Cain Vongola's Story

It was a wonderful party to return to. Once Cain had seen Joel, who had a playful smile on his face, talking to Keiko, he thought he might have an easy chance to apologize. Though, what happened next he didn't expect. He wasn't sure if any of his family had. What was this? One moment, they were doing a presentation with a whole bunch of stuck up, but seemingly harmless people, and the next, there were explosions in the air with a fireworks like effect that seemed to scatter along the hall. On top of that, something seemed to be putting holes in the walls. Everything was quickly falling apart.
........................................................................................................................................................................................
Joel's face subsided to an even more serious one than he had before. As soon as he saw the lights flashing above him, he didn't even bother to give a look or even say anything to anyone else. The only thing seen in his disappeared body was the green smoked that portrayed his use of his powers and he was on top of the quaking building in the next instant. "Tch," the sound of disapproval came from his mouth as he saw the woman perched on the rail of the roofs opening. His questionable look expressed all of the sense the current scene was making, until he put it all together quickly in his head. It had to be none other than an attack on the Vongola. Not only the Vongola, but from the matter of the attacks, it was an attack on the ring bearers themselves. He only heard stories about the attacks on the past Vogolas. Seeing as how Cain was still young, he could be challenged for his ring and with it his place as head of the family. Though, a challenge like that would actually have to be a challenge. That only meant one thing. Whoever was attacking them were most likely after their heads. Which family would send someone after them though. That was the only blank spot left.
........................................................................................................................................................................................
Cain looked around cluelessly as his fellow guardians disappeared before him. One moment Eri was next to him, and the next, she was gone as fast as Joel could disappear. Looking over to where Joel use to be, he saw that his friend was no longer there and neither was Keiko. One by one they were all singled out. It was inevitable what was going to happen next and as the guest were all leaving and the guards with no targets for their guns, it would seem to the unknowing person that everyone was fleeing. However, Cain had a feeling that wasn't it. Knowing Joel and his other friends, they didn't seem like the type of people to just bail on something like this. No. Not without helping anyone. The only person visible was Nami, who seemed to be trying her best to help who she could with her powers. He also saw Fredrick, looking just as confused as he was.

“King of Flames,” a voice called out to Cain's surprise. He hadn't called himself that in front of anyone, but Joel, and that was just a joke he flew around. How could someone who wasn't Joel know of that self proclaimed title? He looked over and saw a kid, who looked about his age, and a man who seemed almost as strict to business as Joel was at times. This was serious. This was an attack. It didn't even take the revelation of the mans weird weapon to get Cain to come to that conclusion. He wasn't scared so much as he was wondering what the hell was going on. He wasn't able to react to the man coming to him at a high speed and it seemed like he was done for. Sure he had ample opportunity to dodge an oncoming attack, but the manner of the mans movements were unreal. There was no indication of his phases like there was with the lightning guardians. This was some other form of power. The only wind which was coming from the strike to the boys neck indicated that he couldn't even feel the man pass him. However, the swift attack gave the illusion that he had just been decapitated. There was no pain, which he'd expect from his head being severed from his body, but Cain stopped his breathing and even felt his heart pulsate with the type of attack one would get from a jump scare at a scary movie. Though, once he realized his head wasn't flying off of his body, he quickly turned around, back peddling to create a needed distance from his strange attacker, holding his throat just to double check to see if his skin wasn't gashed. There was no wound. It was unreal. He was sure that the tool in the mans hand had went through his neck. If that was the case, then why wasn't he dead? Looking at the man with a glare in his eyes, Cain gazed upon the relaxed man. Judging by his stature, he didn't even look like his friend anymore. His demeanor and everything was that of what he'd expect an assassin would look like.

"I don't know who you are," he said, "but you are going to regret not killing me with that attack." His skates that were still attached to his feet rolled on their own. The forward wheel rolling counter clockwise and the rear one rolling the opposite direction. On both pair of wheeled shoes the friction continued until red flames started to spur from them. He then moved in a beautiful motion to circle the man, increasing speed the further he traveled. Soon it was almost as if a bike was going full speed in a gigantic circle and the flames streaked the ground making a circle of fire. Cain soon disappeared into the flames and prepared his attack. Though he wasn't sure what the outcome of the attack had been. Sure he had trained with his powers, but he wasn't use to using them in a fight. Once he bolted out of the flame ready to attack the man at full velocity with his flame kick, he only could guess that it'd have to hurt on impact. At least that's what he would have wanted to happen. However, upon the first attack, he felt a collision with a blunt object against his feet and merely continued on past the man disappearing into the angry circle. The man looked as if he hadn't even moved. There was no way for someone to be so fast as to not look like they haven't moved an inch, especially if he blocked his attack. Cain continued his assault, this time speeding up as fast as he could and then created a pentagram of fire within the circle. Through every movement back and forth, he felt the same collision and with no trace of the man even moving. After the third dozen of attempts, he ceased his movements. The flames dying down, leaving a tear in the marble floor to show where he had went. Everything was drawn out just like a drawing inside of a circle. Everything, but the area around the man. He gritted his teeth at the phenomenon. How could that even have been possible? What would happen if the man had went on the offensive? He had only hoped he would be able to survive whatever was coming. Little did he know, he wasn't even the slightest bit prepared for it.
........................................................................................................................................................................................
Joel reached forward to grab at the woman only to see the same type of mist that he himself had left upon coming or going at his speed. His alertness told him to step away, not knowing what would come from it. Of course his eyes stretched before going back to being calm as he saw a kid of all people appearing out of nowhere. 'So that's how it feels when that happens in front of you,' he thought to himself, looking at the kid in his eyes. He relaxed his ready stance and stood up more straight. "You shouldn't lie in front of me," he spoke aloud. "Move." He was more interested in stopping the woman who was obviously attacking the hall than some guy who decided to get in his way. Though, he wasn't dumb. For not a second did he not see the boy as a threat. The grin on the boys face looked as if he was playing some type of game. To this Joel returned with his natural gaze, knowing that he'd most likely have to get past the boy before he had done anything else, and, from the looks of it, he wasn't going to end it quickly. There were too many questions in the air to even attempt to do so. Joel flashed, not towards the boy, but up in the air, only to see the extent of his enemies motives, and power.

When Cain gave her a questionable look for a second, Eri could guess what the fool was thinking. She smiled a little at her own private joke.

"You're right. Who am I to deny my family what they need. They need the Sky, so I'll be the Sky for them."

It seemed like he was back to his normal care free self. With his nerves and pride healed he walked with Eri back to the main hall.

"So..... What is this interest you have," he asked out of nowhere.

"Well... since you're curious... I'm a professional cosplayer." she explained, opening the door for Cain and stepping in after him. "Do a couple of photoshoots, earn a bit of money, that sort of thin-"

SNAP!

That loud resounding snap of what was unmistakably fingers reverberated throughout the walls and suddenly chaos ensued. The structure around them began to be damaged by what seemed to be a very small projectile. Before Eri could move to assist the civilians and other famiglias, a brown haired guy suddenly jammed in front of her.

He looked her directly in the eye and said, "Hello there, Vongola Guardian of Cloud. I'd like you to meet my Rizzo friend, Miku. She's a sweet girl."

'What the-' was what Eri could think initially before her entire vision altered, replacing the pandemonium around her with a quiet plain, the sky and the land meeting at the horizon over an incredible distance. The place was empty, safe for a few rocks, pointing straight up at the strange, purple sky that seemed to fade darker and darker as it permeated outwards. Staring down at her feet, she felt as if she was on a chessboard, black and white squares filled the space around her.

'An illusion... Mist Flames? No... this feels different.'

Feeling the presence of another inhabitant in the desolated land, she looked up, staring at the figure ahead of her while a cool breeze swept the land, causing her braided hair to sway about.

What she could only decide upon was that the person that was slowly walking towards her was whom the brown haired man had called 'Miku'. As Miku came closer, Eri recognized the eyes and face of the girl with long black hair worn in pigtails. A face of a very focused fighter, a thought reinforced when a plain katana fell down to be lightly grasped in her hand. When the girl was a few feet away from Eri, she spoke.

"Shall we."

It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Her voice was cold and it seemed the entire world seemed to react to Miku's words, suddenly dropping several degrees and the winds picking up their pace, whipping Eri's white braids around in contrast to her opponent's dark pigtails.

"I really don't suggest fighting. There're better ways to deal with this." Eri reasoned, holding her hands up, her ring perfectly matching with the sky in this world. "What is it that you want from us?"

Fighting wasn't something that Eri wanted to slip into right now.

---

---

"Heh. Well I'll just have to put forth more effort on my end then to bring him up. I'll have him surpass you and be gentleman while he's at it," Joel teased. "Though would you be alright with that? Handing over your title as champion?"

"Hah!" Keiko snorted before jabbing a thumb against her chest. "I ain't gonna hand over da title as Champion over tah anyone dat easily, not even if it's da Boss."

She then jabbed a finger at Joel's chest and winked playfully, "Though, I don't mind a lil' competition, so bring 'im up tah mah level if ya can. I'll prove tah da world dat the title rightfully belongs to me. Da cub ain't gonna have anythin' on meh."

SNAP!

Keiko's more sensitive ears quickly picked up the source of the sound and she stared directly at a sharply dressed man with dark hair. Almost in unison, she quickly picked up several different flame 'scents', new ones, one of which was the 'scent' of the guy she previously met, Sora. Something was wrong.

"I KNEW IT!" she burst out in anger, whacking away a stray piece of falling debris caused by a ball that was bouncing around, apparently picking up speed. At first her sensitive eyes managed to keep pace with the ball, watching as the ball seemed to change directions whenever it was going to collide with a civilian.

'Huh... so they're not aimin' ta kill?' she thought, before the ball eventually became too fast for her to track. 'Dammit!'

Moving quickly, Keiko bounded across the room to intercept a falling piece of the ceiling, saving a fearful couple who immediately ran without any thanks.

"If da situation ain't clear enuf, go fer da exit!" she yelled after them, adding, "And YER WELCOME!"

All around her, she saw frightened faces, and immediately felt the need to help them all. Sure, the Sun Guardian was cocky, arrogant and seemed like she could care less about what others thought but when it came to people in distress, she wanted to be the first on the scene to help. This situation was no different. She breathed in deeply and released it with a shout, doing what she did on stage, no mic, just her loud voice working it out.

"EVERYONE OUT! OUT! OUT!" she shouted.

"Take this Miyamoto!"

She instantly locking eyes with the person who called her, staring into the brown eyes of Sora before the area around both of them changed. A boxing arena caged match surrounded them. She stared around the illusionary field before turning a glare at Sora.

'Dis ain't an ordinary illusion.'

"So I heard you like close ranged fighting?" Sora smirked, "It's my specialty as well. Once again, let me reintroduce myself, I'm Sora Rizzo, Rizzo Guardian of the Star." Keiko's eyes immediately saw the stars in his eyes. "Now I'll be needing that Sun ring of yours."

*DING DING DING*

"In this corner is the bright star, 5'9 and illusion expert! SORA RIZZO!" says an overhead announcer that Keiko dismissed immediately along with the applause of what she knew was a non-existent crowd despite the fact that multiple faces were cheering and shouting around her.

"In this corner, the shining star herself, 5'8, blue eyes and a beautiful physique. The champ herself! Miyamoto Keiko!"

Her inside ring instincts were brought to fore and her fist shot up in unison to the announcement.

"NOW! FIGHT!"

Sora ran up directly towards her with a flying roundhouse kick that she grabbed hold off, her Sun Flames slowly radiating from her like yellow tendrils of energy. Tossing him aside, her indifferent, stoic, unimpressed face stared him down as she seemed to glow like a sun.

"I knew somethin' was off 'bout ya." she told him, "And tah think dat I found ya a nice person."

One step forward.

"There're multiple lives out there dat could possibly be crushed by fallin' debris while ya trap me inside this illusion." her voice seemed to quiver with rage, and somewhere buried inside it, an unmistakable concern.

Another step forward.

"If ya had a bone tah pick with da Vongola..." she gritted her teeth in anger while her fists tightened, "...don't involve da innocent..."

She launched herself forward into such a perfect pounce, that if one were to look at her, they would see the after-image of a panther behind her. The look on her face was one of pure anger and rage, animalistic, protective rage.

"AND YA SURE AS HELL CAN BET ON IT DAT BEFORE YA TOUCH DA CUBS-"

She swung a powerful fist at Sora.

"-THEIR MUM WILL BE THERE TAH PROTECT 'EM!"

Her opponent rolled away, causing her fist to collide against the caged ring and ripping it apart as Keiko's fist burst through the metal caging. Pulling her fist away, the injured flesh healed instantly, the Sun Flames working their magic as they concentrated on the injured location.

"Da wide sky may encompass da other five flames, but there's a misconception 'bout da last flame. Da Sun lies outta reach from da Sky, in da depths of Space, a Star tah da faraway Universe." she said in a more controlled tone, bouncing about shaking her hands as she prepared to fight.

Readying herself, she got into her fighting stance, her midnight blue hair falling about as she did her signature head bob, "Da Sun will always be da greatest of da Sky Flames, remember dat."

Her eyes seemed to dull out, replaced by zoned out eyes that seemed to be out of focus, yet focused at the same time. Her entire demeanor changed.

"Don't lose yer footing, rabbit." she warned him. "Yer're facing an apex predator."

Alastor enjoyed seeing Cain go through the motions. First: confusion, as he realized he'd been assaulted. Next: fear, as he realized he'd been virtually decapitated. Then, cold hard realization. Ah, yes. Alastor could see it in the boy's eyes, his revelation. The Vongola boss had just confronted the reality that he was engaging someone on an entirely different level than himself.

Cain leveled a fiery glare upon his enemy. Alastor responded with practiced arrogance. A raised chin. A faint smirk.

The boy didn't comprehend just how close the boss of the Rizzo had come to actually decapitating him. If not for the sanctity of the timeline, perhaps he would have forgone invoking Underhand—his box weapon's ability to phase through matter—entirely.

"I don't know who you are," the Vongola said, "but you are going to regret not killing me with that attack."

Suddenly, Cain streaked forward, brilliant red Sky flames flowing in his wake. The Vongola arced his trajectory, encircling Alastor in the flames. In response, Alastor simply turned his wrist, bringing the Minute Hand down by his side at an angle. When Cain made his first strike, bursting through the circle of flames like a speeding bullet, Alastor shifted in his stance ever so slightly, parrying the maneuver in a barrage of flame and sparks. The boy's momentum carried him past his opponent and back out into the ring of flames.

Alastor got the sense that Cain was annoyed with him, the way he kept streaking back and forth. So accelerated had the Vongola's movements become that he began leaving wide streaks along the ground as he attacked, forming a pentagram-esque pattern. Again and again he struck, and again and again Alastor parried, only moving his body just enough to catch and repel the attacks.

Alastor nodded to himself, closing his eyes and sighing softly. This was not at all going as he'd expected. Slowly, he raised his arm into the air, and once again snapped his fingers. This time, however, instead of a benign soundwave, a blue-black distortion saturated the immediate area, expanding outwards like a nuclear explosion. So foreign was this phenomenon that it could only be described as unearthly, the blue-black energy racing outwardly in all directions. Eventually, the distortion came into contact with Cain's ring of flames... and blew it away, as if it'd never existed in the first place. Cain could do nothing but guard against the dark energy and look on in awe as his flames were annihilated.

Alastor lowered his hand, a look of disappointment fresh upon his face. "Don't tell me that this is the full extent of your abilities, King of Flames," Alastor exclaimed, his condescension rolling over the area like the waves of a hurricane. "Surely I did not travel all this way to fight a novitiate?"

Cain didn't understand what the man meant by novitiate, but the way it sounded made Cain feel like he was questioning his experience, which wasn't really odd considering he had no fighting experience. Though he still smirked, figuring that he might as well. He was not the type to fret over a situation, not the one to ever give up. If the man wasn't going to go down with his pentagram strike, then maybe he'd fall if he used his ace. "Okay buddy, let's see if you can withstand this," he said rolling once again around the man. Though, this time he was skating backwards. He once again made a circle of flame, but this time he jumped up to the air, spinning as if he were a figure skater. The flames followed his body and a circular barrier of sky flames twirled with him. It wasn't seen by the naked eye, but inside the circle he kicked out his right leg, flinging flame balls at his enemy. "Spitfire revolution," he called.

Alastor sighed once more at the boy's words. He surely had a smug enough hubris to be the legendary King of Flames, that's for sure. However, Alastor began to believe he'd appeared too early in the boy's timeline for him to be of any challenge. He saw before him not a mythical king, but an insolent child. He had to be insolent, to come at one such as Alastor and then have the audacity to miss.

Maybe he was just getting a little too old for these games.

The man closed his eyes, flowing around each ball of flame like a leaf in a gentle wind, his body moving to and fro in curt practiced strides. By the time the Vongola leader landed after flinging his spectacular attacks, Alastor had managed to close the distance between them.

He opened his eyes, leveling a somewhat disgruntled glower at the boy. "You disappoint me," he uttered, bringing his sword to bear. "You are no king of flames."

Cain's eyes grew large, their spunky edge replaced with a look of shock. That was the best thing he had and he couldn't even hit the guy with it. He was also letting the mans words creep into his very well being. There was no way he could fight this guy. That much had became apparent. Still, he tried his best to throw one more punch towards the man. Heavy thoughts were starting to put weight on his mind and chest. For once in his life, he felt further from the sky than he had ever been before.

Alastor's frown only deepened as the Vongola's Sky guardian came at him with his fists—like some common brute. After everything that had just transpired, this brat had the gall to challenge him in bare hand-to-hand combat? As if that would win it for him? Of everything, it was this that finally managed to vex the Rizzo boss. Of all brands and breeds of combat, it was melee in which Alastor excelled.

In fact, it had become his specialty.

Cain was within striking range, his fist bared, a look of final determination ingrained in his features. Taking a stance, Alastor made a wide lateral swipe with his weapon, passing the blade through the boy's midsection and up across the chest, its cold black edge exiting clean through the side of his neck, the movement as fluid as a fish through water.

Cain stopped his punch halfway, once again going into a slight shock at the blade passing through him. His eyes widened in the fear of knowing that at any moment, this man could have killed him if he desired it.

There was no blood, or even the semblance of a wound, but Alastor had gotten the reaction he'd been seeking.

With a single offhanded kick to the shin, he sent Cain fumbling forward, his skates grating and rasping across the ground like a beleaguered old man gasping for breath. The dissonance of it all brought a terse grin to Alastor's face. To him, Cain's noisy failure sounded like music. This boy was the diametric opposite of the historic figure that shared his namesake. Perhaps that man would never exist in this timeline.

A shame.

Alastor dismissed his box weapon with the flick of his wrist, using his newly free hand to assist the other in straightening his tie. The motion was two parts suave, one part robotic.

Being stirred off of his feet, Cain barely managed not to fall face first on the ground behind his opponent. Turning around, the boy gritted his teeth, angered at the fact that he was being toyed with. "Don't fuck with me," he yelled, once again charging his skates and using the friction to torque himself into a powerful roundhouse kick. Alastor watched unamused as the Vongola head's flaming foot came his way. His moves were too predictable for the experienced man to even want to lift a finger against them. However, if he were to play defensively with the kid gloves all day, he would not only prolong his mission, but also stretch the time he had to be in the presence of such a wanting fighter.

The truth was, Alastor had become hopelessly bored of this banality. He resolved himself to finish the fight quickly and leave the boy to wallow in his own misery. Cain's kick was directed at his face—something the man had seen far too many times before. It was an easy counter. In one swift but smooth motion, he raised his left arm to block the attack. On impact, he immediately slid that arm up the boys shin, placing a vice grip on his calf. Cain reacted as expected, with quick and forceful tugs in an attempt to escape the mans grasp, but it was to no avail. The man had him trapped.

Giving an irksome half-yawn, Alastor moved his right hand onto the boys thigh and yanked backwards, bringing his opponent further off balance. With his left arm still coiled around the boy's leg, he positioned his wrist so that the back of his hand rested on the side of Cain's knee cap. In that instant, Cain and Alastor met eyes, the moment spanning lifetimes. It was the Rizzo boss that moved first, raising his elbow and smashing it into the outward side of Cain's knee.

It snapped like a twig.

Alastor followed it with a rapid jerk to the side, snapping the appendage once more but in the opposite direction, staring the boy dead in the eyes the entire time.

"Agony," Alastor muttered, a malicious smirk worming its way onto his face as he unceremoniously released Cain from his vise. As the boy careened towards the floor, Alastor snatched at his wrist, grabbing him and summarily tossing him to the side, sending him to crash painfully to the ground, his skates doing him no favors.

Cain went into a frenzy of tormented screams as Agony took effect, causing the same sequence of painful events to replay themselves again and again and again, the pain just as explosive as if it'd happened for the first time.

Smash to the side of the knee. Snap. Jerk to the opposite side. Pop.
Smash to the side of the knee. Snap. Jerk to the opposite side. Pop.
Smash to the side of the knee. Snap. Jerk to the opposite side. Pop.

Even as Alastor walked away, his forearms returned to their positions folded behind his back in sage-like formation, Cain's suffering continued.

"Aaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! AaaHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" By this time, the boy was on the floor, tears streaming down his face as he writhed in sweet passionate torturous agony, his high-pitched screams filling the hall to the brim before he went silent completely.

To Alastor, even this—no, especially this—sounded like the most harmonious of musics. The Rizzo boss continued his unhurried pace, tossing a small twinkling object up and down in his hand as if it were a toy ball. Judging by the silence at his back, Alastor surmised that Cain had fainted from the agony of it all. Hah. After yet another toss, he caught the object between his index finger and thumb, eyeing it. It was the Vongola Sky ring alright. 100% genuine. Worn by ten generations of Vongola heads.

Until today.

The sight of the three Soras caught Keiko off-guard and she was even more surprised when she managed to stop one of the Sora's punches before the other two jumped forward to attack her with kicks, sending her backward against the caged ring. A deep growl emanated from within her throat as she glared at her adversaries.

'Three of 'em... Dis can only mean illusions. But they feel real.' she thought to herself, 'Too real compared tah dah Mist Flames...'

Leaping forward, her face set in a snarl, she swung out with a fist and a leg striking the two Soras that had kicked her.

The two Sora's were flung back on the ground. They quikcly hopped back towards their feet. "Ah, you're in rare form tonight Miyamoto. Come now Sora's, Chop Chop!" said Sora as he clapped his hands twice.

"TWO MORE SORA'S?!! Come on Champ! Handle this!" yelled the announcer; however, this time his voice started to seem more Sora-like that Keiko couldn't help but notice.

The five Sora's surrounded Miyamoto, "Guess I'll show you something new." Each Sora tightened their gloves on their hand. Each pair of gloves on every Sora begun to produce a unique flame type of the Vongola. Sky, Sun, Storm, Rain and Mist respectively. With this flame, Sora started to produce aspects of each flame type.

"Just hand over the ring" one said. "Save us the trouble Champ," commanded the other. "You're really pretty," said one blushing Sora. The other four stared at him with a look of shame, "Alright guys, roll out!," yelled one of the Sora's.

"HAH!" Keiko snorted, thumbing her nose before going back into her stance. "Dah more, dah merrier, rabbit. I'm gonna cut each one of ya down tah size, then I'll find dah real ya and then make sure ya can never have children."

The Sky flame Sora propelled himself shooting Sky flame from his hands, in midair he began shooting clusters of Sky flame at Miyamoto. Cluster for cluster, Keiko threw punch for punch, her upper body working like a machine, striking each Sky flame with her fists. When Storm Sora made both of his hands pointed like a hand gun which sent forth destructive bolts, Keiko did the exact same, punching the bolts. Which each punch, Keiko began to feel that the attacks were beginning to push her fists back, sending ripples across her skin from the impact.When the Sun and Rain fueled by their respective flames leap into close combat and sent a flurry of kicks and punches, she accepted the challenge they bestowed upon to her, only to finally realize the reason why she was losing so much ground.

Miyamoto Keiko's Sun Flames had been completely cancelled out. Punched and kicked all over by her enemies, she brought her body close together, trying to numb out the blows while she came to terms that her opponent's Sun Flame's Harmonic properties and Rain Flame's properties played a role, petrifying and then slowly eating away at her Sun flames, causing her to lose their strengthening properties and the regeneration. Angered that she was outsmarted by a mere rabbit, she roared and struck out at the Sun Sora, shattering her wrist with a punch that was way to strong for her body to handle. With that opening, she dodged the next punch from the Storm Sora.

Fueling her wrist with pure, concentrated Sun flames at an incredibly high release rate, a method she had concocted to help heal her most fatal wounds as soon as she could. As she rubbed the healing wrist, the Mist Sora moved his hands in a unique matter which produced a series of floating blocks, after moving his hands as if he was casting a spell, they were sent flying towards Miyamoto. Her fists went ablaze once more with higher intensity Sun flames, her state of mind beginning to enter a very feral, yet focused form, mimicking a predator hunting it's prey with only one objective: To Succeed. With great force and agility she surged forward, shattering each block with a swift jab while making her way closer to the Mist Sora and struck at him with multiple blows, ending it with an uppercut, straight into the air.

Done, she looked around her like a wild animal, her eyes holding a rather crazed look and a deep growl in her throat. Now focused, everything seemed clearer to her. Sight, smell, touch, hearing and even taste. The scent of the Flames became evident, although the hint of that odd smelling flame still seemed to emanate from somewhere. That must be the unknown flame this rabbit was using. Keiko hissed like a cat, her face forming an almost feline snarl.

Faintly, so faint that the sensitive Keiko dismissed it as imagination, a scream could be heard, a scream full of pain and agony.

"Ya're good, rabbit." she admitted, then bounded towards the Sky Sora, grabbing hold of his collar and aimed a fist at him in midair. "But even dah greatest hunters fall before predators!"

She punched, hell-bent on shattering the skull of this offender of the Vongola famiglia, this harmer of innocents, this proud hunter who thought he could take down the greatest predator of all.

All of the Sora's were lying on the ground hurt from Miyamota's fierce blows while the crowd went wild cheering. The unconscious Sora's then dissolved into thin air. *Clap, Clap* A slow clap came from the corner of the ring. Sora with an amused look upon his face walked slowly towards Miyamota, "Wow, honestly I'm impressed Miyamoto. You just don't tire out, do you?" He expected her to show signs of fatigue at this point, but she just kept going.

"Look over there," he pointed towards the audience, "You sure have kept them entertained for sure."

"Go get him Miyamoto!" "Knock her out Sora!" "Keep fighting!!!!" "Do it again!" yelled from all the directions of the audience.

In the audience, you can see hundreds of lively people sitting down, cheering, standing up, walking around; however, the strange thing about it was...they were all Sora's. There was a Sora walking around selling popcorn, hot dogs, drinks to other Soras. Some stood and cheered, others looked upset, and they all behaved as if they were a true legit audience. Keiko was briefly shocked back into her normal state of mind before this realization raised her eyebrows.

"You can do it champ!" a man with a coach-like apparel said from the sidelines near Miyamoto.

"You see Miyamoto in this space," he raised both of his arms. "This is my world and we can fight here for years until you're done," with both his hands raised fifty Sora's appeared and surrounded Miyamoto. They all produced a mixture of the Sun, Storm, Mist, Rain, and Lightning flame within in their gloves. They all had the same look in their eyes and stared directly at the Sun Ring around her neck.

'A space... his world...'

"You see Miyamoto, the Sun shines ever so bright; however, one day it'll explode, tire out in a sense. " he paused then continued, "And all that will remain is, the Stars"

'Stars...'

A golden star formed in every Sora duplicates eyes and begun shining. "Just know, ever predator will one day become the prey."

"Ah, it looks like they're all ready! This is your host Sora, and I'd like to say," he took a deep breathe that was heard through the microphone, "LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLEEEEE!!!!"

All of the Sora's got into a fighting stance, then begun to charge at Miyamoto from all sides. Miyamoto closed her eyes and breathed in, before letting out a loud 'swoosh' when she breathed out. The noise drowned out the rest of the sounds around her, the crowd cheering, the announcer, even the footsteps of the other Soras. She now knew what flame she was dealing with and the properties it possessed. She didn't know how, but she knew somewhere deep inside. That was all she needed to get out of this space. She laughed quietly to herself.

"Star Flames... properties of Perception, the master Flame of Illusions..." she drawled out, her surroundings beginning to fade in and out of focus, the Vongola HQ and Sora's Space beginning to fight for dominance over her senses.

One second she would hear people screaming in terror, the next she would hear Soras yelling and cheering. One moment she would see debris collapsing all over the HQ, then she could see Soras running towards her with gloves with different flames. She began to glow with Sun flames and a yellow glow was trailing along her eyes as she looked around. Suddenly, everything became slow.

"Hey rabbit." Keiko stared up at the lights above the ring, almost with a very relaxed expression. "Didja know? Dah Sun is dah strongest when it explodes, and it's also dah most beautiful moment in dah Sun's life span. It ain't tirin' out-"

And then, almost like the shattering of a mirror, her surroundings disappeared, sending her back to the HQ where she really was. Screaming and debris falling galore.

"-it just knows it's time for it tah destroy an entire solar system. That's why, it's called a Supernova."

Sora stood there covering his eyes with his left hand. Just before he was about to reach for the sun ring in reality, the bright light produced by it blinded him. His illusion had been completely demolished, a first for him. After regaining his composure, he looked up to see the falling debris and raining palla's around him, slightly disgusted. His own illusions was much better than seeing panicking people running and chaos erupting everywhere. Although Donovan's controlled palla's weren't harming people, the raining debris, panicking crowd,and the falling people that were getting trampled went against Alastor's 'No killing' commandment. 'Is it more important to get the ring? Should I keep attacking? Is it more important to save these people to preserve the timeline? But without the rings we can't save everyone, a few could die, the end justifies the means....right?' thought Sora as he contemplated his next move.

Staring at the carnage around her, she looked back at Sora. "I have no time for you now rabbit. I have innocents to help, a family to protect."

He snapped out of his train of thought with Miyamoto's words 'rabbit' causing him to instantly focus on her. He saw Miyamoto dash off to help people without a second though. For a second, he was about to dash back to her and continue his attempts to take the ring; however, in his sight he saw a piece of debris gradually falling towards a child lying on the ground. He fueled up his elemental gloves with the Storm flames, stuck out his right hand like a gun, and closed one eye. "I'm not a fan of harming the innocents myself Miyamoto," he said to himself out loud. *Bang* Three quick shots of disintegration storm flames were shot at the debris which dissolved them in midair. "Get up kid, hurry move that way!" he yelled. The child responded, hopped up and quickly begun moving. Sora glanced around and saw others in similar scenarios with the collapsing debris. He hopped on his skateboard, cruised around, and begun helping the people with their escape.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!!!" she could hear the scream that she had earlier dismissed as her imagination loud and clear now. It was-

"BOSS?!" she called out, her drawl replaced by something that Keiko considered concern. She looked around her with urgency as the screams continued for what seemed like eternity until it stopped.

"Tch!" Keiko surged around the HQ, lifting up rubble that were trapping some of the innocents that she could sense, all the while trying to find Cain.

After what seemed ages to her, but only minutes to everyone else, she saw him. Hunched up into a ball with someone in a suit standing with superiority over him and that glint in between the man's fingers...

"HAND IT OVER!" she growled, swiping at the Vongola Sky Ring and stood between the stranger and her incapacitated boss.

Fredrick stared at the boy Alastor for a moment, confused and unsure of what was happening.

”Fred, he’s one of the attackers!” came Serlina from his head.
Fred looked off to the side, catching glimpses of his friends locked in mortal combat. Shaji… Eri… Cain… Joel… Keiko… He looked back towards the kid in front of him. Then back towards his friends. Then back at the kid.

He did this several more times, his eyes becoming wider and wider until…

Fredrick turned on his heels and bolted, sprinting as fast as he could in the opposite direction of the kid and his hellish .

“Hey!” Alastor yelled after him. “Get back here and gimmie that ring!”

Fred looked over his shoulder to see the kid sprinting after him. For such a little guy, he was pretty dang fast. Fred kept running, diving forward once to dodge a flying red ball that whizzed overhead. The projectile spun away to smash into some poor light fixture (instead of his face). Next, Fredrick ran towards a Vongola hitman, dodging to the left at the last second.

“Excuse me!” He shouted, crossing one foot behind the other and executing a professional spin like a football player avoiding opponents on his way to the endzone. Looking over his shoulder, Fredrick noted that his pursuer also avoided the hitman, or, rather, the hitman avoided him, jumping out of the way at the last second.

Despite the Rain guardian’s best efforts, the kid seemed to be gaining on him. He managed to make it several meters past Eri, of whom seemed to be stuck in a daydream of some kind, before Alastor had gained enough ground to lunge at him, tackling him to the floor. They both crashed in a rolling tussle of hands and legs.

It was Fred who, thanks to his larger mass and superior height, came out on top, pinning his opponent to the ground with his arms and knees.

“I don’t wanna fight!” He said through haggard breaths, struggling to keep the boy pinned. “Come on!”

For a moment, Alastor stopped struggling, looking up at Fredrick with dire red eyes. The animosity the Vongola saw reflected back at him was so thick and ferocious that he flinched.

That’s when Alastor stabbed him in the arm.

“AH!” Fred yelped, pain exploding from his biceps as he stifled a scream. It felt as if someone detonated a grenade in his central nervous system. Alastor removed his Hour Hand from his enemy's wound, pulling back for another stab, but Fredrick removed himself from the situation, coming to his feet as quickly as he could. He gripped his upper arm with his other hand, blood trickling through his fingertips.

“Serlina,” Fred muttered through clenched teeth, “help!”
“Watch his weapon,” she responded, buzzing about his arm. “It has some odd properties about it.”
Fred took a step backwards, distancing himself from Alastor. “What?”

Serlina slapped at his Fred’s hand, wanting him to move it away from the wound so she could get a better look. “I couldn’t easily block it,” she said. “I tried.”

“Seriously?!” He said, his voice losing pitch I proportion to his depleting courage. “How do we get away from this pint-sized terminator?”

Alastor managed to pick himself up, coming to his feet and fixing his collar before levelling a dirty glare at Fredrick.

“I can hold the wound closed, so use your hands,” Serlina said out loud, hugging Fredrick’s biceps with her small body. “Just don’t get sliced again!”

“What?!” He said, backing away slowly as the boy Alastor advanced, weapon in hand like some horror movie serial killer. “Serlina!”

Fredrick was in full panic mode now. Sure, he could bring out his box weapon, but he didn’t want to hit a kid with it. And Serlina’s Rain flame shields weren’t effective against this crazy kid and his void-like flame.

Without warning, Alastor lunged at him yet again, weapon in hand.

"Crap!"

Fredrick may have been scared, but he was far from helpless. The moment he saw the blade coming at him, it was like something else took over. The sounds around him seemed to dampen as if he were wearing earmuffs, his vision tunneling, focusing on the weapon in the boy's hand. His thoughts dispersed as he took on a sense of complete mental clarity and acuity.

All that existed was him and the blade.

He dodged the vertical swipe easily, angling his upper body sharply to the left, twisting at the waist so that his shoulder and arm were out of harm's way. He felt a cooling sensation as the weapon passed by the side of his face and torso.

Without pause, Alastor pressed forward, this time making a wide, lateral swipe. Fredrick moved just as quickly, bowing forward at the waist and avoiding the attack yet again. He could hear the woosh of the blade parting the air just as much as he could feel the biting chill of the weapon as it passed over the back of his head. It was surprisingly cold, as if the flame itself was stealing the heat from his body. Swinging his upper body backwards, he used his momentum to dodge yet another strike, this one diagonal across the stomach.

“Fight back!” Serlina called out, still hugging his bleeding arm in an attempt to stem the flow of blood. Fredrick instantly ruled that out. There was no way he’d hit a child. “Don’t hurt him, just slow him down!” She didn’t have to read Fredrick’s mind to know what he was thinking. Fredrick’s eyes narrowed with renewed resolve. That’s right, I can just use the Rain flame! I can calm him down! Only problem was, there had to be physical contact in order for him to inject Rain flames.

Alastor lunged a third time, throwing himself at Fredrick like a rabid chimpanzee. That’s when Fredrick saw his chance. Gathering Rain flames in the palm on his hand, he rushed forward, meeting the unsuspecting boy half way, holding out his palm. Thanks to his own momentum, Alastor slammed into the Rain guardian’s outstretched hand, recoiling painfully, the Rain flames spreading throughout his entire body, his face contorted with astonishment.

But then he was gone, as if he’d never been there in the first place.

“Behind you!” Serlina shouted. Fredrick responded instinctually, surging forward with as much strength as he could muster. He spun around to see the boy Alastor with his blade jabbing the air right where his exposed back would have been.

“How…?” Fredrick began, but Alastor rushed him again. He knew he'd made contact with the boy... but now it was as if the hit had never happened. This time Fredrick grabbed Alastor’s forearm, attempting to wrench the weapon from his grasp, but then he disappeared once more. There wasn’t a single trace of him having existed. However, Fredrick was prepared for whatever trick this was. He shuffled forward and to the side, foreseeing another backstab attempt, but Alastor wasn’t there.

“Above!” Serlina called out.

Fredrick looked upwards just in time to see his opponent land feet-first on his face, the both of them collapsing to the ground. The first thing Fredrick did was attempt to grab Alastor’s forearm—the one with the deadly weapon in it—and he succeeded! Unfortunately, Alastor had a plan of his own.

“OUCH!” Fredrick yelled, pushing at Alastor with his free hand. The boy had sunk his teeth into Fredrick’s arm. He bit him. Hard. Fredrick twisted his arm, causing Alastor to both drop his box weapon and disengage from the Rain guardian’s flesh. The gunmetal-silver dagger clattered noisily to the ground.

Fredrick took this time to disengage entirely, hopping back several times and putting some daylight between himself and his opponent. He couldn’t believe that the kid had bit him, though looking at the teeth marks in his skin, at least there was no blood.

Fredrick’s heart went cold.

The ring wasn’t on his finger.

The Rain guardian looked over at Alastor, who was standing a meter or so away. The boy had the Vongola Rain ring in his fingers, and was smirking.

“I win! I win!” He called out, laughing.
“Give that back!” Fredrick yelled, holding out his hand demandingly. “Now!”
Alastor frowned, clenching his fist around the ring. “No!”
“Now!”
“NO!”

And so, Fredrick did the only thing he thought to do. The only thing he was really truly confident of. He ran.

He ran straight at Alastor, roaring like a madman. He wasn’t sure what he’d do when he reached the boy, but he ran at him anyway.

This startling maneuver seemed to frighten Alastor, because he stood there, shocked, like a deer in headlights. When Fredrick came within arm’s reach, the boy took off, running into the cloud of debris as fast as he legs could carry him. Fredrick gave chase.

“Give it back!” He shouted after him.



Hildegarde laughed out loud when the Mist Vongola disappeared. “You think illusions will work on me, probe?! You think you can escape?” She brought the first few fingers of her hand together, as if she were about to snap them. Her pure golden eyes widened, her voice becoming maniacal. “I’ll burn this whole fucking city to the ground before you get away with that ring!”

However, before she snapped her fingers and detonated the Quasar, something odd caught her eye. Someone was rushing towards her deadly cluster, running full tilt. Whoever it was, they were heading for a straight on collision with her miniature constellation of explosive candies. Hildegarde’s expression melted in horror when she caught sight of the runner’s face.

It was Alastor. Well, his younger image. If he crashed into her web of explosives, he’d set off the whole thing!

“Shit!”

Hildegarde made a panicked grasping motion with her hand, as if pulling back the rip cord on a lawn mower. Instantly, all of the floating candy pieces seemed to lose their otherworldly gravity-defying qualities, falling to the ground as harmless chunks of solidified sugar.

The boy Alastor seemed to note his mistake as well and attempted to slow himself, but only succeeded in tripping over his own feet, tumbling head over heels into what was just moments ago a deadly cloud of explosives, before regaining his footing. He flashed Hildegarde a look that was some part fear, some part thanks, and some part annoyance.

And then, as quickly as he’d come, he took off again, running back into the field of debris. Hildegarde watched him go, somewhat confused. And then she remembered.

That monster was still here. Hiding.

“Hmph. It looks like my cute little Alastor needs me, so I’m sure you won’t mind if I wrap this up quickly,” she announced in her deep accent to the empty air, pouring her remaining candies into her hand. “You can run, probe, butcha can’t hide.”

A scream ripped through the entire area. Hildegarde didn’t recognize the screamer, but she bet one of her Rizzo compatriots was undoubtedly the cause. Her smirk returned with a vengeance. She’d wanted to finish off her target Vongola first, but second place wasn’t so bad.

As long as she beat Donovan.

“Ooooh no no no.” She said it like a mother berating a child, wagging her finger. “You can’t hide. I don’t have time for hiding.”



By now, Fredrick had been chasing the ring thief for a little over five minutes. He’d heard a scream a few seconds earlier that'd rattled him to his core. It was Cain. It had to be. Fredrick picked up his pace, gaining on the boy who’d taken his ring as they bobbed and weaved through the minefield of scattered debris and downed innocents.

“Come back!” He shouted at the kid, trying to reach out and grab the collar of his suit jacket. “My friends need me! Give it back!”

Fredrick was not chasing the boy by his lonesome any longer. Several Vongola hitmen had joined the chase, and were following alongside Fredrick, guns in their hands, though the ring thief was moving too erratically and the cloud of dust and smoke was too thick for them to get a clear shot at him.

Not like Fredrick would have let them shoot the boy anyway.

Without the ring, Fredrick could slowly feel Serlina’s presence fading, though every time he looked for her, she was still hugging his upper arm, and would always give him a silent smile. She was hanging on as hard as she could, but Fredrick needed that ring back. Now.

This cat and mouse game managed to run across most of the auditorium, and they were now out of the debris and back into the clear light. Fredrick could see that the kid was tiring out. He wouldn’t be able to keep running for much longer. This seemed to invigorate Fredrick, who kicked up the gear, gaining even more ground on him.

“Get back here—”

Fredrick screeched to a halt, nearly bowling over the three or four Vongola hitmen that were following in his wake.

“Guardian, sir. Why did you stop?” One of them asked, his gun still aimed at the floor. Fredrick did not respond. “Sir?” The hitman asked again.

Fredrick simply stared ahead, a look of abject fear on his face. He took a shaky step backwards, and then another.

The hitmen all turned in unison, looking to see what Fredrick saw.

Little Alastor hopped over some debris on the floor as he kept running, yet Fredrick and his entourage did not give chase.

“C-c-c-cain?” Fredrick muttered, looking down at the debris on the ground. It wasn’t rock or plaster or broken floor tiles. That was Cain, the Vongola boss! He was sprawled on the ground… unconscious?... dead?...

Cain’s unmoving body was not what had caused Fredrick's initial hesitation. No, his flames, his senses, his being reacted to the man standing further out. The man had his back turned to Fredrick, but the ring thief Alastor ran up to him, hugging the man’s leg as if it were a life preserver and he were drowning in the open ocean. The man looked down at the child hugging his leg, though if he was smiling or frowning, Fredrick was too far to tell. To Fredrick's horror, Alastor opened his fist, presenting the man with the Vongola Rain ring.

Fredrick's ring.

In response, the man pat the boy on the head, mussing his hair.

One of the Vongola hitmen standing beside Fred seemed to notice the downed Cain for the first time and ran to him, checking his pulse. The others attempted to follow, but Fredrick held out his arm, blocking their way, still staring at the man's back. Something about him was just innately threatening to Fredrick, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

The boy Alastor, still hugging the man's leg, turned to stare back at Fredrick.

He poked out his tongue, giving Fredrick and his posse the finger.

In response, the Vongola hitmen brought their weapons to bear, aiming their guns at the man's exposed back. "DON'T MOVE OR WE SHOOT!" One of them shouted. "HANDS UP! SLOWLY!" Shouted another. "Did you hurt Cain?!" Fredrick himself shouted, his tone as demanding as it'd ever been. He felt emboldened by the big strong hitmen flanking him. Surely they all weren't in too much danger. "And give me back my ring, please! ... uh... Now! Yeah!"

In response, the man turned his head very very slowly, leering at Fredrick and the other Vongolas with fiery red eyes. For his part, Fredrick reacted visibly, his face becoming pale, as if he'd seen a ghost. Somehow, this guy's face looked familiar...

And then, out of nowhere, someone rushed in from the side, taking Fredrick and the others by utter surprise. Fredrick recognized her instantly.

"Keiko! Wait!" Fredrick yelled, reaching out with his hand, but it was too late. Far too late.

"HAND IT OVER!" She growled, coming within striking distance of her target. If the man noticed her, he didn't act like it. In fact, he continued to leer at Fredrick, and Fredrick continued to sweat bullets.

As Sora glided around on his skateboard assisting the escape of the Vongola attendees, he looked over and saw a painful sight. It was Cain, the Vongola Head, lying unconscious on the floor after what looked like a gruesome beating. Sora didn't even have to think to know who he fought, "Alastor" he said as he sighed. 'He didn't have to do all that, did he?' he thought.

He also saw that younger Alastor poke his tongue out and give 'the finger' to the Fredrick, the Vongola of Rain. That little brat ended up getting a ring before me? Little bratty as- thief.' In the past, younger Alastor made it a habit to take things, specifically for Sora his skateboard. He was never forgiven for the time he broke it.

Not far off from the Alastor's was Miyamoto, she was in an angered state within striking range of him. 'I can already see where this is going.'

"HAND IT OVER!" She yelled while he blatantly ignored her.

Sora cringed hearing her yell at Alastor while Alastor didn't even acknowledge her presence. 'She has no idea what she's getting into.' Sora pictured Miyamoto with her legs broken and backwards while her arms being left out of place, lying on the ground with both Alastor's merely chuckling at the sight. 'I'd prefer her not to end up like broken legs over here,' Sora thought, 'I guess I'll intervene, for her sake.'

"Hi-ho, Silver! Away!" he yelled like an old school western cowboy on his skateboard. He jetted off in the direction towards Miyamoto and Alastor. He hand both of his hands formed like mini-handguns, and jumped up off the ground with his skateboard over Miyamoto. While upside down in midair, he shot storm flamed bolts around her entire body as warning shots instead of hitting her directly. He landed in between the Alastor's and Miyamoto, pointed his left palm open as if he was signaling her to stop at Miyamoto and produced a lightning flame from his gloves. The current could be seen floating around his hands while he held an extremely serious look upon his face.

"You don't want to go any further, trust me," he said. He held the serious tone in his voice then said, "Look-a mon. Don't ya need tah heal-lah Cain? He will die-ya if yah don't use dah Sun fire." His atrocious accent was a pun at mocking how the Miyamoto sometimes spoke.

"Unless you'd rather have Cain be cripple for the rest of his life?"

It wasn't the miracle Ai had predicted, though it was probably better than what Ai had in mind. Ai had very little freedom of movement, so she wanted to distract Hildegarde while she trapped her by surprise. Ai was just about to grab Hildegarde when a scream echoed throughout the room. Cain's, the Vongola boss's scream. Ai's focus turned immediately toward asserting his safety, but there was no way she'd be able to do so with Hildegarde after her. She wasn't likely going to be distracted by an illusion again, yet another distraction had to be all Ai needed. "Uploading deathperation materialization data," she muttered, presenting a box out of her sleeve.

Injecting Mist flames out of her ring into it, Ai summoned a tree-sized creature out of the box weapon consisting of indigo-colored tentacles and beast-like eyes that dotted all around the thick rope-like mass. Each and every single one glared at Hildegarde. Nebbia di Malocchio, the evil eyes of the Mist. A box weapon based on a specific ring of special craftsmanship that was known by the mafia as a "Hell Ring". The origins of such rings are likely old enough to go back to the time of the Ancestors whom first crafted deathperation flame devices. That particular ring's craftsmanship was the responsibility of the one whom first conceived of Ai's type, the Malocchio as some humans have called them. This particular box weapon was meant to consist of multiple artificial Malocchio of which were fueled upon flames rather than human bodies. Consisting of multiple Malocchio meant it consisted of multiple minds fused as one which created a superbrain, a supercomputer of which Ai could use whenever needed. It couldn't understand many of the things Ai could, of course, as it would have required a large input of flames and a large amount of time to remain materialized to completely comprehend exactly what it even was, so it was merely used for complicated mathematics of which Ai would have trouble computing on her own, such as mapping out the multiverse. Of course, because it was fueled by flames, it craved them and could easily be used as a box weapon for combat, where it would seek out flames and consume them, and had no problem draining them from the source. After all, it wished to have enough power to comprehend on its own, just as any infantile Malocchio or even the entirety of her kind for that matter, did.

Hildegarde frowned at the beast before her, its unseemly shape and stature bested only by its misshapen monstrous eyes. Several options occurred to her simultaneously as she went over potential maneuvers in her head. She could use the remainder of her candies and recreate the Quasar. Hildegarde shook her head. No, no. It'd be uncouth to unleash such an amazing move twice in one fight. Maybe she'd just blow it to bits with a Nade, like she did to the stage when she first attacked. Hmm. Nah.

After a few moments of deliberation, one option stood out above all the others—not for its practicality, but because of how much of a mess it might make, and how fun it'd be to use. Her frown lessened at the thought.

Suddenly, the beast charged her, its tentacles fanning out like the digits of some massive unholy hand. Hildegarde reacted tactfully, dodging the initial assault using what remained of the stage as cover while she prepared, carefully pouring her spare candies from her dominant right hand into her left. She followed by popping one of the candies into her mouth, crunching it between her teeth. With her dominant hand free, she made a fist.

When the tentacles finally found her again, their deformed eyes swiveling to glare at her crouched form, she simply stood, revealing herself.

"Spitfire," she muttered, the word butchered by her full mouth. Without wasting another second, Hildegarde angled her head towards the ceiling and opened her mouth, spitting several fragmented pieces of candy into the air. The flame-infused fragments caught fire immediately, burning with an incandescent maroon hue. Like little rockets, they took off in all directions. In response, the innumerable eyes of the box beast began to swivel and shift in tandem with their various trajectories, as if attracted by the miniature fireballs.

Hildegarde wiped the spittle from her mouth with the back of her sleeve, watching her pretties go to work on the beast. The inflamed candies swirled around the beast for a few moments like fireflies in the wind before angling their trajectories and colliding with the flame-hungry beast, exploding upon impact. The resulting shock waves kicked more dust and dirt up into the air, creating a foggy haze.

Hildegarde raised her clenched fist to her face, kissing the tops of her knuckles. If one were to look closely, they'd notice off-red hairline fissures forming along the skin of her fist, traveling down to her forearms. Her entire arm began to vibrate ever so slightly. With the creature and its tentacles sufficiently distracted by the explosion and blinded by the cloud of dust, Hildegarde surged forward, fist bared, rapidly ascending a piece of rubble that jutted out of the ground like a ramp. WIth one powerful leap, she rocketed into the foggy unknown, piercing the cloud of dust like a missile, airborne, headed straight for the beast. All of its eyes pivoted immediately, focusing on her, but it was too late for all that.

"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" She roared, her body angled like a crescent moon, her stomach out, fist held up behind her ear, other arm out in front of her, body twisted somewhat at the midsection. Within her eyes lied a frightening madness, an exhilarated fury. She enjoyed winning. She enjoyed pleasing Alastor. But most of all, she enjoyed making things explode—especially for Alastor.

"Haaaaaaaaw!" Hildegarde twisted her body as much as she could in the last instant, using her forward momentum to its fullest in delivering a devastating punch straight into the middle of the creature's unsightly mass. For a moment, nothing happened. Hildegarde remained in her stance, landing elegantly, fist still out before her as the dust cleared. Then, suddenly, she hopped back a few steps. Once. Twice. Three times, distancing herself from the creature.

And then it exploded in a fiery crescendo that bathed the immediate area in slime and singed creature-parts. The resulting resonance rocked the entire building to its foundations, further weakening the integrity of the structure.

Hildegarde pivoted on her heel, turning her back just as the explosion occurred, fist once again raised, the tails of her dress flapping in the artificial wind. "Infinite Mass Punch," she said in her usual drawl. "God damn I'm good."

Ai payed no mind to the loss of her box weapon, as box weapons repaired themselves easily. Whether Hildegarde attacked her again or not once she was noticed, Ai didn't care. Her priority was Cain's safety. She approached Cain as the others were harassing the Alastors and crouched over him to examine his health. However she could tell, she could tell he was alive and with medical treatment, he could be healed. The shock might have been worse than the injury, it seemed. However, it wasn't likely that Sun flames alone were going to heal him entirely. Ai stood back up and turned to look at the two Alastors, mainly at the older one whom threatened her earlier and was in possession of Cain's ring. Keiko, however, cut in and attempted to take the ring back from him. "HAND IT OVER!"

On the other side of the room stood Hildegarde, still in pose. When she was satisfied that the explosion had ended, she turned, facing the fruits of her destructive power. There was a small crater where the ugly creature once existed. "Hmph." Though she hoped that the explosion had taken out the body snatching invader and its hostage mind slave, she didn't get her hopes up. The probe and its ring were not her primary concern any longer.

Hildegarde dropped a piece of candy onto the floor, crushing it underfoot. Many of the fragments became lodged in the grooves at the bottom of her shoe, as was her intention. Suddenly, the ground below her feet exploded in a glorious blaze of maroon-red flames. She slowly began to lift off from the ground like a space shuttle launching for the first time. And then she darted upward, the Quasar flames emanating in controlled bursts from the candy stuck to the backside of her shoe. She was higher now than she was when she stood above the balcony, which ironically lay behind her. She was now overlooking the entire auditorium, scanning carefully, hand on her forehead as a makeshift visor.

That's when she saw her Alastors, surrounded by these primitive lifeforms and their pathetic excuse for weapons.

Disgusting.

Hildegarde brought her knees close to her chest, rolling in the air. Right before she lost her balance and dropped, she extended her legs and blasted off, Quasar flames exploding outwards with such ferocity that they melted what remained of the upper balcony. She zipped across the hall in a matter of seconds, landing so hard that she cracked the tiling underneath her feet. She was standing mere inches away from a girl—one of the Vongola ring bearers by the look of her, though her back was turned to Hildegarde, so she wasn't entirely sure. Not that it mattered.

The girl had midnight blue hair cut to neck length, and was slightly shorter than Hildegarde herself. She liked that. On the other side of the girl was someone she knew quite well. Sora. Hildegarde gave him the oddest stare, one that was incomprehensible even to her. All that she knew was that this Vongola girl was far faaaaaaar too close to Alastor.

She didn't like that. Not at all.

Hildegarde leaned forward slightly so that her lips were less than an inch from the girl's ear. "If you value your fucking life," she began, her tone as even and cool as a mid-autumn night. "You'll step the fuck off."

When the man was ignoring her, the proud panther had geared up for a pounce, to rip this person to shreds for messing with her cubs; her boss as well as the timid, peace-loving Rain guardian, whom she regarded as the runt of the litter. Even then, the runt needed protection.

"Hi-ho, Silver! Away!"

The all-too-familiar(and now increasingly annoying, since she had listened to a million of them back in the Star space) voice was accompanied by Storm bolts that caused Keiko to retract her claws and back away, snarling at the skateboarder. She glared as Sora landed in between the man and child, and her, his left palm open like a peaceful notion before producing a lightning flame from his gloves. The current could be seen floating around his hands while he held an extremely serious look upon his face.

"You don't want to go any further, trust me," he said. He held the serious tone in his voice then said, "Look-a mon. Don't ya need tah heal-lah Cain? He will die-ya if yah don't use dah Sun fire." His atrocious accent was a pun at mocking how the Miyamoto sometimes spoke.

The mockery wasn't amusing to the rage-filled Sun Guardian.

"Unless you'd rather have Cain be cripple for the rest of his life?"

"Ya're talkin' tah ME about goin' too far?!" she snapped, before motioning around her. "WHEN YA'LL DID THIS?! AND FER WHAT? FER A BUNCHA RINGS I RECKON! THEN YA SHOULDA COME FOR US AND ONLY US!"

She spat, the stray liquid managing to splatter itself over the suited man's nice shoes.

"Dah Vongola Boss is young, but he ain't as weak as ya'll make 'im tah be, dah Vongola healers will handle his injuries. Mah Sun flames don't heal others." she glared at Sora, then pointed at the man in the suit. "Mah Sun flames WILL END YA foh what ya have done."

As if a statement, the finger she pointed the man with went ablaze with the highest intensity Sun flames Keiko had ever produced, almost as if it were a representation of her anger, the flames flaring out wildly.

Hildegarde leaned forward slightly so that her lips were less than an inch from the girl's ear. "If you value your fucking life," she began, her tone as even and cool as a mid-autumn night. "You'll step the fuck off."

As a retort, she turned around to stare at the woman, "Bitch, if YA value yar fucking life, ya'll get in line first."

She turned around to stare at the suited man again. "He's first on dah list foh what he's done tah mah Boss."

Donovan appeared beside Hildegarde. He could always tell when she was in the throws of a passionate full-on episode, which she apparently was in at the moment. Again. She probably didn't even notice him appear, but that was okay. Donovan ran his hand through his hair, sighing. He didn't zip up here to see her anyway.

"You shouldn't lie in front of me," came a voice over Donovan's shoulder. One he immediately considered cocky and full of pomp. "Move."

Donovan turned, flashing the guy a smile. Yeah, this was definitely his target alright. The only thing on Donovan's mind now was how to make these next few minutes the most interesting they could possibly be. Perhaps a speed contest is in order? The very thought caused the Asteroid guardian to snicker. Speed to an old guard Vongola flame was something straightforward. A to B. Slow to fast. But to Donovan? To the Asteroid? Speed was a commodity, to be bought and sold like livestock. Speed was not his domain. It was his servant. It genuflected in front of the alter of Donovan.

No, acceleration. That was the domain of the Asteroid.

Without so much as a witty rebuttal, Donovan simply watched as the Vongola's speediest Lightning guardian ever zipped away, appearing several meters up in the air. He imagined the guy hitting his head on the ceiling and chuckled softly. This was going to be fun.

Joel reappeared, feet on the ceiling and his body hanging upside down as if he were some sort of vampire. He looked past the boy and saw the woman he was targeting headed towards Shaji. He gave no thought to it other than the fact that it had became her battle now, which only meant one thing. The boy below him with the nonchalant grin was his person of interest. His enemy to fight. Staring at the kid now with bored eyes, he wondered how he would fight him. It wasn't his intention to hurt a kid, but, if he was as dangerous as he thought, Joel would have to do something at least. He did have to admit, fighting a boy was much better than fighting a girl.

Moving his arms wide out in a motion that didn't really seem to do anything, he flashed once more, appearing next to the boy and resting his hand gently on the boy's shoulder. "I don't think you want this. I'll give you a couple counts to reconsider. This is one." The words flowed from his mouth like instructions, almost in comparison to how a teacher would warn their students.

Donovan made a face, his mouth contorted as if in pain, his lips puckered in the shape of an O. It looked as if someone punched him in the gut.

"Ooooooooooooooh," he began, deepening his voice, "snap!" His countenance immediately corrected itself, his face once again radiating self-confidence. "I believe that's how they complimented such charming and elegant gentlemen when they delivered surreptitious insults in this time, right?" He didn't wait for a response, instead nodding to himself, his toned underlined with contempt. "Mmm. Anyways, so this is how we play, Joel." He put his hand on Joel's, attempting to rattle the Vongola by saying his name. It was not a friendly gesture. "Hmm. How about..." He scratched his chin a bit. "Oh! If you can tag me ten times before one of your friends screams, I won't take your ring. But if you can't..." The grin left Donovan's face for just this one moment, leaving the boy with an expression of deadly sincerity and a voice to match. He stared Joel dead in his eyes before continuing.

"I get to kill one."

He paused for but a moment, taking time to grin again, his voice returning to its upbeat normal. "Kay?! Sounds like fun, right? Here, I'll even do you one better." He gave Joe's hand a pat with his own, his voice as upbeat and happy-go-lucky as a kid's in a candy store. "As a handicap to you," he said, wagging his finger in Joel's face, "I'll let this here hand of yours count as tag number one."

Joel looked suspiciously at the boy when he spoke his name, but didn't speak on it. It was something he wouldn't forget though. Once the boy put his hand on his, he was about to count off another number, but was interrupted by the boy's weird words. While most people might have reacted poorly or threw a tantrum over the words, Joel chuckled and smirked. "That actually sounds pretty interesting," he said. "I doubt any of the others would die to someone like you, but if you win, I'll let you try your hand at them. However, it won't be easy to escape me." Joel stepped away from the boy. "Okay kid. Start running I guess. As a handicap to you, I'll count to five before I start chasing." Joel dropped his smirk, but kept his eyes on the boy, wandering just how fast he could go to think he could escape lightning.

For just a microsecond, a dash of red hot anger colored Donovan's otherwise clear amber eyes. It wasn't something that was noticeable. "Dang beeotch," he said, rolling his neck and artificially raising his voice. "You're da bomb! All that and a bag of chips!" He returned to a serious tone, leaning towards Joel, the back of his hand next to his mouth as if he were about to tell the Vongola guardian a juicy secret. "I've done some research on the primitive speech patterns of this time," he muttered. "I'm doing well, aren't I?" He burst out laughing, holding his stomach. "Okay, but seriously. Let's start."

In the time it would take a human being to blink, Donovan reached his hand out as if to a lover. In that very same instant, one of his bouncing palla came to him, slamming into his open palm with enough force and momentum to shatter a football player's entire body, yet Donovan didn't even flinch. He simply stared Joel in the face, smiling. After a moment, the seemingly frenetic and destructive iron-core palla fell to the balcony, lifeless and robbed of its former color, like a bird whose wings had been clipped.

Donovan began to glow ever so slightly. "Here we g—!"

The Asteroid guardian disappeared without a trace.

Watching the boy disappear, Joel wondered if he should actually give chase to the lad. If he were really the type of person, he would have just forgot about him and went to help one of his fellow guardians with their fights. Though, he thought about it for a moment, realizing that everyone is entitled to their own. Maybe this would be a test for him as well. He counted down the remainder of times he had to tag the kid, and also how many more warnings he would actually give him. It sounded about right. "Nine more then," he whispered to himself, closing his eyes. It would have been a cinch for him to see something moving at high speeds, since he-himself could do so, but it seemed like too much of a hassle to waste that ability. The more he knew about his enemy, the better, and the less his enemy knew about him, all the same. Closing his eyes, he listened. He listened past the crunching sound of debris and the yelling of distant people. All he wanted to focus on was the wind. Something he had realized in his training, was that moving at certain speeds causes a sound distortion in the wind. Of course, when one moves as fast as a bullet, the naked ear can't connect. However, with training, one can hear a bullet as it zips past. The human body was no different. "Phase one."

Upon the words being spoken from his mouth, he disappeared as he always had, though, this time, he left not only green flames, but a small electrical current too. He only opened his eyes to look where he was going. The rumors about moving a certain speed were mostly lies, at least at the speed he was going. At Phase one Joel saw things as fast as they came, though he was trained to react to them. Once he heard the change in wind he reached his hand out, only extending a finger, and once he saw his target he made sure to only barely tap the back of him. As soon as it happened he ended the phase completely, standing on top of one of the Vongola statues, looking forward in no intended direction. He had decided to give it a moment, to see if the chase was still on, or if he would stop. Either way, Joel noted- the boy had eight more chances left to surrender.

"Hey!" Donovan called up to his playmate. "Nice one!" Donovan was lying on the upper shoulder of the same Vongola statue, using it as a hammock. To any onlooker, it would seem as if Donovan had been there the entire time, judging by his relaxed demeanor, and not that he'd just arrived a split second after Joel. "Ya got eight left. Don't miss!"

Once again, Donovan reached his hand out and was again met by one of his bouncing palla, the iron-core ball slamming into his open palm. Instantly, the palla fell back to the earth like a rock, colorless.

Again, Donovan disappeared.

A faint curve almost formed in Joel's mouth upon the boy's demeanor. It had been awhile since he was able to play a game of any sort and he had to admit, he sort of missed those days. He even began to feel bummed out that there were only eight more times left in their game. He had decided to enjoy himself while he had the chance, since it wasn't like he had any other option. This time, instead of trying to hear the boy, he wanted to see if he could lay his eyes upon him instead. What he saw, made him decide to take more mental notes. He was able to spot the lad. However, it seemed the more he followed him with his eyes, the harder it became. One could compare it to watching the wings of a fan move and accelerate with each pull of the chord. "Phase one," he spoke again before disappearing. This time, it wasn't a quick catching up, but instead a long stride, almost as if both were going normal speed and Joel was trying to lessen the space between them. He even had to stop and gain footing on something so he could push off of it to increase his momentum. It was weird indeed. Just how fast could the kid go? Joel was willing to find out. As he bounced off the starboard wall and headed in a diagonal to intercept the actual area where the kid was headed he let that curve sink in and formed an actual smile. Making it the second he had on his face all night. It didn't feel like much, maybe because they were both almost going the same speed, give or take, but Joel managed to flick the back of the boy's neck. Skin contact counted to him especially. If it had been his clothing it would have been another thing, but he was happy to mark another number off. Two rounds of tag finished and it wasn't even a minute yet, and from the looks of it, the rounds and the young men were going to keep getting faster and faster. "You're pretty fast. I might have to cheat. Hehehe."

Donovan turned on his heel, eyeing his chaser and rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. That flick smarted a bit, but Donovan maintained his goofy grin. "Oh wow, you're faster than I thought!" He said, spinning on his heel to face forward. Two palla hurdled through space towards him, but instead of catching them in his palms like before, Donovan simply hopped atop them as if they were stepping stones, using the last one as a platform to accelerate across the room, almost daring the Vongola to chase him. Like the others, the palla themselves fell to the floor, robbed of their color, momentum, and flames.

This back and forth continued between the Rizzo and the Vongola for several minutes, Joel managing to tag Donovan and Donovan responding by depowering yet another palla. Finally, Joel tagged Donovan for the seventh time, tagging him on the shoulder. This time, however, Donovan did not react, choosing instead to keep things moving.

The boy kept on getting faster and Joel was already about to use his third phase. If the kid were to go any faster, he'd probably have to give up on his end. Either that or figure out a new plan of attack. It seemed like the words were left behind a while back as the two were still traveling, out of the sight of the naked eye. Midway through, Joel realized that the boy was going much faster than his phase 2. Faster than intended. "Phase....Threeeee," he said in a strained voice, snapping his fingers and zipping around, leaving a thunderous sound in his going and bring a cracking sound in his coming. He seemed to almost touch the boy, but he kept on missing. It always seemed like he was just a hair away each time.

Non-stop he continued the chase, reaching the edge of the phase the longer he moved. He was starting to wonder if he would even have a chance of catching the kid this round, but subsided. He could always go faster if he wanted to. He could always go to the next phase, but, for some reason, he felt held back. It pained him to hold back. Lightning wasn't the type of flame to be caged in easily. If he kept it up any longer, the odds were, well, he didn't even know, but it hurt enough to feel as if something bad would happen. "Phase..... three point five." His body created a ring of electric waves, making him look as if he was a spark wire. It wasn't long that he could hold this extra boost, but luckily enough it pushed him forward. So fast in fact that he whizzed over the boy's head, managing to get his finger to slightly graze the top of his head.

Not able to stop his momentum, he flipped around to crash down on a wall. Though he landed feet first, as soon as he hopped off, the wall began to fissure and soon implode. The only thing left on the man's mind, was how he was going to catch the boy a two more times without killing himself. He had to relax and think about his next move. He didn't want to use his next phase, but at the same time he didn't want to hold back the lightning flames building up either. Though he was in deep thought, he kept his eyes towards the wall before disappearing once more.

Donovan appeared next to Joel as they zipped around the room. "I'm surprised you managed to get to eight, old man," he laughed, pointing. "Was it hard?"

Joel grinned. "I wouldn't think I was that old, but yeah, crashing into that wall was pretty hard."

"I mean, you tagging me for the eighth time. Was it hard?" Donovan didn't wait for a response. "I know it was," he smirked. "Have you noticed it yet?" Again, he did not wait for a response. "No, you probably didn't." Donovan caught another of his palla, sucking the flames from it like a vampire, eyeing Joel the entire time. "I haven't really been going all that much faster, ya know." Donovan pointed at his opponent. "You've just been going slower. Every time you touch me, old man, you touch my flames. They stick to you like mud... they can speed you up," he began, infusing the now colorless palla with his Asteroid flame. The palla burst back into variegated life, blasting away like a bullet. "... or, like in your case, they can slow you down. If you somehow manage to tag me again, I don't think you'll ever be fast enough to make it to ten!" He said, holding his stomach while he laughed raucously.

"I've been quickly replenishing what I inject into you by catching my palla, but I haven't really been going any faster! Get it?!" Donovan clenched his fists, his expression and tone of voice becoming serious. His flame output became visible, like a fierce red aura that surrounded him where before there was nothing. "I bet you wanna see what happens when I actually go faster." He clenched his teeth, knowing full well that he was as unstoppable and cataclysmic as an asteroid hurtling through space. "Try to keep up."

Joel's eyes gave a hint of surprise when he was told he was going slower. It seemed, maybe using the fourth phase wasn't as dangerous as he had thought, since he might have been able to control it better. Though, that was big might. "I see," he said, giving a no harm no foul type of shrug. "So you've been a little trickster this whole time. Impressive. You've managed to slip something past my senses. You and your lot seem to be able to do that to me. This whole event.... heh. It's like you know how I think or something." Of course most of Joel's words were to himself as the boy had disappeared. Joel could still follow him with his ears, but by the sound of it, he probably wouldn't catch up on his feet. Of course he still tried to anyway. The boy impressed him even more. It was as if he was alter-imaging inside of their little speed world. He was on a whole other playing field than Joel could currently reach. However Joel had a different plan in mind. Slowing down to a stop, he closed his eyes and began moving his arms in a dance of motions. He seemed to be doing some kata of some kind, though whatever it was had no name to it. He ended by spreading his arms out and slowly moving them down. Once again he listened to the sound of the wind, looking for all possible directions it could go. With a snap of his fingers he summoned a metal lance and threw it at an unknown location, only to disappear and arrive at his destination. The lance had missed the boy by 0.23 seconds. Though, it got what Joel needed from it. "Distortion Phase mode," he mumbled, before disappearing and traveling to another point. He traveled to different points, all randomly. He wasn't even following the sound of the wind anymore, but this time, just cause and effect. Soon he arrived somewhere and stuck his finger out, just in time to have it crack upon the boy's unsuspecting chest. He kept his face straight through the pain, but regretted not throwing out his hand instead immediately.

"Hmmm. The web the spider sows to trap it's prey. Hehe. You're not the only one who's been hiding things. These weapons of mine are each connected to the electromagnetic field my body creates. Usually they circle around me without my will sometimes. Though, because I don't think I could tag you like that, I had them stay in one part of the room. All the way from the time I was upside down I suppose. Though, I'm kinda spent. I don't really feel like playing anymore, nor do I feel like showing you anymore of my abilities. I'm more than smart enough to know when I'm being tested. Tell me, was it always your goal to see how far I could go, or am I just imagining things?"

Donovan looked down at his chest, his grin now a faint shell of its former glory. He'd stopped on a dime, using his own flames to negate his gathered momentum and cancel it out completely. He saw Joel's finger less than a millimeter away from his chest. Though the effort of his sudden stop may have displaced the wind around him with enough force to push against the Vongola's outstretched digit, it hadn't actually touched him... but he'd come close. Too close.

Looking around, Donovan took note of his surroundings. He must've still been moving in some sort of... something. To be honest, he was somewhat confused. He hadn't read about this move in the history books. Then again, he didn't read the books at all. Or really pay attention during the briefing. He was going purely off of Trevor's stories and not much else. Donovan shrugged internally. Oh well, should make things a bit more fun, anyway.

Donovan returned his eyes to Joel, his smile returning. "Yeah, you're right," he said, dusting some imaginary dirt off of his shoulder. "I was told by a dear friend of mine that you were the fastest Vongola to ever live. I had to put that to the test." He angled his head to the side, a quizzical expression overcoming his face. "So, uh, why did you throw that thing at me again?"

Joel dropped his grin and sighed, realizing that he was basically talking to a kid in Cain and Fredrick's age group. "Man. I just told you. Maybe I should explain more. Throwing the lance of Izanagi made it so you would slightly change your direction, limiting the amount of times I have to zip around to catch up to you.... and I kinda wanted to hit you with it, but I'm glad I didn't. Good job. Hehe. Though, as for why it had to be the spear of Izanagi, it's because it's the fastest thing I can through. I mean look at this," Joel pulled out one of his weapons from the spinning circle. "You think I'ma throw a gun at you? Hahaha."

Donovan laughed with him. He kinda liked this guy, and not just because he was a speedster. Still had to take his ring though. You know, higher cause, saving the human race, all that stuff.

Suddenly, a wave of pressure ripped through the entire area. After a while, Donovan recognized it as a scream, the sound waves palpitating across their space in slow motion. It was Donovan's turn to sigh, scratching the back of his head. "Here we go," he muttered.

"What the?" Joel gasped noticing the voice. "Shit, Cain. Looks like I really won't be able to play with you anymore kid. Stay back. This is the final warning." Not knowing if the kid was going to get in his way or not, he decided to use his fourth phase to escape. Whether the boy actually listened to his warning was entirely up to him, though it was for his own good. Joel flashed one final smile before saying, "It was good playing with you, boy. Next time I'll be sure to get your name.

"Game isn't over yet, old man," Donovan winked, but he wasn't sure if Joel was paying him much attention.

"Phase four," Joel said. With a snap of his finger, a lightning bolt crashed down upon him and he disappeared completely, leaving no signs of his existence. That was, until a second bolt struck not to far away, landing him right next to Cain. He looked over at Cain with weary eyes and shook his head. "Damn Cain. What did you do to deserve this?"

He looked over and saw Ai not to far away from the body. With another glance he peeked at Fred who had obviously lost his ring as well. He couldn't help but to sigh in reaction. Though he wanted to tell the boy to stop his actions, there were other matters that needed attention at the moment. He looked over Cain seeing his leg was in pretty bad shape. With a break like that, the blood could clot up causing him to permanently loose ties with it. Bending over his leg and laying his hand on it, he shot and electrical current through the boys leg, stimulating the muscles. Cain winced for a second before relaxing back into his slumber. He overheard Keiko yelling in a fit of rage at the group in front of her. It consisted of the boy whom he had seen before and a man who looked oddly like he could be related to the kid. He also saw one kid talking back to her and a woman who was yelling. The whole place was in complete chaos and it seemed the only two who were calm at the moment was Joel and the other man. Looking him in the eyes, Joel almost saw a reflection of what was a hardened warrior—someone who was used to fighting. He gathered that he was the one who got to Cain.

"Ya're talkin' tah ME about goin' too far?!" she snapped, before motioning around her. "WHEN YA'LL DID THIS?! AND FER WHAT? FER A BUNCHA RINGS I RECKON! THEN YA SHOULDA COME FOR US AND ONLY US!"

Sora tuned out her yelling and focused on the task at hand. 'Geez, just back up already!' he thought. Miyamoto snorted as if she was about to spit. 'No, she wouldn't.' As if it was a slow motion movie scene, he watched the spit fly from Miyamoto's mouth. 'Oh Shi--!" he yelled unable to stop the spit from landing on Alastor's shoes. He stood staring at Miyamoto thinking, [i]'What have you done! I'll get in so much trouble for this!'

The younger image of Alastor noticed the glob of spittle as well, and watched it collide with his elder self's otherwise impeccable business shoes. He took a step back from his elder self, and then another, and another. Though he was quiet, you could tell by the look on his face what was going through his head: oooooooh, you're in trouble!

For his part, the elder Alastor turned his attention away from the black-haired Vongola boy and his squeamish demands for his ring, casting a look down at his bespattered shoes, and then back at the girl—the Vongola Sun Guardian. His expression was of a pure neutrality, honed by power and tempered by several decades of experience. His eyes glistened like melted pennies. Whole universes were born, collapsed, and died in those eyes.

Slowly, deliberately, Alastor raised his hand, fixing the blathering Vongola girl with an intense stare. Behind her stood Hildegarde, grinning. The Quasar guardian took a step back in tandem with Alastor's younger image. This Vongola was about to find out that she'd poked the wrong bear.

Suddenly, Alastor brought his hand down upon Sora's shoulder. Alastor's cold, but firm grip caused a jolt to run ra up Sora's spine as if you ran ice up his entire body. "Hehe..." were the only word's he could muster knowing it was Alastor who stood behind him.

"The Sun ring is your responsibility, Sora, not mine." Alastor maintained eye contact with the Sun guardian, despite his conversation with the Star. His voice was cool and calm, completely lacking in hostility, yet it was firm, and left no room for response. "I don't want to have to handle this for you."

Sora closed his eyes and gave a long deep sigh. He has always despised Alastor's methods of 'handling' their enemies; however, with Alastor, Hildegarde, and the devil's brat spawn from hell known as 'little' Alastor watching, he had no choice.

"I tried doing this the nice way Miyamoto."

He opened his eyes with star flames oozing out of both of them. He looked directly into Miyamoto's eyes. "I'm going to scar you for life," he said as the world slowly shifted between the real world and his outlandish illusions. Behind him stood blood, demons, death, and a gruesome sight that switched in and out with the real world slowly. Sora's head slowly spun like a ferris wheel while his voice became deep producing a maniacal laugh. Standing next to them was the one Sora deemed as Miyamoto's close friend after seeing their interactions on stage together. Eri's head stood on top of a spear as if he was decapitated by Spartans while her body remained on the ground headless. The sky remained pitch black with devil red eyes randomly apearing in sight. "And you'll feel every bit of it." Miyamoto, originally unharmed, within the illusion stood bruised, bloody and battered while monsters and demons with razor sharp teeth and claws stood over her growling as if they were ready to feast. The illusion was still flickering in and out due to the shear madness of the world being produced.

However, Ai, whom was very quiet the whole time, decided to cut in. Approaching Sora, she broke his gaze with Miyamoto and turned his head forcefully to look into her eyes. "I will not allow you to harm any more of us," she said threateningly, yet tonelessly, Her third eye looked deep into his and flooded his mind with visions of his own friends, the Rizzo guardians, with blank expressions on their faces, eyes hovering over their chests, cords of varying colors sticking out of them in identical places around their bodies. Alien parasites with evil eyes. Ai's own cords crept around him and moved around his neck threateningly, before slowly constricting. 'So this is the Vongola of Mist illusion, huh?' he thought to himself as he saw Ai's cords move upon his neck, 'This Alien scum. He begun to force the star flame from his body to shift her illusion back into his own world of madness. The illusions flicked back and forth between reality, his world, and Ai's illusion like a broken movie reel. Ai was about to retaliate by strengthening her illusion by actually constricting him with her cords. She had the ability to completely possess anybody in her submission, and this one who was busy trying to fight her illusions with his own wouldn't have even noticed. Yet something broke both of their concentrations, causing the illusionary worlds in their heads to shatter. Simultaneously, they look toward the direction of a piercing sound.

Without warning, a high-pitched roar overspread the area, drawing everyone's attention. "WRRRYYYYYYYY!!!!"

Trevor looked on at the girl as she approached. He recognized her instantly. She was Murasaki Eri, the Vongola's Cloud guardian, and wielder of the Cloud ring. She was tall, with silvery-grey hair and an unflinchingly stubborn expression on her face, her eyes darting between the three Rizzo and the fallen Storm Vongola in a rhythmic fashion. When she did speak, he simply absorbed her words, meeting her eyes with his own. Thanks to his makeshift mask, nothing but his eyes were exposed anyway, so she certainly couldn't make out any of his facial features. Trevor looked away from the girl, his eyes landing on Donovan and Flandre. If they'd noticed the Vongola girl approaching, they certainly didn't act like it. Even when she spoke, they still seemed to ignored her.

"What's wrong, Schmautz?" Flandre asked as he sighed, "Didn't you get a ring?" she sneered at him.

"Pfft," Donovan scoffed, turning up his nose. "I can get my guy's ring whenever I want." He folded his arms, looking down as the Vongola paramedics timidly removed Nami from his presence. It was almost as if he were pouting. "I was just checking out his speed," he half-way mumbled. "They say he's the fastest Vongola. Ever." He looked back at Flandre, but didn't meet her eyes, instead taking a quick moment to glance at the metalwork of her damaged leg. "You wouldn't understand true speed anyway. Plus," he continued, motioning with a finger towards Flandre's leg, a devious smile touching his lips, "I'm not in the business of breaking my ass getting pushed around by some primitive flame."

It was Flandre who responded to the Cloud guardian first. Her reaction was predictable. Trevor's eyes followed the Cloud guardian's body all the way to the floor. For a moment, he thought Flandre would continue her assault by smashing the Vongola into the ground with her shield, like she did Tempest, but she seemed to have lost interest with the girl, choosing instead to simply roll away. Trevor watched her go.

At the same time, Miku and Hildegarde sauntered onto the scene like twin divas of some otherworldly fashion show. They came to rest on the other side of Eri, who was still picking herself up off the floor. Hildegarde stared down at the girl, and, after a moment, seemed to come to some sort of conclusion.

"Yep," she began, dropping a piece of hard candy from one hand into the other. "I think I'll just blow her away." She glanced over at Miku. "We can play rock-paper-scissors for the ring later, okay?"

Elizabeth realizing from Hildegarde's remark saw that further fighting from this point was not going to happen. "Fine," she replied while not understanding how a simple game could determine their sole mission of obtaining the ring. She sheathed her katana and look slightly displeased that her fight was not going to continue.

Donovan flinched back at that unexpected promise of violence. "Uh, Garda," he said, scratching the side of his face, a look of besotting urgency evident in his eyes. "I think you've blown up enough stuff. Did you notice Alas—"

Hildegarde ignored Donovan entirely, choosing instead to look over at Miku, her voice taking on a slight tint of annoyance as she interrupted the Asteroid guardian. "We can get the ring off its body when I'm done. Deal?" A bullet whizzed by her head, but she didn't seem to care. "No way Flandre gets a ring and I don't!"

That's when Flandre returned, and brought with her a hail of gunfire. Fortunately for everyone else, she had thrown up her Colorwheel to protect herself, blocking a majority of the deluge. The other three Rizzos moved to stand behind her in an unhurried fashion, as if she had an umbrella and it'd just started drizzling. Though initially surprising, the metallic ping ping ping of ricocheting bullets had little impact on Trevor. If anything, the sound made him more comfortable. He felt a little like he was in his bulletproof C-Frame, hugged on all sides by the protective breathable superconducting nanochemical that constituted the inside of the suit.

He closed his eyes briefly, taking a short breath before opening them again. Trevor swept his gaze over the scene with an unnatural calm—considering he and his friends were being shot at. He took no longer than a second to analyze his surroundings, noting several things right off the bat. For one, the Vongola were attempting to mount a counter offensive, that much was obvious. The hustling and bustling of dark suits and black glasses began to permeate the area, their old-world primer-striking "handguns" at the ready. Then there were the Vongola guardians themselves. One was virtually floored right before him. Two others were floored over by the Alastors. The others seemed to be in one for of disarray or another, even with their own forces mustering behind them.

And that's when someone caught the boy's eye.

"Is it time to leave yet?" Flandre asked the group.

"Not until I get what's mine," Hildegarde answered, flicking a piece of candy into the air over Eri. It was as if she were totally oblivious to the armed thugs attacking them. The candy ignited instantly, bursting into highly volatile Quasar flames, but before it could detonate, Trevor snatched it out of the air with his bare hand and a short burst of Moon flames, nearly cancelling Flandre's flames in the process.

"Hey!"

Instead of responding verbally, Trevor pointed at something off behind her. Hildegarde's face scrunched up in anger, but Miku placed her hand on the girl's shoulder, her voice almost as chilling as her touch. "Alastor is here. We must join him." And then she disappeared in a streak of frosty blue.

Hildegarde turned as well. "Tch," was all she said before taking to the air. Bullets began to impact her the moment she left the protection of Flandre's Colorwheel, but the metal slugs detonated into a fine mist as they came into contact with her body. "You're gonna have to try a whole helluva lot harder than that, you primates!" she bellowed, cackling as she streaked through the air like a firework.

Trevor watched her go, his face expressionless.

"Welp, I guess that's our cue," Donovan grumbled, placing his hand on Trevor's shoulder. In the next moment, they, too, disappeared in a maroon haze.

Clear on the other side of the auditorium, the elder Alastor deigned to acknowledge, however briefly, the Vongola that so cavalierly made demands of him. He glared at her briefly, sizing the girl up in one look. A visceral being. Hot-headed. Arrogant. Overconfident. Unable to comprehend that which is greater than herself. Instead of issuing a harsh riposte, the elder Alastor straightened his tie with a few sharp motions, using both his hands. Simultaneously, the younger Alastor straightened his collar in a similar fashion. At first glance, you might mistake them for twins... of a kind.

Seeing the others flock towards Alastor, Sora hopped on his skateboard and said, "Hasta La Vista, Baby!" as it if were his premiere lines in a movie and begun skating to Alastor's position.

The elder Alastor took Sora as a prompt for movement. "Lightspeed," he muttered. An instant later, he vanished without a trace. The younger Alastor looked down at Fredrick with a look of utter disgust before he vanished as well, muttering under his breath. Both the elder and the younger Alastor appeared on either side of their "current" counterpart, who, until then, had been standing several dozen meters away, next to the Hour Hand box weapon.

This current Alastor looked to be the mathematical average of the two who stood at his sides. Older than his younger counterpart, but younger than his elder counterpart. The trio had hard amber-red eyes, reminiscent of distant supernova. Unlike the preppy straight cut hair of the younger boy or the gelled spiky hairdo of the elder man, the one standing between them had short stringy black hair that fell around his ears and forehead like the frayed edges of some dark fabric. He had a toned muscular physique, though it was obvious that strength was not his forte. Instead of a suit and tie, he wore his trademark jeans and hooded jacket, all black, with fur trimming decorating the edges of the cuffs and cowl. His index and middle fingers were each adorned with a plain silvery ring that glowed softly in the room's hospital-like fluorescent lighting.

This current Alastor turned to his elder counterpart, his face scrunched into a yawn. After a moment, he held out his hand. The elder Alastor reciprocated the motion, holding his clenched fist above his counterpart's open palm and relinquishing the Vongola Sky and Rain rings. The current Alastor eyed the rings before clenching his own fist, a soft grin touching his lips. He looked back up at his counterpart. Their eyes met.

"Perfect," he said, flipping his fist so that his knuckles faced the ceiling.

The elder Alastor mimicked the motion. Their fists were separated laterally by only a few inches. "The Rizzo... the me of this timeline..." The elder cocked his head slightly, his expression impenetrable. "You're all so fascinating."

"Thanks." Like old childhood friends, the two Alastors bumped fists. Almost immediately, the elder of the two combusted into pitch black Space flames before ceasing to exist altogether. The remaining Alastor breathed in deeply, as if he'd just been invigorated. In the background, the Vongola were amassing, but Alastor paid them no mind, instead turning now to face his younger self. It was then that the other Rizzo began to appear beside the duo. First Miku, who streaked across the ground as if skating on ice. Then came Hildegarde, rocketing through the sky like a madwoman. Next was Sora, who, after skidding to a halt, looked daggers at a few of the Vongola thugs, put his balled fist at his chest, bowed slightly and said, "I'll be back!" with a deep Austrian accent, like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Their arrivals were followed closely by the appearance of Donovan, Trevor, and then Flandre, whose massive Colorwheel seemed to draw a majority of the Vongola's gunfire.

Alastor held out his fist to his younger counterpart, but his eyes were on his guardians. "How'd we do?" His voice was deeper than one would expect for someone of his size and stature. In tone and tenor, it rested somewhere between the suave confidence and maturity of his elder self and the impatient excitement of his younger self.

While the others spoke, the Alastor 's younger counterpart simply stared at the floor, glowering. After a moment, he seemed to resolve some internal conflict, his frown inverting into a menacing sneer. He glanced up at at others briefly before reaching down and snatching the Hour Hand box weapon out of the ground. Not wasting a second, he pivoted on his heel and began running full tilt. The machete-like weapon he held above his head bobbed and weaved in tandem with his steps, his expression vivid evidence of his willful intent to murder.

"I'm not done yet!" He bellowed, eyes filled with rage. His gaze fell upon Fredrick, the de-ringed Vongola Rain guardian who was at least a dozen meters away as he ran. After successfully injecting his Rain flame into his compatriot, Fredrick had taken a few steps back from the others in an attempt to distance himself from the fighting. He was beginning to regret that. "YOU HEAR ME?!" The Vongola hitmen opened fire on the kid, but every time he seemed to recoil from the impact of a gunshot, he disappeared and reappeared slightly further along in his running path. For his part, Fredrick's flinch was painfully noticeable. He immediately putting his hands up in the traditional pose of surrender, his countenance a confused mess of fear and panic at being singled out.

He could barely utter a delayed response. "M-m-me?!"

Several of the hitmen tried to physically block the boy's path by brandishing box weapons of some type or another, but their primitive molds were easily predictable, allowing the young Alastor to dodge around them. Others tried to grab him, but their hands and arms grasped at nothingness as he continued to invoke his box weapon's ability. When he came within range of his target, the boy leapt like a mighty Spartan, lower back concave, stomach poked out, both hands gripping the box weapon in an overhead reverse grip, blade pointing towards the ceiling.

"BASTAR—!"

The younger Alastor froze mid-jump, as if someone had hit the pause button on his reality. The pointed tip of the serrated Hour Hand blade weapon had become suspended a mere centimeters from Fredrick's face. With a yelp, the young Alastor was yanked backwards as if the back of his shirt'd been caught in a fishing line that someone was rapidly reeling in. He flew across the room like a speeding bullet before suddenly bursting into jet-black flames.

A couple of meters behind the boy, the current Alastor was holding out his fist, knuckles facing his inflamed younger counterpart. The mass of black flame that hurdled towards the Rizzo boss dispersed into nothingness as it grew nearer until it disappeared entirely. Again, Alastor breathed in deeply, eyes closed, head tilted backwards, as if he'd just been invigorated by some mystical force.

"Good," he said, sighing in content. "Good good." Alastor seemed to glow slightly after reabsorbing his two counterparts, though the effect faded a few moments later.

The Vongola forces suddenly coalesced around the Rizzo, encircling them entirely, their various weapons brought to bear.

DON'T MOVE!" The nearest hitman commanded. He was holding some sort of Rod that crackled and sparked with green Lightning flames, its business end pointed at Alastor. "GET DOWN ON THE GROUND! NOW!"

Hildegarde growled audibly, taking a step forward, candies waltzing ominously in the palm of her hand, but Alastor held out his arm, blocking her way.

"Don. Sora." He said their names as calmly as one would on a casual stroll through the park, as if they weren't about to get shot at from all directions. "Get ready." Alastor narrowed his eyes slightly, lips pursed. "We're leaving."

Perhaps the hitman was annoyed with Alastor's tone, or the way the Space guardian regarded him as one would any insignificant insect, but the hitman opened fire with his box weapon, arcs of green lightning smashing into the Rizzo group. Taking that as their cue, the other hitmen opened fire as well. Bullets and flame attacks rained down upon the Rizzo from all sides with such an overwhelming intensity that the Vongola forces lost sight of the Rizzo amidst all the flashy weapon effects.

After several dozen seconds of sustained fire, one of the Vongola shouted "HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Immediately, the others ceased their attacks. As the smoke and dust kicked up by their attacks began to clear, it became evident that they'd reduced the enemy infiltrators to ashes. Certainly no family, not even the Vongola's greatest enemies of this time, could survive a sustained attack from so many people. Feeling confident in their work, some of the Vongola hitmen even lowered their smoking weapons.

And then the smoke cleared completely, the results of their combined attack becoming eminently visible. A few hitmen gasped audibly.

The Rizzo were surrounded in a hollow, translucent sphere of whiteness, but that wasn't the surprising part. Each and everyone one of their bullets was suspended in the air outside of this sphere, faint concentric rings of force emanating from the various points of contact. There had to be hundreds of bullets just floating there, idle, as if they hadn't been speeding at several hundred meters per second just a moment or two earlier.

"A barrier?!" One of them asked rhetorically, his tone one of incredulity.

From behind the translucent sphere, Alastor wagged his finger like a parent admonishing a naughty child.

"A White Hole," he said, correcting the man. And then he smirked. "Now bow."

Suddenly, the bullets began to wag and shake, oscillating like the many tails of some impatient dog until, finally, they detonated outwards in a blinding flash of yellow and white, each newly-energized deadly projectile reversing its trajectory with twice the initial speed. The resulting BOOM! was deafening as molten metal streaked across the room like some firework finale. Those few hitmen that were quick enough to duck managed to escape a majority of the deluge, but the others were not so lucky. The projectiles literally tore them to shreds in a blood bath that was sticky, messy, and all over the place.

By the end, there was no one left standing, though there were quite a few left prone, their hands protecting their heads, screaming in shock and pain.

One such person was Fredrick, who'd dived to the ground immediately. Once the high-pitched shriek of bullets flying overhead died down, he gathered the courage to look up at where the enemy attackers were standing. He gasped in shock.

They were gone. Disappeared, with nearly half of the precious Vongola family rings. The space they previously vacated was utterly vacant.

Fredrick tentatively got to his feet, looking around. There were various Vongola hitmen laid out on the floor, clutching their sides or their faces, some of them screaming... but something was off about this scene.

There was no blood. None. Anywhere. There were no shreds of former people to be found. And, after looking everyone over, nobody seemed at all injured, either. Even the surrounding walls, which should have just taken a hell of a beating from that attack, were in the same condition they were a few minutes ago. It was as if the bullet storm had never happened.

Fredrick scratched the back of his head, thoroughly puzzled. Today just wasn't his day.

Ai had stood idly by, staying close to Cain, as all the chaos went by. The Vongola family seemed to be retaliating against the Rizzo guardians. Of course they weren't just going to stand by and allow the Boss and his guardians to be harmed any further, yet firearms should not have been authorized. If they'd harmed or by chance killed the Rizzos, they wouldn't have been able to question them and seeing as they came from the future, it wouldn't be ideal to have them die at the current time period. Of course nobody besides Ai and the external adviser DiCaccio really knew they were from the future, and DiCaccio couldn't give orders as he was busy evacuating the guests and assuring their safety. DiCaccio did return with a few CEDEF agents by his side. "Where are the saboteurs?" he called.

"They've retreated," Ai said, standing over Cain, "And they have stolen two of our rings, including the Boss's." DiCaccio pursed his lips upon seeing Cain's limp figure and ran toward him. "Is Cain alright?" "The Boss has sustained heavy injuries but is still functioning." The agents to DiCaccio's sides were calling for more stretchers. "Are the others injured?" DiCaccio asked, looking up at the other guardians. "The Storm guardian, Namine, has sustained heavy injuries as well and may be in critical condition. She has already been sent to the medical bay." DiCaccio couldn't help but notice the blood drying up on Ai's hair. "What about you?" "I could heal this body on my own, but it would be preferable if at least this head wound was tended to."

DiCaccio frowned at her response, not entirely out of concern but out of uneasiness, how this person, or rather creature, could shrug off what could have been a serious injury and wondered if there really was a person feeling the pain when this one seemed to not care. The only members of the Vongola who knew about Ai's true identity so far were himself and the Tenth boss, until he died of course. DiCaccio, out of the Tenth's will, had put a lot of trust in Ai and catered to many of her wishes so that she could 'complete her mission' which was supposedly for the good of all humankind. The circumstances of the Tenth's death also was a huge factor. Of course, there were many parts about this... whatever she was that DiCaccio did object to, but nonetheless, he had done whatever he could for her for the past four years without complaint, meaning that in a way, Ai had control over all of the Vongola through DiCaccio. Of course with Cain coming into power DiCaccio would have less control over the Vongola, merely being the external adviser and heading CEDEF. If Ai was going to need further assistance of the Vongola Family, she'd have to gain Cain's trust as well and that meant telling him absolutely everything, and DiCaccio was worried about Cain making the wrong decision to not trust her. In truth, DiCaccio's didn't entirely approve of the candidates the Tenth had chosen for guardians, and he had every right to choose his own candidates to give the half rings to (resulting in a ring conflict) yet it was the circumstances of the Tenth's death that caused him to change his mind.

"Boss, The police have arrived," one of the CEDEF agents told him. "Alright, tell them we have the situation well at hand, I'll deal with them in a second. " he turned to another, "And I want my men tracking down these people now. I simply want to know their position and their activities, but discretion is key. They are an enemy group with unknown intentions and powerful weaponry. And Ai," DiCaccio turned back to her, "It's best that the Boss and your fellow guardians know what's going on, so tell them only what they need to hear, alright?" Ai nodded. DiCaccio was just about to leave when a rather upset voice called to him. "DiCaccio! I want a word with you!"

Samuel Kapachio walked up to him, red with fury. "What's the issue, signore?" DiCaccio asked. "What's the issue?! Oh, well you see those men over there?" he gestured toward the group of hitmen who'd came in to apprehend the Rizzos, "Well, Joel just fired them! They were doing their job, they came to the aid of the Boss, and he fired them for it! Fucker threatened me as well! Do something about it!" DiCaccio frowned. More paramedics came with stretchers and they had to move away from Cain, Ai following. The CEDEF agents were already doing their assigned tasks.

"Now, Signore Kapachio, Joel's words are those of Cain's, and Cain is the Boss now, so whatever he did to you or those men was for a reason, out of Cain's will." Kapachio scowled. "Why you..." The two men used to be more friendly with one another, both having similar ideals as to what the Vongola should have been, until the Tenth's death. "So if Cain's the Boss," he spat, "Then you don't have any power anymore! He could fire you and get a new external adviser, doesn't even have to be a dedicated member of CEDEF like you were! That'll put a damper on everything you been doing behind everybody's backs! You've been keeping secrets, and I'm not the only one who knows. You and that lost puppy of yours who's been following you around! If she isn't your daughter, then who is she really, you sick fuck?"

"Boss, Lieutenant Kogoro says he wants to speak with you now," a CEDEF agent reported to him. "Alright, I'll be there in a second," DiCaccio responded, "Right now, escort this man out of the building, he's no longer part of the Vongola. You may use nonlethal force if necessary." "This isn't over, DiCaccio, this just begun," Kapachio threatened, "Once the word is out that Cain's lost his ring, then you've got a storm brewing. I'm sure you would know more than anybody that there are still families out there that are out for the Vongola's blood and they will swoop in and feast as soon as this big oyster pops open. Everybody in this room knows he lost his ring, including those men over there that you just fired! And we both know there are still many more like me within this family that want to keep it the way it used to be! Any one of them will use this against you!" "Get him out now!" DiCaccio yelled. Two CEDEF agents took hold of him and were forcefully moving him out, yet he struggled to finish what he was saying. "This was just one of the many mistakes you've made that will drive this family into the ground! And I'll be there to dig you out of the rubble and tell you that I was right, but I'm only going to salvage what's left of value!" The CEDEF agents, at this point, managed to force him out the doors.

DiCaccio rubbed his hand over his face before moving on and sighed heavily. "Oh, what would Iemistsu do," he muttered, "What would the Tenth do..." Once he regained his composure, he turned back to Ai. "You should report to the medical bay with Cain and Nami so you can take care of that head wound." he looked up at the other guardians, "And the rest of the Guardians should to, as a precaution. It would be a good chance for you to explain it all to them. And Ai, if you get the chance to speak with Cain privately..." he hesitated, "... You should explain absolutely everything to him. Once he gets his ring back," he didn't bother to add if he did, "You wont be able to rely on me to complete your mission, whatever else that is going to entail. All I can do is try and deal with the public. The guests are all witnesses, and they all witnessed those both the guardians and those Rizzos using box weapons. I'll do my best to come up with some sort of excuse that'll work in your favor, bullshitting is my specialty." Ai nodded. "The humans of the public and of the governing powers must see the potential in box weapons, yet must not grow to fear them," Ai told him, "If they fear that their enemies are already using box weapons, however, that may draw the governing powers to start implementing them in their military forces, which is ideal."

"I'll see what I can do, but it'll be difficult to put the blame on any particular group. Anyhow, I have to speak with the Lieutenant. The Vongola does have some influence over the Namimori police force, so hopefully we can get them to work in our favor as well. We could have them look for this 'terrorist group' as well, if they haven't already left Namimori." At that, DiCaccio left.

Ai then approached Joel. "The External Adviser says that we should all report to the medical bay as a precaution and so we can confirm the conditions of the Boss and the Storm Guardian. It is there that we can all be briefed about who the people who attacked us are."

Upon his movement to leave, Joel had no other choice but to glance at Ai, the peculiar little girl whom he didn't know that well, but seeing what he had seen of her, he was able to gather that she was either one of those brainwashed by there parents kids, or not exactly a little girl at all. "The External Adviser says that we should all report to the medical bay as a precaution and so we can confirm the conditions of the Boss and the Storm Guardian. It is there that we can all be briefed about who the people who attacked us are." she said to him. Joel took his pupils from the corners of his eyes and aimed them at the floor before closing them and turning away.

"They're alive right? That's all I need to know. How about you take in the important info and tell me about it later. Oh, and make sure Fredrick does what I asked him to do," he said, patting the girl on top of her head before leaving. Once outside, he walked for a good ten minutes, making sure to keep good distance away from anyone who would see him. He usually wouldn't have traveled in such a way, but in order to maintain a secretive stance on things, he snapped his fingers, letting a lightning bolt strike upon him and take him to where he wanted to go. Just like when moving fast, traveling through lightning put him inside of a different world. In all honesty it was a dark one, with strikes of light going here and there. To put it in greater terms, he was inside of a lightning cloud. There was no matter, no feel, only emptiness. Just like his meditative states. Remembering back on it, he use to be afraid of this world. It wasn't like the human world at all. Almost as if it wa another dimension. In this dimension, if he didn't trust his power, Joel would be shocked. That's how it was for a long time. For a long time he was shocked by the lightning he rejected and each time he was thrown into a different part of the world. He considered himself lucky though. Lucky that he had a father who loved him enough to go after him. Each time he landed somewhere, like Europe, or Africa, his father would be there within the hour and he would hold onto him, crying. Whining about how he didn't want to use his powers anymore. How he didn't want to be a lightning guardian if it meant being shocked all the time. To this day, he remembers exactly what his father use to tell him all the time. "Stay calm kiddo. It gets better with practice. Soon, the lightning will be tamed by you and it wont be able to hurt you anymore."

Though his father was dead now, Joel had taken all of his training since those times as calmly as possible. He even took life that way. Even now, Joel was calmly thinking about what to have the sky guardians do next. Getting the rings back of course was first priority, but there had to be steps taken before all of that occurred. Steps which would change all of his fellow guardians, maybe even himself, and put them onto the next level of their powers. At least he had hoped so. If not, then the rest of the rings would be taken. He already decided once he saw Cain's wrecked body that he would die for his ring. That should make it harder for his enemies to get it, but then, what would be the point of being the only one with a sky ring. He thought more clearly. It would be a waist after all. If they managed to take everyone else's rings, then he supposed he'd just give his to them. For he wouldn't have anymore use for it anyway. The Vongola undicesimo is Cain. Even now it is still Cain. Though if he were not to get his ring back then what? Joel had decided not to think that far ahead. It would come if it was meant to come. Just like lightning. With one strike, he was at the foot of his steps. He was back in Japan and let the storm caused by his lightning to stay. He enjoyed the rain more than the clear sky's anyways. Walking up the shrines steps towards the place that he called his home, he began preparations for a visit to his forest home in Japan and the training of his fellow Guardians as well as his own training.
..................................................................................................................................................................

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Cain shot up and screamed as if he was waking from a terrible nightmare. The cold sweat of his exaughstion was trickling down his face like a sweated water bottle. His breathing was hard and fast and he even felt as if he had been holding his breath underwater.

"What is it? Are you okay?"

The lights turned on and a nurse ran to Cains bed. The boy looked surprised at the nurse, for she was one of the most beautiful he had ever seen. "Oh. Oh yeah. Yeah, I'm okay, but I would feel better if I were to get your number," he said throwing her a smile.

"Awe. Aren't you cute." The nurse patted his head and left for the door. "Let me get the doctor and let him know you've awoken."

Awoken? Cain was confused by the words the lady had used before leaving. What was that supposed to mean? Had he been asleep. If so, how long was he asleep for. He looked at the window and saw the dark night sky that lingered outside. Judging by the fact that it was night he expected he had only been out for a couple hours or so. He moved his legs around a little only to feel a sharp pain from his right. "What the hell?" He drastically pulled the covers off of his lower body sending it toward the sky to find that he had a cast on his whole leg. "Awe man. What is this. . . What are these?" He used his fingers to push and tug on the metal rods placed. He sucked on his teeth and slammed his back into his bed, slapping his face and moaning at the fact that he had lost his leg.

"Mr. Vongola. S'cuse me sir are you okay," a voice called to him.

Without moving his hands from his face Cain turned his upper body from side to side. "No. I'm not really doing that well. You know, considering there are metal rods sticking from the thick piece of tissue that's attached to my leg and all." Finally removing his hands from his face he smiled and said, "Apart from that, I'd say I'm doing peachy doc. How about you?"

"I'm doing overjoyed. Especially considering at least one of my patients are awake already."

"One... you mean there are more. How many. Are all of my friends here too. Is Joel here!?"

The doctor grabbed a chair and wheeled it over to the frantic young man. "Easy now. There's no need to worry. Only one other patient was brought here. Though, her condition may be more severe than yours. She's still asleep actually. I had my men do everything, but we can't seem to wake her. Poor thing."

"She?"

"Yes. A Ms. Gokudera I believe." The doctor flipped his hands through a few papers. "Ah yes. Nami Gokudera. Brought in three days ago along with you. Seems she's inside a coma of some sort. Hmmm. Well anyway, I'm sure she'll be alright. After all, look at you. You came in here with your muscles frozen by some form of paralysis, but luckily that was keeping your bones in place which made surgery a heck of a lot easier for this old man."

"Is that so?" Cain looked at the doctor who seemed to be as carefree as anyone he'd ever seen before with a baffled expression. "Listen Doc, I'm gonna just throw this out there. How's my leg?"

"Well, it seems if you were a normal person without the resources you have we'd have to replace all the bone and the cap with a metal of some sort. However, since you happen to be lucky we can easily skip all that and just say what we've done to your leg is all we're going to do."

A brief silence filled the room and Cain stared at the doctor who had went back to checking his notes.

"Soooo.... I can walk again?"

"Hmm? Walk? My dear boy, if in two weeks you're not running then I believe the problem isn't your leg but your laziness. Hahahaha."

Cain didn't know if that was a yes or a no, but he had started to raise in spirits because of the doctors attitude.

"Hmm. Since you're awake we should give you pain killers for the time being. Note, you shouldn't get out of bed while on this medication for it might make you kind of loopy. Also they might put you back to sleep, but that isn't a bad thing considering we know you don't have a concussion."

"Wait doc," Cain called to the man before he left the room. "What about Nami? Can I see her?"

"Sorry my boy. She's not currently allowed visitors at this time. Maybe in a couple of days. We need to first see how her condition actually is before anyone can see her."

"Oh.... Is that so."

"Don't worry lad. We're all doing our best for her. You just worry about getting back into fighting shape in the meantime."

With those last words the doctor left, leaving Cain to the nurses who gave him his medication while he flirted with them. Within the hour he was back to sleep.

A few hours later he once again opened his eyes. Looking to his left, he saw the light underneath the door. The only light besides from the moonlight that had lit up the dark room. He turned his head to his right and immediately juked back almost falling off of the bed. "Oh my god. Who the hell are you?!"

The man who was sitting in the chair next to his bed stood up and reached his arm out for Cain. The boy flinched closing his eyes and felt a hand grab his arm and pull him onto the bed in his original position.

"Honestly Cain, you have to be more aware of your surroundings," the man said.

"Wait a second....Joel?"

"Who were you expecting? The tooth fairy?"

Cain rubbed his eyes then looked more carefully at the man. "Oh sweet. It is you. What's up? You look like you're okay."

"Yeah. Minus the amount of sleep I've been lacking the past few days, I'd say I'm good."

"Wow. I'm glad you're here, but why? I thought you were mad at me."

Joel looked at Cain then leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. "Yeah well, just because I was mad at you doesn't mean I won't look after you. I did promise Decimo that I would protect you. I even promised Nami's father I'd do the same for her and also my father who said I have to because the tenth generation looked after him when he was the youngest. As oldest it's just a thing I have to do. Not only that, but you're my brother. I probably can't fight your battles for you, but I can make sure no one kicks you when you're down."

Cain smiled at Joel before laying his head back down on the comforting pillows. "So... we lost huh?"

"Hmmm."

"And Nami. She's hurt isn't she?"

"Hmmm."

"And me. I'm a failure as a leader aren't I?"

"Hmmm."

"Is that all you're going to say? Hmmm?" Cain turned his head towards Joel to see the mans was piercing him with a stare the whole time with one eye open.

Closing his eye and fixing his posture, Joel sighed before saying, "You can say we lost the battle, yes. However, the war has just begun. You can say Nami's hurt, but I'd say so is the kid who played with fire. She's not dead so she's okay. However, you can't say that you're a failure as a leader. Listen Cain, you weren't really a leader to begin with."

"Wh-what's that supposed to mean?"

"What I'm saying is just having a ring and title doesn't make you a leader. What will make you a leader is taking a stand through these harsh times. Fighting against those who wish you ill. Protecting those who are under you. What will make you a leader is learning from this loss and becoming stronger because of it. Whether you want to do that or not is up to you, but, like it or not, you are the sky no ring will separate you from it. No building will hide you from the lightning. No cavern will shield you from the clouds. No darkness will take away the suns light from your eyes. No mask will keep you from tasting the mist. No umbrella will guard you from the rain. No ear plugs will deafen the sound of the storm. Lastly, no other person will ever lead the guardians of those flames. So Cain, what is it you want to do?"

Cain thought about it for a few seconds. There was really nothing that he could do at this very moment, but he wanted badly to do something. Anything would do, but it had to make sense. "I.....I want to see Nami."

"Hmmm. She's in a comatose state and is allowed no visitors," Joel calmly said.

Cain sat up and pulled his heavy legs off of the bed. "I don't care. If I am truly the leader of the Vongola then I should see all my family in their time of need. Joel..... Can you help me?"

Joel slowly opened his eyes and looked at Cain's back. The boy was shivering, which could of been from the pain of his leg or by the anxiety of moving. He smiled at the sight, for it showed Cain was willing to fight to see the girl. "Fine then. Let's go see our sister."
..................................................................................................................................................................

Joel pushed Cain on his wheelchair and hugged the walls tightly, ready to turn a corner at a moments notice.

"So, did you talk to Nami's father?" Cain asked looking up at the man.

"Sadly, yes."

"Why sadly?"

"He was mad. I let his daughter get hurt?"

"Well it's not like you just stood there and let her get beaten on. Hehehe. He's probably just mad."

"Hmmmmm."

Joels grunt made Cain want to get a better look at his face. "Joel..... You....You didn't just stand there did you?"

"The wild flame must learn to be calm."

"Wh-what? That makes no sense."

"Let's drop it until later okay? Shhh. Someone's coming. Act natural."

A nurse came out of the elevator and walked towards them. Joel, who had stolen a doctors outfit and mask had Cain, who was wearing full patients clothing and both had there heads down. Totally not suspicious at all.

"Good morning doctor." The lady said as she passed by. Joel nodded in recognition, but the lady stopped to look back at him.

"Oh. Doctor. You do know that we don't start working with patients until six a.m. You know, three hours from now."

Joel stopped moving with Cain and turned around. "Ah yes. Well I am a private doctor actually working with this lads family. I must conduct surgery immediately."

Cain looked up in surprise. "Surgery!?" he whispered.

"I couldn't think of anything else to say," Joel whispered back.

"Surgery? There aren't any surgery's planned for today. I would have known. I am the head nurse after all."

Letting go of Cain's chair Joel turned around. "Oh. My apologies. You see, I was only trying to impress you. I'm new here, but I've seen you around a couple of times and I thought you were actually quite a fair maiden."

"Doctor," the woman gasped, "I'm not sure you are thinking right. I mean, we're inside of a work area."

"I know, but I do have to say you are one of the most favorable women I've ever seen. Oh fair eyed maiden, can you possibly do me one favor?" Joel took her hand and brought her closer to his face.

"Wh-what is it?" The woman's face was red like a rose petal.

"Please, fall for me?"

"Doctor, I don't know what to say. Ummmm."

A click was heard and the lady fell unconscious in his arms. Joel removed his hand from her kneck and leaned her against a wall.

Upon returning to push Cain, the boy looked back and glanced at Joel multiple times to see exactly what had happened. "Joel. I didn't know you had such a way with the ladies."

"Yeah well, sometimes I wish I didn't."

"Why's that?"

"I only have one woman on my mind, I have no need for those who only fond me for my looks."

Cain sunk further into his chair. "Not what I meant, but okay.....Wait who...."

"Not telling."

"Awe."


The pair continued to trick doctors and nurses they had bumped into, into getting tazed by Joel and ended up leaving a row of people along side walls of the hospital.

"You know, I'm sure this is considered a crime," Cain sighed.

"We're mafia. It's what we do," Joel said quietly poking his head out of the corner. "Okay. So there are three doctors talking to each other. We're going to have to make a distraction. I'll leave you hear by yourself. You scream and stall them while I zap them."

"How long will these guys be out of it. I mean, what if they have patients to see?"

"Only for a few minutes give or take. Don't worry about that. Just stick to the plan."

"Roger."


Joel walked down the hall and turned the corner after waving to the men, while Cain began screaming."

"AAAAHHHHHHH...AHHHHHHHH"

The doctors all went to his aid, just as planned.

"What is it young man?" One of the doctors asked.

"It's horrible Doc. Horrible I tells ya."

"What's the matter son?"

"I-I....I can't feel my leg!!!!"

All the doctors threw each other confused glances. "Well," one of the doctors said, "It's because you have a cast on. Not only that, but a reinforced one. Hey...How did you even get on the wheelchair without an escort."

Cain looked behind the men to see Joel had caught up and was ready to shock them.

"Oh, I have an escort."

Zap.Zap.Zap. Each men fell unconscious on the floor and Cain and Joel left them behind as they headed for Nami's room. "Hehe. We should do things like this more often," Cain cheered.

"Don't count on it," Joel softly replied. "Here it is. Let's go in."

Joel opened the door and rolled in with Cain. It was dark, but the light from the machines next to the womans bed was enough for both lads to see their friend.

"Damn," Cain said grabbing onto his pants legs tightly, "What kind of monsters would do something like this to a girl?"

Joel looked down at Cain and then towards Nami. "I don't know. However, they will have their pay. Though it wont be the old school righteous glory. It wont be revenge."

"What does that mean? We're just supposed to let them get away with this?"

"No. Though we can't fight the girls battles for her. She is a guardian and thus must fight whoever took her ring. The same as you have your own battle to fight."

"What about you? What will you do?"

"I deem the person who I faced isn't the one I might in the future. If they were after the rings then that means they have a person for each of us. I am sure there are stronger ones amongst there group."

"Stronger?" Cain looked once again at Nami. "The hell. If someone is strong enough to put us both in a hospital then what type of person do you expect the one you're going to fight to be."

"I don't know. Though the lightning has spoken to me. It says that there is a monster somewhere. A monster that will probably succeed in taking my ring if I don't prepare. If I can't beat that monster, then you may have to fight it."

"Me... I can't even beat the guy who stole my ring and you want me to face someone who can beat you? Another person I can't beat?"

"No. I won't fail. . ." Joel looked away towards the door. "Well we've seen her. What's you're next move?"

Cain thought hard while looking at his friend. The daughter of a man who his father said had his back at all times. "Well, even if I wasn't going to fight for myself, I have to fight for Nami. I want to.... I want to get stronger."

Joel nodded slightly. "Very well. Then I shall train you to become not only a good leader, but also the Undecimo you were meant to be. Training will be fierce and your life may even shorten like your fathers was, but I will abide by your will."

"My fathers? You mean that technique?"

"Yes. Do you wish to concede your words?"

"No. It still stands. Make me stronger Joel."

"As you wish, Undecimo."

Afterwards there was a slight stir with the hospital executives. People were almost fired for sleeping on the job and luckily, by Cain's will and because the hospital was owned by Vongola, they all were able to keep their positions. Cain was released the next day and had his screws taken out, but was told he had to spend the weekend with a cast, in which time he would be given a leg brace for a week. Though he didn't take any of that with any type of salt. He went to Joel's vacation home in Japan, not to far off the countryside. It was around an area with a vast amount of trees and mountain life. Basically, it was a forest area. One which Joel believed would be a good quiet place for everyone to train. In the man's mind he only needed two weeks. He knew he could do it in one if necessary, but to make them all machines reinforced with their flames, he only needed two weeks. Though, like most things, it was easier said than done.

"Helloooooo!!!!"

Joel opened his door to see Cain standing there with a pair of crutches. "Come in, you're letting the air out. You're room is upstairs on the third floor. You'll be rooming with Fredrick.

"Whaaaaaa? Why do I have to room with Fredrick and what's with making a person in a cast sleep on the third floor?"

"Shut it. The girls get the rooms closer to the first floor. It's called hospitality. Also, I don't need you trying to sneak a peak at the girls when they go to take their baths."

"You're bath is huge though. I don't see the reason why we all can't share." Cain pouted sitting on the living room couch.

"Sure. Tell that to Keiko. See where that gets you. Anyway, I'm not only giving up my bath, but my room too, so just be happy."

"So where will you sleep?"

"Pfft. I don't need human things like sleep. I'll do what I do. As for the bathing, there is a shower on the third floor. Be happy with that."

The two continued to bicker for a while, Joel ignoring Cain, and Cain annoying Joel. Together they waited for the rest of their team to arrive."

Fredrick's father, Lorenzo Koenig, was more than just a genius engineer and black market weapons dealer. He was also a self-described "badass mechanic". At the moment, Fredrick was riding shotgun in one of his father's recent engineering marvels—a 3D-printed electric sportscar. The thing looked like a cross between a Lamborghini and a Camero, complete with sharp edges and jutting contours. The car itself had a pristine white paintjob, though the tires and rims, along with being bulletproof, were painted pitch black. The windows, too, were tinted to such an extent that they were impenetrable from the outside. When Fredrick inquired about the color choice one day, his father told him red and black are fast colors, Freddy, ya gotta think strategically; no cop expects the white car to be the speed demon. The memory brought a small smile to Fredrick's otherwise morose countenance, however fleeting. Currently, the sports car was bobbing and weaving through lanes of traffic, going nearly twice the speed limit of course, though that wasn't surprising considering his father was the one driving. Every so often, the man would mutter a slew of cuss words under his breath as he downshifted, making an obscene gesture at another driver and threatening vehicular homicide. Apparently, the rival motorist slighted him in some shape or form. Fredrick didn't really understand it, but it was usually hilarious to watch.

Not today, though. After everything that'd happened, the kid just wasn't in the mood for fun. Instead, he just sighed softly, his chin in his palm as he stared out the passenger-side window, a newly forlorn look fresh upon his face. In the back of his mind, Fredrick was hoping against hope that something would stop them from reaching their destination. Maybe a flat tire, or the car's battery going dead, or a bridge collapsing and they get stuck in immovable traffic. Something. Anything to stall them from reaching their final destination. As usual, luck was not on the boy's side. Within fifteen minutes, they exited the main road and entered an area saturated with trees and mountain life. It wasn't long before they rolled up to their destination: a large mansion on top of a hill. It was a Vongola-owned property in the countryside, managed by none other than the Lightning guardian himself, Joel Lambe.

In total, they'd been driving for around half an hour. GPS calculated that the trip should have taken double that. Yeah, his father had something of a lead foot. "Pedal to the metal" wasn't just a euphemism where he was concerned. Fredrick sighed again, looking down at the backpack that sat on the car floor, between his knees. He really didn't want to go.

"You ready, Fred?" He father asked, putting the car in neutral and pulling the brake lever before cutting the engine.

"Yes," Fredrick muttered, though from his tone, it was obvious that he didn't mean it.

Koenig turned to face his son, his expression somewhat concerned. "You didn't bring any web-accessible devices with you, right? No cells, pads, laptops..."

Fredrick shook his head in response, still staring down at the bag between his knees. "Yeah, dad, I know."

Despite his son's confirmation, Koenig continued, "... because I can almost guarantee that I've seen some iffy activity on the Vongola's server logs, and you guys shouldn't take any chances, especially with Cain in that condition—"

"Yeah, dad, yeah," Fredrick snapped, his tone dismissive. "The network and stuff. We know." Fredrick looked out the window towards the mansion. "There's no service out here anyway."

The two sat in awkward silence for a minute, the chirping of birds and clicking of the car's engine as it cooled the only sounds to reach their ears. After a while, Fredrick glanced briefly over at his father before looking back down at his backpack, wringing his hands. He realized that the old man was just trying to help, but... ... it just wasn't fair. None of it! Why did his ring have to get taken like this? Why was he so pathetic as a Vongola... as a hitman, a friend, a human being? He sighed, opening his mouth to apologize, but Koenig spoke first.

"You know," Koenig began, his tone upbeat and airy, "your grandfather was a gifted assassin—a natural legendary hitman." Fredrick closed his mouth, chancing another glance up at his father and caught his eye. The old man rarely if ever spoke of his father—Fredrick's grandfather. As he understood it, the two men weren't exactly on the best of terms. Koenig grinned as he continued. "He didn't have time for any of that girly numbers crap, which was pretty much the full extent of his respect for my interests at the time... but anyways, he was an unstoppable combat artist." Koenig reached out and placed his hand on his son's head. "And every day I look at you, you remind me so much of him. You could maybe use a bit more of his blatant assholery—... er uh, fearless boldness," he said, correcting himself with a chuckle. Fredrick grinned at his father's bad joke despite his sour mood. "But in terms of ability, you are every bit the hitman he was. Probably even better, at your age."

"Really?"

"Really. You just have to summon the courage to bring it out, Fred."

"But I don't like hurting people like granddad... and I lost the ring. I lost Serlina..." He sighed, his grin evaporating. He thought back to his conversation with Joel, the experience gnawing at his psyche. "What if they don't even want me to be in their family anymore?"

It was his father's turn to sigh. "If you keep worrying about the what-ifs, you'll never get anywhere, kid." He pushed down on Fredrick's head playfully, forcing him into a half-bow. "If you're so curious, why not walk up there and ask 'em yourself?" Suddenly, Koenig's voice gained a slight edge. "Either way, you're getting out of this car in the next 60 seconds and I'm leaving, and I won't be looking back. I'm already gonna be late, and you know how your mother is."

Fredrick gasped audibly, the fear in his eyes nearly palpable. "But—!"

Koenig pressed a button on the driver-side door, popping the locks. "Out out out," he said, making shooing motions with his hands. "I need to hit the road."

Looking defeated, his shoulders slumped, Fredrick pulled the door handle and exited the car. Instead of swinging outwards like a typical car, the passenger-side door flipped upwards like a bird's wing. Begrudgingly, the boy stepped out of the car, hauling his backpack with him and slinging it over his shoulder. With a grunt, he reached up to grasp the car door and pull it down, but his father's voice stopped him.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Koenig reached under his seat, pulling out a small bag about the size of a large book. "Here," he said, tossing the bag. Fredrick caught it like a professional football player, his reflexes taking over. "It's a little something I whipped up to, uh, help you along."

Fredrick looked down at the bag, eyeing it with a curious expression. "What's inside?"

"You'll figure it out. Now hurry up and close my door."

Fredrick did as he was told, folding the door from its winged position back down into place. It locked in with an audible click.

Immediately, Koenig rolled down the window. "Don't try to contact me, because I'm not gonna come pick you up early. Have fun!"

Fredrick only managed a slight wave before his father's car jetted forward like a hellfire missile, engine purring. In a matter of moments, he bent a corner and was out of sight. Fredrick turned towards the house, flipping up the hood of his hoodie, pulling the drawstrings tight. As he made his way to the front door, he felt as if he were walking through molasses, each step harder than the next. Eventually, he reached the door and brought his hand up as if to knock, but then thought twice about it. Still the question remained: what use was a ringless wannabe Vongola like him, anyway? What was his purpose in being here again?

Several minutes passed as Fredrick just stood there outside of the door, motionless, his hand frozen in an almost-knock. He was confident that Cain, Shaji, Joel, and the others were already here, since he'd left out a little later then as planned. Would they even want to see him? After a while, he sighed, putting his arm down and turning from the door. He really didn't want to be here. They didn't need him, right?

His first thought was to call his father back to pick him up, but that definitely wouldn't work. No service out here for starters. Plus he had no phone on him... and his dad would just laugh and say no. Hmm... maybe he could just walk back. Fredrick pondered the extreme amount of walking that that would entail and immediately put that possibility out of his mind. With one final sigh, the maybe-Rain-guardian dropped his backpack and took a seat on the stairs leading up to the doorway. Perhaps he could just wait out here forever.

"Oh. Remember that time you thought your dad was a zombie because he was sleepwalking? That was really funny. Hehe."

"Cain. . ." Joel looked at the talkative boy with his natural lazy look. "Shut up."

Cain waved his hands as if to blow away Joels comment. "C'mon. I'm bored and you don't have a computer, a television, or .... well, anything. We can at least talk right?"

"No."

"Come on bro. Tell me who you like. I might be able to help you out. You know they call me cupid in school." Cain giggled.

"When I use to go to your school, I remember they said you were the girlfriend stealer. Not that you could ever come to par with me. I don't need your help. Nor do I need you in my business."

"What? Aren't we brothers though?" Cain looked towards Joel who had turned his head away, sprawled out on the couch like he was sleeping. "Well fine," Cain said crossing his arms. "Be that way. I'll just count the seconds as they go by. One, Two, Three..."

Joel tried to zone the boy out, but the kid really knew how to get under his skin. Though, it was just his luck that not everyone got to see this overly childish side of the lad. No. Just him. He always found himself playing the part of older brother towards the boy. Not that he didn't enjoy it, but sometimes, like these times, it was really annoying. He also made a mental note to start watching what he said around Cain. With the way his mouth runs, if he told him any secrets then the beans would be spilled before he got a chance to think twice about it.

"One hundred thousand and something. One hundred thousand and two somethings. Where was I. Whatev's, I'll just start over."

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Joel sprung up from his backwards resting position and said, "Oh thank god," as he walked towards the door. Not really to his surprise, Ai had been standing at his door, but to his dismay she didn't have anything with her. He gave her a lackluster look and thought quickly on how to handle the situation, deciding to deal with it later, before standing out of her way so she could enter the summer home. "Come in." Those were the only words he said to her as he escorted her to the living room, sitting in the chair adjacent to the couch and next to Cain's chair. His stature in the chair was more like a king inside of his palace, bored at the everyday squabbles of his people. He didn't really want to admit it, but he was tired. Not so much physically tired as mentally. He really didn't enjoy having to father a bunch of kids for a week. He didn't even want to think about it if he was told to stay there longer with the group. Cain was one thing, but a bunch of little people walking around meant he had to keep his composure about him, even more than he already did at the shrine. Though he didn't feel a certain way about Ai being in his pressence at the moment. After all, having her in the room was almost like having no extra bodies in the room.

Cain on the other hand was excited to have another person that he could talk to. "Hey Shaji," he said with a smile on his face. "I'd stand up to hug you, but you know, I have this strange leg feeling. Almost like I have a cast on it. Hehehe."

Joel opened one eye to see the boy who had just made the lame joke before sighing and closing it once more.

"So who dropped you off huh? Your folks? Actually now that you mention it, I never met your folks before. I bet they're nice people. Oh. Did you know that this area has a nice lake. You should of brought a......Swimming suit? Oh." Cain looked her over and all that she was carrying, which by his surprise was actually nothing. "So I see you like to travel light huh? Well that's cool 'cuz you know what they say........ Yup. I know you know, so I don't gotta tell you." After a while Cain stopped talking on his own free will. Not getting a rise out of Joel and not getting the responses that he wanted from Ai, he settled with playing with his beanie for about an hour before another knock was heard.

"WE'RE HERE!" The voice was familiar enough for Joel to guess who was at the door, though once he opened it he was surprised to see the duo that were outside. One person was added and one was taken away and it didn't set well with him at all. Actually, instead of looking at the people who were in front of him, his eyes wandered for split second, finally resting on Fredrick before targeting Eri.

"Come in," he said keeping his eyes moving as if he was expecting another person to follow the two. His eyes, have they been half open were now squinted as if he was picking apart the situation bit by bit. Once he lead them all to the living room, he stayed in the hall for a moment to gather the current information in front of him, along with the current routes. There was no doubt about it. Things were how they were and there was no sense changing them. What would happen would happen and he'd have to let it, for that is what he decided to do.

"Fred!!! What's up man. Come on, give me five. I'd like to get up myself, but you know. My leg is kinda..."

"Cain!!!" Joel interrupted. His voice mid ranged in volume, but still carried a level of assertiveness with it. He turned to face Eri, relaxing his face as if he was his usual uninterested self before speaking again. "Where's Keiko? Is she coming?" If she didn't want to come it was her choice. Whether she wanted to keep her ring or not was also her choice, but before Joel did anything, thought of anything, he needed to have all the facts clear. Also, part of him worried what would happen if someone were to not show up. Though there was nothing, at least willingly, that he could do about it. In fact, in all forms, he had no jurisdiction over any of these kids. However, everything that he says and directs led to the path of Vongola. Whether they were to take that path was completely their choice. Though, with Cain he reached out and spoke more on the fact and he started to worry if he hadn't given everyone his time properly. Though he had always been watching and observing them, Cain was the one who got more emotional time with him. Therefore, if someone were to not follow the path, it would be his fault. Not only that, if someone were to get hurt, because of anything, from today onward, it'd be his fault. He had half the mind to go back towards the city and stop that from happening, but that wouldn't be like him at all. That wouldn't be staying calm. If he wasn't calm then he couldn't lead. He couldn't show a leader how to lead. So first, before jumping to any conclusion, he had to separate himself completely from the matter and be an outsider, an observer. So he calmly looked at Eri hoping that her answer would calm his nerves and that he wouldn't do anything out of his character. Though all of these thoughts were inside of his mind, his face stayed uninterested, making it seem like he could care less. Exactly in character for him.

"Come in," was the reply. Eri opened the door, removing her purple sneakers, lifting them with her free hand and walking in.

"Excuse me for intruding." she bowed, yet again with her unchanging, traditional mindset to greet upon entering a house. She placed the sneakers where she thought would least obstruct the way and remained in her black knee high socks. She entered the mansion and looked around with her cold, blue eyes, observing what she could before looking at the occupants.

The owner of the mansion, Lightning Guardian Joel Lambe. The Boss, Sky Guardian Cain Vongola. The Mist Guardian, Shaji Ai.

"That makes five of us right now." she noted.

"Fred!!! What's up man. Come on, give me five. I'd like to get up myself, but you know. My leg is kinda..."

Eri shook her head a little with a brief smile on her face. She could understand where all this talking was coming from. After all, the Boss was probably holed up all the time inside a room or something similar, without any way to release the amount of energy he had pent up inside. Her eyes settled on the leg that broke, remembering the time when it was bent at an impossible angle. She looked up at Cain again. Surely he remembered as well? Maybe he was acting cheery to forget about it? She shook her head internally, no, that couldn't be. Cain wasn't exactly the type to dwell in the past anyway.

"Cain!!!" Joel interrupted, his voice carried a level of assertiveness with it at which Eri narrowed her eyes at, though she let it slide. He turned to face Eri, "Where's Keiko? Is she coming?"

Before she could answer, Shaji had spoken. "The Storm Guardian wont be arriving today. She is busy. She did receive a temporary replacement ring." She presented her fist and opened it, revealing silver rings in her hand with a large gemstone on each of them, being orange and blue colored respectively. "I had brought these rings with me for the Boss and the Rain Guardian. They are B-Rank rings capable of producing deathperation flames. Both are some of the most expensive rings in the world, but they do not compare to the Vongola rings in worth nor power. They shall serve as temporary replacements until we retrieve the Vongola rings we had lost to the Rizzo. They will be key for your training. I cannot assure that others are prepared for if we lose any more rings, but the Boss should be able to order them ready anyway, should it come to that."

"That's good to know we have someone here we can trust to help, Shaji." Eri gave the pink-haired enigma a smile, glad to know someone was already preparing all these for the Vongola. She turned back to Joel, a frown on her face as if she was trying hard not to remember something unpleasant.

"Miyamoto Keiko did not accompany me here today, however, she had stated that she will be arriving as soon as she can after she had completed a 'series of tasks', as she put it." Eri started, almost as if reporting for duty, traces of professionalism evident in her voice. She raised up the hand that she held several voice recorders in, each labelled with the names of the Vongola Guardians, except for her and Keiko. "I can confirm that she will be arriving, but I do not know when. Miyamoto has also handed me these to pass onto each of you."

She walked over to each of the present Vongola Guardians and handed the voice recorders to each of them. "I have not played them, but Miyamoto said that they are personal messages she has for each of you."

"Joel. It's Keiko. I know, I know. Ya're probably upset with dah way I handled myself during dah incident. Hell, I was even 'bout tah kill someone from dah Vongola." A short pause. You could just sense a conflict of emotions emanating, even if the proud, spunky Sun Guardian wasn't around. "I won't make excuses fer mah behavior. But I will make amends and this is dah first step. Go easy on dah Boss, Speedy. Guide 'im."

"Boss, Champ speakin'. Boss, yer an amazin' person and don't matter what happened, ya're still dah Boss. Vongola needja. Ya're still growin' and yer potential ain't reached yet, so don't stop there. After all, dah Sky encompasses everythin'. But Boss... I still ain't handin' over dah title of Champion over tah ya. I have a gift fer ya."

"Shaji. I'm sure ya've come up with something tah benefit dah famiglia in some way. I guess that's how I've always viewed ya. So Shaji, whatcha done? Do ya have information dat helps us?"

"Fredrick, you cub. I have something for you."

"Well, that's that." Eri said, walking backwards, with the last recorder that was definitely meant for Nami.

"Shaji. I'm sure ya've come up with something tah benefit dah famiglia in some way. I guess that's how I've always viewed ya. So Shaji, whatcha done? Do ya have information dat helps us?" Ai quietly considered the inquiry after listening to the recording. She'd already told them all about the same things, including the Storm Guardian. If she did have any information that would have benefited them all at the time, she would have already told them, at least she assumed.

Ai had told them of how the Rizzo came from the future and that they were after their rings, but she refused to give more detail as to why. After all, the Rizzos believed that they were doing the right thing for humankind and the Vongolas, if they were in the same position, would likely to have done the same thing. Yet, only Ai truly knew why it was so important that the Vongola rings were to never be given to them, humanity's enemies. They did promise peace, but for humankind, there were fates that existed for them much worse than annihilation. It was key that the Aliens, Ai's ancestors, were to be completely annihilated. Thus, as Ai was programmed, to make sure that didn't happen, Ai needed the rings to be protected at all costs and the Rizzos to become unimportant. If the Vongolas were unsuccessful, Ai would need to protect the rings herself and she was willing to give up her own body to do it. Only, would she give up the lives of her family, her Boss? Ai needed to consider it further.

Ai had to consider every possibility in fact, as no matter what, Ai was going to fail in an alternate universe. Everything that could possibly happen was certain to happen. There would exist universes where the Rizzos would manage to take their rings and give them to the Aliens as their peace offering, thus resulting in Ai's universe or similar iterations. Unfortunately, Ai did not have the mental capacity to calculate the infinite. Ai took chances with almost everything, which she determined was the most logical course of action as she was bound to succeed no matter what. Just as she was fated to fail, she was fated to succeed. It was by chance that Ai had continued to succeed. Working by chance allowed Ai to continue to work hard, while if she knew she was likely to fail, she may not have worked as hard. It almost seemed that the less foresight Ai had, the better. Of course, foresight was also important as it helped her make good decisions.

In conclusion, knowing exactly how the universe worked was very stressful. The universe had no more mysteries and there was nothing left to theorize or philosophize. There were no uncertainties or variables, only natural laws of which were reliable for predicting exactly how a situation worked and what was the absolute best action. Surely, this was the goal of all science. Omniscience was something that Ai at her immature stage, just as all of her kind had aspired to, being minds that didn't know anything. Ai had also observed that humans had this lust for knowledge as well. An unenlightened mind always wished to be enlightened. Yet once Ai had achieved it she knew all truths, including the painful truth that omniscience was hell. It was impossible to learn when there was nothing left to learn, no unknown things to fear, no new discoveries to feel joyful about. Were sentient creatures greater than all of existence because mere existence didn't satisfy them enough to prevent boredom? Or was the existing universe greater because it could continue to expand while sentience couldn't go beyond the bounds of existence?

Philosophy aside, Ai contemplated possible information she had that could have further benefited them all. Then she remembered; "I am not an ordinary human being," she said suddenly.

"Koenig. I see you made it."

For an instant, Fredrick looked around, confused. Back in Italy, most people referred to his father as Koenig, while he escaped unnoticed. However, he did recognize the voice. Looking up, he spotted Eri walking up the stairs towards him and immediately froze. The sunlight seemed to catch her hair, which shifted in the gentle midday breeze, moving in slow motion along with the rest of her body. She was like a supermodel crossed with a superhero—strong, courageous, beautiful, and above all, cool. Instead of responding, Fredrick just stared, dumbfounded.

Eri walked right up beside him… and then knocked on the door. Fredrick came to his feet immediately, gulping once. “Uh… maybe we should wait…”

"WE'RE HERE!" She announced, causing Fredrick to wince. The door was not answered immediately, giving Fredrick hope that maybe nobody was home. Maybe he and Eri could just chill outside… maybe?

As if reading his thoughts, Eri turned to face Fredrick. "Nice to see you again. I take that the offer for dinner hasn't been cancelled yet?"

Fredrick chuckled nervously, looking down at his feet and scratching the back of his head. She still wanted to go out with him?! Fredrick internally berated himself. It’s not like a date or anything. Don’t get your hopes up. That’s when he thought of Serlina. She’d definitely give him her infamous “threat of encouragement”. Something like either you go out with her or I will! That made Fredrick smile, if but for a moment.

Then he remembered: he lost his ring. He lost Serlina. He lost everything.

He sighed, looking up at Eri. She didn’t deserve to be dragged down by his misery. Maybe he should just cancel it. He smiled nervously. “Uh… yeah…” He gulped. He had to protect her. He couldn’t bring her into his world. Didn’t want to show her just how weak and pathetic he really was. Then she’d never like him… That’s right. It’d be best just to distance himself from the others… especially Eri.

Especially Eri.

For the first time in a while, he looked her directly in the eyes, his expression becoming imperturbable. “Maybe later,” he muttered, reaching down, grabbing his bag, and slinging it over his shoulder.

At the same time, the door opened, and they were greeted with Joel’s reasoned countenance. He seemed to be analyzing them, as if they weren’t what he’d expected. Fredrick took the initiative, moving through the door before Eri did. As an afterthought, he removed his shoes and tossed them unceremoniously to the side, but did not otherwise speak.

"Fred!!!” Someone who could only be Cain exclaimed, nearly causing Fredrick to jump out of his skin. “What's up man. Come on, give me five. I'd like to get up myself, but you know. My leg is kinda...”

Fredrick sighed, but didn’t otherwise move, choosing instead to avoiding eye contact and look away. It was Joel who reacted instead, interrupting the boss.

"Cain!!!" The Lightning guardian’s was voice mid-ranged in volume, but still carried a level of assertiveness with it.

Fredrick was glad for the interruption, taking the opportunity to go sit in the corner furthest from the others. As they spoke about various things, all Fredrick could think of was shrinking away. He wanted nothing more than to disappear into his chair, becoming nothing and a burden for no one. He sighed. Maybe his father would come pick him up, if only he could find a way to contact him…

Suddenly, Eri appeared before him, the shadow of her presence blocking out the light from the overhead lamp. She handed him a tape recorder, which he took from her hands without question. She seemed to be waiting for him to press the play button, and so he did.

"Fredrick, you cub. I have something for you."

As Eri walked away, Fredrick began to tear up. Keiko… she sounded so genuine, her voice so full of compassion, as if she actually cared. Maybe she really did…

Fredrick brought his fist to his forehead, leaning his elbow on his seat’s armrest. He closed his eyes, trying his hardest to stop tears from breaching his eyelids and rolling down his cheeks.

Why were they all still pretending to like him? He was the idiot who lost his ring to some kid. He wasn’t a leader like Cain, or wise like Joel, or strong like Keiko, or awesome like Eri, or famous like Nami, or a genius like Shaji. He was just… nothing. They were probably laughing at him behind his back, and he knew without a doubt that he could not fault them for it—would not—because he deserved it.

Fredrick sniffed softly, the sound quiet enough to be unnoticeable. He opened his eyes. They were tearless. He refused to cry like some victim. It was his fault that he was in this situation, not Eri’s or Keiko’s or Cain’s or anyone else’s. They did not deserve to be burdened with his weakness. Not now.

If only Serlina was here. She’d know what to do.

"I am not an ordinary human being," Shaji suddenly blurted out. Even Fredrick raised an eyebrow at that one.



Alastor stepped back, admiring the fruits of his labor. With a little help from his Clocktower, Trevor’s C-Frame AI, and Hildegarde—the self-proclaimed “crouching brute, hidden mathematician”—he’d successfully performed the calculations necessary to estimate the current rate of temporal flux in respect to the space-time of this particular timeline.

In sending the Rizzo back to this specific point in time, the AIs calculated that they’d have roughly two months to perform their operations and divest the Vongolas of their rings. This would have allowed them to move slowly, cautiously, and also given them some buffer room in case the timeline began to change more drastically than they'd anticipated. However, from what he’d just calculated, they’d just eaten through that buffer.

They didn’t have two months’ time anymore. If his calculations were correct—and he did run them through his Clocktower and the C-Frame AI several times along with Hildegarde double-checking him as he went—they barely had over a million seconds remaining in their window before they did irrevocable damage to the future.

Essentially, the future they would return to, 100 years hence, would be one that was completely unfamiliar. In fact, it would be highly unpredictable. Anything could happen… and with the fate of humanity at stake, they couldn’t afford to roll the dice so cavalierly.

Roughly one million seconds—a conservative estimate. That’s about twenty-thousand minutes. Three hundred hours. Fourteen days. They went from two months’ time to fourteen days after one battle.

“Don’t look so good, eh?” Hildegarde said, allowing her thick accent to carry through.

“Not at all,” Alastor agreed. “Time is something we’re running short on, unfortunately.” He turned to face her. “I didn’t think it’d be this bad. We need to get the remaining rings and get out of here as soon as humanly possible. If one battle did that to the timeline, I can’t imagine what ruinous effects a sustained full-on offensive by the Rizzo would have...”

“No holds barred?” Hildegarde said, barely containing a cackle. “The effect would be: we’d kick their asses.”

“No, the effect would be: we’d totally erase the future we know.”

Hildegarde leaned back against the wall, folding her arms. “I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing,” her voice took on an endearing tone, “my cute little Alastor.”

Alastor gave her a look somewhere between incredulity and chagrin, a slight blush crossing his cheeks, though if it was due to anger or embarrassment, Hildegarde wasn’t sure. She definitely loved poking his buttons, just to witness the results. It was positively delightful.

“Hear me out, boss” she continued, raising her hands in surrender. “Maybe changing the future is what we want. Maybe we can make it so that humanity is ready for the aliens before they ever show up as a blip on the deep-space LIDAR array.”

“Or maybe we accidentally make it so humanity flat out loses the instant they attack,” he said coolly, looking back towards his wall of calculations, hand to his chin. After a while, he seemed to come to a conclusion of sorts. “It’ll be best if we stick to father’s plan,” he muttered.

Hildegarde shrugged. “Just throw’n out ideas, Al.”

“The moment Trev finds this Vongola hidey-hole, we’re going in full-strength.” He looked at Hildegarde. “No purposeful killing, but no mercy, either. We’ll crush them completely, and divest them of the remainder of their rings in one fell swoop. We can’t afford anything less.”

Hildegarde grinned, noting Alastor’s use of the adjective purposeful. That was quite a bit of leeway, as far as he was concerned. “So only a few holds barred.”

“Essentially.”
“Sounds good to me,” she said, curtsying deeply. “O glorious leader.”
Alastor sighed, bringing his palm to his face in a halfway attempt to hide a budding grin.

Upon hearing that Nami also wouldn't be showing up, Joel resigned to himself, thinking that maybe her priority's weren't in the right place. Although that was her decision to make and he honestly didn't care. Whether she got her ring back or not was completely up to her. Also, hearing about the b rank rings didn't really matter much to Joel. What they lacked in power he would make up for in their training.

Once Eri told him about what Keiko was up to, he couldn't help but at least feel a little curious to what tasks she was going to take care of. He decided to put that curiosity on hold, noting that it wasn't important at the time. He took the recorder from the girl and played it. After listening to it he gave a slight smirk before putting it down. He gave the others time to listen to their bits before saying anything.
........................................................................................................................................................................................
While Cain listened to his piece, it did make him feel a little better about his defeat. Plus, the fact that him and Fredrick were getting gifts made him wish he could see her again already. "Hey Fred, you hear that," he asked. "We're getting presents. Ain't that awesome?" Afterwards he turned towards Ai. "Hey Shaji, could you hand me that ring? I just got into a comfortable spot and don't really feel like moving."
........................................................................................................................................................................................
Joel looked over the whole group. "Alright guys. It's time to get straight to business. You all know why you're here. I judge for two different reasons. One, you want to get stronger to get our rings back from those assassins, and two, you want to get stronger so you can keep your rings. Either way, I have to say I'm grateful that you all came. Though coming here was the easy part. You probably don't know this, but I've been watching you. I know a lot of your strengths and your weaknesses. During your time here we will work on that. Let me warn you though. It will not be easy, but if you don't give up you will be ten times stronger than you are today. In physic and mentality. Tomorrow, starting at zero six hundred, we will wake up and meditate for an hour. Afterwards, we will eat and then you will each have individual training, assigned by myself. Though now, I guess since it's getting late, we can eat and rest up for tomorrow. You can also take this time to unpack I suppose."

Once he was done his speech, Joel was about to leave the room to let the others do whatever they had wanted to do. Though before he left, Ai's words made him stop and turn around slightly so he could see her face.
........................................................................................................................................................................................
Cain on the other hand looked at her strangely. At first he thought she was saying she was stronger than Joel thought, but he had to ask. "What do you mean Shaji?"

"What do you mean Shaji?" Shaji turned toward Joel after giving Cain and Fred their rings. She looked around at all of them, seeing that she received their attention. Perhaps it was because they all knew so little about Ai and wanted to know more, or maybe it was just plain unusual claim of being anything other than human. Ai began to explain.

"I am a bio-mechanically engineered probe of extra-terrestrial designed to interact with humans in order to complete specific tasks as ordered by my superiors. I am what you would consider an Alien. I have existed in this timeline for more than fourteen Earth years, yet my origins exist in the far future, long after the destruction of this planet. My mission is to work with the Vongola in order to make sure your kind defeats mine in the future, something only a select few members of the Vongola are aware of, including the External Advisor and the Vongola Decimo, your father, Boss," Ai glanced at Cain, "Up until his unfortunate death."

"Using my ability to alter the human perception of reality, I have continued to be able to hide my identity from humans," as she said that, odd ornaments shimmered into view on Ai, long pink cords that stuck out from both seen and unseen spots on her clothing, marked by yellow hearts, such as on the end of her headband and on the wrists of her wide sleeves. They surrounded her like the laces of shoes and tangled together in intricate little patterns around her chest like laces, and all connected to a single red sphere, where a large eye stared out. "Yet here, among the rest of you, I should be able to freely express it for I trust you all as the current guardians of the Vongola rings, and as the guardians, it is essential that we keep them from the Rizzo. Much more than the Vongola is at stake and it is both part of my mission and my duty as a guardian to make sure the rings don't end up in the Rizzo's possession, and I shall use this body to the best of my ability to do so."

Fredrick rolled the unfamiliar ring around in his palms, pondering his current situation. The B-ranked ring wouldn't be enough to bring Serlina back, so why did he even need it? He considered handing it back to Shaji, but that was before she said something that caught his attention.

"I am a bio-mechanically engineered probe of extra-terrestrial designed to interact with humans in order to complete specific tasks as ordered by my superiors."

Fredrick narrowed his eyes. Was this a joke? Extraterrestrial? Aliens? Really? Fredrick sighed, leaning the side of his face against his fist, his elbow on his chair's armrest, retreating back into himself as Shaji continued her fanciful explanation. What was the point of this alien-themed story? Was this part of Joel's training?

And then the tentacles appeared, materializing into existence as if they'd always been there. Pink cords, bobbing and weaving in the air, coming together to form intricate shapes and patterns before dispersing again. Shaji was virtually surrounded by these... these lace things. Fredrick straightened in his chair, a look of alarm on his face. They looked like they were crushing her!

"... it is both part of my mission and my duty as a guardian to make sure the rings don't end up in the Rizzo's possession, and I shall use this body to the best of my ability to do so."

"Shaji?! Are you okay?!" Fredrick asked, voice almost panicked as he prepared to stand, the ring in his hand all but forgotten, nearly tumbling to the floor. He looked to Joel, Cain, and the others. "What's happening?"