Everyone watches with bated breath as Calli and Michael face each other in the 'ring' Vaggie drew in the dirt with her spear - she thought self-defense lessons would be a good idea, and Michael volunteered as he's Heaven's greatest warrior. And then Lucifer suggested Calli face him in the first round, citing the detail that she's the one that actually fought all the demons down below into submission.
Which would be how Michael finds himself facing a woman barely half his height, armed with wooden swords instead of their usual weapons, with a crowd of over a hundred Sinners and all the Winners…along with his brothers, Charlie, and Vaggie.
And he just knows that Calli knows the three of them were in Lucifer's room last night, if the look on her face at breakfast for them was anything to go by. He, personally, read 'you'd better have gotten down on your hands and knees in front of him and BEGGED for his forgiveness, or so help me I'll rip your wings off and toss you to the bottom of Hell myself.'
Swallowing to himself when he sees Calli doesn't look at all nervous at the height difference, Michael conversationally asks "I don't suppose there's any chance you won't be thoroughly enjoying this?"
Instead of answering, Calli smirks at him and asks "How much better have you gotten with a sword since the last time you took a swing at me with one?"
So…not a chance, then. Right, good to know.
Azrael waves from where he's lounging on the ground, and calls over "She's wicked fast, even smarter, and practically wrote the book for underhanded fighting tricks, Michael! My record's two and a half minutes as of the last time we sparred!"
Michael mutters "Oh, that's not reassuring…"
"Wasn't meant to be!"
Angel calls over "Kick his ass, Calli!"
There's several other shouts of encouragement - all for Calli, bar Raphael and Gabriel - until Vaggie says "Alright, rules are simple for this one! No magic - at least, not on purpose - and no fancy powers most of us don't have anything like! First one that yields, can't continue, or gets knocked out of the ring loses!"
Michael asks "What about wings?"
Vaggie frowns, then says "Given the detail that plenty of Sinners have extra limbs…yeah, sure, go for it. Ready…go!"
Calli's wings burst out of her back, and she shoots forward in a blur of colors - the next thing anyone knows, Michael's facedown on the ground, one of his arms twisted behind his back at an angle that's just shy of being painful…and his knees ache, as she somehow roundhouse kicked them to knock him down. He can feel the edge of her wooden sword digging into the back of his neck, and can only blink at people's feet as he tries to process just how he ended up like this faster than any fight he's ever been in before. He doesn't even need to see Calli's expression to hear the utter smugness in her voice when she says "I win."
There's a moment of stunned silence from everyone, until people start whispering…and Anthony exclaims "Holy shit, Calli!""Oh my fucking- I didn't even see her move!"
"Oh, shit, can I have anyone else for a sparring partner? Even the big guy down there?"
Gabriel and Raphael trade dumbfounded glances, seems when Calli said that she could just knock down the Gates all by herself…she wasn't bluffing. With speed like that, if she wanted to storm Heaven, she'd get halfway to the Council Chambers before anyone even knew she was there - if they were lucky!
Vaggie runs a hand through her hair, asking "H-How…?"
Lucifer calls over "I can tell you right now she didn't use a drop of magic."
Azrael nods, saying "She's just that damn fast when she wants to be." Of course, going that fast means her wings are going to ache later…but he's really certain she considers it worth it to faceplant Michael in the dirt before he can even react.
After a moment more, Vaggie clears her throat and asks "You yield, Michael?"
"Yeah, yeah I yield…"
Calli's off his back not a moment later, and he rolls over and sees she looks ridiculously ready for another round.
Pushing himself to his feet, Michael flatly asks "You've been waiting to do this for ten thousand years, haven't you?"
"Oh," Calli sarcastically asks, a smirk on her face as she plants one hand on her hip, "it took you this long to figure that out? Hey, Luci, told you I could do subtle around them!"
Vaggie shakes her head, then says "Alright, then…anyone else want to face off against Michael?"
Alastor tilts his head, then asks "Is magic allowed this time?"
"No army of summoned puppets, giant eldritch shields, or a thousand tentacles wrapping him up instantly. Other than that, sure." She's beginning to think this was a bad idea, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Learning to defend oneself is important, yes…but perhaps waiting until the three Archangels have left wouldn't have been a completely terrible idea. If only because Calli is a really good actress and she shouldn't have believed her when she said she could keep her personal feelings out of any sparring sessions she did.
Unless she just meant that as 'I won't completely break the visiting Angels' bodies in the first sparring session I get with them.'
Alastor steps into the ring they drew into the dirt, and Vaggie says "Same rules as before! Ready…go!" Michael spreads his wings and rushes forward, but Alastor bends his body backwards at a near-impossible angle with a sickening crack to go underneath him, then summons about five tentacles for Michael to deal with before his shadow leaps onto Michael's to throw him off balance. Michael finds himself strung up by his ankles this time, his wings and sword arm restrained as well, but at least he made it longer than three seconds! And then he looks around…and sees most of the Sinners somehow have popcorn. He's pretty sure they didn't have popcorn before…right?
"Ok," Vaggie says, "Michael do you yield? Or do you have some way of freeing yourself?"
Michael shakes his head, muttering "I yield…is this why Calara was so surprised we weren't aware of the Radio Demon when we first arrived?" "Uh…yeah!"
"Wait a minute, hold on-"
"You guys don't know about the Radio Demon?"
"What about the other Overlords?"
"Do you guys know about the other Sins?"
"Does Heaven know anything at all about Hell besides killing Sinners?"
"Okay," Azrael calls out, clapping his hands together as he stands up, "you and Me, Calli?" Azrael lasts almost two minutes in that fight, but it's beyond clear that's only because he's fought her multiple times before - he's not thrown by pretty much anything Calli does…until he makes the mistake of picking her up by the back of her shirt, anyway. That's when she swings herself up, wraps her legs around his arm, putting him in a headlock even as he frantically tries to dislodge her. Pretty much the entire crowd is roaring with laughter at that, people falling over themselves as Azrael finally concedes defeat.
Note to self, Michael thinks to himself, never pick Calli up. Ever.
Everyone heads in three hours later, dirty and bruised after pairing up and going to it - and Calli got three more rounds with Michael in, effectively using him like a ragdoll as she quite literally threw him around. Michael rolls his shoulder, sighing in relief when he hears a satisfying pop come from it, and glances at Calli - the least dirt-covered person that went even one round in the makeshift ring - and leans over to Raphael, asking "How is it that this tiny little woman can pick someone up by their ankles?!" Because, yes, she did do that to him.
Another time she ended up sitting on top of his wings, his arms tied behind his back via a rope she slip-knotted around his wrists somehow or other.
Raphael's hands rest on his shoulders, the relaxing near-euphoric feeling of his healing magic spreading through the older Angel's back, and Michael groans in relief before murmuring "Your healing's the best, Raph…"
Raphael glances over where Calli's handing out drinks to everyone, and asks "You think she's hurt?"
Gabriel asks "You think she'd let you heal her?"
Raphael shrugs, finishing with Michael's back, and says "Only one way to find out." Playing it cool, Raphael heads to the nearest group and asks if anyone needs any healing after the sparring sessions - to his nonsurprise, the answer is a wary, hesitant yes.
Nobody seems particularly willing to take the leap of faith, though, until finally Vaggie steps forward and asks "You're healing people?" At Raphael's nod, she says "Great, I'll go first for everyone else."
To Raphael's utter confusion, it's only after Vaggie's healed that the group of Sinners start coming forward. At his questioning look, she says "Trust is Hell's hottest commodity, and it's not something most people give out. They let you heal them because nothing happened to me - they trust me enough to let me take the lead. But, trust like that takes time - and nobody can force it."
Raphael blinks, asking "Not even the Overlord everyone's scared of?"
Vaggie shakes her head, saying "No. Alastor's presence makes everyone want to behave - mainly because he'll eat someone if they try to sabotage the place - but trust isn't the same as enforced good behavior."
One Sinner from the group says "Just as long as we don't get thrown into that never-ending turf war going on in the battlefield district for a trust exercise, I'm cool."
Vaggie waves a hand, saying "Not one of my best ideas, yeah. I was trying to make the hotel work, back when it was just a few of us and we were just starting out. C'mon, Raphael, I'll vouch for you." He gets a full tour of the room, healing close to fifty Sinners before getting to the group that's his entire reason for doing this in the first place. Lucifer, Charlie, Calli, Arackniss, Molly, Anthony, Husk, Alastor, Alicia, Azrael, and a few other Sinners.
When they get within earshot, Molly's just asking "-don't you move that fast all the time, if you can?"
"Oh," Calli says with a good-natured laugh, "I can, it's just not easy. I haven't pushed my wings that hard in ages, honestly, and I'm gonna be paying for it later. Still, worth every minute they ache."
Arackniss asks "When was the last time you moved that fast, then?"
Calli thinks for a minute, then says "Last time…last time was a few trips pretty much back-to-back. Went from Earth to Heaven, then Heaven all the way down to Hell, then back to Earth from Hell, then back to Hell one last time."
Raphael winces, remembering just how badly her wings were aching by the time she went through that portal after Lucifer - he's not sure if it was intentional on her part or not, but his wings ached from remembered strain straight out of the pensieve and apparently ache at any reminder of that time as well.
"Honestly, even when I was fighting my way through Hell, I didn't need to move that fast. None of the other Sins had any combat experience, after all, so the worst fight I had was when Satan and Mammon decided to try and team up against me."
Alicia asks "Bad idea on their part?"
"Oh, big time. Even if it hadn't been, I can't die, so they'd have lost anyway."
Vaggie clears her throat to get everyone's attention, asking "Anyone need Raphael? He offered to heal everyone after the self-defense lessons, so…"
Calli immediately says "I'm good, thanks for the offer."
Pretty much everyone in the group turns to look at her, and Husk flatly says "You were just saying-"
Calli fixes her gaze on Husk, and says "I can count the number of people in this room I'm comfortable letting anywhere near my wings and have fingers left over. It's a big no."
Raphael blinks, remembering just how sensitive Calli's wings were in her memories, how she could feel every tig that so much as snagged on them, every breeze that went through them…and how much they hurt by the time she got to the Council Chambers in the last memory she showed them. She would be particular about who can actually touch them, then.
A pulse of agony runs through his own wings at the mere memory, and Raphael frowns before saying "I wouldn't hurt-"
Alastor suddenly making the entire wall behind him go dark with his shadow - a massive shadow, with elongated antlers and a menacing grin, eyes locked onto him - has him quickly backtracking, saying "Alright, if you change your mind, just come find me, bye!"
Calli rolls her eyes, then says "I'm gonna keep working on a project I've got going. Be back inside in about an hour or so." Hopefully, by then, she'll have gotten the last of Lucifer's tower Warded - she's Warding the entire Hotel from top to bottom, just in case Sera's hoping they'll drop their guard due to the Delegation visiting. She wouldn't put it past the Seraphim to pull something in the wake of a diplomatic visit, after all. She's also got to tune up her old bike, get everything finalized for the party, Shield however many games like 'Dance Dance Revolution' they're bringing in, find Eve-
Taking a breath once she's outside the Hotel, Calli flies up to Lucifer's tower and sets to work - one thing at a time, and hopefully she'll manage to stay sane.
About ten minutes later, a familiar voice brings her out of her thoughts, asking "What are you doing?"
Just managing to catch her carving tools before they fall out of reach, Calli glares at Gabriel and says "You nearly just gave me a heart attack!"
Gabriel gives her a sheepish look, saying "Sorry. But, really, what's going on?"
Calli sighs, and says "None of your business. That way, if I'm right and one of you three can't keep your mouth shut, Sera doesn't get any information we don't want her to."
Gabriel blinks, asking "You really don't like her, do you?"
Calli snorts derisively, and says "Don't kid yourself, I didn't like her before I even met her. Lucifer talked about presenting his ideas to that pretentious Council of yours time and again before asking if I wanted to come, and I wasn't much impressed." At Gabriel's blank look, she flatly says "She sounded like a Grade A bitch even coming from Lucifer. That opinion didn't get any better having actually met her and seen her gaslight him."
Gabriel grimaces, then says "Point taken…you want some company?"
Calli lands on a windowsill, giving him a skeptical look, and eventually says "Lucifer isn't here, there's no need to try and distract me all the way up here. And, after your trip down my personal memory lane, you damn well know I caught on immediately."
"Look, Calli, if there is any way of trying to fix things-"
Calli plants one hand on her hip, asking "What's there to fix? You three made it abundantly clear where we all stand in this. I'm the random stranger Lucifer decided to be friends with, you're the three family members that never approved of me and did everything you could think of to subtly send me away without him realizing it. Even though he did realize it." She turns back around, going to continue Warding the tower.
Gabriel throws his hands up in frustration, near-yelling "You're not even trying to-"
Calli whirls on him, green eyes glowing as she asks "Why should I bother trying when the three of you made it so clear that you'd never accept me? Why should I put more time and effort into trying to make what Lucifer wanted to work when all three of you made it transparently clear you never would? Why should I believe this time is any different than the dozens of other times you'd do your routine up in Heaven? Give me one good reason to believe this isn't the three of you making some half-assed attempt at getting to know me so Lucifer will take you back?"
Gabriel blinks, asking "…that's why you haven't…? You seriously think…?"
Calli snorts, turning back to where she left off her Warding, and says "People don't change, Gabriel. Places do, people don't. Certainly not that much that quickly. Give me one reason why I shouldn't. Even one reason why I'm supposed to believe you three have miraculously had a change of heart regarding me when Lucifer didn't manage to budge you an inch in two-hundred years."
Gabriel stares at her for a moment, honestly lost - what is he supposed to say to that? What will she actually believe? Because…she's not wrong, and he knows it - they never even attempted to get to know her, not really, and she saw right through the polite act he put up in an instant from the very first time Lucifer brought her to Heaven.
Calli huffs to herself, muttering "Yeah, that's what I thought."
After a moment, Gabriel says "You saved him."
Calli doesn't even glance away from where she's continuing to carve into the side of the building, saying "We could hear every single word you three said on the other side of the door back in Heaven. Try again."
Gabriel shakes his head, grabbing Calli's shoulder to turn her around, and says "No, you…you raced all the way to Heaven from your cottage at a speed most angels can't even imagine, about ripped your wings from your back to do so, tore through Heaven to get to the Council Chambers in time, all when you didn't have to."
"Of course I had-"
"You could've stayed back at your cottage with Lilith-"
"Like fuck I could-"
"But you chose to push yourself to your limit for him, chose to just about tear your wings off your back for him, despite what anyone else would think, despite the detail that we might've tried to stop you…you did that for Lucifer."
"And I'd do it again in a heartbeat-"
Gabriel, seeing Calli's gearing up for a rant on the topic, quickly says "That's my point! You would, it never even crossed your mind to stay put! It may have taken us three idiots ten millennia to figure out that Lucifer was right about you the whole time, but dammit, now that we have I'm not going to waste time playing this game of who can out-stubborn who!" Calli blinks at him several times, expression gone entirely unreadable, and Gabriel realizes he's just managed to shock her speechless. A literal first in the entire time they've known her. "In short, we've been a trio of idiots regarding you, but we finally managed to pull our heads out of our backsides."
After a moment longer spent just staring at each other silently - Calli more than likely trying to find any hint of deceit in his expression, Gabriel's sure - Calli hovers a few feet away and says "Um, okay…great, good for you three…"
The sheer disbelief in her voice clues him in to the detail that she genuinely doesn't know how to respond to that. Clearing his throat, Gabriel half-asks, half-says "I'll let you be, then?"
Calli nods, still giving him that strange expression, and says "Um, yeah, thanks. See you later, then."
When Gabriel opens his napkin at dinner to use it, later that day, he finds the words 'hope you washed your hair afterwards' written on it - his words to Calli come back to him, and he very nearly bursts into laughter right then and there. He's just so glad he didn't have any food in his mouth, else he'd be choking on it immediately.
He glances over at the table where Calli's sitting, catches her eye, and gives her a slight nod - to his utter surprise, she smirks at him before going back to the conversation she was in.