The anticipation is leaving him twitchy. Normally, Fon fakes patience so well that people assume he doesn't actually understand what's going on. But this whole thing is an order of magnitude beyond anything he's dealt with before.

Thankfully, he's been able to disguise his restlessness through his interactions with Lichi. Whenever the urge to do something gets too much, he'll just indulge his cute little animal companion. It's not like he's the only one doing that anyway. Skull is completely enamored with Oodako and has been training him so they can perform together. Fon's pretty sure they're also testing if Skull can use Cloud Flames to make Oodako bigger.

The others are much less obvious about their affection for their little Flame pets. Falco seems to like Colonello better than Lal, but both of them have taken to feeding the bird. Keiman has his own little habitat in Verde's lab and seems to be exempt from experimentation. Cosmo splits his time between Aria's crib and Luce's hat. Fon has no idea what the heck is going on with Viper and their pet, but he's pretty sure Fantasma has learned to use Viper's Flames to change shape. Or Viper is intentionally giving that impression.

Leon and Renato are definitely the weirdest. The chameleon has learned to turn into weaponry, and immediately adapts to all of the Sun's weird cosplay disguises. What. The. Heck.

It all makes for a very pleasant distraction, and Fon is disappointed when reality interrupts.

The Seven of them are gathered in Luce's dining room for a briefing. It makes for a very interesting coincidence that Colonello has been away on his own mission the past few days.

The assignment is theoretically simple. Their mysterious employer (Checkerface) wants them to meet an informant for an information drop, but it seems like a double-cross. Instead, they are to set up in the location ahead of time so they can ambush whatever small army is going to be backing up the informant. The site is at the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere with scattered rocks and intermittent tree-cover. Anyone less than the best would have a hard time going unnoticed.

Fon knows this is it the moment he sees the picture of the location. This is the Fated Day.

The others are as confident as always. It doesn't help that Luce is coming along on this one, as the informant's contact. They've taken to trusting her foresight. Sure, she's hidden things before, but usually they are minor things which are for her own amusement. After all, a professional would inform their allies of anything actually important to the mission.

In the day before the mission, Fon takes a moment to find each of the Seven individually. He sits with Luce and holds Aria for a while, neither of them speaks. If she is aware that he knows about the Curse, the Sky doesn't say. He regrets having to put Aria down, because this is the last time he'll be able to hold her.

Next, he goes for Renato and finds him in the kitchen, cleaning his guns. The Storm makes oolong tea for himself and a cappuccino for the hitman.

"Tomorrow is going to end badly."

"Luce would tell us to change the plan if it was going to fail."

"Not if the alternative is worse." The Storm keeps his expression completely blank.

"Your instincts tell you that?"

"Not instinct, so much as something my spirit knows from a past life." He sips his tea, "It's unlikely any of us will die, at any rate."

"I'll… keep that in mind."

Fon finishes his tea. Hopefully Renato will take the warning; but he probably won't. Fon's conscience is clear.

He has a similar conversation with Viper, who says that all their intel points to this being just as easy as the briefing claimed it would be, but did at least pretend to listen. Unlike Verde, who stares him down and asks if he can draw blood for an experiment. Lal thanks him for the warning, but says that she is a soldier and she knows the risks.

"Really, missions can go wrong at any time. This one is no different."

"I am actually completely certain that it will be."

"Then we'll figure it out. You've got to learn to be more adaptable."

Which was absolutely rich, coming from the mercenary who still referred to herself and her apprentice as soldiers of the Italian special ops team they had been discharged from years earlier.

Skull, by comparison, is gratifyingly serious. For a moment. The Cloud reminds him way, way too much of his kid brother from before.

"None of our missions ever turn out completely straight forward anyway. You said you didn't think any of us were going to die?" At Fon's nod, his solemn expression breaks into a wide grin, "Then the Great Immortal Stuntman can deal with anything life throws at him."

At that moment, Fon decides there is nothing more he can do. If they are arrogant enough to walk into a trap they were warned about, Fon is going to let them. He should be happy. If they took him seriously, they wouldn't be Cursed and things would change. But Fon isn't a horrible enough person to be happy about this. He's done a lot of terrible things, and maybe he deserves what's coming, but if there was a way the Storm could take the entirety of the Curse on himself, he would.

The next day, they are making their way up the hill and all Fon can feel is dread. It's dark and creepy, and Fon is absolutely sure that this situation deserves horror-movie background music. Concentrating, he can feel Colonello keeping pace behind them. At least one person around here is appropriately paranoid.

Too soon, they reach the designated location. They gather in the center of a ring of trees, for what all the other's think is going to be a normal discussion of last-minute tasks. The martial artist couldn't resist shifting to a ready stance, though he manages to keep his faces serene. The others finally seem to be picking up on his unease, because they are eyeing their surroundings and readying their weapons.

"The lack of wildlife is fascinating."

"By 'fascinating,'" Lal scoffs, "you must mean clearly suspicious. I hate to say it, but Fon you're probably right about this being a trap."

"Not that it's going to slow us down any." Renato smirks, "We're the World's Stronges-"

Light cuts him off. It doesn't seem to have any origin, just coming from everywhere. Before it completely blinds him, Fon can see Colonello's silhouette moving toward Lal.

It's the Curse. The Storm can't see the others. For a moment, he thinks he can hear them, but then he realizes it's his own screams. They cut off quickly once he runs out of air. It's almost like being burned up from the inside. Like the nightmares he sometimes has about his Flames. Except that it can't be his Flames burning him up, because they are currently being torn away, left connected by only the most fragile of threads. When the martial artist reaches for them (because he can't resist anymore) all he gets is a flare of pain not dissimilar to trying to move a broken limb. Everything is very far away. Like someone else is going through this instead.

Fon isn't sure how long it took, but eventually he comes out of it. Everything hurts. Bones, organs, skin; everything feels like it was compressed.

There's really only one thing he can do.

An interesting result of the now and before is the way he thinks about language. Things like names, foods, and directions are primarily interpreted in English because that was essentially his first language. But things like idioms and slang he tends to think of in Cantonese and Italian because those are the languages he uses and hears most frequently.

So when he starts cussing out Checkerface, he starts in Cantonese. He's picked up a lot of good swears through the Triad. Most of them involve the personality traits and sexual habits of the alien's ancestors. He follows it up with several phrases in Japanese and Mandarin that probably lacked originality, but were very heartfelt all the same.

By the time he gets to Italian, Fon is questioning what farm animal Checkerface's mother had relations with in order to result in him. Finishing off in English, Fon resorts to a string of four-letter words that don't actually make sense in that order.

In any other situation, the others probably would have found it funny; given it all came out in a squeaky and unintelligible toddler's voice.