Disclaimer: See first chapter.
Warnings: nothin
A/N: Here we are at chapter two! Um…it's boring. Very boring. I mean, I wrote it myself, and I say it's boring. Stupid chapter. Don't worry, it gets better. I think. I haven't read it in a couple months though, so…. -_- Um. I covered pretty much everything I needed to last chapter, so let's just get straight into it. Onwards!
Chapter Two: In Which They Meet the Bad Guys
"So you're saying that you were in this Youjakai place, when this tornado appeared, picked you all up, and dumped you into that forest?" Cale asked, rather effectively summing up the babble from the Masho. "And you can't speak English well," he continued to Naaza, who nodded. "Okay. That was really irrelevant. At least you can speak English at all.
"Anyway, I'm assuming we're in the Dynasty, seeing as no weird tornado-thing carried us anywhere."
"Then what were you in the forest for?" Rajura asked Dais curiously.
"We were playing Frisbee™," Dais replied, glaring furiously at Cale. "Cale threw it past me, and then dumb and dumber sent me to retrieve it."
Dais' glare intensified, causing Cale to wince. Sekhmet giggled furiously until Cale smacked him in the back of his head, at which point he decided it would be better for his health if he shut up. He glared at Cale for a second, rubbing his head, before realizing Cale was ignoring him as usual. He pouted.
"Anyway," Rajura said, gaining the attention of everyone, "who do you suppose might have done this?"
"And why?" Naaza added.
"That's just the problem—we can't figure it out. I thought we'd gotten rid of all the would-be emperors in the Dynasty," Dais replied with a sigh. "Unless Talpa somehow managed to return."
"But Wildfire killed him," Cale pointed out.
"Who are Talpa and Wildfire?" Anubisu asked suddenly, confusion etched on his face.
"Talpa's the former floating head," Sekhmet announced with another giggle. "And Wildfire's the red one."
"Arago and Rekka no Ryou(1)," Rajura muttered.
"At least Wildfire doesn't really do the name game," Sekhmet said thoughtfully. "We can't be very confused on that point."
"Unless we see both of them together," Anubisu grumbled. "…Perhaps it would be best if we gave each other their names and titles."
"You start. I'm still sick of the Ronins," Dais muttered in return.
"Well, we don't call them Ronins," Anubisu began, "We call them the Samurai Troopers. The leader is Sanada Ryou, bearer of Rekka and Kikotei. Kikotei is the white armor. His tiger is Byakuen. Date Seiji bears Korin, the green armor. Mori Shin bears Suiko, the light blue armor. Shuu Rei Fuan bears Kongo, the orange armor. Hashiba Touma bears Tenku, the dark blue armor.
"As for us, when under the control of Arago, I was called the Yami Masho, Naaza was the Doku Masho, Rajura was the Gen Masho, and Kayura was called the Demon Priestess(2)." Anubisu paused suddenly, taking a deep breath. "Shuten Doji was the Oni Masho, fallen when freeing Kayura.
"The gray tiger that appears when Rekka bears Kikotei is Kokuen'Oh. The monk was Kaosu; his staff is the Shakujo. The two mortals that followed the Troopers around were Yamano Jun and Yagju Nasuti.
"Your turn."
"Er…," was all Dais could come up with.
"I'll do it," Sekhmet said suddenly with a roll of his eyes. "In your order. Sanada Ryo bears Wildfire and Inferno. His tiger is White Blaze. The green one is Date Sage of Halo. The light blue one is Mouri Cye of Torrent. The orange one is Rei Fuan Kento of Hardrock. The dark blue one is Hashiba Rowen of Strata. Under Talpa, Cale was the Warlord of Corruption, I was the Warlod of Venom, Dais was the Warlord of Illusion, and Kayura didn't really have a title. The man you call Shuten was Anubis, the Warlord of Cruelty. The other tiger was Black Blaze. The monk was the Ancient one, but there was no special name for his staff. The boy was Yamano Yuli, and the girl was Coji Mia."(3)
"How did you remember the order of that?" Cale asked Sekhmet in amazement.
"Good memory," Sekhmet shrugged as if it wasn't important. "But maybe we should return to the castle? Kayura will want to hear of this."
"That would be a good idea," Rajura agree, standing. "Our Kayura may be there as well."
"I am sure she is," a disembodied voice stated. "But I can guarantee that you won't be there."
Then ten armored people appeared before them, each one carrying a struggling form. It took the ex-Masho and ex-Warlords only seconds to realize that the struggling forms were nine of the combined Ronins and Troopers, each wearing their subarmor. It was either Strata or Tenku that was missing, and a black-haired girl seemed to have taken his place. She was wearing some sort of silver armor, an empty scabbard hanging on either side of her waist.
"Who are you?" Cale snapped at the people, growling. It seemed almost as if he had become the leader of them all. "Let them go!"
The man holding the girl stepped forward. "We," he said, "are the soon-to-be rules of the Dynasty and Youjakai. I am Tobraea, bearer of the armor of Uranus."
He made a slight, mocking bow as best he could while holding the girl. A man in identical armor laughed, bowing as well.
"The same person," Sekhmet muttered as if it wasn't obvious. "Even the name."
"Shut up, Sek," Dais ordered as a pair of people in turquoise armors bowed as well.
"Mizuchaki, bearers of Neptune."
He next pair had light gray armors.
"Tsukishimo, bearers of Saturn."
Then there was a pair in dark gray armor.
"Ashimusoka of Pluto."
And the final two in brown—
"Yokeuchi of Jupiter."
Sekhmet stared at the two bearers of Jupiter, surprised. Their voices were definitely female, yet they were holding onto Hardrock and Kongo with seemingly no trouble.
"We have a little proposition to make," Tobraea began once the introductions were completed. "Give us control of both the Dynasty and the Youjakai, and these children, with the exception of this girl, will be returned to their homes. Don't, and we will let them live…elsewhere."
Naaza growled, taking a step forward threateningly before being stopped by Sekhmet, and Dais looked about to snap a reply back, but never got the chance.
"Let Denice go!"
Everyone looked in the direction the voice had come from. A white-winged girl was floating in midair, a bronze bow knocked in the direction of Tobraea. Cale absently wondered what her arrow could do against the man's mystical armor.
"Come to save your other half?" the man yelled to her. "I will not let her go this time!"
Then the girl let her arrow fly forward, piercing Tobraea's armor at his shoulder. With a surprised gasp, he dropped the one girl he was holding. She stumbled forward until Sekhmet suddenly jumped forward to help her.
"You answer!" Tobraea snapped, facing them once again.
"We will die before we give you either," Cale growled back.
"Then they will go in our dungeons!" Tobraea gestured to the others, and they all disappeared.
"Here, let me help you with that," Sekhmet muttered, turning to the girl Tobraea had been holding and pulling of her gag.
"Thanks," she muttered. "My hands are tied, though. Do you think you could…?"
"Sure," Sekhmet shrugged, spinning her around before fumbling with the knot.
The girl nodded her thanks and then walked over to the other girl, who had just landed in front of Cale. The two whispered to each other for a minute before the un-winged girl suddenly sprouted a pair of feathery black wings and took off.
"Where's she going?" Sekhmet asked.
"To get her katanas and the other Ronin," the white-winged girl replied. "I believe he was left at the ruins of our village, barely alive. Those men you just met believe he's dead."
"So Strata—" Dais began, alarmed, but was cut off.
"No. He will live. But we must go to your castle, as that is where he will be taken, and that is where I must heal him. I believe you can teleport there?"
"We can," Cale agreed. "We will meet you there?"
"Yes. I will fly as fast as I can." So saying, she immediately spread her wings and took off.
The Masho and Warlords shared bemused glances before blinking out of existence.
A/N: Wow. This chapter sucked. *laughs* Well, that is to say, it's boring. As hell. Even meeting Tobreae was boring. Damn, this is pathetic. ^-^ Ah…yes. Sekhmet lovers? Don't worry. I love Sekhy too. ^-^ Actually, I love them all, but anyway. He'll be better later in the fic. Really. I mean it. …I think.
Oh. An amusing note. Sometimes, I can be a real idiot. -_- After the first time I wrote Tobreae's name, I started spelling it Todreae instead. Yes, I've got problems. But only sometimes. (And, Nell, since I know you're reading this, DON'T SAY IT!)
Last thing. The names of the bad guys here…I came up with them. Yes, I know they're weird. Anyway. I…based them off of Japanese words (at least, as far as I can tell, I did…you can only trust an on-line dictionary so much), two for each person. However, I, being the occasional idiot I am, didn't put down which words I used, so now I forget. -_-;
(1) For simplicity. Ryo from the Troopers will have a u at the end of his name, to tell the two of them apart. It's either that or…well…I don't know. Something.
(2) Um…I'm not exactly sure if she was called that. ^^; But it sounds neat.
(3) Has anyone else fallen asleep yet? *raises hand* Oh, and another note…I did the last names first, the Japanese way. Why? Because Anubisu started, and, being Japanese, he did it the Japanese way. Make sense? Good. I knew you were smarter than I'm pretending you are. ^-^ Oh, yes, and you'll have noticed I spelled Cye/Shin's last name two different ways. For some reason, I tend to spell Shin's name "Mori" but Cye's name "Mouri." *shrugs* Don't ask me why, I don't really know.
Thanks to:
Nell-…Shut up. That one chapter of STT doesn't count for anything.
Harry2- B-c: Thanks. ^-^ Oh, and don't worry, I'm sure we won't kill each other. We're the bestest best friends ever! *huggles Bailey-chan* Bailey-chan: o.O *pushes QS off her chair* QS: Ow! Hey! *glares at Bailey-chan* B-c: *looks innocent* QS: …Meh. Okay, we won't kill each other, but don't be surprised if I end up in the hospital or something. -_-;
Mark- It gets better…but thanks for reviewing! ^-^ *huggles*