AUTHOR'S NOTE: OH YES, THE 9TH RE-EDITED INSTALMENT OF THE FIC IN WHICH YOU
ARE CURRENTLY READING IS COMPLETE. SO DO ENJOY. WITH SOME COFFEE AND
CHOCOLATE COOKIES. WELL, MAYBE NOT THE COFFEE, BUT THE COOKIES ANYWAY.
Disclaimer: We, being lagomorph and Neo, do not own Ronin Warriors. Seriously. Even ask my mom. One more thing. We have nothing against the gay community. Really. We're just kidding around, so don't get offended.
**************************************************************************** **********
NEVER get onto a plane unless you know EXACTLY where you're going
Chapter 9
Dais tossed five boxes of hair coloring stuff into the sink quickly, then spun around to slam the bathroom door shut. The warlords were issued a coffee break, so Dais took the liberty of trying to once again be the prettiest of all. Seeing Wildfire with blonde hair, he decided to dye his hair black and be the sexiest bishounen out there. Before the hair swapping fiasco, he was sure he was the best looking out of everyone, with maaaayybe the exception of Sage...naaahhh.
"I'll show you, Wildfire...NO ONE tries to out beautify ME," Dais said while trying to decide which shade to go with. Picking "Velvet Dark", he threw the other four in wastebasket and dumped the box onto the counter. Dais took off his bathing kimono (mmmmm...) and proceeded to pour some goop in his hair.
~15 minutes later~
Dais stepped out of the shower to inspect his hopefully new yet wonderful hair. Seeing nothing in the mirror except mist, he whipped his hand over the mirror, revealing his face...and grey-blue hair... "HOLY SHIT!! THE BOX SAID 'VELVET DARK', NOT 'GRANNY LELA BLUE!'" he screamed at his reflection.
Just when the gods of fortune farted down upon him, Talpa's annoying and unnecessarily loud voice erupted through the area. "Warlords! Meeting time! Badamon brought Cranberry Walnut cookies!"
"FUUUUUCCCKKK!!" Dais scrambled all of the hair dying things together and dumped them in the trashcan next to the four other colors of hair dyes. Not really wanting the others to see his hair disaster, he looked around the bathroom for help. Yeah that worked.
~~Neo: Well you ARE the warlord of illusion...~~
Dais slapped himself on the forehead and snapped his fingers. A nice white shade returned to his hair and giving a smile to the mirror, Dais donned his subarmor and went to the throne room.
Talpa sat in his nice comfy throne as he waited for the rest of warlords to show up. If Dais and Cale weren't there within five seconds, he'd make them work out that horrible knot in his back. Just then, the two said warlords came through the door. Damn.
Dais and Cale formed their ranks in front of a tired Sekkie and a bored as hell Anubis rubbing the side of his nose.
Talpa immediately raised his head. "Dais. Why do you have an illusion on yourself?" he asked authoritatively.
Cyclops tensed as Anubis crossed his arms. "Like that time you had that really big pimple?" he said smiling while the others snickered.
With a flick of Talpa's hand, the illusion had vanished, leaving Dais standing there with his blue hair. The other three warlords gazed at him for a moment before completely roaring with laughter. Cale, standing next to Dais, put his arm over his stomach. "Y-Your hair looks :giggle: like my GRANDMA'S! GWAHAHAHAAH--"
:WHACK:
The unconscious Cale's forehead now had a nice imprint of Dais' armored fist. He glared at the other two, shutting them up quite well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------
"Are we there yet?" Amariie yawned, as she sat up from her sprawled sleeping position across the back seat. Sage just shook his head. This was the 157th (or was it 158th?) time she had said that and it was beginning to piss him off. They both knew the only way to shut her up was to let her drive...but that would be allowed when hell froze over. Bored as hell, she smushed her face against the window and peered out into the gloomy mountainous landscape. Suddenly a shadowy thing raced by. Then another. Then another.
"Uhh Sage...." she began.
"NO WE ARE NOT THERE YET! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" he said in a very loud voice (because you scream when you loose your cool, and as you know, Sagey NEVER looses his cool ^_~ ).
"Whatever jackass," she mumbled and swished around in her purse looking for her discman, "That whoreface! She took my discman! GRRR!"
"Ahhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww"
"Shut up Sage."
Sage gave a glance in the rearview mirror. "Huh? I didn't say anything."
"Ahhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww"
"What the....SHEEIT!!" Amariie shrieked, turning to see the car was surrounded by shadowy figures with gleaming eyes. Putting the rather large pieced, kindergarten style puzzle together, she deduced from the howling noise and general shape that these must be wolves. Oh good. A huge pack had slowly been enclosing around the moving car, and now a huge mess of them had blocked the road. Even better. Trying to brace himself, Sage swerved the car and began skidding across the badly paved road, then flew right into a ditch. A few seconds later he opened his eyes. Well he didn't really want to but was forced to by the major headrush he was getting. He noticed he was on his side yet still sitting in the seat upright. Then he realized the car was on its side.
Suddenly becoming all warrior-like, he yelled at Amariie, "Amariie?! Are you ok?" Sage tried to twist in his seat but the annoying seat belt locked him in place. After a few tugs he got flat out pissed. "FUCKING SAFETY DEVICE! THEY CAN ALL GO TO HEL--HECK!"
Amariie slowly opened her eyes to find herself crunched low in the back seat. "What the fucking hell did you do this time, Sagey? I told you, you should let me drive but noooooooooooooo 'Mr. I'm A Better Driver' said no. I think this is evidence that I was right."
"Amariie?" Sage said lowly.
"Yup."
"Shut up."
"Screw you!"
Sage then he used his super duper strength and promptly hauled himself out of the crashed car. He leapt down onto the soft dirt and turned to get Amariie, who was leaning half-way out of the empty window trying to get herself out while still desperately clenching her purse. "Saaaaaage! Get me outta heeeeeeeere!" she whined. Sage took a quick look around to see all of the wolves mysteriously gone. Thinking they were safe for now, he walked over to the hunk of metal formerly know as a car and grabbed Amariie's outstretched hand. With a grunt, he yanked Amariie out of the car and both fell ungracefully on top of one another.
Amariie scrunched her eyebrows as she opened her eyes to find a much too happy Sage on top of her. She raised an eyebrow slowly as Sage's grin grew wider. She finally got the courage to speak.
"Uhh...Sage?"
"Mmmmyes?" he replied smoothly.
"Get off."
"Mmmmno."
"Mmmmyes you ass, get off."
"I'm quite happy where I am now."
"I. Do. Not. Care. Get. Off. Now. Or. My. Purse. Will. Find. Its. Place. Up. Your. Unfortunate. Assholio." Sage just merely grinned lecherously at her. After a few seconds, Amariie's face turned to questioning. "How did you end up falling on me?"
He chuckled a bit. "Not the first time I've done it, you know."
"You pervert. Get off, I think I'm laying on a stick."
He winked at her and nonchalantly replied, "That's not a stick, darling."
Amariie then promptly freaked out. "GET OFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF YOU PEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRVERRRRRRRRT!"
::SMACK::
A few minutes later when the beatings ((oh VERY bad pun!!)) stopped and Amariie managed to wriggle free, she gave him a final swift kick to the ribs. Sage groaned in pain...he wasn't used to this kinda treatment.
"Oh get up," she huffed, quite exasperated at his intense display of chauvinism, "don't we have go find Blimpo?"
"Kento?"
"Whatever."
A small distance from the wreck, they found a beaten hiking trail winding upwards. Amariie despaired once more. "I don't believe this! I am actually going to have to get some EXERCISE?!"
Sage grinned, "I can carry you if you want."
"...walking doesn't seem so bad after all," she murmured quickly, starting to do something that could resemble jogging (do remember she is still wearing heels) right past the pig. Sage followed and they continued up for about a half hour, until the ground started to get really stony and the trees wore down to scraggly bushes. It also started to get chilly. Really, really chilly. They came back to the road near the summit and observed the strange giant round rock. It had what looked like to Amariie as banners and little tassels draped around it.
Amariie held her arms close to her to keep herself warm. "Well, Ronin Warrior guy, now what?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We free Kento obviously," he replied, just as cocky.
"How?"
He turned to face her, an amusing expression forming. "Uhh split the rock open?"
"..won't you kill Esso if you do that?"
"..you mean Kento?"
"Whatever!"
At a loss for words, Sage shrugged and did his lil transformation thingy into his green armour. Poising his no-datchi in front of him, he shouted, "Thunder Bolt Cut!" and a light blue ball of energy blasted towards the rock. Once the light die down, it showed that there wasn't even a dent to show for it.
As if on cue, the howling started up again, but this time accompanied by a rather high pitched girly laughter. "Uh oh..." Sage groaned, eyes wildly flitting around, searching for the voice. But all he could see was a newly formed snowstorm. White flakes drifted around rapidly, shielding his view. He took a quick look at Amariie to be sure she was still beside him...but she wasn't. His eyes widened as he spun his vision all around him, trying to see through the blizzard. In fact, he couldn't even see the stone anymore. All he could hear was a cackling laughter filling his ears.
"LET ME GO YOU PRICK!" screamed the blonde female. Just before the sudden snow hit, a large arm snatched her up like a baby and she was hauled onto the man's shoulder. Struggling was useless for Amariie. Cause, well it's Amariie. Every time she'd fight, she'd hear a deep chuckle.
"My, my, aren't you the fiesty one," said the strained voice as they ascended to a high cliff. Amariie tried to yell for Sage but she couldn't see his bright green armor through the snow. Sage wandered aimlessly, angered to an extreme level. No make that pissed off. The voice and Amariie had disappeared and now even though the snow had died down, his comrade was nowhere in sight.
"DAMMIT YOU :BEEP: ING WHOOOOORE! WHERE THE ::BEEEEEEEEEEP: DID YOU :BEEEEEEEP: ING RUN OFF TO??" Sage couldn't see anything in all directions, so he decided to walk towards what he thought the best way. He stumbled around a bit through the knee-high soft snow until he came upon some shelter in what looked like an abandoned den. Feeling a strangely calm feeling rising in him, he sat down under the ledge and closed his eyes.
"Halo.." a soothing voice rang in his head. "To help your friends, find your inner strength, unite your mind, body and soul... and drink some herbal tea."
"How can I do that? Where can I find some herbal tea? What kind of herbal tea? Please tell me," Sage begged, but there was no answer.
Ginseng...
Uh sorry, trouble with the translating...
Wisdom... He felt a pattern etched on his forehead. Opening his eyes he could detect a faint green gleam coming from it. The light bathed the walls of the cavern. He looked around and saw it was a small shallow cave, and opposite from the side he came through was another opening. It overlooked a noisy waterfall, running down a cleft cut in the side of the mountain.
"AAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!"
A shrill scream bolted him back in reality. "Come out, come out where ever you are, Sage of the Halo," a voice taunted. It wasn't the globby voice of Sekhmet, the strange purr of Dais, or the crazed tone of Anubis, so it had to be...
Purely from process of elimination, Sage cried, "Cale, Warlord of Corruption!" and hopped to his feet. He jogged over to the waterfall side and pressed against the side of the cave, staying out of sight from unfriendly eyes. A flash of pink caught his attention. He saw Amariie, securely bound by a chain, which was firmly fastened to a rock outcrop (and MAN was she hollering). She was being held in the air in front of Cale.
The Warlord burst into wicked laughter. "If you don't bring your skulking self out of your hiding place Halo, your precious little friend will die!"
"Don't worry about me, Sa.." Amariie's pleas were cut short as Cale pushed her off the rock face. A small yelp came from her before the chain cut in her side and stopped her fall. She hung in the middle of the waterfall, managing once in a while to kick off the back of the mountain wall so she could gasp for a breath of air. "Save Kento! You mus.."
Psycho Cale looked around a bit and then gave a loud laugh. "Fine then! Freeze with her in a frozen hell!"
Summoning his dark powers, the air became painfully cold and the landscape was covered with ice. The wildlife froze solid and the trees crystallized. Finally, the icy death passed up the water and it turned as to solid glass. Before she could get one last breath, she was caught in the process and remained staring wide-eyed outwards, an expression of fear on her lips. Sage was not spared. He had remained shocked from seeing his female companion turn into a popsicle when he felt the cold tingling climb up his legs. He clenched his eyes shut. "No! Amariie, Kento... I won't let this happen.... grrr Cale!" he growled, anger boiling inside of him. At the last second, a desperate rush of power flowed visible green through his subarmour. "Armour of Halo, DAO CHI!"
With a newly discovered strength, he leapt out of the cave and climbed harshly up towards the cliff. And we aren't kidding when we say HARSHLY. Like, poor Sagey has never climbed an icy cliff before, so naturally he falls down a few times, hurts his bottom and scrapes up the limbs (even though he is wearing protective mystical armour, but lets ignore that for a sec okies?). Come on people, just use your imagination.... but not too much, this is rated PG-13. Anywho, he found Cale standing casually, the rusted chain holding Amariie tied around a small boulder. Sage unsheathed his no dachi in an instant and was ready to attack. Cale slowly raised his sword until it was eye-level to Sage. As the two stood there waiting for the other to move, the background music began to pick up. Trumpets were blaring, violin was going nuts and the bass was thumping in their earlobes. The Gregorian chant reached its peak as the green warrior narrowed his eyes angrily and with a loud growl, he slashed his long sword at Cale. He was sure that the steel had pierced his enemy, but it had only dug itself in snow. What a fucker. Honestly. With no warning or sound, Cale smashed his fist against Sage's backside; how the warrior of darkness managed to appear behind him, Sage didn't know. "Come, come, Sage. Where is this powerful soldier I heard of? All I see is a small boy," Cale whispered tauntingly. Lips curving into a smile, he continued, "not that I'm complaining."
Sage's face went sour and was about to mutter 'pedophile' when a deep booming laughter settled down upon them, drowning out the orchestra and ruining the mood. Not that there was much of one anyways.
"Cale," Talpa began, trying to contain his laughter, "I knew it."
Cale's eyes went wide. "S-Sire, what do you mean?! I was winning against Halo!"
Now reduced to snickering, Talpa replied, "That's not what I meant. We all knew you were gay."
"WHAT?!" Cale exploded. "WHO TOLD YOU THAT?! I... I mean, I was just KIDDING when I said that to Halo!"
"Puh-lease, Dais read it on your livejournal page."
"Damn him! Yeah well ... he wears silk panties to bed!" Cale roared, face flushed.
"And one would wonder how you would know that..."
"ARRGH!"
Having given in to the temptation of openly mocking Cale once more, Talpa's presence retreated to wherever the hell it came from and Cale (still quite flushed) turned his attention to Sage.
Sage, shifting uncomfortably during the conversation and now feeling quite ill at ease, thought it best to push the nightmarish thoughts of what Cale could accomplish. He was the warlord of DARKNESS, and they were alone... well nearly alone in a remote location, and Sage was quite the pretty boy, he so adamantly thought. Anyways, this fight needed to go on, for Kento's and Amariie's sake (yes, even though her death would be well received, she is still a main character and can't die AT LEAST until the 4th last episode *Amariie: HEY!* errm just kidding). Essentially, Sage tried to ignore him, but it wasn't working well. A cold whip of wind made him turn his head towards the edge of a wide river that he never noticed they were by. Amariie. She was still entrapped in that waterfall of ice. She could be dead by now. She could...
:WHAM:
Sage opened his eyes to see...well white. The cold harshness of the earth bit the dry skin on his face. He would need to get a face mask done when he was back home. He had barely taken a breath of air when he felt his leg being nearly ripped from its socket. Cale had grabbed his ankle and swung him into a rather large, unfriendly boulder. Sage knew he was getting his ass handed to him (or so he hoped that was all which was going to happen to his ass) so he did the only thing Sage could do. He ran.
Cale laughed at this. "So the mighty Warrior of Light runs before me! How delightful!" Putting a cork in his gloating, he remembered his main objective. Kill Hardrock. Cale walked down a slope a bit until he came upon the large stone. Poising his sword towards the tasseled boulder, he hurled it with all his might. The sword jabbed into the rock like a hot knife through butter, creeping inwards towards the sleeping Ronin. Meanwhile, Sage took the opportunity to be the knight in shining.. erm.. green armour and save the girl. Making his way back to the cave, he concentrated on the warm power flow his armour supplied him with.
Ginseng.
Dammit, sorry again.
Wisdom.
Drinking in his newfound strength (sorry! I'll try to stop now), he threw himself across the gap over to where Amariie hung like a rag doll. Well, a cross between a popsicle and a ragdoll. Or maybe a rag doll if you soaked it with the hose and left it outside in the winter and it got all frozen and the hair all crunchy... ok moving along. In one quick motion he smashed the ice along with her bonds. Using his power to defrost her ((don't you wish you had that when trying to cook that chicken last night, ne?)) he rebounded back to the safety of the cave.
Placing her gently on the ground, he turned his attention back to more pressing (or once again hoped it wouldn't be) matters. Sage noted his prey and charged, seeing he was unarmed. Cale blocked him with a clawed fist and poised to slash his face, but Sage called his faceplate in the nick of time.
Bringing his sword forcefully down upon the Warlord's head, Sage managed to break away from the duel and leap backwards to higher ground. Before you can say, "I love apple pie with triple brownie fudge ice cream, and maybe some caramel sauce on top," Sage raised his weapon and gathered his energy. Cale dashed towards Kento, bending all his own power to speeding up the sword in the stone. He was too late though.
"THUNDER BOLT CUT!"
Instead of the lightning ball that his previous attack was, the energy was contained in Sage's sword, and as he flew towards his opponent, his sword unleashed the potent wave of light into the stone. See, told ya ginseng tea was full of energy. This catalyzed the instant explosion of the boulder, flinging Cale's sword and Kento vertically. Overwhelmed with raw pain the two Warriors seemed to emit from their mere presence, Cale shrieked before disappearing in the mixed green and orange lights. Sage sighed, men just weren't his thing.
Kento landed on the shattered remains of his resting place and stretched his burly arms outwards, recalling his faceplate and sending Sage a grin. "Man, why'd ya wake me? I was having the best dream, he mused, the silly grin spreading.
Sage leaned nonchalantly back on a rock and smirked. "Ha. You sleep too much."
With that Kento walked over and gave Sage a hard whack on the back, then started down the beaten path.
"Kento hang on," Sage called, suddenly remembering something.
Kento stopped and turned his head, "Wut?"
"I left Amariie back at the cave..."
Kento raised both eyebrows. "So?"
Sage sighed, "Hang on while I go back and get her."
The orange man slumped his shoulders in pre-emptive defeat, "Do you have to?"
"Are you kidding me? Rain would pan fry me if I left her here," Sage muttered, almost at the cave entrance.
"..good point."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- With luck, the tourist station equipped with a car rental was not far off, and furthermore, Amariie brought her wallet. "I'll drive!" Amariie happily called out, skipping towards the purple minivan. She didn't want it, of course, but Sage insisted on it because of the large seating capacity.
"I think not," Sage countered, slipping in the drivers seat before her.
"Jackass."
The car started up and they were off.
Kento smirked and sipped at his hot chocolate he got at an empty gas station. "That Warlord couldn't have beaten me. They don't call me Esso for nothing!"
"Umm... don't you mean Kento?" Sage asked, giving a glance behind him to Kento in the backseat.
"Oh yeah... meh, close enough. They both got the e and o in them," Kento trailed off sheepishly, passing the mug of hot chocolate up to Amariie, only to have it slip from her hands and scald Kento's foot.
"WAAAIIII!!!!!"
So after another ten minutes of cleaning up, the trio were off to meet up with Ryo, Rain, and Cye. Hopefully.
Meanwhile, deep in the dark recesses of the Dynasty, Talpa was in the bathroom. Doing, well we know what. As he was washing his hands (gotta be sanitary), he happened to look into the trashcan to see Dais' discarded hair color boxes.
"Oohhh! 'Crimson Sunset'!" he giggled and picked up the box. Turning it on its back, Talpa read the directions and opened the box.
DUN DUN DUUUUUUNN!! DUN DUN DUN DUN DAAAAA DU-
:THWACK:
...K I'm done...
Disclaimer: We, being lagomorph and Neo, do not own Ronin Warriors. Seriously. Even ask my mom. One more thing. We have nothing against the gay community. Really. We're just kidding around, so don't get offended.
**************************************************************************** **********
NEVER get onto a plane unless you know EXACTLY where you're going
Chapter 9
Dais tossed five boxes of hair coloring stuff into the sink quickly, then spun around to slam the bathroom door shut. The warlords were issued a coffee break, so Dais took the liberty of trying to once again be the prettiest of all. Seeing Wildfire with blonde hair, he decided to dye his hair black and be the sexiest bishounen out there. Before the hair swapping fiasco, he was sure he was the best looking out of everyone, with maaaayybe the exception of Sage...naaahhh.
"I'll show you, Wildfire...NO ONE tries to out beautify ME," Dais said while trying to decide which shade to go with. Picking "Velvet Dark", he threw the other four in wastebasket and dumped the box onto the counter. Dais took off his bathing kimono (mmmmm...) and proceeded to pour some goop in his hair.
~15 minutes later~
Dais stepped out of the shower to inspect his hopefully new yet wonderful hair. Seeing nothing in the mirror except mist, he whipped his hand over the mirror, revealing his face...and grey-blue hair... "HOLY SHIT!! THE BOX SAID 'VELVET DARK', NOT 'GRANNY LELA BLUE!'" he screamed at his reflection.
Just when the gods of fortune farted down upon him, Talpa's annoying and unnecessarily loud voice erupted through the area. "Warlords! Meeting time! Badamon brought Cranberry Walnut cookies!"
"FUUUUUCCCKKK!!" Dais scrambled all of the hair dying things together and dumped them in the trashcan next to the four other colors of hair dyes. Not really wanting the others to see his hair disaster, he looked around the bathroom for help. Yeah that worked.
~~Neo: Well you ARE the warlord of illusion...~~
Dais slapped himself on the forehead and snapped his fingers. A nice white shade returned to his hair and giving a smile to the mirror, Dais donned his subarmor and went to the throne room.
Talpa sat in his nice comfy throne as he waited for the rest of warlords to show up. If Dais and Cale weren't there within five seconds, he'd make them work out that horrible knot in his back. Just then, the two said warlords came through the door. Damn.
Dais and Cale formed their ranks in front of a tired Sekkie and a bored as hell Anubis rubbing the side of his nose.
Talpa immediately raised his head. "Dais. Why do you have an illusion on yourself?" he asked authoritatively.
Cyclops tensed as Anubis crossed his arms. "Like that time you had that really big pimple?" he said smiling while the others snickered.
With a flick of Talpa's hand, the illusion had vanished, leaving Dais standing there with his blue hair. The other three warlords gazed at him for a moment before completely roaring with laughter. Cale, standing next to Dais, put his arm over his stomach. "Y-Your hair looks :giggle: like my GRANDMA'S! GWAHAHAHAAH--"
:WHACK:
The unconscious Cale's forehead now had a nice imprint of Dais' armored fist. He glared at the other two, shutting them up quite well.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------
"Are we there yet?" Amariie yawned, as she sat up from her sprawled sleeping position across the back seat. Sage just shook his head. This was the 157th (or was it 158th?) time she had said that and it was beginning to piss him off. They both knew the only way to shut her up was to let her drive...but that would be allowed when hell froze over. Bored as hell, she smushed her face against the window and peered out into the gloomy mountainous landscape. Suddenly a shadowy thing raced by. Then another. Then another.
"Uhh Sage...." she began.
"NO WE ARE NOT THERE YET! SHUT THE FUCK UP!" he said in a very loud voice (because you scream when you loose your cool, and as you know, Sagey NEVER looses his cool ^_~ ).
"Whatever jackass," she mumbled and swished around in her purse looking for her discman, "That whoreface! She took my discman! GRRR!"
"Ahhhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrrrrooooooooowwwwwwwwwwww"
"Shut up Sage."
Sage gave a glance in the rearview mirror. "Huh? I didn't say anything."
"Ahhhhhhhrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwww"
"What the....SHEEIT!!" Amariie shrieked, turning to see the car was surrounded by shadowy figures with gleaming eyes. Putting the rather large pieced, kindergarten style puzzle together, she deduced from the howling noise and general shape that these must be wolves. Oh good. A huge pack had slowly been enclosing around the moving car, and now a huge mess of them had blocked the road. Even better. Trying to brace himself, Sage swerved the car and began skidding across the badly paved road, then flew right into a ditch. A few seconds later he opened his eyes. Well he didn't really want to but was forced to by the major headrush he was getting. He noticed he was on his side yet still sitting in the seat upright. Then he realized the car was on its side.
Suddenly becoming all warrior-like, he yelled at Amariie, "Amariie?! Are you ok?" Sage tried to twist in his seat but the annoying seat belt locked him in place. After a few tugs he got flat out pissed. "FUCKING SAFETY DEVICE! THEY CAN ALL GO TO HEL--HECK!"
Amariie slowly opened her eyes to find herself crunched low in the back seat. "What the fucking hell did you do this time, Sagey? I told you, you should let me drive but noooooooooooooo 'Mr. I'm A Better Driver' said no. I think this is evidence that I was right."
"Amariie?" Sage said lowly.
"Yup."
"Shut up."
"Screw you!"
Sage then he used his super duper strength and promptly hauled himself out of the crashed car. He leapt down onto the soft dirt and turned to get Amariie, who was leaning half-way out of the empty window trying to get herself out while still desperately clenching her purse. "Saaaaaage! Get me outta heeeeeeeere!" she whined. Sage took a quick look around to see all of the wolves mysteriously gone. Thinking they were safe for now, he walked over to the hunk of metal formerly know as a car and grabbed Amariie's outstretched hand. With a grunt, he yanked Amariie out of the car and both fell ungracefully on top of one another.
Amariie scrunched her eyebrows as she opened her eyes to find a much too happy Sage on top of her. She raised an eyebrow slowly as Sage's grin grew wider. She finally got the courage to speak.
"Uhh...Sage?"
"Mmmmyes?" he replied smoothly.
"Get off."
"Mmmmno."
"Mmmmyes you ass, get off."
"I'm quite happy where I am now."
"I. Do. Not. Care. Get. Off. Now. Or. My. Purse. Will. Find. Its. Place. Up. Your. Unfortunate. Assholio." Sage just merely grinned lecherously at her. After a few seconds, Amariie's face turned to questioning. "How did you end up falling on me?"
He chuckled a bit. "Not the first time I've done it, you know."
"You pervert. Get off, I think I'm laying on a stick."
He winked at her and nonchalantly replied, "That's not a stick, darling."
Amariie then promptly freaked out. "GET OFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF YOU PEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRVERRRRRRRRT!"
::SMACK::
A few minutes later when the beatings ((oh VERY bad pun!!)) stopped and Amariie managed to wriggle free, she gave him a final swift kick to the ribs. Sage groaned in pain...he wasn't used to this kinda treatment.
"Oh get up," she huffed, quite exasperated at his intense display of chauvinism, "don't we have go find Blimpo?"
"Kento?"
"Whatever."
A small distance from the wreck, they found a beaten hiking trail winding upwards. Amariie despaired once more. "I don't believe this! I am actually going to have to get some EXERCISE?!"
Sage grinned, "I can carry you if you want."
"...walking doesn't seem so bad after all," she murmured quickly, starting to do something that could resemble jogging (do remember she is still wearing heels) right past the pig. Sage followed and they continued up for about a half hour, until the ground started to get really stony and the trees wore down to scraggly bushes. It also started to get chilly. Really, really chilly. They came back to the road near the summit and observed the strange giant round rock. It had what looked like to Amariie as banners and little tassels draped around it.
Amariie held her arms close to her to keep herself warm. "Well, Ronin Warrior guy, now what?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We free Kento obviously," he replied, just as cocky.
"How?"
He turned to face her, an amusing expression forming. "Uhh split the rock open?"
"..won't you kill Esso if you do that?"
"..you mean Kento?"
"Whatever!"
At a loss for words, Sage shrugged and did his lil transformation thingy into his green armour. Poising his no-datchi in front of him, he shouted, "Thunder Bolt Cut!" and a light blue ball of energy blasted towards the rock. Once the light die down, it showed that there wasn't even a dent to show for it.
As if on cue, the howling started up again, but this time accompanied by a rather high pitched girly laughter. "Uh oh..." Sage groaned, eyes wildly flitting around, searching for the voice. But all he could see was a newly formed snowstorm. White flakes drifted around rapidly, shielding his view. He took a quick look at Amariie to be sure she was still beside him...but she wasn't. His eyes widened as he spun his vision all around him, trying to see through the blizzard. In fact, he couldn't even see the stone anymore. All he could hear was a cackling laughter filling his ears.
"LET ME GO YOU PRICK!" screamed the blonde female. Just before the sudden snow hit, a large arm snatched her up like a baby and she was hauled onto the man's shoulder. Struggling was useless for Amariie. Cause, well it's Amariie. Every time she'd fight, she'd hear a deep chuckle.
"My, my, aren't you the fiesty one," said the strained voice as they ascended to a high cliff. Amariie tried to yell for Sage but she couldn't see his bright green armor through the snow. Sage wandered aimlessly, angered to an extreme level. No make that pissed off. The voice and Amariie had disappeared and now even though the snow had died down, his comrade was nowhere in sight.
"DAMMIT YOU :BEEP: ING WHOOOOORE! WHERE THE ::BEEEEEEEEEEP: DID YOU :BEEEEEEEP: ING RUN OFF TO??" Sage couldn't see anything in all directions, so he decided to walk towards what he thought the best way. He stumbled around a bit through the knee-high soft snow until he came upon some shelter in what looked like an abandoned den. Feeling a strangely calm feeling rising in him, he sat down under the ledge and closed his eyes.
"Halo.." a soothing voice rang in his head. "To help your friends, find your inner strength, unite your mind, body and soul... and drink some herbal tea."
"How can I do that? Where can I find some herbal tea? What kind of herbal tea? Please tell me," Sage begged, but there was no answer.
Ginseng...
Uh sorry, trouble with the translating...
Wisdom... He felt a pattern etched on his forehead. Opening his eyes he could detect a faint green gleam coming from it. The light bathed the walls of the cavern. He looked around and saw it was a small shallow cave, and opposite from the side he came through was another opening. It overlooked a noisy waterfall, running down a cleft cut in the side of the mountain.
"AAAIIIIIEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!"
A shrill scream bolted him back in reality. "Come out, come out where ever you are, Sage of the Halo," a voice taunted. It wasn't the globby voice of Sekhmet, the strange purr of Dais, or the crazed tone of Anubis, so it had to be...
Purely from process of elimination, Sage cried, "Cale, Warlord of Corruption!" and hopped to his feet. He jogged over to the waterfall side and pressed against the side of the cave, staying out of sight from unfriendly eyes. A flash of pink caught his attention. He saw Amariie, securely bound by a chain, which was firmly fastened to a rock outcrop (and MAN was she hollering). She was being held in the air in front of Cale.
The Warlord burst into wicked laughter. "If you don't bring your skulking self out of your hiding place Halo, your precious little friend will die!"
"Don't worry about me, Sa.." Amariie's pleas were cut short as Cale pushed her off the rock face. A small yelp came from her before the chain cut in her side and stopped her fall. She hung in the middle of the waterfall, managing once in a while to kick off the back of the mountain wall so she could gasp for a breath of air. "Save Kento! You mus.."
Psycho Cale looked around a bit and then gave a loud laugh. "Fine then! Freeze with her in a frozen hell!"
Summoning his dark powers, the air became painfully cold and the landscape was covered with ice. The wildlife froze solid and the trees crystallized. Finally, the icy death passed up the water and it turned as to solid glass. Before she could get one last breath, she was caught in the process and remained staring wide-eyed outwards, an expression of fear on her lips. Sage was not spared. He had remained shocked from seeing his female companion turn into a popsicle when he felt the cold tingling climb up his legs. He clenched his eyes shut. "No! Amariie, Kento... I won't let this happen.... grrr Cale!" he growled, anger boiling inside of him. At the last second, a desperate rush of power flowed visible green through his subarmour. "Armour of Halo, DAO CHI!"
With a newly discovered strength, he leapt out of the cave and climbed harshly up towards the cliff. And we aren't kidding when we say HARSHLY. Like, poor Sagey has never climbed an icy cliff before, so naturally he falls down a few times, hurts his bottom and scrapes up the limbs (even though he is wearing protective mystical armour, but lets ignore that for a sec okies?). Come on people, just use your imagination.... but not too much, this is rated PG-13. Anywho, he found Cale standing casually, the rusted chain holding Amariie tied around a small boulder. Sage unsheathed his no dachi in an instant and was ready to attack. Cale slowly raised his sword until it was eye-level to Sage. As the two stood there waiting for the other to move, the background music began to pick up. Trumpets were blaring, violin was going nuts and the bass was thumping in their earlobes. The Gregorian chant reached its peak as the green warrior narrowed his eyes angrily and with a loud growl, he slashed his long sword at Cale. He was sure that the steel had pierced his enemy, but it had only dug itself in snow. What a fucker. Honestly. With no warning or sound, Cale smashed his fist against Sage's backside; how the warrior of darkness managed to appear behind him, Sage didn't know. "Come, come, Sage. Where is this powerful soldier I heard of? All I see is a small boy," Cale whispered tauntingly. Lips curving into a smile, he continued, "not that I'm complaining."
Sage's face went sour and was about to mutter 'pedophile' when a deep booming laughter settled down upon them, drowning out the orchestra and ruining the mood. Not that there was much of one anyways.
"Cale," Talpa began, trying to contain his laughter, "I knew it."
Cale's eyes went wide. "S-Sire, what do you mean?! I was winning against Halo!"
Now reduced to snickering, Talpa replied, "That's not what I meant. We all knew you were gay."
"WHAT?!" Cale exploded. "WHO TOLD YOU THAT?! I... I mean, I was just KIDDING when I said that to Halo!"
"Puh-lease, Dais read it on your livejournal page."
"Damn him! Yeah well ... he wears silk panties to bed!" Cale roared, face flushed.
"And one would wonder how you would know that..."
"ARRGH!"
Having given in to the temptation of openly mocking Cale once more, Talpa's presence retreated to wherever the hell it came from and Cale (still quite flushed) turned his attention to Sage.
Sage, shifting uncomfortably during the conversation and now feeling quite ill at ease, thought it best to push the nightmarish thoughts of what Cale could accomplish. He was the warlord of DARKNESS, and they were alone... well nearly alone in a remote location, and Sage was quite the pretty boy, he so adamantly thought. Anyways, this fight needed to go on, for Kento's and Amariie's sake (yes, even though her death would be well received, she is still a main character and can't die AT LEAST until the 4th last episode *Amariie: HEY!* errm just kidding). Essentially, Sage tried to ignore him, but it wasn't working well. A cold whip of wind made him turn his head towards the edge of a wide river that he never noticed they were by. Amariie. She was still entrapped in that waterfall of ice. She could be dead by now. She could...
:WHAM:
Sage opened his eyes to see...well white. The cold harshness of the earth bit the dry skin on his face. He would need to get a face mask done when he was back home. He had barely taken a breath of air when he felt his leg being nearly ripped from its socket. Cale had grabbed his ankle and swung him into a rather large, unfriendly boulder. Sage knew he was getting his ass handed to him (or so he hoped that was all which was going to happen to his ass) so he did the only thing Sage could do. He ran.
Cale laughed at this. "So the mighty Warrior of Light runs before me! How delightful!" Putting a cork in his gloating, he remembered his main objective. Kill Hardrock. Cale walked down a slope a bit until he came upon the large stone. Poising his sword towards the tasseled boulder, he hurled it with all his might. The sword jabbed into the rock like a hot knife through butter, creeping inwards towards the sleeping Ronin. Meanwhile, Sage took the opportunity to be the knight in shining.. erm.. green armour and save the girl. Making his way back to the cave, he concentrated on the warm power flow his armour supplied him with.
Ginseng.
Dammit, sorry again.
Wisdom.
Drinking in his newfound strength (sorry! I'll try to stop now), he threw himself across the gap over to where Amariie hung like a rag doll. Well, a cross between a popsicle and a ragdoll. Or maybe a rag doll if you soaked it with the hose and left it outside in the winter and it got all frozen and the hair all crunchy... ok moving along. In one quick motion he smashed the ice along with her bonds. Using his power to defrost her ((don't you wish you had that when trying to cook that chicken last night, ne?)) he rebounded back to the safety of the cave.
Placing her gently on the ground, he turned his attention back to more pressing (or once again hoped it wouldn't be) matters. Sage noted his prey and charged, seeing he was unarmed. Cale blocked him with a clawed fist and poised to slash his face, but Sage called his faceplate in the nick of time.
Bringing his sword forcefully down upon the Warlord's head, Sage managed to break away from the duel and leap backwards to higher ground. Before you can say, "I love apple pie with triple brownie fudge ice cream, and maybe some caramel sauce on top," Sage raised his weapon and gathered his energy. Cale dashed towards Kento, bending all his own power to speeding up the sword in the stone. He was too late though.
"THUNDER BOLT CUT!"
Instead of the lightning ball that his previous attack was, the energy was contained in Sage's sword, and as he flew towards his opponent, his sword unleashed the potent wave of light into the stone. See, told ya ginseng tea was full of energy. This catalyzed the instant explosion of the boulder, flinging Cale's sword and Kento vertically. Overwhelmed with raw pain the two Warriors seemed to emit from their mere presence, Cale shrieked before disappearing in the mixed green and orange lights. Sage sighed, men just weren't his thing.
Kento landed on the shattered remains of his resting place and stretched his burly arms outwards, recalling his faceplate and sending Sage a grin. "Man, why'd ya wake me? I was having the best dream, he mused, the silly grin spreading.
Sage leaned nonchalantly back on a rock and smirked. "Ha. You sleep too much."
With that Kento walked over and gave Sage a hard whack on the back, then started down the beaten path.
"Kento hang on," Sage called, suddenly remembering something.
Kento stopped and turned his head, "Wut?"
"I left Amariie back at the cave..."
Kento raised both eyebrows. "So?"
Sage sighed, "Hang on while I go back and get her."
The orange man slumped his shoulders in pre-emptive defeat, "Do you have to?"
"Are you kidding me? Rain would pan fry me if I left her here," Sage muttered, almost at the cave entrance.
"..good point."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------- With luck, the tourist station equipped with a car rental was not far off, and furthermore, Amariie brought her wallet. "I'll drive!" Amariie happily called out, skipping towards the purple minivan. She didn't want it, of course, but Sage insisted on it because of the large seating capacity.
"I think not," Sage countered, slipping in the drivers seat before her.
"Jackass."
The car started up and they were off.
Kento smirked and sipped at his hot chocolate he got at an empty gas station. "That Warlord couldn't have beaten me. They don't call me Esso for nothing!"
"Umm... don't you mean Kento?" Sage asked, giving a glance behind him to Kento in the backseat.
"Oh yeah... meh, close enough. They both got the e and o in them," Kento trailed off sheepishly, passing the mug of hot chocolate up to Amariie, only to have it slip from her hands and scald Kento's foot.
"WAAAIIII!!!!!"
So after another ten minutes of cleaning up, the trio were off to meet up with Ryo, Rain, and Cye. Hopefully.
Meanwhile, deep in the dark recesses of the Dynasty, Talpa was in the bathroom. Doing, well we know what. As he was washing his hands (gotta be sanitary), he happened to look into the trashcan to see Dais' discarded hair color boxes.
"Oohhh! 'Crimson Sunset'!" he giggled and picked up the box. Turning it on its back, Talpa read the directions and opened the box.
DUN DUN DUUUUUUNN!! DUN DUN DUN DUN DAAAAA DU-
:THWACK:
...K I'm done...