The Kyubi continued it's rampage, crushing a barricade underfoot after having disposed of all those it could see dare to resist it's continued advance. The beast swelled with hatred... confused and frustrated from having found nothing that looked even remotely like the wild. It was in a huge city linked to a strange formation of metal that it can't ever remember of having seen before.. the sky above filled with either stars or those strange metal ships that were flying far above.
Nothing was recognizable, nothing made any sense. The Kyubi figured it had been caught in a Genjutsu and constantly changed back and forth from disturbing it's hosts Chakra and generally demolishing the surroundings, but nothing seemed to work.
The beast howled at the strange reality surrounding it, an unnatural wind blasting through the nearby streets. Downright deafening. Whomever still alive nearby crept further into hiding and tried to block the outer world from their minds in desperation.
This howl stopped as something with an immense Chakra signature just smashed it's bulk into the metallic street behind the Kyubi. The beast turned and looked upon a fellow tailed beast. One look was enough to discern that the other was mostly represented as a demon cloak surrounding a host of it's own, just as the Kyubi's situation was.
The Sanbi.
The air seemed to turn ethereal. What was clear sky turned into a thick mist. Whispers surrounded it, voices which the Kyubi's host would be certain to recognize, his Chakra stirring as the mist messed with the senses of the host. One voice in particular though, a feminine voice coming from the Sanbi's host crying out to Naruto.
The Nine-tails growled a warning, pulling a clawed hand back and lashed out in a punch, the arm extending towards the Sanbi at with enough force to turn thick walls into rubble. In response, the Sanbi emitted a sonic blast and almost stopped the claw dead in it's tracks, blowing away several nearby vehicles for good measure.
The challenge had been made, the battle between the Chakra monsters were joined.
The small back room in the Citadel Tower turned silent, Konan had just finished telling what she knew about the Tailed beasts, all lined up in a summary without fail. So now the parties on either end were stuck either staring at each other or contemplating the information, in particular Mordin whom did not hesitate to put his thoughts into words, mostly to himself. No one familiar with his quirks minded.
The ice broke apart as the screen image split in two however, with Matriarch Lidanya appearing in the other half.
"I apologize for intruding, but the energy signs of the two known entities have merged. Drones on sight are unable to get a sighting, the area are filled with mist. We don't know what is going on, but the signatures are fluctuating."
"That can only mean one thing, they are in fighting each others at this very moment." Konan concluded.
"How can you be so sure? What if they have joined forces?" Shepard inquired.
"Though each of them are fragments, they are hostile even towards each other." Konan replied with a sigh.. "Now all we can do is hope that Hinata can control the Sanbi enough so as to suppress the Kyubi."
"No! We cannot take anymore chances with these troublesome creatures. we must strike them down now while they are together in one spot!" The Turian councilor demanded, raising a fist to get that point across.
"As much as I wish for them to end the fight on their own. We can't stand by and let them damage the Citadel any further. I agree that action must be taken." The Asari councilor agreed. Their Salarian councilor however held his tongue, his species usually are very quick to make up their minds... but now he seemed silent. Everyone stared at him.
"I disagree." Anderson notified the others.
"Unfortunately, that may not be up to you.. What say you?" The Turian spoke to his Salarian colleague.
Truth be told, he felt uncertain. On one hand, it was a huge threat to Citadel security. On the other hand.. He thought it over some more before he slowly nodded.
"Three out of four. The vote have passed in favor of a counter attack, Matriarch Lidanya; destroy the creatures by all means necessary!" The Turian almost shouted, pointing a finger at Shepard within the next moment as the commander tried to protest.. "Enough, Shepard! We agreed to meet with you so that you could explain you're actions, but this I will not tolerate at all!"
Lidanya hesitated for a moment at the thought of firing at the Citadel itself, but eventually gave a curt nod.. "Yes, sir."
Matriarch Lidanya turned towards the rest of the crew within the bridge of the Destiny Ascension.. she gestured to the one in charge of communications. "Link up with the three closest Alliance cruisers to our location. We will together triangulate the coordinates of our targets for precision strike. Weapon controls, prepare all lower Guardian Lasers."
A chorus of affirmatives echoed through the ships bridge. "Bring us closer to Zakera." Lidanya added in, and the ship at the urging of it's crews superiors altered it's course towards the designated arm of the Citadel.
The officer in charge of communications turned towards the Matriarch.. "Ma'am, the Alliance cruisers are responding, they are forming up around us and have begun assisting us in target acquisition."
"Good. Once all is ready, open a general channel to surrounding ships, fire at my command only."
"Target acquired. Location will be transmitted across the strike force." another tech shouted.
"Open channel. All ships, open fire with Guardian Lasers only. We have to prevent further damage to the Citadel. Precision strike, commence firing!" though off-handed, even if they stopped the monsters now.. the Citadel would be damaged further by the bombardment. She gave the order only with the most extreme of reluctance. Deciding that it's for the best.
The two Chakra beasts were only vaguely aware of what was going on between them and the immediate hurriedly abandoned area, the surrounding superstructure damaged. They provided a sort of destructive force the Citadel's makers hardly could have accounted for. Guns and up from heavy to even vehicular weaponry were well within the Citadel's ability to stand solidly against.
But nothing like that were comparable to that which are currently tearing up the place.
As soon as the general message blasted through all channels and frequencies, the people on the Zakera ward fled away from the targeted section of the wards in which the entities fought each other. No one wanting to be nearby when the ships above open fire.
Red lights appeared across the Alliance cruisers above, alongside the Destiny Ascension, and in a heartbeat all weapons glowed ruby red and numerous lances of laser fire were launched, smashing into the Tailed Beasts general vicinity. For an instant, the techs on board the Ascension called that the strange energy signatures were fluctuating under the barrage. On the next order, the ships kept pounding the target area for several seconds until the energy signatures on the surface seemingly ceased.
The crew on board the ships gazed at the surface of the target area once the bombardment was finished.. they had blown open a hole through several dozens of levels into the superstructure below, forming a large blackened crater. And for a minute, the Citadel turned eerily silent.
"Send a message to C-Sec, send in a recon squad to confirm whether or not the targets have been destroyed!" Lidanya called out.
"What a tragedy... those were among the youngest remaining Kalinin. Though the Citadel is safe now, there's no way to avoid worrying about their already endangered existence." Shepard whispered gravely as he stared at the screen displaying what was essentially a crater in the wards visible from the other arms. The barrage had blown open a rugged gaping wound in the Zakera wards.
The Turian Councilor viewed things differently.. "They have proven nothing but trouble, and should be extinguished for the safety of Citadel space." he told the Commander without a shred of regret in his decision, the other councilors seemed more remorseful, but whatever were on their mind stayed in thought.
The link with Konan still remained open, and she maintained a very calm facial expression. "How can you look so calm, Konan..?" Tali whispered remorsefully... "You just lost them."
"No." Konan replied, raising an eyebrow. "It isn't over yet."
A crew of four officers cleared away rubble as they moved towards the crater. Most systems in this part of the station had been knocked out, so little choice remained but to force open what doors they could on the way. They had been chosen when there were no volunteers to check out the target area after the attack, many died going anywhere close to the demons. It could be called an understatement to merely describe them as nervous, but regardless, they kept moving forward.
"Picking up anything?" The Salarian of the group asked loudly as they approached the gap.
One of the others, a Human shook his head.. "No, I can't see anything. Everything is hot here. Using a sensor is pointless."
"Filter out heat sources then, try to search for the anomalous signatures."
"There's nothing... but, what's that?" he pointed at a small oasis in this ocean of destruction. Suspended by a few metal beams above the large hole that otherwise filled the view. A body surrounded by ethereal fog could be seen lying there.
They quickly covered the distance to investigated the body, a young girl from the looks of it. To their surprise, she's still alive, as the low breathing attested to. It sharpened and she woke up with a startled groan.. surprising the officers with her pale eyes as they seemed to pierce the aliens very souls.. "N-no. Run b-before.." she managed to speak through gritted teeth.
"Run? From what?" the one closest to her asked, wanting to help her.. but the strange aura around her kept him away. The man whom tried to help her seemed very confused at the obstacle until a gasp from his comrades pulled his attention to the crater.. "Oh crap."
Fifty feet away, a creature leaped from the depths below, ripping a further section of the floor away and letting it crash into the blackness further below. It climbed up one more level and stood on the same ground as they were.. but it's attention weren't anywhere close to them, but at the ships above, and the beast looked well beyond pissed off.
All of them hesitated, before the Salarian keyed his communicator, unknowingly broadcasting his message by mistake.. "Destiny Ascension, this is Recon 53... target remains, I repeat, target remains!"
"Fall back, now!" the lone Human of the group shouted, the rest eager to do so as they fled. Leaving the wounded Hinata behind as she rolled over onto her side and tried to recover from the injuries with the help of her healing techniques.
In the meantime, the Kyubi amassed energy.
Up in the flag ship of the Citadel fleet, Matriarch Lidanya stood nervously, trying to stay composed and prevent herself from pacing all around the CIC as she awaited the report of the C-Sec recon team. That was when the message punched into the bridge and Lidanya's blood ran cold.
"Detecting a massive energy buildup!" a nearby tech yelled a warning. "The power of the signature have greatly amplified!"
It took the Asari Matriarch exactly three seconds to think of at least a couple reasons for the buildup. And all those hypothetical reasons all had one response in common; "Evasive maneuver!"
Back in the Citadel Tower and the barricades further down the Zakera wards, The Kalinin, Citadel Council and Shepard's group stared as the massive Dreadnought burst into movement... none knew what was happening but Hinata, whom watched as the Kyubi finished accumulating energy and unleashed it as a massive Chakra blast. Witnesses across the station saw it as a spear of light that arose from the surface of Zakera, approaching the Destiny Ascension rapidly.
Those in the the lower decks of the Ascension did not have a prayer as the kinetic shields of the Dreadnought could not block the attack, being only capable of stopping solid projectiles. Like a knife through butter, the blast connected with the lower sections of the ship, many crew members were vaporized as the spear of Chakra tore through the section and detonated into a massive fireball almost upon exiting the craft. The inner space filled with secondary explosions.. fire spreading through the surrounding sections.
Lidanya resolutely saved her ship by lowering the mass effect fields in the lower parts of the ship and initiated a violent atmospheric decompression to extinguish the fire. Next she ordered the engines to maximum, to get out of sight of Zakera's surface.
Shepard never thought that Tailed beast was capable of doing that. All he and the rest had been told were the general history surrounding them... but never any specifics into just what they were capable of. Only two good things remained in the current situation.. One of them being that the Ascension would be able to fight another day despite the damage.
But somehow, he felt as if that whole disaster was worth it just to see that Turian Councilor's face. Almost. He simply stood there, utterly flabbergasted.
"I apologize, Councilor. But that thing is still alive!" Lidanya chimed in as the image stabilized.. it had been nearly nothing but static since the Dreadnought was hit.
"We can see that, Matriarch Lidanya..." The Salarian councilor stated simply, seeing as his colleague at the present time seemed incapable of speaking. "Question is, what further action should we take... Commander Shepard?"
Shepard had nothing to offer in this regard, all this Tailed beast news are completely new to him. Instead, Mordin stepped forward, as he turned towards the screen section with Konan still staring back at them. "What is most viable countermeasure?"
"I don't know about Hinata, but Kisame is our best option... or more specifically his sword Samehada."
"Take the sword then?" Mordin asked, he could hide it all he could.. but the Samehada intrigued him.
"It have a will of it's own and refuses to be wielded by anyone but Kisame."
"It can resist?"
"Skewers you're hands if you try to take it."
"Transportation is the difficulty, not the use?"
"Essentially." Konan shrugged. "What are you getting at?"
"Biotics viable for transport." Mordin offered his answer to that problem as he looked over to Shepard out of the corner of his eyes.
"Lidanya, is there any viable biotics at their location?" Shepard asked the Matriarch, getting the gist of what was suggested.
"There is one; Viviana." Lidanya quickly responded as she hurriedly got her assistant to list a roster of personnel rated still to be alive in that section of the wards. The moment that she told the name of the officer, Konan's display turned black. The timing impeccable.
"I hope they get there in time." Tali chimed in hopefully.
"Tenten, find this so-called Viviana." Konan quickly instructed the young-nin.
The girl nodded accordingly.. "Yes, ma'am." and went right on that, running to the crowd of officers that all continued to stare nervously in the general direction of the disaster area.
"Kisame, we will have to borrow your sword." the woman said as she approached the ambulance in which Kisame had been loaded onto while she conversed with those currently in the great tower.
The missing-nin croaked a protest for a moment but calmed down quickly.. "How do you plan to actually bring it along?"
"We'll have to improvise and use biotics. As for wielding it in combat... Hidan?" Konan looked to the other whom appeared tired from having spent time shouting at random officers.
Kisame did not look all that comfortable with the situation.. "And you plan to use it how?"
"Same as everything else, Hidan will have to force his Chakra on it."
"Sounds too damn wrong, but then again, we don't have much choice, do we?"
"No."
"Here she is!" Tenten called out in as she came back, followed by an purple skinned Asari. Quite a young one by Asari standards, being in her Maiden stage.
"You have need of me?" Viviana asked directly, though not without a shudder that revealed her inside fear.
Konan nodded and gestured to the giant bandaged sword as it lay on the floor next to Kisame. "Use your biotics to take and keep it suspended in the air. Don't touch it."
"And I expect it back, alien." Kisame spat coarsely. "Goes double for you Hidan. Hurt it and I'll rip you to shreds!"
Hidan merely scoffed.. "Yeah, yeah." he responded in a lame manner, shrugging off the thread.
"Tenten, you'll have to stay here. Garrus..." she turned towards the Turian whom stood nearby conversing with a few passing officers until she got his attention.
"Yes?"
"We will need your help as well. Time's of the essence. Get us a vehicle quickly."
"Sure you can handle it?" Hidan asked as Viviana began to impose her biotic abilities upon the Samehada, for a moment merely budging it, and then got it to levitate.
"I believe so... fascinating weapon, is it alive?" the Asari responded with a grin as she finally managed to keep the blade hovering at least a few feet off the ground.
"If your done talking, we should get going!" Garrus hollered as he had just taken an C-Sec marked air car and drove it quickly to the others within a few seconds notice.
"Good. Get in you guys!" Konan seconded as she took the second front seat. Viviana and Hidan took the back seats, with the Samehada hovering uncomfortably close between them. But the blade seemed completely unaffected, if not for the occasional occurrence where the weapon vibrated enough to produce a distinct sound and extended a few of it's spikes at Hidan a few times.
"How cute, even Kisame's annoyance towards me have rubbed off on it." Hidan groaned after yet another spike tried to impale him. "Behave, you blasted sword! We'll get along just fine! Yeow!"
"It, truly hates you.." Viviana commented with a measure of disbelief.
Hidan pulled the spike out of his hip.. if he had not flexed his leg in time, that pointy thing would have pierced him in a certain spot. "Yeah, ain't it fucking adorable?"
Hinata continued lying there on the broken floor at the very edge of the crater.. attempting to move several times, but the pain from her injuries caused her to repeatedly slip in and out of consciousness. Healing the damage took more time and effort than she thought it would.
Whenever she fainted, a sentence kept repeating itself like a mantra; "Don't give up, never give up!"
The same dream of the battlefield in which she almost died came to her. The medic-nin above her trying to help her while the explosions went on around them, but this time accompanied by the shouting of several Shinobi whom valiantly attempted a stubborn, but faltering resistance. The girl tilted her head in her dream to look around, seeing ghostly images in the distance, only those closest were completely clear.
One boy looked in her direction in agony before growling at the enemy as he and his dog attacked the Geth in full force, she recognized them as Kiba... and Akamaru. The last time she saw them. "No, wait!" Hinata screamed in her mind.
"We're losing her, help me someone!" the medic-nin shouted at those around them. Receiving a response from what sounded like an elderly woman nearby whom at the time was signaling a retreat.
"Take her and come! Make haste, there are yet one way to save her!"
Hinata's body ached all over, convulsing from the many injuries. She did not even try fighting what seemed to be a certain fate until a hand landed on her shoulder.. the clear voice piercing the harsh reality surrounding them and gave her the strength to fight.. "Don't give up, never give up!" ... it was.
Hinata opened her eyes and forced herself to get up, her limbs hurt like hell, but she got up anyway. She begged the Sanbi for more Chakra, which she received. A formation of Chakra resembling roots enveloped her body and supported her. "Stage one!" the Chakra covered her whole body, forming the more basic demon cloak, transparent yet slightly clouded with mist. "Byakugan!" her Kekkei Genkai activated, giving her a perfect view over the area. But she did not need to look for the Kyubi.
The other was still in the process of admiring the damage it caused to the two ships above when it noticed a Chakra buildup from behind, and turned slowly to acknowledge the other hosts persistent presence. "Go back to your cage!" it could hear her growl.
"Back into you're prison and don't come back out!" Hinata raised her voice, receiving a snort from the Nine-tails. "Let Naruto go, NOW!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, the energy invested in this outburst partially turned into a sonic blast that exploded outwards, blowing away everything that weren't nailed down bar the Kyubi which was only vaguely surprised. The blast traveled beyond that space, knocking people off their feet even several streets away. None got injured from the sudden sonic attack.. but it gave people an additional reason not to venture close.
In one smooth movement she settled herself into the fighting stance of her clan. The reasoning being that in a direct confrontation of brute force, she could not hope to match the Nine-tails. But with the Chakra of the Sanbi backing her up, Gentle fist could potentially be much more useful for this fight.
The Kyubi growled a threat and launched itself at Hinata.. the girl responding by tapping a two-fingered blow to the beasts shoulder with sufficient force to make visible a red-hot needle of chakra blast out of the body on the other side of the impact, causing the beast to howl and stagger for a moment as it's anger continued to grow.
"Come!" Hinata challenged the Nine-tails, beckoning for the beast to attack her. The other being quick to accept as it charged at her again, starting the second round of their fight.