Chapter 5: Confrontation

After her therapy session was over with it was close to 3 p.m. and she needed to take her medicine so Clara decided to stop by the main desk to get her meds for the afternoon. Then it happened. As she stood at the counter, a man bumped into her. As he apologized to her, she turned to excuse him and stopped when she saw him face to face.

He was a tall pale skinned redhead wearing a bright sunshine yellow trench coat. And as he refastened his raincoat, she saw a gun hanging out of the coat's inner pocket. Noticing this, the man smiled nervously and took off for the D wing.

"Oh, no you don't!" she whispered fiercely between gritted teeth and took off in a different direction hoping to cut him off and eventually ended up in Room #546. "You're in danger here! You'd better hide." she shouted at the girl who was rewiring the room and shoved her into the closet. Just as soon as she did so, the redhead showed up waving his gun around like a madman.

"You! You will pay for this Phoenix!!" he shouted as he turned around and ran out of the hospital.

"Phoenix?" she mouthed in confusion before taking off after him. As soon as she left the hospital, she saw him making a mad dash for the subway station and ran her butt off and tackled the redheaded man. "All right what were you doing in there?!" she demanded as she sat on him and pulled him up by the collar of his coat and forced him to look into her eyes.

"Your world is going to end and there's nothing you can do about it, Phoenix!" the man snarled as he shoved her off of his body and stood up and punched her hard in the face.

"Hey it's not polite to punch a woman buddy!" slowly she looked up to see a young man with blue hair wearing a strange dark blue armor and four other young men wearing similar armor standing behind him.

"Are you all right?" a young man with short wavy strawberry colored hair and light sky blue armor asked Clara as he tried to help her stand.

"Those who help the Phoenix will not live to tell the tale." The man said flatly as he pulled out his gun and shot the man twice, once in the shoulder then in the back.

"CYE!!! Oh you're gonna get it now!" yelled a short stocky Chinese boy with dark gray-blue hair and wore dark orange armor as he whipped out his tetsubo, twirled it above his head, and brought it down in front of him. "IRON ROCK CRUSHER!!"

As the wave of earth swept him off his feet, the redhead suddenly changed shape to a hideous giant dark gray bat with sharp drooling fangs, short razor sharp pointed claws, and black webbed wings. "I am Eris the messenger of Chaos. You will pay for helping the Phoenix!" he roared as he prepared to charge the young warriors.

"We'll see about that!" yelled a boy with blonde hair and violet eyes and wore dark green armor.

"Here let me help you." Clara said as she gently removed the boy's helmet and stared in shock at the young face hidden beneath. Shin, is it really you? Have you really come back after all these years?

"You don't have to do this…" the young man said softly as she carefully examined his wounds.

"It's my duty to help those in need." Clara spoke softly as she placed her hand on his back and began to concentrate as, she felt a strange presence buried deep within herself began to take over, her hand glowed softly with a silver light and the wound healed itself. Then without even thinking twice about what happened, she gently pulled the boy's body up against her own, placed her hand on his shoulder, and healed the injured shoulder.

"You will pay for hurting our friend evil demon! FLARE UP NOW!!" the boy in red armor yelled as he joined his katanas together and swung them down over his head and a beam of white light shot forth and impaled the demon, quickly destroying it.

"Are you all right miss?" the boy in dark green armor asked as he helped her to her feet.

"Yes, I am. Thank you for saving me."

"It's what we do. My name is Sage Date, Warrior of Wisdom and bearer of the Halo armor." The young man said as he extended his hand towards her and shook her hand.

"I am Rowen Hashiba, the Warrior of Life protected by the armor of Strata."

"My name is Kento Rei Faun and this lughead is Cye Mouri." The short Chinese boy said as he picked Cye up and slipped his arm around his back, supporting the strawberry haired warrior. "Justice gives my armor of Hardrock the will to keep fighting."

"I am Torrent…trust allows me to see what others cannot."

"And I am Ryo Sanada, the armor of Wildfire gives me the strength to fight for what is right."

"I…I feel faint…aaaaahh…" and with that Clara passed out in the middle of the platform.