From The Ground Up

Langcaster looked a little confused hy this, then nods slowly "Ah. You must be speaking of the Unknown Heroes, the group you were once apart of." he says "I would prefer to keep exposure of the Piece of Eden to a minimum, for obvious reasons, but if you believe they have the means of making sure no one can ever use that alien technology against Humanity, I don't see any problem with contacting them, that Is if you can get the Piece of Eden from the Brotherhood." he points out.

Natomi still had a lot to think about, and she wasn't sure what to think until she properly processed and got a bit more answers. "I see. So in the mean time are we done for now?"

Langcaster nods slowly "I suppose so." he says as he gets up and tosses a twenty on the table, which paid for both their drinks "We look forward to hearing from you, Miss Mugen." he nods "Have a good rest of your day." he says as he heads out.

Natomi headed out back to where the others should be at, provided they had come back for now. Even if they didn't it wouldn't be such a big deal but she rather tell them in person then over a phone. As luck would have it, they were there which meant this made things notably easier; save what to do. Natomi would really hear the Brotherhood side of things before anything else.

The problem was, Ameer and Penelope would contact them when they had something to report. It wasn't like they gave Natomi their phone number or anything, saying they could be hacked. So they would need to wait until later to get any information fron the two Brotherhood assassins and even then, it's possible they didn't know anything about the Piece of Eden.

Natomi would highly doubt they would know absolutely nothing about their long enemies apparent long held important artifact. Either way, after a long bit of thinking, she decided to try to call Jack or someone along those lines to speak to them in private.

The phone rings for about three times before someone answers "Thank you for calling the Unknown Heroes emergency line. This is Buddy speaking. How may I help you?" the AI asks, sounding just like he use to.

It was a bit nostalgia hearing their voice again but now not the time. She knew they were going to ask what had happened so it was going to be a longer convo probably. "It's me, Natomi I know its been a while. Is there a secure enough line at the moment? I want to make sure no one is listening."

"The line's secure on my end, but you already know that." Buddy says. Natomi should already have known the security protocols the Unknown Heroes have in place, considering she's one of the OG members "What can the Unknown Heroes do for you?" he asks.

Natomi paused a bit, then proceeded to explain what was going on. "..And I've been wandering around since then. I don't know if this artifact actually does what they say, but I can't just ignore it. But I also can't say if its just some mind game to try to get me to do what they want." The Brotherhood was near extinct and Templar's had the number and tech advantage so why bother with all this?

There was silence on the other end as Buddy was putting his sharp, artificial mind to work "Well, it Sounds like they want this 'Piece of Eden' back and are just saying what you want to hear to get it back." he postulates "So, what do you want to do about it?" he asks "Now that you've called us, do you want to sit it out and let us handle this matter? I'm sure Marcen can get in and out without anyone noticing." he points out "Or Jack and Ramona can bust in and Take it from whomever has it now." he tells her.

Natomi shook her head, even if he couldn't see it. "I don't want to burn my bridges with them, brute forcing they'll know to put two and two together and its 50/50 if Marcen can do it since that IS their home field. As you said, its likely they're just using me with half truths as its their nature. I'll talk to them and then get back later."

There was a pause on the other end "Okay, brute force is out of the question, but you seem to be forgetting how good Marcen is at information gathering, stealth, infiltration, espionage, and subterfuge. Don't sell him short. He's been doing this sort of thing his whole life and he's really good at it." he points out "Though, if you didn't want our help on this, why did you call us?" he asks.

Natomi was thinking things over a bit. "Sorry, I'm over thinking things. Marcen can do it. If anyone can get rid of such a dangerous object of where not even the Templars can reach it, its you guys."

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds "I'll talk to Jack about this and he'll likely get back to you about the details." Buddy says "Since we hadn't had a chance to talk, I wanted to ask how you were holding up?" the A.I. asks, referring to what happened with the Brotherhood.

Natomi sighed a bit after. "I'm hanging in there. I'm trying to keep myself busy and not think about my kids or anything. That and my training has been what mostly been helping."

The AI was silent for a moment "Jack wanted to mobilize as soon as we got word, but Marcen talked him into sending just a small team. There was nothing lest of the orphanage, however, we Did manage to find some of the kids, they were playing in the catacombs when the strike hit." he tells her "We've been trying to get ahold of you since, but as a ninja, you know how to disappear well." he says.

He pauses once again "Okay, Marcen is on his way and will be at that location in about six hours." Buddy says "I suggest you inform your fellow shinobi that he's on his way." he says.

Natomi's mind was hyper focused on the last detail; she had to know more but was trying to keep her cool. "Y-you did? Which ones survived and I'll let them know." She Had to let Sam know too, if you she could actually find him.

There was another pause on the end "Not really sure. They haven't said anything since we rescued them. At least not to any of use." he says "Well, I'm sure you have a thousand things to do before Marcen shows up, so I'll let you go to do them." he tells her "Remember, if you need help or find yourself in a tough situation, don't hesitate to call us. Helping people is what we're here for." he reminds her.

Natomi didn't trust herself to speak for a moment, maternal instincts were screaming at her at the more lizard part of her brain. "Ok..I will. I'll talk to you later."

She hung up feeling floored. They were alive. Or at least some of them were. Natomi absolutely was going back to New York once Marcen was done, her kids needed her and visa versa. She didn't care if either the Templar, Brotherhood or something else was in the way she had to see them.

Natomi took a breath, calming down, then went out of the room to talk to her friends about what happened.

It was about six, or so, hours later but there was nothing from Marcen. No word or anything, which was both not like him and Exactly like him.

There was a good chance that he was already in the area and knew where Natomi was and that he was just checking out the situation before he made himself known. In fact, there was a good chance that he was closer than one would guess and with his Transformation Jutsu, he could literally be Anything in the room.

Alenia was looking forward to seeing master Kobe again and catching up a bit since it had been a while since she or Trevel had seen them in the flesh. Though since Marcen hadn't shown up, which Natomi wasn't too concerned about, the three decided to head somewhere to eat since according to her, he'd show up when he wanted to.

As the three of them get their food, there was something written on their recipe. "There's a few men who have been following you since you left your apartment. M..." it reads, which means that Marcen was likely the cashier who took their order.

A little girl about ten, or so, comes walking up to their table "Excuse me, miss?" she asks "I really like the color of your hair. It's such a pretty red..." she says with a grin, one of her front teeth was missing.

The part about her hair was the important part, as it was a code word that Marcen and her had set up when she was still in the Unknown Heroes. He'd use it when making contact with her while undercover.

Natomi wasn't surprised, she suspected the Templars would be watching because of that talk especially. It was just she had no way to find them or anything so only choice was to be cautious.

When the girl came over and said her thing, Natomi smiled. "Thank you sweetie. Your hair looks perfectly nice in color to." She knew who it was, and her response she understood.

To be honest, when it came to things like this she always considered Marcen the better ninja. Mainly because his people dealt with this stuff all the time and for longer. The Hidden Villages dealt with people undercover for centuries, the Mugen clan while having plenty of stealth was more about dealing with monsters then people.

The little girl wanders about and bumps into a wallstreet looking fellow "Oops! Sorroy mister!" she giggles as she heads out of the building and promptly rams into some lady, falling back down. The lady helps her up and she goes about her way.

After that, everything seemed normal. No one seemed to come in or leave the restaurant. It was only about five minuets later that two men seem to pass out and a woman at the bus stop outside faints as well. Two construction workers suddenly drag the unconscious woman inside.

No one seems to move to help the unconscious men as a staffer closes the blinds, and another one flips the closed sigh on and locks the front door.

The cashier sighs "Well, that took long enough..." she says as Everyone in the restaurant, except for the unconscious Templars and Natomi and her friends, disappear in puffs of smoke and the cashier goes from a perky highschool girl to a battle hardened elite shinobi veteran in the same puff of smoke "Sorry for putting on the show. It was the only way to talk alone..." Marcen says as he pulls out a small device and turns it on "Now we can talk without listening ears."