The anger inside me was almost more than I could stand.  I wanted to hit something, kill something-only the picture of pain and utter despair in Kess' eyes kept me in check.  I had to tell myself over and I over I'd just made some promises to her, promises I had every intention of keeping.  And by keeping them, then I would get to do the things I wanted.

            As soon as Nambu said where we could find Kess' address I was off.  The sea of people parted before me as if sensing a predator breathing down their necks.  It was as if they knew what I had in mind, but weren't confident it didn't include them.  I was just fine with that.

            I reached the sedan and jumped in.  I jammed the key into the ignition and turned it.  I reached to put the car in gear.

            "Joe!  Wait for me."  Ken didn't bother opening the door, but slipped in through the open window.  It was probably a good thing too, because I already had the car moving.  "What's wrong with you?"

            I didn't answer, gunning the engine and shooting out of there.  I felt Ken throw a glare in my direction before fumbling over the seat to reach for the file Nambu had left in the back seat.  I took the turn rather sharply, almost dumping him into it.  Cursing, he grabbed the file then held on for dear life as I took another turn and he did his best not to fall out the window.

            "Shit Joe, what the hell's gotten into you?  Are you trying to kill me?"  His voice rose a little too high at the end.  Guess I was pushing it a little.

            "Just give me the damn address and quit whining."  I had things to do.

            Ken sent me a dirty look, which spoke volumes, and only after belting himself in tightly did he dig through the file for what I'd asked.  As soon as he told me where we were going, I gave the car a little more gas.  Holding on tightly to the dash as we whipped past several cars using the wrong lane, Ken called the others and gave them the information as well.

            "You're taking all this a little too personally, aren't you?"

            I cut off a car trying to get out of an alley and flashed past a red light.  "The fuck I am.  I'm just looking for some light exercise."  My whole face felt tight as hell.

            "Well can you at least not get me killed before we get there?  It won't do Kess any good if we're dead."  He almost had to scream to be heard over the sound of the wind coming in through the windows.

            "Oh, we'll make it there.  You bet."  I didn't slow down at all.

            By the time I brought us skidding to a halt a block away from our destination, Ken was definitely looking a little pale.  You'd figure, after all this time, he'd trust my driving-flyboys, no tolerance for ground speeds. 

            I got out of the car, glancing over toward Kess' building.  The one I'd parked in front of was a few floors taller than hers.  Perfect.  I headed for the doors.

            "Joe, damn you, wait!"  Ken staggered out of the car, not looking too happy. 

            He caught up to me as I waited impatiently for the elevator.  He looked even less happy than before.  "You're being a real asshole."

            "It's not my fault you can't keep up."  I wanted to pound the wall to make the damn thing hurry up.

            Ken's chest swelled as if preparing to yell at me, but all of a sudden it deflated and he only rolled his eyes at me.  "I give up.  Have it your way."

            The elevator doors finally opened and we jumped inside.  The box rose, taking us to the floor right before the roof.  We made our way up the rest of the way on our own.  We changed into our uniforms right before we opened the roof door.

            The smell of tar slammed into us as we stepped outside, but the view from the top of the building was incredible.  Too bad there wasn't going to be any time for us to enjoy it.

            "What now, hotshot?"

            Seemed Ken hadn't really quite forgiven me yet.

            "I figure we fly on over to her balcony and make our way in from there."

            Ken nodded.  "Sounds good, but which one is it?"

            Hell. 

            Figuring out the floor was easy enough, but it looked as if there were at least three suites on that floor.  "The north face has the best view.  Let's try that one first."

            Ken held up a hand.  "You do know that I fully intend for you to take the flack from the others if they miss out on any of the action, right?"

            Ouch.  Revenge could be sweet.  "Bastard."

            Ken gave me his best innocent smile.  "Nice of you to notice."

            Sometimes I just wanted to grab his face and-never mind.

            With a running leap, the roof disappeared out from under me, leaving a full hundred plus foot drop to the street below.  Snapping out the suit's wings, I drifted on a thermal toward our destination.  Ken enjoyed flying anything and everything, but this was the closest I came to enjoying having my feet off the ground.  Driving, I became the machine, but flying never brought me that kind of bonding with the vehicle.  It's been my opinion for some time that Nambu only made me Ryu's backup to flying the God Phoenix from a sick, deprived sense of humor. This though, just me and the uniform, was something else entirely.  Every twist, every action and reaction, there for the doing, the feeling--mine.  This I could do all day.

            I glided to the target balcony and brought up my wings in a quick snap to land.  I got up close to the covered glass, listening intently, even as Ken landed beside me moments later.

            "Anything?"

            "Not that I can tell."  The curtains over the glass were closed and revealed nothing of the interior.  I couldn't even say if we were in the right place yet.  Having nothing to lose, I tried for the handle on the sliding glass door.  It was unlocked.  Softly sliding it open, I moved the curtain aside to take a peek.  My first look proved beyond a shadow of a doubt this was the right place.  "Shit."

            "What?"

            I pulled the curtain further so Ken could take a look as well.

            The room before us was a disaster area.  It was as if a war zone had let loose in there.  Furniture lay in pieces, cushions had been torn and their guts strewn about.  Paintings had been ripped, some smashed out of their frames.  Vases lay scatted in a thousand pieces.

            Still hearing nothing, we went on in.  We quickly split up and made our way through the rooms of the suite, looking for signs of those responsible.  Every room had been wrecked like the first.  It was sickening.  Methodically, Galactor was destroying every facet of Kess' life.  As if they had the right.  Bastards.

            Yet it wasn't until we returned to where we started that we found the worst of it.  They'd done it to the wall next to the doors of the long balcony.  Now that we were standing still we could smell it--that semi-sweet metallic odor.  They'd used it to leave her a message on the wall.  One of them must have come back too, for there, toward the bottom, as an exclamation point, they'd nailed Ana's baby bracelet to the wall. 

            "I think we're clear."

            "Yeah."  I couldn't take my eyes off it.  The browning stains, the filthy words and threats.  If Kess saw this, it could very well destroy her.  Without thinking, I picked up the carcass of a large, silk cushion and dipping it into a puddle of water from a vase, worked to smear the demeaning message into illegibility.  I had to tell myself over and over that even these sick scum wouldn't have used human blood.

            "Joe, what are you doing?"

            I wasn't sure which bothered him more-my defacing the message or this whole stinking situation.  I couldn't have cared less.

            "She doesn't need to see this.  And I doubt we'll forget just what it had to say."

            Ken nodded reluctantly, not trying to stop me from finishing the job.

            We both tensed a moment later as a shadow fell across the open space where the curtain had been pulled back on the balcony.  Ken instantly had his boomerang in hand even as a feather dart appeared in mine.  Abruptly the Swallow's small head peeked in through the opening.

            "Aniki!"  He darted inside, his eyes growing wide as he finally noticed the destruction around us.  "Did we miss it all?"  This came out as a half whine.

            Jun and then Ryu stepped inside.

            "The place was like this when we got here," Ken told them.  "I assume they've been long gone.  It's probably because they turned up nothing here that they pulled the stunt at the hospital."

            "What was that?"  Ryu pointed at the brown, red smear on the wall beside me. 

            I growled out a reply, not at all happy, but unable at the moment to do anything about it.  "They left Kess a little message.  It wasn't nice, but did leave a way for us to try and get her daughter back."