Kotetsu sat alone in his apartment, lounging on his bed in a pair of sleep pants and fresh gauze over his shoulder, mulling over the information that Bunny and Nathan had given him. Should he be careful, if what Nathan was speculating was true. Suppose that NEXT with the blue flames was going after members of Ouroboros just for kicks—was he in trouble? He didn't know if he could take on that NEXT, if it suprised him. Those flames...they couldn't be put out until the person died, which made them seriously effective. If that guy got ahold of him just to silence him, there was no doubt that he would die.

He shuddered. That wasn't an option. Bunny needed him, and if he died...Sure, he hadn't been a member of that orginization for twenty years or so, but that wasn't to say he didn't know anything at all. How Bunny reacted was what was getting to him. He'd looked like he was about to burst into tears when he'd admitted that he didn't know anything about Ouroboros. If he wouldn't be completely condemned for his tattoo, if the blonde would only listen to him about it, he could share some pretty valuable information with him...

Fuck, Kotetsu realized. Ouroboros had killed Bunny's parents twenty years ago, which meant that he was probably viable in the blonde's head for the position of his parent's murderer. He groaned, putting his hands to his face. There was no hope of earning to blonde's trust now. It was pointless.

No, that was selfish. Kotetsu sat up, and moved to get off the bed. It wouldn't do any good to heap on the self-pity because of Bunny's situation.

He groaned again, trying to clear his head a bit and wandered down to the kitchen, putting a kettle on to boil. Selfish or not, to assume that Bunny would trust him, even knowing that he had been a member of the orginization that had killed his family when he was a child, and still had the tattoo, to boot...oh. He'd mentioned something about a man with the symbol on the back of his hand when Agnes was taken hostage. Had that been his parents killer?

There was nothing he could do but turn over questions in head head again and again, and it was giving him a heachache. Why now, after twenty years, did this have to turn up?

Blaming Bunny wasn't going to get him anywhere either, and he perished the thought.

Reentering his bedroom with a cup of hot tea and a painkiller in his hand, he looked absently at the makeup sitting innocently on the countertop in the on-suite. He was running a little low, perhaps tomorrow he should buy more. Sighing, he popped the pills into his mouth and lay down.

All of this mindless turning was getting him nowhere. He'd be able to think better in the morning if he managed to get some sleep. Maybe he could even talk with Bunny...

He snorted and turned on his side. Yeah, right.

It was three in the morning, two days later, after he'd been rudely awakened by a call summoning them, he'd run, grabbing both his and Barnaby's bikes (that were still attached to one another, he groaned. What a stupid thing to forget) and gently inserting his key into Barnaby's side of the bike and rubbing the back of his neck through the suit.

Jesus, didn't this feel awkward. Usually he was the one riding shotgun, not driving. It was just lucky that he was able to use his key on Barnaby's bike, otherwise he would have had to either steal his partner's keys, which he would no doubt end up dying for, or figure out how to detach the bikes individually.

Where they were supposed to meet up wasn't too far from the Apollon Media building, though, which was good for Barnaby. His partner had maybe ten minutes to wake up before they had to actually move onto the scene.

"A crime ring, huh?" Kotetsu hadn't bothered to pull down his faceplate just yet. It was easier to breathe this way, and he didn't really need too until he was in some kind of immediate danger, really. "I wonder if it's that one." He crossed his arms idlely and tapped his fingers a bit.

He heard hurried metal footsteps running across the road, and looked over. "Sorry to keep you waiting." Bunny stated off-handedly, clicking up his faceplate so they could look at each other.

Koetesu promptly looked away, not really ready to face his partner just yet. "Ah, no, it's not a big deal." he cleared his throat. "Anyway, the police found the hideout of a crime syndicate that they were keeping tabs on, and they want us to bust in there."

"A crime syndicate..." Kotetsu was promptly greeting with a shocked look as Barnaby went to put in his keys, and found a pair already there. "What the..."

"They're mine, Bunny, stop looking at me like that." Kotetsu grinned and reached over to take them out. "I had to get the bike out here somehow, you know, while you were still in lala land." Barnaby replaced them with his own, but didn't start it up yet, so Kotetsu took the oppertunity to warn him about Agnes' crazy plan. "It's not pre-recorded, this time. Be careful."

"I know."

They raced off, though it didn't take long for them to arrive at the place that they were told to be on standby, and Bunny practially punched him in the face when he told him so. "Standby? What do you mean, standby?"

Thankfully, Agnes interrupted a prompt beating over the comm line with her trademark opening. "Bonjour, Heroes." Tiger groaned. Here we go, more of the crazy director's plotting and random changes to get ratings up. " Today, you'll be targeting a Church, where the Police have located the hideout of a major crime ring that they've been keeping tabs on. There's five criminals inside the church for sure, and it's a high possibility that they're heavily armed. There may be more inside, as well as NEXTs, so please be careful. We'll be keeping all communication lines between you open because we're live, but don't mistake me." he frowned, looking over at Barnaby, who said nothing. "The police have finally tracked these guys down, and are trusting us to help them capture the bad guys. Hero TV's reputation is at stake. Though, to put it another way," even through the comm, she sounded positively michevious, "this is a great oppertunity to get points. Au revior, Heroes, and good luck."

The communication cut, and he turned to his partner, gently clicking his face mask down. "If those criminals inside the Church are Ouroboros," Christ, he hoped not. One was bad enough of a scare. "that guy with the blue flame might show up."

"Why would he?"

Had he really not thought of it? Kotetsu made a mental note to buy Nathan lunch the next time they were out together. "That NEXT...there's a high possiblity that he could be targeting members of Ouroboros." He heard Barnaby's quiet, shocked exhalation even through the mask. "Well, we haven't confirmed it yet, but he's only targeted criminals so far, and we know for sure that one of them was a member." 'And almost outed me as one, too. "It's impossible to tell right now, but..."

"I'm surprised, old man." Argh, that nickname was back already? Damn it. "I never would have expected you to think that far ahead."

He'd wanted to out Nathan as the one who had come up with it, but hearing Bunny praise him was worth not telling him. Silence fell over them before he said, a little awkwardly, "Listen, I sympathize with you, but there's no reason for you to rush in there arse over tea kettle." A wry grin. "We have to act at least a little bit proffesional, this time."

Bunny looked over at him, though he couldn't really tell what his expression was, thanks to the mask. "I know that, and your sympathy isn't needed. After all, I'm proffesional all the time." If he didn't know better, he would have sworn that there was a grin on Bunny's face. Well, at least he was smiling inside, then.

"Ah, as usual, you're not cute at all." He paused a bit, knowing that his partner was no doubt mad, hesitating, before deciding to tell him that he might become a target, that he might die too, just like the other criminals, burnt alive, oh God-"Listen, Bunny, if that NEXT shows up..." The comm line crackled again, interrupting him, and it was Agnes' voice telling them all that it was time-

And then the Church burst into blue green flames.

This guy was seriously turning out to be a major pain in the ass. He could hear Bunny's frustrated cussing through the communications line, as he was sure that eveyone else could, and only truely started not following his own advice of ignoring Lunatic when his partner gave a particulairly loud yell and the sound of shattering stone could be heard even by the line's terrible pick up, and he squeezed his eyes shut and prayed. 'Shit, Bunny, please be Okay...'

He had been seeing too many people die lately. It was bad for his mental health. The man who he was surrently trying to give CPR wasn't breathing still, and if he thumped his chest any harder, he really wasn't going to wake up. Antonio shook his head gently at him

Someone groaned to his left, and he moved to go help them, but he was stopped by an armored hand. "Go help Barnaby, Tiger."

"But-"

"From the sounds of it, he needs your help more than I do. I'll collect the information this guy has here, before sending him in. Don't worry" Antonio was grinning at him he was sure about that. "I'll make sure that you get the points for it. You're lower in the ranks than I am, you know."

He grumbled, but it would seem that he had no choice, really. "Thanks, A-Bison." he swore in his head. This was live TV, after all.

Ahh, here we go. He could faintly hear Barnaby's voice, as well as the dark lilt of that crazy NEXT, though of course, the latter was easily heard, thanks to the fact that he was projecting parts of their less than pleasent converstaion over the communication line, somehow. How the hell had this guy managed to hack into their systems, anyway?

But, well, that was pretty moot, as the guy (Lunatic, aparently) pointed his crossbow, laden with blue fire, at Bunny. He grit his teeth and raised his arm, loading the Wild Shot.

Yeah, not happening, pal.

A/N: Sorry about shortshortshort last part, I have to go to bed huhu
also, apologies in advance, because there probably wont be an update tomorrow-tis my birthday 3

Anyway, thanks for sticking with me. See you!