Chapter 3

Old Faces

It felt so good to be back, the cool summer air, the sound of the ocean waves hitting the beach line, and the smell of the diner's excellent food dishes, it had all still remained after the long seven years. Still, he wondered if any of his old friends would remember him let alone recognize him. Oh well, in the end they were all there and all together once again. As they walked towards the entrance to the town they noticed that many fire and water elementals were performing shows to the side as well as in small arenas. Once those flames lit up and the water erupted each took the shape of a different creature, but one stood out among the rest, as he watched the flames bent into the form of a average sized man with spikey hair as he held a staff in his hand.

"Hm, are you ok?" asked Oshiru.

Once he heard his friends' voice he finally snapped back to reality.

"Oh yeah." He said as they approached the local greeters.

Three people stood at the entrance, each the same height and with the same bright orange hair. As they approached their attention turned to the rather large group of teens and adults.

"Oh well, what a group we have here. So are you all one family or just friends?" the man to the right asked.

"We are just friends." Naomi replied.

They observed the group their attention turned to one in particular, Ryo. Their eyes were set on him as they faced him.

"Your name wouldn't happen to be Ryo would it?" the woman asked.

Something about these three sparked something inside his brain, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Yeah, but how did you know that?"

"Oh come on boy, you don't remember us? Make, Tyro, and Louise? We've been helping your dear old dad since you were but baby."

As he was told their names it all started to come back to him.

"Oh, right."

And as soon as he said that he turned around and tried to bolt, but to no avail he was grabbed by Make who just held him there as he tried to escape only to kick up dust.

"Whoa, slow your road. We aren't here to fight, we merely just want to talk, it has been such a long time since we last had a talk."

Yeah it had, and last time he was being beaten down by those three. His dad called it training, but he called it torture.

"Come on boy, at least come and meet our newest students. Show how much of a back bone we gave you."

There must have been almost a two foot rut in the ground from where he had been running in place before he stopped.

"Just to meet your students…."

"Yeah, you know, just tell them how good of instructors we are." Make said as he let go of Ryo' hood.

He felt so bad for those students, but if all they wanted was for him to speak with them then

"Ok, so where are they?" he asked as he brushed the dust from his jacket.

"Today is training day so they are all out at the arena. You do remember where the arena is don't you?"

All he did was let out a sigh as he made his way into the town and down the street where a large stone coliseum could be seen.

"Hold crap, that thing is huge." Oshira said as he tried to look towards the very top of the stone structure.

"Yep, and it's been here ever since this town was created." Louise said as they all walked inside.

He remembered the arena all too well, during his childhood his father had demanded that the trio teach him how to defend himself in case of an emergency. Now he was letting the hell from his childhood back in.

"Alright, just step on in and we will get started."

As he entered he noticed that there were people sitting up in the stands as well as his friends and their mentors.

"So where are your so called students?!" Ryo yelled to Make from across the structure.

He knew it, he shouldn't have opened his big mouth. As soon as he spoke a barrier formed around inside of the arena.

"It's a trap! I knew it, I god damn knew it!" he yelled as he backed up against the solid barrier.

"Oh but Ryo my boy this is your next test. You faced us before in our individual forms, but now let's see how well you fare against our ultimate form!"

Suddenly each one of his old instructors exploded to reveal their true elemental forms that looked similar to his own just formed out of different elements.

"Now let's see how well you fare against all three of us at once!" Tyro exclaimed as all three started to fuse together.

They were no longer three separate beings now they were only one. Their body grew bigger and bigger as their fingers turned to claws and their heads stretched out to resemble dragon heads. They weren't just any elementals, they had fused together to form a multiple elemental hydra with each head composed of a different element, fire, earth, and water.

They only watched as their old student tried to escape from the barrier.

"I do believe he is trying to escape brother." Louise said as their massive tail shook the ground.

"Well, we can't have that can we?" said Tyro.

As he tried to escape his friends watched as he panicked.

"Ryo, you can do it!" Minami yelled.

Her parents had a strange look on their faced as they looked to her then back and the cowering electro.

"That's the boy you were telling me about?" Kurumu asked.

He almost had it, there were a few crack imbedded in it so just a little bit more he would be free, but as soon as freedom seemed possible their large tail came crashing down on him.

"Ryo!" everyone yelled in panic as the cloud of dust shrouded the tail.

"Heh, so it seems you are just as weak as you were back then~"

But once the dust cleared and the tail had moved Ryo was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he? Where are you boy?!"Make roared as they looked around.

It wasn't until they heard a rather static voice that they knew they had made a fatal mistake.

"Spark gun!"

Suddenly a beam of pure electricity his the water head and sent a power jolt of electricity running through their body.

"Heh, I see, you used your fathers old flash step technique to avoid our attack." Tyro grunted as their eyes moved to the statue that Ryo had moved to.

"Close but no dice, you see I knew you would do this so as soon as I entered the arena I produced a close at the same time as I used the flash step."

Now then, if they wanted him to show their students all he knew he wasn't going to disappoint them, in fact he had a new trick up his sleeve that he wanted to try out. Once he held out his arm his human form vanished as he revealed his true monster form to everyone.

"So you were a late bloomer!"

They watched as they raised one of their giant claws and swiped at Ryo, but in an instant he vanished only to reappear on the ground before them. It was go time for him and his old masters.