Chapter II

Everyone turned toward the open balcony. The mysterious rider stood over his cycle, had a tranquilizer gun drawn and another type down at his side.

"Ryan," spoke Endymion, "I…I thought you were…killed…"

"Do I look dead, Darien!" retorted Ryan, "Besides, Queen Serenity brought me back to life. It doesn't matter now, but you have something that belongs to me."

Lita, in confusion, didn't know whether to attack or parry. She looked over to the other Senshi, then at Mina.

Ryan spotted Lita's gaze and followed it to see Mina, sleeping off the dart fluid. He shut his eyes and tried not to lose his concentration, but he failed. He dropped his guard and the tranquilizer gun. He then removed his helmet to reveal his face.

"Prince Ryan Star, "ordered Serenity as she rose up, "stop this at once!"

Ryan turned away from her and thought for a moment. Ryan then got off the motorcycle and set the helmet on the seat. Endymion walked over to him and removed the keys from the ignition and placed them in a pocket. He bent down and picked up the dropped gun and handed it back to Ryan.

Ryan put the gun away in his jacket.

"Ryan," Endymion asked," do you have an antidote for the tranquilizer dart?"

"Yes, I have it right here." he replied holding up the gun with the antidote inside it.

"Very well, you yourself will inject the antidote into Mina."

"Not so fast Darien, I'm not doing anything until I receive that box."

"All in good time Ryan. First give Mina the antidote."

Ryan sighed and walked over to where Mina was laying. The others moved out of Ryan's way to reveal the sleeping Senshi. Ryan kneeled down at her side. He reached out and underneath Mina's skirt to remove the dart. After he found it and removed it from her right thigh, Ryan then removed his hand from underneath her skirt to reveal the dart. It was not a very big dart, only about an inch in length and six centimeters in diameter. It was black with red painted rings around it. The needle head is covered with Mina's blood. Ryan checks the blood and discovered it was already dry. He pulled out a plastic bag and dropped the dart inside, sealed it and pocketed it. Setting the antidote gun against Mina's arm, he injected the green fluid into Mina's body. Ryan rose up and stepped back, waiting for the result.

"Give her a minute," Ryan said. Everyone came forward still, staying behind Ryan, they watched in eager curiosity. Mina's eyes began to flutter and she started to moan. The others rushed forward and kneeled next to Mina. Endymion and Serenity walked up to Ryan.

Ryan turned to face them. "Done," smiled Ryan, "now I should be receiving something?"

"Not yet," answered Endymion, "you have some explaining to do."

"As to what?"

"As to what is going on out there, Ryan!" snapped Serenity.

"I guess you have the right to know, that is why I came here," Ryan sighed.

"Exactly, we have the right to know," returned Serenity.

"But there's one problem, how can explain when you don't remember anything?"

"He's got us there," returned Endymion.

"Right, and that's what I need from you all," replied Ryan.

"What's that?"

"For you to give back my powers and my powers only. If I'm still a Prince, I need to look like one."

Endymion looks at Ryan, then at Serenity, then to the Scouts. "Are you okay Mina?" he asked.

Mina nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay."

Endymion looked back at Ryan. "Okay Ryan, I'll trust you." He opened the white box and handed Ryan the crystal.

"Where's the locket?" Ryan asked.

"It's around Mina's neck," answered Lita.

Ryan turned to look at Mina's neck and saw the locket. He turned back to Endymion. Ryan accepted the crystal and it begins to glow, it glowed brighter and brighter until it disappeared. Now Ryan began to glow a bright white then the glow flashed outward and everyone noticed that Ryan's clothing changed, from street to royalty. Everyone suddenly take a few steps away from Ryan. The four Senshi stand together while Endymion stood behind Serenity. Ryan shut his eyes and the crystal begins to change color. The colors resemble the Senshi's colors. Suddenly, five beams of light come out of the crystal. Ryan stepped back, but kept the crystal in the air. The beams of colored light shine at the Senshi's hearts. The girls stood, unmoving, mesmerized as they watch. The beams grew a little larger and they started to scream.



"Ryan no!" shouted Endymion. Inside his head, he could hear Ryan's voice,

'Darien, don't interfere. Let me do this, it's the only way.'

"The only way to what?" Endymion panicked.

'The only way to win,' Endymion heard. He watched as the Senshi scream in pain. Finally, he began to understand and he saw colored pieces of Ryan's crystal come from inside of each the Senshi, all but Mina. Ami held the top piece, Lita held the middle, Raye held the bottom, and Serenity held the arms. The pieces of colored crystal join Ryan's white crystal and became whole. Now the beams that held the four other Senshi leave and join Mina's beam. The others collapsed, but Endymion caught Serenity, and Mina began to relax. All five beams became one and turn white and yellow as Mina's symbol appears on her head. The beam rose up to the symbol on her forehead, and Ryan's symbol, a star, appears interlock with hers. The same is happened to Ryan but only in reverse.

They both opened their eyes and looked at one another. Then Mina began to shout commands,

"Transformation call!" Mina yelled.

"Knights, Armor up!" answered Ryan.

"Color call!"

"Knight one, White!" This command ends the light beam connection and Mina fells to her knees. She watched silently. The Crystal disappeared from Ryan's hands and he stretched his limbs outward. When he did so, Ryan began to flash white and gold and his arms and legs are spread outward, so that he looked like a star. Suddenly, the flashing began to move inward toward Ryan's chest and as the flash was moving inward, it left behind the White Thunder Knights armor. At the end, a spinning star was shown and when it stopped, it plastered itself to the breastplate and a Crescent Moon filled in behind it. An outline of a shield appears on Ryan's back and when it filled in, the insignia that appears on his breastplate also appears on the shield. Ryan's swords and sheaths appeared at his sides and when Ryan removes the sword handles, the blades shot to a length of three feet!

Now fully transformed Ryan, he looked like a crossover between an English Knight and a Samurai. The first cover is a durable, full body polyester- like material. On top of that are a series of different armor pieces. On his head, Ryan wore the traditional samurai helmet with a golden emblem on the front tip. The emblem spikes outward left and right and reaches a length of six inches. It sits at a thirty-five degree angle. Also a smaller spike splits from the base of the longer one and sits at a forty- degree angle. Ryan's face was protected by a silver facemask with golden eyes. Inside the facemask, were a series of wires and computer chips that link onto the helmet when the facemask is wore. The helmet was actually a miniature super computer. The eyes were actually two miniature computer screens and cameras. The helmet and facemask were created by an ancient race and, unfortunately, no one understands how it works. Next, Ryan wore specially tempered gauntlets, which covered his hands and arms. The Torso was covered by T-top breast, but covers his shoulders, plate that also is specially tempered. The gauntlets and breastplate were forged by Ryan long ago. Ryan's shins and feet were covered by his boots, which were made by Ryan also. The boots are very durable and can withstand most attacks. The material used to create the boots was unknown. On his thighs he wore normal guards made from the material as his gauntlets and breastplate. Around his waist, Ryan wore (I'm sure if its a skirt or a kilt or what, but you all know what I'm talking about) just like a samurai would. On his back he wears a white, on top, and gold, on bottom, cape.

After the transformation ended, Ryan sheathed his weapons and stretched. He removed his helmet and facemask to reveal his smiling face. Mina sat up and rushed into his arms. Ryan looked at her and said,

"I'm back and I'm never leaving again."

A white flash filled the room.



"What just happened Ryan?" Endymion asked.

Ryan stood still for a moment, looked down at Mina and back at Endymion.

"If I'm correct, the flash released all of our memories of the Thunder Knight team."

Amee suddenly fells to her knees. Ryan released Mina for a moment, walked over to and knelt next to Ami. Everyone watched closely. Ryan placed his hand on her shoulder, "I'll find him, I promise."

"Ryan, make sure he remembers me." Ami said sadly.

"I will, promise." Ryan set Ami back on her feet, made sure that she will be all right and returned to Mina's arms.

"Ryan, do you have an explanation for what's going on or not!" snapped Serenity.

"Oh my gosh, I completely forget about the storm!" Ryan looked out the balcony door. He saw the big storm retreating south from the city. He looked back into the room, thinking for a moment then shrugged. "Anyway, about what's going on, is this. All of you remember the Gold Thunder Knight, Megan Krause?"

"Who could forget?" replied Raye while everyone else nodded.

"Right, well a week ago I---" Mina suddenly pushed herself out of Ryan's arms. Her eyes were wide.

"Mina what is it?" asked Ryan. It suddenly hit him.

"Stay away from me Ryan! Don't ever come near me again!" She took a few steps back, turned and ran away. She headed straight in Endymion's direction, but he stepped out of the way in time.

"Mina, wait!" cried Ryan. He began to chase after her but Endymion stepped in his way.

"Let her go Ryan. She needs time to let all of this sink in," commented Darien.

Gritting his teeth, Ryan watched her run out of the room and disappear. He tried to relax.

"Continue on with what you were saying," said Serena.

"Okay, lets see, where was I? Oh right, I received a phone call from Dr. William T. Light saying that Megan had joined a large terrorist group called the 'Zion Federation'."

"Don't you mean Dr. Thomas Light of Light Industries?" interrupted Amee.

"No, but his brother William, I was on his corporate racing team. We were the best," returned Ryan. His ego began to show.

"Hey, I remember that. You guys won the World Racing Championship," commented Darien.

"But how is that possible? Isn't he still alive?" retorted Amee.

"No, Thomas Light died six years ago," answered Lita.

Ryan nodded. "That's right. After I hung up the phone, I can scarcely remember what happened that day. A bright light appeared in my eyes, then I was in this huge Palace, then Queen Serenity, your mother Serenity, came up and handed me the white box with the royal seal on it."

Endymion looked at the box. "He's right, look." Everyone looked over at the top of the box. It had a large, silver crescent moon engraved upon it.

"Yeah, that's it. The only thing she said to me was, 'You know what to do'. Memories swarmed back into my head and the next thing I knew, I was back in my apartment in the United States. I tried to figure out what happened, but I knew that all of you would have an answer for me. So I took the next flight out of the U.S., taking what belongings I had, and came here to Japan. When I was in the U.S. airport, Dr. Light came to me and gave me all the essentials for permanent residence here in Tokyo."

"Did you tell him that you were to leave the U.S. for good?" asked Lita.

"Yes, I did. That's why he was there that day. He also gave me the motorcycle when I was leaving too. He said I would need it. So, I got into the plane, the cycle was loaded into the cargo hold and saw the last sight of U.S. soil for the rest of my life. When I landed in Nagano International Airport, I had to ride here to Tokyo. By the way, the instruction manual took three hours to read and the first ten pages were on how to start it."

Everyone laughed.

"My first night I had stay at a small campground. That's when I saw Megan. I had a fire going and I was next to a stream. The flames of the fire jumped incredibly high then died down and the Red Thunder Knight Crystal was floating before me. It shined brightly and then the water of the stream flowed faster and the Blue crystal rose up out of the water, shinning, to about eye level and stayed there. The ground beneath me shook and the Green crystal rose before me shinning brightly as well. Lighting stuck the ground and the Purple crystal was floating along with the others. The wind blew fiercely and the Yellow crystal appeared. The five crystals came together and formed a star before me. As though they recognized me. Then a lighting bolt struck a rock four times before it split in half and the Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Ruby crystals rose up. That's when disaster struck. The four crystals that rose from the rock were suddenly nabbed by an electric-magnet net and pulled over to a…a…like an human robot person."

"An Android?" asked Ami.

"Yeah, that's it. An Android."

"What's an Android?" interrupted Darien.

Ami answered, "Androids are robots that have human characteristics. They were created to help Humanity in difficult situations. Such as construction, waste management, running electrical plants, and so forth. That's when the problems began. When large terrorist groups got hold of this technology they would use it to fight wars and kill innocent people. Some were give powers beyond imagination while others were simple footman for armies. Weapons were integrated into their bodies and information of how to fight was added as well. That is why they are such a big threat now."

"Oh, I see." responded Darien.

Ryan continued, "That's when I saw her, standing there with a large laser cannon pointed in my direction. She was surrounded with a small army of them. She smiled evilly at me. 'Hello Ryan, good to see you again.' Is what she said to me, I responded, 'Megan, how did you get your memories back?' Her response was, 'Saw the Sailor Senshi once and I remembered all the good times you and I had together.' I cocked an eyebrow at her, 'Good times? Doesn't matter. Why are you fighting for Terrorists? Don't you want to be a Knight again?' She responded with, 'Why do you think I'm collecting the crystals from you? So I can bring back the Knights and have them fight for evil. Join me and together we will rule the world. Perhaps we can even have the love that wasn't there before.' I shook my head, 'As much as I like to take up on the offer, I will have to turn you down.' Her response was, 'Pity, because I would've liked to work with you but looks like I can't. But if you ever change your mind, I'll will return for other five crystals.' I asked her one last question, 'How did you find me?' Her answer was, 'Satellite.' And with that, she was gone along with her troops. The next day I came here as fast as I could with that storm chasing me."

"You didn't chase after her?" asked Raye.

"I couldn't, she would have killed me and taken the other five crystals."

"And what of the other five crystals?" asked Serena.

"I have them hidden with me."

"Where are they?" asked Raye.

Ryan extended his hand with his watch on it. "They're in the face of my watch."

Everyone looked closer at his watch and saw the five crystals inside.

"How did you get them in there?" asked Lita.

"I don't know. I looked at my watch and there they were. As the twelve, the three, the six, the nine and the in the middle of the hands."

"Do you think you can beat Megan and get the other four crystals back?" asked

Endymion.

"With your help I know I will."

"Don't you mean with the Knights help?" asked Serenity.

"With those remaining and with your help it shouldn't be that hard."

"But our fighting days are basically over." replied Raye.

"Not anymore, Megan will be back for these five crystals and I will need all the help I can get."