Cliff

 Kallaway here.

So, a few days ago, Kai and I went with the rest of Solar Progeny and Seraph to see off Daniel and Justin, who were leaving on Justin's motorcycle. He has another prosthetic he exclusively uses to grip the handlebar. They were departing from a nearby parking garage, which was about a third or fourth of the way full of empty vehicles spaced out around the place. Ciel, for some unknown reason, had brought along what appeared to be a very large, covered portrait.

"What exactly is that?" I asked

"The Mona Lisa, Fuck off," She replied, leaning it against Tony's parked VW van.

"Yeah, I'll just pretend that's normal," Daniel said, stretching. He was dressed in a biker jacket to match Justin, which was a weird look to see him in, given his usual labcoat getup. He tossed his crutch over to me and slipped on a helmet.

"You gonna be okay without this?" I asked.

"I can still limp." he replied. "Besides, I got Justin with me for support."

"Daniel and I go way back," Justin said, resting his hand on the edge of his prosthetic. "He was there for me when I lost this. I won't let him down."

"Okay," I said. "If your sure."

"I am," he nodded.

Seraph let out a yawn and glanced at her watch.

"Oh, hey, I gotta bail for a minute," she said. "Tony?"

He handed Tony a small compact mirror, which he opened up and turned toward her. She touched the glass with one of her fingers, then turned to give us one last wink, mouthing good luck. Then the mirror started glowing and she was sucked into it like some kind of portal.

"What in the-" I started.

"Oh, she does that sometimes," Daniel said. "Not for long distance, though. Mama doesn't like her visiting for too long. Not on the best of terms right now..."

"You should probably be heading off now," Tony said, snapping the mirror closed. "Ozzy's expecting you."

"Right," Daniel said, taking his seat behind Justin. "I'll see you all later. Oh, and Kai?"

"Y-yes?" Kai asked.

Daniel hesitated for a bit, seeming to be unsure how to put whatever was on his mind into words, before saying "Actually, it can wait. See ya."

Justin revved up his bike, and they set off. Tony started muttering something I couldn't quite make out under his breath. Kai turned to me.

"Are we gonna be alright with them gone?" he asked.

"Of course!" I said. "You still got me, right?"

"Yeah," Ciel said, in what I'm assuming is own of her lower snark settings. "You only suffered two humiliating defeats since you two met."

"I'm gonna stop this bickering before it begins," Terrence said, putting a hand on my shoulder before I could retort (though, to be honest, I did have anything good ready). "We need to focus."

Focus? On what...

I turned to Tony, who was still muttering to himself. I tried listening in, and I realized he wasn't just muttering. He was counting.

Counting down.

"Four... three... two... one."

And... nothing happened. Tony seemed confused for a couple second, but then some guy with a golf club jumped out from behind a card, swinging it down at Tony's head. Tony just calmly raised his bokken, which I hadn't even noticed him holding, and blocked the attack.

"Oh, I was off a bit," he said with a smirk, producing a pistol in his free hand and shooting what seemed to be a tranquilizer dart into the guy's chest. The man collapsed, and then several more people, armed with various weapons, from knives to guns to tennis rackets. I think onw guy had a rolled up newspaper... for... some reason... They came through the main entrances, dropped down from the floor above us, or came out of hiding from behind the various cars. About thirty total. I think.

"You knew there would be an ambush!" I snapped, turning to Tony.

He kept his smirk up, rested his bokken on his shoulder, and fired his tranq pistol twice, bringing down a couple more of the men.

"I was counting on it," he confirmed, before getting serious and looking over his shoulder at the others. "You know your roles! Get to it!"

"Um, I don't know mine!" I pointed out. "You didn't run any of this by me!"

"Didn't need to," he replied. "You're instinctive. Wait for Sera, then act."

As if on cue, Seraph jumped out of a rearview mirror on one of the cars, surprising two of the men, who she quickly disarmed. She then darted around them, hitting some of their joints hard, before retreating into another rearview mirror.

Tony and I both rushed toward them, quickly knocking them out. I didn't bother drawing my sword. Being blindsided, disarmed, and disabled so suddenly, these guys weren't a threat. No need to break out the big guns.

As we did that, Terrence retreated a few feet with Kai, and snapped his fingers, somehow causing  ring of fire to pop up around the two of them, wide enough that the flames weren't a risk to them but would be for anyone trying to get close. I lost sight of Ciel, but she must have been doing something useful on the sidelines.

Tony had planned this. He knew we'd be ambushed once Daniel was out of the picture. And he had damn near pinpointed it to the exact second. He had picked this place and rigged it specifically to protect Kai and have plenty of mirrors for Seraph to teleport through. He knew the enemy well enough to stay two steps ahead of them and plan accordingly, to counter their ambush.

I realized something very important in that moment.

This man terrifies me.

The fight continued in the same way. Seraph jumped in and out of mirrors, disarming our opponent's, and hitting them fast and fluidly, crippling them enough for Tony and I to land the finishing blows. Her movements were swift, fluid, and precise. The closest this any of those guys came to landing a blow was a couple scrapes on her arms, and a single tear on her jeans, exposing a bit of skin that had a weird green glint to it. I'm pretty damn sure I witnessed her bite a guy at some point, leaving him nauseas. I have some many questions about this woman, but I can confirm that Daniel was speaking the truth.

She is unapologetically badass.

Terrence provided some cover during the fight, throwing smoke bombs and flash bangs to throw our opponent's off. Some of those assholes seemed to have some kind of illusion based abilities, as I my vision began blurring slightly, and I started seeing doubles of them. Tony didn't seem too effected by this. He knew the enemy, and he was observant. He could tell what was real. I, on the other hand, had to tap into my vision to see through the illusions.

It took a while, but we managed to KO all of those pricks. I relaxed a little, letting out a sigh.

"Is it over?" I asked.

"Don't count on it," Tony said, remaining tense.

I heard a sudden smashing sound, and turned to look at one of the nearby cars. I wasn't sure what had made the noise at first, but I heard it again a second later from another car, at which point I noticed a bunch of shattered glass on the floor below it. The sound popped up again and again, each time leaving more glass lying around.

Someone was somehow systematically destroying all of the mirrors on the cars. Limiting Seraph's ability to move around. After a great deal of mirror smashing later, I heard Kai cry out. We turned to the rind of fire, which was beginning to die down. Terrence was sprawled out on the ground, clutching his shoulder, and a large man was standing behind Kai, holding him in a hammerlock.

Tony quickly reloaded his tranq pistol, and took aim at the man's face. The man responded by lifting Kai up, as a human shield.

"Do you really think you can aim tha- AGH!"

He was cut off by a dart embedding itself directly into his exposed eye, and he stumbled back a bit, dropping Kai. Terrence scrambled back up, pulling Kai behind him and pulling out a switchblade in a reverse grip.

"Yes," Tony said calmly. "I do. Cliff, I presume?"

The man tugged the dart out, turned to Terrence, and said "I'll deal with you in a moment."

He then calmly stepped through the dying flames, standing a few feet from us.

"Correct," he said, drawing a club from his belt.

"Thought so," Tony mused. "I'm curious how you resisted my tranquilizer, but I have some other questions to ask first."

"It's possible, although difficult, to produce a vaccine for the tranquilizer you use the most," Cliff replied. "We were able to produce enough for myself. Also, from the information I've gathered, you tranquilizer weakens under heat. Firing it through a ring of fire was a bad idea."

"Well, I guess this is useless then," Tony aid, tossing his pistol aside.

But he didn't seem intimidated at all. He kept that air of smugness that I'm all too familiar with. Daniel has that same look on his face whenever he sees something as an actual challenge.

"I'm going to put this simply," Cliff said. "I'm taking the boy. Any of you who try to stop me will will die."

"You promise?" Tony asked.

"I guarantee," Cliff stated. "I've been playing this game a lot longer than you, kid."

"Maybe so," Tony said. "But I drew a better hand."

"Don't get cocky, brat!" Cliff hissed, glaring darkly at Tony.

Tony chuckled.

"Kallaway," Tony said, shooting me a glance.

"Yeah?" I replied, returning his look.

He took a battle stance, gripping his bokken with both hands.

"Act!" he commanded.

I drew my sword and we both charged.

"You've chosen death, then," Cliff growled, raising his club.

The fight began. With Cliff guy is big, strong, and has clearly had military training. He knows his shit when it comes to combat.

So do we. I don't know if Tony's had any real training, but he's smart enough to land his blows carefully, and avoid getting hit. And I've train in martial arts, have practiced swordplay quite a bit (Arigatou, Ren-sensei), and as Tony felt the need to point out, I'm instinctive. I adapt pretty quickly. Can't explain it, but it seems to help out sometimes.

So we fought. It wasn't easy, but we managed to wear him down a bit, and get between him and the now completely dead ring of fire. He wasn't down for the count yet, but he was hurt. Some cuts on his leg, bruises on own arm, which was sagging slightly, and his damaged eye was beginning to swell up.

He suddenly closed his eyes, and whispered something. Immediately afterwards, he collapsed, crying out in agony. I stpped back, alarmed, but Tony didn't react with shock, but rather concern.

"Oh dear," he muttered.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"You're not gonna like it," Tony said.

Cliff began transforming. It was... nightmarish. He was clearly in pain the whole time, as his bones, muscles and skin stretched and shifted. He grew to.. I wanna say ten feet tall? Around that size. Bones formed in his back and stretched out to form wings, and feathers and fur began sprouting from his flesh. His face stretched forward, into a canine jaw, as his teeth rearranged themselves, becoming more wolf-like. When his eyes finally opened, they looked... like a weird cross between canine and avian.

"Well, that's disturbing," Tony said, gazing upon the bird/wolf/man thing rising up before us.

"Were you planning for this too?" I asked.

"I wasn't hoping for it, but I did expect it," Tony said. "On guard."

The thing went straight for Tony, apparently acknowledging him as the bigger threat. I charged forward and swung my sword at it's throat, but it swiped at my first. My sword was knocked out of my hand, and, do to the damage it had suffered already, snapped in half, clattering to the floor.

My sword. My ancestor' sword... The Proto-Godslayer was not only damaged, but was now completely broken.

While that thought ran through my head, Tony produced another pistol from his coat, and fired three darts into the beast's chest. It took me a couple seconds to pull myself together enough to question him on that.

"He said he's vaccinated, didn't he?" I asked.

"This is a different batch," Tony replied. "Stronger."

Sure enough, the beast was backing up, seeming to be pretty dizzy from whatever Tony had just hit him with.

"Ciel, you're up," Tony said. "David, Terrence, drive him back."

Ciel suddenly dropped from the floor above, carrying the covered up portrait, taking care not to let it get damaged., while Terrence rushed forward, picking up the hilt end of my broken sword. Ciel swiftly ripped the cover off the portrait, and stood it upright, yelling "Let's do this, Sera!"

I then became aware that it wasn't a portrait at all, but rather a very large standing mirror. I was wrong before. Tony didn't think two steps ahead. It was at least a dozen.

Tony and Terrence charged forward, Tony with his bokken, and Terrence with my broken sword, and I took a second to bring out by wings and gauntlet before following suit. We all landed a couple blows, but the beast managed to force us all back a couple feet with a swipe of it's arm. It then inhaled deeply, and I suddenly felt something wrong building up in his throat. I've been around Eldritch power before, but I think this is the first time I've actually felt it.

I charged forward, putting myself between Tony, Terrence, and the beast. as it let out a howl charged with Eldritch power that would have likely knocked them off their feet. I braced myself, and lifted my gauntlet, catching all of that power and restraining it. As I did, Tony and Terrence both rushed forward, Tony hitting it in the temple, and Terrence slashing at one of its calves.

I concentrated hard, and sent all that power I was holding right back at it, sending it flying toward the mirror. As it did, Seraph emerged from the mirror, spreading her arms and opening her mouth wide. Her canines extended into fangs, and she caught the beast in a full-Nelson, sinking her fangs into its throat. The beast became even more daze, and she pulled it with her into the mirror. However, she only pulled it in halfway, so the beasts back, wings, and elbows were trap in whatever mirror realm she had been making use of.

Tony opened up the compact mirror from earlier, and Seraph emerged from it, panting. Slowly, and gruesomely, Cliff returned to normal, still partially trapped in the mirror.

"I'm afraid we're on the clock here," Tony spoke confidently "It' only a matter of time before Mama notices you're stepping on her garden.". 

Cliff blearily looked up at us.

"First question," Tony said. "Perhaps the most important. Where the fuck if Kareena."

Cliff let out a chuckle.

"You'll see her soon," he said. "If you keep involved in this conflict, your paths are bound to cross, should you both live long enough."

"About as helpful as I was expecting you to be in this state," Tony said. "Take a deep breathe, and confirm that see's okay."

Cliff took a deep breath, then said "She's growing stronger. Her strength hasn't killed her. Yet."

"I see," Tony said. "How can we reach her?"

"Fuck you," Cliff said, seeming to slump a bit.

"Damn," Tony said. "Tranqs might get you before Mama does."

Tony looked aside for a moment.

"He said if I get involved in the conflict, we'll find her. I'm already involved, so that's a guarantee. We'll find her, but it won't be pretty when we do. So, the best questions t ask before he completely passes out would be about his boss."

Tony turned back to Cliff and smacked him across his face.

"Focus!" Tony said. "Tell me about Valravn! What's her deal!? Why is she just now cropping up!? What's her plan!?"

Cliff, seeming to be a bit more awake after the slap, looked up at Tony and smirked.

"The Doctor thinks he's so fuckin' smart, huh?" He said. "He compares her power to the birds and the angel, but she's better than them both. All the good shit, none of the bad."

He broke out into a laughing fit, clearly messed up from whatever Tony and Seraph hit him with.

"Focus!" Tony demanded, slapping him again. "What is she planning, and where the hell is Kareena!?"

At this point, Cliff seemed to sober up. He looked Tony directly in the eye.

"Her plan is spontaneous," he said. "She makes decisions as she goes, and her loyalties shift as she wills. As for Kareena... She's been ordered to-"

Suddenly, a long, serpentine tail emerged from the mirror, entangling Cliff.

"What is this!?" Cliff demanded.

"Uh oh," Seraph said. "Mama's pissed..."

Cliff was suddenly dragged screaming into the mirror world.

"Is he...?" I started.

"I wouldn't get my hopes up," Tony replied. "We just confirmed that we don't know what side Valravn's on, and I've been unable to dig up data on what side Mama's on, so their's a chance she might end up sparing him."

"Seriously, who the fuck is Mama?" I asked.

"A total bitch you don't wanna get involved with," Seraph replied.

"More importantly, his allusions to an upcoming conflict enforce a suspicion that's been on my mind for a while now," Tony said. "I've been keeping up with several other blogs, and I think... or rather, I fear... there's a war on the horizon."

"Wha!?" I asked. "Are you for real?"

"Yeas," He replied. "Seraph, inform Daniel. Terrence, craft the worst shit you can think of. Holding back may not be a option. Ciel, concoct what evet you think might be useful. And you."

He turned his attention to Kai.

"You carry a dangerous item the enemies want," he said. "If you wanna say safe, you'll either need to continue to rely on others for defense, or learn to defend yourself. Which is why KAllaway here will gladly volunteer as your sensei."

"What, what?" I asked.

"Up to you kid," Tony said. "I have to go. I have a lot of research and plans to deal with."

So... um... yeah. That whole mes just happened.

I'm not ready to train someone right now, and I'm not sure if Kai is ready, or even wants to be trained for combat. Either way, I'm going to keep him safe.

Either way... we've got a potential war on our hands.

And I hope I'm ready for it...