abilities of the first two?"

"Yes they work as a complete pair with one gifting abilities to the other while the other will protect his comrade while dealing all of the damage. The thing we need to watch out for most is that the girl has a number of abilities that can slow us down or bring someone to a complete stop. When she uses a power like that we need to figure out who was effected and guard them from the man because he will try to take that opportunity to thin our numbers down."

[joutenkira]

Jouten leaned against a wall, he had too much on his mind to converse much, though one thing bothered him.

" What I want to know is how is this place going to stay intact while fighting against these immortals?" he asked out loud.

[Eden]

Rumor turned to Jouten smiling a little. "Due to the citadel's location its built to withstand a lot of damage and as long as the master of the citadel remains in the building it will continuously repair itself. This means that once we take Phoenix out the entire building will begin to collapse in on itself just from the pressure of waters around it." he explained pointing at the second room. "From the minute we take him out we will have about three minutes to make it back inside of the building before the building fully collapses on itself"

Susan shook her head sighing. "Why don't we just have David hold the water away from the building so that we don't need to worry about any of this?" she asked mentioning the young teenager who led the particular branch that they were using right now.

"I sent him to the North Pole to help Tsumetai with a project I need done as soon as possible. If it was possible to have him with us it would have helped but I cannot let the production take any longer then necessary so I needed to prioritize some" Rumor said standing up from the table and walking to the wall of windows that faced in the direction of the turtle's head. "I'm sorry to make these things complicated but there is nothing I can do about that now" he told her pointing at the building that was set on the ocean's floor a few miles away from them.

The building was massive to say the very least with large windows that let the light from the building pour out into the otherwise dark surroundings. Above the front doors was a large sign with flaming letters that spelled out 'Citadel of Rebirth'.

"If any of you need anything else explained now would be the time to mention it" he said as they continued to near the building.

[joutenkira]

Jouten looked around at everyone in the room with him, they all looked prepared for the upcoming battles.

Jouten sighed ; " So how will we know who fights who? I'm guessing we should save the best for last?" he asked Rumor.

[Eden]

"We will all work as one to get this done" Rumor said looking back at the group.

Rumor motioned for the other to follow him and the small group set out stopping at a big window that had a button next to it. He picked up one of the containers of paper that waited for them there and held it against the glass. It suddenly burst open covering the entire glass as Susan hit the button. The group could hear the glass sliding away before the paper moved and shot out creating a tube that extended from the window outward. Rumor led the group down the paper tunnel towards an ominous orange light that shone at the end.

[joutenkira]

Jouten followed closely behind everyone else, memorized by the orange light that seemed to be at the end of the paper tunnel.