World of Katekyo Hitman Reborn!: The Hyperides Famiglia

Chapter 02: Not in Father's Footsteps

"Why are the doors locked? Why won't anyone answer?" Alesandro demanded.

Like the other times, the only answer was silence. Finally he released the intercom button by the doors that still refused to open.

Sighting in frustration he stepped back. He'd only started trying to figure out what was going on when the door shook loudly, a huge round dent forming in the middle. Another second and the door rocked in the frame again.

Alesandro retreated and closed a fist with his right hand. He had a feeling he knew what was coming and knew he'd need room to move if those doors didn't hold.

Again it shook from whatever was beating on it from the other side, and one half of the door sagged off its railing and leaned against the other. The ring on Alesandro's finger flickered yellow as he readied himself, and then a second later it happened. The doors creaked from another hit and fell onto the floor with a boom.

Then a huge spiked ball came shooting through the empty doorway and straight for Alesandro's chest. He dodged to the side just in time, one spike still digging a thin red ribbon in his side.

Coming in through the devastated doorway was a man with the broadest shoulders and baldest head Alesandro had ever seen. He had on mirrored sunglasses and the tattered remains of a tailored black suit. He held a heavy chain and with a pull the spiked mace that had almost crushed Alesandro arced through the air back into his hand.

"You've made a mistake, friend," Alesandro said. His face was totally neutral, and he leaned back in a defensive stance, waiting for the intruder to make the first move. He concentrated and lit the ring on his finger, yellow light with a blue to the sides seeping from its gemstone.

"Alesandro Galatos," he said flatly, reciting the information from memory. "Whirlpool Flame. Proficient but…untested."

"I had no idea I was so fascinating," Alesandro replied, smirking. "Where did you read that about me? Am I some glamour magazine's most eligible bachelor?" It felt good to ask something so ridiculous. It was his role. To attract attention and keep their enemies from focusing on anything but him.

Marl, the attacker, sneered at the remark but said nothing, only swinging his weapon at his side. He was clearly looking for an opening. The youth looked down at the wound Marl's weapon had left on his side and for a second a flicker of doubt danced in his eyes.

In that second Marl's mace looped through the air, aimed at his target's heart. Alesandro threw himself backward, his hands hitting the ground first and going into a somersault with an enviable ease from years of training. The metal of the floor creaked as Marl yanked his weapon out and threw it again at where Alesandro was rolling.

But Alesandro seemed to be anticipating it, jumping almost to the top of the room to avoid the attack as soon as his feet touched the floor again. As he was he in the air he thrust out the fist with his ring, unleashing the power he'd been collecting. A stream of energy spiraled out from the ring just as Marl recovered his weapon with another yank. Alesandro's power washed over the head of Marl's mace and dragged it across the room. Since the chain was wrapped around his shoulder Marl let out a yelp and was dragged along the floor after it.

Alesandro let himself enjoy a small feeling of victory. The energy of his Whirlpool Flame surged and rippled as it spiralled longer and longer out from where he was standing, and pulling Marl farther and farther away.

That was when Marl untied himself from the chain.

The assassin jumped to his feet then jumped high into the air, curling himself over the whirlpool filling the room. As he came down a ring on his hand started glowing with an ugly brown light, just like the energy forming around his gigantic fists. Aimed straight at Alesandro's head.

The air seemed to burn as Luca's electrified swords slashed out again and again, the relentless killer seeming to be able guess which way Nikos was about to dodge. One sword came down hard on the deck and only his practiced reflexes got Nikos to dodge back in time to avoid losing a toe.

But again Luca just came at him again, not making a sound except for the crackling and hissing of the green lightning charging the weapons he swung at Nikos's neck. The youth held up his fist, the ring on his finger glowing brighter even than when he'd been trying to protect himself the waves.

An upright disc of Sharp Tide the size of a baseball formed in the air and shot at Luca. The assassin clenched his brow in confusion at what the young heir might be attempting with such a small projectile. He crossed his swords in front of him and the disc of Sharp Tide shattered as it hit them.

Suddenly he shouted in surprise as the ground seemed to yank itself out from under him. The platform of Sharp Tide that Nikos had formed under his feet flickered away as the youth ran for a grate. He stopped and skidded the last few feet across the water-splattered deck between him and the wall.

He didn't bother with subtlety: Nikos formed a blade from Sharp Tide then slashed right through the bolts holding the grate up, then grabbed the edge and threw himself inside feet-first. The rushing air of the ventilation fans blew hard against him as he slid inside, quickly drying the water off his skin as he hit the T-junction at the back.

"Running away? Am I ugly or something? We haven't seen the stars together yet!" Luca jeered. He started climbing into the vent after Nikos, who turned around and tried for the most precise creation of Sharp Tide he'd ever made.

A rippling blob of the silvery matter appeared in the air between Luca's swords and his head as he tried to crawl into the vent while holding onto his weapons. It smashed into its face and started covering the skin, seeping into his mouth, his nose and his eyes. A scream of surprise was smothered by the Sharp Tide that seemed to pull itself over his head.

Luca dropped his swords, then punched himself in the face with his electrified green ring. The Sharp Tide shot tendrils out in every direction as if alive then crumbled away to nothing. He grabbed his swords from where he'd left them, but Nikos Hyperides was nowhere in sight. The mark had given him the slip.

Marl's energized fists slammed into Alesandro's chest and knocked him across the room. Through the haze of pain he was dimly aware of hitting the wall and sliding down onto his stomach. He tried to push himself up to his feet again but Marl's foot come down on his head, and it seemed to hum with a power beyond a normal man's strength pinning him to the floor.

But just because he was pinned, didn't mean Alesandro was helpless. The whirlpool he'd created before had faded since Marl punched him into the wall, but a smaller one would work better now…

Again he collected his power as Marl held out one hand, a brown glow spreading from it to where his mace had landed. "You need that even with me stuck to the floor, huh?" Alesandro asked, trying to make sure the assassin's attention was away from his ring.

"Killing you has to be messy," Marl said flatly, as if just reading off his instructions. "They want you to be an example."

"And who's 'they'?"

Marl looked down and met his eyes, or so it looked with the mirrored sunglasses Marl still had on. "You think I'm dumb enough to tell you that, kid?"

Alesandro grinned at the question. "Well, what's the alternative? You fail and I get away to go after your boss? You're supposed to be really good, I bet, if they hired you to come after us like this."

"Shut up, kid," was Marl's only reply. His mace was floating across the room by then, and the last thing Alesandro planned to do was let him get it back. His ring suddenly erupted with its yellow light and a beam of energy shot up in a tight spiral, instead of the huge one covering the whole room he'd used before.

A scream of surprise went up as it caught Marl between the shoulders and lifted him off the ground and slammed him into the ceiling. As he became dazed from the hard impact his concentration was broken and the power pinning Alesandro faded.

As soon as he got up, though, Alesandro's thoughts weren't on continuing the fight but making an escape. No-one would send an assassin just to get rid of him, so if one was there had to be at least one other, and he knew who their real target was.

He ran for the back of the training room and slipped his fingernails into a hidden seam that he pulled back on, revealing a secret door. As Marl recovered, dragging his mace behind him as he ran for the door himself, Alesandro slammed it shut in the assassin's face.

The youth ran down the secret passage, dodging around every turn despite the almost total darkness meant to disorient an enemy who managed to get inside. He was heading for the door hidden in the other training room, his stomach clenching a little at what he might or might not be in time to find there.

Suddenly Alesandro heard a strange sound a little way ahead. Thump. Slide. Thump. Slide. It sounded like it was coming from inside the wall.

Cautiously he charged his ring again, then a grating near him shook and cracked, then fell off. And out of the vent fell a boy his own age wearing but black speedos.

"Nikos!...Thank God, I thought that was another intruder," Alesandro sighed with relief and then grinned.

"He's probably right behind me," Nikos replied. "What about you?" he asked. "Are you all right?"

Alesandro held his arms akimbo and smiled even wider. "You know nothing can hurt me."

"Alex…please just tell me the truth," Nikos said quietly. "Are you okay?"

"I'm all right, Nick. It's my job," Alesandro replied. "But since you're all right, we better get to the safe room before they catch up to us."

"What do you mean it's your 'job'?" Nikos asked, but Alesandro just put his hand on his friend's shoulder, turned him around and urged him down the hallway.

Nikos stepped away after a minute and led the way down a staircase in the near-darkness. They led onto a metal catwalk that went to a vast open room, an octagon-shaped dome in the middle of the empty space ahead of them. The sliding doors in front were already open and shining a welcoming yellow light from inside. It was only supposed to do that if an emergency had been declared by the control room upstairs.

Quickly but quietly the two of them ducked inside where Nikos turned a large red wheel and the sliding doors closed behind them. There was a loud THUNK as the doors sealed airtight. "They'll never get us now," Alesandro laughed.

Nikos walked over to a chair a table with a clear surface. Both were made out of hard plastic to be functional rather than comfortable. His friend knew that wasn't why Nikos kept looking back and forth and running his hands back and forth across the surface of the table, though. "How about some chess?" Alesandro suggested.

"Just so you can beat me again? No thanks," Nikos replied, squirming a little in his seat.

"I'll go easy on you if it'll help you calm down," Alesandro replied, knowing it wasn't a distraction his friend needed. Nikos didn't do well when he was expected to just sit around and let things happen around him. One thing Alesandro knew beyond anything else in his life was that Nikos was going to be a fine Boss when his time came, but when he was the Boss he wasn't going to be stuck in a sealed room waiting for things to play out.

"I suppose now we need to let the main family know we've been attacked," Nikos said, and stared at the communications array underneath the wall of monitors.

"We should only need to be here a few hours at most," Alesandro said. "If they don't figure out they can't get through and just pull out."

"Funny how you sound like you know to expect how long it'll take," Nikos said, giving his friend a bemused look.

Alesandro shrugged. "It's just common sense. The mainland's not that far away."

Nikos looked over at him with the same neutral expression for a few more seconds then shook his head and started over to the console. He leaned over to it and then stopped, his eyes caught on something on one of the monitors. It was the view of the approach to the front doors of the training complex. Along with a pair of human-sized dents in the ground, someone was lying outside.

A wisp of aqua-colored light formed on Nikos's forehead. The gemstone on his ring erupted with energy.

"Nick? What's wrong?" Alesandro asked.

"Mother…they killed her…"

Alesandro came over and saw for himself what Nikos was talking about. He put a supportive hand on his friend's shoulder. "That just proves how dangerous they are. We need to stay here until help comes."

But Nikos actually growled and pulled away from his hand. He went straight to the door, tapped a sequence into a keypad and spun the red wheel that had sealed it before.

"Nick…what are you doing?!" Alesandro yelled.

"I'm settling the score," Nikos replied as the doors unlocked and he ran back out.

Alesandro sputtered in surprise and ran out after his friend. "Nick, wait!" he called, but Nikos didn't wait. The aqua light on his head was spreading wider as he got to the end of the walkway and up to the stairs, but that was where Alesandro caught up to him.

He clamped a hand around Nikos's shoulder. "What are you doing?" Nikos asked coldly.

"I'm trying to keep you safe from the killers upstairs."

"You're doing a hell of a job!" laughed a snide voice. The dancing bolts of green light in the darkness left no mystery who it was. "You couldn't have been in there two minutes!"

"You won't be alive in two minutes," Nikos snarled, his ring glowing so bright the metal seemed to be heating up.

Yellow light shined next to him as Alesandro charged his own Flame, there was no point in trying to get his friend to safety now. This would only be over once they'd punished the famiglia's enemies.

Luca swung both of his electrified swords down hard, the power built up shooting out like whips in Nikos's direction. Scowling, Nikos held out his fist and two discs of Sharp Tide formed, catching the electric bolts and bouncing them over his head without doing any damage.

The assassin's ring was shining again but Nikos dashed over to him and slammed his shoulder into Luca's gut, a heavy curved pad made of Sharp Tide forming over the shoulder as he did. Luca recovered his balance and dug in his feet but grimaced in pain as Nikos pushed him backward.

Nikos jumped back and held out his ring that glowed even hotter, forming a round concentration of Sharp Tide, with wide arms like a windmill's sticking out of it, and willed it to spin. The arms whipped out, hitting Luca's swords over and over until they were shaken out of his hands. He pulled back his arms and shook out his fingers, cursing at the pain.

All eyes were on Luca, and it was all the invitation Alesandro needed to fire off the power of his ring. Marl gasped and tossed his mace above Alesandro's head, the head glowing with brown energy and already starting to come down with greater speed. But Alesandro had fired first and already his widest whirlpool stream had spiraled out far enough from him to catch both assassins and blow them both into a wall. The whirlpool faded after that, the quick charge he'd been able to accumulate already spent.

Marl and Luca recovered and broke into low sprints in different directions. Marl came at Nikos, dragging his mace behind him, but the youth was glaring angrily at him, obviously ready to defend himself. Small pellets of Sharp Tide shot through the air like bullets and splashed painfully all over the assassin's body to keep him off-balance, leaving the skin red and exposed wherever they hit.

The mace flew, glowing with power, but the aqua light on Nikos's forehead was almost a foot tall by then and a rippling blob of Sharp Tide appeared in the mace's way out of nowhere. The spiked weapon sank into the silvery mass and stopped cold, even charged by Marl's power.

Then Nikos retaliated. A C-shaped loop of Sharp Tide formed and shot out at Marl, pinning his arms against the wall. Alesandro dashed over and blasted Marl with one of his tight, focused whirlpool streams, knocking Marl into the air. The assassin went up in an arc and as he came down Alesandro ran under him and hit him with another focused whirlpool blast. Again Marl went up in an arc, and again Alesandro caught him with another whirlpool blast as he came down, sending him flying over the roof of the safe room behind them.

Meanwhile Luca sent a stream of sparks flying from his ring at Nikos, who fired back with bullets of Sharp Tide. Luca's shots left red lacerations all over Nikos's exposed skin, making the teen stagger back and forth trying to avoid more damage, the aqua light around his forehead had gotten even taller and was burning like a true flame.

Nikos's counter-shots splashed violently against the assassin's body, hitting harder and harder with each one he fired. Luca broke into a run down the walkway, making Nikos's next shots go wide. He shoved his sparking green ring up against an open cut on Nikos's chest, making him yell at the top of his lungs in pain. Luca grabbed him and jabbed the ring in even tighter and looked over at Alesandro who was charging up to help. "One more step and I'll put so much power into this it'll cut him in half, kid!" Luca warned.

Despite the pain from Luca's power, Nikos looked his friend in the eye. Then suddenly he clapped his hands down over his ears. Alesandro smiled confidently and held up his ring, then his ring gave off a horrible, deafening noise, like millions of gallons of water churning in a whirlpool big enough to swallow a city. Luca screamed in pain and tried to cover his own ears, unwittingly tapping his ring to his temple.

The green energy did no harm to him, not surprising after he shocked himself to escape Nikos before, but it did give Nikos the chance to recover enough to shoot off a lump of Sharp Tide the size of a manhole cover, its outer rim covered in fist-shaped knobs. It spun as it flew out and crashed into Luca, pummeling him repeatedly as its speed picked up.

Then Nikos ran over as fast as he could and threw a jump kick at the back of the Sharp Tide construct. He focused his concentration on it, making it spin and batter Luca faster and faster while the kick slammed the construct against him to pummel him even harder.

As he focused more of power into it the ring on Nikos's finger melted off into a lump of red-hot slag. Nikos yelle in pain and clutched his hand. Luca gasped out and stumbled back almost eight feet before he recovered and started to shove his fist out to attack again.

He never got the chance. Alesandro jumped between the two of them and fired off a focused blast from his ring. Luca flew down the hall, hit the wall with a splat and fell down. He didn't get back up.

As soon as he saw that their opponent wasn't attacking anymore, Nikos jumped over Luca, covering a large cut on his chest with his hand. He ran up the stairs with Alesandro right behind him until they got to where the hall deadended against a wall. It slid so fast on its rails it screamed as he yanked it open.

"Nikos, wait! You're hurt!" Alesandro called, but wasn't the least bit surprised when he was ignored. Instead Nikos ran out of the training complex, to the path in front where his mother was laying. He crouched down next to her, and as soon as his scarred hand touched her shoulder she groaned and squirmed.

"Mother…," Nikos breathed. Catherine rolled over onto her back, then blinked her eyes a few times.

"You're all right?" she asked, looking up at Alesandro and Nikos. "What happened? Where are those two killers?"

"We stopped them, I think," Alesandro said.

"Forget about us," Nikos said softly, helping his mother sit up by draping her arm over his shoulder. "What happened with you? I was afraid they killed you!"

Catherine shook her head, chuckling. "I've been out of the game a while, but not that long that I'll die the first time I get into a fight again…what happened to your hand?" she asked, her expression turning serious suddenly. She grabbed Nikos's wrist and stared down with concern at the circle of darkened skin around his middle finger where his ring had been.

"I…I ruined my ring," Nikos said, sounding like he was admitting to breaking his parents' rules.

"You should've seen it," Alesandro said, grinning his usual blinding grin again. "He absolutely smashed that guy…what was his name, Nick?"

"Your father's going to hear about this," Catherine coughed.

Nikos sighed. "I know the ring was important, but losing my power doesn't matter if it saves your life!"

For a second his mother looked at him with an expression of confusion, then tossed back her head and laughed. She only stopped when she broke into a coughing fit. But as the youths gave her a nervous look she held up her hand, and a minute later had recovered herself.

"You didn't lose your power, that not how those rings work," she said with an exhausted smile. "You destroyed it because you put more power into it than a practice ring like that was meant to handle. There's a much greater one than that."

"Look," Alesandro interrupted them. The two operators from the training complex were staggering out of the door, mouths hanging open wide at disbelief they'd survived.

"We already notified the Boss," one of them gasped. "He'll be here soon."

"Lock down the complex until then to make sure those two don't get out," Catherine ordered. "And you boys…you'd better help me back to the manor."

Barely an hour later a sleek white helicopter landed behind the manor house. Five men in dark suits and sunglasses got out, but Nikos and Alesandro recognized them on sight. Especially the one who split off from the others as they jogged down the path to the training complex to secure it. He was tall, broad-shouldered, with a thin black beard and his fingers each seeming to sport a different gold or platinum ring. As he came into the house the butler hastily took off the hand-stitched leather overcoat resting on his shoulders, and he took off his sunglasses and hid them in a pocket inside his suit jacket.

"Sir Estevan," the butler said, almost whispered, really. "Your family is waiting upstairs."

"My family is fine," he replied "They're my family."

He went up the stairs to the enormous room with the four-poster bed, made of hand-carved wood showing rushing waves and sailing ships, where his wife lay on silk sheets of a rich green. "Catherine…are you all right?" he asked after he was at her side.

"I'm fine, Estevan," she said with a soft smile. "It's not me you should really be talking to about what happened, though."

"Oh no?" he asked, pulling on his beard.

She nodded slowly, taking in a labored breath. "Yes, Nikos has a new scar he needs to show you."

Estevan nodded, leaned over and kissed his wife on the forehead. She smiled a little wider but pointed out the window, and glancing through it he saw Nikos, now dressed in blue suit pants and vest over a white long-sleeved shirt, out in the back garden with Alesandro. They were sitting and talking at a black wrought iron table surrounded by tall hedges, but Nikos had on black leather gloves. Yes, Estevan didn't see his son much anymore, but Nikos had never worn those.

A few minutes later Estevan stepped out of the back doors. Nikos and Alesandro stopped their conversation as he appeared, and Alesandro nodded before quickly disappearing back inside the house. Estevan sat down in his chair.

"Well son, you've had your first on your attempt on your life. Savor it. A lot more are coming."

"You say that kind of like it's something I'm supposed to enjoy," Nikos looked across at his father.

"I'm stating it as a fact of life," Estevan replied, calmly but firmly. "You're the heir to a powerful position, my son. That attracts unpleasant people. Some will try to exploit you, some will try to kill you. Some won't be any good at what they're trying to accomplish, some will."

Nikos looked away and shrugged. "I wouldn't know the difference yet."

"I think you might know it better than me," Estevan replied, smiling faintly. "I didn't fight off the first assassin who came after me. Not the second or the third one either. If I hadn't had some formidable protectors, you wouldn't be here. You, though, you've already got enough of a foothold with the Sea Flame…show me your hand."

Slowly, Nikos pulled off his glove to show the darkened skin where he'd always worn his ring. "It's true. You really did melt the ring right off your hand," Estevan observed.

"Dr. Aristos says it's nothing serious."

"Well, he's wrong. That you could do something is very serious…" Estevan murmured.

Unsure of where his father might be leading the conversation about the assassination attempt, Nikos nodded. "Mom told me there's a stronger one."

"There is, son. When you've earned it," his father confirmed, patting his shoulder. Estevan held up his right hand, sporting numerous fine rings as usual. On his middle finger was one made of silver, with a black band. There was a frame engraved with tiny arches around a clear blue stone, a dark image inside showing rolling waves.

"You have something else in mind you really want to talk about though," Nikos said.

Estevan nodded slowly, his already faint smile fading completely. "Nikos, the fact is, the Hyperides famiglia is seen as weak now, after it got out about the 6th Boss having another wife on the side. I have a fine group of Guardians who can protect me, but as I said I've never been much of a warrior.

"You and a single Guardian in training fought off those assassins, though, and so I've decided that we're going to stop isolated training like you've had here on Pelacidos. I'm not putting you on duty until someone else gets here—"

Nikos looked over at his father in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"This is an unusual decision," Estevan went on. "Usually the Boss-to-be isn't given official duties until he's taken over. But the famiglia needs an obvious martial presence, someone who can fight back against our enemies, and that's something I can't be the one to provide. I've always been a negotiator, a master of ceremonies, fighting just doesn't come to me. So I'm making you a famiglia envoy as of today, Nikos. If we need to send someone to show a powerful presence on our behalf, from now on it'll be you and the allies we've been training."

That news made Nikos lean back hard in his chair. His mouth hung open in disbelief, and after a bit he managed to look his father in the eye. "That means I'm not going to be kept on the island anymore?"

Estevan nodded. "After another of your allies is here to help ensure your safety. Let's not forget this is because someone made an attempt on your life."

"But I'm going to be allowed to leave, see the rest of the world?" Nikos pressed his father.

That made Estevan laugh out loud. "Nikos, I just answered that question. Yes, you're going to see the world. But you're going to have to be able to act like a proper Boss."

Nikos wasn't worried about what his father was implying by that. If it meant getting off this island, to be in control of himself, he wasn't afraid.