Note: In this story, flames are still new and uncommon. It is also a known fact that not many outside the seven Vongola guardians can wield them. They are also known to be the most powerful weapon that has been discovered.
Giotto had never been interested in having a child.
Children, to him, meant more lives he had to stake his own for. They were also loud and very chaotic, as proven by his guardians' own children.
Since the first among them, Alaude, had a child (and this shocked everybody) he'd begun having to sign more paperwork, what with Alaude and Kyoya's training which almost always involved the destruction of anything in sight.
Then came Knuckle's niece and nephew who never failed to visit during the holidays. Giotto had thought that that would be the last of it, that the rest of his guardians wouldn't possibly ever have any children, but clearly he had never been so wrong.
Asari had been first, then G, and he thanked his lucky stars that Lampo was still just a teen and couldn't possibly have a child yet. The ones they already had fought often enough, thank you very much.
The next day, Lampo came in carrying a child who had an afro and was wearing a cow-print suit. After Lampo explained that the child was his cousin Lambo, and that he, Lampo, would be taking care of him while his dad went to Japan, Hayato had come and started an argument with the child.
Giotto had thrown both his hands up in the air, declared "You all are crazy! Goodbye!" and then locked himself up in his office to cry at his misery and wonder why he even agreed to any of this or how his guardians could even stand it.
Then two days ago, he found out in Iemitsu's will that he wanted entrust his only son to Giotto. This meant another child he had to take care of and worry about. This also meant another child he had to keep from getting kidnapped. And they still hadn't even found him yet!
Giotto slammed his head on his desk.
First, Tsunayoshi is kidnapped by the Estraneo, and now Takeshi has gone missing! Who would be next?
He had no idea how to get to Tsunayoshi since they were up against a family that specialized in weaponry but even he knew that anyone who had fallen victim to their clutches would not be anywhere relatively near safety. And could it be possible that Takeshi was abducted by them as well?
He swore he would literally kick down the Estraneo base's doors and whack all the (adult) mafiosos there if they didn't receive any further news about either of the two children.
XXX
Two days after the first experiment, the scientists working on them began the process of 'extracting' flames. Since none of the four children knew how to produce flames by themselves, there was no choice but to make the flames from their blood.
As they brought samples of their blood into another room to do who-knows-what to them, the scientists left guarding the room began discussing among themselves.
"So I heard that the weapons Emilio made are going to be infused with flames."
"Yes, I mean, it's the whole point of this project. Flame power is extremely strong, as we have discovered, so theoretically, if we combine flames and weapons, we would become tremendously stronger. Unbeatable, even."
"So why are we trying to get most weapons to combine with sky flames again?"
"It's because sky flames are the rarest and the most powerful type of flames. We're lucky we got two here. Frankly, I don't think just one would be enough. And did you know that the Vongola boss also possesses sky flames? It's going to be the only chance we have at beating him."
They were interrupted as another group came in carrying the four vials. They dropped the glass containers into a test tube rack as they brought out a bottle containing green liquid. Using a medicine dropper, a drop of green liquid was mixed into each small vial of blood.
The man pointed to the bottle holding the green liquid. "What's that?" he whispered to the person beside him.
"Beats me, I've never seen it before."
The four children still strapped on the operating chairs watched in wonder as a scientist corked the vials shut and placed them on a round white thing that looked like an operating table and switched on the contraption. Four rays surrounding it engulfed the vials in a beam of bright light.
"Turn the heat up!" The head scientist, a man in his forties with graying hair, yelled. The younger man did as told.
Five minutes later, the sound of glass shattering resounded throughout the room. The young scientist turned off the beams and gasped at the sight of the flames.
Four flames, two indigo and two orange, floated at the space. The light they emitted wasn't all that bright, but one of one of the orange flames was clearly purer than the other. The problem was, whose was it?
"Gentlemen," the head scientist cleared his throat to gather the attention of his gaping colleagues, "I am pleased to announce the the flame extraction turned out to be a success." He grinned wolfishly. The surrounding doctors cheered. "By the way, the orange ones are the sky flames. The indigo ones are the mist flames."
"Does the shade of the flame matter?" one asked, referring to the brighter and the darker sky flames.
"No, not really(1). As long as we have enough to supply our weapons with, it's fine. We need to begin testing ways to combine flames and weapons so those children are really unlucky. We're going to be needing a lot more flames now."
But none of them noticed how Tsuna's eyes widened at the sight of the flames. He was sure he didn't remember anything about himself except for his name, but somehow, the bright orange flame seemed to have a deep imprint in the back of his mind as it struggled to surface into his thoughts.
XXX
After that, they had been escorted back to their shared cell. The members of the Famiglia didn't know, but they had already begun training to fight so they would have even just the slim chance of escaping. Mukuro was training Nagi to use illusions while Byakuran taught Tsunayoshi basic martial arts styles that would help him defend himself.
As soon as the guard left, a "battle" begun. They sparred with each other so that they could learn how to use techniques against other people. Mukuro was kufufu-ing and Tsuna was winning against Byakuran when the door slid open again.
A tall burly man entered. A kid was carried over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He had black hair and tan skin, eyes closed due to unconsciousness.
The four stopped to stare warily at the man, all the while saying nothing, but the man merely dropped the boy near a corner of the cell and marched back out. They dropped what they were doing and crowded around the boy.
"You think he was bought?" Mukuro asked.
Tsuna shook his head. "He was probably kidnapped. Look," he pointed out. "He is fit and healthy. He looks well taken care of."
"Hn. Who would go around kidnapping children in broad daylight?"
Nagi stared at the child with sympathy. "He's so unlucky."
They returned to their training after a while. All of them were getting better already.
"Think we should do it tomorrow?" Byakuran asked as they all rested.
"Why tomorrow?" Mukuro asked.
"What, so you want to be stuck here another day?"
Mukuro glared at the albino. "No I do not, thank you very much, but I do not have a death wish either."
"We can already control our flames to some degree. And you guys have gotten pretty good with the whole 'illusions' thing. If we have any chance of taking them by surprise, then this would be the only time. If we wait any longer, then they'd make us start trying to produce flames by ourselves."
Mukuro huffed. "Well you're right, I suppose. But we don't know what they can do either."
"It's worth a try," Tsuna said. "I mean, if they themselves don't have flames then that means we should have the upper hand." He deadpanned at them.
As they continued discussing, Nagi noticed that the newcomer who was settled comfortably near them, was waking up. "Everyone, look, he's awake."
As they crowded around the confused boy, they began explaining to him what had happened and where he was. The boy then laughed after they finished explaining, much to their surprise.
"Ahaha! So we're guinea pigs now, huh? I'm Yamamoto Takeshi by the way! It's nice to meet you all."
The four stared at him as if he'd grown another head. He was the first person they encountered who had laughed at the idea. "Yamamoto Takeshi," Mukuro finally said, disbelief still painting his features. "Why are you so happy about being experimented on?"
Yamamoto continued to grin stupidly. "Because dad and Uncle Giotto will definitely come save us!"
The four continued staring blankly at him. "Who is... Uncle Giotto?" Byakuran asked. The name sounded extremely familiar to him, and he thought his father might have mentioned it in passing once.
"Oh, Uncle Giotto is dad's boss! But they're really good friends so I call him uncle!"
"Your dad's boss? How can you be sure that he'll come and save you when he doesn't even know where you are? Nevermind, we have already decided that we're escaping from this place today. Do you know how to fight?"
"Sure, haha! I'm good with a sword, but I don't have one with me right now..."
"Good, I guess you can just get a metal pipe or something and think of that as a sword."
Takeshi pouted. "But if I do that, then I can't use the unbeatable style dad taught me?"
"Unbeatable..?" Tsuna questioned.
"We can make an illusion of a sword and let him use it," Nagi said.
"IF he can, that is. Kufufu." Mukuro chuckled, emphasizing on the word if.
"I'm sure he can, Mukuro." Tsuna said with a glance at the boy. He didn't look like he was lying. The brunet tried to imagine him wielding a sword. It seemed to fit him well.
After going over the escape plan with Takeshi, they immediately began. They couldn't waste any more time. Who knows what could happen if they did?
Mukuro created a key for the door with his illusions. Byakuran took it and opened the lock.
(1)- As stated in the above note, flames are still uncommon. They don't know that the shade of the flame matters (think about Tsuna's hard and soft flames).
AN: I'm very sorry about how late this was. I was in a sort-of writer's block for this story after last chapter. I'm really sorry I couldn't update on Christmas and New Year's but I'm here now so it's all good, right? OwO
I hope you all liked this chapter~! Look forward to the next update :D
Thanks for reading! Review and tell me what you thought?