A Tale of Two Torrents

By Dixxy

Prologue

(Kento)

"The game is simple," said Ria. Wildfire of the Senshi paced back and forth before us (us being me, Keisha, Sara, Cye, Sage, Sam, and Rona), dictating the rules of the game we were going to play. It was hot, school was starting in two days, and we all wanted to enjoy what remained of our freedom. We were all in shorts, sneakers, T-shirts, tank tops, and a string-bikini top in Sara's case.

This would prove to be a BAD IDEA on Sara's part.

"Get to the point, Ria," said Rona.

"The name of the game is. . . 'Tag'. Yes, 'Tag'. We've all played it as small children, but now that we have armors, wings, and other unimaginable powers, it'll get more interesting. Basically, everything outside of armoring up past subarmor goes," said Ria. "Sage can fly and make himself invisible, Kento can predict whoever he thinks will be tagged next, we can all use whatever magic we want that won't destroy Mike's house, ect."

Sara raised her hand. "Why?"

"Battles, as we all know, are FAR from organized. And since we're going to have two people 'It' at the same time, this game will help us react in situations that aren't organized. Understand?" said Ria. Sara and the rest of us nodded. "'It' will be defined by a snap bracelet. You're tagged, then It gives you the bracelet, you put it on, he or she gets ten seconds to get away, and then you take your next victim. Questions?"

We shook our head. Ria snapped one of the bracelets onto her wrist. "Anyone up for the other 'It'?"

Keisha raised her hand. "I'm rarely 'It'."

"That's because no one can catch you, sweetie," I said mockingly. I gave her a kiss. "Now if you just let yourself get caught more often you'd have more fun, my dear." Keisha glared at me as she took the bracelet. She knew I was egging her on. And I fully expected her to retaliate.

"You're gonna get it, Lover Boy," she said.

That's what you think, I thought.

I heard that!

Damn it. I forgot about that.

"Everybody. . . GO!" Ria shouted. As I expected, Keisha dove onto me and brought me to the ground before I could react as Ria tried to jump to the top of Mike's house after the air bound Sage. She cursed as the last Flitteree vanished, using his invisibility talent to his advantage.

"Damn," I said, looking up at my captor. Keisha propped her chin into her hands, her elbows digging into my sides. She smiled, kissing my nose. I gave her my best "pathetic, begging, boyfriend" look as I tried to coax her into letting me up. "C'mon, Keisha, let me up so I can get someone else to be 'It'. You got me. I admit it. Now let me up. Please?"

"Why?" she said.

"So we can continue playing," I said. My girlfriend laugh as she sat up. Keisha snapped off her bracelet and slapped it onto my wrist, then took off, grinning to me as I brushed off my pants. I folded my arms and looked at her skeptically. Despite the fact that there was another "It" and several more victims, Keisha and I were now playing a game meant for two and only two. "Thank you, babe. Now it's time for me to try and catch you."

I concentrated on my artificial powers as a shape shifter. In my natural form, I would never be able to catch Keisha. That would happen when Hell froze over, pigs flew, and Rona went two weeks without a new boyfriend. But if I changed into something as fast or faster than her, piece of cake.

So, doing something I never thought I'd do, I changed myself into Keisha.

Sam and Rona exchanged looks, gulped, and screamed before running off. Ria was too busy chasing after Cye, but unfortunately for Cye, he noticed, stopped short, and got tagged. Sara was laughing so hard she had to brace herself up against a tree. Cye took that opportunity to start chasing after her. She yelped and forgot about my temporary identity change.

They all looked like they might be worthy targets, but I had bigger fish to fry. I darted after Keisha, who hadn't noticed my transformation. By the time she did, I had already caught up to her and pinned her to the ground. I changed back into my true form. Keisha laughed lightly. "Truce?"

"No," I said. I sat on her legs and pulled off one of her shoes. Keisha was TRYING to kick me off, but I'm a little heavier than her. Okay, a LOT heavier than her. I stood up, the shoe in hand, and tossed her the bracelet. "You're it!" I then ran off, waving her shoe around triumphantly.

Keisha was visibly upset with me. And verbally as well ("You stupid pig head! GIMME MY SHOE!"). But was I ready to run and hide from her? Nope. I was too busy laughing my butt off to really care. She was going to be a little bit slower if she had only one of her shoes, but I didn't care. She was cute when she was angry,

"EEEEEE!"

Everybody turned to the source of the scream. A surprised Cye was holding Sara's top while the Torrent of the Senshi was using her arms to try and shield her breasts from our eyes. "Eiyp! Cye!" said Sara, looking slightly red at the situation at hand.

Cye laughed, blushing slightly. "Oops. Oh well, at least the others didn't see your breasts."

"Cye, would you give me the stupid top?" asked Sara.

"What, you mean you DON'T want to run around topless?" asked Cye.

Cye learned that this was not the time or place to joke the hard way.

SLAP!

Sara released one of her arms long enough to give Cye a hard whack on the face. My friend had a hand against his cheek, which now had a bright red hand mark on it. "What the hell was that for? Dear God, Sara, I was only kidding about the running around topless comment!"
"You're a pervert!" she shrieked.

Cye was rubbing his face, her eyes dangerously narrowed. "Well you're a little bitch who can't take a joke!" He threw the bra at her. "Take your damned bra, Sara I don't care!" The two gave each other dangerous looks before Sara snatched her top and went behind a bush to put it back on and Cye left.

Keisha walked up to me and gently took the shoe from me. She had a slightly pained look on her face as she turned her attention to me. "I don't think this is some friendly little fight," she said. "They seemed REALLY mad at each other right there. Think this'll blow over?"

Ria and the others had stopped playing as well. They were all staring kind of dumbly into space, contemplating what had just happened. Once Sara had her top back on, she went inside, presumably call Trevor to get a ride back home. I watched in stunned silence, unsure of what to make of the situation.

Sage sighed heavily. He took a thoughtful pose as he leaned up against the house, his wings beating gently behind him. In a way, it made him look angelic. "Well, hopefully they'll forget this by tomorrow and we can just sit back and laugh about it. I mean, it really WAS kind of funny, when you think about it."

Sam shook her head as she stared at the door Sara had used to enter Mike's house, a worried looked on her face. "I don't know about that, Sage. We've never really seen Sara really mad before unless it's been at the Dynasty. We don't know her well enough to tell if she holds grudges or not."

"That's right," said Rona. "Sara's only been in Boston for a little over a year, now. We just don't know her as well as we could because of that. As for Cye, well, Kento, you and Cye are pretty close, right? What do you know about him and grudges?" All eyes turned to me for an answer.

"Unfortunately, he DOES hold grudges," I said darkly. "I've known him since we were twelve. Heck, he lived with me and my family for what, almost three years? He's almost like a brother to me. I know the guy very well. For some things he'll just let it go, but something like this. . . I feel bad for Sara."

Ria placed her hands on her hips. She didn't seem to think it was going to be a problem from her pose. "Okay, people, this'll all blow over by tomorrow like Sage said and we'll just forget about it. Yes, Cye was wrong to make the topless comment. Sara was wrong by slapping him. They were both wrong and hopefully they're smart enough to figure that out."

"I've got a funny feeling it won't," Keisha said dryly. "If they both want to hold a grudge. . . we could be dealing with this for a while." I nodded in agreement. This could be a long-standing argument. No. Never mind. Scratch that last thought. This WAS going to be a long standing argument.