Sometime during the trek to Talpa's castle, the group had met up with Spider. He was happy to see them, but was a tad disappointed that Viper wasn't with them.

"Don't worry, Bro." Webby slung an arm around her brother's shoulder. "We'll find them."

"Not that I really care or anything."

"Then why did you seem disappointed when you didn't see him with us?" Ryo cocked an eyebrow at the boy.

"Because he's our leader. A-duh!"

"Alright, stuff it, you guys. We're on a mission here." Mia gave the two a warning look.

"Yes ma'am." Ryo and Spider said in unison.

"Good, now let's go."

"Go? You can't go anywhere."

Mia looked up at the voice. Standing in the way...a short, purple eye shadow-less Sekhmet? "Wait a minute...if Sekhmet's over here," She pointed vaguely behind her. "Then who the hell are you?"

The mini-Sekhmet threw back his head and laughed. He then leveled an evil grin at the group in front of him. "I, stupid woman, am Viper. Leader of the New Warlords!" Taking a step forward, he produced his sword. "Let's get ready to rumble."

The Ronins took up fighting stances, weapons held at the ready. The ex-warlords readied their weapons as well. However, just as they were going to rush Viper, a familiar voice stopped them in their tracks.

"What do you idiots think you're doing?"

Whirling, Anubis addressed the voice. "Dais! What are you doing? We're on the Ronins' side now!"

"HA! That's a bunch of BULL! Your amror belongs to Master Talpa!" With that, he engaged the ex-warlords, his weapon out in front of him.

As Cale, Anubis and Sekhmet fought Dais, the Ronins and the New Warlords were busy fighting Viper and a slew of patented Dynasty tin cans.

Ryo had paired off with Viper, clashing swords with the crazy, green haired new warlord. "What do you hope to gain by all this?" He asked, blocking a deadly blow. "If you're after our armor, we'll never give it up!"

"What a nice little speech. Too bad no body cares!" Viper slashed his sword against Ryo's shoulder plate. The metal hissed as the poison from his sword worked it's deadly magic.

"AAA!" Ryo winced as the poison began to spread.

"Hahahahaha!" Viper took advantage of Ryo's momentary slack to slash his armor again and once again for good measure. "You shall die and your armor will mine!"

Cye hacked the head off a tin can with his trident. Being the closest to Ryo, he heard Viper's words and looked over. "RYO!" Hurrying over, Cye leveled his trident at Viper. "What the hell'd you do to him?"

"Oh THAT'S a smart question." Viper rolled his eyes. Not waiting for Cye to make the first move, Viper moved back a ways and raised his sword. "DEADLY POISON BOOMERANG!!"

Cye watched as he threw the sword. He was surprised to see it bend into the shape of a boomerang and fly straight to him. "Ack!" Lifting his trident, Cye whacked the sword away, only to have it fly back at him. He vainly tried hitting the sword away, but it eventually knocked his weapon out of his hands.

Laughing insanely, Viper greatly enjoyed watching the lowly Ronin get pummeled by his poisoned sword. Boomerang wasn't part of his attack for nothing. While his sword continued to leave little poisoned slashes all over the Ronin of Trust, Viper casually strolled over to Ryo and took off his helmet. "Heh, stupid, weak Ronin."

Meanwhile, the ex-warlords were having a tougher time than they expected battling Dais. So far, Dais managed to knock Anubis unconscious.

"Dais, what the hell's gotten into you?" Cale swung his sword at his friend's chest.

"I don't what you're talking about!" He blocked Cale's sword just in time to get hit with Sekhmet's. "AAA!!" Pulling back a little, Dais glared at them.

"I'm sure you do." Sekhmet said. "You were kicked out with the rest of us. You lived with the Ronins along with the rest of us. Hell, we were friends with them! Why the HELL go back to Talpa after he kicked you out?!"

Dais grinned evilly, not that Cale and Sekhmet could see it, his face plate being on and all. "You are truly dense you know that? I could have sworn you'd be smart enough to figure it out."

Cale rolled his eyes impatiently. "Would you just get to the point?"

"It was all a set up!" He laughed at their wide-eyed expressions. "That's right. It was all planned by ME! I came up with the idea of being kicked out. We'd go and live with the enemy. Gain their trust, find out their weaknesses and destroy them!"

"Why didn't you tell us then?!"

"Had to make it believable. You wouldn't have acted right if you knew, Snake Breath."

"Fine, fine, fine!" Cale yelled. "But what about the kids? Were they in on this little plot of yours?"

"HA! They wish! No, they didn't know about it." Dais slumped to the ground, the poison taking affect.

Sekhmet scowled at his former friend. How could he? He should die for putting us through all this! One look at Cale told him he was right. Cale's about to explode. I'll spare him that. Raising his sword, Sekhmet let it drip drops of poison on Dais, not stopping until the warlord of Illusion dropped the rest of the way to the ground, unmoving.

Sterling, Roan and Webby took a moment to catch their breath. There was a momentary lull in the throng of tin cans and they'd be damned if they didn't take advantage of it. Webby dropped to her knees on the ground, Roanna joining her and Sterling just leaned on his staff.

"Phew!" Webby said. "I thought we'd never get a break!"

"It's not over, yet, Webby. There are more soldiers coming."

Roanna looked at Sterling. "You sure know how to ruin a good moment, you know that?"

He shrugged. "You'd rather be resting or dead?"

"If I don't rest, I WILL be dead!"

"Forget it guys!" Webby quickly stood. "Here they come again!"

The three readied their weapons and continued fighting off the Dynasty soldiers.

At another part of the battle field, Roan and Spider were also tackling soldiers. Roan slashed five soldiers across their chests as he swung his scythe in an arch in front of him.

"Yes!" He shouted.

"Don't get cocky, Roan. These things keep coming."

"I know, it's just that I got five at once."

Spider rolled his eyes. "Figures." He flung handfuls of metal balls at the soldiers' feet, causing many of them to slip and crash into each other. "Arachnophobia Surprise!" The next volley, as well as the metal balls already on the ground turned into spiders and began attacking.

One soldier, however, was lucky enough to escape. He sneaked up behind Spider and struck him with the blunt end of his weapon. Spider dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Noticing the little metal spiders turn back into balls, Roan looked over at his friend, wondering why he was stopping. "SPIDER!" He glared at the soldier closest to them. "You will pay for that." Pointing his weapon straight up in the air, he yelled "RED LIGHTNING DISASTER!"

Everyone noticed as the sky turned red. All battles completely stopped as, suddenly, red lightning flashed, then zoomed down, striking random soldiers left and right. Soldiers and parts of the ground were torn apart by Roan's sure-kill. After Roan's anger had spent itself, Roan fell to his knees, panting, beside Spider.

Sterling glanced at the scene around him. Roan's attack had destroyed half the soldiers attacking. The other half were staring stupidly at Roan. Turning to Roanna and Webby, he said "Get everybody away from me."

"Are you going to use your attack?"

"Yes, Roanna. And you should get at least two miles away. Make sure all injured comrades are moved as well." They nodded and left him to prepare for his attack.

Sage sat back and watched for any sign of life from his two friends. After Viper had trashed Ryo and Cye, he had gone to find another opponent, consequently taking Ryo's helmet with him. I hope I was able to heal them. I've never had to do two at once before.

Ryo groaned at sat up. "What happened?"

"Take it easy Ryo. That Viper guy got you with that poisoned sword of his."

"Oh man." He rubbed his head. "Hey? Where's my helmet?"

"He took it with him after attacking Cye."

Ryo's gaze shot up and he stared at Sage. "He got Cye, too?!" Sage nodded. "Is he alright?"

"I don't know yet. I had to heal both of you at the same time."

"Oh."

"Hey you guys!" Webby ran up to them. "If you don't want to die, I suggest you get two miles away. NOW!"

Sage raised an eyebrow. "Why? Is Viper going to attack again?"

"No, Sterling is. Trust me you don't want to get caught in it!"

Ryo looked at Webby for a minute then turned to Sage. "Let's go. You get Cye."

"Right." Sage picked up Cye and he and Ryo booked it as Webby ran over to Kento.

Kento, meanwhile, was having a blast destroying soldiers. "HYAH! TAKE THAT YOUBASTARDS!" He smashed another six with his staff.

"Pretty smooth."

Kento turned around. "What do you want? Come to help?"

"I came to warn you."

"About what?"

"Sterling's going to use his sure kill and if you want to stay alive, you'll get two miles away."

Deciding that she probably knew what she was talking about, Kento saluted the soldiers 'buh-bye' and high tailed it out of there with Webby right behind him.

Sekhmet, Cale and a recently revived Anubis stood over the un-moving body of Dais, their heads bowed.

Opening his eyes, Anubis addressed him. "I can't believe you set us up like that Dais. There was probably a better way to get the Ronins."

Cale placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, Anubis. He won't be doing any more plotting. The Ronins are our friends now."

Anubis only nodded. "...Too bad he had to die for this though."

"Hey, what's going on?"

Turning around, Anubis addressed his daughter. "Dais is dead, Roanna."

"Oh." She bowed her head. "I'm sorry." She looked up. "And to make matters worse, Sterling is going to use his sure-kill."

"Oh hell!" Cale exclaimed. "Let's get out of here!" He and the others grabbed Dais' body and the four ran as fast as they could.

Near Sterling's present location, Viper was assembling the second half of his and Dais' tin can army. Talpa had appeared and was conferring with him.

"Is that what you wanted me to do?" Viper asked.

"YES. WE'LL SURROUND THEM AND ATTACK SIMULTANEOUSLY."

"Got it, Master." Looking around, he saw them running for their lives. "Heh, look at them run. Don't they know it won't do any of them any good?"

"NEVERMIND, VIPER. NOW IS THE TIME TO ATTACK!"

"Yes, Master." Viper barked orders to the troops and soon the army was heading toward the fleeing Ronins, with Viper and Talpa leading the way.

Sterling had finally gathered enough energy to launch his attack. Looking around for the largest group of soldiers, he caught sight of the moving army. "Perfect." He said to himself. He teleported himself in front of it.

Viper glared. "Get out of the way, Sterling!"

"No. Stop this foolishness at once."

"HA! That'd be the day!"

"I COMMAND YOU TO MOVE OUT OF THE WAY BOY!"

Sterling stood his ground. "Hey, Viper?"

"What?"

"Didn't you always want to know what my sure-kill was?"

"You, have a sure-kill?" He had a good laugh at that one. "Yeah right!"

"Would you like me to prove it?"

Viper looked at Talpa. Talpa looked...well, where he always looks, so Viper shrugged."Sure, what the hell. Give the troops a good laugh before they destroy the Ronins."

"It would be my pleasure." Holding his staff out sideways in front of him, Sterling closed his eyes and whispered "Dark Depression Explode." As soon as the words left his mouth, his eyes snapped open and he turned the staff, so it pointed straight up, sharply. That caused a massive circular wall of black energy to 'explode' out from all around him, moving out and away.

Viper, Talpa and the soldiers had no time to react as they were immediately hit by the wall of energy and obliterated. When it was all over, Sterling dropped to the ground, left weak from the attack.

The Ronins, Warlords, Mia and Kayura all ran over to where he had fallen. Cale stepped forward, knelt, and placed a hand on his son's back. "Sterling?" He shook him a bit. "Sterling, are you alright?"

Yes, Papa. Just a bit weak.

"How much energy did you use?"

A lot. But I destroyed Talpa, taking out Viper in the process.

Cale turned to Sekhmet. "I'm sorry, Sekh, but Viper's dead."

"WHAT?!" Sekhmet's eyes went impossibly wide. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S DEAD?!"

"Sterling's attack destroyed him in the process of destroying Talpa and those damned annoying soldiers."

Sekhmet said nothing, just turned to Anubis and cried on his shoulder.

Anubis patted his back, sympathetically. "There, there, Sekhmet. I'll be alright."

Cale picked up his son and turned to the group. "We should be going. No sense in staying here."

Everyone agreed and started walking away when Mia shouted "OH!"

Turning to her, Sage asked. "What is it Mia?"

"I forgot about Rich!"

Rowen's head whipped over to her. "WHAT?! Rich is here?!"

"Yeah." She grinned sheepishly. "He had come by for a visit and saw Sage's note on the table. Then Kayura showed up and brought us here."

"Where is he then?"

"Oh, I can answer that." Rowen looked over at Sage. "He's in the throne room, bound by Dais' web."

"And how the hell do you know that?" Kayura asked.

"I was tied up there earlier, trying to find Dais."

"So let's get going already!" Taking off with out them, Rowen headed in the direction he hoped was the throne room. The others ran after him to make sure he went the right way.

In the throne room, Rich was trying to keep himself from going insane. The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout. Down cam the rain and washed the spider out. Out came the sun and dried up all the rain and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again. He blinked. Why do I keep singing that? Don't I know any other songs?

Rich was pissed that Sage had left him here after he escaped. He would have helped him Sighing, Rich was about to start a rousing song of 1,000 jars of spiders when the door opened. Looking over, he saw his friends with some people he didn't recognize. He watched as they walked over to him.

Mia bent down. "Eheh... Hi Rich." He glared at her. "Sorry about forgetting you like that.Here, let me help you out of there." Borrowing Roanna's scythe, Mia cut Rich free of his bonds.

Once free, Rich stood, stretched and turned to glare at Sage. "WHY DIDN'T YOU FREE ME?!"

Sage shrugged. "I didn't have the time. Ryo and Cye were in trouble. I had to get to them first."

Rowen walked over and slung an arm around Rich's shoulder. "Welcome to my world, Bro."

"Wow," Kayura said. "Now there are two Stratas."

Rich's eyes narrowed. "I'M NOT STRATAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

The End

Notes: For those who haven't figured out the deal with Cale, Kayura and Sterling, I'll spare ya Cale and Kayura are...MARRIED! Thaaaaat's right! And Sterling's their son