One Happy Family
"You can fly?!"
"Yup! And jump good!"
Laughter bubbled up in Eve, high and giddy and free as her father gathered his legs beneath him and leaped again, sending the two of them hurtling through the air once more. All the while, he kept her tucked snugly against his chest with one arm while keeping the other loose and free; ready to defend her against the horrors of the world. It felt...nice to be carried. To not use her powers for once and just be a passenger. She could have flown sure, but for once, just this once...she didn't mind being carried like a princess.
Was this what it felt like to have a real Dad?
Whatever it was, she was along for the ride, clinging onto him for dear life as he bounded between buildings with supernatural grace, each leap carrying them further and further towards the chaos ahead. Still, why Fire Shadow? She'd chosen Atom Eve because it sounded kickass, but she couldn't understand why Dad's secret identity would be quite so...silly. He'd said Polly-Mom!-had chosen it. She knew so little about her. It hurt, not knowing who she was, not knowing if she was alive or dead.
She didn't even have a picture of her...
"Brandyworth said today was your birthday." Naruto said suddenly, apropos of nothing. "Is that true?"
Her head whipped up. "Huh?"
"Your birthday." he looked down at her with a rueful smile. "Is it today?"
"It is." she squirmed in his arms as another powerful leap carried them across the city. "I'm twelve now."
He swore softly to himself. "I'll get you something nice once this is over."
That sounded nice, but her thoughts persisted, gnawing at her.
"Do you think...Mom is still alive?"
She expected an outburst, anger at the very least. None came. Dad planted his feet atop a skyscraper and released her, letting her squirm her way free as he stopped short of the edge. He flicked down his hood and cast a quick glance toward the rising smoke on the highway -it looked like he wanted to race over their right away- but when he looked back to her, Eve saw that desire wither and die in his eyes. Wind swept through his hair and she glimpsed a scarlet stain amidst the spiky mess. Somehow she doubted it was ketchup.
He'd killed people; he must've having escaped that awful lab.
Why didn't that bother her?
Should it bother her?
...I don't know." when he finally spoke, Naruto sounded tired; it was the sigh of a man who'd missed much. "I just don't know. If she is, she's barely alive and I can't sense her. Its been twelve years-
"But you survived!" she latched onto his sleeve, tugging at his burnt hoodie, heart in her throat. "You didn't die!"
"I'm not exactly normal." he said. "Your mother was, for the most part."
"Mom wasn't like you?"
"She was not." he echoed her, a distant look in his eyes. "Polly was an ordinary woman, but all the more feisty for it. Would you believe our first meeting began with cold coffee all over my face?"
Samantha felt her hands fly to her face. "No!"
"Yes." his chuckle proved a hoarse one. "I tried a god-awful pickup line on her and paid the price for it. Later, after we became friends, she discovered my true nature. Even later, after we grew...closer, she came up with that god-awful hero name you heard earlier. I wanted to use "Hokage" but nooo, she insisted no one would know what that meant, so it was Fire Shadow or nothing."
A bitter laugh escaped her. "She does sound feisty. I don't even know what she looks like."
"There might be some photos back at our old place."
Eve perked up. "Old place?"
"We had a house." he chuckled a little, running one hand through his dirty hair. "Saved up and bought it ourselves...before everything went wrong. I'm not sure if its still standing. Someone might've torn it down and sold the lot for all I know." When he saw her hopeful expression, his shoulders drooped. "But we can look, if you like."
"Together?"
"Together." he patted her head.
Well, that settled things then, didn't it?
Mom...she had to be alive. Dad was here, and Dad said she was a fighter. That meant she must be out there somewhere, right?
.
..
...right?
"Its alright to be afraid." Dad's hand moved a little higher, tousling her hair. "Fear is natural. The problem is, the more you fear something, the more likely you are to make it come true. In the end, its all bout trust." she pursed her lips in a pout and he laughed. "But what is trust, hmm? Trust is having confidence in another. Not blind trust like an animal. Genuine trust. For instance, I'd trust you have my back if someone attacked me, and I'd like to think you would trust me to catch you if you fell."
Her head bobbed. That made sense. "Jut like I trust you.
"And why is that?
"Because you're my dad." She knew it with her whole heart now; that little chat had served to solidify their bond. "And you're a good person. You wouldn't let anyone hurt me."
"Of course not." He sounded pleased, as if she'd just passed some unspoken test between the two of them.
Another explosion echoed from the city below, drawing a wince from the both of them.
She looked that way and glimpsed a traffic pileup from afar; cars smashed against one another on one side, a crude police barricade on the other...what was that? No, who was that? Even at this height she could see four distinct figures in the distance on the other side of the blockade. They didn't look...right. Whatever they were, they were hunched over, snarling at the boys in blue.
Dad made a noise caught somewhere between a gasp and a snarl. "Those poor things...
Her brow furrowed. "Poor things? What he talking about?
"Dad? You're not making any sense."
"Eve, there's something you should know." he looked away with a grimace, pained by the words for reasons she couldn't understand. "Something I didn't have a chance to tell you before. When I was...unconscious, the scientists did things to me. Took...samples from me."
Weird. What did he mean by that. "Okay...?"
"Not okay!" his voice sharpened for a moment before he mastered himself. "They took tissue samples. Among other things. My DNA...
He cast a meaningful look to the hunched figures down below.
...and what do you think they did with those samples?"
Realization broke like so much glass.
Oh. Ohh. Ohhh that wasn't good.
Naruto's response was the proverbial nail in the coffin. "Those are your siblings down there causing chaos. They were made then raised by the government and no, before you ask, I've never met them. Didn't even know they existed until recently."
A family. Brothers. Sisters. She'd never thought about having any before.
And yet his words rang true. "So why are they down there causing trouble?"
I expect we're about to find out.
"But how do you know?"
He tapped a finger to his head. "I can sense their dormant chakra, same as yours."
She rounded on him. "My whatsit?"
"Chakra." he held up a finger. "You have it, or rather, a version of it. Your brothers and sisters do as well." he leaned over the edge, regarding the smoke below. Gunshots crackled out as the police opened fire on their attackers, both briefly driving them back and buying him a moment to explain. "But just having chakra doesn't make you powerful. You have to know how to unlock it, utilize it, make it flourish."
"I think I get it...?"
"You don't." Naruto tousled her hair. "But that's alright, I'll explain. Anyone with my DNA would be fast, strong, a proper pain to put down, but you don't awaken chakra just by cloning some shinobi tissue among...other things." a brief winced flitted across his face. "You only create the potential for it. I think you've partially unlocked yours through your ability to interface with molecules, but there's still so much more you can do. In a way, that ability of yours is a lot like Onoki's, but dialed up to the max. There's still so much you can do and you don't even realize it-
A scream arose from below.
"Look," Dad drawled, "You don't have to go down there if you don't want to, you know. If its too much for you, I understand." He looked back to, scratching a whiskered cheek with one finger. "Its been a crazy day and its only going to get crazier from here on out. I won't blame you if you want to sit this one out."
She flinched and stepped back on the rooftop, stung by his words. "Are you telling me to leave?"
"No, no." he drew her in for a quick hug. "Never. Its just...I don't want this to traumatize you. And there's a good chance it will.
Indignation coiled in her, heady and angry. "Hey! I can be brave!"
"You don't understand." his hand came down on her shoulder, keeping her from running off. "They may be your siblings, but they've gone through hell. I can sense that. They're a bundle of nerves, anxiety and anger right now. That's putting aside what's been done to their bodies. They're still human, but only just. Its going to take an awful lot of work for me and Kurama to fix them, assuming we can.
"What's a Kurama?"
"Technically your uncle," He winked. "You've got a piece of his chakra and he's very eager to meet you."
I'll explain later. Last chance to back out."
Did she want to do this? No. Did she have to? Yes. She'd never forgive herself otherwise. "I have to do this."
"Alright, then." he granted her a quick kiss on the forehead. "I'll be with you every step of the way." His words comforted her, soothed away the last of her fears as he looked her way. "You good to fly on your own from here on out?"
"Uhhh, excuse me?" She clicked her tongue at him and planted a fist on her hip. "Superhero, remember? Anything you can do, I can do better. Can you keep up with me old man?"
Her words were bravado and they both knew it; she was trying to psych herself up, push away the fear before it got the better of her.
"Is that so?" a rare, genuine smile spread across his face, actually reaching his eyes this time. "Try to keep up then, rookie."
He rocketed down to the highway below, with her only a heartbeat behind.
Now that they'd come closer she could seen what her "siblings" were. Dad had been right. None of them looked even remotely human. The boys wore black breeches and all but one of the girls were wrapped in some hideous black one-piece jumspuit that bulged in all the wrong places, echoing their deformities yet further.
There was something wrong with them, Eve realized. They had been broken and twisted, the horrors they'd suffered left their flesh practically sloughing off their bodies. One, at least, she could be certain was a boy, and the other a girl, but the other two were almost too deformed for her to even recognize, their skin red and raw and interfaced with ghastly tech that made them appear more machine than many.
These were her siblings...?
One of them saw them coming, screamed at the officers and launched an empty car their way.
Dad shot forward at speed, blocked it with a giant hand -it looked just like one of her abilities, but gold- and deftly planted it on its side in the street, creating an impromptu barrier of sorts between them and the people who just-might-be-her-siblings. He landed behind it and she floated in beside him as he turned to face the officers, grinning from ear to ear. "
"Fall back and form a perimeter, gentlemen."
The youngest of them bridled. "Who are you two supposed to be?! This entire area is locked down! Get the hell outta here-
One of the quartet took advantage of his distraction and flung another car -this one a van- at the back of his head.
Dad caught it.
Just, snatched it up by the undercarriage and tossed the empty vehicle back at them. The quartet scattered for cover.
So did the police. "We'll...ah, just fall back and form that perimeter, yeah?"
Dad rolled his eyes their way. "That'd be great."
Eve turned shining eyes on him. "That was totally wicked! Can I do that?"
He winked and vaulted over the barrier, letting her hover after him. "With proper training you'll be able to everything I can, someday."
How could he be so calm under fire like this? What the heck was he, really? Immortal? Invincible? Neither of those things? Sometimes he acted like he didn't have a care -or fear!- in the world. Or maybe he did and he was just good at hiding them-
"Heads up!"
Something lunged at her, tackled her in midair and grabbed her. Whatever it was it was wet and it smelled.
"Get off!" She panicked and blasted them away.
They struck the windshield of a police cruiser and just...splattered across it.
As she looked on, the ghastly little thing actually reformed-eweweeewgrossgrossGROSS!-and dragged itself toward her. Even missing an eye and most of its face it still lurched forwards. Its body crumbled with every step it took, bits of decaying flesh and cybernetics falling from it body.
Dad met it halfway, drawing the poor creature into his arms.
Eve rounded on him desperate for answers. "What's happening?!
"Her body's falling apart." a mournful sigh escaped him. "She's dying." From there he began to speak fervently to the creature in question. "Hold on, kiddo. I can fix this. Don't you die on me. You're not allowed to die, you hear?!"
Someone came cashing down behind her, shattering the hood of a car.
"...!" Eve whirled to face them and flung up a barrier...but no attack came.
He didn't look much better than the rest. He had blond hair like dad's and one good blue eye. The other was a mass of disfigured tissue, just like the rest of him. Her mind designated him as Blond Boy for lack of any other namesake. Did he even have a name...?
"Its hard for us, you know." an unfamiliar voice issued from his throat. "We're not perfect, like you.
"Who are you?"
"You don't know?" the Blond gnashed his teeth at her as his companions lurched forward to join him. "I have to speak for our siblings, they've never been out of their tanks long enough to learn how to talk." The creature in Naruto's arms gurgled pitifully, echoing his claim.
Eve winced despite herself."Our siblings?"
Oh, jeez. Dad really hadn't been wrong after all...
The boy who just might be her little brother scoffed.
"You're phase one," then he pointed to himself. "Phase two," his hand swung out to the disfigured girl beside him, "Phase three," Now the poor twisted creature that just might've been one of her brothers, "Phase four, and of course, you've already met phase five." his good eye swung down to the still-twitching creature sprawled at their feet. "Each attempt less successful than the last. We're all one big happy family."
"Whoa, now." Naruto held up a hand, still cradling the dying girl in his other arm. "You don't want this fight. Let's all just calm down and talk this through-
"Screw you, old man!"
"Old?! Is that any way to talk to your pops?!"
His words had the desired effect. The four of them froze.
The blond one, the only one who seemed to be able to speak, rallied first. "Liar...you're lying! We don't HAVE a father!"
He flung a car at him. Naruto batted it aside with one hand. Glared over them as an explosion bloomed behind him. He stood slowly, hanging his head.
"I AM your father. And this is your sister...
At first glance, he looked the same.
Sounded the same, too.
Normal. Calm.
He was not.
It was only when Eve looked at him, directly at him, when she saw his face rather, that she truly understood the scope of the emotions Naruto was feeling in this moment. He wasn't mad. He'd gone well past that. He was furious. She could see it there in his eyes, the way they kept flickering; from blue to gold, now red then back to angry azure. His very being seemed to shimmer in the afternoon, heat radiating from his shoulders. A deep, shuddering breath escaped him.
"Who did this to you?"
"What are you talking about?" the scraggly blond scowled back at him. "We've always been like this; we were born like this. Made -created!- to be this!"
...do you even have names?!"
"Of course we don't!"
A brutal chill pervaded the air.
For the first time in Samantha's life she felt...fear.
Because her Dad was smiling now. "And who was it that created you?"
"You're awfully chatty for a dead man."
"Indulge me." It was not q request and they all knew it.
Remarkably, the boy did. "Erikson. Big guy. Works for the government."
"I see." Naruto palmed his face. "That's good." His head bobbed in a slow, erratic nod, almost wooden compared to his earlier behavior. "I have a name to work with." he laid a stabilizing hand on her poor, mangled sister at her feet and the decay of her body seemed to slow a little, somehow. "Finally...
Samantha gulped. "Daddy...? Are you-
"Daddy's just fine, sweetheart." he turned that same smile on her; it didn't reach his eyes and the sheer glacial rage in his gaze made her tremble. "Don't worry. I'm just going to feed this Erickson their heart. That's all."
Meep.
"Daddy, no!"
He scowled. "Daddy yes!"
Before their very eyes Naruto threw his head back and roared. The moment he did, his body burned gold and black. Eve recoiled, warding one hand before her face. It was like watching a second sun be born, a blazing inferno so bright it cast countless shadows in all directions. In an instant, she understood his hero name. Fire Shadow. He burned so very brightly, eclipsing everyone before him. The ground seemed to melt at his very feet, such was the intensity of the head he emitted. But he didn't stop there.
"No more!" he bit out the words. "I'm not losing one more life on my watch!"
Dropping down to a knee, he laid both hands upon the poor, broken girl she'd accidentally maimed.
"Easy, now." he crooned. "Its alright. I know it huts. I'm here. Daddy's going to make it all better. Just give me a second."
He laid golden hands on her battered, broken back. The specimen quivered under his touch. There was a blinding pulse of light and then...
"Gah?!"
A thin reedy cry filled the air; the cry of a startled child.
Samantha's vision recovered quickly, and she was able to see the miracle first; and what a miracle it was.
In place of what was once a twisted creature of metal and flesh, she found herself looking at a little girl huddled among bits of sundered cybernetics, naked as the day she was born. She looked up and Eve recoiled when she glimpsed stunned green eyes and long rust-red hair. She couldn't have been more than five years old, though it was hard to tell, given how she was hunched over at Dad's feet. Eve felt her heart hitch at the sight of her. She looked like a mini version of her, just with darker hair and a freckled face...
"Ah?" the reborn girl gazed down at her hands and tried to speak, but couldn't; though she could understand speech, she still lacking the capacity to form words herself. "Ahhh...?"
It didn't stop the tears from her eyes. She hiccuped softly and patted herself down, still in shock, fascinated by her fingers and toes.
Naruto patted her head. "Welcome to the world, Amanda. Do you like that name?"
Evidently the little lass did; because she tried to stand.
"No, no, no!" Naruto swiftly removed his hoodie -exposing his upper torso- and draped the heavy blue fragment over her to preserve her decency. "None of that, sweetie. Give yourself time to heal. Why don't you take a rest? You must be tired...
Much to Eve's surprise, her littlest sister shook her head and clutched at the hoodie with intent.
"Ah! Ahh! Ahhh!" she pointed eagerly towards her stunned siblings, frantically to communicate something.
"Of course." Naruto was all smiles as he kissed her pale forehead. "They're next. Just gimme a minute or three...
Little Amanda nodded and made a satisfied noise, pleased that he understood simple instructions.
"That's my girl. Eve, be a dear and look after your baby sister for a bit, would you?"
Stunned, she found herself walking forward on numb legs to do just that.
Amanda took one look at her, burbled happily, then reached for her with wide eyes and open arms.
It was never a contest.
Samantha felt her heart twist in her chest and then her body betrayed her. Just like that she found herself scooped the girl up, ill-fitting hoodie and all. The very second she had her up in her arms, Amanda latched on like a spider monkey, refusing to let her go.
It felt...nice. Really nice, just holding her like this.
"Isn't this nice?" Dad drew them both into a crushing hug. "We're one big happy family."
Quite suddenly, the blond boy over there didn't look so angry anymore. Nor did the rest of his mutated siblings. "What did you do to her...?"
"I fixed her." Naruto climbed to his feet and dusted his bloody trousers down. "Which is exactly what I'm going to do for you three!" He flung out a hand outward, stabbing a finger their way, causing the monstrous trio to freeze under his glare. "Now, we can do this one of two ways. First," he raised his right hand, "There's the easy way. You give up, sit down like good little boys and girls and let me fix your everything; all that's wrong with you, all that's been done to you. Or," and she didn't miss the sadness in his voice, "We can go the hard way; in which case you try to fight me-
The blond boy raised a mangled arm at him, eye wild with panic. "This is a trick! You're trying to trick us! We won't be fooled!"
-now hold on!" Dad held up a tan hand. "You might have misheard me. This option ends with you knocked out cold and me healing you regardless. One way or another, I AM going to be your father. One of these choices simply involves a little more tough love, that's all. So which will it be? Easy way, or hard way?
They roared and rushed him.
Naruto exhaled softly. "Hard way it is!"
With a patient smile and a parental roll of the eyes he glided forward, ducked under a savage swipe, then planted an open palm in the boy's gut. He folded like a house of cards and rocketed across the freeway to strike an empty van. In the same instant the other two blitzed him. Dad caught them by their faces and flung them away.
"Whoa...
This was her Dad.
This was not a fight. This was discipline. This was him laying down the law.
The blond boy rushed him.
Dad glanced at him askance.
Just...looked at him and the boy froze.
"Calm down, Kurama." He muttered softly. "Don't scare the poor kid half to death."
The Blond Boy dropped to a knee, gasping for air. Naruto reached for him and nearly lost it as his siblings flanked him.
It gave his siblings a chance to counterattack, for all the good it did them.
"This is not who you are." Naruto blew out a heavy sigh as he swayed away from the duo. "This is not who you are meant to be, and this is not who you are GOING to be if I have anything to say about it!"
Dad flowed like water, weaving around their clumsy strikes, never striking directly, giving ground and letting them wear themselves down until, finally, he happened. He found an opening, kicked one of the boys away into the other and rounded on their suddenly solitary sister. Alone, she was no match for him.
It didn't stop her from trying to be.
He caught the girl's warped fist, sliced off a grasping fleshy tendril, then twisted her arm right round and flung her over his shoulder, slamming her into the street. Flat on her back and stunned by the sudden savagery of his stack, they couldn't react in time when he pressed a knee into their gut, pinning them in place.
"Gotcha." Their eyes widened as his shadow fell over them. "Now hold still."
They snarled up at him and flailed like a hellcat, feral to the last.
"You don't even realize I'm trying to help you. How sad."
He grabbed them by the face with both hands and the world burned gold once more as his chakra sang through the air.
This time, Eve was wise enough to avert her eyes.
And the light faded.
"Gah...? A stunned redheaded girl laid on her back and stared up at her perfect hands, her lithe form still clad in that ugly black jumspuit. It must've been made of a special material that conformed to the body, because now it clung to her decidedly normal form, preserving her decency in a way that it hadn't for little Amanda. She was at least older than her; she'd hazard her age at ten years, more or less. Her eyes were also a piercing shade of blue and filled with so much confusion.
"Good morning, Jessica." Naruto named her sister and patted her head in the same instant. "Hope you enjoy your new life. Be a dear and go stand over there with your sisters."
He was still speaking when a fleshy fist crashed into the back of his head.
"Look what you're doing!"
"What I'm doing?! He batted the Blond Boy's arm aside and kneed him in the chin, only to grunt as the other jumped onto his back and tried to strangle him with a fleshy tendrils. "I'm saving you!" A gasp tore out of him as a fleshy tendril wound its way around his throat. "I didn't start this! I didn't even wanna do this!
"THEN DIE ALREADY!"
Dad didn't dignify that with a verbal response. He just reared back and stomped. A spiked of hardened earth burst from the street and struck the Blond Boy in the chest, launching him away. Eve knew what was coming next, even if the other boy didn't. Sure enough, Naruto reached backward and grabbed the head of the boy still clinging to his back. Golden palms clamped down as a cry burst forth, both from him and the little fiend even now trying to choke him out.
Let there be light.
Chakra flared and the lad crashed backward with a gasp, not as a monster, but a human. He landed hard on his rear, black breeches tattered and torn. Eve felt a tiny laugh tumble from her lips. Was she going crazy, or was she getting used to this? Because she didn't even balk at his appearance now. His head was a cloud of auburn curls, his eyes a piercing shade of violet, his face writ in confusion. Seven years old. Probably. She was having an awful time keeping track of all these ages.
He turned a baffled look on Naruto, unable to speak like the red. "Ahhh?"
Little Amanda clapped happily.
"That's right Bad! Bad boy!" Dad took him by the shoulders and frogmarched him their way with singular determination. "You cut that out right now, Luca! That's right!" he snapped at him when the little boy balked." You have a name, so you don't get to act like an animal anymore! Now be a good boy and make up with your sister or so help me I will ground you for LIFE!"
That just left...
An awful crack filled the air.
Dad tumbled to the side, hissing in pain.
And something shifted in her peripherals vision.
Blond Boy slammed down on her from above with a bloodcurdling shriek.
"YOU!"
Hardened fists fused with concrete chunks crashed into her desperate barrier and found themselves rebuffed. A wild face leered back at her, made mad with sadness and sorrow. She recoiled from the sheer intensity of it. The agony, the fury, the misery of it all. He'd gone insane. Completely, utterly insane...
"Why do you exist?!" he howled at her, snarling through broken teeth as he whaled on her shield. "It isn't fair! You're taking everything away from me! Even my siblings! How come you get a Father?! Why didn't I!? He's making everything perfect for you! EXCEPT ME!"
"Calm down!" she rasped back, wincing as the barrier cracked, shielding Amanda with her good arm. Where had Dad gone?! "I don't want to fight you! It doesn't have to be this way! We could all move in with him and doctor Brandyworth!"
It made him pause, if only for a moment.
"Brandyworth?!" The Blond Boy turned his head aside and spat. "He's not our family." another fist smashed into her barrier, fracturing it. "We're the best they could make without him. They talk about us like we're not there, not real, don't matter! All we hear is how perfect you are! How perfect we aren't!
He reared back to hit her barrier again-
"Aaand that's enough out of you!" Naruto was on him a second later, face bloody, grabbing the Blond Boy by the scruff of his neck and hauling him backwards. "You've said your peace, now stop!" The Blond Boy rounded on him and slugged him the face. He took it on the cheek with a grunt and didn't budge; because the arm disintegrated at the elbow. "Stop fighting! You're tearing your body apart!"
"It'll be worth it to see the light drain from her perfect eyes!"
Clenched knuckles snapped his head back in return. ""She's not perfect and neither are you!"
"BECAUSE OF YOU!"
A hand caught his wrist, stopping him short. "And I'm sorry for that."
The Blond Boy balked. "W-What?"
"I'm sorry I wasn't there." when he tried to slug him with the other arm, Dad caught that too. "So sorry." She knew he would. "Sorry for everything. I can't even begin to imagine what you and your siblings must've gone through. I can't change the past. I would if I could. But I can make up for that now...
Golden chakra sparked in his palms, swelling bright.
The Blond Boy balked eyes bulging. "Wait-
"No. I'm not waiting. Never again."
Golden chakra flowed from his wrists and into the Blond Boy's body.
An explosion of light followed, larger and louder than the rest.
And the smoke cleared.
The nameless Blond Boy lay sprawled on his stomach, coughing and hacking, blinking furiously with both eyes as he struggled to reorient himself. Raised both arms. Stood on healed legs. Tawny blond hair hung over his forehead, yet did nothing to disguise his shock. He didn't look that much younger than her. Eleven at a stretch. Oh god, they must've started experimenting on him right after they lost her...
Naruto knelt before him and held out a hand. "Joshua."
The Blond Boy blinked, not quite comprehending. "W-What?"
"Joshua." Dad repeated softly, crouching down before him fully, wearing a wan smile. "Before your sister was born, we picked out two names. Samantha for our first girl, and Joshua for our first boy. That's your name."
Eve found herself hiccuping a little, tears stinging at her eyes. It was such a Dad thing to do. She couldn't help herself.
Her "siblings" couldn't speak, but she could tears in their eyes all the same. They felt as she did.
Josh, meanwhile, regarded the hand as if he expected it to bite him. "A name...
"Yes, and it's all yours." Naruto stared down at him. "Do you remember the facility where you came from?"
Josh nodded slowly. Warily. Hopefully, like a dog kicked one too many times. And yet...
He reached up. Clasped his hand. Dad patiently hauled him up to his feet.
"Great." He grinned with all his teeth. "Lets go find your mother."
Chapter 4
What I Promised You
"Priority call for you, sir."
Cecil Stedman looked up from his desk with a world-weary sigh. Well, it wasn't so much the desk he was sighing at as the paperwork atop it; that was the bane of every human, super or otherwise. No one could escape it. Not even him. Filling out these forms wouldn't save him from what was coming, but they had helped to center his mind, steel himself for coming storm. He'd known this moment would arrive. Hell, he'd known for awhile now. Ever since he saw the news. There was no point in running, no use in ignoring it.
Time to face the reaper.
He accepted the phone. "Thank you, Ferguson."
His second saluted, eyes damp behind his glasses. "Its been an honor, sir."
"None of that!" he snorted at him. "This will all work itself out. One way or another. Seal the room on your way out."
"Sir!"
Ferguson did as he asked. Good man. He'd run the GDA well if worse came to worst.
No point putting this off any longer. They'd get impatient otherwise.
He set the phone to his ear. "Stedman here, talk to me.
"Hello, Cecil." His blood ran cold with those words, no; his blood was ice in his veins and he was frozen where he sat, spellbound, helpless to listen to the eerily calm, almost jovial voice on the other end of the line. "How have you been, old friend? Its been only twelve years but it feels like we just spoke yesterday. Funny how time flies, ain't it?"
He knew that voice.
Once upon a time, it had belonged to a dear friend. A good man. An honorable man. Someone he could trust to watch his back. A Beacon of sunshine. A Haven of hope. Atlas itself, a titan bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders. He had offered Shade for those dying of despair and help for the helpless, all without asking for anything in return. A man who had vanished twelve years ago taking his pregnant wife with him, all without so much as a word. Three guesses what he was now after that stunt on the highway. First two didn't count.
"You're dead."
"I nearly was. I got better."
"How did you even get this number?"
"Lets answer your question with another question." his friend's voice rang with sardonic amusement. "Steven Erickson. Ring any bells?"
Yeah. The name did. More than a few. "I know the name."
"Then you should know that I'm going to kill him.
He blew out a sigh. "Naruto, no."
"No? You don't seem to understand your situation here." he heard the barest hint of a growl in the whiskered warrior's voice. "I'm not asking for permission. This is not a negotiation. This is not a warning. This is not a lie. This is truth. This is a courtesy call, so you know what's about to happen."
His brow furrowed. "And why are you being so gracious about this?"
"Because I want to know if you're involved in what he did."
Something clicked in the back of his head.
'Damnit, Steven. What did you do...?'
So that was it, then. Erickson's little off the books project, the scheme he hadn't cared to hear of, the "work" that kept draining money with little to show for it. He'd written it off as another hare-brained scheme, one he'd have to put a word in eventually, but the man had been funding most of it with his own money, so he'd not flagged it as a concern or checked it. He should have known. The man was ambitious but he meant well...most of the time.
"Erickson loves his country," he began slowly, hedging his bets. "I assure you, anything he did, whatever he did, he did for the good of this country-
"Are you defending him?" The deadly calm of his voice sent a sudden shiver shooting through him, as though he stood here in the room with him. "Tell me you're not defending him. Because those sound like the words of a dead man. Are you a dead man, Cecil?"
Shit on a stick. He recognized that nuke for what it was and backed off, wisely choosing not to pursue that avenue of thought. It went somewhere he wasn't willing to go.
He heaved a sigh. "What are you going to do, and how much time do I have to cover it up?"
"I'm going to find your friend and feed him his heart. After that? I haven't decided. What comes next depends entirely on the condition of someone most dear to me. Someone who may be imprisoned and tortured by the black ops of the good 'ol GDA, just as I was for the last TWELVE YEARS."
Shit. Polly. She'd "vanished" too, hadn't she? Double shit. Cecil flinched visibly.
"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? You've grown paranoid in your old age, Cecil."
He could see him. He shouldn't be able to. The room was sealed and there were no windows. Blasted freaky abilities of his.
"What are you going to do? Send the Guardians of the Globe after me? Please. We both know how that'll end. Who does that leave? Omni-Man?"
"..."
Laughter swallowed his silence, harsh and bitter. "By all means! Send him in! I'd just LOVE to see Nolan again. He still owes me for introducing him to Debbie. She's probably had her son by now. Little Mark must be, what, twelve years old now? Maybe I oughta introduce him to Samantha. They'd get along great."
"Look," Cecil heaved a sigh, knowing this train had already left the proverbial station, "Whatever happened to you kid, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all of it. If I had known, I would've done something-
"Oh, Cecil." his old friend almost sounded sad to say the words on the other end of the line."Is that what you think this is about? I'm not emotional about what happened to me. Pain's an old friend. I could've forgiven that. In fact, I do. I forgive you and yours for every wound inflicted upon me."
Hope kindled in Cecil's chest, cradling the tiniest spark therein.
Then the other boot dropped.
And it dropped hard.
"Unfortunately for you," Naruto's voice prattled on, cool as a cucumber dunked in ice, "While I'm not necessarily emotional about MY pain, there's a rather hefty price indebted to me for the last twelve years your so-called friends took from me. And that price is...lets say a cool Nine Million. Every month.
Cecil choked. "Are you extorting me, now?"
"I have a family to look after now, Cecil. I need that money."
Wait? A family? Kids? Oh, no. God, no. Please, no. Erickson couldn't be that stupid...!
"After you've tended to that matter," Naruto's voice dropped an octave, thrumming with subtle menace. "We can then deal with the next consequences of your coworker's shortsightedness. As I said, I am not emotional about what happened to me. I could care less about my body. I'll heal. But I am emotional about the fact that someone laid their hands on my wife."
Cecil sensed the coming eruption, hung his head, and held the phone away from his face. Oh, dear. Here it comes...
"MY WIFE!" even then Naruto's response rattled the receiver, briefly deafening him in one ear. "And not just her, oh no. My unborn daughter! But your boys didn't stop there! They used me to create four more children and tortured them besides! Didn't know about that either, did you? By your silence, I'm going to assume you leveled my house as well, just to rub salt in the wound. Did you kill my dog, too, or did you have the decency to let him die a natural death?"
He had to give him something. Calm him down. "Your house is still standing."
A poignant pause answered him. And then: "Is it, now?"
"It is." he was babbling he knew, speaking quickly, but it was all he could do to fend him off. "I made certain of it." he had if only to honor the memory of a man he thought long since dead. "Its under heavy guard," had to be, considering the sheer arsenal he kept there, "And a maid comes by to clean the place twice a week. We had your pooch buried behind the house. He died of old age three years ago. Your costume's right where you left it, I swear to you, headband and all."
"That was kind of you." his voice had returned to that same eerie, icy calm. "We'll have a place to lay our heads after this, at least. But no amount of money or prayers, or power or favors, or even divine intervention can pay for what's happened to my family Cecil, no, for that," he heard a knife being drawn over the line and his heart plummeted into his stomach. "I want a pound of flesh."
Say something. Had to say something. "Now hold on, I'm not involved in this mess-
"You are. Either you were deliberately a part of it, or you failed to notice it. One makes you guilty, the other by association.
Sweat beaded across his brow. "Kid, I didn't know. I swear on my mother's grave, I didn't have anything to do with this."
"Hmm." a noncommittal hum answered him. "We'll see if you sing the same tune when we meet face to face."
His throat closed. "Ha?"
"Once I'm done working my way up the chain of command, you and I are going to sit down and have a talk." his voice dropped to a whisper, as though he were in the room itself. "But before that, a pound of flesh Cecil. Be it a hand, a foot, an eye, or even your tongue. I don't care where you take it from. If you haven't the stomach for it by the time I find you, then I swear, the horrors I'm about to inflict upon 'ol Erickson will seem a tender mercy by the time I'm finished with you."
The line went dead.
Cecil slumped with a shudder.
He lifted the phone again and dialed a number of his own.
...Ferguson." he rasped into the receiver." Get me Erickson's coordinates. Now. And put the Guardians of the Globe on standby."
Another awful, terrifying thought occurred to him.
"And where the hell is Omni-Man?!"
(.0.0.0.)
"How was your call?"
Naruto stepped out of the phone booth, wearing a smile as plastic as the phone he'd just discarded.
"It went great, sweetie." he patted Eve's head, grinning a little when she scowled and jerked back. "Just needed to talk to an old friend...
Thank the sage he'd learned those silencing seals years ago. Wouldn't do for the little ones to have heard what he'd said now, would it? They were scarred enough; the last thing they needed was overhearing their Father promising swift, bloody vengeance against those who had wronged them.
Let the kids enjoy a little junk food before they blitzed the lab. They'd earned it.
"You're angry, aren't you?" Samantha wasn't so easy to placate; she'd always been a clever girl and she fell into step with him now, eyes never leaving his. "Because of mom."
"Not just mom." he planted a hand on her shoulder. "Because of what happened to you. All of you."
She hung her head a little at that. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you during the fight...
He tutted softly. "You're family. You shouldn't have to fight each other."
Eve didn't respond.
Ahhh. So many emotions.
Naruto briefly found himself trapped amidst them all.
Currently he pined somewhere between joy and hate, love and fear. Joy, because he'd finally saved his children and reunited most of the family. Hatred for what had been done to them. Love, that they were beginning to get along, even if only just. And fear...fear that all his efforts, this might all be in vain. A wise man once said "Having something to lose is what makes live worth living."
True words were never spoken.
Right now he stood to lose a great deal if he couldn't protect his family. Joshua and his siblings kept stealing glances at Samantha, still wary of her...all expect little Amanda. As the youngest she'd latched onto Eve wholeheartedly and hadn't let her out of her sight since. Still, with the worst of the danger past and most misunderstandings settled, their attitude toward Samantha had begun to thaw. Slowly but surely. Time was said to heal all wounds and he suspected it would take a great deal of it before things were settled, but they were making progress.
Brandyworth helped, of course. The man rather liked being an uncle, it seemed.
Make he could help the other three learn to talk faster...?
Hmm. Thoughts for later.
Speaking of thoughts, he couldn't help but ponder something else; now that he'd healed the kids, would they gain powers of their own? Luca's unique violet eyes suggested he just might -if they were what he thought they were, he'd need to keep a close eye on him-and he'd seen Josh stretch an arm earlier to smack an annoying a fly but he wasn't sure about the girls. Jessica and Amanda seemed normal, but then again, they were younger than the others. Superpowers or not, they all had some form of his chakra and were clearly more durable than your average child.
Heh. Things were going to be noisy around here for awhile yet.
Kurama snorted. "You always wanted a big family.
The thought brought him some small comfort.
"Alright, alright." he raised his voice. "Everyone done with their burgers?"
He received a quick affirmative from Joshua, followed by a wave of silent nods from Jessica, Amanda, and Luca. Messy eaters, those three. He wasn't surprised. They'd never been taught better. He paused to wipe a bit of ketchup from each their faces and received dazzling grins in return. They might not know how to speak yet, but their faces said it all. They'd accepted him. Completely and utterly. The trust of a child was a precious thing indeed, and he swore not to waste it.
"Guess its time, then."
The lab wasn't hard to find.
With Joshua leading the way, they tracked it down only an hour outside the city. It didn't look like much on the outside. Little more than a rickety old building as a front, it looked abandoned from the outside. He supposed that was the point. No one but the lowest of the low would even consider coming out here, and who would believe them if they said they saw anything? no one would even think to enter it, were it not for the heavy metal door. Despite the dents that someone had hammered into it, the frame stood sturdy and strong.
He swung it open...revealing a dead end.
And then a keypad irised out from the center of the wall.
"Allow me." Brandyworth stepped up. "If I know Erickson, he's too arrogant to have changed the code...
Naruto waved him on. "By all means."
Nudging a curious Joshua and Eve aside, he began to punch in a long series of numbers; then another, placing his finger lower then higher, lower again. A low chime greeted him, the keypad flashed green, then peeled away, revealing a corridor and a long series of stairs leading downward, descending into darkness.
Joshua heaved a sigh. "They know we're coming.
Good. It would be boring if they didn't put up a fight.
Eve quirked a brow. "You're sue this is the place? Feels...weird."
"I am." Brandyworth laid a trembling hand on the walls, head bowed. "I could never forget it. Your mother went into labor within these very walls."
Josh grit his teeth. "This is the place where they made us, sister. They tortured us here, all for their own gain. Don't lose your nerve now."
"I'm not!" she rounded on him with a sputter. "I just want to see Mom. She has to be here right...?"
The other children made eager noises. All save Josh, who looked away with an annoyed grimace.
Naruto patted his shoulder. "Its alright. They can't hurt you anymore. No one will ever do that to you again.
That at least, seemed to soothe the boy. "...thank you. What are you going to do once you're inside?
He conjured a rasengan to his right hand.
"Watch and see."
(.0.0.0.)
Erickson was happy to see him.
"Cecil." he granted him a wry smile and open arms as he teleported in from headquarters. "So nice of you to finally come down and visit. Come to see our moment of glory?"
He struck him.
It was a good punch; one he was proud of; it caught Steven right in the mouth and the nose besides, bloodied the latter, and sent a tooth whistling to the floor. The man reeled back, clutching at his face with a look of absolute disbelief in his eyes. Completely worth bruising a knuckle or two.
Erickson was a soldier through and through. He didn't punch back. He simply lifted his chin. "I can explain-
"EXPLAIN?! You idiot!" he thrust a finger up under his nose, cutting him off. "What were you thinking? Do you have any idea what you've done?!"
The situation is under control." Erickson dabbed at his bloody nose with a handkerchief, refusing to even rub his cheek. "We've dispatched four of our best subjects to retrieve Him and his Daughter. They will soon be within our grasp."
"Our grasp?" Cecil slashed a hand through the air. "Don't deflect blame. I had no part in this."
His old friend sneered a thim. "Didn't you? You turned a blind eye to my work. You ignored me, time and again.
"Because it wasn't going anywhere!" he flung up his arms. "I though you were experimenting with dead tissue or something! Had I known you were holding a living nuke in your basement I would have said something!" Erickson made to speak and he snarled him into silence. "Now I'm stuck playing damage control. You've unleashed something-someone-I could never truly control. I could only ever aim him. Guess where he's aimed at now?!"
"We can handle him."
"Handle him?" He started laughing. "You idiot."
Erickson bridled. "What's so funny?!"
"What's so funny, you ask?" Cecil took a step back to master himself, failed, then rounded on him again. "You are. Because you refuse to comprehend the situation before you. Do you really think you'll succeed where hundreds have failed, hmm? We all know this story. Its been told hundreds of times, passed down throughout history. The names and faces may change, but the roles remain the same. You'll see what happens when you take everything from Him. He'll keep coming back."
"We've prepared countermeasures-
Another punch sent him sprawling to the floor.
"Screw your countermeasures!" Cecil hammered a shoe into his ribs while he was down, drawing a pained gasp from him. He isn't Immortal. He doesn't have to be. He just refuses to die. We have a word for that where I come from. I doubt you'd understand it."
"I don't need to understand!" Erickson snarled back. "The samples we have, the DNA we've collected, it could jumpstart humanity a hundred years into the future!"
"At what coast?" Cecil crouched down before him, glaring bloody red daggers at the man he'd once called friend. "I'll let you in on a little secret, old friend. In the end, its not about whose the strongest, fastest, or even the smartest. Its about not giving up. And he won't. Ever. Not while you have what is his. And you...you're the one he REALLY wants. The man behind the curtain! The one who concocted this "brilliant" scheme. You took his wife, you idiot! Her and his unborn child, and then because your sheer stupidity knows no bounds, you used them to make more! How did you think he would react?! No mater what you do to him now, you'll only make him stronger!
So you see, what's so funny, is that you, him," he stood and pointed past a stray scientist, "That guy over there, everyone in that facility of yours...
...ALL OF YOU...are, as they say, already dead. You simply haven't realized it yet.
A tremor rattled the building from above.
"May god have mercy on your sorry souls." Cecil looked to the ceiling and wished, not for the first time, that he'd taken up smoking. "Because HE will not. And on that facility is decommissioned effective immediately." a fresh tremor rattled the building, causing Erickson to look up. "And all of you? You no longer work for the GDA."
A tremor rattled the building.
Steven sputtered. "You can do this to me, Cecil!
Idiot. Even now he railed against the inevitable. "Can. Am. Have. You're fired, Erickson."
"CECIL!"
He teleported away just as he heard the shouting start.
"KNOCK KNOCK!" a familiar voice boomed. "I've come for my wife!"
Maybe the slaughter would the Kid occupied long enough for him to find a solution to all this.
Or barring that...a countermeasure.
God help them all.
(.0.0.0.)
Cecil had been here.
He'd sensed him for a split second before used the teleporter to bolt back.
No matter. He'd deal with him latter. For now, he only had one thought, one target, one objective.
Naruto crashed down through the ceiling at speed, struck a soldier and stomped down, riding him to the ground as one might a surfboard, leaving a red ruin in his wake. He kicked off the corpse and launched himself at a second soldier, body blazing gold. He mowed the man down, followed by a third, a fourth, a fifth now, fighting his way through guard after guard, soldier after soldier, sparing none. Behind him, through vision glazed red by rage, he he was vaguely aware of Samantha and Joshua alighting after him, carrying their younger siblings and Brandyworth between them.
He lingered long enough to make certain they were safe, then bulled onward.
"Dad!" he heard Eve shout. "Wait!"
He didn't. How could he?
Polly.
Where was she?
She had to be here. She must.
If she wasn't...no. Don't think about that. On and on he fought, tearing through everything in his path. There was no subtlety to it. No need. Let them know he was coming. Let them feel the fear and experience the dread he'd felt all those years ago. He'd pay it all back and tear it out of their HIDES.
Quite suddenly a door parted ahead of him.
He barreled through it without a second thought.
The room beyond was green and grey, all cold metal and steel. He could see the consoles and tanks mounted within, but didn't care for anything else.
"And so the Subject comes home."
Because there, standing in the center of the room, flanked by guards...
A dark-skinned man with closed-cropped hair awaited him, clad in a crisp blue suit. Looked like he'd seen better days.
He frowned, confusion briefly breaking through the rage. "...have we met?"
"You don't remember me." the stranger scowled and wiped a line of blood from his nose. "I offered you a chance at greatness. You refused, and so forced my hand."
Realization dawned.
This was Steven Erickson.
The rage came on again, stronger than ever.
He started forward. "I'm going to feed you your own heart...
"I wouldn't do that, were I you." the man held up something in his hand; a squat rectangular device he didn't recognize. His thumb hovered just over a large red button set within. "Everything I've done, I did for the good of this country. I won't let you take that away!"
He took another step. "...is that little red button suppose to scare me?"
The man balked. "Pardon?"
"You're like Cecil. You just don't understand. I don't give this," he snapped his fingers, "About your precious government, or your country, or any of it. You touched my family...
He blurred into the soldiers and slaughtered them in an instant, kicking and crushing their skulls. Blood spattered everywhere.
...you die screaming."
"Go on." Erickson sneered at him, unfazed despite it all. "Do something else you'll regret. After all, now that I have you, your...partner isn't needed anymore." He looked to the scientist beside him. "Do it."
Do what?
The man keyed a quick command in on the console.
With a wail and an alarm, another tube rose from the floor.
There was something inside it. No, that wasn't quite right. Someone...
.
..
...his knees hit the floor.
It was her.
Polly.
They'd shaved her head bald, put screws in her skull, hooked her up to some ghastly metal contraption and filled her with wires and tubes to keep her breathing, but he knew her face, gaunt and emaciated though it was. Her eyes stared listlessly ahead, seeing nothing, nearly rolled back into her head. One twitched as he looked on, unable to see him.
He couldn't bear to look at her.
Where was she?
Where was the woman he'd fallen in love with?
Where was the witty girl would could light a room with a laugh?
Where was the proud mother-to-be who practically glowed during her pregnancy?
This...this wasn't her. This wasn't his wife. This was a hollow shell of a human, a living corpse.
Samantha stumbled in behind him at last, saw the woman in the tube, and froze. "Who...is that?
"Ah, and there she is, the hero of the hour. " At the sight of his prize, Erickson's smile became an ugly grimace. "Where do you think all your brothers and sisters came from? Not just daddy dearest, oh no. That, my dear," he gestured with the remote, "Is your mother. And if you do not to EXACTLY as I say, she will die."
Eve whimpered; it was a sound that tore his heart to pieces. "Oh god, she's still alive...?"
"Technically alive." the government agent held up a hand. "We didn't get her back up and running in time to save her from massive brain damage. But," he scoffed and rolled his broad shoulders in a shrug, "Well, we both know she only had one use anyway...
Naruto lurched to his feet. "You did this to her. You...you...
His world went red.
He couldn't think.
Couldn't move.
Breathe.
"You're old, Naruto." Erickson's lip curled, mistaking his silence for weakness. "Out of touch. You've forgotten the laws of the jungle. The strong will always rule over the weak."
Kurama uttered not a word. None were necessary.
Calm descended upon him, cold and eerie.
"Well said."
He stepped in, blurred, and slammed a hand throughErickson's stomach. It burst out his back in a shower of scarlet.
Erickson dropped the remote as he crumpled with a shriek, frantically trying to keep his stomach in.
Naruto ripped his limb free, kicked the remote away, and rounded on him.
"Hurts, doesn't it?!" Another blow tore Erickson's arm clean off at the shoulder, momentum hurtling him across the room. "Where do you think you're going?!" he snarled when the bastard tried to crawl away." Because you're not going out the way you came in, you sonuvabitch! Talking to me about the laws of the jungle! Really!" he stomped down and grabbed him by the head then smashed his face into the floor, stunning him." What was it you called me? Old?! Out of touch?!" He cocked his head, listening to the man's pained cries, the please for mercy, and shouted over them. "There's only one rule in this jungle! When the fox is hungry...
A shadow fell over Erickson.
The man whimpered.
...he EATS."
Kurama's burst into existence around him; his jaws lunged down, caught Erickson by the leg, and swung him into a wall, biting it off at the knee as he flew. The man went down with a gurgle. Naruto came crashing down on that bloody leg, drawing a pained shriek from him. It didn't stop there. He reached up, grabbed the man by the mouth, heedless of his begging, and squeezed. His jaw shattered with an awful crunch and was left hanging there. Tears ran from his eyes. Not good enough. He had a promise to keep.
Taut fingers stabbed deep into Erickson's chest, found purchase, and ripped his heart free. Another hole in his body. The man might've survived the first. He wouldn't the second. He held the ruined organ before him now, leaving it still beating faintly as the horrified man looked on. An angry rasped filled the air as he glared down at him.
"Remember what I promised you?"
Erickson gurgled weakly.
"NOW SWALLOW."
He stuffed the heart into his ruined mouth and made him do just.
Then he crushed his head in his hands.
Catharsis was short-lived.
"M-Mom?"
He whirled, finding Eve crouched before the tank, holding Polly in her arms. Someone must've broken the glass when he wasn't looking. Maybe she had. Or maybe it had been punctured in the chaos somehow. He wasn't sure. He could feel her life fading, flickering, a dying candle in the wind. No. He was moving before he realized what was happening, dropping to his knees as the others poured into the room. No, no. He barely heard the lot of them. No, no, no. Not like this. It couldn't end like this. He wouldn't let it.
Trembling fingers cupped her cheek.
"Polly...
A raspy groan answered him behind the mask.
He swore softly. "Oh, sweetheart...what did they do to you...?"
"Dad, you can fix this, right?!" Ever turned desperate, pleading eyes on him. "Fix her! You're a healer! You said so!"
He closed his eyes and pushed all of his chakra to the fore. "I'm gonna try...
Kurama towered over him and burst through the ceiling above.
Naruto never saw him. He was far too focused.
The world went gold.
(.0.0.0.)
Nolan sighed in the skies.
"Oh, great. He's back. Thought that bastard died...
He most certainly hadn't, or if he had, he looked pretty good for a dead man.
Because a giant golden fox had just burst from the building below him and laid waste to everything around it.
...nope, he decided. No need to get involved in this disaster. He'd just pretend he didn't see anything...or hear anything...