Animal Surprises:

"Well how about that." Azzurra said in awe as the five Pecker's hovered in front of her. She held out her right hand and the middle crow landed, depositing Kame in the process. If I knew better, I would even say Pecker looked smug as he squawked. "All right, fine, this room is my fault."

"So is that it? He just takes things and multiplies them?" I asked, kind of wanting Kame back.

"Probably not." Azzurra said as she began scrutinizing the four remaining birds. "I've heard from Dad that the Animal Boxes are a bit more complex than other Boxes, so I'm sure there's more than just this. I just don't know what. Anyways, here." She said as she nonchalantly tossed Kame back to me. I had to take an unsteady step forward to catch him in time, and even then there were two unstable tosses back and forth before I had the turtle back in hand.

"Ah!" Came a startled Azzurra. I looked back up to see the crow's vapors still in the air, I supposed there was a time limit to the copy then.

"So there's a time limit on them then?"

"I dunno, maybe? It wasn't like I was trying to keep them." Azzurra shrugged as Pecker settled himself on her shoulder. "But that is kind of useless if there's nothing around." Azzurra directed to pecker, and grabbed his beak before he could peck her. "And I know you know because you were being a pain about it." She let go and he simply nestled down, seeming a bit irked.

"So you just need to bring some things in with you to your fight for him to copy, simple." I answered her unaired problem. She just huffed in annoyance.

"But I don't know how light I'll need to be for my fight."

"You're nimble, I'm sure you could drop some of it off." She looked at me like I was an idiot, which I'm pretty sure I was in this situation.

"You have no idea what we're getting into do you?"

"It's a Flame Fight, there's not much to it."

Azzurra pinched the bridge of her nose and gave an irritated sigh. "This isn't just a Flame Fight. In fact, this is nothing like school, this is a fight for the head of the family. We're going to be under some heavy conditions to determine our worthiness of our role. I can't just bring anything I want, and neither can the rest of you. Do you even realize what our parents went through for this?"

"Uhhh… not really." I half winced, waiting for a loud rebuttal, but instead there was a knowing sigh.

"Figures. Dad didn't make much of a deal out of his battle, but I've seen some of the recordings of it. He was set in a ring of barbed wire, land mines, and gatling guns with only a meter of clear ground for his fight." I found myself staring at Azzurra dumbly as she smirked. "Of course it took dad less than five seconds to disassemble his opponent." Azzurra's smirk faded and became serious. "But that was dad, and even back then he was someone the other Primo members feared. And if you think that was crazy, what kind of advancements do you think we're going to have to face now that Flame's and Boxes are in the mix?"

I grimaced and began to think. If the Primo had it that bad, we were more than likely going to have it worse, and better yet, our powers were going to be tested as well for the position. But with the thought of the position of Cloud Guardian lead to an arena where Hibari had a meter of breathing room, what would that leave me with?

"What did my dad have to deal with?" I asked, a bit hesitant if Azzurra knew.

"Well, if I remember right," Azzurra put her hand over her mouth I thought. "He was on the school roof during a thunder storm in an arena with lightning rods."

"That's it? That seems a bit less severe than-"

"With constant lightning strikes running through the entire arena." Azzurra cut me off. "That's not to mention his opponent also had lightning-redirecting parabolas and your dad was 5."

I could only look at Azzurra with a slack jaw. "How did he win?"

"He didn't. We don't always win Sanget. And if it hadn't been for Tsuna, he might have died." That made me clamp my mouth shut and take a dry gulp. "And since interference is prohibited without forfeiture, the Sky ring was also lost with the Lightning ring." Azzurra walked up to me and looked me in the eye. "We could very well die from this Sanget. So stop taking this so lightly."

"I-I'm not trying to." I said as I rubbed my left bicep. "I kind of noticed recently, but I've kind of been letting everything blow over. I know I can't do that forever, but you kind of saw me when I did let it sink in a little." Azzurra's eyes softened a little and she looked away. "But thanks anyways Azzurra, Katsumi is probably right then, I should really learn what this guy can do." I said as I lifted Kame up to eye level.

"We should probably find somewhere with a few more things to use then, huh?" Azzurra gave a small smile as Pecker chirped in agreement.

"That would be grand, but how?"

Azzurra shook her head and walked past me. "You should know by now that the house takes you were you need."

I turned and followed after her, closing the door as I left. Azzurra strut down the hall without waiting for me. Without even taking a minute to walk, Azzurra confidently opened one of the myriad of doors and looked in with anticipation. When I caught up and looked inside, I could see why she wasn't disappointed.

There were woven mats of varying sizes hovering about the equally large room that we had just left, some of which were stationary, some rotating vertically and horizontally, and some moving about at random. Among the floor were a vast majority of weapons ranging from handguns, kunai, long swords, and spears.

"Well this is just a lawsuit waiting to happen." I commented to see if there was anything else, but it was just the floating platforms and weapons.

"It would be if anyone was allowed down here." I heard from a bit away and above. I looked up to see Tazia hanging onto the side of a vertical platform from an implanted hunter knife. "What do you two want?"

"I'm looking for things to copy." Azzurra said.

"Oh?" Tazia raised an eyebrow. "Give me a sec." She said as she let go of the knife and kicked off the mat, landing on a passing mat a good seven feet below her. She leaped out of her landing tumble onto a slanted mat and slid down to land in front of us. I couldn't help but clap at the performance. "Please, that's nothing. Add him into the mix and it gets interesting." Tazia smirked as she thumbed over her shoulder. I looked and saw a hawk perched on the knife Tazia had left behind. "So, copying things?"

"Yeah, Pecker, if you will." Azzurra nodded at a kunai. Pecker obliged and glided over to the weapon. Upon grabbing the kunai, there was a brief flash as two Peckers left with a kunai a piece.

"Neat." Tazia commented as the two birds deposited their catch into each awaiting hands. Azzurra gripped both of them and clicked the two together before tossing the one in her right hand. The kunai and second Pecked disappeared before it hit the ground.

"Hm, I wonder if the copy only lasts as long as the bird." Azzurra pondered out loud.

"So are you here to test out your turtle?" Tazia asked.

"Yeah." I shrugged. "But it's kind of hard to train a shield against nothing."

"Feel free to use what you find. It's what it's here for." Tazia gestured widely to the field of weapons.

"Why is it here though?" I asked, and immediately felt like an idiot as Tazia lazily looked back at me.

"Why do you think? For training purposes, obviously. Now if you'll excuse me." Tazia said in finality as she walked over to one of the lower floating platforms and hoisted herself up, snagging a sai with her foot as she did so. And as if on a queue, the hawk took off from the knife and began to dive bomb Tazia as it cloacked itself in Storm Flames. I began to warn her, but she was already running and jumping towards another mat before I could get a word out.

"Seems she's testing herself." Azzurra noted. "Figures, she's probably going to have to be moving a lot in her stage."

"So, ah, yeah, testing." I said hesitantly as I looked about. "What do you wanna do?"

Azzurra gave me a questioning look before a wicked smile spread across her face. "Well, if you wouldn't mind being a target, I think we'll have our work cut out for us." I didn't like her smile, but I didn't have any better ideas and simply nodded. "All right then, Pecker, mind getting the glock? Sanget, stand against that platform." Azzurra pointed out one of the mats that was standing vertically against the floor. I obliged her while affixing Kame to my left arm, forming him into his buckler form.

"Ok, try to block." Azzurra said as I turned to face her. I had time to notice two Pecker's above her and one gun pointed at my face. Faster than I expected of myself, I lifted Kame in front of my face as a sharp *pang* sounded off. "No recoil, nice."

"Warn me first!" I complained as I looked over Kame to see Azzurra contemplating her gun.

"I did." She simply replied as she resumed her stance and began shooting again. I blocked two shots, another to my face and one to my gut, but was to slow as she shot my leg. The pain shot through me and I fell to my knee.

"Damn it that still hurts!" I swore loudly.

"Still?" Azzurra asked. "You've been shot before? For real?" She asked as though it were awe inspiring or something.

"Yeah, by Reborn. In the head." I replied as I checked my calf. Surprisingly though, there was no tear in my pants and no blood seeping out, which was good. I don't know how I would actually deal with actual blood pouring out of me. "I think they're the same though." I reported to Azzurra as I stood back up.

"Huh, Flame bullets." Azzurra contemplated her gun again as it burst into flames, as did the second Pecker. "Wonder if the same goes for blades." She pondered out loud as she began looking around.

"Oh no, I'm not getting stabbed with anything!" I flat out refused before Azzurra could try anything.

"Then again, my claws cut just as well when copied." Azzurra rotated her now empty hand, looking over claws. "But enough of that, let's see what you can do." Azzurra said as she redirected her attention back to me. "Why didn't you block the last one?"

"I only have a buckler Azzurra, it's not like I can react to everything." I pointed out.

"You're being too stringent Sanget. Kame can probably do more than be a buckler."

"Says the girl who can make copies of whatever she wants." I shot back. "He's a shield, what more can he do?" And as if to spite me, Kame seemed to melt and form over my arm, as if in mirror to my ring gauntlet. I couldn't see Kame's face at this point, but I could feel smugness resonating off of my arm. It sent shivers up my spine when he began to make his way down my arm, down my side, and form over my shot leg. "And aren't you just proud of yourself." I grumbled.

"See? Box animals are very resourceful." Tazia said. I looked up to see her perched on top of the platform with the hawk sitting on her shoulder.

"Is that safe?" I asked, pointing at the hawk, remembering the hawk bursting with Storm Flames. Tazia gave a curious look to her shoulder and chuckled.

"What? Nix? He's fine like this, and there's no way I would let him light up on my shoulder, isn't that right?" She smiled as she scratched Nix on the head, the bird leaning into it.

Tazia hopped to the floor and crouched, looking over Kame. "Kinda figures a turtle would do this." She examined as she tapped Kame with her knuckle before standing upright. "And you've seriously been shot by Reborn?"

"You heard that?"

"The room's big, not loud moron." Tazia finally stated her opinion of me. "Why'd he shoot you?"

"To learn Italian." I stated simply as I kneeled down to peel Kame off of my leg. It was somewhat weird that he came off as easy as a soggy towel, and kept a consistency of one as he flopped about in the open air. "Why are you so interested? I kind of figured it was his thing to shoot people."

"Well, it is, just not normally on our family." Tazia shrugged. "Also this gave Azzurra time."

"What? OW!" I exclaimed as I grabbed the back of my neck and glared back at Azzurra, who was standing behind me looking over a hunter's knife. Guessing that she just cut me, and feeling no blood meeting my fingers, it was a copied blade. "Couldn't you have tried that on yourself?" I scolded.

"I could have, but what if it left a mark? My dad would go nuts trying to find out why my arm was cut." Azzurra reasoned as the knife dissipated. "Move your hand, I need to see."

Giving her one more death glare, I obliged and turned my head back as she knelt down behind me. I felt weird with her pawing at the nape of my neck, so I decided to fiddle with Kame. Even though he had the consistency of a wet towel, it didn't stop him from being an impregnable Lightning shield. Bending and twisting him was a breeze and putting him on my arm felt as easy as putting on a sticker. I hadn't noticed before, but Kame felt warm against my skin. I was pondering a bit too much on how a cold blooded animal felt warm that I almost missed a hiss from Azzurra.

I groaned. "What is it?"

Azzurra tried to back track. "Well, it's not too bad, and I'm sure no one will notice."

"What did you do?" Tazia asked as she went around me to see the back of my neck. "Huh. Haven't seen that before."

"What? What did you do?" I asked, feeling a bit panicked.

"Uh, check your leg, it'll probably be the same." Azzurra said hesitantly. I did as she said and rolled up my pant leg to find two purple spots on my leg, right where I had been shot.

My fear quickly left. "Well, that's not too bad." I sighed. "I wonder if I have a yellow spot on my head."

"I doubt it." Tazia said. "Reborn never leaves behind a mark when he uses Flames. I wonder if we should get him or Kyoya down here to look at it."

"I don't know, it doesn't look serious enough to warrant their attention." I commented.

"Eh, looks can be deceiving around here." Tazia said as if she had made up her mind. "I'm going to get somebody who might know anything." I heard her begin to leave before I also felt Azzurra jump up.

"Hey, if it wouldn't be a bother, can you leave…Nix?"

I turned to see Tazia giving Azzurra a questioning look. "Why?"

"I… I want to see what happens if I used Pecker on different Box animals." Azzurra seemed a bit intimidated by the question. Tazia kept up her stare for a second longer before looking to Nix. He seemed to give his consent as he finally left his owner's shoulder and glided to the ground.

"He doesn't seem to mind, and he'll let you know when he wants you to stop." Tazia smiled before turning and heading to the door.

"Mind helping me test out Kame?" I directed my question to Nix, who simply cocked his head at me.

"Are you sure?" Azzurra turned back to me. "We don't know what the marks might be."

"It didn't hurt before." I said as I stood and stomped my leg to show no signs of wear and tear. "And besides, what were you thinking aiming for my leg?"

"I thought Kame would block it for you." Azzurra shrugged defensivly. "We've seen him move."

"As this skin shield, sure." I said, waving my arm back and forth. "But we didn't know he could do that now did we?"

"Well, you should know Kame better than I do." Azzurra shot back. "He moved for a bullet before, I thought you did that!"

She got me there, though I didn't consciously make Kame block the assassin's bullet. "I know him just about as well you know Pecker." I pointed accusingly at her bird.

Nix apparently decided we had ignored him long enough and gave a sharp screech, making both of us cringe. I looked over to him and he seemed to be glaring at both of us.

"We should probably do what we said we would." Azzurra muttered.

"Yeah." I muttered back, not that I really knew what we were really going to do with Nix. "Why don't you and Pecker see what you can do with Nix. I'm going to see if Kame can morph any more."

"Sure." Azzurra gave a curt nod. I didn't bother to see what she did when she walked off toward Nix as I walked in the opposite direction, peeling Kame off. He morphed back into his turtle form and looked up at me expectantly.

"What exactly am I supposed to do with you?" I asked under my breath as I kicked aside a pair of throwing stars and sat down. "So is that it?" I asked him directly as I leaned on my fist. He tilted his head in tandem with me, as if unsure of what I meant. "Can you turn into more than a buckler and… skin shield?" I tried to clarify.

Surprisingly he gave a slow nod before walking forward and tumbling out of my hand. I was too startled to catch him in time, and suddenly found his box sitting in my lap.

"Hardy har har." I said in monotone as I picked him up. "Very funny, come back out." I placed my ring back in the indentation and gave a burst of Flame, but oddly Kame didn't come out. I sat up properly in concern. "Come on, this isn't funny." I fumed as I pressed in a little harder and gave a slightly bigger burst of Flame, but still nothing happened. I pressed in harder as I gave a full shove of Flame, but Kame only gave a small shudder. A bit peeved now, I pushed even more Flame into Kame, finally getting what I wanted, somewhat.

I felt Kame's box shatter in my hand and a wave of green light pushing its way out of my hand. It then occurred to me that I might have just mishandled Kame and there was now going to be a giant rampaging monster turtle to deal with, with only two novices here to handle it. I was suddenly regretting asking if Kame had any different forms. I quickly scuttled to my feet to get ready to run, but stopped when I saw what I actually released.

It was a giant tortious that could look me in the eye, with its shell still going a head over me. I sure felt stupid as I cocked my head to the side with my mouth agape as I contemplated the thing before me, and he reciprocated the action.

"Kame?" Was the only thing I could think of, and apparently I also said it out loud because the thing smiled at me, and I suddenly knew he was having a ball. "You little shit." I began to laugh as I hugged his head.

"Are you okay Sanget?" I heard Azzurra shout. I looked over to my left to see her standing under a flock of Storm and Cloud birds overhead. She wasn't coming over, but I could make out a worried look.

"Just fine Azzurra, don't worry." I replied. "Just fine." I said to myself as I pat Kame on the head. "So you're big now, any new tricks?" Kame gave a slow shake of his head. "Well, no problem buddy, it's just something I need to know. Let's see how fast we can get you moving. Come on."

None to my surprise, it was a rather slow go. While probably faster than a normal tortious, I had to keep myself to a slow gait to stay beside Kame, and as there was nothing better to do, I observed Azzurra as she dealt with her flock. Although, I didn't quite know how she was handling in, as she seemed to just be using the birds as target practice for her claw shots. I did notice that whenever a pair dissipated, one of Nix and Pecker would come together and split as four.

"You seem to be coming along fine." I said a few feet away as Azzurra had retracted all six claws. "Think you could handle a second Box to complement Pecker."

"I don't think so." Azzurra exhaled slowly, surprising me a little to see a bit of sweat working up. She waved her right claw and all but two of the birds burst into Cloud Flames. The two remaining glided over to one of the mats up above. "Making and controlling the copies takes quite a bit. All but the originals are like puppets needing commands for specific duties, otherwise they seem to just wander about." This made Azzurra snicker. "They can't even stay out of each other's way."

I glanced up at the birds to see Pecker look away and Nix ruffle his feathers. "I take it there were quite a few collisions."

"To start." Azzurra nodded. "But you gotta tell me, what happened to Kame?"

"Eh, seems he gets bigger with enough Flame pumped into his Box. Can't change though, so he's mainly portable cover."

"That can have its uses." Azzurra said as she finally decided slip her claws off and put them down. "How much Flame are you giving him?" She asked as she crouched down in front of Kame.

"I dunno." I shrugged. "Is there a way to tell?"

"I think so, but we don't have it here. Are you tired at all?"

Remembering what happened during the assassination attempt, I quickly pat Kame on his shell twice, and he complied by reverting to his box. I staggered a bit as I bent down and picked him up, but overall felt fine. "I don't think there's much of a drain, but that might change if he gets hit and has to use up more Flame." I speculated. "So was that it? Was that all you wanted to do?"

"Unless Pecker has anything else to add." Azzurra said as she looked up at her bird expectantly. He just tended to preen his feathers. "It looks like that's all." Azzurra let out a long sigh as she fell backward and spread her limbs out. "I'm wiped."

"Not surprising." I heard Hibari comment from the surprisingly distant door. "You've missed lunch by being down here."

"Really?" I inquired as a suddenly very empty stomach protested loudly, causing me to start and both Azzurra and I to begin chuckling. Hibari and Tazia came up to us, Nix taking the opportunity to glide over to his owner. She lifted her arm expectantly and Nix settled comfortably.

"So I hear you've got some marks there Sanget?" Hibari eyed his daughter who was absently looking away and up at Pecker.

"Yeah, some weird ones." I answered, almost absently rubbing my neck.

"Have they changed at all?" Hibari asked in a dismissive manner, but there seemed to be a hint of urgency behind it.

"We haven't really checked." I admitted as I knelt down and rolled up my pant leg again. I was quick to frown at the purple tendrils coming out of the marks. "This probably isn't good."

Azzurra sat up and Hibari and Tazia hurried over. Hibari knelt down beside me and began looking over the marks while Tazia stood above me nervously. Pecker had come down and was now being nervously petted by Azzurra. Hibari poked at the marks and traced the lines, causing tiny pricks along my leg.

"Looks like a bit of poisoning, though the spotting is odd." Hibari finally said, making Azzurra freeze up. "It doesn't look like it's spreading fast enough to be a problem, but we should probably get you upstairs to see what this really is." Hibari glanced at his daughter and her bird. "I'm just not so sure why a bird would cause poisoning, with Cloud Flames even."

"Can you get it out?" I asked, a bit more than hopeful. Hibari just bit his lip.

"This isn't mine to control, and I'm not a Sky user, so the only one to take it out without force would be Azzurra."

"But don't look at me, I don't even know how it got in there." Azzurra was quick to defend herself.

"You know perfectly well how it got there Azzurra, you shot him." Hibara shot to his daughter who hid her face behind pecker. For some reason, the scene clicked something.

"Azzurra, try moving my leg."

"What?" I got in unison.

"You said you were controlling the bird copies before, try the same with my leg." I prompted, getting hesitant looks from those present. Azzurra was quickly looking between my leg, her dad, and Pecker before taking a calming breath. She held out her hand with two fingers extended, before quickly flicking them to her. With a jerk reaction, my head bowed and my leg skidded forward.

"What were you doing before exactly?" Hibari turned his attention fully to Azzurra, who continued to hide behind her bird.

"I was making copies of Pecker and Nix, and I had to make sure they didn't fly into each other." Azzurra explained.

"And you pieced together that she could puppeteer your affected parts?"Hibari raised an eyebrow at me.

"W-well, I remember her saying before that she was really good with the multiplication of Cloud Flames, and thought this could be a part of it."

"If that's the case, Azzurra, put Pecker away." Hibari ordered. Azzurra quickly followed and with a brief flash, she was holding a purple Box instead of her bird. "And like that you're fixed." Hibari said as he stood up. I looked back down, and sure enough, there weren't any marks left.

"That could be really useful." Hibari said with a proud smile as he offered a hand to Azzurra. She gladly took it and stood proud in front of her father.

"And if we're all not too busy, we could swing by the kitchen and grab a snack." Tazia finally gave input, and without a word, the four of us walked out into the basement hallway.