Fetching the kids

Hey guys, Kallaway here. Been a while. I've spent most of my time assisting Daniel with his work and doing what I can to track down Tyler. Which has been going... poorly...

Anyway, some time ago, Kai, the kid that Daniel risked his life for back in Seattle, posted on their bog that they wanted his help. So, at his request, I left to go track them down.

They were much easier for me to find than Tyler. Kai and his friend Royce were traveling by car in Kansas. I introduced myself to them and explained that Daniel sent me. They were suspicious at first, but after a bit of talking I managed to convince them to let me lead them to him.

So we spent the next day or so driving toward Daniel's base. It started off pretty uneventful, but I couldn't shake a bad feeling I was having. So I did a quick look into the future.

"Pull over," I told Royce.

"What?" he asked. "Why? Is something up?"

I stared forward and focused my vision.

"Just do it," I told him, drawing my sword. "I'll explain in a bit."

He stopped the car and I got out.

"What's wrong?" Kai asked.

"There's a Kraken outpost 2 miles ahead of us," I said. "And there's more Kraken agents behind us getting close. If we get stuck between them, it's gonna be a problem."

I handed Royce a slip of paper.

"I'm gonna try to deal with the ones behind us," I told him. "But if things look like they're going bad, floor it and head to this address. You can avoid the outpost ahead if you get off at the next exit. Choose your route carefully after that. Steer clear of anything suspicious."

As I finished explaining, A couple black vans and a motorcycle stopped a short distance behind us. A bunch of Kraken agents got out. They were armed pretty minimalistically. Low funding, I'm assuming. Just a couple guns and some batons. But there was one guy who stood out among them.

He got out of the back of one of the vans with a fucking bicycle, of all things. He kicked out the kick stand and leaned against the thing, with his arms folded. He had dark red hair, and was wearing a blindfold for some reason. He had a large, curved saber hanging from his lower back, and he kept licking his lips in an odd manner, which made me super uncomfortable.

Someone else, the presumed leader of the group, took a few steps forward and addressed me.

"David Kallaway," he said. "Step aside and let us-"

Ignoring him completely, I sprouted my wings and flew straight to the hood of one of the vans. I rushed right passed the motorcycle, which I could have brought down in that instance, but for some reason I can't quite explain, I thought in might be a better idea to leave it intact.

I landed on the hood of the van, used my enhanced vision to locate the engine, and stabbed my sword into it. They tried firing at me, but I was quick enough to evade them and take out the other van as well.

"Royce!" I shouted. "Now! I'll catch up!"

Royce nodded at me and hit the gas, He peeled out, leaving us behind. The man on the motorcycle revved his engine, but I was on him before he could get going, yanking him of his bike and tossing him aside.

"Damn it!" the leader said, turning to the guy with the bicycle. "Pursue them! Full speed."

In response, the biker spat of the ground.

"No," he replied. "You get whatever speed I feel like. And frankly, you're not paying me enough for full speed."

"I don't think any speed you go on that bike is going to ma-" I started to say, but before I had finished, he had suddenly appeared beside me, on his bike, sword drawn and a massive grin plastered across his face.

"You're welcome to tag along," he said. nodding at the motorcycle.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked.

He chuckled, and I think I heard him mutter "Hell" under his breath.

"Damien's the name," he said. "And over-the-top fights with worthy opponent's is my game."

With that, he took off, going faster than any normal bicycle has any right to go. I sheathed my sword, started the motorcycle, and pursued him.

Now, here's the thing...

I've never ridden a motorcycle. Hell, only ridden normal bikes a handful of times. I've never had any kind of training to prepare me for this...

And it came super naturally to me.

I can't explain it, but even though I had no idea what I was doing, it seemed like my instincts did...

I was closing the distance between myself and him, and we were both approaching the upcoming checkpoint. He turned his head in my direction, licked his lips, and grinned. I still have no idea how he was able to perceive anything with that blindfold on...

He drew his sword in his left hand as he got close to the checkpoint and screamed at them to get out of his way. They scattered, and he effortlessly weaved through their vehicles. I did the same. Deciding it was time to see how well I could handle this whole motorcycling thing one handed, I drew my own sword in my right hand as I caught up to him.

He grinned broadly and swung his sword as I got close. I guarded, and swung at him in retaliation. He defended himself, and then sped up, gaining some distance before doing something I'm pretty sure isn't possible. He spun around, started pedaling backwards, and the bike itself started going in reverse. Which... I'm pretty sure isn't how bikes work.

Like I mentioned earlier, I haven't done much biking, but in the case of all the bikes I've experienced, if you pedal backwards, the pedals either spin uselessly, or lock up. I'm pretty sure you can't ride a bike in reverse.

He slowed down just enough for me to close the distance, then he leaned forward and slashed at me. I slashed back. We continued attacking and blocking each other for at least a mile. before he sped up a bit, putting distance between us again. He then did the most absurd bullshit imaginable.

He stood up on the bike, and flipped it up so that it was balancing on the front tire. He casually stood on the handlebars with one foot, the other lifted up behind him a bit. He lowered his blade, placed the thumb of the other hand in his pocket as continued to weirdly lick his lips. And all the while, he remained in motion. He was no longer pedaling (which wouldn't matter anyway, because the pedals don't affect the front tire at all", but the front tire was still spinning, backwards, at the same speed as before.

Like... HOW the actual FUCK! I literally have no explanation for any of this bullshit.

"So, you're the great David Kallaway?" he said casually. "Great hero of Seattle. Cousin of Ben Malkator."

His expression changed. I assume he was glaring. Hard to tell with the blindfold.

"Did you know he murdered my sister?" he said.

"That's none of my business," I hissed back at him.

"Whatever," he said, as his sword was suddenly engulfed in crimson light. "Let's wrap this up, shall we? It's obvious those kids have taken a different route..."

He sung his swords, causing a wave f red energy to fly at me. I jumped off of the motorcycle as the blade of light destroyed it, escaping by the skin of my teeth. I spread my wings and charged at him in midair. He barely blocked my first swing at him, but my second attacked grazed his face, slicing though his blindfold and leaving a deep diagonal gash across his nose.

I could finally see his eyes now. His irises were as red as his hair, and there were glowing scarlet pentacles engraved in his pupils. He gave me a cocky smile as he reached up and felt the blood on his face.

"Now this... this is worth full speed," he said.

Next thing I new, he had grabbed his bike with his free hand, and then spun rapidly, smacking me across the torso with it. I went flying. I hit the ground hard. I rolled across the ground several feet. By the time I had stopped, I was in too much pain to move. All I could do was look up at him as he approached me.

"Now, I'm not going to kill you," he said, leaning over me. "For two main reasons. Reason number one being that this was fun. We've gotta do this again sometime."

I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, but my lungs hurt too much to get the words out.

"And reason number two," he said, lowering his sword to my left cheek. "Is because I need you to pass along a request."

He then dragged the blade across my cheek, leaving a deep cut. I winced in pain.

"You're friend, Dr. Ferris," Damien said. "I've seen his blog. He's a Devil Killer. He has the Archangel's power."

I finally managed to spit out a weak "Fuck you." He just chuckled at that. As he did, I noticed that the wound I had inflicted on his face was slowly closing up.

"I like you to tell him to retrieve the soul of Sylvia Monroe," he said. "If me does, I might just scratch his back in return."

"Why," I hissed.

"You see, Davey., I'm a merc," he said. "Is it all right if I call you Davey?"

"No!" I growled.

"I'ma call you Davey!" He said, giving the most annoying fucking smile as he did. "Anyway, Davey, the only reason I'm lending Kraken a hand is because they put a paycheck in said hand."

By this point, his wound had fully heal, leaving no trace other than the blood streaks he hadn't bothered to clean off.

"And that girls soul," he continued. "That, Davey, is worth more to me than any number that they could ever jot down on a check. So please. Pass this message along. Oyasuminasai."

"What?" I asked.

He suddenly grabbed me by the hair and pulled me closer, grinning.

"Yeah, I can tell from the Doc's blog that you suck at Japanese," he whispered. "It means 'good night'."

The next thing I remember after that was my head hitting the ground.

I awoke sometime later to the feeling of a needle entering my cheek. I gasped in pain and tried to swing my arm out, only for it to be held down.

"Hold still, dumbass!" I heard Daniel said.

I opened my eyes to see what was going on. I was at Daniel's base. Kimiko was there, restraining my arm, while Daniel was kneeling above me, sewing up the wound on my cheek this one of those curved surgery needles.

"I'm back here?" I asked.

"Kai and Royce arrived a couple days ago," Daniel explained, tying up the thread and snipping it, before sticking the needle back into my skin.

"Ouch!" I said.

"Deal with it," he said. "I would have properly sedated you, but I'm not exactly liquid right now. Can't afford anesthetic. You're lucky I had some Novocain on hand. This isn't even my first aid kit I'm using. Elie lent it to me."

"Okay, sorry," I said. "How are they? Kai and Royce, I mean?"

"They're fine," he said. "We haven't spoken much yet. As soon as they told me a blindfolded guy on a bike was there, and that you stayed behind, I knew I had to get to you fast."

"You know this guy?" I asked.

"The Bloody Biker," he said. "Long story. Dangerous. Always leaves a mark. You're lucky it was just  facial scar. He's taken limbs before."

"That's a good thing, right?" I asked.

"Nope," Daniel said. "The fact that he left you this intact means he considers you a potential rival. And you do not want to be his rival."

He finished stitching me up and stood up to leave.

"You'll be a bit sore for a while, but nothings broken, so you should recover soon. Kimiko will stay with you for now, so let her if you need anything. Also..."

He leaned in and whispered to me.

"Maybe make an effort to expand your vocabulary a bit. I think she likes you."

"Fuck off," I replied.

"Will do," he said. "I'll check up on you later."

So yeah. That's how that played out. I'm still hurting. I only managed to write this post up because I've had a lot of painkillers. In fact, I should probably get some rest. Oyasuminasai, everybody.