Yay, thanx to all my reviewers, I've got a lot of reviews! ^_^ Oooh, lookie here, I got a BRAINWASHING tool from Beyblader-grl, so when you finish this chappie, you are ordered to review, thank you very much! ^_^
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Black Cat-48: Very emotional, very direct, very funny, lol, Hru's not even on him, she hates him actually, lol!
Garnet: Gotta be five cuz I don't write that fast, lol! Wonder what it'll be when I start school. O_O
Snowgren: Yeah, Johnny's cute when he worries, :D. It's detailed? Really? Well, the dialogue's detailed, that's how I develop. I can't write ultra long paragraphs describing something; it'll bore everyone to death! Enrique only came up with that plan because it was his best friend that was in serious trouble. ^_^
whisper*2*imaginary: Yup, thanks to all of the reviewers of course! Yay, it was sorta scary! ^_^
Beyblader-grl: FF.net deleted your fic??? I would be furious, I'd lose all my reviews O_O *faints at the thought* Wow, cool, brainwashing…hee hee hee. Oh, that hammer, does it work on Kenny and Robert, they deserve smacks more than anyone else in the whole show!
Kai Hiwatari: Thanx! ^_^ Wow, you're like Holly and you have the SAME name as well. O_O Gee, creepy, but Holly isn't my character, she's ~*~P.G.*~*'s. I'm not going to be finished anytime soon, it'll be loooong! Thanx for reviewing!
Keri: Yay, you liked it. I love creepy fighting scene, too bad Carly wasn't strong enough to enjoy it, she loves fighting!
Tunder: Willow's more peaceful than destructive, kinda the opposite of Hru and Carly (when she's well O_O) Yup, Cassie's real lucky, huh?
~*~Prodigious girl*~*: Holly reminds you of Quatre? Is that good or bad? I like Quatre too, he's my fav Gundam pilot!
Black Iris: Yeah, thanx bunches, I'm gonna need all the luck in the world with my computer. O_O It was creepy weird, lol!
dreamer_gurl: Yeah, it wasn't that much of a cliffie, but I should put on in soon, lol!
Reicu: Lava hands, spooky, lol! And continuing along now…
sessy's girl: O_O Okay, your wish is my command, lol!
bey-girl-nicky: Thanx, I liked that chappie too, except I had to make Carly faint. O_O
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Chapter 11: Playing With Fire
The group entered the Fire Sanctuary, the floors were made of marble, the color was flaming red. The walls were white though and red tapestries hung from the ceiling. A man in a red hooded cloak walked out slowly. He has gray hair, apparently very old and was dressed in red robes.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Kai demanded, drawing his sword.
"Kai!" Holly clung on to his arm, "Don't hurt the man."
"How do I know whether he is friend or foe?" Kai said.
The man kneeled before Ray, "Your Majesty, we have long awaited your return."
Ray sweatdropped, "Ummmm...what...?"
"I am sorry your Highness, we have failed to protect the Fire Kingdom in your absence, please forgive us!" the man said, bowing low to Ray.
Willow sweatdropped, "Maybe you should tell him to get up Ray, isn't it kinda embarrassing?"
"You said it," Ray whispered back, flushing.
Johnny wasn't even listening, he hurried past the man and wandered around.
"Stop!" the man ordered, "You may not pass, this is the ancient temple of the Fire Kingdom and only those worthy may pass."
"Listen stranger, I don't care who you are or what this place is, Carly's sick and I'm going in no matter what you say," Johnny retorted, "Even if I have to fight you for it!"
"Say something Ray!" Willow hissed, "You're the ruler, he'll listen to you!"
"Um...excuse me sir," Ray said, "My friend's collapsed some time ago and she needs a place to replenish her energy, doesn't the Sanctuary grant magical healing effects?"
The man bowed, "Yes it does, please accept my sincerest apologies, I did not know you were a friend of his Highness."
"This is getting weird," Kai muttered, "This person is really showing Ray some real respect."
"Follow me," the man said, "I'll take you to the healing chambers."
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Johnny placed Carly gently on the bright, glowing bed, his eyes flashing worriedly. He sank down beside the bed and sighed heavily, looking exhausted and worried.
"You okay Johnny?" Kai asked.
"I'm fine," Johnny said curtly, "I'll be even better if Carly's okay."
"A few minutes on the healing panel should heal your friend completely your Highness," the man said, bowing again.
"Are the rest of us invisible?" Tala muttered.
"Um...thanks...um...who are you?' Ray asked, looking flustered.
"I guard this temple your Majesty," the man said, "I am known as the Fire Mage."
"Could you...um...just call me...um...Ray?" Ray asked, "This is kinda embarrassing."
"If that is what you wish your Majesty," the Fire Mage said, as if not even hearing Ray's last request.
"What a nut!" Hru said.
"Yeah, please," Ray said awkwardly.
"I think Carly's waking!" Hru exclaimed, "Thank goodness!"
"That was fast!" Enrique said, scrambling over.
"I told you she was strong," Holly said.
Carly's eyes opened slowly and focused, "What the hell are you all staring at?!"
"She's back!" Kai grinned, "That's the Carly we know."
Carly bolted up, "What the hell is happening? Why are you all watching me SLEEP? And why am I sleeping anyways?" She looked around quizzically, "Oh wait...I remember...that stupid Fire Kingdom and its-"
"You must not show disrespect to the Fire
Kingdom!" the Fire Mage said, "Especially not in the presence of the great
ruler himself!"
Carly made a face at the mage, "Like whatever! I'll show respect to what I respect, nothing more. Who's the great ruler anyways?"
"Apparently Ray," Tala said.
Carly rolled her eyes, "Well, greetings your Majesty, how may I be of service?" She stared at Ray mockingly, smirking.
"Don't Carly," Ray said, looking even more uncomfortable, "I'm already feeling uneasy with this whole thing, don't make it worse!"
"As I was saying...I only remember it being sooooo hot and I couldn't take it much more so I...ugh...I fainted!" Carly sighed, "Then I don't remember much, something about Johnny carrying me and then some weird claw thing grabbing my ankle and that BURNED! I'm feeling MUCH better now, where are we?"
"In the Fire Sanctuary," Ray said, "We took a detour to get you here to heal you."
"I thank you, your Majesty, if there's anything, and I mean ANYTHING, I can do to repay you, please, let me know," Carly said, snickering, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "Johnny, did you really carry me?"
"Yeah," Johnny said, turning as red as the lava pits they crossed earlier, "I didn't have much choice, was I supposed to leave you there?"
"No, thanks Johnny," Carly said earnestly, "I don't remember much, but I do remember you saving me from those weird claw things. Thanks, it means a lot to me."
Johnny blushed even harder, "Whatever." He looked away.
Carly hopped off the bed and looked around, "Are we going now? What if I head out and I feel worse again? Why do I have to be weak in the first Kingdom we go to, I look like a complete weakling!" Carly complained.
Kai covered his ears and said jokingly, "It was so much quieter without you." He ducked as Carly tried to deck him, "Hey! I was only kidding, we all missing your endless rambling."
"HMPH!" Carly tossed her hair, "Now what?"
"Actually, now that I look closer at the map, there's a way we can go to reach the Fire Palace this way," Ray said, "It wasn't a waste of time after all."
"You're going to the Fire Palace?" the Fire Mage asked in surprise.
"Yeah, we're going to destroy the monsters there!" Ray said.
"You're so brave your Majesty!" the Fire Mage said admiringly, "I wish you all the luck and return soon to the Fire Sanctuary."
"Um...thanks..." Ray said, sweatdropping.
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"It's hot again," Carly whined, leaning against Johnny, "I hate this Kingdom!"
Johnny squeezed her hand reassuringly, "It'll be over soon."
"Can you believe that guy?" Hru asked, "We were practically not there, the only person he talked to was Ray and Johnny and Carly got scolded for different reasons. How dumb is that? Sure, he's very loyal to the ruler, but he could at least LOOKED at us!" She imitated the Fire Mage's voice, "You're so brave, your Majesty!"
"No kidding," Tala agreed, "I thought he would make us all bowed down before Ray or something."
"Or kiss his feet," Hru and Tala laughed and grinned at each other for a split moment before looking away quickly.
"Let's go," Ray said, "The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can go back for a break."
So they walked through Fire Forest, where all the trees were on fire, but not burning for some strange reason, then through the Fire Marshes, where the ground flamed with fire. Finally they climbed up the tallest volcano in the Fire Kingdom, the Fire Palace was just on the other side.
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"I'll never look at Fire the same way," Willow muttered, but she brightened when Ray helped her up, carefully guiding her up.
"I'll never look at Ray the same way!" Carly snapped, "I feel weak again." She shook her head as Cassandra sprayed her with water, "Thanks girlfriend, this is ridiculous, I'll explode before the volcano does!"
"I don't know about that," Holly said nervously, as they all felt the volcano tremble a bit.
"Don't worry," Kai said, "Volcanoes always shake once in a while, don't they?"
Johnny nodded in agreement, "Yeah, we learned that in science class."
"Yeah, there's like a 5% chance that it'll explode on us," Tala reassured.
"Wrong," Ray said, "Aren't you forgetting something? This ISN'T Earth and things aren't the same, I've been looking hard at my map and it says that volcanoes are active 85% of the time. That's a lot compared to the Earth."
"Can you imagine if volcanoes were active 85% of the time on Earth?" Hru wondered.
"YES!" Carly snapped, "It'd turn into the Fire Kingdom! Are we almost there???"
"Kai," Kailee whined, "Is the volcano going to erupt?"
"I hope not," Kai said, shaking his head as the volcano shook again, this time with more force.
"I don't have a very good feeling about this," Johnny muttered.
"We're at the top," Ray said, "Going down should be a breeze."
"A breeze? Here?" Carly asked sarcastically, "I'll be expecting hail during the summer."
"No, not about the volcano," Johnny said impatiently, "My instinct tells me that someone's watching us and we're going to be in a fight soon...my instinct never lies."
"Tala what are you doing?" Hru called, "I thought Ray was leading."
Tala had gone up ahead while everyone was talking and he shook his head quietly and motioned her to be quiet. He hid behind a rock and glanced past the volcano top, then he hurried down.
"What is it?" Hru asked, looking uneasily at his troubled face.
"Monsters, or whatever you want to call them, weird looking things," Tala said, "There are a whole bunch of them, at LEAST fifty. They're all just standing there, waiting for us I think."
"Monsters?" Kailee squeaked, "MONSTERS??"
"Hush," Kai chided, "What kind of monsters?"
"I don't know really," Tala said, "Fire monsters obviously, looks like a cross between a goblin and a demon. Their whole bodies are on fire and they all carrying flaming torches."
"We have to fight then," Kai declared, "It's the only way. Kailee if you don't want to fight, then just stay behind one of us."
"Let's launch a surprise attack," Johnny said, "That way we'll be able to kill off a good portion of then before they actually suspect we're coming."
"Sounds good," Tala said, "Let's go."
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Kai summoned thunderbolts from the sky, crashing them down the fire monsters. Johnny, in turn, launched dozens of firing comets at the monsters. Tala started to down up, but Carly pulled him down.
"What's your problem?" Tala demanded.
"Nothing," Carly said, her emerald eyes piercing into his bright blue ones,
"You can't attack with Wind."
"Why can't I?" Tala snapped, pulling away.
"Haven't you ever seen a forest fire? It spreads with wind because it uses oxygen to burn!" Carly said, "Don't-"
"I'll do what I want," Tala said coldly, "And I want to fight."
"So do I moron!" Carly hissed, "But you're only going to make it worse."
"Whatever," Tala said, turning away.
Cassandra called up a huge wave and destroyed a good number of the monsters. Then she shuddered at her killing and turned away.
Holly and Willow looked at each other and shrugged.
"Might as well," Holly said, blasting out light beams from her palm.
"They might come after us if we don't!" Willow said, shooting out dark blasts from her palm.
Kailee hid in the corner miserably as Max stood near her to fend off any of the incoming monsters.
"ATTACK!!! KILL THE CHILDREN!!!! KILL KILL KILL!!!" a fire monster ordered, screaming out orders, "KILLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!"
"Now we fight," Kai said, grinning at Johnny and whipping out his sword. Kai slashed around expertly, stabbing each monster accurately.
"Otherwise we die," Johnny said grimly, chopping a monster in half with his axe, "Some choice!"
Enrique smashed some monsters with his star mace while Cassandra ran up to a tall rock and called out more waves to destroy the monsters.
Hru closed her eyes and let the air around her settle peacefully, then she streamed out a light wispy black beam from her palm and ran the beam like a whip through some of the monsters, they all died instantly.
Holly and Willow sighed and looked at their weapons.
"We don't have to use it unless we're threatened," Holly remarked.
"Or unless someone else is in danger," Willow added quietly.
Tala called up a fierce windstorm and smashed it around. The fire monsters tumbled on the ground weakly. Tiny flames flew from their flaming bodies and landed in the volcano hole. To everyone's horror, new fire monsters emerged from the volcano hole and crawled up to join the army.
Tala paled, "Oh no...what the hell did I do...? Lord..."
"Tala!" Carly shrieked, "Oh great! I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!!!!"
The leader of this fire pack started to sneer, "Oh well done Wind Warrior, well done indeed, I must thank you for resurrecting my army."
Tala's blue eyes turned as cold as ice and the rage in them was undisputable, "Why you-"
"Attack my army, attack them, KILL!!" the leader commanded.
"Hru, watch out!" Carly yelled, "Hru!"
Hru was surrounded on every angle, "Oh..." She clutched her Beyblade, looking terrified with no place to run as the monsters close in on her.
Tala blasted furiously with his lazer gun, he aimed for the monsters' heads and hit accurate enough for blood to gush out of the monsters heads.
"Eeeew..." Hru muttered, rushing to safety.
Tala grabbed her wrist, his blue eyes gazing into hers, "Are you okay? I'm so sorry, I should've listened to Carly."
"I'm fine," Hru whispered, a blush rising on her cheeks, "Just a little breathless, that's all." She quickly yanked away like his touch was burning and shuddered to herself. Confusion was written all over Tala's face.
"Oh thank Lord," Carly sighed in relief and straightened as fire monsters surrounded her, "Get a life!" She felt dizzy as the monsters advanced, //Oh no...my weakness is coming back...// She angrily fitted an arrow in her bow and fired, she succeeded in killing one monster, but it was waaaay too slow and she was starting to weaken.
"Foolish girl," one fire monster sneered, "Even the mighty Ice Warrioress isn't a match for anyone on the Fire Kingdom. You're completely helpless to our powers!"
"Helpless?" Carly said furiously, struggling up, feeling hotter as the monsters rounded closer, "I'm sorry to disappoint you freaks, but I'm NEVER helpless. If you think for a second that I'm helpless then you're the one who's completely wrong! Go Mystique!" Carly pulled a launch on her blade and her green Bit Beast stormed out of her blade. Mystique was a glowing green dragon Bit Beast (and no, it doesn't look a THING like Tyson's Dragoon, it looks like a REAL dragon). "Attack!!!! DRAGON TEMPEST!!!!"
Carly's Bit Beast roused up a fierce storm and smashed out most of the monsters that threatened Carly.
"Wooohoooooo!" Carly cheered, "All right Mystique!"
"It's working!" Kai hollered, "We're killing them off!"
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"Get back here!" Ray snarled, "Coward!" He was pursuing the run-away leader, "You're a disgrace to them all!" Ray created a fireball in the palm of his hand and smashed it at the leader.
The leader jumped in the air fearfully and kept running with Ray close behind, when he saw that his army was losing, he took off to save his own skin without a second thought. The volcano rumbled violently, the lava inside the volcano was slowly raising and bubbling furiously...
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Carly's up and running again, lol, I hated having to make her faint. Evil monsters are always cowards, aren't they? Figures. How was that, on time this time, lol! Wasn't the Fire Mage so weird? That's always how I imagined royalty. Does anyone know Tala's last name? If you do, I'd really appreciate the info, lol! Don't forget to review, I hope my computer won't screw up! O_O
PS: If you like Beyblade, check out my site @ www.geocities.com/ice_archergirl/. Thanx!