"I don't understand! I have the Keyblade now, why can't I get Kairi's heart back!?" Riku had been by Kairi's lifeless side for some hours now, aimlessly trying to invoke... something that might rouse her from her slumber. What it was, he had not a damn clue. Riku hadn't had the Keyblade for anymore than a day. "Maybe I do need Sora's help."
"Foolishness." A voice called out to Riku from behind.
"Who's there?" Turning to meet the voice, he faced the incomplete keyhole behind him where he saw a man had been staring down into his soul. At least that's what the void said, as he stared into the darkness hiding beneath this brown cloak. As it were, he was cloaked in more ways in one; whatever body he had underneath the cloth seemed to seethe with a darkness that creeped into the back of his mind. It put a fear in him he didn't think he still had. I'm not afraid of the darkness. "Who are you!?"
"One who knows nothing can understand nothing. That boy cannot help you, not as he is now." The cloaked man descended the small incline that led up to the keyhole. It was a small thing, but the lack of a bounce or otherwise a beat evident of his stride made it look like he was just levitating towards him. It only creeped Riku out more.
"As he is now? What happened to Sora!?" Riku wanted to stand to meet him at eye level, but he couldn't find it in himself to do it. He was paralyzed, but not by any kind of magic or outside force; he was paralyzed by himself.
"He let his fear control him, and his rejection of the darkness cost him dearly. But you, you will not let that happen. The darkness is not something to be afraid of, but a tool to utilize in its fullest extent." The darkness that descended upon his mind started to wash some of his more cautious thoughts away; Riku started to think less about Sora, and more about Kairi.
"Do you... think I can still save her?"
"Let the darkness be your strength, and you will have anything you desire. Let your heart, your being, become darkness itself."
"Castiel! If you're calling me this early in the day, it must be something important. What can I do for you, lad?"
"Hey Felix, I just need you to help me order some control rods for this client of mine."
It was just past eleven in the morning on this Wednesday at Castle Control Mechanics and Castiel had a client come in with a 9889 Phantom X5. The reactor had been putting out excess energy when idling, and upon investigation it seemed like one of the control rods were starting to deform and stick in its cylinder. It was common with reactor frames like this with a small number of large fuel rods before lattice framed reactors would become the industry standard in 9893. Especially considering this reactor is sitting at just about a decade old at this point. It didn't help that this was kind of out of his field of expertise; Castiel was a purveyor of vintage combustion-based systems and is how he advertised his shop. However, he did still get reactor-based vehicles often enough to have stopped turning them away. That's why he's glad to have Felix to swoop in and save him like this. He maintained his own shop downtown called Fix-it Felix, apparently a reference to some age old movie from pre-subsummation America.
"Alright, you got all that?"
"Yeah," Castiel confirmed, having written down all the material he needed to help his customer. "I appreciate the save. Real quick though, while I've got you on. You gonna make it to the tournament today?"
"You know it, bro. I wouldn't miss it for the world. Unfortunately though, I won't be able to get to that gala your dad's throwing. Urgent business call."
"This organization you've been talking up has been working you to the bone recently."
"Don't worry about it, you've still got your date." Castiel was ready to protest his insinuations, but unfortunately—
"Cash! I need help!" Sounded off a very unfortunate voice.
"Sorry, Felix. Got t'go. I'll catch up with you soon." Castle quickly hung up with a sigh. "Lucio! This is your fifth visit this month; I really hope you have a good reason to not only break your record, but interrupt my work with another client." He moved to the customer he was with before, walking them through the process of ordering the parts they needed. Allowing Lucio to yell about his plight.
"My frame cracked!" He pointed through the window out to the parallel parking space just on the side of the main road where the shop was. Castle saw, rather surprisingly, yeah. Exactly that. There was a crack in the center of the frame just under the seat. How he managed to get the damn thing into the shop like that was actually kind of baffling. He could only drag his palm down his face at the idea of the work he'd have to do to get the damn thing functional again.
At least he pays well.
It had been some hours since Lucio had left what was remaining of his scooter in Castiel's hands, ordering a Phantom to take him to work. He was currently setting up his acetylene torch to braze together the copper tubing used for some of the various fluid transfer pipes. It wasn't a material he used particularly often, usually he would find himself welding with thicker materials; this however, was a lower pressure hermetic system. It didn't have to be particularly strong. What did need to be strong was the frame, and it was a hurdle he didn't want to waste time trying to get over now when he still needed the internals going into the frame.
Coming back up to his headphones, he adjusted the volume of his music since the torch was a little on the louder side. D.A.N.C.E - Justice. He read off his phone while he did so. Since he was in the middle of transitioning between work, he took a half second to organize his queue. Electric Feel, All Was Well, Might*U, Death of a Bachelor, Boogie Wonderland. Yeah, Castiel was pretty confident he wouldn't have to skip songs for a short while. Comfortable with that, he set the torch ablaze and began to heat his piping, singing along with his music all the while. Some twenty minutes of work later however, he heard the bell of his shop door ringing behind him.
"Welcome to Castle Doctrine Mechanics! I'll just be a moment!" He shouted from where he worked, not yet looking at the customer. He cut the torch off, acetylene first, a soft snapping noise sounding when the flame went out. Then he cut off the oxygen, returning to the tanks and cutting them off as well. Finally before leaving to meet the customer, he bled what gas was left in the hoses out and hung the kit up against the wall. He paused his music and brought his headphones down to rest around his neck as he walked to the counter. "Now, how can I help-"
The man that greeted him though, was very strange. He was adorned with a full length red cape, and a strange robe of sorts underneath. He could hardly tell what it was. He also had three leather pouches containing who the fuck knows. What, d'the robe not come with pockets? Above it all however, the most interesting thing was the red wrap he had covering his face, closed up by two black belts covering up his left eye. Realizing that he'd interrupted himself with his admittedly rather rude staring, Castiel shook it off.
"-you."
"You are Castiel Kalashnikov?"
"Uh, yeah? This is my shop, after all. And yourself, sir?"
"I am a servant of the world. Among the last of them."
"I-uh-I'm not sure I follow. I'm a mechanic, did you happen to have something for me to repair?" Castiel gestured to the rest of his shop, this guy was here for him, right? For what other reason than to have him fix something?
"I suppose you could say that." The caped man placed a large, steel, and seemingly hermetically sealed box on the counter. Castiel must've missed it, because he couldn't recall the man walking in with one or even watching him put it up on the counter. It just kind of appeared there. "I have a delivery for you."
"And this is?" Castiel questioned, pulling it down off the counter and going to set it aside, only for him to almost eat it into the floor. "Holy shit, this motherfucker is heavy! How the hell did you get this in here!?"
"You've seen the stars disappearing from the sky, and I see that you've been taking steps to find out why." Twitching at the comment, Castiel jolted up from where he set the box to meet the man eye to eye. But he was gone. Not even a trace; well, except for one more remark that echoed through the room. "Maybe like this, you can be a servant of the world as well."
Castiel waited for a few moments by himself thinking that maybe the mysterious stranger would reappear or continue to speak to him. Only when he was positive he was by himself did he move from where he stood. Once he did though, he had some concerns he needed addressed. He left through the back of his shop and into his scrap yard where he did a lot of parts scavenging. There was also a second building slightly smaller than his shop. On the inside was a mountain of garbage and metal scraps; a small lift settled over the mountain, one Castiel shuffled up under. Sifting around the scraps, he uncovered a small pocket of empty space he'd created. Looking down into it, he grabbed a small hook that was at the bottom and fixed it to the lift above him. Coming down from the heap, he retrieved the controller for the lift stashed away in a smaller pile of hardware.
Twisting the emergency stop button so that it popped out, Castiel pressed the 'up' button and brought his headphones back over his ears to mask the raking noise of the massive scrap heap giving way as the floor began to come up from the ground: In Degrees - Foals. It revealed a large, open pit, and inside there was a large machine not dissimilar to an airplane in its shape. Maybe less like an airplane and more like a space shuttle: with it's shorter wingspan situated further back on the ship, and its much longer nose coming to a very tight angled point. Dropping down into the pit, Castiel placed his hand onto the metal frame.
How did he know? That guy, whoever the hell he was. He knew that Castiel'd been building this ship to go off into space. Well, he didn't say he knew, but it was heavily implied. Still, there was a significance to what he'd said. Coming from the mystery man who seemed to know a lot more than Cash did, his remark about the vanishing stars only confirmed what he suspected about the severity of the situation. A long time ago, his father had told him that each star in the night sky is another world; while part of him felt like it was stupid to hold onto fairy tales, Castiel was worried by the prospect of entire worlds vanishing off the map and what would happen to the people living on them. Even more so when he thought about what force could be behind it, and when it would show up at his doorstep.
Still, even with as much work as he'd put into the damn thing, he couldn't get it to fly; not for any more than a handful of minutes. Even with a fast neutron reactor coupled to the engines. It just took far too much power than he was capable of generating, given such a small space. Honestly, Castiel wasn't even sure why he'd bothered to come out here. He didn't have time to work on the damn thing anyway. He still had to finish working on Lucio's moped.
Closed early for the Steel Sundering Sword Tournament.
Castiel taped the paper up on the glass of his shop door, along with a poster advertising the event. He puffed a breath out as he stepped back and admired the little vapor cloud it made. It was early December, and in turn it was pretty cold. Just some few degrees below freezing, and the rain that had come down on the slightly warmer day before had frozen into a little lane in the gutters of the street. It gave him an excuse to put on his ice skates for the trip down to the Guardian Moon Event Center, though it's effectively the same as him putting his roller skates on instead. Though, he appreciated that he was getting a different flavor of the same traversal today. He hefted up the case he held on his back so that it was tighter against him, and he pulled the straps taut. With a small stroke, he pushed off onto the little railway he had for himself and rode the gradual downward slope down the street, bobbing a small bit to the tempo of his music.
"Felix!" It had been some minutes of him cruising down the street, but his shop being in the thick of the city; Castiel didn't have to go far to reach the event center, he didn't even have to leave his street. "Y'know, I thought you'd beat me here." He stopped just short of Felix retrieving his equipment from out of his Phantom.
"You say that like you aren't as punctual as you are, Cash." Felix regarded him without looking, reaching a hand out to dap up his boi while his other hand kept to prepping his blades.
"Well, you already know how early my dad hammered that shit into me, bruv." They bumped shoulders with the dap, snapping their fingers as their hands came apart.
"Right, so remind me which divisions we qualified for?" Felix asked, Castiel sitting himself down on the curb to get his skates off.
"Freeform doubles and single-edged doubles."
"So I didn't bring the wrong blades, good," Felix hauled a large two-handed sword out from the trunk and pulled the belt of its leather sheath over his head to hang it over his back. "Let's hope you've been practicing, your rapier has been getting rusty." This was followed by an equally large katana, an uchigatana specifically.
"Boy, don't pretend like I had to carry your sorry-ass in single-edged prelims." Castiel burst out laughing at Felix's accusations.
"Alright, alright. Shut up and let's get it."
Ladies and gentlemen, it's the moment you've all been waiting for. We have arrived at the grand final match of the single-edged doubles here at the Steel Sundering Sword Tournament! Let's hear it!
The crowd erupted into a violent uproar at the commentator's command. The boom of one-hundred ten thousand people melding and mixing into one pool of static that nearly ruptured Castiel's eardrums, and they weren't even out on the stadium floor.
Starting on the North side of the stadium—coming out of the winner's bracket—we have last year's champions returning to defend their title: Nikklaüs Tenshouha and Tetsyua Rekkoha!
Castiel could feel his nerves wrack up when the stadium exploded once more as he and Felix passed through the tunnel out to the open stadium. They were up against some stiff competition, and as much as he ragged on Felix for dragging ass in prelims he'd done more than enough carrying his weight up through the bracket. It was his fault they were in the loser's bracket after all, having slipped up and overextending his offense. A rookie mistake that he of all people shouldn't've made. Now they had to win two sets against the returning champs. It was fucked, but what helped was Felix placing his hand on Castiel's shoulder.
"Don't worry about a thing, guy!" He had to basically scream at him to be heard over the crowd. "Listen to how they announce us!"
And coming in on the Southern entrance—clawing tooth-and-nail outta loser's bracket—are two phenomenally skilled fighters in the game right now. Champion of the freeform singles division: Felix Fassbender! Alongside him is the fabled champion of single-edged singles: Castiel Kalashnikov!
Castiel almost flinched at the crowd tearing the air with their cheers as they stepped out of the tunnel. There weren't any words between them after that, they simply fist bumped and separated from each other. They took separate corners of the ring: it was a large, stone platform measuring 15mx15m. Castiel began to prep his tachi for battle.
Now, while our contestants get ready, let's talk about this match up. It only made sense for Castle that after he took the championship for singles in his style that he'd move to doubles. However, I want to hear what you think about his style of swordsmanship, Max. Castle has brought his signature Iaijutsu to doubles, but I personally am not sure how well it translates into this two-vs-two format.
Well, Sajam, the important thing to think about is blade composition, right? So obviously our heroes here are utilizing a Tachi and an Uchigatana. These are Japanese blades, and we've seen one or two more here or there through the tournament but not on their side of the bracket. What we can see though, is that Nikklaüs and Tetsuya have straight cleaved through the other katana wielders because they've got much heavier and stronger blades in a cutlass and a falcata. Which wouldn't normally be the best for this, right? They have a harder time playing defensively or reactively, but their solution is to just not do that. They just swing and swing and swing until their opponent's guard cracks, their opponents are on the back foot because they took the initiative.
And it's funny you should say that, because Castle very famously plays an extremely defense-oriented game. I'm not quite sure myself that it's wise to play it the way he does in this environment. Keeping his blade sheathed for most of the fight is a novel concept, but this tournament shows the issues of the strategy. There's a reason why they went to the losers' bracket.
Well, I think the real mix-up is that at the end of it, when he finally decides to draw his blade; you don't have to think of where the swing comes from, right? He's always drawing from the hip and since his blade is down, the cut always comes upwards. The issue is that you spend all that time paranoid of that one strike and when it comes, that's when you'll be blindsided by his partner.
Exactly that! Felix was an amazing pick for this dynamic duo, someone who can play a genuinely strong offense to open up their opponents for Castle to take advantage of. Still there's one issue that he has that we've even seen in this very bracket! Felix tries to optimize, he's an optimizer. But then, right at the point of optimization he's got such demented content brain that at the cusp of optimization he just says "Wouldn't it be funny if I just did 'X'!?" Just last match he jumped—literally jumped—at Theon, but went for a delayed uppercut because he knew that Theon would block high instead of intercepting the jump.
Castle chuckled to himself, remembering how Felix clowned on their last opponents. Cash wasn't the kind of person to BM on the competition, but that didn't mean he would stop Felix from reveling in content. It was a thought that helped him regain his confidence. Even if they fell into loser's, they tore up that side of the bracket so hard that it wouldn't be able to sit down right for days.
Looks like our competitors are ready, and the ref is about to call the first clash! Let's say it with him everyone!
Castiel's eyes darted to the referee—his arm raised high into the sky—then to Nikklaüs and Tetsuya. He knew what would come next, he was their immediate first target. With him out of the picture, Felix's comparatively shorter blade wouldn't be able to defend against heftier weapons and it especially wouldn't have the coverage to defend against two of them at once.
"Let Zantetsuken—" The referee started, a boom sounding through the entire stadium as the crowd joined him in what effectively became a chant. Castle let his mind sharpen at that. He let the space between the words he spoke stretch and become infinitely long at the anticipation of the next move. "—strike!" The hand came down, and it began.
Castiel was instantly set upon like he had predicted, Nikklaüs and Tetsuya beelining for him from the corners on either side of him.
There they go, Max! They're going after Castiel just like we thought!
The thing about that is since they all started at equidistant corners from each other, they had to run a longer line to cut him off earlier than the center where naturally Felix could stop their double team. They only had time for one decisive strike to give them the advantage, and if he could get past that then there was an even game. As Castle closed the distance between him and Felix, he straightened his posture up to bait a few particular options out of them. A bait they would have to take out of necessity, as opposed to stupidity: these are professionals after all. It was like forking a queen from check in chess: not that the analogy meant anything to Cash. Suddenly they were on him like some other analogy Cash was a little too busy to come up with. Nikklaüs coming down with an outward slash on high from the left with his falcata, and Tetsuya making a dive at Castle's ankles from the right. By putting the two most critical points his opponents were expected to go for at an extreme distance from each other using his posture, he'd created a gap in-between them that he could slip through. Still, they were cutting at angles that threatened to close that gap quickly, quicker than he thought he would be able to make. But he had to make it.
Tucking inwards, Castiel dove through the gap in the cuts. He raised his tachi up over his head to intercept the falcata threatening to come down on his back, and he began to release a sigh of relief as he heard the clanking sound of the falcata bouncing up the slightest bit making it evident that it was a very necessary step in the maneuver. He followed through by rolling out of his dive, his arm flaring out to give his sword clearance and spinning on a knee to throw an uppercut wildly to fill the space he'd left; knowing that one of them would try and chase while he recovered. It was something he caught Tetsuya unawares with, who was going in for a follow up. It was an attack that broke his posture, and allowed Cash to finish that sigh of relief he'd started some fraction of a second ago.
Holy shit! Oh my god! The crowd erupted at how his awareness rewarded him by turning the situation around.
Especially since Felix was finally there to back him up: sending Nikklaüs to the floor with a full-sprint shoulder bash while he was still reeling from his swing on Castle. In a single second, they'd both shattered the anti-Cash gambit and had the advantage: something they wouldn't squander. They both rushed down the posture-broken Tetsuya, who started to backpedal. Felix's relentless assault of quick strikes and boxer-level posture sway kept him backing up in that way, while Castle let the threat of his Iaijutsu hang overhead as he stepped back and forth behind Felix to either side of him.
How did things turn around so fast!? Felix and Castle have Tetsuya on the back foot and are primed to send him home!
At this point Nikklaüs had recovered from his hard knockdown, but he wasn't able to catch up in time for Felix and Castle to step in together and create a high/low unblockable team attack that sent Tetsuya flying out of the ring, disqualifying him with a loud buzzer sounding in response. The eruption of the crowd almost distracted Castle long enough for Nikklaüs to get the jump on them. Almost. Turning to meet him charging at them, both Cash and Felix did a quick backstep. Almost sending himself off the line, Nikklaüs had to regain his balance. Something that put a devious smile on Felix's face.
"Felix!" Castle shouted, knowingly.
But it didn't get through to him. Felix stepped to be behind Nikklaüs and wound himself up for a nasty dropkick. Unfortunately the 'haha funny' wasn't on Felix's side this time, Nikklaüs having sidestepped on reflex—not even knowing the dropkick was coming. And Felix sent himself out of bounds.
Ooh! There it is, Sajam. There's that content brain you were talking about.
"Come on, man!" Castle yelled at him over the sound of the buzzer announcing Felix's ring out.
"I thought it would be funny!" His tone indignant, Felix held his arms up like in surrender to Castiel's ire but also like in a shrug.
Not having a moment to grill him for the decision, Castiel was immediately put on the retreat after Nikklaüs charged him. This was a 1v1 situation Castle didn't want to be in: Nikklaüs had studied up on him a lot and it was evident in the way he approached. With every attack he pushed in close to keep Castle from taking advantage of overextensions, and shrunk whatever parts of him weren't immediately being covered by his blade to be tighter into his stance. He was playing a safe offense because he knew that as long as he didn't take risks, Castle couldn't make an offensive play of his own. All he could do was dance in a circle and weave out of the way of the attack strings. Shit, I need to make a play. How was he supposed to do that, though? He didn't know enough about standard Kenjutsu to measure up to someone like Nikklaüs, he needed to use Iaijutsu. Was there any way he could open Nikklaüs up without unsheathing his blade? He thought of one. Up until this point, he's only been three different stings on rotation. This one ends in a high attack, if I just—
Castle dropped into a low forward roll, stopping just short of being directly underneath Nikklaüs. Even with his riskless offense, he won't be able to defend against this! Castle thrusted himself back onto his feet in a fraction of a second, sending his shoulder straight into Nikklaüs's chin.
"Tetsuzanko!" He roared.
Ladies and gentlemen, are you seeing this!? Castle using unarmed strikes here at the Steel Sundering Sword! No one else could've pulled something like that off!
The strike caused Nikklaüs' posture to break, his weight pushed back on his heels and his arms too high in the air to defend from Castle's follow-up. Perfect! Here it was, his chance to close things out. His stance already wide and low, he dropped his hands to take his blade into his hands.
Alrighty then, Max. It's the age-old question! Will it Kill!?
Flicking his thumb up on the guard to break the seal and loose the blade, he stuck forward with a speed that tore the air asunder.
But he didn't make contact, stopping short of his target: the round end buzzer sounded. Something that caused them both some confusion, looking at each other with an eyebrow raised. Their eyes snapped to a man in a black and red suit approaching them with a microphone from the edge of the arena.
"Dad? What's going on?" Castiel didn't expect to see him until the gala after the tournament.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have some unfortunate news. The Steel Sundering Sword Tournament has been postponed until further notice. I ask that you all please vacate the area in a quick but orderly fashion.
"Postponed? Dad, what'd'you mean!?" Castle pleaded, sheathing his blade almost as quick as it was drawn. His dad only took him by the shoulder and leaned in to whisper in his ear, well he was still yelling to be heard over the rustling of the outraged crowd but it was a whisper comparatively.
"You and Felix meet me in the parking lot, I'll explain then."
"Alright, what's this about?"
Castiel was admittedly getting a little impatient with the whole situation. On his way out of the stadium from one of the side exits, he was pushed past by Lancers and EMS. Now he could see through the traffic of people trying to get free of the stadium lot, all the emergency response vehicles that lined the entirety of the building. Some nerves wracked up on him at the sight, and what it could mean. Now that he was face to face with the tournament organizer, he could get some answers.
"I'm sorry, boys. I hope you'll forgive me for postponing the finals, but it's out of my hands now," Castiel's father, Thestalos, had found them after the fact by Felix's car. "Someone found one of the event judges dead in the women's bathroom. Her heart… was torn out of her chest," He made hard eye-contact with Felix when he did so, Felix sharing with him a knowing look.
"What the fuck? You're kidding." Castiel loudly proclaimed his disgust.
"I wish I could be. The Vela-Nova Lancer Commission had me shut the event down for the investigation. But that's not something you need to worry about, I just thought you deserved to know why you can't close this out yet. For right now, you have a date waiting for you, right? I'll see you and Leif at the gala. Felix, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"You got it, bossman. Go ahead and leave without me Cash, I'm under the impression that I have a lot of work to be doing."
Castle couldn't help the face he made at that. This was supposed to be their valorous triumph as champions again, further proof to their dominance in every division. Still, he knew how important both of their work was, and if the SSS league were to get in the way of that it was fair of them to push it back.
"Uh, right! I'll catch up soon, then!"
"So, what do you think, Cash?"
Castiel left what used to be his room in the manor, having to sift through his old wardrobe for a suitable—well—suit. At the door, Felix's sister Leif was waiting for him. She was wearing a sleek, full-length, open-back, sleeveless black dress that had a high cut-in on the right leg that showed a red trim lining the edges. The colors certainly designed to match up to the open, frizzy mane that was her hair and its own bleeding from black to red on the edges.
"Gyattdamn, girl!" Cash exclaimed, bringing a hand up to his chin. "The Rizzler is impressed."
"You are so fucking cringe!" Leif laughed at what could've been a genuine reaction from him, if not for that last bit. She smacked him over the head with her clutch purse. "Well, the 'Rizzler' cleans up a lot better than I remember."
"You think so? I think I prefer vests, y'know?"
Castiel held his arms out wide to showcase the fit, rotating around as he did so. It was a standard three-piece just red over black instead of black over red. It was like he said though, he wished that he was in a vest instead. I just don't like long sleeves. At least in a vest I can roll up the sleeves on the shirt. Maybe it wasn't too late to change it? When he came back around though, Leif decided to take advantage of his arms being open by taking him by surprise with a hug.
"Nah! I want this." She said very matter-of-factly. And despite his initial surprise, Castle reciprocated the hug. Kind of. "Ah! Castle, put me down!" Leif burst into a fit of laughter as Castle picked her up and slung her over his shoulder, carrying her down the hall and to the stairs. The gala was being held in the common rooms of the manor, and he could hear the echoes of the party goers as he approached.
"I'm not sure I can do that, who knows what a feral thing like you would get up to at a ritzy party like this," He ignored her swatting at his back. "I need some way to control you." He smacked her lower thigh, something that caused her to yelp before smacking the ever-loving shit out of the top of his head.
"¡Ay, cabrón! ¿Qué carajo pensas?" She exclaimed, wiggling free. He could see that her entire face was red from it as she pointed an accusatory finger at him. "That—" She paused a bit, only seemingly more embarrassed by how much Castiel seemed to be enjoying himself. "—will not happen twice."
"Yes ma'am." He said with his arms up in surrender, only slightly undercut by the smug smile he wore. "You are so into me." He called to her as she turned the landing at the bottom of the first half of the stairs.
"Yeah? Well, if that were the case, d'you think maybe I'd like to go on a date that doesn't involve filling a plus one at one of these!?" She pointed out the event's crowd to him as he joined her on the floor.
"Yeah, this place does remind me of that last musical I watched you perform in." Castle sheepishly scratched the back of his head.
"And what was the game you said you played with Felix?"
"Uh. It was—uh—it was called 'Anyone Under 50?'." Castiel deflated in embarrassment.
"Yeah. Well, part of me thinks if we played, neither of us would be able to score any points, huh?"
"I'm sorry! You know I can't go to these alone, Leif. Old people talk so much. Besides, you are allowed to say no, you can leave whenever you want."
"Shh." She pushed a finger over his lips to hush him. "I'm trying to focus." Castle confusingly followed her eye-line out into the crowd, but couldn't find what she was looking at.
"Focus on what?"
"'Anyone Under 50?'."
"Oh." Cash snirked at that, it was a fun game. "Find anyone yet?"
"That guy there." She pointed across the way, an exhibit against the wall and the person observing it.
"That guy? The guy with the long gray hair? Under 50 you think?"
"Let's go find out, I want that point." Leif locked arms with Castiel, tugging him along.
"Oh, okay. Guess I'm losing an hour of my life." He remarked, regarding his previous statement on old people being long-winded.
"This one is beautiful." She started casually, goading the stranger into a conversation.
"You have a good eye." He answered, turning to meet them.
"Yeah, she does." Castle answered for her, not talking about the painting though. How did she know?
This guy definitely couldn't've been over even 40-years-old. His face was strong and angled, his gray hair coming up into three peaks before it trailed down his back, and his darker skin tone matched Leif's. Most striking however, was his piercing golden eyes. The painting in question they were all now observing, it depicted a grand and fanciful city on the water with pure white buildings accented in gold. There were windmills and gondolas lining much of the empty space between each island, but what was most funny to him was the building at the peak of the centermost island. A pyramid-esque structure placed upside-down in a way that he refused to believe was structurally sound.
"It's—uh—called Stairway to Heaven," Castiel gestured to it with his free arm. "My father used to tell me stories about this place as a kid. Built on top of a once great city that succumbed to a war fought much longer before," He chuckled at it. "Claims that some of the people broke off and founded Vela-Nova here, talks like the place actually exists."
"You're surprisingly knowledgeable." The man remarked.
"Oh, my dad is the curator." Was his automatic response.
"Thestalos is your father?" He seemed taken aback by the idea.
Castle was too. No one had ever pronounced his father's name correctly, always rhyming with close instead of loss like it should. It was a misconception that his father never corrected, perpetuating the incorrect pronunciation. Maybe it was for this reason. It gave Castiel goosebumps and made his hair stand on end. He was uncomfortable suddenly at the idea that this guy knows more than he should.
"Who ar—" Castle was interrupted by a ringing sound coming from the center of the room. Looking for it, it was his dad clinking a knife against his champagne glass to get everyone's attention.
"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming. I hope you guys are having a wonderful time tonight! Of course, you guys aren't just here to look around at all this gaff you've already seen a million times so I don't think I'll waste all of your time any longer," He was stood next to a large cubed shape shrouded in a black cloth, his hand coming up to pinch the corner of the cloth. "Here it is, our newest exhibit. The Key to the City!" He flicked his arm out, taking the cloth with.
Underneath it was a large display case, and inside was—What the hell even is that? His dad said key, and maybe if you squinted a little it did look like one. A pin tumbler key, but with all its serrations cut out so that it made a little hook. The base of it was strange too, it had a crossguard like a sword. Honestly in all, he didn't know what the fuck he was looking at, and he couldn't spend very much more time studying it: all the photographers and miscellaneous news outlets letting the flash of their cameras flood the room and make it difficult to see.
"Mr. Kalashnikov! Is that a keychain on it?" One of the reporters pointed to what did in fact look like a keychain on the bottom.
"That it is. The researchers who found this specimen speculate it was a ritual of sorts that was—"
Castle started to tune out his dad, the flashing lights starting to make him uncomfortable and jittery. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Castle?" Leif took his chin into her hand and brought him to look at her.
"I think I wanna… get out of here," He turned to regard the man they'd been talking to before. "So, what was your—and you've disappeared."
Why did that worry him?
"Oh! Oh shit! Why the fuck're'y'mashing on m'plus frames!?"
"You're never minus if you're just not a bitch!"
Castiel and Leif had been holed up in his room for a short while, getting fucked up drunk and playing an old game his dad managed to get a hold of some time ago. Street Fighter VI. One of the cool things about having an anthropologist dad, millenia old games. How it was so well preserved was something that still puzzled him, but the game was fun so he couldn't complain. They were four and four on their 'first to ten', that is until Leif pulled another win out of her ass. Before they could start another, there was a knock at the door.
"Come in!" Castle called, not moving from the bed they sat on.
Thestalos entered the room, well almost. Instead he just kind of peered in.
"Can I borrow him, lass?"
"Hmmm… I dunno. I kind'f wanna keep'm." Leif slurred, leaning back onto her hands. The way she said it, it made Castle's heart skip a beat.
"I'll make it quick, promise."
"Fine, I guess."
"Why're y'all talkin' 'bout me like I'm not here?" Cash chuckled, standing up to leave with his dad.
"Hurry back!" Leif drunkenly commanded them, flopping onto her side on the bed.
Thestalos led his son into the room just next door, the study.
"Whatchu got for me, bruv?" Cash started, closing the door behind him. Something that could only make his dad laugh heartily.
"You are so incredibly fuckin' skew whiff, aren't you?" He started rummaging through his desk.
"Maybe. Maybe." Castiel plopped himself down in the chair just across from his dad.
"I have something for you." Thestalos placed a wooden box onto the desk, turning it to face Castle and sliding it to him.
This was an interesting time for Cash to be receiving a gift, at least he thought so. His birthday was months ago, and Christmas was months away. He pursed his lips in thought as he brought the box up into his hands. Lifting the lid open, he found an ornament on a chain. The ornament itself looked to be incomplete: a flat disk with several divots in it that implied the existence of missing parts to fill that space. The puzzling thing that it was sobered him up a little.
"Is this that keychain thing that was on today's exhibit?" He asked simply.
"It is. Well, not really. That one is a stand-in for the exhibit. This is actually the real one," Standing from the desk, he came around the side and passed Castle. He beckoned him by curling in his fingers, and Cash followed him to the painting mounted on the far wall. It was a painting Castle had seen many times over, but was never able to decipher. It depicted an infinitely long, barren wasteland, riddled with—something. The brushstrokes made it difficult to discern, but they looked kind of like swords? All sunk blades first into the ground. "I never told you why I do this, why I got into this business," There was a pause, but Castle didn't respond, suspecting it was rhetorical. "What you now hold in your hand is the ultimate boon of this endeavor, a lost family heirloom that's finally where it belongs. I ask that you keep it close from here forward."
"This—" Castle looked down to the empty pendant he held. "Is a Kalashnikov original?"
"That it is," Thestalos smiled at him. "Hey, how're you holding up? The place has felt a little empty since you moved out."
"I'm gettin' by," Castiel smiled at the question. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to visit you as much as I've wanted."
"Castiel. You don't have to apologize to me for that. Actually, maybe I should be."
"What'd'you mean?"
"Tomorrow, I leave on a business trip. A long, far-away one. I'm not going to be around for a while, and without a way to reach you either. I'm sorry I didn't say anything sooner."
"T-that's okay." Castiel said sheepishly, clipping the keychain onto his belt loop.
"Felix will be bringing me to the airport tomorrow, so you and Leif will be coming to see me off, right?"
"Yeah! Of course!" It was something small that brightened him up a small bit more.
"Good. Now then, go back to your girlfriend. I've been procrastinating on packing for this trip the same as I have been telling you about it."
"It's not like that, dad." Castiel tried to elaborate as he backed up towards the door, his dad following him out.
"Yeah, sure," He didn't sound convinced, closing the study door behind him. "And Castiel," Cash whipped around to look back at his dad, who came in for a surprise hug. "I hope you know that I love you, bud."
"I love you too. With a dad like you, how could I forget?" Part of him wished that he didn't have Leif waiting for him. Part of him felt like he'd missed out on a lot of time he could've had with his dad for the night, the last night he'd see him in who the fuck knows how long. But he let his father continue down the hall, wishing him a good night. He'd see him in the morning.
Returning to his room, he saw that Leif had passed out on his bed using his suit jacket in place of a blanket.
"You're so stupid." Castle whispered to himself with a smile, moving to her side at the bed.
He didn't want to risk waking her, so instead of moving the blanket out from under her he just brought the sides from the edge of the bed up to wrap her up like a burrito. Guess it was time to go home, at least to put another sign up letting people know about the delayed opening hours tomorrow morning.
A loud bang sounded in the garage, startling Castiel awake from his sleep on the couch atop the mezzanine with a quick 'fuck' escaping him. He instinctively grabbed a steel pipe he had propped up on the couch, and peered into the actual workshop below him. He'd had to fend off a few scrappers trying to get into his junkyard in the past, and the Lancers couldn't properly apprehend them due to some stupid land ownership and zoning laws preventing Cash from pressing charges. That same loophole meant that he was allowed lethal force in protecting his property; while he's never killed anybody, he has beaten a number of scrappers to the point of needing dentures.
"Alright, fucker," He called out to whatever unknown entity decided to cross him. "Tonight's the night you find out why people call me Castle."
Holding the steel pipe in his right hand and bouncing it in the other, Castle made a note that the stairs down from the mezzanine were oddly better lit than usual, considering the amount of natural light usually penetrates his windows at night. Looking back for a half second, he made note of a meteor shower. Neat.
"You can't hide from me, you bastard man," He shouted, having not seen the scrapper after reaching the bottom of the stairs. "You can run though, as long as it's out that door you came from." He finished, internally cursing his continued neglect in installing a lock on the shop door.
It was in that moment when he managed to catch a shadow scurrying out of his peripheral, moving in the direction of his 'delivery' from earlier today. I forgot I'd told myself I would open that up after Lucio took his moped. Now a scrapper was skulking upon it. Hell no. Considering how it'd ended up in his custody, he imagined it was far too important to let someone else get a hold of.
Turning the corner where he'd placed the case, he saw it was untouched. He didn't see any sign of that shadow anymore, either. Feeling a discomfort in the air even still, Castle decided to take the case back to his ship so he could finally see what it was. Wedging the steel pipe against his hip with the belt he wore, he picked up the heavy case and began to shuffle out the back door. However, the foreboding plight of darkness behind him, and the mystery of the case was only compounded upon by a shrieking whistle that sounded off behind him. A bright blue light beginning to grow to a frighteningly bright strength. Castle was terrified to find that behind him, one of the meteors of the shower was closing in on him fast. Immediately dropping the case, he dived to the side in an attempt to not get clipped by the hulking mass hurtling toward him.
"Holy fuck!" He shouted as the object crashed into a nearby pile of scrap car frames, knocking a couple stacks over.
After the incredibly fast and loud moment he just experienced, Castle just decided he was going to lay there for a minute. There was a small fear in him that the second he even let his muscles relax something would explode again, but that moment passed fairly quickly. Pulling himself off the ground, he decided he wanted to figure out what the fuck just tried to kill him. At the impact site there was a small crater, and in that crater was a young boy. He couldn't've been any older than fifteen: his blonde hair was in a weird swept-up mess, and his clothes looked like he just jumped out of the early internet some thousands of years ago. Most importantly, he didn't have a scratch on him, something Castle feels like maybe he should've had a little more than a few of considering he just fell out of the fucking sky! He wasn't conscious though, so maybe that was a sign of some damage.
"Aye! Wake up, Sleeping Beauty! You almost smashed me and my—"
Oh shit, the case! He whipped around to where he dropped it, finding more to be shocked about. There was a giant, fuck-you ant standing over it! Well, it was kind of ant-like: antennae, big bulbous head, but the comparisons kind of stopped there. That's not important! It was huge, and also trying to break the case open.
"Hey! Hands off!" Castiel pulled the pipe into his hands and obliterated the thing's dumbfuck skull with a fast sideswipe. Only for it to reform itself in a fraction of a second. "Huh!?" He came down over the thing again from overhead, and it felt like he was passing straight through it. Why wasn't this thing dropping? Still, it would slow the thing down a little bit. Like this he can grab the case and—
"What? What the heck are these things!?" A voice shouted in distress from behind Castle. Whipping around on a dime, he could see that the boy in the crater was awake—which was good—and being set upon by more of those big ants—which was bad!
"Hey, kid! This way!" Castle shouted at him, pointing to the garage he kept his shuttle hidden in.
They both bolted it towards the garage, coming side to side shortly before reaching it.
"Who are you!? What's going on!?" He shouted.
"Do I fuckin' look like the kind of guy who can answer that!?" Cash lifted up his pipe, emphasizing his unpreparedness.
Stumbling into the garage, Castiel shut the doors and moved to a pile of scrap metal at the edge of the door frame. Afraid he might one day have to hide out in here for reasons he couldn't fathom, he created this pile very precariously. There was a cheap metal trash can at the bottom of the stack that he golf swung his pipe at, and when it flew out from underneath the pile it crashed loud and hard in front of the door to create a barricade.
"That'll buy us some time," He started to climb the center mountain of trash. "Grab that remote hanging over there, twist the red knob and be ready to hit the up button when I say."
"Y-yessir!" The boy offered a confused salute before complying.
"Come on, come on, come on," Castle muttered to himself, struggling to find the hook in all that trash. "There!" He grabbed it. "Button, now!" He commanded as he slapped the hook onto the one overhead, rushing to get down and off the pile.
The overhead crane began to whirr as it lifted the heap up and revealed the Falcon. Castiel knew it wouldn't fly very long, but it didn't need to he just wanted to be up and away from—
Castiel's thought was interrupted by the entire front of his garage being torn open by a giant set of claws. Looking out the new opening, he came face to face with a gargantuan titan of darkness, its face shrouded in creepy-ass tentacles that unfortunately didn't save him from its piercing gaze. Just behind it, he could see in the sky a black hole beginning to tear the ground asunder and consume everything in the city.
"What the fuck is that!?" Castle shouted the loudest he had in the past twenty-four hours. He felt his throat tear at it a small bit. "Aye! Get in the Falcon! Keys are in the ignition, hit the big violet launch button!" The Falcon had a pre-programmed flight path, if the kid could get it started then Cash would keep this big fucker distracted.
Dashing out of the garage—not watching for the boy to start on his instructions—Castiel began to wave his arms wildly.
"Over here, schteupid!" He shouted.
Unfortunately, he didn't last nearly as long as he wanted to, immediately being swatted to the ground by the titan's giant hand. Before he could recover, it pinned him down with a palm. Castle began to sink into the shadow it cast, and he couldn't struggle against it. The ants from before started crawling out of that shadow and swarm over him. Wow, is this it? I'm about to die and I have no idea what the fuck is about to eat me? He stared down the eyes that descended upon him from on high. Hell no! I can't die yet! I need to see my dad off on his trip. He began to struggle harder and harder against the force that continued to pull him. He was still losing, but he ignored it. Even when he was fully lost to the darkness.
I'm not done yet!
In the singular most bright light he'd ever been blinded by, Castiel found himself upright again. In his hand, instead of the pipe, was the blade his dad had showcased at the gala. The keychain! Checking his belt loop, Castle couldn't find the pendant. It was on the blade just like before. It was longer than he remembered it being at the gala, the one before definitely being a single handed weapon. This one was much longer though, most definitely taller than him and with a longer grip to compensate. Feeling a killer instinct, he whipped around to obliterate the ant that rushed in behind him. The second his new sword passed through it, it was blown to smithereens.
"Whoa. This thing works." Castle held it with some reverence.
Turning to the big guy again, he saw it was winding up a punch down at him. He didn't have very much time to do anything but block it head on, surprised to feel a strength he hadn't felt before when he wasn't immediately snapped like a twig. Still, he couldn't continue to hold the force back like that so he stepped out to the side and let the fist slide off his blade. Looking to make an offensive move, he stabbed the blade into the monster's wrist and held on for dear life as it reeled its arm back in response. When the arm pulled up to a stable position higher up off the ground, Castle pulled the 'sword' free and ran down the length of the arm to the face.
"Die!" He shouted, plunging the blade into one its eyes that were starting to piss him the fuck off. He was given another test of his grip strength when it started to wildly swing its head to either side in an attempt to shake him off. Something it only succeeded in when its eye gave way and came free from its face, sending Castle flying.
He hit the ground sooner than he thought though, and looking down he saw it was because the Falcon had taken off and he just happened to cross its planned flight path with his own unplanned one. If anyone asked later though, he would claim it was fully intentional.
"I've got you!" He heard faintly behind the glass of the cockpit.
"The door!" Castle pointed down at a specific button on the control panel, crawling around the side of the Falcon very cautiously so as to not plummet to his death.
He let out a breath of relief—or rather he let out a sigh of relief and the breath he had been holding was fear—when the door opened up and let him inside. Still, before he moved into the cockpit, he looked over Vela-Nova as they started to quickly make distance on it. His home: destroyed. Everything he had feared had come to pass and when that great evil showed up at his doorstep, he had hardly the power to carve out its eye. Looking down to this weird key/blade thing, he was hard pressed to find what to do next. Well, first he should maybe introduce himself to the new company he had.