Chapter 14
The huge factory-like complex stands darkened and seemingly empty. The Ronin Warriors get ready to enter it. White Blaze roars in anticipation.
Ryo looks back at everyone, making sure they were ready to go into this place. Each Ronin nods in acknowledgement as his gaze reaches him. Mia clutches her naginata with white knuckled hands, while Yuli sticks close to her.
He hadn’t wanted to bring Mia and Yuli, but he knows no other way to keep them safe.
The Warlords were taking care of the Netherworld part of this mess. Cale had begun to exterminate the creatures he said inhabited this complex, working his way here from Netherworld.
Back inside . . .
Rahne half-drags Alex down the hall, running for all she’s worth. She’d managed to slam the huge door on them; trapping them within the Wraith-infested inner complex. She sincerely doubts it’ll hold them for long, but it’s at least slowed them down.
She skids around a corner, into a huge room . . .and almost into a huge, wicked looking spiked naginata.
"KENTO!!!" Rahne shouts in delight, pushing the weapon away from her face.
"Babes . . .? BABES!" Kento lowers his naginata, grabs her up, swings her around. Then he jerks her in for a gentle bear hug.
"Careful, Kento! Don’t squish ‘er!!!"
Rahne extracts herself from Kento’s hug and bounds over to Cye and Sage.
"Oh, I missed you, Rahney!" Cye exclaims, hugging her just as tight as Kento did. "Who’s your friend?"
"He was being held captive too. His name’s Alex. How’d guys find us?!"
"Thank Cale." Kento says, with a hint of distaste.
"Hey, he did alright this time!" Sage exclaims, waiting for his hug, but settling for a shoulder to squeeze.
Cye taps Rahne on the other shoulder and points towards a streak of fast moving dark blue, followed by an equally fast moving red.
Rahne meets her boyfriend halfway. She slips his helmet up a little so she can get a good kiss. Rowen kisses her repeatedly, then one more of the long variety.
Ryo clears his throat. Rowen lets go and Rahne turns to hug her twin brother.
He holds her for a long time, trying to assure himself that she was real. Rahne touches the purple bruises on his face with refreshingly cool fingers, tracing the outline of the bruise in the shape of a large fist. "Who gave you this?"
Ryo shoots Kento a dirty look. "Someone didn’t like my attitude . . ."
Rahne laughs and rests her head on her twin’s shoulder. Ryo strokes her hair, knowing that laugh was forced. Her blood-shot and dark circled eyes tell him that she hasn’t been able to sleep much. He leans his face into her hair, feeling his shoulder muscles finally relax. He hadn’t realized just how much this had bothered him, until now. He blinks back tears as all the fears melt away. He sighs as the headache he didn’t know he had eases.
He looks over her shoulder at the boy who was with her. ‘He honestly looks like a whipped dog. Who is he?’ Ryo thinks, turning back to his sister, she looks up suddenly.
"OH! Ryo, there’re these creatures here . . . !"
Ryo hugs her tighter. "Yeah, I know. Cale’s taking care of it. Wraiths." Rahne wraps her arms around his neck, and rests her face against his armor once more.
"Bloody disgusting things, too. But these aren't as tough as Cale says they should be." Cye adds. "Someone seems to have forgotten to feed Talpa's pets."
Rahne smiles and then hugs Ryo once again as tightly as she can.
"I missed you so badly, Sis -"
"What a charming moment." Someone says dryly. Alex screams suddenly and drops to the floor, blood flowing profusely from multiple puncture wounds on his back.
"Alex!" Rahne cries out, trying to run to her friend. Ryo restrains her, keeping her away from the danger. This guy wasn’t visible yet.
Mia and Yuli are over by the far wall, alone. The Warriors back up, covering them. Ryo presses Rahne down to her knees, and Mia gets a firm grasp on her.
~ Please, Ryo! Help him! ~ Rahne signs.
~ Rahne, there’s a guy there. We can’t attack until we can see him. ~ He replies hurriedly.
Two men appear. One of them is obviously another General, the other is wearing clothes way too fancy for what he’s doing. Actual living soldiers appear behind them.
"Darr’rak!" Cale’s voice suddenly booms. He teleports in right in front of the warriors; his face red with fury.
The Warriors shift into fighting stances, slowly moving towards the new aggressors.
"Ryo, make them stop! They’ll kill Alex!" Rahne pleads, straining against Mia’s hold. "Please help him!!!"
Dais and Kayura teleport in, adding more support.
"Attack!" The Emperor booms, pointing at the Ronins.
Rowen stings an arrow, his face dark with anger. "I don’t think so! ARROW SHOCK WAVE!!!!"
The arrow shimmers into a bolt of pure energy, and then Rowen shoots it. It flashes into a ball of energy that tears across the distance separating them like a run-away comet.
The battle doesn’t get very far before the last few surviving Wraith enter the fray, attracted by the smell of fresh blood. They feast on the dead, and ignore the smoking shells of the youja soldiers.
As the two forces engage, Rahne sees a single wounded Wraith enter the room. If she didn’t know what they were capable of, she might have felt sorry for it. It was limping on one obviously broken leg, it’s mottled green and black scales striped with gashes from which yellowish-green ichor still dripped. It lifts it’s head and smells fresh blood.
Alex’s.
It advances on Alex’s unconscious and bleeding form. She had to do something! She dashes the tears flowing from her eyes. She had to help him!
Mia watches the battle unfolding before her. That poor kid was a goner though; none of the guys could probably reach him in time.
From behind her Rahne jumps to her feet and runs towards Alex; a shockingly bright, violet, forehead kanji shining brilliantly under her bangs.
"Rahne! Come back!" Mia screams, shoving Yuli behind her.
Rahne screams in mute fury. Her hands suddenly start to sparkle. The tiny sparks start to swirl and coalesce around her hands. She leaps over Alex’s prone form, she thrusts her hands out before her, trying to block the monster’s sharp claws.
There’s a sudden and brilliant flash of light and a small crash of an explosion.
The monster is lifted completely off the ground and hurled across the room. It strikes the wall solidly; it’s carcass smoking slightly.
Rahne looks at her ice-burnt hands, suddenly afraid of herself. She shakes her head, unwilling to believe what had just happened.
"RAHNE!!??" Ryo yells, running towards her.
"Ry -*" Rahne’s eyes roll back into the back of her head as she faints.
Ryo catches her just before she hits the ground, cradling her. She had looked more scared than hurt. Her hands look severely frostbitten; her fingertips feel almost completely frozen. However as he touches them, the black soot wipes off revealing just pale, cold skin. He checks her pulse: it’s slow, but steady.
Ryo picks his sister up in a fireman’s carry and takes her over to Mia and Yuli.
The guys and the Warlords are keeping the goons and the idiots busy. He’d make a return trip and grab the red-headed kid - ‘What?!’
He half dumps his sister in Mia’s arms and rushes back to the boy.
Sekhmet, sans armor, comes running down the hall and tries to grab the boy.
Ryo tackles him to the ground. He leaps right back up to his feet; throwing the boy over his shoulder and hauling him over to Mia and Yuli. Behind him he sees Dais haul Sekhmet over in the same manner, except that he’s restrained the warlord.
As soon as he sets the kid on the ground, Mia rolls him over to check his back.
Ryo doesn’t stick around to see what happened to him, but he re-enters the fight, madder than ever.
"Let’s listen to my sister for once, Boys." Ryo growls to the others. "It’s over in about five seconds."
The two remaining Warlords and Kayura retreat back to protect the non-fighters.
Each of the Ronin’s armors start to glow. Ryo puts away his swords as White Blaze races over to him. Colored bolts of energy rip out of each Ronin and into Wildfire. Ryo visibly braces himself as the sound of escalating energy shrieks through the air.
"INFERNO!"
Ryo and his tiger vanish in a wash of roaring flames. Then two beings in white armor appear where they once stood.
Ryo remains silent while he draws the Soul Swords from their sheathes on White Blaze’s back.
The Emperor teleports away in a hurry, leaving the obviously very stupid general to face the White Armor of Inferno.
Kayura raises her staff and teleports the un-needed people out of the pre-Inferno ground zero.
The general lifts his weapons and charges Ryo. Whatever special attack he tries fizzles out as Ryo lets loose a very controlled Fervor Flare.
It still annihilates the soldiers and the general, but it doesn’t leave quite as large a scar. Just the complex and the ground around it for about a thousand feet.
Rowen cradles his girlfriend against his chest, glad she’s not awake to see the White Armor at work.
Behind him, Sage and Kayura were already working on Alex. The wounds went deep, one them came damned awful close to severing his spinal column. Kayura chants a healing spell, supplementing Sage’s own healing abilities. Alex groans and tries to roll over. Sage pins him down, pouring more healing energy into him.When there’s nothing else they can do, they wrap him up in blankets and restrain him to keep him from possibly hurting himself.
They load everyone up into the vehicles to begin the long journey home.
____
Kento blinks and tries to keep himself awake. He had a REALLY bad case of highway-hypnosis. He gently swats Rowen to wake him up. Strata blinks tiredly, actually not sleeping as hard as he normally does.
"Tag, you’re it." He states pulling off onto the side of the road.
Rahne murmurs something in her sleep as Rowen shifts her to one side so he can get up. Then he lays her down on the seat.
They’d slipped a sedative in her food, so she wouldn’t continue to worry herself sick. She’d gotten quite a shock to discover that she had powers. She’d get another when she woke up and discovered herself in violet and white sub-armor. All she'd done before they'd knocked her out was sob and cry about how she didn't want powers, didn't want to fight. Even after, Mia had explained that all Rahne had done was incorrectly used her Armor’s special power, a defensive shield, Rahne still didn't want powers.
On the seat behind him, Alex moans softly in his sleep. Rowen leans over the back of the chair and gently puts his hand on the teen’s forehead. With a grimace Rowen takes his hand away, hopefully Cale was right and Alex would be okay. That fever worried all of them though . . .
Rowen gets out and stretches. Kento gets in, moves Rahne back into a sitting position and promptly falls asleep. Rahne slumps right back into her old position.
For once they all took one vehicle; Kento’s huge van.
Rowen gets in the drivers seat, and notices a pair of lavender eyes looking at him sleepily in the rear-view mirror from the back of the van.
"Sage, you awake?"
"Uh-huh." Sage blinks his eyes, not caring at the moment that his hair is no longer in his typical style.
"Shot-gun’s open." Rowen says, patting the empty passenger seat.
Sage stumbles to the front, and flops down into the empty seat. They both wonder how they’re going to stay awake when a thunderclap of a snore rattles the van’s windows.
"Okay, I’m awake. So, there anything we can talk about to keep you awake?" Sage says to Rowen in a conversational manner and in perfect deadpan humor.
"Um . . .How’s Nascar doing?"