~*Behind the Scenes*~
"I can take care of myself, Ryo dear. I fought nearly alone before you came along to keep me out of trouble," Christine gave Ryo, her boyfriend, a stern look. "Besides, it's not like I'm as fragile as my name suggests."
"But Christine, it'll be dangerous. I can't let you take that risk." Ryo tried to protest.
"Please?" she gave him a puppy dog look of pain and wistfulness.
"No, I'm sorry . . . " Ryo ran off to catch up to Sage and Sai, who were waiting for him. She saw him wipe away tear.
Christine glimpsed Kento ruffling Mandy's hair before Mandy grabbed his arm and pulled him into a kiss. Rowen was on his knees pleading with Stephie to let him "destroy the evil widdle Dynasty."
Steph finally gave him a rather reluctant "okay." Hearing this Rowen swept her off her feet with a dip and then a long and passionate kiss, to the applause of the other Ronin Warriors.
It seemed as though as soon as the male Ronins had left, that three armored figures made themselves known.
Dynasty soldiers!
The three girls looked at them with suspicion. This was rather odd.
The first Dynasty soldier rushed in an attack at Stephie.
"Armor of Independence! Dao Inoche!" she yelled. Her green and grey armor appeared and she raised her long sword to parry his axe. With her short sword, Stephie slashed out in retaliation.
"Armor of Death! Tao Iniche!" yelled Mandy. The maroon and black armor of Death appeared on her. Mandy attacked the second Dynasty soldier with her pike.
"Armor of Serenity! Dao Che!" Christine finally yelled, shaking off the shock she felt at being ambushed so soon. She wore the purple and white armor with pride. Lifting her scythe, she called out to the last one: "What are you? A chicken? Attack me!"
"You've hurt my pride!" the Dynasty soldier exclaimed, startling Christine with his harsh voice. Dynasty soldiers can't speak.
Christine's shock gave the soldier enough of an opening to get in a punch to her shoulder. That punch cost him an arm to Christine's scythe.
He barely blinked, but raised his remaining arm to try and hit her on the head.
Meanwhile, Stephie had chibified and was being chased by the legs of "her" soldier while its torso had an arm hold on her leg. Steph was cursing him in various languages, and he had just as colorful of a vocabulary.
Their language would have made a Russian sailor blush.
Mandy had jumped to land on the other's head, and proceeded to kick in his face. This made him loose his balance and topple over so she was standing on his chest instead. He grabbed her ankles, and Mandy cut off his head.
The headless Dynasty soldier threw Mandy aside angrily.
"Why won't you die?!" Stephie yelled at the torso clinging to her leg.
Christine stomped on the arm that reached up to grab at her knee.
"We're already dead." Replied the discarded head of Mandy's present opponent. "Mistress Tuskiarki brought us back to life and gave us armor."
. . . *some time later* . . .
"Great, just great," muttered Mandy with her back pressed against Christine's and Stephie's.
The remaining pieces of the three zombies had them surrounded. Steph's zombie had put itself back together, but the other two hadn't bothered.
"I don't think there's any other way," whispered Stephie.
"But they should go easy!" Christine exclaimed in anger.
"On three," Steph continued, "one."
"Two," said Mandy.
They all did their special attacks, reducing the zombies to dust. When the dust cleared, Christine added her two cents.
"Three."
They relaxed, sighing and hoping that there were no more zombies hiding in the bushes.
"Thank the Goddess that's over," Stephie muttered, wiping her forehead, "I wonder if Rowen is doing as well?"
"What do you mean?"
"They don't know about the zombies," Steph explained, "they won't know how to kill them."
Mandy nodded, and switched to sub-armor. She began to walk in the direction that the guys had gone when they left.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Christine yelled, switching to sub-armor as well. Steph also switched to sub-armor, and hurried to catch up to Mandy.
"Where else?" Mandy asked, "We have to warn the guys. They'll need our help."
Christine sighed, but followed as well. "You may be right," she muttered dejectedly. As they walked away, a grey, armored finger fell from the sky.
Like a worm it inched over toward the bushes out of which the zombies had appeared. A blood red, glowing line outlined the shape of a door, which the finger nudged open. It slowly made it's way inside, returning to the Dynasty. Something in the shadows also scurried in the general direction of the Ronin Warriors.
. . .*with the Ronin Warriors* . . .
"Why won't you die?" Rowen yelled in rage at the pincushion of a Dynasty soldier in front of him.
"Simple," the soldier replied, "you've already killed me."
Sage busied himself by cutting his three attackers into tiny bits. These tiny bits then reattached themselves into one, larger, zombie that towered over him menacingly.
"Thanks," Ryo muttered murderously to Sage, "as if our problems weren't big enough already!"
Kento simply threw his zombie at the larger one, making it loose its balance momentarily.
"Who sent you?" Rowen asked the pincushion, hoping the answer wouldn't be what he thought it might.
"Mistress Tuskiarki," the giant zombie's voice was slightly distorted. As it said this, the zombie attacked the Ronin Warriors wholeheartedly. It punched Sage in the jaw, knocking him into instant unconsciousness. By kicking Sai in the back, it did the same to him. It continued fighting like someone gone mad until only Ryo and Kento remained aware.
"Why don't you kill them?" Ryo asked dumbfounded. Never before had anything from the Dynasty bothered to avoid killing them. Always before, they had been fighting until the end.
"Mistress Tuskiarki wants you alive," the great voice rumbled. It lifted Rowen by the back of his neck. "You see," it continued, "She has big plans for the five of you. Ryo heard a scream from somewhere behind him, but couldn't tear himself from the fight to look. Kento didn't have the same trouble, he turned to search for the source of the scream. But he never found it. The zombie had thrown Rowen at Kento with an unbelievable force. Kento was knocked unconscious by Rowen's pointy helmet as it crashed into the back of his.
"Ouch . . . " he moaned as he collapsed.
The zombie laughed. He grasped Ryo by the neck, and lifted him from the ground. Ryo yelled, closing his eyes, and clutched at the zombie's hand around his throat. The giant zombie laughed again, and was lucky that he had closed his eyes as well. At that moment Christine had been standing on the ridge in front of the scene of the battle, and Steph and Mandy had stepped up on either side of her. They were all wearing their full armor and didn't look happy at all. Stephie and Mandy both made fists and lifted them at the zombie. The two of them both slowly extended their middle fingers, glaring at the monster that had knocked out their guys.
To put it bluntly, neither of them were happy at all.
Ryo lost consciousness as the zombie dropped him to the ground. For this Christine joined the other two in flipping the zombie off.
They screeched their attacks, and flying into the air, they directed these attacks at the monstrous zombie.
"Mistress Tuskiarki, I failed," it whispered as it turned to a fine, white dust that slowly settled onto the unconscious forms of the Ronin Warriors. A faint wisp of a giggle could barely be heard coming from the dark shadows.
. . .*in the Dynasty Castle*. . .
Mistress Tuskiarki sighed, tapping her long, blue-tinted fingernails on the arm of her glass throne. She was tired of waiting for the zombies to return.
A frail, rasping, grating sound reached her ears as a single finger crept up the steps to the dias. It was armored like that of a zombie.
"What happened?" she asked, attaching the finger to the hand of a dead Dynasty soldier that had been left over when Talpa died. Its eyes glowed blue and then it came alive. Kneeling at her feet the zombie addressed her cordially.
"The girls you sent us to take destroyed us. Their power is greater than expected."
"I see," she mumbled, "perhaps zombies aren't the best weapon against them."
Mistress Tuskiarki snapped her fingers, and eight armored girls and a single, armored boy appeared with flourishes of varicolored smoke and flame.
"Yes, Mistress?" they asked as one, kneeling at the dias.
"Announce yourselves," she snapped impetuously.
"Nicholine of Silence!" said the girl in grey.
"Beth of Darkness!" the one in black.
"Trinity of Poison!" she in yellow.
"Ana of Decay!" she in green.
"Mirya of the Wild!" the one in red.
"Elissa of Espionage!" the girl in a darker shade of grey.
"Giselle of Plague!" she in dark orange.
"Katja of Discord!" the last girl wore armor of disgusting, shifting colors.
"Sean of Corruption!" the boy had pale grey armor. "We are the Dark Fighters," he announced with a terrible conviction.
Mistress Tuskiarki spoke up.
"Which of you can go capture the Warrior Maidens for me?" she asked, directing her question to Sean.
"Sean cannot," Trinity stated bluntly, "he'd just be distracted!"
"Are you suggesting that you should be the one I send?" Mistress Tuskiarki raised an eyebrow.
"Yes!" Trinity exclaimed, obviously excited.
Mistress Tuskiarki waved her hand in dismissal. They bowed as one again, and slid back into the shadows.
. . . *the Warrior Maidens*. . .
Steph panted heavily as she landed on her feet, the tic still going in her eye as she glared at the place where the zombie had stood. Mandy ran over to where Kento lay, unconscious. She yelled, and attempted to wake him up, but he was out cold. Christine also was trying to wake Ryo. She held his head in her lap, sobbing. She thought he was dead.
There was a sudden, growing sound of cruel laughter. Yellow smoke slowly drifted around the three girls.
Mandy became instantly alert. The yellow smoke drifted past, and solidified. Standing there was a brunette wearing yellow armor with a disturbing, pale blue underlayer. The girl raised her short sword in silent challenge to Mandy and Steph. Christine was still crying.
"What now?" Steph whispered to Mandy, apprehensive.
"I will send you to what you will think is hell!" the yellow-armored girl shouted, tauntingly. She jumped over the two of them, and attempted an attack on Christine.
"That's what you think!" Steph yelled as she kicked the girl, sending her flying away. Mandy chased after her with the intent of murder.
"I, Trinity of Poison, will think whatever I want to!" Trinity ran, but was caught in a dead end against the sheer cliff face. She spun around in time to catch Mandy's pike on her sword edge.
Stephie dropped off the cliff behind Trinity. She brought the hilts of both her swords down on the back of Trinity's neck. The Dark Fighter of Poison dropped to the ground