Disclaimer: You know the drill. Nothing owned, nothing gained or whatever.
The Ronin Goonies
Chapter Four:
Into the Cave
Kento screamed and the monster screamed back. Kento tried to run only to run into Ryo and Cye causing them to fall over onto Sage, Rowen, Kayura, and Mia. They all fell through a door that they didn't notice before and into a room with weird machines and junk in one corner, a walk-in freezer and a fireplace. Rowen landed in a chair with Kayura falling his lap, Mia and Sage fell on a pile of newspapers, and Cye, Ryo, and Kento fell onto each other. They could hear the monster yelling in the other room.
"You guys alright?" Rowen asked. Everyone muttered something unintelligent. He looked up at Kayura. "You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah thanks for breaking my fall." Kayura said staring into his eyes. Rowen was caught in her gaze, their lips just inches apart and closing.
"You go Rowen." Kento shouted whistling.
"Yeah, slip her the tongue Rowen." Ryo added both he and Cye laughing. Rowen and Kayura shook themselves out of their trance and Kayura pushed herself off him. Both were blushing very badly. So close yet so far.
Sage just shook his head as he helped Mia up. "Immature brats." He muttered.
"They'll grow out of it." Mia said.
"So you guys gonna get married afterwards?" Kento asked teasingly.
"Well two of them at least." Mia said rolling her eyes at Kento.
"Where are we?" Cye asked looking around.
"Looks like some kind of a storage room." Ryo said.
Kento frowned. "This place is worse than my room." He said noting all the junk lying around. Then he spotted something worthwhile. "Great a water cooler. I was dying of thirst." He said to himself walking over to the cooler and nearly drowning himself with it.
Mia wondered over to the newspapers and looked through them. She stopped once she found a piece of paper that had three familiar looking faces on them. "My gosh. Guys look at this. It's those men." Mia said hurrying over to the rest of the group.
"What men?" Sage asked.
"The ones that own this place. See they're wanted men." Mia exclaimed showing them the paper.
"Yeah that's the guy that gave us the beer. Sekhmet." Cye said.
"Yeah and that's the guy that tried to cut my fingers off. Dais." Ryo said bitterly.
"They're called the Masho Brothers. They're wanted for murder, kidnapping, theft, arson, counterfeit, and jaywalking." Mia read out loud.
"Eww, that's the creep that yelled to us at practice today." Kayura said pointing at the guy the others didn't see earlier.
"His name's Kale." Mia said bitterly. She didn't like that guy at all.
"Who's that at the bottom?" Rowen asked pointing at the guy with long hair.
Mia looked down and read it. "His name's Anubis, apparently he's their younger brother that's been missing for three years. The authorities think his brothers killed him." Mia explained.
"What a bunch of jerks." Kayura said. Uninterested to here the rest, Ryo was observing a huge machine in the corner. On the front he found a little read button that read Push me'. Ryo shrugged and pushed the button. The machine jerked to a start and at the right of the machine was a tray that the machine was spitting paper into.
"Ryo don't play with that." Sage said walking over to him.
"I didn't break it." Ryo said picking up a sheet of paper from the tray looking it over. "Hey Sage look at this. It's money." Ryo said handing it to him. At the word 'Money' everyone except Kento, who was still trying to get a drink from the cooler, went over to the two.
"Oh my gosh! There's like thousands of yen here!" Mia said excitedly.
"We could pay off that rich dork Sarenbo with this." Ryo said happily.
"No we can't." Rowen said slowly.
"Why not?" Ryo asked.
"They're fake. Congratulations Ryo, you just found a counterfeit money machine." Rowen told him.
"Great now we defiantly need to find the treasure." Ryo said wading the fake money up and tossing it over his shoulder. "So what's the map say Cye?" He asked.
Cye was looking through the map. "There are a few kanji symbols by the cave entrance. But I can't read them." Cye said.
"Let me see." Sage said taking the map from Cye's hands and reading it. "It just says look for the lowest point." Sage said slightly confused.
"Well, we're in the basement so I guess the cave is beneath us." Cye suggested looking at the floor. "We need to dig a hole."
"It's solid concrete, Cye, How do you suppose we do that?" Rowen asked.
"Hey I got an idea. How about we pour chocolate syrup on the floor and let Kento eat his way down." Ryo suggested sarcastically.
"I heard that." Kento snapped. "And frankly you're beginning to really piss me off Ryo." Kento was about to walk over there and sock Ryo one; however his shoulder hit the cooler causing it to tip. Thinking fast he grabbed a hold of the cooler. "I got it." Kento assured them. The glass jug that held the water fell off the cooler and shattered to the ground. "I don't got it." He said watching the water spill towards the fireplace in the corner.
"You klutz." Came from several people at once.
"Hope it wasn't a deposit bottle." Kento said.
"This really sucks. I feel like I'm babysitting only I'm not getting paid." Mia said dramatically.
"You're not." Sage said.
Cye heard the faint sound of water leaking through a hole. "You guys hear that?" He asked. Everyone shut up to listen.
"Big deal, sounds like my uncle taking a leak." Kento commented.
"No. It sounds more like the water is leaking through a hole or something." Cye said walking over to the fireplace where the sound was coming from. "I think there's something down there." He knelt down and tried to push the wood out of the way.
"Cye stop, you're gonna hurt yourself." Rowen said.
"Ouch." Cye yelped when he got a splinter in his hand. "Well I wasn't until you said something." He snapped trying to shake the pain out of his hand.
Rowen sighed and went over to the fireplace. "Out of the way runt." He said shoving Cye aside and pushing the wood out of the way. There was a vent underneath it where the ashes could fall and Rowen removed that too. Below that there were several boards nailed down. Confused Rowen put his hand just above the boards; he felt air coming from below the boards. "I think you guys are on to something, I feel air coming from down there." Rowen said amazed at his discovery.
"Told you so." Cye said trying to get the splinter out of his hand.
In the background Kayura sighed dreamily. "Rowen is being so sweet." She said gazing at him.
Mia groaned. "Come on, where are you? You're on cloud nine, while the rest of us are in a basement." She yelled at Kayura, who was not paying attention. Rowen was in the hole trying to break the boards, Sage holding one of his arms while Kento held the other. Finally with a last ditch effort Rowen stomped as hard as he could splitting the boards beneath him. Sage and Kento pulled him up to keep him from falling into the deeper dark hole.
"Anybody got a flashlight?" Rowen asked.
"Right here." Ryo said pulling a flashlight out of his backpack and handing it to Rowen. Taking it he turned it on and looked down.
"It looks more like a tunnel to me." Rowen said.
"Is the treasure down there?" Ryo asked trying to look over Rowen's shoulder.
"Can't tell. It's probably at the end." Rowen said.
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go find it." Ryo said.
"Now wait a minute Ryo. We don't know what's down there. And further more I think we should get the heck out of here before the Masho brothers come back or we'll be as good as dead." Kento stated.
"They won't find us if we hide down there. They probably don't even know about the treasure." Cye said.
"They know otherwise they wouldn't have their hideout here. There's no way you guys are getting me down there. I'm getting while the getting's good." Kento said walking towards the door. He stopped short at the walk-in freezer. "I smell ice cream." He said unlocking the freezer and walking in. "Oh man it's like heaven guys they have everything in here." Kento shouted to them. "There's Chocolate fudge, Strawberry, Mississippi Mud and…" He was so busy ranting he didn't see the others walking slowly towards the freezer, fear and shock written on their faces.
"Guys come on dig in." Kento said looking over to see why they haven't come in yet. Noticing the strange looks on their faces Kento looked at them confused. "What?" He asked turning to see what they were looking at. He dropped the ice cream once he saw what they were looking at. Just a foot away from him was a tall man with long white hair and light colored eyes. He had on a blue suit but what caught Kento's eye was the bullet hole between the man's eyes. Kento cried out as the man started to fall sending both him and Kento to the floor.
"It's a stiff! Get it off me! Get it off me!" Kento shouted hysterically.
Rowen shoved the body off Kento and pulled him up covering his mouth. "Calm down." He hissed into Kento's ear. Kento only nodded trying to control his breathing. Ryo ran out the door and into the bathroom holding a hand over his mouth.
"Cye go check on him." Sage asked. Cye nodded and went after Ryo. Sage bent down and pulled the dead man's wallet out of his suit pocket.
"Don't do that Sage." Mia warned him.
"I just want to find out who he is." Sage explained looking through the wallet only to find a federal badge. "Oh shit this guy's an agent." He told the others.
"An Ancient one anyway." Rowen commented.
"That's not funny Rowen." Mia commented.
"Sorry." Rowen apologized while letting go of Kento.
Sage put the wallet back in the dead guy's pocket. "Well now what?" He asked. Cye and Ryo came back. Ryo leaned on his friend a little his face still a light shade of green.
"You okay?" Rowen asked. Ryo nodded slightly.
"Guys let's just get out of here and call the police." Kayura said softly. The door up stairs suddenly opened and voices could be heard arguing upstairs.
"They're back." Cye whispered walking towards the others along with Ryo.
"Keep quiet." Rowen warned the others as they listened.
"They have pizza." Kento said suddenly.
"Shut up." Rowen hissed at him.
"With pepperoni." Kento added not hearing Rowen. Ryo smacked the back of his head making him shut up. Cye tugged on Rowen arm getting his attention.
"Ro, we have to put the body back otherwise they'll know some one was here." Cye said softly. Rowen nodded. Rowen and Sage got on either side of the body while Kento got its legs. They heard footsteps suddenly walk over to the basement door.
"Hurry they're coming." Mia said fearfully. Rowen and Sage with out thinking shoved the body into the freezer with Kento still in there and shut the door.
"We need to hide." Sage said looking around for a hiding spot.
"The cave's our only way out." Cye said.
"Fine we'll just have to chance it." Rowen said walking over to the fireplace. "Okay Sage go down first since you're the tallest." He said.
Sage nodded then climbed down the hole in the fireplace.
"Kayura goes next, then Mia, Ryo, Cye, Kento, then me." Rowen said not realizing that Kento was stuck in the freezer.
"Rowen I don't think I can do this." Kayura said fearfully.
"Don't worry Sage will help you down." Rowen assured her as she slowly climbed down.
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"Guys let me out! Don't leave me in here with the stiff!" Kento yelled shoving the body upright and off of him. "Stay." He told the stiff.
"GUYS!" The freezer must have been soundproof because no one seemed to hear him. Kento moved around the body to bang on the door. The body just fell on him again.
"Yuck get off." Kento yelled at the body shoving it away.
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The footsteps were coming down the steps. "Move it you guys." Rowen said while Mia climbed down the rest of the way followed closely by Ryo. Cye went next.
"Be careful and watch your step." Rowen told him. Cye nodded and jumped down the rest of the way. "Okay Kento you're.." Rowen paused looking around. Kento was nowhere in sight. "Kento?" Rowen called out slightly above a whisper. The doorknob started to jiggle.
Not wasting another second, Rowen quickly climbed down into the hole and out of sight just as the three men came into the room. While they were not looking Rowen quickly pulled the wood over the hole before they could notice.
"Kale you idiot I told you to lock the door." Dais said smacking Kale behind the head.
"It wasn't my fault, maybe the wind blew the door open." Kale suggested glaring daggers at Dais.
"Nope someone's been here. The cooler's broken." Sekhmet said kicking the broken glass with his shoe.
"Maybe it was a tremor or something." Kale said looking around for anything else out of the ordinary.
"Maybe we better check on the traitor in the other room. He might have got out." Dais said turning on his heels and walking out.
"He had better not have broken those chains again. I paid a bundle for them." Sekhmet said as both he and Kale followed Dais out not notice Kento's face in the freezer's window. Once the close was clear, Kento opened the freezer and climbed out.
"Kento over here." Rowen called to him softly. Kento walked over to the fireplace curiously. "What are you guys doing down there?" He asked.
"Never mind that. Just find a way out and get the police." Rowen told him. Kento nodded. Yeah away out now where would he find one in the basement? He looked around and saw a white sheet in the corner. Curious he pulled it back and found a dusty window behind it.
"I found away out. I'll try to be back with the cops ASAP." Kento said in a low voice.
"Okay just be careful." Rowen called to him quietly.
"You too, and don't pick on Cye while I'm gone." Kento said forcing the window open and climbing out.
Rowen shook his head and climbed the rest of the way down. "Where's Kento?" Ryo asked once Rowen came down.
"He's okay. He went to get the police." Rowen told them.
"What are we going to do now?" Kayura asked.
"We're going on a treasure hunt." Ryo said.
"No we are going to find a way out of here." Sage said.
"Maybe if we follow the tunnels we'll find a way out." Cye said staring off into the dark tunnel ahead of them.
"Or just get lost and starve to death." Mia said.
Sage flinched. "That's something I didn't need to hear. Don't be so negative." He said.
"Well I didn't hear you come up with any better ideas." Mia snapped at him.
"Guys come on we're wasting time arguing when we could be looking for the treasure." Ryo said.
"Ryo for the hundredth time forget the treasure. We have more important things to worry about." Rowen yelled at him.
"The ship Inferno was sealed in a cavern off the shore. If we find the ship we'll find away out Rowen." Cye said logically. Rowen looked like he was about to yell at Cye when Kayura cut him off.
"Come on Rowen, let the kids have their fun." She told him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Besides your brother could be right."
"See listen to her, she's got the right idea." Ryo said.
"Can we go now?" Cye asked.
Rowen sighed. "Alright fine let's go." He said in defeat.
"Alright let's go Cye." Ryo said pulling on Cye's arm towards the dark tunnel.
"You know your little brother is adorably cute." Kayura said. Sage and Mia snicker.
"Yeah very adorable." Rowen said sarcastically while they followed the two enthusiastic teens into the tunnel.
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Kento wondered around the dark forest trying to find the road. A twig snapped nearby causing him to jump and look around fearfully. "It's okay. Probably a squirrel or something." He said to himself nervously. An owl started hooting above him as he walked by. "There's nothing to be afraid of. It's just an owl. There's no reason to be afraid of the dark. The dark is my friend. I love the dark." He chanted to himself while pushing a few low braches out of the way. One slipped out of his hand and smacked him hard across the face.
"Oww. But I hate nature." Kento said rubbing his injured face and continued on. Not far ahead he saw headlights go by. "Thank God." He said relieved that he found a road. He quickly raced up to the road as another car was coming by.
"Stop! I need help!" Kento shouted waving his arms in front of the headlights. The headlights come to a stop about three feet away from him. Kento walked over to the driver's door.
"What seems to be the problem?" the driver asked it was too dark for Kento to see the person's face inside.
"Mister I need your help. My friends are trapped in the Masho Brother's hideout. You've probably heard of them. Please can you take me to the police station?" Kento asked.
"I'm sorry I'm afraid I can't do that." The driver said smoothly turning on the consol light.
Kento's eyes widen in shock when he saw who the driver was. "Sek.. Sekhmet." He said fearfully. Sekhmet snickered at the young boy and lit his cigar. Kento was about to run when Dais and Kale grabbed him from behind. Kento screamed and thrashed as the two lifted him up and carried him to the back of the blazer.
"Damn he weights a ton." Dais complained while opening the back door.
"Just shut up and throw him in." Sekhmet yelled at him from the front seat. With great effort Dais and Kale flung Kento in the back and shut the door.
"I think I pulled a muscle." Kale whined as he and Dais climbed in. Kento struggled to get up when his hand touched cold flesh beneath him. He looked down to see the body from the freezer staring up at him. Kento screamed.
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"You guys hear that?" Ryo asked. The others stop to listen.
"It's just up ahead." Cye said as the group walked into another tunnel. Inside this tunnel were a bunch of pipes.
"What kind of pipes are these?" Kayura asked from her spot next to Rowen.
"Sage your dad is a handy man do you know anything about these pipes?" Mia asked. Sage went up to one and felt it.
"I think this ones a water pipe of some sorts." Sage said. He felt of another one. "Gas pipe." He said plainly.
"How's knowing what these pipes are going to help us?" Ryo asked.
"Think about it Ryo. These pipes must lead to a building or something." Sage said.
"Your point?" Kayura asked.
"What I think he means is if we bang on the pipes loud enough some one will hear us and try to help us." Rowen said letting go of Kayura's hand. Rowen went up to the nearest pipe and started hitting it with his flashlight. "Come on guys, the louder we are, the more of a chance some one will hear us." He explained.
Cye climbed up a few rocks to hit a pipe that was just out of his reached. Ryo followed while Mia and Kayura watched the four boys work.
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Sarenbo I and Banamon had just finished and quick round of tennis and were heading to the water fountain. Both ignored the faint banging sound coming below the fountain as Sarenbo took a quick drink. The fountain suddenly jerked him up and down before throwing him into the fence. Banamon looked at the moving fountain and at his boss before declaring he was not thirsty. Unbeknownst to them a very confused Ryo was watching the pipes move from below the water fountain.
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Bo was sitting in one of the stalls in the men's restroom reading a porn magazine when he heard a strange noise. With out warning a torrent of water shot out from under him like a geyser. Bo cried out as he was thrown on the floor.
"DADDY!" He yelled tears in his eyes. Beneath the floor and foundation Sage and Rowen had stopped banging on the pipes and watched as one of the pipes was making strange noises.
"Is it supposed to do that?" Rowen asked.
Sage shrugged. "I don't know." He answered. Everyone stopped to listen to the strange noise.
"Maybe this wasn't a good idea." Ryo said.