Family Matters (Solo)

"I had not expected to see you at the Manor any time soon, Master Daniel."

Raymond, the lead butler of the Cross family, greeted Daniel in the foyer much like any guest that would visit the family from time to time. And Daniel at this point was more of a guest than a member of the family. Ties had grown frigid over the last few years of separation and the only time that Daniel usually came to visit, at least at this point, were for special occasions. Mostly to keep his mother happy, but that was beside the point. Today wasn't a special occasion though, it was more like he had been summoned, and there wasn't much he could do to avoid this meeting. He was the future head of the Cross family, whether he wanted that burden or not unfortunately, and when the current patriarch called you answered. It was a simple thing, though an irritating one.

"Should I prepare your room, sir?"

"No need, I don't think this will be a long term affair. Dad wants to see me and I am here to be seen, so where is he?"

A stupid question, Daniel already knew the answer, but it was better to ask and be surprised than to just assume. Besides, he liked talking with Raymond, and it wasn't like he disliked the place of his birth enough to not want to spend some time there. He wondered where his mom was, maybe cooking up a banquet as she more than likely heard he was on his way. Just thinking about the old family meals where the four of them sat around the table enjoying the food, and talking to one another brought back a bit of nostalgia that he didn't think he had. Though he and Gregory never got along at the dinner table there was an expectation of civility that needed to be met or there would be a few asses being beaten that night. His father was strict, a military man, and he expected greatness no matter what. Something that had drove a wedge between the two of them over the years.

"He is in the training room, but I do believe you already knew that."

Raymond said, a sly smile crossing his face as he knew exactly what Daniel had been thinking a few seconds ago, and reaffirming what he already knew. Daniel patted Raymond on the shoulder, speaking into his ear as he walked past.

"Maybe you should get my room ready, I might not be able to walk on my own for the next few days."

Raymond tried to stifle a laugh, but the smile on his face grew wider, and gave away his general disposition. Making his way through the foyer and through a lavish hall filled with multiple art pieces of varying quality, Daniel knew that today was not going to be a good day. It never was a good day when his father was in the training room and requesting an audience, it always ended in scoldings, training, and a feeling of constant disapproval. Such was the life that Daniel had chosen to live, pursuing neither of the business ventures his family had made lucrative over the years. Either a soldier, a scientist, or a doctor, there were no in-betweens for a Cross, but he had chosen the path less traveled. A path of freedom that he just wanted to explore on his own. Had it made things harder than it should have been? Yes, but he loved it, and his fans loved him.

Ascending a decadent spiral staircase, Daniel found himself in front of large door at the end of a large hallway filled with Cross family heirlooms: weapons, tools, and medical equipment. These objects reaffirmed what it meant to be a Cross and the hallway was a manifestation of their success. The door, however, was what Daniel didn't want to open. A feeling of despair filling his gut and anticipation flooding his mind of what was behind those doors: the training room. The training room was one of the largest rooms in the house and was enhanced by Quincy magic to make it quite sturdy, but the amount of times his father had damaged the room in some capacity always surprised him. But that was the strength of a former Vandenreich member who had retired only to take over the family business and nothing more. Now that very same man was awaiting him, behind these doors who knew what he would find, and what disposition his father was in was anyone's guess. Still, he hesitated to open the doors, and after taking a few seconds to gather himself he put on his best game face and pushed on the doors.

A Quincy training room, at least from what Daniel had experienced during his youth, was a place much like an archery range, but filled with much more reading materials and pamphlets. A whole side of the training room, which was vast in size, was dedicated to Quincy spell-craft, and the books needed to learn those spells. It was almost like a mixture of a library and a battle field which, Daniel would note, had barely changed in appearance since his last time in this room. He still felt some of the bruises from the last time as his father had a tendency to hold back, but not nearly enough to make it so that the pain felt from his 'training sessions' was not remembered.

"You are suppose to knock before entering, Daniel."

His father, standing indomitably holding his spirit weapon, a rather large long bow, stood feet from the door, and was looking out over the room in front of him. Several destroyed target dummies lay wasted at the farthest end of the room, even the walls, which had been enhanced by Quincy magic, looked damage from the impacts of his spirit weapons shots. His father didn't even turn to look at him as he took sight of his next target and notched another spiritual arrow. His father's specialty had always been that of a Sniper and with his ability it wasn't hard to realize why. He could control the velocity of his shots, making them faster, or slower depending on what was needed, and he had an impressive kill count to boot. He wasn't some legendary soldier, but he was a highly recognized one in certain circles for what he could do with his weapon alone.

"Yes, its been a while. Sorry about that. Anyway, why did you..."

"Do you know about the situation in Africa?"

He still had not turned to look at his son as he launched a devastating shot from his longbow that almost created a sonic boom as it was launched as it broke the sound barrier with ease. The target dummy almost imploded on impact and another sizable crater was created in the wall. He knew that whoever was going to be hired to fix the damage was probably going to be pissed, well pissed until they saw the amount of money that was going to be thrown his way to make it stronger, and better than before. It was only natural, at least his father had said on occasion, to test the limits of one's ability.

"Yeah, I just got done with a set of charity streams to help the relief efforts. Is that what this is all about? Wanted to have a chat about that?"

"The world is getting more and more dangerous and you think I called you here merely to talk? Do I look like some bureaucrat trying to push some political agenda or one of your moronic collab partners?"

"Hey, we raised a lot of money with that stream! I'm not going to allow you to..."

Another shot from his father's bow shushed him up as another large crater, this one larger than before, was placed on the wall where a target dummy had once been. His father turned to face him for the first time, intensity in his eyes as he sized up his own son, and then he shook his head in disappointment. Walking past him to pick up a towel placed on a nearby table that had been literally bolted to the floor to insure it never got knocked over from the blow-back of his father's shooting form. Daniel stood still, saying nothing, and not really expecting what would happen next.

"You know...Gregory was a great Quincy. I had every bit of faith in him that he would reach his potential and make the Vandenreich stronger through his talents. He was everything that a Cross should be...with you, I saw potential too. Hell, I saw more potential in you than him, and yet..."

He began to wipe sweat from his brow, as he turned back to face his son before placing the towel back on the table with what looked like a long cooled cup of tea, and a newspaper which he had probably been reading earlier in the morning. Daniel wondered just how long his father had been training this morning.

"And yet, you remain so underdeveloped in the Quincy Arts. Maybe I am to blame for that? I was harder on Gregory because I knew that he needed more work, at least that is what I thought, but for you I gave you a little too much wiggle room."

"Too much wiggle room, is that a joke?"

"Do I look to be a comedian?"

Daniel went silent again, his usual antics had no place here, and they had never worked to lighten the mood of his all too serious father. The patriarch of the Cross family shook his head and sat down in the only chair at the table, taking a sip of his cold tea, and not complaining one bit about it.

"You need discipline, you need more training than I alone can give you, and it concerns me that in this world that is only getting more dangerous that you are not prepared for things to come your way. A lot of troops and civilians have died already, there is no telling if an event of this scale could happen again somewhere else in the world, and if it does just what the death toll will look like."

"Well I'm sorry that I'm not Gregory... he was much better at this than I was."

Shame filled Daniel's voice, even in death Gregory's shadow still loomed over him like the largest tree casting shade in a forest. It was inevitable that his father would remember the favored son of the Cross family and it was even more inevitable that Daniel would be compared to that son. It was demoralizing in more ways than Daniel could put into words, but yet he took these tongue lashings because of the weight of his father's words. His father had been in conflict and his father had lived through a great deal of horrible things only to come out better for it. No, better was not the right word, it was more like stronger.

"I am not invoking his name to make you feel bad...damnit I am horrible at this. I speak of your brother because I want you to not share his fate. I can't...lose two sons..."

This was the first time that Daniel had ever heard his father a bit distressed by the passing of his brother Gregory. While it had taken time for him to recover himself, he had vaguely remembered his father being stoic, and almost entirely unphased by the entire ordeal. It had scared him a tad that his father could be so cold when it came to the death of his own child, but his mother had told him that he had taken the worst of it even if he didn't show it. Now he could see his old man was struggling with the loss of Gregory, but why call him here now for a heart to heart? Why reach out so long after Gregory's death to make some form of connection and correct past misgivings? It really didn't make any sense to him.

"I need you to be strong, not only because it is what the family needs, but because it is what I need you to be. I can't lose you too..."

He cleared his throat and stood up from the seat before walking over to Daniel with purpose and his normal poise that he held himself with. The thing about his father that had always struck him from the day he had first began to form intelligent thought was how his father commanded respect and authority. He was the ideal Quincy, he had always known that, and standing before him that fact did not change.

"It is why for the next week you will be staying here and training. After that you will be heading to the City of Lights to fully mature into a capable Quincy who I won't fear will be swallowed up by this messed up world."

"Dad, as much as I respect the whole training thing...I have streams scheduled and events planned..."

"I have cleared it with your agent already. All of your books have been cleared for the next month, there will be no outside interference when it comes to your training for now."

Daniel cursed internally, he needed to make a mental note to fire his agent for being such a pushover, but then again he supposed he wasn't much better. While Daniel was distracted he suddenly felt a flare up of spiritual energy as he looked to his father who had gathered reishi into his fist.

"And that training starts now!"

An impact like being hit by a ton of bricks mashed right into his jaw as his father sent him a right that would have sent every heavyweight boxer in the world spinning.

Without hesitation his father continued the assault, dashing forward to catch up to the flying backwards Daniel, and aiming to follow up with another reishi covered left. Daniel, out of almost instinct, leaned a bit to the side as his father's fist landed on the floor causing a crater to form on impact. Daniel went into a roll, grounding himself, and rolling directly into the wall, the impact mostly absorbed still hurt like a bitch as his back hit the hard surface behind him. Daniel knew that this visit would have ended in training, no matter how much he wished it didn't have to be this way that was just his father, and there was no changing the patriarch of the family. Daniel got to his feet, right as his father appeared before him, and tried to punch him once more, Daniel used his whole arm to deflect the punch by deflecting the forearm.

"Good defense, but you are so sloppy..."

Before Daniel could say a word in defense his father brought his knee up into Daniel's mid-section, knocking the air out of him before back handing him across the face, and sending him rolling again. As Daniel rolled, he summoned his spiritual weapon, and launched a singular bolt at his father's location. His father answered by simply catching the shot, pure speed, and reflex being put on display. He shook his head as he shattered the bolt with that hand and sighed in disappointment.

"Amateur. I taught you better than this, Daniel. Allow me to show you the power of a real spiritual weapon."

Summoning his longbow, Daniel's eyes went wide as panic filled his mind as he tried to piece together how to defend against his father's weapon. Without much thought his father launched the arrow and as Daniel went to defend himself the velocity of the shot increased drastically, much too fast for him to react to as the shot landed at his feet, causing a miniature detonation, and blowing him back. His father was way too strong and his weapon's ability was way too hard to defend against, at least for him, and Daniel quickly got to his feet to look where his father had been. Keyword had been. His father had closed the distance between the two of them before he could even get up and was beginning to wail on him with lefts and rights not enhanced by Reishi.

"Your blut is weak as well, what training regiment are you doing? You are lacking to a severe degree!"

A strong kick to the side sent Daniel staggering to the side as his father caught his hand and dragged him back into another barrage of punches.

Daniel was focusing solely on defense at this point and listening to his father talk down to him about his training he was realizing just how right he was. He was like a feather in a windstorm, getting blown around left and right with no way to stop himself, and the pain was beginning to become too much for him. He couldn't keep up with his father's movements and this was him holding back, there was no way his father was using his all to beat him down, and that worried him. He had been so sure he could defend himself well enough, but now he was seeing just how far away from the truth that he had been.

"There is no time to think!"

A right to his jaw stopped all of the mental observations he was going through and caused him to fall on his side, spitting out blood on the floor. His blut was lessening the damage, but only slightly, and no where near enough to make the damage he was receiving any less painful. If this had been a real fight, his father would have killed him without a second thought, and that was a scary thought. His father was a sniper, a skilled soldier, but a sniper none the less. And he was handing him his ass in melee range, he groaned, and tried his best to get back up to his feet only for his father to send his foot into his gut. Daniel rolled on to his back, groaning even louder and feeling like he would rather just lay there than continue the beating he was receiving.

"Is this it? You are a Cross! We may not be the strongest family or even a recognized noble family, but we are strong. We are proud. We are truly blessed to be known as Quincy! But you take all that for granted, you have the title of Quincy, but not the power to match that title. Tell me, son...just what were you thinking as we fought? That you could defend yourself well enough? That you could just coast by on defense alone? I find it disappointing that you are to be the one to inherit my mantle, the one who will lead this house after I am dead, and gone."

Daniel, groaned, but at this point he knew his father was right. All this defending and he was still getting his ass kicked like it was not any big deal. So, he decided to allow his father to gloat as he pretended to reach into his chest pocket of his jacket to feel if anything was broken, but grabbed a silver tube instead. He always carried a few of these, after all, this one aspect of the Quincy that he believed he was at least above average at. His father continued, looking at his son, and judging him unworthy.

"I've seen good men die, Daniel. I've seen soldiers who were so skilled and so loved by their families die off right before my eyes. I refuse to watch you die, son. I refuse to watch this current weak you continue on the path that you are on...speak up son! I wish to know what this weak you has to say?"

"Light the silver flame, blow away my enemies..."

His father's eyes went wide as Daniel threw the silver tube at his father, the silver tube for its' part ignited, and exploded point blank in his father's face. It was like throwing dynamite at a wall of stone and the explosion sent Daniel sprawling a good distance away as the explosion had a great deal of impact.

The smoke and crater left behind by the explosion was about the only sign that something had happened only seconds ago. Daniel, who had been catching his breath, began to get to his feet to see that it had worked, and at least had done some damage similar to his father's arrows. The one thing he was good at seemed to be at least effective, but he knew that this was in no way over. His father was too strong to be damaged by a surprise spell, no matter how powerful that spell was, but that would have definitely winded him at least temporarily. Much like he had thought, the smoke began to clear as his father stood there practically unscratched, save for his clothes which were now tattered. His father cracked his neck as a smile spread across his face.

"Finally an attack of your own, if not for my blut that would have been quite the painful experience."

He began to walk forward, making his way slowly toward Daniel, and with every step he became more and more menacing. Daniel gritted his teeth as he took up his stance to defend himself again.

"But one spell is not going to stop this beat down. You of all people should know that."

Daniel ripped off his jacket, which had also been damaged by the explosion, and revealed that he had also been impaled a bit by debris and was bleeding a bit. But more importantly he revealed several belts of silver cylinders, wrapped around his body, and his waist.

"Did you...think that I didn't come prepared? I know how your summons always go..."

A weak smile spread across Daniel's face as his father's face lit up with pride as he ripped off his wife beater and threw it to the side. His blut emerging across his body, a sign of him getting more serious, and Daniel's own smile grew wider as well as he grabbed two tubes, one in each hand. The two of them had a stand off now, both of them staring at each other wondering who would make the first move. It was then that the training room door was almost blew off its' hinges as a woman who appeared to be in her mid-thirties walked into the room. Her eyes darted across the room, surveying the damage, and then her eyes darted over to Daniel, who the sight of shocked her quite a bit. She rushed past his father and went in to hug him with concern as she began to touch all of his self-inflicted, and not so self-inflicted wounds.

"Oh my dear lord, Daniel! You are such a mess! Let mom make it all better!"

"Mom...kind of in the middle of something right now."

Daniel's mother didn't listen to him, fretting far too much over the injuries he had, and not wanting to let him go from her hug as she continued to look at his wounds. His father growled in anger and then began to shout at his wife.

"We are in the middle of a training session, Tessa! Move out of the way!"

His mother's eyes darted over to his father, anger beyond anything that could be comprehended bleeding over from her eyes directed at Daniel's dad. Father took a step back and took a must needed gulp to adjust his attitude, knowing all too well that his wife had freakish strength when it came to defending her loved ones. He knew better than to cross her when she was in this state and cleared his throat before shouting to everyone in the room his intentions.

"We will continue this session tomorrow...rest up and heal up."

He said as he picked up the discarded and destroyed wife beater before exiting the room. Daniel glared at his dad as he walked off while putting the two cylinders back on their respective belts. His mother continued to fret over him as Daniel continued to watch his father walk off before he finally found exhaustion take over as he passed out in his mother's arms.

There was an immense tenseness at the dinner table as the Cross family sat down to eat his mother's banquet that she had made for her son's return to the manor. Almost everything was a favorite of Daniel's and that was because she wished to spoil the child, well young adult now, but to her Daniel would never not be her baby boy. She sat there, smiling at Daniel, as he ate his food while wincing from time to time from his earlier beat down at the hands of his father. Speaking of the old man, he too sat at the table, and occasionally glanced at his son while eating his own food. He was keen to see how his son was recovering from the earlier training session and though he could see there was still quite a bit of tenderness, he knew that a night of rest would put his son back to nearly one hundred percent for their continuation of training. His father was a training nut and it probably would never change.

"How is the food, Daniel? Its been about five months since you last came around...I wanted to make sure that everything was made to your liking."

"Its good, mom."

Daniel said, taking a quick glance at his father who seemed to be staring at him from time to time.

"I still don't know why you go so rough on him, William. He is your son and you should treat him better than bruising him up like you normally do."

"Everything I do is to make him a better Quincy, no matter how violent my methods, and no matter how harsh I must be toward him that is the ultimate goal."

"You could still try to be more gentle, he is your flesh, and blood."

"Then it wouldn't be trai..."

Before he could finish his sentence his mother sent a death glare at him and his father, rightfully so, silenced himself, and continued to eat his food. His father's methods were harsh, Daniel knew this after how many times he had been sent to the emergency room over the years, and knowing that his father only wished for him to be better did set his mind at ease. He had for a long time thought his father had hated him, but it was more along the lines that he despised his lack of willingness to grow in his own Quincy arts. Daniel couldn't remember the last time he had actually trained, if he was being honest. Maybe about two years ago? That wasn't to say that he hadn't been keeping up in an academic sense, he read spellbooks quite frequently in his down time from streaming, and meet and greets. It was the physical aspects, outside of general fitness, that he had been slouching on, and his father had exposed it in great detail with the beating he had taken. Clearly there was work to do, but Daniel didn't really feel the drive to work on it.

He understood his father's want to make sure that he could defend himself, but there were far more powerful Quincy out there, and the fighting was no where close to where he called home. In fact he had never felt safer! Still, he did feel bad for the events that had occurred in Africa, which was why he had held those charity streams to make money for relief work, but he didn't want to get involved any more than that. He wasn't a natural fighter and he didn't think he would ever be, after all that had been what Gregory was good at, and look where that had gotten him.

"That was a good spell, Daniel. Did you learn that from one of the books that I sent you?"

The question surprised Daniel, had his father not read those books before hand? It was true that he requested books from the Cross library to expand his 'spell list' so to speak, but he had assumed his father would have at least opened the tomes for practice at the least.

"I took some liberties, modified some parts, and made that spell."

"So that was an original? I can say I am impressed, you're a lot like your great grandfather when it comes to spellcraft."

He had impressed his father? No, he had done no damage with that spell that he thought up on the fly, the ineffectiveness of his work was as plain as the day turning into night, and he knew that more work needed to be done. Like his father had said, he was weak, and lacked the discipline to truly become a great Quincy, he probably would continue to be weak for the rest of his days, and that was that.

"Great grandfather?"

"Oh yeah, those books were his. He was a hell of worker when it came to his spell designs and the potency of his craft. Your grandpa and I never really understood that stuff, we were more interested in the less mystical arts, and how we could improve in that regard. Still, I would like to see that spell again...preferably as an observer."

"Sure...I guess?"

The rest of the dinner went rather quietly with Daniel eating his food and his father shoveling whatever he could find into his maw. By the end of dinner, Daniel was on his way up to his personal room that he had not been inside of in several years. His mind was abuzz with thoughts about the spellbooks that his great grandfather had and he wondered just what sort of person he had been as his father barely spoke of him. Entering the room and looking at his room, almost unchanged by time by the appearance of things, Daniel continued to think about what he should do tomorrow during training. He knew there was a beating coming his way regardless, but he also knew that he needed to do some damage to get his father off his back. Looking at his bookshelf filled with old books of varying subjects his eyes passed over a family photo. His brother Gregory looking angry to be there, his mother standing there with a smile, his father smiling broadly and warmly, and then him as a small child holding a stuffed teddy bear. He wondered what Gregory would do as he lay down on his bed, allowing his mind to wander as sleep began to take him.

And here they were again, staring each other down in the training room that was now a bit more destroyed than it had previously been before. He had been assured by Raymond that father had requested another set of construction workers to come by and fix the damage, but they wouldn't be there for a few more days. His father, however, was not one to miss the opportunity to train. Especially if his son was involved.

"You had a nice spell yesterday, but you still are lacking everywhere else. My point still stands, you need so much work that there is only so much I can do for you, and that is why I'm sending you overseas to learn from the best."

"You still haven't elaborated on who I'm going to be training with and secondly, you didn't really take my feelings on the subject."

"I know you would have declined, sadly you don't have the same drive that your brother did for greatness, so I'm gonna have to force results out of you."

He kept rubbing in his face his brother's superiority and while he wanted to argue he knew that he wasn't wrong. Gregory had been a true Quincy, in every facet, he was skilled, and he was chosen to be a member of the Vandenreich for those skills. Then he died and all of that pressure and weight for greatness was shoved on to his shoulders. It had nearly killed him. He had been depressed, tired, and his anxiety had been through the roof, but he had done his part by taking all of it seriously. He was the only one who could be the next head of House Cross and at the time he thought that meant he had to be greatest Quincy he could be. Even if it meant his mental state would have decayed like his brother's corpse in the ground.

"I am going to attack you, Daniel. I'm going to attack you until your engine is finally running on its' own and even then I'm going to come at you. I will make you a great Quincy, I will make you strong!"

Daniel grabbed a hold of two cylinders off his multiple 'ammunition' belts and stared dead ahead at his father. His father was doing this for his own good, right? This wasn't some sick gratifying display of violence was it? All he knew was that no matter what, he was in for a fight, and there was no backing down from it, no matter what.

"Then come on with it...I don't have all day!"

He shouted as his father's face broke out in a wide grin as he launched himself at his last and only son.

Before his father could take his first step to begin his dash at him, Daniel had already thrown one of his cylinders up, and naturally it drew the eye of his father.

"Praise be to the sun!"

The cylinder erupted, not in an explosion, but in a ball of almost pure sunlight. His father couldn't cover his eyes and silently he cursed himself for falling for such a simple ploy, but none the less he felt a tad bit of pride. His son had at least developed a tactical mind, he would praise him later though as he used his senses to sense out his son's location before launching himself at it. Lightning like speed clearing the distance between him and what he sensed was his son before he began to attack with his fist, only for his fist to go through nothing. Finally his eyesight returned to him, only to see a long silver cylinder laying on the ground in front of him. Another trick, a decoy of some sort, and as he turned around he saw his son crouched and aiming his spiritual weapon, he let it fire, but this time his father did not catch the shot, but allowed it to hit.

It, without dealing any damage, bounced off as if it were nothing, and for a few seconds there was a silence between the two of them. Daniel groaned in embarrassment finally breaking the silence as all that set up had basically amounted to absolutely nothing. Two cylinders wasted on a flash bang and a decoy only for an ineffective shot to be taken against his old man.

"I was going to praise you, Daniel. Your spell craft is quite good for someone as unskilled as you are, but that attack was downright pathetic."

"Oh trust me, I know! You don't need to voice your frustrations because I've got more than enough of my own self-frustration right now."

"You still haven't got the hang of that spiritual weapon, if you had then that would have been a pretty impressive combination, but enough with the praise...its time to continue."

Daniel scoffed, he thought that he was praising him for doing something like that, but in truth if it didn't work then there was no reason to praise him for anything. He had only succeeded in blinding him and fooling him once, those two things wouldn't happen again, and in a real fight there would be no discussion afterwards, there would be only a quick and painful death. His father launched himself again before Daniel could react and he already was going in for quick punching combinations. He tried using his Blut defensively while trying to dodge and use his own arms to deflect incoming hits, but there was only so many things he could do. His father was faster and stronger, he had proper control of the reishi around him, and there wasn't much he could do to stop him from overwhelming him. It was like a child trying to box against a professional boxer. It was suicide.

"Come on, Daniel! Show me something to praise you about!"

He shouted as his father's face broke out in a wide grin as he launched himself at his last and only son.