[Fiction] Getting my Attention

[Sakurako Hino]

(This is a Silvertalon/Long/Endeavor Collaborative fiction)

Sakurako taps on her desk in her home office. The wood taken from the finest cherry trees, with the most modern display screen embedded in the tabletop finishing. But today, Sakurako's dismay is apparent.

"That damn... double crossing..."

Two years ago, she had left her second in command at HinoCorp take over the reins as she went on sabbatical for her newborns, hoping that her corporation would run itself nicely. Unfortunately a message crossed her desk that stated otherwise.

Mrs. Hideyoshi-Hino

It has come to light in my department that a certain outlay of funds from our corporation in the amount of ¥350,000,000 has turned up missing from our operating funds. After looking back on the previous two years, this amount in of itself is small compared to the a misappropriation of ¥1,500,000,000 for the previous two years.

After tracing back as best I could, I discovered that Mr. Yamaga, the current action CEO and your former CFO had signed various outlays to a black project that did not exist on our budget rolls.

After calling around and nosing where perhaps I shouldn't, I have found no evidence of such a division or project at all. It is my opinion that Mr. Yamaga has embezzled almost ¥4,000,000,000 from our operating fund. I am on my way to your home with the evidence.

-Ayumi Hoshino

-Chief Auditor

-HinoCorp Accounting Department

Sakurako taps her interface stylus for her display on the table. "Ryu! Ryu dear! I need your assistance in my office for a moment. I need a favor!"

[Long]

Long enters the room, trailed by Ryoma and Mizuki, with Misato following behind. One look at Sakurako tells him this isn't for children to hear. "Misato, take your brother and sister out please."

She nods dutifully and grabs them both with a hand and leads them from the room. Yes Father."

"But we want to play with Daddy!" Long looks down and smiles. Mizuki, I'll play with you some more in a bit. Right now, Mommy and Daddy need to talk. I promise."

Mollified she ceased resisting her elder sister and coaxed Ryoma to do the same, leaving Long and Endeavor alone in the room. He quietly shut the door after them and turned to Endeavor.

"What's going on dear?"

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako turns to him in her office chair, and stands up. "Long..."

Ryu has always hated that. Usually when she refers to him by his other name... his Nova name... there's bad things going down. Particularly in the tone she's using.

"I've been betrayed... Seems that those I've entrusted to take care of my corporation, OUR family business... has found it fit to steal from me. FROM ME."

She glares, tossing the stylus in her hand into a glass display, it's weight allowing it to embed itself into the glass like a dart.

"He stole about 4 Billion Yen from me... from OUR children's mouths... their future. And I intend to get to the bottom of this... I'm heading to Corporate and straighten this out with Mr. Yamaga PERSONALLY."

Sakurako heads over to a closet. "I'm going to get dressed now and take care of this issue. DigiGeist will assist you in taking care of the young ones while I am away. Tell him it is his task to follow your orders to the letter. He is my employee after all."

She grabs her sportcoat and puts it on over her casual, but professional clothes. Then her PDA chirps.

"Just great... text message. Miss Hoshino has broken down in Yokohama. She was at the Accounting department there. She will be delayed by her efforts... Long... sorry to change up so fast but I will need you to pick her up and bring what she has here at once. I have a feeling her info is VERY important. To alot of people. DigiGeist will stand guard while we're away. If Silvertalon is here at the moment, take her with you. Tell Miss Hoshino that Silvertalon is a trusted friend."

[Long]

Long shakes his head. "Best to leave Silvertalon here. no one will expect her to be here while both of us are out. Besides The kids need some supervision, Digi has no experience there and Kyoko can't handle all four at once. Better to leaver her someone who the 4 of them can't really handle."

The notion that others were stealing from her was annoying, but in all honesty they both had more money than they could spend. It was more the principle of it all. "I'll go get our wayward accountant." He took his natural form and vanished in a flash of blue-white light, reappearing exactly in the location he'd ben given.

He looked around and thenn saw the flashing lights and sirens. He flew over and set down there. The crowd was held back by police and Long was given a wide berth as he approached. From the air he'd seen the body, and already knew who it was. "What happened officer?"

The cop looked up at eight foot of bipedal tiger practically terrified. "Hit and run. Seems this young woman's car broke down and as she crossed the street to get back from that payphone a car came around the corner and hit her at better than 60 kilometers per hour."

Long nods. "Damn. Do you have an ID on her?"

"Miss Ayumi Hoshino from... Hinocorp."

He blanched abit.

Long nodded. "I was on my way to pick her up after her call to my wife. She had something urgent to discuss and was enroute to our home."

The officer nods. "Case of really bad luck all around."

Long's eyes seem to blaze a moment, and then quiet down. "Yes indeed."

"See to it her body is properly taken care of. I'll handle the charges. She was a valued employee. If you have any questions officer Hakuto, then you may call my number at Hinocorp. They'll put you through."

Long took to the air without further words and called Endeavor.

"Sakurako, bad news. Miss Hoshino is dead. Looks like a hit and run after she called you.. This reeks bad. What's your situation?"

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako was briefing DigiGeist and Origami on the situation. Telling them to keep an eye on things. Also not to leave the compound unless it's to take the family to safety if tehre was any unforeseen disaster.

"Kyoko, I will be Calling up my lawyers en route to HinoCorp. I'm sure SilverTalon will be curious enough to follow me if I'm leaving on such short notice. DigiGeist... I think it goes without saying you're in for a tough one..."

Sakurako's PDA rings. It's Long's bad news on her doorstep.

"Damn. Okay, I'm off. Gotta get this situation locked down."

Sakurako then speaks into the PDA. "Long. Meet me in Shinjuku. My Lawyers will be enroute from Legal. I'll be sending them the note Miss Hoshino sent. And my concerns. I'm sure Silvertalon will be following, so it will most likely be the three of us."

Sakurako then hovers upwards then starts heading off towards Downtown Tokyo and the HinoCorp Headquarters in Shinjuku. "This day just keeps getting better, doesn't it?"

[Long]

Long sighs agreeing to the meeting.

He calls up another old friend. "Long it's 1 am and I'm off, this had better be very good." Cade was clearly not happy.

"I need you to watch the kids, we may have trouble in Tokyo and both Sakurako and I needed to deal with it."

"Don't you have a live in tutor, and a bodyguard already on-site?"

"Yes, but I want the best. The bodyguard is Sakurako's employee. ShadowStalker is already busy on a long-term deal so I called you."

"Fine Ryu, let me get dressed and I'll be there."

Within moments Cade walked through a Warpgate under the watchful gaze of Long. "What happened?"

Long related the story and Cade whistles. "That's alot of money Long."

"Which is why she's very upset. All you have to do is keep them safe, it shouldn't be that hard since you grew up dealing with all your cousins."

"Yeah, but they wereen't young demigods."

Long smiles and vanishes, reappearing at the entrance to the Hinocorp Headquarters, where he patiently waits for his wife to arrive.

[Silvertalon]

Aki walked past the door when she heard Sakurako voice speaking with a bit of anger in it. She stopped by the door and leaned over peeking into the room as her ears caught every word that was being said to the PDA and from it. She was confused mostly but something just didn't sit right with how Sakurako was acting. Then her name was mentioned as she seamed a little confused more so. Then in the next few moments she watched Sakurako take flight quickly heading towards the city.

"Okay.... What ever this is about I am curious.." She quickly moves easily catching up and keeping up with Sakurako's flight speed all the while keeping to the shadows. To her its a game to shadow Sakurako in a way that she isn't aware of her presence and at the same time keeping herself hidden from others a feat in which challenges her skills in stealth upon many levels which she enjoys. Silvertalons movements are like a ghost vanishing every moment into the shadows.

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako finally heads down towards her Headquarters. It has been a while, and she has sort of missed the daily trips to the business. Then again, the weight of her familial responsibilities have moved her towards the role of the caretaker instead of the business woman.

Her lawyers send text messages, which Sakurako mentally responds, trying to relay as much as was related to her. She knows the legal response will be slow. Slower if Mr. Yamaga has his legal team all lined up.

She knows she has a clause to take the corporation back at the end of her sabattical. She was also wise to have no prior notice if so necessary.

She lands about where Long is, about half a block away, and walks over...fast. If Sakurako's suspicions are right, she needs to prepare for the worst.

...Good, Long's here. Once we get together I can relate my suspicions to him. I could use that... backup...

"Long! You're here! Fantastic!"

[Long]

Long smiles. "Of course I am. You ready to do this?" He loooks ready for war, but also there's a certain look of him being relaxed. He isn't facing other novas, so he's not quite as worried as he could be. He was here mainly to be her Big Stick, nothing more or less.

[Silvertalon]

Silvertalon smirks slightly as she notices long has not noticed she was there at all. She realized he would of sensed her easily and it still confused her he could do such a thing. As for Endeavor she seamed to relax a little bit with Longs presence but still was tense. Still she to didn't notice her presence the whole time. Silently she slipped out of the shadows and moved towards the two as they seamed ready to go. She knew she couldn't slip in and out so easily in a building so might as well join the party.

"So... What ever is making you so tense.." She suddenly says breaking the moments calm standing behind the two with arms crossed giving them the look in a playful way. "You allowed someone to slip up behind you with ease... An you call yourselves novas..tisk, tisk." She can't help but to giggle with a smirk across that muzzle as she takes on her two tailed artic white fox form before Sakurako while modifying her eufiber to mimic a sylish business suit she saw in some magazine at the house.

"Besides... You said my name, ran off..." She tilts her head to the side slowly circling the two, "You seam to be quite up set and you let your guard down... Something tells me something's got ya quite upset."

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako turns towards Silvertalon. "I've got bigger fish to fry than tracking someone. Then again, most of the time I don't know where you are."

She adjusts her clothes, seemingly looking more flustered by the second. "Okay, we're going to head to MY office and take care of things. Shouldn't be too hard to get things in order, but I REALLY need the backup... just in case. If someone is dishonest enough to take from me covertly, what else are they capable of? I think I being flanked by you two should be quite a security contingent."

The turns to Long. "I'm hoping this doesn't come to blows... More than likely though, Mr. Yamaga knows what's about to happen to his career, his life, and his freedom. He might relinquish my seat... but I'm unsure of his response. Better to cover all the bases."

[Long]

Long had been aware of Silvertalon's presence but decided to let her come up on her own. "Hey Aki, it's a bad situation, but I think between the three of us we can handle it. Watch our backs."

Long looks to Endeavor and nods. "Then I'll lead the way. if they're stupid enough to shoot me it will just bounce off." With that he opens the door, letting them both in then taking his postion in the lead, letting Silvertalon watch their backs.

[Sakurako Hino]

"Just stay calm everyone... No Physicality, no threats. We got the high ground." Sakurako states as she walks, following Long. "My legal team is already digging hard, and the late Miss Hoshino did have internal audit files somewhere here I could grab. Afterward, I gotta give Mr. Yamaga his walking papers."

She knows that she will still have to deal with him, it's harder to fire a member of the board, but right now it's better to retake her position first. She closes her eyes for a moment and listens to the song of her offices. The building is mostly wireless, so she easily starts drifting into the system. Her PDA comes online and stealthily logs in through her backdoor.

"Okay, the search shouldn't take but a minute or two..." She says, opening her eyes again. She pulls out a pair of glasses, a PDA HUD and puts them on, watching her PDA's search client in action.

[Long]

Long smiles. "However you want." Long's form and clothing shift into a buisness suit covering his "human" form. "Much less intimidating then." He leads them to the elevator that will take them upstairs and to the boardroom.

[Silvertalon]

Aki nods with a soft chuckle, "Sure I can watch your tails." She smirks slightly in a coy way taking position behind the two as she keeps an eye out. They make there way to the elevator quickly a few security guards take notice and watch but no one attempted to stop them. One last look around she took note of the surrounding before stepping in with Long and Sakurako as the doors closed behind them.

[Sakurako Hino]

"Sorry I'm being so direct, everyone, but there's a certain way I want to take this at the moment. I am wanting them to show their cards first. You can walk in with me when I get to the board room, Long, but I'd like Silvertalon to stay outside. If Mr. Yamaga goes the way I hope he goes, He'll leave quietly.

Otherwise, if there's any unforeseen hijinks, then... we can unleash some of the butterflies we're picking up. I can tell you I got a couple fierce ones fluttering about."

Sakurako sighs as the elevator music plays in the background. "I really need to change our music provider..." She snips.

[Long]

Long nods. "Very well." They arrive at the right floor and head straight for the boardroom. Long opens the door for Endeavor and follows her inside, quiet and ominous, and Silvertalon remained outside.

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako adjusts her glasses as she walks in. Mr Yamaga works on some sort of project on a lap top at his chair. It's been a while since Sakurako herself has seen the boardroom. To her it feels like she's back in her territory.

"Mr. Yamaga... How are things?" She says, smiling, not wanting to give away her concern for her corporation, or her anger.

He looks up from his laptop and quickly closes it. Endeavor sees it's gone offline, but from what she wonders...

"Oh! It's you! I wasn't expecting you to arrive unannounced. How are the children?"

"They are well, doing very well. I thought I'd check up on the corporation... see how things are going."

"Well, I've not sunk the ship since you've been away if that's what I'm asking."

Sakurako smiles. "Good, so my Number One has kept things well on the bridge..."

[Silvertalon]

Silvertalon moves to the door and stands watch. Her eyes darting back and forth taking careful watch of the on-goings taking place. Her ears swivel back as she listens to the conversation going on in the room curious as to what is taking place. All the while ready to move or react if she may be needed.

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako looks over to the door. "I hope I didn't interrupt anything important... I wanted to show a family friend the board room and the headquarters."

Sakurako for a second looks over the room before motioning Silvertalon in. "You can come on in."

Sakurako adjusts her glasses again, after seeing the information she wanted come up on her glasses. "Thought I'd show a good friend the company she will be working for."

[Silvertalon]

Silver's ears flicker hearing her name as she gives one last look around and enters though the door with a slight dip of her muzzle. The two tailed artic fox walks in with a light step and grace. She smiles slightly "It's nice to meet you today... Thank you Ms. Sakurako for allowing me follow in your footsteps today." She bows slightly to Sakurako.

She turns and nods to long as she takes her place near the door. Her eyes watching the room carefully taking the time to learn the lay out and her ears swivel from time to time to catch any noises with in the room or outside in the hall way. Although those silvery eyes finally come to rest watching the man closely and carefully judging his reactions as she can clearly detect in his scent he is very nervous about something.

[Long]

Long can sense the nervousness rolling off of Yamaga. He smiled, his eyes flaring briefly and he knew Yamaga was guilty. This however wasn't his person to pass jdgement on. He stood their waiting to see how his wife would see justice done.

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako nods to Silvertalon before turning to Mr. Yamaga. "So... I've gotten things taken care of back home. I've actually been bored, coming up with some ideas to move our corproration forward into the 2020's, and I feel now that I got things taken care of on my end, that it was about time to end my sabbatical early."

Mr. Yamaga looks startled, actually suprised. "Uh, I know that I cannot really stop you, It is your call, but I thought you'd wait untill your twins entered school."

"I know. Trust me, I know. But my Husband has been a strong presence in my children's life, and we did have a long conversation over this. I am more than sure I can handle this responsibility and taking care of my family."

She adjusts her sportcoat, working up enough restraint, not wanting to show her cards as her hand deals out on her HUD.

"Mr. Yamaga... I'd like my seat back."

She leans over, placing her hands on the table, making sure she looks right into his eyes as she sends more data to her legal department.

"I'll also need you to take some time off, paid of course. You look like you need a vacation."

She reads his expression, expecting some response of suprise, even anger. He just adjusts his clothes before walking out. "Ah... You know, I've been wanting a vacation" He says, taking up his laptop. "So... I'll see you in a few weeks."

Sakurako stands up. "Very well... Have a good vacation."

Mr. Yamaga smiles, with a smile that could be equated to a cat after eating your pet canary. "I will. I'm thinking Switzerland would still have some ski slopes still running this time of year."

He walks out, closing the door behind him carefully, as if to sneak out, not out of any respect. As if he made off with something.

[Long]

Long snorts. "What a sack of shit." his tail unfurls from his waist as he stalks over to the window. "Please tell me you're not going to just let his sorry ass go."

There was a part of him that wanted to take his life before he left the building. There were other parts that wanted to make ita more drawn out affair.

He was quite clearly agitated.

[Silvertalon]

Silvertalon watched long for a moment and then took a step from the door, "I agree, he was very nervous about something. An clearly I sensed his fear. Much like Long could he was hiding something.... Although... Letting him think he is in the clear might allow us to see what and whom he is working with. Someone in such a position would have followers we could also use or even a trail to follow."

She tilts her head slightly listening to the sounds in the room and those in the hallway, "Although I did feel he was taunting in a manner in his departure. It's best not to play our hand just yet until we grasp the broad scope a bit more clearly."

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako mentally locks the door to the boardroom. "It's interesting what one can grab in a conversation. While we were talking I was trying to see just what his laptop was doing. It was shutting down, but it had some operations outstanding it needed to slam through before actually turning off. That gave me enough of an opportunity to look into his computer a bit before it switched off. While not a promising raid, it allowed me to know where to look in our computers."

She sits down at the front of the table.

"I only got a little information, but it was enough to get the ball rolling. He was deleting data when we came in."

She frowns, wishing she had been watching things more closely.

"All the info I got was stuff that could start an investigation, but he has the high ground at the moment. But, the threat of a government investigation will get him scared I hope... scared enough to make a mistake."

[Long]

Long shakes his head. "Not nearly enough. He'll be out of the country within the hour, and his swiss bank account beyond our reach."

"I could stop him."

[Sakurako Hino]

"I know it's hard, Long, but he's a Baseline. It'll take half a day or more for him to arrive. I know, looked at his travel arrangements he's setting up. He figured we'd show it looks like."

She straightens her clothes out. Slightly amused now.

"He was sort of sloppy, and the dirt he left behind was enough for my legal team to chew on. By the time he arrives, he might find his account is locked. He's not going to have a fun vacation after that. Might come running home..."

[Silvertalon]

Aki listens to the two talk about it for a while. Her head turns hearing the door lock as she relaxes a little. Her tails flicker a bit as she moves from the door a few steps towards Long and Sakurako thinking about some thing helpful.

"The thing about government... Couldn't you submit something stating there is evidence linking him to selling sensitive corp. information and he is a potential flight risk as this time.... So.. You can keep him from traveling.... Makes a little easier to keep tabs on him and will possibly bring up the heat a bit to were he will make mistakes..." She ponders softly with a slight dazed look as if remembering something from some place that was or is helpful now.

[Long]

Long looks at Sakurako. "I can call Kou." The leader of Nippontai was a friend and indeed she and several other members had shown up from time to time at the house to check up on them, and of course keep an eye on Long and out for Timeslip.

"This will not stay quiet if I do though."

[Sakurako Hino]

"Good point. My legal team has been advised on that... maybe that might cancel his skiing trip."

She adjusts her glasses. "You are getting good at this, Silvertalon... Sure you're not a lawyer in disguise?"

She turns to Long. "So, any advice?"

[Long]

"Nothing that won't make you an accomplice."

"I can do at least a dozen things, but noe that will actually resolve this in a way that helps us both short and long-term."

[Silvertalon]

Aki blinks a little and chuckles softly, "Dunno.. It.. just came to me.." She walks around the room slowly looking at things and checking things out. She moves to the desk were the former company ceo sat. She looks at it carefully and seams to focus on it. Her ears flip forward as she kneels down. A gentle rapping of claws on wood can be heard. Her ears flicker catching the pitch of each tap focusing on the sound. She does this for several long minutes on and off opening draws, checking the insides and then a different pitch in sound is heard by her keen ears.

"Interesting..."

She tests the sound to another spot close by slowly discovering oddity. "I think something.. Is here..." She makes a mark in the wood.. The sound is different then other locations in this desk I was messing with..." She gets up and shows the others. "Its very faint change so its a very small space.. I don't want to damage the desk or the contents with in.. You might want to examine the desk carefully.

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako walks over to the spot Silvertalon marked. Closing her eyes, she trys to see what;s running, and if it's transmitting. She adjusts her glasses, as she runs a security diagnostic on the table CPU system.

"There's a function running... on a port that should be located there on the motherboard..."

She pulls out a small toolkit she keeps with her for emergency maintenance of her various tech toys. Pulling out a small screwdriver, she opens the panel. She sees the seals she put on the cover for that particular motherboard were breached.

"Yep... Maybe you were right, Silv..."

She opens the cover and finds a small, hard soldered wireless transmitter.

"Okay... whatever you guys do, don't touch the circuits. This job wasn't too well done and I need to sniff the OpIP of the recieving server..."

[Long]

Long paces the room, obviously wanting to do something, but waiting nonetheless. He knew he could make it to the airport before the plane left.

"Multitask abit Sakurako. I know this weasel has a plane on the runway at the airport. Get into its systems and screw them up. That will buy you some time to get everything else in order. He might try to hire another plane though, so finding a way to freeze his accounts is workable as well."

He smiles. "I'm sure there's something you can do that isn't obvious."

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako pauses for a moment in her work.

"Very well then..." She knows when her husband is getting anxious. "I know even though my legal team is fast, Mr. Yamaga will be half way to Russia by the time anything gets filed. I think it might be a better idea to slow him down, Long. If you know what I mean. I will arrange a... fuel injector regulator malfunction though the CPU to stall him further. I know what will keep a aircraft firmly on the tarmac."

She adjusts her glasses as she works with her tools on the transmitter. "I'll keep Silvertalon here to guard me in case he has a plan B still listening."

She reaches with her free arm, stretching it to him. "Just play this calmly. I'll get my pound of flesh out of him in due time. I wanna see him squirm at trial. I don't want any ammo for him to use on us."

"Be careful."

[Long]

Long nods. "Very well then." Heleaves the room and flies out to the airport after checking which plane was Yamaga's. He set down on the tarmac near the plane as Yamaga was leaving the plane.

"I know she told you to take a vacation Mister Yamaga, but this is abit much. It almost seems as if you were in a hurry to leave the scene."

In his natural form Long was very imposing to most everyone. Mister Yamaga however seemed to be somewhat resistant. "My plane seems to have had a malfunction otherwise I'd be on the way to Lake Baikal. The fishing is excellent this time of year."

"Indeed. Sakurako was just handed some very intersting information, things of great import to the company, and how you've stood in her stead."

"Is that so? Well I hope they're fair and balanced."

"They show the truth of the matter, the truth that Ayumi Hoshino died for."

For his part he didn't react visibly to the barb, but Yamaga's eyes narrowed.

"My Wife would like to speak to you privately about these matters, but if you don't want to go now I'm sure I and certain others can be persuaded to come and get you at a later time."

He knew his words could be a threat but he didn't care at this point. Yamaga had seen the pictures, heard the stories about Long. When he was an Elite he was one of the best, and one of the more brutal ones. Since retiring Long handn't lost any of his edge, and by most reports become even stronger.

"Very well Ryu." Long's fur barely bristled at the familiarity. Long closed the distance between them and opened a Warpgate. "After you."

The Warpgate opened in the office agaiin and Long followed him through, closing it behind him. He looks to Sakurako.

"Now let's get down to buisness."

He looks back to Yamaga. "There are things that agitate me, and things that really PISS me off. Now My wife here is the calmer of us and I figured I'd let her speak to you about what we've found, and PERHAPS we can come to a reasonable resolution that won't disgrace this company and any of us." His voice made it clear this was how it would be.

[Sakurako Hino]

Sakurako looks up at Mr. Yamaga. "I'm sure you can explain why my property has been modified, and why it's been transmitting to a location in Akihabara?"

She adjusts her glasses, moving towards him in a purposeful, but calm manner. "And there's this matter of 4 billion yen just disappearing over my sabbatical."

"Yes, Miss Hoshino told me what she discovered, and right now my legal team is arranging to have a full audit of the corporation. Back and front. If there's something you haven't told me..."

Mr. Yamaga interrupts her quickly. Firmly. "Quite frankly, I don't recall having 4 billion yen dissapear from Hinocorp's working accounts. As for that bug there... You know we have to deal with corporate espionage on a daily basis..."

"THEN TELL ME WHY YOU SIGNED OFF ON THE EXPENDITURES!"

"Quite frankly... I don't recall."

Sakurako's face darkens with rage as she moves in almost nose to nose with him. "I'm not a judge, Mr. Yamaga. I'm really the only friend you got in this world. We can keep this in the corporation... come clean... then you can leave with face and dignity. Or you can have your reputation smeared in a long, drawn-out court battle." She snarls. "I'm sure a guy like you won't last for long in prison." She adds, smoothing out her sportcoat. "I'm not kidding around when I say that when I have a vendetta to pursue, I'm patient enough to go the distance."

"So... what will it be... Mr. Yamaga?"

[Sakurako Hino]

Mr. Yamaga starts to think. Looking down at the table. His gears running in his mind.

"You know... you Aberrants are all alike. Always thinking you're one step ahead. Sad thing is, your judgement can be clouded like any normal person."

He smiles as he looks up at Sakurako. "To be honest, I'm not afraid of a blow-up doll."

Sakurako slaps Mr. Yamaga in the face. "I didn't ask you if you were afraid. You were brought here to straighten things out. If all you intend to do is mock me and play games well... That's just not why were here."

"Well, miss know-it-all" He responds, turning up the mockery and ridicule in his voice. "If you are so high and mighty, then why didn't you know I was taking your funds out from under your nose, eh?"

Sakurako adjusts her glasses. "Are you so sure you want to admit that here? You're not the only one with surveillance devices in this room."

He blanches. "I uh..."

"You were aware of MY policies regarding surveillance, Mr. Yamaga. You knew, and agreed when you took employment with our corporation, that all conversations in all Hinocorp buildings are recorded."

"I... I..."

"See? That's the failing of a baseline. Arrogance. Mr. Yamaga... The only option you have at this point is to spill your beans. Perhaps if you're up front the courts may be more lenient..."

Mr. Yamaga is in stunned silence. Just as he starts to open his mouth to talk, Sakurako notices a red pin-sized light on the table, heading towards Mr. Yamaga.

"SHIT. GET DOWN!" Mr. Yamaga shouts seconds before a shit rings through the board room. Sakurako goes to ground, hoping Long or Silvertalon were ready. That's when she sees Mr. Yamaga fall over. Blood streaming from his chest.

[Long]

Long roars at the gunshot, going over to the window and looking out. The sniper was already gone. "Shutters Activate!" Titanium shutters fellinto place over the windows into the office and only then did he look back to Yamaga, still breathing despite the wound in his chest. "I'll get him to a hospital."

He began kneeling to prepare to teleport him out.