Consequences of Capture

By Dixxy

Chapter One: Camping Trip

"Ah, this is a challenge I LIKE. Us vs. Mother Nature," said Rowen brightly as he took in a deep breath. He spread his arms open and spun around happily, laughing as he took in the wonders of the outside world. "Just look around us! Nothing but trees, animals, and fresh air! I love it! This is going to be a GREAT break from reality, right guys? Right?"

Cye shook head at the rather immature Warrior of Strata as he acted like someone half his age. "It's not really a huge challenge. We have over a week's worth of food with us and matches and other supplies. Our biggest challenge is going to be constructing our tents," he said, pointing at the large, nylon sacks Ryo and Kento were carrying.

"Yeah, but that can't be too hard," said Ryo, dropping his tent onto the ground. He brushed some hair out of his face and turned to Cye with a wide smile on his face. "Aw, that's gonna be nothing! We just read the directions and start over if they don't come out our way- how hard is that? We can defeat an Evil Dynasty. This can't be TOO hard! We are the Ronin Warriors. I refuse to be believe we can be beaten by a department store tent."

Kento dumped the contents of his tent pieces onto the ground and blinked. "Look at all these parts. . . bah! There's more parts here than there are leftover parts when my dad tries to put stuff together at Christmas! We'll NEVER figure out these directions!" He grunted and looked at Ryo. "Why couldn't we have just taken those snapping motion tents that just pop open?"

"Because what's the fun in that?" said Ryo.

Sage looked at the pieces on the ground, then at Kento and Cye (of whom he'd be bunking with). "Well. . . I guess we'd better get started," he said, bending down to the ground to starting sorting through the instructions and pieces. Hardrock and Torrent quickly followed suit, looking over Sage's shoulders as they, too, tried to get a feel for what they were doing.

Rowen patted Ryo on the back. "C'mon, between you, the leader, and me, the genius, we'll have it up faster than those three can say 'Rowen and Ryo are the greatest Ronin Warriors to ever live'," he joked. This earned him a confused look from Ryo and a raspberry from Kento.

"Oh yeah? Well there's more of us than there are of you!" Cye retorted.

Rowen laughed. "Yes! Yes! A challenge! A challenge! Come on, Ryo!"

~

Three hours later. . .

~

"Stupid piece of crap," mumbled Ryo, beginning to loose his temper with the very stubborn tent. Both "teams" of Ronins were having trouble with the "challenge" of putting up the tent. "You know what? I think Kento's right. We SHOULD'VE bought the automatic setup tents instead of these pieces of junk! Some assembly required my-"

"Yay!" said Cye enthusiastically. Wildfire and Strata looked over at the other team to see, much to their misery, that Halo, Torrent, and Hardrock had successfully been able to set up their tent. Sage nodded at the work with satisfaction while Kento did a victory dance that, as he had planned it, began to wear at Rowen and Ryo's nerves. Cye was clapping enthusiastically. "It's up! After only three hours of work, it's up!"
Kento paused his dance for a moment and smiled, running over to Cye and hefting the smallest and youngest Ronin over his shoulder. The red head yelped in surprise and looked down at Kento with a look of confusion. "Yup. We sure did. And now you're going for a swim after I throw you in the lake."

"What!?"

"You heard me."

"Kento, put me down!"

"I thought you liked water!"
"I DON'T LIKE BEING THROWN INTO THE BLOODY WATER!!!"

Ryo couldn't help but laugh at the two. It's nice to see that at least some things are getting back to normal- Kento and Cye goofing off is a very good sign. But how long is that going to last? The unofficial leader of the Ronin Warriors lowered his head and sighed as he remembered the reason for the vacation. Despite what it might've looked like, there was actually a very serious reason for it.

Over the past month, Rowen, Ryo, and Mia had noticed the three younger Ronins were suffering from emotional trauma and shock that must have come from their brief but frightening captivity in Talpa's domain. Naturally, none of them wanted the bearers of Halo, Torrent, and Hardrock to deal with such pain, so Rowen had suggested they take them camping to get their minds off of the trauma.

Rowen chuckled. "Hey Sage, could ya help me and Ryo out over here?" he asked.

Sage looked over at Ryo and Rowen, then nodded. "Of course," he said. The bearer of Halo made his way over to the site and slowly picked up the directions, scanning over them with his deep, violet eyes. "Well. . . what have you got so far?" he asked. Sheepishly, Rowen held up a tangled pile of nylon and metal poles. Sage blinked. "Well, I guess I have my work cut out for me. . ."

~

In just a little over a half an hour, their campsite was complete. The two tents were placed next to each other so the Ronins could access each other if need be. A circle of stone sat a few feet away for the campfire, a pile of cooking utensils and food not far off. Their backpacks were lined up against the trees in a neat pile, and a clothes line has been set up for their clothing.

And classically, the boys were at the lake enjoying the water au natural.

"I feel like an idiot," said Sage, refusing to come out of the bush he'd undressed in.

"C'mon, I DARE you," said Ryo, who was already in the water.

"But skinny dipping is NOT my idea of FUN!" said Sage.

"Chicken!" said Kento, who then began to flap his arms and make chicken sounds.

"No."
"Sage, the water's fine!" said Cye. He made ripples in the water with his hand, trying to emphasize his point. "It's nice and warm and relaxing. . . don't tell us that you expected to come out here and do nothing! We came out here to have some fun, and swimming counts as fun!"

"You're lavishing in this. It's your element. My element is light. I'd rather tan on the beach in my boxers than go swimming NAKED!" said Sage, looking and sounding desperate as he crossed his arms over his more personal parts. "It's undignified and wrong and immoral and-"

"Aw, c'mon, it's not like you're different. We all have the same stuff, it won't be a big deal," said Rowen, dunking his own head. He emerged several seconds later and shook her head, spraying water everywhere. "The doctors all told our mommies and daddies that we were boys, right?"

"Aw, what's a matter, Sage-y baby?" Kento teased, bending over slightly and pointing at the reluctant Halo as he laughed and taunted. "Too afwaid to come out and pway with the big boys, are ya? Well fine then- if you want to act like a big baby, go ahead! See if I care!"

Hardrock's taunting worked. And at that, well. "Kento, why I-" yelled Sage, getting angry. He darted out of the bush and ran after Hardrock. Kento laughed as he dove out of the way as Sage leapt into the water after him. Kento smirked and pointed at where Sage was. The blonde Ronin blushed and began to mumble very painful things that he wanted to do to Kento.

"Glad you finally decided to come in," said Rowen, looking at Sage brightly.

Cye blinked, looking around. This took the attention off of Sage long enough for the others to ask what Torrent was hearing. Cye had a worried look on his face as he looked at each of them. "Is it just me being paranoid, or do you guys get the feeling we're being, watched?"

"What do you mean- BIRD WATCHER! BIRD WATCHER, OVER THERE, WITH BINOCULARS! BIRD WATCHER!!!!" yelled Rowen, pointing at the bushes that lined one side of the lake. A pair of binoculars in the bushes disappeared as the laughter of a teenage girl rang behind them, crunching leaves and twigs joining in as well. All five Ronins turned bright red.

That girl saw me naked!

Nooo!!! I knew this was a bad idea!

Aw, just great!

I don't need this right now. . .

Heh, I wonder what her phone number is. . .

The leader of the Ronins reached for where the collar of his shirt would be had been wearing it, making a pulling and gulping action as he did so. "Um, maybe now would be a good time to quickly get dressed and get back to camp," said Ryo. The other Ronins nodded enthusiastically as they all darted out of the water and began to quickly look for their clothes.

~

Aside from the bird watcher incident, all went by rather well (though next time they went swimming they made sure to be wearing pants). The camping trip was a success. There was hiking along the trails of the forest, where the Ronins were eaten alive by insects and tanned by the bright sun. There were games of kickball and soccer instituted by Ryo, who'd brought along his lucky soccer ball. Then there was the roasting of marshmallows every night for S'mores, which would be a time for the Ronins to share stories and tales about themselves and their lives.

The last night of the trip was rather quiet compared to the normal, as they were all tired from their week of non-stop activity and it was time to start winding down to return to civilization. Ryo was bouncing his soccer ball off the top of his, Rowen was reading, Sage was sitting quietly with his back to a boulder, Kento was roasting a seven inch long row of marshmallows, and Cye was lying on his back and staring up at the stars.

"Well boys, I guess it's back to civilization tomorrow," said Ryo, dropping his soccer ball into his lap. He sighed dreamily, propping his elbow on his knee and his chin in his open palm. "This has been a GREAT week- we should do this more often. Just us and Mother Nature."

The British Ronin sighed happily, stretching slightly as he continued to look at the starlit backdrop they'd been given. "Can't we stay out here forever?" said Cye. He put his hands behind his head and pulled his knees up so his heels were touching his behind. "This has been fun."

"Yeah, but we have to go back sometime," said Kento. He stuck his tongue out. "Unfortunately for us, society has decided that in order to succeed in life we need to spend most of our young lives sitting in school being taught stuff that we'll never even USE in life unless we all decide to become teachers. I could care LESS about half the stuff they say we need to know- I've seen my dad run his business, and he doesn't use half of what they've us so far."

"Yeah, but they want us to be well-rounded adults," said Rowen.

"Well rounded my-"

Sage coughed, stopping Kento from cursing. "There are other things back home, too, such as our families. I don't know about you guys, but I haven't talked to my family since shortly after I left to fight the Dynasty over two months ago- I bet they're worried about me by now." His voice seemed almost disinterested and moody, though the group didn't seem to notice.

"Ooo, my dad's gonna kill me- he needs a call, too," Rowen said, wincing slightly.

Kento chuckled lightly, looking embarrassed as he glanced over towards Cye. "Ma's going to skin us alive. Saving the world or not saving the world, she's gonna be REAL mad when we give her that call. I can just hear her lecture now- Cye and I will have her voice ringing in our heads for weeks to come."

Ryo laughed. "Then we should all get some sleep so you guys can call your folks before I'm the only Ronin Warrior left," he said lightly. Tucking his soccer ball under his arm, Ryo stood up and walked towards his tent. "G'night, guys- see you all in the morning."

Sage yawned. "I'll agree to that."

"Sleep. . ." Rowen groggily agreed, following Ryo drunkenly to their tent.

Cye slowly stood up, rubbing his eyes. "See you in the morning," he said, crawling to his tent. He turned his head to Kento, who was looking forlornly between his marshmallows and the tent. "Kento. . . finish those up and then get to bed- we aren't fighting you AND Rowen come tomorrow morning."

"Wanna bet?" Ryo cracked.

"Hey!" Kento snapped. "You guys act like food's the only thing on my mind!"

Sage snorted. "Kento, it would take something REALLY amazing to replace food in your heart," he said. The Chinese Ronin growled dangerously at Sage, threatening to endanger the blonde with excruciatingly painful maneuvers he'd only used on Dynasty soldiers. Still, Sage only smirked wisely and ducked into the tent he was sharing with Cye and the one he was agitating.

"Good night, everyone- see you in the morning!" Rowen said cheerfully.

That would not happen. . .

~

Dun-dun-duuunnnn!!!!!

Marlene: Aw, don't sweat it. Life happens. Well, that would be a bit of a hard story to finish, ya know? I'm glad you liked the conclusion of DC, WD- probably my favorite story in the whole series. For me, the difficulty is every day life and choosing between ideas. THAT is a bitch. Okay.

Harry: Greetings to you, too! Yeah, this one needed work. Badly. But even this original draft wasn't as bad as the FIRST draft of the Senshi series- that just plain sucked. I want to write Yu-Gi-Oh!, but I have no ideas for that series. It would probably be Joey or Yami centric with maybe a little of the under appreciated Tristan thrown in for good measure. I'll let you know if I do.

Yin-Yang: Yeah, I use nightmares a lot, those these nightmares aren't as bad as the ones I gave to Glenn from Chrono Cross. Not by a LONG shot! I was plain cruel to him with those nightmares (think revenge hungry ghost influence). Ouch, you lost your hard drive? Ooo. . . I hope you work everything out.

Osaku: Hiya! How's it going (I met Osaku through school, as he mentions in his review)? No, this isn't exactly a sequel- it's the first part of a longer series, but can be read after the second book- they're interchangeable. Gee, thanks Osaku. Yeah, I saw RW during the summer of 95 when it first came to the states- it took me a while to get used to the names again, too. Slacking off? Maybe, I dunno. You didn't think I could right this well, Osaku? LOL! I take no offense at all! You MUST make my top ten list? Well, at least you're motivated ^_^. My flow is one of my stronger points, yes- I just try to make sense of the ideas that show up in my head and ta-da! New story.

~Dixxy