The serenity was quite soothing really.  For Akisame there were few moments 
of peace and this was one of them.  All the chaos all the battle and the 
killing seemed to fade away.  
    [[Akisame]]
    And NAC, especially NAC would fade away.
    *Shut up NAC, this is my time*
    [[Oh, forget it]]
    Akisame took a deep breath.  He had to enjoy the serenity of nature while 
he still had the chance, because it could always be his last.
    "There's a simplistic beauty to the plants here.  Kind of like 
Alandrayle."
    Akisame woke from his self-contained world.  It was good while it lasted, 
brought a calm to his heart.  He turned to face Betamu.
    "Kind of like what?"
    "Alandrayle, nothing... just a planet destroyed many years ago in a war." 
Betamu looked towards the ground as if there were more to it.
    *Betamu, I just got word through the Envriada news system that the Setex 
have just annexed an indiscriminate star system near Centauri.*
    *So what.*
    *So, it's this one.*
    *I suppose this is really my fault.*
    *You can't blame yourself for this Betamu*
    Betamu kneeled down to the side of trail ignoring the obvious interest 
that other passerbys in the park seemed to heed her.  Most of them had never 
seen someone as tall as her much less with her exotic features.  Betamu took 
particular note of one individual who had been watching her for nearly five 
minutes, whereas most of the other's would just stare and make inane comments 
this one had kept his distance and with multiple passes seemed to be trying 
to keep a low profile.
    *I thought you might like to know that the man you're thinking about has 
been in constant contact with roughly five other men.  Two of them have radio 
communicators.*
    *Well, this is quite familiar isn't it.*
    Akisame stood up and took a small step towards Betamu while noting her 
obvious diversion of attention from the current situation.  
    "What's wrong?"
    Betamu stooped a little and whispered,  "Three men coming up behind us 
and three in front of us."
    *Low profile Betamu, low profile... getting in a fight would be a bad 
idea*
    *Shut up Eve.*
******************************************************************************
Akisame appeared deep in thought, "Alright...that means...?"

Betamu looked back to him, "they could be hostile..." she stopped as one man 
approached.

"Ahhhh" he spoke to the others, all of them chuckling lightly, "These must be 
the ones, they truly do stick out like sore thumbs."

"What does..." Akisame was quickly cut off.

"There's no use pleading for your lives..." The man began again, cracking his 
neck from side to side, Betamu stepped forward and Akisame rolled his eyes in 
the background of things, "...because not even your pathetic_UUggggfff!!" the 
man cried out, staggering backwards.  He was completely astonished, Betamu 
had slugged him in the shoulder in mid-taunt...that wasn't supposed to 
happen, what happened to the old 'why are you doing this?' or 'who are you' 
preliminary questions?

He hadn't much time to think of it before he was spun around by her again, he 
began to lose himself with disorientation.

Akisame gawked as he watched, he finally opened his mouth to warn her of the 
second assailant from her left, "Betamu on your..." it was like she read his 
mind, the second man was met with a explosive backhand.  Even Akisame winced 
as he heard the *smack* of the flesh, almost toppling over, Betamu moved 
faster then the man could follow and leveled him with a strike to the back of 
the neck.  He shuddered and fell limply to the floor as her fist hammered his 
vertebrae.

The first man began to shake off his stunned look and decided to get back on 
the offensive.  Seeing her concentration on his fallen compadriate he began 
to move in and threw a right hook.  She peered at him out of the corner of 
her eye and ducked under the swing.  With immaculate fluidity she grasped his 
arm with her left arm, twisted, then brought her right arm over to bend his 
appendage in a way it definitely wasn't supposed to.  The man screamed as he 
heard his own bones crack under her power.  She pushed on his mangled arm and 
his body twisted about, instantly she grabbed hold of the side of his face 
with a powerful hand and drove her leg into his knee, kicking it inward.  
Behind her the man she had floored with the blow to the neck began to stand 
up, quickly he focused in on her and lunged forward.  While still holding 
onto the other man's face she kicked backwards and caught the man in midair 
with a kick to the chest, his eyes bulged out of his head as his breath was 
torn from his lunges.  She looked back to the man whom she was holding, 
pulled her hand back and forced it forward, both men hit the earth at the 
same time.  Akisame was on the ground rearranging the beads in his hair when 
he noticed everything she did was like a preformance...like a dance, a huge 
form with some sort of hidden finesse.

The third man, who had yet to enter the battle decided he would need a bit 
more then just his fists to take Betamu down.  He reached into his jacket and 
pulled out a heavy chain.  He wrapped it around his hand and swung one end at 
Betamu, which hit it's mark.  The force knocked her to the side but quickly 
regained her balance and dove forward, grabbing the man by his forehead.  A 
flash of light and a loud *pop* accompanied the man on his flight into some 
near by shrubbery.

"What the hell...?" the first man spoke in confusion, he clutched his broken 
arm with his good one.  The other man still lay on the ground, trying to 
catch his breath, wheezing and coughing.

Betamu got a smirk on her face and flipped backward, landed on one hand and 
pushed off the ground, sending her somersaulting over the first man's head 
and landed with a axe-handle like blow to the grounded man's stomach, he 
seemed to be out of it after that.  She crouched and elbowed the one still 
standing on the inner thigh, as his leg buckled she rose up from the crouched 
position, using the extra force in her bent legs to get off a massive 
uppercut.  Before he got a chance to leave the ground she pulled him back 
down by his neck, another bolt of blue light with the sharp popping sound and 
the man convulsed and laid limp in her one hand, his legs dangling just 
barely off the ground.  She stood there for a moment with him, then released 
her hand and allowed him to fall to the floor.

The other three men looked intimidated and began to back up slightly, Akisame 
had watched the fight carefully and let a few things process in his head, 
"Was it just me, or did she seem to be enjoying it?"

[[Yes...it did appear that way...]] Nac commented.

Akisame looked up from his seated position on the grass and saw the last 3 
men surrounding and looking down at him. 

"You guys aren't gone yet?" he said wth minimal concern.

The three men looked like wolves ready to pounce it's prey, "If we can't get 
her, we'll get you!  We're not going back empty handed!"

Akisame looked up at them, "What...yur all gonna come at me at once?  Is that 
fair?"

The one man who spoke earlier slapped himself on the forehead and spoke 
again, "oh brother...get him!"

*Hey Nac you still alive up there?*  Akisame thought to his neural 
counterpart.

[[Ready to rumble...]]

*1..*

[[2...]]

*and...*

[[Go!]]

Akisame rolled backwards from his position, planted his hands on the ground 
and launched himself up and over the man in back of him.  He got to his feet 
and the man backed up some, "Apparently you people can't be talked to, but I 
feel for ya, I was once in your position...so no one will get injured...too 
badly."

Two men charged at him while the third stayed back to watch how Akisame 
fought.  As soon as the two men came within arms reach Akisame lowered 
himself to the ground in an almost wide legged crouching stance.  The two men 
hesitated then continued in to begin the attack.  The first swung high with a 
fist and the other low with a kick.  Akisame dodged the punch and took the 
kick lightly in the back of the knee, he got a grip on the first man's head, 
pulled himself up, planted his feet on the mans chest and fired himself off, 
sending the man sprawling backwards and him somersaulting into the air and 
landing back on his feet.  The second let loose a war cry and came after 
Akisame.  He came with both vengeful punches and kicks, trying to blast 
Akisame's smaller frame into nothing.  He was repelled almost every time and 
was becoming annoyed, he threw a right cross and Akisame caught it with his 
left hand, brought back his right, opened his hand into a claw with his 
fingers bent and ridged and swiped his hand across the mans throat.  He 
brought both hands up to clutch his windpipe and Akisame landed a good punch 
to his stomach, bringing him to his knees. 

He was about to finish the man off when he looked up and the third man was 
coming at him.  That's when everything he saw began to slow down, his body, 
the mans body, the way the dirt came to rest on the ground as it was shot up 
from the third mans foot steps.  He bent backwards onto on hand a let his 
feet leave the ground in front of him.  The newest assailant saw this and 
swept Akisame's hand out from under him, causing him to crash onto his 
shoulder.

Akisame quickly spun back to his feet, "Nac, this one is better then the 
others..."

[[So it seems...]]

"No, you don't get it, it's like he sees things as I do...how could he...gah!"

The man came at him again, Akisame dodged a few brushing punches then grabbed 
the man's forearm and pulled it at him, close lining him as the man was 
wrenched forward.  Akisame took a deep breath and turned around, his eyes 
widened as he could hear the man getting up.  This was new to him, even with 
the extra adrenaline RAGE was providing for his body this was enough to force 
it to produce more.  The man finally made his way to his feet and Akisame new 
he had to finish it, he ran forward, flipped forward head-over-heels and 
landed a devastating drop kick with both legs to the mans chest.  His 
opponent wheezed and collapsed to the ground.

Akisame landed on his back and groaned, "Ugh...Nac...turn off the 
adrenaline...it's giving me the shakes."  He looked down and noticed he 
couldn't keep his hands still, he clenched them together, forcing them to 
stay still.  He then planted them on the ground and shakingly made his way 
back to his feet.

[[Akisame you need a break, the unnatural amount of adrenaline you're 
receiving isn't healthy.]]

Akisame rolled his eyes, "I came here to get a break!  No matter..." he 
stopped as Betamu came up to him.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

"Yeah...yeah I'm ok...where did you learn how to fight like that?"

Betamu looked away momentarily, "Various places..."