Realm Remix
Chapter 8
"Cosa, for crying out loud, it was just an animal. You're overreacting."
He turned and glared at Shiree with a look that would have blistered paint. "Sparkles is not 'just' an animal, he's a pet! MY pet! And I am NOT overreacting!"
Shiree gave him a deadpan look as she sat down next to him. Even sitting, she had the appearance of coiled energy, like a spring ready to pop up. "Sparkles?" she repeated flatly. "And yes, you are over-reacting. Let the water alone. You're boiling those fish." With a savage scowl, Cosa took his hand out of the pond.
"You guys screwed up," Doste announced cheerfully. "So tell me, how exactly are you going to contain ten armor bearers, Lady Kayura and the Tigermoon brat in this little buffer zone? They'll rip the place apart." Doste paused, and added grudgingly, "At least you knew better than to pick up the tiger, too..."
Shiree pointed to Cosa, "Start thinking fast, my friend."
---
"I'll tear this place apart!"
"Kento, calm down, you're not going to get anywhere doing that!" Cye tackled his friend, and despite their size difference, brought him down. "Somebody help me here?" he pleaded.
The Ronins and Warlords were trapped inside the stone hallway that Tigermoon had visited. Weak tendrils of energy crackled along the ceiling. Pointlessly, Cale kicked a wall.
Obligingly, Kayura came to Cye's aid. She sat on Kento's back, like a couch. Crossing her booted legs, she looked around the hall. "Weird place," she commented.
Rowen opened his mouth. Sage shut it for him. "No comments about their interior decorator, Rowen. It was funny the first time, but it's kind of old now..."
"I've been here before," Tigermoon stated. She was sitting with her chin on her knees, her back against one of the stone walls. "Except, I had the staff with me then. And I don't now."
"Yeah, where is the staff, anyway?" Dais asked with a frown. Kaye looked around, startled. "Didn't Kayura have it?"
"No, I thought you did, Kaye."
"What would I be doing with your staff? Oh, no," Kaye said as she slapped her forehead. "We left it back at the house."
"Oops," Kayura said sheepishly. "Well, Mia and White Blaze will look after it, won't they?"
"They don't have any powers," Ryo reminded her impatiently. "Oh, man, if these creeps find out that we don't have the staff, they'll go after Mia."
Everybody winced at the thought. Not only was Mia relatively defenseless, who knows what would happen when their captors got their hands on the staff. "Let's pretend we do have it," Cale suggested haphazardly. Sekhmet slapped him upside the head. "Ow! What?"
"Aren't we a few centuries old for that, Cale?"
"No?"
Sekhmet sighed, rubbed his forehead, and went off to sit in a corner.
"Well, you guys can sit around and argue, but I'm going to try to get us out of here," Kento decided. He stood off from the main group and set his hands together.
"Armor of Hardrock, Dao Gi..."
A flash of orange light bounced off the walls and slammed him in the forehead. Kento fell backwards into Kaye's arms. "Oh, man, are you all right?" she asked him worriedly.
"I'm fine, but where's the armor?" he asked confusedly.
Kayura got up and started pacing the walls, rapping them with her gloved knuckle. She was wearing her old armor, which was light and easy to carry -- her trademark dark boots and leotard-like outfit. With a frown, she tried to call Anubis's subarmor to her. There was a crackle of yellow light as his symbol lit up on her forehead, but nothing else.
"We're blocked in," she said, nodding. "This is a sort of stasis field that prevents us from calling our armors or using our powers."
"Oh, it took you that long to find out?" Rowen asked sarcastically. "I mean, you could have done it before Kento ended up on the floor."
"Well, I notice you weren't sounding the place out, either," Dais shot back. "I have no idea how you Ronins ever beat us."
"Dumb luck," Cale offered.
Sage stood up, fists clenched. "Say that again, Cale..."
"Dumb luck?"
"Guys, stop it," Kaye shouted above the growing argument. "We're never going to get out of here if we kill each other off." Uneasily, everyone sat down again. Tigermoon had pressed herself against a wall when it looked like a fight was going to break out. She didn't know whose side she would have to take. Now, she moved closer to Kaye, who seemed sensibly neutral.
"Can you get out of here?" Kayura asked abruptly, turning to Tigermoon. The girl looked up and vanished. A second later, she reappeared and slammed against the wall as if she had been thrown there. Blinking groggily, she rubbed her head. "Uh... I don't think so."
----------------
"I don't think that hall will last much longer," Doste put in, wandering over to the other two, who were conversing quietly. "They'll break out of it soon."
Shiree held up an annoyed hand. "Don't interrupt us! The hall isn't invincible, but nothing's going to happen with THAT group. They're so much at odds that it's ridiculous. With any luck they'll all throttle each other, and we'll be free of them. Why don't you go concentrate on finding the staff, and we grownups will do the real work?" She said this with the air of an adult offering a child a game to distract them.
Doste's eyes narrowed. "Fine." The other two went back to whatever they had been talking about. "I'll just go do that," he added. The other two paid no attention. "Idiots," Doste muttered, and vanished.
----------------
Back at the house, Mia was still in a state of shock. It was only when Mia heard a faint jingle, like windchimes, that she snapped out of it. White Blaze roared in fury and charged towards the house. The door was shut, so the tiger leaped through a window, the glass shattering like water around his muscular frame.
The wild jangling of the rings on the Ancient's staff set off the ear-splitting din of crashing glass. White Blaze landed on the floor, his big pads cut and slashed from the broken glass. With a deep growl, he lunged into the hallway, where Kayura had left the staff. White Blaze grabbed the staff in his mouth and whirled about.
Doste stood there, smirking. "Nice kitty. Do you want to play fetch?"
White Blaze growled, a low and dangerous growl. The rings on the staff continued to ring a warning.
Mia ran up to the house, frantically trying to open the door. Doste snapped his fingers and the lock slid shut. Mia pounded on the door, but it was no use. Panting, she ran up to the broken window, put her palms on the sill, and hoisted herself inside.
She broke the rest of the glass on the way in. Doste turned at the sound and saw her kneeling on the floor, her knees cut and bleeding. Unsteadily, Mia got to her feet, with no idea what to do.
White Blaze lunged forward, knocking Doste over on the way. The tiger dropped the staff at Mia's feet and whirled to stand at her side, growling softly. Doste looked at them with a calculating look that sent shivers down Mia's spine.
Oh, man, Mia thought. I wish I had Kaye and the boys here. Well, I can be brave without them, can't I?
"You're just a boy," she said, more steadily than she felt. "What do you want?"
"That," he said casually, pointing at the staff.
White Blaze snarled and stalked forward. "Be right back," Doste said cheerfully, and vanished.
--------------------------
"Cosa, I need help," Doste announced as he interrupted their conversation again. "It's about an animal."
Shiree glared at him. "Look, we're really busy!"
Doste glared back at her. "Ninety-nine bottles of sake on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of sake, you take one down and you pass it around..."
Shiree clapped her hands over her ears. "All right, all right! Cosa, go with him!"
"A curse on that meddler," she spat when they'd gone.
-------------------------
Mia sank onto the floor, ignoring the fresh cuts she recieved from the glass. "I really can't deal with this," she told White Blaze. "And why do people keep breaking windows around here? I'm beginning to see a pattern."
The janglings of the rings warned her that she had another visitor. White Blaze pulled his lips back from his teeth and snarled, then looked puzzled. His defensive growl turned into a questioning noise.
The Ancient's staff was heavy, but Kaye had been teaching her a few moves with polearms. Nothing really fancy, just basic stances, strength, coordination, attack and defense. Mia got into a stance as two forms solidified this time. She spun the staff so the point end was leveled between her attackers.
"I bet I can guess what you two want."
---------------------------------
The Ronins and Warlords were at it again.
After sounding out the room and realizing that there was no ready escape, the opposite groups had chosen opposite sides of the hall, and were pointedly ignoring the others. The only ones who weren't were the three females, who were in the middle of the hall. Unexpectedly, Kaye had found a tiny souvenir pack of cards in her wallet, so they had a card game going. There really wasn't anything else they could do, when every time they tried a different way to break out, their attack hit them back with double force.
The women felt slightly bonded since the experience finding the staff and when Shiree had come in their window. And since none of the Ronins or Warlords felt like playing Go Fish, they had no other partners but each other anyway.
"Tigermoon. Do you have any sevens?" Kayura asked brightly. She was winning, having one pair more than Kaye and two pairs more than Tigermoon.
"Go fish," Tigermoon sighed dolefully. "Kaye, do you have any threes?"
Kaye shook her head, grinning. "Nope, sorry. Kayura, hand over the ace."
Kayura muttered something as she handed over the card.
"Thanks, Kayura. Can I have your king?"
Kayura handed it over grudgingly, as if parting with the card was causing her physical pain.
"Got any eights?" Kaye asked cheerfully.
"No, for the love of the Ancient! Let me alone already! Tigermoon, got any queens?"
"No, but you can have this king," Tigermoon offered helpfully. Kayura looked at it. "Um, thanks, but no thanks."
"Well, I don't want him, he's ugly."
Kaye sighed. "Look, Tigermoon, I keep telling you. It doesn't matter what the cards look like, it matters how many pairs you get."
"But he's so... ugly!" Tigermoon insisted, certain of her logic.
There was a sudden commotion as the room as flecks of multicolored light appeared. Kanjis lit up everywhere -- red Virtue, orange Justice, green Wisdom, light blue Trust, indgo Life, deep green Piety, violet Serenity, dark red Obedience. Kayura's forehead lit up with her borrowed symbol of Loyalty. Tigermoon held up her hand in surprise, looking at the flickering aura of dark purple light around it.
Kaye touched her silvery-blue symbol as it lit up as well. "Oh, no," she whispered. "Guys, I think Mia's in deep trouble."
Chapter 8
"Cosa, for crying out loud, it was just an animal. You're overreacting."
He turned and glared at Shiree with a look that would have blistered paint. "Sparkles is not 'just' an animal, he's a pet! MY pet! And I am NOT overreacting!"
Shiree gave him a deadpan look as she sat down next to him. Even sitting, she had the appearance of coiled energy, like a spring ready to pop up. "Sparkles?" she repeated flatly. "And yes, you are over-reacting. Let the water alone. You're boiling those fish." With a savage scowl, Cosa took his hand out of the pond.
"You guys screwed up," Doste announced cheerfully. "So tell me, how exactly are you going to contain ten armor bearers, Lady Kayura and the Tigermoon brat in this little buffer zone? They'll rip the place apart." Doste paused, and added grudgingly, "At least you knew better than to pick up the tiger, too..."
Shiree pointed to Cosa, "Start thinking fast, my friend."
---
"I'll tear this place apart!"
"Kento, calm down, you're not going to get anywhere doing that!" Cye tackled his friend, and despite their size difference, brought him down. "Somebody help me here?" he pleaded.
The Ronins and Warlords were trapped inside the stone hallway that Tigermoon had visited. Weak tendrils of energy crackled along the ceiling. Pointlessly, Cale kicked a wall.
Obligingly, Kayura came to Cye's aid. She sat on Kento's back, like a couch. Crossing her booted legs, she looked around the hall. "Weird place," she commented.
Rowen opened his mouth. Sage shut it for him. "No comments about their interior decorator, Rowen. It was funny the first time, but it's kind of old now..."
"I've been here before," Tigermoon stated. She was sitting with her chin on her knees, her back against one of the stone walls. "Except, I had the staff with me then. And I don't now."
"Yeah, where is the staff, anyway?" Dais asked with a frown. Kaye looked around, startled. "Didn't Kayura have it?"
"No, I thought you did, Kaye."
"What would I be doing with your staff? Oh, no," Kaye said as she slapped her forehead. "We left it back at the house."
"Oops," Kayura said sheepishly. "Well, Mia and White Blaze will look after it, won't they?"
"They don't have any powers," Ryo reminded her impatiently. "Oh, man, if these creeps find out that we don't have the staff, they'll go after Mia."
Everybody winced at the thought. Not only was Mia relatively defenseless, who knows what would happen when their captors got their hands on the staff. "Let's pretend we do have it," Cale suggested haphazardly. Sekhmet slapped him upside the head. "Ow! What?"
"Aren't we a few centuries old for that, Cale?"
"No?"
Sekhmet sighed, rubbed his forehead, and went off to sit in a corner.
"Well, you guys can sit around and argue, but I'm going to try to get us out of here," Kento decided. He stood off from the main group and set his hands together.
"Armor of Hardrock, Dao Gi..."
A flash of orange light bounced off the walls and slammed him in the forehead. Kento fell backwards into Kaye's arms. "Oh, man, are you all right?" she asked him worriedly.
"I'm fine, but where's the armor?" he asked confusedly.
Kayura got up and started pacing the walls, rapping them with her gloved knuckle. She was wearing her old armor, which was light and easy to carry -- her trademark dark boots and leotard-like outfit. With a frown, she tried to call Anubis's subarmor to her. There was a crackle of yellow light as his symbol lit up on her forehead, but nothing else.
"We're blocked in," she said, nodding. "This is a sort of stasis field that prevents us from calling our armors or using our powers."
"Oh, it took you that long to find out?" Rowen asked sarcastically. "I mean, you could have done it before Kento ended up on the floor."
"Well, I notice you weren't sounding the place out, either," Dais shot back. "I have no idea how you Ronins ever beat us."
"Dumb luck," Cale offered.
Sage stood up, fists clenched. "Say that again, Cale..."
"Dumb luck?"
"Guys, stop it," Kaye shouted above the growing argument. "We're never going to get out of here if we kill each other off." Uneasily, everyone sat down again. Tigermoon had pressed herself against a wall when it looked like a fight was going to break out. She didn't know whose side she would have to take. Now, she moved closer to Kaye, who seemed sensibly neutral.
"Can you get out of here?" Kayura asked abruptly, turning to Tigermoon. The girl looked up and vanished. A second later, she reappeared and slammed against the wall as if she had been thrown there. Blinking groggily, she rubbed her head. "Uh... I don't think so."
----------------
"I don't think that hall will last much longer," Doste put in, wandering over to the other two, who were conversing quietly. "They'll break out of it soon."
Shiree held up an annoyed hand. "Don't interrupt us! The hall isn't invincible, but nothing's going to happen with THAT group. They're so much at odds that it's ridiculous. With any luck they'll all throttle each other, and we'll be free of them. Why don't you go concentrate on finding the staff, and we grownups will do the real work?" She said this with the air of an adult offering a child a game to distract them.
Doste's eyes narrowed. "Fine." The other two went back to whatever they had been talking about. "I'll just go do that," he added. The other two paid no attention. "Idiots," Doste muttered, and vanished.
----------------
Back at the house, Mia was still in a state of shock. It was only when Mia heard a faint jingle, like windchimes, that she snapped out of it. White Blaze roared in fury and charged towards the house. The door was shut, so the tiger leaped through a window, the glass shattering like water around his muscular frame.
The wild jangling of the rings on the Ancient's staff set off the ear-splitting din of crashing glass. White Blaze landed on the floor, his big pads cut and slashed from the broken glass. With a deep growl, he lunged into the hallway, where Kayura had left the staff. White Blaze grabbed the staff in his mouth and whirled about.
Doste stood there, smirking. "Nice kitty. Do you want to play fetch?"
White Blaze growled, a low and dangerous growl. The rings on the staff continued to ring a warning.
Mia ran up to the house, frantically trying to open the door. Doste snapped his fingers and the lock slid shut. Mia pounded on the door, but it was no use. Panting, she ran up to the broken window, put her palms on the sill, and hoisted herself inside.
She broke the rest of the glass on the way in. Doste turned at the sound and saw her kneeling on the floor, her knees cut and bleeding. Unsteadily, Mia got to her feet, with no idea what to do.
White Blaze lunged forward, knocking Doste over on the way. The tiger dropped the staff at Mia's feet and whirled to stand at her side, growling softly. Doste looked at them with a calculating look that sent shivers down Mia's spine.
Oh, man, Mia thought. I wish I had Kaye and the boys here. Well, I can be brave without them, can't I?
"You're just a boy," she said, more steadily than she felt. "What do you want?"
"That," he said casually, pointing at the staff.
White Blaze snarled and stalked forward. "Be right back," Doste said cheerfully, and vanished.
--------------------------
"Cosa, I need help," Doste announced as he interrupted their conversation again. "It's about an animal."
Shiree glared at him. "Look, we're really busy!"
Doste glared back at her. "Ninety-nine bottles of sake on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of sake, you take one down and you pass it around..."
Shiree clapped her hands over her ears. "All right, all right! Cosa, go with him!"
"A curse on that meddler," she spat when they'd gone.
-------------------------
Mia sank onto the floor, ignoring the fresh cuts she recieved from the glass. "I really can't deal with this," she told White Blaze. "And why do people keep breaking windows around here? I'm beginning to see a pattern."
The janglings of the rings warned her that she had another visitor. White Blaze pulled his lips back from his teeth and snarled, then looked puzzled. His defensive growl turned into a questioning noise.
The Ancient's staff was heavy, but Kaye had been teaching her a few moves with polearms. Nothing really fancy, just basic stances, strength, coordination, attack and defense. Mia got into a stance as two forms solidified this time. She spun the staff so the point end was leveled between her attackers.
"I bet I can guess what you two want."
---------------------------------
The Ronins and Warlords were at it again.
After sounding out the room and realizing that there was no ready escape, the opposite groups had chosen opposite sides of the hall, and were pointedly ignoring the others. The only ones who weren't were the three females, who were in the middle of the hall. Unexpectedly, Kaye had found a tiny souvenir pack of cards in her wallet, so they had a card game going. There really wasn't anything else they could do, when every time they tried a different way to break out, their attack hit them back with double force.
The women felt slightly bonded since the experience finding the staff and when Shiree had come in their window. And since none of the Ronins or Warlords felt like playing Go Fish, they had no other partners but each other anyway.
"Tigermoon. Do you have any sevens?" Kayura asked brightly. She was winning, having one pair more than Kaye and two pairs more than Tigermoon.
"Go fish," Tigermoon sighed dolefully. "Kaye, do you have any threes?"
Kaye shook her head, grinning. "Nope, sorry. Kayura, hand over the ace."
Kayura muttered something as she handed over the card.
"Thanks, Kayura. Can I have your king?"
Kayura handed it over grudgingly, as if parting with the card was causing her physical pain.
"Got any eights?" Kaye asked cheerfully.
"No, for the love of the Ancient! Let me alone already! Tigermoon, got any queens?"
"No, but you can have this king," Tigermoon offered helpfully. Kayura looked at it. "Um, thanks, but no thanks."
"Well, I don't want him, he's ugly."
Kaye sighed. "Look, Tigermoon, I keep telling you. It doesn't matter what the cards look like, it matters how many pairs you get."
"But he's so... ugly!" Tigermoon insisted, certain of her logic.
There was a sudden commotion as the room as flecks of multicolored light appeared. Kanjis lit up everywhere -- red Virtue, orange Justice, green Wisdom, light blue Trust, indgo Life, deep green Piety, violet Serenity, dark red Obedience. Kayura's forehead lit up with her borrowed symbol of Loyalty. Tigermoon held up her hand in surprise, looking at the flickering aura of dark purple light around it.
Kaye touched her silvery-blue symbol as it lit up as well. "Oh, no," she whispered. "Guys, I think Mia's in deep trouble."